For to make plain that man's disdain Is but new Beauty's birth For to possess in merriness The joy of all the earth. As Thou didst teach all lovers speech And Life all mystery, So shalt Thou rule by every school Till life and longing die, Who wast or yet the Lights were set, A whisper in the Void, Who shalt be sung through planets young When this is clean destroyed. Beyond the bounds our staring rounds, Across the pressing dark, The children wise of outer skies Look hitherward and mark A light that shifts, a glare that drifts, Rekindling thus and thus, Not all forlorn, for Thou hast borne Strange tales to them of us. Time hath no tide but must abide The servant of Thy will; Tide hath no time, for to Thy rhyme The ranging stars stand still Regent of spheres that lock our fears Our hopes invisible, Oh 't was certes at Thy decrees We fashioned Heaven and Hell! Pure Wisdom hath no certain path That lacks thy morning-eyne, And captains bold by Thee controlled Most like to Gods design. Thou art the Voice to kingly boys To lift them through the fight, And Comfortress of Unsuccess, To give the Dead good-night. A veil to draw 'twixt God His Law And Man's infirmity, A shadow kind to dumb and blind The shambles where we die; A rule to trick th' arithmetic, Too base, of leaguing odds The spur of trust, the curb of lust, Thou handmaid of the Gods! O Charity, all patiently Abiding wrack and scaith! O Faith, that meets ten thousand cheats Yet drops no jot of faith! Devil and brute Thou dost transmute To higher, lordlier show, Who art in sooth that lovely Truth The careless angels know! Thy face is far from this our war, Our call and counter-cry, I may not find Thee quick and kind, Nor know Thee till I die. Yet may I look with heart unshook On blow brought home or missedYet may I hear with equal ear The clarions down the List; Yet set my lance above mischance And ride the barriere Oh, hit or miss, how little 't is, My Lady is not there! SESTINA OF THE TRAMP-ROYAL 1896 SPEAKIN' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all — The 'appy roads that take you o'er the world. What do it matter where or 'ow we die, In cash or credit- no, it aren't no good; But drew your tucker some'ow from the world, But, Gawd, what things are they I 'ave n't done! Therefore, from job to job I've moved along. An' met my mate the wind that tramps the world! It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world, Gawd bless this world! Whatever she 'ath done Excep' when awful long — I've found it good. So write, before I die, "'E liked it all!" 66 I THE MIRACLES 1894 SENT a message to my dear A thousand leagues and more to Her — The dumb sea-levels thrilled to hear, And Lost Atlantis bore to Her! Behind my message hard I came, And nigh had found a grave for me; But that I launched of steel and flame Did war against the wave for me. Uprose the deep, in gale on gale, To bid me change my mind again He broke his teeth along my rail, And, roaring, swung behind again. I stayed the sun at noon to tell Afar, I hailed the land at night The towers I built had heard of me Earth sold her chosen men of strength I snatched their toil to serve my needs And bade them bait a new for me. I sent the Lightnings forth to see And surely all men hated me! Dawn ran to meet me at my goal Ah, day no tongue shall tell again!.. Rose up to buy and sell again! SONG OF THE WISE CHILDREN 1902 WHEN the darkened Fifties dip to the North, And frost and the fog divide the air, And the day is dead at his breaking-forth, Sirs, it is bitter beneath the Bear! |