MAYTIME lONGS ANNIE MATHESON PR The date shows when this volume was taken. To renew thia book copy the call No. and give to the librarian. HOME USE RULES All Books subject to recall All borrowers must regis- ter in the library to bor- row books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs. Limited books must be returned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students must return all „ books before leaving town. Ofl[icera should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as possible. For special pur- ' poses they are given out * for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for the benefit of other persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not al- lowed to circulate. _._ Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do hot deface books by marks and writing. Cornell University Library PR 6025.A853M4 Maytime songs. 3 1924 013 652 023 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013652023 MAYTIME SONGS MAYTIME SONGS By ANNIE MATHESON Author of " Love Triumphaat," " Roses, Leaves & Old Rhymes," "Leaves of Prose" (with May Sinclair), etc., etc. LONDON MAX GOSCHEN, LTD 20 Great Russell Street, W.C. n c4 CONTENTS MAYTIME SONGS Cor7don to Phyllida with a Wreath of Hawthorn . 7 Song of the Anvil 8 A Song of the Road 10 Life Everlasting 11 Love Triumphant 13 The King of Love 16 A May-Time Canticle 18 The Onion-Men on the Saint Hilda 21 THE VIOLIN SONGS OF A LOVER Another Year 25 Vigil of Christmas 26 Sir Edward Burne-Jones's Cartoon of Adam and Eve 28 Twelfth Night 31 A New Year's Hymn 32 Parting 35 The Mystic Key 36 To my Friend 37 In Answer 38 V A Dramatic Lyric 39 A Ballad 40 Roses 4^ Time flies 42 Summer and Autumn 43 For Music 45 Rondeau 46 New Year's Eve 47 To Her he Loves 48 Wedding Hymn , . . 49 To the Lady of his Heart 51 To " Carissima " 52 Saint Michael's Day 53 Life's Choosing 54 She Wakes S^ An Old Refrain 58 Alphabetical Symbols 59 Cophetua 60 The Forbidden Land 61 A Greeting 63 Corydon to Phyllida with a Bunch of Autumn Violets 64 The Mist 65 Creative Unity 66 CORYDON TO PHYLLIDA WITH A WREATH OF HAWTHORN My love's a wood where fancies go a-maying, The whole year through ; Meseems a strange muscian dwells there, playing To me and you. There, many a time, my happy thoughts will wander. As children do, While under those fair trees I sit, and ponder On you, — on you ! By day and night, when I'm at work or sleeping, And dreaming too ; The doves within that wood their watch are keeping Till I have you. Oh, let some token cheer this long delaying ; My hope renew ! Dear, if I win the gift for which I'm praying, It will be you. SONG OF THE ANVIL Silvery on the anvil sounds the tinkle, tinkle, Through our Sleepy Hollow — fit for Rip Van Winkle, Down the sandy lane there, hunters come a-riding — Horses know the smithy — need no bridle-guiding. Here the shoes are fashioned, pretty as a jewel. Mystic shapes a-gleaming in the ruddy fuel ! Sweet our Sleepy Hollow where the sparks are flying — Birds about are singing, trees and flowers replying. Oh, I'd be a blacksmith if I had the choosing, AU the sooty townships out of memory losing. Yes, a country blacksmith, with a wife to bless me. Toil to keep me brawny, children to caress me ! What's the odds ? — I can't be ! Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle ! Happy, happy blacksmith, kin to Rip Van Winkle ! But I'll up and hammer in the fiery forges What may help some traveller through the devil's gorges ! Cry good luck, good people, e'er I pass for ever 1 Let no nail be missing in my slow endeavour ! If there be a blessing through the sparks a-flying, Let me pay my footing ere I come to dying ! If I fail, God help me ! — I myself am failing — But I'll strike the anvil, though my heart be quailing, Lest some traveller curse me through unwmy sinning. Stumble in the valley at the Way's beginning. Lest he curse my smithy, crying in a passion, " That poor fool attempted what he couldn't fashion ! " Well, good morning, blacksmith! Farewell, Sleepy Hollow! Life and work are calling — I must rise and follow. A SONG OF THE ROAD I sing a song of the road — Of meeting and " fashing " And greeting and clashing And bearing each other's load — I sing a song of the road. I sing a song of the way — Of fighting and burning, Delighting in learning Sealed orders we must obey: I sing a song of the Way. I sing a song of the road Of seeking and losing, Of toiling and choosing — And, ever behind, the goad ! I sing a song of the road. I sing a song of the Way — The strongest and dearest, Wisest and nearest Will never our trust betray, Who is Truth, Life, Master and Way! lO LIFE EVERLASTING O Life Everlasting, we thank Thee, we bless Thee, Caress thee, Confess Thee, And trust Thee for