| THE ASCENT OF MAN. | |
| PAGE | |
| Prelude—Wings | [3] |
| Part I. | |
| Chaunts of Life | [7] |
| A Symbol | [59] |
| Time's Shadow | [60] |
| Part II. | |
| The Pilgrim Soul | [63] |
| Saving Love | [80] |
| Nirvana | [81] |
| Motherhood | [82] |
| Part III. | |
| The Leading of Sorrow | [85] |
| POEMS OF THE OPEN AIR. | |
| The Sower | [113] |
| A Spring Song | [116] |
| April Rain | [117] |
| The Sleeping Beauty | [119] |
| Apple-blossom | [120] |
| The Music-lesson | [122] |
| The Teamster | [124] |
| A Highland Village | [136] |
| On a Forsaken Lark's Nest | [138] |
| Reapers | [140] |
| Apple-gathering | [142] |
| The Songs of Summer | [145] |
| Autumn Tints | [146] |
| Green Leaves and Sere | [148] |
| The Hunter's Moon | [149] |
| The Passing Year | [151] |
| The Robin Redbreast | [152] |
| The Red Sunsets, 1883 | [154] |
| The Red Sunsets, 1883 | [155] |
| On the Lighthouse at Antibes | [156] |
| Cagnes | [157] |
| A Winter Landscape | [158] |
| LOVE IN EXILE. | |
| Songs. | |
| "Thou walkest with me" | [161] |
| "I was again beside my Love" | [162] |
| "I am Athirst, but not for Wine" | [164] |
| "I would I were the Glow-worm" | [165] |
| "Dost thou remember?" | [167] |
| "O Moon, Large Golden Summer Moon" | [169] |
| "Why will you haunt me unawares?" | [171] |
| "When you wake from Troubled Slumbers" | [173] |
| "In a Lonesome Burial-place" | [175] |
| "On Life's Long Round" | [177] |
| "Ah, Yesterday was Dark and Drear" | [178] |
| "Yea, the Roses are still on Fire" | [179] |
| "We met as Strangers" | [180] |
| "You make the Sunshine of my Heart" | [182] |
| "Dear, when I look into your Eyes" | [184] |
| "Ah, if you knew" | [186] |
| "Your Looks have touched my Soul" | [187] |
| "Oh, Brown Eyes with Long Black Lashes" | [188] |
| "Once on a Golden Day" | [190] |
| "What Magic is there in thy Mien?" | [192] |
| Heart's-ease | [194] |
| Untimely Love | [195] |
| The After-glow | [196] |
| L'Envoi | [197] |
THE ASCENT OF MAN.
PRELUDE.
WINGS.
Ascend, oh my Soul, with the wings of the lark ascend!
Soaring away and away far into the blue.
Or with the shrill seagull to the breakers bend,
Or with the bee, where the grasses and field-flowers blend,
Drink out of golden cups of the honey-dew.
Ascend, oh my Soul, on the wings of the wind as it blows,
Striking wild organ-blasts from the forest trees,
Or on the zephyr bear love of the rose to the rose,
Or with the hurricane sower cast seed as he goes
Limitless ploughing the leagues of the sibilant seas.
Ascend, oh my Soul, on the wings of the choral strain,
Invisible tier above tier upbuilding sublime;
Note as it scales after note in a rhythmical chain
Reaching from chaos and welter of struggle and pain,
Far into vistas empyreal receding from time.