In the glad springtime when leaves were green,O merrily the throstle sings!I sought, amid the tangled sheen,Love whom mine eyes had never seen,O the glad dove has golden wings! Between the blossoms red and white,O merrily the throstle sings!My love first came into my sight,O perfect vision of delight,O the glad dove has golden wings! […]

[Greek text which cannot be reproduced] O well for him who lives at easeWith garnered gold in wide domain,Nor heeds the splashing of the rain,The crashing down of forest trees. O well for him who ne’er hath knownThe travail of the hungry years,A father grey with grief and tears,A mother weeping all alone. But well […]

[Greek text which cannot be reproduced] Thou knowest all; I seek in vainWhat lands to till or sow with seed–The land is black with briar and weed,Nor cares for falling tears or rain. Thou knowest all; I sit and waitWith blinded eyes and hands that fail,Till the last lifting of the veilAnd the first opening […]

The lily’s withered chalice fallsAround its rod of dusty gold,And from the beech-trees on the woldThe last wood-pigeon coos and calls. The gaudy leonine sunflowerHangs black and barren on its stalk,And down the windy garden walkThe dead leaves scatter,–hour by hour. Pale privet-petals white as milkAre blown into a snowy mass:The roses lie upon the […]

A white mist drifts across the shrouds,A wild moon in this wintry skyGleams like an angry lion’s eyeOut of a mane of tawny clouds. The muffled steersman at the wheelIs but a shadow in the gloom;–And in the throbbing engine-roomLeap the long rods of polished steel. The shattered storm has left its traceUpon this huge […]

O beautiful star with the crimson mouth!O moon with the brows of gold!Rise up, rise up, from the odorous south!And light for my love her way,Lest her little feet should strayOn the windy hill and the wold!O beautiful star with the crimson mouth!O moon with the brows of gold! O ship that shakes on the […]

We caught the tread of dancing feet,We loitered down the moonlit street,And stopped beneath the harlot’s house. Inside, above the din and fray,We heard the loud musicians playThe ‘Treues Liebes Herz’ of Strauss. Like strange mechanical grotesques,Making fantastic arabesques,The shadows raced across the blind. We watched the ghostly dancers spinTo sound of horn and violin,Like […]

This winter air is keen and cold,And keen and cold this winter sun,But round my chair the children runLike little things of dancing gold. Sometimes about the painted kioskThe mimic soldiers strut and stride,Sometimes the blue-eyed brigands hideIn the bleak tangles of the bosk. And sometimes, while the old nurse consHer book, they steal across […]

These are the letters which Endymion wroteTo one he loved in secret, and apart.And now the brawlers of the auction martBargain and bid for each poor blotted note,Ay! for each separate pulse of passion quoteThe merchant’s price. I think they love not artWho break the crystal of a poet’s heartThat small and sickly eyes may […]

The sin was mine; I did not understand.So now is music prisoned in her cave,Save where some ebbing desultory waveFrets with its restless whirls this meagre strand.And in the withered hollow of this landHath Summer dug herself so deep a grave,That hardly can the leaden willow craveOne silver blossom from keen Winter’s hand. But who […]

Under the rose-tree’s dancing shadeThere stands a little ivory girl,Pulling the leaves of pink and pearlWith pale green nails of polished jade. The red leaves fall upon the mould,The white leaves flutter, one by one,Down to a blue bowl where the sun,Like a great dragon, writhes in gold. The white leaves float upon the air,The […]

Against these turbid turquoise skiesThe light and luminous balloonsDip and drift like satin moons,Drift like silken butterflies; Reel with every windy gust,Rise and reel like dancing girls,Float like strange transparent pearls,Fall and float like silver dust. Now to the low leaves they cling,Each with coy fantastic pose,Each a petal of a roseStraining at a gossamer […]

I have no storeOf gryphon-guarded gold;Now, as before,Bare is the shepherd’s fold.Rubies nor pearlsHave I to gem thy throat;Yet woodland girlsHave loved the shepherd’s note. Then pluck a reedAnd bid me sing to thee,For I would feedThine ears with melody,Who art more fairThan fairest fleur-de-lys,More sweet and rareThan sweetest ambergris. What dost thou fear?Young Hyacinth […]

An omnibus across the bridgeCrawls like a yellow butterfly,And, here and there, a passer-byShows like a little restless midge. Big barges full of yellow hayAre moored against the shadowy wharf,And, like a yellow silken scarf,The thick fog hangs along the quay. The yellow leaves begin to fadeAnd flutter from the Temple elms,And at my feet […]

Out of the mid-wood’s twilightInto the meadow’s dawn,Ivory limbed and brown-eyed,Flashes my Faun! He skips through the copses singing,And his shadow dances along,And I know not which I should follow,Shadow or song! O Hunter, snare me his shadow!O Nightingale, catch me his strain!Else moonstruck with music and madnessI track him in vain!

I can write no stately proemAs a prelude to my lay;From a poet to a poemI would dare to say. For if of these fallen petalsOne to you seem fair,Love will waft it till it settlesOn your hair. And when wind and winter hardenAll the loveless land,It will whisper of the garden,You will understand.

The silver trumpets rang across the Dome:The people knelt upon the ground with awe:And borne upon the necks of men I saw,Like some great God, the Holy Lord of Rome.Priest-like, he wore a robe more white than foam,And, king-like, swathed himself in royal red,Three crowns of gold rose high upon his head:In splendour and in […]

Come down, O Christ, and help me! reach Thy hand,For I am drowning in a stormier seaThan Simon on Thy lake of Galilee:The wine of life is spilt upon the sand,My heart is as some famine-murdered landWhence all good things have perished utterly,And well I know my soul in Hell must lieIf I this night […]

I stood by the unvintageable seaTill the wet waves drenched face and hair with spray;The long red fires of the dying dayBurned in the west; the wind piped drearily;And to the land the clamorous gulls did flee:‘Alas!’ I cried, ‘my life is full of pain,And who can garner fruit or golden grainFrom these waste fields […]

A lily-girl, not made for this world’s pain,With brown, soft hair close braided by her ears,And longing eyes half veiled by slumberous tearsLike bluest water seen through mists of rain:Pale cheeks whereon no love hath left its stain,Red underlip drawn in for fear of love,And white throat, whiter than the silvered dove,Through whose wan marble […]