s: The birds sang bonnie as Love drew near,


s: Till lull'd wi' the sough o' monie a sang,


s: Wha listless gazed on the bonnie stream,


s: As it flirted an' play'd with a sunny beam


s: She lootit her hand for the silly rose-leaf,


s: Love glower'd when he saw her bonnie dark e'e,


s: Syne first of a' in her blythesome breast


s: kentna] knew not.  wi' fient an arrow] i. q. with deuce an


s: arrow.  swithe] hie quickly.  laithfu'] regretful.  dowie]


s: dejectedly.  weelfaur'd] well-favoured, comely.  happit] covered


s: up.  lootit] lowered.  pawkie] sly.  glower'd] stared.  e'e-bree]


s: Thou wagg'st, but I am worn with strife,


s: TO my true king I offer'd free from stain


s: Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain.


s: For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away,


s: And one dear hope, that was more prized than they.


s: For him I languish'd in a foreign clime,


s: Gray-hair'd with sorrow in my manhood's prime;


s: Heard on Lavernia Scargill's whispering trees,


s: Beheld each night my home in fever'd sleep,


s: Each morning started from the dream to weep;


s: Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave


s: The resting-place I ask'd, an early grave.


s: O thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone,


s: From that proud country which was once mine own,


s: By those white cliffs I never more must see,


s: By that dear language which I spake like thee,


s: Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear


s: O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here.


s: I'll pray wi' woone sad vaïce vor greäce


s: O SLEEP, my babe, hear not the rippling wave,


s: Nor feel the breeze that round thee ling'ring strays


s: Soon shall it mourn above thy wat'ry bed,


s: And whisper to me, on the wave-beat shore,


s: Ere those dear eyes had open'd on the light,


s: In vain to plead, thy coming life was sold,


s: The tufted beech unfolds in early spring,


s: A thousand infant faces, soft and sweet,


s: Each year sends forth, yet every mother views


s: The face to-morrow's sun shall first reveal,


s: O sleep, my babe, nor heed how mourns the gale


s: To part with thy soft locks and fragrant breath,


s: SEE yon blithe child that dances in our sight!


s: Can gloomy shadows fall from one so bright?


s: While buoyantly he rushes o'er the lawn,


s: Dream not of clouds to stain his manhood's dawn,


s: No cloud he spies in brightly glowing hours,


s: Too well we know that vernal pleasures fleet,


s: But having him, so gladsome, fair, and sweet,


s: Amid the balmiest flowers that earth can give


s: Some bitter drops distil, and all that live


s: But, while he learns these truths which we lament,


s: Such fortitude as ours will sure be sent,


s: Shall glad your heart, shall give you hope,


s: Shall give you health, and help, and hope,


s: 'Tis you shall reign, shall reign alone,


s: You'll pray for me, my flower of flowers,


s: You'll think of me through daylight hours,


s: ROLL forth, my song, like the rushing river,


s: Tell thou the world, when my bones lie whitening


s: That once there was one whose veins ran lightning


s: Tell how his boyhood was one drear night-hour,


s: How shone for him, through his griefs and gloom,


s: No star of all heaven sends to light our


s: Tell how, disdaining all earth can give,


s: He would have taught men, from wisdom's pages,


s: And worn by weakness, disease, and wrong,


s: --With song which alway, sublime or vapid,


s: Perchance not deep, but intense and rapid--


s: Tell how this Nameless, condemn'd for years long


s: Saw things that made him, with groans and tears, long


s: Betray'd in friendship, befool'd in love,


s: With spirit shipwreck'd, and young hopes blasted,


s: Till, spent with toil, dreeing death for others


s: (And some whose hands should have wrought for him,


s: If children live not for sires and mothers),


s: And he fell far through that pit abysmal,


s: And pawn'd his soul for the devil's dismal


s: But yet redeem'd it in days of darkness,


s: And shapes and signs of the final wrath,


s: When death, in hideous and ghastly starkness,


s: And tell how now, amid wreck and sorrow,


s: And want, and sickness, and houseless nights,


s: And lives he still, then? Yes! Old and hoary


s: Deep in your bosoms: there let him dwell!


s: He, too, had tears for all souls in trouble,


s: The stern old war-gods shook their heads;


s: But, now and then, truth-speaking things


s: BRING me wine, but wine which never grew


s: Or grew on vine whose tap-roots, reaching through


s: Suffer'd no savour of the earth to 'scape.


s: By its own craft, to a more rich delight.


s: May float at pleasure through all natures;


s: And write my old adventures with the pen


s: Thou see'st the dawn's grave orange hue,


s: Plough deep and straight with all your powers!


s: And breathe the thrilling reeds for wine.


s: The old-time Prophets to their missions high;


s: Show'd the heart's universe where he caroused


s: And made our Milton his great dark defy,


s: To the light of one immortal theme espoused!


s: But half asleep are those now most awake;


s: And save calm-thoughted Wordsworth, we have none


s: And hold a constant course as doth the sun:


s: We yield but drops that no deep thirstings slake;


s: And feebly cease ere we have well begun.


s: I have pray'd for thee with bursting sob


s: They whisper'd oft, 'She sleepeth soft'--


s: Lest Heaven's own palm droop in my hand,


s: A child would watch her fair white rose,


s: Nor thought that gardener (full of scorns


s: Hath childhood 'twixt the sun and sward:


s: Those trees, nor feel that childish heart


s: In that child's-nest so greenly wrought,


s: ALL are not taken; there are left behind


s: And make the daylight still a happy thing,


s: And tender voices, to make soft the wind:


s: No love in all this world for comforting,


s: Where 'dust to dust' the love from life disjoin'd;


s: And if, before those sepulchres unmoving


s: Goes bleating up the moors in weary dearth)


s: Crying 'Where are ye, O my loved and loving?'--


s: I know a voice would sound, 'Daughter, I AM.


s: Can I suffice for Heaven and not for earth?'


s: I TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless;


s: Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air


s: Beat upward to God's throne in loud access


s: Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness


s: Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express


s: Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death--


s: Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.


s: Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet:


s: If it could weep, it could arise and go.


s: Of the sweet years, the dear and wish'd-for years,


s: To bear a gift for mortals old or young:


s: And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,


s: I saw in gradual vision through my tears


s: The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years--


s: Those of my own life, who by turns had flung


s: A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware,


s: Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;


s: And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,


s: 'Guess now who holds thee?'--'Death,' I said. But there


s: The silver answer rang--'Not Death, but Love.'


s: UNLIKE are we, unlike, O princely Heart!


s: Our ministering two angels look surprise


s: Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art


s: A guest for queens to social pageantries,


s: Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part


s: With looking from the lattice-lights at me--


s: A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through


s: The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree?


s: The chrism is on thine head--on mine the dew--


s: And Death must dig the level where these agree.


s: GO from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand


s: Without the sense of that which I forbore--


s: Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land


s: Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine


s: And what I dream include thee, as the wine


s: Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue


s: God for myself, He hears that name of thine,


s: And sees within my eyes the tears of two.


s: IF thou must love me, let it be for naught


s: Except for love's sake only. Do not say,


s: 'I love her for her smile--her look--her way


s: Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought


s: That falls in well with mine, and certes brought


s: A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'--


s: For these things in themselves, Beloved, may


s: Be changed, or change for thee--and love, so wrought,


s: May be unwrought so. Neither love me for


s: Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:


s: A creature might forget to weep, who bore


s: Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!


s: But love me for love's sake, that evermore


s: Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.


s: WHEN our two souls stand up erect and strong,


s: Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,


s: Until the lengthening wings break into fire


s: At either curving point,--what bitter wrong


s: Can the earth do us, that we should not long


s: Be here contented? Think! In mounting higher,


s: The angels would press on us, and aspire


s: Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay


s: Rather on earth, Beloved--where the unfit


s: With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.


s: Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,


s: High on the shore sat the great god Pan,


s: With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed,


s: Till there was not a sign of the leaf indeed


s: Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man,


s: 'This is the way,' laugh'd the great god Pan


s: To make sweet music, they could succeed.'


s: Then dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed,


s: And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly


s: The true gods sigh for the cost and pain--


s: For the reed which grows nevermore again


s: The Winter morn is short, the Night is long;


s: With deathless thoughts and echo'd in sweet song:


s: And through the sunset of this purple cup


s: They will resume the roses of their prime,


s: And the old Dead will hear us and wake up,


s: Pass with dim smiles and make our hearts sublime!


s: Sharp as the spear that pierced His sacred side,


s: Fright off the solemn Muse,--tell sweet old tales,


s: Sing songs as we sit brooding o'er the hearth,


s: Till the lamp flickers, and the memory fails.


s: The pleasant streets of that dear old town,


s: And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'


s: I can see the shadowy lines of its trees,


s: I remember the black wharves and the slips,


s: And the beauty and mystery of the ships,


s: In their graves o'erlooking the tranquil bay


s: And the friendships old and the early loves


s: Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves


s: I remember the gleams and glooms that dart


s: That in part are prophecies, and in part


s: There are things of which I may not speak;


s: There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,


s: And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street,


s: And among the dreams of the days that were


s: And I still keep list'ning for the words


s: For I've laid you, darling! down to sleep,


s: They say there 's bread and work for all,


s: And the springin' corn, and the bright May morn,


s: I DO not love thee!--no! I do not love thee!


s: And envy even the bright blue sky above thee,


s: Whose quiet stars may see thee and be glad.


s: I do not love thee!--yet, I know not why,


s: Whate'er thou dost seems still well done, to me:


s: That those I do love are not more like thee!


s: I do not love thee!--yet, when thou art gone,


s: I hate the sound (though those who speak be dear)


s: Which breaks the lingering echo of the tone


s: I do not love thee!--yet thy speaking eyes,


s: With their deep, bright, and most expressive blue,


s: Between me and the midnight heaven arise,


s: Others will scarcely trust my candid heart;


s: And oft I catch them smiling as they pass,


s: Because they see me gazing where thou art.


s: WHEN Letty had scarce pass'd her third glad year,


s: And her young artless words began to flow,


s: One day we gave the child a colour'd sphere


s: Of the wide earth, that she might mark and know,


s: By tint and outline, all its sea and land.


s: She patted all the world; old empires peep'd


s: Was welcome at all frontiers. How she leap'd,


s: And laugh'd and prattled in her world-wide bliss;


s: But when we turn'd her sweet unlearned eye


s: On our own isle, she raised a joyous cry--


s: 'Oh! yes, I see it, Letty's home is there!'


s: And while she hid all England with a kiss,


s: Bright over Europe fell her golden hair.


