Cornell University Library 
 PR5111.M9 
 
 My sea, & other poems; with an introd. by 
 
 3 1924 013 530 005 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013530005 
 
MY SEA 
 AND OTHER POEMS 
 
MY SEA 
 
 OTHER POEMS 
 
 BytheHON.RODEN 
 ]^OEL with an IN- 
 TRODUCTION by 
 
 STANLEY 
 
 ADDLESHAW- • • « 
 
 LONDON : ELKIN MATHEWS 
 CHICAGO : WAY ^ WILLIAMS 
 
 MDCCCXCVI 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 In these poems selected from the post?humous 
 works of the Hon. Rodm Noel will be found 
 many of those characteristics which from the 
 first have rendered his writings notable in the 
 vast poetical literature of the present reign. 
 Certain aspects, indeed, of the poet's genius won 
 for him a place somewhat apart from his con- 
 temporaries. 
 
 His were not perhaps the qualities that make 
 for popularity. Like Browning he demands a 
 loyal attention from his readers. This, few, alas, 
 care to give — but those who can and do give 
 it, certainly win their reward. 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 As a nature-poet he took rank with the 
 greatest of his contemporaries, for he under- 
 stood, as Wordsworth did before him, not only 
 the external beauty of nature, but knew also the 
 great guiding spirit that lies beneath it. He loved 
 the natural world for its innate beauty indeed, 
 but also because it was to him an outward 
 symbol of an invisible Deity. It is this quality 
 then that raises the nature poetry of Roden 
 Noel to a very different level from the pastoral 
 poems, of which we have only too many at the 
 present day. Numerous are the poets, still living, 
 who will babble to you of brooks and flowers, 
 but few or none who care to fathom the deeper 
 mysteries of nature. 
 
 But in Roden Noel's " Natura Naturans" we 
 find a fine philosophical veneration for nature 
 (so far removed from a mere sensuous apprecia- 
 tion of her beauty) fully exemplified. And we 
 may note in passing how the Poet does not 
 hesitate, in this poem, and in many others, to 
 touch upon much that may seem ironiceil or 
 cruel in Nature, or even to explore the darker 
 shadows of life. From doing this Wordsworth 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 himself shrank, with the result that his nature- 
 pictures though always fine, yet sometimes lack 
 artistic completeness. 
 
 Though Nature in all her forms, appealed to 
 Roden Noel most poignantly, it was the sea that 
 inspired him with his finest thoughts. The sea, 
 with its capricious changes from storm to calm, 
 had an overmastering fascination for him. None 
 of his poems are so fine as those in which the 
 very clang and strife of the waters seem trans- 
 muted into words. In these poems, too, his 
 technique rises to its highest level, and often 
 their lines ring with a grand yet subtle music. 
 
 In this little book will be found several poems 
 of the sea, none perhaps more powerful than 
 the "Nocturne" where the waves take tongue 
 and speak to the poet of his life, or the "Wild 
 love on the Sea " where the hissing of the storm 
 forms a fitting accompaniment to the firenzied 
 outcries of the triumphant and lawless lover. 
 The poem "At Porthcumo" will recall to many 
 "The Little Child's Monument" with which it 
 is connected in subject and akin in pathos. The 
 Sea here, is represented, not in strife and storm. 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 but in joyous gladness, and as a comforter to 
 the writer in his sorrow. 
 
 Roden Noel was perhaps primarily a nature- 
 poet; undoubtedly his strongest work was inspired 
 by the efFect Sea and Landscape had upon his 
 mind. But he was far from being only a nature- 
 poet. He was intensely human, and sympathized 
 as few literary men can do with the joys and 
 sorrows of mankind. All who have read " Poor 
 People's Christmas" will know how keenly he 
 felt for the sufferings of the poor, and how 
 bitterly he resented the cruel inequalities of 
 modem life. Nevertheless, though this passionate 
 sympathy with suffering made him strike at times 
 what might seem a pessimistic note, yet he never 
 preached the gospel of Despair, but rather pointed 
 out wrong, that it should not fester unseen but 
 be cleansed and rectified. 
 
 This sympathy with sorrow was accompanied 
 by an extraordinary admiration for all Deeds of 
 Daring. In this book is a short and spirited poem 
 " Isandula" inspired by that same love of courage 
 that urged him to write one of his longer and 
 more strenuous works, " Livingstone in Africa." 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 These two characteristics of his tempera- 
 ment as shown to us in his art — his love for 
 Nature and his love for humanity, are both as 
 I have said well exemplified in many of his post- 
 himious poems. Nor are examples wanting of 
 his lighter vein. The delicious " Eros in May" 
 the music of which is so delicately evanescent, — 
 the "Inconsistent" where a lifetime is summed 
 up in a few terse lines, and the pathetic "To a 
 Comrade" are all excellent specimens of his lyric 
 verse. 
 
 It may not be quite out of place, when offering 
 a selection of hitherto unpublished poems by the 
 late Roden Noel, to say a brief word concerning 
 the vexed question of his style. It must certainly 
 be conceded that the Poet was a thinker first 
 and a stylist afterwards. There are indeed in his 
 poems not seldom, lines that we could well wish 
 altered and polished. But oiTthe other hand his 
 style invariably rises with its subject (a rare gift) 
 and in his finer poems we come across passage 
 after passage where thought and words are wedded 
 in a manner only to be found in the great masters. 
 It is doubtless this inequality, this varying from 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 the heights to the depths, that has repelled those 
 accustomed to the smooth, if somewhat mediocre, 
 level of our Minor Poets. To whom we may say 
 that this sustained perfection in which they so 
 delight, is more often the result of Artifice than 
 Art. Roden Noel had but little in common with 
 our living poets, he was not the "idle singer of 
 an empty day" nor did he consider perfection of 
 form the final aim of Poetry. 
 
 Rather would he have seemed to take the much 
 disputed dictum of Matthew Arnold's that Poetry 
 should be a criticism of life as his standard of 
 perfection. A criticism of life in all its phases, 
 his poetry certainly was, and we may surmise, in 
 the sense that Arnold meant; that is to say as 
 a sympathetic interpretation, not as a callous 
 analysis of life, which the foolish have supposed. 
 For criticism without sympathy is after all but a 
 dead letter. 
 
