The Century Chest Collection
Poems for the Century Chest
(Transcribed from the original)
Oklahoma City Poems
In the Century Chest
The Bishop's House
427 W. Ninth Street
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The Gifts of Sorrow
(I.M. John Thomson Brooke. born April 22, 1885 died August 15, 1907)
1.
These are your gifts to me, dear lad,
These three, yea, four are they.
Four new things, come, so sweet and sad,
Since you are gone away;
2.
The throb of sudden memory,
When reading. I divine
The broken phrase of poetry
That sings a loss like mine;
3.
The far-off singing in the night
Of careless, happy days,
That brings the tears, so strangely bright
With unforgotten joys;
4.
The wistful sigh whene'er, alas,
I see, upon a day,
A brother and a sister pass
Together, on their way;
5.
And last, the gracious company
That keeps you always near,
Since all young lads are dear to me,
Because you were so dear.
The Way to Inde
(Published in Scribner's Magazine)
1.
The land that drives her lovers mad,
For whom Clive died, and Hastings
sinned,
And England gave the best she had, --
And all to hold the way to Inde.
2.
So, first, we keep the beetling rock
By loud Atlantic surges dinned,
Hold they the gate, but we the lock
That bars and keeps the way
to Inde.
3.
And that great dyke from sea to sea,
That, breathless, knows no favoring
wind,
And Aden's hill. And Kurrachee
We guard, who hold the way to Inde.
4.
Far to the north our legions press,
Among the clouded peaks of Hind,
By desert and by wilderness,
And all to hold the way
to Inde.
5.
Between the Khyber's dusky bands
That saw those lusty legions thinned,
In peace go down the caravans,
Because we hold the way to Inde.
6.
In Persian Empire by the sea,
From Far Kabul to distant Scinde
They watch to know if Muscovy
Or England hold the way to Inde.
7.
So we will keep our ancient fame,
The creed to which our faith
is pinned.
And guard the Empire in their name
Who fought to hold the way
to Inde.
22 April, 1913