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diff --git a/old/cnrnd10.txt b/old/cnrnd10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94208ac --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cnrnd10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2344 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Century of Roundels, by Swinburne +#4 in our series by Algernon Charles Swinburne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/12/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk, +from the 1883 Chatto & Windus edition. + + + + + +A CENTURY OF ROUNDELS + +by Algernon Charles Swinburne + + + + +Contents: + +In Harbour +The Way of the Wind +Had I Wist +Recollections +Time and Life +A Dialogue +Plus Ultra +A Dead Friend +Past Days +Autumn and Winter +The Death of Richard Wagner +Two preludes + Lohengrin + Tristan und Isolde +The Lute and the Lyre +Plus Intra +Change +A Baby's Death +One of Twain +Death and Birth +Birth and Death +Benediction +Etude Realiste +Babyhood +First Footsteps +A Ninth Birthday +Not a Child +To Dora Dorian +The Roundel +At Sea +Wasted Love +Before Sunset +A Singing Lesson +Flower-pieces + Love Lies Bleeding + Love in a Mist +Three faces + Ventimiglia + Genoa + Venice +Eros +Sorrow +Sleep +On an Old Roundel +A Landscape by Courbet +A Flower-piece by Fantin +A Night-piece by Millet +Marzo Pazzo +Dead Love +Discord +Concord +Mourning +Aperotos Eros +To Catullus +Insularum Ocelle' +In Sark +In Guernsey +Envoi + + + +DEDICATION +TO CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI + + + +Songs light as these may sound, though deep and strong +The heart spake through them, scarce should hope to please +Ears tuned to strains of loftier thoughts than throng + Songs light as these. + +Yet grace may set their sometime doubt at ease, +Nor need their too rash reverence fear to wrong +The shrine it serves at and the hope it sees. + +For childlike loves and laughters thence prolong +Notes that bid enter, fearless as the breeze, +Even to the shrine of holiest-hearted song, + Songs light as these. + + + +IN HARBOUR + + + +I. + +Goodnight and goodbye to the life whose signs denote us +As mourners clothed with regret for the life gone by; +To the waters of gloom whence winds of the dayspring float us + Goodnight and goodbye. + +A time is for mourning, a season for grief to sigh; +But were we not fools and blind, by day to devote us +As thralls to the darkness, unseen of the sundawn's eye? + +We have drunken of Lethe at length, we have eaten of lotus; +What hurts it us here that sorrows are born and die? +We have said to the dream that caressed and the dread that smote us + Goodnight and goodbye. + +II. + +Outside of the port ye are moored in, lying +Close from the wind and at ease from the tide, +What sounds come swelling, what notes fall dying + Outside? + +They will not cease, they will not abide: +Voices of presage in darkness crying +Pass and return and relapse aside. + +Ye see not, but hear ye not wild wings flying +To the future that wakes from the past that died? +Is grief still sleeping, is joy not sighing + Outside? + + + +THE WAY OF THE WIND + + + +The wind's way in the deep sky's hollow +None may measure, as none can say +How the heart in her shows the swallow + The wind's way. + +Hope nor fear can avail to stay +Waves that whiten on wrecks that wallow, +Times and seasons that wane and slay. + +Life and love, till the strong night swallow +Thought and hope and the red last ray, +Swim the waters of years that follow + The wind's way. + + + +'HAD I WIST' + + + +Had I wist, when life was like a warm wind playing +Light and loud through sundawn and the dew's bright trust, +How the time should come for hearts to sigh in saying + 'Had I wist' - + +Surely not the roses, laughing as they kissed, +Not the lovelier laugh of seas in sunshine swaying, +Should have lured my soul to look thereon and list. + +Now the wind is like a soul cast out and praying +Vainly, prayers that pierce not ears when hearts resist: +Now mine own soul sighs, adrift as wind and straying, + 'Had I wist.' + + + +RECOLLECTIONS + + + +I. + +Years upon years, as a course of clouds that thicken +Thronging the ways of the wind that shifts and veers, +Pass, and the flames of remembered fires requicken + Years upon years. + +Surely the thought in a man's heart hopes or fears +Now that forgetfulness needs must here have stricken +Anguish, and sweetened the sealed-up springs of tears. + +Ah, but the strength of regrets that strain and sicken, +Yearning for love that the veil of death endears, +Slackens not wing for the wings of years that quicken - + Years upon years. + +II. + +Years upon years, and the flame of love's high altar +Trembles and sinks, and the sense of listening ears +Heeds not the sound that it heard of love's blithe psalter + Years upon years. + +Only the sense of a heart that hearkens hears, +Louder than dreams that assail and doubts that palter, +Sorrow that slept and that wakes ere sundawn peers. + +Wakes, that the heart may behold, and yet not falter, +Faces of children as stars unknown of, spheres +Seen but of love, that endures though all things alter, + Years upon years. + +III. + +Years upon years, as a watch by night that passes, +Pass, and the light of their eyes is fire that sears +Slowly the hopes of the fruit that life amasses + Years upon years. + +Pale as the glimmer of stars on moorland meres +Lighten the shadows reverberate from the glasses +Held in their hands as they pass among their peers. + +Lights that are shadows, as ghosts on graveyard grasses, +Moving on paths that the moon of memory cheers, +Shew but as mists over cloudy mountain passes + Years upon years. + + + +TIME AND LIFE + + + +I. + +Time, thy name is sorrow, says the stricken +Heart of life, laid waste with wasting flame +Ere the change of things and thoughts requicken, + Time, thy name. + +Girt about with shadow, blind and lame, +Ghosts of things that smite and thoughts that sicken +Hunt and hound thee down to death and shame. + +Eyes of hours