Works

I.

Steadfast as any soldier of the line
He served his England, with the imminent death
Poised at his heart. Nor could the world divine
The constant peril of each burdened breath.
...

(1912)

(Written after entering New York Harbor at Daybreak)


Up the vast harbor with the morning sun
The ship swept in from sea;
Gigantic towers arose, the night was done,...

As I was walking
Alone by the sea,
"What is that whisper?"
Said Merlin to me.
"Only," I answered,
"The sigh of the wave"--
"Oh, no," replied Merlin,
"'Tis the grass on your grave."
...

True type of all, from his own father's hand
He caught the fire; and, though he carried it far
Into new regions; and, from southern fields
Of yellow lupin, added host on host...

The great roads are all grown over
That seemed so firm and white.
The deep black forests have covered them.
How should I walk aright?
How should I thread these tangled mazes,...

(Written after hearing a line of Keats repeated by a passing stranger under the palms of Southern California.)


Under the palms of San Diego
Where gold-skinned Mexicans loll at ease,...

Why do we make our music?
Oh, blind dark strings reply:
Because we dwell in a strange land
And remember a lost sky.
We ask no leaf of the laurel,
We know what fame is worth;...

I.

There is one road, one only, to the Light:
A narrow way, but Freedom walks therein;
A straight, firm road through Chaos and old Night,
And all these wandering Jack-o-Lents of Sin.
...