SHE.
Because thou wast proud and cold,
And because of the story told
That never had woman a smile from thee,
I thought as I glanc’d, “If he frown on me,
Why, be it so! but his peace shall atone;”
And in troubling thine, I have lost my own.
William Young.
AT THY GRAVE.
WAVES the soft grass at my feet;
Dost thou feel me near thee, sweet?
Though the earth upon thy face
Holds thee close from my embrace,
Yet my spirit thine can reach,
Needs betwixt us twain no speech,
For the same soul lives in each.
Now I meet no tender eyes
Seeking mine in soft surmise
At some broken utterance faint,
Smile quick brightening, sigh half spent;
Yet in some sweet hours gone by,
No responding eye to eye
Needed we for sympathy.
Love, I seem to see thee stand
Silent in a shadowy land,
With a look upon thy face
As if even in that dull place
Distant voices smote thine ears,
Memories of vanished years,
Or faint echoes of those tears.
Yet I would not have it thus;
Then would be most piteous
Our divided lives, if thou
An imperfect bliss should know;
Sweet my suffering, if to thee
Death has brought the faculty
Of entire felicity.
Rather would I weep in vain,
That thou canst not share my pain,
Deem that Lethean waters roll
Softly o’er thy separate soul,
Know that a divided bliss
Makes thee careless of my kiss,
Than that thou shouldst feel distress.
Hush! I hear a low, sweet sound
As of music stealing round;
Forms thy hand the thrilling chords
Into more than spoken words?
Ah! ’tis but the gathering breeze
Whispering to the budding trees,
Or the song of early bees.
Love! where art thou? Canst thou not
Hear me, or is all forgot?
Seest thou not these burning tears?
Can my words not reach thine ears?
Or betwixt my soul and thine
Has some mystery divine
Sealed a separating line?
Is it thus, then, after death
Old things none remembereth?
Is the spirit henceforth clear
Of the life it gathered here?
Will our noblest longings seem
Like some disremembered dream
In the after world’s full beam?
Hark! the rainy wind blows loud,
Scuds above the hurrying cloud;
Hushed is all the song of bees;
Angry murmurs of the trees
Herald tempests. Silent yet
Sleepest thou—nor fear nor fret
Troubles thee. Can I forget?
LO! IN A DREAM LOVE CAME TO ME.
LO! in a dream Love came to me and cried:
“The summer dawn creeps over land and sea;
The golden fields are ripe for harvest-tide,
And the grape-gatherers climb the mountain-side;
The harvest joy is come; I wait for thee.
Arise, come down, and follow, follow me.”
And I arose, went down, and followed him.
The reaper’s song went ringing through the air;
Below, the morning mists grew pale and dim,
And on the mountain ridge the sun’s bright rim
Rose swiftly, and the glorious dawn was there.
I followed, followed Love, I knew not where.
Through orange groves and orchard ways we went;
The cool fresh dew lay deep on grass and tree,
Above our heads the laden boughs were bent
With weight of ripening fruit; the faint sweet scent
Of fragrant myrtles drifted up to me:
Blindly, O Love, blindly I followed thee!
O Love, the morning shadows passed away
From off the broad fair fields of waving wheat;
I followed thee, till in the full noonday
The weary women in the vineyards lay;
The tall field flowers drooped fading in the heat:
I followed thee with bruised and bleeding feet.
Upon the long white road the fierce sun shone,
And on the distant town and wide waste plain,
O Love, I blindly, blindly followed on,
Nor knew how sharp the way my feet had gone;
Nor knew I aught of shame or loss or pain,
Nor knew I all my labour was in vain.
The sun sank down in silence o’er the land,
The heavy shadows gathered deep and black;
Across the lonely waste of reeds and sand
I followed Love: I could not touch his hand,
Nor see his hidden face, nor turn me back,
Nor find again the far-off mountain-track.
Blindly, O Love! blindly I followed thee:
The summer night lay on the silent plain,
And on the sleeping city and the sea;
The sound of rippling waves came up to me.
O Love! the dawn drew near; far off again
The gray light gathered where the night had lain.
On through the quiet street Love passed, and cried:
“The summer dawn creeps over land and sea;
Sweet is the summer and the harvest-tide;
Awake, arise, Love waits for thee, his Bride.”
