Once I loved a spider

Though naught but smoke and flame and drowning is seen.Lady of Light, speak, though you speak alone,Though your voice may seem as a dove’s in this howling flood,It is heard to-night by every senate and throne.Though the widening battle of millions and millions of menThreatens to-night to sweep the whole of the earth,Back of the…

It is the world’s one crime its babes grow dull,Its poor are ox-like, limp and leaden-eyed.Not that they starve; but starve so dreamlessly,Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap,Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve,Not that they die, but that they die like sheep.

And the rivers there are blue and white.Thunderclouds of grapes hang on the mountains.Bears in the meadows pitch and fight.(Limber, double- jointed lords of fate,Proud native sons of the Golden Gate.)And flowers burst like bombs in California,Exploding on tomb and tower.And the panther-cats chase the red rabbits,Scatter their young blood every hour.And the cattle on…

I am the pilgrim boyLame, but hunting the shrine;Fleeing away from the sweets,Seeking the dust and rain,Sworn to the staff and road,Scorning pleasure and pain;Nevertheless my mouthWould rest like a bird an hourAnd find in your curls a nestAnd find in your breast a bower:Nevertheless my eyesWould lose themselves in your own,Rivers that seek the…

Here in the wind I dream her unbound hairIs blowing round me, that desire’s sweet glowHas touched her pale keen face, and willful mien.And though she steps as one in manner bornTo tread the forests of fair Paradise,Dark memory’s wood she chooses to adorn.Here with bowed head, bashful with half-desireShe glides into my yesterday’s deep…

Was like a little FountainThat bids the birds rejoice.Her face was wise and solemn,Her hair was brown and fine.Her dress was pansy velvet,A butterfly design.To see her hover round meOr walk the hills of air,Awakened love’s deep pulsesAnd boyhood’s first despair;A passion like a sword-bladeThat pierced me thro’ and thro’:Her fingers healed the sorrowHer whisper…