O heart, in the great dawn!
Day That I Have Loved
Tenderly, day that I have loved, I close your eyes,
And smooth your quiet brow, and fold your thin dead hands.
The grey veils of the half-light
deepen; colour dies.
I bear you, a light burden, to the shrouded sands,
Where lies your
waiting boat, by wreaths of the sea's making
Mist-garlanded, with all grey weeds of the water crowned.
There you'll be laid, past fear of sleep or hope of waking;
And over the unmoving sea, without a sound,
Faint hands will row you
outward, out beyond our sight,
Us with stretched arms and empty eyes on the far-gleaming
And
marble sand. . . .
Beyond the shifting cold twilight,
Further than
laughter goes, or tears, further than dreaming,
There'll be no port, no dawn-lit islands! But the drear
Waste darkening, and, at length, flame
ultimate on the deep.
Oh, the last fire -- and you, unkissed, unfriended there!
Oh, the lone way's red
ending, and we not there to weep!
(We found you pale and quiet, and
strangely crowned with flowers,
Lovely and secret as a child. You came with us,
Came happily, hand in hand with the young dancing hours,
High on the downs at dawn!) Void now and tenebrous,
The grey sands curve before me. . . .
From the
inland meadows,
Fragrant of June and
clover, floats the dark, and fills
The hollow sea's dead face with little creeping shadows,
And the white silence brims the hollow of the hills.
Close in the nest is folded every weary wing,
Hushed all the
joyful voices; and we, who held you dear,
Eastward we turn and
homeward, alone, remembering . . .
Day that I loved, day that I loved, the Night is here!
Sleeping Out: Full Moon
They sleep within. . . .
I cower to the earth, I waking, I only.
High and cold thou dreamest, O queen, high-dreaming and
lonely.
We have slept too long, who can hardly win
The white one flame, and the night-long crying;
The viewless passers; the world's low sighing
With desire, with yearning,
To the fire unburning,
To the heatless fire, to the flameless ecstasy! . . .
Helpless I lie.
And around me the feet of thy watchers tread.
There is a rumour and a
radiance of wings above my head,
An
intolerableradiance of wings. . . .
All the earth grows fire,
White lips of desire
Brushing cool on the
forehead, croon slumbrous things.
Earth fades; and the air is thrilled with ways,
Dewy paths full of comfort. And
radiant bands,
The
gracious presence of friendly hands,
Help the blind one, the glad one, who stumbles and strays,
Stretching wavering hands, up, up, through the praise
Of a
myriad silver trumpets, through cries,
To all glory, to all
gladness, to the
infinite height,
To the
gracious, the unmoving, the mother eyes,
And the
laughter, and the lips, of light.
In Examination
Lo! from quiet skies
In through the window my Lord the Sun!
And my eyes
Were dazzled and drunk with the misty gold,
The golden glory that drowned and crowned me
Eddied and swayed through the room . . .
Around me,
To left and to right,
Hunched figures and old,
Dull blear-eyed scribbling fools, grew fair,
Ringed round and haloed with holy light.
Flame lit on their hair,
And their burning eyes grew young and wise,
Each as a God, or King of kings,
White-robed and bright
(Still scribbling all);
And a full tumultuous murmur of wings
Grew through the hall;
And I knew the white undying Fire,
And, through open portals,
Gyre on gyre,
Archangels and angels, adoring, bowing,
And a Face unshaded . . .
Till the light faded;
And they were but fools again, fools unknowing,
Still scribbling, blear-eyed and stolid immortals.
Pine-Trees and the Sky: Evening
I'd watched the sorrow of the evening sky,
And smelt the sea, and earth, and the warm
clover,
And heard the waves, and the seagull's mocking cry.
And in them all was only the old cry,
That song they always sing -- "The best is over!
You may remember now, and think, and sigh,
O silly lover!"
And I was tired and sick that all was over,
And because I,
For all my thinking, never could recover
One moment of the good hours that were over.
