By a wall the stranger now calls his, Was born of old a particular kiss, Without forethought in its genesis; Which in a trice took wing on the air. And where that spot is nothing shows: There ivy calmly grows, And no one knows What a birth was there! That kiss is gone where none […]

The rain smites more and more, The east wind snarls and sneezes; Through the joints of the quivering door The water wheezes. The tip of each ivy-shoot Writhes on its neighbour’s face; There is some hid dread afoot That we cannot trace. Is it the spirit astray Of the man at the house below Whose […]

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease. We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen, Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were […]

They came, the brothers, and took two chairs In their usual quiet way; And for a time we did not think They had much to say. And they began and talked awhile Of ordinary things, Till spread that silence in the room A pent thought brings. And then they said: “The end has come. Yes: […]

The flame crept up the portrait line by line As it lay on the coals in the silence of night’s profound, And over the arm’s incline, And along the marge of the silkwork superfine, And gnawed at the delicate bosom’s defenceless round. Then I vented a cry of hurt, and averted my eyes; The spectacle […]

“When the air was damp It made my curls hang slack As they kissed my neck and back While I footed the salt-aired track I loved to tramp. “When it was dry They would roll up crisp and tight As I went on in the light Of the sun, which my own sprite Seemed to […]

I could hear a gown-skirt rustling Before I could see her shape, Rustling through the heather That wove the common’s drape, On that evening of dark weather When I hearkened, lips agape. And the town-shine in the distance Did but baffle here the sight, And then a voice flew forward: Dear, is’t you? I fear […]

It was at the very date to which we have come, In the month of the matching name, When, at a like minute, the sun had upswum, Its couch-time at night being the same. And the same path stretched here that people now follow, And the same stile crossed their way, And beyond the same […]

“O my pretty pink frock, I sha’n’t be able to wear it! Why is he dying just now? I hardly can bear it! “He might have contrived to live on; But they say there’s no hope whatever: And must I shut myself up, And go out never? “O my pretty pink frock, Puff-sleeved and accordion-pleated! […]

(Two who became a story) By the Runic Stone They sat, where the grass sloped down, And chattered, he white-hatted, she in brown, Pink-faced, breeze-blown. Rapt there alone In the transport of talking so In such a place, there was nothing to let them know What hours had flown. And the die thrown By them […]

Her house looked cold from the foggy lea, And the square of each window a dull black blur Where showed no stir: Yes, her gloom within at the lack of me Seemed matching mine at the lack of her. The black squares grew to be squares of light As the eyeshade swathed the house and […]

Portion of this yew Is a man my grandsire knew, Bosomed here at its foot: This branch may be his wife, A ruddy human life Now turned to a green shoot. These grasses must be made Of her who often prayed, Last century, for repose; And the fair girl long ago Whom I often tried […]

“That is a quiet place – That house in the trees with the shady lawn.” “–If, child, you knew what there goes on You would not call it a quiet place. Why, a phantom abides there, the last of its race, And a brain spins there till dawn.” “But I see nobody there, – Nobody […]

(Oct. 11, 1886) A MEMORY OF WILLIAM BARNES Silently I footed by an uphill road That led from my abode to a spot yew-boughed; Yellowly the sun sloped low down to westward, And dark was the east with cloud. Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east, Where the light was least, and a […]

That morning when I trod the town The twitching chimes of long renown Played out to me The sweet Sicilian sailors’ tune, And I knew not if late or soon My day would be: A day of sunshine beryl-bright And windless; yea, think as I might, I could not say, Even to within years’ measure, […]

Sweet cyder is a great thing, A great thing to me, Spinning down to Weymouth town By Ridgway thirstily, And maid and mistress summoning Who tend the hostelry: O cyder is a great thing, A great thing to me! The dance it is a great thing, A great thing to me, With candles lit and […]

It pleased her to step in front and sit Where the cragged slope was green, While I stood back that I might pencil it With her amid the scene; Till it gloomed and rained; But I kept on, despite the drifting wet That fell and stained My draught, leaving for curious quizzings yet The blots […]

Why did I sketch an upland green, And put the figure in Of one on the spot with me? – For now that one has ceased to be seen The picture waxes akin To a wordless irony. If you go drawing on down or cliff Let no soft curves intrude Of a woman’s silhouette, But […]

(Young Lover’s Reverie) The train draws forth from the station-yard, And with it carries me. I rise, and stretch out, and regard The platform left, and see An airy slim blue form there standing, And know that it is she. While with strained vision I watch on, The figure turns round quite To greet friends […]

That no man schemed it is my hope – Yea, that it fell by will and scope Of That Which some enthrone, And for whose meaning myriads grope. For I would not that of my kind There should, of his unbiassed mind, Have been one known Who such a stroke could have designed; Since it […]