xt7rv11vf98w https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7rv11vf98w/data/mets.xml Cawein, Madison Julius, 1865-1914. 1890  books b92-188-30608471 English J.P. Morton, : [Louisville] : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Lyrics and idyls  / by Madison Julius Cawein. text Lyrics and idyls  / by Madison Julius Cawein. 1890 2002 true xt7rv11vf98w section xt7rv11vf98w 









LYRICS AND IDYLS




           BY




    MADISON JULIUS GAWEIN.



JOHN P. MORTON  COMPANY.
         I 890



UWIU) U)M0.

 
































COPYRIGHTED BY M. J. CAWEIN.

 


























                    TO


            James Lane ATlen

                    AND

          Rnoxtt Ilurtns  hilson,

WITH REGARD AND APPRECIATION FOR THE HIGH STAND-
     ARD OF BEAUTY THE EXCELLENCY OF THEIR
        WORK, PROSE AND POETICAL. HAS
              GIVEN TO SOUTHERN
                 LITERATURE.

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     CONTENTS.





WITr 4KARPE AfD PYPN.



IDEAL DIVINATnON. .......
THE BEAUTIFUL,  .......
OVERSEAS..
PORPH YROGENITA..
ORIENTAL ROMANCE. ......
LOVE I HAD BANISHED.....
HE TELLS ............
SHE SPEAKS-.      .....
UNCERTAINTY, .
FALL.
BENEATH THE BEECHES .....
ANDALIA.
NOERA.
JULIA.
LORA.
BLA NCH.  . .. ... .  .
PHYLLIS.
VALK YRIEN... .. .. .. .
MOTHS.
As IT IS. ............
THOUGHTS.
AFTER THE TOURNAMENT, . . .
AMONG THE ACRES OF THE WOOD
LOVE A-MILKING .



.............. .. .. ... .  9
... .. ... .. .. ............... 13
... .. ...  . .. ......... 16
... .. .. .. ... .. . 19

... .. . . .. .. ........ 24
............ . .. .. ... . 24
... .. .. ... .. .. .26
     . .... .. . . .. .29
 .................... ... .. .. 31
 ... ..  .  .. .   .. 34
       .... . .... ....... 36
........... ... .. .. .38
... .. .. .. ... ....41
.................. ... ..  . .44
... .. ... .. ................46
... ... .  .. ....  ....... 48
... ..... .. ... .. . 49
... .. .. ... .. . ..52
    ...... .. .. ........ 54
... .. . . .. .. .... 56
... .. .. ... ................57
... .. .. ... .. ................ 59
..  ........ .....  61
..................... .. .. .. .63

 



CONTENTS.



ROMANTIC LOVE ..... ......   .......
PASTORAL LOV O     V .E................
IMMORTAI, .
SLEEP.
GHOSTLY WEATHER .................
THE BRIDLE-PATH. . ...............
NOONING.
THE LOG-BRIDGE.
THE OLD FARM ...................
AMONG THE KNoBs, ................
GARGAPHIE,.
ROSICgUCIAN.
HIS SONG .................... . .
APOCALYPSE.
ILLUSION.
DUTY AND LOVE, . ................



.......65
.6... . G8
..... 70
..... 72

..... 76
..... 81
..... 83
..... 86
..... 90
..... 94
.. ... 97
.. . ..100
      . 102
..... 103
      . 104



           S14AVES ArID SnADOWS.
BLODEUWEDD, ......................... 107
THE LADY OF VERNE,..... ..... ....        .. .. . 113
THE SUCCUBA,.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . ... . 119
His FIRST MISTRESS.. ................ 128
BEFORE THE BALL, ... . . ................ 131
M ASKS... ... . .. . .. ..    .. .. .. .. .. .. . 134
HAUNTED .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .  138
UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE ......... . .. . .. . . 144
REVISITED.... ... .   .. .  ..... .    .......  . 148
LOST LOVE, . ...                  .....          151
LYANNA.... .   ..    ..............1......         .. M53
GLORAMONE,........ .............. .               0.. 1G0
THE CAVERNS OF KAF ..................... 168
THE SPIRIT OF THE VAN .......... .  . .  .... 176
TII SPIRIT OF THE STAR .. . ............... .......... .... 182
AT NINEVEH.. .................... 189
ROMAUNT OP THE OAK ....... ......... ... . 192



6


 






Utito Jarpq apd pype.

