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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b4b319 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #52366 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52366) diff --git a/old/52366-0.txt b/old/52366-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 092ac26..0000000 --- a/old/52366-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2355 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Veil, by Walter de la Mare - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Veil - and other Poems - -Author: Walter de la Mare - -Release Date: June 18, 2016 [EBook #52366] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VEIL *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - THE VEIL - _and other_ - POEMS - - - _By_ - - WALTER DE LA MARE - -[Illustration] - - NEW YORK - HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY - 1922 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1922, - - BY - - HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY - - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - - NOTE - - -Seven of the poems included in this collection were written for Drawings -by Miss Pamela Bianco, and were first published by Mr. Heinemann in a -volume entitled _Flora_. The author's thanks are due to Mr. Sydney -Pawling for permission to reprint these poems; to Mr. Cyril Beaumont for -the use of 'Tidings' from a Play for Children, entitled _Crossings_; -and, for permission to include several other poems, to the Editors of -the _London Mercury_, the _New Republic_, the _Spectator_, the _Nation_, -the _Century Magazine_, the _Cambridge Magazine_, the _Literary Review_, -the _Sphere_, the _New Statesman_, the _Bookman's Journal_, the _Broom_, -the _Outlook_, the _Athenæum_, and the _Westminster Gazette_. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - THE IMP WITHIN 3 - THE OLD ANGLER 5 - THE WILLOW 10 - TITMOUSE 11 - THE VEIL 12 - THE FAIRY IN WINTER 13 - THE FLOWER 14 - BEFORE DAWN 15 - THE SPECTRE 17 - THE VOICE 18 - THE HOUR-GLASS 19 - IN THE DOCK 20 - THE WRECK 21 - THE SUICIDE 22 - DRUGGED 23 - WHO'S THAT? 25 - HOSPITAL 26 - A SIGN 28 - GOOD-BYE 30 - THE MONOLOGUE 31 - AWAKE! 34 - FORGIVENESS 35 - THE MOTH 36 - NOT THAT WAY 37 - CRAZED 39 - FOG 40 - _SOTTO VOCE_ 42 - THE IMAGINATION'S PRIDE 44 - THE WANDERERS 46 - THE CORNER STONE 48 - THE SPIRIT OF AIR 50 - THE UNFINISHED DREAM 51 - MUSIC 54 - TIDINGS 56 - THE SON OF MELANCHOLY 57 - THE QUIET ENEMY 60 - THE FAMILIAR 61 - MAERCHEN 63 - GOLD 64 - MIRAGE 65 - FLOTSAM 67 - MOURN'ST THOU NOW? 68 - THE GALLIASS 69 - THE DECOY 70 - SUNK LYONESSE 71 - THE CATECHISM 72 - FUTILITY 73 - BITTER WATERS 74 - WHO? 76 - A RIDDLE 77 - THE OWL 79 - THE LAST COACHLOAD 80 - AN EPITAPH 84 - - - - - THE VEIL AND OTHER POEMS - - - - - THE IMP WITHIN - - - 'ROUSE now, my dullard, and thy wits awake; - 'Tis first of the morning. And I bid thee make— - No, not a vow; we have munched our fill of these - From crock of bone-dry crusts and mouse-gnawn cheese— - Nay, just one whisper in that long, long ear— - Awake; rejoice. Another Day is here:— - - 'A virgin wilderness, which, hour by hour, - Mere happy idleness shall bring to flower. - Barren and arid though its sands now seem, - Wherein oasis becks not, shines no stream, - Yet wake—and lo, 'tis lovelier than a dream. - - 'Plunge on, thy every footprint shall make fair - Its thirsty waste; and thy foregone despair - Undarken into sweet birds in the air, - Whose coursing wings and love-crazed summoning cries - Into infinity shall attract thine eyes. - - 'No...? Well, lest promise in performance faint, - A less inviting prospect will I paint. - I bid thee adjure thy Yesterday, and say: - "As _thou_ wast, Enemy, so be To-day.— - Immure me in the same close narrow room; - Be hated toil the lamp to light its gloom; - Make stubborn my pen; sift dust into my ink; - Forbid mine eyes to see, my brain to think. - Scare off the words whereon the mind is set. - Make memory the power to forget. - Constrain imagination; bind its wing; - Forbid the unseen Enchantresses to sing. - Ay, do thy worst!" - - 'Vexed Spectre, prythee smile. - Even though that yesterday was bleak and sour, - Art thou a slave beneath its thong to cower? - Thou hast survived. And hither am I—again, - Kindling with mockery thy o'erlaboured brain. - Though scant the moments be wherein we meet, - Think, what dark months would even one make sweet. - - 'Thy quill? Thy paper? Ah, my dear, be true. - Come quick To-morrow. Until then, Adieu.' - - - - - THE OLD ANGLER - - - TWILIGHT leaned mirrored in a pool - Where willow boughs swept green and hoar, - Silk-clear the water, calm and cool, - Silent the weedy shore: - - There in abstracted, brooding mood - One fishing sate. His painted float - Motionless as a planet stood; - Motionless his boat. - - A melancholy soul was this, - With lantern jaw, gnarled hand, vague eye; - Huddled in pensive solitariness - He had fished existence by. - - Empty his creel; stolen his bait— - Impassively he angled on, - Though mist now showed the evening late - And daylight well-nigh gone. - - Suddenly, like a tongueless bell, - Downward his gaudy cork did glide; - A deep, low-gathering, gentle swell - Spread slowly far and wide. - - Wheeped out his tackle from noiseless winch, - And furtive as a thief, his thumb, - With nerve intense, wound inch by inch - A line no longer numb. - - What fabulous spoil could thus unplayed - Gape upward to a mortal air?— - He stoops engrossed; his tanned cheek greyed; - His heart stood still: for there, - - Wondrously fairing, beneath the skin - Of secretly bubbling water seen, - Swims—not the silver of scale and fin— - But gold immixt with green. - - Deeply astir in oozy bed, - The darkening mirror ripples and rocks: - And lo—a wan-pale, lovely head, - Hook tangled in its locks! - - Cold from her haunt—a Naiad slim. - Shoulder and cheek gleamed ivory white; - Though now faint stars stood over him, - The hour hard on night. - - Her green eyes gazed like one half-blind - In sudden radiance; her breast - Breathed the sweet air, while gently twined, - 'Gainst the cold water pressed, - - Her lean webbed hands. She floated there, - Light as a scentless petalled flower, - Water-drops dewing from her hair - In tinkling beadlike shower. - - So circling sidelong, her tender throat - Uttered a grieving, desolate wail; - Shrill o'er the dark pool lapsed its note, - Piteous as nightingale. - - Ceased Echo. And he?—a life's remorse - Welled to a tongue unapt to charm, - But never a word broke harsh and hoarse - To quiet her alarm. - - With infinite stealth his twitching thumb - Tugged softly at the tautened gut, - Bubble-light, fair, her lips now dumb, - She moved, and struggled not; - - But with set, wild, unearthly eyes - Pale-gleaming, fixed as if in fear, - She couched in the water, with quickening sighs, - And floated near. - - In hollow heaven the stars were at play; - Wan glow-worms greened the pool-side grass; - Dipped the wide-bellied boat. His prey - Gazed on; nor breathed. Alas!— - - Long sterile years had come and gone; - Youth, like a distant dream, was sped; - Heart, hope, and eyes had hungered on.... - He turned a shaking head, - - And clumsily groped amid the gold, - Sleek with night dews, of that tangling hair, - Till pricked his finger keen and cold - The barb imbedded there. - - Teeth clenched, he drew his knife—'Snip, snip,'— - Groaned, and sate shivering back; and she, - Treading the water with birdlike dip, - Shook her sweet shoulders free: - - Drew backward, smiling, infatuate fair, - His life's disasters in her eyes, - All longing and folly, grief, despair, - Daydreams and mysteries. - - She stooped her brow; laid low her cheek, - And, steering on that silk-tressed craft, - Out from the listening, leaf-hung creek, - Tossed up her chin, and laughed— - - A mocking, icy, inhuman note. - One instant flashed that crystal breast, - Leaned, and was gone. Dead-still the boat: - And the deep dark at rest. - - Flits moth to flower. A water-rat - Noses the placid ripple. And lo! - Streams a lost meteor. Night is late, - And daybreak zephyrs flow.... - - And he—the cheated? Dusk till morn, - Insensate, even of hope forsook, - He muttering squats, aloof, forlorn, - Dangling a baitless hook. - - - - - THE WILLOW - - - LEANS now the fair willow, dreaming - Amid her locks of green. - In the driving snow she was parched and cold, - And in midnight hath been - Swept by blasts of the void night, - Lashed by the rains. - Now of that wintry dark and bleak - No memory remains. - - In mute desire she sways softly; - Thrilling sap up-flows; - She praises God in her beauty and grace, - Whispers delight. And there flows - A delicate wind from the Southern seas, - Kissing her leaves. She sighs. - While the birds in her tresses make merry; - Burns the Sun in the skies. - - - - - TITMOUSE - - - IF you would happy company win, - Dangle a palm-nut from a tree, - Idly in green to sway and spin, - Its snow-pulped kernel for bait; and see, - A nimble titmouse enter in. - - Out of earth's vast unknown of air, - Out of all summer, from wave to wave, - He'll perch, and prank his feathers fair, - Jangle a glass-clear wildering stave, - And take his commons there— - - This tiny son of life; this spright, - By momentary Human sought, - Plume will his wing in the dappling light, - Clash timbrel shrill and gay— - And into time's enormous nought, - Sweet-fed, will flit away. - - - - - THE VEIL - - - I think and think; yet still I fail— - Why does this lady wear a veil? - Why thus elect to mask her face - Beneath that dainty web of lace? - The tip of a small nose I see, - And two red lips, set curiously - Like twin-born cherries on one stem, - And yet she has netted even them. - Her eyes, it's plain, survey with ease - Whatever to glance upon they please. - Yet, whether hazel, grey, or blue, - Or that even lovelier lilac hue, - I cannot guess: why—why deny - Such beauty to the passer-by? - Out of a bush a nightingale - May expound his song; beneath that veil - A happy mouth no doubt can make - English sound sweeter for its sake. - But then, why muffle in, like this, - What every blossomy wind would kiss? - Why in that little night disguise - A daybreak face, those starry eyes? - - - - - THE FAIRY IN WINTER - - - (For a drawing by Dorothy Puvis Lathrop) - - THERE was a Fairy—flake of winter— - Who, when the snow came, whispering, Silence, - Sister crystal to crystal sighing, - Making of meadow argent palace, - Night a star-sown solitude, - Cried 'neath her frozen eaves, 'I burn here!' - - Wings diaphanous, beating bee-like, - Wand within fingers, locks enspangled, - Icicle foot, lip sharp as scarlet, - She lifted her eyes in her pitch-black hollow— - Green as stalks of weeds in water— - Breathed: stirred. - - Rilled from her heart the ichor, coursing, - Flamed and awoke her slumbering magic. - Softlier than moth's her pinions trembled; - Out into blackness, light-like, she flittered, - Leaving her hollow cold, forsaken. - - In air, o'er crystal, rang twangling night-wind. - Bare, rimed pine-woods murmured lament. - - - - - THE FLOWER - - - HORIZON to horizon, lies outspread - The tenting firmament of day and night; - Wherein are winds at play; and planets shed - Amid the stars their gentle gliding light. - - The huge world's sun flames on the snow-capped hills; - Cindrous his heat burns in the sandy plain; - With myriad spume-bows roaring ocean swills - The cold profuse abundance of the rain. - - And man—a transient object in this vast, - Sighs o'er a universe transcending thought, - Afflicted by vague bodings of the past, - Driven toward a future, unforeseen, unsought. - - Yet, see him, stooping low to naked weed - That meeks its blossom in his anxious eye, - Mark how he grieves, as if his heart did bleed, - And wheels his wondrous features to the sky; - As if, transfigured by so small a grace, - He sought Companion in earth's dwelling-place. - - - - - BEFORE DAWN - - - DIM-BERRIED is the mistletoe - With globes of sheenless grey, - The holly mid ten thousand thorns - Smoulders its fires away; - And in the manger Jesu sleeps - This Christmas Day. - - Bull unto bull with hollow throat - Makes echo every hill, - Cold sheep in pastures thick with snow - The air with bleatings fill; - While of his mother's heart this Babe - Takes His sweet will. - - All flowers and butterflies lie hid, - The blackbird and the thrush - Pipe but a little as they flit - Restless from bush to bush; - Even to the robin Gabriel hath - Cried softly, 'Hush!' - - Now night is astir with burning stars - In darkness of the snow; - Burdened with frankincense and myrrh - And gold the Strangers go - Into a dusk where one dim lamp - Burns faintly, Lo! - - No snowdrop yet its small head nods, - In winds of winter drear; - No lark at casement in the sky - Sings matins shrill and clear; - Yet in this frozen mirk the Dawn - Breathes, Spring is here! - - - - - THE SPECTRE - - - IN cloudy quiet of the day, - While thrush and robin perched mute on spray, - A spectre by the window sat, - Brooding thereat. - - He marked the greenness of the Spring, - Daffodil blowing, bird a-wing— - Yet dark the house the years had made - Within that Shade. - - Blinded the rooms wherein no foot falls. - Faded the portraits on the walls. - Reverberating, shakes the air - A river there. - - Coursing in flood, its infinite roars; - From pit to pit its water pours; - And he, with countenance unmoved, - Hears cry:—'Beloved, - - 'Oh, ere the day be utterly spent, - Return, return, from banishment. - The night thick-gathers. Weep a prayer - For the true and fair.' - - - - - THE VOICE - - - 'WE are not often alone, we two,' - Mused a secret voice in my ear, - As the dying hues of afternoon - Lapsed into evening drear. - - A withered leaf, wafted on in the street, - Like a wayless spectre, sighed; - Aslant on the roof-tops a sickly moon - Did mutely abide. - - Yet waste though the shallowing day might seem, - And fainter than hope its rose, - Strangely that speech in my thoughts welled on; - As water in-flows: - - Like remembered words once heard in a room - Wherein death kept far-away tryst; - 'Not often alone, we two; but thou, - How sorely missed!' - - - - - THE HOUR-GLASS - - - THOU who know'st all the sorrows of this earth— - I pray Thee, ponder, ere again Thou turn - Thine hour-glass over again, since one sole birth, - To poor clay-cold humanity, makes yearn - A heart at passion with life's endless coil. - Thou givest thyself too strait a room therein. - For so divine a tree too poor a soil. - For so great agony what small peace to win. - Cast from that Ark of Heaven which is Thy home - The raven of hell may wander without fear; - But sadly wings the dove o'er floods to roam, - Nought but one tender sprig his eyes to cheer. - Nay, Lord, I speak in parables. But see! - 'Tis stricken Man in Men that pleads with Thee. - - - - - IN THE DOCK - - - PALLID, mis-shapen he stands. The world's grimed thumb, - Now hooked securely in his matted hair, - Has haled him struggling from his poisonous slum - And flung him mute as fish close-netted there. - His bloodless hands entalon that iron rail. - He gloats in beastlike trance. His settling eyes - From staring face to face rove on—and quail. - Justice for carrion pants; and these the flies. - Voice after voice in smooth impartial drone - Erects horrific in his darkening brain - A timber framework, where agape, alone - Bright life will kiss good-bye the cheek of Cain. - Sudden like wolf he cries; and sweats to see - When howls man's soul, it howls inaudibly. - - - - - THE WRECK - - - STORM and unconscionable winds once cast - On grinding shingle, masking gap-toothed rock, - This ancient hulk. Rent hull, and broken mast, - She sprawls sand-mounded, of sea birds the mock. - Her sailors, drowned, forgotten, rot in mould, - Or hang in stagnant quiet of the deep; - The brave, the afraid into one silence sold; - Their end a memory fainter than of sleep. - She held good merchandise. She paced in pride - The uncharted paths men trace in ocean's foam. - Now laps the ripple in her broken side, - And zephyr in tamarisk softly whispers, Home. - The dreamer scans her in the sea-blue air, - And, sipping of contrast, finds the day more fair. - - - - - THE SUICIDE - - - DID these night-hung houses, - Of quiet, starlit stone, - Breathe not a whisper—'Stay, - Thou unhappy one; - Whither so secret away?' - - Sighed not the unfriending wind, - Chill with nocturnal dew, - 'Pause, pause, in thy haste, - O thou distraught! I too - Tryst with the Atlantic waste.' - - Steep fell the drowsy street; - In slumber the world was blind: - Breathed not one midnight flower - Peace in thy broken mind?