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Sheaf of Verses

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <div class="transnote covernote"> <p>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> </div> <p class="center bigger">PRESS NOTICES</p> <p class="center big">"'TWIXT EARTH AND STARS"</p> <p>"Miss Radclyffe-Hall is a poet. She has a gift of expression always felicitous, not infrequently spontaneous, and her rhythms are really musical. Moreover, the level of her book is uniformly high. In writing of nature her intuition and sympathy are remarkable. Nearly every poem contains something which clings to your memory and sets you thinking.... The main note is vigorous, joyous youth, thankful for the right to exist in such a lovely world.</p> <p>"If Miss Radclyffe-Hall acquires a higher finish she may confidently look forward to taking her place among the poetesses of this country. It is not often one can so honestly recommend the public to buy a volume of poetry."—<cite>The Queen</cite>, 4th July, 1906.</p> <p class="mt2">"The author of ''Twixt Earth and Stars' has a real talent for versification, and the subjects chosen are all poetical, added to which she has real feeling and the power to express it. I am so charmed with this little book of poems that I cannot help recommending it to you, that you also may enjoy it."—<cite>The Lady</cite>, 5th July, 1906.</p> <p class="mt2">"A little book of short poems, most of which are very pleasant, being marked by sincerity and sweetness."—<cite>Evening Standard</cite>, 21st July, 1906.</p> <p class="mt2">"''Twixt Earth and Stars' is a dainty little volume of verse, some of which is of considerable merit."—<cite>Publisher and Bookseller</cite>, 28th July, 1906.</p> <hr class="chap" /> <h1><i>A SHEAF OF VERSES</i></h1> <hr class="chap" /> <p class="center pgbreak bigger">A SHEAF OF VERSES</p> <p class="center big">POEMS</p> <p class="center">BY</p> <p class="center big">MARGUERITE RADCLYFFE-HALL</p> <p class="center">AUTHOR OF "'TWIXT EARTH AND STARS"</p> <p class="center mt4 big">JOHN AND EDWARD BUMPUS LTD.<br/> 350 OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W.</p> <p class="center">MCMVIII</p> <hr class="chap" /> <p class="center pgbreak big">DEDICATED TO SAD DAYS AND GLAD DAYS</p> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>CONTENTS</h2> <div class="center"> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="toc"> <tr><td class="tdl vt"></td><td class="tdr vb smaller">PAGE</td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Kinship</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_1">1</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Moon's Message</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_2">2</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">On a Battle Field</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_4">4</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt"><span class="smcap">To</span> ——</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_6">6</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The All-Mother's Awakening</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_7">7</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Summer Thought</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_10">10</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Moth to the Flame</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_11">11</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Twilight Fancy</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_12">12</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Two Angels</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_13">13</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">In the Hardt Wald</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_15">15</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Quest of the White Heather</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_18">18</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">One Night</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_21">21</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Welcome</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_22">22</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">White Butterflies</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_23">23</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Thoughts</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_26">26</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Cloud and the Mountain</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_27">27</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">An August Night</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_29">29</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Spring Hopes</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_30">30</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">My Choice</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_31">31</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">In Couples</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_32">32</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">House Hunting</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_33">33</SPAN><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</SPAN></span></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Re-incarnation</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_35">35</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Ode to Sappho</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_36">36</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Incompatible</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_39">39</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Confidence</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_41">41</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Found Wanting</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_43">43</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">In Darkness</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_44">44</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Brother Filippo</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_45">45</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">An Autumn Ride</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_52">52</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Before Dawn</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_56">56</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">My Castle</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_57">57</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Malvern</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_58">58</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">To my little Cousin</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_60">60</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Trepidation</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_61">61</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">At Meissen</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_62">62</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Winter on the Zuyder Zee</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_64">64</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Ardour</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_67">67</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Complaint</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_68">68</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Laying of Ghosts</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_69">69</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">To a Baby</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_72">72</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">O Lady Mine</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_73">73</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Butterfly</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_74">74</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt"><span class="smcap">To</span> ——</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_75">75</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Windy June</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_76">76</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Hollyhocks</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_78">78</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Truth</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_79">79</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Mountain Path</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_80">80</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Pearl Necklace</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_81">81</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">To Roses</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_82">82</SPAN><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</SPAN></span></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">On the Sea-shore</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_83">83</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">My Valley</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_84">84</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt"><span class="smcap">To</span> ——</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_85">85</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Finis</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_86">86</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Old Verses</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_91">91</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">On the Road to Tennaley Town</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_92">92</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A little Dirge</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_93">93</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Poet</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_94">94</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">A Night in Italy</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_95">95</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Hands and Lips</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_96">96</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">We Two</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_97">97</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt"><span class="smcap">To</span> ——</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_98">98</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">North and South</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_99">99</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">On the Hill Top</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_101">101</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Moon</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_102">102</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Speculation</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_103">103</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Meeting</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_104">104</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">To Some One!</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_105">105</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Out at Sea</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_106">106</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Faith</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_107">107</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">The Scar</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_108">108</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">Comparison</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_109">109</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td class="tdl vt smcap">An Interlude</td><td class="tdr vb"><SPAN href="#Page_110">110</SPAN></td></tr> </table></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A SHEAF OF VERSES</h2> <hr class="chap" /> <h2>KINSHIP</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sunlight and shade,</div> <div class="verse">Moorland and glade,</div> <div class="verse">Evening and day,</div> <div class="verse">Winter and May,</div> <div class="verse">Troubadour breeze,</div> <div class="verse">Amorous trees,</div> <div class="verse">Pondering Hills,</div> <div class="verse">Gold daffodils</div> <div class="verse">Born of the Spring,</div> <div class="verse">Thrushes that sing</div> <div class="verse">Passionate notes</div> <div class="verse">From downy throats,</div> <div class="verse">Be unto me</div> <div class="verse">Each one of ye</div> <div class="verse">Sister or brother;</div> <div class="verse">And Earth be my mother!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE MOON'S MESSAGE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Moon looked in at the window,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And smiled as I wrote to you,</div> <div class="verse">She lay like a frail white maiden,</div> <div class="verse indent2">In shadowy folds of blue.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Her bosom was bare and tender,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And slight, for she still was young,</div> <div class="verse">And down from her dainty shoulders</div> <div class="verse indent2">A mantle of starlight hung.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She wooed with a wanton ardour</div> <div class="verse indent2">The winds till they lulled to sighs,</div> <div class="verse">And night was transformed with beauty,</div> <div class="verse indent2">For love of her limpid eyes.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The soul of the cloudy darkness</div> <div class="verse indent2">Awakened beneath her beams,</div> <div class="verse">The sky swooned away with longing,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The Earth stirred in tender dreams.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Alas! for the moon was cruel,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Far colder than snow was she,</div> <div class="verse">Her heart was a burnt-out Planet,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Her light but a fallacy:</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And she looked at my open letter,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And called from her couch on high,</div> <div class="verse">"Pray give my love to my Sister</div> <div class="verse indent2">Who is even more cold than I."</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>ON A BATTLE FIELD</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Once o'er this hill whereon we stand,</div> <div class="verse">Just you and I, hand clasp'd in hand</div> <div class="verse indent2">Amid the silence, and the space,</div> <div class="verse">A mighty battle rent the air,</div> <div class="verse">With dying curse and choking prayer;</div> <div class="verse indent2">'Mid shot and shell death stalked apace.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Is it conceivable to you—</div> <div class="verse">So much at peace—because we two</div> <div class="verse indent2">Are close together, or to me?</div> <div class="verse">The silent beauty of the noon</div> <div class="verse">Seems like a Heaven-granted boon,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Aglow with tender ecstasy.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A little mist of hazy blue</div> <div class="verse">Is slowly hiding from our view</div> <div class="verse indent2">The city's domes and slender spires,</div> <div class="verse">As thro' a bridal veil the sun</div> <div class="verse">Subdued and shy lights one by one</div> <div class="verse indent2">The virgin clouds with blushing fires.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The wind has fallen; very low</div> <div class="verse">We hear his wings brush past, and know</div> <div class="verse indent2">He creeps away to dream and rest;</div> <div class="verse">How sweet to be alone, to feel</div> <div class="verse">You breathe one longing sigh, and steal</div> <div class="verse indent2">A little closer to my breast.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Is anything worth while but this?</div> <div class="verse">We may not perish for a kiss,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Yet thus it were not hard to die!</div> <div class="verse">War strews the earth with countless dead,</div> <div class="verse">And after all is done and said,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The end is love, and you and I!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO ——</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The world that thro' its vale of tears</div> <div class="verse">Looks out upon Eternity</div> <div class="verse">Has yet one smile for us, and we</div> <div class="verse">Still youthful in the count of years,</div> <div class="verse">May add our smiles, and kiss the lips</div> <div class="verse">Of life, for whosoever sips</div> <div class="verse">The wine within that ruddy bowl</div> <div class="verse">Has quaffed defiance to the spheres.