Flower o' the thorn A book of wayside verse: By John Payne |
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WIND, RAIN, SUN. |
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| II. |
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| I. |
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| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
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| VII. |
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 | Flower o' the thorn |  |
WIND, RAIN, SUN.
I.
THE wind upon the roofs went rising, falling,
The livelong night;
Like phantom voices from the far worlds calling
Beyond man's sight,
It stinted not from blust'ring and from bawling
Till morning-light.
The livelong night;
Like phantom voices from the far worlds calling
Beyond man's sight,
It stinted not from blust'ring and from bawling
Till morning-light.
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Then, when, across the streaming house-tops creeping,
Came dawning grey
And in the morning mists the streets lay steeping,
It died away,
As if content to have set the world-all weeping
For birth of day.
Came dawning grey
And in the morning mists the streets lay steeping,
It died away,
As if content to have set the world-all weeping
For birth of day.
II.
Wet and warning, misty morning
Wakens o'er the city's sleep;
Roofs, replying to Heaven's sighing,
In the Day's rebirth, the dying
Of its dam the darkness weep.
Wakens o'er the city's sleep;
Roofs, replying to Heaven's sighing,
In the Day's rebirth, the dying
Of its dam the darkness weep.
Grim and grieving, unbelieving,
O'er the unbelieving town,
Where men groping go, unhoping,
Still for bread beneath their coping
Cold, the loveless skies look down.
O'er the unbelieving town,
Where men groping go, unhoping,
Still for bread beneath their coping
Cold, the loveless skies look down.
Rain falls flooding, housetops thudding
With its myriad phantom hoofs:
From Night's surges nought emerges,
Song nor sunshine, nought but dirges,
Droning from the dripping roofs.
With its myriad phantom hoofs:
From Night's surges nought emerges,
Song nor sunshine, nought but dirges,
Droning from the dripping roofs.
What to do is, when Heaven's blue is
To our summer skies denied?
To the undeigning clouds complaining,
Helpless hands of hope outstraining,
Faith goes groping far and wide.
To our summer skies denied?
To the undeigning clouds complaining,
Helpless hands of hope outstraining,
Faith goes groping far and wide.
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Thoughts once thought I, signs once sought I:
Now I think and seek no more.
Phantoms, sharing Day's despairing,
Hope and Thought and Fancy faring
Go on Grief's unsheltered shore.
Now I think and seek no more.
Phantoms, sharing Day's despairing,
Hope and Thought and Fancy faring
Go on Grief's unsheltered shore.
Hope, go hide thee! Faith, betide thee
What there may! To strive is vain.
Nature, sleeping, 'neath the weeping
Of the heavens silence keeping,
Bids thee so abide the rain.
What there may! To strive is vain.
Nature, sleeping, 'neath the weeping
Of the heavens silence keeping,
Bids thee so abide the rain.
III.
The rush of the rain with the turn of the tide and the neighbouring noon hath ceased;
Heav'n's azure looks through the lessening flocks of the storm-clouds sable-fleeced.
We deemed the sun drowned in the sea of storms and dead for an age at least;
But, lo! with his goldilocks gilded anew, a king clad fresh for the feast,
Up yonder he thrusts through the blossoming blue, in the flowering fields of the East!
Heav'n's azure looks through the lessening flocks of the storm-clouds sable-fleeced.
We deemed the sun drowned in the sea of storms and dead for an age at least;
But, lo! with his goldilocks gilded anew, a king clad fresh for the feast,
Up yonder he thrusts through the blossoming blue, in the flowering fields of the East!
The hour of his sight is the shining hour, the sign of victory won;
His oriflamme full in the frowning face he flaunts of the cloud-wreaths dun:
In baffled bands, from that flag of flame they break into rout and run.
But late with their banners the sky was black, and now, East, West, there's none;
The demons of darkness all have fled from the face of the sovereign sun.
His oriflamme full in the frowning face he flaunts of the cloud-wreaths dun:
In baffled bands, from that flag of flame they break into rout and run.
But late with their banners the sky was black, and now, East, West, there's none;
The demons of darkness all have fled from the face of the sovereign sun.
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All hail to thee, sacred saviour Sun, that com'st with thy sword of sway
To counter the fiends of the flood and war the bands of of the brume away!
Thou hast shattered the shadows' power and purged our thoughts of the gloom and the grey;
Thou hast succoured our souls and made our hearts again as the heavens gay.
All hail to thee, Light of our lives and dreams! All hail to thee, Lord of the Day!
To counter the fiends of the flood and war the bands of of the brume away!
Thou hast shattered the shadows' power and purged our thoughts of the gloom and the grey;
Thou hast succoured our souls and made our hearts again as the heavens gay.
All hail to thee, Light of our lives and dreams! All hail to thee, Lord of the Day!
IV.
Wind, rain and sun
Still after one
Another run
And turn the hourglass for a new beginning:
From clime to clime,
As rhyme breeds rhyme,
The ball of Time
In Space's spirals up and down goes spinning.
Still after one
Another run
And turn the hourglass for a new beginning:
From clime to clime,
As rhyme breeds rhyme,
The ball of Time
In Space's spirals up and down goes spinning.
Gods come and go;
But sun, rain, blow,
Still ebb and flow
And Winter fast on Summer's footsteps follows:
The Year's true form
Of cold and warm
With blast and storm
Is wried and Saturn's sign usurps Apollo's.
But sun, rain, blow,
Still ebb and flow
And Winter fast on Summer's footsteps follows:
The Year's true form
Of cold and warm
With blast and storm
Is wried and Saturn's sign usurps Apollo's.
When Yule meets May,
The sages say,
When Summer's day
With Winter's night is blent, the sign is fatal;
The days draw nigh
When wet and dry,
When earth and sky,
Will all return to Chaos antenatal.
The sages say,
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With Winter's night is blent, the sign is fatal;
The days draw nigh
When wet and dry,
When earth and sky,
Will all return to Chaos antenatal.
| Flower o' the thorn | |