ever ! Oh, lift our endeavour to Thee, Everliving, That, striving, Life-gJAdng, We, we may receive Thee, And ever enweave Thee in deeds love-enwoven, And proven, Uncloven, Bright armour of glory ! Oh perf eft the story Thy wisdom desireth, Inspireth And fireth. In clay of Thy making ! II For we, Lord, partaking of Thee, Uncreated, Are fated, Unsated, To thirst with deep passion. Until Thou canst fashion the seed to a flower — Empower And dower Each soul with Thy beauty — Thro' stern grief and duty, the life in us lifting, Yet sifting And gifting With Godhead immortal; — Till Thou, thro' the portal called death, gently leading, Still heeding. Yet speeding. Wilt, suddenly turning — Those arms wide with yearning round each of us casting — Feast love, that was fasting, With love everlasting, O Life, Love, God, Father ! 12 LOVE TRIUMPHANT THREE RONDEAUS Triumphant Love! Now comes apace Thy flood-tide, that will leave no trace Of Time and Death, dead, hand in hand. Half-rooted in the desolate sand. Heart -shapen, blooms Thy garb of grace, Till, by Thy waves, that conquer space. The robe of that sweet flower's embrace Be freed from Time's cold rocky strand, Triumphant Love. Sole King of an immortal race, Though men thy mortal name debase ! Thy feet upon the rock now stand. Thy wings the infinite have spanned ! Unveil Thy power, reveal Thy face, Triumphant Love ! 13 II Triumphant Love, with heart and mind To thine ascended glory blind, We saw not Thee, when Thee we met, But that dark symbol cross- wise set In ways where Thou hast led mankind ; Betrayal, failure, undivined Renunciation, love enshrined In loss; long, long did we forget Triumphant Love ! O glorious face, once hid behind The uplifted arm round which was twined The judgement-robe that lightnings fret ! Those wondrous eyes we saw not yet : But now, in Judgement, lo, we find Triumphant Love ! H Ill Triumphant Love, oh, keep us pure By Thine own passion to endure. Till every heart in Thine shall beat — Our Sun, our Shadow from the heat — And no false sun or shade allure ! Let never a dream of hate immure Our life within its prison secure, Nor Self its treadmill-round repeat. Triumphant Love! If thou to hardship now enure The soul, in this life's overture To greater music, we entreat That we, through darkness, death, defeat. May triumph in Thy triumph sure. Triumphant Love! IS THE KING OF LOVE How little they know of His ardour and beauty, His sternness of purpose and chivalrous might, His bitter rebuke for betrayers of duty, His passionate purity, radiant of light ! Redeemer and Poet, the Image and Splendour Of God uncreated, by man unbeheld. The Potter whose touches are potent and tender; The Worker in metal He only can weld ! The dream of the world and the wheel of our dreaming, The glow and the glory, the love and the strife : These too are His making, for through them are streaming The infinite forces that fashion all life. But lo ! as they break us and thwart us and bend us, A touch through the whirring, the curve of a line. When life is at darkest is felt to befriend us, — A touch that is human, yet wholly Divine ! i6 Then, deep in the furnace of torments infernal, The rapture of heaven we know and we feel : His touch that we see not, untiring, eternal. That yearns to our yearning, is guiding the wheel. O Love, the indwelling, by Thee are we shriven. Ineffable Comforter, Lord of delight ! To those who are born of Thy Spirit, is given The quickening of peace in the thick of the fight. Thou comest, and swift, through the doorways of dulness. Come joy and vitality, glory and grace ! Who loves Thee will serve Thee with life in its fulness, Or die at his post with Thy joy on his face. O Christ, the unconquered, how dimly we know Thee, Thou Sun of the universe. Light of the world ! For all the sweet fire of our life that we owe Thee, Thy heart took the anguish the enemy hurled ! O Thou Who wast born of a brave human Mother, Some kneel in Thy presence, some, worshipping, stand ! Life's Symbol and Mystery! Master and Brother ! We grope in the darkness and feel for Thy hand. 17 A MAYTIME CANTICLE Most dear and awful Power ! Who may Thy glory tell? Thine are the radiant powers That will man's winter quell Till all its frozen grief Melt in recurrent cycle of sweet life ; Perfume and colour, both with blossom rife, Softest unfolding of new flower and leaf ! Creator Thou of all the poets quote. Oh, sing through birds in each fond wooing note, Oh, shine through sun-beams, bless the earth with showers ! Give rapturous motherhood to many a beast ; Breathe heavenly fragrance through the new-born flowers; Let all wild creatures come to their love-feast ; Make sun-set glories behind roofs and towers TiU moon and stars keep watch, ere in the east