s: That a maiden there lived whom you may know


s: And this maiden she lived with no other thought


s: But we loved with a love that was more than love--


s: With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven


s: The angels, not half so happy in heaven,


s: Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,


s: That the wind came out of the cloud one night,


s: But our love it was stronger by far than the love


s: For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams


s: And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes


s: And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side


s: Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,


s: A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou


s: Some for the Glories of This World; and some


s: Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;


s: Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,


s: Laughing,' she says, 'into the world I blow,


s: Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw.'


s: And those who husbanded the Golden grain


s: And those who flung it to the winds like Rain


s: Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd


s: Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day,


s: Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.


s: The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:


s: And Bahrám, that great Hunter--the wild Ass


s: Stamps o'er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep.


s: I sometimes think that never blows so red


s: The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;


s: Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.


s: And this reviving Herb whose tender Green


s: Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean--


s: From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!


s: Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears


s: TO-DAY of past Regrets and Future Fears:


s: Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years.


s: For some we loved, the loveliest and the best


s: That from his Vintage rolling Time hath prest,


s: Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,


s: They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom,


s: Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth


s: Descend--ourselves to make a Couch--for whom?


s: Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,


s: Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!


s: Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide,


s: And wash my Body whence the Life has died,


s: And lay me, shrouded in the living Leaf,


s: By some not unfrequented Garden-side....


s: Yon rising Moon that looks for us again--


s: How oft hereafter will she wax and wane;


s: Through this same Garden--and for one in vain!


s: And when like her O Sákí, you shall pass


s: Among the Guests star-scatter'd on the Grass,


s: And in your joyous errand reach the spot


s: Where I made One--turn down an empty Glass!


s: The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:


s: The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse


s: Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd,


s: Her sense; but most she loathed the hour


s: His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;


s: On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;


s: The broad stream in his banks complaining,


s: THERE is sweet music here that softer falls


s: Than petals from blown roses on the grass,


s: Or night-dews on still waters between walls


s: Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.


s: And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,


s: And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.


s: And utterly consumed with sharp distress,


s: While all things else have rest from weariness?


s: All things have rest: why should we toil alone,


s: We only toil, who are the first of things,


s: Still from one sorrow to another thrown:


s: Nor steep our brows in slumber's holy balm;


s: Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?


s: The folded leaf is woo'd from out the bud


s: Grows green and broad, and takes no care,


s: The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,


s: Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,


s: Let us alone. What is it that will last?


s: All things are taken from us, and become


s: Portions and parcels of the dreadful Past.


s: All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave


s: Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.


s: How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream,


s: To dream and dream, like yonder amber light,


s: Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height;


s: To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,


s: And tender curving lines of creamy spray;


s: To the influence of mild-minded melancholy;


s: To muse and brood and live again in memory,


s: Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass!


s: And their warm tears: but all hath suffer'd change;


s: For surely now our household hearts are cold:


s: Our sons inherit us: our looks are strange:


s: And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy.


s: Have eat our substance, and the minstrel sings


s: Before them of the ten years' war in Troy,


s: And our great deeds, as half-forgotten things.


s: Sore task to hearts worn out with many wars


s: And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot-stars.


s: But, propt on beds of amaranth and moly,


s: How sweet (while warm airs lull us, blowing lowly)


s: To watch the long bright river drawing slowly


s: From cave to cave thro' the thick-twined vine--


s: To watch the emerald-colour'd water falling


s: Thro' many a wov'n acanthus-wreath divine!


s: Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine,


s: Only to hear were sweet, stretch'd out beneath the pine.


s: All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone:


s: Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust is blown.


s: We have had enough of action, and of motion we,


s: In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie relined


s: On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.


s: For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd


s: Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl'd


s: Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world:


s: Where the smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,


s: Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery


s: But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song


s: Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong,


s: Like a tale of little meaning tho' the words are strong;


s: Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil,


s: Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil,


s: Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil;


s: Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel.


s: Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore


s: Than labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar;


s: O rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.


s: As these white robes are soil'd and dark,


s: Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,


s: Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.


s: Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:


s: And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.


s: NOW sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;


s: Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;


s: Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:


s: Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,


s: Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars,


s: Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves


s: A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.


s: Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,


s: So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip


s: COME down, O maid, from yonder mountain height:


s: What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang),


s: In height and cold, the splendour of the hills?


s: But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease


s: And come, for Love is of the valley, come,


s: For Love is of the valley, come thou down


s: And find him; by the happy threshold, he,


s: Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize,


s: Or foxlike in the vine; nor cares to walk


s: With Death and Morning on the silver horns,


s: Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine,


s: Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice,


s: That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls


s: But follow; let the torrent dance thee down


s: Lean-headed Eagles yelp alone, and leave


s: The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill


s: Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke,


s: That like a broken purpose waste in air:


s: So waste not thou; but come; for all the vales


s: Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound,


s: Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;


s: Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn,


s: Spread thy full wings, and waft him o'er.


s: Should toss with tangle and with shells.


s: And on these dews that drench the furze,


s: I scarce could brook the strain and stir


s: Thou comest, much wept for: such a breeze


s: And crying, How changed from where it ran


s: And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought


s: Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech;


s: Gives out at times (he knows not whence)


s: I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,


s: Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,


s: With ravine, shriek'd against his creed--


s: To build and brood; that live their lives


s: And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,


s: Beginning to faint in the light that she loves


s: To faint in the light of the sun she loves,


s: All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd


s: Till a silence fell with the waking bird,


s: I said to the rose, 'The brief night goes


s: O young lord-lover, what sighs are those


s: But mine, but mine,' so I sware to the rose,


s: And the soul of the rose went into my blood,


s: From the lake to the meadow and on to the wood,


s: From the meadow your walks have left so sweet


s: The white lake-blossom fell into the lake,


s: But the rose was awake all night for your sake,


s: Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,


s: In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,


s: Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls.


s: The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near;'


s: And the white rose weeps, 'She is late;'


s: The souls we loved, that they might tell us


s: THEY seem'd, to those who saw them meet,


s: 'RISE,' said the Master, 'come unto the feast.'


s: She heard the call and rose with willing feet;


s: She is gone from us for a few short hours


s: That gives her entrance to the blissful bowers.


s: We have not seen her yet, though we have been


s: Have listen'd underneath the postern green,


s: And laid fresh flowers, and whisper'd short and soft.


s: But she hath made no answer, and the day


s: From the clear west is fading fast away.


s: PUT your head, darling, darling, darling,


s: O mouth of honey, with thyme for fragrance,


s: Who, with heart in breast, could deny you love?


s: O many and many a young girl for me is pining,


s: Letting her locks of gold to the cold wind free,


s: For me, the foremost of our gay young fellows;


s: But I'd leave a hundred, pure love, for thee!


s: Then put your head, darling, darling, darling,


s: I'D wed you without herds, without money or rich array,


s: And I'd wed you on a dewy morn at day-dawn gray;


s: My bitter woe it is, love, that we are not far away


s: O fair maid, remember the green hill-side,


s: Remember how I hunted about the valleys wide;


s: Time now has worn me; my locks are turn'd to gray;


s: The year is scarce and I am poor--but send me not, love, away!


s: O deem not my blood is of base strain, my girl;


s: O think not my birth was as the birth of a churl;


s: Marry me and prove me, and say soon you will


s: That noble blood is written on my right side still.


s: My purse holds no red gold, no coin of the silver white;


s: No herds are mine to drive through the long twilight;


s: O my girl, I can see 'tis in trouble you are;


s: And O my girl, I see 'tis your people's reproach you bear!


s: --I am a girl in trouble for his sake with whom I fly,


s: And, O, may no other maiden know such reproach as I!


s: A PLENTEOUS place is Ireland for hospitable cheer,


s: Where the wholesome fruit is bursting from the yellow barley ear;


s: There is honey in the trees where her misty vales expand,


s: And her forest paths in summer are by falling waters fann'd,


s: Curl'd he is and ringleted, and plaited to the knee--


s: Each captain who comes sailing across the Irish Sea;


s: And I will make my journey, if life and health but stand,


s: Unto that pleasant country, that fresh and fragrant strand,


s: And leave your boasted braveries, your wealth and high command,


s: Large and profitable are the stacks upon the ground,


s: The butter and the cream do wondrously abound;


s: The cresses on the water and the sorrels are at hand,


s: And the cuckoo 's calling daily his note of music bland,


s: From tree-tops where tired winds are fain,


s: Which breaks to dust when once unroll'd;


s: To a speeding wind and a bounding wave--


s: Within and without, with black bull-hides,


s: Kept out the flakes of the dancing brine,


s: But when the night-wind blew like breath,


s: Each sail was loosed to the wind so free,


s: Each helm made sure by the twilight star,


s: Whence gleam'd soft light and curl'd rich scent,


s: So the stars wheel'd round, and the darkness past,


s: And steer'd right into the harbour thus,


s: 'Our isles are just at hand,' they cried,


s: Our olive-groves thick shade are keeping


s: From our deep dream, and knew, too late,


s: Which had received our precious freight:


s: Its gentle way through strangling rushes


s: That seems to breed them, brown as they:


s: June rear'd that bunch of flowers you carry,


s: And yield--what you'll not pluck indeed,


s: And kneel'd and made the cheerless grate


s: And made her smooth white shoulder bare,


s: Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,


s: Holds earth aught--speak truth--above her?


s: Aught like this tress, see, and this tress,


s: Because, you spend your lives in praising;


s: To praise, you search the wide world over:


s: If earth holds aught--speak truth--above her?


s: THERE 's a woman like a dewdrop, she 's so purer than the purest;


s: Gush in golden-tinted plenty down her neck's rose-misted marble:


s: And this woman says, 'My days were sunless and my nights were


s: I may enter at her portal soon, as now her lattice takes me,


s: And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.


s: Three fields to cross till a farm appears;


s: A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch


s: And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,


s: Than the two hearts beating each to each!


s: ROUND the cape of a sudden came the sea,


s: And the sun look'd over the mountain's rim:


s: And straight was a path of gold for him,


s: ALL 's over, then: does truth sound bitter


s: Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter


s: And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,


s: To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?


s: Mere friends are we,--well, friends the merest


s: For each glance of the eye so bright and black,


s: Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,


s: Yet I will but say what mere friends say,


s: I will hold your hand but as long as all may,


s: Since all, my life seem'd meant for, fails,


s: Since this was written and needs must be--


s: --And this beside, if you will not blame;


s: Your leave for one more last ride with me.


s: With life or death in the balance: right!


s: Who knows but the world may end to-night?


s: Cloud, sunset, moonrise, star-shine too,


s: Till flesh must fade for heaven was here!--


s: Thus leant she and linger'd--joy and fear!


