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Fires of Driftwood

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<h1 align="center">FIRES OF DRIFTWOOD</h1> <h2 align="center">BY ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY</h2> <h3 align="center">WITH DECORATIONS BY J.E.H. MACDONALD A.R.C.A.</h3> First published by McClelland & Stewart, Limited, Toronto, 1922. <hr>  <blockquote>The thanks of the author are due to the editors of Ainslee’s Magazine, The American Magazine, The Canadian Magazine, Canadian Home Journal, The Canadian Bookman, The Forum, The Globe, Harper’s Magazine, The Independent, The Ladies’ World, McClure’s Magazine, Metropolitan Magazine, The Reader Magazine, Scribner’s Magazine, Saturday Night, and The Youth’s Companion for permission to publish this verse in its present form.</blockquote>  <h3>CONTENTS</h3> <ul> <li>FIRES OF DRIFTWOOD</li> <li>WHEN AS A LAD</li> <li>LAUREATE</li> <li>OUT OF BABYLON</li> <li>LAST SPRING</li> <li>PRESENCE</li> <li>IN AN AUTUMN GARDEN</li> <li>ROSE DOLORES</li> <li>A PILGRIM</li> <li>SPRING WILL COME</li> <li>COSMOS</li> <li>THE SECRET</li> <li>I WATCH SWIFT PICTURES</li> <li>FEAR</li> <li>RESURRECTION</li> <li>THE LOST NAME</li> <li>THE HAPPY TRAVELLER</li> <li>THE DEAD BRIDE</li> <li>THE CROCUS BED</li> <li>THE VISION</li> <li>THE MIRACLE</li> <li>THE HOMESTEADER</li> <li>WET WEATHER</li> <li>THE SLEEPING BEAUTY</li> <li>DOWN AT THE DOCKS</li> <li>LAKE LOUISE</li> <li>THE GATEKEEPER</li> <li>THE BRIDGE BUILDER</li> <li>THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL</li> <li>CALGARY STATION</li> <li>VALE</li> <li>THE WAY TO WAIT</li> <li>THE PASSER BY</li> <li>FIRST LOVE</li> <li>SAD ONE, MUST YOU WEEP</li> <li>JOSEPH</li> <li>A CHRISTMAS CHILD</li> <li>SPRING IN NAZARETH</li> <li>INHERITANCE</li> <li>SONG OF THE SLEEPER</li> <li>THE TYRANT</li> <li>THE GIFTS</li> <li>THE TOWN BETWEEN</li> <li>ON THE MOUNTAIN</li> <li>THE PROPHET</li> <li>GIVE ME A DAY</li> <li>LITTLE BROWN BIRD</li> <li>THE WATCHER</li> <li>POSSESSION</li> <li>TO ARCADY</li> <li>THE FIELDS OF EVEN</li> <li>I LOVE MY LOVE</li> <li>SPRING AWOKE TO-DAY</li> <li>IN TOWN</li> <li>SUMMER’S PASSING</li> <li>THE DOOM OF YS</li> <li>TIME’S GARDEN</li> <li>THE COMING OF LOVE</li> <li>PREMONITION</li> <li>THE CHILD</li> <li>INTRUSION</li> <li>THE SEA’S WITHHOLDING</li> <li>LOVE UNKIND</li> <li>CHRISTMAS IN HEAVEN</li> <li>I WHISPERED TO THE BOB-O-LINK</li> <li>YOU</li> <li>THE MOTHER</li> <li>THE VASSAL</li> <li>THE TROUBADOUR</li> <li>INDIAN SUMMER</li> <li>THE UNCHANGED</li> <li>INDIFFERENCE</li> <li>LAST THINGS</li> <li>CALLOUS CUPID</li> <li>THE MEETING</li> <li>THE PIPER</li> <li>WANDERLUST</li> <li>GOLD</li> <li>THE MATERIALIST</li> <li>TIR NAN OG</li> <li>THE LITTLE MAN IN GREEN</li> <li>THE ENCHANTRESS</li> <li>THE BANSHEE</li> <li>THE WITCH</li> <li>FAIRY SINGING</li> <li>KILLED IN ACTION</li> <li>SPRING CAME IN</li> <li>FROM THE TRENCHES</li> <li>THE REASONS</li> <li>TO-DAY</li> <li>MEMORY</li> <li>DREAM</li> <li>PERHAPS</li> <li>GLAMOUR</li> <li>FRIENDSHIP</li> <li>THE RETURNED MAN</li> <li>EPITAPH</li> <li>FOR ONE WHO WENT IN SPRING</li> </ul> <hr>  <h3 id="Fires_of_Driftwood">Fires of Driftwood</h3> ON what long tides Do you drift to my fire, You waifs of strange waters? From what far seas, What murmurous sands, What desolate beaches— Flotsam of those glories that were ships! I gather you, Bitter with salt, Sun-bleached, rock-scarred, moon-harried, Fuel for my fire. You are Pride’s end. Through all to-morrows you are yesterday. You are waste, You are ruin, For where is that which once you were? I gather you. See! I set free the fire within you— You awake in thin flame! Tremulous, mistlike, your soul aspires, Blue, beautiful, Up and up to the clouds which are its kindred! What is left is nothing— Ashes blown along the shore!  <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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