Through eternity. All things were born. For all things must die. HERO TO LEANDER Oh go not yet, my love, The night is dark and vast; The white moon is hid in her heaven above, And the waves climb high and fast. Oh! kiss me, kiss me, once again, Lest thy kiss should be the last. Oh kiss me ere we part; Grow closer to my heart. My heart is warmer surely than the bosom of the main. Oh joy! O bliss of blisses! My heart of hearts art thou. Come bathe me with thy kisses, My eyelids and my brow. Hark how the wild rain hisses, And the loud sea roars below. Thy heart beats through thy rosy limbs So gladly doth it stir; Thine eye in drops of gladness swims. I have bathed thee with the pleasant myrrh ; Thy locks are dripping balm; Thou shalt not wander hence to-night, I'll stay thee with my kisses. To-night the roaring brine Will rend thy golden tresses; The ocean with the morrow light Will be both blue and calm; And the billow will embrace thee with a kiss as soft as mine. No western odours wander On the black and moaning sea, And when thou art dead, Leander, Oh go not yet, my love Thy voice is sweet and low; The turretstairs are wet That lead into the sea. Leander! go not yet. Or I will follow thee. THE MYSTIC Angels have talked with him, and showed him thrones: Ye knew him not: he was not one of ye, Ye scorned him with an undiscerning scorn; Ye could not read the marvel in his eye, The still serene abstraction; he hath felt Albeit, his spirit and his secret heart One mighty countenance of perfect calm, For him the silent congregated hours, Daughters of time, divinely tall, beneath Severe and youthful brows, with shining eyes Smiling a godlike smile (the innocent light Of earliest youth pierced through and through with all Upheld, and ever hold aloft the cloud Which droops low hung on either gate of life, Saw far on each side through the grated gates THE GRASSHOPPER I Voice of the summerwind, No Tithon thou as poets feign (Shame fall 'em they are deaf and blind) But an insect lithe and strong, Bowing the seeded summerflowers. Prove their falsehood and thy quarrel, Vaulting on thine airy feet. Clap thy shielded sides and carol, Carol clearly, chirrup sweet. Thou art a mailed warrior in youth and strength complete; Armed cap-a-pie, Full fair to see; A gallant cavalier Sans pour et sans reproche, II I would dwell with thee, And as light as air; Thou hast no sorrow or tears, Thou hast no compt of years, No withered immortality, But a short youth sunny and free. A summer of loud song, And slumbers in the clover. What hast thou to do with evil Of the singing flowered grasses, That brush thee with their silken tresses? In and out the emerald glooms, LOVE, PRIDE AND FORGETFULNESS Ere yet my heart was sweet Love's tomb, I was the hive and Love the bee, The cruel vapours went through all, And Memory tho' fed by Pride Awhile she scarcely lived at all, What marvel that she died? CHORUS In an unpublished drama written very early. The varied earth, the moving heaven, Of living things, the wondrous tones The day, the diamonded light, The echo, feeble child of sound, The hoarhead winter paving earth Each sun which from the centre flings The globefilled arch that, cleaving air, And thunder thro' the sapphire deeps LOST HOPE You cast to ground the hope which once was mine, My heart, where Hope had been and was no more. So on an oaken sprout A goodly acorn grew; But winds from heaven shook the acorn out, And filled the cup with dew. THE TEARS OF HEAVEN Heaven weeps above the earth all night till morn, And doth the fruit of her dishonour reap. And all the day heaven gathers back her tears Into her own blue eyes so clear and deep, And showering down the glory of lightsome day, Smiles on the earth's worn brow to win her if she may. LOVE AND SORROW O Maiden, fresher than the first green leaf With which the fearful springtide flecks the lea, |