The Project Gutenberg eBook of A selection from the verses of John B. Tabb, made by Alice Meynell
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: A selection from the verses of John B. Tabb, made by Alice Meynell
Author: John B. Tabb
Compiler: Alice Meynell
Release date: October 26, 2026 [eBook #79865]
Language: English
Original publication: Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1907
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79865
Credits: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECTION FROM THE VERSES OF JOHN B. TABB, MADE BY ALICE MEYNELL ***
A SELECTION FROM
POEMS, LYRICS
CHILD VERSE
LATER LYRICS
A SELECTION FROM
THE VERSES OF
JOHN B. TABB
Made by ALICE MEYNELL
[Illustration]
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
BOSTON
1907
_To_
ALICE MEYNELL
_the Maker of this
Selection
With the Author’s very grateful
Acknowledgment of her
Kindness_
THE CONTENTS
The Playmates _Page_ 1
My Captive 2
The Reaper 3
Influence 4
Wayfarers 5
To the Sphinx 6
Love’s Autograph 6
Slumber-Song 7
Our First-born 8
To Silence 9
The Expected of Nations 10
The Postulant 10
At the Year’s End 11
Killdee 12
The Whip-Poor-Will 13
Star-Jessamine 14
Clover 15
To the Violet 16
The Water-Lily 17
Mignonette 18
An Idolater 18
To her First-born 19
Aspiration 20
Childhood 21
To the Babe Niva 22
Good Night! 22
Missing 23
Confided 24
“Chanticleer” 25
Father Damien 26
Angels of Pain 26
God’s Likeness 27
To the Christ 28
My Mediator 28
“Is thy Servant a Dog?” 29
Limitation 30
The Young Tenor 31
Outlines 32
Nekros 33
“Vox Clamantis” 34
To a Photograph 35
Frost 36
The Statue 37
The Pilgrim 38
The Mid-Sea Sun 38
The Lonely Mountain 39
An Influence 40
Whisper 41
Anticipation 41
The Precursor 42
Wood-grain 43
Consecration 44
Regret 45
Compensation 46
A Remonstrance 47
Soothsayers 48
The Arctic 49
Evolution 50
Spectators 51
The Lost Anchor 52
To My Shadow 53
Cleopatra to the Asp 54
Intimations 55
Loves Hybla 56
The Sleeping Beauty 57
Adieu 58
Westward 59
Memory 60
Light in Darkness 61
Bereft 62
Outspeeded 63
Vale 64
O’erspent 64
Wrecked 65
Bread 66
Sand 67
Life 68
The Truant 69
The Bubble 69
The Mist 70
The Brook 70
The Lake 71
Ice 72
A Sunset 73
Midnight 74
Autumn 74
October 75
Indian Summer 76
December 76
The Lark 77
The Fall of the Sparrow 77
The Marsh 78
Fulfilment 79
Betrayal 79
The Dayspring 80
The Midday Moon 80
Meadow Frogs 81
Fern Song 82
Winter Trees 83
Baby’s Dimples 83
A Bunch of Roses 84
To a Star 85
Beethoven and Angelo 86
Milton 86
Shelley 87
Shelley in Nature 88
Keats—Sappho 89
Poe’s Purgatory 90
Silence 91
Daybreak 92
Glimpses 93
Homeless 94
Unmoored 95
The Agony 96
The Petrel 97
The Portrait 98
The Boy Bishop 99
Asleep 100
St Afra to the Flames 101
An Interpreter 102
Earth’s Tribute 103
Holy Ground 103
The Householders 104
Insomnia 104
Anonymous 105
Bartimeus to the Bird 105
The Old Pastor 106
At Sea 106
Stilling the Tempest 107
All in All 107
The Good Seed 108–109
The Angel’s Christmas Quest 110
The Lamb-Child 111
Out of Bounds 111
A Lenten Thought 112
On Calvary 113
Mater Dolorosa 113
Stabat 114
Rabboni! 114
Easter Morning 115
Easter Lilies 115
Easter Lambs 116
The Assumption 116
Triumph 117
My Angel 118
To Her Three Days’ Child 119
Ave Atque Vale 120
THE PLAYMATES
Who are thy playmates, boy?
“My favourite is Joy,
Who brings with him his sister, Peace, to stay
The livelong day.
I love them both; but he
Is most to me.”
And where thy playmates now,
O man of sober brow?
“Alas! dear Joy, the merriest, is dead.
But I have wed
Peace; and our babe, a boy
New-born, is Joy.”
MY CAPTIVE
I brought a Blossom home with me
Beneath my roof to stay;
But timorous and frail was she,
And died before the day:
She missed the measureless expanse
Of heaven, and heaven her countenance.
THE REAPER
Tell me whither, maiden June,
Down the dusky slope of noon,
With thy sickle of a moon,
Goest thou to reap.
“Fields of Fancy by the stream
Of night in silvery silence gleam,
To heap with many a harvest-dream
The granary of Sleep.”
INFLUENCE
He cannot as he came depart—
The wind that woos the rose;
Her fragrance whispers in his heart
Wherever hence he goes.
WAYFARERS
O comrade Sun, that day by day
Dost weave a shadow on my way,
Lest, in the luxury of light,
My soul forget the neighbouring night:
Wilt thou whene’er, my journey done,
Thou wanderest our path upon,
Bear in thy beams a memory
Of one who walked the world with thee,
Or mourn, amid the lavishness
Of Life, one hovering shade the less?
TO THE SPHINX
Ah, not alone in Egypt’s desert land
Thy dwelling-place apart!
But wheresoe’er the scorching passion-sand
Hath seared the human heart.
LOVE’S AUTOGRAPH
Once only did he pass my way.
“When wilt thou come again?
Ah, leave some token of thy stay!”
He wrote (and vanished), “Pain.”
SLUMBER-SONG
Sleep! the spirits that attend
On thy waking hours are fled.
Heaven thou canst not now offend
Till thy slumber-plumes are shed;
Consciousness alone doth lend
Life its pain, and Death its dread;
Innocence and Peace befriend
All the sleeping and the dead.
OUR FIRST-BORN
It died so young! and yet
Of all that vanished hence,
Is none to lingering Regret
So lost as Innocence.
For wheresoe’er we go,
Whatever else remain,
That Favourite of Heaven we know
We shall not find again.
