Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/362

334 Enchantingly, as death was never praised;

And with high anger and a god-like scorn

Passionately proclaiming life in death

And the unquenched, immortal soul of man—

A wondrous song,

Trembling with unshed tears and life's full joy,

Burst the tense meshes of the critic's web

And sang itself into eternal day.

A NEW POET

I

, beware! Stop babbling! Hark, a sound is in the air!

Above the pretty songs of schools

(Not of music made, but rules),

Above the panic rush for gold

And emptinesses manifold,

And selling of the soul for phantom fame,

And reek of praises where there should be blame;

Over the dust and muck,

The buzz and roar of wheels,

Another music steals;

A right, true note is struck.

II

Friends, beware!

A sound of singing in the air!

The love-song of a man who loves his fellow-men;

Mother-love and country-love, and the love of sea and fen;

Lovely thoughts and mighty thoughts and thoughts that linger long;

There has come to the old world's singing the thrill of a brave new song.