diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:24:53 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:24:53 -0700 |
| commit | 0bd6a72947374100afdd8a00578f925fe4d69226 (patch) | |
| tree | 3ce79e69474c9cce42175976f88fa1d8507ca3ef /5125-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '5125-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 5125-h/5125-h.htm | 3648 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 5125-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 752808 bytes |
2 files changed, 3648 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/5125-h/5125-h.htm b/5125-h/5125-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e4dfe7 --- /dev/null +++ b/5125-h/5125-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3648 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Last poems | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> /* <![CDATA[ */ + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +.center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} + +/* Footnotes */ + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ + +.poetry { + display: block; + text-align: left; + margin-left: 0 + } +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry in browsers */ +/* .poetry {display: inline-block;} */ +/* large inline blocks don't split well on paged devices */ +@media print { .poetry {display: block;} } + +.x-ebookmaker .poetry { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5% + } +.poetry-container { + margin: 1.5em auto; + text-align: center; + font-size: 98%; + display: flex; + justify-content: center + } +.poetry .stanza { + padding: 0.5em 0; + page-break-inside: avoid + } +.poetry .verse { + text-indent: -3em; + padding-left: 3em + } + +.big {font-size: 1.3em;} +.small {font-size: 0.8em;} + +abbr[title] { + text-decoration: none; +} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent1 {text-indent: -2.5em;} +.poetry .indent10 {text-indent: 2em;} +.poetry .indent12 {text-indent: 3em;} +.poetry .indent13 {text-indent: 3.5em;} +.poetry .indent14 {text-indent: 4em;} +.poetry .indent15 {text-indent: 4.5em;} +.poetry .indent16 {text-indent: 5em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2em;} +.poetry .indent25 {text-indent: 9.5em;} +.poetry .indent3 {text-indent: -1.5em;} +.poetry .indent4 {text-indent: -1em;} +.poetry .indent43 {text-indent: 18.5em;} +.poetry .indent5 {text-indent: -0.5em;} +.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0em;} +.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1em;} +.poetry .indent9 {text-indent: 1.5em;} + + + /* ]]> */ </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Last Poems, by Laurence Hope</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Last Poems</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Laurence Hope</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 5, 2002 [eBook #5125]<br> +[Most recently updated: August 19, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Gordon Keener</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST POEMS ***</div> + + +<h1>Last Poems<br><span class="small"> +Translations from the Book of Indian Love</span></h1> + +<p class="center big p2">Laurence Hope [Adela Florence Cory “Violet” Nicolson]</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Dedication_to_Malcolm_Nicolson">Dedication to Malcolm Nicolson</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I, who of lighter love wrote many a verse,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Made public never words inspired by thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lest strangers’ lips should carelessly rehearse</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Things that were sacred and too dear to me.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy soul was noble; through these fifteen years</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Mine eyes familiar, found no fleck nor flaw,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stern to thyself, thy comrades’ faults and fears</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Proved generously thine only law.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Small joy was I to thee; before we met</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Sorrow had left thee all too sad to save.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Useless my love—as vain as this regret</div> + <div class="verse indent5">That pours my hopeless life across thy grave.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent43">L. H.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Masters">The Masters</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, Masters, you who rule the world,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Will you not wait with me awhile,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When swords are sheathed and sails are furled,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">And all the fields with harvest smile?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I would not waste your time for long,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">I ask you but, when you are tired,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To read how by the weak, the strong</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Are weighed and worshipped and desired.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When weary of the Mart, the Loom,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">The Withering-house, the Riffle-blocks,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Barrack-square, the Engine-room,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">The pick-axe, ringing on the rocks,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When tents are pitched and work is done,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">While restful twilight broods above,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By fresh-lit lamp, or dying sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">See in my songs how women love.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We shared your lonely watch by night,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">We knew you faithful at the helm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our thoughts went with you through the fight,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">That saved a soul,—or wrecked a realm</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, how our hearts leapt forth to you,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">In pride and joy, when you prevailed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when you died, serene and true:</div> + <div class="verse indent5">—We wept in silence when you failed!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Oh, brain that did not gain the gold!</div> + <div class="verse indent15">Oh, arm, that could not wield the sword,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Here is the love, that is not sold,</div> + <div class="verse indent15">Here are the hearts to hail you Lord!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">You played and lost the game? What then?</div> + <div class="verse indent5">The rules are harsh and hard we know,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You, still, Oh, brothers, are the men</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Whom we in secret reverence so.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your work was waste? Maybe your share</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Lay in the hour you laughed and kissed;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who knows but what your son shall wear</div> + <div class="verse indent5">The laurels that his father missed?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, you who win, and you who lose,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Whether you triumph,—or despair,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When your returning footsteps choose</div> + <div class="verse indent5">The homeward track, our love is there.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For, since the world is ordered thus,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">To you the fame, the stress, the sword,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We can but wait, until to us</div> + <div class="verse indent5">You give yourselves, for our reward.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To Whaler’s deck and Coral beach,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">To lonely Ranch and Frontier-Fort,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the narrow bounds of speech</div> + <div class="verse indent5">I lay the cable of my thought.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I fain would send my thanks to you,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">(Though who am I, to give you praise?)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since what you are, and work you do,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Are lessons for our easier ways.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">’Neath alien stars your camp-fires glow,</div> + <div class="verse indent15">I know you not,—your tents are far.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">My hope is but in song to show,</div> + <div class="verse indent15">How honoured and dear you are.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="I_Shall_Forget">I Shall Forget</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Although my life, which thou hast scarred and shaken,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Retains awhile some influence of thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As shells, by faithless waves long since forsaken,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Still murmur with the music of the Sea,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall forget. Not thine the haunting beauty,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Which, once beheld, for ever holds the heart,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or, if resigned from stress of Fate or Duty,</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Takes part of life away:—the dearer part.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I gave thee love; thou gavest but Desire.</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Ah, the delusion of that summer night!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy soul vibrated at the rate of Fire;</div> + <div class="verse indent5">Mine, with the rhythm of the waves of Light.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">It is my love for thee that I regret,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Not thee, thyself, and hence,—I shall forget!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Lament">The Lament of Yasmini, the Dancing-Girl</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, what hast thou done with that Lover of mine?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The Lover who only cared for thee?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mine for a handful of nights, and thine</div> + <div class="verse indent4">For the Nights that Are and the Days to Be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The scent of the Champa lost its sweet—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">So sweet is was in the Times that Were!—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since His alone, of the numerous feet</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That climb my steps, have returned not there.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, return not there!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Art thou yet athrill at the touch of His hand,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Art thou still athirst for His waving hair?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, passion thou never couldst understand,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Life’s heights and depths thou wouldst never dare.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Great Things left thee untouched, unmoved,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The Lesser Things had thy constant care.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, what hast thou done with the Lover I loved,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Who found me wanting, and thee so fair?</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, He found her fair!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, nay, the greatest of all was thine;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The love of the One whom I craved for so,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But much I doubt if thou couldst divine</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The Grace and Glory of Love, or know</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The worth of the One whom thine arms embraced.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I may misjudge thee, but who can tell?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So hard it is, for the one displaced,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To weigh the worth of a rival’s spell.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, thy rival’s spell!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And Thou, whom I loved: have the seasons brought</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That fair content, which allured Thee so?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is it all that Thy delicate fancy wrought?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Yasmini wonders; she may not know.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet never the Stars desert the sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To fade away in the desolate Dawn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But Yasmini watches their glory die,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And mourns for her own Bright Star withdrawn.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, the lonely dawn!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, never the lingering gold dies down</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In a sunset flare of resplendent light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And never the palm-tree’s feathery crown</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Uprears itself to the shadowy night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But Yasmini thinks of those evenings past,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When she prayed the glow of the glimmering West</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To vanish quickly, that night, at last,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Might bring Thee back to her waiting breast.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, how sweet that rest!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet I would not say that I always weep;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The force, that made such a desperate thing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of my love for Thee, has not fallen asleep,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The blood still leaps, and the senses sing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While other passion has oft availed.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">(Other Love—Ah, my One, forgive!—)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To aid, when Churus and Opium failed;—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I could not suffer so much and live.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, who had to live!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, why should I say “Forgive” to Thee?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To whom my lovers and I are naught,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who granted some passionate nights to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Then rose and left me with never a thought!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet, Ah, yet, for those Nights that Were,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thy passive limbs and thy loose loved hair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I would pay, as I _have_ paid, all these days,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With the love that kills and the thought that slays.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, thy youth it slays!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The youthful widow, with shaven hair,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whose senses ache for the love of a man,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The young Priest, knowing that women are fair,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Who stems his longing as best he can,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These suffer not as I suffer for Thee;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">For the Soul desires what the senses crave,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There will never be pleasure or peace for me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Since He who wounded, alone could save.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, He will not save!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The torchlight flares, and the lovers lean</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Towards Yasmini, with yearning eyes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who dances, wondering what they mean,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And gives cold kisses, and scant replies.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They talk of Love, she withholds the name,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">(Love came to her as a Flame of Fire!)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From things that are only a weary shame;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Trivial Vanity;—light Desire.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, the light Desire!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yasmini bends to the praise of men,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And looks in the mirror, upon her hand,<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></div> + <div class="verse indent0">To curse the beauty that failed her then—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ah, none of her lovers can understand!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How her whole life hung on that beauty’s power,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The spell that waned at the final test,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The charm that paled in the vital hour,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Which won so many,—yet lost the best!</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, who lost the best!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She leaves the dancing to reach the roof,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With the lover who claims the passing hour,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her lips are his, but her eyes aloof</div> + <div class="verse indent4">While the starlight falls in a silver shower.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Let him take what pleasure, what love, he may,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">He, too, will suffer e’er life be spent,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But Yasmini’s soul has wandered away</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To join the Lover, who came,—and went!</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ahi, Yasmini, He came,—and went!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Indian women wear a small mirror in a ring on their thumbs.</p> + +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Among_the_Rice_Fields">Among the Rice Fields</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She was fair as a Passion-flower,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">(But little of love he knew.)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her lucent eyes were like amber wine,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And her eyelids stained with blue.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He called them the Gates of Fair Desire,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And the Lakes where Beauty lay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I looked into them once, and saw</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The eyes of Beasts of Prey.