Fear no more, O doubting hearted; weep no more, O
weeping eye!
Lo, the voice of your redeemer; lo, the songful morning near.
Here one hour you toil and
combat, sin and suffer, bleed and die;
In my father's quiet
mansion soon to lay your burden by.
Bear a moment, heavy laden, weary hand and
weeping eye.
Lo, the feet of your
deliverer; lo, the hour of freedom here.
VARIANT FORM OF THE PRECEDING POEM
COME to me, all ye that labour; I will give your spirits rest;
Here apart in
starry quiet I will give you rest.
Come to me, ye heavy laden, sin defiled and care opprest,
In your father's quiet
mansions, soon to prove a
welcome guest.
But an hour you bear your trial, sin and suffer, bleed and die;
But an hour you toil and
combat here in day's inspiring eye.
See the feet of your
deliverer; lo, the hour of freedom nigh.
I NOW, O FRIEND, WHOM NOISELESSLY THE SNOWS
I NOW, O friend, whom
noiselessly the snows
Settle around, and whose small
chamber grows
Dusk as the sloping window takes its load:
* * * * *
The kindly hill, as to complete our hap,
Has ta'en us in the shelter of her lap;
Well sheltered in our
slender grove of trees
And ring of walls, we sit between her knees;
A disused
quarry, paved with rose plots, hung
With clematis, the
barren womb
whence sprung
The crow-stepped house itself, that now far seen
Stands, like a bather, to the neck in green.
A disused
quarry, furnished with a seat
Sacred to pipes and
meditation meet
For such a sunny and
retired nook.
There in the clear, warm mornings many a book
Has vied with the fair
prospect of the hills
That, vale on vale, rough brae on brae, upfills
Halfway to the
zenith all the
vacant sky
To keep my loose attention. . . .
Horace has sat with me whole mornings through:
And Montaigne
gossiped, fairly false and true;
And chattering Pepys, and a few beside
That suit the easy vein, the quiet tide,
The calm and certain stay of garden-life,
Far sunk from all the thunderous roar of strife.
There is about the small secluded place
A
garnish of old times; a certain grace
Of
pensive memories lays about the braes:
The old chestnuts
gossip tales of bygone days.
Here, where some wandering
preacher, blest Lazil,
Perhaps, or Peden, on the middle hill
Had made his secret church, in rain or snow,
He cheers the chosen residue from woe.
All night the doors stood open, come who might,
The hounded kebbock mat the mud all night.
Nor are there
wanting later tales; of how
Prince Charlie's Highlanders . . .
* * * * *
I have had talents, too. In life's first hour
God crowned with benefits my
childish head.
Flower after flower, I plucked them; flower by flower
Cast them behind me, ruined, withered, dead.
Full many a shining godhead disappeared.
From the bright rank that once adorned her brow
The old child's Olympus
* * * * *
Gone are the fair old dreams, and one by one,
As, one by one, the means to reach them went,
As, one by one, the stars in riot and disgrace,
I squandered what . . .
There shut the door, alas! on many a hope
Too many;
My face is set to the autumnal slope,
Where the loud winds shall . . .
There shut the door, alas! on many a hope,
And yet some hopes remain that shall decide
My rest of years and down the autumnal slope.
* * * * *
Gone are the quiet
twilight dreams that I
Loved, as all men have loved them; gone!
I have great dreams, and still they stir my soul on high -
Dreams of the knight's stout heart and tempered will.
Not in Elysian lands they take their way;
Not as of yore across the gay champaign,
Towards some dream city, towered . . .
and my . . .
The path winds forth before me, sweet and plain,
Not now; but though beneath a stone-grey sky
November's russet woodlands toss and wail,
Still the white road goes thro' them, still may I,
Strong in new purpose, God, may still prevail.
* * * * *
I and my like, improvident sailors!
