NIGHT LITANY
oDIEU, purifiez nos coeurs!
oDIEU, purifiez nos coeurs!
Ezra-Pound-Provenca-English
Drink we a skoal for the gallows tree !
Francoi-s and Margot and thee and me,
A Vi%tton-
fjf
lad of the
Gibbet
T^
Drink we to Manenne Ydole,
That hell brenn not her o'er cruelly.
i
.
TVT TT-J i
Drink we the lusty robbers twain,
Black is the pitch o' their wedding dress, Lips shrunk back for the wind's caress
As lips shrink back when we feel the strain Of love that loveth in hell's disdeign
And sense the teeth through the lips that press 'Gainst our lips for the soul's distress
That striveth to ours across the pain.
Drink we skoal to the gallows tree!
Francois and Margot and thee and me,
For Jehan and Raoul de Vallerie
Whose frames have the night and its winds in fee
Maturin, Guillaume, Jacques d'Allmain, Culdou, lacking a coat to bless
One lean moiety of his nakedness,
That plundered St. Hubert back o' the fane: Aie ! the lean bare tree is widowed again For Michault le Borgne that would confess In "faith and troth" to a traitoress,
"Which of his brothers had he slain? "
But drink we skoal to the gallows tree ! Francois and Margot and thee and me:
1 Certain gibbeted corpses used to be coated with tar as a pre- servative ; thus one scarecrow served as warning for considerable time. See Hugo, " L'Homme qui Rit. "
13
1
? A Villon- These that we loved shall God love less
fadoftfie Gibbet
^nc* sm*te alwav at their feebleness?
Skoal ! 1 to the Gallows ! and then pray we: God damn his hell out speedily
And bring their souls to his High City.
MESMERISM
"And a cat 's in the water-butt. " ROBERT BROWNING.
YE, you 're a man that ! ye old mesmerizer !
Tyin' your meanin' in seventy swadelin's, One must of needs be a hang'd early riser
To catch you at worm turning. Holy Odd's bodykins !
"Cat 's i' the water-butt! " Thought 's in your
verse-barrel,
Tell us this thing rather, then we '11 believe you,
You, Master Bob Browning, spite your apparel Jump to your sense and give praise as we 'd lief do.
You wheeze as a head-cold long-tonsilled Calliope, But,God! whatasightyouha'goto'ourin'ards, Mad as a hatter but surely no Myope,
Broad as all ocean and leanin' mankin'ards.
Heart that was big as the bowels of Vesuvius, Words that were wing'd as her sparks in eruption^
Eagled and thundered as Jupiter Pluvius, Sound in your wind past all signs o' corruption.
14
? Here 's to you, Old Hippety-hop o' the accents, True to the Truth's sake and crafty dissector,
You grabbed at the gold sure; had no need to pack cents
Into your versicles.
Clear sight's elector !
Mesmer- ism
FAMAM LIBROSQUE CANO songs?
YOUR Oh
!
The little mothers
Will sing them in the twilight, And when the night
Shrinketh the kiss of the dawn That loves and kills,
What time the swallow fills
Her note, the little rabbit folk
That some call children,
Such as are up and wide
Will laugh your verses to each other, Pulling on their shoes for the day's business, Serious child business that the world Laughs at, and grows stale;
Such is the tale
Part of it of thy song-life. Mine?
A book is known by them that read Thatsame. Thypublicinmyscreed
Is listed. Well ! Some score years hence Behold mine audience,
As we had seen him yesterday.
15
? Famam
Scrawny, be-spectacled, out at heels,
Such an one as the wor d feels !
A sort of curse against its guzzling
And its age-lasting wallow for red greed
And yet, full speed
Though it should run for its own getting, Will turn aside to sneer at
'Cause he hath
No coin, no will to snatch the aftermath Of Mammon.
Such an one as women draw away from For the tobacco ashes scattered on his coat And sith his throat
Show razor's unfamiliarity And three days' beard:
Such an one picking a ragged Backless copy from the stall,
Too cheap for cataloguing, Loquitur,
"Ah-eh! the strange rare name .
Ah-eh ! He must be rare if even / have not And lost mid-page
Such age
As his pardons the habit,
He analyzes form and thought to see
How I 'scaped immortality.
16
. .
? TEMPORE SENECTUTIS OR we are old
And the earth passion dieth;
We have watched him die a thousand times, When he wanes an old wind crieth,
For we are old
And passion hath died for us a thousand times
But we grew never weary.
Memory faileth, as the lotus-loved chimes
Sink into fluttering of wind, But we grow never weary For we are old.
