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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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7

PEACE AND WAR.

A large moon fired the drowsy east, and by the sad strange light she shed,
In meadowed sweep, in stony pass, you saw the land was dark with dead.
Aloof there loomed one solemn hill, and here a stately spirit stood—
An awful shape that stooped to wipe a massive sword that dript with blood.
So stooping, then, the spirit heard a sound of murmuring, mild and low:
“At last thy red reign hath an end; wipe thou thy bloody blade and go!”
And now the spirit rose to turn his cold contemptuous eyes on one
With whose white brow it was as when the morning sea first feels the sun.
8

And front to front as gods they stand, both silent for a fleeting while,
War with his harsh hard reckless face, and peace with her benignant smile.
War curls his dark lip in a sneer, sheathes his great sword, and answers then:
“I go, yet who shall say I go, while hate is hate,.. while men are men?”
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