Download the full version of the textbook now at textbookfull.

com

Geometry of Holomorphic Mappings Frontiers in

Mathematics 1st Edition Pinchuk

https://textbookfull.com/product/geometry-of-
holomorphic-mappings-frontiers-in-mathematics-1st-
edition-pinchuk/

Explore and download more textbook at https://textbookfull.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Stein Manifolds and Holomorphic Mappings The Homotopy

Principle in Complex Analysis Ergebnisse der Mathematik
und ihrer Grenzgebiete 3 Folge A Series of Modern Surveys
in Mathematics Franc Forstneri■
https://textbookfull.com/product/stein-manifolds-and-holomorphic-
mappings-the-homotopy-principle-in-complex-analysis-ergebnisse-der-
mathematik-und-ihrer-grenzgebiete-3-folge-a-series-of-modern-surveys-
in-mathematics-franc-forstneric/
textbookfull.com

Forging Connections between Computational Mathematics and

Computational Geometry Papers from the 3rd International
Conference on Computational Mathematics and Computational
Geometry 1st Edition Ke Chen
https://textbookfull.com/product/forging-connections-between-
computational-mathematics-and-computational-geometry-papers-from-
the-3rd-international-conference-on-computational-mathematics-and-
computational-geometry-1st-edition-ke-che/
textbookfull.com

Dirichlet Series and Holomorphic Functions in High

Dimensions (New Mathematical Monographs) 1st Edition
Andreas Defant
https://textbookfull.com/product/dirichlet-series-and-holomorphic-
functions-in-high-dimensions-new-mathematical-monographs-1st-edition-
andreas-defant/
textbookfull.com

Bad With Love: An Alpha/Beta/Omega Story 2nd Edition

Sophie O'Dare & Lyn Forester

https://textbookfull.com/product/bad-with-love-an-alpha-beta-omega-
story-2nd-edition-sophie-odare-lyn-forester/

textbookfull.com
The Digital Age on the Couch Psychoanalytic Practice and
New Media 1st Edition Alessandra Lemma

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-digital-age-on-the-couch-
psychoanalytic-practice-and-new-media-1st-edition-alessandra-lemma/

textbookfull.com

Robustness theory and application 1st Edition Clarke

https://textbookfull.com/product/robustness-theory-and-
application-1st-edition-clarke/

textbookfull.com

Electroporation in Veterinary Oncology Practice

Electrochemotherapy and Gene Electrotransfer for
Immunotherapy Joseph A. Impellizeri
https://textbookfull.com/product/electroporation-in-veterinary-
oncology-practice-electrochemotherapy-and-gene-electrotransfer-for-
immunotherapy-joseph-a-impellizeri/
textbookfull.com

Primary and revision total ankle replacement evidence

based surgical management Second Edition Christopher Bibbo
Editor Thomas S Roukis Editor Gregory C Berlet Editor
Murray J Penner Editor Christopher F Hyer Editor
https://textbookfull.com/product/primary-and-revision-total-ankle-
replacement-evidence-based-surgical-management-second-edition-
christopher-bibbo-editor-thomas-s-roukis-editor-gregory-c-berlet-
editor-murray-j-penner-editor-christophe/
textbookfull.com

Statistical Methods An Introduction to Basic Statistical

Concepts and Analysis 2nd Edition Cheryl Ann Willard

https://textbookfull.com/product/statistical-methods-an-introduction-
to-basic-statistical-concepts-and-analysis-2nd-edition-cheryl-ann-
willard/
textbookfull.com
Triathlon Half Distance Training 70 3 Miles Swim Bike Run
Ash

https://textbookfull.com/product/triathlon-half-distance-
training-70-3-miles-swim-bike-run-ash/

textbookfull.com
 Frontiers in Mathematics

Sergey Pinchuk
Rasul Shafikov
Alexandre Sukhov

Geometry
of Holomorphic
Mappings
Frontiers in Mathematics

Advisory Editors
William Y. C. Chen, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
Laurent Saloff-Coste, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Igor Shparlinski, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Wolfgang Sprößig, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany

This series is designed to be a repository for up-to-date research results which have been
prepared for a wider audience. Graduates and postgraduates as well as scientists will
benefit from the latest developments at the research frontiers in mathematics and at the
“frontiers” between mathematics and other fields like computer science, physics, biology,
economics, finance, etc. All volumes are online available at SpringerLink.
Sergey Pinchuk • Rasul Shafikov •
Alexandre Sukhov

Geometry of Holomorphic
Mappings
Sergey Pinchuk Rasul Shafikov
Department of Mathematics Department of Mathematics
Indiana University Bloomington University of Western Ontario
Bloomington, IN, USA London, ON, Canada

Alexandre Sukhov
Department of Mathematics
University of Lille
Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

ISSN 1660-8046 ISSN 1660-8054 (electronic)

Frontiers in Mathematics
ISBN 978-3-031-37148-6 ISBN 978-3-031-37149-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37149-3

Mathematics Subject Classification: 32-02, 32H40, 32H02, 32D15, 32T15

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the
whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does
not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective
laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are
believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors
give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions
that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.

This book is published under the imprint Birkhäuser, www.birkhauser-science.com by the registered company
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Paper in this product is recyclable.

Introduction

The subject of this book is holomorphic mappings between domains in .Cn . The theory
of holomorphic (conformal) mappings is a cornerstone in the classical geometric function
theory of one complex variable, and it is an important tool for applications in many areas
of mathematics. Such applications to a great extent are based on the results in the following
two directions: the fundamental Riemann Mapping theorem, which establishes conformal
equivalence of simply connected domains in .C, and the Schwarz reflection principle
together with further major contributions by Carathéodory, Kellogg and others, which
provide a comprehensive description of boundary behaviour of conformal mappings.
The goal of this book is to present some substantial results concerning holomorphic
mappings in several complex variables. In contrast to the case .n = 1, for .n > 1
the dominating feature of holomorphic mappings is their rigidity which may appear in
various forms. For instance, in dimension bigger than 1, different domains are not in
general biholomorphically equivalent. But when they are, it may lead to certain unusual
phenomena. The first results of such kind were obtained in the beginning of the twentieth
century by H. Poincaré who proved that (a) the unit ball .B2 and the bidisk .2 in .C2 are
not biholomorphically equivalent; (b) if p is a point in the sphere .S = bB2 and .fp is the
germ of a biholomorphic map at p which maps the germ of S to S, then .fp extends to
a biholomorphic map .f : B2 → B2 . Subsequent investigation of holomorphic mappings
was largely focused on boundary regularity of biholomorphic and proper holomorphic
mappings, the problem of holomorphic equivalence of real hypersurfaces and various
rigidity phenomena in .Cn . The investigation of boundary regularity of biholomorphic and
proper holomorphic mappings is one of the central themes of the book. A general goal in
this context is to show that any biholomorphic map between domains in .Cn with .C ω -, or
m ω s
.C -smooth boundaries extends as a .C -, or .C -smooth map between their closures for

some .s = s(m). This problem remains open in full generality despite numerous partial
positive results, and there are no known counterexamples. Research in this direction led to
creation of many new methods that were successfully applied to other problems in SCV
and that remain to be of independent interest. One of these methods is an analytic approach
based on regularity properties of the Bergman projection and subelliptic estimates of the
.∂-Neumann problem. There are many excellent monographs that cover this subject and

so it is only natural for us to concentrate on alternative, more geometric methods. This

