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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79380-0.txt b/79380-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec2a81a --- /dev/null +++ b/79380-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2315 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79380 *** + + + + + COLLECTED POEMS + OF ALICE MEYNELL + + + _First Impression, May, 1913._ + _Sixth Impression (seventh thousand), October, 1913._ + +[Illustration: + + ALICE MEYNELL + + FROM A DRAWING BY JOHN S. SARGENT, R.A. +] + + + + + COLLECTED POEMS OF ALICE MEYNELL + + + New York: + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + 597–599 Fifth Avenue + 1913 + + + _To + W. M._ + + + + + THE CONTENTS + + + LATER POEMS + The Shepherdess Page 13 + The Two Poets 14 + The Lady Poverty 15 + November Blue 16 + A Dead Harvest 17 + The Watershed 18 + The Joyous Wanderer 19 + The Rainy Summer 21 + The Roaring Frost 22 + West Wind in Winter 23 + The Fold 25 + “Why wilt thou Chide?” 26 + Veneration of Images 27 + “I am the Way” 28 + Via, et Veritas, et Vita 29 + Parentage 30 + The Modern Mother 31 + Unto us a Son is Given 32 + Veni Creator 33 + Two Boyhoods 34 + To Sylvia 36 + Saint Catherine of Siena 38 + Chimes 40 + A Poet’s Wife 41 + Messina, 1908 42 + The Unknown God 43 + A General Communion 45 + The Fugitive 46 + In Portugal, 1912 47 + The Crucifixion 48 + The Newer Vainglory 49 + In Manchester Square 50 + Maternity 51 + The First Snow 52 + The Courts 53 + The Launch 54 + To the Body 55 + The Unexpected Peril 56 + Christ in the Universe 58 + Beyond Knowledge 60 + At Night 61 + + EARLY POEMS + In Early Spring 65 + To the Beloved 67 + An Unmarked Festival 69 + In Autumn 71 + Parted 74 + “Sœur Monique” 76 + Regrets 80 + The Visiting Sea 82 + After a Parting 83 + Builders of Ruins 84 + SONNETS + Thoughts in Separation 87 + The Garden 88 + Your Own Fair Youth 89 + The Young Neophyte 90 + Spring on the Alban Hills 91 + In February 92 + A Shattered Lute 93 + Renouncement 94 + To a Daisy 95 + San Lorenzo’s Mother 96 + The Lover Urges the Better Thrift 98 + Cradle-Song at Twilight 99 + Song of the Night at Daybreak 100 + A Letter from a Girl to her own Old Age 101 + Advent Meditation 105 + A POET’S FANCIES + The Love of Narcissus 106 + To Any Poet 107 + To one Poem in a Silent Time 109 + The Moon to the Sun 110 + The Spring to the Summer 111 + The Day to the Night 112 + A Poet of one Mood 113 + A Song of Derivations 114 + Singers to Come 115 + Unlinked 117 + + + _This volume includes the author’s very early verse, first published as + “Preludes” and afterwards as “Poems” (1st edition, 1893; 10th edition, + 1911), also the “Later Poems” (issued in 1901), together with others, + since composed, here collected for the first time._ + + + + + LATER POEMS + + + THE SHEPHERDESS + + She walks—the lady of my delight— + A shepherdess of sheep. + Her flocks are thoughts. She keeps them white; + She guards them from the steep; + She feeds them on the fragrant height, + And folds them in for sleep. + + She roams maternal hills and bright, + Dark valleys safe and deep. + Into that tender breast at night + The chastest stars may peep. + She walks—the lady of my delight— + A shepherdess of sheep. + + She holds her little thoughts in sight, + Though gay they run and leap. + She is so circumspect and right; + She has her soul to keep. + She walks—the lady of my delight— + A shepherdess of sheep. + + + THE TWO POETS + + Whose is the speech + That moves the voices of this lonely beech? + Out of the long west did this wild wind come— + O strong and silent! And the tree was dumb, + Ready and dumb, until + The dumb gale struck it on the darkened hill. + + Two memories, + Two powers, two promises, two silences + Closed in this cry, closed in these thousand leaves + Articulate. This sudden hour retrieves + The purpose of the past, + Separate, apart—embraced, embraced at last. + + “Whose is the word? + Is it I that spake? Is it thou? Is it I that heard?” + “Thine earth was solitary, yet I found thee!” + “Thy sky was pathless, but I caught, I bound thee, + Thou visitant divine.” + “O thou my Voice, the word was thine.” “Was thine.” + + + THE LADY POVERTY + + The Lady Poverty was fair: + But she has lost her looks of late, + With change of times and change of air. + Ah slattern! she neglects her hair, + Her gown, her shoes; she keeps no state + As once when her pure feet were bare. + + Or—almost worse, if worse can be— + She scolds in parlours, dusts and trims, + Watches and counts. Oh, is this she + Whom Francis met, whose step was free + Who with Obedience carolled hymns, + In Umbria walked with Chastity? + + Where is her ladyhood? Not here, + Not among modern kinds of men; + But in the stony fields, where clear + Through the thin trees the skies appear, + In delicate spare soil and fen, + And slender landscape and austere. + + + NOVEMBER BLUE + + The golden tint of the electric lights seems to give a complementary + colour to the air in the early evening.—ESSAY ON LONDON. + + O heavenly colour, London town + Has blurred it from her skies; + And, hooded in an earthly brown, + Unheaven’d the city lies, + No longer standard-like this hue + Above the broad road flies; + Nor does the narrow street the blue + Wear, slender pennon-wise. + + But when the gold and silver lamps + Colour the London dew, + And, misted by the winter damps, + The shops shine bright anew— + Blue comes to earth, it walks the street, + It dyes the wide air through; + A mimic sky about their feet, + The throng go crowned with blue + + + A DEAD HARVEST + + IN KENSINGTON GARDENS + + Along the graceless grass of town + They rake the rows of red and brown,— + Dead leaves, unlike the rows of hay + Delicate, touched with gold and grey, + Raked long ago and far away. + + A narrow silence in the park, + Between the lights a narrow dark. + One street rolls on the north; and one, + Muffled, upon the south doth run; + Amid the mist the work is done. + + A futile crop!—for it the fire + Smoulders, and, for a stack, a pyre. + So go the town’s lives on the breeze, + Even as the sheddings of the trees; + Bosom nor barn is filled with these. + + + THE WATERSHED + + _Lines written between Munich and Verona_ + + Black mountains pricked with pointed pine + A melancholy sky. + Out-distanced was the German vine, + The sterile fields lay high. + From swarthy Alps I travelled forth + Aloft; it was the north, the north; + Bound for the Noon was I. + + I seemed to breast the streams that day; + I met, opposed, withstood + The northward rivers on their way, + My heart against the flood— + My heart that pressed to rise and reach, + And felt the love of altering speech, + Of frontiers, in its blood. + + But oh the unfolding South! the burst + Of summer! Oh to see + Of all the southward brooks the first! + The travelling heart went free + With endless streams; that strife was stopped; + And down a thousand vales I dropped, + I flowed to Italy. + + + THE JOYOUS WANDERER + + _Translated from M. Catulle Mendès_ + + I go by road, I go by street— + Lira, la, la! + O white high roads, ye know my feet! + A loaf I carry and, all told, + Three broad bits of lucky gold— + Lira, la, la! + And oh, within my flowering heart, + (Sing, dear nightingale!) is my Sweet. + + A poor man met me and begged for bread— + Lira, la, la! + “Brother, take all the loaf,” I said, + I shall but go with lighter cheer— + Lira, la, la! + And oh within my flowering heart + (Sing, sweet nightingale!) is my Dear. + + A thief I met on the lonely way— + Lira, la, la! + He took my gold; I cried to him, “Stay! + And take my pocket and make an end.” + Lira, la, la! + And oh within my flowering heart + (Sing, soft nightingale!) is my Friend. + + Now on the plain I have met with death— + Lira, la, la! + My bread is gone, my gold, my breath. + But oh this heart is not afraid— + Lira, la, la! + For oh, within this lonely heart + (Sing, sad nightingale!) is my Maid. + + + THE RAINY SUMMER + + There’s much afoot in heaven and earth this year; + The winds hunt up the sun, hunt up the moon, + Trouble the dubious dawn, hasten the drear + Height of a threatening noon. + + No breath of boughs, no breath of leaves, of fronds + May linger or grow warm; the trees are loud; + The forest, rooted, tosses in his bonds, + And strains against the cloud. + + No scents may pause within the garden-fold; + The rifled flowers are cold as ocean-shells; + Bees, humming in the storm, carry their cold + Wild honey to cold cells. + + + THE ROARING FROST + + A flock of winds came winging from the North, + Strong birds with fighting pinions driving forth + With a resounding call:— + + Where will they close their wings and cease their cries— + Between what warming seas and conquering skies— + And fold, and fall? + + + WEST WIND IN WINTER + + Another day awakes. And who— + Changing the world—is this? + He comes at whiles, the winter through, + West Wind! I would not miss + His sudden tryst: the long, the new + Surprises of his kiss. + + Vigilant, I make haste to close + With him who comes my way. + I go to meet him as he goes; + I know his note, his lay, + His colour and his morning-rose, + And I confess his day. + + My window waits; at dawn I hark + His call; at morn I meet + His haste around the tossing park + And down the softened street; + The gentler light is his; the dark. + The grey—he turns it sweet. + + So too, so too, do I confess + My poet when he sings. + He rushes on my mortal guess + With his immortal things. + I feel, I know him. On I press— + He finds me ’twixt his wings. + + + THE FOLD + + Behold, + The time is now! Bring back, bring back + Thy flocks of fancies, wild of whim. + Oh, lead them from the mountain-track— + Thy frolic thoughts untold. + Oh, bring them in—the fields grow dim— + And let me be the fold! + + Behold, + The time is now! Call in, oh call + Thy pasturing kisses gone astray + For scattered sweets; gather them all + To shelter from the cold. + Throng them together, close and gay + And let me be the fold! + + + “WHY WILT THOU CHIDE?” + + Why wilt thou chide, + Who hast attained to be denied? + Oh learn, above + All price is my refusal, Love. + My sacred Nay + Was never cheapened by the way. + Thy single sorrow crowns thee lord + Of an unpurchasable word. + + O strong, O pure! + As Yea makes happier loves secure, + I vow thee this + Unique rejection of a kiss. + I guard for thee + This jealous sad monopoly. + I seal this honour thine; none dare + Hope for a part in thy despair. + + + VENERATION OF IMAGES + + Thou man, first-comer, whose wide arms entreat, + Gather, clasp, welcome, bind, + Lack, or remember; whose warm pulses beat + With love of thine own kind:— + + Unlifted for a blessing on yon sea, + Unshrined on this highway, + O flesh, O grief, thou too shalt have our knee + Thou rood of every day! + + + “I AM THE WAY” + + Thou art the Way. + Hadst Thou been nothing but the goal, + I cannot say + If Thou hadst ever met my soul. + + I cannot see— + I, child of process—if there lies + An end for me, + Full of repose, full of replies. + + I’ll not reproach + The road that winds, my feet that err. + Access, approach. + Art Thou, Time, Way, and Wayfarer. + + + VIA, ET VERITAS, ET VITA + + “You never attained to Him.” “If to attain + Be to abide, then that may be.” + “Endless the way, followed with how much pain!” + “The way was He.” + + + PARENTAGE + + “When Augustus Cæsar legislated against the unmarried citizens of + Rome, he declared them to be, in some sort, slayers of the people.” + + Ah no, not these! + These, who were childless, are not they who + gave + So many dead unto the journeying wave, + The helpless nurselings of the cradling seas; + Not they who doomed by infallible decrees + Unnumbered man to the innumerable grave. + + But those who slay + Are fathers. Theirs are armies. Death is theirs; + The death of innocences and despairs; + The dying of the golden and the grey. + The sentence, when these speak it, has no Nay. + And she who slays is she who bears, who bears. + + + THE MODERN MOTHER + + Oh, what a kiss + With filial passion overcharged is this! + To this misgiving breast + This child runs, as a child ne’er ran to rest + Upon the light heart and the unoppressed. + + Unhoped, unsought! + A little tenderness, this mother thought + The utmost of her meed. + She looked for gratitude; content indeed + With thus much that her nine years’ love had bought. + + Nay, even with less. + This mother, giver of life, death, peace, distress, + Desired ah! not so much + Thanks as forgiveness; and the passing touch + Expected, and the slight, the brief caress. + + O filial light + Strong in these childish eyes, these new, these bright + Intelligible stars! their rays + Are near the constant earth, guides in the maze, + Natural, true, keen in this dusk of days. + + + UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN + + Given, not lent, + And not withdrawn—once sent, + This Infant of mankind, this One, + Is still the little welcome Son. + + New every year, + New born and newly dear, + He comes with tidings and a song, + The ages long, the ages long; + + Even as the cold + Keen winter grows not old, + As childhood is so fresh, foreseen + And spring in the familiar green. + + Sudden as sweet + Come the expected feet. + All joy is young, and new all art, + And He, too, Whom we have by heart. + + + VENI CREATOR + + So humble things Thou hast borne for us, O God + Left’st Thou a path of lowliness untrod? + Yes, one, till now; another Olive-Garden. + For we endure the tender pain of pardon,— + One with another we forbear. Give heed, + Look at the mournful world Thou hast decreed. + The time has come. At last we hapless men + Know all our haplessness all through. Come, then, + Endure undreamed humility: Lord of Heaven, + Come to our ignorant hearts and be forgiven. + + + TWO BOYHOODS + + Luminous passions reign + High in the soul of man; and they are twain. + Of these he hath made the poetry of earth— + Hath made his nobler tears, his magic mirth. + + Fair Love is one of these, + The visiting vision of seven centuries; + And one is love of Nature—love to tears— + The modern passion of this hundred years. + + Oh never to such height, + Oh never to such spiritual light— + The light of lonely visions, and the gleam + Of secret splendid sombre suns in dream— + + Oh never to such long + Glory in life, supremacy in song, + Had either of these loves attained in joy, + But for the ministration of a boy. + + Dante was one who bare + Love in his deep heart, apprehended there + When he was yet a child; and from that day + The radiant love has never passed away. + + And one was Wordsworth; he + Conceived the love of Nature childishly + As no adult heart might; old poets sing + That exaltation by remembering. + + For no divine + Intelligence, or art, or fire, or wine, + Is high-delirious as that rising lark— + The child’s soul and its daybreak in the dark. + + And Letters keep these two + Heavenly treasures safe the ages through, + Safe from ignoble benison or ban— + These two high childhoods in the heart of man. + + + TO SYLVIA + + TWO YEARS OLD. + + Long life to thee, long virtue, long delight, + A flowering early and late! + Long beauty, grave to thought and gay to sight, + A distant date! + + Yet, as so many poets love to sing + (When young the child will die), + “No autumn will destroy this lovely spring,” + So, Sylvia, I. + + I’ll write thee dapper verse and touching rhyme; + “Our eyes shall not behold—” + The commonplace shall serve for thee this time: + “Never grow old.” + + For there’s another way to stop thy clock + Within my cherishing heart, + To carry thee unalterable, and lock + Thy youth apart: + + Thy flower, for me, shall evermore be hid + In this close bud of thine, + Not Sylvia, by thy death—O God forbid!— + Merely by mine. + + + SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA + + _Written for Strephon, who said that a woman must lean or she should + not have his chivalry._ + + The light young man who was to die, + Stopped in his frolic by the State, + Aghast, beheld the world go by; + But Catherine crossed his dungeon gate. + + She found his lyric courage dumb, + His stripling beauties strewn in wrecks, + His modish bravery overcome; + Small profit had he of his sex. + + On any old wife’s level he, + For once—for all. But he alone— + Man—must not fear the mystery, + The pang, the passage, the unknown: + + Death. He did fear it, in his cell, + Darkling amid the Tuscan sun; + And, weeping, at her feet he fell, + The sacred, young, provincial nun. + + She prayed, she preached him innocent; + She gave him to the Sacrificed; + On her courageous breast he leant, + The breast where beat the heart of Christ. + + He left it for the block, with cries + Of victory on his severed breath. + That crimson head she clasped, her eyes + Blind with the splendour of his death. + + And will the man of modern years + —Stern on the Vote—withhold from thee + Thou prop, thou cross, erect, in tears, + Catherine, the service of his knee? + + + CHIMES + + Brief, on a flying night, + From the shaken tower, + A flock of bells take flight, + And go with the hour. + + Like birds from the cote to the gales, + Abrupt—O hark! + A fleet of bells set sails, + And go to the dark. + + Sudden the cold airs swing. + Alone, aloud, + A verse of bells takes wing + And flies with the cloud. + + + A POET’S WIFE + + I saw a tract of ocean locked inland, + Within a field’s embrace— + The very sea! afar it fled the strand, + And gave the seasons chase, + And met the night alone, the tempest spanned, + Saw sunrise face to face. + + O Poet, more than ocean, lonelier! + In inaccessible rest + And storm remote, thou, sea of thoughts, dost err, + Scattered through east to west— + Now, while thou closest with the kiss of her + Who locks thee to her breast. + + + MESSINA, 1908 + + Lord, Thou hast crushed Thy tender ones, o’erthrown + Thy strong, Thy fair; Thy man Thou hast unmanned, + Thy elaborate works unwrought, Thy deeds undone, + Thy lovely sentient human plan unplanned; + Destroyer, we have cowered beneath Thine own + Immediate, unintelligible hand. + + Lord, Thou hast hastened to retrieve, to heal, + To feed, to bind, to clothe, to quench the brand, + To prop the ruin, to bless and to anneal; + Hast sped Thy ships by sea, Thy trains by land, + Shed pity and tears; our shattered fingers feel + Thy mediate and intelligible hand. + + + THE UNKNOWN GOD + + One of the crowd went up, + And knelt before the Paten and the Cup, + Received the Lord, returned in peace, and prayed + Close to my side; then in my heart I said: + + “O Christ, in this man’s life— + This stranger who is Thine—in all his strife, + All his felicity, his good and ill, + In the assaulted stronghold of his will, + + “I do confess Thee here, + Alive within this life; I know Thee near + Within this lonely conscience, closed away + Within this brother’s solitary day. + + “Christ in his unknown heart, + His intellect unknown—this love, this art, + This battle and this peace, this destiny + That I shall never know, look upon me! + + “Christ in his numbered breath, + Christ in his beating heart and in his death, + Christ in his mystery! From that secret place + And from that separate dwelling, give me grace.” + + + A GENERAL COMMUNION + + I saw the throng, so deeply separate, + Fed at one only board— + The devout people, moved, intent, elate, + And the devoted Lord. + + Oh struck apart! not side from human side, + But soul from human soul, + As each asunder absorbed the multiplied, + The ever unparted whole. + + I saw this people as a field of flowers, + Each grown at such a price + The sum of unimaginable powers + Did no more than suffice. + + A thousand single central daisies they, + A thousand of the one; + For each, the entire monopoly of day; + For each, the whole of the devoted sun. + + + THE FUGITIVE + + “Nous avons chassé ce Jésus-Christ.” + —_French Publicist_ + + Yes, from the ingrate heart, the street + Of garrulous tongue, the warm retreat + Within the village and the town; + Not from the lands where ripen brown + A thousand thousand hills of wheat; + + Not from the long Burgundian line, + The Southward, sunward range of vine. + Hunted, He never will escape + The flesh, the blood, the sheaf, the grape, + That feed His man—the bread, the wine. + + + IN PORTUGAL, 1912 + + And will they cast the altars down + Scatter the chalice, crush the bread? + In field, in village, and in town + He hides an unregarded head; + + Waits in the corn-lands far and near, + Bright in His sun, dark in His frost, + Sweet in the vine, ripe in the ear— + Lonely unconsecrated Host. + + In ambush at the merry board + The Victim lurks unsacrificed; + The mill conceals the harvest’s Lord, + The wine-press holds the unbidden Christ. + + + THE CRUCIFIXION + + “A Paltry Sacrifice”—_Preface to a Play_ + + Oh, man’s capacity + For spiritual sorrow, corporal pain! + Who has explored the deepmost of that sea, + With heavy links of a far-fathoming chain? + + That melancholy lead, + Let down in guilty and in innocent hold, + Yea into childish hands deliverèd, + Leaves the sequestered floor unreached, untold. + + One only has explored + The deepmost; but He did not die of it. + Not yet, not yet He died. Man’s human Lord + Touched the extreme; it is not infinite. + + But over the abyss + Of God’s capacity for woe He stayed + One hesitating hour; what gulf was this? + Forsaken He went down, and was afraid. + + + THE NEWER VAINGLORY + + Two men went up to pray; and one gave thanks, + Not with himself—aloud, + With proclamation, calling on the ranks + Of an attentive crowd. + + “Thank God, I clap not my own humble breast, + But other ruffians’ backs, + Imputing crime—such is my tolerant haste— + To any man that lacks. + + “For I am tolerant, generous, keep no rules, + And the age honours me. + Thank God, I am not as these rigid fools, + Even as this Pharisee.” + + + IN MANCHESTER SQUARE + + (IN MEMORIAM T.H.) + + The paralytic man has dropped in death + The crossing-sweeper’s brush to which he clung, + One-handed, twisted, dwarfed, scanted of breath, + Although his hair was young. + + I saw this year the winter vines of France, + Dwarfed, twisted, goblins in the frosty drouth, + Gnarled, crippled, blackened little stems askance, + On long hills to the South. + + Great green and golden hands of leaves ere long + Shall proffer clusters in that vineyard wide. + And oh! his might, his sweet, his wine, his song, + His stature, since he died! + + + MATERNITY + + One wept whose only child was dead, + New-born, ten years ago. + “Weep not; he is in bliss,” they said. + She answered, “Even so. + + “Ten years ago was born in pain + A child, not now forlorn. + But oh, ten years ago, in vain, + A mother, a mother was born.” + + + THE FIRST SNOW + + Not yet was winter come to earth’s soft floor, + The tideless wave, the warm white road, the shore, + The serried town whose small street tortuously + Led darkling to the dazzling sea. + + Not yet to breathing man, not to his song, + Not to his comforted heart; not to the long + Close-cultivated lands beneath the hill. + Summer was gently with them still. + + But on the Apennine mustered the cloud; + The grappling storm shut down. Aloft, aloud, + Ruled secret tempest one long day and night, + Until another morning’s light. + + O tender mountain-tops and delicate, + Where summer-long the westering sunlight sate! + Within that fastness darkened from the sun, + What solitary things were done? + + The clouds let go, they rose, they winged away; + Snow-white the altered mountains faced the day, + As saints who keep their counsel sealed and fast, + Their anguish over-past. + + + THE COURTS + + A FIGURE OF THE EPIPHANY + + The poets’ imageries are noble ways, + Approaches to a plot, an open shrine. + Their splendours, colours, avenues, arrays, + Their courts that run with wine; + + Beautiful similes, “fair and flagrant things,” + Enriched, enamouring,—raptures, metaphors + Enhancing life, are paths for pilgrim kings + Made free of golden doors. + + And yet the open heavenward plot, with dew, + Ultimate poetry, enclosed, enskyed + (Albeit such ceremonies lead thereto) + Stands on the yonder side. + + Plain, behind oracles, it is; and past + All symbols, simple; perfect, heavenly-wild, + The song some loaded poets reach at last— + The kings that found a Child. + + + THE LAUNCH + + Forth, to the alien gravity, + Forth, to the laws of ocean, we + Builders on earth by laws of land + Entrust this creature of our hand + Upon the calculated sea. + + Fast bound to shore we cling, we creep, + And make our ship ready to leap + Light to the flood, equipped to ride + The strange conditions of the tide— + New weight, new force, new world: the Deep. + + Ah thus—not thus—the Dying, kissed, + Cherished, exhorted, shriven, dismissed; + By all the eager means we hold + We, warm, prepare him for the cold, + To keep the incalculable tryst. + + + TO THE BODY + + Thou inmost, ultimate + Council of judgment, palace of decrees, + Where the high senses hold their spiritual state, + Sued by earth’s embassies, + And