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Later
Poems
by
Bliss Carman
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The
Givers of Life
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I |
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WHO
called us forth out of darkness and gave us the
gift of life,
Who sets our hands to the toiling, our feet in
the field of strife?
Darkly
they mused, predestined to knowledge of viewless
things,
Sowing the seed of wisdom, guarding the living
springs.
Little
they reckoned privation, hunger or hardship or
cold,
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5
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| If
only the life might prosper, and the joy that grows
not old.
With
sorceries subtler than music, with knowledge older
than speech,
Gentle as wind in the wheat-field, strong as the
tide on the beach,
Out
of their beauty and longing, out of their raptures
and tears,
In patience and pride they bore us, to war with
the warring years.
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II
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Who
looked on the world before them, and summoned and
chose our sires,
Subduing the wayward impulse to the will of their
deep desires?
Sovereigns
of ultimate issues under the greater laws,
Theirs was the mystic mission of the eternal cause;
Confident,
tender courageous, leaving the low for the higher,
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| Lifting
the feet of the nations our of the dust and the
mire;
Luring civilization on the fair and new,
Given God’s bidding to follow, having God’s
business to do.
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III
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| Who
strengthened our souls with courage, and taught
us the ways of |
20 |
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Earth? |
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| Who
gave us our patterns of beauty, our standards of
flawless worth? |
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Mothers, unmilitant, lovely, moulding our manhood
then,
Walked in their woman’s glory, swaying the
might of men.
They
schooled us to service and honor, modest and clean
and fair,—
The code of their worth of living, taught with
the sanction of prayer.
They
were our sharers of sorrow, they were our makers
of joy,
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25 |
| Lighting
the lamp of manhood in the heart of the lonely boy.
Haloed with love and with wonder, in sheltered
ways they trod,
Seers of sublime divination, keeping the truce
of God.
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IV
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Who
called us from youth and dreaming, and set ambition
alight,
And made us fit for the contest,—men, by their
tender rite?
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30 |
Sweethearts above our merit, charming our strength
and skill
To be the pride of their loving, to be the means
of their will.
If we be the builders of beauty, if we be the
masters of art,
Theirs were the gleaming ideals, theirs the uplift
of the heart.
Truly they measure the lightness of trappings
and ease and fame,
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35 |
| For
the teeming desire of their yearning is ever and
ever the same:
To crown their lovers with gladness, to clothe
their sons with delight,
And see the men of their making lords in the best
man’s right.
Lavish of joy and labor, broken only by wrong,
These are the guardians of being, spirited, sentient
and strong.
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40 |
Theirs is the starry vision, theirs the inspiriting
hope,
Since Night, the brooding enchantress, promised
that day should ope.
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V
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Lo,
we have built and invented, reasoned, discovered
and planned,
To rear us a palace of splendour, and make us a
heaven by hand.
We are shaken with dark misgiving, as kingdoms
rise and fall;
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| But
the women who went to found them are never counted
at all.
Versed in the soul’s traditions, skilled
in humanity’s lore,
They wait for their crown of rapture, and weep
for the sins of war.
And behold they turn from our triumphs, as it
was in the first of days,
For a little heaven of ardour and a little heartening
of praise.
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50 |
These are the rulers of kingdoms beyond the domains
of state,
Martyrs of all men’s folly, over-rulers of
fate.
These we will love and honor, these we will serve
and defend,
Fulfilling the pride of nature, till nature shall
have an end.
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VI
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| This
is the code unwritten, this is the creed we hold, |
55 |
| Guarding
the little and lonely, gladdening the helpless and
old,—
Apart from the brunt of the battle our wondrous
women shall bide,
For the sake of a tranquil wisdom and the need
of a spirit’s guide.
Come they into assembly, or keep they another
door,
Our makers of life shall lighten the days as the
years of yore.
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The lure of their laughter shall lead us, the lilt
of their words shall sway.
Though life and death should defeat us, their solace
shall be our stay.
Veiled in mysterious beauty, vested in magical
grace,
They have walked with angels at twilight and looked
upon glory’s face.
Life we will give for their safety, care for
their fruitful ease,
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| Though
we break at the toiling benches or go down in the
smoky seas.
This is the gospel appointed to govern a world
of men,
Till love has died, and the echoes have whispered
the last Amen.
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