s: Smooth'd itself out, a long-cramp'd scroll


s: Where had I been now if the worst befell?


s: This present of theirs with the hopeful past!


s: I hoped she would love me; here we ride.


s: What act proved all its thought had been?


s: There 's many a crown for who can reach.


s: They scratch his name on the Abbey-stones.


s: And pace them in rhyme so, side by side.


s: 'Tis something, nay 'tis much: but then,


s: Are you--poor, sick, old ere your time--


s: Earth being so good, would heaven seem best?


s: Now, heaven and she are beyond this ride.


s: Whither life's flower is first discern'd,


s: Was the poor spray's, which the flying feet hung to,--


s: So to be singled out, built in, and sung to!


s: Was the poor heart's, ere the wanderer went on--


s: Love to be saved for it, proffer'd to, spent on!


s: That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf


s: Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,


s: While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough


s: And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!


s: Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge


s: Leans to the field and scatters on the clover


s: Blossoms and dewdrops--at the bent spray's edge--


s: That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,


s: Lest you should think he never could recapture


s: And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,


s: All will be gay when noontide wakes anew


s: The buttercups, the little children's dower


s: --Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!


s: NOBLY, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-west died away;


s: Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;


s: Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;


s: While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa.


s: Left their gear, and look'd and laugh'd;


s: With whack and screech they stopp'd the same.


s: Wi' spoons or knives, wi' needle or awl,


s: And he'll help us then, for he shall know


s: miminy] prim, demure.  gleg] bright, sharp.  wud] mad.  randies]


s: viragoes.  flytin'] scolding.  skirlin'] shrieking.  souter]


s: cobbler.  doited] mazed.  a-widdershin] the wrong way of the sun:


s: dust.  cramoisie] crimson.  ayont] beyond.  glamourie] wizardry.


s: Where lies in happy sleep a girl so fair!


s: And cage cold fancies in a moonlight snare.


s: Hang o'er her poised, but breathe nor sigh nor prayer:


s: And let the wind sweep back your cloudy hair!


s: And star with dew the lawn her feet shall tread;


s: Ambrosial dreams with healthful slumbers wed;


s: When from her couch she lifts her golden head;


s: Leave warm 'mid the gray grass their dusky bed.


s: COUNT each affliction, whether light or grave,


s: God's messenger sent down to thee; do thou


s: With courtesy receive him; rise and bow;


s: And, ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave


s: Permission first his heavenly feet to lave;


s: Then lay before him all thou hast; allow


s: The soul's marmoreal calmness: Grief should be,


s: Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free;


s: Strong to consume small troubles; to commend


s: Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end.


s: ON the deck of Patrick Lynch's boat I sat in woful plight,


s: Through my sighing all the weary day and weeping all the night;


s: Were it not that full of sorrow from my people forth I go,


s: By the blessed sun! 'tis royally I'd sing thy praise, Mayo!


s: When I dwelt at home in plenty, and my gold did much abound,


s: In the company of fair young maids the Spanish ale went round--


s: They are alter'd girls in Irrul now; 'tis proud they're grown and


s: But it 's little now I heed their airs, for God will have it so,


s: That I must depart for foreign lands and leave my sweet Mayo.


s: 'Tis my grief that Patrick Loughlin is not Earl of Irrul still,


s: And that Brian Duff no longer rules as Lord upon the hill:


s: And that Colonel Hugh McGrady should be lying dead and low,


s: And I sailing, sailing swiftly from the county of Mayo.


s: They thought their hearts could ne'er recall


s: They thought the tide of grief would flow


s: Well, let them fight for honour's breath,


s: COLD in the earth--and the deep snow piled above thee,


s: Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!


s: Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,


s: Sever'd at last by Time's all-severing wave?


s: Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover


s: Over the mountains, on that northern shore,


s: Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves cover


s: Cold in the earth--and fifteen wild Decembers


s: From those brown hills have melted into spring:


s: Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers


s: After such years of change and suffering!


s: Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,


s: While the world's tide is bearing me along;


s: Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!


s: No later light has lighten'd up my heaven,


s: All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given,


s: All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.


s: But when the days of golden dreams had perish'd,


s: And even Despair was powerless to destroy;


s: Then did I learn how existence could be cherish'd,


s: Strengthen'd and fed without the aid of joy.


s: Then did I check the tears of useless passion--


s: Wean'd my young soul from yearning after thine;


s: Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten


s: Down to that tomb already more than mine.


s: And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,


s: Dare not indulge in memory's rapturous pain;


s: Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,


s: STILL let my tyrants know, I am not doom'd to wear


s: Year after year in gloom and desolate despair;


s: A messenger of Hope comes every night to me,


s: And offers for short life, eternal liberty.


s: He comes with Western winds, with evening's wandering airs,


s: With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest stars:


s: Winds take a pensive tone, and stars a tender fire,


s: And visions rise, and change, that kill me with desire.


s: Desire for nothing known in my maturer years,


s: When Joy grew mad with awe, at counting future tears:


s: When, if my spirit's sky was full of flashes warm,


s: I knew not whence they came, from sun or thunder-storm.


s: But first, a hush of peace--a soundless calm descends;


s: The struggle of distress and fierce impatience ends.


s: Mute music soothes my breast--unutter'd harmony


s: That I could never dream, till Earth was lost to me.


s: Then dawns the Invisible; the Unseen its truth reveals;


s: My outward sense is gone, my inward essence feels;


s: Its wings are almost free--its home, its harbour found,


s: Measuring the gulf, it stoops, and dares the final bound.


s: O dreadful is the check--intense the agony--


s: When the ear begins to hear, and the eye begins to see;


s: When the pulse begins to throb--the brain to think again--


s: The soul to feel the flesh, and the flesh to feel the chain.


s: Yet I would lose no sting, would wish no torture less;


s: The more that anguish racks, the earlier it will bless;


s: And robed in fires of hell, or bright with heavenly shine,


s: If it but herald Death, the vision is divine.


s: No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:


s: And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.


s: That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;


s: Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,


s: Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.


s: Nor atom that his might could render void:


s: And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


s: The western wind was wild and dark with foam,


s: The western tide crept up along the sand,


s: The rolling mist came down and hid the land:


s: 'O is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--


s: They row'd her in across the rolling foam,


s: But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home,


s: If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;


s: Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,


s: For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,


s: Far back, through creeks and inlets making,


s: When daylight comes, comes in the light;


s: In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!


s: From the walls of the powerful, fortress'd house,


s: With the key of softness unlock the locks--with a whisper


s: O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,


s: The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,


s: The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,


s: While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;


s: O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;


s: Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,


s: My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,


s: My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;


s: The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,


s: From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;


s: TRUST thou thy Love: if she be proud, is she not sweet?


s: Trust thou thy Love: if she be mute, is she not pure?


s: Lay thou thy soul full in her hands, low at her feet;


s: Fail, Sun and Breath!--yet, for thy peace, She shall endure.


s: And the little grey church on the windy shore.


s: She will not come though you call all day.


s: Where the spent lights quiver and gleam;


s: Where the salt weed sways in the stream;


s: Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground;


s: On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea,


s: She comb'd its bright hair, and she tended it well,


s: When down swung the sound of the far-off bell.


s: She sigh'd, she look'd up through the clear green sea.


s: She said, 'I must go, for my kinsfolk pray


s: In the little grey church on the shore to-day.


s: 'Twill be Easter-time in the world--ah me!


s: And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee.'


s: I said, 'Go up, dear heart, through the waves.


s: Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves.'


s: She smiled, she went up through the surf in the bay.


s: 'The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.


s: Long prayers,' I said, 'in the world they say.


s: Come,' I said, and we rose through the surf in the bay.


s: Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-wall'd town.


s: Through the narrow paved streets, where all was still,


s: To the little grey church on the windy hill.


s: From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers,


s: But we stood without in the cold-blowing airs.


s: We climb'd on the graves, on the stones worn with rains,


s: And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded panes.


s: She sate by the pillar; we saw her dear:


s: 'Margaret, hist! come quick, we are here.


s: Dear heart,' I said, 'we are long alone.


s: The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.'


s: For her eyes were seal'd to the holy book.


s: Loud prays the priest; shut stands the door.


s: She sits at her wheel in the humming town,


s: For the humming street, and the child with its toy.


s: For the priest, and the bell, and the holy well.


s: She steals to the window, and looks at the sand;


s: For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden,


s: THROUGH the black, rushing smoke-bursts,


s: And then their endless bounds they know.


s: GO, for they call you, Shepherd, from the hill;


s: Go, Shepherd, and untie the wattled cotes:


s: No longer leave thy wistful flock unfed,


s: Nor let thy bawling fellows rack their throats,


s: Nor the cropp'd grasses shoot another head.


s: And the tired men and dogs all gone to rest,


s: And only the white sheep are sometimes seen


s: Cross and recross the strips of moon-blanch'd green;


s: Come Shepherd, and again begin the quest.


s: Here, where the reaper was at work of late,


s: In this high field's dark corner, where he leaves


s: His coat, his basket, and his earthen cruise,


s: And in the sun all morning binds the sheaves,


s: Then here, at noon, comes back his stores to use;


s: The bleating of the folded flocks is borne,


s: With distant cries of reapers in the corn--


s: Screen'd is this nook o'er the high, half-reap'd field,


s: And here till sundown, Shepherd, will I be.


s: Through the thick corn the scarlet poppies peep,


s: And round green roots and yellowing stalks I see


s: Pale blue convolvulus in tendrils creep:


s: Their scent, and rustle down their perfumed showers


s: Of bloom on the bent grass where I am laid,


s: And bower me from the August sun with shade;


s: And the eye travels down to Oxford's towers:


s: And near me on the grass lies Glanvil's book--


s: Come, let me read the oft-read tale again:


s: Of pregnant parts and quick inventive brain,


s: Who, tired of knocking at Preferment's door,


s: His friends, and went to learn the Gipsy lore,


s: And roam'd the world with that wild brotherhood,


s: And came, as most men deem'd, to little good,


s: But came to Oxford and his friends no more.


s: But once, years after, in the country lanes,


s: Two scholars, whom at college erst he knew,


s: Met him, and of his way of life inquired.


s: Whereat he answer'd that the Gipsy crew,


s: His mates, had arts to rule as they desired


s: And they can bind them to what thoughts they will:


s: 'And I,' he said, 'the secret of their art,


s: When fully learn'd, will to the world impart:


s: But it needs Heaven-sent moments for this skill!'


