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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..996218f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #56074 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56074) diff --git a/old/56074-0.txt b/old/56074-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9c65c8f..0000000 --- a/old/56074-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2427 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Pan-Worship and Other Poems, by Eleanor Farjeon - -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: Pan-Worship and Other Poems - -Author: Eleanor Farjeon - -Release Date: November 28, 2017 [EBook #56074] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-WORSHIP AND OTHER POEMS *** - - - - -Produced by Larry B. Harrison, MWS and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - PAN-WORSHIP - AND OTHER POEMS - - - - - PAN-WORSHIP - AND OTHER POEMS - - BY - ELEANOR FARJEON - - LONDON - ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET, W. - 1908 - - - - - TO MY FATHER - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE. - - Pan-Worship 9 - - Vagrant Songs 13 - - King Laurin's Garden 18 - - The Mysterious Forest 21 - - The Old Grey Queen 22 - - The Quest 24 - - The Unspoken Word 26 - - In the Oculist's Anteroom 33 - - Little Dream-Brother 34 - - Faust and Margaret 36 - - Dream-Ships 37 - - The Moral 38 - - Colour-Tones 40 - - From an old Garden 42 - - A Sheaf of Nature-Songs 59 - - Apollo in Pherae 72 - - - - -PAN-WORSHIP - - - In Arcady there lies a crystal spring - Ring'd all about with green melodious reeds - Swaying seal'd music up and down the wind. - Here on its time-defacèd pedestal - The image of a half-forgotten God - Crumbles to its complete oblivion. - The faithful and invariable earth - Tilts at the shrine her sacrificial cup, - Spilling libations from the brim that runs - The golden nectar of her daffodils - And rivulets of summer-breathing flow'rs. - O evanescent temples built of man - To deities he honoured and dethroned! - Earth shoots a trail of her eternal vine - To crown the head that men have ceased to honour. - Beneath the coronal of leaf and lichen - The mocking smile upon the lips derides - Pan's lost dominion; but the pointed ears - Are keen and prick'd with old remember'd sounds. - All my breast aches with longing for the past! - Thou God of stone, I have a craving in me - For knowledge of thee as thou wert in old - Enchanted twilights in Arcadia. - Arcadia! it is the very music - Of the first spring-tide rippling its first wave - Over the naked, laughing baby world ... - Come again, thou sparkling spring-tide, come again, - Rush in and flood this autumn from my soul! - These waters welling at a dead God's shrine, - These happy waters bubbling limpid kisses, - Even with such bright and eager lips made wet - The hem of the earth's garment in the days - When earth was youthful and the Gods of Greece - In starry constellation crowned Olympus. - What drifting mists have veil'd the Olympian fires? - What of the Gods of Greece? and what of Greece? - O virgin Greece, standing with naked feet - In the morning dews of the world against the light - Of an infant dawn! old Greece, ever-young Greece, - The pagan in my blood, the instinct in me - That yearns back, back to nature-worship, cries - Aloud to thee! I would stoop to kiss those feet, - Sweet white wet feet washed with the earth's first dews:— - And leaning ear to grass I would re-catch - Echoes of footsteps sounding down dim ages - For ever the music once they made on thee: - The flaming step of the young Apollo when, - With limbs like light and golden locks toss'd back - On a smooth ivory shoulder, he avenged - His mother's wrongs on Python: the dreaming step - Of Hylas in the woods of Mysia - Leading to sleep beneath sweet sylvan waters: - The laughing step of untrammell'd Atalanta - Spurning the ground before her golden capture: - Child-Proserpina stepping like a flower, - And the singing step of Syrinx fleeing—what? - If thou couldst speak, neglected, sneering stone, - Thou wouldst know how to answer me. Wilt thou - Not speak?... How still it is!... The noise of the world - Is shut about with silence!... If I kneel, - Bend and adore, make sacrifice to thee, - If to thy long-deserted fane I bring - Tribute of milk and honey—then if I snap - That loveliest pipe of all at the spring's margin - And let the song of Syrinx from its hollow, - Nay, even the nymph's sweet self—O Pan, old Pan, - Shall I not see thee stirring in the stone, - Crack thy confinement, leap forth—_be_ again? - I can believe it, master of bright streams, - Lord of green woodlands, king of sun-spread plains - And star-splashed hills and valleys drenched in moonlight! - And I shall see again a dance of Dryads - And airy shapes of Oreads circling free - To shy sweet pipings of fantastic fauns - And lustier-breathing satyrs ... God of Nature, - Thrice hailing thee by name with boisterous lungs - I will thrill thee back from the dead ages, thus: - _Pan! Pan! O Pan! bring back thy reign again - Upon the earth!_... - Numb pointed ears, ye hear - Only the wash and whisper of far waters, - The pale green waters of thin distant Springs - Under the pale green light of distant moons - Washing upon the shores of the old, old world - With a foam of flowers, a foam of whispering flowers.... - - - - -VAGRANT SONGS - - -I - - But yesterday the winds of March - Bent back the barren branches of the larch ... - But O! to-day - The bareness from the earth is swept away. - - Deep through my swelling breast I hear - The wild call of the gipsy time o' year— - O, Vagrant Spring, - Brother o' mine, I'm for the gipsying! - - The greening earth I stand upon - Tingles my feet: Brother, we must begone! - Younger and younger, - All my heart cries aloud with Wander-Hunger - - -II - - Of troubles know I none, - Of pleasures know I many— - I rove beneath the sun - Without a single penny. - - A king might envy long - The fare my board adorning— - Upon a throstle's song - I broke my fast this morning; - - My lunch, a girl's quick smile, - As I'm a living sinner; - She walked with me a mile ... - I kissed her for my dinner. - - Of troubles know I none, - Of pleasures know I many— - I fare beneath the sun - Without a single penny! - - -III - - O, how she laughs with me, - Eats with me, quaffs with me, - Smiles to me, sighs to me, - Questions, replies to me, - Answers my every mood, - Finds good what I find good, - Earth, the green Mother! - Where shall man live and die - Having my treasury - Which never gold could buy— - Water and air and sky - And Earth's great sympathy— - Save he do live as I? - Join with me, Brother! - - If you be sickening - Here's for your quickening! - Here at the heart of it - You shall be part of it, - And the good smell of rain - Shall make you whole again— - Join with me, Brother! - Here the life-sap runs green, - Here the life-ways are clean, - Here just one bird that sings - Re-starts your sluggish springs, - Here under moon and sun - You, I and She are one, - Earth, the green Mother! - - -IV - - I lay me on the ground - Under the dark, - And Heaven's purple arc - Drew its deep curtains round - My weary head and shut away the sound. - The golden star-lights crept - Over the hill ... - I lay so very still - I heard them as they stepped ... - "Sleep!" breathed the Earth. Upon her breast I slept. - - -V - - I'll stay one night beneath your roof, - And longer I will stay for no man, - And as for love, I'm loving-proof— - Turn by your eyes, White Woman. - - The Wander-fever's in my blood, - I have no time for simple loving— - The hot Earth is in roving mood, - And I too must be roving. - - _If_ I should love you ... soon, ah, soon - I'd break your heart to go a-roaming, - And chasing shadows of the moon - Think never once of homing. - - Why will you wring my breast with tears? - Tears will not quench the Wander-fever. - Why will you fill my soul with fears - When I will go for ever? - - I whom the Earth's green passions move - Have put away all passions human ... - I will not love!... I _dare_ not love ... - Turn by your eyes, White Woman. - - -VI - - I went far and cold - Over upland wold - Where the story of spring's breathing - Scarcely yet was told. - Shifting monotone - Of the pale wind's moan - Through my hair at dusk went wreathing, - And I walked alone. - - Far below and far - Where the homesteads are - One small ruddy candle twinkled, - Warmer than a star. - When the day was gone, - Softly one by one - Homing-lights the valley sprinkled ... - And I wandered on. - - - - -KING LAURIN'S GARDEN - -(_A Styrian Peasant-Girl Dreams at her Wheel_) - - - King Laurin has a garden of roses - Where warm sweet odours do idly flow - Wave upon wave through the charmèd air ... - It is sin to wish for the garden of roses - In the heart of wild mountains where no men go. - - Laurin is king of a rosy garden. - The lure of the roses is rare, O rare! - They tremble and brighten and throb and glow ... - I may not think of King Laurin's garden. - A danger, they tell me, for maids is there. - - There are four high gates to the garden of roses, - For the treasure of bloom a golden guard, - A precious cup for the rose-wine red. - O the golden gates of the garden of roses! - They are bright and beautiful, tall and barred. - - There is no strong wall round the rosy garden; - From gate to gate runs a woven thread, - Yellow and silken and fine, for ward. - Who snaps the ward of the rosy garden - With his hand and his foot shall he pay, 'tis said. - - Laurin who rules the garden of roses - Is an elf-king, therefore he has no soul. - (_The good priest shudders at Laurin's name._) - Poor soulless elf of the garden of roses! - Shall I pray for King Laurin at Vesper-toll? - - They say no prayers in the rosy garden - Where life is the flash of a fragrant flame - Like the heart of a flower on fire: the whole - Of forbidden sweet is the rosy garden - I may not think of and feel no shame. - - For in King Laurin's garden of roses - Waking thought shall be stilled asleep, - And the still heart dream itself half-awake ... - O the soft, soft dreams of the garden of roses! - They creep ... (_I look not_) ... but they steal and creep. - - Laurin the king of the rosy garden - Has a magic girdle that none can break. - It makes the pulse of his life to leap - With twelve men's strength. In the rosy garden - He is feared and feared for the girdle's sake. - - Laurin the king of the garden of roses - Has a magic crown where strange birds so sing - That resistance and doubt by their song once kissed - Melt into trance. In the garden of roses - He is loved and loved for his crowned bird-ring. - - Laurin the king of the rosy garden - Has a magic cloak the colour of mist, - And he goes invisibly wandering - Far from the bourne of the rosy garden - Like a cloud of pearl and of amethyst. - - He seeks a bride for his garden of roses, - For the soulless spirit a human girl ... - (_The priest bids me wear my cross and pray_) ... - He will bear her back to his garden of roses - In the mist of his magic grey-and-pearl. - - Kunhild was borne to the rosy garden, - The sister of Dietrich of Bern, one day. - A fair green mead and a cloud's dim swirl, - And Kunhild awoke in the rosy garden ... - But she stood by a linden-tree first, they say. - - * * * * * - - _King Laurin has a garden of roses - Full of warm odours_ ... I'll sit and spin - As my Mother bids me ... _O wine-red glow - Of half-waked dreams in the garden of roses_ ... - Spin, wheel!... _fine thread, bright like silk, and thin_. - - _A grey mist steals from the rosy garden - In the heart of wild mountains where no men go_ ... - To think of the garden they say is sin— - I'll dream no more of King Laurin's garden ... - _See! in our meadow green lindens grow_.... - - - - -THE MYSTERIOUS FOREST - - - I stood on the verge of the mysterious forest, - Sunlight lay behind me on the meadows, - But all the world of the mysterious forest - Was a world of wraiths and shadows. - - The dim trees beckoned, beckoned with their branches, - I said: "The sun's behind me on the meadows." - A dim voice calling, calling through the branches - From the world of wraiths and shadows. - - I saw a pale young Queen, her eyes were mournful, - Steal ghostwise ... is the sun yet on the meadows?... - More phantoms passed and all their eyes were mournful - In the world of wraiths and shadows. - - I see a blue light in the mysterious forest, - The cold night lies behind me on the meadows. - The branches beckon in the mysterious forest ... - They beckon, beckon, beckon, call and beckon - From the world of wraiths and shadows. - - - - -THE OLD GREY QUEEN - - - The Princess looked from the old grey tower; - She was a-weary of being there. - She wore no crown but her own gold hair, - And the old grey Queen had shut her there, - She was so like a flower. - - "The young King's-Son comes over the sea - From the West," said the Queen who was grey and old. - "In an unlit hall were not grey as gold? - In an unlit hall what are young and old? - We'll greet i' the dark," said she. - - The Princess looked from the old grey tower ... - Lo! a milk-white sail on the sunlit ocean. - Fluttered her heart to its fluttering motion, - And the King's-Son looked from the golden ocean ... - She was so like a flower. - - "Why do the grey seas break and boom? - And why is the starless dusk so grey? - And why does the young King's-Son delay? - Shall I," said the Queen who was old and grey, - "Sit all night i' the gloom?" - - The grey seas broke on an empty tower - Like pain that knocks on an empty breast. - Lo! a milk-white sail that flew the crest - Of Love and of Youth met breast to breast - Melted away in the golden West.... - - The old grey Queen beat her empty breast: - "She was so like a flower." - - - - -THE QUEST - - - A Knight rides forth upon a Quest, - And his young Squire follows after; - The Knight's eyes dwell on a star's white crest, - And the Squire's eyes dwell on laughter. - - "What of the Quest that claims our swords?" - The young Squire asks his master. - The Knight says, "'Tis too high for words," - And they speed their horses faster. - - A beggar hails them: "Alms! alms, Sir Knight, - Or loose my life with your dagger!" - The Knight sees only a star's white light, - And the Squire's purse pays the beggar. - - A sturdy robber the highroad bars: - "Sir Knight, our debts we'll settle!" - The Knight hears only the song of stars, - And the Squire's blade wins the battle. - - A lady looks from a castle wall: - "Sir Knight, in pity stay thee! - Untrammel me who lie here in thrall, - And I in love will pay thee." - - The Knight is set on a goal heaven-high - Where a silver star is risen, - And the young Squire it is springs by - To free the maid from prison. - - "Take, good Sir Knight, my pleasure and pride, - The meed of valiant striving! - Here wait the lips of your glad bride - Whose name is Joy-of-Living." - - Starward, starward the rapt Knight goes, - The star's true image missing. - The lady laughs like a lovely rose - And the Squire's lips do the kissing. - - "What, boy, are you my love doth woo? - What's he that would not woo it?" - "He's John-a-Dreams-o'-Dering-do, - And I'm Dick-up-an'-Do-it." - - - - -THE UNSPOKEN WORD - - -THE MAN'S SIDE - - Two years I have lived in a dream - And have dared not to end it— - Owned wealth in a measure supreme - And been fearful to spend it. - - You, woman of beauty and love - In such noble wise fashioned, - Are my dreams and my rich treasure-trove. - I am shamed that, impassioned, - - In secret I levy demands - Upon more than you've given— - Crave yourself, heart and soul, eyes and hands, - Which in sum make up heaven. - - Unconscious of aught, through these days - You have let me be near you, - Knowing not how your thousand sweet ways - Only serve to endear you - - To all in your orbit who move, - In such innocence wronging - As friendship what really is love - And unsatisfied longing. - - Yet, your friendship—to be just your friend— - So caps love in another, - That I would my love, burned to its end, - In its own smoke might smother, - - Lest I in an outbreak one day - Ask of friendship aught stronger— - When you may forbid me to say - Even "friend" any longer. - - So I come in the old way and go, - While my heart's quickened beatings - Are hidden, and you never know - What I glean from our meetings; - - How a word, a look even, which seems - So unconsciously meted, - Builds new dreams on the wreckage of dreams - That were never completed. - - You once dropped a flower—did not see - That I hid in my bosom - What was more than Golconda to me, - And to you a bruised blossom. - - Ten seconds I once held your hand - While you pulled from the river - A lily. Could you understand - Why my own hand should quiver? - - Small matters these things you account - Who so lightly diffuse them, - But to all my life's joy they amount— - And my fear is, to lose them. - - One day, when your eyes are still kind - And your voice is still tender, - I shall slip the control of my mind, - All my future surrender, - - Obeying the primal desire - To fall down and adore you, - And outpour in one instant of fire - All the love I have for you. - - 'Twill be death, and far worse, at your feet - When my lips cease to blunder - And I look up your dear eyes to meet - Overrunning with wonder. - - Thereafter—what? Nothing, I fear— - Even dreams will have vanished - When I by my act from your sphere - Shall for ever be banished. - - Dear, that is the moment I dread— - When you hear my confession, - When the word I withhold has been said - And my love finds expression; - - But till then (and God knows how I seek - To postpone and postpone it), - Till my love grows too strong, lips too weak - To much longer disown it, - - I shall come, if I may, day by day, - My small gleanings to gather, - While you think of me—how shall we say? - As a brother or father; - - And you never will guess, till you learn - From a heart brimming over, - That I've met you at every turn - As a passionate lover. - - -THE WOMAN'S SIDE - - How long will you hold back, belov'd? How long - Leave the supreme, the final word unspoken? - The barrier of silence hold unbroken? - Men—you, too, being a man—have called you strong, - A doer of big deeds, great acts. But they are wrong. - - You lack in courage. I, being woman, know - How often woman shapes man's enterprises, - Cloaking her work in manifold disguises - Lest he should chafe too large a debt to owe— - Strikes every blow up to the very hundredth blow - - That shall at last resolve, achieve, complete - The foregone nine-and-ninety. This, grown wiser, - She leaves with him for fear he should despise her. - _He_ wins the credit for the final feat— - Thought of _his_ triumph, not hers, made all her toiling sweet. - - Belov'd, how long before you understand? - Why, I have known two years you were my lover, - That all my being to yours was given over! - The thing your heart most yearns for lies at hand - Awaiting only this, that you shall make demand. - - Have I not worked for all betwixt us two - Since first I saw your love spring into being, - And you became too faint of heart for seeing - That the one peach you longed to garner grew, - Ripened, and mellowed here only for you, for you? - - You would have drawn abashed from out my life - Had I permitted; it became _my_ mission - To bring the golden moment to fruition - Through, ah, how many hours of wistful strife - With you, who guessed not, even, the tender struggle rife - - Between us. When I met you with a smile, - "Love's not for me," you thought, "yet while she kindly - Still looks and speaks, I'll stay." And went thus blindly - Taking for innocence what sprang from guile - That I might hold you by me just a little while. - - The day I dropped a flower upon the path, - Did you not know it was the thing I aimed for - When you behind me loitered (somewhat lamed for - A good excuse), secured it free from scath - And hid it close, to reap therefrom love's aftermath - - In hours when I was absent? Why, I _meant_, - Belov'd, that you should have this one flower-treasure - (Stolen, you thought!) out of my heart's full measure— - Meant that your solitary nights be spent - Cheek to its petals pressed where all my love lay pent. - - And then, the day you helped me from the boat, - "It is but chance," you thought, "I hold her fingers - In mine past custom's limit, while she lingers - To cull the waterlily there afloat." - It was not chance, belov'd. And still you would not note. - - I have done all a woman may do, dear, - With eyes and hands and tones of voice have spoken, - In all but words have given you the token - And seal of love. What is it then you fear? - Can you not take one step, the goal being now so near? - - Just the last word to utter, just the last - Step to be taken—it is very little! - Can you believe Love's structure is so brittle? - All I have builded in these two years past - Fall tottering at one