章节正文
To meet John the Baptist.
I walked with feet that bled,
Seeking that prophet lean and brown and bold.
*I spied foul fiends instead*.
I went down into the desert
To meet my God.
By him be comforted.
I went down into the desert
To meet my God.
*And I met the devil in red*.
I went down into the desert
To meet my God.
O, Lord my God, awaken from the dead!
I see you there, your thorn-crown on the ground,
I see you there, half-buried in the sand.
I see you there, your white bones glistening, bare,
*The carrion-birds a-wheeling round your head*.
Love and Law
True Love is founded in rocks of Remembrance
In stones of Forbearance and mortar of Pain.
The workman lays wearilygranite on granite,
And bleeds for his castle 'mid sunshine and rain.
Love is not velvet, not all of it velvet,
Not all of it banners, not gold-leaf alone.
'Tis stern as the ages and old as Religion.
With Patience its watchword, and Law for its throne.
The Perfect Marriage
I
I hate this yoke; for the world's sake here put it on:
Knowing 'twill weigh as much on you till life is gone.
Knowing you love your freedom dear, as I love mine --
Knowing that love unchained has been our life's great wine:
Our one great wine (yet spent too soon, and serving none;
Of the two cups free love at last the deadly one).
II
We grant our meetings will be tame, not honey-sweet
No longer turning to the tryst with flying feet.
We know the toil that now must come will spoil the bloom
And tenderness of passion's touch, and in its room
Will come tame habit, deadly calm, sorrow and gloom.
Oh, how the battle scars the best who enter life!
Each soldier comes out blind or lame from the black strife.
Mad or diseased or damned of soul the best may come --
It matters not how merrily now rolls the drum,
The fife shrills high, the horn sings loud, till no steps lag --
And all adore that silken flame, Desire's great flag.
III
We will build strong our tiny fort, strong as we can --
Holding one inner room beyond the sword of man.
Love is too wide, it seems to-day, to hide it there.
It seems to flood the fields of corn, and gild the air --
It seems to breathe from every brook, from flowers to sigh --
It seems a cataract poured down from the great sky;
It seems a tenderness so vast no bush but shows
Its haunting and transfiguring light where wonder glows.
It wraps us in a silken snare by shadowystreams,
And wildering sweet and stung with joy your white soul seems
A flame, a flame, conquering day, conquering night,
Brought from our God, a holy thing, a mad delight.
But love, when all things beat it down, leaves the wide air,
The heavens are gray, and men turn wolves, lean with despair.
Ah, when we need love most, and weep, when all is dark,
Love is a pinch of ashes gray, with one live spark --
Yet on the hope to keep alive that treasure strange
Hangs all earth's struggle, strife and scorn, and desperate change.
IV
Love? . . . we will scarcely love our babes full many a time --
Knowing their souls and ours too well, and all our grime --
And there beside our holy hearth we'll hide our eyes --
Lest we should flash what seems disdain without disguise.
Yet there shall be no wavering there in that deep trial --
And no false fire or stranger hand or traitor vile --
We'll fight the gloom and fight the world with strong sword-play,
Entrenched within our block-house small, ever at bay --
As fellow-warriors, underpaid, wounded and wild,
True to their battered flag, their faith still undefiled!
Darling Daughter of Babylon
Too soon you wearied of our tears.
And then you danced with spangled feet,
Leading Belshazzar's chattering court
A-tinkling through the shadowy street.
With mead they came, with chants of shame.
DESIRE'S red flag before them flew.
And Istar's music moved your mouth
And Baal's deep shames rewoke in you.
Now you could drive the royal car;
Forget our Nation's breaking load:
Now you could sleep on silver beds --
(Bitter and dark was our abode.)
And so, for many a night you laughed,
And knew not of my hopeless prayer,
Till God's own spirit whipped you forth
From Istar's shrine, from Istar's stair.
Darling daughter of Babylon --
Rose by the black Euphrates flood --
Again your beauty grew more dear
Than my slave's bread, than my heart's blood.
We sang of Zion, good to know,
Where righteousness and peace abide. . . .
What of your second sacrilege
Carousing at Belshazzar's side?
Once, by a stream, we clasped tired hands --
Your paint and henna washed away.
Your place, you said, was with the slaves
Who sewed the thick cloth, night and day.
You were a pale and holy maid
Toil-bound with us. One night you said: --
"Your God shall be my God until
I slumber with the patriarch dead."
Pardon, daughter of Babylon,
If, on this night remembering
Our lover walks under the walls
Of hanging gardens in the spring,
A venom comes from broken hope,
From memories of your comrade-song
Until I curse your painted eyes
And do your flower-mouth too much wrong.
The Amaranth
Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here. . . .
Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawns
And the tremendous Amaranth descends
Sweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns?
