POEMS
ALBERT HERTER
THE SONG OF THE WHEAT
POEMS
BY
MARIE
VAN
VORST
DODD
MEAD
& COMPANY
Copyright, 1903,
By Dodd, Mead and Company
First Edition published March, 1903
UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON
AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
I INSCRIBE MY FIRST BOOK OF VERSE
TO THE MEMORY OF
MY BROTHER
JOHN VAN VORST
Thanks are tendered to Scribner’s Magazine and to the Pall Mall Magazine for the courteous permission to reprint verses already published in these periodicals.
[Pg ix]
CONTENTS
| Page | |
|---|---|
| The Song of the Wheat | 3 |
| In the Joint of his Armour | 13 |
| Laurens Villa | 21 |
| The Host | 26 |
| The Pagan | 31 |
| LYRICS | |
| Sing Again | 39 |
| Forest Lovers | 41 |
| Like to a Songless Bird | 43 |
| Three Years | 45 |
| The Wind upon a Summer Day | 46 |
| On the Norman Cliffs | 47 |
| Mid-Winter | 48 |
| Mare Placido | 49 |
| In the Greenwood | 50 |
| Evening Time | 51 |
| In the Window | 53 |
| The Glass | 55 |
| Three Days More | 56 |
| Love’s Paradox | 58 |
| Vita, Vita! | 59 |
| The Sleep | 60 |
| The Reward | 61 |
| Les Revenants | 63 |
| The Boon | 65 |
| The Sign | 66 |
| SONGS | |
| The Fireside | 69 |
| Love—Where You Go! | 70 |
| Costanza Sings | 72 |
| May in February | 73 |
| Brier Rose | 74 |
| The Sleeping Heart | 75 |
| Absence | 76 |
| To-morrow | 77 |
| Old Time Melody | 78 |
| Though All Betray | 79 |
| Break Thy Sleep | 80 |
| Red Roses | 81 |
| Song | 82 |
| Slumber Song | 83 |
| Fantasy | 85 |
| ROUNDELS | |
| The Inspiration | 89 |
| Luce Adorabile | 90 |
| Teach My Song | 91 |
| The Apostrophe | 92 |
| [Pg xi]Carrier Doves | 93 |
| The New Friend | 94 |
| L’Oiseau des Bois | 95 |
| God’s is the Night | 96 |
| Christmas | 97 |
| Love’s Universe | 98 |
| Summer | 99 |
| Winter | 100 |
| Amor in Excelsis | 101 |
| The Rose | 102 |
| Where are You, Dear? | 103 |
| La Mort est Toujours Fidèle! | 104 |
| The Watch | 105 |
| The Year’s End | 106 |
| Outre Mort | 107 |
| Dead Love | 108 |
| SONNETS | |
| Viva! Anima Carissima | 111 |
| Excommunicate | 115 |
| The Confession | 116 |
| The Kingdom | 117 |
| Amor Victrix | 118 |
| Saint Ouen | 119 |
| Renunciation | 120 |
| Envoi | 121 |
[Pg 1]
[Pg 3]
THE SONG OF THE WHEAT
THE SONG OF THE WHEAT
I
I sprang from the heart of the earth,
From the brown, still heart
That gives, though it pulseth not,
All things being and birth.
This vegetable mould,
Black, resisting, and cold,
Is pregnant in every part
With essence of life.
Infused with The Spark, my shell—
Pained with the mighty swell
Of being and life that woke—
Travailed: fibres broke.
Green shoots slender,
Powerful, though most tender,
Pushed upward—a crust gave way—
Earth opened ... and I saw day!
[Pg 4]
II
Myriad forms
Pure and new as a thought of God,
Rose from the sod,
Sprang into life with me,
A bending sea
Of distant, infinite blue,
From East to West, from South to North,
Bent over us. We, called forth
Up from the heart of the earth,
Shook in the east wind’s mirth,
Thrilled to the south wind’s kiss.
Rain and dew,
Storm and sun,
Blessed us, made us this,
And we grew.
[Pg 5]
III
Oh days
In early summer, when all things breathe
With delight in being! Golden haze
Covers valleys and distant heath.
The wind, these times,
Faints with its burden from Southern Climes
Of odours, subtler than balm or myrrh.
Then we stir
And surge like fair seas to and fro.
When through our green blades the light winds sweep,
Between our thin stalks straight and tall,
You may see, a-tremble, like flames that blow,
The Scarlet Flowers of Sleep.
Low down they grow,—
Fine as a film,
Red and soft as Love’s lips glow,
Red as jewels the gods let fall.
[Pg 6]
IV
Oh days,
When the sun, red through the haze,
Burns bronze to gold!
No breeze wakes,
Sleek cows stand in orchard shade;
And the little sound that ebb tide makes
At the foot of the cliffs is low and sweet
As sighs half-breathed, as lips that meet.
In this ripening time
We wait so still, that we scarce are stirred
By the flight of a startled bird
From its nest, in the furrows made.
Summer’s power
Changes our hue from royal green
To golden, hour by hour.
[Pg 7]
V
Oh days
Full of sweet noises! Songs of birds,
And gentle sound of lowing herds.
When all around—
From farther fields and orchard trees—
Comes the drowsy hum of bees.
VI
Bend the ear
To our sibilant whispering!
This is the full of the year.
The Golden Mene, when the rich earth bears
In plenty and fulness and mankind shares
In the good of her,
Oh hear, the wind wakes; and we sing!
[Pg 8]
VII
See the forms,
Big and sturdy and strong and brown!
The sinewy arms,
The naked chest, where the shirt falls down,
The blue veins swollen, the sweat of toil,
The sweat of brow and the earth-cast look,
The coarse shoes, red with the furrow’s toil,
The knotted hands....
The Field is the book
These fingers turn, and these eyes pursue.
The sudden hail, the deadly dew,
The blight of the boll and the dry, parched days
Are the lines that mark their tragedies!
These are the Workers—!
Their hands have made
The great earth fertile from sea to sea.
[Pg 9]Silently
They bend to their labour, knowing not
What they shall reap that their hands have sown!
“Man may not live by bread alone;”
They ask but this, “and receive a stone!”
VIII
From the faint, gray dawn to the late night’s shade
The open air is their dwelling-place.
The sweetest and best that their lives have known
Is the mild, soft air in the summer-time,
When they learn the noon by the village chime
And pause to rest for an hour’s space.
[Pg 10]
IX
Misery,
Is in the hut for the worker there;
What for his eyes to see?—
Children, that dumbly ask for things
He knows not of, nor they know who plead!
More than a garment for nakedness,
Or warmth from woe that the winter brings,
Or bread—that, God! is a want indeed!
[Pg 11]
X
“Life for life,” the Prophet says,
The fulness of days shall come and the reapers reap.
The white blade seethes like a wind, and we
Tremble at death in the blade’s cold kiss.
Distant, infinite blue
From East to West, from South to North,
Bends over us.
We, called forth
Up from the heart of the earth,
Mother that gave us birth,
Lie on her heart again.
Sun and dew,
Wind and rain,
Pass over us.
