Those seek no further than their quiet home,
Wives, walking westward, slow and wise.
Neither should I go fooling over clouds,
Following gleams unsafe, untrue,
And tiring after beauty through star-crowds,
Dared I go side by side with you;
Or be you in the gutter where you stand,
Pale rain-flawed phantom of the place,
With news of all the nations in your hand,
And all their sorrows in your face.
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Seeing we never found gay fairyland
And missed the tide of Lethe; yet are soonFor that new bridge that leaves old Styx half-spanned;Nor ever unto Mecca caravanned;Nor bugled Asgard, skilled in magic rune;Nor yearned for far Nirvana, the sweet swoon,And from high Paradise are cursed and banned;-Let’s die home, ferry across the Channel! ThusShall we live gods there. Death shall be…
A dismal fog-hoarse siren howls at dawn.
Backwards and forwards, helpless as a pawn.But I’m lazy, and his work’s crazy.Quick treble bells begin at nine o’clock,Scuttling the schoolboy pulling up his sock,Scaring the late girl in the inky frock.I must be crazy; I learn from the daisy.Stern bells annoy the rooks and doves at ten.I watch the verger close the doors, and…
The roads also have their wistful rest,
And the looks of men turn kind to clocksAnd the trams go empty to their drome.The streets also dream their dream.The old houses muse of the old daysAnd their fond trees leaning on them doze.On their steps chatter and clatter stopsFor the cries of other times hold menAnd they hear the unknown moan.They remember alien…
Between the brown hands of a server-lad
The men came up, lugubrious, but not sad,And knelt reluctantly, half-prejudiced.(And kissing, kissed the emblem of a creed.)Then mourning women knelt; meek mouths they had,(And kissed the Body of the Christ indeed.)Young children came, with eager lips and glad.(These kissed a silver doll, immensely bright.)Then I, too, knelt before that acolyte.Above the crucifix I bent…
Bugles sang, saddening the evening air,
Voices of boys were by the river-side.Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad.The shadow of the morrow weighed on men.Voices of old despondency resigned,Bowed by the shadow of the morrow, slept.( ) dying toneOf receding voices that will not return.The wailing of the high far-travelling shellsAnd the deep cursing of the provoking ( )The…
Budging the sluggard ripples of the Somme,
Softly her engines down the current screwed,And chuckled softly with contented hum,Till fairy tinklings struck their croonings dumb.The waters rumpling at the stern subdued;The lock-gate took her bulging amplitude;Gently from out the gurgling lock she swum.One reading by that calm bank shaded eyesTo watch her lessening westward quietly.Then, as she neared the bend, her funnel…