Unlike our uses and our destinies.
Our ministering two angels look surprise
On one another, as they strike athwart
Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art
A guest for queens to social pageantries,
With gages from a hundred brighter eyes
Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part
Of chief musician. What hast thou to do
With looking from the lattice-lights at me,
A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through
The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree?
The chrism is on thine head,—on mine, the dew,—
And Death must dig the level where these agree.
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How he sleepeth! having drunken
From his pretty eyes have sunkenPleasures, to make room for more- –Sleeping near the withered nosegay, which he pulled the day before.Nosegays! leave them for the waking:Throw them earthward where they grew.Dim are such, beside the breakingAmaranths he looks unto- –Folded eyes see brighter colours than the open ever do.Heaven-flowers, rayed by shadows goldenFrom the…
IF thou must love me, let it be for naught
‘I love her for her smile–her look–her wayOf speaking gently,–for a trick of thoughtThat falls in well with mine, and certes broughtA sense of pleasant ease on such a day’–For these things in themselves, Beloved, mayBe changed, or change for thee–and love, so wrought,May be unwrought so. Neither love me forThine own dear pity’s wiping…
Five months ago the stream did flow,
And we were lingering to and fro,Where none will track thee in this snow,Along the stream, beside the hedge.Ah, Sweet, be free to love and go!For if I do not hear thy foot,The frozen river is as mute,The flowers have dried down to the root:And why, since these be changed since May,Shouldst thou change less…
Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make,
For thine and thee, an image only soFormed of the sand, and fit to shift and break.It is that distant years which did not takeThy sovranty, recoiling with a blow,Have forced my swimming brain to undergoTheir doubt and dread, and blindly to forsakeThy purity of likeness and distortThy worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit:As if…
And yet, because thou overcomest so,
Thou canst prevail against my fears and flingThy purple round me, till my heart shall growToo close against thine heart henceforth to knowHow it shook when alone. Why, conqueringMay prove as lordly and complete a thingIn lifting upward, as in crushing low !And as a vanquished soldier yields his swordTo one who lifts him from…
The Saviour looked on Peter. Ay, no word,
Though heavy with armed justice, did not leanTheir thunders that way: the forsaken LordLooked only, on the traitor. None recordWhat that look was, none guess; for those who have seenWronged lovers loving through a death-pang keen,Or pale-cheeked martyrs smiling to a sword,Have missed Jehovah at the judgment-call.And Peter, from the height of blasphemy–‘I never knew…
L’avezza giovinetta pastorella
Va bagnando l’herbetta strana e bella
Che mal si spande a disusata spera
Fuor di sua natia alma primavera,
Cosi Amor meco insu la lingua snella
Desta il fior novo di strania favella,
Mentre io di te, vezzosamente altera,
Canto, dal mio buon popol non inteso
E’l bel Tamigi cangio col bel Arno
Amor lo volse, ed io a l’altrui peso
Seppi ch’ Amor cosa mai volse indarno.
Deh! foss’ il mio cuor lento e’l duro seno
A chi pianta dal ciel si buon terreno.
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Aug. 9.
Lord how many are my foesHow many thoseThat in arms against me riseMany are theyThat of my life distrustfully thus say,No help for him in God there lies.But thou Lord art my shield my glory,Thee through my storyTh’ exalter of my head I countAloud I cry’dUnto Jehovah, he full soon reply’dAnd heard me from his…
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter’d saints, whose bones
Ev’n them who kept thy truth so pure of old,When all our fathers worshipp’d stocks and stones;Forget not: in thy book record their groansWho were thy sheep and in their ancient foldSlain by the bloody Piemontese that roll’dMother with infant down the rocks. Their moansThe vales redoubl’d to the hills, and theyTo Heav’n. Their martyr’d…
HENCE, loathed Melancholy,
In Stygian cave forlorn…………’Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sightsunholy!Find out some uncouth cell,…………Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,And the night-raven sings;…………There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks,As ragged as thy locks,…………In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.But come, thou Goddess fair and free,In heaven yclept Euphrosyne,And by men heart-easing Mirth;Whom lovely Venus, at a…
Thus they in lowliest plight repentant stood
Prevenient Grace descending had remov’dThe stonie from thir hearts, and made new fleshRegenerat grow instead, that sighs now breath’dUnutterable, which the Spirit of prayerInspir’d, and wing’d for Heav’n with speedier flightThen loudest Oratorie: yet thir portNot of mean suiters, nor important lessSeem’d thir Petition, then when th’ ancient PairIn Fables old, less ancient yet then…
Captain, or colonel, or knight in arms,
If deed of honour did thee ever please,Guard them, and him within protect from harms.He can requite thee, for he knows the charmsThat call fame on such gentle acts as these,And he can spread thy name o’er lands and seas,Whatever clime the sun’s bright circle warms.Lift not thy spear against the Muse’s bower;The great Emathian…
XVI
E’re half my days, in this dark world and wide,And that one Talent which is death to hide,Lodg’d with me useless, though my Soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, least he returning chide,Doth God exact day-labour, light deny’d,I fondly ask; But patience to preventThat murmur, soon replies, God doth not…
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or is that her only dress?
Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?
Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?
Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?