Dawn a new sujirise ! On the lowest and least Of man's sad children, — ^for whom playtime ceased Too young, too young! — ^pour forth spring's gladdening dowers ! Come to us, God, Love, Life, Mystic Emmanuel ! i8 Urge on thy heaven, through us who fight with hell ! In all earth's wedded bliss, Transcendant, dwell, And, most, in marriage of true man and wife — That every lonely and unmated heart In Thy dear arms may know the Joy Thou art And trust Thee utterly, who art their Christ, Altho' they know not how Thy mighty loom Is weaving out of treasure sacrificed The wedding garment of their blissful doom ! O Sacred, Secret Name ! through many a world on world, Hid under many names In scrolls not yet unfurled, On Thee with joy we call ! Thy lovers hail Thee Truth, Joy, Beauty! — One, Through all the lovely changes never done. Steadfast, eternal, still One God through all ! The One Life breathes through organ, viola, lute ; We pray lest our dull ears find music mute. Because our discord that vast concord shames. For once, we worship Thee with rapture dumb — Pray while Thy touch man's lowest passion tames, That evermore Thy kingdom stUl may come. Through budding vines and rainbow-shining flames And weaving fates that round the great world hum In pulses glad, that wildly beat and thrum, And spiritual battles that make up the sum Of noble warfare 'mid earth's idle games ! We trust Thee, Infinite One ! 19 We, who are driven and hurled Like drops of mist, to fall, with light impearled — Thy light — in dewdrops momentarily whirled Into a form reflefting Thee our Sun, We, through progressive ^Eons, may reach the goal. Through pain redeemed, of every human soul, Where, ever differentiate from the rest. Our light of life, lit by new joy^ shall burn In dual oneness, with Thy Soul as Guest, And, Love Undying, into Thee return ! 20 THE ONION-MEN ON THE SAINT HILDA I share the tastes of the people And now and then half believe That here by an English steeple Past lives may within me weave Traditions from unknown forebears that make me a comrade free Of Hebrews out of the Orient and Onion-men over the sea. Oh, Bretons who came to my cottage To sell me your sun-dried food, To me it was Esau's pottage Healthgiving and sweet and good ! And now through the treacherous waters that girdle our island round. Your folk, who were journeying homeward, for ever a Home have found. Here is a posy for them From one who, at harbour-gates, Long, long, ere the seas rolled o'er them, Had lost a brother, my mates, And dare not grieve for his going, though those dear eyes she may miss. If it filled up, to overflowing, his little-filled cup of bliss. 21 God help all ! God of the living Bless those who are out of sight, To your dead and my dead, giving His heaven of heart's delight ! Down there in the waste of waters, the horrible icy strife, It may be He lifted them up, mates, to love and comfort o' life. Not pray for the dead, God bless them ? Ah, but to God none are dead ! We were not there to caress them. But He was there instead. Oh, it breaks the heart to be thinking that they died in lonely pain! But if they could speak, they would tell us that they had not died in vain. Christ came not walking the waters To bid their storm be still. And though many had vtrives and daughters, He let the sea have its will ; This only my soul is sure of, when agony baffles thought. There is love in the secret meaning of all that His love has wrought. 22 THE VIOLIN SONGS OF A LOVER ANOTHER YEAR New golden coin, from out the golden years, That Love has minted and that Love endears, Wilt thou bring most of sorrow or delight ? Or will the joy and pain, like day and night, Alternate, mingle ecstacies and tears ? I will not fear thee, for I scorn the fears That gyve the soul before the fofi appears. What wilt thou buy in markets out of sight New golden coin? Strength? Wisdom? Peace? — that when the battle nears. Or Death, himself, earth's turbid vision clears. Locked in Love's arms, I may defy the flight Of youth and time? Love is my wealth, whose might For ever plucks from out the starry spheres New golden coin. 25 VIGIL OF CHRISTMAS Come to my heart, Old Memories, in these brief Advent days. And tune my heart, Old Memories, to tender hope and praise ! You touch an old, old instrument where Life keeps taut the strings : The breath of Love flies over it, and then it sings. You bring me joys most exquisite, you bring me sweet, wild pain. And neither joy nor suffering have ever come in vain. I feel the great Musician's touch that none may understand : I love, as others love a face, that great Musician's hand. Come to my heart, beloved dead, who are not dead to me. And you whom cold estrangement holds beyond a deeper sea! This is the day when Memory keeps with Faith and Love her tryst — The Yuletide flame is red and gold and burning amethyst. 