Blinded by a leafy crown
I looked neither up nor down--

But the little leaves that die
Have left me room to see the sky;

Now for the first time I know
Stars above and earth below.

THE ANSWER
WHEN I go back to earth

And all my joyous body
Puts off the red and white

That once had been so proud,
If men should pass above

With false and feeble pity,
My dust will find a voice

To answer them aloud:
"Be still, I am content,

Take back your poor compassion,
Joy was a flame in me

Too steady to destroy;
Lithe as a bending reed

Loving the storm that sways her--
I found more joy in sorrow

Than you could find in joy."
III

OVER THE ROOFS
I

OH chimes set high on the sunny tower
Ring on, ring on unendingly,

Make all the hours a single hour,
For when the dusk begins to flower,

The man I love will come to me! . . .
But no, go slowly as you will,

I should not bid you hasten so,
For while I wait for love to come,

Some other girl is standing dumb,
Fearing her love will go.

II
Oh white steam over the roofs, blow high!

Oh chimes in the tower ring clear and free !
Oh sun awake in the covered sky,

For the man I love, loves me I . . .
RIVERS TO THE SEA

Oh drifting steam disperse and die,
Oh tower stand shrouded toward the south,--

Fate heard afar my happy cry,
And laid her finger on my mouth.

III
The dusk was blue with blowing mist,

The lights were spangles in a veil,
And from the clamor far below

Floated faint music like a wail.
It voiced what I shall never speak,

My heart was breaking all night long,
But when the dawn was hard and gray,

My tears distilled into a song.
IV

I said, "I have shut my heart
As one shuts an open door,

That Love may starve therein
And trouble me no more."

RIVERS TO THE SEA
But over the roofs there came

The wet new wind of May,
And a tune blew up from the curb

Where the street-pianos play.
My room was white with the sun

And Love cried out in me,
"I am strong, I will break your heart

Unless you set me free."
A CRY

OH, there are eyes that he can see,
And hands to make his hands rejoice,

But to my lover I must be
Only a voice.

Oh, there are breasts to bear his head,
And lips whereon his lips can lie,

But I must be till I am dead
Only a cry.

CHANCE
How many times we must have met

Here on the street as strangers do,
Children of chance we were, who passed

The door of heaven and never knew.
IMMORTAL

So soon my body will have gone
Beyond the sound and sight of men,

And tho' it wakes and suffers now,
Its sleep will be unbroken then;

But oh, my frail immortal soul
That will not sleep forevermore,

A leaf borne onward by the blast,
A wave that never finds the shore.

AFTER DEATH
Now while my lips are living

Their words must stay unsaid,
And will my soul remember

To speak when I am dead?
Yet if my soul remembered

You would not heed it, dear,
For now you must not listen,

And then you could not hear.
TESTAMENT

I SAID, "I will take my life
And throw it away;

I who was fire and song
Will turn to clay."

"I will lie no more in the night
With shaken breath,

I will toss my heart in the air
To be caught by Death."

But out of the night I heard,
Like the inland sound of the sea,

The hushed and terrible sob
Of all humanity.

Then I said, "Oh who am I
To scorn God to his face?

I will bow my head and stay
And suffer with my race."

GIFTS
I GAVE my first love laughter,

I gave my second tears,
I gave my third love silence

Thru all the years.
My first love gave me singing,

My second eyes to see,
But oh, it was my third love

Who gave my soul to me.
IV

FROM THE SEA
ALL beauty calls you to me, and you seem,

Past twice a thousand miles of shifting sea,
To reach me. You are as the wind I breathe

Here on the ship's sun-smitten topmost deck,
With only light between the heavens and me.