whose paces halt or quicken +Read in bloodred lines of loss and blame, +Writ where cloud and darkness round it thicken, + Time, thy name. + +II. + +Nay, but rest is born of me for healing, +- So might haply time, with voice represt, +Speak: is grief the last gift of my dealing? + Nay, but rest. + +All the world is wearied, east and west, +Tired with toil to watch the slow sun wheeling, +Twelve loud hours of life's laborious quest. + +Eyes forspent with vigil, faint and reeling, +Find at last my comfort, and are blest, +Not with rapturous light of life's revealing - + Nay, but rest. + + + +A DIALOGUE + + + +I. + +Death, if thou wilt, fain would I plead with thee: +Canst thou not spare, of all our hopes have built, +One shelter where our spirits fain would be, + Death, if thou wilt? + +No dome with suns and dews impearled and gilt, +Imperial: but some roof of wildwood tree, +Too mean for sceptre's heft or swordblade's hilt. + +Some low sweet roof where love might live, set free +From change and fear and dreams of grief or guilt; +Canst thou not leave life even thus much to see, + Death, if thou wilt? + +II. + +Man, what art thou to speak and plead with me? +What knowest thou of my workings, where and how +What things I fashion? Nay, behold and see, + Man, what art thou? + +Thy fruits of life, and blossoms of thy bough, +What are they but my seedlings? Earth and sea +Bear nought but when I breathe on it must bow. + +Bow thou too down before me: though thou be +Great, all the pride shall fade from off thy brow, +When Time and strong Oblivion ask of thee, + Man, what art thou? + +III. + +Death, if thou be or be not, as was said, +Immortal; if thou make us nought, or we +Survive: thy power is made but of our dread, + Death, if thou be. + +Thy might is made out of our fear of thee: +Who fears thee not, hath plucked from off thine head +The crown of cloud that darkens earth and sea. + +Earth, sea, and sky, as rain or vapour shed, +Shall vanish; all the shows of them shall flee: +Then shall we know full surely, quick or dead, + Death, if thou be. + + + +PLUS ULTRA + + + +Far beyond the sunrise and the sunset rises +Heaven, with worlds on worlds that lighten and respond: +Thought can see not thence the goal of hope's surmises + Far beyond. + +Night and day have made an everlasting bond +Each with each to hide in yet more deep disguises +Truth, till souls of men that thirst for truth despond. + +All that man in pride of spirit slights or prizes, +All the dreams that make him fearful, fain, or fond, +Fade at forethought's touch of life's unknown surprises + Far beyond. + + + +A DEAD FRIEND + + + +I. + +Gone, O gentle heart and true, + Friend of hopes foregone, +Hopes and hopeful days with you + Gone? + + Days of old that shone +Saw what none shall see anew, + When we gazed thereon. + +Soul as clear as sunlit dew, + Why so soon pass on, +Forth from all we loved and knew + Gone? + +II. + +Friend of many a season fled, + What may sorrow send +Toward thee now from lips that said + 'Friend'? + + Sighs and songs to blend +Praise with pain uncomforted + Though the praise ascend? + +Darkness hides no dearer head: + Why should darkness end +Day so soon, O dear and dead + Friend? + +III. + +Dear in death, thou hast thy part + Yet in life, to cheer +Hearts that held thy gentle heart + Dear. + + Time and chance may sear +Hope with grief, and death may part + Hand from hand's clasp here: + +Memory, blind with tears that start, + Sees through every tear +All that made thee, as thou art, + Dear. + +IV. + +True and tender, single-souled, + What should memory do +Weeping o'er the trust we hold + True? + + Known and loved of few, +But of these, though small their fold, + Loved how well were you! + +Change, that makes of new things old, + Leaves one old thing new; +Love which promised truth, and told + True. + +V. + +Kind as heaven, while earth's control + Still had leave to bind +Thee, thy heart was toward man's whole + Kind. + + Thee no shadows blind +Now: the change of hours that roll + Leaves thy sleep behind. + +Love, that hears thy death-bell toll + Yet, may call to mind +Scarce a soul as thy sweet soul + Kind. + +VI. + +How should life, O friend, forget + Death, whose guest art thou? +Faith responds to love's regret, + How? + + Still, for us that bow +Sorrowing, still, though life be set, + Shines thy bright mild brow. + +Yea, though death and thou be met, + Love may find thee now +Still, albeit we know not yet + How. + +VII. + +Past as music fades, that shone + While its life might last; +As a song-bird's shadow flown + Past! + + Death's reverberate blast +Now for music's lord has blown + Whom thy love held fast. + +Dead thy king, and void his throne: + Yet for grief at last +Love makes music of his own + Past. + + + +PAST DAYS + + + +I. + +Dead and gone, the days we had together, +Shadow-stricken all the lights that shone +Round them, flown as flies the blown foam's feather, + Dead and gone. + +Where we went, we twain, in time foregone, +Forth by land and sea, and cared not whether, +If I go again, I go alone. + +Bound am I with time as with a tether; +Thee perchance death leads enfranchised on, +Far from deathlike life and changeful weather, + Dead and gone. + +II. + +Above the sea and sea-washed town we dwelt, +We twain together, two brief summers, free +From heed of hours as light as clouds that melt + Above the sea. + +Free from all heed of aught at all were we, +Save chance of change that clouds or sunbeams dealt +And gleam of heaven to windward or to lee. + +The Norman downs with bright grey waves for belt +Were more for us than inland ways might be; +A clearer sense of nearer heaven was felt + Above the sea. + +III. + +Cliffs and downs and headlands which the forward-hasting +Flight of dawn and eve empurples and embrowns, +Wings of wild sea-winds and stormy seasons wasting + Cliffs and downs, + +These, or ever man was, were: the same sky frowns, +Laughs, and lightens, as before his soul, forecasting +Times to be, conceived such hopes as time discrowns. + +These we