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The Shoogy-Shoo

But, oh, those orbs-too wildly bright—

No more eclipse thine own,

And never shall I find the light

Of days forever flown!

447

Edmund Clarence Stedman [1833-1908]

"LANGSYNE, WHEN LIFE WAS BONNIE"

LANGSYNE, when life was bonnie,

An' a' the skies were blue,

When ilka thocht took blossom,
An' hung its heid wi' dew,
When winter wasna winter,
Though snaws cam' happin' doon,
Langsyne, when life was bonnie,
Spring gaed a twalmonth roun'.

Langsyne, when life was bonnie,
An' a' the days were lang;
When through them ran the music

That comes to us in sang,
We never wearied liltin'

The auld love-laden tune;
Langsyne, when life was bonnie,
Love gaed a twalmonth roun'.

Langsyne, when life was bonnie,
An' a' the warld was fair,

The leaves were green wi' simmer,

For autumn wasna there.

But listen hoo they rustle,

Wi' an eerie, weary soun',

For noo, alas, 'tis winter

That gangs a twalmonth roun'.

Alexander Anderson [1845-1909]

THE SHOOGY-SHOO

I Do be thinking, lassie, of the old days now;

For oh! your hair is tangled gold above your Irish brow;
And oh! your eyes are fairy flax! no other eyes so blue;
Come nestle in my arms, and swing upon the shoogy-shoo.

Sweet and slow, swinging low, eyes of Irish blue,
All my heart is swinging, dear, swinging here with you;
Irish eyes are like the flax, and mine are wet with dew,
Thinking of the old days upon the shoogy-shoo.

When meadow-larks would singing be in old Glentair,
Was one sweet lass had eyes of blue and tangled golden hair;
She was a wee bit girleen then, dear heart, the like of you,
When we two swung the braes among, upon the shoogy-

shoo.

Ah well, the world goes up and down, and some sweet day Its shoogy-shoo will swing us two where sighs will pass away; So nestle close your bonnie head, and close your eyes so true,

And swing with me, and memory, upon the shoogy-shoo.

Sweet and slow, swinging low, eyes of Irish blue,
All my heart is swinging, dear, swinging here with you;
Irish eyes are like the flax, and mine are wet with dew,
Thinking of the old days upon the shoogy-shoo.
Winthrop Packard [1852-

BABYLON

"We shall meet again in Babylon."

I'm going softly all my years in wisdom if in pain-
For, oh, the music stirs my blood as once it did before,
And still I hear in Babylon, in Babylon, in Babylon,

The dancing feet in Babylon, of those who took my floor. I'm going silent all my years, but garnered in my brain

Is that swift wit which used to flash and cut them like a sword

And now I hear in Babylon, in Babylon, in Babylon,

The foolish tongues in Babylon, of those who took my word.

I'm going lonely all my days, who was the first to crave The second, fierce, unsteady voice, that struggled to speak free

And now I watch in Babylon, in Babylon, in Babylon,

The pallid loves in Babylon of men who once loved me.

The Triumph of Forgotten Things 449

I'm sleeping early by a flame as one content and gray,
But, oh, I dream a dream of dreams beneath a winter

moon,

I breathe the breath of Babylon, of Babylon, of Babylon, The scent of silks in Babylon that floated to a tune.

A band of years has flogged me out-an exile's fate is mine, To sit with mumbling crones and still a heart that cries

with youth.

But, oh, to walk in Babylon, in Babylon, in Babylon, The happy streets in Babylon, when once the dream was truth.

Viola Taylor [18

THE ROAD OF REMEMBRANCE

THE old wind stirs the hawthorn tree;
The tree is blossoming;

Northward the road runs to the sea,

And past the House of Spring.

The folk go down it unafraid;
The still roofs rise before;
When you were lad and I was maid,
Wide open stood the door.

Now, other children crowd the stair,
And hunt from room to room;
Outside, under the hawthorn fair,
We pluck the thorny bloom.

Out in the quiet road we stand,
Shut in from wharf and mart,

The old wind blowing up the land,
The old thoughts at our heart.

Lizelle Woodworth Reese [1856

THE TRIUMPH OF FORGOTTEN THINGS

THERE is a pity in forgotten things,

Banished the heart they can no longer fill,
Since restless Fancy, spreading swallow wings,
Must seek new pleasures still!

There is a patience, too, in things forgot;

They wait they find the portal long unused; And knocking there, it shall refuse them not,~ Nor aught shall be refused!

Ah, yes! though we, unheeding years on years,
In alien pledges spend the heart's estate,
They bide some blessed moment of quick tears-
Some moment without date-

Some gleam on flower, or leaf, or beaded dew,
Some tremble at the ear of memoried sound
Of mother-song, they seize the slender clew,—
The old loves gather round!

When that which lured us once now lureth not, But the tired hands their garnered dross let fall, This is the triumph of the things forgot

To hear the tired heart call!

And they are with us at Life's farthest reach,
A light when into shadow all else dips,
As, in the stranger's land, their native speech
Returns to dying lips!

Edith M. Thomas [1854

IN THE TWILIGHT

MEN say the sullen instrument,

That, from the Master's bow,
With pangs of joy or woe,

Feels music's soul through every fibre sent,

Whispers the ravished strings

More than he knew or meant;

Old summers in its memory glow;
The secrets of the wind it sings;
It hears the April-loosened springs;
And mixes with its mood

All it dreamed when it stood

In the murmurous pine-wood
Long ago!

I

In the Twilight

The magical moonlight then

Steeped every bough and cone; The roar of the brook in the glen

Came dim from the distance blown;
The wind through its glooms sang low,
And it swayed to and fro,

With delight as it stood,
In the wonderful wood,
Long ago!

O my life, have we not had seasons
That only said, Live and rejoice?
That asked not for causes and reasons,
But made us all feeling and voice?
When we went with the winds in their blowing,
When Nature and we were peers,

And we seemed to share in the flowing

Of the inexhaustible years?

Have we not from the earth drawn juices

Too fine for earth's sordid uses?

Have I heard, have I seen

All I feel, all I know?

Doth my heart overween?
Or could it have been

Long ago?

Sometimes a breath floats by me,
An odor from Dreamland sent,
That makes the ghost seem nigh me
Of a splendor that came and went,
Of a life lived somewhere, I know not
In what diviner sphere,

Of memories that stay not and go not,
Like music heard once by an ear

That cannot forget or reclaim it,
A something so shy, it would shame it
To make it a show,

A something too vague, could I name it,
For others to know,

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