"Oh tell me, sailor, tell me true,
Is my little lad, my Elihu,
A-sailing with your ship?"
The sailor's eyes were dim with dew,—
"Your little lad, your Elihu?"
He said with trembling lip,—
"What little lad? what ship?"
"What little lad! as if there could be
Another such a one as he!
What little lad, do you say?
Why, Elihu, that took to the sea
The moment I put him off my knee!
It was just the other day
The Gray Swan sailed away."
"The other day?" the sailor's eyes
Stood open with a great surprise,—
"The other day? the Swan?"
His heart began in his throat to rise.
"Ay, ay, sir, here in the cupboard lies
The jacket he had on."
"And so your lad is gone?"
"Gone with the Swan." "And did she stand
With her anchor clutching hold of the sand,
For a month, and never stir?"
"Why, to be sure! I've seen from the land,
Like a lover kissing his lady's hand,
The wild sea kissing her,—
A sight to remember, sir."
"But, my good mother, do you know
All this was twenty years ago?
I stood on the Gray Swan's deck,
And to that lad I saw you throw,
Taking it off, as it might be, so,
The kerchief from your neck."
"Ay, and he'll bring it back!"
"And did the little lawless lad
That has made you sick and made you sad,
Sail with the Gray Swan's crew?"
"Lawless! the man is going mad!
The best boy ever mother had,—
Be sure he sailed with the crew!
What would you have him do?"
"And he has never written line,
Nor sent you word, nor made you sign
To say he was alive?"
"Hold! if 'twas wrong, the wrong is mine;
Besides, he may be in the brine,
And could he write from the grave?
Tut, man, what would you have?"
"Gone twenty years,—a long, long cruise,
'Twas wicked thus your love to abuse;
But if the lad still live,
And come back home, think you you can
Forgive him?"—"Miserable man,
You're mad as the sea,—you rave,—
What have I to forgive?"
The sailor twitched his shirt so blue,
And from within his bosom drew
The kerchief. She was wild.
"My God! my Father! is it true
My little lad, My Elihu?
My blessed boy, my child!
My dead,—my living child!"
Alice Cary.

The Circling Year

SPRING
The joys of living wreathe my face,
My heart keeps time to freshet's race;
Of balmy airs I drink my fill—
Why, there's a yellow daffodil!
Along the stream a soft green tinge
Gives hint of feathery willow fringe;
Methinks I heard a Robin's "Cheer"—
I'm glad Spring's here!
SUMMER
An afternoon of buzzing flies.
Heat waves that sear, and quivering rise;
The long white road, the plodding team,
The deep, cool grass in which to dream;
The distant cawing of the crows,
Tall, waving grain, long orchard rows;
The peaceful cattle in the stream—
Midsummer's dream!
AUTUMN
A cold, gray day, a lowering sky,
A lonesome pigeon wheeling by;
The soft, blue smoke that hangs and fades,
The shivering crane that flaps and wades;
Dead leaves that, whispering, quit their tree,
The peace the river sings to me;
The chill aloofness of the Fall—
I love it all!
WINTER
A sheet of ice, the ring of steel,
The crunch of snow beneath the heel;
Loud, jingling bells, the straw-lined sleigh,
A restless pair that prance and neigh;
The early coming of the night,
Red glowing logs, a shaded light;
The firelit realm of books is mine—
Oh, Winter's fine!