v
vi Introduction

geometric approach forms the core of the book and includes invariant metrics, holomorphic
correspondences, the Scaling method and the Reflection principle.
Some minimal background material is given in Chap. 1 with a few more technical
proofs deferred to the Appendix. In Chap. 2, we present a number of striking results
in several complex variables that illustrate the importance of boundary regularity in the
development of other aspects of the theory of holomorphic mappings. In Chap. 3, we
establish the estimates for the invariant metrics that are used to prove continuous extension
of holomorphic mappings between strictly pseudoconvex domains. In Chaps. 4 and 5, we
discuss smooth and holomorphic extension of biholomorphic and proper holomorphic
maps between smoothly bounded strictly pseudoconvex domains. This requires some
additional tools, such as the Scaling method. A local version of the extension is proved in
the language of holomorphic extension of CR mappings. It should be noted that the results
obtained in these chapters, like all the results proved in the book, are independent of the
properties of the Bergman spaces or the .∂-Neumann problem methods mentioned above.
The Scaling method proved to be a powerful tool in analysing domains with noncompact
automorphism groups, and this is the subject of Chap. 6.
Another important topic of the book is the biholomorphic equivalence problem of real
analytic hypersurfaces in .Cn and the domains that they bound. For biholomorphisms with
nice boundary behaviour, the equivalence of domains translates to the equivalence of their
boundaries. In 1974, Chern and Moser in different terms obtained necessary and sufficient
conditions for local equivalence of two real analytic hypersurfaces with nondegenerate
Levi form. This theory is briefly discussed in Chap. 7. The construction of local invariants
makes it possible in certain cases to decide whether the germs of boundaries of two
domains are locally equivalent. While it may not be enough to conclude that the domains
are themselves equivalent, the result by Poincaré above shows that in the case of the
unit balls, a local equivalence of the boundaries extends to a global biholomorphism
between the balls. In Chap. 8, such rigidity phenomenon of analytic continuation of
germs of mappings along hypersurfaces is extended to real analytic strictly pseudoconvex
hypersurfaces. This allows us to claim that local equivalence of germs of the boundaries
of certain domains implies the global equivalence of these domains.
Various modifications of the Reflection principle are discussed and used in the book for
analytic continuation of mappings. The most advanced results of this kind were obtained
by using the technique of Segre varieties, these are introduced in Chap. 9. In Chap. 10
we discuss holomorphic correspondences—multiple-valued maps that naturally appear
in the problems of analytic continuation. We also prove a result concerning critical sets
of holomorphic mappings. Chapter 11 contains one of the central results of the book:
a proper holomorphic map .f : D → D  between bounded domains in .Cn with real
analytic boundaries that extends continuously to .D necessarily extends holomorphically
to a neighbourhood of .D. Finally, in Chap. 12, we prove that in dimension .n = 2, the
map f extends holomorphically without the assumption of continuous extension. These
results do not assume any pseudoconvexity, and the proofs heavily rely on the geometric
Introduction vii

properties of the Segre varieties associated with the boundaries of the domains, which
shows the power of this approach.
In a short monograph is it impossible to mention all the results pertinent to the subject.
Our choice of the material for the book is heavily influenced by our personal taste in
the subject and the wish to keep the book largely self-contained and readable. The third
author is partially supported by Labex CEMPI and the Institute of Mathematics of the Ufa
Research Centre.

Bloomington, IN, USA Sergey Pinchuk

London, ON, Canada Rasul Shafikov
Villeneuve d’Ascq, France Alexandre Sukhov
Contents

1 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Classes of Functions and Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Smooth and Holomorphic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Plurisubharmonic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 CR Manifolds and CR Functions in Cn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.1 CR Manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 CR Functions and Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Totally Real Manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.1 Real Analytic Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.2 Smooth Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Pseudoconvex Domains, Defining and Exhaustion Functions, the
Hopf Lemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2 Why Boundary Regularity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.1 The Schwarz Reflection Principle for Strictly Pseudoconvex Domains . . 17
2.2 The Poincaré-Alexander Theorem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 The Wong-Rosay Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3 Continuous Extension of Holomorphic Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.1 Kobayashi Distance and Kobayashi-Royden Pseudometric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 Boundary Estimates for the Kobayashi-Royden Metric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3 Other Invariant Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4 Continuous Extension of Holomorphic Mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.5 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4 Boundary Smoothness of Holomorphic Mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.1 The Scaling Method and Continuous Extension of the Lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1.1 The Scaling Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.2 Continuous Extension of the Lift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 Boundary Regularity of Discs Near a Totally Real Manifold . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

ix
x Contents

4.3 Gluing Complex Discs and the Proof of Theorem 4.1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

4.4 Further Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

5 Proper Holomorphic Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

5.1 Holomorphic Correspondences and Algebroid Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.2 Proper Holomorphic Mappings of Strictly Pseudoconvex Domains . . . . . . 50
5.3 Local Invertibility of CR Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.4 Comments and Further Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

6 Uniformization of Domains with Large Automorphism Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

6.1 Existence of Parabolic Subgroups of Automorphisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6.2 Geometry Near a Parabolic Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.3 Parabolic Orbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.4 Further Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

7 Local Equivalence of Real Analytic Hypersurfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

7.1 Complexification, Segre Varieties, and Differential Equations . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7.2 Equivalence Problem I: Moser’s Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.3 Local Equivalence II: The Cartan-Chern Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
7.4 Fefferman’s Metric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

8 Geometry of Real Hypersurfaces: Analytic Continuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

8.1 Extension of Germs of Holomorphic Mappings, I: The Spherical Case . . 87
8.1.1 The Reflection Principle Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8.1.2 Extension Across Generic Submanifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
8.1.3 Holomorphic Extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
8.1.4 Analytic Continuation Along Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.2 Extension of Germs of Holomorphic Mappings II: The
Nonspherical Case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.2.1 Continuous Extension to M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8.2.2 Analytic Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8.3 From Local to Global Extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8.4 Further Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

9 Segre Varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

9.1 Geometry of Segre Varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
9.2 Compact Real Analytic Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
9.3 Analytic Continuation Using Segre Varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
9.4 Holomorphic Mappings of Real Algebraic Hypersurfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
9.5 Comments and Further Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
Contents xi

10 Holomorphic Correspondences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

10.1 Proper Holomorphic Correspondences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
10.2 Invariance of Segre Varieties for Correspondences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
10.3 From Multiple-Valued to Single-Valued Extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
10.4 Proof of Theorem 10.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
10.5 Critical Sets of Holomorphic Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
10.6 Remarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

11 Extension of Proper Holomorphic Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

11.1 Examples and General Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
11.2 Extending the Map to a Dense Subset of M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
11.3 Correspondences that Extend the Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
11.4 Extension as an Analytic Set Implies Holomorphic Extension . . . . . . . . . . . 162
11.5 Pairs of Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
11.6 Extension Along Segre Varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
11.7 Final Steps in the Proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
11.8 Comments and Further Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

12 Extension in .C2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

12.1 Possible Extension as a Correspondence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
12.2 The Structure of the Boundary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
12.3 Extension Across a Dense Subset of the Boundary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
12.4 Extension Across Strictly Pseudoconvex Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
12.5 Proof of Theorem 12.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
12.6 Boundary Regularity: Some Historic Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

A Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
A.1 Edge-of-the-Wedge Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
A.2 PSH Defining Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
A.3 Hörmander-Wermer Lemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
A.4 Separate Algebraicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Preliminaries
1

In this chapter we review some standard definitions and results in complex analysis and lay
out the technical framework for the core material of the book. We assume that the reader is
familiar with the classical monographs on several complex variables such as Gunning and
Rossi [74], Hörmander [79], Range [119], or Shabat [129]. The reader who is well-versed
in the subject may directly proceed to the next chapter.

1.1 Classes of Functions and Domains

In this section we fix some basic notation and recall elementary properties of holomorphic
and plurisubharmonic functions.

1.1.1 Smooth and Holomorphic Functions

We denote by .z = (z1 , . . . , zn ) the standard complex coordinates in .Cn . We often use the
(vector) notation .z = x + iy for the real and imaginary parts. We identify .Cn with .R2n via

Cn  (z1 , . . . , zn ) ∼
. = (x1 , y1 , . . . , xn , yn ) ∈ R2n .