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        IDEAL DIVINATION.

   WOJOW I have thought of her,
   1  Her I have never seen!-
   Now from a raying air
   Slhe, like a romance queen,
   Flowers a face serene,
   Radiant in raven hair.

   Now in a balsam scent
   Laughs from the stars that gleam;
   Naked and redolent,
   Bends to me breasts of beam,
   Eyes that will make me dream,
   Throat that the dimples dent.
(9)                2

 
IDEAL DIVINATION.



Love is all vain to me
So: and as dust severe,
Faith: and a barren tree,
Truth: and a bitter tear,
Joy: for I wait and hear
Her who can never be.

Living we learn to know
Life is not worth its pain;
Living we find a woe
Under each joy we gain;
Fardled of hope we strain
Whither no hope may know.

Life is too credulous
Of Time who beckons on.
Memory still serves us thus-
Gauging the coming dawn
By a day dead and gone,
Day that's a part of us.

Soul-of life's sins so mocked,
Clayed in the flesh and held,
Ever rebellicn rocked,



10

 
IDEAL DIVINATION.



Battling, forever quelled,
Yearning on heaven spelled
Over of stars-lies locked

Supine where torrents pour
Hellward; on crags that high,
Scarred of the thunder, gore
Heaven: the vulture's eye
Swims, and the harpies' cry
Clangs through the ocean's roar.

Notes of aeolian light
Calling it hears her lips:
Scorched by her burning white
Arms and her armored hips,
Slimy each monster slips
Back to its native night.

Rules she some brighter star
Inviolable queen
Of what the destinies are
She with her light unseen
Leading my life; a sheen
Loftier than beauty far.



11

 

12          IDEAL DI VINATION.

         Oh! in my dreams she lies
         With me and fondles me:
         Amaranths are her eyes;
         And her hair, shadowy
         Curlings of scent; and she
         Breathes at my heart and sighs.

         If with its slaves I I-ear
         All of life's tyranny,-
         Worm for the worm,-I care
         Naught if my spirit be
         Hers in eternity-
         Hers who did make it dare.

 

THE BEAUTIFUL.



           F moires of placid glitter
       0 The moon is knitter,
       Under low jade-dark branches
       The blue night blanches;
       Upon yon torrent's arrow
       Gleams sink, as narrow
As each blown tress of some soft sorceress
Spell-haunted slumbering in a wilderness.
       o soul, who dreamest, ponder:-
       Thy witch, thy love, what wonder
Of charms conceals her from thee powerless!

       On balmy lakes of glimmer
       Cool sheets of shimmer
       Burn glassy, as if inner
       Sea-castles,-thinner
       Than peeled pearl-crystal curlings,-
                                       (13)

 

14             THE BEA UTIFUL.

        Through eddy whirlings
Sprayed glow of lucid battlement and spire,
The smoldering silver of their smothered fire.
        And hers, thy love's enchanted,
        Where are her towers planted!-
Heart ! that thou could'st besiege them with thy lyrell

        By sands of ruffled beaches
        On terraced reaches
        Of rolling roses, blowing
        Mouths red as glowing
        Cheeks of the folk of Fairy,
        A palace airv
With pointed casements, thrusts of piercing light,
Piled full of melody and marble-white 
        Where beauty, veiled and hidden,
        Smiles who my life hath bidden
Come by her wisdom accoladed knight

        The blue night's sweetness settles
        Like hyacinth petals
        Bowed by a weight of teary
        Dew-dayward. Weary

 

              THE BEA UTIFUL.               15

       One mocking-bird, moon-saddened,
       Sobs on; and gladdened,
My soul, dissolving, largens to the lie
Named Death by fearful lips. Love, tell me why
       I may not have thee tender
       Mix with thee feel thy splendor
Expand me like a bud beneath God's eye

 

OVERSEAS.



    HEN fall winds morns with mist, it seems,
W In soul I am a part of it;
Librating on the humid beams,
   A form of frost, I float and flit
         From dreams to dreams....

