| Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922. |
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| Ballad of a Child |
| | | John G. Neihardt |
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| YEARLY 1 thrilled the plum tree | |
| With the mother-mood; | |
| Every June the rose stock | |
| Bore her wonder-child: | |
| Every year the wheatlands | 5 |
| Reared a golden brood: | |
| World of praying Rachaels, | |
| Heard and reconciled! | |
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| “Poet,” said the plum tree’s | |
| Singing white and green, | 10 |
| “What avails your mooning, | |
| Can you fashion plums?” | |
| “Dreamer,” crooned the wheatland’s | |
| Rippling vocal sheen, | |
| “See my golden children | 15 |
| Marching as with drums!” | |
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| “By a god begotten,” | |
| Hymned the sunning vine, | |
| “In my lyric children | |
| Purple music flows!” | 20 |
| “Singer,” breathed the rose bush, | |
| “Are they not divine?” | |
| “Have you any daughters | |
| Mighty as a rose?” | |
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| Happy, happy mothers! | 25 |
| Cruel, cruel words! | |
| Mine are ghostly children, | |
| Haunting all the ways; | |
| Latent in the plum bloom, | |
| Calling through the birds, | 30 |
| Romping with the wheat brood | |
| In their shadow plays! | |
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| Gotten out of star-glint, | |
| Mothered of the Moon; | |
| Nurtured with the rose scent, | 35 |
| Wild elusive throng! | |
| Something of the vine’s dream | |
| Crept into a tune; | |
| Something of the wheat-drone | |
| Echoed in a song. | 40 |
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| Once again the white fires | |
| Smoked among the plums; | |
| Once again the world-joy | |
| Burst the crimson bud; | |
| Golden-bannered wheat broods | 45 |
| Marched to fairy drums; | |
| Once again the vineyard | |
| Felt the Bacchic blood. | |
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| “Lo, he comes,—the dreamer”— | |
| Crooned the whitened boughs, | 50 |
| “Quick with vernal love-fires— | |
| Oh, at last he knows! | |
| See the bursting plum bloom | |
| There above his brows!” | |
| “Boaster!” breathed the rose bush, | 55 |
| “’Tis a budding rose!” | |
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| Droned the glinting acres, | |
| “In his soul, mayhap, | |
| Something like a wheat-dream | |
| Quickens into shape!” | 60 |
| Sang the sunning vineyard, | |
| “Lo, the lyric sap | |
| Sets his heart a-throbbing | |
| Like a purple grape!” | |
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| Mother of the wheatlands, | 65 |
| Mother of the plums, | |
| Mother of the vineyard— | |
| All that loves and grows— | |
| Such a living glory | |
| To the dreamer comes, | 70 |
| Mystic as a wheat-song, | |
| Mighty as a rose! | |
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| Star-glint, moon-glow, | |
| Gathered in a mesh! | |
| Spring-hope, white fire | 75 |
| By a kiss beguiled! | |
| Something of the world-joy | |
| Dreaming into flesh! | |
| Bird-song, vine-thrill | |
| Quickened to a child! | 80 |
| | | Note 1. Reprinted by permission of the publishers, from The Quest, by John G. Neihardt. Copyright, 1916, by The Macmillan Company. [back] |
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