sign, approve, accept, conceive, create; + + Create—thy senses close + With the world’s pleas. The random odours reach + Their sweetness in the place of thy repose, + Upon thy tongue the peach, + And in thy nostrils breathes the breathing rose. + + To thee, secluded one, + The dark vibrations of the sightless skies, + The lovely inexplicit colours run; + The light gropes for those eyes. + O thou august! thou dost command the sun. + + Music, all dumb, hath trod + Into thine ear her one effectual way; + And fire and cold approach to gain thy nod + Where thou call’st up the day, + Where thou awaitest the appeal of God. + + + THE UNEXPECTED PERIL + + Unlike the youth that all men say + They prize—youth of abounding blood, + In love with the sufficient day, + And gay in growth, and strong in bud; + + Unlike was mine! Then my first slumber + Nightly rehearsed my last; each breath + Knew itself one of the unknown number. + But Life was urgent with me as Death. + + My shroud was in the flocks; the hill + Within its quarry locked my stone; + My bier grew in the woods; and still + Life spurred me where I paused alone. + + “Begin!” Life called. Again her shout, + “Make haste while it is called to-day!” + Her exhortations plucked me out, + Hunted me, turned me, held me at bay. + + But if my youth is thus hard pressed + (I thought) what of a later year? + If the end so threats this tender breast, + What of the days when it draws near? + + Draws near, and little done? yet lo, + Dread has forborne, and haste lies by. + I was beleaguered; now the foe + Has raised the siege, I know not why. + + I see them troop away; I ask + Were they in sooth mine enemies— + Terror, the doubt, the lash, the task? + What heart has my new housemate, Ease? + + How am I left, at last, alive, + To make a stranger of a tear? + What did I do one day to drive + From me the vigilant angel, Fear? + + The diligent angel, Labour? Ay, + The inexorable angel, Pain? + Menace me, lest indeed I die, + Sloth! Turn; crush, teach me fear again! + + + CHRIST IN THE UNIVERSE + + With this ambiguous earth + His dealings have been told us. These abide: + The signal to a maid, the human birth, + The lesson, and the young Man crucified. + + But not a star of all + The innumerable host of stars has heard + How He administered this terrestrial ball. + Our race have kept their Lord’s entrusted Word. + + Of His earth-visiting feet + None knows the secret, cherished, perilous, + The terrible, shamefast, frightened, whispered, sweet, + Heart-shattering secret of His way with us. + + No planet knows that this + Our wayside planet, carrying land and wave, + Love and life multiplied, and pain and bliss, + Bears, as chief treasure, one forsaken grave. + + Nor, in our little day, + May His devices with the heavens be guessed, + His pilgrimage to thread the Milky Way + Or His bestowals there be manifest. + + But in the eternities, + Doubtless we shall compare together, hear + A million alien Gospels, in what guise + He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear + + O, be prepared, my soul! + To read the inconceivable, to scan + The million forms of God those stars unroll + When, in our turn, we show to them a Man. + + + BEYOND KNOWLEDGE + + “_Your sins ... shall be white as snow._” + + Into the rescued world newcomer, + The newly-dead stepped up, and cried, + “Oh what is that, sweeter than summer + Was to my heart before I died? + Sir (to an angel), what is yonder + More bright than the remembered skies, + A lovelier light, a softer splendour + Than when the moon was wont to rise? + Surely no sinner wears such seeming + Even the Rescued World within?” + + “O the success of His redeeming! + O child, it is a rescued sin!” + + + AT NIGHT + + _To W. M._ + + Home, home from the horizon far and clear, + Hither the soft wings sweep; + Flocks of the memories of the day draw near + The dovecote doors of sleep + + Oh, which are they that come through sweetest light + Of all these homing birds? + Which with the straightest and the swiftest flight? + Your words to me, your words! + + + + + EARLY POEMS + + + IN EARLY SPRING + + O Spring, I know thee! Seek for sweet surprise + In the young children’s eyes. + But I have learnt the years, and know the yet + Leaf-folded violet. + Mine ear, awake to silence, can foretell + The cuckoo’s fitful bell. + I wander in a grey time that encloses + June and the wild hedge-roses. + A year’s procession of the flowers doth pass + My feet, along the grass. + And all you wild birds silent yet, I know + The notes that stir you so, + Your songs yet half devised in the dim dear + Beginnings of the year. + In these young days you meditate your part; + I have it all by heart. + I know the secrets of the seeds of flowers + Hidden and warm with showers, + And how, in kindling Spring, the cuckoo shall + Alter his interval. + But not a flower or song I ponder is + My own, but memory’s. + I shall be silent in those days desired + Before a world inspired. + O all brown birds, compose your old song-phrases, + Earth, thy familiar daisies! + + A poet mused upon the dusky height, + Between two stars towards night, + His purpose in his heart. I watched, a space, + The meaning of his face: + There was the secret, fled from earth and skies, + Hid in his grey young eyes. + My heart and all the Summer wait his choice, + And wonder for his voice. + Who shall foretell his songs, and who aspire + But to divine his lyre? + Sweet earth, we know thy dimmest mysteries, + But he is lord of his. + + + TO THE BELOVED + + Oh, not more subtly silence strays + Amongst the winds, between the voices + Mingling alike with pensive lays, + And with the music that rejoices, + Than thou art present in my days. + + My silence, life returns to thee + In all the pauses of her breath + Hush back to rest the melody + That out of thee awakeneth; + And thou, wake ever, wake for me! + + Thou art like silence all unvexed, + Though wild words part my soul from thee. + Thou art like silence unperplexed, + A secret and a mystery + Between one footfall and the next. + + Most dear pause in a mellow lay! + Thou art inwoven with every air. + With thee the wildest tempests play, + And snatches of thee everywhere + Make little heavens throughout a day. + + Darkness and solitude shine, for me. + For life’s fair outward part are rife + The silver noises; let them be. + It is the very soul of life + Listens for thee, listens for thee. + + O pause between the sobs of cares; + O thought within all thought that is; + Trance between laughters unawares: + Thou art the shape of melodies + And thou the ecstasy of prayers! + + + AN UNMARKED FESTIVAL + + There’s a feast undated, yet + Both our true lives hold it fast,— + Even the day when first we met. + What a great day came and passed, + —Unknown then, but known at last. + + And we met: You knew not me, + Mistress of your joys and fears; + Held my hand that held the key + Of the treasure of your years, + Of the fountain of your tears. + + For you knew not it was I, + And I knew not it was you. + We have learnt, as days went by. + But a flower struck root and grew + Underground, and no one knew. + + Day of days! Unmarked it rose, + In whose hours we were to meet; + And forgotten passed. Who knows, + Was earth cold or sunny, Sweet, + At the coming of your feet? + + One mere day, we thought; the measure + Of such days the year fulfils. + Now, how dearly would we treasure + Something from its fields, its rills + And its memorable hills. + + + IN AUTUMN + + The leaves are many under my feet, + And drift one way. + Their scent of death is weary and sweet. + A flight of them is in the grey + Where sky and forest meet. + + The low winds moan for dead sweet years; + The birds sing all for pain, + Of a common thing, to weary ears,— + Only a summer’s fate of rain, + And a woman’s fate of tears. + + I walk to love and life alone + Over these mournful places, + Across the summer overthrown, + The dead joys of these silent faces, + To claim my own. + + I know his heart has beat to bright + Sweet loves gone by. + I know the leaves that die to-night + Once budded to the sky, + And I shall die from his delight. + + O leaves, so quietly ending now, + You heard the cuckoos sing. + And I will grow upon my bough + If only for a Spring, + And fall when the rain is on my brow. + + O tell me, tell me ere you die, + Is it worth the pain? + You bloomed so fair, you waved so high; + Now that the sad days wane, + Are you repenting where you lie? + + I lie amongst you, and I kiss + Your fragrance mouldering. + O dead delights, is it such bliss, + That tuneful Spring? + Is love so sweet, that comes to this? + + Kiss me again as I kiss you; + Kiss me again, + For all your tuneful nights of dew, + In this your time of rain, + For all your kisses when Spring was new. + + You will not, broken hearts; let be. + I pass across your death + To a golden summer you shall not see, + And in your dying breath + There is no benison for me. + + There is an autumn yet to wane, + There are leaves yet to fall, + Which, when I kiss, may kiss again, + And, pitied, pity me all for all + And love me in mist and rain. + + + PARTED + + Farewell to one now silenced quite + Sent out of hearing, out of sight,— + My friend of friends, whom I shall miss. + He is not banished, though, for this,— + Nor he, nor sadness, nor delight. + + Though I shall talk with him no more, + A low voice sounds upon the shore. + He must not watch my resting-place, + But who shall drive a mournful face + From the sad winds about my door? + + I shall not hear his voice complain, + But who shall stop the patient rain? + His tears must not disturb my heart, + But who shall change the years, and part + The world from every thought of pain? + + Although my life is left so dim, + The morning crowns the mountain-rim; + Joy is not gone from summer skies, + Nor innocence from children’s eyes, + And all these things are part of him. + + He is not banished, for the showers + Yet wake this green warm earth of ours. + How can the summer but be sweet + I shall not have him at my feet + And yet my feet are on the flowers. + + + “SŒUR MONIQUE” + + _A Rondeau by Couperin_ + + Quiet form of silent nun, + What has given you to my inward eyes? + What has marked you, unknown one, + In the throngs of centuries + That mine ears do listen through? + This old master’s melody + That expresses you, + This admired simplicity, + Tender, with a serious wit, + And two words, the name of it, + “Sœur Monique.” + + And if sad the music is, + It is sad with mysteries + Of a small immortal thing + That the passing ages sing,— + Simple music making mirth + Of the dying and the birth + Of the people of the earth. + + No, not sad; we are beguiled, + Sad with living as we are; + Ours the sorrow, outpouring + Sad self on a selfless thing, + As our eyes and hearts are mild + With our sympathy for Spring + With a pity sweet and wild + For the innocent and far, + With our sadness in a star, + Or our sadness in a child. + + But two words, and this sweet air. + Sœur Monique, + Had he more, who set you there? + Was his music-dream of you + Of some perfect nun he knew, + Or of some ideal, as true? + + And I see you where you stand + With your life held in your hand + As a rosary of days. + And your thoughts in calm arrays, + And your innocent prayers are told + On your rosary of days. + And the young days and the old + With their quiet prayers did meet + When the chaplet was complete. + + Did it vex you, the surmise + Of this wind of words, this storm of cries, + Though you kept the silence so + In the storms of long ago, + And you keep it, like a star? + —Of the evils triumphing, + Strong, for all your perfect conquering, + Silenced conqueror that you are? + + And I wonder at your peace, I wonder. + Would it trouble you to know + Tender soul, the world and sin + By your calm feet trodden under + Long ago, + Living now, mighty to win? + And your feet are vanished like the snow + Vanished; but the poet, he + In whose dream your face appears, + He who ranges unknown years, + With your music in his heart, + Speaks to you familiarly + Where you keep apart, + And invents you as you were. + And your picture, O my nun! + Is a strangely easy one, + For the holy weed you wear, + For your hidden eyes and hidden hair, + And in picturing you I may + Scarcely go astray. + + O the vague reality, + The mysterious certainty! + O strange truth of these my guesses + In the wide thought-wildernesses! + —Truth of one divined of many flowers; + Of one raindrop in the showers + Of the long-ago swift rain; + Of one tear of many tears + In some world-renownèd pain; + Of one daisy ‘mid the centuries of sun; + Of a little living nun + In the garden of the years. + + Yes, I am not far astray; + But I guess you as might one + Pausing when young March is grey, + In a violet-peopled day; + All his thoughts go out to places that he knew + To his child-home in the sun, + To the fields of his regret, + To one place i’ the innocent March air, + By one olive, and invent + The familiar form and scent + Safely; a white violet + Certainly is there. + + Sœur Monique, remember me. + ’Tis not in the past alone + I am picturing you to be; + But my little friend, my own, + In my moment, pray for me. + For another dream is mine + And another dream is true, + Sweeter even, + Of the little ones that shine + Lost within the light divine,— + Of some meekest flower, or you, + In the fields of Heaven. + + + REGRETS + + As, when the seaward ebbing tide doth pour + Out by the low sand spaces, + The parting waves slip back to clasp the shore + With lingering embraces,— + + So in the tide of life that carries me + From where thy true heart dwells, + Waves of my thoughts and memories turn to thee + With lessening farewells; + + Waving of hands; dreams, when the day forgets; + A care half lost in cares; + The saddest of my verses; dim regrets; + Thy name among my prayers. + + I would the day might come, so waited for, + So patiently besought, + When I, returning, should fill up once more + Thy desolated thought; + + And fill thy loneliness that lies apart + In still, persistent pain. + Shall I content thee, O thou broken heart. + As the tide comes again, + + And brims the little sea-shore lakes, and sets + Seaweeds afloat, and fills + The silent pools, rivers and rivulets + Among the inland hills? + + + THE VISITING SEA + + As the inhastening tide doth roll, + Home from the deep, along the whole + Wide shining strand, and floods the caves, + —Your love comes filling with happy waves + The open sea-shore of my soul. + + But inland from the seaward spaces, + None knows, not even you, the places + Brimmed, at your coming, out of sight, + —The little solitudes of delight + This tide constrains in dim embraces. + + You see the happy shore, wave-rimmed, + But know not of the quiet dimmed + Rivers your coming floods and fills, + The little pools ‘mid happier hills, + My silent rivulets, over-brimmed. + + What, I have secrets from you? Yes. + But, visiting Sea, your love doth press + And reach in further than you know, + And fills all these; and, when you go, + There’s loneliness in loneliness. + + + AFTER A PARTING + + Farewell has long been said; I have forgone thee; + I never name thee even. + But how shall I learn virtues and yet shun thee? + For thou art so near Heaven + That heavenward meditations pause upon thee. + + Thou dost beset the path to every shrine; + My trembling thoughts discern + Thy goodness in the good for which I pine; + And if I turn from but one sin, I turn + Unto a smile of thine. + + How shall I thrust thee apart + Since all my growth tends to thee night and day— + To thee faith, hope, and art? + Swift are the currents setting all one way; + They draw my life, my life, out of my heart. + + + BUILDERS OF RUINS + + We build with strength the deep tower wall + That shall be shattered thus and thus. + And fair and great are court and hall, + But _how_ fair—this is not for us, + Who know the lack that lurks in all. + + We know, we know how all too bright + The hues are that our painting wears, + And how the marble gleams too white;— + We speak in unknown tongues, the years + Interpret everything aright, + + And crown with weeds our pride of towers, + And warm our marble through with sun, + And break our pavements through with flowers, + With an Amen when all is done, + Knowing these perfect things of ours. + + O days, we ponder, left alone, + Like children in their lonely hour, + And in our secrets keep your own, + As seeds the colour of the flower. + To-day they are not all unknown, + + The stars that ’twixt the rise and fall, + Like relic-seers, shall one by one + Stand musing o’er our empty hall; + And setting moons shall brood upon + The frescoes of our inward wall. + + And when some midsummer shall be, + Hither will come some little one + (Dusty with bloom of flowers is he), + Sit on a ruin i’ the late long sun, + And think, one foot upon his knee. + + And where they wrought, these lives of ours, + So many-worded, many-souled, + A North-west wind will take the towers, + And dark with colour, sunny and cold, + Will range alone among the flowers. + + And here or there, at our desire, + The little clamorous owl shall sit + Through her still time; and we aspire + To make a law (and know not it) + Unto the life of a wild briar. + + Our purpose is distinct and dear, + Though from our open eyes ’tis hidden. + Thou, Time to come, shalt make it clear, + Undoing our work; we are children chidden + With pity and smiles of many a year. + + Who shall allot the praise, and guess + What part is yours and what is ours?— + O years that certainly will bless + Our flowers with fruits, our seeds with flowers, + With ruin all our perfectness. + + Be patient, Time, of our delays, + Too happy hopes, and wasted fears, + Our faithful ways, our wilful ways; + Solace our labours, O our seers + The seasons, and our bards the days; + + And make our pause and silence brim + With the shrill children’s play, and sweets + Of those pathetic flowers and dim, + Of those eternal flowers my Keats + Dying felt growing over him! + + + SONNETS + + + THOUGHTS IN SEPARATION + + We never meet; yet we meet day by day + Upon those hills of life, dim and immense— + The good we love, and sleep, our innocence. + O hills of life, high hills! And, higher than they, + + Our guardian spirits meet at prayer and play. + Beyond pain, joy, and hope, and long suspense, + Above the summits of our souls, far hence, + An angel meets an angel on the way. + + Beyond all good I ever believed of thee, + Or thou of me, these always love and live. + And though I fail of thy ideal of me, + + My angel falls not short. They greet each other. + Who knows, they may exchange the kiss we give, + Thou to thy crucifix, I to my mother. + + + THE GARDEN + + My heart shall be thy garden. Come, my own, + Into thy garden; thine be happy hours + Among my fairest thoughts, my tallest flowers, + From root to crowning petal thine alone. + + Thine is the place from where the seeds are sown + Up to the sky enclosed, with all its showers + But ah, the birds, the birds! Who shall build bowers + To keep these thine? O friend, the birds have flown. + + For as these come and go, and quit our pine + To follow the sweet season, or, new-comers, + Sing one song only from our alder-trees, + + My heart has thoughts, which, though thine eyes hold mine, + Flit to the silent world and other summers, + With wings that dip beyond the silver seas. + + + YOUR OWN FAIR YOUTH + + Your own fair youth, you care so little for it, + Smiling towards Heaven, you would not stay the advances + Of time and change upon your happiest fancies + I keep your golden hour, and will restore it. + + If ever, in time to come, you would explore it— + Your old self, whose thoughts went like last year’s pansies, + Look unto me; no mirror keeps its glances; + In my unfailing praises now I store it. + + To guard all joys of yours from Time’s estranging, + I shall be then a treasury where your gay, + Happy, and pensive past unaltered is. + + I shall be then a garden charmed from changing, + In which your June has never passed away. + Walk there awhile among my memories. + + + THE YOUNG NEOPHYTE + + Who knows what days I answer for to-day? + Giving the bud I give the flower. I bow + This yet unfaded and a faded brow; + Bending these knees and feeble knees, I pray. + + Thoughts yet unripe in me I bend one way, + Give one repose to pain I know not now, + One check to joy that comes, I guess not how. + I dedicate my fields when Spring is grey. + + O rash! (I smile) to pledge my hidden wheat. + I fold to-day at altars far apart + Hands trembling with what toils? In their retreat + + I seal my love to-be, my folded art. + I light the tapers at my head and feet, + And lay the crucifix on this silent heart. + + + SPRING ON THE ALBAN HILLS + + O’er the Campagna it is dim warm weather; + The Spring comes with a full heart silently, + And many thoughts; a faint flash of the sea + Divides two mists; straight falls the falling feather. + + With wild Spring meanings hill and plain together + Grow pale, or just flush with a dust of flowers. + Rome in the ages, dimmed with all her towers, + Floats in the midst, a little cloud at tether. + + I fain would put my hands about thy face. + Thou with thy thoughts, who art another Spring, + And draw thee to me like a mournful child. + + Thou lookest on me from another place; + I touch not this day’s secret, nor the thing + That in the silence makes thy soft eyes wild. + + + IN FEBRUARY + + Rich meanings of the prophet-Spring adorn, + Unseen, this colourless sky of folded showers, + And folded winds; no blossom in the bowers; + A poet’s face asleep is this grey morn. + + Now in the midst of the old world forlorn + A mystic child is set in these still hours. + I keep this time, even before the flowers, + Sacred to all the young and the unborn; + + To all the miles and miles of unsprung wheat, + And to the Spring waiting beyond the portal, + And to the future of my own young art, + + And, among all these things, to you, my sweet, + My friend, to your calm face and the immortal + Child tarrying all your life-time in your heart. + + + A SHATTERED LUTE + + I touched the heart that loved me as a player + Touches a lyre. Content with my poor skill, + No touch save mine knew my beloved (and still + I thought at times: Is there no sweet lost air + + Old loves could wake in him, I cannot share?) + O he alone, alone could so fulfil + My thoughts in sound to the measure of my will + He is gone, and silence takes me unaware. + + The songs I knew not he resumes, set free + From my constraining love, alas for me! + His part in our tune goes with him; my part + + Is locked in me for ever; I stand as mute + As one with vigorous music in his heart + Whose fingers stray upon a shattered lute. + + + RENOUNCEMENT + + I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong, + I shun the thought that lurks in all delight— + The thought of thee—and in the blue Heaven’s height, + And in the sweetest passage of a song. + + Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng + This breast, the thought of thee waits, hidden yet bright; + But it must never, never come in sight; + I must stop short of thee the whole day long. + + But when sleep comes to close each difficult day, + When night gives pause to the long watch I keep, + And all my bonds I needs must loose apart, + + Must doff my will as raiment laid away,— + With the first dream that comes with the first sleep + I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart. + + + TO A DAISY + + Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide + Like all created things, secrets from me, + And stand a barrier to eternity. + And I, how can I praise thee well and wide + + From where I dwell—upon the hither side? + Thou little veil for so great mystery, + When shall I penetrate all things and thee, + And then look back? For this I must abide, + + Till thou shalt grow and fold and be unfurled + Literally between me and the world. + Then I shall drink from in beneath a spring, + + And from a poet’s side shall read his book. + O daisy mine, what wilt it be to look + From God’s side even of such a simple thing? + + + SAN LORENZO’S MOTHER + + I had not seen my son’s dear face + (He chose the cloister by God’s grace) + Since it had come to full flower-time. + I hardly guessed at its perfect prime, + That folded flower of his dear face. + + Mine eyes were veiled by mists of tears + When on a day in many years + One of his Order came. I thrilled, + Facing, I thought, that face fulfilled. + I doubted, for my mists of tears. + + His blessing be with me for ever! + My hope and doubt were hard to sever. + —That altered face, those holy weeds. + I filled his wallet and kissed his beads, + And lost his echoing feet for ever. + + If to my son my alms were given + I know not, and I wait for Heaven. + He did not plead for child of mine, + But for another Child divine, + And unto Him it was surely given. + + There is One alone who cannot change; + Dreams are we, shadows, visions