 An old chateau sleeps 'mid the hills
   Of France; an avenue of sorbs
 Conceals it; drifts of daffodils
   Bloom by a scutcheoned gate with barbs
         Like iron bills.

 I pass the gate unquestioned, yet
   I feel announced. Broad holm-oaks make
 Dark pools of restless violet.
   Between thick bramble banks a lake-
         As in a net
(16)

 
OVERSEAS.                   17



The tangled scales twist-silvers glad.
  Gray, mossy turrets swell above
The feathering foliage. Leafv clad
  Rise ivied walls. A spot for love,
        The garden sad.

Lean, angular windows, awkward seen
  From distant lanes with hawthorn hedged,
Beam broadly on the nectarine
  Espaliered and the peach-tree, wedged
        Twixt drifts of green.

Cool-babbling a fountain falls
  From gryphons' mouths in porphyry;
Clear-eddying swim its carp; white balls
  Of lilies dip it when the bee
        Hugged in them drawls.

Large butterflies, each with a face
Of Faery on its wings, recline
Beheaded pansies blown that chase
Each other-down the shade and shine
        Boughs interlace.

 
18                0 OVERSEAS.

     And roses I roses soft as vair,
       Glorying o'er statues and the old
     Brass dial; Pompadours that wear
       Their royalty of purple and gold
             With saucy air.

     Her scarf, her lute, whose ribbons breathe
       The perfume of her touch; her gloves,
     Modeling the daintiness they sheathe;
       Her fan, a Watteau, gay with loves,
             Lie there beneath

     A bank of eglantines that heaps
       A sunny blondness. Naive-eyed,
     With lips as suave as they, she sleeps.
       The romance by her open wide
             O'er which she weeps.

 

      PORPHYROGENITA.

                I
WAS it when Kriemhild was queen
      Leoella-have forgotten:-
Rode we through the Rhineland seen
Of a lo(w moon white as cotton
I, a knight or troubadour
Thou, a princess tho' a poor
Damsel of the Royal Closes
I have dreamed it somewhere sure
  Reading of Kriemhilda's roses.

                II
Or from Venice with thee fled
To the Levant, Graciosa
Thou, some doge's daughter dead-
Titian painted thee or Rosa-
                               (19)

 

20           PORPHYROGENI TA.


      I, that gondolier whose barque
      Glided by thy palace dark-
      Near San Marco Casa d'Oro-
      All thy casement sprang a-spark
        At my barcarolle's "Teoro."

                       III
     Klaia, one of Egypt, yea,
        Languid as its sacred lily,
     Didst with me a year and day
        Love upon the Isle of Philm
      k-a priest of Isis Sweet,
      'Neath the date-palms did we meet
        By a temple's pillared marble
      While from its star-still retreat
      Sunk the nightingale's wild warble

                       IV
      Have I dreamed it-I. a slave;
        From thy lattice, 0 Sultana!
      Veilless, thy slight hand did wave
        Me a Persian rose, sweet manna
      Of thy lips' kiss in its heart

 

       PORPHYROGENITA.                 21

And through my Chaldwan art,
  With thy Khalit's bags of treasure,
From Damascus did we start
  Westward to some land of pleasure

                 V
Was it thou or haply thou-
  Thou or thou, thou wast so dearest
That thy memory holds me now
  Like a passion; lying nearest
To dead evolutions of
Death to life and life to love:
  Truth invisible but clearest
To the soul that looks above.

 

ORIENTAL ROMANCE.



JR EYOND lost seas of summer she
W Dwelt on an island of the sea,
Last scion of that dynasty,
Queen of a race forgotten long.-
With lips of light and eyes of song,
From seaward groves of blowing lemon,
She called me in her native tongue,
Low-leaned on some rich robe of Yemen.