26 The truths of our freemasonry are secret and divine, The morning stars that sang for J07 still in our heaven shine : The morning stars that sang for J07 with rapture hold their breath In presence of the infinite Love beyond the reach of death ! 27 SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES'S CARTOON OF ADAM AND EVE " I came that they may have life, and may have abundance." — St John X, 10. (See marginal note in Revised Version.) O Love, bring back to Man again The joys of dewy prime, Ennobled by the conquered pain. Enriched of garnered Time ; And Woman, when that day is born, With Man who serves made one. Shall bless the crown of sorrows, worn By Love, the Workman's Son ! O Breath of Eden, Light of Love, now winnow the world and burn The chaff and the stubble, below and above, that fly when the mill-wheels turn ! O joy of Liberty, Labour, Love, return, return, return! 28 It is not toil makes man a slave, Though, now in serfdom bound : Love works, Who first the order gave That man should till the ground. When base desires corrupt or soil, O Love ! all work and art. Create and quicken fruitful toil, Redeem our sordid heart ! O wind of Eden, Fire of Love, now winnow the world and burn The chafi o' the grinding, below and above, when the mighty mill-wheels turn! O joy of Labour, Liberty, Love, to this dark world, return! The tree of life is f uU of fruit If all may only share. But death is gnawing through the root In selfish, grasping Care : O Love, consume our cruel greed. Enrich the toiling poor ! For those in hell of deathly need Throw wide thy palace door ! O Sword of Eden, Fire of Love, come back in judgements stern. When lives are broken, beneath and above, where man's swift mill-wheels spurn Hearts made for Liberty, Labour, and Love! — Avenging God, return ! 29 O Light of Light, uaerring, just ! O Love, Thou Workman fine ! Make lovely still our lowliest dust, And through our darkness shine. Till Love and Labour, hand in hand, Have made an Eden of the Land And all the Earth is Thine ! While we are toiling through the night, our hearts within us burn: Before us, in the dawning light, is One whose face eludes our sight;— O Son of Man, unveil Thy might ! O Son of God, return ! 30 TWELFTH NIGHT Oh, starry night, wherein for all men still The King of Love is man's disguised Guest, Unclothed of Kingship by His own behest, Stooping a Child's obedience to fulfil That man thro' Him may ofier up his will And, lowly serving with the lowliest, Thro' pain and death at last may find his Rest In Life's divine joy. Love's creative thrill! We seek the Guiding Star of human fate That leads to Bethlehem ; and that Star endears The myriad stars that Love's own opposites mate — Centrifugal, centripetal, they chime — Till Love's Eternity, dissolving Time, Revoke at last the irrevocable years. 31 A NEW YEAR'S HYMN Consuming Fire ! Eternal Love ! Who grievestat Thy children's tears, Yet, seeing further than the years, A deeper deep, a height above, A life nor time nor space can move, Dost light unseen by shadows prove And with a rainbow veil the sun — Across the deluge guide the dove ! Soul of our life and of our love. Thy will be done ! Years come and go and sweep away The landmarks that we strove to make : Through what they leave and what they take. Build Thou the life that's more than they. And fill with light of heavenly day All we have built, now cold and grey As cobwebs in the darkness spun : Breathe health into our work we pray : Beyond the best we dream or say. Thy will be done ! 32 We trust not for ourselves aloae, But for thy boundless universe ! — Evolve the better from the worse ; Wake fountains in the flinty stone ; From fields the cruel scythe has mown Draw fragrance : when the swallow's flown And summer's past for every one, By ripened harvest, slowly grown From seed that patient hands have sown, Thy vnll be done ! Not only through heroic pain Divinely met and bravely borne, Not only by the crown of thorn, The loss that touches highest gain, The fires that vanquish every stain Till purest loveliness remain; Not only by the battles won Through deadly strife that seemed in vain,- We pray not only in our pain. Thy will be done ! But in the hour of joy supreme, The gift of powers Thou dost control. When lightnings flash and thunders roll. The hour diviner than our dream. That heals our Uf e and makes it whole, Do Thou Thy will from pole to pole, 33 O Source of J07, our Guide and Goal, Above the shadow still our Sun ! In many a life's unlettered scroll, Through bliss of body and of soul. Thy will be done! 34 PARTING (Written for music.) God bless you ! God be with you still, God keep you night and day When you are far away ! My heart your name will ever bless, My thoughts the thought of you caress. And for you pray. Alone I now must climb the hill : New faces crowd around, New voices near me sound : One dearest voice, and one sweet face That lights for me the darkest place, Will not be found. Yet shall their presence ever fill Dull Memory's day and night With longing and delight, Until, beyond this world of pain, All that is past is ours again. And faith is sight. 