Ramona Graham.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

[A fellow near Kentucky's clime]34
[A foolish little maiden bought a foolish little bonnet]168
['A frightful face'? Wal, yes, yer correct]125
[A harbor in a sunny, southern city]137
[Alone in the dreary, pitiless street]46
[Among the legends sung or said]63
[An old lady sat in her old arm-chair]200
[An old man going a lone highway]54
[April! April! are you here?]59
[A sad-faced little fellow sits alone in deep disgrace]108
[At Paris it was, at the opera there]72
[A traveler on the dusty road]97
[Away, away in the Northland]131
[Beneath the hot midsummer sun]39
[Between broad fields of wheat and corn]147
[Billy's dead, and gone to glory—so is Billy's sister Nell]104
[Break, break, break]52
[Bring, novelist, your note-book! bring, dramatist, your pen!]123
[By Nebo's lonely mountain]45
[Chained in the market-place he stood]145
[Cheeriest room, that morn, the kitchen]128
[Cleon hath ten thousand acres]37
[Closed eyes can't see the white roses]84
[Come to me, O ye children!]16
"[Corporal Green!" the orderly cried]86
[Could we but draw back the curtains]29
[Dear little flag in the window there]127
[Did you tackle the trouble that came your way]132
[Don't kill the birds, the pretty birds]53
[Every coin of earthly treasure]12
[Far back, in my musings, my thoughts have been cast]75
[Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!]94
[First on the list is Washington, Virginia's proudest name]195
[Fling it from mast and steeple]202
[Give me that grand old volume, the gift of a mother's love]117
[God makes sech nights, all white an' still]59
[God said: I am tired of kings]62
[God send us a little home]87
[Good Deacon Roland—"May his tribe increase!"]178
[Go thou thy way, and I go mine]162
[Grandma told me all about it]48
[Great were the hearts and strong the minds]37
["Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled!"]174
[Han'some, stranger? Yes, she's purty an' ez peart as she kin be]96
[Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings]111
[Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys?]27
[He came to my desk with quivering lip]202
[He who has the vision sees more than you or I]146
[Hey! little evergreens]203
[Home they brought her warrior dead]74
[How are you hoeing your row, my boy?]202
[Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber]35
[I asked of Echo, t'other day]65
[I cannot vouch my tale is true]156
[I can't tell much about the thing, 'twas done so powerful quick]182
[I come, I come! ye have called me long]26
[I'd like to hunt the Injuns 't roam the boundless plain!]121
[If all the skies were sunshine]36
[If I had known in the morning]119
[If I were hanged on the highest hill]70
[If we should be shipwrecked together]206
[If you can dress to make yourself attractive]153
[If you can take your dreams into the classroom]165
[If you have a friend worth loving]167
[I have a rendezvous with Death]142
[I love my prairies, they are mine]74
[I'm not a chicken; I have seen]137
[In a dark and dismal alley where the sunshine never came]112
[In an attic bare and cheerless, Jim the newsboy dying lay]52
[In a pioneer's cabin out West, so they say]130
[In a valley, centuries ago]36
[In Gettysburg at break of day]122
[In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes]90
[In the hush and the lonely silence]65
[Into a ward of the whitewashed halls]175
[I sat alone with my conscience]81
[I saw him once before]20
[It is Christmas day in the workhouse]193
[It isn't the thing you do, dear]116
[It may be that the words I spoke]103
[It's easy to talk of the patience of Job]82
[It takes a heap o' livin' in a houst t' make it home]7
[It was a bright and lovely summer's morn]114
[It was an old, old, old, old lady]30
[It was a sergeant old and gray]158
[It was a starry night in June, the air was soft and still]102
[It was in the days when Claverhouse]9
[It was kept out in the kitchen, and 'twas long and deep and wide]177
[It was many and many a year ago]25
[It was the pleasant harvest-time]188
[It was the twilight hour]61
[I've got a letter, parson, from my son away out West]53
[I walked through the woodland meadows]9
[I wandered lonely where the pine-trees made]199
[I was mighty good-lookin' when I was young]44
[I was sitting in my study]40
[I was strolling one day down the Lawther Arcade]169
[I went into a public 'ouse to get a pint of beer]170
[I, who was always counted, they say]42
[I wish there were some wonderful place]32
[I wrote some lines once on a time]14
[Jim Brady's big brother's a wonderful lad]206
[King David's limbs were weary. He had fled]191
[Laugh, and the world laughs with you]139
[Let us be kind]143
[Life! I know not what thou art]65
[Like a dream, it all comes o'er me as I hear the Christmas bells]47
[Like liquid gold the wheat field lies]8
[Little lamb, who made thee?]86
[Little lass of Plymouth,—gentle, shy, and sweet]154
[Little one, come to my knee!]89
[Marching down to Armageddon]157
[Mine is a wild, strange story,—the strangest you ever heard]106
[My grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf]35
[Nae shoon to hide her tiny taes]131
[Never mind me, Uncle Jared, never mind my bleeding breast]11
[Never yet was a springtime]93
[No, comrades, I thank you—not any for me]87
[No gilt or tinsel taints the dress]204
[No, I never, till life and its shadows shall end]140
[Not far advanced was morning day]95
[Not who you are, but what you are]66
[O for one hour of youthful joy!]58
[O'Grady lived in Shanty row]44
