I can see the towersIn mind quite clearNot many hours’Faring from here;But how up and go,And briskly bearThither, and knowThat are not there? Though the birds sing small,And apple and pearOn your trees by the wallAre ripe and rare,Though none excel them,I have no careTo taste them or smell themAnd you not there. Though the […]

(FOR H. P.) Forty springs back, I recall,We met at this phase of the Maytime:We might have clung close through all,But we parted when died that daytime. We parted with smallest regret;Perhaps should have cared but slightly,Just then, if we never had met:Strange, strange that we lived so lightly! Had we mused a little spaceAt […]

We never sang togetherRavenscroft’s terse old tuneOn Sundays or on weekdays,In sharp or summer weather,At night-time or at noon. Why did we never sing it,Why never so inclineOn Sundays or on weekdays,Even when soft wafts would wing itFrom your far floor to mine? Shall we that tune, then, neverStand voicing side by sideOn Sundays or […]

(SONG) We are always saying“Good-bye, good-bye!”In work, in playing,In gloom, in gaying:At many a stageOf pilgrimageFrom youth to ageWe say, “Good-bye,Good-bye!” We are undiscerningWhich go to sigh,Which will be yearningFor soon returning;And which no moreWill dark our door,Or tread our shore,But go to die,To die. Some come from roamingWith joy again;Some, who come homingBy stealth […]

(A FRAGMENT) “This is a brightsome blaze you’ve lit good friend, to-night!”“–Aye, it has been the bleakest spring I have felt for years,And nought compares with cloven logs to keep alight:I buy them bargain-cheap of the executioners,As I dwell near; and they wanted the crosses out of sightBy Passover, not to affront the eyes of […]

Fili hominis, ecce ego tollo a te desiderabile oculorum tuorom inplaga.–EZECH. xxiv. 16. How I remember cleaning that strange picture!I had been deep in duty for my sick neighbour –His besides my own–over several Sundays,Often, too, in the week; so with parish pressures,Baptisms, burials, doctorings, conjugal counsel –All the whatnots asked of a rural parson […]

O do not praise my beauty more,In such word-wild degree,And say I am one all eyes adore;For these things harass me! But do for ever softly say:“From now unto the endCome weal, come wanzing, come what may,Dear, I will be your friend.” I hate my beauty in the glass:My beauty is not I:I wear it: […]

(A new theme to an old Folk-Jingle) ‘Tis May morning,All-adorning,No cloud warningOf rain to-day.Where shall I go to,Go to, go to? –Can I say No toLyonnesse-way? Well–what reasonNow at this seasonIs there for treasonTo other shrines?Tristram is not there,Isolt forgot there,New eras blot thereSought-for signs! Stratford-on-Avon –Poesy-paven –I’ll find a havenThere, somehow! –Nay–I’m but caught […]

There trudges one to a merry-makingWith a sturdy swing,On whom the rain comes down. To fetch the saving medicamentIs another bent,On whom the rain comes down. One slowly drives his herd to the stallEre ill befall,On whom the rain comes down. This bears his missives of life and deathWith quickening breath,On whom the rain comes […]

I He was leaning by a face,He was looking into eyes,And he knew a trysting-place,And he heard seductive sighs;But the face,And the eyes,And the place,And the sighs,Were not, alas, the right ones–the ones meet for him –Though fine and sweet the features, and the feelings all abrim. II She was looking at a form,She was […]

So there sat they,The estranged two,Thrust in one pewBy chance that day;Placed so, breath-nigh,Each comer unwittingWho was to be sittingIn touch close by. Thus side by sideBlindly alighted,They seemed unitedAs groom and bride,Who’d not communedFor many years –Lives from twain spheresWith hearts distuned. Her fringes brushedHis garment’s hemAs the harmonies rushedThrough each of them:Her lips […]

(SONG) I do not wish to win your vowTo take me soon or late as bride,And lift me from the nook where nowI tarry your farings to my side.I am blissful ever to abideIn this green labyrinth–let all be,If but, whatever may betide,You do not leave off loving me! Your comet-comings I will waitWith patience […]

You say, O Sage, when weather-checked,“I have been favoured soWith cloudless skies, I must expectThis dash of rain or snow.” “Since health has been my lot,” you say,“So many months of late,I must not chafe that one short dayOf sickness mars my state.” You say, “Such bliss has been my shareFrom Love’s unbroken smile,It is […]

You were here at his young beginning,You are not here at his aged end;Off he coaxed you from Life’s mad spinning,Lest you should see his form extendShivering, sighing,Slowly dying,And a tear on him expend. So it comes that we stand lonelyIn the star-lit avenue,Dropping broken lipwords only,For we hear no songs from you,Such as flew […]

“Awake! I’m off to cities far away,”I said; and rose, on peradventures bent.The chimes played “Life’s a Bumper!” on that dayTo the measure of my walking as I went:Their sweetness frisked and floated on the lea,As they played out “Life’s a Bumper!” there to me. “Awake!” I said. “I go to take a bride!”–The sun […]

(SONG) I worked no wile to meet you,My sight was set elsewhere,I sheered about to shun you,And lent your life no care.I was unprimed to greet youAt such a date and place,Constraint alone had won youVision of my strange face! You did not seek to see meThen or at all, you said,–Meant passing when you […]

“There is not much that I can do,For I’ve no money that’s quite my own!”Spoke up the pitying child –A little boy with a violinAt the station before the train came in, –“But I can play my fiddle to you,And a nice one ’tis, and good in tone!” The man in the handcuffs smiled;The constable […]

(SONG) That night, that night,That song, that song!Will such again be evened quiteThrough lifetimes long? No mirth was shownTo outer seers,But mood to match has not been knownIn modern years. O eyes that smiled,O lips that lured;That such would last was one beguiledTo think ensured! That night, that night,That song, that song;O drink to its […]

I–On Christmas Eve Late on Christmas Eve, in the street alone,Outside a house, on the pavement-stone,I sang to her, as we’d sung togetherOn former eves ere I felt her tether. –Above the door of green by meWas she, her casement seen by me;But she would not heedWhat I melodiedIn my soul’s sore need –She would […]

Tabitha dressed for her wedding:-“Tabby, why look so sad?”“–O I feel a great gloominess spreading, spreading,Instead of supremely glad! . . . “I called on Carry last night,And he came whilst I was there,Not knowing I’d called. So I kept out of sight,And I heard what he said to her: “‘–Ah, I’d far liefer marryYOU, […]