Part 7 (1/2)

For listen, there is his voice again, Wistful and clear and piercing sweet.

Where did the boy find such a strain To make a dead heart beat?

And how in the name of care can he bear To jet such a fountain into the air In this gray gulch of a street?

Tuscan slopes or the Piedmontese?

Umbria under the Apennine?

South, where the terraced lemon-trees Round rich Sorrento s.h.i.+ne?

Venice moon on the smooth lagoon?-- Where have I heard that aching tune, That boyish throat divine?

Beyond my roofs and chimney pots A rag of sunset crumbles gray; Below, fierce radiance hangs in clots O'er the streams that never stay.

Shrill and high, newsboys cry The worst of the city's infamy For one more sordid day.

But my desire has taken sail For lands beyond, soft-horizoned: Down languorous leagues I hold the trail, From Marmalada, steeply throned Above high pastures washed with light, Where dolomite by dolomite Looms sheer and spectral-coned,

To purple vineyards looking south On reaches of the still Tyrrhene; Virgilian headlands, and the mouth Of Tiber, where that s.h.i.+p put in To take the dead men home to G.o.d, Whereof Casella told the mode To the great Florentine.

Up stairways blue with flowering weed I climb to hill-hung Bergamo; All day I watch the thunder breed Golden above the springs of Po, Till the voice makes sure its wavering lure, And by a.s.sisi's portals pure I stand, with heart bent low.

O hear, how it blooms in the blear dayfall, That flower of pa.s.sionate wistful song!

How it blows like a rose by the iron wall Of the city loud and strong.

How it cries ”Nay, nay” to the worldling's way, To the heart's clear dream how it whispers, ”Yea; Time comes, though the time is long.”

Beyond my roofs and chimney piles Sunset crumbles, ragged, dire; The roaring street is hung for miles With fierce electric fire.

Shrill and high, newsboys cry The gross of the planet's destiny Through one more sullen gyre.

Stolidly the town flings down Its l.u.s.t by day for its nightly l.u.s.t; Who does his given stint, 't is known, Shall have his mug and crust.-- Too base of mood, too harsh of blood, Too stout to seize the grosser good, Too hungry after dust!

O hark! how it blooms in the falling dark, That flower of mystical yearning song: Sad as a hermit thrush, as a lark Uplifted, glad, and strong.

Heart, we have chosen the better part!

Save sacred love and sacred art Nothing is good for long.

II

AT a.s.sISI

Before St. Francis' burg I wait, Frozen in spirit, faint with dread; His presence stands within the gate, Mild splendor rings his head.

Gently he seems to welcome me: Knows he not I am quick, and he Is dead, and priest of the dead?

I turn away from the gray church pile; I dare not enter, thus undone: Here in the roadside gra.s.s awhile I will lie and watch for the sun.

Too purged of earth's good glee and strife, Too drained of the honied l.u.s.ts of life, Was the peace these old saints won!

And lo! how the laughing earth says no To the fear that mastered me; To the blood that aches and clamors so How it whispers ”Verily.”