I said to the lily, "There is but one,
With whom she has heart to be gay. When will the dancers leave her alone? She is weary of dance and play." Now half to the setting moon are gone, And half to the rising day; Low on the sand and loud on the stone The last wheel echoes away.
I said to the rose, "The brief night goes In babble and revel and wine. O young lord-lover, what sighs are those, For one that will never be thine? But mine, but mine," so I sware to the
"For ever and ever, mine."
And the soul of the rose went into my blood,
As the music clash'd in the Hall; And long by the garden lake I stood, For I heard your rivulet fall
From the lake to the meadow and on to the wood,
Our wood, that is dearer than all;
From the meadow your walks have left So sweet
That whenever a March-wind sighs He sets the jewel-print of your feet In violets blue as your eyes,
To the woody hollows in which we
And the valleys of Paradise.
The slender acacia would not shake One long milk-bloom on the tree;
The white lake-blossom fell into the lake
As the pimpernel dozed on the lea; But the rose was awake all night for your sake,
Knowing your promise to me; The lilies and roses were all awake,
They sigh'd for the dawn and thee.
Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,
Come hither, the dances are done, In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls, Queen lily and rose in one; [curls, Shine out, little head, sunning over with To the flowers, and be their sun.
There has fallen a splendid tear
From the passion-flower at the gate, She is coming, my dove, my dear; She is coming, my life, my fate. The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;"
And the white rose weeps, "She is late;"
The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;" And the lily whispers, "I wait."
She is coming,my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed; My dust would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead, Would start and tremble under her feet And blossom in purple and red.
SEE what a lovely shell, Small and pure as a pearl, Lying close to my foot, Frail, but a work divine, Made so fairily well
With delicate spire and whorl, How exquisitely minute, A miracle of design!
What is it? a learned man Could give it a clumsy name. Let him name it who can, The beauty would be the same.
The tiny cell is forlorn, Void of the little living will That made it stir on the shore. Did he stand at the diamond door Of his house in a rainbow frill? Did he push, when he was uncurl'd A golden foot or a fairy horn Thro' his dim water-world?
Slight, to be crush'd with a tap Of my finger-nail on the sand, Small, but a work divine, Frail, but of force to withstand, Year upon year, the shock Of cataract seas that snap The three-decker's oaken spine Athwart the ledges of rock, Here on the Breton strand!
Breton, not Briton; here Like a shipwreck'd man on a coast Of ancient fable and fear- Plagued with a flitting to and fro, A disease, a hard mechanic ghost That never came from on high Nor ever arose from below, But only moves with the moving eye, Flying along the land and the main-
Why should it look like Maud? Am I to be overawed
By what I cannot but know Is a juggle born of the brain?
Back from the Breton coast, Sick of a nameless fear, Back to the dark sea-line
Looking, thinking of all I have lost; An old song vexes my ear, But that of Lamech is mine.
For years, a measureless ill, For years, for ever, to part— But she, she would love me still; And as long, O God, as she Have a grain of love for me, So long, no doubt, no doubt, Shall I nurse in my dark heart, However weary, a spark of will Not to be trampled out.
Strange, that the mind, when fraught With a passion so intense One would think that it well Might drown all life in the eye,- That it should, by being so overwrought, Suddenly strike on a sharper sense For a shell, or a flower, little things Which else would have been past by! And now I remember, I, When he lay dying there,
I noticed one of his many rings- For he had many, poor worm thought,
It is his mother's hair.
Who knows if he be dead?
Whether I need have fled?
Am I guilty of blood?
However this may be,
Comfort her, comfort her, all things
When I was wont to meet her In the silent woody places
By the home that gave me birth, We stood tranced in long embraces Mixed with kisses sweeter, sweeter Than anything on earth.
A shadow flits before me, Not thou, but like to thee. Ah, Christ, that it were possible For one short hour to see
The souls we loved, that they might tell
What and where they be!
It leads me forth at evening, It lightly winds and steals In a cold white robe before me, When all my spirit reels
At the shouts, the leagues of lights, And the roaring of the wheels.
Half the night I waste in sighs, Half in dreams I sorrow after The delight of early skies; In a wakeful doze I sorrow For the hand, the lips, the eyes, For the meeting of the morrow, The delight of happy laughter, The delight of low replies.
"T is a morning pure and sweet, And a dewy splendor falls On the little flower that clings To the turrets and the walls; "T is a morning pure and sweet, And the light and shadow fleet.
She is walking in the meadow, And the woodland echo rings; In a moment we shall meet. She is singing in the meadow, And the rivulet at her feet Ripples on in light and shadow To the ballad that she sings.
Get thee hence, nor come again, Mix not memory with doubt, Pass, thou deathlike type of pain, Pass and cease to move about! "T is the blot upon the brain That will show itself without.
Then I rise, the eave-drops fall, And the yellow vapors choke The great city sounding wide; The day comes, a dull red ball Wrapt in drifts of lurid smoke On the misty river-tide.
Thro' the hubbub of the market I steal, a wasted frame;
It crosses here, it crosses there,
Thro' all that crowd confused and loud,
The shadow still the same;
And on my heavy eyelids
My anguish hangs like shame.
Alas for her that met me, That heard me softly call,
Came glimmering thro' the laurels At the quiet evenfall,
In the garden by the turrets Of the old manorial hall!
Would the happy spirit descend From the realms of light and song, In the chamber or the street, As she looks among the blest, Should I fear to greet my friend Or to say "Forgive the wrong," Or to ask her, "Take me, sweet, To the regions of thy rest"?
But the broad light glares and beats, And the shadow flits and fleets And will not let me be;
And I loathe the squares and streets, And the faces that one meets, Hearts with no love for me.
Always I long to creep
Into some still cavern deep, There to weep, and weep, and weep My whole soul out to thee.
O, WELL for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong. For him nor moves the loud world's random mock,
Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound,
Who seems a promontory of rock,
« AnteriorContinuar » |