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He praised her teeth, that were small and white</div> + <div class="verse indent4">As lilies upon his lawn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While I remembered a tiger’s fangs</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That met in a speckled fawn.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She had her way; a lover the more,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And I had a friend the less.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For long there was nothing to do but wait</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And suffer his happiness.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But now I shall choose the sharpest Kriss</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And nestle it in her breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For dead, he is drifting down to sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And his own hand wrought his rest</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Bride">The Bride</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Beat on the Tom-toms, and scatter the flowers,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Jasmin, Hibiscus, vermillion and white,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This is the day, and the Hour of Hours,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Bring forth the Bride for her Lover’s delight.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Maidens no more, as a maiden shall claim her,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Near, in his Mystery, draweth Desire.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who, if she waver a moment, shall blame her?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">She is a flower, and love is a fire.</div> + <div class="verse indent25">Choti Tinchaurya syani hogayi!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Give her the anklets, the rings and the necklace,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Darken her eyelids with delicate Art,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heighten the beauty, so youthful and fleckless,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">By the Gods favoured, oh, Bridegroom thou art!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Twine in thy fingers her fingers so slender,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Circle together the Mystical Fire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bridegroom,—a whisper—be gentle and tender,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Choti Tinchaurya knows not desire.</div> + <div class="verse indent25">Abhi Tinchaurya syani hogayi!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Bring forth the silks and the veil that shall cover</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Beauty, till yesterday, careless and wild,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Red are her lips for the kiss of a lover,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ripe are her breasts for the lips of a child.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Centre and Shrine of Mysterious Power,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Chalice of Pleasure and Rose of Delight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shyly aware of the swift-coming hour,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Waiting the shade and the silence of night,</div> + <div class="verse indent25">Choti Tinchaurya syani hogayi!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Still must the Bridegroom his longing dissemble,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Longing to loosen the silk-woven cord,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, how his fingers will flutter and tremble,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Fingers well skilled with the bridle and sword.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thine is his valor oh, Bride, and his beauty,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thine to possess and re-issue again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such is thy tender and passionate duty,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Licit thy pleasure and honoured thy pain.</div> + <div class="verse indent25">Choti Tinchaurya syani hogayi!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Choti Tinchaurya, lovely and tender,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Still all unbroken to sorrow and strife.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Come to the Bridegroom who, silk-clad and slender,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Brings thee the Honour and Burden of Life.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bidding farewell to thy light-hearted playtime,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Worship thy Lover with fear and delight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Art thou not ever, though slave of his daytime,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Choti Tinchaurya, queen of his night?</div> + <div class="verse indent25">Choti Tinchaurya syani hogayi!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Unanswered">Unanswered</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Something compels me, somewhere. Yet I see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No clear command in Life’s long mystery.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oft have I flung myself beside my horse,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To drink the water from the roadside mire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And felt the liquid through my being course,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Stilling the anguish of my thirst’s desire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A simple want; so easily allayed;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">After the burning march; water and shade.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Also I lay against the loved one’s heart</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Finding fulfilment in that resting-place,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Feeling my longing, quenched, was but a part</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of nature’s ceaseless striving for the race.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But now, I know not what they would with me;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Matter or Force or God, if Gods there be.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I wait; I question; Nature heeds me not.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">She does but urge in answer to my prayer,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Arise and do!” Alas, she adds not what;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">“Arise and go!” Alas, she says not where!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Net_of_Memory">The Net of Memory</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I cast the Net of Memory,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Man’s torment and delight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over the level Sands of Youth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That lay serenely bright,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their tranquil gold at times submerged</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the Spring Tides of Love’s Delight.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The Net brought up, in silver gleams,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forgotten truth and fancies fair:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like opal shells, small happy facts</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Within the Net entangled were</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With the red coral of his lips,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The waving seaweed of his hair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We were so young; he was so fair.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Cactus_Thicket">The Cactus Thicket</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The Atlas summits were veiled in purple gloom,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But a golden moon above rose clear and free.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The cactus thicket was ruddy with scarlet bloom</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Where, through the silent shadow, he came to me.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“All my sixteen summers were but for this,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That He should pass, and, pausing, find me fair.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You Stars! bear golden witness! My lips were his;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I would not live till others have fastened there.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Oh take me, Death, ere ever the charm shall fade,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ah, close these eyes, ere ever the dream grow dim.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I welcome thee with rapture, and unafraid,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Even as yesternight I welcomed Him.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"> + +<hr class="tb"></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent8">“Not now, Impatient one; it well may be</div> + <div class="verse indent8">That ten moons hence I shall return for thee.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Song_of_the_Peri">Song of the Peri</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Beauty, the Gift of Gifts, I give to thee.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Pleasure and love shall spring around thy feet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As through the lake the lotuses arise</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Pinkly transparent and divinely sweet.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I give thee eyes aglow like morning stars,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Delicate brows, a mist of sable tresses,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That all the journey of thy lie may be</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Lit up by love and softened by caresses.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For those who once were proud and softly bred</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Shall, kneeling, wait thee as thou passest by,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They who were pure shall stretch forth eager hands</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Crying, “Thy pity, Lord, before we die!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And one shall murmur, “If the sun at dawn</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Shall open and caress a happy flower,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What blame to him, although the blossom fade</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In the full splendour of his noontide power?”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And one, “If aloes close together grow</div> + <div class="verse indent4">It well may chance a plant shall wounded be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pierced by the thorntips of another’s leaves,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thus am I hurt unconsciously by thee.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For some shall die and many more shall sin,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Suffering for thy sake till seven times seven,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Because of those most perfect lips of thine</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Which held the power to make or mar their heaven.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And though thou givest back but cruelty,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Their love, persistent, shall not heed nor care,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All those whose ears are fed with blame of thee</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Shall say, “It may be so, but he was fair.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, those who lost the whole of youth for thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Made early and for ever, shamed and sad,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall sigh, re-living some sweet memory,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">“Ah, once it was his will to make me glad.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy nights shall be as bright as summer days,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The sequence of thy sins shall seem as duty,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since I have given thee, Oh, Gift of Gifts!—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The pale perfection of unrivalled beauty.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Though_in_my_Firmament_thou_wilt_not_shine">Though in my Firmament thou wilt not shine</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Talk not, my Lord, of unrequited love,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Since love requites itself most royally.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Do we not live but by the sun above,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And takes he any heed of thee or me?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Though in my firmament thou wilt not shine,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thy glory, as a Star, is none the less.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, Rose, though all unplucked by hand of mine,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Still am I debtor to thy loveliness.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Convert">The Convert</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The sun was hot on the tamarind trees,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Their shadows shrivelled and shrank.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No coolness came on the off-shore breeze</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That rattled the scrub on the bank.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She stretched her appealing arms to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Uplifting the Flagon of Love to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till—great indeed was my unslaked thirst—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I paused, I stooped, and I drank!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I went with my foe to the edge of the crater,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But no one to return, we knew,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The lava’s heat had never been greater</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Than the ire between us two.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He flung back his head and he mocked at me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He spat unspeakable words at me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our eyes met, and our knives met,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I saw red, and I slew!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Such were my deeds when my youth was hot,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And force was new to my hand,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With many more that I tell thee not,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Well known in my native land.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These show thy Christ when thou prayest to Him,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He too was a man thou sayest of Him,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Therefore He, when I reach His feet,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Will remember, and understand.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Ashore">Ashore</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Out I came from the dancing-place:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The night-wind met me face to face—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A wind off the harbour, cold and keen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“I know,” it whistled, “where thou hast been.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A faint voice fell from the stars above—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Thou? whom we lighted to shrines of Love!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I found when I reached my lonely room</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A faint sweet scent in the unlit gloom.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And this was the worst of all to bear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For someone had left while lilac there.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The flower you loved, in times that were.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Yasin_Khan">Yasin Khan</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, thou has found thy kingdom, Yasin Khan,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thy fathers’ pomp and power are thine, at last.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No more the rugged roads of Khorasan,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The scanty food and tentage of the past!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Wouldst thou make war? thy followers know no fear.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Where shouldst thou lead them but to victory?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wouldst thou have love? thy soft-eyed slaves draw near,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Eager to drain thy strength away from thee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My thoughts drag backwards to forgotten days,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To scenes etched deeply on my heart by pain;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The thirsty marches, ambuscades, and frays,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The hostile hills, the burnt and barren plain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Hast thou forgotten how one night was spent,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Crouched in a camel’s carcase by the road,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Along which Akbar’s soldiers, scouting, went,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And he himself, all unsuspecting, rode?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Did we not waken one despairing dawn,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Attacked in front, cut off in rear, by snow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till, like a tiger leaping on a fawn,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Half of the hill crashed down upon the foe?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Once, as thou mournd’st thy lifeless brother’s fate,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The red tears falling from thy shattered wrist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A spent Waziri, forceful still, in hate,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Covered they heart, ten paces off,—and missed!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ahi, men thrust a worn and dinted sword</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Into a velvet-scabbarded repose;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The gilded pageants that salute thee Lord</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Cover _one_ sorrow-rusted heart, God knows.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, to exchange this wealth of idle days</div> + <div class="verse indent4">For one cold reckless night of Khorasan!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To crouch once more before the camp-fire blaze</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That lit the lonely eyes of Yasin Khan.