* * * * *
At whose light fall awaking, all my heart
Grew
populous with
gracious,
favoured thought,
And all night long
thereafter, hour by hour,
The
pageant of dead love before my eyes
Went
proudly, and old hopes with
downcast head
Followed like Kings, subdued in Rome's
imperial hour,
Followed the car; and I . . .
SINCE THOU HAST GIVEN ME THIS GOOD HOPE, O GOD
SINCE thou hast given me this good hope, O God,
That while my footsteps tread the
flowery sod
And the great woods embower me, and white dawn
And
purple even
sweetly lead me on
From day to day, and night to night, O God,
My life shall no wise miss the light of love;
But ever climbing, climb above
Man's one poor star, man's supine lands,
Into the azure steadfastness of death,
My life shall no wise lack the light of love,
My hands not lack the
loving touch of hands;
But day by day, while yet I draw my breath,
And day by day, unto my last of years,
I shall be one that has a perfect friend.
Her heart shall taste my
laughter and my tears,
And her kind eyes shall lead me to the end.
GOD GAVE TO ME A CHILD IN PART
GOD gave to me a child in part,
Yet
wholly gave the father's heart:
Child of my soul, O whither now,
Unborn, unmothered, goest thou?
You came, you went, and no man wist;
Hapless, my child, no breast you kist;
On no dear knees, a
privileged babbler, clomb,
Nor knew the kindly feel of home.
My voice may reach you, O my dear-
A father's voice perhaps the child may hear;
And, pitying, you may turn your view
On that poor father whom you never knew.
Alas! alone he sits, who then,
Im
mortal among
mortal men,
Sat hand in hand with love, and all day through
With your dear mother wondered over you.
OVER THE LAND IS APRIL
OVER the land is April,
Over my heart a rose;
Over the high, brown mountain
The sound of singing goes.
Say, love, do you hear me,
Hear my sonnets ring?
Over the high, brown mountain,
Love, do you hear me sing?
By
highway, love, and byway
The snows succeed the rose.
Over the high, brown mountain
The wind of winter blows.
Say, love, do you hear me,
Hear my sonnets ring?
Over the high, brown mountain
I sound the song of spring,
I throw the flowers of spring.
Do you hear the song of spring?
Hear you the songs of spring?
LIGHT AS THE LINNET ON MY WAY I START
LIGHT as the linnet on my way I start,
For all my pack I bear a chartered heart.
Forth on the world without a guide or chart,
Content to know, through all man's varying fates,
The
eternal woman by the
wayside waits.
COME, HERE IS ADIEU TO THE CITY
COME, here is adieu to the city
And
hurrah for the country again.
The broad road lies before me
Watered with last night's rain.
The timbered country woos me
With many a high and bough;
And again in the shining fallows
The
ploughman follows the plough.
The whole year's sweat and study,
And the whole year's sowing time,
Comes now to the perfect harvest,
And ripens now into rhyme.
For we that sow in the Autumn,
We reap our grain in the Spring,
And we that go sowing and
weepingReturn to reap and sing.
IT BLOWS A SNOWING GALE
IT blows a snowing gale in the winter of the year;
The boats are on the sea and the crews are on the pier.
The
needle of the vane, it is veering to and fro,
A flash of sun is on the veering of the vane.
Autumn leaves and rain,
The
passion of the gale.
NE SIT ANCILLAE TIBI AMOR PUDOR
THERE'S just a
twinkle in your eye
That seems to say I MIGHT, if I
Were only bold enough to try
An arm about your waist.
I hear, too, as you come and go,
That pretty
nervous laugh, you know;
And then your cap is always so
Coquettishly displaced.
Your cap! the word's profanely said.
That little top-knot, white and red,
That quaintly crowns your
graceful head,
No bigger than a flower,
Is set with such a witching art,
Is so provocatively smart,
I'd like to wear it on my heart,
An order for an hour!
O
graceful housemaid, tall and fair,
I love your shy
imperial air,
And always
loiter on the stair