The Call of the Mountains
and other Poems
By
James E. Pickering
Author of
"The King's Temptation," "The Cap of Care," etc.
London
A. C. Fifield, Clifford's Inn, E.C.
1913
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.
PLYMOUTH
The Cap of Care
By
James E. Pickering
Grey Board Series, No. 18. 1s. net
"Mr. Pickering's metrical faculties are as deft and cunning as those ofanyone now writing verse."—Athenæum.
A. C. Fifield, 13 Clifford's Inn, E.C.
Contents
The Call of the Mountains
The Old Manor House
The Science Master
Through the Centuries
Winter
Pain and Death
Switzerland
Burial at Sea
The Master of the Marionettes
Love's Counterfeit
The Most Precious Thing
Autumn
To L
Duty
Sonnets
Glastonbury
Galileo
Stratford-on-Avon
To a Daffodil
The Appian Way
From the Fields
Vénus de Milo
Fire
Under the shade of the Kursaal veranda
Idly I follow the flight of the seagulls,
Gleaming like snow when their wings catch the sunshine,
While from the palm-house adjacent is wafted
Music half drowned in a babel of voices,
Fitting the mode of this temple of follies.
Far though the mountains, their influence, ever
Changeful in temper, from sombre to smiling,
Constant in wileful and mystic allurement,
Rouses unrest and a strange fascination.
Limpid and blue are the waters of Leman
Clear in the deepness, translucent and shining,
Blue as the ether's ineffable azure,
Bright in the glow of the midsummer sunshine.
Cleaving the air with their palpitant pinions,
Wheeling and drifting, the beautiful seagulls
Fly with the grace of unconscious perfection,
Crying exultant and wild in a chorus.
Are you not fit for the realm of immortals,
To float on the winds of the gardens Elysian?
Or must you hover a little while longer—
Wandering souls in a state of probation—
Half-way uplifted beyond our defilement,
Half-way removed from the land of the blessed?
Far in the d