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To watch the starlight glitter on the snows,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The plain stretched round us like a waveless sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Waiting until thy weary lids should close</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To slip my furs and spread them over thee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How the wind howled about the lonely pass,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">While the faint snow-shine of that plateaued space</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lit, where it lay upon the frozen grass,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The mournful, tragic beauty of thy face.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou hast enough caressed the scented hair</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of these soft-breasted girls who waste thee so.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hast thou not sons for every adult year?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Let us arise, O Yasin Khan, and go!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Let us escape from these prison bars</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To gain the freedom of an open sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy soul and mine, alone beneath the stars,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Intriguing danger, as in days gone by.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay; there is no returning, Yasin Khan.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The white peaks ward the passes, as of yore,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The wind sweeps o’er the wastes of Khorasan;—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But thou and I go thitherward no more.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Close, ah, too close, the bitter knowledge clings,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">We may not follow where my fancies yearn.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The years go hence, and wild and lovely things,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">_Their own_, go with them, never to return.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Khristna_and_His_Flute">Khristna and His Flute</h2> +</div> + +<p class="center">(Translation by Moolchand)</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Be still, my heart, and listen,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">For sweet and yet acute</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hear the wistful music</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of Khristna and his flute.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Across the cool, blue evenings,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Throughout the burning days,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Persuasive and beguiling,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">He plays and plays and plays.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, none may hear such music</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Resistant to its charms,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The household work grows weary,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And cold the husband’s arms.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I must arise and follow,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To seek, in vain pursuit,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The blueness and the distance,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The sweetness of that flute!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">In linked and liquid sequence,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The plaintive notes dissolve</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Divinely tender secrets</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That none but he can solve.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, Khristna, I am coming,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I can no more delay.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“My heart has flown to join thee,”</div> + <div class="verse indent4">How can my footsteps stay?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Beloved, such thoughts have peril;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The wish is in my mind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I had fired the jungle,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And left no leaf behind,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Burnt all bamboos to ashes,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And made their music mute,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To save thee from the magic</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of Khristna and his flute.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Song_of_Jasoda">Song of Jasoda</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Had I been young I could have claimed to fold thee</div> + <div class="verse indent4">For many days against my eager breast;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But, as things are, how can I hope to hold thee</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Once thou hast wakened from this fleeting rest?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Clear shone the moonlight, so that thou couldst find me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Yet not so clear that thou couldst see my face,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where in the shadow of the palms behind me</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I waited for thy steps, for thy embrace.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">What reck I now my morning life was lonely?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">For widowed feet the ways are always rough.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though thou hast come to me at sunset only,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Still thou hast come, my Lord, it is enough.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, mine no more the glow of dawning beauty,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The fragrance and the dainty gloss of youth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Worn by long years of solitude and duty,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I have no bloom to offer thee in truth.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet, since these eyes of mine have never wandered,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Still may they gleam with long forgotten light.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since in no wanton way my youth was squandered,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Some sense of youth still clings to me to-night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">_Thy_ lips are fresh as dew on budding roses,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The gold of dawn still lingers in thy hair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While the abandonment of sleep discloses</div> + <div class="verse indent4">How every attitude of youth is fair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou art so pale, I hardly dare caress thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Too brown my fingers show against the white.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ahi, the glory, that I should possess thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ahi, the grief, but for a single night!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The tulip tree has pallid golden flowers</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That grow more rosy as their petals fade;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such is the splendour of my evening hours</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whose time of youth was wasted in the shade.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall not wait to see to-morrow’s morning,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Too bright the golden dawn for me,—too bright,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How could I bear thine eyes’ unconscious scorning</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of what so pleased thee in the dimmer light?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">It may be wine had brought some brief illusion,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Filling thy brain with rainbow fantasy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or youth, with moonlight, making sweet collusion,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Threw an alluring glamour over me</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Therefore I leave thee softly, to awaken</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When the first sun rays warm thy blue-veined breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Smiling and all unknowing I have taken</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The poppied drink that brings me endless rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus would I have thee rise; thy fancy laden</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With the vague sweetness of the bygone night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thinking of me as some consenting maiden,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whose beauty blossomed first for thy delight.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">While I, if any kindly visions hover</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Around the silence of my last repose,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall dream of thee, my pale and radiant lover,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Who made my life so lovely at its close!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Song_of_Ramesram_Temple_Girl">Song of Ramesram Temple Girl</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Now is the season of my youth,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Not thus shall I always be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Listen, dear Lord, thou too art young,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Take thy pleasure with me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My hair is straight as the falling rain,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And fine as morning mist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I am a rose awaiting thee</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That none have touched or kissed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Do as thou wilt with mine and me,</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Beloved, I only pray,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Follow the promptings of thy youth.</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Let there be no delay!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A leaf that flutters upon the bough,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">A moment, and it is gone,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A bubble amid the fountain spray,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ah, pause, and think thereon;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For such is youth and its passing bloom</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That wait for thee this hour,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If aught in thy heart incline to me</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ah, stoop and pluck thy flower!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Come, my Lord, to the temple shade,</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Where cooling fountains play,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">If aught in thy heart incline to love</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Let there be no delay!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Many shall faint with love of me</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And I shall slake their thirst,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But Fate has brought thee hither to-day</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That thou shouldst be the first.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Old, so old are the temple-walls,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Love is older than they;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I am the short-lived temple rose,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Blooming for thee to-day.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Thine am I, Prince, and only thine,</div> + <div class="verse indent14">What is there more so say?</div> + <div class="verse indent10">If aught in thy heart incline to love</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Let there be no delay!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Rao_of_Ilore">The Rao of Ilore</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I was sold to the Rao of Ilore,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Slender and tall was he.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When his litter carried him down the street</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I peeped through the thatch to see.</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Ah, the eyes of the Rao of Ilore,</div> + <div class="verse indent14">My lover that was to be!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The hair that lay on his youthful brow</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Was curled like an ocean wave;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His eyes were lit with a tender smile,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But his lips were soft and grave.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For sake of these things I was still with joy</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When the silver coins were paid,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And they took me up to the Palace gates,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Delighted and unafraid.</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Ah, the eyes of the Rao of Ilore,</div> + <div class="verse indent14">May never their brilliance fade!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">So near was I to the crown of life!</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ten thousand times, alas!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Diwan leant from the latticed hall,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Looked down and saw me pass.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He begged for me from the Rao of Ilore,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Who answered, “She is thine,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou wert ever more than a father to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And thy desires are mine.”</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Ah, the eyes of the Rao of Ilore</div> + <div class="verse indent14">That never had looked in mine!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My years were spent in the Diwan’s Courts,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My youth died down that day.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For sake of thine own content of mind</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My lost beloved, I pray</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That never my Lord a love may know</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Like that he threw away.</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Ah, the eyes of the Rao of Ilore,</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Who threw my life away!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="To_M_C_N">To M. C. N.</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou hast no wealth, nor any pride of power,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thy life is offered on affection’s altar.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Small sacrifices claim thee, hour by hour,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Yet on the tedious path thou dost not falter.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To the unknowing, well thy days might seem</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Circled by solitude and tireless duty,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet is thy soul made radiant by a dream</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of delicate and rainbow-coloured beauty.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Never a flower trembles in the wind,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Never a sunset lingers on the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But something of its fragrance joins thy mind,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Some sparkle of its light remains with thee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus when thy spirit enters on its rest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy lips shall say, “I too have known the best!”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Disappointment">Disappointment</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, come, Beloved, before my beauty fades,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Pity the sorrow of my loneliness.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I am a Rosebush that the Cypress shades,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">No sunbeams find or lighten my distress.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Daily I watch the waning of my bloom.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ah, piteous fading of a thing so fair!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While Fate, remorseless, weaving at her loom,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Twines furtive silver in my twisted hair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">This noon I watched a tremulous fading rose</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Rise on the wind to court a butterfly.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“One speck of pollen, ere my petals close,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Bring me one touch of love before I die!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But the gay butterfly, who had the power</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To grant, refused, flew far across the dell,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, as he fertilised a younger flower,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The petals of the rose, defrauded, fell.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Such was my fate, thou hast not come to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thine eyes are absent, and thy voice is mute,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though I am slim, as this Papaya tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With breasts out-pointing, even as its fruit.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Beauty was mine, it brought me no caress,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My lips were red, yet there were none to taste,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I saw my youth consume in loneliness,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And all the fervour of my heart run waste.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">While I still hoped that Thou would’st come to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I and the garden waited for their Lord.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Here He will rest, beneath this Champa tree;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Hence, all ye spike-set grasses from the sward!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">In this cool rillet I shall bathe His feet,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Come, rounded pebbles from a smoother shore.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This is the honey that His lips will eat,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Hasten, O bees, enhance the amber store!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ripen, ye Custard Apples, round and fair,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Practise your songs, O Bulbuls, on the bough,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Surely some sweeter sweetness haunts the air;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Maybe His feet draw near us, even now!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Disperse, ye fireflies, clustered on the palm,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Love heeds no lamp, he welcomes moonless skies:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Soon shall ye find, O stars, serene and calm,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Your sparkling rivals in my lover’s eyes!