 It were futile, nay impertinent, to hazard any 
 prophecy at this time, as to the place the work 
 of Roden Noel will ultimately take in our litera- 
 ture. That must be left for posterity to decide. 
 Let it suffice here to have noticed how his work 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 Strikes a contemporary. It may be said without 
 presumption that he has many and fervent ad- 
 mirers who will not easily let his memory die. 
 For, like all writers whose work has been the 
 subject of difference and dispute, he has com- 
 manded from his followers that tribute of whole- 
 hearted admiration so rarely paid to more generally 
 accepted talent. And this devotion has good' 
 reason for its existence. It is not the result of 
 unthinking admiration. For there is revealed in 
 his poems a noble nature that appeals to all that 
 is best in us. What Matthew Arnold said of 
 Goethe might be said with equal truth of him: 
 
 "He took the suffering human race 
 He read each wound, each weakness clear, 
 And struck his finger on the place. 
 And said thou ailest here and here." 
 
 Stanley Addleshaw. 
 Oxford, 1895. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MY SEA, MY SEA IJ 
 
 INCONSISTENT 20 
 
 WILD LOVE ON THE SEA 22 
 
 NOCTURNE 25 
 
 AT PORTHCURNO 27 
 
 EROS IN MAY 32 
 
 ISANDULA 34 
 
 MIDNIGHT 36 
 
 LIGHT LOVE BY THE SEA-GLORY .... 4O 
 
 TO 49 
 
 TO A COMRADE 5 1 
 
 TO 52 
 
 GREY EYES 54 
 
 MYSTIC MUSIC 56 
 
 NATURA NATURANS 59 
 
MY SEA, MY SEA 
 
 MY SEA, MY SEA 
 
 MY SEA, my Sea! 
 
 From east to west thou callest me, 
 From east to west I follow thee; 
 
 1 of the homeless heart go home 
 To hear thy lullaby of foam, 
 Thou homeless sea. 
 
 Whose dear voice hath no promise broken; 
 Of disappointing change no token 
 Thy sweet monotony of sound 
 Involveth, and thou callest me; 
 There's little human left so true 
 As thy deep billowy breast of blue 
 To lay the weary head upon, 
 Whose earthly day is nearly done; 
 Thy crystal doors would let me through 
 To the infinite beyond 
 From this our life's too galling bond: 
 Whether on the pebbly beach, 
 c 17 
 
MY SEA, MY SEA 
 
 Or on sand, thy tender speech 
 
 Makes living music, or on rock 
 
 The jubilant dear surges shock, 
 
 I hear thy voice, 
 
 And I rejoice, 
 
 Who was so very full of pain, 
 
 I deemed I could not smile again. 
 
 They ask why— since I set my dwelling 
 
 By thy billowy bosom swelling — 
 
 I do not seek my holiday 
 
 Inland: I know not what to say: 
 
 Why I travel not inland 
 
 Indeed I hardly understand; 
 
 But, O my sea, my sea, 
 
 Mystic voices summon me. 
 
 And, like a weeping child, I come — 
 
 O sheen elusive, fluctuant foam — 
 
 Where you sing your lullaby. 
 
 There to live, or there to die. 
 
 Ah! the fault is all in me, 
 Who seek what here may never be, 
 Who adore ethereal dreams, 
 That lend our earth few fleeting gleams; 
 And yet I know one glimpse of love 
 Is more than mines or treasure trove; 
 i8 
 
MY SEA, MY SEA 
 
 But he hath swift wings like a dove, 
 
 Light-nets on clear-water sand 
 
 Are less than Love's entangling band. 
 
 Silent, unaware they come. 
 
 Silent, unaware, pass home; 
 
 But when Love flieth, when he fadeth, 
 
 Pain grows for something that degradeth; 
 
 Thy shores are flecked with crimson weed, 
 
 But Love's with drops from hearts that bleed : 
 
 So for me, for me 
 
 My lipping, leaping, laughing sea — 
 
 My sea, my sea! 
 
 19 
 
INCONSISTENT 
 
 INCONSISTENT 
 
 A PROUD man, I adore the lowly, 
 
 Sinful, kneel before the holy, 
 
 Unclean, fall prone before the pure; 
 
 Rebel, salute Who did endure 
 
 Unmurmuring; give blow for blow. 
 
 Yet Him who, burdened with world's woe, 
 
 Unmindful of His own, fell low. 
 
 Glory to avow I serve; 
 
 And though men jeer, I will not swerve! 
 
 Lord, take my heart, and open it; 
 
 Judge Thou if that be hypocrite ! 
 
 Gold, pomp, revenge, the sword, the drum. 
 
 Scorn flaunted full by Christendom, 
 
 In face of Him we feign to follow. 
 
 And worship with lip-service hollow! 
 
 Yet why take this mean Man for God, 
 
 Unless for His poor, dark abode, 
 
INCONSISTENT 
 
 Where gloweth Love's eternal fire, 
 We felt some hidden deep desire? 
 We are captive, who would fain be free! 
 Soul of my soul, O Lord, deliver me! 
 
WILD LOVE ON THE SEA 
 
 WILD LOVE ON THE SEA 
 
 " O SING to me, sing to me, foam of the Sea, 
 Sing, while we sail, to my darling and me, 
 While we heel to the wind, the foam flies 
 
 from the bow. 
 My love laughs, we were never so happy 
 
 as now ! 
 
 We rush through the water, we scatter the 
 
 spray, 
 The foam-bubbles leap in the blue light 
 
 away. 
 My sails are less white than your bosom 
 
 or hand, 
 We will sail on for ever afar from the land. 
 
 O dotards may mumble their winterly talk. 
 But the young joy of living their age may 
 not baulk, ' 
 
 22 
 
WILD LOVE ON THE SEA 
 
 We shall soon be beyond their bleak North- 
 erly Clime, 
 
 Who fain would persuade us that love is 
 a crime. 
 
 Never fear, never fear, nestle closer to me, 
 
 O we joy to bound over wild waves and 
 be free! 
 
 For our bridal sing, winds! and, blithe bil- 
 lows, your song 
 
 Breathe into your clarion loudly and long t 
 
 Winds whistle, and fill the full-bellying sail ; 
 Yea, what if they rise, and blow shrill to 
 
 a gale? 
 My boat is a rare one, she swims like a 
 
 bird — 
 Ha 1 what if the roar on the reefs may be 
 
 heard ? 
 
 You're the loveliest lady that ever was 
 
 known, 
 My rival I slew, and the bride is my own ; 
 Warm bosom to bosom, hot mouth unto 
 
 mouth. 
 We are flying to lovelier lands of the 
 
 South...." * 
 
WILD LOVE ON THE SEA 
 
 " Nay, the sky's growing darker, I fain would 
 
 return — " 
 " Your doubts are too late, love, your scruple 
 
 I spurn;" 
 " I fear thee, I fear thee, fierce lover of mine ; 
 " Thy lips are the wild wave, thy breasts 
 
 are the brine!" 
 
 "Ho! with storm to the windward, and 
 
 breakers to lee, 
 " They go swimming with Death, who go 
 
 sailing with me !" 
 