</div> <div class="verse">Beloved, see, I drink thereto!</div> <div class="verse">And pass the goblet on to you.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE ALL-MOTHER'S AWAKENING</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">To-day the still, deep mind of the Earth</div> <div class="verse">Has steeped in longing her wistful eyes,</div> <div class="verse">A sense of wonder and glad surprise</div> <div class="verse">Thrills thro' her heart with a thought of birth.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The grave All-Mother looks up and smiles,</div> <div class="verse">Her breath comes balmy from sunlit mouth,</div> <div class="verse">Her bosom bare to the ardent south</div> <div class="verse">Is fanned by perfume from fruitful miles.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">All winter long has the dear Earth slept</div> <div class="verse">In drifts of snow, 'neath the bane of frost,</div> <div class="verse">Her children sought for the Mother lost,</div> <div class="verse">Yet found her not, and in anguish wept.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">All winter long have my senses cried</div> <div class="verse">For warmth of sun, and the blue of sky,</div> <div class="verse">The hard north answered to mock my sigh,</div> <div class="verse">And all the glory of life denied.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The cold mists drifting on land and sea,</div> <div class="verse">Like ghosts of passions burnt out and chill,</div> <div class="verse">Smote heart and soul with the fear of ill,</div> <div class="verse">That cast its awfulness over me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The dank gray sails, and the dank gray shore,</div> <div class="verse">They melted each in the other's face,</div> <div class="verse">With clammy kiss, in a wan embrace</div> <div class="verse">That left them colder than e'en before.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And thro' the boughs of the moss-grown trees</div> <div class="verse">The sap flowed sluggish, or not at all,</div> <div class="verse">While here and there would a dead leaf fall,</div> <div class="verse">Like thought of harrowing memories.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then from the heart of the Universe</div> <div class="verse">There rose a wail of unending woe,</div> <div class="verse">An anguished prayer from the deeps below:</div> <div class="verse">"Oh! Mother, lift from our souls the curse!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"Oh! Mother, quicken thy sacred womb,</div> <div class="verse">With fire that throbs in the veins of Spring,</div> <div class="verse">Behold the numbness of everything,</div> <div class="verse">And only thou can avert the doom."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"Oh! Mother, hear us!" But silent still</div> <div class="verse">The Earth slept on, as it were in death.</div> <div class="verse">Her ice-bound bosom stirred not with breath,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">So fast she lay 'neath the winter's will.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I joined my prayer to the wind and trees,</div> <div class="verse">I joined my cry to the striving soil,</div> <div class="verse">I said, "Oh! Mother, our endless toil</div> <div class="verse">Has made us sicken with miseries.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"Rise up! and help us again to live,</div> <div class="verse">Rise up! uncover thy fruitful breast,</div> <div class="verse">We faint in winter's unrestful rest,</div> <div class="verse">We burn with longings to love and give."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And as I spoke came a voice more strong</div> <div class="verse">Than all creation's, o'er land and sea</div> <div class="verse">It called our Mother to ecstasy,</div> <div class="verse">And lo! she stirred, who had slept so long.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She stirred, she opened her drowsy eyes,</div> <div class="verse">And bending down from the dome above,</div> <div class="verse">Beheld the form of embodied Love,</div> <div class="verse">As Spring stepped Earthward from Paradise.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A SUMMER THOUGHT</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I often think that all those vast desires</div> <div class="verse indent2">For purer joys, that thrill the human heart,</div> <div class="verse">Vague yearnings such as solitude inspires,</div> <div class="verse indent2">That nameless something silence can impart,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Could after all be quenched by simple things,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Whose spirits dwell within the wide-eyed flowers,</div> <div class="verse">Or haunt deep glades, where scent of primrose clings</div> <div class="verse indent2">About the garments of the passing hours.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>MOTH TO THE FLAME</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Moth to the flame!</div> <div class="verse">Fool that you be,</div> <div class="verse">Life's but a game,</div> <div class="verse">Love is the same,</div> <div class="verse">Better go free!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Moth to the fire!</div> <div class="verse">Madness your fate;</div> <div class="verse">Burnt of desire,</div> <div class="verse">If you expire,</div> <div class="verse">Joy comes too late.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Moth to the kiss</div> <div class="verse">Bringing you death!</div> <div class="verse">"Gladly for this</div> <div class="verse">Agonized bliss,</div> <div class="verse">With my last breath</div> <div class="verse">Will I adore</div> <div class="verse">As ne'er before!"</div> <div class="verse">Foolish Moth saith.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A TWILIGHT FANCY</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dear, give me the tips of your fingers</div> <div class="verse indent2">To hold in this scented gloom,</div> <div class="verse">'Mid the sighs of the dying roses,</div> <div class="verse indent2">That steal through the breeze-swept room;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I would have you but lightly touch me,</div> <div class="verse indent2">A phantom might stir the dress,</div> <div class="verse">In its passing, of some lost lover</div> <div class="verse indent2">With just such a faint caress;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Or a butterfly wan with summer</div> <div class="verse indent2">Brush thus with his down-flecked wings</div> <div class="verse">The bells of the altar lilies</div> <div class="verse indent2">He touches, and lightly rings.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">So give me the tips of your fingers,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Not your hand, lest I break the spell</div> <div class="verse">Of the moment with too much passion,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And lose what I love so well.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE TWO ANGELS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Once Youth and Innocence, side by side,</div> <div class="verse">With flaming swords at a garden gate</div> <div class="verse">Stood forth in silence, to watch and wait,</div> <div class="verse">Lest lust and evil their might defied.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Love's rarest fruits in that garden grew,</div> <div class="verse">And lo! a Pilgrim of pain and sin</div> <div class="verse">Grown tired, would gladly have entered in,</div> <div class="verse">And washed his soul in the gleaming dew.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He looked at Youth, and the Angel said:</div> <div class="verse">"Behold me young, and behold me weak;</div> <div class="verse">If you but crush me, the joy you seek</div> <div class="verse">Shall quench desire on a rose-strewn bed,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"Yet oh! I pray you another hour,</div> <div class="verse">For should you enter this Holy place,</div> <div class="verse">My soul is given again to space,</div> <div class="verse">And I must die as a blighted flower."</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then all the sorrow and all the shame,</div> <div class="verse">That life had taught him to understand,</div> <div class="verse">Rose up, and fettered the Pilgrim's hand,</div> <div class="verse">And murmur'd: "Youth is a sacred name."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He looked at Innocence, nude and white,</div> <div class="verse">And all unconscious she met his gaze;</div> <div class="verse">Her eyes were soft as an evening haze,</div> <div class="verse">Her red lips fashioned to give delight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She sighed, "I know not the boon you ask,</div> <div class="verse">But Nature sent me to guard the way</div> <div class="verse">That leads to realms of Eternal day;</div> <div class="verse">I may not shrink from the Mother's task.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"Yet these fair limbs that are pure as snow,</div> <div class="verse">Should you but sully by thought or deed</div> <div class="verse">Must droop and fade as a broken reed,</div> <div class="verse">That every wind of the earth may blow."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then all the goodness that he had missed,</div> <div class="verse">Each dream of sweetness that passed him by,</div> <div class="verse">Rose up, and cried: "Thou shalt still deny</div> <div class="verse">Thyself"—and Innocence stood unkissed.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>IN THE HARDT WALD</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A road disused these many years,</div> <div class="verse indent2">O'er which the grass has grown</div> <div class="verse">Between two rows of silent pines,</div> <div class="verse">That stretch in straight, unbroken lines</div> <div class="verse indent2">Away to plains unknown.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Long ruts that passing wagons made</div> <div class="verse indent2">In days whose records die</div> <div class="verse">Form trenches for the frailer flowers,</div> <div class="verse">That timid of more open bowers</div> <div class="verse indent2">Secure in hiding lie.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And in those deep impressions there,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Where patient beasts have trod,</div> <div class="verse">With stems in dainty green array,</div> <div class="verse">And faces turned to meet the day,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Grow sprays of golden-rod,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">'Mid sunbeams slanting thro' the wood</div> <div class="verse indent2">The ardent Afternoon</div> <div class="verse">Steals like a lover fond, and dumb,</div> <div class="verse">Upon his mistress Earth, o'ercome</div> <div class="verse indent2">With many a tender boon;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And that she sooner shall respond</div> <div class="verse indent2">To his awakening fires,</div> <div class="verse">He summons from each fairy glade</div> <div class="verse">Wee winged things, to serenade</div> <div class="verse indent2">This nymph of his desires.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">So full of mystic power and life</div> <div class="verse indent2">Is this forgotten place</div> <div class="verse">That I may scarcely dare intrude</div> <div class="verse">My presence and my lighter mood,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Lest stepping I deface</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Some masterpiece of moss or bloom,</div> <div class="verse indent2">That Dryad hands have wrought,</div> <div class="verse">Perchance my very humanness</div> <div class="verse">May make this potent charm the less,</div> <div class="verse indent2">That solitude has taught.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I fear to tread upon a branch,</div> <div class="verse indent2">For if beneath my feet</div> <div class="verse">It breaks 'twould thus affright the bird</div> <div class="verse">Whose tender music I have heard</div> <div class="verse indent2">In yonder green retreat;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And who am I that I should dare</div> <div class="verse indent2">Gainsay the Noon's behest;</div> <div class="verse">Or penetrate this peaceful sphere,</div> <div class="verse">And bring an agony of fear</div> <div class="verse indent2">To some dumb creature's breast?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Within this forest night and day</div> <div class="verse indent2">An endless hymn of praise</div> <div class="verse">From out the heart of Nature wells,</div> <div class="verse">That once again perfection dwells</div> <div class="verse indent2">In her profanèd ways,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">That living green conceals the scars</div> <div class="verse indent2">Made by relentless man,</div> <div class="verse">While in the deepest sylvan glades</div> <div class="verse">Sound faint and far thro' emerald shades</div> <div class="verse indent2">The crystal pipes of Pan.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE QUEST OF THE WHITE HEATHER<br/> <small><span class="smcap">Schwartz Wald</span></small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I sought at dawn for the sweet white heather,</div> <div class="verse indent2">In hiding among the blue,</div> <div class="verse">The earth was warm with the summer weather,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The flowers still damp with dew.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I moved a stone with my foot in walking,</div> <div class="verse indent2">A lizard ran out in fear,</div> <div class="verse">Two tiny streams to each other talking</div> <div class="verse indent2">Complained that I came so near.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And all alone on the side of the mountain</div> <div class="verse indent2">I spoke to the new-born Day,</div> <div class="verse">Oh! help me to gather some rare white heather</div> <div class="verse indent2">Sweet Morning, show me the way!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A big stag beetle crawled close in wonder,</div> <div class="verse indent2">A grasshopper chirped of rain,</div> <div class="verse">A bee just pushing some flowers asunder</div> <div class="verse indent2">Buzzed loud in his vast disdain.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The pines swayed gently, as though with laughter,</div> <div class="verse indent2">They knew what I came to seek!</div> <div class="verse">A thistledown that the breeze ran after</div> <div class="verse indent2">Brushed lightly against my cheek.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And all alone on the side of the mountain</div> <div class="verse indent2">I spoke to the new born Day,</div> <div class="verse">Oh! help me to gather some rare white heather,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Sweet Morning, show me the way!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A trout jumped high with a rainbow shudder,</div> <div class="verse indent2">To see how the mortals look,</div> <div class="verse">Then swayed his tail like a silver rudder,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And swam away in the brook.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I think I heard all the Pixies saying</div> <div class="verse indent2">"No heather that's white you'll find!"</div> <div class="verse">I know I saw little Gnome-folk playing</div> <div class="verse indent2">Where shadowy boughs reclined—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And all alone on the side of the mountain</div> <div class="verse indent2">I spoke to the new born Day,</div> <div class="verse">O help me to gather some rare white heather,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Sweet Morning, show me the way!</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Alas! alas! for the fairy flower,</div> <div class="verse indent2">My feet grew weary in vain,</div> <div class="verse">I sought for luck thro' each sunlit bower,</div> <div class="verse indent2">To find it truant again.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then while I paused on the side of the mountain</div> <div class="verse indent2">The stillness was cleft apart,</div> <div class="verse">And Morning cried "He who seeks white heather</div> <div class="verse indent2">Must find it deep in his heart!"</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>ONE NIGHT</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I stood beside you in the dark,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And felt the magic of the night</div> <div class="verse">Steal o'er my senses, 'til they swooned,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And mists of passion dimmed my sight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The stillness made me dumb, those words</div> <div class="verse indent2">I dared not utter choked my breath,</div> <div class="verse">Each crushing each, as mad with life</div> <div class="verse indent2">They rose, to die a silent death.