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Closely I wove my leafy Jasmin bowers,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Hoping to hide my pleasure and my shame,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the Lantana’s indecisive flowers</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Vary from palest rose to orange flame.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, there were lovely hours, ’neath fern and palm,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Almost my aching longing I forgot.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">White nights of silence, noons of golden calm,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">All past, all wasted, since Thou camest not!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Night after night the Champa trees distilled</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Their cruel sweetness on the careless air.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Noon after noon I watched the Bulbuls build,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And saw with hungry eyes the Sun-birds pair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">None came, and none will come; no use to wait,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Youth’s fragrance dies, its tender light dies down.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I will arise, before it grows too late,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And seek the noisy brilliance of the town.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">These many waiting years I longed for gold,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Now must I needs console me with alloy.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before this beauty fades, this pulse grows cold,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I may not love, I will at least enjoy!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Farewell, my Solitude of scented flowers,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Across whose glades the emerald parrots gleam,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Haunt of false hope, and home of wasted hours,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I am awake, at last,—Guard thou the dream!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="On_Pilgrimage">On Pilgrimage</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, youthful bearer of my palanquin,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thy glossy hair lies loosened on thy neck,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The “tears of labour” gem thy velvet skin,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whose even texture knows no other fleck.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy slender shoulder strains beneath my weight;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Too fair thou art for work, sweet slave of mine.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would that this idle breast, reversing fate,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">A willing serf to love, supported thine!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I smell the savage scent of sun-warmed fur</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Close in the Jungle, musky, hot and sweet.—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The air comes from thy shoulder, even as myrrh,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Would we were as the panthers, free to meet.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The Temple road is steep; I grieve to see</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thy slender ankles bruised among the clods.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, my Beloved, if I might worship thee!</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Beauty is greater far than all the Gods.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Rice-boat">The Rice-boat</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I slept upon the Rice-boat</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That, reef protected, lay</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At anchor, where the palm-trees</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Infringe upon the bay.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The windless air was heavy</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With cinnamon and rose,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The midnight calm seemed waiting,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Too fateful for repose.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">One joined me on the Rice-boat</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With wild and waving hair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose vivid words and laughter</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Awoke the silent air.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, beauty, bare and shining,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Fresh washen in the bay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One well may love by moonlight</div> + <div class="verse indent4">What one would not love by day!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Above among the cordage</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The night wind hardly stirred,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The lapping of the ripples</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Was all the sound we heard.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Love reigned upon the Rice-boat,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And Peace controlled the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The spirit’s consolation,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The senses’ ecstasy.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Though many things and mighty</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Are furthered in the West,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The ancient Peace has vanished</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Before To-day’s unrest.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For how among their striving,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Their gold, their lust, their drink,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall men find time for dreaming</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Or any space to think?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Think not I scorn the Science</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That lightens human pain;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though man’s reliance often</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Is placed on it in vain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Maybe the long endeavour,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The patience and the strife,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">May some day solve the riddle,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The Mystery of Life.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Perchance I do not value</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Things Western as I ought,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The trains,—that take us, whither?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The ships,—that reach, what port?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To me it seems but chaos</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of greed and haste and rage,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The endless, aimless, motion</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of squirrels in a cage.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here, where some ruined temple</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In solitude decays,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With carven walls still hallowed</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With prayers of bygone days,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Here, where the coral outcrops</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Make “flowers of the sea,”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The olden Peace yet lingers,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In hushed serenity.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, silent, silver moonlight,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whose charm impartial falls</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On tanks of sacred water</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And squalid city walls,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose mystic whiteness hallows</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The lowest and the least,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To thee men owe the glamour</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That draws them to the East.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And as this azure water,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Unflecked hy wave or foam,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Conceals in its tranquillity</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The dreaded white shark’s home,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So if love be illusion</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I ask the dream to stay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Content to love by moonlight</div> + <div class="verse indent4">What I might not love by day.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Lallji_my_Desire">Lallji my Desire</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“This is no time for saying ‘no’”</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Were thy last words to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet my lips refused the kiss</div> + <div class="verse indent4">They might have given thee.</div> + <div class="verse indent16">How could I know</div> + <div class="verse indent16">That thou wouldst go</div> + <div class="verse indent16">To sleep so far from me?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They took thee to the Burning-Ghat,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Oh, Lallji, my desire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And now a faint and lonely flame</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Uprises from the pyre.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The thin grey smoke in spirals drifts</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Across the opal sky.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would that I were a wife of thine,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And thus with thee could die!</div> + <div class="verse indent16">How could I know</div> + <div class="verse indent16">That thou wouldst go,</div> + <div class="verse indent16">Oh, Lallji, my desire?</div> + <div class="verse indent16">The lips I missed</div> + <div class="verse indent16">The flames have kissed</div> + <div class="verse indent16">Upon the Sandal pyre.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">If one should meet me with a knife</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And cut my heart in twain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then would he see the smoke arise</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From every severed vein.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such is the burning, inward fire,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The anguish of my pain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For my Beloved, whose dying lips</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Implored a kiss—in vain!</div> + <div class="verse indent16">How could I know</div> + <div class="verse indent16">That thou wouldst go,</div> + <div class="verse indent16">Oh, Lallji, my desire?</div> + <div class="verse indent16">Too young thou art</div> + <div class="verse indent16">To lay thy heart</div> + <div class="verse indent16">Upon the Sandal pyre.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy wife awaits her coming child;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">What were a child to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If I might take thee in these arms</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And face the flames with thee?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The priests are chanting round the pyre,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">At dusk they will depart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And leave to thee thy lonely rest,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To me my lonelier heart.</div> + <div class="verse indent16">How could I know</div> + <div class="verse indent16">Thou lovedst me so?</div> + <div class="verse indent16">Upon the Sandal pyre</div> + <div class="verse indent16">He lies forsaken.</div> + <div class="verse indent16">The flames have taken</div> + <div class="verse indent16">My Lallji, my desire!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Rutland_Gate">Rutland Gate</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">His back is bent and his lips are blue,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Shivering out in the wet:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Here’s a florin, my man, for you,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Go and get drunk and forget!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Right in the midst of a Christian land,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Rotted with wealth and ease,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Broken and draggled they let him stand</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Till his feet on the pavement freeze.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">God leaves His poor in His vicars’ care,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">For He hears the church-bells ring,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His ears are buzzing with constant prayer</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And the hymns His people sing.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Can His pity picture the anguish here,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Can He see, through a London fog,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The man who has worked “nigh seventy year”</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To die the death of a dog?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">No one heeds him, the crowds pass on.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Why does he want to live?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Take this florin, and get you gone,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Go and get drunk,—and forgive!”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Atavism">Atavism</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Deep in the jungle vast and dim,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That knew not a white man’s feet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I smelt the odour of sun-warmed fur,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Musky, savage, and sweet.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Far it was from the huts of men</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And the grass where Sambur feed;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I threw a stone at a Kadapu tree</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That bled as a man might bleed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Scent of fur and colour of blood:—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And the long dead instincts rose,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I followed the lure of my season’s mate,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And flew, bare-fanged, at my foes.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"> + +<hr class="tb"></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Pale days: and a league of laws</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Made by the whims of men.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would I were back with my furry cubs</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In the dusk of a jungle den.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Middle-age">Middle-age</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The sins of Youth are hardly sins,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">So frank they are and free.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’T is but when Middle-age begins</div> + <div class="verse indent4">We need morality.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, pause and weigh this bitter truth:</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That Middle-age, grown cold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No comprehension has of Youth,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">No pity for the Old.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Youth, with his half-divine mistakes,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">She never can forgive,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So much she hates his charm which makes</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Worth while the life we live.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She scorns Old Age, whose tolerance</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And calm, well-balanced mind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(Knowing how crime is born of chance)</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Can pardon all mankind.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet she, alas! has all the power</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of strength and place and gold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Man’s every act, through every hour,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Is by her laws controlled.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All things she grasps with sordid hands</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And weighs in tarnished scales.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She neither feels, nor understands,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And yet her will prevails!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Cold-blooded vice and careful sin,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Gold-lust, blind selfishness,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The shortest, cheapest way to win</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Some, worse than cheap, success.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Such are her attributes and aims,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Yet meekly we obey,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While she to guide and order claims</div> + <div class="verse indent4">All issues of the day.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">You seek for honour, friendship, truth?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Let Middle-age be banned!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Go, for warm-hearted acts, to Youth;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To Age,—to understand!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Jungle_Flower">The Jungle Flower</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, the cool silence of the shaded hours,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The scent and colour of the jungle flowers!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou art one of the jungle flowers, strange and fierce and fair,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Palest amber, perfect lines, and scented with champa flower.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lie back and frame thy face in the gloom of thy loosened hair;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Sweet thou art and loved—ay, loved—for an hour.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But thought flies far, ah, far, to another breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whose whiteness breaks to the rose of a twin pink flower,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where wind the azure veins that my lips caressed</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When Fate was gentle to me for a too-brief hour.