We gape to And are in And dread it is Devil's Work! Where the howl of an owl vexed his foes from their intent: Then that fowl for a holy bird of reverence made he! "A catch and a carol to the great, grand Chan! Pastmasters of disasters, our desert cara van Won through all peril to his sunset barbican, Where he wields his seignorie! And crowns he gave us! We end where we began: A catch and a carol to the great, grand stripèd beasts did beat The market-square suddenly with hooves of beaten gold! The ground yawned gaping and flamed beneath our feet! They plunged to Pits Abysmal with their wealth untold! And some say the Chan himself in anger dealt the stroke For sharing of his secrets with silly, common folk: But Holy, Blessed Mary, preserve us as Lest once you may more those mad Merchants come chanting from Cathay! HOW TO CATCH UNICORNS Its cloven hoofprint on the sand Will lead you-where? Into a phantasmagoric land- There all the bright streams run up-hill. But from stocks and stones, clear voices come If you have taken along a net, A noose, a prod, You'll be waiting in the forest yet . ... In a virgin's lap the beast slept sound, They say but I I think (Is anyone around?) That's just a lie! If you have taken a musketoon To flinders 'twill flash 'neath the wizard moon. So I should take browned batter-cake, Hot-buttered inside, like foam to flake. And I should take an easy heart And a tied-up lunch of sandwich and tart, And then I should pretend to snore The wind of a mane and a tail, and four Paladins fierce and virgins sweet But he's never had anything to eat! Knights have tramped in their iron-mong'ry ... ADDENDUM Really hungry! Good Lord deliver us, John Hall Wheelock John Hall Wheelock was born at Far Rockaway, Long Island, in 1886. He was graduated from Harvard, receiving his B.A. in 1908, and finished his studies at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin, 1908-10. Wheelock's first book is, in many respects, his best. The Human Fantasy (1911) sings with the voice of youth-a youth which is vibrantly in love with existence. Rhapsodic and obviously influenced by Whitman and Henley, these lines beat bravely. A headlong ecstasy rises from pages whose refrain is "Splendid it is to live and glorious to die." SUNDAY EVENING IN THE COMMON Look-on the topmost branches of the world One breathless moment now the city's moaning Fades, and the endless streets seem vague and dim; There is no sound around the whole world's rim, Save in the distance a small band is droning Some desolate old hymn. Van Wyck, how often have we been together LOVE AND LIBERATION Lift your arms to the stars You are armed with love, with love, Nor all the powers of Fate Can touch you with a spear, What of good and evil, Joyce Kilmer (Alfred) Joyce Kilmer was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, December 6, 1886. He was graduated from Rutgers College in 1904 and received his A.B. from Columbia in 1906. In 1917 Kilmer joined the Officers' Reserve Training Corps, but he soon resigned from this. In less than three weeks after America entered the world war, he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, New York. On July 28, 1918, the five-day battle for the mastery of the heights beyond the river Ourcq was begun. Two days later, Sergeant Kilmer was killed in action. Death came before the poet had developed or even matured his gifts. His first volume, Summer of Love (1911), is wholly imitative; it is full of reflections of a dozen other sources, "a broken bundle of mirrors." Trees and Other Poems (1914) contains the title-poem by which Kilmer is best known and, though various influences are here, a refreshing candor lights up the lines. Main Street and Other Poems (1917) is less derivative; the simplicity is less self-conscious, the ecstasy more spontaneous. TREES' I think that I shall never see A tree whose hungry mouth is prest A tree that looks at God all day, A tree that may in summer wear Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Poems are made by fools like me, 'From Trees and Other Poems by Joyce Kilmer. right, 1914, by George H. Doran Company, Publishers. Copy |