 24 
 
NOCTURNE 
 
 NOCTURNE 
 
 At the close of a day in December 
 I went by the winter sea, 
 And my soul was a fading ember 
 In abysms of immensity. 
 
 Then God spake out of the gloaming, 
 Where the wave gave over strife, 
 And fell, wan, feeble, and foaming, 
 'Man, what hast thou done with life?' 
 
 I was ware of a mournful throbbing, 
 Of a seapulse on the shore. 
 And I heard in it women sobbing. 
 Whom I loved and who loved me of yore. 
 
 In a rift of the cloudy distance 
 Lay blood from the fallen sun, 
 While the wind with a low insistance. 
 Like a breaking heart moaned on. 
 
 25 
 
NOCTURNE 
 
 O blithely the sun ascended 
 With carol of bird and breeze! 
 And now his career being ended; 
 He fell through the leafless trees, 
 Amid sighing sounds of seas. 
 
 Do the life and the work fail wholly 
 For a man who hath lived and loved? 
 Through the joy and the melancholy 
 With finishing hand God moved. 
 
 26 
 
AT PORTHCURNO 
 
 AT PORTHCURNO 
 
 O RUDE cliff-castle pile, 
 
 resonant shell-shore, 
 
 Your clear green waters smile 
 
 In sunshine as of yore, 
 
 Rebuffed from the grave granite rock 
 
 With many a frolic water-shock ! 
 
 Their laughter glads your sand 
 
 With delicate white foam, 
 
 A dancing light green band 
 
 Under a deep blue dome. 
 
 It is the same blithe scene 
 
 Of wild aerial glee; 
 
 But years have rolled between 
 
 My happy past and me! 
 
 And yet aloud I call. 
 
 In fellowship with all, 
 
 1 catch my breath for joy 
 To see the wavelets toy .... 
 
 27 
 
AT PORTHCURNO 
 
 Till Stabbed to the heart I fall, 
 Remembering my boy; 
 For where the wavelets toy, 
 He did out-dance the hours, 
 Out-dance the briny brood. 
 Arrayed in soft sea-flowers, 
 While I defied the flood, 
 At flood-tide of my powers ! 
 My forehead strikes the stone; 
 Convulsed with sobs I moan, 
 Hear voices calling, 'Come, 
 To rest beneath the foam!' 
 
 The day was even as this. 
 Heaven wore as clear a brow, 
 Sea and earth one bliss, 
 Ah! what is wanting now? 
 The sunshine of the breast, 
 Youth more blithe than day, 
 Whose every wild behest 
 Unwearying limbs obey! 
 The presence of the child 
 That made my world so fair; 
 From whose frame undefiled 
 The soul fled otherwhere! 
 O lilt of playful wave, 
 28 
 
AT PORTHCURNO 
 
 dance of wild green billow, 
 Winning spells ye have, 
 Each following his fellow. 
 Clash, confound your foam 
 
 In your aerial home, 
 Refluent from the stone 
 On following wave to run, 
 Immingling treble laughter 
 With his that follows after! 
 And yet surpassing this 
 Were peals of boyish bliss, 
 When he danced with you, 
 And laughed into the blue! 
 Ah, what a harmony 
 Were then the earth and sky! 
 Now too like a knell, 
 Wanting the master-spell. 
 Their music seems to fall 
 On a heart beneath a pall; 
 For while live air I quaff, 
 
 1 seem to hear him laugh 
 With the breeze and brine. 
 And, hearing him, I pine. 
 Yonder is the cot white-walled. 
 Where I brooded o'er my rhyme. 
 And the solitude ne'er palled 
 
 29 
 
AT PORTHCURNO 
 
 Amid the fragrance of the thyme 
 By wild wave and cliif sublime, 
 Yet I do not love them less, 
 Now I feel my loneliness. 
 Nor brook that hurries toward the Sea, 
 To hide in His Eternity! 
 And mine are a few hearts who love 
 More than wastes of foam that rove! 
 But, ah, sweet sea! you conquer me 
 With your unconquerable glee! 
 I plunge, do what you will with me! 
 Every fluctuant foam-blossom, 
 Glassed within a limpid bosom. 
 Foamy hair, dishevelled blown 
 In all the glory of the sun, 
 How ye race toward the shore 
 Immingling on a shelly floor. 
 Labyrinthine lines of light 
 Dallying with you in your flight. 
 While the gleaming birds above 
 Hover over fish that move 
 In the lucid realms they love. 
 Oh, how the young air abounds 
 With happy musical sea-sounds! 
 Waves are they, or young children's voices? 
 The world is young! my heart rejoices! 
 3° 
 
AT PORTHCURNO 
 
 And surely he cannot be far 
 
 From here where such sweet voices are! 
 
 I will follow where you lead, 
 
 Flow over me, or wind your weed, 
 
 In a cave I'll learn your rede; 
 
 Where reposing at full length 
 
 I may recover youth and strength. 
 
 3« 
 
EROS IN MAY 
 
 EROS IN MAY 
 
 Maybloom foameth pink and white, 
 Applebloom hath purple light, 
 Butterflies have fairy flight. 
 Leaves dally in their young delight. 
 
 Goldencups with burnished boat 
 On billowy verdure blithely float. 
 In labyrinths under, dim, remote, 
 Daisy and speedwell blend their fine 
 Trebles in the joy divine. 
 While yellowdusted bees hum over 
 Honied purple of the clover. 
 
 Soft, fertile gold fills every flower. 
 Birds warble and pair in every bower; 
 We yield to Life's abounding power! 
 Now, or never, Love's full hour! 
 32 
 
EROS IN MAY 
 
 Laburnum burned in burning blue, 
 Windwaves o'er sheeny grasses flew; 
 No blossom was more fair than you; 
 Longing lips together grew! 
 
 Now warm kisses melt, combine, 
 Limbs are white and warm and fine, 
 Love is more than mantling wine. 
 All or nothing, lady mine ! 
 
 June, 1889. 
 
 33 
 
ISANDULA 
 
 ISANDULA 
 
 Near the close of the dim day 
 That saw defeat of England's pride, 
 Two horsemen cleave their torrent way 
 Through the dusk overwhelming tide 
 Of those who hurl the assagai, 
 Ruin yawns above their ride 
 Swarthy warriors mown like hay, 
 Carrying with them England's colours 
 From the field of death and dolours, 
 Riding from Isandula. 
 
 Never draw they bridle rein, 
 Followed by the loud pursuit 
 Their swift gallop bums the plain 
 Until either gallant brute 
 Failing with the mighty strain 
 Faints with ebbing life, on foot 
 They take up the flight again, 
 34 
 
ISANDULA 
 
 Carrying with tliem England's colours 
 From the field of death and dolours, 
 After dark Isandula. 
 
