Here is a poem Cline sent from the Tolland Connecticut jail in December 1927, three months into his one year sentence for manslaughter (he had pleaded guilty to manslaughter just before a trial on charges of first degree murder would have commenced in mid-September 1927). It was sent to Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., editor of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where Cline worked in 1924-25. Some of the imagery of this poem is echoed in Cline's long poem "After-Walker" from January 1928, after his second wife deserted him, marking a very low point in his life.
To a Friend: Dies Natalis Invicti*
To the Editor of the Post-Dispatch
He the night descended on
And whose feet the tide crept under
And whose vision seeking dawn
Was shut with thunder:
As a cry that finds no end
Through a deathfast desert region
He that cried, and found no friend
But a bright legion:
Knowing how serene and strong
Is your faith beyond defeating,
He sends you in his quiet song
A thoughtful greeting.
He is well and wishes you
Bounty of the good new season:
More to laugh for, less to rue,
True love, true reason!
Si vis divinus esse late ut Deus. . . . **
Leonard Cline
Tolland, Conn.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 23 December 1927
*Birthday of the Invincible
**If you want to be divine, be as God. . . .
