The House of Orchids, and Other Poems

THE HOUSE OF ORCHIDS AND OTHER POEMS


BY GEORGE STERLING Author of “The Testimony of the Suns” and “A Wine of Wizardry”
A. M. ROBERTSON SAN FRANCISCO 1911 COPYRIGHT 1911 BY GEORGE STERLING Printed by The Stanley-Taylor Company San Francisco


TO MY WIFE

Duandon, king of Aetria’s farthest bound And lord of isles the sea is loud around, Beheld the crimson fountains of the dawn Bear up the lark, a foam of song, till drawn By some new sorrow in the ocean’s tone, Thither he fared, expectant and alone. Thither he fared, fresh from the sea of sleep, And all the balmy land was blossomed deep, Nor could one wander save on helpless flow’rs, Where Summer made a garland of the hours And bound it on the dew-dipt brow of Morn, Bent low above the meadow’s blossom-bourn. But past all peace of bowers rang the call And invocation of the billows’ fall, And, clean from kingdoms of the sapphire vast, The winds of ocean smote his brow at last. Afar he saw the eddying petrel sweep O’er reefs where hoarser roared the thwarted deep, And soon before his eyes, exultant, fain, Heavy with azure gleamed the investing main, And quick with pulsings of a distant storm, Strong as that music floating Troy to form. Splendid the everlasting ocean shone As God’s blue robe upon a desert thrown; Landward he saw the sea-born breakers fare, Young as a wind and ancient as the air; August he saw the unending ranks uproll, With joy and wonder mastering the soul, With marvel on the hearing and the sight— Green fires, and billows tremulous with light, With shaken soul of light and shuddering blaze Of leaping emerald and cold chrysoprase,— The surge and suspiration of the sea, Great waters choral of eternity, — The mighty dirge that will not cease for day Nor all the stars’ invincible array,— The thunder that hath set, since Time began, Its sorrow in the lonely heart of man.