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Helen Fiske Jackson

CORONATION

AT the king's gate the subtle noon Wove filmy yellow nets of sun; Into the drowsy snare too soon

The guards fell one by one.

("H. H.")

Through the king's gate, unquestioned then, A beggar went, and laughed, "This brings

Me chance at last, to see if men

Fare better, being kings."

The king sat bowed beneath his crown,
Propping his face with listless hand,
Watching the hour-glass sifting down

Too slow its shining sand.

"Poor man, what wouldst thou have of me?"

The beggar turned, and, pitying, Replied like one in dream, "Of thee,

Nothing. I want the king."

Uprose the king, and from his head

Shook off the crown and threw it by. "O man, thou must have known," he said,

"A greater king than I."

Through all the gates, unquestioned then, Went king and beggar hand in hand. Whispered the king, "Shall I know when

Before Ilis throne I stand?”

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On the king's gate the moss grew gray; The king camo not. They called him dead;

And made his eldest son one day

Slave in his father's stead.

MORN

IN what a strange bewilderment do we Awake each moru from out the brief night's sleep.

Our struggling consciousness doth grope and creep

Its slow way back, as if it could not free
Itself from bonds unseen. Then Memory,
Like sudden light, outflashes from its deep
The joy or grief which it had last to keep
For us; and by the joy or grief we see
The new day dawneth like the yesterday;
We are unchanged; our life the same we
knew

Before. I wonder if this is the way
We wake from death's short sleep, to
struggle through

A brief bewilderment, and in dismay
Behold our life unto our old life true.

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What cheer for him who goes, and him who stays!

Fair skies, rich lands, new homes, and untried days

Some go to seek: the rest but wait instead, Watching the way wherein their comrades

led, Until the next stanch ship her flag doth raise. Who knows what myriad colonies there are Of fairest fields, and rich, undreamed-of gains

Thick planted in the distant shining plains Which we call sky because they lie so far? Oh, write of me, not " Died in bitter pains," But "Emigrated to another star!"

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Franklin Benjamin Sanborn

SAMUEL HOAR

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ARIANA'

SWEET saint! whose rising dawned upon the sight

Like fair Aurora chasing mists away,
Our ocean billows, and thy western height
Gave back reflections of the tender ray,
Sparkling and smiling as night turned to
day:-

Ah! whither vanished that celestial light?
Suns rise and set, Monadnoc's amethyst
Year-long above the sullen cloud appears,
Daily the waves our summer strand have
kissed,

But thou returnest not with days and years: Or is it thine, you clear and beckoning star,

Seen o'er the hills that guarded once thy home?

Dost guide thy friend's free steps that widely roam

Toward that far country where his wishes are ?

AT CHAPPAQUA

Joel Benton

His cherished woods are mute. The stream glides down

The hill as when I knew it years ago;
The dark, pine arbor with its priestly gown
Stands hushed, as if our grief it still would
show;

The silver springs are cupless, and the flow

Of friendly feet no more bereaves the grass, For he is absent who was wont to pass Along this wooded path. His axe's blow No more disturbs the impertinent bole or bough;

Nor moves his pen our heedless nation

now,

Which, sworn to justice, stirred the people

80.

In some far world his much-loved face

must glow

With rapture still. This breeze once fanned his brow.

This is the peaceful Mecca all men know!

THE SCARLET TANAGER

A BALL of fire shoots through the tamarack
In scarlet splendor, on voluptuous wings;
Delirious joy the pyrotechnist brings,
Who marks for us high summer's almanac.
How instantly the red-coat hurtles back!
No fiercer flame has flashed beneath the sky.
Note now the rapture in his cautious eye,
The conflagration lit along his track.
Winged soul of beauty, tropic in desire,
Thy love seems alien in our northern zone;
Thou giv'st to our green lands a burst of fire
And callest back the fables we disown.
The hot equator thou mightst well inspire,
Or stand above some Eastern monarch's
throne.

1 Bee BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE, p. 819.

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