word? It is of stronger cast. - - You would not have me speak. That part is yours. - My share is finished and I wait for you now. - The time to act has come—what will you do now? - Dear, even I'd say the word that all ensures - But that were more than love itself of love endures. - - I had to spend my strength when you were weak, - Be guide along the road from its beginning - To the last barrier. Am I worth the winning? - But _you_ must turn the key. It will not creak. - Beloved, I am waiting still ... will you not speak? - - - - -IN THE OCULIST'S ANTEROOM - - -I - - Not to be able to see!... - Almost as well not be. - And that man in there in his single hand - Holds all God's light, - Or just so much, you understand, - As may be drunk in by another's sight— - Dear God, will he give the light to me? - - Or will a fathomless night - Drop its veil across the sight - Of my straining eyes, to become mere husks - Whence the kernel slips, - Knowing none of God's dawns and only God's dusks ... - That man has them all at his finger-tips. - Dear God! will he clear the dusk from the light? - - -II - - He has spoken. The man with his cold voice has spoken. - The seal of suspense lies here shattered and broken, - _And I know_ ... And I know - What the coming years hold which an hour since were dumb to me— - God! how precious the jewel of your light has become to me - Where's my hat? Let me go. - - - - -LITTLE DREAM-BROTHER. - - - Little dream-brother that died - When I was not a year out of heaven, - I heard you when you tried - To come to me yestereven. - - As I lay in bed - Midway 'twixt nothingness and waking, - I heard the window shaking - And the beat of wings upon the pane. - "It is not the rain, - But my little dream-brother out there," I said. - - I turned in bed: - "Come in, little dream-brother." - "I can only come in by the gates of sleep - And by no other. - Through the niche of the tiniest dream I can creep— - Sleep, sister, do sleep," you said. - - And so through the night we waited— - You on the window-threshold there - In the wet windy weather, - And I abed—with breath bated, - Just to catch the first moment of sleep unaware - And fly kissing together. - - But sleep would not come till seven, - When the shivering day - Looked up all chilly and grey. - "Creep into bed, - Little dream-brother, under my arm - And I'll keep you warm." - But you shook your head: - "It's bed-time in heaven, - Sister. Goodbye," you said. - - There was not a whole year between you - And me, little dream-brother. - I cannot remember even to have seen you ... - And now I might be your mother. - - - - -FAUST AND MARGARET - - - "Devil," he said, "Love's Heaven— - Shall man not therefor lose his soul?" - - * * * * * - - "God," she whispered, "is Love Heaven? - Is Heaven a place of dole?" - - (_And so she gave his Heaven to the man - Because the man did crave it. - And so because she never asked Hell's ban - He gave it._) - - "Devil!" he said, "Love's Hell! - Man's wild-beast-thirst, how slake it? - Take the tenderest thing, thus—thus! - Passion-torture it a spell, - And break it!" - - * * * * * - - "God," she whispered, "Love is Heaven. - Love's not what Love is made for us, - But what we make it." - - (_And so her dead soul found what it had given, - And what he builded, there his damned soul ended.... - And do you think that either Hell or Heaven - These sinners' suffering-on-earth amended?_) - - - - -DREAM-SHIPS - - - I set my dream-ships floating - Upon the tides of sleep. - Beneath whose moving waters - Unfathomed currents creep; - - And one was made of roses - With flowering mast and spars, - And one was made of music, - And one was made of stars: - - One was all joy and sorrow - Made from my own heart-strings, - And one was like a cradle - With sails like angels' wings. - - O little ships that wander - All lonely on the deep, - And only come to haven - Upon the tides of sleep. - - - - -THE MORAL - - - The youth cried in anguish: "God, - My life is bowed down beneath - Its woe! I am no mere clod— - There's fire in my blood and breath. - - "You, Who made me of flesh, not stone, - Of quivering tissues—dare - You leave me to face alone - A grief past my strength to bear? - - "Life might be veriest heaven, - Life can be veriest hell— - In _Your_ hands rests what is given. - God, I hold You responsible!" - - Then the man who was growing grey - Observed: "In an idle mood - God blew bubbles one day - And loosed the glistening brood - - On the welkin, one by one— - Myriads of worlds they sped: - There were planets and moon and sun, - And one was the globe we tread." - - Then the Spirit that Nullifies, - Men term Death, asked: "How long?" (One fears - God shrugged.) "While I blink my eyes— - Shall we say a billion years?" - - * * * * * - - The youth on the fable broke, - And scorn in his accents ran: - "What is all this to me? I spoke - To God of _Myself_, old man." - - - - -COLOUR-TONES - - -I - - A visionary filmy sheen - Scarce palpable of silver-green - Limns barren furrow and bare branch. - One month more, and the welcoming - Gates o' the world will open wide - To let the full deep vernal tide - Sweep overland, an avalanche - Of green, absorbing in its rush - This silver-misty verdure ... Hush! - This is the old earth's dream of Spring. - - -II - - In Cobham woods the bluebells run - Celestial rillets, streams and rivers, - Or else a purple lake they lie, - Or little azure pool; - The blue flood shimmers in the sun - Or under the wind's breathing shivers, - While drops cerulean-tincted spill - Among the grass. Then very still - The dim sweet waters grow and cool - Like shadows of the sky. - - -III - - The yellow light of daffodils - The lawns beneath the fruit-trees fills, - The yellow light of early spring - Swims in the shining upper air, - And all about the fragrant fair - Blossoming boughs of sunlit white - Like clouds of heavenly incense swing - 'Twixt yellow light and yellow light. - - - - -FROM AN OLD GARDEN - - -OUTSIDE - - Trees have grown to the edge of the gate - Where grey-bearded lichens cling; - The greenwoods stand in a ring, - Holding the garden-pearl in their centre - A jewel inviolate. - Heart of mine, shall we enter? - - There is a charm of sleep in the air, - Weft of Time's humming loom. - There in the green half-gloom - I think some intangible spirit hovers ... - They say the dim wraiths dwell there - Of countless, long-dead lovers. - - Warp of sleep and woof of love: - The flush of a live rose glows - By the pallid death of the rose, - A song next the hush that stilled its numbers: - Such is the web Time wove. - Dare we disturb their slumbers? - - We stand on the outskirts, you and I— - Shall we not venture in? - They will condone the sin, - Those dim, dead lovers, will smile and pardon, - For our honeymoon hangs in the sky. - Heart of mine, into the garden! - - -INSIDE - - You and I here! - Shut the gate behind us. - Nothing to fear - And none to find us. - We are all the world, dear! - - 'Tis a cloister of dreams, - This dear old garden; - The sundial seems - To stand as their warden. - How Love's star gleams! - - We'll sup on the rose, - Our tent is this willow— - Lie close, Love, close! - There's grass for our pillow. - How Love's star glows! - - You and I here - And the world behind us! - Nothing to fear - And none to find us— - Shut the gate, dear. - - -FLOW'R AND SONG - - Song and flow'r and flow'r and song, - So soothed the summer drifts along: - Within our hearts a flow'r - Unfolding hour by hour, - While a song half-conscious slips - Over my dear one's lips. - Flow'r and song and song and flow'r, - So filled runs by each swift, sweet hour: - Close to my breast you twine - Your flow'r-lips laid on mine, - And I catch before we part - The song-beats of your heart. - Flow'r and song in our garden-close - Like wedded lovers have grown one word. - I could weave you a wreath from the notes of that bird, - And pluck you a song from the heart of this rose. - - -DWELLERS IN THE GARDEN - - Who dwelt here of old? - Hush! If I lift from the misty years - The veil of dead smiles and forgotten tears, - I think I can picture a little maid - Crowned with plaits of gold, - Passing alone down each green arcade - While the sundial told - In silence its hours of shine and shade. - Young she was as the peep of dawn, - And as a year-old dappled fawn - Was shy and tender and innocent. - And all her days were in waiting spent - Amongst her flowers in a day-dream she - Builded herself. So continuously - In waiting and waiting the days went by— - We know what she waited, love, you and I. - The flowers had nothing to teach to her— - In her sleep she could hear the grasses stir, - She had secrets with every rose in the place, - The lilies kept smiles for her lily-face, - She could think their thoughts and utter their speech, - Had a sister's tender look for each, - And knew why the trailing clematis - Dropped on the sundial a purple kiss— - As surely as we know why, she knew. - And so in her house of dreams she grew, - And so the star-lighted nights slipped by. - We know what she waited for—you and I— - Who dwelt here of old. - There's her tale half-told. - - What more to unfold? - When he came at last did they ride away, - Or, day succeeding each happy day, - Did they stay with two heartfuls of love to brim - The garden wherein she had waited him? - Well, this I know. If they stayed or went, - After their term of life was spent - They returned to roam by her lily-pond, - On to the rosery set beyond, - Haunt her favourite paths and nooks, - Re-read the fairy-tales which her books, - The flowers, had yielded her in such store - When he was the hero of all their lore. - Hand in hand they go as of old, - He brave and bold, - She crowned with gold. - - Ah, love, they are neither the first nor last! - For all of those, having loved and passed, - In spirit come back when their dust is cold, - Who dwelt here of old. - - -A ROSE-SONG - - Oh, what a realm, what a riot of roses! - Here we stand - Right in the heart of a great rose-land! - Over our head the blossom-world closes, - Under our feet— - Walls, ceil and carpet are flowery-sweet. - - Snowy and crimson and pink and golden - Twine and trail, - Vivid as life is, as death is, pale. - Here they bloom as they bloomed in olden - Days when we - Were unborn shades, and the shades that be - - Had right in these grounds to resent intrusion. - Now you and I - Jealously cherish our privacy. - How came these roses by their profusion, - Tier on tier - Of bloom on bloom running uncurb'd here? - - I think I can guess what they would answer, - Whence they came, - Pallid petal and flower of flame, - Inscribed with such lore as the old romancer - Of Italy - Left the world to make love-songs by. - - We are born, these pink roses say, of kisses, - Dye of the blush. - What though time's passage their soft lisp hush? - The seeds were scattered of lovers' blisses, - And year by year - We renew their tender caresses here. - - We are born of joy, say these petals yellow, - Tinge of delight. - What though love's sunshine be lapped in night? - We, sprung from its seeds, rich-toned and mellow, - Perpetuate - The days when the orbit of love waxed great. - - We are born, these red ones say, of passion, - Flush of the heart. - What though the sound of love's steps depart? - The seeds were sown, and we in this fashion - Immortalize - Remembrance thereof in the heart's own dyes. - - We are born, say these snow-white blooms, of the spirit, - Children of death. - What is the ceasing of mere life-breath? - Love is sustained by its own pure merit, - Its memory - Renewed and renewed to infinity. - - Belov'd, we are adding to these rose-bowers. - When we have passed - Here our hearts' treasure will lie amassed. - Pink, gold, crimson and snowy flowers, - Thus and thus, - To the limit of time will bloom for us. - - -BY THE FOUNTAIN - - Come down, dear, to the fountain's pool with me, - And help me guess how long since last it tinkled - And trickled out thin streams of minstrelsy— - - How long since last the grass with pearls it sprinkled. - It was yet young the day it fell asleep, - For time has left its glassy face unwrinkled. - - Ah, could we where the shadows lie most deep - Peering discern the dear forgotten faces - Of girls who o'er the brink were wont to peep, - - With shy eyes seeking in the depths the graces - Made dear and lovely to them by love's praise. - Can all have passed away and left no traces? - - They dreamed, as we too dream, through summer days, - And hid their white thoughts in such water-lilies - As float here now. Flowers do not change their ways. - - Ah, love, to-day the lucent water still is - As tho' no rosy finger-tips had dipped - And dabbled it, and hushed the fountain's rill is. - - Their feet across the velvet greensward tripped, - Their bosoms pressed the crumbling grey-stone basin, - They fed the ruddy goldfish laughing-lipped ... - - Is not one left? Look, look! I seem to trace in - The murky deeps some shape of hoary carp— - Too late! for now I only see your face in - - The water, smiling questions. He was sharp, - That king-fish, but I caught his gold crown's glimmer ... - Oh, fountain, tune again for us your harp, - - Fling through the air for us your diamond shimmer - Of spray. Two new young lovers seek your shrine. - Those loves of old with years grow fainter, dimmer, - - But ours is warm and living and divine, - And time has not yet breathed upon its lustre, - And I am hers and she is all of mine! - - And here we kneel where once old loves would muster, - Shut in the lilies one new secret up, - And add her image to the beauty-cluster - Of those whose eyes lie mirrored in your cup. - - -TIME AND LOVE - - Old sundial, you stand here for Time: - For Love, the vine that round your base - Its tendrils twines, and dares to climb - And lay one flower-capped spray in grace - Without the asking on your cold - Unsmiling and unfrowning face. - Yet, sundial, even Time may mould. - In years to come the foot shall stumble - Upon your shattered ruins where - This vine will flourish still, as rare, - As fresh, as fragrant as of old. - Love will not crumble. - - Kisses have worn your stones away, - Lov'd lips you did not pulse beneath; - Dropt tears have hastened your decay - And brought you one step nigher death; - And you have heard, unthrilled, unmoved, - The music of Love's golden breath - And seen the light in eyes that loved. - You think you hold the core and kernel - Of all the world beneath your crust, - Old dial? But when you lie in dust, - This vine will bloom, strong, green, and proved. - Love is eternal. - - -RIFLED FLOWERS - - Why is the lily's cheek waxen with grief? - A brown-and-gold thief - Dived down to her core - And burgled her store. - Bowed with her sweetness she saw him depart, - But her soul was too pure to complain. - Dear, drop a kiss in her heart - And make the sweet lily all honey again. - - Why does the fox-glove droop low, bell and leaf? - A silver-winged thief - Who delved in her pollen - With gold powder swollen - Fled in new blossoms her wealth to disburse - And left her not one yellow grain. - Sweet, blow a kiss in her purse - And fill the dear fox-glove with treasure again. - - -FAIRY-TIME - - Lie very still, love, where I fold - You close: the clocks strike fairy-time. - The thin, sweet tinkle of their chime - Is like a thread of gold - Woven through the heart of night - For our delight. - And following the elfin call - Faint noises, half-tones, rise and fall— - The whirr and flit of fairy wings - Pass and re-pass, - And we can hear among the grass - Musicians tune their buzzing strings, - And small feet tapping on the ground - The measures of a fairy round. - Out of the roses stream wee elves, - Sweet peas are fairies in themselves, - And myriad water-sprites - From dreaming water-lilies rise, - Such glistening, ephemeral mites, - Flashing like spray across our eyes. - Watch how all whirl, dissolve, and mix - Again, foot it so daintily, - Play such quaint, pretty tricks— - Some on wild moths go riding by, - Breaking them in with rein and bit - Of gossamer: some lurk and flit, - Making pretence at hide and-seek - Behind the daisies, laugh and peek - Like children: disregarding rules, - Play leap-frog with the spotted stools - Of fungus, each night newly-sprung - For them to sport among ... - Suddenly all grow hushed with awe— - Come closer, dear! - The voice of one who broke the law - Of Fairyland sounds harsh and near, - And overhead a dark shape flies. - Bound in a hollow oak by day - He, like the wizard Merlin, lies, - But is condemned to pass the night - In restless flight - Until the dawn looms grey.... - There! he has passed. And in a trice - They all forget him, joining hands - Once more in glittering, laughing bands, - Employing every strange device - And twist and twirl - And mazy whirl - To build their graceful, freakish dance— - Like moonbeam motes they glide and glance - Under the starshine. Seize this chance - Of watching them. To-morrow we - No trace shall see - Of all their revels save—who knows?— - A broken toadstool, or the spun - Fine silken spider's web undone, - The shattered petals of a rose - Tom in the careless frolic, or - The bloom brushed from some untamed wing - Of moth, and on their dancing-floor - Staining the grass a bright green ring. - Lie close, and let us look our fill - To-night. Be very still. - - -THE WANING YEAR - - Two little things, dear, I have seen - To-day that overflowed my breast with sorrow— - We may not stay here many another morrow. - - Amongst the leafage, by its green - Still-living sisters tenderly enfolden, - I saw one single leaf grown dry and golden. - - And down the alleys of the rose - Passing, I saw one lightly breathed-on blossom - Fall instantly deflowered to earth's brown bosom. - - Compassionate summer ere she goes - Strikes tender notes surcharged with wistful warnings ... - Dear heart, we must begone ere many mornings. - - -SHADOWS - - We thought we were here alone, - Had spent our summer of love - By all other hearts unknown, - Of all other eyes unseen— - But something came to disprove - Last night what we thought had been. - - The shadows fell one by one— - We have watched them fall before - And fancied ourselves alone; - But they seemed to waver and move - Last night, and to wander o'er - Our green-tented couch of love. - - You were asleep, and I - Would not disturb your dreams - Lest the shadowy shapes should fly. - I saw them gather and mount - In ever-increasing streams— - More lovers than I could count. - - They circled around our bed - And watched us a little while - From the sides and foot and head; - And some of that shadow-band - Were wistful, and some would smile, - But all seemed to understand. - - Then I felt light fingers twine - In my hair, and soft breath enwreathe - My brow ... lips were laid to mine ... - But none of the hands was this, - Nor the breath the breath you breathe, - The kisses were not your kiss. - - Then ... you turned on your side to press - More close with the smile that slips - From its hiding at my caress, - And you breathed my name in my ear - As though I had kissed your lips ... - But I had not kissed you, dear. - - -THE LAST NIGHT - - Well, is it done? is it over? - Three months in these groves I have been your lover, - Added my voice to the echoing chorus - Of those who loved here before us. - - We have pressed the paths made sweet - By the pressure of bygone lovers' feet, - Have lain amid flowerless violet-beds - Where they laid their happy heads; - - We have flung a red-rose petal - On the glass of the pond and watched it settle, - Then drift like a boat down one of her streams - With our cargo of hopes and dreams. - - So many have come and gone, - Have done the things which we two have done: - Have leaned in revery sweet and solemn, - Hands laced, on the sundial's column: - - Have found their three months as brief - As the life of a blade of grass, a leaf— - As eternal, too, as the leafage is - Have found their three months of bliss. - - For us it is finished and over. - Our three months are spent when as lover and lover - We may roam these groves. But to-night we are nearest, - This being our last night, dearest, - - The spirits of those who wander - Near our lily-pond, by our sundial yonder, - In our rose-realm ... Farewells are not easily spoken, - So their silence remains unbroken. - - But I see through a mist of tears - This garden after a million years, - Where two shades more move eternally ... - Heart of mine, they are you and I. - - - - -A SHEAF OF NATURE-SONGS - -(Overstrand, 1905.) - - -I - - They were gathered up in the moods - Which I found in the solitudes - Of the shore and the fields and the woods, - Of the dawn and the noon and the even, - Of the earth and the sea and of heaven. - And some lack rhythm and metre, - And none of the songs is sweeter, - Or as sweet (by the infinite span - Which divides the work of man - From the work of his God), as the thing - Which was the fountain and spring - Whence