loved of old: but now for me the blasting +Breath of death makes dull the bright small seaward towns, +Clothes with human change these all but everlasting + Cliffs and downs. + + + +AUTUMN AND WINTER + + + +I. + +Three months bade wane and wax the wintering moon +Between two dates of death, while men were fain +Yet of the living light that all too soon + Three months bade wane. + +Cold autumn, wan with wrath of wind and rain, +Saw pass a soul sweet as the sovereign tune +That death smote silent when he smote again. + +First went my friend, in life's mid light of noon, +Who loved the lord of music: then the strain +Whence earth was kindled like as heaven in June + Three months bade wane. + +II. + +A herald soul before its master's flying +Touched by some few moons first the darkling goal +Where shades rose up to greet the shade, espying + A herald soul; + +Shades of dead lords of music, who control +Men living by the might of men undying, +With strength of strains that make delight of dole. + +The deep dense dust on death's dim threshold lying +Trembled with sense of kindling sound that stole +Through darkness, and the night gave ear, descrying + A herald soul. + +III. + +One went before, one after, but so fast +They seem gone hence together, from the shore +Whence we now gaze: yet ere the mightier passed + One went before; + +One whose whole heart of love, being set of yore +On that high joy which music lends us, cast +Light round him forth of music's radiant store. + +Then went, while earth on winter glared aghast, +The mortal god he worshipped, through the door +Wherethrough so late, his lover to the last, + One went before. + +IV. + +A star had set an hour before the sun +Sank from the skies wherethrough his heart's pulse yet +Thrills audibly: but few took heed, or none, + A star had set. + +All heaven rings back, sonorous with regret, +The deep dirge of the sunset: how should one +Soft star be missed in all the concourse met? + +But, O sweet single heart whose work is done, +Whose songs are silent, how should I forget +That ere the sunset's fiery goal was won + A star had set? + + + +THE DEATH OF RICHARD WAGNER + + + +I. + +Mourning on earth, as when dark hours descend, +Wide-winged with plagues, from heaven; when hope and mirth +Wane, and no lips rebuke or reprehend + Mourning on earth. + +The soul wherein her songs of death and birth, +Darkness and light, were wont to sound and blend, +Now silent, leaves the whole world less in worth. + +Winds that make moan and triumph, skies that bend, +Thunders, and sound of tides in gulf and firth, +Spake through his spirit of speech, whose death should send + Mourning on earth. + +II. + +The world's great heart, whence all things strange and rare +Take form and sound, that each inseparate part +May bear its burden in all tuned thoughts that share + The world's great heart - + +The fountain forces, whence like steeds that start +Leap forth the powers of earth and fire and air, +Seas that revolve and rivers that depart - + +Spake, and were turned to song: yea, all they were, +With all their works, found in his mastering art +Speech as of powers whose uttered word laid bare + The world's great heart. + +III. + +From the depths of the sea, from the wellsprings of earth, from the +wastes of the midmost night, +From the fountains of darkness and tempest and thunder, from heights +where the soul would be, +The spell of the mage of music evoked their sense, as an unknown +light + From the depths of the sea. + +As a vision of heaven from the hollows of ocean, that none but a god +might see, +Rose out of the silence of things unknown of a presence, a form, a +might, +And we heard as a prophet that hears God's message against him, and +may not flee. + +Eye might not endure it, but ear and heart with a rapture of dark +delight, +With a terror and wonder whose core was joy, and a passion of thought +set free, +Felt inly the rising of doom divine as a sundawn risen to sight + From the depths of the sea. + + + +TWO PRELUDES + + + +I. + +LOHENGRIN + +Love, out of the depth of things, +As a dewfall felt from above, +From the heaven whence only springs + Love, + +Love, heard from the heights thereof, +The clouds and the watersprings, +Draws close as the clouds remove. + +And the soul in it speaks and sings, +A swan sweet-souled as a dove, +An echo that only rings + Love. + +II. + +TRISTAN UND ISOLDE + +Fate, out of the deep sea's gloom, +When a man's heart's pride grows great, +And nought seems now to foredoom + Fate, + +Fate, laden with fears in wait, +Draws close through the clouds that loom, +Till the soul see, all too late, + +More dark than a dead world's tomb, +More high than the sheer dawn's gate, +More deep than the wide sea's womb, + Fate. + + + +THE LUTE AND THE LYRE + + + +Deep desire, that pierces heart and spirit to the root, +Finds reluctant voice in verse that yearns like soaring fire, +Takes exultant voice when music holds in high pursuit + Deep desire. + +Keen as burns the passion of the rose whose buds respire, +Strong as grows the yearning of the blossom toward the fruit, +Sounds the secret half unspoken ere the deep tones tire. + +Slow subsides the rapture that possessed love's flower-soft lute, +Slow the palpitation of the triumph of the lyre: +Still the soul feels burn, a flame unslaked though these be mute, + Deep desire. + + + +PLUS INTRA + + + +I. + +Soul within sense, immeasurable, obscure, +Insepulchred and deathless, through the dense +Deep elements may scarce be felt as pure + Soul within sense. + +From depth and height by measurers left immense, +Through sound and shape and colour, comes the unsure +Vague utterance, fitful with supreme suspense. + +All that may pass, and all that must endure, +Song speaks not, painting shews not: more intense +And keen than these, art wakes with music's lure + Soul within sense. + + + +CHANGE + + + +But now life's face beholden + Seemed bright as heaven's bare brow +With hope of gifts withholden + But now. + + From time's full-flowering bough +Each bud spake bloom