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My lips grew dry beneath the fire</div> <div class="verse indent2">Of kisses that they feign would give,</div> <div class="verse">And every pulse, with answering beat,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Throbbed in its eagerness to live.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A WELCOME</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dear Ghost, across a wind-swept sphere</div> <div class="verse">You wander back again to me,</div> <div class="verse">And I am not afraid, for see</div> <div class="verse">I bid you rest beside me here!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I press your icy lips to mine,</div> <div class="verse">Since you and I are almost one</div> <div class="verse">Can I condemn what you have done</div> <div class="verse">To render fruitless the divine?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Some day perchance our weary task</div> <div class="verse">May finish, and we two will stand</div> <div class="verse">Before the Maker, hand in hand,</div> <div class="verse">There will be much that we shall ask!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>WHITE BUTTERFLIES<br/> <small><span class="smcap">Schwartz Wald</span></small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The heat of the mid-day has smitten the forest-land dumb!</div> <div class="verse indent2">The mountains are closing their eyes in a languorous dream,</div> <div class="verse">The boulders stand stark, where the torrents once hastened to come,</div> <div class="verse indent2">For Earth in her passion is wholly consuming their stream.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The ardour and terror of living is rife in the air,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The air that is breathless, and stranger to motion or sound,</div> <div class="verse">A rapture so potent it seems near akin to despair</div> <div class="verse indent2">Is drawing the life-blood in mist, from the sun-ravished ground.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And out thro' this region grown tense with creation's desire,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Inconsequent, fragile as thistledown wafted by breeze,</div> <div class="verse">Two butterflies flutter, like snow-flakes that fall upon fire,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse indent2">Far into the flame-land, that stretches away from the trees.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">White butterflies, innocent-looking and soft as a sigh,</div> <div class="verse indent2">In quest of what blossoms, what mystical pleasures, who knows?</div> <div class="verse">Close one to the other they hover now low and now high,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Like thoughts that are breathed from the heart of an opening rose.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Vague spirits that drift o'er the infinite tide of the earth,</div> <div class="verse indent2">As jewels of foam, on the passion-torn breast of the sea,</div> <div class="verse">They know not the hour of their ending, the cause of their birth,</div> <div class="verse indent2">A moment of time or a year, they rejoice but to be!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Around them the problem of life, with its pain and its joy,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Impregnates the noon with a sense of some marvellous power,</div> <div class="verse">Above them, grown potent with strength to create or destroy,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse indent2">The shafts of the sun, that have smitten and withered the flower.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And still with frail bodies unmoved by the vastness of things</div> <div class="verse indent2">These fairy white butterflies flutter like spirits of light,</div> <div class="verse">They pause for an instant, then spreading their tremulous wings,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Fly into the infinite, fading away from my sight.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THOUGHTS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A drop of dew that on a rose-bud clings,</div> <div class="verse">A ray of sunshine in a world of Springs,</div> <div class="verse">A bird, who singing from some hidden tree,</div> <div class="verse">Is bathed in streams of endless melody,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">An open flower you trod on as you passed,</div> <div class="verse">The purple shadow that your passing cast,</div> <div class="verse">A breath of wind that lingered on your brow,</div> <div class="verse">An emerald leaf fresh shaken from the bough,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A smile of hope on lips that you delight,</div> <div class="verse">A grateful word from one whom you requite</div> <div class="verse">For some small service, or a little sigh</div> <div class="verse">That fans your senses as it flutters by,</div> <div class="verse">These things to you how much they mean!</div> <div class="verse">While I?...</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE CLOUD AND THE MOUNTAIN</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A little white Cloud loved the Mountain,</div> <div class="verse indent2">She hung in the sky all day,</div> <div class="verse">And gazed with rather a timid smile</div> <div class="verse">To where, beneath her full many a mile,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The earth and the loved one lay.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Mountain was silent and lonely,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And grim in the light of dawn,</div> <div class="verse">And ever and aye he cast his eyes</div> <div class="verse">In longing hope to the distant skies</div> <div class="verse indent2">Where little white clouds are born.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Till a breeze in the evening passing</div> <div class="verse indent2">Took pity upon her vow,</div> <div class="verse">And very tenderly lifted down</div> <div class="verse">The virgin Cloud, till her fleecy crown</div> <div class="verse indent2">Was set on the Mountain's brow.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And they loved with a silent ardour</div> <div class="verse indent2">So great that she soon was slain,</div> <div class="verse">And drop by drop from her tender breast</div> <div class="verse">The life-blood flowed o'er his rock-bound crest,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse indent2">And fell to the earth in rain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But she left him to keep for ever,</div> <div class="verse indent2">As solace in endless woe</div> <div class="verse">Her soul, and now through the changing years,</div> <div class="verse">Come shine, come shade, or come smiles, or tears,</div> <div class="verse indent2">It lies on his breast as snow.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>AN AUGUST NIGHT</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Hot with the ardour of the sun,</div> <div class="verse">Whose burning lips had slain the noon,</div> <div class="verse">The golden pallor of the moon</div> <div class="verse">Was but an added fire, o'ercome</div> <div class="verse">With memories she swooned away,</div> <div class="verse">While I, grown weary with the day</div> <div class="verse">Sought on my balcony to find</div> <div class="verse">Some solace for my groping mind,</div> <div class="verse">But lo! the awful night was fraught</div> <div class="verse">With anguish, from the noontide caught;</div> <div class="verse">The dark was breathless, and the skies</div> <div class="verse">Filled with a thousand prying eyes</div> <div class="verse">But scoffed to see my soul's despair,</div> <div class="verse">And flung me back my tortured prayer.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>SPRING HOPES<br/> <small>SONG</small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dear, perchance 'neath the frost and snow</div> <div class="verse indent2">One little golden flower is sleeping,</div> <div class="verse">You shall find it, for you will know</div> <div class="verse indent2">Whither at dawn the sun goes peeping.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Come then sweetheart, we two will go</div> <div class="verse indent2">Hand in hand, and a truce to weeping,</div> <div class="verse">If, in spite of the winter's woe,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Safe in Nature's maternal keeping</div> <div class="verse">Under the frost rime and under the snow,</div> <div class="verse indent2">One little primrose is daintily sleeping.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>MY CHOICE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I have chosen a hill very solemn and tall,</div> <div class="verse indent4">To shelter me.</div> <div class="verse">I have chosen a home very humble and small,</div> <div class="verse indent4">Where I would be.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I have chosen a wind very fragrant and gay,</div> <div class="verse indent4">To kiss my mouth.</div> <div class="verse">I have chosen a view, stretching ever away,</div> <div class="verse indent4">When I look south.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I have chosen a glow that the sunlight shall bring</div> <div class="verse indent4">When morning calls.</div> <div class="verse">I have chosen a choir of the thrushes to sing</div> <div class="verse indent4">When twilight falls.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I have chosen a shrine where my spirit may pray,</div> <div class="verse indent4">Blessing its birth.</div> <div class="verse">I have chosen a breast where my head I can lay,</div> <div class="verse indent4">Sweet Mother Earth!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>IN COUPLES</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">There are two happy birds in the tree,</div> <div class="verse indent2">There are two happy stars in the sky,</div> <div class="verse">There are two happy waves in the sea,</div> <div class="verse indent2">There are two happy clouds drifting by,</div> <div class="verse">There are two happy mortals, since we</div> <div class="verse indent2">Are together, just you dear, and I.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>HOUSE HUNTING</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where shall we make us a cosy home,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Up in a high pine tree?</div> <div class="verse">Suppose the squirrel deserts his nest,</div> <div class="verse">And we could only grow small and rest</div> <div class="verse">Under the twigs, laid so daintily,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Up in the high pine tree!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where shall we build us a lovely house,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Under the Ocean deep?</div> <div class="verse">Suppose the fishes would swim away,</div> <div class="verse">And leave a palace of coral gay,</div> <div class="verse">With seaweed gardens where moonbeams sleep,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Under the Ocean deep!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where shall we find an enchanted spot,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Up in the fields of sky?</div> <div class="verse">Suppose the rainbow bends slowly down,</div> <div class="verse">And we walk over to Cloudy Town,</div> <div class="verse">Golden with beams from the morning's eye,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Up in the fields of sky!</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">How shall we live out our days, we two,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Safely where no harm parts?</div> <div class="verse">Suppose we fetter our lives with love,</div> <div class="verse">More fair than ocean, or skies above,</div> <div class="verse">And learn to dwell in each other's hearts,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Safely where no harm parts.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>RE-INCARNATION</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Meeting you I felt a thrill,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Strangely sad, and strangely sweet!</div> <div class="verse">Some compelling force of will,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Sprung from sympathies complete,</div> <div class="verse">Sympathies, that rose again</div> <div class="verse">After death's ennobling pain.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>ODE TO SAPPHO</h2> <div class="poetry-container smaller"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">If not from Phaon I must hope for ease,</div> <div class="verse">Ah! let me seek it from the raging seas:</div> <div class="verse">To raging seas unpitied I'll remove;</div> <div class="verse">And either cease to live or cease to love.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent16"><span class="smcap">Ovid's</span> <cite>Heroic Epistle</cite>, XV.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Immortal Lesbian! canst thou still behold</div> <div class="verse indent2">From some far sphere wherein thy soul doth sing</div> <div class="verse">This earth, that once was thine, while glimmered gold</div> <div class="verse indent2">The joyous beams of youth's forgotten spring?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Can thine unfathomed eyes embrace this sea,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Whose ebb and flow once echoed in thy brain?</div> <div class="verse">Whose tides bear record of thine ecstasy</div> <div class="verse indent2">And thy despair, that in its arms hath lain?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Those love-burnt lips! Can death have quenched their fire?</div> <div class="verse indent2">Whose words oft stir our senses to unrest?</div> <div class="verse">Whose eager ardour caught and held desire,</div> <div class="verse indent2">A searing flame against thy living breast?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Passion-wan Lesbian, in that awful place</div> <div class="verse indent2">Where spirits wander lost without a name</div> <div class="verse">Thou still art Sappho, and thine ardent face</div> <div class="verse indent2">Lights up the gloom with love's enduring flame.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! Goddess, woman, lover, all divine</div> <div class="verse indent2">And yet divinely mortal, where thou art</div> <div class="verse">Comes not as cadence from some song of thine</div> <div class="verse indent2">Each throbbing beat that stirs the human heart?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Canst thou forget us who are still thy friends,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Thy lovers, o'er the cloudy gulf of years?</div> <div class="verse">Who live, and love, and dying make amends</div> <div class="verse indent2">For life's short pleasures thro' death's endless fears?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Once thou didst seek the solace of thy kind,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The madness of a kiss was more to thee</div> <div class="verse">Than Heaven or Hell, the greatness of thy mind</div> <div class="verse indent2">Could not conceive more potent ecstasy!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Life was thy slave, and gave thee of her store</div> <div class="verse indent2">Rich gifts and many, yet with all the pain</div> <div class="verse">Of hopeless longing made thy spirit sore,</div> <div class="verse indent2">E'en <em>thou</em> didst yearn, and couldest not attain.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! Sappho, sister, by that agony</div> <div class="verse indent2">Of soul and body hast thou gained a place</div> <div class="verse">Within each age that shines majestic'ly</div> <div class="verse indent2">Across the world from out the dusk of space.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Not thy deep pleasures, nor thy swiftest joys,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Have made thee thus, immortal and yet dear</div> <div class="verse">To mortal hearts, but that which naught destroys,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The sacred image of thy falling tear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Beloved Lesbian! we would dare to claim</div> <div class="verse indent2">By that same tear fond union with thy lot;</div> <div class="verse">Yet 'tis enough, if when we breathe thy name</div> <div class="verse indent2">Thy soul but listens, and forgets us not.