DEDICATION
TO KATHLEEN AND MARGARET
Think of no verse when you read this,
But think of her alone
And her enduring benefice,
Sunlight on stone.
For day is stone and night is stone
Save she has made them bright,
Now she knows all that may be known
Of day and night.
Courage like hers we have from her,
Strength to be straight and brave,
And noble memories that recur
And heal and save.
By her clear eyes, by her pure brows,
We take the Sign,
And kneel within her Father's house—
And yours and mine.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first eleven poems in the section entitled, "Before" originally appeared in my first volume, "Merchants from Cathay" published by the Century Company. This volume is now out of print and I hold the copyright. The three poems following these originally appeared in my second volume, "The Falconer of God and Other Poems." For permission to reprint a few of the remaining poems I have to thank the editors of Reedy's Mirror, The Bang, The Lyric, The Madrigal, The Sun Dial (New York Evening Sun), Everybody's Magazine, The Century Magazine, and "Books and the Book World" (New York Sunday Sun). For the group, "The Long Absence" in the section entitled, "After," I owe thanks to The Yale Review.