The Collected Poems of Philip Bourke Marston

Day after day — as wave on wave — goes by,
And still I sail the old familiar seas,
Like him of old who never might find ease,
Or rest, 'twixt barren sea and barren sky,
Till she were come whose love would not deny
Her very life to compass his release:—
O Captain of pale spectral companies,
Kinship of sorrow knits us, thou and I!

On shore — in every seven years — three days
Thou hadst to seek her who might not be found;
As still I find Her not, whose love had crowned
Even Love himself anew. Sail on, sad ghost;
But I, past reefs and straits and roaring bays,
Shall anchor, some day, on a still, dark coast.

392

LOVE REFT OF HOPE.

As one whom Hope hath failed, Love walks alone,—
No more on festivals his godhead shines;
Nor bides he where lamps burn before his shrines;
But in gray twilights by chill breezes blown,
Where waters sob, and hapless voices moan,
He strays, and with their wail his voice combines:
His voice, now sad as sound of wind through pines,
That once with triumphing music called his own.

See how the wreath has faded round his head,—
His weary head, that droops upon his breast;
His thorn-pierced feet are weak, yet may not rest.
Ah, dig beneath the willow-tree his bed:
His one dear Hope being slain, were it not best
He should himself with that lost Hope lie dead?

CONSOLATION.

I front the Present with the Past, and say:
“Which reckons more, the anguish or the bliss;
The joy that was, or agony that is;
The path I trod when life was glad with May,
Or this gray sky, and lone, unlovely way;
The deep delight of many a long, close kiss,
The pressure of warm, clinging arms, or this
Fierce fire of thirst, that wastes me night and day?”

I think of thee, lost Love, and testify
The present pain cheap price for the dear past:
Though Fate through life all comfort should deny,
And after death my loneliness still last,
'T is better to have held thee once so fast,
Than die without thy love, as others die.

393

UNDESCRIED.

When from her far New World she sailed away,
Right out into the sea-winds and the sea,
Did no foreshadowing of good to be
Surprise my heart? That memorable day
Did I, unwitting, rise, think, do, and say,
As on a day of no import to me?
Did Hope awake no least low melody,—
Send forth no sign my wandering steps to stay?

Oh, could our souls catch music of far things
From some lone height of being undescried,
Then had I heard the song the sea-wind sings
The waves; and through the stress of storm and tide,
As soft as sleep, and pure as lonely springs,
Her voice, wherein all sweetnesses abide.

LOVE'S SUNSET.

Behold, the glory of the day is done!
Now lies she dying 'mid her fading flowers,
While twilight winds moan through her desolate bowers.
The sky is gray, forsaken of the sun,—
I muse upon this day whose course is run:
What rose-hued splendor bathed her morning hours;
What golden glory crowned her noontide towers,
Fallen, now, in widespread ruin, every one!

Yet on the ruin a placid moon shall rise,
And winds be hushed, and steadfast stars appear:
Thus now at Love's sad sunset pale with fear,
Let moon and stars of Friendship light our skies;
So can we wait, the night through, for the cheer
Of some new world, and a new day's surprise.

394

COULD THIS THING BE?

Could she come in to-night, from her far place,
And sit beside me in the firelight here,
And all be as it was that other year,
When love made fair and fragrant all our ways
With such rare flowers as hearts may fitly praise,
Before the day that brought our heavy cheer,
And overthrew all that we held most dear,
Whereof the memory only now dismays,—

Could this thing be, how should the dreary room
Where now I dwell with Sorrow, my pale mate,
Like some sweet sudden rose burst into bloom,
And the heart's music grow articulate,
And joy-bells ring, and the loud cannon boom,
As when a queen sweeps through her realm in state!

FALLEN LOVE.

If Love has fallen into disrepute,
And they who fought for him now conquered bleed,
And they who once believed forswear his creed,
And spurn his shrine with sacrilegious foot,
Fell his fair tree and trample on the fruit,—
What joy is left? What glory for our meed?
Where shall we turn for comfort in our need?
What voice shall answer when Love's voice is mute?

Whose mocking cry is this that rends the night,
And shouts, “Rejoice that conquering Love is dead;
Dethroned, defamed, cast out of all men's sight,—
Now is the time for rapture and delight!
Come one, come all! where Pleasure's feast is spread:
Since Love is dead, and Pain is put to flight!”

395

REMEMBERED GRIEF.

Like some persistent ghost Grief's memory broods,
An awful Presence in his lonely room;
Sometimes it swathes him in tremendous gloom,
Then scourges him to Frenzy's maddest moods:
It bides by him in country solitudes;
It shouts through cities with the voice of doom;
At night beside his bed he sees it loom,
A mocking Fiend no subterfuge eludes.

The Grief itself has passed; and fair things hide
Its grave, — where grasses grow and wild flowers spring.
And soft winds come and go, and glad birds sing,—
But its stern shadow fareth at his side,
With pitiless eyes and wan lips whispering:
“Lo! I am with thee still, although I died.”

SHIPWRECK.

The night is dense; the waves climb wild and high;
Our ship drives on, to shipwreck speeding fast.
How could it stand before these waves, this blast
That whirls between white billows and black sky?
Comrades, the end is near, and we must die!
No beacon light upon our way is cast;
We cannot see rude rocks and quicksands vast;
Though well we know the snares that wait near by.

When will it suck us in, that fatal sand;
Or the rock rend us through the boiling wave?
Alas, man cannot, and God will not save;—
Yet if strong Love but took the helm in hand,
Then not for us the wide sea's clamorous grave,
But sudden summer, in some fair, far land.

396

DREAMS.

I.

Come to me in a dream, O Love of mine!
Come to me, Sweetest, from thy far-off place,—
Stand close and lean above me thy fair face:
Within my fingers let thy fingers twine,
And kiss mine eye-lids till they quiver and shine
With passionate joy, and all sleep's mystic ways
Are lighted with the bright propitious rays
That beam from Love's own moon, — Love's star divine.

O Love, for God's love, and for love of love,
Send forth thy soul across the weary way,
And find me, where through sleep I blindly rove,
Seeking my buried treasure, — ah, but stay
Here at my side till I have felt again
The jubilant blood exult in every vein!

II.

Sometimes I seem to find thee in my dreams,—
I do not hear thy voice; nor do I see
Thy face; but, Sweet, I feel all silently
Thy Presence watch my sleep. Sometimes it seems
I catch from far the shining of Love's streams,
Or hear once more his blithe, dear minstrelsy;
But when I would draw near those streams and thee,
They mock my sight with their elusive gleams:

And then my spirit, baffled in desire,
Possesses only the blind realm of Sleep,
And wakes to face the hours that wound and tire,
Wherein no more the happy pulses leap,—
To see the hostile years rise, steep on steep,
While from no height shines forth Love's answering fires.

397

CITY BELLS.

Kneeling by her who is my Heaven, I heard
The clamoring chimes of city churches fill
The mid-May evening, warm and deadly still.
My soul recoiled within me, and recurred
To winter nights, when the black air was stirred
By the same sound, — when she whose perfect will
Is my heart's law, whose touch my soul can thrill,
Was far away, past reach of kiss or word.

So will they sound again, O God, when she
Is far, once more, Black Winter in her stead;
So shall they sound again in Jubilee,
When in some new-born spring our lips are wed;
So shall they sound, through days and nights to be,
When we, at last, our last farewell have said.

PARTING WITH SUMMER.

On Dover Beach. — August 31.

As friends who part, and know not if again
They ever shall take hands, so this still day,
By this still sea, I and the summer say
Our long farewell. The air is soft with rain,
Tender with trouble of this parting pain;
And sea and sky are of one pensive gray.
The small waves seem to sigh about the Bay,
As if they feared what the stern Fates ordain.

Autumn will mock us for a little space
With Summer's semblance; but too well we know
That hectic flush which burns while life decays:
Oh, better the wild Winter winds that blow
The sea-foam, like tumultuous banks of snow,
And in our hearts Summer's remembered grace!

398

AT END OF LOVE.

As one who dying in some alien place—
Some Northern Land no lavish sun makes bright—
Dreams, in the silent watches of the night,
How once it fared with him by other ways,
Through large blue eves and deep, warm, Southern days,
And seems once more to see things out of sight,
To hear old sounds that bring back old delight,
Yet knows, above them all, what words Death says:

So now, at end of Love, I ponder still
On all Love's glory, which was once mine own,
And sweet elusive visions come to fill
My dreams with beauty; and a long lost tone
Thrills through the dark: but in the dawning chill
I shuddering wake, to know I am alone.

A FALLEN CITY.

Gazing upon some city wrecked by war,
The stranger, standing in its desolate square,
O'er which broods low the stagnant autumn air,
Marvels at thought that here was once the jar
Of clashing weapons, while from near and far
The death-fires blazed, and in their lurid glare
Gleamed awful faces: women shuddered there,
And raised frail hands their awful doom to bar.

Here, too, he ponders, was mirth once and song,
And glad feet danced, and eyes with joy were bright:
So in my heart was music sweet and strong,
In long-gone days, and festival and light;
Then strife and clamor; now darkness and the throng
Of grieving ghosts that haunt the ruins by night.

399

ON HEARING OLE BULL IMPROVISE ON THE VIOLIN.

What note is this of infinite appeal
That wakes beneath thy hand's inspired control?
Is it a prayer from man's most secret soul
To those dim gods Death only can reveal,—
Whose hands we know can wound, yet hope may heal?
Hark! — for between the prayer and the prayer's goal,
From far away, where unknown planets roll,
Surely I hear — or do I subtly feel—

Down all the deep, untravelled, star-watched way,
Faint as the wind at dawn of a June day,
Steal some divine response? Ah, yes! 't is here,
And prayer is turned to passionate triumphing,
And in thy music's moon-thrilled atmosphere
My soul drinks deep from some immortal spring.

DURING BATTLE.

Let there be martial music loud and strong,
And shock and clamor of bells, and everywhere
A sudden flame of banners on the air:
Yea, let the people chant a mighty song,
And to the gate-ways of the city throng!
In old and solemn churches, stilly fair,
Let there be organ breath, and stress of prayer;
Let there be love of right, and hate of wrong:—

For lo! outside the city rages now
A deadly conflict, between Wrong and Right.
O perfect, peerless, fervent heart, pray thou
That Wrong be done to death, in all men's sight;
For if he fall not, he will triumph, — how
Those only know who have beheld his might.

University of Virginia Library

SONNETS.

SORROW'S KINSHIP.