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Sunken Garden and Other Poems

<hr class="full" /> <ANTIMG src="images/cover.jpg" width-obs="285" height-obs="450" alt="[image of the cover not available]" /> THE SUNKEN GARDEN This is the second book issued by the Beaumont Press 20 copies have been printed on Japanese vellum signed by the author and numbered 1 to 20 and 250 copies on hand-made paper numbered 21 to 270. This is No. 200. <h1> T H E     S U N K E N <big><big>G A R D E N</big></big> AND   OTHER   POEMS   BY WALTER   DE   LA   MARE </h1> <big>CONTENTS</big> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td> </td><td>Page</td></tr> <tr><td>THE LITTLE SALAMANDER</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">When I go free,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">9</td></tr> <tr><td>THE SUNKEN GARDEN</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">Speak not—whisper not;</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">10</td></tr> <tr><td>THE RIDDLERS</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">‘Thou Solitary!’ the Blackbird cried,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">11</td></tr> <tr><td>MRS. GRUNDY</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">‘Step very softly, sweet Quiet-foot,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">13</td></tr> <tr><td>THE DARK HOUSE</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">See this house, how dark it is</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">15</td></tr> <tr><td>MISTRESS FELL</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">‘Whom seek you here, sweet Mistress Fell?’</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">16</td></tr> <tr><td>THE STRANGER</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">In the woods as I did walk,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">18</td></tr> <tr><td>THE FLIGHT</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">How do the days press on, and lay</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">19</td></tr> <tr><td>THE REMONSTRANCE</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">I was at peace until you came</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">20</td></tr> <tr><td>THE EXILE</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">I am that Adam who, with Snake for guest,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">21</td></tr> <tr><td>EYES</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">O Strange Devices that alone divide</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">22</td></tr> <tr><td>THE TRYST</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">Why in my heart, O grief,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">23</td></tr> <tr><td>THE OLD MEN</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">Old and alone, sit we,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">25</td></tr> <tr><td>THE FOOL’S SONG</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">Never, no, never, listen too long,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">26</td></tr> <tr><td>THE DREAMER</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">O Thou who giving helm and sword,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">27</td></tr> <tr><td>MOTLEY</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">Come, Death, have a word with thee;</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">28</td></tr> <tr><td>TO E. T.: 1917.</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">You sleep too well—too far away,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">31</td></tr> <tr><td>ALEXANDER</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">It was the great Alexander,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">32</td></tr> <tr><td>FOR ALL THE GRIEF</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">For all the grief I have given with words</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">34</td></tr> <tr><td>FAREWELL</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">When I lie where shades of darkness</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">35</td></tr> <tr><td>CLEAR EYES</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">Clear eyes do dim at last,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">36</td></tr> <tr><td>MUSIC</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">When Music sounds, gone is the earth I know,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">37</td></tr> <tr><td>IN A CHURCHYARD</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">As children bidden to go to bed</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">38</td></tr> <tr><td>TWO HOUSES</td></tr> <tr><td class="indd">In the strange city of life</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">39</td></tr> <tr><td>COLOPHON</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">40</td></tr> </table> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE LITTLE SALAMANDER: TO MARGOT</h2> WHEN I GO FREE, I think ’twill be A night of stars and snow, And the wild fires of frost shall light My footsteps as I go; Nobody—nobody will be there With groping touch, or sight, To see me in my bush of hair Dance burning through the night. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE SUNKEN GARDEN</h2> SPEAK NOT—WHISPER NOT; Here bloweth thyme and bergamot; Softly on the evening hour, Secret herbs their spices shower, Dark-spiked rosemary and myrrh, Lean-stalked, purple lavender; Hides within her bosom, too, All her sorrows, bitter rue. </div> <div class="stanza"> Breathe not—trespass not; Of this green and darkling spot, Latticed from the moon’s beams, Perchance a distant dreamer dreams; Perchance upon its darkening air, The unseen ghosts of children fare, Faintly swinging, sway and sweep, Like lovely sea-flowers in its deep; While, unmoved, to watch and ward, ’Mid its gloom’d and daisied sward, Stands with bowed and dewy head That one little leaden Lad. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE RIDDLERS</h2> ‘THOU SOLITARY!’ the Blackbird cried, ‘I, from the happy Wren, Linnet and Blackcap, Woodlark, Thrush, Perched all upon a sweetbrier bush, Have come at cold of midnight-tide To ask thee, Why and when Grief smote thy heart so thou dost sing In solemn hush of evening, So sorrowfully, lovelorn Thing— Nay, nay, not sing, but rave, but wail, Most melancholic Nightingale? Do not the dews of darkness steep All pinings of the day in sleep? Why, then, when rocked in starry nest We mutely couch, secure, at rest, Doth thy lone heart delight to make Music for sorrow’s sake?’ </div> <div class="stanza"> A Moon was there. So still her beam, It seemed the whole world lay a-dream, Lulled by the watery sea. And from her leafy night-hung nook Upon this stranger soft did look The Nightingale: sighed he:— </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘’Tis strange, my friend; the Kingfisher But yestermorn conjured me here Out of his green and gold to say Why thou, in splendour of the noon Wearest of colour but golden shoon. And else dost thee array In a most sombre suit of black? “Surely,” he sighed, “some load of grief, Past all our thinking—and belief— Must weigh upon his back!” Do, then, in turn, tell me,—If joy Thy heart as well as voice employ, Why dost thou now, most Sable, shine In plumage woefuller far than mine? Thy silence is a sadder thing Than any dirge I sing!’ </div> <div class="stanza"> Thus then these two small birds, perched there, Breathed a strange riddle both did share Yet neither could expound. And we—who sing but as we can, In the small knowledge of a man— Have we an answer found? Nay, some are happy whose delight Is hid even from themselves from sight; And some win peace who spend The skill of words to sweeten despair Of finding consolation where Life has but one dark end; Who, in rapt solitude, tell o’er A tale as lovely as forlore Into the midnight air. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>MRS. GRUNDY</h2> ‘STEP VERY SOFTLY, sweet Quiet-foot, Stumble not, whisper not, smile not: By this dark ivy stoop cheek and brow. Still even thy heart! What seest thou?’ </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘High coifed, broad-browed, aged, suave yet grim, A large flat face, eyes keenly dim, Staring at nothing—that’s me!—and yet, With a hate one could never, no, never forget....’ </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘This is my world, my garden, my home, Hither my father bade mother to come And bear me out of the dark into light, And happy I was in her tender sight. </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘And then, thou frail flower, she died and went, Forgetting my pitiless banishment, And that Old Woman—an Aunt—she said, Came hither, lodged, fattened, and made her bed. </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘Oh yes, thou most blessed, from Monday to Sunday Has lived on me, preyed on me, Mrs. Grundy: Called me, “dear Nephew”; on each of those chairs Has gloated in righteousness, heard my prayers. </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘Why didst thou dare the thorns of the grove, Timidest trespasser, huntress of love? Now thou has peeped, and now dost know What kind of creature is thine for foe. </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘Not that she’ll tear out thy innocent eyes, Poison thy mouth with deviltries. Watch thou, wait thou: soon will begin The guile of a voice: hark!... “Come in, Come in!”’ </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE DARK HOUSE</h2> SEE THIS HOUSE, how dark it is Beneath its vast-boughed trees! Not one trembling leaflet cries To that Watcher in the skies— ‘Remove, remove thy searching gaze, Innocent, of Heaven’s ways, Brood not, Moon, so wildly bright, On secrets hidden from sight.’ </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘Secrets,’ sighs the night-wind, ‘Vacancy is all I find; Every keyhole I have made Wail a summons, faint and sad, No voice ever answers me, Only vacancy.’ ‘Once, once ...’ the cricket shrills, And far and near the quiet fills With its tiny voice, and then Hush falls again. </div> <div class="stanza"> Mute shadows creeping slow Mark how the hours go, Every stone is mouldering slow, And the least winds that blow Some minutest atom shake, Some fretting ruin make In roof and walls. How black it is Beneath these thick-boughed trees! </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>MISTRESS FELL</h2> ‘WHOM seek you here, sweet Mistress Fell?’ ‘One who loved me passing well. Dark his eye, wild his face— Stranger, if in this lonely place Bide such an one, then, prythee, say I am come here to-day.’ </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘Many his like, Mistress Fell?’ ‘I did not look, so cannot tell. Only this I surely know, When his voice called me, I must go; Touched me his fingers, and my heart Leapt at the sweet pain’s smart.’ </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘Why did he leave you, Mistress Fell?’ ‘Magic laid its dreary spell.— Stranger, he was fast asleep; Into his dream I tried to creep; Called his name, soft was my cry: He answered—not one sigh. </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘The flower and the thorn are here; Falleth the night-dew, cold and clear; Out of her bower the bird replies, Mocking the dark with ecstasies: See how the earth’s green grass doth grow, Praising what sleeps below! </div> <div class="stanza"> ‘Thus have they told me. And I come, As flies the wounded wild-bird home. Not tears I give; but all that he Clasped in his arms sweet charity; All that he loved—to him I bring For a close whispering.’ </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE STRANGER</h2> IN THE WOODS AS I DID WALK, Dappled with the moon’s beam, I did with a Stranger talk, And his name was Dream. </div> <div class="stanza"> Spurred his heel, dark his cloak, Shady-wide his bonnet’s brim; His horse beneath a silvery oak Grazed as I talked with him. </div> <div class="stanza"> Softly his breast-brooch burned and shone; Hill and deep were in his eyes; One of his hands held mine, and one The fruit that makes men wise. </div> <div class="stanza"> Wonderly strange was earth to see, Flowers white as milk did gleam; Spread to Heaven the Assyrian Tree Over my head with Dream. </div> <div class="stanza"> Dews were still betwixt us twain; Stars a trembling beauty shed; Yet—not a whisper comes again Of the words he said. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE FLIGHT</h2> HOW DO THE DAYS press on, and lay Their fallen locks at evening down, Whileas the stars in darkness play And moonbeams weave a crown— </div> <div class="stanza"> A crown of flower-like light in heaven, Where in the hollow arch of space Morn’s mistress dreams, and the Pleiads seven Stand watch about her place. </div> <div class="stanza"> Stand watch—O days no number keep Of hours when this dark clay is blind. When the world’s clocks are dumb in sleep ’Tis then I seek my kind. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE REMONSTRANCE</h2> I WAS AT PEACE UNTIL YOU CAME And set a careless mind aflame; I lived in quiet; cold, content; All longing in safe banishment, Until your ghostly lips and eyes Made wisdom unwise. </div> <div class="stanza"> Naught was in me to tempt your feet To seek a lodging. Quite forgot Lay the sweet solitude we two In childhood used to wander through; Time’s cold had closed my heart about; And shut you out. </div> <div class="stanza"> Well, and what then?... O vision grave, Take all the little all I have! Strip me of what in voiceless thought Life’s kept of life, unhoped, unsought!— Reverie and dream that memory must Hide deep in dust! </div> <div class="stanza"> This only I say,—Though cold and bare The haunted house you have chosen to share, Still ’neath its walls the moonbeam goes And trembles on the untended rose; Still o’er its broken roof-tree rise The starry arches of the skies; And ’neath your lightest word shall be The thunder of an ebbing sea. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE EXILE</h2> I AM that Adam who, with Snake for guest, Hid anguished eyes upon Eve’s piteous breast. I am that Adam who, with broken wings, Fled from the Seraph’s brazen trumpetings. Betrayed and fugitive, I still must roam A world where sin—and beauty—whisper of home. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oh, from wide circuit, shall at length I see Pure daybreak lighten again on Eden’s tree? Loosed from remorse and hope and love’s distress, Enrobe me again in my lost nakedness? No more with wordless grief a loved one grieve, But to heaven’s nothingness re-welcome Eve? </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>EYES</h2> O STRANGE DEVICES that alone divide The seër from the seen— The very highway of earth’s pomp and pride That lies between The traveller and the cheating, sweet delight Of where he longs to be, But which, bound hand and foot, he, close on night, Can only see. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE TRYST</h2> WHY IN MY HEART, O GRIEF, Dost thou in beauty bide? Dead is my well-content, And buried deep my pride. Cold are their stones, beloved, To hand and side. </div> <div class="stanza"> The shadows of even are gone, Shut are the day’s clear flowers, Now have her birds left mute Their singing bowers, Lone shall we be, we twain, In the night hours. </div> <div class="stanza"> Thou with thy cheek on mine, And dark hair loosed, shalt see Take the far stars for fruit The cypress tree, And in the yew’s black Shall the moon be. </div> <div class="stanza"> We will tell no old tales, Nor heed if in wandering air Die a lost song of love Or the once fair; Still as well-water be The thoughts we share! </div> <div class="stanza"> And, while the ghosts keep Tryst from chill sepulchres, Dreamless our gaze shall sleep, And sealed our ears; Heart unto heart will speak, Without tears. </div> <div class="stanza"> O, thy veiled, lovely face— Joy’s strange disguise— Shall be the last to fade From these rapt eyes, Ere the first dart of daybreak Pierce the skies. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE OLD MEN</h2> OLD AND ALONE, SIT WE, Caged, riddle-rid men; Lost to earth’s ‘Listen!’ and ‘See!’ Thought’s ‘Wherefore?’ and ‘When?’ </div> <div class="stanza"> Only far memories stray Of a past once lovely, but now Wasted and faded away, Like green leaves from the bough. </div> <div class="stanza"> Vast broods the silence of night, The ruinous moon Lifts on our faces her light, Whence all dreaming is gone. </div> <div class="stanza"> We speak not; trembles each head; In their sockets our eyes are still; Desire as cold as the dead; Without wonder or will. </div> <div class="stanza"> And One, with a lanthorn, draws near, At clash with the moon in our eyes: ‘Where art thou?’ he asks: ‘I am here,’ One by one we arise. </div> <div class="stanza"> And none lifts a hand to withhold A friend from the touch of that foe: Heart cries unto heart, ‘Thou art old!’ Yet reluctant, we go. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE FOOL’S SONG</h2> NEVER, NO, NEVER, listen too long, To the chattering wind in the willows, the night bird’s song. </div> <div class="stanza"> ’Tis sad in sooth to lie under the grass, But none too gladsome to wake and grow cold where life’s shadows pass. </div> <div class="stanza"> Dumb the old Toll-Woman squats, And, for every green copper battered and worn, doles out Nevers and Nots. </div> <div class="stanza"> I know a Blind Man, too, Who with a sharp ear listens and listens the whole world through. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oh, sit we snug to our feast, With platter and finger and spoon—and good victuals at least. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>THE DREAMER</h2> O THOU who giving helm and sword, Gav’st, too, the rusting rain, And starry dark’s all tender dews To blunt and stain: </div> <div class="stanza"> Out of the battle I am sped, Unharmed, yet stricken sore; A living shape ’mid whispering shades On Lethe’s shore. </div> <div class="stanza"> No trophy in my hands I bring, To this sad, sighing stream, The neighings and the trumps and cries Were but a dream—a dream. </div> <div class="stanza"> Traitor to life, of life betrayed— O, of thy mercy deep, A dream my all, the all I ask Is sleep. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>MOTLEY</h2> COME, Death, I’d have a word with thee; And thou, poor Innocency; And Love—a lad with broken wing; And Pity, too: The Fool shall sing to you, As Fools will sing. </div> <div class="stanza"> Ay, music hath small sense, And a tune’s soon told, And Earth is old, And my poor wits are dense; Yet have I secrets,—dark, my dear, To breathe you all: Come near. And lest some hideous listener tells, I’ll ring my bells. </div> <div class="stanza"> They’re all at war!— Yes, yes, their bodies go ’Neath burning sun and icy star To chaunted songs of woe, Dragging cold cannon through a mire Of rain and blood and spouting fire, The new moon glinting hard on eyes Wide with insanities! </div> <div class="stanza"> Hush!... I use words I hardly know the meaning of; And the mute birds Are glancing at Love From out their shade of leaf and flower, Trembling at treacheries Which even in noonday cower. Heed, heed not what I said Of frenzied hosts of men, More fools than I, On envy, hatred fed, Who kill, and die— Spake I not plainly, then? Yet Pity whispered, ‘Why?’ </div> <div class="stanza"> Thou silly thing, off to thy daisies go. Mine was not news for child to know, And Death—no ears hath. He hath supped where creep Eyeless worms in hush of sleep; Yet, when he smiles, the hand he draws Athwart his grinning jaws— Faintly the thin bones rattle, and—There, there; Hearken how my bells in the air Drive away care!... </div> <div class="stanza"> Nay, but a dream I had Of a world all mad. Not simple happy mad like me, Who am mad like an empty scene Of water and willow tree, Where the wind hath been; But that foul Satan-mad, Who rots in his own head, And counts the dead, Not honest one—and two— But for the ghosts they were, Brave, faithful, true, When head in air, In Earth’s clear green and blue Heaven they did share With Beauty who bade them there.... </div> <div class="stanza"> There, now! Death goes— Mayhap I’ve wearied him. Ay, and the light doth dim, And asleep ’s the rose, And tired Innocence In dreams is hence.... Come, Love, my lad, Nodding that drowsy head, ’Tis time thy prayers were said! </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>TO E. T.: 1917</h2> YOU SLEEP TOO WELL—too far away, For sorrowing word to soothe or wound; Your very quiet seems to say How longed-for a peace you have found. </div> <div class="stanza"> Else, had not death so lured you on, You would have grieved—’twixt joy and fear— To know how my small loving son Had wept for you, my dear. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>ALEXANDER</h2> IT WAS THE GREAT ALEXANDER, Capped with a golden helm, Sate in the ages, in his floating ship, In a dead calm. </div> <div class="stanza"> Voices of sea-maids singing Wandered across the deep: The sailors labouring on their oars Rowed, as in sleep. </div> <div class="stanza"> All the high pomp of Asia, Charmed by that siren lay, Out of their weary and dreaming minds, Faded away. </div> <div class="stanza"> Like a bold boy sate their Captain, His glamour withered and gone, In the souls of his brooding mariners, While the song pined on. </div> <div class="stanza"> Time like a falling dew, Life like the scene of a dream Laid between slumber and slumber, Only did seem.... </div> <div class="stanza"> O Alexander, then, In all us mortals too, Wax thou not bold—too bold On the wave dark-blue! </div> <div class="stanza"> Come the calm, infinite night, Who then will hear Aught save the singing Of the sea-maids clear? </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>FOR ALL THE GRIEF</h2> FOR all the grief I have given with words May now a few clear flowers blow, In the dust, and the heat, and the silence of birds, Where the lonely go. </div> <div class="stanza"> For the thing unsaid that heart asked of me Be a dark, cool water calling—calling To the footsore, benighted, solitary, When the shadows are falling. </div> <div class="stanza"> O, be beauty for all my blindness, A moon in the air where the weary wend, And dews burdened with loving-kindness In the dark of the end. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>FAREWELL</h2> WHEN I lie where shades of darkness Shall no more assail mine eyes, Nor the rain make lamentation When the wind sighs; How will fare the world whose wonder Was the very proof of me? Memory fades, must the remembered Perishing be? </div> <div class="stanza"> Oh, when this my dust surrenders Hand, foot, lip, to dust again, May these loved and loving faces Please other men! May the rusting harvest hedgerow Still the Traveller’s Joy entwine, And as happy children gather Posies once mine. </div> <div class="stanza"> Look thy last on all things lovely, Every hour. Let no night Seal thy sense in deathly slumber Till to delight Thou have paid thy utmost blessing; Since that all things thou wouldst praise Beauty took from those who loved them In other days. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>CLEAR EYES</h2> CLEAR EYES do dim at last, And cheeks outlive their rose. Time, heedless of the past, No loving-kindness knows; Chill unto mortal lip Still Lethe flows. </div> <div class="stanza"> Griefs, too, but brief while stay, And sorrow, being o’er, Its salt tears shed away, Woundeth the heart no more. Stealthily lave those waters That solemn shore. </div> <div class="stanza"> Ah, then, sweet face burn on, While yet quick memory lives! And Sorrow, ere thou art gone, Know that my heart forgives— Ere yet, grown cold in peace, It loves not, nor grieves. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>MUSIC</h2> WHEN music sounds, gone is the earth I know, And all her lovely things even lovelier grow; Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees, Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies. </div> <div class="stanza"> When music sounds, out of the water rise Naiads whose beauty dims my waking eyes, Rapt in strange dream burns each enchanted face, With solemn echoing stirs their dwelling-place. </div> <div class="stanza"> When music sounds, all that I was I am Ere to this haunt of brooding dust I came; While from Time’s woods break into distant song The swift-winged hours, as I hasten along. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>IN A CHURCHYARD</h2> AS children bidden to go to bed Puff out their candle’s light, Since that the natural dark is best For them to take their flight </div> <div class="stanza"> Into the realm of sleep: so we God’s bidding did obey; Not without fear our tired eyes shut, And wait—and wait—the day. </div> </div></div> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h2>TWO HOUSES</h2> IN THE STRANGE CITY OF LIFE Two houses I know well: One wherein Silence a garden hath, And one where Dark doth dwell. </div> <div class="stanza"> Roof unto roof they stand, Shadowing the dizzied street, Where Vanity flaunts her gilded booths In the noontide glare and heat. </div> <div class="stanza"> Green-graped upon their walls The ancient, hoary vine Hath clustered their carven lichenous stones With tendril serpentine. </div> <div class="stanza"> And ever and anon, Dazed in that clamorous throng, I thirst for the soundless fount that stills Those orchards mute of song. </div> <div class="stanza"> Knock, knock! nor knock in vain. Heart, all thy secrets tell Where Silence a fast-sealed garden hath Where Dark doth dwell. </div> </div></div> HERE ENDS THE SUNKEN GARDEN AND Other Poems by Walter De La Mare the Typography and Binding arranged by Cyril William Beaumont Printed on his Press in London and Published by him at 75 Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster Completed on the first day of December MDCCCCXVII <ANTIMG src="images/colophon.jpg" width-obs="150" height-obs="146" alt="" title="" /> The Binding has been executed by F. Sangorski and G. Sutcliffe <ANTIMG src="images/back_cover.jpg" width-obs="287" height-obs="450" alt="[image of the back cover not available]" /> <hr class="full" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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