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There is my spirit’s home and my soul’s abode,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rest are only inns on the traveller’s road.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="From_Behind_the_Lattice">From Behind the Lattice</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I see your red-gold hair and know</div> + <div class="verse indent6">How white the hidden skin must be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though sun-kissed face and fingers show</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The fervour of the noon-day glow,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">The keenness of the sea.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My longing fancies ebb and flow,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Still circling constant unto this;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My great desire (ah, whisper low)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To plant on thy forbidden snow</div> + <div class="verse indent6">The rosebud of a kiss.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The scarlet flower would spread and grow,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Your whiteness change and flush,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(Be still, my reckless heart, beat slow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’T is but a dream that stirs thee so!)</div> + <div class="verse indent6">To one transparent blush.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Wings">Wings</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Was it worth while to forego our wings</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To gain these dextrous hands?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Truly they fashion us wonderful things</div> + <div class="verse indent4">As the fancy of man demands.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But—to fly! to sail through the lucid air</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From crest to violet crest</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of these great grey mountains, quartz-veined and bare,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Where the white clouds gather and rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Even to flutter from flower to flower,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To skim the tops of the trees,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the roseate light of a sun-setting hour</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To drift on a sea-going breeze.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, the hands have marvellous skill</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To create us curious things,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Baubles, playthings, weapons to kill,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But—I would we had chosen wings!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Song_of_the_Parao_Camping-ground">Song of the Parao (Camping-ground)</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Heart, my heart, thou hast found thy home!</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From gloom and sorrow thou hast come forth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou who wast foolish, and sought to roam</div> + <div class="verse indent4">’Neath the cruel stars of the frozen North.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou hast returned to thy dear delights;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The golden glow of the quivering days,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The silver silence of tropical nights,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">No more to wander in alien ways.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent13">Here, each star is a well-loved friend;</div> + <div class="verse indent13">To me and my heart at the journey’s end.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">These are my people, and this my land,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I hear the pulse of her secret soul.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This is the life that I understand,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Savage and simple and sane and whole.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent13">Washed in the light of a clear fierce sun,—</div> + <div class="verse indent13">Heart, my heart, the journey is done.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">See! the painted piece of the skies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the rose-hued opal of sunset lies.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Hear the passionate Koel calling</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From coral trees, where the dusk is falling.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">See my people, slight limbed and tall.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The maiden’s bosom they scorn to cover:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The breasts that shall call and enthral her lover,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Things of beauty, are free to all.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Free to the eyes, that think no shame</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That a girl should bloom like a forest flower.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who hold that Love is a sacred flame,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Outward beauty a God-like dower.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who further regard it as no disgrace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If loveliness lessen to serve the race,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor point the finger of jesting scorn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At her who carries the child unborn.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent13">Ah, my heart, but we wandered far</div> + <div class="verse indent13">From the light of the slanting fourfold Star!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, palm-leaf thatch, where the melon thrives</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beneath the shade of the tamarind tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou coverest tranquil, graceful lives,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That want so little, that knew no haste,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Nor the bitter goad of a too-full hour;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose soft-eyed women are lithe and tall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And wear no garment below the knee,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Nor veil or raiment above the waist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But the beautiful hair, that dowers them all,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And falls to the ground in a scented shower.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The youths return from their swift-flowing bath,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With the swinging grace that their height allows,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lightly climbing the river-side path,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Their soft hair knotted above their brows.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Elephants wade the darkening river,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Their bells, which tinkle in minor thirds,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Faintly sweet, like passionate birds</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whose warbling wakens a sense of pain,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thrill through the nerves and make them quiver,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Heart, my heart, art thou happy again?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here is beauty to feast thine eyes.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Here is the land of thy long desire.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">See how the delicate spirals rise</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Azure and faint from the wood-fed fire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the cartmen wearily share their food,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ere they, by their bullocks, lie down to rest.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heart of mine, dost thou find it good</div> + <div class="verse indent4">This wide red road by the winds caressed?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent13">This lone Parao, where the fireflies light?</div> + <div class="verse indent13">These tom-toms, fretting the peace of night?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Heart, thou hast wandered and suffered much,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Death has robbed thee, and Life betrayed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But there is ever a solace for such</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In that they are not lightly afraid.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The strength that found them the fire to love</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Finds them also the force to forget.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy joy in thy dreaming lives to prove</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thou art not mortally wounded yet.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here, ’neath the arch of the vast, clear sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Where range upon range the remote grey hills</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Far in the distance recede and die,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">There is no space for thy trivial ills.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">On the low horizon towards the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Faint yet vivid, the lightnings play,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The lucid air is kind as a kiss,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The falling twilight is cool and grey.</div> + <div class="verse indent8">What has sorrow to do with thee?</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Love was cruel? thou now art free.</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Life unkind? it has given thee this!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Tom-toms">The Tom-toms</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dost thou hear the tom-toms throbbing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like a lonely lover sobbing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the beauty that is robbing him of all his life’s delight?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Plaintive sounds, restrained, enthralling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seeking through the twilight falling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Something lost beyond recalling, in the darkness of the night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, my little, loved Firoza,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Come and nestle to me closer,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the golden-balled Mimosa makes a canopy above,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the day, so hot and burning,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dies away, and night, returning,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sets thy lover’s spirit yearning for thy beauty and thy love.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Soon will come the rosy warning</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the bright relentless morning,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When, thy soft caresses scorning, I shall leave thee in the shade.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All the day my work must chain me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And its weary bonds restrain me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For I may not re-attain thee till the light begins to fade.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But at length the long day endeth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As the cool of night descendeth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His last strength thy lover spendeth in returning to thy breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where beneath the Babul nightly,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While the planets shimmer whitely,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the fire-flies glimmer brightly, thou shalt give him love and rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Far away, across the distance,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The quick-throbbing drums’ persistence</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall resound, with soft insistence, in the pauses of delight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through the sequence of the hours,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While the starlight and the flowers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Consecrate this love of ours, in the Temple of the Night.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Written_in_Cananore">Written in Cananore</h2> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who was it held that Love was soothing or sweet?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mine is a painful fire, at its whitest heat.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who said that Beauty was ever a gentle joy?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thine is a sword that flashes but to destroy.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Though mine eyes rose up from thy Beauty’s banquet, calm and refreshed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My lips, that were granted naught, can find no rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My soul was linked with thine, through speech and silent hours,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As the sound of two soft flutes combined, or the scent of sister</div> + <div class="verse indent1">flowers.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But the body, that wretched slave of the Sultan, Mind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who follows his master ever, but far behind,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nothing was granted him, and every rebellious cell</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rises up with angry protest, “It is not well!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Night is falling; thou hast departed; I am alone;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the Last Sweetness of Love thou hast not given—I have not known!”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Somewhere, Oh, My Beloved One, the house is standing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Waiting for thee and me; for our first caresses.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It may be a river-boat, or a wave-washed landing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The shade of a tree in the jungle’s dim recesses,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Some far-off mountain tent, ill-pitched and lonely,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Or the naked vault of the purple heavens only.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But the Place is waiting there; till the Hour shall show it,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And our footsteps, following Fate, find it and know it.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Where we shall worship the greatest of all the Gods in his pomp and</div> + <div class="verse indent1">power,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I sometimes think that I shall not care to survive that hour!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Feroke">Feroke</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The rice-birds fly so white, so silver white,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The velvet rice-flats lie so emerald green,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My heart inhales, with sorrowful delight,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The sweet and poignant sadness of the scene.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The swollen tawny river seeks the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Its hungry waters, never satisfied,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beflecked with fallen log and torn-up tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Engulph the fisher-huts on either side.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The current brought a stranger yesterday,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And laid him on the sand beneath a palm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His worn young face was partly torn away,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">His eyes, that saw the world no more, were calm</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We could not close his eyelids, stiff with blood,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But, oh, my brother, I had changed with thee</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For I am still tormented in the flood,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whilst thou hast done thy work, and reached the sea.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="My_Desire">My Desire</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Fate has given me many a gift</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To which men most aspire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lovely, precious and costly things,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But not my heart’s desire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Many a man has a secret dream</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of where his soul would be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mine is a low verandah’d house</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In a tope beside the sea.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Over the roof tall palms should wave,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Swaying from side to side,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Every night we should fall asleep</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To the rhythm of the tide.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The dawn should be gay with song of birds,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And the stir of fluttering wings.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Surely the joy of life is hid</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In simple and tender things!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">At eve the waves would shimmer with gold</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In the rosy sunset rays,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Emerald velvet flats of rice</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Would rest the landward gaze.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A boat must rock at the laterite steps</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In a reef-protected pool,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For we should sail through the starlit night</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When the winds were calm and cool.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I am so tired of all this world,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Its folly and fret and care.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Find me a little scented home</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Amongst thy loosened hair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Give me a soft and secret place</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Against thine amber breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where, hidden away from all mankind,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My soul may come to rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Many a man has a secret dream</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of where his life might be;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mine is a lovely, lonely place</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With sunshine and the sea.