The strange night-wonder of your eyes Dies not, though passion flieth
Along the star fields of Arcturus And is no more unto our hands;
My lips are cold
And yet we twain are never weary,
And the strange night-wonder is upon us,
The leaves hold our wonder in their flutterings, The wind fills our mouths with strange words
For our wonder that grows not old.
The moth-hour of our day is upon us Holding the dawn;
There is strange Night-wonder in our eyes Because the Moth-Hour leadeth the dawn
As a maiden, holding her fingers,
The rosy, slender fingers of the dawn. "
17
? InTem- Hesaith:"Redspearsborethewarriordawn Of old
**: Strange! Love, hast thou forgotten
The red spears of the dawn, The pennants of the morning? "
She saith: "Nay, I remember, but now Cometh the Dawn, and the Moth-Hour
Together with him ; softly For we are old. "
CAMARADERIE
"Etuttogite tofossealacantpagniadimolti,quantaaliavista"
I feel thy cheek against my face
SOMETIMES soft as is the South's first breath Close-pressing,
That all the subtle earth-things summoneth To spring in wood-land and in meadow space.
Yea sometimes in a bustling man-filled place Meseemeth some-wise thy hair wandereth Across mine eyes, as mist that halloweth The air awhile and giveth all things grace.
Or on still evenings when the rain falls close There comes a tremor in the drops, and fast
My pulses run, knowing thy thought hath passed That beareth thee as doth the wind a rose.
18
nectutis. OA
,
T ,
? FOR E. McC.
THAT WAS MY COUNTER-BLADE UNDER LEONARDO TERRONE, MASTER OF FENCE
i~* ONE while your tastes were keen to you, \J Gone where the grey winds call to you,
By that high fencer, even Death,
Struck of the blade that no man parrieth;
Such is your fence, one saith, One that hath known you.
Drew you your sword most gallantly, Made you your pass most valiantly
'Gainst that grey fencer, even Death.
Gone as a gust of breath
Faith ! no man tarrieth,
"Se il cor ti manca" but it failed thee not!
"Non tifidar" it is the sword that speaks
1
Thou trusted'st in thyself and met the blade Thout mask or gauntlet, and art laid
As memorable broken blades that be
Kept as bold trophies of old pageantry.
As old Toledos past their days of war
Are kept mnemonic of the strokes they bore,
So art thou with us, being good to keep
In our heart's sword-rack, though thy sword-arm
sleep.
ENVOI
Struck of the blade that no man parrieth,
Pierced of the point that toucheth lastly all,
'Gainst that grey fencer, even Death,
Behold the shield ! He shall not take thee all.
1 Sword-rune, " If thy heart fail thee trust not in me. " 19
"In me. "
? BALLAD FOR GLOOM
God, our God, is a gallant foe FOTRhat playeth behind the veil.
I have loved my God as a child at heart That seeketh deep bosoms for rest,
I have loved my God as maid to man, But lo, this thing is best:
To love your God as a gallant foe
that plays behind the veil,
To meet your God as the night winds meet beyond Arcturus' pale.
I have played with God for a woman,
I have staked with my God for truth,
I have lost to my God as a man, clear eyed;
His dice be not of ruth.
For I am made as a naked blade, But hear ye this thing in sooth :
Who loseth to God as man to man Shall win at the turn of the game.
I have drawn my blade where the lightnings meet But the ending is the same:
Who loseth to God as the sword blades lose
Shall win at the end of the game.
For God, our God, is a gallant foe
that playeth behind the veil,
Whom God deigns not to overthrow
hath need of triple mail.
20
? AT THE HEART O' ME A. D. 751
j ever one fear at the heart o me
WITH still sea-coasts Long by
coursed my Grey-Falcon, And the twin delights
of shore and sea were mine, Sapphire and emerald with
fine pearls between.
Through the pale courses of
the land-caressing in-streams Glided my barge and
the kindly strange peoples Gave to me laugh for laugh,
and wine for my tales of wandering. And the cities gave me welcome
and the fields free passage, With ever one fear
j
at the heart o me.
An thou should'st grow weary
ere my returning,
An "they" should call to thee
from out the borderland, What should avail me
booty of whale-ways? What should avail me
gold rings or the chain-mail? What should avail me
the many-twined bracelets? What should avail me,
O my beloved,
21
? At the g ^|j
Here in this "Middan-gard" what should avail me
Out of the booty and gain of my goings?
*
THE TREE
From " A Lume Spento. "
T STOOD still and was a tree amid the wood,
A Knowing the truth of things unseen before; Of Daphne and the laurel bow
And that god-feasting couple old
That grew elm-oak amid the wold.
'T was not until the gods had been
Kindly entreated, and been brought within Unto the hearth of their heart's home That they might do this wonder thing; Nathless I have been a tree amid the wood And many a new thing understood
That was rank folly to my head before.
