Primavera Mia

AS kings who see their little life-day pass,

Take off the heavy ermine and the crown,

So had the trees that autumn-time laid down

Their golden garments on the faded grass,

When I, who watched the seasons in the glass

Of mine own thoughts, saw all the autumn's brown

Leap into life and don a sunny gown

Of leafage such as happy April has.

Great spring came singing upward from the south;

For in my heart, far carried on the wind,

Your words like winged seeds took root and grew,

And all the world caught music from your mouth;

I saw the light as one who had been blind,

And knew my sun and song and spring were you.

Soul's Birth

WHEN you were born, beloved, was your soul

New made by God to match your body's flower,

And were they both at one same precious hour

Sent forth from heaven as a perfect whole?

Or had your soul since dim creation burned,

A star in some still region of the sky,

That leaping earthward, left its place on high

And to your little new-born body yearned?

No words can tell in what celestial hour

God made your soul and gave it mortal birth,

Nor in the disarray of all the stars

Is any place so sweet that such a flower

Might linger there until thro' heaven's bars,

It heard God's voice that bade it down to earth.

Love and Death

SHALL we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,

And shall my soul that lies within your hand

Remember nothing, as the blowing sand

Forgets the palm where long blue shadows creep

When winds along the darkened desert sweep?

Or would it still remember, tho' it spanned

A thousand heavens, while the planets fanned

The vacant ether with their voices deep?

Soul of my soul, no word shall be forgot,

Nor yet alone, beloved, shall we see

The desolation of extinguished suns,

Nor fear the void wherethro' our planet runs,

For still together shall we go and not

Fare forth alone to front eternity.

For the Anniversary of John Keats' Death

(February 23, 1821)

AT midnight when the moonlit cypress trees

Have woven round his grave a magic shade,

Still weeping the unfinished hymn he made,

There moves fresh Maia like a morning breeze

Blown over jonquil beds when warm rains cease.

And stooping where her poet's head is laid,

Selene weeps while all the tides are stayed

And swaying seas are darkened into peace.

But they who wake the meadows and the tides

Have hearts too kind to bid him wake from sleep

Who murmurs sometimes when his dreams are deep,

Startling the Quiet Land where he abides,

And charming still, sad-eyed Persephone

With visions of the sunny earth and sea.

Silence

(To Eleonora Duse)

WE are anhungered after solitude,

Deep stillness pure of any speech or sound,

Soft quiet hovering over pools profound,

The silences that on the desert brood,

Above a windless hush of empty seas,

The broad unfurling banners of the dawn,

A faery forest where there sleeps a Faun;

Our souls are fain of solitudes like these.

O woman who divined our weariness,

And set the crown of silence on your art,

>From what undreamed-of depth within your heart

Have you sent forth the hush that makes us free

To hear an instant, high above earth's stress,

The silent music of infinity?

The Return

I TURNED the key and opened wide the door

To enter my deserted room again,

Where thro' the long hot months the dust had lain.

Was it not lonely when across the floor

No step was heard, no sudden song that bore

My whole heart upward with a joyous pain?

Were not the pictures and the volumes fain

To have me with them always as before?

But Giorgione's Venus did not deign

To lift her lids, nor did the subtle smile

Of Mona Lisa deepen. Madeleine

Still wept against the glory of her hair,

Nor did the lovers part their lips the while,

But kissed unheeding that I watched them there.

Fear

I AM afraid, oh I am so afraid!

The cold black fear is clutching me to-night

As long ago when they would take the light

And leave the little child who would have prayed,

Frozen and sleepless at the thought of death.

My heart that beats too fast will rest too soon;

I shall not know if it be night or noon, --

Yet shall I struggle in the dark for breath?

Will no one fight the Terror for my sake,

The heavy darkness that no dawn will break?

How can they leave me in that dark alone,

Who loved the joy of light and warmth so much,

And thrilled so with the sense of sound and touch, --

How can they shut me underneath a stone?

Anadyomene

THE wide, bright temple of the world I found,

And entered from the dizzy infinite

That I might kneel and worship thee in it;

Leaving the singing stars their ceaseless round

Of silver music sound on orbed sound,

For measured spaces where the shrines are lit,

And men with wisdom or with little wit

Implore the gods that mercy may abound.

Ah, Aphrodite, was it not from thee

My summons came across the endless spaces?

Mother of Love, turn not thy face from me

Now that I seek for thee in human faces;

Answer my prayer or set my spirit free

Again to drift along the starry places.

Galahad in the Castle of the Maidens

(To the maiden with the hidden face in Abbey's painting)

THE other maidens raised their eyes to him

Who stumbled in before them when the fight

Had left him victor, with a victor's right.

I think his eyes with quick hot tears grew dim;

He scarcely saw her swaying white and slim,

And trembling slightly, dreaming of his might,

Nor knew he touched her hand, as strangely light

As a wan wraith's beside a river's rim.

The other maidens raised their eyes to see

And only she has hid her face away,

And yet I ween she loved him more than they,

And very fairly fashioned was her face.

