More Songs From Vagabondia   By: Richard Hovey (1864-1900)

Bliss Carman Richard Hovey

Designs by Tom B. Meteyard

Boston: Copeland and Day London: Elkin Mathews

MDCCCXCVI

To M. G. M., so good to lighten cares, The boys inscribe this second book of theirs.

CONTENTS.

JONGLEURS 1 EARTH'S LYRIC 5 THE WOOD GOD 6 A FAUN'S SONG 7 QUINCE TO LILAC 7 AN EASTER MARKET 11 DAISIES 13 THE MOCKING BIRD 13 KARLENE 14 KARLENE 16 CONCERNING KAVIN 21 KAVIN AGAIN 21 ACROSS THE TABLE 21 BARNEY MCGEE 22 THE SEA GYPSY 25 SPEECH AND SILENCE 26 SECRETS 26 THE FIRST JULEP 26 A STEIN SONG 27 THE UNSAINTING OF KAVIN 28 IN THE WAYLAND WILLOWS 29 WHEN I WAS TWENTY 31 IN A SILENCE 32 THE BATHER 33 NOCTURNE: IN ANJOU 33 NOCTURNE: IN PROVENCE 34 JUNE NIGHT IN WASHINGTON 35 A SONG FOR MARNA 38 SEPTEMBER WOODLANDS 38 NANCIBEL 39 A VAGABOND SONG 39 THREE OF A KIND 40 WOOD FOLK LORE 42 AT MICHAELMAS 44 THE MOTHER OF POETS 48 A GOOD BY 49 IN A COPY OF BROWNING 49 SHAKESPEARE HIMSELF 53 AT THE ROAD HOUSE 56 VERLAINE 58 DISTILLATION 59 A FRIEND'S WISH 59 LAL OF KILRUDDEN 60 HUNTING SONG 61 BUIE ANNAJOHN 62 MARY OF MARKA 63 PREMONITION 63 THE HEARSE HORSE 64 THE NIGHT WASHERS 64 MR. MOON 66 HEM AND HAW 70 ACCIDENT IN ART 71 IN A GARDEN 71 AT THE END OF THE DAY 72

And ever with the vanguard The vagrant singers come The gamins of the city Who dance before the drum

JONGLEURS.

What is the stir in the street? Hurry of feet! And after, A sound as of pipes and of tabers!

Men of the conflicts and labors, Struggling and shifting and shoving, Pushing and pounding your neighbors, Fighting for leeway for laughter, Toiling for leisure for loving! Hark, through the window and up to the rafter, Madder and merrier, Deeper and verier, Sweeter, contrarier, Dafter and dafter, A song arises, A thrill, an intrusion, A reel, an illusion, A rapture, a crisis Of bells in the air!

Ay, up from your work and look out of the window! "Who are the newcomers, Arab or Hindoo? Persians, or Japs, or the children of Isis?" Guesses, surmises Forth with you, fare Down in the street to draw nearer and stare! Come from your palaces, come from your hovels! Lay down your ledgers, your picks and your shovels, Your trowels and bricks, Hammers and nails, Scythes and flails, Bargains and sales, And the trader's tricks, Deals, overreachings, Worries and griefs, Teachings and preachings, Boluses, briefs, Writs and attachments, Quarterings, hatchments, Clans and cognomens, Comments and scholia, (World's melancholia) Cast them aside, and good riddance to rubbish! Here at the street corner, hearken, a strain, Rough and off hand and a bit rub a dub ish, Gives us a taste of the life we'd attain.