Summer of Love

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <div class="figcenter"><ANTIMG src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <h1>SUMMER OF LOVE</h1> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter"><ANTIMG src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="" /></div> <hr class="tb" /> <div class="titlepage"> <p><span class="xlarge">SUMMER<br/> <i>of</i> LOVE</span></p> <p>BY<br/> <span class="large">JOYCE KILMER</span></p> <div class="figcenter"><ANTIMG src="images/i_titlelogo.jpg" alt="" /></div> <p>NEW YORK<br/> THE BAKER &amp; TAYLOR COMPANY<br/> 1911</p> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p class="center"> <span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1911,<br/> <br/> BY<br/> <br/> THE BAKER &amp; TAYLOR COMPANY</p> <hr class="chap" /> <h2 class="nobreak"><span class="antiqua">In Dedication:</span></h2></div> <p class="center">TO ALINE</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">A vagrant minstrel of the street,</div> <div class="indent">No poet of the laurel crown,</div> <div class="verse">I kneel, dear Princess, at your feet,</div> <div class="indent">And lay my book of verses down.</div> <div class="verse">See all the love that lingers there,</div> <div class="verse">And so, for love&#8217;s sake, find it fair.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <blockquote> <p>Certain of the poems in this volume are reprinted by kind permission of the editors of the following magazines and newspapers: <i>The Call</i>, <i>Harpers&#8217; Weekly</i>, <i>The Independent</i>, <i>Moods</i>, <i>The Pathfinder</i>, the New York <i>Sun</i> and the <i>Sunday Magazine</i> of the New York <i>Times</i>.</p> <p>I am glad to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to my mother, Mrs. Kilburn-Kilmer, for her encouragement and assistance in making this book.</p> <p>For sympathy and valuable advice, I am deeply obliged to many friends, particularly Mr. and Mrs. Henry Mills Alden and Mr. Robert Cortez Holliday.</p> </blockquote></div> <hr class="chap" /> <h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2></div> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table"> <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> <tr><td>Summer of Love</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_1"> 1</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Villanelle of Loveland</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_2"> 2</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Thurifer</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_4"> 4</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>In a Book-shop</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_5"> 5</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Eadem</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_6"> 6</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>In Fairyland</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_7"> 7</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Sorrows of King Midas</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_8"> 8</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Slender Your Hands</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_9"> 9</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Sleep Song</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_10"> 10</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Love&#8217;s Thoroughfare</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_11"> 11</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>White Bird of Love</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_12"> 12</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Transfiguration</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_14"> 14</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>My Lady</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_16"> 16</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Gifts of Shee</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_17"> 17</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Wherever, Whenever</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_19"> 19</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Ballade of My Lady&#8217;s Beauty</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_20"> 20</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Love&#8217;s Rosary</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_22"> 22</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Tribute</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_24"> 24</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Matin</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_25"> 25</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>A Valentine</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_26"> 26</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Star of Love</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_27"> 27</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>For a Birthday</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_28"> 28</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Use of Night</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_31"> 31</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Alchemy</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_32"> 32</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Wayfarers</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_33"> 33</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>With a Mirror</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_35"> 35</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Princess Ballade</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_36"> 36</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Lullaby for a Baby Fairy</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_38"> 38</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>George Meredith</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_40"> 40</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>&#8220;And Forbid Them Not&#8221;</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_41"> 41</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>A Dead Poet</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_42"> 42</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Morning Meditations of Frère Hyacinthus</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_43"> 43</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Villanelle of the Players</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_46"> 46</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Mad Fiddler</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_47"> 47</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Grass in Madison Square</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_49"> 49</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Chevely Crossing</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_50"> 50</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Said the Rose</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_53"> 53</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>White Marble and Green Grass</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_56"> 56</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Metamorphosis</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_57"> 57</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Absinthe</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_58"> 58</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Theology</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_60"> 60</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>For a Child</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_61"> 61</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>To J. B. Y.</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_62"> 62</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The King&#8217;s Ballad</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_63"> 63</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Jesus and the Summer Rain</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_65"> 65</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Ballade of Butterflies</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_67"> 67</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Clouded Sun (To A. S.)</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_69"> 69</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>In Memoriam: Florence Nightingale</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_72"> 72</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Ballad of Three</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_73"> 73</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Court Musicians</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_75"> 75</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Dead Lover</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_76"> 76</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Poet&#8217;s Epitaph</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_77"> 77</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Subway</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_78"> 78</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Other Lover</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_79"> 79</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Age Comes A-wooing</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_81"> 81</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Prayer to Bragi</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_84"> 84</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Imitation of Richepin&#8217;s Ballade of the Beggars&#8217; King</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_85"> 85</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>Love and the Fowler&#8217;s Boy</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_87"> 87</SPAN></td></tr> <tr><td>The Way of Love</td><td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#Page_88"> 88</SPAN></td></tr> </table> <hr class="chap" /> <p class="ph1">SUMMER OF LOVE</p> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">SUMMER OF LOVE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">June lavishes sweet-scented loveliness</div> <div class="indent">And sprinkles sunfilled wine on everything;</div> <div class="indent">The very leaves grow drunk with bliss and sing</div> <div class="verse">And every breeze becomes a soft caress.</div> <div class="verse">All earthly things felicity confess</div> <div class="indent">And fairies dance in many a moonlit ring;</div> <div class="indent">The fleetfoot hours fresh wealth of joyaunce bring;</div> <div class="verse">Life wears her gayest rose-embroidered dress.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Kind June, why bear these golden gifts to me?</div> <div class="indent">All winter long I hear the throstle&#8217;s tune,</div> <div class="verse">All winter long red roses I can see,</div> <div class="indent">Reading the while Love&#8217;s ancient magic rune.</div> <div class="verse">In Love&#8217;s fair garden-close I wander free,</div> <div class="indent">So take your guerdon elsewhere, lovely June.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">VILLANELLE OF LOVELAND</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Loveland is fair to see,</div> <div class="indent">Of all kind havens best,</div> <div class="verse">Dwell here, my Sweet, with me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Here flowers bloom for thee,</div> <div class="indent">Thy feet are rose-caressed,</div> <div class="verse">Loveland is fair to see.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The violets shall be</div> <div class="indent">Thy soft and fragrant nest,</div> <div class="verse">Dwell here, my Sweet, with me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thou shalt not lack for glee,</div> <div class="indent">Here life is but a jest;</div> <div class="verse">Loveland is fair to see.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">None shall be glad as we;</div> <div class="indent">Ah, grant me my behest,</div> <div class="verse">Dwell here, my Sweet, with me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Now would I ask my fee,</div> <div class="indent">Thy red heart I request;</div> <div class="verse">Loveland is fair to see,</div> <div class="verse">Dwell here, my Sweet, with me.