I was a king. Three moons we drove
Across green gulfs, the crimson clove
And cassia spiced, to meet her love.
Stuffed was my barque with gums and gold,
Strips of rare sandalwood grown old
With odor; and pink pearls of Oman,
Large as her nipples virgin-cold,
And myrrh less fragrant than this woman.
(22)

 

      ORIENTAL ROMANCE.                23

From Bassora I came. We saw
Her condor castle, on a claw
Of savage precipice, o'erawe
Besieging of the roaring spray;
Like some white opal rough it lay
Above us, all its towers a-taper,
Wherefrom, like an aroma, day
Struck splintered lights of sapphirine vapor.

Lamenting caverns dark, that keep
Sonorous beatings of the deep,
Moaned demon-haunted 'neath the steep.
Fair as the moon whose beams are shed
In Ramadan, the queen, who led
My soul unto her island bowers,
I found-yea, lying young and dead
Among her maidens and her flowers.

 

        LOVE I HAD BANISHED.

b OVE I had banished away for a day,
     Banished a thorn to the thorns of Scorn,
Passing, behold how he lay like a ray,
Lay like the creamiest cluster of may,
  Clad on with myrrh and with morn!

Stricken of bitterness fleet were my feet,
  Fleet to the side which my heart had denied;
Fain for his laughter, a seat at his sweet
Side, and hard kisses to heal him and heat
  The ice of his wounded pride.

Holding him there, with the night lying light
  As plumes that are stirred of a sleeping bird;
Crushing him close to me, slight beat the white
Rose of his members, like rain that is bright
  'Neath the sun riding kingly and spurred.
  (24)

 

         LOVE I HAD BANISHfED.              25

Kissing him there iti the glow and the blow,
  Glow of the blue and blow of the dew,
Leaned to him, happy and slow as the flow
Of stars that thirst trembling through darkness,
  Blush was his cheeks' hale hue.  [leaned low,

Blossoming limbs that breathed rare, and as bare
  As beauty who dreams in the gray moonbeams;
Glamorous gold fell his hair that was fair
Lit of his eyes, starring lustrous the lair
  Of curls that were shadowy gleams.

Love, I had taken for mate, as the late
  Hours crept slow through the shy night's glow,
Stole from me leaving a weight as of fate,
Fate and all scorn, and the harshness of hate,
  Hard on my slumbering woe.

Love, I had held to my breast and caressed,
  Hiding him deep in the eyes of sleep,
Waking had flown from the nest he had pressed,
Pressed with his fondling limbs, and the rest-
  Remembrance that only can weep.
                     8

 

                HE TELLS.

                     I
YOU ask how I knew that I knew it -
     Like the king in an Asian tale,
I wandered on deserts that panted
With noon to a castle enchanted,
  That Afrits had reared in a vale;
  A vale where the sunlight lay pale
As moonlight. And round it and through it
  I searched and I searched. Like the tale

                     II
No eunuch black-browed as a Marid
  Prevented me. Silences seemed-
Nude slaves with the kohl and the henne
In eyes and on fingers-so many
  White whispers in dimness that dreamed
  (26)

 
                 HE TELLS.                   27

  Where censers of ambergris steamed:
And I came on a colonnade quarried
  From silvery marble, it seemed.

                     III
And here a wide court rose estraded:
  Fierce tulips, like carbuncles, bloomed
Mid jonquil and jessamine glories;
Strange birds like the cockatoos, lories,
  Spread wings, like great blossoms, illumed,
  Or splashed in the fountain perfumed;
Kept captive by network of braided
  Spun gold where low galleries gloomed.

                     IV
From nipples of five bending Peries
  Of gold that was auburn, in rays
The odorous fountain sprang calling:
I heard throughi the white water's falling-
  More sweet than the lauziter of sprays,
  Than songs of our happiest days-
A music sighed soft, as if fairies
  Touched wind-harps whose chords were of rays.

 

28                HE TELLS.


                       V
  I searched through long corridors paneled
    With sandal, whose doorways hung draped
  With stuffs of the Chosroes, gadded
  With Indian gold. Up the corded
    Stone stairway's bronze dragons that gaped:;
    Through moon-spangled hangings escaped-
  Twixt pillars of juniper channeled-
  To a room constellated and draped.

                       VI
  As in legends-of visions a vassal
    One hears, yet beholds naught, and hears
  A voice that encourages yearnings;-
  More subtle than aloes-wood burnings,
    The chamber sings filled for the ears
    With melody; nothing appears:-
  My life found your soul such a castle,
    Your love is the music it hears.

