Front matter
Reading edition
HERVEY ALLEN
NEW HAVEN * YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON * HUMPHREY MILFORD * OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXXI
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
For permission to reprint poems appearing in this volume, thanks are due to the editors of The North American Review, The New Republic, Contemporary Verse, Life, La France, Harvey's Weekly, The Southern Review, The New York Times, The Boston Evening Transcript.
TO FRANCIS FOWLER HOGAN SOLDIER POET CORPORAL FOURTH UNITED STATES INFANTRY KILLED IN ACTION IN THE ARGONNE FOREST OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH 1918
"Though my hands have not learned to model The dreams of a groping mind, Though my lips have not spoken their music And are leaving no songs behind, Think not that my life has been futile, Nor grieve for an unsaid word, For all that my lips might never sing My singing heart has heard.
"I have etched the light on a willow With neither a plate nor style; I have made a song of the crescent moon And a poem of only a smile; Are they less because lips could not know them, These songs that my heart has known? Am I wholly mute who have sung with my heart And sung with my heart alone?"
F. F. H.
CONTENTS.
POEMS WRITTEN SINCE 1918:
Confession Despair Vale Aftermath Hylas Bacchus Is Gone Tiger Lilies
Three Landscape Moods: Youth High Tide o' Life Old Age
The Hermitage of Bells
The Seasons: Spring's Pilgrimage Summer Autumn Portents Autumn Invocation
Dream Fragment When Shady Avenue Was Shady Lane Triangles vs. Circles The Old Judge Bewitched The Wingless Victory
POEMS WRITTEN IN FRANCE AT THE FRONT:
The Blindman Hands Off Soldier-Poet Doomed White Light Beaumont Villiers Le Bel Gonnesse Dragon's Breath We