Arcata High School - Advance Yearbook (Arcata, CA)

Page 25 text:

This story, dealing with problems of character and thought, is told in a few bold lines, brief yet vivid. The whole poem is a series of extracts from a life. They may come in suc- cession by days or they may be chosen at intervals, but the fact remains that they form together a cycle of char- acter development. In this poem the first portion is devoted to the study of the influence of actual natural conditions upon mood. This development of mood may be divided into two parts, doubt and certainty. ' Doubt to james Lee's wife means dread and foreboding, which makes, unconsciously through its own force, all nature foretell sorrow and misfor- tune. Nature, while seeming to pro- duce this dread, is in reality forced to assume its threatening aspect through the strength of the wife's m00d. Ah, Love, but a day, And the world has changed! The sun's away, And the bird estrangedg The wind has dropped, And the sky's deranged: Summer has stopped. In this mood nature, however bright it might be, would foretell to her harm and sorrow. Our fig-tree, that leaned for the salt- ness has furled Her five fingers, Each leaf like a hand opened wide to the world Where there lingers No glint of the gold Summer sent for her sakeg How the vines writhe in rows, each im- paled an its stake! My heart shrivels up and my spirit shrinks curled. At length she is forced to admit that her husband has lost his love for her, and she accepts this decree in a manner which proves her innate strength. Nothing can be as it has been before: Better, so call it, only not the Same. To draw one beauty into our heart's core, And keep it changelessl Such our claimi So answer, Nevermorel Change is the law of the universe, and she submits, feeling that it is for the best, thinking. however to herself: Only, for man, how bitter not to grave On his sou1't hands' palms one fair. good, wise thing Just as he grasped it! . But with this certainty the changs ing moods of the wife cease and the development of her character in the truest sense begins. Her love loses its selfishness and extends to all mankind. - She leaves her husband and ap- parently her love for him or her life is a failure 5 but in spite of all she has a perfect faith in a perfect love. These poems are written by differ- ene men whose viewsiand ideals of life are far different. The material and treatment Of the poems are not alike. But the conclusion reached by both is essentially the same, that character may be developed by the growth of a spiritual quality,-love, hatred, fear or jealousy. And this one determin- ing quality or characteristic affects a person's attitude toward nature and toward men. Thus we see that the mind alone is supreme, the mind alone can judge or reward our actions. The mind can, it is true, be influenced not by nature or by men, but only by itself or its dominating characteristic. Na- ture is our servant and assumes to our eyes an aspect corresponding to the conditions of our minds. Men Twenty-three

Page 24 text:

studying the mood of Maud's lover and not his character which, so far as we can determine, has not advanc- ed from the weak, nerveless thing it was, although it has undoubtedly stored up force for a future rise. In the next division of the poem the development of mood of the lover reaches its highest point. I-Ie sees in all an ideal beauty and hope and love. Come into the garden, Maud, For the black bat, night, has flown, Come into the garden, Maud, I am here at the gate aloneg And the Woodbine spices are wafted abroad And the musk of the rose is blown. Ik uf in is For a breeze of morning moves And the planet of love is on high. In this high development of a tem- porary joy all nature becomes alive and rejoices with him 3 for There has fallen a splendid tear From the passion flower at the gate, She is coming, my love, my dearg She is coming, my life, my fate. The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near,' And the white rose weeps, 'She is late! The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear,' And the lily whispers, 'I wait.' But at this point ceases the devel0p- ment of mood and begins the devel- opment of character. For from this time we are chiefly concerned with his attitude toward men. And as -in the relation of the lover to nature, so also do his relations to men begin at the lowest stage, shroud- ed in gloom. For he has killed Maud's brother, and There rang on a sudden a passionate cry A cryf for a brother's blood, Now he is concerned with men and not with nature and his despair is pro- portionately deeper. He is at last driven to total insanity. His ravings Twenty-fwq, V are terrible in their absolute, dead hopelessness. Dead, long dead, Long dead! And my heart is a handful of dust, And the wheels go over my head, And my bones are shaken with pain, For into a shallow grave they are thrust. x at is is x There is never an end to the stream of passing feet t Driving, hurryingg marrying, burying, Clamor and rumble, and ringing and clattery And here it is all as bad, For I thought that the dead had peace, but it is not so. At length an awakened love of country rouses him from his mad- ness and he speaks: It is time That old hysterical mock-disease should die. And there is hope that he may con- quer himself, for in his own words, As long, O God, as she Have a grain of love for me, So long, no doubt, no doubt, Shall I nurse in my dark heart, However weary, a spark of will Not to be trampled out. In fact he does conquer, for at the close we hear him say, I myself have awaked, as it seems, to the better mind: I have felt with my native land, I am one with my kind. I embrace the purpose of God and the doom assigned. Thus we see that a true love has changed a weak character into a strong one and has saved a soul from itself. The story of James Lee's Wife is far different, and yet in its essentials it is strangely similar. Its main theme is also the saving power of loveg but it is the account of the de- velopment which brings a strong char- acter from indifference to mankind into a true relation with men. I

Page 26 text:

as a whole remain the same, though an individual man may rise or sink i' the scale. Both poems, then, portray the con- quest of a mind over all the influen- ces which might drag it down. And this victory is shown by the fact that both the man and woman are brought into a closer relation with men. This alone is the victory and alone can be the victory. For surely no character can have reached its highest develop- ment until it can take its place un- abashed among its companions in the world, only when it is one -with its kind. 09212 in the Eging Hear. Hail to the dying year! Children of earth Fall not upon her breast, to despair addrest! Lift up your heads and hear the Bells, Hark! for past grief is fleeing, and lost hopes are bleeding. Hail! The city is enfolded in the cloak of Night, But look! the moon with its silver beams Stands guardg The steeples rise in the dusky light, Twenty-four Sentinels of Love on every hand, V Awake! See the bells, they are swing- ing, To the heart they are ringing New love and hope. How the heart doth leap! How the pulse doth beat! The babe stirs in its sleep But knows it uotg The mother smiles and understands. Each saddened heart with new hope smiles and feels- The happiness of earth. Gertrude Harlan, '14