 

                SHE SPEAKS.

TV AST night you told me where we, parting, waited,
ORIC Of love somehow I'd known before you told-
Long, long ago this love, perhaps, was fated,
  F'or why was it made suddenly so old


"Dear things we have and in their own truth cherish,
  Born with us seem, and as ourselves shall last
Part of our lives we can not let them perish
  Out of our present's future or its past"


Then is it strange, dazed by that wider wonder,
  I, walking in the woods the morrow's dawn,
Should marvel not that by my feet and under,
  The wildflowers now were purer than those gone
                                       (29)

 

30              SHE SPEAKS.


The woodbird's silver warble sunk completer
  The sun whirled whiter, lordlier o'er the noon
That night, sweet God ! hung starrier, holier, sweeter,
  In Babylonian witchcraft of the moon


All love bath emanations: 2n ideal
  Beats, beats within all beauty. I was moved
No more when, dreamed, my spiritual dream rose real,
  Than by what virtue, God divined, I loved.

 

UNCERTAINTY.



T will not be to-day and yet
I I think and dream it will; and let
The slow uncertainty devise
So many sweet excuses met
With many dull confuting lies.

The panes were sweated with the dawn:
Through their drilled dimness, shriveled drawn,
The aigret of one princess-feather,
One monk's-hood tuft with oilets wan,
I glimpsed, dead in the slaying weather.

This morning when my window's chintz
I drew-how gray the day was !-since
I saw him, yea, all days are gray!-
I gazed out on my dripping quince
Defruited, torn, then turned away
                                   ( 31)

 

82              UNCERTAINTY.


   To weep and did not weep, but felt
   A colder anguish than did melt
   About the tearful-visaged year.
   Then flung the casement wide and smelt
   The Autumn sorrow: Rotting near

   The rain-soaked sunflowers, wooden bleached,
   Up whose poor bodies ashen reached
   Nipped morning-glories, seeded o'er
   With dangling aiglets, whence beseeched
   One blue bloom's brilliant palampore.

   The podded hollyhocks, vague, tall,
   Wind-battered sentries, by the wall
   Rustled their tatters; dripped and dripped
   The fog thick on them. Dying all
   The tarnished, drooping zinneas tipped.

   I felt the death and loved it; yea,
   To have it nearer, sought the gray,
   Chill, fading close. Yet could not weep;
   But only sigh some " well-a-way,"
   And yearn with heaviness to sleep.

 

            UNCERTAINTY.                 83


Mine were the fog, the frosty stalks,
The weak lights on the leafy walks,
The shadows shivering with the cold;
The torpid cricket's dreary talks,
The last. dim, ruined marigold.

But when to-night the moon swings low-
A great marsh-marigold of glow-
And all my garden with the sea
Moans, then the palmer mist, I trow,
A shadow '1l bring to comfort me.

 


FALL.



FAR off a wind sprung, and I heard
A Wide oceans of the woods reply-
The herald of some royal word
  From bannered trumpet blown to die
        On hills that held the sky.

The pomp of forests seemed to meet
  Bluff monarchs on a cloth of gold,
Where berries of the bitter-sweet,
  Which, splitting, show the coals they hold,
       Sowed gems of topaz old.

Where, under tents of maples, bredes
  Of smooth carnelians oval, red
The spice-bush spangled; where, like beads,
The dog-wood's rounded rubies -fed
       With color-blushed and bled.
(34)

 


FALL.



So with my dream my soul went out,
  And marked, mid richness cavalier,
A minne-singer-lips a-pout;
  A voice of sleep and sunlight clear;
        A rose stuck in his ear:

Eyes dancing, like old German wine,
  All mirth and moonlight; naught to spare
Of slender beard, that curls a line
  Above his lip-bow humbly there
        A hazel heap of hair.

His blue baretta's sweeping plume
  A gleam of whiteness droops; his hose,
Puffed at the thighs, of purple loom;
  His tawny doublet, slashed with rose,
        A dangling dag ger shows;

A slim lute slants his breast. I hear
  The leaf-crisp coming of his foot-
No wonder that the regnant Year
  Bends on his beauty blushes mute,
        And sighs to be his lute.



