Volume Iii Part 79 (1/2)
I have broadened my hand to the cinch and the axe, I have laid my flesh to the rain; I was hunter and trailer and guide; I have touched the most primitive wildness again.
I have threaded the wild with the stealth of the deer, No eagle is freer than I; No mountain can thwart me, no torrent appall, I defy the stern sky.
So long as I live these joys will remain, I have touched the most primitive wildness again.
Hamlin Garland [1860-
DO YOU FEAR THE WIND?
Do you fear the force of the wind, The slash of the rain?
Go face them and fight them, Be savage again.
Go hungry and cold like the wolf, Go wade like the crane: The palms of your hands will thicken, The skin of your cheek will tan, You'll grow ragged and weary and swarthy, But you'll walk like a man!
Hamlin Garland [1860-
THE KING'S HIGHWAY ”El Camino Real”
All in the golden weather, forth let us ride to-day, You and I together, on the King's Highway, The blue skies above us, and below the s.h.i.+ning sea; There's many a road to travel, but it's this road for me.
It's a long road and sunny, and the fairest in the world-- There are peaks that rise above it in their snowy mantles curled, And it leads from the mountains through a hedge of chaparral, Down to the waters where the sea gulls call.
It's a long road and sunny, it's a long road and old, And the brown padres made it for the flocks of the fold; They made it for the sandals of the sinner-folk that trod From the fields in the open to the shelter-house of G.o.d.
They made it for the sandals of the sinner-folk of old; Now the flocks they are scattered and death keeps the fold; But you and I together we will take the road to-day, With the breath in our nostrils, on the King's Highway.
We will take the road together through the morning's golden glow, And we'll dream of those who trod it in the mellowed long ago; We will stop at the Missions where the sleeping padres lay, And we'll bend a knee above them for their souls' sake to pray.
We'll ride through the valleys where the blossom's on the tree, Through the orchards and the meadows with the bird and the bee, And we'll take the rising hills where the manzanitas grow, Past the gray tails of waterfalls where blue violets blow.
Old Conquistadores, O brown priests and all, Give us your ghosts for company when night begins to fall; There's many a road to travel, but it's this road to-day, With the breath of G.o.d about us on the King's Highway.
John S. McGroarty [1862-
THE FORBIDDEN LURE
”Leave all and follow--follow!”
Lure of the sun at dawn, Lure of a wind-paced hollow, Lure of the stars withdrawn; Lure of the brave old singing Brave perished minstrels knew; Of dreams like sea-fog clinging To boughs the night sifts through:
”Leave all and follow--follow!”
The sun goes up the day; Flickering wing of swallow, Blossoms that blow away,-- What would you, luring, luring, When I must bide at home?
My heart will break her mooring And die in reef-flung foam!
Oh, I must never listen, Call not outside my door.
Green leaves, you must not glisten Like water, any more.
Oh, Beauty, wandering Beauty, Pa.s.s by; speak not. For see, By bed and board stands Duty To s.n.a.t.c.h my dreams from me!
Fannie Stearns Davis [1884-
THE WANDER-LOVERS
Down the world with Marna!