to embolden + Love's heart, and seal his vow. + +Joy's eyes grew deep with olden + Dreams, born he wist not how; +Thought's meanest garb was golden; + But now! + + + +A BABY'S DEATH + + + +I. + +A little soul scarce fledged for earth +Takes wing with heaven again for goal +Even while we hailed as fresh from birth + A little soul. + +Our thoughts ring sad as bells that toll, +Not knowing beyond this blind world's girth +What things are writ in heaven's full scroll. + +Our fruitfulness is there but dearth, +And all things held in time's control +Seem there, perchance, ill dreams, not worth + A little soul. + +II. + +The little feet that never trod +Earth, never strayed in field or street, +What hand leads upward back to God + The little feet? + +A rose in June's most honied heat, +When life makes keen the kindling sod, +Was not so soft and warm and sweet. + +Their pilgrimage's period +A few swift moons have seen complete +Since mother's hands first clasped and shod + The little feet. + +III. + +The little hands that never sought +Earth's prizes, worthless all as sands, +What gift has death, God's servant, brought + The little hands? + +We ask: but love's self silent stands, +Love, that lends eyes and wings to thought +To search where death's dim heaven expands. + +Ere this, perchance, though love know nought, +Flowers fill them, grown in lovelier lands, +Where hands of guiding angels caught + The little hands. + +IV. + +The little eyes that never knew +Light other than of dawning skies, +What new life now lights up anew + The little eyes? + +Who knows but on their sleep may rise +Such light as never heaven let through +To lighten earth from Paradise? + +No storm, we know, may change the blue +Soft heaven that haply death descries +No tears, like these in ours, bedew + The little eyes. + +V. + +Was life so strange, so sad the sky, + So strait the wide world's range, +He would not stay to wonder why + Was life so strange? + +Was earth's fair house a joyless grange + Beside that house on high +Whence Time that bore him failed to estrange? + +That here at once his soul put by + All gifts of time and change, +And left us heavier hearts to sigh + 'Was life so strange?' + +VI. + +Angel by name love called him, seeing so fair + The sweet small frame; +Meet to be called, if ever man's child were, + Angel by name. + +Rose-bright and warm from heaven's own heart he came, + And might not bear +The cloud that covers earth's wan face with shame. + +His little light of life was all too rare + And soft a flame: +Heaven yearned for him till angels hailed him there + Angel by name. + +VII. + +The song that smiled upon his birthday here +Weeps on the grave that holds him undefiled +Whose loss makes bitterer than a soundless tear + The song that smiled. + +His name crowned once the mightiest ever styled +Sovereign of arts, and angel: fate and fear +Knew then their master, and were reconciled. + +But we saw born beneath some tenderer sphere +Michael, an angel and a little child, +Whose loss bows down to weep upon his bier + The song that smiled. + + + +ONE OF TWAIN + + + +I. + +One of twain, twin-born with flowers that waken, +Now hath passed from sense of sun and rain: +Wind from off the flower-crowned branch hath shaken + One of twain. + +One twin flower must pass, and one remain: +One, the word said soothly, shall be taken, +And another left: can death refrain? + +Two years since was love's light song mistaken, +Blessing then both blossoms, half in vain? +Night outspeeding light hath overtaken + One of twain. + +II. + +Night and light? O thou of heart unwary, +Love, what knowest thou here at all aright, +Lured, abused, misled as men by fairy + Night and light? + +Haply, where thine eyes behold but night, +Soft as o'er her babe the smile of Mary +Light breaks flowerwise into new-born sight. + +What though night of light to thee be chary? +What though stars of hope like flowers take flight? +Seest thou all things here, where all see vary + Night and light? + + + +DEATH AND BIRTH + + + +Death and birth should dwell not near together: +Wealth keeps house not, even for shame, with dearth: +Fate doth ill to link in one brief tether + Death and birth. + +Harsh the yoke that binds them, strange the girth +Seems that girds them each with each: yet whether +Death be best, who knows, or life on earth? + +Ill the rose-red and the sable feather +Blend in one crown's plume, as grief with mirth: +Ill met still are warm and wintry weather, + Death and birth. + + + +BIRTH AND DEATH + + + +Birth and death, twin-sister and twin-brother, +Night and day, on all things that draw breath, +Reign, while time keeps friends with one another + Birth and death. + +Each brow-bound with flowers diverse of wreath, +Heaven they hail as father, earth as mother, +Faithful found above them and beneath. + +Smiles may lighten tears, and tears may smother +Smiles, for all that joy or sorrow saith: +Joy nor sorrow knows not from each other + Birth and death. + + + +BENEDICTION + + + +Blest in death and life beyond man's guessing +Little children live and die, possest +Still of grace that keeps them past expressing + Blest. + +Each least chirp that rings from every nest, +Each least touch of flower-soft fingers pressing +Aught that yearns and trembles to be prest, + +Each least glance, gives gifts of grace, redressing +Grief's worst wrongs: each mother's nurturing breast +Feeds a flower of bliss, beyond all blessing + Blest. + + + +ETUDE REALISTE + + + +I. + +A Baby's feet, like sea-shells pink, + Might tempt, should heaven see meet, +An angel's lips to kiss, we think, + A baby's feet. + +Like rose-hued sea-flowers toward the heat + They stretch and spread and wink +Their ten soft buds that part and meet. + +No flower-bells that expand and shrink + Gleam half so heavenly sweet +As shine on life's untrodden brink + A baby's feet. + +II. + +A baby's hands, like rosebuds furled + Whence yet no leaf expands, +Ope if you touch, though close upcurled, + A baby's hands. + +Then, fast as warriors grip their brands + When