The San Francisco call., 1906-04-15

and flow rs and leaves
On the dwellings low-browed windows half
concealed beneath the caves
Traces roses pale as ashes, roses cold and dead
and gray
As The blossoms OF q passion that me heaTt
knew yesterday.
lived e. woman blessed with beauty fair as
blush OF summers dawn,
Eyes akin 70 English bluebells that the dew
drops trenble on
Hair as tsvrny as the rush-grass limp beneath
the suns embrace.
And each changing. new emotion adding glory
20 her face.
Has not that the stately music that
we get from ''Locksley Hail." and, read
ing, we remember all about the cur
lews' call. and wish to listen always to
such fow Of rhythmic sound, and heed
the solemn beauties sent thrilling 10
our souls? So, finding this new poem
that awakes sweet retrospect. we clasp
the book that holds 1T and repeat the
Well-known lines: Comrades, leave
me here a little, while as yet it's early
morn, Leave me here, and when you
want me, sound upon the bugle horn.
Let me dream again Of Amy, oh, my
Amy, mine no more. On. the dreary.
dreary moorland. Oh. the barren, barren
shore" How she "turned-her bosom
shaken with a sudden storm of sighs-
All the spirit deeply dawning in the
dark Of hazel eyes"
Thus sinking again under the spell
Of the old and well-loved music, we,
for the nonce. world-fOrgetting close
the door and read on and on, feasting
on the lotus OF this new love poem by
the youthful California poet. Miss Ma
bel Porter Pitts. She calls II In the
Shadow Of the Crag," and as IL is bound
- a book with a number Of her beau
tiful short poems the tue of the vol
ume names the long poem and has the
addition, And Other Poems" It is the
story Of a beautiful young girl who
goes TO the Yukon with her gold-hunt-
ing father. So, at once. we idealize her
as courageous. Her first grief comes
when her father is frozen to death in
the pitiless cold OF the Far North. A
young Indian chief rescUeS the girl
from the storm in which her father
perished. The Indian takes her TO his
snow house. nurses her back to health.
and adOres her as goddess, whom
tradition Of his tribe had promised
should be sent as gift TO the chief.
Accidentally he learns that il is the
love OF gold that has lured the girl TO
his Fealm Of ice and snow She tells
him that gold is thing-hsp ppiness,
rest, balm for every sorrow, counselor,
magician, gold is beauty. gold is life"
But the thing that sinks deepest into
his memory is that this woman he
adores saws that cold is head and
heart and feeling, gold IS friendship,
gold IS love-
This last makes Of the simple-mind
ed Indian a mad gold hunter. for he
thinks thus to serve the wishes OF the
white girl and win her love. Under
the Crag" is the difficult, dangerous, Sc
cret place where he finds the nuggets
In vain. A white man comes into the
distant land, and the maiden loves him.
Then disappointment, Jealousy, grief.
TRAGEDY. ali the varied passions that
are the stuff poems are made Of. But
let US get back TO the music Of the
verse Here is our poets way of put
ting the call Of the Red Gods:
Hope viii live within the bosom while the
light Of life endures.
Men wiz follow blind and eager where the
isnis fstuus lures
When her father perishes in the
snow the daughter listens to his last
advice and beseechments. Read aloud
10 yourself the beautiful lines in which
Miss Mabel Pitts tells OF the parting.
To the eyes OF some Of those who are
both loving and Sensitive they will
bring tears when read under the full
a pity 10 have to isolate them here:
Though the night OF death divide US. lost the
way that we have trod.
geu1 I know the dawn viii find some
where meath the smile Of God"
Comes the voice that slowly falling begs in
sing the song we love. my daughter, sing 1t
once before gos
sing. twill help my trembling spirit find the
Light that marks the goal"
Then from out the dark comes floating Jesus,
lover OF my SOUL
And the night bird stops. to listen-'Let me TO
r5reatn Of north wind strangely tempered,
siEAA Ger him about TO die.
And the song to frenzied cry turns when his
struggling soul has passed.
Father TO Thy haven guide him, o. receive
him Thine, at last
Does not that fragment give some
evidence Of a poem fit for reading on
Easter morning? Does IL pot beauti-
fully suggest the glorious consolation
Of the belief in resurrection
The short poems, of which there are
q large number In the volume, are more
perfect works Of art than the long one
'',rhe Shadow Of the Crag." This is per-
hans solely because the author has
prscticad more at the work of creating
short poems: "The Shadow of the CragT
is the first long one she has attempted
III. contains many beauties and is full
of promise Of fine future work Of
which California may be still prouder
than OF this which Mabel Porter Pitts
sends forth from her prentice hand
There are so many excellent stanzas
among the short poems that ii is hard
70 make a choice Of what to quote TO
illustrate the merits of the work of
this talented young woman I will give
YOU two which seem 10 pair OF in a
way that seems to put them rightly to-
gether as contrasts - describing two
types Of womanhood, both Of which