Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-14
THE AFTERMATH
BY T. SHELLEY SUTTON

The wreck the lie. the phantom and the tomb,
The blackened wall, the ashes and the heap
or dead ideals. which resemblance keep
OF Childhood's first, exquisite. fair design
That once we drew. a-dreaming 1T is mime
When joy is fed, and in the twilight gloom
Life's leaness vine looks down upon the bloom
The faded petals of that summers day
Whose roseate blush inspired us as we lay
In Loves embrace. oblivious of the hate,
The iron will, the stern DEGREES OF Fate;
Unconscious, ever of the grinning Truth.
The wanton Fact. the vicious. vile uncouth
ptstroyers of our fancy, which at last
ascend around U.S. stand aghast,
And tear from LIES pe-heaving. fev'rish
breast
The very heart whose pulsing pow'r unguessed,
Has stirred the secret passions OF our own
And place soul in every stump and stone
When hope is dead, and on the sitting air
Are borne the dying echoes of despair
And all about-where Love its castles planned
The silhouettes OF Swallowed Failure stand
And mid the mist and darkness OF our dreams
The Danger Lights of Helrs first triumph
CLEANS
The proud Pompeii of our past in dust,
The sick ming ruins of ravshment and lust
AS with brain which reels beneath its load
We stagger forth upon the dust-white road.
Apart from all the beauteous bow'rs of joy
Unknown to men, but sacred to the boy
Apart from all, as in the sordid track
OF driving Want we linger-looking back
And realize that we are not to blame
For Things which Are-that tbs another's
shame
haa irtr& hat hottP
And robs the soul of all its pride and power:
Arother's hand--another's lust and law
Which. like vandal whom no art can awe,
With grasping greed despoils the magic dream
And strews its roses on the stygian stream.
When youth is over, and the bleeding heart
Abjures that joy 1t can no more mpart.
Foregoes the fond ideals that are born
To meet the blight of ignorance and scorn;
When youth is done. and dream-lit eyes awake
To soaring Facts. which like ruthless rake .
Relie the struggling ethics of the soul.
And laugh at Virtue with a fend's control;
When naked Truth comes staring in our eyes
And bids us look. and follow, and despise;
And Science stalks, memorable and vague,
Upon our thoughts. and warps them, like
plague.
And leaves but doubt and darkness and despair
Where Youth had reared its castles. white
and fair;
When Realism, with its somber pail
Has babe our towers of courage fade. fall.
And stills the note that trembes on our
tongue.
And leaves the songs OF Childhood yet unsung;
When Fear and Fact have crept into the brain
And chained our hopes in penury and pain.
IN ha hI0y n
Who, though not wanton. created wild
Ambitious, free, and with heart to crave
A soul to feel and suffer, though a slave;
When June-day dreams vanished and the
light
OF Youths first love has faded in the night
OF need and hate; when heart and brain rebel
Against the grim compulsions of our hell.
Yet wake to find that every limb is bound
In letters forged by tyrants. ages-crowned,
And hope and love and Hfe's romance are laid
In graves of greed by generations made;
When high ambition sinks into the mire,
And gleeful youth no longer can aspire,
But bows its head, submissive to the Scheme
Whose stern demands permit no idle dream
But teach the child IN every book and school:
MANS law is right. and Natures must not
rule;
When all is Ger; when love, ambition. pride.
And all the roses OF our youth have died,
The poetry and music of the mind,
The sweet ideals by God alone OWNED,
When all is past, and in the wake Of youth
We view the leering mockeries Of Truth
The toll begins
Soft hand and tender flesh
Take up the graphing measures Of the mesh;
The yoke is ixed-that yoke Of grinding need
Which has been wrought by knaves' unsated
greed;
The lash is piied-that lash of Fear and Want
Which drives US on, till hopeless, weak and
gaunt
We kiss the lips OF Life and Love and say
Our last goodbye until the judgment day
day
Forgetful of that Purpose and the past
Where all that Tuned future has been
cast.
with bending back, blear-eyed and spirit dead
We go our way where fool on fool has led.
And without aim, or joy, or thought. or will,
Pass on. unwept. forgotten. to the mill!
The grim Machine awaits us with its work.
And bids us toll, nor hope, nor feel, nor shirk!
The wheels revolve. and one by one we die.
Nor learn to know the horrors of the Lie,
But all alike, in dull submission, COW
Al every frown that marks the despot's brow,
And sacrifice the sweetness of our life
To earn the meager sustenance Of strife!
o mani o world! Long will the vassal bend.
But when his back is broken 1t must endl
And man will feel in that triumphant hour
The mighty tide of life's imprisoned power!
The soul of will leap in freedoms might
To Life and Love and Fortunes tow'ring
height;
The doors will open and the chain will fall,
And man will scale the centuries massive wall
And stand supreme upon the highmost peak
And man to man in thund ring volumes speak
Undaunted and undying, great and strong.
Despite the myriad ages of our wrong!
And then, at last, the Dream of Youth will be
The Golden Fact, the true Reality;
The poetry, the music, knowledge, art
" hich have been crushed and stihed in his
heart
Will wake again, and every slave will stand
Himself the master of his heart and hand!
Los Angeles, Cal.
THAT MAS LOw 1T SOlINnED