battle's bolt is hurled, +They close, clenched hard like tightening bands. + +No rosebuds yet by dawn impearled + Match, even in loveliest lands, +The sweetest flowers in all the world - + A baby's hands. + +III. + +A baby's eyes, ere speech begin, + Ere lips learn words or sighs, +Bless all things bright enough to win + A baby's eyes. + +Love, while the sweet thing laughs and lies, + And sleep flows out and in, +Sees perfect in them Paradise. + +Their glance might cast out pain and sin, + Their speech make dumb the wise, +By mute glad godhead felt within + A baby's eyes. + + + +BABYHOOD + + + +I. + +A baby shines as bright +If winter or if May be +On eyes that keep in sight + A baby. + +Though dark the skies or grey be, +It fills our eyes with light, +If midnight or midday be. + +Love hails it, day and night, +The sweetest thing that may be +Yet cannot praise aright + A baby. + +II. + +All heaven, in every baby born, +All absolute of earthly leaven, +Reveals itself, though man may scorn + All heaven. + +Yet man might feel all sin forgiven, +All grief appeased, all pain outworn, +By this one revelation given. + +Soul, now forget thy burdens borne: +Heart, be thy joys now seven times seven: +Love shows in light more bright than morn + All heaven. + +III. + +What likeness may define, and stray not + From truth's exactest way, +A baby's beauty? Love can say not + What likeness may. + +The Mayflower loveliest held in May + Of all that shine and stay not +Laughs not in rosier disarray. + +Sleek satin, swansdown, buds that play not + As yet with winds that play, +Would fain be matched with this, and may not: + What likeness may? + +IV. + +Rose, round whose bed +Dawn's cloudlets close, +Earth's brightest-bred + Rose! + +No song, love knows, +May praise the head +Your curtain shows. + +Ere sleep has fled, +The whole child glows +One sweet live red + Rose. + + + +FIRST FOOTSTEPS + + + +A little way, more soft and sweet + Than fields aflower with May, +A babe's feet, venturing, scarce complete + A little way. + + Eyes full of dawning day +Look up for mother's eyes to meet, + Too blithe for song to say. + +Glad as the golden spring to greet + Its first live leaflet's play, +Love, laughing, leads the little feet + A little way. + + + +A NINTH BIRTHDAY +FEBRUARY 4, 1883 + + + +I. + +Three times thrice hath winter's rough white wing +Crossed and curdled wells and streams with ice +Since his birth whose praises love would sing + Three times thrice. + +Earth nor sea bears flower nor pearl of price +Fit to crown the forehead of my king, +Honey meet to please him, balm, nor spice. + +Love can think of nought but love to bring +Fit to serve or do him sacrifice +Ere his eyes have looked upon the spring + Three times thrice. + +II. + +Three times thrice the world has fallen on slumber, +Shone and waned and withered in a trice, +Frost has fettered Thames and Tyne and Humber + Three times thrice, + +Fogs have swoln too thick for steel to slice, +Cloud and mud have soiled with grime and umber +Earth and heaven, defaced as souls with vice, + +Winds have risen to wreck, snows fallen to cumber, +Ships and chariots, trapped like rats or mice, +Since my king first smiled, whose years now number + Three times thrice. + +III. + +Three times thrice, in wine of song full-flowing, +Pledge, my heart, the child whose eyes suffice, +Once beheld, to set thy joy-bells going + Three times thrice. + +Not the lands of palm and date and rice +Glow more bright when summer leaves them glowing, +Laugh more light when suns and winds entice. + +Noon and eve and midnight and cock-crowing, +Child whose love makes life as paradise, +Love should sound your praise with clarions blowing + Three times thrice. + + + +NOT A CHILD + + + +I. + +'Not a child: I call myself a boy,' +Says my king, with accent stern yet mild, +Now nine years have brought him change of joy; + 'Not a child.' + +How could reason be so far beguiled, +Err so far from sense's safe employ, +Stray so wide of truth, or run so wild? + +Seeing his face bent over book or toy, +Child I called him, smiling: but he smiled +Back, as one too high for vain annoy - + Not a child. + +II. + +Not a child? alack the year! +What should ail an undefiled +Heart, that he would fain appear + Not a child? + +Men, with years and memories piled +Each on other, far and near, +Fain again would so be styled: + +Fain would cast off hope and fear, +Rest, forget, be reconciled: +Why would you so fain be, dear, + Not a child? + +III. + + +Child or boy, my darling, which you will, +Still your praise finds heart and song employ, +Heart and song both yearning toward you still, + Child or boy. + +All joys else might sooner pall or cloy +Love than this which inly takes its fill, +Dear, of sight of your more perfect joy. + +Nay, be aught you please, let all fulfil +All your pleasure; be your world your toy: +Mild or wild we love you, loud or still, + Child or boy. + + + +TO DORA DORIAN + + + +Child of two strong nations, heir +Born of high-souled hope that smiled, +Seeing for each brought forth a fair + Child, + +By thy gracious brows, and wild +Golden-clouded heaven of hair, +By thine eyes elate and mild, + +Hope would fain take heart to swear +Men should yet be reconciled, +Seeing the sign she bids thee bear, + Child. + + + +THE ROUNDEL + + + +A roundel is wrought as a ring or a starbright sphere, +With craft of delight and with cunning of sound unsought, +That the heart of the hearer may smile if to pleasure his ear + A roundel is wrought. + +Its jewel of music is carven of all or of aught - +Love, laughter, or mourning--remembrance of rapture or fear - +That fancy may fashion to hang in the ear of thought. + +As a bird's quick song runs round, and the hearts in us hear +Pause answer to pause, and again the same strain caught, +So moves the device whence, round as a pearl or tear, + A roundel is wrought. + + + +AT SEA + + + +'Farewell and adieu' was the burden prevailing +Long since in the chant of a home-faring crew; +And the heart in us echoes, with laughing or