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Title: Thoughts, Moods and Ideals: Crimes of Leisure

Author: W.D. Lighthall

Release Date: January 6, 2005 [EBook #14616]

Language: English

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THOUGHTS, MOODS AND IDEALS

Crimes of Leisure

by

W.D. LIGHTHALL,

ADVOCATE.

Montreal: "WITNESS" PRINTING HOUSE, ST. JAMES STREET 1887

Dedicated
to
My Friends.

THOUGHTS, MOODS AND IDEALS.

THE CONFUSED DAWN.

YOUNG MAN
  What are the Vision and the Cry
That haunt the new Canadian soul?
  Dim grandeur spreads we know not why
O'er mountain, forest, tree and knoll,
  And murmurs indistinctly fly.—
  Some magic moment sure is nigh.
O Seer, the curtain roll!

SEER
The Vision, mortal, it is this—
  Dead mountain, forest, knoll and tree
Awaken all endued with bliss,
  A native land—O think!—to be—
Thy native land—and ne'er amiss,
Its smile shall like a lover's kiss
  From henceforth seem to thee.

The Cry thou couldst not understand,
  Which runs through that new realm of light,
From Breton's to Vancouver's strand
  O'er many a lovely landscape bright,
It is their waking utterance grand,
The great refrain "A NATIVE LAND!"—
  Thine be the ear, the sight.

(1882.)

NATIONAL HYMN.

To Thee whose smile is might and fame,
  A nation lifts united praise
And asks but that Thy purpose frame
  A useful glory for its days.

We pray no sunset lull of rest,
  No pomp and bannered pride of war;
We hold stern labor manliest,
  The just side real conqueror.

For strength we thank Thee: keep us strong,
  And grant us pride of skilful toil;
For homes we thank Thee: may we long
  Have each some Eden rood of soil.

O, keep our mothers kind and dear,
  And make the fathers stern and wise;
The maiden soul preserve sincere,
  And rise before the young man's eyes.

Crush out the jest of idle minds,
  That know not, jesting, when to hush;
Keep on our lips the word that binds,
  And teach our children when to blush.

Forever constant to the good
  Still arm our faith, thou Guard Sublime,
To scorn, like all who have understood,
  The atheist dangers of the time.

Thou hearest!—Lo, we feel our love
  Of loyal thoughts and actions free
Toward all divine achievement move,
  Ennobled, blest, ensured, by Thee.

CANADA NOT LAST.

AT VENICE
Lo! Venice, gay with color, lights and song,
  Calls from St. Mark's with ancient voice and strange:
I am the Witch of Cities! glide along
  My silver streets that never wear by change
Of years: forget the years, and pain, and wrong,
And every sorrow reigning men among.
  Know I can soothe thee, please and marry thee
To my illusions. Old and siren-strong,
  I smile immortal, while the mortals flee
  Who whiten on to death in wooing me.

AT FLORENCE
Say, what more fair, by Arno's bridgéd gleam,[A]
  Than Florence, viewed from San Miniato's slope
At eventide, when west along the stream,
  The last of day reflects a silver hope!—
Lo, all else softened in the twilight beam:—
The city's mass blent in one hazy cream,
  The brown Dome midst it, and the Lily tower,
And stern Old Tower more near, and hills that seem
  Afar, like clouds to fade, and hills of power,
  On this side, greenly dark with cypress, vine and bower.

AT ROME
End of desire to stray I feel would come
  Though Italy were all fair skies to me,
Though France's fields went mad with flowery foam
  And Blanc put on a special majesty.
Not all could match the growing thought of home
Nor tempt to exile. Look I not on ROME—
  This ancient, modern, mediæval queen—
Yet still sigh westward over hill and dome,
  Imperial ruin and villa's princely scene
  Lovely with pictured saints and marble gods serene.

REFLECTION
Rome, Florence, Venice—noble, fair and quaint,
  They reign in robes of magic round me here;
But fading, blotted, dim, a picture faint,
  With spell more silent, only pleads a tear.
Plead not! Thou hast my heart, O picture dim!
  I see the fields, I see the autumn hand
Of God upon the maples! Answer Him
  With weird, translucent glories, ye that stand
Like spirits in scarlet and in amethyst!
I see the sun break over you; the mist
  On hills that lift from iron bases grand
  Their heads superb!—the dream, it is my native land.

[Footnote A: "Sovra'l bel fiume d'Arno la gran villa."—Dante.]

O DONNA DI VIRTU!

(DANTE—INFERNO, CANTO I.)

"O mystic Lady; Thou in whom alone
  Our human race surpasses all that stand
In Paradise the nearest round the throne!
  So eagerly I wait for thy command
That to obey were slow though ready done."

How oft I read. How agonized the turning,
  In those my earlier days of loss and pain,—
Of eyes to space and night as though by yearning—
  Some wall might yield and I behold again
A certain angel, fled beyond discerning;
  In vain I chafed and sought—alas, in vain,
From spurring though my heart's dark world returned
  To Dante's page, those wearied thoughts of mine;
Again I read, again my longing burned.—
  A voice melodious spake in every line,
But from sad pleasure sorrow fresh I learned:
  Strange was the music of the Florentine.

LINES ON HEINE.

I saw a crowded circus once:
  The fool was in the middle.
Loud laughed contemptuous Common-sense
  At every frisk and riddle.

I see another circus now—
  (The world a circus call I),—
But in the centre laughs the sane;
  Round sit the sons of folly.

IMITATED FROM THE JAPANESE.

  "……………………..
  I have forgotten to forget."—Japanese Song.