University of Virginia Library

THE CORN-CRAKE

I

Here let the bliss of summer and her night
Be on my heart as wide and pure as heaven;
Now while o'er earth the tide of young delight
Brims to the full, calm'd by the wizard Seven,
And their high mistress, yon enchanted Moon;
The air is faint, yet fresh as primrose buds,
And dim with weft of honey-colour'd beams,
A bride-robe for the new espousèd June,
Who lies white-limbed among her flowers, nor dreams,
Such a divine content her being floods.

II

Awake, awake! The silence hath a voice;
Not thine, thou heart of fire, palpitating
Until all griefs change countenance and rejoice,
And all joys ache o'er-ripe since thou dost sing,
Not thine this voice of the dry meadow-lands,
Harsh iteration! note untuneable!
Which shears the breathing quiet with a blade
Of ragged edge! Say, wilt thou ne'er be still
Crier in June's high progress, whose commands
Upon no heedless drowzed heart are laid?

III

Nay, cease not till thy breast disquieted
Hath won a term of ease; the dewy grass
Trackless at morn betrays not thy swift tread,
And through smooth-closing air thy call-notes pass,
To faint on yon soft-bosom'd pastoral steep
Thee bird the Night accepts; and I, through thee,
Reach to embalmèd hearts of summers dead,
Feel round my feet old, inland meadows deep,
And bow o'er flowers that not a leaf have shed,
Nor once have heard moan of an alien sea.

IV

Even while I muse thy halting-place doth shift,
Now nearer, now more distant—I have seen
When April, through her shining hair adrift,
Gleams a farewell, and elms are fledged with green,
The voiceful, wandering envoy of the Spring;
Thee, never; though the mower's scythe hath dashed
Thy nest aside, but thou hast sped askant,
Viewless; then last we lose thee, and thy wing
Brushes Nilotic maize and thou dost chaunt
Haply all night to stony ears of Pasht.

V

Ah, now an end to thy inveterate tale!
The silence melts from the mid spheres of heaven;
Enough! before this peace has time to fail
From out my soul, or yon white cloud has driven
Up the moon's path I turn, and I will rest
Once more with summer in my heart. Farewell!
Shut are the wild-rose cups; no moth's awhirr;
My room will be moon-silvered from the west
For one more hour; thy note shall be a burr
To tease out thought and catch the slumbrous spell.