And she arose and followed, followed thee,
O traitor Love! who hast forsaken me.
Fraser’s Magazine.
VALE.
Warbleth the bird of Love his golden song,
And many hearken to his magic strain;
In joyous major now he carols strong,
In minors low he croons his soft refrain.
So fair his lay of Love’s fond empery,
One scarce may mark the quaver of his sigh;
Or note amid his seeming ecstasy
The dream that fades, the hopes that shatter’d lie.
But most he sings for Youth’s enraptured ear,
When hope beats fast and buds are bourgeoning,—
“Time flies,” he trills, “clasp close the fleeting year
Ere winter cometh, and sweet Love take wing!”
INDEX
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
[A], [B], [C], [D], [F], [G], [H], [I], [K], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [S], [T], [U], [V], [W], [Y].
| Page | |
| A beckoning spirit of gladness seemed afloat, | [290] |
| A hundred years from now, dear heart, | [24] |
| A little love, of Heaven a little share, | [294] |
| All glorious as the Rainbow’s birth, | [153] |
| All the phantoms of the future, all the spectres, | [136] |
| Alone, alone, thro’ the sunny street, | [87] |
| And these—are these indeed the end, | [291] |
| Ask nothing more of me, sweet, | [251] |
| As one would stand who saw a sudden light, | [193] |
| At dinner she is hostess, I am host, | [155] |
| A thousand knights have rein’d their steeds, | [9] |
| Azure of sky and silver of cloud, | [181] |
| Barb’d blossom of the guarded gorse, | [207] |
| Because thou wast cold and proud, | [306] |
| Beneath the loveliest dream there coils a fear, | [292] |
| Between the pansies and the rye, | [102] |
| Between the sunset and the sea, | [249] |
| Bland air and leagues of immemorial blue, | [230] |
| By one rapt day Love doth his harvest mete, | [98] |
| Cold blows the wind against the hill, | [75] |
| Come, oh, come to me, voice or look, or spirit, | [22] |
| Comrades! in vain ye seek to learn, | [168] |
| Countess, I see the flying year, | [118] |
| “Darling,” he said, “I never meant”, | [103] |
| Dawn, with flusht foot upon the mountain tops, | [54] |
| Day after day of this azure May, | [269] |
| Dear, let me dream of love, | [104] |
| Fair star that on the shoulder of yon hill, | [160] |
| Far away hangs an apple that ripens on high, | [45] |
| Farewell my Youth! for now we needs must part, | [286] |
| Fold your arms around me, Sweet, | [92] |
| For a day and night, Love sang to us, played, | [244] |
| For the man was she made by the Eden tree, | [216] |
| From out the past she comes to me, | [243] |
| God’s love and peace be with thee, where, | [295] |
| Gone!, | [262] |
| Has summer come without the rose, | [186] |
| Hath any loved you well down there, | [183] |
| Herald of peace and joy, | [68] |
| Her tears are all thine own! how blest thou art!, | [275] |
| How, as a spider’s web is spun, | [70] |
| How like her! But ’tis she herself, | [116] |
| How many lips have uttered one sweet word—, | [96] |
| “I burn my soul away!”, | [83] |
| I cannot look upon thy grave, | [209] |
| I charge you, O winds of the West, | [26] |
| I dared not lead my arm around, | [117] |
| I did not dream that Love would stay, | [273] |
| I’d send a troop of kisses to entangle, | [21] |
| If in thine eyes, | [123] |
| If I were a monk, and thou wert a nun, | [138] |
| If Love could last, if Love could last, | [15] |
| If love were like a thrush’s song, | [84] |
| If Michael, leader of God’s host, | [304] |
| If only a single Rose is left, | [20] |
| If only in dreams may man be fully blest, | [293] |
| I found him openly wearing her token, | [214] |
| If stars were really watching eyes, | [29] |
| If thou canst make the frost be gone, | [263] |
| I had never kissed her her whole life long, | [166] |
| I have been here before, | [229] |
| I know not if moonlight or starlight, | [239] |
| I know ’tis late, but let me stay, | [281] |
| I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair, | [228] |
| In after years a twilight ghost shall fill, | [167] |
| In and out the osier beds, all along the shallows, | [234] |
| In a still room at hush of dawn, | [43] |
| In dream I saw Diana pass, Diana as of old, | [221] |
| In that old beech-walk, now bestrewn with mast, | [277] |
| In that tranced hush when sound sank awed, | [148] |
| I question with the amber daffodils, | [285] |
| I saw young Love make trial of his bow, | [59] |
| I shall not see thee, nay, but I shall know, | [113] |
| I sit alone and watch the cinders glare, | [81] |
| It is not mine to sing the stately grace, | [215] |
| It is over now, she is gone to rest, | [279] |
| It was not like your great and gracious ways, | [194] |
| It was with doubt and trembling, | [5] |
| I’ve kissed thee, sweetheart, in a dream at least, | [78] |
| I will not let thee go, | [31] |
| I will not say my true love’s eyes, | [73] |
| I would wed you dear, without gold or gear, | [283] |
| Keen winds of cloud and vaporous drift, | [74] |
| Kiss me, and say good-bye, | [111] |
| Last night my lady talked with me, | [57] |
| Lids closed and pale, with parted lips she lay, | [300] |
| Lights Love, the timorous bird, to dwell, | [13] |
| Listen, bright lady, thy deep Pansie eyes, | [80] |
| Lo! in a dream Love came to me and cried, | [310] |
| Long are the hours the sun is above, | [33] |
| Love had forgotten and gone to sleep, | [3] |
| Love in my heart! oh, heart of me, heart of me!, | [233] |
| Love in the heart is as a nightingale, | [30] |
| Love is a Fire, | [4] |
| Love is enough: ho, ye who seek saving, | [163] |
| Love is enough: though the World be a-waning, | [162] |
| “Love me, or I am slain!” I cried, and meant, | [236] |
| Love within the lover’s breast, | [156] |
| Men, women, call thee so and so, | [79] |
| My days are full of pleasant memories, | [11] |
| My lady has a casket cut, | [151] |
| My life its secret and its mystery has, | [14] |
| My love and I among the mountains strayed, | [176] |
| My Love is a lady fair and free, | [143] |
| My love is the flaming sword, to fight through, | [268] |
| Nay! if thou must depart, thou shalt depart, | [8] |
| No girdle hath weaver or goldsmith wrought, | [107] |
| Not now, but later, when the road, | [213] |
| Not yet, dear love, not yet: the sun is high, | [62] |
| Now, by the blessed Paphian queen, | [99] |
| Now lay thee down to sleep, and dream of me, | [288] |
| Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white, | [260] |
| O birds, ’twas not well done of you!, | [203] |
| O brown lark, loving cloud-land best, | [53] |
| O heart full of song in the sweet song-weather, | [188] |
| Oh! faint delicious spring-time violet, | [241] |
| Oh, gather me the rose, the rose, | [91] |
| Oh, to think, oh, to think as I see her stand there, | [72] |
| Oh, when will it be, oh, when will it be, oh, when, | [255] |
| Oh, would, oh, would that thou and I, | [180] |
| O knight, if thou a lady hast, | [85] |
| O Love, Love, Love! O withering might!, | [258] |
| O most fair God, O Love both new and old, | [199] |
| Once more I walk mid summer days, as one, | [147] |
| Passion? not hers who fixed me with pure eyes, | [49] |
| Peace in her chamber, wheresoe’er, | [227] |
| Play me a march low-toned and slow, | [157] |
| Poets are singing, the whole world over, | [231] |
| Prince of painters, come, I pray, | [211] |
| She went with morning down the wood, | [141] |
| Sing on, sing on: half dreaming still, | [253] |
| Somewhere or other there must surely be, | [226] |
| So sweet, so sweet the roses in their blowing, | [205] |
| So you but love me, be it your own way, | [133] |
| Such a starved bank of moss, | [35] |
| Sullenly fell the rain while under the oak we stood, | [105] |
| Sweet as the change from pleasant thoughts, | [97] |
| Tell me wher, in what contree, is, | [256] |