And I was sorry and sick, and wished to die.
Then from the sad west turning wearily,
I saw the pines against the white north sky,
Very beautiful, and still, and b
ending over
Their sharp black heads against a quiet sky.
And there was peace in them; and I
Was happy, and forgot to play the lover,
And laughed, and did no longer wish to die;
Being glad of you, O pine-trees and the sky!
Wagner
Creeps in half
wanton, half asleep,
One with a fat wide hairless face.
He likes love-music that is cheap;
Likes women in a
crowded place;
And wants to hear the noise they're making.
His heavy eyelids droop half-over,
Great pouches swing beneath his eyes.
He listens, thinks himself the lover,
Heaves from his
stomach wheezy sighs;
He likes to feel his heart's a-breaking.
The music swells. His gross legs quiver.
His little lips are bright with slime.
The music swells. The women shiver.
And all the while, in perfect time,
His pendulous
stomach hangs a-shaking.
The Vision of the Archangels
Slowly up silent peaks, the white edge of the world,
Trod four archangels, clear against the unheeding sky,
Bearing, with quiet even steps, and great wings furled,
A little dingy
coffin; where a child must lie,
It was so tiny. (Yet, you had fancied, God could never
Have bidden a child turn from the spring and the sunlight,
And shut him in that
lonely shell, to drop for ever
Into the emptiness and silence, into the night. . . .)
They then from the sheer
summit cast, and watched it fall,
Through unknown glooms, that frail black
coffin -- and therein
God's little
pitiful Body lying, worn and thin,
And curled up like some crumpled,
lonely flower-petal --
Till it was no more
visible; then turned again
With
sorrowful quiet faces
downward to the plain.
Seaside
Swiftly out from the friendly lilt of the band,
The crowd's good
laughter, the loved eyes of men,
I am drawn nightward; I must turn again
Where, down beyond the low untrodden strand,
There curves and glimmers
outward to the unknown
The old unquiet ocean. All the shade
Is rife with magic and
movement. I stray alone
Here on the edge of silence, half afraid,
Waiting a sign. In the deep heart of me
The
sullen waters swell towards the moon,
And all my tides set seaward.
From
inlandLeaps a gay
fragment of some mocking tune,
That tinkles and laughs and fades along the sand,
And dies between the seawall and the sea.
On the Death of Smet-Smet, the Hippopotamus-Goddess
Song of a tribe of the ancient Egyptians
(The Priests within the Temple)
She was wrinkled and huge and
hideous? She was our Mother.
She was lustful and lewd? -- but a God; we had none other.
In the day She was
hidden and dumb, but at
nightfall moaned in the shade;
We shuddered and gave Her Her will in the darkness; we were afraid.
(The People without)
She sent us pain,
And we bowed before Her;
She smiled again
And bade us adore Her.
She solaced our woe
And soothed our sighing;
And what shall we do
Now God is dying?
(The Priests within)
She was hungry and ate our children; -- how should we stay Her?
She took our young men and our maidens; -- ours to obey Her.
We were loathed and mocked and reviled of all nations; that was our pride.
She fed us, protected us, loved us, and killed us; now She has died.
(The People without)
She was so strong;
But death is stronger.
She ruled us long;
But Time is longer.
She solaced our woe
And soothed our sighing;
And what shall we do
Now God is dying?
The Song of the Pilgrims
(Halted around the fire by night, after moon-set,
they sing this beneath the trees.)
What light of unremembered skies
Hast thou relumed within our eyes,
Thou whom we seek, whom we shall find? . . .
A certain odour on the wind,
Thy
hidden face beyond the west,
These things have called us; on a quest
Older than any road we trod,
More endless than desire. . . .
Far God,
Sigh with thy cruel voice, that fills
The soul with
longing for dim hills
And faint horizons! For there come
Grey moments of the antient dumb
Sickness of travel, when no song
Can cheer us; but the way seems long;