— - 'Brief, yet sweet, is life's hour.' - - Syllabled thy last tide— - By as dark moon stirred, - And doomed to forlorn unrest— - Not one compassionate word?... - 'Cold is this breast.' - - - - - DRUGGED - - - INERT in his chair, - In a candle's guttering glow; - His bottle empty, - His fire sunk low; - With drug-sealed lids shut fast, - Unsated mouth ajar, - This darkened phantasm walks - Where nightmares are: - - In a frenzy of life and light, - Crisscross—a menacing throng— - They gibe, they squeal at the stranger, - Jostling along, - Their faces cadaverous grey. - While on high from an attic stare - Horrors, in beauty apparelled, - Down the dark air. - - A stream gurgles over its stones, - The chambers within are a-fire. - Stumble his shadowy feet - Through shine, through mire; - And the flames leap higher. - In vain yelps the wainscot mouse; - In vain beats the hour; - Vacant, his body must drowse - Until daybreak flower— - - Staining these walls with its rose, - And the draughts of the morning shall stir - Cold on cold brow, cold hands. - And the wanderer - Back to flesh house must return. - Lone soul—in horror to see, - Than dream more meagre and awful, - Reality. - - - - - WHO'S THAT? - - - WHO'S that? Who's that?... - Oh, only a leaf on the stone; - And the sigh of the air in the fire. - Yet it seemed, as I sat, - Came company—not my own; - Stood there, with ardent gaze over dark, bowed shoulder thrown - Till the dwindling flames leaped higher, - And showed fantasy flown. - - Yet though the cheat is clear— - From transient illusion grown; - In the vague of my mind those eyes - Still haunt me. One stands so near - I could take his hand, and be gone:— - No more in this house of dreams to sojourn aloof, alone: - Could sigh, with full heart, and arise, - And choke, 'Lead on.' - - - - - HOSPITAL - - - WELCOME! Enter! This is the Inn at the Cross Roads, - Sign of the _Rising Sun_, of the _World's End_: - Ay, O Wanderer, footsore, weary, forsaken, - Knock, and we will open to thee—Friend. - - Gloomy our stairs of stone, obscure the portal; - Burdened the air with a breath from the further shore; - Yet in our courtyard plays an invisible fountain, - Ever flowers unfading nod at the door. - - Ours is much company, and yet none is lonely; - Some with a smile may pay and some with a sigh; - So all be healed, restored, contented—it is no matter— - So all be happy at heart to bid good-bye. - - But know, our clocks are the world's; Night's wings are leaden, - Pain languidly sports with the hours; have courage, sir! - We wake but to bring thee slumber, our drowsy syrups - Sleep beyond dreams on the weary will confer. - - Ghosts may be ours; but gaze thou not too closely - If haply in chill of the dark thou rouse to see - One silent of foot, hooded, and hollow of visage, - Pause, with secret eyes, to peer out at thee. - - He is the Ancient Tapster of this Hostel, - To him at length even we all keys must resign; - And if he beckon, Stranger, thou too must follow— - Love and all peace be thine. - - - - - A SIGN - - - HOW shall I know when the end of things is coming? - The dark swifts flitting, the drone-bees humming; - The fly on the window-pane bedazedly strumming; - Ice on the waterbrooks their clear chimes dumbing— - How shall I know that the end of things is coming? - - The stars in their stations will shine glamorous in the black; - Emptiness, as ever, haunt the great Star Sack; - And Venus, proud and beautiful, go down to meet the day, - Pale in phosphorescence of the green sea spray— - How shall I know that the end of things is coming? - - Head asleep on pillow; the peewits at their crying; - A strange face in dreams to my rapt phantasma sighing; - Silence beyond words of anguished passion; - Or stammering an answer in the tongue's cold fashion— - How shall I know that the end of things is coming? - - Haply on strange roads I shall be, the moorland's peace around me; - Or counting up a fortune to which Destiny hath bound me; - Or—Vanity of Vanities—the honey of the Fair; - Or a greybeard, lost to memory, on the cobbles in my chair— - How shall I know that the end of things is coming? - - The drummers will be drumming; the fiddlers at their thrumming; - Nuns at their beads; the mummers at their mumming; - Heaven's solemn Seraph stoopt weary o'er his summing; - The palsied fingers plucking, the way-worn feet numbing— - And the end of things coming. - - - - - GOOD-BYE - - - THE last of last words spoken is, Good-bye— - The last dismantled flower in the weed-grown hedge, - The last thin rumour of a feeble bell far ringing, - The last blind rat to spurn the mildewed rye. - - A hardening darkness glasses the haunted eye, - Shines into nothing the watcher's burnt-out candle, - Wreathes into scentless nothing the wasting incense, - Faints in the outer silence the hunting cry. - - Love of its muted music breathes no sigh, - Thought in her ivory tower gropes in her spinning, - Toss on in vain the whispering trees of Eden, - Last of all last words spoken is, Good-bye. - - - - - THE MONOLOGUE - - - ALAS, O Lovely One, - Imprisoned here, - I tap; thou answerest not, - I doubt, and fear. - Yet transparent as glass these walls, - If thou lean near. - - Last dusk, at those high bars - There came, scarce-heard, - Claws, fluttering feathers, - Of deluded bird— - With one shrill, scared, faint note - The silence stirred. - - Rests in that corner, - In puff of dust, a straw— - Vision of harvest-fields - I never saw, - Of strange green streams and hills, - Forbidden by law. - - These things I whisper, - For I see—in mind— - Thy caged cheek whiten - At the wail of wind, - That thin breast wasting; unto - Woe resigned. - - Take comfort, listen! - Once we twain were free; - There was a Country— - Lost the memory ... - Lay thy cold brow on hand, - And dream with me. - - Awaits me torture, - I have smelt their rack; - From spectral groaning wheel - Have turned me back; - Thumbscrew and boot, and then— - The yawning sack. - - Lean closer, then; - Lay palm on stony wall. - Let but thy ghost beneath - Thine eyelids call: - 'Courage, my brother,' Nought - Can then appal. - - Yet coward, coward am I, - And drink I must - When clanks the pannikin - With the longed-for crust; - Though heart within is sour - With disgust. - - Long hours there are, - When mutely tapping—well, - Is it to Vacancy - I these tidings tell? - Knock these numb fingers against - An empty cell? - - Nay, answer not. - Let still mere longing make - Thy presence sure to me, - While in doubt I shake: - Be but my Faith in thee, - For sanity's sake. - - - - - AWAKE! - - - WHY hath the rose faded and fallen, yet these eyes have not seen? - Why hath the bird sung shrill in the tree—and this mind deaf and cold? - Why have the rains of summer veiled her flowers with their sheen - And this black heart untold? - - Here is calm Autumn now, the woodlands quake, - And, where this splendour of death lies under the tread, - The spectre of frost will stalk, and a silence make, - And snow's white shroud be spread. - - O Self! O self! Wake from thy common sleep! - Fling off the destroyer's net. He hath blinded and bound thee. - In nakedness sit; pierce thy stagnation, and weep; - Or corrupt in thy grave—all Heaven around thee. - - - - - FORGIVENESS - - - 'O thy flamed cheek, - Those locks with weeping wet, - Eyes that, forlorn and meek, - On mine are set. - - 'Poor hands, poor feeble wings, - Folded, a-droop, O sad! - See, 'tis my heart that sings - To make thee glad. - - 'My mouth breathes love, thou dear. - All that I am and know - Is thine. My breast—draw near: - Be grieved not so!' - - - - - THE MOTH - - - ISLED in the midnight air, - Musked with the dark's faint bloom, - Out into glooming and secret haunts - The flame cries, 'Come!' - - Lovely in dye and fan, - A-tremble in shimmering grace, - A moth from her winter swoon - Uplifts her face: - - Stares from her glamorous eyes; - Wafts her on plumes like mist; - In ecstasy swirls and sways - To her strange tryst. - - - - - NOT THAT WAY - - - NO, no. Guard thee. Get thee gone. - Not that way. - See; the louring clouds glide on, - Skirting West to South; and see, - The green light under that sycamore tree— - Not that way. - - There the leaden trumpets blow, - Solemn and slow. - There the everlasting walls - Frown above the waterfalls - Silver and cold; - Timelessly old: - Not that way. - - Not toward Death, who, stranger, fairer, - Than any siren turns his head— - Than sea-couched siren, arched with rainbows, - Where knell the waves of her ocean bed. - - Alas, that beauty hangs her flowers - For lure of his demoniac powers: - Alas, that from these eyes should dart - Such piercing summons to thy heart; - That mine in frenzy of longing beats, - Still lusting for these gross deceits. - Not that way! - - - - - CRAZED - - - I know a pool where nightshade preens - Her poisonous fruitage in the moon; - Where the frail aspen her shadow leans - In midnight cold a-swoon. - - I know a meadow flat with gold— - A million million burning flowers - In noon-sun's thirst their buds unfold - Beneath his blazing showers. - - I saw a crazèd face, did I, - Stare from the lattice of a mill, - While the lank sails clacked idly by - High on the windy hill. - - - - - FOG - - - STAGNANT this wintry gloom. Afar - The farm-cock bugles his 'Qui vive?' - The towering elms are lost in mist; - Birds in the thorn-trees huddle a-whist; - The mill-race waters grieve. - Our shrouded day - Dwindles away - To final black of eve. - - Beyond these shades in space of air - Ride exterrestrial beings by? - Their colours burning rich and fair, - Where noon's sunned valleys lie? - With inaudible music are they sweet— - Bell, hoof, soft lapsing cry? - - Turn marvellous faces, each to each?— - Lips innocent of sigh, - Or groan or fear, sorrow and grief, - Clear brow and falcon eye; - Bare foot, bare shoulder in the heat, - And hair like flax? Do their horses beat - Their way through wildernesses infinite - Of starry-crested trees, blue sward, - And gold-chasm'd mountain, steeply shored - O'er lakes of sapphire dye? - - Mingled with lisping speech, faint laughter, - Echoes the Phoenix' scream of joyance - Mounting on high?— - Light-bathed vistas and divine sweet mirth, - Beyond dream of spirits penned to earth, - Condemned to pine and die?... - - Hath serving Nature, bidden of the gods, - Thick-screened Man's narrow sky, - And hung these Stygian veils of fog - To hide his dingied sty?— - The gods who yet, at mortal birth, - Bequeathed him Fantasy? - - - - - _SOTTO VOCE_ - - - (To Edward Thomas) - - THE haze of noon wanned silver-grey - The soundless mansion of the sun; - The air made visible in his ray, - Like molten glass from furnace run, - Quivered o'er heat-baked turf and stone - And the flower of the gorse burned on— - Burned softly as gold of a child's fair hair - Along each spiky spray, and shed - Almond-like incense in the air - Whereon our senses fed. - - At foot—a few sparse harebells: blue - And still as were the friend's dark eyes - That dwelt on mine, transfixèd through - With sudden ecstatic surmise. - - 'Hst!' he cried softly, smiling, and lo, - Stealing amidst that maze gold-green, - I heard a whispering music flow - From guileful throat of bird, unseen:— - So delicate the straining ear - Scarce carried its faint syllabling - Into a heart caught-up to hear - That inmost pondering - Of bird-like self with self. We stood, - In happy trance-like solitude, - Hearkening a lullay grieved and sweet— - As when on isle uncharted beat - 'Gainst coral at the palm-tree's root, - With brine-clear, snow-white foam afloat, - The wailing, not of water or wind— - A husht, far, wild, divine lament, - When Prospero his wizardry bent - Winged Ariel to bind.... - - Then silence, and o'er-flooding noon. - I raised my head; smiled too. And he— - Moved his great hand, the magic gone— - Gently amused to see - My ignorant wonderment. He sighed. - 'It was a nightingale,' he said, - 'That _sotto voce_ cons the song - He'll sing when dark is spread; - And Night's vague hours are sweet and long. - And we are laid abed.' - - - - - THE IMAGINATION'S PRIDE - - - BE not too wildly amorous of the far, - Nor lure thy fantasy to its utmost scope. - Read by a taper when the needling star - Burns red with menace in heaven's midnight cope. - Friendly thy body: guard its solitude. - Sure shelter is thy heart. It once had rest - Where founts miraculous thy lips endewed, - Yet nought loomed further than thy mother's breast. - - O brave adventure! Ay, at danger slake - Thy thirst, lest life in thee should, sickening, quail; - But not toward nightmare goad a mind awake, - Nor to forbidden horizons bend thy sail— - Seductive outskirts whence in trance prolonged - Thy gaze, at stretch of what is sane-secure, - Dreams out on steeps by shapes demoniac thronged - And vales wherein alone the dead endure. - - Nectarous those flowers, yet with venom sweet. - Thick-juiced with poison hang those fruits that shine - Where sick phantasmal moonbeams brood and beat, - And dark imaginations ripe the vine. - Bethink thee: every enticing league thou wend - Beyond the mark where life its bound hath set - Will lead thee at length where human pathways end - And the dark enemy spreads his maddening net. - - Comfort thee, comfort thee. Thy Father knows - How wild man's ardent spirit, fainting, yearns - For mortal glimpse of death's immortal rose, - The garden where the invisible blossom burns. - Humble thy trembling knees; confess thy pride; - Be weary. O, whithersoever thy vaunting rove, - His deepest wisdom harbours in thy side, - In thine own bosom hides His utmost love. - - - - - THE WANDERERS - - - WITHIN my mind two spirits strayed - From out their still and purer air, - And there a moment's sojourn made; - As lovers will in woodlands bare. - Nought heeded they where now they stood, - Since theirs its alien solitude - Beyond imagination fair. - - The light an earthly candle gives - When it is quenched leaves only dark; - Theirs yet in clear remembrance lives - And, still within, I whispered, 'Hark;' - As one who faintly on high has heard - The call note of a hidden bird - Even sweeter than the lark. - - Yet 'twas their silence breathed only this— - 'I love you.' As if flowers might say, - 'Such is our natural fragrantness;' - Or dewdrop at the break of day - Cry 'Thus I beam.' Each turned a head, - And each its own clear radiance shed - With joy and peace at play. - - So in a gloomy London street - Princes from Eastern realms might pause - In secret converse, then retreat. - Yet without haste passed these from sight; - As if a human mind were not - Wholly a dark and dismal spot— - At least in their own light. - - - - - THE CORNER STONE - - - STERILE these stones - By time in ruin laid. - Yet many a creeping thing - Its haven has made - In these least crannies, were falls - Dark's dew, and noonday shade. - - The claw of the tender bird - Finds lodgment here; - Dye-winged butterflies poise; - Emmet and beetle steer - Their busy course; the bee - Drones, laden, near. - - Their myriad-mirrored eyes - Great day reflect. - By their exquisite farings - Is this granite specked; - Is trodden to infinite dust; - By gnawing lichens decked. - - Toward what eventual dream - Sleeps its cold on, - When into ultimate dark - These lives shall be gone, - And even of man not a shadow remain - Of all he has done? - - - - - THE SPIRIT OF AIR - - - CORAL and clear emerald, - And amber from the sea, - Lilac-coloured amethyst, - Chalcedony; - The lovely Spirit of Air - Floats on a cloud and doth ride, - Clad in the beauties of earth - Like a bride. - - So doth she haunt me; and words - Tell but a tithe of the tale. - Sings all the sweetness of Spring - Even in the nightingale? - Nay, but with echoes she cries - Of the valley of love; - Dews on the thorns at her feet, - And darkness above. - - - - - THE UNFINISHED DREAM - - - RARE-SWEET the air in that unimagined country— - My spirit had wandered far - From its weary body close-enwrapt in slumber - Where its home and earth-friends are; - - A milk-like air—and of light all abundance; - And there a river clear - Painting the scene like a picture on its bosom, - Green foliage drifting near. - - No sign of life I saw, as I pressed onward, - Fish, nor beast, nor bird, - Till I came to a hill clothed in flowers to its summit, - Then shrill small voices I heard. - - And I saw from concealment a company of elf-folk - With faces strangely fair, - Talking their unearthly scattered talk together, - A bind of green-grasses in their hair, - - Marvellously gentle, feater far than children, - In gesture, mien and speech, - Hastening onward in translucent shafts of sunshine, - And gossiping each with each. - - Straw-light their locks, on neck and shoulder falling, - Faint of almond the silks they wore, - Spun not of worm, but as if inwoven of moonbeams - And foam on rock-bound shore; - - Like lank-legged grasshoppers in June-tide meadows, - Amalillios of the day, - Hungrily gazed upon by me—a stranger, - In unknown regions astray. - - Yet, happy beyond words, I marked their sunlit faces, - Stealing soft enchantment from their eyes, - Tears in my own confusing their small image, - Harkening their bead-like cries. - - They passed me, unseeing, a waft of flocking linnets; - Sadly I fared on my way; - And came in my dream to a dreamlike habitation, - Close-shut, festooned and grey. - - Pausing, I gazed at the porch dust-still, vine-wreathèd, - Worn the stone steps thereto, - Mute hung its bell, whence a stony head looked downward, - Grey 'gainst the sky's pale-blue— - - Strange to me: strange.... - - - - - MUSIC - - - O restless fingers—not that music make! - Bidding old griefs from out the past awake, - And pine for memory's sake. - - Those strings thou callest from quiet mute to yearn, - Of other hearts did hapless secrets learn, - And thy strange skill will turn - - To uses that thy bosom dreams not of: - Ay, summon from their dark and dreadful grove - The chaunting, pale-cheeked votaries of love. - - Stay now, and hearken! From that far-away - Cymbal on cymbal beats, the fierce horns bray, - Stars in their sapphire fade, 'tis break of day. - - Green are those meads, foam-white the billow's crest, - And Night, withdrawing in the cavernous West, - Flings back her shadow on the salt sea's breast. - - Snake-haired, snow-shouldered, pure as flame and dew, - Her strange gaze burning slumbrous eyelids through, - Rises the Goddess from the wave's dark blue. - - - - - TIDINGS - - - LISTEN, I who love thee well - Have travelled far, and secrets tell; - Cold the moon that gleams thine eyes, - Yet beneath her further skies - Rests for thee, a paradise. - - I have plucked a flower in proof, - Frail, in earthly light forsooth: - See, invisible it lies - In this palm: now veil thine eyes: - Quaff its fragrancies. - - Would indeed my throat had skill - To breathe thee music, faint and still— - Music learned in dreaming deep - In those lands, from Echo's lip ... - 'Twould lull thy soul to sleep. - - - - - THE SON OF MELANCHOLY - - - UNTO blest Melancholy's house one happy day - I took my way: - Into a chamber was shown, whence could be seen - Her flowerless garden, dyed with sunlit green - Of myrtle, box, and bay. - - Cool were its walls, shade-mottled, green and gold, - In heavy fold - Hung antique tapestries, from whose fruit and flower - Light had the bright hues stolen, hour by hour, - And time worn thin and old. - - Silence, as of a virginal laid aside, - Did there abide. - But not for voice or music was I fain, - Only to see a long-loved face again— - For her sole company sighed. - - And while I waited, giving memory praise, - My musing gaze - Lit on the one sole picture in the room, - Which hung, as if in hiding, in the gloom - From evening's stealing rays. - - Framed in fast-fading gilt, a child gazed there, - Lovely and fair; - A face whose happiness was like sunlight spent - On some poor desolate soul in banishment, - Mutely his grief to share. - - Long, long I stood in trance of that glad face, - Striving to trace - The semblance that, disquieting, it bore - To one whom memory could not restore, - Nor fix in time and space. - - Sunk deep in brooding thus, a voice I heard - Whisper its word: - I turned—and, stooping in the threshold, stood - She—the dark mistress of my solitude, - Who smiled, nor stirred. - - Her ghost gazed darkly from her pondering eyes - Charged with surmise; - Challenging mine, between mockery and fear, - She breathed her greeting, '_Thou_, my only dear! - Wherefore such heavy sighs?' - - 'But this?' One instant lids her scrutiny veiled; - Her wan cheek paled. - 'This child?' I asked. 