35 THE MYSTIC KEY Who loves unlocks the everlasting doors And stands eternal in the face of Time, Prisoned no more by mortal walls and floors, Unroofed of beams which thought must bverclimb, Free of the many mansions of the God Built by His own unmeasured measuring-rod ! 36 TO MY FRIEND Sweet recognition, when the soul looks out Just for an instant from the unveiled eyes, And love in either heart grows rich and wise. Too glad for fear, too absolute for doubt ! As a ship in mid-ocean tossed about. Suddenly sighting with a glad surprise Another toiler under the same skies To the same port, puts all her signals out. So, when thy life my life's horizon crossed, A fellow- voyager to the far shore Toward which I sailed, but one more strong and brave. Whose courage had won much my faltering lost ; — ■ Our hearts joined company, through wind and wave And stress of weather, kin for evermore. 37 IN ANSWER A sunflower burning on to meet the sun, A river for the boundless ocean bound, An arc that trembles toward the " perf eft round," Until, the long watch kept, the race all run. Heart's heart is found ! No foe our secret fortress can betray, For at the Master's feet the key we cast, Till earth's estranging destiny be past; Rejoicing, toiling, through the lonely day. To meet at last ! To meet at last ? — Do we not daily meet, By grief and distance undivided still, When through the Mill-wheel, with a sacred thrill, We feel redoubled power more nobly beat, — One life, one will! 38 A DRAMATIC LYRIC Unzvritten thoughts that spoke through his violin Alone by the firelight dreaming I watched in the twilight a flame, In its soft-hued beauty a-gleaming Like the robe you wore when you came. And I thought, my dear, that if only As once, ere God took you apart. You would whisper low, " Are you lonely? " Would come, ah, come, to my heart — Then all the yeSrs and the days, Dear, When Duty scourged like a rod, And God divided our ways. Dear, Would be nought to that gift of God. 39 A BALLAD He rode alone through the starry night, And the lady waited with listening eyes ; Then quick in the window she set a light And said, " Long watching has made me wise ! Away and away she seemed to hear The echo of hoofs on the wintry ground, And it thundered, thundered in her ear As her soul went forth to meet the sound. Nearer and louder the clattering grew; The light in the window dazzled her eyes ; " O husband ! husband, brave and true ! " Yet she could not see him in any wise. She opened the door with hurry and care — " Oh, heart of my heart, it must be he ! " A wild black horse stood panting there. But never a rider could she see. Oh, fair and sweet as the dawn of day. The lady opened the great hall-door. But the morning found her old and grey, For the man she loved came home no more. 40 ROSES Gifts for a lover, most exquisite roses ! Love, who uncloses Your leaves, to uncover Summer's own sweetness, uplifts far above her Messages brought by her, brought by the Summer ; {Jh, tho' she brought them. He only. He wrought them/) Love made the roses, not any chance comer. Crimson of burning, your heart-petals fashion — Whiteness of passion To blushes returning ; Gold of the sunset and dim divine yearning, Pale as the dawn-star when day dawns above him ! (Fragrance, the soul of them, breathes through the whole ofthenCy- Roses, the Rose-maker wants us to love Him ! 41 TIME FLIES Another Spring, the snowdrops come and gone ! Each year more swiftly than the last speeds on ; And none are quite alone who love and serve : God give them then endurance, courage, nerve, And strength for their eternal orison ! God help the solitary, selfish pang That thro' some longing heart this morning sprang. Seeing the birds all pairing and the flowers With mingled blossom mating their sweet powers. While in high heaven the lark, triumphant, sang, And all the earth to ecstasy was wrought, Save only souls thro' whose deep pain was bought Some new redemption for themselves or others — The dumb, unwedded hearts, the childless mothers. The lives still seeking for the God long-sought ! The universe, that doth all stars embrace, Is, by a parable, their market-place. And on its clock they count the minute-hand That marks the ages, while they, trembling, stand, Waiting their summons and the Master's face ! 