35

 


BENEATH THE BEECHES.



                  I
   t LONG, oh long to lie
      'Neath beechen branches, twisted
   Green twixt the summer sky;
   The'woodland shadows nigh-
   Brown dryads sunbeam-wristed:-
   The live-long day to dream
   Beside a wildwood stream.

                  II
   I long, oh long to hear
   The claustral forest's breathings,
   Sounds soothing to the ear;
   The yellow-hammer near,
   Beam-bright, thrid wild-vine wreathings:
   The live-long day to cross
   Slow o'er the nut-strewn moss.
(36)

 

  BENEATH THE BEECHES.                37


              III
I long, oh long to see
The nesting red-bird singing
Glad on the wood-rose tree;
To watch the breezy bee,
Half in the wild-flower, swinging;
God's live-long day to pass
Deep in cool forest grass.

               IV
Oh you, so belted in
With mart and booth and steeple,
Brick alley-ways of Sin,
What hope for you to win
Ways free of pelf and peopleI
Ways of the leaf and root
And soft Mygdonian flute!

 


              ANDALIA.

                  I

     eONG, that did waken you,
     S  Song, that had taken you,
     Has not forsaken vou:
       Still with the Spring
     My mad and merriest
     Part of the veriest
     Season and cheeriest;
       You, who can bring
 Airs that the birds have taught you;
 Grace that the winds have brought you;
 Mien that the lilies laughed you;
 Thoughts that the high stars waft vou-
         Are you a human thing
(38)

 

ANDALIA.



                 II
    Dreams-are you aught with them
    You who are fraught with them;
    You, like their thought, with them
      Beautiful too.
    Life-you 're a gleam of it;
    Love-you're a dream of it;
    Hope-you 're a beam of it
      Bound in the blue
Gray of big eyes that are often
Laughter and languor; that soften
On to me sweetly and slowly
Out with your soul that is holy,
     So purer than dew.

                 III
   Face, like the sweetest of
   Perfumes, completest of
   Flowers God's fleetest of
     Months ever bear.
   Sleep, who walk crisper, sleep,
   Than the frost, lisper sleep,



39

 

40                ANDALIA.

         Have you a whisper, sleep,
           Soft as her hair
     Night and the stars did spin it;
     Stars and the night are in it;
     Let but one ray of it bind me,
     And, did the blind Fates blind me,
           Fair I should know her, fair I

                       IV
          Love-has it mated you
          Love, that has waited you,
          Love, that was fated you
            Here for a while.
          Song, can you sing in me
          Fuller, or bring in me
          Peace, that will cling in me
            So through all trial,
      Such as her smile like the morning's-
      Fashioning luminous warnings,
      Rose, of a passion unspoken:
      Love, 't is your seal and its token-
            The light of her smile.

 


NOERA.



NOEIRA, when sad Fall
J, H4is grayed the fallow;
Leaf-eramped the wood-brook's brawl
In pool and shallow;
When sober wood-walks all
Strange shadows hallow:

Noe-ra, when gray gold
  And golden gray
The crackling hlo10ws fold
  By every way,
Thee shall these eyes behold,
  Dear bit of May

When webs are cribs for dew,
  And gossainers,
Long streaks of silver-blue;
               4              (41)

 

I O'RA.



  When silence stirs
One dead leaf's rusting hue
  Among criisp burs.

Noera, in the wood
  Or mid the grain,
Thee, with the hoiden mood
  Of wind and rain
Fresh in thy sunny blood,
  Sweetheart, again

Noera, when the corn
  Reaped on the fields
Deep aster stars adorn
  With purple shields,
Defying the forlorn
Decay death wields:

Noera, haply then,
  Thou being with me,
Each ruined greenwood glen
  Will bud and be
Spring's with the Spring again,
The Spring in thee.



42

 
NOERA.



Thou of the breezy tread,
  Feet of the breeze;
Thou of the sun-beam head,
  Heart like a bee's;
Face like a woodland-bred
  Anemone's.