'Its picture brings to mind - Remembrance faint and far, past thought to find, - And yet by time unstaled.' - - Smiling, aloof, she turned her narrow head, - 'Make thou my face thy glass,' she cried and said. - 'What would'st thou see therein—thine own, or mine? - O foolish one, what wonder thou did'st pine? - - Long thou hast loved me; yet hast absent been. - See now: Dark night hath pressed an entrance in. - Jealous! thou dear? Nay, come; by taper's beam - Share thou this pictured Joy with me, though nought but a dream.' - - - - - THE QUIET ENEMY - - - HEARKEN—NOW the hermit bee - Drones a quiet thren dy; - Greening on the stagnant pool - The criss-cross light slants silken-cool; - In the venomed yew tree wings - Preen and flit. The linnet sings. - - Gradually the brave sun - Drops to a day's journey done; - In the marshy flats abide - Mists to muffle midnight-tide. - Puffed within the belfry tower - Hungry owls drowse out their hour.... - - Walk in beauty. Vaunt thy rose. - Flaunt thy transient loveliness. - Pace for pace with thee there goes - A shape that hath not come to bless. - - I thine enemy?... Nay, nay. - I can only watch and wait - Patient treacherous time away, - Hold ajar the wicket gate. - - - - - THE FAMILIAR - - - 'ARE you far away?' - 'Yea, I am far—far; - Where the green wave shelves to the sand, - And the rainbows are; - And an ageless sun beats fierce - From an empty sky: - There, O thou Shadow forlorn, - Is the wraith of thee, I.' - - 'Are you happy, most Lone?' - 'Happy, forsooth! - Who am eyes of the air; voice of the foam; - Ah, happy in truth. - My hair is astream, this cheek - Glistens like silver, and see, - As the gold to the dross, the ghost in the mirk, - I am calling to thee.' - - 'Nay, I am bound. - And your cry faints out in my mind. - Peace not on earth have I found, - Yet to earth am resigned. - Cease thy shrill mockery, Voice, - Nor answer again.' - 'O Master, thick cloud shuts thee out - And cold tempests of rain.' - - - - - MAERCHEN - - - SOUNDLESS the moth-flit, crisp the death-watch tick; - Crazed in her shaken arbour bird did sing; - Slow wreathed the grease adown from soot-clogged wick: - The Cat looked long and softly at the King. - - Mouse frisked and scampered, leapt, gnawed, squeaked; - Small at the window looped cowled bat a-wing; - The dim-lit rafters with the night-mist reeked: - The Cat looked long and softly at the King. - - O wondrous robe enstarred, in night dyed deep: - O air scarce-stirred with the Court's far junketing: - O stagnant Royalty—A-swoon? Asleep? - The Cat looked long and softly at the King. - - - - - GOLD - - - SIGHED the wind to the wheat:— - 'The Queen who is slumbering there, - Once bewildered the rose; - Scorned, "Thou un-fair!" - Once, from that bird-whirring court, - Ascended the ruinous stair. - Aloft, on that weed-hung turret, suns - Smote on her hair— - Of a gold by Archiac sought, - Of a gold sea-hid, - Of a gold that from core of quartz - No flame shall bid - Pour into light of the air - For God's Jews to see.' - - Mocked the wheat to the wind— - 'Kiss me! Kiss me!' - - - - - MIRAGE - - - ... And burned the topless towers of Ilium - - STRANGE fabled face! From sterile shore to shore - O'er plunging seas, thick-sprent with glistening brine, - The voyagers of the World with sail and heavy oar - Have sought thy shrine. - Beauty inexorable hath lured them on: - Remote unnamèd stars enclustering gleam— - Burn in thy flowered locks, though creeping daybreak wan - Prove thee but dream. - - Noonday to night the enigma of thine eyes - Frets with desire their travel-wearied brain, - Till in the vast of dark the ice-cold moon arise - And pour them peace again; - And with malign mirage uprears an isle - Of fountain and palm, and courts of jasmine and rose, - Whence far decoy of siren throats their souls beguile, - And maddening fragrance flows. - - Lo, in the milken light, in tissue of gold - Thine apparition gathers in the air— - Nay, but the seas are deep, and the round world old, - And thou art named, Despair. - - - - - FLOTSAM - - - SCREAMED the far sea-mew. On the mirroring sands - Bell-shrill the oyster-catchers. Burned the sky. - Couching my cheeks upon my sun-scorched hands, - Down from bare rock I gazed. The sea swung by. - - Dazzling dark blue and verdurous, quiet with snow, - Empty with loveliness, with music a-roar, - Her billowing summits heaving noon-aglow— - Crashed the Atlantic on the cliff-ringed shore, - - Drowsed by the tumult of that moving deep, - Sense into outer silence fainted, fled; - And rising softly, from the fields of sleep, - Stole to my eyes a lover from the dead; - - Crying an incantation—learned, Where? When?... - White swirled the foam, a fount, a blinding gleam - Of ice-cold breast, cruel eyes, wild mouth—and then - A still dirge echoing on from dream to dream. - - - - - MOURN'ST THOU NOW? - - - LONG ago from radiant palace, - Dream-bemused, in flood of moon, - Stole the princess Seraphita - Into forest gloom. - - Wail of hemlock; cold the dewdrops; - Danced the Dryads in the chace; - Heavy hung ambrosial fragrance; - Moonbeams blanched her ravished face. - - Frail and clear the notes delusive; - Mocking phantoms in a rout - Thridded the night-cloistered thickets, - Wove their sorceries in and out.... - - Mourn'st thou now? Or do thine eyelids - Frame a vision dark, divine, - O'er this imp of star and wild-flower— - Of a god once thine? - - - - - THE GALLIASS - - - 'TELL me, tell me, - Unknown stranger, - When shall I sight me - That tall ship - On whose flower-wreathed counter is gilded, _Sleep_?' - - 'Landsman, landsman, - Lynx nor kestrel - Ne'er shall descry from - Ocean steep - That midnight-stealing, high-pooped galliass, _Sleep_.' - - 'Promise me, Stranger, - Though I mark not - When cold night-tide's - Shadows creep, - Thou wilt keep unwavering watch for _Sleep_.' - - 'Myriad the lights are, - Wayworn landsman, - Rocking the dark through - On the deep: - She alone burns none to prove her _Sleep_.' - - - - - THE DECOY - - - 'TELL us, O pilgrim, what strange She - Lures and decoys your wanderings on? - Cheek, eye, brow, lip, you scan each face, - Smile, ponder—and are gone. - - 'Are we not flesh and blood? Mark well, - We touch you with our hands. We speak - A tongue that may earth's secrets tell: - Why further will you seek?' - - 'Far have I come, and far must fare. - Noon and night and morning-prime, - I search the long road, bleak and bare, - That fades away in Time. - - 'On the world's brink its wild weeds shake, - And there my own dust, dark with dew, - Burns with a rose that, sleep or wake, - Beacons me—"Follow true!"' - - 'Her name, crazed soul? And her degree? - What peace, prize, profit in her breast?' - 'A thousand cheating names hath she; - And none fore-tokens rest.' - - - - - SUNK LYONESSE - - - IN sea-cold Lyonesse, - When the Sabbath eve shafts down - On the roofs, walls, belfries - Of the foundered town, - The Nereids pluck their lyres - Where the green translucency beats, - And with motionless eyes at gaze - Make minstrelsy in the streets. - - And the ocean water stirs - In salt-worn casemate and porch. - Plies the blunt-snouted fish - With fire in his skull for torch. - And the ringing wires resound; - And the unearthly lovely weep, - In lament of the music they make - In the sullen courts of sleep: - - Whose marble flowers bloom for aye: - And—lapped by the moon-guiled tide— - Mock their carver with heart of stone, - Caged in his stone-ribbed side. - - - - - THE CATECHISM - - - 'HAST thou then nought wiser to bring - Than worn-out songs of moon and rose?' - 'Cracked my voice and broken my wing, - God knows.' - - 'Tell'st thou no truth of the life that _is_; - Seek'st thou from heaven no pitying sign?' - 'Ask thine own heart these mysteries, - Not mine.' - - 'Where then the faith thou hast brought to seed? - Where the sure hope thy soul would feign?' - 'Never ebbed sweetness—even out of a weed— - In vain.' - - 'Fool. The night comes.... 'Tis late. Arise: - Cold lap the waters of Jordan stream.' - 'Deep be their flood and tranquil thine eyes - With a dream.' - - - - - FUTILITY - - - SINK, thou strange heart, unto thy rest. - Pine now no more, to pine in vain. - Doth not the moon on heaven's breast - Call the floods home again? - - Doth not the summer faint at last? - Do not her restless rivers flow - When that her transient day is past - To hide them in ice and snow? - - All this—thy world—an end shall make; - Planet to sun return again; - The universe, to sleep from wake, - In a last peace remain. - - Alas, the futility of care - That, spinning thought to thought, doth weave - An idle argument on the air - We love not, nor believe. - - - - - BITTER WATERS - - - IN a dense wood, a drear wood, - Dark water is flowing; - Deep, deep, beyond sounding, - A flood ever flowing. - - There harbours no wild bird, - No wanderer strays there; - Wreathed in mist, sheds pale Ishtar - Her sorrowful rays there. - - Take thy net; cast thy line; - Manna sweet be thy baiting; - Time's desolate ages - Shall still find thee waiting - - For quick fish to rise there, - Or butterfly wooing, - Or flower's honeyed beauty, - Or wood-pigeon cooing. - - Inland wellsprings are sweet; - But to lips, parched and dry, - Salt, salt is the savour - Of these; faint their sigh. - - Bitter Babylon's waters. - Zion, distant and fair. - We hanged up our harps - On the trees that are there. - - - - - WHO? - - - 1ST STRANGER. WHO walks with us on the hills? - - 2ND STRANGER. I cannot see for the mist. - - 3RD STRANGER. Running water I hear, - Keeping lugubrious tryst - With its cresses and grasses and weeds, - In the white obscure light from the sky. - - 2ND STRANGER. _Who walks with us on the hills?_ - - WILD BIRD. Ay!... Aye!... _Ay!..._ - - - - - A RIDDLE - - - THE mild noon air of Spring again - Lapped shimmering in that sea-lulled lane. - Hazel was budding; wan as snow - The leafless blackthorn was a-blow. - - A chaffinch clankt, a robin woke - An eerie stave in the leafless oak. - Green mocked at green; lichen and moss - The rain-worn slate did softly emboss. - - From out her winter lair, at sigh - Of the warm South wind, a butterfly - Stepped, quaffed her honey; on painted fan - Her labyrinthine flight began. - - Wondrously solemn, golden and fair, - The high sun's rays beat everywhere; - Yea, touched my cheek and mouth, as if, - Equal with stone, to me 'twould give - Its light and life. - - O restless thought - Contented not. With 'Why' distraught. - Whom asked you then your riddle small?— - 'If hither came no man at all - - 'Through this grey-green, sea-haunted lane, - Would it mere blackened nought remain? - Strives it this beauty and life to express - Only in human consciousness?' - - Oh, rather, idly breaks he in - To an Eden innocent of sin; - And, prouder than to be afraid, - Forgets his Maker in the made. - - - - - THE OWL - - - WHAT if to edge of dream, - When the spirit is come, - Shriek the hunting owl, - And summon it home— - To the fear-stirred heart - And the ancient dread - Of man, when cold root or stone - Pillowed roofless head? - - Clangs not at last the hour - When roof shelters not; - And the ears are deaf, - And all fears forgot: - Since the spirit too far has fared - For summoning scream - Of any strange fowl on earth - To shatter its dream? - - - - - THE LAST COACHLOAD - - - (To Colin) - - CRASHED through the woods that lumbering Coach. The dust - Of flinted roads bepowdering felloe and hood. - Its gay paint cracked, its axles red with rust, - It lunged, lurched, toppled through a solitude - - Of whispering boughs, and feathery, nid-nod grass. - Plodded the fetlocked horses. Glum and mum, - Its ancient Coachman recked not where he was, - Nor into what strange haunt his wheels were come. - - Crumbling the leather of his dangling reins; - Worn to a cow's tuft his stumped, idle whip; - Sharp eyes of beast and bird in the trees' green lanes - Gleamed out like stars above a derelict ship. - - 'Old Father Time—Time—Time!' jeered twittering throat. - A squirrel capered on the leader's rump, - Slithered a weasel, peered a thieflike stoat, - In sandy warren beat on the coney's thump. - - Mute as a mammet in his saddle sate - The hunched Postilion, clad in magpie trim; - Buzzed the bright flies around his hairless pate; - Yaffle and jay squawked mockery at him. - - Yet marvellous peace and amity breathed there. - Tranquil the labyrinths of this sundown wood. - Musking its chaces, bloomed the brier-rose fair; - Spellbound as if in trance the pine-trees stood. - - Through moss, and pebbled rut, the wheels rasped on; - That Ancient drowsing on his box. And still - The bracken track with glazing sunbeams shone; - Laboured the horses, straining at the hill.... - - But now—a verdurous height with eve-shade sweet; - Far, far to West the Delectable Mountains glowed. - Above, Night's canopy; at the horses' feet - A sea-like honied waste of flowers flowed. - - There fell a pause of utter quiet. And— - Out from one murky window glanced an eye, - Stole from the other a lean, groping hand, - The padded door swung open with a sigh. - - And—_Exeunt Omnes!_ None to ask the fare— - A myriad human Odds in a last release - Leap out incontinent, snuff the incensed air; - A myriad parched-up voices whisper, 'Peace.' - - On, on, and on—a stream, a flood, they flow. - O wondrous vale of jocund buds and bells! - Like vanishing smoke the rainbow legions glow, - Yet still the enravished concourse sweeps and swells. - - All journeying done. Rest now from lash and spur— - Laughing and weeping, shoulder and elbow—'twould seem - That Coach capacious all Infinity were, - And these the fabulous figments of a dream. - - Mad for escape; frenzied each breathless mote, - Lest rouse the Old Enemy from his death-still swoon, - Lest crack that whip again—they fly, they float, - Scamper, breathe—'Paradise!' abscond, are gone.... - - - - - AN EPITAPH - - - LAST, Stone, a little yet; - And then this dust forget. - But thou, fair Rose, bloom on. - For she who is gone - Was lovely too; nor would she grieve to be - Sharing in solitude her dreams with thee. - - - - - TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical - errors. - 2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. - 3. 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} - div.tnotes { padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;background-color:#E3E4FA; - border:1px solid silver; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; } - .covernote { visibility: hidden; display: none; } - div.tnotes p { text-align:left; } - @media handheld { .covernote { visibility: visible; display: block;} } - .sc {font-style: normal; } - .ph1 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } - .ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } - </style> - </head> - <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Veil, by Walter de la Mare - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Veil - and other Poems - -Author: Walter de la Mare - -Release Date: June 18, 2016 [EBook #52366] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VEIL *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'> <strong>Transcriber's Note:</strong></p> - -<p class='c000'> The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_i'>i</span> - <h1 class='c001'>THE VEIL<br /> <span class='large'><em>and other</em></span><br /> <span class='xlarge'>POEMS</span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><em>By</em></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'>WALTER DE LA MARE</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/title_page.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>New York</span></div> - <div>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</div> - <div>1922</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_ii'>ii</span><span class='sc'>Copyright</span>, 1922,</div> - <div class='c003'>BY</div> - <div class='c003'>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</div> - <div class='c002'>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_iii'>iii</span> - <h2 class='c005'>NOTE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Seven of the poems included in this collection were -written for Drawings by Miss Pamela Bianco, -and were first published by Mr. Heinemann in a -volume entitled <cite>Flora</cite>. The author's thanks are -due to Mr. Sydney Pawling for permission to -reprint these poems; to Mr. Cyril Beaumont for -the use of 'Tidings' from a Play for Children, -entitled <cite>Crossings</cite>; and, for permission to include -several other poems, to the Editors of the <cite>London -Mercury</cite>, the <cite>New Republic</cite>, the <cite>Spectator</cite>, the -<cite>Nation</cite>, the <cite>Century Magazine</cite>, the <cite>Cambridge -Magazine</cite>, the <cite>Literary Review</cite>, the <cite>Sphere</cite>, the -<cite>New Statesman</cite>, the <cite>Bookman's Journal</cite>, the -<cite>Broom</cite>, the <cite>Outlook</cite>, the <cite>Athenæum</cite>, and the -<cite>Westminster Gazette</cite>.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary='CONTENTS'> -<colgroup> -<col width='85%' /> -<col width='14%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <th class='c007'></th> - <th class='c008'>PAGE</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Imp Within</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_3'>3</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Old Angler</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_5'>5</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Willow</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_10'>10</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Titmouse</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Veil</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_12'>12</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Fairy in Winter</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_13'>13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Flower</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_14'>14</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Before Dawn</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_15'>15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Spectre</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_17'>17</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Voice</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Hour-glass</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>In the Dock</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_20'>20</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Wreck</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Suicide</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_22'>22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Drugged</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Who's That?</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Hospital</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>A Sign</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_28'>28</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Good-bye</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Monologue</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Awake!