Does it not mean my God would have me say: --
"Whether you will or no, O city young,
Heaven will bloom like one great flower for you,
Flash and loom greatly all your marts among?"
Friends, I will not cease hoping though you weep.
Such things I see, and some of them shall come
Though now our streets are harsh and ashen-gray,
Though our strong youths are strident now, or dumb.
Friends, that sweet town, that wonder-town, shall rise.
Naught can delay it. Though it may not be
Just as I dream, it comes at last I know
With streets like channels of an incense-sea.
The Alchemist's Petition
Thou wilt not sentence to eternal life
My soul that prays that it may sleep and sleep
Like a white statue dropped into the deep,
Covered with sand, covered with chests of gold,
And slave-bones, tossed from many a pirate hold.
But for this prayer thou wilt not bind in Hell
My soul, that shook with love for Fame and Truth --
In such unquenched desires consumed his youth --
Let me turn dust, like dead leaves in the Fall,
Or wood that lights an hour your knightly hall --
Amen.
Two Easter Stanzas
I
The Hope of the Resurrection
Though I have watched so many mourners weep
O'er the real dead, in dull earth laid asleep --
Those dead seemed but the shadows of my days
That passed and left me in the sun's bright rays.
Now though you go on smiling in the sun
Our love is slain, and love and you were one.
You are the first, you I have known so long,
Whose death was deadly, a tremendous wrong.
Therefore I seek the faith that sets it right
Amid the lilies and the candle-light.
I think on Heaven, for in that air so clear
We two may meet, confused and parted here.
Ah, when man's dearest dies, 'tis then he goes
To that old balm that heals the centuries' woes.
Then Christ's wild cry in all the streets is rife: --
"I am the Resurrection and the Life."
II
We meet at the Judgment and I fear it Not
Though better men may fear that trumpet's warning,
I meet you, lady, on the Judgment morning,
With golden hope my spirit still adorning.
Our God who made you all so fair and sweet
Is three times gentle, and before his feet
Rejoicing I shall say: -- "The girl you gave
Was my first Heaven, an angel bent to save.
Oh, God, her maker, if my ingrate breath
Is worth this rescue from the Second Death,
Perhaps her dear proud eyes grow gentler too
That scorned my graceless years and trophies few.
Gone are those years, and gone ill-deeds that turned
Her sacred beauty from my songs that burned.
We now as comrades through the stars may take
The rich and arduous quests I did forsake.
Grant me a seraph-guide to thread the throng
And quickly find that woman-soul so strong.
I dream that in her deeply-hidden heart
Hurt love lived on, though we were far apart,
A brooding secret mercy like your own
That blooms to-day to vindicate your throne.
The Traveller-heart
(To a Man who maintained that the Mausoleum is the Stateliest Possible
Manner of Interment)
I would be one with the dark, dark earth: --
Follow the plough with a yokel tread.
I would be part of the Indian corn,
Walking the rows with the plumes o'erhead.
I would be one with the lavish earth,
Eating the bee-stung apples red:
Walking where lambs walk on the hills;
By oak-grove paths to the pools be led.
I would be one with the dark-bright night
When sparkling skies and the lightning wed --
I walked with feet that bled,
Seeking that prophet lean and brown and bold.
*I spied foul fiends instead*.
I went down into the desert
To meet my God.
By him be comforted.
I went down into the desert
To meet my God.
*And I met the devil in red*.
I went down into the desert
To meet my God.
O, Lord my God, awaken from the dead!
I see you there, your thorn-crown on the ground,
I see you there, half-buried in the sand.
I see you there, your white bones glistening, bare,
*The carrion-birds a-wheeling round your head*.
Love and Law
True Love is founded in rocks of Remembrance
In stones of Forbearance and mortar of Pain.
The workman lays wearilygranite on granite,
And bleeds for his castle 'mid sunshine and rain.
Love is not velvet, not all of it velvet,
Not all of it banners, not gold-leaf alone.
'Tis stern as the ages and old as Religion.
With Patience its watchword, and Law for its throne.
The Perfect Marriage
I
I hate this yoke; for the world's sake here put it on:
Knowing 'twill weigh as much on you till life is gone.
Knowing you love your freedom dear, as I love mine --
Knowing that love unchained has been our life's great wine:
Our one great wine (yet spent too soon, and serving none;
Of the two cups free love at last the deadly one).
II
We grant our meetings will be tame, not honey-sweet
No longer turning to the tryst with flying feet.
We know the toil that now must come will spoil the bloom
And tenderness of passion's touch, and in its room
Will come tame habit, deadly calm, sorrow and gloom.
Oh, how the battle scars the best who enter life!
Each soldier comes out blind or lame from the black strife.
Mad or diseased or damned of soul the best may come --
It matters not how merrily now rolls the drum,
The fife shrills high, the horn sings loud, till no steps lag --
And all adore that silken flame, Desire's great flag.
