How will hungry Time put by the hours till then? --

But why does it anger my heart to long so
For one man out of the world of men?

Oh I would live in myself only
And build my life lightly and still as a dream --

Are not my thoughts clearer than your thoughts
And colored like stones in a running stream?

Now the slow moon brightens in heaven,
The stars are ready, the night is here --

Oh why must I lose myself to love you,
My dear?

The Return
He has come, he is here,

My love has come home,
The minutes are lighter

Than flying foam,
The hours are like dancers

On gold-slippered feet,
The days are young runners

Naked and fleet --
For my love has returned,

He is home, he is here,
In the whole world no other

Is dear as my dear!
Gray Eyes

It was April when you came
The first time to me,

And my first look in your eyes
Was like my first look at the sea.

We have been together
Four Aprils now

Watching for the green
On the swaying willow bough;

Yet whenever I turn
To your gray eyes over me,

It is as though I looked
For the first time at the sea.

The Net
I made you many and many a song,

Yet never one told all you are --
It was as though a net of words

Were flung to catch a star;
It was as though I curved my hand

And dipped sea-water eagerly,
Only to find it lost the blue

Dark splendor of the sea.
The Mystery

Your eyes drink of me,
Love makes them shine,

Your eyes that lean
So close to mine.

We have long been lovers,
We know the range

Of each other's moods
And how they change;

But when we look
At each other so

Then we feel
How little we know;

The spirit eludes us,
Timid and free --

Can I ever know you
Or you know me?

In a Hospital
IV

Open Windows
Out of the window a sea of green trees

Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer,
They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"

But I cannot answer.
I am alone with Weakness and Pain,

Sick abed and June is going,
I cannot keep her, she hurries by

With the silver-green of her garments blowing.
Men and women pass in the street

Glad of the shining sapphire weather,
But we know more of it than they,

Pain and I together.
They are the runners in the sun,

Breathless and blinded by the race,
But we are watchers in the shade

Who speak with Wonder face to face.
The New Moon

Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,

Beaten my body, bruised my soul,
Left me nothing lovely or whole --

Yet I have wrested a gift from you,
Day that dies in dusky blue:

For suddenly over the factories
I saw a moon in the cloudy seas --

A wisp of beauty all alone
In a world as hard and gray as stone --

Oh who could be bitter and want to die
When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky?

Eight O'Clock
Supper comes at five o'clock,

At six, the evening star,
My lover comes at eight o'clock --

But eight o'clock is far.
How could I bear my pain all day

Unless I watched to see
The clock-hands laboring to bring

Eight o'clock to me.
Lost Things

Oh, I could let the world go by,
Its loud new wonders and its wars,

But how will I give up the sky
When winter dusk is set with stars?

And I could let the cities go,
Their changing customs and their creeds, --

But oh, the summer rains that blow
In silver on the jewel-weeds!

Pain
Waves are the sea's white daughters,

And raindrops the children of rain,
But why for my shimmering body

Have I a mother like Pain?
Night is the mother of stars,

And wind the mother of foam --
The world is brimming with beauty,

But I must stay at home.
The Broken Field

My soul is a dark ploughed field
In the cold rain;

My soul is a broken field
Ploughed by pain.

Where grass and bending flowers
Were growing,

The field lies broken now
For another sowing.

Great Sower when you tread
My field again,

Scatter the furrows there
With better grain.

The Unseen
Death went up the hall

Unseen by every one,
Trailing twilight robes

Past the nurse and the nun.
He paused at every door

And listened to the breath
Of those who did not know

How near they were to Death.
Death went up the hall

Unseen by nurse and nun;
He passed by many a door --

But he entered one.
A Prayer

When I am dying, let me know
That I loved the blowing snow

Although it stung like whips;
That I loved all lovely things

And I tried to take their stings
With gay unembittered lips;

That I loved with all my strength,
To my soul's full depth and length,

Careless if my heart must break,
That I sang as children sing

Fitting tunes to everything,
Loving life for its own sake.

V
Spring Torrents

Will it always be like this until I am dead,
Every spring must I bear it all again

With the first red haze of the budding maple boughs,
And the first sweet-smelling rain?

Oh I am like a rock in the rising river
Where the flooded water breaks with a low call --

Like a rock that knows the cry of the waters
And cannot answer at all.

"I Know the Stars"
I know the stars by their names,

Aldebaran, Altair,
And I know the path they take

Up heaven's broad blue stair.
I know the secrets of men

By the look of their eyes,
Their gray thoughts, their strange thoughts

Have made me sad and wise.
But your eyes are dark to me

Though they seem to call and call --
I cannot tell if you love me

Or do not love me at all.
I know many things,

But the years come and go,
I shall die not knowing

The thing I long to know.
Understanding

I understood the rest too well,
And all their thoughts have come to be

Clear as grey sea-weed in the swell
Of a sunny shallow sea.

But you I never understood,
Your spirit's secret hides like gold

Sunk in a Spanish galleon
Ages ago in waters cold.

Nightfall
We will never walk again

As we used to walk at night,
Watching our shadows lengthen

• lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
• willow [´wiləu] n.柳树 (初中英语单词)
• whenever [wen´evə] conj.&ad.无论何时 (初中英语单词)
• splendor [´splendə] n.壮丽 =splendour (初中英语单词)
• weakness [´wi:knis] n.虚弱；弱点，缺点 (初中英语单词)
• beaten [´bi:tn] beat 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• maiden [´meidn] n.少女 a.未婚的 (初中英语单词)
• twilight [´twailait] n.黎明；黄昏 (初中英语单词)
• shallow [´ʃæləu] a.肤浅的；表面的 (初中英语单词)
• beckon [´bekən] v.召唤 (高中英语单词)
• sapphire [´sæfaiə] n.蓝宝石 a.深蓝色的 (英语四级单词)
• lengthen [´leŋθən] v.(使)变长，延伸 (英语四级单词)