with their too-crowded details and difficult diction, will effectually prevent them from ever becoming popular. But their importance will grow even as Moody's place in our literature will eventually be a higher one than that which has yet been accorded him. His prose play The Great Divide (1907) was strikingly successful when produced by Henry Miller. The Faith Healer (1909), another play in prose, because of its more exalted tone, did not win the favor of the theatre-going public. A complete edition of The Poems and Poetic Dramas of William Vaughn Moody was published in 1912 in two volumes. In the summer of 1909 Moody was stricken with the illness from which he never recovered. He died in October, 1910. Once at a simple turning of the way I met God walking; and although the dawn Singing, star-strong, her golden canticle; And her mouth sang, "The hosts of Hate roll past, Then, since the splendor of her sword-bright gaze And all my body's soilure, lacking now Question and be thou answered, passionate face! PANDORA'S SONG (From "The Fire-Bringer") I stood within the heart of God; I found my love and labor there, I saw the spring and summer pass, Then suddenly in my own heart 66 Here is my meat and wine," He said, Here are my seasons: winter, spring, ON A SOLDIER FALLEN IN THE PHILIPPINES Streets of the roaring town, Hush for him; hush, be still! He comes, who was stricken down Hush! Let him have his state. The grists of trade can wait Their grinding at the mill. But he cannot wait for his honor, now the trumpet has been blown. Wreathe pride now for his granite brow, lay love on his breast of stone. Toll! Let the great bells toll Laurel, laurel, yes. He did what we bade him do. Praise, and never a whispered hint but the fight he fought was good; Never a word that the blood on his sword was his country's own heart's-blood. A flag for a soldier's bier Who dies that his land may live; O banners, banners here, That he doubt not nor misgive! When the nation robed in gloom Let him never dream that his bullet's scream went wide of its island mark, Home to the heart of his darling land where she stumbled and sinned in the dark. George Sterling George Sterling was born at Sag Harbor, New York, December 1, 1869, and educated at various private schools in the Eastern States. He moved to the far West about 1895 and has lived in California ever since. Of Sterling's ten volumes of poetry, The Testimony of the Suns (1903), A Wine of Wizardry (1908) and The House of Orchids and Other Poems (1911) are the most characteristic. As their titles indicate, this is poetry of a flamboyant and rhetorical type; of luxuriant sentences and emotions decorated in "the grand manner." Yet Sterling has added a definite vigor to his ornate tropes and verbal prodigality. Nor is he always extravagant. His simpler verses, though not in his most familiar vein, are among his best. THE BLACK VULTURE Aloof upon the day's immeasured dome, His hazards on the sea of morning lie; |