page: 43
Here and There
- AH me, how hot and weary here in town
- The days crawl by!
- How otherwise they go my heart records,
- Where the marsh meadows lie
- And white sheep crop the grass, and seagulls sail
- Between the lovely earth and lovely sky.
- Here the sun grins along the dusty street
- Beneath pale skies:
- Hark! spiritless, sad tramp of toiling feet,
- Hoarse hawkers, curses, cries—
- Through these I hear the song that the sea sings
- To the far meadowlands of Paradise.
- O golden‐lichened church and red‐roofed barn—
- O long sweet days—
- O changing, unchanged skies, straight dykes all gay
- With sedge and water mace—
- O fair marsh land desirable and dear—
- How far from you lie my life’s weary ways!
- Yet in my darkest night there shines a star
- More fair than day;
- There is a flower that blossoms sweet and white
- In the sad city way.
- That flower blooms not where the wide marshes gleam,
- That star shines only when the skies are gray.
- For here fair peace and passionate pleasure wane
- Before the light
- Of radiant dreams that make our lives worth life,
- And turn to noon our night:
- We fight for freedom and the souls of men—
- Here, and not there, is fought and won our fight!