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>INCOMPATIBLE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">To-day I hate that bitter creed,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Whereby the groaning soul is taught</div> <div class="verse">That God Almighty finds the need</div> <div class="verse indent2">Of pain, ere true salvation's wrought!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dear God, who did create the trees,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The scented flowers, the misty view,</div> <div class="verse">The uplands' breezy ecstasies,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The Ocean's iridescent blue,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The arches of the endless sky,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The magic of a day in Spring,</div> <div class="verse">The down upon a butterfly,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The anthem that the skylarks sing.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">All perfect growing harmonies,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Each tuneful sound and beauteous sight,</div> <div class="verse">That lifts us from our miseries</div> <div class="verse indent2">To raptures of supreme delight,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Can I believe that Thou hast willed</div> <div class="verse indent2">Each bitter moment I have spent?</div> <div class="verse">Whereby in anguish were fulfilled</div> <div class="verse indent2">Thy hard decrees of punishment?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">To-day is June! Since early dawn</div> <div class="verse indent2">My heart has felt the sun's caress,</div> <div class="verse">I bless the hour that I was born</div> <div class="verse indent2">To witness so much loveliness.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And I would have a <em>God</em> of love,</div> <div class="verse indent2">A tender God, who looks and smiles</div> <div class="verse">From some not distant throne above</div> <div class="verse indent2">Upon His fair created miles.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I know not who has placed the thorns</div> <div class="verse indent2">That pierce, on our human brow,</div> <div class="verse">But I would pray on these sweet morns.</div> <div class="verse indent2">Dear God, Oh! Let it not be Thou.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>CONFIDENCE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The faintness of my heart</div> <div class="verse indent2">When strife and evil rose,</div> <div class="verse">The worse and lesser part</div> <div class="verse indent2">Which it for ever chose,</div> <div class="verse indent6">God knows.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The passions that have bound</div> <div class="verse indent2">My soul with chains of earth,</div> <div class="verse">The sorrows that have found</div> <div class="verse indent2">Their home with me since birth,</div> <div class="verse indent6">The dearth</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Of all these nobler things</div> <div class="verse indent2">That make existence fair,</div> <div class="verse">The stain of sin that clings</div> <div class="verse indent2">Until we cease to care</div> <div class="verse indent6">For prayer,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">All this must I atone:</div> <div class="verse indent2">And though eternal woes</div> <div class="verse">My banished soul alone,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Must bear without repose,</div> <div class="verse">Yet I am not afraid</div> <div class="verse">To know God knows.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>FOUND WANTING</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I turn'd to you, the sky was amber gold,</div> <div class="verse">Blue haze and flaming bracken stretched away</div> <div class="verse">In undulating mystery to the day,</div> <div class="verse">Reclining that the evening might behold</div> <div class="verse">And hide her softly 'neath his starlit wings.</div> <div class="verse">A trembling breeze caressed the nearer things</div> <div class="verse">About us, pausing now and then to play</div> <div class="verse">Within the tender shadows of your hair,</div> <div class="verse">Across the sky, like darts flung high in air</div> <div class="verse">A flight of swallows struck against the glow</div> <div class="verse">An instant, ere they melted quite away,</div> <div class="verse">Like thoughts consumed by passion, and the lay</div> <div class="verse">Of home birds grew emotional and low.</div> <div class="verse">My very soul came forth and sought your eyes,</div> <div class="verse">But in their depth no raptured awe took birth,</div> <div class="verse">You stood indifferent to the throb of earth,</div> <div class="verse">You gazed unseeing at the burning skies,</div> <div class="verse">And all it meant you could not realize!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent6">*       *       *       *       *</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A little shiver crept along my heart—</div> <div class="verse">For you and I were strangers, far apart.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>IN DARKNESS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! that the night were passed, and morn,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Made lovely by the joy of spring,</div> <div class="verse">Would flood these sombre clouds with dawn,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Oh! that some hopeful bird would sing,</div> <div class="verse">And in his tiny feathered throat</div> <div class="verse">Contain the answer vast, remote,</div> <div class="verse">My spirit seeks in endless spheres</div> <div class="verse">Of thought, and prayer, yet never hears!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>BROTHER FILIPPO</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ring on! Oh endless vesper bell!</div> <div class="verse">What can you know of that deep Hell</div> <div class="verse">Upon this Earth, where men may dwell.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ring on! Your calling is in vain,</div> <div class="verse">What holy rite can lull the pain</div> <div class="verse">Of mortal Sin's Immortal stain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent6">*       *       *       *       *</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It was the heavy hour of noon,</div> <div class="verse">When Nature still as in a swoon</div> <div class="verse">Reclines beneath the spell of June.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I left the Monastery gate,</div> <div class="verse">And sought the forest shade, to wait</div> <div class="verse">For even hour, and meditate.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Upon the beads hung from my side</div> <div class="verse">A silver Christus crucified.</div> <div class="verse">God mocked, and scourgèd, and denied!</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My missal in my hand I took,</div> <div class="verse">And read within the Holy Book</div> <div class="verse">How vain the joys a monk forsook.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I thought of Heaven, and all therein</div> <div class="verse">I hoped by penitence to win;</div> <div class="verse">My heart was free from mortal sin.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When lo! as of enchanted spheres</div> <div class="verse">A languid music smote my ears,</div> <div class="verse">With vast delight, and vaster fears.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It was as if all deadly wrong</div> <div class="verse">Grown honied sweet in magic song</div> <div class="verse">Caressed my senses, deep and long.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My eyes upon the missal bent</div> <div class="verse">Sprang upward, and in ravishment</div> <div class="verse">Beheld a gaze on me intent.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The figure of a tender maid,</div> <div class="verse">Within the larches' trembling glade</div> <div class="verse">Clothèd in sunlight and in shade—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Was bending o'er me, and her breast</div> <div class="verse">Full worthy of a King's behest</div> <div class="verse">She offered, that my head might rest.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She was most pale, and frail, and white,</div> <div class="verse">Like moonlit mist on Summer's night,</div> <div class="verse">Like memory of wan delight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And thro' the tendrils of her hair</div> <div class="verse">There blew a breath of scented air,</div> <div class="verse">Of all sweet things from everywhere.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A limpid magic were her eyes,</div> <div class="verse">Two mountain lakes, where sunlight lies</div> <div class="verse">Enamoured, and of passion dies.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">From out her lips proceeded words</div> <div class="verse">More soft than distant pipe of herds,</div> <div class="verse">More tender than the song of birds.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I know not what the tongue she spake,</div> <div class="verse">But all my senses leapt to ache</div> <div class="verse">With longing, for her asking's sake.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">As in a dream I rose and pressed</div> <div class="verse">Her bending slimness to my breast:</div> <div class="verse">With eager kiss my mouth caressed</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The flaming redness of her own,</div> <div class="verse">All else on earth had nothing grown,</div> <div class="verse">Save that we two were there alone.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Within my ears the rush of streams,</div> <div class="verse">My vision shot with lurid gleams,</div> <div class="verse">My spirit bathed in burning dreams!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A vital fragrance round her clung,</div> <div class="verse">As if from earth's deep veins was wrung</div> <div class="verse">The sap of springs for ever young.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It turned my blood to living fire,</div> <div class="verse">The universe immense, entire,</div> <div class="verse">Was bound in me, and my desire.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No mortal man was I, while still</div> <div class="verse">I kissed and wreaked my ardent will</div> <div class="verse">Upon that form of tender ill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She cast her magic over me,</div> <div class="verse">Her spell of Immortality,</div> <div class="verse">That lost my soul Eternity.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The sunlight faded, and the day</div> <div class="verse">As one affrighted fled away,</div> <div class="verse">Suddenly tremulous and gray.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">An icy wind sprang up, and blew</div> <div class="verse">A shuddering breath along the dew,</div> <div class="verse">It chilled my body thro' and thro'.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I sought the shelter of her hair,</div> <div class="verse">But lo! my sinful breast was bare,</div> <div class="verse">My arms outstretched to empty air.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I wept aloud, in anguish cried,</div> <div class="verse">The echoes hastened to deride!</div> <div class="verse">She came no longer to my side.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And in her stead, with agony</div> <div class="verse">Of dumb regret, most bitterly</div> <div class="verse">My soul came forth, and looked on me!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent6">*       *       *       *       *</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Within the forest's depth a bird</div> <div class="verse">Began to twitter, and I heard</div> <div class="verse">Trees stirring at its tender word.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I woke as from a searing dream,</div> <div class="verse">Beside my feet a little stream</div> <div class="verse">Grew rosy with a sunset beam.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The earth gave forth her fragrant store;</div> <div class="verse">Obedient to Eternal law,</div> <div class="verse">All things were even as before,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">All things save I, who moaned, and stood</div> <div class="verse">A stranger, in the tranquil wood.</div> <div class="verse">My spirit shrank away, nor could</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Refresh itself at Nature's breast,</div> <div class="verse">Its lips were burnt, defiled, caressed</div> <div class="verse">Of sin, unholy and unblessed!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I knew it then! fulfilled desires</div> <div class="verse">Are in themselves Hell's deepest fires,</div> <div class="verse">And man when highest he aspires</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The more may fall beneath his lust.</div> <div class="verse">And yet, ah! Heaven, the while I thrust</div> <div class="verse">My sense in penitential dust</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I knew that thro' my misery</div> <div class="verse">A tremor stole persistently,</div> <div class="verse">Of rapture at her memory.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Shall I confess with spirit bent</div> <div class="verse">That hour of awful ravishment?</div> <div class="verse">Dear God, but <em>should I not repent</em>?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">'Twere better that we two should die</div> <div class="verse">A thousand deaths, my soul and I,</div> <div class="verse">Than live an everlasting lie!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh soul! What would you have me say,</div> <div class="verse">To Him whose hand shall never stay</div> <div class="verse">Its vengeance on this woeful day!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent6">*       *       *       *       *</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ring on! oh endless vesper bell!</div> <div class="verse">What can you know of that deep Hell</div> <div class="verse">Upon this earth where men may dwell,</div> <div class="verse">And God, does He know? Who can tell——</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>AN AUTUMN RIDE<br/> <small><span class="smcap">Malvern</span></small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The world's a beautiful world to-day,</div> <div class="verse">A flame of gold and a dusk of gray,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where Autumn leaves toss their gaudy crests</div> <div class="verse">O'er still deep lanes, where the twilight rests.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Just overhead as I ride along</div> <div class="verse">A hopeful thrush charms his thought to song,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And all that's joyous within me springs</div> <div class="verse">To meet the promise of which he sings.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Away to Heaven the melting view</div> <div class="verse">Is soft with raptures of endless blue;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The trees and meadows, the hills and plains,</div> <div class="verse">Like music woven of countless strains</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Submerge, entwine, till the eye can see</div> <div class="verse">No shade that is not a harmony.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">As part of nature's most perfect whole</div> <div class="verse">Each humble object conceives a soul,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No tiny flower in the distance lost,</div> <div class="verse">But gives its colour, nor counts the cost;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No drop of dew, but its feeble ray</div> <div class="verse">An atom cast in the pearly gray</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Is shining there, unperceived, content,</div> <div class="verse">A dim star set in earth's firmament.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My horse treads gently, and makes scarce sound,</div> <div class="verse">His hoofs sink deep in the marshy ground,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Yet 'neath the touch of my curbing rein</div> <div class="verse">I feel the youth in his veins complain,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He lifts his head, and his eager eyes</div> <div class="verse">Gaze far away where the moorland lies,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He whinnies often, as though to say</div> <div class="verse">I would be free on this perfect day!</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He too is filled with a happiness</div> <div class="verse">His dumb soul treasures but can't express,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And in that gladness of wind and sun</div> <div class="verse">I know my beast and myself are one.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The way is lonely, no passer by</div> <div class="verse">Disturbs the stillness, my horse and I</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Possess the earth, and the rippling air</div> <div class="verse">Divine elixir to banish care</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Has brought new strength to my heart and mind,</div> <div class="verse">And swept all sorrowful things behind.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! Joy of living when youth is ours!</div> <div class="verse">Oh! Earth my Mother, thy fragrant bowers</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Could they be fairer if Angels trod</div> <div class="verse">Beneath their trees at the will of God?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Could fabled Heaven e'er compensate</div> <div class="verse">For one such day, when the year is late,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And all the Summer has come to dwell</div> <div class="verse">In long warm moments of dim farewell?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When skies are pale with the tears that bless</div> <div class="verse">The soil, in falling for happiness?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And winds are fragrant with scent that flows</div> <div class="verse">From out the bosom of some lone rose?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And brooks are drowsy with dusty gleams,</div> <div class="verse">And languid thoughts of their winter dreams?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The fields are vital, and nude, and gray</div> <div class="verse">With future promise of fruitful clay?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ah! no, my being could not believe,</div> <div class="verse">My heart desire, nor my soul conceive,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A world more perfect, more dear, more true,</div> <div class="verse">Than this fair Eden I'm riding through.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>BEFORE DAWN<br/> <small><span class="smcap">Malvern</span></small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I rose, ere yet the eager light</div> <div class="verse">Had wrested from the grasp of night</div> <div class="verse indent2">The trembling spirit of the world.</div> <div class="verse">The dusk of dawn with wistful eyes</div> <div class="verse">Stole timidly across the skies,</div> <div class="verse indent2">A little cloud its edges curled</div> <div class="verse">By passing winds sped soft and bright</div> <div class="verse">Towards some Eastern Paradise.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No bird was yet awake to sing,</div> <div class="verse">And silence kissing everything</div> <div class="verse indent2">Compelled my doubting soul to rest.</div> <div class="verse">While yet I slept a fall of snow</div> <div class="verse">Had whitened all the hills, and lo!</div> <div class="verse indent2">Above the nearest summit's crest,</div> <div class="verse">A pendent star, as though to bring</div> <div class="verse">God's blessing to His Earth below,</div> <div class="verse">Shone like a thought benign, and kind,</div> <div class="verse">Within the vast Eternal Mind.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>MY CASTLE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ah! why have I built my Castle</div> <div class="verse indent2">On the shifting golden sand?</div> <div class="verse">On the shores of the hungry ocean</div> <div class="verse indent2">Instead of the safe highland?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I ask myself, and I answer</div> <div class="verse indent2">These sands are the sands of youth,</div> <div class="verse">And these waves are the surfs of passion</div> <div class="verse indent2">Of life,—and of death forsooth!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And I know in my heart I'd rather</div> <div class="verse indent2">Exist for but one short day</div> <div class="verse">Where the breakers of life wash highest,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Love, live, and be swept away.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>MALVERN<br/> <small><i>July 23rd, 1906</i></small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Across the hills a tender shadow stole,</div> <div class="verse">Like thought upon the face of one loved well,</div> <div class="verse">And thro' the silence rang some distant bell,</div> <div class="verse">A vague sweet music in its every toll.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Glimmers of sunlight flecked with purple shade</div> <div class="verse">Upon the nearer summits, and the view</div> <div class="verse">Grown dim, unearthly, 'neath the silver-blue</div> <div class="verse">Of incense mist, that rose while nature prayed.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Two stars with tremulous emotion shone</div> <div class="verse">Close side by side, in the encircling dome,</div> <div class="verse">While drifting clouds, their edges soft as foam,</div> <div class="verse">Made couches, which the moon might rest upon.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">In thro' the open window came the scent</div> <div class="verse">Of lime trees, in the garden underneath,</div> <div class="verse">And from my cigarette a little wreath</div> <div class="verse">Of memories, to meet their fragrance went.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It was an evening full of bygone things,</div> <div class="verse">That mingled with emotions newly born</div> <div class="verse">As night will ever clasp and kiss the dawn,</div> <div class="verse">And leave those kisses on her ardent wings.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO MY LITTLE COUSIN</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">You're just as pretty as the Day,</div> <div class="verse">That young and pink above the hills</div> <div class="verse">Trips daintily along her way,</div> <div class="verse indent2">With little breezy thrills.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I know that when she steps to earth</div> <div class="verse">And sees the blueness of your eyes</div> <div class="verse">She'll think that thence she took her birth,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And quite desert the skies!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TREPIDATION</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">This valley now in sun, and now in shade,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Is like the musings of your tender mind,</div> <div class="verse">That pauses, bathed in joy, yet half afraid</div> <div class="verse indent2">To look before, and then to gaze behind.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Along the fragrant meadows slowly steal,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The pensive, drifting shadows, purple blue,</div> <div class="verse">As o'er your heart, that shrinks the while to feel</div> <div class="verse indent2">The kiss of promise wonderful and new.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Look upward, Child, to where across the skies</div> <div class="verse indent2">Float happy clouds, aglow with morning light!</div> <div class="verse">It is <em>their</em> shadow that before you lies</div> <div class="verse indent2">Upon the plain, and see, the clouds are white!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>AT MEISSEN<br/> <small><i>June 29th</i></small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Beneath the lime trees in the garden</div> <div class="verse indent2">High above the town,</div> <div class="verse">The scent of whose suspended bloom</div> <div class="verse">Entranced the air with warm perfume</div> <div class="verse">I stood, and watched the river flowing,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Flowing smooth and brown.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The heat of all the summer sunshine</div> <div class="verse indent2">Centred in the skies,</div> <div class="verse">Beneath its spell the city's towers</div> <div class="verse">Grew dreamy, and the climbing flowers</div> <div class="verse">Upon the balconies hung limply</div> <div class="verse indent2">Down, with closing eyes.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Some drowsy pigeons cooed together</div> <div class="verse indent2">On the nearer eaves,</div> <div class="verse">Gnats danced, and one big foolish bee</div> <div class="verse">Grown honey-drunk, bumped into me,</div> <div class="verse">And ere he buzzed a lazy protest</div> <div class="verse indent2">Fell amid the leaves.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A bell began to chime, I watched it</div> <div class="verse indent2">Swinging to and fro,</div> <div class="verse">It made a solemn, pious sound,</div> <div class="verse">While flippant swallows, darting round</div> <div class="verse">To peer within the ancient belfrey</div> <div class="verse indent2">Soared now high, now low.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Time passed, and still I stayed to ponder</div> <div class="verse indent2">Through the afternoon,</div> <div class="verse">Within my brain the golden haze</div> <div class="verse">Wrought magic musings, and my gaze</div> <div class="verse">Bent inward could behold no image</div> <div class="verse indent2">Save the form of June.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>WINTER ON THE ZUYDER ZEE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The world has grown unreal to-day</div> <div class="verse indent2">Far out upon the Zuyder Zee!</div> <div class="verse">We drift towards a mystic isle,</div> <div class="verse">With scarce a breath of wind the while.</div> <div class="verse">I hear the murmur of the tide,</div> <div class="verse">I hear you breathing at my side,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Far out upon the Zuyder Zee.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The drearness of this inland sea!</div> <div class="verse indent2">Doomed thus to lie eternally</div> <div class="verse">A fettered slave, grown old between</div> <div class="verse">The dykes and marshes low and green,</div> <div class="verse">Devoid of wind to stir the deep</div> <div class="verse">Forgotten heart, so long asleep,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Oh! sorrow-ladened Zuyder Zee!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">This awful hush engulfing things!</div> <div class="verse">The noon-tide hangs with outspread wings</div> <div class="verse">Above the ship, all motionless.</div> <div class="verse">The penitential sails confess</div> <div class="verse">Their sad inertness, damp and brown,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">From silent masts they ripple down</div> <div class="verse">Towards the lifeless Zuyder Zee.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I almost think that you and I</div> <div class="verse">Are floating on a haze of sky,</div> <div class="verse">This is an unknown sphere of dreams,</div> <div class="verse">Or else some region where the beams</div> <div class="verse">Of daylight that have died unblessed</div> <div class="verse">By some kind thought stray seeking rest,</div> <div class="verse">Along the wastes of Zuyder Zee.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">How strange to know that youth is ours!</div> <div class="verse">That do we choose a world of flowers</div> <div class="verse">And sunlight waiting to our hand</div> <div class="verse">Is calling for some gladder land,</div> <div class="verse">So easy to attain, yet lo!</div> <div class="verse">We drift amid the mist and woe</div> <div class="verse">Of winter on the Zuyder Zee.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Is there a subtle charm, when sad</div> <div class="verse">Despairing nature makes the glad</div> <div class="verse">Rejoicing spirit pause to think,</div> <div class="verse">Of those dim depths to which may sink</div> <div class="verse">The soul immortal? Where the mind</div> <div class="verse">May grow as sodden as a wind</div> <div class="verse">That dies upon the Zuyder Zee?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When all our loving and our will</div> <div class="verse">To love for ever can't fulfil</div> <div class="verse">Love's promises for age and death?</div> <div class="verse">That like a hushed, unwholesome breath,</div> <div class="verse">From off the marshes in the night</div> <div class="verse">Steals forth, and all our past delight</div> <div class="verse">Is colder than the Zuyder Zee?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The very thought that death is near</div> <div class="verse">Perchance makes life seem doubly dear,</div> <div class="verse">And love more urgent, since they two</div> <div class="verse">May some day fade away, and <em>you</em></div> <div class="verse">Become a spectral memory,</div> <div class="verse">Devoid of joy! and what of me</div> <div class="verse">Oh! wise, world-weary Zuyder Zee?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Your endless depth of stark despair</div> <div class="verse">But renders sunlit things more fair,</div> <div class="verse">But makes the craving heart more strong</div> <div class="verse">To grasp its pleasures, short or long,</div> <div class="verse">While yet it is To-day, nor wait</div> <div class="verse">Upon the will of doubtful fate,</div> <div class="verse">Lest all emotion rendered numb</div> <div class="verse">With long suppression should become</div> <div class="verse">As you are, soulless Zuyder Zee!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>ARDOUR</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The thought of you has filled the night with wonder,</div> <div class="verse indent4">The dawn with praise,</div> <div class="verse">Till all my senses thrill, like roses under</div> <div class="verse indent4">The morning's rays.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">This love of ours has clad with new-found splendour</div> <div class="verse indent4">The hills and streams,</div> <div class="verse">No forest glade but sighs of vast surrender,</div> <div class="verse indent4">In noontide dreams,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No star in heaven but grants a starry lover</div> <div class="verse indent4">Some tender boon,</div> <div class="verse">No drifting cloud but longs to clasp and cover</div> <div class="verse indent4">His lady Moon.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No song of bird that is not song of mating,</div> <div class="verse indent4">In sylvan shade,</div> <div class="verse">No sigh of wind that is not sigh of waiting</div> <div class="verse indent4">For bliss delayed.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The world itself a garden, where we wander</div> <div class="verse indent4">'Mid passion flowers,</div> <div class="verse">Or pause to kiss a while, and fondly ponder</div> <div class="verse indent4">This joy of ours.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A COMPLAINT</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! why let all these wingèd days slip past us!</div> <div class="verse">Will you not give me leave with those dear eyes,</div> <div class="verse">To taste the sweets of our new paradise,</div> <div class="verse">Beyond the outer dark where fate has cast us?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Must we for ever see the golden portal</div> <div class="verse">Yet ne'er in glad abandon enter in?</div> <div class="verse">Dear heart, if loving be so great a sin</div> <div class="verse">Why have the gods decreed that man be mortal!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And why were you created in their likeness,</div> <div class="verse">And why was I ordained to be your slave,</div> <div class="verse">If in the twilight I must dig a grave,</div> <div class="verse">Wherein to hide my heart from morning's brightness?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I tell you no! I will not leave untasted</div> <div class="verse">One drop of sweetness life may hold for me:</div> <div class="verse">Who scorns the present for eternity</div> <div class="verse">I count that soul a sorry fool and wasted.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE LAYING OF GHOSTS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! weary ghosts, be still!</div> <div class="verse">Sad spectres of long dead delights,</div> <div class="verse">Wan spirits of the days and nights</div> <div class="verse">Wherein of joy we drank our fill,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Lie deep beneath the sod of years.</div> <div class="verse">To-day, to-day is mine!</div> <div class="verse">Ye shall not blight its fragrant flowers,</div> <div class="verse">Nor mar the passing of its hours,</div> <div class="verse">That love has rendered all divine,</div> <div class="verse indent2">By woeful sighs and falling tears.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">This is the sphere of life,</div> <div class="verse">Wherein the long forgotten dead</div> <div class="verse">Unwelcome should forbear to tread,</div> <div class="verse">Within my veins hot blood runs rife,</div> <div class="verse indent2">But ye are colder than the grave!