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From “Dry Points”
WHAT are you doing there by the shore? | |
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| —I’m pushing out my boat. | |
| I mean to follow the sun across | |
| To islands far remote. | |
| It may be I shall find a land | 5 |
| Where fruits and spices grow; | |
| Fairer women, stronger men, | |
| And mountains topped with snow. | |
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| —Nay, go not forth across the wave, | |
| Where ghosts and monsters be. | 10 |
| What fairer folk can heart desire | |
| Than my sweet cubs and me? | |
| And who shall bring us fish and flesh | |
| When you are gone away? | |
| Come, spread the net and string the bow— | 15 |
| But fare not far astray! | |
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| What are you scratching there on the rock? | |
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| —I’m carving pictures here— | |
| Feathered bird and otter furred, | |
| To bide for many a year. | 20 |
| When a thousand moons have waxed and waned | |
| And I am dust and smoke, | |
| Men shall behold my handiwork | |
| And praise the master-stroke. | |
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| —O sluggard, leave your idle ways— | 25 |
| Behold our bitter dearth! | |
| We shiver in the frosty wind | |
| And couch upon the earth. | |
| Go, strip the otter and her cubs | |
| For coats and kirtles fine, | 30 |
| And pluck the feathered bird to strew | |
| A bed for me and mine. | |
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| What are you doing out in the dark? | |
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| —I count the stars in the sky, | |
| And wonder if they are the souls | 35 |
| Of such as you and I; | |
| And if the bear and the lean gray wolf | |
| Have souls like yours and mine, | |
| That go to feed the milky way | |
| Or make the great stars shine. | 40 |
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| —O dreamer, what are the stars to you | |
| And the souls of wolf and bear? | |
| The gray wolf prowls about the rock | |
| And sniffs upon the air; | |
| His eyes are shining in the dark | 45 |
| Like stars above the sea! | |
| Build high the fire before the cave | |
| To guard my cubs and me. | |
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| What do you see that stare so hard? | |
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| —A face all smooth and white, | 50 |
| And breasts and shoulders smooth and round | |
| And soft in the flickering light. | |
| I muse how wondrous women are | |
| And how unlike to men … | |
| I saw white arms in the sea at dawn … | 55 |
| Long since … and never again … | |
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| —You love me not, O stranger man, | |
| Who talk of women and men, | |
| Of white arms in the sea at dawn … | |
| You love me never again! | 60 |
| You sit and dream the while I wait— | |
| And the little ones all asleep … | |
| Oh, if you love me a little, man, | |
| Kiss me … or I shall weep! | |
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