Ardours and Endurances Part 19

"Sun, nought doth let In journey or depart; Make Him, arisen, set Within my heart.

"O high white Moon, Alone and glittering, As you pull ocean soon, My Beloved bring.

"O swelling Sea, Cavernous in your sweep, Make Him ingulph, drown me Far in His deep.

"O Day, O Night, O Moon, O Sun, O Sea, O Wind, bring my Delight!

Bring Him to me!"

V

In the second watch of the night The amazed guards saw with affright Gold stars fall in a shower: Coins of gold in a sweeping flight, They silently broke on the tower.

And the tower's top turned a rose Of enwreathed, ruddy light, And, like men smit of their foes, The guards fell at the sight....

And the Rose possessed the tower alone All the blue, windless night.

VI

"Soft torrential wind Falls through the vast, still deep Like thick dreams pouring behind The opened gates of sleep: _Ah, not so swift, Lord, not so bright, Lest I be blown--a feather; Not so white, not so white, Lest I be withered altogether._

"Earth s.h.i.+fts under my feet, Glory breaks over my head; Speechlessly my wings I beat, And fall mute in breathless dread: _Ah, not so swift, Lord, not so bright, Lest I be blown--a feather; Not so white, not so white, Lest I be wilted altogether._"

VII

"Mine is a heavenly Lover, In Him I am wholly blest; My heart it is His coffer Wherein His gold doth rest.

"Dead in the metal tower I lie till night doth come, When in a golden shower He bursts the midnight dome.

"And, caught beyond releasing, I yield me to His claim, And by my creature ceasing All that He is I am."

VIII

The silver sun looks down On the silent tower; The guards awaken, nor own To the unguarded hour.

They eye each other's face, But to speak none durst; As though the night were ungraced, Silent they are dispersed.

The cruel King climbs, doth draw Near, then by he creeps, Marking in rage and awe The smile in which she sleeps.

STAMFORD, _Autumn_, 1912, _and Autumn_, 1913.

THE ECSTASY

I lay upon a headland hill: The sun spilt out his gold; The wind blew with a fluttering thrill; The skies were blue and cold.

All day above the little cove I heard the long wind flow; The clouds foamed in the blue above, The blue sea foamed below.

All day the bare sun fiercely burned; All day in the profound And quivering gra.s.s my body turned, One with Earth's turning round.

Till, fledged amid her fluid rings, My soul began to rouse, And slowly beat her silver wings Within her darkened house.

Then with vans lifted up for flight, With stretched and fiery crest, Upward she leaped toward the light And drew from out my breast.

How long I lay while she was fled, And on the cliff below My body lay stiff, dark, and dead, I knew not nor may know.

But long it seemed. Sped beyond sight My soul enjoyed release; Beyond the clouds, within the light, She entered into peace.

To-day, amid a world of men, How often must I cry: "Happy I never was but then Nor shall be till I die!"

NEAR GOLD CAP, _Late Summer_, 1916.

THE WATER-LILY

The Lily floated white and red, Pouring its scent up to the sun; The rapt sun floating overhead Watched no such other one.

None marked it as it spread abroad And beautifully learned to cease: But Beauty is its own reward, Being a form of Peace.

1913.

DEEM YOU THE ROSES....

Deem you the roses taste no pleasure Unfolding hour by hour Toward, through starlit peace and sunny leisure, Their sharpest moment, when they dower This great green world, this rustling place, Active in music, light, and grace, With their hid hearts, their golden treasure, Odours so deep they overpower?

See how, hazed in the sunny weather, The silken roses swim, Nodding heads frail as a high cloud's feather, Expressing Joy in Beauty's Hymn.

And, hark! from many a hidden face Echoes I hear through silver s.p.a.ce: The Morning Stars that sing together, And the delighting Seraphim!

LAWFORD, _Early Summer_, 1916.

THE Pa.s.sION