The Poetical Works of John Payne Definitive Edition in Two Volumes |
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EVENSONG. |
 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
EVENSONG.
ONE by one,
The pale years pass;
One by one, in being's glass
Drop the sands of time, unheeded,
Till the appointed term be run.
Faith hath fallen sere, unseeded;
Love is left to waste, unweeded:
What's to do with Life's unneeded
Moon and sun?
The pale years pass;
One by one, in being's glass
Drop the sands of time, unheeded,
355
Faith hath fallen sere, unseeded;
Love is left to waste, unweeded:
What's to do with Life's unneeded
Moon and sun?
Were but life
To live again,
Sure, we fable, we were fain
Follow it on other fashion
Than the old of thrall and strife;
With more reason and less passion
It for the long road we'd ration,
Less contention, more compassion,
Ruth more rife.
To live again,
Sure, we fable, we were fain
Follow it on other fashion
Than the old of thrall and strife;
With more reason and less passion
It for the long road we'd ration,
Less contention, more compassion,
Ruth more rife.
Good of gain
Should take the place;
Gentleness should go with grace
Hand in hand in our new being,
Were our lives to live again:
Faith from fears should serve for freeing,
Ears for hearing, eyes for seeing,
Hands for holding, feet for fleeing
Peace and pain.
Should take the place;
Gentleness should go with grace
Hand in hand in our new being,
Were our lives to live again:
Faith from fears should serve for freeing,
Ears for hearing, eyes for seeing,
Hands for holding, feet for fleeing
Peace and pain.
All above,
In this our new
Life, contentment we'd ensue,
All the world to hope embolden
With the lodestar of our love;
Cause a-brood to be beholden
O'er the world-all Peace, the olden
Eyes of light and pinions golden
Heaven's dove.
In this our new
Life, contentment we'd ensue,
All the world to hope embolden
With the lodestar of our love;
Cause a-brood to be beholden
O'er the world-all Peace, the olden
Eyes of light and pinions golden
Heaven's dove.
356
All the hours
Of life we'd fill
With the wonders of our will;
Earth, with glories new, should, gleaming,
Bring to birth new fruits and flowers:
Certitude we'd win for seeming,
Faith fulfilled for doubt and deeming,
Wake to life and love this dreaming
World of ours.
Of life we'd fill
With the wonders of our will;
Earth, with glories new, should, gleaming,
Bring to birth new fruits and flowers:
Certitude we'd win for seeming,
Faith fulfilled for doubt and deeming,
Wake to life and love this dreaming
World of ours.
Darling dreams,
Before the day
That must pale and pass away,
Flowers of fancy never blowing
But by Paradisal streams,
Grains that germ from no man's sowing,
Will ye evermore be showing
Us, with glories new still glowing,
What but seems?
Before the day
That must pale and pass away,
Flowers of fancy never blowing
But by Paradisal streams,
Grains that germ from no man's sowing,
Will ye evermore be showing
Us, with glories new still glowing,
What but seems?
Yet ye fill
Our straining eyes
With your dreams of brighter skies,
From Life's bald and barren stubble
Golden cornfields conjure still,
With the world-illusion's bubble
Fool us yet, lest, toil and trouble
Tired, we turn and burst Life's double
Web of Will.
Our straining eyes
With your dreams of brighter skies,
From Life's bald and barren stubble
Golden cornfields conjure still,
With the world-illusion's bubble
Fool us yet, lest, toil and trouble
Tired, we turn and burst Life's double
Web of Will.
Yet repine
Thou not, sad soul,
If the golden glittering goal
Never, from the mists unweaving,
On thy ravished vision shine.
Better gladsomeness than grieving,
Better than misdoubt believing
And deception than deceiving
Is, in fine.
Thou not, sad soul,
If the golden glittering goal
Never, from the mists unweaving,
On thy ravished vision shine.
Better gladsomeness than grieving,
Better than misdoubt believing
And deception than deceiving
Is, in fine.
357
Think not shame
For thy defeat:
Were thy visions vain, though sweet,
But the noble thus mistaken
Were, since life to light first came.
Hold thy heart in hope unshaken:
Hapless those who, faith-forsaken,
Find their dreams, when they awaken,
But a name!
For thy defeat:
Were thy visions vain, though sweet,
But the noble thus mistaken
Were, since life to light first came.
Hold thy heart in hope unshaken:
Hapless those who, faith-forsaken,
Find their dreams, when they awaken,
But a name!
Have no dole
For thy dead dream.
Though thou sawst what did but seem,
There shall flower from thy failing
Hope for many a hapless soul;
Solacement to still his wailing,
Confidence to quell his quailing,
Faith to hold his heart availing
White and whole.
For thy dead dream.
Though thou sawst what did but seem,
There shall flower from thy failing
Hope for many a hapless soul;
Solacement to still his wailing,
Confidence to quell his quailing,
Faith to hold his heart availing
White and whole.
One by one,
The days fill up,
Drop by drop, the Future's cup.
Hold thy hopes of right unrended
By the lapse of moon and sun;
Like the sentinel, watch ended,
Conscience clear, approof-attended,
Pass to rest, work wrought, way wended,
Duty done.
The days fill up,
Drop by drop, the Future's cup.
Hold thy hopes of right unrended
By the lapse of moon and sun;
Like the sentinel, watch ended,
Conscience clear, approof-attended,
Pass to rest, work wrought, way wended,
Duty done.
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |