Renascence: A Book of Verse

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h1 class="faux">RENASCENCE</h1> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/cover.jpg" width-obs="635" height-obs="800" alt="cover" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="hang1"> ⁂ <i>This Edition on Large Paper is limited to Sixty-five copies for England and Thirty-five for America. This copy is No. 45 of the English Edition.</i></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="maintitle"> ·RENASCENCE·<br/> ·A·BOOK·of·<br/> ·VERSE·</div> <div class="center"><br/> <br/> BY<br/> <span class="author">·WALTER·CRANE·</span><br/> <br/> <br/> ·London: ELKIN·<br/> ·MATHEWS·AT·THE·<br/> ·SIGN·OF·THE·BODLEY<br/> ·HEAD·IN·VIGO·ST·1891·<br/></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-004a.jpg" width-obs="446" height-obs="145" alt="To ·M·F·C·" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i><span class="big">T</span>HIS sheaf that I have bound, of mingled grain,</i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beneath the noon to give a spot of shade,</span></i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where might we sit and mark, before they fade,</span></i></div> <div class="verse"><i>The fleeting lights across life’s dappled plain;</i></div> <div class="verse"><i>Ere with its treasured had Time’s rolling wain—</i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Piled up with memories, and thoughts unsaid,</span></i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 2em;">With hopes and fears in trembling leaf and blade—</span></i></div> <div class="verse"><i>Turns sun-ward, where the harvest-home is made.</i></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Perchance the tangled stems some flowers enfold,</i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not all unmeet the brows of her to wreath,</span></i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who with me bore the burden of the morn.</span></i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 2em;">If yet the scarlet please not, on the corn,</span></i></div> <div class="verse"><i>Love’s blue is stedfast, and thy name in gold</i></div> <div class="verse"><i><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is writ by love’s wing-feather underneath.</span></i></div> </div></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-004b.jpg" width-obs="220" height-obs="93" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</SPAN></span></p> <p class="drop-cap">OF the poems in this book, the whole of those included in Part I. are now printed for the first time.</p> <p>Of the rest, “The Sirens Three,” “Thoughts in a Hammock,” “A Herald of Spring,” and the Rondeau—“Across the Fields,” all appeared with designs of mine, as decorative pages, in “The English Illustrated Magazine,” “The Sirens Three” being afterwards issued, with the illustrations, in book-form, by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., whom I have to thank for permission to reprint it with the others here.</p> <p>“Flora’s Feast,” with coloured designs of the flowers to each couplet, has been published as a Christmas book by Messrs. Cassell and Co., at whose consent it re-appears.</p> <p>I regret there should have been any delay in the appearance of the book, which has been owing to the illness of the engraver who had charge of some of the blocks.</p> <div class="sig"> <span class="smcap">Walter Crane.</span><br/></div> <div class="unindent"> <small>April, 1891.</small><br/></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-007.jpg" width-obs="442" height-obs="143" alt="Pandora opening large box" /></div> <h2>CONTENTS</h2> <div class="center"> <table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> <tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Part I.</span></td> </tr> <tr><td align="center" colspan="2">EARLIER POEMS.</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Invocation</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_3">3</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The City of Love</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_8">8</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The House of Dreams</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_16">16</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Love’s Labyrinth</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_31">31</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Dividing Gulf</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_43">43</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Valley of Deliverance</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_45">45</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Unknown Shore</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_51">51</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The West Wind</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_53">53</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The New Light</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_55">55</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Hymn of Free Peoples</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_57">57</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</SPAN></span><span class="smcap">Twelve Sonnets of Love</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_63">63</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Part II.</span></td> </tr> <tr><td align="center" colspan="2">LATER POEMS</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Herald of Spring</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_77">77</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Thoughts in a Hammock</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_80">80</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Sirens Three</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_89">89</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Flora’s Feast</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_129">129</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">From Hellas Homeward</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_133">133</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Rondeaus</span>:</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Beyond the Verge</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_139">139</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Old and New</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_140">140</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Across the Fields</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_141">141</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">In Love’s Disport</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_142">142</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">What makes the World</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_143">143</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Seed Time</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_144">144</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">A Seat for Three</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_145">145</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Rondels:</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">When Time upon Wing</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_146">146</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">This Book of Hours</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_147">147</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Triolet</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_148">148</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sonnets:</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">At Shelley’s Grave</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_151">151</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Voice of Spring</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_152">152</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">A Day in Early Spring</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_153">153</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">A Night in May</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_154">154</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Illusions</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_155">155</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</SPAN></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">On the Suppression of Free Speech at Chicago</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_156">156</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Freedom in America</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_157">157</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">To the Prisoners of Liberty</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_158">158</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Reminiscent</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_159">159</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Of Hellas Dead</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_160">160</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">To the Hammersmith Choir</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_161">161</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Renascence</span></span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_162">162</SPAN></td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-009.jpg" width-obs="210" height-obs="185" alt="decoration of man crouched down" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-011.jpg" width-obs="452" height-obs="149" alt=" LIST OF DESIGNS" /></div> <div class="center"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> <tr> <td align="right">No.</td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">1.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" colspan="3">Frontispiece&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">2.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Dedication</td> <td align="left"><i>Heading</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">3.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center">”</td> <td align="left"><i>Tail-piece</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_iii">iii</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">4.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Contents</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">5.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center">”</td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_vii">vii</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">6.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">List of Designs</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_xi">xi</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">7.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_xiii">xiii</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">8.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Part I.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><i>Title device</i></td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><div class="hang1"><i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_1">1</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">9.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Invocation</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_3">3</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">10.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center">”</td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_7">7</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">11.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The City of Love</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_8">8</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">12.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_15">15</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">13.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The House of Dreams</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_16">16</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">14.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_30">30</SPAN><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</SPAN></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">15.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Love’s Labyrinth</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" rowspan="2" class="btrb">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_31">31</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">16.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The Dividing Gulf</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_43">43</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">17.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The Valley of Deliverance&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_45">45</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">18.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_50">50</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">19.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The Unknown Shore</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_51">51</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">20.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_52">52</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">21.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The West Wind</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_53">53</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">22.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_54">54</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">23.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The New Light</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_55">55</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Tail-piece No. 7 repeated.)</span></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_56">56</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">24.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Hymn of Free Peoples</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_57">57</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">25.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Twelve Sonnets</td> <td align="left"><i>Title device</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_61">61</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">26.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Part II.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><i>Title device</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_75">75</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">27.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">A Herald of Spring</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_77">77</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">28.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Thoughts in a Hammock</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_80">80</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">29.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">”””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_85">85</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">30.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">The Siren’s Three</td> <td align="left"><i>Title device</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="4">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="4"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_87">87</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">31.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Dedicatory</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_89">89</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">32.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_90">90</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">33.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_128">128</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">34.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Flora’s Feast</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><div class="hang1"><i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_129">129</SPAN><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</SPAN></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">35.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">From Hellas Homeward</td> <td align="left"><i>Head.</i></td> <td align="left" class="btrb" rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" rowspan="2"><div class="hang1">—<i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_133">133</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">36.&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><span class="spaced">””</span></td> <td align="left"><i>Tail.</i></td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_136">136</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">37.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Rondeaus, &amp;c.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><i>Title device</i></td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><div class="hang1"><i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_137">137</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">38.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Sonnets</td> <td align="left"><i>Title device</i></td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><div class="hang1"><i>Photo-engraved by Emery Walker and W. Boutall</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_149">149</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">39.&nbsp;</td> <td align="left">Pegasus</td> <td align="left"><i>Colophon</i></td> <td align="left">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><div class="hang1"><i>Engraved on wood by Arthur Leverett</i></div> </td> <td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_163">163</SPAN></td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-013.jpg" width-obs="236" height-obs="227" alt="peacock" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">PART I. EARLIER POEMS</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image001.jpg" width-obs="411" height-obs="393" alt="PART I. EARLIER POEM" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">INVOCATION</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image003.jpg" width-obs="454" height-obs="180" alt="INVOCATION" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">O</span> SOUL of souls, awake! Lift up thine eyes</div> <div class="verse">To meet the dayspring, till their spherèd skies</div> <div class="verse">Flash answering light to pierce the clinging veil</div> <div class="verse">Of mists and shadows of the night grown pale.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Renascent, leave the tombment of thy bed,</div> <div class="verse">Though rich with painted love of legend dead,</div> <div class="verse">And gilded with the gold of hallowed time,</div> <div class="verse">And dim with dreams and darkness of the prime.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O joy of Man, arise! Behold Time brings</div> <div class="verse">Deliverance for thee, and thoughts’ swift wings</div> <div class="verse">Are dyed afresh in iris hues of Hope</div> <div class="verse">Who paints for thee, by her creative scope,</div> <div class="verse">New heaven in earth renewed before thy sight,</div> <div class="verse">With golden fields unreaped and fresh delight</div> <div class="verse">Of flower, and fruit of no forbidden tree,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</SPAN></span>Where Life is Love, and blooms sweet Liberty.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O Bride of Light! Like Aphrodite rise</div> <div class="verse">From rosy waves of morn that crystallize</div> <div class="verse">Thy sacred image in their mirror, smooth</div> <div class="verse">As sculpture of the shining limbs they soothe;</div> <div class="verse">And clothe thyself in pureness like the sun,</div> <div class="verse">With lily lawn and blue of heaven, spun</div> <div class="verse">From spotless fields of interstellar space—</div> <div class="verse">A seamless shrine to keep thy inward grace.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Put on thy broidered robe, thy bride’s attire,</div> <div class="verse">Put on thy glory, and the jewel fire</div> <div class="verse">Of fearless thought, nor let thine handmaids spare,</div> <div class="verse">All grateful tribute from the sweet and fair</div> <div class="verse">To deck thy loveliness, and make appear</div> <div class="verse">The fullness of the beauty thou dost wear:</div> <div class="verse">But let no crown thy golden head dethrone</div> <div class="verse">Except the coronal of wisdom’s own.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Fare forth, fair Bride, and from thy chamber come,</div> <div class="verse">Lo! they are waiting who shall lead thee home:</div> <div class="verse">The winged procession of the eager Hours,</div> <div class="verse">Before thy feet to pave the way with flowers;</div> <div class="verse">The Daughters of the Year, the Seasons Four,</div> <div class="verse">Have decked the happy earth with sun and shower;</div> <div class="verse">Each joyful mouth, each blissful day is swift</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</SPAN></span>To bring unto thy feet its treasured gift;</div> <div class="verse">The Sisters Three, who plough, and sow, and reap,</div> <div class="verse">Still gather thee Time’s grain in growing heap,</div> <div class="verse">From golden age to golden age to be;</div> <div class="verse">Their dreamful faces rapt in prophecy</div> <div class="verse">Of veiled futurity’s potential hour</div> <div class="verse">Where Fate prepareth thine immortal dower.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Arise, sweet soul! Arise, and take thy throne,</div> <div class="verse">Upbuilt in ages long by stone on stone—</div> <div class="verse">The human spirit’s still aspiring stair</div> <div class="verse">Whose marble feet were laid in toil and care,</div> <div class="verse">And washed with tears, and worn in eager quest</div> <div class="verse">Of false and fleeting phantoms, seeking rest.</div> <div class="verse">But now thy feet are fledged and would aspire</div> <div class="verse">To climb the summit of thy hope’s desire,</div> <div class="verse">High where in sculptured walls and towers rise</div> <div class="verse">Her architecture, white in azure skies,</div> <div class="verse">Tinged with the fire of dawn above thy head—</div> <div class="verse">Ah! there, fair soul, thy marriage feast is spread.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And there, with Wisdom still, and Knowledge clear,</div> <div class="verse">Sweet counsel shalt thou take, and without fear,</div> <div class="verse">For Love will give thee law, and Love shall be</div> <div class="verse">Thy chancellor and rule equality.</div> <div class="verse">No sceptre shall thy white right hand e’er hold</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</SPAN></span>But sacred Freedom, brighter than the gold</div> <div class="verse">Of kingships, and blessing by the power</div> <div class="verse">That crowns life’s magic staff with bud and flower:</div> <div class="verse">Nor be thy sister hand forgotten sole,</div> <div class="verse">The while her slender fingers do control</div> <div class="verse">The world’s large heart, and in its compass found</div> <div class="verse">The wealth of all the universe embound.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And thou shalt open the eternal reign</div> <div class="verse">Of Justice; while fair Peace, with all her train,</div> <div class="verse">Shall sow the earth with blessings and impart</div> <div class="verse">New joy and skill to men in Craft and Art;</div> <div class="verse">To gather from all shores the scattered gems</div> <div class="verse">With beauty’s pearls to deck thought’s diadems:</div> <div class="verse">And Poesy shall fill thy courts with song,</div> <div class="verse">And Commonwealth the ocean gateways throng</div> <div class="verse">With white-winged messengers from all the lands</div> <div class="verse">And tidings glad shall join the nation’s hands,</div> <div class="verse">From riches and from penury set free,</div> <div class="verse">And from the last dread link of slavery;</div> <div class="verse">And eke from tyrant sword, and tyrant gold,</div> <div class="verse">And priestly nightmare that the soul doth fold.</div> <div class="verse">There Giant Labour in his strength new-found,</div> <div class="verse">Rejoicing, shall go forth to break new ground,</div> <div class="verse">One brotherhood with Art and Knowledge clear;</div> <div class="verse">To bridge the gulf of space and bring men near;</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</SPAN></span>With fruitful brain and hand to bring new birth</div> <div class="verse">Of Titan forces to subdue the earth,</div> <div class="verse">And from the willing hands of nature draw</div> <div class="verse">New benefits, and, owning but her law,</div> <div class="verse">Out of her treasury things tried and true,</div> <div class="verse">In human faith and hope to build anew</div> <div class="verse">Man’s shattered house, and paint his storied wall</div> <div class="verse">For Life and Love, a heritage for all.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image007.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="298" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·THE·CITY·OF·LOVE·</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image008.jpg" width-obs="489" height-obs="196" alt="The City of Love" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">A</span>BOUT the time when garlanded green May</div> <div class="verse">At Summer’s threshold casts her blossom crown,</div> <div class="verse">Time bore me on his wingèd wheels away,</div> <div class="verse">Out of the joyless city where I lay,</div> <div class="verse">From smoke-dimmed streets whose dusky skies disown</div> <div class="verse">The day-god’s glorious face, serene that shows</div> <div class="verse">This day of days, to reign in his fair house,</div> <div class="verse">Cloud-built, and white, and interspaced with blue,</div> <div class="verse">Above the green earth’s fields that I did pass,</div> <div class="verse">Bearing ungathered harvests in their grass</div> <div class="verse">Of star-bright flowers, and every magic hue</div> <div class="verse">Born of the hours, and of the kindling zone</div> <div class="verse">Sun-cast o’er wandering mead and upland lone,</div> <div class="verse">That now on every hand mine eyes did fill,</div> <div class="verse">As went the wheel whirl’d with the fiery will.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And always, as the changeful landscape spread</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</SPAN></span>Mead beyond mead, and furrow’d ridge and tree,</div> <div class="verse">And traversed road, and bridge, and woodland lea;</div> <div class="verse">Me seemèd as a chart my life to see,</div> <div class="verse">What was, and is, and that which is to be,</div> <div class="verse">As dark and bright the region’s face I read.