HOW fair you are, wondrous maiden,"Romance" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Athenaeum (July 1916) and Poems (1916) Volume II.
As from the aisle I behold you
In the old English cathedral,
Standing so rapt and apart!
Glintings of gold from the stained glass
Brighten the coils of your dark hair
Waving away from a forehead
Pure with the freshness of youth,
And your face flower-like lifted,
With the blue eyes full of worship,
Fairer you seem than the angels
Carved near the altar, in stone.
What though I know not your name, dear,—
Though I to-day first behold you—
You who must pass as a vision
Nobly enthralling and glad?
Does he who, lone in the forest,
Finds there an exquisite blossom,
Joy in it less that its beauty
Blooms not to fade on his breast?
Nay: nor does one who at nightfall
Harkens the voice of the mavis
Feel less delight that the singer
Blesses him, high out of reach.
So, though you pass—and for ever,
Yet I, afar, shall remember
That the world holds such a maiden,
And, you remembering, love!
Monday, July 10, 2017
ROMANCE, a poem
Sunday, July 9, 2017
POETRY, a poem
CONTEMPLATIVE and fair, with look divine,"Poetry" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Critic (July 1905), Lyrics of Life (1909) and Poems (1916) Volume I.
Her wistful vision fixed on the unseen,—
The future hers, as the long past has been,—
She waits apart. Who disregard her shrine,
Who pour to her libations of red wine,
Who heal their griefs at her loved Hippocrene,
She noteth not—enwrapt in thought serene,
And pondering grave meanings, line by line.
She has envisaged the veiled heart of things—
Has passed through Purgatory, and her way,
Darkling, unravelled through the deeps of Hell;
And thence arising where the blessèd dwell,
Has touched the stars with her aspiring wings,
And knows that she is deathless as are they!
Thursday, July 6, 2017
ADIEU, a poem
ADIEU! I know that I no more"Adieu" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Poems (1898) and Poems (1916) Volume II.
Shall behold you,
Your future lies beyond her door
Who consoled you;
The world has promised to redeem
Each new sorrow,
It beckons, and you lightly dream
Of a morrow.
I weep not, nor shall futile sighs
Hold you longer,
The pity in your loveless eyes
Makes me stronger,
For terrible, past loss of mine,
Hath arisen
The dread to know what was your shrine—
But your prison.
I listen while your lips protest,
Heavy hearted,
For by your wishes unexpressed—
We are parted:
I listen, and hope's fickle glow
Fades away.
Why mock my grief? If you can go—
Wherefore stay?
In all the past we still were true,
You and I, love;
Few words suffice to bid adieu,
Few to die, love;
The loneliest stand face to face,
Disunited,
And thoughts of love that strain through space
Are requited!
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
AMERICA, a poem
THY children are inspired by thee:"America" by Florence Earle Coates (before the war for the liberation of Cuba). Published in The Outlook (9 July 1898), Mine and Thine (1904) and Poems (1916) Volume I.
Blest by thy gift of liberty,
They go to make the wretched free,
Mother-land!
They were indeed not sons of thine
Could they withhold that gift divine.
Of liberty thou art the shrine,
Mother-land!
Thy children glory in thy name;
They write it, as with words of flame,
In deeds that put thy foes to shame,
Mother-land!
In deeds of daring unforecast,
In deeds of valor unsurpassed,
In deeds that make thee known at last,
Mother-land!
Thy strength it was that made them strong;
Thy justice taught them hate of wrong;
They are of thee, to thee belong,
Mother-land!
Their lungs are filled with thy sweet breath;
Thy voice they hear, and what it saith;
They love thee, and they fear not death,
Mother-land!
Monday, July 3, 2017
AFFINITY, a poem
ALL are not strangers whom we so misname:"Affinity" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Putnam's Monthly (July 1907), Lyrics of Life (1909), and Poems (1916) Volume II.
Man's free-born spirit, which no rule can tame,
Careless of time, o'er vasty distance led,
Still finds its own where alien altars flame,
Still greets its own, amongst the deathless dead!
Sunday, July 2, 2017
On this day in 1860
According to an 1860 Census, Florence had just turned 10 years old, and lived with her father ("Atty at law"), mother, and was the eldest of her siblings: Alice, Mary, George H. Jr., and "Fanny" (Frances). The family had a "servant" named Maggie Wallace, from Ireland, who was 19 years old at the time. The Earle's estate was valued at $5,000 (Philadelphia Ward 15).
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Birth and PRIVILEGE, a poem
PRIVILEGE
BLEST is the right to share
The grief of hearts forlorn,—
With other men to bear
What must by men be borne;
For night bestows dawn's orient rose
And glories of the morn;
And as its shadow-wing
Lends to the sunlight worth,
So out of suffering
Arise the joys of earth—
The good and ill, united still
And offspring of one birth.
Great is the gift of life"Privilege" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Independent (30 December 1909), Lyrics of Life (1909) and Poems (1916) Volume II.
To him who lives indeed,
A partner in the strife,
The toil, the pain, that speed—
Like hidden rills veined through the hills—
Life's ocean-deeps to feed!
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