strange; + And all I give is given to One. + I might mistake my dearest son, + But never the Son who cannot change. + + + THE LOVER URGES THE BETTER THRIFT + + My Fair, no beauty of thine will last + Save in my love’s eternity. + Thy smiles, that light thee fitfully, + Are lost for ever—their moment past— + Except the few thou givest to me. + + Thy sweet words vanish day by day, + As all breath of mortality; + Thy laughter, done, must cease to be, + And all thy dear tones pass away, + Except the few that sing to me. + + Hide then within my heart, oh, hide + All thou art loth should go from thee. + Be kinder to thyself and me. + My cupful from this river’s tide + Shall never reach the long sad sea. + + + CRADLE-SONG AT TWILIGHT + + The child not yet is lulled to rest. + Too young a nurse, the slender Night + So laxly holds him to her breast + That throbs with flight. + + He plays with her, and will not sleep. + For other playfellows she sighs; + An unmaternal fondness keep + Her alien eyes. + + + SONG OF THE NIGHT AT DAYBREAK + + All my stars forsake me, + And the dawn-winds shake me. + Where shall I betake me? + + Whither shall I run + Till the set of sun, + Till the day be done? + + To the mountain-mine, + To the boughs o’ the pine, + To the blind man’s eyne, + + To a brow that is + Bowed upon the knees, + Sick with memories. + + + A LETTER FROM A GIRL TO HER OWN OLD AGE + + Listen, and when thy hand this paper presses, + O time-worn woman, think of her who blesses + What thy thin fingers touch, with her caresses. + + O mother, for the weight of years that break thee! + O daughter, for slow time must yet awake thee, + And from the changes of my heart must make thee. + + O fainting traveller, morn is grey in heaven. + Dost thou remember how the clouds were driven? + And are they calm about the fall of even? + + Pause near the ending of thy long migration, + For this one sudden hour of desolation + Appeals to one hour of thy meditation. + + Suffer, O silent one, that I remind thee + Of the great hills that stormed the sky behind thee, + Of the wild winds of power that have resigned thee. + + Know that the mournful plain where thou must wander + Is but a grey and silent world, but ponder + The misty mountains of the morning yonder. + + Listen:—the mountain winds with rain were fretting, + And sudden gleams the mountain-tops besetting. + I cannot let thee fade to death, forgetting. + + What part of this wild heart of mine I know not + Will follow with thee where the great winds blow not, + And where the young flowers of the mountain grow not. + + Yet let my letter with thy lost thoughts in it + Tell what the way was when thou didst begin it, + And win with thee the goal when thou shalt win it. + + Oh, in some hour of thine my thoughts shall guide thee. + Suddenly, though time, darkness, silence, hide thee + This wind from thy lost country flits beside thee— + + Telling thee: all thy memories moved the maiden, + With thy regrets was morning over-shaden, + With sorrow, thou hast left, her life was laden. + + But whither shall my thoughts turn to pursue thee? + Life changes, and the years and days renew thee. + Oh, Nature brings my straying heart unto thee. + + Her winds will join us, with their constant kisses + Upon the evening as the morning tresses, + Her summers breathe the same unchanging blisses. + + And we, so altered in our shifting phases, + Track one another ‘mid the many mazes + By the eternal child-breath of the daisies. + + I have not writ this letter of divining + To make a glory of thy silent pining, + A triumph of thy mute and strange declining. + + Only one youth, and the bright life was shrouded. + Only one morning, and the day was clouded. + And one old age with all regrets is crowded. + + Oh hush, oh hush! Thy tears my words are steeping. + Oh, hush, hush, hush! So full, the fount of weeping? + Poor eyes, so quickly moved, so near to sleeping? + + Pardon the girl; such strange desires beset her. + Poor woman, lay aside the mournful letter + That breaks thy heart; the one who wrote, forget her: + + The one who now thy faded features guesses, + With filial fingers thy grey hair caresses, + With morning tears thy mournful twilight blesses. + + + ADVENT MEDITATION + + _Rorate Cœli desuper, et nubes pluant Justum. + Aperiatur Terra, et germinet Salvatorem._ + + No sudden thing of glory and fear + Was the Lord’s coming; but the dear + Slow Nature’s days followed each other + To form the Saviour from his Mother + —One of the children of the year. + + The earth, the rain, received the trust, + —The sun and dews, to frame the Just. + He drew His daily life from these, + According to His own decrees + Who makes man from the fertile dust. + + Sweet summer and the winter wild, + These brought him forth, the Undefiled. + The happy Springs renewed again + His daily bread, the growing grain, + The food and raiment of the Child. + + + A POET’S FANCIES + + + I + THE LOVE OF NARCISSUS + + + Like him who met his own eyes in the river, + The poet trembles at his own long gaze + That meets him through the changing nights and days + From out great Nature; all her waters quiver + With his fair image facing him for ever; + The music that he listens to betrays + His own heart to his ears; by trackless ways + His wild thoughts tend to him in long endeavour. + + His dreams are far among the silent hills; + His vague voice calls him from the darkened plain + With winds at night; strange recognition thrills + His lonely heart with piercing love and pain; + He knows again his mirth in mountain rills, + His weary tears that touch him with the rain. + + + II + TO ANY POET + + + Thou who singest through the earth, + All the earth’s wild creatures fly thee; + Everywhere thou marrest mirth,— + Dumbly they defy thee; + There is something they deny thee. + + Pines thy fallen nature ever + For the unfallen Nature sweet. + But she shuns thy long endeavour, + Though her flowers and wheat + Throng and press thy pausing feet. + + Though thou tame a bird to love thee, + Press thy face to grass and flowers, + All these things reserve above thee + Secrets in the bowers, + Secrets in the sun and showers. + + Sing thy sorrow, sing thy gladness, + In thy songs must wind and tree + Bear the fictions of thy sadness, + Thy humanity. + For their truth is not for thee. + + Wait, and many a secret nest, + Many a hoarded winter-store + Will be hidden on thy breast. + Things thou longest for + Will not fear or shun thee more. + + Thou shalt intimately lie + In the roots of flowers that thrust + Upwards from thee to the sky, + With no more distrust, + When they blossom from thy dust. + + Silent labours of the rain + Shall be near thee, reconciled; + Little lives of leaves and grain, + All things shy and wild, + Tell thee secrets, quiet child. + + Earth, set free from thy fair fancies + And the art thou shalt resign, + Will bring forth her rue and pansies + Unto more divine + Thoughts than any thoughts of thine. + + Nought will fear thee, humbled creature. + There will lie thy mortal burden + Pressed unto the heart of Nature, + Songless in a garden, + With a long embrace of pardon. + + Then the truth all creatures tell, + And His will Whom thou entreatest, + Shall absorb thee; there shall dwell + Silence, the completest + Of thy poems, last, and sweetest. + + + III + TO ONE POEM IN A SILENT TIME + + + Who looked for thee, thou little song of mine? + This winter of a silent poet’s heart + Is suddenly sweet with thee, but what thou art, + Mid-winter flower, I would I could divine. + + Art thou a last one, orphan of thy line? + Did the dead summer’s last warmth foster thee? + Or is Spring folded up unguessed in me, + And stirring out of sight,—and thou the sign? + + Where shall I look—backwards or to the morrow + For others of thy fragrance, secret child? + Who knows if last things or if first things claim thee? + + —Whether thou be the last smile of my sorrow, + Or else a joy too sweet, a joy too wild? + How, my December violet, shall I name thee? + + + IV + THE MOON TO THE SUN + + +_The Poet sings to her Poet_ + + As the full moon shining there + To the sun that lighteth her + Am I unto thee for ever, + O my secret glory-giver! + O my light, I am dark but fair, + Black but fair. + + Shine, Earth loves thee! And then shine + And be loved through thoughts of mine. + All thy secrets that I treasure + I translate them at my pleasure. + I am crowned with glory of thine, + Thine, not thine. + + I make pensive thy delight, + And thy strong gold silver-white. + Though all beauty of mine thou makest, + Yet to earth which thou forsakest + I have made thee fair all night, + Day all night. + + + V + THE SPRING TO THE SUMMER + + +_The Poet sings to her Poet_ + + O poet of the time to be, + My conqueror, I began for thee. + Enter into the poet’s pain, + And take the riches of the rain, + And make the perfect year for me. + + Thou unto whom my lyre shall fall, + Whene’er thou comest, hear my call. + Oh, keep the promise of my lays, + Take thou the parable of my days; + I trust thee with the aim of all. + + And if thy thoughts unfold from me, + Know that I too have hints of thee, + Dim hopes that come across my mind + In the rare days of warmer wind, + And tones of summer in the sea. + + And I have set thy paths, I guide + Thy blossoms on the wild hillside. + And I, thy bygone poet, share + The flowers that throng thy feet where’er + I led thy feet before I died. + + + VI + THE DAY TO THE NIGHT + + _The Poet sings to his Poet_ + + From dawn to dusk, and from dusk to dawn, + We two are sundered always, Sweet. + A few stars shake o’er the high lawn + And the cold sea-shore when we meet. + The twilight comes with thy shadowy feet. + + We are not day and night, my Fair, + But one. It is an hour of hours. + And thoughts that are not otherwhere + Are thought here ‘mid the blown sea-flowers, + This meeting and this dusk of ours. + + Delight has taken Pain to her heart, + And there is dusk and stars for these. + Oh, linger, linger! They would not part; + And the wild wind comes from over-seas + With a new song to the olive trees. + + And when we meet by the sounding pine + Sleep draws near to his dreamless brother. + And when thy sweet eyes answer mine, + Peace nestles close to her mournful mother, + And Hope and Weariness kiss each other. + + + VII + A POET OF ONE MOOD + + + A poet of one mood in all my lays, + Ranging all life to sing one only love, + Like a west wind across the world I move, + Sweeping my harp of floods mine own wild ways. + + The countries change, but not the west-wind days + Which are my songs. My soft skies shine above, + And on all seas the colours of a dove, + And on all fields a flash of silver greys. + + I make the whole world answer to my art + And sweet monotonous meanings. In your ears + I change not ever, bearing, for my part, + One thought that is the treasure of my years, + A small cloud full of rain upon my heart + And in mine arms, clasped, like a child in tears. + + + VIII + A SONG OF DERIVATIONS + + + I come from nothing; but from where + Come the undying thoughts I bear? + Down, through long links of death and birth, + From the past poets of the earth. + My immortality is there. + + I am like the blossom of an hour. + But long, long vanished sun and shower + Awoke my breath i’ the young world’s air. + I track the past back everywhere + Through seed and flower and seed and flower. + + Or I am like a stream that flows + Full of the cold springs that arose + In morning lands, in distant hills; + And down the plain my channel fills + With melting of forgotten snows. + + Voices, I have not heard, possessed + My own fresh songs; my thoughts are blessed + With relics of the far unknown. + And mixed with memories not my own + The sweet streams throng into my breast. + + Before this life began to be, + The happy songs that wake in me + Woke long ago and far apart. + Heavily on this little heart + Presses this immortality. + + + IX + SINGERS TO COME + + + No new delights to our desire + The singers of the past can yield. + I lift mine eyes to hill and field, + And see in them your yet dumb lyre, + Poets unborn and unrevealed. + + Singers to come, what thoughts will start + To song? what words of yours be sent + Through man’s soul, and with earth be blent? + These worlds of nature and the heart + Await you like an instrument. + + Who knows what musical flocks of words + Upon these pine-tree tops will light, + And crown these towers in circling flight, + And cross these seas like summer birds, + And give a voice to the day and night? + + Something of you already is ours + Some mystic part of you belongs + To us whose dreams your future throngs, + Who look on hills, and trees, and flowers, + Which will mean so much in your songs. + + I wonder, like the maid who found, + And knelt to lift, the lyre supreme + Of Orpheus from the Thracian stream. + She dreams on its sealed past profound; + On a deep future sealed I dream. + + She bears it in her wanderings + Within her arms, and has not pressed + Her unskilled fingers, but her breast + Upon those silent sacred strings; + I, too, clasp mystic strings at rest. + + For I, i’ the world of lands and seas, + The sky of wind and rain and fire, + And in man’s world of long desire— + In all that is yet dumb in these— + Have found a more mysterious lyre. + + + X + UNLINKED + + + If I should quit thee, sacrifice, forswear, + To what, my art, shall I give thee in keeping? + To the long winds of heaven? Shall these come sweeping + My songs forgone against my face and hair? + + Or shall the mountain streams my lost joys bear. + My past poetic pain in rain be weeping? + No, I shall live a poet waking, sleeping, + And I shall die a poet unaware. + + From me, my art, thou canst not pass away; + And I, a singer though I cease to sing, + Shall own thee without joy in thee or woe. + + Through my indifferent words of every day, + Scattered and all unlinked the rhymes shall ring, + And make my poem; and I shall not know. + + + _Printed in England + at the Anchor Press_ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + Page Changed from Changed to + 78 Speaks to your familiarly Speaks to you familiarly + + ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79380 *** diff --git a/79380-h/79380-h.htm b/79380-h/79380-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d868024 --- /dev/null +++ b/79380-h/79380-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3564 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>Collected Poems of Alice Meynell | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; 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text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph1 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; + margin: .67em auto; page-break-before: always; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + </style> + </head> + + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79380 ***</div> + + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter ph1'> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>COLLECTED POEMS</div> + <div>OF ALICE MEYNELL</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='small'><em>First Impression, May, 1913.</em></span></div> + <div><span class='small'><em>Sixth Impression (seventh thousand), October, 1913.</em></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_frontis.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>ALICE MEYNELL<br> <br> <span class='small'>FROM A DRAWING BY JOHN S. SARGENT, R.A.</span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<main> +<div class='titlepage'> + +<div> + <h1 class='c003'>COLLECTED POEMS OF ALICE MEYNELL</h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div>New York:</div> + <div>CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS</div> + <div>597–599 Fifth Avenue</div> + <div>1913</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><em>To</em></div> + <div><em>W. M.</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<nav data-epub-type="toc"> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_7' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_7">7</span> + <h2 class='c004'>THE CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr><td class='c005' colspan='3'>LATER POEMS</td></tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Shepherdess</td> + <td class='c007'>Page <a href='#Page_13'>13</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Two Poets</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_14'>14</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Lady Poverty</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_15'>15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>November Blue</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>A Dead Harvest</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_17'>17</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Watershed</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Joyous Wanderer</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Rainy Summer</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Roaring Frost</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_22'>22</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>West Wind in Winter</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Fold</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>“Why wilt thou Chide?”</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Veneration of Images</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_27'>27</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>“I am the Way”</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_28'>28</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Via, et Veritas, et Vita</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Parentage</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Modern Mother</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Unto us a Son is Given</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Veni Creator</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Two Boyhoods</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>To Sylvia</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Saint Catherine of Siena</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_38'>38</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Chimes</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>A Poet’s Wife</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Messina, 1908</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_8">8</span>The Unknown God</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_43'>43</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>A General Communion</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_45'>45</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Fugitive</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>In Portugal, 1912</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_47'>47</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Crucifixion</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Newer Vainglory</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>In Manchester Square</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Maternity</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The First Snow</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_52'>52</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Courts</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_53'>53</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Launch</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>To the Body</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_55'>55</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Unexpected Peril</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Christ in the Universe</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_58'>58</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Beyond Knowledge</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_60'>60</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>At Night</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c007'> </td> + </tr> + <tr><td class='c005' colspan='3'>EARLY POEMS</td></tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>In Early Spring</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>To the Beloved</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>An Unmarked Festival</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>In Autumn</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_71'>71</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Parted</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>“Sœur Monique”</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Regrets</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Visiting Sea</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>After a Parting</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_83'>83</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Builders of Ruins</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_84'>84</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008' colspan='3'><span class='pageno' id='Page_9' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_9">9</span><span class='sc'>Sonnets</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>Thoughts in Separation</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>The Garden</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>Your Own Fair Youth</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>The Young Neophyte</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_90'>90</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>Spring on the Alban Hills</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>In February</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>A Shattered Lute</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>Renouncement</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>To a Daisy</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>San Lorenzo’s Mother</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_96'>96</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>The Lover Urges the Better Thrift</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_98'>98</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Cradle-Song at Twilight</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_99'>99</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Song of the Night at Daybreak</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>A Letter from a Girl to her own Old Age</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Advent Meditation</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008' colspan='3'><span class='sc'>A Poet’s Fancies</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>The Love of Narcissus</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>To Any Poet</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>To one Poem in a Silent Time</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>The Moon to the Sun</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_110'>110</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>The Spring to the Summer</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>The Day to the Night</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_112'>112</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>A Poet of one Mood</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>A Song of Derivations</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>Singers to Come</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c006'>Unlinked</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_117'>117</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</nav> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_10' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_10">10</span><em>This volume includes the author’s very early verse, first published as “Preludes” and afterwards as “Poems” (1st edition, 1893; 10th edition, 1911), also the “Later Poems” (issued in 1901), together with others, since composed, here collected for the first time.</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_11' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_11">11</span> + <h2 class='c004'>LATER POEMS</h2> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_13' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_13">13</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE SHEPHERDESS</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>She walks—the lady of my delight—</div> + <div class='line in4'>A shepherdess of sheep.</div> + <div class='line'>Her flocks are thoughts. She keeps them white;</div> + <div class='line in4'>She guards them from the steep;</div> + <div class='line'>She feeds them on the fragrant height,</div> + <div class='line in4'>And folds them in for sleep.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>She roams maternal hills and bright,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Dark valleys safe and deep.</div> + <div class='line'>Into that tender breast at night</div> + <div class='line in4'>The chastest stars may peep.