</div> <div class="verse">Nor yet I stay’d at all, but still with Time</div> <div class="verse">Fled by, and onward many leagues, until,</div> <div class="verse">About the height of day the wheel was still,</div> <div class="verse">About the hour it was ere noon should chime,</div> <div class="verse">And I look’d forth and saw dim-pointed spires,</div> <div class="verse">Like flames, arising from a golden mead</div> <div class="verse">Which burn’d with all the yellow crowded fires</div> <div class="verse">Of shining cups that fill the fields of May:</div> <div class="verse">Whereby a city fair mine eyes had heed,</div> <div class="verse">Verged round with bowery close, and willows grey</div> <div class="verse">Shading the silent water’s secret way,</div> <div class="verse">Girdling the quiet town with cluster’d reed.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thence rose no surge of men, or sound of strife,</div> <div class="verse">But smoothly glode the even hours of life,</div> <div class="verse">Told by the sweet-tongued bells in tuneful towers;</div> <div class="verse">And in the streets there moved the breath of flowers,</div> <div class="verse">And incense, such as riseth after showers</div> <div class="verse">Upon deep gardens, hiding in their bowers</div> <div class="verse">The inmost heart of sweetness.</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 16em;">Still my way</span></div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</SPAN></span>Drew on, between high-window’d walls and old,</div> <div class="verse">That to the street an ancient story told,</div> <div class="verse">With solemn mien unto Life’s changing day,</div> <div class="verse">In restless ebb and flow, as sea-waves play</div> <div class="verse">About the feet of lonely cliff’s; tho’ now</div> <div class="verse">Even these I pass’d, as fleeting things and vain,</div> <div class="verse">For all my heart a strange consuming pain</div> <div class="verse">Possess’d, in thought of what I hoped to gain</div> <div class="verse">Fill’d with an exquisite fire, wherein did show</div> <div class="verse">All things as dross, or gold of fairest vein:</div> <div class="verse">As, since the gate of Love had oped for me,</div> <div class="verse">I lived in hell or heavenly ecstasy.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But all things on this day had good import,</div> <div class="verse">For even now I went to Love’s high court,</div> <div class="verse">To greet my heart’s dear queen, where she did dwell</div> <div class="verse">In this his holy city, where the streets</div> <div class="verse">Seem’d gold, or like the burnish’d path which meets</div> <div class="verse">The sun’s bright porch across the shining sea;</div> <div class="verse">So in Love’s glory shone my way to me.</div> <div class="verse">Until before her gate the splendour fell.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Robed in sweet grace and crowned with her hair,</div> <div class="verse">I met my queen, upon her palace stair,</div> <div class="verse">And near I was to fall and worship there,</div> <div class="verse">As to her hand I brought a golden gift,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</SPAN></span>Which she, my gracious sovereign, counted well,</div> <div class="verse">And me unto her highest grace did lift,</div> <div class="verse">Making me rich above all kingly state.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">For side by side within her house we sate,</div> <div class="verse">Or ’neath the azure canopy of heaven,</div> <div class="verse">And every hour and every day, of seven,</div> <div class="verse">Brought unto our feet their separate joy.</div> <div class="verse">And every day the plenteous feast was spread</div> <div class="verse">Before my grateful heart, and eyes, and lips</div> <div class="verse">That drank the wine of Love and broke his bread,</div> <div class="verse">And drew my soul delight thro’ honey sips</div> <div class="verse">From the sweet source of sweet which may not cloy.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then from Love’s banquet, rising, my beloved</div> <div class="verse">Forth led me in the bond of her dear hand,</div> <div class="verse">That we in his glad courts might understand</div> <div class="verse">Fresh joyance; and thro’ all his realm we moved.</div> <div class="verse">Adown the golden street my lady led,</div> <div class="verse">Where pass’d us, to and fro, Love’s votaries—</div> <div class="verse">The searchers of his book, within whose eyes</div> <div class="verse">Was writ his name, whose chanting lips had said</div> <div class="verse">His prayers and orisons within the shrines,</div> <div class="verse">Dim-window’d, strange, and still with sacred air,</div> <div class="verse">Stirr’d by the wings of singing spirits fair,</div> <div class="verse">When the sweet anthem lifteth or declines,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</SPAN></span>In organ waves that sweep along the lines</div> <div class="verse">Of the soul’s shore, to break upon and die,</div> <div class="verse">Soft on the soothed borders, silently.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">We passéd by the door and enter’d in,</div> <div class="verse">For in Love’s holy place we sought to win</div> <div class="verse">High ecstasy whereon our souls might climb</div> <div class="verse">Even to the utmost gate of golden bliss,</div> <div class="verse">And know within the sanctuary of this,</div> <div class="verse">Our dear inheritance in God’s good time.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Love’s service done, forth streamed from their place</div> <div class="verse">His choristers and singing boys, attired</div> <div class="verse">In white raiment, shining where they quired;</div> <div class="verse">And after them we went with silent pace,</div> <div class="verse">And towards the groves of pleasure turn’d our face,</div> <div class="verse">Whence by green quietude of cloister’d stone,</div> <div class="verse">And shadow’d courts that kept themselves alone,</div> <div class="verse">And ’neath the carven boughs that interlace;</div> <div class="verse">Until we came beneath the fairer roof</div> <div class="verse">Of curtain’d leaves, light spread, of greenest woof,</div> <div class="verse">Glowing between the stoney window fret,</div> <div class="verse">As shines such light of paradise men get,</div> <div class="verse">Dark-barr’d by care which holdeth them aloof</div> <div class="verse">And binds their souls within life’s twisted net.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But enter’d we the joyful Eden gate,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</SPAN></span>Where talk the trees of summer, and of green</div> <div class="verse">More glorious than May’s bright head doth screen</div> <div class="verse">Whereas she hideth from the flaming state,</div> <div class="verse">When the all regal sun would penetrate,</div> <div class="verse">Seeking dominion in the realm of shade,</div> <div class="verse">Where now we thought to find sweet pleasure laid,</div> <div class="verse">And take her sleeping, while the hours should wait.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Yea! hidden in the odorous aisles of May;</div> <div class="verse">Whose fragrance fans the air which faints away,</div> <div class="verse">There, in a labyrinth of leaves I caught her—</div> <div class="verse">Whereby soft willows kiss the silent water—</div> <div class="verse">I caught her, and I kiss’d, tho’ she did pray</div> <div class="verse">Release, and said: “Thou canst not hold Time’s daughter.”</div> <div class="verse">But her I held, nor let her thence depart</div> <div class="verse">Till I had won her favourable grace;</div> <div class="verse">And after oft we saw her fleeting face</div> <div class="verse">Laugh through the leaves, and in our kindled heart</div> <div class="verse">Were glad exceedingly, nor thought to part,</div> <div class="verse">Content a little while in each fair place</div> <div class="verse">To know a sweet above all flowery space.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My faint tongue faltereth when I would tell</div> <div class="verse">What doors of joy we pass’d, what sights to seek,</div> <div class="verse">But Love’s day endeth, and his holy week,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</SPAN></span>Whose dear appointed feasts we kept full well;</div> <div class="verse">Seeking Love’s face at morn and eventide,</div> <div class="verse">Tho’ oft it was too bright to look upon,</div> <div class="verse">Shining above the splendour of the sun,</div> <div class="verse">A burning flame when day’s dim fire had died.</div> <div class="verse">And now, the last of days, it came to pass</div> <div class="verse">I with my Love, upon a space of grass,</div> <div class="verse">Sate by a water which the willows kept</div> <div class="verse">And silently the stream beneath them swept,</div> <div class="verse">Secret as time, and still, and staying not;</div> <div class="verse">Fair fell the sun thro’ glancing leaves above,</div> <div class="verse">And fair on us did shine the sun of Love,</div> <div class="verse">As one brief hour together we forgot</div> <div class="verse">All earthly things in that enchanted plot—</div> <div class="verse">The world of strife, and evil-favour’d care,</div> <div class="verse">And misery whose voice was silent there:</div> <div class="verse">Even so, a little while, our blissful lot.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A little while—but soon the end befel,</div> <div class="verse">For Time, a sudden shadow, on us fell,</div> <div class="verse">And loud above I heard his hateful bell</div> <div class="verse">Clang in the tower to ring our sweet day’s knell.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thence was I torn from my dear Love away,</div> <div class="verse">And, as a dream, I lost upon that day</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</SPAN></span>My hold of joy, and slipp’d adown, adown.</div> <div class="verse">Nor knew I more until I woke again</div> <div class="verse">Unto the endless world with all its pain—</div> <div class="verse">The sea-wide city, and the sad refrain</div> <div class="verse">Of hungry waves that now my song would drown.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image015.jpg" width-obs="267" height-obs="214" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">THE·HOVSE·OF·DREAMS</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image016.jpg" width-obs="455" height-obs="216" alt="THE·HOVSE·OF·DREAMS" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span> SATE in my soul’s house one day</div> <div class="verse">The world-wide book before me lay</div> <div class="verse">And in mine eyes, as through a glass</div> <div class="verse">The colours of all things did pass,</div> <div class="verse">And thought and life, in mingled stream,</div> <div class="verse">Strange semblance showed as in a dream.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My soul’s still house lies hid in trees,</div> <div class="verse">And sitting in its porch one sees,</div> <div class="verse">Before the feet, a garden green,</div> <div class="verse">Amidst a wild and dark demesne,</div> <div class="verse">When sight may range by lea and lawn,</div> <div class="verse">From sunset to the gate of dawn,</div> <div class="verse">Till through the utmost wood may be</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</SPAN></span>Descried a dim and dreadful sea.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Five gates it hath, five porches fair,</div> <div class="verse">That know bright guests of light and air,</div> <div class="verse">And through the windows, clear and high,</div> <div class="verse">The winged thoughts come from earth and sky</div> <div class="verse">That show me things by shore and sea,</div> <div class="verse">And visions high of things to be.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Anigh the house a water clear,</div> <div class="verse">Born of some secret crystal mere</div> <div class="verse">Among the mountains of the land,</div> <div class="verse">And flowing to the dim sea-strand;</div> <div class="verse">But still and silent in its pace,</div> <div class="verse">That in its smooth translucent face</div> <div class="verse">Bright image flashed of many a thing,</div> <div class="verse">And folk that passed in wandering,</div> <div class="verse">With colours fresh of tree and flower.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Here kept my soul a secret bower;</div> <div class="verse">And in the garden all the year</div> <div class="verse">One plied his craft of gardener,</div> <div class="verse">Nor slept between the moon and sun,</div> <div class="verse">Nor ever was his labour done;</div> <div class="verse">For this was Time who told my hours</div> <div class="verse">And gave, and took away, my flowers.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And one beside him fed a fire</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</SPAN></span>With listless hands, whose whole desire</div> <div class="verse">Was not therein, but far away</div> <div class="verse">She watched an ever dying day:</div> <div class="verse">She smiled sometimes, and oft she wept,</div> <div class="verse">But through her tears her watch she kept:</div> <div class="verse">Time brought her flowers; she cast the same</div> <div class="verse">To feed the hungering tongues of flame—</div> <div class="verse">Yea, all men know the dreamful dame,</div> <div class="verse">Pale Memory, ye rede her name.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">In my soul’s house, alway to be,</div> <div class="verse">Dwelt spirits five for company,</div> <div class="verse">And fair they were in form and face,</div> <div class="verse">And well my soul’s white house did grace:</div> <div class="verse">For one the chambers garnished fit</div> <div class="verse">With boughs and flowers, and them she lit</div> <div class="verse">By night and day, for she was Sight</div> <div class="verse">And rulèd all my soul’s delight.</div> <div class="verse">Her sister to my table bare</div> <div class="verse">Sweet pleasure of earth’s fruits and rare,</div> <div class="verse">As every season brought its meed</div> <div class="verse">Or ever as my soul had need.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Another made sweet incense rise</div> <div class="verse">From out a censer in such wise</div> <div class="verse">That mingled sweet of every kind,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</SPAN></span>And let the slender smoke enwind</div> <div class="verse">The pillars of the roof, and send</div> <div class="verse">The pleasant mist from end to end.</div> <div class="verse">The while another yet of these</div> <div class="verse">With music soft my soul would please;</div> <div class="verse">To every thought in every mood</div> <div class="verse">She made her tuneful interlude:</div> <div class="verse">She touched the strings, she ruled the lute,</div> <div class="verse">And many a soft harmonious flute</div> <div class="verse">That mocked the birds in leafy quire;</div> <div class="verse">But oft this spirit would aspire</div> <div class="verse">To lift the solemn organ’s voice,</div> <div class="verse">And this would be her dearest choice,</div> <div class="verse">Till, with its deeper soul embued,</div> <div class="verse">My soul forgot its solitude.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Yet one there was, both dumb and blind,</div> <div class="verse">Who yet was wise in every kind,</div> <div class="verse">And many a thing her hand could teach,</div> <div class="verse">In silent service serving each.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">These watched the house and kept it fair</div> <div class="verse">As each its several part had care.</div> <div class="verse">Thus sate my soul and talked with these</div> <div class="verse">In its white porch among the trees;</div> <div class="verse">And each brought word what she had seen</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</SPAN></span>Of all that ranged that region green:</div> <div class="verse">For many folk passed to and fro,</div> <div class="verse">As flew the hours or footed slow.</div> <div class="verse">One came in garment green and pale</div> <div class="verse">Across the hill, adown the dale,</div> <div class="verse">And blossoms in her hand she bore;</div> <div class="verse">A swallow skimmed her path before;</div> <div class="verse">It was a herald bright of spring,</div> <div class="verse">And this the song that she did sing:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&nbsp;</div> <div class="verse">There fell a day of sun and shower,</div> <div class="verse">Spring stirred within her leafless bower,</div> <div class="verse">She sent me from her wintry home—</div> <div class="verse">“Go forth and tell the world I come.”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Beneath the windows of the dawn</div> <div class="verse">I took my way, by lake and lawn,</div> <div class="verse">I saw of flowers the firstling born,</div> <div class="verse">I gathered of the flowering thorn:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And from the dale and from the down</div> <div class="verse">I passed into the sleeping town,</div> <div class="verse">Along the stoney streets to spill</div> <div class="verse">My flowers, by door and window sill:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But they were like the eyes of men,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</SPAN></span>Sleep-locked, though some were open then:</div> <div class="verse">I saw within a darkened room</div> <div class="verse">An old man, lying in the gloom.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He saw my flowers, and then he sighed,</div> <div class="verse">And turned upon his bed and died.</div> <div class="verse">I took my way with soundless feet,</div> <div class="verse">But none I met my steps to greet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Save when a wakeful babe me spied,</div> <div class="verse">And stretched his dimpled arms and cried.</div> <div class="verse">They hushed his voice, nor knew his will—</div> <div class="verse">I left the city sleeping still.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&nbsp;</div> <div class="verse">She ceased her song, and there was hush,</div> <div class="verse">As after when the tuneful thrush</div> <div class="verse">Hath warbled clear the wood is still</div> <div class="verse">Ere yet again the quire sings shrill</div> <div class="verse">For very joy.</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 8em;">And then I heard,</span></div> <div class="verse">Among the grass, Time grind and gird</div> <div class="verse">Upon his blade: He stooped to slay,</div> <div class="verse">And soon before his feet there lay</div> <div class="verse">The fallen emblems of the hours—</div> <div class="verse">A harvest sheaf of spring’s first flowers—</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</SPAN></span>Which she beside him gathering flung</div> <div class="verse">Into the fire the while they sung,</div> <div class="verse">And thus I heard their voices chime:</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>(THE SONG OF MEMORY AND TIME.)</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="center">TIME.</div> <div class="verse">Spring-tide come and winter going;</div> <div class="verse">Flower to seed, and seed to sowing;</div> <div class="verse">Seed and harvest, reaping, mowing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="center">MEMORY.</div> <div class="verse">Life beginning, and life ending;</div> <div class="verse">Life his substance ever spending;</div> <div class="verse">Time to life his little lending.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="center">TIME.</div> <div class="verse">Hark! the wingèd winds are calling;</div> <div class="verse">Clouds the young year’s path appalling;</div> <div class="verse">Blooms of spring like snow are falling.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="center">MEMORY.</div> <div class="verse">Snows of spring green earth bestrewing!</div> <div class="verse">Wasted hopes must I be rueing,</div> <div class="verse">Spring of life there’s no renewing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And after these had ceased their song,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</SPAN></span>A company there passed along,</div> <div class="verse">In divers weed, and changeful mien,</div> <div class="verse">And glad, or sad, athwart my green:</div> <div class="verse">Their fluttering robes of dark or pale,</div> <div class="verse">Like leaves adrift on Autumn gale;</div> <div class="verse">And they like shadows o’er the grass</div> <div class="verse">Before my porch did singly pass,</div> <div class="verse">But through the house their voices rang,</div> <div class="verse">Tune-tongued like bells, as thus they sang:—</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>(SONG OF THE HOURS.)</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Between the gates of night and morn,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With sleepless hands and sleepless eyes,</span></div> <div class="verse">We watch the sun and moon outworn,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The silent stars that sink and rise.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">In hidden chambers of the night,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The thread of Fate we sit and spin,</span></div> <div class="verse">Through death and life, in dark and light,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">From life’s slim staff to wind and win.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">With joinèd hands and parting feet,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The work is wove, and still undone;</span></div> <div class="verse">But still we tread Time’s measure fleet,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">As through the glass the sand is spun.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">With linkèd hands and feet that wind</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</SPAN></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Between the pillars of the day,</span></div> <div class="verse">Around the house the garland bind,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">For spring hath come, we cannot stay.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&nbsp;</div> <div class="verse">They passed. A change came o’er the sky.</div> <div class="verse">I heard a shout—I heard a cry.</div> <div class="verse">A horn’s far sound the woods awoke,</div> <div class="verse">And sudden from the thicket broke,</div> <div class="verse">In my soul’s sight, a thing of flame,</div> <div class="verse">And after, swift, a horseman came—</div> <div class="verse">A youth intent upon the chase;</div> <div class="verse">But ever, as he urged his pace,</div> <div class="verse">One laid her hands upon his rein,</div> <div class="verse">And from that end would him restrain;</div> <div class="verse">While did the stirring horn resound,</div> <div class="verse">And in the leash each panting hound</div> <div class="verse">Pressed hard to slip the tightened chain.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What would that eager hunter gain?</div> <div class="verse">Some magic thing whose form and hue</div> <div class="verse">Still changed as he did close pursue—</div> <div class="verse">A flame, a bubble of the air?</div> <div class="verse">A woman, marvellously fair?</div> <div class="verse">Yea, every shape it hath in turn</div> <div class="verse">That makes man’s troubled soul to burn,</div> <div class="verse">And doth his baffled sight elude</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</SPAN></span>To leave the world a solitude.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Again the sounding horn did bray,</div> <div class="verse">The hounds were slipt and broke away,</div> <div class="verse">And swift throughout the close they sped,</div> <div class="verse">Still as the changeful quarry led;</div> <div class="verse">Till far beyond the open green</div> <div class="verse">They flashed the forest stems between,</div> <div class="verse">And soon were lost in night of wood.</div> <div class="verse">Again I heard Time’s interlude:—</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>TIME</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Whence the way and whither wending?</div> <div class="verse">Seeks hot youth, till eld descending,</div> <div class="verse">Leaves unread the secret pending.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What is Life? Truth answers never;</div> <div class="verse">Darkly flows the secret river,</div> <div class="verse">But its springs are hid for ever.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What is Truth? Man’s long endeavour</div> <div class="verse">Finds the web but not the weaver:</div> <div class="verse">Sleeps the riddle none may sever.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">As it was in Time’s beginning,</div> <div class="verse">Then, as now, while Fate is spinning</div> <div class="verse">Man her clue would still be winning.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&nbsp;</div> <div class="verse">My soul knew rest no more that day.</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</SPAN></span>I heard Time’s voice sink far away,</div> <div class="verse">And long did muse till light was gone,</div> <div class="verse">Still sitting in my porch alone.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Strange thoughts like flashes went and came,</div> <div class="verse">And dreams of love, and hopes of fame,</div> <div class="verse">With dim desires that inly burned;</div> <div class="verse">Dead hopes that rose again and yearned</div> <div class="verse">To follow still that unknown quest,</div> <div class="verse">And failing, fluttered back to rest.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then had my soul a vision strange,</div> <div class="verse">As far in spirit did I range,</div> <div class="verse">And I beheld a far dim plain,</div> <div class="verse">Dyed in day’s last Tyrean stain,</div> <div class="verse">And through its dark and desert ground</div> <div class="verse">A gleaming vein of water wound,</div> <div class="verse">Where lonely piles of ruin old</div> <div class="verse">Loomed vast, with hollow chambers cold,</div> <div class="verse">Where horror dwelt with night and death,</div> <div class="verse">And filled they were with ghostly breath.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But there amid the gathering glooms,</div> <div class="verse">Among the temples and the tombs,</div> <div class="verse">One wandered in a pilgrim’s guise,</div> <div class="verse">Who fixed afar his wistful eyes;</div> <div class="verse">His footsteps kept the river’s side,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</SPAN></span>A glowing lamp his feet did guide,</div> <div class="verse">That shone upon that desert’s dearth,</div> <div class="verse">As like a star there fall’n to earth;</div> <div class="verse">And moving through the twilight dim,</div> <div class="verse">By shattered arch and column slim,</div> <div class="verse">With staff and scrip he kept his way,</div> <div class="verse">Among those wrecks of ancient day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&nbsp;</div> <div class="verse">Far, far upon that desert land,</div> <div class="verse">Half buried in her grave of sand,</div> <div class="verse">The ancient head of Egypt rose;</div> <div class="verse">And, still sublime in death’s repose,</div> <div class="verse">Great Memnon kept his awful throne</div> <div class="verse">Outwatching day and night alone:</div> <div class="verse">And where the Greek laid stone on stone</div> <div class="verse">The faces of his gods were shown,</div> <div class="verse">When to the world—a youth—there came</div> <div class="verse">Fair Wisdom, Power, and Beauty’s dame,</div> <div class="verse">Heré, not Pallas, had his choice</div> <div class="verse">But Aphrodité won his voice.</div> <div class="verse">The crumbling strength of mighty Rome,</div> <div class="verse">Her grave, her cradle, and her home;</div> <div class="verse">There stood the emblems of her reign—</div> <div class="verse">The Arch that would the world sustain,</div> <div class="verse">And still doth span in legioned range</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</SPAN></span>The gulf of time, the waves of change.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Long stood the Pilgrim here at gaze,</div> <div class="verse">As lost in thought of antique days,</div> <div class="verse">As far his searching eyes could scan</div> <div class="verse">Beneath the age-worn arches’ span.</div> <div class="verse">He marked each age’s builded pile</div> <div class="verse">Loom dimly down the endless aisle,</div> <div class="verse">Where shone the winding waters’ thread,</div> <div class="verse">A wandering life among the dead,</div> <div class="verse">Until his sight no more could trace</div> <div class="verse">Its courses from their hidden place,</div> <div class="verse">Wrapt in the clinging mists that shroud</div> <div class="verse">The trackless mountains dim with cloud;</div> <div class="verse">But still his spirit found no home</div> <div class="verse">Beneath the broad eternal dome.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">At last the Pilgrim turned and sighed,</div> <div class="verse">Nor stayed he where a cross beside</div> <div class="verse">Marked how a greater power and pride</div> <div class="verse">Did conquer Rome, and still doth bide.</div> <div class="verse">Full many a stone about that ground</div> <div class="verse">Made stumbling, but of flowers were found</div> <div class="verse">None save the sanguined poppy’s hue</div> <div class="verse">Between still sleep and death that grew.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Pilgrim stayed for sleep nor rest,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</SPAN></span>As bent upon some hidden quest;</div> <div class="verse">Nor turned he from his painful way</div> <div class="verse">Where folk made feast and holiday</div> <div class="verse">Beneath fair vines and fruited trees,</div> <div class="verse">As pipe, and dance, and song them please.</div> <div class="verse">He seemed the world of men to shun,</div> <div class="verse">And joyed when he a wood had won,</div> <div class="verse">Sweet cloistered green, and roofed above,</div> <div class="verse">Where soft he heard the wooing dove,</div> <div class="verse">And sound of wandering water near;</div> <div class="verse">He drank its crystal cup and clear,</div> <div class="verse">And kept his path beside the stream</div> <div class="verse">Till he beheld white pillars gleam.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He passed from green to blossomed boughs</div> <div class="verse">That compassed fair a secret house;</div> <div class="verse">Still music drew him to the door,</div> <div class="verse">Swift beat his heart, and trembling more,</div> <div class="verse">He entered, to a gold dim space</div> <div class="verse">Flame-lit before an altar daïs,</div> <div class="verse">Rose-garlanded, most fair and meet,</div> <div class="verse">And all the air was still and sweet,</div> <div class="verse">But over these in fairer case</div> <div class="verse">Shone the clear semblance of a face.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He knelt before that altar stone,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</SPAN></span>The anthem soothed his heart’s faint tone,</div> <div class="verse">And seraph voices high and soft,</div> <div class="verse">In measured cadence quired aloft,</div> <div class="verse">Or sailed in tempest gusts of sound</div> <div class="verse">When passion’s music shook the ground.</div> <div class="verse">Filled was the Pilgrim’s soul and bowed,</div> <div class="verse">Till in his stress he cried aloud:</div> <div class="verse">“O Love! This is thy holy place,</div> <div class="verse">Give me, I pray, my lady’s grace!”</div> </div></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image030.jpg" width-obs="331" height-obs="290" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">LOVE’S·LABYRINTH</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image031.jpg" width-obs="454" height-obs="194" alt="LOVE’S·LABYRINTH" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">W</span>HEN summer reigned in leafy sheen,</div> <div class="verse">I found me in a garden green,</div> <div class="verse">Deep hidden from the sun’s gold edge,</div> <div class="verse">Beneath a rose-hung thorny hedge,</div> <div class="verse">Upon a space of cool fair grass,</div> <div class="verse">Whereon not yet the scythe should pass;</div> <div class="verse">Though in the meadows was it laid,</div> <div class="verse">Where Time was stooping in the shade</div> <div class="verse">As, foot by foot, with measured sweep</div> <div class="verse">His engine cleft the grassy deep;</div> <div class="verse">And thence fresh fragrance wafted sweet</div> <div class="verse">The smell of roses blown to meet,</div> <div class="verse">Mixed in the drowsèd air and stole</div> <div class="verse">In slumber to my dreamful soul.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Full long I lay in leafy lair,</div> <div class="verse">Until, upon the murmurous air,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</SPAN></span>One murmur grew with deep’ning note</div> <div class="verse">And soon my sleeping ear it smote,</div> <div class="verse">And woke a trouble in my breast—</div> <div class="verse">A joyful pain more sweet than rest.</div> <div class="verse">Like as the voice of plaining strings</div> <div class="verse">When magic hands the music brings</div> <div class="verse">Out of the viols’ soul in sound</div> <div class="verse">That hath a power when speech is bound,</div> <div class="verse">To lift the whirlwind and the wail</div> <div class="verse">Of passion’s tempest, and the veil</div> <div class="verse">Of dumb desires and hopes that cry,</div> <div class="verse">Until the strong winds sinking die,</div> <div class="verse">Though still the wrought waves strike the shore,</div> <div class="verse">Above them shrill a voice dost soar;</div> <div class="verse">Or with the soft gale, falling low,</div> <div class="verse">To lull the soul, sings sweet and slow,</div> <div class="verse">And folds the fluttering wings of peace:</div> <div class="verse">So thrilled that music through the trees;</div> <div class="verse">The leaves were stirred upon the boughs,</div> <div class="verse">The petals shaken from a rose,</div> <div class="verse">As though a spirit moved anear.</div> <div class="verse">Then from the hedge a voice broke clear:—</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“O Time! O Time! Thy dial stay,</div> <div class="verse">And lend to Love thy little day,</div> <div class="verse">And make him free of thy domain;</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</SPAN></span>And thou shalt not have less of gain,</div> <div class="verse">For he must pay thee back again</div> <div class="verse">In penal hours of longing pain.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“O Time! O Time! Thy labour stay</div> <div class="verse">Between the sun and moon to-day:</div> <div class="verse">Tell not thy hours of moon and noon</div> <div class="verse">Lest they should find us swift and soon</div> <div class="verse">To steal from us our secret joy,</div> <div class="verse">And give us to the world’s annoy.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Let Love be king in hour and place,</div> <div class="verse">And give thy garden for his chase,</div> <div class="verse">Set all with lilies fair and white,</div> <div class="verse">And roses for his heart’s delight,</div> <div class="verse">Both red, and crimson dark, and pale</div> <div class="verse">Like snow that hidden fire doth veil:</div> <div class="verse">Yea, give them on their thorny stem,</div> <div class="verse">Before thy breath shalt shatter them,</div> <div class="verse">That chaplets Love may bind for those</div> <div class="verse">Who wander in his tangled close.”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Time, ceasing not his toil, far heard,</div> <div class="verse">Gave back to Love this answering word:—</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Love, to Time dost thou come sueing?</div> <div class="verse">Love, with all thy debt accrueing?</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</SPAN></span>Time can give thee no renewing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Ask the hearts thy sceptre schooleth,</div> <div class="verse">Seek the kings thy kingship ruleth,</div> <div class="verse">Who is he that Time befooleth?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Rest thee, Love, in thine own city,</div> <div class="verse">But of my dominion quit ye,</div> <div class="verse">Time is hard, and hath no pity.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Erst for king didst thou disown me,</div> <div class="verse">Wouldst thou o’er thy kingdom crown me?</div> <div class="verse">Thee I serve when thou hast won me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Slave and servant, no man’s master,</div> <div class="verse">They who will me slow or faster</div> <div class="verse">Urge me to their own disaster.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Lo! this garden for thy going,</div> <div class="verse">Fair and sweet life-blooms in growing,</div> <div class="verse">Gather, ere its leaves be strowing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Hive thy honey, sweet bestowing,</div> <div class="verse">Take life’s apples, red and glowing,</div> <div class="verse">Ere they fall to earth unknowing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Days and hours, perforce, Time gives thee</div> <div class="verse">By the sun’s swift wheel that drives ye,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</SPAN></span>Rest you merry! Time survives Thee.”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">His shadow passed, his voice had died,</div> <div class="verse">And from the rosy covert side,</div> <div class="verse">Clear shining in his goodlihead,</div> <div class="verse">Love to my soul came forth and said:—</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Arise, O Soul! and go with me,</div> <div class="verse">And thou shalt read my book and see</div> <div class="verse">Things hidden from the wise, and know</div> <div class="verse">The height of joy, the depth of woe,</div> <div class="verse">And hear the seas of passion roll,</div> <div class="verse">And scan the dim strange human scroll,</div> <div class="verse">The writing of its speechless lore,</div> <div class="verse">And poesy’s unfathomed store;</div> <div class="verse">The mystic birth of Song and Art</div> <div class="verse">In painted chambers of the heart;</div> <div class="verse">Love’s histories of bliss and strife,</div> <div class="verse">And woven mysteries of life—</div> <div class="verse">Yea, all that in Love’s house do dwell</div> <div class="verse">Between the doors of heaven and hell.”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now in this garden lay apart</div> <div class="verse">A space contrived with cunning art,</div> <div class="verse">Where whoso entered at its gate</div> <div class="verse">Might choose of pleasant paths and straight,</div> <div class="verse">Green walled in privet, rose, and yew,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</SPAN></span>Anon that interlaced and drew</div> <div class="verse">The wildered wight still to and fro,</div> <div class="verse">Who wists not if to turn or go,</div> <div class="verse">Amid the close entangled ways,</div> <div class="verse">Where oft, for his yet more amaze,</div> <div class="verse">Soft voices, wandering, called his name,</div> <div class="verse">And through the leaves sweet music came,</div> <div class="verse">Clear faces showed like sudden light,</div> <div class="verse">To vanish from his longing sight</div> <div class="verse">Ere he might hope of help to win</div> <div class="verse">The secret bliss hid far within.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Few ’scape from out that pleasaunce whole,</div> <div class="verse">Few gain the inmost golden goal;</div> <div class="verse">Full many wander there forlorn,</div> <div class="verse">Or come out thence sore wounded, torn,</div> <div class="verse">To weep their wasted lives forespent.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thither by Love my soul was bent:</div> <div class="verse">Soon in the green maze sweet and still,</div> <div class="verse">I heard the brown and blackbird trill,</div> <div class="verse">Where, linkèd lanes and alleys through,</div> <div class="verse">Love led me by his secret clue;</div> <div class="verse">And oft the scented briar would cling,</div> <div class="verse">Or in the hedge some fluttering thing</div> <div class="verse">Shake soft adown a summer snow</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</SPAN></span>Of roses bloom in overblow,</div> <div class="verse">Among the leaves all fair bedight</div> <div class="verse">And prankt with buds of red and white.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But still by these Love’s footsteps led,</div> <div class="verse">Dim paths before him turned and fled;</div> <div class="verse">Full oft some sweet or anguished face</div> <div class="verse">Would part the leaves to seek his grace;</div> <div class="verse">For many folk did wander there,</div> <div class="verse">Both gleaming knights and dames most fair,</div> <div class="verse">And o’er the level hedge and trim</div> <div class="verse">Fair showed in quaint attire and slim</div> <div class="verse">Of samite, broidery, and brocade,</div> <div class="verse">As folk of passèd time portrayed</div> <div class="verse">By cunning painters, skilled full well,</div> <div class="verse">That mid so goodly sights did dwell.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And there about the stems were hung</div> <div class="verse">Sweet names and legends poets sung,</div> <div class="verse">Ywrought on scrolls and tablets fine,</div> <div class="verse">And bound with knots that true loves twine;</div> <div class="verse">And oft the lute’s full tender strain</div> <div class="verse">Amid the rose leaves made soft plain,</div> <div class="verse">As songs were heard in women’s fame</div> <div class="verse">That crownèd singers sweet proclaim—</div> <div class="verse">Prophets and kings of lyre and pen,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</SPAN></span>Who sound the hearts of silent men</div> <div class="verse">That hold their word as treasure trove</div> <div class="verse">In the immortal book of love.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">These all were passed, and in a while,</div> <div class="verse">Love showed my soul a dim green aisle,</div> <div class="verse">And far at end a stone-built stair,</div> <div class="verse">That led us from the woody lair,</div> <div class="verse">Forth issuing through a night of trees</div> <div class="verse">To know anew the day’s increase,</div> <div class="verse">And there a fragrant arbour found,</div> <div class="verse">With clinging jasmine close embound.</div> <div class="verse">Soon, in this leafy ambush set,</div> <div class="verse">Love bade my soul look forth and let</div> <div class="verse">Sight wonder at its might or will.</div> <div class="verse">Then saw I those that wandered still</div> <div class="verse">Lost in the green and covert ways,</div> <div class="verse">And all the secret of the maze.</div> <div class="verse">How there, as folks distraught, misled,</div> <div class="verse">Sought lovers for their lover, who fled</div> <div class="verse">Far from them, or, unwitting, past</div> <div class="verse">The prisoning hedge that shut them fast:</div> <div class="verse">How, oft their eyes met far amain</div> <div class="verse">In severed paths that kept them twain;</div> <div class="verse">How, after toil and weary pace,</div> <div class="verse">Some met at last with shamefast face,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</SPAN></span>And silent lips, or coldly masked</div> <div class="verse">With wintry speech their hearts that asked</div> <div class="verse">For utterance, and leapt, and cried—</div> <div class="verse">Love’s dear deliverance denied.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thereby great heaviness and pain</div> <div class="verse">Had then my soul, and turned again</div> <div class="verse">To ask of him who stood beside</div> <div class="verse">What hope for these might yet betide.</div> <div class="verse">Clothed in his godhead strong he stood,</div> <div class="verse">He bent his bow above the wood,</div> <div class="verse">And swift the wingèd arrow left</div> <div class="verse">The quivering string—what heart it cleft</div> <div class="verse">My soul ne’er knew, for then the light</div> <div class="verse">Of falling day dazed all my sight</div> <div class="verse">With splendour, as the level sun</div> <div class="verse">Blazed in his gold pavilion spun</div> <div class="verse">Out of his rays whose burning thread</div> <div class="verse">A glorious tapestry outspread</div> <div class="verse">With all life’s hues commingling blent.</div> <div class="verse">And ere the golden web was rent</div> <div class="verse">By darkness, Love led me away,</div> <div class="verse">And passed, about the end of day,</div> <div class="verse">Beneath the hanging umbrage dread</div> <div class="verse">Till grew in sight a summer stead,</div> <div class="verse">Fair corniced, roofed, and pillared clean,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</SPAN></span>Closed in the midmost heart of green,</div> <div class="verse">And girt about with garlands round,</div> <div class="verse">Clear-built upon a pleasant ground,</div> <div class="verse">That gardened was and set with flowers,</div> <div class="verse">Which had the speech of love and powers</div> <div class="verse">After that they are dead to keep</div> <div class="verse">Sweet thoughts in heart and cherished deep.</div> <div class="verse">Also of mythic trees and rare</div> <div class="verse">That grew in love’s high region there,</div> <div class="verse">My soul did mark fair Daphne’s leaf;</div> <div class="verse">The almond bloom, for love and grief,</div> <div class="verse">When Phillis died; and Syrinx’ reed,</div> <div class="verse">Like sprung of legendary seed,</div> <div class="verse">The sun’s broad flower, that shows his flame</div> <div class="verse">And blooms in Clyte’s sculptured fame.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Amidst them fair and high uprose</div> <div class="verse">The carven images of those</div> <div class="verse">That wrought with men for good or ill,</div> <div class="verse">And gave good gifts, and god-like skill,</div> <div class="verse">And reverence had upon the earth—</div> <div class="verse">Yea, still, in all man’s strife and mirth</div> <div class="verse">Have part and glory, yet for him</div> <div class="verse">The mingled cup of life they brim,</div> <div class="verse">As gods, who here Love’s lordship own</div> <div class="verse">Casting their crowns before his throne.</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</SPAN></span>Their marble image broken fell</div> <div class="verse">Where leapt a water from its well</div> <div class="verse">Gemmed in the green and grassy space</div> <div class="verse">Before the pillars of the place,</div> <div class="verse">Where now my soul love’s travel brought.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Soon trod we both the marble court,</div> <div class="verse">And passed into a painted hall,</div> <div class="verse">Most goodly wrought on roof and wall</div> <div class="verse">With dreams, and golden mysteries</div> <div class="verse">Of love and love’s rich histories</div> <div class="verse">Wherein dumb thoughts of heart and brain</div> <div class="verse">Took form and speech and breathed again.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Natheless, ere we the end might win</div> <div class="verse">Was hung a veil, fine-woven, thin,</div> <div class="verse">But through the veil a fire glowed dim,</div> <div class="verse">And faint-heard music soft did swim,</div> <div class="verse">Till out of vague and murmurous tone</div> <div class="verse">Rose up a voice to take its throne:—</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Last night my lady talked with me,</div> <div class="verse">As on a green hill, I and she</div> <div class="verse">Sat close, where erst alone I stood</div> <div class="verse">Beneath the dusk-leaved ilex wood.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“The earth was gathered to her rest,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</SPAN></span>Sweet silence lay upon her breast,</div> <div class="verse">Well nigh asleep, save that she heard</div> <div class="verse">The wandering waters’ silver word.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“The sun had kissed the earth’s dark lips</div> <div class="verse">That grow so ruddy ere he dips,</div> <div class="verse">Wine-coloured to his golden rim,</div> <div class="verse">As purple evening pours for him.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Low stooped his head as he would drink,</div> <div class="verse">Till out of sight we saw him sink,</div> <div class="verse">And with his splendour in our eyes,</div> <div class="verse">Full-orbed we watched the great moon rise.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Rose-tinged in the dim sky shone she</div> <div class="verse">Like Venus from the opal sea,</div> <div class="verse">So grew her glory in our sight,</div> <div class="verse">Till in her face we saw love’s light,</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Love’s light in hers, like flame on flame—</div> <div class="verse">Yea, very Love in presence came,</div> <div class="verse">Between the fires of moon and sun</div> <div class="verse">He stood, like dawn ere night begun.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“Clear-aureoled his golden head,</div> <div class="verse">His eyes our burning hearts well read,</div> <div class="verse">And in the sanctuary of my soul</div> <div class="verse">I won of love the golden goal.”</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <h3>ERRATUM.</h3> <div class="center">Page 33, line 5, <i>for</i> “moon” <i>read</i> “morn”.</div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·THE·DIVIDING·GULF·</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image043.jpg" width-obs="452" height-obs="165" alt="THE·DIVIDING·GULF" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">A</span> GULF divideth Heaven and Hell</div> <div class="verse">Whose depth no fathom line can tell;</div> <div class="verse">A gulf is fixed between two souls</div> <div class="verse">As cold and deep, which ever rolls</div> <div class="verse">To hinder messengers of light,</div> <div class="verse">Who else would wing in welcome flight,</div> <div class="verse">With water from love’s living spring,</div> <div class="verse">And peace to the tormented bring:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But now if any will to pass</div> <div class="verse">From hence to thence, alas! alas!</div> <div class="verse">The gulf is fixed, they cannot go,</div> <div class="verse">And all unaided lie in woe,</div> <div class="verse">Sad souls unto their succour near,</div> <div class="verse">And yet so far as though they were</div> <div class="verse">Divided by an ocean plain;</div> <div class="verse">And so thoughts die within each brain</div> <div class="verse">That might in interchanging wed,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</SPAN></span>And fruitfulness and plenty spread</div> <div class="verse">To clothe and crown the naked fields,</div> <div class="verse">And give them bread for barren yields,</div> <div class="verse">That waste beneath a sunless sky</div> <div class="verse">Their empty ears, or, blighted die.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But as when we have longed to greet</div> <div class="verse">Some wished-for-one we never meet,</div> <div class="verse">Their semblance still may please our eyes,</div> <div class="verse">Their presence in our dreams arise;</div> <div class="verse">So, though lone thoughts ne’er meet their kind,</div> <div class="verse">Or, meeting in the darkness blind,</div> <div class="verse">Know not they meet—falls there no flash</div> <div class="verse">Upon the waters wide that wash</div> <div class="verse">The silent shores of either mind,</div> <div class="verse">And both by sudden pathway find?</div> <div class="verse">Shines there no light we never sought</div> <div class="verse">On all the ways of toil and thought—</div> <div class="verse">A flash in momentary course,</div> <div class="verse">Like lightning from an unseen source</div> <div class="verse">That, in the trembling of a star,</div> <div class="verse">Shows all world anear and far,</div> <div class="verse">When in a flood of flame intense</div> <div class="verse">The gulf is banished from our sense,</div> <div class="verse">And in one moment, bridging space,</div> <div class="verse">Two spirits stand as face to face.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·THE·VALLEY·of·DELIVERANCE</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image045.jpg" width-obs="502" height-obs="189" alt="THE·VALLEY·of·DELIVERANCE" /></div> <h3>I</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">S</span>EA-BLUE infinitude of silent hills!</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That fold, like waves that crested are and smooth,</span></div> <div class="verse">The wide-spread vale that slowly eve instils</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With misty lakes, and all thy summits sooth.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>II</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">In baths of amber light where melt and merge</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wandering purples into green and gold,</span></div> <div class="verse">Athwart the slumbrous fields, and moorland verge</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">O’ersailed by slow cloud-shadows softly rolled.