LOCAL AND NATIONAL POETS OF AMERICA. COLONEL GEO. W. WARDER. BORN: RICHMOND, MO. WHEN but a boy in years Mr Warder taught school, studied law, and was a practicing attorney at Chillicothe, Mo. He is a lawyer, a business man, a financier, a scholar, and a COLONEL GEO. W. WARDER. poet. Mr. Warder has issued three volumes of verse, which have attracted considerable attention, and established for the author an enviable reputation; in 1873 appeared Poetic Writings or College Poems; in 1874 Eden Dell or Love's Wanderings; and his third volume, a collection of his finest poems, entitled Utopian Dreams and Lotus Leaves, was issued from the London press in 1885. Since his residence in Kansas City, Col. Warder has attained a position of prominence and influence in the community. He is president of the Mining Exchange, a director in the Exposition Association, the Warder Grand Opera House, Newsboys Home, and is connected with many enterprises and charitable institutions. WOMAN. Methinks, o'er all the realms of space, A nobler form, or fairer face, For her approving love and smiles. With swelling heart and anxious breath, At your own hearth, or where ye roam, Strive with true love to bless and cheer This angel of our earthly home. MEMORY AND IMAGINATION. There's a world within as a world without, And the mighty depths of the human soul Is a boundless sea where the billows roll To the zephyr's sigh, and the thunder's shout; Where voices come from the sobbing years Like watching stars in their dreamy spheres, And the soul, like earth in its mystic flight, Is half in shadow and half in light. Thou mighty magicians to stir the heart To its silent depths with thy voice of tears, Pouring its pathos of tremulous fears, Till the troubled sea of the soul will start, And feeling and passion like billows roll From the sighing heart to the sobbing soul; Eyes dreamy and blue as the tranquil sea; Face beaming and changeful, pleasing and fair; i 34 LOCAL AND NATIONAL POETS OF AMERICA. Voice sad and sweet as a Magdalen's prayer To a pardoning Christ when He set her free. Thy genius, purpose and mission grand Teaches men to feel and their souls expand, That mercy may blend with her loving eyes, The joys of earth with the dreams of the skies. THY FACE IS FAIR AND LOVELY. Thy face is fair and lovely, Thine eyes are softly blue, And who could help but love thee, Who knows the wealth and depth of love The purity like heaven above, Thy soul looks through the doors of sight, And once I gazed into those eyes That beam with heavenly thought, That diamond gem within it. Then fleeting time did plume her wing, And from the streams of bliss did bring Us gladness without measure. The zephyrs sang unto the sea, The golden stars were beaming, While hope, like bird on pinions free, Her sweetest dream was dreaming. Endymion on the moonlit hills Ne'er bathed in Cynthia's smiling, And felt the sweet enrapturing thrills, As in that hour's beguiling. MARY ANDERSON. Interpreter of truth and art, With regal form and queenly grace? Is thy sweet charm of womanhood; Than czar, or king, or magnates rule, And in angelic livery stand, In art, expression, form and grace, SADDEST THOUGHTS MAKE SWEETEST When the twilight shades are falling And from shadows dim and fleeting In the gloaming by the way, O! our saddest thoughts are sweetest! Hope crowned, heavenward and untiring, Like the murmur of bright rivers Like a birdling in its nest, KISS OUR DARLING AND COME AWAY. EXTRACT. Dead! Our darling is dead, dear wife, life. Kiss him again, for only to-day Can you kiss our darling, and come away. f LOCAL AND NATIONAL POETS OF AMERICA. REV. JEREMIAH E. RANKIN. BORN: THORNTON, N. H. GRADUATING at Andover theological seminary in 1854, Mr. Rankin has since preached in Potsdam, N. Y., St. Albans, Vt., Lowell and Charleston, Mass., and for thirteen years has been pastor of the First Congregational REV. JEREMIAH EAMS RANKIN. church of Washington, D. C., where he still labors. The Rev. Rankin is called the Radical Poet Preacher of the Capital; he has a clear and sympathetic voice, and has become very popular. He has published numerous hymns, poems and sermons. A volume entitled Subduing Kingdoms, and other Sermons, appeared in 1882; and in 1889 appeared Broken Cadences, a poem in three parts. TEARS. The tears which here are flowing In this dark world below, At night an angel bears them Above earth's hills of snow. It is so far to Heaven, And tears so heavy be, That many a tear is dropping Back to the deep, deep sea. But, when to earth descending, A gathered teardrop goes, It blooms a thing of beauty, A snow-white lily blows. Perhaps a lily blossoms On earth there blooms a flower, As I from home an exile, Have swept this twilight hour. ABOON THE STARS. O snawie feet, sae veined wi' blue, Wi greetin' een, I've sought for you, Aboon the stars? I ken, I ken, What service do they there? Does Heav'n itsel' need little men, To make its mansions fair? Do little feet rin in an' oot? Is bairnheid laughter heard? An' mithers may be mithers there, At least, until I better ken, I'll dream the pleasant thought; Nor think our bairns grow up to men, An' sae, alas, are not! BROKEN CADENCES. EXTRACT. My childhood sense and vision Of things elysian, How can I ever lose? For all things that I see Are more to me, If wet with life's fresh morning dews: The light they keep, in which at first They on my being burst. For, not a paltry thing of years, Whose sense grows dim and vision blears, Can childhood be, A transient ecstasy; It is God's kingdom, where He keeps all things unfolding fair; Where every sight Perennial yields a fresh delight; The colors cannot fade The childhood spirit still shall find If but life's burdens we unbind, Ourselves escape from brooding cares, If we but offer childhood's prayers, The old time sights and sounds Will burst their upland bounds, And flood our being unawares: |