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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Poems & Ballads (First Series) + +Author: Algernon Charles Swinburne + +Release Date: February 26, 2011 [EBook #35402] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS & BALLADS (FIRST SERIES) *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>Poems and Ballads</h1> +<p class="center">First Series</p> + +<h3>By</h3> +<h2>Algernon Charles Swinburne</h2> + +<h4>Taken from<br /> +The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol. I</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>THE COLLECTED POETICAL WORKS<br /> +OF ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE</h4> + +<h3>VOL. I<br /> +<big>POEMS & BALLADS</big><br /> +(FIRST SERIES)</h3> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SWINBURNE'S POETICAL WORKS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>I. <span class="smcap">Poems and Ballads</span> (First Series).</p> + +<p>II. <span class="smcap">Songs before Sunrise, and Songs of Two Nations.</span></p> + +<p>III. <span class="smcap">Poems and Ballads</span> (Second and Third Series), and <span class="smcap">Songs of the Spring-Tides</span>.</p> + +<p>IV. <span class="smcap">Tristram of Lyonesse, The Tale of Balen, Atalanta in Calydon, Erechtheus.</span></p> + +<p>V. <span class="smcap">Studies in Song, A Century of Roundels, Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets, The Heptalogia, etc.</span></p> + +<p>VI. <span class="smcap">A Midsummer Holiday, Astrophel, A Channel Passage and Other Poems</span>.</p> +</div> + +<h5>LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN</h5> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>POEMS & BALLADS</h1> +<p class="center">(FIRST SERIES)</p> + +<h3><small>By</small><br /> +Algernon Charles Swinburne</h3> + + +<h4>1917</h4> +<h3>LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><i>First printed</i> (<i>Chatto</i>), 1904<br /> +<i>Reprinted</i> 1904, '09, '10, '12<br /> +(<i>Heinemann</i>), 1917</p> + + +<h5><i>London: William Heinemann</i> 1917</h5> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>TO</h3> +<h2>THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>DEDICATORY EPISTLE</h2> + + +<p>To my best and dearest friend I dedicate the first collected edition of +my poems, and to him I address what I have to say on the occasion.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>You will agree with me that it is impossible for any man to undertake +the task of commentary, however brief and succinct, on anything he has +done or tried to do, without incurring the charge of egoism. But there +are two kinds of egoism, the furtive and the frank: and the outspoken +and open-hearted candour of Milton and Wordsworth, Corneille and Hugo, +is not the least or the lightest of their claims to the regard as well +as the respect or the reverence of their readers. Even if I were worthy +to claim kinship with the lowest or with the highest of these deathless +names, I would not seek to shelter myself under the shadow of its +authority. The question would still remain open on all sides. Whether it +is worth while for any man to offer any remarks or for any other man to +read his remarks on his own work, his own ambition, or his own attempts, +he cannot of course determine. If there are great examples of abstinence +from such a doubtful enterprise, there are likewise great examples to +the contrary. As long as the writer can succeed in evading the kindred +charges and the cognate risks of vanity and humility, there can be no +reason why he should not undertake it. And when he has nothing to regret +and nothing to recant, when he finds nothing that he could wish to +cancel, to alter, or to unsay, in any page he has ever laid before his +reader, he need not be seriously troubled by the inevitable +consciousness that the work of his early youth is not and cannot be +unnaturally unlike the work of a very young man. This would be no excuse +for it, if it were in any sense bad work: if it be so, no apology would +avail; and I certainly have none to offer.</p> + +<p>It is now thirty-six years since my first volume of miscellaneous verse, +lyrical and dramatic and elegiac and generally heterogeneous, had as +quaint a reception and as singular a fortune as I have ever heard or +read of. I do not think you will differ from my opinion that what is +best in it cannot be divided from what is not so good by any other line +of division than that which marks off mature from immature execution—in +other words, complete from incomplete conception. For its author the +most amusing and satisfying result of the clatter aroused by it was the +deep diversion of collating and comparing the variously inaccurate +verdicts of the scornful or mournful censors who insisted on regarding +all the studies of passion or sensation attempted or achieved in it as +either confessions of positive fact or excursions of absolute fancy. +There are photographs from life in the book; and there are sketches from +imagination. Some which keen-sighted criticism has dismissed with a +smile as ideal or imaginary were as real and actual as they well could +be: others which have been taken for obvious transcripts from memory +were utterly fantastic or dramatic. If the two kinds cannot be +distinguished, it is surely rather a credit than a discredit to an +artist whose medium or material has more in common with a musician's +than with a sculptor's. Friendly and kindly critics, English and +foreign, have detected ignorance of the subject in poems taken straight +from the life, and have protested that they could not believe me were I +to swear that poems entirely or mainly fanciful were not faithful +expressions or transcriptions of the writer's actual experience and +personal emotion. But I need not remind you that all I have to say about +this book was said once for all in the year of its publication: I have +nothing to add to my notes then taken, and I have nothing to retract +from them. To parade or to disclaim experience of passion or of sorrow, +of pleasure or of pain, is the habit and the sign of a school which has +never found a disciple among the better sort of English poets, and which +I know to be no less pitifully contemptible in your opinion than in +mine.</p> + +<p>In my next work it should be superfluous to say that there is no touch +of dramatic impersonation or imaginary emotion. The writer of 'Songs +before Sunrise,' from the first line to the last, wrote simply in +submissive obedience to Sir Philip Sidney's precept—'Look in thine +heart, and write.' The dedication of these poems, and the fact that the +dedication was accepted, must be sufficient evidence of this. They do +not pretend and they were never intended to be merely the metrical +echoes, or translations into lyric verse, of another man's doctrine. +Mazzini was no more a Pope or a Dictator than I was a parasite or a +papist. Dictation and inspiration are rather different things. These +poems, and others which followed or preceded them in print, were +inspired by such faith as is born of devotion and reverence: not by such +faith, if faith it may be called, as is synonymous with servility or +compatible with prostration of an abject or wavering spirit and a +submissive or dethroned intelligence. You know that I never pretended to +see eye to eye with my illustrious friends and masters, Victor Hugo and +Giuseppe Mazzini, in regard to the positive and passionate confidence of +their sublime and purified theology. Our betters ought to know better +than we: they would be the last to wish that we should pretend to their +knowledge, or assume a certitude which is theirs and is not ours. But on +one point we surely cannot but be at one with them: that the spirit and +the letter of all other than savage and barbarous religions are +irreconcilably at variance, and that prayer or homage addressed to an +image of our own or of other men's making, be that image avowedly +material or conventionally spiritual, is the affirmation of idolatry +with all its attendant atrocities, and the negation of all belief, all +reverence, and all love, due to the noblest object of human worship that +humanity can realise or conceive. Thus much the exercise of our common +reason might naturally suffice to show us: but when its evidence is +confirmed and fortified by the irrefragable and invariable evidence of +history, there is no room for further dispute or fuller argument on a +subject now visibly beyond reach and eternally beyond need of debate or +demonstration. I know not whether it may or may not be worth while to +add that every passing word I have since thought fit to utter on any +national or political question has been as wholly consistent with the +principles which I then did my best to proclaim and defend as any +apostasy from the faith of all republicans in the fundamental and final +principle of union, voluntary if possible and compulsory if not, would +have been ludicrous in the impudence of its inconsistency with those +simple and irreversible principles. Monarchists and anarchists may be +advocates of national dissolution and reactionary division: republicans +cannot be. The first and last article of their creed is unity: the most +grinding and crushing tyranny of a convention, a directory, or a despot, +is less incompatible with republican faith than the fissiparous +democracy of disunionists or communalists.</p> + +<p>If the fortunes of my lyrical work were amusingly eccentric and +accidental, the varieties of opinion which have saluted the appearance +of my plays have been, or have seemed to my humility, even more +diverting and curious. I have been told by reviewers of note and +position that a single one of them is worth all my lyric and otherwise +undramatic achievements or attempts: and I have been told on equal or +similar authority that, whatever I may be in any other field, as a +dramatist I am demonstrably nothing. My first if not my strongest +ambition was to do something worth doing, and not utterly unworthy of a +young countryman of Marlowe the teacher and Webster the pupil of +Shakespeare, in the line of work which those three poets had left as a +possibly unattainable example for ambitious Englishmen. And my first +book, written while yet under academic or tutorial authority, bore +evidence of that ambition in every line. I should be the last to deny +that it also bore evidence of the fact that its writer had no more +notion of dramatic or theatrical construction than the authors of +'Tamburlaine the Great,' 'King Henry VI.,' and 'Sir Thomas Wyatt.' Not +much more, you may possibly say, was discernible in 'Chastelard': a play +also conceived and partly written by a youngster not yet emancipated +from servitude to college rule. I fear that in the former volume there +had been little if any promise of power to grapple with the realities +and subtleties of character and of motive: that whatever may be in it of +promise or of merit must be sought in the language and the style of such +better passages as may perhaps be found in single and separable speeches +of Catherine and of Rosamond. But in 'Chastelard' there are two figures +and a sketch in which I certainly seem to see something of real and +evident life. The sketch of Darnley was afterwards filled out and +finished in the subsequent tragedy of 'Bothwell.' That ambitious, +conscientious, and comprehensive piece of work is of course less +properly definable as a tragedy than by the old Shakespearean term of a +chronicle history. The radical difference between tragic history and +tragedy of either the classic or the romantic order, and consequently +between the laws which govern the one and the principles which guide the +other, you have yourself made clear and familiar to all capable +students. This play of mine was not, I think, inaccurately defined as an +epic drama in the French verses of dedication which were acknowledged by +the greatest of all French poets in a letter from which I dare only +quote one line of Olympian judgment and godlike generosity. 'Occuper ces +deux cimes, cela n'est donné qu'à vous.' Nor will I refrain from the +confession that I cannot think it an epic or a play in which any one +part is sacrificed to any other, any subordinate figure mishandled or +neglected or distorted or effaced for the sake of the predominant and +central person. And, though this has nothing or less than nothing to do +with any question of poetic merit or demerit, of dramatic success or +unsuccess, I will add that I took as much care and pains as though I had +been writing or compiling a history of the period to do loyal justice to +all the historic figures which came within the scope of my dramatic or +poetic design. There is not one which I have designedly altered or +intentionally modified: it is of course for others to decide whether +there is one which is not the living likeness of an actual or imaginable +man.</p> + +<p>The third part of this trilogy, as far as I know or remember, found +favour only with the only man in England who could speak on the subject +of historic drama with the authority of an expert and a master. The +generally ungracious reception of 'Mary Stuart' gave me neither surprise +nor disappointment: the cordial approbation or rather the generous +applause of Sir Henry Taylor gave me all and more than all the +satisfaction I could ever have looked for in recompense of as much +painstaking and conscientious though interesting and enjoyable work as +can ever, I should imagine, have been devoted to the completion of any +comparable design. Private and personal appreciation I have always +thought and often found more valuable and delightful than all possible +or imaginable clamour of public praise. This preference will perhaps be +supposed to influence my opinion if I avow that I think I have never +written anything worthier of such reward than the closing tragedy which +may or may not have deserved but which certainly received it.</p> + +<p>My first attempt to do something original in English which might in some +degree reproduce for English readers the likeness of a Greek tragedy, +with possibly something more of its true poetic life and charm than +could have been expected from the authors of 'Caractacus' and 'Merope,' +was perhaps too exuberant and effusive in its dialogue, as it certainly +was too irregular in the occasional license of its choral verse, to +accomplish the design or achieve the success which its author should +have aimed at. It may or may not be too long as a poem: it is, I fear, +too long for a poem of the kind to which it belongs or aims at +belonging. Poetical and mathematical truth are so different that I +doubt, however unwilling I may naturally be to doubt, whether it can +truthfully be said of 'Atalanta in Calydon' that the whole is greater +than any part of it. I hope it may be, and I can honestly say no more. +Of 'Erechtheus' I venture to believe with somewhat more confidence that +it can. Either poem, by the natural necessity of its kind and structure, +has its crowning passage or passages which cannot, however much they may +lose by detachment from their context, lose as much as the crowning +scene or scenes of an English or Shakespearean play, as opposed to an +Æschylean or Sophoclean tragedy, must lose and ought to lose by a +similar separation. The two best things in these two Greek plays, the +antiphonal lamentation for the dying Meleager and the choral +presentation of stormy battle between the forces of land and sea, lose +less by such division from the main body of the poem than would those +scenes in 'Bothwell' which deal with the turning-point in the life of +Mary Stuart on the central and conclusive day of Carberry Hill.</p> + +<p>It might be thought pedantic or pretentious in a modern poet to divide +his poems after the old Roman fashion into sections and classes; I must +confess that I should like to see this method applied, were it but by +way of experiment in a single edition, to the work of the leading poets +of our own country and century: to see, for instance, their lyrical and +elegiac works ranged and registered apart, each kind in a class of its +own, such as is usually reserved, I know not why, for sonnets only. The +apparent formality of such an arrangement as would give us, for +instance, the odes of Coleridge and Shelley collected into a distinct +reservation or division might possibly be more than compensated to the +more capable among students by the gain in ethical or spiritual symmetry +and æsthetic or intellectual harmony. The ode or hymn—I need remind no +probable reader that the terms are synonymous in the speech of +Pindar—asserts its primacy or pre-eminence over other forms of poetry +in the very name which defines or proclaims it as essentially the song; +as something above all less pure and absolute kinds of song by the very +nature and law of its being. The Greek form, with its regular +arrangement of turn, return, and aftersong, is not to be imitated +because it is Greek, but to be adopted because it is best: the very +best, as a rule, that could be imagined for lyrical expression of the +thing conceived or lyrical aspiration towards the aim imagined. The +rhythmic reason of its rigid but not arbitrary law lies simply and +solely in the charm of its regular variations. This can be given in +English as clearly and fully, if not so sweetly and subtly, as in Greek; +and should, therefore, be expected and required in an English poem of +the same nature and proportion. The Sapphic or Alcaic ode, a simple +sequence of identical stanzas, could be imitated or revived in Latin by +translators or disciples: the scheme of it is exquisitely adequate and +sufficient for comparatively short flights of passion or emotion, ardent +or contemplative and personal or patriotic; but what can be done in +English could not be attempted in Latin. It seems strange to me, our +language being what it is, that our literature should be no richer than +it is in examples of the higher or at least the more capacious and +ambitious kind of ode. Not that the full Pindaric form of threefold or +triune structure need be or should be always adopted: but without an +accurately corresponsive or antiphonal scheme of music even the master +of masters, who is Coleridge, could not produce, even through the superb +and enchanting melodies of such a poem as his 'Dejection,' a fit and +complete companion, a full and perfect rival, to such a poem as his ode +on France.</p> + +<p>The title of ode may more properly and fairly be so extended as to cover +all lyrical poems in stanzas or couplets than so strained as to include +a lawless lyric of such irregular and uneven build as Coleridge only and +hardly could make acceptable or admissible among more natural and lawful +forms of poetry. Law, not lawlessness, is the natural condition of +poetic life; but the law must itself be poetic and not pedantic, natural +and not conventional. It would be a trivial precision or restriction +which would refuse the title of ode to the stanzas of Milton or the +heptameters of Aristophanes; that glorious form of lyric verse which a +critic of our own day, as you may not impossibly remember, has likened +with such magnificent felicity of comparison to the gallop of the horses +of the sun. Nor, I presume, should this title be denied to a poem +written in the more modest metre—more modest as being shorter by a +foot—which was chosen for those twin poems of antiphonal correspondence +in subject and in sound, the 'Hymn to Proserpine' and the 'Hymn of Man': +the deathsong of spiritual decadence and the birthsong of spiritual +renascence. Perhaps, too, my first stanzas addressed to Victor Hugo may +be ranked as no less of an ode than that on the insurrection in Candia: +a poem which attracted, whether or not it may have deserved, the notice +and commendation of Mazzini: from whom I received, on the occasion of +its appearance, a letter which was the beginning of my personal +intercourse with the man whom I had always revered above all other men +on earth. But for this happy accident I might not feel disposed to set +much store by my first attempt at a regular ode of orthodox or +legitimate construction; I doubt whether it quite succeeded in evading +the criminal risk and the capital offence of formality; at least until +the change of note in the closing epode gave fuller scope and freer play +of wing to the musical expression. But in my later ode on Athens, +absolutely faithful as it is in form to the strictest type and the most +stringent law of Pindaric hymnology, I venture to believe that there is +no more sign of this infirmity than in the less classically regulated +poem on the Armada; which, though built on a new scheme, is nevertheless +in its way, I think, a legitimate ode, by right of its regularity in +general arrangement of corresponsive divisions. By the test of these two +poems I am content that my claims should be decided and my station +determined as a lyric poet in the higher sense of the term; a craftsman +in the most ambitious line of his art that ever aroused or ever can +arouse the emulous aspiration of his kind.</p> + +<p>Even had I ever felt the same impulse to attempt and the same ambition +to achieve the enterprise of epic or narrative that I had always felt +with regard to lyric or dramatic work, I could never have proposed to +myself the lowly and unambitious aim of competition with the work of so +notable a contemporary workman in the humbler branch of that line as +William Morris. No conception could have been further from my mind when +I undertook to rehandle the deathless legend of Tristram than that of so +modest and preposterous a trial of rivalry. My aim was simply to present +that story, not diluted and debased as it had been in our own time by +other hands, but undefaced by improvement and undeformed by +transformation, as it was known to the age of Dante wherever the +chronicles of romance found hearing, from Ercildoune to Florence: and +not in the epic or romantic form of sustained or continuous narrative, +but mainly through a succession of dramatic scenes or pictures with +descriptive settings or backgrounds: the scenes being of the simplest +construction, duologue or monologue, without so much as the classically +permissible intervention of a third or fourth person. It is only in our +native northern form of narrative poetry, on the old and unrivalled +model of the English ballad, that I can claim to have done any work of +the kind worth reference: unless the story of Balen should be considered +as something other than a series or sequence of ballads. A more +plausible objection was brought to bear against 'Tristram of Lyonesse' +than that of failure in an enterprise which I never thought of +undertaking: the objection of an irreconcilable incongruity between the +incidents of the old legend and the meditations on man and nature, life +and death, chance and destiny, assigned to a typical hero of chivalrous +romance. And this objection might be unanswerable if the slightest +attempt had been made to treat the legend as in any possible sense +historical or capable of either rational or ideal association with +history, such as would assimilate the name and fame of Arthur to the +name and fame of any actual and indisputable Alfred or Albert of the +future. But the age when these romances actually lived and flourished +side by side with the reviving legends of Thebes and Troy, not in the +crude and bloodless forms of Celtic and archaic fancy but in the ampler +and manlier developments of Teutonic and mediæval imagination, was the +age of Dante and of Chaucer: an age in which men were only too prone to +waste their time on the twin sciences of astrology and theology, to +expend their energies in the jungle of pseudosophy or the morass of +metaphysics. There is surely nothing more incongruous or anachronic in +the soliloquy of Tristram after his separation from Iseult than in the +lecture of Theseus after the obsequies of Arcite. Both heroes belong to +the same impossible age of an imaginary world: and each has an equal +right, should it so please his chronicler, to reason in the pauses of +action and philosophise in the intervals of adventure. After all, the +active men of the actual age of chivalry were not all of them mere +muscular machines for martial or pacific exercise of their physical +functions or abilities.</p> + +<p>You would agree, if the point were worth discussion, that it might +savour somewhat of pretention, if not of affectation, to be over +particular in arrangement of poems according to subject rather than +form, spirit rather than method, or motive rather than execution: and +yet there might be some excuse for the fancy or the pedantry of such a +classification as should set apart, for example, poems inspired by the +influence of places, whether seen but once or familiar for years or +associated with the earliest memories within cognisance or record of the +mind, and poems inspired by the emotions of regard or regret for the +living or the dead; above all, by the rare and profound passion of +reverence and love and faith which labours and rejoices to find +utterance in some tributary sacrifice of song. Mere descriptive poetry +of the prepense and formal kind is exceptionally if not proverbially +liable to incur and to deserve the charge of dullness: it is unnecessary +to emphasise or obtrude the personal note, the presence or the emotion +of a spectator, but it is necessary to make it felt and keep it +perceptible if the poem is to have life in it or even a right to live: +felt as in Wordsworth's work it is always, perceptible as it is always +in Shelley's. This note is more plain and positive than usual in the +poem which attempts—at once a simple and an ambitious attempt—to +render the contrast and the concord of night and day on Loch Torridon: +it is, I think, duly sensible though implicitly subdued in four poems of +the West Undercliff, born or begotten of sunset in the bay and moonlight +on the cliffs, noon or morning in a living and shining garden, afternoon +or twilight on one left flowerless and forsaken. Not to you or any other +poet, nor indeed to the very humblest and simplest lover of poetry, will +it seem incongruous or strange, suggestive of imperfect sympathy with +life or deficient inspiration from nature, that the very words of Sappho +should be heard and recognised in the notes of the nightingales, the +glory of the presence of dead poets imagined in the presence of the +glory of the sky, the lustre of their advent and their passage felt +visible as in vision on the live and limpid floorwork of the cloudless +and sunset-coloured sea. The half-brained creature to whom books are +other than living things may see with the eyes of a bat and draw with +the fingers of a mole his dullard's distinction between books and life: +those who live the fuller life of a higher animal than he know that +books are to poets as much part of that life as pictures are to painters +or as music is to musicians, dead matter though they may be to the +spiritually still-born children of dirt and dullness who find it +possible and natural to live while dead in heart and brain. Marlowe and +Shakespeare, Æschylus and Sappho, do not for us live only on the dusty +shelves of libraries.</p> + +<p>It is hardly probable that especial and familiar love of places should +give any special value to verses written under the influence of their +charm: no intimacy of years and no association with the past gave any +colour of emotion to many other studies of English land and sea which +certainly are no less faithful and possibly have no less spiritual or +poetic life in them than the four to which I have just referred, whose +localities lie all within the boundary of a mile or so. No contrast +could be stronger than that between the majestic and exquisite glory of +cliff and crag, lawn and woodland, garden and lea, to which I have done +homage though assuredly I have not done justice in these four poems—'In +the Bay,' 'On the Cliffs,' 'A Forsaken Garden,' the dedication of 'The +Sisters'—and the dreary beauty, inhuman if not unearthly in its +desolation, of the innumerable creeks and inlets, lined and paven with +sea-flowers, which make of the salt marshes a fit and funereal setting, +a fatal and appropriate foreground, for the supreme desolation of the +relics of Dunwich; the beautiful and awful solitude of a wilderness on +which the sea has forbidden man to build or live, overtopped and bounded +by the tragic and ghastly solitude of a headland on which the sea has +forbidden the works of human charity and piety to survive: between the +dense and sand-encumbered tides which are eating the desecrated wreck +and ruin of them all away, and the matchless magic, the ineffable +fascination of the sea whose beauties and delights, whose translucent +depths of water and divers-coloured banks of submarine foliage and +flowerage, but faintly reflected in the stanzas of the little ode 'Off +Shore,' complete the charm of the scenes as faintly sketched or shadowed +forth in the poems just named, or the sterner and stranger magic of the +seaboard to which tribute was paid in 'An Autumn Vision,' 'A Swimmer's +Dream,' 'On the South Coast,' 'Neap-tide': or, again, between the +sterile stretches and sad limitless outlook of the shore which faces a +hitherto undetermined and interminable sea, and the joyful and fateful +beauty of the seas off Bamborough and the seas about Sark and Guernsey. +But if there is enough of the human or personal note to bring into touch +the various poems which deal with these various impressions, there may +perhaps be no less of it discernible in such as try to render the effect +of inland or woodland solitude—the splendid oppression of nature at +noon which found utterance of old in words of such singular and +everlasting significance as panic and nympholepsy.</p> + +<p>The retrospect across many years over the many eulogistic and elegiac +poems which I have inscribed or devoted to the commemoration or the +panegyric of the living or the dead has this in it of pride and +pleasure, that I find little to recant and nothing to repent on +reconsideration of them all. If ever a word of tributary thanksgiving +for the delight and the benefit of loyal admiration evoked in the spirit +of a boy or aroused in the intelligence of a man may seem to exceed the +limit of demonstrable accuracy, I have no apology to offer for any such +aberration from the safe path of tepid praise or conventional applause. +I can truly say with Shelley that I have been fortunate in friendships: +I might add if I cared, as he if he had cared might have added, that I +have been no less fortunate in my enemies than in my friends; and this, +though by comparison a matter of ineffable insignificance, can hardly be +to any rational and right-minded man a matter of positive indifference. +Rather should it be always a subject for thankfulness and +self-congratulation if a man can honestly and reasonably feel assured +that his friends and foes alike have been always and at almost all +points the very men he would have chosen, had choice and foresight been +allowed him, at the very outset of his career in life. I should never, +when a boy, have dared to dream that as a man I might possibly be +admitted to the personal acquaintance of the three living gods, I do not +say of my idolatry, for idolatry is a term inapplicable where the gods +are real and true, but of my whole-souled and single-hearted worship: +and yet, when writing of Landor, of Mazzini, and of Hugo, I write of men +who have honoured me with the assurance and the evidence of their +cordial and affectionate regard. However inadequate and unworthy may be +my tribute to their glory when living and their memory when dead, it is +that of one whose gratitude and devotion found unforgettable favour in +their sight. And I must be allowed to add that the redeeming quality of +entire and absolute sincerity may be claimed on behalf of every line I +have written in honour of friends, acquaintances, or strangers. My +tribute to Richard Burton was not more genuine in its expression than my +tribute to Christina Rossetti. Two noble human creatures more utterly +unlike each other it would be unspeakably impossible to conceive; but it +was as simply natural for one who honoured them both to do honest +homage, before and after they had left us, to the saintly and secluded +poetess as to the adventurous and unsaintly hero. Wherever anything is +worthy of honour and thanksgiving it is or it always should be as +natural if not as delightful to give thanks and do honour to a stranger +as to a friend, to a benefactor long since dead as to a benefactor still +alive. To the kindred spirits of Philip Sidney and Aurelio Saffi it was +almost as equal a pleasure to offer what tribute I could bring as if +Sidney also could have honoured me with his personal friendship. To +Tennyson and Browning it was no less fit that I should give honour than +that I should do homage to the memory of Bruno, the martyred friend of +Sidney. And I can hardly remember any task that I ever took more delight +in discharging than I felt in the inadequate and partial payment of a +lifelong debt to the marvellous and matchless succession of poets who +made the glory of our country incomparable for ever by the work they did +between the joyful date of the rout of the Armada and the woful date of +the outbreak of civil war.</p> + +<p>Charles Lamb, as I need not remind you, wrote for antiquity: nor need +you be assured that when I write plays it is with a view to their being +acted at the Globe, the Red Bull, or the Black Friars. And whatever may +be the dramatic or other defects of 'Marino Faliero' or 'Locrine,' they +do certainly bear the same relation to previous plays or attempts at +plays on the same subjects as 'King Henry V.' to 'The Famous +Victories'—if not as 'King Lear,' a poem beyond comparison with all +other works of man except possibly 'Prometheus' and 'Othello,' to the +primitive and infantile scrawl or drivel of 'King Leir and his three +daughters.' The fifth act of 'Marino Faliero,' hopelessly impossible as +it is from the point of view of modern stagecraft, could hardly have +been found too untheatrical, too utterly given over to talk without +action, by the audiences which endured and applauded the magnificent +monotony of Chapman's eloquence—the fervent and inexhaustible +declamation which was offered and accepted as a substitute for study of +character and interest of action when his two finest plays, if plays +they can be called, found favour with an incredibly intelligent and an +inconceivably tolerant audience. The metrical or executive experiment +attempted and carried through in 'Locrine' would have been improper to +any but a purely and wholly romantic play or poem: I do not think that +the life of human character or the lifelikeness of dramatic dialogue has +suffered from the bondage of rhyme or has been sacrificed to the +exigence of metre. The tragedy of 'The Sisters,' however defective it +may be in theatrical interest or progressive action, is the only modern +English play I know in which realism in the reproduction of natural +dialogue and accuracy in the representation of natural intercourse +between men and women of gentle birth and breeding have been found or +made compatible with expression in genuine if simple blank verse. It is +not for me to decide whether anything in the figures which play their +parts on my imaginary though realistic stage may be worthy of sympathy, +attention, or interest: but I think they talk and act as they would have +done in life without ever lapsing into platitude or breaking out of +nature.</p> + +<p>In 'Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards,' I took up a subject long since +mishandled by an English dramatist of all but the highest rank, and one +which in later days Alfieri had commemorated in a magnificent passage of +a wholly unhistoric and somewhat unsatisfactory play. The comparatively +slight deviation from historic records in the final catastrophe or +consummation of mine is not, I think, to say the least, injurious to the +tragic effect or the moral interest of the story.</p> + +<p>A writer conscious of any natural command over the musical resources of +his language can hardly fail to take such pleasure in the enjoyment of +this gift or instinct as the greatest writer and the greatest versifier +of our age must have felt at its highest possible degree when composing +a musical exercise of such incomparable scope and fullness as 'Les +Djinns.' But if he be a poet after the order of Hugo or Coleridge or +Shelley, the result will be something very much more than a musical +exercise; though indeed, except to such ears as should always be kept +closed against poetry, there is no music in verse which has not in it +sufficient fullness and ripeness of meaning, sufficient adequacy of +emotion or of thought, to abide the analysis of any other than the +purblind scrutiny of prepossession or the squint-eyed inspection of +malignity. There may perhaps be somewhat more depth and variety of +feeling or reflection condensed into the narrow frame of the poems which +compose 'A Century of Roundels' than would be needed to fulfil the epic +vacuity of a Chœrilus or a Coluthus. And the form chosen for my only +narrative poem was chosen as a test of the truth of my conviction that +such work could be done better on the straitest and the strictest +principles of verse than on the looser and more slippery lines of +mediæval or modern improvisation. The impulsive and irregular verse +which had been held sufficient for the stanza selected or accepted by +Thornton and by Tennyson seemed capable of improvement and invigoration +as a vehicle or a medium for poetic narrative. And I think it has not +been found unfit to give something of dignity as well as facility to a +narrative which recasts in modern English verse one of the noblest and +loveliest old English legends. There is no episode in the cycle of +Arthurian romance more genuinely Homeric in its sublime simplicity and +its pathetic sublimity of submission to the masterdom of fate than that +which I have rather reproduced than recast in 'The Tale of Balen': and +impossible as it is to render the text or express the spirit of the +Iliad in English prose or rhyme—above all, in English blank verse—it +is possible, in such a metre as was chosen and refashioned for this +poem, to give some sense of the rage and rapture of battle for which +Homer himself could only find fit and full expression by similitudes +drawn like mine from the revels and the terrors and the glories of the +sea.</p> + +<p>It is nothing to me that what I write should find immediate or general +acceptance: it is much to know that on the whole it has won for me the +right to address this dedication and inscribe this edition to you.</p> + +<p style='text-align: right'> +<span class="smcap">Algernon Charles Swinburne.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>POEMS AND BALLADS</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>TO<br /><br /> +MY FRIEND</h4> + +<h2>EDWARD BURNE JONES</h2> + +<h4>THESE POEMS<br /><br /> +ARE AFFECTIONATELY AND ADMIRINGLY<br /><br /> +DEDICATED</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<h4>POEMS AND BALLADS</h4> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_BALLAD_OF_LIFE"><span class="smcap">A Ballad of Life</span></a></td><td align='right'>1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_BALLAD_OF_DEATH"><span class="smcap">A Ballad of Death</span></a></td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LAUS_VENERIS"><span class="smcap">Laus Veneris</span></a></td><td align='right'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PHAEDRA"><span class="smcap">Phædra</span></a></td><td align='right'>27</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_TRIUMPH_OF_TIME"><span class="smcap">The Triumph of Time</span></a></td><td align='right'>34</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LES_NOYADES"><span class="smcap">Les Noyades</span></a></td><td align='right'>48</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_LEAVE_TAKING"><span class="smcap">A Leave-Taking</span></a></td><td align='right'>52</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ITYLUS"><span class="smcap">Itylus</span></a></td><td align='right'>54</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ANACTORIA"><span class="smcap">Anactoria</span></a></td><td align='right'>57</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HYMN_TO_PROSERPINE"><span class="smcap">Hymn to Proserpine</span></a></td><td align='right'>67</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILICET"><span class="smcap">Ilicet</span></a></td><td align='right'>74</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HERMAPHRODITUS"><span class="smcap">Hermaphroditus</span></a></td><td align='right'>79</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#FRAGOLETTA"><span class="smcap">Fragoletta</span></a></td><td align='right'>82</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#RONDEL1"><span class="smcap">Rondel</span></a></td><td align='right'>85</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SATIA_TE_SANGUINE"><span class="smcap">Satia te Sanguine</span></a></td><td align='right'>87</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LITANY"><span class="smcap">A Litany</span></a></td><td align='right'>89</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LAMENTATION"><span class="smcap">A Lamentation</span></a></td><td align='right'>95</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ANIMA_ANCEPS"><span class="smcap">Anima Anceps</span></a></td><td align='right'>100</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#IN_THE_ORCHARD"><span class="smcap">In the Orchard</span></a></td><td align='right'>102</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_MATCH"><span class="smcap">A Match</span></a></td><td align='right'>104</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#FAUSTINE"><span class="smcap">Faustine</span></a></td><td align='right'>106</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CAMEO"><span class="smcap">A Cameo</span></a></td><td align='right'>113</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SONG_BEFORE_DEATH"><span class="smcap">Song before Death</span></a></td><td align='right'>114</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ROCOCO"><span class="smcap">Rococo</span></a></td><td align='right'>115</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#STAGE_LOVE"><span class="smcap">Stage Love</span></a></td><td align='right'>118</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_LEPER"><span class="smcap">The Leper</span></a></td><td align='right'>119</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_BALLAD_OF_BURDENS"><span class="smcap">A Ballad of Burdens</span></a></td><td align='right'>125</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#RONDEL2"><span class="smcap">Rondel</span></a></td><td align='right'>128</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#BEFORE_THE_MIRROR"><span class="smcap">Before the Mirror</span></a></td><td align='right'>129</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#EROTION"><span class="smcap">Erotion</span></a></td><td align='right'>132</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#IN_MEMORY_OF_WALTER_SAVAGE_LANDOR"><span class="smcap">In Memory of Walter Savage Landor</span></a></td><td align='right'>134</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_SONG_IN_TIME_OF_ORDER"><span class="smcap">A Song in Time of Order.</span> 1852</a></td><td align='right'>137</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_SONG_IN_TIME_OF_REVOLUTION"><span class="smcap">A Song in Time of Revolution.</span> 1860.</a></td><td align='right'>140</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#TO_VICTOR_HUGO"><span class="smcap">To Victor Hugo</span></a></td><td align='right'>144</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#BEFORE_DAWN"><span class="smcap">Before Dawn</span></a></td><td align='right'>151</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#DOLORES"><span class="smcap">Dolores</span></a></td><td align='right'>154</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_GARDEN_OF_PROSERPINE"><span class="smcap">The Garden of Proserpine</span></a></td><td align='right'>169</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HESPERIA"><span class="smcap">Hesperia</span></a></td><td align='right'>173</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LOVE_AT_SEA"><span class="smcap">Love at Sea</span></a></td><td align='right'>179</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#APRIL"><span class="smcap">April</span></a></td><td align='right'>181</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#BEFORE_PARTING"><span class="smcap">Before Parting</span></a></td><td align='right'>184</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_SUNDEW"><span class="smcap">The Sundew</span></a></td><td align='right'>186</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#FELISE"><span class="smcap">Félise</span></a></td><td align='right'>188</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AN_INTERLUDE"><span class="smcap">An Interlude</span></a></td><td align='right'>199</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HENDECASYLLABICS"><span class="smcap">Hendecasyllabics</span></a></td><td align='right'>202</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SAPPHICS"><span class="smcap">Sapphics</span></a></td><td align='right'>204</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AT_ELEUSIS"><span class="smcap">At Eleusis</span></a></td><td align='right'>208</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AUGUST"><span class="smcap">August</span></a></td><td align='right'>215</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_CHRISTMAS_CAROL"><span class="smcap">A Christmas Carol</span></a></td><td align='right'>218</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_MASQUE_OF_QUEEN_BERSABE"><span class="smcap">The Masque of Queen Bersabe</span></a></td><td align='right'>221</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ST_DOROTHY"><span class="smcap">St. Dorothy</span></a></td><td align='right'>237</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_TWO_DREAMS"><span class="smcap">The Two Dreams</span></a></td><td align='right'>252</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AHOLIBAH"><span class="smcap">Aholibah</span></a></td><td align='right'>266</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LOVE_AND_SLEEP"><span class="smcap">Love and Sleep</span></a></td><td align='right'>272</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MADONNA_MIA"><span class="smcap">Madonna Mia</span></a></td><td align='right'>273</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_KINGS_DAUGHTER"><span class="smcap">The King's Daughter</span></a></td><td align='right'>276</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AFTER_DEATH"><span class="smcap">After Death</span></a></td><td align='right'>279</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MAY_JANET"><span class="smcap">May Janet</span></a></td><td align='right'>282</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_BLOODY_SON"><span class="smcap">The Bloody Son</span></a></td><td align='right'>284</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_SEASWALLOWS"><span class="smcap">The Sea-Swallows</span></a></td><td align='right'>288</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_YEAR_OF_LOVE"><span class="smcap">The Year of Love</span></a></td><td align='right'>291</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#DEDICATION"><span class="smcap">Dedication</span>, 1865</a></td><td align='right'>293</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_BALLAD_OF_LIFE" id="A_BALLAD_OF_LIFE"></a>A BALLAD OF LIFE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I found in dreams a place of wind and flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Full of sweet trees and colour of glad grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In midst whereof there was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A lady clothed like summer with sweet hours.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her beauty, fervent as a fiery moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Made my blood burn and swoon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like a flame rained upon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sorrow had filled her shaken eyelids' blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her mouth's sad red heavy rose all through<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seemed sad with glad things gone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She held a little cithern by the strings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shaped heartwise, strung with subtle-coloured hair<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of some dead lute-player<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in dead years had done delicious things.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seven strings were named accordingly;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The first string charity,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The second tenderness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rest were pleasure, sorrow, sleep, and sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loving-kindness, that is pity's kin<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And is most pitiless.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There were three men with her, each garmented<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With gold and shod with gold upon the feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And with plucked ears of wheat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first man's hair was wound upon his head:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His face was red, and his mouth curled and sad;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All his gold garment had<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pale stains of dust and rust.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A riven hood was pulled across his eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The token of him being upon this wise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made for a sign of Lust.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The next was Shame, with hollow heavy face<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Coloured like green wood when flame kindles it.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He hath such feeble feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They may not well endure in any place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His face was full of grey old miseries,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all his blood's increase<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was even increase of pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The last was Fear, that is akin to Death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is Shame's friend, and always as Shame saith<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fear answers him again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My soul said in me; This is marvellous,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Seeing the air's face is not so delicate<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor the sun's grace so great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If sin and she be kin or amorous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seeing where maidens served her on their knees,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I bade one crave of these<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To know the cause thereof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Fear said: I am Pity that was dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Shame said: I am Sorrow comforted.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Lust said: I am Love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thereat her hands began a lute-playing<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And her sweet mouth a song in a strange tongue;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all the while she sung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was no sound but long tears following<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long tears upon men's faces, waxen white<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With extreme sad delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But those three following men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Became as men raised up among the dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great glad mouths open and fair cheeks made red<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With child's blood come again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then I said: Now assuredly I see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My lady is perfect, and transfigureth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All sin and sorrow and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making them fair as her own eyelids be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or lips wherein my whole soul's life abides;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or as her sweet white sides<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bosom carved to kiss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now therefore, if her pity further me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doubtless for her sake all my days shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As righteous as she is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Forth, ballad, and take roses in both arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even till the top rose touch thee in the throat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the least thornprick harms;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And girdled in thy golden singing-coat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come thou before my lady and say this;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Borgia, thy gold hair's colour burns in me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy mouth makes beat my blood in feverish rhymes;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Therefore so many as these roses be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kiss me so many times.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then it may be, seeing how sweet she is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That she will stoop herself none otherwise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than a blown vine-branch doth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And kiss thee with soft laughter on thine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ballad, and on thy mouth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_BALLAD_OF_DEATH" id="A_BALLAD_OF_DEATH"></a>A BALLAD OF DEATH</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Kneel down, fair Love, and fill thyself with tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Girdle thyself with sighing for a girth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the sides of mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cover thy lips and eyelids, let thine ears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be filled with rumour of people sorrowing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make thee soft raiment out of woven sighs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the flesh to cleave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set pains therein and many a grievous thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many sorrows after each his wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For armlet and for gorget and for sleeve.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Love's lute heard about the lands of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left hanged upon the trees that were therein;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Love and Time and Sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three singing mouths that mourn now underbreath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three lovers, each one evil spoken of;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O smitten lips wherethrough this voice of mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came softer with her praise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abide a little for our lady's love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The kisses of her mouth were more than wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And more than peace the passage of her days.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Love, thou knowest if she were good to see.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Time, thou shalt not find in any land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till, cast out of thine hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sunlight and the moonlight fail from thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Another woman fashioned like as this.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Sin, thou knowest that all thy shame in her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was made a goodly thing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, she caught Shame and shamed him with her kiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With her fair kiss, and lips much lovelier<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than lips of amorous roses in late spring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By night there stood over against my bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Queen Venus with a hood striped gold and black,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both sides drawn fully back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From brows wherein the sad blood failed of red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And temples drained of purple and full of death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her curled hair had the wave of sea-water<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sea's gold in it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her eyes were as a dove's that sickeneth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strewn dust of gold she had shed over her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pearl and purple and amber on her feet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Upon her raiment of dyed sendaline<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were painted all the secret ways of love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And covered things thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hold delight as grape-flowers hold their wine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red mouths of maidens and red feet of doves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And brides that kept within the bride-chamber<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their garment of soft shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And weeping faces of the wearied loves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That swoon in sleep and awake wearier,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With heat of lips and hair shed out like flame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The tears that through her eyelids fell on me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made mine own bitter where they ran between<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As blood had fallen therein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She saying; Arise, lift up thine eyes and see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If any glad thing be or any good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now the best thing is taken forth of us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even she to whom all praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was as one flower in a great multitude,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One glorious flower of many and glorious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One day found gracious among many days:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Even she whose handmaiden was Love—to whom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At kissing times across her stateliest bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kings bowed themselves and shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale wine, and honey with the honeycomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spikenard bruised for a burnt-offering;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even she between whose lips the kiss became<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As fire and frankincense;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose hair was as gold raiment on a king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose eyes were as the morning purged with flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose eyelids as sweet savour issuing thence.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then I beheld, and lo on the other side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lady's likeness crowned and robed and dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet still, but now not red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was the shut mouth whereby men lived and died.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweet, but emptied of the blood's blue shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The great curled eyelids that withheld her eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweet, but like spoilt gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The weight of colour in her tresses weighed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweet, but as a vesture with new dyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The body that was clothed with love of old.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah! that my tears filled all her woven hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the hollow bosom of her gown—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! that my tears ran down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even to the place where many kisses were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even where her parted breast-flowers have place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even where they are cloven apart—who knows not this?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! the flowers cleave apart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their sweet fills the tender interspace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! the leaves grown thereof were things to kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere their fine gold was tarnished at the heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah! in the days when God did good to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each part about her was a righteous thing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her mouth an almsgiving,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The glory of her garments charity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The beauty of her bosom a good deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the good days when God kept sight of us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love lay upon her eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on that hair whereof the world takes heed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all her body was more virtuous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than souls of women fashioned otherwise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, ballad, gather poppies in thine hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sheaves of brier and many rusted sheaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rain-rotten in rank lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waste marigold and late unhappy leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grass that fades ere any of it be mown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when thy bosom is filled full thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seek out Death's face ere the light altereth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And say "My master that was thrall to Love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is become thrall to Death."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bow down before him, ballad, sigh and groan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But make no sojourn in thy outgoing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For haply it may be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That when thy feet return at evening<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death shall come in with thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>LAUS VENERIS</h1> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Lors dit en plourant; Hélas trop malheureux homme et mauldict pescheur, +oncques ne verrai-je clémence et miséricorde de Dieu. Ores m'en irai-je +d'icy et me cacherai dedans le mont Horsel, en requérant de faveur et +d'amoureuse merci ma doulce dame Vénus, car pour son amour serai-je bien +à tout jamais damné en enfer. Voicy la fin de tous mes faicts d'armes et +de toutes mes belles chansons. Hélas, trop belle estoyt la face de ma +dame et ses yeulx, et en mauvais jour je vis ces chouses-là. Lors s'en +alla tout en gémissant et se retourna chez elle, et là vescut tristement +en grand amour près de sa dame. Puis après advint que le pape vit un +jour esclater sur son baston force belles fleurs rouges et blanches et +maints boutons de feuilles, et ainsi vit-il reverdir toute l'escorce. Ce +dont il eut grande crainte et moult s'en esmut, et grande pitié lui prit +de ce chevalier qui s'en estoyt départi sans espoir comme un homme +misérable et damné. Doncques envoya force messaigers devers luy pour le +ramener, disant qu'il aurait de Dieu grace et bonne absolution de son +grand pesché d'amour. Mais oncques plus ne le virent; car toujours +demeura ce pauvre chevalier auprès de Vénus la haulte et forte déesse ès +flancs de la montagne amoureuse.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Livre des grandes merveilles d'amour, escript en latin<br /> +et en françoys par Maistre Antoine Gaget.</i> 1530. </p> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="LAUS_VENERIS" id="LAUS_VENERIS"></a>LAUS VENERIS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Asleep or waking is it? for her neck,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kissed over close, wears yet a purple speck<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wherein the pained blood falters and goes out;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft, and stung softly—fairer for a fleck.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But though my lips shut sucking on the place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no vein at work upon her face;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her eyelids are so peaceable, no doubt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep sleep has warmed her blood through all its ways.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, this is she that was the world's delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old grey years were parcels of her might;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The strewings of the ways wherein she trod<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were the twain seasons of the day and night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, she was thus when her clear limbs enticed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All lips that now grow sad with kissing Christ,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stained with blood fallen from the feet of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The feet and hands whereat our souls were priced.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas, Lord, surely thou art great and fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo her wonderfully woven hair!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And thou didst heal us with thy piteous kiss;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But see now, Lord; her mouth is lovelier.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She is right fair; what hath she done to thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, fair Lord Christ, lift up thine eyes and see;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Had now thy mother such a lip—like this?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest how sweet a thing it is to me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Inside the Horsel here the air is hot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right little peace one hath for it, God wot;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The scented dusty daylight burns the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my heart chokes me till I hear it not.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behold, my Venus, my soul's body, lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With my love laid upon her garment-wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Feeling my love in all her limbs and hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shed between her eyelids through her eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She holds my heart in her sweet open hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hanging asleep; hard by her head there stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Crowned with gilt thorns and clothed with flesh like fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love, wan as foam blown up the salt burnt sands—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hot as the brackish waifs of yellow spume<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shift and steam—loose clots of arid fume<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From the sea's panting mouth of dry desire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There stands he, like one labouring at a loom.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The warp holds fast across; and every thread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That makes the woof up has dry specks of red;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Always the shuttle cleaves clean through, and he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weaves with the hair of many a ruined head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love is not glad nor sorry, as I deem;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Labouring he dreams, and labours in the dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till when the spool is finished, lo I see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His web, reeled off, curls and goes out like steam.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Night falls like fire; the heavy lights run low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as they drop, my blood and body so<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shake as the flame shakes, full of days and hours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sleep not neither weep they as they go.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah yet would God this flesh of mine might be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where air might wash and long leaves cover me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where tides of grass break into foam of flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or where the wind's feet shine along the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah yet would God that stems and roots were bred<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of my weary body and my head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That sleep were sealed upon me with a seal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I were as the least of all his dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Would God my blood were dew to feed the grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine ears made deaf and mine eyes blind as glass,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My body broken as a turning wheel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my mouth stricken ere it saith Alas!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah God, that love were as a flower or flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That life were as the naming of a name,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That death were not more pitiful than desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That these things were not one thing and the same!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behold now, surely somewhere there is death:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For each man hath some space of years, he saith,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A little space of time ere time expire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little day, a little way of breath.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And lo, between the sundawn and the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His day's work and his night's work are undone;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And lo, between the nightfall and the light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is not, and none knoweth of such an one.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah God, that I were as all souls that be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As any herb or leaf of any tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As men that toil through hours of labouring night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As bones of men under the deep sharp sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Outside it must be winter among men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For at the gold bars of the gates again<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I heard all night and all the hours of it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wind's wet wings and fingers drip with rain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Knights gather, riding sharp for cold; I know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ways and woods are strangled with the snow;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And with short song the maidens spin and sit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until Christ's birthnight, lily-like, arow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The scent and shadow shed about me make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very soul in all my senses ache;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The hot hard night is fed upon my breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sleep beholds me from afar awake.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas, but surely where the hills grow deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or where the wild ways of the sea are steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or in strange places somewhere there is death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on death's face the scattered hair of sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There lover-like with lips and limbs that meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They lie, they pluck sweet fruit of life and eat;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But me the hot and hungry days devour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in my mouth no fruit of theirs is sweet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No fruit of theirs, but fruit of my desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For her love's sake whose lips through mine respire;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her eyelids on her eyes like flower on flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine eyelids on mine eyes like fire on fire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So lie we, not as sleep that lies by death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With heavy kisses and with happy breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not as man lies by woman, when the bride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laughs low for love's sake and the words he saith.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For she lies, laughing low with love; she lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turns his kisses on her lips to sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To sighing sound of lips unsatisfied,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sweet tears are tender with her eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, not as they, but as the souls that were<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slain in the old time, having found her fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who, sleeping with her lips upon their eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heard sudden serpents hiss across her hair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their blood runs round the roots of time like rain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She casts them forth and gathers them again;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With nerve and bone she weaves and multiplies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exceeding pleasure out of extreme pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her little chambers drip with flower-like red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her girdles, and the chaplets of her head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her armlets and her anklets; with her feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She tramples all that winepress of the dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her gateways smoke with fume of flowers and fires,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With loves burnt out and unassuaged desires;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Between her lips the steam of them is sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The languor in her ears of many lyres.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her beds are full of perfume and sad sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her doors are made with music, and barred round<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With sighing and with laughter and with tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tears whereby strong souls of men are bound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is the knight Adonis that was slain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With flesh and blood she chains him for a chain;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The body and the spirit in her ears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cry, for her lips divide him vein by vein.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, all she slayeth; yea, every man save me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me, love, thy lover that must cleave to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till the ending of the days and ways of earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shaking of the sources of the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Me, most forsaken of all souls that fell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me, satiated with things insatiable;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Me, for whose sake the extreme hell makes mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, laughter kindles at the heart of hell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas thy beauty! for thy mouth's sweet sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My soul is bitter to me, my limbs quake<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As water, as the flesh of men that weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As their heart's vein whose heart goes nigh to break.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah God, that sleep with flower-sweet finger-tips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would crush the fruit of death upon my lips;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, that death would tread the grapes of sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wring their juice upon me as it drips.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is no change of cheer for many days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But change of chimes high up in the air, that sways<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rung by the running fingers of the wind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And singing sorrows heard on hidden ways.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Day smiteth day in twain, night sundereth night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on mine eyes the dark sits as the light;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yea, Lord, thou knowest I know not, having sinned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If heaven be clean or unclean in thy sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, as if earth were sprinkled over me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such chafed harsh earth as chokes a sandy sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each pore doth yearn, and the dried blood thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gasps by sick fits, my heart swims heavily,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is a feverish famine in my veins;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Below her bosom, where a crushed grape stains<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The white and blue, there my lips caught and clove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An hour since, and what mark of me remains?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I dare not always touch her, lest the kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave my lips charred. Yea, Lord, a little bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Brief bitter bliss, one hath for a great sin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nathless thou knowest how sweet a thing it is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sin, is it sin whereby men's souls are thrust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the pit? yet had I a good trust<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To save my soul before it slipped therein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trod under by the fire-shod feet of lust.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For if mine eyes fail and my soul takes breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I look between the iron sides of death<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Into sad hell where all sweet love hath end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All but the pain that never finisheth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There are the naked faces of great kings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The singing folk with all their lute-playings;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There when one cometh he shall have to friend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grave that covets and the worm that clings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There sit the knights that were so great of hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ladies that were queens of fair green land,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grown grey and black now, brought unto the dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soiled, without raiment, clad about with sand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is one end for all of them; they sit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Naked and sad, they drink the dregs of it,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Trodden as grapes in the wine-press of lust.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trampled and trodden by the fiery feet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I see the marvellous mouth whereby there fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cities and people whom the gods loved well,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet for her sake on them the fire gat hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for their sakes on her the fire of hell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And softer than the Egyptian lote-leaf is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The queen whose face was worth the world to kiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wearing at breast a suckling snake of gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And large pale lips of strong Semiramis,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Curled like a tiger's that curl back to feed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red only where the last kiss made them bleed;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her hair most thick with many a carven gem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep in the mane, great-chested, like a steed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, with red sin the faces of them shine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in all these there was no sin like mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No, not in all the strange great sins of them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That made the wine-press froth and foam with wine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For I was of Christ's choosing, I God's knight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No blinkard heathen stumbling for scant light;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I can well see, for all the dusty days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gone past, the clean great time of goodly fight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I smell the breathing battle sharp with blows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With shriek of shafts and snapping short of bows;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The fair pure sword smites out in subtle ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sounds and long lights are shed between the rows<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of beautiful mailed men; the edged light slips,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most like a snake that takes short breath and dips<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sharp from the beautifully bending head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all its gracious body lithe as lips<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That curl in touching you; right in this wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My sword doth, seeming fire in mine own eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Leaving all colours in them brown and red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flecked with death; then the keen breaths like sighs,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The caught-up choked dry laughters following them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all the fighting face is grown a flame<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For pleasure, and the pulse that stuns the ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the heart's gladness of the goodly game.