TO SILENCE
Why the warning finger-tip
Pressed for ever on my lip?
To remind the pilgrim Sound
That it moves on holy ground,
In a breathing-space to be
Hushed for all eternity.
THE POSTULANT
In ashes from the wasted fires of noon,
Aweary of the light,
Comes evening, a tearful novice, soon
To take the veil of night.
THE EXPECTED OF NATIONS
While Shepherd Stars their nightly vigils keep
Above the clouds of sleep,
Long prophesied, behold the man-child, Morn,
Again is born.
AT THE YEAR’S END
Night dreams of day, and winter seems
In sleep to breathe the balm of May.
Their dreams are true anon; but they,
The dreamers, then, alas, are dreams.
Thus, while our days the dreams renew
Of some forgotten sleeper, we,
The dreamers of futurity,
Shall vanish when our own are true.
KILLDEE
Killdee! Killdee! far o’er the lea
At twilight comes the cry,
Killdee! a marsh-mate answereth
Across the shallow sky.
Killdee! Killdee! thrills over me
A rhapsody of light,
As star to star gives utterance
Between the day and night.
Killdee! Killdee! O Memory,
The twin birds, Joy and Pain,
Like shadows parted by the sun,
At twilight meet again!
THE WHIP-POOR-WILL
From yonder wooded hill
I hear the Whip-poor-will,
Whose mate or wandering echo answers him
Athwart the lowlands dim.
He calls not through the day;
But when the shadows gray
Across the sunset draw their lengthening veil,
He tells his twilight tale.
What unforgotten wrong
Haunts the ill-omened song?
What scourge of Fate has left its loathèd mark
Upon the cringing dark?
“Whip! Whip-poor-will!”
O sobbing voice, be still!
Tell not again, O melancholy bird,
The legend thou hast heard!
STAR-JESSAMINE
Discerning Star from Sister Star,
We give to each its name;
But ye, O countless Blossoms, are
In fragrance and in flame
So like, that He from whom ye came
Alone discerneth each by name.
CLOVER
Little masters! hat in hand,
Let me in your presence stand,
Till your silence solve for me
This your threefold mystery.
Tell me—for I long to know—
How, in darkness there below,
Was your fairy fabric spun,
Spread and fashioned, three in one.
Did your gossips gold and blue,
Sky and Sunshine, choose for you,
Ere your triple forms were seen,
Suited liveries of green?
Can ye—if ye dwelt indeed
Captives of a prison seed—
Like the Genie, once again
Get you back into the grain?
Little masters, may I stand
In your presence, hat in hand,
Waiting till you solve for me
This your threefold mystery?
TO THE VIOLET
Sweet violet, who knows
From whence thy fragrance flows
Or whither hence it goes?
A pious pilgrim here
To Winter’s sepulchre
Thou comest year by year;
Alert with balmier store
Than Magdalen of yore
To Love’s anointing bore.
Methinks that thou hast been
So oft the go-between
’Twixt sight and things unseen
That with thy wafted breath
Alternate echoeth
Each bank of sundering Death.
THE WATER-LILY
Whence, O fragrant form of light,
Has thou drifted through the night,
Swanlike, to a leafy nest,
On the restless waves, at rest?
Art thou from the snowy zone
Of a mountain-summit blown,
Or the blossom of a dream,
Fashioned in the foamy stream?
Nay, methinks the maiden moon,
When the daylight came too soon,
Fleeting from her bath to hide,
Left her garment in the tide.
MIGNONETTE
Give me the earth, and I might heap.
A mountain from the plain;
Give me the waters of the deep,
I might their strength restrain;
But here a secret of the sod
Betrays the daintier hand of GOD.
AN IDOLATER
The Baby has no skies
But Mother’s eyes;
Nor any GOD above
But Mother’s love.
His Angel sees the FATHER’S face,
But He the Mother’s, full of grace;
And yet the Heavenly Kingdom is
Of such as this.
TO HER FIRST-BORN
Long I waited, wondering
How, so near my heart,
Love another life could bring,
Made of mine a part,
Nor let me, save in fancy, gaze
Soul-centred, on the cloistered face!
But now, the mystery removed,
Thou liest on my breast,
A form so fervently beloved,
So tenderly caressed,
That as my spirit compassed thine,
Thy soul the limit seems of mine.
So life, that vanishes anon,
Perchance about us lies
Too near for Love to look upon
With unanointed eyes,
Till, past the interval of pain,
We clasp the living form again.
ASPIRATION
I envy not the sun
His lavish light;
But O to be the one
Pale orb of night,
In silence and alone
Communing with mine own!
I envy not the rain
That freshens all
The parching hill and plain;
But O the small
Night-dewdrop now to be,
My noonday flower, for thee!
CHILDHOOD
Old Sorrow I shall meet again,
And Joy, perchance—but never, never,
Happy Childhood, shall we twain
See each other’s face for ever!
And yet I would not call thee back,
Dear Childhood, lest the sight of me,
Thine old companion, on the rack
Of Age, should sadden even thee.
TO THE BABE NIVA
Niva, Child of Innocence,
Dust to dust _we_ go:
_Thou_, when Winter wooed thee hence,
Wentest snow to snow.
GOOD NIGHT!
Good night, dear LORD! and now
Let them that loved to keep
Thy little bed in Bethlehem,
Be near me while I sleep;
For I—more helpless, LORD—of them
Have greater need than Thou.
MISSING
Thou that didst leave the ninety and the nine
To seek the one,
Behold, among the many that are mine,
A lamb is gone.
The one perchance the worthiest to be,
Dear LORD, with Thee;
And so the saddest for the Mother’s heart
With him to part.
O Thou, Thyself a mourning Mother’s Son,
Fold close my little one!
CONFIDED
Another lamb, O Lamb of GOD, behold,
Within this quiet fold,
Among Thy Father’s sheep
I lay to sleep!
A heart that never for a night did rest
Beyond its mother’s breast.
LORD, keep it close to Thee,
Lest waking it should bleat and pine for me!
“CHANTICLEER”
A crowing, cuddling little Babe was he,
A child for little children far or near.
When he stood and crowed upon his mother’s knee,
The morning echoed, “Welcome, Chanticleer!”
He was a crowing, cuddling little Babe!
When his mother wore, alas, her life away,
He was wonder wide to see the children weep;
But he crowed, and cuddled close enough to lay
His head upon her heart, and went to sleep:—
He was a cuddling, crowing little Babe!
