Let Beauty awake in the eve from the
slumber of day,
Awake in the
crimson eve!
In the day's dusk end
When the shades ascend,
Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend
To render again and receive!
X
I KNOW not how it is with you -
I love the first and last,
The whole field of the present view,
The whole flow of the past.
One tittle of the things that are,
Nor you should change nor I -
One
pebble in our path - one star
In all our heaven of sky.
Our lives, and every day and hour,
One
symphony appear:
One road, one garden - every flower
And every
bramble dear.
XI
I WILL make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.
I will make a palace fit for you and me
Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.
I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,
Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In
rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.
And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the
roadside fire.
XII - WE HAVE LOVED OF YORE (To an air of Diabelli)
BERRIED brake and reedy island,
Heaven below, and only heaven above,
Through the sky's inverted azure
Softly swam the boat that bore our love.
Bright were your eyes as the day;
Bright ran the
stream,
Bright hung the sky above.
Days of April, airs of Eden,
How the glory died through golden hours,
And the shining moon arising,
How the boat drew
homeward filled with flowers!
Bright were your eyes in the night:
We have lived, my love -
O, we have loved, my love.
Frost has bound our flowing river,
Snow has whitened all our island brake,
And beside the winter fagot
Joan and Darby doze and dream and wake.
Still, in the river of dreams
Swims the boat of love -
Hark! chimes the falling oar!
And again in winter evens
When on firelight dreaming fancy feeds,
In those ears of aged lovers
Love's own river warbles in the reeds.
Love still the past, O my love!
We have lived of yore,
O, we have loved of yore.
XIII - MATER TRIUMPHANS
SON of my woman's body, you go, to the drum and fife,
To taste the colour of love and the other side of life -
From out of the
dainty the rude, the strong from out of the frail,
Eternally through the ages from the
female comes the male.
The ten fingers and toes, and the shell-like nail on each,
The eyes blind as gems and the tongue attempting speech;
Impotent hands in my bosom, and yet they shall wield the sword!
Drugged with
slumber and milk, you wait the day of the Lord.
Infant
bridegroom, uncrowned king, unanointed priest,
Soldier, lover,
explorer, I see you nuzzle the breast.
You that grope in my bosom shall load the ladies with rings,
You, that came forth through the doors, shall burst the doors of kings.
XIV
BRIGHT is the ring of words
When the right man rings them,
Fair the fall of songs
When the
singer sings them.
Still they are carolled and said -
On wings they are carried -
After the
singer is dead
And the maker buried.
Low as the
singer lies
In the field of
heather,
Songs of his fashion bring
The swains together.
And when the west is red
With the
sunset embers,
The lover lingers and sings
And the maid remembers.
XV
IN the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
And the young fair maidens
Quiet eyes;
Where
essential silence cheers and blesses,
And for ever in the hill-recesses
Her more lovely music
Broods and dies.
O to mount again where erst I haunted;
Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted,
And the low green meadows
Bright with sward;
And when even dies, the million-tinted,
And the night has come, and planets glinted,
Lo, the
valley hollow
Lamp-bestarred!
O to dream, O to awake and wander
There, and with delight to take and render,
Through the
trance of silence,
Quiet breath;
Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,
Only the mightier
movement sounds and passes;
Only winds and rivers,
Life and death.
XVI (To the tune of Wandering Willie)
HOME no more home to me, whither must I wander?
Hunger my driver, I go where I must.
Cold blows the winter wind over hill and
heather;
Thick drives the rain, and my roof is in the dust.
Loved of wise men was the shade of my roof-tree.
The true word of
welcome was
spoken in the door -
Dear days of old, with the faces in the firelight,
Kind folks of old, you come again no more.
Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces,
Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child.
Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland;
Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild.
Now, when day dawns on the brow of the moorland,
Lone stands the house, and the chimney-stone is cold.
Lone let it stand, now the friends are all departed,
The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.
Spring shall come, come again,
calling up the moorfowl,
Spring shall bring the sun and rain, bring the bees and
flowers;
Red shall the
heather bloom over hill and
valley,
Soft flow the
stream through the even-flowing hours;
Fair the day shine as it shone on my
childhood -
Fair shine the day on the house with open door;
Birds come and cry there and
twitter in the chimney -
But I go for ever and come again no more.
XVII - WINTER
IN rigorous hours, when down the iron lane
The redbreast looks in vain
For hips and haws,
Lo, shining flowers upon my window-pane
The silver pencil of the winter draws.
When all the snowy hill
And the bare woods are still;
When snipes are silent in the
frozen bogs,
And all the garden garth is whelmed in mire,
Lo, by the
hearth, the
laughter of the logs -
More fair than roses, lo, the flowers of fire!
Saranac Lake.
XVIII
THE stormy evening closes now in vain,
Loud wails the wind and beats the driving rain,
While here in sheltered house
With fire-ypainted walls,
I hear the wind abroad,
I hark the
calling squalls -
'Blow, blow,' I cry, 'you burst your cheeks in vain!
Blow, blow,' I cry, 'my love is home again!'
Yon ship you chase
perchance but yesternight
Bore still the precious
freight of my delight,
That here in sheltered house
With fire-ypainted walls,
Now hears the wind abroad,
Now harks the
calling squalls.
'Blow, blow,' I cry, 'in vain you rouse the sea,
My rescued sailor shares the fire with me!'
XIX - TO DR. HAKE (On receiving a Copy of Verses)
IN the
beloved hour that ushers day,
In the pure dew, under the breaking grey,
One bird, ere yet the
woodland quires awake,
With brief reveille summons all the brake:
Chirp, chirp, it goes; nor waits an answer long;
And that small signal fills the grove with song.
Thus on my pipe I breathed a
strain or two;
It
scarce was music, but 'twas all I knew.
It was not music, for I lacked the art,
Yet what but
frozen music filled my heart?
Chirp, chirp, I went, nor hoped a nobler
strain;
But Heaven decreed I should not pipe in vain,
For, lo! not far from there, in secret dale,
All silent, sat an ancient nightingale.
My
sparrow notes he heard; thereat awoke;
And with a tide of song his silence broke.
XX - TO -
I KNEW thee strong and quiet like the hills;
I knew thee apt to pity, brave to endure,
In peace or war a Roman full equipt;
And just I knew thee, like the fabled kings
Who by the loud sea-shore gave judgment forth,
From dawn to eve, bearded and few of words.
What, what, was I to honour thee? A child;
A youth in
ardour but a child in strength,
Who after virtue's golden chariot-wheels
Runs ever panting, nor attains the goal.
So thought I, and was
sorrowful at heart.