wailing, + Farewell and adieu. + +Each year that we live shall we sing it anew, +With a water untravelled before us for sailing +And a water behind us that wrecks may bestrew. + +The stars of the past and the beacons are paling, +The heavens and the waters are hoarier of hue: +But the heart in us chants not an all unavailing + Farewell and adieu. + + + +WASTED LOVE + + + +What shall be done for sorrow + With love whose race is run? +Where help is none to borrow, + What shall be done? + +In vain his hands have spun + The web, or drawn the furrow: +No rest their toil hath won. + +His task is all gone thorough, + And fruit thereof is none: +And who dare say to-morrow + What shall be done? + + + +BEFORE SUNSET + + + +Love's twilight wanes in heaven above, + On earth ere twilight reigns: +Ere fear may feel the chill thereof, + Love's twilight wanes. + +Ere yet the insatiate heart complains + 'Too much, and scarce enough,' +The lip so late athirst refrains. + +Soft on the neck of either dove + Love's hands let slip the reins: +And while we look for light of love + Love's twilight wanes. + + + +A SINGING LESSON + + + +Far-fetched and dear-bought, as the proverb rehearses, +Is good, or was held so, for ladies: but nought +In a song can be good if the turn of the verse is + Far-fetched and dear-bought. + +As the turn of a wave should it sound, and the thought +Ring smooth, and as light as the spray that disperses +Be the gleam of the words for the garb thereof wrought. + +Let the soul in it shine through the sound as it pierces +Men's hearts with possession of music unsought; +For the bounties of song are no jealous god's mercies, + Far-fetched and dear-bought. + + + +FLOWER-PIECES + + + +I.--LOVE LIES BLEEDING + +Love lies bleeding in the bed whereover +Roses lean with smiling mouths or pleading: +Earth lies laughing where the sun's dart clove her: + Love lies bleeding. + +Stately shine his purple plumes, exceeding +Pride of princes: nor shall maid or lover +Find on earth a fairer sign worth heeding. + +Yet may love, sore wounded scarce recover +Strength and spirit again, with life receding: +Hope and joy, wind-winged, about him hover: + Love lies bleeding. + +II.--LOVE IN A MIST + +Light love in a mist, by the midsummer moon misguided, +Scarce seen in the twilight garden if gloom insist, +Seems vainly to seek for a star whose gleam has derided + Light love in a mist. + +All day in the sun, when the breezes do all they list, +His soft blue raiment of cloudlike blossom abided +Unrent and unwithered of winds and of rays that kissed. + +Blithe-hearted or sad, as the cloud or the sun subsided, +Love smiled in the flower with a meaning whereof none wist +Save two that beheld, as a gleam that before them glided, + Light love in a mist. + + + +THREE FACES + + + +I.--VENTIMIGLIA + +The sky and sea glared hard and bright and blank: +Down the one steep street, with slow steps firm and free, +A tall girl paced, with eyes too proud to thank + The sky and sea. + +One dead flat sapphire, void of wrath or glee, +Through bay on bay shone blind from bank to bank +The weary Mediterranean, drear to see. + +More deep, more living, shone her eyes that drank +The breathless light and shed again on me, +Till pale before their splendour waned and shrank + The sky and sea. + +II.--GENOA + +Again the same strange might of eyes, that saw +In heaven and earth nought fairer, overcame +My sight with rapture of reiterate awe, + Again the same. + +The self-same pulse of wonder shook like flame +The spirit of sense within me: what strange law +Had bid this be, for blessing or for blame? + +To what veiled end that fate or chance foresaw +Came forth this second sister face, that came +Absolute, perfect, fair without a flaw, + Again the same? + +III.--VENICE + +Out of the dark pure twilight, where the stream +Flows glimmering, streaked by many a birdlike bark +That skims the gloom whence towers and bridges gleam + Out of the dark, + +Once more a face no glance might choose but mark +Shone pale and bright, with eyes whose deep slow beam +Made quick the twilight, lifeless else and stark. + +The same it seemed, or mystery made it seem, +As those before beholden; but St. Mark +Ruled here the ways that showed it like a dream + Out of the dark. + + + +EROS + + + +I. + +Eros, from rest in isles far-famed, +With rising Anthesterion rose, +And all Hellenic heights acclaimed + Eros. + +The sea one pearl, the shore one rose, +All round him all the flower-month flamed +And lightened, laughing off repose. + +Earth's heart, sublime and unashamed, +Knew, even perchance as man's heart knows, +The thirst of all men's nature named + Eros. + +II. + +Eros, a fire of heart untamed, +A light of spirit in sense that glows, +Flamed heavenward still ere earth defamed + Eros. + +Nor fear nor shame durst curb or close +His golden godhead, marred and maimed, +Fast round with bonds that burnt and froze. + +Ere evil faith struck blind and lamed +Love, pure as fire or flowers or snows, +Earth hailed as blameless and unblamed + Eros. + +III. + +Eros, with shafts by thousands aimed +At laughing lovers round in rows, +Fades from their sight whose tongues proclaimed + Eros. + +But higher than transient shapes or shows +The light of love in life inflamed +Springs, toward no goal that these disclose. + +Above those heavens which passion claimed +Shines, veiled by change that ebbs and flows, +The soul in all things born or framed, + Eros. + + + +SORROW + + + +Sorrow, on wing through the world for ever, +Here and there for awhile would borrow +Rest, if rest might haply deliver + Sorrow. + +One thought lies close in her heart gnawn thorough +With pain, a weed in a dried-up river, +A rust-red share in an empty furrow. + +Hearts that strain at her chain would sever +The link where yesterday frets to-morrow: +All things pass in the world, but never + Sorrow. + + + +SLEEP + + + +Sleep, when a soul that her own clouds cover +Wails that sorrow should always keep +Watch, nor see in the gloom above her + Sleep, + +Down, through darkness naked and