The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-11
THE KINGs oF PoEsY.


Tread by Dr. H. w. Roby, president 0
the Kansas Authors club at the an
nual dinner this weekl
Tonight leave the sanguine field
w mere warning hosts have clashed ant
| leave the states high enterprise
70 statesmen, wise or otherwise;
leave the stOled and shaven priest
To bless and serve his sacred feast.
While with my meager gift of grace,
/ sing the singers of the race
The living songs of every tongue,
ana nfteo UP the souls of men
10 make them one with God again
Come. then. tonight and stand with me
Beside the Paleocrystic sea
And listen while the minstreIs sing
The scandinavian runes that ring
Ihroggh all the centuries, and hold
Inc SagaS OF the Vikings old,
And those rude souls who bodied forth
The great Heimskringlas of the North.
" nile those wild bards of ancient days
90 drifting down the stormy ways,
Ihelr names are lost amidst the vast
And tumbling oceans of the past,
Whose raging pillows roar and run
The pathway OF the midnight sun.
Come now, to morning lands with me.
Where 1hum once ruled the sea-
Here thirty centuries have rolled
across her vault of planished gold
Since Homer held her Epic throne
supremacy great. sublime and lone.
While from his soul the tides of song
Rolled down the ages swift and strong,
Men heard the worldwide plaucfts ring
And laud 1magfnation'S king,
VINO hurled across the Epic stage
The gods and heroes of the age.
Come next where uncompanioned Rome,
Beside the Theirs yellow foam,
Sits dreaming on her sacred hills
Where Poesy with rapture thrills
The list'ning World, and strains sublime
KING out across the seas of Time,
With plenitude of grace to hold
the hearts of men from growing old.
Here Virgil sang those mellow strains
SOOTn0d world
pains;
Here Juvena1 and Horace sang
While frenzied acclamations rang
And throned above the throne of state
This glorious triumyirate.
Now let us journey toward the sun
Where Lilies pr1mordial currents run,
And where on thrones of light we see
1ranian kings of minstrelsy,
And hear them strike from harp and lutte
me songs that hold the nations mute
While houri-lips and 1ove-bright eyes
t4aSn back their dreams of PARADISE.
Come. now. to those rare sunlit plains,
Where sweet eternal summer reigns,
where slow above Himalayan cragS
Ihe sun-god's cleaning chariot lags
and all the glowing stars. display
~ lille sweet and tuneful pipes of Pan
Ring clear and high Ger Hindustan.
And, far above that sunlit zone
There, Kalidassa sits alone
And chants to rapt and captive throngs
The Hindu's sacred song OF songs,
Geta Govindas that extOI
The transmigrations of the soul.
Pause now a space where new Japan
Reveals a bard in every man;
Whose YamatO DamaShii
Holds all that's good beneath the sky,
And bids to Loves unending feast
The Island Empire of the East,
While souls below and stars above
Dream one long dream, the dream of love.
There on his throne, with shaft and bow,
The only god that all men know
Reigns gally on from sun to sun
And knows his task will not be done
While FuJlyama's cleaning height
reflects thousand suns at night.
Now come once more and let us turn
Where AlbiOn'S high torches burn,
Where daring Milton, lone and blind,
Calls forth the rainbows of the mind
And sets its clouds to shine and glow
With light no other soul may know.
Look once again and you shall find
The laureate of all mankind,
Fierce Tragedy's unchallensed king
With throne and crown and signet ring;
W lille round about him to and fro
his dream-born mOnarchS come and go.
In love and hate. in strife and crime,
histrionic scenes sublime.
While his great soul cOmpels the rage
OF mimic madness on the stage,
High on his shoulders sits the sun
To WOO the stars to shine as one.
Now, fill your glasses here tonight,
To all those other sons of light
The absent kings and queens of song
10 whom coequal crowns belong,
That greater host than are the few
MY muse hath chanted here to you.
HENRY w. ROBY.