42 SUMMER AND AUTUMN (A Dramatic Lyric.) The Rhyme of a Lover to his Beloved. The fir-trees screened my heathery bank, By fragrant gorse and whin : While like the wine of life I drank The perfumed neftar in, To noon's enraptured silence sank The sweet birds' joyous din. The year's most perf eft hour of bloom Had consummated earth ; No fleck of cloud, no hint of doom. Disturbed the magic birth Of Nature's best, too pure for gloom, Too exquisite for mirth. Bees rested in their revelling maze Where harebells graced the moor : The sky was aU one sapphire blaze, My roof and Heaven's floor : I felt the Timeless stand at gaze Through Time's wide open door ! 43 Yet through my soul a hunger crept Of Beauty's Self to take, A cry that deep within had slept Seemed all at once to wake, And sudden passion through me swept For more than suns can make. But when, long after, through the sleet Of autumn's chilling stress, I paced an ugly crowded street And felt amid the press, Because my heart so wildly beat, That you drew near to bless, A bliss half human, half divine. Defying death and fate. Rose round my life to make me thine, Dear joy, sweet love, true mate ! I saw the eternal watchfires shine, And earth was Heaven's gate. 44 FOR MUSIC An angel came to my door one day. Blind, deaf and dumb was he, But he stole the heart of my heart away, And he gave his love to me. For love can hear what love will say Though never a sound there be. I saw no plumed pinion fleet. No rainbow bright array. But I fain had kissed the weary feet That bore him far away. He vanished swiftly down the street, He could not, would not, stay. 45 RONDEAU Good-bje, my dear ! Since first we met, Your love has been an amulet To hold away low-aiming care And keep the shining sword I bare, From rusting stain or hasty fret. We'll meet again : and if not yet,— If not on earth, — no base regret Shall dim the memory we share : Good-bye, my dear ! By you, although your eyes be wet. Soul-armour is well braced and set. Through life and death to do and dare ! When far away from you I fare, Faith wiU not faint, nor love forget ! — Good-bye, my dear ! 46 NEW YEAR'S EVE If Time were all, each passing year would bring A deeper shadow underneath his wing To dark the New Year's vernal blossoming — If Time were all ! If Time were all, then, seeing youth depart, New years would bring new heartache to the heart, And plunge the deeper Death's perennial dart, — If Time were all ! But Time is but a dream, and Love abides. Love, the one f aft, one truth with many sides. More loving often when His face He hides And shadows all. Great Love is God : through holy bondage, He Makes all His children beautiful and free For that new golden year when Love will be Our joy in all. 47 TO HER HE LOVES (For S. Valentine's Day.) For every joy that's secretly desired, Unknown to me, although to Love well known, I pray to Him that it may be thine own, Till, with a garment all of joy attired, Thou goest gladly. When thy feet are tired. May flowers beset thy path, nor flowers alone. But little tender mosses that no stone May cut thee, or may scorch when sunbeam-fired ! No paradise of fools I ask for thee. But such a heaven as thou on earth art fain To give, thyself, to those thou holdest dear. Till Love's own law make the obedient free. While, through all sorrow, deepening joys remain And Love Himself dries each unbidden tear ! 48 WEDDING HYMN Eternal Love, for ever near, Bless Ti.ou our marriage-feast. And though a human voice we hear, Be Thou, O Love, the Priest ! Bless Thou the bridegroom and the bride. That men who see their life May love the Love in whom abide This husband and this wife. Thy love we breathe in every breath ; From Thee we dare not part : Oh, triumph over time and death. And keep us in Thy heart. At every meal, we pray Thee bless The bread Thou breakest. Lord, And fill with wine of happiness The cup upon the board. Thou, who f ulfillest all our needs, Around, within, above. Oh, fill with praise our work, our deeds, Till life itself be love! 49 Praise Love, the God of quick and dead, Praise Love, in Man made known. Praise Love, the Spirit, dear and dread. One God, yet not alone ! 