AN IDYL FOR GLAUCUS
Nel suo aspetto tal dentro mifei Glauco nel gustar del? erba
guahlesilffe"**consorto in mar degli altri dei* PARADISO, i, 67-9. "As Glaucus tasting the grass that made
hint sea-fellow with the other gods. "
I
WHITHER he went I may not follow him.
His eyes Were strange to-day. They always were,
After their fashion, kindred of the sea.
i Anglo-Saxon, "Earth. " 22
? To-dayIfoundhim. Itwasverylong
That I had sought among the nets, and when I
asked
The fishermen, they laughed at me.
I sought long days amid the cliffs thinking to find The body-house of him, and then
There at the blue cave-mouth my joy
Grew pain for suddenness, to see him 'live. Whither he went I may not come, it seems
He is become estranged from all the rest,
And all the sea is now his wonder-house.
And he may sink unto strange depths, he tells me of, That have no light as we it deem. E'ennowhespeaksstrangewords. Ididnotknow One half the substance of his speech with me. And then when I saw naught he sudden leaped, And shot, a gleam of silver, down, away.
And I have spent three days upon this rock
And yet he comes no more.
He did not even seem to know
I watched him gliding through the vitreous deep.
n
They chide me that the skein I used to spin Holds not my interest now,
They mock me at the route. Well, I have come
again.
Last night I saw three white forms move,
Out past the utmost wave that bears the white foam
crest.
I somehow knew that he was one of them.
23
AnIdyl
? AnIdyl ^Glaucus
Oime, Oime! I think each time they come
^P *rom t^ie sea ^eart to our rea m
"
^ f a*1 They are more far-removed from the shore.
When first I found him here, he slept
E'en as he might after a long night's taking on the
deep,
And when he woke some whit the old kind smile
Dwelt round his lips and held him near to me. But then strange gleams shot through the grey-deep
eyes
As though he saw beyond and saw not me, And when he moved to speak it troubled him. And then he plucked at grass and bade me eat. And then forgot me for the sea its charm
And leapt him in the wave and so was gone.
in
I wonder why he mocked me with the grass.
I know not any more how long it is
Since I have dwelt not in my mother's house.
I know they think me mad, for all night long
I haunt the sea-marge, thinking I may find
Some day the herb he offered unto me. Perhapshedidnotjest; theysaysomesimpleshave More wide-spanned power than old wives draw
from them.
Perhaps, found I this grass, he 'd come again. Perhaps 't is some strange charm to draw him here, 'Thout which he may not leave his new-found crew That ride the two-foot coursers of the deep,
And laugh in storms and break the fishers' nets. Oime, Oime!
24
? SONG
Voices in the Wind.
We have worn the blue and vair,
And all the sea-caves
Know us of old, and know our new-found mate. There 's many a secret stair
The sea-folk climb . . .
Out of the Wind. Oime, Oime !
I wonder why the wind, even the wind doth seem To mock me now, all night, all night, and
I have strayed among the cliffs here.
They say, some day I '11 fall
Down through the sea-bit fissures, and no more Know the warm cloak of sun, or bathe
The dew across my tired eyes to comfort them. They try to keep me hid within four walls.
I will not stay !
Oime!
And the wind " Oime " saith, !
I am quite tired now.
I know the grass
Must grow somewhere along this Thracian coast, If only he would come some little while and find
it me.
ENDETH THE LAMENT FOR GLAUCUS 25
An Idyl for
Glaucus
? MARVOIL 1
A POOR clerk I, "Arnaut the less" they call me,
And because I have small mind to Day long, long day cooped on a stool
A-jumbling o' figures for Maitre Jacques Polin, I ha' taken to rambling the South here.
The Vicomte of Beziers 's not such a bad lot.
I made rimes to his lady this three year:
Vers and canzone, till that damn'd son of Aragon, Alfonso the half-bald, took to hanging
His helmet at Beziers.
Then came what might come, to wit: three men and
one woman,
Beziers off at Mont-Ausier, I and his lady Singing the stars in the turrets of Beziers, And one lean Aragonese cursing the seneschal To the end that you see, friends:
Aragon cursing in Aragon, Beziers busy at Beziers Bored to an inch of extinction,
Tibors all tongue and temper at Mont-Ausier, Me! in this damn'd inn of Avignon,
Stringing long verse for the Burlatz;
All for one half-bald, knock-knee'd king of the
Aragonese,
Alfonso, Quatro, poke-nose.
And if when I am dead
They take the trouble to tear out this wall here, They '11 know more of Arnaut of Marvoil Than half his canzoni say of him.