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Sher_Afzul">Sher Afzul</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">This was the tale Sher Afzul told to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">While the spent camels bubbled on their knees,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And ruddy camp-fires twinkled through the gloom</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Sweet with the fragrance from the Sinjib trees.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I had a friend who lay, condemned to death</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In gaol for murder, wholly innocent,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet caught in webs of luckless circumstance;—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thou know’st how lies, of good and ill intent,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Cluster like flies around a justice-court,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Wheel within wheel, revolving screw on screw;—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But from his prison he escaped and fled,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Keeping his liberty a night or two</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Among the lonely hills, where, shackled still,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">He braved a village, seeking for a file</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To loose his irons; alas! he lost his life</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Through the base sweetness of a woman’s smile.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Lovely she was, and young, who gave the youth</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Kind words, and promised succor and repose,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till on the quilt of false security</div> + <div class="verse indent4">He found exhausted sleep; but, ere he rose,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Entered the guards, brought by her messenger.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thus was he captured, slain, and on her breast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Soon shone the guerdon of her treachery,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The price of blood; in gold made manifest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I might have killed her? Brave men have died thus.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Revenge demanded keener punishment.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So I walked softly on those lilac hills,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Touching my _rhibab_ lightly as I went.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I found her fair: ’t was no unpleasant task</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In the young spring-time when the fruit-trees flower,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To pass her door, and pause, and pass again,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Shading mine eyes against her beauty’s power.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Warmly I wooed her, while the almond trees</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Broke into fragile clouds of rosy snow.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her dawning passion feared her lord’s return,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ever she pleaded softly, “Let us go.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But I spoke tenderly, and said, “Beloved,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Shall not thy lips give orders to my heart?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet there is one small matter in these hills</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Claiming attention ere I can depart.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Let us not waste these days; thine absent lord</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Cannot return, thou know’st, before the snow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Has melted, and the almond fruits appear.”</div> + <div class="verse indent4">This time she answered, “Naught but thee I know!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I too was young; I could have loved her well</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When her soft eyes across the twilight burned;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But suddenly, around her amber neck,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The golden beads would sparkle as she turned.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">_And I remembered_; swift mine eyelids fell</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To hide the hate that festered in my soul,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ever more deeply, with the rising fear</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That Love might wrench Revenge from my control.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But when at last she, acquiescent, lay</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In the sweet-scented shadow of the firs,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lovely and broken, granting—asking—all,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">It was _his_ eyes I met: not hers—not hers!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"> + +<hr class="tb"></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Three months I waited: all the village talked,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And ever anxiously she urged our flight.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet still I lingered, till her beauty paled,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And wearily she came to me at night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Then, seeing Love, subservient to Revenge,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Had well achieved his own creative end,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in his work must soon be manifest,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Compassing thus my duty to my friend,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">One tranquil, sultry night I rode away</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Till far behind the purple hills were dim,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Exulting in my spirit, “Thus I leave</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Her to her fate, and my revenge to him!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Swiftly he struck, her lord; the body lay</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With hacked-off breasts, dishonoured, in the Pass.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Months later, riding lonely through the gorge,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I saw it still, among the long-grown grass.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">It was well done; my soul is satisfied.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Friendship is sweet, and Love is sweeter still,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But Vengeance has a savour all its own—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">A strange delight—well known to those who kill.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Such was the story Afzul told to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">While wood-fires crackled in the evening breeze,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And blows on hammered tent-pegs stirred the air</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Sweet with the fragrance from the Sinjib trees.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Tent-like, above, up-held by jagged peaks,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The heavy purple of the tranquil sky</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shed its oft-broken promises of peace,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">While twinkling stars bemocked the worn-out lie!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Nay_not_To-night">Nay, not To-night</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, not to-night;—the slow, sad rain is falling</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Sorrowful tears, beneath a grieving sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Far off a famished jackal, faintly calling,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Renders the dusk more lonely with its cry.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The mighty river rushes, sobbing, seawards,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The shadows shelter faint mysterious fears,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I turn mine eyes for consolation theewards,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And find thy lashes tremulous with tears.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">If some new soul, asearch for incarnation,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Should, through our kisses, enter Life again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It would inherit all our desolation,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">All the soft sorrow of the slanting rain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When thou desirest Love’s supreme surrender,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Come while the morning revels in the light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bulbuls around us, passionately tender,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Singing among the roses red and white.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus, if it be my sweet and sacred duty,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Subservient to the Gods’ divine decree,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To give the world again thy vivid beauty,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I should transmit it with my joy in thee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I could not if I would, Beloved, deceive thee.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Wouldst thou not feel at once a feigned caress?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet, do not rise, I would not have thee leave me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My soul needs thine to share its loneliness.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Let the dim starlight, when the low clouds sunder,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Silver the perfect outline of thy face.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such faces had the saints; I only wonder</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That thine has sought my heart for resting-place.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Dying_Prince">The Dying Prince</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There are no days for me any more, for the dawn is dark with tears,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There is no rest for me any more, for the night is thick with fears.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There are no flowers nor any fruit, for the sorrowful locusts came,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the garden is but a memory, the vineyard only a name.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There is no light in the empty sky, no sail upon the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Birds are yet on their nests perchance, but they sing no more to me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Past—vanished—faded away—all the joys that were.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My youth died down in a swift decline when they married her to despair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“My lord, the crowd in the Audience Hall; how long wilt thou have them wait?”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I have given my father’s younger son the guidance of the State.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“The steeds are saddled, the Captains call for the orders of the day.”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tell them that I shall ride no more to the hunting or the fray.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Sweet the scent of the Moghra flowers;” Brother, it may be so.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“The young, flushed spring is with us again.” Is it? I did not know.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“The Zamorin’s daughter draweth near, on slender golden feet;”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, a curse upon all sweet things say I, to whom they are no more sweet!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dost think that a man as sick as I can compass a woman’s ease?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That the sons of a man who is like to me could ever find rest or peace?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tell them to marry them where they will, if their longing be so sore,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such are the things that all men seek, but I shall seek no more.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All my muscles are fallen in, and the blood deserts my veins,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Every fibre and bone of me is waxen full of pains,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The iron feet of mine enemy’s curse are heavy upon my head,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Look at me and judge for thyself, thou seest I am but dead.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Then, who is it, Prince, who has done this thing, has sown such a bitter seed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That we hale him forth to the Market-place, bind him and let him bleed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That the flesh may shudder and wince and writhe, reddening ’neath the rod.”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Love is the evil-doer, alas! and how shalt thou scourge a God?</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Hut">The Hut</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dear little Hut by the rice-fields circled,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That cocoa-nuts shade above.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hear the voices of children singing,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And that means love.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When shall the traveller’s march be over,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When shall his wandering cease?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This little homestead is bare and simple,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And that means peace.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay! to the road I am not unfaithful;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In tents let my dwelling be!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I am not longing for Peace or Passion</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From any one else but thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent13">My Krishna,</div> + <div class="verse indent9">Any one else but thee!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="My_Paramour_was_Loneliness">My Paramour was Loneliness</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My paramour was loneliness</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And lying by the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Soft songs of sorrow and distress</div> + <div class="verse indent4">He did beget in me.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Later another lover came</div> + <div class="verse indent4">More meet for my desire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Radiant Beauty” was his name;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">His sons had wings of fire!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Rice_was_under_Water">The Rice was under Water</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The Rice was under water, and the land was scourged with rain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The nights were desolation, and the day was born in pain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, the famine and the fever and the cruel, swollen streams,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I had died, except for Krishna, who consoled me—in my dreams!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The Burning-Ghats were smoking, and the jewels melted down,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Temples lay deserted, for the people left the town.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet I was more than happy, though passing strange it seems,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For I spent my nights with Krishna, who loved me—in my dreams!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Surface_Rights">“Surface Rights”</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Drifting, drifting down the River,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Tawny current and foam-flecked tide,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sorrowful songs of lonely boatmen,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Mournful forests on either side.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thine are the outcrops’ glittering blocks,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The quartz where the rich pyrites gleam,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The golden treasure of unhewn rocks</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And the loose gold in the stream.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But,—the dim vast forests along the shore,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That whisper wonderful things o’ nights,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These are things that I value more,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My beautiful “surface rights.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Drifting, drifting down the River,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Stars a-tremble about the sky—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, my lover, my heart is breaking,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Breaking, breaking, I know not why.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Why is Love such a sorrowful thing?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">This I never could understand;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pain and passion are linked together,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ever I find them hand in hand.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Loose thy hair in its soft profusion,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Let thy lashes caress thy cheek,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These are the things that express thy spirit,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">What is the need to explain or speak?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Drifting, drifting along the River,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Under the light of a wan low moon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Steady, the paddles; Boatmen, steady,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Why should we reach the sea so soon?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">See where the low spit cuts the water,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">What is that misty wavering light?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Only the pale datura flowers</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Blossoming through the silent night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">What is the fragrance in thy tresses?</div> + <div class="verse indent4">’T is the scent of the champa’s breath;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The meaning of champa bloom is passion—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And of datura—death!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweet are thy ways and thy strange caresses,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That sear as flame, and exult as wine.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I care only for that wild moment</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When my soul arises and reaches thine.