Only as spray the beating sea
Drives inland through the night.

If Death Is Kind
Perhaps if Death is kind, and there can be returning,

We will come back to earth some fragrant night,
And take these lanes to find the sea, and bending

Breathe the same honeysuckle, low and white.
We will come down at night to these resounding beaches

And the long gentle thunder of the sea,
Here for a single hour in the wide starlight

We shall be happy, for the dead are free.
X

Thoughts
When I am all alone

Envy me most,
Then my thoughts flutter round me

In a glimmering host;
Some dressed in silver,

Some dressed in white,
Each like a taper

Blossoming light;
Most of them merry,

Some of them grave,
Each of them lithe

As willows that wave;
Some bearing violets,

Some bearing bay,
One with a burning rose

Hidden away --
When I am all alone

Envy me then,
For I have better friends

Than women and men.
Faces

People that I meet and pass
In the city's broken roar,

Faces that I lose so soon
And have never found before,

Do you know how much you tell
In the meeting of our eyes,

How ashamed I am, and sad
To have pierced your poor disguise?

Secrets rushing without sound
Crying from your hiding places --

Let me go, I cannot bear
The sorrow of the passing faces.

-- People in the restless street,
Can it be, oh can it be

In the meeting of our eyes
That you know as much of me?

Evening: New York
Blue dust of evening over my city,

Over the ocean of roofs and the tall towers
Where the window-lights, myriads and myriads,

Bloom from the walls like climbing flowers.
Snowfall

"She can't be unhappy," you said,
"The smiles are like stars in her eyes,

And her laugh is thistledown
Around her low replies."

"Is she unhappy?" you said --
But who has ever known

Another's heartbreak --
All he can know is his own;

And she seems hushed to me,
As hushed as though

Her heart were a hunter's fire
Smothered in snow.

The Silent Battle
(In Memory of J. W. T. Jr.)

He was a soldier in that fight
Where there is neither flag nor drum,

And without sound of musketry
The stealthy foemen come.

Year in, year out, by day and night
They forced him to a slow retreat,

And for his gallant fight alone
No fife was blown, and no drum beat.

In winter fog, in gathering mist
The gray grim battle had its end --

And at the very last we knew
His enemy had turned his friend.

The Sanctuary
If I could keep my innermost Me

Fearless, aloof and free
Of the least breath of love or hate,

And not disconsolate
At the sick load of sorrow laid on men;

If I could keep a sanctuary there
Free even of prayer,

If I could do this, then,
With quiet candor as I grew more wise

I could look even at God with grave forgiving eyes.
At Sea

In the pull of the wind I stand, lonely,
On the deck of a ship, rising, falling,

Wild night around me, wild water under me,
Whipped by the storm, screaming and calling.

Earth is hostile and the sea hostile,
Why do I look for a place to rest?

I must fight always and die fighting
With fear an unhealing wound in my breast.

Dust
When I went to look at what had long been hidden,

A jewel laid long ago in a secret place,
I trembled, for I thought to see its dark deep fire --

But only a pinch of dust blew up in my face.
I almost gave my life long ago for a thing

That has gone to dust now, stinging my eyes --
It is strange how often a heart must be broken

Before the years can make it wise.
The Long Hill

I must have passed the crest a while ago
And now I am going down --

Strange to have crossed the crest and not to know,
But the brambles were always catching the hem of my gown.

All the morning I thought how proud I should be
To stand there straight as a queen,

Wrapped in the wind and the sun with the world under me --
But the air was dull, there was little I could have seen.

It was nearly level along the beaten track
And the brambles caught in my gown --

But it's no use now to think of turning back,
The rest of the way will be only going down.

XI
Summer Storm

The panther wind
Leaps out of the night,

The snake of lightning
Is twisting and white,

The lion of thunder
Roars -- and we

Sit still and content
Under a tree --

We have met fate together
And love and pain,

Why should we fear
The wrath of the rain!

In the End
All that could never be said,

All that could never be done,
Wait for us at last

Somewhere back of the sun;
All the heart broke to forego

Shall be ours without pain,
We shall take them as lightly as girls

Pluck flowers after rain.
And when they are ours in the end

Perhaps after all
The skies will not open for us

Nor heaven be there at our call.
"It Will Not Change"

It will not change now
After so many years;

Life has not broken it
With parting or tears;

Death will not alter it,
It will live on

In all my songs for you
When I am gone.

Change
Remember me as I was then;

Turn from me now, but always see
The laughing shadowy girl who stood

At midnight by the flowering tree,
With eyes that love had made as bright

As the trembling stars of the summer night.
Turn from me now, but always hear

The muted laughter in the dew
Of that one year of youth we had,

The only youth we ever knew --
Turn from me now, or you will see

What other years have done to me.
Water Lilies

If you have forgotten water lilies floating
On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,

If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance,
Then you can return and not be afraid.

But if you remember, then turn away forever
To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,

There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies,
And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart.

"Did You Never Know?"
Did you never know, long ago, how much you loved me --

That your love would never lessen and never go?
You were young then, proud and fresh-hearted,

You were too young to know.
Fate is a wind, and red leaves fly before it

Far apart, far away in the gusty time of year --
Seldom we meet now, but when I hear you speaking,

I know your secret, my dear, my dear.
The Treasure

When they see my songs
They will sigh and say,

"Poor soul, wistful soul,
Lonely night and day."

They will never know
All your love for me

Surer than the spring,
Stronger than the sea;

Hidden out of sight

• thunder [´θʌndə] n.雷 vi.打雷 vt.吼出 (初中英语单词)
• flutter [´flʌtə] vi.飘扬；摆 n.拍动 (初中英语单词)
• ashamed [ə´ʃeimd] a.惭愧；不好意思 (初中英语单词)
• restless [´restləs] a.没有休息的 (初中英语单词)
• gallant [´gælənt, gə´lænt] a.英勇的；华丽的 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• hostile [´hɔstail] a.敌方的，敌意的 (初中英语单词)
• beaten [´bi:tn] beat 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中英语单词)
• laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
• inland [´inlənd, in´lænd] a.&n.内地的 ad.在内地 (高中英语单词)
• fragrant [´freigrənt] a.芳香的，芬芳的 (高中英语单词)
• bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
• shadowy [´ʃædəui] a.有阴影的；模糊的 (高中英语单词)
• sleepy [´sli:pi] a.困的，想睡的 (高中英语单词)
• lessen [´lesən] v.减少；缩小 (高中英语单词)
• gathering [´gæðəriŋ] n.集会，聚集 (英语四级单词)
• sanctuary [´sæŋktʃuəri] n.圣殿；寺院；避难所 (英语四级单词)
• parting [´pɑ:tiŋ] a.&n.分离(的) (英语四级单词)
• wistful [´wistfəl] a.渴望的；不满足的 (英语四级单词)
• beating [´bi:tiŋ] n.敲；搅打；失败 (英语六级单词)
• honeysuckle [´hʌni,sʌkəl] n.忍冬，金银花 (英语六级单词)
• panther [´pænθə] n.豹；美洲狮 (英语六级单词)