The Mankato free press., 1899-12-15
THE OUTCAST.
The Poet of Lake Crystal Woo's the
Muse Again.

VI hdhC SIy5Idl, Ado pun cOhAO ohoo6hu
into verse in which he gives the creed'
a shaking up. The verse is very good
no matter how the reader may differ
from the thought therein inscribed
His poem is as follows:
THE oUTCAsT.
I've trod path where flowers never grew
My life ne er watered by affection dew;
make no plant, the fault is mine,
And yet, strove to love mankind.
l saw, or thought saw. the base alloy,
Mixed with the billowd current of their joy
Aud l, could not float upon
The tide, but sunk beneath anon.
l blame them not. They go as they are led
Along the paths hereditary. And sped
BY old desires and ancient creeds:-
Hope built on doctrine, not on deeds.
All future bliss, they seek afar off where
All doubt is crushed by measureless dispair.
So dense and dark, and d ep, their hell,
Loves lamp is quenched; its parting kuell.
Dissolves all kindred ties The son and sire,
Whose hearts were kindled by the sacred fire
OF love whose faiths could not agree,
No longer love.-How can this be?
Hearts rent in twain by loves decree?
Fiat of love-how can this be?
How can eternal love It's OQSprlng naUb,
And doom its eIring children to fate
More dire tuan death because, forsooth,
They cannot take old creeds for truthY
Searched height and depth, the stars ;searcheC
And find no place but love is there,
No room for measureless dispair.
We know by breach of law we suffer pain
Its cord a scourge, to bring us back again
To wisdom's way, and purge the dross.
This far our gain and not our loss,
'Tis but the warning note of love,
AS kindly meant as COO of dove.
Fathers who love can never know JOY
That is not shared by daughter wife and boy.
To such as they, eternal pain
Or mental anguish breaks the chain,
Whereby the soul mounts upward to its Coz.
They learn to hate, not love, such Christening
rod
They cannot bow at shrine so dire,
Whose oracle is constant ire
In which the coming years shall not disclose
One ray of hope. nor rest, surcease OF woes.
Enters not there on, flash of light,
But wrapped in gloom's eternal night.
And L could not hold a creed so fell,
And hence am Stunned, and called an infdel
could but think that God meant good
And in the coming future would
Correct our wrongs by loves restraint,
Find some sure way. by which the plant
OF erring man should reach his ear,
In the hereafter if not here.
That honest effort to do right,
Not cruel creeds, would bring delight,
And bathe the soul in floods of light.
And now ask, what would more,
And sit me down and ponder o er
The vanished years that love the shore
OF long ago, with mind at ease.
Then Buddah, Christ and Socrates
Rise to my view, and heart and sense
Are filled with longing, strong intense;
And soul oerfows and eyes sutfuse,
To love, [ cannot help but choose.
With humble mien and feet unshod,
ralse prayer to natures God,
And praise Him. that I've found way
To bless mankind, and, praying say:
20 love / bow before thy majesty,
And speak my reverence with trembling lip ant
Faltering tongue; as if before The throne
An awful presence of the Deity"
This is the JOY of love supreme,
Bright Lade of an immortal dream.
Now, while have such lines as these
To pilot me DER life's rough seas,
/ we'll may dwell aloue.
wou not give rush-light for
Such woeful creeds, such man-made law
AS belts such tnrrid zone,
W here man with fiend must ever dwell,
And rolling ages help to swell
No pean but groan,
All I'm content to dwell apart,
Nor sigh, nor make a moan
For when l wish to find hell,
Church creeds will answer very well.