The Poetical Works of George Barlow :: :: University of Virginia Library

The gifts of Youth are passing fair:
Through many a soft spring day
Their tender fragrance scents the air,
But—then they pass away!
—Hope, dying ere its blossom glows:
Faith in the false world's truth:
Faith in the swiftly fading rose:—
These are the gifts of Youth.

But fairer are the gifts Love brings;
Is there one humble cot,
One palace of a thousand kings
Where star-crowned Love is not?

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—A rapture passing earthly speech:
Light stolen from heaven above:
The power, it seems, that heaven to reach:—
These are the gifts of Love.

But yet one other figure waits:
In sunshine or in shade,
With eyes that meet and conquer Fate's,
It tarries undismayed.
—Life's harvests, bright on either hand:
Joy changeless, deep, sublime:
Peace filling all the golden land:—
These are the gifts of Time.

115

II. ANOTHER MEETING

The sense of leaving thee is pain severer
Each time the moment comes when we must part:
And yet by this I know that thou art dearer,
Dearer than ever to my doting heart!
Love's sacred pain hath power to bless
Even in its very piteousness;
It makes a thousand love-stars shine out plain,
For though we part, we soon shall meet again!

Yes, there will come another hour of meeting,
More love-sweet moments—moments tenderer far;
Wild moments, when the heart with passion beating
Feels oneness with all flowers, with every star.
Are last night's roses pale and dead?
Behold, a new rose lifts its head!
One moon's deposed? Another moon will reign,
Acclaimed by new stars, when we meet again!

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—When there are no more meetings in the meadow
And no more meetings by the moonlit sea,
What will be left within the eternal shadow,
Within the shadow of death, for you and me?
What will be left us? What but love,
Supreme on earth, supreme above?
Immortal love, and passion without pain:
We'll meet once more—but not to part again.

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III. GOLDEN LOVE

“Oh, well I love the red red gold,”
So sang the maiden fair:
“I love to twine in fold on fold
My bright soft golden hair.
In spring the golden daffodils
Shine out in field and lane,
And when red gold the coffer fills
Why should a girl complain—
And when red gold the coffer fills
Why should a girl complain, complain,
Why should a girl complain?”

There came a lover bold and strong
To worship and to dare;
His voice of gold sang passion's song,
He stroked the golden hair.

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And now her thought cared nought, cared nought,
For all past golden gleams;
'Tis golden love, by heaven's hand brought,
That flashes through her dreams—
'Tis golden love, by angels sought,
That flashes through her dreams, her dreams,
That flashes through her dreams!

“I have no gold nor lands,” he said—
She said, “But love is fair;
Kiss once again my golden head,—
Place, thus, love's circlet there.”
Then, doubly bright, bright flower and star
With golden beauty gleamed,
For love makes all things lovelier far
Than mortal's heart has dreamed—
For love makes all things lovelier far
Than mortal's heart has dreamed, has dreamed,
Than mortal's heart has dreamed!

119

IV. HAPPIER DAYS

In youthful days the woods and hills
Seemed full of fairies pure and bright:
Their voices mingled with the rills;
Their beauty dazzled mortal sight.
In youthful days, in youthful days,
On moonlit cliffs, by sun-kissed bays,
Our hearts could hear the fairy lays
—In youthful days, in youthful days!

But then a silence weird and strange
Fell on the hills and on the sea:
Death, sorrow, falsehood, sickness, change,
Had hushed the fairy minstrelsy.
The fairy queen—so it was said—
Lay dying on a cowslip bed,
Death-white beneath the moon's pale rays
—In later days, in later days!

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But happier days brought back the light
To earth and heaven and sea and grove.
Love's starry splendour mocks the night!
Time tilts with pointless spears at love!
True eyes, pure hearts, and loving hands,
Bring blessing deep as fairy land's,
And fill man's thankful heart with praise
—In happier days, in happier days!

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V. SOME ONE

I loved in life's glad morning,
When summer airs were sweet:
I brought my heart to some one
And laid it at her feet.
But ah! the glad dream vanished:
Then all the summer fled;
The green leaves shook and trembled,
My heart for years seemed dead.
I gave my heart to some one.
How changed the world would be
If only that lost some one
Had given her heart to me!

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So dreamed I in life's morning,
So dreamed I in despair.
But time brought noble solace;
New sunlight filled the air.
Time brought me my true sweetheart,
My some one, good and bright:
Time filled my day with sunshine
And filled with stars my night.
Now all my song is, “Sweetheart,
An altered world I see
Since you, my love and darling,
Have given your heart to me!”

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VI. “ONE DAY’

Upon a perfect starry night
We stood beside the silent deep,
Tranced in a still supreme delight,
While all the earth was tranced in sleep.
“O holy stars that gaze from heaven above,
Guard us,” I murmured—“shield true hearts who love!
Watch over him, watch over him and me”
—A threatening strange moan answered from the sea,
“Ah me! Ah me!”

And now upon a wintry night,
While at my feet the breakers roar
Flecking the beach with angry white,
I stand just where we stood of yore.

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There are no stars to-night in heaven above;
Dead is my darling, dead are hope and love:
Dear beyond words my darling was to me,
But he was dearer to the jealous sea,
Ah me! Ah me!

Not till the sea gives up its dead
Shall he and I stand face to face:
No soul once clasped has ever fled
Back from the mighty sea's embrace.
But when the sea yields up its hosts of dead
Our marriage-bells shall ring—so love has said:
One day from out the vast imprisoning sea
My dead lost darling shall return to me;
One day—Ah me!

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VII. “FAR IN THE YEARS BEHIND”

Somewhere far in the years behind
A true heart loved me well:
But Fate was fickle, and I was blind—
It's nothing new to tell.
I acted madly...we had to part...
The dear spring daisies came;
But I had broken a loving heart
And they never seemed the same.

Ah! darling love of the days gone by,
The daisies were lovely then:
They smiled up each to the summer sky;
They never will smile so again.
For I broke the hearts of the loving flowers
When I broke that heart so brave:
They never will smile as in olden hours,
Unless they smile on my grave.

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For not upon earth shall I know sweet rest,
The rest that I might have attained:
Each day, when the red sun sinks in the West,
It is one more victory gained!
For my hope lies far beyond the sun,
In the heaven that is to be
When the sorrow of life at last is done
And my darling comes to me.

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VIII. RUSHLIGHT LOVE

He gave you love for an hour,
He gave you gold for a day,
My sweetheart, my wonderful flower;
He tempted you, led you astray.
But I would have given my heart to you,
Darling, my love and my pride;
Opened its every part to you,
Made you my being's bride!

What did he give you? Riches!
What are they all but a dream?
Wait but till Death's hand twitches
The curtain—away they stream.
I would have given you passion
Pure as God's love, and as free:
I would have loved in the fashion,
Love, of the stars and the sea.

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Love, you have chosen the lesser:
Mine was an infinite boon.
You might have been the possessor,
Queen, of the stars and the moon!
What did you choose? No sky-gift,
Endless, marvellous, grand,
But a rushlight dear at a farthing
That flickers and melts in your hand.

129

IX. WAITING

They had waited and waited and waited,—
But the struggle was sad and long.
He was only a writer of poems,
And what is the worth of a song?
She was poor, she was true, she was noble:
She loved him with all her heart.
They waited and waited and waited,
And they watched the days depart.

The sweet springs came with their glory
Of primrose and crocus trim;
The summers glittered and vanished,—
And still she waited for him.

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For the fortune they once had dreamed of
Was still in the dreamer's land.
Through summer and winter they waited,
And they toiled on hand in hand.

They have waited and waited and waited;
Far-off is their life's young spring:
But their love is as tender as ever
And has grown to a heavenly thing.
I think that the angels love them:
One night through the starlit air
They will pass to the heaven above them
And the angels will marry them there.

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X. “GOOD-NIGHT!”

Good-night! the tenderest sweetest word
That our sad restless world has heard.
“Good-night!” saith dew-kissed flower to flower,
When comes the peaceful sunset-hour:
“Soft rest be yours and slumbers light;”
“Good-night!” saith rose to rose—“Good-night!”

Good-night! and then the world swings round,
Till once again its brow is crowned;
Till, when the new glad day's begun,
Its forehead lightens with the sun.
Then, when the sun's broad wings take flight,
The tired world sleeps—Good-night! Good-night!

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Good-night! O word of hope and peace!
Word uttered when vain longings cease;
Word uttered when wild dreams are done,
When stormy grief wanes with the sun.
Love's voice serene from starriest height
To all the world breathes soft Good-night, Good-night!