Where hast thou been since round the walls of TroyThe sons of God fought in that great emprise?Why dost thou walk our common earth again?Hast thou forgotten that impassioned boy,His purple galley and his Tyrian menAnd treacherous Aphrodite’s mocking eyes?For surely it was thou, who, like a starHung in the silver silence of the night,Didst […]

This English Thames is holier far than Rome,Those harebells like a sudden flush of seaBreaking across the woodland, with the foamOf meadow-sweet and white anemoneTo fleck their blue waves,–God is likelier thereThan hidden in that crystal-hearted star the pale monks bear! Those violet-gleaming butterflies that takeYon creamy lily for their pavilionAre monsignores, and where the […]

The Thames nocturne of blue and goldChanged to a Harmony in grey:A barge with ochre-coloured hayDropt from the wharf: and chill and cold The yellow fog came creeping downThe bridges, till the houses’ wallsSeemed changed to shadows and St. Paul’sLoomed like a bubble o’er the town. Then suddenly arose the clangOf waking life; the streets […]

The little white clouds are racing over the sky,And the fields are strewn with the gold of the flower of March,The daffodil breaks under foot, and the tasselled larchSways and swings as the thrush goes hurrying by. A delicate odour is borne on the wings of the morning breeze,The odour of deep wet grass, and […]

To that gaunt House of Art which lacks for naughtOf all the great things men have saved from Time,The withered body of a girl was broughtDead ere the world’s glad youth had touched its prime,And seen by lonely Arabs lying hidIn the dim womb of some black pyramid. But when they had unloosed the linen […]

The western wind is blowing fairAcross the dark AEgean sea,And at the secret marble stairMy Tyrian galley waits for thee.Come down! the purple sail is spread,The watchman sleeps within the town,O leave thy lily-flowered bed,O Lady mine come down, come down! She will not come, I know her well,Of lover’s vows she hath no care,And […]

The apple trees are hung with gold,And birds are loud in Arcady,The sheep lie bleating in the fold,The wild goat runs across the wold,But yesterday his love he told,I know he will come back to me.O rising moon! O Lady moon!Be you my lover’s sentinel,You cannot choose but know him well,For he is shod with […]

My limbs are wasted with a flame,My feet are sore with travelling,For, calling on my Lady’s name,My lips have now forgot to sing. O Linnet in the wild-rose brakeStrain for my Love thy melody,O Lark sing louder for love’s sake,My gentle Lady passeth by. She is too fair for any manTo see or hold his […]

A ring of gold and a milk-white doveAre goodly gifts for thee,And a hempen rope for your own loveTo hang upon a tree. For you a House of Ivory,(Roses are white in the rose-bower)!A narrow bed for me to lie,(White, O white, is the hemlock flower)! Myrtle and jessamine for you,(O the red rose is […]

I.He was a Grecian lad, who coming homeWith pulpy figs and wine from SicilyStood at his galley’s prow, and let the foamBlow through his crisp brown curls unconsciously,And holding wave and wind in boy’s despitePeered from his dripping seat across the wet and stormy night. Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spearLike a […]

The sea is flecked with bars of grey,The dull dead wind is out of tune,And like a withered leaf the moonIs blown across the stormy bay. Etched clear upon the pallid sandLies the black boat: a sailor boyClambers aboard in careless joyWith laughing face and gleaming hand. And overhead the curlews cry,Where through the dusky […]

To outer senses there is peace,A dreamy peace on either handDeep silence in the shadowy land,Deep silence where the shadows cease. Save for a cry that echoes shrillFrom some lone bird disconsolate;A corncrake calling to its mate;The answer from the misty hill. And suddenly the moon withdrawsHer sickle from the lightening skies,And to her sombre […]

Rid of the world’s injustice, and his pain,He rests at last beneath God’s veil of blue:Taken from life when life and love were newThe youngest of the martyrs here is lain,Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain.No cypress shades his grave, no funeral yew,But gentle violets weeping with the dewWeave on his bones an ever-blossoming […]

O singer of Persephone!In the dim meadows desolateDost thou remember Sicily? Still through the ivy flits the beeWhere Amaryllis lies in state;O Singer of Persephone! Simaetha calls on HecateAnd hears the wild dogs at the gate;Dost thou remember Sicily? Still by the light and laughing seaPoor Polypheme bemoans his fate;O Singer of Persephone! And still […]

Her ivory hands on the ivory keysStrayed in a fitful fantasy,Like the silver gleam when the poplar treesRustle their pale-leaves listlessly,Or the drifting foam of a restless seaWhen the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze. Her gold hair fell on the wall of goldLike the delicate gossamer tangles spunOn the burnished disk of […]

I am weary of lying within the chaseWhen the knights are meeting in market-place. Nay, go not thou to the red-roofed townLest the hoofs of the war-horse tread thee down. But I would not go where the Squires ride,I would only walk by my Lady’s side. Alack! and alack! thou art overbold,A Forester’s son may […]

Go, little book, To him who, on a lute with horns of pearl, Sang of the white feet of the Golden Girl: And bid him look Into thy pages: it may hap that he May find that golden maidens dance through thee.

(To L. L.) Could we dig up this long-buried treasure, Were it worth the pleasure, We never could learn love’s song, We are parted too long. Could the passionate past that is fled Call back its dead, Could we live it all over again, Were it worth the pain! I remember we used to meet […]

The seasons send their ruin as they go, For in the spring the narciss shows its head Nor withers till the rose has flamed to red, And in the autumn purple violets blow, And the slim crocus stirs the winter snow; Wherefore yon leafless trees will bloom again And this grey land grow green with […]

I O goat-foot God of Arcady! This modern world is grey and old, And what remains to us of thee? No more the shepherd lads in glee Throw apples at thy wattled fold, O goat-foot God of Arcady! Nor through the laurels can one see Thy soft brown limbs, thy beard of gold, And what […]