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Wistful voices of wild birds calling—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Far, faint lightning towards the West,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Twinkling lights of a Tyah homestead,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ruddy glow on a girl’s bare breast—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Drifting boats on a mournful River,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Shifting thoughts in a dreaming mind,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We two, seeking the Sea, together,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When we reach it,—what shall we find?</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Shivratri_the_Night_of_Shiva">Shivratri (the Night of Shiva)</h2> +</div> + +<p class="center">(While the procession passed at Ramesram)</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nearer and nearer cometh the car</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Where the Golden Goddess towers,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweeter and sweeter grows the air</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From a thousand trampled flowers.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We two rest in the Temple shade</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Safe from the pilgrim flood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This path of the Gods in olden days</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ran royally red with blood.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Louder and louder and louder yet</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Throbs the sorrowful drum—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That is the tortured world’s despair,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Never a moment dumb.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shriller and shriller shriek the flutes,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Nature’s passionate need—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Paler and paler grow my lips,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And still thou bid’st them bleed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Deeper and deeper and deeper still,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Never a pause for pain—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Darker and darker falls the night</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That golden torches stain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Closer, ah! closer, and still more close,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Till thy soul reach my soul—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Further, further, out on the tide</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From the shores of self-control.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Glowing, glowing, to whitest heat,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thy feverish passions burn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fiercer and fiercer, cruelly fierce,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To thee my senses yearn.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fainter and fainter runs my blood</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With desperate fight for breath—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This, my Beloved, thou sayest is Love,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Or I should have deemed it Death!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_First_Wife">The First Wife</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, my lord, are the tidings true,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That thy mother’s jewels are shapen anew?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I hear that a bride has chosen been,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The stars consulted, the parents seen.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Had I been childless, had never there smiled</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The brilliant eyes from the face of a child,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Then at least I had understood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This thing they tell me thou findest good.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But I have been down to the River of Death,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With painful footsteps and shuddering breath,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Seven times; thou hast daughters three,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And four young sons who are fair as thee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I am not unlovely, over my head</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Not twenty summers as yet have sped.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">’T is eleven years since my opening life</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was given to thee by my father’s wife.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, those days—They were lovely to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When little and shy I waited for thee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Till I locked my arms round my lover above,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A child in form but a woman in love.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And I bore thy sons, as a woman should,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Year by year, as is meet and good.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy mother was ever content with me—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And Oh, Beloved, I worshipped thee!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And now it’s over; alas, my lord,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Better I felt thy sharpest sword.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I hear she is youthful and fair as I</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When I came to thee in the days gone by.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Her breasts are firmer; this bosom slips</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Somewhat, weighted by children’s lips.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But they were thy children. Oh, lord my king,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, why hast thy heart devised this thing?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I am not as the women of this thy land,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Meek and timid, broken to hand.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">From the distant North I was given to thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose daughters are passionate, fierce and free,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I could not dwell by a rival’s side,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I seek a bridegroom, as thou a bride.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The night she yieldeth her youth to thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Death shall take his pleasure in me.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="I_Arise_and_go_Down_to_the_River">I Arise and go Down to the River</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I arise and go down to the River, and currents that come from the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Still fresh with the salt of the ocean, are lovely and precious to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The waters are silver and silent, except where the kingfisher dips,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or the ripples wash off from my shoulder the reddening stain of thy lips.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Two things make my joy at this moment: thy gold-coloured beauty by night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the delicate charm of the River, all pale in the day-breaking light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So cool are the waters’ caresses. Ah, which is the lovelier,—this?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or the fire that it kindles at midnight, beneath the soft glow of thy kiss?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, Love has a mighty dominion, he forges with passionate breath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The links which stretch out to the Future, with forces of life and of death,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But great is the charm of the River, so soft is the sigh of the reeds,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They give me, long sleepless from passion, the peace that my weariness needs.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I float on the breast of my River, and startle the birds on the edge,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To land on a newly found island, a boat that is caught in the sedge,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rays of the sun are still level, not yet has the heat of the day</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Deflowered the mists of the morning, that linger in delicate grey.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">What land was his dwelling whose fancy first gave unto Paradise birth?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He never had swum in my River, or else he had fixed it on earth!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, grace of the palm-tree reflections, Oh, sense of the wind from the sea!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, divine and serene exultation of one who is lonely and free!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, delicate breezes of daybreak, so scentless, refreshing and free!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet—had my midnight been lonely you had been less lovely to me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This coolness comes laden with solace, because I am hot from the fire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As often devotion to virtue arises from sated desire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">_Gautama came forth from his Palace; he felt the night wind on his face,_</div> + <div class="verse indent0">_He loathed, as he left, the embraces, the softness and scent of the place,_</div> + <div class="verse indent0">_But, ah, if his night had been loveless, with no one to solace his need,_</div> + <div class="verse indent0">_He never had written that sermon which men so devotedly read._</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, River, thy gentle persuasion! I doubt if I seek any more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The beauty that hurts me and holds me beneath the low roof on the shore.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I loved thee, ay, loved—for a season, but thou, was it love or desire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The glow of the Sun in his glory, or only the heat of a fire?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I think not that thou wilt regret me, for thou art too joyous and fair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So many are keen to caress thee, thy passionate midnights to share.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou wilt not have time to remember, before a new love-knot is tied,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The stranger who loved thee and left thee, who drifted away on the tide.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Two things I have found that are lovely, though most things are sullen and grey;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One: Peace—but what mortal has found him; and Passion—but when would he stay?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So I shall return to my River, and floating at ease on its breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall find, what Love never has given—a sense of most infinite rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When the years have gone by and departed, what thought shall I keep of this land?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A curl of thy waist-reaching-tresses? a flower received from thy hand?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, if I can fathom the future, I fancy my relic will be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Some shell, my beloved one, the River, has stol’n from the store of the sea.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Listen_Beloved">Listen, Beloved</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Listen, Beloved, the Casurinas quiver,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Each tassel prays the wind to set it free,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hark to the frantic sobbing of the river,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Wild to attain extinction in the sea.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All Nature blindly struggles to dissolve</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In other forms and forces, thus to solve</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The painful riddle of identity.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, that my soul might lose itself in thee!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet, my Beloved One, wherefore seek I union,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Since there is no such thing in all the world,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are not our spirits linked in close communion,—</div> + <div class="verse indent3">And on my lips thy clinging lips are curled?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy tender arms are round my shoulders thrown,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hear thy heart more loudly than my own,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet, to my despair, I know thee far,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As in the stellar darkness, star from star.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Even in times when love with bounteous measure</div> + <div class="verse indent4">A simultaneous joy on us has shed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the last moment of delirious pleasure,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ere the sense fail, or any force be fled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My rapture has been even as a wall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shutting out any thought of thee at all!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My being, by its own delight possessed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forgot that it was sleeping on thy breast.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, from his birth each man is vowed and given</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To a vast loneliness, ungauged, unspanned,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whether by pain and woe his soul be riven,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Or all fair pleasures clustered ’neath his hand.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His gain by day, his ecstasy by night,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His force, his folly, fierce or faint delight,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Suffering or sorrow, fortune, feud, or care,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whate’er he find or feel,—he may not share.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Lonely we join the world, and we depart</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Even as lonely, having lived alone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The breast that feeds us, the beloved one’s heart,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The lips we kiss,—or curse—alike unknown.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, even these lips of thine, so often kissed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What certitude have I that they exist?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Alas, it is the truth, though harsh it seems,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I have been loved as sweetly in my dreams.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Therefore if I should seem too fiercely fond,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Too swift to love, too eager to attain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forgive the fervour that would forge beyond</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The limits set to mortal joy and pain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Knowing the soul’s unmeasured loneliness,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My passion must be mingled with distress,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As I, despairing, struggle to draw near</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What is as unattainable as dear.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thirst may be quenched at any kindly river,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Rest may be found ’neath any arching tree.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No sleep allures, no draughts of love deliver</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My spirit from its aching need of thee.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy sweet assentiveness to my demands,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All the caressive touches of thy hands,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These soft cool hands, with fingers tipped with fire,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They can do nothing to assuage desire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sometimes I think my longing soul remembers</div> + <div class="verse indent4">A previous love to which it aims and strives,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As if this fire of ours were but the embers</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of some wild flame burnt out in former lives.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Perchance in earlier days I _did_ attain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That which I seek for now so all in vain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Maybe my soul with thine _was_ fused and wed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In some great night, long since dissolved and dead.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We may progress; but who shall answer clearly</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The riddle of the endless change of things.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Perchance in other days men loved more dearly,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Or Love himself had wider ways and wings,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Maybe we gave ourselves with less control,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or simpler living left more free the soul,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So that with ease the flesh aside was flung,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or was it merely that _Mankind was young?_</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Or has my spirit a divine prevision</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of vast vague passions stored in days to be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When some strong souls shall conquer their division</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And two shall be as one, eternally?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Finding at last upon each other’s breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unutterable calm and infinite rest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While love shall burn with such intense a glow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That both shall die, and neither heed or know.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Why do I question thus, and wake confusion</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In the soft thought that lights thy perfect face,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, shed once more thy perfumed hair’s profusion,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Open thine arms and make my resting place.