God Himself was tender to him; for, behold,
An Angel in a dream (the children said)
Came and kissed him till his little cheek was cold;
So he never saw the tears the Twilight shed.
He was a crowing, cuddling little Babe!
FATHER DAMIEN
O God, the cleanest offering
Of tainted earth below,
Unblushing to Thy feet we bring—
“_A leper white as snow!_”
ANGELS OF PAIN
Ah, should they come revisiting the spot
Whence by our prayers we drove them utterly,
Shame were it for their saddened eyes to see
How soon their visitations are forgot.
GOD’S LIKENESS
Not in mine own, but in my neighbour’s face
Must I Thine image trace:
Nor he in his, but in the light of mine,
Behold Thy Face Divine.
TO THE CHRIST
Thou hast on earth a Trinity—
Thyself, my fellow-man and me;
When one with him, then one with Thee;
Nor, save together, Thine are we.
MY MEDIATOR
“None betwixt GOD and me?
Behold, my neighbour, thee
Unto His lofty throne
He makes my stepping-stone.”
“IS THY SERVANT A DOG?”
So _must_ he be who, in the crowded street,
Where shameless Sin and flaunting Pleasure meet,
Amid the noisome footprints finds the sweet
Faint vestige of Thy feet.
LIMITATION
Breathe above me or below;
Never canst thou farther go
Than the spirit’s octave-span,
Harmonizing God and Man.
Thus within the iris-bound
Light a prisoner is found;
Thus within my soul I see
Life in Time’s captivity.
THE YOUNG TENOR
I woke; the harboured melody
Had crossed the slumber bar,
And out upon the open sea
Of consciousness, afar
Swept onward with a fainter strain,
As echoing the dream again.
So soft the silver sound, and clear,
Outpoured upon the night,
That Silence seemed a listener
O’erleaning with delight
The slender moon, a finger-tip
Upon the portal of her lip.
OUTLINES
O frame me in thy love, as I
The landscape in the branches low;
That none beneath the bending sky
Our sylvan secret know.
For ’tis of Life the mystery
That, whereso’er its fibres run,
In time or in eternity,
The many shape the one.
NEKROS
Lo! all thy glory gone!
GOD’S masterpiece undone!
The last created and the first to fall;
The noblest, frailest, godliest of all.
Death seems the conqueror now,
And yet his victor thou:
The fatal shaft its venom quenched in thee,
A mortal raised to immortality.
Child of the humble sod,
Wed with the breath of GOD,
Descend! for with the lowest thou must lie—
Arise! thou hast inherited the sky.
“VOX CLAMANTIS”
O sea, for ever calling to the shore
With menace or caress,—
A voice like his unheeded that of yore
Cried in the wilderness;
A deep for ever yearning unto deep,
For silence out of sound,—
Thy restlessness the cradle of a sleep
That thou hast never found.
TO A PHOTOGRAPH
O tender shade!
Lone captive of enamoured Light,
That from an angel visage bright
A glance betrayed.
Dost thou not sigh
To wander from thy prison-place?
To seek again the vanished face,
Or else to die?
A shade like thee,
Dim Eidolon—a dream disproved—
A memory of light removed,
Behold in me!
FROST
I left my window wide, for Love
To enter while I slept:
The moon, his homeward path above
Her midnight vigil kept.
But suddenly, as o’er a glass,
A clouding vapour spread;
The heavens were cold: and Love, alas!
Before the dawn was dead.
THE STATUE
First fashioned in the artist’s brain,
It stood as in the marble vein
Revealed to him alone;
Nor could he from its native night
Have led it to the living light,
Save through the lifeless stone.
E’en so, of Silence and of Sound
A twin-born mystery is found,
Like as of death and birth;
Without the pause we had not heard
The harmony, nor caught the word
That Heaven reveals to Earth.
THE PILGRIM
When, but a child, I wandered hence,
Another child—sweet Innocence,
My sister—went with me:
But I have lost her, and am fain
To seek her in the home again
Where we were wont to be.
THE MID-SEA SUN
No peak to hide his splendour till the day
Has passed away;
Nor dial-shade of any tree or flower
To mark the hour:
A wave his orient cradle, and a wave
His western grave.
THE LONELY MOUNTAIN
One bird, that ever with the wakening spring
Was wont to sing,
I wait, through all my woodlands, far and near,
In vain to hear.
The voice of many waters, silent long,
Breaks forth in song;
Young breezes to the listening leaves outpour
Their heavenly lore:
A thousand other wingèd warblers sweet,
Returning, greet
Their fellows, and rebuild upon my breast
The wonted nest.
But unto me one fond familiar strain
Comes not again—
A breath whose faintest echo, farthest heard,
A mountain stirred.
AN INFLUENCE
I see thee,—heaven’s unclouded face
A vacancy around thee made,
Its sunshine a subservient grace
Thy lovelier light to shade.
I feel thee, as the billows feel
A river freshening the brine;
A life’s libation poured to heal
The bitterness of mine.
WHISPER
Close cleaving unto Silence, into sound
She ventures as a timorous child from land,
Still glancing, at each wary step, around,
Lest suddenly she lose her sister’s hand.
ANTICIPATION
The master scans the woven score
Of subtle harmonies, before
A note is stirred;
And Nature now is pondering
The tidal symphony of Spring,
As yet unheard.
THE PRECURSOR
“As John of old before His face did go
To make the rough ways smooth, that all might know
The level road that leads to Bethlehem, lo,
I come,” proclaims the snow.
WOOD-GRAIN
This is the way that the sap-river ran
From the root to the top of the tree—
Silent and dark,
Under the bark,
Working a wonderful plan
That the leaves never know,
And the branches that grow
On the brink of the tide never see.
CONSECRATION
The Twilight to my Star,
Her hoary head
A Hope receding far,
To Life re-led.
Apart and poor I lay,
My fevered frame
Slow withering away,
When soft she came,
From comfort, to my care;
And Pity sweet
Subdued her, kneeling there,
_To kiss my feet_.
A Magdalen adored
Her GOD in Thee:—
A greater love, O LORD,
Anointed me.
REGRET
What pleading passion or the dark
Hath left the Morning pale?
She listens! “’Tis, alas, the Lark,
And not the Nightingale!