my heart drew its need to sing. - But because wherever I went - Much song in my heart was pent: - Because the sea and the sky - Filled my breast with such melody: - Because the woodlands and all - God's earth became musical - As they entered into my soul: - Because I captured the whole - Of Nature for my possession: - I sang just to find expression - For the joy and the love and the pride of it— - Else all song in me might have died of it. - - -II - - The infinite sky overhead - And on the horizon - The infinite sea. - Green billowing grass for my bed— - At last I am out of my prison - And free! - - An insect creeps over my page, - An infinite mite - With all life folded under its wings. - I am of no sex, of no age, - Here out of sight - Of the world, all alone with God's infinite things. - - Oh, the world of small leafage - Peopling the bank where I lean, - And the one white daisy - With its wisdom of things supernal. - They live out their brief age, - Brief but eternal, - And time itself recedes and grows hazy - In this little infinite world of green. - - Behind me the copse - Like a round cup dips - Filled with a pool of soft shadows, - And to me in the meadows - One shy bird-voice from the tree-top drips - And into the hollow of shadows it melts and drops. - - They are all around me - And all above me, - Half-seen, half-heard, - Flower and leaf and insect and bird, - Wild, timid creatures, - Simple and friendly and shy; - And so still I lie - Where they have found me - That I think in time they may learn to love me, - For they are Nature's - And so am I. - - One by one she unfolds each feature, - The Infinite Mother - To her child. - There was a new bird-call, - And there was another! - I too shall learn to grow simple and shy and wild ... - Only Nature and Nature and nothing but Nature, - And I alone in the heart of it all. - - -III - - They who dwell in the southlands say, - Little green England of mine, that you - Are misty and colourless, cold and grey. - If it be true - And they can know it who dwell afar, - You only are grey as diamonds are. - - To-day in the warm soft evening light - You are a zone of delicate tints; - On the rim of the sea the sun is bright, - And shoots and glints - Sparkles of gold through its splendid blue. - Who say you are colourless know not you. - - Opal gleams on the sunset sky - Where a wave of the liquid sapphire flows; - One bright cloud on its flood drifts by - Of pearl and rose; - The air is radiant and crystalline - As rare jewels delved from a fairy mine. - - A breeze just shivers the green of the corn - And sweeps it into a silver sea; - Infinite sensitive shades new-born - On hill and lea - Over the land's lap flit and pass - Like elusive tints in Venetian glass - - Nature has painted you in pastel, - You are her palette of tender hues, - Little green England of mine, where dwell - Change, and infuse, - The million lights of the polar-star, - And you only are grey as diamonds are. - - -IV - - If I could unravel - The music of the grass, - Beyond those confines travel - Which mortals cannot pass, - I think that I should capture all - The secret of things musical— - All music ever will be, and all it ever was. - - Ear close to earth inclining - I hear her wordless song - Of threads past man's divining - Woven the grass among. - Beneath these fragrant, tangled weeds - She sings the strain to which her seeds - March into life, push upward to heaven, and grow strong. - - Then like a voice replying - Follows her cradle-croon - Lulling tired things that, dying, - Back to their Mother swoon. - For where the worlds of grasses spring - Both life and death their choral sing, - The spheres' eternal roundel circling an afternoon. - - The music of existence - Moves underneath my ear— - From how remote a distance - Comes that which sounds so near! - Could I the human barrier pass - By the fine measure of one grass - I then might comprehend what now I only hear. - - There's such melodious stirring - Of hidden, secret things, - There's such harmonious whirring - Of faint mysterious wings; - And underneath this leaf is curled - The song, I think, of all the world— - Up-turned, should I discover the seed from which it springs? - - If I could unravel - The music of the grass, - Beyond those confines travel - Which mortals cannot pass, - I think that I should capture all - The secret of things musical— - All music ever will be, and all it ever was. - - -V - - Hark! - It is afternoon, - Yet that must be a lark. - No other bird flies up so high - And shakes its sparkling spray of song - Through the grey clouds in the sky, - No other bird has just that thrilling - Note in trilling, - Or can sustain so long - Its liquid flood of mirth: - As rare a boon - To thirsty ears as God's dew is to earth. - Yet it is afternoon. - I thought the larks, all scorning - The jaded hours, sang only in the morning. - And I, whose first flushed youth is going, - Who watch the swift noon growing - Upon me, hour by hour, - Feeling that I must always stand apart - From earth's sweet singers, because I lacked the pow'r - To loose the morning song-burst from my heart— - Oh, songster of the mellowing hour of day, - Shall I, too, late or soon, - Learn from your throat the way - To loose my power of song even in my afternoon? - - -VI - - The day was a lifeless day. - Under a tree I lay - And round me its branches bent - Touching the earth like a tent. - There was no stir of breeze; - I was shut in with trees, - Locked from the world by these; - Dead leaves were piled on the ground, - And the forest lay in a swound, - Throbbed with nor pulse nor breath, - And I thought: "It is waiting Death." - So I lay there, still and oppressed, - While the silence grew in my breast. - - Presently as I lay - I heard from far away - Little pattering feet - Over the dry leaves beat; - Tripping along pell-mell, - Thicker and faster they fell - Than tongue could count or tell. - And I fancied the birds and deer - And rabbits, too awed for fear, - Were creeping my aid to plead - Impelled by our common need— - Till into my sheltered place - One raindrop splashed on my face. - - I lay there tented and dry - While the dews, dropped out of the sky, - Made music upon the sheaves - Of last year's stacked-up leaves— - No steps of wild things that trod, - But the whispering voice of God - In grave commune with the sod, - Messenger-angels rife - With words not of Death but Life, - Bidding the old brown Earth - Prepare for her great re-birth - And look to Heaven in pride - Renewed and revivified. - - Then I heard far under the soil - The seedlings stir and toil, - And blade and bulb and root - Put forth each one new shoot, - And I felt deep down and deep - A million pulses leap - Out of their term of sleep, - And I thought the acorn spoke - With the voice of the full-grown oak, - And the cone wore the crown divine - Of the red-stemmed, crested pine, - And the haw held all the blush - And bloom of the wild-rose bush. - - What helped these young things to grow? - Dead leaves of a year ago, - Leaves heaped up in their crowds - And spread like funeral-shrouds; - Yet life sprang out of their death - As the blade slips out of its sheath, - Life was fostered beneath - The leaves here rotting away - And emerged from their decay. - Are all things that seem to die - Renewed to infinity, - And the bodies and souls of men - Made and re-made again? - - With the scent of the rain-wet loam - In my nostrils, I turned me home. - - -VII - - I lay on the shore beside the sea, - And the young moon climbed the hill of the sky - And paused a space to look down on me - Alone with my misery - - Then on the fallow blue fields above - The young moon sowed its seed of stars; - Light gleamed from the mirror of her named Love - And flashed from the shield of Mars. - - The stars sprang up from the silver seed - Wherever that silver sower trod. - Through the windows of heaven watching my need - I knew them the eyes of God. - - Little blue waves with blown foam capped - Crept on the solitary shore - Which the sea's white lips still licked and lapped - For ever and evermore. - - The silver moon waxed strong and older; - I thought I saw it stop to fling - A silver sickle over its shoulder - And commence its harvesting. - - The strong moon ploughed through the fields of heaven, - Its eternal labour but half-begun. - My breast dropped its load of earthy leaven - As the stars dropped one by one. - - I had sat there hugging my trivial cross, - My infinitesimal mortal pains, - Reckoning up how my mortal loss - Outmeasured my mortal gains. - - I saw the moon reaping God's blue fields - Night after night sown thick with seeds. - I saw the crop which God's harvest yields - Not in men's dreams, but deeds. - - The old moon climbed down the hill of the sky, - The strong young day flashed up in flame. - The moon dropped into the sea, and I - Bowed down my head in shame. - - - - -APOLLO IN PHERAE - - - _Asklepios! dead son! Asklepios!_ - - I was a God. I am a God. I tend - Admetos' flocks upon the meek green earth, - And sun-fires course in all the veins of me. - I watch mild sheep a-browse in tame, sweet pastures - Or dipping in quiet waters. Yesterday - I blazed the heavenly arc from east to west; - Men saw me pinnacled on the crest of noon - Crown'd with celestial flame ... - _Asklepios!_ - To-day the discrown'd gold of my hair is strewn - In the green lap of grasses, my bowed brow - Leans on the good strong shoulder of the earth - Even as a stricken mortal's might, that seeks - His comfortable mother in his grief. - Earth, earth, what flower from seed wilt thou put forth - Fed by the waters of mine eyes, that most - Shoot lightnings? dews wrung from the Sun-god's eyes, - Divinely wrathful, mortally unhappy! - - _Asklepios! my son! Asklepios!_ - I am a God. Admetos is a King. - The God came to the King's doors overnight - And knocked and was admitted; and the King - Knew me and asked my will. - "To be thy servant - Throughout a year of days," I answered him. - "Phœbus-Apollo, how shall this thing be?" - I said: "I slew a smith, a monstrous clod, - Not God or mortal, one that had done evil. - I am the avenger of evil among the Gods, - For this one and for that I have stretched my bow - And winged my arrow through the heart of Wrong; - But this was evil done unto myself, - And Vengeance wore the sleek face of Advantage, - Wherefor Zeus robs me of my Godhead, King, - And I will be thy shepherd for a year." - He stood half wonderstruck, half shamed-protesting, - But I bade him bring me out among his flocks - And speak no more. - "I will have peace," I said. - - "Fear not, and bid thy people not to fear; - For I am worn with too much strife and passion, - And no more hurt shall come from that I do. - Thou shalt not suffer by this term of service, - But see thy lands grow rich and bountiful, - And where thou lov'st I'll win thy love for thee, - And life shall prosper with thee, - "Life is sweet! - Make it not too sweet, God, lest when death come - It look more bitter than my soul can bear." - "Even death, Admetos, I'll delay for thee. - Now, peace! I am done with vengeance for a space." - Thus I am come again upon the earth - Even as a common man ... - _Asklepios!_ - - The people eye me timidly, and dare - Not consort with the God they may not worship. - Even so it was in those first days of life - When I was a boy in Delos with my Mother, - And only half aware I was a God. - O this unconquerable loneliness - That binds the crown of Godhead on our brows! - Yet easier the aloofness of the people - Than the familiar face of the half-God Pan. - I met in the woods the brute-divinity, - Who fleered an impudent hoof, a satyr-smile - Licking his lips: - "What, Helios! is the sun - Debased to something lower than the earth? - What! are we two, I of the beast's grain, thou - The delicate, disdainful spirit of flame, - The seed of mischief and the seed of Zeus, - Brought equal at the last? Nay, is the beast - Sun's master, Helios? Shepherds are my subjects. - I do not sway high kingdoms of the air— - I drag my hoofs in the clay. I do not fashion - Songs for the stars upon a golden lyre— - I (as did Marsyas, ha?) scrape out rough tunes - On common reeds. I am not beautiful, - I have not eyes like June-blue heavens on fire, - Nor hair filched from the harvest of the sun, - Nor a white matchless shape, supple and swift - And strong and splendid. I am an earthy thing, - Half goat and half coarse boor, not fit to touch - The sun's moon-sister—(yet, who knows? who knows! - Let her keep watch on Latmos how she will - Above the slumbers of her pretty shepherd!) - No, Pan is not as Helios! Helios is - A shepherd, sister'd by a shepherd's wanton, - And Pan's a King, and shepherds are his subjects!" - - Zeus, did it feed thy pride on proud Olympos, - Did it pleasure thee to hear the brutish God, - The disgustful animal we chafe to name - A God even as ourselves, thus flout thy son? - - _Asklepios! dead son! Asklepios!_ - - Doomed to the solitariness of greatness - We watch, we lonely Gods on shrouded heights, - The careful, padded steps, the little lives, - The little trivial lives of men and women - That fear our anger and entreat our favour; - And while we are indifferent all is well, - And if we rise to hate all is not ill, - But when we stoop to meet uplifted eyes - Of bright aspiring fools that will not choose - To tread life's inconspicuous middle ways— - O, when we love we bring our lov'd ones woe - - I had a son, his name was Phaeton. - Could he be of my being and not be proud? - He was all inspiration, and he mounted - Up to the highest and reached his hands for the sun - And shouted: "I will light the fires in heaven!" - But he was three-parts man to one-part God, - So men and Gods shrugged his brief blaze of glory - Into extinction ... Thus I lost my son, - Phaeton, killed thro' overmuch ambition. - - I had a son, his name was Orpheus. - Could he be of my being and not love? - His love was rooted deeplier than Hell. - He said: "I will pluck back my love from Hell - Tho' it upheave all Hell in the plucking." When - He failed, being one-part man to three-parts God, - He chose the swift way to regain his love - And died a vile death ... Thus I lost my son, - Orpheus, killed thro' too great love and longing. - - I had a son. He was Asklepios, - Could he be of my being and not KNOW? - His wisdom girdled life and death in one; - Life smiled on him, because he smiled on death - And said: "Life is less conquerable than death." - He said: "I will reverse the word of death." - He said: "I will make the dead to live again." - Two days ago Asklepios lived ... - The King - Of the nether-world, that wears the face of night - And hates me, wearing day's face, called on Zeus: - "This mortal steals upon my sovereignty, - Stands brazen champion for the world of flesh, - Determines souls that waver towards the Styx— - Worse! hales the souls back from beyond the Styx, - Bringing the dead to life. This is more craft, - Brother, than we may suffer in a man. - Shall he with careless finger sway at will - The Balance of Destiny? Avenge me, Zeus!" - A Cyclops forged a thunder-bolt for Zeus, - And, black-browed, Zeus did launch it ... Thus I lost - My son Asklepios, killed thro' too much knowledge. - - _Asklepios! my dead Asklepios!_ - - Let the dark King of Stygia howl for aid - To Olympos! I am King of Heaven and ask - No aid! I wreak my vengeance for myself. - I rose up in the wrath of my bereavement - And set an arrow to the silver bow - That none save I can bend, and let it fly. - I might not slay the wielder of the bolt, - But I did slay the forger of the bolt. - And when I saw the Cyclops pierced and dead - I came to Zeus and told him of my deed: - "Father, 'gainst whom my bow was never turned, - Father, that hast destroyed thine own son's son, - I defy thy doing and have destroyed thy tool." - - Then while the Gods stood all aghast, Zeus spake: - "Go from among this immortal company - Which thou hast sinned against in daring so - To sin against _me_ that am the head of all, - And learn to quell thy too fierce spirit, learn - To teach thy riotous blood obedience, - Serving the sons of men one year of days. - Go hence! thou art not of us for twelve moons." - I nothing said, and went. For when we Gods - Revolt among ourselves the end is near, - And Zeus must levy justice as he will. - - _Asklepios! my dead Asklepios! - Had an hundred bolts been forged instead of one - I had slain an hundred Cyclops for thy sake - And suffered an hundred years of degradation!_ - - Earth that receivest my body for a space, - I first saw light upon thee. Comfort me, - And tame a little the untamed blood in me. - Better will I endure to learn of thee - Than of the envious Gods, whom this disgrace - Serves for a secret feast to glut their hearts on. - For we have loved each other, thou and I, - And I have belted thee with golden arms, - And I have claspt thee daily with hot kisses, - And felt thee leap and pulse and answer to me - Like a shy maid grown bold and glad with love. - There's that in the core of thee that is so kin - To the core of me, it holds us twain inseverable, - Tho' from a billion blue-gold caverns of air - Translucent waves of space roll up an ocean - 'Twixt earth and sun: our hearts beat time together. - My sister of the spheres has no such power - To quicken thee, be lov'd of thee and love thee. - She rains down light like argent snows; and thou, - Part shadow'd, part-illumin'd, wholly chill'd, - Submitt'st thyself to call her queen, who asks - No ardent service of thee, earth, as I do. - Yet, chaste twin-sister, we were of one birth; - Thy veins run all the silver, mine the gold. - What marvel Leto had nine days labour of us, - Strenuously thus disparting snow from flame, - To give the Gods one daughter all pure ice, - One son all perfect fire?... - O Thunderer! - That spark of immortal fire which, pregnant in her, - Evolved into my Godhead, issuèd - Out of _thy_ Godhead; my humiliation - Is thy humiliation, Zeus! I stand - Supremest in thy shining progeny: - I am thy glittering symbol fix'd in heaven - To draw the dazed, adoring eyes of men: - I am thy arm of vengeance, I the hand - Bestowing thy good gifts: I am thy Voice - Of mystic prophecy and divination - Thro' which thou keep'st thy fingers on men's souls. - Daughters and sons thou hast whose attributes, - This one by twisty cunning, this by love - Too often base, this by remorseless carnage - Not bearing the high name of vengeance, these - By the insidious lusts of gold and wine, - Serve to express thee to the bodies of men; - But I express thee to the ghost in them, - For there is none whose vesture is like mine - Weft only of the spirit's highest tissues, - So that the world beholding thee thro' me - Beholds thee at thy zenith, and exalted - Out of the flesh struggles to sense an instant - The music, fire and essence of Olympos. - This Thunderer, wilt thou smirch? More dim, more dim - Than the imperial spark thou quenchest in me - Thou mak'st thy imperial fires whence I did spring, - The fount of us so indissoluble - That what shames thee shames me. - Earth, is this vengeance? - - Nay, I see clearer. Rest unstained of me, - Thou God that art the father of my being. - The spirit of me, which is _Thou_, makes cause with thee - Against me. We must be inviolable - Or men will point their fingers—when We fall. - - _Asklepios! farewell, Asklepios!_ - - Earth, I will serve on thee my year of days - Nor chafe beneath them like a petulant boy. - Ay, tho' Zeus force my Godhead into bonds - I will yet bear my bondage like a God. - - - - -Transcriber's Note - - Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been repaired. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Pan-Worship and Other Poems, by Eleanor Farjeon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-WORSHIP AND OTHER POEMS *** - -***** This file should be named 56074-0.txt or 56074-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/0/7/56074/ - -Produced by Larry B. 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- margin-left: 2%; - margin-right: 2%; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - padding: .5em; - } - - .poem - { - display: block; - margin-left: 1.5em; - } - - .hideepub {visibility: hidden;} - -} - - </style> - -</head> - -<body> - - -<pre> - -Project Gutenberg's Pan-Worship and Other Poems, by Eleanor Farjeon - -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: Pan-Worship and Other Poems - -Author: Eleanor Farjeon - -Release Date: November 28, 2017 [EBook #56074] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-WORSHIP AND OTHER POEMS *** - - - - -Produced by Larry B. Harrison, MWS and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - - - -<div class="figcenter newpage hideepub"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover" /> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<div class="figcenter newpage"> - <img src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="Title Page" /> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p class="half-title bold in0">PAN-WORSHIP<br />AND OTHER POEMS</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<h1>PAN-WORSHIP<br /> -AND OTHER POEMS</h1> - -<p class="center bold in0">BY<br /> -<span class="large">ELEANOR FARJEON</span><br /> -<span class="vspace"> </span><br /> -LONDON<br /> -<span class="large">ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET, W.