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lay thy red lips on mine as heretofore,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Grant me the treasure of thy beauty’s store,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stifle all thought in one imperious kiss,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What shall I ask for more than this,—and this?</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Oh_Unforgotten_and_Only_Lover">Oh, Unforgotten and Only Lover</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, unforgotten and only lover,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Many years have swept us apart,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But none of the long dividing seasons</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Slay your memory in my heart.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the clash and clamour of things unlovely</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My thoughts drift back to the times that were,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When I, possessing thy pale perfection,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Kissed the eyes and caressed the hair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Other passions and loves have drifted</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Over this wandering, restless soul,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rudderless, chartless, floating always</div> + <div class="verse indent4">With some new current of chance control.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But thine image is clear in the whirling waters—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Ah, forgive—that I drag it there,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For it is so part of my very being</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That where I wander it too must fare.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, I have given thee strange companions,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To thee—so slender and chaste and cool—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But a white star loses no glimmer of beauty</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In all the mud of a miry pool</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That holds the grace of its white reflection;</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Nothing could fleck thee, nothing could stain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou hast made a home for thy delicate beauty</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Where all things peaceful and lovely reign.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Doubtless the night that my soul remembers</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Was a sin to thee, and thine only one.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou thinkest of it, if thou thinkest ever,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">As a crime committed, a deed ill done.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But for me, the broken, the desert-dweller,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Following Life through its underways,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I know if those midnights thou hadst not granted</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I had not lived through these after days.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And that had been well for me; all would say so,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">What have I done since I parted from thee?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But things that are wasted, and full of ruin,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">All unworthy, even of me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet, it was to me that the gift was given,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">No greater joy have the Gods above,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That night of nights when my only lover,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Though all reluctant, granted me love.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For thy beauty was mine, and my spirit knows it,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Never, ah, never my heart forgets,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One thing fixed, in the torrent of changing,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Faults and follies and fierce regrets.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thine eyes and thy hair, that were lovely symbols</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of that white soul that their grace enshrined,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They are part of me and my life for ever,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In every fibre and cell entwined.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Men might argue that having known thee</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I had grown faithful and pure as thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had turned at the touch of thy grace and glory</div> + <div class="verse indent4">From the average pathways trodden by me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hadst thou been kinder or I been stronger</div> + <div class="verse indent4">It may be even these things had been—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But one thing is clear to my soul for ever,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I owe my owning of thee to sin.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Had I been colder I had not reached thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Besmirched the ermine, beflecked the snow—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It was only sheer and desperate passion</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That won thy beauty in years ago.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And not for the highest virtues in Heaven,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The utmost grace that the soul can name,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would I resign what the sin has brought me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Which I hold glory, and thou—thy shame.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I talk of sin in the usual fashion,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But God knows what is a sin to me—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We love more fiercely or love more faintly—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But I doubt if it matters how these things be.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The best and the worst of us all sink under—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">What I held passion and thou held’st lust—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What name will it find in a few more seasons,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When we both dissolve in an equal dust?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">If a God there be, and a God seems needed</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To make the beauty of things like thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He doubtless also, some careless moment,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Mixed the forces that fashioned me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Also He, for His own good reason—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Though I care little how these things are—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gave me thee, in those few brief midnights,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And that one solace He never can mar.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah me, the stars of such varying heavens</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Have watched me, under such alien skies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lay thy beauty naked before me</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To soothe and solace my world-worn eyes.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For one good gift to me has been given—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">A memory accurate, clear and keen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That holds the vision, perfect for ever</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In charm and glory, of things once seen.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">So I hold thee there, and my fancy wanders</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To each known beauty and blue-veined place,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I know how each separate eyelash trembles,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And every shadow that sweeps thy face.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And this is a joy of which none can rob me,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">This is a pleasure that none can mar—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As sweet as thou wert, in that long past midnight,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Even as lovely my memories are.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, unforgotten and only lover,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">If ever I drift across thy thought,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As even a vision unloved, unlovely,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">May cross the fancy, uncalled, unsought,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When the years that pass thee have shown, in passing,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That my love, _in its strength at least_, was rare—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wilt thou not think—ah, hope of the hopeless—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">E’en as thou wouldst not, thou wilt not—care!</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Early_Love">Early Love</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who says I wrong thee, my half-opened rose?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Little he knows of thee or me, or love.—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I am so tender of thy fragile youth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yea, in my hours of wildest ecstasy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Keeping close-bitted each careering sense.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Only I give mine eyes unmeasured law</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To feed them where they will, and _their_ delight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was curbed at first, until thy tender shame</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Died in the bearing of thy first born joy.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I am not cruel, my half-opened rose,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though in the sunshine of my own desire</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I have uncurled thy petals to the light</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And fed the tendrils of thy dawning sense</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With delicate caresses, till they leave</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thee tremulous with the newness of thy joy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sharing thy lover’s fire with innocent flame.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Others will wrong thee, that I well foresee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Being a man, knowing my fellow men,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And they who, knowing, would blame my love of thee</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Contentedly will see thy beauty given,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When the world judges thou art ripe to wed,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To the rough rites of marriage, to the pain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And grievous weariness of child-getting,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This shall be right and licit in their eyes—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But it would break my heart, were I alive.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yea, this will be; many will doubtless share</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rose whose bud has been my one delight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And I shall not be there to shield my flower.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet, I have taught thee of the ways of men,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Much I have learnt in cities and in courts,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Winnowed to suit thy tender brain,—is thine,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus Life shall find thee, not all unprepared</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To face its callous, subtle cruelties.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Still,—it will profit little; I discern</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou art of those whose love will prove their curse,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">—Thou sayest thou lovest me, to thy delight?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, little one, it is not love as yet.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dear as thou art, and lovely, thou canst not love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy later loves shall show the truth of this.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, by some subtle signs I know full well</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That thou art capable of that great love</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose glory has the light of unknown heavens,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And makes hot Hell for those who harbour it.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Naught I can say could save thee from thyself,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, were I half my age! Yet even that,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had been too old for thy sweet thirteenth year.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Still, thou art happy now, and glad thine eyes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When, as the lilac evening gains the sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I lay thee, ’twixt thine own soft hair and me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Kissing thy senses into soft delight.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ruffling the petals of my half-closed rose</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With tender touches, and perpetual care</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That no wild moment of mine own delight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Deep in the flower’s heart,—should set the fruit.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, in the days to come, it well may be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When thou shalt see thy beauty stained and torn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the harsh sequel of some future love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy thoughts shall stray to thy first lover’s grave,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And thou shalt murmur, “Ay, but that was love.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They were most wrong who said he did me wrong.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Only I was too young to understand.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Vayu_the_Wind">Vayu the Wind</h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, Wind, I have always loved thee</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Since those far off nights</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When I lay beneath the vines</div> + <div class="verse indent4">A prey to strange delights,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For among my tresses</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy soft caresses</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Were sweet as a lover’s to me.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Later thou grewest more wanton, or I more shy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And after the bath I drew my garments close,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fearing thy soft persuasion amongst my hair</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When thou camest fresh with the scent of some ruffled rose.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, Wind, thou hast lain with the Desert,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">I know her savour well,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And the spices wherewith she scents her breasts—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She who has known such countless lovers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet rarely borne a city among her sands—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thou comest as one from a night of love,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Thy breath is broken and hard,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Bringing echoes of lonely things,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Vast and cruel, that the soft and golden sands</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Buried beneath thin ripples so long ago.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Ah, Wind, thou hast given me lovely things,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">The scent of a thousand flowers,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the heavy perfume of pollen-laden fields,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Strange snatches of wild song from the heart of the dark Bazaar</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That thrilled to my very core,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till I threw the sheet aside and rose to follow,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">But whither, or what?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Also, Wind, thou broughtest the breath of the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The sound of its myriad waves.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in nights when I lay on the lonely sands</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stretching mine arms to thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thou gavest me something—faint and vast and sweet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Something ineffable, wistful, from far away,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Elsewhere—Beyond—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And thou wast kind to me in my times of love,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Cooling my lips</div> + <div class="verse indent4">That my lover wore away,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While, wafting the scent from his divided hair,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Thou show’dst the stars between</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Far away, and eclipsed by his burning eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Even the stars.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And now I almost foresee the place and the hour</div> + <div class="verse indent4">When I shall open my dying lips to thee</div> + <div class="verse indent8">And receive a last cool kiss.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Afterwards, Wind, since I have always loved thee,—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Whirl my dust to the scented heart of a moghra flower,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">_His_ flower, but, ah, thou knowest,—</div> + <div class="verse indent8">So often thy kisses have mingled with his and mine.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST POEMS ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin-top:1em; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE</div> +<div style='text-align:center;font-size:0.9em'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE</div> +<div style='text-align:center;font-size:0.9em'>PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/5125-h/images/cover.jpg b/5125-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..69fb54d --- /dev/null +++ b/5125-h/images/cover.jpg |