By .|z| we denote the Euclidean norm of z, i.e.,


|z| =
. x12 + y12 + · · · + xn2 + yn2 ,

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1

S. Pinchuk et al., Geometry of Holomorphic Mappings, Frontiers in Mathematics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37149-3_1
2 1 Preliminaries


and by .z, w = j zj wj the standard Hermitian inner product in .Cn . Note that its real
part .Rez, w defines the standard Euclidean scalar product of z and w viewed as vectors
in .R2n .
A domain . in .Cn is defined to be a nonempty connected open subset of .Cn . By .b
we denote the boundary of .. The unit ball in .Cn is denoted by .Bn = {z ∈ Cn : |z| < 1},
while for .n = 1 we use the notation .D := B1 for the unit disc in .C. The ball .p + rBn of
radius .r > 0 centred at a point .p ∈ Cn may be also denoted by .Bn (p, r) or simply .B(p, r)
if the dimension is clear from the context. Another basic example of a domain in .Cn is the
unit polydisc .Dn , or more generally,

Dn (p, r) := p + rDn , p ∈ Cn , r = (r1 , . . . , rn ), rj > 0.

.

Finally,

H = {z ∈ Cn : 2 Re zn + |z1 |2 + . . . + |zn−1 |2 < 0}

. (1.1)

is an unbounded realization of the unit ball .Bn , it is biholomorphic to .Bn via Cayley’s
transform
 
2z1 2zn−1 zn − i
(z1 , . . . , zn ) →
. ,..., , . (1.2)
zn + i zn + i zn + i

We denote by .O(1 ) the space of holomorphic functions on a domain .1 . If .2 is

another domain in .CN , we use the notation .O(1 , 2 ) to denote the space of holomorphic
mappings from .1 to .2 .
For a positive integer k, .C k () denotes the space of .C k -smooth complex-valued
functions on .. Also .C k () denotes the class of .C k -smooth functions whose partial
derivatives up to order k extend as continuous functions to .; this space becomes a Banach
space if it is equipped with the standard norm


k
||f ||C k () =
. sup |D (j ) f (z)|,
|j |=0 z∈

where, as usual, .D (j ) denotes the partial derivative of order .j = (j1 , . . . , jn ) with .|j | =
j1 + . . . jn , and .D (0) f = f .
If .s > 0 is a real noninteger and k is its integer part, by .C s () we denote the space of
functions of class .C k () such that their partial derivatives of order k are (globally) Hölder-
continuous on . with the exponent .α := s − k; these derivatives automatically satisfy the
global Hölder condition on ., so the notation .C s () for the same space of functions is
also appropriate. These are Banach spaces equipped with the standard norm
1.1 Classes of Functions and Domains 3

|f (z) − f (w)|
||f ||C s () = ||f ||C k () + sup
. .
z,w∈ |z − w|α

Let . be a domain in .Cn . A biholomorphic map .f :  →  is called an automorphism

of .. The set of all automorphisms form a group, which we denote by .Aut(), with
the group operation being composition of maps. The group .Aut() is typically equipped
with the topology of uniform convergence on compacts in .. The automorphism group
carries important information about the domain, for example, it is well-known that the
automorphism group of the unit ball .Bn , .n > 1, is different from that of the polydisc .Dn ,
and this implies that these domains are not biholomorphically equivalent. The following
result is due to H. Cartan, see, e.g., [100].

Theorem 1.1 Let . ⊂ Cn be a bounded domain, and let .{fj } ⊂ Aut() be a sequence
of automorphisms of .. Suppose that .{fj } converges uniformly on compact subsets of .
to a holomorphic map .f :  → Cn . Then the following are equivalent.

(i) .f ∈ Aut().
(ii) .f () ⊂ b.
(iii) There exists .p ∈  such that the determinant of the Jacobian matrix, .det Df (p), is
nonzero.

Consider a domain . ⊂ Cn and a map .f :  → CN , not necessarily holomorphic

or smooth. Let . be a subset of the boundary .b. The cluster set .C (f, ) of f on .
is defined to be the set of all limit points of the sequences .{f (zk )} in .CN , where .{zk }
is any sequence in . converging to a point in .. The cluster set .C (f, ) is empty if
.lim |f (z)| = +∞ when .  z → . In what follows we usually omit . and simply write

.C(f, ).

A map .f : 1 → 2 is called proper if for every compact subset .K ⊂ 2 its pull-back

.f
−1 (K) is a compact subset in . . Note that a map .f :  →  between two domains
1 1 2
is proper if and only if the cluster set .C1 (f, b1 ) does not intersect .2 . For bounded
domains in .Cn one can state this property in the equivalent form: .C1 (f, b1 ) ⊂ b2 .
A continuous function .f :  → R is called an exhaustion function for . if the sublevel
sets .f −1 ((−∞, c)) are relatively compact in . for all .c ∈ R. A bounded exhaustion
function for . is a continuous proper function .f :  → (a, b) for some .a, b ∈ R.

1.1.2 Plurisubharmonic Functions

An upper semicontinuous function .u : D → R ∪ {−∞}, .u ≡ −∞, from a domain

D ⊂ Rm , .m > 1, is called subharmonic if the following Mean value inequality holds for
.

all .x ∈ D:
4 1 Preliminaries


1
.u(x) ≤ u(y)dσ (y),
σm−1 r m−1 S(x,r)

where .r > 0 is so small that the sphere .S(x, r) centred at x of radius r, is contained in D,
.σm−1 is the volume of the unit .(m−1)-sphere, and .dσ (y) is the volume measure on .S(x, r).

A .C 2 -smooth function u is subharmonic iff .u ≥ 0 on D. If .f : Cn → C is a holomorphic

function, then .Re f and .Im f are pluriharmonic functions, i.e., harmonic functions on
.C = R
n 2n such that their restrictions to any complex line remain to be harmonic. These

are in particular subharmonic functions.

A subset .E ⊂ D is called a polar set, if for any .p ∈ E there exists a neighbourhood V
of p and a subharmonic function v on V such that .E ∩ V = v −1 (−∞). If E is a closed
polar set in a domain .D ⊂ Rm , and u is subharmonic on .D \ E and is bounded above, then
the function defined by

u(x) = lim sup u(y)

. (1.3)
E y→x

on E is, in fact, subharmonic. Thus, polar sets are removable singularities for subharmonic
functions. The same result holds for pluriharmonic functions, see, e.g., [87, Thm 2.7.1,
p. 53]. One of the applications of this is Rado’s theorem: if f is a continuous function on
a domain . ⊂ Cn and holomorphic on . \ f −1 (0), then f is holomorphic on .. This can
be seen by applying the removable singularity result to .Re f and .Im f and the polar set
.f
−1 (0) = {log |f | = −∞}.

Let . ⊂ Cn be a domain. An upper semicontinuous function .u :  → R ∪ {−∞} is

called plurisubharmonic if the restriction of u to any complex line in . is a subharmonic
function or is identically .−∞. A .C 2 -smooth u is plurisubharmonic iff its complex Hessian
given by

 ∂ 2u
Lu (p) =
. (p) (1.4)
∂zj ∂zk
j,k

is a positive-semidefinite form for all .p ∈ . A .C 2 -smooth function u is called strictly

plurisubharmonic if the above form is positive-definite. We denote by .P SH () the
class of plurisubharmonic functions on .. It is straightforward to verify that if f is
a holomorphic function on ., then .|f |2 and .log |f | are plurisubharmonic on .. More
generally, if .f :  →  is holomorphic, and .u ∈ P SH ( ), then .u ◦ f is
plurisubharmonic on .. If . ⊂ Cn is a bounded domain and u is a plurisubharmonic
function on . then for all .z ∈ 

u(z) < sup
. lim sup u(w) .
p∈b w→p
1.2 CR Manifolds and CR Functions in Cn 5

This Maximum principle also holds on relatively compact complex analytic sets of positive
dimension.
Pluripolar sets are defined similarly to polar sets, i.e., locally these are defined as
the locus where a plurisubharmonic function takes the value .−∞. From the removable
singularity result stated above for subharmonic functions one can deduce the following
result.

Theorem 1.2 Let . ⊂ Cn and .E = {z ∈  : v(z) = −∞} for some plurisubharmonic

function v on .. If .u ∈ P SH ( \ E) is bounded above, then the extension of u defined on
E by (1.3) is plurisubharmonic on ..

