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Page 1 of 21898 · PDF PAGE 86
Only the window is dark ; only there hangs like a veil Sleep on the chamber and clings. Heard I a woman-fiend wail ? Heard I the sound of a kiss ? Has man been destroyed in the daylight, Man whom the night could not quell ? What angel fled weeping away ? There in the East there extends a white light devouring the grey light, There the sun rises and brings hope with the dawn of the day, Silence hides certainty—surely voices of angels that pray, Surely the sound of delight, and of praise, and unspeakable glory Rings in the wind like a bell, and w…
1898 · PDF PAGE 71
…h that cold flame, Calm and eager purpose yet to reach the goal That high hopes have sternly set before my soul, To know, will, dare for man’s sake if man may, Grasp the secret of the plans that rule the way Of stars and suns, that shape the tiniest blade Of Grass whose frailties ’scape the passing maid, Whose light foot brushes fern and moss ? But Love Comes a thief to men who turn toward things above 61
1898 · PDF PAGE 101
…hrist, It wraps His feet with grey, A perfumed melancholy mist, Tears sacred from the day ; And awe, a holiness, I wist, More sweet than man may say. I bend my head to kiss the brow, Scarred and serene and wide, The bosom and the loin-cloth now And where the blood has dried, The blood whose purple tide doth flow From out the smitten side. The fragrance of his skin begets Desire of holy things ; 91
1898 · PDF PAGE 89
…rk on, strong mind, devise The outer life aright ; Dream, subtle soul, and arise To noblest litanies That pierce the mask of night— In a man work lifts his eyelids, but his dreams lend eyes their light. So dreams and days are wed, And soul and body lie Ambrosial in Love’s bed. See, heaven with stars is spread— So glad of life am I If an angel came to call me I am sure I would not die. 79
1898 · PDF PAGE 22
… INTENDED AS THE PROLOGUE TO A PLAY—AT PRESENT UNFINISHED. An old tower, very loft, on a small and rocky islet. In the highest chamber a man of some forty years, but silver-haired, looks out of the window. Clear starry night, no moon. Chamber furnished with books, alchemic instruments, etc. He gazes some minutes, sighs deeply, but at last speaks. Ph. The world moves not. I gaze upon the abyss, Look down into the black unfathomed vault Of Starland and behold—myself. The sea To give a sense of motion or of sound Washes the wall of this grey tower…
1898 · PDF PAGE 5
… J. L. B. THE vault of purple that I strove To pierce, and find unchanging love, Or some vast countenance above All glory of the soul of man, Baffled my blind aspiring gaze With sunlight’s melancholy rays, And closed with iron hand the ways That sunder space, divide the days with fiery fan. Thine was the forehead mild and grave That shown throughout the azure nave Where Monte Rosa’s silence gave The starry organ’s measured sound. Where for an altar stood the bare Mass of Mont Cervin, towering there And angels dwelt upon the stair, And all the m…
1898 · PDF PAGE 102
Through the dim air a spirit frets His closely-woven wings ; Like love, upon my brow he sets The crown of many kings. (The trembling demons of the sea Before the poet bend ; He greets the angels quietly As one who greets a friend ; He waiteth, passionless, to be A witness of the end.) I chant in low sweet verses still A mystic song of dread, As one imposing all his will Upon the expectant dead ; And lights dip down, and shadows fill The dreams that haunt my head. I sing strange stories of that world No man may ever see ; My lips with strong del…
1898 · PDF PAGE 75
The night’s unquiet psalm That wanders all too trembling up, and quivers as a flower. The wise man opens wide His casement, as a bride Flings her bright arms to meet her spouse home- ward who hasteneth ; He trims his lamp, and brings The books of many kings To spread their holy wings About his head, and sing to him the secret ways of death. His eyes are fixed, he sees Men dimly, like to trees Walking, and guesses they must be the angels of the Lord ; His hand is strong to hold The talent of fine gold, The wand so clean and cold ; His altar has …
1898 · PDF PAGE 83
…scorning Even to fling back the foam shattered before and behind, Save for one window its height rears up unbroken and blind. Here may a man gaze out to the night by the stars of it stricken, Out to the blind black air that the lightning divides and is dumb ; Here, and look back in the tower where pallid shades murmur and quicken, Low laughs leap in the silence, sink to a sigh ere there come, 73
1898 · PDF PAGE 26
Enter Messenger. Mess. My lord, the king’s command ! Ph. I heed it not. See thou disturb not my high meditation. Away ! Voice. With meditations centred in thyself. Mess. Who spoke ? Ph. Speak thou. I obey the king. Mess. My lord, He bids thee to his court, to hold the reins Tight on the fretful horses of the state Whose weary burden makes them slip—nay, fall On the stern hill of war. Thou art appointed Being the wisest man in all the realm, (So spake the king) the second to himself—— Ph. Thy vessel waits ? Mess. For dawn. Ph. Then hasten thee T…
1898 · PDF PAGE 110