| That night on Judge’s Walk the wind, | [252] |
| The ancient memories buried lie, | [196] |
| The breaths of kissing night and day, | [265] |
| The broad green rollers lift and glide, | [301] |
| The cowslip glowed, the tulip burned, | [218] |
| The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept, | [225] |
| The fire is smouldering while the daylight wanes, | [55] |
| The lights are out in the street, and a cool wind, | [271] |
| The little gate was reached at last, | [127] |
| The mavis sang but yesterday, | [1] |
| The place again, | [124] |
| The rain set early in to-night, | [36] |
| There is a certain garden where I know, | [137] |
| There is an air for which I would disown, | [110] |
| There’s never a rose upon the bush, | [220] |
| The restless years that come and go, | [178] |
| There were four apples on the bough, | [246] |
| The same green hill, the same blue sea, | [19] |
| The snow is white on wood and wold, | [172] |
| The star of love is trembling in the west, | [270] |
| The sun is bright,—the air is clear, | [120] |
| The wheel goes round, the wheel goes round, | [174] |
| The wind blows down the dusty street, | [224] |
| The world goes up and the world goes down, | [106] |
| Though the roving bee as lightly, | [305] |
| Thou walkest with me as the spirit-light, | [28] |
| Thou wilt come back again, but not for me, | [126] |
| Through laughing leaves the sunlight comes, | [50] |
| Thy shadow, O tardy night, | [161] |
| Time with his jealous icy blast, | [60] |
| ’Tis an old dial, dark with many a stain, | [64] |
| Upon that quiet day that lies, | [41] |
| Up, up, my heart! up, up, my heart, | [39] |
| Vine, vine and eglantine, | [261] |
| Waves the soft grass at my feet, | [307] |
| We’re all alone, we’re all alone, | [237] |
| What days await this woman whose strange feet, | [109] |
| What hast thou done to me, | [122] |
| What thought is folded in thy leaves, | [6] |
| When did the change come, dearest Heart, | [145] |
| When fair Hyperion dons his night attire, | [149] |
| When God some day shall call my name, | [170] |
| When I shall stand before the judgment throne, | [86] |
| When lovers’ lips from kissing disunite, | [276] |
| When she comes home again! A thousand ways, | [223] |
| When spring grows old, and sleepy winds, | [267] |
| When the hot wasp hung in the grape last year, | [76] |
| When the late leaves lit all the place, | [238] |
| When the leaves fall in autumn, and you go, | [82] |
| When violets blue begin to blow, | [298] |
| Who is it that weeps for the last year’s flowers, | [114] |
| With a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams, | [89] |
| With moon-white hearts that held a gleam, | [47] |
| Would God I were the tender apple-blossom, | [278] |
| Yes, but the years run circling fleeter, | [130] |
| Your carmine flakes of bloom to-night, | [42] |
List of Poems in the Order of Their Appearance.
[Envoy.]
[Since Yesterday.]
[An Awakening.]
[Love, The Destroyer.]
[Sweetheart, Sigh No More.]
[The Faded Violet.]
[Song.]
[Calais Sands.]
[Phantoms.]
[The Guest.]
[The Secret.]
[If Love Could Last!]
[A Journey.]
[If Only Thou Art True.]
[The Ecstasy Of The Hair.]
[The Night Watches.]
[In A Rose Garden.]
[I Charge You, O Winds Of The West.]
[Song.]
[Cæli.]
[Love In The Heart.]
[I Will Not Let Thee Go.]
[Long Are The Hours.]
[Apparitions.]
[Porphyria’s Lover.]
[Robin’s Song.]
[The Hour Of Shadows.]
[Carnations In Winter.]
[The Eavesdropper.]
[The Impossible She.]
[A Dream Shape.]
[Unrequited.]
[In The Wood.]
[Birds And Lovers.]
[Dawn.]
[Love’s Power.]
[Last Night My Lady Talked With Me.]
[Love’s Arrows.]
[A Love Song.]
[The Parting Hour.]
[The Sundial.]
[Spring Song.]
[To Jessie’s Dancing Feet.]
[A Love Song.]
[A Song.]
[A Nocturne.]
[Violets.]
[A Year.]
[I’ve Kissed Thee, Sweetheart.]
[Complaint.]
[Heart’s Demesne.]
[In The Evening.]
[When The Leaves Fall In Autumn.]
