 | Poems and dramas of George Cabot Lodge |  |
115
POEMS (1899–1902)
117
TO W. W.
I toss upon Thy grave,(After Thy life resumed, after the pause, the backward glance of Death;
Hence, hence the vistas on, the march continued,
In larger spheres, new lives in paths untrodden,
On! till the circle rounded, ever the journey on!)
Upon Thy grave,—the vital sod how thrilled as from Thy limbs and breast transpired,
Rises the spring's sweet utterance of flowers,—
I toss this sheaf of song, these scattered leaves of love!
For thee, Thy Soul and Body spent for me,
—And now still living, now in love, transmitting still Thy Soul, Thy Flesh to me, to all!—
These variant phrases of the long-immortal chant
I toss upon Thy grave!
118
OUTWARD
Outward broad airs, the sea's unshadowed sweep,
And larger voice on shores of lovelier lands,
Starred heavens of vaster light and night with sleep
Tender as women's hands.
And larger voice on shores of lovelier lands,
Starred heavens of vaster light and night with sleep
Tender as women's hands.
Outward the grave processional of hours,
Each a discovered joy, a solved surmise,
Days dark in bud that ripening, fall like flowers
Gardened in Paradise.
Each a discovered joy, a solved surmise,
Days dark in bud that ripening, fall like flowers
Gardened in Paradise.
Outward! O throes resolved in mightier song!
Splendour of nameless deeds, essential words,
Merged in the large acceptance, in the long
Pulse of the cosmic chords.
Splendour of nameless deeds, essential words,
Merged in the large acceptance, in the long
Pulse of the cosmic chords.
Outward, where every word and deed is fit;
Outward, beyond the lies of name and shame,
Of sin and ignorance the cause of it,
Life's prison of fancied flame.
Outward, beyond the lies of name and shame,
Of sin and ignorance the cause of it,
Life's prison of fancied flame.
Outward! O heart, the secret solved at last!
Love that enfolds, unites, and understands;
Love like the sea, with equal waters cast
On this and alien lands!
Love that enfolds, unites, and understands;
Love like the sea, with equal waters cast
On this and alien lands!
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Outward! O free at last! O steadfast soul
Calm in the poise of natural things! O wise,
How wise is love!—only, beyond control,
To pass with open eyes!
Calm in the poise of natural things! O wise,
How wise is love!—only, beyond control,
To pass with open eyes!
120
THE VOYAGE
Outward! Sail ever on thy mystic voyages,
Cut loose, up anchor from the shores of thought!
There leave in safety all the dull world's countless captives,
Seek thou the freedom only thou hast sought.
Cut loose, up anchor from the shores of thought!
There leave in safety all the dull world's countless captives,
Seek thou the freedom only thou hast sought.
Thine are the prophets, thine the few, the poets, martyrs,
Stung with the impulse of divine surmise;
Thy chosen ventured while the millions feared and faltered,
Realized the rapture, dared the great surprise.
Stung with the impulse of divine surmise;
Thy chosen ventured while the millions feared and faltered,
Realized the rapture, dared the great surprise.
Outward! For, ever as of old, the deep sea's distance,
Ever new skies to lift and lighten, lie
Far down the dusk of day-break from the shores proved pathways
Pathless to perilous eternity.
Ever new skies to lift and lighten, lie
Far down the dusk of day-break from the shores proved pathways
Pathless to perilous eternity.
Yea! tho' the friendly wharves are all aflame with faces,
Yea! tho' their anger rave in foolish sound,—
Outward!—Their hands would hinder but their hearts are fearful;
Leave them their fetters, Thou shalt not be bound!
Yea! tho' their anger rave in foolish sound,—
Outward!—Their hands would hinder but their hearts are fearful;
Leave them their fetters, Thou shalt not be bound!
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What tho' they cry—“Time's hosts have trod our ways of life out,
Roads, charts and lamplight,—ours the valued prize,
The proved!” Thou sayest—“My goal how dim, my seas how trackless,
My risks how vast!” Then leave them to their lies!
Roads, charts and lamplight,—ours the valued prize,
The proved!” Thou sayest—“My goal how dim, my seas how trackless,
My risks how vast!” Then leave them to their lies!
Shake down the sails to catch the blood-red drift of sunset!
Haste! lest they hold thee slave among the slaves.
Thou shalt be outcast of their laws and scorned and homeless:
The sin the world blames is the sin that saves.
Haste! lest they hold thee slave among the slaves.
Thou shalt be outcast of their laws and scorned and homeless:
The sin the world blames is the sin that saves.
Outward! The sail full-breasted swells against the night-fall,
And now the world where blind men lead the blind,
The world of laws and lies, of safety and obedience,
The prize, the conflict,—all is left behind!
And now the world where blind men lead the blind,
The world of laws and lies, of safety and obedience,
The prize, the conflict,—all is left behind!
Outward! O haste! The flushed fresh mouth of dawn is calling!
Outward! O space at last! O light at last!
Steer where the comrades wait thee, journeying still, still outward,
Wise in a conscious and perfected past.
Outward! O space at last! O light at last!
Steer where the comrades wait thee, journeying still, still outward,
Wise in a conscious and perfected past.
122
A SONG FOR WAKING
Ere the blossom of sun from the mystical bud of the twilight is tenderly, hugely unfurled,
Ere the lion of light from his lair in the womb of the shaken, green sea-shadows leaps on the world,
Ere the masterful mistress and mother of life is released as a child from the womb of the night,
Ere the echoing bell of the heavens resounds with the rush of the resonant pinions of light:
Ere the lion of light from his lair in the womb of the shaken, green sea-shadows leaps on the world,
Ere the masterful mistress and mother of life is released as a child from the womb of the night,
Ere the echoing bell of the heavens resounds with the rush of the resonant pinions of light:
Ere the day is declared and the globes of the dew are filled full of the splendour of opal and pearl,
Ere the foam-lilies dropped from the lap of the storm are as roses that blush at the breast of a girl,
Ere the aisles of the forest are heavy with dusk and are sweet with the murmur and marvel of birds,
Ere the dreams of the slumber of earth are destroyed and she utters her hymn of ineffable words:
Ere the foam-lilies dropped from the lap of the storm are as roses that blush at the breast of a girl,
Ere the aisles of the forest are heavy with dusk and are sweet with the murmur and marvel of birds,
Ere the dreams of the slumber of earth are destroyed and she utters her hymn of ineffable words:
Thro' the drift of the derelict airs, thro' the wind-trodden seas that are windless and weary with foam,
On the strength of the shouldering tides and the roar of the refluent surge down the beaches of home,
Comes the dream of the darkness of light, the frail flush of the feet of the dawn down the ways of the sea,
Thro' the measureless sound of the marching of tides where the steeds of the tempest rode fiercely and free!
On the strength of the shouldering tides and the roar of the refluent surge down the beaches of home,
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Thro' the measureless sound of the marching of tides where the steeds of the tempest rode fiercely and free!
Comes the delicate rapture of crimson as mute and intense as the dream of a passionate deed,
Comes the miracle faultless as fire and fierce as a heart where desire is sown as a seed,
Comes the glow like a prayer on the lips of a prophet whose eyes are aflame with the vision of God,
Comes the flush like the solemn delight of the love that can waken a soul in the brute or the clod.
Comes the miracle faultless as fire and fierce as a heart where desire is sown as a seed,
Comes the glow like a prayer on the lips of a prophet whose eyes are aflame with the vision of God,
Comes the flush like the solemn delight of the love that can waken a soul in the brute or the clod.
And the silence is rich with the promise of song as the face of a child in the stillness of sleep,
And the pause of the perfect fulfillment is grave as a death on the midnight when summer is deep,
And the joy is the joy of a woman, her love and the light of her face and the sound of her feet.
And the calm is profound as the calm of a soul risen freely from life with his knowledge complete.
And the pause of the perfect fulfillment is grave as a death on the midnight when summer is deep,
And the joy is the joy of a woman, her love and the light of her face and the sound of her feet.
And the calm is profound as the calm of a soul risen freely from life with his knowledge complete.
Over exquisite wind-dappled meadows that cover the foot and are fresh as a night in the fall,
Where the airs scarce remember the rage of the tempest and darkness is deep round the world like a wall,
Let us forth, ere the skies are washed empty of stars as the wind-rippled floods of the day-spring run free,
Let us forth where the welkin is stately with sound and the headlands are held in the cleave of the sea!
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Let us forth, ere the skies are washed empty of stars as the wind-rippled floods of the day-spring run free,
Let us forth where the welkin is stately with sound and the headlands are held in the cleave of the sea!
Let us leap from the scattered sweet shadows of slumber and venture our lives on the charger of youth,
While the sunrise is closed as the lips of a girl ere the kiss of a lover has kindled her mouth,
Till the languid, low airs smitten shrill with our passage re-echo the thunder of hoofs as we ride,
Let us press down the perilous ways of the present our steed tho' he bleed 'neath the rowel of pride!
While the sunrise is closed as the lips of a girl ere the kiss of a lover has kindled her mouth,
Till the languid, low airs smitten shrill with our passage re-echo the thunder of hoofs as we ride,
Let us press down the perilous ways of the present our steed tho' he bleed 'neath the rowel of pride!
Let us press in the hidden wet ways of the forest filled full of the shadows and sounds of the past,
Let us travel the fields by the River of Years till the ways of the waters are open at last;
And our steed shall be staunch tho' he weary and wince at the spur, tho' his nostrils are purple with blood,
For the craving of Soul and the power of Love, for the freedom of Faith and the friendship of God!
Let us travel the fields by the River of Years till the ways of the waters are open at last;
And our steed shall be staunch tho' he weary and wince at the spur, tho' his nostrils are purple with blood,
125
126
THE GREEK GALLEY
The sound of the sea, the sway of the song, the swing of the oar!
Out of the darkness, over the naked seas,
Our galley is come
With a shiver and leap,
As the blade bites deep
To the sway of back and the bend of knees,
As she drives for home
Out of the darkness, over the naked seas,
To the sound of sea and the sway of song and the sweep of oar!
Out of the darkness, over the naked seas,
Our galley is come
With a shiver and leap,
As the blade bites deep
To the sway of back and the bend of knees,
As she drives for home
Out of the darkness, over the naked seas,
To the sound of sea and the sway of song and the sweep of oar!
The scarlet stars swing low to the ocean's floor
Made silver and pearl by the slow resurgent sun,
And the waters break
To a leprous wake,
As over the sea the ripples shake
Between dawn and dark, as for life's sweet sake
The battle of life is fought and won.
And evermore,
To the sound of sea and the sway of song and the swing of oar,
We sever the sentient silences
With our wind and way, where over the seas
The surf booms steady and strong on the scented shore.
Made silver and pearl by the slow resurgent sun,
And the waters break
To a leprous wake,
As over the sea the ripples shake
Between dawn and dark, as for life's sweet sake
The battle of life is fought and won.
And evermore,
To the sound of sea and the sway of song and the swing of oar,
We sever the sentient silences
With our wind and way, where over the seas
The surf booms steady and strong on the scented shore.
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Over the sea's unfurrowed fields
The miracle spreads and the darkness yields.
O heart that breaks in the strain and stress
Of sinews bent to the tempered oak!—
The golden gates of the dawn express
Sudden and soft as a girl's caress,
A glimmer of grass and a flash of wing,
An echo of prayer to the censer's swing,
And the altar's pillar of purple smoke.
And over the spray that the rowers fling,
Wide over the tide where the foam-drifts cling,
As the rhythm of muscle and music swing
To the sound of the sea, the sway of the song, the sweep of the oar,
To the crash and cream of waves on the bountiful shore,
The spring breaks scented over the sea!
With a leap of sunlight under the lee,
As she dips her side
To the masterful tide
And lists till the bilge distills through the cypress floor.
The miracle spreads and the darkness yields.
O heart that breaks in the strain and stress
Of sinews bent to the tempered oak!—
The golden gates of the dawn express
Sudden and soft as a girl's caress,
A glimmer of grass and a flash of wing,
An echo of prayer to the censer's swing,
And the altar's pillar of purple smoke.
And over the spray that the rowers fling,
Wide over the tide where the foam-drifts cling,
As the rhythm of muscle and music swing
To the sound of the sea, the sway of the song, the sweep of the oar,
To the crash and cream of waves on the bountiful shore,
The spring breaks scented over the sea!
With a leap of sunlight under the lee,
As she dips her side
To the masterful tide
And lists till the bilge distills through the cypress floor.
O, the lift of blade! O, the clinging and shifting of naked feet!
The coil of muscle that stiffens and swells to the delicate beat
Of breath in the nostrils, of blood in the brain,
As the earth-smell steals to our sense again
From the pebble-blue beach where the shadows lie wet and sweet!
The coil of muscle that stiffens and swells to the delicate beat
Of breath in the nostrils, of blood in the brain,
As the earth-smell steals to our sense again
128
We have fought in the noon for breath—
To the sound of sea and the sway of song and the sweep of oar;
Our bodies would swing at the oars in death,
Nor the rhythm of muscle and music cease,
Nor the weariness end, nor the sad surcease
Of sorrow absolve us: but evermore
Our bodies would swing to the pitiless oar
Till the goal was reached,
Till the galley was beached,
Till we tasted the spring in the forests and pleached
Gardens and vineyards of Greece on the plentiful shore!
To the sound of sea and the sway of song and the sweep of oar;
Our bodies would swing at the oars in death,
Nor the rhythm of muscle and music cease,
Nor the weariness end, nor the sad surcease
Of sorrow absolve us: but evermore
Our bodies would swing to the pitiless oar
Till the goal was reached,
Till the galley was beached,
Till we tasted the spring in the forests and pleached
Gardens and vineyards of Greece on the plentiful shore!
The flurry of foam flecked red as the dawn looks over the trees,
And ever the motion of song and the pulse of ineffable seas
That empty and echoless break on the exquisite balance of air,—
And tenderly winged on the morning, a perfumed and delicate breeze,
Where the scent of the sacrifice floats with the distant refrain of a prayer,
Where the cry of a bird and the whisper of grass and the lowing of kine,
Are borne thro' the thunder of waves and the smell of the brine.
And ever the motion of song and the pulse of ineffable seas
That empty and echoless break on the exquisite balance of air,—
And tenderly winged on the morning, a perfumed and delicate breeze,
Where the scent of the sacrifice floats with the distant refrain of a prayer,
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Are borne thro' the thunder of waves and the smell of the brine.
And behold! We are come, we are there, we shall pass thro' the fringes of foam—
To the sound of the sea and the sway of the song and the sweep of the oar—
And the galley be lifted and leap like our hearts for the rest that has come—
A spot of sunlight rolls on the reeking floor!
She shall shiver and strike thro' the sundered spray,
And the clean, fresh sand where the ebb-tides play
Be gored and gashed with her eager keel;
And our feet shall feel
The swash of sea and the crawl of sand
As we leap to land
And pause and kneel
To the sound of prayer,
While thro' the air
The dawn expands till the shadows are passed
And the noon is over the sea at last!
To the sound of the sea and the sway of the song and the sweep of the oar—
And the galley be lifted and leap like our hearts for the rest that has come—
A spot of sunlight rolls on the reeking floor!
She shall shiver and strike thro' the sundered spray,
And the clean, fresh sand where the ebb-tides play
Be gored and gashed with her eager keel;
And our feet shall feel
The swash of sea and the crawl of sand
As we leap to land
And pause and kneel
To the sound of prayer,
While thro' the air
The dawn expands till the shadows are passed
And the noon is over the sea at last!
With our women and slaves, with our oxen and vines, we shall pass from the roar
And the sound of the sea, the sway of the song, the sweep of the oar—
And stand where the burden of spring on the brows of the hills
Is heavy and wet—where the blowing of pipes and the running of rills
Persist in our ears.—In the warmth of the sun and the wash of the wind,
In the ceasing of struggle and peace of the mind,
With the wandering passed,
We are home at last!
And the sound of the sea, the sway of the song, the sweep of the oar—
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Is heavy and wet—where the blowing of pipes and the running of rills
Persist in our ears.—In the warmth of the sun and the wash of the wind,
In the ceasing of struggle and peace of the mind,
With the wandering passed,
We are home at last!
131
THE WORLD'S TOO LONG ABOUT US
The world's too long about us!—Let us go
Far from the righteous and the ignorant,
The vacant phrases of familiar cant,
The trivial loveless women and the low
Abortive men, the fashions stale and slow,
The greed of riches and the crime of want!
Far from the righteous and the ignorant,
The vacant phrases of familiar cant,
The trivial loveless women and the low
Abortive men, the fashions stale and slow,
The greed of riches and the crime of want!
Come! lest contentment dim the quenchless fire,
Come! lest we lose from life the magic spell,
The power of thought, the ceaseless miracle
Of day and night, the youth of love's desire.
Come! lest we wear the livery, take the hire,
And prove in virtuous platitudes 't is well.
Come! lest we lose from life the magic spell,
The power of thought, the ceaseless miracle
Of day and night, the youth of love's desire.
Come! lest we wear the livery, take the hire,
And prove in virtuous platitudes 't is well.
Come! lest we take the thralldom and the food,
Accept the hire and kiss the master's hand,
Or hear, obedient to the world's command,
Our praises from the Ciceronian “good”;
Or feel the shame of being understood
By those we know can never understand!
Accept the hire and kiss the master's hand,
Or hear, obedient to the world's command,
Our praises from the Ciceronian “good”;
Or feel the shame of being understood
By those we know can never understand!
Earth knows our bodies, heaven our conscious souls!
The world is ignorant of all but name;
Come! let us fear its praise and seek its blame,
Take larger motives that ignore its goals,
And blow a fire within life's smouldering coals
To scar its social erebus with flame!
The world is ignorant of all but name;
Come! let us fear its praise and seek its blame,
132
And blow a fire within life's smouldering coals
To scar its social erebus with flame!
Come!—We can feel, dilate with endless air,
The journeying seas, or watch our Paris take
New moods of laughter, or the sun-God shake,
Low down the Nile, the splendour of his hair.
Extreme in joy, extreme in soul's despair,
Come! Let us dare to go for sweet life's sake!
The journeying seas, or watch our Paris take
New moods of laughter, or the sun-God shake,
Low down the Nile, the splendour of his hair.
Extreme in joy, extreme in soul's despair,
Come! Let us dare to go for sweet life's sake!
Life's choice is this: the world or all the rest.
The heights are lonely and the depths are dark;
Haply too weak of soul I miss the mark
And fall below the world's unloveliest
Level of littleness—I say the best
Is mine, I venture life's extremest test.
No failures quench the Truth's eternal spark!
The heights are lonely and the depths are dark;
Haply too weak of soul I miss the mark
And fall below the world's unloveliest
Level of littleness—I say the best
Is mine, I venture life's extremest test.
No failures quench the Truth's eternal spark!
133
LES BOURGEOIS
Be silent! Let them laugh and lie
Nor speak nor heed but come away;
In truth they neither live nor die,
More vain than gaudy flies that play
And perish in the vital day.
Nor speak nor heed but come away;
In truth they neither live nor die,
More vain than gaudy flies that play
And perish in the vital day.
By rule and custom, time and place,
Secure in noise and littleness,
They live and laugh and lust a space,
Incurious of themselves lest stress
Of truth annul their nothingness.
Secure in noise and littleness,
They live and laugh and lust a space,
Incurious of themselves lest stress
Of truth annul their nothingness.
Their borrowed praise, their hired blame,
Their timid platitudes, their greed,
The virtue of their hidden shame,
The vices of their sordid creed,
Are theirs to serve a social need.
Their timid platitudes, their greed,
The virtue of their hidden shame,
The vices of their sordid creed,
Are theirs to serve a social need.
Their crime then? None! Their lives are food
To vainer things, and they shall seem,
Afraid of sin, too weak for good,
Once vanished, like a stupid dream
That never was—and now my theme!—
To vainer things, and they shall seem,
Afraid of sin, too weak for good,
Once vanished, like a stupid dream
That never was—and now my theme!—
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Be something, good or bad! Be real!
They are not,—we'll take issue here
Against them!—not for base ideal
Or murdered truth, but for their mere
Respectability, the mood of fear!
They are not,—we'll take issue here
Against them!—not for base ideal
Or murdered truth, but for their mere
Respectability, the mood of fear!
135
A SONG FOR REVOLUTION
Tho' the red-litten cities are shameless and the rulers are guilty with gold,
Tho' the lips of the prophet are flameless and the shrines of the sacrifice cold,
Tho' the shadow of freedom departed lies deep in the paths where She pressed,
Tho', a goddess, She grieves broken-hearted for the children who starve at her breast,
Tho' the lips of the prophet are flameless and the shrines of the sacrifice cold,
Tho' the shadow of freedom departed lies deep in the paths where She pressed,
Tho', a goddess, She grieves broken-hearted for the children who starve at her breast,
Tho' the forehead forsaken of bay-leaves is bound with a circlet of blood
And the sweat that the labour of day leaves brews the wine of the mercy of God,
Tho' we lose all the loves that besought us, tho' our children rejoice in their chains,
Still we cling, as our visions have taught us, to the faith of our raptures and pains!
And the sweat that the labour of day leaves brews the wine of the mercy of God,
Tho' we lose all the loves that besought us, tho' our children rejoice in their chains,
Still we cling, as our visions have taught us, to the faith of our raptures and pains!
And tho' Nations forsake the desire and the faith of immutable things,
Tho' the earth be subdued for their hire who rejoice in the cities of kings,
Tho' the whole earth be theirs for their pleasure, and every man master or slave,
Still the sea can afford beyond measure the inheritance perfect we crave!
Tho' the earth be subdued for their hire who rejoice in the cities of kings,
Tho' the whole earth be theirs for their pleasure, and every man master or slave,
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We can pass where the sand on the shore is made smooth as the breast of a girl,
Where the waves whisper marvellous stories and the tideways are lustrous as pearl,
Where the crest of the breakers in onset subsides in a welter of blood
As the flame of the sword of the sunset is plunged in the breast of the flood;
Where the waves whisper marvellous stories and the tideways are lustrous as pearl,
Where the crest of the breakers in onset subsides in a welter of blood
As the flame of the sword of the sunset is plunged in the breast of the flood;
Where the sea-splintered lightning of noon lies in the lap of the long afternoon,
By the fire of the pharos of moonrise, with the faultless, frail feet of the moon,
Over meadows of midnight where starlight lies scattered like dew on a lawn,
Let us forth so we follow the far light of freedom, the soul's light of dawn!
By the fire of the pharos of moonrise, with the faultless, frail feet of the moon,
Over meadows of midnight where starlight lies scattered like dew on a lawn,
Let us forth so we follow the far light of freedom, the soul's light of dawn!
Let us go with the wind and the twilight behind us, the rain in our hair,
With a star on the brows of the shy night in ineffable heights of the air;
The wide waters before us shall whiten, the horizon that bound us be rent,
And no longer our hearts as they lighten shall grieve or complain or repent!
With a star on the brows of the shy night in ineffable heights of the air;
The wide waters before us shall whiten, the horizon that bound us be rent,
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We have seen that the progress they praise is of tears and enslavement and blood,
Tho' they honour with blasphemous phrases their crimes as the service of God;
In their mines where the serfs they control press in their factories reeking with coal
They must labour until they are soulless, and the birthright of man is his soul!
Tho' they honour with blasphemous phrases their crimes as the service of God;
In their mines where the serfs they control press in their factories reeking with coal
They must labour until they are soulless, and the birthright of man is his soul!
Tho' rejected of men we seem friendless, yet all nature itself is our home,
For we come as the last of an endless procession and sing as we come!
But they, faithless and cold to the kernel, with their minds in dogmatic control,
They have lost the divine and eternal strong joys of the body and soul!
For we come as the last of an endless procession and sing as we come!
But they, faithless and cold to the kernel, with their minds in dogmatic control,
They have lost the divine and eternal strong joys of the body and soul!
And we bear as our brothers before us the message eternal and new,
The exultant, unspeakable chorus of the souls that are tender and true,
And our word for each comrade is, “Thee-ward all joys in the universe trend,
If thou darest with us to go seaward, on the seas of the soul without end!
The exultant, unspeakable chorus of the souls that are tender and true,
And our word for each comrade is, “Thee-ward all joys in the universe trend,
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“If thou darest go forth from the phrases that cheat, from the laws that restrain,
From the shrines where the high-priest who prays is untrue and the servant of gain,
Then the light and the love shall not perish but endure to illumine the years,
For the fire of rebellion we cherish is Promethean and ours by our tears.”
From the shrines where the high-priest who prays is untrue and the servant of gain,
Then the light and the love shall not perish but endure to illumine the years,
For the fire of rebellion we cherish is Promethean and ours by our tears.”
It is naught if the loveliest spaces of earth bear the soilure of greed
For a day or an æon effaces the purpose, the profit, the deed;
It is naught if they bring us disaster, if they blacken the skies in our ken,
But we weep for the slave and the master, for the stunted and loveless, the men!
For a day or an æon effaces the purpose, the profit, the deed;
It is naught if they bring us disaster, if they blacken the skies in our ken,
But we weep for the slave and the master, for the stunted and loveless, the men!
It is naught if a man be defeated, it is naught if he suffer and die,
It is naught if he starve and is cheated by the greedy who pillage and lie,
It is much if reduced to a fashion or bound in whatever control,
His body is scanted of passion, or he forfeits the light of his soul!
It is naught if he starve and is cheated by the greedy who pillage and lie,
It is much if reduced to a fashion or bound in whatever control,
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And we whisper to all men and women, “Lo! the light is at hand, and the way,
Be it strange, be it guarded with foemen, is broad as the justice of day;
You shall no more be joyless or lonely, our secret shall amply suffice,
For man's world is a fashion and only man's body and soul are of price!”
Be it strange, be it guarded with foemen, is broad as the justice of day;
You shall no more be joyless or lonely, our secret shall amply suffice,
For man's world is a fashion and only man's body and soul are of price!”
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THE HERITAGE
O, say in the splendour of days that await us, the scope and desire of midnights to be,
The fruit of what powerful passions shall sate us, what Truths more effusive shall make us more free?
What new depths of the soul shall we seek and discover, what strength of the body, what heat of the heart?
In the dream of the seer, on the lute of the lover, what secrets shall yield and what melodies start?
The fruit of what powerful passions shall sate us, what Truths more effusive shall make us more free?
What new depths of the soul shall we seek and discover, what strength of the body, what heat of the heart?
In the dream of the seer, on the lute of the lover, what secrets shall yield and what melodies start?
Shall the days be more ample and florid before us, the large nights more pregnant of mystical birth?
What fresh voices shall peal what ineffable chorus, what beauty revive the old legends of earth?
The old ramparts of thought, shall they fall and be shattered? The old barriers of Love, shall they splendidly fade?
Shall the heavy, heaped dust of remembrance be scattered, our pleasures by loftier joys be repaid?
What fresh voices shall peal what ineffable chorus, what beauty revive the old legends of earth?
The old ramparts of thought, shall they fall and be shattered? The old barriers of Love, shall they splendidly fade?
Shall the heavy, heaped dust of remembrance be scattered, our pleasures by loftier joys be repaid?
Since the rapture of Life is the longing that rages and Truth is the wisdom that kindles to flame,
So the judgments of God and the laws of the sages, man's virtue and evil, his praise and his blame,
Shall be fused in the Truth of what new revelation, dissolved in the floods of what limitless light?
As we forfeit our hearts to what new expectation, what senses shall thrill to what nameless delight?
So the judgments of God and the laws of the sages, man's virtue and evil, his praise and his blame,
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As we forfeit our hearts to what new expectation, what senses shall thrill to what nameless delight?
In what wise shall the lips of our new loves grow fervent, what dreamed-of caresses lie warm in their hands?
Than the Gods who made Sapho their priestess and servant, what lovelier Gods shall inflict their commands?
When the altars of Love are heaped up over-measure, when the passion of love grows intense as despair,
What embrace shall afford what unbearable pleasure, on what breast, in the perfume and dusk of what hair?
Than the Gods who made Sapho their priestess and servant, what lovelier Gods shall inflict their commands?
When the altars of Love are heaped up over-measure, when the passion of love grows intense as despair,
What embrace shall afford what unbearable pleasure, on what breast, in the perfume and dusk of what hair?
And the elder grave Gods we have chosen and cherish, bright Gods of our youth that were sumptuous and young!—
Must they fail in the light of new vistas and perish as fail in long twilights the pulse of a song?
Shall perfections so distant they seemed a derision, the wild aspirations we dared not avow,
Be revealed in a solvent new vastness of vision, attained in a mightier moment than now?
Must they fail in the light of new vistas and perish as fail in long twilights the pulse of a song?
Shall perfections so distant they seemed a derision, the wild aspirations we dared not avow,
Be revealed in a solvent new vastness of vision, attained in a mightier moment than now?
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Then what holier shrines shall receive our oblation, what visions reveal more ineffable skies?
As we pass from the creeds of our old adoration what marvels shall wake a more pregnant surmise?
What new virtues and sins shall complete and delight us, what tenderness thrill in our hearts like a song?
In what paths where what marvellous day-spring shall light us, what chorus of Heroes shall hail us along?
As we pass from the creeds of our old adoration what marvels shall wake a more pregnant surmise?
What new virtues and sins shall complete and delight us, what tenderness thrill in our hearts like a song?
In what paths where what marvellous day-spring shall light us, what chorus of Heroes shall hail us along?
All the questions are vain yet the day never faileth to light the large dusk of the limitless past,
And desire forever in all ways availeth to bring all the largess we long for at last;
A new ecstasy wakes to a novel desire, to a vision more wise new horizons shall swell,
Tho' we will to ring round the huge heavens with fire or satiate such passions they know not in hell!
And desire forever in all ways availeth to bring all the largess we long for at last;
A new ecstasy wakes to a novel desire, to a vision more wise new horizons shall swell,
Tho' we will to ring round the huge heavens with fire or satiate such passions they know not in hell!
Tho' we will to be God all-receptive in heaven, yet our longing To Be is forever too small;
We are more than we know, as we ask shall be given, to ourselves and to only ourselves we are thrall;
With the sword of our will we may rend as a curtain the dusk of desires that wince and withhold,
Whatsoever we ask for the guerdon is certain, be it dust or the dawn-star, God's heaven or gold
We are more than we know, as we ask shall be given, to ourselves and to only ourselves we are thrall;
With the sword of our will we may rend as a curtain the dusk of desires that wince and withhold,
Whatsoever we ask for the guerdon is certain, be it dust or the dawn-star, God's heaven or gold
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THE PASSAGE
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the earth,
With ever before us the perilous vista, behind us the laughter and light of the hearth;
With the wind of the wilderness fresh in our faces, the rain in our hair like a chaplet of light,
As the silent, low shine of the dawn, like a dew-fall, is sifted and shed thro' the raiment of night.
And the airs shall be smitten in sunder
Before us
With lightning and voices of thunder
In chorus.
With ever before us the perilous vista, behind us the laughter and light of the hearth;
With the wind of the wilderness fresh in our faces, the rain in our hair like a chaplet of light,
As the silent, low shine of the dawn, like a dew-fall, is sifted and shed thro' the raiment of night.
And the airs shall be smitten in sunder
Before us
With lightning and voices of thunder
In chorus.
We shall pass over desolate places, strange forest and measureless plain,
And the noon shall relent and the spaces of midnight be severed in twain;
Over meadows that murmur with fountains, where rivers like serpents lie curled,
We shall pass to the wall of the mountains, crouched low on the edge of the world:
Till the last low ledge of the lea
Makes division,
Till the wild, wide waste of the sea
Fills our vision,
We must journey in morning and midnight, we must travel in sorrow and mirth,
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the earth!
And the noon shall relent and the spaces of midnight be severed in twain;
Over meadows that murmur with fountains, where rivers like serpents lie curled,
We shall pass to the wall of the mountains, crouched low on the edge of the world:
Till the last low ledge of the lea
Makes division,
Till the wild, wide waste of the sea
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We must journey in morning and midnight, we must travel in sorrow and mirth,
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the earth!
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the sea,
Out over the tremulous tides and the trackless waste ways to the wall of the firmament free,
Fulfilled of the light of ineffable spaces, the echoless thunder of wind in the night,
And broad in the burnished blue hollow of heaven the endless procession of darkness and light.
For the fire of the full moon shall waken
To find us,
And the hounds of the storm be forsaken
Behind us;
We shall on thro' the vistas uncertain, having neither beginning nor end,
Tho' as folds of a fluttering curtain the deep sea be shaken and rend,
Tho' the sea, where the foam-rivers run white, be naked and weary and blind
As the breast of a shield in the sunlight, or black with the scourges of wind:
Till the great green wall of the wave
Shall cover us,
Or the sweet spring grass of the grave
Blow over us,
We must on till we fall in our traces, we must follow the dawn and be free,
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the sea!
Out over the tremulous tides and the trackless waste ways to the wall of the firmament free,
Fulfilled of the light of ineffable spaces, the echoless thunder of wind in the night,
And broad in the burnished blue hollow of heaven the endless procession of darkness and light.
For the fire of the full moon shall waken
To find us,
And the hounds of the storm be forsaken
Behind us;
We shall on thro' the vistas uncertain, having neither beginning nor end,
Tho' as folds of a fluttering curtain the deep sea be shaken and rend,
Tho' the sea, where the foam-rivers run white, be naked and weary and blind
As the breast of a shield in the sunlight, or black with the scourges of wind:
Till the great green wall of the wave
Shall cover us,
145
Blow over us,
We must on till we fall in our traces, we must follow the dawn and be free,
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the sea!
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the Soul,
Out over the ages resumed in remembrance, the priest's and the tyrant's relentless control,
The puny divisions of evil and virtue, restrictions of men and commandments of God,—
O, ever the Soul in all paths and all places where straying or striving the Children have trod!
For the Great Gods who curse and defile us
Shall fear us,
And all men who hate and revile us
Shall hear us;
And the bonds of allegiance that fetter the spirit, the oaths of obedience sworn in the past,
Shall be words of the lesson of life we inherit, embraced, understood, superseded at last.
We are done with the Gods of our old adoration, we acknowledge they served in their turn and were fair,
But we go, for behold! after long preparation what no man has dared to discover we dare!
Till the Body and Soul and all time
Shall be blended,
Aspiration and virtue and crime
Comprehended,
We must fathom the sense and the spirit till we stand self-possessed of the whole,
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the Soul!
Out over the ages resumed in remembrance, the priest's and the tyrant's relentless control,
The puny divisions of evil and virtue, restrictions of men and commandments of God,—
O, ever the Soul in all paths and all places where straying or striving the Children have trod!
For the Great Gods who curse and defile us
Shall fear us,
And all men who hate and revile us
Shall hear us;
And the bonds of allegiance that fetter the spirit, the oaths of obedience sworn in the past,
Shall be words of the lesson of life we inherit, embraced, understood, superseded at last.
We are done with the Gods of our old adoration, we acknowledge they served in their turn and were fair,
But we go, for behold! after long preparation what no man has dared to discover we dare!
146
Shall be blended,
Aspiration and virtue and crime
Comprehended,
We must fathom the sense and the spirit till we stand self-possessed of the whole,
Onward ever and outward ever, over the uttermost verge of the Soul!
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DAY AND DARK
Now the golden fields of sunset rose on rose to me-ward fall,
Down the dark reverberate beaches clear and far the sea-birds call,
Blue across the fire-stained waters, eastward thrusts the chuckling tide,
Fresh as when the immortal impulse took the lifeless world for bride.
Down the dark reverberate beaches clear and far the sea-birds call,
Blue across the fire-stained waters, eastward thrusts the chuckling tide,
Fresh as when the immortal impulse took the lifeless world for bride.
Now the shore's thin verge of shallows keep the tense and tender light,
Now the stars hang few and faultless, diademed on the brows of night,
Now the moon's unstinted silver falls like dew along the sea
While from far a friendly casement softly fills with light for me.
Now the stars hang few and faultless, diademed on the brows of night,
Now the moon's unstinted silver falls like dew along the sea
While from far a friendly casement softly fills with light for me.
So it ends! I reaped the harvest, lived the long and lavish day,
Saw the earliest sunlight shiver thro' the breakers' endless play,
Felt the noonday's warm abundance, shared the hours of large repose,
While the stately sun descended thro' the twilight's sumptuous close.
Saw the earliest sunlight shiver thro' the breakers' endless play,
Felt the noonday's warm abundance, shared the hours of large repose,
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Now the night-fall—Ah! I guess the immortal secret, glimpse the goal,
Know the hours have scanted nothing, know each fragment hints the whole,
While the Soul in power and freedom dares and wills to claim its own,
Star over star, a larger, lovelier unknown heaven beyond the known!
Know the hours have scanted nothing, know each fragment hints the whole,
While the Soul in power and freedom dares and wills to claim its own,
Star over star, a larger, lovelier unknown heaven beyond the known!
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RETROSPECT
Beyond the earth is sea,
Beyond the sense is soul,
Beyond this life a little sleep,
Beyond the race the goal.
Beyond the sense is soul,
Beyond this life a little sleep,
Beyond the race the goal.
I know the earth is young,
And time a little thing;
When first the stars harmonious sung
Thro' heaven, I heard them sing.
And time a little thing;
When first the stars harmonious sung
Thro' heaven, I heard them sing.
Full well I know that I
Was there when chaos hurled
Formless and fervent on the void
The huge and pregnant world.
Was there when chaos hurled
Formless and fervent on the void
The huge and pregnant world.
Sheer down the endless skies
We took our furious flight,
Our wings of flame flapped, vast and dumb,
Against the ageless night.
We took our furious flight,
Our wings of flame flapped, vast and dumb,
Against the ageless night.
Helmless and wild we crossed
The eternal seas of space,
And moored beside the sun and swung
In our predestined place.
The eternal seas of space,
And moored beside the sun and swung
In our predestined place.
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Pure as a distant song,
Echoed from south to north,
The strange first dawn came grave and strong,
Gigantically forth.
Echoed from south to north,
The strange first dawn came grave and strong,
Gigantically forth.
The sheer black pinnacle
Of sky grew vaguely blue,
As down the cold, thin, empty airs
The red light glistered thro'.
Of sky grew vaguely blue,
As down the cold, thin, empty airs
The red light glistered thro'.
And when the last stars died
About the noonday sun,
And on the enormous distance fell
Daylight's oblivion,
About the noonday sun,
And on the enormous distance fell
Daylight's oblivion,
I saw green tendrils blur
The acrid plains, the sea
Suck down between the naked hills,
Roaring immeasurably.
The acrid plains, the sea
Suck down between the naked hills,
Roaring immeasurably.
Then day retired, night fell,
Frail breezes shook the air;
The moon showed large between the stars
Her void unfaltering stare.
Frail breezes shook the air;
The moon showed large between the stars
Her void unfaltering stare.
Thro' all the perfect night
Ringing with silver, I
Stood in my human solitude,
Wondering ineffably.
Ringing with silver, I
Stood in my human solitude,
Wondering ineffably.
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Then, in response, I heard
A voice within me sing:
“I know the stars are very young,
And Time a little thing!
A voice within me sing:
“I know the stars are very young,
And Time a little thing!
“Always Truth waits beyond
Larger and more divine:
The immeasurable Past
And light and life are mine.
Larger and more divine:
The immeasurable Past
And light and life are mine.
“Father, O Soul of Me!
Thy scope is never whole;
Always a new infinity
Lies waiting for the Soul!”
Thy scope is never whole;
Always a new infinity
Lies waiting for the Soul!”
Beyond the earth is sea,
Beyond the sense is soul,
Beyond this life, a little sleep,
Beyond the parts the whole!
Beyond the sense is soul,
Beyond this life, a little sleep,
Beyond the parts the whole!
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SONNETS
[I
Cut loose! Hoist sail! Leave the familiar shores]
Cut loose! Hoist sail! Leave the familiar shoresOf life! Drive out on love's enormous wind
Far from the safe small pieties and blind
Tangles of conscience! O set wide the doors
And throw the strong arms open utterly!
Go forth reckless with faith and unresigned,
Thus only seeking shall you surely find
The peril and rapture of true liberty!
Thus only shall divine discoveries
Stretch the vague margins of the conscious soul
And fire the peaks of more inclusive skies;
Thus may we burst the self-created bond
Of sordid fears and hear life's surges roll
On shores of truth that always lie beyond!
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[II
Would I were hopeful as the tender leaves]
Would I were hopeful as the tender leaves,Would I were faithful as the myriad grass,
Kindling conviction in the ways I pass;
Would I believed as every flower believes!
The pale wheat springs and flowers, the golden sheaves
Serve in their turn—the Earth's religion brings
Proof of the power and miracle of things,
That none are infidel and no thing grieves.
No thing in nature grieves and all things die;
Yea! from their burial Life is born anew:
O faithful grass of graves!—perchance when I
Change to the earth's desire, my soul shall take
Thy lesson of faith and joy and still renew
My journey onward for the journey's sake!
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[III
The earth is glad of travail and labouring]
The earth is glad of travail and labouring:The flower the whole sun's kiss is spent upon,
The leaves light, as of sea depths smitten with sun
And musical with incessant murmuring,—
Bound as a girdle, the strong sea's silver ring,
Where thro' and thro' the deep, clear hair of night
Stars tread the chattering tides and swollen with light
Moon walks beneath the slow dawn's fervent wing,—
Earth, sea,—to them the large, fresh, passionate deed
Of life is glad and wise—how wise is faith!
Life's harvest flowers, death sows the exhaustless seed:
We probe the intention till the soul has won
Vista,—awake at last! Yea! journeying on
Equal and wise and free with life and death!
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[IV
How long the impassive feet of Time have trod]
How long the impassive feet of Time have trodThe myriads and their monuments to dust!
How long the frailest, loveliest leaves have trust!
How long life urges in the reeking sod!
The flower is witless of a master's rod,
The sunlight warms the unjust with the just,
The he-bird, joyous in his vernal lust,
Carols in native ignorance of God.
And, when the travesty of God's control
And human reason leave us at the last
Naked before the all-receptive Soul,
Incurious of the ends of life and death,
Numb with the monstrous effort of our past,
We pray the bird for joy, the flower for faith.
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[V
Most lone and loveliest star, in glimmering spheres]
Most lone and loveliest star, in glimmering spheresOf twilight hung, as tho' the lids of night,
In one liquescent utterance large as light,
Let fall the delicate silver of her tears;
Monotonous music mute to mortal ears,
Vibrant as birds that cry across the bright
Silence and thro' the distance tense and white,
Where loud as life the incessant dawn appears.
Thou art, O star, how like a conscious soul
Leaving the shadowy shores of life to blend
Deep in the lustre of its native sea!
Or like, in heaven, the pure and liquid toll
Of one unechoing bell to mark the end
Of God's rule and man's infidelity!
157
[VI
Most lone and loveliest star, in glimmering spheres]
Most lone and loveliest star, in glimmering spheresHas flowed, and murmuring, teased thine ignorance!
How many a derelict from the winds of chance
Has signaled some unguessed eternity!
The passion and pulse and power of all the sea
Fills the thin foam with fierce significance,
And thro' the sea-moods, to the deeper glance,
Pierces the same intention utterly.
Still, from life's shores to sea-ward, can the soul,
Glimmering in dawn, spread out a wider pool
Of light and vision till shadows flow to flame,
As one by one we dare include the whole
Of human change within our scope, nor school
Our hearts to virtue more than sin and shame.
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[VII
Mine is the bellowing, all-receiving sea]
Mine is the bellowing, all-receiving sea,Mine the long beaches blurred with drifted foam,
Mine the blind earth, the human lights of home,
The midnight shuddering, deepening endlessly.
Mine is the world to-night! Yea! Mine shall be
Vistas and vaster worlds, a certain dower,
When after faith, free love and conscious power,
Soul dares desire its own infinity.
Naught can be asked or given for all is ours:
Ours of all space the cold incessant miles,
Ours of all time the full, unstinting hours;
And ours the sea beyond, that round the warm
Shores of our being whiles will sleep and whiles
Breathe thro' the soul the epic voice of storm.
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VIII
THE POET
He comes last of the long processional,Last of the perfect lovers, doomed as they
To live ever more lonely day by day
By all rejected and condemned by all.
Hands stretch to hold him, passionate voices call,
Bright lips beseech him,—yet he cannot stay.
Treading in the large night his outward way
He learns how much the crowns are spiritual.
His heaven is godless since his faith is whole;
No thing but finds in him a perfect love,
No flower, no star but buds within his soul.
Labor and sleep, the warmth of home belong
To all but him,—he feels instead thereof
His heart's blood smelted to the ore of song.
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ODE TO THE SEA
Lure me, O musical motions of the sea,
Thou of the cosmic heart most mighty mood!
And breathe beside me once again, O ye
Intimate whispers of the outlawed wind!
And grant, O Earth of long maternity,
While dawn grows golden like an infant God
Who walks the young world's twilight nude and free,
Thy latest child the rest he cannot find!
Thou of the cosmic heart most mighty mood!
And breathe beside me once again, O ye
Intimate whispers of the outlawed wind!
And grant, O Earth of long maternity,
While dawn grows golden like an infant God
Who walks the young world's twilight nude and free,
Thy latest child the rest he cannot find!
Still as I sought thee soul and flesh were fain!
Before the flower of sunset, one by one,
Scattered its petals like a golden rain,
Before the twilight clear as amethyst
Covered my lidless eyes, within my brain
Seemed, in the lasting silence of the sun,
All life as interludes of uttered pain
That scar the lips of Heaven's mute Agonist!
Before the flower of sunset, one by one,
Scattered its petals like a golden rain,
Before the twilight clear as amethyst
Covered my lidless eyes, within my brain
Seemed, in the lasting silence of the sun,
All life as interludes of uttered pain
That scar the lips of Heaven's mute Agonist!
I am the heir to Time's exceeding dower:
Ease me, thou minstrel of the changeless theme!
Now while the midnight yields the mystic flower
Of moondawn, violent as a sanguine stain,
Like love's desire that in night's loneliest hour
Dawns thro' the empty twilight of a dream,
Mend with thy music-threads of faith and power
Life's raiment ruinous with surmise and pain!
Ease me, thou minstrel of the changeless theme!
Now while the midnight yields the mystic flower
Of moondawn, violent as a sanguine stain,
Like love's desire that in night's loneliest hour
Dawns thro' the empty twilight of a dream,
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Life's raiment ruinous with surmise and pain!
Moon-like the motion of thy rhythmic cries
Has lured how many a sea of tears to flood!
How many a time thy sacramental sighs,
Swelling the daedal veins of silence, bring,
In eastern chambers where the darkness dies,
Thro' Death's half-fallen veil of solitude,
Desirous tears, sad eucharist of eyes
Last opening over earth's essential spring!
Has lured how many a sea of tears to flood!
How many a time thy sacramental sighs,
Swelling the daedal veins of silence, bring,
In eastern chambers where the darkness dies,
Thro' Death's half-fallen veil of solitude,
Desirous tears, sad eucharist of eyes
Last opening over earth's essential spring!
Soon shalt thou feel the miracle of light
Soft as the distant music of a shell;
Thy voice that creeps around the world to-night
Breathes from long vistas of deciduous years,
Since first thy bitter waters void of sight,
Sterile of seasons, on earth's valleys fell
As fall like darkness in the soul the bright
Burden of life's insuperable tears!
Soft as the distant music of a shell;
Thy voice that creeps around the world to-night
Breathes from long vistas of deciduous years,
Since first thy bitter waters void of sight,
Sterile of seasons, on earth's valleys fell
As fall like darkness in the soul the bright
Burden of life's insuperable tears!
Soothe me! For when the sundawn gilds thy tide,
Poised like love's lotos on life's perilous stream,
When flower by flower the earth grows open-eyed,
Almost I would to God my soul were drawn
Where body and soul seem nearly to divide,
Till, lapsed from life's dark labyrinth of dream,
I ceased in darker solitudes and wide
Eventual silence of the ripening dawn.
Poised like love's lotos on life's perilous stream,
When flower by flower the earth grows open-eyed,
Almost I would to God my soul were drawn
Where body and soul seem nearly to divide,
Till, lapsed from life's dark labyrinth of dream,
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Eventual silence of the ripening dawn.
Louder than cymbals, on thy silver breast
The gold of sunrise falls—our loneliness
Ends with the shadows and the vain unrest
Of life returns like long-familiar pain.
Grant me the soul's deep truth thy voice expressed,
The power to live in human tenderness,
Yea! tho' I pass, repass, and never rest
Still bound to life and death's immortal chain!
The gold of sunrise falls—our loneliness
Ends with the shadows and the vain unrest
Of life returns like long-familiar pain.
Grant me the soul's deep truth thy voice expressed,
The power to live in human tenderness,
Yea! tho' I pass, repass, and never rest
Still bound to life and death's immortal chain!
Then shall the seas of soul be like to thine,
Endless in stately vistas drowned in sun;
Then shall I take thy perilous call for sign,
Then shall I leave the world's familiar shore
Seizing the soul's inheritance for mine;
Then, while the huge horizons merge to one
All-welcoming sphere, O then the Ship Divine
Lost in the daybreak shall return no more!
Endless in stately vistas drowned in sun;
Then shall I take thy perilous call for sign,
Then shall I leave the world's familiar shore
Seizing the soul's inheritance for mine;
Then, while the huge horizons merge to one
All-welcoming sphere, O then the Ship Divine
Lost in the daybreak shall return no more!
163
ODE TO THE EARTH
I
O tireless earth! O earth of long desire!
Old earth whence now the gradual leaves transpire,
Earth of eternal seasons, let me feel
The folded flower of thy returning spring
Thrill with the urge of life's divine appeal!
Grant me, O earth, the faith thy seasons bring!
Old earth whence now the gradual leaves transpire,
Earth of eternal seasons, let me feel
The folded flower of thy returning spring
Thrill with the urge of life's divine appeal!
Grant me, O earth, the faith thy seasons bring!
Thro' silent airs, from sky to sky,
The effluent tides of darkness pour,
With foam of fire against the sunset's shore;
And now, as one by one the bird-cries die,
Singly thine ancient silences redeem
Spaces that verge a sea of sleepy sound,
And, 'stablished thro' the immobile dusk, they seem
Like song but lately ceased, while on the wound
Of daily life descends the balm of dream.
The effluent tides of darkness pour,
With foam of fire against the sunset's shore;
And now, as one by one the bird-cries die,
Singly thine ancient silences redeem
Spaces that verge a sea of sleepy sound,
And, 'stablished thro' the immobile dusk, they seem
Like song but lately ceased, while on the wound
Of daily life descends the balm of dream.
II
O earth across thy sentient sleep,Like silent maidens, one by one,
Meseems thy countless days, dead daughters of the sun,
Their unforgetful journey keep.
164
Clear in thy dreams, their large, remorseful eyes
Always are overflowed with quenchless light;
While, from their cataract of golden hair,
Falls an ethereal fragrance and their shattered skies
Are swayed with elemental tides of air.
For surely when the world is fain
Of thy desire that never dies,
Thy toil of child-birth stirs again
The mighty legend of thy memories,
Till, even as when the feet of Lilith pressed
Thy fruitless sod and roused the tardy spring,
Pale in thy florid sleep, thy daughters bring
Thrills of remembrance yearning in thy breast,
And this to-night is stirred, as one by one,
Rain-robed or bright with raiment of the sun,
Like some processional of barefoot boys,
They move across thy dream and all their pain,
Their gifts, too generous, and their splendid joys
Seem like loved voices lost and heard again.
III
Surely as, when the firmamental airsGrow, in a warm and lovelier noonday, sweet
With flowers thy fruitful bosom bears,
Forth from thy vistaed memories flow
Thy life's unnumbered days that tread with ghostly feet
165
Seen in the truth of thine essential mood,
All things that were return and none can die
Save for the ends of life. God knows if I,
Tired with all the task of time,
Died at thy breast, my cold and pulseless blood
Would stir to feel the essential ichor climb
The world's wide uplands, or beside
My cheek the winds grow warm, or on my mouth the sweet
Savour of sunrise, or against my naked side
The thrust of earliest grass, the chill of dew.
Yea! even my mere mute flesh would wake anew,
O earth of graves and flowers, as thou dost take
The burden of new birth for mere life's sake!
IV
Grant me to know thy larger love! If IAlway must go, beneath the self-same sky,
Thro' life and death and can no more depart,—
Grant, if I wisely serve thy large commands,
That rivers of thine own rhythm drown my heart!
For now meseems my life is grown,
Vain as a shattered bowl
To hold the essential vintage of the soul.
Change me from small endeavors crazed to win
Mean ends for aims whose littleness is sin
To moods profound, effusive, all thine own;
166
As day by day the miracles expand!
V
Now spring from seaward blows, anonThe winds grow cold as one by one
They take the withering leaves,—thro' storm and calm
Thy lips are flowing with the eternal psalm
Of moving seas, but still beneath the masque
Of seas and seasons in their tireless task
Thy mood is silence and thy gift is grace!
Tho' endless years replenish and efface,
Thou art as one whose soul beneath the test
Of human agony and human strife,
This restless interlude of life,
Is conscious of eternal rest
In spheres whose very scope is peace!
Thou sayest that life shall never cease,
Yet now I dream that death has ceased to be
And life has ceased; Yea! Life appears to me
A bowl of Lethean wine whose margin's curve
Is burned and bitter with the eager kiss
Of myriads tortured by the thirst they serve.
While in my dreams thy natural pieties
Seem as the phases of the soul that is
But neither lives nor dies!
And when at last my visions fade to this
167
Are mightily 'stablished, as the emphatic hand
Of darkness stays the cries of sleepy birds
And turns the golden breezes blind and bland,
Then all my dreams, desires and words
Depart and leave me silent with the deep
Meanings of silence; thro' my darkened mind
Light buds, as now, thro' tides of warmer wind,
Stars blossom on the night, and life seems large as sleep.
Then idly, tenderly, my hand
Falls on thy flowers still fresh with happy rain
And wise with tears I seem to understand
The purposes of pain!
168
THE JOURNEY ON
I
My lips shall kiss thy brows!
Thy blood—now in my heart perchance the pulse of it!—
Shall fall upon my face from all the thorns.
Thy blood—now in my heart perchance the pulse of it!—
Shall fall upon my face from all the thorns.
Of their dead lives who killed and felt the scorn,
Thy pity,—all its justice, vista, faith,
How utterly dim, unguessed, or briefly seen
As tho' a starred night thro' a wall's interstice glimpsed or sea-view caught between the crouching hills,—
When once, in some long-hence, prepared arrival,
Realized and known by me, in me comprised,
Shall round the soul's slow spheres and lift a larger horizon!
Then all the strewing of light in all thy ways,
(Now even I glimpse thee by the self-same light)
Shall flow between our eyes incessantly;
Then as my lips gleam crimson from thy brows
And feel thy lips—the comrades kiss at last!
Thy pity,—all its justice, vista, faith,
How utterly dim, unguessed, or briefly seen
As tho' a starred night thro' a wall's interstice glimpsed or sea-view caught between the crouching hills,—
When once, in some long-hence, prepared arrival,
Realized and known by me, in me comprised,
Shall round the soul's slow spheres and lift a larger horizon!
Then all the strewing of light in all thy ways,
(Now even I glimpse thee by the self-same light)
Shall flow between our eyes incessantly;
Then as my lips gleam crimson from thy brows
And feel thy lips—the comrades kiss at last!
169
II
Long hence thou shalt acclaim me!
In retrospect of mine how many a god!—
Fauns, stream-side nymphs, in twilights of mid-May
Shy hamadryads and reluctant ghosts,
Ishtar in Babylon who trod
Hearts of fierce lovers in her wine-press out,
Setebos, Hapi and the phallic Min,
Thoth with a mystic wisdom, Iahveh, Baal,
Ra, and the glorious, strange moon-father Sin,
Golden Apollo with the throbbing throat,
White Aphrodite in the mid-seas blue—
These, and of all my mythic infancy the dim and elder gods,
Gods that no legend hints, no indirection proves,
I, journeyed on in paths by them untrodden,
On seas unhinted in their charts, their indications, prophecies,
After an age of years turning, resume, interpret:
These, now with negligent arms about my neck,
Grave heads against my breast, deep eyes to mine,
Come face to face at last, at last acclaim me!
Fauns, stream-side nymphs, in twilights of mid-May
Shy hamadryads and reluctant ghosts,
Ishtar in Babylon who trod
Hearts of fierce lovers in her wine-press out,
Setebos, Hapi and the phallic Min,
Thoth with a mystic wisdom, Iahveh, Baal,
Ra, and the glorious, strange moon-father Sin,
Golden Apollo with the throbbing throat,
White Aphrodite in the mid-seas blue—
These, and of all my mythic infancy the dim and elder gods,
Gods that no legend hints, no indirection proves,
I, journeyed on in paths by them untrodden,
On seas unhinted in their charts, their indications, prophecies,
After an age of years turning, resume, interpret:
These, now with negligent arms about my neck,
Grave heads against my breast, deep eyes to mine,
Come face to face at last, at last acclaim me!
So thou, Essenian of the later Gods,
As these my childhood's aspirations one by one,
After long journeys done, dreams realized, thoughts explored, faint indications proved,
Meet me and mate me with deep, quiet eyes—
I knowing we all are equal Gods at last—
And kiss my naked brows and send me forth
Vaster by them, by love and knowledge of them—
So thou!—the pause returned, the vaster task resumed, the distance measured,—
Surely my soul shall find thee somewhere waiting then!
Surely mine eyes, sphered to how vast a light,
Shall tally thine, surely my neck shall feel
The strength and tenderness of thy sweet pierced hands,
Surely thy brows shall share with mine—we equal Gods at last!—the sacred burden of thy human blood,
The while thy sad, pierced feet, in all my ways,
Equally go with even pace with mine, by open roads, by open seas vistaed before us, still untrod, uncrossed by thee or me,
As we together take the long, long journey on!
As these my childhood's aspirations one by one,
After long journeys done, dreams realized, thoughts explored, faint indications proved,
170
I knowing we all are equal Gods at last—
And kiss my naked brows and send me forth
Vaster by them, by love and knowledge of them—
So thou!—the pause returned, the vaster task resumed, the distance measured,—
Surely my soul shall find thee somewhere waiting then!
Surely mine eyes, sphered to how vast a light,
Shall tally thine, surely my neck shall feel
The strength and tenderness of thy sweet pierced hands,
Surely thy brows shall share with mine—we equal Gods at last!—the sacred burden of thy human blood,
The while thy sad, pierced feet, in all my ways,
Equally go with even pace with mine, by open roads, by open seas vistaed before us, still untrod, uncrossed by thee or me,
As we together take the long, long journey on!
171
FOR E. L.
I
She stands before me till the space grows void,And round her form the desert's sterile heat
Throbs with the tread of strong, impassive feet
And song in fanes She builded and destroyed.
The tideless waters swell and fall, the beat
Of sunlight thrills along her limbs and glows
On jade and turquoise, and her even brows
With myrrh and natron seem forever sweet.
She, child of mightier days and larger loves,
Stands like a silence in the sound of life,
And recent things about her beauty seem
Vain and unlovely as our human strife;
Wise and ineffable as Truth She moves
As moves a great thought thro' a foolish dream.
II
She moves in the dusk of my mind like a bell with the sweetness of singing
In a twilight of summer fulfilled with the joy of the sadness of tears,
And the calm of her face and the splendid, slow smile are as memories clinging
Of songs and of silences filling the distance of passionate years.
In a twilight of summer fulfilled with the joy of the sadness of tears,
And the calm of her face and the splendid, slow smile are as memories clinging
Of songs and of silences filling the distance of passionate years.
172
She moves in the twilight of life like a prayer in a heart that is grieving,
And her youth is essential and old as the spring and the freshness of spring;
And her eyes watch the world and the little, low ways of the sons of the living
As the seraph might watch from the golden, grave height of his heaven-spread wing.
And her youth is essential and old as the spring and the freshness of spring;
And her eyes watch the world and the little, low ways of the sons of the living
As the seraph might watch from the golden, grave height of his heaven-spread wing.
She moves in the darkness of Time from the centuries large as her spirit;
From the magic of elder religions when the epic desires were strong,
And the old, grave glories that She, of the living, alone may inherit
Flow back from the harp of the past like the notes of ineffable song.
From the magic of elder religions when the epic desires were strong,
And the old, grave glories that She, of the living, alone may inherit
Flow back from the harp of the past like the notes of ineffable song.
She moves thro' the trivial days in the might of the peace of her presence;
And, sweet as the death of a child, in the still high places of thought,
Her soul in the hunger of life is appeased in a perfect florescence,
Apart from the shadows and dust that our little desires have sought!
And, sweet as the death of a child, in the still high places of thought,
Her soul in the hunger of life is appeased in a perfect florescence,
Apart from the shadows and dust that our little desires have sought!
173
III
Why are you gone? I grope to find your hand;
The light grows secret as your tenderness;
My tears that fall for utter loneliness
Seem sad as sunset in an alien land.
Old simple words that you could understand
And only you, are striving to possess
My lips with utterance and their weariness
Burns with the fever of a vain command.
The light grows secret as your tenderness;
My tears that fall for utter loneliness
Seem sad as sunset in an alien land.
Old simple words that you could understand
And only you, are striving to possess
My lips with utterance and their weariness
Burns with the fever of a vain command.
Why are you gone? The large winds, seaward bound,
Tell of long journeying in the endless void.
Why are you gone? I strain to catch the sound
Of footsteps, watch to see the dark destroyed
Before your lustrous fingers that would creep
Over my eyes and give me strength to sleep!
Tell of long journeying in the endless void.
Why are you gone? I strain to catch the sound
Of footsteps, watch to see the dark destroyed
Before your lustrous fingers that would creep
Over my eyes and give me strength to sleep!
IV
Pour down thy hair between the world and me!Between myself and my exhausted soul
Spread, in the dreadful vistas where my goal
Saddens and fails, thy love's euthanasy!
Fold me away from Time and let me be
Silent and ceased from bitterness, be thou
Tacit as childhood and thine ivory brow
Thoughtless, and be thou tender utterly!
Strength, give me strength to spare the futile tears!
174
Faith, wisdom, personal and briefly true.
I sift the scant, earned knowledge of my years
Like dust between my hands, and all I loved
And hoped and dreamed dissolves and blends to you!
V
She turned the falling light to fire,
Dull fire throughout her sombre hair;
It seemed She phrased the world's desire,
Desire that woke with fervent prayer
Thrills of a secret wonder everywhere.
Dull fire throughout her sombre hair;
It seemed She phrased the world's desire,
Desire that woke with fervent prayer
Thrills of a secret wonder everywhere.
Her eyes caught splendours from the sun,
Vague airs grew warm about her face,
She saw the fire-stained ripples run
And sing to sleep the smouldering space
Of sunset and sink whispering on her trace.
Vague airs grew warm about her face,
She saw the fire-stained ripples run
And sing to sleep the smouldering space
Of sunset and sink whispering on her trace.
Height over height the skies caught fire:—
She watched the red contagion flow,
The wide, wild wings of flame aspire
Till heaven uplifted seemed to grow
A huge, domed sapphire paved with crimson snow.
She watched the red contagion flow,
The wide, wild wings of flame aspire
Till heaven uplifted seemed to grow
A huge, domed sapphire paved with crimson snow.
Her lips were still and marvellous,
But, like a lute whose silence sings,
Her hand fell warm in mine and thus
Told me imperishable things:
She held my senses as a perfume clings.
But, like a lute whose silence sings,
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Told me imperishable things:
She held my senses as a perfume clings.
My mind was like an ancient town
Of shadows carved in moonlight, there,
Like dreams thro' latticed casements blown,
The twilight of her endless hair
Brought stately visions, sweet and sad and fair.
Of shadows carved in moonlight, there,
Like dreams thro' latticed casements blown,
The twilight of her endless hair
Brought stately visions, sweet and sad and fair.
Along the towers and walls of thought
They hung bright banners flown with song,
The crooked, unlitten byways caught
Their fires, and, as they passed along,
My dull, wild heart woke strangely and was strong.
They hung bright banners flown with song,
The crooked, unlitten byways caught
Their fires, and, as they passed along,
My dull, wild heart woke strangely and was strong.
So fire fell back from sky to sky,
Night deepened down the purple sea:
She turned her solemn eyes and I,
In wonder and in certainty,
Still touched her hand and still it sung to me.
Night deepened down the purple sea:
She turned her solemn eyes and I,
In wonder and in certainty,
Still touched her hand and still it sung to me.
VI
Thy breast is stainless as a star, thy handIs calm and white and slow and thou dost come
Sweet as a long-remembered song of home
Heard thro' the twilight of an alien land.
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More than our thoughts surmise, and stately dreams
Hover about thee and thy presence seems
Calm with a ceaseless custom of command.
With memories of thy face the ways of time
Are splendid, and my hours divinely stirred
With tremor and silence as of unshed tears.
Thou dost resume, as tho' the sea's sublime
Music were uttered in a single word,
The warm magnificence of earlier years.
VII
O murmur and passionate silence of to-night!Earth of sublime arrival!—Let there creep,
Like music thro' the muffled gloom of sleep,
Tremors of Life's imperishable might,
Whether from airs that range the steep starred height
Of heaven, or where the delicate dew is deep
On grass and flowers, or where the bird-cries leap
Loud down the pathways mute and bare with light.
Fabric of night, O easeful rest, O airs
Kissing her cheek, O flowers that feel her feet,
O Life, O earth's impetuous utterance!—
We stand to-night the fit and faithful heirs
To Life's inheritance,—the power, the sweet
Strong motive, and the Soul's ecstatic trance!
177
VIII
Star of the sumptuous dusk and silent air,Thou loveliest child and latest-born of night,
Jewel that binds the solemn brows of light
Swept by its lustre of luxurious hair;
O star of sundawn like a thread of prayer
Weaved thro' the fabric of a song of bright
Echoes and passionate notes of life's delight:—
O throbbing heart of heaven, unstained and bare!
Thou, in thy twilight, art as tho' her hand
Dawned thro' the glamour of a gorgeous dream;
And as to me her loveliness is shed
Thro' depths of ancient time, I see thee stand
Exalted and thro' endless space thy beam
Fall pure and steadfast on the world I tread.
IX
1
She moves beside the leaping sea,
Along the beaches fledged with foam;
The winds go seaward wearily,
The waves seem children straying home.
Along the beaches fledged with foam;
The winds go seaward wearily,
The waves seem children straying home.
The golden breath of day retires
Between the crimson lips of cloud,
She seems, amid the smouldering fires,
Like starlight thro' a burning shroud.
Between the crimson lips of cloud,
She seems, amid the smouldering fires,
Like starlight thro' a burning shroud.
178
I say, “The toiling sea is old,
The function lasts, the form is change;
Yon wave that falls in splintered gold
In every drop is fresh and strange.
The function lasts, the form is change;
Yon wave that falls in splintered gold
In every drop is fresh and strange.
“Thine eyes are deep as fluent pools
Of starlight—Yet despite of thee
The world despairs of death—O fools,
Behold the fresh and stainless sea!
Of starlight—Yet despite of thee
The world despairs of death—O fools,
Behold the fresh and stainless sea!
“The sea that felt the loveliest far
And eldest God of earth transpire,
Her flesh more radiant than a star,—
The sea is young and cannot tire!
And eldest God of earth transpire,
Her flesh more radiant than a star,—
The sea is young and cannot tire!
“The myriad waters run in ways
Where moved a million tides before,
So you aspire thro' all my days
The same yet strange forevermore!”
Where moved a million tides before,
So you aspire thro' all my days
The same yet strange forevermore!”
2
The sunset spins its splendid skein,
The sea-birds pass with fearless eye,
The daylight falls in golden rain
To gardens of a vaster sky.
The sea-birds pass with fearless eye,
The daylight falls in golden rain
To gardens of a vaster sky.
I say, “Like some sonorous bell,
Flame-forged to call for war or prayer,
Debased to chime a vulgar spell
And phrase the pain of vulgar care,—
Flame-forged to call for war or prayer,
179
And phrase the pain of vulgar care,—
“So they, for whom their lies suffice,
Who fear the splendid task of love,
Who choose the world and pay the price,
Are dead,—their lives are proof thereof!
Who fear the splendid task of love,
Who choose the world and pay the price,
Are dead,—their lives are proof thereof!
“But now they seem as something gone
A long, long while, and I may stand
And hear the calm sea monotone,
And watch thy face and touch thy hand.”
A long, long while, and I may stand
And hear the calm sea monotone,
And watch thy face and touch thy hand.”
3
The stars come few and full as tears,
The dark absorbs her fold on fold;
She seems a song of earlier years,
A myth the lips of heroes told.
The dark absorbs her fold on fold;
She seems a song of earlier years,
A myth the lips of heroes told.
She turns, the twilight clothes her shape,
The sands she treads seem moist with blood;
Measured and low from cape to cape
Sea-music thrills the evening's mood.
The sands she treads seem moist with blood;
Measured and low from cape to cape
Sea-music thrills the evening's mood.
I say, “The wondering-up of love,
The float of incense and the gloom
That warmed of old thine altars, move
About thee like a dull perfume.
The float of incense and the gloom
That warmed of old thine altars, move
About thee like a dull perfume.
180
“And like a ship of glimmering pearl,
My heart adventures far to sea:
The urge of wind, the breaker's curl
Seem promptings of infinity.
My heart adventures far to sea:
The urge of wind, the breaker's curl
Seem promptings of infinity.
“Day dies and night along my trace,
Thy hair, the gloom and glow thereof,
Surrounds me, and thy solemn face
Is dawn across the seas of love!
Thy hair, the gloom and glow thereof,
Surrounds me, and thy solemn face
Is dawn across the seas of love!
“Behold thou art like sleepy wine
In all my sense, and now at last
Thy human hours of life are mine
And all thy strong, sonorous past!”
In all my sense, and now at last
Thy human hours of life are mine
And all thy strong, sonorous past!”
X
Ours is the day of soul-despair,
The glimmering faith, the scanted sight;
But thine the dim, deserted night,
And, dark as moonlight thro' thy hair,
The stately, solitary air.
The glimmering faith, the scanted sight;
But thine the dim, deserted night,
And, dark as moonlight thro' thy hair,
The stately, solitary air.
Ours are the years of foolish strife,
Of small desires and smaller gain;
But thine, beyond the toil and pain,
Inert, unstirred by death or life,
The changeless Truth that proves us vain.
Of small desires and smaller gain;
But thine, beyond the toil and pain,
Inert, unstirred by death or life,
The changeless Truth that proves us vain.
181
Ours are the trivial joys, the tears,
The toil whereat our lives are priced;
But thine, with nothing sacrificed,
The harvest of unnumbered years,
The silence where the soul appears.
The toil whereat our lives are priced;
But thine, with nothing sacrificed,
The harvest of unnumbered years,
The silence where the soul appears.
Ours is a short, sad sentience, ours
Brief time and then forgetful sleep;
But round thy face thy memories keep
Strange vigil, and the lotos-flowers
Of Egypt scent thy living hours.
Brief time and then forgetful sleep;
But round thy face thy memories keep
Strange vigil, and the lotos-flowers
Of Egypt scent thy living hours.
Ours are the life and death that seem,
Ours is the race, but thine the goal,
And thine the calm, unhindered soul
That holds the dreamer and the dream
As notes in one harmonious theme.
Ours is the race, but thine the goal,
And thine the calm, unhindered soul
That holds the dreamer and the dream
As notes in one harmonious theme.
We damn and praise, we crown the few
With power and fame—a fading wreath;
In thine alembic Life and Death
Unite: beyond our partial view
Thy calm eyes know that all is true!
With power and fame—a fading wreath;
In thine alembic Life and Death
Unite: beyond our partial view
Thy calm eyes know that all is true!
Thy vision sphered to vaster skies,
Thy breast that keeps, serene and strong,
The pulse of earth's eternal song,
Thy hands that stir not and are wise,
Thy face of epic centuries,
Thy breast that keeps, serene and strong,
The pulse of earth's eternal song,
182
Thy face of epic centuries,
Thy soul that sees beyond the tomb,
Thy faith of wise and perfect love,
Thy heart that time is lyric of—
They know thro' life and death we come
Thee-ward like children straying home.
Thy faith of wise and perfect love,
Thy heart that time is lyric of—
They know thro' life and death we come
Thee-ward like children straying home.
XI
Thine is the silence of a night of mist,
Thine is the wonder of a night of stars,
Thine is the body, a solemn eucharist,
And thine the face, the eyes no shadow mars
Save of thy hair the twilight pale as amethyst.
Thine is the wonder of a night of stars,
Thine is the body, a solemn eucharist,
And thine the face, the eyes no shadow mars
Save of thy hair the twilight pale as amethyst.
Thine is the voice, phrased echo of the sea,
And thine the mood of statues black with moon,
Staring, inert, with eyes too tense to see,
Eastward thro' deserts desperate with noon;
Thine is the day-spring of the world's eternity.
And thine the mood of statues black with moon,
Staring, inert, with eyes too tense to see,
Eastward thro' deserts desperate with noon;
Thine is the day-spring of the world's eternity.
Thy breast is perfumed of forgotten flowers,
Thy dreams and destinies are old as youth
That thrills, in chorus of memorial hours,
The longing and the laughter of thy mouth;
Thy soul is proud and calm with long-immortal powers.
Thy dreams and destinies are old as youth
That thrills, in chorus of memorial hours,
The longing and the laughter of thy mouth;
Thy soul is proud and calm with long-immortal powers.
183
Thine is the portent of a deathless thing,
Thine is the passion of a mortal change,
Thine is the love—Ah God!—to cleave and cling,
And thine the lover, violent and strange,
To tune the lyre for thee, despair and break the string,
Lest song turn discord tried beyond its range!
Thine is the passion of a mortal change,
Thine is the love—Ah God!—to cleave and cling,
And thine the lover, violent and strange,
To tune the lyre for thee, despair and break the string,
Lest song turn discord tried beyond its range!
XII
Thine is the joy of life's transcendent hours,
Thine is the grief of childish memories,
Thy footsteps seem to fall on fragrant flowers,
Strewn for the feet of grave Divinities;
Thine eyes recall forgotten pieties.
Thine is the grief of childish memories,
Thy footsteps seem to fall on fragrant flowers,
Strewn for the feet of grave Divinities;
Thine eyes recall forgotten pieties.
Deep in thy breast the sacred perfume lingers,
Breathed from the lotos that were wont to hang
Rose o'er the sistrum in thy rhythmic fingers,
When thro' the shrine's mysterious twilight rang
Thy voice and all the unseen respondents sang.
Breathed from the lotos that were wont to hang
Rose o'er the sistrum in thy rhythmic fingers,
When thro' the shrine's mysterious twilight rang
Thy voice and all the unseen respondents sang.
Thine are the powers of Gods that now are nameless,
Still on thy face there seems to fall the glow
Of fires that flared on shrines for ages flameless,
Still where the diadem pressed thy faultless brow
Heavy with gems, the dimples linger now.
Still on thy face there seems to fall the glow
Of fires that flared on shrines for ages flameless,
Still where the diadem pressed thy faultless brow
Heavy with gems, the dimples linger now.
Age after age the myriads live and perish,
Theirs the harsh conflict and the sordid gain;
Thine is the wisdom souls alone may cherish,
Thine is the truth that heals the essential pain
Of time and change and makes death's conquest vain.
Theirs the harsh conflict and the sordid gain;
184
Thine is the truth that heals the essential pain
Of time and change and makes death's conquest vain.
Life is a spark the night of death encloses,
Somewhere is sunrise if the soul is sooth;
And thou in life's brief hour of thorns and roses
Showest the fashion of a deathless youth,
The solemn portent of a final truth.
Somewhere is sunrise if the soul is sooth;
And thou in life's brief hour of thorns and roses
Showest the fashion of a deathless youth,
The solemn portent of a final truth.
185
THE SONNETS OF ISHTAR
“Omnibus incutiens blandum per pectora amorem
Efficis ut cupide generatim saecla propagent.”
—Lucretius.
Efficis ut cupide generatim saecla propagent.”
—Lucretius.
[I
I am the world's imperishable desire]
I am the world's imperishable desire;Life is because I will, for hope of me
Life is, nor all the dark depths of the sea
Could quench mine eyes' light nor my body's fire.
Fresh hyacinth and the violent rose suspire,
The black clod breaks to green eternally,
Sap thrills to parturition the naked tree,—
Of all things living I only cannot tire.
I am the world's interminable sin;
Yea! In my power and lust beyond control,
Things mortal wage the war of life and win.
For me the slave defies the master's rod,
And while the antique pride swells within his soul
The man reclaims his liberty of God!
[II
My face lives always in the quenchless light]
My face lives always in the quenchless light,Frail gold of twilight burns across my breast,
The red dusk girds me and my limbs are pressed
In warm, wan shadows deepening down to night.
186
Inspires earth's children to my fatal quest;
Youth's passionate face in mortal hope of rest
Grows blind against me, wearying of my might.
With ravenous lips men scourge my lustrous flesh
And crowd the quivering dusk with nameless sin;
Death takes them, still insatiate, from my mesh.
Viewless, my feet pash down the one who dies,
While, sprung aloft from earth he festers in,
I watch the last-born laughing in mine eyes!
III
Once was my name as fire, and once my wine
Once was my name as fire, and once my wineFlushed in the veins of youth, and once the strong,
The wise, the lyric, leaped beneath my thong
Of love and hailed me human and divine!
Mine was the world's confessed desire and mine
The echoing thunder of the seas of song,
Priests, virgins, youths—a florid, sumptuous throng—
Gave me luxurious service at my shrine!
Now tho', bereft, I seem perchance as one
Smothered in night whose memory keeps the flush,
The fire and huge transcendence of the sun,
Still, in the apostate world, my fight I know
Is won, and still the lips of manhood crush,
And still the pained blood throbs thro' limbs of snow!
187
IV
For me, the eldest and the loveliest God,
For me, the eldest and the loveliest God,For me and for my equal happiness
The woman aches with sweet maternal stress,
The slow seed breaks beneath the reeking sod.
For me the strong, swift feet of dawn are shod
With fire, for me the flowers' frail petals press
Fearless and faithful, and warm winds caress
The violet sea-ways where of old I trod.
For me the long, resounding years return
With gradual seasons, and the stately sun
Shepherds thro' void infinity his brood;
And only thro' my knowledge man may turn,
To larger consciousness the soul has won,
Leaving his outworn body for my food.
188
AD SERVAM
SAPPHICS
1
Day through, night through rest never gave its guerdon,Life unfolded never its heart's rejoicing,
Sleep stood wrapped in visions of endless waking,
Pale and relentless.
2
Dawn spread fire, the moon with its meagre twilightDied, the trees grew full of fresh sound and shadow;
Bit with flame the implacable night, the sleepless
Shrivelled like parchment.
3
Day with dumb, white hours like scourges smote me,Drop by drop day's river of sunlight drenched me,
Sight and sound day's weariness wrought upon me,
Wrought as with iron.
4
So was night shed silent as sifted ashes,Dim and sweet the invisible spring suspired,
Voiced with song, earth's passion of parturition
Toiled in the twilight.
189
5
Over earth the shadows were shod with silence,Night descended ample and rapt and faultless;
Still was rest withholden and, pale and lidless,
Sleep overglanced me.
6
Sleep!—Dark page unlettered in life's sad volume—Not for me thy cession of ceased remembrance,
Not for me thy dreamless, impassive mercy—
Thou hast denied me!
7
Fierce as fever blurred with fantastic fancy,Night through, Life, with resonant lips convulsive,
Violent hands and eyes of incessant silence,
Smote and enslaved me.
8
All my flesh cried: “Symbol of starved desire,Pain of all pains weariest, thou hast cursed me
Now with tears and now more cruel with laughter,
Hurt and caressed me!”
9
Then I cried to Death with exceeding anguish,Prayed her thus—“O, Angel of tender wisdom!
190
Folds of thy cere-cloth!”
10
Then dislimned Life's image; the brawl and babbleCeased; yea, Life, the implacable Life relented,
Turned and, mute as tho' to disclose its meaning,
Leaned to caress me.
11
Then I saw the shadowless eyes, the scarletLips of laughter, lust and of little whispers,
Whispers low and languid with fierce dominion—
Life was translated!
12
Cried I then: “O, pity for me, O mightyGods of altars white as the limbs of lovers”—
Then She laughed and suddenly, burned and broken,
Soul was defeated!
13
Thro' me smote her silence of stolen secrets,Dear, too dear for words and too sweet for music,
Till She grew, in subtle and grievous longing,
Fervent as bloodshed.
191
14
Then I saw the glamour of limbs uncovered,Saw the fresh, frail curves of her body broken,
Saw the mouth, the eyes, everlasting vision
Moist with her passion.
15
Soul was spent, flesh severed with sharp desire,—Flame on flame the print of her paces smote me,
Yea! the song and sway of her eager body
Surged in my senses.
16
Long I lay immobile, in monstrous struggle,Endless waking, weariness tense as harp strings,
While the sobbing pulse of her blood against me
Beat thro' my body.
17
Briefly then I knew why the sleepless demonLife, endured with sorrow and sound incessant,
Knew why all the veins of my body filtered
Wine for her thirsting.
18
Even Death, the goal and delight of living,Wrapped with earth's thick shadows, the sea's dense silence,
192
Paled and grew sentient.
19
She, I knew, beneath my unlifting eyelids,Dark with dust or blind with the weight of waters,
She could still, with fiery fingers, sever
Death from its shadow!
20
Yea! the cool, kind fingers of Death would kindle;Sleep is scared and darkness too weak to wall me;
Naught conceals my soul from her soul's desire,
Slave She enslaves me!
21
So that now my body and soul in grievousLove cry out—“O God, I would choose her nervous
Fierce caress, tho' even the wings of slumber
Closed to enfold me!”
22
Tho' my sleepless hours like fire and feverBurn my brain and all of my body suffers,
Tho' my soul is famished, my heart leaps out in
Wild supplication;
193
23
Cries—“O thou, Implacable Aphrodité,Thou, whose feet flow flame and whose laughter lightens
Down the trackless ways of the heart where bright blood
Burns on thy traces!—
24
“Thou, of Gods most pitiless, sumptuous, sanguine—When I burn out body and soul and perish,
Let my cinders, sifted thro' some sad twilight,
Fall in Her pathway!
25
“Where Her feet fall, yea! and beneath Her pacesLet me lie in dust and with dust be mingled,
Thrilled as now to feel of Her flesh the burden
Bruise me in passage!
26
“There, tho' stamped and scattered, Her feet could thrill me,Yea! till flowers from out of my dust transpired
Still to lure Her fancy and still to feel Her
Mine as she crushed them!”
194
TANNHÄUSER TO VENUS
I have learned the inevitable destinies
By sheer endurance of thy careless love!
Yet with a human and so needful hope,
A desperate guess, I dare confront thy will
And task with doubt thy flushed divinity:
Hear me! O Goddess, hear my last surmise!
By sheer endurance of thy careless love!
Yet with a human and so needful hope,
A desperate guess, I dare confront thy will
And task with doubt thy flushed divinity:
Hear me! O Goddess, hear my last surmise!
I have watched thy face and seen the seasons pass,
And now I know that memory cannot be
Where death is not nor any mortal change.
Thou art immortal, therefore all thy life
Is now,—the hours go by and leave no trace!
O monstrous thought! Would I could ask thee where
And how they fare, the insatiable men,
Lovers of thine whose blood besmeared thy feet,
Whose wild hearts perished as in fire, whose bones
Gleam white as starlight in the paths of time!
O where's it passed, the strong processional,
The young men and young women pale as fire,
Life's desperate mariners who glimpsed thee forth—
Pharos that lamped the starless night of time—
And sought thee even on death's engulfing seas?—
Tell me of them! Thy brows are pure of thought!
Yet had thine epic lovers of yesterday
Lips and strong hands more fierce than even are mine;
Their violent will and weak humanity
Suffered as mine to feel thy deathless youth!
Then tell me—for, by heaven, my extreme plight
Lies bare before thee—if such men who strode
Young in the young world are lapsed away
Body and soul leaving no trace at all,
Then where for me, for me who once foreswore
My sweet Lord Christ, the strong and stainless God,
Is triumph or hope or any tenderness?
Am I more mighty than so much of time,
So mighty and so wilful of my cause
That, by extreme desire, I may contrive
To give thee mortal memory and pain and tears,
Feel thy heart falter and reduce to death
The fashion of thy memorable flesh?
Is this my only hope? Certain it is
My whole life, harnessed to thine endless task,
Toils without recompense, a merest tool
Serving the vast monotony of fate;
Certain it is that through eternal time
No death can make the sight of my dazed eyes
Grow bland or cool my fingers of thy feel!
And therefore, drifted in the dreadful past,
I shall be left a derelict on the shores
Of thine oblivion that bear, I know,
Wreckage of all the years and of all men!
Certain it is—unless—O give me power
And light! For in the midnight of despair
I seem to glimpse the dawn of a huge hope
That fires a pathway to my utmost goal!
Not thine the power! I go from thee to me!
Mine is the task—to teach my human soul
The vastness of the immortal mood and thus
Lift my fierce life to immortality!
O hope great beyond all hope yet not vain!
Haply I fail—yet I have known thy love
And served with life the soul's divinest end
Since the extreme of all things leads to truth.
Therefore I am content. Lift up thy hands
And pour thy golden cataract of hair
Over my face, then kiss me through the coils!—
The frailty of my heart that does thee wrong,
Memory, and grief for human joy and pain
Shall cease. Behold me fit to bear thy love!
I will no more desire the sea-wind, cool
At sunrise, nor the lesser joys than Thou:
The clasp of friends and the low lights of home!
And now I know that memory cannot be
Where death is not nor any mortal change.
Thou art immortal, therefore all thy life
Is now,—the hours go by and leave no trace!
O monstrous thought! Would I could ask thee where
And how they fare, the insatiable men,
Lovers of thine whose blood besmeared thy feet,
Whose wild hearts perished as in fire, whose bones
Gleam white as starlight in the paths of time!
O where's it passed, the strong processional,
The young men and young women pale as fire,
Life's desperate mariners who glimpsed thee forth—
Pharos that lamped the starless night of time—
And sought thee even on death's engulfing seas?—
Tell me of them! Thy brows are pure of thought!
Yet had thine epic lovers of yesterday
195
Their violent will and weak humanity
Suffered as mine to feel thy deathless youth!
Then tell me—for, by heaven, my extreme plight
Lies bare before thee—if such men who strode
Young in the young world are lapsed away
Body and soul leaving no trace at all,
Then where for me, for me who once foreswore
My sweet Lord Christ, the strong and stainless God,
Is triumph or hope or any tenderness?
Am I more mighty than so much of time,
So mighty and so wilful of my cause
That, by extreme desire, I may contrive
To give thee mortal memory and pain and tears,
Feel thy heart falter and reduce to death
The fashion of thy memorable flesh?
Is this my only hope? Certain it is
My whole life, harnessed to thine endless task,
Toils without recompense, a merest tool
Serving the vast monotony of fate;
Certain it is that through eternal time
No death can make the sight of my dazed eyes
Grow bland or cool my fingers of thy feel!
And therefore, drifted in the dreadful past,
I shall be left a derelict on the shores
Of thine oblivion that bear, I know,
Wreckage of all the years and of all men!
Certain it is—unless—O give me power
196
I seem to glimpse the dawn of a huge hope
That fires a pathway to my utmost goal!
Not thine the power! I go from thee to me!
Mine is the task—to teach my human soul
The vastness of the immortal mood and thus
Lift my fierce life to immortality!
O hope great beyond all hope yet not vain!
Haply I fail—yet I have known thy love
And served with life the soul's divinest end
Since the extreme of all things leads to truth.
Therefore I am content. Lift up thy hands
And pour thy golden cataract of hair
Over my face, then kiss me through the coils!—
The frailty of my heart that does thee wrong,
Memory, and grief for human joy and pain
Shall cease. Behold me fit to bear thy love!
I will no more desire the sea-wind, cool
At sunrise, nor the lesser joys than Thou:
The clasp of friends and the low lights of home!
197
TWILIGHT
Deep in thy lap I lay my head,
Deep in my soul thy words resound;
Thy lips where mine so lately bled
Gleam like a wound.
Deep in my soul thy words resound;
Thy lips where mine so lately bled
Gleam like a wound.
Now, in the sad reluctant light
The passionate silence of thy mood,
I feel thy robe's perfume, and night
And solitude.
The passionate silence of thy mood,
I feel thy robe's perfume, and night
And solitude.
Till in the solitude I feel
The breaking heart, the dazzled brain
Pulse with a longing tense as steel
And more than pain.
The breaking heart, the dazzled brain
Pulse with a longing tense as steel
And more than pain.
More than all pain and all delight,
All laughter and convulsive tears,
More than all sleep in all the night
Of endless years.
All laughter and convulsive tears,
More than all sleep in all the night
Of endless years.
Thy robe's perfume is deep and warm,
The dusk is deep and sad and low:
I cannot save thee from love's harm
Nor let thee go.
The dusk is deep and sad and low:
I cannot save thee from love's harm
Nor let thee go.
198
I have nor strength nor will to save
Thy life from my desire or me.
I hold thee, Mistress still and Slave
Eternally!
Thy life from my desire or me.
I hold thee, Mistress still and Slave
Eternally!
199
SONG
I am the soul of desire,
The pleasure, the passion, the prayer;
O, when shall my love for thee tire?
Beloved, thou art fearfully fair
And I am the soul of desire!
The pleasure, the passion, the prayer;
O, when shall my love for thee tire?
Beloved, thou art fearfully fair
And I am the soul of desire!
I am the soul of desire,
I call with the tones of the sea,
With the infinite yearn of the sea.
I am thrilled with my love as a lyre
Is thrilled with the songs that transpire
For love, and I thirst as a fire
For thee!
For thy indolent hands and thy hair—
O beloved! thou art fearfully fair
And I am the soul of desire!
I call with the tones of the sea,
With the infinite yearn of the sea.
I am thrilled with my love as a lyre
Is thrilled with the songs that transpire
For love, and I thirst as a fire
For thee!
For thy indolent hands and thy hair—
O beloved! thou art fearfully fair
And I am the soul of desire!
I am the soul of desire,
O where shall I find thee?
My love shall consume thee entire,
My passion shall bind thee!
For a day and a night and a morrow,
Thy body and soul shall be mine
Till the laughter of love and the sorrow
Are shed thro' thy senses like wine.
Where thy bosom is bare
My love shall suspire;
Thou art fair, O beloved, thou art fearfully fair!
And I am the soul of desire!
O where shall I find thee?
My love shall consume thee entire,
My passion shall bind thee!
For a day and a night and a morrow,
Thy body and soul shall be mine
Till the laughter of love and the sorrow
200
Where thy bosom is bare
My love shall suspire;
Thou art fair, O beloved, thou art fearfully fair!
And I am the soul of desire!
201
SONNETS
[I
Strong saturation of sea! O widely flown,]
Strong saturation of sea! O widely flown,Far winds of fall, your litanies of pain
Moan like the music of a wild refrain
Heard thro' the midnight of a feudal town!
Young night is lipped with jasper where the blown
Burden of evening lights intensely wane,
And, shuddering seaward from the tawny plain,
Vague fold on fold the enormous dark comes down.
Gusty and fervid as the sleepless sea
The passionate fancies of a formless fear
Spring in my nervous brain like monstrous flowers;
The night, the wind-chant work their will of me,
And thoughts like death-bells echoing far and near,
Toll for life's lost, irrevocable hours.
202
[II
How many a life must thou the journey keep]
How many a life must thou the journey keep,O soul, thro' sexual seasons of the years?
O heart, how many a harvest of thy tears
Shall life's sharp sword of unfulfillment reap?
The breath of dawn shall blow—haply with tears!—
How oft, O heart, O soul, before the deep
Darkness and still eternity of sleep
Bring natural justice for life's long arrears?
Ah! when my rose of life is ripe to fall,
Pray God I sink thro' gardens of the sun
Till the dead fingers of oblivion
Constrain my heart, and there lie over me
The tideless waters and the eventual
Darkness of death's unlit, unlifting sea!
203
[III
Come home to me at last! Come home to me]
Come home to me at last! Come home to me!Bring me thy youth of tears and great desires;
Frail round thy tired head the music tires,
The music shed between the stars and sea!
While still thy youth is echoing with its free
Love-songs resounding like a storm of lyres,
Come with thy deeds and dreams;—and thro' the fires
Of wisdom sift the ash of memory.
Come home to me at last! Life whispers, “Come!”
Yea! thro' the mist of passions sad with loss,
Strong in the sumptuous dusk, the light of home,
The light of soul where thou must journey, lays,
While spring is sweet in all the old dear ways,
A splendour and a sacrament across!
204
[IV
Hush, child! Be still and give thy fingers rest]
Hush, child! Be still and give thy fingers rest,Thine eyes the darkness, and thy lips that press
Hard on the lips of life with fierce caress,
Ease from their hunger and thy guideless quest.
Ask of the vacant eyes and stirless breast
Of life's last angel, pale Forgetfulness,
Peace, and release from thought's eternal stress:
She, of life's violent, fervent Gods, is best.
Peace, child! Beneath her hand the fretful flame
Of long desire grows frail and faint as dream:
The immediate life is alien to despair.
Held on her heart seem life and death the same,
And nothing is at all and all things seem,
And if life dies thou shalt not even care!
205
[V
Then cried the song of Life: “The flowers that fall]
Then cried the song of Life: “The flowers that fall,Spendthrift of perfume, shall return again
Fed by the tireless earth and fragrant rain:
Far down the glimmering sea the musical
Lips of the dawn repeat their clarion call;
Always the heart shall kindle to regain
Love's young desire whose very strength is pain,
For life is love and love is best of all!”
Then breathed an elder music: “I am peace!
Peace of the silent soul, sphered in such wise
That no thing lives or dies, is pleased or sad
In me, where hope and prayer and struggle cease!
Wise with my light thy calm and steadfast eyes
Beholding death shall not be even glad!”
206
DEATH IN YOUTH
Thy lips grow cold against the lips of death,
And peace shall come:—be mild and unafraid!
Then, in the silence, like a tender breath,
Life's bloom of fever on thy cheeks shall fade
As now the sunset's weariest saffron slips
Over the moveless pallor of thy lips.
And peace shall come:—be mild and unafraid!
Then, in the silence, like a tender breath,
Life's bloom of fever on thy cheeks shall fade
As now the sunset's weariest saffron slips
Over the moveless pallor of thy lips.
What tho' the lips of love are wet with tears?
Life was, thou sayest, magnificent and mine!
Youth was possessed of dreams, the abundant years
Thrilled like the freshness of a native wine!
Behold! The hope of life is death, the goal
Death that at last leads outward to the soul.
Life was, thou sayest, magnificent and mine!
Youth was possessed of dreams, the abundant years
Thrilled like the freshness of a native wine!
Behold! The hope of life is death, the goal
Death that at last leads outward to the soul.
Haply forgetfulness shall come. Behold!
Day is a dream that haunts the elder night.
Still is the earth so young and thou so old,
Mute with thy memories flashed like shafts of light
Thro' rain-swept days forlorn with beaten bells,
Thy memories near and real as miracles.
Day is a dream that haunts the elder night.
Still is the earth so young and thou so old,
Mute with thy memories flashed like shafts of light
Thro' rain-swept days forlorn with beaten bells,
Thy memories near and real as miracles.
As Life is stern be merciful and mild,
Solemn with joy as Life laughs loud with pain,
Silent as life is shrill.—O dying child,
Be all life is not, then was life not vain
Since soul proves victor when the fight is fought
And peace returns, profound and void of thought.
Solemn with joy as Life laughs loud with pain,
Silent as life is shrill.—O dying child,
207
Since soul proves victor when the fight is fought
And peace returns, profound and void of thought.
Banish the keen regret, the foolish tears,
Salt on the kiss that burned thy longing mouth!
Wisdom shall soon be perfect: all thy years'
Harvest, blown ashes of the gods of youth.
Now shall thy grief refrain, thy passions cease:
Silence has come and in the silence peace!
Salt on the kiss that burned thy longing mouth!
Wisdom shall soon be perfect: all thy years'
Harvest, blown ashes of the gods of youth.
Now shall thy grief refrain, thy passions cease:
Silence has come and in the silence peace!
Thou must forget or else 't were vain to die,
Death with thy memories is not death at all;
Passion and pain and pleasure, thou and I,
Life and its longings, must, beyond recall,
Cease or unite or merge and death must come
Like seaward wind that takes the rain-drop home.
Death with thy memories is not death at all;
Passion and pain and pleasure, thou and I,
Life and its longings, must, beyond recall,
Cease or unite or merge and death must come
Like seaward wind that takes the rain-drop home.
Death shall forget tho' life's immortal power
That gave thee strength to bear thy human fate
Suffer and strive. Thro' death the mystic flower
Of soul expands until thy youth's wise hate
Of life has utterly passed in love away,
While death prepares the spiritual day.
That gave thee strength to bear thy human fate
Suffer and strive. Thro' death the mystic flower
Of soul expands until thy youth's wise hate
Of life has utterly passed in love away,
While death prepares the spiritual day.
208
LULLABY
Sleep, ah! sleep in the light of the moon,
Sleep, ah! sleep in the shadow of night,
For the hour of waking is soon, how soon!
And swift are the feet of light!
Sleep, ah! sleep in the shadow of night,
For the hour of waking is soon, how soon!
And swift are the feet of light!
Sleep, ah! sleep in the light of the stars,
Sleep in the lull of the viewless airs,
For you wake to the world and its pitiful wars,
The flesh and its sordid cares.
Sleep in the lull of the viewless airs,
For you wake to the world and its pitiful wars,
The flesh and its sordid cares.
Sleep, ah! sleep in the hush of the heart,
Dreamless, forget the return of strife,
When the curtains of shadow are stricken apart
On the pitiless drama of life.
Dreamless, forget the return of strife,
When the curtains of shadow are stricken apart
On the pitiless drama of life.
Sleep, ah! sleep in the light of the soul,
In the measureless strength and the timeless peace;
Sleep! and be free of the mind's control
In the prison of time and space.
In the measureless strength and the timeless peace;
Sleep! and be free of the mind's control
In the prison of time and space.
Sleep, ah! sleep in the endless ways
Of the shadow of Death, in the cool, kind earth,
Till the dark is dissolved in the golden haze
Of the Dawn of a greater birth.
Of the shadow of Death, in the cool, kind earth,
Till the dark is dissolved in the golden haze
Of the Dawn of a greater birth.
209
Sleep! for haply a night will come
Where laughter is silent and none shall weep,
Where the Soul after infinite travel goes home
At last to an endless sleep.
Where laughter is silent and none shall weep,
Where the Soul after infinite travel goes home
At last to an endless sleep.
210
AFTER DEATH
She said:
Where shall my Soul be comforted,
My body be satiated
Since he is dead?
Where shall my Soul be comforted,
My body be satiated
Since he is dead?
She said:
Since he is dead
Where shall my lips be fed that blushed and bled
Against his lips, and where my fingers cling,
My arms enfold, my voice thrill whispering?
My slow white hands shall fling
Over what secret, where,
The shadow of my hair?
Since he is dead
Where shall my lips be fed that blushed and bled
Against his lips, and where my fingers cling,
My arms enfold, my voice thrill whispering?
My slow white hands shall fling
Over what secret, where,
The shadow of my hair?
She said:
Because the Man is dead
To Thee I yield my soul, Lord God.
I thought he could not die
Leaving the vistas of his life untrod;
I thought the mere desire of love sufficed
To thwart Death utterly,
For this how gladly soul were sacrificed!
Now he is dead I learn thy litany,
Lord God, and tame my lyric throat to prayer.
Once, for his kiss, my lips were red,
Now pale with tears they taste thy eucharist,
And all my hair he loved, my sombre hair
Lies sweet and heavy on the feet of Christ.
Because the Man is dead
To Thee I yield my soul, Lord God.
I thought he could not die
Leaving the vistas of his life untrod;
I thought the mere desire of love sufficed
To thwart Death utterly,
For this how gladly soul were sacrificed!
Now he is dead I learn thy litany,
Lord God, and tame my lyric throat to prayer.
Once, for his kiss, my lips were red,
Now pale with tears they taste thy eucharist,
211
Lies sweet and heavy on the feet of Christ.
She said:
Lo! He is dead, Lord God, my love is dead!
Now, leaf by leaf,
Summer is fallen, earth grown mute and deaf,
And winter rigorous above his grave.
In heaven the angels have
Thy stars for choir and all thy sons for song,
They live before thy face,
Glad in the sweet suffusion of thy peace.—
My love is dead; Lord God, I do him wrong,
Where he lies hid
Lonely beneath his coffin-lid,
To pray thy grace in heaven,
Nor even
Can I by thee be comforted
Since he is dead.
Lo! He is dead, Lord God, my love is dead!
Now, leaf by leaf,
Summer is fallen, earth grown mute and deaf,
And winter rigorous above his grave.
In heaven the angels have
Thy stars for choir and all thy sons for song,
They live before thy face,
Glad in the sweet suffusion of thy peace.—
My love is dead; Lord God, I do him wrong,
Where he lies hid
Lonely beneath his coffin-lid,
To pray thy grace in heaven,
Nor even
Can I by thee be comforted
Since he is dead.
She said:
Yea! tho' my love be dead,
I know that never sleep
Has shed her shadows on his lidless eyes;—
Always I wonder if the dead can weep!
The desolate wind is cold above his head,
The wall of night impervious where he lies
And shrill with withered things that agonize
As tho' his buried body changed to cries,
As tho' he called to me and said:
“My lips are jealous of the flesh of Christ
Thy lips have tasted in the eucharist,
Yea, of the heavy strewing of all thy hair
On Christ's sad feet!
My hands are jealous of thy sweet
White fingers cold in attitudes of prayer.
My heart is jealous of thy naked breast,
Crimson where late the altar's marble pressed,
Where once I took my rest;
And in the violent ways of love I trod
My soul is jealous of thy God!”
Yea! tho' my love be dead,
I know that never sleep
Has shed her shadows on his lidless eyes;—
Always I wonder if the dead can weep!
The desolate wind is cold above his head,
The wall of night impervious where he lies
And shrill with withered things that agonize
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As tho' he called to me and said:
“My lips are jealous of the flesh of Christ
Thy lips have tasted in the eucharist,
Yea, of the heavy strewing of all thy hair
On Christ's sad feet!
My hands are jealous of thy sweet
White fingers cold in attitudes of prayer.
My heart is jealous of thy naked breast,
Crimson where late the altar's marble pressed,
Where once I took my rest;
And in the violent ways of love I trod
My soul is jealous of thy God!”
She said:
The stars of heaven are white with song,
The Sons of God forever young;
Dark is my love, O Lord, my love is dead!
Lonely beneath his shroud he cannot rest
Save where thy lilies fade against my breast.
Lord! it would do him wrong
And prove me faithless, if in Heaven
My soul grew pure and calm with God;
If, in the ways of good he never trod,
My heart were comforted.
She said:
I choose the seven
Sweet sins of love instead!
The stars of heaven are white with song,
The Sons of God forever young;
Dark is my love, O Lord, my love is dead!
Lonely beneath his shroud he cannot rest
Save where thy lilies fade against my breast.
Lord! it would do him wrong
And prove me faithless, if in Heaven
My soul grew pure and calm with God;
If, in the ways of good he never trod,
My heart were comforted.
She said:
I choose the seven
Sweet sins of love instead!
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She said:
Summer has died because my love is dead,
Winter is acrid as his sleepless eyes.
Yet shall the earth wherein his body lies
Thrill to the season's sun and soon be riven,
Till Life, desire and dream of death,
Leap forth and climb the hills of heaven
And earth grow violent with spring
That shall fling
On the beating of her breath
Foam of fresh flowers to the stainless sea.
Summer has died because my love is dead,
Winter is acrid as his sleepless eyes.
Yet shall the earth wherein his body lies
Thrill to the season's sun and soon be riven,
Till Life, desire and dream of death,
Leap forth and climb the hills of heaven
And earth grow violent with spring
That shall fling
On the beating of her breath
Foam of fresh flowers to the stainless sea.
She said:
Like the eternal spring, eternally
Shall love persist in my dead Love and me,
And Life, the elixir whence all love is fed,
Shall thrill between us so we cannot sever.
Lord God, we loved once and forever!
For both of us
Love is more marvellous,
Whether alone beneath the coffin-lid
Or lonelier and more desperate amid
The glad familiar ways of earth we trod,
Than Heaven with all its stars and hosts of song,
With all thy sons immaculately young,
And Thou Lord God!
Like the eternal spring, eternally
Shall love persist in my dead Love and me,
And Life, the elixir whence all love is fed,
Shall thrill between us so we cannot sever.
Lord God, we loved once and forever!
For both of us
Love is more marvellous,
Whether alone beneath the coffin-lid
Or lonelier and more desperate amid
The glad familiar ways of earth we trod,
Than Heaven with all its stars and hosts of song,
With all thy sons immaculately young,
And Thou Lord God!
