Then I passed on.
In the winter dusk,

The pavements were gleaming with rain;
There in the lighted window

I left my boyhood."
THE KISS

BEFORE YOU kissed me only winds of heaven
Had kissed me, and the tenderness of rain--

Now you have come, how can I care for kisses
Like theirs again?

I sought the sea, she sent her winds to meet me,
They surged about me singing of the south--

I turned my head away to keep still holy
Your kiss upon my mouth.

And swift sweet rains of shining April weather
Found not my lips where living kisses are;

I bowed my head lest they put out my glory
As rain puts out a star.

I am my love's and he is mine forever,
Sealed with a seal and safe forevermore--

Think you that I could let a beggar enter
Where a king stood before?

SWANS
NIGHT is over the park, and a few brave stars

Look on the lights that link it with chains of gold,
The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars

That seem too heavy for tremulous water to hold.
We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place,

And now and again one wakes and uplifts its head;
How still you are--your gaze is on my face--

We watch the swans and never a word is said.
THE OLD MAID

I SAW her in a Broadway car,
The woman I might grow to be;

I felt my lover look at her
And then turn suddenly to me.

Her hair was dull and drew no light
And yet its color was as mine;

Her eyes were strangely like my eyes
Tho' love had never made them shine.

Her body was a thing grown thin,
Hungry for love that never came;

Her soul was frozen in the dark
Unwarmed forever by love's flame.

I felt my lover look at her
And then turn suddenly to me,--

His eyes were magic to defy
The woman I shall never be.

FROM THE WOOLWORTH TOWER
VIVID with love, eager for greater beauty

Out of the night we come
Into the corridor, brilliant and warm.

A metal door slides open,
And the lift receives us.

Swiftly, with sharp unswerving flight
The car shoots upward,

And the air, swirling and angry,
Howls like a hundred devils.

Past the maze of trim bronze doors,
Steadily we ascend.

I cling to you
Conscious of the chasm under us,

And a terrible whirring deafens my ears.
The flight is ended.

We pass thru a door leading onto the ledge--
RIVERS TO THE SEA

Wind, night and space
Oh terrible height

Why have we sought you?
Oh bitter wind with icy invisible wings

Why do you beat us?
Why would you bear us away?

We look thru the miles of air,
The cold blue miles between us and the city,

Over the edge of eternity we look
On all the lights,

A thousand times more numerous than the stars;
Oh lines and loops of light in unwound chains

That mark for miles and miles
The vast black mazy cobweb of the streets;

Near us clusters and splashes of living gold
That change far off to bluish steel

Where the fragile lights on the Jersey shore
Tremble like drops of wind-stirred dew.

The strident noises of the city
Floating up to us

RIVERS TO THE SEA
Are hallowed into whispers.

Ferries cross thru the darkness
Weaving a golden thread into the night,

Their whistles weird shadows of sound.
We feel the millions of humanity beneath us,--

The warm millions, moving under the roofs,
Consumed by their own desires;

Preparing food,
Sobbing alone in a garret,

With burning eyes bending over a needle,
Aimlessly reading the evening paper,

Dancing in the naked light of the caf茅,
Laying out the dead,

Bringing a child to birth--
The sorrow, the torpor, the bitterness, the frail joy

Come up to us
Like a cold fog wrapping us round.

Oh in a hundred years
Not one of these blood-warm bodies

RIVERS TO THE SEA
But will be worthless as clay.

The anguish, the torpor, the toil
Will have passed to other millions

Consumed by the same desires.
Ages will come and go,

Darkness will blot the lights
And the tower will be laid on the earth.

The sea will remain
Black and unchanging,

The stars will look down
Brilliant and unconcerned.

Beloved,
Tho' sorrow, futility, defeat

Surround us,
They cannot bear us down.

Here on the abyss of eternity
Love has crowned us

For a moment
Victors.

AT NIGHT
WE are apart; the city grows quiet between us,

She hushes herself, for midnight makes heavy her eyes,
The tangle of traffic is ended, the cars are empty,

Five streets divide us, and on them the moonlight lies.
Oh are you asleep, or Iying awake, my lover?

Open your dreams to my love and your heart to my words,
I send you my thoughts-the air between us is laden,

My thoughts fly in at your window, a flock of wild birds.
THE YEARS

TO-NIGHT I close my eyes and see
A strange procession passing me--

The years before I saw your face
Go by me with a wistful grace;

They pass, the sensitive shy years,
As one who strives to dance, half blind with tears.

