FREE IT is not true That friendship is a common bloom to pluck at will. If I knew Within what valley or wood, or on what plain or hill, Such blossom grew. I should be free—that flower would pluck me from all ill. May 18, 1938. Page-326

THE FUTURE DREAM-STEADY dot of welkin light, Serenest star, Pale dewdrop cm the hills of night No after-droughts may mar. Thou gazest on pure truth of things. Intrepid star, And spreadest spirit-laden wings Where all bright pinions are. The shafts of Death go wide their mark, Unvanquished star, Still shining through our mortal dark, Woundless, without scar. O ranger with unshackled limbs, O unspent star, Thy puissant joy no sorrow dims, No shades of wan hope bar. Be foretaste of some richer time, Prophetic star, Hold, harbinger a fairer clime Lapp

IN THE DIN OF DEAF WHEELS REVOLVING FAR from lean-acred living Death's empire grows, Nor his liegemen made poorer by giving,— Pity not those. Beyond the mount of striving Calm's valley flows, And her dwellers compete not in thriving— Pity not those. In the din of deaf wheels revolving Confusion stows Earthmen ; nor find they absolving : Then pity those. May 14, 1936. Page-190

" THE PROBLEM OF GOOD " CAN a shadow cast a shadow or an echo give new sound Or the ebb tide shrink still further or the full moon wax more round ? Or withered flower droop sadder— Or madmen rave yet madder Or earth-hood's evil Powers be more securely crowned ? If hoof-prints do not' show upon the sand, If axe-doomed tree resist the woodman's hand, Then may Good Will have hope to do the thing it planned ! But is the stream engendered more lofty than the spring ? Or could the sling-stone's hurtling have sped from an unnerved sling ? Or might the songbird's brood Fly forth if Love eschewed Vigil and food-finding and life-enlisted wing ?

PROMISE A SKY swept free of cloud ; Trees whose true guise of growing Stayed, through all tempests blowing, Root fast and un cowed ; Headland of rock that' braved All through the hurl of winter Buffets that rive and splinter From sea-might, million-waved. Drawing near of sun despite Serried griefs dim-shrouding, Then to silver glory prouding Dawn-sky forestowed with light. October 12, 1934. Page-90

A BARREN SOLITUDE DARK pine trees soughing by the lakeside, A steel-grey sky above, A tilted slope of hills upended— Too steep for Love. Around dark mirror of the waters Gauntly the high hills frown, Framing a harsh bleak sky reflected Where all loves drown. No mellow fruit finds room afforded Nor any golden wheat ; Sour, shallow, rock-swayed roods betoken Love's defeat. Here soul—if any soul be prisoned— Were phoenix, not paired dove : Sole-Seen its image—found no other Shape to love. March 3, 1936 Page-162

THE BUILDER OF ETERNITY Where are the shadow-builders of old time ? No strength they found to hold out in the days Of battering Eld : they fawned upon each clime ; Their fickleness forswears, their paltering betrays. From Love the flexile will, the stubborn swerve, —Dream archetype remaking evermore The life within, evoking, curve on curve, Firm towers beneath whose feet the withered eras February 16, 1938. Page-299

TO BOBBY, ON ENCOUNTERING A LINE IN SHELLEY'S "REVOLT OF ISLAM" (CANTO VIII, STANZA XXII) OFFSPRING of Earth- shall somewhere pierce the Night, Some when these boughs will gleam with petalled stars, Healed be the gaping dark to woundless Light And rid the face of Youth of threat of scars. There was, ere wings of Life were joined to Earth, Ere seeds of hope were sown within her tomb, Irreparable Age—no other birth, Undying Death—a gloom within a gloom. I, like that Earth in lack of life, alone Might ever thread a dim unlustred way, Lacking your smile of welcome, joy of mind, And all the clean bright flame of

FAR ACROSS THE FOAM OF CHANGE SWIFTLY come and swiftly pass Through the .shadows on the grass Joyful bands and faery glee Over the rainbow-flowered lea. Bright their eyes and bright their hair ; Song-bright "voices free from care. Scarfed with webs of golden glow : Sweet are the silver horns they blow. All the summer-laden day Bathes their bird swift meadow-play In a more translucid ray Than spills from cloudless noon of May ; For the fair strand through which they range Lies far across the foam of change. Invocation BRIGHT world across the foaming sea of change,

TO BOBBY, A FORESTALLING OF SEPARATION IN SPACE ON thy smooth brow what laurels shall descend For life's enhancing to the Perfect Way ? In the silver road may our linked footsteps blend What width soever have sundered feet of clay. When leagues of air have stilled thy voice to rest, When balks of earth uprear between and veil The gesture of thy welcome, swift the test That souls have scope upon far other scale. The music of thy speaking then shall weave Its rhythm through my faring on the road : Nor in the past thy welcomes shall be found, But made a victor's beacon they shall cleave Through the false