O for the gloom-encircled sphere,
Whose solitary bird
Outpours for Love’s awakening ear
What noon hath never heard!”
COMPENSATION
How many an acorn falls to die
For one that makes a tree!
How many a heart must pass me by
For one that cleaves to me!
How many a suppliant wave of sound
Must still unheeded roll,
For one low utterance that found
An echo in my soul!
A REMONSTRANCE
Sing me no more, sweet warbler, for the dart
Of joy is keener than the flash of pain:
Sing me no more, for the re-echoed strain
Together with the silence breaks my heart.
SOOTHSAYERS
The winds that, gipsy-wise, foretold
The fortune of to-day,
At twilight, with the gathered gold
Of sunset, stole away:
And of their cloud accomplices
That prophesied the rain,
Upon the night-forsaken skies
No vestiges remain.
THE ARCTIC
Is it a shroud or bridal veil
That hides it from our sight,
The lonely sepulchre of Day,
Or banquet-hall of Night?
Are those the lights of revelry
That glimmer o’er the deep,
Or flashes of a funeral pyre
Above the corpse of Sleep?
Beyond those peaks impregnable
Of everlasting snow,
One star—a steadfast beacon—burns
To guard the coast below.
Whence come the ghostly galleons
The pirate Sun to brave,
And furl the shadowy flag of Death
Above a warmer grave?
EVOLUTION
Out of the dusk a shadow,
Then, a spark;
Out of the cloud a silence,
Then, a lark;
Out of the heart a rapture,
Then, a pain;
Out of the dead cold ashes,
Life again.
SPECTATORS
Around us, wheresoe’er we tread,
The while our shadows pass them by,
As in Bethsaida’s porch the dead
With upturned faces lie,
Dreading, perchance, the vanished light,
And Life’s subsided fever-breath,
As we the charnel-house of Night
Beyond the Vale of Death.
THE LOST ANCHOR
Ah, sweet it was to feel the strain,
What time, unseen, the ship above
Stood steadfast to the storm that strove
To rend our kindred cords atwain!
To feel, as feel the roots that grow
In darkness when the stately tree
Resists the tempests, that in me
High Hope was planted far below!
But now, as when a mother’s breast
Misses the babe, my prisoned power
Deep-yearning, heart-like, hour by hour,
Unquiet aches in cankering rest.
TO MY SHADOW
Friend for ever in the light
Cleaving to my side,
Harbinger of endless night
That must soon betide;
“Hither,” seemest thou to say,
“From the twilight now:
In the darkness when I stay,
Never thence wilt thou.”
CLEOPATRA TO THE ASP
“_Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?_”
Lie thou where Life hath lain,
And let thy swifter pain
His rival prove;
Till, like the fertile Nile,
Death buries, mile for mile,
This waste of Love.
Soft! Soft! A sweeter kiss
Than Antony’s is this!
O regal Shade,
Luxurious as sleep,
Upon thy bosom deep
My heart is laid.
INTIMATIONS
I knew the flowers had dreamed of you,
And hailed the morning with regret;
For all their faces with the dew
Of vanished joy were wet.
I knew the winds had passed your way,
Though not a sound the truth betrayed;
About their pinions all the day
A summer fragrance stayed.
And so, awaking or asleep,
A memory of lost delight
By day the sightless breezes keep,
And silent flowers by night.
LOVE’S HYBLA
My thoughts fly to thee, as the bees
To find their favourite flower;
Then home, with honeyed memories
Of many a fragrant hour:
For with thee is the place apart
Where sunshine ever dwells,
The Hybla, whence my hoarding heart
Would fill its wintry cells.
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
The sculptor in the marble found
Her hidden from the world around,
As in a donjon keep:
With gentle hand he took away
The coverlet that o’er her lay,
But left her fast asleep.
And still she slumbers; e’en as he
Who saw in far futurity
What now before us lies—
The fairest vision that the stream
Of night, subsiding, leaves agleam
Beneath the noonday skies.
ADIEU
God speed thee setting Sun!
Thy beams for me have spun
Of light to-day
A memory that one
Alone could bring, and none
Can take away.
WESTWARD
And dost thou lead him hence with thee,
O setting sun,
And leave the shadows all to me,
When he is gone?
Ah, if my grief his guerdon be,
My dark his light,
I count each loss felicity,
And bless the night.
MEMORY
Lo, the Blossom to the Bee
Yields not more than thou to me—
Food for Love to live upon
When the summer days are gone,
Poorer than they came, to find
What was sweetest left behind.
LIGHT IN DARKNESS
The day—of sorrows pitiless—
Proclaims “He is not here”;
But never hath the tenderness
Of Night denied thee near.
Nay, with the twilight sympathy
Returning from afar,
She wakes again for memory
The dawn-extinguished star.
BEREFT
As when her calf is taken, far and near
The restless mother roves,
So now my heart lows, wandering everywhere,
To wake the voice it loves.
O distance, are the echoes backward thrown
In mockery of pain?
Or doth remembered anguish of thine own
Bring them to birth again?
OUTSPEEDED
To-night the onward rushing train
Would bear thee far from me;
But, winged with swifter dreams, again
My spirit flies to thee;
Nay, speeding far beyond thee, waits
To welcome thee anew,
Where Dawn is opening the gates
To let the darkness through.
VALE
Farewell! I go my way;
And if in long delay
Thou must remain,
Forget not, ’tis the track
We trod, that leads us back
To GOD again.
O’ERSPENT
My soul is as a fainting noonday star,
And thou, the absent night;
Haste, that thy healing shadow from afar
May touch me into light.
WRECKED
Deep in the forest glades,
Where leafy welcomes wooed our wandering way,
Once blent our shadows in the dallying shades
That round us lay.
Thenceforth, of fate estranged,
Each day beholds our widowed forms apart:
The word, the glance, the gesture coldly changed!
As heart to heart.
But cometh night to hide
Life-wrecks, far drifted in the noonday sun,
And, lo, our shadows in the sombre tide,
Again are one.
BREAD
Still surmounting as I came
Wind and water, frost and flame,
Night and day, the livelong year,
From the burial-place of seed,
From the earth’s maternal bosom,
Through the root and stem and blossom,
To supply thy present need,
Have I journeyed here.
SAND
Sterile sister though I be,
Twin-born to the barren Sea,
Yet of all things fruitful we
Wait the end; and presently,
Lo, they are not! Then to me
(Children to the nurse’s knee)
Come the billows fresh and free,
Breathing Immortality.
LIFE
Me, in the midst of dateless centuries,
By Love concealed,
Now, newly swathed in mortal destinies,
Hath Time revealed.
A breathing space, a silence, and behold
What I have been,
Unswathed, the circling centuries enfold,
Again unseen.
With Days and Nights brief fellowship was mine;
But unto thee
I come, a child inseparably thine,
Eternity.
THE TRUANT
Listen! ’tis the Rain
Coming home again;
Not as when he went away,
Silent, but in tears to say
He is sorry to have gone
With the Mist that lured him on;
And he promises anew
Nevermore the like to do.
Alas! no sooner shines the sun
Than the selfsame deed is done.
THE BUBBLE
Why should I stay? Nor seed nor fruit have I;
But, sprung at once to beauty’s perfect round,
Nor loss, nor gain, nor change in me is found,—
A life-complete in death-complete to die.
THE BROOK
It is the mountain to the sea
That makes a messenger of me:
And, lest I loiter on the way
And lose what I am sent to say,
He sets his reverie to song
And bids me sing it all day long.
Farewell! for here the stream is slow,
And I have many a mile to go.
THE MIST
Eurydice eludes the dark
To follow Orpheus, the Lark
That leads her to the dawn
With rhapsodies of star-delight,
Till, looking backward in his flight,
He finds that she is gone.
THE LAKE
I am a lonely woodland lake:
The trees that round me grow,
The glimpse of heaven above me, make
The sum of all I know.
The mirror of their dreams to be
Alike in shade and shine,
To clasp in Love’s captivity,
And keep them one—is mine.
ICE
I once was water, and again
My former self shall be;
No keep of Cold
May captive hold
A spirit of the Sea.
Beyond this prison-wall of Pain,
So echoless and chill,
Despite his guardsmen Frost and Snow,
Anon through Dimple-gate I go
To wander where I will.
A SUNSET
What means it, Lord? No Daniel
In Nature’s banquet-hall
Appears, thy messenger, to spell
The writing on the wall.
Is it the Babylonian doom,
A kingdom passed away,
A midnight monarch to assume
The majesty of Day?
MIDNIGHT
A flood of darkness overwhelms the land;
And all that GOD had planned,
Of loveliness beneath the noonday skies,
A dream o’ershadowed lies.
Amid the universal darkness deep,
Only the Isles of sleep,
As did the dwellings of the Israelite
In Egypt, stem the night.
AUTUMN
Now at the aged Year’s decline,
Behold the messenger divine
With Love’s celestial countersign—
The sacrament of bread and wine.
OCTOBER
Behold, the fleeting swallow
Forsakes the frosty air;
And leaves, alert to follow,
Are falling everywhere,
Like wounded birds, too weak
A distant clime to seek.
And soon with silent pinions
The fledglings of the North
From winter’s wild dominions
Shall drift, affrighted, forth,
And, phantom-like, anon
Pursue the phantoms gone.
INDIAN SUMMER
No more the battle or the chase
The phantom tribes pursue,
But each in its accustomed place
The Autumn hails anew:
And still from solemn councils set
On every hill and plain,
The smoke of many a calumet
Ascends to heaven again.
DECEMBER
Dull sky above, dead leaves below;
And hungry winds that winding go,
Like faithful hounds upon the track
Of one beloved that comes not back.
THE LARK
He rose, and singing passed from sight—
A shadow kindling with the sun,
His joy ecstatic flamed, till light
And heavenly song were one.
THE FALL OF THE SPARROW
Are you dying, little Bird?
“Yea; the song so often heard,
And the gift of suffering,
Back to GOD again I bring.
“All in each, and each in all,
Counting in the Sparrow’s fall,
By the power of sinless pain
(His and ours) He cleanseth stain.
Suffering, He deigned to die
Poor and innocent as I.”
THE MARSH
The woods have voices, and the sea
Her choral-song and threnody:
But thou alike to sun and rain
Dost mute and motionless remain.
As pilgrim to the shrine of Sleep,
Through all thy solemn spaces creep
The Tides—a moment on thy breast
To pause in sacramental rest;
Then, flooded with the mystery,
To sink reluctant to the sea,
In landward loneliness to yearn
Till to thy bosom they return.
FULFILMENT
No bloom forgotten! but upon each face
The dews baptismal, and the selfsame sign
Of Night’s communion, that the fervid gaze
Of Paschal Morning changes into wine.
BETRAYAL
“Whom I shall kiss?” I heard a Sunbeam say,
“Take him and lead away!”
Then, with the Traitor’s salutation, “_Hail!_”
He kissed the Dawn-Star pale.
THE DAYSPRING
What hand with spear of light
Hath cleft the side of Night,
And from the red wound wide
Fashioned the Dawn, his bride
Was it the deed of Death?
Nay, but of Love, that saith,
“Henceforth be Shade and Sun,
In bonds of Beauty, one.”
THE MIDDAY MOON
Behold, whatever wind prevail,
Slow westering, a phantom sail—
The lonely soul of Yesterday—
Unpiloted, pursues her way.
MEADOW FROGS
Ere yet the earliest warbler wakes
Of coming spring to tell,
From every marsh a chorus breaks—
A choir invisible—
As though the blossoms underground
A breath of utterance had found.
Whence comes the liquid melody?
The summer clouds can bring
No fresher music from the sky
Than here the marshes sing.
Methinks the mists about to rise
Are chanting their rain prophecies.
FERN SONG
Dance to the beat of the rain, little Fern,
And spread out your palms again,
And say, “Tho’ the sun
Hath my vesture spun,
He had laboured, alas, in vain,
But for the shade
That the Cloud hath made,
And the gift of the Dew and the Rain.”
Then laugh and upturn
All your fronds, little Fern,
And rejoice in the beat of the rain!
WINTER TREES
Like champions of old,
Their garments at their feet,
Defiant of the cold,
The wrestling winds they meet:
Anon, if victors found,
With vernal trophies crowned.
BABY’S DIMPLES
Love goes playing hide-and-seek
’Mid the roses on her cheek,
With a little imp of Laughter,
Who, the while he follows after,
Leaves the footprints that we trace
All about the Kissing-place.