[Pg 12]
XI
On the bare, brown land,
In level, close-bound sheaves, we stand;
And this is the end,
Till the fine, dry film from the blade’s unfurled
And we go forth,
From East to West, from South to North
Bread—for the world.
[Pg 13]
IN THE JOINT OF HIS ARMOUR
I
Then said the king:—“Stand here, Sir Guldemar,
Beside me, where the arras falleth close.
Now, down this marble stair the princess goes.
And thou shalt mark her, hidden here with me:—
And thou shalt tell me, on thine honour’s oath,
If any woman is as fair as she.
(Giving thy guerdon, no fear hanging loath!”)
II
“For, when thou sayest,—‘She’s more fair
Than the queen’s sister!’—straight that woman shall,
Guldemar, to thy have and hold befall.
The hour thou didst so knightly lift thy lance
To shield our life, we gave our royal word—
For Guldemar! the fairest in all France!” ...
(Guldemar stood beside his king and heard.)
[Pg 14]
III
He held his head-gear downward in his hands;
The white plume kissed along the gleaming steel
Of his gray armour, close from head to heel.
High around his throat’s column, lay the fine,
Steel, tinkling little links, that rose and fell
To mark his breath. (Nor did the king divine
The hot heart beating in the mailèd shell!)
IV
“To women he is as the heart of ice,”
The women laughed: and held it for a wage
That none could Baron Guldemar engage
In sport of love, or earnest: his straight gaze
Was like the falcon’s on the hand held high,
Above the hunter and the under-maze,
Toward a goal cloud hidden in the sky.
[Pg 15]
V
“The king” (he said) “is as God’s bread,—above
The hope of any save the lips absolved:
Yet my lips touch his garment! If involved
My heart, Sire, can I find another fair
But her I love? Even though the king’s sister
Were born of Venus? My liege lord must spare
My finding any beauty like to Her.”
VI
And the king smiled as one in kindly wise
Surprising a dear secret. “Friend,” (he said,)
“Fear not to say thy ladye’s lips are red
And her eyes heaven! We demand the truth
From a brave knight, who knows not how to lie!
He shall wed but perfection, by God’s Ruth,
Whose voice cried,—‘I, and not the king, shall die!’”
[Pg 16]
VII
(And Guldemar) “My liege,” (here his head bowed,)
“Or the king’s sister, or the fairer she,
That woman, my dear lord will give to me?” ...
“By the cross!” swore the monarch; “though she prove
Ice! Though her hate thy passion’s warmth excels.”
Said Guldemar: “And if I have her love?”
The king: “Ourself shall ring the marriage bells.”
VIII
The knight had thrown his gauntlets to the ground.
His silken sleeves clung down unto his wrists.
The foremost in the wars and in the lists
His breast blazed with the stars of victory.
He wore a signet such as nobles wear;
He wore, beneath his mail, where none could see,
A bright chain woven of his ladye’s hair!
[Pg 17]
IX
“Hark!” said the king, “the princess comes! And hark,
Those are her pages singing!” Guldemar,
His soul high lifted, trembling like a star,
Flashed his quick speech like light upon the king.
“Sire, what if my life were wholly given
To love a woman with a marriage ring?
Her hell and mine, another’s rightful heaven!”
X
“The holy cross,” the king said, “and our word
Are linkèd promise! This same night shall stir
A great host for the holy sepulchre.
The man who keeps thy souls and loves apart,—
As a cursed spirit, banished from a shrine,
Must bind the crusade cross upon his heart,
And wind a pilgrim way from thee and thine.”
[Pg 18]
XI
Guldemar heard. There went a tinkling
Like little heavenly bells, and soft singing,
A pleasant smell like violet-woods in spring
Was wafted from the princess’ silks astir.
First came the mincing pages, finely dressed,
Then walking all alone the king’s sister,
And in her beauty one forgot the rest.
XII
And every knight and every troubadour
Had given to Isobel great beauty’s palm.
Only the queen her sister, pale and calm,
Could claim a beauty near to Isobel’s.
She came entrancing down the marble stair,
Her glad wide eyes as blue as asphodels,
And the imprisoned sunlight in her hair.
[Pg 19]
XIII
The king and knight the arras held apart.
“Now by God’s rood,” the king cried, “if there is
A fairer woman in my court than this,
To-night thine arms clasp her,—or Isobel!”
Guldemar bent his bright bold look serene,
Upon his liege—and held his body well—
“Sire,” he said, “one is more fair—the queen.”
XIV
The monarch dropped the arras and stood close,
His eyes on Guldemar’s, and pride, and hate,—
Sudden for love and gifts,—rode hot, elate.
Guldemar’s sword and gloves lay on the floor.
The king snapped his own sword in two, then pale
Cursed Guldemar, ... who felt the chain he wore
Prick him to fire beneath his coat of mail.
[Pg 20]
XV
Without, the stony courts rang with the feet
Of steel-shod men, and horses’ clanging shoe.
And yellow torches flashed their brilliance through
Dim corridor, and winding way remote.
High in the belfry rang a faint peal sweet,
As silver bells spelt out a marriage note.
The red cross blazed on breast and banner white.
Shouted the warder at the castle moat—
“To arms! The king rides to the wars to-night!”
[Pg 21]
LAURENS VILLA
“There is no happiness!” I cried.
“Hush, hush!” she laughed, lying by my side.
“I think I am too blest! The gods
Will smite me with their jealous rods
Upon thy breast!”... “Sweetheart,” (she said,)
“Art not content?” I hid my head
In silence: whilst she laughed; all slow
Saying,—“Oh, Love, since thou must know!
When Laurens died, thy sword that let
His life out, with his red blood wet
Let in the light to me!”... I turned
And kissed her, till the fires burned
In flame to Eros. And she slept
Until the hushed white morning crept
And with unprisoned sunlight came
To wake with matin sword of flame.
Half sleeping, I essayed to find
Her lips: and with warm hands to bind
[Pg 22]Her fast with her bright hair; then watch
The mellowing of the eaves and thatch
Under the morning.... She was cold.
I clasped within my trembling hold
Beauty’s bright lamp extinguishèd!
Her lily limbs and flower head
Were as the unsunned dawn is cold,
And white as was the pleated heavy fold
Of her close-clinging linen gown.
Her eyelids safely folded down
Over the azure shining thro’
That mocked the heavenly sky, with blue!
The fine red lip-line parted, showing
Her small white teeth; and golden, glowing
The splendid masses of her hair
Wantoned their glory everywhere!
Smiling she lay, her arms thrown wide
As she would clasp on every side
[Pg 23]Happiness...! This when morning came
To wake us with its sword of flame!
God knoweth how I listened, close
To her lips’ lovely parting rose,
Lest one fine breath should stir ... and bid
The uplifting of a heavy lid,
Or wake again that silent heart
Whence fell the linen folds apart ...
Under the pulseless hills of snow
Where strayed the blue veins to and fro
No breath should ever stir again!
And then my grief broke forth like rain.
Rang through the tomb-like house and shook
The white doves in their rose-vine nook.
None else to pain or grieve was there
In the still villa anywhere.
I lay until the dying day
Pale as my cheeks, and cold and grey,
[Pg 24]Stole mourning o’er the horizon.
And then, I feared to stay alone
With Germaine, who lay there and smiled
So still and gladly as a child
In first sleep, whilst my tears had made
Rivers upon her breast and head
And she cared nothing! So I took
My cloak and garment, from the hook
Where hung her clothes. I wept, again
Touching and kissing them. “Germaine!”
I cried, and summoned thus the dead.
I took the linen off the bed
And laid one line of winding shroud
Over my love: and weeping loud
I looked where she lay smiling, glad,
From head to feet, twilight yclad,
Then I crept out—a grey old man.
They hold me under curse and ban,
I “killed this woman as she lay
In my embrace!” This thing they say!
But Germaine, could she speak, would still
Their lisping lies...!
“If love can kill”
(Germaine would tell them) “why then he
Killed me, forsooth, with loving me....”
Little it matters! I shall sleep
In sleep like hers; but not so deep,
For love was earth’s last gift to her!
The little cotton dress she wore
With ribbons, hangs against the door ...
In the white villa, ... still it is!...
Only the doves were witnesses.
[Pg 26]
THE HOST
I had my enemy within my house.
My enemy—my arch, arch enemy.
I bound my handkerchief about his brows,
For he was wan and cried—“A Boon!” to me.
Standing upon the threshold—wan, distraught,
His eyes filmed with the mist of sickness dim;
“He does not know it is my house!” (I thought)
“Salve!” I cried, and ran to welcome him.
He could not see nor hear; I spread my bed,
Thereon I made him lie all weakly down.
Blood ran into his eyes, from his rent head
Cut deep between the eyebrow and the crown.
Quickly I ministered what grace I could:
Washed out the wound and bound it up with care;
Smoothing his kerchief as his mother would;
Laying my fingers gently through his hair.
[Pg 27]From out my store I fetched a brimming cup
Of fragrant wine, and held it to his lip,
Lifting all tenderly his hurt head up.
Lest he should know me,—let the curtain slip
Between our faces. Long he drank, and deep,
And muttered thanks to God, and stretched out wide
His great form on my bed, thus fell asleep
Safe as the child his mother guards beside.
And there, within my walls, he lay at last,
My enemy—my arch, arch enemy!
I let my crimson passion loose, and cast
Curses for all the wrongs he’d done to me.
Crouching low at the bedfoot, still, oh, still
As Fate relentless, long I watched him lie
Curtained within the shadows red, until
He seemed to lie there murdered bloodily.
[Pg 28]Like deadly grave-robed figures, one by one,
A cold procession passed before my gaze,
The high bold-handed evils he had done
To me, to mine, the ruin of our days.
I felt my hand close on my unsheathed sword—
“The prayers of all your yesterdays” (I cried)
“Must gain you pardon of the gracious Lord!”
And he, unshriven, by my hot hate had died—
Had I not heard wild cries without my door,
The acclamations of the multitude.
My enemy stirred not in his stupor
I drew the bedshades close, and waiting stood.
Then they were all about me in the place,
Strange, furious faces, peering everywhere
Seeking the hated stranger, whose foul trace
Had left their village desolate as here.
[Pg 29]“Show us Pasquale, show the devil hound,”
And twenty eyes flashed sharper than the blade.
They shrieked his name until I thought no swound
Was proof against the riot that they made.
I saw the naked unsheathed swords, I saw
(My enemy—my arch, arch enemy!)
Minions of justice, armed with hate and Law
And my guest was asleep.... “Myself am he”
(I said before the swords their home could find).
“Draw me without,” I prayed, “I would not fall
Here where my children sleep.” And they were kind
And dragged me far without my own portal.
Ere they could send my soul to hell unshriven
Pasquale’s men came riding bright as day
More time new sins to make, to cry to heaven,
They bought Pasquale ... I write as I lay.
[Pg 30]They say I shall not see another dawn
But I have had the sacred Eucharist
And write this for true knights to dream upon.
That day of his sore need, with broken brows
And sightless eyes blinded with bloody mist
Helpless, whilst his pursuers hounded on
I had my enemy within my house.
[Pg 31]
THE PAGAN
I
Oh the dream,
Warm, wild, beautiful,—born of midsummer.
No, it was April gave it; no, it was May!
It was the whole round year,
Days, months, filled with it,
Hours Eden inspired.
Moments astral born,
Life
Fused, swathed, held in its mystery,
Perfect content in the present,
Ecstasy at the thought of a future.
Oh the dream....
Hush, I will sing of it....
[Pg 32]
II
I was a child, knee-deep in the rugged daisies;
Small head level with bright bold heads tossed free.
Brown eyes following farm and meadow mazes:
Little heart one with nature, flower, and tree;
Friend with the birds.... Then childhood passed, on a sudden as pure dawn’s haze is
Kissed to glorious morning, and all eyes see,
Standing young as the June, little heart’s pulse set free
Throbbed to the song that the soul of the whole world’s lays is:—
A child in the home-land meadows,
Belovèd, I dreamed of thee.
[Pg 33]
III
Once I walked in the heather,
Cliffs sheer downward touched the breast of the sea.
Meadows ’round me stretched and kissed together,
Met in oceans of gold grain feather
Mad with poppies, red as blood may be.
Summer’s glory to glory ran;—nor sense knew whether
It were godliest born, the blue of the sea
Or the whispering ocean of fields, as shoreless!
Then the tether
Of time slipped loose, and Future showed to me,
Cliff-high,—sea-girt,—there in the Norman weather
All of my youth Belovèd,
I dreamed of thee.
[Pg 34]
IV
It was in the heart of winter cold,
When the moon is old,
And snow on the lea.
I leaned from my window
And heard the sea
Ring like brass, when deep is tolled
The bourdon of Christ’s nativity.
The Christmas world its page unrolled
For my pagan eyes to see.
Sheep held close in their sparkling fold,
And the ice-mailed tree
Glistened, ... as tho’ God leaned, and set
Crystal tapers, with diamond fret;
A holy festal tree made it,
Whose candles the moon lit!
[Pg 35]I smelled frankincense, from censers gold
Shadow-swung to a litany
Glorious!...
Then wild, and bold,
A Christmas storm swept over me.
I leaned out from my parapet,
Cliff-high tower, that keeps the sea:—
Arms and breast on the sill icy,
Warm arms aching to clasp and fold
One who close on my breast should be!
Pagan, thus in the Night Holy,
Breaking form of the ancient mould,
I saw God’s one star poise, and swim
Over the birth of Love, in Him,
But Belovèd ... I dreamed of thee.
LYRICS
[Pg 37]
[Pg 39]
LYRICS
SING AGAIN
You sang me a song,
’Twas the close of the year,
Sing again!
I do not remember the name
Or the words,
’Tis the same
You listen to hear
When the window is open in spring
And the air’s full of birds;
One calls from the branch some rare thing
And one sings on the wing
The refrain.
[Pg 40]You sang me a song,
My heart thrilled to hear.
The refrain
Has run like a fillet of gold
Through the woof
Of the cold,
Dark days of this year.
To-night there’s a year at its start,
The birds are aloof:
But your eyes hold the sun for my part
And the Spring’s in your heart,
Sing again!
[Pg 41]
FOREST LOVERS
Of poplar, birch, and balsam boughs,
Red cedar-walled, I’ll build my house;
Its pillars silver-boled shall be,
With rafters of the hemlock tree;
Upon the ground the dried ferns spread,
And slippery pine shall make our bed;
And all night long the lapping sound
Of waves shall fill our faerie swound;
Nor native creatures, small and shy,
Shall fright us, as they hurry by,
Nor phantom rustle of the trees
Disturb our loving mysteries.
With the first flying birds to nest
We’ll stretch our happy limbs to rest,
And lip to lip, and palm to palm,
Drift dreamward in the deep wood’s calm,
Whilst thro’ the windy rafter bars
Pale out the lanterns of the stars.
[Pg 42]Thus love shall hold us (as Love said),
And holy be the forest bed,
The fresh, wild odours everywhere
Rise on the censers of the air,
And in the soft dark Love shall find
New vows, our lips and souls to bind.
When the white-vestured dawn shall move,
We’ll wake, as we have slept—with love,
And sinless as the forest-born
Arise with them to greet the morn.
From every mist-grey tree-top tall
The singing, singing dews that fall
Shall mingle thro’ veiled vistas dim
With whisper of our marriage hymn.
[Pg 43]
LIKE TO A SONGLESS BIRD
Like to a songless bird that swings
On a high branch, and thrills to hear
How the deep-hearted forest rings
With melody enchanting clear,
And vainly swells his throat to wake
A song as pure as these that fill
The wood, and every echo shake,
Whilst he alone is dumb and still.
So, thrilling to the music dear
Since the first song woke, low and sweet;
To purest sound I bend my ear,
And with my heart the rhythms beat;
Until the palpitating Past
With melody becometh rife;
With parted lips and hands locked fast
I hear the songs of Love and Life.
[Pg 44]And then I lift my voice to wake
A song as pure as these that thrill
Through Time. The vaults with music shake
And I alone am dumb and still.
[Pg 45]
THREE YEARS!
I heard the wind in the trees
The stir of the leaves in the white birch tops
Then sat alone with my past till dawn
Crept over the edge of the leas
And a dull red line was drawn
In the East. There memory stops.
We do not follow our lives
As the almanacs run. I lived that night
Three years in the past and three to be....
As foam that the sea-wind drives
My thoughts sped on—three years and three,
Marked by this lock of white.
[Pg 46]
THE WIND UPON A SUMMER DAY
The wind upon a summer day
How sweet it is! The shaking trees,
The shifting shadows as they lie
Across the grass, the bending rye,
The blue flowers in the grain,—and you
To love the livelong summer through—
There are no sweeter things than these.
The dawning of a winter day
How sad it is! The leafless trees,
The frozen meadow lands that lie
Leaden beneath a snowy sky;
The old year’s bitterness,—and you
To lack the livelong winter through—
There are no sadder things than these.
[Pg 47]
ON THE NORMAN CLIFFS
The summer fields sweep to the farther blue
Crimson with poppies, yellow gold with grain.
They roll their warm wealth seaward—thus to you
I bring my boundless love. Dearest, in vain
Would I bestow its treasure otherwhere;
It floods to find your heart—enfold it there!
The land’s caress the far seas never knew;
Not on the wave falls the sweet rain of gold.
Far lie the changeful waters, pure and cold,
Sundered by the high cliffs: thus I from you
By Fate am kept a universe apart.
And yet my constant thought inspires me
To seek to lay my love upon your heart.
[Pg 48]
MID-WINTER
On this midwinter afternoon,
When all the sky is cold and grey,
What power can change the white world’s rune
To a midsummer holiday?
The branches of the leafless trees,
Bent in the pathway of the storm,
Give up their buds to orchard bees,
The atmosphere is soft and warm.
And from a thousand rose-hearts, too,
The air delicious fragrance yields;
The birds fly up against the blue,
The Summer ripens on the fields.
Thou art with me! This happy thought,
That all the birds of love unchains
To the white world, has Summer brought
Through warmth of Summer in my veins.
[Pg 49]
MARE PLACIDO
Across the tossing tumult of my sea
The peaceful current of your Spirit flows.
The ships attain their harbours, enter free
Beyond the pale horizon’s line of rose.
Tempests are banished from these miles serene:
Held cloud-free, wind-free, by your love’s control,
My sea shall yield its deep-bed treasure soon!
Mirror the evening star,—the cloud,—the moon:
Tranquil, as tho’ no storm had ever been—
My sea shall be the mirror of your soul.
[Pg 50]
IN THE GREENWOOD
I fly like a bird to my home that lies
Far in the west, by a fair green hollow.
The straight, fine, meadow-line runs with the skies:
A clear horizon for sight to follow,
To leave, then rest where the zenith’s blue,
Blue of the bluest, like my love’s eyes!
I leave the noise of the busy mart;
The small stream’s mouth with its shining shallows;
I go with its going; till here, apart,
Hid by rushes and low white mallows,
Hushed in its singing it lieth deep—
Deep of the deepest, like my love’s heart!
I will sleep and dream while the shadows move
And the slant of the sunlight falleth yellow.
I will wake to the note of the greenwood dove
As it calleth low to its distant fellow:—
Where life of the fields and the woods is pure,
Pure of the purest, like my love’s love!
[Pg 51]
EVENING TIME
To-night I watch the sun go down,
Blood-red it sinks behind the hills.
The deep low-lying valleys brown,
The wheat fields, and the daisied down,
The bright, mist-shrouded radiance fills.
Across the surface of the pond
The small trees throw their dark shadows:
Whilst in the outlying wood beyond
The deeper darkness broods and grows.
The day is no awakener
To greater beauty, than day’s wane.
The little leaves that move and stir
Make noise as of the sound of rain.
The very air is gone to rest,
And long and black the shadows lie,
As over all the crimson west
The darkness follows up the sky.
Good-night!—until the sun shall send
Along the east a shining mark!
In answer to my greeting, Friend,
You seem to call across the dark.
[Pg 53]
IN THE WINDOW
Oh ... my love comes to me to-night,
After the weary days.
And I must trim the candle bright
And light a cheerful blaze.
Then close within the window stand,
As down the silent streets
My heart shall hear his coming, and
How it knows, and beats!
His footstep falls from stair to stair,
(Oh my love is my own!)
I wear a ribbon in my hair
That only he has known.
His kiss upon my palms he left;
I hold its message, still.
Long days have made his soul bereft,
To-night ... he takes his fill!
[Pg 54]In winter-time, in summer too,
In sunshine, and in rain.
Love waits for love, the wide world thro’.
(Alas ... for watches vain!)
As in my window, hid I stand;
(Would all so blest might be!)
His step is on the threshold, and
My love has come to me.
[Pg 55]
THE GLASS
When I am old! Oh Love, who well can say
Whether within a year, a month, a day
Or six times ten years that dead time shall come
When Hope is pale and wan Desire stands dumb,
And Love though living, clasps with fingers cold,
When we are old.
I think, perhaps, that Boundary’s dim outline
Will not be crossed by these swift steps of mine,
But while Desire is warm, and Hope still thrills
I shall go hence and look from unseen hills
On mighty scrolls of centuries unrolled,
I still not old.
To Be: unpierced by Vision. Break the Glass!
But if fourscore and ten my years should pass,
Witness, dear eyes! Mine, looking back, shall see
Towers of strength, and Peaceful Seas, and Thee,
And Love, a fragrant cerement, my heart shall fold
When I am old.
[Pg 56]
THREE DAYS MORE....
Not love’s command
Could dry one league of sea;
Or even God’s hand
Fold up one mile of land,
To bring you sooner unto me!
There are but three more days to climb—
To-day, to-morrow, and its mate,
Till that day!... Did love know to wait
Would it be love? Not in my time
Or in my blood!
My thought, elate,
Swells like a rising sea to flood
Covering barren days between
And brings you (as love should)
Till you stand there—my lord, my light, my good!...
Ere the frail screen
Of fancy falls to my embrace
[Pg 57]Sudden, the spell snaps short to Fate!
Till that day—when I see your face—
There are still three dark days to climb,
To-day, to-morrow, and its mate.
[Pg 58]
LOVE’S PARADOX
I love you more with every rising day
With every waning sun I love you more.
Love walketh with me on the outward way,
It stands to meet me at the open door.
It singeth low when other sounds clash loud;
It keeps me lonely ’mid a changing crowd.
I love you most when I am far away;
I love you most when on your heart I rest;
I love you most when rapture has its sway,
I love you in your still caresses best.
In restfulness, or when your pulses beat—
All times, forever, most I love you, Sweet!
[Pg 59]
VITA, VITA!
The flight of the years pursues me.
And nothing is done!
Nor gained, nor made, nor accomplished—
Only Youth—lost.
Slave to the pleasure that fetters, (nor would be free,)
Tired of the light before the disk of the sun
Is more than half of a circle!
Stunned at the cost
Of full free living, and nothing wherewith to pay
The long close score that blights with its fearful truth—
But my Youth.
[Pg 60]
THE SLEEP
Love in a life and after life—the Sleep!
And we hang on a word, a look, and keep
The pulses throbbing,—make the Spark burn low,—
And close the Book, to laugh perhaps, to weep
Most surely! if, oh gods! we may but know
Love in life!
Our burning hands we raise
For dear palms’ clasp, and kisses on the lips,
And close embrace.
We give our nights and days,
In the one draught delectable our spirits steep,
Forgetting—(whilst the lights of Love eclipse—)
The Sleep.
[Pg 61]
THE REWARD
I heard the little cricket cry
Last night in the dull rain—as I
Put on my dark, my sombre dress.
(I had no ear for happiness!)
And as I braided up my hair
I saw the white threads, silvered there,
And on my cheeks the mark of tears,
My only kisses thro’ the years.
Sudden—that little voice I heard—
Finer than call of cheerful bird.
A human—tender—crying sound
In the low grasses near the ground.
[Pg 62]Just as I said:—“I will take Cheer
Instead of Joy!”—Your footsteps, Dear,
Fell on the garden walk ... and when
I put my candle out,—.... Again
Late in the night I heard it plain
The cricket, singing in the rain.
[Pg 63]
LES REVENANTS
My only light is candle-light
From candles fitly set
In sconces, dazzling.
Long threads, half melting, cling
To snowy candle-masts, and fret
The straight, slim forms, and I shall sit
Alone, until the Spirit stirs
These lily lights (for they are conjurers).
From the high corners, shadows flit
Across the floor: and One shall bring
Back all my soul has loved and missed.
And the dim others fade when we have kissed.
But one remains, and I am one with it.
My only light is candle-light
From candles burning down
Till each flame flickers into night.
Is it the perfume slight
From shadow hair and shadow gown
[Pg 64]Unseals my long-locked senses? Or,
Light touching hands and lips that fill
For me the waste of time, caress until
I live as I have lived before?
My only light shall be the candle’s light,
To summon shades and mysteries
Until my solitary spirit sees
Your shadow steal across the shining floor.
[Pg 65]
THE BOON
At break of day when shadows fly
And still the earth is white with dew,
When light soft mists on hillside lie
And, stirring purple meadows thro’,
The morning wind moves like a sigh,
Oh I awake then quietly!
Earth’s sullied things draw never nigh
When thus the day from God is new
And from a dim far place on high
On the chaste line of day and night
Where holy thoughts the souls imbue
Who wake, praise God, keep pure, walk right
A boon comes ... is’t not blest that I
Walk thus thro’ fields of God with you
At break of day when shadows fly?
[Pg 66]
THE SIGN
Last night I felt your kisses on my face,
Softer than April fall of wind-flowers;
Sweeter than summer rain upon the grass;
Sweeter than the light wind, that in the South
Wakes, and in groves of myrrh and cassia stirs.
I bent with parted lips to kiss your mouth—
Straightway there fell a fine thin veil between.
There stood the trees in level rows,
The sunlight filled the trembling green
Of the leaf-sea, in the fair close.
By these straight boles, under these slender boughs,
Throughout the days of midsummer, I stand
Until God part the veil with shining hand
And show me where you sit within His house
Holding the seven-sparred star, whose name is Love.
The time, though long, I know comes fast apace
Because of the sweet sign you told’st me of,—
Last night I felt your kisses on my face.
SONGS
[Pg 67]
[Pg 69]
SONGS
THE FIRESIDE
Bitter cold the winter street,
Cold and grey the sky:
Bitter cold the veil of sleet
The winds drive by.
Warm and bright the fireside,
Red the flames with cheer;
What can winter’s woe betide
Us, Dear?
On my hand I feel your palm
As a bird lie warm:
Oh the fireside is calm!
It hears no storm.
Bleak the winter street and cold;
Red the flames with cheer;
Love and firelight enfold
Us, Dear.
[Pg 70]
LOVE—WHERE YOU GO!
Love, where you go December’s air grows warm,
Birds bend the barren branches to their song
And flowers spring, your coming steps to charm.
Bursting the band of ice, and frosty thong.
Over the highways prisoned in by snow
They fling a garden in old winter’s scorn!
Saying, “The lovely spring is here ... we know!”
The sombre heart of midnight pales to morn
Love—
where
you
go.—
[Pg 71]Love, where you go, grows my heart glad enow,
My being’s pulse is tune with ecstasy.
I find a ballad on each bending bough.
I take my lute from off the greenwood tree
To wake the dearest melody I know.
I’ll fling my songs broadcast, to heaven’s blue
Where the stars think your eyes are stars below....
My soul finds its one paradise with you—
Love—
where
you
go.
[Pg 72]
COSTANZA SINGS....
My Love is a rider! (and life’s at its pace!)
He rides to the battle—he rides to the chase.
His armour is burnished, his nodding plume’s curled.
(And would I could follow him over the world!)
Nor distance, nor danger can keep us apart.
He comes with the shadows and lies on my heart.
He’s gone when the midnight its pinions has furled.
(And would I could follow him over the world!)
I’d gladly arise—don bonnet and sword,
And follow the steps of my Love and my Lord.
I’d stand by his side when the lances are hurled.
(And would I could follow him over the world!)
[Pg 73]
MAY IN FEBRUARY
When I go a Maying—Maying—
There his wanton wishes go!
Spring, like flowers, to meet me straying....
I must pluck them—will, or no!
I must break each pale stalk slender:
I must lift each flower fair;
For I know they are the tender
Thoughts of love that greet me there....
I will wear them on my bosom....
In the night, when he comes home
He shall see his thoughts in blossom,
Oh Beloved Spring-time,
Come!
[Pg 74]
BRIER ROSE
In among the tall weeds
There lives a brier rose.
Bright among the rugged reeds
She bends and blooms and blows.
The ragged bloom around her grows,
And rough and rude her bed:
But kisses of the wind she knows,
And blushes warm and red.
The sunny moor before her lies
The stream runs bright and clear.
She does not reck o’ sombre skies,
Nor knows the changing year.
She has no ken o’ winter drear,
Nor dreads the frost and storm:
For summer winds have called her Dear,
She blushes red and warm.
[Pg 75]
THE SLEEPING HEART
My heart is in the hawthorn tree.
I left it in the lovely house,
Hidden among the blooming boughs.
And every little crimson rose,
That blushes, reddens, pales or glows,
Shall give its secret up to thee!
My heart is in the hawthorn tree.
My heart is in the hawthorn tree!
It wears a fragile, rose-red dress:
A robe of spring-time loveliness.
It has forgot its songs to sing,
And sleepeth like a tired thing,—
To dream new songs, to sing to thee.—
My heart is in the hawthorn-tree.
[Pg 76]
ABSENCE
O darling—
“My darling!”
And this is all you say?
And what are words of love and cheer
When one is far away?
O darling—
“My darling!”
A word is more than none
And if you say what I would hear
You’ll fill the world with sun
O darling—
“My darling!”
[Pg 77]
TO-MORROW
Where is all the sunlight gone
Dearest heart and dearest?
Will it come again with dawn
Dearest heart and dearest?
Will it, stealing after night,
Fold the waking hours, till bright
To-morrow breaks the clearest,
Best, of every day we’ve had
Fresh and gay and good and glad?
Dearest heart—and dearest!
[Pg 78]
OLD TIME MELODY
I’m pining away for the way I’d go,
I’m pining away for the things I’ve seen,
For the joy of the fall of the first white snow,
And the sweep of the forest green.
But it’s not for the home-land, broad and fair;
The house on the hill, or the old ways spread;—
For why should I wander here or there,
Since you went down to the dead?
I’m pining away for the love you gave,
For the world that you made, when your life lay here.
And the path to the country beyond the grave
Is the way that I pine for, dear!
[Pg 79]
THOUGH ALL BETRAY
Dearest, give your love to me,—
I will keep it well,
Cradle it, as does the sea
Hold the shell—
Deep, unseen, and secretly.
Dearest, give your kiss to me,—
I will keep tho’ all assail:
As the temple prayerfully
Holds the Grail.
Altars then my lips shall be!
Dearest, give to me your trust,—
I will not betray....
Hold it, as the beacon must
Hold the ray,
Till the lighthouse stones are dust.
[Pg 80]
BREAK THY SLEEP
When to-night, the shining snow
Fell on forest brown and lea,
Hanging diamonds on the tree;—
When the dazzling world below
Lifted up, all brilliantly,
Stars again, to stars to throw;—
Then I thought of thee...!
White the winter forests sweep
Down to meet the midnight sea,—
Dearest, break thy charmèd sleep,
Dream a winter dream of me.
[Pg 81]
RED ROSES
The rose that comes on winter’s day
It is the rarest rose—(they say)
To venture forth so bright and bold,
With velvet leaves and heart of gold,
To wear so brave array:—
Daring the icy atmosphere,
Your winter roses, greet me—Dear
And love, all warm amid the snows,
Comes with the rose.
[Pg 82]
SONG
As the days
Go their ways;
And the months, and the years,
Bring their laughter and their tears,—
And their range
Of turn and change—
All the old,
Away we fold,—
With the moth,
And the dust;
Nothing loth
Since we must
Have the new!
As the days
Go their ways
One thing stays—
My love for you.
[Pg 83]
SLUMBER SONG
(The White Elf Mother sings.)
When the low flying wind, awake,
Brushes the lilies, and the low
Blue flowers hidden in the brake,—
When the sighing Alders bend and shake,—
When the owl’s whirring,—Hush thee, dear!
For all the elfin lights aglow
Will guide the slumber fairies here,
Naught is stirring
For my child to fear.
When the strange sighing tree-tops sing,
Dance all the fairies to and fro
And white dreams from their mantles fling,
While the flying
Winds thy cradle swing.
[Pg 84]When the low crooning insects cry
Creep the white elves soft, and slow,
Hush thee, Sweet! and hear the merry
Pipes a-tuning
For thy lullaby!
[Pg 85]
FANTASY
I hear the fluttering wind, I see
The shadows on the grass.
I wish that you would come to me!
I would not let you pass!
But springing up from where I lie,
I take you in my arms, would I!
I’d tell you where white heather grows,
I’d kiss you, and I’d hold you close,
I would not let you pass!
Here, by my side, you’d watch with me
Cloud shadows on the grass.
If chance that you should come may be,
I will not let you pass!
Where the lost faerie kingdoms lie,
I’ll tell in wonder-tales—will I!
And as the brilliant fancy grows,
I’ll kiss you, and I’ll hold you close,
I will not let you pass!
ROUNDELS
ALBERT HERTER
[Pg 87]
[Pg 89]
ROUNDELS
THE INSPIRATION
These songs I sing to you, who song inspire.
Would I a message new might find and bring!
Or touch with a live spark of heavenly fire
These songs I sing!
Take them, for they are doves with fluttering wing,—
They try to reach your window: lift them higher—
Up to your heart—there warm and nestling
They shall find home, and life! If love aspire
Shall it not speak? To voice a holy thing,
To voice the heart’s deep need—the soul’s desire
These songs I sing.
[Pg 90]
LUCE ADORABILE
You came to me when I had turned and said:—
“This, in my darkened life can never be,
My ways are in the stumbler’s paths instead!”
You came to me
High and unprejudiced and spirit free.
Wearing God’s seal upon your pure forehead,
Dearest, you bent from your bright way to see
My flickering torch: your own, live-flashing, red
Rekindled the faint flame. Thus holily,
A radiance, a light when light had fled,
You came to me.
[Pg 91]
TEACH MY SONG
Kind and Dear you are, and Brave and Strong.
Life has taught you worth of smile and tear;
Still your spirit’s tenor flows along
Kind and Dear.
Turn to me, on whom for many a year
Fate has wrought its work of bitter wrong;
(Scarce my veilèd vision sees you clear!)
On your brow is Peace, to you belong
Life’s best gifts, oh lend me Faith and Cheer!
Show me Truth and Beauty, teach my song,
Kind and Dear!
[Pg 92]
THE APOSTROPHE
Go, unsaid thought, wordless and songless both!
With fluttering pinions, still unseen, unsought,
Circle the spirit’s white flame like a moth—
Go—unsaid thought!
Go to the one by whom my soul is taught;
Go—wing your joyous journey, nothing loth
Like sunbeams in the hearts of lilies caught,
Like perfume that eludes, yet lingereth;—
Until your subtle mission’s fully wrought—
To charm, as a dear dream’s pale image doth,—
Go—unsaid thought!
[Pg 93]
CARRIER DOVES
Friend, unto thee I bend my constant thought;
Its current running as a stream to sea,
From hidden sources of my being brought,
Friend, unto thee.
If the wise wonders of the world could be
Found by a spell, sure my quick love had sought
Each potent and elusive mystery.
Into an amulet together wrought
To charm thee! With this full confession free—
I loose my doves to-day, their ways are taught,
Friend, unto thee!
[Pg 94]
THE NEW FRIEND
Friend—my restless spirit never knew
What good gifts the heavens kept late to send
Till the dear day dawned that brought me—you,
Friend!
Lacking love like this, too many wend
Graveward. Highest heaven holds few
Joys like this, with cruel pain to blend.
I who know not Peace may feel its dew;
I who have no prayers may kneel and bend
In this gentle presence;—dear and new
Friend!
[Pg 95]
L’OISEAU DES BOIS
Last night I heard in the wood green and still,
The sweetest music sung by any bird.
I never knew the soul of song, until
Last night I heard.
Pure as life’s morning, warm as love first stirred,
Fresh it outpoured our close attent to fill.
Dearest, you were beside me, and your word
Did through the heavenly harmonies distil
The spirit’s joy: and grosser sense was blurred.
I never knew the soul of Love, until—
Last night I heard!
[Pg 96]
GOD’S IS THE NIGHT
Good night,—Love rules the world,—Sleep you!—
There is no evil in Love’s sight.
See how heaven’s lamps swing in the blue,—
Good night!
Oh what avails the futile flight
Of thought to bless the long dark through?
Deep is the darkness, and, despite
Of Love, our care is frail to do
For those we love: but all is right,
God’s is the darkness; friend, to you—
Good night!
[Pg 97]
CHRISTMAS
Dearest ... for thee I make my Christmas song!
A song of holly and of fragrant tree,
Of festivals, that sweep their happy throng,
Dearest, for thee!
Look ... how the folding snow is on the lea;
See the fine hoar frost lie the hedge along
And the white holy stars shine mistily.
A Christmas gift held high, though winds are strong,
A warm and glowing gift, though ice may be,
Comes star-blest, Christ-blest, over pain and wrong,
Dearest, for thee!
[Pg 98]
LOVE’S UNIVERSE
I find in thee fields, valleys, plains, and hills.
Deep tender depths, a forest and a sea.
All that the warm wide Earth with beauty fills
I find in thee.
Each a small part of God’s fair world are we,
Each one to a quick pulse of nature thrills
Or mirrors in his soul a mystery.
All sweetness that the summer wind distils,
And all of winter beauty that may be,
All that wakes ecstasy, or calms, or stills,
I find in thee!
[Pg 99]
SUMMER
Sea and sand and here our small home’s place is
Where the low suns flush the warm wide land
Golden flooding, till the whole world’s face is
Sea and Sand.
Far beyond our horizons, expand
Happy bays—they say: but the wave’s race is
Toward our love-bound island, tempest-banned.
Here for you and me the season’s grace is,
Here the heart’s response, the touch of hand
Make love’s universe, and Heaven’s embrace is
Sea and Sand.
[Pg 100]
WINTER
Sand and sea, and white gull’s fluttering feather
Down upon the beach, the salt pool’s fee.
Birds have left to storm and the wind’s tether
Sand and Sea.
Warm and bright those southern ports may be,
Here, the ribald winter rules the weather
Crying in the bending, tossing tree:
We are two—sweetheart—and care not whether
Summer reign, or Winter—so that we
Live and love, as close as kiss together
Sand and Sea.
[Pg 101]
AMOR IN EXCELSIS
I love you so that I would rather have
Your happiness than any joy below.
I would give up my soul your soul to save,
I love you so!
If round your island like sea should flow
The dearest gifts men ever sought or gave—
My heart’s desire should on the first crest glow!
My love counts pain and death small things to brave;
My love shall find the joy the immortals know;
And triumph o’er the future—and the grave,—
I love you so!
[Pg 102]
THE ROSE
Never again, Dearest, oh never more!
Not in the spring-time’s swift enchanted reign,
Shall hope to hope, shall love to love implore,
Never again!
Not in the summer—nor when autumn’s wane
Blows the dry leaves along earth’s windy floor,
Nor in the winter: that strange joy and pain
No seasons’ circle ever can restore.
The roses of to-day no tears shall stain,—
They’re thornless! You shall see the rose you wore
Never again!
[Pg 103]
WHERE ARE YOU, DEAR?
Where are you, Dear, now that the winter white
Has nearly run its course? Spring will be here
And birds shall sing as home they wing their flight,
“Where are you, Dear?”
Thus I have sung and waited thro’ the year,
Saying at morning: “You will come with night?”
And in the night: “With the dawn kind and clear,
“You will pass by!” My little dwelling bright
Has its soft curtains drawn; I wait the cheer
Your presence brings by day and candle-light;
“Where are you, Dear?”
[Pg 104]
LA MORT EST TOUJOURS FIDÈLE!
Gone!...
And steal the shadows grey
Where our window shone
Late with lights; too soon are they
Gone.
All that Heaven won
When it took you, love, away
My heaven’s built upon:—
“Joy of life—Come back a day!”
But the path leads on
Through the night.... Grief wakes to say
“Gone!”
[Pg 105]
THE WATCH
By candle-light when every fine flame played
About your bed so long and cold and white,—
I sat and kept my watch, and wept and prayed
By candle-light.
Till memories a holy, holy flight
Came back from our far childhood’s years, and stayed
Touching us with their wings. And to thy bright
High presence, “I will be all days” (I said)
“A torch to hold thy spirit’s flame aright.”
This was the tender promise that I made
By candle-light.
[Pg 106]
THE YEAR’S END
What are my ways now that my Love is dead?
As candles round a bier stand future days.
Must I then read in annals of years fled
What are my ways?
On, the Time-reaping shining sickle sways;
I watch in fog and rain with bended head;
And for no flower swathe the cold blade stays.
If memory were a solace, hearts that bled
Were healed long since!... Now the quick tear betrays
I may not with my past be comforted:
What are my ways?
[Pg 107]
OUTRE MORT
You came to me in visions of the night,
Your pale brow bound by a bright ring of flame;
High, unapproachable, and dazzling white,
You came.
I rose and called you by your dearest name;—
“Tell me,” I said, “how go the hours’ flight
In that far land? Do men strive there for Fame
And Love?” Then I lost sense and sight:
You bent to me,—your kisses were the same
As when, long since, to be my life’s delight
You came.
[Pg 108]
DEAD LOVE
Dark the day when love is gone—
When the vital spark
Dies, and leaves the soul of one
Dark.
April for the birds shall hark.
March’s wildness sown,
June with crimson bloom shall mark.
What has hope to build upon
Cold and stiff and stark?
All the future stretches on
Dark.
SONNETS
ALBERT HERTER
[Pg 109]
[Pg 111]
SONNETS
VIVA! ANIMA CARISSIMA
I
Hail, Dearest! could verse make you live again
I’d rise with pallid-circled dawn to write
Until the veiled, the jealous hand of night
(Like Death that snatched you from the world of men)
Cloud up my thought and tracery of my pen.