In particular, complex analytic sets, being pluripolar, are removable singularities for
bounded plurisubharmonic functions.
Let . ⊂ Cn be a domain and .p ∈ b. A function .φ ∈ P SH () ∩ C() is called
a peak function for . at p if .φ(z) < φ(p) for all .z ∈  \ {p}. A function .φ is called
a local peak function if it is a peak function for the domain . ∩ U , where U is some
neighbourhood of p. Holomorphic peak functions are defined in the same way. A point
.p ∈ b is said to have a PSH-barrier property if there exist a neighbourhood U of p and

constants .α ∈ (0, 1], .β > 1, and .M > 0 such that for any point .ζ ∈ U ∩ b there exists
a function .φζ (z) continuous on . ∩ U and plurisubharmonic in . ∩ U that satisfies the
condition

. − M|z − ζ |α ≤ φζ (z) ≤ −|z − ζ |β , (1.5)

for any .z ∈ ∩U . Thus, .φζ is a local plurisubharmonic peak function of algebraic growth.

1.2 CR Manifolds and CR Functions in Cn

In this section we recall some basic facts about CR manifolds and CR functions. We will
use this throughout the book.

1.2.1 CR Manifolds

For .s ∈ [1, ∞] (resp. .s = ω) a closed real submanifold E of a domain . ⊂ Cn is of class

.C (resp. real analytic) if for every point .p ∈ E there exists an open neighbourhood U of
s

p and a map .ρ = (ρ1 , . . . , ρd ) : U −→ Rd of maximal rank .d < 2n such that .ρj are of
class .C s (U ) (resp. real analytic in U ), and

E ∩ U = {z ∈ U : ρj (z) = 0, j = 1, . . . , d}.
. (1.6)
6 1 Preliminaries

The functions .ρj are then called local defining functions of E. The positive integer d is
the real codimension of E. In the fundamental special case .d = 1 we obtain the class of
real hypersurfaces. Let
 
∂ρj ∂ρj
∇z ρj (p) =
. (p), . . . , (p) .
∂z1 ∂zn

Then the condition that .ρ has rank d simply means that the vectors .∇z ρj , .j = 1, . . . , d,
are .R-linearly independent.
The (real) tangent space .Tp E to E at .p ∈ E can be defined by the equations

.Tp E = w ∈ Tp Cn ∼
= Cn : Re w, ∇z ρj (p) = 0, j = 1, . . . , d .

Let J denote the standard complex structure of .Cn given by the multiplication by i, in
other words, J acts on a vector .w ∈ Cn as .J w = iw. For every .p ∈ E the holomorphic
(or complex) tangent space .Hp E := Tp E ∩ J (Tp E) is the maximal complex subspace of
the tangent space .Tp E of E at p. Clearly,

Hp E = w ∈ Cn : w, ∇z ρj (p) = 0, j = 1, . . . , d .
. (1.7)

The complex dimension of .Hp E is called the CR dimension of E at p and is denoted by

.CR- dimp E. A manifold E is called a (an embedded) Cauchy-Riemann or simply a CR
manifold if its CR dimension is independent of .p ∈ E.
A real submanifold .E of real codimension d in .Cn is called generic (or generating) if
the complex span of .Tp E coincides with all of .Cn for all .p ∈ E. Note that every generic
manifold of real codimension .d < n is a CR manifold of CR dimension .n−d. If a function
.ρ = (ρ1 , . . . , ρd ) satisfies

∂ρ1 ∧ . . . ∧ ∂ρd = 0,
. (1.8)

or, equivalently,

∂ρ1 ∧ . . . ∧ ∂ρd = 0,
.

then the vectors .∇z ρj , .j = 1, . . . , d, are .C-linearly independent, and therefore .E = {ρ =

0} is a generic submanifold of .Cn .

1.2.2 CR Functions and Mappings

Let E be a generic manifold of real codimension d in .Cn , .d < n, defined by (1.6).

Locally, consider tangent vector fields .Xj , .j = 1, . . . , n − d, on E (of type (1,0))
which form a basis in the space of local sections of the holomorphic tangent bundle H E.
1.2 CR Manifolds and CR Functions in Cn 7

A .C 1 -smooth function .f : E → C is called a CR function if it satisfies the first order PDE

system on E

X j f = 0, j = 1, . . . , n − d.
. (1.9)

These are the tangential Cauchy-Riemann equations. If E is defined by (1.6) and .f˜ is any
.C -smooth extension of f to a neighbourhood of E in the ambient .C , then the function
1 n

f is CR iff

∂ f˜ ∧ ∂ρ1 ∧ · · · ∧ ∂ρd = 0 on E.
.

In particular, if W is a wedge in .Cn defined by

W = {z ∈ U : ρj (z) < 0, j = 1, . . . , d}
.

with the edge E, and f is a holomorphic function in W that extends smoothly to E, then
the restriction of f to E is a CR function. By Stokes’ formula the Eq. (1.9) can be rewritten
in the equivalent form .[E](f ∂φ) = 0 for every test form .φ on E of bidegree .(n, n − d);
here .[E] denotes the current of integration
 over E, i.e., a linear functional on the space
of test forms acting as .[E](ω) = E ω, where .ω is a form of degree .= dim E. In this
weak formulation the notion of a CR function can be extended to the class of continuous
or locally integrable functions on E.
If E is a hypersurface (.d = 1) given by a defining function .ρ with .∂ρ/∂zn = 0, then
the tangential Cauchy-Riemann operators can be written in the form

∂ρ ∂ ∂ρ ∂
Xj =
. − , j = 1, . . . , n − 1. (1.10)
∂zn ∂zj ∂zj ∂zn

In general, not every CR function on a real hypersurface E extends to a one-sided

neighbourhood of E (or to a wedge in higher codimension). However, locally a CR
function can be represented as a “jump” of two holomorphic functions: if f is a CR
function in a neighbourhood U of a point .p ∈ E ⊂ Cn , and E divides U into two
connected components, say, .U + and .U − , then there exist functions .F ± ∈ O(U ± ) such
that .f = F + −F − (understood in the proper sense if f is not continuous), see Chirka [35].
+ , the envelope of holomorphy of the domain .U + , then the function .F + extends
If .p ∈ U
holomorphically to a neighbourhood of p, and we conclude that any CR function f
extends holomorphically to a one-sided neighbourhood of E near p. This is the case, for
example, if the Levi form of E (see Sect. 1.4) has at least one nonzero eigenvalue (the Lewy
extension theorem). The most general result in this direction is due to Trépreau [143].

Theorem 1.3 If a real hypersurface .E ⊂ Cn does not contain any germs of complex
hypersurfaces at a point .p ∈ E, then there exists a one-sided neighbourhood of p, say,
.U
− ⊂ Cn , such that all CR functions near p extend holomorphically to .U − .
8 1 Preliminaries

Finally, if .E1 and .E2 are smooth generic submanifolds in .Cn and .Cm respectively, with
.codimE1 < n, then a continuous map .f : E1 → E2 is called a CR map, if it can be written

in the form .f = (f1 , . . . , fm ), where .f : E1 → C are CR functions and .f (E1 ) ⊂ E2 . As

an example, a biholomorphic map .f : 1 → 2 between smoothly bounded domains in
.C that extends continuously to .1 defines a CR map .f |b1 : b1 → b2 .
n

1.3 Totally Real Manifolds

Of special importance are the so-called totally real manifolds, i.e., submanifolds E for
which .Hp E = {0} at every .p ∈ E. Clearly, the dimension of a totally real submanifold in
.C does not exceed n. A totally real manifold is generic if and only if its real dimension
n

is equal to n, i.e., maximal possible. Such manifolds are called maximally totally real, the
simplest such example is the real subspace

Rn = {z = x + iy ∈ Cn : y = 0}.
.

The simplest example of a compact maximally totally real manifold is the torus

S 1 × S 1 ⊂ C2 .
.