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let me think yet a little; I do know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These things were sweet, but sweet such years ago,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their savour is all turned now into tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, ten years since, where the blue ripples blow,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The blue curled eddies of the blowing Rhine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I felt the sharp wind shaking grass and vine<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Touch my blood too, and sting me with delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all this waste and weary body of mine<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That never feels clear air; right gladly then<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I rode alone, a great way off my men,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And heard the chiming bridle smite and smite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave each rhyme thereof some rhyme again,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Till my song shifted to that iron one;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing there rode up between me and the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Some certain of my foe's men, for his three<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White wolves across their painted coats did run.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The first red-bearded, with square cheeks—alack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I made my knave's blood turn his beard to black;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The slaying of him was a joy to see:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perchance too, when at night he came not back,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some woman fell a-weeping, whom this thief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would beat when he had drunken; yet small grief<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hath any for the ridding of such knaves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, if one wept, I doubt her teen was brief.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This bitter love is sorrow in all lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Draining of eyelids, wringing of drenched hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sighing of hearts and filling up of graves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sign across the head of the world he stands,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">An one that hath a plague-mark on his brows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dust and spilt blood do track him to his house<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Down under earth; sweet smells of lip and cheek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a sweet snake's breath made more poisonous<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With chewing of some perfumed deadly grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are shed all round his passage if he pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And their quenched savour leaves the whole soul weak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sick with keen guessing whence the perfume was.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As one who hidden in deep sedge and reeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smells the rare scent made where a panther feeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And tracking ever slotwise the warm smell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is snapped upon by the sweet mouth and bleeds,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His head far down the hot sweet throat of her—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So one tracks love, whose breath is deadlier,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And lo, one springe and you are fast in hell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fast as the gin's grip of a wayfarer.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I think now, as the heavy hours decease<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One after one, and bitter thoughts increase<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One upon one, of all sweet finished things;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breaking of the battle; the long peace<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wherein we sat clothed softly, each man's hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crowned with green leaves beneath white hoods of vair;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sounds of sharp spears at great tourneyings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And noise of singing in the late sweet air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I sang of love too, knowing nought thereof;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Sweeter," I said, "the little laugh of love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than tears out of the eyes of Magdalen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or any fallen feather of the Dove.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The broken little laugh that spoils a kiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ache of purple pulses, and the bliss<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of blinded eyelids that expand again—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love draws them open with those lips of his,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lips that cling hard till the kissed face has grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of one same fire and colour with their own;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then ere one sleep, appeased with sacrifice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where his lips wounded, there his lips atone."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I sang these things long since and knew them not;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Lo, here is love, or there is love, God wot,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This man and that finds favour in his eyes,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I said, "but I, what guerdon have I got?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The dust of praise that is blown everywhere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all men's faces with the common air;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The bay-leaf that wants chafing to be sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before they wind it in a singer's hair."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So that one dawn I rode forth sorrowing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had no hope but of some evil thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And so rode slowly past the windy wheat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And past the vineyard and the water-spring,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Up to the Horsel. A great elder-tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held back its heaps of flowers to let me see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ripe tall grass, and one that walked therein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Naked, with hair shed over to the knee.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She walked between the blossom and the grass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I knew the beauty of her, what she was,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The beauty of her body and her sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in my flesh the sin of hers, alas!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas! for sorrow is all the end of this.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sad kissed mouth, how sorrowful it is!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O breast whereat some suckling sorrow clings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red with the bitter blossom of a kiss!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, with blind lips I felt for you, and found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About my neck your hands and hair enwound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The hands that stifle and the hair that stings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I felt them fasten sharply without sound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, for my sin I had great store of bliss:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rise up, make answer for me, let thy kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Seal my lips hard from speaking of my sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest one go mad to hear how sweet it is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet I waxed faint with fume of barren bowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And murmuring of the heavy-headed hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And let the dove's beak fret and peck within<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lips in vain, and Love shed fruitless flowers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So that God looked upon me when your hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were hot about me; yea, God brake my bands<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To save my soul alive, and I came forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a man blind and naked in strange lands<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That hears men laugh and weep, and knows not whence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wherefore, but is broken in his sense;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Howbeit I met folk riding from the north<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Towards Rome, to purge them of their souls' offence,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And rode with them, and spake to none; the day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stunned me like lights upon some wizard way,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And ate like fire mine eyes and mine eyesight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So rode I, hearing all these chant and pray,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And marvelled; till before us rose and fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White cursed hills, like outer skirts of hell<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Seen where men's eyes look through the day to night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a jagged shell's lips, harsh, untunable,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blown in between by devils' wrangling breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nathless we won well past that hell and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Down to the sweet land where all airs are good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even unto Rome where God's grace tarrieth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then came each man and worshipped at his knees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who in the Lord God's likeness bears the keys<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To bind or loose, and called on Christ's shed blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so the sweet-souled father gave him ease.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when I came I fell down at his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saying, "Father, though the Lord's blood be right sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The spot it takes not off the panther's skin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shall an Ethiop's stain be bleached with it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lo, I have sinned and have spat out at God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore his hand is heavier and his rod<br /></span> +<span class="i1">More sharp because of mine exceeding sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all his raiment redder than bright blood<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Before mine eyes; yea, for my sake I wot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heat of hell is waxen seven times hot<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through my great sin." Then spake he some sweet word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Giving me cheer; which thing availed me not;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, scarce I wist if such indeed were said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For when I ceased—lo, as one newly dead<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who hears a great cry out of hell, I heard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crying of his voice across my head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Until this dry shred staff, that hath no whit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of leaf nor bark, bear blossom and smell sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Seek thou not any mercy in God's sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For so long shalt thou be cast out from it."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, what if dried-up stems wax red and green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall that thing be which is not nor has been?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yea, what if sapless bark wax green and white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall any good fruit grow upon my sin?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, though sweet fruit were plucked of a dry tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though men drew sweet waters of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There should not grow sweet leaves on this dead stem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This waste wan body and shaken soul of me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, though God search it warily enough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is not one sound thing in all thereof;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though he search all my veins through, searching them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He shall find nothing whole therein but love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For I came home right heavy, with small cheer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo my love, mine own soul's heart, more dear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than mine own soul, more beautiful than God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who hath my being between the hands of her—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fair still, but fair for no man saving me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when she came out of the naked sea<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Making the foam as fire whereon she trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as the inner flower of fire was she.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, she laid hold upon me, and her mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clove unto mine as soul to body doth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And, laughing, made her lips luxurious;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her hair had smells of all the sunburnt south,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strange spice and flower, strange savour of crushed fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And perfume the swart kings tread underfoot<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For pleasure when their minds wax amorous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Charred frankincense and grated sandal-root.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And I forgot fear and all weary things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All ended prayers and perished thanksgivings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Feeling her face with all her eager hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleave to me, clinging as a fire that clings<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To the body and to the raiment, burning them;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As after death I know that such-like flame<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall cleave to me for ever; yea, what care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Albeit I burn then, having felt the same?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah love, there is no better life than this;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have known love, how bitter a thing it is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And afterward be cast out of God's sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, these that know not, shall they have such bliss<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">High up in barren heaven before his face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As we twain in the heavy-hearted place,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Remembering love and all the dead delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all that time was sweet with for a space?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For till the thunder in the trumpet be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soul may divide from body, but not we<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One from another; I hold thee with my hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I let mine eyes have all their will of thee,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I seal myself upon thee with my might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abiding alway out of all men's sight<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Until God loosen over sea and land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thunder of the trumpets of the night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8"><small>EXPLICIT LAUS VENERIS.</small></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PHAEDRA" id="PHAEDRA"></a>PHÆDRA</h2> + +<h4>HIPPOLYTUS; PHÆDRA; CHORUS OF TRŒZENIAN WOMEN</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="cen">HIPPOLYTUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lay not thine hand upon me; let me go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take off thine eyes that put the gods to shame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What, wilt thou turn my loathing to thy death?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, I will never loosen hold nor breathe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till thou have slain me; godlike for great brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art, and thewed as gods are, with clear hair:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Draw now thy sword and smite me as thou art god,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For verily I am smitten of other gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why not of thee?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CHORUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">O queen, take heed of words;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why wilt thou eat the husk of evil speech?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wear wisdom for that veil about thy head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And goodness for the binding of thy brows.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, but this god hath cause enow to smite;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If he will slay me, baring breast and throat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I lean toward the stroke with silent mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a great heart. Come, take thy sword and slay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let me not starve between desire and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But send me on my way with glad wet lips;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For in the vein-drawn ashen-coloured palm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death's hollow hand holds water of sweet draught<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To dip and slake dried mouths at, as a deer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Specked red from thorns laps deep and loses pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, if mine own blood ran upon my mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would drink that. Nay, but be swift with me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set thy sword here between the girdle and breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I shall grow a poison if I live.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are not my cheeks as grass, my body pale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my breath like a dying poisoned man's?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O whatsoever of godlike names thou be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By thy chief name I charge thee, thou strong god,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bid thee slay me. Strike, up to the gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up to the hand-grip of the hilt; strike here;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I am Cretan of my birth; strike now;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I am Theseus' wife; stab up to the rims,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am born daughter to Pasiphae.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See thou spare not for greatness of my blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor for the shining letters of my name:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make thy sword sure inside thine hand and smite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the bright writing of my name is black,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I am sick with hating the sweet sun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">HIPPOLYTUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let not this woman wail and cleave to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That am no part of the gods' wrath with her;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loose ye her hands from me lest she take hurt.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CHORUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lady, this speech and majesty are twain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pure shame is of one counsel with the gods.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">HIPPOLYTUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man is as beast when shame stands off from him.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man, what have I to do with shame or thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am not of one counsel with the gods.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am their kin, I have strange blood in me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am not of their likeness nor of thine:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My veins are mixed, and therefore am I mad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea therefore chafe and turn on mine own flesh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half of a woman made with half a god.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou wast hewn out of an iron womb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fed with molten mother-snow for milk.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sword was nurse of thine; Hippolyta,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That had the spear to father, and the axe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bridesman, and wet blood of sword-slain men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For wedding-water out of a noble well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even she did bear thee, thinking of a sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou wast made a man mistakingly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, for I love thee, I will have thy hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, for I will not loose thee, thou art sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art my son, I am thy father's wife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I ache toward thee with a bridal blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pulse is heavy in all my married veins,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My whole face beats, I will feed full of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My body is empty of ease, I will be fed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am burnt to the bone with love, thou shalt not go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am heartsick, and mine eyelids prick mine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt not sleep nor eat nor say a word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till thou hast slain me. I am not good to live.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CHORUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This is an evil born with all its teeth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When love is cast out of the bound of love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">HIPPOLYTUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is no hate that is so hateworthy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I pray thee turn that hate of thine my way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hate not it nor anything of thine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, maidens, how he burns about the brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And draws the chafing sword-strap down his hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What wilt thou do? wilt thou be worse than death?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be but as sweet as is the bitterest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The most dispiteous out of all the gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am well pleased. Lo, do I crave so much?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I do but bid thee be unmerciful,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even the one thing thou art. Pity me not:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou wert not quick to pity. Think of me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As of a thing thy hounds are keen upon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the wet woods between the windy ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And slay me for a spoil. This body of mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is worth a wild beast's fell or hide of hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spotted deeper than a panther's grain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I were but dead if thou wert pure indeed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee by thy cold green holy crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the fillet-leaves of Artemis.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, but thou wilt not. Death is not like thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Albeit men hold him worst of all the gods.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For of all gods Death only loves not gifts,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor with burnt-offering nor blood-sacrifice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shalt thou do aught to get thee grace of him;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He will have nought of altar and altar-song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from him only of all the lords in heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Persuasion turns a sweet averted mouth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou art worse: from thee with baffled breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back on my lips my prayer falls like a blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And beats upon them, dumb. What shall I say?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no word I can compel thee with<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To do me good and slay me. But take heed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I say, be wary; look between thy feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest a snare take them though the ground be good.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">HIPPOLYTUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shame may do most where fear is found most weak;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That which for shame's sake yet I have not done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall it be done for fear's? Take thine own way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Better the foot slip than the whole soul swerve.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The man is choice and exquisite of mouth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet in the end a curse shall curdle it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CHORUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He goes with cloak upgathered to the lip,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Holding his eye as with some ill in sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A bitter ill he hath i' the way thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And it shall burn the sight out as with fire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CHORUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Speak no such word whereto mischance is kin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of my heart and by fate's leave I speak.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CHORUS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Set not thy heart to follow after fate.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PHÆDRA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O women, O sweet people of this land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O goodly city and pleasant ways thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And woods with pasturing grass and great well-heads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hills with light and night between your leaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And winds with sound and silence in your lips,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And earth and water and all immortal things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I take you to my witness what I am.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is a god about me like as fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sprung whence, who knoweth, or who hath heart to say?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A god more strong than whom slain beasts can soothe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or honey, or any spilth of blood-like wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shall one please him with a whitened brow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wheat nor wool nor aught of plaited leaf.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For like my mother am I stung and slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And round my cheeks have such red malady<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on my lips such fire and foam as hers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is that Ate out of Amathus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That breeds up death and gives it one for love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hath slain mercy, and for dead mercy's sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Being frighted with this sister that was slain)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flees from before her fearful-footed shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And will not bear the bending of her brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long soft arrows flown from under them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As from bows bent. Desire flows out of her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As out of lips doth speech: and over her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shines fire, and round her and beneath her fire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hath sown pain and plague in all our house,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love loathed of love, and mates unmatchable,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wild wedlock, and the lusts that bleat or low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And marriage-fodder snuffed about of kine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo how the heifer runs with leaping flank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleek under shaggy and speckled lies of hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chews a horrible lip, and with harsh tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laps alien froth and licks a loathlier mouth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas, a foul first steam of trodden tares,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fouler of these late grapes underfoot.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bitter way of waves and clean-cut foam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the sad road of sonorous sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The high gods gave king Theseus for no love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, but for love, yet to no loving end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas the long thwarts and the fervent oars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blown hard sails that straightened the scant rope!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There were no strong pools in the hollow sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To drag at them and suck down side and beak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No wind to catch them in the teeth and hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No shoal, no shallow among the roaring reefs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No gulf whereout the straining tides throw spars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No surf where white bones twist like whirled white fire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But like to death he came with death, and sought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And slew and spoiled and gat him that he would.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For death, for marriage, and for child-getting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I set my curse against him as a sword;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and the severed half thereof I leave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pittheus, because he slew not (when that face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was tender, and the life still soft in it)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The small swathed child, but bred him for my fate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would I had been the first that took her death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out from between wet hoofs and reddened teeth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Splashed horns, fierce fetlocks of the brother bull?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now shall I take death a deadlier way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gathering it up between the feet of love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or off the knees of murder reaching it.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_TRIUMPH_OF_TIME" id="THE_TRIUMPH_OF_TIME"></a>THE TRIUMPH OF TIME</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Before our lives divide for ever,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While time is with us and hands are free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Time, swift to fasten and swift to sever<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hand from hand, as we stand by the sea)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will say no word that a man might say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose whole life's love goes down in a day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this could never have been; and never,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though the gods and the years relent, shall be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is it worth a tear, is it worth an hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To think of things that are well outworn?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of fruitless husk and fugitive flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The dream foregone and the deed forborne?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though joy be done with and grief be vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time shall not sever us wholly in twain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth is not spoilt for a single shower;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But the rain has ruined the ungrown corn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It will grow not again, this fruit of my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Smitten with sunbeams, ruined with rain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The singing seasons divide and depart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Winter and summer depart in twain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It will grow not again, it is ruined at root,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bloodlike blossom, the dull red fruit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though the heart yet sickens, the lips yet smart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With sullen savour of poisonous pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have given no man of my fruit to eat;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I trod the grapes, I have drunken the wine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had you eaten and drunken and found it sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This wild new growth of the corn and vine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This wine and bread without lees or leaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We had grown as gods, as the gods in heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Souls fair to look upon, goodly to greet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One splendid spirit, your soul and mine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the change of years, in the coil of things,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the clamour and rumour of life to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We, drinking love at the furthest springs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Covered with love as a covering tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We had grown as gods, as the gods above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filled from the heart to the lips with love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held fast in his hands, clothed warm with his wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O love, my love, had you loved but me!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We had stood as the sure stars stand, and moved<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As the moon moves, loving the world; and seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grief collapse as a thing disproved,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Death consume as a thing unclean.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twain halves of a perfect heart, made fast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soul to soul while the years fell past;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had you loved me once, as you have not loved;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Had the chance been with us that has not been.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have put my days and dreams out of mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Days that are over, dreams that are done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though we seek life through, we shall surely find<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is none of them clear to us now, not one.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But clear are these things; the grass and the sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, sure as the eyes reach, ever at hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lips wide open and face burnt blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The strong sea-daisies feast on the sun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The low downs lean to the sea; the stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One loose thin pulseless tremulous vein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rapid and vivid and dumb as a dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Works downward, sick of the sun and the rain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No wind is rough with the rank rare flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweet sea, mother of loves and hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shudders and shines as the grey winds gleam,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Turning her smile to a fugitive pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mother of loves that are swift to fade,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mother of mutable winds and hours.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A barren mother, a mother-maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cold and clean as her faint salt flowers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would we twain were even as she,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lost in the night and the light of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where faint sounds falter and wan beams wade,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Break, and are broken, and shed into showers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The loves and hours of the life of a man,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They are swift and sad, being born of the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hours that rejoice and regret for a span,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Born with a man's breath, mortal as he;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loves that are lost ere they come to birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weeds of the wave, without fruit upon earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I lose what I long for, save what I can,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My love, my love, and no love for me!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is not much that a man can save<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On the sands of life, in the straits of time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who swims in sight of the great third wave<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That never a swimmer shall cross or climb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some waif washed up with the strays and spars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ebb-tide shows to the shore and the stars;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weed from the water, grass from a grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A broken blossom, a ruined rhyme.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There will no man do for your sake, I think,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What I would have done for the least word said.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had wrung life dry for your lips to drink,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Broken it up for your daily bread:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Body for body and blood for blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the flow of the full sea risen to flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That yearns and trembles before it sink,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I had given, and lain down for you, glad and dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, hope at highest and all her fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And time at fullest and all his dower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had given you surely, and life to boot,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Were we once made one for a single hour.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now, you are twain, you are cloven apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flesh of his flesh, but heart of my heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And deep in one is the bitter root,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sweet for one is the lifelong flower.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To have died if you cared I should die for you, clung<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To my life if you bade me, played my part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As it pleased you—these were the thoughts that stung,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The dreams that smote with a keener dart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than shafts of love or arrows of death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These were but as fire is, dust, or breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or poisonous foam on the tender tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of the little snakes that eat my heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I wish we were dead together to-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lost sight of, hidden away out of sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clasped and clothed in the cloven clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Out of the world's way, out of the light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of the ages of worldly weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forgotten of all men altogether,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the world's first dead, taken wholly away,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Made one with death, filled full of the night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How we should slumber, how we should sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Far in the dark with the dreams and the dews!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dreaming, grow to each other, and weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Laugh low, live softly, murmur and muse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and it may be, struck through by the dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feel the dust quicken and quiver, and seem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alive as of old to the lips, and leap<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Spirit to spirit as lovers use.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sick dreams and sad of a dull delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For what shall it profit when men are dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have dreamed, to have loved with the whole soul's might,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To have looked for day when the day was fled?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let come what will, there is one thing worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have had fair love in the life upon earth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have held love safe till the day grew night,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While skies had colour and lips were red.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Would I lose you now? would I take you then,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If I lose you now that my heart has need?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And come what may after death to men,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What thing worth this will the dead years breed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lose life, lose all; but at least I know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sweet life's love, having loved you so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had I reached you on earth, I should lose not again,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In death nor life, nor in dream or deed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, I know this well: were you once sealed mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mine in the blood's beat, mine in the breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mixed into me as honey in wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not time, that sayeth and gainsayeth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor all strong things had severed us then;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not wrath of gods, nor wisdom of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor all things earthly, nor all divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor joy nor sorrow, nor life nor death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I had grown pure as the dawn and the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You had grown strong as the sun or the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But none shall triumph a whole life through:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For death is one, and the fates are three.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the door of life, by the gate of breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There are worse things waiting for men than death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death could not sever my soul and you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As these have severed your soul from me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You have chosen and clung to the chance they sent you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Life sweet as perfume and pure as prayer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But will it not one day in heaven repent you?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Will they solace you wholly, the days that were?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will you lift up your eyes between sadness and bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meet mine, and see where the great love is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tremble and turn and be changed? Content you;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The gate is strait; I shall not be there.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But you, had you chosen, had you stretched hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Had you seen good such a thing were done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I too might have stood with the souls that stand<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the sun's sight, clothed with the light of the sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But who now on earth need care how I live?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have the high gods anything left to give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save dust and laurels and gold and sand?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which gifts are goodly; but I will none.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O all fair lovers about the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is none of you, none, that shall comfort me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My thoughts are as dead things, wrecked and whirled<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Round and round in a gulf of the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still, through the sound and the straining stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the coil and chafe, they gleam in a dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bright fine lips so cruelly curled,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And strange swift eyes where the soul sits free.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Free, without pity, withheld from woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ignorant; fair as the eyes are fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would I have you change now, change at a blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Startled and stricken, awake and aware?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, if I could, would I have you see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My very love of you filling me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And know my soul to the quick, as I know<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The likeness and look of your throat and hair?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I shall not change you. Nay, though I might,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Would I change my sweet one love with a word?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had rather your hair should change in a night,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Clear now as the plume of a black bright bird;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your face fail suddenly, cease, turn grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Die as a leaf that dies in a day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will keep my soul in a place out of sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far off it walks, in a bleak blown space,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Full of the sound of the sorrow of years.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have woven a veil for the weeping face,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose lips have drunken the wine of tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have found a way for the failing feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A place for slumber and sorrow to meet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no rumour about the place,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor light, nor any that sees or hears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have hidden my soul out of sight, and said<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Let none take pity upon thee, none<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comfort thy crying: for lo, thou art dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lie still now, safe out of sight of the sun.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have I not built thee a grave, and wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy grave-clothes on thee of grievous thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With soft spun verses and tears unshed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sweet light visions of things undone?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I have given thee garments and balm and myrrh,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And gold, and beautiful burial things.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, be at peace now, make no stir;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is not thy grave as a royal king's?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fret not thyself though the end were sore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleep, be patient, vex me no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleep; what hast thou to do with her?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The eyes that weep, with the mouth that sings?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where the dead red leaves of the years lie rotten,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The cold old crimes and the deeds thrown by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The misconceived and the misbegotten,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I would find a sin to do ere I die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sure to dissolve and destroy me all through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That would set you higher in heaven, serve you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave you happy, when clean forgotten,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As a dead man out of mind, am I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your lithe hands draw me, your face burns through me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I am swift to follow you, keen to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But love lacks might to redeem or undo me;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As I have been, I know I shall surely be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"What should such fellows as I do?" Nay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My part were worse if I chose to play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the worst is this after all; if they knew me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not a soul upon earth would pity me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And I play not for pity of these; but you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If you saw with your soul what man am I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You would praise me at least that my soul all through<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Clove to you, loathing the lives that lie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The souls and lips that are bought and sold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smiles of silver and kisses of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lapdog loves that whine as they chew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The little lovers that curse and cry.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There are fairer women, I hear; that may be;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But I, that I love you and find you fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who are more than fair in my eyes if they be,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Do the high gods know or the great gods care?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though the swords in my heart for one were seven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would the iron hollow of doubtful heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That knows not itself whether night-time or day be,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Reverberate words and a foolish prayer?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I will go back to the great sweet mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mother and lover of men, the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will go down to her, I and none other,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Close with her, kiss her and mix her with me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cling to her, strive with her, hold her fast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O fair white mother, in days long past<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Born without sister, born without brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Set free my soul as thy soul is free.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O fair green-girdled mother of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sea, that art clothed with the sun and the rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy sweet hard kisses are strong like wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy large embraces are keen like pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save me and hide me with all thy waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Find me one grave of thy thousand graves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those pure cold populous graves of thine<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wrought without hand in a world without stain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I shall sleep, and move with the moving ships,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Change as the winds change, veer in the tide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lips will feast on the foam of thy lips,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I shall rise with thy rising, with thee subside;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleep, and not know if she be, if she were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filled full with life to the eyes and hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a rose is fulfilled to the roseleaf tips<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With splendid summer and perfume and pride.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This woven raiment of nights and days,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Were it once cast off and unwound from me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Naked and glad would I walk in thy ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Alive and aware of thy ways and thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clear of the whole world, hidden at home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clothed with the green and crowned with the foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pulse of the life of thy straits and bays,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A vein in the heart of the streams of the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fair mother, fed with the lives of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou art subtle and cruel of heart, men say.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast taken, and shalt not render again;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou art full of thy dead, and cold as they.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But death is the worst that comes of thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art fed with our dead, O mother, O sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when hast thou fed on our hearts? or when,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Having given us love, hast thou taken away?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O tender-hearted, O perfect lover,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy lips are bitter, and sweet thine heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hopes that hurt and the dreams that hover,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall they not vanish away and apart?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, thou art sure, thou art older than earth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art strong for death and fruitful of birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy depths conceal and thy gulfs discover;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From the first thou wert; in the end thou art.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And grief shall endure not for ever, I know.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As things that are not shall these things be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall live through seasons of sun and of snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And none be grievous as this to me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall hear, as one in a trance that hears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of time, the rhyme of the years;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrecked hope and passionate pain will grow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As tender things of a spring-tide sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sea-fruit that swings in the waves that hiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Drowned gold and purple and royal rings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all time past, was it all for this?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Times unforgotten, and treasures of things?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swift years of liking and sweet long laughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wist not well of the years thereafter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till love woke, smitten at heart by a kiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With lips that trembled and trailing wings?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There lived a singer in France of old<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the tideless dolorous midland sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a land of sand and ruin and gold<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There shone one woman, and none but she.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And finding life for her love's sake fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Being fain to see her, he bade set sail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touched land, and saw her as life grew cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And praised God, seeing; and so died he.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Died, praising God for his gift and grace:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For she bowed down to him weeping, and said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Live;" and her tears were shed on his face<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or ever the life in his face was shed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sharp tears fell through her hair, and stung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once, and her close lips touched him and clung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once, and grew one with his lips for a space;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And so drew back, and the man was dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O brother, the gods were good to you.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sleep, and be glad while the world endures.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be well content as the years wear through;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Give thanks for life, and the loves and lures;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give thanks for life, O brother, and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the sweet last sound of her feet, her breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For gifts she gave you, gracious and few,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tears and kisses, that lady of yours.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Rest, and be glad of the gods; but I,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How shall I praise them, or how take rest?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is not room under all the sky<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For me that know not of worst or best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dream or desire of the days before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet things or bitterness, any more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love will not come to me now though I die,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As love came close to you, breast to breast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I shall never be friends again with roses;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I shall loathe sweet tunes, where a note grown strong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Relents and recoils, and climbs and closes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As a wave of the sea turned back by song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There are sounds where the soul's delight takes fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Face to face with its own desire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A delight that rebels, a desire that reposes;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I shall hate sweet music my whole life long.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The pulse of war and passion of wonder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The heavens that murmur, the sounds that shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stars that sing and the loves that thunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The music burning at heart like wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An armed archangel whose hands raise up<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All senses mixed in the spirit's cup<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till flesh and spirit are molten in sunder—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These things are over, and no more mine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These were a part of the playing I heard<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Once, ere my love and my heart were at strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love that sings and hath wings as a bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Balm of the wound and heft of the knife.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fairer than earth is the sea, and sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than overwatching of eyes that weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now time has done with his one sweet word,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The wine and leaven of lovely life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I shall go my ways, tread out my measure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fill the days of my daily breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fugitive things not good to treasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Do as the world doth, say as it saith;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if we had loved each other—O sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had you felt, lying under the palms of your feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart of my heart, beating harder with pleasure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To feel you tread it to dust and death—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, had I not taken my life up and given<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All that life gives and the years let go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wine and honey, the balm and leaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The dreams reared high and the hopes brought low?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come life, come death, not a word be said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should I lose you living, and vex you dead?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I never shall tell you on earth; and in heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If I cry to you then, will you hear or know?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LES_NOYADES" id="LES_NOYADES"></a>LES NOYADES</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whatever a man of the sons of men<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall say to his heart of the lords above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They have shown man verily, once and again,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Marvellous mercies and infinite love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the wild fifth year of the change of things,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When France was glorious and blood-red, fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With dust of battle and deaths of kings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A queen of men, with helmeted hair,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Carrier came down to the Loire and slew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till all the ways and the waves waxed red:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound and drowned, slaying two by two,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Maidens and young men, naked and wed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They brought on a day to his judgment-place<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One rough with labour and red with fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a lady noble by name and face,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Faultless, a maiden, wonderful, white.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She knew not, being for shame's sake blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If his eyes were hot on her face hard by.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the judge bade strip and ship them, and bind<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bosom to bosom, to drown and die.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The white girl winced and whitened; but he<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Caught fire, waxed bright as a great bright flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seen with thunder far out on the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Laughed hard as the glad blood went and came.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Twice his lips quailed with delight, then said,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"I have but a word to you all, one word;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear with me; surely I am but dead;"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all they laughed and mocked him and heard.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Judge, when they open the judgment-roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I will stand upright before God and pray:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Lord God, have mercy on one man's soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For his mercy was great upon earth, I say.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Lord, if I loved thee—Lord, if I served—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If these who darkened thy fair Son's face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I fought with, sparing not one, nor swerved<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A hand's-breadth, Lord, in the perilous place—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'I pray thee say to this man, O Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>Sit thou for him at my feet on a throne</i>.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will face thy wrath, though it bite as a sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And my soul shall burn for his soul, and atone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'For, Lord, thou knowest, O God most wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How gracious on earth were his deeds towards me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall this be a small thing in thine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That is greater in mine than the whole great sea?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I have loved this woman my whole life long,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And even for love's sake when have I said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'I love you'? when have I done you wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Living? but now I shall have you dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Yea, now, do I bid you love me, love?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love me or loathe, we are one not twain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But God be praised in his heaven above<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For this my pleasure and that my pain!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For never a man, being mean like me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall die like me till the whole world dies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall drown with her, laughing for love; and she<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mix with me, touching me, lips and eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Shall she not know me and see me all through,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Me, on whose heart as a worm she trod?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You have given me, God requite it you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What man yet never was given of God."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sweet one love, O my life's delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dear, though the days have divided us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lost beyond hope, taken far out of sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not twice in the world shall the gods do thus.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Had it been so hard for my love? but I,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though the gods gave all that a god can give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had chosen rather the gift to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cease, and be glad above all that live.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the Loire would have driven us down to the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the sea would have pitched us from shoal to shoal;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I should have held you, and you held me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As flesh holds flesh, and the soul the soul.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Could I change you, help you to love me, sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Could I give you the love that would sweeten death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We should yield, go down, locked hands and feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Die, drown together, and breath catch breath;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But you would have felt my soul in a kiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And known that once if I loved you well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I would have given my soul for this<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To burn for ever in burning hell.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_LEAVE_TAKING" id="A_LEAVE_TAKING"></a>A LEAVE-TAKING</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let us go hence, my songs; she will not hear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us go hence together without fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep silence now, for singing-time is over,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over all old things and all things dear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She loves not you nor me as all we love her.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, though we sang as angels in her ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">She would not hear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let us rise up and part; she will not know.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us go seaward as the great winds go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of blown sand and foam; what help is here?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no help, for all these things are so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the world is bitter as a tear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how these things are, though ye strove to show,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">She would not know.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let us go home and hence; she will not weep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We gave love many dreams and days to keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flowers without scent, and fruits that would not grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saying 'If thou wilt, thrust in thy sickle and reap.'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All is reaped now; no grass is left to mow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we that sowed, though all we fell on sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">She would not weep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let us go hence and rest; she will not love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She shall not hear us if we sing hereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor see love's ways, how sore they are and steep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come hence, let be, lie still; it is enough.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love is a barren sea, bitter and deep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though she saw all heaven in flower above,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">She would not love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let us give up, go down; she will not care.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though all the stars made gold of all the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sea moving saw before it move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One moon-flower making all the foam-flowers fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though all those waves went over us, and drove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep down the stifling lips and drowning hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">She would not care.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let us go hence, go hence; she will not see.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sing all once more together; surely she,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She too, remembering days and words that were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will turn a little toward us, sighing; but we,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are hence, we are gone, as though we had not been there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on me,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">She would not see.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ITYLUS" id="ITYLUS"></a>ITYLUS</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How can thine heart be full of the spring?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A thousand summers are over and dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What hast thou found in the spring to follow?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What hast thou found in thine heart to sing?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What wilt thou do when the summer is shed?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O swallow, sister, O fair swift swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Why wilt thou fly after spring to the south,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The soft south whither thine heart is set?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall not the grief of the old time follow?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall not the song thereof cleave to thy mouth?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hast thou forgotten ere I forget?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sister, my sister, O fleet sweet swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy way is long to the sun and the south;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But I, fulfilled of my heart's desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shedding my song upon height, upon hollow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From tawny body and sweet small mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Feed the heart of the night with fire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I the nightingale all spring through,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O swallow, sister, O changing swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All spring through till the spring be done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clothed with the light of the night on the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sing, while the hours and the wild birds follow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Take flight and follow and find the sun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sister, my sister, O soft light swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though all things feast in the spring's guest-chamber,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How hast thou heart to be glad thereof yet?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For where thou fliest I shall not follow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till life forget and death remember,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till thou remember and I forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Swallow, my sister, O singing swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I know not how thou hast heart to sing.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hast thou the heart? is it all past over?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy lord the summer is good to follow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And fair the feet of thy lover the spring:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But what wilt thou say to the spring thy lover?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O swallow, sister, O fleeting swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My heart in me is a molten ember<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And over my head the waves have met.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou wouldst tarry or I would follow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Could I forget or thou remember,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Couldst thou remember and I forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sweet stray sister, O shifting swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The heart's division divideth us.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy heart is light as a leaf of a tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But mine goes forth among sea-gulfs hollow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To the place of the slaying of Itylus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The feast of Daulis, the Thracian sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O swallow, sister, O rapid swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I pray thee sing not a little space.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are not the roofs and the lintels wet?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woven web that was plain to follow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The small slain body, the flowerlike face,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can I remember if thou forget?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sister, sister, thy first-begotten!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The hands that cling and the feet that follow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The voice of the child's blood crying yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Who hath remembered me? who hath forgotten?</i><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou hast forgotten, O summer swallow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But the world shall end when I forget.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ANACTORIA" id="ANACTORIA"></a>ANACTORIA</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">τίνος αὖ τὺ πειθοῖ<br /></span> +<span class="i8">μὰψ σαγηνεύσας φιλότατα ;<br /></span> +<span class="i18"><span class="smcap">Sappho.</span></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My life is bitter with thy love; thine eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blind me, thy tresses burn me, thy sharp sighs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Divide my flesh and spirit with soft sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my blood strengthens, and my veins abound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee sigh not, speak not, draw not breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let life burn down, and dream it is not death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would the sea had hidden us, the fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Wilt thou fear that, and fear not my desire?)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Severed the bones that bleach, the flesh that cleaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let our sifted ashes drop like leaves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I feel thy blood against my blood: my pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pains thee, and lips bruise lips, and vein stings vein.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let fruit be crushed on fruit, let flower on flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breast kindle breast, and either burn one hour.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why wilt thou follow lesser loves? are thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too weak to bear these hands and lips of mine?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I charge thee for my life's sake, O too sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To crush love with thy cruel faultless feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I charge thee keep thy lips from hers or his,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweetest, till theirs be sweeter than my kiss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest I too lure, a swallow for a dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Erotion or Erinna to my love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would my love could kill thee; I am satiated<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With seeing thee live, and fain would have thee dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would earth had thy body as fruit to eat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no mouth but some serpent's found thee sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would find grievous ways to have thee slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Intense device, and superflux of pain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vex thee with amorous agonies, and shake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life at thy lips, and leave it there to ache;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strain out thy soul with pangs too soft to kill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Intolerable interludes, and infinite ill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Relapse and reluctation of the breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dumb tunes and shuddering semitones of death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am weary of all thy words and soft strange ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all love's fiery nights and all his days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the broken kisses salt as brine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shuddering lips make moist with waterish wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And eyes the bluer for all those hidden hours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That pleasure fills with tears and feeds from flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce at the heart with fire that half comes through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all the flowerlike white stained round with blue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fervent underlid, and that above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lifted with laughter or abashed with love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine amorous girdle, full of thee and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leavings of the lilies in thine hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, all sweet words of thine and all thy ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the fruit of nights and flower of days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stinging lips wherein the hot sweet brine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Love was born of burns and foams like wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And eyes insatiable of amorous hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fervent as fire and delicate as flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Coloured like night at heart, but cloven through<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like night with flame, dyed round like night with blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clothed with deep eyelids under and above—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, all thy beauty sickens me with love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy girdle empty of thee and now not fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ruinous lilies in thy languid hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, take no thought for Love's sake; shall this be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she who loves thy lover not love thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet soul, sweet mouth of all that laughs and lives,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine is she, very mine; and she forgives.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I beheld in sleep the light that is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In her high place in Paphos, heard the kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of body and soul that mix with eager tears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laughter stinging through the eyes and ears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw Love, as burning flame from crown to feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imperishable, upon her storied seat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clear eyelids lifted toward the north and south,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mind of many colours, and a mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of many tunes and kisses; and she bowed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all her subtle face laughing aloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bowed down upon me, saying, "Who doth thee wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sappho?" but thou—thy body is the song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy mouth the music; thou art more than I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though my voice die not till the whole world die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though men that hear it madden; though love weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though nature change, though shame be charmed to sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, wilt thou slay me lest I kiss thee dead?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet the queen laughed from her sweet heart and said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Even she that flies shall follow for thy sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she shall give thee gifts that would not take,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall kiss that would not kiss thee" (yea, kiss me)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"When thou wouldst not"—when I would not kiss thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, more to me than all men as thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall not my songs assuage her at the heart?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, sweet to me as life seems sweet to death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should her wrath fill thee with fearful breath?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, sweet, for is she God alone? hath she<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made earth and all the centuries of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Taught the sun ways to travel, woven most fine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moonbeams, shed the starbeams forth as wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound with her myrtles, beaten with her rods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The young men and the maidens and the gods?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have we not lips to love with, eyes for tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And summer and flower of women and of years?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stars for the foot of morning, and for noon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sunlight, and exaltation of the moon;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waters that answer waters, fields that wear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lilies, and languor of the Lesbian air?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond those flying feet of fluttered doves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are there not other gods for other loves?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, though she scourge thee, sweetest, for my sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blossom not thorns and flowers not blood should break.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah that my lips were tuneless lips, but pressed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the bruised blossom of thy scourged white breast!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah that my mouth for Muses' milk were fed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the sweet blood thy sweet small wounds had bled!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with my tongue I felt them, and could taste<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The faint flakes from thy bosom to the waist!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I could drink thy veins as wine, and eat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy breasts like honey! that from face to feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy body were abolished and consumed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in my flesh thy very flesh entombed!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, ah, thy beauty! like a beast it bites,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stings like an adder, like an arrow smites.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah sweet, and sweet again, and seven times sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The paces and the pauses of thy feet!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah sweeter than all sleep or summer air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fallen fillets fragrant from thine hair!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, though their alien kisses do me wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweeter thy lips than mine with all their song;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy shoulders whiter than a fleece of white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flower-sweet fingers, good to bruise or bite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As honeycomb of the inmost honey-cells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With almond-shaped and roseleaf-coloured shells<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blood like purple blossom at the tips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quivering; and pain made perfect in thy lips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For my sake when I hurt thee; O that I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Durst crush thee out of life with love, and die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Die of thy pain and my delight, and be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mixed with thy blood and molten into thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would I not plague thee dying overmuch?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would I not hurt thee perfectly? not touch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy pores of sense with torture, and make bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine eyes with bloodlike tears and grievous light?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strike pang from pang as note is struck from note,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Catch the sob's middle music in thy throat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take thy limbs living, and new-mould with these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A lyre of many faultless agonies?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feed thee with fever and famine and fine drouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With perfect pangs convulse thy perfect mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make thy life shudder in thee and burn afresh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wring thy very spirit through the flesh?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cruel? but love makes all that love him well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As wise as heaven and crueller than hell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me hath love made more bitter toward thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than death toward man; but were I made as he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who hath made all things to break them one by one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If my feet trod upon the stars and sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And souls of men as his have alway trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God knows I might be crueller than God.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For who shall change with prayers or thanksgivings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mystery of the cruelty of things?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or say what God above all gods and years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With offering and blood-sacrifice of tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lamentation from strange lands, from graves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the snake pastures, from scarred mouths of slaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From prison, and from plunging prows of ships<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through flamelike foam of the sea's closing lips—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thwartings of strange signs, and wind-blown hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of comets, desolating the dim air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When darkness is made fast with seals and bars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fierce reluctance of disastrous stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eclipse, and sound of shaken hills, and wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Darkening, and blind inexpiable things—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sorrow of labouring moons, and altering light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And travail of the planets of the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And weeping of the weary Pleiads seven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feeds the mute melancholy lust of heaven?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is not his incense bitterness, his meat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Murder? his hidden face and iron feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath not man known, and felt them on their way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Threaten and trample all things and every day?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath he not sent us hunger? who hath cursed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spirit and flesh with longing? filled with thirst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their lips who cried unto him? who bade exceed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fervid will, fall short the feeble deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bade sink the spirit and the flesh aspire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pain animate the dust of dead desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And life yield up her flower to violent fate?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him would I reach, him smite, him desecrate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pierce the cold lips of God with human breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mix his immortality with death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why hath he made us? what had all we done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we should live and loathe the sterile sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the moon wax paler as she wanes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pulse by pulse feel time grow through our veins?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee too the years shall cover; thou shalt be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the rose born of one same blood with thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a song sung, as a word said, and fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flower-wise, and be not any more at all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any memory of thee anywhere;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For never Muse has bound above thine hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The high Pierian flower whose graft outgrows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All summer kinship of the mortal rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And colour of deciduous days, nor shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reflex and flush of heaven about thine head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor reddened brows made pale by floral grief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With splendid shadow from that lordlier leaf.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, thou shalt be forgotten like spilt wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Except these kisses of my lips on thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brand them with immortality; but me—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men shall not see bright fire nor hear the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor mix their hearts with music, nor behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast forth of heaven, with feet of awful gold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plumeless wings that make the bright air blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lightning, with thunder for a hound behind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hunting through fields unfurrowed and unsown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in the light and laughter, in the moan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And music, and in grasp of lip and hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shudder of water that makes felt on land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The immeasurable tremor of all the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Memories shall mix and metaphors of me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like me shall be the shuddering calm of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all the winds of the world for pure delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Close lips that quiver and fold up wings that ache;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When nightingales are louder for love's sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leaves tremble like lute-strings or like fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like me the one star swooning with desire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even at the cold lips of the sleepless moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I at thine; like me the waste white noon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burnt through with barren sunlight; and like me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The land-stream and the tide-stream in the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am sick with time as these with ebb and flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the yearning in my veins I know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The yearning sound of waters; and mine eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burn as that beamless fire which fills the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With troubled stars and travailing things of flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in my heart the grief consuming them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Labours, and in my veins the thirst of these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the summer travail of the trees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the winter sickness; and the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filled full with deadly works of death and birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore spent with hungry lusts of birth and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has pain like mine in her divided breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her spring of leaves is barren, and her fruit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ashes; her boughs are burdened, and her root<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fibrous and gnarled with poison; underneath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Serpents have gnawn it through with tortuous teeth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made sharp upon the bones of all the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wild birds rend her branches overhead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These, woven as raiment for his word and thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These hath God made, and me as these, and wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Song, and hath lit it at my lips; and me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth shall not gather though she feed on thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a shed tear shalt thou be shed; but I—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, earth may labour, men live long and die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Years change and stars, and the high God devise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New things, and old things wane before his eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who wields and wrecks them, being more strong than they—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, having made me, me he shall not slay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor slay nor satiate, like those herds of his<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who laugh and live a little, and their kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Contents them, and their loves are swift and sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sure death grasps and gains them with slow feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love they or hate they, strive or bow their knees—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all these end; he hath his will of these.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, but albeit he slay me, hating me—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Albeit he hide me in the deep dear sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cover me with cool wan foam, and ease<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This soul of mine as any soul of these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give me water and great sweet waves, and make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very sea's name lordlier for my sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole sea sweeter—albeit I die indeed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hide myself and sleep and no man heed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of me the high God hath not all his will.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blossom of branches, and on each high hill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clear air and wind, and under in clamorous vales<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce noises of the fiery nightingales,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Buds burning in the sudden spring like fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wan washed sand and the waves' vain desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sails seen like blown white flowers at sea, and words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bring tears swiftest, and long notes of birds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Violently singing till the whole world sings—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I Sappho shall be one with all these things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all high things for ever; and my face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seen once, my songs once heard in a strange place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleave to men's lives, and waste the days thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gladness and much sadness and long love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, they shall say, earth's womb has borne in vain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New things, and never this best thing again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Borne days and men, borne fruits and wars and wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seasons and songs, but no song more like mine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they shall know me as ye who have known me here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Last year when I loved Atthis, and this year<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I love thee; and they shall praise me, and say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"She hath all time as all we have our day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall she not live and have her will"—even I?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, though thou diest, I say I shall not die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these shall give me of their souls, shall give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life, and the days and loves wherewith I live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall quicken me with loving, fill with breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save me and serve me, strive for me with death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas, that neither moon nor snow nor dew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor all cold things can purge me wholly through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Assuage me nor allay me nor appease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till supreme sleep shall bring me bloodless ease;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till time wax faint in all his periods;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till fate undo the bondage of the gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lay, to slake and satiate me all through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lotus and Lethe on my lips like dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shed around and over and under me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick darkness and the insuperable sea.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HYMN_TO_PROSERPINE" id="HYMN_TO_PROSERPINE"></a>HYMN TO PROSERPINE</h2> + +<h4>(AFTER THE PROCLAMATION IN ROME OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH)</h4> + + +<h4><i>Vicisti, Galilæe.</i></h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have lived long enough, having seen one thing, that love hath an end;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art more than the day or the morrow, the seasons that laugh or that weep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these give joy and sorrow; but thou, Proserpina, sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet is the treading of wine, and sweet the feet of the dove;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But a goodlier gift is thine than foam of the grapes or love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, is not even Apollo, with hair and harpstring of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bitter God to follow, a beautiful God to behold?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am sick of singing: the bays burn deep and chafe: I am fain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rest a little from praise and grievous pleasure and pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the Gods we know not of, who give us our daily breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We know they are cruel as love or life, and lovely as death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Gods dethroned and deceased, cast forth, wiped out in a day!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From your wrath is the world released, redeemed from your chains, men say.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New Gods are crowned in the city; their flowers have broken your rods;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are merciful, clothed with pity, the young compassionate Gods.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But for me their new device is barren, the days are bare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Things long past over suffice, and men forgotten that were.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time and the Gods are at strife; ye dwell in the midst thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Draining a little life from the barren breasts of love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I say to you, cease, take rest; yea, I say to you all, be at peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the bitter milk of her breast and the barren bosom shall cease.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou yet take all, Galilean? but these thou shalt not take,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The laurel, the palms and the pæan, the breasts of the nymphs in the brake;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breasts more soft than a dove's, that tremble with tenderer breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the wings of the Loves, and all the joy before death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the feet of the hours that sound as a single lyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropped and deep in the flowers, with strings that flicker like fire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than these wilt thou give, things fairer than all these things?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, for a little we live, and life hath mutable wings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little while and we die; shall life not thrive as it may?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For no man under the sky lives twice, outliving his day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grief is a grievous thing, and a man hath enough of his tears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should he labour, and bring fresh grief to blacken his years?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laurel is green for a season, and love is sweet for a day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But love grows bitter with treason, and laurel outlives not May.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleep, shall we sleep after all? for the world is not sweet in the end;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the old faiths loosen and fall, the new years ruin and rend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fate is a sea without shore, and the soul is a rock that abides;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But her ears are vexed with the roar and her face with the foam of the tides.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O lips that the live blood faints in, the leavings of racks and rods!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of gibbeted Gods!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though all men abase them before you in spirit, and all knees bend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I kneel not neither adore you, but standing, look to the end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All delicate days and pleasant, all spirits and sorrows are cast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far out with the foam of the present that sweeps to the surf of the past:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where beyond the extreme sea-wall, and between the remote sea-gates,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waste water washes, and tall ships founder, and deep death waits:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, mighty with deepening sides, clad about with the seas as with wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And impelled of invisible tides, and fulfilled of unspeakable things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White-eyed and poisonous-finned, shark-toothed and serpentine-curled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rolls, under the whitening wind of the future, the wave of the world.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The depths stand naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as a prey;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In its sides is the north-wind bound; and its salt is of all men's tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With light of ruin, and sound of changes, and pulse of years:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour upon hour;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bitter as blood is the spray; and the crests are as fangs that devour:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of spirits to be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And its noise as the noise in a dream; and its depth as the roots of the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the height of its heads as the height of the utmost stars of the air:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble, and time is made bare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins, will ye chasten the high sea with rods?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will ye take her to chain her with chains, who is older than all ye Gods?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All ye as a wind shall go by, as a fire shall ye pass and be past;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye are Gods, and behold, ye shall die, and the waves be upon you at last.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the darkness of time, in the deeps of the years, in the changes of things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye shall sleep as a slain man sleeps, and the world shall forget you for kings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though the feet of thine high priests tread where thy lords and our forefathers trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though these that were Gods are dead, and thou being dead art a God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though before thee the throned Cytherean be fallen, and hidden her head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet thy kingdom shall pass, Galilean, thy dead shall go down to thee dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the maiden thy mother men sing as a goddess with grace clad around;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art throned where another was king; where another was queen she is crowned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, once we had sight of another: but now she is queen, say these.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not as thine, not as thine was our mother, a blossom of flowering seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clothed round with the world's desire as with raiment, and fair as the foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fleeter than kindled fire, and a goddess, and mother of Rome.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thine came pale and a maiden, and sister to sorrow; but ours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her deep hair heavily laden with odour and colour of flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendour, a flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew sweet with her name.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thine came weeping, a slave among slaves, and rejected; but she<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came flushed from the full-flushed wave, and imperial, her foot on the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the wonderful waters knew her, the winds and the viewless ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the roses grew rosier, and bluer the sea-blue stream of the bays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye are fallen, our lords, by what token? we wist that ye should not fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye were all so fair that are broken; and one more fair than ye all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I turn to her still, having seen she shall surely abide in the end;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O daughter of earth, of my mother, her crown and blossom of birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am also, I also, thy brother; I go as I came unto earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the night where thine eyes are as moons are in heaven, the night where thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the silence is more than all tunes, where sleep overflows from the heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the poppies are sweet as the rose in our world, and the red rose is white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the wind falls faint as it blows with the fume of the flowers of the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the murmur of spirits that sleep in the shadow of Gods from afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grows dim in thine ears and deep as the deep dim soul of a star,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the sweet low light of thy face, under heavens untrod by the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let my soul with their souls find place, and forget what is done and undone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art more than the Gods who number the days of our temporal breath:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore now at thy feet I abide for a season in silence. I know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall die as my fathers died, and sleep as they sleep; even so.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the glass of the years is brittle wherein we gaze for a span;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little soul for a little bears up this corpse which is man.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">So long I endure, no longer; and laugh not again, neither weep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For there is no God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ILICET" id="ILICET"></a>ILICET</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is an end of joy and sorrow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peace all day long, all night, all morrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But never a time to laugh or weep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The end is come of pleasant places,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The end of tender words and faces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The end of all, the poppied sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No place for sound within their hearing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No room to hope, no time for fearing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No lips to laugh, no lids for tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old years have run out all their measure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No chance of pain, no chance of pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No fragment of the broken years.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Outside of all the worlds and ages,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There where the fool is as the sage is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There where the slayer is clean of blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No end, no passage, no beginning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There where the sinner leaves off sinning,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There where the good man is not good.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is not one thing with another,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Evil saith to Good: My brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My brother, I am one with thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall not strive nor cry for ever:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No man shall choose between them: never<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall this thing end and that thing be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wind wherein seas and stars are shaken<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall shake them, and they shall not waken;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">None that has lain down shall arise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stones are sealed across their places;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One shadow is shed on all their faces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One blindness cast on all their eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sleep, is it sleep perchance that covers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each face, as each face were his lover's?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Farewell; as men that sleep fare well.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grave's mouth laughs unto derision<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Desire and dread and dream and vision,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Delight of heaven and sorrow of hell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No soul shall tell nor lip shall number<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The names and tribes of you that slumber;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No memory, no memorial.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Thou knowest"—who shall say thou knowest?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is none highest and none lowest:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">An end, an end, an end of all.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Good night, good sleep, good rest from sorrow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To these that shall not have good morrow;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The gods be gentle to all these.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, if death be not, how shall they be?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, is there help in heaven? it may be<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All things and lords of things shall cease.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The stooped urn, filling, dips and flashes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bronzèd brims are deep in ashes;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pale old lips of death are fed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall this dust gather flesh hereafter?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall one shed tears or fall to laughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">At sight of all these poor old dead?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, as thou wilt; these know not of it;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine eyes' strong weeping shall not profit,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy laughter shall not give thee ease;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cry aloud, spare not, cease not crying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sigh, till thou cleave thy sides with sighing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou shalt not raise up one of these.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Burnt spices flash, and burnt wine hisses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breathing flame's mouth curls and kisses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The small dried rows of frankincense;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All round the sad red blossoms smoulder,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flowers coloured like the fire, but colder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In sign of sweet things taken hence;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, for their sake and in death's favour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Things of sweet shape and of sweet savour<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We yield them, spice and flower and wine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, costlier things than wine or spices,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereof none knoweth how great the price is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And fruit that comes not of the vine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From boy's pierced throat and girl's pierced bosom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drips, reddening round the blood-red blossom,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The slow delicious bright soft blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bathing the spices and the pyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bathing the flowers and fallen fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bathing the blossom by the bud.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Roses whose lips the flame has deadened<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drink till the lapping leaves are reddened<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And warm wet inner petals weep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flower whereof sick sleep gets leisure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Barren of balm and purple pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fumes with no native steam of sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Why will ye weep? what do ye weeping?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For waking folk and people sleeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sands that fill and sands that fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The days rose-red, the poppied hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blood, wine, and spice and fire and flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is one end of one and all.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shall such an one lend love or borrow?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall these be sorry for thy sorrow?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall these give thanks for words or breath?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their hate is as their loving-kindness;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The frontlet of their brows is blindness,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The armlet of their arms is death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, for no noise or light of thunder<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall these grave-clothes be rent in sunder;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He that hath taken, shall he give?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hath rent them: shall he bind together?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hath bound them: shall he break the tether?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He hath slain them: shall he bid them live?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A little sorrow, a little pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fate metes us from the dusty measure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That holds the date of all of us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are born with travail and strong crying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the birth-day to the dying<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The likeness of our life is thus.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One girds himself to serve another,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose father was the dust, whose mother<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The little dead red worm therein;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They find no fruit of things they cherish;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The goodness of a man shall perish,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It shall be one thing with his sin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In deep wet ways by grey old gardens<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fed with sharp spring the sweet fruit hardens;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They know not what fruits wane or grow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red summer burns to the utmost ember;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They know not, neither can remember,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The old years and flowers they used to know.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, for their sakes, so trapped and taken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For theirs, forgotten and forsaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Watch, sleep not, gird thyself with prayer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, where the heart of wrath is broken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where long love ends as a thing spoken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How shall thy crying enter there?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though the iron sides of the old world falter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The likeness of them shall not alter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For all the rumour of periods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stars and seasons that come after,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tears of latter men, the laughter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of the old unalterable gods.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far up above the years and nations,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The high gods, clothed and crowned with patience,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Endure through days of deathlike date;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bear the witness of things hidden;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before their eyes all life stands chidden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As they before the eyes of Fate.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not for their love shall Fate retire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor they relent for our desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor the graves open for their call.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The end is more than joy and anguish,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than lives that laugh and lives that languish,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The poppied sleep, the end of all.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HERMAPHRODITUS" id="HERMAPHRODITUS"></a>HERMAPHRODITUS</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="cen">I<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lift up thy lips, turn round, look back for love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Blind love that comes by night and casts out rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of all things tired thy lips look weariest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save the long smile that they are wearied of.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah sweet, albeit no love be sweet enough,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Choose of two loves and cleave unto the best;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Two loves at either blossom of thy breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strive until one be under and one above.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their breath is fire upon the amorous air,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fire in thine eyes and where thy lips suspire:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whosoever hath seen thee, being so fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Two things turn all his life and blood to fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A strong desire begot on great despair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A great despair cast out by strong desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">II<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where between sleep and life some brief space is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With love like gold bound round about the head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sex to sweet sex with lips and limbs is wed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turning the fruitful feud of hers and his<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the waste wedlock of a sterile kiss;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet from them something like as fire is shed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That shall not be assuaged till death be dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though neither life nor sleep can find out this.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love made himself of flesh that perisheth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A pleasure-house for all the loves his kin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on the one side sat a man like death,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And on the other a woman sat like sin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So with veiled eyes and sobs between his breath<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love turned himself and would not enter in.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">III<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love, is it love or sleep or shadow or light<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That lies between thine eyelids and thine eyes?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Like a flower laid upon a flower it lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or like the night's dew laid upon the night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love stands upon thy left hand and thy right,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet by no sunset and by no moonrise<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall make thee man and ease a woman's sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or make thee woman for a man's delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To what strange end hath some strange god made fair<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The double blossom of two fruitless flowers?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hid love in all the folds of all thy hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fed thee on summers, watered thee with showers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Given all the gold that all the seasons wear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To thee that art a thing of barren hours?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">IV<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, love, I see; it is not love but fear.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nay, sweet, it is not fear but love, I know;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or wherefore should thy body's blossom blow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So sweetly, or thine eyelids leave so clear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy gracious eyes that never made a tear—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though for their love our tears like blood should flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though love and life and death should come and go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So dreadful, so desirable, so dear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, sweet, I know; I saw in what swift wise<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Beneath the woman's and the water's kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy moist limbs melted into Salmacis,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the large light turned tender in thine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all thy boy's breath softened into sighs;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But Love being blind, how should he know of this?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><i>Au Musée du Louvre, Mars 1863.</i></span> +</div></div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FRAGOLETTA" id="FRAGOLETTA"></a>FRAGOLETTA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Love! what shall be said of thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of grief begot by joy?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Being sightless, wilt thou see?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Being sexless, wilt thou be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maiden or boy?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I dreamed of strange lips yesterday<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cheeks wherein the ambiguous blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was like a rose's—yea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A rose's when it lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within the bud.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What fields have bred thee, or what groves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Concealed thee, O mysterious flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O double rose of Love's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With leaves that lure the doves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From bud to bower?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I dare not kiss it, lest my lip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Press harder than an indrawn breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the sweet life slip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth, and the sweet leaves drip,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bloodlike, in death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sole desire of my delight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sole delight of my desire!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine eyelids and eyesight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feed on thee day and night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like lips of fire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lean back thy throat of carven pearl,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let thy mouth murmur like the dove's;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say, Venus hath no girl,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No front of female curl,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among her Loves.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy sweet low bosom, thy close hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy strait soft flanks and slenderer feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy virginal strange air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are these not over fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Love to greet?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How should he greet thee? what new name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fit to move all men's hearts, could move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee, deaf to love or shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love's sister, by the same<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother as Love?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah sweet, the maiden's mouth is cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her breast-blossoms are simply red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her hair mere brown or gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fold over simple fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Binding her head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy mouth is made of fire and wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy barren bosom takes my kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turns my soul to thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turns thy lip to mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mine it is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou hast a serpent in thine hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all the curls that close and cling;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ah, thy breast-flower!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah love, thy mouth too fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To kiss and sting!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cleave to me, love me, kiss mine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Satiate thy lips with loving me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, for thou shalt not rise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie still as Love that dies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love of thee.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mine arms are close about thine head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lips are fervent on thy face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where my kiss hath fed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy flower-like blood leaps red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the kissed place.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O bitterness of things too sweet!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O broken singing of the dove!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love's wings are over fleet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like the panther's feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The feet of Love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RONDEL1" id="RONDEL1"></a>RONDEL</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These many years since we began to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What have the gods done with us? what with me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What with my love? they have shown me fates and fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harsh springs, and fountains bitterer than the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grief a fixed star, and joy a vane that veers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These many years.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With her, my love, with her have they done well?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But who shall answer for her? who shall tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet things or sad, such things as no man hears?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May no tears fall, if no tears ever fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From eyes more dear to me than starriest spheres<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These many years!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But if tears ever touched, for any grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those eyelids folded like a white-rose leaf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep double shells wherethrough the eye-flower peers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let them weep once more only, sweet and brief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brief tears and bright, for one who gave her tears<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These many years.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SATIA_TE_SANGUINE" id="SATIA_TE_SANGUINE"></a>SATIA TE SANGUINE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If you loved me ever so little,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I could bear the bonds that gall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I could dream the bonds were brittle;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You do not love me at all.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O beautiful lips, O bosom<br /></span> +<span class="i1">More white than the moon's and warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sterile, a ruinous blossom<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is blown your way in a storm.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the lost white feverish limbs<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of the Lesbian Sappho, adrift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In foam where the sea-weed swims,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Swam loose for the streams to lift,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My heart swims blind in a sea<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That stuns me; swims to and fro,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gathers to windward and lee<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lamentation, and mourning, and woe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A broken, an emptied boat,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sea saps it, winds blow apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sick and adrift and afloat,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The barren waif of a heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where, when the gods would be cruel,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Do they go for a torture? where<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plant thorns, set pain like a jewel?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah, not in the flesh, not there!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The racks of earth and the rods<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are weak as foam on the sands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the heart is the prey for gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who crucify hearts, not hands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mere pangs corrode and consume,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dead when life dies in the brain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the infinite spirit is room<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For the pulse of an infinite pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I wish you were dead, my dear;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I would give you, had I to give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some death too bitter to fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It is better to die than live.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I wish you were stricken of thunder<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And burnt with a bright flame through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Consumed and cloven in sunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I dead at your feet like you.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If I could but know after all,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I might cease to hunger and ache,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though your heart were ever so small,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If it were not a stone or a snake.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You are crueller, you that we love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than hatred, hunger, or death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You have eyes and breasts like a dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And you kill men's hearts with a breath<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As plague in a poisonous city<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Insults and exults on her dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So you, when pallid for pity<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Comes love, and fawns to be fed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As a tame beast writhes and wheedles,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He fawns to be fed with wiles;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You carve him a cross of needles,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And whet them sharp as your smiles.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He is patient of thorn and whip,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He is dumb under axe or dart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You suck with a sleepy red lip<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The wet red wounds in his heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You thrill as his pulses dwindle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You brighten and warm as he bleeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With insatiable eyes that kindle<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And insatiable mouth that feeds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your hands nailed love to the tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You stript him, scourged him with rods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drowned him deep in the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That hides the dead and their gods.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And for all this, die will he not;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is no man sees him but I;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You came and went and forgot;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I hope he will some day die.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LITANY" id="LITANY"></a>A LITANY</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">ἐν οὐρανῷ φαεννὰς<br /></span> +<span class="i4">κρύψω παρ' ὑμὶν αὐγὰς,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">μίας πρὸ νυκτὸς ἑπτὰ νύκτας ἕξετε, κ.τ.λ.<br /></span> +<span class="i18"><i>Anth. Sac.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="cen">FIRST ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the bright lights of heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I will make dark over thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One night shall be as seven<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That its skirts may cover thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will send on thy strong men a sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On thy remnant a rod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye shall know that I am the Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Saith the Lord God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SECOND ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the bright lights of heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou hast made dark over us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One night has been as seven<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That its skirt might cover us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast sent on our strong men a sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On our remnant a rod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We know that thou art the Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O Lord our God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">THIRD ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the tresses and wings of the wind<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are scattered and shaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will scatter all them that have sinned,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There shall none be taken;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a sower that scattereth seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So will I scatter them;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one breaketh and shattereth a reed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I will break and shatter them.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">FOURTH ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the wings and the locks of the wind<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are scattered and shaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast scattered all them that have sinned,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There was no man taken;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a sower that scattereth seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So hast thou scattered us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one breaketh and shattereth a reed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou hast broken and shattered us.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">FIFTH ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From all thy lovers that love thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I God will sunder thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will make darkness above thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thick darkness under thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before me goeth a light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Behind me a sword;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall a remnant find grace in my sight?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I am the Lord.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SIXTH ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From all our lovers that love us<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou God didst sunder us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou madest darkness above us,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thick darkness under us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast kindled thy wrath for a light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And made ready thy sword;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let a remnant find grace in thy sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We beseech thee, O Lord.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SEVENTH ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou bring fine gold for a payment<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For sins on this wise?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the glittering of raiment<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the shining of eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the painting of faces<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the sundering of trust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the sins of thine high places<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And delight of thy lust?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For your high things ye shall have lowly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lamentation for song;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, behold, I God am holy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I the Lord am strong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye shall seek me and shall not reach me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till the wine-press be trod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In that hour ye shall turn and beseech me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Saith the Lord God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">EIGHTH ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not with fine gold for a payment,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But with coin of sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with rending of raiment<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with weeping of eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with shame of stricken faces<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with strewing of dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the sin of stately places<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lordship of lust;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With voices of men made lowly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made empty of song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Lord God most holy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O God most strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We reach out hands to reach thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ere the wine-press be trod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O Lord our God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">NINTH ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In that hour thou shalt say to the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come down and cover us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the cloud on thy left and thy right,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be thou spread over us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A snare shall be as thy mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a curse thy bride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt put her away, and another<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall lie by thy side.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt neither rise up by day<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor lie down by night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would God it were dark! thou shalt say;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would God it were light!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sight of thine eyes shall be made<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the burning of fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy soul shall be sorely afraid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For thy soul's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye whom your lords loved well,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Putting silver and gold on you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inevitable hell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall surely take hold on you;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your gold shall be for a token,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Your staff for a rod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the breaking of bands ye are broken,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Saith the Lord God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">TENTH ANTIPHONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In our sorrow we said to the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fall down and cover us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the darkness at left and at right,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be thou shed over us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We had breaking of spirit to mother<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And cursing to bride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one was slain, and another<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stood up at our side.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We could not arise by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor lie down by night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy sword was sharp in our way,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy word in our sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The delight of our eyelids was made<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the burning of fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And our souls became sorely afraid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For our soul's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We whom the world loved well,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Laying silver and gold on us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The kingdom of death and of hell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Riseth up to take hold on us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our gold is turned to a token,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our staff to a rod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet shalt thou bind them up that were broken,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O Lord our God.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LAMENTATION" id="LAMENTATION"></a>A LAMENTATION</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="cen">I<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who hath known the ways of time<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or trodden behind his feet?