D. E. A. WALLACE
(SOMERVILLE)
RIVER-POOLS
Were I a shadow in a pool
I would not live, I would not fear to die;
But only, faint and cool,
I’d pass my days of unreality
In passive contemplation of the sky;
And no desire should shake me.
And no denial break me,
Ah, fool,
Thou art no shadow in a pool.
Were I a shadow in a pool
I could not love, I could not thrill with hate;
But, ashy-pale and cool,
Through endless meadows moving desolate
I would outgaze the sky dispassionate,
With never grief to move me.
And never friend to love me.
Glad fool,
Thou art no shadow in a pool!
LIFE AND I
LIFE and I are a pair of lovers:
Life is only as old as I.
Here he kissed me, with no one by,
Here the day long will we lie,
On a hillside swept with the calling of plovers,
Until the stooping midnight covers
Life and me with the star-wrought sky.
Life, come kiss me! Joy, come tell me,
Will you love me still to-morrow?
Will you ravish me and sell me,
Love of mine, to sorrow?
“Sweet, come kiss me! Sweet, come tell me
No misgivings of the morrow!
But ... there are two ways to spell me:
I am Joy—and Sorrow.”
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS. GUILDFORD, ENGLAND