 They have reached the swollen river, 
 Lurid twilight falls around, 
 One cries " Comrade, now or never, " 
 Both have plunged in the profound. 
 For the goal of their endeavour 
 Is to land on English ground, 
 From their flag no fiend may sever. 
 They will save old England's colours 
 From the field of death and dolours, 
 Flying from Isandula ! 
 
 Two warriors on the further shore 
 Whose crimson glows with other red 
 Gashed and waterstained and frore. 
 Their countrymen discover dead. 
 Our colours round their waist they wore, 
 Royal on their lowly bed! 
 England on their heart they bore; 
 Wound in emblems of Her glory. 
 She remembers them in story, 
 Weeping for Isandula! 
 
 35 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 MIDNIGHT 
 
 Bewildered in a world of stars, 
 I wander in the dim midnight, 
 November mist their glory mars. 
 Bare boughs relieved on doubtful light; 
 I cower beneath the infinite. 
 Unseen one paces by my side. 
 The past gone far beyond recall! 
 Where now the laughter, joy, and pride. 
 Of life before the autumn fall? 
 My heart lies under a dull pall. 
 Dear forms and voices of my dead! 
 Restore them, O thou milky way! 
 Serene you shine, though they are fled! 
 The maze of worlds, cold, awful, grey. 
 Abides unchanged, but where are they? 
 I cower beneath chill eyes unmoved, 
 36 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 And like a lost child weeping go: 
 May hearts once loving and beloved 
 Be nought while ye are all aglow? 
 Nor you, nor them, nor self I know. 
 Where are they? only wild winds wail, 
 Or wander moaning on the wold, 
 Far surges on the rocks are rolled: 
 Gloom-involving mind will fail. 
 And the warmest heart lie cold. 
 O whelming wilderness of stars. 
 Of whom some never spake to men! 
 Blind behind our mortal bars, 
 Dsire we boast our eagle-ken. 
 Vaunt poor Earth the centre, when 
 Other reasons, rights and wrongs, 
 Joys, woes, battle-cries, and songs. 
 Reign yonder? all-devouring gloom 
 Demands my soul to feed the tomb I 
 They dartling rays of varied splendour 
 Mutual service royal render. 
 While evermore their lights advance 
 In solemn many-motioned dance. 
 The pageant of the illumined Past 
 Surrounds me in dim dream-array; 
 Mine own, now vanished in the vast. 
 Once more I hear their voices say, 
 37 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 'Well-loved faces fade away: 
 'We shall be like these one day!' 
 We wonder at their funerals; 
 To-morrow men will bear our palls. 
 Sure that we shall always grieve, 
 Ah, how soon the tears are dry ! 
 Vowing we will always cleave 
 To one love only, how we sigh 
 At other feet, yea, lightly leave 
 Ere Death can hasten to bereave! 
 Poor broken wrecks of Love and Joy 
 Lie stranded on the shores of Time ; 
 Our Reason, a fool's broken toy. 
 Once loomed so wondrous and sublime! 
 Weak feet are ours yon heights to climb. 
 And O what puny hands to span 
 Twin spheres of nature, and of man! 
 One treads an insect into earth 
 Unheeding — ne'er a jest nor jeer — 
 Yet some inviolable hearth 
 Of private conscious life was here! 
 High Mundane Powers mock man's despair. 
 Who recked not even what we were. 
 But crushed us in their awful mirth. 
 Young Love, who leaps to life like Rhine, 
 Child of the hills, reverberates mom, 
 38 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 With laughter and with joy divine. 
 Exulting only to be born, 
 He crowned, abounding, feeds with com 
 The races, warms their hearts with wine. 
 Yet the Life that blest the lands 
 Dies dwindled in ignoble sands! 
 
 39 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 II. 
 
 She swathed him in his comforter, 
 And watched him down the miry street; 
 The dreary dawn was aU one blur; 
 She heard the parting horse's feet. 
 He serves the milk from door to door, 
 The milkman his well-trusted friend; 
 But the mother trusts him more 
 To One who knows nor change nor end — 
 — The boy returns whom she did lend — 
 — But how? knifed, mutilated, stark, 
 "With foulest outrage done to death! 
 O Power tremendous, dire and dark, 
 From Whom we all derive this breath, 
 (He slays, and He delivereth!) 
 Men owe Thee life and strength and food. 
 Thou canst loose, and Thou canst bind ! 
 Yet I wUl not call Thee good. 
 And I dare not call Thee kind — 
 Until Thou deafen and make blind! 
 Is our awful world endued 
 With Demon's heart, that pumps black blood ? 
 40 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 With sin, disease, and accident, 
 
 Thou doest what the murderer doth! 
 
 Amid wrecked trains burnt, scalded, rent. 
 
 Thou mangiest babes of cherished growth! 
 
 To teU the horrors Art is loth. 
 
 Yoked to Hell's triumphal car 
 
 Toil we, prisoners of war? 
 
 Ah, longer than my peers forlorn, 
 
 I held to what appeared firm hold, 
 
 But now wild winds and waves have sworn 
 
 The loss of one who seemed too bold, 
 
 And plunged in the abysses cold; — 
 
 Over me their night hath rolled. 
 
 41 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 III 
 
 . And yet, what little hearts are ours 
 To hold the miseries of the world! 
 Behind our private belts of flowers 
 We play, nor view to ruin hurled 
 Our kindred, till for us Death lowers. 
 And summons from the pleasant bowers. 
 Dare not forecast the Future — know 
 The doom that Fate reserves for you! 
 Look no World-Gorgon in the face. 
 Grisly Madness waits that way; 
 Only help as help ye may! 
 We have to pass the loathly place, 
 To reach yon heights of holy Day, 
 Serenely shining far away. 
 So we justify the Lord. 
 And kiss the terrible red sword ! 
 Far throned in hidden eternal state, 
 Though wingless, desolate, she roam, 
 The Soul hath chosen all Her fate, 
 Now remembering not the Home, 
 Whereunto wealthier she wiU come. 
 42 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 If One who bore the wide world's pain 
 Heartbroken, blest and trusted God, 
 I may look up and smile again, 
 Kiss the plague-enravelled rod, 
 And follow where the Master trod. 
 Ah, surely, each is kin to all. 
 And man, a mirror of the whole; 
 Should worlds, gods, demons, aught appal 
 Who knows himself a conscious soul? 
 Give me but time, no bounds may thrall 
 One who hath God Himself for goal! 
 Ah, solitudes immense, profound! 
 And lonelier solitudes within! 
 Ye shine, O worlds, in solemn swound; 
 All the discord, all the din 
 Of a city's moil and sin 
 Heard from a tower, or from high ground 
 Blend to one great ocean-sound; 
 So from memories are lost 
 All we gladly would forget; 
 Faces white with Death's deep frost 
 Lose the fever and the fret ; 
 So yonder orbs in darkness met. 
 Each a silver tranquil ghost. 
 Lose all of vext and tempest-tost; 
 By mortal eyes undreamed in day, 
 43 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 Revealed alone to darkling night, 
 They rest so far, so far away, 
 I deem their calm and gentle light 
 For our consoling seems to say, 
 'Absorbed within the Infinite, 
 'Deforming evils fallen away, 
 'No dishonouring care can stain, 
 'The Ideal only rule and reign!' 
 
