Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 213, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1919 — HIS LETTER [ARTICLE]

HIS LETTER

Beyond the steel and the fire Gleams the old desire. War has not taken wonder away. More poignant where its lightnings play .The appeal of Beauty’s lonely cry! I shall go on dreaming till I die. I see wind-burnished coin-bright towns. And roads that shine across the downs; A dusk* of forest and a line Of light that silvers the design; Always the shadowed and the bright, A halo for the blackest night! —lslands where I have never been; The rainbow toppling down the green Of tilted seas that rake a ship; The molten lava streams that slip From fiery crater-rims and fill The dark with rose? and daffodil; Lakes, mountain-hid and spiritual; The undiscovered waterfall Like a white feather through the treei The undiscovered bird in these Singing, always alone, alone. The lovely voice of the unknown. This is Romance chameleon-clad That called me when I was a lad. That calls me now to follow well Through blighted Picardy to hell, Through hell to some elusive bliss Of new adventure after this; To follow without asking why; So you will know, if I must die Upon this last and strangest quest. It did not differ from the rest In simple wonder dark and bright A halo for the darkest ’night; And freedom like the unknown bird Was a wild voice I fought to hear! These words, to you, my very dear. Beyond the steel and the fire Gleams the old desire. - —Grace Hazard Conkling, in the Atlantic.