50 TO THE LADY OF HIS HEART (Dramatic Lyric.) Oh, shall the rose enfold a spell For those that hold her dear, Which words alone can hardly tell To any mortal ear — Shall chains beneath the raging deep Some hidden message waft Which all the sea will secret keep From all the passing craft — Shall this year's swallow find a way To countries yet unseen, — But I not win thy heart to-day Where long my own has been ? SI TO " CARISSIMA " (A Dramatic Lyric.) September 29th — St Michael and All Angels It was your fingers that each September Wove the wreaths on Saint Michael's day, And here on earth you would stiU remember The dead you loved who had gone away. If great Saint Michael, his festa blessing, Would send you forth from the heavenly host To cheer some soul with a swift caressing. Your heart would tell you who needs you most ! My wreath is spoiled as I try to weave it : You said it was not work for a man ! In Heaven, as here at your grave I leave it, Pray for me, pray as you only can ! Shall I forget you, the unf orgetting, You, who were dearer than life and breath? — When the sun has forgotten its rising and setting, I shall remember through life and death ! 52 SAINT MICHAEL'S DAY " And they loved not their lives unto the death." — Lesson for St Michael and all Angels. There's one for whom I never fret, From whom I fear no pain, Whose love I grieve not, nor forget, Nor vex with sorrows vain. Beyond the troubled sea of life Where many ships go down. The joys that follow noble strife His faithful voyage crown. He dwells for ever in my heart For whom sea-f aring's done : Nor death nor distance rend apart The souls in Love made one. S3 LIFE'S CHOOSING Oh, Life, amid thy tasks divine, That crowd the path a thousandfold. And in the loom their threads entwine With dreaming lights that flash and shine And grief and joys on earth untold, How can I know which threads to hold, — Which Thou hast marked as truly mine? One only, 'mid a thousand things That every moment pass me by And brush against me with their wings, By strength that one brief moment brings. My hand may grasp, while on they fly, And while I clasp them, Old Time flings The flower he plucks to fade and die : From friends we love — or more than friends- Whose outstretched hands are fain to give What most we care for while we live, His rushing pace our own hand rends, — Another way our pathway wends, Our treasure, sorted through his sieve, Scarce touched until the journey ends. 54 Choose/or me : if my gaze depart From Thy gaze, let it swift return In love adoring ! Thy stern art, That holds the dearest far apart, Makes one at last all those who learn, Till deep through body and soul it burn, The love that wins them to Thy heart. SS SHE WAKES And in the name of the earliest Springtime was an echo of the syllables of her name. How long is wintry Time His fortress keeping, Where Kes the innocent Prime, A prisoner sleeping! When wiU Apollo break The spell around her. And her sweet eyes awake Where love has found her ? When will the thorn-tree bare Adorn her story And fill the fragrant air With bridal glory? The golden crocus burns, Through snowfiakes gleaming : Dear Spring, in sleeping turns. And smiles in dreaming. S6 To her soft, drowsy sigh The leaf-buds listen, And where the sunbeams lie, The dewdrops glisten. Birds sing above her head, Their festa keeping; They know she is not dead. But only sleeping ! 57 AN OLD REFRAIN Round the world and through the world, Under it and over, Like the light in dewdrops pearled, Or the scent in clover. Breathes the sweet and living breath Of a Love more strong than death. Grief wdll come and loss will come. Saddening many a morrow, But through all, though often dumb, Blessing even sorrow, Love, that knits the souls of friends. Makes for all divine amends. Quench not Love, though pain and wrong Smite the dead and living ! Quit ye like true men and strong. Vanquish by forgiving, — Nor in death itself let slip This life's heavenly fellowship ! 58 ALPHABETICAL SYMBOLS Four letters that a child may trace ! Yet men who read may feel a thrill From powers that kaow not time nor space, Vibrations of the eternal will — With body and mind and soul respond To " love " and all that lies beyond. On truth's wide sea, thought's tiny skiff Goes dancing far beyond our speech, Yet thought is but a hieroglyph Of boundless worlds it cannot reach : We label our poor idols " God," And map with logic heavens untrod. Music and beauty, life and art — RegaUa of the Presence hid — Command our worship, move our heart. Write " Love " on every coffin-hd : But infinite — beyond, above — The hope within that one word " Love." 59 COPHETUA Behold a weary beggar, said the King, A beggar trembliag at the Eden, gate All barred and bolted by a lonely fate That leaves the longing heart a-hungering ! Cophetua is that beggar : Dearest, fling Your heavenly largesse ere it be too late ! Fair Queen, already Queen, the only mate God meant for me ! to you I nothing bring, Tho' heart and kingdom both are at your feet. Since heart and kingdom both to me are nought Unless you take them and redeem your thrall. O Royal Love, God made you human-sweet : Look in my soul and read my inmost thought — I need you — stoop, and giving, give me all ! 