steep, +Sinks, and the gifts of his grace recover +Soon the soul, though her wound be deep. + +God beloved of us, all men's lover, +All most weary that smile or weep +Feel thee afar or anear them hover, + Sleep. + + + +ON AN OLD ROUNDEL +TRANSLATED BY D. C. ROSSETTI FROM THE FRENCH OF VILLON + + + +I. + +Death, from thy rigour a voice appealed, +And men still hear what the sweet cry saith, +Crying aloud in thine ears fast sealed, + Death. + +As a voice in a vision that vanisheth, +Through the grave's gate barred and the portal steeled +The sound of the wail of it travelleth. + +Wailing aloud from a heart unhealed, +It woke response of melodious breath +From lips now too by thy kiss congealed, + Death + +II. + +Ages ago, from the lips of a sad glad poet +Whose soul was a wild dove lost in the whirling snow, +The soft keen plaint of his pain took voice to show it + Ages ago. + +So clear, so deep, the divine drear accents flow, +No soul that listens may choose but thrill to know it, +Pierced and wrung by the passionate music's throe. + +For us there murmurs a nearer voice below it, +Known once of ears that never again shall know, +Now mute as the mouth which felt death's wave o'erflow it + Ages ago. + + + +A LANDSCAPE BY COURBET + + + +Low lies the mere beneath the moorside, still +And glad of silence: down the wood sweeps clear +To the utmost verge where fed with many a rill + Low lies the mere. + +The wind speaks only summer: eye nor ear +Sees aught at all of dark, hears aught of shrill, +From sound or shadow felt or fancied here. + +Strange, as we praise the dead man's might and skill, +Strange that harsh thoughts should make such heavy cheer, +While, clothed with peace by heaven's most gentle will, + Low lies the mere. + + + +A FLOWER-PIECE BY FANTIN + + + +Heart's ease or pansy, pleasure or thought, +Which would the picture give us of these? +Surely the heart that conceived it sought + Heart's ease. + +Surely by glad and divine degrees +The heart impelling the hand that wrought +Wrought comfort here for a soul's disease. + +Deep flowers, with lustre and darkness fraught, +From glass that gleams as the chill still seas +Lean and lend for a heart distraught + Heart's ease. + + + +A NIGHT-PIECE BY MILLET + + + +Wind and sea and cloud and cloud-forsaking +Mirth of moonlight where the storm leaves free +Heaven awhile, for all the wrath of waking + Wind and sea. + +Bright with glad mad rapture, fierce with glee, +Laughs the moon, borne on past cloud's o'ertaking +Fast, it seems, as wind or sail can flee. + +One blown sail beneath her, hardly making +Forth, wild-winged for harbourage yet to be, +Strives and leaps and pants beneath the breaking + Wind and sea. + + + +'MARZO PAZZO' + + + +Mad March, with the wind in his wings wide-spread, +Leaps from heaven, and the deep dawn's arch +Hails re-risen again from the dead + Mad March. + +Soft small flames on rowan and larch +Break forth as laughter on lips that said +Nought till the pulse in them beat love's march. + +But the heartbeat now in the lips rose-red +Speaks life to the world, and the winds that parch +Bring April forth as a bride to wed + Mad March. + + + +DEAD LOVE + + + +Dead love, by treason slain, lies stark, +White as a dead stark-stricken dove: +None that pass by him pause to mark + Dead love. + +His heart, that strained and yearned and strove +As toward the sundawn strives the lark, +Is cold as all the old joy thereof. + +Dead men, re-risen from dust, may hark +When rings the trumpet blown above: +It will not raise from out the dark + Dead love. + + + +DISCORD + + + +Unreconciled by life's fleet years, that fled +With changeful clang of pinions wide and wild, +Though two great spirits had lived, and hence had sped + Unreconciled; + +Though time and change, harsh time's imperious child, +That wed strange hands together, might not wed +High hearts by hope's misprision once beguiled; + +Faith, by the light from either's memory shed, +Sees, radiant as their ends were undefiled, +One goal for each--not twain among the dead + Unreconciled. + + + +CONCORD + + + +Reconciled by death's mild hand, that giving +Peace gives wisdom, not more strong than mild, +Love beholds them, each without misgiving + Reconciled. + +Each on earth alike of earth reviled, +Hated, feared, derided, and forgiving, +Each alike had heaven at heart, and smiled. + +Both bright names, clothed round with man's thanksgiving, +Shine, twin stars above the storm-drifts piled, +Dead and deathless, whom we saw not living + Reconciled. + + + +MOURNING + + + +Alas my brother! the cry of the mourners of old + That cried on each other, +All crying aloud on the dead as the death-note rolled, + Alas my brother! + +As flashes of dawn that mists from an east wind smother + With fold upon fold, +The past years gleam that linked us one with another. + +Time sunders hearts as of brethren whose eyes behold + No more their mother: +But a cry sounds yet from the shrine whose fires wax cold, + Alas my brother! + + + +APEROTOS EROS + + + +Strong as death, and cruel as the grave, +Clothed with cloud and tempest's blackening breath, +Known of death's dread self, whom none outbrave, + Strong as death, + +Love, brow-bound with anguish for a wreath, +Fierce with pain, a tyrant-hearted slave, +Burns above a world that groans beneath. + +Hath not pity power on thee to save, +Love? hath power no pity? Nought he saith, +Answering: blind he walks as wind or wave, + Strong as death. + + + +TO CATULLUS + + + +My brother, my Valerius, dearest head +Of all whose crowning bay-leaves crown their mother +Rome, in the notes first heard of thine I read + My brother. + +No dust that death or time can strew may smother +Love and the sense of kinship inly bred +From loves and hates at one with one another. + +To thee was Caesar's self nor dear nor dread, +Song and the sea were sweeter each than other: +How should I living fear to call thee dead + My brother? + + + +'INSULARUM OCELLE' + + + +Sark, fairer than aught in the world that the lit skies cover, +Laughs inly behind her