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There is no such man among men.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For chance overcomes him, or crime<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Changes; for all things sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In time wax bitter again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall give sorrow enough,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or who the abundance of tears?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine eyes are heavy with love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And a sword gone thorough mine ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A sound like a sword and fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For pity, for great desire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall ensure me thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lest I die, being full of my fears?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who hath known the ways and the wrath,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sleepless spirit, the root<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And blossom of evil will,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">The divine device of a god?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall behold it or hath?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The twice-tongued prophets are mute,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The many speakers are still;<br /></span> +<span class="i3">No foot has travelled or trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No hand has meted, his path.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Man's fate is a blood-red fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the mighty gods have their fill<br /></span> +<span class="i3">And relax not the rein, or the rod.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye were mighty in heart from of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ye slew with the spear, and are slain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keen after heat is the cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sore after summer is rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And melteth man to the bone.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As water he weareth away,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As a flower, as an hour in a day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fallen from laughter to moan.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But my spirit is shaken with fear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lest an evil thing begin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New-born, a spear for a spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And one for another sin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ever our tears began,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It was known from of old and said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One law for a living man,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And another law for the dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these are fearful and sad,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Vain, and things without breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While he lives let a man be glad,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">For none hath joy of his death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">II<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who hath known the pain, the old pain of earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or all the travail of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The many ways and waves, the birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fruitless, the labour nothing worth?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who hath known, who knoweth, O gods? not we.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is none shall say he hath seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is none he hath known.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though he saith, Lo, a lord have I been,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I have reaped and sown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have seen the desire of mine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The beginning of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The season of kisses and sighs<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the end thereof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have known the ways of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All the perilous ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange winds have spoken with me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the tongues of strange days.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have hewn the pine for ships;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where steeds run arow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have seen from their bridled lips<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Foam blown as the snow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With snapping of chariot-poles<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And with straining of oars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have grazed in the race the goals,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the storm the shores;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a greave is cleft with an arrow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">At the joint of the knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have cleft through the sea-straits narrow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To the heart of the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When air was smitten in sunder<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I have watched on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ways of the stars and the thunder<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the night of the sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the dark brings forth light as a flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As from lips that dissever;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One abideth the space of an hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One endureth for ever.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, what hath he seen or known,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of the way and the wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unbeholden, unsailed on, unsown,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From the breast to the grave?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or ever the stars were made, or skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grief was born, and the kinless night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mother of gods without form or name.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And light is born out of heaven and dies,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And one day knows not another's light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But night is one, and her shape the same.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But dumb the goddesses underground<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wait, and we hear not on earth if their feet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rise, and the night wax loud with their wings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dumb, without word or shadow of sound;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sift in scales and winnow as wheat<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Men's souls, and sorrow of manifold things.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">III<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor less of grief than ours<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The gods wrought long ago<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To bruise men one by one;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with the incessant hours<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fresh grief and greener woe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Spring, as the sudden sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Year after year makes flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And these die down and grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the next year lacks none.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As these men sleep, have slept<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The old heroes in time fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No dream-divided sleep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And holier eyes have wept<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than ours, when on her dead<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gods have seen Thetis weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With heavenly hair far-swept<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Back, heavenly hands outspread<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Round what she could not keep,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Could not one day withhold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One night; and like as these<br /></span> +<span class="i2">White ashes of no weight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held not his urn the cold<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ashes of Heracles?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For all things born one gate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Opens, no gate of gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Opens; and no man sees<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beyond the gods and fate.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ANIMA_ANCEPS" id="ANIMA_ANCEPS"></a>ANIMA ANCEPS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Till death have broken<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet life's love-token,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till all be spoken<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That shall be said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What dost thou praying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O soul, and playing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With song and saying,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Things flown and fled?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this we know not—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fresh springs flow not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fresh griefs grow not<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When men are dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When strange years cover<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lover and lover,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And joys are over<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And tears are shed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If one day's sorrow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mar the day's morrow—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If man's life borrow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And man's death pay—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If souls once taken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If lives once shaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arise, awaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By night, by day—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why with strong crying<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And years of sighing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Living and dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fast ye and pray?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all your weeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waking and sleeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death comes to reaping<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And takes away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though time rend after<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roof-tree from rafter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little laughter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is much more worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than thus to measure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hour, the treasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pain, the pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The death, the birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grief, when days alter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like joy shall falter;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Song-book and psalter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mourning and mirth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live like the swallow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seek not to follow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where earth is hollow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Under the earth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IN_THE_ORCHARD" id="IN_THE_ORCHARD"></a>IN THE ORCHARD</h2> + +<h4>(PROVENÇAL BURDEN)</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Leave go my hands, let me catch breath and see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the dew-fall drench either side of me;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Clear apple-leaves are soft upon that moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seen sidelong like a blossom in the tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The grass is thick and cool, it lets us lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kissed upon either cheek and either eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I turn to thee as some green afternoon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turns toward sunset, and is loth to die;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lie closer, lean your face upon my side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feel where the dew fell that has hardly dried,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hear how the blood beats that went nigh to swoon;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pleasure lives there when the sense has died;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O my fair lord, I charge you leave me this:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is it not sweeter than a foolish kiss?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nay take it then, my flower, my first in June,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My rose, so like a tender mouth it is:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love, till dawn sunder night from day with fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dividing my delight and my desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The crescent life and love the plenilune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love me though dusk begin and dark retire;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, my heart fails, my blood draws back; I know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When life runs over, life is near to go;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And with the slain of love love's ways are strewn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with their blood, if love will have it so;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, do thy will now; slay me if thou wilt;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no building now the walls are built,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No quarrying now the corner-stone is hewn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No drinking now the vine's whole blood is spilt;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, slay me now; nay, for I will be slain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pluck thy red pleasure from the teeth of pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Break down thy vine ere yet grape-gatherers prune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slay me ere day can slay desire again;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, with thy sweet lips, with thy sweet sword; yea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take life and all, for I will die, I say;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love, I gave love, is life a better boon?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For sweet night's sake I will not live till day;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, I will sleep then only; nay, but go.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah sweet, too sweet to me, my sweet, I know<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love, sleep, and death go to the sweet same tune;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hold my hair fast, and kiss me through it so.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah God, ah God, that day should be so soon.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_MATCH" id="A_MATCH"></a>A MATCH</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If love were what the rose is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were like the leaf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our lives would grow together<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In sad or singing weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blown fields or flowerful closes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Green pleasure or grey grief;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If love were what the rose is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were like the leaf.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If I were what the words are,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And love were like the tune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With double sound and single<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Delight our lips would mingle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With kisses glad as birds are<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That get sweet rain at noon;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I were what the words are,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And love were like the tune.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If you were life, my darling,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I your love were death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'd shine and snow together<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere March made sweet the weather<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With daffodil and starling<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And hours of fruitful breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you were life, my darling,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I your love were death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If you were thrall to sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were page to joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'd play for lives and seasons<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With loving looks and treasons<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tears of night and morrow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And laughs of maid and boy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you were thrall to sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were page to joy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If you were April's lady,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were lord in May,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'd throw with leaves for hours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And draw for days with flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till day like night were shady<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And night were bright like day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you were April's lady,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were lord in May.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If you were queen of pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were king of pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'd hunt down love together,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pluck out his flying-feather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And teach his feet a measure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And find his mouth a rein;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you were queen of pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I were king of pain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FAUSTINE" id="FAUSTINE"></a>FAUSTINE</h2> + +<h4><i>Ave Faustina Imperatrix, morituri te salutant.</i></h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lean back, and get some minutes' peace;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let your head lean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back to the shoulder with its fleece<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of locks, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shapely silver shoulder stoops,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Weighed over clean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With state of splendid hair that droops<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each side, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let me go over your good gifts<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That crown you queen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A queen whose kingdom ebbs and shifts<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each week, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bright heavy brows well gathered up:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">White gloss and sheen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Carved lips that make my lips a cup<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To drink, Faustine,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wine and rank poison, milk and blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Being mixed therein<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since first the devil threw dice with God<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For you, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your naked new-born soul, their stake,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stood blind between;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God said "let him that wins her take<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And keep Faustine."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But this time Satan throve, no doubt;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Long since, I ween,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God's part in you was battered out;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Long since, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The die rang sideways as it fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rang cracked and thin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a man's laughter heard in hell<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Far down, Faustine,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A shadow of laughter like a sigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dead sorrow's kin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So rang, thrown down, the devil's die<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That won Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A suckling of his breed you were,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One hard to wean;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But God, who lost you, left you fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We see, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You have the face that suits a woman<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For her soul's screen—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sort of beauty that's called human<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In hell, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You could do all things but be good<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or chaste of mien;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that you would not if you could,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We know, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Even he who cast seven devils out<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of Magdalene<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could hardly do as much, I doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For you, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Did Satan make you to spite God?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or did God mean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To scourge with scorpions for a rod<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our sins, Faustine?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know what queen at first you were,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As though I had seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red gold and black imperious hair<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Twice crown Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As if your fed sarcophagus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Spared flesh and skin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You come back face to face with us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The same Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She loved the games men played with death,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where death must win;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As though the slain man's blood and breath<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Revived Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nets caught the pike, pikes tore the net;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lithe limbs and lean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From drained-out pores dripped thick red sweat<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To soothe Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She drank the steaming drift and dust<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Blown off the scene;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blood could not ease the bitter lust<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That galled Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All round the foul fat furrows reeked,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where blood sank in;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The circus splashed and seethed and shrieked<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All round Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But these are gone now: years entomb<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The dust and din;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, even the bath's fierce reek and fume<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That slew Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Was life worth living then? and now<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is life worth sin?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where are the imperial years? and how<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are you Faustine?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your soul forgot her joys, forgot<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her times of teen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, this life likewise will you not<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Forget, Faustine?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For in the time we know not of<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Did fate begin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weaving the web of days that wove<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Your doom, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The threads were wet with wine, and all<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Were smooth to spin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They wove you like a Bacchanal,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The first Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And Bacchus cast your mates and you<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wild grapes to glean;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your flower-like lips were dashed with dew<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From his, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your drenched loose hands were stretched to hold<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The vine's wet green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long ere they coined in Roman gold<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Your face, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then after change of soaring feather<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And winnowing fin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You woke in weeks of feverish weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A new Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A star upon your birthday burned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose fierce serene<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red pulseless planet never yearned<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In heaven, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Stray breaths of Sapphic song that blew<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through Mitylene<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shook the fierce quivering blood in you<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By night, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shameless nameless love that makes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hell's iron gin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shut on you like a trap that breaks<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The soul, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when your veins were void and dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What ghosts unclean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swarmed round the straitened barren bed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That hid Faustine?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What sterile growths of sexless root<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or epicene?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What flower of kisses without fruit<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of love, Faustine?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What adders came to shed their coats?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What coiled obscene<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Small serpents with soft stretching throats<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Caressed Faustine?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the time came of famished hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Maimed loves and mean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This ghastly thin-faced time of ours,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To spoil Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You seem a thing that hinges hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A love-machine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With clockwork joints of supple gold—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No more, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not godless, for you serve one God,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Lampsacene,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who metes the gardens with his rod;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Your lord, Faustine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If one should love you with real love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Such things have been,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Things your fair face knows nothing of,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It seems, Faustine);<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That clear hair heavily bound back,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The lights wherein<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shift from dead blue to burnt-up black;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Your throat, Faustine,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strong, heavy, throwing out the face<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And hard bright chin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shameful scornful lips that grace<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their shame, Faustine,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Curled lips, long-since half kissed away,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Still sweet and keen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You'd give him—poison shall we say?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or what, Faustine?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CAMEO" id="CAMEO"></a>A CAMEO</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was a graven image of Desire<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Painted with red blood on a ground of gold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Passing between the young men and the old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by him Pain, whose body shone like fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Pleasure with gaunt hands that grasped their hire.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of his left wrist, with fingers clenched and cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The insatiable Satiety kept hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Walking with feet unshod that pashed the mire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The senses and the sorrows and the sins,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the strange loves that suck the breasts of Hate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till lips and teeth bite in their sharp indenture,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Followed like beasts with flap of wings and fins.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Death stood aloof behind a gaping grate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon whose lock was written <i>Peradventure</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SONG_BEFORE_DEATH" id="SONG_BEFORE_DEATH"></a>SONG BEFORE DEATH</h2> + +<h4>(FROM THE FRENCH)</h4> + +<h4>1795</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweet mother, in a minute's span<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Death parts thee and my love of thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet love, that yet art living man,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Come back, true love, to comfort me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back, ah, come back! ah wellaway!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But my love comes not any day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As roses, when the warm West blows,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Break to full flower and sweeten spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My soul would break to a glorious rose<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In such wise at his whispering.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In vain I listen; wellaway!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My love says nothing any day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You that will weep for pity of love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On the low place where I am lain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray you, having wept enough,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tell him for whom I bore such pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he was yet, ah! wellaway!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My true love to my dying day.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ROCOCO" id="ROCOCO"></a>ROCOCO</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Take hands and part with laughter;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Touch lips and part with tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once more and no more after,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whatever comes with years.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We twain shall not remeasure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways that left us twain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor crush the lees of pleasure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From sanguine grapes of pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We twain once well in sunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What will the mad gods do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For hate with me, I wonder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or what for love with you?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forget them till November,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And dream there's April yet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forget that I remember,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And dream that I forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Time found our tired love sleeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And kissed away his breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But what should we do weeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though light love sleep to death?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have drained his lips at leisure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till there's not left to drain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A single sob of pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A single pulse of pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dream that the lips once breathless<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Might quicken if they would;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say that the soul is deathless;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dream that the gods are good;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say March may wed September,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And time divorce regret;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But not that you remember,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And not that I forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We have heard from hidden places<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What love scarce lives and hears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have seen on fervent faces<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pallor of strange tears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have trod the wine-vat's treasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whence, ripe to steam and stain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foams round the feet of pleasure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The blood-red must of pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Remembrance may recover<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And time bring back to time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The name of your first lover,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ring of my first rhyme;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But rose-leaves of December<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The frosts of June shall fret,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The day that you remember,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The day that I forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The snake that hides and hisses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In heaven we twain have known;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grief of cruel kisses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The joy whose mouth makes moan;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pulse's pause and measure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where in one furtive vein<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Throbs through the heart of pleasure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The purpler blood of pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We have done with tears and treasons<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And love for treason's sake;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Room for the swift new seasons,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The years that burn and break,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dismantle and dismember<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Men's days and dreams, Juliette;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love may not remember,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But time will not forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Life treads down love in flying,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Time withers him at root;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bring all dead things and dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Reaped sheaf and ruined fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, crushed by three days' pressure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our three days' love lies slain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And earlier leaf of pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And latter flower of pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Breathe close upon the ashes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It may be flame will leap;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unclose the soft close lashes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lift up the lids, and weep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light love's extinguished ember,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let one tear leave it wet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one that you remember<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And ten that you forget.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="STAGE_LOVE" id="STAGE_LOVE"></a>STAGE LOVE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the game began between them for a jest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He played king and she played queen to match the best;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laughter soft as tears, and tears that turned to laughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These were things she sought for years and sorrowed after.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pleasure with dry lips, and pain that walks by night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the sting and all the stain of long delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These were things she knew not of, that knew not of her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she played at half a love with half a lover.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Time was chorus, gave them cues to laugh or cry;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They would kill, befool, amuse him, let him die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set him webs to weave to-day and break to-morrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till he died for good in play, and rose in sorrow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What the years mean; how time dies and is not slain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How love grows and laughs and cries and wanes again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These were things she came to know, and take their measure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the play was played out so for one man's pleasure.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_LEPER" id="THE_LEPER"></a>THE LEPER</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nothing is better, I well think,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than love; the hidden well-water<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is not so delicate to drink:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This was well seen of me and her.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I served her in a royal house;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I served her wine and curious meat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For will to kiss between her brows,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I had no heart to sleep or eat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mere scorn God knows she had of me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A poor scribe, nowise great or fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who plucked his clerk's hood back to see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her curled-up lips and amorous hair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I vex my head with thinking this.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yea, though God always hated me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hates me now that I can kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her eyes, plait up her hair to see<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How she then wore it on the brows,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet am I glad to have her dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here in this wretched wattled house<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where I can kiss her eyes and head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nothing is better, I well know,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than love; no amber in cold sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or gathered berries under snow:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That is well seen of her and me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Three thoughts I make my pleasure of:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">First I take heart and think of this:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That knight's gold hair she chose to love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His mouth she had such will to kiss.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then I remember that sundawn<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I brought him by a privy way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out at her lattice, and thereon<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What gracious words she found to say.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">(Cold rushes for such little feet—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Both feet could lie into my hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A marvel was it of my sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her upright body could so stand.)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Sweet friend, God give you thank and grace;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now am I clean and whole of shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shall men burn me in the face<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For my sweet fault that scandals them."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I tell you over word by word.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She, sitting edgewise on her bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Holding her feet, said thus. The third,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A sweeter thing than these, I said.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">God, that makes time and ruins it<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And alters not, abiding God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Changed with disease her body sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The body of love wherein she abode.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love is more sweet and comelier<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than a dove's throat strained out to sing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All they spat out and cursed at her<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And cast her forth for a base thing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They cursed her, seeing how God had wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This curse to plague her, a curse of his.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fools were they surely, seeing not<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How sweeter than all sweet she is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He that had held her by the hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With kissing lips blinding her eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Felt her bright bosom, strained and bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sigh under him, with short mad cries<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of her throat and sobbing mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And body broken up with love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sweet hot tears his lips were loth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her own should taste the savour of,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, he inside whose grasp all night<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her fervent body leapt or lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stained with sharp kisses red and white,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Found her a plague to spurn away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I hid her in this wattled house,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I served her water and poor bread.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For joy to kiss between her brows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Time upon time I was nigh dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bread failed; we got but well-water<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And gathered grass with dropping seed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had such joy of kissing her,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I had small care to sleep or feed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sometimes when service made me glad<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sharp tears leapt between my lids,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Falling on her, such joy I had<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To do the service God forbids.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I pray you let me be at peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Get hence, make room for me to die."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She said that: her poor lip would cease,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Put up to mine, and turn to cry.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I said, "Bethink yourself how love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fared in us twain, what either did;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall I unclothe my soul thereof?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That I should do this, God forbid."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, though God hateth us, he knows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That hardly in a little thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love faileth of the work it does<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till it grow ripe for gathering.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Six months, and now my sweet is dead<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A trouble takes me; I know not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If all were done well, all well said,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No word or tender deed forgot.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Too sweet, for the least part in her,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To have shed life out by fragments; yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could the close mouth catch breath and stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I might see something I forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Six months, and I sit still and hold<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In two cold palms her cold two feet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her hair, half grey half ruined gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thrills me and burns me in kissing it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love bites and stings me through, to see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her keen face made of sunken bones.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her worn-off eyelids madden me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That were shot through with purple once.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She said, "Be good with me; I grow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So tired for shame's sake, I shall die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you say nothing:" even so.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And she is dead now, and shame put by.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, and the scorn she had of me<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the old time, doubtless vexed her then.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I never should have kissed her. See<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What fools God's anger makes of men!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She might have loved me a little too,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Had I been humbler for her sake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that new shame could make love new<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She saw not—yet her shame did make.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I took too much upon my love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Having for such mean service done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her beauty and all the ways thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her face and all the sweet thereon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, all this while I tended her,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I know the old love held fast his part:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know the old scorn waxed heavier,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mixed with sad wonder, in her heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It may be all my love went wrong—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A scribe's work writ awry and blurred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scrawled after the blind evensong—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Spoilt music with no perfect word.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But surely I would fain have done<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All things the best I could. Perchance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because I failed, came short of one,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She kept at heart that other man's.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am grown blind with all these things:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It may be now she hath in sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some better knowledge; still there clings<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The old question. Will not God do right?<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_BALLAD_OF_BURDENS" id="A_BALLAD_OF_BURDENS"></a>A BALLAD OF BURDENS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of fair women. Vain delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And love self-slain in some sweet shameful way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sorrowful old age that comes by night<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As a thief comes that has no heart by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And change that finds fair cheeks and leaves them grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And weariness that keeps awake for hire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And grief that says what pleasure used to say;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of bought kisses. This is sore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A burden without fruit in childbearing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between the nightfall and the dawn threescore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Threescore between the dawn and evening.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The shuddering in thy lips, the shuddering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thy sad eyelids tremulous like fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Makes love seem shameful and a wretched thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of sweet speeches. Nay, kneel down,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cover thy head, and weep; for verily<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These market-men that buy thy white and brown<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the last days shall take no thought for thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the last days like earth thy face shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, like sea-marsh made thick with brine and mire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sad with sick leavings of the sterile sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of long living. Thou shalt fear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Waking, and sleeping mourn upon thy bed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And say at night "Would God the day were here,"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And say at dawn "Would God the day were dead."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With weary days thou shalt be clothed and fed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wear remorse of heart for thine attire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pain for thy girdle and sorrow upon thine head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of bright colours. Thou shalt see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gold tarnished, and the grey above the green;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as the thing thou seest thy face shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And no more as the thing beforetime seen.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And thou shalt say of mercy "It hath been,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And living, watch the old lips and loves expire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And talking, tears shall take thy breath between;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of sad sayings. In that day<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou shalt tell all thy days and hours, and tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy times and ways and words of love, and say<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How one was dear and one desirable,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sweet was life to hear and sweet to smell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now with lights reverse the old hours retire<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the last hour is shod with fire from hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of four seasons. Rain in spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">White rain and wind among the tender trees;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A summer of green sorrows gathering,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rank autumn in a mist of miseries,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With sad face set towards the year, that sees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The charred ash drop out of the dropping pyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And winter wan with many maladies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of dead faces. Out of sight<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And out of love, beyond the reach of hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Changed in the changing of the dark and light,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They walk and weep about the barren lands<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where no seed is nor any garner stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where in short breaths the doubtful days respire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And time's turned glass lets through the sighing sands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The burden of much gladness. Life and lust<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Forsake thee, and the face of thy delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And underfoot the heavy hour strews dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And overhead strange weathers burn and bite;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And where the red was, lo the bloodless white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where truth was, the likeness of a liar,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And where day was, the likeness of the night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">L'ENVOY<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Princes, and ye whom pleasure quickeneth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Heed well this rhyme before your pleasure tire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For life is sweet, but after life is death.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This is the end of every man's desire.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RONDEL2" id="RONDEL2"></a>RONDEL</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Kissing her hair I sat against her feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wove and unwove it, wound and found it sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made fast therewith her hands, drew down her eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep as deep flowers and dreamy like dim skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With her own tresses bound and found her fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kissing her hair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sleep were no sweeter than her face to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleep of cold sea-bloom under the cold sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What pain could get between my face and hers?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What new sweet thing would love not relish worse?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless, perhaps, white death had kissed me there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kissing her hair?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="BEFORE_THE_MIRROR" id="BEFORE_THE_MIRROR"></a>BEFORE THE MIRROR</h2> + +<h4>(VERSES WRITTEN UNDER A PICTURE)</h4> + +<h4>INSCRIBED TO J. A. WHISTLER</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="cen">I<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">White rose in red rose-garden<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is not so white;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snowdrops that plead for pardon<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And pine for fright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because the hard East blows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over their maiden rows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grow not as this face grows from pale to bright.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behind the veil, forbidden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shut up from sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love, is there sorrow hidden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is there delight?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is joy thy dower or grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White rose of weary leaf,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Late rose whose life is brief, whose loves are light?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Soft snows that hard winds harden<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till each flake bite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fill all the flowerless garden<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose flowers took flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long since when summer ceased,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And men rose up from feast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And warm west wind grew east, and warm day night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">II<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Come snow, come wind or thunder<br /></span> +<span class="i1">High up in air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I watch my face, and wonder<br /></span> +<span class="i1">At my bright hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought else exalts or grieves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rose at heart, that heaves<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With love of her own leaves and lips that pair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She knows not loves that kissed her<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She knows not where.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Art thou the ghost, my sister,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">White sister there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am I the ghost, who knows?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hand, a fallen rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lies snow-white on white snows, and takes no care.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I cannot see what pleasures<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or what pains were;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What pale new loves and treasures<br /></span> +<span class="i1">New years will bear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What beam will fall, what shower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What grief or joy for dower;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But one thing-knows the flower; the flower is fair."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">III<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Glad, but not flushed with gladness,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Since joys go by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sad, but not bent with sadness,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Since sorrows die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep in the gleaming glass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She sees all past things pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all sweet life that was lie down and lie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There glowing ghosts of flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Draw down, draw nigh;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wings of swift spent hours<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Take flight and fly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She sees by formless gleams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hears across cold streams,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dead mouths of many dreams that sing and sigh.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Face fallen and white throat lifted,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With sleepless eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She sees old loves that drifted,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She knew not why,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Old loves and faded fears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Float down a stream that hears<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The flowing of all men's tears beneath the sky.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EROTION" id="EROTION"></a>EROTION</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweet for a little even to fear, and sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O love, to lay down fear at love's fair feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall not some fiery memory of his breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie sweet on lips that touch the lips of death?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet leave me not; yet, if thou wilt, be free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love me no more, but love my love of thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love where thou wilt, and live thy life; and I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One thing I can, and one love cannot—die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pass from me; yet thine arms, thine eyes, thine hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feed my desire and deaden my despair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet once more ere time change us, ere my cheek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whiten, ere hope be dumb or sorrow speak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet once more ere thou hate me, one full kiss;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep other hours for others, save me this.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and I will not (if it please thee) weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest thou be sad; I will but sigh, and sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet, does death hurt? thou canst not do me wrong:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall not lack thee, as I loved thee, long.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou not given me above all that live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Joy, and a little sorrow shalt not give?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What even though fairer fingers of strange girls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pass nestling through thy beautiful boy's curls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As mine did, or those curled lithe lips of thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meet theirs as these, all theirs come after mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though I were not, though I be not, best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have loved and love thee more than all the rest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O love, O lover, loose or hold me fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had thee first, whoever have thee last;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fairer or not, what need I know, what care?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thy fair bud my blossom once seemed fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why am I fair at all before thee, why<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At all desired? seeing thou art fair, not I.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall be glad of thee, O fairest head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alive, alone, without thee, with thee, dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall remember while the light lives yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the night-time I shall not forget.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though (as thou wilt) thou leave me ere life leave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will not, for thy love I will not, grieve;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not as they use who love not more than I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who love not as I love thee though I die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though thy lips, once mine, be oftener prest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To many another brow and balmier breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweeter arms, or sweeter to thy mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lull thee or lure, more fond thou wilt not find.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IN_MEMORY_OF_WALTER_SAVAGE_LANDOR" id="IN_MEMORY_OF_WALTER_SAVAGE_LANDOR"></a>IN MEMORY OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Back to the flower-town, side by side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bright months bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New-born, the bridegroom and the bride,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Freedom and spring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sweet land laughs from sea to sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Filled full of sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All things come back to her, being free;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All things but one.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In many a tender wheaten plot<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Flowers that were dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live, and old suns revive; but not<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That holier head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By this white wandering waste of sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Far north, I hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One face shall never turn to me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As once this year:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shall never smile and turn and rest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On mine as there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor one most sacred hand be prest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon my hair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I came as one whose thoughts half linger,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Half run before;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The youngest to the oldest singer<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That England bore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I found him whom I shall not find<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till all grief end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In holiest age our mightiest mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Father and friend.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But thou, if anything endure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If hope there be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O spirit that man's life left pure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Man's death set free,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not with disdain of days that were<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Look earthward now;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let dreams revive the reverend hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The imperial brow;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come back in sleep, for in the life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where thou art not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We find none like thee. Time and strife<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the world's lot<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Move thee no more; but love at least<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And reverent heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May move thee, royal and released,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Soul, as thou art.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And thou, his Florence, to thy trust<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Receive and keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep safe his dedicated dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His sacred sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So shall thy lovers, come from far,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mix with thy name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As morning-star with evening-star<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His faultless fame<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_SONG_IN_TIME_OF_ORDER" id="A_SONG_IN_TIME_OF_ORDER"></a>A SONG IN TIME OF ORDER. 1852</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Push hard across the sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the salt wind gathers breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shoulder and wrist and hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Push hard as the push of death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The wind is as iron that rings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The foam-heads loosen and flee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It swells and welters and swings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The pulse of the tide of the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And up on the yellow cliff<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The long corn flickers and shakes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Push, for the wind holds stiff,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the gunwale dips and rakes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Good hap to the fresh fierce weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The quiver and beat of the sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While three men hold together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The kingdoms are less by three.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out to the sea with her there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Out with her over the sand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the kings keep the earth for their share!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We have done with the sharers of land.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They have tied the world in a tether,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They have bought over God with a fee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While three men hold together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The kingdoms are less by three.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We have done with the kisses that sting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The thief's mouth red from the feast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood on the hands of the king<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the lie at the lips of the priest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Will they tie the winds in a tether,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Put a bit in the jaws of the sea?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While three men hold together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The kingdoms are less by three.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let our flag run out straight in the wind!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The old red shall be floated again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the ranks that are thin shall be thinned,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When the names that were twenty are ten;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the devil's riddle is mastered<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the galley-bench creaks with a Pope,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall see Buonaparte the bastard<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kick heels with his throat in a rope.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While the shepherd sets wolves on his sheep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the emperor halters his kine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Shame is a watchman asleep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Faith is a keeper of swine,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let the wind shake our flag like a feather,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like the plumes of the foam of the sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While three men hold together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The kingdoms are less by three.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the world has its burdens to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From Cayenne to the Austrian whips;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth, with the rain in our hair<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the salt sweet foam in our lips;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the teeth of the hard glad weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the blown wet face of the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While three men hold together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The kingdoms are less by three.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_SONG_IN_TIME_OF_REVOLUTION" id="A_SONG_IN_TIME_OF_REVOLUTION"></a>A SONG IN TIME OF REVOLUTION. 1860</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The heart of the rulers is sick, and the high-priest covers his head:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this is the song of the quick that is heard in the ears of the dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The poor and the halt and the blind are keen and mighty and fleet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the noise of the blowing of wind is the sound of the noise of their feet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The wind has the sound of a laugh in the clamour of days and of deeds:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The priests are scattered like chaff, and the rulers broken like reeds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The high-priest sick from qualms, with his raiment bloodily dashed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thief with branded palms, and the liar with cheeks abashed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They are smitten, they tremble greatly, they are pained for their pleasant things:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the house of the priests made stately, and the might in the mouth of the kings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They are grieved and greatly afraid; they are taken, they shall not flee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the heart of the nations is made as the strength of the springs of the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They were fair in the grace of gold, they walked with delicate feet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They were clothed with the cunning of old, and the smell of their garments was sweet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the breaking of gold in their hair they halt as a man made lame:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are utterly naked and bare; their mouths are bitter with shame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou judge thy people now, O king that wast found most wise?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou lie any more, O thou whose mouth is emptied of lies?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shall God make a pact with thee, till his hook be found in thy sides?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou put back the time of the sea, or the place of the season of tides?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Set a word in thy lips, to stand before God with a word in thy mouth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That "the rain shall return in the land, and the tender dew after drouth."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the arm of the elders is broken, their strength is unbound and undone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They wait for a sign of a token; they cry, and there cometh none.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their moan is in every place, the cry of them filleth the land:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is shame in the sight of their face, there is fear in the thews of their hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They are girdled about the reins with a curse for the girdle thereon:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the noise of the rending of chains the face of their colour is gone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the sound of the shouting of men they are grievously stricken at heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are smitten asunder with pain, their bones are smitten apart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is none of them all that is whole; their lips gape open for breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are clothed with sickness of soul, and the shape of the shadow of death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The wind is thwart in their feet; it is full of the shouting of mirth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one shaketh the sides of a sheet, so it shaketh the ends of the earth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sword, the sword is made keen; the iron has opened its mouth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The corn is red that was green; it is bound for the sheaves of the south.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sound of a word was shed, the sound of the wind as a breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the ears of the souls that were dead, in the dust of the deepness of death;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where the face of the moon is taken, the ways of the stars undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The light of the whole sky shaken, the light of the face of the sun:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where the waters are emptied and broken, the waves of the waters are stayed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where God has bound for a token the darkness that maketh afraid;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where the sword was covered and hidden, and dust had grown in its side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A word came forth which was bidden, the crying of one that cried:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sides of the two-edged sword shall be bare, and its mouth shall be red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the breath of the face of the Lord that is felt in the bones of the dead.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TO_VICTOR_HUGO" id="TO_VICTOR_HUGO"></a>TO VICTOR HUGO</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">In the fair days when God<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By man as godlike trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each alike was Greek, alike was free,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God's lightning spared, they said,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Alone the happier head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose laurels screened it; fruitless grace for thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To whom the high gods gave of right<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their thunders and their laurels and their light.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Sunbeams and bays before<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our master's servants wore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these Apollo left in all men's lands;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But far from these ere now<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And watched with jealous brow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay the blind lightnings shut between God's hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And only loosed on slaves and kings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The terror of the tempest of their wings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Born in those younger years<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That shone with storms of spears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shook in the wind blown from a dead world's pyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When by her back-blown hair<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Napoleon caught the fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fierce Republic with her feet of fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And stayed with iron words and hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her flight, and freedom in a thousand lands:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Thou sawest the tides of things<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Close over heads of kings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thine hand felt the thunder, and to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Laurels and lightnings were<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As sunbeams and soft air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mixed each in other, or as mist with sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mixed, or as memory with desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or the lute's pulses with the louder lyre.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">For thee man's spirit stood<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Disrobed of flesh and blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bare the heart of the most secret hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to thine hand more tame<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than birds in winter came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High hopes and unknown flying forms of powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And from thy table fed, and sang<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till with the tune men's ears took fire and rang.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Even all men's eyes and ears<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With fiery sound and tears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waxed hot, and cheeks caught flame and eyelid light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At those high songs of thine<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That stung the sense like wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or fell more soft than dew or snow by night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or wailed as in some flooded cave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sobs the strong broken spirit of a wave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">But we, our master, we<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose hearts, uplift to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ache with the pulse of thy remembered song,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We ask not nor await<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the clenched hands of fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As thou, remission of the world's old wrong;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Respite we ask not, nor release;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Freedom a man may have, he shall not peace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Though thy most fiery hope<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Storm heaven, to set wide ope<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The all-sought-for gate whence God or Chance debars<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All feet of men, all eyes—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The old night resumes her skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her hollow hiding-place of clouds and stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where nought save these is sure in sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, paven with death, our days are roofed with night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">One thing we can; to be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Awhile, as men may, free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But not by hope or pleasure the most stern<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Goddess, most awful-eyed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sits, but on either side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sit sorrow and the wrath of hearts that burn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sad faith that cannot hope or fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And memory grey with many a flowerless year.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Not that in stranger's wise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I lift not loving eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the fair foster-mother France, that gave<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beyond the pale fleet foam<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Help to my sires and home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose great sweet breast could shelter those and save<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whom from her nursing breasts and hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their land cast forth of old on gentler lands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Not without thoughts that ache<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For theirs and for thy sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, born of exiles, hail thy banished head;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I whose young song took flight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Toward the great heat and light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On me a child from thy far splendour shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From thine high place of soul and song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, fallen on eyes yet feeble, made them strong.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Ah, not with lessening love<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For memories born hereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I look to that sweet mother-land, and see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The old fields and fair full streams,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And skies, but fled like dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The feet of freedom and the thought of thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all between the skies and graves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mirth of mockers and the shame of slaves.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">She, killed with noisome air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Even she! and still so fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who said "Let there be freedom," and there was<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Freedom; and as a lance<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The fiery eyes of France<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touched the world's sleep and as a sleep made pass<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Forth of men's heavier ears and eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smitten with fire and thunder from new skies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Are they men's friends indeed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who watch them weep and bleed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because thou hast loved us, shall the gods love thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou, first of men and friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seest thou, even thou, the end?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest what hath been, knowest thou what shall be?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Evils may pass and hopes endure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But fate is dim, and all the gods obscure.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">O nursed in airs apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O poet highest of heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou seen time, who hast seen so many things?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are not the years more wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">More sad than keenest eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The years with soundless feet and sounding wings?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Passing we hear them not, but past<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The clamour of them thrills us, and their blast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Thou art chief of us, and lord;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy song is as a sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keen-edged and scented in the blade from flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou art lord and king; but we<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lift younger eyes, and see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Less of high hope, less light on wandering hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hours that have borne men down so long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seen the right fail, and watched uplift the wrong.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">But thine imperial soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As years and ruins roll<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the same end, and all things and all dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the same wreck and roar<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Drift on the dim same shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still in the bitter foam and brackish streams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tracks the fresh water-spring to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sudden sweeter fountains in the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">As once the high God bound<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With many a rivet round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Man's saviour, and with iron nailed him through,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At the wild end of things,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where even his own bird's wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flagged, whence the sea shone like a drop of dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From Caucasus beheld below<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Past fathoms of unfathomable snow;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">So the strong God, the chance<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Central of circumstance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still shows him exile who will not be slave;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All thy great fame and thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Girt by the dim strait sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With multitudinous walls of wandering wave;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shows us our greatest from his throne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fate-stricken, and rejected of his own.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Yea, he is strong, thou say'st,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A mystery many-faced,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wild beasts know him and the wild birds flee;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The blind night sees him, death<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shrinks beaten at his breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his right hand is heavy on the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We know he hath made us, and is king;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We know not if he care for anything.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Thus much, no more, we know;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He bade what is be so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bade light be and bade night be, one by one;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bade hope and fear, bade ill<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And good redeem and kill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till all men be aweary of the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And his world burn in its own flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bear no witness longer of his name.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Yet though all this be thus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be those men praised of us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who have loved and wrought and sorrowed and not sinned<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For fame or fear or gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor waxed for winter cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor changed for changes of the worldly wind;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Praised above men of men be these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till this one world and work we know shall cease.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Yea, one thing more than this,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We know that one thing is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The splendour of a spirit without blame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That not the labouring years<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Blind-born, nor any fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor men nor any gods can tire or tame;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But purer power with fiery breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fills, and exalts above the gulfs of death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Praised above men be thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose laurel-laden brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made for the morning, droops not in the night;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Praised and beloved, that none<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of all thy great things done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flies higher than thy most equal spirit's flight;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Praised, that nor doubt nor hope could bend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth's loftiest head, found upright to the end.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BEFORE_DAWN" id="BEFORE_DAWN"></a>BEFORE DAWN</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweet life, if life were stronger,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth clear of years that wrong her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then two things might live longer,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Two sweeter things than they;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Delight, the rootless flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And love, the bloomless bower;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Delight that lives an hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And love that lives a day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From evensong to daytime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When April melts in Maytime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love lengthens out his playtime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love lessens breath by breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kiss by kiss grows older<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On listless throat or shoulder<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turned sideways now, turned colder<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than life that dreams of death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This one thing once worth giving<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life gave, and seemed worth living;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sin sweet beyond forgiving<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And brief beyond regret:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To laugh and love together<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And weave with foam and feather<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wind and words the tether<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our memories play with yet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, one thing worth beginning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One thread in life worth spinning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah sweet, one sin worth sinning<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With all the whole soul's will;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lull you till one stilled you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To kiss you till one killed you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To feed you till one filled you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sweet lips, if love could fill;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To hunt sweet Love and lose him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between white arms and bosom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between the bud and blossom,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Between your throat and chin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To say of shame—what is it?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of virtue—we can miss it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sin—we can but kiss it,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And it's no longer sin:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To feel the strong soul, stricken<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through fleshly pulses, quicken<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath swift sighs that thicken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Soft hands and lips that smite;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lips that no love can tire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hands that sting like fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weaving the web Desire<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To snare the bird Delight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But love so lightly plighted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our love with torch unlighted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Paused near us unaffrighted,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who found and left him free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None, seeing us cloven in sunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will weep or laugh or wonder;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light love stands clear of thunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And safe from winds at sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As, when late larks give warning<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of dying lights and dawning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Night murmurs to the morning,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Lie still, O love, lie still;"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And half her dark limbs cover<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The white limbs of her lover,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With amorous plumes that hover<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And fervent lips that chill;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As scornful day represses<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Night's void and vain caresses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from her cloudier tresses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Unwinds the gold of his,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With limbs from limbs dividing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And breath by breath subsiding;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love has no abiding,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But dies before the kiss;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So hath it been, so be it;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For who shall live and flee it?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But look that no man see it<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or hear it unaware;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest all who love and choose him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See Love, and so refuse him;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all who find him lose him,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But all have found him fair.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DOLORES" id="DOLORES"></a>DOLORES</h2> + +<h4>(NOTRE-DAME DES SEPT DOULEURS)</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cold eyelids that hide like a jewel<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hard eyes that grow soft for an hour;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heavy white limbs, and the cruel<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Red mouth like a venomous flower;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When these are gone by with their glories,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What shall rest of thee then, what remain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O mystic and sombre Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Seven sorrows the priests give their Virgin;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But thy sins, which are seventy times seven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seven ages would fail thee to purge in,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And then they would haunt thee in heaven:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce midnights and famishing morrows,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the loves that complete and control<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the joys of the flesh, all the sorrows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That wear out the soul.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O garment not golden but gilded,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O garden where all men may dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O tower not of ivory, but builded<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By hands that reach heaven from hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O mystical rose of the mire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O house not of gold but of gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O house of unquenchable fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O lips full of lust and of laughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Curled snakes that are fed from my breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bite hard, lest remembrance come after<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And press with new lips where you pressed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For my heart too springs up at the pressure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mine eyelids too moisten and burn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, feed me and fill me with pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere pain come in turn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In yesterday's reach and to-morrow's,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Out of sight though they lie of to-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There have been and there yet shall be sorrows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That smite not and bite not in play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The life and the love thou despisest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These hurt us indeed, and in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O wise among women, and wisest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who gave thee thy wisdom? what stories<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That stung thee, what visions that smote?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wert thou pure and a maiden, Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When desire took thee first by the throat?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What bud was the shell of a blossom<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That all men may smell to and pluck?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What milk fed thee first at what bosom?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What sins gave thee suck?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We shift and bedeck and bedrape us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou art noble and nude and antique;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Libitina thy mother, Priapus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy father, a Tuscan and Greek.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We play with light loves in the portal,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And wince and relent and refrain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loves die, and we know thee immortal,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fruits fail and love dies and time ranges;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou art fed with perpetual breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And alive after infinite changes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And fresh from the kisses of death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of languors rekindled and rallied,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of barren delights and unclean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Things monstrous and fruitless, a pallid<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And poisonous queen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Could you hurt me, sweet lips, though I hurt you?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Men touch them, and change in a trice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lilies and languors of virtue<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For the raptures and roses of vice;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those lie where thy foot on the floor is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These crown and caress thee and chain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O splendid and sterile Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There are sins it may be to discover,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There are deeds it may be to delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What new work wilt thou find for thy lover,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What new passions for daytime or night?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What spells that they know not a word of<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose lives are as leaves overblown?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What tortures undreamt of, unheard of,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Unwritten, unknown?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah beautiful passionate body<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That never has ached with a heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On thy mouth though the kisses are bloody,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though they sting till it shudder and smart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More kind than the love we adore is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They hurt not the heart or the brain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O bitter and tender Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As our kisses relax and redouble,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From the lips and the foam and the fangs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall no new sin be born for men's trouble,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No dream of impossible pangs?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the sweet of the sins of old ages<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wilt thou satiate thy soul as of yore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too sweet is the rind, say the sages,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Too bitter the core.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hast thou told all thy secrets the last time,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And bared all thy beauties to one?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, where shall we go then for pastime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If the worst that can be has been done?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sweet as the rind was the core is;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We are fain of thee still, we are fain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sanguine and subtle Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the hunger of change and emotion,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the thirst of unbearable things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By despair, the twin-born of devotion,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the pleasure that winces and stings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The delight that consumes the desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The desire that outruns the delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the cruelty deaf as a fire<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And blind as the night,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the ravenous teeth that have smitten<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through the kisses that blossom and bud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the lips intertwisted and bitten<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till the foam has a savour of blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the pulse as it rises and falters,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the hands as they slacken and strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I adjure thee, respond from thine altars,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou smile as a woman disdaining<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The light fire in the veins of a boy?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he comes to thee sad, without feigning,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who has wearied of sorrow and joy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Less careful of labour and glory<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than the elders whose hair has uncurled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And young, but with fancies as hoary<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And grey as the world.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have passed from the outermost portal<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To the shrine where a sin is a prayer;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What care though the service be mortal?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O our Lady of Torture, what care?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All thine the last wine that I pour is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The last in the chalice we drain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O fierce and luxurious Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All thine the new wine of desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The fruit of four lips as they clung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the hair and the eyelids took fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The foam of a serpentine tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The froth of the serpents of pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">More salt than the foam of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now felt as a flame, now at leisure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As wine shed for me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah thy people, thy children, thy chosen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Marked cross from the womb and perverse!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They have found out the secret to cozen<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The gods that constrain us and curse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They alone, they are wise, and none other;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Give me place, even me, in their train,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O my sister, my spouse, and my mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the crown of our life as it closes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is darkness, the fruit thereof dust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No thorns go as deep as a rose's,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And love is more cruel than lust.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time turns the old days to derision,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our loves into corpses or wives;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And marriage and death and division<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Make barren our lives.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And pale from the past we draw nigh thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And satiate with comfortless hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we know thee, how all men belie thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And we gather the fruit of thy flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The passion that slays and recovers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pangs and the kisses that rain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the lips and the limbs of thy lovers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The desire of thy furious embraces<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is more than the wisdom of years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the blossom though blood lie in traces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though the foliage be sodden with tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the lords in whose keeping the door is<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That opens on all who draw breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gave the cypress to love, my Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The myrtle to death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And they laughed, changing hands in the measure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And they mixed and made peace after strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pain melted in tears, and was pleasure;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Death tingled with blood, and was life.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like lovers they melted and tingled,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the dusk of thine innermost fane;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the darkness they murmured and mingled,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In a twilight where virtues are vices,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In thy chapels, unknown of the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a tune that enthralls and entices,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They were wed, and the twain were as one.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the tune from thine altar hath sounded<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Since God bade the world's work begin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the fume of thine incense abounded,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To sweeten the sin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love listens, and paler than ashes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through his curls as the crown on them slips,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lifts languid wet eyelids and lashes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And laughs with insatiable lips.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt hush him with heavy caresses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With music that scares the profane;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt darken his eyes with thy tresses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt blind his bright eyes though he wrestle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou shalt chain his light limbs though he strive;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In his lips all thy serpents shall nestle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In his hands all thy cruelties thrive.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the daytime thy voice shall go through him,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In his dreams he shall feel thee and ache;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt kindle by night and subdue him<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Asleep and awake.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt touch and make redder his roses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With juice not of fruit nor of bud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the sense in the spirit reposes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou shalt quicken the soul through the blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine, thine the one grace we implore is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who would live and not languish or feign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sleepless and deadly Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dost thou dream, in a respite of slumber,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In a lull of the fires of thy life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the days without name, without number,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When thy will stung the world into strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, a goddess, the pulse of thy passion<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Smote kings as they revelled in Rome;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they hailed thee re-risen, O Thalassian,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Foam-white, from the foam?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When thy lips had such lovers to flatter;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When the city lay red from thy rods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thine hands were as arrows to scatter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The children of change and their gods;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the blood of thy foemen made fervent<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A sand never moist from the main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one smote them, their lord and thy servant,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On sands by the storm never shaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor wet from the washing of tides;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor by foam of the waves overtaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor winds that the thunder bestrides;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But red from the print of thy paces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Made smooth for the world and its lords,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ringed round with a flame of fair faces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And splendid with swords.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There the gladiator, pale for thy pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Drew bitter and perilous breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There torments laid hold on the treasure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of limbs too delicious for death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thy gardens were lit with live torches;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When the world was a steed for thy rein;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the nations lay prone in thy porches,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When, with flame all around him aspirant,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stood flushed, as a harp-player stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The implacable beautiful tyrant,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rose-crowned, having death in his hands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a sound as the sound of loud water<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Smote far through the flight of the fires,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mixed with the lightning of slaughter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A thunder of lyres.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dost thou dream of what was and no more is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The old kingdoms of earth and the kings?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost thou hunger for these things, Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For these, in a world of new things?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thy bosom no fasts could emaciate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No hunger compel to complain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those lips that no bloodshed could satiate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As of old when the world's heart was lighter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through thy garments the grace of thee glows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The white wealth of thy body made whiter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the blushes of amorous blows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seamed with sharp lips and fierce fingers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And branded by kisses that bruise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all shall be gone that now lingers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah, what shall we lose?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou wert fair in the fearless old fashion,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And thy limbs are as melodies yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And move to the music of passion<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With lithe and lascivious regret.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What ailed us, O gods, to desert you<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For creeds that refuse and restrain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come down and redeem us from virtue,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All shrines that were Vestal are flameless,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But the flame has not fallen from this;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though obscure be the god, and though nameless<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The eyes and the hair that we kiss;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Low fires that love sits by and forges<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fresh heads for his arrows and thine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hair loosened and soiled in mid orgies<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With kisses and wine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy skin changes country and colour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And shrivels or swells to a snake's.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let it brighten and bloat and grow duller,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We know it, the flames and the flakes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red brands on it smitten and bitten,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Round skies where a star is a stain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the leaves with thy litanies written,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On thy bosom though many a kiss be,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There are none such as knew it of old.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was it Alciphron once or Arisbe,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Male ringlets or feminine gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thy lips met with under the statue,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whence a look shot out sharp after thieves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the eyes of the garden-god at you<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Across the fig-leaves?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then still, through dry seasons and moister,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One god had a wreath to his shrine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then love was the pearl of his oyster,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Venus rose red out of wine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have all done amiss, choosing rather<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Such loves as the wise gods disdain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Intercede for us thou with thy father,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In spring he had crowns of his garden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Red corn in the heat of the year,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then hoary green olives that harden<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When the grape-blossom freezes with fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And milk-budded myrtles with Venus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And vine-leaves with Bacchus he trod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ye said, "We have seen, he hath seen us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A visible God."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What broke off the garlands that girt you?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What sundered you spirit and clay?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weak sins yet alive are as virtue<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To the strength of the sins of that day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For dried is the blood of thy lover,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ipsithilla, contracted the vein;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cry aloud, "Will he rise and recover,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cry aloud; for the old world is broken:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cry out; for the Phrygian is priest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rears not the bountiful token<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And spreads not the fatherly feast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the midmost of Ida, from shady<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Recesses that murmur at morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They have brought and baptized her, Our Lady,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A goddess new-born.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the chaplets of old are above us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the oyster-bed teems out of reach;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Old poets outsing and outlove us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Catullus makes mouths at our speech.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall kiss, in thy father's own city,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With such lips as he sang with, again?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Intercede for us all of thy pity,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of Dindymus heavily laden<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her lions draw bound and unfed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mother, a mortal, a maiden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A queen over death and the dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She is cold, and her habit is lowly,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her temple of branches and sods;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most fruitful and virginal, holy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A mother of gods.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She hath wasted with fire thine high places,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She hath hidden and marred and made sad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fair limbs of the Loves, the fair faces<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of gods that were goodly and glad.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She slays, and her hands are not bloody;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She moves as a moon in the wane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White-robed, and thy raiment is ruddy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They shall pass and their places be taken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The gods and the priests that are pure.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall pass, and shalt thou not be shaken?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They shall perish, and shalt thou endure?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death laughs, breathing close and relentless<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the nostrils and eyelids of lust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a pinch in his fingers of scentless<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And delicate dust.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the worm shall revive thee with kisses;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou shalt change and transmute as a god,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the rod to a serpent that hisses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As the serpent again to a rod.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy life shall not cease though thou doff it;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou shalt live until evil be slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And good shall die first, said thy prophet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Did he lie? did he laugh? does he know it,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now he lies out of reach, out of breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy prophet, thy preacher, thy poet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sin's child by incestuous Death?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did he find out in fire at his waking,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or discern as his eyelids lost light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the bands of the body were breaking<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all came in sight?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who has known all the evil before us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or the tyrannous secrets of time?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though we match not the dead men that bore us<br /></span> +<span class="i1">At a song, at a kiss, at a crime—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though the heathen outface and outlive us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And our lives and our longings are twain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, forgive us our virtues, forgive us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who are we that embalm and embrace thee<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With spices and savours of song?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What is time, that his children should face thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What am I, that my lips do thee wrong?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I could hurt thee—but pain would delight thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or caress thee—but love would repel;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the lovers whose lips would excite thee<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are serpents in hell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who now shall content thee as they did,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy lovers, when temples were built<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the hair of the sacrifice braided<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the blood of the sacrifice spilt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Lampsacus fervent with faces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In Aphaca red from thy reign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who embraced thee with awful embraces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where are they, Cotytto or Venus,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Astarte or Ashtaroth, where?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do their hands as we touch come between us?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is the breath of them hot in thy hair?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From their lips have thy lips taken fever,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the blood of their bodies grown red?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou left upon earth a believer<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If these men are dead?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They were purple of raiment and golden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Filled full of thee, fiery with wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy lovers, in haunts unbeholden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In marvellous chambers of thine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are fled, and their footprints escape us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who appraise thee, adore, and abstain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O daughter of Death and Priapus,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What ails us to fear overmeasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To praise thee with timorous breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O mistress and mother of pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The one thing as certain as death?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall change as the things that we cherish,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall fade as they faded before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As foam upon water shall perish,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As sand upon shore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We shall know what the darkness discovers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If the grave-pit be shallow or deep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And our fathers of old, and our lovers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We shall know if they sleep not or sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall see whether hell be not heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Find out whether tares be not grain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the joys of thee seventy times seven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_GARDEN_OF_PROSERPINE" id="THE_GARDEN_OF_PROSERPINE"></a>THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here, where the world is quiet;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here, where all trouble seems<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead winds' and spent waves' riot<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In doubtful dreams of dreams;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I watch the green field growing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For reaping folk and sowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For harvest-time and mowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A sleepy world of streams.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am tired of tears and laughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And men that laugh and weep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of what may come hereafter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For men that sow to reap:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am weary of days and hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blown buds of barren flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Desires and dreams and powers<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And everything but sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here life has death for neighbour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And far from eye or ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wan waves and wet winds labour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Weak ships and spirits steer;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They drive adrift, and whither<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They wot not who make thither;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But no such winds blow hither,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And no such things grow here.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No growth of moor or coppice,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No heather-flower or vine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But bloomless buds of poppies,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Green grapes of Proserpine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale beds of blowing rushes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where no leaf blooms or blushes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save this whereout she crushes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For dead men deadly wine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pale, without name or number,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In fruitless fields of corn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bow themselves and slumber<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All night till light is born;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like a soul belated,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In hell and heaven unmated,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By cloud and mist abated<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Comes out of darkness morn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though one were strong as seven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He too with death shall dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wake with wings in heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor weep for pains in hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though one were fair as roses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His beauty clouds and closes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And well though love reposes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the end it is not well.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pale, beyond porch and portal,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Crowned with calm leaves, she stands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who gathers all things mortal<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With cold immortal hands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her languid lips are sweeter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than love's who fears to greet her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To men that mix and meet her<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From many times and lands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She waits for each and other,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She waits for all men born;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forgets the earth her mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The life of fruits and corn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spring and seed and swallow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take wing for her and follow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where summer song rings hollow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And flowers are put to scorn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There go the loves that wither,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The old loves with wearier wings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all dead years draw thither,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all disastrous things;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead dreams of days forsaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blind buds that snows have shaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wild leaves that winds have taken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Red strays of ruined springs.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We are not sure of sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And joy was never sure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To-day will die to-morrow;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Time stoops to no man's lure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And love, grown faint and fretful,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lips but half regretful<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sighs, and with eyes forgetful<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Weeps that no loves endure.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From too much love of living,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From hope and fear set free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We thank with brief thanksgiving<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whatever gods may be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That no life lives for ever;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That dead men rise up never;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That even the weariest river<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Winds somewhere safe to sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then star nor sun shall waken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor any change of light:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor sound of waters shaken,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor any sound or sight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor days nor things diurnal;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only the sleep eternal<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In an eternal night.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HESPERIA" id="HESPERIA"></a>HESPERIA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of the golden remote wild west where the sea without shore is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Full of the sunset, and sad, if at all, with the fulness of joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a wind sets in with the autumn that blows from the region of stories,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Blows with a perfume of songs and of memories beloved from a boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blows from the capes of the past oversea to the bays of the present,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Filled as with shadow of sound with the pulse of invisible feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far out to the shallows and straits of the future, by rough ways or pleasant,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is it thither the wind's wings beat? is it hither to me, O my sweet?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thee, in the stream of the deep tide-wind blowing in with the water,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thee I behold as a bird borne in with the wind from the west,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Straight from the sunset, across white waves whence rose as a daughter<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Venus thy mother, in years when the world was a water at rest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of the distance of dreams, as a dream that abides after slumber,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Strayed from the fugitive flock of the night, when the moon overhead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wanes in the wan waste heights of the heaven, and stars without number<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Die without sound, and are spent like lamps that are burnt by the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes back to me, stays by me, lulls me with touch of forgotten caresses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One warm dream clad about with a fire as of life that endures;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The delight of thy face, and the sound of thy feet, and the wind of thy tresses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all of a man that regrets, and all of a maid that allures.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thy bosom is warm for my face and profound as a manifold flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy silence as music, thy voice as an odour that fades in a flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not a dream, not a dream is the kiss of thy mouth, and the bountiful hour<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That makes me forget what was sin, and would make me forget were it shame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine eyes that are quiet, thine hands that are tender, thy lips that are loving,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Comfort and cool me as dew in the dawn of a moon like a dream;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my heart yearns baffled and blind, moved vainly toward thee, and moving<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As the refluent seaweed moves in the languid exuberant stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair as a rose is on earth, as a rose under water in prison,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That stretches and swings to the slow passionate pulse of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Closed up from the air and the sun, but alive, as a ghost rearisen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pale as the love that revives as a ghost rearisen in me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the bountiful infinite west, from the happy memorial places<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Full of the stately repose and the lordly delight of the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the fortunate islands are lit with the light of ineffable faces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the sound of a sea without wind is about them, and sunset is red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come back to redeem and release me from love that recalls and represses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That cleaves to my flesh as a flame, till the serpent has eaten his fill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the bitter delights of the dark, and the feverish, the furtive caresses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That murder the youth in a man or ever his heart have its will.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy lips cannot laugh and thine eyes cannot weep; thou art pale as a rose is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Paler and sweeter than leaves that cover the blush of the bud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the heart of the flower is compassion, and pity the core it encloses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pity, not love, that is born of the breath and decays with the blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the cross that a wild nun clasps till the edge of it bruises her bosom,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So love wounds as we grasp it, and blackens and burns as a flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have loved overmuch in my life; when the live bud bursts with the blossom,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bitter as ashes or tears is the fruit, and the wine thereof shame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a heart that its anguish divides is the green bud cloven asunder;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As the blood of a man self-slain is the flush of the leaves that allure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the perfume as poison and wine to the brain, a delight and a wonder;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the thorns are too sharp for a boy, too slight for a man, to endure.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too soon did I love it, and lost love's rose; and I cared not for glory's:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Only the blossoms of sleep and of pleasure were mixed in my hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was it myrtle or poppy thy garland was woven with, O my Dolores?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Was it pallor of slumber, or blush as of blood, that I found in thee fair?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For desire is a respite from love, and the flesh not the heart is her fuel;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She was sweet to me once, who am fled and escaped from the rage of her reign;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who behold as of old time at hand as I turn, with her mouth growing cruel,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And flushed as with wine with the blood of her lovers, Our Lady of Pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Low down where the thicket is thicker with thorns than with leaves in the summer,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the brake is a gleaming of eyes and a hissing of tongues that I knew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the lithe long throats of her snakes reach round her, their mouths overcome her,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And her lips grow cool with their foam, made moist as a desert with dew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the thirst and the hunger of lust though her beautiful lips be so bitter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the cold foul foam of the snakes they soften and redden and smile;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her fierce mouth sweetens, her eyes wax wide and her eyelashes glitter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And she laughs with a savour of blood in her face, and a savour of guile.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She laughs, and her hands reach hither, her hair blows hither and hisses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As a low-lit flame in a wind, back-blown till it shudder and leap;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let her lips not again lay hold on my soul, nor her poisonous kisses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To consume it alive and divide from thy bosom, Our Lady of Sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah daughter of sunset and slumber, if now it return into prison,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who shall redeem it anew? but we, if thou wilt, let us fly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us take to us, now that the white skies thrill with a moon unarisen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Swift horses of fear or of love, take flight and depart and not die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are swifter than dreams, they are stronger than death; there is none that hath ridden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">None that shall ride in the dim strange ways of his life as we ride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the meadows of memory, the highlands of hope, and the shore that is hidden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where life breaks loud and unseen, a sonorous invisible tide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the sands where sorrow has trodden, the salt pools bitter and sterile,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the thundering reef and the low sea-wall and the channel of years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our wild steeds press on the night, strain hard through pleasure and peril,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Labour and listen and pant not or pause for the peril that nears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sound of them trampling the way cleaves night as an arrow asunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And slow by the sand-hill and swift by the down with its glimpses of grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sudden and steady the music, as eight hoofs trample and thunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rings in the ear of the low blind wind of the night as we pass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shrill shrieks in our faces the blind bland air that was mute as a maiden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stung into storm by the speed of our passage, and deaf where we past;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And our spirits too burn as we bound, thine holy but mine heavy-laden,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As we burn with the fire of our flight; ah love, shall we win at the last?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LOVE_AT_SEA" id="LOVE_AT_SEA"></a>LOVE AT SEA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We are in love's land to-day;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where shall we go?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love, shall we start or stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or sail or row?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's many a wind and way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And never a May but May;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are in love's hand to-day;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where shall we go?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our landwind is the breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sorrows kissed to death<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And joys that were;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our ballast is a rose;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our way lies where God knows<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And love knows where.<br /></span> +<span class="i5">We are in love's hand to-day—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our seamen are fledged Loves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our masts are bills of doves,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our decks fine gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our ropes are dead maids' hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our stores are love-shafts fair<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And manifold.<br /></span> +<span class="i5">We are in love's land to-day—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where shall we land you, sweet?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On fields of strange men's feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or fields near home?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or where the fire-flowers blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or where the flowers of snow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or flowers of foam?<br /></span> +<span class="i5">We are in love's hand to-day—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Land me, she says, where love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shows but one shaft, one dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">One heart, one hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—A shore like that, my dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lies where no man will steer,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No maiden land.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3"><i>Imitated from Théophile Gautier.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="APRIL" id="APRIL"></a>APRIL</h2> + +<h4>FROM THE FRENCH OF THE VIDAME DE CHARTRES</h4> + +<h4>12—?</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the fields catch flower<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the underwood is green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from bower unto bower<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The songs of the birds begin,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I sing with sighing between.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I laugh and sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I am heavy at heart for my sin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am sad in the spring<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For my love that I shall not win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For a foolish thing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This profit I have of my woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That I know, as I sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know he will needs have it so<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who is master and king,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who is lord of the spirit of spring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will serve her and will not spare<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till her pity awake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who is good, who is pure, who is fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even her for whose sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love hath ta'en me and slain unaware.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O my lord, O Love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I have laid my life at thy feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have thy will thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Do as it please thee with it,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For what shall please thee is sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am come unto thee<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To do thee service, O Love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet cannot I see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou wilt take any pity thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Any mercy on me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the grace I have long time sought<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Comes never in sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If in her it abideth not,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through thy mercy and might,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose heart is the world's delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast sworn without fail I shall die,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For my heart is set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On what hurts me, I wot not why,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But cannot forget<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What I love, what I sing for and sigh.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She is worthy of praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For this grief of her giving is worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the joy of my days<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That lie between death's day and birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All the lordship of things upon earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, what have I said?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I would not be glad if I could;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My dream and my dread<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are of her, and for her sake I would<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That my life were fled.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, sweet, if I durst not pray to you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then were I dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I sang not a little to say to you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Could it be said)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O my love, how my heart would be fed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah sweet who hast hold of my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For thy love's sake I live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do but tell me, ere either depart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What a lover may give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For a woman so fair as thou art.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The lovers that disbelieve,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">False rumours shall grieve<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And evil-speaking shall part.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BEFORE_PARTING" id="BEFORE_PARTING"></a>BEFORE PARTING</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A month or twain to live on honeycomb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is pleasant; but one tires of scented time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cold sweet recurrence of accepted rhyme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that strong purple under juice and foam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the wine's heart has burst;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor feel the latter kisses like the first.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Once yet, this poor one time; I will not pray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even to change the bitterness of it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bitter taste ensuing on the sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make your tears fall where your soft hair lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All blurred and heavy in some perfumed wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over my face and eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet who knows what end the scythèd wheat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Makes of its foolish poppies' mouths of red?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These were not sown, these are not harvested,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They grow a month and are cast under feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And none has care thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As none has care of a divided love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know each shadow of your lips by rote,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each change of love in eyelids and eyebrows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fashion of fair temples tremulous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tender blood, and colour of your throat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know not how love is gone out of this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing that all was his.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love's likeness there endures upon all these:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But out of these one shall not gather love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Day hath not strength nor the night shade enough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make love whole and fill his lips with ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As some bee-builded cell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feels at filled lips the heavy honey swell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know not how this last month leaves your hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Less full of purple colour and hid spice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that luxurious trouble of closed eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is mixed with meaner shadow and waste care;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And love, kissed out by pleasure, seems not yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worth patience to regret.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SUNDEW" id="THE_SUNDEW"></a>THE SUNDEW</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A little marsh-plant, yellow green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pricked at lip with tender red.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tread close, and either way you tread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some faint black water jets between<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest you should bruise the curious head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A live thing maybe; who shall know?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The summer knows and suffers it;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the cool moss is thick and sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each side, and saves the blossom so<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it lives out the long June heat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The deep scent of the heather burns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About it; breathless though it be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bow down and worship; more than we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is the least flower whose life returns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Least weed renascent in the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We are vexed and cumbered in earth's sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wants, with many memories;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These see their mother what she is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glad-growing, till August leave more bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The apple-coloured cranberries.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wind blows and bleaches the strong grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blown all one way to shelter it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From trample of strayed kine, with feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Felt heavier than the moorhen was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strayed up past patches of wild wheat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You call it sundew: how it grows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If with its colour it have breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If life taste sweet to it, if death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pain its soft petal, no man knows:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Man has no sight or sense that saith.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My sundew, grown of gentle days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In these green miles the spring begun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy growth ere April had half done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the soft secret of her ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or June made ready for the sun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O red-lipped mouth of marsh-flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a secret halved with thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The name that is love's name to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest, and the face of her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who is my festival to see.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The hard sun, as thy petals knew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Coloured the heavy moss-water:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou wert not worth green midsummer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor fit to live to August blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sundew, not remembering her.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FELISE" id="FELISE"></a>FÉLISE</h2> + +<h4><i>Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?</i></h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What shall be said between us here<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Among the downs, between the trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In fields that knew our feet last year,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In sight of quiet sands and seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This year, Félise?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who knows what word were best to say?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For last year's leaves lie dead and red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this sweet day, in this green May,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And barren corn makes bitter bread.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What shall be said?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here as last year the fields begin,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A fire of flowers and glowing grass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old fields we laughed and lingered in,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Seeing each our souls in last year's glass,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Félise, alas!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shall we not laugh, shall we not weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not we, though this be as it is?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love awake or love asleep<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ends in a laugh, a dream, a kiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A song like this.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I that have slept awake, and you<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sleep, who last year were well awake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though love do all that love can do,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My heart will never ache or break<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For your heart's sake.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The great sea, faultless as a flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Throbs, trembling under beam and breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laughs with love of the amorous hour.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I found you fairer once, Félise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than flowers or seas.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We played at bondsman and at queen;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But as the days change men change too;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I find the grey sea's notes of green,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The green sea's fervent flakes of blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">More fair than you.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your beauty is not over fair<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now in mine eyes, who am grown up wise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smell of flowers in all your hair<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Allures not now; no sigh replies<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If your heart sighs.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But you sigh seldom, you sleep sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You find love's new name good enough.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Less sweet I find it than I found<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sweetest name that ever love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grew weary of.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My snake with bright bland eyes, my snake<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grown tame and glad to be caressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lips athirst for mine to slake<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their tender fever! who had guessed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You loved me best?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I had died for this last year, to know<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You loved me. Who shall turn on fate?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I care not if love come or go<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now, though your love seek mine for mate.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It is too late.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The dust of many strange desires<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lies deep between us; in our eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead smoke of perishable fires<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Flickers, a fume in air and skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A steam of sighs.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You loved me and you loved me not;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A little, much, and overmuch.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will you forget as I forgot?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let all dead things lie dead; none such<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are soft to touch.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I love you and I do not love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Too much, a little, not at all;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too much, and never yet enough.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Birds quick to fledge and fly at call<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are quick to fall.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And these love longer now than men,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And larger loves than ours are these.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No diver brings up love again<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dropped once, my beautiful Félise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In such cold seas.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gone deeper than all plummets sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where in the dim green dayless day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The life of such dead things lies bound<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As the sea feeds on, wreck and stray<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And castaway.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Can I forget? yea, that can I,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And that can all men; so will you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alive, or later, when you die.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah, but the love you plead was true?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Was mine not too?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I loved you for that name of yours<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Long ere we met, and long enough.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now that one thing of all endures—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sweetest name that ever love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Waxed weary of.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like colours in the sea, like flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Like a cat's splendid circled eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wax and wane with love for hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Green as green flame, blue-grey like skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And soft like sighs—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And all these only like your name,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And your name full of all of these.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I say it, and it sounds the same—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Save that I say it now at ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Your name, Félise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I said "she must be swift and white,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And subtly warm, and half perverse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweet like sharp soft fruit to bite,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And like a snake's love lithe and fierce."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Men have guessed worse.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What was the song I made of you<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here where the grass forgets our feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As afternoon forgets the dew?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah that such sweet things should be fleet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Such fleet things sweet!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As afternoon forgets the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As time in time forgets all men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As our old place forgets us two,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who might have turned to one thing then<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But not again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">O lips that mine have grown into<br /></span> +<span class="i7">Like April's kissing May,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">O fervent eyelids letting through<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Those eyes the greenest of things blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i7">The bluest of things grey,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">If you were I and I were you,<br /></span> +<span class="i7">How could I love you, say?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">How could the roseleaf love the rue,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The day love nightfall and her dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i7">Though night may love the day?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You loved it may be more than I;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We know not; love is hard to seize.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all things are not good to try;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And lifelong loves the worst of these<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For us, Félise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, take the season and have done,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love well the hour and let it go:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two souls may sleep and wake up one,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or dream they wake and find it so,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And then—you know.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Kiss me once hard as though a flame<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lay on my lips and made them fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The same lips now, and not the same;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What breath shall fill and re-inspire<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A dead desire?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The old song sounds hollower in mine ear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than thin keen sounds of dead men's speech—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A noise one hears and would not hear;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Too strong to die, too weak to reach<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From wave to beach.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We stand on either side the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stretch hands, blow kisses, laugh and lean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I toward you, you toward me;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But what hears either save the keen<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grey sea between?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A year divides us, love from love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though you love now, though I loved then.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gulf is strait, but deep enough;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who shall recross, who among men<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall cross again?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love was a jest last year, you said,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And what lives surely, surely dies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even so; but now that love is dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall love rekindle from wet eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From subtle sighs?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For many loves are good to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mutable loves, and loves perverse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But there is nothing, nor shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So sweet, so wicked, but my verse<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Can dream of worse.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For we that sing and you that love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Know that which man may, only we.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rest live under us; above,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Live the great gods in heaven, and see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What things shall be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So this thing is and must be so;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For man dies, and love also dies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though yet love's ghost moves to and fro<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sea-green mirrors of your eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And laughs, and lies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eyes coloured like a water-flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And deeper than the green sea's glass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eyes that remember one sweet hour—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In vain we swore it should not pass;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In vain, alas!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah my Félise, if love or sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If shame or fear could hold it fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should we not hold it? Love wears thin,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And they laugh well who laugh the last.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is it not past?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The gods, the gods are stronger; time<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Falls down before them, all men's knees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bow, all men's prayers and sorrows climb<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Like incense towards them; yea, for these<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are gods, Félise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Immortal are they, clothed with powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not to be comforted at all;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lords over all the fruitless hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Too great to appease, too high to appal,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Too far to call.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For none shall move the most high gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who are most sad, being cruel; none<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall break or take away the rods<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wherewith they scourge us, not as one<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That smites a son.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By many a name of many a creed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We have called upon them, since the sands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell through time's hour-glass first, a seed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of life; and out of many lands<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Have we stretched hands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When have they heard us? who hath known<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their faces, climbed unto their feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Felt them and found them? Laugh or groan,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Doth heaven remurmur and repeat<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sad sounds or sweet?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Do the stars answer? in the night<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Have ye found comfort? or by day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have ye seen gods? What hope, what light,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Falls from the farthest starriest way<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On you that pray?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Are the skies wet because we weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or fair because of any mirth?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cry out; they are gods; perchance they sleep;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cry; thou shalt know what prayers are worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thou dust and earth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O earth, thou art fair; O dust, thou art great;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O laughing lips and lips that mourn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pray, till ye feel the exceeding weight<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of God's intolerable scorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not to be borne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behold, there is no grief like this;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The barren blossom of thy prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt find out how sweet it is.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O fools and blind, what seek ye there,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">High up in the air?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye must have gods, the friends of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Merciful gods, compassionate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And these shall answer you again.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Will ye beat always at the gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ye fools of fate?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye fools and blind; for this is sure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That all ye shall not live, but die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, what thing have ye found endure?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or what thing have ye found on high<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Past the blind sky?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ghosts of words and dusty dreams,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Old memories, faiths infirm and dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye fools; for which among you deems<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His prayer can alter green to red<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or stones to bread?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Why should ye bear with hopes and fears<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till all these things be drawn in one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of iron-footed years,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all the oppression that is done<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Under the sun?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye might end surely, surely pass<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Out of the multitude of things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the dust, beneath the grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Deep in dim death, where no thought stings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No record clings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No memory more of love or hate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No trouble, nothing that aspires,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No sleepless labour thwarting fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And thwarted; where no travail tires,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where no faith fires.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All passes, nought that has been is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Things good and evil have one end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can anything be otherwise<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though all men swear all things would mend<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With God to friend?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Can ye beat off one wave with prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Can ye move mountains? bid the flower<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take flight and turn to a bird in the air?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Can ye hold fast for shine or shower<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One wingless hour?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah sweet, and we too, can we bring<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One sigh back, bid one smile revive?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can God restore one ruined thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or he who slays our souls alive<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Make dead things thrive?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two gifts perforce he has given us yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though sad things stay and glad things fly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two gifts he has given us, to forget<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All glad and sad things that go by,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And then to die.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We know not whether death be good,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But life at least it will not be:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men will stand saddening as we stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Watch the same fields and skies as we<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the same sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let this be said between us here,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One love grows green when one turns grey;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This year knows nothing of last year;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To-morrow has no more to say<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To yesterday.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Live and let live, as I will do,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love and let love, and so will I.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, sweet, for me no more with you:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not while I live, not though I die.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Goodnight, goodbye.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AN_INTERLUDE" id="AN_INTERLUDE"></a>AN INTERLUDE</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the greenest growth of the Maytime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I rode where the woods were wet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between the dawn and the daytime;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The spring was glad that we met.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was something the season wanted,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though the ways and the woods smelt sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breath at your lips that panted,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pulse of the grass at your feet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You came, and the sun came after,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the green grew golden above;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the flag-flowers lightened with laughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the meadow-sweet shook with love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your feet in the full-grown grasses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Moved soft as a weak wind blows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You passed me as April passes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With face made out of a rose.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the stream where the stems were slender,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Your bright foot paused at the sedge;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It might be to watch the tender<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Light leaves in the springtime hedge,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On boughs that the sweet month blanches<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With flowery frost of May:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It might be a bird in the branches,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It might be a thorn in the way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I waited to watch you linger<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With foot drawn back from the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till a sunbeam straight like a finger<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Struck sharp through the leaves at you.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And a bird overhead sang <i>Follow</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And a bird to the right sang <i>Here</i>;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the arch of the leaves was hollow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the meaning of May was clear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I saw where the sun's hand pointed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I knew what the bird's note said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the dawn and the dewfall anointed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You were queen by the gold on your head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the glimpse of a burnt-out ember<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Recalls a regret of the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I remember, forget, and remember<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What Love saw done and undone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I remember the way we parted,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The day and the way we met;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You hoped we were both broken-hearted,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And knew we should both forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And May with her world in flower<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Seemed still to murmur and smile<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As you murmured and smiled for an hour;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I saw you turn at the stile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A hand like a white wood-blossom<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You lifted, and waved, and passed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With head hung down to the bosom,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And pale, as it seemed, at last.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the best and the worst of this is<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That neither is most to blame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you've forgotten my kisses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I've forgotten your name.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HENDECASYLLABICS" id="HENDECASYLLABICS"></a>HENDECASYLLABICS</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the month of the long decline of roses<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, beholding the summer dead before me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set my face to the sea and journeyed silent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gazing eagerly where above the sea-mark<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flame as fierce as the fervid eyes of lions<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half divided the eyelids of the sunset;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till I heard as it were a noise of waters<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moving tremulous under feet of angels<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Multitudinous, out of all the heavens;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knew the fluttering wind, the fluttered foliage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shaken fitfully, full of sound and shadow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saw, trodden upon by noiseless angels,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long mysterious reaches fed with moonlight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet sad straits in a soft subsiding channel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blown about by the lips of winds I knew not,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winds not born in the north nor any quarter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winds not warm with the south nor any sunshine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heard between them a voice of exultation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Lo, the summer is dead, the sun is faded,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even like as a leaf the year is withered,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the fruits of the day from all her branches<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gathered, neither is any left to gather.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the flowers are dead, the tender blossoms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All are taken away; the season wasted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like an ember among the fallen ashes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now with light of the winter days, with moonlight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light of snow, and the bitter light of hoarfrost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We bring flowers that fade not after autumn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale white chaplets and crowns of latter seasons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair false leaves (but the summer leaves were falser),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woven under the eyes of stars and planets<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When low light was upon the windy reaches<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the flower of foam was blown, a lily<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropt among the sonorous fruitless furrows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And green fields of the sea that make no pasture:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since the winter begins, the weeping winter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All whose flowers are tears, and round his temples<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Iron blossom of frost is bound for ever."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SAPPHICS" id="SAPPHICS"></a>SAPPHICS</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the night sleep came not upon my eyelids,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shed not dew, nor shook nor unclosed a feather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet with lips shut close and with eyes of iron<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stood and beheld me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then to me so lying awake a vision<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came without sleep over the seas and touched me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Softly touched mine eyelids and lips; and I too,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Full of the vision,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shine as fire of sunset on western waters;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Saw the reluctant<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Feet, the straining plumes of the doves that drew her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looking always, looking with necks reverted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back to Lesbos, back to the hills whereunder<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shone Mitylene;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Heard the flying feet of the Loves behind her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make a sudden thunder upon the waters,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the thunder flung from the strong unclosing<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wings of a great wind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So the goddess fled from her place, with awful<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sound of feet and thunder of wings around her;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While behind a clamour of singing women<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Severed the twilight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah the singing, ah the delight, the passion!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the Loves wept, listening; sick with anguish,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stood the crowned nine Muses about Apollo;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fear was upon them,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While the tenth sang wonderful things they knew not.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah the tenth, the Lesbian! the nine were silent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None endured the sound of her song for weeping;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Laurel by laurel,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Faded all their crowns; but about her forehead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round her woven tresses and ashen temples<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White as dead snow, paler than grass in summer,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ravaged with kisses,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shone a light of fire as a crown for ever.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, almost the implacable Aphrodite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Paused, and almost wept; such a song was that song.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yea, by her name too<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Called her, saying, "Turn to me, O my Sappho;"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet she turned her face from the Loves, she saw not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tears for laughter darken immortal eyelids,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Heard not about her<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fearful fitful wings of the doves departing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw not how the bosom of Aphrodite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shook with weeping, saw not her shaken raiment,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Saw not her hands wrung;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Saw the Lesbians kissing across their smitten<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lutes with lips more sweet than the sound of lute-strings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mouth to mouth and hand upon hand, her chosen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fairer than all men;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Only saw the beautiful lips and fingers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of songs and kisses and little whispers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of music; only beheld among them<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Soar, as a bird soars<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Newly fledged, her visible song, a marvel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made of perfect sound and exceeding passion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweetly shapen, terrible, full of thunders,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Clothed with the wind's wings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then rejoiced she, laughing with love, and scattered<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roses, awful roses of holy blossom;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the Loves thronged sadly with hidden faces<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Round Aphrodite,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the Muses, stricken at heart, were silent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, the gods waxed pale; such a song was that song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All reluctant, all with a fresh repulsion,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fled from before her.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All withdrew long since, and the land was barren,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of fruitless women and music only.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now perchance, when winds are assuaged at sunset,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lulled at the dewfall,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the grey sea-side, unassuaged, unheard of,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unbeloved, unseen in the ebb of twilight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ghosts of outcast women return lamenting,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Purged not in Lethe,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Clothed about with flame and with tears, and singing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Songs that move the heart of the shaken heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Songs that break the heart of the earth with pity,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hearing, to hear them.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AT_ELEUSIS" id="AT_ELEUSIS"></a>AT ELEUSIS</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Men of Eleusis, ye that with long staves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sit in the market-houses, and speak words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made sweet with wisdom as the rare wine is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thickened with honey; and ye sons of these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who in the glad thick streets go up and down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For pastime or grave traffic or mere chance;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all fair women having rings of gold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On hands or hair; and chiefest over these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I name you, daughters of this man the king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who dipping deep smooth pitchers of pure brass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the bubbled wells, till each round lip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stooped with loose gurgle of waters incoming,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Found me an old sick woman, lamed and lean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beside a growth of builded olive-boughs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence multiplied thick song of thick-plumed throats—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Also wet tears filled up my hollow hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By reason of my crying into them—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pitied me; for as cold water ran<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And washed the pitchers full from lip to lip,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So washed both eyes full the strong salt of tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ye put water to my mouth, made sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With brown hill-berries; so in time I spoke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gathered my loose knees from under me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover in the broad fair halls this month<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have I found space and bountiful abode<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To please me. I Demeter speak of this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who am the mother and the mate of things:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For as ill men by drugs or singing words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shut the doors inward of the narrowed womb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a lock bolted with round iron through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus I shut up the body and sweet mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all soft pasture and the tender land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So that no seed can enter in by it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though one sow thickly, nor some grain get out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Past the hard clods men cleave and bite with steel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To widen the sealed lips of them for use.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None of you is there in the peopled street<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But knows how all the dry-drawn furrows ache<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With no green spot made count of in the black:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How the wind finds no comfortable grass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor is assuaged with bud nor breath of herbs;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in hot autumn when ye house the stacks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All fields are helpless in the sun, all trees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand as a man stripped out of all but skin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nevertheless ye sick have help to get<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By means and stablished ordinance of God;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For God is wiser than a good man is.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But never shall new grass be sweet in earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till I get righted of my wound and wrong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By changing counsel of ill-minded Zeus.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For of all other gods is none save me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clothed with like power to build and break the year.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I make the lesser green begin, when spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touches not earth but with one fearful foot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as a careful gilder with grave art<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soberly colours and completes the face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mouth, chin and all, of some sweet work in stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I carve the shapes of grass and tender corn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And colour the ripe edges and long spikes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the red increase and the grace of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No tradesman in soft wools is cunninger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To kill the secret of the fat white fleece<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With stains of blue and purple wrought in it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three moons were made and three moons burnt away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While I held journey hither out of Crete<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comfortless, tended by grave Hecate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom my wound stung with double iron point;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all my face was like a cloth wrung out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With close and weeping wrinkles, and both lids<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sodden with salt continuance of tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Hades and the sidelong will of Zeus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that lame wisdom that has writhen feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cunning, begotten in the bed of Shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These three took evil will at me, and made<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such counsel that when time got wing to fly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Hades out of summer and low fields<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forced the bright body of Persephone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of pure grass, where she lying down, red flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made their sharp little shadows on her sides,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale heat, pale colour on pale maiden flesh—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chill water slid over her reddening feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Killing the throbs in their soft blood; and birds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perched next her elbow and pecking at her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stretched their necks more to see her than even to sing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sharp thing is it I have need to say;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Hades holding both white wrists of hers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unloosed the girdle and with knot by knot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound her between his wheels upon the seat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound her pure body, holiest yet and dear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To me and God as always, clothed about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With blossoms loosened as her knees went down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let fall as she let go of this and this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By tens and twenties, tumbled to her feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White waifs or purple of the pasturage.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore with only going up and down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My feet were wasted, and the gracious air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To me discomfortable and dun, became<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As weak smoke blowing in the under world.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And finding in the process of ill days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What part had Zeus herein, and how as mate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He coped with Hades, yokefellow in sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I set my lips against the meat of gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drank not neither ate or slept in heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor in the golden greeting of their mouths<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did ear take note of me, nor eye at all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Track my feet going in the ways of them.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a great fire on some strait slip of land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between two washing inlets of wet sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That burns the grass up to each lip of beach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And strengthens, waxing in the growth of wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So burnt my soul in me at heaven and earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each way a ruin and a hungry plague,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Visible evil; nor could any night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Put cool between mine eyelids, nor the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With competence of gold fill out my want.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea so my flame burnt up the grass and stones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shone to the salt-white edges of thin sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Distempered all the gracious work, and made<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sick change, unseasonable increase of days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scant avail of seasons; for by this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fair gods faint in hollow heaven: there comes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No taste of burnings of the twofold fat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To leave their palates smooth, nor in their lips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft rings of smoke and weak scent wandering;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All cattle waste and rot, and their ill smell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grows alway from the lank unsavoury flesh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That no man slays for offering; the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And waters moved beneath the heath and corn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Preserve the people of fin-twinkling fish,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And river-flies feed thick upon the smooth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all earth over is no man or bird<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Except the sweet race of the kingfisher)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That lacks not and is wearied with much loss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meantime the purple inward of the house<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was softened with all grace of scent and sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In ear and nostril perfecting my praise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Faint grape-flowers and cloven honey-cake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the just grain with dues of the shed salt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made me content: yet my hand loosened not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its gripe upon your harvest all year long.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While I, thus woman-muffled in wan flesh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And waste externals of a perished face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Preserved the levels of my wrath and love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Patiently ruled; and with soft offices<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cooled the sharp noons and busied the warm nights<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In care of this my choice, this child my choice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Triptolemus, the king's selected son:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That this fair yearlong body, which hath grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strong with strange milk upon the mortal lip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nerved with half a god, might so increase<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Outside the bulk and the bare scope of man:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And waxen over large to hold within<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Base breath of yours and this impoverished air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I might exalt him past the flame of stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The limit and walled reach of the great world.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore my breast made common to his mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immortal savours, and the taste whereat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twice their hard life strains out the coloured veins<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And twice its brain confirms the narrow shell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Also at night, unwinding cloth from cloth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As who unhusks an almond to the white<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pastures curiously the purer taste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I bared the gracious limbs and the soft feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unswaddled the weak hands, and in mid ash<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid the sweet flesh of either feeble side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More tender for impressure of some touch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than wax to any pen; and lit around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fire, and made crawl the white worm-shapen flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leap in little angers spark by spark<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At head at once and feet; and the faint hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hissed with rare sprinkles in the closer curl,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like scaled oarage of a keen thin fish<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In sea-water, so in pure fire his feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Struck out, and the flame bit not in his flesh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But like a kiss it curled his lip, and heat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fluttered his eyelids; so each night I blew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hot ash red to purge him to full god.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ill is it when fear hungers in the soul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For painful food, and chokes thereon, being fed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ill slant eyes interpret the straight sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in their scope its white is wried to black:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the queen Metaneira mean I this;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For with sick wrath upon her lips, and heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Narrowing with fear the spleenful passages,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She thought to thread this web's fine ravel out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor leave her shuttle split in combing it;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore she stole on us, and with hard sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peered, and stooped close; then with pale open mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the fire smote her in the eyes between<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cried, and the child's laugh, sharply shortening<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As fire doth under rain, fell off; the flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Writhed once all through and died, and in thick dark<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tears fell from mine on the child's weeping eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eyes dispossessed of strong inheritance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mortal fallen anew. Who not the less<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From bud of beard to pale-grey flower of hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall wax vinewise to a lordly vine, whose grapes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bleed the red heavy blood of swoln soft wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Subtle with sharp leaves' intricacy, until<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of white years and blossom of hoary days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I take him perfected; for whose one sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am thus gracious to the least who stands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filleted with white wool and girt upon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he whose prayer endures upon the lip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And falls not waste: wherefore let sacrifice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burn and run red in all the wider ways;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing I have sworn by the pale temples' band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And poppied hair of gold Persephone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sad-tressed and pleached low down about her brows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the sorrow in her lips, and death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her dumb and mournful-mouthèd minister,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My word for you is eased of its harsh weight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And doubled with soft promise; and your king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Triptolemus, this Celeus dead and swathed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Purple and pale for golden burial,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall be your helper in my services,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dividing earth and reaping fruits thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In fields where wait, well-girt, well-wreathen, all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heavy-handed seasons all year through;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saving the choice of warm spear-headed grain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stooping sharp to the slant-sided share<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All beasts that furrow the remeasured land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With their bowed necks of burden equable.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AUGUST" id="AUGUST"></a>AUGUST</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There were four apples on the bough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half gold half red, that one might know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood was ripe inside the core;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The colour of the leaves was more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like stems of yellow corn that grow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the gold June meadow's floor.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The warm smell of the fruit was good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To feed on, and the split green wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all its bearded lips and stains<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mosses in the cloven veins,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most pleasant, if one lay or stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In sunshine or in happy rains.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There were four apples on the tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red stained through gold, that all might see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun went warm from core to rind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The green leaves made the summer blind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In that soft place they kept for me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With golden apples shut behind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The leaves caught gold across the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where the bluest air begun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thirsted for song to help the heat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I to feel my lady's feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Draw close before the day were done;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both lips grew dry with dreams of it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the mute August afternoon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They trembled to some undertune<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of music in the silver air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great pleasure was it to be there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till green turned duskier and the moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Coloured the corn-sheaves like gold hair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That August time it was delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To watch the red moons wane to white<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twixt grey seamed stems of apple-trees;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sense of heavy harmonies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grew on the growth of patient night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More sweet than shapen music is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But some three hours before the moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The air, still eager from the noon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flagged after heat, not wholly dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the stem I leant my head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The colour soothed me like a tune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Green leaves all round the gold and red.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I lay there till the warm smell grew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More sharp, when flecks of yellow dew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between the round ripe leaves had blurred<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rind with stain and wet; I heard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wind that blew and breathed and blew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too weak to alter its one word.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The wet leaves next the gentle fruit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Felt smoother, and the brown tree-root<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Felt the mould warmer: I too felt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(As water feels the slow gold melt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right through it when the day burns mute)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The peace of time wherein love dwelt.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There were four apples on the tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gold stained on red that all might see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweet blood filled them to the core:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The colour of her hair is more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like stems of fair faint gold, that be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mown from the harvest's middle floor.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_CHRISTMAS_CAROL" id="A_CHRISTMAS_CAROL"></a>A CHRISTMAS CAROL<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Three damsels in the queen's chamber,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The queen's mouth was most fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She spake a word of God's mother<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the combs went in her hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that is of might,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They held the gold combs out from her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A span's length off her head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She sang this song of God's mother<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And of her bearing-bed.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary most full of grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's face.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When she sat at Joseph's hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She looked against her side;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And either way from the short silk band<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her girdle was all wried.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that all good may,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mary had three women for her bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The twain were maidens clean;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first of them had white and red,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The third had riven green.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that is so sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's feet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She had three women for her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Two were gloved soft and shod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The third had feet and fingers bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She was the likest God.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that wieldeth land,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She had three women for her ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The twain were good women:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first two were the two Maries,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The third was Magdalen.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that perfect is,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's kiss.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Joseph had three workmen in his stall,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To serve him well upon;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first of them were Peter and Paul,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The third of them was John.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary, God's handmaiden,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's ken.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If your child be none other man's,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But if it be very mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bedstead shall be gold two spans,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bedfoot silver fine."<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that made God mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's birth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If the child be some other man's,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And if it be none of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The manger shall be straw two spans,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Betwixen kine and kine."<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that made sin cease,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's peace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Christ was born upon this wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It fell on such a night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Neither with sounds of psalteries,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor with fire for light.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that is God's spouse,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's house.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The star came out upon the east<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a great sound and sweet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kings gave gold to make him feast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And myrrh for him to eat.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary, of thy sweet mood,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's good.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He had two handmaids at his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">One handmaid at his feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The twain of them were fair and red,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The third one was right sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mary that is most wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bring us to thy Son's eyes. Amen.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_MASQUE_OF_QUEEN_BERSABE" id="THE_MASQUE_OF_QUEEN_BERSABE"></a>THE MASQUE OF QUEEN BERSABE</h2> + +<h4>A MIRACLE-PLAY</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="cen">KING DAVID<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Knights mine, all that be in hall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a counsel to you all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because of this thing God lets fall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Among us for a sign.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For some days hence as I did eat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From kingly dishes my good meat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There flew a bird between my feet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As red as any wine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This bird had a long bill of red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a gold ring above his head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long time he sat and nothing said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Put softly down his neck and fed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the gilt patens fine:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as I marvelled, at the last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He shut his two keen eyën fast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And suddenly woxe big and brast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ere one should tell to nine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PRIMUS MILES<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sir, note this that I will say;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Lord who maketh corn with hay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And morrows each of yesterday,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He hath you in his hand,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SECUNDUS MILES (<i>Paganus quidam</i>)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By Satan I hold no such thing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For if wine swell within a king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose ears for drink are hot and ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The same shall dream of wine-bibbing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whilst he can lie or stand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">QUEEN BERSABE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Peace now, lords, for Godis head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye chirk as starlings that be fed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gape as fishes newly dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The devil put your bones to bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lo, this is all to say.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SECUNDUS MILES<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By Mahound, lords, I have good will<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This devil's bird to wring and spill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now meseems our game goes ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ye have scant hearts to play.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">TERTIUS MILES<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, sirs, this word is there said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Urias the knight is dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through some ill craft; by Poulis head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I doubt his blood hath made so red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This bird that flew from the queen's bed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereof ye have such fear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">KING DAVID<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, my good knave, and is it said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I can raise men from the dead?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By God I think to have his head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who saith words of my lady's bed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For any thief to hear.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>Et percutiat eum in capite.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">QUEEN BERSABE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I wis men shall spit at me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And say, it were but right for thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That one should hang thee on a tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ho! it were a fair thing to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The big stones bruise her false body;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fie! who shall see her dead?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">KING DAVID<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I rede you have no fear of this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, as ye wot, the first good kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had must be the last of his;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now are ye queen of mine, I wis,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lady of a house that is<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Full rich of meat and bread.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PRIMUS MILES<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I bid you make good cheer to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fair a queen as all men see.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hold us for your lieges free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Peter's soul that hath the key,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ye have good hap of it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SECUNDUS MILES<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I would that he were hanged and dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who hath no joy to see your head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gold about it, barred on red;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hold him as a sow of lead<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That is so scant of wit.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen"><i>Tunc dicat</i> NATHAN <i>propheta</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O king, I have a word to thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The child that is in Bersabe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall wither without light to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This word is come of God by me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For sin that ye have done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because herein ye did not right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To take the fair one lamb to smite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That was of Urias the knight;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ye wist he had but one.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full many sheep I wot ye had,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many women, when ye bade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To do your will and keep you glad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a good crown about your head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With gold to show thereon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Urias had one poor house<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With low-barred latoun shot-windows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scant of corn to fill a mouse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rusty basnets for his brows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To wear them to the bone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea the roofs also, as men sain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were thin to hold against the rain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore what rushes were there lain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grew wet withouten foot of men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stancheons were all gone in twain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As sick man's flesh is gone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nathless he had great joy to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The long hair of this Bersabe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fall round her lap and round her knee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even to her small soft feet, that be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shod now with crimson royally<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And covered with clean gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Likewise great joy he had to kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her throat, where now the scarlet is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against her little chin, I wis,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That then was but cold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No scarlet then her kirtle had<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And little gold about it sprad;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But her red mouth was always glad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To kiss, albeit the eyes were sad<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With love they had to hold.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SECUNDUS MILES<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How! old thief, thy wits are lame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To clip such it is no shame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I rede you in the devil's name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye come not here to make men game;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Termagaunt that maketh grame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I shall to-bete thine head.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>Hìc Diabolus capiat eum.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">This knave hath sharp fingers, perfay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mahound you thank and keep alway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give you good knees to pray;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What man hath no lust to play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The devil wring his ears, I say;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no more but wellaway,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For now am I dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">KING DAVID<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Certes his mouth is wried and black,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full little pence be in his sack;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This devil hath him by the back,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It is no boot to lie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">NATHAN<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sitteth now still and learn of me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little while and ye shall see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The face of God's strength presently.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All queens made as this Bersabe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that were fair and foul ye be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come hither; it am I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2"><i>Et hìc omnes cantabunt.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">HERODIAS<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Herodias.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This headband of my temples was<br /></span> +<span class="i2">King Herod's gold band woven me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This broken dry staff in my hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was the queen's staff of a great land<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Betwixen Perse and Samarie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that one dancing of my feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fire is come in my green wheat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From one sea to the other sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">AHOLIBAH<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Aholibah.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lips kissed dumb the word of <i>Ah</i><br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sighed on strange lips grown sick thereby.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God wrought to me my royal bed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inner work thereof was red,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The outer work was ivory.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My mouth's heat was the heat of flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For lust towards the kings that came<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With horsemen riding royally.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CLEOPATRA<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Ethiope.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love bade my kissing eyelids ope<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That men beholding might praise love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hair was wonderful and curled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lips held fast the mouth o' the world<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To spoil the strength and speech thereof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The latter triumph in my breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bowed down the beaten brows of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ashamed they had not wrath enough.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">ABIHAIL<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Tyrians.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hair was glorious for twelve spans,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That dried to loose dust afterward.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My stature was a strong man's length:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My neck was like a place of strength<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Built with white walls, even and hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the first noise of rain leaves catch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One from another, snatch by snatch,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is my praise, hissed against and marred.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">AZUBAH<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Amorites.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My face was like a place of lights<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With multitudes at festival.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The glory of my gracious brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was like God's house made glorious<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With colours upon either wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between my brows and hair there was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A white space like a space of glass<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With golden candles over all.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">AHOLAH<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Amalek.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was no tender touch or fleck<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To spoil my body or bared feet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My words were soft like dulcimers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the first sweet of grape-flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made each side of my bosom sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My raiment was as tender fruit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose rind smells sweet of spice-tree root,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bruised balm-blossom and budded wheat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">AHINOAM<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Ahinoam.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the throat of a soft slain lamb<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was my throat, softer veined than his:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lips were as two grapes the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lays his whole weight of heat upon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like a mouth heavy with a kiss:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hair's pure purple a wrought fleece,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My temples therein as a piece<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of a pomegranate's cleaving is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">ATARAH<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Sidonian.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My face made faint the face of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And strength was bound between my brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spikenard was hidden in my ships,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Honey and wheat and myrrh in strips,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">White wools that shine as colour does,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft linen dyed upon the fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Split spice and cores of scented gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Cedar and broken calamus.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SEMIRAMIS<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Semiramis.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole world and the sea that is<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In fashion like a chrysopras,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The noise of all men labouring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The priest's mouth tired through thanksgiving,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sound of love in the blood's pause,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The strength of love in the blood's beat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All these were cast beneath my feet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all found lesser than I was.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">HESIONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Hesione.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seasons that increased in me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made my face fairer than all men's.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had the summer in my hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the pale gold autumn air<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was as the habit of my sense.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My body was as fire that shone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God's beauty that makes all things one<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was one among my handmaidens.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">CHRYSOTHEMIS<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Samothrace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God, making roses, made my face<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a rose filled up full with red.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My prows made sharp the straitened seas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Pontus to that Chersonese<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereon the ebbed Asian stream is shed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hair was as sweet scent that drips;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love's breath begun about my lips<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kindled the lips of people dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">THOMYRIS<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Scythians.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My strength was like no strength of man's,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My face like day, my breast like spring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My fame was felt in the extreme land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hath sunshine on the one hand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And on the other star-shining.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and the wind there fails of breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and there life is waste like death;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yea, and there death is a glad thing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">HARHAS<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Anakim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the spent years whose speech is dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose raiment is the dust and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My stately body without stain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shone as the shining race of rain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose hair a great wind scattereth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now hath God turned my lips to sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plucked off mine eyelids from mine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sealed with seals my way of breath.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">MYRRHA<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Arabian.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tears wherewith mine eyelids ran<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Smelt like my perfumed eyelids' smell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A harsh thirst made my soft mouth hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ached with kisses afterward;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My brain rang like a beaten bell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As tears on eyes, as fire on wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sin fed upon my breath and blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sin made my breasts subside and swell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PASIPHAE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Pasiphae.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all the pure clean-coloured sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Could cleanse or cool my yearning veins;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any root nor herb that grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flag-leaves that let green water through,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor washing of the dews and rains.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From shame's pressed core I wrung the sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fruit's savour that was death to eat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereof no seed but death remains.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">SAPPHO<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Lesbians.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My love, that had no part in man's,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was sweeter than all shape of sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The intolerable infinite desire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made my face pale like faded fire<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When the ashen pyre falls through with heat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My blood was hot wan wine of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my song's sound the sound thereof,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sound of the delight of it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">MESSALINA<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Italy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These were the signs God set on me;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A barren beauty subtle and sleek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Curled carven hair, and cheeks worn wan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fierce false lips of many a man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Large temples where the blood ran weak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mouth athirst and amorous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hungering as the grave's mouth does<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That, being an-hungred, cannot speak.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">AMESTRIS<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Persians.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My breasts were lordlier than bright swans.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My body as amber fair and thin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange flesh was given my lips for bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With poisonous hours my days were fed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And my feet shod with adder-skin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Shushan toward Ecbatane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I wrought my joys with tears and pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My loves with blood and bitter sin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">EPHRATH<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Rephaim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God, that some while refraineth him,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made in the end a spoil of me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My rumour was upon the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As strong sound of swoln water hurled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Through porches of the straining sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hair was like the flag-flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my breasts carven goodlier<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than beryl with chalcedony.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">PASITHEA<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen of Cypriotes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine oarsmen, labouring with brown throats,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sang of me many a tender thing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My maidens, girdled loose and braced<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gold from bosom to white waist,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Praised me between their wool-combing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that praise Venus all night long<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lips like speech and lids like song<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Praised me till song lost heart to sing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">ALACIEL<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Alaciel.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My mouth was like that moist gold cell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereout the thickest honey drips.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine eyes were as a grey-green sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The amorous blood that smote on me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Smote to my feet and finger-tips.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My throat was whiter than the dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine eyelids as the seals of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And as the doors of love my lips.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">ERIGONE<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am the queen Erigone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wild wine shed as blood on me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made my face brighter than a bride's.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My large lips had the old thirst of earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine arms the might of the old sea's girth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bound round the whole world's iron sides.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within mine eyes and in mine ears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were music and the wine of tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And light, and thunder of the tides.<br /></span> +<span class="i3"><i>Et hìc exeant, et dicat Bersabe regina</i>;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas, God, for thy great pity<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for the might that is in thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold, I woful Bersabe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cry out with stoopings of my knee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy wrath laid and bound on me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till I may see thy love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold, Lord, this child is grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within me between bone and bone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make me mother of a son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made of my body with strong moan;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shall not be another one<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That shall be made hereof.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">KING DAVID<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lord God, alas, what shall I sain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, thou art as an hundred men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both to break and build again:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wild ways thou makest plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine hands hold the hail and rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy fingers both grape and grain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of their largess we be all well fain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And of their great pity:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun thou madest of good gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of clean silver the moon cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the great stars thou hast told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As thy cattle in thy fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Every one by his name of old;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wind and water thou hast in hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Both the land and the long sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both the green sea and the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lord God, thou hast in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both white water and grey sand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon thy right or thy left hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no man that may stand;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lord, thou rue on me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O wise Lord, if thou be keen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To note things amiss that been,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am not worth a shell of bean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than an old mare meagre and lean;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all my wrong-doing with my queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It grew not of our heartès clean,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But it began of her body.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For it fell in the hot May<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I stood within a paven way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Built of fair bright stone, perfay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is as fire of night and day<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lighteth all my house.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therein be neither stones nor sticks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Neither red nor white bricks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But for cubits five or six<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is most goodly sardonyx<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And amber laid in rows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It goes round about my roofs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(If ye list ye shall have proofs)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is good space for horse and hoofs,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Plain and nothing perilous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the fair green weather's heat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for the smell of leavès sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is no marvel, well ye weet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A man to waxen amorous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This I say now by my case<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That spied forth of that royal place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There I saw in no great space<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine own sweet, both body and face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the fresh boughs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a water that was there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She wesshe her goodly body bare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dried it with her owen hair:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both her arms and her knees fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Both bosom and brows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both shoulders and eke thighs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tho she wesshe upon this wise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever she sighed with little sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And ever she gave God thank.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, God wot I can well see yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both her breast and her sides all wet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her long hair withouten let<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spread sideways like a drawing net;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full dear bought and full far fet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was that sweet thing there y-set;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It were a hard thing to forget<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How both lips and eyen met,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Breast and breath sank.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So goodly a sight as there she was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lying looking on her glass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By wan water in green grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet saw never man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So soft and great she was and bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all her body waxen white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I woxe nigh blind to see the light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shed out of it to left and right;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This bitter sin from that sweet sight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Between us twain began.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="cen">NATHAN<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, sir, be merry anon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ye shall have a full wise son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goodly and great of flesh and bone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shall no king be such an one,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I swear by Godis rood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, lord, be merry here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And go to meat withouten fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hear a mass with goodly cheer;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For to all folk ye shall be dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all folk of your blood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2"><i>Et tunc dicant Laudamus.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="ST_DOROTHY" id="ST_DOROTHY"></a>ST. DOROTHY</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It hath been seen and yet it shall be seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That out of tender mouths God's praise hath been<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made perfect, and with wood and simple string<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hath played music sweet as shawm-playing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To please himself with softness of all sound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no small thing but hath been sometime found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full sweet of use, and no such humbleness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But God hath bruised withal the sentences<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And evidence of wise men witnessing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No leaf that is so soft a hidden thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It never shall get sight of the great sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The strength of ten has been the strength of one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lowliness has waxed imperious.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There was in Rome a man Theophilus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of right great blood and gracious ways, that had<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All noble fashions to make people glad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a soft life of pleasurable days;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He was a goodly man for one to praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flawless and whole upward from foot to head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His arms were a red hawk that alway fed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On a small bird with feathers gnawed upon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beaten and plucked about the bosom-bone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby a small round fleck like fire there was:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They called it in their tongue lampadias;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was the banner of the lordly man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In many straits of sea and reaches wan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of quick wind, and many a shaken firth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It had seen fighting days of either earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Westward or east of waters Gaditane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(This was the place of sea-rocks under Spain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Called after the great praise of Hercules)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And north beyond the washing Pontic seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far windy Russian places fabulous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And salt fierce tides of storm-swoln Bosphorus.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now as this lord came straying in Rome town<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He saw a little lattice open down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And after it a press of maidens' heads<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sat upon their cold small quiet beds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Talking, and played upon short-stringèd lutes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And other some ground perfume out of roots<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gathered by marvellous moons in Asia;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saffron and aloes and wild cassia,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Coloured all through and smelling of the sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over all these was a certain one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clothed softly, with sweet herbs about her hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bosom flowerful; her face more fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than sudden-singing April in soft lands:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eyed like a gracious bird, and in both hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She held a psalter painted green and red.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This Theophile laughed at the heart, and said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now God so help me hither and St. Paul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As by the new time of their festival<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have good will to take this maid to wife.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And herewith fell to fancies of her life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soft half-thoughts that ended suddenly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is man's guise to please himself, when he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall not see one thing of his pleasant things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor with outwatch of many travailings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come to be eased of the least pain he hath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all his love and all his foolish wrath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the heavy manner of his mind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus is he like a fisher fallen blind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That casts his nets across the boat awry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To strike the sea, but lo, he striketh dry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plucks them back all broken for his pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bites his beard and casts across again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And reaching wrong slips over in the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So hath this man a strangled neck for fee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all his cost he chuckles in his throat.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This Theophile that little hereof wote<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid wait to hear of her what she might be:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men told him she had name of Dorothy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And was a lady of a worthy house.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat this knight grew inly glorious<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he should have a love so fair of place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She was a maiden of most quiet face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tender of speech, and had no hardihood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But was nigh feeble of her fearful blood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her mercy in her was so marvellous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From her least years, that seeing her school-fellows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That read beside her stricken with a rod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She would cry sore and say some word to God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he would ease her fellow of his pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no touch of sun or fallen rain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ever fell on a more gracious thing.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In middle Rome there was in stone-working<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The church of Venus painted royally.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The chapels of it were some two or three,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In each of them her tabernacle was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a wide window of six feet in glass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Coloured with all her works in red and gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The altars had bright cloths and cups to hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wine of Venus for the services,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made out of honey and crushed wood-berries<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shed sweet yellow through the thick wet red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That on high days was borne upon the head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Venus' priest for any man to drink;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So that in drinking he should fall to think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On some fair face, and in the thought thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worship, and such should triumph in his love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this soft wine that did such grace and good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was new trans-shaped and mixed with Love's own blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in the fighting Trojan time was bled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For which came such a woe to Diomed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he was stifled after in hard sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some said that this wine-shedding should be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made of the falling of Adonis' blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That curled upon the thorns and broken wood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And round the gold silk shoes on Venus' feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The taste thereof was as hot honey sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the mouth ran soft and riotous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was the holiness of Venus' house.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It was their worship, that in August days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twelve maidens should go through those Roman ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Naked, and having gold across their brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their hair twisted in short golden rows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To minister to Venus in this wise:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And twelve men chosen in their companies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To match these maidens by the altar-stair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All in one habit, crowned upon the hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among these men was chosen Theophile.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This knight went out and prayed a little while,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Holding queen Venus by her hands and knees;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will give thee twelve royal images<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cut in glad gold, with marvels of wrought stone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thy sweet priests to lean and pray upon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jasper and hyacinth and chrysopras,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the strange Asian thalamite that was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hidden twelve ages under heavy sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among the little sleepy pearls, to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shrine lit over with soft candle-flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burning all night red as hot brows of shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So thou wilt be my lady without sin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goddess that art all gold outside and in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Help me to serve thee in thy holy way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest, Love, that in my bearing day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shone a laughter in the singing stars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round the gold-ceilèd bride-bed wherein Mars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touched thee and had thee in your kissing wise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now therefore, sweet, kiss thou my maiden's eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they may open graciously towards me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this new fashion of thy shrine shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As soft with gold as thine own happy head.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The goddess, that was painted with face red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between two long green tumbled sides of sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stooped her neck sideways, and spake pleasantly:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt have grace as thou art thrall of mine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with this came a savour of shed wine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plucked-out petals from a rose's head:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And softly with slow laughs of lip she said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt have favour all thy days of me.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then came Theophilus to Dorothy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saying: O sweet, if one should strive or speak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against God's ways, he gets a beaten cheek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all his wage and shame above all men.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore I have no will to turn again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When God saith "go," lest a worse thing fall out.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then she, misdoubting lest he went about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To catch her wits, made answer somewhat thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have no will, my lord Theophilus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To speak against this worthy word of yours;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knowing how God's will in all speech endures,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That save by grace there may no thing be said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Theophile waxed light from foot to head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And softly fell upon this answering.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is well seen you are a chosen thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To do God service in his gracious way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will that you make haste and holiday<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To go next year upon the Venus stair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Covered none else, but crowned upon your hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And do the service that a maiden doth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She said: but I that am Christ's maid were loth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To do this thing that hath such bitter name.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat his brows were beaten with sore shame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he came off and said no other word.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then his eyes chanced upon his banner-bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he fell fingering at the staff of it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laughed for wrath and stared between his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And out of a chafed heart he spake as thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo how she japes at me Theophilus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feigning herself a fool and hard to love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet in good time for all she boasteth of<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She shall be like a little beaten bird.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And while his mouth was open in that word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He came upon the house Janiculum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where some went busily, and other some<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Talked in the gate called the gate glorious.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The emperor, which was one Gabalus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sat over all and drank chill wine alone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom is come Theophilus anon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And said as thus: <i>Beau sire, Dieu vous aide</i>.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And afterward sat under him, and said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All this thing through as ye have wholly heard.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This Gabalus laughed thickly in his beard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, this is righteousness and maiden rule.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Truly, he said, a maid is but a fool.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And japed at them as one full villainous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a lewd wise, this heathen Gabalus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sent his men to bind her as he bade.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus have they taken Dorothy the maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And haled her forth as men hale pick-purses:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little need God knows they had of this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hale her by her maiden gentle hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus went she lowly, making a soft prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one who stays the sweet wine in his mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Murmuring with eased lips, and is most loth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have done wholly with the sweet of it.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Christ king, fair Christ, that knowest all men's wit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the feeble fashion of my ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O perfect God, that from all yesterdays<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abidest whole with morrows perfected,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee by thy mother's holy head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou help me to do right, that I not slip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have no speech nor strength upon my lip,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Except thou help me who art wise and sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do this too for those nails that clove thy feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let me die maiden after many pains.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though I be least among thy handmaidens,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doubtless I shall take death more sweetly thus.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now have they brought her to King Gabalus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who laughed in all his throat some breathing-whiles:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By God, he said, if one should leap two miles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He were not pained about the sides so much.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This were a soft thing for a man to touch.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall one so chafe that hath such little bones?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shook his throat with thick and chuckled moans<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For laughter that she had such holiness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What aileth thee, wilt thou do services?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It were good fare to fare as Venus doth.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then said this lady with her maiden mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shamefaced, and something paler in the cheek:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, sir, albeit my wit and will to speak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give me no grace in sight of worthy men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all my shame yet know I this again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I may not speak, nor after downlying<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rise up to take delight in lute-playing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor sing nor sleep, nor sit and fold my hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But my soul in some measure understands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God's grace laid like a garment over me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this fair God that out of strong sharp sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lifted the shapely and green-coloured land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hath the weight of heaven in his hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one might hold a bird, and under him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heavy golden planets beam by beam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Building the feasting-chambers of his house,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the large world he holdeth with his brows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the light of them astonisheth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All place and time and face of life and death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And motion of the north wind and the south,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And is the sound within his angel's mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of singing words and words of thanksgiving,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And is the colour of the latter spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heat upon the summer and the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And is beginning of all things begun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gathers in him all things to their end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the fingers of his hand doth bend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stretched-out sides of heaven like a sail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with his breath he maketh the red pale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fills with blood faint faces of men dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the sound between his lips are fed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Iron and fire and the white body of snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blossom of all trees in places low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And small bright herbs about the little hills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fruit pricked softly with birds' tender bills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flight of foam about green fields of sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fourfold strength of the great winds that be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moved always outward from beneath his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And growth of grass and growth of sheavèd wheat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all green flower of goodly-growing lands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all these things he gathers with his hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And covers all their beauty with his wings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The same, even God that governs all these things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath set my feet to be upon his ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now therefore for no painfulness of days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall put off this service bound on me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Also, fair sir, ye know this certainly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How God was in his flesh full chaste and meek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave his face to shame, and either cheek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gave up to smiting of men tyrannous.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And here with a great voice this Gabalus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cried out and said: By God's blood and his bones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This were good game betwixen night and nones<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one to sit and hearken to such saws:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I were as lief fall in some big beast's jaws<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As hear these women's jaw-teeth clattering;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By God a woman is the harder thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One may not put a hook into her mouth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now by St. Luke I am so sore adrouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all these saws I must needs drink again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I pray God deliver all us men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From all such noise of women and their heat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is a noble scripture, well I weet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That likens women to an empty can;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When God said that he was a full wise man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I trow no man may blame him as for that.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And herewithal he drank a draught, and spat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And said: Now shall I make an end hereof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come near all men and hearken for God's love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ye shall hear a jest or twain, God wot.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spake as thus with mouth full thick and hot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou do this thou shalt be shortly slain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, sir, she said, this death and all this pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I take in penance of my bitter sins.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea now, quoth Gabalus, this game begins.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, without sin one shall not live a span.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, this is she that would not look on man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between her fingers folded in thwart wise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See how her shame hath smitten in her eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That was so clean she had not heard of shame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Certes, he said, by Gabalus my name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This two years back I was not so well pleased.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This were good mirth for sick men to be eased<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rise up whole and laugh at hearing of.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee show us something of thy love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since thou wast maid thy gown is waxen wide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, maid I am, she said, and somewhat sighed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one who thought upon the low fair house<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where she sat working, with soft bended brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Watching her threads, among the school-maidens.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she thought well now God had brought her thence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She should not come to sew her gold again.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then cried King Gabalus upon his men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have her forth and draw her with steel gins.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as a man hag-ridden beats and grins<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bends his body sidelong in his bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So wagged he with his body and knave's head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gaping at her, and blowing with his breath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in good time he gat an evil death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of his lewdness with his cursèd wives:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His bones were hewn asunder as with knives<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For his misliving, certes it is said.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all the evil wrought upon this maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It were full hard for one to handle it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For her soft blood was shed upon her feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all her body's colour bruised and faint.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she, as one abiding God's great saint,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spake not nor wept for all this travail hard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore the king commanded afterward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To slay her presently in all men's sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And it was now an hour upon the night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And winter-time, and a few stars began.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The weather was yet feeble and all wan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For beating of a weighty wind and snow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she came walking in soft wise and slow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many men with faces piteous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then came this heavy cursing Gabalus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That swore full hard into his drunken beard;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And faintly after without any word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came Theophile some paces off the king.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the middle of this wayfaring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full tenderly beholding her he said:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is no word of comfort with men dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any face and colour of things sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But always with lean cheeks and lifted feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These dead men lie all aching to the blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bitter cold, their brows withouten hood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beating for chill, their bodies swathed full thin:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas, what hire shall any have herein<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give his life and get such bitterness?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Also the soul going forth bodiless<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is hurt with naked cold, and no man saith<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If there be house or covering for death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hide the soul that is discomforted.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then she beholding him a little said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas, fair lord, ye have no wit of this;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For on one side death is full poor of bliss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as ye say full sharp of bone and lean:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on the other side is good and green<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hath soft flower of tender-coloured hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grown on his head, and a red mouth as fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As may be kissed with lips; thereto his face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is as God's face, and in a perfect place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of all sun and colour of straight boughs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And waterheads about a painted house<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hath a mile of flowers either way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Outward from it, and blossom-grass of May<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thickening on many a side for length of heat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath God set death upon a noble seat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Covered with green and flowered in the fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In likeness of a great king grown full old<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gentle with new temperance of blood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on his brows a purfled purple hood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They may not carry any golden thing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plays some tune with subtle fingering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On a small cithern, full of tears and sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heavy pleasure that is quick to weep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sorrow with the honey in her mouth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for this might of music that he doth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are all souls drawn toward him with great love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And weep for sweetness of the noise thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bow to him with worship of their knees;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the field is thick with companies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of fair-clothed men that play on shawms and lutes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gather honey of the yellow fruits<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between the branches waxen soft and wide:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all this peace endures in either side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the green land, and God beholdeth all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this is girdled with a round fair wall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made of red stone and cool with heavy leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grown out against it, and green blossom cleaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the green chinks, and lesser wall-weed sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kissing the crannies that are split with heat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And branches where the summer draws to head.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Theophile burnt in the cheek, and said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, could one see it, this were marvellous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray you, at your coming to this house,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give me some leaf of all those tree-branches;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing how so sharp and white our weather is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no green nor gracious red to see.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yea, sir, she said, that shall I certainly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from her long sweet throat without a fleck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Undid the gold, and through her stretched-out neck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cold axe clove, and smote away her head:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of her throat the tender blood full red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell suddenly through all her long soft hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with good speed for hardness of the air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each man departed to his house again.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lo, as fair colour in the face of men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At seed-time of their blood, or in such wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a thing seen increaseth in men's eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Caught first far off by sickly fits of sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So a word said, if one shall hear aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abides against the season of its growth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Theophile went slowly, as one doth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is not sure for sickness of his feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And counting the white stonework of the street,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tears fell out of his eyes for wrath and love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making him weep more for the shame thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than for true pain: so went he half a mile.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And women mocked him, saying: Theophile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, she is dead; what shall a woman have<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That loveth such an one? so Christ me save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I were as lief to love a man new-hung.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Surely this man has bitten on his tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This makes him sad and writhled in his face.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And when they came upon the paven place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That was called sometime the place amorous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There came a child before Theophilus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing a basket, and said suddenly:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair sir, this is my mistress Dorothy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sends you gifts; and with this he was gone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all this earth there is not such an one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For colour and straight stature made so fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tender growing gold of his pure hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was as wheat growing, and his mouth as flame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God called him Holy after his own name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gold cloth like fire burning he was clad.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But for the fair green basket that he had,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was filled up with heavy white and red;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great roses stained still where the first rose bled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burning at heart for shame their heart withholds:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sad colour of strong marigolds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That have the sun to kiss their lips for love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flower that Venus' hair is woven of,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The colour of fair apples in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Late peaches gathered when the heat was done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the slain air got breath; and after these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fair faint-headed poppies drunk with ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heaviness of hollow lilies red.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then cried they all that saw these things, and said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was God's doing, and was marvellous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in brief while this knight Theophilus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is waxen full of faith, and witnesseth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the king of God and love and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For which the king bade hang him presently.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gallows of a goodly piece of tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Gabalus hath made to hang him on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth of this world lo Theophile is gone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a wried neck, God give us better fare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than his that hath a twisted throat to wear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But truly for his love God hath him brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There where his heavy body grieves him nought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor all the people plucking at his feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in his face his lady's face is sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through his lips her kissing lips are gone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God send him peace, and joy of such an one.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This is the story of St. Dorothy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will you of your mercy pray for me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because I wrote these sayings for your grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I may one day see her in the face.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_TWO_DREAMS" id="THE_TWO_DREAMS"></a>THE TWO DREAMS</h2> + +<h4>(FROM BOCCACCIO)</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I will that if I say a heavy thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your tongues forgive me; seeing ye know that spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has flecks and fits of pain to keep her sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And walks somewhile with winter-bitten feet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover it sounds often well to let<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One string, when ye play music, keep at fret<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole song through; one petal that is dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Confirms the roses, be they white or red;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead sorrow is not sorrowful to hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the thick noise that breaks mid weeping were;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sick sound aching in a lifted throat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turns to sharp silver of a perfect note;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though the rain falls often, and with rain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Late autumn falls on the old red leaves like pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I deem that God is not disquieted.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Also while men are fed with wine and bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall be fed with sorrow at his hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There grew a rose-garden in Florence land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More fair than many; all red summers through<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The leaves smelt sweet and sharp of rain, and blew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sideways with tender wind; and therein fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet sound wherewith the green waxed audible,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a bird's will to sing disturbed his throat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set the sharp wings forward like a boat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pushed through soft water, moving his brown side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smooth-shapen as a maid's, and shook with pride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His deep warm bosom, till the heavy sun's<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set face of heat stopped all the songs at once.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ways were clean to walk and delicate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when the windy white of March grew late,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the trees took heart to face the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With ravelled raiment of lean winter on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The roots were thick and hot with hollow grass.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Some roods away a lordly house there was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cool with broad courts and latticed passage wet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From rush-flowers and lilies ripe to set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sown close among the strewings of the floor;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And either wall of the slow corridor<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was dim with deep device of gracious things;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some angel's steady mouth and weight of wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shut to the side; or Peter with straight stole<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And beard cut black against the aureole<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That spanned his head from nape to crown; thereby<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mary's gold hair, thick to the girdle-tie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein was bound a child with tender feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or the broad cross with blood nigh brown on it.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Within this house a righteous lord abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ser Averardo; patient of his mood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And just of judgment; and to child he had<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A maid so sweet that her mere sight made glad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men sorrowing, and unbound the brows of hate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where she came, the lips that pain made strait<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waxed warm and wide, and from untender grew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tender as those that sleep brings patience to.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such long locks had she, that with knee to chin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She might have wrapped and warmed her feet therein.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right seldom fell her face on weeping wise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gold hair she had, and golden-coloured eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filled with clear light and fire and large repose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a fair hound's; no man there is but knows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her face was white, and thereto she was tall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In no wise lacked there any praise at all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To her most perfect and pure maidenhood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No sin I think there was in all her blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She, where a gold grate shut the roses in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dwelt daily through deep summer weeks, through green<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flushed hours of rain upon the leaves; and there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love made him room and space to worship her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tender worship of bowed knees, and wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such pleasure as the pained sense palates not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For weariness, but at one taste undoes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart of its strong sweet, is ravenous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all the hidden honey; words and sense<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fail through the tune's imperious prevalence.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In a poor house this lover kept apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long communing with patience next his heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If love of his might move that face at all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tuned evenwise with colours musical;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then after length of days he said thus: "Love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love's own sake and for the love thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let no harsh words untune your gracious mood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For good it were, if anything be good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To comfort me in this pain's plague of mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing thus, how neither sleep nor bread nor wine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seems pleasant to me, yea no thing that is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seems pleasant to me; only I know this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love's ways are sharp for palms of piteous feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To travel, but the end of such is sweet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now do with me as seemeth you the best."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She mused a little, as one holds his guest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the hand musing, with her face borne down:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then said: "Yea, though such bitter seed be sown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have no more care of all that you have said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since if there is no sleep will bind your head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, I am fain to help you certainly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Christ knoweth, sir, if I would have you die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no pleasure when a man is dead."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat he kissed her hands and yellow head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clipped her fair long body many times;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have no wit to shape in written rhymes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A scanted tithe of this great joy they had.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They were too near love's secret to be glad;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As whoso deems the core will surely melt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the warm fruit his lips caress, hath felt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some bitter kernel where the teeth shut hard:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or as sweet music sharpens afterward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Being half disrelished both for sharp and sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As sea-water, having killed over-heat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a man's body, chills it with faint ache;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So their sense, burdened only for love's sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Failed for pure love; yet so time served their wit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They saved each day some gold reserves of it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Being wiser in love's riddle than such be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom fragments feed with his chance charity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All things felt sweet were felt sweet overmuch;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rose-thorn's prickle dangerous to touch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flecks of fire in the thin leaf-shadows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too keen the breathed honey of the rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its red too harsh a weight on feasted eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They were so far gone in love's histories,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond all shape and colour and mere breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where pleasure has for kinsfolk sleep and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And strength of soul and body waxen blind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For weariness, and flesh entailed with mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the keen edge of sense foretasteth sin.