Poems Real and Ideal :: :: University of Virginia Library

Poems Real and Ideal

By George Barlow

Barlow, George

[section]

DEDICATION. TO JOHN ALEXANDER BLENCOWE,

MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS.

XIV.

SONNET XIV. TO IRELAND.

XVII.

SONNET XVII. THE GHOSTLY ARMIES.

XIX.

SONNET XIX. AN EASTERN YEARNING.

XXI.

SONNET XXI. GOD AND WOMAN.

XXII.

SONNET XXII. GOD.

XXIII.

SONNET XXIII. FORSAKEN.

XXVII.

SONNET XXVII. THE SONG-BRIDE.

XXVIII.

SONNET XXVIII. ALONE.

XXIX.

SONNET XXIX. RELIGION AND ART.

XXX.

SONNET XXX. IN ST. JAMES'S PARK.

XLIV, XLV, XLVI.

SONNETS XLIV., XLV., XLVI. A MORAL VICTORY: AND ITS RESULT.

II.

III.

XLVII.

SONNET XLVII. ALL OVER AGAIN.

LI.

SONNET LI. FORGOTTEN JESUS.

LIV.

SONNET LIV. THE COQUETTE-WORLD.

LVII.

SONNET LVII. HEAVEN AND WOMAN.

LIX.

SONNET LIX. LOST RICHES.

SONNET. IN BOHEMIA: A CONTRAST.

IV.

II.

II. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

IV.

IV. THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING: AFTER THE EGYPTIAN WAR OF 1882.

VI.

VI. FOR VICTOR HUGO'S EIGHTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1883.

VII.

VII. WILLIAM GOULDSTONE.

A WINTER SONG.

II.

A RUSSIAN WOMAN TO A RUSSIAN NIHILIST.

XX.

SONNET XX. “IT IS GOD WE NEED.”

XXI.

SONNET XXI. “AND YET WE STRETCH OUR ARMS OUT TO THE HUMAN.”

THE DEEP LOVE.

SONNET. CHRIST'S ETERNAL POETHOOD.

AUTUMN VOICES:

I. THE LATER LOVE.

II.

II. THE ETERNAL BOYHOOD.

IX.

IX. THE SOUL-GAME.

XII.

XII. THE SWEETEST LOVE.

XXII.

XXII. AT LAST.

SONNET. CHRIST'S LOVE.

A VISION OF THE DEAD.

LOVE-LYRICS.

I. AFTER LONG MONTHS.

II.

II. “THY FACE.”

III.

III. “BEYOND.”

IV.

IV. “NEVER TIRED?”

V. IN THE LATER DAYS.

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169

A WINTER SONG.

I

Lo! the snow
On the roofs rests, dreary white:
Was the glow
Of Love's beauty ever bright?

II

Green, serene,
Were sweet gardens ever fair?
Did love lean
Downward through the enchanted air?

170

III

Soft and oft
Did the touch of Venus come?
Now aloft
Hangs alone the snow's cold bloom!

IV

Rose, where glows
All thy June-glad beauty now?
Hoar-frost throws
Its wild web o'er every bough!

V

Death, whose breath
Through the green glad year delayed,
Twines his wreath
Now within the hawthorn shade.

171

VI

Bowers and flowers
All have vanished, all are gone:
Dreary hours
Crown us with their chaplets wan.

VII

Cold doth hold
Hand and heart and harp and lyre:
Young and old
Huddle round the heaped-up fire.

VIII

Art hath part
Never with the dreary cold:
All his heart
Yearns towards Summer's hair of gold!

172

IX

Eyes like skies
Hath he,—large and deepest blue:
Now he flies
With drooped wings the raw air through!

X

Now his brow
Lowereth,—and his eyes are dull,
Wondering how
Grass can edge the frozen pool!

XI

Night is bright
Only in the theatre:
There we might
Find Art's Bride, and gaze at her!

173

XII

Gain the Fane
Of life's wintry Art, and there,
Loud, amain,
Music thrills the lighted air!

XIII

Clear and dear,
Soft Ophelia's voice is heard,
Hovering near,
Lute-sweet as a summer bird!

XIV

Death Macbeth
Plans for king and guest and friend:
Hamlet saith
Words that haunt us to the end.

174

XV

Blind we find
Aged Lear,—we watch and weep
As the wind
Roars round many a castled steep.

XVI

Fair the hair
Of pale Desdemona gleams:
Through the air
Of still night we watch her dreams.

XVII

Gaunt the vaunt
Of Othello breaks the hush.
Fairies haunt
Brake and mere and blossomed bush:

175

XVIII

Oberon's robe
Glitters in the leafy glen;
Many a globe
Of white dew-drops sparkles then!

XIX

Here the clear
Voice of Art in winter sounds,
Far and near
Thrilling all the forest-bounds!

XX

Winter thin,
Peaked of face and sharp of hand,
Treads not in
That enchanted viewless land.

176

XXI

There the air
Ever full of high romance
Shines June-fair,—
And blue streams for ever dance

XXII

'Tween the green
Sweet unfrozen mellow fields,
And gold sheen
Strikes on strong knights' sunlit shields.

Dec., 1881.