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

O moon thou shinest down this London street
With light most sweet:
What doest thou here?
Once did thy clear
Splendour illume a road for Iseult's feet?

II

Shonest thou once glorious o'er the Cornish foam
To lead her home?
Did moonlight fair
Mix with her hair
When through the night with Tristram she did roam?

III

O moon in this, the London of to-day,
With clear soft ray
Thou shinest,—but yet
Dost thou regret
Thy lands and flowers and loves so far away?

IV

For thou wast all unchanged when Jezebel
Bowed 'neath thy spell:
And, long ere she
Shone, white like thee,
Thy light o'er the unpeopled planet fell.

V

Thou hast seen the ages of great endless flowers
In old-world bowers,—
Of ferns now black
Beneath our track;
Thou hast sailed the sailless sea for lone vast hours.

VI

And now thou shinest down this London street
So white and sweet;
And all the din,
Turmoil and sin,
Of our great city thine unmoved eyes meet!

VII

With truth the Greek profound soul saw in thee
The maiden glee
Of Artemis,—
Whose virgin kiss,
Calm, unimpassioned, fell on hill and sea.

VIII

For all our city's travail moves thee not
One breath, one jot!
The city's roar
Shakes thee no more
Than lisp of wind-moved rush in loneliest spot.

IX

What doest thou here O Goddess with those eyes
That thrill the skies?
What doest thou here,
Far from the drear
Lone sea-wastes o'er which thy white sea-bird flies?

X

O pitiless silent lovely soulless moon,
Soft as in June
Thy tender white
Bewitching light
Falls o'er the city,—bright as o'er lagoon!

XI

O heartless Goddess! Are the spirits not dead
Whom thy light led?
And dost thou still
The far skies fill,—
What battle-fields beneath thy gaze have bled!

XII

But thou art changeless,—and as full of joy,
Girl-moon, or boy,
As in the days
When through thy rays
Paris led Helen towards the towers of Troy.