THE HARLEQUIN OF DREAMS. SWIFT, through some trap mine eyes have never found Dim-panelled in the painted scene of Sleep, Thou, giant Harlequin of Dreams, dost leap Man's reason in the road, change faces, peep sometimes my tears At midnight break through bounden lids—a sign BALTIMORE, 1878. STREET-CRIES. OFT seems the Time a market-town Where many merchant-spirits meet Their needs, as wares; one thus, one so: Till all the ways are full of sound: I. REMONSTRANCE. "OPINION, let me alone: I am not thine. Prim Creed, with categoric point, forbear To feature me my Lord by rule and line. Thou canst not measure Mistress Nature's hair, Not one sweet inch: nay, if thy sight is sharp, Would'st count the strings upon an angel's harp? Forbear, forbear. "Oh let me love my Lord more fathom deep Than there is line to sound with : let me love My fellow not as men that mandates keep : Yea, all that's lovable, below, above, That let me love by heart, by heart, because "The tears I weep by day and bitter night, Opinion! for thy sole salt vintage fall. -As morn by morn I rise with fresh delight, Come feast with me, let no man say me nay, "So fare I forth to feast: I sit beside Some brother bright but, ere good-morrow's passed, Burly Opinion wedging in hath cried "Thou shalt not sit by us, to break thy fast, Save to our Rubric thou subscribe and swear- "Then, hard a-hungered for my brother's grace Till well-nigh fain to swear his folly 's true, In sad dissent I turn my longing face To him that sits on the left: 'Brother, with you?' -'Nay, not with me, save thou subscribe and swear Religion hath black eyes and raven hair : Nought else is true.' "Debarred of banquets that my heart could make With every man on every day of life, I homeward turn, my fires of pain to slake In deep endearments of a worshipped wife. 'I love thee well, dear Love,' quoth she, and yet Would that thy creed with mine completely met, As one, not two.' "Assassin! Thief! Opinion, 'tis thy work. By Church, by throne, by hearth, by every good That's in the Town of Time, I see thee lurk, And e'er some shadow stays where thou hast stood. Thou hand'st sweet Socrates his hemlock sour; "Deliverer Christ; thou rack'st the souls of men ; Thou tossest girls to lions and boys to flames; Indifferent cruel, thou dost blow the blaze "Thou base-born Accident of time and placeBigot Pretender unto Judgment's throne Bastard, that claimest with a cunning face "I would thou left'st me free, to live with love, And faith, that through the love of love doth find My Lord's dear presence in the stars above, The clods below, the flesh without, the mind Within, the bread, the tear, the smile. Opinion, damned Intriguer, gray with guile, Let me alone." BALTIMORE, 1878-9. II. THE SHIP OF EARTH. "THOU Ship of Earth, with Death, and Birth, and Life, and Sex aboard, And fires of Desires burning hotly in the hold, I fear thee, O! I fear thee, for I hear the tongue and sword At battle on the deck, and the wild mutineers are bold! "The dewdrop morn may fall from off the petal of the sky, But all the deck is wet with blood and stains the crystal red. A pilot, GOD, a pilot! for the helm is left awry, And the best sailors in the ship lie there among the dead!" PRATTVILLE, ALABAMA, 1868. III. HOW LOVE LOOKED FOR HELL. "To heal his heart of long-time pain One day Prince Love for to travel was fain 'Now what to thee most strange may be?' Quoth Mind and Sense. All things above, Hell,' quoth Love. "Then Mind rode in and Sense rode out: They searched the ways of man about. |