I feel your spirit and I close my eyes,
Knowing the bright hair blowing in the sun,

The eager whisper and the searching eyes.
* * * * * *

Listen, I love you. Do not turn your face
Nor touch me. Only stand and watch awhile

The blue unbrokencircle of the sea.
Look far away and let me ease my heart

Of words that beat in it with broken wing.
Look far away, and if I say too much,

Forget that I am speaking. Only watch,
How like a gull that sparkling sinks to rest,

RIVERS TO THE SEA
The foam-crest drifts along a happy wave

Toward the bright verge, the boundary of the world.
* * * * * *

I am so weak a thing, praise me for this,
That in some strange way I was strong enough

To keep my love unuttered and to stand
Altho' I longed to kneel to you that night

You looked at me with ever-calling eyes.
Was I not calm? And if you guessed my love

You thought it something delicate and free,
Soft as the sound of fir-trees in the wind,

Fleeting as phosphorescent stars in foam.
Yet in my heart there was a beating storm

Bending my thoughts before it, and I strove
To say too little lest I say too much,

And from my eyes to drive love's happy shame.
Yet when I heard your name the first far time

It seemed like other names to me, and I
Was all unconscious, as a dreaming river

That nears at last its long predestined sea;
RIVERS TO THE SEA

And when you spoke to me, I did not know
That to my life's high altar came its priest.

But now I know between my God and me
You stand forever, nearer God than I,

And in your hands with faith and utter joy
I would that I could lay my woman's soul.

* * * * * *
Oh, my love

To whom I cannot come with any gift
Of body or of soul, I pass and go.

But sometimes when you hear blown back to you
My wistful, far-off singing touched with tears,

Know that I sang for you alone to hear,
And that I wondered if the wind would bring

To him who tuned my heart its distant song.
So might a woman who in loneliness

Had borne a child, dreaming of days to come,
Wonder if it would please its father's eyes.

But long before I ever heard your name,
Always the undertone's unchanging note

RIVERS TO THE SEA
In all my singing had prefigured you,

Foretold you as a spark foretells a flame.
Yet I was free as an untethered cloud

In the great space between the sky and sea,
And might have blown before the wind of joy

Like a bright banner woven by the sun.
I did not know the longing in the night--

You who have waked me cannot give me sleep.
All things in all the world can rest, but I,

Even the smooth brief respite of a wave
When it gives up its broken crown of foam,

Even that little rest I may not have.

• feeble [´fi:bəl] a.虚弱的，无力的 (初中英语单词)
• hasten [´heisən] vt.催促；促进 vi.赶紧 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• starve [stɑ:v] v.(使)饥饿 (初中英语单词)
• immortal [i´mɔ:təl] a.不死的n.不朽的人物 (初中英语单词)
• shaken [´ʃeikən] shake的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• whisper [´wispə] v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词)
• circle [´sə:kəl] n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词)
• boundary [´baundəri] n.界线，边界 (初中英语单词)
• delicate [´delikət] a.精美的；微妙的 (初中英语单词)
• banner [´bænə] n.旗(帜)；头号标题 (初中英语单词)
• joyous [´dʒɔiəs] a.充满快乐的 (高中英语单词)
• disperse [di´spə:s] v.解散；驱散；传播 (高中英语单词)
• onward [´ɔnwəd] ad.&a.向前(的) (高中英语单词)
• inland [´inlənd, in´lænd] a.&n.内地的 ad.在内地 (高中英语单词)
• unconscious [ʌn´kɔnʃəs] a.无意识的；不觉察的 (高中英语单词)
• longing [´lɔŋiŋ] n.&a.渴望(的) (高中英语单词)
• unbroken [ʌn´brəukən] a.未破的；不间断的 (英语四级单词)
• wistful [´wistfəl] a.渴望的；不满足的 (英语四级单词)
• far-off [´fɑ:rɔ:f] a.远方的，遥远的 (英语四级单词)
• whereon [weər´ɔn] ad.在什么上面；因此 (英语六级单词)
• speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
• beating [´bi:tiŋ] n.敲；搅打；失败 (英语六级单词)
• respite [´respait] n.暂缓 vt.缓期执行 (英语六级单词)