The Poetical Works of George Barlow :: :: University of Virginia Library

Through all life's early hours when sunshine fell
In golden floods across the dawn-bright way,
One spirit held a hundred foes at bay
And ever cried: “I fear not. All is well.”
But soon a thousand of the hosts of hell
Sprang forth, and joined the blood-streaked first array
And sought with serried phalanx to dismay
Yet stormed not that one soul's stern citadel.

Then came the night,—first gay with many a star
Flung like wild jewels o'er heaven's velvet-blue,
Next ever lonelier, as they faded far,
Till pitchy black the gemless dim vault grew:
Still the man fought, though hope's foot followed youth,
Alone in darkness, but alone with truth.

186

SONNET II
THE ROSE

O sacred flower whose marvellous fragrance, blent
With our grey planet's golden-haired first dream,
Added strange magic to the first moon-beam
That watched our world's first lovers' deep content;
O flower, within whose luscious petals pent
Lurks as a prisoner woman's kiss I deem,
Above thy sweet abyss of scent I seem
To linger, as over Eve's lips Adam leant.

Oh may I, when my pale gaze fronts the night
Amid whose blackness blind Death reaps and sows
Groping with bloodless wrists and fingers white,
Take with me to the land that no man knows
Memories of zoneless passion's wild delight
Mixed with thy fragrance, never-dying rose!

187

SONNET III
ONE GODDESS

Ever, through darkness and unmeasured gloom,
When after soft arms' scent and warm embrace
I meet the eyeless mute deliberate face
That waits and threatens where no bounteous bloom
Of summer fills the fields no suns illume,
May I bear with me to the joyless place
Eternal dreams of one white goddess' grace
Whom I have served,—and will serve to the tomb.

For she the queen, when once her lips have smiled,
Forbids the soul she smiles on ever to flee:
She lures him as the flowers' smile lures a child
And sways him with most flowerlike sovereignty;
She who first sprang from wavelets undefiled,
Moulded of rose-bloom and the foam-white sea.

188

SONNET IV
ÉMILE ZOLA

Right glad am I that in this sunless spot
Some call the world, some heaven, some grimmest hell,
One man has left in falsehood's citadel
Ass Custom's foul old shapeless form to rot,
Then pointed out what is, and what is not,
In words that through the centuries still will tell
Till all men own that what is true is well
To speak, to read, without one blank or blot.

Right glad am I that, in this world of lies,
Where rough worth fails and polished fraud succeeds
And brazen-browed imposture fronts the skies
While on right's forehead the fierce thorn-crown bleeds,
One man at least has dared to seek the prize,
Eternal truth beyond all gods and creeds.

189

SONNET V
“O SPIRIT OF TRUTH”

O Spirit of Truth, one with the eternal sea,
The scent of summer flowers, the golden sun,
Remember, now my task is well nigh done,
I fought and suffered for the love of thee!
I spurned the glittering crowns by falsehood won
And watched the rose-wreathed hopes spread wings and flee.
Wilt thou, O Spirit of Truth, not fight for me
Who fought for thee, when champion thou hadst none?

Lift me beyond this ceaseless herd of liars
Into calm meadows by great spirits trod,
Where noble acts are one with high desires:
This world weighs on me like a leaden load:
To thee, to thee alone my soul aspires,
For thine eyes ever watch the eyes of God.

190

SONNET VI
FOR A DREAM

The fiftieth hour has struck!—I know that soon
I part for ever with the strength of youth.
But I part never with the love of truth
Nor with the love of woman, and of June.
I loved the rose at morn, I loved at noon
The rose with heavenlier tints, at close of day
I loved the rose, and till my locks grew grey
Gave all I had to Beauty for a boon.

My song, my toil, my life, my heart I gave:
I worshipped Beauty with a love supreme;
I saw her blue eyes in the summer wave
And kissed her fragrant white limbs in a dream
And, longing ever that sweet dream to save,
Lost for its sake all prizes men esteem.