Smart Set
Williard Huntington Wright
Later
I went to the place where my youth took birth
In the slow, round kiss of an amorous girl,
When sonnets and lace were the measure of earth,
When death was forgotten and life was a whirl.
I addled my brain with the memories flown
Of Heather by Kaiser and Muriel Moore;
I thought of the women and men I had known, --
The glittering eyes and the bolt on the door --
The warm, gray walls and the odor of must,
The wine, the piano, the glistening feet,
The eyes grown hazy like shadows at dusk,
The minstreling music that rose from the street.
I thought of Elise with her soft, gold hair;
And the buttonhook hung from the chandelier.
The spirit of passionate youth had been here --
But somehow the dream of it wasn't quite clear,
For the place had been altered; the walls were red,
And the woodword was stained with a desolate brown;
And they told me a woman had lain in the bed
For a year and a half with the curtains down.
The Forum, 1913
Willard Huntington Wright
What of the Night?
What of the night
And the eventual silences?
Art thou not cold with the knowledge of decay
And the uncompromising reaches of the earth?
What of the night
When the tune falters and the blood chills?
When thou art one with the grass
And the underbrush of the world,
Wilt thou forget the names of flowers,
The rhythm of song and the lips, still balmy with the breasts of women?
When thou and the fog on the hilltop are as brother and sister,
Wilt thou forget utterly the ways of men,
The clash of swords and the sting of wine,
The dim horizons and the grace of girls?
When thou art alone eternally
What of the night?
Where will God be
When thou art swathed in silence;
When the wreckage of dreams has crushed thee
And the lust for springtimes dissolved thee?
Wilt thou have visions only of the dawn
And autumn sunsets?
Will the memory of women's faces haunt thy grave?
Will the odor of blue flowers find thy dust?
When thou art choking on the calm indifference of youth
And the everlasting beauty of trees,
Wilt thou dream only of the June,
The love of women and the great democracy of men?
When thou hast fought and failed,
And thy brow has withered laurelless,
And thy name has been effaced by the insatiable winds,
And thou hast gone out at the Western gate
To join the laggards of the dead,
Wilt thou crave only the withheld success,
The transitory fame of twilight years?
Will thy soul cry out only for the song,
The red dawn and the glad triumph of love?
Wilt thou indeed forget the days of pain,
The ineffectual prayers,
The lies of time and the bitterness of defeat?
Or, remembering these things,
Wilt thou forget the hands of women and the rude love of men,
And be glad of thy dark quietude?
When thou art part of the impending gloom,
I deem that life will seem to thee
In no such wise, --
But rather thou wilt dream it as a whole;
Not as a song, nor yet a broken bell;
But all that thou hast been -- the great tears,
The rain, the kisses and the flutes,
The old sorrows and the hills at dawn,
Much laughter and much grief and the stern fight.
And thou shalt know how all of life is gain --
The gold of youth, the gray defeat of age --
How in the soul's inharmony there lies
The incoherent unity of things.