The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 5 (of 5) / Poems of meditation and of forest and field

THE POEMS OF
MADISON CAWEIN VOLUME V POEMS OF MEDITATION AND OF FOREST AND FIELD

The Moated Grange
Illustrated WITH PHOTOGRAVURES AFTER PAINTINGS BY ERIC PAPE INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1905 and 1907, by Madison Cawein
Copyright 1896, by Copeland and Day; 1898, by R. H. Russell PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. TO MY WIFE WHO HAS BEEN THE INSPIRATION OF MANY OF MY POEMS
You are weary of reading: I am weary of song: The one is misleading; The other, o’er long:— All Art’s overlong.
Ah, would it were ours To leave them, and then, ’Mid the fields and the flowers, Be children again, Glad children again.
A thought, to lift me up to those Sweet wildflowers of the pensive woods; The lofty, lowly attitudes Of bluet and of bramble-rose: To lift me where my mind may reach The lessons which their beauties teach.
A dream, to lead my spirit on With sounds of fairy shawms and flutes, And all mysterious attributes Of skies of dusk and skies of dawn: To lead me, like the wandering brooks, Past all the knowledge of the books.
A song, to make my heart a guest Of happiness whose soul is love; One with the life that knoweth of But song that turneth toil to rest: To make me cousin to the birds, Whose music needs not wisdom’s words.