Yet for Love's shame and sweet humility,

She dared not meet him with their queenlike grace.

To an Aeolian Harp

THE winds have grown articulate in thee,

And voiced again the wail of ancient woe

That smote upon the winds of long ago:

The cries of Trojan women as they flee,

The quivering moan of pale Andromache,

Now lifted loud with pain and now brought low.

It is the soul of sorrow that we know,

As in a shell the soul of all the sea.

So sometimes in the compass of a song,

Unknown to him who sings, thro' lips that live,

The voiceless dead of long-forgotten lands

Proclaim to us their heaviness and wrong

In sweeping sadness of the winds that give

Thy strings no rest from weariless wild hands.

To Erinna

WAS Time not harsh to you, or was he kind,

O pale Erinna of the perfect lyre,

That he has left no word of singing fire

Whereby you waked the dreaming Lesbian wind,

And kindled night along the lyric shore?

O girl whose lips Erato stooped to kiss,

Do you go sorrowing because of this

In fields where poets sing forevermore?

Or are you glad and is it best to be

A silent music men have never heard,

A dream in all our souls that we may say:

"Her voice had all the rapture of the sea,

And all the clear cool quiver of a bird

Deep in a forest at the break of day"?

To Cleis

"I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower,

Cleis, the beloved."

                              Sapphic fragment.

WHEN the dusk was wet with dew,

Cleis, did the muses nine

Listen in a silent line

While your mother sang to you?

Did they weep or did they smile

When she crooned to still your cries,

She, a muse in human guise,

Who forsook her lyre awhile?

Did you feel her wild heart beat?

Did the warmth of all the sun

Thro' your little body run

When she kissed your hands and feet?

Did your fingers, babywise,

Touch her face and touch her hair,

Did you think your mother fair,

Could you bear her burning eyes?

Are the songs that soothed your fears

Vanished like a vanished flame,

Save the line where shines your name

Starlike down the graying years?

Cleis speaks no word to me,

For the land where she has gone

Lieth mute at dusk and dawn

Like a windless tideless sea.

Paris in Spring

THE city's all a-shining

Beneath a fickle sun,

A gay young wind's a-blowing,

The little shower is done.

But the rain-drops still are clinging

And falling one by one --

Oh it's Paris, it's Paris,

And spring-time has begun.

I know the Bois is twinkling

In a sort of hazy sheen,

And down the Champs the gray old arch

Stands cold and still between.

But the walk is flecked with sunlight

Where the great acacias lean,

Oh it's Paris, it's Paris,

And the leaves are growing green.

The sun's gone in, the sparkle's dead,

There falls a dash of rain,

But who would care when such an air

Comes blowing up the Seine?

And still Ninette sits sewing

Beside her window-pane,

When it's Paris, it's Paris,

And spring-time's come again.

Madeira from the Sea

OUT of the delicate dream of the distance an emerald emerges

Veiled in the violet folds of the air of the sea;

Softly the dream grows awakening -- shimmering white of a city,

Splashes of crimson, the gay bougainvillea, the palms.

High in the infinite blue of its heaven a quiet cloud lingers,

Lost and forgotten of winds that have fallen asleep,

Fallen asleep to the tune of a Portuguese song in a garden.

City Vignettes

     I

Dawn

THE greenish sky glows up in misty reds,

The purple shadows turn to brick and stone,

The dreams wear thin, men turn upon their beds,

And hear the milk-cart jangle by alone.

     II

Dusk

The city's street, a roaring blackened stream

Walled in by granite, thro' whose thousand eyes

A thousand yellow lights begin to gleam,

And over all the pale untroubled skies.

     III

Rain at Night

The street-lamps shine in a yellow line

Down the splashy, gleaming street,

And the rain is heard now loud now blurred

By the tread of homing feet.

By the Sea

BESIDE an ebbing northern sea

While stars awaken one by one,

We walk together, I and he.

He woos me with an easy grace

That proves him only half sincere;

A light smile flickers on his face.

To him love-making is an art,

And as a flutist plays a flute,

So does he play upon his heart

A music varied to his whim.

He has no use for love of mine,

He would not have me answer him.

To hide my eyes within the night

I watch the changeful lighthouse gleam

Alternately with red and white.

My laughter smites upon my ears,

So one who cries and wakes from sleep

Knows not it is himself he hears.

What if my voice should let him know

The mocking words were all a sham,

And lips that laugh could tremble so?

What if I lost the power to lie,

And he should only hear his name

In one low, broken cry?

On the Death of Swinburne

HE trod the earth but yesterday,

And now he treads the stars.

He left us in the April time

He praised so often in his rhyme,

He left the singing and the lyre and went his way.

He drew new music from our tongue,

A music subtly wrought,

And moulded words to his desire,

As wind doth mould a wave of fire;

From strangely fashioned harps slow golden tones he wrung.

I think the singing understands

That he who sang is still,

And Iseult cries that he is dead, --

Does not Dolores bow her head

And Fragoletta weep and wring her little hands?

