The Dyak chief, and other verses

THE DYAK CHIEF AND OTHER VERSES


BY ERWIN CLARKSON GARRETT Author of “My Bunkie and Other Ballads”
NEW YORK BARSE & HOPKINS PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1914 By BARSE & HOPKINS

To My Mother
Some Ye bid to teach us, Lord, And some Ye bid to learn; And some Ye bid to triumph— And some to yearn and yearn: And some Ye bid to conquer In blood by land and sea; And some Ye bid to tarry here— To prove the love of Thee.


Neither desiring to plagiarize Cæsar nor to compare my book to Gaul, I wish to mention briefly that this volume as a whole is divided into three parts, of which one is occupied by the single poem, “The Dyak Chief,” the verses that give title to the book; another, the second, is occupied by American army ballads, and yet another, the third, is occupied by various verses on miscellaneous subjects.
However, if recollections of my personal campaigns against Cæsar—armed only with a Latin vocabulary and grammar—serve me rightly, the old Roman was not merely a worthy foe, but one who might well be held up as a worthy example; who dealt with his chronicles as he dealt with his enemies on the field, in a simple, direct, forcible manner, bare of circumlocution, tautology or ambiguity—that he who runs may read—and reading, know his Gaul and Gallic chieftains, his Cæsar and his Cæsar’s legionaries, even as Cæsar knew them.