s: This said, he left them, and return'd no more,


s: But rumours hung about the country-side,


s: That the lost Scholar long was seen to stray,


s: Seen by rare glimpses, pensive and tongue-tied,


s: In hat of antique shape, and cloak of grey,


s: Shepherds had met him on the Hurst in spring;


s: At some lone alehouse in the Berkshire moors,


s: On the warm ingle-bench, the smock-frock'd boors


s: But 'mid their drink and clatter, he would fly:


s: And I myself seem half to know thy looks,


s: And put the shepherds, Wanderer, on thy trace;


s: And boys who in lone wheatfields scare the rooks


s: I ask if thou hast pass'd their quiet place;


s: Moor'd to the cool bank in the summer heats,


s: 'Mid wide grass meadows which the sunshine fills,


s: And watch the warm green-muffled Cumnor hills,


s: And wonder if thou haunt'st their shy retreats.


s: For most, I know, thou lov'st retired ground.


s: Thee, at the ferry, Oxford riders blithe,


s: Returning home on summer nights, have met


s: Crossing the stripling Thames at Bablock-hithe,


s: Trailing in the cool stream thy fingers wet,


s: And leaning backwards in a pensive dream,


s: And fostering in thy lap a heap of flowers


s: Pluck'd in shy fields and distant Wychwood bowers,


s: And thine eyes resting on the moonlit stream:


s: And then they land, and thou art seen no more.


s: Maidens who from the distant hamlets come


s: Oft through the darkening fields have seen thee roam,


s: Of flowers--the frail-leaf'd, white anemone--


s: Dark bluebells drench'd with dews of summer eves,


s: And purple orchises with spotted leaves--


s: But none has words she can report of thee.


s: And, above Godstow Bridge, when hay-time 's here


s: In June, and many a scythe in sunshine flames,


s: Men who through those wide fields of breezy grass


s: Where black-wing'd swallows haunt the glittering Thames,


s: Mark'd thine outlandish garb, thy figure spare,


s: Thy dark vague eyes, and soft abstracted air;


s: But, when they came from bathing, thou wert gone.


s: At some lone homestead in the Cumnor hills,


s: Where at her open door the housewife darns,


s: Thou hast been seen, or hanging on a gate


s: To watch the threshers in the mossy barns.


s: Children, who early range these slopes and late


s: Have known thee watching, all an April day,


s: The springing pastures and the feeding kine;


s: And mark'd thee, when the stars come out and shine,


s: Through the long dewy grass move slow away.


s: In autumn, on the skirts of Bagley Wood,


s: Where most the Gipsies by the turf-edged way


s: Pitch their smoked tents, and every bush you see


s: With scarlet patches tagg'd and shreds of gray,


s: Above the forest-ground call'd Thessaly--


s: Sees thee, nor stops his meal, nor fears at all;


s: So often has he known thee past him stray


s: Rapt, twirling in thy hand a wither'd spray,


s: And waiting for the spark from Heaven to fall.


s: And once, in winter, on the causeway chill


s: Where home through flooded fields foot-travellers go,


s: Have I not pass'd thee on the wooden bridge


s: Wrapt in thy cloak and battling with the snow,


s: Thy face towards Hinksey and its wintry ridge?


s: And gain'd the white brow of the Cumnor range;


s: Turn'd once to watch, while thick the snowflakes fall,


s: The line of festal light in Christ Church hall--


s: Then sought thy straw in some sequester'd grange.


s: But what--I dream! Two hundred years are flown


s: Since first thy story ran through Oxford halls,


s: And the grave Glanvil did the tale inscribe


s: That thou wert wander'd from the studious walls


s: To learn strange arts, and join a Gipsy tribe:


s: Long since and in some quiet churchyard laid;


s: Some country nook, where o'er thy unknown grave


s: Tall grasses and white flowering nettles wave--


s: Under a dark red-fruited yew-tree's shade.


s: --No, no, thou hast not felt the lapse of hours.


s: For what wears out the life of mortal men?


s: 'Tis that from change to change their being rolls:


s: 'Tis that repeated shocks, again, again,


s: Till having used our nerves with bliss and teen,


s: And tired upon a thousand schemes our wit,


s: Our worn-out life, and are--what we have been.


s: Thou hast not lived, why shouldst thou perish, so?


s: Thou hadst one aim, one business, one desire:


s: Else wert thou long since number'd with the dead--


s: Else hadst thou spent, like other men, thy fire.


s: And living as thou liv'st on Glanvil's page,


s: Because thou hadst--what we, alas, have not!


s: For early didst thou leave the world, with powers


s: Firm to their mark, not spent on other things;


s: Free from the sick fatigue, the languid doubt,


s: Which much to have tried, in much been baffled, brings.


s: Who fluctuate idly without term or scope,


s: Of whom each strives, nor knows for what he strives,


s: And each half lives a hundred different lives;


s: Who wait like thee, but not, like thee, in hope.


s: Thou waitest for the spark from Heaven: and we,


s: Vague half-believers of our casual creeds,


s: Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will'd,


s: Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds,


s: Whose weak resolves never have been fulfill'd;


s: Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new;


s: And lose to-morrow the ground won to-day--


s: Tells us his misery's birth and growth and signs,


s: And how the dying spark of hope was fed,


s: And how the breast was soothed, and how the head,


s: This for our wisest: and we others pine,


s: And wish the long unhappy dream would end,


s: And waive all claim to bliss, and try to bear,


s: With close-lipp'd Patience for our only friend,


s: Sad Patience, too near neighbour to Despair:


s: Thou through the fields and through the woods dost stray,


s: And every doubt long blown by time away.


s: O born in days when wits were fresh and clear,


s: And life ran gaily as the sparkling Thames;


s: Before this strange disease of modern life,


s: Its heads o'ertax'd, its palsied hearts, was rife--


s: Still fly, plunge deeper in the bowering wood!


s: From her false friend's approach in Hades turn,


s: With a free onward impulse brushing through,


s: By night, the silver'd branches of the glade--


s: Far on the forest-skirts, where none pursue,


s: Emerge, and resting on the moonlit pales,


s: Freshen they flowers, as in former years,


s: With dew, or listen with enchanted ears,


s: From the dark dingles, to the nightingales.


s: But fly our paths, our feverish contact fly!


s: For strong the infection of our mental strife,


s: Which, though it gives no bliss, yet spoils for rest;


s: And we should win thee from they own fair life,


s: Like us distracted, and like us unblest.


s: Thy hopes grow timorous, and unfix'd they powers,


s: And they clear aims be cross and shifting made:


s: And then thy glad perennial youth would fade,


s: Fade, and grow old at last, and die like ours.


s: Then fly our greetings, fly our speech and smiles!


s: --As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea,


s: Lifting the cool-hair'd creepers stealthily,


s: Freighted with amber grapes, and Chian wine,


s: Green bursting figs, and tunnies steep'd in brine;


s: And knew the intruders on his ancient home,


s: The young light-hearted Masters of the waves;


s: And snatch'd his rudder, and shook out more sail,


s: O'er the blue Midland waters with the gale,


s: Outside the Western Straits, and unbent sails


s: There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of foam,


s: Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come;


s: And on the beach undid his corded bales.


s: Hark! from that moonlit cedar what a burst!


s: Still, after many years, in distant lands,


s: Still nourishing in thy bewilder'd brain


s: That wild, unquench'd, deep-sunken, old-world pain--


s: Here, through the moonlight on this English grass,


s: The unfriendly palace in the Thracian wild?


s: Once more, and once more seem to make resound


s: Lone Daulis, and the high Cephissian vale?


s: How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves!


s: OTHERS abide our question. Thou art free.


s: We ask and ask: Thou smilest and art still,


s: Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill


s: Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,


s: Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,


s: Spares but the cloudy border of his base


s: And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,


s: Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure,


s: Didst walk on earth unguess'd at. Better so!


s: All pains the immortal spirit must endure,


s: All weakness that impairs, all griefs that bow,


s: Find their sole voice in that victorious brow.


s: To have loved, to have thought, to have done;


s: To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes;


s: And relegate to worlds yet distant our repose?


s: And yet the village churl feels the truth more than you;


s: The boors with whom he talk'd, the country spots he knew.


s: Tremblest, and wilt not dare to trust the joys there are.


s: Because thou must not dream, thou need'st not then despair.


s: He rose, he ran, he stoop'd, he clutch'd;


s: And soon the Flowers, that Love let fall,


s: In Greed's hot grasp were fray'd and smutch'd,


s: And Greed said, 'Flowers! Can this be all?'


s: And some took these and some took those--


s: Red, blue, and white, and green and gold;


s: Wreathed with one often-play'd-with curl


s: That backs the landscape fresh and still.


s: I hoped her thoughts would thrid the boughs


s: Through dense and rare, through form and mind.


s: So sweet, I fain would breathe it still;


s: One dear dead friend's remember'd tones.


s: THEY told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,


s: They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.


s: I wept as I remember'd how often you and I


s: Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.


s: And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,


s: A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest,


s: Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;


s: For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.


s: 'IF I were dead, you'd sometimes say, Poor Child!'


s: From eyes which, not to grieve me, brightly smiled.


s: I seem to hear your laugh, your talk, your song.


s: It is not true that Love will do no wrong.


s: And did you think, when you so cried and smiled,


s: How I, in lonely nights, should lie awake,


s: And of those words your full avengers make?


s: That sweet amends thrice told are come to thee,


s: IT was not like your great and gracious ways!


s: Do you, that have naught other to lament,


s: I knew, indeed, that you were parting soon;


s: And so we sate, within the low sun's rays,


s: You whispering to me, for your voice was weak,


s: What made your eyes a growing gloom of love,


s: As a warm South-wind sombres a March grove.


s: And it was like your great and gracious ways


s: To turn your talk on daily things, my Dear,


s: Because you spoke so low that I could scarcely hear.


s: But all at once to leave me at the last,


s: More at the wonder than the loss aghast,


s: And the only loveless look the look with which you pass'd:


s: 'Twas all unlike your great and gracious ways.


s: MY little Son, who look'd from thoughtful eyes


s: And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise,


s: Having my law the seventh time disobey'd,


s: --His Mother, who was patient, being dead.


s: Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep,


s: With darken'd eyelids, and their lashes yet


s: Kissing away his tears, left others of my own;


s: A box of counters and a red-vein'd stone,


s: And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art,


s: Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,


s: Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay,


s: 'I will be sorry for their childishness.'


s: WITH all my will, but much against my heart,


s: Our solace is, the sad road lies so clear.


s: To see the peach-bloom come in evening skies,


s: And even through faith of still averted feet,


s: The bitter journey to the bourne so sweet


s: Seasoning the termless feast of our content


s: Step out three steps, where Andrew stood--


s: RETURN, return! all night my lamp is burning,


s: All night, like it, my wide eyes watch and burn;


s: Like it, I fade and pale, when day returning


s: Bears witness that the absent can return,


s: Like it, I lessen with a lengthening sadness,


s: Like it, I burn to waste and waste to burn,


s: Like it, I spend the golden oil of gladness


s: Like it, like it, whene'er the east wind sings,


s: I bend and shake; like it, I quake and yearn,


s: When Hope's late butterflies, with whispering wings,


s: Fly in out of the dark, to fall and burn--


s: Consumes me to its nature. While I mourn


s: My soul becomes a better soul than mine,


s: And from its brightening beacon I discern


s: My starry love go forth from me, and shine


s: Return, return! all night I see it burn,


s: All night it prays like me, and lifts a twin


s: Of palmed praying hands that meet and yearn--


s: Yearn to the impleaded skies for thy return.


s: Day, like a golden fetter, locks them in,


s: And wans the light that withers, tho' it burn


s: Still thro' the splendid load uplifts the thin


s: Pale, paler, palest patience that can learn


s: Naught but that votive sign for thy return--


s: That single suppliant sign for thy return,


s: Return, return! lest haply, love, or e'er


s: Thou touch the lamp the light have ceased to burn,


s: And thou, who thro' the window didst discern


s: The wonted flame, shalt reach the topmost stair


s: A passing ghost, a smoke-wreath in the air,


s: The flameless ashes, and the soulless urn,


s: Warm with the famish'd fire that lived to burn--


s: Burn out its lingering life for thy return,


s: Its last of lingering life for thy return,


s: Its last of lingering life to light thy late return,


s: IN the hall the coffin waits, and the idle armourer stands.


s: At his belt the coffin nails, and the hammer in his hands.


s: Hour by hour her serving-men enter by the curtain'd door,


s: 'Touch him not,' she shriek'd and cried, 'he is but newly dead!'


s: 'O my own dear mistress,' the ancient Nurse did say,


s: 'Seven long days and seven long nights,' the hoary Steward said;


s: 'On your lives!' she shriek'd and cried, 'he is but newly dead!'


s: The Priest that taught her all she knew,


s: He bless'd her where she sat distraught,


s: The cross she kiss'd from year to year--


s: Only when he turn'd to speak with those who wept about the bed,


s: Then how sadly he turn'd from her, it were wonderful to tell,


s: And he stood beside the death-bed as by one who slumbers well,


s: 'Sleepeth?' said she, looking up, and the sun rose in her face!


s: 'He must be better than I thought, for the sleep is very sound.'


s: 'He is better,' said the Priest, and call'd her maidens round.


s: With them came that ancient dame who nursed her when a child;


s: 'Laus Deo,' said the Steward, hoary when her days were new;


s: 'Laus Deo,' said the Warrener, whiter than the warren snows;


s: 'Laus Deo,' the bald Henchman, who had nursed her on his knee.


s: And still she bow'd herself, and stoop'd


s: Till her bosom's pressure must have made


s: Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove,


s: 'When round his head the aureole clings,


s: Alas, and though the end were reach'd?...


s: 'We two,' she said, 'will seek the groves


s: 'All this is when he comes.' She ceased:


s: (I saw her smile.) But soon their flight


s: UNDER yonder beech-tree single on the green-sward,


s: Couch'd with her arms behind her golden head,


s: Knees and tresses folded to slip and ripple idly,


s: Lies my young love sleeping in the shade.


s: Had I the heart to slide an arm beneath her,


s: Press her parting lips as her waist I gather slow,


s: Waking in amazement she could not but embrace me:


s: Then would she hold me and never let me go?


s: Shy as the squirrel and wayward as the swallow,


s: Swift as the swallow along the river's light


s: Circleting the surface to meet his mirror'd winglets,


s: Fleeter she seems in her stay than in her flight.


s: Shy as the squirrel that leaps among the pine-tops,


s: Wayward as the swallow overhead at set of sun,


s: She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer,


s: Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won!


s: When her mother tends her before the laughing mirror,


s: Tying up her laces, looping up her hair,


s: Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,


s: More love should I have, and much less care.


s: When her mother tends her before the lighted mirror,


s: Loosening her laces, combing down her curls,


s: I should miss but one for many boys and girls.


s: Heartless she is as the shadow in the meadows


s: Flying to the hills on a blue and breezy noon.


s: No, she is athirst and drinking up her wonder:


s: Earth to her is young as the slip of the new moon.


s: Deals she an unkindness, 'tis but her rapid measure,


s: Even as in a dance; and her smile can heal no less:


s: Lovely are the curves of the white owl sweeping


s: Lone on the fir-branch, his rattle-note unvaried,


s: Brooding o'er the gloom, spins the brown evejar.


s: Darker grows the valley, more and more forgetting:


s: So were it with me if forgetting could be will'd.


s: Tell the grassy hollow that holds the bubbling well-spring,


s: Tell it to forget the source that keeps it fill'd.


s: Stepping down the hill with her fair companions,


s: Arm in arm, all against the raying West,


s: Boldly she sings, to the merry tune she marches,


s: Brave is her shape, and sweeter unpossess'd.


s: Sweeter, for she is what my heart first awaking


s: Whisper'd the world was; morning light is she.


s: Love that so desires would fain keep her changeless;


s: Fain would fling the net, and fain have her free.


s: Happy happy time, when the white star hovers


s: Low over dim fields fresh with bloomy dew,


s: Near the face of dawn, that draws athwart the darkness,


s: Threading it with colour, like yewberries the yew.


s: Thicker crowd the shades as the grave East deepens


s: Glowing, and with crimson a long cloud swells.


s: Maiden still the morn is; and strange she is, and secret;


s: Strange her eyes; her cheeks are cold as cold sea-shells.


s: Sunrays, leaning on our southern hills and lighting


s: Wild cloud-mountains that drag the hills along,


s: Oft ends the day of your shifting brilliant laughter


s: Chill as a dull face frowning on a song.


s: Ay, but shows the South-west a ripple-feather'd bosom


s: Blown to silver while the clouds are shaken and ascend


s: Scaling the mid-heavens as they stream, there comes a sunset


s: Rich, deep like love in beauty without end.


s: When at dawn she sighs, and like an infant to the window


s: Turns grave eyes craving light, released from dreams,


s: Beautiful she looks, like a white water-lily


s: Bursting out of bud in havens of the streams.


s: When from bed she rises clothed from neck to ankle


s: In her long nightgown sweet as boughs of May,


s: Beautiful she looks, like a tall garden-lily


s: Pure from the night, and splendid for the day.


s: Mother of the dews, dark eye-lash'd twilight,


s: Low-lidded twilight, o'er the valley's brim,


s: Rounding on thy breast sings the dew-delighted skylark,


s: Clear as though the dewdrops had their voice in him.


s: Hidden where the rose-flush drinks the rayless planet,


s: Fountain-full he pours the spraying fountain-showers.


s: Let me hear her laughter, I would have her ever


s: Cool as dew in twilight, the lark above the flowers.


s: All the girls are out with their baskets for the primrose;


s: Up lanes, woods through, they troop in joyful bands.


s: My sweet leads: she knows not why, but now she loiters,


s: Eyes the bent anemones, and hangs her hands.


s: Such a look will tell that the violets are peeping,


s: Springs in her bosom for odours and for colour,


s: Covert and the nightingale; she knows not why.


s: Kerchief'd head and chin she darts between her tulips,


s: Streaming like a willow gray in arrowy rain:


s: Some bend beaten cheek to gravel, and their angel


s: She will be; she lifts them, and on she speeds again.


s: Black the driving raincloud breasts the iron gateway:


s: She is forth to cheer a neighbour lacking mirth.


s: Saw I once a white dove, sole light of earth.


s: Prim little scholars are the flowers of her garden,


s: Train'd to stand in rows, and asking if they please.


s: I might love them well but for loving more the wild ones:


s: O my wild ones! they tell me more than these.


s: You, my wild one, you tell of honied field-rose,


s: Violet, blushing eglantine in life; and even as they,


s: They by the wayside are earnest of your goodness,


s: You are of life's, on the banks that line the way.


s: Peering at her chamber the white crowns the red rose,


s: Jasmine winds the porch with stars two and three.


s: Parted is the window; she sleeps; the starry jasmine


s: Breathes a falling breath that carries thoughts of me.


s: Sweeter unpossess'd, have I said of her my sweetest?


s: Not while she sleeps: while she sleeps the jasmine breathes,


s: Luring her to love; she sleeps; the starry jasmine


s: Bears me to her pillow under white rose-wreaths.


s: Yellow with birdfoot-trefoil are the grass-glades;


s: Yellow with cinquefoil of the dew-gray leaf;


s: Yellow with stonecrop; the moss-mounds are yellow;


s: Blue-neck'd the wheat sways, yellowing to the sheaf.


s: Green-yellow, bursts from the copse the laughing yaffle;


s: Sharp as a sickle is the edge of shade and shine:


s: Earth in her heart laughs looking at the heavens,


s: Thinking of the harvest: I look and think of mine.


s: This I may know: her dressing and undressing


s: Such a change of light shows as when the skies in sport


s: Shift from cloud to moonlight; or edging over thunder


s: Slips a ray of sun; or sweeping into port


s: White sails furl; or on the ocean borders


s: White sails lean along the waves leaping green.


s: Visions of her shower before me, but from eyesight


s: Guarded she would be like the sun were she seen.


s: Front door and back of the moss'd old farmhouse


s: Open with the morn, and in a breezy link


s: Freshly sparkles garden to stripe-shadow'd orchard,


s: Green across a rill where on sand the minnows wink.


s: Busy in the grass the early sun of summer


s: Swarms, and the blackbird's mellow fluting notes


s: Call my darling up with round and roguish challenge:


s: Quaintest, richest carol of all the singing throats!


s: Cool was the woodside; cool as her white diary


s: Keeping sweet the cream-pan; and there the boys from school,


s: Cricketing below, rush'd brown and red with sunshine;


s: O the dark translucence of the deep-eyed cool!


s: Spying from the farm, herself she fetch'd a pitcher


s: Full of milk, and tilted for each in turn the beak.


s: Then a little fellow, mouth up and on tiptoe,


s: Said, 'I will kiss you': she laugh'd and lean'd her cheek.


s: Doves of the fir-wood walling high our red roof


s: Through the long noon coo, crooning through the coo.


s: Loose droop the leaves, and down the sleepy roadway


s: Sometimes pipes a chaffinch; loose droops the blue.