1.3.1 Real Analytic Case

An open cone in .Rn is an open set C such that .y ∈ C implies .ty ∈ C for all .t > 0. Given
a cone C, let .V = C ∩ B(0, 1), and let E be a domain in .Rn . We define

W + = E + iV , W − = E − iV .
. (1.11)

The sets .W + and .W − are called the wedges with the edge E. In general, the set .W + ∪
W − ∪ E does not contain an open neighbourhood of E in .Cn . The following is a simple
version of the classical edge-of-the-wedge theorem.

Theorem 1.4 For E, .W + and .W − as above, there exists an open neighbourhood . of E

in .Cn with the following property: Every continuous function f on .W + ∪ W − ∪ E, which
is holomorphic on .W + ∪ W − , extends holomorphically to ..

The proof is given in Sect. A.1 of the Appendix. Different proofs can also be found,
for example, in [155] and [124]. Further generalizations also exist: one can take E to be a
1.3 Totally Real Manifolds 9

maximally totally real submanifold, and replace continuity of f on E with convergence on

E in the sense of distributions, see Pinchuk [106]. For our purposes, however, the above
formulation will be sufficient.
Real analytic totally real submanifolds can be locally viewed as subsets of .Rn . In fact,
the following holds.

Proposition 1.5 Let E be a real analytic totally real submanifold of dimension n in .Cn .
For every point .p ∈ E there exists an open neighbourhood . in .Cn and a map . :  →
Cn , which is a biholomorphism onto its image, such that . (p) = 0 and . (E ∩ ) =
Rn ∩ ().

Proof The proof is an application of complexification of real analytic functions. After

a linear holomorphic change of coordinates we may assume that in a neighbourhood of
the origin the set E is the graph of .y = φ(x), where .φ is a real analytic map from a
neighbourhood of the origin in .Rn , .φ(0) = 0 and .dφ(0) = 0. We complexify this equation
by replacing .z = x−iy with an independent complex variable w. Then, in a neighbourhood
of the origin in .Cnz × Cnw , we obtain a holomorphic equation
 
z−w z+w
. −φ = 0.
2i 2

By the Implicit function theorem this equation can be resolved for w to obtain

w = z + ψ(z),
.

where .ψ is holomorphic near the origin, .ψ(0) = 0, and .dψ(0) = 0. By substituting w

with .z in the above equation we see that E is defined by the equation .z = z + ψ(z).
Let . (z) = 2z + ψ(z). By construction, . is a biholomorphic map in a neighbourhood
of the origin in .Cn . Further, if .z ∈ E, then

. Im (z) = Im(z + (z + ψ(z)) = Im(z + z) = 0.

This means that E is mapped by . onto a neighbourhood of the origin in .Rn . 



The above proposition simplifies many aspects of complex analysis near real analytic
totally real submanifolds of maximal dimension. As an example, let E be a totally real
submanifold defined by

E = {p ∈ Cn : ρj (p) = 0, j = 1, . . . , n}.
. (1.12)
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
10 1 Preliminaries

Since .{ρj = 0} and .{ρk = 0} intersect transversely for .j = k, the set

W = {p ∈ Cn : ρj < 0, j = 1, . . . , n}
. (1.13)

contains a (linear) wedge with the edge E as defined in (1.11). The converse to this
statement is also true, and so W in (1.13) is also called a wedge with the edge E. The
next result gives a simple multidimensional version of the classical Schwarz reflection
principle.

Proposition 1.6 Let .E1 and .E2 be real analytic totally real manifolds of dimension n
and N in .Cn and .CN respectively, .n, N > 1. Suppose that W is a wedge with the edge
.E1 , .f : W → C
N is a map holomorphic on W , continuous on .W ∪ E and such that
1
.f (E1 ) ⊂ E2 . Then f extends holomorphically to a neighbourhood of .E1 .

Proof By Proposition 1.5 one can assume that .E1 and .E2 coincide with open pieces of
.R and .R
n N respectively. The map .f ∗ (z) = f (z) is holomorphic in a wedge with the edge

.R that is opposite to W and coincides with f on .R . We now may apply the edge-of-the-
n n

wedge theorem (Theorem 1.4), and this proves the result. 



1.3.2 Smooth Case

Let M be a totally real manifold of class .C 2 in .Cn . By .dist(M, z) we denote the standard
Euclidean distance from a point .z ∈ Cn to a set M. The following well-known result is
often useful, see Wells [160] and Hörmander and Wermer [80].

Lemma 1.7 There exists a neighbourhood . of M in .Cn such that the function

φ(z) = [dist(M, z)]2

.

is strictly plurisubharmonic in ..


The lemma clearly holds if .M = Rnx . Indeed, in this case .φ(z) = yj2 , which is strictly
plurisubharmonic.

Proof Let .k = dim M, and .p ∈ M be an arbitrary point. Since M is totally real, after a
biholomorphic change of coordinates in .Cn we may assume that .p = 0 and the tangent
space to M at .p = 0 is given by

T0 M = {(z1 , . . . , zn ) ∈ Cn : y1 = · · · = yk = zk+1 = · · · = zn = 0},

.
1.4 Pseudoconvex Domains, Defining and Exhaustion Functions, the. . . 11

where .zj = xj + iyj , .j = 1, . . . , n. Let .δ(z) be the normal distance from a point z
in a neighbourhood of the origin in .Cn to .T0 (M). It is easy to see that .dist(M, z) =
δ(z) + O(|z|2 ), and moreover,


k 
n
δ 2 (z) =
. yj2 + |zj |2 ,
j =1 j =k+1

which has a positive-definite complex Hessian in .Cn , see (1.4). Then .φ(z) = δ 2 (z) +
O(|z|3 ), and so it also has a positive-definite complex Hessian in some neighbourhood of
the origin. By taking the union of sufficiently small neighbourhoods of all points in M we
obtain the required neighbourhood . of M. 


We also need the following lemma due to Hörmander and Wermer [80].

Lemma 1.8 Let .M ⊂ Cn be a maximally totally real manifold of class .C k , .k ≥ 1, .k ∈ R,

with .0 ∈ M and .T0 M = Rn . For any function .f ∈ C k (M) there exists an extension .f˜ in
a neighbourhood of 0, which is of class .C k on M and infinitely differentiable outside M
and which has the property that the coefficients of .∂ f˜ vanish on M to order .k − 1 in a
neighbourhood of the origin.

The proof is given in Sect. A.3 of the Appendix.

1.4 Pseudoconvex Domains, Defining and Exhaustion Functions,

the Hopf Lemma

Let . be a bounded domain in .Cn . Suppose that its boundary .b is a (compact) real
hypersurface of class .C s in .Cn , .s ≥ 1. Then there exists a .C s -smooth real function .ρ in a
neighbourhood U of the closure . such that . = {ρ < 0} and .dρ|b = 0. We call such a
function .ρ a global defining function.
If .s ≥ 2 we may consider the Levi form of .ρ:


n
∂ 2ρ
Lρ (p, w) =
. (p)wj w k , w ∈ Hp b, p ∈ b. (1.14)
∂zj ∂zk
j,k=1

If .σ = α · ρ is another defining function, then .α(p) = 0, and one can easily check that

.Lρ (p, w) = α(p)Lρ (p, w), for w ∈ Hp ∂. (1.15)

12 1 Preliminaries

In particular, this means that the signature of the Levi-form is independent of the choice
of the defining function. Another important property of the Levi form is that it is invariant
under biholomorphic change of coordinates: if .f : U  → U is a biholomorphic map and
.U ⊂ C is a neighbourhood of .b, then
n

Lρ◦f (z, w) = Lρ (f (z), Df (z)w),

. (1.16)

where .Df (z) is the differential of f .