</div> + <div class='line'>She walks—the lady of my delight—</div> + <div class='line in4'>A shepherdess of sheep.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>She holds her little thoughts in sight,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Though gay they run and leap.</div> + <div class='line'>She is so circumspect and right;</div> + <div class='line in4'>She has her soul to keep.</div> + <div class='line'>She walks—the lady of my delight—</div> + <div class='line in4'>A shepherdess of sheep.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_14' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_14">14</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE TWO POETS</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Whose is the speech</div> + <div class='line'>That moves the voices of this lonely beech?</div> + <div class='line'>Out of the long west did this wild wind come—</div> + <div class='line'>O strong and silent! And the tree was dumb,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Ready and dumb, until</div> + <div class='line'>The dumb gale struck it on the darkened hill.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Two memories,</div> + <div class='line'>Two powers, two promises, two silences</div> + <div class='line'>Closed in this cry, closed in these thousand leaves</div> + <div class='line'>Articulate. This sudden hour retrieves</div> + <div class='line in6'>The purpose of the past,</div> + <div class='line'>Separate, apart—embraced, embraced at last.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>“Whose is the word?</div> + <div class='line'>Is it I that spake? Is it thou? Is it I that heard?”</div> + <div class='line'>“Thine earth was solitary, yet I found thee!”</div> + <div class='line'>“Thy sky was pathless, but I caught, I bound thee,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Thou visitant divine.”</div> + <div class='line'>“O thou my Voice, the word was thine.” “Was thine.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_15' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_15">15</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE LADY POVERTY</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The Lady Poverty was fair:</div> + <div class='line'>But she has lost her looks of late,</div> + <div class='line'>With change of times and change of air.</div> + <div class='line'>Ah slattern! she neglects her hair,</div> + <div class='line'>Her gown, her shoes; she keeps no state</div> + <div class='line'>As once when her pure feet were bare.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Or—almost worse, if worse can be—</div> + <div class='line'>She scolds in parlours, dusts and trims,</div> + <div class='line'>Watches and counts. Oh, is this she</div> + <div class='line'>Whom Francis met, whose step was free</div> + <div class='line'>Who with Obedience carolled hymns,</div> + <div class='line'>In Umbria walked with Chastity?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Where is her ladyhood? Not here,</div> + <div class='line'>Not among modern kinds of men;</div> + <div class='line'>But in the stony fields, where clear</div> + <div class='line'>Through the thin trees the skies appear,</div> + <div class='line'>In delicate spare soil and fen,</div> + <div class='line'>And slender landscape and austere.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_16' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_16">16</span> + <h3 class='c009'>NOVEMBER BLUE</h3> +</div> + +<div class='c010'></div> +<blockquote> +<p class='c011'>The golden tint of the electric lights seems to give +a complementary colour to the air in the early +evening.—<span class='sc'>Essay on London.</span></p> +</blockquote> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O heavenly colour, London town</div> + <div class='line in2'>Has blurred it from her skies;</div> + <div class='line'>And, hooded in an earthly brown,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Unheaven’d the city lies,</div> + <div class='line'>No longer standard-like this hue</div> + <div class='line in2'>Above the broad road flies;</div> + <div class='line'>Nor does the narrow street the blue</div> + <div class='line in2'>Wear, slender pennon-wise.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But when the gold and silver lamps</div> + <div class='line in2'>Colour the London dew,</div> + <div class='line'>And, misted by the winter damps,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The shops shine bright anew—</div> + <div class='line'>Blue comes to earth, it walks the street,</div> + <div class='line in2'>It dyes the wide air through;</div> + <div class='line'>A mimic sky about their feet,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The throng go crowned with blue</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_17' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_17">17</span> + <h3 class='c009'>A DEAD HARVEST</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div>IN KENSINGTON GARDENS</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Along the graceless grass of town</div> + <div class='line'>They rake the rows of red and brown,—</div> + <div class='line'>Dead leaves, unlike the rows of hay</div> + <div class='line'>Delicate, touched with gold and grey,</div> + <div class='line'>Raked long ago and far away.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A narrow silence in the park,</div> + <div class='line'>Between the lights a narrow dark.</div> + <div class='line'>One street rolls on the north; and one,</div> + <div class='line'>Muffled, upon the south doth run;</div> + <div class='line'>Amid the mist the work is done.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A futile crop!—for it the fire</div> + <div class='line'>Smoulders, and, for a stack, a pyre.</div> + <div class='line'>So go the town’s lives on the breeze,</div> + <div class='line'>Even as the sheddings of the trees;</div> + <div class='line'>Bosom nor barn is filled with these.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_18' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_18">18</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE WATERSHED</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div><em>Lines written between Munich and Verona</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Black mountains pricked with pointed pine</div> + <div class='line in2'>A melancholy sky.</div> + <div class='line'>Out-distanced was the German vine,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The sterile fields lay high.</div> + <div class='line'>From swarthy Alps I travelled forth</div> + <div class='line'>Aloft; it was the north, the north;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Bound for the Noon was I.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I seemed to breast the streams that day;</div> + <div class='line in2'>I met, opposed, withstood</div> + <div class='line'>The northward rivers on their way,</div> + <div class='line in2'>My heart against the flood—</div> + <div class='line'>My heart that pressed to rise and reach,</div> + <div class='line'>And felt the love of altering speech,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of frontiers, in its blood.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But oh the unfolding South! the burst</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of summer! Oh to see</div> + <div class='line'>Of all the southward brooks the first!</div> + <div class='line in2'>The travelling heart went free</div> + <div class='line'>With endless streams; that strife was stopped;</div> + <div class='line'>And down a thousand vales I dropped,</div> + <div class='line in2'>I flowed to Italy.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_19' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_19">19</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE JOYOUS WANDERER</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div><em>Translated from M. Catulle Mendès</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I go by road, I go by street—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'>O white high roads, ye know my feet!</div> + <div class='line'>A loaf I carry and, all told,</div> + <div class='line'>Three broad bits of lucky gold—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'>And oh, within my flowering heart,</div> + <div class='line'>(Sing, dear nightingale!) is my Sweet.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A poor man met me and begged for bread—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'>“Brother, take all the loaf,” I said,</div> + <div class='line'>I shall but go with lighter cheer—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'>And oh within my flowering heart</div> + <div class='line'>(Sing, sweet nightingale!) is my Dear.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A thief I met on the lonely way—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'>He took my gold; I cried to him, “Stay!</div> + <div class='line'>And take my pocket and make an end.”</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_20' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_20">20</span>And oh within my flowering heart</div> + <div class='line'>(Sing, soft nightingale!) is my Friend.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Now on the plain I have met with death—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'>My bread is gone, my gold, my breath.</div> + <div class='line'>But oh this heart is not afraid—</div> + <div class='line in6'>Lira, la, la!</div> + <div class='line'>For oh, within this lonely heart</div> + <div class='line'>(Sing, sad nightingale!) is my Maid.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_21' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_21">21</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE RAINY SUMMER</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>There’s much afoot in heaven and earth this year;</div> + <div class='line in2'>The winds hunt up the sun, hunt up the moon,</div> + <div class='line'>Trouble the dubious dawn, hasten the drear</div> + <div class='line in2'>Height of a threatening noon.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>No breath of boughs, no breath of leaves, of fronds</div> + <div class='line in2'>May linger or grow warm; the trees are loud;</div> + <div class='line'>The forest, rooted, tosses in his bonds,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And strains against the cloud.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>No scents may pause within the garden-fold;</div> + <div class='line in2'>The rifled flowers are cold as ocean-shells;</div> + <div class='line'>Bees, humming in the storm, carry their cold</div> + <div class='line in2'>Wild honey to cold cells.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_22' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_22">22</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE ROARING FROST</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A flock of winds came winging from the North,</div> + <div class='line'>Strong birds with fighting pinions driving forth</div> + <div class='line in6'>With a resounding call:—</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Where will they close their wings and cease their cries—</div> + <div class='line'>Between what warming seas and conquering skies—</div> + <div class='line in6'>And fold, and fall?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_23' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_23">23</span> + <h3 class='c009'>WEST WIND IN WINTER</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Another day awakes. And who—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Changing the world—is this?</div> + <div class='line'>He comes at whiles, the winter through,</div> + <div class='line in2'>West Wind! I would not miss</div> + <div class='line'>His sudden tryst: the long, the new</div> + <div class='line in2'>Surprises of his kiss.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Vigilant, I make haste to close</div> + <div class='line in2'>With him who comes my way.</div> + <div class='line'>I go to meet him as he goes;</div> + <div class='line in2'>I know his note, his lay,</div> + <div class='line'>His colour and his morning-rose,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And I confess his day.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>My window waits; at dawn I hark</div> + <div class='line in2'>His call; at morn I meet</div> + <div class='line'>His haste around the tossing park</div> + <div class='line in2'>And down the softened street;</div> + <div class='line'>The gentler light is his; the dark.</div> + <div class='line in2'>The grey—he turns it sweet.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_24">24</span>So too, so too, do I confess</div> + <div class='line in2'>My poet when he sings.</div> + <div class='line'>He rushes on my mortal guess</div> + <div class='line in2'>With his immortal things.</div> + <div class='line'>I feel, I know him. On I press—</div> + <div class='line in2'>He finds me ’twixt his wings.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_25' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_25">25</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE FOLD</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>Behold,</div> + <div class='line'>The time is now! Bring back, bring back</div> + <div class='line'>Thy flocks of fancies, wild of whim.</div> + <div class='line'>Oh, lead them from the mountain-track—</div> + <div class='line in4'>Thy frolic thoughts untold.</div> + <div class='line'>Oh, bring them in—the fields grow dim—</div> + <div class='line in4'>And let me be the fold!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>Behold,</div> + <div class='line'>The time is now! Call in, oh call</div> + <div class='line'>Thy pasturing kisses gone astray</div> + <div class='line'>For scattered sweets; gather them all</div> + <div class='line in4'>To shelter from the cold.</div> + <div class='line'>Throng them together, close and gay</div> + <div class='line in4'>And let me be the fold!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_26' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_26">26</span> + <h3 class='c009'>“WHY WILT THOU CHIDE?”</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>Why wilt thou chide,</div> + <div class='line'>Who hast attained to be denied?</div> + <div class='line in4'>Oh learn, above</div> + <div class='line'>All price is my refusal, Love.</div> + <div class='line in4'>My sacred Nay</div> + <div class='line'>Was never cheapened by the way.</div> + <div class='line'>Thy single sorrow crowns thee lord</div> + <div class='line'>Of an unpurchasable word.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>O strong, O pure!</div> + <div class='line'>As Yea makes happier loves secure,</div> + <div class='line in4'>I vow thee this</div> + <div class='line'>Unique rejection of a kiss.</div> + <div class='line in4'>I guard for thee</div> + <div class='line'>This jealous sad monopoly.</div> + <div class='line'>I seal this honour thine; none dare</div> + <div class='line'>Hope for a part in thy despair.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_27' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_27">27</span> + <h3 class='c009'>VENERATION OF IMAGES</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou man, first-comer, whose wide arms entreat,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Gather, clasp, welcome, bind,</div> + <div class='line'>Lack, or remember; whose warm pulses beat</div> + <div class='line in2'>With love of thine own kind:—</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Unlifted for a blessing on yon sea,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Unshrined on this highway,</div> + <div class='line'>O flesh, O grief, thou too shalt have our knee</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou rood of every day!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_28' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_28">28</span> + <h3 class='c009'>“I AM THE WAY”</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Thou art the Way.</div> + <div class='line'>Hadst Thou been nothing but the goal,</div> + <div class='line in6'>I cannot say</div> + <div class='line'>If Thou hadst ever met my soul.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>I cannot see—</div> + <div class='line'>I, child of process—if there lies</div> + <div class='line in6'>An end for me,</div> + <div class='line'>Full of repose, full of replies.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>I’ll not reproach</div> + <div class='line'>The road that winds, my feet that err.</div> + <div class='line in6'>Access, approach.</div> + <div class='line'>Art Thou, Time, Way, and Wayfarer.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_29' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_29">29</span> + <h3 class='c009'>VIA, ET VERITAS, ET VITA</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“You never attained to Him.” “If to attain</div> + <div class='line'>Be to abide, then that may be.”</div> + <div class='line'>“Endless the way, followed with how much pain!”</div> + <div class='line in2'>“The way was He.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_30' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_30">30</span> + <h3 class='c009'>PARENTAGE</h3> +</div> +<div class='c010'></div> +<blockquote> +<p class='c011'>“When Augustus Cæsar legislated against the unmarried +citizens of Rome, he declared them to be, +in some sort, slayers of the people.”</p> +</blockquote> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>Ah no, not these!</div> + <div class='line'>These, who were childless, are not they who</div> + <div class='line'>gave</div> + <div class='line'>So many dead unto the journeying wave,</div> + <div class='line'>The helpless nurselings of the cradling seas;</div> + <div class='line'>Not they who doomed by infallible decrees</div> + <div class='line'>Unnumbered man to the innumerable grave.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>But those who slay</div> + <div class='line'>Are fathers. Theirs are armies. Death is theirs;</div> + <div class='line'>The death of innocences and despairs;</div> + <div class='line'>The dying of the golden and the grey.</div> + <div class='line'>The sentence, when these speak it, has no Nay.</div> + <div class='line'>And she who slays is she who bears, who bears.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_31' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_31">31</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE MODERN MOTHER</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Oh, what a kiss</div> + <div class='line'>With filial passion overcharged is this!</div> + <div class='line in6'>To this misgiving breast</div> + <div class='line'>This child runs, as a child ne’er ran to rest</div> + <div class='line'>Upon the light heart and the unoppressed.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Unhoped, unsought!</div> + <div class='line'>A little tenderness, this mother thought</div> + <div class='line in6'>The utmost of her meed.</div> + <div class='line'>She looked for gratitude; content indeed</div> + <div class='line'>With thus much that her nine years’ love had bought.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Nay, even with less.</div> + <div class='line'>This mother, giver of life, death, peace, distress,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Desired ah! not so much</div> + <div class='line'>Thanks as forgiveness; and the passing touch</div> + <div class='line'>Expected, and the slight, the brief caress.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>O filial light</div> + <div class='line'>Strong in these childish eyes, these new, these bright</div> + <div class='line in6'>Intelligible stars! their rays</div> + <div class='line'>Are near the constant earth, guides in the maze,</div> + <div class='line'>Natural, true, keen in this dusk of days.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_32' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_32">32</span> + <h3 class='c009'>UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Given, not lent,</div> + <div class='line'>And not withdrawn—once sent,</div> + <div class='line'>This Infant of mankind, this One,</div> + <div class='line'>Is still the little welcome Son.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>New every year,</div> + <div class='line'>New born and newly dear,</div> + <div class='line'>He comes with tidings and a song,</div> + <div class='line'>The ages long, the ages long;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Even as the cold</div> + <div class='line'>Keen winter grows not old,</div> + <div class='line'>As childhood is so fresh, foreseen</div> + <div class='line'>And spring in the familiar green.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Sudden as sweet</div> + <div class='line'>Come the expected feet.</div> + <div class='line'>All joy is young, and new all art,</div> + <div class='line'>And He, too, Whom we have by heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_33' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_33">33</span> + <h3 class='c009'>VENI CREATOR</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>So humble things Thou hast borne for us, O God</div> + <div class='line'>Left’st Thou a path of lowliness untrod?</div> + <div class='line'>Yes, one, till now; another Olive-Garden.</div> + <div class='line'>For we endure the tender pain of pardon,—</div> + <div class='line'>One with another we forbear. Give heed,</div> + <div class='line'>Look at the mournful world Thou hast decreed.</div> + <div class='line'>The time has come. At last we hapless men</div> + <div class='line'>Know all our haplessness all through. Come, then,</div> + <div class='line'>Endure undreamed humility: Lord of Heaven,</div> + <div class='line'>Come to our ignorant hearts and be forgiven.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_34' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_34">34</span> + <h3 class='c009'>TWO BOYHOODS</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Luminous passions reign</div> + <div class='line'>High in the soul of man; and they are twain.</div> + <div class='line'>Of these he hath made the poetry of earth—</div> + <div class='line'>Hath made his nobler tears, his magic mirth.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Fair Love is one of these,</div> + <div class='line'>The visiting vision of seven centuries;</div> + <div class='line'>And one is love of Nature—love to tears—</div> + <div class='line'>The modern passion of this hundred years.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Oh never to such height,</div> + <div class='line'>Oh never to such spiritual light—</div> + <div class='line'>The light of lonely visions, and the gleam</div> + <div class='line'>Of secret splendid sombre suns in dream—</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Oh never to such long</div> + <div class='line'>Glory in life, supremacy in song,</div> + <div class='line'>Had either of these loves attained in joy,</div> + <div class='line'>But for the ministration of a boy.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Dante was one who bare</div> + <div class='line'>Love in his deep heart, apprehended there</div> + <div class='line'>When he was yet a child; and from that day</div> + <div class='line'>The radiant love has never passed away.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_35">35</span>And one was Wordsworth; he</div> + <div class='line'>Conceived the love of Nature childishly</div> + <div class='line'>As no adult heart might; old poets sing</div> + <div class='line'>That exaltation by remembering.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>For no divine</div> + <div class='line'>Intelligence, or art, or fire, or wine,</div> + <div class='line'>Is high-delirious as that rising lark—</div> + <div class='line'>The child’s soul and its daybreak in the dark.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>And Letters keep these two</div> + <div class='line'>Heavenly treasures safe the ages through,</div> + <div class='line'>Safe from ignoble benison or ban—</div> + <div class='line'>These two high childhoods in the heart of man.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_36' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_36">36</span> + <h3 class='c009'>TO SYLVIA</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div>TWO YEARS OLD.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Long life to thee, long virtue, long delight,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A flowering early and late!</div> + <div class='line'>Long beauty, grave to thought and gay to sight,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A distant date!