</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Forgiveness</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Moth</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Not That Way</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span><span class='sc'>Crazed</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_39'>39</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Fog</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><i><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">SOTTO VOCE</span></i></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Imagination's Pride</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Wanderers</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Corner Stone</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Spirit of Air</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Unfinished Dream</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Music</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Tidings</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Son of Melancholy</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Quiet Enemy</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_60'>60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Familiar</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Maerchen</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Gold</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Mirage</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Flotsam</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Mourn'st Thou Now?</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Galliass</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Decoy</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Sunk Lyonesse</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_71'>71</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Catechism</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_72'>72</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Futility</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Bitter Waters</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Who?</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>A Riddle</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Owl</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Last Coachload</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>An Epitaph</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_84'>84</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>THE VEIL AND OTHER POEMS</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE IMP WITHIN</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>'ROUSE now, my dullard, and thy wits awake;</div> - <div class='line'>'Tis first of the morning. And I bid thee make—</div> - <div class='line'>No, not a vow; we have munched our fill of these</div> - <div class='line'>From crock of bone-dry crusts and mouse-gnawn cheese—</div> - <div class='line'>Nay, just one whisper in that long, long ear—</div> - <div class='line'>Awake; rejoice. Another Day is here:—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'A virgin wilderness, which, hour by hour,</div> - <div class='line'>Mere happy idleness shall bring to flower.</div> - <div class='line'>Barren and arid though its sands now seem,</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein oasis becks not, shines no stream,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet wake—and lo, 'tis lovelier than a dream.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Plunge on, thy every footprint shall make fair</div> - <div class='line'>Its thirsty waste; and thy foregone despair</div> - <div class='line'>Undarken into sweet birds in the air,</div> - <div class='line'>Whose coursing wings and love-crazed summoning cries</div> - <div class='line'>Into infinity shall attract thine eyes.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>'No...? Well, lest promise in performance faint,</div> - <div class='line'>A less inviting prospect will I paint.</div> - <div class='line'>I bid thee adjure thy Yesterday, and say:</div> - <div class='line'>"As <em>thou</em> wast, Enemy, so be To-day.—</div> - <div class='line'>Immure me in the same close narrow room;</div> - <div class='line'>Be hated toil the lamp to light its gloom;</div> - <div class='line'>Make stubborn my pen; sift dust into my ink;</div> - <div class='line'>Forbid mine eyes to see, my brain to think.</div> - <div class='line'>Scare off the words whereon the mind is set.</div> - <div class='line'>Make memory the power to forget.</div> - <div class='line'>Constrain imagination; bind its wing;</div> - <div class='line'>Forbid the unseen Enchantresses to sing.</div> - <div class='line'>Ay, do thy worst!"</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in19'>'Vexed Spectre, prythee smile.</div> - <div class='line'>Even though that yesterday was bleak and sour,</div> - <div class='line'>Art thou a slave beneath its thong to cower?</div> - <div class='line'>Thou hast survived. And hither am I—again,</div> - <div class='line'>Kindling with mockery thy o'erlaboured brain.</div> - <div class='line'>Though scant the moments be wherein we meet,</div> - <div class='line'>Think, what dark months would even one make sweet.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Thy quill? Thy paper? Ah, my dear, be true.</div> - <div class='line'>Come quick To-morrow. Until then, Adieu.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE OLD ANGLER</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>TWILIGHT leaned mirrored in a pool</div> - <div class='line in2'>Where willow boughs swept green and hoar,</div> - <div class='line'>Silk-clear the water, calm and cool,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Silent the weedy shore:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There in abstracted, brooding mood</div> - <div class='line in2'>One fishing sate. His painted float</div> - <div class='line'>Motionless as a planet stood;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Motionless his boat.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A melancholy soul was this,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With lantern jaw, gnarled hand, vague eye;</div> - <div class='line'>Huddled in pensive solitariness</div> - <div class='line in2'>He had fished existence by.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Empty his creel; stolen his bait—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Impassively he angled on,</div> - <div class='line'>Though mist now showed the evening late</div> - <div class='line in2'>And daylight well-nigh gone.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Suddenly, like a tongueless bell,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Downward his gaudy cork did glide;</div> - <div class='line'>A deep, low-gathering, gentle swell</div> - <div class='line in2'>Spread slowly far and wide.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>Wheeped out his tackle from noiseless winch,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And furtive as a thief, his thumb,</div> - <div class='line'>With nerve intense, wound inch by inch</div> - <div class='line in2'>A line no longer numb.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What fabulous spoil could thus unplayed</div> - <div class='line in2'>Gape upward to a mortal air?—</div> - <div class='line'>He stoops engrossed; his tanned cheek greyed;</div> - <div class='line in2'>His heart stood still: for there,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wondrously fairing, beneath the skin</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of secretly bubbling water seen,</div> - <div class='line'>Swims—not the silver of scale and fin—</div> - <div class='line in2'>But gold immixt with green.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Deeply astir in oozy bed,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The darkening mirror ripples and rocks:</div> - <div class='line'>And lo—a wan-pale, lovely head,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Hook tangled in its locks!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cold from her haunt—a Naiad slim.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Shoulder and cheek gleamed ivory white;</div> - <div class='line'>Though now faint stars stood over him,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The hour hard on night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Her green eyes gazed like one half-blind</div> - <div class='line in2'>In sudden radiance; her breast</div> - <div class='line'>Breathed the sweet air, while gently twined,</div> - <div class='line in2'>'Gainst the cold water pressed,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>Her lean webbed hands. She floated there,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Light as a scentless petalled flower,</div> - <div class='line'>Water-drops dewing from her hair</div> - <div class='line in2'>In tinkling beadlike shower.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So circling sidelong, her tender throat</div> - <div class='line in2'>Uttered a grieving, desolate wail;</div> - <div class='line'>Shrill o'er the dark pool lapsed its note,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Piteous as nightingale.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ceased Echo. And he?—a life's remorse</div> - <div class='line in2'>Welled to a tongue unapt to charm,</div> - <div class='line'>But never a word broke harsh and hoarse</div> - <div class='line in2'>To quiet her alarm.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>With infinite stealth his twitching thumb</div> - <div class='line in2'>Tugged softly at the tautened gut,</div> - <div class='line'>Bubble-light, fair, her lips now dumb,</div> - <div class='line in2'>She moved, and struggled not;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But with set, wild, unearthly eyes</div> - <div class='line in2'>Pale-gleaming, fixed as if in fear,</div> - <div class='line'>She couched in the water, with quickening sighs,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And floated near.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In hollow heaven the stars were at play;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Wan glow-worms greened the pool-side grass;</div> - <div class='line'>Dipped the wide-bellied boat. His prey</div> - <div class='line in2'>Gazed on; nor breathed. Alas!—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>Long sterile years had come and gone;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Youth, like a distant dream, was sped;</div> - <div class='line'>Heart, hope, and eyes had hungered on....</div> - <div class='line in2'>He turned a shaking head,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And clumsily groped amid the gold,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Sleek with night dews, of that tangling hair,</div> - <div class='line'>Till pricked his finger keen and cold</div> - <div class='line in2'>The barb imbedded there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Teeth clenched, he drew his knife—'Snip, snip,'—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Groaned, and sate shivering back; and she,</div> - <div class='line'>Treading the water with birdlike dip,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Shook her sweet shoulders free:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Drew backward, smiling, infatuate fair,</div> - <div class='line in2'>His life's disasters in her eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>All longing and folly, grief, despair,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Daydreams and mysteries.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She stooped her brow; laid low her cheek,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And, steering on that silk-tressed craft,</div> - <div class='line'>Out from the listening, leaf-hung creek,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Tossed up her chin, and laughed—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>A mocking, icy, inhuman note.</div> - <div class='line in2'>One instant flashed that crystal breast,</div> - <div class='line'>Leaned, and was gone. Dead-still the boat:</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the deep dark at rest.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Flits moth to flower. A water-rat</div> - <div class='line in2'>Noses the placid ripple. And lo!</div> - <div class='line'>Streams a lost meteor. Night is late,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And daybreak zephyrs flow....</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And he—the cheated? Dusk till morn,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Insensate, even of hope forsook,</div> - <div class='line'>He muttering squats, aloof, forlorn,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Dangling a baitless hook.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE WILLOW</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>LEANS now the fair willow, dreaming</div> - <div class='line'>Amid her locks of green.</div> - <div class='line'>In the driving snow she was parched and cold,</div> - <div class='line'>And in midnight hath been</div> - <div class='line'>Swept by blasts of the void night,</div> - <div class='line'>Lashed by the rains.</div> - <div class='line'>Now of that wintry dark and bleak</div> - <div class='line'>No memory remains.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In mute desire she sways softly;</div> - <div class='line'>Thrilling sap up-flows;</div> - <div class='line'>She praises God in her beauty and grace,</div> - <div class='line'>Whispers delight. And there flows</div> - <div class='line'>A delicate wind from the Southern seas,</div> - <div class='line'>Kissing her leaves. She sighs.</div> - <div class='line'>While the birds in her tresses make merry;</div> - <div class='line'>Burns the Sun in the skies.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span> - <h2 class='c005'>TITMOUSE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>IF you would happy company win,</div> - <div class='line'>Dangle a palm-nut from a tree,</div> - <div class='line'>Idly in green to sway and spin,</div> - <div class='line'>Its snow-pulped kernel for bait; and see,</div> - <div class='line in6'>A nimble titmouse enter in.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Out of earth's vast unknown of air,</div> - <div class='line'>Out of all summer, from wave to wave,</div> - <div class='line'>He'll perch, and prank his feathers fair,</div> - <div class='line'>Jangle a glass-clear wildering stave,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And take his commons there—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>This tiny son of life; this spright,</div> - <div class='line'>By momentary Human sought,</div> - <div class='line'>Plume will his wing in the dappling light,</div> - <div class='line'>Clash timbrel shrill and gay—</div> - <div class='line'>And into time's enormous nought,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Sweet-fed, will flit away.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE VEIL</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>I think and think; yet still I fail—</div> - <div class='line'>Why does this lady wear a veil?</div> - <div class='line'>Why thus elect to mask her face</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath that dainty web of lace?</div> - <div class='line'>The tip of a small nose I see,</div> - <div class='line'>And two red lips, set curiously</div> - <div class='line'>Like twin-born cherries on one stem,</div> - <div class='line'>And yet she has netted even them.</div> - <div class='line'>Her eyes, it's plain, survey with ease</div> - <div class='line'>Whatever to glance upon they please.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet, whether hazel, grey, or blue,</div> - <div class='line'>Or that even lovelier lilac hue,</div> - <div class='line'>I cannot guess: why—why deny</div> - <div class='line'>Such beauty to the passer-by?</div> - <div class='line'>Out of a bush a nightingale</div> - <div class='line'>May expound his song; beneath that veil</div> - <div class='line'>A happy mouth no doubt can make</div> - <div class='line'>English sound sweeter for its sake.</div> - <div class='line'>But then, why muffle in, like this,</div> - <div class='line'>What every blossomy wind would kiss?</div> - <div class='line'>Why in that little night disguise</div> - <div class='line'>A daybreak face, those starry eyes?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE FAIRY IN WINTER</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>(For a drawing by Dorothy Puvis Lathrop)</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>THERE was a Fairy—flake of winter—</div> - <div class='line'>Who, when the snow came, whispering, Silence,</div> - <div class='line'>Sister crystal to crystal sighing,</div> - <div class='line'>Making of meadow argent palace,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Night a star-sown solitude,</div> - <div class='line'>Cried 'neath her frozen eaves, 'I burn here!'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wings diaphanous, beating bee-like,</div> - <div class='line'>Wand within fingers, locks enspangled,</div> - <div class='line'>Icicle foot, lip sharp as scarlet,</div> - <div class='line'>She lifted her eyes in her pitch-black hollow—</div> - <div class='line'>Green as stalks of weeds in water—</div> - <div class='line'>Breathed: stirred.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Rilled from her heart the ichor, coursing,</div> - <div class='line'>Flamed and awoke her slumbering magic.</div> - <div class='line'>Softlier than moth's her pinions trembled;</div> - <div class='line'>Out into blackness, light-like, she flittered,</div> - <div class='line'>Leaving her hollow cold, forsaken.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In air, o'er crystal, rang twangling night-wind.</div> - <div class='line'>Bare, rimed pine-woods murmured lament.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE FLOWER</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>HORIZON to horizon, lies outspread</div> - <div class='line'>The tenting firmament of day and night;</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein are winds at play; and planets shed</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the stars their gentle gliding light.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The huge world's sun flames on the snow-capped hills;</div> - <div class='line'>Cindrous his heat burns in the sandy plain;</div> - <div class='line'>With myriad spume-bows roaring ocean swills</div> - <div class='line'>The cold profuse abundance of the rain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And man—a transient object in this vast,</div> - <div class='line'>Sighs o'er a universe transcending thought,</div> - <div class='line'>Afflicted by vague bodings of the past,</div> - <div class='line'>Driven toward a future, unforeseen, unsought.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet, see him, stooping low to naked weed</div> - <div class='line'>That meeks its blossom in his anxious eye,</div> - <div class='line'>Mark how he grieves, as if his heart did bleed,</div> - <div class='line'>And wheels his wondrous features to the sky;</div> - <div class='line'>As if, transfigured by so small a grace,</div> - <div class='line'>He sought Companion in earth's dwelling-place.