 Dear places, feelings, thoughts, will go, 
 
 Calm revolving worlds will fail, 
 
 But when the stars have ceased to glow 
 
 Abideth One who ne'er can pale. 
 
 And all in Him, immortal, hale. 
 
 Our Life, abide; whate'er remove, 
 
 Remaineth the Eternal Love, 
 
 And surely Love will reunite 
 
 Who wander sundered here in night ! 
 
 Surely Love will lead them home, 
 
 However far afield they roam! 
 
 Begun November, 1888; finished May, 1889. 
 
 44 
 
LIGHT LOVE BY THE SEA-GLORY 
 
 LIGHT LOVE BY THE SEA-GLORY 
 
 O LOVE, how the chorus 
 
 Of billowy laughter 
 Softens here for us, 
 
 And the winds' merry wafture 
 To a murmur subsideth, 
 
 Dulled by uneven 
 Cavewall that hideth 
 
 A span of blue heaven, 
 And sunflashing ocean, 
 
 Yet all in a minute 
 If you make a mere motion, 
 
 Your ear is full in it. 
 In the full tide of thunder 
 
 Sea pours in his joying; 
 Even so with blithe wonder 
 
 A child who is toying 
 To a shell's heart may listen, 
 
 Hold the lips near, withdraw them ; 
 45 
 
LIGHT LOVE BY THE SEA-GLORY 
 
 How the jewel waves glisten, 
 
 While sunny winds flaw them; 
 Green billows are blending 
 
 Clear luminous bosoms, 
 Confusedly lending 
 
 One another white blossoms; 
 Rank after rank they 
 
 On the sand fall in froth, or 
 Where iron cliffs flank, they 
 
 Rush athwart one another. 
 Grow transient fountains 
 
 Cloudily foaming, 
 Robe grim craggy mountains 
 
 Whitefurred with their coming. 
 Hear what a glorious 
 
 Wild warsong resounding. 
 As from ever-victorious 
 
 Hosts leaping and bounding! 
 Blue air is alive with 
 
 Young joy of their forces; 
 Lo! how they drive with 
 
 Tossed manes of white horses! 
 From flickering foam-blossom 
 
 Shadows are sliding 
 Down the waves' hollow-dome-bosom. 
 
 Gleaming and gliding. 
 46 
 
LIGHT LOVE BY THE SEA-GLORY 
 
 Little shells on a yellow sand, 
 
 With a wave-damascening, 
 Little wells in the mellowland 
 
 Eyes of deep meaning! 
 The glad ripple in dancing 
 
 On the shore with a light froth. 
 In his footing and glancing 
 
 Leaves it marked like a night-moth. 
 Gems in the carmine 
 
 Of dim fretted hollows ! 
 The cave is a starmine 
 
 Where the eye follows; 
 Purple seaweeds are laving 
 
 In pure pools at leisure. 
 Languidly waving 
 
 With delicate pleasure; 
 Fantastical arches 
 
 With cloud's wavy margin, 
 Where the ocean-wave marches, 
 
 Plumed cavalry charging! 
 You behold lonely islands 
 
 On the sea's azure through them. 
 I feel they are my lands, 
 
 I a bird flying to them. 
 ... If the wet sand be sinking 
 
 Under your frail foot, 
 
LIGHT LOVE BY THE SEA-GLORY 
 
 That in water land drinking 
 
 Groweth down like a pale root, 
 Sit here on my knee, love, 
 
 'Tis firmer and drier! 
 Safe here will you be, love. 
 
 From seas that aspire; 
 Ah! let us enjoy, love, 
 
 The moment in flying. 
 Even while we toy, love. 
 
 Daylight is dying! 
 Then will the hour come. 
 
 And touch with forgetting. 
 Stars over our numb 
 
 Forms rising and setting. 
 Alive the World- Wonder 
 
 Flames thundering onward, 
 And while we go under. 
 
 Earth sweepeth sunward; 
 I acclaim the wild world-masque. 
 
 Who cease to be agent. 
 Who, faint with my furled task. 
 
 Fall out of the pageant! 
 
 48 
 
TO 
 
 TO 
 
 Comrade beloved, and helpful soulfellow, 
 I fear lest that fine pallor I admire, 
 Wherefrom by twilight of thy rosy fire 
 Your eyes, like stars in limpid water, glow. 
 From pain and frequent weariness may flow ! 
 Ah ! more than one who loved me and my lyre 
 Hath left me darkling, and hath risen higher ; 
 I pray thee, comrade, to abide below ! 
 
 With tuneful voice, and with the poet's heart 
 You sing to heal and gladden our sad time. 
 With Mary you have chosen the better part, 
 Shedding soul-rays upon our weary clime; 
 Neither your friend will yield you, nor your 
 
 Art; 
 He needs yourself, and she requires your 
 
 rhyme. 
 
 49 
 
TO 
 
 Translation from the German. 
 
 But once again; my spirit cries, 
 I would behold thy face, 
 Ere in the sunshine of thine eyes 
 I fade, nor leave a trace ! 
 
 It was a dream, a lovely dream, 
 
 I lived with thee my love; 
 
 All vanished, like the foaming gleam, 
 
 That on the wave may move! 
 
 There now remains in memory 
 
 Thine image, thine alone; 
 
 My heart broods ever over thee, 
 
 And longs for thee, mine own! 
 
 5° 
 
TO A COMRADE 
 
 TO A COMRADE 
 
 He said, "Now I shall go to sleep",* and 
 died. 
 
 Ah! brother, when shall we rest side by- 
 side? 
 
 O God, O God, the duty is too hard 
 
 Ever, on every hand. Thy citadel to guard ! 
 
 Yet, comrade, life is to be loved, and love ! 
 
 Will not these two remain when all remove ? 
 
 However deep the abysses that divide, 
 
 However roars between the sundering tide ! 
 
 * Byron's last words. 
 