III
We will build strong our tiny fort, strong as we can --
Holding one inner room beyond the sword of man.
Love is too wide, it seems to-day, to hide it there.
It seems to flood the fields of corn, and gild the air --
It seems to breathe from every brook, from flowers to sigh --
It seems a cataract poured down from the great sky;
It seems a tenderness so vast no bush but shows
Its haunting and transfiguring light where wonder glows.
It wraps us in a silken snare by shadowystreams,
And wildering sweet and stung with joy your white soul seems
A flame, a flame, conquering day, conquering night,
Brought from our God, a holy thing, a mad delight.
But love, when all things beat it down, leaves the wide air,
The heavens are gray, and men turn wolves, lean with despair.
Ah, when we need love most, and weep, when all is dark,
Love is a pinch of ashes gray, with one live spark --
Yet on the hope to keep alive that treasure strange
Hangs all earth's struggle, strife and scorn, and desperate change.
IV
Love? . . . we will scarcely love our babes full many a time --
Knowing their souls and ours too well, and all our grime --
And there beside our holy hearth we'll hide our eyes --
Lest we should flash what seems disdain without disguise.
Yet there shall be no wavering there in that deep trial --
And no false fire or stranger hand or traitor vile --
We'll fight the gloom and fight the world with strong sword-play,
Entrenched within our block-house small, ever at bay --
As fellow-warriors, underpaid, wounded and wild,
True to their battered flag, their faith still undefiled!
Darling Daughter of Babylon
Too soon you wearied of our tears.
And then you danced with spangled feet,
Leading Belshazzar's chattering court
A-tinkling through the shadowy street.
With mead they came, with chants of shame.
DESIRE'S red flag before them flew.
And Istar's music moved your mouth
And Baal's deep shames rewoke in you.
Now you could drive the royal car;
Forget our Nation's breaking load:
Now you could sleep on silver beds --
(Bitter and dark was our abode.)
And so, for many a night you laughed,
And knew not of my hopeless prayer,
Till God's own spirit whipped you forth
From Istar's shrine, from Istar's stair.
Darling daughter of Babylon --
Rose by the black Euphrates flood --
Again your beauty grew more dear
Than my slave's bread, than my heart's blood.
We sang of Zion, good to know,
Where righteousness and peace abide. . . .
What of your second sacrilege
Carousing at Belshazzar's side?
Once, by a stream, we clasped tired hands --
Your paint and henna washed away.
Your place, you said, was with the slaves
Who sewed the thick cloth, night and day.
You were a pale and holy maid
Toil-bound with us. One night you said: --
"Your God shall be my God until
I slumber with the patriarch dead."
Pardon, daughter of Babylon,
If, on this night remembering
Our lover walks under the walls
Of hanging gardens in the spring,
A venom comes from broken hope,
From memories of your comrade-song
Until I curse your painted eyes
And do your flower-mouth too much wrong.
The Amaranth
Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here. . . .
Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawns
And the tremendous Amaranth descends
Sweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns?
Does it not mean my God would have me say: --
"Whether you will or no, O city young,
Heaven will bloom like one great flower for you,
Flash and loom greatly all your marts among?"
Friends, I will not cease hoping though you weep.
Such things I see, and some of them shall come
Though now our streets are harsh and ashen-gray,
Though our strong youths are strident now, or dumb.
Friends, that sweet town, that wonder-town, shall rise.
Naught can delay it. Though it may not be
Just as I dream, it comes at last I know
With streets like channels of an incense-sea.
The Alchemist's Petition
Thou wilt not sentence to eternal life
My soul that prays that it may sleep and sleep
Like a white statue dropped into the deep,
Covered with sand, covered with chests of gold,
And slave-bones, tossed from many a pirate hold.
But for this prayer thou wilt not bind in Hell
My soul, that shook with love for Fame and Truth --
In such unquenched desires consumed his youth --
Let me turn dust, like dead leaves in the Fall,
Or wood that lights an hour your knightly hall --
Amen.
Two Easter Stanzas
I
The Hope of the Resurrection
Though I have watched so many mourners weep
O'er the real dead, in dull earth laid asleep --
Those dead seemed but the shadows of my days
That passed and left me in the sun's bright rays.
Now though you go on smiling in the sun
Our love is slain, and love and you were one.
You are the first, you I have known so long,
Whose death was deadly, a tremendous wrong.
Therefore I seek the faith that sets it right
Amid the lilies and the candle-light.
I think on Heaven, for in that air so clear
We two may meet, confused and parted here.
Ah, when man's dearest dies, 'tis then he goes
To that old balm that heals the centuries' woes.
Then Christ's wild cry in all the streets is rife: --
"I am the Resurrection and the Life."