[Oh, a wonderful stream is the river of Time]51
[Oh, East is East, and West is West]23
[Oh! listen to the water mill through all the livelong day]143
[Oh, such a commotion under the ground]59
["Oh tell me, sailor, tell me true"]207
[O Liberty, thou child of Law]39
[O month of fairer, rarer days]153
[Once in Persia reigned a king]159
[One sweetly solemn thought]48
[On the top of the Crumpetty Tree]91
[O Thou eternal One! whose presence bright]162
[Our band is few, but true and tried]54
[Our old brown homestead reared its walls]55
[Out of the hills of Habersham]66
[Piller fights is fun, I tell you]80
[Prop yer eyes wide open, Joey]32
[Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky]63
[Saint Augustine! well hast thou said]33
[She sat on the sliding cushion]29
[She's up there—Old Glory—where lightnings are sped]21
[She was a Phantom of delight]89
[Silent he watched them—the soldiers and dog]122
[Sleepy little, creepy little goblins in the gloaming]205
[Slow the Kansas sun was setting]37
[Some die too late and some too soon]84
[Sometimes w'en I am playin' with some fellers 'at I knows]127
[Somewhere, out on the blue sea sailing]138
[South mountain towered upon our right, far off the river lay]176
[Stand! the ground's your own, my braves!]99
[Sweet is the voice that called]75
[Talking of sects quite late one eve]180
[The autumn is old]186
[The bells of Mount Vernon are ringing to-day]58
[The boy stood on the burning deck]164
[The bravest battle that ever was fought]64
[The children kept coming one by one]146
[The coppenter man said a wicked word]139
[The day is cold, and dark, and dreary]28
[The district school-master was sitting behind his great book-laden desk] 68
[The feast is o'er! Now brimming wine]57
[The gate was thrown open, I rode out alone]120
[The gret big church wuz crowded full uv broadcloath an' of silk]149
[The harp that once through Tara's halls]71
[The joys of living wreathe my face]208
[The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year]21
[The Minstrel-Boy to the war is gone]55
[The muffled drum's sad roll has beat]15
[The night was dark when Sam set out]76
[The old mayor climbed the belfry tower]150
[There are two kinds of people on earth to-day]116
[There fell an April shower, one night]26
[There lay upon the ocean's shore]150
[There's a dandy little fellow]82
[There was a Boy; you knew him well, ye cliffs]90
[There was a sound of revelry by night]17
[There were ninety and nine]166
[The rich man's son inherits lands]22
[The rosy clouds float overhead]62
[These are the things I hold divine]64
[The shades of night were falling fast]15
[The snow and the silence came down together]83
[The sunlight shone on walls of stone]134
[The sun's heat will give out in ten million years more]203
[The sweetest lives are those to duty wed]20
[The warrior bowed his crested head, and tamed his heart of fire]160
[The weaver at this loom is sitting]171
[They grew in beauty, side by side]130
[They said, "The Master is coming"]30
[This is the land where hate should die]18
[Tho' yer lamp o' life is burnin' with a clear and steady light]199
[Three little words you often see]201
['Tis a cold, bleak night! with angry roar]77
['Tis a lesson you should heed]135
['Tis gone at last, and I am glad; it stayed a fearful while]173
['Tis only a half truth the poet has sung]28
["To-whit! to-whit! to-whee!"]41
[Turn back the leaves of history. On yon Pacific shore]183
['Twas a stylish congregation, that of Theophrastus Brown]18
['Twas on Lake Erie's broad expanse]78
['Twas the eve before Christmas; "Good-night" had been said]196
[Two angels, one of Life and one of Death]187
[Two little stockings hung side by side]141
[Want any papers, Mister?]94
[We all look on with anxious eyes]40
[We are two travellers, Roger and I]49
[Well, wife, I found the model church! I worshipped there to-day]148
[W'en you see a man in woe]123
[We squander health in search of wealth]103
[We were crowded in the cabin]56
[We were not many,—we who stood]165
["What fairings will ye that I bring?"]92
[What flower is this that greets the morn]85
[What makes the dog's nose always cold?]144
[Whence come those shrieks so wild and shrill]12
[Whene'er a noble deed is wrought]56
[Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track]8
[When I compare]34
[When Mary Ann Dollinger got the skule daown thar on Injun Bay]67
[When papa was a little boy you really couldn't find]100
[When the humid showers gather over all the starry spheres]97
[When the lessons and tasks are all ended]133
[When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour]118
[Whichever way the wind doth blow]67
["Which shall it be? which shall it be?"]101
[Who comes dancing over the snow]153
[Who dat knockin' at de do'?]71
[Why dost thou wildly rush and roar]100
[Why, yes, dear, we can put it by. It does seem out of plac]e186
[With sable-draped banners and slow measured tread]140
[Work! Thank God for the might of it]154
[Work thou for pleasure; paint or sing or carve]169
[Ye banks, and braes, and streams around]88
[Ye say that all have passed away—that noble race and brave]135
[Yes, it's a quiet station, but it suits me well enough]109
[You bad leetle boy, not moche you care]80
[You may talk o' gin an' beer]98
[You're going to leave the homestead, John]159
[Your letter, lady, came too late]136
[You sail and you seek for the Fortunate Isles]168
[You say I have asked for the costliest thing]155
Transcriber's Note: The poem "Try Try Again" is not credited with an author in the table of contents.
The author of this poem is William E. Hickerson.