TO 
 
 TO 
 
 As one who rideth pale and weary 
 Through a barren lonely land — 
 While the dull horizons dreary 
 Around, one solitude, expand — 
 Finds unaware a limpid spring 
 Of warbling water on the way, 
 Lovely home of flower and wing. 
 Gentle bird and flitting jay; 
 Parched lips unto the fountain cling. 
 In those wan eyes there dawns a ray. 
 New life to languid limbs they bring, 
 Chill October yields to May: 
 So thy brilliant bloom thy prime 
 To my heart was when I met thee ; 
 O passion flower from sunnier clime. 
 In memory's garland have I set thee! 
 52 
 
TO 
 
 Glorious gain, or honeyed harm, 
 Thine the subtle, witching charm, 
 In thy large, thy limpid eyes 
 The labyrinthine mysteries. 
 
 Aug. 9th, 1893. 
 
 S3 
 
GREY EYES 
 
 GREY EYES 
 
 Lady of the large grey eyes, 
 Limpid lakes, aerial skies, 
 Home of heavenly harmonies, 
 Like a bird, my soul takes flight 
 To lose herself in ample light. 
 Warm and deep and infinite! 
 Soundeth all the gloaming mine. 
 Where the living jewels shine, 
 Passeth happy languid hours, 
 Dreaming in the lovelit bowers. 
 Wanders meshed in mazy flowers! 
 Patience, Courage strong and true. 
 Pity dwells amid their dew. 
 Tender flower soft and blue. 
 Yea, from care for human pain. 
 Weeping warm and gentle rain. 
 You would even embrace your bane. 
 Wanting only to sustain ! 
 54 
 
GREY EYES 
 
 Roused by wrong, the starry dream 
 Veileth all her tranquil beam, 
 Cloud-enshrouded lightnings dart 
 Angers of a righteous heart! 
 Hideth there an earthlier fire, 
 To consume us on the pyre 
 Of wild, flame-beautiful desire? 
 I know not! only in your eyes 
 Limpid, large, responsive, wise, 
 Lo ! my soul, a bird, takes flight 
 To lose herself in ample light. 
 Warm, and deep, and infinite! 
 
 August, '89 
 
 55 
 
MYSTIC MUSIC 
 
 MYSTIC MUSIC 
 
 Faint memory of a dreambom tune, 
 MufHed low the music sounded, 
 But the same air, reforming soon, 
 More lovely, ever more abounded. 
 Broke bonds where in the silence wound it. 
 Growing more articulate 
 From hidden orchestras that mould it, 
 Assumed a more majestic state. 
 Labyrinthine flower unfolded 
 Hourly by the breath of spring, 
 Until the Harmony all glorious 
 Rose on strong, expansive wing 
 Dominating, pealed victorious, 
 Erst budding, dim-divined thing; 
 Now the elate exultant hearer 
 Feels his heart arrived at home, 
 "While that paean ever clearer 
 With thunder-roll expands the dome; 
 56 
 
MYSTIC MUSIC 
 
 His heart, a royal-ported swan, 
 Sails the sound, where wondrous vision, 
 As by some hcirbour-river shone, 
 Dream-palace fronts, the world's derision, 
 Deemed fancies vain! arow they flank 
 The flower-terraced shore; but pinion 
 Of the eagle-music sank; 
 Fell from that sublime dominion. 
 So a fountain fails and flows. 
 The organized high strain reverted, 
 To formless murmur whence it rose 
 The hearer's heart dropped disconcerted, 
 The flower withered to a close; 
 All the glowing glories faded. 
 Common day oppressed the view. 
 Dream-palace frontage blurred and shaded; 
 And yet, ah yet, he hears anew, 
 Evolving order from confusion. 
 The rhymic travail throbbing low, 
 Reforming kosmos; no illusion. 
 Whatever comrades named it so. 
 For he knew the breathing chorus 
 Not from him alone did flow. 
 Like spring-tides of the ocean, bore us. 
 Pealing at full flood again. 
 To goals beyond the primal strain, 
 57 
 
MYSTIC MUSIC 
 
 More vital even, rich sonorous, 
 Fed on failure, want and pain. 
 He knew the anthem re-created 
 Ever by the general soul, 
 The human soul with nature mated, 
 Who lives to organize the whole. 
 That would fain evade control; 
 So the God grows formed within us. 
 And without us in the world; 
 Till the spheral music win us, 
 And our weary wings unfurled 
 Young, unwearying, unhasting. 
 Fulfil their high emprize, while resting. 
 
 April, 1893. 
 
 58 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 NATURA NATURANS 
 
 The woodlands have a green world all their 
 
 own, 
 Young joy of life among the delicate leaves, 
 To men who wander under them unknown. 
 Where whispering Zephyr light and shadow 
 
 weaves, 
 And dewy-eyed blithe birds of various tone 
 Thrid labyrinths illumined; singing heaves 
 Their dewy bosoms while they charm the 
 
 bowers. 
 And gaily set a-swinging many a spray 
 With buoyant, swift caprices; tall beech 
 
 towers, 
 Mossed bole of mottled variegated grey, 
 From thronging grasses flecked with sulphur 
 
 flowers ; 
 Among the boughs a sweet perpetual play 
 Of living things newborn; a mystic sound 
 59 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Pervades their interwoven sea-murmuring 
 roof, 
 
 Where love-built nests, where cooing doves 
 abound ; 
 
 Of Love's high advent the young world 
 gives proof; 
 
 Love at full flood makes earth one holy- 
 ground ; 
 
 Love's hands aerial weave a wondrous woof 
 
 Of melody and mystery Divine; 
 
 So that I wish my dear dead for a dwelling 
 
 No lovelier than this lovely land of mine 
 
 When Spring arrives, and waves her wand, 
 compelling 
 
 A million blades and blooms to rise and 
 shine; 
 
 Yea, from sere leaf-lace, humid mould sweet- 
 smelling, 
 
 Life-feeding generations of the dead, 
 
 Beauty and health are nourished with young 
 
 joy. 
 
 Here the veined fragile sorrel bells are fed. 
 Whose leafs a triple heart; babe roseleaves 
 
 toy 
 With hazel wands, wee crimson thorns they 
 
 wed 
 
 60 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 With wandering woodbine; leaflets tumble 
 
 coy 
 Out of pink winter-cots o'er one another, 
 Rumpled and laughing ; by sweet sun called 
 
 early 
 Obeying the dear still voice of their Mother; 
 While infant ferns wake peeping scaled and 
 
 curly ; 
 Ruffled, fresh green leaf-sister calls to 
 
 brother ; 
 The warm South shepherds showers mild 
 
 and pearly. 
 Here lady beech, embraced by her lord oak, 
 Leaned in his strong rude arms, while well 
 
 content 
 Under their breaths young leaves immingl- 
 
 ing spoke 
 Softly, and then were silent, their souls 
 
 blent. 
 The ecstasy of nightingales awoke 
 Within the downy-foliaged firmament; 
 Rivers and lakes of hyacinths meander 
 Among the teeming greenery below, 
 Where many a humming velvet bee may 
 
 wander. 
 And the dew-elves' illuminations glow, 
 6i 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Mid tiny herbs, pale primrose, blue ger- 
 mander. 
 