[“Qui Sait Aimer, Sait Mourir.”]
[Song.]
[O Knight, If Thou A Lady Hast.]
[At Last.]
[The Old Is Better.]
[Ballade Of Midsummer Days And Nights.]
[Oh, Gather Me The Rose.]
[Her Dream.]
[Song.]
[The Tryst.]
[By One Rapt Day.]
[The Dilemma.]
[The Measure.]
[Two Truths.]
[A Prayer.]
[A June Storm.]
[Dolcino To Margaret.]
[A Ballade Of Waiting.]
[A Forecast.]
[An Old Tune.]
[Good-bye.]
[Metempsychosis.]
[A Ballade Of Old Sweethearts.]
[In The Mile-end Road.]
[Love Afraid.]
[To My Mistress.]
[It Is Not Always May.]
[Et Melle Et Felle.]
[A Song Of Love.]
[The Lonely Landscape.]
[The Outcast.]
[Auf Wiedersehen!]
[Sequel To “My Queen.”]
[If ...?]
[Omens And Oracles.]
[The Garden Of Memory.]
[If I Were A Monk, And Thou Wert A Nun.]
[A Ballade Of Colours.]
[My Amazon.]
[Changed Love.]
[Summer’s Return.]
[Mine.]
[Aubade.]
[The Phial And The Philtre.]
[Not I, Sweet Soul, Not I.]
[At Dinner She Is Hostess.]
[Love Within The Lover’s Breast.]
[A Dead March.]
[Fair Star That On The Shoulder Of Yon Hill.]
[Thy Shadow, O Tardy Night.]
[The First Lyric.]
[The Concluding Lyric.]
[Beside A Bier.]
[Hereafter.]
[Fortunio’s Song.]
[Splendide Mendax.]
[The Kiss.]
[The Mill.]
[A Pastoral.]
[Vigilate Itaque.]
[The Horizon.]
[Shadows.]
[A Farewell.]
[Song.]
[Supreme Summer.]
[As One Would Stand Who Saw A Sudden Light.]
[Departure.]
[Cadences.]
[Chant Royal Of The God Of Love.]
[False Spring.]
[In June.]
[A Song Of Winter.]
[To A Lost Love.]
[Prince Of Painters, Come, I Pray.]
[A Lagoon Message.]
[A Conquest.]
[The Devout Lover.]
[Ballade Of Lovers.]
[In A Garden.]
[A Song For Candlemas.]
[A Dream Of Diana.]
[When She Comes Home.]
[Poplar Leaves.]
[After Death.]
[Somewhere Or Other.]
[First Love Remembered.]
[Love Enthroned.]
[Sudden Light.]
[A Perfect Day.]
[Rus In Urbe.]
[Song.]
[The Coming Of Love.]
[Recall.]
[Fantasia.]
[Only A Leaf.]
[Song From A Drama.]
[The Violet.]
[To My Lady.]
[At Parting.]
[August.]
[Between The Sunset And The Sea.]
[The Oblation.]
[On Judge’s Walk.]
[Ich Hör’ Es Sogar Im Traum.]
[Oh, When Will It Be?]
[Ballade Of The Ladyes Of Long Syne.]
[Fatima.]
[Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal.]
[The Window; Or The Songs Of The Wrens.]
[Gone.]
[Valentine.]
[Dream Tryst.]
[Atalanta.]
[A Song Of Thanksgiving.]
[Day After Day Of This Azure May.]
[The Song Of Tristram.]
[Aubade.]
[Love, The Guest.]
[A Blush At Farewell.]
[The Kiss Of Betrothal.]
[The Parting-gate.]
[Irish Love Song.]
[Good-night.]
[I Know ’Tis Late, But Let Me Stay.]
[Cashel Of Munster.]
[Daffodils.]
[Ave Atque Vale.]
[Epitaph.]
[A Golden Hour.]
[And These—are These Indeed The End?]
[A Dream.]
[The First Kiss.]
[Sufficiency.]
[Benedicite.]
[My Violet.]
[Asleep.]
[Swimming Song.]
[The Peace Of The Rose.]
[The Bridal Pair.]
[The Triflers.]
[At Thy Grave.]
[Lo! In A Dream Love Came To Me.]
[Vale.]