The Days of a Man 1895 



Deeply hidden in your eyes, 

 Undeciphered histories 

 Graven in the ages vast, 

 Lie there to be read at last: 

 Graven deep, they must be true; 

 Shall I read them unto you? 



Once a man, now faint and dim 

 With the centuries over him, 

 Wandered from an ancient town 

 On its hills slow-creeping down; 

 O'er the ocean, bold and free. 

 Roved in careless errantry. 

 With Vizcaino had he fared, 

 And his strange adventures dared; 

 Restless ever, drifting on, 

 Far as foot of man had gone; 

 On his cheek the salt that clings 

 To the Headland of the Kings, 

 Flung from the enchanted sea 

 Of Saint Francis Assisi! 

 Rover o'er the ocean blue 

 What has he to do with you? 



Only this: he sailed one day 



To your Massachusetts Bay, 



And this voyage was his last, 



For Love seized and held him fast. 



Of that old romance of his 



None can tell you more than this, 



Saving that, as legacies 



To his child, he left his eyes 



Black as the obsidian stone 



With a luster all their own, 



Seeing as by magic ken 



Deep into the hearts of men. 



And mid tides of changing years, 



Dreams and hopes and cares and fears, 



Life that flows and ebbs alway, 



Love has kept them loyally. 



C 532 3 