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Yet, as so many poets love to sing</div> + <div class='line in2'>(When young the child will die),</div> + <div class='line'>“No autumn will destroy this lovely spring,”</div> + <div class='line in2'>So, Sylvia, I.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I’ll write thee dapper verse and touching rhyme;</div> + <div class='line in2'>“Our eyes shall not behold—”</div> + <div class='line'>The commonplace shall serve for thee this time:</div> + <div class='line in2'>“Never grow old.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>For there’s another way to stop thy clock</div> + <div class='line in2'>Within my cherishing heart,</div> + <div class='line'>To carry thee unalterable, and lock</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy youth apart:</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_37' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_37">37</span>Thy flower, for me, shall evermore be hid</div> + <div class='line in2'>In this close bud of thine,</div> + <div class='line'>Not Sylvia, by thy death—O God forbid!—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Merely by mine.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_38' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_38">38</span> + <h3 class='c009'>SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div><em>Written for Strephon, who said that a woman must lean or she should not have his chivalry.</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The light young man who was to die,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Stopped in his frolic by the State,</div> + <div class='line'>Aghast, beheld the world go by;</div> + <div class='line in2'>But Catherine crossed his dungeon gate.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>She found his lyric courage dumb,</div> + <div class='line in2'>His stripling beauties strewn in wrecks,</div> + <div class='line'>His modish bravery overcome;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Small profit had he of his sex.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>On any old wife’s level he,</div> + <div class='line in2'>For once—for all. But he alone—</div> + <div class='line'>Man—must not fear the mystery,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The pang, the passage, the unknown:</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Death. He did fear it, in his cell,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Darkling amid the Tuscan sun;</div> + <div class='line'>And, weeping, at her feet he fell,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The sacred, young, provincial nun.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_39">39</span>She prayed, she preached him innocent;</div> + <div class='line in2'>She gave him to the Sacrificed;</div> + <div class='line'>On her courageous breast he leant,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The breast where beat the heart of Christ.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>He left it for the block, with cries</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of victory on his severed breath.</div> + <div class='line'>That crimson head she clasped, her eyes</div> + <div class='line in2'>Blind with the splendour of his death.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And will the man of modern years</div> + <div class='line in2'>—Stern on the Vote—withhold from thee</div> + <div class='line'>Thou prop, thou cross, erect, in tears,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Catherine, the service of his knee?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_40' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_40">40</span> + <h3 class='c009'>CHIMES</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Brief, on a flying night,</div> + <div class='line in2'>From the shaken tower,</div> + <div class='line'>A flock of bells take flight,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And go with the hour.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Like birds from the cote to the gales,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Abrupt—O hark!</div> + <div class='line'>A fleet of bells set sails,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And go to the dark.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Sudden the cold airs swing.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Alone, aloud,</div> + <div class='line'>A verse of bells takes wing</div> + <div class='line in2'>And flies with the cloud.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_41' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_41">41</span> + <h3 class='c009'>A POET’S WIFE</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I saw a tract of ocean locked inland,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Within a field’s embrace—</div> + <div class='line'>The very sea! afar it fled the strand,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And gave the seasons chase,</div> + <div class='line'>And met the night alone, the tempest spanned,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Saw sunrise face to face.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O Poet, more than ocean, lonelier!</div> + <div class='line in2'>In inaccessible rest</div> + <div class='line'>And storm remote, thou, sea of thoughts, dost err,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Scattered through east to west—</div> + <div class='line'>Now, while thou closest with the kiss of her</div> + <div class='line in2'>Who locks thee to her breast.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_42' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_42">42</span> + <h3 class='c009'>MESSINA, 1908</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Lord, Thou hast crushed Thy tender ones, o’erthrown</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy strong, Thy fair; Thy man Thou hast unmanned,</div> + <div class='line'>Thy elaborate works unwrought, Thy deeds undone,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy lovely sentient human plan unplanned;</div> + <div class='line'>Destroyer, we have cowered beneath Thine own</div> + <div class='line in2'>Immediate, unintelligible hand.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Lord, Thou hast hastened to retrieve, to heal,</div> + <div class='line in2'>To feed, to bind, to clothe, to quench the brand,</div> + <div class='line'>To prop the ruin, to bless and to anneal;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Hast sped Thy ships by sea, Thy trains by land,</div> + <div class='line'>Shed pity and tears; our shattered fingers feel</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy mediate and intelligible hand.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_43' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_43">43</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE UNKNOWN GOD</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>One of the crowd went up,</div> + <div class='line'>And knelt before the Paten and the Cup,</div> + <div class='line'>Received the Lord, returned in peace, and prayed</div> + <div class='line'>Close to my side; then in my heart I said:</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“O Christ, in this man’s life—</div> + <div class='line'>This stranger who is Thine—in all his strife,</div> + <div class='line'>All his felicity, his good and ill,</div> + <div class='line'>In the assaulted stronghold of his will,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“I do confess Thee here,</div> + <div class='line'>Alive within this life; I know Thee near</div> + <div class='line'>Within this lonely conscience, closed away</div> + <div class='line'>Within this brother’s solitary day.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Christ in his unknown heart,</div> + <div class='line'>His intellect unknown—this love, this art,</div> + <div class='line'>This battle and this peace, this destiny</div> + <div class='line'>That I shall never know, look upon me!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_44' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_44">44</span>“Christ in his numbered breath,</div> + <div class='line'>Christ in his beating heart and in his death,</div> + <div class='line'>Christ in his mystery! From that secret place</div> + <div class='line'>And from that separate dwelling, give me grace.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_45' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_45">45</span> + <h3 class='c009'>A GENERAL COMMUNION</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I saw the throng, so deeply separate,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Fed at one only board—</div> + <div class='line'>The devout people, moved, intent, elate,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the devoted Lord.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Oh struck apart! not side from human side,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But soul from human soul,</div> + <div class='line'>As each asunder absorbed the multiplied,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The ever unparted whole.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I saw this people as a field of flowers,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Each grown at such a price</div> + <div class='line'>The sum of unimaginable powers</div> + <div class='line in2'>Did no more than suffice.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A thousand single central daisies they,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A thousand of the one;</div> + <div class='line'>For each, the entire monopoly of day;</div> + <div class='line in2'>For each, the whole of the devoted sun.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_46' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_46">46</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE FUGITIVE</h3> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“<span lang="fr">Nous avons chassé ce Jésus-Christ.</span>”</div> + <div class='line in22'>—<em>French Publicist</em></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Yes, from the ingrate heart, the street</div> + <div class='line'>Of garrulous tongue, the warm retreat</div> + <div class='line in2'>Within the village and the town;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Not from the lands where ripen brown</div> + <div class='line'>A thousand thousand hills of wheat;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Not from the long Burgundian line,</div> + <div class='line'>The Southward, sunward range of vine.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Hunted, He never will escape</div> + <div class='line in2'>The flesh, the blood, the sheaf, the grape,</div> + <div class='line'>That feed His man—the bread, the wine.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_47' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_47">47</span> + <h3 class='c009'>IN PORTUGAL, 1912</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And will they cast the altars down</div> + <div class='line in2'>Scatter the chalice, crush the bread?</div> + <div class='line'>In field, in village, and in town</div> + <div class='line in2'>He hides an unregarded head;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Waits in the corn-lands far and near,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Bright in His sun, dark in His frost,</div> + <div class='line'>Sweet in the vine, ripe in the ear—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Lonely unconsecrated Host.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>In ambush at the merry board</div> + <div class='line in2'>The Victim lurks unsacrificed;</div> + <div class='line'>The mill conceals the harvest’s Lord,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The wine-press holds the unbidden Christ.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_48' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_48">48</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE CRUCIFIXION</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div>“A Paltry Sacrifice”—<em>Preface to a Play</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Oh, man’s capacity</div> + <div class='line'>For spiritual sorrow, corporal pain!</div> + <div class='line'>Who has explored the deepmost of that sea,</div> + <div class='line'>With heavy links of a far-fathoming chain?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>That melancholy lead,</div> + <div class='line'>Let down in guilty and in innocent hold,</div> + <div class='line'>Yea into childish hands deliverèd,</div> + <div class='line'>Leaves the sequestered floor unreached, untold.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>One only has explored</div> + <div class='line'>The deepmost; but He did not die of it.</div> + <div class='line'>Not yet, not yet He died. Man’s human Lord</div> + <div class='line'>Touched the extreme; it is not infinite.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>But over the abyss</div> + <div class='line'>Of God’s capacity for woe He stayed</div> + <div class='line'>One hesitating hour; what gulf was this?</div> + <div class='line'>Forsaken He went down, and was afraid.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_49' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_49">49</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE NEWER VAINGLORY</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Two men went up to pray; and one gave thanks,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Not with himself—aloud,</div> + <div class='line'>With proclamation, calling on the ranks</div> + <div class='line in6'>Of an attentive crowd.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Thank God, I clap not my own humble breast,</div> + <div class='line in6'>But other ruffians’ backs,</div> + <div class='line'>Imputing crime—such is my tolerant haste—</div> + <div class='line in6'>To any man that lacks.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“For I am tolerant, generous, keep no rules,</div> + <div class='line in6'>And the age honours me.</div> + <div class='line'>Thank God, I am not as these rigid fools,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Even as this Pharisee.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_50' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_50">50</span> + <h3 class='c009'>IN MANCHESTER SQUARE</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div>(IN MEMORIAM T.H.)</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The paralytic man has dropped in death</div> + <div class='line in4'>The crossing-sweeper’s brush to which he clung,</div> + <div class='line'>One-handed, twisted, dwarfed, scanted of breath,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Although his hair was young.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I saw this year the winter vines of France,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Dwarfed, twisted, goblins in the frosty drouth,</div> + <div class='line'>Gnarled, crippled, blackened little stems askance,</div> + <div class='line in4'>On long hills to the South.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Great green and golden hands of leaves ere long</div> + <div class='line in4'>Shall proffer clusters in that vineyard wide.</div> + <div class='line'>And oh! his might, his sweet, his wine, his song,</div> + <div class='line in4'>His stature, since he died!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_51' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_51">51</span> + <h3 class='c009'>MATERNITY</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>One wept whose only child was dead,</div> + <div class='line in2'>New-born, ten years ago.</div> + <div class='line'>“Weep not; he is in bliss,” they said.</div> + <div class='line in2'>She answered, “Even so.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Ten years ago was born in pain</div> + <div class='line in2'>A child, not now forlorn.</div> + <div class='line'>But oh, ten years ago, in vain,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A mother, a mother was born.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_52' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_52">52</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE FIRST SNOW</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Not yet was winter come to earth’s soft floor,</div> + <div class='line'>The tideless wave, the warm white road, the shore,</div> + <div class='line'>The serried town whose small street tortuously</div> + <div class='line in6'>Led darkling to the dazzling sea.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Not yet to breathing man, not to his song,</div> + <div class='line'>Not to his comforted heart; not to the long</div> + <div class='line'>Close-cultivated lands beneath the hill.</div> + <div class='line in6'>Summer was gently with them still.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But on the Apennine mustered the cloud;</div> + <div class='line'>The grappling storm shut down. Aloft, aloud,</div> + <div class='line'>Ruled secret tempest one long day and night,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Until another morning’s light.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O tender mountain-tops and delicate,</div> + <div class='line'>Where summer-long the westering sunlight sate!</div> + <div class='line'>Within that fastness darkened from the sun,</div> + <div class='line in6'>What solitary things were done?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The clouds let go, they rose, they winged away;</div> + <div class='line'>Snow-white the altered mountains faced the day,</div> + <div class='line'>As saints who keep their counsel sealed and fast,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Their anguish over-past.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_53' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_53">53</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE COURTS</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div>A FIGURE OF THE EPIPHANY</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The poets’ imageries are noble ways,</div> + <div class='line'>Approaches to a plot, an open shrine.</div> + <div class='line'>Their splendours, colours, avenues, arrays,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Their courts that run with wine;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Beautiful similes, “fair and flagrant things,”</div> + <div class='line'>Enriched, enamouring,—raptures, metaphors</div> + <div class='line'>Enhancing life, are paths for pilgrim kings</div> + <div class='line in4'>Made free of golden doors.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And yet the open heavenward plot, with dew,</div> + <div class='line'>Ultimate poetry, enclosed, enskyed</div> + <div class='line'>(Albeit such ceremonies lead thereto)</div> + <div class='line in4'>Stands on the yonder side.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Plain, behind oracles, it is; and past</div> + <div class='line'>All symbols, simple; perfect, heavenly-wild,</div> + <div class='line'>The song some loaded poets reach at last—</div> + <div class='line in4'>The kings that found a Child.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_54' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_54">54</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE LAUNCH</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Forth, to the alien gravity,</div> + <div class='line'>Forth, to the laws of ocean, we</div> + <div class='line in2'>Builders on earth by laws of land</div> + <div class='line in2'>Entrust this creature of our hand</div> + <div class='line'>Upon the calculated sea.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Fast bound to shore we cling, we creep,</div> + <div class='line'>And make our ship ready to leap</div> + <div class='line in2'>Light to the flood, equipped to ride</div> + <div class='line in2'>The strange conditions of the tide—</div> + <div class='line'>New weight, new force, new world: the Deep.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Ah thus—not thus—the Dying, kissed,</div> + <div class='line'>Cherished, exhorted, shriven, dismissed;</div> + <div class='line in2'>By all the eager means we hold</div> + <div class='line in2'>We, warm, prepare him for the cold,</div> + <div class='line'>To keep the incalculable tryst.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_55' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_55">55</span> + <h3 class='c009'>TO THE BODY</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou inmost, ultimate</div> + <div class='line'>Council of judgment, palace of decrees,</div> + <div class='line'>Where the high senses hold their spiritual state,</div> + <div class='line in8'>Sued by earth’s embassies,</div> + <div class='line'>And sign, approve, accept, conceive, create;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>Create—thy senses close</div> + <div class='line'>With the world’s pleas. The random odours reach</div> + <div class='line'>Their sweetness in the place of thy repose,</div> + <div class='line in8'>Upon thy tongue the peach,</div> + <div class='line'>And in thy nostrils breathes the breathing rose.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>To thee, secluded one,</div> + <div class='line'>The dark vibrations of the sightless skies,</div> + <div class='line'>The lovely inexplicit colours run;</div> + <div class='line in8'>The light gropes for those eyes.</div> + <div class='line'>O thou august! thou dost command the sun.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>Music, all dumb, hath trod</div> + <div class='line'>Into thine ear her one effectual way;</div> + <div class='line'>And fire and cold approach to gain thy nod</div> + <div class='line in8'>Where thou call’st up the day,</div> + <div class='line'>Where thou awaitest the appeal of God.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_56' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_56">56</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE UNEXPECTED PERIL</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Unlike the youth that all men say</div> + <div class='line in2'>They prize—youth of abounding blood,</div> + <div class='line'>In love with the sufficient day,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And gay in growth, and strong in bud;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Unlike was mine! Then my first slumber</div> + <div class='line in2'>Nightly rehearsed my last; each breath</div> + <div class='line'>Knew itself one of the unknown number.</div> + <div class='line in2'>But Life was urgent with me as Death.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>My shroud was in the flocks; the hill</div> + <div class='line in2'>Within its quarry locked my stone;</div> + <div class='line'>My bier grew in the woods; and still</div> + <div class='line in2'>Life spurred me where I paused alone.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Begin!” Life called. Again her shout,</div> + <div class='line in2'>“Make haste while it is called to-day!”</div> + <div class='line'>Her exhortations plucked me out,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Hunted me, turned me, held me at bay.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But if my youth is thus hard pressed</div> + <div class='line in2'>(I thought) what of a later year?</div> + <div class='line'>If the end so threats this tender breast,</div> + <div class='line in2'>What of the days when it draws near?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_57">57</span>Draws near, and little done? yet lo,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Dread has forborne, and haste lies by.</div> + <div class='line'>I was beleaguered; now the foe</div> + <div class='line in2'>Has raised the siege, I know not why.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I see them troop away; I ask</div> + <div class='line in2'>Were they in sooth mine enemies—</div> + <div class='line'>Terror, the doubt, the lash, the task?</div> + <div class='line in2'>What heart has my new housemate, Ease?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>How am I left, at last, alive,</div> + <div class='line in2'>To make a stranger of a tear?</div> + <div class='line'>What did I do one day to drive</div> + <div class='line in2'>From me the vigilant angel, Fear?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The diligent angel, Labour? Ay,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The inexorable angel, Pain?</div> + <div class='line'>Menace me, lest indeed I die,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Sloth! Turn; crush, teach me fear again!