Chapter I: Front Matter

MUSE AND MINT

BY
WALTER S. PERCY

BOSTON
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY
1914

COPYRIGHT, 1914
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY

TO

MY DEAR MOTHER AND WIFE

WHO BEST LOVED MY MUSE
AND WHOSE LOVE WAS THE
MINT THAT EVER MADE IT
AN INSPIRATION AND JOY

MUSE AND MINT

I mused upon the strangeness of all things,
So different from the dream
Whereof the morning mounted up on wings
Above the world agleam
With light that trembled into life and love
As when a censer swings
And joy of promise sings--
“The dream whereof
The gleam above
The world is love!”

Oh, bitterness to muse and neither find
The beauty of the Muse
Nor yet the music which the soul divined
Ere set the rosy hues
In sombre lines that disenchant and fret
The heart with growing grief
Which struggles for relief--
“O Muse, but let
My spirit yet
The rue forget!”

As if to answer me a little child,
To whom the sunshine’s glint
Was gloom forever, on the corner smiled
And vended sprigs of mint,
As though there were in blindness still a bloom
And fragrance which could reach
The passer-by and teach--
“In glint or gloom
There’s mint in bloom
To earth perfume!”

CONTENTS

NATURE

PAGE

FIREFLIES 3

BO-PEEP 5

PEEP-OF-DAWN 6

THE RILLY RIVER 7

CHERRIES 8

A SNOWFLAKE 10

THE BLIZZARD 11

SUGARING OFF 12

THE CHRYSALIS 13

WHEN I SURVEY 14

PAUPACK 19

FIRESIDE

MOTHER 23

CHATTERBOX 24

LITTLE STOCKING 26

ELFIN FACES 28

SWEET ’STEEN 30

BOY 31

A CHILD’S LIFTED CROSS 32

THE BOY MILLIONAIRE 33

A LULLABY 34

THE LAST SONG 35

YOUTH 36

AGE 36

SENTIMENT

A CORONATION 39

I’LL BE WATCHING ON THE SHORE 40