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I want you to know
You know how this is:if I lookat the crystal moon, at the red branchof the slow autumn at my window,if I touchnear the firethe impalpable ashor the wrinkled body of the log,everything carries me to you,as if everything that exists,aromas, light, metals,were little boatsthat sailtoward those isles of yours that wait for me.Well, now,if little…
Love, a question
I have come back to youfrom thorny uncertainty.I want you straight asthe sword or the road.But you insiston keeping a nookof shadow that I do not want.My love,understand me,I love all of you,from eyes to feet, to toenails,inside,all the brightness, which you kept.It is I, my love,who knocks at your door.It is not the ghost,…
The gay young men and the love-sick girls,
and the young pregnant wives of thirty hours,and the raucous cats that cruise my garden in the shadows,like a necklace of pulsating oysters of sexsurround my lonely residence,like enemies lined up against my soul,like conspirators in bedroom clotheswho exchange long deep kisses to order.The radiant summer leads to loversin predictable melancholic regiments,made of fat and…
Out of lemon flowers
on the moonlight, love’slashed and insatiableessences,sodden with fragrance,the lemon tree’s yellowemerges,the lemonsmove downfrom the tree’s planetariumDelicate merchandise!The harbors are big with it-bazaarsfor the light and thebarbarous gold.We openthe halvesof a miracle,and a clotting of acidsbrimsinto the starrydivisions:creation’soriginal juices,irreducible, changeless,alive:so the freshness lives onin a lemon,in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,the proportions, arcane and acerb.Cutting…
The Queen
There are taller than you, taller.There are purer than you, purer.There are lovelier than you, lovelier.But you are the queen.When you go through the streetsNo one recognizes you.No one sees your crystal crown, no one looksAt the carpet of red goldThat you tread as you pass,The nonexistent carpet.And when you appearAll the rivers soundIn my…
When the trumpet sounded, it was
the Jehovah parcelled out the earthto Coca Cola, Inc., Anaconda,Ford Motors, and other entities:The Fruit Company, Inc.reserved for itself the most succulent,the central coast of my own land,the delicate waist of America.It rechristened its territoriesas the ’Banana Republics’and over the sleeping dead,over the restless heroeswho brought about the greatness, the liberty and the flags,it established…
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Peleus on Thetis stares.
Her limbs are delicate as an eyelid,
Love has blinded him with tears;
But Thetis’ belly listens.
Down the mountain walls
From where pan’s cavern is
Intolerable music falls.
Foul goat-head, brutal arm appear,
Belly, shoulder, bum,
Flash fishlike; nymphs and satyrs
Copulate in the foam.
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NOW as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the skyWith all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,And all their helms of Silver hovering side by side,And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied,The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
THERE is grey in your hair.
When you are passing;But maybe some old gaffer mutters a blessingBecause it was your prayerRecovered him upon the bed of death.For your sole sake — that all heart’s ache have known,And given to others all heart’s ache,From meagre girlhood’s putting onBurdensome beauty — for your sole sakeHeaven has put away the stroke of her doom,So…
On Cruachan’s plain slept he
What most could shake his soul:‘The stallion EternityMounted the mare of Time,‘Gat the foal of the world.’
O CURLEW, cry no more in the air,
Because your crying brings to my mindpassion-dimmed eyes and long heavy hairThat was shaken out over my breast:There is enough evil in the crying of wind.
I AM tired of cursing the Bishop,
Nine books or nine hatsWould not make him a man.I have found something worseTo meditate on.A King had some beautiful cousins.But where are they gone?Battered to death in a cellar,And he stuck to his throne.Last night I lay on the mountain.(Said Crazy Jane)There in a two-horsed carriageThat on two wheels ranGreat-bladdered Emer sat.Her violent manCuchulain…
THE jester walked in the garden:
He bade his soul rise upwardAnd stand on her window-sill.It rose in a straight blue garment,When owls began to call:It had grown wise-tongued by thinkingOf a quiet and light footfall;But the young queen would not listen;She rose in her pale night-gown;She drew in the heavy casementAnd pushed the latches down.He bade his heart go to…
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Peleus on Thetis stares.
Her limbs are delicate as an eyelid,
Love has blinded him with tears;
But Thetis’ belly listens.
Down the mountain walls
From where pan’s cavern is
Intolerable music falls.
Foul goat-head, brutal arm appear,
Belly, shoulder, bum,
Flash fishlike; nymphs and satyrs
Copulate in the foam.
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CUMHAL called out, bending his head,
With a blink in his eyes, at the cave-mouth,Between the wind and the wood.And Cumhal said, bending his knees,‘I have come by the windy wayAnd learn to pray when you pray.‘I can bring you salmon out of the streamsAnd heron out of the skies.’But Dathi folded his hands and smiledWith the secrets of God in…
GOD guard me from those thoughts men think
He that sings a lasting songThinks in a marrow-bone;From all that makes a wise old manThat can be praised of all;O what am I that I should not seemFor the song’s sake a fool?I pray — for word is outAnd prayer comes round again —That I may seem, though I die old,A foolish, passionate man.
YOU gave, but will not give again
By Biddy’s halfpennies have lainTo be ‘some sort of evidence’,Before you’ll put your guineas down,That things it were a pride to giveAre what the blind and ignorant townImagines best to make it thrive.What cared Duke Ercole, that bidHis mummers to the market-place,What th’ onion-sellers thought or didSo that his plautus set the paceFor the Italian…
WHAT need you, being come to sense,
And add the halfpence to the penceAnd prayer to shivering prayer, untilYou have dried the marrow from the bone?For men were born to pray and save:Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,It’s with O’Leary in the grave.Yet they were of a different kind,The names that stilled your childish play,They have gone about the world like wind,But little…
I TURN round
Neither know what I amNor where I go,My language beatenInto one name;I am in loveAnd that is my shame.What hurts the soulMy soul adores,No better than a beastUpon all fours.
‘Love is all
That cannot take the wholeBody and soul’;And that is what Jane said.‘Take the sourIf you take meI can scoff and lourAnd scold for an hour.’‘That’s certainly the case,’ said he.‘Naked I lay,The grass my bed;Naked and hidden away,That black day’;And that is what Jane said.‘What can be shown?What true love be?All could be known or…