When I am dead, my dearest,

I stood beside Euphrates while it swelledLike overflowing Jordan in its youth:It waxed and coloured sensibly to sight;Till out of myriad pregnant waves there welledYoung crocodiles, a gaunt blunt-featured crew,Fresh-hatched perhaps and daubed with birthday dew.The rest if I should tell, I fear my friendMy closest friend would deem the facts untrue;And therefore it were…

How we’d look down on toilsome men!We’d rise and go to bed at eightOr it may be not quite so late.Then you should see the nest I’d build,The wondrous nest for you and me;The outside rough perhaps, but filledWith wool and down; ah, you should seeThe cosy nest that it would be.We’d have our change…

And if there comes a babe, as there may some happy year,‘Twill be little lord or lady at my knee.Oh, but what ails you, my sailor cousin Phil,That you shake and turn white like a cockcrow ghost?You’re as white as I turned once down by the mill,When one told me you and ship and crew…

How many minutes in an hour?Sixty for sun and shower.How many hours in a day?Twenty-four for work and play.How many days in a week?Seven both to hear and speak.How many weeks in a month?Four, as the swift moon runneth.How many months in a year?Twelve the almanack makes clear.How many years in an age?One hundred says…

We found her hidden just behind those screens,That mirror gave back all her loveliness.A queen in opal or in ruby dress,A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,A saint, an angel — every canvas meansThe same one meaning, neither more nor less.He feeds upon her face by day and night,And she with true kind eyes looks back…

And your face as white as snowdrops on the lea,And your voice as hollow as the hollow sea?’‘From the other world I come back to you,My locks are uncurled with dripping drenching dew.You know the old, whilst I know the new:But to-morrow you shall know this too.’‘Oh not to-morrow into the dark, I pray;Oh not…

Like lead I chase it evermore,I pant and run.It breaks the sunlight bound on bound:Goes singing as it leaps alongTo sheep-bells with a dreamy soundA dreamy song.I laugh, it is so brisk and gay;It is so far before, I weep:I hope I shall lie down some day,Lie down and sleep.

Though I till now be barren, now at lengthLord, give me strengthTo bring forth fruit to Thee.Thou who didst bear for me the crown of thorn,Spitting and scorn;Though I till now have put forth thorns, yet nowStrengthen me ThouThat better fruit be borne.Thou Rose of Sharon, Cedar of broad roots,Vine of sweet fruits,Thou Lily of…

When Molly sat down cryingFor her broken doll:O you silly Moll!Sobbing and sighingFor a broken doll,When all the bells are ringingAnd all the birds are singing.

Has set me dreaming of the winds that playPast certain cliffs, along one certain beach,And turn the topmost edge of waves to spray:Ah pleasant pebbly strand so far away,So out of reach while quite within my reach,As out of reach as India or Cathay!I am sick of where I am and where I am not,I…

To hear the singers at their song,And players at their play.Put on your crown of wind-flowers:But whither would you go?Beyond the surging of the seaAnd the storms that blow.Alas! your crown of wind-flowersCan never make you fly:I twist them in a crown to-day,And to-night they die.

Plant thou no roses at my head,Nor shady cypress tree:Be the green grass above meWith showers and dewdrops wet;And if thou wilt, remember,And if thou wilt, forget.I shall not see the shadows,I shall not feel the rain;I shall not hear the nightingaleSing on, as if in pain:And dreaming through the twilightThat doth not rise nor…

I planted a heartAnd there came up balm.Then I planted a wish,But there sprang a thorn,While heaven frowned with thunderAnd earth sighed forlorn.

Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,Pale and reluctant on the water’s brinkAS on the brink of parting which must be.Each eyed the other’s aspect, she and he,Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,Each tasted bitterness which both must drink,There on the brink of life’s dividing sea.Lilies upon the surface,…

Lie close around her; leave no room for mirthWith its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs.She hath no questions, she hath no replies,Hush’d in and curtain’d with a blessed dearthOf all that irk’d her from the hour of birth;With stillness that is almost Paradise.Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her,Silence more musical than any…

Slow and sure may miss his way,Swift and sure may fail.

Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise;This was the promise of the days of old!Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould,Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies:We hoped for better things as years would rise,But it is over as a tale once told.All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore,All lost the…

Let them lie hid in double shade of leaves,Their own, and others dropped down withering;For violets suit when home birds build and sing,Not when the outbound bird a passage cleaves;Not with dry stubble of mown harvest sheaves,But when the green world buds to blossoming.Keep violets for the spring, and love for youth,Love that should dwell…