Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/197

Rh Longings, vague, intenable, So far from speech apart, Like the endless rush of the river, Went surging through my heart.

With no less sadness or beauty, and with that philosophy towards which poetry ever has a bias, our poet of dreams thus reflects, on watching the ephemera that dart with glimmering wings in keen delight where the breezes fling the sweets of May:

Creatures of gauze and velvet wings, With a day of gleams and flowers, Who knows—in the light of eternal things— Your life is less than ours? Weary at last, it is ours, like you, When our brief day is done, Folding our hands, to say adieu, And pass with the setting sun.

One must say of George Marion McClellan: “Here is a finely touched spirit that responds deeply to the mystery and charm of mountains and starry skies, and that charm and mystery he is capable of expressing in stanzas of lyric beauty.” Every page of his book will confirm for the reader the estimate he may have formed from the quotations already given. Without rifling it of its choicest treasures I will put before the reader a few entire poems which I am sure will give increased delight on repeated readings: