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Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems)

Fawcett, Edgar (1847-1904)

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[section]
  
THE BARTHOLDI STATUE.
  
EVOLUTION.
  
PEACE AND WAR.
  
A NINETEENTH CENTURY KING.
  
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON.
  
MARRIED BOHEMIANS.
  
A RETROSPECT.
  
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S WIFE.
  
AT A WINDOW.
  
BIRD-LANGUAGE.
  
A CITY ECLOGUE.
  
MEMORIAL VERSES.
  
IN THE YEAR TEN THOUSAND.
  
A SLAYER OF POETS.
  
PAUL AVENEL.
  
THE ASPIRER.
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REVERIES.
 1. 
I.—A Tulip-Bulb.
 2. 
[II. O swan, what memories rarely sweet]
 3. 
III.—In Mid-Ocean.
 4. 
[IV. While the broad night above me broods]
 5. 
V.—A Squirrel.
 6. 
[VI. Dear lavish blossoms that light the Junes]
 8. 
[VIII. Somehow I have lived without you]
 9. 
[IX. I feel the huge dim city round me lie]
 10. 
X.—To a Reformer.
 11. 
XI.—Grass.
  
QUEEN CHRISTINA AND DE LIAR.
  
CAPRICE.
  
SUB ROSÂ.
  
ANACREONTIC.
  
PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE.
  
JACYNTH.
  
AFRICAN BALLAD.
  
A DIALOGUE.
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LYRIC INTERLUDE.
 1. 
[I. You tell me, friend, that seeing how fate has said]
 2. 
II.—A Graveyard.
 3. 
III.—In Poverty.
 4. 
IV.—Low Life.
 5. 
[V. The year was dying, the wind went sighing]
 6. 
VI.—To E. N. C.
 7. 
[VII. The clouded east was fiery-creased where the late moon mounted up]
 8. 
VIII.—A Blackberry Idyl.
 9. 
IX.—Pigeons.
 10. 
X.—A Dead World.
 11. 
XI.—For a Book of Light Rhymes.
 12. 
XII.—Environment.
 13. 
XIII.—Death's Plaint.
 14. 
[XIV. Ho! for Dreamland's happy harbors]
 15. 
XV.—Meteors.
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HOW A QUEEN LOVED.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
 3. 
III.
  
THE TEARS OF TULLIA.
  
THE DYING ACTOR.
  
VICISSITUDE.
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TWO SCENES IN THE LIFE OF BEAU BRUMMELL.
 1. 
I. 1810.
 2. 
II. 1836.
  
THARAK AND THE LION.
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INTERMEZZO.
 1. 
I.—The Wood-Turtle.
 2. 
[II. Above the porch, full in dawn's rosy view]
 3. 
[III. Shadows hung dense on the burnished lake]
 4. 
IV.—Asters and Goldenrods.
 5. 
[V. All day the reapers on the hill]
 6. 
VI.—To a Friend Who Slept Ill.
 7. 
[VII. How long ere the blast that is nipping and bitter]
 8. 
VIII.—Babes in the Wood.
 9. 
IX.—Aquarelle.
 10. 
[X. How sad, in this wide airy glade]
 11. 
XI.—Cradle-Song.
 12. 
[XII. They led the pale Christ through the mouthing throng]
 13. 
[XIII. How marvellously all the deeps of night]
 14. 
XIV.—To a Literary Fop.
 15. 
[XV. Think not that you may calmly tread]
 16. 
[XVI. An old man mused, amid twilight's haze]
 17. 
[XVII. I saw in dreams a system of dead worlds]
  
THE CARISFORT CURSE.
  
AGNOSTIC AND CHRISTIAN.
  
KATE ROMNEY.
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INCONGRUITIES.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
  
THE MILKY WAY.
  
HISTORY.
  
ENNUI.
  
ILLEGITIMACY.
  
THE ICICLE.
  
COURAGE!

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[I. You tell me, friend, that seeing how fate has said]

You tell me, friend, that seeing how fate has said
The vetoing word which bids my footsteps fare
No longer where elysian meadows lie,
'Twere worthier wisdom than to yearn and sigh,
Hereafter with meek earthward-bended head
To walk below the burden I must bear.
And then you promise that in days to be
The love which I in stoic mood resign,
Smitten with self-denial as with a sword,
Shall pass and perish of its own accord—
Shall drop as drops the dead leaf from the tree,
The o'er-luscious cluster from the vine.
Oh, friend, and while your quiet counsel gives
This that you deem sweet comfort to appease,
The inexorable truth you have not guessed!
Learn that the heart within my desolate breast
Shudders to choose between alternatives
Harshly unequal as are these!
Oh, learn that I would count it bitter gain
To have been thus lightened of the bond I wore!
135

For I would rather sorrow long years through
Than lose the right to sorrow as I do!
Rather love on, though love were life-long pain,
Than suffer not, yet love no more!
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