II
We meet at the Judgment and I fear it Not
Though better men may fear that trumpet's warning,
I meet you, lady, on the Judgment morning,
With golden hope my spirit still adorning.
Our God who made you all so fair and sweet
Is three times gentle, and before his feet
Rejoicing I shall say: -- "The girl you gave
Was my first Heaven, an angel bent to save.
Oh, God, her maker, if my ingrate breath
Is worth this rescue from the Second Death,
Perhaps her dear proud eyes grow gentler too
That scorned my graceless years and trophies few.
Gone are those years, and gone ill-deeds that turned
Her sacred beauty from my songs that burned.
We now as comrades through the stars may take
The rich and arduous quests I did forsake.
Grant me a seraph-guide to thread the throng
And quickly find that woman-soul so strong.
I dream that in her deeply-hidden heart
Hurt love lived on, though we were far apart,
A brooding secret mercy like your own
That blooms to-day to vindicate your throne.
The Traveller-heart
(To a Man who maintained that the Mausoleum is the Stateliest Possible
Manner of Interment)
I would be one with the dark, dark earth: --
Follow the plough with a yokel tread.
I would be part of the Indian corn,
Walking the rows with the plumes o'erhead.
I would be one with the lavish earth,
Eating the bee-stung apples red:
Walking where lambs walk on the hills;
By oak-grove paths to the pools be led.
I would be one with the dark-bright night
When sparkling skies and the lightning wed --
- prophet [´prɔfit]
n.预言家；先知；提倡者 (初中英语单词) - awaken [ə´weikən] v.唤起，叫醒 (初中英语单词)
- sunshine [´sʌnʃain] n.日光，阳光 (初中英语单词)
- velvet [´velvit] n.&a.天鹅绒(般的) (初中英语单词)
- patience [´peiʃəns] n.忍耐(力)；耐心；坚韧 (初中英语单词)
- deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
- desperate [´despərit] a.拼死的；绝望的 (初中英语单词)
- traitor [´treitə] n.叛徒，卖国贼 (初中英语单词)
- stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
- slumber [´slʌmbə] v.&n.睡眠；沉睡状态 (初中英语单词)
- tremendous [tri´mendəs] a.可怕的；巨大的 (初中英语单词)
- sentence [´sentəns] n.判决 vt.宣判；处刑 (初中英语单词)
- eternal [i´tə:nəl] a.永远的；永恒的 (初中英语单词)
- statue [´stætʃu:] n.塑像，雕像 (初中英语单词)
- rescue [´reskju:] vt.&n.救援；挽救 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- indian [´indiən] a.印度的 n.印度人 (初中英语单词)
- lightning [´laitniŋ] n.闪电 a.突然的 (初中英语单词)
- workman [´wə:kmən] n.工人；工作人员 (高中英语单词)
- granite [´grænit] n.花岗岩 (高中英语单词)
- tenderness [´tendənis] n.娇嫩；柔软；温柔 (高中英语单词)
- damned [dæmd] a.该死的 ad.非常，极 (高中英语单词)
- merrily [´merili] ad.欢乐地；愉快地 (高中英语单词)
- silken [´silkən] a.丝制的；柔软光滑的 (高中英语单词)
- shadowy [´ʃædəui] a.有阴影的；模糊的 (高中英语单词)
- strife [straif] n.竞争；吵架；冲突 (高中英语单词)
- hearth [hɑ:θ] n.炉边；家庭(生活) (高中英语单词)
- disdain [dis´dein] vt.&n.藐视，轻视 (高中英语单词)
- hopeless [´həupləs] a.无望的，无可救药的 (高中英语单词)
- shrine [ʃrain] n.神龛；神殿；圣地 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- naught [nɔ:t] n.无；零 (高中英语单词)
- pirate [´paiərət] n.海盗 v.做海盗；掠夺 (高中英语单词)
- easter [´i:stə] n.(耶稣)复活节 (高中英语单词)
- plough [plau] n.耕地 v.犁 (高中英语单词)
- mortar [´mɔ:tə] n.灰浆 vt.用灰浆涂抹 (英语四级单词)
- wearily [´wiərili] ad.疲倦地；厌烦地 (英语四级单词)
- cataract [´kætərækt] n.大瀑布；白内障 (英语四级单词)
- arduous [´ɑ:djuəs] a.费力的；陡峭的 (英语四级单词)
- lavish [´læviʃ] a.慷慨的；浪费的 (英语四级单词)
- forbearance [fɔ:´beərəns] n.忍耐，克制 (英语六级单词)
- diseased [di´zi:zd] a.生病的；有病的 (英语六级单词)
- righteousness [raitʃəsnis] n.正直；正当；正义 (英语六级单词)
- knightly [´naitli] a.&ad.骑士般的(地) (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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