I Here’s the mould of a musical bird long passed from light, Which over the earth before man came was winging; There’s a contralto voice I heard last night, That lodges in me still with its sweet singing. II Such a dream is Time that the coo of this ancient bird Has perished not, but […]

There floated the sounds of church-chiming, But no one was nigh, Till there came, as a break in the loneness, Her father, she, I. And we slowly moved on to the wicket, And downlooking stood, Till anon people passed, and amid them We parted for good. Greater, wiser, may part there than we three Who […]

She looked like a bird from a cloud On the clammy lawn, Moving alone, bare-browed In the dim of dawn. The candles alight in the room For my parting meal Made all things withoutdoors loom Strange, ghostly, unreal. The hour itself was a ghost, And it seemed to me then As of chances the chance […]

I am the family face; Flesh perishes, I live on, Projecting trait and trace Through time to times anon, And leaping from place to place Over oblivion. The years-heired feature that can In curve and voice and eye Despise the human span Of durance–that is I; The eternal thing in man, That heeds no call […]

I determined to find out whose it was – The portrait he looked at so, and sighed; Bitterly have I rued my meanness And wept for it since he died! I searched his desk when he was away, And there was the likeness–yes, my own! Taken when I was the season’s fairest, And time-lines all […]

A day is drawing to its fall I had not dreamed to see; The first of many to enthrall My spirit, will it be? Or is this eve the end of all Such new delight for me? I journey home: the pattern grows Of moonshades on the way: “Soon the first quarter, I suppose,” Sky-glancing […]

I was sitting, She was knitting, And the portraits of our fore-folk hung around; When there struck on us a sigh; “Ah–what is that?” said I: “Was it not you?” said she. “A sigh did sound.” I had not breathed it, Nor the night-wind heaved it, And how it came to us we could not […]

You were the sort that men forget; Though I–not yet! – Perhaps not ever. Your slighted weakness Adds to the strength of my regret! You’d not the art–you never had For good or bad – To make men see how sweet your meaning, Which, visible, had charmed them glad. You would, by words inept let […]

When the spring comes round, and a certain day Looks out from the brume by the eastern copsetrees And says, Remember, I begin again, as if it were new, A day of like date I once lived through, Whiling it hour by hour away; So shall I do till my December, When spring comes round. […]

There was a stunted handpost just on the crest, Only a few feet high: She was tired, and we stopped in the twilight-time for her rest, At the crossways close thereby. She leant back, being so weary, against its stem, And laid her arms on its own, Each open palm stretched out to each end […]

(Wimborne) How smartly the quarters of the hour march by That the jack-o’-clock never forgets; Ding-dong; and before I have traced a cusp’s eye, Or got the true twist of the ogee over, A double ding-dong ricochetts. Just so did he clang here before I came, And so will he clang when I’m gone Through […]

I When I weekly knew An ancient pew, And murmured there The forms of prayer And thanks and praise In the ancient ways, And heard read out During August drought That chapter from Kings Harvest-time brings; – How the prophet, broken By griefs unspoken, Went heavily away To fast and to pray, And, while waiting […]

AFTER THREE HUNDRED YEARS Bright baffling Soul, least capturable of themes, Thou, who display’dst a life of common-place, Leaving no intimate word or personal trace Of high design outside the artistry Of thy penned dreams, Still shalt remain at heart unread eternally. Through human orbits thy discourse to-day, Despite thy formal pilgrimage, throbs on In […]

(Written to an old folk-tune) Lalage’s coming: Where is she now, O? Turning to bow, O, And smile, is she, Just at parting, Parting, parting, As she is starting To come to me? Where is she now, O, Now, and now, O, Shadowing a bough, O, Of hedge or tree As she is rushing, Rushing, […]

I idly cut a parsley stalk, And blew therein towards the moon; I had not thought what ghosts would walk With shivering footsteps to my tune. I went, and knelt, and scooped my hand As if to drink, into the brook, And a faint figure seemed to stand Above me, with the bygone look. I […]

So zestfully canst thou sing? And all this indignity, With God’s consent, on thee! Blinded ere yet a-wing By the red-hot needle thou, I stand and wonder how So zestfully thou canst sing! Resenting not such wrong, Thy grievous pain forgot, Eternal dark thy lot, Groping thy whole life long; After that stab of fire; […]

When I walked roseless tracks and wide, Ere dawned your date for meeting me, O why did you not cry Halloo Across the stretch between, and say: “We move, while years as yet divide, On closing lines which–though it be You know me not nor I know you – Will intersect and join some day!” […]

How was this I did not see Such a look as here was shown Ere its womanhood had blown Past its first felicity? – That I did not know you young, Faded Face, Know you young! Why did Time so ill bestead That I heard no voice of yours Hail from out the curved contours […]

The wind blew words along the skies, And these it blew to me Through the wide dusk: “Lift up your eyes, Behold this troubled tree, Complaining as it sways and plies; It is a limb of thee. “Yea, too, the creatures sheltering round – Dumb figures, wild and tame, Yea, too, thy fellows who abound […]

I Stretching eyes west Over the sea, Wind foul or fair, Always stood she Prospect-impressed; Solely out there Did her gaze rest, Never elsewhere Seemed charm to be. II Always eyes east Ponders she now – As in devotion – Hills of blank brow Where no waves plough. Never the least Room for emotion Drawn […]