  1865= ——. Madison Cawein, born at Louisville, Kentucky, of Huguenot descent, is one of our younger poets who seems overflowing with life and fancy. His writings show a wonderful insight into nature and power of expressing her beauties and meanings. The amount of his poetical work is astonishing, and another volume will soon appear, entitled “Intimations of the Beautiful.” WORKS.Days and Dreams. THE WHIPPOORWILL.(From Red Leaves and Roses. I. Above long woodland ways that led To dells the stealthy twilights tread The west was hot geranium-red; And still, and still, Along old lanes, the locusts sow With clustered curls the May-times know, Out of the crimson afterglow, We heard the homeward cattle low, And then the far-off, far-off woe Of “whippoorwill!” of “whippoorwill!” II. Beneath the idle beechen boughs We heard the cow-bells of the cows Come slowly jangling towards the house; And still, and still, Beyond the light that would not die Out of the scarlet-haunted sky, Beyond the evening-star’s white eye Of glittering chalcedony, Drained out of dusk the plaintive cry Of “whippoorwill!” of “whippoorwill!” III. What is there in the moon, that swims A naked bosom o’er the limbs, That all the wood with magic dims? While still, while still, Among the trees whose shadows grope Lost in faint deeps of heliotrope Above the clover-scented slope,— Retreats, despairing past all hope, The whippoorwill, the whippoorwill. FOOTNOTE: |
|
