They have been laughing where the sad rain wept,They have taught Beauty to the ignorant flowers,Set tasks of hope to weary wind-torn bowers,And heard the lessons learned in school-rooms coldBy seedling snapdragon and marigold.At dawn, while still you slept, I grew awareHow good the fairies are, how many and fair.The fairy whose delightful gown is…
And set my heart as sentry thereTo guard your happy innocence–If I might plant a hedge so strongNo creeping sorrow could writhe through,And find my whole life not too longTo give, to make your hedge for you–If I could teach the wandering airTo bring no sounds that were not sweet,Could teach the earth that only…
Caresses that seemLike love’s lips in a dream;Yet we know she is here,The desirèd, the dear,The love of the year!In the murmur of boughs,In the softening of skies,In the sun on the house,In the daffodil’s green(Half an inch, half-unseenMid the mournful brown mouldWhere the rotten leaf lies)Her story is told.O Spring, darling Spring,O sweet days…
O heart of my heart, come hither to me!Come to me straight over land and sea,My soul–my own!Not now–the clock’s slow tick I hear,And nothing more.The year is dying, the leaves are sere,No ghost of the beautiful young crowned yearKnocks at my door.But one of these nights, a wild, late night,I, waiting within,Shall hear your…
ENGLAND, my country, austere in the clamorous council of nations,Set in the seat of the mighty, wielding the sword of the strong,Have we but sung of your glory, firm in eternal foundations?Are not your woods and your meadows the core of our heart and our song?O dear fields of my country, grass growing green, glowing…
No less the shadow falls on down and hill,And the bright hues grow dull as brows grief-bowed.So, when thou goest from me into the crowd,Though well I know thy love through good and illShines steadfastly, thy going seems to fillThe world with shade–turn sunshine to a shroud.But when through clouds the sun returns to blessHill,…
Downs where the white sheep wander, little gardens in blossom,Roads that wind through the twilight up to the lights of home.Lanes that are white with hawthorn, dykes where the sedges shiver,Hollows where caged winds slumber, moorlands where winds wake free,Sowing and reaping and gleaning, spring and torrent and river,Are they not more, by worlds, than…
And their desire seems set aboveThe limitation of their souls.This is the trap; this is the snare,This is the false, enchanting light,And when it smoulders into night,How can each know the other is there?They own no bond of common speech;Each, from far shores by wild winds brought,Gropes for some cord of common thoughtTo draw the…
Where, ‘mid brown leaves, the primroses awakeAnd hidden violets smell of solitude;Beneath green leaves bright-fluttered by the wingOf fleeting, beautiful, immortal Spring,I should have said, ‘I love you,’ and your eyesHave said, ‘I, too . . . ‘ The gods saw otherwise.For this is winter, and the London streetsAre full of soldiers from that far,…
God will see us and judge usThe kind of men we were;And our sins, so ugly and heavy,We shall drag them into His sight,And throw them down at the foot of the throne,Foul on the steps of light.We shall not be shamed or frightened,Though the angels are all at hand,For He will look at our…