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>III</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">With alternations new and grateful change</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of burning tones to cool in magic show,</span></div> <div class="verse">As oft the opalescent sea do range</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or in the sun-built arch transfused do glow.</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>IV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">O silent hills! ye hold a meaning more</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than speech; ye are not voiceless, O ye vales!</span></div> <div class="verse">But eloquent of time and treasured lore</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of memory, and filled with untold tales.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>V</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">That well nigh dim my gazing eyes with tears,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereas they follow those familiar lines;</span></div> <div class="verse">Dear as the features shaped by hopes and fears</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">On friendship’s face, oft read and sought for signs.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>VI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">For dear to me the crags—the weather-worn;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The slopes of green, the waving woodland towers</span></div> <div class="verse">Whose crested pageantry of leaves adorn</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The shadowed graves of faded summer hours.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>VII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Full well I know the belts of larch that fringe</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The dark verge of the lonely moor, which seems</span></div> <div class="verse">The limit of the world, touched with the tinge</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of dying light, and burned with day’s last beams.</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>VIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And oft, as now, I pressed the purple bloom—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The heather-plumaged breast of this high moor;</span></div> <div class="verse">And heard, as now I hear, the wandering boom</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of these winged gleaners of the honeyed store.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>IX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">O well loved vale! For I am bound to thee</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">By subtle threads of thought that memory weaves;</span></div> <div class="verse">Yea, sitting in thy shadow, Liberty,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like dawn first knew I, opening life’s leaves;</span></div> </div></div> <h3>X</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">E’en then, when first I tasted of the tree,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And dayspring of new knowledge touched mine eyes,</span></div> <div class="verse">That erst were sealed—as other books to me,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Until upon thy hills new light should rise:</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Until my soul, new born, within this vale</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Should learn of Nature in her age-worn book,</span></div> <div class="verse">And strive, beyond the starry void, to scale</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The dim unknown, or in truth’s glass to look</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">On life, and life’s dark mystery which broods</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And clings, a shadow, to the sad-eyed world;</span></div> <div class="verse">Born in the horror of primæval woods,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And in death’s cloud impenetrable furled.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Beyond the gathering years since first I knew</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thee, happy vale, my yearning spirit reads,</span></div> <div class="verse">Beyond night’s mist on thy horizon blue,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where glow day’s embers, ere the night succeeds—</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The Legends rich of unforgotten time—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Azure, and white, and gray enfolded days,</span></div> <div class="verse">That long have passed away, unto the chime</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of brief on lingering hours, their restful ways:</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And, even now, clear imaged on my brain</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their semblance comes again—I see them move</span></div> <div class="verse">In long procession slow, with joy or pain</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Enrobed, with faces hid, and eyes of doubt or love:</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Until the day which died with yestern sun</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Begins to merge in that unending line;</span></div> <div class="verse">And soon her lingering sister will be one</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">For on her face the light has ceased to shine.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">So pass the days, with days unborn, to die,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And gather them to years in time’s swift pace,</span></div> <div class="verse">But we would fain forecast futurity,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or read fate’s rune upon the sky’s calm face.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And I could well believe that in the shade</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of this still vale the secret sign lies hid—</span></div> <div class="verse">The secret that shall shape my life, unsaid,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">As in a casket treasured with close lid;</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Mid fir-woods dark, or tumbled crags, unknown,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or in brown deeps, where swift the river flows</span></div> <div class="verse">Among tumultuous rocks, whence I have heard</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vague murmurings, ofttimes, beneath the boughs.</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">But silence with her finger locks the lips,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">When stand we watching at Futura’s gate;</span></div> <div class="verse">Though eager thought would climb, and climbing slips;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">While, all unwatched, each hour doth carve our fate.</span></div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image050.jpg" width-obs="331" height-obs="311" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">THE·UNKNOWN·SHORE·</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image051.jpg" width-obs="463" height-obs="192" alt="THE·UNKNOWN·SHORE" /></div> <h3>I</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HERE is no voice, there is no voice,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or answer from the UNKNOWN shore:</span></div> <div class="verse">Turn! turn again—there is no choice</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">But Life or Death—we know no more.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>II</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yet Thought in Art and Song awakes;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still Hope doth speak, and Reason brings</span></div> <div class="verse">New light to men, and Wisdom takes</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sweet comfort from most lowly things.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>III</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Have loveliness or glory fled?</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hath Love or Beauty passed away?</span></div> <div class="verse">Is poesy or fancy dead,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">When light returns with every day?</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>IV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Sweet Hope and Beauty cannot die,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Enshrined as one in heaven’s blue;</span></div> <div class="verse">And still eternal as the sky</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is good, and knowledge ever new.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>V</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And evermore rolls on the fight</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of good and evil by the sea;</span></div> <div class="verse">But on the waters falls a light</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">From golden ages yet to be.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>VI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Hear how they cry from every side,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The voices from the deepening strife!</span></div> <div class="verse">The fields are white, the world is wide;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arise! take heart! take hope! take Life!</span></div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image052.jpg" width-obs="305" height-obs="159" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">THE·WEST·WIND</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image053.jpg" width-obs="453" height-obs="179" alt="THE·WEST·WIND" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">W</span>ILD Wind! Thy tameless spirit lifts my mind—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou, all night long the troubled earth hast torn,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And tossed the stormy trees until the morn,</span></div> <div class="verse">Which struggles now unto its noon, half blind</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">With those wild locks which ye have cast across</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The face of heaven, scarcely showing through</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her eyes between are still of stedfast blue,</span></div> <div class="verse">And still look calm above the woods ye toss;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">As they were wrathful waves of that green main</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">From whence ye come, beyond the sunset’s grave,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To freshen on the sunburnt hills, and lave</span></div> <div class="verse">The summer-thirsty fields with gracious rain.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Hark! in the wood thy voice, a lion, roars!</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beneath thy breath upon the parchèd hill,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shudders the wasted grass, and shrieketh shrill,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</SPAN></span>As though it feared thee: but thy spirit soars</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">To lash the fossil waves of hill and dale</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ye may not move, yet melted make appear</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their solid sides, enrobed in rains ye bear</span></div> <div class="verse">Across the valley like a falling veil.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But, night or day, thy ceaseless song to me</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Makes melody, and music wild and free,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And I rejoice to drink thy breath for ye</span></div> <div class="verse">Do bring the sound and savour of the sea.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image054.jpg" width-obs="189" height-obs="124" alt="decoration: shell" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·THE·NEW·LIGHT·</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image055.jpg" width-obs="445" height-obs="171" alt="THE·NEW·LIGHT" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">A</span>WAKE, O world! From thy long sleep arise!</div> <div class="verse">For a new light breaks in reddening skies:</div> <div class="verse">Shake off your rust-eaten fetters, ye slaves!</div> <div class="verse">And claim the Freedom of winds and of waves:</div> <div class="verse">Unwind! O unwind all the swathing clothes</div> <div class="verse">Of bondage and ignorance, nations’ woes:</div> <div class="verse">Break the dark might of enchantment’s spell,</div> <div class="verse">Burst all thy bonds, and the chorus swell!</div> <div class="verse">Kindle on every high hill a clear fire:</div> <div class="verse">Plant in the cities, on tower and spire,</div> <div class="verse">The banner of Freedom! Wide let it wave</div> <div class="verse">Over sea and land, and over the grave</div> <div class="verse">Of buried oppression, and chains decayed</div> <div class="verse">Of tyrant’s power: till the ghosts shall be laid</div> <div class="verse">Of fraud and violence, bloodshed and war:</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</SPAN></span>And, burned in the flame of freedom’s fair star,</div> <div class="verse">All wrongs shall be dust and ashes on earth—</div> <div class="verse">Dead leaves from whose death shall spring a new birth</div> <div class="verse">Which shall spread and grow like a fruitful tree,</div> <div class="verse">And under its branches shall live the Free.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image056.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="312" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">HYMN OF FREE PEOPLES</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image057.jpg" width-obs="443" height-obs="142" alt="HYMN OF FREE PEOPLES" /></div> <h3>I</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">O</span> KINDREDS! peoples strong!</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That earth’s large arms enfold,</span></div> <div class="verse">Against the powers that work ye wrong,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In common cause make bold.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>II</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">From North, from East and West;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beneath the southern star;</span></div> <div class="verse">In bonds of slavery opprest,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In cruel arms of war.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>III</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">From East, and South, and North;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">From desert-cities shade,</span></div> <div class="verse">From living tombs of toil, come forth,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where rich man’s gold is made.</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>IV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">From North, from West, and East,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">O starved and meagre-fed!</span></div> <div class="verse">Be gathered to the equal feast</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The earth for all hath spread.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>V</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Beneath Life’s healing tree,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Truth’s fountain’s crystal flow,</span></div> <div class="verse">Let all the Nations kindred be</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The joy of life to know.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>VI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And let each soul rejoice,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who in that meat is strong;</span></div> <div class="verse">And, hunger stayed, let heart and voice</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be filled with a new song.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>VII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">For Freedom like the sun</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hath risen on the world!</span></div> <div class="verse">This hour a new age is begun—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A stainless scroll unfurled.</span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>VIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Old things have passed away—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The curse of gold, and gore;</span></div> <div class="verse">The Law of Love all peoples sway,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And war shall be no more.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>IX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">No more to joyless toil</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall Labour’s hands be chained;</span></div> <div class="verse">No more shall Fraud have power to spoil</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Man’s equal rights regained.</span></div> </div></div> <h3>X</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">One hope, one joy, one light,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">United all men know;</span></div> <div class="verse">And from all lands with gathering might</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The voice of truth shall go:</span></div> </div></div> <h3>XI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And far and wide proclaim,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Defying tyrants’ ban,</span></div> <div class="verse">Writ in all hearts, like tongues of flame—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Brotherhood of Man!</span></div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·TWELVE·SONNETS·OF·LOVE</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image061.jpg" width-obs="420" height-obs="436" alt="TWELVE·SONNETS·OF·LOVE" /></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>I<br/> LOVE’S SANCTUARY</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">N</span>O more I go to worship with the crowd</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In Christian temples, pagan now to me,</span></div> <div class="verse">No dim cathedral hears me pray aloud,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">I sing no credo, as it used to be:</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Though kneeling not beneath the roof of Rome,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or in protesting fanes, I have a shrine—</span></div> <div class="verse">A holiest of holies—Love’s sweet home,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">On whose white altar lies life’s bread and wine.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">There oft, in saddened times and weary hours,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To secret sanctuary do I flee,</span></div> <div class="verse">Where one sweet presence soothes, like breath of flowers,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To whom their incense rises ceaselessly;</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">For there, though not a Roman devotee,</div> <div class="verse">Sweet virgin Mary I do worship thee.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>II<br/> LOVE’S HERALDRY</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span> GAVE to thee at parting, dear, a rose,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Encrimsoned with the hue of Love’s warm lips,</span></div> <div class="verse">But yet it faded when compared to those</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wherefrom my soul unfailing honey sips.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And thou didst plant it in the snowy lawn</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which veiled the purer treasures of thy breast,</span></div> <div class="verse">As when we see o’er earth, by winter drawn</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The white sky-covering in spotless rest.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Warm gules on argent, like a blazoned field,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The hues of life and death in red and white—</span></div> <div class="verse">A fair device for any knightly shield,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor needing motto to proclaim its might.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Henceforth I bear it on my battle crest,</div> <div class="verse">Till in thine arms from life’s alarms I rest.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>III<br/> THE SOLACE OF LOVE</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span>N my heart’s chamber cold in day’s white glare,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sate Love disconsolate with tatter’d wings,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And brooding on the memory of lost things</span></div> <div class="verse">That erst made glad those walls, so wan and bare.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Came Hope then unto him and bade him look</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the brightness of the cloudless hours,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And on the buds of yet unopened flowers;</span></div> <div class="verse">But Love, being blind, all blank was nature’s book.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sleep came to him, and would have brought him peace,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">But dreams awoke Desire whose torturing flame</span></div> <div class="verse">Made worse his case and left him agony:</div> <div class="verse">Till one, with wreathèd brows, for his release,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unto his fingers gave a stringèd frame,</span></div> <div class="verse">And then Love wept, and sang his pain to thee.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>IV<br/> PASSION MUSIC</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HE air grows faint within the shrine of Love,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And from his altar rose-leaves fall away,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">As smoke of incense dims the dying day</span></div> <div class="verse">That crimsons on the golden roof above:</div> <div class="verse">But, slowly stealing, soon the organ plains,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With quiring voices in a tender song,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which shakes my soul as with a tempest strong,</span></div> <div class="verse">Still as the music rolleth on refrains.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now lifted light upon melodious wave,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">My spirit rises on each beating wing,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That near unto the gates of bliss me bring;</span></div> <div class="verse">Full soon cast down, and bowed by thunder-tones,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">He falls upon the ground, and weeps and moans—</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Such madness doth Love’s votaries enslave.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>V<br/> LOVE’S ANCHORITE</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">L</span>OVE’S anchorite, within my lonely cell,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">His breviary I learn you every day,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Aves to my sainted Mary say,</span></div> <div class="verse">As all my rosary I careful tell:</div> <div class="verse">While on thy picture sweet my fond eyes dwell,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or rapt upon thy treasured story pore,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which, ending, leaves me yet to hunger more,</span></div> <div class="verse">And still athirst to seek again the well.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet all Love’s calendar I follow through,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And each fair day, where memory shows thy sign,</span></div> <div class="verse">Keep holy unto thee in prayer and song;</div> <div class="verse">So every season brings to thee its due;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">But, while thy table’s set with corn and wine,</span></div> <div class="verse">Fasting I keep Love’s Lenten-tide so long.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>VI<br/> LOVE’S GARDEN</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span>N my heart’s garden, winter dark and bare,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Love sought for flowers to make a wreath for thee,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which, since the sun was gone, he scarce might see</span></div> <div class="verse">In all the waste, and Time was gardener there,</div> <div class="verse">Who yet a little bloom will hardly spare,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">But with remorseless hand still prunes away,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And still his scythe he sharpeneth every day;</span></div> <div class="verse">So Love was left with empty hands to fare.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Till Hope had led him to a little well</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That in this desert kept a joyful spot,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Made sapphire with the eyes of flowers Love knew,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">As though from heavenly seed their harvest grew,</span></div> <div class="verse">That soon into his reaping fingers fell</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which bring you these—sweet, sweet FORGET-ME-NOT.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>VII<br/> LOVE’S SOLITUDE</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="big">F</span>ILLED with the breath of Love, my soul knows change</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Throughout its troubled region, day by day,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Still as the breaking fire upclimbs its way</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">From scarlet dawn, through fervent noon to range;</span></div> <div class="verse">Until the fainting eve, grown wan and pale,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Swoons in the arms of close embracing night</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That putteth forth her spells of dreamful might,</span></div> <div class="verse">And sweet enchantments, till the starry veil</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Is cloven by the gleaming shafts of morn,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ascending new with all his glittering train</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To bring me peace, or strange tempestuous pain;</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or soft winds singing in the sacred grove</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That keeps thy shrine, and where I talk with Love,</span></div> <div class="verse">Watching the far-off sea whence hope is born.