 But those great aisles of pillared forest 
 show 
 
 Large open spaces, clear of trees, whose 
 mast, 
 
 And russet leaves of many years have 
 browned 
 
 Floors, only greenlit by young fern; here 
 passed 
 
 The storm's might, wrestling with the 
 strength of crowned 
 
 Tall forest kings, and bowed their pride at 
 last. 
 
 Yonder a piteous sight upon the ground! 
 
 Huge oak that would nor bend nor break, 
 uprooted. 
 
 Though with prodigious talons it grasped 
 earth, 
 
 Deepbased in Night; as high in Day fair- 
 fruited. 
 
 Dowered with a home inalienable from birth, 
 
 It seemed, for ever here; whose fall was 
 bruited 
 
 With league-wide tumult, when the storm's 
 fierce mirth 
 
 62 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Hurled low the giant, and a wide wound 
 
 made 
 In rich brown soil; a very garden-space 
 Of mould and stones the tree clutched as 
 
 it swayed 
 In that dread shock; there many a flower's 
 
 fair face 
 Peers now mid those great rent roots naked 
 
 laid. 
 The forest patriarchs live out long years, 
 Their inner secret all unknown to man; 
 They groan, they labour in the storm, with 
 
 tears 
 Of rain they twinkle, glow with light ; but 
 
 can 
 Any divine what feeling saddens, cheers. 
 What mind informs the inarticulate clan? 
 Nay, they are resting on their own calm 
 
 shade. 
 While men pine under them, men fume and 
 
 fret; 
 The gentle grass and flowers are ne'er afraid. 
 With dews, not tears, the woodland ways 
 
 are wet ; 
 Though human hearts were broken whUe 
 
 they prayed, 
 
 63 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Serenely breathed the wee wild violet. 
 Yon trees live out long lives; our genera- 
 tions, 
 Like their own leaves, rise, fall about their 
 
 feet, 
 Through periods; mere shadowed clouds 
 
 men fleet, — 
 While these drowsed Druid forms keep 
 
 wonted stations. 
 Lives individual, dynasties, and nations; 
 Their mystic souls and ours may never meet. 
 These have known rose-red youth, fair love, 
 
 young gladness, 
 Have seen Heartshine ascend the heavens 
 
 to wane, 
 Heard the blithe hunter's horn, bells tolled 
 
 for sadness. 
 Seen child grow man, then turn to child 
 
 again. 
 Stem, strong resolve fade out to halt, blind 
 
 madness. 
 Their peers in age beheld the Red King 
 
 droop. 
 His heart stilled by a random-glancing dart. 
 While pulsing with hot life, and loud with 
 
 hope; 
 
 C4 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Beheld the royal jester, lewd and swart 
 Cower mid their boughs from that rough 
 
 Roundhead troop, 
 Questing like sleuthhounds under their green 
 
 heart ; 
 Saw Henry hide his Rose-of-all-the-world 
 In bowers like these, lest Eleanor discover 
 The adored and dainty morsel closely curled 
 Away from her, fierce wedded hawk a-hover. 
 He found her slain, the nest to ruin hurled, 
 Then raving anguish burned the royal lover. 
 But yonder ants with their economies 
 Are every whit as wonderful as man ! 
 For note how each his proper function plies. 
 Counting for world-crest his poor bustling 
 
 clan; 
 These have towns, loves, wars, long-drawn 
 
 histories, — 
 And famous bards, with critics born to ban ! 
 Ah, men! your laughter-moving airs and 
 
 graces 
 Your fond assumptions of authority. 
 Seem antics to the calm eternal faces. 
 Regarding you fi-om yonder world-eyed sky ; 
 For haughty gesture, proud look, royal 
 
 paces, 
 F 6s 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Turn palsy, rheum-drops, flotsam idling by! 
 Leaf-filtered sunshine lies upon the moss, 
 Between cool shadows, like a tranquil 
 
 blessing ; 
 The exhilarated merry branches toss 
 Their newborn leaves in azure air caressing ; 
 With red-tipped daisies, cups of silver gloss, 
 Young Spring the wrongs of Winter is 
 
 redressing. 
 Hearken! what passion-hearted wealth of 
 
 song 
 With fire-spray, mazy blossom, thrills the air, 
 Vieing a moment, with more during throng 
 Of budded plants, that make wood-floors so 
 
 fair; 
 From fountain-stems of pining low and long 
 Flies many-spangling rapture rich and rare. 
 The solemn-pillared aisles are misty-dim 
 With distance; their moss waves are green 
 
 and brown; 
 All blends with the sweet mood of her and 
 
 him, 
 Whose fair young forms are lying listless 
 
 down 
 Under a forest lord of giant limb, 
 His dragon roots around their beauty thrown. 
 66 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 They leaned anear a stately tower of beech, 
 Against a cavemed ruin of old oak, 
 Where nestling very closely each to each, 
 They were so happy that they seldom 
 
 spoke, 
 Silently waiting for dear Love to teach ; 
 Whose breath was gentler than mild airs 
 
 that woke 
 In festal foliage, tenderly defined 
 Athwart the still blue waters of a lake, 
 A woodbird's flight away, where moorhens 
 
 find 
 Their reedy home ; with flash and plash they 
 
 make 
 Warm stillness sweeter for the twain reclined. 
 As o'er the water their glad way they take; 
 And yet anon a harmless sylvan sound 
 Of squirrel, bird, or restless russet leaf 
 Startles the timid hearts with sudden bound. 
 They fear some coldly-prying human thief 
 May snatch the bliss wherein they both 
 
 are wound. 
 So rich and rapturous, albeit so brief! 
 Fair woodland labyrinths weave green lithe 
 
 arms 
 To roof the curly head of either lover, 
 67 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 And downy leaves are whispering soft 
 
 charms, 
 While to and fro the nimble Ariels hover. 
 Fanning desire that never dreams of harms. 
 Whatever sword unseen be hanging over. 
 Fine limbs, fair undulating delicate flesh, 
 Invite to joy the solitude allows. 
 While vital sap that rises pure and fresh 
 Challenging calls the kindred blood which 
 