For a .C 2 -smooth defining function .ρ the real hypersurface .M = {ρ = 0} is called
Levi-nondegenerate, if the Levi form of .ρ is nondegenerate at every point of M. In a
neighbourhood of a Levi-nondegenerate point there exists a local change of coordinates
such that in the new coordinates .0 ∈ M and near 0 the hypersurface M is defined by the
function

. ρ(z) = 2xn + Lρ (0, z) + o(|z|2 ). (1.17)

In particular, if the Levi-form is positive-definite, the defining function can be chosen to

be


n−1
ρ(z) = 2xn +
. |zj |2 + o(|z|2 ). (1.18)
j =1

We refer to (1.17) and (1.18) as a normal form of the defining function.

A bounded domain . with .C 2 -smooth boundary is called pseudoconvex (resp. strictly
pseudoconvex) if .Lρ (p, w) ≥ 0 (resp. .> 0) for all .p ∈ b and every .w ∈ Hp ∂ (resp.
for every nonzero .w ∈ Hp ∂). For domains with .C 2 -smooth boundary this definition
of pseudoconvexity coincides with the general notion of pseudoconvexity in the sense
of Grauert-Oka: . is pseudoconvex if and only if it can be exhausted by a sequence of
strictly pseudoconvex domains, or, equivalently, iff . admits a strictly plurisubharmonic
exhaustion function. A pseudoconvex domain . ⊂ Cn is a domain of holomorphy, i.e.,
.O() contains a function that does not extend analytically to any larger domain. If . is

not pseudoconvex, then all functions in .O() extend across the nonpseudoconvex part of
the boundary.
Let . be a real hypersurface of class .C 2 in .Cn . One can view every holomorphic
tangent space .Hp  as an element of the (complex) Grassmannian .G(n − 1, n) of complex
hyperplanes in .Cn , which can be identified with the complex projective space .CPn−1 . Then
the holomorphic tangent bundle .H () can be viewed as a real submanifold of dimension
.2n − 1 of the complex manifold .C × G(n − 1, n) of complex dimension .2n − 1. We
n

call it the projectivization of the holomorphic tangent bundle and denote by .PH (). The
following statement is due to Webster [159].
1.4 Pseudoconvex Domains, Defining and Exhaustion Functions, the. . . 13

Lemma 1.9 Let . be strictly pseudoconvex. Then .PH () is a maximally totally real
manifold in .Cn × G(n − 1, n).

Proof Clearly the problem is local. Any strictly pseudoconvex hypersurface is a local
deformation of the sphere, and since being totally real is an open condition, it suffices
to verify the statement for the sphere, or, more conveniently, for its realization .H given
by (1.1). Using (1.7) we see that for any .z ∈ H,

Hz H = {w ∈ Cn : w1 z1 + · · · + wn−1 zn−1 + wn = 0}.

.

Any such complex linear subspace can be uniquely identified with its complex normal
vector

(z1 , . . . , zn−1 , 1),

.

and so in the affine chart .(z, ζ ) ∈ Cn × Cn−1 of .Cn × G(n − 1, n) the set .PH () can be
defined by .2n − 1 real equations


n−1
zn + z n +
. zj zj = 0; ζk = zk , k = 1, . . . , n − 1.
j =1

Direct computation shows that the condition (1.8) is satisfied by the above system,
and thus .PH () is generic. Finally, it is totally real because of the dimension
considerations. 


Every strictly pseudoconvex domain . admits a global plurisubharmonic defining

function which is strictly plurisubharmonic on a neighbourhood of .b. Indeed, if .ρ is
an arbitrary defining function of ., consider the function .ρ̃ = ρ + Kρ 2 , for .K > 0. By a
direct computation one can show that the constant K can be chosen large enough so that .ρ
is strictly pseudoconvex in a neighbourhood of .b. Then, for a small .ε > 0, the function
.max(ρ̃, −ε) is a pseudoconvex defining function of . which is strictly pseudoconvex on

.b. From this argument it also follows that if a domain . is strictly pseudoconvex near a

point .p ∈ ∂, then there exists a local biholomorphic change of coordinates near p that
transforms . into a strictly geometrically convex domain.
This property does not hold in general for weakly pseudoconvex domains (i.e., pseudo-
convex domains which are not strictly pseudoconvex). Indeed, Kohn and Nirenberg [90]
and Diederich and Fornæss [43] constructed explicit examples of smoothly bounded
pseudoconvex domains that do not admit even local plurisubharmonic defining functions.
In particular, the famous “worm” domains of Diederich and Fornæss do not admit
plurisubharmonic defining functions. However, Diederich and Fornæss [44] proved that
pseudoconvex domains admit bounded plurisubharmonic exhaustion functions.
14 1 Preliminaries

Theorem 1.10 Let . ⊂ Cn be a bounded pseudoconvex domain with .C 2 -smooth

boundary. Then there exist a defining function .r(z) of . and .0 < η0 < 1 such that for any
.0 < η ≤ η0 the function

ρ(z) = −(−r(z))η
. (1.19)

is a bounded strictly plurisubharmonic exhaustion function on ..

The proof is given in Sect. A.2 of the Appendix.

In many applications it is important to connect the rate of growth of a defining function
of a domain with the distance to the boundary of the domain. An instrumental role here is
played by the classical Hopf lemma, which we formulate below.

Lemma 1.11 Let .φ be a negative plurisubharmonic function in a bounded domain . ⊂

Cn with .C 2 -smooth boundary. Then there exists a constant .M > 0 such that

|φ(z)| > Mdist(z, b) for all z ∈ .

.

Proof We first prove the lemma for the unit disc .D ⊂ C and a subharmonic .φ. Clearly,
it suffices to establish the estimate away from any compact subset of .D, say, on .{1/2 <
|z| < 1}. Let

. C = (2 log(1/2))−1 max φ(z) > 0. (1.20)

|z|=1/2

Then the function .φ̃(z) = φ(z) − C log |z| is subharmonic with .lim|z|→1 φ̃(z) ≤ 0, and

1
. max φ̃(z) = max φ(z) − C log(1/2) = max φ(z) < 0.
|z|=1/2 |z|=1/2 2 |z|=1/2

Thus, by the Maximum principle, .φ̃(z) < 0 for .1/2 < |z| < 1. It follows that for z close
to the unit circle,

C C
|φ(z)| ≥ −C log |z| ≥
. (1 − |z|) = dist(z, bD).
2 2

For the case of a general domain . ⊂ Cn , observe that since .b is .C 2 -smooth, there
exists .δ > 0 with the property that if .z ∈  and .dist(z, b) = ε ≤ δ, then the closed
ball .B(z, ε) intersects .b at exactly one point .zb . Let .U = {z ∈  : dist(z, b) < δ/2}.
For .z ∈ U , let .Lz be a unique complex line that passes through z and .zb . On .Lz ∩ 
we choose a point .zc such that .dist(zc , b) = δ. Then .D(zc , δ) = B(zc , δ) ∩ Lz is a
complex disc in . that contains the point z and whose closure touches .b at one point .zb .
We may apply the one-dimensional case proved above to .φ|D(zc ,δ) . Further, the estimates
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Spider-webs
in Verse: A Collection of Lyrics for Leisure
Moments, Spun at Idle Hours
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Spider-webs in Verse: A Collection of Lyrics for Leisure

Moments, Spun at Idle Hours

Author: Charles William Wallace

Release date: June 8, 2021 [eBook #65564]

Language: English

Credits: Charlene Taylor, Karin Spence and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPIDER-WEBS IN

VERSE: A COLLECTION OF LYRICS FOR LEISURE MOMENTS, SPUN
AT IDLE HOURS ***
SPIDER-WEBS IN VERSE
A COLLECTION OF

LYRICS FOR LEISURE MOMENTS

SPUN AT IDLE HOURS

BY

CHARLES WILLIAM WALLACE

Professor of Rhetoric and Literature Western Normal College

“The spider’s touch—how exquisitely fine!”

—Pope.

LINCOLN, NEB.:
STATE JOURNAL COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1892.
Copyright 1892
BY
C. W. WALLACE
 TO

JUDGE T. D. WALLACE
AND

MRS. OLIVE WALLACE.

