Chapter XXII: Heliotrope

Let my soul and thine commune, Heliotrope. O'er the way I hear the swoon Of the music; and the moon, Like a moth above a bloom, Shines upon the world below. In God's hand the world we know, Is but as a flower in mine. Let me see thy heart divine Heliotrope.

Thy rare odor is thy soul, Heliotrope. Could I save the golden bowl, And yet change my soul to yours, I would do so for a day, Just to hear my neighbors say: "Lo! the spirit he immures Is as fragrant as a flower; It will wither in an hour; Surely he has stol'n the bliss, For we know the odor is Heliotrope."

Have you love and have you fear, Heliotrope? Has a dew-drop been thy tear? Has the south-wind been thy sigh? Let thy soul make mine reply, By some sense, on brain or hand, Let me know and understand, Heliotrope.

In thy native land, Peru, Heliotrope, There are worshippers of light-- They might better worship you; But they worship not as I. You must tell her what I say, When I take you 'cross the way, For to-night your petals prove The Devotion of my love, Heliotrope.

'Tis time we go, breath o' bee, Heliotrope. All the house is lit for me; Here's the room where we may dwell, Filled with guests delectable. Hark! I hear the silver bell Ever tinkling at her throat. I have thought it was a boat, By the Graces put afloat, On the billows of her heart. I have thought it was a boat With a bird in it, whose part Was a solitary note. Now I know 'tis Heliotrope That the moonlight, bursting ope, Changed to silver on her throat. Let us watch the dancers go; _She_ is dancing in the row. Sweetest flower that ever was, I shall give you as I pass, Heliotrope.

KARAGWE, AN AFRICAN.

PART FIRST.

This is his story as I gathered it; The simple story of a plain, true man. I cling with Abraham Lincoln to the fact, That they who make a nation truly great Are plain men, scattered in each walk of life. To them, my words. And if I cut, perchance. Against the rind of prejudice, and disclose The fruit of truth, it is for the love of truth; And truth, I hold with Joubert, to consist In seeing things and persons as God sees.

I.

An African, thick lipped, and heavy heeled, With woolly hair, large eyes, and even teeth, A forehead high, and beetling at the brows Enough to show a strong perceptive thought Ran out beyond the eyesight in all things-- A negro with no claim to any right, A savage with no knowledge we possess Of science, art, or books, or government-- Slave from a slaver to the Georgia coast, His life disposed of at the market rate; Yet in the face of all, a plain, true man-- Lowly and ignorant, yet brave and good, Karagwe, named for his native tribe.

His buyer was the planter, Dalton Earl, Of Valley Earl, an owner of broad lands, Whose wife, in some gray daybreak of the past, Had tarried with the night, and passed away; But left him, as the marriage ring of death Was slipped upon her finger, a fair child. He called this daughter Coralline. To him She was a spray of whitest coral, found Upon the coast where death's impatient sea Hems in the narrow continent of life.