THEY are chanting now the service of All the Dead And the village folk outside in the burying ground Listen–except those who strive with their dead, Reaching out in anguish, yet unable quite to touch them: Those villagers isolated at the grave Where the candles burn in the daylight, and the painted wreaths Are propped […]

AND because you love me think you you do not hate me? Ha, since you love me to ecstasy it follows you hate me to ecstasy. Because when you hear me go down the road outside the house you must come to the window to watch me go, do you think it is pure worship? […]

TAKE off your cloak and your hat And your shoes, and draw up at my hearth Where never woman sat. I have made the fire up bright; Let us leave the rest in the dark And sit by firelight. The wine is warm in the hearth; The flickers come and go. I will warm your […]

PLEASE yourself how you have it. Take my words, and fling Them down on the counter roundly; See if they ring. Sift my looks and expressions, And see what proportion there is Of sand in my doubtful sugar Of verities. Have a real stock-taking Of my manly breast; Find out if I’m sound or bankrupt, […]

THERE are only two things now, The great black night scooped out And this fire-glow. This fire-glow, the core, And we the two ripe pips That are held in store. Listen, the darkness rings As it circulates round our fire. Take off your things. Your shoulders, your bruised throat Your breasts, your nakedness! This fiery […]

Now you are mine, to-night at last I say it; You’re a dove I have bought for sacrifice, And to-night I slay it. Here in my arms my naked sacrifice! Death, do you hear, in my arms I am bringing My offering, bought at great price. She’s a silvery dove worth more than all I’ve […]

WHY do you spurt and sprottle like that, bunny? Why should I want to throttle you, bunny? Yes, bunch yourself between my knees and lie still. Lie on me with a hot, plumb, live weight, heavy as a stone, passive, yet hot, waiting. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? What is […]

THIS fireglow is a red womb In the night, where you’re folded up On your doom. And the ugly, brutal years Are dissolving out of you, And the stagnant tears. I the great vein that leads From the night to the source of you, Which the sweet blood feeds. New phase in the germ of […]

You shadow and flame, You interchange, You death in the game! Now I gather you up, Now I put you back Like a poppy in its cup. And so, you are a maid Again, my darling, but new, Unafraid. My love, my blossom, a child Almost! The flower in the bud Again, undefiled. And yet, […]

AH, through the open door Is there an almond tree Aflame with blossom! –Let us fight no more. Among the pink and blue Of the sky and the almond flowers A sparrow flutters. –We have come through, It is really spring!–See, When he thinks himself alone How he bullies the flowers. –Ah, you and me […]

THROUGH the strait gate of passion, Between the bickering fire Where flames of fierce love tremble On the body of fierce desire: To the intoxication, The mind, fused down like a bead, Flees in its agitation The flames’ stiff speed: At last to calm incandescence, Burned clean by remorseless hate, Now, at the day’s renascence […]

I DON’T care whether I am beautiful to you You other women. Nothing of me that you see is my own; A man balances, bone unto bone Balances, everything thrown In the scale, you other women. You may look and say to yourselves, I do Not show like the rest. My face may not please […]

THE listless beauty of the hour When snow fell on the apple trees And the wood-ash gathered in the fire And we faced our first miseries. Then the sweeping sunshine of noon When the mountains like chariot cars Were ranked to blue battle–and you and I Counted our scars. And then in a strange, grey […]

NOT I, not I, but the wind that blows through me! A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time. If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me! If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift! If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself […]

SHE said as well to me: “Why are you ashamed? That little bit of your chest that shows between the gap of your shirt, why cover it up? Why shouldn’t your legs and your good strong thighs be rough and hairy?–I’m glad they are like that. You are shy, you silly, you silly shy thing. […]

THE great gold apples of night Hang from the street’s long bough Dripping their light On the faces that drift below, On the faces that drift and blow Down the night-time, out of sight In the wind’s sad sough. The ripeness of these apples of night Distilling over me Makes sickening the white Ghost-flux of […]

GOLD, with an innermost speck Of silver, singing afloat Beneath the night, Like balls of thistle-down Wandering up and down Over the whispering town Seeking where to alight! Slowly, above the street Above the ebb of feet Drifting in flight; Still, in the purple distance The gold of their strange persistence As they cross and […]

I HAVE found a place of loneliness Lonelier than Lyonesse Lovelier than Paradise; Full of sweet stillness That no noise can transgress Never a lamp distress. The full moon sank in state. I saw her stand and wait For her watchers to shut the gate. Then I found myself in a wonderland All of shadow […]

I AND so I cross into another world shyly and in homage linger for an invitation from this unknown that I would trespass on. I am very glad, and all alone in the world, all alone, and very glad, in a new world where I am disembarked at last. I could cry with joy, because […]

IT is not long since, here among all these folk in London, I should have held myself of no account whatever, but should have stood aside and made them way thinking that they, perhaps, had more right than I–for who was I? Now I see them just the same, and watch them. But of what […]