cliffs, and the seafarers mark +As a shrine where the sunlight serves, though the blown clouds hover, + Sark. + +We mourn, for love of a song that outsang the lark, +That nought so lovely beholden of Sirmio's lover +Made glad in Propontis the flight of his Pontic bark. + +Here earth lies lordly, triumphal as heaven is above her, +And splendid and strange as the sea that upbears as an ark, +As a sign for the rapture of storm-spent eyes to discover, + Sark. + + + +IN SARK + + + +Abreast and ahead of the sea is a crag's front cloven asunder +With strong sea-breach and with wasting of winds whence terror is +shed +As a shadow of death from the wings of the darkness on waters that +thunder + Abreast and ahead. + +At its edge is a sepulchre hollowed and hewn for a lone man's bed, +Propped open with rock and agape on the sky and the sea thereunder, +But roofed and walled in well from the wrath of them slept its dead. + +Here might not a man drink rapture of rest, or delight above wonder, +Beholding, a soul disembodied, the days and the nights that fled, +With splendour and sound of the tempest around and above him and +under, + Abreast and ahead? + + + +IN GUERNSEY +TO THEODORE WATTS + + + +I. + +The heavenly bay, ringed round with cliffs and moors, +Storm-stained ravines, and crags that lawns inlay, +Soothes as with love the rocks whose guard secures + The heavenly bay. + +O friend, shall time take ever this away, +This blessing given of beauty that endures, +This glory shown us, not to pass but stay? + +Though sight be changed for memory, love ensures +What memory, changed by love to sight, would say - +The word that seals for ever mine and yours + The heavenly bay. + +II. + +My mother sea, my fostress, what new strand, +What new delight of waters, may this be, +The fairest found since time's first breezes fanned + My mother sea? + +Once more I give me body and soul to thee, +Who hast my soul for ever: cliff and sand +Recede, and heart to heart once more are we. + +My heart springs first and plunges, ere my hand +Strike out from shore: more close it brings to me, +More near and dear than seems my fatherland, + My mother sea. + +III. + +Across and along, as the bay's breadth opens, and o'er us +Wild autumn exults in the wind, swift rapture and strong +Impels us, and broader the wide waves brighten before us + Across and along. + +The whole world's heart is uplifted, and knows not wrong; +The whole world's life is a chant to the sea-tide's chorus; +Are we not as waves of the water, as notes of the song? + +Like children unworn of the passions and toils that wore us, +We breast for a season the breadth of the seas that throng, +Rejoicing as they, to be borne as of old they bore us + Across and along. + +IV. + +On Dante's track by some funereal spell +Drawn down through desperate ways that lead not back +We seem to move, bound forth past flood and fell + On Dante's track. + +The grey path ends: the gaunt rocks gape: the black +Deep hollow tortuous night, a soundless shell, +Glares darkness: are the fires of old grown slack? + +Nay, then, what flames are these that leap and swell +As 'twere to show, where earth's foundations crack, +The secrets of the sepulchres of hell + On Dante's track? + +V. + +By mere men's hands the flame was lit, we know, +From heaps of dry waste whin and casual brands: +Yet, knowing, we scarce believe it kindled so + By mere men's hands. + +Above, around, high-vaulted hell expands, +Steep, dense, a labyrinth walled and roofed with woe, +Whose mysteries even itself not understands. + +The scorn in Farinata's eyes aglow +Seems visible in this flame: there Geryon stands: +No stage of earth's is here, set forth to show + By mere men's hands. + +VI. + +Night, in utmost noon forlorn and strong, with heart athirst and +fasting, +Hungers here, barred up for ever, whence as one whom dreams affright +Day recoils before the low-browed lintel threatening doom and casting + Night. + +All the reefs and islands, all the lawns and highlands, clothed with +light, +Laugh for love's sake in their sleep outside: but here the night +speaks, blasting +Day with silent speech and scorn of all things known from depth to +height. + +Lower than dive the thoughts of spirit-stricken fear in souls +forecasting +Hell, the deep void seems to yawn beyond fear's reach, and higher +than sight +Rise the walls and roofs that compass it about with everlasting + Night. + +VII. + +The house accurst, with cursing sealed and signed, +Heeds not what storms about it burn and burst: +No fear more fearful than its own may find + The house accurst. + +Barren as crime, anhungered and athirst, +Blank miles of moor sweep inland, sere and blind, +Where summer's best rebukes not winter's worst. + +The low bleak tower with nought save wastes behind +Stares down the abyss whereon chance reared and nursed +This type and likeness of the accurst man's mind, + The house accurst. + +VIII. + +Beloved and blest, lit warm with love and fame, +The house that had the light of the earth for guest +Hears for his name's sake all men hail its name + Beloved and blest. + +This eyrie was the homeless eagle's nest +When storm laid waste his eyrie: hence he came +Again, when storm smote sore his mother's breast. + +Bow down men bade us, or be clothed with blame +And mocked for madness: worst, they sware, was best: +But grief shone here, while joy was one with shame, + Beloved and blest. + + + +ENVOI + + + +Fly, white butterflies, out to sea, +Frail pale wings for the winds to try, +Small white wings that we scarce can see + Fly. + +Here and there may a chance-caught eye +Note in a score of you twain or three +Brighter or darker of tinge or dye. + +Some fly light as a laugh of glee, +Some fly soft as a low long sigh: +All to the haven where each would be + Fly. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Century of Roundels, by Swinburne + diff --git a/old/cnrnd10.zip b/old/cnrnd10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..03baec3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cnrnd10.zip |