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_58' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_58">58</span> + <h3 class='c009'>CHRIST IN THE UNIVERSE</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>With this ambiguous earth</div> + <div class='line'>His dealings have been told us. These abide:</div> + <div class='line'>The signal to a maid, the human birth,</div> + <div class='line'>The lesson, and the young Man crucified.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>But not a star of all</div> + <div class='line'>The innumerable host of stars has heard</div> + <div class='line'>How He administered this terrestrial ball.</div> + <div class='line'>Our race have kept their Lord’s entrusted Word.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>Of His earth-visiting feet</div> + <div class='line'>None knows the secret, cherished, perilous,</div> + <div class='line'>The terrible, shamefast, frightened, whispered, sweet,</div> + <div class='line'>Heart-shattering secret of His way with us.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>No planet knows that this</div> + <div class='line'>Our wayside planet, carrying land and wave,</div> + <div class='line'>Love and life multiplied, and pain and bliss,</div> + <div class='line'>Bears, as chief treasure, one forsaken grave.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_59">59</span>Nor, in our little day,</div> + <div class='line'>May His devices with the heavens be guessed,</div> + <div class='line'>His pilgrimage to thread the Milky Way</div> + <div class='line'>Or His bestowals there be manifest.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>But in the eternities,</div> + <div class='line'>Doubtless we shall compare together, hear</div> + <div class='line'>A million alien Gospels, in what guise</div> + <div class='line'>He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>O, be prepared, my soul!</div> + <div class='line'>To read the inconceivable, to scan</div> + <div class='line'>The million forms of God those stars unroll</div> + <div class='line'>When, in our turn, we show to them a Man.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_60' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_60">60</span> + <h3 class='c009'>BEYOND KNOWLEDGE</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div>“<em>Your sins ... shall be white as snow.</em>”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Into the rescued world newcomer,</div> + <div class='line'>The newly-dead stepped up, and cried,</div> + <div class='line'>“Oh what is that, sweeter than summer</div> + <div class='line in4'>Was to my heart before I died?</div> + <div class='line'>Sir (to an angel), what is yonder</div> + <div class='line in4'>More bright than the remembered skies,</div> + <div class='line'>A lovelier light, a softer splendour</div> + <div class='line in4'>Than when the moon was wont to rise?</div> + <div class='line'>Surely no sinner wears such seeming</div> + <div class='line in4'>Even the Rescued World within?”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“O the success of His redeeming!</div> + <div class='line in4'>O child, it is a rescued sin!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_61' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_61">61</span> + <h3 class='c009'>AT NIGHT</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div><em>To W. M.</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Home, home from the horizon far and clear,</div> + <div class='line in8'>Hither the soft wings sweep;</div> + <div class='line'>Flocks of the memories of the day draw near</div> + <div class='line in8'>The dovecote doors of sleep</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Oh, which are they that come through sweetest light</div> + <div class='line in8'>Of all these homing birds?</div> + <div class='line'>Which with the straightest and the swiftest flight?</div> + <div class='line in8'>Your words to me, your words!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_63' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_63">63</span> + <h2 class='c004'>EARLY POEMS</h2> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_65' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_65">65</span> + <h3 class='c009'>IN EARLY SPRING</h3> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O Spring, I know thee! Seek for sweet surprise</div> + <div class='line in4'>In the young children’s eyes.</div> + <div class='line'>But I have learnt the years, and know the yet</div> + <div class='line in4'>Leaf-folded violet.</div> + <div class='line'>Mine ear, awake to silence, can foretell</div> + <div class='line in4'>The cuckoo’s fitful bell.</div> + <div class='line'>I wander in a grey time that encloses</div> + <div class='line in4'>June and the wild hedge-roses.</div> + <div class='line'>A year’s procession of the flowers doth pass</div> + <div class='line in4'>My feet, along the grass.</div> + <div class='line'>And all you wild birds silent yet, I know</div> + <div class='line in4'>The notes that stir you so,</div> + <div class='line'>Your songs yet half devised in the dim dear</div> + <div class='line in4'>Beginnings of the year.</div> + <div class='line'>In these young days you meditate your part;</div> + <div class='line in4'>I have it all by heart.</div> + <div class='line'>I know the secrets of the seeds of flowers</div> + <div class='line in4'>Hidden and warm with showers,</div> + <div class='line'>And how, in kindling Spring, the cuckoo shall</div> + <div class='line in4'>Alter his interval.</div> + <div class='line'>But not a flower or song I ponder is</div> + <div class='line in4'>My own, but memory’s.</div> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_66">66</span>I shall be silent in those days desired</div> + <div class='line in4'>Before a world inspired.</div> + <div class='line'>O all brown birds, compose your old song-phrases,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Earth, thy familiar daisies!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A poet mused upon the dusky height,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Between two stars towards night,</div> + <div class='line'>His purpose in his heart. I watched, a space,</div> + <div class='line in4'>The meaning of his face:</div> + <div class='line'>There was the secret, fled from earth and skies,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Hid in his grey young eyes.</div> + <div class='line'>My heart and all the Summer wait his choice,</div> + <div class='line in4'>And wonder for his voice.</div> + <div class='line'>Who shall foretell his songs, and who aspire</div> + <div class='line in4'>But to divine his lyre?</div> + <div class='line'>Sweet earth, we know thy dimmest mysteries,</div> + <div class='line in4'>But he is lord of his.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_67' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_67">67</span> + <h3 class='c009'>TO THE BELOVED</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Oh, not more subtly silence strays</div> + <div class='line in2'>Amongst the winds, between the voices</div> + <div class='line'>Mingling alike with pensive lays,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And with the music that rejoices,</div> + <div class='line'>Than thou art present in my days.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>My silence, life returns to thee</div> + <div class='line in2'>In all the pauses of her breath</div> + <div class='line'>Hush back to rest the melody</div> + <div class='line in2'>That out of thee awakeneth;</div> + <div class='line'>And thou, wake ever, wake for me!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou art like silence all unvexed,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Though wild words part my soul from thee.</div> + <div class='line'>Thou art like silence unperplexed,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A secret and a mystery</div> + <div class='line'>Between one footfall and the next.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Most dear pause in a mellow lay!</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou art inwoven with every air.</div> + <div class='line'>With thee the wildest tempests play,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And snatches of thee everywhere</div> + <div class='line'>Make little heavens throughout a day.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_68' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_68">68</span>Darkness and solitude shine, for me.</div> + <div class='line in2'>For life’s fair outward part are rife</div> + <div class='line'>The silver noises; let them be.</div> + <div class='line in2'>It is the very soul of life</div> + <div class='line'>Listens for thee, listens for thee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O pause between the sobs of cares;</div> + <div class='line in2'>O thought within all thought that is;</div> + <div class='line'>Trance between laughters unawares:</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou art the shape of melodies</div> + <div class='line'>And thou the ecstasy of prayers!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_69' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_69">69</span> + <h3 class='c009'>AN UNMARKED FESTIVAL</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>There’s a feast undated, yet</div> + <div class='line in2'>Both our true lives hold it fast,—</div> + <div class='line'>Even the day when first we met.</div> + <div class='line in2'>What a great day came and passed,</div> + <div class='line in2'>—Unknown then, but known at last.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And we met: You knew not me,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Mistress of your joys and fears;</div> + <div class='line'>Held my hand that held the key</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of the treasure of your years,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of the fountain of your tears.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>For you knew not it was I,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And I knew not it was you.</div> + <div class='line'>We have learnt, as days went by.</div> + <div class='line in2'>But a flower struck root and grew</div> + <div class='line in2'>Underground, and no one knew.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Day of days! Unmarked it rose,</div> + <div class='line in2'>In whose hours we were to meet;</div> + <div class='line'>And forgotten passed. Who knows,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Was earth cold or sunny, Sweet,</div> + <div class='line in2'>At the coming of your feet?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_70' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_70">70</span>One mere day, we thought; the measure</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of such days the year fulfils.</div> + <div class='line'>Now, how dearly would we treasure</div> + <div class='line in2'>Something from its fields, its rills</div> + <div class='line in2'>And its memorable hills.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_71' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_71">71</span> + <h3 class='c009'>IN AUTUMN</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The leaves are many under my feet,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And drift one way.</div> + <div class='line'>Their scent of death is weary and sweet.</div> + <div class='line in2'>A flight of them is in the grey</div> + <div class='line'>Where sky and forest meet.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The low winds moan for dead sweet years;</div> + <div class='line in2'>The birds sing all for pain,</div> + <div class='line'>Of a common thing, to weary ears,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Only a summer’s fate of rain,</div> + <div class='line'>And a woman’s fate of tears.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I walk to love and life alone</div> + <div class='line in2'>Over these mournful places,</div> + <div class='line'>Across the summer overthrown,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The dead joys of these silent faces,</div> + <div class='line'>To claim my own.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I know his heart has beat to bright</div> + <div class='line in2'>Sweet loves gone by.</div> + <div class='line'>I know the leaves that die to-night</div> + <div class='line in2'>Once budded to the sky,</div> + <div class='line'>And I shall die from his delight.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_72' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_72">72</span>O leaves, so quietly ending now,</div> + <div class='line in2'>You heard the cuckoos sing.</div> + <div class='line'>And I will grow upon my bough</div> + <div class='line in2'>If only for a Spring,</div> + <div class='line'>And fall when the rain is on my brow.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O tell me, tell me ere you die,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Is it worth the pain?</div> + <div class='line'>You bloomed so fair, you waved so high;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Now that the sad days wane,</div> + <div class='line'>Are you repenting where you lie?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I lie amongst you, and I kiss</div> + <div class='line in2'>Your fragrance mouldering.</div> + <div class='line'>O dead delights, is it such bliss,</div> + <div class='line in2'>That tuneful Spring?</div> + <div class='line'>Is love so sweet, that comes to this?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Kiss me again as I kiss you;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Kiss me again,</div> + <div class='line'>For all your tuneful nights of dew,</div> + <div class='line in2'>In this your time of rain,</div> + <div class='line'>For all your kisses when Spring was new.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>You will not, broken hearts; let be.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I pass across your death</div> + <div class='line'>To a golden summer you shall not see,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And in your dying breath</div> + <div class='line'>There is no benison for me.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_73">73</span>There is an autumn yet to wane,</div> + <div class='line in2'>There are leaves yet to fall,</div> + <div class='line'>Which, when I kiss, may kiss again,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And, pitied, pity me all for all</div> + <div class='line'>And love me in mist and rain.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_74' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_74">74</span> + <h3 class='c009'>PARTED</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Farewell to one now silenced quite</div> + <div class='line'>Sent out of hearing, out of sight,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>My friend of friends, whom I shall miss.</div> + <div class='line in2'>He is not banished, though, for this,—</div> + <div class='line'>Nor he, nor sadness, nor delight.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Though I shall talk with him no more,</div> + <div class='line'>A low voice sounds upon the shore.</div> + <div class='line in2'>He must not watch my resting-place,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But who shall drive a mournful face</div> + <div class='line'>From the sad winds about my door?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I shall not hear his voice complain,</div> + <div class='line'>But who shall stop the patient rain?</div> + <div class='line in2'>His tears must not disturb my heart,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But who shall change the years, and part</div> + <div class='line'>The world from every thought of pain?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Although my life is left so dim,</div> + <div class='line'>The morning crowns the mountain-rim;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Joy is not gone from summer skies,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Nor innocence from children’s eyes,</div> + <div class='line'>And all these things are part of him.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_75">75</span>He is not banished, for the showers</div> + <div class='line'>Yet wake this green warm earth of ours.</div> + <div class='line in2'>How can the summer but be sweet</div> + <div class='line in2'>I shall not have him at my feet</div> + <div class='line'>And yet my feet are on the flowers.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_76' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_76">76</span> + <h3 class='c009'>“SŒUR MONIQUE”</h3> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div><em>A Rondeau by Couperin</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Quiet form of silent nun,</div> + <div class='line'>What has given you to my inward eyes?</div> + <div class='line'>What has marked you, unknown one,</div> + <div class='line'>In the throngs of centuries</div> + <div class='line'>That mine ears do listen through?</div> + <div class='line'>This old master’s melody</div> + <div class='line'>That expresses you,</div> + <div class='line'>This admired simplicity,</div> + <div class='line'>Tender, with a serious wit,</div> + <div class='line'>And two words, the name of it,</div> + <div class='line in6'>“Sœur Monique.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And if sad the music is,</div> + <div class='line'>It is sad with mysteries</div> + <div class='line'>Of a small immortal thing</div> + <div class='line'>That the passing ages sing,—</div> + <div class='line'>Simple music making mirth</div> + <div class='line'>Of the dying and the birth</div> + <div class='line'>Of the people of the earth.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>No, not sad; we are beguiled,</div> + <div class='line'>Sad with living as we are;</div> + <div class='line'>Ours the sorrow, outpouring</div> + <div class='line'>Sad self on a selfless thing,</div> + <div class='line'>As our eyes and hearts are mild</div> + <div class='line'>With our sympathy for Spring</div> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_77' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_77">77</span>With a pity sweet and wild</div> + <div class='line'>For the innocent and far,</div> + <div class='line'>With our sadness in a star,</div> + <div class='line'>Or our sadness in a child.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But two words, and this sweet air.</div> + <div class='line in6'>Sœur Monique,</div> + <div class='line'>Had he more, who set you there?</div> + <div class='line'>Was his music-dream of you</div> + <div class='line'>Of some perfect nun he knew,</div> + <div class='line'>Or of some ideal, as true?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And I see you where you stand</div> + <div class='line'>With your life held in your hand</div> + <div class='line'>As a rosary of days.</div> + <div class='line'>And your thoughts in calm arrays,</div> + <div class='line'>And your innocent prayers are told</div> + <div class='line'>On your rosary of days.</div> + <div class='line'>And the young days and the old</div> + <div class='line'>With their quiet prayers did meet</div> + <div class='line'>When the chaplet was complete.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Did it vex you, the surmise</div> + <div class='line'>Of this wind of words, this storm of cries,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Though you kept the silence so</div> + <div class='line in2'>In the storms of long ago,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And you keep it, like a star?</div> + <div class='line in2'>—Of the evils triumphing,</div> + <div class='line'>Strong, for all your perfect conquering,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Silenced conqueror that you are?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_78' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_78">78</span>And I wonder at your peace, I wonder.</div> + <div class='line'>Would it trouble you to know</div> + <div class='line'>Tender soul, the world and sin</div> + <div class='line'>By your calm feet trodden under</div> + <div class='line in6'>Long ago,</div> + <div class='line'>Living now, mighty to win?</div> + <div class='line'>And your feet are vanished like the snow</div> + <div class='line'>Vanished; but the poet, he</div> + <div class='line'>In whose dream your face appears,</div> + <div class='line'>He who ranges unknown years,</div> + <div class='line'>With your music in his heart,</div> + <div class='line'>Speaks to <a id='t78'></a>you familiarly</div> + <div class='line'>Where you keep apart,</div> + <div class='line'>And invents you as you were.</div> + <div class='line'>And your picture, O my nun!</div> + <div class='line'>Is a strangely easy one,</div> + <div class='line'>For the holy weed you wear,</div> + <div class='line'>For your hidden eyes and hidden hair,</div> + <div class='line'>And in picturing you I may</div> + <div class='line'>Scarcely go astray.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O the vague reality,</div> + <div class='line'>The mysterious certainty!</div> + <div class='line'>O strange truth of these my guesses</div> + <div class='line'>In the wide thought-wildernesses!</div> + <div class='line'>—Truth of one divined of many flowers;</div> + <div class='line'>Of one raindrop in the showers</div> + <div class='line'>Of the long-ago swift rain;</div> + <div class='line'>Of one tear of many tears</div> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_79' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_79">79</span>In some world-renownèd pain;</div> + <div class='line'>Of one daisy ‘mid the centuries of sun;</div> + <div class='line'>Of a little living nun</div> + <div class='line'>In the garden of the years.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Yes, I am not far astray;</div> + <div class='line'>But I guess you as might one</div> + <div class='line'>Pausing when young March is grey,</div> + <div class='line'>In a violet-peopled day;</div> + <div class='line'>All his thoughts go out to places that he knew</div> + <div class='line'>To his child-home in the sun,</div> + <div class='line'>To the fields of his regret,</div> + <div class='line'>To one place i’ the innocent March air,</div> + <div class='line'>By one olive, and invent</div> + <div class='line'>The familiar form and scent</div> + <div class='line'>Safely; a white violet</div> + <div class='line'>Certainly is there.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Sœur Monique, remember me.</div> + <div class='line'>’Tis not in the past alone</div> + <div class='line'>I am picturing you to be;</div> + <div class='line'>But my little friend, my own,</div> + <div class='line'>In my moment, pray for me.</div> + <div class='line'>For another dream is mine</div> + <div class='line'>And another dream is true,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Sweeter even,</div> + <div class='line'>Of the little ones that shine</div> + <div class='line'>Lost within the light divine,—</div> + <div class='line'>Of some meekest flower, or you,</div> + <div class='line in6'>In the fields of Heaven.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_80' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_80">80</span> + <h3 class='c009'>REGRETS</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>As, when the seaward ebbing tide doth pour</div> + <div class='line in4'>Out by the low sand spaces,</div> + <div class='line'>The parting waves slip back to clasp the shore</div> + <div class='line in4'>With lingering embraces,—</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>So in the tide of life that carries me</div> + <div class='line in4'>From where thy true heart dwells,</div> + <div class='line'>Waves of my thoughts and memories turn to thee</div> + <div class='line in4'>With lessening farewells;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Waving of hands; dreams, when the day forgets;</div> + <div class='line in4'>A care half lost in cares;</div> + <div class='line'>The saddest of my verses; dim regrets;</div> + <div class='line in4'>Thy name among my prayers.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I would the day might come, so waited for,</div> + <div class='line in4'>So patiently besought,</div> + <div class='line'>When I, returning, should fill up once more</div> + <div class='line in4'>Thy desolated thought;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And fill thy loneliness that lies apart</div> + <div class='line in4'>In still, persistent pain.</div> + <div class='line'>Shall I content thee, O thou broken heart.</div> + <div class='line in4'>As the tide comes again,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_81">81</span>And brims the little sea-shore lakes, and sets</div> + <div class='line in4'>Seaweeds afloat, and fills</div> + <div class='line'>The silent pools, rivers and rivulets</div> + <div class='line in4'>Among the inland hills?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_82' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_82">82</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE VISITING SEA</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>As the inhastening tide doth roll,</div> + <div class='line'>Home from the deep, along the whole</div> + <div class='line in2'>Wide shining strand, and floods the caves,</div> + <div class='line in2'>—Your love comes filling with happy waves</div> + <div class='line'>The open sea-shore of my soul.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But inland from the seaward spaces,</div> + <div class='line'>None knows, not even you, the places</div> + <div class='line in2'>Brimmed, at your coming, out of sight,</div> + <div class='line in2'>—The little solitudes of delight</div> + <div class='line'>This tide constrains in dim embraces.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>You see the happy shore, wave-rimmed,</div> + <div class='line'>But know not of the quiet dimmed</div> + <div class='line in2'>Rivers your coming floods and fills,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The little pools ‘mid happier hills,</div> + <div class='line'>My silent rivulets, over-brimmed.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>What, I have secrets from you? Yes.</div> + <div class='line'>But, visiting Sea, your love doth press</div> + <div class='line in2'>And reach in further than you know,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And fills all these; and, when you go,</div> + <div class='line'>There’s loneliness in loneliness.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_83' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_83">83</span> + <h3 class='c009'>AFTER A PARTING</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Farewell has long been said; I have forgone thee;</div> + <div class='line in4'>I never name thee even.</div> + <div class='line'>But how shall I learn virtues and yet shun thee?</div> + <div class='line in2'>For thou art so near Heaven</div> + <div class='line'>That heavenward meditations pause upon thee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou dost beset the path to every shrine;</div> + <div class='line in4'>My trembling thoughts discern</div> + <div class='line'>Thy goodness in the good for which I pine;</div> + <div class='line in4'>And if I turn from but one sin, I turn</div> + <div class='line'>Unto a smile of thine.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>How shall I thrust thee apart</div> + <div class='line in4'>Since all my growth tends to thee night and day—</div> + <div class='line'>To thee faith, hope, and art?</div> + <div class='line in4'>Swift are the currents setting all one way;</div> + <div class='line'>They draw my life, my life, out of my heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_84' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_84">84</span> + <h3 class='c009'>BUILDERS OF RUINS</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>We build with strength the deep tower wall</div> + <div class='line in2'>That shall be shattered thus and thus.</div> + <div class='line'>And fair and great are court and hall,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But <em>how</em> fair—this is not for us,</div> + <div class='line'>Who know the lack that lurks in all.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>We know, we know how all too bright</div> + <div class='line in2'>The hues are that our painting wears,</div> + <div class='line'>And how the marble gleams too white;—</div> + <div class='line in2'>We speak in unknown tongues, the years</div> + <div class='line'>Interpret everything aright,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And crown with weeds our pride of towers,</div> + <div class='line'>And warm our marble through with sun,</div> + <div class='line'>And break our pavements through with flowers,</div> + <div class='line'>With an Amen when all is done,</div> + <div class='line'>Knowing these perfect things of ours.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O days, we ponder, left alone,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Like children in their lonely hour,</div> + <div class='line'>And in our secrets keep your own,</div> + <div class='line in2'>As seeds the colour of the flower.</div> + <div class='line'>To-day they are not all unknown,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_85">85</span>The stars that ’twixt the rise and fall,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Like relic-seers, shall one by one</div> + <div class='line'>Stand musing o’er our empty hall;</div> + <div class='line in2'>And setting moons shall brood upon</div> + <div class='line'>The frescoes of our inward wall.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And when some midsummer shall be,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Hither will come some little one</div> + <div class='line'>(Dusty with bloom of flowers is he),</div> + <div class='line in2'>Sit on a ruin i’ the late long sun,</div> + <div class='line'>And think, one foot upon his knee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And where they wrought, these lives of ours,</div> + <div class='line in2'>So many-worded, many-souled,</div> + <div class='line'>A North-west wind will take the towers,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And dark with colour, sunny and cold,</div> + <div class='line'>Will range alone among the flowers.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And here or there, at our desire,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The little clamorous owl shall sit</div> + <div class='line'>Through her still time; and we aspire</div> + <div class='line in2'>To make a law (and know not it)</div> + <div class='line'>Unto the life of a wild briar.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Our purpose is distinct and dear,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Though from our open eyes ’tis hidden.</div> + <div class='line'>Thou, Time to come, shalt make it clear,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Undoing our work; we are children chidden</div> + <div class='line'>With pity and smiles of many a year.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_86">86</span>Who shall allot the praise, and guess</div> + <div class='line in2'>What part is yours and what is ours?—</div> + <div class='line'>O years that certainly will bless</div> + <div class='line in2'>Our flowers with fruits, our seeds with flowers,</div> + <div class='line'>With ruin all our perfectness.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Be patient, Time, of our delays,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Too happy hopes, and wasted fears,</div> + <div class='line'>Our faithful ways, our wilful ways;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Solace our labours, O our seers</div> + <div class='line'>The seasons, and our bards the days;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And make our pause and silence brim</div> + <div class='line in2'>With the shrill children’s play, and sweets</div> + <div class='line'>Of those pathetic flowers and dim,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of those eternal flowers my Keats</div> + <div class='line'>Dying felt growing over him!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_87' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_87">87</span> + <h3 class='c009'><span class='sc'>Sonnets</span></h3> +</div> +<h4 class='c012'>THOUGHTS IN SEPARATION</h4> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>We never meet; yet we meet day by day</div> + <div class='line in2'>Upon those hills of life, dim and immense—</div> + <div class='line in2'>The good we love, and sleep, our innocence.</div> + <div class='line'>O hills of life, high hills! And, higher than they,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Our guardian spirits meet at prayer and play.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Beyond pain, joy, and hope, and long suspense,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Above the summits of our souls, far hence,</div> + <div class='line'>An angel meets an angel on the way.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Beyond all good I ever believed of thee,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Or thou of me, these always love and live.</div> + <div class='line'>And though I fail of thy ideal of me,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>My angel falls not short. They greet each other.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Who knows, they may exchange the kiss we give,</div> + <div class='line'>Thou to thy crucifix, I to my mother.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_88' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_88">88</span> + <h4 class='c012'>THE GARDEN</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>My heart shall be thy garden. Come, my own,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Into thy garden; thine be happy hours</div> + <div class='line in2'>Among my fairest thoughts, my tallest flowers,</div> + <div class='line'>From root to crowning petal thine alone.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thine is the place from where the seeds are sown</div> + <div class='line in2'>Up to the sky enclosed, with all its showers</div> + <div class='line in2'>But ah, the birds, the birds! Who shall build bowers</div> + <div class='line'>To keep these thine? O friend, the birds have flown.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>For as these come and go, and quit our pine</div> + <div class='line in2'>To follow the sweet season, or, new-comers,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Sing one song only from our alder-trees,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>My heart has thoughts, which, though thine eyes hold mine,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Flit to the silent world and other summers,</div> + <div class='line in4'>With wings that dip beyond the silver seas.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_89' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_89">89</span> + <h4 class='c012'>YOUR OWN FAIR YOUTH</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Your own fair youth, you care so little for it,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Smiling towards Heaven, you would not stay the advances</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of time and change upon your happiest fancies</div> + <div class='line'>I keep your golden hour, and will restore it.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>If ever, in time to come, you would explore it—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Your old self, whose thoughts went like last year’s pansies,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Look unto me; no mirror keeps its glances;</div> + <div class='line'>In my unfailing praises now I store it.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>To guard all joys of yours from Time’s estranging,</div> + <div class='line in2'>I shall be then a treasury where your gay,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Happy, and pensive past unaltered is.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I shall be then a garden charmed from changing,</div> + <div class='line in2'>In which your June has never passed away.</div> + <div class='line in4'>Walk there awhile among my memories.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_90' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_90">90</span> + <h4 class='c012'>THE YOUNG NEOPHYTE</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Who knows what days I answer for to-day?</div> + <div class='line in2'>Giving the bud I give the flower. I bow</div> + <div class='line in2'>This yet unfaded and a faded brow;</div> + <div class='line'>Bending these knees and feeble knees, I pray.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thoughts yet unripe in me I bend one way,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Give one repose to pain I know not now,</div> + <div class='line in2'>One check to joy that comes, I guess not how.</div> + <div class='line'>I dedicate my fields when Spring is grey.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O rash! (I smile) to pledge my hidden wheat.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I fold to-day at altars far apart</div> + <div class='line'>Hands trembling with what toils? In their retreat</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>I seal my love to-be, my folded art.</div> + <div class='line'>I light the tapers at my head and feet,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And lay the crucifix on this silent heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_91' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_91">91</span> + <h4 class='c012'>SPRING ON THE ALBAN HILLS</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O’er the Campagna it is dim warm weather;</div> + <div class='line in2'>The Spring comes with a full heart silently,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And many thoughts; a faint flash of the sea</div> + <div class='line'>Divides two mists; straight falls the falling feather.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>With wild Spring meanings hill and plain together</div> + <div class='line in2'>Grow pale, or just flush with a dust of flowers.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Rome in the ages, dimmed with all her towers,</div> + <div class='line'>Floats in the midst, a little cloud at tether.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I fain would put my hands about thy face.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou with thy thoughts, who art another Spring,</div> + <div class='line in4'>And draw thee to me like a mournful child.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou lookest on me from another place;</div> + <div class='line in2'>I touch not this day’s secret, nor the thing</div> + <div class='line in4'>That in the silence makes thy soft eyes wild.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_92' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_92">92</span> + <h4 class='c012'>IN FEBRUARY</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Rich meanings of the prophet-Spring adorn,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Unseen, this colourless sky of folded showers,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And folded winds; no blossom in the bowers;</div> + <div class='line'>A poet’s face asleep is this grey morn.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Now in the midst of the old world forlorn</div> + <div class='line in2'>A mystic child is set in these still hours.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I keep this time, even before the flowers,</div> + <div class='line'>Sacred to all the young and the unborn;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>To all the miles and miles of unsprung wheat,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And to the Spring waiting beyond the portal,</div> + <div class='line in4'>And to the future of my own young art,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And, among all these things, to you, my sweet,</div> + <div class='line in2'>My friend, to your calm face and the immortal</div> + <div class='line in4'>Child tarrying all your life-time in your heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_93' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_93">93</span> + <h4 class='c012'>A SHATTERED LUTE</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I touched the heart that loved me as a player</div> + <div class='line in2'>Touches a lyre. Content with my poor skill,</div> + <div class='line in2'>No touch save mine knew my beloved (and still</div> + <div class='line'>I thought at times: Is there no sweet lost air</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Old loves could wake in him, I cannot share?)</div> + <div class='line in2'>O he alone, alone could so fulfil</div> + <div class='line in2'>My thoughts in sound to the measure of my will</div> + <div class='line'>He is gone, and silence takes me unaware.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The songs I knew not he resumes, set free</div> + <div class='line'>From my constraining love, alas for me!</div> + <div class='line in2'>His part in our tune goes with him; my part</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Is locked in me for ever; I stand as mute</div> + <div class='line in2'>As one with vigorous music in his heart</div> + <div class='line'>Whose fingers stray upon a shattered lute.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_94' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_94">94</span> + <h4 class='c012'>RENOUNCEMENT</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,</div> + <div class='line in2'>I shun the thought that lurks in all delight—</div> + <div class='line in2'>The thought of thee—and in the blue Heaven’s height,</div> + <div class='line'>And in the sweetest passage of a song.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng</div> + <div class='line in2'>This breast, the thought of thee waits, hidden yet bright;</div> + <div class='line in2'>But it must never, never come in sight;</div> + <div class='line'>I must stop short of thee the whole day long.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,</div> + <div class='line in2'>When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,</div> + <div class='line in4'>And all my bonds I needs must loose apart,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Must doff my will as raiment laid away,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>With the first dream that comes with the first sleep</div> + <div class='line in4'>I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_95' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_95">95</span> + <h4 class='c012'>TO A DAISY</h4> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide</div> + <div class='line in2'>Like all created things, secrets from me,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And stand a barrier to eternity.</div> + <div class='line'>And I, how can I praise thee well and wide</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>From where I dwell—upon the hither side?</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou little veil for so great mystery,</div> + <div class='line in2'>When shall I penetrate all things and thee,</div> + <div class='line'>And then look back? For this I must abide,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Till thou shalt grow and fold and be unfurled</div> + <div class='line'>Literally between me and the world.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Then I shall drink from in beneath a spring,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And from a poet’s side shall read his book.</div> + <div class='line'>O daisy mine, what wilt it be to look</div> + <div class='line in2'>From God’s side even of such a simple thing?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_96' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_96">96</span> + <h3 class='c009'>SAN LORENZO’S MOTHER</h3> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I had not seen my son’s dear face</div> + <div class='line'>(He chose the cloister by God’s grace)</div> + <div class='line in2'>Since it had come to full flower-time.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I hardly guessed at its perfect prime,</div> + <div class='line'>That folded flower of his dear face.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Mine eyes were veiled by mists of tears</div> + <div class='line'>When on a day in many years</div> + <div class='line in2'>One of his Order came. I thrilled,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Facing, I thought, that face fulfilled.</div> + <div class='line'>I doubted, for my mists of tears.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>His blessing be with me for ever!</div> + <div class='line'>My hope and doubt were hard to sever.</div> + <div class='line in2'>—That altered face, those holy weeds.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I filled his wallet and kissed his beads,</div> + <div class='line'>And lost his echoing feet for ever.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>If to my son my alms were given</div> + <div class='line'>I know not, and I wait for Heaven.</div> + <div class='line in2'>He did not plead for child of mine,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But for another Child divine,</div> + <div class='line'>And unto Him it was surely given.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_97' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_97">97</span>There is One alone who cannot change;</div> + <div class='line'>Dreams are we, shadows, visions strange;</div> + <div class='line in2'>And all I give is given to One.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I might mistake my dearest son,</div> + <div class='line'>But never the Son who cannot change.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_98' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_98">98</span> + <h3 class='c009'>THE LOVER URGES THE BETTER THRIFT</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>My Fair, no beauty of thine will last</div> + <div class='line in2'>Save in my love’s eternity.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy smiles, that light thee fitfully,</div> + <div class='line'>Are lost for ever—their moment past—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Except the few thou givest to me.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thy sweet words vanish day by day,</div> + <div class='line in2'>As all breath of mortality;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy laughter, done, must cease to be,</div> + <div class='line'>And all thy dear tones pass away,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Except the few that sing to me.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Hide then within my heart, oh, hide</div> + <div class='line in2'>All thou art loth should go from thee.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Be kinder to thyself and me.</div> + <div class='line'>My cupful from this river’s tide</div> + <div class='line in2'>Shall never reach the long sad sea.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_99' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_99">99</span> + <h3 class='c009'>CRADLE-SONG AT TWILIGHT</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The child not yet is lulled to rest.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Too young a nurse, the slender Night</div> + <div class='line'>So laxly holds him to her breast</div> + <div class='line in2'>That throbs with flight.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>He plays with her, and will not sleep.</div> + <div class='line in2'>For other playfellows she sighs;</div> + <div class='line'>An unmaternal fondness keep</div> + <div class='line in2'>Her alien eyes.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_100' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_100">100</span> + <h3 class='c009'>SONG OF THE NIGHT AT DAYBREAK</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>All my stars forsake me,</div> + <div class='line'>And the dawn-winds shake me.</div> + <div class='line'>Where shall I betake me?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Whither shall I run</div> + <div class='line'>Till the set of sun,</div> + <div class='line'>Till the day be done?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>To the mountain-mine,</div> + <div class='line'>To the boughs o’ the pine,</div> + <div class='line'>To the blind man’s eyne,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>To a brow that is</div> + <div class='line'>Bowed upon the knees,</div> + <div class='line'>Sick with memories.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_101' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_101">101</span> + <h3 class='c009'>A LETTER FROM A GIRL TO HER OWN OLD AGE</h3> +</div> +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Listen, and when thy hand this paper presses,</div> + <div class='line'>O time-worn woman, think of her who blesses</div> + <div class='line'>What thy thin fingers touch, with her caresses.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O mother, for the weight of years that break thee!</div> + <div class='line'>O daughter, for slow time must yet awake thee,</div> + <div class='line'>And from the changes of my heart must make thee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O fainting traveller, morn is grey in heaven.</div> + <div class='line'>Dost thou remember how the clouds were driven?</div> + <div class='line'>And are they calm about the fall of even?