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>VIII<br/> LOVE’S HOPE</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">J</span>OY, like the flashes of a fitful sun,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Falls on my storm-worn heart, and kindling, dies</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In wandering gleams about the changeful skies,</span></div> <div class="verse">Cloud-built with tempest towers, and wind-undone:</div> <div class="verse">For winds make desolate the day begun</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wild on my path that climbs a bleak green hill,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Among the writhen thorns, oft traversed, chill</span></div> <div class="verse">With the breath of March, until the ridge is won:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Wherefrom I think to gain some hopeful sign,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">As range mine eyes the saddened landscape round,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That keeps my soul’s white house, whence I return,</span></div> <div class="verse">With thoughts that may not utterly repine,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">But hearing even in the strong wind’s sound</span></div> <div class="verse">The shout of coming spring which makes me burn.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>IX<br/> LOVE’S DOUBT</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">D</span>OUBT, Hope, and Fear, all day within my breast</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have clanged in cruel war where none prevail,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though their fierce cries have rent the sacred veil,</span></div> <div class="verse">When in Love’s sanctuary I sought to rest.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Since brazen morn awoke this wild alarm</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">So have they striven long with clashing swords</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of two edged thought—since fell the words</span></div> <div class="verse">Upon my soul from herald lips of harm;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Whose message strange a fiery hand imprest</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In charact’ry that burns my mazèd sight:</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet loud with iron hands they tear and smite,</span></div> <div class="verse">But through the cloud of strife I see Hope’s crest</div> <div class="verse">Rise loftier, and his voice above the rest</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grows calm and clearer with the falling night.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>X<br/> LOVE’S GARLAND</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">Y</span>OUNG Love with rosy wings came through a mead,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereon before the feet of spring had gone,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Along a slender brook that wound and shone</span></div> <div class="verse">By stems made bright with blooms of fruitful deed.</div> <div class="verse">He gathered as he went of such fair seed</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">As Spring upon her grassy ways had sown,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And in his fingers wove a garland crown</span></div> <div class="verse">That faded not, or drooped or died for need.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Full soon the stream had brought him to a space</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of orchard green, where maidens sweet were met</span></div> <div class="verse">With Time’s frail gifts around his dial stone;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, these among, thou sat’st in such sweet grace,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">That, seeing thee, Love on thy dear head set</span></div> <div class="verse">His magic wreath and crowned thee on my throne.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XI<br/> LOVE’S ARROWS</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span> SAW young Love make trial of his bow,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In May’s green garden where he shot his dart,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor recked if any nigh beheld his art,</span></div> <div class="verse">But other eyes did mark him as I know;</div> <div class="verse">For my sweet lady sate anear his throw,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And I with her, and joinèd heart to heart,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that we might not feel the bitter smart</span></div> <div class="verse">Love leaveth there when time doth force us go.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">We heard Love’s arrows falling in the grass,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or watched them quiver in the targe below;</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet few to us came nigh, nor might they pass</span></div> <div class="verse">Beyond our feet, which trembled when they came,</div> <div class="verse">Whose hearts were not the quarry for his aim,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">That in Love’s chase fell stricken long ago.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XII<br/> LOVE’S HARVEST</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span> STAND to gaze across the years’ long fields</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That have the tinge of Autumn, and their gold</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gathered by careful hours on lea and wold;</span></div> <div class="verse">Rich spoils of time that he to Love upyields</div> <div class="verse">Who yet amid fair corn his sickle wields,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though harvest’s done, and summer groweth old:</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Well-storèd barns, and orchards he doth hold</span></div> <div class="verse">Whose wealth against the steely winter shields.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Unto my feet the days, like full-eared sheaves,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have fallen, one by one, time-bound and borne</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">To be the bread of Love through barren days;</span></div> <div class="verse">E’en such dear heritage the sweet year leaves,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And life to live again Love’s night and morn</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whose light thou art, whose glory is their praise.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·PART·II·LATER·POEMS·</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image075.jpg" width-obs="431" height-obs="405" alt="Part II Later Poems" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·A·HERALD·OF·SPRING</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image077.jpg" width-obs="484" height-obs="193" alt="A·HERALD·OF·SPRING" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">S</span>WEET bird, what makes thee glad?</div> <div class="verse">Beneath this sky so wan and sad,</div> <div class="verse">And leafless poplars, thin and grey,</div> <div class="verse">Bowed down before the wintry sway.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What tuneful thought of days gone by</div> <div class="verse">Doth make thee sing? Or knowest thou why</div> <div class="verse">Thy soul is lifted up, sweet bird?</div> <div class="verse">Or dost thou hear Spring’s voice, unheard</div> <div class="verse">Of earth that sleeps, nor, dreaming, minds</div> <div class="verse">The herald blast of trumpet winds</div> <div class="verse">That make old Winter’s fortress quail,</div> <div class="verse">And force him cast his coat of mail.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What secret bower thy shape doth keep?</div> <div class="verse">Close hidden by the buds that sleep;</div> <div class="verse">Thy voice—the firstling bloom that blows—</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</SPAN></span>Breaks joyful through the wintry boughs,</div> <div class="verse">That bear thy song of promise, meet</div> <div class="verse">For happy hours when lovers greet,</div> <div class="verse">When every leaf-lorn tree shall bear</div> <div class="verse">Flower, fruit, and song upon the air,</div> <div class="verse">And summer’s choir is full, and gay</div> <div class="verse">The soft winds on the sun’s feast-day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sweet bird, as thou dost sing, my soul</div> <div class="verse">Doth partly catch the speechless whole</div> <div class="verse">Of joyful pain that lifts the wings</div> <div class="verse">Of thy sequestered music—things</div> <div class="verse">Remembered half, and half forgot,</div> <div class="verse">Of sight, or sound, or sense begot,</div> <div class="verse">Confused in love’s ambrosial streams,</div> <div class="verse">And hidden in the house of dreams;</div> <div class="verse">As frail sweet scent of flowers that hold</div> <div class="verse">Past time and days in some book’s fold,</div> <div class="verse">Which, when the leaves are turned again,</div> <div class="verse">Doth warm, like wine, the wintry brain.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O bird, thy heart doth sing in me,</div> <div class="verse">I hear what thou dost hear—I see</div> <div class="verse">Upon a high green land, untrod</div> <div class="verse">Of men, upon the flower-wrought sod</div> <div class="verse">The feet of Spring, and her bright throng</div> <div class="verse">Break from the woods with shout and song;</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</SPAN></span>Soft piping winds with pleasant cheer</div> <div class="verse">Before her go, her path to clear,</div> <div class="verse">Sweet maids come with her, and behind,</div> <div class="verse">Light-footed as the lifting wind:</div> <div class="verse">Some bear her canopy on high,</div> <div class="verse">And warm gleams gild it from the sky;</div> <div class="verse">Some strew with flowers the flower-strewn ground,</div> <div class="verse">Some bind them garlands, some are bound,</div> <div class="verse">And still, with all the happy rout,</div> <div class="verse">Fleet little loves wind in and out;</div> <div class="verse">Some hide in maiden’s fluttering weed,</div> <div class="verse">And ply their pretty arts, nor heed,</div> <div class="verse">While wilful gusts make sport, like them,</div> <div class="verse">With mantle’s fold, and garment’s hem;</div> <div class="verse">Or some, more bold, soft vengeance wreak</div> <div class="verse">On lifting hair, and glowing cheek.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But, scarce the wood hath set them free,</div> <div class="verse">Some forceful sprite in winter’s fee</div> <div class="verse">To snatch Spring’s garland would make bold,</div> <div class="verse">Whom shrill the shrinking maids do scold,</div> <div class="verse">Until the sun, their champion bright,</div> <div class="verse">Doth drive aback the wintry knight,</div> <div class="verse">Whose wild assault being overthrown,</div> <div class="verse">Far in the woodland makes he moan,</div> <div class="verse">And gentle Spring with all her train</div> <div class="verse">Doth hold high court on earth again.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·THOUGHTS·IN·A·HAMMOCK</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image080.jpg" width-obs="440" height-obs="171" alt="·THOUGHTS·IN·A·HAMMOCK" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">R</span>OCKED as in some fairy boat,</div> <div class="verse">By swift fancy set afloat,</div> <div class="verse">’Twixt the oceans, blue and green,</div> <div class="verse">Of grass beneath, and sky serene,</div> <div class="verse">Where the streams of dusk and day</div> <div class="verse">Meet and mingle, far away,</div> <div class="verse">On the universal tide,</div> <div class="verse">Still with time and life to glide.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Boat, that, pendent ’mid the trees,</div> <div class="verse">Swingeth moored, yet sails the seas,</div> <div class="verse">Stem and stern from east to west,</div> <div class="verse">Bound upon an unknown quest,</div> <div class="verse">Past the marge of night and day,</div> <div class="verse">Blanched or strewn with starry spray;</div> <div class="verse">By the oar-strokes of the blood,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</SPAN></span>Glides the shallop of my mood,</div> <div class="verse">On the windings of the flood,</div> <div class="verse">Shadowed by the summer wood,</div> <div class="verse">Dusk with dreams yon leaves that play</div> <div class="verse">With the falling blooms of May.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Like the web the Fates do spin</div> <div class="verse">Helpless man to cradle in—</div> <div class="verse">Hung, with life, upon a thread,</div> <div class="verse">Here I swing, and, o’er my head,</div> <div class="verse">Maze of apples, boughs and leaves,</div> <div class="verse">Meshed wherein, my thought enweaves</div> <div class="verse">Tapestry, phantasmic, strange,</div> <div class="verse">Shot with shifting dyes of change:</div> <div class="verse">So my shallow bark and frail</div> <div class="verse">Spreads a rich emblazoned sail,</div> <div class="verse">Filled, as now the summer breeze</div> <div class="verse">Fans my brain and stirs the trees,</div> <div class="verse">Where, a hidden heart of fire,</div> <div class="verse">Strives the moon in her desire</div> <div class="verse">Still to pierce the leafy fret</div> <div class="verse">Her celestial seat to get.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Cynthia’s self that silver shape,</div> <div class="verse">Boskage dark, she doth escape,</div> <div class="verse">Long her gleaming body hid</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</SPAN></span>Forth from its embraces slid,</div> <div class="verse">Doth naked, glorious, emerge</div> <div class="verse">Upon the lucent starry verge.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Let me linger in the wood,</div> <div class="verse">Hear the sound of pipings rude,</div> <div class="verse">Watch the shapes of nymph and fawn,</div> <div class="verse">Centaurs fleet across the lawn,</div> <div class="verse">Satyrs brown, in rhythmic dance,</div> <div class="verse">By the stream great Pan, perchance,</div> <div class="verse">Hidden in the vocal reed—</div> <div class="verse">All the happy antique breed.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I would turn again the book,</div> <div class="verse">Yet again to steal a look,</div> <div class="verse">Back to where Time’s firstling ran—</div> <div class="verse">Arboreal ancestral man:</div> <div class="verse">Wooing shy his dusky mate,</div> <div class="verse">Wild-eyed, half articulate:</div> <div class="verse">In his rude canoe, askance,</div> <div class="verse">See him poise his flint-tipped lance,</div> <div class="verse">Flashing in the ardent noon</div> <div class="verse">O’er the sedgy broad lagoon,</div> <div class="verse">When Thames reeds the river-horse</div> <div class="verse">Crushed in his unconscious force.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Swinging on the pendent bough</span></div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</SPAN></span>Had he sweet content enow?</div> <div class="verse">Basking in the primal sun</div> <div class="verse">Recked he how his race should run?</div> <div class="verse">How, for forest night of trees,</div> <div class="verse">Cities spreading, dense as these,</div> <div class="verse">Where the shade of gilded pride,</div> <div class="verse">Starved and savage men, should hide</div> <div class="verse">Human vampires, hawks and flies,</div> <div class="verse">Gliding snakes and lustrous eyes,</div> <div class="verse">Dainty beauty, plumaged fair,</div> <div class="verse">Hollow masks for smiling care,</div> <div class="verse">Hopeless toil that smileth not,</div> <div class="verse">Misery, untold, forgot—</div> <div class="verse">Where the throng of fashion flaunts,</div> <div class="verse">Where, in dark unwholesome haunts,</div> <div class="verse">Lurks a darker race, to prowl</div> <div class="verse">Desert streets when night doth scowl,</div> <div class="verse">Desert stoney streets, and bare,</div> <div class="verse">’Neath a strange electric glare,</div> <div class="verse">Fiery eyed to track them down,</div> <div class="verse">Homeless on the heartless town.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ah! could early man, or late,</div> <div class="verse">Set his ways, or Nature’s, straight,</div> <div class="verse">Who life’s stream doth careless pour,</div> <div class="verse">Lets the cup brim o’er and o’er,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</SPAN></span>Who will drink, or, drinking, dream,</div> <div class="verse">With the chosen skim the cream,</div> <div class="verse">Struggle with the ravening swine,</div> <div class="verse">For residue, or helpless whine,</div> <div class="verse">Lazarus at Dives’ gate,</div> <div class="verse">Dives at his feast of state,</div> <div class="verse">Rising with a hungry heart,</div> <div class="verse">As, one by one, life’s guests depart.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Could we chain those monsters up</div> <div class="verse">That on human lives do sup—</div> <div class="verse">Shameless lust of rule and gold,</div> <div class="verse">Lawless greed grown overbold,</div> <div class="verse">Vice and drink with palsied hand</div> <div class="verse">Riding down the joyless land—</div> <div class="verse">Then, if humanity could be</div> <div class="verse">From these, and other tyrants, free</div> <div class="verse">To win its bread—to win, I wot,</div> <div class="verse">Vine, and fig, and breathing plot,</div> <div class="verse">Joy in work, and joy in leisure,</div> <div class="verse">Love and art to fill life’s measure,</div> <div class="verse">Force and fraud might vainly rage</div> <div class="verse">To see, new born, the golden age.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sailing thus, as thought doth steer,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</SPAN></span>With the moon through cloud and clear,</div> <div class="verse">Fancy flutt’ring at the prow,</div> <div class="verse">Sirens singing soft and low,</div> <div class="verse">From the opal shores and streams,</div> <div class="verse">Where they dye the cloth of dreams—</div> <div class="verse">From the present and the past</div> <div class="verse">Have I touched the land at last!</div> <div class="verse">Voyaging the world around</div> <div class="verse">Yet anchored still to English ground.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class="unindent"><small>June, 1884.</small></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image085.jpg" width-obs="282" height-obs="184" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·THE·SIRENS·THREE</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image087.jpg" width-obs="305" height-obs="376" alt="THE·SIRENS·THREE" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image089.jpg" width-obs="203" height-obs="94" alt="decoration" /></div> <h2>THE SIRENS THREE<br/> <big>DEDICATORY SONNET</big><br/> <small>TO</small><br/> WILLIAM MORRIS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HE Mage of Naishapur in English tongue</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beside the northern sea, I, wandering, read,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With chaunt of breaking waves each verse was said,</span></div> <div class="verse">Till, storm-possessed, my heart in answer sung;</div> <div class="verse">And to the winds my ship of thoughts I flung,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And drifted wide upon the ocean dread</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of space and time, ere thought and life were bred,</span></div> <div class="verse">Till Hope did cast the anchor, and I clung.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Book of Omar saw I limned in gold,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And decked with vine and rose and pictured pause,</span></div> <div class="verse">Enwrought by hands of one well skilled and bold</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In art and poesy and Freedom’s cause—</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hope of humanity and equal laws—</span></div> <div class="verse">To him and to this hope be mine enscrolled.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image090.jpg" width-obs="451" height-obs="171" alt="THE·SIRENS·THREE" /></div> <h3>I</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">L</span>OST on a sleepless sea, without avail</div> <div class="verse">My soul’s ship drifted wide, with idle sail</div> <div class="verse">And slow pulsating oars, that night’s blue gulf</div> <div class="verse">Beat noiselessly to Time’s recurring tale.</div> </div></div> <h3>II</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The rolling hours like waves broke, one by one,</div> <div class="verse">Upon the tide of thought time’s sands outrun,</div> <div class="verse">And cloudy visions hovered o’er my bed,</div> <div class="verse">Piled to the stars, full soon like cloud undone:</div> </div></div> <h3>III</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">As, like the wan moon through her fleecy sea,</div> <div class="verse">My spirit clove their rack unceasingly,</div> <div class="verse">And struck at last upon an unknown ground,</div> <div class="verse">More still than sleep, more strange than dreamlands be.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>IV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The echoes of lost thoughts wild music made,</div> <div class="verse">Like Sirens, heard above the winds that played,</div> <div class="verse">Above the rhythmic waves’ tumultuous tone,</div> <div class="verse">Upon the hollows of that coast decayed.</div> </div></div> <h3>V</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yea, on the strand they stood, the Sirens three—</div> <div class="verse">No More, and golden Now, and dark To be,</div> <div class="verse">Whose vocal harps are love, and hope, and grief;</div> <div class="verse">To these they sang, and waved their hands to me.</div> </div></div> <h3>VI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Who thence, unto the shore, escaping, clung,</div> <div class="verse">As from the dread insatiate ocean’s tongue</div> <div class="verse">That lapped the barren sand, and evermore,</div> <div class="verse">Above its vain recoil, the Sisters sung.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</SPAN></span></p> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>VII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Prone on that unknown land, outcast, forlorn,</div> <div class="verse">My soul lay; watching for the eyes of morn;</div> <div class="verse">As from a dying universe adrift,</div> <div class="verse">A naked life—to what dim world new born?</div> </div></div> <h3>VIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">All former things had passed, the sea’s salt tears</div> <div class="verse">From Youths’ frail ship had washed false hopes and fears,</div> <div class="verse">And relics, treasured once, bestrewed the sand,</div> <div class="verse">Wrapped in the clinging weed the seamaid wears.</div> </div></div> <h3>IX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The bodies of lost Faith and Love, outcast,</div> <div class="verse">Spurned by the waves, and clinging to the mast,</div> <div class="verse">Were flung upon the shore, mid drift and wreck,—</div> <div class="verse">Time’s fragile shells, which frailer lives outlast.</div> </div></div> <h3>X</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">As at the world’s end left, the last of men,</div> <div class="verse">Or ere the first was sphered, beyond his ken,</div> <div class="verse">Was I, mid tumbled kosmic fragments cast—</div> <div class="verse">A babe at play within a mammoth’s den:</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Mid bones of power extinct, and its lost prey,</div> <div class="verse">With shreds and shards of unknown primal day—</div> <div class="verse">The formless Future, and the Past forgot,</div> <div class="verse">The broken statue, and the sculptor’s clay.</div> </div></div> <h3>XII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The blue-breast bird of space his fan outspread,</div> <div class="verse">And shook the starry splendour o’er my head—</div> <div class="verse">A wood of eyes that wonder at the world,</div> <div class="verse">Glassed in the world’s eyes’ wonder, scanned and read:</div> </div></div> <h3>XIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Each burning orb that did the sky emblaze</div> <div class="verse">Upon my spirit lone cast piercing gaze;</div> <div class="verse">World beyond world enringed, and suns aflame</div> <div class="verse">Shot from night’s spangled cloud their storm of rays.</div> </div></div> <h3>XIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">As doth the glass to one bright point intense</div> <div class="verse">Draw the sun’s fervour to our shrinking sense;</div> <div class="verse">So, on my soul, the concentrated fire</div> <div class="verse">Of countless suns that moment did condense.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">My brain, an instant’s Atlas, seemed to bear</div> <div class="verse">The Universe immense, and all its care;</div> <div class="verse">For thought’s frail arms intolerable weight,</div> <div class="verse">Since Nature’s triumph still is Man’s despair.</div> </div></div> <h3>XVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Untilled, unknown, the trackless regions spread</div> <div class="verse">Which Thought, belated wanderer, doth tread,</div> <div class="verse">Where, like river flashing through the night,</div> <div class="verse">The milky way its myriad star-foam shed.</div> </div></div> <h3>XVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Cast from what vital source—what teeming brain?</div> <div class="verse">By blind persistent force—from fiery rain?</div> <div class="verse">Suns, moons, and stars, transmuted, globed, and hung—</div> <div class="verse">The dew of Space upon its blue campaign:</div> </div></div> <h3>XVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Trod by the feet of Time, as he doth go,</div> <div class="verse">A labourer night and morn to reap and sow—</div> <div class="verse">Who counts the glittering drops—the spheres that fall,</div> <div class="verse">Or marvels they should hold such weight of woe?</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Each drop a desert, or a battle-ground</div> <div class="verse">Of life in its arena ringed around,</div> <div class="verse">Where without quarter wears the endless war,</div> <div class="verse">Till Death the hunter slips his famished hound.