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even this green place the summer caught them in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seemed half deflowered and sick with beaten leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In their strayed eyes; these gold flower-fumèd eves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burnt out to make the sun's love-offering,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The midnoon's prayer, the rose's thanksgiving,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The trees' weight burdening the strengthless air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shape of her stilled eyes, her coloured hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her body's balance from the moving feet—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All this, found fair, lacked yet one grain of sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It had some warm weeks back: so perisheth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On May's new lip the tender April breath:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So those same walks the wind sowed lilies in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All April through, and all their latter kin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of languid leaves whereon the Autumn blows—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dead red raiment of the last year's rose—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The last year's laurel, and the last year's love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fade, and grow things that death grows weary of.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What man will gather in red summer-time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fruit of some obscure and hoary rhyme<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heard last midwinter, taste the heart in it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mould the smooth semitones afresh, refit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fair limbs ruined, flush the dead blood through<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With colour, make all broken beauties new<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love's new lesson—shall not such find pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the marred music labouring in his brain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frets him with sweet sharp fragments, and lets slip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One word that might leave satisfied his lip—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One touch that might put fire in all the chords?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was her pain: to miss from all sweet words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some taste of sound, diverse and delicate—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some speech the old love found out to compensate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For seasons of shut lips and drowsiness—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some grace, some word the old love found out to bless<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Passionless months and undelighted weeks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flowers had lost their summer-scented cheeks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their lips were no more sweet than daily breath:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The year was plagued with instances of death.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So fell it, these were sitting in cool grass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With leaves about, and many a bird there was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the green shadow thickliest impleached<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft fruit and writhen spray and blossom bleached<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dry in the sun or washed with rains to white:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her girdle was pure silk, the bosom bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With purple as purple water and gold wrought in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One branch had touched with dusk her lips and chin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made violet of the throat, abashed with shade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breast's bright plaited work: but nothing frayed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun's large kiss on the luxurious hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her beauty was new colour to the air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And music to the silent many birds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love was an-hungred for some perfect words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To praise her with; but only her low name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Andrevuola" came thrice, and thrice put shame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In her clear cheek, so fruitful with new red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That for pure love straightway shame's self was dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then with lids gathered as who late had wept<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She began saying: "I have so little slept<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lids drowse now against the very sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, the brain aching with a dream begun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beats like a fitful blood; kiss but both brows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you shall pluck my thoughts grown dangerous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Almost away." He said thus, kissing them:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O sole sweet thing that God is glad to name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My one gold gift, if dreams be sharp and sore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall not the waking time increase much more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With taste and sound, sweet eyesight or sweet scent?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has any heat too hard and insolent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burnt bare the tender married leaves, undone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The maiden grass shut under from the sun?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where in this world is room enough for pain?"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The feverish finger of love had touched again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her lips with happier blood; the pain lay meek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In her fair face, nor altered lip nor cheek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With pallor or with pulse; but in her mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love thirsted as a man wayfaring doth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making it humble as weak hunger is.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She lay close to him, bade do this and this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say that, sing thus: then almost weeping-ripe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crouched, then laughed low. As one that fain would wipe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old record out of old things done and dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She rose, she heaved her hands up, and waxed red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For wilful heart and blameless fear of blame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saying "Though my wits be weak, this is no shame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For a poor maid whom love so punisheth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With heats of hesitation and stopped breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with my dreams I live yet heavily<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For pure sad heart and faith's humility.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now be not wroth and I will show you this.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Methought our lips upon their second kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Met in this place, and a fair day we had<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fair soft leaves that waxed and were not sad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With shaken rain or bitten through with drouth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I, beholding ever how your mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waited for mine, the throat being fallen back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw crawl thereout a live thing flaked with black<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Specks of brute slime and leper-coloured scale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A devil's hide with foul flame-writhen grail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fashioned where hell's heat festers loathsomest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that brief speech may ease me of the rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus were you slain and eaten of the thing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My waked eyes felt the new day shuddering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On their low lids, felt the whole east so beat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pant with close pulse of such a plague-struck heat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if the palpitating dawn drew breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For horror, breathing between life and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the sun sprang blood-bright and violent."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So finishing, her soft strength wholly spent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She gazed each way, lest some brute-hoovèd thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The timeless travail of hell's childbearing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should threat upon the sudden: whereat he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For relish of her tasted misery<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tender little thornprick of her pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laughed with mere love. What lover among men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But hath his sense fed sovereignly 'twixt whiles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tears and covered eyelids and sick smiles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soft disaster of a painèd face?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What pain, established in so sweet a place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the plucked leaf of it smells fragrantly?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What colour burning man's wide-open eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But may be pleasurably seen? what sense<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keeps in its hot sharp extreme violence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No savour of sweet things? The bereaved blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And emptied flesh in their most broken mood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fail not so wholly, famish not when thus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Past honey keeps the starved lip covetous.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Therefore this speech from a glad mouth began,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breathed in her tender hair and temples wan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like one prolonged kiss while the lips had breath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Sleep, that abides in vassalage of death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in death's service wears out half his age,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath his dreams full of deadly vassalage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shadow and sound of things ungracious;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair shallow faces, hooded bloodless brows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mouths past kissing; yea, myself have had<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As harsh a dream as holds your eyelids sad.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"This dream I tell you came three nights ago;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In full mid sleep I took a whim to know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How sweet things might be; so I turned and thought;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But save my dream all sweet availed me not.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First came a smell of pounded spice and scent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such as God ripens in some continent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of utmost amber in the Syrian sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And breaths as though some costly rose could be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spoiled slowly, wasted by some bitter fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To burn the sweet out leaf by leaf, and tire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flower's poor heart with heat and waste, to make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strong magic for some perfumed woman's sake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then a cool naked sense beneath my feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of bud and blossom; and sound of veins that beat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if a lute should play of its own heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fearfully, not smitten of either part;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all my blood it filled with sharp and sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As gold swoln grain fills out the huskèd wheat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So I rose naked from the bed, and stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Counting the mobile measure in my blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some pleasant while, and through each limb there came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swift little pleasures pungent as a flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Felt in the thrilling flesh and veins as much<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the outer curls that feel the comb's first touch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrill to the roots and shiver as from fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blind between my dream and my desire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I seemed to stand and held my spirit still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest this should cease. A child whose fingers spill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Honey from cells forgotten of the bee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is less afraid to stir the hive and see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some wasp's bright back inside, than I to feel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some finger-touch disturb the flesh like steel.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I prayed thus; Let me catch a secret here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So sweet, it sharpens the sweet taste of fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And takes the mouth with edge of wine; I would<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have here some colour and smooth shape as good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As those in heaven whom the chief garden hides<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With low grape-blossom veiling their white sides<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lesser tendrils that so bind and blind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their eyes and feet, that if one come behind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To touch their hair they see not, neither fly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This would I see in heaven and not die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So praying, I had nigh cried out and knelt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So wholly my prayer filled me: till I felt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the dumb night's warm weight of glowing gloom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Somewhat that altered all my sleeping-room,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And made it like a green low place wherein<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maids mix to bathe: one sets her small warm chin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against a ripple, that the angry pearl<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May flow like flame about her: the next curl<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dips in some eddy coloured of the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wash the dust well out; another one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Holds a straight ankle in her hand and swings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lavish body sidelong, so that rings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sweet fierce water, swollen and splendid, fail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All round her fine and floated body pale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swayed flower-fashion, and her balanced side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swerved edgeways lets the weight of water slide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As taken in some underflow of sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swerves the banked gold of sea-flowers; but she<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pulls down some branch to keep her perfect head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clear of the river: even from wall to bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I tell you, was my room transfigured so.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet, green and warm it was, nor could one know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If there were walls or leaves, or if there was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No bed's green curtain, but mere gentle grass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There were set also hard against the feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gold plates with honey and green grapes to eat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the cool water's noise to hear in rhymes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a wind warmed me full of furze and limes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all hot sweets the heavy summer fills<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the round brim of smooth cup-shapen hills.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next the grave walking of a woman's feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made my veins hesitate, and gracious heat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made thick the lids and leaden on mine eyes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I thought ever, surely it were wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not yet to see her: this may last (who knows?)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Five minutes; the poor rose is twice a rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because it turns a face to her, the wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sings that way; hath this woman ever sinned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I wonder? as a boy with apple-rind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I played with pleasures, made them to my mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Changed each ere tasting. When she came indeed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First her hair touched me, then I grew to feed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the sense of her hand; her mouth at last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touched me between the cheek and lip and past<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over my face with kisses here and there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sown in and out across the eyes and hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still I said nothing; till she set her face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More close and harder on the kissing-place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her mouth caught like a snake's mouth, and stung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So faint and tenderly, the fang scarce clung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than a bird's foot: yet a wound it grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A great one, let this red mark witness you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the left breast; and the stroke thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So clove my sense that I woke out of love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knew not what this dream was nor had wit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now God knows if I have skill of it."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hereat she laid one palm against her lips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stop their trembling; as when water slips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of a beak-mouthed vessel with faint noise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chuckles in the narrowed throat and cloys<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The carven rims with murmuring, so came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Words in her lips with no word right of them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A beaten speech thick and disconsolate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till his smile ceasing waxed compassionate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of her sore fear that grew from anything—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of the strong summer thickening<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In heated leaves of the smooth apple-trees:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The day's breath felt about the ash-branches,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And noises of the noon whose weight still grew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the hot heavy-headed flowers, and drew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their red mouths open till the rose-heart ached;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For eastward all the crowding rose was slaked<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soothed with shade: but westward all its growth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seemed to breathe hard with heat as a man doth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who feels his temples newly feverous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And even with such motion in her brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As that man hath in whom sick days begin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She turned her throat and spake, her voice being thin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a sick man's, sudden and tremulous;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Sweet, if this end be come indeed on us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us love more;" and held his mouth with hers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the first sound of flooded hill-waters<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is heard by people of the meadow-grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ever a wandering waif of ruin pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With whirling stones and foam of the brown stream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flaked with fierce yellow: so beholding him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She felt before tears came her eyelids wet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw the face deadly thin where life was yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heard his throat's harsh last moan before it clomb:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, with close mouth passionate and dumb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burned at her lips: so lay they without speech,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each grasping other, and the eyes of each<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fed in the other's face: till suddenly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He cried out with a little broken cry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This word, "O help me, sweet, I am but dead."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And even so saying, the colour of fair red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was gone out of his face, and his blood's beat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell, and stark death made sharp his upward feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pointed hands; and without moan he died.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pain smote her sudden in the brows and side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strained her lips open and made burn her eyes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the pure sharpness of her miseries<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She had no heart's pain, but mere body's wrack;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But at the last her beaten blood drew back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slowly upon her face, and her stunned brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Suddenly grown aware and piteous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gathered themselves, her eyes shone, her hard breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came as though one nigh dead came back from death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her lips throbbed, and life trembled through her hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And in brief while she thought to bury there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dead man that her love might lie with him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a sweet bed under the rose-roots dim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soft earth round the branchèd apple-trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of hushed heat and heavy with great ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no man entering divide him thence.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore she bade one of her handmaidens<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be her help to do upon this wise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saying so the tears out of her eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell without noise and comforted her heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, her great pain eased of the sorest part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Began to soften in her sense of it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There under all the little branches sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The place was shapen of his burial;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shed thereon no thing funereal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But coloured leaves of latter rose-blossom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stems of soft grass, some withered red and some<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair and fresh-blooded; and spoil splendider<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of marigold and great spent sunflower.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And afterward she came back without word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To her own house; two days went, and the third<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Went, and she showed her father of this thing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for great grief of her soul's travailing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He gave consent she should endure in peace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till her life's end; yea, till her time should cease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She should abide in fellowship of pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And having lived a holy year or twain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She died of pure waste heart and weariness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for love's honour in her love's distress<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This word was written over her tomb's head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Here dead she lieth, for whose sake Love is dead."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AHOLIBAH" id="AHOLIBAH"></a>AHOLIBAH</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the beginning God made thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A woman well to look upon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy tender body as a tree<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereon cool wind hath always blown<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till the clean branches be well grown.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was none like thee in the land;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The girls that were thy bondwomen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did bind thee with a purple band<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon thy forehead, that all men<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Should know thee for God's handmaiden.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strange raiment clad thee like a bride,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With silk to wear on hands and feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plates of gold on either side:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wine made thee glad, and thou didst eat<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Honey, and choice of pleasant meat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And fishers in the middle sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Did get thee sea-fish and sea-weeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In colour like the robes on thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And curious work of plaited reeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wools wherein live purple bleeds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And round the edges of thy cup<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Men wrought thee marvels out of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strong snakes with lean throats lifted up,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Large eyes whereon the brows had hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And scaly things their slime kept cold.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For thee they blew soft wind in flutes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And ground sweet roots for cunning scent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made slow because of many lutes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wind among thy chambers went<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wherein no light was violent.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">God called thy name Aholibah,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His tabernacle being in thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A witness through waste Asia;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou wert a tent sewn cunningly<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With gold and colours of the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">God gave thee gracious ministers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all their work who plait and weave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cunning of embroiderers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That sew the pillow to the sleeve,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And likeness of all things that live.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy garments upon thee were fair<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With scarlet and with yellow thread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Also the weaving of thine hair<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was as fine gold upon thy head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thy silk shoes were sewn with red.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All sweet things he bade sift, and ground<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a man grindeth wheat in mills<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With strong wheels alway going round;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He gave thee corn, and grass that fills<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The cattle on a thousand hills.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The wine of many seasons fed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy mouth, and made it fair and clean;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet oil was poured out on thy head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And ran down like cool rain between<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The strait close locks it melted in.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The strong men and the captains knew<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy chambers wrought and fashioned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gold and covering of blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the blue raiment of thine head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who satest on a stately bed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All these had on their garments wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The shape of beasts and creeping things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The body that availeth not,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Flat backs of worms and veinèd wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the lewd bulk that sleeps and stings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Also the chosen of the years,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The multitude being at ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sackbuts and with dulcimers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And noise of shawms and psalteries<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made mirth within the ears of these.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But as a common woman doth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou didst think evil and devise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweet smell of thy breast and mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou madest as the harlot's wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And there was painting on thine eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, in the woven guest-chamber<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And by the painted passages<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the strange gracious paintings were,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">State upon state of companies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There came on thee the lust of these.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Because of shapes on either wall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sea-coloured from some rare blue shell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At many a Tyrian interval,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Horsemen on horses, girdled well,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Delicate and desirable,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou saidest: I am sick of love:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stay me with flagons, comfort me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With apples for my pain thereof<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till my hands gather in his tree<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That fruit wherein my lips would be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, saidest thou, I will go up<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When there is no more shade than one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May cover with a hollow cup,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And make my bed against the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till my blood's violence be done.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy mouth was leant upon the wall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Against the painted mouth, thy chin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touched the hair's painted curve and fall;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy deep throat, fallen lax and thin,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Worked as the blood's beat worked therein.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therefore, O thou Aholibah,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God is not glad because of thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy fine gold shall pass away<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like those fair coins of ore that be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Washed over by the middle sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then will one make thy body bare<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To strip it of all gracious things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pluck the cover from thine hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And break the gift of many kings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy wrist-rings and thine ankle-rings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Likewise the man whose body joins<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To thy smooth body, as was said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who hath a girdle on his loins<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And dyed attire upon his head—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The same who, seeing, worshipped,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Because thy face was like the face<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of a clean maiden that smells sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because thy gait was as the pace<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of one that opens not her feet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And is not heard within the street—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Even he, O thou Aholibah,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made separate from thy desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall cut thy nose and ears away<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bruise thee for thy body's hire<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And burn the residue with fire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then shall the heathen people say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The multitude being at ease;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, this is that Aholibah<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose name was blown among strange seas.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Grown old with soft adulteries.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Also her bed was made of green,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her windows beautiful for glass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she had made her bed between:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yea, for pure lust her body was<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made like white summer-coloured grass.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her raiment was a strong man's spoil;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon a table by a bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She set mine incense and mine oil<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To be the beauty of her head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In chambers walled about with red.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Also between the walls she had<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fair faces of strong men portrayed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All girded round the loins, and clad<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With several cloths of woven braid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And garments marvellously made.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therefore the wrath of God shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Set as a watch upon her way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whoso findeth by the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Blown dust of bones will hardly say<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If this were that Aholibah.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LOVE_AND_SLEEP" id="LOVE_AND_SLEEP"></a>LOVE AND SLEEP</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lying asleep between the strokes of night<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I saw my love lean over my sad bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pale as the duskiest lily's leaf or head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smooth-skinned and dark, with bare throat made to bite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too wan for blushing and too warm for white,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But perfect-coloured without white or red.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And her lips opened amorously, and said—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I wist not what, saving one word—Delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all her face was honey to my mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all her body pasture to mine eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The long lithe arms and hotter hands than fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quivering flanks, hair smelling of the south,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The bright light feet, the splendid supple thighs<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And glittering eyelids of my soul's desire.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MADONNA_MIA" id="MADONNA_MIA"></a>MADONNA MIA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Under green apple-boughs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That never a storm will rouse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lady hath her house<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Between two bowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In either of the twain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red roses full of rain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hath for bondwomen<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All kind of flowers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She hath no handmaid fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To draw her curled gold hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through rings of gold that bear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her whole hair's weight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hath no maids to stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gold-clothed on either hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all the great green land<br /></span> +<span class="i1">None is so great.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She hath no more to wear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one white hood of vair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drawn over eyes and hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wrought with strange gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made for some great queen's head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some fair great queen since dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one strait gown of red<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Against the cold.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Beneath her eyelids deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love lying seems asleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love, swift to wake, to weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To laugh, to gaze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her breasts are like white birds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all her gracious words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As water-grass to herds<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the June-days.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To her all dews that fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rains are musical;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her flowers are fed from all,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her joy from these;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the deep-feathered firs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their gift of joy is hers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the least breath that stirs<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Across the trees.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She grows with greenest leaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ripens with reddest sheaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forgets, remembers, grieves,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And is not sad;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quiet lands and skies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave light upon her eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None knows her, weak or wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or tired or glad.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">None knows, none understands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What flowers are like her hands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though you should search all lands<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wherein time grows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What snows are like her feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though his eyes burn with heat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through gazing on my sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet no man knows.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Only this thing is said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That white and gold and red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God's three chief words, man's bread<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And oil and wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were given her for dowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kingdom of all hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grace of goodly flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And various vine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This is my lady's praise:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God after many days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrought her in unknown ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In sunset lands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was my lady's birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God gave her might and mirth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laid his whole sweet earth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Between her hands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Under deep apple-boughs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lady hath her house;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She wears upon her brows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The flower thereof;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All saying but what God saith<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To her is as vain breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She is more strong than death,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Being strong as love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_KINGS_DAUGHTER" id="THE_KINGS_DAUGHTER"></a>THE KING'S DAUGHTER</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We were ten maidens in the green corn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Small red leaves in the mill-water:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fairer maidens never were born,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Apples of gold for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We were ten maidens by a well-head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Small white birds in the mill-water:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweeter maidens never were wed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rings of red for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The first to spin, the second to sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Seeds of wheat in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The third may was a goodly thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">White bread and brown for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fourth to sew and the fifth to play,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fair green weed in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sixth may was a goodly may,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">White wine and red for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The seventh to woo, the eighth to wed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fair thin reeds in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ninth had gold work on her head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Honey in the comb for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ninth had gold work round her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fallen flowers in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tenth may was goodly and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Golden gloves for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We were ten maidens in a field green,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fallen fruit in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fairer maidens never have been,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Golden sleeves for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By there comes the king's young son,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A little wind in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Out of ten maidens ye'll grant me one,"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A crown of red for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Out of ten mays ye'll give me the best,"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A little rain in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bed of yellow straw for all the rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A bed of gold for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He's ta'en out the goodliest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rain that rains in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A comb of yellow shell for all the rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A comb of gold for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He's made her bed to the goodliest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wind and hail in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A grass girdle for all the rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A girdle of arms for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He's set his heart to the goodliest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Snow that snows in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nine little kisses for all the rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">An hundredfold for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He's ta'en his leave at the goodliest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Broken boats in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Golden gifts for all the rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sorrow of heart for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ye'll make a grave for my fair body,"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Running rain in the mill-water;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"And ye'll streek my brother at the side of me,"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pains of hell for the king's daughter.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AFTER_DEATH" id="AFTER_DEATH"></a>AFTER DEATH</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The four boards of the coffin lid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heard all the dead man did.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The first curse was in his mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made of grave's mould and deadly drouth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The next curse was in his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made of God's work discomfited.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The next curse was in his hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made out of two grave-bands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The next curse was in his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made out of a grave-sheet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I had fair coins red and white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my name was as great light;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I had fair clothes green and red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And strong gold bound round my head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But no meat comes in my mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now I fare as the worm doth;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And no gold binds in my hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now I fare as the blind fare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My live thews were of great strength,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now am I waxen a span's length;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My live sides were full of lust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now are they dried with dust."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The first board spake and said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Is it best eating flesh or bread?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The second answered it:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Is wine or honey the more sweet?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The third board spake and said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Is red gold worth a girl's gold head?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fourth made answer thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"All these things are as one with us."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The dead man asked of them:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Is the green land stained brown with flame?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Have they hewn my son for beasts to eat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my wife's body for beasts' meat?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Have they boiled my maid in a brass pan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And built a gallows to hang my man?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The boards said to him:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"This is a lewd thing that ye deem.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your wife has gotten a golden bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the sheets are sewn with red.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your son has gotten a coat of silk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sleeves are soft as curded milk.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your maid has gotten a kirtle new,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the skirt has braids of blue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your man has gotten both ring and glove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrought well for eyes to love."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The dead man answered thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"What good gift shall God give us?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The boards answered him anon:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Flesh to feed hell's worm upon."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MAY_JANET" id="MAY_JANET"></a>MAY JANET</h2> + +<h4>(BRETON)</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Stand up, stand up, thou May Janet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And go to the wars with me."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He's drawn her by both hands<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With her face against the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He that strews red shall gather white,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He that sows white reap red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before your face and my daughter's<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Meet in a marriage-bed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Gold coin shall grow in the yellow field,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Green corn in the green sea-water,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And red fruit grow of the rose's red,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere your fruit grow in her."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But I shall have her by land," he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Or I shall have her by sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or I shall have her by strong treason<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And no grace go with me."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her father's drawn her by both hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He's rent her gown from her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He's ta'en the smock round her body,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cast in the sea-water.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The captain's drawn her by both sides<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Out of the fair green sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Stand up, stand up, thou May Janet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And come to the war with me."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The first town they came to<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There was a blue bride-chamber;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He clothed her on with silk<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And belted her with amber.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The second town they came to<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The bridesmen feasted knee to knee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He clothed her on with silver,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A stately thing to see.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The third town they came to<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The bridesmaids all had gowns of gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He clothed her on with purple,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A rich thing to behold.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The last town they came to<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He clothed her white and red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a green flag either side of her<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And a gold flag overhead.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BLOODY_SON" id="THE_BLOODY_SON"></a>THE BLOODY SON</h2> + +<h4>(FINNISH)</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O where have ye been the morn sae late,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O where have ye been the morn sae late?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"By the water-gate, by the water-gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And whatten kin' o' wark had ye there to make,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whatten kin' o' wark had ye there to make?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I watered my steeds with water frae the lake,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Why is your coat sae fouled the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why is your coat sae fouled the day?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The steeds were stamping sair by the weary banks of clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And where gat ye thae sleeves of red,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where gat ye thae sleeves of red?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I have slain my ae brither by the weary waterhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And where will ye gang to mak your mend,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where will ye gang to mak your mend?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The warldis way, to the warldis end,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And what will ye leave your father dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what will ye leave your father dear?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"The wood to fell and the logs to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he'll never see my body mair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And what will ye leave your mither dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what will ye leave your mither dear?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The wool to card and the wool to wear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ye'll never see my body mair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And what will ye leave for your wife to take,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what will ye leave for your wife to take?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"A goodly gown and a fair new make,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For she'll do nae mair for my body's sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And what will ye leave your young son fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what will ye leave your young son fair?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot ye hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"A twiggen school-rod for his body to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though it garred him greet he'll get nae mair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And what will ye leave your little daughter sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what will ye leave your little daughter sweet?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot ye hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Wild mulberries for her mouth to eat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She'll get nae mair though it garred her greet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And when will ye come back frae roamin',<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when will ye come back frae roamin'?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"When the sunrise out of the north is comen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When shall the sunrise on the north side be,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When shall the sunrise on the north side be?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"When chuckie-stanes shall swim in the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When shall stanes in the sea swim,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When shall stanes in the sea swim?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"When birdies' feathers are as lead therein,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When shall feathers be as lead,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My merry son, come tell me hither?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When shall feathers be as lead?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I wot I hae not anither."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"When God shall judge between the quick and dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O dear mither."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SEASWALLOWS" id="THE_SEASWALLOWS"></a>THE SEA-SWALLOWS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This fell when Christmas lights were done,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Red rose leaves will never make wine)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But before the Easter lights begun;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two lovers sat where the rowan blows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all the grass is heavy and fine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the gathering-place of the sea-swallows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When the wind brings them over Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blossom of broom will never make bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Red rose leaves will never make wine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between her brows she is grown red,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That was full white in the fields by Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O what is this thing ye have on,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Show me now, sweet daughter of mine?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O father, this is my little son<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That I found hid in the sides of Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O what will ye give my son to eat,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Red rose leaves will never make wine?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Fen-water and adder's meat."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Or what will ye get my son to wear?"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Red rose leaves will never make wine.)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"A weed and a web of nettle's hair."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Or what will ye take to line his bed?"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Red rose leaves will never make wine.)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Two black stones at the kirkwall's head."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Or what will ye give my son for land?"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Red rose leaves will never make wine.)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Three girl's paces of red sand."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Or what will ye give me for my son?"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Red rose leaves will never make wine.)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Six times to kiss his young mouth on."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But what have ye done with the bearing-bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And what have ye made of the washing-wine?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or where have ye made your bearing-bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To bear a son in the sides of Tyne?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The bearing-bread is soft and new,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is no soil in the straining wine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bed was made between green and blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It stands full soft by the sides of Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The fair grass was my bearing-bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The well-water my washing-wine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The low leaves were my bearing-bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And that was best in the sides of Tyne."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O daughter, if ye have done this thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I wot the greater grief is mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was a bitter child-bearing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When ye were got by the sides of Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"About the time of sea-swallows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That fly full thick by six and nine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye'll have my body out of the house,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To bury me by the sides of Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Set nine stones by the wall for twain,"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Red rose leaves will never make wine)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"For the bed I take will measure ten."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Tread twelve girl's paces out for three,"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Red rose leaves will never make wine)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"For the pit I made has taken me."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_YEAR_OF_LOVE" id="THE_YEAR_OF_LOVE"></a>THE YEAR OF LOVE</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There were four loves that one by one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Following the seasons and the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Passed over without tears, and fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away without farewell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The first was made of gold and tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The next of aspen-leaves and fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The third of rose-boughs and rose-roots,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The last love of strange fruits.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These were the four loves faded. Hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some minutes fast the time of gold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When our lips each way clung and clove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a face full of love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The tears inside our eyelids met,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrung forth with kissing, and wept wet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The faces cleaving each to each<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the blood served for speech.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The second, with low patient brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound under aspen-coloured boughs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And eyes made strong and grave with sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet too weak to weep—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The third, with eager mouth at ease<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fed from late autumn honey, lees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of scarce gold left in latter cells<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With scattered flower-smells—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hair sprinkled over with spoilt sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of ruined roses, wrists and feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slight-swathed, as grassy-girdled sheaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hold in stray poppy-leaves—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fourth, with lips whereon has bled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some great pale fruit's slow colour, shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the rank bitter husk whence drips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Faint blood between her lips—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Made of the heat of whole great Junes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burning the blue dark round their moons<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Each like a mown red marigold)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So hard the flame keeps hold—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These are burnt thoroughly away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only the first holds out a day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond these latter loves that were<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made of mere heat and air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the time is winterly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first love fades too: none will see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When April warms the world anew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The place wherein love grew.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DEDICATION" id="DEDICATION"></a>DEDICATION</h2> + +<h4>1865</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sea gives her shells to the shingle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The earth gives her streams to the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are many, but my gift is single,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My verses, the firstfruits of me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the wind take the green and the grey leaf,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cast forth without fruit upon air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take rose-leaf and vine-leaf and bay-leaf<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Blown loose from the hair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The night shakes them round me in legions,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dawn drives them before her like dreams;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time sheds them like snows on strange regions,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Swept shoreward on infinite streams;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaves pallid and sombre and ruddy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dead fruits of the fugitive years;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some stained as with wine and made bloody,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And some as with tears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some scattered in seven years' traces,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As they fell from the boy that was then;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long left among idle green places,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or gathered but now among men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On seas full of wonder and peril,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Blown white round the capes of the north;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or in islands where myrtles are sterile<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And loves bring not forth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O daughters of dreams and of stories<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That life is not wearied of yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Faustine, Fragoletta, Dolores,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Félise and Yolande and Juliette,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall I find you not still, shall I miss you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When sleep, that is true or that seems,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes back to me hopeless to kiss you,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O daughters of dreams?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They are past as a slumber that passes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As the dew of a dawn of old time;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More frail than the shadows on glasses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">More fleet than a wave or a rhyme.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the waves after ebb drawing seaward,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When their hollows are full of the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So the birds that flew singing to me-ward<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Recede out of sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The songs of dead seasons, that wander<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On wings of articulate words;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lost leaves that the shore-wind may squander,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Light flocks of untameable birds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some sang to me dreaming in class-time<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And truant in hand as in tongue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the youngest were born of boy's pastime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The eldest are young.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is there shelter while life in them lingers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is there hearing for songs that recede,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tunes touched from a harp with man's fingers<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or blown with boy's mouth in a reed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is there place in the land of your labour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is there room in your world of delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where change has not sorrow for neighbour<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And day has not night?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In their wings though the sea-wind yet quivers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Will you spare not a space for them there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made green with the running of rivers<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And gracious with temperate air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the fields and the turreted cities,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That cover from sunshine and rain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair passions and bountiful pities<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And loves without stain?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In a land of clear colours and stories,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In a region of shadowless hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where earth has a garment of glories<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And a murmur of musical flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In woods where the spring half uncovers<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The flush of her amorous face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the waters that listen for lovers,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For these is there place?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the song-birds of sorrow, that muffle<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their music as clouds do their fire:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the storm-birds of passion, that ruffle<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wild wings in a wind of desire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the stream of the storm as it settles<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Blown seaward, borne far from the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shaken loose on the darkness like petals<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dropt one after one?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though the world of your hands be more gracious<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And lovelier in lordship of things<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clothed round by sweet art with the spacious<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Warm heaven of her imminent wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let them enter, unfledged and nigh fainting,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For the love of old loves and lost times;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And receive in your palace of painting<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This revel of rhymes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though the seasons of man full of losses<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Make empty the years full of youth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If but one thing be constant in crosses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Change lays not her hand upon truth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hopes die, and their tombs are for token<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That the grief as the joy of them ends<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere time that breaks all men has broken<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The faith between friends.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though the many lights dwindle to one light,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is help if the heaven has one;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though the skies be discrowned of the sunlight<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the earth dispossessed of the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They have moonlight and sleep for repayment,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When, refreshed as a bride and set free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With stars and sea-winds in her raiment,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Night sinks on the sea.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h5>PRINTED AT THE COMPLETE PRESS<br /> +WEST NORWOOD<br /> +LONDON</h5> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Æsch. Fr. Niobe:—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">μόνος θεῶν γὰρ +Θάνατος οὐ +δώρων ἐρᾷ, +κ.τ.λ.</span></p></div> + + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +ψυχάριον εἶ +βαστάζον νεκρόν.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Epictetus.</span></span></p></div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> En ce temps-là estoyt dans ce pays grand nombre de ladres et +de meseaulx, ce dont le roy eut grand desplaisir, veu que Dieu +dust en estre moult griefvement courroucé. Ores il advint qu'une +noble damoyselle appelée Yolande de Sallières estant atteincte et +touste guastée de ce vilain mal, tous ses amys et ses parens ayant +devant leurs yeux la paour de Dieu la firent issir fors de leurs +maisons et oncques ne voulurent recepvoir ni reconforter chose +mauldicte de Dieu et à tous les hommes puante et abhominable. +Ceste dame avoyt esté moult belle et gracieuse de formes, et de +son corps elle estoyt large et de vie lascive. Pourtant nul des +amans qui l'avoyent souventesfois accollée et baisée moult +tendrement ne voulust plus héberger si laide femme et si +détestable pescheresse. Ung seul clerc qui feut premièrement son +lacquays et son entremetteur en matière d'amour la reçut chez luy +et la récéla dans une petite cabane. Là mourut la meschinette de +grande misère et de male mort: et après elle décéda ledist clerc +qui pour grand amour l'avoyt six mois durant soignée, lavée, +habillée et deshabillée tous les jours de ses mains propres. Mesme +dist-on que ce meschant homme et mauldict clerc se remémourant de +la grande beauté passée et guastée de ceste femme se délectoyt +maintesfois à la baiser sur sa bouche orde et lépreuse et +l'accoller doulcement de ses mains amoureuses. Aussy est-il mort +de ceste mesme maladie abhominable. Cecy advint près +Fontainebellant en Gastinois. Et quand ouyt le roy Philippe ceste +adventure moult en estoyt esmerveillé.</p> +<p style="text-align: right;"><i>Grandes Chroniques de France, 1505.</i></p></div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Nam te præcipuè in suis urbibus colit ora<br /> +Hellespontia, cæteris ostreosior oris.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Catull.</span> <i>Carm.</i> xviii.</span></p></div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Suggested by a drawing of Mr. D. G. Rossetti's.</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Poems & Ballads (First Series), by +Algernon Charles Swinburne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS & BALLADS (FIRST SERIES) *** + +***** This file should be named 35402-h.htm or 35402-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/0/35402/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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