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Pause near the ending of thy long migration,</div> + <div class='line'>For this one sudden hour of desolation</div> + <div class='line'>Appeals to one hour of thy meditation.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Suffer, O silent one, that I remind thee</div> + <div class='line'>Of the great hills that stormed the sky behind thee,</div> + <div class='line'>Of the wild winds of power that have resigned thee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_102' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_102">102</span>Know that the mournful plain where thou must wander</div> + <div class='line'>Is but a grey and silent world, but ponder</div> + <div class='line'>The misty mountains of the morning yonder.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Listen:—the mountain winds with rain were fretting,</div> + <div class='line'>And sudden gleams the mountain-tops besetting.</div> + <div class='line'>I cannot let thee fade to death, forgetting.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>What part of this wild heart of mine I know not</div> + <div class='line'>Will follow with thee where the great winds blow not,</div> + <div class='line'>And where the young flowers of the mountain grow not.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Yet let my letter with thy lost thoughts in it</div> + <div class='line'>Tell what the way was when thou didst begin it,</div> + <div class='line'>And win with thee the goal when thou shalt win it.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Oh, in some hour of thine my thoughts shall guide thee.</div> + <div class='line'>Suddenly, though time, darkness, silence, hide thee</div> + <div class='line'>This wind from thy lost country flits beside thee—</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_103' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_103">103</span>Telling thee: all thy memories moved the maiden,</div> + <div class='line'>With thy regrets was morning over-shaden,</div> + <div class='line'>With sorrow, thou hast left, her life was laden.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But whither shall my thoughts turn to pursue thee?</div> + <div class='line'>Life changes, and the years and days renew thee.</div> + <div class='line'>Oh, Nature brings my straying heart unto thee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Her winds will join us, with their constant kisses</div> + <div class='line'>Upon the evening as the morning tresses,</div> + <div class='line'>Her summers breathe the same unchanging blisses.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And we, so altered in our shifting phases,</div> + <div class='line'>Track one another ‘mid the many mazes</div> + <div class='line'>By the eternal child-breath of the daisies.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I have not writ this letter of divining</div> + <div class='line'>To make a glory of thy silent pining,</div> + <div class='line'>A triumph of thy mute and strange declining.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Only one youth, and the bright life was shrouded.</div> + <div class='line'>Only one morning, and the day was clouded.</div> + <div class='line'>And one old age with all regrets is crowded.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_104' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_104">104</span>Oh hush, oh hush! Thy tears my words are steeping.</div> + <div class='line'>Oh, hush, hush, hush! So full, the fount of weeping?</div> + <div class='line'>Poor eyes, so quickly moved, so near to sleeping?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Pardon the girl; such strange desires beset her.</div> + <div class='line'>Poor woman, lay aside the mournful letter</div> + <div class='line'>That breaks thy heart; the one who wrote, forget her:</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The one who now thy faded features guesses,</div> + <div class='line'>With filial fingers thy grey hair caresses,</div> + <div class='line'>With morning tears thy mournful twilight blesses.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_105' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_105">105</span> + <h3 class='c009'>ADVENT MEDITATION</h3> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><em><span lang="la">Rorate Cœli desuper, et nubes pluant Justum.</span></em></div> + <div class='line'><em><span lang="la">Aperiatur Terra, et germinet Salvatorem.</span></em></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>No sudden thing of glory and fear</div> + <div class='line'>Was the Lord’s coming; but the dear</div> + <div class='line in2'>Slow Nature’s days followed each other</div> + <div class='line in2'>To form the Saviour from his Mother</div> + <div class='line'>—One of the children of the year.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The earth, the rain, received the trust,</div> + <div class='line'>—The sun and dews, to frame the Just.</div> + <div class='line in2'>He drew His daily life from these,</div> + <div class='line in2'>According to His own decrees</div> + <div class='line'>Who makes man from the fertile dust.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Sweet summer and the winter wild,</div> + <div class='line'>These brought him forth, the Undefiled.</div> + <div class='line in2'>The happy Springs renewed again</div> + <div class='line in2'>His daily bread, the growing grain,</div> + <div class='line'>The food and raiment of the Child.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_106' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_106">106</span> + <h3 class='c009'><span class='sc'>A Poet’s Fancies</span></h3> +</div> +<h4 class='c012'>I<br> THE LOVE OF NARCISSUS</h4> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Like him who met his own eyes in the river,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The poet trembles at his own long gaze</div> + <div class='line in2'>That meets him through the changing nights and days</div> + <div class='line'>From out great Nature; all her waters quiver</div> + <div class='line'>With his fair image facing him for ever;</div> + <div class='line in2'>The music that he listens to betrays</div> + <div class='line in2'>His own heart to his ears; by trackless ways</div> + <div class='line'>His wild thoughts tend to him in long endeavour.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>His dreams are far among the silent hills;</div> + <div class='line in2'>His vague voice calls him from the darkened plain</div> + <div class='line'>With winds at night; strange recognition thrills</div> + <div class='line in2'>His lonely heart with piercing love and pain;</div> + <div class='line'>He knows again his mirth in mountain rills,</div> + <div class='line in2'>His weary tears that touch him with the rain.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_107' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_107">107</span> + <h4 class='c012'>II<br> TO ANY POET</h4> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou who singest through the earth,</div> + <div class='line'>All the earth’s wild creatures fly thee;</div> + <div class='line'>Everywhere thou marrest mirth,—</div> + <div class='line in4'>Dumbly they defy thee;</div> + <div class='line'>There is something they deny thee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Pines thy fallen nature ever</div> + <div class='line'>For the unfallen Nature sweet.</div> + <div class='line'>But she shuns thy long endeavour,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Though her flowers and wheat</div> + <div class='line'>Throng and press thy pausing feet.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Though thou tame a bird to love thee,</div> + <div class='line'>Press thy face to grass and flowers,</div> + <div class='line'>All these things reserve above thee</div> + <div class='line in4'>Secrets in the bowers,</div> + <div class='line'>Secrets in the sun and showers.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Sing thy sorrow, sing thy gladness,</div> + <div class='line'>In thy songs must wind and tree</div> + <div class='line'>Bear the fictions of thy sadness,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Thy humanity.</div> + <div class='line'>For their truth is not for thee.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_108">108</span>Wait, and many a secret nest,</div> + <div class='line'>Many a hoarded winter-store</div> + <div class='line'>Will be hidden on thy breast.</div> + <div class='line in4'>Things thou longest for</div> + <div class='line'>Will not fear or shun thee more.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou shalt intimately lie</div> + <div class='line'>In the roots of flowers that thrust</div> + <div class='line'>Upwards from thee to the sky,</div> + <div class='line in4'>With no more distrust,</div> + <div class='line'>When they blossom from thy dust.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Silent labours of the rain</div> + <div class='line'>Shall be near thee, reconciled;</div> + <div class='line'>Little lives of leaves and grain,</div> + <div class='line in4'>All things shy and wild,</div> + <div class='line'>Tell thee secrets, quiet child.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Earth, set free from thy fair fancies</div> + <div class='line'>And the art thou shalt resign,</div> + <div class='line'>Will bring forth her rue and pansies</div> + <div class='line in4'>Unto more divine</div> + <div class='line'>Thoughts than any thoughts of thine.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Nought will fear thee, humbled creature.</div> + <div class='line'>There will lie thy mortal burden</div> + <div class='line'>Pressed unto the heart of Nature,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Songless in a garden,</div> + <div class='line'>With a long embrace of pardon.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_109">109</span>Then the truth all creatures tell,</div> + <div class='line'>And His will Whom thou entreatest,</div> + <div class='line'>Shall absorb thee; there shall dwell</div> + <div class='line in4'>Silence, the completest</div> + <div class='line'>Of thy poems, last, and sweetest.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<h4 class='c012'>III<br> TO ONE POEM IN A SILENT TIME</h4> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Who looked for thee, thou little song of mine?</div> + <div class='line in2'>This winter of a silent poet’s heart</div> + <div class='line in2'>Is suddenly sweet with thee, but what thou art,</div> + <div class='line'>Mid-winter flower, I would I could divine.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Art thou a last one, orphan of thy line?</div> + <div class='line in2'>Did the dead summer’s last warmth foster thee?</div> + <div class='line in2'>Or is Spring folded up unguessed in me,</div> + <div class='line'>And stirring out of sight,—and thou the sign?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Where shall I look—backwards or to the morrow</div> + <div class='line in2'>For others of thy fragrance, secret child?</div> + <div class='line in4'>Who knows if last things or if first things claim thee?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>—Whether thou be the last smile of my sorrow,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Or else a joy too sweet, a joy too wild?</div> + <div class='line in4'>How, my December violet, shall I name thee?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_110' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_110">110</span> + <h4 class='c012'>IV<br> THE MOON TO THE SUN</h4> +</div> +<p class='c013'><em>The Poet sings to her Poet</em></p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>As the full moon shining there</div> + <div class='line'>To the sun that lighteth her</div> + <div class='line'>Am I unto thee for ever,</div> + <div class='line'>O my secret glory-giver!</div> + <div class='line'>O my light, I am dark but fair,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Black but fair.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Shine, Earth loves thee! And then shine</div> + <div class='line'>And be loved through thoughts of mine.</div> + <div class='line'>All thy secrets that I treasure</div> + <div class='line'>I translate them at my pleasure.</div> + <div class='line'>I am crowned with glory of thine,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Thine, not thine.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I make pensive thy delight,</div> + <div class='line'>And thy strong gold silver-white.</div> + <div class='line'>Though all beauty of mine thou makest,</div> + <div class='line'>Yet to earth which thou forsakest</div> + <div class='line'>I have made thee fair all night,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Day all night.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_111' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_111">111</span> + <h4 class='c012'>V<br> THE SPRING TO THE SUMMER</h4> +</div> +<p class='c013'><em>The Poet sings to her Poet</em></p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O poet of the time to be,</div> + <div class='line'>My conqueror, I began for thee.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Enter into the poet’s pain,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And take the riches of the rain,</div> + <div class='line'>And make the perfect year for me.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thou unto whom my lyre shall fall,</div> + <div class='line'>Whene’er thou comest, hear my call.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Oh, keep the promise of my lays,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Take thou the parable of my days;</div> + <div class='line'>I trust thee with the aim of all.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And if thy thoughts unfold from me,</div> + <div class='line'>Know that I too have hints of thee,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Dim hopes that come across my mind</div> + <div class='line in2'>In the rare days of warmer wind,</div> + <div class='line'>And tones of summer in the sea.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And I have set thy paths, I guide</div> + <div class='line'>Thy blossoms on the wild hillside.</div> + <div class='line in2'>And I, thy bygone poet, share</div> + <div class='line in2'>The flowers that throng thy feet where’er</div> + <div class='line'>I led thy feet before I died.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_112' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_112">112</span> + <h4 class='c012'>VI<br> THE DAY TO THE NIGHT</h4> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div><em>The Poet sings to his Poet</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c010'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>From dawn to dusk, and from dusk to dawn,</div> + <div class='line in2'>We two are sundered always, Sweet.</div> + <div class='line'>A few stars shake o’er the high lawn</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the cold sea-shore when we meet.</div> + <div class='line in2'>The twilight comes with thy shadowy feet.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>We are not day and night, my Fair,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But one. It is an hour of hours.</div> + <div class='line'>And thoughts that are not otherwhere</div> + <div class='line in2'>Are thought here ‘mid the blown sea-flowers,</div> + <div class='line in2'>This meeting and this dusk of ours.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Delight has taken Pain to her heart,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And there is dusk and stars for these.</div> + <div class='line'>Oh, linger, linger! They would not part;</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the wild wind comes from over-seas</div> + <div class='line in4'>With a new song to the olive trees.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And when we meet by the sounding pine</div> + <div class='line in2'>Sleep draws near to his dreamless brother.</div> + <div class='line'>And when thy sweet eyes answer mine,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Peace nestles close to her mournful mother,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And Hope and Weariness kiss each other.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_113' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_113">113</span> + <h4 class='c012'>VII<br> A POET OF ONE MOOD</h4> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A poet of one mood in all my lays,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Ranging all life to sing one only love,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Like a west wind across the world I move,</div> + <div class='line'>Sweeping my harp of floods mine own wild ways.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The countries change, but not the west-wind days</div> + <div class='line in2'>Which are my songs. My soft skies shine above,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And on all seas the colours of a dove,</div> + <div class='line'>And on all fields a flash of silver greys.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I make the whole world answer to my art</div> + <div class='line in2'>And sweet monotonous meanings. In your ears</div> + <div class='line'>I change not ever, bearing, for my part,</div> + <div class='line in2'>One thought that is the treasure of my years,</div> + <div class='line'>A small cloud full of rain upon my heart</div> + <div class='line in2'>And in mine arms, clasped, like a child in tears.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_114' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_114">114</span> + <h4 class='c012'>VIII<br> A SONG OF DERIVATIONS</h4> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I come from nothing; but from where</div> + <div class='line'>Come the undying thoughts I bear?</div> + <div class='line in2'>Down, through long links of death and birth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>From the past poets of the earth.</div> + <div class='line'>My immortality is there.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I am like the blossom of an hour.</div> + <div class='line'>But long, long vanished sun and shower</div> + <div class='line in2'>Awoke my breath i’ the young world’s air.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I track the past back everywhere</div> + <div class='line'>Through seed and flower and seed and flower.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Or I am like a stream that flows</div> + <div class='line'>Full of the cold springs that arose</div> + <div class='line in2'>In morning lands, in distant hills;</div> + <div class='line in2'>And down the plain my channel fills</div> + <div class='line'>With melting of forgotten snows.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Voices, I have not heard, possessed</div> + <div class='line'>My own fresh songs; my thoughts are blessed</div> + <div class='line in2'>With relics of the far unknown.</div> + <div class='line in2'>And mixed with memories not my own</div> + <div class='line'>The sweet streams throng into my breast.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_115">115</span>Before this life began to be,</div> + <div class='line'>The happy songs that wake in me</div> + <div class='line in2'>Woke long ago and far apart.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Heavily on this little heart</div> + <div class='line'>Presses this immortality.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<h4 class='c012'>IX<br> SINGERS TO COME</h4> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>No new delights to our desire</div> + <div class='line in2'>The singers of the past can yield.</div> + <div class='line in2'>I lift mine eyes to hill and field,</div> + <div class='line'>And see in them your yet dumb lyre,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Poets unborn and unrevealed.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Singers to come, what thoughts will start</div> + <div class='line in2'>To song? what words of yours be sent</div> + <div class='line in2'>Through man’s soul, and with earth be blent?</div> + <div class='line'>These worlds of nature and the heart</div> + <div class='line in2'>Await you like an instrument.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Who knows what musical flocks of words</div> + <div class='line in2'>Upon these pine-tree tops will light,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And crown these towers in circling flight,</div> + <div class='line'>And cross these seas like summer birds,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And give a voice to the day and night?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_116">116</span>Something of you already is ours</div> + <div class='line in2'>Some mystic part of you belongs</div> + <div class='line in2'>To us whose dreams your future throngs,</div> + <div class='line'>Who look on hills, and trees, and flowers,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Which will mean so much in your songs.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I wonder, like the maid who found,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And knelt to lift, the lyre supreme</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of Orpheus from the Thracian stream.</div> + <div class='line'>She dreams on its sealed past profound;</div> + <div class='line in2'>On a deep future sealed I dream.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>She bears it in her wanderings</div> + <div class='line in2'>Within her arms, and has not pressed</div> + <div class='line in2'>Her unskilled fingers, but her breast</div> + <div class='line'>Upon those silent sacred strings;</div> + <div class='line in2'>I, too, clasp mystic strings at rest.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>For I, i’ the world of lands and seas,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The sky of wind and rain and fire,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And in man’s world of long desire—</div> + <div class='line'>In all that is yet dumb in these—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Have found a more mysterious lyre.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_117' role="doc-pagebreak" aria-label="Page_117">117</span> + <h4 class='c012'>X<br> UNLINKED</h4> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>If I should quit thee, sacrifice, forswear,</div> + <div class='line in2'>To what, my art, shall I give thee in keeping?</div> + <div class='line in2'>To the long winds of heaven? Shall these come sweeping</div> + <div class='line'>My songs forgone against my face and hair?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Or shall the mountain streams my lost joys bear.</div> + <div class='line in4'>My past poetic pain in rain be weeping?</div> + <div class='line in4'>No, I shall live a poet waking, sleeping,</div> + <div class='line'>And I shall die a poet unaware.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>From me, my art, thou canst not pass away;</div> + <div class='line'>And I, a singer though I cease to sing,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Shall own thee without joy in thee or woe.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Through my indifferent words of every day,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Scattered and all unlinked the rhymes shall ring,</div> + <div class='line in4'>And make my poem; and I shall not know.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +</main> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><em>Printed in England</em></div> + <div><em>at the Anchor Press</em></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c010'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <th class='c014'>Page</th> + <th class='c014'>Changed from</th> + <th class='c015'>Changed to</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c016'><a href='#t78'>78</a></td> + <td class='c017'>Speaks to your familiarly</td> + <td class='c018'>Speaks to you familiarly</td> + </tr> +</table> + + <ul class='ul_1'> + <li>Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79380 ***</div> +</body> +<!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-07-26 23:49:33 GMT --> +</html> diff --git a/79380-h/images/cover.jpg b/79380-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..96d8e61 --- /dev/null +++ b/79380-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/79380-h/images/i_frontis.jpg b/79380-h/images/i_frontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c6a5a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/79380-h/images/i_frontis.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, 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. 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