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THURIFER</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">In a carven censer of burnished words,</div> <div class="verse">Swung on a golden chain of rhythm,</div> <div class="verse">For you I burn my heart.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">IN A BOOK-SHOP</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">All day I serve among the volumes telling</div> <div class="indent">Old tales of love and war and high romance;</div> <div class="verse">Good company, God wot, is in them dwelling,</div> <div class="indent">Brave knights who dared to scorn untoward chance.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">King Arthur&mdash;Sidney&mdash;Copperfield&mdash;the daring</div> <div class="indent">And friendly souls of Meredith&#8217;s bright page&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">The Pilgrim on his darksome journey faring,</div> <div class="indent">And Shakespeare&#8217;s heroes, great in love and rage.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Fair ladies, too&mdash;here Beatricè smiling,</div> <div class="indent">Through hell leads Dante to the happy stars;</div> <div class="verse">And Heloise, the cruel guards beguiling,</div> <div class="indent">With Abelard makes mock of convent bars.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Yet when night comes I leave these folks with pleasure</div> <div class="indent">To open Love&#8217;s great summer-scented tome,</div> <div class="verse">Within whose pages&mdash;precious beyond measure&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">My own White Flower Lady hath her home.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">EADEM</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sometimes within the garden of your sweetness</div> <div class="indent">I rest and dream and think of all the years</div> <div class="verse">Before my soul had bloomed to fair completeness,</div> <div class="indent">Those times of shadow-laughter, mixed with tears.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And in my dreams I see a gentle maiden</div> <div class="indent">Whom I once loved and whom I still love, Sweet,</div> <div class="verse">For she is like a rose with sunlight laden,</div> <div class="indent">And my lips ache to kiss her little feet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She is so pure the very sky above her</div> <div class="indent">Is not so fair with all its white and blue,</div> <div class="verse">And so, my love, I cannot help but love her</div> <div class="indent">Although my life and love belong to you.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">IN FAIRYLAND</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The fairy poet takes a sheet</div> <div class="indent">Of moonbeam, silver white,</div> <div class="verse">His ink is dew from daisies sweet,</div> <div class="indent">His pen a point of light.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My love, I know is fairer far</div> <div class="indent">Than his, (though she is fair,)</div> <div class="verse">And we should dwell where fairies are</div> <div class="indent">For I could praise her there.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE SORROWS OF KING MIDAS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent2">King Midas took delight</div> <div class="indent2">In golden vessels bright,</div> <div class="verse">And yellow bars of ore he found most fair;</div> <div class="indent2">But he had never seen</div> <div class="indent2">The dancing, glancing sheen</div> <div class="verse">Of sunlight on your dark and fragrant hair.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent2">His wealth could buy him wine</div> <div class="indent2">Made from the purple vine</div> <div class="verse">And sweet as all the blossom-breathing South;</div> <div class="indent2">But he could never slake</div> <div class="indent2">His thirst, nor ease the ache</div> <div class="verse">Of his hot lips at your love-pliant mouth.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">SLENDER YOUR HANDS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Slender your hands and soft and white</div> <div class="indent">As petals of moon-kissed roses;</div> <div class="verse">Yet the grasp of your fingers slight</div> <div class="indent">My passionate heart encloses.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Innocent eyes like delicate spheres</div> <div class="indent">That are born when day is dying;</div> <div class="verse">Yet the wisdom of all the years</div> <div class="indent">Is in their lovelight lying.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">SLEEP SONG</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent5">The Lady World</div> <div class="verse">Is sleeping on her white and cloudy bed.</div> <div class="indent5">Like petals furled</div> <div class="verse">Her eyelids close. Beside her dream-filled head</div> <div class="indent">Her lover stands in silver cloak and shoon,</div> <div class="indent">The faithful Moon.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent5">So Love, my Love,</div> <div class="verse">Sleep on, my Love, my Life, be not afraid.</div> <div class="indent5">The Moon above</div> <div class="verse">Shall guard the World, and I my little maid.</div> <div class="indent">Your life, your love, your dreams are mine to keep,</div> <div class="indent">So sleep, so sleep.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">LOVE&#8217;S THOROUGHFARE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">As down the primrose path to Love I trod</div> <div class="indent">The golden flowers kissed my eager feet,</div> <div class="indent">The wayside trees with singing birds were sweet,</div> <div class="verse">The summer air was like the smile of God.</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;Turn back!&#8221; said one, &#8220;escape the avenging rod.</div> <div class="indent">Soon thou the deathless flames of Hell shall meet.&#8221;</div> <div class="indent">But I pressed on and thought of no retreat,</div> <div class="verse">Till soon with fire I was clothed and shod.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But through the burning vales of Hell where flow</div> <div class="indent">The molten streams of bitterest despair,</div> <div class="verse">Made blind by pain I stumbled on, and lo!</div> <div class="indent">I stood at last in Love&#8217;s own perfumed air.</div> <div class="verse">So, having reached my journey&#8217;s end I know</div> <div class="indent">That God made Hell to be Love&#8217;s thoroughfare.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">WHITE BIRD OF LOVE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Little white bird of the summer sky,</div> <div class="indent">Silver against the golden sun,</div> <div class="verse">Over the green of the hills you fly,</div> <div class="indent">You and the sweet, wild air are one.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Glorious sights are in that far place</div> <div class="indent">Reached by your daisy-petal wing,</div> <div class="verse">Rose-colored meteors dive through space,</div> <div class="indent">Stars made of molten music sing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Still, though your quivering eager flight</div> <div class="indent">Reaches the groves by Heaven town,</div> <div class="verse">Where all the angels cry out, &#8220;Alight!</div> <div class="indent">Stop, little bird, come down, come down!&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Careless you speed over fields of stars,</div> <div class="indent">Darting through Heaven swift and free;</div> <div class="verse">Nothing your arrowy passage bars</div> <div class="indent">Back to the earth and back to me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Here in the orchard of dream-fruit fair</div> <div class="indent">Out of my dreams is built your nest.</div> <div class="verse">Blossoming dreams all the branches bear,</div> <div class="indent">Fit for my silver dream-bird&#8217;s rest.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Here, since they love you, the young stars shine,</div> <div class="indent">Through the white petals come their beams.</div> <div class="verse">Little white love-laden bird of mine,</div> <div class="indent">Let them shine on you through my dreams.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">TRANSFIGURATION</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">If it should be my task, I being God,</div> <div class="indent">From whirling atoms to evolve your mate,</div> <div class="indent">With hands omnipotent I should create</div> <div class="verse">A great-souled hero, with the starlight shod.</div> <div class="verse">The subject worlds should tremble at his nod</div> <div class="indent">And all the angel host upon him wait</div> <div class="indent">Yet he should leave his pomp and splendid state</div> <div class="verse">And kneel to kiss the ground whereon you trod.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But God, who like a little child is wise,</div> <div class="indent">Made me, a common thing of earthly clay;</div> <div class="verse">Then bade me go and see within your eyes</div> <div class="indent">The flame of love that burns more bright than day,</div> <div class="verse">And as I looked I knew with wild surprise</div> <div class="indent">I was transformed&mdash;your heart in my heart lay.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse"><hr class="tb" /></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When first the golden dawn of love was breaking</div> <div class="indent">In your white soul, I kissed your gentle hand,</div> <div class="verse">And all my heart with strange, sweet pain was aching,</div> <div class="indent">A wild, new joy I could not understand.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And now, when I your slender fingers taking</div> <div class="indent">Keep them enslaved to my hot lips&#8217; demand,</div> <div class="verse">I feel that same strange thirst that knows no slaking</div> <div class="indent">But then&mdash;why should I wish to understand?</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">MY LADY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The joy of pleasant places</div> <div class="indent">Where Saturn still doth reign</div> <div class="verse">Is in her gentle face&#8217;s</div> <div class="indent">Calm ignorance of pain.</div> <div class="indent2">The bliss of ages golden</div> <div class="indent3">In her slim hand is holden,</div> <div class="indent5">By old gods she was molden</div> <div class="indent">Before the world knew stain.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Her body is an altar</div> <div class="indent">Wherein is Love enshrined.</div> <div class="verse">Before her worldlings falter</div> <div class="indent">And cruel eyes grow kind.</div> <div class="indent2">Her breath is breath of roses</div> <div class="indent3">From mystic garden-closes,</div> <div class="indent5">The troubled it composes</div> <div class="indent">Like nectar-laden wine.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">GIFTS OF SHEE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O Shee who weave the moonlight into shimmering white strands,</div> <div class="indent">O powerful and tender-hearted Shee!</div> <div class="verse">While I live at home in plenty or am poor in far-off lands,</div> <div class="indent">I will thank you for the gifts you gave to me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">For the silver collar that you wrought me by your magic art,</div> <div class="indent">For the scarlet Seal that on my mouth you set,</div> <div class="verse">For the glorious White Flower that you placed upon my heart,</div> <div class="indent">When the sun and moon shall die I&#8217;ll thank you yet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">For around my throat the Silver Collar of soft arms I wear,</div> <div class="indent">On my mouth sweet lips have fixed the Scarlet Seal,</div> <div class="verse">On my heart the perfect Flower white of deathless love I bear,</div> <div class="indent">And these charms, your gifts, ensure my lasting weal.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">O Shee who weave the moonlight into shimmering white strands,</div> <div class="indent">O powerful and tender-hearted Shee!</div> <div class="verse">Though I live at home in plenty or am poor in far-off lands,</div> <div class="indent">I will thank you for the gifts you gave to me.