And many pieces of humanity, men, women, and children, gathering shellfish,
Swarmed with voices of gulls the sea-breach.
At twilight they went off together, the verge was left vacant, an
evening heron
Bent broad wings over the black ebb,
And left me wondering why a lone bird was dearer to me that many people.
Well: rare is dear: but also I suppose
Well reconciled with the world but not with our own natures
we grudge to see them
Reflected on the world for a mirror.
One grass-blade’s curve, or the throat of one birdThat clings to twig, ruffled against white sky.Oh cracked and twilight mirrors ever to catchOne color, one glintingHash, of the splendor of things.Unlucky hunter, Oh bullets of wax,The lion beauty, the wild-swan wings, the storm of the wings.’–This wild swan of a world is no hunter’s game.Better…
The rivers open their mouths and the salt salmonRace up into the freshet.In Christmas month against the smoulder and menaceOf a long angry sundown,Red ash of the dark solstice, you see the anglers,Pitiful, cruel, primeval,Like the priests of the people that built Stonehengc,Dark silent forms, performingRemote solemnities in the red shallowsOf the river’s mouth at…
At least it provides the cure for ambition.One does not crave power in ant-hills, nor praise in a paper forest;One must not even indulge the severeRomance of separateness, as of Milton grown blind and oldIn his broken temple against the drunkards:The ants are good creatures, there is nothing to be heroic about.But the time is…
Watch their own eyes.This gray rock, standing tallOn the headland, where the seawindLets no tree grow,Earthquake-proved, and signaturedBy ages of storms: on its peakA falcon has perched.I think here is your emblemTo hang in the future sky;Not the cross, not the hive,But this; bright power, dark peace;Fierce consciousness joined with finalDisinterestedness;Life with calm death; the…
At the camps of the living men in the valley, the army-mechanics’barracks, the roads where they try the tanksAnd the armored cars: ‘We also,’ they say, ‘trembled in ourtime. We felt the world change in the rain,Our people like yours were falling under the wheel. Greatpast and declining present are a pitiful burdenFor living men;…
Of Europe, that were the powers of the world, into rubble anddependence. We have won two wars and a third is comming.This one–will not be so easy. We were at ease while the powers of theworld were split into factions: we’ve changed that.We have enjoyed fine dreams; we have dreamed of unifying the world; weare…
