Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/455

Rh IX

Red star of war! thy sons did he enshrine

In glorious art—fighters on sea and land;

In bronze they give again the brave command;

In bronze they march resistless, in divine

Ecstasy of devotion, not in wrath;

The fire and fury of battle he made real,

But like God's prophets moved they on their path

Led and uplifted by the great Ideal.

X

O fateful stars! that lit the climbing way

Of that dear, martyred son of fate and fame,—

The supreme soul of an immortal day,—

Linked with his name is our great sculptor's name;

For now in art eternal breathes again

The gaunt, sweet presence of our chief of men—

That soul of tenderness; that spirit stern,

Whose fires divine forever flame and burn.

XI

Stars of white midnight! tho' unseen by day,

Imagined! He the unseen could subtly see

And image forth in most divine array:

Blest Charity, and Love, and Loyalty,

And Victory, and Grief; and, with a touch

Made tender by heroic years of pain,—

Telling in art what words might not contain,—

The calm, sweet face of Him who suffered much.

XII

Mysterious sky! where orbs constellate reign!

Toward which the heart of man through endless ages