th,
The urge that drives Christs to the cross
Not for the love of one beloved,
But for the love of all?
If so, she wakes!
Wakes and demands a share in all man's bolder
destinies,
The high, audacious ventures of the soul
That thinks to scale the bastioned slopes
And strike stark Chaos from his throne.
We still stand in the dawn of time.
Not meanly let us stand nor shaken with low
doubts!
For there beyond the verge and margin of gray cloud
The future thrills with promise
And the skies are tremulous with golden light;--
She too would share those victories,
Comrade, and more than comrade;--
New times, new needs confront us now;
We must evolve new powers
To battle with;--
We must go forward now together,
Or perchance we fail!

ENVOI

A LITTLE WHILE

_A little while the tears and laughter,
The willow and the rose--
A little while, and what comes after
No man knows.

An hour to sing, to love and linger ...
Then lutanist and lute
Will fall on silence, song and singer
Both be mute.

Our gods from our desires we fashion....
Exalt our baffled lives,
And dream their vital bloom and passion
Still survives;

But when we're done with mirth and weeping,
With myrtle, rue, and rose,
Shall Death take Life into his keeping? ...
No man knows._

_What heart hath not, through twilight places,
Sought for its dead again
To gild with love their pallid faces? ...
Sought in vain! ...

Still mounts the Dream on shining pinion ...
Still broods the dull distrust ...
Which shall have ultimate dominion,
Dream, or dust?

A little while with grief and laughter,
And then the day will close;
The shadows gather ... what comes after
No man knows!_

Note: In "The Parting," page 161, line 4, I have changed "they
face" to "thy face"; in "The Struggle," page 173, line 4, I have
changed "l!o" to "lo!"

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dreams and Dust, by Don Marquis

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DREAMS AND DUST ***

***** This file should be named 458.txt or 458.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/4/5/458/

Produced by Judith Boss

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions me