Lady of wrong and grief,
Blameless
!
Ezra-Pound-Provenca-English
of my Love's that is so dear and gay.
Ah God ! Ah God ! That dawn should come so
soon! "
Envoi
Fair is this damsel and right courteous,
And many watch her beauty's gracious ways.
Her heart toward love is no wise traitorous.
Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so
soon!
? LAUDANTES
wHEN your beauty is grown old in all men's
And my poor words are lost amid that throng,
Then you will know the truth of my poor words,
And mayhap dreaming of the wistful throng
That hopeless sigh your praises in their songs, You will think kindly then of these mad words.
I am torn, torn with thy beauty,
O Rose of the sharpest thorn !
O Rose of the crimson beauty,
Why hast thou awakened the sleeper?
Why hast thou awakened the heart within me, O Rose of the crimson thorn?
The unappeasable loveliness
is calling to me out of the wind,
And because your name
is written upon the ivory doors,
The wave in my heart is as a green wave, unconfined, Tossing the white foam toward you;
And the lotus that pours
Her fragrance into the purple cup
Is more to be gained with the foam Than are you with these words of mine.
52
? IV
He speaks to the moonlight concerning the Beloved.
Pale hair that the moon has shaken Down over the dark breast of the sea,
magic her beauty has shaken
About the heart of me;
Out of you have I woven a dream
That shall walk in the lonely vale
Betwixt the high hill and the low hill, Until the pale stream
Of the souls of men quench and grow still.
v
Voices speaking to the sun.
Red leaf that art blown upward and out and over The green sheaf of the world,
And through the dim forest and under
The shadowed arches and the aisles,
We, who are older than thou art,
Met and remembered when his eyes beheld her In the garden of the peach-trees,
In the day of the blossoming.
VI
1 stood on the hill of Yrma
when the winds were a-hurrying,
With the grasses a-bending
I followed them,
Through the brown grasses of Ahva unto the green of Asedon.
53
Laudantes
? Laudantes I have rested with the voices
in the gardens of Ahthor, I have lain beneath the peach-trees
in the hour of the purple:
Because I had awaited in
the garden of the peach-trees, Because I had feared not
in the forest of my mind, Mine eyes beheld the vision of the blossom
There in the peach-gardens past Asedon.
winds of Yrma, let her again come unto me, Whose hair ye held unbound in the gardens of
Ahthor!
vn
Because of the beautiful white shoulders and the rounded breasts
1 can in no wise forget my beloved of the peach-
trees,
And the little winds that speak when the dawn is
unfurled
And the rose-colour in the grey oak-leaf's fold
When it first comes, and the glamour that rests On the little streams in the evening; all of these Call me to her, and all the loveliness in the world Binds me to my beloved with strong chains of gold.
vm
If the rose-petals which have fallen upon my eyes And if the perfect faces which I see at times
54
? When my eyes are closed
Faces fragile, pale, yet flushed a little, like petals of roses :
If these things have confused my memories of her So that I could not draw her face
Even if I had skill and the colours,
Yet because her face is so like these things
They but draw me nearer unto her in my thought
And thoughts of her come upon my mind gently, As dew upon the petals of roses.
DC
He speaks to the rain.
O pearls that hang on your little silver chains, The innumerable voices that are whispering
Among you as you are drawn aside by the wind, Have brought to my mind the soft and eager speech Of one who hath great loveliness,
Which is subtle as the beauty of the rains That hang low in the moonshine and bring
The May softly among us, and unbind
The streams and the crimson and white flowers and
reach
Deep down into the secret places.
x
The glamour of the soul hath come upon me,
And as the twilight comes upon the roses, 55
Laudantei
? Laudantes Walking silently among them,
So have the thoughts of my heart
Gone out slowly in the twilight Toward my beloved,
Toward the crimson rose, the fairest.
PLANH
It is of the white thoughts that he saw in the Forest.
WHIOTE Poppy, heavy with dreams,
White Poppy, who art wiser than love,
Though I am hungry for their lips When I see them a-hiding
And a-passing out and in through the shadows There in the pine wood it is,
And they are white, White Poppy,
They are white like the clouds in the forest of the
sky
Ere the stars arise to their hunting.
White Poppy, who art wiser than love, 1 am come for peace, yea from the hunting Am I come to thee for peace.
Out of a new sorrow it is,
That my hunting hath brought me.
White Poppy, heavy with dreams, Though I am hungry for their lips
When I see them a-hiding
And a-passing out and in through the shadows
And it is white they are 56
? But if one should look at me with the old hunger in Plank
her eyes,
How will I be answering her eyes?
For I have followed the white folk of the forest.
Aye ! It 's a long hunting
And it 's a deep hunger I have when I see them
a-gliding
And a-flickering there, where the trees stand apart.
But oh, it is sorrow and sorrow When love dies-down in the heart.
57
? CANZONIERE
STUDIES IN FORM i
? " Ma qui la morta poesi risurga. "
? TO OLIVIA AND DOROTHY SHAKESPEAR
? OCTAVE
songs, fair songs, these golden usuries FINHeEr beauty earns as but just increment,
And they do speak with a most ill intent
Who say they give when they pay debtor's fees.
I call him bankrupt in the courts of song Who hath her gold to eye and pays her not, Defaulter do I call the knave who hath got Her silver in his heart and doth her wrong.
SONNET IN TENZONE LA MENTE
THOU mocked heart that cowerest by the door
And durst not honour hope with welcoming, How shall one bid thee for her honour sing,
When song would but show forth thy sorrow's
store?
What things are gold and ivory unto thee?
Go forth, thou pauper fool ! Are these for naught? Isheaveninlotusleaves? Whathastthouwrought, Or brought, or sought wherewith to pay the fee? "
IL CUORE
Ronsard me celebroit! behold I give
The age-old, age-old fare to fairer fair
And I fare forth into more bitter air;
Though mocked I go, yet shall her beauty live Till rimes unrime and Truth shall truth unlearn. "
63
"If naught I give, naught do I take return. *'
? : SONNET
on the tally-board of wasted days
IF write me for They daily
proud idleness, Let high Hell summons me, and I confess,
No overt act the preferred charge allays.
To-day I thought what boots it what I thought? Poppies and gold ! Why should I blurt it out? Or hawk the magic of her name about
Deaf doors and dungeons where no truth is brought ?
Who calls me idle? I have thought of her. Who calls me idle? By God's truth I 've seen The arrowy sunlight in her golden snares.
Let him among you all stand summonser
Who hath done better things ! Let whoso hath been With worthier works concerned, display his wares !
CANZON: THE YEARLY SLAIN (Written in reply to Manning's "Kor^k") . ^9
^-<-j ^-*? Ethuiusmodistantiaeususestfereinomnibuscantionibussuis
"
A rnaldus Danielis et nos eum. secut, sumus. DANTE, De Vulgari Eloquio, II. 10. )
red-leafed time hath driven out the rose AH! And crimson dew is fallen on the leaf
Ere ever yet the cold white wheat be sown That hideth all earth's green and sere and red ;
64
? The Moon-flower 's fallen and the branch is bare, Canzon:
Holding no honey for the starry bees;
The Maiden turns to her dark lord's demesne.
Fairer than Enna's field when Ceres sows
The stars of hyacinth and puts off grief,
Fairer than petals on May morning blown Through apple-orchards where the sun hath shed
His brighter petals down to make them fair; Fairer than these the Poppy-crowned One flees, And Joy goes weeping in her scarlet train.
m
The faint damp wind that, ere the even, blows
Piling the west with many a tawny sheaf,
Then when the last glad wavering hours are mown Sigheth and dies because the day is sped;
This wind is like her and the listless air Wherewith she goeth by beneath the trees,
The trees that mock her with their scarlet stain.
IV
Love that is born of Time and comes and goes ! Love that doth hold all noble hearts in fief!
As red leaves follow where the wind hath flown, So all men follow Love when Love is dead.
O Fate of Wind ! O Wind that cannot spare, But drivest out the Maid, and pourest lees
Of all thy crimson on the wold again,
65
Fear/y slain
? Kore my heart is, let it stand sans gloze ! Love's pain is long, and lo, love's joy is brief ! My heart erst alway sweet is bitter grown; As crimson ruleth in the good green's stead, So grief hath taken all mine old joy's share And driven forth my solace and all ease Where pleasure bows to all-usurping pain.
VI
Crimson the hearth where one last ember glows ! My heart's new winter hath no such relief,
Nor thought of Spring whose blossom he hath
known
Hath turned him back where Spring is banished. Barren the heart and dead the fires there,
Blow! O ye ashes, where the winds shall please, But cry, "Love also is the Yearly Slain. "
vn
Be sped, my Canzon, through the bitter air ! To him who speaketh words as fair as these, Say that I also know the "Yearly Slain. "
KORE
From the " Poems of Frederic Manning,'* published by John Murray, with whose permission we here reprint it.
Yea, she hath passed hereby and blessed the sheaves And the great garths and stacks and quiet farms, And all the tawny and the crimson leaves,
Yea, she hath passed with poppies in her arms Under the star of dusk through stealing mist
_ And blest the earth and gone while no man wist.
66
? With slow reluctant feet and weary eyes Kore And eyelids heavy with the coming sleep,
With small breasts lifted up in stress of sighs,
She passed as shadows pass amid the sheep
While the earth dreamed and only I was ware Of that faint fragrance blown from her soft hair.
The land lay steeped in peace of silent dreams, There was no sound amid the sacred boughs Nor any mournful music in her streams,
Only I saw the shadow on her brows,
Only I knew her for the Yearly Slain
And wept, and weep until she come again.
CANZON: THE SPEAR
[This fashion of stanza is used by Jaufre Rudel in the song "D'un amordelonh. " Themeasureistobesungratherthanspoken. ]
IS the clear light of love I praise
That steadfast gloweth o'er deep waters,
A clarity that gleams always.
Though man's soul pass through troubled waters, Strange ways tp him are opened.
To shore the beaten ship is sped
If only love of light give aid.
ii
That fair far spear of light now lays Its long gold shaft upon the waters. Ah ! might I pass upon its rays
To where it gleams beyond the waters, 67
? Canzon: Spear
Or might my troubled heart be fed UpOn the frail clear light there shed>
Then were my pain at last allay'd.
ni
Although the clouded storm dismays Many a heart upon these waters, The thought of that far golden blaze Giveth me heart upon the waters, Thinking thereof my bark is led
To port wherein no storm I dread; No tempest maketh me afraid.
IV
Yet when within my heart I gaze
Upon my fair beyond the waters, Meseems my soul within me prays
To pass straightway beyond the waters. Though I be alway banished
From ways and woods that she doth tread, One thing there is that doth not fade,
Deep in my heart that spear-print stays, That wound I gat beyond the waters,
Deeper with passage of the days
That pass as swift and bitter waters, While a dull fire within my head Moveth itself if word be said
Which hath concern with that far maid.
68
? VI
My love is lovelier than the sprays
Of eglantine above clear waters,
Or whitest lilies that upraise
Their heads in midst of moated waters.
No poppy in the May-glad mead Would match her quivering lips' red If 'gainst her lips it should be laid.
VII
The light within her eyes, which slays Base thoughts and stilleth troubled waters,
Is like the gold where sunlight plays Upon the still overshadowed waters.
When anger is there mingled
There comes a keener gleam instead,
Like flame that burns beneath thin jade.
vni
Know by the words here mingled
What love hath made my heart his stead, Glowing like flame beneath thin jade.
CANZON
TO BE SUNG BENEATH A WINDOW
I
HEART mine, art mine, whose embraces Clasp but wind that past thee bloweth?
E'en this air so subtly gloweth, Guerdoned by thy sun-gold traces
Canzon: spear
? Canzon That my heart is half afraid
For the fragrance on him laid; Even so love's might amazes !
Man's love follows many faces,
My love only one face knoweth;
Towards thee only my love floweth,
And outstrips the swift stream's paces. Were this love well here displayed,
As flame flameth 'neath thin jade
Love should glow through these my phrases.