Then would I burn the gentle candle-light
Till, fading spectre, sank each tall mast white
And cold stars lent their brilliant lanterns.... Then
Should slumber only hold me till a dream
Brought new enraptured rhythm—new song to give
Through vision of your soul’s transcendent flame.
Youth, life, and love, should harness to the theme
Draw to Olympus—pleading Jove for Fame.
Oh Dearest, if my verse could make you live!
[Pg 112]
II
Hail, hail!... Where the horizon fades and glows,
Last night I seemed to see you standing, Sweet.
Light mantled you from starry head to feet;
Aureoles bound your brows, pale flame on Snows.
Belovèd,—in your hand you held a Rose,
No flower immortal, red as hearts that beat
For earthly love, nor know the winding-sheet.
Who loves, who has been loved, the Symbol knows!
As you came toward me, with the Rose, royal,
Faint heart took cheer;—cheeks wan with sullen grief
Grew bright with thought of Bliss beyond the Veil.
Nirvana holds no lover’s heart in thrall.
I wear the Rose, a kiss, each crimson leaf
Warm with your lips.... Hail my Beloved!...
Hail!
[Pg 113]
III
If Fate had said, when first I saw thee stand
Straight, tall, and beautiful, and all my own—
“This is for you, the kingdom and the throne
“The rule and the dominion of the land;
“Eyes, lips, and benison of dearest hand,
“Caress of voice, and laugh, and lowest tone;
“Choose! Will you surfeit, then go forth alone,
“Because so favoured the more cursed and banned?”
I’d choose to lack thee! Ignorant, and blest
Though love and thee were to have heaven possessed.
Oh who would face the desolation’s sting
Or choose to live bereft, with memory?
I still may find after my Winter—Spring
If Fate would wipe the tablets clear of thee.
[Pg 114]
IV
When they together saw the Calendar
Slip by in months that wore Spring all days long,
He made his lover’s verse and roundel song,
The burthen of the rhyme his love of her!...
What though the storm swept by with rainy stir,
And winds, like ghosts, would ’round the windows throng,
They sat heart-linked, hand-linked; and bright and strong
Riot ran through their veins like Midsummer.
For palm to palm is exquisite as May;
And lip on lip is mad July at best!
Where is the fire for this pale winter’s day?
For one who sits alone at Death’s behest?
Ghosts of the storm peer in with charnel mirth
At ghosts of ashes on the gusty hearth.
[Pg 115]
EXCOMMUNICATE
I do not find an altar, or a priest,
Nor any sacred still confessional;
Masses and vespers, I must shun them all,
Tho’ every belfry bid me to the feast!
I may not wear the cross upon my breast;
Nor make its sign;—or in repentance fall
Before the nichèd saint. In canticle
I must not chaunt one frail blurred note, or least.
For my religion is my joy and shame;
My priest, my altar, canticle, and mass
Art thou! and lest thou hear my creed, and know;
Shouldst hear me sing my love, or pray thy name—
Unshriven with my burden I must go;
Proud, excommunicate, I pagan pass!
[Pg 116]
THE CONFESSION
Oh, when I saw you yesterday I stood
Trembling and silent; thus you could not know
The vibrant, singing beauty, stealing slow,
A sacred fire through my veins and blood.
In the poor, songless, unawakened wood
Of lute forgotten, who can guess the flow
Of hidden harmonies to overthrow
The heart and sense if one set free the flood?
As the deaf master never hears the tone
His genius wakes; so you, who make me sing,
And all the pulses of my life control,
Know but my silence, whilst for you alone
Music and thought and song their concourse ring.
Turn, then, and hear the love-song of my soul.
[Pg 117]
THE KINGDOM
Behold I bring a Kingdom in my hand,
Oh bend your eyes upon it!... Ways of peace
Lead by its rivers. Fields of rest are these
Above the endless skies of God expand.
Oceans of dear delight kiss on the sand,
And azure islands lift their waving trees
Where virgin forests’ twined interstices
Shadow the pools of sleep, deep inland seas!
This is my lovely Kingdom.... Tho’ you reign
Over an empire, proud, imperial,
Annex this land of beauty to your part;
Else, like a mirage, seen, then lost again
It fade forever! Kingdoms vanish all—
Immortal is the land of love, Sweetheart!
[Pg 118]
AMOR VICTRIX
Strong Death, proud power invisible, even now
Slowly thou drawest near me in the dark,—
And though within me the clear glowing spark
Of life is warm and beats in heart and brow,
My body shall grow colder, till I bow,
White as the ash, thine unresisting mark.
But for the word from the veiled years I hark,—
As calm and as invincible as Thou.
And when at last I feel thy kisses,—Death,—
My fading lips shall smiling tell thee this—
“Master thou art not! On my Spirit’s shrine
Deathless, although the altar crumbleth.
Ascend twin flames in one,—to find God’s bliss,
As God immortal,—my Love’s love and mine!”
[Pg 119]
SAINT OUEN
Oh shrive my soul, Belovèd! Yesterday
I placed two candles, straight and slim and fair
Before a virgin’s altar, kneeling there
For our united lives and love to pray.
Around me the cathedral’s stillness lay;
The mystery of God was everywhere;
Lifting the misty aisles through incensed air
Uprose the threading pillars, dim and grey.
God heard my prayer: and He forgave my need,
If after that day’s grace and majesty
I fall and pay my sin with bitter cost;—
You who have taught me prayer again, and creed,
Bend down in dear forgiveness unto me!
Shrive me, Belovèd! or my soul is lost.
[Pg 120]
RENUNCIATION
I have not ever reached for Paradise;
Nor sought beyond my fellows to be blessed.
Nor hoped where all men fail;—but quick confessed
The Limit, and the taunting Mark that flies.
But since I’ve seen thy soul without disguise;
And dreamed thy love’s great passion once expressed;
I’ve known my portion’s good in one sole best:—
Thy love and thee,—strong Spirit pure and wise!
To read thro’ tortuous lines, at length to see
What is the single goal, the heart’s desire,
And then without possession learn to live,—
Is Life...! Toward this, my chastened mind I give,
And thro’ Renunciation dare aspire
To reach God’s light, thro’ love and loss of thee.
[Pg 121]
ENVOI
A song of France in the autumn time,
When rooks fly low, then go calling, calling
That summer’s a thing of long ago,
For the golden warmth you would never know,
But the bronze-brown forests tell you so,
And the leaves are falling, falling.
The broad, bright river shines and flows
In sweeps of blue; then goes singing, singing,
Where borders of fern in crimson line
Are aglow like flame in the late sunshine.
In little slim poplars straight and fine,
Mistletoe’s clinging, clinging.
What matter after the sun goes down
If chill creeps out from the forest’s hollow,
Promising winter that earth affrays?
Is not the course of the year always
Toward spring,—and glory of golden days
To follow, follow, follow?
[Pg 122]The light of the late year’s in my heart!
It will not linger on death or dying.
Like leaves of the forest, sere and gone,
Are hopes of a future it once looked on;
But Life and Love to goals to be won,
Go flying, flying, flying.