Anne Evans: Poems and Music With Memorial Preface by Anne Thackeray Ritchie |
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FRAGMENTS. |
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
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 | Anne Evans: Poems and Music |  |
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FRAGMENTS.
I.
[Up sprang the merry grasshoppers]
Up sprang the merry grasshoppers
Around her very feet;
A charm of many little wings
O'erspread the herbage sweet.
Around her very feet;
A charm of many little wings
O'erspread the herbage sweet.
And from their city in the earth
To sunny thyme and heather.
The little conies in their mirth
Were come to play together.
To sunny thyme and heather.
The little conies in their mirth
Were come to play together.
The cuckoo's note came floating by,
To greet the sad new-comer;
But she stood frozen through and through,
Against the glee of summer.
To greet the sad new-comer;
But she stood frozen through and through,
Against the glee of summer.
“I have not happiness enow
To keep me warm,” said she;
“What should I do with all the days
That may remain to me?”
To keep me warm,” said she;
“What should I do with all the days
That may remain to me?”
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II.
[Alone along the garden walk]
Alone along the garden walk
The lady paces to and fro:
Beside her in their lovely prime
Rich-hearted summer roses blow.
The lady paces to and fro:
Beside her in their lovely prime
Rich-hearted summer roses blow.
Sweet songs above her swell and blend,
Far floating in the joyous blue:
Around her all is festival
Of sound, and scent, and form, and hue.
Far floating in the joyous blue:
Around her all is festival
Of sound, and scent, and form, and hue.
She hears the songs without a smile:
She greets the roses with a tear:
Her soul aches with a golden weight,
In this high lifetime of the year.
She greets the roses with a tear:
Her soul aches with a golden weight,
In this high lifetime of the year.
Within her all is one dumb cry:
“Let me too live, before I die!”
“Let me too live, before I die!”
III.
[The rains came down so heavily]
The rains came down so heavily
They swept the very earth away,
Whereon the little flowers grew
That made her poor home gay.
They swept the very earth away,
Whereon the little flowers grew
That made her poor home gay.
They swept away the earth, and left
The rock below all bare and cold:
She fell down weeping thereupon,
And saw it bright with gold!
The rock below all bare and cold:
She fell down weeping thereupon,
And saw it bright with gold!
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IV.
[The summer sward is somewhat hard]
The summer sward is somewhat hardMethinks as here I lie;
Yet here I stay, because I love
To look into the sky,
To place behind me for a while
The world and all its ill,
And gaze into the space of space,
How pure, and O, how still!
V.
[You'll say, perhaps, that a cup of hot tea]
You'll say, perhaps, that a cup of hot teaTaken, sans souci,
In a cheerful, curtained room,
With chattering friends around,
Is pleasanter far
Than blackberries are,
Devoured in the gloom
Of a hermit's cell,
Without any carpet, but only the ground.
Ah, well!
You mayn't like his lodging and diet,
But think of his quiet!
VI.
[In broidered cloak he passes to and fro]
In broidered cloak he passes to and fro:He hears the people say,
“'Tis well to go so gay:
This bravery above doth only show
How festal-rich the doublet is below!”
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The cloak is blown away,
And there he stands in threadbare weeds of woe!
VII.
[Lose not the hopeful moments, thou whose eye]
Lose not the hopeful moments, thou whose eye,
By love and thought through many a grief refined,
Can trace disquiet in the trifler's mind,
Even through the looks that pity would defy;
By love and thought through many a grief refined,
Can trace disquiet in the trifler's mind,
Even through the looks that pity would defy;
But touch thou tenderly the little store
Of mean and frail to which his spirit clings:
So may'st thou win him to accept the more
From thine own treasury of better things.
Of mean and frail to which his spirit clings:
So may'st thou win him to accept the more
From thine own treasury of better things.
| Anne Evans: Poems and Music | |