CALE YOUNG RICE

AUTHOR OF

"WRAITHS AND REALITIES," "TRAILS SUNWARD," "COLLECTED POEMS," ETC.

NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1921 Copyright, 1921, by The Century Co.

TO HARRISON S. MORRIS A HATER OF SHAM AND PRETENSE, A LOVER OF BEAUTY AND TRUTH, A FIRM FRIEND.

FOREWORD

The poems of this volume, gathered here after many requests, are, with a few exceptions, from my previous lyrical publications. They are also in a real sense an intimate record. For the sea has often enough seemed to me almost as a vast external subconsciousness in which the forces of my being—as well as the world's—were at play.

Cale Young Rice. Louisville, Ky., August, 1921.

[Pg ix]

CONTENTS

PAGE Sea-Hoardings 3 The Shore's Song to the Sea 5 To a Firefly by the Sea 9 Invocation 11 I Know Your Heart, O Sea! 11 A Sea-Ghost 13 Finitude 15 The Colonel's Story 16 Cosmism 21 Off the Irish Coast 22 The Fairies of God 23 The Song of the Homesick Gael 24 Pageants of the Sea 26 A Song of the Old Venetians 29 Basking 30 Sappho's Death Song 32 The Wind's Word 33 Submarine Mountains 34 The Song of the Storm-Spirits 36 [Pg x]The Great Seducer 37 K'u-Kiang 38 Typhoon 39 Penang 41 Nights on the Indian Ocean 42 Sighting Arabia 44 "All's Well" 45 Somnambulism 47 Chartings 48 The Trail from the Sea 50 Haunted Seas 54 Sea Lure 54 Songs to A. H. R. I Minglings 56 II Love and Infinity 56 III Recompense 57 IV At the Ebb-Hour 58 V In a Dark Hour 59 VI Via Amorosa 59 VII Transfusion 61 Need of Storm 62 A Florida Interlude 63 A Florida Boating Song 65 Dawn Bliss 66 Atavism 68 Re-reckoning 69 To the Afternoon Moon, At Sea 70 [Pg xi]Paths 71 From a Northern Beach 73 Passage 74 Aleen 75 To a Solitary Sea-Gull 76 Ineffable Things 77 The Song of a Sea-Farer 78 Waves 79 In a Storm 80

After Their Parting 80 A Word's Magic 82 Sea Rhapsody 83 In an Oriental Harbour 84 Under the Sky 85 A Song for Healing 86 A Singhalese Love Lament 87 The City 89 Full Tide 89 The Herding 91 On the Maine Coast 92 Séance 93 A Sidmouth Lad 93 Widowed 94 To the Sea 95 Sea-Mad 97 The Atheist 98 At the Helm 99 [Pg xii]Imperturbable 100 Waste 100 Resurgence 101 Life's Answer 103 As the Tide Comes In 103 Sense-Sweetness 104 Tidals 105 A Sailor's Wife 105 To Sea! 106 Give Over, O Sea! 107 The Nun 109 Last Sight of Land 110

[Pg 3]

SEA POEMS

BY CALE YOUNG RICE

THE SHORE'S SONG TO THE SEA

[Pg 9]

TO A FIREFLY BY THE SEA

[Pg 11]

INVOCATION

(From a High Cliff)

A SEA-GHOST

[Pg 15]

FINITUDE

I

II

THE COLONEL'S STORY

[Pg 21]