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span> - <h2 class='c005'>BEFORE DAWN</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>DIM-BERRIED is the mistletoe</div> - <div class='line'>With globes of sheenless grey,</div> - <div class='line'>The holly mid ten thousand thorns</div> - <div class='line'>Smoulders its fires away;</div> - <div class='line'>And in the manger Jesu sleeps</div> - <div class='line in6'>This Christmas Day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Bull unto bull with hollow throat</div> - <div class='line'>Makes echo every hill,</div> - <div class='line'>Cold sheep in pastures thick with snow</div> - <div class='line'>The air with bleatings fill;</div> - <div class='line'>While of his mother's heart this Babe</div> - <div class='line in6'>Takes His sweet will.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All flowers and butterflies lie hid,</div> - <div class='line'>The blackbird and the thrush</div> - <div class='line'>Pipe but a little as they flit</div> - <div class='line'>Restless from bush to bush;</div> - <div class='line'>Even to the robin Gabriel hath</div> - <div class='line in6'>Cried softly, 'Hush!'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>Now night is astir with burning stars</div> - <div class='line'>In darkness of the snow;</div> - <div class='line'>Burdened with frankincense and myrrh</div> - <div class='line'>And gold the Strangers go</div> - <div class='line'>Into a dusk where one dim lamp</div> - <div class='line in6'>Burns faintly, Lo!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>No snowdrop yet its small head nods,</div> - <div class='line'>In winds of winter drear;</div> - <div class='line'>No lark at casement in the sky</div> - <div class='line'>Sings matins shrill and clear;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet in this frozen mirk the Dawn</div> - <div class='line in6'>Breathes, Spring is here!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE SPECTRE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>IN cloudy quiet of the day,</div> - <div class='line'>While thrush and robin perched mute on spray,</div> - <div class='line'>A spectre by the window sat,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Brooding thereat.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He marked the greenness of the Spring,</div> - <div class='line'>Daffodil blowing, bird a-wing—</div> - <div class='line'>Yet dark the house the years had made</div> - <div class='line in6'>Within that Shade.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blinded the rooms wherein no foot falls.</div> - <div class='line'>Faded the portraits on the walls.</div> - <div class='line'>Reverberating, shakes the air</div> - <div class='line in6'>A river there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Coursing in flood, its infinite roars;</div> - <div class='line'>From pit to pit its water pours;</div> - <div class='line'>And he, with countenance unmoved,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Hears cry:—'Beloved,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Oh, ere the day be utterly spent,</div> - <div class='line'>Return, return, from banishment.</div> - <div class='line'>The night thick-gathers. Weep a prayer</div> - <div class='line in6'>For the true and fair.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE VOICE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>'WE are not often alone, we two,'</div> - <div class='line'>Mused a secret voice in my ear,</div> - <div class='line'>As the dying hues of afternoon</div> - <div class='line'>Lapsed into evening drear.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A withered leaf, wafted on in the street,</div> - <div class='line'>Like a wayless spectre, sighed;</div> - <div class='line'>Aslant on the roof-tops a sickly moon</div> - <div class='line'>Did mutely abide.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet waste though the shallowing day might seem,</div> - <div class='line'>And fainter than hope its rose,</div> - <div class='line'>Strangely that speech in my thoughts welled on;</div> - <div class='line'>As water in-flows:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Like remembered words once heard in a room</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein death kept far-away tryst;</div> - <div class='line'>'Not often alone, we two; but thou,</div> - <div class='line'>How sorely missed!'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE HOUR-GLASS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>THOU who know'st all the sorrows of this earth—</div> - <div class='line'>I pray Thee, ponder, ere again Thou turn</div> - <div class='line'>Thine hour-glass over again, since one sole birth,</div> - <div class='line'>To poor clay-cold humanity, makes yearn</div> - <div class='line'>A heart at passion with life's endless coil.</div> - <div class='line'>Thou givest thyself too strait a room therein.</div> - <div class='line'>For so divine a tree too poor a soil.</div> - <div class='line'>For so great agony what small peace to win.</div> - <div class='line'>Cast from that Ark of Heaven which is Thy home</div> - <div class='line'>The raven of hell may wander without fear;</div> - <div class='line'>But sadly wings the dove o'er floods to roam,</div> - <div class='line'>Nought but one tender sprig his eyes to cheer.</div> - <div class='line'>Nay, Lord, I speak in parables. But see!</div> - <div class='line'>'Tis stricken Man in Men that pleads with Thee.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span> - <h2 class='c005'>IN THE DOCK</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>PALLID, mis-shapen he stands. The world's grimed thumb,</div> - <div class='line'>Now hooked securely in his matted hair,</div> - <div class='line'>Has haled him struggling from his poisonous slum</div> - <div class='line'>And flung him mute as fish close-netted there.</div> - <div class='line'>His bloodless hands entalon that iron rail.</div> - <div class='line'>He gloats in beastlike trance. His settling eyes</div> - <div class='line'>From staring face to face rove on—and quail.</div> - <div class='line'>Justice for carrion pants; and these the flies.</div> - <div class='line'>Voice after voice in smooth impartial drone</div> - <div class='line'>Erects horrific in his darkening brain</div> - <div class='line'>A timber framework, where agape, alone</div> - <div class='line'>Bright life will kiss good-bye the cheek of Cain.</div> - <div class='line'>Sudden like wolf he cries; and sweats to see</div> - <div class='line'>When howls man's soul, it howls inaudibly.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE WRECK</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>STORM and unconscionable winds once cast</div> - <div class='line'>On grinding shingle, masking gap-toothed rock,</div> - <div class='line'>This ancient hulk. Rent hull, and broken mast,</div> - <div class='line'>She sprawls sand-mounded, of sea birds the mock.</div> - <div class='line'>Her sailors, drowned, forgotten, rot in mould,</div> - <div class='line'>Or hang in stagnant quiet of the deep;</div> - <div class='line'>The brave, the afraid into one silence sold;</div> - <div class='line'>Their end a memory fainter than of sleep.</div> - <div class='line'>She held good merchandise. She paced in pride</div> - <div class='line'>The uncharted paths men trace in ocean's foam.</div> - <div class='line'>Now laps the ripple in her broken side,</div> - <div class='line'>And zephyr in tamarisk softly whispers, Home.</div> - <div class='line'>The dreamer scans her in the sea-blue air,</div> - <div class='line'>And, sipping of contrast, finds the day more fair.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE SUICIDE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>DID these night-hung houses,</div> - <div class='line'>Of quiet, starlit stone,</div> - <div class='line'>Breathe not a whisper—'Stay,</div> - <div class='line'>Thou unhappy one;</div> - <div class='line'>Whither so secret away?'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sighed not the unfriending wind,</div> - <div class='line'>Chill with nocturnal dew,</div> - <div class='line'>'Pause, pause, in thy haste,</div> - <div class='line'>O thou distraught! I too</div> - <div class='line'>Tryst with the Atlantic waste.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Steep fell the drowsy street;</div> - <div class='line'>In slumber the world was blind:</div> - <div class='line'>Breathed not one midnight flower</div> - <div class='line'>Peace in thy broken mind?—</div> - <div class='line'>'Brief, yet sweet, is life's hour.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Syllabled thy last tide—</div> - <div class='line'>By as dark moon stirred,</div> - <div class='line'>And doomed to forlorn unrest—</div> - <div class='line'>Not one compassionate word?...</div> - <div class='line in2'>'Cold is this breast.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span> - <h2 class='c005'>DRUGGED</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>INERT in his chair,</div> - <div class='line'>In a candle's guttering glow;</div> - <div class='line'>His bottle empty,</div> - <div class='line'>His fire sunk low;</div> - <div class='line'>With drug-sealed lids shut fast,</div> - <div class='line'>Unsated mouth ajar,</div> - <div class='line'>This darkened phantasm walks</div> - <div class='line'>Where nightmares are:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In a frenzy of life and light,</div> - <div class='line'>Crisscross—a menacing throng—</div> - <div class='line'>They gibe, they squeal at the stranger,</div> - <div class='line'>Jostling along,</div> - <div class='line'>Their faces cadaverous grey.</div> - <div class='line'>While on high from an attic stare</div> - <div class='line'>Horrors, in beauty apparelled,</div> - <div class='line'>Down the dark air.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A stream gurgles over its stones,</div> - <div class='line'>The chambers within are a-fire.</div> - <div class='line'>Stumble his shadowy feet</div> - <div class='line'>Through shine, through mire;</div> - <div class='line'>And the flames leap higher.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>In vain yelps the wainscot mouse;</div> - <div class='line'>In vain beats the hour;</div> - <div class='line'>Vacant, his body must drowse</div> - <div class='line'>Until daybreak flower—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Staining these walls with its rose,</div> - <div class='line'>And the draughts of the morning shall stir</div> - <div class='line'>Cold on cold brow, cold hands.</div> - <div class='line'>And the wanderer</div> - <div class='line'>Back to flesh house must return.</div> - <div class='line'>Lone soul—in horror to see,</div> - <div class='line'>Than dream more meagre and awful,</div> - <div class='line'>Reality.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span> - <h2 class='c005'>WHO'S THAT?</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc in4dc drop-capanf0_0'>WHO'S that? Who's that?...</div> - <div class='line in4'>Oh, only a leaf on the stone;</div> - <div class='line in4'>And the sigh of the air in the fire.</div> - <div class='line in6'>Yet it seemed, as I sat,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Came company—not my own;</div> - <div class='line'>Stood there, with ardent gaze over dark, bowed shoulder thrown</div> - <div class='line in4'>Till the dwindling flames leaped higher,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And showed fantasy flown.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Yet though the cheat is clear—</div> - <div class='line in4'>From transient illusion grown;</div> - <div class='line in4'>In the vague of my mind those eyes</div> - <div class='line in6'>Still haunt me. One stands so near</div> - <div class='line in4'>I could take his hand, and be gone:—</div> - <div class='line'>No more in this house of dreams to sojourn aloof, alone:</div> - <div class='line in4'>Could sigh, with full heart, and arise,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And choke, 'Lead on.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span> - <h2 class='c005'>HOSPITAL</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>WELCOME! Enter! This is the Inn at the Cross Roads,</div> - <div class='line'>Sign of the <em>Rising Sun</em>, of the <em>World's End</em>:</div> - <div class='line'>Ay, O Wanderer, footsore, weary, forsaken,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Knock, and we will open to thee—Friend.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gloomy our stairs of stone, obscure the portal;</div> - <div class='line'>Burdened the air with a breath from the further shore;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet in our courtyard plays an invisible fountain,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Ever flowers unfading nod at the door.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ours is much company, and yet none is lonely;</div> - <div class='line'>Some with a smile may pay and some with a sigh;</div> - <div class='line'>So all be healed, restored, contented—it is no matter—</div> - <div class='line in4'>So all be happy at heart to bid good-bye.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But know, our clocks are the world's; Night's wings are leaden,</div> - <div class='line'>Pain languidly sports with the hours; have courage, sir!</div> - <div class='line'>We wake but to bring thee slumber, our drowsy syrups</div> - <div class='line in4'>Sleep beyond dreams on the weary will confer.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>Ghosts may be ours; but gaze thou not too closely</div> - <div class='line'>If haply in chill of the dark thou rouse to see</div> - <div class='line'>One silent of foot, hooded, and hollow of visage,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Pause, with secret eyes, to peer out at thee.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He is the Ancient Tapster of this Hostel,</div> - <div class='line'>To him at length even we all keys must resign;</div> - <div class='line'>And if he beckon, Stranger, thou too must follow—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Love and all peace be thine.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span> - <h2 class='c005'>A SIGN</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>HOW shall I know when the end of things is coming?</div> - <div class='line'>The dark swifts flitting, the drone-bees humming;</div> - <div class='line'>The fly on the window-pane bedazedly strumming;</div> - <div class='line'>Ice on the waterbrooks their clear chimes dumbing—</div> - <div class='line'>How shall I know that the end of things is coming?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The stars in their stations will shine glamorous in the black;</div> - <div class='line'>Emptiness, as ever, haunt the great Star Sack;</div> - <div class='line'>And Venus, proud and beautiful, go down to meet the day,</div> - <div class='line'>Pale in phosphorescence of the green sea spray—</div> - <div class='line'>How shall I know that the end of things is coming?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Head asleep on pillow; the peewits at their crying;</div> - <div class='line'>A strange face in dreams to my rapt phantasma sighing;</div> - <div class='line'>Silence beyond words of anguished passion;</div> - <div class='line'>Or stammering an answer in the tongue's cold fashion—</div> - <div class='line'>How shall I know that the end of things is coming?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>Haply on strange roads I shall be, the moorland's peace around me;</div> - <div class='line'>Or counting up a fortune to which Destiny hath bound me;</div> - <div class='line'>Or—Vanity of Vanities—the honey of the Fair;</div> - <div class='line'>Or a greybeard, lost to memory, on the cobbles in my chair—</div> - <div class='line'>How shall I know that the end of things is coming?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The drummers will be drumming; the fiddlers at their thrumming;</div> - <div class='line'>Nuns at their beads; the mummers at their mumming;</div> - <div class='line'>Heaven's solemn Seraph stoopt weary o'er his summing;</div> - <div class='line'>The palsied fingers plucking, the way-worn feet numbing—</div> - <div class='line in6'>And the end of things coming.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span> - <h2 class='c005'>GOOD-BYE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>THE last of last words spoken is, Good-bye—</div> - <div class='line'>The last dismantled flower in the weed-grown hedge,</div> - <div class='line'>The last thin rumour of a feeble bell far ringing,</div> - <div class='line'>The last blind rat to spurn the mildewed rye.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A hardening darkness glasses the haunted eye,</div> - <div class='line'>Shines into nothing the watcher's burnt-out candle,</div> - <div class='line'>Wreathes into scentless nothing the wasting incense,</div> - <div class='line'>Faints in the outer silence the hunting cry.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Love of its muted music breathes no sigh,</div> - <div class='line'>Thought in her ivory tower gropes in her spinning,</div> - <div class='line'>Toss on in vain the whispering trees of Eden,</div> - <div class='line'>Last of all last words spoken is, Good-bye.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE MONOLOGUE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc in2dc drop-capanf0_0'>ALAS, O Lovely One,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Imprisoned here,</div> - <div class='line in2'>I tap; thou answerest not,</div> - <div class='line in4'>I doubt, and fear.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet transparent as glass these walls,</div> - <div class='line in4'>If thou lean near.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Last dusk, at those high bars</div> - <div class='line in4'>There came, scarce-heard,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Claws, fluttering feathers,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Of deluded bird—</div> - <div class='line'>With one shrill, scared, faint note</div> - <div class='line in4'>The silence stirred.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Rests in that corner,</div> - <div class='line in4'>In puff of dust, a straw—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Vision of harvest-fields</div> - <div class='line in4'>I never saw,</div> - <div class='line'>Of strange green streams and hills,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Forbidden by law.