Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/223

Reveals by color tides which mount and reach
Her broad, white brow, as on some magic beach,
Where only spotless, peaceful snows resist,
Might break a crimson sea through veiling mist.

Silent, with silence which might often make
Dull ears believe the answer unexpressed
Meant an assent, or acquiescent rest;
Silence whose earnestness dull souls mistake;
But silence out of which words leap and break,
As from their sheaths swords leap and flash in sun,
When comes the time for swords, and truce is done;

Silence which to all finer spirits is
Full of such revelation and delight
As Nature's lovers find and feel in sight
Of her most sacred, subtle silences;
Silence of mountain lake, untouched by breeze;
Silence of lily's heart, cool, white, and pure;
Silence of crystal growths, patient and sure.

The other, earnest equally, but born
With veins made for a tropic current's flow;
Intolerant if fate seem cold, seem slow;
Full of a noble, restless, dauntless scorn;
Unjust to night, for eager love of morn;
Unjust to small things for the love of great;
Too faithless of all good which tarries late.

But yet through all this tropic current's heat,
Through all this scorn of failures and delays,