A BUNCH OF ROSES
The rosy mouth and rosy toe
Of little baby brother
Until about a month a ago
Had never met each other;
But nowadays the neighbours sweet,
In every sort of weather,
Half-way with rosy fingers meet,
To kiss and play together.
TO A STAR
Am I the only child awake
Beneath thy midnight beams?
If so, for gentle Slumber’s sake,
The brighter be their dreams!
But shouldst thou, travelling the deep,
The silent angel see
That puts the little ones to sleep,
Bright star, remember me!
BEETHOVEN AND ANGELO
One made the surging sea of tone
Subservient to his rod:
One, from the sterile womb of stone,
Raised children unto GOD.
MILTON
So fair thy vision that the night
Abided with thee, lest the light,
A flaming sword before thine eyes,
Had shut thee out from Paradise.
SHELLEY
At Shelley’s birth
The Lark, dawn-spirit, with an anthem loud
Rose from the dusky earth
To tell it to the Cloud,
That, like a flower night-folded in the gloom,
Burst into morning bloom.
At Shelley’s death
The Sea, that deemed him an immortal, saw
A god’s extinguished breath,
And landward, as in awe,
Upbore him to the altar whence he came,
And the rekindling flame.
SHELLEY IN NATURE
Shelley, the ceaseless music of thy soul
Breathes in the Cloud and in the Skylark’s song,
That float as an embodied dream along
The dewy lids of morning. In the dole
That haunts the West Wind, in the joyous roll
Of Arethusan fountains, or among
The wastes where Ozymandias the strong
Lies in colossal ruin, thy control
Speaks in the wedded rhyme. Thy spirit gave
A fragrance to all nature, and a tone
To inexpressive silence. Each apart—
Earth, Air and Ocean—claims thee as its own;
The twain that bred thee, and the panting wave
That clasped thee, like an overflowing heart.
KEATS—SAPPHO
Methinks, when first the nightingale
Was mated to thy deathless song,
That Sappho with emotion pale,
Amid the Olympian throng,
Again, as in the Lesbian grove,
Stood listening with lips apart,
To hear in thy melodious love
The pantings of her heart.
POE’S PURGATORY
All others rest; but I
Dream-haunted lie—
A distant roar,
As of tumultuous waters, evermore
About my brain.
E’en Sleep, tho’ fain
To soothe me, flies affrighted, and alone
I bear the incumbent stone
Of Death
That stifles breath,
But not the hideous chorus crying “Shame!”
Upon my name.
Had I not Song?
Yea; and it lingers yet
The souls to fret
Of an ignoble throng,
Aflame with hate
Of the exulting Fate
That hurls their idols from her temple fair,
And shrines me there.
SILENCE
Temple of GOD, from all eternity
Alone like Him without beginning found;
Of time and space and solitude the bound,
Yet in thyself of all communion free.
Is, then, the temple holier than He
That dwells therein? Must reverence surround
With barriers the portal, lest a sound
Profane it? Nay; behold a mystery!
What was, abides; what is, hath ever been:
The lowliest the loftiest sustains.
A silence, by no breath of utterance stirred—
Virginity in motherhood—remains,
Clear, ’midst a cloud of all-pervading sin,
The voice of Love’s unutterable word.
DAYBREAK
What was thy dream, sweet Morning? for, behold,
Thine eyes are heavy with the balm of night,
And, as reluctant lilies to the light,
The languid lids of lethargy unfold.
Was it the tale of Yesterday retold—
An echo wakened from the western height,
Where the warm glow of sunset dalliance bright
Grew, with the pulse of waning passion, cold?
Or was it some heraldic vision grand
Of legends that forgotten ages keep
In twilight, where the sundering shoals of day
Vex the dim sails, unpiloted, of Sleep,
Till, one by one, the freighting fancies gay,
Like bubbles, vanish on the treacherous strand?
GLIMPSES
As one who in the hush of twilight hears
The pausing pulse of Nature, when the Light
Commingles in the dim mysterious rite
Of Darkness with the mutual pledge of tears,
Till soft, anon, one timorous star appears,
Pale-budding as the earliest blossom white
That comes in Winter’s livery bedight,
To hide the gifts of genial Spring she bears—
So, unto me—what time the mysteries
Of consciousness and slumber weave a dream
And pause above it with abated breath,
Like intervals in music—lights arise,
Beyond prophetic Nature’s farthest gleam,
That teach me half the mystery of Death.
HOMELESS
Methinks that if my spirit could behold
Its earthly habitation void and chill,
Whence all its time-encircled good and ill
Expanded to eternity, ’twould fold
Its trembling pinions o’er the bosom cold,
Recalling there the pulse’s wonted thrill,
And lean, perchance, to catch the echo still
That erst in life the dream of passion told.
How calm the dissolution! Could she spurn
Her spouse, so late, and brother? Could she trace
The strange familiar lineaments, and mark
The doom of her own writing in the face,
To find, alas! no more the vital spark,
Nor breathe one sigh of pity to return?
UNMOORED
To die in sleep—to drift from dream to dream
Along the banks of slumber, beckoned on
Perchance by forms familiar, till anon,
Unconsciously, the ever-widening stream
Beyond the breakers bore thee, and the beam
Of everlasting morning woke upon
Thy dazzled gaze, revealing one by one
Thy visions grown immortal in its gleam.
O blessed consummation! thus to feel
In Death no touch of terror. Tenderly
As shadows to the evening hills, he came
In garb of GOD’S dear messenger to thee,
Nor on thy weary eyelids broke the seal,
In reverence for a brother’s holier name.
THE AGONY
I wrestled, as did Jacob, till the dawn,
With the reluctant Spirit of the Night
That keeps the keys of Slumber. Worn and white,
We paused a panting moment, while anon
The darkness paled around us. Thereupon—
His mighty limbs relaxing in affright—
The Angel pleaded: “Lo, the morning light!
O Israel, release me, and begone!”
Then said I, “Nay, a captive to my will
I hold thee, till the blessing thou dost keep
Be mine.” Whereat he breathed upon my brow;
And, as the dew upon the twilight hill,
So on my spirit, over-wearied now,
Came tenderly the benediction, Sleep.
THE PETREL
A wanderer o’er the sea-graves ever green,
Whereon the foam-flowers blossom day by day,
Thou flittest as a doomful shadow gray
That from the wave no sundering light can wean.