New singing now the singer hears

To lyre and lute and harp;

Catullus waits to welcome him,

And thro' the twilight sweet and dim,

Sappho's forgotten songs are falling on his ears.

Triolets

     I

LOVE looked back as he took his flight,

And lo, his eyes were filled with tears.

Was it for love of lost delight

Love looked back as he took his flight?

Only I know while day grew night,

Turning still to the vanished years,

Love looked back as he took his flight,

And lo, his eyes were filled with tears.

     II

(Written in a copy of "La Vita Nuova". For M. C. S.)

If you were Lady Beatrice

And I the Florentine,

I'd never waste my time like this --

If you were Lady Beatrice

I'd woo and then demand a kiss,

Nor weep like Dante here, I ween,

If you were Lady Beatrice

And I the Florentine.

     III

(Written in a copy of "The Poems of Sappho".)

Beyond the dim Hesperides,

The girl who sang them long ago

Could never dream that over seas,

Beyond the dim Hesperides,

The wind would blow such songs as these --

I wonder now if she can know,

Beyond the dim Hesperides,

The girl who sang them long ago?

     IV

Dead leaves upon the stream

And dead leaves on the air --

All of my lost hopes seem

Dead leaves upon the stream;

I watch them in a dream,

Going I know not where,

Dead leaves upon the stream

And dead leaves on the air.

Vox Corporis

THE beast to the beast is calling,

And the soul bends down to wait;

Like the stealthy lord of the jungle,

The white man calls his mate.

The beast to the beast is calling,

They rush through the twilight sweet,

But the soul is a wary hunter,

He will not let them meet.

A Ballad of Two Knights

TWO knights rode forth at early dawn

A-seeking maids to wed,

Said one, "My lady must be fair,

With gold hair on her head."

Then spake the other knight-at-arms:

"I care not for her face,

But she I love must be a dove

For purity and grace."

And each knight blew upon his horn

And went his separate way,

And each knight found a lady-love

Before the fall of day.

But she was brown who should have had

The shining yellow hair --

I ween the knights forgot their words

Or else they ceased to care.

For he who wanted purity

Brought home a wanton wild,

And when each saw the other knight

I ween that each knight smiled.

Christmas Carol

THE kings they came from out the south,

All dressed in ermine fine,

They bore Him gold and chrysoprase,

And gifts of precious wine.

The shepherds came from out the north,

Their coats were brown and old,

They brought Him little new-born lambs --

They had not any gold.

The wise-men came from out the east,

And they were wrapped in white;

The star that led them all the way

Did glorify the night.

The angels came from heaven high,

And they were clad with wings;

And lo, they brought a joyful song

The host of heaven sings.

The kings they knocked upon the door,

The wise-men entered in,

The shepherds followed after them

To hear the song begin.

And Mary held the little child

And sat upon the ground;

She looked up, she looked down,

She looked all around.

The angels sang thro' all the night

Until the rising sun,

But little Jesus fell asleep

Before the song was done.

The Faery Forest

THE faery forest glimmered

Beneath an ivory moon,

The silver grasses shimmered

Against a faery tune.

Beneath the silken silence

The crystal branches slept,

And dreaming thro' the dew-fall

The cold white blossoms wept.

A Fantasy

HER voice is like clear water

That drips upon a stone

In forests far and silent

Where Quiet plays alone.

Her thoughts are like the lotus

Abloom by sacred streams

Beneath the temple arches

Where Quiet sits and dreams.

Her kisses are the roses

That glow while dusk is deep

In Persian garden closes

Where Quiet falls asleep.

A Minuet of Mozart's

ACROSS the dimly lighted room

The violin drew wefts of sound,

Airily they wove and wound

And glimmered gold against the gloom.

I watched the music turn to light,

But at the pausing of the bow,

The web was broken and the glow

Was drowned within the wave of night.

Twilight

DREAMILY over the roofs

The cold spring rain is falling,

Out in the lonely tree

A bird is calling, calling.

Slowly over the earth

The wings of night are falling;

My heart like the bird in the tree

Is calling, calling, calling.

The Prayer

MY answered prayer came up to me,

And in the silence thus spake he:

"O you who prayed for me to come,

Your greeting is but cold and dumb."

My heart made answer: "You are fair,

But I have prayed too long to care.

Why came you not when all was new,

And I had died for joy of you."

Two Songs for a Child

   I

Grandfather's Love

THEYhey said he sent his love to me,

They wouldn't put it in my hand,

And when I asked them where it was

They said I couldn't understand.

I thought they must have hidden it,

I hunted for it all the day,

And when I told them so at night

They smiled and turned their heads away.

They say that love is something kind,

That I can never see or touch.

I wish he'd sent me something else,

I like his cough-drops twice as much.

   II

The Kind Moon

I think the moon is very kind

To take such trouble just for me.

He came along with me from home

To keep me company.

He went as fast as I could run;

I wonder how he crossed the sky?

I'm sure he hasn't legs and feet

Or any wings to fly.

Yet here he is above their roof;

Perhaps he thinks it isn't right

For me to go so far alone,

Tho' mother said I might.