HI
Though I Ve roamed through many places, None there is that my heart troweth
Fair as that wherein fair groweth
One whose land here interlaces
Tuneful words, that I Ve essayed. Let this tune be gently played Which my voice herward upraises.
IV
If my praise her grace effaces,
Then 't is not my heart that showeth, But the skilless tongue that soweth Words unworthy of her graces. Tongue, that hath me so betrayed, Were my heart but here displayed, Then were sung her fitting praises.
NOTE. The form and measure are those of Piere Vidal's " Ab ValentirvasmeVaire" Thesongisfitonlytobesung,and is not to be spoken.
70
? CANZON: OF INCENSE
[To this form sings Arnault Daniel, with seven stanzas instead of five. ]
gracious ways,
O Lady of my heart, have O'er all my thought their golden glamour cast;
As amber torch-flames, where strange men-at-arms Tread softly 'neath the damask shield of night,
Rise from the flowing steel in part reflected, So on my mailed thought that with thee goeth,
Though dark the way, a golden glamour falleth.
H
The censer sways
And glowing coals some art have To free what frankincense before held fast
Till all the summer of the eastern farms
Doth dim the sense, and dream up through the light, As memory, by new-born love corrected
With savour such as only new love knoweth Through swift dim ways the hidden pasts recalleth.
ra
On barren days,
At hours when I, apart, have
Bent low in thought of the great charm thou hast, Behold with music's many stringed charms
The silence groweth thou. O rare delight !
The melody upon clear strings inflected
Were dull when o'er taut sense thy presence floweth, With quivering notes' accord that never palleth.
THY
? Canzon:
OfIn-r . .
cense The glowing rays
IV
That from the low sun dart, have Turned gold each tower and every towering mast;
The saffron flame, that flaming nothing harms Hides Khadeeth's pearl and all the sapphire might Of burnished waves, before her gates collected: The cloak of graciousness, that round thee gloweth, Doth hide the thing thou art, as here befalleth.
v
All things worth praise
That unto Khadeeth's mart have
From far been brought through perils over-passed, All santal, myrrh, and spikenard that disarms The pard's swift anger; these would weigh but light 'Gainst thy delights, my Khadeeth! Whence
protected
By naught save her great grace that in him showeth, My song goes forth and on her mercy calleth.
VI
O censer of the thought that golden gloweth, Be bright before her when the evening falleth.
vn
Fragrant be thou as a new field one moweth, O song of mine that "Hers" her mercy calleth.
72
? CANZONE: OF ANGELS
HEthat is Lord of all the realms of light
Hath unto me from His
Granted such vision as hath wrought my joy.
Moving my spirit past the last defence
That shieldeth mortal things from mightier sight, Where freedom of the soul knows no alloy,
I saw what forms the lordly powers employ; Three splendours, saw I, of high holiness, From clarity to clarity ascending
Through all the roofless, tacit courts extending In aether which such subtle light doth bless
As ne'er the candles of the stars hath wooed; Know ye herefrom of their similitude.
II
Withdrawn within the cavern of his wings,
Grave with the joy of thoughts beneficent,
And finely wrought and durable and clear
If so his eyes showed forth the mind's content, So sate the first to whom remembrance clings, Tissued like bat's wings did his wings appear, Not of that shadowy colouring and drear,
But as thin shells, pale saffron, luminous;
Alone, unlonely, whose calm glances shed Friend's love to strangers though no word were
said,
Pensive his godly state he keepeth thus.
Not with his surfaces his power endeth,
But is as flame that from the gem extendeth.
73
magnificence
? Canzone: HI Of Angels
My second marvel stood not in such ease,
But he, the cloudy pinioned, winged him on Then from my sight as now from memory,
The courier aquiline, so swiftly gone !
The third most glorious of these majesties
Give aid, O sapphires of th' eternal see, And by your light illume pure verity.
That azure feldspar hight the microcline, Or, on its wing, the Menelaus weareth
Such subtlety of shimmering as beareth This marvel onward through the crystalline, A splendid calyx that about her gloweth, Smiting the sunlight on whose ray she goeth.
IV
The diver at Sorrento from beneath
The vitreous indigo, who swiftly riseth,
By will and not by action as it seemeth,
Moves not more smoothly, and no thought sur-
miseth
How she takes motion from the lustrous sheath
Which, as the trace behind the swimmer, gleameth Yet presseth back the aether where it streameth. To her whom it adorns this sheath imparteth
The living motion from the light surrounding; And thus my nobler parts, to grief's confounding, Impart into my heart a peace which starteth
From one round whom a graciousness is cast Which clingeth in the air where she hath past.
74
? V. TORNATA
Canzon, to her whose spirit seems in sooth
Akin unto the feldspar, since it is
So clear and subtle and azure, I send thee, saying: That since I looked upon such potencies
And glories as are here inscribed in truth,
New boldness hath o'erthrown my long delaying, And that thy words my new-born powers obeying Voices at last to voice my heart's long mood
Are come to greet her in their amplitude.
Canzone: Of Angels
NOTE. This form is not Provengal, but that of Dante's "
matchless Voi che intendendo z/ terzo ciel movete. " IL
Italian.
SONNET: CHI E QUESTA?
WHOis she coming, that the roses bend
Their shameless heads to do her honour ?
passing
Who is she coming with a light upon her
Not born of suns that with the day's end end ?
Say, is it Love who hath chosen the nobler part? Say, is it Love, that was divinity,
Who hath left his godhead that his home might be The shameless rose of her unclouded heart?
If this be Love, where hath he won such grace? If this be Love, how is the evil wrought,
That all men write against his darkened name?
75
? Sonnet: If this be Love, if this
O mind give place !
What holy mystery e'er was noosed in thought? Own that thou scan'st her not, nor count it shame !
OF GRACE
(BALLATA, FRAGMENT) ii
FPULL well thou knowest, song, what grace I mean,
E'en as thou know'st the sunlight I have lost.
Thou knowest the way of it and know'st the sheen About her brows where the rays are bound and
crossed,
E'en as thou knowest joy and know'st joy's bitter
cost.
Thou know'st her grace in moving, Thou dost her skill in loving,
Thou know'st what truth she proveth, Thou knowest the heart she moveth, O song where grief assoneth !
CANZON: THE VISION
The form is that of Arnault Daniel's "Sols suique sailo sobra- fan quern sortz. "
WHENfirst I saw thee 'neath the silver mist,
Ruling thy bark of painted sandal-wood, Didanyknowthee? Bythegoldensails
76
? That clasped the ribbands of that azure sea,
Did any know thee save my heart alone?
O ivory woman with thy bands of gold,
Answer the song my luth and I have brought thee !
n
Dream over golden dream that secret cist,
Thy heart, O heart of me, doth hold, and mood
On mood of silver, when the day's light fails,
Say who hath touched the secret heart of thee,
Or who hath known what my heart hath not
known !
O slender pilot whom the mists enfold,
Answer the song my luth and I have wrought thee !
m
When new love plucks the falcon from his wrist, And cuts the gyve and casts the scarlet hood, Where is the heron heart whom flight avails? O quick to prize me Love, how suddenly From out the tumult truth hath ta'en his own, And in this vision is our past unrolled.
Lo ! With a hawk of light thy love hath caught me.
IV
And I shall get no peace from eucharist,
Nor doling out strange prayers before the rood, To match the peace that thine hands' touch entails;
77
? Canzon : Nor doth God's light match light shed over me The rltfflftwjgga thy caught sunlight is about me thrown,
Oh, for the very ruth thine eyes have told, Answer the rune this love of thee hath taught me.
After an age of longing had we missed
Our meeting and the dream, what were the good Ofweavingclothofwords? Werejeweledtales An opiate meet to quell the malady Oflifeunlived? Inuntriedmonotone
Were not the earth as vain, and dry, and old, For thee, O Perfect Light, had I not sought thee?
VI
Calais, in song where word and tone keep tryst Behold my heart, and hear mine hardihood ! Calais, the wind is come and heaven pales And trembles for the love of day to be.
Calais, the words break and the dawn is shown.
Ah, but the stars set when thou wast first bold,
Turn! lest they say a lesser light distraught thee.
VTI
O ivory thou, the golden scythe hath mown Night'sstubbleandmyjoy. Ah,royalsouled, Favour the quest ! Lo, Truth and I have sought
thee !
78
? TO OUR LADY OF VICARIOUS ATONEMENT (BALLATA)
i
WHOare you that the whole world's song
Is shaken out beneath feet your
Leaving you comfortless, Who, that, as wheat
Is garnered, gather in The blades of man's sin And bear that sheaf?
Lady of wrong and grief, Blameless !
All souls beneath the gloom That pass with little flames, All these till time be run Pass one by one
As Christs to save, and die ;
What wrong one sowed, Behold, another reaps! Where lips awake our joy The sad heart sleeps Within.
No man doth bear his sin,
But many sins
Are gathered as a cloud about man's way.
79
? EPILOGUE
TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI
and I are come to learn of thee,
DANOTE
crossed
O who hast thou,
thee,
sung
+; U none at defeat song
essire master of us
M
Love, who hath set his hand upon us three,
Bidding us twain upon thy glory call.
Harsh light hath rent from us the golden pall
Of that frail sleep, His first light seigniory,
And we are come through all the modes that fall Unto their lot who meet him constantly. Wherefore, by right, in this lord's name we greet
thee,
Seeing we labour at his labour daily.
Thou, who dost know what way swift words are
Guido,
all,
Grant ! by thy might and hers of San Michele, Thy risen voice send flames this pentecost.
NOTE. Thispoemforerunsatranslationof"TheSonnetsand
"
Ballate of Guido
now in preparation E. p.
80
? NOTES
? NOTES
NOTE PRECEDENT TO "LA FRAISNE"
" When the soul is exhausted of fire, then doth the spirit return unto its primal nature and there is upon it a peace great and of the
woodland
"
magna pax et silvestrts. "
Then becometh it kin to the faun and the dryad, a woodland- dweller amid the rocks and streams
" consociisfaunts dryadisque inter saxa sylvarum" Janus of Basel.
Also has Mr. Yeats in his "Celtic Twilight" treated of such, and I because in such a mood, feeling myself divided between my-
" woodland," eternal because simple in elements "Aetemus quia simplex naturae. "
"
Being freed of the weight of a soul
damnation," a grievous striving thing that after much straining was mercifully taken from me ; as had one passed saying as one in the Book of the Dead,
"
I, lo I, am the assembler of souls," and had taken it with him, leaving me thus simplex naturae, even so at peace and trans- sentient as a wood pool I made it.
"
Miraut de Garzelas, after the pains he bore a-loving Riels of Calidorn and that to none avail, ran mad in the
forest.
" Yea even as Peire Vidal ran as a wolf for her of Penautier
though some say that twas folly or as Garulf Bisclavret so ran truly, till the King brought him respite (See 'Lais' Marie de France), so was he ever by the Ash Tree. "
Hear ye his speaking: (low, slowly he speaketh it, as one drawn apart, reflecting) (egare").
1 Referendumforcontrast. "Daemonalitas"oftheRev. Father
self corporal and a self aetherial
a dweller by streams and in
The Legend thus :
" A treatise wherein is shown that there are in existence on earth rational creatures besides man, endowed like him with a body and soul, that are born and die like him, redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and capable of receiving salvation or damnation. " Latin and English text, pub. Liseux,
Sinistrari of Ameno
( 1600 circ. ).
Paris, 1879.
83
capable of salvation or
1
? MARVOIL Notes
The Personae arc :
Arnaut of Marvoil, a troubadour, date 1170-1200.
The Countess (in her own right) of Burlatz, and of Beziers, be-
ing the wife of
The Vicomte of Beziers.
Alfonso IV of Aragon.
Tibors of Mont-Ausier. For fuller mention of her see the
"razos" on Bertran of Born. She is contemporary with the other persons, but I have no strict warrant for dragging her name into this particular affair.
? _)>'}
\
.
Ah God ! Ah God ! That dawn should come so
soon! "
Envoi
Fair is this damsel and right courteous,
And many watch her beauty's gracious ways.
Her heart toward love is no wise traitorous.
Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so
soon!
? LAUDANTES
wHEN your beauty is grown old in all men's
And my poor words are lost amid that throng,
Then you will know the truth of my poor words,
And mayhap dreaming of the wistful throng
That hopeless sigh your praises in their songs, You will think kindly then of these mad words.
I am torn, torn with thy beauty,
O Rose of the sharpest thorn !
O Rose of the crimson beauty,
Why hast thou awakened the sleeper?
Why hast thou awakened the heart within me, O Rose of the crimson thorn?
The unappeasable loveliness
is calling to me out of the wind,
And because your name
is written upon the ivory doors,
The wave in my heart is as a green wave, unconfined, Tossing the white foam toward you;
And the lotus that pours
Her fragrance into the purple cup
Is more to be gained with the foam Than are you with these words of mine.
52
? IV
He speaks to the moonlight concerning the Beloved.
Pale hair that the moon has shaken Down over the dark breast of the sea,
magic her beauty has shaken
About the heart of me;
Out of you have I woven a dream
That shall walk in the lonely vale
Betwixt the high hill and the low hill, Until the pale stream
Of the souls of men quench and grow still.
v
Voices speaking to the sun.
Red leaf that art blown upward and out and over The green sheaf of the world,
And through the dim forest and under
The shadowed arches and the aisles,
We, who are older than thou art,
Met and remembered when his eyes beheld her In the garden of the peach-trees,
In the day of the blossoming.
VI
1 stood on the hill of Yrma
when the winds were a-hurrying,
With the grasses a-bending
I followed them,
Through the brown grasses of Ahva unto the green of Asedon.
53
Laudantes
? Laudantes I have rested with the voices
in the gardens of Ahthor, I have lain beneath the peach-trees
in the hour of the purple:
Because I had awaited in
the garden of the peach-trees, Because I had feared not
in the forest of my mind, Mine eyes beheld the vision of the blossom
There in the peach-gardens past Asedon.
winds of Yrma, let her again come unto me, Whose hair ye held unbound in the gardens of
Ahthor!
vn
Because of the beautiful white shoulders and the rounded breasts
1 can in no wise forget my beloved of the peach-
trees,
And the little winds that speak when the dawn is
unfurled
And the rose-colour in the grey oak-leaf's fold
When it first comes, and the glamour that rests On the little streams in the evening; all of these Call me to her, and all the loveliness in the world Binds me to my beloved with strong chains of gold.
vm
If the rose-petals which have fallen upon my eyes And if the perfect faces which I see at times
54
? When my eyes are closed
Faces fragile, pale, yet flushed a little, like petals of roses :
If these things have confused my memories of her So that I could not draw her face
Even if I had skill and the colours,
Yet because her face is so like these things
They but draw me nearer unto her in my thought
And thoughts of her come upon my mind gently, As dew upon the petals of roses.
DC
He speaks to the rain.
O pearls that hang on your little silver chains, The innumerable voices that are whispering
Among you as you are drawn aside by the wind, Have brought to my mind the soft and eager speech Of one who hath great loveliness,
Which is subtle as the beauty of the rains That hang low in the moonshine and bring
The May softly among us, and unbind
The streams and the crimson and white flowers and
reach
Deep down into the secret places.
x
The glamour of the soul hath come upon me,
And as the twilight comes upon the roses, 55
Laudantei
? Laudantes Walking silently among them,
So have the thoughts of my heart
Gone out slowly in the twilight Toward my beloved,
Toward the crimson rose, the fairest.
PLANH
It is of the white thoughts that he saw in the Forest.
WHIOTE Poppy, heavy with dreams,
White Poppy, who art wiser than love,
Though I am hungry for their lips When I see them a-hiding
And a-passing out and in through the shadows There in the pine wood it is,
And they are white, White Poppy,
They are white like the clouds in the forest of the
sky
Ere the stars arise to their hunting.
White Poppy, who art wiser than love, 1 am come for peace, yea from the hunting Am I come to thee for peace.
Out of a new sorrow it is,
That my hunting hath brought me.
White Poppy, heavy with dreams, Though I am hungry for their lips
When I see them a-hiding
And a-passing out and in through the shadows
And it is white they are 56
? But if one should look at me with the old hunger in Plank
her eyes,
How will I be answering her eyes?
For I have followed the white folk of the forest.
Aye ! It 's a long hunting
And it 's a deep hunger I have when I see them
a-gliding
And a-flickering there, where the trees stand apart.
But oh, it is sorrow and sorrow When love dies-down in the heart.
57
? CANZONIERE
STUDIES IN FORM i
? " Ma qui la morta poesi risurga. "
? TO OLIVIA AND DOROTHY SHAKESPEAR
? OCTAVE
songs, fair songs, these golden usuries FINHeEr beauty earns as but just increment,
And they do speak with a most ill intent
Who say they give when they pay debtor's fees.
I call him bankrupt in the courts of song Who hath her gold to eye and pays her not, Defaulter do I call the knave who hath got Her silver in his heart and doth her wrong.
SONNET IN TENZONE LA MENTE
THOU mocked heart that cowerest by the door
And durst not honour hope with welcoming, How shall one bid thee for her honour sing,
When song would but show forth thy sorrow's
store?
What things are gold and ivory unto thee?
Go forth, thou pauper fool ! Are these for naught? Isheaveninlotusleaves? Whathastthouwrought, Or brought, or sought wherewith to pay the fee? "
IL CUORE
Ronsard me celebroit! behold I give
The age-old, age-old fare to fairer fair
And I fare forth into more bitter air;
Though mocked I go, yet shall her beauty live Till rimes unrime and Truth shall truth unlearn. "
63
"If naught I give, naught do I take return. *'
? : SONNET
on the tally-board of wasted days
IF write me for They daily
proud idleness, Let high Hell summons me, and I confess,
No overt act the preferred charge allays.
To-day I thought what boots it what I thought? Poppies and gold ! Why should I blurt it out? Or hawk the magic of her name about
Deaf doors and dungeons where no truth is brought ?
Who calls me idle? I have thought of her. Who calls me idle? By God's truth I 've seen The arrowy sunlight in her golden snares.
Let him among you all stand summonser
Who hath done better things ! Let whoso hath been With worthier works concerned, display his wares !
CANZON: THE YEARLY SLAIN (Written in reply to Manning's "Kor^k") . ^9
^-<-j ^-*? Ethuiusmodistantiaeususestfereinomnibuscantionibussuis
"
A rnaldus Danielis et nos eum. secut, sumus. DANTE, De Vulgari Eloquio, II. 10. )
red-leafed time hath driven out the rose AH! And crimson dew is fallen on the leaf
Ere ever yet the cold white wheat be sown That hideth all earth's green and sere and red ;
64
? The Moon-flower 's fallen and the branch is bare, Canzon:
Holding no honey for the starry bees;
The Maiden turns to her dark lord's demesne.
Fairer than Enna's field when Ceres sows
The stars of hyacinth and puts off grief,
Fairer than petals on May morning blown Through apple-orchards where the sun hath shed
His brighter petals down to make them fair; Fairer than these the Poppy-crowned One flees, And Joy goes weeping in her scarlet train.
m
The faint damp wind that, ere the even, blows
Piling the west with many a tawny sheaf,
Then when the last glad wavering hours are mown Sigheth and dies because the day is sped;
This wind is like her and the listless air Wherewith she goeth by beneath the trees,
The trees that mock her with their scarlet stain.
IV
Love that is born of Time and comes and goes ! Love that doth hold all noble hearts in fief!
As red leaves follow where the wind hath flown, So all men follow Love when Love is dead.
O Fate of Wind ! O Wind that cannot spare, But drivest out the Maid, and pourest lees
Of all thy crimson on the wold again,
65
Fear/y slain
? Kore my heart is, let it stand sans gloze ! Love's pain is long, and lo, love's joy is brief ! My heart erst alway sweet is bitter grown; As crimson ruleth in the good green's stead, So grief hath taken all mine old joy's share And driven forth my solace and all ease Where pleasure bows to all-usurping pain.
VI
Crimson the hearth where one last ember glows ! My heart's new winter hath no such relief,
Nor thought of Spring whose blossom he hath
known
Hath turned him back where Spring is banished. Barren the heart and dead the fires there,
Blow! O ye ashes, where the winds shall please, But cry, "Love also is the Yearly Slain. "
vn
Be sped, my Canzon, through the bitter air ! To him who speaketh words as fair as these, Say that I also know the "Yearly Slain. "
KORE
From the " Poems of Frederic Manning,'* published by John Murray, with whose permission we here reprint it.
Yea, she hath passed hereby and blessed the sheaves And the great garths and stacks and quiet farms, And all the tawny and the crimson leaves,
Yea, she hath passed with poppies in her arms Under the star of dusk through stealing mist
_ And blest the earth and gone while no man wist.
66
? With slow reluctant feet and weary eyes Kore And eyelids heavy with the coming sleep,
With small breasts lifted up in stress of sighs,
She passed as shadows pass amid the sheep
While the earth dreamed and only I was ware Of that faint fragrance blown from her soft hair.
The land lay steeped in peace of silent dreams, There was no sound amid the sacred boughs Nor any mournful music in her streams,
Only I saw the shadow on her brows,
Only I knew her for the Yearly Slain
And wept, and weep until she come again.
CANZON: THE SPEAR
[This fashion of stanza is used by Jaufre Rudel in the song "D'un amordelonh. " Themeasureistobesungratherthanspoken. ]
IS the clear light of love I praise
That steadfast gloweth o'er deep waters,
A clarity that gleams always.
Though man's soul pass through troubled waters, Strange ways tp him are opened.
To shore the beaten ship is sped
If only love of light give aid.
ii
That fair far spear of light now lays Its long gold shaft upon the waters. Ah ! might I pass upon its rays
To where it gleams beyond the waters, 67
? Canzon: Spear
Or might my troubled heart be fed UpOn the frail clear light there shed>
Then were my pain at last allay'd.
ni
Although the clouded storm dismays Many a heart upon these waters, The thought of that far golden blaze Giveth me heart upon the waters, Thinking thereof my bark is led
To port wherein no storm I dread; No tempest maketh me afraid.
IV
Yet when within my heart I gaze
Upon my fair beyond the waters, Meseems my soul within me prays
To pass straightway beyond the waters. Though I be alway banished
From ways and woods that she doth tread, One thing there is that doth not fade,
Deep in my heart that spear-print stays, That wound I gat beyond the waters,
Deeper with passage of the days
That pass as swift and bitter waters, While a dull fire within my head Moveth itself if word be said
Which hath concern with that far maid.
68
? VI
My love is lovelier than the sprays
Of eglantine above clear waters,
Or whitest lilies that upraise
Their heads in midst of moated waters.
No poppy in the May-glad mead Would match her quivering lips' red If 'gainst her lips it should be laid.
VII
The light within her eyes, which slays Base thoughts and stilleth troubled waters,
Is like the gold where sunlight plays Upon the still overshadowed waters.
When anger is there mingled
There comes a keener gleam instead,
Like flame that burns beneath thin jade.
vni
Know by the words here mingled
What love hath made my heart his stead, Glowing like flame beneath thin jade.
CANZON
TO BE SUNG BENEATH A WINDOW
I
HEART mine, art mine, whose embraces Clasp but wind that past thee bloweth?
E'en this air so subtly gloweth, Guerdoned by thy sun-gold traces
Canzon: spear
? Canzon That my heart is half afraid
For the fragrance on him laid; Even so love's might amazes !
Man's love follows many faces,
My love only one face knoweth;
Towards thee only my love floweth,
And outstrips the swift stream's paces. Were this love well here displayed,
As flame flameth 'neath thin jade
Love should glow through these my phrases.
HI
Though I Ve roamed through many places, None there is that my heart troweth
Fair as that wherein fair groweth
One whose land here interlaces
Tuneful words, that I Ve essayed. Let this tune be gently played Which my voice herward upraises.
IV
If my praise her grace effaces,
Then 't is not my heart that showeth, But the skilless tongue that soweth Words unworthy of her graces. Tongue, that hath me so betrayed, Were my heart but here displayed, Then were sung her fitting praises.
NOTE. The form and measure are those of Piere Vidal's " Ab ValentirvasmeVaire" Thesongisfitonlytobesung,and is not to be spoken.
70
? CANZON: OF INCENSE
[To this form sings Arnault Daniel, with seven stanzas instead of five. ]
gracious ways,
O Lady of my heart, have O'er all my thought their golden glamour cast;
As amber torch-flames, where strange men-at-arms Tread softly 'neath the damask shield of night,
Rise from the flowing steel in part reflected, So on my mailed thought that with thee goeth,
Though dark the way, a golden glamour falleth.
H
The censer sways
And glowing coals some art have To free what frankincense before held fast
Till all the summer of the eastern farms
Doth dim the sense, and dream up through the light, As memory, by new-born love corrected
With savour such as only new love knoweth Through swift dim ways the hidden pasts recalleth.
ra
On barren days,
At hours when I, apart, have
Bent low in thought of the great charm thou hast, Behold with music's many stringed charms
The silence groweth thou. O rare delight !
The melody upon clear strings inflected
Were dull when o'er taut sense thy presence floweth, With quivering notes' accord that never palleth.
THY
? Canzon:
OfIn-r . .
cense The glowing rays
IV
That from the low sun dart, have Turned gold each tower and every towering mast;
The saffron flame, that flaming nothing harms Hides Khadeeth's pearl and all the sapphire might Of burnished waves, before her gates collected: The cloak of graciousness, that round thee gloweth, Doth hide the thing thou art, as here befalleth.
v
All things worth praise
That unto Khadeeth's mart have
From far been brought through perils over-passed, All santal, myrrh, and spikenard that disarms The pard's swift anger; these would weigh but light 'Gainst thy delights, my Khadeeth! Whence
protected
By naught save her great grace that in him showeth, My song goes forth and on her mercy calleth.
VI
O censer of the thought that golden gloweth, Be bright before her when the evening falleth.
vn
Fragrant be thou as a new field one moweth, O song of mine that "Hers" her mercy calleth.
72
? CANZONE: OF ANGELS
HEthat is Lord of all the realms of light
Hath unto me from His
Granted such vision as hath wrought my joy.
Moving my spirit past the last defence
That shieldeth mortal things from mightier sight, Where freedom of the soul knows no alloy,
I saw what forms the lordly powers employ; Three splendours, saw I, of high holiness, From clarity to clarity ascending
Through all the roofless, tacit courts extending In aether which such subtle light doth bless
As ne'er the candles of the stars hath wooed; Know ye herefrom of their similitude.
II
Withdrawn within the cavern of his wings,
Grave with the joy of thoughts beneficent,
And finely wrought and durable and clear
If so his eyes showed forth the mind's content, So sate the first to whom remembrance clings, Tissued like bat's wings did his wings appear, Not of that shadowy colouring and drear,
But as thin shells, pale saffron, luminous;
Alone, unlonely, whose calm glances shed Friend's love to strangers though no word were
said,
Pensive his godly state he keepeth thus.
Not with his surfaces his power endeth,
But is as flame that from the gem extendeth.
73
magnificence
? Canzone: HI Of Angels
My second marvel stood not in such ease,
But he, the cloudy pinioned, winged him on Then from my sight as now from memory,
The courier aquiline, so swiftly gone !
The third most glorious of these majesties
Give aid, O sapphires of th' eternal see, And by your light illume pure verity.
That azure feldspar hight the microcline, Or, on its wing, the Menelaus weareth
Such subtlety of shimmering as beareth This marvel onward through the crystalline, A splendid calyx that about her gloweth, Smiting the sunlight on whose ray she goeth.
IV
The diver at Sorrento from beneath
The vitreous indigo, who swiftly riseth,
By will and not by action as it seemeth,
Moves not more smoothly, and no thought sur-
miseth
How she takes motion from the lustrous sheath
Which, as the trace behind the swimmer, gleameth Yet presseth back the aether where it streameth. To her whom it adorns this sheath imparteth
The living motion from the light surrounding; And thus my nobler parts, to grief's confounding, Impart into my heart a peace which starteth
From one round whom a graciousness is cast Which clingeth in the air where she hath past.
74
? V. TORNATA
Canzon, to her whose spirit seems in sooth
Akin unto the feldspar, since it is
So clear and subtle and azure, I send thee, saying: That since I looked upon such potencies
And glories as are here inscribed in truth,
New boldness hath o'erthrown my long delaying, And that thy words my new-born powers obeying Voices at last to voice my heart's long mood
Are come to greet her in their amplitude.
Canzone: Of Angels
NOTE. This form is not Provengal, but that of Dante's "
matchless Voi che intendendo z/ terzo ciel movete. " IL
Italian.
SONNET: CHI E QUESTA?
WHOis she coming, that the roses bend
Their shameless heads to do her honour ?
passing
Who is she coming with a light upon her
Not born of suns that with the day's end end ?
Say, is it Love who hath chosen the nobler part? Say, is it Love, that was divinity,
Who hath left his godhead that his home might be The shameless rose of her unclouded heart?
If this be Love, where hath he won such grace? If this be Love, how is the evil wrought,
That all men write against his darkened name?
75
? Sonnet: If this be Love, if this
O mind give place !
What holy mystery e'er was noosed in thought? Own that thou scan'st her not, nor count it shame !
OF GRACE
(BALLATA, FRAGMENT) ii
FPULL well thou knowest, song, what grace I mean,
E'en as thou know'st the sunlight I have lost.
Thou knowest the way of it and know'st the sheen About her brows where the rays are bound and
crossed,
E'en as thou knowest joy and know'st joy's bitter
cost.
Thou know'st her grace in moving, Thou dost her skill in loving,
Thou know'st what truth she proveth, Thou knowest the heart she moveth, O song where grief assoneth !
CANZON: THE VISION
The form is that of Arnault Daniel's "Sols suique sailo sobra- fan quern sortz. "
WHENfirst I saw thee 'neath the silver mist,
Ruling thy bark of painted sandal-wood, Didanyknowthee? Bythegoldensails
76
? That clasped the ribbands of that azure sea,
Did any know thee save my heart alone?
O ivory woman with thy bands of gold,
Answer the song my luth and I have brought thee !
n
Dream over golden dream that secret cist,
Thy heart, O heart of me, doth hold, and mood
On mood of silver, when the day's light fails,
Say who hath touched the secret heart of thee,
Or who hath known what my heart hath not
known !
O slender pilot whom the mists enfold,
Answer the song my luth and I have wrought thee !
m
When new love plucks the falcon from his wrist, And cuts the gyve and casts the scarlet hood, Where is the heron heart whom flight avails? O quick to prize me Love, how suddenly From out the tumult truth hath ta'en his own, And in this vision is our past unrolled.
Lo ! With a hawk of light thy love hath caught me.
IV
And I shall get no peace from eucharist,
Nor doling out strange prayers before the rood, To match the peace that thine hands' touch entails;
77
? Canzon : Nor doth God's light match light shed over me The rltfflftwjgga thy caught sunlight is about me thrown,
Oh, for the very ruth thine eyes have told, Answer the rune this love of thee hath taught me.
After an age of longing had we missed
Our meeting and the dream, what were the good Ofweavingclothofwords? Werejeweledtales An opiate meet to quell the malady Oflifeunlived? Inuntriedmonotone
Were not the earth as vain, and dry, and old, For thee, O Perfect Light, had I not sought thee?
VI
Calais, in song where word and tone keep tryst Behold my heart, and hear mine hardihood ! Calais, the wind is come and heaven pales And trembles for the love of day to be.
Calais, the words break and the dawn is shown.
Ah, but the stars set when thou wast first bold,
Turn! lest they say a lesser light distraught thee.
VTI
O ivory thou, the golden scythe hath mown Night'sstubbleandmyjoy. Ah,royalsouled, Favour the quest ! Lo, Truth and I have sought
thee !
78
? TO OUR LADY OF VICARIOUS ATONEMENT (BALLATA)
i
WHOare you that the whole world's song
Is shaken out beneath feet your
Leaving you comfortless, Who, that, as wheat
Is garnered, gather in The blades of man's sin And bear that sheaf?
Lady of wrong and grief, Blameless !
All souls beneath the gloom That pass with little flames, All these till time be run Pass one by one
As Christs to save, and die ;
What wrong one sowed, Behold, another reaps! Where lips awake our joy The sad heart sleeps Within.
No man doth bear his sin,
But many sins
Are gathered as a cloud about man's way.
79
? EPILOGUE
TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI
and I are come to learn of thee,
DANOTE
crossed
O who hast thou,
thee,
sung
+; U none at defeat song
essire master of us
M
Love, who hath set his hand upon us three,
Bidding us twain upon thy glory call.
Harsh light hath rent from us the golden pall
Of that frail sleep, His first light seigniory,
And we are come through all the modes that fall Unto their lot who meet him constantly. Wherefore, by right, in this lord's name we greet
thee,
Seeing we labour at his labour daily.
Thou, who dost know what way swift words are
Guido,
all,
Grant ! by thy might and hers of San Michele, Thy risen voice send flames this pentecost.
NOTE. Thispoemforerunsatranslationof"TheSonnetsand
"
Ballate of Guido
now in preparation E. p.
80
? NOTES
? NOTES
NOTE PRECEDENT TO "LA FRAISNE"
" When the soul is exhausted of fire, then doth the spirit return unto its primal nature and there is upon it a peace great and of the
woodland
"
magna pax et silvestrts. "
Then becometh it kin to the faun and the dryad, a woodland- dweller amid the rocks and streams
" consociisfaunts dryadisque inter saxa sylvarum" Janus of Basel.
Also has Mr. Yeats in his "Celtic Twilight" treated of such, and I because in such a mood, feeling myself divided between my-
" woodland," eternal because simple in elements "Aetemus quia simplex naturae. "
"
Being freed of the weight of a soul
damnation," a grievous striving thing that after much straining was mercifully taken from me ; as had one passed saying as one in the Book of the Dead,
"
I, lo I, am the assembler of souls," and had taken it with him, leaving me thus simplex naturae, even so at peace and trans- sentient as a wood pool I made it.
"
Miraut de Garzelas, after the pains he bore a-loving Riels of Calidorn and that to none avail, ran mad in the
forest.
" Yea even as Peire Vidal ran as a wolf for her of Penautier
though some say that twas folly or as Garulf Bisclavret so ran truly, till the King brought him respite (See 'Lais' Marie de France), so was he ever by the Ash Tree. "
Hear ye his speaking: (low, slowly he speaketh it, as one drawn apart, reflecting) (egare").
1 Referendumforcontrast. "Daemonalitas"oftheRev. Father
self corporal and a self aetherial
a dweller by streams and in
The Legend thus :
" A treatise wherein is shown that there are in existence on earth rational creatures besides man, endowed like him with a body and soul, that are born and die like him, redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and capable of receiving salvation or damnation. " Latin and English text, pub. Liseux,
Sinistrari of Ameno
( 1600 circ. ).
Paris, 1879.
83
capable of salvation or
1
? MARVOIL Notes
The Personae arc :
Arnaut of Marvoil, a troubadour, date 1170-1200.
The Countess (in her own right) of Burlatz, and of Beziers, be-
ing the wife of
The Vicomte of Beziers.
Alfonso IV of Aragon.
Tibors of Mont-Ausier. For fuller mention of her see the
"razos" on Bertran of Born. She is contemporary with the other persons, but I have no strict warrant for dragging her name into this particular affair.
? _)>'}
\
.