s: Cows flap a show tail knee-deep in the river,


s: Breathless, given up to sun and gnat and fly.


s: Nowhere is she seen; and if I see her nowhere,


s: Lighting may come, straight rains and tiger sky.


s: O the golden sheaf, the rustling treasure-armful!


s: O the nutbrown tresses nodding interlaced!


s: Nodding! O the girdle slack about the waist!


s: Slain are the poppies that shot their random scarlet


s: Quick amid the wheat-ears: wound about the waist,


s: Gather'd, see these brides of Earth one blush of ripeness!


s: Large and smoky red the sun's cold disk drops,


s: Clipp'd by naked hills, on violet shaded snow:


s: Eastward large and still lights up a bower of moonrise,


s: Whence at her leisure steps the moon aglow.


s: Nightlong on black print-branches our beech-tree


s: Gazes in this whiteness: nightlong could I.


s: Here may life on death or death on life be painted.


s: Let me clasp her soul to know she cannot die!


s: Gossips count her faults; they scour a narrow chamber


s: Where there is no window, read not heaven or her.


s: 'When she was a tiny,' one aged woman quavers,


s: Plucks at my heart and leads me by the ear.


s: Faults she had once as she learn'd to run and tumbled:


s: Faults of feature some see, beauty not complete.


s: Yet, good gossips, beauty that makes holy


s: Earth and air, may have faults from head to feet.


s: Hither she comes; she comes to me; she lingers,


s: Deepens her brown eyebrows, while in new surprise


s: High rise the lashes in wonder of a stranger;


s: Yet am I the light and living of her eyes.


s: Something friends have told her fills her heart to brimming,


s: Nets her in her blushes, and wounds her, and tames.--


s: Sure of her haven, O like a dove alighting,


s: Arms up, she dropp'd: our souls were in our names.


s: Soon will she lie like a white frost sunrise.


s: Yellow oats and brown wheat, barley pale as rye,


s: Long since your sheaves have yielded to the thresher,


s: Felt the girdle loosen'd, seen the tresses fly.


s: Soon will she lie like a blood-red sunset.


s: Swift with the to-morrow, green-wing'd Spring!


s: Sing from the South-west, bring her back the truants,


s: Nightingale and swallow, song and dipping wing.


s: Soft new beech-leaves, up to beamy April


s: Spreading bough on bough a primrose mountain, you


s: Lucid in the moon, raise lilies to the skyfields,


s: Youngest green transfused in silver shining through:


s: Fairer than the lily, than the wild white cherry:


s: Borne to me by dreams when dawn is at my eyelids:


s: Fair as in the flesh she swims to me on tears.


s: Could I find a place to be alone with heaven,


s: I would speak my heart out: heaven is my need.


s: Every woodland tree is flushing like the dogwood,


s: Flashing like the whitebeam, swaying like the reed.


s: Flushing like the dogwood crimson in October;


s: Streaming like the flag-reed South-west blown;


s: Flashing as in gusts the sudden-lighted whitebeam:


s: All seem to know what is for heaven alone.


s: WHEN by Zeus relenting the mandate was revoked,


s: Mindful were the ploughmen of who the steer had yoked,


s: Who: and what a track show'd the upturn'd sod!


s: Mindful were the shepherds, as now the noon severe


s: Bent a burning eyebrow to brown evetide,


s: How the rustic flute drew the silver to the sphere,


s: Sister of his own, till her rays fell wide.


s: Chirping none, the scarlet cicalas crouch'd in ranks:


s: Slack the thistle-head piled its down-silk gray:


s: Scarce the stony lizard suck'd hollows in his flanks:


s: Thick on spots of umbrage our drowsed flocks lay.


s: Sudden bow'd the chestnuts beneath a wind unheard,


s: Lengthen'd ran the grasses, the sky grew slate:


s: Then amid a swift flight of wing'd seed white as curd,


s: Clear of limb a Youth smote the master's gate.


s: Water, first of singers, o'er rocky mount and mead,


s: First of earthly singers, the sun-loved rill,


s: Sang of him, and flooded the ripples on the reed,


s: Seeking whom to waken and what ear fill.


s: Water, sweetest soother to kiss a wound and cool,


s: Sweetest and divinest, the sky-born brook,


s: Chuckled, with a whimper, and made a mirror-pool


s: Round the guest we welcomed, the strange hand shook.


s: Many swarms of wild bees descended on our fields:


s: Stately stood the wheatstalk with head bent high:


s: Big of heart we labour'd at storing mighty yields,


s: Wool and corn, and clusters to make men cry!


s: Hand-like rush'd the vintage; we strung the bellied skins


s: Plump, and at the sealing the Youth's voice rose:


s: Maidens clung in circle, on little fists their chins;


s: Gentle beasties through push'd a cold long nose.


s: Foot to fire in snowtime we trimm'd the slender shaft:


s: Often down the pit spied the lean wolf's teeth


s: Grin against his will, trapp'd by masterstrokes of craft;


s: Helpless in his froth-wrath as green logs seethe!


s: Safe the tender lambs tugg'd the teats, and winter sped


s: Whirl'd before the crocus, the year's new gold.


s: Hung the hooky beak up aloft, the arrowhead


s: Redden'd through his feathers for our dear fold.


s: Tales we drank of giants at war with gods above:


s: Rocks were they to look on, and earth climb'd air!


s: Tales of search for simples, and those who sought of love


s: Ease because the creature was all too fair.


s: Pleasant ran our thinking that while our work was good.


s: Sure as fruits for sweat would the praise come fast.


s: He that wrestled stoutest and tamed the billow-brood


s: Danced in rings with girls, like a sail-flapp'd mast.


s: Lo, the herb of healing, when once the herb is known,


s: Shines in shady woods bright as new-sprung flame.


s: Ere the string was tighten'd we heard the mellow tone,


s: After he had taught how the sweet sounds came.


s: Stretch'd about his feet, labour done, 'twas as you see


s: Red pomegranates tumble and burst hard rind.


s: So began contention to give delight and be


s: Excellent in things aim'd to make life kind.


s: You with shelly horns, rams! and, promontory goats,


s: You whose browsing beards dip in coldest dew!


s: Bulls, that walk the pastures in kingly-flashing coats!


s: Laurel, ivy, vine, wreathed for feasts not few!


s: You that build the shade-roof, and you that court the rays,


s: You that leap besprinkling the rock stream-rent:


s: He has been our fellow, the morning of our days;


s: Us he chose for housemates, and this way went.


s: Our farthest smiles, our next is friend.


s: That spins the lark for shine, for showers;


s: He drinks his hurried flight, and drops.


s: Where flocks now bleat and sprouts the clod.


s: Her shivering Spring feign'd fast asleep,


s: MARK where the pressing wind shoots javelin-like,


s: Its skeleton shadow on the broad-back'd wave!


s: Here is a fitting spot to dig Love's grave;


s: Here where the ponderous breakers plunge and strike,


s: And dart their hissing tongues high up the sand:


s: Of those ribb'd wind-streaks running into white.


s: If I the death of Love had deeply plann'd,


s: I never could have made it half so sure,


s: The full-waked sense; or failing that, degrade!


s: 'Tis morning: but no morning can restore


s: The wrong is mix'd. In tragic life, God wot,


s: No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:


s: We are betray'd by what is false within.


s: ON a starr'd night Prince Lucifer uprose.


s: Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend


s: Above the rolling ball in cloud part screen'd,


s: Where sinners hugg'd their spectre of repose.


s: Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those.


s: And now upon his western wing he lean'd,


s: Now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careen'd,


s: Now the black planet shadow'd Arctic snows.


s: Soaring through wider zones that prick'd his scars


s: He reach'd a middle height, and at the stars,


s: Which are the brain of heaven, he look'd, and sank.


s: Around the ancient track march'd, rank on rank,


s: THE fierce exulting worlds, the motes in rays,


s: The wind-swept bluebells on the sunny braes,


s: Of lornest space, in whose deeps regally


s: This mighty sea of Love, with wondrous tides,


s: 'Tis laving at this moment Saturn's sides,


s: All things have something more than barren use;


s: A tremulous splendour in the autumn dews,


s: The clodded earth goes up in sweet-breath'd flowers;


s: And into beauty blow those hearts of ours


s: Daisies are white upon the churchyard sod,


s: Sweet tears the clouds lean down and give.


s: Over the crisp and yellow leaves I held my rustling way;


s: And amid the words of mercy, falling on my soul like balms,


s: 'Mid the gorgeous storms of music--in the mellow organ-calms,


s: And the priest, with outspread hands, bless'd the people with a


s: But when rising to go homeward, with a mild and saintlike shine


s: Gleam'd a face of airy beauty with its heavenly eyes on mine--


s: Gleam'd and vanish'd in a moment--O that face was surely thine


s: When last I saw thee, dearest, it was in another place.


s: A purple stain of agony was on the mouth I kiss'd,


s: I could not drive away the thought that you were lingering there.


s: My worn face buried in my hands, beside the fire alone--


s: Within the dripping churchyard, the rain plashing on your stone,


s: I clasp'd around your happy arm while sitting by yon brink?


s: Or when that night of gliding dance, of laughter and guitars,


s: Was emptied of its music, and we watch'd, through lattice-bars,


s: The silent midnight heaven creeping o'er us with its stars,


s: And many sins and errors now have been on me avenged;


s: But to you I have been faithful whatsoever good I lack'd:


s: I loved you, and above my life still hangs that love intact--


s: Your love the trembling rainbow, I the reckless cataract.


s: I wander like the desert wind without a place of rest.


s: Could I but win you for an hour from off that starry shore,


s: The hunger of my soul were still'd; for Death hath told you more


s: Than the melancholy world doth know--things deeper than all lore


s: There droops upon the dreary hills a mournful fringe of rain;


s: The gloaming closes slowly round, loud winds are in the tree,


s: Round selfish shores for ever moans the hurt and wounded sea;


s: There is no rest upon the earth, peace is with Death and thee--


s: Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;


s: Will the day's journey take the whole long day?


s: But is there for the night a resting-place?


s: A roof for when the slow, dark hours begin.


s: May not the darkness hide it from my face?


s: Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?


s: They will not keep you waiting at that door.


s: Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?


s: Will there be beds for me and all who seek?


s: PASSING away, saith the World, passing away:


s: Chances, beauty and youth sapp'd day by day:


s: Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to gray


s: I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May:


s: Thou, root-stricken, shalt not rebuild thy decay


s: Passing away, saith my Soul, passing away:


s: With its burden of fear and hope, of labour and play,


s: Hearken what the past doth witness and say:


s: Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array,


s: A canker is in thy bud, thy leaf must decay.


s: At midnight, at cockcrow, at morning, one certain day,


s: Lo, the Bridegroom shall come and shall not delay:


s: Passing away, saith my God, passing away:


s: New grapes on the vine, new figs on the tender spray,


s: Though I tarry, wait for me, trust me, watch and pray.


s: Arise, come away; night is past, and lo, it is day;


s: My love, my sister, my spouse, thou shalt hear me say--


s: MARVEL of marvels, if I myself shall behold


s: With mine own eyes my King in His city of gold;


s: Where the least of lambs is spotless white in the fold,


s: Where the least and last of saints in spotless white is stoled,


s: Where the dimmest head beyond a moon is aureoled.


s: O saints, my beloved, now mouldering to mould in the mould,


s: Shall I see you lift your heads, see your cerements unroll'd,


s: See with these very eyes? who now in darkness and cold


s: Tremble for the midnight cry, the rapture, the tale untold,--


s: The Bridegroom cometh, cometh, His Bride to enfold!


s: Cold it is, my beloved, since your funeral bell was toll'd:


s: Cold it is, O my King, how cold alone on the wold!


s: When you can no more hold me by the hand,


s: Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.


s: You tell me of our future that you plann'd:


s: It will be late to counsel then or pray.


s: For if the darkness and corruption leave


s: A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,


s: Better by far you should forget and smile


s: Than that you should remember and be sad.


s: Speak both one message of one sense to me:--


s: Thou too aloof, bound with the flawless band


s: But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?


s: What heart shall touch thy heart? What hand thy hand?


s: And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,


s: When fellowship seem'd not so far to seek,


s: And all the world and I seem'd much less cold,


s: And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,


s: And hope felt strong, and life itself not weak.


s: Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth;


s: Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth


s: With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs.


s: She hath no questions, she hath no replies,


s: Hush'd in and curtain'd with a blessed dearth


s: Of all that irk'd her from the hour of birth;


s: Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her,


s: Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be;


s: And when she wakes she will not think it long.


s: To hark if still in that dark place he play'd.


s: Just feel the Father's arms, wherewith they both are bless'd.


s: O then my heart! O then my useless heart!


s: A stone remote in some bleak gully of the hills!


s: And light a fire, and fan a temporal mood!


s: So sit till morning! when the light is grown


s: His morning is not thine: yet must thou own


s: They have a cheerful warmth--those ashes on the stone.


s: Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?


s: That first kiss'd ours, albeit they kiss no more:


s: Sweet is the sight of sunset-sailing ships,


s: Sweet are familiar songs, tho' Music dips


s: Her hollow shell in Thought's forlornest wells:


s: And sweet, tho' sad, the sound of midnight bells


s: When the oped casement with the night-rain drips.


s: There is a pleasure which is born of pain:


s: The grave of all things hath its violet.


s: Else why, thro' days which never come again,


s: Roams Hope with that strange longing, like Regret?


s: Why plant the rose above the lonely grave?


s: Why bring the corpse across the salt sea-wave?


s: Why deem the dead more near in native land?


s: Once ... and now--nothing! It is hard to know


s: That such things have been, and are not; and yet


s: Life loiters, keeps a pulse at even measure,


s: And goes upon its business and its pleasure,


s: And knows not all the depths of its regret....


s: Ah, could the memory cast her spots, as do


s: The snake's brood theirs in spring! and be once more


s: Wholly renew'd, to dwell i' the time that 's new,


s: With no reiterance of those pangs of yore.


s: Peace, peace! My wild song will go wandering


s: Hath trodden bare. What was it jarr'd the strain?


s: Some crush'd illusion, left with crumpled wing


s: Tangled in Music's web of twined strings--


s: That started that false note, and crack'd the tune


s: Stumble back strangely! and the ghost of June


s: Stands by December's fire, cold, cold! and puts


s: The last spark out.--How could I sing aright


s: With those old airs haunting me all the night


s: And those old steps that sound when daylight shuts?


s: For back she comes, and moves reproachfully,


s: The mistress of my moods, and looks bereft


s: (Cruel to the last!) as tho' 'twere I, not she,


s: That did the wrong, and broke the spell, and left


s: Phantoms, about whose brows the bindweed clings,


s: Hopeless regret! In thinking of these things


s: Some men have lost their minds, and others may.


s: Yet, O for one deep draught in this dull hour!


s: One deep, deep draught of the departed time!


s: O for one brief strong pulse of ancient power,


s: To beat and breathe thro' all the valves of rhyme!


s: Thou, Memory, with thy downward eyes, that art


s: The cup-bearer of gods, pour deep and long,


s: With health! Droop down thine urn. I hold my heart


s: One draught of what I shall not taste again


s: Save when my brain with thy dark wine is brimm'd,--


s: One draught! and then straight onward, spite of pain,


s: And spite of all things changed, with gaze undimm'd,


s: Love's footsteps thro' the waning Past to explore


s: Undaunted; and to carve in the wan light


s: Of Hope's last outposts, on Song's utmost height,


s: Midnight, and love, and youth, and Italy!


s: Love in the land where love most lovely seems!


s: Land of my love, tho' I be far from thee,


s: Lend, for love's sake, the light of thy moonbeams,


s: The spirit of thy cypress-groves and all


s: To my desire. Yet once more let her smile


s: Fall o'er me: o'er me let her long hair fall....


s: We were alone, in that best hour of time


s: Which first reveal'd to us how much we loved,


s: 'Neath the thick starlight. The young night sublime


s: Hung trembling o'er us. At her feet I knelt,


s: And gazed up from her feet into her eyes.


s: Her face was bow'd: we breathed each other's sighs:


s: We did not speak: not move: we look'd: we felt.


s: The night said not a word. The breeze was dead.


s: The leaf lay without whispering on the tree,


s: As I lay at her feet. Droop'd was her head:


s: One hand in mine: and one still pensively


s: Went wandering through my hair. We were together.


s: How? Where? What matter? Somewhere in a dream,


s: Drifting, slow drifting down a wizard stream:


s: Whither? Together: then what matter whither?


s: To blend with her love-looks my own: no more.


s: Enough (with thoughts like ships that cannot land,


s: Blown by faint winds about a magic shore)


s: The droop of the warm cheek so near my own:


s: The cool white arm about my shoulder thrown:


s: Those exquisite fair feet where I was kneeling.


s: How little know they life's divinest bliss,


s: That know not to possess and yet refrain!


s: Let the young Psyche roam, a fleeting kiss:


s: Grasp it--a few poor grains of dust remain.


s: See how those floating flowers, the butterflies,


s: Hover the garden thro', and take no root!


s: Free pleasure comes and goes beneath the skies.


s: Close not thy hand upon the innocent joy


s: That trusts itself within thy reach. It may,


s: Or may not, linger. Thou canst but destroy


s: Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem.


s: Think! Midas starved by turning all to gold.


s: Blessed are those that spare, and that withhold;


s: Because the whole world shall be trusted them.


s: The foolish Faun pursues the unwilling Nymph


s: That culls her flowers beside the precipice


s: Or dips her shining ankles in the lymph:


s: But, just when she must perish or be his,


s: Heaven puts an arm out. She is safe. The shore


s: Gains some new fountain; or the lilied lawn


s: A rarer sort of rose: but ah, poor Faun!


s: To thee she shall be changed for evermore.


s: Chase not too close the fading rapture. Leave


s: Deem those the nearest, soul to soul, between


s: Whose lips yet lingers reverence on a sigh.


s: Judge what thy sense can reach not, most thine own,


s: If once thy soul hath seized it. The unknown


s: The moon had set. There was not any light,


s: Save of the lonely legion'd watch-stars pale


s: In outer air, and what by fits made bright


s: Search'd by the lamping fly, whose little spark


s: Went in and out, like passion's bashful hope.


s: Meanwhile the sleepy globe began to slope


s: A ponderous shoulder sunward thro' the dark.


s: And the night pass'd in beauty like a dream.


s: Aloof in those dark heavens paused Destiny,


s: With her last star descending in the gleam


s: Of the cold morrow, from the emptied sky.


s: The hour, the distance from her old self, all


s: Had left a lovely awe on that fair face,


s: And all the land grew strange and magical.


s: As droops some billowy cloud to the crouch'd hill,


s: Heavy with all heaven's tears, for all earth's care,


s: She droop'd unto me, without force or will,


s: A woman's inarticulate passionate words.


s: O life's supreme! How worth, how wildly worth,


s: Whole worlds of flame, to know this world affords.


s: When all the ends of life take hands and meet


s: Round centres of sweet fire. Ah, never more,


s: Ah never, shall the bitter with the sweet


s: One hour of life immortal spirits possess.


s: This drains the world, and leaves but weariness,


s: And parching passion, and perplexing tears.


s: That hour to sweeten life's last toil: but Youth


s: Grasps all, and leaves us: and when we would weep,


s: We dare not let our tears fall, lest, in truth,


s: They fall upon our work which must be done.


s: And so we bind up our torn hearts from breaking:


s: Our eyes from weeping, and our brows from aching:


s: Is to do nothing, this my prayer must be:


s: That thou mayst never guess nor ever see


s: The all-endured this nothing-done costs me.


s: The trees and the houses go wheeling back,


s: The silver doves of the forest of Night,


s: Let the goal be far, the flight be fleet!


s: And his rank and wealth, his strength and health,


s: And his home is bright with a calm delight,


s: And his heart is great with the pulse of Fate,


s: PRAY but one prayer for me 'twixt thy closed lips,


s: Think but one thought of me up in the stars.


s: The summer night waneth, the morning light slips


s: Faint and gray 'twixt the leaves of the aspen, betwixt the


s: That are patiently waiting there for the dawn:


s: Patient and colourless, though Heaven's gold


s: Waits to float through them along with the sun.


s: Far out in the meadows, above the young corn,


s: The heavy elms wait, and restless and cold


s: The uneasy wind rises; the roses are dun;


s: Through the long twilight they pray for the dawn


s: Round the lone house in the midst of the corn.


s: Over the tender, bow'd locks of the corn.


s: LOVE is enough: though the World be a-waning,


s: And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,


s: Though the sky be too dark for dim eyes to discover


s: The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,


s: Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder,


s: And this day draw a veil over all deeds pass'd over,


s: Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter;


s: The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter


s: These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.


s: The hills whose flowers ne'er fed the bee,


s: Once seen, once kiss'd, once reft from me


s: And with white hand she touch'd a bough;


s: O sweet brown hat, brown hair, brown eyes,


s: YOU must be sad; for though it is to Heaven,


s: 'Tis hard to yield a little girl of seven.