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">WHEREVER, WHENEVER</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">If I had lived down underneath the earth,</div> <div class="indent">And you had dwelt among the pleasant stars,</div> <div class="verse">I should have flown the caverns of my birth,</div> <div class="indent">And you have riven Heaven&#8217;s silver bars.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">We owe no gratitude to wanton chance,</div> <div class="indent">For not through him does heart cleave fast to heart.</div> <div class="verse">Not time nor place nor any circumstance,</div> <div class="indent">Could keep our lips, our breasts, our souls, apart.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">BALLADE OF MY LADY&#8217;S BEAUTY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Squire Adam had two wives, they say,</div> <div class="indent">Two wives had he, for his delight,</div> <div class="verse">He kissed and clypt them all the day</div> <div class="indent">And clypt and kissed them all the night.</div> <div class="indent">Now Eve like ocean foam was white</div> <div class="verse">And Lilith roses dipped in wine,</div> <div class="indent">But though they were a goodly sight</div> <div class="verse">No lady is so fair as mine.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">To Venus some folk tribute pay</div> <div class="indent">And Queen of Beauty she is hight,</div> <div class="verse">And Sainte Marie the world doth sway</div> <div class="indent">In cerule napery bedight.</div> <div class="indent">My wonderment these twain invite,</div> <div class="verse">Their comeliness it is divine,</div> <div class="indent">And yet I say in their despite,</div> <div class="verse">No lady is so fair as mine.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dame Helen caused a grievous fray,</div> <div class="indent">For love of her brave men did fight,</div> <div class="verse">The eyes of her made sages fey</div> <div class="indent">And put their hearts in woful plight.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</SPAN></span> <div class="indent">To her no rhymes will I indite,</div> <div class="verse">For her no garlands will I twine,</div> <div class="indent">Though she be made of flowers and light</div> <div class="verse">No lady is so fair as mine.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="versecenter"><small>L&#8217;ENVOI</small></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Prince Eros, Lord of lovely might</div> <div class="indent">Who on Olympus dost recline,</div> <div class="verse">Do I not tell the truth aright?</div> <div class="indent">No lady is so fair as mine.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">LOVE&#8217;S ROSARY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Love&#8217;s rosary is ours this holiday,</div> <div class="indent">So let us worship Eros, Lord of bliss.</div> <div class="verse">Let me be priest and teach you as we pray</div> <div class="indent3">Love&#8217;s rosary.</div> <div class="indent">The first fair golden globe denotes a kiss,</div> <div class="verse">Curve your sweet lips the proper churchly way,</div> <div class="indent">And you must lie within my arms at this.</div> <div class="indent">Keep all the rites! It will not do to miss</div> <div class="verse">A single bead in all the long array.</div> <div class="indent">Ah, Sweet, we&#8217;ll tell on every day, I wis,</div> <div class="indent3">Love&#8217;s rosary.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse"><hr class="tb" /></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;The Princess cried; her tears fell on the ground</div> <div class="verse">Like pearls of moonlight, precious, fair and round.&#8221;</div> <div class="verse">But when the Princess whom I worship cries</div> <div class="verse">Then from the clouded heaven of her eyes</div> <div class="verse">Rain of such sweet wild loveliness I sip</div> <div class="verse">My heart says &#8220;Stop!&#8221; but not my eager lip.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">TRIBUTE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Because my Love has lips that taste of glory,</div> <div class="indent">That breathe of love, that are as red as wine,</div> <div class="verse">My days and nights are as a pleasant story</div> <div class="indent">Told in a valley sweet with rose and vine.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Because my Love has hair that smells of flowers,</div> <div class="indent">That is as soft and cool as forest shade,</div> <div class="verse">Therefore the tale of all my blissful hours</div> <div class="indent">Be writ in gold and at her footstool laid.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">MATIN</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Soft purple shadows cloud love-weary eyes,</div> <div class="indent">Dawn&#8217;s saffron glow is on the tossed white bed;</div> <div class="indent">Now passion&#8217;s day, warm fragrant night is fled,</div> <div class="verse">A cold grey shroud on Love&#8217;s bright altar lies.</div> <div class="verse">From dusky corners ghostly dreams arise,</div> <div class="indent">The pallid wraiths of kisses newly dead,</div> <div class="indent">They float and blend above her sleeping head,</div> <div class="verse">Her languid red lips quiver as she sighs.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And so, like Adam when in fear and shame</div> <div class="indent">He saw God&#8217;s soldiery in fierce array</div> <div class="verse">And sorrowing from Eden&#8217;s threshold came</div> <div class="indent">To bear what pains life on his soul might lay,</div> <div class="verse">I see Dawn standing with a sword of flame,</div> <div class="indent">And from my Eden turn in grief away.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">A VALENTINE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My songs should be as lilies fair,</div> <div class="indent">And roses made of crimson light,</div> <div class="verse">To lie amid the fragrant hair</div> <div class="indent">And on the breast of my delight.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Such glory is for them too high;</div> <div class="indent">I&#8217;ll scatter them adown the street,</div> <div class="verse">And when my love is passing by</div> <div class="indent">They will rise up and kiss her feet.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">STAR O&#8217; LOVE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Sun pours gold upon the waking earth</div> <div class="indent">And makes the hills and valleys ring with glee,</div> <div class="verse">Brings fruits and flowers to their joyous birth,</div> <div class="indent">And paints strange colors on the foaming sea.</div> <div class="verse">The Moon, with quivering wand of silver-white,</div> <div class="indent">Calls forth the fairies to their circling dance,</div> <div class="verse">Bids lovers seek their never old delight,</div> <div class="indent">And fills the air with perfume of romance.</div> <div class="verse">Yet, Sun, thy glory passes with the day,</div> <div class="indent">And Moon, the dawn destroys thy loveliness;</div> <div class="verse">But thou, sweet Star o&#8217; Love, wilt shine alway,</div> <div class="indent">Nor night nor day can make thy splendor less.</div> <div class="verse">Fade, lordly Sun, and Moon, forget to shine,</div> <div class="verse">Since thy white wonder, Star o&#8217; Love, is mine!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">FOR A BIRTHDAY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">April with her violets,</div> <div class="indent">May and June with roses,</div> <div class="indent2">Young July with all her flowers, crimson, gold and white,</div> <div class="verse">Each in place her tribute sets,</div> <div class="indent">Each her wreath composes,</div> <div class="indent2">Making glad the roadway for the Lady of Delight.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Birds with many colors gay,</div> <div class="indent">Through the branches flitting,</div> <div class="indent2">Sing, to greet my Lady Love, a lusty welcome song.</div> <div class="verse">Even bees make holiday,</div> <div class="indent">Hive and honey quitting,</div> <div class="indent2">Tremulous and jubilant they join the eager throng.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now the road is flower-paved;</div> <div class="indent">Timid fawns are peering</div> <div class="indent2">From their pleasant vantage in the roadside&#8217;s leafy green.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">All the world in sunlight laved,</div> <div class="indent">Knows the hour is nearing</div> <div class="indent2">That shall bring the golden presence of the well-loved Queen.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Hark! at last the silver trill</div> <div class="indent">Of a lute is sounding&mdash;</div> <div class="indent2">Happy August, purple-clad, appears with all her train.</div> <div class="verse">Sudden sweet the branches fill;</div> <div class="indent">Every heart is bounding;</div> <div class="indent2">August comes, the kindly nurse of her who is to reign!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And now, with proud and valiant gait,</div> <div class="indent">An hundred centaurs come.</div> <div class="verse">Pan rides the foremost one in state;</div> <div class="indent">The waiting crowd grows dumb.</div> <div class="verse">Each centaur wears a jewelled thong</div> <div class="indent">And harness bright of sheen;</div> <div class="verse">They draw through surging floods of song</div> <div class="indent">The carriage of the Queen!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">&#8220;Hail! Hail! Hail! to the Queen in her moonstone car!</div> <div class="verse">Hail! Hail! Hail! to the Lady whose slaves we are!</div> <div class="verse">We of the meadows, the rocks and the hills,</div> <div class="verse">Dwellers in oceans and rivers and rills,</div> <div class="verse">Beasts of the forests and birds of the air,</div> <div class="verse">Linnet and butterfly, lion and bear,</div> <div class="verse">Daisy and daffodil, spruce-tree and fir,</div> <div class="verse">Yield to our Queen and do homage to her!</div> <div class="verse">Hail! Hail! Hail! we welcome thy royal sway!</div> <div class="verse">Hail! Hail! Hail! O Queen, on this festal day!&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">So all the world kneels down to you,</div> <div class="indent">And all things are your own;</div> <div class="verse">Now let a humble rhymer sue</div> <div class="indent">Before your crystal throne.</div> <div class="verse">Fair Queen, at your rose-petal feet</div> <div class="indent">Bid me to live and die!</div> <div class="verse">Not all your world of lovers, Sweet,</div> <div class="indent">Can love so much as I.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE USE OF NIGHT</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I said: &#8220;What is the use of sombre night?&#8221;</div> <div class="indent">The Moon replied: &#8220;To frame my love-wan face.&#8221;</div> <div class="indent">A fairy dame said: &#8220;That my fresh-wove lace</div> <div class="verse">May on the grasses catch the Sun&#8217;s first light.&#8221;</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;That we may keep with song our ancient rite,&#8221;</div> <div class="indent">Croaked glistening frogs from their dank dwelling place.</div> <div class="indent">&#8220;That I may halt,&#8221; a man said, &#8220;in my race,</div> <div class="verse">And rest my eyes that are grown tired of sight.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Your ebon frame, pale Moon, makes you more fair;</div> <div class="indent">Weave, gentle neighbor; frogs, pipe loud your song;</div> <div class="verse">Sad traveller, be dreamless sleep your share.</div> <div class="indent">And I would have night twenty times as long,</div> <div class="verse">And clasp my love in some dark bower where</div> <div class="indent">The Day could never come to do us wrong.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">ALCHEMY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I sang two little songs one day,</div> <div class="indent">I sang them for a lady&#8217;s pleasure,</div> <div class="verse">I took her praise for wreath of bay,</div> <div class="indent">Her smile for largess beyond measure.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I sang out in the market square</div> <div class="indent">And most folk could not understand;</div> <div class="verse">One who by chance was passing there</div> <div class="indent">Dropped down some silver in my hand.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now since the songs I gave you, Sweet,</div> <div class="indent">Have turned to silver fair and gleaming,</div> <div class="verse">For your pleasaunce as is most meet</div> <div class="indent">The silver turns to song and dreaming.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">WAYFARERS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Underneath the orchard trees lies a gypsy sleeping,</div> <div class="indent">Tattered cloak and swarthy face and shaggy moonlit hair,</div> <div class="verse">One brown hand his crazy fiddle in its grasp is keeping,</div> <div class="indent">Through the Land of Dreams he strolls and sings his love songs there.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Up above the apple blossoms where the stars are shining,</div> <div class="indent">Free and careless wandering among the clouds he goes,</div> <div class="verse">Singing of his lady-love and for her pleasure twining</div> <div class="indent">Wreaths of Heaven flowers, violet and golden rose.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">In his sleep he stirs, and wakes to find his love beside him,</div> <div class="indent">Pours his load of Dreamland blooms before her silver feet,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Takes her in his arms and as her soft brown tresses hide him</div> <div class="indent">Both together fare to Dreamland up the star-paved street.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">WITH A MIRROR</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Carved by a swarthy knave</div> <div class="verse">Close by the Adrian wave</div> <div class="indent">Came I to being.</div> <div class="verse">To me a soul he gave,</div> <div class="verse">In gold he did me lave,</div> <div class="indent">To suit your seeing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Mine is a pleasant life,</div> <div class="verse">Jove bless his flashing knife,</div> <div class="indent">Who wrought my living.</div> <div class="verse">For me nor care nor strife,</div> <div class="verse">Joys in my days are rife,</div> <div class="indent">Joys of your giving.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">PRINCESS BALLADE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Never a horn sounds in Sherwood tonight,</div> <div class="indent">Friar Tuck&#8217;s drinking Olympian ale,</div> <div class="verse">Little John&#8217;s wandered away from our sight,</div> <div class="indent">Robin Hood&#8217;s bow hangs unused on its nail.</div> <div class="indent">Even the moon has grown weary and pale</div> <div class="verse">Sick for the glint of Maid Marian&#8217;s hair,</div> <div class="indent">But there is one joy on mountain and dale,</div> <div class="verse">Fairies abound all the time, everywhere!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Saints have attacked them with sacredest might,</div> <div class="indent">They could not shatter their gossamer mail,</div> <div class="verse">Steam-driven engines can never affright</div> <div class="indent">Fairies who dance in their spark-sprinkled trail.</div> <div class="indent">Still for a warning the sad Banshees wail,</div> <div class="verse">Still are the Leprechauns ready to bear</div> <div class="indent">Purses of gold to their captors for bail;</div> <div class="verse">Fairies abound all the time, everywhere!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Oberon, king of the realms of delight,</div> <div class="indent">May your domain over us never fail.</div> <div class="verse">Mab, as a rainbow-hued butterfly bright,</div> <div class="indent">Yours is the glory that age cannot stale.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</SPAN></span> <div class="indent">When we are planted down under the shale,</div> <div class="verse">Fairy-folk, drop a few daffodils there,</div> <div class="indent">Comfort our souls in the Stygian vale;</div> <div class="verse">Fairies abound all the time, everywhere.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="versecenter"><small>L&#8217;ENVOI</small></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">White Flower Princess, though sophisters rail,</div> <div class="indent">Let us be glad in faith that we share.</div> <div class="verse">None shall the Good People safely assail;</div> <div class="indent">Fairies abound all the time, everywhere!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">LULLABY FOR A BABY FAIRY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Night is over; through the clover globes of crystal shine;</div> <div class="verse">Birds are calling; sunlight falling on the wet green vine.</div> <div class="indent">Little wings must folded lie, little lips be still</div> <div class="indent">While the sun is in the sky, over Fairy Hill.</div> <div class="indent2">Sleep, sleep, sleep,</div> <div class="indent3">Baby with buttercup hair,</div> <div class="indent5">Golden rays</div> <div class="indent2">Into the violet creep.</div> <div class="indent2">Dream, dream deep;</div> <div class="indent3">Dream of the night revels fair.</div> <div class="indent5">Daylight stays;</div> <div class="indent2">Sleep, little fairy child, sleep.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Rest in daytime; night is playtime, all good fairies know.</div> <div class="verse">Under sighing grasses lying, off to slumber go</div> <div class="indent">Night will come with stars agleam, lilies in her hand,</div> <div class="indent">Calling you from Hills of Dream back to Fairyland.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</SPAN></span> <div class="indent2">Sleep, sleep, sleep,</div> <div class="indent3">Baby with buttercup hair;</div> <div class="indent5">Golden rays</div> <div class="indent2">Into the violet creep.</div> <div class="indent2">Dream, dream deep;</div> <div class="indent3">Dream of the night-revels fair.</div> <div class="indent5">Daylight stays;</div> <div class="indent2">Sleep, little fairy child, sleep.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">GEORGE MEREDITH</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He listened to the mighty lyre of earth,</div> <div class="indent">And learned the lore of soul-compelling song.</div> <div class="indent">He pondered on the rune of right and wrong,</div> <div class="verse">And saw the hearts of men, their woe, their mirth.</div> <div class="verse">In him our vision had a second birth,</div> <div class="indent">For by his words we saw as in some strong</div> <div class="indent">Enchanted lens the conscience of the throng,</div> <div class="verse">The font of ill, the hidden source of worth.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Shall Death claim him, on deathless knowledge reared?</div> <div class="indent">Shall dreams o&#8217;ertake the Master of the dream?</div> <div class="verse">Nay, his perfect love that never feared,</div> <div class="indent">His words send through our grief a radiant gleam:</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;With Life and Death I walked and Love appeared</div> <div class="indent">And made them on each side a shadow seem.&#8221;</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">&#8220;AND FORBID THEM NOT&#8221;</h2></div> <p class="center">(&#8220;No Trespassing&#8221; signs in a churchyard.)</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Tall, bleak, austere, the mighty buildings loom;</div> <div class="indent">Hard, bare and dull the grimy city street.</div> <div class="verse">Here by the church is found a little room</div> <div class="indent">Roofed with blue sky and with green turf made sweet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Surely the Master of this house would smile</div> <div class="indent">Seeing the children on His grass at play,</div> <div class="verse">Seeing the mothers rest a little while</div> <div class="indent">Out of the turmoil of the busy day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Soon will he ask, &#8220;Where are the children gone:</div> <div class="indent">They who should share this pleasant, sacred place?</div> <div class="verse">No little feet are treading this soft lawn,</div> <div class="indent">Here shines no glory from a little face.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ye in whose trust this Christian church is left,</div> <div class="indent">Think ye that thus ye serve your Master mild?</div> <div class="verse">None by His will are of this home bereft;</div> <div class="indent">They love Him not who wrong a little child.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">A DEAD POET</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Fair Death, kind Death, it was a gracious deed</div> <div class="indent">To take that weary vagrant to thy breast.</div> <div class="verse">Love, Song and Wine had he, and but one need&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">Rest.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE MORNING MEDITATIONS OF<br/> FRERE HYACINTHUS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">So he is dead and damned and all is well.</div> <div class="indent">So fare all traitors to the church and God!</div> <div class="verse">Cursed and cast out with candle, book and bell,</div> <div class="indent">And thrust to rot beneath unhallowed sod.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The mouth that sounded once Saint Mary&#8217;s name</div> <div class="indent">He smirched and stained with scarlet wine of lust;</div> <div class="verse">Therefore is he become a thing of shame,</div> <div class="indent">Anathema and alien to the just.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">We prayed within the cloister side by side,</div> <div class="indent">He chose the world, wise in his own conceit;</div> <div class="verse">I kept our Blessed Lady for my bride,</div> <div class="indent">To paths of sin he set his wayward feet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And she is dead, too. Lies with him, they say?</div> <div class="indent">Aye, lies with him&mdash;they are together still&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">That golden girl I saw one summer day</div> <div class="indent">Tending her kine upon the pasture hill.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">God, God, is not my blood like his blood red?</div> <div class="indent">God, God, could I not see that she was fair?</div> <div class="verse">Did I not close my eyes and bow my head,</div> <div class="indent">And purge my soul with fasting and with prayer?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">God, see my flesh with scourgings cut and scarred!</div> <div class="indent">God, see my frame with fasting weak and thin!</div> <div class="verse">God, see my face with tears and sorrow marred!</div> <div class="indent">God, see my soul burnt white and clean of sin!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Tempted I was like him, but did not yield.</div> <div class="indent">Outcast is he and damned and spit upon.</div> <div class="verse">Elect am I and with thine own sign sealed,</div> <div class="indent">Washed white and pure in blood of Christ thy Son.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And yet, and yet&mdash;Ah, God, that dream last night!</div> <div class="indent">When I had prayed before Thy blessed shrine,</div> <div class="verse">And sought to rest a while before the light</div> <div class="indent">Should call me to new services of Thine.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then as I slept it seemed I was with Thee</div> <div class="indent">In Heaven, and I looked down into Hell,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">That I the cursed souls in pain might see</div> <div class="indent">And be more glad that I had served Thee well.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I saw the place with blood-red flames alight,</div> <div class="indent">I saw the damned and heard their shrieks and groans,</div> <div class="verse">And then there burst upon my eyes a sight</div> <div class="indent">That turned to lead the marrow in my bones.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">There in his arms her soft white body lay;</div> <div class="indent">Shielded by him she kissed his mouth and smiled.</div> <div class="verse">Round them the flames kept their unheeded sway.</div> <div class="indent">Even to Hell Love made them reconciled.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It&#8217;s time for Mass. God bless the newborn day!</div> <div class="indent">How very fair it is, and sweet and still&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">Down yonder lane she used to make her way</div> <div class="indent">To tend her kine upon the pasture hill.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">VILLANELLE OF THE PLAYERS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Violets fade with the May,</div> <div class="indent">Purple and fragrant they die,</div> <div class="verse">Players live for a day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">What is their legacy, pray?</div> <div class="indent">Where does their loveliness lie?</div> <div class="verse">Violets fade with the May.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Actors in motley array</div> <div class="indent">Grace of your memory cry,</div> <div class="verse">Players live for a day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where the sad pine trees sway</div> <div class="indent">Lonely the reft winds sigh,</div> <div class="verse">Violets fade with the May.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Withered the wreaths of bay,</div> <div class="indent">Wine-cups are cracked and dry,</div> <div class="verse">Players live for a day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent">Clouds of the sunset sky,</div> <div class="verse">None shall their eulogy say,</div> <div class="verse">Violets fade with the May,</div> <div class="verse">Players live for a day.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE MAD FIDDLER</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I sleep beneath a bracken sheet</div> <div class="indent">In sunlight or in rain,</div> <div class="verse">The road dust burns my naked feet,</div> <div class="indent">The sunrays sear my brain;</div> <div class="verse">But children love my fiddle&#8217;s sound</div> <div class="indent">And if a lad be straying,</div> <div class="verse">His mother knows he may be found</div> <div class="indent">Where old Mad Larry&#8217;s playing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O fiddle, let us follow, follow,</div> <div class="indent">Till we see my Eileen&#8217;s face,</div> <div class="verse">Through the moonlight like a swallow</div> <div class="indent">Off she flew to some far place.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O, did you ever love a lass?</div> <div class="indent">I loved a lass one day,</div> <div class="verse">And she would lie upon the grass</div> <div class="indent">And sing while I would play.</div> <div class="verse">She was a cruel, lovely thing,</div> <div class="indent">Nor heart nor soul have I</div> <div class="verse">For Eileen took them that soft spring</div> <div class="indent">When she flew to the sky.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">So fiddle, let us follow, follow,</div> <div class="indent">Till we see my Eileen&#8217;s face,</div> <div class="verse">Through the moonlight like a swallow</div> <div class="indent">Off she flew to some far place.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE GRASS IN MADISON SQUARE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The pleasant turf is dried and marred and seared,</div> <div class="indent4">The grass is dead.</div> <div class="verse">No soft green shoot, by rain and sunshine reared,</div> <div class="indent4">Lifts up its head.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I think the grass that made the park so gay</div> <div class="indent4">In early spring</div> <div class="verse">Now decks the lawns of Heaven where babies play</div> <div class="indent4">And dance and sing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And poor old vagabonds who now have left</div> <div class="indent4">The dusty street,</div> <div class="verse">Find fields of which they were in life bereft,</div> <div class="indent4">Beneath their feet.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">CHEVELY CROSSING</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where two roads cross by Chevely town</div> <div class="indent">A man is lying dead.</div> <div class="verse">The rumbling wains of scented hay</div> <div class="indent">Roll over his fair head;</div> <div class="verse">A stake is driven through his heart,</div> <div class="indent">For his own blood he shed.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="versecenter"><hr class="tb" /></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Among the pleasant flower-stars</div> <div class="indent">By God&#8217;s own garden gate,</div> <div class="verse">A little maid fresh come from earth</div> <div class="indent">One summer night did wait;</div> <div class="verse">Her poppy mouth dropped down with fear,</div> <div class="indent">With fear her eyes were great.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The angels saw her sinless face,</div> <div class="indent">The gate was opened wide.</div> <div class="verse">She only shook her dawn-crowned head</div> <div class="indent">And would not come inside.</div> <div class="verse">She was alone, and so afraid&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">She hid her face and cried.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Her tears dropped down like sun-filled rain</div> <div class="indent">Through stars and starless space,</div> <div class="verse">Until at last in Chevely town</div> <div class="indent">Where in a moonlit place</div> <div class="verse">Her lover knelt upon her grave,</div> <div class="indent">They fell upon his face.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Said he, &#8220;My love, my only love,</div> <div class="indent">My Elena, my Sweet!</div> <div class="verse">Through what wild ways of mystery</div> <div class="indent">Have strayed your little feet?</div> <div class="verse">Alone, alone this lonely night</div> <div class="indent">Where only spirits meet!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;It is not my bleak desert life</div> <div class="indent">That turns my heart to lead,</div> <div class="verse">Not for my empty arms I mourn,</div> <div class="indent">Nor for my loveless bed;</div> <div class="verse">But that you wander forth alone</div> <div class="indent">On heights I may not tread.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;If I could stand beside you now</div> <div class="indent">Sin-burdened though I be,</div> <div class="verse">I&#8217;d bear you through the trackless ways</div> <div class="indent">From fear and danger free,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Not God himself could daunt the strong</div> <div class="indent">Undying love of me!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Though Heaven is a pleasant place</div> <div class="indent">What joy for you is there?</div> <div class="verse">Who tread the jewelled streets alone</div> <div class="indent">Without my heart to share</div> <div class="verse">Each throb of your heart, and my arm</div> <div class="indent">Around you, O my Fair!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;I hear your sobbing in the wind,</div> <div class="indent">And in the summer rain</div> <div class="verse">I feel your tears. My heart is pierced</div> <div class="indent">With your sad, lonely pain.</div> <div class="verse">My Love! My only Love! I come!</div> <div class="indent">You shall not call in vain!&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="versecenter"><hr class="tb" /></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where two roads cross by Chevely town</div> <div class="indent">A man is lying dead.</div> <div class="verse">The rumbling wains of scented hay</div> <div class="indent">Roll over his fair head;</div> <div class="verse">A stake is driven through his heart,</div> <div class="indent">For his own blood he shed.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">SAID THE ROSE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">No flower hath so fair a face as this pale love of mine</div> <div class="verse">When he bends down to kiss my heart, my petals try to twine</div> <div class="verse">About his lips to hold them fast. He is so very fair,</div> <div class="verse">My lover with the pale, sad face and forest-fragrant hair.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I think it is a pleasant place, this garden where I grow,</div> <div class="verse">With gravel walks and grassy mounds and crosses in a row.</div> <div class="verse">There is no toil nor worry here, nor clatter of the street,</div> <div class="verse">And here each night my lover comes, pale, sad and very sweet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He never heeds the violets or lilies tall and white;</div> <div class="verse">I am his love, his only love, his Flower of Delight;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">And often when the cold moonbeams are lying all around</div> <div class="verse">My lover kneels the whole night through beside me on the ground.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">How can I miss the sunshine-laden breezes of the south</div> <div class="verse">When all my heart is burning with the kisses of his mouth?</div> <div class="verse">How can I miss the coming of the comfort-bringing rain</div> <div class="verse">When his hot tears are filling me with heaven-sweet love-pain?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">There is a jealous little bird that envies me my love,</div> <div class="verse">He sings this bitter, bitter song from his brown nest above:</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;Was ever yet a mortal man who wed a flower wife?</div> <div class="verse">He loves the girl down in your roots whose dead breast gives you life.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">O little bird, O jealous bird, fly off and cease your chatter!</div> <div class="verse">My lover is my lover, and what can a dead girl matter?</div> <div class="verse">In his hot kisses and sweet tears I shall my petals steep;</div> <div class="verse">I am his love, his only love, I have his heart to keep.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">WHITE MARBLE AND GREEN GRASS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Starlight, sunlight, silver light and gold,</div> <div class="verse">All are dark for Love&#8217;s great flame is cold.</div> <div class="verse">Rose wind, garden wind and morning&#8217;s breath,</div> <div class="verse">Are ye stronger than the scent of death?</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">METAMORPHOSIS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He was an evil thing to see&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">Of joy his mouth was desolate,</div> <div class="verse">His body was a stunted tree,</div> <div class="indent">His eyes were pools of lust and hate.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now silverly the linnet sings</div> <div class="indent">On leaves that from his temples start</div> <div class="verse">And gay the yellow crocus springs</div> <div class="indent">From the rich clod that was his heart.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">ABSINTHE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I have prayed to the Christ of the merciful eyes,</div> <div class="indent">I have prayed to the Lord of Hosts,</div> <div class="verse">I have prayed, but in vain, for God to rise</div> <div class="indent">And scatter these murderous ghosts,</div> <div class="verse">These horrible, beckoning ghosts that sign</div> <div class="indent">And beckon me where? ah, where?</div> <div class="verse">O little green god in your crystal shrine,</div> <div class="indent">You only will heed my prayer!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The breath of your mouth is a powerful wind</div> <div class="indent">That whirls sorrow-shadows away;</div> <div class="verse">The light of your eyes burns the bonds that bind,</div> <div class="indent">I escape from the earth&#8217;s fell sway.</div> <div class="verse">The pallid figures in threatening line,</div> <div class="indent">They falter and tremble and flee.</div> <div class="verse">O little green god in your crystal shrine,</div> <div class="indent">Shed some of your glory on me!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I have given you service, sincere and prolonged,</div> <div class="indent">I have given you love&mdash;ah, you know!</div> <div class="verse">Though I pray in a fane by your worshippers thronged,</div> <div class="indent">There is no one who worships you so.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">My hand and my heart and my brain, ah, divine</div> <div class="indent">Lord, master of living, I give,</div> <div class="verse">O little green god in your crystal shrine,</div> <div class="indent">Take these&mdash;and then bid me to live!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">By a green marble house in a garden of green,</div> <div class="indent">Green roses bloom &#8217;neath a green sun,</div> <div class="verse">Where the maidens have eyes of an emerald sheen,</div> <div class="indent">And the strife and the labor are done,</div> <div class="verse">O there let me dwell, where the ravenous whine</div> <div class="indent">Of the earth ghosts is soundless and dead.</div> <div class="verse">O little green god in your crystal shrine,</div> <div class="indent">Your heavenly dream-shower shed!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THEOLOGY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The blade is sharp, the reaper stout,</div> <div class="indent">And every daisy dies.</div> <div class="verse">Their souls are fluttering about&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">We call them butterflies.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">FOR A CHILD</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">His mind has neither need nor power to know</div> <div class="indent">The foolish things that men call right and wrong.</div> <div class="verse">For him the streams of pleasant love-wind flow,</div> <div class="indent">For him the mystic, sleep-compelling song.</div> <div class="verse">Through love he rules his love-made universe,</div> <div class="indent">And sees with eyes by ignorance made keen</div> <div class="verse">The fauns and elves whom older eyes disperse,</div> <div class="indent">Great Pan and all the fairies with their queen.</div> <div class="verse">King gods, I pray, bestow on him this dole,</div> <div class="indent">Not wisdom, wealth, nor mighty deeds to do,</div> <div class="verse">But let him keep his happy pagan soul,</div> <div class="indent">The poet-vision, simple, free and true,</div> <div class="verse">To hunt the rainbow-gold and phantom lights,</div> <div class="verse">And meet with dryads on the wooded heights.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">TO J. B. Y.</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Bitter and selfish sorrow, poverty, strife and ruth,</div> <div class="verse">Fear of the dreadful morrow,&mdash;these took away our youth.</div> <div class="verse">Ængus is bending o&#8217;er us&mdash;we are too old to see,</div> <div class="verse">Too old to hear before us moon-drenchèd songs of Shee.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dreamer of dreams and lover, young as are love and dreams,</div> <div class="verse">Show us the Shee that hover over the silver streams,</div> <div class="verse">Give us the song and story, make us to live anew,</div> <div class="verse">Bathed in your youthful glory let us be young like you.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE KING&#8217;S BALLAD</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Good my king, in your garden close,</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling,)</div> <div class="verse">Why so sad when the maiden rose</div> <div class="indent">Love at your feet is spilling?</div> <div class="indent2">Golden the air and honey-sweet,</div> <div class="indent2">Sapphire the sky, it is not meet</div> <div class="indent2">Sorrowful faces should flowers greet,</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling.)</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">All alone walks the king to-day,</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling,)</div> <div class="verse">Far from the throne he steals away</div> <div class="indent">Loneness and quiet willing.</div> <div class="indent2">Roses and tulips and lilies fair</div> <div class="indent2">Smile for his pleasure everywhere,</div> <div class="indent2">Yet of their joyaunce he takes no share,</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling.)</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Ladies wait in the palace, Sire,</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling,)</div> <div class="verse">Red and white for the king&#8217;s desire</div> <div class="indent">Lovewarm and sweet and thrilling,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span> <div class="indent2">Breasts of moonshine and hair of night,</div> <div class="indent2">Glances amorous soft and bright,</div> <div class="indent2">Nothing is lacking for thy delight,</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling.)</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Kneels the king in a grassy place,</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling,)</div> <div class="verse">Little flowers under his face</div> <div class="indent">With his warm tears are filling:</div> <div class="indent2">Says the king, &#8220;Here my heart lies dead</div> <div class="indent2">Where my fair love is buried,</div> <div class="indent2">Would I were lying here instead!&#8221;</div> <div class="indent">(Hark to the thrush&#8217;s trilling.)</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">JESUS AND THE SUMMER RAIN</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Over the hills and across the plain,</div> <div class="indent">Treading their gypsy way,</div> <div class="verse">Ragged and penniless, vagrants twain</div> <div class="indent">Went with a child one day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Sunburnt and barefooted was the man,</div> <div class="indent">Poor was the woman&#8217;s dress,</div> <div class="verse">Over the baby the sunbeams ran,</div> <div class="indent">Winds gave him soft caress.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Brother o&#8217; mine,&#8221; said the summer rain,</div> <div class="indent">&#8220;Brother o&#8217; mine,&#8221; said he,</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;Take you the vagabond&#8217;s joy and pain,</div> <div class="indent">Vagabond shall you be.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Banned by the rich and the folk of power,</div> <div class="indent">Outcasts shall love you well;</div> <div class="verse">Harlots and thieves in your dying hour</div> <div class="indent">Closest to you shall dwell.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">&#8220;Never a home nor abiding place</div> <div class="indent">Where you may rest your load;</div> <div class="verse">Ever the starlight on your face,</div> <div class="indent">Ever the open road.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Brother o&#8217; mine,&#8221; said the summer rain,</div> <div class="indent">&#8220;Brother o&#8217; mine,&#8221; said he,</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;Take you the vagabond&#8217;s joy and pain,</div> <div class="indent">Vagabond shall you be.&#8221;</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE BALLADE OF BUTTERFLIES</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Because we never build a nest</div> <div class="indent">And no one of us ever sings,</div> <div class="verse">We are the butt of every jest</div> <div class="indent">That strutting loud-mouthed robin flings.</div> <div class="indent">Unless the field with laughter rings</div> <div class="verse">And we are meek in our replies</div> <div class="indent">His claws and beak to bear he brings;</div> <div class="verse">Have pity on all butterflies!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Since we are of no home possest,</div> <div class="indent">And have no joy in courts and kings,</div> <div class="verse">And love on working-days to rest,</div> <div class="indent">The name of &#8220;Idlers&#8221; to us clings.</div> <div class="indent">On all our gypsy travellings</div> <div class="verse">They follow us with jeering cries.</div> <div class="indent">From every rose a spider springs;</div> <div class="verse">Have pity on all butterflies!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">A little thing is our request&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">Some peace from nets of sticks and strings,</div> <div class="verse">An hour to feel the sunlight&#8217;s zest,</div> <div class="indent">To &#8217;scape the deadly bee that stings.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</SPAN></span> <div class="indent">From hostile fortune&#8217;s bolts and slings</div> <div class="verse">Give us release ere Summer dies&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">We dread the Winter&#8217;s threatenings;</div> <div class="verse">Have pity on all butterflies!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="versecenter"><small>L&#8217;ENVOI</small></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Great Pan, kind lord of living things,</div> <div class="indent">Look on us now with friendly eyes.</div> <div class="verse">We pray to you on trembling wings,</div> <div class="indent">Have pity on all butterflies!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE CLOUDED SUN</h2></div> <p class="center">(To A. S.)</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It is not good for poets to grow old</div> <div class="indent">For they serve Death that loves and Love that kills;</div> <div class="indent">And Love and Death, enthroned above the hills,</div> <div class="verse">Call back their faithful servants to the fold</div> <div class="verse">Before Age makes them passionless and cold.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Therefore it is that no more sorry thing</div> <div class="indent">Can shut the sunlight from the thirsty grass</div> <div class="indent">Than some grey head through which no longer pass</div> <div class="verse">Wild dreams more lively than the scent of Spring</div> <div class="verse">To fire the blood and make the glad mouth sing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Far happier he, who, young and full of pride</div> <div class="indent">And radiant with the glory of the sun,</div> <div class="indent">Leaves earth before his singing time is done.</div> <div class="verse">All wounds of Time the graveyard flowers hide,</div> <div class="verse">His beauty lives, as fresh as when he died.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Then through the words wherein his spirit dwells</div> <div class="indent">The world may see his young impetuous face</div> <div class="indent">Unmarred by Time, with undiminished grace;</div> <div class="verse">While memory no piteous story tells</div> <div class="verse">Of barren days, stale loves and broken spells.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><hr class="tb" /></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Brother and Master, we are wed with woe.</div> <div class="indent">Yea, Grief&#8217;s funereal cloud it is that hovers</div> <div class="indent">About the head of us thy mournful lovers.</div> <div class="verse">Uncomforted and sick with pain we go,</div> <div class="verse">Dust on our brows and at our hearts the snow.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The London lights flare on the chattering street,</div> <div class="indent">Young men and maidens love and dance and die;</div> <div class="indent">Wine flows, and perfumes float up to the sky.</div> <div class="verse">Once thou couldst feel that this was very sweet,</div> <div class="verse">Now thou art still&mdash;mouth, hands and weary feet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O subtle mouth, whereon the Sphinx has placed</div> <div class="indent">The smile of those she kisses at their birth,</div> <div class="indent">Sing once again, for Spring has thrilled the earth.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Nay, thou art dumb. Not even April&#8217;s taste</div> <div class="verse">Is sweet to thee in thy live coffin cased.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">There is no harsher tragedy than this&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">That thou, who feltest as no man before</div> <div class="indent">Scent, color, taste and sound and didst outpour</div> <div class="verse">For us rich draughts of thine enchanted bliss</div> <div class="verse">Shouldst be plunged down this cruel black abyss.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Brother and Master, if our love could free</div> <div class="indent">Thy flameborn spirit from its leaden chain</div> <div class="indent">Thou shouldst rise up from this sad house of pain,</div> <div class="verse">Be young and fair as thou wast wont to be,</div> <div class="verse">And strong with joy as is the boundless sea.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Brother and Master, at thy feet we lay</div> <div class="indent">These roses, red as lips that thou hast sung.</div> <div class="indent">And cypress wreaths above thy head are hung</div> <div class="verse">To mingle with the green and fragrant bay.</div> <div class="verse">We kneel awhile, then turn in tears away.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">IN MEMORIAM:<br/> FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She whom we love, our Lady of Compassion,</div> <div class="indent">Can never die, for Love forbids her death.</div> <div class="verse">Love has bent down in his old kindly fashion,</div> <div class="indent">And breathed upon her his immortal breath.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">On wounded soldiers, in their anguish lying,</div> <div class="indent">Her gentle spirit shall descend like rain.</div> <div class="verse">Where the white flag with the red cross is flying,</div> <div class="indent">There shall she dwell, the vanquisher of pain.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">BALLAD OF THREE</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Upon the river&#8217;s brink she stands</div> <div class="indent">And tastes the dawn&#8217;s white breath.</div> <div class="verse">She wrings her slender, silver hands,</div> <div class="indent">&#8220;God&#8217;s curse on love,&#8221; she saith.</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;Love binds me with his cruel bands</div> <div class="indent">That break not save with death.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Now Geoffrey is a huntsman bold</div> <div class="indent">And slays the mountain deer,</div> <div class="verse">And Hugh plows up the fragrant mold</div> <div class="indent">And plucks the ripened ear.</div> <div class="verse">In friendship would these twain grow old</div> <div class="indent">Did I not dwell anear.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Hugh brings me grapes with sunlight sweet,</div> <div class="indent">Like globes of amethyst,</div> <div class="verse">While Geoffrey&#8217;s fawn with snowflake feet</div> <div class="indent">Is corded to my wrist.</div> <div class="verse">They mutter curses when they meet,</div> <div class="indent">Their sight dims with red mist.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">&#8220;And it is love hath done this thing;</div> <div class="indent">Yea, Geoffrey loves my hair,</div> <div class="verse">And Hugh lifts up his voice to sing</div> <div class="indent">That my sad face is fair,</div> <div class="verse">And love strews poison in the spring</div> <div class="indent">And fouls the pleasant air.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;But not for my poor loveliness</div> <div class="indent">Shall blood of brothers flow.</div> <div class="verse">What is one woman, more or less?</div> <div class="indent">And what is love but woe!</div> <div class="verse">I want no murderer&#8217;s caress,</div> <div class="indent">So for love&#8217;s sake&mdash;I go.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Lads, sheathe your knives, no use to fight.</div> <div class="indent">The lady you would wed</div> <div class="verse">Shall sleep alone in state tonight</div> <div class="indent">With candles at her head.</div> <div class="verse">Lift, friends, this figure still and white</div> <div class="indent">And bear her to her bed.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">COURT MUSICIANS</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">As when in summer-scented days gone by</div> <div class="indent">The court-musicians, dressed in velvets gay</div> <div class="indent">And golden silks, would on their gitterns play</div> <div class="verse">And blend their voices with the strings&#8217; love-cry,</div> <div class="verse">So that the princess from her tower on high</div> <div class="indent">Might through the rose-framed window hear their lay,</div> <div class="indent">And make more splendid the resplendent day</div> <div class="verse">By leaning out, her choristers to spy;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">So now, with weary voice and violin,</div> <div class="indent">Two court-musicians rend the dusty air.</div> <div class="verse">Their shrill notes pierce the elevated&#8217;s din,</div> <div class="indent">And thrill a girl&#8217;s heart with a pleasure rare.</div> <div class="verse">For her has sweeter music never been;</div> <div class="indent">They never saw a princess half so fair.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE DEAD LOVER</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I tire of lovely faces free from pain</div> <div class="indent4">And free from sin;</div> <div class="verse">Here none with lips wet with the crimson stain</div> <div class="indent4">May enter in.</div> <div class="verse">One thing I lack, and lacking it, am dead&mdash;</div> <div class="indent4">A woman&#8217;s heart.</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;She cannot enter here,&#8221; an angel said;</div> <div class="indent4">I will depart.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I have one prayer that I will make to God,</div> <div class="indent4">That I may stay</div> <div class="verse">Where lies my body underneath the sod.</div> <div class="indent4">Then night and day</div> <div class="verse">I shall be where my dear false love may pass;</div> <div class="indent4">It will be sweet</div> <div class="verse">To hear above my head, upon the grass,</div> <div class="indent4">Her little feet.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE POET&#8217;S EPITAPH</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dreams fade with morning light,</div> <div class="indent">Never a morn for thee,</div> <div class="verse">Dreamer of dreams, good-night.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Over our earthly sight</div> <div class="indent">Shadows of woe must be;</div> <div class="verse">Dreams fade with morning light.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Soldiers awake to fight&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">Thou art from strife set free,</div> <div class="verse">Dreamer of dreams, good-night.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Day breaketh, cruel, white,</div> <div class="indent">Lovely the forms that flee;</div> <div class="verse">Dreams fade with morning light.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thine is the sure delight,</div> <div class="indent">Sleep-visions still to see,</div> <div class="verse">Dreamer of dreams, good-night.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Pity us from thy height,</div> <div class="indent">Dawn-haunted slaves are we;</div> <div class="verse">Dreams fade with morning light,</div> <div class="verse">Dreamer of dreams, good-night.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE SUBWAY</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Tired clerks, pale girls, street cleaners, business men,</div> <div class="indent">Boys, priests and harlots, drunkards, students, thieves,</div> <div class="indent">Each one the pleasant outer sunshine leaves;</div> <div class="verse">They mingle in this stifling, loud-wheeled pen.</div> <div class="verse">The gate clangs to&mdash;we stir&mdash;we sway&mdash;and then</div> <div class="indent">We thunder through the dark. The long train weaves</div> <div class="indent">Its gloomy way. At last above the eaves</div> <div class="verse">We see awhile God&#8217;s day, then night again.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Hurled through the dark&mdash;day at Manhattan Street,</div> <div class="indent">The rest all night. That is my life, it seems.</div> <div class="verse">Through sunless ways go my reluctant feet.</div> <div class="indent">The sunlight comes in transitory gleams.</div> <div class="verse">And yet the darkness makes the light more sweet,</div> <div class="indent">The perfect light about me&mdash;in my dreams.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE OTHER LOVER</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent">I&#8217;m home from off the stormy sea,</div> <div class="indent2">And down the street</div> <div class="indent">The folk come out to welcome me</div> <div class="indent2">On eager feet.</div> <div class="verse">O neighbors, God be with you all,</div> <div class="verse">But for my true love I must call;</div> <div class="verse">She lingers in her father&#8217;s hall</div> <div class="indent2">So shy, so sweet!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent">Here is a string of milky pearls</div> <div class="indent2">For her to wear,</div> <div class="indent">An amber comb to match the curls</div> <div class="indent2">Of her bright hair.</div> <div class="verse">O neighbors, do not crowd me so!</div> <div class="verse">Stand by! stand by! for I must go</div> <div class="verse">To put on my love&#8217;s hand of snow</div> <div class="indent2">This gold ring fair.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent">Good dame, why do you block the way</div> <div class="indent2">And shake your head?</div> <div class="indent">Must all the things you have to say</div> <div class="indent2">Just now be said?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">O neighbors, let me pass&mdash;but why&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">My God, what makes you women cry?</div> <div class="verse">Come tell me that I too may die!</div> <div class="indent2">Is my love dead?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="indent">&#8220;Nay, Marjorie&#8217;s a living thing,</div> <div class="indent2">And fair and strong.</div> <div class="indent">Yet did you wait to give your ring</div> <div class="indent2">A year too long.</div> <div class="verse">To seek her love there came the Moon;</div> <div class="verse">Now Marjorie at night and noon</div> <div class="verse">Is chained and sits alone to croon</div> <div class="indent2">The Moon&#8217;s love-song.&#8221;</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">AGE COMES A-WOOING</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">With shameless and incessant lust</div> <div class="verse">Thy tremulous hot hands are thrust</div> <div class="verse">Upon my body&#8217;s loveliness.</div> <div class="verse">O loathsome Age, thy foul caress</div> <div class="verse">Puts on my heart a deadly blight,</div> <div class="verse">Withers my hair to leprous white,</div> <div class="verse">Binds fetters on my eager feet</div> <div class="verse">That once on Springtime&#8217;s road were fleet</div> <div class="verse">To bear me to Love&#8217;s shining goal.</div> <div class="verse">Now bitter tides of sorrow roll</div> <div class="verse">To drown me in a sea of woe</div> <div class="verse">And God looks on, and wills it so!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Give over thy pursuing, Age!</div> <div class="verse">Fearest thou not my lover&#8217;s rage?</div> <div class="verse">For he is young and strong of limb,</div> <div class="verse">Thou canst not stand a bout with him.</div> <div class="verse">Ah, surely he will laugh to see</div> <div class="verse">So wan a suitor wooing me.</div> <div class="verse">Then with wild scorn his heart will swell</div> <div class="verse">And he will fling thee back to hell.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O Love, that stronger art than Death,</div> <div class="verse">Enfold me from the burning breath</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Of Age that has grown amorous,</div> <div class="verse">That sears and blasts me. Even thus,</div> <div class="verse">Men say, his passionate embrace</div> <div class="verse">Spoils maids and flowers of their grace,</div> <div class="verse">And every woman&#8217;s fate is cast</div> <div class="verse">To be his paramour at last.</div> <div class="verse">And so all lovely things are made</div> <div class="verse">Shameful, and in the ashes laid,</div> <div class="verse">To die alone, uncared for. Such</div> <div class="verse">Is the pollution of his touch.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Stars that have shone since Time began,</div> <div class="verse">Rivers that saw the birth of man,</div> <div class="verse">And mountains that are fair and green,</div> <div class="verse">And were, when Helen was a queen,</div> <div class="verse">White dreams that never can grow old,</div> <div class="verse">Stories of love and glory told</div> <div class="verse">By Homer once, and ballads sung</div> <div class="verse">Eons ago&mdash;ye still are young.</div> <div class="verse">Tell me the secret of your youth.</div> <div class="verse">Can any weeping fill with ruth</div> <div class="verse">Age, that is harsh and pitiless?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Nay, they are blind to my distress.</div> <div class="verse">They have not feared the grasping hand</div> <div class="verse">Of Age, and cannot understand.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Love saw my whitened hair and laughed</div> <div class="verse">And bid me drain my bitter draught.</div> <div class="verse">While in my lover&#8217;s startled eyes</div> <div class="verse">A lurking terror strangely lies.</div> <div class="verse">There is no place in which to hide</div> <div class="verse">When Age comes seeking for his bride.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">PRAYER TO BRAGI</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The world-rocking roar of the thunder, the red lightning&#8217;s death-dealing flash,</div> <div class="verse">The wind that rends mountains asunder, the tempest&#8217;s sharp, blood-bringing lash,</div> <div class="verse">Beneficent silvery rivers that stream from the dream-laden moon,</div> <div class="verse">And crimsoning fire that delivers bound life at the sun&#8217;s freeing noon;</div> <div class="verse">These swell like a marvellous ocean, all throbbing and leaping and strong,</div> <div class="verse">O Bragi, in thy magic potion of pain and of sweetness and song!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The life-blood of Kvasir was taken, sharp heart-seeking knives made him bleed,</div> <div class="verse">But still shall his spirit awaken in singers who drink of thy mead.</div> <div class="verse">The honey from forests of flowers, poured out as the milk from the kine,</div> <div class="verse">It flows through the undying hours from lips that are wet with thy wine.</div> <div class="verse">O Bragi, dear master of singing, song-thirsty I beg for thy dole!</div> <div class="verse">To thy knees, a suppliant clinging, I pray for a draught from thy bowl.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">IMITATION OF RICHEPIN&#8217;S<br/> BALLADE OF THE BEGGARS&#8217; KING</h2></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Hey, come to me, you slipshod race,</div> <div class="indent">Picklocks and squealing bagpipe crew,</div> <div class="verse">Come, strumpet, knave and monkey-face,</div> <div class="indent">Come loafers, I&#8217;m the lad for you!</div> <div class="indent">Come ragged cloak and tattered shoe,</div> <div class="verse">Your wild, hot liberty I sing,</div> <div class="indent">For I am of your nation, too,</div> <div class="verse">The poet is the beggars&#8217; king.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">You playthings of the copper&#8217;s mace,</div> <div class="indent">You toys of wind and rain and dew,</div> <div class="verse">You whom the yelping watchdogs chase,</div> <div class="indent">Whom blows and noisome ills pursue,</div> <div class="indent">Whose paltry rags the wind strikes through</div> <div class="verse">As through some rotten paper thing,</div> <div class="indent">To whom nor want nor woe is new,</div> <div class="verse">The poet is the beggars&#8217; king.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">You hoboes, whom the sun&#8217;s embrace</div> <div class="indent">Has burned to darkly golden hue,</div> <div class="verse">You trollops, full of love and grace,</div> <div class="indent">Whom half a hundred lovers woo,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</SPAN></span> <div class="indent">You little crawling babies who</div> <div class="verse">Just wear your hides for costuming,</div> <div class="indent">Old toothless men with noses blue,</div> <div class="verse">The poet is the beggars&#8217; king.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="versecenter"><small>L&#8217;ENVOI</small></div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My subjects all and vassals true,</div> <div class="indent">Come, give me royal welcoming,</div> <div class="verse">May booze be plenty, bulls be few,</div> <div class="indent">The poet is the beggars&#8217; king.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">LOVE AND THE FOWLER&#8217;S BOY</h2></div> <p class="center">(Bion IV, 14.)</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Lo, the fowler&#8217;s little lad,</div> <div class="indent">Through the woodland straying,</div> <div class="verse">Sight of winged Love hath had</div> <div class="indent">In the branches playing.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Ah,&#8221; he cries, &#8220;a bonnie prey!&#8221;</div> <div class="indent">Sets his bow to wing him.</div> <div class="verse">Cupid blows the dart away</div> <div class="indent">That to earth would bring him.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now the boy in angry woe</div> <div class="indent">Casts away his quiver</div> <div class="verse">To his master straight doth go</div> <div class="indent">And the tale deliver.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Saith the sage, &#8220;Nay, not for thee</div> <div class="indent">Such a bird to harry.</div> <div class="verse">From the haunted forest flee</div> <div class="indent">Where such creatures tarry.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;Though it now escape thy dart</div> <div class="indent">Let not tears be flowing,</div> <div class="verse">It will light upon thy heart</div> <div class="indent">Ere thy beard be growing.&#8221;</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE WAY OF LOVE</h2></div> <p class="center">(An Old Legend.)</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When darkness hovers over earth</div> <div class="indent">And day gives place to night,</div> <div class="verse">Then lovers see the Milky Way</div> <div class="indent">Gleam mystically bright,</div> <div class="verse">And calling it the Way of Love</div> <div class="indent">They hail it with delight.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She was a lady wondrous fair</div> <div class="indent">A right brave lover he,</div> <div class="verse">And sooth they suffered grievous pain</div> <div class="indent">And sorrowed mightily,</div> <div class="verse">For they were parted during life</div> <div class="indent">By leagues of land and sea.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">She died. Then Death came to the man.</div> <div class="indent">He met him joyfully,</div> <div class="verse">And said, &#8220;Thou Angel Death, well met!</div> <div class="indent">Quick, do thy will with me,</div> <div class="verse">That I may haste to greet my love</div> <div class="indent">In Heaven&#8217;s company.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Now on one side of Heaven he dwelt</div> <div class="indent">And on the other, she.</div> <div class="verse">And broad between them stretched sheer space</div> <div class="indent">Whereon no way might be,</div> <div class="verse">The empty, yawning, awful depth,</div> <div class="indent">Unplumbed infinity.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The deathless spheric melody</div> <div class="indent">Came gently to his ear,</div> <div class="verse">And dulcet notes, the harmonies</div> <div class="indent">Of Seraphs chanting near.</div> <div class="verse">He heeded not for listening</div> <div class="indent">His lady&#8217;s voice to hear.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The Saints and Martyrs round him ranged</div> <div class="indent">A goodly company,</div> <div class="verse">The Virgin, robed in radiance,</div> <div class="indent">The Holy Trinity.</div> <div class="verse">He heeded not, but strained his eyes</div> <div class="indent">His lady&#8217;s face to see.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">At last from far across the void</div> <div class="indent">Her voice came, faint and sweet.</div> <div class="verse">The bright-hued walls of Paradise</div> <div class="indent">Did the glad sound repeat;</div> <div class="verse">The distant stars on which she stood</div> <div class="indent">Shone bright beneath her feet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">&#8220;Dear Love,&#8221; she said, &#8220;Oh, come to me!</div> <div class="indent">I cannot see your face.</div> <div class="verse">O will not Lord Christ grant to us</div> <div class="indent">To cross this sea of space?&#8221;</div> <div class="verse">Then thrilled his heart with Love&#8217;s own might.</div> <div class="indent">He answered, by Love&#8217;s grace.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">&#8220;The world is wide, and Heaven is wide,</div> <div class="indent">From me to thee is far,</div> <div class="verse">Alas! across Infinity</div> <div class="indent">No passageways there are.</div> <div class="verse">Sweetheart, I&#8217;ll make my way to thee,</div> <div class="indent">I&#8217;ll build it, star by star!&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Through all the curving vault of sky</div> <div class="indent">His lusty blows rang out.</div> <div class="verse">He smote the jewel-studded walls</div> <div class="indent">And with a mighty shout</div> <div class="verse">He tore the gleaming masonry</div> <div class="indent">And posts that stood about.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He strove to build a massive bridge</div> <div class="indent">That should the chasm span.</div> <div class="verse">With heart upheld by hope and love</div> <div class="indent">His great task he began,</div> <div class="verse">And toiled and labored doughtily</div> <div class="indent">To work his God-like plan.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">He took the heavy beams of gold</div> <div class="indent">That round him he did see;</div> <div class="verse">The beryl, jacinth, sardius,</div> <div class="indent">That shone so brilliantly,</div> <div class="verse">And no fair jewel would he spare</div> <div class="indent">So zealously worked he.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He stole the gorgeous tinted stuffs</div> <div class="indent">Whereof are sunsets made,</div> <div class="verse">And his rude, grasping, eager hands</div> <div class="indent">On little stars he laid;</div> <div class="verse">To rob God&#8217;s sacred treasure-house</div> <div class="indent">He was no whit afraid.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And so for centuries he worked.</div> <div class="indent">Across the void at last</div> <div class="verse">A bridge of precious mold did stand</div> <div class="indent">Completed, strong and fast.</div> <div class="verse">So now the faithful lovers met</div> <div class="indent">And all their woe was past.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But soon a shining angel guard</div> <div class="indent">Sped to the throne of gold</div> <div class="verse">And said, &#8220;Lord, see yon new-made bridge,</div> <div class="indent">A mortal, overbold,</div> <div class="verse">Has built it, scorning thy desire!&#8221;</div> <div class="indent">Straightway the tale he told.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Then said: &#8220;Now, Master, Thou mayst see</div> <div class="indent">The thing that has been wrought.</div> <div class="verse">Speak, then, the word, stretch forth Thine hand</div> <div class="indent">That with the speed of thought</div> <div class="verse">This poor presumptuous work may fall</div> <div class="indent">And crumble into naught.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">God looked upon the angel then</div> <div class="indent">And on the bridge below.</div> <div class="verse">Then with His smile of majesty</div> <div class="indent">He said: &#8220;Let all things know,</div> <div class="verse">This bridge, which has by Love been built,</div> <div class="indent">I will not overthrow.&#8221;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">When darkness hovers over earth</div> <div class="indent">And day gives place to night,</div> <div class="verse">Then lovers see the Milky Way</div> <div class="indent">Gleam mystically bright,</div> <div class="verse">And calling it the Way of Love,</div> <div class="indent">They hail it with delight.</div> </div></div> </div> <SPAN name="endofbook"></SPAN> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />