Twelve snails went walking after night.

Wickedly red or malignantly greenLike the beads of a young Senegambian queen.Showing, while millions of souls hurry on,The virtues of collars, from sunset till dawn,By dart or by tumble of whirl within whirl,Starting new fads for the shame-weary girl,By maggotry motions in sickening lineProclaiming a hat or a soup or a wine,While there far above…

Friends, I will not cease hoping though you weep.Such things I see, and some of them shall come,Though now or streets are harsh and ashen-gray,Though our strong youths are strident now, or dumb.Friends, that sweet town, that wonder-town, shall rise.Naught can delay it. Though it may not beJust as I dream, it comes at last…

The starry space, a castle hall:And Earth, the children’s room,Where all night long the old trees standTo watch the streams asleep:Grandmothers guarding trundle-beds:Good shepherds guarding sheep.

Let me rejoice this Sunday noon,And kneel while gray priests sing.It is not wisdom to forget.But since it is my fateFill thou my soul with hidden wineTo make this white hour great.My God, my God, this marvelous hourI am your son I know.Once in a thousand days your voiceHas laid temptation low.

Here in the wind I dream her unbound hairIs blowing round me, that desire’s sweet glowHas touched her pale keen face, and willful mien.And though she steps as one in manner bornTo tread the forests of fair Paradise,Dark memory’s wood she chooses to adorn.Here with bowed head, bashful with half-desireShe glides into my yesterday’s deep…

When you left your father’s houseWith your cheeks aglow?Eyes so strained and eagerTo see what you might see?Were you thief or were you foolOr most nobly free?Were the tramp-days knightly,True sowing of wild seed?Did you dare to make the songsVanquished workmen need?Did you waste much moneyTo deck a leper’s feast?Love the truth, defy the crowdScandalize…