s: Alas, for me 'tis hard my grief to rule,


s: Who never heard the little lips so sweet


s: Say even 'Good-morning,' though our eyes would meet


s: As whose would fain be friends! How must you sigh,


s: Sick for your loss, when even so sad am I,


s: Who never clasp'd the small hands any day!


s: Fair flowers thrive round the little grave, I pray.


s: Tell the Mermaid where is that one place,


s: Raleigh. 'Tis by Devon's glorious halls,


s: Where the winter's feathery mantle blanches


s: CHORUS. Christmas knows a merry, merry place, &c.


s: Drayton.   'Tis where Avon's wood-sprites weave


s: O'er the meads where snowy tufts are toss'd--


s: Shakespeare's Friend.   'Tis, methinks, on any ground


s: Heywood. More than all the pictures, Ben,


s: Ben Jonson.   Love's old songs shall never die,


s: Till our song make all the Mermaid ring--


s: FINALE.   Christmas loves this merry, merry place;


s: 'Ben, the drink tastes rare of sack and mace:


s: WHEN the hounds of spring are on winter's traces,


s: And the brown bright nightingale amorous


s: For the Thracian ships and the foreign faces.


s: Come with bows bent and with emptying of quivers,


s: With a clamour of waters, and with might;


s: Over the splendour and speed of thy feet;


s: For the faint east quickens, the wan west shivers,


s: Round the feet of the day and the feet of the night.


s: Where shall we find her, how shall we sing to her,


s: Fold our hands round her knees, and cling?


s: O that man's heart were as fire and could spring to her,


s: Fire, or the strength of the streams that spring!


s: For the stars and the winds are unto her


s: As raiment, as songs of the harp-player;


s: For the risen stars and the fallen cling to her,


s: And the southwest-wind and the west-wind sing.


s: The light that loses, the night that wins;


s: And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,


s: The full streams feed on flower of rushes,


s: The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes


s: From leaf to flower and flower to fruit;


s: And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire,


s: Fleeter of foot than the fleet-foot kid,


s: Follows with dancing and fills with delight


s: The laughing leaves of the trees divide,


s: And screen from seeing and leave in sight


s: Her bright breast shortening into sighs;


s: The wild vine slips with the weight of its leaves,


s: To the limbs that glitter, the feet that scare


s: The wolf that follows, the fawn that flies.


s: God changes, and man, and the form of them bodily; I am the soul.


s: I am that which unloves me and loves; I am stricken, and I am the


s: Nor spirit nor flesh can make answer, but only thy mother alone.


s: Green leaves of thy labour, white flowers of thy thought, and red


s: And are worshipp'd as suns till the sunrise shall tread out their


s: Ere the breath of them roughen my tresses, ere one of my blossoms


s: Whose tongue is the wind's tongue and language of storm-clouds on


s: SHALL I strew on thee rose or rue or laurel,


s: Brother, on this that was the veil of thee?


s: Or simplest growth of meadow-sweet or sorrel,


s: Waked up by snow-soft sudden rains at eve?


s: Or wilt thou rather, as on earth before,


s: Half-faded fiery blossoms, pale with heat


s: And full of bitter summer, but more sweet


s: To thee than gleanings of a northern shore


s: For always thee the fervid languid glories


s: Allured of heavier suns in mightier skies;


s: Thine ears knew all the wandering watery sighs


s: Where the sea sobs round Lesbian promontories,


s: That knows not where is that Leucadian grave


s: Which hides too deep the supreme head of song.


s: Ah, salt and sterile as her kisses were,


s: The wild sea winds her and the green gulfs bear


s: Hither and thither, and vex and work her wrong,


s: Thou sawest, in thine old singing season, brother,


s: Fierce loves, and lovely leaf-buds poisonous,


s: Bare to thy subtler eye, but for none other


s: Blowing by night in some unbreathed-in clime;


s: Sin without shape, and pleasure without speech;


s: And where strange dreams in a tumultuous sleep


s: Make the shut eyes of stricken spirits weep;


s: And with each face thou sawest the shadow on each,


s: O sleepless heart and sombre soul unsleeping,


s: That were athirst for sleep and no more life


s: And no more love, for peace and no more strife!


s: Now the dim gods of death have in their keeping


s: Spirit and body and all the springs of song,


s: Is it well now where love can do no wrong,


s: Where stingless pleasure has no foam or fang


s: Behind the unopening closure of her lips?


s: Is it not well where soul from body slips


s: And flesh from bone divides without a pang


s: Are one thing to thee, who art past the end.


s: For thee no fruits to pluck, no palms for winning,


s: O quiet eyes wherein the light saith naught,


s: With obscure finger silences your sight,


s: Nor in your speech the sudden soul speaks thought,


s: Now all strange hours and all strange loves are over,


s: Dreams and desires and sombre songs and sweet,


s: Hast thou found place at the great knees and feet


s: The deep division of prodigious breasts,


s: The solemn slope of mighty limbs asleep,


s: The weight of awful tresses that still keep


s: The savour and shade of old-world pine-forests


s: Hast thou found any likeness for thy vision?


s: O gardener of strange flowers, what bud, what bloom,


s: Hast thou found sown, what gather'd in the gloom?


s: What of despair, of rapture, of derision,


s: What of life is there, what of ill or good?


s: Are the fruits gray like dust or bright like blood?


s: Does the dim ground grow any seed of ours,


s: The faint fields quicken any terrene root,


s: In low lands where the sun and moon are mute


s: And all the stars keep silence? Are there flowers


s: Alas, but though my flying song flies after,


s: O sweet strange elder singer, thy more fleet


s: Singing, and footprints of thy fleeter feet,


s: Some dim derision of mysterious laughter


s: From the blind tongueless warders of the dead,


s: Some gainless glimpse of Proserpine's veil'd head,


s: And from pale mouths some cadence of dead sighs--


s: These only, these the hearkening spirit hears,


s: Thou art far too far for wings of words to follow,


s: Far too far off for thought or any prayer.


s: What ails us with thee, who art wind and air?


s: What ails us gazing where all seen is hollow?


s: Yet with some fancy, yet with some desire,


s: Dreams pursue death as winds a flying fire,


s: Our dreams pursue our dead and do not find.


s: Still, and more swift than they, the thin flame flies,


s: The low light fails us in elusive skies,


s: Still the foil'd earnest ear is deaf, and blind


s: Not thee, O never thee, in all time's changes,


s: Not thee, but this the sound of thy sad soul,


s: The shadow of thy swift spirit, this shut scroll


s: I lay my hand on, and not death estranges


s: These memories and these melodies that throng


s: These I salute, these touch, these clasp and fold


s: As though a hand were in my hand to hold,


s: As when the pyre was charr'd, and piled the sods.


s: And offering to the dead made, and their gods,


s: The old mourners had, standing to make libation,


s: I stand, and to the Gods and to the dead


s: Do reverence without prayer or praise, and shed


s: Offering to these unknown, the gods of gloom,


s: And what of honey and spice my seed-lands bear,


s: And what I may of fruits in this chill'd air,


s: But by no hand nor any treason stricken,


s: Not like the low-lying head of Him, the King,


s: The flame that made of Troy a ruinous thing,


s: Thou liest and on this dust no tears could quicken.


s: There fall no tears like theirs that all men hear


s: Down the opening leaves of holy poets' pages.


s: The most high Muses that fulfil all ages


s: For, sparing of his sacred strength, not often


s: Among us darkling here the lord of light


s: In hearts that open and in lips that soften


s: With the soft flame and heat of songs that shine.


s: Thy lips indeed he touch'd with bitter wine,


s: And nourish'd them indeed with bitter bread;


s: Yet surely from his hand thy soul's food came,


s: The fire that scarr'd thy spirit at his flame


s: Was lighted, and thine hungering heart he fed


s: Therefore he too now at thy soul's sunsetting,


s: God of all suns and songs, he too bends down


s: To mix his laurel with thy cypress crown,


s: And save thy dust from blame and from forgetting.


s: Therefore he too, seeing all thou wert and art,


s: Compassionate, with sad and sacred heart,


s: Mourns thee of many his children the last dead,


s: And hollows with strange tears and alien sighs


s: Thine unmelodious mouth and sunless eyes,


s: And one weeps with him in the ways Lethean,


s: And stains with tears her changing bosom chill;


s: That thing transform'd which was the Cytherean,


s: With lips that lost their Grecian laugh divine


s: Long since, and face no more call'd Erycine--


s: Thee also with fair flesh and singing spell


s: Into the footless places once more trod,


s: And now no sacred staff shall break in blossom,


s: A spirit sick with perfume and sweet night


s: And love's tired eyes and hands and barren bosom.


s: There is no help for these things; none to mend,


s: And none to mar; not all our songs, O friend,


s: Will make death clear or make life durable.


s: And with wild notes about this dust of thine


s: At least I fill the place where white dreams dwell


s: Sleep; and if life was bitter to thee, pardon,


s: If sweet, give thanks; thou hast no more to live;


s: And to give thanks is good, and to forgive.


s: Out of the mystic and the mournful garden


s: Where all day through thine hands in barren braid


s: Wove the sick flowers of secrecy and shade,


s: Green buds of sorrow and sin, and remnants gray,


s: Sweet-smelling, pale with poison, sanguine-hearted,


s: Passions that sprang from sleep and thoughts that started,


s: Shall death not bring us all as thee one day


s: For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother,


s: Take at my hands this garland, and farewell.


s: Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell,


s: And chill the solemn earth, a fatal mother,


s: And in the hollow of her breasts a tomb.


s: Content thee, howsoe'er, whose days are done;


s: There lies not any troublous thing before,


s: Nor sight nor sound to war against thee more,


s: For whom all winds are quiet as the sun,


s: How can thine heart be full of the spring?


s: What hast thou found in the spring to follow?


s: What hast thou found in thine heart to sing?


s: What wilt thou do when the summer is shed?


s: O swallow, sister, O fair swift swallow,


s: Why wilt thou fly after spring to the south,


s: The soft south whither thine heart is set?


s: Shall not the grief of the old time follow?


s: Shall not the song thereof cleave to thy mouth?


s: Sister, my sister, O fleet sweet swallow,


s: Thy way is long to the sun and the south;


s: Shedding my song upon height, upon hollow,


s: All spring through till the spring be done,


s: Clothed with the light of the night on the dew,


s: Sing, while the hours and the wild birds follow,


s: Sister, my sister, O soft light swallow,


s: Though all things feast in the spring's guest-chamber,


s: How hast thou heart to be glad thereof yet?


s: For where thou fliest I shall not follow,


s: Hast thou the heart? is it all past over?