FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203  
204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   >>   >|  
ure, not wholly deserving A name either English or Yankee,--just Irving. 'There goes,--but _stet nominis umbra_,--his name You'll be glad enough, some day or other, to claim, 1460 And will all crowd about him and swear that you knew him If some English critic should chance to review him. The old _porcos ante ne projiciatis_ MARGARITAS, for him you have verified gratis; What matters his name? Why, it may be Sylvester, Judd, Junior, or Junius, Ulysses, or Nestor, For aught _I_ know or care; 'tis enough that I look On the author of "Margaret," the first Yankee book With the _soul_ of Down East in 't, and things farther East, As far as the threshold of morning, at least, 1470 Where awaits the fair dawn of the simple and true, Of the day that comes slowly to make all things new. 'T has a smack of pine woods, of bare field and bleak hill, Such as only the breed of the Mayflower could till; The Puritan's shown in it, tough to the core, Such as prayed, smiting Agag on red Marston Moor: With an unwilling humor, half choked by the drouth In brown hollows about the inhospitable mouth; With a soul full of poetry, though it has qualms About finding a happiness out of the Psalms; 1480 Full of tenderness, too, though it shrinks in the dark, Hamadryad-like, under the coarse, shaggy bark; That sees visions, knows wrestlings of God with the Will, And has its own Sinais and thunderings still.' Here, 'Forgive me, Apollo,' I cried, 'while I pour My heart out to my birthplace: O loved more and more Dear Baystate, from whose rocky bosom thy sons Should suck milk, strong-will-giving, brave, such as runs In the veins of old Greylock--who is it that dares 1489 Call thee pedler, a soul wrapped in bank-books and shares? It is false! She's a Poet! I see, as I write, Along the far railroad the steam-snake glide white, The cataract-throb of her mill-hearts, I hear, The swift strokes of trip-hammers weary my ear, Sledges ring upon anvils, through logs the saw screams, Blocks swing to their place, beetles drive home the beams:-- It is songs such as these that she croons to the din Of her fast-flying shuttles, year out and year in, While from earth's farthest corner there comes not a breeze But wafts her the buzz of her gold-gleaning bees: 1500 What though those horn hands have as yet found small time For painting and sculpture and music and rhyme? These will come in due order; the need that pressed sorest Was
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203  
204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

things

 

Yankee

 
English
 
sculpture
 

strong

 
giving
 

Greylock

 
painting
 

shares

 

pedler


wrapped
 

Apollo

 

Forgive

 

thunderings

 

Sinais

 

birthplace

 

railroad

 

Should

 

Baystate

 

croons


Blocks
 

beetles

 
breeze
 

corner

 

shuttles

 
flying
 

farthest

 

screams

 

pressed

 

hearts


strokes

 

cataract

 

gleaning

 

hammers

 

anvils

 
sorest
 

Sledges

 

qualms

 

Nestor

 

Ulysses


Junius

 

Junior

 

gratis

 

verified

 

matters

 
Sylvester
 
morning
 

threshold

 
farther
 

Margaret