Feda with Other Poems Chiefly Lyrical. By Rennell Rodd ... With an Etching by Harper Pennington |
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“WHETHER IN DAWN'S GREY GOLD.” |
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 | Feda with Other Poems |  |
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“WHETHER IN DAWN'S GREY GOLD.”
Whether in dawn's grey gold, or in the noon
Serene, or under the red bars
Of sunset, or in nights of cloud-blown moon,
Or in the moonless company of stars;
Serene, or under the red bars
Of sunset, or in nights of cloud-blown moon,
Or in the moonless company of stars;
Whether in winter with the jewelled snows,
Or in the lifting impulse of the spring,
Or when the summer's bridal beauty blows,
Or autumn reddens to the garnering,—
Or in the lifting impulse of the spring,
Or when the summer's bridal beauty blows,
Or autumn reddens to the garnering,—
Oh, silent sequence of eternal laws!
O earth, and sun and moons and stars that range,
I trace the intent and the unknown cause
In all your voiceless eloquence of change:
O earth, and sun and moons and stars that range,
I trace the intent and the unknown cause
In all your voiceless eloquence of change:
How thou sufficest, nature, needest not
The strong man's effort or the weak man's wail,
The thing remembered or the thing forgot,
Secure and only impotent to fail!
The strong man's effort or the weak man's wail,
The thing remembered or the thing forgot,
Secure and only impotent to fail!
O earth, in thee is anything out worn,
Has any loveliness endured to die?
One least good passed that shall not be reborn
To nobler use and more abundantly!
Has any loveliness endured to die?
One least good passed that shall not be reborn
To nobler use and more abundantly!
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And wouldst thou put eternity to test,
Holding the witness of thy one day past!
Look down the aftertime and stand confessed
And wildered with the infinite at last!
Holding the witness of thy one day past!
Look down the aftertime and stand confessed
And wildered with the infinite at last!
Have we not sounded all philosophies
Up to the threshold of the door of death,
To acknowledge only that no knowledge is,
Nor aught to rest on if it be not faith?
Up to the threshold of the door of death,
To acknowledge only that no knowledge is,
Nor aught to rest on if it be not faith?
This is the end of knowledge, long desired,
That night will follow and day-dreams depart;
Lay down thy longings—thou art very tired—
In calm submission on the great world's heart;
That night will follow and day-dreams depart;
Lay down thy longings—thou art very tired—
In calm submission on the great world's heart;
Be trust thy triumph—having learned to mark
The straining upward and the growth of years,
The light returning alway through the dark,
The ample harvest of the ancient tears,
The straining upward and the growth of years,
The light returning alway through the dark,
The ample harvest of the ancient tears,
The Nothing falling to the earth in vain,
The sense that winds around us and above,
A promise breathing in the heart of pain
Conviction and supremacy of Love.
The sense that winds around us and above,
A promise breathing in the heart of pain
Conviction and supremacy of Love.
| Feda with Other Poems | |