 flows 
 In their warm veins; sun weaves a glowing 
 
 mesh 
 With foliaged shadows on the smooth, white 
 
 skin; 
 From Pleasure's mantling bowl the ripe lips 
 
 quaff; 
 They hear the cuckoo-call leave off, begin 
 Ever afresh, doves coo, and the wild laugh 
 Of woodpecker, tit's tinkle clear and thin. 
 Yet for a moment they observe what half 
 Alarms; it stares, they deem, with spectral 
 
 scowl, 
 A dwarfed, deformed trunk, hugegirthed, 
 
 mouldering, dark, 
 By Heaven's bolt blasted; a monk's shadowy 
 
 cowl 
 
 68 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 It seems to wear, one blackened arm stretched 
 
 stark, 
 As in denunciation; a grim ghoul 
 Head-tentacled, with fungus-blotched rude 
 
 bark, 
 (In such a scene the Druid poured young 
 
 blood!) 
 But not one leaf upon its monstrous age; 
 This chilled their hearts a moment as it 
 
 stood 
 In dead brown drifts, an evil-threatening 
 
 mage; 
 Yet subtle spells rose from the breathing 
 
 wood! 
 The caterpillar in a fine silk swung 
 From frondage o'er them, hued like pale 
 
 green jade, 
 While flower-bells a fairy peal faint rung; 
 In leafy cradles the aurelia swayed, 
 And now the lovely lovers closer clung. 
 
 Feeling a summer-sense in all the glade 
 
 But far away one heard the woodman's axe 
 Splinter the cream-white, fragrant woods 
 
 resounding ; 
 Muscle-ridged arms, and supple stalwart 
 
 backs 
 
 69 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 The man-surpassing years of trees are round- 
 ing; 
 
 So God, the woodman, clears the space He 
 lacks 
 
 Among His men and women, too aboimding; 
 
 To warm Himself the human faggot stacks. 
 
 Is it Dame Nature's frolic thus to dangle 
 
 Baits She who made us knows we can't 
 resist ? 
 
 Set Conscience and blind Passion all a-jangle. 
 
 Then frown because we have too hotly kissed, 
 
 And done her bidding; bad folk wiU she 
 mangle ? 
 
 Nay, for Her mills use bad and good for 
 grist! 
 
 ro 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Mid gorgeous autumn gold she creeps to die; 
 All the deep forest bums with wondrous fires ; 
 The low red sun glares like God's angry eye. 
 Through black contorted boughs, whose leafy 
 
 lyres 
 Are muttering veiled oracles on high, 
 While she flits haggard through rain-sodden 
 
 mires, 
 Her heart a-flame; wild-eyed and pale she 
 
 fares ; 
 The branches pluck at her the while she goes ; 
 Few songsters warble where the hectic flares, 
 But on a winedark bramble the wind blows 
 Some soft grey down blood-reddened; an 
 
 owl scares 
 Her hooting from the hollow oak ; she knows 
 That place too well ; the lake is at her feet, 
 Where he and she lay lapped in heaven's 
 
 bliss ! 
 Dimrobed in cloth of gold those beeches 
 
 greet 
 
 71 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Her, stately curtseying; dusk waves they kiss, 
 In carmined mirrors their own image meet. 
 Whispering, "Maiden, here your haven is 
 " From the hard world ! " dense-thronged 
 
 around the lake. 
 Whereon there lay a kind of oily scum. 
 A misty phantom brood; she deemed they 
 
 spake, 
 " Poor child ! and can you hesitate to come, 
 " When Love and all your cruel race for- 
 sake, 
 " Where kind Oblivion oflFers you a home ? " 
 The tall grey heron in chill twilight stands 
 Unmoved as stump or stone, until it hears 
 A plash, a human cry; the form expands 
 Wide wings; a grey ghost flies; she dis- 
 appears ; 
 The water-rings grow large. 
 — One roamed the strands, 
 Days after, a young man beset with fears 
 For her strange flight; he saw above the 
 
 water 
 At dusk a pale light by the sighing grove ; 
 Upon him wandering the labourer's daughter. 
 Missed from her home, flashed unaware, his 
 love, 
 
 72 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 Though she loved a young noble ; her self- 
 slaughter 
 Will soon be plain when that dread treasure- 
 trove 
 Grim grappling-irons labouring up-buoy, 
 An awful formless burden which was youth, 
 Inanimate dim chaos which was joy! 
 
 73 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 II 
 
 But ah, the cruel vision, void of ruth. 
 Shifts now the scene, to show love's brittle toy 
 Broken, mid direr deathsheads of dull truth! 
 See those once lovely lovers walk the earth. 
 Still side by side, for both are living yet. 
 Yea, they were married; but the morning 
 
 mirth 
 Hath yielded to chill rain, and dull regret. 
 In the gaunt winter woodlands there is dearth 
 Of life and song; in those twinned hearts 
 
 who met 
 To dance at early dawn, there dance grim 
 
 Death, 
 And pale gaunt Horror, with a ghastly 
 
 motion ; 
 For now no dear enchantment of Love's 
 
 breath 
 Transmutes dull Fact ; as when through some 
 
 clear ocean 
 Plain weeds form lambent fairy realms 
 
 beneath ; 
 
 74 
 
NATURA NATTTRAN^ 
 
 But they have drunken Time's belittling 
 
 potion, 
 And through once warm veins creeps the 
 
 wintry frost 
 Of age, indifference, disillusionment, 
 Wrath, hate; each droopeth, a tired haggard 
 
 ghost ; 
 Poor cankering cares for trivial things had 
 
 blent 
 With these to wither hopeful buds that, lost, 
 Can ne'er form fruit now; so, wan eyes 
 
 downbent. 
 They fare upon life's dreary barren road, 
 Snows of deep winter on bowed heads and 
 
 hearts. 
 As on bare-boughs that groan beneath their 
 
 load. 
 Ah ! but the acorn dropped in summer starts 
 A winged green seedling from its blind abode 
 Of burial in kind earth; and sleep imparts 
 For renovation rest; the workworn dead, 
 Who only longed to cease, have found more 
 
 life 
 Unwear)ring ; and hearts who once were wed, 
 (So, Faith low-breathes, with strangling 
 
 doubts at strife), 
 
 75 
 
NATURA NATURANS 
 
 For all change, failure, torpor, wounds that 
 
 bled, 
 In sunnier climes will grow true man and wife. 
 What shocks the best in us can neer be true. 
 Nor aught unlovely, save in outward seeming; 
 These are the larval Virtues that endue 
 Slow ripening perfections richly teeming; 
 They wore another aspect while they grew ; 
 But Sense may prove less near the Truth 
 
 than Dreaming. 
 
 76 
 
H' 
 
 
 7ii Liu \iiiitU) U' 1: ^' ' I ( .*