Psalms are heard in "The Flocks" and "The Runner in the Skies." The Solitary (1919) is another stride forward. Its major section, a long symbolic poem called "The Sea," breathes the same note that was the burden of the earlier books-"We are flesh on the way to godhood"-with greater strength and still greater control. THE SLAVE They set the slave free, striking off his chains . . . Then he was as much of a slave as ever. He was still chained to servility, He was still manacled to indolence and sloth, They can only set free men free. And there is no need of that: Free men set themselves free. THE RUNNER IN THE SKIES Who is the runner in the skies, With her blowing scarf of stars, And our Earth and sun hovering like bees about her blossoming heart? Her feet are on the winds, where space is deep, Her eyes are nebulous and veiled; She hurries through the night to a far lover THE LINCOLN CHILD1 Clearing in the forest, In the wild Kentucky forest, And the stars, wintry stars, strewn above! O Night that is the starriest Since Earth began to roll- Is born out of Love! Mother love, father love, love of eternal God- One sparkling ray of God Strikes the clod (And while an angel-host through wood and clearing sweeps!) Born in the wild The Child Naked, ruddy, new, Wakes with the piteous human cry and at the motherheart sleeps. To the mother wild berries and honey, To the father awe without end, To the child a swaddling of flannel— And the skies of winter bend 1 See pages 54, 78, 84, 139, 172. Soon in the wide wilderness, On a branch blown over a creek, Up a trail of the wild coon, In a lair of the wild bee, The rugged boy, by danger's stress, Learnt the speech the wild things speak, Of strife-engendered harmony— Went to school where Life itself was master, Felt his future manhood stir! And lo, as he grew ugly, gaunt, He knew what Shakespeare never knew, That Men are one Beneath the sun, And before God are equal souls— This truth was his, And this it is That round him such a glory rolls. For not alone he knew it as a truth, He made it of his blood, and of his brain- When a black cloud blotted out the sun Dead, and the day's work still undone, Dead, and war's ruining heart athrob, But in this man we mourned Those millions, and one other— And the States today uniting, North and South, East and West, Speak with a people's mouth A rhapsody of rest To him our beloved best, Our big, gaunt, homely brother Our huge Atlantic coast-storm in a shawl, Our cyclone in a smile-our President, Who knew and loved us all With love more eloquent Than his own words-with Love that in real deeds was Oh, to pour love through deeds To be as Lincoln was! That all the land might fill its daily needs Glorified by a human Cause! Then were America a vast World-Torch Flaming a faith across the dying Earth, And real, and near, draw, as at that babe's birth, Let down thy strength that we endure Mighty and pure As mothers and fathers of our own Lincoln-child. O Child, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, Soul torn from out our Soul! May you be great, and pure, and beautiful— A Soul to search this world To be a father, brother, comrade, son, A toiler powerful; A man whose toil is done One with God's Law above: Work wrought through Love! Lola Ridge Lola Ridge was born in Dublin, Ireland, leaving there in infancy and spending her childhood in Sydney, Australia. After living some years in New Zealand, she returned to Australia to study art. In 1907, she came to the United States, earning her living as organizer, as advertisement writer, as illustrator, artist's model, factory-worker, etc. In 1918, The New Republic published her long poem The Ghetto and Miss Ridge, until then totally unknown, became the "discovery" of the year. Her volume The Ghetto and Other Poems (1918) contains one poem that is brilliant, several that are powerful and none that is mediocre. The title-poem is its pinnacle; in it Miss Ridge touches strange heights. It is essentially a poem of the city, of its sodden brutalities, its sudden beauties. Sun-Up (1920) is less integrated, more frankly experimental. But the same vibrancy and restrained power that distinguished her preceding book are manifest here. |