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WOMEN
FIRST
[I
She said: “O take me! Let my life become]
She said: “O take me! Let my life becomePart of your pleasure. As the rose that leaf
By leaf falls scented from the crimson sheaf
You loved, even so, until my life is numb
And bare with giving, till the total sum
Of joy my life contains, to serve your need
Is spent, till all the music of my reed
Is played to please you, till you leave me, dumb—
So am I yours! to love you till you tire
Of love. I give so little!—yet the whole:
The best and worst of me, my body and soul!
O take me! Yours the nobler part, to take
Unrecompensed my prodigal desire
That pains me and would kill me for your sake!”
[II
He said: “Enough! I take you and repay]
He said: “Enough! I take you and repayNothing you give, but waste your sacrifice;
I let your body and soul alone suffice,
Your fierce love's largess lure me for a day.
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Your lips forget their pieties to entice
My lips, and death at last shall film with ice
Your desolate heart once drained and cast away.
Come to me! You shall utterly be turned
Into my pleasure, till my satiate sense
Sickens to see you, till your flesh is burned
Dry in my service, till the soul you staked
Against a careless kiss is lost, till hence
I drive you, with the thirst you nourished, slaked!”
[III
She said: “Thank God! Beloved, I merely ask]
She said: “Thank God! Beloved, I merely askSufferance for love and me. My soul? I stake
It, swift to lose the bauble for your sake,
To spill the liquor as I break the flask!”
She held the cup: then suddenly the masque
Shattered before him, and the woman, real
And soul-transfigured with matured ideal,
Faced him—divine to meet her mortal task.
As sunlight breaks thro' vistas grey with rain,
The breathless truth broke briefly on his brain.
He paused and felt her fail to understand.
She, desolate, shuddered watching him depart;
The miracle of love's divine command
Filled him, the gospel of the human heart!
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SECOND
[I
“Sweet from my sin I rise before you, rise]
“Sweet from my sin I rise before you, rise,Wild as the vision and savour of the sea,
Bland as the shadow of sleep's euthanasy
Shed between burning lids and aching eyes!
Clothed in love's fire that damns and purifies,
Mistress and slave, I yield me utterly,—
Yours by the gods my love reveals to me,
The gods my pitiless passion crucifies!
Love for love's sake my body is born again
Thrilled with a new virginity, my soul
Lends my desire the dignity of pain.
For you my lips are fire, my naked breast
Profound as sleep and heavens of splendour roll
Over me, shattered with divine unrest!”
[II
He said, “I take you. Yet the laughter slips]
He said, “I take you. Yet the laughter slips,Mocking your sacrifice. Be still! The phrase
Is vain since sense with equal joy repays
Loss of the soul we crush between our lips.
Where 's soul, my Mistress, when thy finger-tips
Drip wine till candles wither blaze by blaze,
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Pale drop by drop the ooze of daylight drips?
Why vex the mind? Why ponder—‘Mine the gain
Her gold against my dross;—the sacrifice
Damns in acceptance—Heart must yield the pain
Of Heart due reverence, give the greater gift
Denial?’ To scruple so were over-nice.—
Drown me in all your hair my fingers lift!”
[III
“Heart to my heart,” she cried, “and mouth to mine]
“Heart to my heart,” she cried, “and mouth to mine!Lie close! I feel you like the pulse of life!
Desire has pained my senses like a knife:
Lie close, that I may know my body thine!
Surely the pangs of love are all divine,
And haply tho' my ways of love be dark
Their depths may kindle with the saving spark!
At least my incense floats before the shrine!”
“Give me thy lips!” he cried—and then his mind
Suffered with truth. He said, “My soul was blind!”
“And mine,” she said, “till love disclosed the light.”
He fell beside her, “Speak!” he cried, “for me,
For me the loveless—where is hope?” And she
Soothed him as tho' a child who wept for fright.
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AT DAYBREAK
I marked the hours beat by beat
And felt the silent night depart:
I held her, dead against my heart,
Beside the loud, incessant street.
And felt the silent night depart:
I held her, dead against my heart,
Beside the loud, incessant street.
Across the daylight drenched with rain
I heard the world's familiar strife,
My fingers held the pulse of life
That ran the shaking scale of pain.
I heard the world's familiar strife,
My fingers held the pulse of life
That ran the shaking scale of pain.
Her body, bruised with love's embrace,
Grew cold, and where her lips were red
The dawn disclosed them grey and dead:
Her eyes were dumb—I kissed her face!
Grew cold, and where her lips were red
The dawn disclosed them grey and dead:
Her eyes were dumb—I kissed her face!
I kissed her tacit face and laid
My cheek on hers and caught her hand,
And guessed if God would understand
And find the joy of sin repaid!
My cheek on hers and caught her hand,
And guessed if God would understand
And find the joy of sin repaid!
Beside the loud, incessant street
I kissed her mouth and held her bound
Between my violent arms and found
Her mouth intolerably sweet.
I kissed her mouth and held her bound
Between my violent arms and found
Her mouth intolerably sweet.
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I held her close, Ah! close to me
And kissed the scarlet ring that clasped
Her throat, where all my fingers grasped
And crushed her life out utterly.
And kissed the scarlet ring that clasped
Her throat, where all my fingers grasped
And crushed her life out utterly.
I kissed her lips, her cheek, her hand,
My mouth was bitter salt with tears,
And she was dead.—If God appears
I wondered, will He understand?
My mouth was bitter salt with tears,
And she was dead.—If God appears
I wondered, will He understand?
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THE FINAL WORD
Hear me! I say to you—“This love of ours
Can never be forgiven; nevermore
Shall I, in peace and silence, pass my door,
Sad with October sun and scattered flowers,
Unhaunted of thy memory as before.
Can never be forgiven; nevermore
Shall I, in peace and silence, pass my door,
Sad with October sun and scattered flowers,
Unhaunted of thy memory as before.
“Nothing is virgin where thy feet have trod
The byways of my inmost heart, and where
My Soul stretched flowers to catch the skyward air,
Thy hands have sown with chaff the fields of God.
I know thy love is loveless as despair.
The byways of my inmost heart, and where
My Soul stretched flowers to catch the skyward air,
Thy hands have sown with chaff the fields of God.
I know thy love is loveless as despair.
“I thrilled in soul, God knows my body fired,
Kindling thy perfect body, for the food
Whose sweetness proved pain sweet and evil good,
Till Life could no more bear what life desired,
Until the lips of life were crushed to blood.
Kindling thy perfect body, for the food
Whose sweetness proved pain sweet and evil good,
Till Life could no more bear what life desired,
Until the lips of life were crushed to blood.
“Now there is no forgiveness. Go or stay—
I cannot care, my love has been so great!
I am too tired now to love or hate;
While hour by hour I see, and day by day
Life's tears roll down the marble face of fate!”
I cannot care, my love has been so great!
I am too tired now to love or hate;
While hour by hour I see, and day by day
Life's tears roll down the marble face of fate!”
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TO C. L. G.
The old days come near to me like dead women with pale and tender hands,
The gold of their hair shakes down about my face,
And the light of their eyes is tawny and sad like the light of large, calm sunsets,
And their silence seems as a fragment of eternity.
The gold of their hair shakes down about my face,
And the light of their eyes is tawny and sad like the light of large, calm sunsets,
And their silence seems as a fragment of eternity.
The old days come near to me and thy presence is ever among them,
The presence of thy childhood fresh and dear and dead,
Thine infancy and mine!
Linked in a living memory, sad as love and death are sad.
The presence of thy childhood fresh and dear and dead,
Thine infancy and mine!
Linked in a living memory, sad as love and death are sad.
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THE SONG OF MAN
O come out with me to the New Gods, I have fathomed the lies of the old,
And the pillars of Paradise crumble and the ashes of Hell are grown cold.
I have striven and lived and remembered thro' the range of the numberless years,
Until strange as a dawn in the midnight the goal of my seeking appears!
And the pillars of Paradise crumble and the ashes of Hell are grown cold.
I have striven and lived and remembered thro' the range of the numberless years,
Until strange as a dawn in the midnight the goal of my seeking appears!
I have dared in the spirit's conception, I have shaped with the might of my hands,
Were the dreams of my ecstasy mortal? Yet godlike I wrought their commands!
In the twilight of temples I builded, by the flames of the altars I fed,
I have trembled and wondered and worshipped, yea, bled as the sacrifice bled!
Were the dreams of my ecstasy mortal? Yet godlike I wrought their commands!
In the twilight of temples I builded, by the flames of the altars I fed,
I have trembled and wondered and worshipped, yea, bled as the sacrifice bled!
I have blinded the Soul's aspiration with torture and triumph and pain,
I have died for a word, for an idol, for an idol, a word I have slain,
In the fear of a merciless master I have bent like a slave to the rod,
I have turned in my anger and questioned of God and the judgments of God.
I have died for a word, for an idol, for an idol, a word I have slain,
In the fear of a merciless master I have bent like a slave to the rod,
223
I have minted in marble and music the gold of the heart of my youth,
And a maiden's desire has brought me the feast of the fruit of her mouth.
I have folded my love as a mantle over limbs that were naked for this,
I have broken my heart on a lute-string, and bartered my soul for a kiss.
And a maiden's desire has brought me the feast of the fruit of her mouth.
I have folded my love as a mantle over limbs that were naked for this,
I have broken my heart on a lute-string, and bartered my soul for a kiss.
I have lived with my boys and my women for lust and the laughter of lust
Till the Love-Goddess, mortal in marble, was shattered to shards in the dust,
And when Life unrelenting renewed me and the soul of me suffered for food,
I have waked to a new revelation, I have canted of evil and good.
Till the Love-Goddess, mortal in marble, was shattered to shards in the dust,
And when Life unrelenting renewed me and the soul of me suffered for food,
I have waked to a new revelation, I have canted of evil and good.
I have damned and divided in judgment, I have 'stablished the bounds of my blame,
I have tempted the soul with a vision, I have menaced the flesh with a flame,
Till the voice of my God in his anger was like thunder of wind on the sea,
Till I cowered and sinned and was secret, till I longed and was feared to be free.
I have tempted the soul with a vision, I have menaced the flesh with a flame,
Till the voice of my God in his anger was like thunder of wind on the sea,
224
Till, too weak to face God in his heaven, too timid to dare him in hell,
I defiled him with empty observance and I cheapened his name to a spell;
With a blasphemy cynic with safety, with a cowardice born of my greeds,
With the slime of respectable falsehood, I fashioned a God to my needs.
I defiled him with empty observance and I cheapened his name to a spell;
With a blasphemy cynic with safety, with a cowardice born of my greeds,
With the slime of respectable falsehood, I fashioned a God to my needs.
I have lied in my soul as I muttered the prayers of the priests that I paid,
I have lied in my heart as I sold it, I have lied for my heart was afraid,
I have lied to the priests and the people, I have lied to my body and soul
All the lies that the meanest of sins pays the meanest of virtues for toll!
I have lied in my heart as I sold it, I have lied for my heart was afraid,
I have lied to the priests and the people, I have lied to my body and soul
All the lies that the meanest of sins pays the meanest of virtues for toll!
Then I sickened of lies and discovered in breathless amazement—at last
Soul and Body, to-day and to-morrow released from the ghosts of the past—
That, washed clear with the tears of my manhood, song-bright with the poems of my youth,
Wonder-wide with long dreams and desires, my vision was trained for the Truth!
Soul and Body, to-day and to-morrow released from the ghosts of the past—
That, washed clear with the tears of my manhood, song-bright with the poems of my youth,
225
Yea! the silence of time and its changes have left not a God that was mine,
Yea! my fashions of faith have been faithless, yea! my heart has been drained of its wine,
Yea! the lips of my women have withered, and for gold I have minted my blood,
But at least I have learned thro' the ages all the lies of the world and of God!
Yea! my fashions of faith have been faithless, yea! my heart has been drained of its wine,
Yea! the lips of my women have withered, and for gold I have minted my blood,
But at least I have learned thro' the ages all the lies of the world and of God!
From the Syrian glades where the perfect, pale woman grew mortal for love,
From the vortex of chaos with darkness shed under and round and above,
In the depths of the twilight of Asia, in the myriad ways I have trod,
I have tried all the fashions of living and served all the phases of God.
From the vortex of chaos with darkness shed under and round and above,
In the depths of the twilight of Asia, in the myriad ways I have trod,
I have tried all the fashions of living and served all the phases of God.
I have merged in the spirit of Brahma, I have prayed by the stream and the tree,
I have seen how She rose as a portent from the bitter, blue ways of the sea,
In the name of the wise Galilean, by the sign of a merciful God,
I have plundered, enslaved, and smeared over the sin with the silence of blood.
I have seen how She rose as a portent from the bitter, blue ways of the sea,
In the name of the wise Galilean, by the sign of a merciful God,
226
My blood from the altars of Ishtar has flowed to the foot of the Cross,
It has dripped from the dewlaps of Seket and Venus has laughed at my loss,
I have burned in the gardens of Nero, I have died in the circus at Rome,
And the wine of God's mercy I prayed for was meagre and bitter as foam.
It has dripped from the dewlaps of Seket and Venus has laughed at my loss,
I have burned in the gardens of Nero, I have died in the circus at Rome,
And the wine of God's mercy I prayed for was meagre and bitter as foam.
I have served all the alien masters still-born from my folly and fears,
I have laughed till I wept in derision, I have wept till I laughed at my tears,
And I cry, “Thro' the range of creation and time I have tested the whole,—
Then come out with me to the New Gods, the Great Gods, Body and Soul!
I have laughed till I wept in derision, I have wept till I laughed at my tears,
And I cry, “Thro' the range of creation and time I have tested the whole,—
Then come out with me to the New Gods, the Great Gods, Body and Soul!
“To the Gods who are sure and sufficient, who are free and more fatal than Fate,
Who can tally the love of a virgin or the heart of a man in his hate,
Who are wise with a perfect remembrance, who reject not a creed nor a crime,
Who compassionate all, who interpret the ways and the wonders of Time!
Who can tally the love of a virgin or the heart of a man in his hate,
Who are wise with a perfect remembrance, who reject not a creed nor a crime,
227
“Who have builded and broken all laws of the Heaven and Earth, who are free,
Who have lifted the seals from the sunrise, made pregnant the womb of the sea,
Who have scattered the phantoms of heaven, wrecked the thrones of the world and their spell,
Who have sown and reaped harvest of flowers in the fire-waste deserts of hell!
Who have lifted the seals from the sunrise, made pregnant the womb of the sea,
Who have scattered the phantoms of heaven, wrecked the thrones of the world and their spell,
Who have sown and reaped harvest of flowers in the fire-waste deserts of hell!
“For my God is the friend that I cherish, and my God is the woman I love,
My God is the Spring on the hillsides, the Sea and the marvel thereof,
My God is the justice of sunlight unhindered by power or pelf,
And vast beyond all and inclusive of all things, my God is Myself!”
My God is the Spring on the hillsides, the Sea and the marvel thereof,
My God is the justice of sunlight unhindered by power or pelf,
And vast beyond all and inclusive of all things, my God is Myself!”
| Poems and dramas of George Cabot Lodge | |