It is enough that in this burdened time The soul sees all its purposes aright. The rest—what does it matter? Soon the night Will come to whelm us, then the morning chime. What does it matter, if but in the way One hand clasps ours, one heart believes us true; One understands the work we try to do, And strives through Love to teach us what to say? Between me and the chilly outer air Which blows in from the world, there standeth one Who draws Love’s curtains closely everywhere, As God folds down the banners of the sun. Warm is my place about me, and above, Where was the raven, I behold the dove. Parker’s lyrical verse, like his sonnet-sequence, is the poetry of a young man who still possesses the enthusiasms of youth for all the lovelier and happier things in existence, and who rejoices in living. From the text of Parker’s lyrics it is plain that he had the gifts of a lyrist in the original Greek meaning, of one who wrote poems to be _sung_ to the accompaniment of the lyre. He was gifted to turn a sentiment either seriously or playfully with simplicity and directness of diction and with winning musical lilt. In truth, if he had turned to song composition, he was more ideally equipped to write the texts of poems for songs than was the greatest of American song composers, the late Edward MacDowell, who, for lack of singable lyrical texts, was compelled to compose his own poems as well as their musical settings. There is a spontaneity of lyrical lilt, lyrical verve, in Parker’s lighter poems, which he composed both in literary English and in ‘Irishy.’ As an example of the musical and colorful qualities of his lyrics in literary English, the following poem from _Embers_ will aptly serve:— I heard the desert calling, and my heart stood still— There was winter in my world and in my heart; A breath came from the mesa, and a message stirred my will, And my soul and I arose up to depart. I heard the desert calling, and I knew that over there In an olive-sheltered garden where the mesquite grows, Was a woman of the sunrise with the star-shine in her hair And a beauty that the almond-blossom blows. I hear the desert calling, and my heart stands still— There is summer in my world, and in my heart; A breath comes from the mesa, and a will beyond my will Blinds my footsteps as I rise up to depart. As an example of his musical quality and humor in ‘Irishy,’ the following lyric from _Embers_ is apt and fetching:— It was as fine a churchful as you ever clapt an eye on; Oh, the bells was ringin’ gaily, and the sun was shinin’ free; There was singers, there was clargy—‘Bless ye both,’ says Father Tryon— They was weddin’ Mary Callaghan and me.