Thou to October's death
  An April part
Bring, while she taketh breath
  Against Death's dart;
No';ra, one who hath
  Made mine a heart.

Come with our golden year,
  Come as its gold:
With thy same laughing, clear,
Loved voice of old;
In thy cool hair one dear,
Wild marigold.



43

 

JULIA.



                   I
 YOU, who know such Mays as blow
     The cowslips by the ways, dear,
The mountain-pink whose heart, you'd think,
The thorn-pierced sparrow's blood did drink,
In their wise way, how-can you say -
  Is it you're like such Mays, dear'
In moods that run from shade to sun,
A thoughtful gloom; like wild perfume,
A winning smile that laughs down guile-
  Dear day I so go such days, dear.

                   I
In you some song keeps trying long,
  Like some song bird, for flight, child;
And when you speak all up your cheek
A crystal blush will faintly flush
(44)

 

JULIA.



So saintly sweet I and at your feet
All shadow turns to light, child.
You may not know, but it is so,
If you but look, hark I far a brook
Foams white through buds ! for of the woods
  I know you are some sprite, child.

                  m
Yes, yes; I swear that what 's your hair
  Is but the soft-spun wind, love:
Why, when you move it is as Love
Hid in your grace and feet to face
Peeped roguishly; and well I see
This Love is not a blind Love.
Laugh, and I hear, in each pink ear
Wood-blossoms strain, dew-words of rain
Slip musical, for you are all
  Of music to my mind, love.



46

 

                LORA.



       L ORA is her name that slips
          Nearly love between the lips;
     You must know she is so wise
     All she does is lift her eyes
     At her name and that replies-
         She 's so wise, is Lora.

                   II
     Lora is her name that makes
     All the heart a chord that shakes;
     When she speaks, she is so blessed,
     Life's hard riddle none has guessed
     Softens, and the soul 's caressed
         By the words of Lora.
(46)

 

LORA.                    47



             III
Lora is her name that brings
Kisses as of airy things.
l1onied hum of bees that deep
In the rumpled blue-bells creep,
Buoyant sun-hearts forests keep
For their shadows' lives, such leap
    In the life of Lora.

             IV
Lora, when I find your face,
Round your white neck I will lace
One firm arm, and so will woo
Your small mouth, as fresh as dew,
With quick kisses, love, that you
Follow must where hearts are true,
    Somewhere, somewhere, Lora.

 


BLANCH.



d LANCH is adorable and wise
B As-glad winds teaching birds to sing:
Steal thou and gaze deep in her eyes;-
Such scholars of the starry skies!
  -Canst marvel at the thing

Nay. Blanch, like some red bud that blows,
  Hoards honey in her sunny heart:
Study her smile; wouldst not suppose
She from some warm, white, serious rose
  Had learned the happy art

Aye. Words that tarry on her tongue
  Fall more than musical thereof:
And why 'Tis this: her soul was strung
A harp at birth to hope that sung,
  Now hope is joined with love.
(48)

 


         PHYLLIS.



OF I were her lover
  I'd wade through the clover
Over five fields or more;
Over the meadows
To stand with the shadows,
The shadows that circle her door.
I 'd walk through the clover
    Yes, by her;
And over and over
    I 'd sigh her,
"Your eyes are as brown
As a Night's looking down
On waters that sleep
With the moon in their deep
    If I were her lover to sigh her.
                              (49)

 

60                 PHIYLLIS.



              II
If I were her lover
I'd wade through the clover
Over five fields or more;
And deep in the thickets
Or there by the pickets,
White pickets that fence ir. her dolor,
I 'd lean in the clover-
    The crisper
For the dews that are over-
    And whisper,
"Your lips are as rare
As the dewberries there,
Half ripe and as red,
On the honey-dew fed-"
    If I were her lover to whisper.

              III
If I were her lover
I 'd wade through the clover
Over five fields or more;
And watch in the twinkle

 

          PHYLLIS.                  51

Of stars that sprinkle
The paradise over her door.
And there in the clover
    I'd reach her;
And over and over
    I'd teach her,
A love without sighs,
Of laughterful eyes,
That reckoned each second
The pause of a kiss,
A kiss and . . . that is
    If I were her lover to teach her.