…as a lamp extinct With blood-red tinct, Went out. So lonely in mysterious night A wild, strange light Flickers around the sacred head of man, And bids him scan The scroll of heaven, and see if there be not, Black with no blot Of cloud, but golden lettered on the blue That mothers dew, This message of good hope, good trust, good fate And good estate : Work on, hope ever, let your faith be built Of gold ungilt ; Your love exceed the starry vault for height, The heaven for might ; 100
1898 · PDF PAGE 7
Showed me things wonderful, unbound The fetters that beset me round, Opened my waking ear to sound That may not by a man be found, except in sleep. Thy presence was as subtle flame Burning in dawny groves ; thy name Like dew upon the hills became, And all thy mind a star most bright ; And, following with wakeful eyes The strait meridian of the wise, My feet tread under stars and skies ; My spirit soars and seeks and flies, a child of light. Thus eager, may my purpose stand Firm as the faith of honest hand, Nor change like castles built of sand …
1898 · PDF PAGE 38
To reach toward God, and, from His shrine returning, To sing in magic melodies the vast Desires of God towards man—O dreams ! O years Drowned in these bitter tears ! I felt the springs of youth within me leaping, Let loose my pleasure, never guessed that pain Was worth the holding—now, my life is weeping Itself away, those agonies to gain Which are my one last hope, that by some cross Eld may avenge youth’s loss ! Yet still youth burns ! The hours its pleasure wasted Compel their bitter memories to grow sweet ; Like some warm-perfumed poison if…
1898 · PDF PAGE 28
…her silver lustre might rejoice The fiery lover, the sharp nightingale, And those pale mortals whom the day beholds. Asleep, because the many bid them slave From dusk to dawn being poor ; and braided up The loose hair of all trees and flowers, and made Their one white light divide to red and green And violet and the hues innumerable Lesser than these, and gave man hope at last With the invariable law of death Abundant in new life, and having filled The world with music, dost demand of us “ Is my work meaningless ? ” O thou, supreme, Thou, First…
1898 · PDF PAGE 39
Half guide, half tempter toward the stream of error, On whose fresh bosom many a mariner Puts out with silken sail—to find his grave In its voluptuous wave. Here are few rocks whereon a ship hath peril ; No storms may ruffle its insidious stream ; Only, no fish invade its waters sterile, No white-winged birds above it glance and gleam, Only, it hath no shore, no wave, but gloom Wraps it within her womb. No sun is mirrored in its treacherous water, Only the false moon flickers and flits by Like to the bloodless phantom shape of slaughter Laughin…
1898 · PDF PAGE 27
…Hear thou the feeble world, the lame desire, The dubious crying of the pinioned dove, The wordless eloquent emotion That speaks within a man, despite his mind ! Hear, who can pray for naught, unknowing aught Whereof, for what to pray. But hear me, thou ! Hear me, thou God, who fettered the bleak winds Of North and East, and held in silken rein The golden steeds of West and South, who bade The tireless sea respect its narrow bounds, And fixed the mountains, that eternal ice Might be thy chiefest witness, and who wove The myriad atoms of Infinitu…
1898 · PDF PAGE 53
While his lewd visage no man may discern, And baffling darkness hides his terror if I turn. Fighting and falling ever, weariest Even of beating off the tempter’s blows, Struggling in vain to what one hopes the best, A distant river over many snows, On whose green bank the purple iris glows, And the anemone in some wild cleft, And the white violet, and the briar rose, And the blue gentian from the heavens reft— Lo ! ’Twas that golden bank but yester morn I left. O river where we dwelt ! Your summer sward Whereon we lay, two kings of earth and ai…
1898 · PDF PAGE 62
… brow, At the cliff’s edge we stand together now ; The parting of our ways has come at last, Mine is the bitterest journey, as I trow, A man may take, so solitary, so vast, It binds the future now, and stultifies the past. Only the hope that God may reunite Our ways diverging, and make one again The deathless love that burns a beacon bright On the black deeps, the irremeable main, That men must launch on, the exalted plain Of Life. We sever, and our tears are few, Knowing perchance beyond the moment’s pain 52
1898 · PDF PAGE 23
…pointed ways To reach—we know not what ! How meaningless Your bright assemblage and your steady task Of doubtful motion. And the soul of man Grapples in death-pangs with your mystery, And fails to wrestle down the hard embrace That grips the thighs of thought. And so he dies To pass beyond ye—whither ? To find God ? All my life long I have gazed, and dreamed, and thought, Unless my thought itself were but a dream, A little, troubled dream, a dream of death Whence I may wake—ah, where ? In some new world Where Consciousness doth touch the Infini…
1898 · PDF PAGE 60
…ehind, I move Deathlike for dearth and for despair of soul ; At last I drop. From Heaven there comes a Dove Bearing the semblance of the Man I love, And fountains and fresh grass by magic spell Are suddenly around me. And above I hear the voice my visions know so well : “ Well striven all this day against the power of Hell ! ” I know these mercies still diviner grow Each day I strive, but should I sit and rest One hour of dawn, and cry, “ I will not go Another step without more sleep,” that blest Dove flies away, the fountains are repressed, Th…