</div> </div></div> <h3>XX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Here, circling with the horses of the sun,</div> <div class="verse">Man’s fateful race from day to day is run;</div> <div class="verse">Bound in this narrow ring—his crown, his grave</div> <div class="verse">Still as the world for each is lost or won.</div> </div></div> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>XXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Then, like a homeless one, my spirit turned</div> <div class="verse">For shelter ’neath the roofless void, and—spurned</div> <div class="verse">From the star-desert to the stony one—</div> <div class="verse">Scanned the dark waste where yet no hearth fire burned:</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">But through the veil of night, around me there,</div> <div class="verse">Rose towering shapes clothed in the voiceless air,</div> <div class="verse">Like kings enthroned amid their powers’ decay—</div> <div class="verse">Statue, and ruined shrine, and temple bare:</div> </div></div> <h3>XXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Dolmen, and sphinx, and Greek or Gothic fane,</div> <div class="verse">The shattered caskets of man’s winged brain,</div> <div class="verse">Whose flight hath left them empty, desolate,</div> <div class="verse">Sublime in ruin on the crumbling plain.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The perished bodies frail that once did house</div> <div class="verse">His restless soul, and heard his sacred vows</div> <div class="verse">To his own likeness, dressed in speech or stone,</div> <div class="verse">Ere he forswore them for some fairer spouse.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">He sought for Truth, and cried, “Where dost thou dwell?”</div> <div class="verse">Ten thousand tongues replied, but none could tell:</div> <div class="verse">They held their peace, and then the stones did cry—</div> <div class="verse">“Lo! Truth sits naked by the wayside well.”</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">She sitteth naked since they drove her out</div> <div class="verse">From Babel of the Creeds to wastes of Doubt;</div> <div class="verse">There hath she wandered long in dens and caves,</div> <div class="verse">Through Custom’s winter, and through Reason’s drought.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">They would have cloaked her as a shameful thing;</div> <div class="verse">Force brought her chains, and Fraud a marriage ring,</div> <div class="verse">But Truth, affrighted, fled the market place</div> <div class="verse">Where lies were coined in gold, and Craft was king.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And still she flies from sacred fount, and school,</div> <div class="verse">When man defiles, or doth his kind befool;</div> <div class="verse">And still they wait, the halt, the lame, the blind,</div> <div class="verse">Though Truth, the angel, troubleth not the pool.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">A wandering spirit in this street of tombs,</div> <div class="verse">I sought her yet who still to travel dooms,</div> <div class="verse">From hostel unto hostel o’er the waste,</div> <div class="verse">Her votaries the fitful lamp illumes.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XXX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">But ere the dawn stood trembling at night’s gate,</div> <div class="verse">Dark as the night, I reached a portal great,</div> <div class="verse">Wide to the homeless wind, defaced and bare,</div> <div class="verse">While yet it spake of power, and antique state,</div> </div></div> <h3>XXXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Of pillared hall and chambers large and fair,</div> <div class="verse">Which Thought and Art had carven and made rare,</div> <div class="verse">As life by life was laid with stone on stone,</div> <div class="verse">Or flowed through marble veins the beams to bear;</div> </div></div> <h3>XXXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And flowered aloft in capital and frieze,</div> <div class="verse">As roof and wall high rose with years’ increase;</div> <div class="verse">Withal did slow decay still gild and stain,</div> <div class="verse">Or like a stealthy robber climbed to seize.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Strange lights from windows glared, and stranger sound</div> <div class="verse">Of mingled mourners’ grief and revel round—</div> <div class="verse">Sad discords from a world’s disorder wrung—</div> <div class="verse">With music broke upon the desert bound.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XXXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">A fountain in the forecourt sullen slept,</div> <div class="verse">One wintry tree beside it, wind beswept,</div> <div class="verse">And shorn of its last leaves, which strewed the stone,</div> <div class="verse">Like one above the water, drooped and wept.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And at the threshold, on the shattered stair,</div> <div class="verse">In raiment sad one sate as cloaked in care;</div> <div class="verse">There, too, her sister shape in vernal green,</div> <div class="verse">The lintel old did hang with garlands fair.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Who,” then I would have cried, “art thou that weep?</div> <div class="verse">And why with mourning festal garlands heap?</div> <div class="verse">Why thus, though kindred, are your hearts in twain!</div> <div class="verse">O Sisters weird this magic house who keep?</div> </div></div> <h3>XXXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“This magic house, so fair, so disarrayed,</div> <div class="verse">What god, what demon first its foundings laid?</div> <div class="verse">Who thus its treasure to Oblivion casts,</div> <div class="verse">Still hungering at the gate but never stayed?”</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XXXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And I was answered ere my thought found tongue,</div> <div class="verse">As pealing from the gate their voices rung,</div> <div class="verse">Like wailing harp and voice together heard;</div> <div class="verse">With ear intent upon their speech I hung.</div> </div></div> <h3>XXXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Let no man ask, but he who doth not shrink</div> <div class="verse">To stand at gaze upon thought’s giddy brink,</div> <div class="verse">Where breaks the endless sea, and ebbs and flows</div> <div class="verse">The tides of life and death that Time doth drink.</div> </div></div> <h3>XL</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Time’s very house is this, his daughters we,</div> <div class="verse">Ruin and Renovation, thou dost see,</div> <div class="verse">That sweep or garnish, and its chambers fit</div> <div class="verse">For grief or joy, or whatso guests may be.</div> </div></div> <h3>XLI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Pillared and roofed it is with nights and days,</div> <div class="verse">And windows gemmed in gold, or azure space,</div> <div class="verse">Its table spread, with earth’s, for fast or feast,</div> <div class="verse">Between Birth’s gate and Death’s where all find place.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XLII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Close curtained both with mystery and pain,</div> <div class="verse">O’erwrought with costly tears, and heart-hued stain,</div> <div class="verse">And Love the windows dim hath painted o’er</div> <div class="verse">With dreams of dear delight, that wax and wane</div> </div></div> <h3>XLIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“From morn to eve, as through the glowing glass</div> <div class="verse">His vital sun transfigures, as they pass,</div> <div class="verse">Those visionary joys, and hopes, and fears</div> <div class="verse">That mask Life’s face—a dream itself, alas!”</div> </div></div> <h3>XLIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">But ere they ceased a fairer one forth came,</div> <div class="verse">With cup of welcome and with torch aflame,</div> <div class="verse">In floating raiment soft, and radiant hair,</div> <div class="verse">And thus she sang, each captive sense to claim:—</div> </div></div> <h3>XLV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Dream on, O soul, or sleep and take thy rest,</div> <div class="verse">The feast is spread however late the guest;</div> <div class="verse">Let passion drug the cup with secret fire,</div> <div class="verse">Till torturing thought be slain on pleasure’s breast.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XLVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Where all are masked thy mask shall be thy face,</div> <div class="verse">Call for the best life gives, and take thy place</div> <div class="verse">At Time’s long hostel board; cast off thy care,</div> <div class="verse">And rest you merry in dame Fortune’s grace.</div> </div></div> <h3>XLVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Vex not thy soul until the reckoning day,</div> <div class="verse">Though life be but the least thou hast to pay;</div> <div class="verse">Stand not too late on pleasure’s foaming brink,</div> <div class="verse">Nor yet, with sightless eld, outsit the play.</div> </div></div> <h3>XLVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“Time is thine host, and, ere the day grows old,</div> <div class="verse">To thee his story strange he shall unfold,</div> <div class="verse">Writ in a half-obliterated scroll,</div> <div class="verse">But pictured fair, and graven deep—behold!”</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</SPAN></span></p> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>XLIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">As though a new Pandora raised the lid,</div> <div class="verse">And let life’s mystery escape unbid,</div> <div class="verse">Broke sudden on my sight a wonder show,</div> <div class="verse">As through the portal dark I gazed, close hid:</div> </div></div> <h3>L</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">E’en like as one who sits expectant, dumb,</div> <div class="verse">At gaze before some world’s proscenium,</div> <div class="verse">When rolls the curtain from the painted stage,</div> <div class="verse">To see life’s play,—Past, Present, and To Come;</div> </div></div> <h3>LI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The drama of the earth before me rolled,</div> <div class="verse">The war of good and evil, new and old,</div> <div class="verse">The fight for very life, for space, for air,</div> <div class="verse">The sum and cost of Being, still untold.</div> </div></div> <h3>LII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Since when Time’s brooding bird did patient sit</div> <div class="verse">Upon her spherèd egg—the world, to wit,</div> <div class="verse">Potent with life, in ocean, earth, and air,</div> <div class="verse">Ere ever faun or flower did people it:</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Since when from countless germs life’s tree did grow</div> <div class="verse">From writhing worms about its roots below,</div> <div class="verse">From dragon-shapes that clasp its fossil stem,</div> <div class="verse">To bear love’s fruit, and human flowers arow.</div> </div></div> <h3>LIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Where Thought’s winged kind among its branches dwell,</div> <div class="verse">Still fertilized by Beauty’s potent spell;</div> <div class="verse">Cast and re-cast in Nature’s supple mould,</div> <div class="verse">Through death and change, and birth’s transforming cell.</div> </div></div> <h3>LV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">’Twas pictured here—with boughs outspread thro’ space,</div> <div class="verse">Blossomed with stars upon the sky’s swart face,</div> <div class="verse">With globing worlds for fruit, that cool or glow</div> <div class="verse">As night and day, like leaves their shadows chase.</div> </div></div> <h3>LVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Out of the dream of ages, sleeping fast,</div> <div class="verse">Out of the dim and unrecorded past,</div> <div class="verse">Out of the caverns of uncounted time,</div> <div class="verse">In life’s dark house Man saw the sun at last.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Inhuman Man, late come unto the birth,</div> <div class="verse">Wrapped in the swathing bands of mother Earth,</div> <div class="verse">Long his descent, his pedigree obscure,</div> <div class="verse">To his inheritance of strife and dearth.</div> </div></div> <h3>LVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">As from the ground the earth worm crawls to light,</div> <div class="verse">Speechless and blind, from antenatal night</div> <div class="verse">Man rose on earth, the bitter strife began—</div> <div class="verse">Man rose on earth, and craft did conquer might:</div> </div></div> <h3>LIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Since cruel Nature, careless of her child,</div> <div class="verse">Left him an outcast on the worldly wild,</div> <div class="verse">Cradled in space, and serpent-swathed in time,</div> <div class="verse">And rocked to sleep by death, or dream-beguiled.</div> </div></div> <h3>LX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">I saw him in his cradle at the first,</div> <div class="verse">With beasts and savage passions, rudely nursed,</div> <div class="verse">To snatch uncertain life from Nature’s hand,</div> <div class="verse">Niggard or prodigal, through best and worst;</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">He blindly bore the burden of his day</div> <div class="verse">With his dumb kindred of the primal clay,</div> <div class="verse">Whence drew his blood brute instincts, fiery lusts,</div> <div class="verse">That waste his substance still, and tear and slay.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">A babbling child he sits upon Time’s sand,</div> <div class="verse">To the mute sky he cries, he would command;</div> <div class="verse">Heedless he plays with serpents and with fire,</div> <div class="verse">With life—a toy in his unconscious hand.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yet hath he held it from that early day,</div> <div class="verse">Though Death did ever plot to snatch away,</div> <div class="verse">And snared his tottering steps with dangers thick,</div> <div class="verse">Prowling in countless shapes beside his way.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Sore was the strife, and little was life’s boon</div> <div class="verse">Between the toiling sun and wasting moon,</div> <div class="verse">With lurid pleasures fierce, and horrid rite,</div> <div class="verse">Blind day outworn, the long long sleep won soon.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Still Nature, prodigal, did cast his seed</div> <div class="verse">O’er frozen sea, or burning zone, to breed—</div> <div class="verse">Where hand or foot could cling, or heart could beat—</div> <div class="verse">Man’s kind on earth, since sprung to flower, or weed.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The rod of Want, the school of bitter Need,</div> <div class="verse">Taught him Life’s letters, still so hard to read:</div> <div class="verse">Use gave him skill, and skill new sense to use,</div> <div class="verse">He bent the bow, he bade the ploughshare speed.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Bread for his body and his soul he sought,</div> <div class="verse">Raiment to cloak him from the cold he bought</div> <div class="verse">Of ruthless nature, toiling brain and hand;</div> <div class="verse">Past all the gates of death his race he brought.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Lo! infant Thought and Art, Man’s children fair,</div> <div class="verse">First tottering from the cave, his primal lair;</div> <div class="verse">Babes in the world’s wood wandering, to and fro,</div> <div class="verse">To touch man’s sordid heart, and lift his care.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Since the first hunter graved his dirk and horn,</div> <div class="verse">Or in the shepherd state was music born—</div> <div class="verse">When Song lay dreaming in the whispering reed,</div> <div class="verse">Ere she discoursed unto the golden morn.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Born of life’s travail, Virtues, sweet, benign,</div> <div class="verse">Grew like fair daughters of a race divine—</div> <div class="verse">The pillars of Man’s house, before whose rod</div> <div class="verse">Evil and Good, as twisted snakes, untwine.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">But to his roof had fled pale palsied Fear,</div> <div class="verse">The child of Death and Night, but fathered there,</div> <div class="verse">And nursed by Ignorance beside the hearth</div> <div class="verse">To cloud his house with all her mystic gear.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Demon and fetish painted she to scare,</div> <div class="verse">And veils against the light did weave and wear;</div> <div class="verse">Yea, Art and Thought, man’s firstlings, fain would bind</div> <div class="verse">From birth to serve her will, her yoke to bear.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LXXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">So Man, held hand and foot, a slave behold</div> <div class="verse">Between the soldier-king and priest of old;</div> <div class="verse">By force and fraud bound fast as by two chains—</div> <div class="verse">How long, O Man, how long shall they thee hold?</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“How long?” again I cried,—but Silence kept</div> <div class="verse">Her finger on the lips of Hope: still slept,</div> <div class="verse">Like clouds upon the mountains, dreams untold,</div> <div class="verse">And Freedom on the tomb of ages wept.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yet, like a watcher by a beacon fire,</div> <div class="verse">Amid the lurid gloom and shadows dire,</div> <div class="verse">Wrapped in the cloak of darkness, fold on fold,</div> <div class="verse">I marked through flames portentous shapes aspire.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</SPAN></span></p> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>LXXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Slow streamed the progress vast of human kind,</div> <div class="verse">Out of the primal dark I watched it wind,</div> <div class="verse">Like a full river gleaming towards the sun,</div> <div class="verse">Crested with light, but lost in mists behind.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">I saw the towering crests of ancient state</div> <div class="verse">Arise and pass, and bow themselves to fate:</div> <div class="verse">Captors of men bound still to conquering Time,</div> <div class="verse">And in their triumph drawn to death’s dark gate.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Colossal Egypt on her car rolled by,</div> <div class="verse">Dragged by her crowd of slaves, with lash and cry;</div> <div class="verse">Who now, a slave herself, is bought and sold,</div> <div class="verse">And buried in the sand her pride doth lie.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Athens, supreme, with burnished helm and spear,</div> <div class="verse">In art and arms and wisdom shining clear,</div> <div class="verse">To other hands hath passed the lamp of life,</div> <div class="verse">And weep the muses o’er her sculptured bier.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LXXX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">There, clothed as with a robe with power and pride,</div> <div class="verse">Great Rome upon her triumph car did ride</div> <div class="verse">Over the necks of nations and of men,</div> <div class="verse">Unto whose broken wheel still souls are tied.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">All these I saw, as on time’s painted page</div> <div class="verse">The figure of man’s life from age to age</div> <div class="verse">Was figured, like his life of years and hours,</div> <div class="verse">And glassed his face—an infant or a mage.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">In boyhood bright beneath the Grecian sun,</div> <div class="verse">I saw him stand, intent his race to run—</div> <div class="verse">To touch the golden goal of thought and art,</div> <div class="verse">And daring all man since hath dared or done.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The apple of his life to Beauty’s hand</div> <div class="verse">Freely he gave, and she so dowered his land,</div> <div class="verse">That still that fond world takes it for her glass,</div> <div class="verse">And gazes, leaving knowledge and command.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LXXXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">In youth a mystic shadow o’er him fell:</div> <div class="verse">He touched the lover’s lute beneath the spell;</div> <div class="verse">He fought, a knight-at-arms, for lady’s grace;</div> <div class="verse">He prayed a monk austere in haunted cell;</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Till Nature roused him from his dreams again,</div> <div class="verse">And Reason broke the chains which bound him then;</div> <div class="verse">New knowledge, power, and beauty filled life’s cup,</div> <div class="verse">And rolled the round world to his manhood’s ken.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yet old before his time he sits, out-worn</div> <div class="verse">With words and wars, upon the seat of scorn;</div> <div class="verse">Weary of life’s vain round, love’s fruitless chase,</div> <div class="verse">False fortune’s whirling wheel, fame’s empty horn.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">For here, in living shape and semblance, shone</div> <div class="verse">The passions and the powers man’s soul hath won</div> <div class="verse">Through all his ages, like the starry signs</div> <div class="verse">Where through life’s year revolves the sleepless sun.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>LXXXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The pattern and the form of thoughts untold;</div> <div class="verse">The book of being wrought in runes of gold;</div> <div class="verse">The twisted net that holds all gain and loss</div> <div class="verse">The birth-clothes cover, or the shroud doth fold.</div> </div></div> <h3>LXXXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The moving tapestry of human date,</div> <div class="verse">Where lives for threads are crossed in love or hate,</div> <div class="verse">Between the narrow beams of dark and day—</div> <div class="verse">Time’s shifting loom, the toil of threefold fate.</div> </div></div> <h3>XC</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">At their eternal task the sisters dread,</div> <div class="verse">Who spin and weave and shear the slender thread</div> <div class="verse">With all its dyes, that doth sustain and fill</div> <div class="verse">This tangled web from pole to pole outspread.</div> </div></div> <h3>XCI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The arras that doth clothe the house of Time,</div> <div class="verse">Stained with the hues of all man’s bliss and crime:—</div> <div class="verse">The chequered pageant of the changing earth</div> <div class="verse">Still through its folds doth ever sink and climb:</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XCII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Along the street of days and nights where rolls</div> <div class="verse">The world’s car onwards and its throng of souls,</div> <div class="verse">Like captives in a conqueror’s triumph chained—</div> <div class="verse">Compelled by fortune’s wheel that none controls.</div> </div></div> <h3>XCIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The glittering triumph of youth’s golden dreams,</div> <div class="verse">And ardent manhood in the zenith, beams</div> <div class="verse">Of love, and fame, and power that guides the car,</div> <div class="verse">And slow-pulsed eld still warmed in their last gleams.</div> </div></div> <h3>XCIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Masqued with the masquers in that endless race</div> <div class="verse">The hours go by at grief’s or passion’s pace,</div> <div class="verse">And cloaked alike in poverty or pride,</div> <div class="verse">Through all life’s masks death shows his ashen face.</div> </div></div> <h3>XCV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The shadow clinging to the feet of life,</div> <div class="verse">As unto day doth cleave his silent wife—</div> <div class="verse">Sower and reaper in the self-same field—</div> <div class="verse">Twin spirits folded in immortal strife.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XCVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">There good and ill, brothers and bitter foes,</div> <div class="verse">Do strike the balance of man’s joys and woes;</div> <div class="verse">And in the traffic of the world’s exchange</div> <div class="verse">Oft ill as good, and good as evil goes:</div> </div></div> <h3>XCVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Two knights that battle for Truth’s painted targe,</div> <div class="verse">With flashing spears upon time’s river marge,</div> <div class="verse">Where, like the rushing waters, rise their steeds,</div> <div class="verse">And crash together in tremendous charge.</div> </div></div> <h3>XCVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Their broken harness lies upon time’s plain,</div> <div class="verse">Their wars’ receding tide doth cast the slain,</div> <div class="verse">As shifts the battle ground from age to age,</div> <div class="verse">And earth its grim memorials retain.</div> </div></div> <h3>XCIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">These things I marked, as in a moving show</div> <div class="verse">Before mine eyes life passed thro’ gloom and glow—</div> <div class="verse">The trappings and the garniture that decked</div> <div class="verse">This house of shadows still from room to room.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</SPAN></span></p> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>C</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Man was; man is; but who shall count the gain,</div> <div class="verse">Or measure out the sum of all life’s pain?</div> <div class="verse">So to the play my thought made interlude,</div> <div class="verse">And still to fate’s sad music sang refrain.</div> </div></div> <h3>CI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Man is, but who can count his being’s cost?</div> <div class="verse">Who metes the water from the pitcher lost?</div> <div class="verse">The squandered corn upon the sower’s path?</div> <div class="verse">Cast in time’s scale hath good or ill the most?</div> </div></div> <h3>CII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Each out of Babel answers for himself,</div> <div class="verse">As justice he doth love, or gilded pelf:</div> <div class="verse">Who in the school of ignorance should read</div> <div class="verse">Truth’s tattered book on thriftless nature’s shelf?</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Unlettered children, hopeless to the task,</div> <div class="verse">And dumb before life’s riddles, still we ask;</div> <div class="verse">But labour, sole, is answered—patient thought,</div> <div class="verse">And science still doth nature make unmask.</div> </div></div> <h3>CIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Ah! what is life?—A coin but stamped and cast</div> <div class="verse">Into time’s treasury, counted, weighed, and pass’d,</div> <div class="verse">Staked in the fateful race for weal or woe,</div> <div class="verse">And, gold or silver, changed for lead at last?</div> </div></div> <h3>CV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">While dread Necessity, great Nature’s nurse,</div> <div class="verse">Who rules man’s way for better or for worse,</div> <div class="verse">Still watching by death’s bed and birth’s doth sit</div> <div class="verse">To pour life’s blessing or to brand its curse.</div> </div></div> <h3>CVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Between the flickering lamps of day and night,</div> <div class="verse">Cloaked in her age-worn mantle care-bedight,</div> <div class="verse">Behold her shape, inexorable, vast—</div> <div class="verse">Blind arbitress o’er changeling wrong and right:</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Who pain, and bliss, and passion, hope, despair,</div> <div class="verse">Casts in life’s cup, she, cunning, mixes fair,</div> <div class="verse">And gives, as to a babe, man’s helpless lips,</div> <div class="verse">Drawing delicious poison unaware.</div> </div></div> <h3>CVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Then what is life? Well might we ask again—</div> <div class="verse">A spirit from the cup that fills the brain</div> <div class="verse">With teeming images of love and power,</div> <div class="verse">And high desires ’tis impotent to gain?</div> </div></div> <h3>CIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Protean life which man doth vain pursue</div> <div class="verse">From youth’s green meads to age’s mountains blue—</div> <div class="verse">The painted fly a breathless child doth chase—</div> <div class="verse">Through all its changing shapes to change but true:</div> </div></div> <h3>CX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">This quivering bubble, dyed with every stain</div> <div class="verse">Of splendour and of passion, why in vain—</div> <div class="verse">Ah! why?—It sails the summer air—</div> <div class="verse">An iridescent moment lost in rain?</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</SPAN></span></p> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>CXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">But still the cup is passed swift as of yore,</div> <div class="verse">As life each new come guest doth pledge and pour</div> <div class="verse">The priceless wine into the fragile glass,</div> <div class="verse">Once to the brim filled up, and filled no more.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Some drink with eager thirst; some waste their store,</div> <div class="verse">Or drop by drop still watch it shrinking sore;</div> <div class="verse">Some, ere the vital juice hath passed their lips,</div> <div class="verse">The frail cup shatter on the marble floor.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yet high the feast-tide rolled, and those who fell</div> <div class="verse">Few missed, nor empty long their place did dwell,</div> <div class="verse">For great the press is at earth’s table round,</div> <div class="verse">And still new streams that company doth swell.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Ah! bitter was the strife, and hot the breath,</div> <div class="verse">Of envy, hate, their smiling masks beneath,</div> <div class="verse">And baleful fires I saw in beauties’ eyes,</div> <div class="verse">And rosy ensigns veiled the cheek of death.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">While grovelled for the crumbs a famished crew,</div> <div class="verse">As starvèd hounds for what man careless threw,</div> <div class="verse">On wastrel bread and refuse fain to feed,</div> <div class="verse">Or none, as deadlier their struggle grew.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">For very life at all too dear a cost</div> <div class="verse">As slaves these toiled, while those as counters tost</div> <div class="verse">Their lives for gold, or gold for lives exchanged,</div> <div class="verse">Indifferent, so they did win, who lost.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">For those the roses, and for these the rue,</div> <div class="verse">In man’s unequal measures paid undue:</div> <div class="verse">Some murmured loud, some patient bore their fate—</div> <div class="verse">The poor were many, and the rich were few.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Most weary of the sordid throng I grew,</div> <div class="verse">And thence a little space apart withdrew,</div> <div class="verse">Weary of life, that it this thing should be,</div> <div class="verse">Nor other lot for man that hope foreknew.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">So to the portal dark I turned again,</div> <div class="verse">And there, as at the first, the Sisters twain—</div> <div class="verse">She who the fruitless garland hung aloft,</div> <div class="verse">She on the shattered stone that wept in vain.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">But in the forecourt flashed the fountain’s stream,</div> <div class="verse">The wintry tree beside its glittering beam</div> <div class="verse">Bore now a cloud of blossom, red and pale,</div> <div class="verse">As if bright spring had touched it in a dream.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</SPAN></span></p> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>CXXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Alone I stood in that still house of Time,</div> <div class="verse">All swept and bare it was as at the prime,</div> <div class="verse">And but the sea-wind peopled it with sighs,</div> <div class="verse">And, heard afar, the slow waves’ measured chime.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">I saw Time’s shape colossal rising stark</div> <div class="verse">Against the endless waves, receding dark</div> <div class="verse">Beneath a rising dawn that never rose</div> <div class="verse">Upon the sea, where yet would Hope embark.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yea! Hope arose and drew the painted veil</div> <div class="verse">Of things that are, and furled it like a sail,</div> <div class="verse">And on her gilded prow I stood at gaze</div> <div class="verse">On golden sands beyond the morning pale.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And from the face of Earth were drawn away,</div> <div class="verse">Like clinging mists that do obscure the day,</div> <div class="verse">The shadows and the fears which have oppressed</div> <div class="verse">Her children long beneath their baneful sway.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">As new created in her sculptured sphere,</div> <div class="verse">I saw her rise again translucent, clear,</div> <div class="verse">Robed in the kindling splendour of the sun,</div> <div class="verse">Renascent from the sea of crystal air,</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">That limpid broke on her rejoicing shore,</div> <div class="verse">Where life’s reviving stream welled evermore</div> <div class="verse">From Nature’s fount, through teeming veins that bred</div> <div class="verse">Man’s countless kin from one redundant core.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">I saw the dragons slain of lust and greed,</div> <div class="verse">Of gold and power, that waste to serve their need</div> <div class="verse">Poor human lives; and till earth’s fruitful fields</div> <div class="verse">With fire and sword, and bloody vengeance breed.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">No more the nations armed did lie and wait,</div> <div class="verse">Like bandits fierce, to spoil and desolate</div> <div class="verse">What each did hold most dear—no dogs of war</div> <div class="verse">At tyrant’s beck, let loose to maim and bait.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">No peoples blind by blinder leaders led</div> <div class="verse">Into the pit of shame, or daily fed</div> <div class="verse">Like swine on empty husks and sophistries,</div> <div class="verse">And frozen custom giving stones for bread.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">No selfish castes in internecine strife</div> <div class="verse">Fought like the beasts to win a worthless life;</div> <div class="verse">No ruthless commerce cheapened hope and health,</div> <div class="verse">Or held to slavish throats starvation’s knife.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXXI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">No rights usurped, against the common good</div> <div class="verse">Breathed out defiance, and the claims withstood</div> <div class="verse">Of labour and of life, where all by labour lived:</div> <div class="verse">No bonds were there but bonds of brotherhood.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXXII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">No temple-gloom obscured the lucent skies,</div> <div class="verse">Nor incense fume of faith’s dead sacrifice,</div> <div class="verse">No baneful toil made cities desolate</div> <div class="verse">With hellish smoke at morn and eve to rise.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXXXIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">No morbid anchorite with famished creed</div> <div class="verse">Would man persuade to sell his nature’s need</div> <div class="verse">Of joy—no fevered dream of future fate</div> <div class="verse">Would snatch life’s brimming cup, his human meed.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXXIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Not there blind dogma flung the bitter fruit</div> <div class="verse">Of discord, burning red, or hate uproot</div> <div class="verse">The flower of innocence, or fraud beguiled,</div> <div class="verse">Or force laid iron hands on man and brute.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXXV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">I saw regenerate Man, as stainless, free—</div> <div class="verse">A child again on mother Nature’s knee;</div> <div class="verse">His wistful eyes did scan the starry spheres,</div> <div class="verse">His hand outstretched to life’s new-flowering tree.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXXVI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The Ages kneeling at his feet did bear</div> <div class="verse">The treasure of their thoughts in caskets rare—</div> <div class="verse">The fire-tried gold of science, and the lore</div> <div class="verse">Of wisdom, bought with costly toil and care.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXXXVII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The thoughts each moment from the quivering brain</div> <div class="verse">That spring like flames, or, born with labour pain,</div> <div class="verse">Embodied there I saw—quick thronging spirits fair</div> <div class="verse">From whose inwoven wings light fell like summer rain.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXXVIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">And each in hand did bear the emblems bright</div> <div class="verse">Wherein do art and poesy delight,</div> <div class="verse">And mysteries of science, hid in time,</div> <div class="verse">Her wands of power and globes of knowledge-light</div> </div></div> <h3>CXXXIX</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">For, more than men, lives Man, through death alive;</div> <div class="verse">Slow moves the progress vast, still cry and strive</div> <div class="verse">New hopes, new thoughts for utterance and for act,</div> <div class="verse">And Use, and Strength, and Beauty yet survive.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXL</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yea, beauty’s image graven on the mind</div> <div class="verse">Beats with the pulse of life, in life enshrined;</div> <div class="verse">Irradiant she moves in love’s own flame,</div> <div class="verse">And joy with her, and the sweet graces kind.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXLI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Like Venus flashing from the lucent sea,</div> <div class="verse">Or, from the earth, the flower Persephone;</div> <div class="verse">She that was buried, lo! is born again,</div> <div class="verse">And time her resurrection brings to be.</div> </div></div> <h3>CXLII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Daughter of earth yet is not mortal she,</div> <div class="verse">Though time hath shook the blossoms from her tree,</div> <div class="verse">Her spring returns, her summer and her fruit,</div> <div class="verse">And Art by her hath Immortality.</div> </div></div> <hr class="tb" /> <h3>CXLIII</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">I saw, I heard no more, for sleep, like rain<br/> Fell soft at last upon my restless brain;<br/> For Sleep in all the pageant made the last,<br/> And with her poppies swept mine eyes again:</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>CXLIV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Yea, far upon her wings then I was borne<br/> All dreamlessly till, like a dream, the morn<br/> Broke on my sense and sight, and swift and loud,<br/> Day, like a hunter, blew his golden horn.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image128.jpg" width-obs="256" height-obs="300" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·FLORA’S·FEAST· ·A·MASQVE·OF·FLOWERS</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image129.jpg" width-obs="448" height-obs="180" alt="FLORA’S·FEAST·A·MASQVE·OF·FLOWERS" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HE sullen winter nearly spent,</div> <div class="verse">Queen Flora to her garden went</div> <div class="verse">To call the flowers from their long sleep,</div> <div class="verse">The year’s glad festivals to keep:</div> <div class="verse">And one by one each making bold</div> <div class="verse">Their silken vesture to unfold,</div> <div class="verse">And peeping forth to meet the sun,</div> <div class="verse">The long procession is begun:—</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The snowdrops, first upon the scene,</div> <div class="verse">White-crested braved King Frost’s demesne:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The little Crocus reaches up</div> <div class="verse">To catch a sunbeam in his cup:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Daffodil his trumpet blows,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</SPAN></span>And after spring a-hunting goes:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Anemones rode out the gale,</div> <div class="verse">Frail wind-flowers fluttered, red and pale:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Violet and the Primrose dame,</div> <div class="verse">With modest mien but hearts a-flame:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Green kirtled from the brooklet’s fold,</div> <div class="verse">The rustic maid Marsh Marigold:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The “Lady smocks all silver white”</div> <div class="verse">The milkmaids of the meadows bright,</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where shining Buttercups abound</div> <div class="verse">Among the Cowslips on the ground.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Here, Lords and Ladies of the wood,</div> <div class="verse">With shaking spear and riding hood:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Black knight-at-arms, the white-plumed Thorn;</div> <div class="verse">In pomp the Crown Imperial borne.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">While Tulips lift the banner red,</div> <div class="verse">Or fill their cups with fire instead:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sweet Hyacinths their bells did ring,</div> <div class="verse">To swell the music of the spring.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">With blazoned pennons from each spear</div> <div class="verse">The Iris and the Flag appear:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sweet masking May, in white or red,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</SPAN></span>Her snowy cloud of blossom spread:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And Chaucer’s Daisy, small and sweet—</div> <div class="verse">“Si douce est la Margarete.”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The little Lilies of the Vale,</div> <div class="verse">White ladies delicate and pale.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Great Peonies in crimson pride,</div> <div class="verse">And budding ones in green that hide:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Fair Columbines that drew the car</div> <div class="verse">Of Venus from her distant star:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And Love’s own flower, the blushing Rose,</div> <div class="verse">The Queen of all the garden close:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And Roses from the hedgerow wild,</div> <div class="verse">Behind their thorns that faintly smiled:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And from the cressy brook’s green side,</div> <div class="verse">“Forget-me-Not,” a small voice cried.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Here stately Lilies pale and proud,</div> <div class="verse">In vesture pure as summer cloud;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Or, burning like an orange flame,</div> <div class="verse">With torches borne aloft they came.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Monk that wears the Hood of blue,</div> <div class="verse">The Belles of Canterbury, too:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Wide Oxeyes in the meads that gaze</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</SPAN></span>On scarlet Poppy heads ablaze:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ere Evening Primrose lights her lamp,</div> <div class="verse">A beacon to the garden camp:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When Lilies of the Day are done,</div> <div class="verse">And sunk the golden westering sun:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Fresh Pinks cast incense on the air,</div> <div class="verse">In fluttering garments fringed and rare.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Their cousin from the corn in blue;</div> <div class="verse">Corn Marigold of golden hue.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The fond Convolvulus still clings,</div> <div class="verse">The Honeysuckle spreads his wings:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Hollyhock his standard high,</div> <div class="verse">Rears proudly to the autumn sky:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The blazing Sunflower, black and bold,</div> <div class="verse">Burns yet to win the sunset’s gold,</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">That, reddening on the Triton’s spear</div> <div class="verse">Foretells the waning of the year:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When Lilies, turned to Tigers, blaze</div> <div class="verse">Amid the garden’s tangled maze;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where still in triumph, stiff with gold,</div> <div class="verse">The rich Chrysanthemums unfold;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ere doth the floral pageant close</div> <div class="verse">With one last flower—a Christmas Rose.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">·FROM·HELLAS·HOMEWARD·</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image133.jpg" width-obs="497" height-obs="190" alt="FROM·HELLAS·HOMEWARD" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">F</span>ROM sea to sea our steamer glides,</div> <div class="verse">The Adriatic laves her sides,</div> <div class="verse">Her engines, deep pulsating, beat,</div> <div class="verse">A throbbing heart of fire and heat;</div> <div class="verse">Its freight of human hearts to bear</div> <div class="verse">With good and ill as time doth wear.</div> <div class="verse">Still changeful as the changing seas</div> <div class="verse">Beneath the wayward winds’ increase,</div> <div class="verse">Or like the bird that eastward flies,</div> <div class="verse">Our thoughts fare backward with our eyes</div> <div class="verse">Which still the blue Ægean holds;</div> <div class="verse">Round Grecian isles its cincture folds,</div> <div class="verse">Where on Sunium falls the light,</div> <div class="verse">And carves anew the columns white;</div> <div class="verse">Where the gulf of Nauplia fills</div> <div class="verse">The sculptured sides of Argos’ hills;</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</SPAN></span>And through their gates thrown back do show</div> <div class="verse">Fair gardens rich and trees arow,</div> <div class="verse">Where yet in waking dreams one sees</div> <div class="verse">The Apples of Hesperides,</div> <div class="verse">With but the gleaming scales between</div> <div class="verse">Of water in the sunsets’ sheen.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Past the twinkling lights that show,</div> <div class="verse">Like stars to mock celestial glow,</div> <div class="verse">And light us back to antique ground—</div> <div class="verse">To Tiryn’s buried ruins found,</div> <div class="verse">And Agamemnon’s house of old,</div> <div class="verse">With treasures of Mykenæ’s gold,</div> <div class="verse">Where stands the lion-guarded gate,</div> <div class="verse">To keep the city’s shattered state,</div> <div class="verse">Among the lonely hills forgot</div> <div class="verse">Of ages long, as it were not.</div> <div class="verse">Hill and dale dissolving glide,</div> <div class="verse">As the winged wheels swiftly slide,</div> <div class="verse">By Nemæan crags that still</div> <div class="verse">The legendary echoes fill.</div> <div class="verse">Or by Corinth’s fortressed steep,</div> <div class="verse">And shattered temple, still that keep</div> <div class="verse">The record of her ancient fame,</div> <div class="verse">Her glory past into a name.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What oracle from Delphi hear?</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</SPAN></span>What message from Apollo bear?</div> <div class="verse">Speaks no more the god of light?</div> <div class="verse">Doth he no word to men indite?</div> <div class="verse">Yea, day by day his arrows’ flight</div> <div class="verse">Behold! Dividing dark and bright,</div> <div class="verse">Till they strike Athena’s fanes—</div> <div class="verse">Still upon the rock she reigns,</div> <div class="verse">Though, alas! Her house of state,</div> <div class="verse">Empty is, and desolate:</div> <div class="verse">Fair still her shrine of marble shines,</div> <div class="verse">Whenas the sun-like moon defines</div> <div class="verse">With opal lights and shadows blue</div> <div class="verse">That well nigh build the temple new,</div> <div class="verse">Which day by day o’erlays with gold</div> <div class="verse">As in the sun’s bright flame of old.</div> <div class="verse">Many a morn and eve have we</div> <div class="verse">Watched him rise and set at sea,</div> <div class="verse">His foaming steeds with tossing crests</div> <div class="verse">Turn fire the watery way they breast,</div> <div class="verse">Where dolphins leaping drive the spray</div> <div class="verse">Before them in their wanton play.</div> <div class="verse">What if the ancient gods no more</div> <div class="verse">Are seen of men on sea or shore?</div> <div class="verse">What if a sterner creed and cold</div> <div class="verse">Did drive them from the Temple’s fold?</div> <div class="verse">Or pride of rule, or curse of gold,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</SPAN></span>With wasting care that makes youth old,</div> <div class="verse">Do blind men’s eyes to all save gain,</div> <div class="verse">And beauty pleads with them in vain?</div> <div class="verse">Though greed would all the earth degrade</div> <div class="verse">And see the world a market made,</div> <div class="verse">And drive the peasant from his soil,</div> <div class="verse">And lay the yoke of hopeless toil</div> <div class="verse">Upon the millions seeking bread,</div> <div class="verse">To art and love and beauty dead;</div> <div class="verse">Not all has gone while these have hold</div> <div class="verse">In some true hearts not bought and sold.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Though fallen, Aphrodité’s shrines</div> <div class="verse">Still through the opal wave she shines,</div> <div class="verse">Or, veiled in light doth sail the blue</div> <div class="verse">Where breaks the foam in iris hue;</div> <div class="verse">And still from dangerous rocks is heard</div> <div class="verse">The siren’s song Odysseus feared,</div> <div class="verse">Far wandering from his sea-girt home</div> <div class="verse">In Ithaca across the foam.</div> <div class="verse">The same stars shine above his head</div> <div class="verse">As watch us on our rocking bed;</div> <div class="verse">As turned his thoughts to child and wife,</div> <div class="verse">And homestead dear, and pleasant life;</div> <div class="verse">So, tossing on the houseless seas</div> <div class="verse">Sweet thoughts of home our hearts do please.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image136.jpg" width-obs="198" height-obs="51" alt="decoration: fish" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">RONDEAUS·RONDELS·&amp; TRIOLET·</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image137.jpg" width-obs="355" height-obs="389" alt="RONDEAUS·RONDELS·&amp; TRIOLET" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEAU—BEYOND THE VERGE</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">B</span>EYOND the verge of night dost sigh</div> <div class="verse">To watch the glow of reddening sky,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">While sleep the worldlings wrapt in grey</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of mist and dreams that round them play</span></div> <div class="verse">In semblance of reality?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thought’s craggy cliff is steep to try,</div> <div class="verse">That walls the future, yet Hope’s eye</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Doth catch the breaking beacon ray</span></div> <div class="verse">Beyond the verge.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now gleam and glance in gold array</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bright vanes on towers that meet half-way</span></div> <div class="verse">Like spears and torches held on high,</div> <div class="verse">And flashing as the wind sweeps by—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The herald’s fleet of that new day</span></div> <div class="verse">Beyond the verge.