My Dear Father and Mother:
No word, no act, no consecrated gift of mine, how great or slight
soever it may be, can ever repay the beneficence and love of you to
whom I owe life and whatever of prosperity has been granted me.
As my eyes glance in retrospect along the fading perspective of
years and lose themselves in the dim days of the cradle, and thence
to the present look forwards to the distant peaks of hope that rise
above unknown mists and shadows and horizons, I hear the
counseling words of a father, and feel the ever-present touch of a
mother’s hand, as both guide me with love into the dim unknown of
life. Though I pass onwards with a father’s “God-speed,” and a
mother’s lingering embrace and loving kiss, and leave you both
fondly looking after me, still your presence in my memory is ever a
guiding reality that even now directs this good right hand of mine to
inscribe these dedicatory words of filial affection.
If in the days agone I ever seemed unheeding of that counsel of a
father, and unmindful of that dearest love of a cherished and
cherishing mother, I can but say that both that counsel and that love
reach through those moulding and shaping years of my life and take
hold on my heart with a firmness and a gentleness that nothing else
of all the years can boast.
It is but right and just, therefore, that in these your later days I
should likewise be your guide and your stay in so far as my hand
may let;—that I should reach out my strong young arm and steady
the tottering years that throng around you.
Withal, if I can afford you even one slight pleasure, it is my
heart’s desire so to do. It is, therefore, with somewhat more than
filial love that I dedicate this little volume to you, my Father and my
Mother, both together my counselor and guide, still mercifully spared
to your children; and in doing so, I can but express the hope that
your years may yet be many and happy; that the iris struck by a
New Sun from the crystals of the whitened and whitening wintry
years may be as full of beauty and joy as were the early spring
blossoms of love and hope that you pressed to your bosoms in
youth.
Your Son,
CHARLES.
 BY THE WAY.
As the presentation of these collected verses in their present
printed form has been induced largely by the request of many of my
former college students and by the importunities of my most
intimate friends, and as this volume has consequently been prepared
chiefly for their pleasure, it is hoped that those into whose hands the
book may fall are already so well acquainted with the author that the
selections themselves need no formal introduction to make them
agreeable company and engaging companions.
In justice, I should here say that this collection contains only a
few out of the vast number of good, bad, and indifferent pieces of
verse that I have been making at odd hours of a busy life, ever since
my boyhood, for my own pastime, pleasure, and literary and
linguistic improvement, with no thought nor distant dream of ever
permitting them thus to invade the domains of the sovereign public.
That the little book that thus modestly goes forth will attain either
a large circulation or great popularity I neither expect, nor attempt
to bring about; but that men and women with hearts that love and
souls that look above may find much quiet pleasure and satisfaction
in the following pages I do sincerely hope.
It is neither my desire nor befitting to my work to lay claim to any
degree of excellence in the verses herein presented. Quite to the
contrary, I see and regret many defects which I can now neither
remove nor repair. But, however defective they may be in form or in
spirit, I have ever thought that little else than the interpretation of
the relations of the human soul to life, here and hereafter, and the
presentation of the good, the beautiful, and the true of the human
heart is worthy of serious effort.
As a consequence, most of these pieces are dual in meaning—
one, in plain view, the reality; the other, less distinct, the finer
ideality, the reflection, or mirrored image of the first.
 It is this second, this finer and often, at first, obscure meaning
that, in my judgment, is the essential—the preserving salt—of any
poem. Certainly if not this meaning but the apparent one, the one
on the surface, is the basis of judgment on these poems, they will
fall far below the estimate accorded that poetry which is deemed
worthy of existence.
I wish here to return my thanks for the hearty reception accorded
the few selections of the prospectus, and to express the hope that
the completed volume will equal whatever expectations the
recipients of the prospectus may have.
Also, I cannot pass without noting the fact that a large share of
the first edition of this volume was engaged nearly six months
before it went to press, even before I had determined what
productions I should use, and that, too, upon the mere
announcement that the publication was contemplated for the
present summer.
I wish, therefore, thus publicly to thank those who have given this
substantial earnest of their appreciation.
Any opinion or criticism, favorable or unfavorable, or any
suggestion or correction on thought, arrangement, typography, or
other point, that the reader may see fit to express, is not only
invited and encouraged, but will be most gratefully received and
carefully considered.
One word more. If a selection will not bear a second reading, or a
third, a fourth, or a fiftieth reading; if it does not grow better and
better at each reading; if it does not lift the soul to a higher plane, a
nobler aim, a purer life, and a grander view; if at each successive
reading something does not come out of it and enter the heart, and
then pass back into the poem again, and thus again and again, each
beautifying and ennobling the other, like a sunset halo among the
clouds and the liquid, translucent image thereof in the mirroring
lake, then it is no true poem, and should be cast aside.
 The only proof of the excellence of a poem is that it makes the
heart larger and the soul nobler for having read it, and that at each
successive reading both the poem and the reader grow better and
better.
Believing, as I do, that poetry is nothing less than the
interpretation of the Divine in the human heart (whether in the
mood of tears or of laughter), I can but hope, in entrusting these
“children of the brain” to the care of others, that in the heart of each
little waif some good may be found, some song may be heard, some
beauty be revealed, some experience be verified.
C. W. W.
Lincoln, 22 June, 1892.
 CONTENTS.
PAGE

Barefoot After the Cows, 6

Beautiful May, 62
Borrowing Brains, 52
Boy Bards, 178
Browning, 116
Buzz, 141

Choral of Sunset, A, 1
Chorus, 110
Close Attachment, A, 126
Come to the Shadows, 12
Common Lot, The, 17

Dead Man’s Life, The, 124

Death—Life, 135
Death-Howl, The, 131
Deep unto Deep (Double Threnody), 65
Demoniac, The, 128
Deploration, A, 122
Down to the Candy-man’s Shop, 10
Dreamy April Evening in the Woods, A, 109

Echo Song, 18

“False Womankind,” 32
Family of the Ephemera, 36
Father Time, 148
Freedom’s Battle Song, 142

Gift and Giver, 8

Good-Night, My Love, 71
Good-Night (Song), 68
Gravity—Life, 134
Greatest Thing on Earth, The,—
I. From Sun to Sun, 178
II. What the Striving? 179
III. The World is Too Much Ours, 180
IV. Hand and Heart, 181
V. Courting the Crowd, 182
VI. Immortal and God-given, 183
VII. Asking Hearts, 184
VIII. The Crowning Glory, 186

Hal a-Huntin’, 144

Halloween, 51
Happy Days of Yore, 156
Haunted House, The, 20
Hot?—Well, Rather! 135
Human Heart, The, 28
Humpty Dumpty Idiotic Chap, A, 66

If So, Peace Till Next New Year, 46

I Love You, Kate, 123
In the Angels’ Keep, 58
I’se Seen a Light in de Sky, 34
I Wonder, 44

Just as Usual, 121

Life, 52
Life’s Lost Skiff, 125
Life’s Philosophy, 120
Life to Love (A Triolet), 11
Lonely! 33
Lone Wayside Wild-Rose, The, 59
Lover’s Complaint, The, 140
Lurlei, The, 111

Madrigal, 117
Memories of the Past, 156
Mince Pie, 14
Mist-Wing, 15
Modern Tragedy Averted, A, 25
’Mong the Mountains of the Soul, 143
Mortal, A, 105
My Defeat, 46

Nightmare, The, 30

Old Benoni Tree, The, 2

On Kingsley’s “Farewell,” 150
On Plucking a Crocus, 133
Our Alma Mater, 147

Part of the New England Lament, etc., 150

Pity the Poor, 124
Poet’s Prayer, The, 2
Press of Penury, The, 50
Rex Fugit, 118

Shut In, 40
Shut Your Eyes and Go to Sleep, 115
Sickle of Flowers, The, 118
Sleep (Sonnet), 55
Slumber Rhapsody, A, 5
Song of the Stars, 42
Song on the Sea, 56
Sonnets of Life, 23
Sorto’ Played-Out Ol’ Bouquet, A, 9
Soul of My Soul, 13
Sweetest of All, The, 138

Tears and Laughter, 14

There’s a Laugh, 47
This Touch of an Angel’s Hand, 119
Thought, 58
Through Reverent Eyes, 71
Thus Life’s Tale, 149
To a Wild-Rose Bouquet, 55
To Fancy, 69
To Miss ——, 114
To Morpheus, 108
To Sleep, 49
To Thee Above, 109
Tough Mutton, Perhaps, 114
Transformation, The,—A Psychological Mystery, 151
Twenty, 61
Ups and Downs, 2
Useless? 105

Washington, 142
Weather Fiend, The, 129
What is Poetry? 76
Wheel and Shuttle, 49
White-Enthroned Above Me, 59
Whither? 147
Who Knows? 131
Woodland Lay, 57
Words and Thoughts, 117
Write from the Heart, 146

Year Ago, A, 137

 SPIDER-WEBS IN VERSE.
A CHORAL OF SUNSET.
I’ve a notion the clouds at sunset
Sing chorals in the sky
As they let down their billowy tresses
And kiss
The sun
“Good-bye!”