</div> <div class="verse">What would ye have of me?</div> <div class="verse">What price that penance did not pay,</div> <div class="verse">What sacrifice of human clay?</div> <div class="verse">Must my delight again set free</div> <div class="verse indent2">Be tethered to a witless slave?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">While still upon this earth</div> <div class="verse">Ye lived, and 'neath the joyous sun</div> <div class="verse">Were warm and fair to look upon,</div> <div class="verse">I blest the hour that gave ye birth,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And all my life laid at your feet.</div> <div class="verse">The homage of my youth</div> <div class="verse">I daily offered at your shrine,</div> <div class="verse">Nor counted dear those gifts of mine</div> <div class="verse">Which sapped the very strength of truth,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And left her poor and incomplete.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Nor did condemn the lust,</div> <div class="verse">The soul destroying tyranny,</div> <div class="verse">With which ye wrought my misery,</div> <div class="verse">For in my heart was endless trust,</div> <div class="verse indent2">My spirit, dauntless, knew no fear.</div> <div class="verse">Ye cry that ye were slain</div> <div class="verse">Alas! it was not I who slew,</div> <div class="verse">For all my hopes were buried too</div> <div class="verse">Within that hour of death and pain,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And there remained not e'en a tear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Nay, it was fate whose hand</div> <div class="verse">Upraised to strike the awful blow</div> <div class="verse">Decreed that ye must die, and go</div> <div class="verse">Lamented to that shadow land</div> <div class="verse indent2">Of lost illusions perished soon!</div> <div class="verse">Wherein the once-time-young</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Thro' countless ages seek, nor find,</div> <div class="verse">Their vanished youth; with wandering mind</div> <div class="verse">They sing the songs that once they sung,</div> <div class="verse indent2">But never may complete the tune.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Hence—hence! it is not yet</div> <div class="verse">The hour wherein I too must pass,</div> <div class="verse">The sand runs still within the glass,</div> <div class="verse">And I would live and fain forget</div> <div class="verse indent2">Those bygone things that once ye were.</div> <div class="verse">My lips have touched the rose,</div> <div class="verse">And in its perfumed breast the dew</div> <div class="verse">Has quenched my thirst; and lo! anew</div> <div class="verse">The petals of my heart unclose,</div> <div class="verse indent2">My pulses throb, my senses stir.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ye shall not steal this day,</div> <div class="verse">For love has risen to my aid,</div> <div class="verse">See, I am brave and undismayed!</div> <div class="verse">Hence—hence! all things must pass away,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Back to your graves, obscure and deep!</div> <div class="verse">I read aloud love's prayer,</div> <div class="verse">Lift not again your haunting eyes</div> <div class="verse">T'wards my new-found Paradise,</div> <div class="verse">Lie still beside my lost despair,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And I command you—Sleep, Sleep, Sleep!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO A BABY</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Baby, with those solemn eyes</div> <div class="verse indent2">And that yellow hair</div> <div class="verse">You are very, very wise,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Baby dear, I'll swear!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Give me, sweet, your chubby hand,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Whisper in my ear,</div> <div class="verse">Since you seem to understand</div> <div class="verse indent2">Much that is not clear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">If you'll sit upon my knee,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Baby, for awhile,</div> <div class="verse">All that's sad shall go from me,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Vanquish'd by a smile.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Very humbly will I learn</div> <div class="verse indent2">That which you can teach,</div> <div class="verse">Life's great problems, each in turn</div> <div class="verse indent2">Solved in lisping speech.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">You're so near to God, I feel</div> <div class="verse indent2">Poor and incomplete,</div> <div class="verse">Just as though I ought to kneel,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Dear, and kiss your feet.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>O LADY MINE<br/> <small><span class="smcap">Song</span></small></h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"O Lady mine!" one day I cried,</div> <div class="verse indent2">"Pray make for me a posy,</div> <div class="verse">That I may think when from your side</div> <div class="verse indent2">On your young mouth so rosy."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"Nay, gentle sir," the damsel said,</div> <div class="verse indent2">"The blossoms I deny you,</div> <div class="verse">But take my willing lips instead,</div> <div class="verse indent2">If they will satisfy you!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And then she kissed me where I stood,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And may the saints defend her—</div> <div class="verse">Ne'er grew a flower in field or wood</div> <div class="verse indent2">One half so sweet and tender.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>BUTTERFLY<br/> <small><span class="smcap">Song</span></small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Butterfly, butterfly, where are you going?</div> <div class="verse indent2">"Over the roses into the sky."</div> <div class="verse">Butterfly, butterfly, there is no knowing</div> <div class="verse indent2">When you'll come back again, so good-bye!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Butterfly, butterfly, summer is glowing,</div> <div class="verse indent2">But with the winter you too must die,</div> <div class="verse">And your frail soul will be gently blowing</div> <div class="verse indent2">Upward to God on a rose's sigh.</div> <div class="verse indent2">Butterfly, butterfly, butterfly!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO ——</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Our little love is newly born,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And shall I say good-bye?</div> <div class="verse">For if I go, perchance ere dawn</div> <div class="verse indent2">Our little love will die!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I'd better stay and help it grow,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Since it is yours and mine,</div> <div class="verse">Until this little love we know</div> <div class="verse indent2">Becomes a love divine.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A WINDY JUNE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The wind has shaken the lilac trees,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And scattered their purple bloom,</div> <div class="verse">The wind has harassed the honey bees,</div> <div class="verse">And robbed the flowers of their melodies,</div> <div class="verse">The wind has gathered a host of clouds,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And smitten the earth with gloom.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The wind has blown out the golden lights</div> <div class="verse indent2">That hang from laburnum boughs,</div> <div class="verse">Till nude and stripped of their past delights</div> <div class="verse">The branches sigh through the stormy nights,</div> <div class="verse">Like nuns who weep for their buried youth,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And murmur their mournful vows.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The wind has covered the hills with mist,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And hidden my favourite view,</div> <div class="verse">The wind has torn at my garden beds</div> <div class="verse">Where sad young roses have hung their heads,</div> <div class="verse">And ah! the pity, that one slim stem</div> <div class="verse indent2">Is withered, and snapped right through.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The wind has driven the birds afar,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The starling who reared her young</div> <div class="verse">Above the door in the empty cot</div> <div class="verse">Has flown away, and to-day there's not</div> <div class="verse">A single twitter from hungry throats,</div> <div class="verse indent2">One minstrel, of all who sung.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The wind has stolen the warmth of June,</div> <div class="verse indent2">So how shall I pass my time?</div> <div class="verse">I'll go indoors with my pen and book,</div> <div class="verse">Beside the fire seek a cosy nook,</div> <div class="verse">Then when I'm sure that he can't get in,</div> <div class="verse indent2">I'll write of his sins in rhyme!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>HOLLYHOCKS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I saw a row of hollyhocks,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Demure and stately-tall,</div> <div class="verse">They peep'd above a hedge of box,</div> <div class="verse">Like maidens in brocaded frocks,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Who nodded one and all.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Some dress'd in pink, and some in white,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And some in purple blue,</div> <div class="verse">They seemed abrim with gay delight,</div> <div class="verse">To beckon shyly, and invite</div> <div class="verse indent2">The passer-by to view.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A mottled thrush cast bold black eyes</div> <div class="verse indent2">Upon this fair array,</div> <div class="verse">He swell'd his little throat with sighs,</div> <div class="verse">And tender notes of glad surprise</div> <div class="verse indent2">He sang in wistful lay.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But ne'er a stately head was turned</div> <div class="verse indent2">Towards his lonely tree,</div> <div class="verse">Altho' with ardent words he burned,</div> <div class="verse">Those dainty maids for whom he yearn'd</div> <div class="verse indent2">Had only smiles for me.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE TRUTH</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! why is the world as it is, we ask,</div> <div class="verse">With tears in our voice, and a sigh:</div> <div class="verse">For nothing remains but an unfinished task,</div> <div class="verse">While beauty is only hypocrisy's mask,</div> <div class="verse">The end of it all—but to die.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Believe me, the world is a place full of joy,</div> <div class="verse">And happiness stretches afar:</div> <div class="verse">Alas! that the workings of man should destroy</div> <div class="verse">The meaning of God, with the deeds they employ,</div> <div class="verse">Oh! why are <em>we</em> all as we are?</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A MOUNTAIN PATH</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Alone upon the little path that led</div> <div class="verse indent2">Along the mountain-side towards the sun</div> <div class="verse">I pondered o'er those passions that are dead,</div> <div class="verse indent2">I counted all your kisses one by one;</div> <div class="verse">I spoke aloud the memory of each word</div> <div class="verse indent10">My heart had heard.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The scent of pines was heavy in the noon,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The air most happy with the song of streams,</div> <div class="verse">Above the forest hung an early moon,</div> <div class="verse indent2">But I was gazing at my perished dreams,</div> <div class="verse">And in that moment, while my soul was brave,</div> <div class="verse indent10">I dug their grave.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I folded each within a golden shroud,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Torn from the shining garments of my youth,</div> <div class="verse">I did not weep, but very gently bowed</div> <div class="verse indent2">My aching spirit to the yoke of truth,</div> <div class="verse">Then in the stillness of the fading day</div> <div class="verse indent10">I knelt to pray.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A PEARL NECKLACE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Go, cold white pearls, with your luring eyes,</div> <div class="verse indent2">The woman is waiting who longs to win</div> <div class="verse">But the rainbow light that within you lies,</div> <div class="verse indent2">But the soft cool touch of your satin skin.</div> <div class="verse">You are undefiled, and the price of sin</div> <div class="verse indent2">Has passed you by, what the heart denies</div> <div class="verse">Can your whiteness, fettered and bound within</div> <div class="verse indent2">This necklet's space, ever realise?</div> <div class="verse">You were snatched away from the deep, sad sea,</div> <div class="verse indent2">From the Mother's womb to the miser's pile;</div> <div class="verse">You are bartered now for a phantasy,</div> <div class="verse indent2">For the hopeless hope in a woman's smile.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO ROSES</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Roses, I hate you! since you still can bloom</div> <div class="verse">Contentedly, where living love is not!</div> <div class="verse">Can fling wan fragrance thro' this empty room,</div> <div class="verse">Lift languid petals shimmering 'mid the gloom</div> <div class="verse indent4">Where love is not.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Roses, I hate you! that you do not die</div> <div class="verse">Disconsolate, since love himself is dead.</div> <div class="verse">These ghosts of burnt-out kisses drifting by,</div> <div class="verse">Have they no power to hurt, to terrify,</div> <div class="verse indent4">Since love is dead?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And all these spectral words that haunt the air</div> <div class="verse">With hollow sounds, grown awful, meaningless!</div> <div class="verse">Can you still blossom passionately fair</div> <div class="verse">Within this region, frigid with despair?</div> <div class="verse indent4">Where all is dead?</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>ON THE SEA-SHORE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Can nothing last?</div> <div class="verse">No deep, intense emotion?</div> <div class="verse">Have all things passed,</div> <div class="verse">Can nothing last?</div> <div class="verse">"Yes," sighs the wind,</div> <div class="verse">"My passion for the Ocean</div> <div class="verse">Must always last."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Is nothing True?</div> <div class="verse">No words of protestation?</div> <div class="verse">Love cries anew</div> <div class="verse">"Is nothing True?"</div> <div class="verse">"Yes," sobs the sea,</div> <div class="verse">"My endless adoration</div> <div class="verse">For yonder rock is true!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Will nothing stand</div> <div class="verse">Against the stress of weather?</div> <div class="verse">Storms sweep the land,</div> <div class="verse">Will nothing stand?</div> <div class="verse">"Yes," says the rock,</div> <div class="verse">"For God and I together,</div> <div class="verse">We two will stand."</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>MY VALLEY</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! my valley of shade and dreams!</div> <div class="verse">Golden lights 'mid the distant blue,</div> <div class="verse">Sun that pauses to kiss the dew,</div> <div class="verse">Dew that trembles beneath its beams—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Fain were I but a bird above,</div> <div class="verse">Floating, drifting on waves of air!</div> <div class="verse">Ah! the life of the birds is fair,</div> <div class="verse">For they wing to the spheres they love.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And if I could but fly and sing</div> <div class="verse">Thro' the sweetness of this dear day,</div> <div class="verse">I would bring all the hope of May,</div> <div class="verse">To thy heart, that is wan for Spring.