</span><br /> -1908</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p class="newpage center bold in0">TO MY FATHER</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdr"><span class="xsmall">PAGE.</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Pan-Worship</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Vagrant Songs</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">King Laurin's Garden</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">The Mysterious Forest</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">The Old Grey Queen</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">The Quest</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">The Unspoken Word</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">In the Oculist's Anteroom</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Little Dream-Brother</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Faust and Margaret</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Dream-Ships</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">The Moral</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Colour-Tones</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">From an old Garden</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">A Sheaf of Nature-Songs</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Apollo in Pherae</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>PAN-WORSHIP</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">In Arcady there lies a crystal spring</div> -<div class="i0">Ring'd all about with green melodious reeds</div> -<div class="i0">Swaying seal'd music up and down the wind.</div> -<div class="i0">Here on its time-defacèd pedestal</div> -<div class="i0">The image of a half-forgotten God</div> -<div class="i0">Crumbles to its complete oblivion.</div> -<div class="i0">The faithful and invariable earth</div> -<div class="i0">Tilts at the shrine her sacrificial cup,</div> -<div class="i0">Spilling libations from the brim that runs</div> -<div class="i0">The golden nectar of her daffodils</div> -<div class="i0">And rivulets of summer-breathing flow'rs.</div> -<div class="i0">O evanescent temples built of man</div> -<div class="i0">To deities he honoured and dethroned!</div> -<div class="i0">Earth shoots a trail of her eternal vine</div> -<div class="i0">To crown the head that men have ceased to honour.</div> -<div class="i0">Beneath the coronal of leaf and lichen</div> -<div class="i0">The mocking smile upon the lips derides</div> -<div class="i0">Pan's lost dominion; but the pointed ears</div> -<div class="i0">Are keen and prick'd with old remember'd sounds.</div> -<div class="i0">All my breast aches with longing for the past!</div> -<div class="i0">Thou God of stone, I have a craving in me</div> -<div class="i0">For knowledge of thee as thou wert in old</div> -<div class="i0">Enchanted twilights in Arcadia.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> -<div class="i0">Arcadia! it is the very music</div> -<div class="i0">Of the first spring-tide rippling its first wave</div> -<div class="i0">Over the naked, laughing baby world ...</div> -<div class="i0">Come again, thou sparkling spring-tide, come again,</div> -<div class="i0">Rush in and flood this autumn from my soul!</div> -<div class="i0">These waters welling at a dead God's shrine,</div> -<div class="i0">These happy waters bubbling limpid kisses,</div> -<div class="i0">Even with such bright and eager lips made wet</div> -<div class="i0">The hem of the earth's garment in the days</div> -<div class="i0">When earth was youthful and the Gods of Greece</div> -<div class="i0">In starry constellation crowned Olympus.</div> -<div class="i0">What drifting mists have veil'd the Olympian fires?</div> -<div class="i0">What of the Gods of Greece? and what of Greece?</div> -<div class="i0">O virgin Greece, standing with naked feet</div> -<div class="i0">In the morning dews of the world against the light</div> -<div class="i0">Of an infant dawn! old Greece, ever-young Greece,</div> -<div class="i0">The pagan in my blood, the instinct in me</div> -<div class="i0">That yearns back, back to nature-worship, cries</div> -<div class="i0">Aloud to thee! I would stoop to kiss those feet,</div> -<div class="i0">Sweet white wet feet washed with the earth's first dews:—</div> -<div class="i0">And leaning ear to grass I would re-catch</div> -<div class="i0">Echoes of footsteps sounding down dim ages</div> -<div class="i0">For ever the music once they made on thee:</div> -<div class="i0">The flaming step of the young Apollo when,</div> -<div class="i0">With limbs like light and golden locks toss'd back</div> -<div class="i0">On a smooth ivory shoulder, he avenged</div> -<div class="i0">His mother's wrongs on Python: the dreaming step</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> -<div class="i0">Of Hylas in the woods of Mysia</div> -<div class="i0">Leading to sleep beneath sweet sylvan waters:</div> -<div class="i0">The laughing step of untrammell'd Atalanta</div> -<div class="i0">Spurning the ground before her golden capture:</div> -<div class="i0">Child-Proserpina stepping like a flower,</div> -<div class="i0">And the singing step of Syrinx fleeing—what?</div> -<div class="i0">If thou couldst speak, neglected, sneering stone,</div> -<div class="i0">Thou wouldst know how to answer me. Wilt thou</div> -<div class="i0">Not speak?... How still it is!... The noise of the world</div> -<div class="i0">Is shut about with silence!... If I kneel,</div> -<div class="i0">Bend and adore, make sacrifice to thee,</div> -<div class="i0">If to thy long-deserted fane I bring</div> -<div class="i0">Tribute of milk and honey—then if I snap</div> -<div class="i0">That loveliest pipe of all at the spring's margin</div> -<div class="i0">And let the song of Syrinx from its hollow,</div> -<div class="i0">Nay, even the nymph's sweet self—O Pan, old Pan,</div> -<div class="i0">Shall I not see thee stirring in the stone,</div> -<div class="i0">Crack thy confinement, leap forth—<i>be</i> again?</div> -<div class="i0">I can believe it, master of bright streams,</div> -<div class="i0">Lord of green woodlands, king of sun-spread plains</div> -<div class="i0">And star-splashed hills and valleys drenched in moonlight!</div> -<div class="i0">And I shall see again a dance of Dryads</div> -<div class="i0">And airy shapes of Oreads circling free</div> -<div class="i0">To shy sweet pipings of fantastic fauns</div> -<div class="i0">And lustier-breathing satyrs ... God of Nature,</div> -<div class="i0">Thrice hailing thee by name with boisterous lungs</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> -<div class="i0">I will thrill thee back from the dead ages, thus:</div> -<div class="i0"><i>Pan! Pan! O Pan! bring back thy reign again</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>Upon the earth!</i>...</div> -<div class="i19">Numb pointed ears, ye hear</div> -<div class="i0">Only the wash and whisper of far waters,</div> -<div class="i0">The pale green waters of thin distant Springs</div> -<div class="i0">Under the pale green light of distant moons</div> -<div class="i0">Washing upon the shores of the old, old world</div> -<div class="i0">With a foam of flowers, a foam of whispering flowers....</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>VAGRANT SONGS</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">I</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">But yesterday the winds of March</div> -<div class="i0">Bent back the barren branches of the larch ...</div> -<div class="i8">But O! to-day</div> -<div class="i0">The bareness from the earth is swept away.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Deep through my swelling breast I hear</div> -<div class="i0">The wild call of the gipsy time o' year—</div> -<div class="i8">O, Vagrant Spring,</div> -<div class="i0">Brother o' mine, I'm for the gipsying!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">The greening earth I stand upon</div> -<div class="i0">Tingles my feet: Brother, we must begone!</div> -<div class="i8">Younger and younger,</div> -<div class="i0">All my heart cries aloud with Wander-Hunger</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">II</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Of troubles know I none,</div> -<div class="i0">Of pleasures know I many—</div> -<div class="i0">I rove beneath the sun</div> -<div class="i0">Without a single penny.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">A king might envy long</div> -<div class="i0">The fare my board adorning—</div> -<div class="i0">Upon a throstle's song</div> -<div class="i0">I broke my fast this morning;</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">My lunch, a girl's quick smile,</div> -<div class="i0">As I'm a living sinner;</div> -<div class="i0">She walked with me a mile ...</div> -<div class="i0">I kissed her for my dinner.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Of troubles know I none,</div> -<div class="i0">Of pleasures know I many—</div> -<div class="i0">I fare beneath the sun</div> -<div class="i0">Without a single penny!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">III</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">O, how she laughs with me,</div> -<div class="i0">Eats with me, quaffs with me,</div> -<div class="i0">Smiles to me, sighs to me,</div> -<div class="i0">Questions, replies to me,</div> -<div class="i0">Answers my every mood,</div> -<div class="i0">Finds good what I find good,</div> -<div class="i4">Earth, the green Mother!</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> -<div class="i0">Where shall man live and die</div> -<div class="i0">Having my treasury</div> -<div class="i0">Which never gold could buy—</div> -<div class="i0">Water and air and sky</div> -<div class="i0">And Earth's great sympathy—</div> -<div class="i0">Save he do live as I?</div> -<div class="i4">Join with me, Brother!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">If you be sickening</div> -<div class="i0">Here's for your quickening!</div> -<div class="i0">Here at the heart of it</div> -<div class="i0">You shall be part of it,</div> -<div class="i0">And the good smell of rain</div> -<div class="i0">Shall make you whole again—</div> -<div class="i4">Join with me, Brother!</div> -<div class="i0">Here the life-sap runs green,</div> -<div class="i0">Here the life-ways are clean,</div> -<div class="i0">Here just one bird that sings</div> -<div class="i0">Re-starts your sluggish springs,</div> -<div class="i0">Here under moon and sun</div> -<div class="i0">You, I and She are one,</div> -<div class="i4">Earth, the green Mother!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">IV</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I lay me on the ground</div> -<div class="i15">Under the dark,</div> -<div class="i0">And Heaven's purple arc</div> -<div class="i0">Drew its deep curtains round</div> -<div class="i0">My weary head and shut away the sound.</div> -<div class="i0">The golden star-lights crept</div> -<div class="i15">Over the hill ...</div> -<div class="i0">I lay so very still</div> -<div class="i0">I heard them as they stepped ...</div> -<div class="i0">"Sleep!" breathed the Earth. Upon her breast I slept.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">V</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I'll stay one night beneath your roof,</div> -<div class="i0">And longer I will stay for no man,</div> -<div class="i0">And as for love, I'm loving-proof—</div> -<div class="i4">Turn by your eyes, White Woman.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The Wander-fever's in my blood,</div> -<div class="i0">I have no time for simple loving—</div> -<div class="i0">The hot Earth is in roving mood,</div> -<div class="i4">And I too must be roving.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>If</i> I should love you ... soon, ah, soon</div> -<div class="i0">I'd break your heart to go a-roaming,</div> -<div class="i0">And chasing shadows of the moon</div> -<div class="i4">Think never once of homing.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Why will you wring my breast with tears?</div> -<div class="i0">Tears will not quench the Wander-fever.</div> -<div class="i0">Why will you fill my soul with fears</div> -<div class="i4">When I will go for ever?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I whom the Earth's green passions move</div> -<div class="i0">Have put away all passions human ...</div> -<div class="i0">I will not love!... I <i>dare</i> not love ...</div> -<div class="i4">Turn by your eyes, White Woman.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">VI</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I went far and cold</div> -<div class="i0">Over upland wold</div> -<div class="i0">Where the story of spring's breathing</div> -<div class="i0">Scarcely yet was told.</div> -<div class="i0">Shifting monotone</div> -<div class="i0">Of the pale wind's moan</div> -<div class="i0">Through my hair at dusk went wreathing,</div> -<div class="i0">And I walked alone.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Far below and far</div> -<div class="i0">Where the homesteads are</div> -<div class="i0">One small ruddy candle twinkled,</div> -<div class="i0">Warmer than a star.</div> -<div class="i0">When the day was gone,</div> -<div class="i0">Softly one by one</div> -<div class="i0">Homing-lights the valley sprinkled ...</div> -<div class="i0">And I wandered on.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>KING LAURIN'S GARDEN</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center bold in0">(<i>A Styrian Peasant-Girl Dreams at her Wheel</i>)</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">King Laurin has a garden of roses</div> -<div class="i0">Where warm sweet odours do idly flow</div> -<div class="i0">Wave upon wave through the charmèd air ...</div> -<div class="i0">It is sin to wish for the garden of roses</div> -<div class="i0">In the heart of wild mountains where no men go.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Laurin is king of a rosy garden.</div> -<div class="i0">The lure of the roses is rare, O rare!</div> -<div class="i0">They tremble and brighten and throb and glow ...</div> -<div class="i0">I may not think of King Laurin's garden.</div> -<div class="i0">A danger, they tell me, for maids is there.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">There are four high gates to the garden of roses,</div> -<div class="i0">For the treasure of bloom a golden guard,</div> -<div class="i0">A precious cup for the rose-wine red.</div> -<div class="i0">O the golden gates of the garden of roses!</div> -<div class="i0">They are bright and beautiful, tall and barred.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">There is no strong wall round the rosy garden;</div> -<div class="i0">From gate to gate runs a woven thread,</div> -<div class="i0">Yellow and silken and fine, for ward.</div> -<div class="i0">Who snaps the ward of the rosy garden</div> -<div class="i0">With his hand and his foot shall he pay, 'tis said.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Laurin who rules the garden of roses</div> -<div class="i0">Is an elf-king, therefore he has no soul.</div> -<div class="i0">(<i>The good priest shudders at Laurin's name.</i>)</div> -<div class="i0">Poor soulless elf of the garden of roses!</div> -<div class="i0">Shall I pray for King Laurin at Vesper-toll?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">They say no prayers in the rosy garden</div> -<div class="i0">Where life is the flash of a fragrant flame</div> -<div class="i0">Like the heart of a flower on fire: the whole</div> -<div class="i0">Of forbidden sweet is the rosy garden</div> -<div class="i0">I may not think of and feel no shame.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">For in King Laurin's garden of roses</div> -<div class="i0">Waking thought shall be stilled asleep,</div> -<div class="i0">And the still heart dream itself half-awake ...</div> -<div class="i0">O the soft, soft dreams of the garden of roses!</div> -<div class="i0">They creep ... (<i>I look not</i>) ... but they steal and creep.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Laurin the king of the rosy garden</div> -<div class="i0">Has a magic girdle that none can break.</div> -<div class="i0">It makes the pulse of his life to leap</div> -<div class="i0">With twelve men's strength. In the rosy garden</div> -<div class="i0">He is feared and feared for the girdle's sake.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Laurin the king of the garden of roses</div> -<div class="i0">Has a magic crown where strange birds so sing</div> -<div class="i0">That resistance and doubt by their song once kissed</div> -<div class="i0">Melt into trance. In the garden of roses</div> -<div class="i0">He is loved and loved for his crowned bird-ring.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Laurin the king of the rosy garden</div> -<div class="i0">Has a magic cloak the colour of mist,</div> -<div class="i0">And he goes invisibly wandering</div> -<div class="i0">Far from the bourne of the rosy garden</div> -<div class="i0">Like a cloud of pearl and of amethyst.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">He seeks a bride for his garden of roses,</div> -<div class="i0">For the soulless spirit a human girl ...</div> -<div class="i0">(<i>The priest bids me wear my cross and pray</i>) ...</div> -<div class="i0">He will bear her back to his garden of roses</div> -<div class="i0">In the mist of his magic grey-and-pearl.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Kunhild was borne to the rosy garden,</div> -<div class="i0">The sister of Dietrich of Bern, one day.</div> -<div class="i0">A fair green mead and a cloud's dim swirl,</div> -<div class="i0">And Kunhild awoke in the rosy garden ...</div> -<div class="i0">But she stood by a linden-tree first, they say.</div> -</div> - -<div class="tb"> - * <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>King Laurin has a garden of roses</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>Full of warm odours</i> ... I'll sit and spin</div> -<div class="i0">As my Mother bids me ... <i>O wine-red glow</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>Of half-waked dreams in the garden of roses</i> ...</div> -<div class="i0">Spin, wheel!... <i>fine thread, bright like silk, and thin</i>.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>A grey mist steals from the rosy garden</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>In the heart of wild mountains where no men go</i> ...</div> -<div class="i0">To think of the garden they say is sin—</div> -<div class="i0">I'll dream no more of King Laurin's garden ...</div> -<div class="i0"><i>See! in our meadow green lindens grow</i>....</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>THE MYSTERIOUS FOREST</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I stood on the verge of the mysterious forest,</div> -<div class="i0">Sunlight lay behind me on the meadows,</div> -<div class="i0">But all the world of the mysterious forest</div> -<div class="i0">Was a world of wraiths and shadows.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The dim trees beckoned, beckoned with their branches,</div> -<div class="i0">I said: "The sun's behind me on the meadows."</div> -<div class="i0">A dim voice calling, calling through the branches</div> -<div class="i0">From the world of wraiths and shadows.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I saw a pale young Queen, her eyes were mournful,</div> -<div class="i0">Steal ghostwise ... is the sun yet on the meadows?...</div> -<div class="i0">More phantoms passed and all their eyes were mournful</div> -<div class="i0">In the world of wraiths and shadows.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I see a blue light in the mysterious forest,</div> -<div class="i0">The cold night lies behind me on the meadows.</div> -<div class="i0">The branches beckon in the mysterious forest ...</div> -<div class="i0">They beckon, beckon, beckon, call and beckon</div> -<div class="i0">From the world of wraiths and shadows.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>THE OLD GREY QUEEN</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The Princess looked from the old grey tower;</div> -<div class="i0">She was a-weary of being there.</div> -<div class="i0">She wore no crown but her own gold hair,</div> -<div class="i0">And the old grey Queen had shut her there,</div> -<div class="i10">She was so like a flower.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"The young King's-Son comes over the sea</div> -<div class="i0">From the West," said the Queen who was grey and old.</div> -<div class="i0">"In an unlit hall were not grey as gold?</div> -<div class="i0">In an unlit hall what are young and old?</div> -<div class="i10">We'll greet i' the dark," said she.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The Princess looked from the old grey tower ...</div> -<div class="i0">Lo! a milk-white sail on the sunlit ocean.</div> -<div class="i0">Fluttered her heart to its fluttering motion,</div> -<div class="i0">And the King's-Son looked from the golden ocean ...</div> -<div class="i10">She was so like a flower.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"Why do the grey seas break and boom?</div> -<div class="i0">And why is the starless dusk so grey?</div> -<div class="i0">And why does the young King's-Son delay?</div> -<div class="i0">Shall I," said the Queen who was old and grey,</div> -<div class="i10">"Sit all night i' the gloom?"</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The grey seas broke on an empty tower</div> -<div class="i0">Like pain that knocks on an empty breast.</div> -<div class="i0">Lo! a milk-white sail that flew the crest</div> -<div class="i0">Of Love and of Youth met breast to breast</div> -<div class="i0">Melted away in the golden West....</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The old grey Queen beat her empty breast:</div> -<div class="i10">"She was so like a flower."</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>THE QUEST</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">A Knight rides forth upon a Quest,</div> -<div class="i0">And his young Squire follows after;</div> -<div class="i0">The Knight's eyes dwell on a star's white crest,</div> -<div class="i0">And the Squire's eyes dwell on laughter.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"What of the Quest that claims our swords?"</div> -<div class="i0">The young Squire asks his master.</div> -<div class="i0">The Knight says, "'Tis too high for words,"</div> -<div class="i0">And they speed their horses faster.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">A beggar hails them: "Alms! alms, Sir Knight,</div> -<div class="i0">Or loose my life with your dagger!"</div> -<div class="i0">The Knight sees only a star's white light,</div> -<div class="i0">And the Squire's purse pays the beggar.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">A sturdy robber the highroad bars:</div> -<div class="i0">"Sir Knight, our debts we'll settle!"</div> -<div class="i0">The Knight hears only the song of stars,</div> -<div class="i0">And the Squire's blade wins the battle.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">A lady looks from a castle wall:</div> -<div class="i0">"Sir Knight, in pity stay thee!</div> -<div class="i0">Untrammel me who lie here in thrall,</div> -<div class="i0">And I in love will pay thee."</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The Knight is set on a goal heaven-high</div> -<div class="i0">Where a silver star is risen,</div> -<div class="i0">And the young Squire it is springs by</div> -<div class="i0">To free the maid from prison.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"Take, good Sir Knight, my pleasure and pride,</div> -<div class="i0">The meed of valiant striving!</div> -<div class="i0">Here wait the lips of your glad bride</div> -<div class="i0">Whose name is Joy-of-Living."</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Starward, starward the rapt Knight goes,</div> -<div class="i0">The star's true image missing.</div> -<div class="i0">The lady laughs like a lovely rose</div> -<div class="i0">And the Squire's lips do the kissing.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"What, boy, are you my love doth woo?</div> -<div class="i0">What's he that would not woo it?"</div> -<div class="i0">"He's John-a-Dreams-o'-Dering-do,</div> -<div class="i0">And I'm Dick-up-an'-Do-it."</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>THE UNSPOKEN WORD</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">THE MAN'S SIDE</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Two years I have lived in a dream</div> -<div class="i0">And have dared not to end it—</div> -<div class="i0">Owned wealth in a measure supreme</div> -<div class="i0">And been fearful to spend it.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">You, woman of beauty and love</div> -<div class="i0">In such noble wise fashioned,</div> -<div class="i0">Are my dreams and my rich treasure-trove.</div> -<div class="i0">I am shamed that, impassioned,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">In secret I levy demands</div> -<div class="i0">Upon more than you've given—</div> -<div class="i0">Crave yourself, heart and soul, eyes and hands,</div> -<div class="i0">Which in sum make up heaven.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Unconscious of aught, through these days</div> -<div class="i0">You have let me be near you,</div> -<div class="i0">Knowing not how your thousand sweet ways</div> -<div class="i0">Only serve to endear you</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">To all in your orbit who move,</div> -<div class="i0">In such innocence wronging</div> -<div class="i0">As friendship what really is love</div> -<div class="i0">And unsatisfied longing.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Yet, your friendship—to be just your friend—</div> -<div class="i0">So caps love in another,</div> -<div class="i0">That I would my love, burned to its end,</div> -<div class="i0">In its own smoke might smother,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Lest I in an outbreak one day</div> -<div class="i0">Ask of friendship aught stronger—</div> -<div class="i0">When you may forbid me to say</div> -<div class="i0">Even "friend" any longer.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">So I come in the old way and go,</div> -<div class="i0">While my heart's quickened beatings</div> -<div class="i0">Are hidden, and you never know</div> -<div class="i0">What I glean from our meetings;</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">How a word, a look even, which seems</div> -<div class="i0">So unconsciously meted,</div> -<div class="i0">Builds new dreams on the wreckage of dreams</div> -<div class="i0">That were never completed.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">You once dropped a flower—did not see</div> -<div class="i0">That I hid in my bosom</div> -<div class="i0">What was more than Golconda to me,</div> -<div class="i0">And to you a bruised blossom.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Ten seconds I once held your hand</div> -<div class="i0">While you pulled from the river</div> -<div class="i0">A lily. Could you understand</div> -<div class="i0">Why my own hand should quiver?</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Small matters these things you account</div> -<div class="i0">Who so lightly diffuse them,</div> -<div class="i0">But to all my life's joy they amount—</div> -<div class="i0">And my fear is, to lose them.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">One day, when your eyes are still kind</div> -<div class="i0">And your voice is still tender,</div> -<div class="i0">I shall slip the control of my mind,</div> -<div class="i0">All my future surrender,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Obeying the primal desire</div> -<div class="i0">To fall down and adore you,</div> -<div class="i0">And outpour in one instant of fire</div> -<div class="i0">All the love I have for you.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">'Twill be death, and far worse, at your feet</div> -<div class="i0">When my lips cease to blunder</div> -<div class="i0">And I look up your dear eyes to meet</div> -<div class="i0">Overrunning with wonder.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Thereafter—what? Nothing, I fear—</div> -<div class="i0">Even dreams will have vanished</div> -<div class="i0">When I by my act from your sphere</div> -<div class="i0">Shall for ever be banished.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Dear, that is the moment I dread—</div> -<div class="i0">When you hear my confession,</div> -<div class="i0">When the word I withhold has been said</div> -<div class="i0">And my love finds expression;</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">But till then (and God knows how I seek</div> -<div class="i0">To postpone and postpone it),</div> -<div class="i0">Till my love grows too strong, lips too weak</div> -<div class="i0">To much longer disown it,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I shall come, if I may, day by day,</div> -<div class="i0">My small gleanings to gather,</div> -<div class="i0">While you think of me—how shall we say?</div> -<div class="i0">As a brother or father;</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">And you never will guess, till you learn</div> -<div class="i0">From a heart brimming over,</div> -<div class="i0">That I've met you at every turn</div> -<div class="i0">As a passionate lover.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">THE WOMAN'S SIDE</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">How long will you hold back, belov'd? How long</div> -<div class="i4">Leave the supreme, the final word unspoken?</div> -<div class="i4">The barrier of silence hold unbroken?</div> -<div class="i4">Men—you, too, being a man—have called you strong,</div> -<div class="i0">A doer of big deeds, great acts. But they are wrong.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">You lack in courage. I, being woman, know</div> -<div class="i4">How often woman shapes man's enterprises,</div> -<div class="i4">Cloaking her work in manifold disguises</div> -<div class="i4">Lest he should chafe too large a debt to owe—</div> -<div class="i0">Strikes every blow up to the very hundredth blow</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">That shall at last resolve, achieve, complete</div> -<div class="i4">The foregone nine-and-ninety. This, grown wiser,</div> -<div class="i4">She leaves with him for fear he should despise her.</div> -<div class="i4"><i>He</i> wins the credit for the final feat—</div> -<div class="i0">Thought of <i>his</i> triumph, not hers, made all her toiling sweet.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Belov'd, how long before you understand?</div> -<div class="i4">Why, I have known two years you were my lover,</div> -<div class="i4">That all my being to yours was given over!</div> -<div class="i4">The thing your heart most yearns for lies at hand</div> -<div class="i0">Awaiting only this, that you shall make demand.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Have I not worked for all betwixt us two</div> -<div class="i4">Since first I saw your love spring into being,</div> -<div class="i4">And you became too faint of heart for seeing</div> -<div class="i4">That the one peach you longed to garner grew,</div> -<div class="i0">Ripened, and mellowed here only for you, for you?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">You would have drawn abashed from out my life</div> -<div class="i4">Had I permitted; it became <i>my</i> mission</div> -<div class="i4">To bring the golden moment to fruition</div> -<div class="i4">Through, ah, how many hours of wistful strife</div> -<div class="i0">With you, who guessed not, even, the tender struggle rife</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Between us. When I met you with a smile,</div> -<div class="i4">"Love's not for me," you thought, "yet while she kindly</div> -<div class="i4">Still looks and speaks, I'll stay." And went thus blindly</div> -<div class="i4">Taking for innocence what sprang from guile</div> -<div class="i0">That I might hold you by me just a little while.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">The day I dropped a flower upon the path,</div> -<div class="i4">Did you not know it was the thing I aimed for</div> -<div class="i4">When you behind me loitered (somewhat lamed for</div> -<div class="i4">A good excuse), secured it free from scath</div> -<div class="i0">And hid it close, to reap therefrom love's aftermath</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">In hours when I was absent? Why, I <i>meant</i>,</div> -<div class="i4">Belov'd, that you should have this one flower-treasure</div> -<div class="i4">(Stolen, you thought!) out of my heart's full measure—</div> -<div class="i4">Meant that your solitary nights be spent</div> -<div class="i0">Cheek to its petals pressed where all my love lay pent.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">And then, the day you helped me from the boat,</div> -<div class="i4">"It is but chance," you thought, "I hold her fingers</div> -<div class="i4">In mine past custom's limit, while she lingers</div> -<div class="i4">To cull the waterlily there afloat."</div> -<div class="i0">It was not chance, belov'd. And still you would not note.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">I have done all a woman may do, dear,</div> -<div class="i4">With eyes and hands and tones of voice have spoken,</div> -<div class="i4">In all but words have given you the token</div> -<div class="i4">And seal of love. What is it then you fear?</div> -<div class="i0">Can you not take one step, the goal being now so near?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Just the last word to utter, just the last</div> -<div class="i4">Step to be taken—it is very little!</div> -<div class="i4">Can you believe Love's structure is so brittle?</div> -<div class="i4">All I have builded in these two years past</div> -<div class="i0">Fall tottering at one word? It is of stronger cast.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">You would not have me speak. That part is yours.</div> -<div class="i4">My share is finished and I wait for you now.</div> -<div class="i4">The time to act has come—what will you do now?</div> -<div class="i4">Dear, even I'd say the word that all ensures</div> -<div class="i0">But that were more than love itself of love endures.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">I had to spend my strength when you were weak,</div> -<div class="i4">Be guide along the road from its beginning</div> -<div class="i4">To the last barrier. Am I worth the winning?</div> -<div class="i4">But <i>you</i> must turn the key. It will not creak.</div> -<div class="i0">Beloved, I am waiting still ... will you not speak?</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>IN THE OCULIST'S ANTEROOM</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">I</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Not to be able to see!...</div> -<div class="i0">Almost as well not be.</div> -<div class="i0">And that man in there in his single hand</div> -<div class="i0">Holds all God's light,</div> -<div class="i0">Or just so much, you understand,</div> -<div class="i0">As may be drunk in by another's sight—</div> -<div class="i0">Dear God, will he give the light to me?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Or will a fathomless night</div> -<div class="i0">Drop its veil across the sight</div> -<div class="i0">Of my straining eyes, to become mere husks</div> -<div class="i0">Whence the kernel slips,</div> -<div class="i0">Knowing none of God's dawns and only God's dusks ...</div> -<div class="i0">That man has them all at his finger-tips.</div> -<div class="i0">Dear God! will he clear the dusk from the light?</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">II</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">He has spoken. The man with his cold voice has spoken.</div> -<div class="i0">The seal of suspense lies here shattered and broken,</div> -<div class="i0"><i>And I know</i> ... And I know</div> -<div class="i0">What the coming years hold which an hour since were dumb to me—</div> -<div class="i0">God! how precious the jewel of your light has become to me</div> -<div class="i0">Where's my hat? Let me go.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>LITTLE DREAM-BROTHER.</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Little dream-brother that died</div> -<div class="i0">When I was not a year out of heaven,</div> -<div class="i0">I heard you when you tried</div> -<div class="i0">To come to me yestereven.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">As I lay in bed</div> -<div class="i0">Midway 'twixt nothingness and waking,</div> -<div class="i0">I heard the window shaking</div> -<div class="i0">And the beat of wings upon the pane.</div> -<div class="i0">"It is not the rain,</div> -<div class="i0">But my little dream-brother out there," I said.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I turned in bed:</div> -<div class="i0">"Come in, little dream-brother."</div> -<div class="i0">"I can only come in by the gates of sleep</div> -<div class="i0">And by no other.</div> -<div class="i0">Through the niche of the tiniest dream I can creep—</div> -<div class="i0">Sleep, sister, do sleep," you said.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">And so through the night we waited—</div> -<div class="i0">You on the window-threshold there</div> -<div class="i0">In the wet windy weather,</div> -<div class="i0">And I abed—with breath bated,</div> -<div class="i0">Just to catch the first moment of sleep unaware</div> -<div class="i0">And fly kissing together.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">But sleep would not come till seven,</div> -<div class="i0">When the shivering day</div> -<div class="i0">Looked up all chilly and grey.</div> -<div class="i0">"Creep into bed,</div> -<div class="i0">Little dream-brother, under my arm</div> -<div class="i0">And I'll keep you warm."</div> -<div class="i0">But you shook your head:</div> -<div class="i0">"It's bed-time in heaven,</div> -<div class="i0">Sister. Goodbye," you said.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">There was not a whole year between you</div> -<div class="i0">And me, little dream-brother.</div> -<div class="i0">I cannot remember even to have seen you ...</div> -<div class="i0">And now I might be your mother.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>FAUST AND MARGARET</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"Devil," he said, "Love's Heaven—</div> -<div class="i0">Shall man not therefor lose his soul?"</div> -</div> - -<div class="tb"> - * <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"God," she whispered, "is Love Heaven?</div> -<div class="i0">Is Heaven a place of dole?"</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">(<i>And so she gave his Heaven to the man</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>Because the man did crave it.</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>And so because she never asked Hell's ban</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>He gave it.</i>)</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"Devil!" he said, "Love's Hell!</div> -<div class="i0">Man's wild-beast-thirst, how slake it?</div> -<div class="i0">Take the tenderest thing, thus—thus!</div> -<div class="i0">Passion-torture it a spell,</div> -<div class="i0">And break it!"</div> -</div> - -<div class="tb"> - * <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"God," she whispered, "Love is Heaven.</div> -<div class="i0">Love's not what Love is made for us,</div> -<div class="i0">But what we make it."</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">(<i>And so her dead soul found what it had given,</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>And what he builded, there his damned soul ended....</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>And do you think that either Hell or Heaven</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>These sinners' suffering-on-earth amended?</i>)</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>DREAM-SHIPS</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I set my dream-ships floating</div> -<div class="i0">Upon the tides of sleep.</div> -<div class="i0">Beneath whose moving waters</div> -<div class="i0">Unfathomed currents creep;</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">And one was made of roses</div> -<div class="i0">With flowering mast and spars,</div> -<div class="i0">And one was made of music,</div> -<div class="i0">And one was made of stars:</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">One was all joy and sorrow</div> -<div class="i0">Made from my own heart-strings,</div> -<div class="i0">And one was like a cradle</div> -<div class="i0">With sails like angels' wings.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">O little ships that wander</div> -<div class="i0">All lonely on the deep,</div> -<div class="i0">And only come to haven</div> -<div class="i0">Upon the tides of sleep.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>THE MORAL</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The youth cried in anguish: "God,</div> -<div class="i0">My life is bowed down beneath</div> -<div class="i0">Its woe! I am no mere clod—</div> -<div class="i0">There's fire in my blood and breath.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"You, Who made me of flesh, not stone,</div> -<div class="i0">Of quivering tissues—dare</div> -<div class="i0">You leave me to face alone</div> -<div class="i0">A grief past my strength to bear?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"Life might be veriest heaven,</div> -<div class="i0">Life can be veriest hell—</div> -<div class="i0">In <i>Your</i> hands rests what is given.</div> -<div class="i0">God, I hold You responsible!"</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Then the man who was growing grey</div> -<div class="i0">Observed: "In an idle mood</div> -<div class="i0">God blew bubbles one day</div> -<div class="i0">And loosed the glistening brood</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">On the welkin, one by one—</div> -<div class="i0">Myriads of worlds they sped:</div> -<div class="i0">There were planets and moon and sun,</div> -<div class="i0">And one was the globe we tread."</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Then the Spirit that Nullifies,</div> -<div class="i0">Men term Death, asked: "How long?" (One fears</div> -<div class="i0">God shrugged.) "While I blink my eyes—</div> -<div class="i0">Shall we say a billion years?"</div> -</div> - -<div class="tb"> - * <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The youth on the fable broke,</div> -<div class="i0">And scorn in his accents ran:</div> -<div class="i0">"What is all this to me? I spoke</div> -<div class="i0">To God of <i>Myself</i>, old man."</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>COLOUR-TONES</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">I</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">A visionary filmy sheen</div> -<div class="i0">Scarce palpable of silver-green</div> -<div class="i0">Limns barren furrow and bare branch.</div> -<div class="i0">One month more, and the welcoming</div> -<div class="i0">Gates o' the world will open wide</div> -<div class="i0">To let the full deep vernal tide</div> -<div class="i0">Sweep overland, an avalanche</div> -<div class="i0">Of green, absorbing in its rush</div> -<div class="i0">This silver-misty verdure ... Hush!</div> -<div class="i0">This is the old earth's dream of Spring.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">II</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">In Cobham woods the bluebells run</div> -<div class="i0">Celestial rillets, streams and rivers,</div> -<div class="i0">Or else a purple lake they lie,</div> -<div class="i0">Or little azure pool;</div> -<div class="i0">The blue flood shimmers in the sun</div> -<div class="i0">Or under the wind's breathing shivers,</div> -<div class="i0">While drops cerulean-tincted spill</div> -<div class="i0">Among the grass. Then very still</div> -<div class="i0">The dim sweet waters grow and cool</div> -<div class="i0">Like shadows of the sky.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">III</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The yellow light of daffodils</div> -<div class="i0">The lawns beneath the fruit-trees fills,</div> -<div class="i0">The yellow light of early spring</div> -<div class="i0">Swims in the shining upper air,</div> -<div class="i0">And all about the fragrant fair</div> -<div class="i0">Blossoming boughs of sunlit white</div> -<div class="i0">Like clouds of heavenly incense swing</div> -<div class="i0">'Twixt yellow light and yellow light.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>FROM AN OLD GARDEN</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">OUTSIDE</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Trees have grown to the edge of the gate</div> -<div class="i0">Where grey-bearded lichens cling;</div> -<div class="i0">The greenwoods stand in a ring,</div> -<div class="i0">Holding the garden-pearl in their centre</div> -<div class="i0">A jewel inviolate.</div> -<div class="i0">Heart of mine, shall we enter?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">There is a charm of sleep in the air,</div> -<div class="i0">Weft of Time's humming loom.</div> -<div class="i0">There in the green half-gloom</div> -<div class="i0">I think some intangible spirit hovers ...</div> -<div class="i0">They say the dim wraiths dwell there</div> -<div class="i0">Of countless, long-dead lovers.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Warp of sleep and woof of love:</div> -<div class="i0">The flush of a live rose glows</div> -<div class="i0">By the pallid death of the rose,</div> -<div class="i0">A song next the hush that stilled its numbers:</div> -<div class="i0">Such is the web Time wove.</div> -<div class="i0">Dare we disturb their slumbers?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">We stand on the outskirts, you and I—</div> -<div class="i0">Shall we not venture in?</div> -<div class="i0">They will condone the sin,</div> -<div class="i0">Those dim, dead lovers, will smile and pardon,</div> -<div class="i0">For our honeymoon hangs in the sky.</div> -<div class="i0">Heart of mine, into the garden!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">INSIDE</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">You and I here!</div> -<div class="i0">Shut the gate behind us.</div> -<div class="i0">Nothing to fear</div> -<div class="i0">And none to find us.</div> -<div class="i0">We are all the world, dear!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">'Tis a cloister of dreams,</div> -<div class="i0">This dear old garden;</div> -<div class="i0">The sundial seems</div> -<div class="i0">To stand as their warden.</div> -<div class="i0">How Love's star gleams!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">We'll sup on the rose,</div> -<div class="i0">Our tent is this willow—</div> -<div class="i0">Lie close, Love, close!</div> -<div class="i0">There's grass for our pillow.</div> -<div class="i0">How Love's star glows!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">You and I here</div> -<div class="i0">And the world behind us!</div> -<div class="i0">Nothing to fear</div> -<div class="i0">And none to find us—</div> -<div class="i0">Shut the gate, dear.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">FLOW'R AND SONG</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Song and flow'r and flow'r and song,</div> -<div class="i0">So soothed the summer drifts along:</div> -<div class="i4">Within our hearts a flow'r</div> -<div class="i4">Unfolding hour by hour,</div> -<div class="i4">While a song half-conscious slips</div> -<div class="i4">Over my dear one's lips.</div> -<div class="i0">Flow'r and song and song and flow'r,</div> -<div class="i0">So filled runs by each swift, sweet hour:</div> -<div class="i4">Close to my breast you twine</div> -<div class="i4">Your flow'r-lips laid on mine,</div> -<div class="i4">And I catch before we part</div> -<div class="i4">The song-beats of your heart.</div> -<div class="i0">Flow'r and song in our garden-close</div> -<div class="i0">Like wedded lovers have grown one word.</div> -<div class="i0">I could weave you a wreath from the notes of that bird,</div> -<div class="i0">And pluck you a song from the heart of this rose.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">DWELLERS IN THE GARDEN</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Who dwelt here of old?</div> -<div class="i0">Hush! If I lift from the misty years</div> -<div class="i0">The veil of dead smiles and forgotten tears,</div> -<div class="i0">I think I can picture a little maid</div> -<div class="i4">Crowned with plaits of gold,</div> -<div class="i0">Passing alone down each green arcade</div> -<div class="i4">While the sundial told</div> -<div class="i0">In silence its hours of shine and shade.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> -<div class="i0">Young she was as the peep of dawn,</div> -<div class="i0">And as a year-old dappled fawn</div> -<div class="i0">Was shy and tender and innocent.</div> -<div class="i0">And all her days were in waiting spent</div> -<div class="i0">Amongst her flowers in a day-dream she</div> -<div class="i0">Builded herself. So continuously</div> -<div class="i0">In waiting and waiting the days went by—</div> -<div class="i0">We know what she waited, love, you and I.</div> -<div class="i0">The flowers had nothing to teach to her—</div> -<div class="i0">In her sleep she could hear the grasses stir,</div> -<div class="i0">She had secrets with every rose in the place,</div> -<div class="i0">The lilies kept smiles for her lily-face,</div> -<div class="i0">She could think their thoughts and utter their speech,</div> -<div class="i0">Had a sister's tender look for each,</div> -<div class="i0">And knew why the trailing clematis</div> -<div class="i0">Dropped on the sundial a purple kiss—</div> -<div class="i0">As surely as we know why, she knew.</div> -<div class="i0">And so in her house of dreams she grew,</div> -<div class="i0">And so the star-lighted nights slipped by.</div> -<div class="i0">We know what she waited for—you and I—</div> -<div class="i4">Who dwelt here of old.</div> -<div class="i4">There's her tale half-told.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">What more to unfold?</div> -<div class="i0">When he came at last did they ride away,</div> -<div class="i0">Or, day succeeding each happy day,</div> -<div class="i0">Did they stay with two heartfuls of love to brim</div> -<div class="i0">The garden wherein she had waited him?</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> -<div class="i0">Well, this I know. If they stayed or went,</div> -<div class="i0">After their term of life was spent</div> -<div class="i0">They returned to roam by her lily-pond,</div> -<div class="i0">On to the rosery set beyond,</div> -<div class="i0">Haunt her favourite paths and nooks,</div> -<div class="i0">Re-read the fairy-tales which her books,</div> -<div class="i0">The flowers, had yielded her in such store</div> -<div class="i0">When he was the hero of all their lore.</div> -<div class="i0">Hand in hand they go as of old,</div> -<div class="i4">He brave and bold,</div> -<div class="i4">She crowned with gold.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Ah, love, they are neither the first nor last!</div> -<div class="i0">For all of those, having loved and passed,</div> -<div class="i0">In spirit come back when their dust is cold,</div> -<div class="i4">Who dwelt here of old.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">A ROSE-SONG</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Oh, what a realm, what a riot of roses!</div> -<div class="i0">Here we stand</div> -<div class="i0">Right in the heart of a great rose-land!</div> -<div class="i0">Over our head the blossom-world closes,</div> -<div class="i0">Under our feet—</div> -<div class="i0">Walls, ceil and carpet are flowery-sweet.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Snowy and crimson and pink and golden</div> -<div class="i0">Twine and trail,</div> -<div class="i0">Vivid as life is, as death is, pale.</div> -<div class="i0">Here they bloom as they bloomed in olden</div> -<div class="i0">Days when we</div> -<div class="i0">Were unborn shades, and the shades that be</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Had right in these grounds to resent intrusion.</div> -<div class="i0">Now you and I</div> -<div class="i0">Jealously cherish our privacy.</div> -<div class="i0">How came these roses by their profusion,</div> -<div class="i0">Tier on tier</div> -<div class="i0">Of bloom on bloom running uncurb'd here?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I think I can guess what they would answer,</div> -<div class="i0">Whence they came,</div> -<div class="i0">Pallid petal and flower of flame,</div> -<div class="i0">Inscribed with such lore as the old romancer</div> -<div class="i0">Of Italy</div> -<div class="i0">Left the world to make love-songs by.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">We are born, these pink roses say, of kisses,</div> -<div class="i0">Dye of the blush.</div> -<div class="i0">What though time's passage their soft lisp hush?</div> -<div class="i0">The seeds were scattered of lovers' blisses,</div> -<div class="i0">And year by year</div> -<div class="i0">We renew their tender caresses here.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">We are born of joy, say these petals yellow,</div> -<div class="i0">Tinge of delight.</div> -<div class="i0">What though love's sunshine be lapped in night?</div> -<div class="i0">We, sprung from its seeds, rich-toned and mellow,</div> -<div class="i0">Perpetuate</div> -<div class="i0">The days when the orbit of love waxed great.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">We are born, these red ones say, of passion,</div> -<div class="i0">Flush of the heart.</div> -<div class="i0">What though the sound of love's steps depart?</div> -<div class="i0">The seeds were sown, and we in this fashion</div> -<div class="i0">Immortalize</div> -<div class="i0">Remembrance thereof in the heart's own dyes.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">We are born, say these snow-white blooms, of the spirit,</div> -<div class="i0">Children of death.</div> -<div class="i0">What is the ceasing of mere life-breath?</div> -<div class="i0">Love is sustained by its own pure merit,</div> -<div class="i0">Its memory</div> -<div class="i0">Renewed and renewed to infinity.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Belov'd, we are adding to these rose-bowers.</div> -<div class="i0">When we have passed</div> -<div class="i0">Here our hearts' treasure will lie amassed.</div> -<div class="i0">Pink, gold, crimson and snowy flowers,</div> -<div class="i0">Thus and thus,</div> -<div class="i0">To the limit of time will bloom for us.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">BY THE FOUNTAIN</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Come down, dear, to the fountain's pool with me,</div> -<div class="i0">And help me guess how long since last it tinkled</div> -<div class="i0">And trickled out thin streams of minstrelsy—</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">How long since last the grass with pearls it sprinkled.</div> -<div class="i0">It was yet young the day it fell asleep,</div> -<div class="i0">For time has left its glassy face unwrinkled.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Ah, could we where the shadows lie most deep</div> -<div class="i0">Peering discern the dear forgotten faces</div> -<div class="i0">Of girls who o'er the brink were wont to peep,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">With shy eyes seeking in the depths the graces</div> -<div class="i0">Made dear and lovely to them by love's praise.</div> -<div class="i0">Can all have passed away and left no traces?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">They dreamed, as we too dream, through summer days,</div> -<div class="i0">And hid their white thoughts in such water-lilies</div> -<div class="i0">As float here now. Flowers do not change their ways.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Ah, love, to-day the lucent water still is</div> -<div class="i0">As tho' no rosy finger-tips had dipped</div> -<div class="i0">And dabbled it, and hushed the fountain's rill is.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Their feet across the velvet greensward tripped,</div> -<div class="i0">Their bosoms pressed the crumbling grey-stone basin,</div> -<div class="i0">They fed the ruddy goldfish laughing-lipped ...</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Is not one left? Look, look! I seem to trace in</div> -<div class="i0">The murky deeps some shape of hoary carp—</div> -<div class="i0">Too late! for now I only see your face in</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The water, smiling questions. He was sharp,</div> -<div class="i0">That king-fish, but I caught his gold crown's glimmer ...</div> -<div class="i0">Oh, fountain, tune again for us your harp,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Fling through the air for us your diamond shimmer</div> -<div class="i0">Of spray. Two new young lovers seek your shrine.</div> -<div class="i0">Those loves of old with years grow fainter, dimmer,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">But ours is warm and living and divine,</div> -<div class="i0">And time has not yet breathed upon its lustre,</div> -<div class="i0">And I am hers and she is all of mine!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">And here we kneel where once old loves would muster,</div> -<div class="i0">Shut in the lilies one new secret up,</div> -<div class="i0">And add her image to the beauty-cluster</div> -<div class="i0">Of those whose eyes lie mirrored in your cup.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">TIME AND LOVE</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Old sundial, you stand here for Time:</div> -<div class="i0">For Love, the vine that round your base</div> -<div class="i0">Its tendrils twines, and dares to climb</div> -<div class="i0">And lay one flower-capped spray in grace</div> -<div class="i0">Without the asking on your cold</div> -<div class="i0">Unsmiling and unfrowning face.</div> -<div class="i0">Yet, sundial, even Time may mould.</div> -<div class="i0">In years to come the foot shall stumble</div> -<div class="i0">Upon your shattered ruins where</div> -<div class="i0">This vine will flourish still, as rare,</div> -<div class="i0">As fresh, as fragrant as of old.</div> -<div class="i4">Love will not crumble.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Kisses have worn your stones away,</div> -<div class="i0">Lov'd lips you did not pulse beneath;</div> -<div class="i0">Dropt tears have hastened your decay</div> -<div class="i0">And brought you one step nigher death;</div> -<div class="i0">And you have heard, unthrilled, unmoved,</div> -<div class="i0">The music of Love's golden breath</div> -<div class="i0">And seen the light in eyes that loved.</div> -<div class="i0">You think you hold the core and kernel</div> -<div class="i0">Of all the world beneath your crust,</div> -<div class="i0">Old dial? But when you lie in dust,</div> -<div class="i0">This vine will bloom, strong, green, and proved.</div> -<div class="i4">Love is eternal.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">RIFLED FLOWERS</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Why is the lily's cheek waxen with grief?</div> -<div class="i8">A brown-and-gold thief</div> -<div class="i8">Dived down to her core</div> -<div class="i8">And burgled her store.</div> -<div class="i0">Bowed with her sweetness she saw him depart,</div> -<div class="i4">But her soul was too pure to complain.</div> -<div class="i4">Dear, drop a kiss in her heart</div> -<div class="i0">And make the sweet lily all honey again.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Why does the fox-glove droop low, bell and leaf?</div> -<div class="i8">A silver-winged thief</div> -<div class="i8">Who delved in her pollen</div> -<div class="i8">With gold powder swollen</div> -<div class="i0">Fled in new blossoms her wealth to disburse</div> -<div class="i4">And left her not one yellow grain.</div> -<div class="i4">Sweet, blow a kiss in her purse</div> -<div class="i0">And fill the dear fox-glove with treasure again.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">FAIRY-TIME</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Lie very still, love, where I fold</div> -<div class="i0">You close: the clocks strike fairy-time.</div> -<div class="i0">The thin, sweet tinkle of their chime</div> -<div class="i0">Is like a thread of gold</div> -<div class="i0">Woven through the heart of night</div> -<div class="i0">For our delight.</div> -<div class="i0">And following the elfin call</div> -<div class="i0">Faint noises, half-tones, rise and fall—</div> -<div class="i0">The whirr and flit of fairy wings</div> -<div class="i0">Pass and re-pass,</div> -<div class="i0">And we can hear among the grass</div> -<div class="i0">Musicians tune their buzzing strings,</div> -<div class="i0">And small feet tapping on the ground</div> -<div class="i0">The measures of a fairy round.</div> -<div class="i0">Out of the roses stream wee elves,</div> -<div class="i0">Sweet peas are fairies in themselves,</div> -<div class="i0">And myriad water-sprites</div> -<div class="i0">From dreaming water-lilies rise,</div> -<div class="i0">Such glistening, ephemeral mites,</div> -<div class="i0">Flashing like spray across our eyes.</div> -<div class="i0">Watch how all whirl, dissolve, and mix</div> -<div class="i0">Again, foot it so daintily,</div> -<div class="i0">Play such quaint, pretty tricks—</div> -<div class="i0">Some on wild moths go riding by,</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> -<div class="i0">Breaking them in with rein and bit</div> -<div class="i0">Of gossamer: some lurk and flit,</div> -<div class="i0">Making pretence at hide and-seek</div> -<div class="i0">Behind the daisies, laugh and peek</div> -<div class="i0">Like children: disregarding rules,</div> -<div class="i0">Play leap-frog with the spotted stools</div> -<div class="i0">Of fungus, each night newly-sprung</div> -<div class="i0">For them to sport among ...</div> -<div class="i0">Suddenly all grow hushed with awe—</div> -<div class="i0">Come closer, dear!</div> -<div class="i0">The voice of one who broke the law</div> -<div class="i0">Of Fairyland sounds harsh and near,</div> -<div class="i0">And overhead a dark shape flies.</div> -<div class="i0">Bound in a hollow oak by day</div> -<div class="i0">He, like the wizard Merlin, lies,</div> -<div class="i0">But is condemned to pass the night</div> -<div class="i0">In restless flight</div> -<div class="i0">Until the dawn looms grey....</div> -<div class="i0">There! he has passed. And in a trice</div> -<div class="i0">They all forget him, joining hands</div> -<div class="i0">Once more in glittering, laughing bands,</div> -<div class="i0">Employing every strange device</div> -<div class="i0">And twist and twirl</div> -<div class="i0">And mazy whirl</div> -<div class="i0">To build their graceful, freakish dance—</div> -<div class="i0">Like moonbeam motes they glide and glance</div> -<div class="i0">Under the starshine. Seize this chance</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> -<div class="i0">Of watching them. To-morrow we</div> -<div class="i0">No trace shall see</div> -<div class="i0">Of all their revels save—who knows?—</div> -<div class="i0">A broken toadstool, or the spun</div> -<div class="i0">Fine silken spider's web undone,</div> -<div class="i0">The shattered petals of a rose</div> -<div class="i0">Tom in the careless frolic, or</div> -<div class="i0">The bloom brushed from some untamed wing</div> -<div class="i0">Of moth, and on their dancing-floor</div> -<div class="i0">Staining the grass a bright green ring.</div> -<div class="i0">Lie close, and let us look our fill</div> -<div class="i0">To-night. Be very still.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">THE WANING YEAR</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Two little things, dear, I have seen</div> -<div class="i0">To-day that overflowed my breast with sorrow—</div> -<div class="i0">We may not stay here many another morrow.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Amongst the leafage, by its green</div> -<div class="i0">Still-living sisters tenderly enfolden,</div> -<div class="i0">I saw one single leaf grown dry and golden.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">And down the alleys of the rose</div> -<div class="i0">Passing, I saw one lightly breathed-on blossom</div> -<div class="i0">Fall instantly deflowered to earth's brown bosom.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Compassionate summer ere she goes</div> -<div class="i0">Strikes tender notes surcharged with wistful warnings ...</div> -<div class="i0">Dear heart, we must begone ere many mornings.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">SHADOWS</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">We thought we were here alone,</div> -<div class="i0">Had spent our summer of love</div> -<div class="i0">By all other hearts unknown,</div> -<div class="i0">Of all other eyes unseen—</div> -<div class="i0">But something came to disprove</div> -<div class="i0">Last night what we thought had been.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The shadows fell one by one—</div> -<div class="i0">We have watched them fall before</div> -<div class="i0">And fancied ourselves alone;</div> -<div class="i0">But they seemed to waver and move</div> -<div class="i0">Last night, and to wander o'er</div> -<div class="i0">Our green-tented couch of love.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">You were asleep, and I</div> -<div class="i0">Would not disturb your dreams</div> -<div class="i0">Lest the shadowy shapes should fly.</div> -<div class="i0">I saw them gather and mount</div> -<div class="i0">In ever-increasing streams—</div> -<div class="i0">More lovers than I could count.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">They circled around our bed</div> -<div class="i0">And watched us a little while</div> -<div class="i0">From the sides and foot and head;</div> -<div class="i0">And some of that shadow-band</div> -<div class="i0">Were wistful, and some would smile,</div> -<div class="i0">But all seemed to understand.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Then I felt light fingers twine</div> -<div class="i0">In my hair, and soft breath enwreathe</div> -<div class="i0">My brow ... lips were laid to mine ...</div> -<div class="i0">But none of the hands was this,</div> -<div class="i0">Nor the breath the breath you breathe,</div> -<div class="i0">The kisses were not your kiss.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Then ... you turned on your side to press</div> -<div class="i0">More close with the smile that slips</div> -<div class="i0">From its hiding at my caress,</div> -<div class="i0">And you breathed my name in my ear</div> -<div class="i0">As though I had kissed your lips ...</div> -<div class="i0">But I had not kissed you, dear.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">THE LAST NIGHT</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Well, is it done? is it over?</div> -<div class="i0">Three months in these groves I have been your lover,</div> -<div class="i0">Added my voice to the echoing chorus</div> -<div class="i4">Of those who loved here before us.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">We have pressed the paths made sweet</div> -<div class="i0">By the pressure of bygone lovers' feet,</div> -<div class="i0">Have lain amid flowerless violet-beds</div> -<div class="i4">Where they laid their happy heads;</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">We have flung a red-rose petal</div> -<div class="i0">On the glass of the pond and watched it settle,</div> -<div class="i0">Then drift like a boat down one of her streams</div> -<div class="i4">With our cargo of hopes and dreams.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">So many have come and gone,</div> -<div class="i0">Have done the things which we two have done:</div> -<div class="i0">Have leaned in revery sweet and solemn,</div> -<div class="i4">Hands laced, on the sundial's column:</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">Have found their three months as brief</div> -<div class="i0">As the life of a blade of grass, a leaf—</div> -<div class="i0">As eternal, too, as the leafage is</div> -<div class="i4">Have found their three months of bliss.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">For us it is finished and over.</div> -<div class="i0">Our three months are spent when as lover and lover</div> -<div class="i0">We may roam these groves. But to-night we are nearest,</div> -<div class="i4">This being our last night, dearest,</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">The spirits of those who wander</div> -<div class="i0">Near our lily-pond, by our sundial yonder,</div> -<div class="i0">In our rose-realm ... Farewells are not easily spoken,</div> -<div class="i4">So their silence remains unbroken.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4">But I see through a mist of tears</div> -<div class="i0">This garden after a million years,</div> -<div class="i0">Where two shades more move eternally ...</div> -<div class="i4">Heart of mine, they are you and I.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"></div> -<h2>A SHEAF OF NATURE-SONGS</h2> -<p class="center bold p2t">(Overstrand, 1905.)</p> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">I</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">They were gathered up in the moods</div> -<div class="i0">Which I found in the solitudes</div> -<div class="i0">Of the shore and the fields and the woods,</div> -<div class="i0">Of the dawn and the noon and the even,</div> -<div class="i0">Of the earth and the sea and of heaven.</div> -<div class="i0">And some lack rhythm and metre,</div> -<div class="i0">And none of the songs is sweeter,</div> -<div class="i0">Or as sweet (by the infinite span</div> -<div class="i0">Which divides the work of man</div> -<div class="i0">From the work of his God), as the thing</div> -<div class="i0">Which was the fountain and spring</div> -<div class="i0">Whence my heart drew its need to sing.</div> -<div class="i0">But because wherever I went</div> -<div class="i0">Much song in my heart was pent:</div> -<div class="i0">Because the sea and the sky</div> -<div class="i0">Filled my breast with such melody:</div> -<div class="i0">Because the woodlands and all</div> -<div class="i0">God's earth became musical</div> -<div class="i0">As they entered into my soul:</div> -<div class="i0">Because I captured the whole</div> -<div class="i0">Of Nature for my possession:</div> -<div class="i0">I sang just to find expression</div> -<div class="i0">For the joy and the love and the pride of it—</div> -<div class="i0">Else all song in me might have died of it.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span></p> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">II</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The infinite sky overhead</div> -<div class="i0">And on the horizon</div> -<div class="i0">The infinite sea.</div> -<div class="i0">Green billowing grass for my bed—</div> -<div class="i0">At last I am out of my prison</div> -<div class="i0">And free!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">An insect creeps over my page,</div> -<div class="i0">An infinite mite</div> -<div class="i0">With all life folded under its wings.</div> -<div class="i0">I am of no sex, of no age,</div> -<div class="i0">Here out of sight</div> -<div class="i0">Of the world, all alone with God's infinite things.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Oh, the world of small leafage</div> -<div class="i0">Peopling the bank where I lean,</div> -<div class="i0">And the one white daisy</div> -<div class="i0">With its wisdom of things supernal.</div> -<div class="i0">They live out their brief age,</div> -<div class="i0">Brief but eternal,</div> -<div class="i0">And time itself recedes and grows hazy</div> -<div class="i0">In this little infinite world of green.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Behind me the copse</div> -<div class="i0">Like a round cup dips</div> -<div class="i0">Filled with a pool of soft shadows,</div> -<div class="i0">And to me in the meadows</div> -<div class="i0">One shy bird-voice from the tree-top drips</div> -<div class="i0">And into the hollow of shadows it melts and drops.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">They are all around me</div> -<div class="i0">And all above me,</div> -<div class="i0">Half-seen, half-heard,</div> -<div class="i0">Flower and leaf and insect and bird,</div> -<div class="i0">Wild, timid creatures,</div> -<div class="i0">Simple and friendly and shy;</div> -<div class="i0">And so still I lie</div> -<div class="i0">Where they have found me</div> -<div class="i0">That I think in time they may learn to love me,</div> -<div class="i0">For they are Nature's</div> -<div class="i0">And so am I.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">One by one she unfolds each feature,</div> -<div class="i0">The Infinite Mother</div> -<div class="i0">To her child.</div> -<div class="i0">There was a new bird-call,</div> -<div class="i0">And there was another!</div> -<div class="i0">I too shall learn to grow simple and shy and wild ...</div> -<div class="i0">Only Nature and Nature and nothing but Nature,</div> -<div class="i0">And I alone in the heart of it all.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">III</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">They who dwell in the southlands say,</div> -<div class="i0">Little green England of mine, that you</div> -<div class="i0">Are misty and colourless, cold and grey.</div> -<div class="i4">If it be true</div> -<div class="i0">And they can know it who dwell afar,</div> -<div class="i0">You only are grey as diamonds are.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">To-day in the warm soft evening light</div> -<div class="i0">You are a zone of delicate tints;</div> -<div class="i0">On the rim of the sea the sun is bright,</div> -<div class="i4">And shoots and glints</div> -<div class="i0">Sparkles of gold through its splendid blue.</div> -<div class="i0">Who say you are colourless know not you.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Opal gleams on the sunset sky</div> -<div class="i0">Where a wave of the liquid sapphire flows;</div> -<div class="i0">One bright cloud on its flood drifts by</div> -<div class="i4">Of pearl and rose;</div> -<div class="i0">The air is radiant and crystalline</div> -<div class="i0">As rare jewels delved from a fairy mine.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">A breeze just shivers the green of the corn</div> -<div class="i0">And sweeps it into a silver sea;</div> -<div class="i0">Infinite sensitive shades new-born</div> -<div class="i4">On hill and lea</div> -<div class="i0">Over the land's lap flit and pass</div> -<div class="i0">Like elusive tints in Venetian glass</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Nature has painted you in pastel,</div> -<div class="i0">You are her palette of tender hues,</div> -<div class="i0">Little green England of mine, where dwell</div> -<div class="i4">Change, and infuse,</div> -<div class="i0">The million lights of the polar-star,</div> -<div class="i0">And you only are grey as diamonds are.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span></p> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">IV</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i8">If I could unravel</div> -<div class="i8">The music of the grass,</div> -<div class="i8">Beyond those confines travel</div> -<div class="i8">Which mortals cannot pass,</div> -<div class="i8">I think that I should capture all</div> -<div class="i8">The secret of things musical—</div> -<div class="i0">All music ever will be, and all it ever was.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i8">Ear close to earth inclining</div> -<div class="i8">I hear her wordless song</div> -<div class="i8">Of threads past man's divining</div> -<div class="i8">Woven the grass among.</div> -<div class="i8">Beneath these fragrant, tangled weeds</div> -<div class="i8">She sings the strain to which her seeds</div> -<div class="i0">March into life, push upward to heaven, and grow strong.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i8">Then like a voice replying</div> -<div class="i8">Follows her cradle-croon</div> -<div class="i8">Lulling tired things that, dying,</div> -<div class="i8">Back to their Mother swoon.</div> -<div class="i8">For where the worlds of grasses spring</div> -<div class="i8">Both life and death their choral sing,</div> -<div class="i0">The spheres' eternal roundel circling an afternoon.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i8">The music of existence</div> -<div class="i8">Moves underneath my ear—</div> -<div class="i8">From how remote a distance</div> -<div class="i8">Comes that which sounds so near!</div> -<div class="i8">Could I the human barrier pass</div> -<div class="i8">By the fine measure of one grass</div> -<div class="i0">I then might comprehend what now I only hear.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i8">There's such melodious stirring</div> -<div class="i8">Of hidden, secret things,</div> -<div class="i8">There's such harmonious whirring</div> -<div class="i8">Of faint mysterious wings;</div> -<div class="i8">And underneath this leaf is curled</div> -<div class="i8">The song, I think, of all the world—</div> -<div class="i0">Up-turned, should I discover the seed from which it springs?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i8">If I could unravel</div> -<div class="i8">The music of the grass,</div> -<div class="i8">Beyond those confines travel</div> -<div class="i8">Which mortals cannot pass,</div> -<div class="i8">I think that I should capture all</div> -<div class="i8">The secret of things musical—</div> -<div class="i0">All music ever will be, and all it ever was.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span></p> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">V</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Hark!</div> -<div class="i0">It is afternoon,</div> -<div class="i0">Yet that must be a lark.</div> -<div class="i0">No other bird flies up so high</div> -<div class="i0">And shakes its sparkling spray of song</div> -<div class="i0">Through the grey clouds in the sky,</div> -<div class="i0">No other bird has just that thrilling</div> -<div class="i0">Note in trilling,</div> -<div class="i0">Or can sustain so long</div> -<div class="i0">Its liquid flood of mirth:</div> -<div class="i0">As rare a boon</div> -<div class="i0">To thirsty ears as God's dew is to earth.</div> -<div class="i0">Yet it is afternoon.</div> -<div class="i0">I thought the larks, all scorning</div> -<div class="i0">The jaded hours, sang only in the morning.</div> -<div class="i0">And I, whose first flushed youth is going,</div> -<div class="i0">Who watch the swift noon growing</div> -<div class="i0">Upon me, hour by hour,</div> -<div class="i0">Feeling that I must always stand apart</div> -<div class="i0">From earth's sweet singers, because I lacked the pow'r</div> -<div class="i0">To loose the morning song-burst from my heart—</div> -<div class="i0">Oh, songster of the mellowing hour of day,</div> -<div class="i0">Shall I, too, late or soon,</div> -<div class="i0">Learn from your throat the way</div> -<div class="i0">To loose my power of song even in my afternoon?</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span></p> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">VI</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The day was a lifeless day.</div> -<div class="i0">Under a tree I lay</div> -<div class="i0">And round me its branches bent</div> -<div class="i0">Touching the earth like a tent.</div> -<div class="i0">There was no stir of breeze;</div> -<div class="i0">I was shut in with trees,</div> -<div class="i0">Locked from the world by these;</div> -<div class="i0">Dead leaves were piled on the ground,</div> -<div class="i0">And the forest lay in a swound,</div> -<div class="i0">Throbbed with nor pulse nor breath,</div> -<div class="i0">And I thought: "It is waiting Death."</div> -<div class="i0">So I lay there, still and oppressed,</div> -<div class="i0">While the silence grew in my breast.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Presently as I lay</div> -<div class="i0">I heard from far away</div> -<div class="i0">Little pattering feet</div> -<div class="i0">Over the dry leaves beat;</div> -<div class="i0">Tripping along pell-mell,</div> -<div class="i0">Thicker and faster they fell</div> -<div class="i0">Than tongue could count or tell.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> -<div class="i0">And I fancied the birds and deer</div> -<div class="i0">And rabbits, too awed for fear,</div> -<div class="i0">Were creeping my aid to plead</div> -<div class="i0">Impelled by our common need—</div> -<div class="i0">Till into my sheltered place</div> -<div class="i0">One raindrop splashed on my face.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I lay there tented and dry</div> -<div class="i0">While the dews, dropped out of the sky,</div> -<div class="i0">Made music upon the sheaves</div> -<div class="i0">Of last year's stacked-up leaves—</div> -<div class="i0">No steps of wild things that trod,</div> -<div class="i0">But the whispering voice of God</div> -<div class="i0">In grave commune with the sod,</div> -<div class="i0">Messenger-angels rife</div> -<div class="i0">With words not of Death but Life,</div> -<div class="i0">Bidding the old brown Earth</div> -<div class="i0">Prepare for her great re-birth</div> -<div class="i0">And look to Heaven in pride</div> -<div class="i0">Renewed and revivified.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Then I heard far under the soil</div> -<div class="i0">The seedlings stir and toil,</div> -<div class="i0">And blade and bulb and root</div> -<div class="i0">Put forth each one new shoot,</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> -<div class="i0">And I felt deep down and deep</div> -<div class="i0">A million pulses leap</div> -<div class="i0">Out of their term of sleep,</div> -<div class="i0">And I thought the acorn spoke</div> -<div class="i0">With the voice of the full-grown oak,</div> -<div class="i0">And the cone wore the crown divine</div> -<div class="i0">Of the red-stemmed, crested pine,</div> -<div class="i0">And the haw held all the blush</div> -<div class="i0">And bloom of the wild-rose bush.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">What helped these young things to grow?</div> -<div class="i0">Dead leaves of a year ago,</div> -<div class="i0">Leaves heaped up in their crowds</div> -<div class="i0">And spread like funeral-shrouds;</div> -<div class="i0">Yet life sprang out of their death</div> -<div class="i0">As the blade slips out of its sheath,</div> -<div class="i0">Life was fostered beneath</div> -<div class="i0">The leaves here rotting away</div> -<div class="i0">And emerged from their decay.</div> -<div class="i0">Are all things that seem to die</div> -<div class="i0">Renewed to infinity,</div> -<div class="i0">And the bodies and souls of men</div> -<div class="i0">Made and re-made again?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">With the scent of the rain-wet loam</div> -<div class="i0">In my nostrils, I turned me home.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span></p> - - -<p class="center bold in0 p2t">VII</p> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I lay on the shore beside the sea,</div> -<div class="i0">And the young moon climbed the hill of the sky</div> -<div class="i0">And paused a space to look down on me</div> -<div class="i6">Alone with my misery</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Then on the fallow blue fields above</div> -<div class="i0">The young moon sowed its seed of stars;</div> -<div class="i0">Light gleamed from the mirror of her named Love</div> -<div class="i6">And flashed from the shield of Mars.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The stars sprang up from the silver seed</div> -<div class="i0">Wherever that silver sower trod.</div> -<div class="i0">Through the windows of heaven watching my need</div> -<div class="i6">I knew them the eyes of God.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Little blue waves with blown foam capped</div> -<div class="i0">Crept on the solitary shore</div> -<div class="i0">Which the sea's white lips still licked and lapped</div> -<div class="i6">For ever and evermore.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The silver moon waxed strong and older;</div> -<div class="i0">I thought I saw it stop to fling</div> -<div class="i0">A silver sickle over its shoulder</div> -<div class="i6">And commence its harvesting.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The strong moon ploughed through the fields of heaven,</div> -<div class="i0">Its eternal labour but half-begun.</div> -<div class="i0">My breast dropped its load of earthy leaven</div> -<div class="i6">As the stars dropped one by one.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I had sat there hugging my trivial cross,</div> -<div class="i0">My infinitesimal mortal pains,</div> -<div class="i0">Reckoning up how my mortal loss</div> -<div class="i6">Outmeasured my mortal gains.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I saw the moon reaping God's blue fields</div> -<div class="i0">Night after night sown thick with seeds.</div> -<div class="i0">I saw the crop which God's harvest yields</div> -<div class="i6">Not in men's dreams, but deeds.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The old moon climbed down the hill of the sky,</div> -<div class="i0">The strong young day flashed up in flame.</div> -<div class="i0">The moon dropped into the sea, and I</div> -<div class="i6">Bowed down my head in shame.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - - <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>APOLLO IN PHERAE</h2> -</div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>Asklepios! dead son! Asklepios!</i></div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I was a God. I am a God. I tend</div> -<div class="i0">Admetos' flocks upon the meek green earth,</div> -<div class="i0">And sun-fires course in all the veins of me.</div> -<div class="i0">I watch mild sheep a-browse in tame, sweet pastures</div> -<div class="i0">Or dipping in quiet waters. Yesterday</div> -<div class="i0">I blazed the heavenly arc from east to west;</div> -<div class="i0">Men saw me pinnacled on the crest of noon</div> -<div class="i0">Crown'd with celestial flame ...</div> -<div class="i34"><i>Asklepios!</i></div> -<div class="i0">To-day the discrown'd gold of my hair is strewn</div> -<div class="i0">In the green lap of grasses, my bowed brow</div> -<div class="i0">Leans on the good strong shoulder of the earth</div> -<div class="i0">Even as a stricken mortal's might, that seeks</div> -<div class="i0">His comfortable mother in his grief.</div> -<div class="i0">Earth, earth, what flower from seed wilt thou put forth</div> -<div class="i0">Fed by the waters of mine eyes, that most</div> -<div class="i0">Shoot lightnings? dews wrung from the Sun-god's eyes,</div> -<div class="i0">Divinely wrathful, mortally unhappy!</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>Asklepios! my son! Asklepios!</i></div> -<div class="i0">I am a God. Admetos is a King.</div> -<div class="i0">The God came to the King's doors overnight</div> -<div class="i0">And knocked and was admitted; and the King</div> -<div class="i0">Knew me and asked my will.</div> -<div class="i25">"To be thy servant</div> -<div class="i0">Throughout a year of days," I answered him.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> -<div class="i0">"Phœbus-Apollo, how shall this thing be?"</div> -<div class="i0">I said: "I slew a smith, a monstrous clod,</div> -<div class="i0">Not God or mortal, one that had done evil.</div> -<div class="i0">I am the avenger of evil among the Gods,</div> -<div class="i0">For this one and for that I have stretched my bow</div> -<div class="i0">And winged my arrow through the heart of Wrong;</div> -<div class="i0">But this was evil done unto myself,</div> -<div class="i0">And Vengeance wore the sleek face of Advantage,</div> -<div class="i0">Wherefor Zeus robs me of my Godhead, King,</div> -<div class="i0">And I will be thy shepherd for a year."</div> -<div class="i0">He stood half wonderstruck, half shamed-protesting,</div> -<div class="i0">But I bade him bring me out among his flocks</div> -<div class="i0">And speak no more.</div> -<div class="i16">"I will have peace," I said.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">"Fear not, and bid thy people not to fear;</div> -<div class="i0">For I am worn with too much strife and passion,</div> -<div class="i0">And no more hurt shall come from that I do.</div> -<div class="i0">Thou shalt not suffer by this term of service,</div> -<div class="i0">But see thy lands grow rich and bountiful,</div> -<div class="i0">And where thou lov'st I'll win thy love for thee,</div> -<div class="i0">And life shall prosper with thee,</div> -<div class="i27">"Life is sweet!</div> -<div class="i0">Make it not too sweet, God, lest when death come</div> -<div class="i0">It look more bitter than my soul can bear."</div> -<div class="i0">"Even death, Admetos, I'll delay for thee.</div> -<div class="i0">Now, peace! I am done with vengeance for a space."</div> -<div class="i0">Thus I am come again upon the earth</div> -<div class="i0">Even as a common man ...</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> -<div class="i27"><i>Asklepios!</i></div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">The people eye me timidly, and dare</div> -<div class="i0">Not consort with the God they may not worship.</div> -<div class="i0">Even so it was in those first days of life</div> -<div class="i0">When I was a boy in Delos with my Mother,</div> -<div class="i0">And only half aware I was a God.</div> -<div class="i0">O this unconquerable loneliness</div> -<div class="i0">That binds the crown of Godhead on our brows!</div> -<div class="i0">Yet easier the aloofness of the people</div> -<div class="i0">Than the familiar face of the half-God Pan.</div> -<div class="i0">I met in the woods the brute-divinity,</div> -<div class="i0">Who fleered an impudent hoof, a satyr-smile</div> -<div class="i0">Licking his lips:</div> -<div class="i14">"What, Helios! is the sun</div> -<div class="i0">Debased to something lower than the earth?</div> -<div class="i0">What! are we two, I of the beast's grain, thou</div> -<div class="i0">The delicate, disdainful spirit of flame,</div> -<div class="i0">The seed of mischief and the seed of Zeus,</div> -<div class="i0">Brought equal at the last? Nay, is the beast</div> -<div class="i0">Sun's master, Helios? Shepherds are my subjects.</div> -<div class="i0">I do not sway high kingdoms of the air—</div> -<div class="i0">I drag my hoofs in the clay. I do not fashion</div> -<div class="i0">Songs for the stars upon a golden lyre—</div> -<div class="i0">I (as did Marsyas, ha?) scrape out rough tunes</div> -<div class="i0">On common reeds. I am not beautiful,</div> -<div class="i0">I have not eyes like June-blue heavens on fire,</div> -<div class="i0">Nor hair filched from the harvest of the sun,</div> -<div class="i0">Nor a white matchless shape, supple and swift</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> -<div class="i0">And strong and splendid. I am an earthy thing,</div> -<div class="i0">Half goat and half coarse boor, not fit to touch</div> -<div class="i0">The sun's moon-sister—(yet, who knows? who knows!</div> -<div class="i0">Let her keep watch on Latmos how she will</div> -<div class="i0">Above the slumbers of her pretty shepherd!)</div> -<div class="i0">No, Pan is not as Helios! Helios is</div> -<div class="i0">A shepherd, sister'd by a shepherd's wanton,</div> -<div class="i0">And Pan's a King, and shepherds are his subjects!"</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Zeus, did it feed thy pride on proud Olympos,</div> -<div class="i0">Did it pleasure thee to hear the brutish God,</div> -<div class="i0">The disgustful animal we chafe to name</div> -<div class="i0">A God even as ourselves, thus flout thy son?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>Asklepios! dead son! Asklepios!</i></div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Doomed to the solitariness of greatness</div> -<div class="i0">We watch, we lonely Gods on shrouded heights,</div> -<div class="i0">The careful, padded steps, the little lives,</div> -<div class="i0">The little trivial lives of men and women</div> -<div class="i0">That fear our anger and entreat our favour;</div> -<div class="i0">And while we are indifferent all is well,</div> -<div class="i0">And if we rise to hate all is not ill,</div> -<div class="i0">But when we stoop to meet uplifted eyes</div> -<div class="i0">Of bright aspiring fools that will not choose</div> -<div class="i0">To tread life's inconspicuous middle ways—</div> -<div class="i0">O, when we love we bring our lov'd ones woe</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I had a son, his name was Phaeton.</div> -<div class="i0">Could he be of my being and not be proud?</div> -<div class="i0">He was all inspiration, and he mounted</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> -<div class="i0">Up to the highest and reached his hands for the sun</div> -<div class="i0">And shouted: "I will light the fires in heaven!"</div> -<div class="i0">But he was three-parts man to one-part God,</div> -<div class="i0">So men and Gods shrugged his brief blaze of glory</div> -<div class="i0">Into extinction ... Thus I lost my son,</div> -<div class="i0">Phaeton, killed thro' overmuch ambition.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I had a son, his name was Orpheus.</div> -<div class="i0">Could he be of my being and not love?</div> -<div class="i0">His love was rooted deeplier than Hell.</div> -<div class="i0">He said: "I will pluck back my love from Hell</div> -<div class="i0">Tho' it upheave all Hell in the plucking." When</div> -<div class="i0">He failed, being one-part man to three-parts God,</div> -<div class="i0">He chose the swift way to regain his love</div> -<div class="i0">And died a vile death ... Thus I lost my son,</div> -<div class="i0">Orpheus, killed thro' too great love and longing.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">I had a son. He was Asklepios,</div> -<div class="i0">Could he be of my being and not <span class="smcap">know</span>?</div> -<div class="i0">His wisdom girdled life and death in one;</div> -<div class="i0">Life smiled on him, because he smiled on death</div> -<div class="i0">And said: "Life is less conquerable than death."</div> -<div class="i0">He said: "I will reverse the word of death."</div> -<div class="i0">He said: "I will make the dead to live again."</div> -<div class="i0">Two days ago Asklepios lived ...</div> -<div class="i31">The King</div> -<div class="i0">Of the nether-world, that wears the face of night</div> -<div class="i0">And hates me, wearing day's face, called on Zeus:</div> -<div class="i0">"This mortal steals upon my sovereignty,</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> -<div class="i0">Stands brazen champion for the world of flesh,</div> -<div class="i0">Determines souls that waver towards the Styx—</div> -<div class="i0">Worse! hales the souls back from beyond the Styx,</div> -<div class="i0">Bringing the dead to life. This is more craft,</div> -<div class="i0">Brother, than we may suffer in a man.</div> -<div class="i0">Shall he with careless finger sway at will</div> -<div class="i0">The Balance of Destiny? Avenge me, Zeus!"</div> -<div class="i0">A Cyclops forged a thunder-bolt for Zeus,</div> -<div class="i0">And, black-browed, Zeus did launch it ... Thus I lost</div> -<div class="i0">My son Asklepios, killed thro' too much knowledge.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>Asklepios! my dead Asklepios!</i></div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Let the dark King of Stygia howl for aid</div> -<div class="i0">To Olympos! I am King of Heaven and ask</div> -<div class="i0">No aid! I wreak my vengeance for myself.</div> -<div class="i0">I rose up in the wrath of my bereavement</div> -<div class="i0">And set an arrow to the silver bow</div> -<div class="i0">That none save I can bend, and let it fly.</div> -<div class="i0">I might not slay the wielder of the bolt,</div> -<div class="i0">But I did slay the forger of the bolt.</div> -<div class="i0">And when I saw the Cyclops pierced and dead</div> -<div class="i0">I came to Zeus and told him of my deed:</div> -<div class="i0">"Father, 'gainst whom my bow was never turned,</div> -<div class="i0">Father, that hast destroyed thine own son's son,</div> -<div class="i0">I defy thy doing and have destroyed thy tool."</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Then while the Gods stood all aghast, Zeus spake:</div> -<div class="i0">"Go from among this immortal company</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> -<div class="i0">Which thou hast sinned against in daring so</div> -<div class="i0">To sin against <i>me</i> that am the head of all,</div> -<div class="i0">And learn to quell thy too fierce spirit, learn</div> -<div class="i0">To teach thy riotous blood obedience,</div> -<div class="i0">Serving the sons of men one year of days.</div> -<div class="i0">Go hence! thou art not of us for twelve moons."</div> -<div class="i0">I nothing said, and went. For when we Gods</div> -<div class="i0">Revolt among ourselves the end is near,</div> -<div class="i0">And Zeus must levy justice as he will.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>Asklepios! my dead Asklepios!</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>Had an hundred bolts been forged instead of one</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>I had slain an hundred Cyclops for thy sake</i></div> -<div class="i0"><i>And suffered an hundred years of degradation!</i></div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Earth that receivest my body for a space,</div> -<div class="i0">I first saw light upon thee. Comfort me,</div> -<div class="i0">And tame a little the untamed blood in me.</div> -<div class="i0">Better will I endure to learn of thee</div> -<div class="i0">Than of the envious Gods, whom this disgrace</div> -<div class="i0">Serves for a secret feast to glut their hearts on.</div> -<div class="i0">For we have loved each other, thou and I,</div> -<div class="i0">And I have belted thee with golden arms,</div> -<div class="i0">And I have claspt thee daily with hot kisses,</div> -<div class="i0">And felt thee leap and pulse and answer to me</div> -<div class="i0">Like a shy maid grown bold and glad with love.</div> -<div class="i0">There's that in the core of thee that is so kin</div> -<div class="i0">To the core of me, it holds us twain inseverable,</div> -<div class="i0">Tho' from a billion blue-gold caverns of air</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> -<div class="i0">Translucent waves of space roll up an ocean</div> -<div class="i0">'Twixt earth and sun: our hearts beat time together.</div> -<div class="i0">My sister of the spheres has no such power</div> -<div class="i0">To quicken thee, be lov'd of thee and love thee.</div> -<div class="i0">She rains down light like argent snows; and thou,</div> -<div class="i0">Part shadow'd, part-illumin'd, wholly chill'd,</div> -<div class="i0">Submitt'st thyself to call her queen, who asks</div> -<div class="i0">No ardent service of thee, earth, as I do.</div> -<div class="i0">Yet, chaste twin-sister, we were of one birth;</div> -<div class="i0">Thy veins run all the silver, mine the gold.</div> -<div class="i0">What marvel Leto had nine days labour of us,</div> -<div class="i0">Strenuously thus disparting snow from flame,</div> -<div class="i0">To give the Gods one daughter all pure ice,</div> -<div class="i0">One son all perfect fire?...</div> -<div class="i28">O Thunderer!</div> -<div class="i0">That spark of immortal fire which, pregnant in her,</div> -<div class="i0">Evolved into my Godhead, issuèd</div> -<div class="i0">Out of <i>thy</i> Godhead; my humiliation</div> -<div class="i0">Is thy humiliation, Zeus! I stand</div> -<div class="i0">Supremest in thy shining progeny:</div> -<div class="i0">I am thy glittering symbol fix'd in heaven</div> -<div class="i0">To draw the dazed, adoring eyes of men:</div> -<div class="i0">I am thy arm of vengeance, I the hand</div> -<div class="i0">Bestowing thy good gifts: I am thy Voice</div> -<div class="i0">Of mystic prophecy and divination</div> -<div class="i0">Thro' which thou keep'st thy fingers on men's souls.</div> -<div class="i0">Daughters and sons thou hast whose attributes,</div> -<div class="i0">This one by twisty cunning, this by love</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> -<div class="i0">Too often base, this by remorseless carnage</div> -<div class="i0">Not bearing the high name of vengeance, these</div> -<div class="i0">By the insidious lusts of gold and wine,</div> -<div class="i0">Serve to express thee to the bodies of men;</div> -<div class="i0">But I express thee to the ghost in them,</div> -<div class="i0">For there is none whose vesture is like mine</div> -<div class="i0">Weft only of the spirit's highest tissues,</div> -<div class="i0">So that the world beholding thee thro' me</div> -<div class="i0">Beholds thee at thy zenith, and exalted</div> -<div class="i0">Out of the flesh struggles to sense an instant</div> -<div class="i0">The music, fire and essence of Olympos.</div> -<div class="i0">This Thunderer, wilt thou smirch? More dim, more dim</div> -<div class="i0">Than the imperial spark thou quenchest in me</div> -<div class="i0">Thou mak'st thy imperial fires whence I did spring,</div> -<div class="i0">The fount of us so indissoluble</div> -<div class="i0">That what shames thee shames me.</div> -<div class="i27">Earth, is this vengeance?</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Nay, I see clearer. Rest unstained of me,</div> -<div class="i0">Thou God that art the father of my being.</div> -<div class="i0">The spirit of me, which is <i>Thou</i>, makes cause with thee</div> -<div class="i0">Against me. We must be inviolable</div> -<div class="i0">Or men will point their fingers—when We fall.</div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0"><i>Asklepios! farewell, Asklepios!</i></div> -</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i0">Earth, I will serve on thee my year of days</div> -<div class="i0">Nor chafe beneath them like a petulant boy.</div> -<div class="i0">Ay, tho' Zeus force my Godhead into bonds</div> -<div class="i0">I will yet bear my bondage like a God.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak p1">Transcriber's Note</h2> - -<p class="in0">Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been repaired.</p> - -</div> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Pan-Worship and Other Poems, by Eleanor Farjeon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-WORSHIP AND OTHER POEMS *** - -***** This file should be named 56074-h.htm or 56074-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/0/7/56074/ - -Produced by Larry B. 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