Alfred Noyes

I.

A narrow way, but Freedom walks therein;A straight, firm road through Chaos and old Night,And all these wandering Jack-o-Lents of Sin.It is the road of Law, where Pilate staysTo hear, at last, the answer to his cry;And mighty sages, groping through their mazeOf eager questions, hear a child reply._Truth? What is Truth?_ Come, look upon…

‘Our cavalry have rescued Nazareth from the enemy whose supermen

The Emperor mocked at NazarethIn his almighty hour.The Slave that bowed himself to deathAnd walked with slaves in Nazareth,What were his words but wasted breathBefore that ‘will to power’?Yet, in the darkest hour of all,When black defeat began,The Emperor heard the mountains quake,He felt the graves beneath him shake,He watched his legions rally and break,And…

In old Japan, by creek and bay,

Where birds with sea-blue plumage gayThrough sea-blue branches go:Dragons are coiling down belowLike dragons on a fan;And pig-tailed sailors lurching slowThrough streets of old Japan.There, in the dim blue death of dayWhere white tea roses grow,Petals and scents are strewn astrayTill night be sweet enow;Then lovers wander whispering lowAs lovers only can,Where rosy paper lanterns…

Long, long ago, He said,

And walk upon the sea-‘Come, follow Me.Leave your brown nets and bringOnly your hearts to sing,Only your souls to pray,Rise, come away.Shake out your spirit-sails,And brave those wilder gales,And I will make you thenFishers of men.’Was this, then, what He meant?Was this His high intent,After two thousand yearsOf blood and tears?God help us, if we…

Shadow-of-a-Leaf

Elf-blooded creature, little did he reckOf this blind world’s delights,Content to wreathe his legs around his neckFor warmth on winter nights;Content to ramble awayThrough his deep woods in May;Content, alone with Pan, to observe his forest rites.Or, cutting a dark cross of beauty thereAll out of a hawthorn-tree,He’d set it up, and whistle to praise…

Last night, I dreamed of Nippon….

Drifting before the sunsetOn seas of opal light.Beyond the wide PacificI saw its mounded snowMiraculously changingIn that deep evening glow,To rosy rifts and hillocks,To orchards that I knew,To snows of peach and cherry,And feathers of bamboo.I saw, on twisted bridges,In blue and crimson gleams,The lanterns of the fishers,Along the brook of dreams.I saw the wreaths…

Trumpeter, sound for the last Crusade!

Sound for the passion, the splendour, the pityThat swept the world for a dead Man’s sake,Sound, till the answering trumpet ringsClear from the heights of the holy City,Sound till the lions of England awake,Sound for the tomb that our lives have betrayed;O’er broken shrine and abandoned wall,Trumpeter, sound the great recall,Trumpeter, rally us, rally us,…

‘If I could whisper you all I know,’

‘You’d never say that green leaves grow.You’d say, ‘Ah, what a happy moodThe Master must be in today,To think such thoughts,’That’s what you’d say.’‘If I could whisper you all I’ve heard,’Said the Old Fool in the fern,‘You’d never say the song of a bird.You’d say, ‘I’ll listen, and p’raps I’ll learnOne word of His joy…

Carol, every violet has

Every little valley liesUnder many-clouded skies;Every little cottage standsGirt about with boundless lands.Every little glimmering pondClaims the mighty shores beyond—Shores no seamen ever hailed,Seas no ship has ever sailed.All the shores when day is doneFade into the setting sun,So the story tries to teachMore than can be told in speech.Beauty is a fading flower,Truth is…