 | Forest Songs and Other Poems |  |
61
SONG-TIDE.
63
SONG-TIDE.
1
Sometimes when long, long frozen,My heart's all bleak and drear,
Some tiniest thing that grows in
Its meadows forth will peer.
2
Out of the frost-bound clay there,It peeps, I know not how;
And soon all turns to May there,
Green buds on every bough.
3
Then flowers that have slept long time,Spring fragrant from the mould,
And then begins my song-time,
My heart's new Age of Gold.
64
4
From far-off countries shylyOld songs fly back once more,
And soon new young ones slyly
Come twittering by the score.
5
Once lazily I'd watch themFly off and disappear,
But now I fain would catch them
To sing beside thine ear.
65
THE DEAD NUPTIAL.
It was a nuptial of the dead,Hope was a corse when she was wed,
Her loathèd bridegroom was Decay,
And Sorrow gave the bride away;
And the wedding-priest was Care,
And the bride-bed's fruit, Despair.
66
THE BLACK KNIGHT.
1
A beaten and a baffled man,My life drags lamely day by day,
Too young to die, too old to plan,
In failure grey.
2
The knights ride east, the knights ride west,For ladyes' tokens blithe of cheer,
Each bound upon some gallant quest;
While I rust here.
67
SONG.
[Chill November's sullen breath]
1
Chill November's sullen breathWraps the torpid heavens in cloud,
All the woods lie still in death,
With the brooding mist for shroud.
2
Winter now no more in scornDay by day the world reprieves,
And the frail flowers latest born
Moulder with the mouldering leaves.
3
All things sink to gloomy rest,Cold the fallow sleeps in gloom,
Cold my heart lies in my breast,
Like a corpse within the tomb.
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4
But when spring bids flower and birdWake with joy, in winter's bane,
Then may Love with magic word
Raise my heart to life again.
69
RECONCILIATION.
1
Dare not to tell me I have lost thee,Thy heart will give thy tongue the lie;
The hopes thou hast wrecked, the tears I've cost thee,
Like wailing ghosts against thee cry.
2
Mine, mine thou art—our spirits mingledEagerly once as fire and air,
Fated for aye to live unsingled,
Or pine apart in pale despair.
3
Dare not to tell me thou hast found meFor thy great dreams too mean a thing;
Thy faith that saved, thy love that crowned me,
Will plead for their anointed king.
70
4
Kiss me once more! Thy sin's forgiven;Forgive me mine. Oh, never more
May we two sulk, so long unshriven,
While weeping Love holds wide the door!
71
GHOSTS.
1
Now the world of day is dead,And the faces that I dread
Crowd around my sleepless bed,
From the grey, sepulchral past,
With some nameless woe aghast—
Faces of the wistful dead.
2
Pale, companionless, they crowd,Each, with lonely eyes not proud,
Sewn into his lonely shroud!
Oh, ye dead, do ye deplore
On some loveless, Stygian shore,
Love's wan gleam to earth allowed?
72
3
Could I learn your wants to knowAs I knew them long ago,
Then ye would not fright me so;
But your looks are wan and strange,
As though some Stygian wind of change
Through your withering hearts did blow.
73
SONG.
[As drooping fern for dewdrops]
1
As drooping fern for dewdrops,For flowers the bee,
Wave-weary birds for woodlands,
Long I for thee.
2
As rivers seek the ocean,Tired things their nest,
As storm-worn ships their haven,
Seek I thy breast.
74
NOCTURNE.
1
Into the night, the odorous summer night,I wander, driven of Love, whose breath of joy
Suffuses all the radiance of the sky
And dimness of the earth like slumber now.
2
O summer night, O scented summer night!Where walks my Love—through what deep dells of peace?
Fill her with the rich ache of my desire,
Sandal her feet with speed to come to me.
3
The golden summer dusk broods in the boughs,Between the starlight pale and glimmering lake;
The night's heart throbs, and with it throbs my own,
Through the wild-throbbing throat of nightingales.
75
4
O summer night, O blissful summer night,Who feedest with thy love the heavenly flocks,
Kiss my fair Love, and feed her with my life,
Tell her my arms with thine are round her thrown!
76
AN AUTUMN LOVE SONG.
1
The frail flowers are dying,The thistledown flying,
Summer is past!
The first leaves that wither
Roam hither and thither
With the treacherous blast;
And away to dark ruin he will ravish at last
Their green mates from the bough,
Where they sigh and tremble now.
2
The surges are shattered,The tough ragweed tattered
By the gusts of the gale;
77
And round the green island,
A wanderer pale,
Strays the sunshine; the moor seethes with whispers of wail,
As its reed-grasses shake,
And serely shudders the brake.
3
The leaves and the surgesMay chaunt their wild dirges,
The pale flowers pine;
My heart at their voices
More hugely rejoices;
One draught of Love's wine
Unwinters the earth—thou art mine, thou art mine!
Let the wind have its will,
And rave: I glow in its chill!
4
Thy kisses, warm-clinging,My heart have set singing;
Autumn's at bay!
78
My yew-cloistered garden—
I'll pluck it to-day,
And bid it go die in thy bosom, and say
With its passionate breath:
“Love greets thee—victor o'er death!”
79
A PHANTASY.
1
A little moth, and a star fading in heaven!Happy were the days that I spent with thee, Father of waters!
Happy were the days in the sumach-grove by the sea,
When thou and I were comrades, Father of waters!
2
Something beyond a hope from the opening eye of the East,Something deeper than joy from the bosom of all things fair
Came to me then; and yet I saw in the kindling sky
Only a little moth, and a star fading from heaven.
80
SNAKE-CHARM.
1
Into this dusky bowerOf sylvan quiet,
Where roses and rank vines
Only run riot,
Whence comest thou, dark Shape, at this sweet hour,
Into this lonely bower?
2
“I am the spectral formOf hopes forgotten,
Birth-strangled babes of joy
Left to grow rotten,
Corpses of unborn deeds, devoured still warm
By sloth's corrupting swarm.”
81
3
Welcome, thou dismal guest,Sit down beside me,
Lie by me all night long,
Sting me and chide me.
At dawn I'll gather fruits to lull thy rest,
Thou serpent of the breast!
82
A DIRGE FOR SUMMER.
1
How the leaves fall!The reeds and sere sedges
On the river's brown edges,
Are singing their dirge;
For, as Hermes drives ghosts,
The wild wind through their hosts
Careers with his scourge,
Overmastering them all.
How fast the leaves fall!
2
How the days fail!Here Summer lies dying,
While we dreamed he was flying
From afar to our shore!
83
And sunnier, and stronger,
Shall we ne'er see them more?
Must they dwindle and pale?
Ah! how fast the days fail!
84
A SONG OF NIGHT AND DEATH.
1
Day's delights are manifold,Crowned with each his crown of gold;
But gentle Night brings silver peace,
And healing sleep, and toil's surcease.
Kind Night, fold thy wings
Over all day-weary things!
2
Life may bring us with full handsGlorious gifts from happy lands;
But gentle Death, with drowsy kiss,
Gives us rest from bale and bliss.
Kind Death, on thy breast
May all life-weary things have rest!
85
LONGING.
1
There's tempest in the sky to-night,There's longing in my heart—
O couldst thou feel its passionate glow,
Now, now, where'er thou art!
2
Lonely I walk the lonely road,The sea low moans behind,
O'erhead, through glimmering leaves, my soul
Sighs with the sighing wind.
3
Faint balm from ghost-white meadow-sweet,Wavering the reeds above,
Breathes to my heart how, wert thou here,
I best could speak my love.
86
4
I'd fold thee from the winds away,My arms thy blissful nest,
Reverently, sadly, tenderly,
To kiss thy warm, sweet breast.
87
PARTING.
1
Oh, keep me in thy heart, love,Oh, keep me in thy heart!
For though from thee I part, love,
Deep, deep in mine thou art.
2
Both day and night I love thee,Love me both night and day,
And day and night above thee
Hover Love's wings, I pray!
88
ABSENCE.
1
Dearest, where'er thou art,The birds are singing,
I fold thee to my heart
With arms close-clinging.
2
The changes of Love's yearKeep hearts a-beating,
Partings that bring more near
Make blissful meeting.
89
THE DREAM.
1
There wakes the Dawn, and from her flies my dream,A dream of feverish thoughts and foolish fears
That filled the ear of Sleep with troublous theme,
My heart with anguish, and mine eyes with tears.
2
I dreamed that we had parted for a day,As now; but envious Death's remorseless door
Was shut between us, and a wall of clay
Barred me from sight of thee for evermore.
3
But night is flown, and morn with amber eyesLooks through the clouds, and with her fly my fears;
Upon thy living sleep the sun will rise—
Pure love it is that fills mine eyes with tears.
90
4
Oh, not despair this coming morn foretells,Death dares not blast my blossom to the core!
My love, that gushes warm from life's deep wells,
Bids my heart sing, for we shall meet once more.
91
A MESSAGE.
1
My heart, a cage-bird pining,I bore across the sea;
Now, in glad dawn, soar shining
Its free wings back to thee.
2
My kisses, 'twill not lose themIn flying o'er the foam,
And it will find thy bosom
Surely as doves their home.
92
HOMEWARD.
1
There's sunshine in my heart I trow,My own love, my true love;
For homeward, homeward speed I now—
Feel'st thou my coming too, love?
2
The way that looked but bleak before,My true love, my own love,
Wears blither face than once it wore,
When I had left thee lone, love.
3
The flowers I saw not in the night,My fair love, my sweet love,
Wave, as I pass their greetings bright,
I'll give thee when we meet, love.
93
4
There's not a thing that hath God's grace,My sweet love, my fair love,
But makes me think of thy sweet face,
And love thee more than e'er, love.
94
MEETING.
1
My own love, my true love,I hug thee to my heart!
My love springs ever new, love,
Whether we meet or part.
2
I love thee, sleeping, waking,I love thee, near or far;
But best when we are slaking
Love's thirst, as now we are.
| Forest Songs and Other Poems | |