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO ——</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What a lonely little corpse our love is lying,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Very cold, and very still, and very drear!</div> <div class="verse">Yet he throbbed with passion there was no denying,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And we thought his every word divinely dear!</div> <div class="verse">Have we both grown old, that neither sheds a tear?</div> <div class="verse">Have our hearts grown dry perchance with too much sighing?</div> <div class="verse indent2">We are standing by the bed,</div> <div class="verse indent2">At the foot and at the head,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Very solemnly!——What, dearest, are you crying?</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>FINIS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And so we closed the book, wherein we wrote</div> <div class="verse">How many words of ecstasy and pain,</div> <div class="verse">How oft repeated passion's deep refrain,</div> <div class="verse">Like ebb and flow of tide, whose echo smote</div> <div class="verse">Upon the hearing of our listening sense.</div> <div class="verse">These pages will become the prey of years,</div> <div class="verse">And time, who stretches forth an envious hand,</div> <div class="verse">Shall make impossible to understand</div> <div class="verse">Our burning words, that shine with unshed tears,</div> <div class="verse">Ay, and we two may offer no defence!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The early mornings of awakening Spring</div> <div class="verse">That smote our inspiration and desire</div> <div class="verse">They still shall call, yet find no answering fire</div> <div class="verse">Within the eyes of two at least, who bring</div> <div class="verse">But wormwood, from the once so flowering path.</div> <div class="verse">And limpid winter twilights when we gazed</div> <div class="verse">Thro' frosted panes across the purpling snow,</div> <div class="verse">Or turned our eyes towards the cheerful glow</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Of logs, whose kindly voices cracked and blazed</div> <div class="verse">With invitation to the sheltered hearth—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">They too shall come in season as before,</div> <div class="verse">Yet we be absent, and within the room</div> <div class="verse">Our vacant places cast a little gloom;</div> <div class="verse">Then shall there fall a shadow on the floor,</div> <div class="verse">As of one passing, who is yet unseen.</div> <div class="verse">Perchance a pilgrim wind will pause to look</div> <div class="verse">Within this volume where our tale unfolds,</div> <div class="verse">And sorry at the text he there beholds,</div> <div class="verse">Rustle with sighs the vellum of this book,</div> <div class="verse">But leave no trace of where his breath has been.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Perchance a rose that through the casement bent,</div> <div class="verse">Might cast her ardent eyes upon this lay,</div> <div class="verse">And being touched, hide one soft leaf away</div> <div class="verse">Between its pages, out of sentiment,</div> <div class="verse">Then toss her wanton fragrance to the South.</div> <div class="verse">Aye, many roses shall be born to grace</div> <div class="verse">The garden, and the day will still rejoice,</div> <div class="verse">Yet never at the echo of thy voice,</div> <div class="verse">Nor shall a rose lift up its longing face</div> <div class="verse">That we may cool our lips upon its mouth.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And side by side with petals and with sighs,</div> <div class="verse">With overweening tenderness and trust,</div> <div class="verse">Shall rest the deadly layer of choking dust:</div> <div class="verse">A weary skull, its sockets bare of eyes,</div> <div class="verse">With grinning pathos from the title page</div> <div class="verse">Will bear stark record of its master Death.</div> <div class="verse">Sightless, yet seeing all Eternity,</div> <div class="verse">With silent voice that rings more truthfully</div> <div class="verse">Than any words we quickened with our breath</div> <div class="verse">More full of wisdom than the speech of sage.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">We two have loved, and have outlived the laws</div> <div class="verse">Of love, e'en as these bones survive their flesh</div> <div class="verse">With awful vigour gleaming strangely fresh</div> <div class="verse">Amid the ruin of their natal cause,</div> <div class="verse">A peg on which the gods may hang their wit!</div> <div class="verse">We two have cast each other in the flame</div> <div class="verse">Of searing passion, that we deemed was life.</div> <div class="verse">Alas! those fiery billows flowing rife</div> <div class="verse">Upon the sand, they have defaced love's name,</div> <div class="verse">And there remains no smallest trace of it.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And yet we live, and walk upon the earth,</div> <div class="verse">Beneath the pall of dusk the dome of dawn,</div> <div class="verse">And all created creatures being born</div> <div class="verse">Must do, and thus atone their hour of birth,</div> <div class="verse">A living sacrifice to what! Who knows?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Poor futile things, we make our little moan,</div> <div class="verse">And clasp our puny hands in useless prayers</div> <div class="verse">To that which neither wots of us nor cares,</div> <div class="verse">And in our grief behold, we stand alone,</div> <div class="verse">Till our complaining lips in anguish close.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My eyes shall still behold the stars above,</div> <div class="verse">And you, how oft will count the hosts of night,</div> <div class="verse">But never, never can we feel delight</div> <div class="verse">In them together, swearing that our love</div> <div class="verse">Is more enduring than eternal things!</div> <div class="verse">Oh! blessed madness that possessed the heart,</div> <div class="verse">Oh! sweet unreason that could cloud the mind,</div> <div class="verse">Alas! that we have left you far behind,</div> <div class="verse">And growing wise must lose the dearer part,</div> <div class="verse">Of which not even the faintest perfume clings.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What would we not surrender overjoyed,</div> <div class="verse">To hear once more the music that is still;</div> <div class="verse">We sweep the strings, but lo! no answering thrill</div> <div class="verse">From shattered harps, that eager hands destroyed,</div> <div class="verse">From souls whom ravishment has smitten dumb.</div> <div class="verse">Oh! for one hour snatched from the throbbing past,</div> <div class="verse">Replete with its embodied ecstasy!</div> <div class="verse">How little would we count Eternity,</div> <div class="verse">How ready be, to know that hour, our last,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">No matter what the penalty to come.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! bitterness, that we ourselves did write</div> <div class="verse">These pages with heart's blood, yet cannot feel</div> <div class="verse">To-day one little tremor o'er us steal</div> <div class="verse">Save of regret for so much past delight!</div> <div class="verse">The cup is spilt of which we two partook.</div> <div class="verse">For this last time, oh! once beloved, stay</div> <div class="verse">Close here beside me, while my drying pen</div> <div class="verse">Has still the strength to write our last Amen.</div> <div class="verse">'Tis written ... there is nothing left to say,</div> <div class="verse">And so together ... thus, we close the book.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>OLD VERSES</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I made a little funeral pyre,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And on it laid my youthful rhymes,</div> <div class="verse">Those thoughts of innocent desire,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Dear foolish words of childhood times.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Poor things they were, misspelt and crude,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Yet void of guile or vain pretence,</div> <div class="verse">They seemed like children thin and nude,</div> <div class="verse indent2">And unashamed through innocence.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And so, the while I struck the light</div> <div class="verse indent2">That should consume their humble bier</div> <div class="verse">I kissed them, and as funeral rite</div> <div class="verse indent2">I mingled with the flame a tear.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>ON THE ROAD TO TENNALEY TOWN<br/> <small><span class="smcap">Maryland</span>, U.S.A.</small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Over the hills to Tennaley Town,</div> <div class="verse">When the leaves are red, and the leaves are brown,</div> <div class="verse indent4">Under a limpid sky!</div> <div class="verse">Oh! it's good to be young to-day,</div> <div class="verse">Strong, and young, on this lonely way,</div> <div class="verse indent4">Happy my thoughts and I!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Far below where the mists are blue</div> <div class="verse">Runs the river, and damp with dew</div> <div class="verse indent4">Glimmers the golden corn,</div> <div class="verse">Crickets sing in the wayside grass,</div> <div class="verse">Beetles drone, as I pause and pass</div> <div class="verse indent4">On thro' the Autumn morn.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">"Winter's coming," the winds have said,</div> <div class="verse">Shall I weep for a time that's dead?</div> <div class="verse indent4">Foolish to weep, not I!</div> <div class="verse">Over the hills near Tennaley Town,</div> <div class="verse">When the leaves are red, and the leaves are brown,</div> <div class="verse">I'm here, alive, walking swiftly down,</div> <div class="verse indent4">Then what matters the by and bye!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A LITTLE DIRGE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What so dead as my love for you,</div> <div class="verse">What so terribly dead!</div> <div class="verse">Lay it low 'neath the grass and dew,</div> <div class="verse">Bury it deep in an earthy bed,</div> <div class="verse">Then put a tombstone over its head</div> <div class="verse">With the words "And this love was true."</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE POET</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I weave my verses of smiles and tears,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Gathered and shed for you,</div> <div class="verse">I bind them up in the hopes of years,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Dear, will you read them through?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I write my ballads of joy and pain,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Cast at your heedless feet,</div> <div class="verse">I set the words to a lost refrain,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Sing it but once, my Sweet!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I breathe my life into rhyme and song,</div> <div class="verse indent2">What shall I gain thereby?</div> <div class="verse">The verse is poor, and the tune is wrong,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Kiss them and let them die.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A NIGHT IN ITALY</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Time hangs suspended 'mid the perfumed dusk,</div> <div class="verse">With limpid wings, o'er which the first pale star</div> <div class="verse">Gleams like a tear, within the tender, far</div> <div class="verse">Desirous eyes of love-lorn Destiny.</div> <div class="verse">The earth is dumb, the scents of many flowers</div> <div class="verse">Flow out from petalled lips upon her breast,</div> <div class="verse">In one unending sigh of happy rest.</div> <div class="verse">The halting pageant of the passing hours</div> <div class="verse">Unfurls its misty pennants to the sea.</div> <div class="verse">The Nightingale has swooned for ecstasy,</div> <div class="verse">And hides away amid the vine-clad bowers</div> <div class="verse">Upon the terrace; Oh! impassioned dusk!</div> <div class="verse">Speechless with longing, throbbing with delight</div> <div class="verse">To fling thy beauty in the arms of night,</div> <div class="verse">Thy rare, dim beauty sweet with breath of musk,</div> <div class="verse">Thou shalt not know thy joy nor him requite</div> <div class="verse">With tender ardour, ere there comes to me</div> <div class="verse">Adown thy paths from out eternity,</div> <div class="verse">My soul's twin soul, mine embodied bliss,</div> <div class="verse">Torn from the countless ages by a kiss.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>HANDS AND LIPS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Give me your hands to hold,</div> <div class="verse">For the night and the wind are cold,</div> <div class="verse">And the year's growing sad and old,</div> <div class="verse">So give me your hands to hold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Give me your lips to press,</div> <div class="verse">For the light of the moon grows less,</div> <div class="verse">And the sky's full of dreariness,</div> <div class="verse">So give me your lips to press.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dear hands, dear lips, all mine!</div> <div class="verse">Let the moon and her beams decline,</div> <div class="verse">Let the night and the storm combine,</div> <div class="verse">If your hands and your lips are mine.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>WE TWO</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What have we missed, we two—</div> <div class="verse">You and I—I and you—</div> <div class="verse">Of sorrow, and pain, and tears,</div> <div class="verse">Of doubt, and of passionate fears,</div> <div class="verse">Of madness, and badness, these years!</div> <div class="verse">And what have we missed, we two!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But what have we missed, we two—</div> <div class="verse">You and I—I and you—</div> <div class="verse">Of rapture, and vast delight,</div> <div class="verse">Of loving, and living, of right</div> <div class="verse">To surrender, that love may requite,</div> <div class="verse">How much have we missed, we two!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO ——</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The sun has set; Beloved see that star,</div> <div class="verse">Wan with desire, pale in the afterglow,</div> <div class="verse">Above the hill top hanging very low,</div> <div class="verse">As though she stooped from her high regions far</div> <div class="verse">To kiss this earth, because she loved it so!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">While I, I feel the trembling touch of you,</div> <div class="verse">Feel the dim magic of your eyes on me,</div> <div class="verse">As though <em>two</em> stars had fallen in the sea,</div> <div class="verse">And drowned themselves in his rejoicing blue,</div> <div class="verse">Lighting his soul through all eternity!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>NORTH AND SOUTH</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Come with me, sweetheart, into Italy,</div> <div class="verse">And press the burning goblet of the south</div> <div class="verse">To those cold northern lips, until thy mouth</div> <div class="verse">Relents beneath its draft of ecstasy.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Drink in the sun, made liquid in the breasts</div> <div class="verse">Of purple grapes crushed lifeless for thy wine,</div> <div class="verse">Until those over tranquil eyes of thine</div> <div class="verse">Glow like twin lakes, on which the noontide rests.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Drink in the airs, those languid, vapoury sighs</div> <div class="verse">Of Goddesses, whose souls live on in love,</div> <div class="verse">Those amorous zephyrs, soft with plaint of dove</div> <div class="verse">From flowery trees of Pagan Paradise:</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Until thy brain grows hazy 'neath the fumes</div> <div class="verse">Of pale camellias, passionately white,</div> <div class="verse">Of scarlet roses dropping with delight</div> <div class="verse">Their wanton petals in a shower of bloom.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Drink in the music of some ardent song,</div> <div class="verse">Poured forth to die upon the wide, still lake,</div> <div class="verse">Until the darkness seems to throb and break</div> <div class="verse">In fiery stars whose pulses yearn and long.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And then drink in my love; the whole of me,</div> <div class="verse">In one deep breath, one vast impassioned kiss,</div> <div class="verse">That come what may, thou canst remember this:</div> <div class="verse">That thou hast lived and loved <em>in Italy</em>.