The Magic Carpet POEMS FOR TRAVELLERS SELECTED BY MRS. WALDO RICHARDS "Out of your cage Come out of your cage And take your soul on a pilgrimage!" BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY GERTRUDE MOORE RICHARDS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riverside Press PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. ΤΟ ALL TRAVELLERS And to the dear friends with whom M582105 918 R515 mag FOREWORD the THERE was one fairy tale of childhood which always appealed to the imagination - "The Magic Carpet." To step upon it was to find ourselves transported like the little prince in the story to any far, delightful country we might wish to visit. We have passed beyond the days of the "Arabian Nights." Steamships and express trains, motor-cars and air-planes, are our magic carpets of to-day. In making use of our more modern means of transportation is there not a danger that we may lose the magic mystery and charm of anticipation in which lies the deepest pleasure of travel? This may be safeguarded for us by travelling with the poets as our pilots, for under their spirit we feel not only the glow and beauty of romantic tradition, but a more heightened loveliness which radiates to us through their imagination. It was Keats who said that "the great beauty of poetry is that it makes everything in every place interesting." Within these covers are gathered many poems which contribute joy, beauty, and inspiration to one's travels in the Old World. There are those descriptive of famous and beloved places; and others which, if the "carpet" works its "magic," will create for the traveller that atmosphere of vision and fancy which transcends and enriches experience. |