No suppliant on servile knees Begs here against tomorrow! Lean flame against lean flame we flash, O Fates that meet me fair; Blue steel against blue steel we clash- But Thou of deeps the awful Deep, For until now, whatever wrought My days were smitten harps strung taut, And howsoe'er the hard blow rang Some lark-like, soaring spirit sang And through my soul of stormy night I asked no odds-I fought my fight- But now at last-the gray mist chokes Oh, let me feel the biting strokes, A DANCE CHANT OSAGE INDIANS Translated by D. G. Brinton O Wahkonda (Master of Life) pity me! I am very poor: Give me what I need: Give me success against my enemies: May I be able to take scalps! May I be able to take horses! PRAYER LOUIS UNTERMEYER God, although this life is but a wraith, Ever insurgent let me be, Make me more daring than devout; Open my eyes to visions girt With beauty, and with wonder lit,— But let me always see the dirt, And all that spawn and die in it. Open my ears to music, let Me thrill with Spring's first flutes and drums The bitter ballads of the slums. From compromise and things half-done, Keep me, with stern and stubborn pride; But when at last the fight is won, God, keep me still unsatisfied. PRAYER OF COLUMBUS WALT WHITMAN A batter'd, wreck'd old man, Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home, Pent by the sea, and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months, Sore, stiff with many toils, sickened, and nigh to death, I take my way along the island's edge, I am too full of woe! Haply I may not live another day; I cannot rest, O God, I cannot eat or drink or sleep, Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee, Breathe, bathe myself once more in Thee, commune with Thee, Report myself once more to Thee. Thou knowest my years entire, my life, (My long and crowded life of active work, not adoration merely); Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth, Thou knowest my manhood's solemn and visionary meditations, Thou knowest how, before I commenced, I devoted all to come to Thee, Thou knowest I have in age ratified all those vows, and strictly kept them, Thou knowest I have not once lost nor faith nor ecstasy in Thee, In shackles, prison'd, in disgrace, repining not, Accepting all from Thee, as duly come from Thee. All my emprises have been filled with Thee, My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts of Thee, Sailing the deep or journeying the land for Thee; Intentions, purports, aspirations mine-leaving results to Thee. O I am sure they really come from Thee! The urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will, The potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words, A message from the Heavens whispering to me even in sleep, These sped me on. By me and these the work so far accomplished (for what has been, has been), By me earth's elder cloyed and stifled lands, uncloyed, unloosed, By me the hemispheres rounded and tied, the unknown to the known. The end I know not, it is all in Thee; Or small or great I know not-haply what broad fields, what lands, Haply the brutish measureless human undergrowth I know, Transplanted there may rise to stature, knowledge worthy Thee. Haply the swords I know may there indeed be turned to reapingtools; Haply the lifeless cross I know, Europe's dead cross, may bud and blossom there. One effort more, my altar this bleak sand; That Thou, O God, my life hast lighted, With ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of Thee, (Light rare, untellable, lighting the very light! Beyond all signs, descriptions, languages!) For that, O God-be it my latest word, here on my knees, My terminus near, The clouds already closing in upon me, The voyage balked, the course disputed, lost, I yield my ships to Thee. Steersman unseen! henceforth the helms are Thine; Take Thou command-(what to my petty skill Thy naviga tion?) My hands, my limbs grow nerveless; My brain feels racked, bewildered; Let the old timbers part-I will not part, I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me; Thee, Thee, at least I know. Is it the prophet's thought I speak, or am I raving? I know not even my own work past or present; And these things I see suddenly-what mean they? |