The years went by and never knew
That each one brought me nearer you;

Their path was narrow and apart
And yet it led me to your heart--

Oh sensitive shy years, oh lonely years,
That strove to sing with voices drowned in tears.

PEACE
PEACE flows into me

AS the tide to the pool by the shore;
It is mine forevermore,

It ebbs not back like the sea.
I am the pool of blue

That worships the vivid sky;
My hopes were heaven-high,

They are all fulfilled in you.
I am the pool of gold

When sunset burns and dies,--
You are my deepening skies,

Give me your stars to hold.
APRIL

THE roofs are shining from the rain,
The sparrows twitter as they fly,

And with a windy April grace
The little clouds go by.

Yet the back-yards are bare and brown
With only one unchanging tree--

I could not be so sure of Spring
Save that it sings in me.

COME
COME, when the pale moon like a petal

Floats in the pearly dusk of spring,
Come with arms outstretched to take me,

Come with lips pursed up to cling.
Come, for life is a frail moth flying

Caught in the web of the years that pass,
And soon we two, so warm and eager

Will be as the gray stones in the grass.
MOODS

I AM the still rain falling,
Too tired for singing mirth--

Oh, be the green fields calling,
Oh, be for me the earth!

I am the brown bird pining
To leave the nest and fly--

Oh, be the fresh cloud shining,
Oh, be for me the sky!

APRIL SONG
WILLOW in your April gown

Delicate and gleaming,
Do you mind in years gone by

All my dreaming?
Spring was like a call to me

That I could not answer,
I was chained to loneliness,

I, the dancer.
Willow, twinkling in the sun,

Still your leaves and hear me,
I can answer spring at last,

Love is near me!

• beggar [´begə] n.乞丐 (初中英语单词)
• reflection [ri´flekʃən] n.反射；映象；想法 (初中英语单词)
• strangely [´streindʒli] ad.奇怪地；陌生地 (初中英语单词)
• frozen [´frəuzn] freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• brilliant [´briliənt] a.灿烂的；杰出的 (初中英语单词)
• flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
• invisible [in´vizəbəl] a.看不见的；无形的 (初中英语单词)
• jersey [´dʒə:zi] n.毛织运动衫；毛线衫 (初中英语单词)
• humanity [hju:´mæniti] n.人类；人性；仁慈 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中英语单词)
• traffic [´træfik] n.交通，运输 (初中英语单词)
• moonlight [´mu:nlait] n.&a.月光(的) (初中英语单词)
• procession [prə´seʃən] n.队伍 v.列队行进 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• sunset [´sʌnset] n.日落；晚霞 (初中英语单词)
• tenderness [´tendənis] n.娇嫩；柔软；温柔 (高中英语单词)
• theirs [ðeəz] pron.他们的 (高中英语单词)
• shadowy [´ʃædəui] a.有阴影的；模糊的 (高中英语单词)
• broadway [´brɔ:dwei] n.&a.百老汇大街(的) (高中英语单词)
• corridor [´kɔridɔ:] n.走廊；指定航路 (高中英语单词)
• bronze [brɔnz] n.青铜(器) (高中英语单词)
• eternity [i´tə:niti] n.永恒，来世，无穷 (高中英语单词)
• bitterness [´bitənis] n.苦味；辛酸；苦难 (高中英语单词)
• worthless [´wə:θləs] a.无价值的 (高中英语单词)
• anguish [´æŋgwiʃ] n.(极度的)痛苦；苦恼 (高中英语单词)
• tangle [´tæŋgəl] n.&vt.(使)缠结；纠纷 (高中英语单词)
• sensitive [´sensitiv] a.敏感的；感光的 (高中英语单词)
• strove [strəuv] strive的过去式 (高中英语单词)
• cobweb [´kɔbweb] n.蜘蛛网；蛛丝 (英语四级单词)
• fragile [´frædʒail] a.易碎的；虚弱的 (英语四级单词)
• hallowed [´hæləud] a.神圣的，崇高的 (英语四级单词)
• wistful [´wistfəl] a.渴望的；不满足的 (英语四级单词)
• tremulous [´tremjuləs] a.发抖的；震颤的 (英语六级单词)
• wrapping [´ræpiŋ] n.包装材料 (英语六级单词)
• twitter [´twitə] vi.(鸟)吱吱叫 n.鸟鸣 (英语六级单词)
• outstretched [,aut´stretʃt] a.扩张的；伸长的 (英语六级单词)