60 THE FORBIDDEN LAND " Then, the King of that country remembered the many millions of his sub j efts to whom he had pledged his royal word that he would marry the Princess, that her people and his people might be at peace." — Old Romance. I am a king — of many lands the king — But never once, in the long day's attire, May I, through all my earthly wandering Amid the many changes time will bring. Enter the one land of my heart's desire. Only in dreams when by the bonds of sleep Is bound the gaoler that my soul employs, And wardens of those marches, slumbering deep, On vagrant thoughts no more surveillance keep. May I, unguilty, gaze upon its joys — May look into the eyes that evermore Are waiting, with their embassies divine. That country's crown and sceptre to restore To me — ^forbidden king that they adore — And make that dear immortal country mine. 6i I am a king, aad statecraft chose for me The lines wherein my staid aff eftions pace. While I to honour hold my world in fee, And, with my comrade-queen of high degree, Seek to forget an unf orgotten face. I am a king, and, for my people's sake, I signed the warrant with my royal hand Which exiled me. Let those my portion take, Who — ^poor and fortunate and blest — may make A home — a heaven — in my forbidden land ! 62 A GREETING Since once we crossed a daisied lawn Beneath an April sky, The blushing daisies never dawn But you seem standing by. And since we lingering stood to see The evening star burn bright. Your presence always comes to me When comes a starry night. Your every thought an answer gave To some half-thought of mine, And still the truths you love, right brave, My volumes interline. Because you strove vsith every ill And wrestled for the right, Your strength of heart is with me still In many a lonely fight. How much less bright was life before Your shadow on me fell : — God grant that I may love Him more Through loving you so well ! 63 CORYDON TO PHYLLIDA WITH A BUNCH OF AUTUMN VIOLETS Could all the measure of my love be set Within the compass of one tiny flower ; The yearning thoughts that chase thee hour by hour, The trembling hope, sweet fear, and fond regret ; — Could I enfold within one violet Love's deepest meaning and eternal power, The dewy sunshine of love's inmost bower, The charm which, having tasted, none forget ; — Or could a violet, breathing toward thee, tell What to no other soul I would betray, Fragrance like music then should find a spell To utter what no human words could say. Stoop down, dear love, these autumn violets smell. And make their message what thou wilt. Farewell. 64 THE MIST The sun and the dew were so far apart, The world would have said they could never have met, But the sun looked down vnth a burning heart When the earth with the crystal dew was wet ; So the dew went up in a golden mist — And they kist, Till the dew came back at the close of day, In a robe of the colour of amethyst, — And a crown of pearls on the green earth lay, Like tears of hope and of wild regret That told of an unforgotten tryst. Ere the sun had set. 6S CREATIVE UNITY The countless worlds that dance thro' astral spaces, Each one emitting swift ele6lric force, Whereby they interchange unseen embraces While keeping each its own appointed course — The million million stars that Hght our heaven And bless our eyes that search the dark above, Are they not builded by the sacred Seven, The Seven Flames in The One Fire of Love? One God we worship, for one law vibrateth Thro' all the universes great and small, The birth of waking planets consummateth And holdeth each eleftron in its thrall. When Light is broken, lo the glorious Three Flash beauty forth amid the crowning four. And all the sevenfold colour that we see Is round the Rainbow-Throne that we adore. Christ, when of choral sound, with power redeeming Is built our music, still in every chord Threefold the ecstasy that sets man dreaming Amid the fourfold wonders of his Lord ! Thro' all the worlds of science and of art The symbol, more than symbol, still is found; We hear, we feel, the beat of the One Heart, And know Him One, whose temple knoweth no bound. 66 Thrice, each seven days, our earth with tremor thrilleth* And twice three times, each hour of every day: And thro' the myriad worlds all heaven fulfilleth Thy sevenfold power O Life! O Truth! O Way! Oh, Thou who dost in love thyself outpour That, thro' Thy suffering, love may love create. Heart speaks to heart and we in love adore What Thou eternally dost consummate! * I learned for the first time, from an article on Matter and its Mysteries in the " Pall Mall Gazette," that the earth's axis, for some (as yet) unexplained reason, gives a sort of big shiver three times a week, and trembles after a lesser fashion every ten minutes. 67 LETCHWORTH : AT THE ARDEN PRESS