What wouldst thou from the deep unfathomed glean,
Frail voyager? and whither leads thy way?
Or art thou, as the sailor legends say,
An exile from the spirit-world unseen?
Lo! desolate, above a colder tide,
Pale Memory, a sea-bird like to thee,
Flits outward, where the whitening billows hide
What seemed of Life the one reality—
A mist whereon the morning bloom hath died,
Returning, ghost-like, to the restless sea.
THE PORTRAIT
Each has his Angel-Guardian. Mine, I know,
Looks on me from that pictured face. Behold,
How clear, between those rifted clouds of gold,
The radiant brow! It is the morning glow
Of innocence, ere yet the heart let go
The leading-strings of heaven. Upon the eyes
No shadow: like the restful noonday skies
They sanctify the teeming world below.
Why bows my soul before it? None but thou,
O tender child, has known the life estranged
From thee and all that made thy days of joy
The measure of my own. Behold me now—
The man that begs a blessing of the boy—
His very _self_; but from himself how changed!
THE BOY BISHOP
“A game, Marcellus!” “Well, what shall it be?
Let’s play we’re Christians.” And with one accord
The children grouped around their mimic lord,
Marcellus, throned as Sovereign Pontiff. He
The part so often played in mockery
With solemn rite enacted—word for word
Repeating as on each in turn he poured
The waters of a new Nativity.
Then burst the thunders of an edict. Rome
Trembled, and all her gods offended frowned,
Foreshadowing the hurricane to be.
Men faltered; but among the faithful found—
The yeanlings of the flock—with martyrdom
Marcellus and his neophytes were crowned.
ASLEEP
Nay, wake him not!
Unfelt our presence near,
Nor falls a whisper on his dreaming ear:
He sees but Sleep’s celestial visions clear,
All else forgot.
And who shall say
That, in life’s waking dream,
There be not ever near us those we deem
(As now our faces to the Sleeper seem)
Far, far away?
ST AFRA TO THE FLAMES
Here, on the prey of passion, famished Flames,
Feed here! Spare not your victim. Torture tames
The wanton flesh rebellious. Let the heat
Of these your fierce caresses free the feet
And loose the fettered pinions of desire.
Delay not! Leap the barriers and fire
The citadel, the heart. A flame is there
To which your kiss is coldness. Clothe me fair,
O CHRIST, with purple penance. Crown me queen
Of agonies that cleave all mists between
My GOD and me! Life’s vintage drop by drop
Fast fills the destined measure of my cup.
Quaff, LORD, my potion! Pledge me, and Thy breath
Shall sweeten all the bitterness of death.
AN INTERPRETER
What, O Eternity,
Is Time to thee?—
What to the boundless All
My portion small?
Lift up thine eyes, my soul!
Against the tidal roll
Stands many a stone,
Whereon the breakers thrown
Are dashed to spray—
Else were the Ocean dumb.
So, in the way
Of tides eternal, thou
Abidest now;
And GOD himself doth come
A suppliant to thee,
Love’s prisoned thought to free.
EARTH’S TRIBUTE
First the grain, and then the blade—
The one destroyed, the other made;
Then stalk and blossom, and again
The gold of newly minted grain.
So Life, by Death the reaper cast
To earth, again shall rise at last;
For ’tis the service of the sod
To render GOD the things of GOD.
HOLY GROUND
Pause where apart the fallen sparrow lies,
And lightly tread;
For there the pity of a Father’s eyes
Enshrines the dead.
THE HOUSEHOLDERS
One plucked the grape, and trod the wine,
And headlong rushed the sotted swine
To perish in the sea.
One blessed the cup, and poured the blood,
And lo! about His banquet stood
The brides of Chastity.
INSOMNIA
E’en this, LORD, didst Thou bless—
This pain of sleeplessness—
The livelong night,
Urging GOD’S gentlest angel from Thy side,
That anguish only might with Thee abide
Until the light.
Yea, e’en the last and best,
Thy victory and rest,
Came thus to Thee;
For ’twas while others calmly slept around,
That Thou alone in sleeplessness wast found,
To comfort me.
ANONYMOUS
Anonymous—nor needs a name
To tell the secret whence the flame,
With light, and warmth, and incense, came
A new creation to proclaim.
So was it when, His labour done,
GOD saw His work, and smiled thereon;
His glory in the picture shone,
But name upon the canvas, none.
BARTIMEUS TO THE BIRD
Had I no revelation but thy voice—
No word but thine—
Still would my soul in certitude rejoice
That love divine
Thy heart, his hidden instrument, employs,
To waken mine.
THE OLD PASTOR
How long, O LORD, to wait
Beside this open gate?
My sheep with many a lamb
Have entered, and I am
Alone, and it is late.
AT SEA
Thy beauty fills each bubble-dome
Upon the waters wide:
So may it in Thy lowliest home—
My bosom—LORD, abide.
STILLING THE TEMPEST
’Twas all she could:—The gift that Nature gave,
The torrent of her tresses, did she spill
Before His feet: and lo, the troubled wave
Of passion heard His whisper, “Peace be still!”
ALL IN ALL
We know Thee, each in part—
A portion small;
But love Thee, as Thou art—
The All in all:
For Reason and the rays thereof
Are starlight to the noon of Love.
THE GOOD SEED
The Magi came to Bethlehem,
The House of Bread, and following them,
As they the Star, I too am led
To CHRIST, the living House of Bread.
A pilgrim from the hour of birth,
The night-cold bosom of the earth
I traversed, heavenward journeying,
A hidden prophecy of Spring
My only guide, a lifted blade
My only weapon, till the Shade,
The latest to withstand me, lay
Death-smitten at the door of Day.
O Light! O heavenly Warmth! to you,
My cup-bearers, I quaffed the dew,
The pledge and sacramental sign
Of Life that mingling first with mine—
A sap-like inspiration—ran
To mingle with the life of man.
As leaped the Infant in the womb,
At Mary’s voice, e’en so to bloom
And ripeness, while the reapers sang,
My soul—their songs inspiring—sprang
To meet the scythe, the flail, the stone
Of sacrifice, whereby alone,
Through waves of palpitating flame,
The Bread upon the altar came.
And here, O mystery of Love!
Behold, from highest heaven above,
Through _Me_, the Son of GOD again
A victim for the sons of men!