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEAU—THE OLD AND NEW</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HE Old and New together meet,</div> <div class="verse">Around the world, across the street,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">As neighbours, side by side, that grew;</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">As friends, or foes, as false or true,</span></div> <div class="verse">Whose tale the heedless hours repeat.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Two stems entwined to part and greet,</div> <div class="verse">From one root springing, bitter-sweet</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">With flower and fruitage, seed to strew,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Old and New.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Since, serpent-twined, their knowledge knew</div> <div class="verse">The heart of man, between the two,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">With clinging hands and winged feet</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">He stands the sport of Time’s deceit,</span></div> <div class="verse">The parti-coloured shield in view—</div> <div class="verse">The Old and New.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEAU—ACROSS THE FIELDS</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">A</span>CROSS the fields like swallows fly</div> <div class="verse">Sweet thoughts and sad of days gone by,</div> <div class="verse">From Life’s broad highway turned away,</div> <div class="verse">Like children thought and memory play,</div> <div class="verse">Nor heed Time’s scythe though grass be high.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Beneath the blue and shoreless sky,</div> <div class="verse">Time is but told when seedlings dry</div> <div class="verse">By love’s light breath are blown like spray</div> <div class="verse">Across the fields.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now comes the scent of fallen hay,</div> <div class="verse">And flowers bestrew the foot-worn clay,</div> <div class="verse">While summer breathes a passing sigh,</div> <div class="verse">As westward rolls the day’s gold eye,</div> <div class="verse">And Time with Labour ends his day</div> <div class="verse">Across the fields.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEAU—IN LOVE’S DISPORT</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span>N love’s disport, gay bubbles blown,</div> <div class="verse">On summer’s winds, light-freighted, flown;—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A child intent upon delight</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The painted spheres would keep in sight—</span></div> <div class="verse">Dissolved too soon in worlds unknown.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Lo! from the furnace mouth hath grown</div> <div class="verse">Fair shapes, as frail, with jewelled zone</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Clear globes which fate might read aright</span></div> <div class="verse">In love’s disport.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">O frail as fair! Though in the white</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of flameful heat with force to fight,</span></div> <div class="verse">Art thou by careless hands cast down</div> <div class="verse">Or killed—when frozen hearts disown</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The children born of love of light</span></div> <div class="verse">In love’s disport.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEAU—WHAT MAKES THE WORLD</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">W</span>HAT makes the world for you and I?</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 5em;">A space of lawn a strip of sky,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 6em;">The bread and wine of fellowship,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 6em;">The cup of life for love to sip,</span></div> <div class="verse">A glass of dreams in Hope’s blue eye.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">So let the days and hours still fly,</div> <div class="verse">Let Fortune flout, and Fame deny,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">With feathered heel shall fancy trip—</span></div> <div class="verse">What makes the world?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The wealth that never in the grip</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of blighting greed shall heedless slip—</span></div> <div class="verse">When bought and sold is liberty:</div> <div class="verse">With worth of life and love gone by,</div> <div class="verse">What makes the world?</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEAU—SEED-TIME</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HE field is wide, broadcast the seed</div> <div class="verse">Of human hope and human need,</div> <div class="verse">As, to and fro, from end to end,</div> <div class="verse">The furrows of the world ye wend</div> <div class="verse">Its legioned hungry mouths to feed.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Though lowering o’er the landscape bend</div> <div class="verse">The brows of winter, rains descend,</div> <div class="verse">And tempest sowings whirlwinds breed,</div> <div class="verse">The field is wide.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sowing, ye shall reap indeed</div> <div class="verse">Golden grain, or grisly weed,</div> <div class="verse">Or dragon’s teeth, that in the end,</div> <div class="verse">Perchance, in golden ears depend,</div> <div class="verse">Sunward, as our path doth lead,</div> <div class="verse">The field is wide.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEAU—A SEAT FOR THREE<br/><small>WRITTEN ON THE PANELS OF A SETTLE</small></h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">A</span> SEAT for three, where host and guest</div> <div class="verse">May side by side pass toast or jest;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And be their number two or three</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With elbow-room and liberty,</span></div> <div class="verse">What need to wander east or west?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A book for thought, a nook for rest,</div> <div class="verse">And meet for fasting or for fest,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In fair and equal parts to be</span></div> <div class="verse">A seat for three.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then give you pleasant company,</div> <div class="verse">For youth or eld a shady tree;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A roof for council or sequest,</span></div> <div class="verse">A corner in a homely nest,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Free, equal, and fraternally,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A seat for three.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEL—WHEN TIME UPON THE WING</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">W</span>HEN Time, upon the wing,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A swallow heedless flies,</span></div> <div class="verse">Love-birds forget to sing</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beneath the lucent skies:</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">For now belated spring</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With her last blossom hies,</span></div> <div class="verse">When time, upon the wing,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A swallow heedless flies.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What summer hope shall bring</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To wistful dreaming eyes?</span></div> <div class="verse">What fateful forecast fling</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before life’s last surprise</span></div> <div class="verse">When Time upon the wing,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A swallow heedless flies?</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RONDEL—THIS BOOK OF HOURS</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HIS Book of Hours Love wrought</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With burnished letters gold,</span></div> <div class="verse">Each page with art and thought</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And colours manifold.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">His calendar he taught</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To youths and virgins cold—</span></div> <div class="verse">This Book of Hours Love wrought</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With letters burnished gold.</span></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Love’s priceless book is bought</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With sighs and tears untold</span></div> <div class="verse">Of votaries who sought</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">His countenance of old—</span></div> <div class="verse">This Book of Hours Love wrought</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With letters burnished gold.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>TRIOLET</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span>N the light, in the shade,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">This is Time and Life’s measure;</span></div> <div class="verse">With a heart unafraid,</div> <div class="verse">In the light, in the shade,</div> <div class="verse">Hope is born and not made,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the heart finds its treasure</span></div> <div class="verse">In the light, in the shade—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">This is Time and Life’s measure.</span></div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</SPAN></span></p> <h2 class="faux">SONNETS</h2> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image149.jpg" width-obs="299" height-obs="359" alt="SONNETS" /></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</SPAN></span></p> <hr class="chap" /> <h3>AT SHELLEY’S GRAVE<br/> <small>WRITTEN IN THE PROTESTANT CEMETERY,<br/> ROME, APRIL 11, 1872</small></h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>READ softly! Here the heart of Shelley lies:</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">His grave a garden ’neath the cypress wood,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stirred with the tongues his spirit understood,</span></div> <div class="verse">And spake in deathless song that vivifies</div> <div class="verse">Men’s souls made heavy with the sad world’s cries,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still where the darkness hides the dragon brood</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of evil, and while yet innocent blood</span></div> <div class="verse">Is shed, and truth and falsehood change their dyes.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy voice is heard above the silent tomb,</span></div> <div class="verse">And shall be heard until the end of days,</div> <div class="verse">While Freedom lives, and whatsoever things</div> <div class="verse">Are good and lovely—still thy spirit sings,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And by thy grave to-day fresh violets bloom,</span></div> <div class="verse">But on thy head imperishable bays.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>THE VOICE OF SPRING</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span> HEARD the voice of Spring—I saw her look</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Out of the naked wood, and, on the green,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Traced the frail pattern of her steps unseen,</span></div> <div class="verse">Toward Winter’s house which he this day forsook:</div> <div class="verse">There she hath turned the leaves of Time’s sad book,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seeking the songs, well-nigh forgotten clean</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">By faltering birds in Winter’s dark demesne,</span></div> <div class="verse">O’erborne by bitter winds that none may brook.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Art thou so near! And we still all unmeet</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To give thee welcome? Due with service clear</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">From dull world’s slavery, and sordid taint,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The soil and rust of cities, spirits faint—</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">O fill us with new life, and give us cheer,</span></div> <div class="verse">Whom life’s best gifts—Art, Love, and Freedom greet.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>A DAY IN EARLY SPRING</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HOU art the bride of Light, most glorious morn!</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Issuing to meet thy lord—thy crystal gate</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flung wide by flame-winged hours—where he doth wait</span></div> <div class="verse">Till from thy face the æthereal veil be torn:</div> <div class="verse">Clothed in white splendour and thy train upborne</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">By silken handed airs in fluttering state,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With piping minstrels, joyful in thy fate,</span></div> <div class="verse">And still, before thee heard, Spring’s herald horn.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thy silver feet have touched the sparkling grass,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where flowers are stars of light from heaven’s blue dome</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dropt in the noiseless night to pave thy floor:</span></div> <div class="verse">So, like a splendid vision, thou dost pass</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Between the pillars of the sun’s bright home,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Drawn in Time’s pageant to return no more.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>A NIGHT IN MAY</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">F</span>ROM eve’s lit casement turns reluctant day,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A lingering lover—dreaming of delights</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unseen, unknown, with summer scents and sights</span></div> <div class="verse">Scarce whispered through the modest green of May—</div> <div class="verse">Who yet beneath the dusk would kiss and play,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With mingled softness of mysterious lights,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With hidden sweets the silent hour requites,</span></div> <div class="verse">Ere from the west he sinks to night away.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But on the still grey eve what glory breaks!</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A glowing sphere between the trembling trees,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">As though the wondering world returning sees</span></div> <div class="verse">A silvern sun a softer day that makes,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ere this departs and his last song doth cease</span></div> <div class="verse">With his last breath that night’s enchantment takes.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>ILLUSIONS</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">I</span> STOOPED to drink of Life’s enchanted stream,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">From fair green meads and flowery marge of youth,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Athirst for love, for fame, and sight of truth,</span></div> <div class="verse">And, dreaming as I drank, all life did seem</div> <div class="verse">Fair as the pageant of a lover’s dream,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That hides the grim and sordid world uncouth;</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Till Time and change came by that know not ruth,</span></div> <div class="verse">And grief was left to watch Hope’s flickering beam.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">So from the bitter world I turned again,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To work, to sleep; but as in sleep I lay,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Truth touched me, and Hope said to me, “Arise!”</span></div> <div class="verse">Whom, waking, I beheld as visions vain</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">As dream-beguiled one looks with clouded eyes</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the breaking morn, nor knows it is the day.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>ON THE SUPPRESSION OF FREE SPEECH AT CHICAGO</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">W</span>ITH stifled voice who crieth from the West,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where sinks the ensanguined sun of Freedom, erst</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That spread her stainless wings, and sheltering nurst,</span></div> <div class="verse">From out all lands, the hunted and opprest?</div> <div class="verse">America! shrink not from thy new guest;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">For liberty was thine for best and worst:</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">How should her seed upon thy land be curst</span></div> <div class="verse">Till her false friends as traitors stand confest?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Doth Freedom dwell where ruthless Kings of gain,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like stealthy vampires, still on Labour feed,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Still free—to toil or starve on plenty’s plain?</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Then what of Labour’s hope—the will to be</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Equal, fraternal, knowing want nor greed,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Shrined in a peoples’ heart when states are free?</span></div> </div></div> </div> <div class="unindent"> <small>June, 1886.</small></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>FREEDOM IN AMERICA</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">W</span>HERE is thy home, O Freedom? Have they set</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thine image up upon a rock to greet</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">All comers, shaking from their wandering feet</span></div> <div class="verse">The dust of old world bondage, to forget</div> <div class="verse">The tyrannies of fraud and force, nor fret,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where men are equal, slavish chain unmeet,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor bitter bread of discontent to eat,</span></div> <div class="verse">Here, where all races of the earth are met?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">America, beneath thy banded flag</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of old it was thy boast that men were free</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">To think, to speak, to meet, to come and go.</span></div> <div class="verse">What meaneth then the gibbet and the gag</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Held up to Labour’s sons who would not see</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fair Freedom but a mask—a hollow show?</span></div> </div></div> </div> <div class="unindent"> <small>Oct. 7, 1887.</small></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>TO THE PRISONERS OF LIBERTY</h3> <div class="blockquot"> JOHN BURNS AND R. B. CUNNINGHAM GRAHAM, WHO SUFFERED FOR A BRAVE ATTEMPT TO MAINTAIN THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH AND PUBLIC MEETING IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE.</div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">W</span>HAT robe of honour doth the prison hide,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">What glory lines its stony cell and bare,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That, erst its tenants, forth in triumph fare?</span></div> <div class="verse">Bondsmen for Freedom, and the right denied</div> <div class="verse">By fraud and force, in legal mask that bide,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alike on Irish ground, or London’s square,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With violent hands on those, henceforth to bear</span></div> <div class="verse">The crest of battle on the people’s side.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What! must ye learn the lesson still so late</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">That they who suffer for the common good</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Stone walls confine not, and no chain doth hold,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blind Tyranny? Whom these, like men, withstood:</span></div> <div class="verse">Whose tenfold force flings back the iron gate,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whose names upon the reddening morn are scrolled.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <div class="unindent"> <small>February 22, 1888.</small></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>REMINISCENT</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">T</span>HROUGH seas of light above the opal blue</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Across the Adriatic sped our ship,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her long wake trailing towards the ocean’s lip,</span></div> <div class="verse">Far from the isles of Greece; in our fond view</div> <div class="verse">A vision bright that all our thoughts embue;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which from the Book of Days may never slip</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">But in the golden haze of memory dip,</span></div> <div class="verse">And its fresh youth continually renew.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It was my fortune late to tread upon</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The marble stairs of Athens’ sacred steep,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">To see its columned gate in moonlight sleep</span></div> <div class="verse">Beneath the shadow of the Parthenon,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fair still in ruin, though well Time might weep</span></div> <div class="verse">For Pallas fallen and her glory gone.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>OF HELLAS DEAD</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">M</span>ID wrecks of Hellas dead in marble state,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose relics whiten still Ægean’s shore,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gold treasuries of kings, Art’s precious ore,</span></div> <div class="verse">Cast up by Time’s slow waves to us so late:</div> <div class="verse">It reached me then these things to meditate—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">How fell such pillared state, how lost its lore?</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">What palsy touched the hand, what ate the core</span></div> <div class="verse">Of ancient life—why Hellas met such fate?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And so methought of nations now that sail</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the wings of commerce and of gold,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">With new-found force electric, iron and steam,</span></div> <div class="verse">To yoke fierce Nature’s neck; shall these avail</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">To save us, or our toil-wrung wealth redeem,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">If Freedom fair, and justice loose their hold?</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>TO THE HAMMERSMITH CHOIR</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">S</span>WEET voices broke my sleep on Christmas morn;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clear through the moonlit air their anthem rung,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of human hope and fellowship that sung,</span></div> <div class="verse">A mass for souls not dead but yet new born,</div> <div class="verse">A herald blast on Freedom’s silver horn,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">At dayspring on the brooding darkness flung,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With tidings of new joy in tuneful tongue,</span></div> <div class="verse">The marching song of workers travel-worn.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">As one in dreams I heard, and wondering rose;</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">E’en as the shepherds’ marvelling of old</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">To hear the angels quiring, and my blood</span></div> <div class="verse">Quickened to catch at last their stirring close,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">And so my heart took hope and courage good</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In thought of days to be in time untold.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <div class="unindent"> <small>Xmas, 1888.</small></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>RENASCENCE</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="big">A</span>RT, once an outcast in a wintry land,</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Far from the sun-built house where she was born,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Did wander desolate and laughed to scorn</span></div> <div class="verse">By eyeless men who counted gold like sand:</div> <div class="verse">Nor any soul her speech would understand—</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A friendless stranger in the city lorn,</span></div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Toil-grimed and blackened with the smoke upborne</span></div> <div class="verse">Of human sacrifice of brain and hand.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then Art, aweary, laid her down and slept</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beneath an ancient gate, and dreaming, smiled,</span></div> <div class="verse">For Hope, like spring, came full of tidings good;</div> <div class="verse">And Labour, huge and free, and Brotherhood</div> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Led her between them like a little child</span></div> <div class="verse">In time new born, to glad new life that leapt.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image163.jpg" width-obs="555" height-obs="652" alt="decoration" /></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image165.jpg" width-obs="109" height-obs="143" alt="colophon" /></div> <div class="copyright">CHISWICK PRESS:—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.</div> <SPAN name="endofbook"></SPAN> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />