Flower Pieces and other poems By William Allingham: With two designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
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[On the Longest Day] |
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 | Flower Pieces and other poems |  |
105
[On the Longest Day]
On the Longest Day,
Heav'n was gay,
Roses and sunshine along the way.
I loiter'd and stood,
In listless mood,
With many a sigh,
I knew not why:
Nothing pleasant; nothing good.
Heav'n was gay,
Roses and sunshine along the way.
I loiter'd and stood,
In listless mood,
With many a sigh,
I knew not why:
Nothing pleasant; nothing good.
On the Shortest Day,
Heav'n was gray,
Coldness and mire along the way.
How or where
Had I cast off care?
For light and strong,
With a snatch of song,
I stept through the mud and biting air.
Heav'n was gray,
Coldness and mire along the way.
How or where
Had I cast off care?
For light and strong,
With a snatch of song,
I stept through the mud and biting air.
Moods, that drift,
Or creep and shift,
Or change, not a windy cloud more swift,
No fetter found
To hold you bound,—
Can I dare to go
To the depth below
Whence ye rise, overspreading air and ground?
Or creep and shift,
Or change, not a windy cloud more swift,
No fetter found
To hold you bound,—
Can I dare to go
To the depth below
Whence ye rise, overspreading air and ground?
106
There in the gulf
Of my deep deep self,
Stranger than land of dragon and elf,
Acts and schemes,
Hopes and dreams,
Loves and praises,
Follies, disgraces,
Swarm, and each moment therewith teems.
Of my deep deep self,
Stranger than land of dragon and elf,
Acts and schemes,
Hopes and dreams,
Loves and praises,
Follies, disgraces,
Swarm, and each moment therewith teems.
They rise like breath
Of coming death,—
Of flow'rs that the soul remembereth,—
The Present, whose place
Is a foot-sole space,
Being then as nought.
But the Present hath wrought
All this; and our Will is King, by God's grace.
Of coming death,—
Of flow'rs that the soul remembereth,—
The Present, whose place
Is a foot-sole space,
Being then as nought.
But the Present hath wrought
All this; and our Will is King, by God's grace.
| Flower Pieces and other poems | |