THE ANGEL’S CHRISTMAS QUEST
“Where have ye laid my LORD?
Behold, I find Him not!
Hath He, in heaven adored,
His home forgot?
Give me, O sons of men,
My truant GOD again!”
“A voice from sphere to sphere—
A faltering murmur—ran,
‘Behold, He is not here!
Perchance with Man,
The lowlier made than we,
He hides His majesty.’”
Then, hushed in wondering awe,
The spirit held his breath,
And bowed: for, lo, he saw
O’ershadowing Death,
A Mother’s hands above,
Swathing the limbs of Love!
THE LAMB-CHILD
When CHRIST the Babe was born,
Full many a little lamb
Upon the wintry hills forlorn
Was nestled near its dam;
And, waking or asleep,
Upon His Mother’s breast,
For love of her, each mother-sheep
And baby-lamb He blessed.
OUT OF BOUNDS
A little Boy of heavenly birth,
But far from home to-day,
Comes down to find His ball, the Earth,
That sin has cast away.
O comrades, let us one and all
Join in to get Him back His ball!
A LENTEN THOUGHT
Alone with Thee, who canst not be alone,
At midnight, in Thine everlasting day;
Lo, less than naught, of nothingness undone,
I, prayerless, pray.
Behold—and with Thy bitterness make sweet,
What sweetest is in bitterness to hide—
Like Magdalen, I grovel at Thy feet,
In lowly pride.
Smite, till my wounds beneath Thy scourging cease;
Soothe, till my heart in agony hath bled;
Nor rest my soul with enmity at peace,
Till Death be dead.
ON CALVARY
In the shadow of the rood
Love and Shame together stood;
Love, that bade Him bear the blame
Of her fallen sister Shame;
Shame, that by the pangs thereof
Bade Him break His Heart for Love.
MATER DOLOROSA
Again maternal Autumn grieves,
As blood-like drip the maple leaves
On Nature’s Calvary.
And every sap-forsaken limb
Renews the mystery of Him
Who died upon a Tree.
STABAT
Why, O my GOD, hast Thou forsake Men?
Not so my Mother; for behold and see,
She steadfast stands! O FATHER, shall it be
That _she_ abides when Thou forsakest Me?
RABBONI!
“I bring Thee balm, and lo! Thou art not here!
Twice have I poured mine ointment on thy brow,
And washed Thy feet with tears. Disdain’st Thou now
The spikenard and the myrrh?
“Has Death, alas, betrayed Thee with a kiss
That seals Thee from the memory of mine?”
“Mary!” It is the selfsame Voice Divine,
“Rabboni!”—only this.
EASTER MORNING
Behold, the night of sorrow gone,
Like Magdalen the tearful Dawn
Goes forth with love’s anointing sweet,
To kiss again the Master’s feet!
EASTER LILIES
Though long in wintry sleep ye lay,
The powers of darkness could not stay
Your coming at the call of day,
Proclaiming Spring.
Nay, like the faithful virgins wise,
With lamps replenished ye arise,
Ere dawn the death-anointed eyes
Of CHRIST the king.
EASTER LAMBS
Ours is the echoed cry
Of helpless Innocents about to die.
Remembering them
In Ramah for the Lamb of Bethlehem
Untimely slain,
We, when the paschal sacrifice is nigh,
Lament again.
THE ASSUMPTION
Behold! the mother bird
The Fledgeling’s voice hath heard!
He calls anew,
“It was thy breast
That warmed the nest
From whence I flew.
Upon a loftier tree
Of life I wait for thee;
Rise, mother-dove, and come,
Thy Fledgeling calls thee home!”
TRIUMPH
Despite the North Wind’s boast,
Despite the muffled host
Of hushing snow,
There cometh from below
Out of the darkness wakened, one by one
The dreamers of the Sun—
Not in the bleak array
Of winter, but with fragrant banners gay
Leaping the barriers strong
Of Ice, and loosing Song,
The prisoner, and letting go
Long-fettered Laughter, as the shadowy Foe
Shrinks from the echoing cry
Of “Life and Victory!”
MY ANGEL
O little child, that once was I,
And still in part must be,
When other children pass me by,
Again thy face I see.
Where art thou? Can the Innocence
That here no more remains,
Forget, tho’ early banished hence,
What Memory retains?
Alas! and could’st thou look upon
The features that were thine,
To see of tender graces none
Abiding now in mine,
Thy heart compassionate would plead,
And, haply, not in vain,
As Angel Guardian, home to lead
The wanderer again.
TO HER THREE DAYS’ CHILD
I only, its mother, have known
The life that is taken away.
As the grape and the vine have we grown
Hour by hour, day by day;
Flesh of flesh, blood of blood, bone of bone.
As it was, evermore must it be,
O Babe from thy mother removed;
As light unto shadow are we,
Each in other approved,
Two in one, and in GOD, one in three.
AVE ATQUE VALE
Where wast thou, little song,
That hast delayed so long
To come to me?
“Mute in the mind of GOD:
Till where thy feet had trod,
I followed thee.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
Enclosed bold or blackletter font in =equals=.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECTION FROM THE VERSES OF JOHN B. TABB, MADE BY ALICE MEYNELL ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.
Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™
concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may
do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
license, especially commercial redistribution.
START: FULL LICENSE
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg
electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
of Project Gutenberg electronic works. Nearly all the individual
works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
that you will support the Project Gutenberg mission of promoting
free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg
works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
Project Gutenberg name associated with the work. You can easily
comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg License when
you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
other Project Gutenberg work. The Foundation makes no
representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
country other than the United States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg License must appear
prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg work (any work
on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the
phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed,
performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg™ License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is
derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg
trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg License for all works
posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg work in a format
other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official
version posted on the official Project Gutenberg website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg electronic works
provided that:
• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
to the owner of the Project Gutenberg trademark, but he has
agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation.”
• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™
works.
• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
receipt of the work.
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than
are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
cannot be read by your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
without further opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in
accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
or any Project Gutenberg work, (b) alteration, modification, or
additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg work, and (c) any
Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
from people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg’s
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg and future
generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.
The Foundation’s business office is located at 41 Watchung Plaza #516,
Montclair NJ 07042, USA, +1 (862) 621-9288. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website
and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg eBooks with only a loose network of
volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
edition.
Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.
This website includes information about Project Gutenberg,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
