The Gold Seekers

[N.J.THer]

I came across this poem while reading a paper from 1902 looking for detecting leads. Thought I would share.
NJ

March 8, 1902

THE GOLD SEEKERS

The panting steamer slowly drops
Away from the crowded pier;
The blackened decks recede from view
And leave me musing here.

Away where the gold so warm and red,
lies hid in the dark earth's breast;
little they reck of danger android,
Aglow witt the golden quest.

The rosy youth Witt kindling eye,
In his manhood's early dawn,
The pale man with the student's stoop,
The stalwart man of brawn.

All. each and all, with fevered gaze
Fixed on the fields of gold;
Ah, well-a-day I for a faith that's firm
And a heart that is brave and bold.

For those there be who will come again,
All broken and worn and van,
While others left in the Arctic snows
Will slumber forever on.

And some will empty-handed come,
Who have missed the golden goal,
And some with gold too dear, alas I
The price of a sinless soul.

And those at home will sit at night
And the wind sweeps where it wills
With hearts away in a shambling shack
In the wild Alaskan Mils.

'Tis thus I muse on the lonely quay,
Whence the hurrying crowd is gone
while far away for the frozen north.
A flag of smoke trails on.

—Carrie Shaw Rice, in Overland Monthly.-

 

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[Functional]

Found the same poem here:
http://www.influenzaarchive.org/cgi...8;view=image;seq=0119;node=ahj1472.2-32.188:4

If your into her work, about a third of the way down this page:
http://www.archive.org/stream/overlandmonthly230sanfrich/overlandmonthly230sanfrich_djvu.txt
is: "-In Childland Straying. By Carrie Shaw Rice. Vaughn & Morrill Printing Co.: 1895."

I think she also wrote the lyrics to a song titled: "The Bluebird" circa 1915.
See the bottom of this page: http://www.parlorsongs.org/issues/2002-9/thismonth/feature.php
They didn't seem to know much else about her other than she wrote those lyrics.
But with a little searching, I found out there is mention of her in a book:
Tacoma's Proctor District By Caroline Gallacci, Bill Evans
See: http://books.google.ca/books?id=j7Z...snum=7#v=onepage&q="Carrie Shaw Rice"&f=false
Being the first woman to be appointed to the Washington State Board of Education must have been really something back then.
She also wrote at least one other song called: Tacoma The Rose Of The West.
The songbook of the same title can be found here: http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/sm&CISOPTR=289&REC=20


Time for me to get some work done here. Can't be dilly daddling all day.

F.

 

[N.J.THer]

Thanks for the information. It was the title that caught my eye while doing research. The word Gold always jumps out at me.

NJ