Works

(In Springfield, Illinois)



It is portentous, and a thing of state
That here at midnight, in our little town
A mourning figure walks, and will not rest,...

I know a seraph who has golden eyes,
And hair of gold, and body like the snow.
Here in the wind I dream her unbound hair
Is blowing round me, that desire's sweet glow...

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)
(What the Carpenter Said)


The moon's a cottage with a door.
Some folks can see it plain.
Look, you may catch a glint of light,...

[Supposed to be chanted to some rude instrument at a modern fireplace]


Chant we the story now
Tho' in a house we sleep;
Tho' by a hearth of coals
Vigil to-night we keep....

Though I have found you like a snow-drop pale,
On sunny days have found you weak and still,
Though I have often held your girlish head
Drooped on my shoulder, faint from little ill: -
...

Factory windows are always broken.
Somebody's always throwing bricks,
Somebody's always heaving cinders,
Playing ugly Yahoo tricks.

Factory windows are always broken.
Other windows are let alone....

A Poem Dedicated to All Crusaders against the International and Interstate Traffic in Young Girls



Galahad... soldier that perished... ages ago,
Our hearts are breaking with shame, our tears overflow....

[To be sung to the tune of 'The Blood of the Lamb' with indicated instrument]


I

[Bass drum beaten loudly.]
Booth led boldly with his big bass drum -...

On -
Thro' the gleaming gray
I ran to the storm and clang -
To the red, red hill where the great tree swayed -
And scattered bells like autumn leaves.
How the red bells rang!...

Oh, once I walked in Heaven, all alone
Upon the sacred cliffs above the sky.
God and the angels, and the gleaming saints
Had journeyed out into the stars to die.
...

I went down into the desert
To meet Elijah -
Arisen from the dead.
I thought to find him in an echoing cave;
For so my dream had said.

I went down into the desert
To meet John the Baptist....

My lady in her white silk shawl
Is like a lily dim,
Within the twilight of the room
Enthroned and kind and prim.

My lady! Pale gold is her hair.
Until she smiles her face...

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

Oh, once I walked a garden
In dreams. 'Twas yellow grass.
And many orange-trees grew there
In sand as white as glass....

I. The Lion


The Lion is a kingly beast.
He likes a Hindu for a feast.
And if no Hindu he can get,
The lion-family is upset.

He cuffs his wife and bites her ears...

Written for Lorado Taft's Statue of Black Hawk at Oregon, Illinois



To be given in the manner of the Indian Oration and the Indian War-Cry.


Hawk of the Rocks,...

A Memorial to Booker T. Washington



I. Simon Legree

A Negro Sermon. (To be read in your own variety of negro dialect.)


Legree's big house was white and green....

A little colt - broncho, loaned to the farm
To be broken in time without fury or harm,
Yet black crows flew past you, shouting alarm,
Calling "Beware," with lugubrious singing ......

Climbing the heights of Berkeley
Nightly I watch the West.
There lies new San Francisco,
Sea-maid in purple dressed,
Wearing a dancer's girdle
All to inflame desire:
Scorning her days of sackcloth,...

"To the farthest star of all,
Go, make a moment's raid.
To the west - escape the earth
Before your pennons fade!
West! west! o'ertake the night
That flees the morning sun....

These, the Wings of the Morning,
An Indian Maiden wove,
Intertwining subtilely
Wands from a willow grove
Beside the Sangamon -
Rude stream of Dreamland Town.
She bound them to my shoulders...