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>These things I whisper,</div> - <div class='line in4'>For I see—in mind—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thy caged cheek whiten</div> - <div class='line in4'>At the wail of wind,</div> - <div class='line'>That thin breast wasting; unto</div> - <div class='line in4'>Woe resigned.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Take comfort, listen!</div> - <div class='line in4'>Once we twain were free;</div> - <div class='line in2'>There was a Country—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Lost the memory ...</div> - <div class='line'>Lay thy cold brow on hand,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And dream with me.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Awaits me torture,</div> - <div class='line in4'>I have smelt their rack;</div> - <div class='line in2'>From spectral groaning wheel</div> - <div class='line in4'>Have turned me back;</div> - <div class='line'>Thumbscrew and boot, and then—</div> - <div class='line in4'>The yawning sack.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Lean closer, then;</div> - <div class='line in4'>Lay palm on stony wall.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Let but thy ghost beneath</div> - <div class='line in4'>Thine eyelids call:</div> - <div class='line'>'Courage, my brother,' Nought</div> - <div class='line in4'>Can then appal.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>Yet coward, coward am I,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And drink I must</div> - <div class='line in2'>When clanks the pannikin</div> - <div class='line in4'>With the longed-for crust;</div> - <div class='line'>Though heart within is sour</div> - <div class='line in4'>With disgust.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Long hours there are,</div> - <div class='line in4'>When mutely tapping—well,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is it to Vacancy</div> - <div class='line in4'>I these tidings tell?</div> - <div class='line'>Knock these numb fingers against</div> - <div class='line in4'>An empty cell?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Nay, answer not.</div> - <div class='line in4'>Let still mere longing make</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thy presence sure to me,</div> - <div class='line in4'>While in doubt I shake:</div> - <div class='line'>Be but my Faith in thee,</div> - <div class='line in4'>For sanity's sake.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span> - <h2 class='c005'>AWAKE!</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>WHY hath the rose faded and fallen, yet these eyes have not seen?</div> - <div class='line'>Why hath the bird sung shrill in the tree—and this mind deaf and cold?</div> - <div class='line'>Why have the rains of summer veiled her flowers with their sheen</div> - <div class='line in4'>And this black heart untold?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Here is calm Autumn now, the woodlands quake,</div> - <div class='line'>And, where this splendour of death lies under the tread,</div> - <div class='line'>The spectre of frost will stalk, and a silence make,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And snow's white shroud be spread.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O Self! O self! Wake from thy common sleep!</div> - <div class='line'>Fling off the destroyer's net. He hath blinded and bound thee.</div> - <div class='line'>In nakedness sit; pierce thy stagnation, and weep;</div> - <div class='line in4'>Or corrupt in thy grave—all Heaven around thee.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span> - <h2 class='c005'>FORGIVENESS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>'O thy flamed cheek,</div> - <div class='line'>Those locks with weeping wet,</div> - <div class='line'>Eyes that, forlorn and meek,</div> - <div class='line'>On mine are set.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Poor hands, poor feeble wings,</div> - <div class='line'>Folded, a-droop, O sad!</div> - <div class='line'>See, 'tis my heart that sings</div> - <div class='line'>To make thee glad.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'My mouth breathes love, thou dear.</div> - <div class='line'>All that I am and know</div> - <div class='line'>Is thine. My breast—draw near:</div> - <div class='line'>Be grieved not so!'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE MOTH</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>ISLED in the midnight air,</div> - <div class='line'>Musked with the dark's faint bloom,</div> - <div class='line'>Out into glooming and secret haunts</div> - <div class='line in4'>The flame cries, 'Come!'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Lovely in dye and fan,</div> - <div class='line'>A-tremble in shimmering grace,</div> - <div class='line'>A moth from her winter swoon</div> - <div class='line in4'>Uplifts her face:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Stares from her glamorous eyes;</div> - <div class='line'>Wafts her on plumes like mist;</div> - <div class='line'>In ecstasy swirls and sways</div> - <div class='line in4'>To her strange tryst.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span> - <h2 class='c005'>NOT THAT WAY</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>NO, no. Guard thee. Get thee gone.</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not that way.</div> - <div class='line'>See; the louring clouds glide on,</div> - <div class='line'>Skirting West to South; and see,</div> - <div class='line'>The green light under that sycamore tree—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not that way.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There the leaden trumpets blow,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Solemn and slow.</div> - <div class='line'>There the everlasting walls</div> - <div class='line'>Frown above the waterfalls</div> - <div class='line in8'>Silver and cold;</div> - <div class='line in8'>Timelessly old:</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not that way.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Not toward Death, who, stranger, fairer,</div> - <div class='line'>Than any siren turns his head—</div> - <div class='line'>Than sea-couched siren, arched with rainbows,</div> - <div class='line'>Where knell the waves of her ocean bed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>Alas, that beauty hangs her flowers</div> - <div class='line'>For lure of his demoniac powers:</div> - <div class='line'>Alas, that from these eyes should dart</div> - <div class='line'>Such piercing summons to thy heart;</div> - <div class='line'>That mine in frenzy of longing beats,</div> - <div class='line'>Still lusting for these gross deceits.</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not that way!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CRAZED</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>I know a pool where nightshade preens</div> - <div class='line'>Her poisonous fruitage in the moon;</div> - <div class='line'>Where the frail aspen her shadow leans</div> - <div class='line'>In midnight cold a-swoon.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I know a meadow flat with gold—</div> - <div class='line'>A million million burning flowers</div> - <div class='line'>In noon-sun's thirst their buds unfold</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath his blazing showers.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I saw a crazèd face, did I,</div> - <div class='line'>Stare from the lattice of a mill,</div> - <div class='line'>While the lank sails clacked idly by</div> - <div class='line'>High on the windy hill.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span> - <h2 class='c005'>FOG</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>STAGNANT this wintry gloom. Afar</div> - <div class='line'>The farm-cock bugles his '<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Qui vive?</span>'</div> - <div class='line'>The towering elms are lost in mist;</div> - <div class='line'>Birds in the thorn-trees huddle a-whist;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The mill-race waters grieve.</div> - <div class='line in6'>Our shrouded day</div> - <div class='line in6'>Dwindles away</div> - <div class='line in2'>To final black of eve.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Beyond these shades in space of air</div> - <div class='line'>Ride exterrestrial beings by?</div> - <div class='line'>Their colours burning rich and fair,</div> - <div class='line'>Where noon's sunned valleys lie?</div> - <div class='line'>With inaudible music are they sweet—</div> - <div class='line'>Bell, hoof, soft lapsing cry?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Turn marvellous faces, each to each?—</div> - <div class='line'>Lips innocent of sigh,</div> - <div class='line'>Or groan or fear, sorrow and grief,</div> - <div class='line'>Clear brow and falcon eye;</div> - <div class='line'>Bare foot, bare shoulder in the heat,</div> - <div class='line'>And hair like flax? Do their horses beat</div> - <div class='line'>Their way through wildernesses infinite</div> - <div class='line'>Of starry-crested trees, blue sward,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>And gold-chasm'd mountain, steeply shored</div> - <div class='line'>O'er lakes of sapphire dye?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mingled with lisping speech, faint laughter,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Echoes the Phoenix' scream of joyance</div> - <div class='line in6'>Mounting on high?—</div> - <div class='line'>Light-bathed vistas and divine sweet mirth,</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond dream of spirits penned to earth,</div> - <div class='line'>Condemned to pine and die?...</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Hath serving Nature, bidden of the gods,</div> - <div class='line'>Thick-screened Man's narrow sky,</div> - <div class='line'>And hung these Stygian veils of fog</div> - <div class='line in6'>To hide his dingied sty?—</div> - <div class='line'>The gods who yet, at mortal birth,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Bequeathed him Fantasy?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span> - <h2 class='c005'><i><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">SOTTO VOCE</span></i></h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>(To Edward Thomas)</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>THE haze of noon wanned silver-grey</div> - <div class='line'>The soundless mansion of the sun;</div> - <div class='line'>The air made visible in his ray,</div> - <div class='line'>Like molten glass from furnace run,</div> - <div class='line'>Quivered o'er heat-baked turf and stone</div> - <div class='line'>And the flower of the gorse burned on—</div> - <div class='line'>Burned softly as gold of a child's fair hair</div> - <div class='line'>Along each spiky spray, and shed</div> - <div class='line'>Almond-like incense in the air</div> - <div class='line'>Whereon our senses fed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>At foot—a few sparse harebells: blue</div> - <div class='line'>And still as were the friend's dark eyes</div> - <div class='line'>That dwelt on mine, transfixèd through</div> - <div class='line'>With sudden ecstatic surmise.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Hst!' he cried softly, smiling, and lo,</div> - <div class='line'>Stealing amidst that maze gold-green,</div> - <div class='line'>I heard a whispering music flow</div> - <div class='line'>From guileful throat of bird, unseen:—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>So delicate the straining ear</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce carried its faint syllabling</div> - <div class='line'>Into a heart caught-up to hear</div> - <div class='line'>That inmost pondering</div> - <div class='line'>Of bird-like self with self. We stood,</div> - <div class='line'>In happy trance-like solitude,</div> - <div class='line'>Hearkening a lullay grieved and sweet—</div> - <div class='line'>As when on isle uncharted beat</div> - <div class='line'>'Gainst coral at the palm-tree's root,</div> - <div class='line'>With brine-clear, snow-white foam afloat,</div> - <div class='line'>The wailing, not of water or wind—</div> - <div class='line'>A husht, far, wild, divine lament,</div> - <div class='line'>When Prospero his wizardry bent</div> - <div class='line'>Winged Ariel to bind....</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then silence, and o'er-flooding noon.</div> - <div class='line'>I raised my head; smiled too. And he—</div> - <div class='line'>Moved his great hand, the magic gone—</div> - <div class='line'>Gently amused to see</div> - <div class='line'>My ignorant wonderment. He sighed.</div> - <div class='line'>'It was a nightingale,' he said,</div> - <div class='line'>'That <i><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">sotto voce</span></i> cons the song</div> - <div class='line'>He'll sing when dark is spread;</div> - <div class='line'>And Night's vague hours are sweet and long.</div> - <div class='line'>And we are laid abed.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE IMAGINATION'S PRIDE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>BE not too wildly amorous of the far,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Nor lure thy fantasy to its utmost scope.</div> - <div class='line'>Read by a taper when the needling star</div> - <div class='line in2'>Burns red with menace in heaven's midnight cope.</div> - <div class='line'>Friendly thy body: guard its solitude.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Sure shelter is thy heart. It once had rest</div> - <div class='line'>Where founts miraculous thy lips endewed,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Yet nought loomed further than thy mother's breast.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O brave adventure! Ay, at danger slake</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thy thirst, lest life in thee should, sickening, quail;</div> - <div class='line'>But not toward nightmare goad a mind awake,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Nor to forbidden horizons bend thy sail—</div> - <div class='line'>Seductive outskirts whence in trance prolonged</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thy gaze, at stretch of what is sane-secure,</div> - <div class='line'>Dreams out on steeps by shapes demoniac thronged</div> - <div class='line in2'>And vales wherein alone the dead endure.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>Nectarous those flowers, yet with venom sweet.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thick-juiced with poison hang those fruits that shine</div> - <div class='line'>Where sick phantasmal moonbeams brood and beat,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And dark imaginations ripe the vine.</div> - <div class='line'>Bethink thee: every enticing league thou wend</div> - <div class='line in2'>Beyond the mark where life its bound hath set</div> - <div class='line'>Will lead thee at length where human pathways end</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the dark enemy spreads his maddening net.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Comfort thee, comfort thee. Thy Father knows</div> - <div class='line in2'>How wild man's ardent spirit, fainting, yearns</div> - <div class='line'>For mortal glimpse of death's immortal rose,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The garden where the invisible blossom burns.</div> - <div class='line'>Humble thy trembling knees; confess thy pride;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Be weary. O, whithersoever thy vaunting rove,</div> - <div class='line'>His deepest wisdom harbours in thy side,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In thine own bosom hides His utmost love.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE WANDERERS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>WITHIN my mind two spirits strayed</div> - <div class='line'>From out their still and purer air,</div> - <div class='line'>And there a moment's sojourn made;</div> - <div class='line'>As lovers will in woodlands bare.</div> - <div class='line'>Nought heeded they where now they stood,</div> - <div class='line'>Since theirs its alien solitude</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond imagination fair.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The light an earthly candle gives</div> - <div class='line'>When it is quenched leaves only dark;</div> - <div class='line'>Theirs yet in clear remembrance lives</div> - <div class='line'>And, still within, I whispered, 'Hark;'</div> - <div class='line'>As one who faintly on high has heard</div> - <div class='line'>The call note of a hidden bird</div> - <div class='line'>Even sweeter than the lark.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet 'twas their silence breathed only this—</div> - <div class='line'>'I love you.' As if flowers might say,</div> - <div class='line'>'Such is our natural fragrantness;'</div> - <div class='line'>Or dewdrop at the break of day</div> - <div class='line'>Cry 'Thus I beam.' Each turned a head,</div> - <div class='line'>And each its own clear radiance shed</div> - <div class='line'>With joy and peace at play.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>So in a gloomy London street</div> - <div class='line'>Princes from Eastern realms might pause</div> - <div class='line'>In secret converse, then retreat.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet without haste passed these from sight;</div> - <div class='line'>As if a human mind were not</div> - <div class='line'>Wholly a dark and dismal spot—</div> - <div class='line'>At least in their own light.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE CORNER STONE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>STERILE these stones</div> - <div class='line'>By time in ruin laid.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet many a creeping thing</div> - <div class='line'>Its haven has made</div> - <div class='line'>In these least crannies, were falls</div> - <div class='line'>Dark's dew, and noonday shade.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The claw of the tender bird</div> - <div class='line'>Finds lodgment here;</div> - <div class='line'>Dye-winged butterflies poise;</div> - <div class='line'>Emmet and beetle steer</div> - <div class='line'>Their busy course; the bee</div> - <div class='line'>Drones, laden, near.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Their myriad-mirrored eyes</div> - <div class='line'>Great day reflect.</div> - <div class='line'>By their exquisite farings</div> - <div class='line'>Is this granite specked;</div> - <div class='line'>Is trodden to infinite dust;</div> - <div class='line'>By gnawing lichens decked.