Page:Genius, and other essays.djvu/270

GENIUS AND OTHER ESSAYS

A thousand pearls the haughty Ethiop spurned

Ere one could make her luxury complete.

In goodliest palaces, some meanest room

The owner's smallness shields contentedly.

Nay, further; of the manifold we are,

But one pin's point shall pass eternity.

Exalt, then, to the greatness of the throne

One only of these beggarlings of mine;

I with the rest will dwell in modest bounds:

The chosen one shall glorify the line.

If the singer will stand by her pledge, we may sleep sound of nights, with no spectral visitations. Not one, but many, are her verses which we pronounce to be good, enjoy as such, and are thankful for. Of Poems of the War, those entitled "Our Orders," "Left Behind," "The Battle Eucharist," are rapturous expressions of the abnegation, the exaltation, and the deep religious faith which carried our people through the recent contest. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," with its profound Hebraic spirit, and wrathful, exultant swell, seems, verily, to have borne "the world's fruit—the seed of history." The first of the "Parables" is a simple and tender rendering of the text, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." The series of love poems entitled "Her Verses" are sensuous, if not simple, and have truer passion in them than can be found in other lyrics depending upon interjectional outbursts for their effect. But in some of the Poems of Study and Experience, Mrs. Howe seems to be [256]