 


                 VALKYRIEN.

                       I
W[EVER a thought of aught save slaughter,
     Slaughter that smears the spears that thunder!
Anger of ax that shines, like a water
  Gashed in the night of the levin's wonder.
Darts in the eye and their bleak barbs bristling,
  Shaking the heart ere the lance hath stroken;
Hum of arrows and broad-swords' whistling;
  Strength, like an ash, unbowed, unbroken.
By the eye of Odin, whose frown is war!-
Think of the vikings' daughters who wear
Gold on their hips, and the weights of their hair
Gold-bound red as the beard of Thor!
The virgin who brims in the well her jar-
To rape then butcher! a kingdom's ravish
Yours for the s weat and the blood you lavish !
    152)

 


                  VALKYRIEN.                   53


                        II
Wraths are the pinions of Hate who clamors-
  Hooked wings hovering over the carrion,-
Joy of the blade the helm that hammers!-
  Songs of slaughter: The gnarling clarion
Rings to the revel and sings: with strangling
  Fury it fires the brain to battle:
Strength shocks strength: in its brass bray wrangling
  Siniters are smitten: the harsh hills rattle,
The hard seas rumble, the sharp winds wail.
Think!-were it better by hollow-eyed Hel
To rot with cowards or boast and yell
Hoarse toasts o'er skulls of the boisterous ale
High in Valhalla, where life wends well !-
The warrior vault of its shields wild curses
Laughs to the roar of the berserk verses

 


MOTHS.



                   I
         when the fiery
    ' Glow-worm in briery
 Banks of the moon-mellowed bowers
   Sparkles-so hazily
     Pinioned and airily
     Delicate !-warily
   Float to buds, lazily,
 Moths that are kin to the flowers.

                   II
   White as the dreamiest
   Beams that the creamiest
 Rose of the garden that dozes
   Nestles; that burn in it,
     Held in the heart of its
     Heart like a part of its
   Perfume, to turn in it
 Dew, flit the moths to the roses.
(54)

 


MOTHS.                    55



                 'II
  Slow as the forming of
  Dew in the warming of
Stars, brush their mouths on the petals;
  Open these swing to them,
    Deep to their sunniest
    Soul, where the honeiest
  Spice is, to fling to them
Nard through the twilight that settles. ...

                 IV
  So to all tremulous
  Souls come the emulous
Angels of Love. Else would perish,
  Crushed, all the good in such:
    Touched, the pure presence of
    Love to the essence of
  Light, a white flood, in such
Flatters-aroma they cherish.



55

 


AS IT IS.



      AN'S are the learnings of his books-
 J2-i What is all knowledge that he knows
 Beside the wit of winding brooks,
   The wisdom of the summer rose!

 How soil distils the scent in flowers
   Baffles his science: Heaven-dyed,
 How, from the palette of His hours.
   God colors gives them, hath defied.

 What broad religion of the light,
   Ere stars in heaven beat burning tunes,
 Stains all the hollow edge of night
   With glory as of molten moons

 Why sorrow i more strange than mirth,
   And death than birth and afterward,
 What sweetness in the bitter earth
   Makes life's mortality so hard
(56)

 

         THOUGHTS.


MONV the may-apple or
l Solitude cyclamen-
Star-perfect as a star-
  In woodland glade and glen,
Blossoms when breezes woo,
With language of the dew,
Up to the broken blue
Of lonesome skies, do you
Know or do I, love

               II
Can wild anemones
Think -for they tremble so;
As if two cousin bees
This side then that bent low.-
                               57)

 

68               THOUGITS.

       When the soft sunlight links,
       Braided of dew-drop winks,
       Crowns 'round each head that shrinks,-
       What its heart's aura thinks
         Know you or I, love ...

                      III
       Know, when the Springtide trod
         By in a blowing blush,
       Wise as a gaze of God
         Holding 1ll Heaven a-hush,
       Love was her thought and love
       Through the vast soul above
       Wrought so, they sprang thereof,
       Thought into thoughts, were wove
         Symbols of living love.

 


  AFTER THE TOURNAMENT.

                 I
   ND shall it be when white thorns flake
J With blossoms all the budd