ONE MOMENT, PLEASE

At fifty cents per agate line
Kind editors will buy your verse;
They'll make you swear that you resign
All claims, for better or for worse.
The book, dramatic, photoplay,
And interplanetary rights
They seize; but do not feel dismay—
Their barks are fiercer than their bites!
I thank, for leave to print these rhymes,
And for unfailing courtesy,
Everybody's, New York Times,
The Outlook and the Century;
The Boston Transcript, L. H. J.,
The Tribune, Mail, and Evening Post,
The Book News Monthly, chastely gay—
But Life and Collier's I thank most.
The Independent and McClure's
And Argosy have borne my flights:
Dear scribblers, how this reassures—
Their barks are fiercer than their bites!

CONTENTS

[SONGS FOR A LITTLE HOUSE]
[BAYBERRY CANDLES]
[SECRET LAUGHTER]
[A CHARM FOR OUR NEW FIREPLACE]
[SIX WEEKS OLD]
[THE YOUNG MOTHER]
[PETER PAN]
[THE 5:42]
[READING ALOUD]
[THE MOON-SHEEP]
[MAR QUONG, CHINESE LAUNDRYMAN]
[THE MILKMAN]
[IN HONOUR OF TAFFY TOPAZ]
[THE CEDAR CHEST]
[O PRAISE ME NOT THE COUNTRY]
[ANIMAL CRACKERS]
[THE WAKEFUL HUSBAND]
[LIGHT VERSE]
[FULL MOON]
[MY WIFE]
[WASHING THE DISHES]
[THE FURNACE]
[THE CHURCH OF UNBENT KNEES]
[THE NEW ALTMAN BUILDING]
[THE MADONNA OF THE CURB]
[MY PIPE]
[TO A GRANDMOTHER]

[A HANDFUL OF SONNETS]
[I]
[II]
[PEDOMETER]
[ARS DURA]
[O. HENRY—APOTHECARY]
[FOR THE CENTENARY OF KEATS'S SONNET (1816)]
[TWO O'CLOCK]
[THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER]
[THE WEDDED LOVER]
[TO YOU, REMEMBERING THE PAST]
[THE LAST SONNET]

[THE WAR]
[IRONY]
[TO A FRENCH BABY]
[AFTER HEARING GERMAN MUSIC]
[IN MEMORY OF THE AMERICAN AVIATORS KILLED IN FRANCE]
[THE FLAGS ON FIFTH AVENUE]
["THEY"]
[BALLAD OF FRENCH RIVERS]
[PEASANT AND KING]
[TILL TWISTON WENT]
[TO RUDYARD KIPLING]
[TO A U-BOAT]
[KITCHENER]
[MARCH 1915]
[DEAD SHIPS]
[ENGLAND, JULY 1913 (TO RUPERT BROOKE)]
[TO THE OXFORD MEN IN THE WAR]
[FOR THE PRESENT TIME]
[AMERICA, 1917]
[ON VIMY RIDGE]

[HAY FEVER, AND OTHER LITERARY POLLEN]
[HAY FEVER, IF RUDYARD KIPLING HAD IT]
[HAY FEVER, IF AMY LOWELL HAD IT]
[HAY FEVER, IF HILAIRE BELLOC HAD IT]
[HAY FEVER, IF EDGAR LEE MASTERS HAD IT]
[HYMN TO THE DAIRYMAIDS ON BEACON STREET]
[ON FIRST LOOKING INTO A SUBWAY EXCAVATION]
[BALLAD OF NEW AMSTERDAM]
[CASUALTY]
[AT THE WOMEN'S CLUBS]
[ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY COAL-BIN]
[MOONS WE SAW AT SEVENTEEN]
[AT THE DOG SHOW]
[THE OLD SWIMMER]
[TO ALL MY FRIENDS]
[A GRUB STREET RECESSIONAL]

SONGS FOR A LITTLE HOUSE

BAYBERRY CANDLES

Dear sweet, when dusk comes up the hill,
The fire leaps high with golden prongs;
I place along the chimneysill
The tiny candles of my songs.
And though unsteadily they burn,
As evening shades from grey to blue
Like candles they will surely learn
To shine more clear, for love of you.