Fannie Stearns Davis

PROFITS

Yes, stars were with me formerly.

(I also knew the wind and sea;

And hill-tops had my feet by heart.

Their shagged heights would sting and start

When I came leaping on their backs.

I knew the earth’s queer crooked cracks,

Where hidden waters weave a low

And druid chant of joy and woe.)

But stars were with me most of all.

I heard them flame and break and fall.

Their excellent array, their free

Encounter with Eternity,

I learned. And it was good to know

That where God walked, I too might go.

Now, all these things are passed. For I

Grow very old and glad to die.

What did they profit me, say you,

These distant bloodless things I knew?

Profit? What profit hath the sea

Of her deep-throated threnody?

What profit hath the sun, who stands

Staring on space with idle hands?

And what should God Himself acquire

From all the aeons’ blood and fire?

My profit is as theirs: to be

Made proof against mortality:

To know that I have companied

With all that shines and lives, amid

74So much the years sift through their hands,

Most mortal, windy, worthless sands.

This day I have great peace. With me

Shall stars abide eternally!

SOULS

My soul goes clad in gorgeous things,

Scarlet and gold and blue.

And at her shoulder sudden wings

Like long flames flicker through.

And she is swallow-fleet, and free

From mortal bonds and bars.

She laughs, because eternity

Blossoms for her with stars!

O folk who scorn my stiff gray gown,

My dull and foolish face,

Can ye not see my soul flash down,

A singing flame through space?

And folk, whose earth-stained looks I hate,

Why may I not divine

Your souls, that must be passionate,

Shining and swift, as mine?