And the music comes in at the portals

That Heaven has left in the heart,
As the shine gets into the flower
Where the leaves
Have slipped
Apart.

THE POET’S PRAYER.

Sweet Zephyr from celestial isles
That all the earth with joy beguiles,
I would that thou wouldst blow to me,
And blow to me thy purest breathing song;
I would that thou wouldst come to me
And tell to me whate’er is right and wrong;
I would that thou wouldst lay thy hand
And rest thy hand upon my throbbing brow,
And that the words thou giv’st to me
And tak’st from me would be received as thou.

UPS AND DOWNS.

The world is like a coach and four,
And men as there you find ’em:
For some must ride and some must drive
And some hang on behind ’em.

Or like the farmer’s ’tater cart,—

The best on top to brag on:
For some must rise and some must fall
Like ’taters in the wagon.

THE OLD BENONI TREE.

Brother Grant, do you remember
Days and years we spent together
Thro’ the summer’s shiny weather
Till apples dropped in late September?
Nurtured where the warm suns shine in,
We were dreamers then, my brother,
As we lisped to one another,
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

Guess you haven’t forgotten that yet,

Have you? I can shut my eyes and
See the old tree where we sat yet,—
Hear the rhythm of that thing rise and
Fall like echoes of the distant brine in
Some fair shell; and like it clinging
To the past, my heart keeps singing,
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

I’ll be plagued if I can tell yet

What that hitching nonsense jingle
Meant, can you? I can smell yet,
Tho’, the blossoms;—hear the lingle
Of the bells of lolling kine in
Slaughter’s grove;—see the pink of
Fruit above us when I think of
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

I can taste those old Benoni

Apples yet—(fall apples—mellow
As the winds that kissed the bony
Branches into blossom; yellow—
Butter-yellow—and as fine in
Taste as Flemish Beauty pears were)—
For our burdensomest cares were,
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”
Ah, my boy, you haven’t forgotten
How with wooden men we pounded
Them when green till almost rotten
Just to get the juice out? Sounded
Mighty tempting with that wine in
There just squushing for the skin to
Burst and let us both fall into
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

Ha! ha! ha! what little scheming

Rascals we were then, my laddie!—
Knock off apples just half-dreaming
Ripeness, stain the stems that had a
Fresh look with some dirt—divine in
Innocence!—then run to mother,
Each one chuckling to the other,
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

Tell her then we’d found them lying

On the ground (we had, too!) asking
If we might not have them, trying
Every childish art, nor masking
Mouths just watering to dine in
Glory on them. When we’d got our
“Yes!” all earth I’m certain, caught our
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

Oh the days and days together

In the lazy days of childhood
Through the shade and shiny weather
Of the Long Agone’s deep wildwood
When we clad our men of pine in
Every phase of human action,
Sang to them the old “attraction,”
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een”!

Through my hazing half closed lashes

Through my hazing, half-closed lashes
As I watch the steady blazing
Of my fangled oil-stove, plashes
Of that olden rhythm come lazing
From the lethy mists, and shine in
Irised splendors where the tilting
Timid Robin still is lilting,
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

Oh the golden old Benonis

With a heart as rich and yellow
As the moon, no apple known is
Half so high or half so mellow,
For they’ve drunk the sun’s whole shine in
And preserved our boyhood’s story
With it’s olden, golden glory,
“Ine-een tor-I fert-hi mine-een.”

A SLUMBER RHAPSODY.
Sleep, sleep, sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
The wind is in the west
And night is on the deep,—
Sleep and rest, rest and sleep,
Sleep, sleep.

Dream, dream, dream and sleep, dream and sleep,

The stars their vigils keep
And skies with glories gleam.
Dream and sleep, sleep and dream,
Dream, dream.

Sleep, rest, dream and rest, sleep and dream,

The morning sun will beam
And cares thy day infest,—
Rest and sleep, sleep and rest,
Rest, rest.

BAREFOOT AFTER THE COWS.

 I am plodding down the little lane again
With my trousers rolled above my sunburnt knees;
And I whistle with the mocking-bird and wren
As they chatter in the hedging willow-trees.
And my foot as light and nimble as the airy wings they wear
Trips along the little lane again to-day;
And my bare feet catch the tinkle thro’ the silent summer air
Of the jingle-langle-ingle far away.—
Klangle-ling ke-langle,
Klingle-lang ke-lingle
Dingle-lingle-langle down the dell;
Jingle-langle lingle,
Langle-lingle r-r-angle,
Ringle-langle-lingle of the bell.

From the lane across the prairie o’er the hill

Down a winding little path the cows have made,
In my thought to-night I’m going, going still,—
For the sinking Sun is lengthening its Shade!
And I find them in the hollows—the hollows of the dell
And I find the drowsy cattle in the dell,
By the ringle-rangle-jingle,—the jangle of the bell,
By the ringle and the jangle of the bell.—
Klang-ke-link ge-lingle,
Jangle-ling ke-langle,
Klink ke-langle-lingle down the dell;
Klangle-link ke-langle,
K-link ke-lank ke-lingle,
Lingle-link ke-langle of the bell.

As the cows across the prairie homeward wind

O’er the hill and toward the broadened sinking sun,
Steals a silence o’er the wooded vale behind
Where their shadows, lengthened, darken into one.
And I whistle back the echoes,—the echoes left behind,
That are wand’ring in the tangles of the dell;
 That are wand ring in the tangles of the dell;
And in answer to the message—the message that I wind,
Call the echoes of the klangle of the bell:—
Langle-langle lingle,
Lingle-langle lingle,
Lingle-lingle-langle down the dell;
D-r-r-ingle-langle-langle,
R-r-angle-ringle-langle,
Langle-lingle-r-r-angle of the bell.

At the lighting of the Candles of the Night

When my tangled locks have found the pillow’s rest,
I can hear the langle-lingle, soft and light,
Like the cradle-rocking lulling of the blest.
And upon the ear of Fancy—of Fancy born of Sleep,
Comes the klangle from a distant dreamy Dell;
For the angels lull me dreaming—dreaming in their keep,
To the klingle-langle-lingle of the bell.—
Kling-ge-lang-ge-lingle,
Klangle-lingle-langle,
Langle-lingle-lingle from the dell;
Kling-ge-ling-ge-langle,
Ling-ge-lang-ge-lingle,
Lingle-lingle-langle of the bell.

GIFT AND GIVER.

Not what we give, but what we share.—Lowell.
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.—Shakespeare.
 Not the binding of this book
Nor its leaves with marble edge;
But the poet’s heart and soul
In each thought upon the page
Makes the book of worth,
Lifts us from the earth,
From the common sod
Nearer unto God.

Not the gold that’s in the gift

Nor the sense of doing duty;
But the giver in the gold
With a heart that’s full of beauty
Makes the gift of worth,
Lifts us from the earth,
From the common sod
Nearer unto God.

A SORTO’ PLAYED-OUT OL’ BOUQUET.