Green wing and ruby throat, What shining spell, what exquisite sorcery, Lured you to float And fight with bees round this one flowering tree? Petulant imps of light, What whisper or gleam or elfin-wild perfumes Thrilled through the night And drew you to this hive of rosy bloom? One tree, and one alone, Of all […]

With shadowy pen I write, Till time be done, Good news of some strange light, Some far off sun.

(Written after hearing a line of Keats repeated by a passing stranger under the palms of Southern California.) Under the palms of San Diego Where gold-skinned Mexicans loll at ease, And the red half-moons of their black-pipped melons Drop from their hands in the sunset seas, And an incense, out of the old brown missions, […]

Not with a flash that rends the blue Shall fall the avenging sword. Gently as the evening dew Descends the mighty Lord. His dreadful balances are made To move with moon and tide; Yet shall not mercy be afraid Nor justice be denied. The dreams that seemed to waste away, The kindliness forgot, Were singing […]

There came a crowder to the Mermaid Inn, One dark May night, Fiddling a tune that quelled our motley din, With quaint delight, It haunts me yet, as old lost airs will do, A phantom strain: Look for me once, lest I should look for you, And look in vain. In that old wood, where […]

(It is supposed that Shadow-of-a-Leaf uses the word “clear” in a more ancient sense of “beautiful.”) As along a dark pine-bough, in slender white mystery The moon lay to listen, above the thick fern, In a deep dreaming wood that is older than history I heard a lad sing, and I stilled me to learn; […]

“If I could whisper you all I know,” Said the Old Fool in the Wood, “You’d never say that green leaves grow. You’d say, ‘Ah, what a happy mood The Master must be in today, To think such thoughts,’ That’s what you’d say.” “If I could whisper you all I’ve heard,” Said the Old Fool […]

Wonder in happy eyes Fades, fades away: And the angel-coloured skies Whisper farewell. Loveliness over the strings of the heart may stray In fugitive melodies; But Oh, the hand of the Master must not stay, Even for a breath; For to prolong one joy, or even to dwell On one rich chord of pain, Beyond […]

As I was walking Alone by the sea, “What is that whisper?” Said Merlin to me. “Only,” I answered, “The sigh of the wave”– “Oh, no,” replied Merlin, “‘Tis the grass on your grave.” As I lay dreaming In churchyard ground “Listen,” said Merlin, “What is that sound?“ “The green grass is growing,” I answered; […]

O Mystery of life, That, after all our strife, Defeats, mistakes, Just as, at last, we see The road to victory, The tired heart breaks. Just as the long years give Knowledge of how to live, Life’s end draws near; As if, that gift being ours, God needed our new powers In worlds elsewhere. There, […]

Now, in a breath, we’ll burst those gates of gold, And ransack heaven before our moment fails. Now, in a breath, before we, too, grow old, We’ll mount and sing and spread immortal sails. It is not time that makes eternity. Love and an hour may quite out-run the years, And give us more to […]

I. (On many recent novels by the conventional unconventionalists.) Old Pantaloon, lean-witted, dour and rich, After grim years of soul-destroying greed, Weds Columbine, that April-blooded witch “Too young” to know that gold was not her need. Then enters Pierrot, young, rebellious, warm, With well-lined purse, to teach the fine-souled wife That the old fool’s gold […]

I. If souls could sing to heaven’s high King As blackbirds pipe on earth, How those delicious courts would ring With gusts of lovely mirth! What white-robed throng could lift a song So mellow with righteous glee As this brown bird that all day long Delights my hawthorn tree. Hark! That’s the thrush With speckled […]

How few are they that voyage through the night On that eternal quest, For that strange light beyond our light, That rest beyond our rest. And they who, seeking beauty, once descry Her face, to most unknown; Thenceforth like changelings from the sky Must walk their road alone. So once I dreamed. So idle was […]

Give me the sunlight and the sea And who shall take my heaven from me? Light of the Sun, Life of the Sun, O happy, bold companion, Whose golden laughters round me run, Making wine of the blue air With wild-rose kisses everywhere, Browning the limb, flushing the cheek, Apple-fragrant, leopard-sleek, Dancing from thy red-curtained […]

The great roads are all grown over That seemed so firm and white. The deep black forests have covered them. How should I walk aright? How should I thread these tangled mazes, Or grope to that far off light? I stumble round the thickets, and they turn me Back to the thickets and the night. […]

I. There is one road, one only, to the Light: A narrow way, but Freedom walks therein; A straight, firm road through Chaos and old Night, And all these wandering Jack-o-Lents of Sin. It is the road of Law, where Pilate stays To hear, at last, the answer to his cry; And mighty sages, groping […]

I. Black-veiled, black-gowned, she rides in bus and train, With eyes that fill too listlessly for tears. Her waxen hands clasp and unclasp again. Good News, they cry. She neither sees nor hears. Good News, perhaps, may crown some far-off king. Good News may peal the glory of the state– Good News may cause the […]

“And that a reply be received before midnight.” British Ultimatum. Their Day was at twelve of the night, When the graves give up their dead. And still, from the City, no light Yellows the clouds overhead. Where the Admiral stands there’s a star, But his column is lost in the gloom; For the brazen doors […]

On this high altar, fringed with ferns That darken against the sky, The dawn in lonely beauty burns And all our evils die. The struggling sea that roared below Is quieter than the dew, Quieter than the clouds that flow Across the stainless blue. On this bare crest, the angels kneel And breathe the sweets […]