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>Toward what eventual dream</div> - <div class='line'>Sleeps its cold on,</div> - <div class='line'>When into ultimate dark</div> - <div class='line'>These lives shall be gone,</div> - <div class='line'>And even of man not a shadow remain</div> - <div class='line'>Of all he has done?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE SPIRIT OF AIR</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>CORAL and clear emerald,</div> - <div class='line'>And amber from the sea,</div> - <div class='line'>Lilac-coloured amethyst,</div> - <div class='line'>Chalcedony;</div> - <div class='line'>The lovely Spirit of Air</div> - <div class='line'>Floats on a cloud and doth ride,</div> - <div class='line'>Clad in the beauties of earth</div> - <div class='line'>Like a bride.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So doth she haunt me; and words</div> - <div class='line'>Tell but a tithe of the tale.</div> - <div class='line'>Sings all the sweetness of Spring</div> - <div class='line'>Even in the nightingale?</div> - <div class='line'>Nay, but with echoes she cries</div> - <div class='line'>Of the valley of love;</div> - <div class='line'>Dews on the thorns at her feet,</div> - <div class='line'>And darkness above.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE UNFINISHED DREAM</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>RARE-SWEET the air in that unimagined country—</div> - <div class='line in2'>My spirit had wandered far</div> - <div class='line'>From its weary body close-enwrapt in slumber</div> - <div class='line in2'>Where its home and earth-friends are;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A milk-like air—and of light all abundance;</div> - <div class='line in2'>And there a river clear</div> - <div class='line'>Painting the scene like a picture on its bosom,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Green foliage drifting near.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>No sign of life I saw, as I pressed onward,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Fish, nor beast, nor bird,</div> - <div class='line'>Till I came to a hill clothed in flowers to its summit,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Then shrill small voices I heard.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And I saw from concealment a company of elf-folk</div> - <div class='line in2'>With faces strangely fair,</div> - <div class='line'>Talking their unearthly scattered talk together,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A bind of green-grasses in their hair,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>Marvellously gentle, feater far than children,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In gesture, mien and speech,</div> - <div class='line'>Hastening onward in translucent shafts of sunshine,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And gossiping each with each.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Straw-light their locks, on neck and shoulder falling,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Faint of almond the silks they wore,</div> - <div class='line'>Spun not of worm, but as if inwoven of moonbeams</div> - <div class='line in2'>And foam on rock-bound shore;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Like lank-legged grasshoppers in June-tide meadows,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Amalillios of the day,</div> - <div class='line'>Hungrily gazed upon by me—a stranger,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In unknown regions astray.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet, happy beyond words, I marked their sunlit faces,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Stealing soft enchantment from their eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>Tears in my own confusing their small image,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Harkening their bead-like cries.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>They passed me, unseeing, a waft of flocking linnets;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Sadly I fared on my way;</div> - <div class='line'>And came in my dream to a dreamlike habitation,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Close-shut, festooned and grey.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Pausing, I gazed at the porch dust-still, vine-wreathèd,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Worn the stone steps thereto,</div> - <div class='line'>Mute hung its bell, whence a stony head looked downward,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Grey 'gainst the sky's pale-blue—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Strange to me: strange....</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span> - <h2 class='c005'>MUSIC</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>O restless fingers—not that music make!</div> - <div class='line'>Bidding old griefs from out the past awake,</div> - <div class='line'>And pine for memory's sake.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Those strings thou callest from quiet mute to yearn,</div> - <div class='line'>Of other hearts did hapless secrets learn,</div> - <div class='line'>And thy strange skill will turn</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>To uses that thy bosom dreams not of:</div> - <div class='line'>Ay, summon from their dark and dreadful grove</div> - <div class='line'>The chaunting, pale-cheeked votaries of love.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Stay now, and hearken! From that far-away</div> - <div class='line'>Cymbal on cymbal beats, the fierce horns bray,</div> - <div class='line'>Stars in their sapphire fade, 'tis break of day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Green are those meads, foam-white the billow's crest,</div> - <div class='line'>And Night, withdrawing in the cavernous West,</div> - <div class='line'>Flings back her shadow on the salt sea's breast.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>Snake-haired, snow-shouldered, pure as flame and dew,</div> - <div class='line'>Her strange gaze burning slumbrous eyelids through,</div> - <div class='line'>Rises the Goddess from the wave's dark blue.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span> - <h2 class='c005'>TIDINGS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>LISTEN, I who love thee well</div> - <div class='line'>Have travelled far, and secrets tell;</div> - <div class='line'>Cold the moon that gleams thine eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet beneath her further skies</div> - <div class='line'>Rests for thee, a paradise.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have plucked a flower in proof,</div> - <div class='line'>Frail, in earthly light forsooth:</div> - <div class='line'>See, invisible it lies</div> - <div class='line'>In this palm: now veil thine eyes:</div> - <div class='line'>Quaff its fragrancies.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Would indeed my throat had skill</div> - <div class='line'>To breathe thee music, faint and still—</div> - <div class='line'>Music learned in dreaming deep</div> - <div class='line'>In those lands, from Echo's lip ...</div> - <div class='line'>'Twould lull thy soul to sleep.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE SON OF MELANCHOLY</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>UNTO blest Melancholy's house one happy day</div> - <div class='line in6'>I took my way:</div> - <div class='line'>Into a chamber was shown, whence could be seen</div> - <div class='line'>Her flowerless garden, dyed with sunlit green</div> - <div class='line in6'>Of myrtle, box, and bay.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cool were its walls, shade-mottled, green and gold,</div> - <div class='line in6'>In heavy fold</div> - <div class='line'>Hung antique tapestries, from whose fruit and flower</div> - <div class='line'>Light had the bright hues stolen, hour by hour,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And time worn thin and old.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Silence, as of a virginal laid aside,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Did there abide.</div> - <div class='line'>But not for voice or music was I fain,</div> - <div class='line'>Only to see a long-loved face again—</div> - <div class='line in6'>For her sole company sighed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And while I waited, giving memory praise,</div> - <div class='line in6'>My musing gaze</div> - <div class='line'>Lit on the one sole picture in the room,</div> - <div class='line'>Which hung, as if in hiding, in the gloom</div> - <div class='line in6'>From evening's stealing rays.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>Framed in fast-fading gilt, a child gazed there,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Lovely and fair;</div> - <div class='line'>A face whose happiness was like sunlight spent</div> - <div class='line'>On some poor desolate soul in banishment,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Mutely his grief to share.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Long, long I stood in trance of that glad face,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Striving to trace</div> - <div class='line'>The semblance that, disquieting, it bore</div> - <div class='line'>To one whom memory could not restore,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Nor fix in time and space.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sunk deep in brooding thus, a voice I heard</div> - <div class='line in6'>Whisper its word:</div> - <div class='line'>I turned—and, stooping in the threshold, stood</div> - <div class='line'>She—the dark mistress of my solitude,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Who smiled, nor stirred.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Her ghost gazed darkly from her pondering eyes</div> - <div class='line in6'>Charged with surmise;</div> - <div class='line'>Challenging mine, between mockery and fear,</div> - <div class='line'>She breathed her greeting, '<em>Thou</em>, my only dear!</div> - <div class='line in6'>Wherefore such heavy sighs?'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>'But this?' One instant lids her scrutiny veiled;</div> - <div class='line in6'>Her wan cheek paled.</div> - <div class='line'>'This child?' I asked. 'Its picture brings to mind</div> - <div class='line'>Remembrance faint and far, past thought to find,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And yet by time unstaled.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Smiling, aloof, she turned her narrow head,</div> - <div class='line'>'Make thou my face thy glass,' she cried and said.</div> - <div class='line'>'What would'st thou see therein—thine own, or mine?</div> - <div class='line'>O foolish one, what wonder thou did'st pine?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Long thou hast loved me; yet hast absent been.</div> - <div class='line'>See now: Dark night hath pressed an entrance in.</div> - <div class='line'>Jealous! thou dear? Nay, come; by taper's beam</div> - <div class='line'>Share thou this pictured Joy with me, though nought but a dream.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE QUIET ENEMY</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>HEARKEN—NOW the hermit bee</div> - <div class='line'>Drones a quiet thren dy;</div> - <div class='line'>Greening on the stagnant pool</div> - <div class='line'>The criss-cross light slants silken-cool;</div> - <div class='line'>In the venomed yew tree wings</div> - <div class='line'>Preen and flit. The linnet sings.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gradually the brave sun</div> - <div class='line'>Drops to a day's journey done;</div> - <div class='line'>In the marshy flats abide</div> - <div class='line'>Mists to muffle midnight-tide.</div> - <div class='line'>Puffed within the belfry tower</div> - <div class='line'>Hungry owls drowse out their hour....</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Walk in beauty. Vaunt thy rose.</div> - <div class='line'>Flaunt thy transient loveliness.</div> - <div class='line'>Pace for pace with thee there goes</div> - <div class='line'>A shape that hath not come to bless.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I thine enemy?... Nay, nay.</div> - <div class='line'>I can only watch and wait</div> - <div class='line'>Patient treacherous time away,</div> - <div class='line'>Hold ajar the wicket gate.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE FAMILIAR</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>'ARE you far away?'</div> - <div class='line'>'Yea, I am far—far;</div> - <div class='line'>Where the green wave shelves to the sand,</div> - <div class='line'>And the rainbows are;</div> - <div class='line'>And an ageless sun beats fierce</div> - <div class='line'>From an empty sky:</div> - <div class='line'>There, O thou Shadow forlorn,</div> - <div class='line'>Is the wraith of thee, I.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Are you happy, most Lone?'</div> - <div class='line'>'Happy, forsooth!</div> - <div class='line'>Who am eyes of the air; voice of the foam;</div> - <div class='line'>Ah, happy in truth.</div> - <div class='line'>My hair is astream, this cheek</div> - <div class='line'>Glistens like silver, and see,</div> - <div class='line'>As the gold to the dross, the ghost in the mirk,</div> - <div class='line'>I am calling to thee.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>'Nay, I am bound.</div> - <div class='line'>And your cry faints out in my mind.</div> - <div class='line'>Peace not on earth have I found,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet to earth am resigned.</div> - <div class='line'>Cease thy shrill mockery, Voice,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor answer again.'</div> - <div class='line'>'O Master, thick cloud shuts thee out</div> - <div class='line'>And cold tempests of rain.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span> - <h2 class='c005'>MAERCHEN</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>SOUNDLESS the moth-flit, crisp the death-watch tick;</div> - <div class='line'>Crazed in her shaken arbour bird did sing;</div> - <div class='line'>Slow wreathed the grease adown from soot-clogged wick:</div> - <div class='line in2'>The Cat looked long and softly at the King.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mouse frisked and scampered, leapt, gnawed, squeaked;</div> - <div class='line'>Small at the window looped cowled bat a-wing;</div> - <div class='line'>The dim-lit rafters with the night-mist reeked:</div> - <div class='line in2'>The Cat looked long and softly at the King.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O wondrous robe enstarred, in night dyed deep:</div> - <div class='line'>O air scarce-stirred with the Court's far junketing:</div> - <div class='line'>O stagnant Royalty—A-swoon? Asleep?</div> - <div class='line in2'>The Cat looked long and softly at the King.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span> - <h2 class='c005'>GOLD</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>SIGHED the wind to the wheat:—</div> - <div class='line'>'The Queen who is slumbering there,</div> - <div class='line'>Once bewildered the rose;</div> - <div class='line'>Scorned, "Thou un-fair!"</div> - <div class='line'>Once, from that bird-whirring court,</div> - <div class='line'>Ascended the ruinous stair.</div> - <div class='line'>Aloft, on that weed-hung turret, suns</div> - <div class='line'>Smote on her hair—</div> - <div class='line'>Of a gold by Archiac sought,</div> - <div class='line'>Of a gold sea-hid,</div> - <div class='line'>Of a gold that from core of quartz</div> - <div class='line'>No flame shall bid</div> - <div class='line'>Pour into light of the air</div> - <div class='line'>For God's Jews to see.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mocked the wheat to the wind—</div> - <div class='line'>'Kiss me! Kiss me!'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span> - <h2 class='c005'>MIRAGE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>... And burned the topless towers of Ilium</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc in2dc drop-capanf0_0'>STRANGE fabled face! From sterile shore to shore</div> - <div class='line in2'>O'er plunging seas, thick-sprent with glistening brine,</div> - <div class='line'>The voyagers of the World with sail and heavy oar</div> - <div class='line in10'>Have sought thy shrine.</div> - <div class='line in8'>Beauty inexorable hath lured them on:</div> - <div class='line in2'>Remote unnamèd stars enclustering gleam—</div> - <div class='line'>Burn in thy flowered locks, though creeping daybreak wan</div> - <div class='line in10'>Prove thee but dream.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Noonday to night the enigma of thine eyes</div> - <div class='line in2'>Frets with desire their travel-wearied brain,</div> - <div class='line'>Till in the vast of dark the ice-cold moon arise</div> - <div class='line in10'>And pour them peace again;</div> - <div class='line in8'>And with malign mirage uprears an isle</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of fountain and palm, and courts of jasmine and rose,</div> - <div class='line'>Whence far decoy of siren throats their souls beguile,</div> - <div class='line in10'>And maddening fragrance flows.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>Lo, in the milken light, in tissue of gold</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thine apparition gathers in the air—</div> - <div class='line'>Nay, but the seas are deep, and the round world old,</div> - <div class='line in10'>And thou art named, Despair.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span> - <h2 class='c005'>FLOTSAM</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>SCREAMED the far sea-mew. On the mirroring sands</div> - <div class='line'>Bell-shrill the oyster-catchers. Burned the sky.</div> - <div class='line'>Couching my cheeks upon my sun-scorched hands,</div> - <div class='line'>Down from bare rock I gazed. The sea swung by.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Dazzling dark blue and verdurous, quiet with snow,</div> - <div class='line'>Empty with loveliness, with music a-roar,</div> - <div class='line'>Her billowing summits heaving noon-aglow—</div> - <div class='line'>Crashed the Atlantic on the cliff-ringed shore,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Drowsed by the tumult of that moving deep,</div> - <div class='line'>Sense into outer silence fainted, fled;</div> - <div class='line'>And rising softly, from the fields of sleep,</div> - <div class='line'>Stole to my eyes a lover from the dead;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Crying an incantation—learned, Where? When?...