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I. Even To-Day

What if the bridge men built goes down,
What if the torrent sweeps the town.
The hills are safe, the hills remain,
And hills are hapy in the rain;
If I can climb the hills and find
A small square cottage to my mind,
A lonely but a cleanly house
With shelves too bare to tempt a mouse,
Whatever years remain to me
I shall live out in dignity.

II. Age

Brooks sing in the spring
And in the summer cease;
I who sang in my youth
Now hold my peace;
Youth is a noisy stream
Chattering over the ground,
But the sad wisdom of age
Wells up without a sound.

III. Secret Treasure

Fear not that my music seesm
Like water locked in winter streams;
You are the sun that many a time
Thawed those rivers into rhyme,
But let them for a while remain
A hidden music in my brain.

Unmeaning phrase and wordless measure,
That unencumbered loveliness
Which is a poet’s secret treasure
Sings in me now, and sings no less
That even for your lenient eyes
It will not live in written guise

IV. Strange Victory

To this, to this, after my hope was lost,
To this strange victory;
To find your with the living, not the dead,
To find you glad of me;
To find you wounded even less than I,
Moving as I across the stricken plain;
After the battle to have found your voice
Lifted above the slain.

V. Deep in the Ages (In Memory of
Vachel Lindsay)

“Deep in the ages",” you said, “deep in the ages,”
And, “To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name.”
You are deep in the ages, now, deep in the ages,
You whom the world could not break, nor the years tame.

Fly out, fly on, eagele that is not forgotten,
Fly straight to the innermost light, you who loved sun in your eyes.
Free of the fret, free of the weight of living,
Bravest among the brave, gayest among the wise.

VI. All That Was Mortal

All that was mortal shall be burned away,
All that was mind shall have been put to sleep,
Only the spirit awake to say
What the deep says to the deep;
But for an instant, for it too is fleeting—
As on a field with new snow everywhere,
Footprints of birds record a brief alighting
In flight begun and ended in the air.

VII. Moon’s Ending

Moon, worn thin to the width of a quill,
In the dawn clouds flying,
How good to go, light into light, and still
Giving light, dying.

VIII. Last Prelude

If this shall be the last time
The melody flies upward
With its rush of sparks in flight
Let me go up with it in fire and laughter,
Or let me drown if need be
Lost in the swirl of light
The violins are tuning, whimpering, catching thunder
From the suppressed dark agony of viols—
Once more let heaven clutch me, plunge me under
Miles on uncounted miles.

IX. Lines

These are the ultimate highlands,
Like chord on chord of muisc
Climbing to rest
On the higest peak and the bluest
Large on the luminous heavens
Deep in the west.

X. Since Death Brushed Past Me

Since Death brushed past me once more to-day,
Let me say quickly what I must say:
Take without shaem the love I give you,
Take it before I am hurried away.

You are intrepid, noble, kind,
My heart goes to you with my mind,
The plummet of your thought is long
Sunk in deep water, cold with song.
You are all I asked, my dear—
My words are said, my way is clear.

XI. To the Sea

Bitter and beautiful, sing no more;
Scarf of spindrift strewn on the shore,
Burn no more in the noon-day light,
Let there be night for me, let there be night.

On the restless beaches I used to range
The two that I loved have walked with me—
I saw them change and my own heart change—
I cannot face the unchanging sea.

XII. There Will Be Rest

There will be rest, and sure stars shining
Over the roof-tops crowned with snow,
A reign of rest, serene forgetting,
The music of stillness holy and low.

I will make this world of my devising
Out of a dream in my lonely mind,
I shall find the crystal of peace,—above me
Stars I shall find.