Chapter I: Front Matter

THE BLACK PANTHER

THE BLACK PANTHER

A BOOK OF POEMS

BY
JOHN HALL WHEELOCK

AUTHOR OF

“THE HUMAN FANTASY” “THE BELOVÈD ADVENTURE”
“LOVE AND LIBERATION” “DUST AND LIGHT,” ETC.

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1922

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

Printed in the United States of America

The author thanks the editors of the following, for kind permission to reprint here various poems first published in their pages: _All’s Well_, _The American Magazine_, _The Art World_, _The Bellman_, _The Bookman_, _The Century Magazine_, _Contemporary Verse_, _The Dial_, _The Forum_, _The Freeman_, _Harper’s Monthly_, _The International_, _The Literary Review of The New York Evening Post_, _The Lyric_, _McClure’s Magazine_, _The Outlook_, _Poetry_, _The Poetry Journal_, _The Poetry Review_, _Reedy’s Mirror_, _Scribner’s Magazine_, _The Smart Set_, _The Yale Review_, _Youth_. Thanks are also due to Messrs. Harcourt, Brace and Company for permission to reprint “Sea-Horizons,” first published in the anthology, _Enchanted Years_.

CONTENTS

PAGE
_The Black Panther_ 3

_I. Dim Wisdoms_

NIGHT HAS ITS FEAR 7

THE SORROWFUL MASQUERADE 12

OCTOBER MOONLIGHT 13

THE FLESH AND THE DREAM 15

VAUDEVILLE 16

1914 18

THE BELOVÈD 19

PROUD DOOM 21

THE SECRET ONE 22

THE UNDISSUADABLE AUSTERITY 25

BLIND PLAYERS 26

TRAVAIL 28

THE POET TELLS OF HIS LOVE 29

THE BURIED DREAM 31

HAUNTED EARTH 32

LONG AGO 34

TCHAIKOVSKY: FIFTH SYMPHONY 35

MIRROR 36

PLAINT 38

ANDANTE 39

THE DEAR MYSTERY 42

IN THE DARK CITY 43

_II. Space and Solitude_

IMMENSITY 47

SEA-HORIZONS 48

OF DAY CAME NIGHT 51

PILGRIM 53

BY THE GRAY SEA 54

THE FISH-HAWK 55

DISDAINFUL BEAUTY 57

MY LONELY ONE 58

_III. The Lost Traveller’s Dream_

WILD THOUGHT 63

JOURNEY’S END 64

BELATED LOVE 65

A LEAVE-TAKING 66

BUT LOVE-- 72

ANNE 73

THE SILENCE 74

EXULTATION 75

SONG OF SONGS 77

SORROWFUL FREEDOM 78

STARLESS MORNING 79

PHANTOM 80

LEGEND 81

_IV. The Divine Fantasy_ 85

_The Lion-House_ 97

THE BLACK PANTHER

There is a panther caged within my breast;
But what his name, there is no breast shall know
Save mine, nor what it is that drives him so,
Backward and forward, in relentless quest--
That silent rage, baffled but unsuppressed,
The soft pad of those stealthy feet that go
Over my body’s prison to and fro,
Trying the walls forever without rest.

All day I feed him with my living heart;
But when the night puts forth her dreams and stars,
The inexorable Frenzy reawakes:
His wrath is hurled upon the trembling bars,
The eternal passion stretches me apart,
And I lie silent--but my body shakes.