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>ON THE HILL TOP</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What is the end of all sweet things,</div> <div class="verse">Of these dawns and twilights and golden springs?</div> <div class="verse">Of the rose that climbs, and the scent that clings?</div> <div class="verse">Of the breeze that sighs, and the thrush that sings?</div> <div class="verse indent4">Dust and ashes and death?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No, my dearest! for you and I</div> <div class="verse">Here on the hill's summit under the sky</div> <div class="verse">Have found a magic, time cannot deny</div> <div class="verse">To make immortal what else must die,</div> <div class="verse indent4">The magic of Love's warm breath.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE MOON</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The moon has risen from her cloudy bed,</div> <div class="verse">And soared serenely into cloudless blue,</div> <div class="verse">White as a lily in a haze of dew,</div> <div class="verse">Pale lady, to the Summer Darkness wed—</div> <div class="verse">She leaves her nuptial couch, by breezes spread,</div> <div class="verse">And seeks her virgin solitude anew;</div> <div class="verse">While all the being of the Dark thrills through</div> <div class="verse">With memories, the while her stately head</div> <div class="verse">She lifts above him to the purer height,</div> <div class="verse">Nor heeds the restless anguish of desire</div> <div class="verse">With which he seeks to turn to living fire</div> <div class="verse">The icy splendour of her luring light.</div> <div class="verse">She drifts, and smiles into his ardent eyes,</div> <div class="verse">With cold disdain, and smiling still denies.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>SPECULATION</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">If at some future day we two should meet,</div> <div class="verse">Stand face to face before the staring crowd,</div> <div class="verse">And pull from Love's dead form the decent shroud</div> <div class="verse">That time has wound about from head to feet—</div> <div class="verse">I scarcely know what words would come to greet</div> <div class="verse">Your presence, if they would be soft or loud,</div> <div class="verse">Would your head be held high or humbly bowed,</div> <div class="verse">And would the moment bitter be or sweet</div> <div class="verse">To me, as you pushed back the long past years,</div> <div class="verse">Would I rejoice, perhaps, at this new pain?</div> <div class="verse">At least 'twould mean that I could live again,</div> <div class="verse">And had not washed away my soul with tears.</div> <div class="verse">I think there might be much that I could bless</div> <div class="verse">In that deliverance out of nothingness.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE MEETING</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">To meet almost as strangers, who have been</div> <div class="verse">Such lovers in the past! no glad delight</div> <div class="verse">To thrill our senses, till the wrong seems right,</div> <div class="verse">For very joy—I wonder will your mien</div> <div class="verse">Be happy? it seems years since I have seen</div> <div class="verse">You smiling! I shall take you to the light,</div> <div class="verse">And trace new lines upon your brow, and right</div> <div class="verse">Above them may be some gray hairs, your clean</div> <div class="verse">Strong profile, will it look the very same?</div> <div class="verse">Are your hands wrinkled? Oh! my perfect hands!</div> <div class="verse">Be not less lovely now that passion stands</div> <div class="verse">Aloof, and dare not kiss you into flame—</div> <div class="verse">I could not bear it! Time can never blight</div> <div class="verse">Such marvels, so divinely slim and white.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO SOME ONE!</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Why kinder to the breeze than unto me?</div> <div class="verse">For oft you let him play within your hair,</div> <div class="verse">Blow its soft curls about, and find it fair,</div> <div class="verse">The while he whispers low and tenderly</div> <div class="verse">Into your ear; and yet how cold is he!</div> <div class="verse">And loves you not, but only frolics there;</div> <div class="verse">Sometimes I wish <em>I</em> might be turned to air,</div> <div class="verse">And thus be rid of my humanity,</div> <div class="verse">That finds no favour in your haughty eyes.</div> <div class="verse">Were I a breeze you'd fling your windows wide,</div> <div class="verse">And give me welcome, as I swept aside</div> <div class="verse">The curtain, kissing all pride now denies,</div> <div class="verse">Your lips, your cheeks, your eyes, your throat, your breast,</div> <div class="verse">Until with kissing spent I sank to rest.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>OUT AT SEA</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The sea was witness of the words you said:</div> <div class="verse">She hushed her every tide that she might hear</div> <div class="verse">Your whispered love, and while you bent so near</div> <div class="verse">My bosom, laying down your weary head</div> <div class="verse">To rest thereon—the corals in their bed</div> <div class="verse">Stirred with emotion, shaken as with fear,</div> <div class="verse">And foam grew paler, passionately drear</div> <div class="verse">As some wan smile, upon a face that's dead.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I took your hand in mine, your living hand!</div> <div class="verse indent2">And pressed it closer, closer in mine own.</div> <div class="verse">A nameless terror shocked me while I scanned</div> <div class="verse indent2">Your ardent face; there rose a stifled moan</div> <div class="verse">To part my lips; I saw the future stand</div> <div class="verse indent2">Before me, and behold! I was alone.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>FAITH</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ah! Faith, I'd barter all I own to know</div> <div class="verse indent2">But one brief moment of your magic charm,</div> <div class="verse">Whereby my spirit freed from earthly woe,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Might spread its wings towards immortal calm.</div> <div class="verse">Is there no wisdom but it steals our peace?</div> <div class="verse indent2">No knowledge but it leads us to unrest?</div> <div class="verse">My mind is weary, and would seek release</div> <div class="verse indent2">From thoughts terrestrial; those indeed are blessed</div> <div class="verse">Upon whose hearts all simple holy things</div> <div class="verse indent2">Fall without question, as a drop of dew</div> <div class="verse">Lights on a rose, and, though she gently swings,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Falls not to earth! ah! rose, if I were you,</div> <div class="verse">I would thrice bless your dumbness, since thereby</div> <div class="verse indent2">Your fragrant lips may never question why.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>THE SCAR</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Upon my life I bear one precious scar:</div> <div class="verse">Each night I kiss it, till anew it bleeds,</div> <div class="verse">And tell each drop of blood, as hallowed beads</div> <div class="verse">Are told by those dear few who faithful are.</div> <div class="verse">To me it seems to beautify, not mar,</div> <div class="verse">My inner self, for from that deep wound leads</div> <div class="verse">A path to gained respect, my secret needs</div> <div class="verse">Quenched by the bleeding of that fountain are.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The fiery contest when that wound was won,</div> <div class="verse indent2">Still burns within my brain, and robs of life,</div> <div class="verse">And terror, every lesser hurt that's done</div> <div class="verse indent2">To heart or spirit; let all harm run rife.</div> <div class="verse">I shall not fear again to look upon</div> <div class="verse indent2">The gleaming edges of Fate's sharpest knife.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>COMPARISON</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Without what desolation! mist and rain,</div> <div class="verse">And weeping trees, and roses that decay</div> <div class="verse">While still in blossom, till the autumn day</div> <div class="verse">Lies low, and speechless, and benumbed with pain.</div> <div class="verse">An early twilight hides the gentle plain</div> <div class="verse">With mournful dusk, while meadows melt away</div> <div class="verse">Like echoes of those tunes we used to play,</div> <div class="verse">Ere time had turned them to a lost refrain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But leave the window, turn towards the room,</div> <div class="verse indent2">So soft with firelight on the time-worn beams</div> <div class="verse">A friendly spirit lurks within the gloom</div> <div class="verse indent2">Of dim oak corners, while a host of gleams</div> <div class="verse">Await your fingers on our fancy's loom,</div> <div class="verse indent2">To weave them into happy fireside dreams.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>AN INTERLUDE</h2> <h3>I</h3> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Crush these voluptuous grapes between your teeth,</div> <div class="verse">Your small, strong teeth! and let their purple pain</div> <div class="verse">Be offered in a sacrificial rain</div> <div class="verse">Of sun-warmed essence; while I twine a wreath</div> <div class="verse">Of all their leaves, and place it just beneath</div> <div class="verse">Your high-combed curls, to rest upon the plain</div> <div class="verse">Of your white temples: though the Nymphs disdain</div> <div class="verse">To grace our modern banquet, they bequeath</div> <div class="verse">A sylvan fancy to my wayward dream.</div> <div class="verse">This glint of candles on the silver round</div> <div class="verse">Is yellow moonlight, mirrored in lone stream,</div> <div class="verse">These flowers are springing from the sensuous ground,</div> <div class="verse">And we are Dryads, 'tis a fitting theme</div> <div class="verse">For you to sing; come—thrill the night with sound.</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>II</h3> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The shaded lamps that make the room seem dim</div> <div class="verse">Scarcely revealing pictures on the wall;</div> <div class="verse">Yet one so placed to let a halo fall</div> <div class="verse">Upon your hair; you smile! yes, it's a whim</div> <div class="verse">A Poet's fancy with a moonlit rim</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Perhaps—and yet a harmless wish withal.</div> <div class="verse">Don't quarrel with it, just sit there, those tall</div> <div class="verse">White lilies make a background for your slim</div> <div class="verse">Young body. Let the blinds be up, and night</div> <div class="verse">Gaze through the windows with her purple eyes,</div> <div class="verse">Dropping some ardent star from out its height</div> <div class="verse">For very eagerness of glad surprise</div> <div class="verse">At so much beauty, till your song's delight</div> <div class="verse">Shall waft it back into the listening skies!</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>III</h3> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where shall I find a corner in this room</div> <div class="verse">Almost in darkness? Ah! that deep recess</div> <div class="verse">Of languid cushions, eager to caress</div> <div class="verse">My weary limbs! from out its dreaming gloom</div> <div class="verse">Made holy by the incense of perfume,</div> <div class="verse">All unobserved and happy I'll confess</div> <div class="verse">My senses to those roses, passionless,</div> <div class="verse">And listening in their bowl of silver doom.</div> <div class="verse">Sing, sing, sweet friend, but soft, though eagerly!</div> <div class="verse">With tender pauses in between the notes</div> <div class="verse">Filled up with little sighs, unconsciously—</div> <div class="verse">These rose-dropped petals, they are fairy boats</div> <div class="verse">Our souls may sail on lakes of melody</div> <div class="verse">Adown whose ripples youth eternal floats.</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>IV</h3> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oh! burning silence! when the very air</div> <div class="verse">Is warm with memories of sounds we love!</div> <div class="verse">You cease to sing, yet from below, above,</div> <div class="verse">Around me, in me, of me, everywhere,</div> <div class="verse">That Music's spirit, tremulously fair</div> <div class="verse">Flutters and flutters, like a wounded dove,</div> <div class="verse">And cannot fly beyond this earthly groove!</div> <div class="verse">Midway it pauses, hanging throbbing there.</div> <div class="verse">I will not speak, lest it should seem profane</div> <div class="verse">In such a presence; idle words of praise</div> <div class="verse">Ye are but mortal sounds, with no refrain</div> <div class="verse">That can endure beyond our passing days,</div> <div class="verse">And so be silent! silent with the pain</div> <div class="verse">Of all deep feeling, that can find no phrase.</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>V</h3> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Kiss me good night, sweet minstrel, on the stairs!</div> <div class="verse">I love your lips, they're neither pale nor red,</div> <div class="verse">But like an after-glow, when day lies dead</div> <div class="verse">Upon the mountains. Do they say soft prayers,</div> <div class="verse">Those languid lips? to God, a God who cares,</div> <div class="verse">And gathers such dear follies thread by thread</div> <div class="verse">As each is woven in your mind, and shed</div> <div class="verse">Like gold spun silk upon His field of tares?</div> <div class="verse">You're silent! let it pass; who knows but you,</div> <div class="verse">So strong in weakness, may compel God's ear</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">To listen for the smallest drop of dew</div> <div class="verse">That all our thunders would disdain to hear:</div> <div class="verse">And so, Sweet, <em>if</em> you pray, repeat anew</div> <div class="verse">To God, that while you sang I wept a tear!</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>VI</h3> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">This morning while I light my cigarette</div> <div class="verse">In this dim study with its endless view</div> <div class="verse">Stretching away to hills whose eyes are blue</div> <div class="verse">With secret thoughts, <em>my</em> thoughts are all regret,</div> <div class="verse">Regret for broken interludes! and yet—</div> <div class="verse">If it were otherwise, who knows but you</div> <div class="verse">Might grow to pall, as things familiar do,</div> <div class="verse">While now it seems worth while to not forget!</div> <div class="verse">And so good-bye, my friend, drift out in smoke,</div> <div class="verse">Vague, and intangible, a fleeting joy</div> <div class="verse">That some stray match of fate in passing woke,</div> <div class="verse">To burn awhile, like this small soothing toy</div> <div class="verse">Between my lips: Time's galling iron yoke</div> <div class="verse">Is not for us, we made and we'll destroy.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter pgbreak" style="width: 200px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_125.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="262" alt="Rampant Lion Decoration" /></div> <p class="center mt2"> CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.<br/> TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.<br/></p> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="blockquot hang pgbreak"> <p><i>The following poems from</i> "'<span class="smcap">Twixt Earth and Stars</span>," <i>by</i> <span class="smcap">Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall</span>, <i>have been set to music</i>:</p> </div> <div class="block"><div class="block-contents"> <p><span class="smcap">By</span> MR. HUBERT BATH</p> <p>"<span class="smcap">A Song.</span>" <i>Chappell and Co.</i><br/> "<span class="smcap">Italian Spring.</span>" <i>Boosey and Co.</i><br/> "<span class="smcap">On the Lagoon.</span>" <i>Boosey and Co.</i><br/></p> <p><span class="smcap">By</span> MR. EATHORPE MARTIN</p> <p>"<span class="smcap">Shall I Complain?</span>" <i>Metzler and Co.</i><br/></p> </div> </div> <div class="transnote"> <h2>Transcriber's Notes</h2> <p>Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.</p> </div> <SPAN name="endofbook"></SPAN> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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