</div> - <div class='line'>White swirled the foam, a fount, a blinding gleam</div> - <div class='line'>Of ice-cold breast, cruel eyes, wild mouth—and then</div> - <div class='line'>A still dirge echoing on from dream to dream.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span> - <h2 class='c005'>MOURN'ST THOU NOW?</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>LONG ago from radiant palace,</div> - <div class='line'>Dream-bemused, in flood of moon,</div> - <div class='line'>Stole the princess Seraphita</div> - <div class='line'>Into forest gloom.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wail of hemlock; cold the dewdrops;</div> - <div class='line'>Danced the Dryads in the chace;</div> - <div class='line'>Heavy hung ambrosial fragrance;</div> - <div class='line'>Moonbeams blanched her ravished face.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Frail and clear the notes delusive;</div> - <div class='line'>Mocking phantoms in a rout</div> - <div class='line'>Thridded the night-cloistered thickets,</div> - <div class='line'>Wove their sorceries in and out....</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mourn'st thou now? Or do thine eyelids</div> - <div class='line'>Frame a vision dark, divine,</div> - <div class='line'>O'er this imp of star and wild-flower—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Of a god once thine?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE GALLIASS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc in8dc drop-capanf0_0'>'TELL me, tell me,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Unknown stranger,</div> - <div class='line in4'>When shall I sight me</div> - <div class='line in12'>That tall ship</div> - <div class='line'>On whose flower-wreathed counter is gilded, <em>Sleep</em>?'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>'Landsman, landsman,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Lynx nor kestrel</div> - <div class='line in4'>Ne'er shall descry from</div> - <div class='line in12'>Ocean steep</div> - <div class='line'>That midnight-stealing, high-pooped galliass, <em>Sleep</em>.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>'Promise me, Stranger,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Though I mark not</div> - <div class='line in4'>When cold night-tide's</div> - <div class='line in12'>Shadows creep,</div> - <div class='line'>Thou wilt keep unwavering watch for <em>Sleep</em>.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>'Myriad the lights are,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Wayworn landsman,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Rocking the dark through</div> - <div class='line in12'>On the deep:</div> - <div class='line'>She alone burns none to prove her <em>Sleep</em>.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE DECOY</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>'TELL us, O pilgrim, what strange She</div> - <div class='line'>Lures and decoys your wanderings on?</div> - <div class='line'>Cheek, eye, brow, lip, you scan each face,</div> - <div class='line'>Smile, ponder—and are gone.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Are we not flesh and blood? Mark well,</div> - <div class='line'>We touch you with our hands. We speak</div> - <div class='line'>A tongue that may earth's secrets tell:</div> - <div class='line'>Why further will you seek?'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Far have I come, and far must fare.</div> - <div class='line'>Noon and night and morning-prime,</div> - <div class='line'>I search the long road, bleak and bare,</div> - <div class='line'>That fades away in Time.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'On the world's brink its wild weeds shake,</div> - <div class='line'>And there my own dust, dark with dew,</div> - <div class='line'>Burns with a rose that, sleep or wake,</div> - <div class='line'>Beacons me—"Follow true!"'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Her name, crazed soul? And her degree?</div> - <div class='line'>What peace, prize, profit in her breast?'</div> - <div class='line'>'A thousand cheating names hath she;</div> - <div class='line'>And none fore-tokens rest.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span> - <h2 class='c005'>SUNK LYONESSE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>IN sea-cold Lyonesse,</div> - <div class='line'>When the Sabbath eve shafts down</div> - <div class='line'>On the roofs, walls, belfries</div> - <div class='line'>Of the foundered town,</div> - <div class='line'>The Nereids pluck their lyres</div> - <div class='line'>Where the green translucency beats,</div> - <div class='line'>And with motionless eyes at gaze</div> - <div class='line'>Make minstrelsy in the streets.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And the ocean water stirs</div> - <div class='line'>In salt-worn casemate and porch.</div> - <div class='line'>Plies the blunt-snouted fish</div> - <div class='line'>With fire in his skull for torch.</div> - <div class='line'>And the ringing wires resound;</div> - <div class='line'>And the unearthly lovely weep,</div> - <div class='line'>In lament of the music they make</div> - <div class='line'>In the sullen courts of sleep:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Whose marble flowers bloom for aye:</div> - <div class='line'>And—lapped by the moon-guiled tide—</div> - <div class='line'>Mock their carver with heart of stone,</div> - <div class='line'>Caged in his stone-ribbed side.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE CATECHISM</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>'HAST thou then nought wiser to bring</div> - <div class='line'>Than worn-out songs of moon and rose?'</div> - <div class='line'>'Cracked my voice and broken my wing,</div> - <div class='line in8'>God knows.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Tell'st thou no truth of the life that <em>is</em>;</div> - <div class='line'>Seek'st thou from heaven no pitying sign?'</div> - <div class='line'>'Ask thine own heart these mysteries,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not mine.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Where then the faith thou hast brought to seed?</div> - <div class='line'>Where the sure hope thy soul would feign?'</div> - <div class='line'>'Never ebbed sweetness—even out of a weed—</div> - <div class='line in8'>In vain.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Fool. The night comes.... 'Tis late. Arise:</div> - <div class='line'>Cold lap the waters of Jordan stream.'</div> - <div class='line'>'Deep be their flood and tranquil thine eyes</div> - <div class='line in8'>With a dream.'</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span> - <h2 class='c005'>FUTILITY</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>SINK, thou strange heart, unto thy rest.</div> - <div class='line'>Pine now no more, to pine in vain.</div> - <div class='line'>Doth not the moon on heaven's breast</div> - <div class='line'>Call the floods home again?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Doth not the summer faint at last?</div> - <div class='line'>Do not her restless rivers flow</div> - <div class='line'>When that her transient day is past</div> - <div class='line'>To hide them in ice and snow?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All this—thy world—an end shall make;</div> - <div class='line'>Planet to sun return again;</div> - <div class='line'>The universe, to sleep from wake,</div> - <div class='line'>In a last peace remain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Alas, the futility of care</div> - <div class='line'>That, spinning thought to thought, doth weave</div> - <div class='line'>An idle argument on the air</div> - <div class='line'>We love not, nor believe.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span> - <h2 class='c005'>BITTER WATERS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>IN a dense wood, a drear wood,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Dark water is flowing;</div> - <div class='line'>Deep, deep, beyond sounding,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A flood ever flowing.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There harbours no wild bird,</div> - <div class='line in2'>No wanderer strays there;</div> - <div class='line'>Wreathed in mist, sheds pale Ishtar</div> - <div class='line in2'>Her sorrowful rays there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Take thy net; cast thy line;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Manna sweet be thy baiting;</div> - <div class='line'>Time's desolate ages</div> - <div class='line in2'>Shall still find thee waiting</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>For quick fish to rise there,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Or butterfly wooing,</div> - <div class='line'>Or flower's honeyed beauty,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Or wood-pigeon cooing.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Inland wellsprings are sweet;</div> - <div class='line in2'>But to lips, parched and dry,</div> - <div class='line'>Salt, salt is the savour</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of these; faint their sigh.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>Bitter Babylon's waters.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Zion, distant and fair.</div> - <div class='line'>We hanged up our harps</div> - <div class='line in2'>On the trees that are there.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span> - <h2 class='c005'>WHO?</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table1' summary='WHO'> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='fss'>1ST STRANGER.</span></td> - <td class='c009'>WHO walks with us on the hills?</td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='fss'>2ND STRANGER.</span></td> - <td class='c009'>I cannot see for the mist.</td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='fss'>3RD STRANGER.</span></td> - <td class='c009'>Running water I hear,</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c009'>Keeping lugubrious tryst</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c009'>With its cresses and grasses and weeds,</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c009'>In the white obscure light from the sky.</td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='fss'>2ND STRANGER.</span></td> - <td class='c009'><em>Who walks with us on the hills?</em></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='fss'>WILD BIRD.</span></td> - <td class='c009'>Ay!... Aye!... <em>Ay!...</em></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span> - <h2 class='c005'>A RIDDLE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>THE mild noon air of Spring again</div> - <div class='line'>Lapped shimmering in that sea-lulled lane.</div> - <div class='line'>Hazel was budding; wan as snow</div> - <div class='line'>The leafless blackthorn was a-blow.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A chaffinch clankt, a robin woke</div> - <div class='line'>An eerie stave in the leafless oak.</div> - <div class='line'>Green mocked at green; lichen and moss</div> - <div class='line'>The rain-worn slate did softly emboss.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>From out her winter lair, at sigh</div> - <div class='line'>Of the warm South wind, a butterfly</div> - <div class='line'>Stepped, quaffed her honey; on painted fan</div> - <div class='line'>Her labyrinthine flight began.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wondrously solemn, golden and fair,</div> - <div class='line'>The high sun's rays beat everywhere;</div> - <div class='line'>Yea, touched my cheek and mouth, as if,</div> - <div class='line'>Equal with stone, to me 'twould give</div> - <div class='line'>Its light and life.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>O restless thought</div> - <div class='line'>Contented not. With 'Why' distraught.</div> - <div class='line'>Whom asked you then your riddle small?—</div> - <div class='line'>'If hither came no man at all</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>'Through this grey-green, sea-haunted lane,</div> - <div class='line'>Would it mere blackened nought remain?</div> - <div class='line'>Strives it this beauty and life to express</div> - <div class='line'>Only in human consciousness?'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Oh, rather, idly breaks he in</div> - <div class='line'>To an Eden innocent of sin;</div> - <div class='line'>And, prouder than to be afraid,</div> - <div class='line'>Forgets his Maker in the made.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE OWL</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>WHAT if to edge of dream,</div> - <div class='line'>When the spirit is come,</div> - <div class='line'>Shriek the hunting owl,</div> - <div class='line'>And summon it home—</div> - <div class='line'>To the fear-stirred heart</div> - <div class='line'>And the ancient dread</div> - <div class='line'>Of man, when cold root or stone</div> - <div class='line'>Pillowed roofless head?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Clangs not at last the hour</div> - <div class='line'>When roof shelters not;</div> - <div class='line'>And the ears are deaf,</div> - <div class='line'>And all fears forgot:</div> - <div class='line'>Since the spirit too far has fared</div> - <div class='line'>For summoning scream</div> - <div class='line'>Of any strange fowl on earth</div> - <div class='line'>To shatter its dream?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE LAST COACHLOAD</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>(To Colin)</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>CRASHED through the woods that lumbering Coach. The dust</div> - <div class='line'>Of flinted roads bepowdering felloe and hood.</div> - <div class='line'>Its gay paint cracked, its axles red with rust,</div> - <div class='line'>It lunged, lurched, toppled through a solitude</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Of whispering boughs, and feathery, nid-nod grass.</div> - <div class='line'>Plodded the fetlocked horses. Glum and mum,</div> - <div class='line'>Its ancient Coachman recked not where he was,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor into what strange haunt his wheels were come.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Crumbling the leather of his dangling reins;</div> - <div class='line'>Worn to a cow's tuft his stumped, idle whip;</div> - <div class='line'>Sharp eyes of beast and bird in the trees' green lanes</div> - <div class='line'>Gleamed out like stars above a derelict ship.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>'Old Father Time—Time—Time!' jeered twittering throat.</div> - <div class='line'>A squirrel capered on the leader's rump,</div> - <div class='line'>Slithered a weasel, peered a thieflike stoat,</div> - <div class='line'>In sandy warren beat on the coney's thump.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mute as a mammet in his saddle sate</div> - <div class='line'>The hunched Postilion, clad in magpie trim;</div> - <div class='line'>Buzzed the bright flies around his hairless pate;</div> - <div class='line'>Yaffle and jay squawked mockery at him.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet marvellous peace and amity breathed there.</div> - <div class='line'>Tranquil the labyrinths of this sundown wood.</div> - <div class='line'>Musking its chaces, bloomed the brier-rose fair;</div> - <div class='line'>Spellbound as if in trance the pine-trees stood.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Through moss, and pebbled rut, the wheels rasped on;</div> - <div class='line'>That Ancient drowsing on his box. And still</div> - <div class='line'>The bracken track with glazing sunbeams shone;</div> - <div class='line'>Laboured the horses, straining at the hill....</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But now—a verdurous height with eve-shade sweet;</div> - <div class='line'>Far, far to West the Delectable Mountains glowed.</div> - <div class='line'>Above, Night's canopy; at the horses' feet</div> - <div class='line'>A sea-like honied waste of flowers flowed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>There fell a pause of utter quiet. And—</div> - <div class='line'>Out from one murky window glanced an eye,</div> - <div class='line'>Stole from the other a lean, groping hand,</div> - <div class='line'>The padded door swung open with a sigh.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And—<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Exeunt Omnes!</span></i> None to ask the fare—</div> - <div class='line'>A myriad human Odds in a last release</div> - <div class='line'>Leap out incontinent, snuff the incensed air;</div> - <div class='line'>A myriad parched-up voices whisper, 'Peace.'</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On, on, and on—a stream, a flood, they flow.</div> - <div class='line'>O wondrous vale of jocund buds and bells!</div> - <div class='line'>Like vanishing smoke the rainbow legions glow,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet still the enravished concourse sweeps and swells.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All journeying done. Rest now from lash and spur—</div> - <div class='line'>Laughing and weeping, shoulder and elbow—'twould seem</div> - <div class='line'>That Coach capacious all Infinity were,</div> - <div class='line'>And these the fabulous figments of a dream.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>Mad for escape; frenzied each breathless mote,</div> - <div class='line'>Lest rouse the Old Enemy from his death-still swoon,</div> - <div class='line'>Lest crack that whip again—they fly, they float,</div> - <div class='line'>Scamper, breathe—'Paradise!' abscond, are gone....</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span> - <h2 class='c005'>AN EPITAPH</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='linedc drop-capanf0_0'>LAST, Stone, a little yet;</div> - <div class='line'>And then this dust forget.</div> - <div class='line'>But thou, fair Rose, bloom on.</div> - <div class='line'>For she who is gone</div> - <div class='line'>Was lovely too; nor would she grieve to be</div> - <div class='line'>Sharing in solitude her dreams with thee.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</h2> -</div> - <ol class='ol_1 c002'> - <li>Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors. - - </li> - <li>Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. - - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/back_cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Veil, by Walter de la Mare - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VEIL *** - -***** This file should be named 52366-h.htm or 52366-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/6/52366/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -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. 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