1
See note at end of volume. 26
sit
t
? As for will and testament I leave none,
Save this: "Vers and canzone to the Countess of
Beziers
In return for the first kiss she gave me. "
May her eyes and her cheek be fair
To all men except the King of Aragon,
And may I come speedily to Beziers
Whither my desire and my dream have preceded
me.
O hole in the wall here ! be thou my jongleur As ne'er had I other, and when the wind blows,
Sing thou the grace of the Lady of Beziers,
For even as thou art hollow before I fill thee with
this parchment,
So is my heart hollow when she filleth not mine eyes, And so were my mind hollow, did she not fill utterly
my thought.
Wherefore, O hole in the wall here,
When the wind blows sigh thou for my sorrow That I have not the Countess of Beziers Close in my arms here.
Even as thou shalt soon have this parchment.
O hole in the wall here, be thou my jongleur, And though thou sighest my sorrow in the wind,
Keep yet my secret in thy breast here; Even as I keep her image in my heart here.
Mihi pergamena deest. 27
Marvoil
? IN THE OLD AGE OF THE SOUL
DO not choose to dream; there cometh on me i Some strange old lust for deeds.
As to the nerveless hand of some old warrior The sword-hilt or the war-worn wonted helmet
Brings momentary life and long-fled cunning, So to my soul grown old
Grown old with many a jousting, many a foray, Grown old with many a hither-coming and hence-
going
Till now they send him dreams and no more deed ; So doth he flame again with might for action, Forgetful of the council of the elders,
Forgetful that who rules doth no more battle, Forgetful that such might no more cleaves to him; So doth he flame again toward valiant doing.
REVOLT
AGAINST THE CREPUSCULAR SPIRIT IN MODERN POETRY
WOULD shake off the lethargy of this our time, I and give
For shadows shapes of power, For dreams men.
"It is better to dream than do? "
Aye! and, No!
28
? Aye ! if we dream great deeds, strong men, Revolt Hearts hot, thoughts mighty.
No ! if we dream pale flowers,
Slow-moving pageantry of hours that languidly Drop as o'er-ripened fruit from sallow trees.
If so we live and die not life but dreams,
Great God, grant life in dreams, Not dalliance, but life !
Let us be men that dream,
Not cowards, dabblers, waiters
For dead Time to reawaken and grant balm For ills unnamed.
Great God, if we be damn'd to be not men but only
dreams,
Then tet us be such dreams the world shall tremble
at
And know we be its rulers though but dreams ! Then let us be such shadows as the world shall
tremble at
And know we be its masters though but shadow !
High God, if men are grown but pale sick
phantoms
That must live only in these mists and tempered
lights
And tremble for dim hours that knock o'er loud
Or tread too violent in passing them; 29
? Revolt Great God, if these thy sons are grown such thin
ephemera,
I bid thee grapple chaos and beget
Some new titanic spawn to pile the hills and stir This earth again.
AND THUS IN NINEVEH
YE! I am a poet and upon my tomb Shall maidens scatter rose leaves
And men myrtles, ere the night Slays day with her dark sword.
"Lo! this thing is not mine
Nor thine to hinder,
For the custom is full old,
And here in Nineveh have I beheld
Many a singer pass and take his place
In those dim halls where no man troubleth
His sleep or song.
And many a one hath sung his songs
More craftily, more subtle-souled than I;
And many a one now doth surpass
My wave-worn beauty with his wind of flowers, Yet am I poet, and upon my tomb
Shall all men scatter rose leaves ere the night Slay light with her blue sword.
"It is not, Raana, that my song rings highest Or more sweet in tone than any, but that I Am here a Poet, that doth drink of life
As lesser men drink wine. "
30
? THE WHITE STAG
HA* seen them mid the clouds on the heather. i Lo! they pause not for love nor for sorrow,
Yet their eyes are as the eyes of a maid to her lover, When the white hart breaks his cover
And the white wind breaks the morn.
"
Bid the world's hounds come to horn! "
'T is the white stag, Fame, we 're a-hunting,
PICCADILLY
tragical faces, BEAYUeTIthFatUwLe,re whole, and are so sunken;
And, O ye vile, ye that might have been loved, That are so sodden and drunken,
Who hath forgotten you? O wistful, fragile faces, few out of many!
The gross, the coarse, the brazen,
God knows I cannot pity them, perhaps, as I should
do,
But, oh, ye delicate, wistful faces,
Who hath forgotten you?
? EXULTATIONS
? / am an eternal spirit and the things I make are
but ephemera, yet I endure:
Yea, and the little earth crumbles beneath our feet
and we endure.
? TO CARLOS TRACY CHESTER
?
NIGHT LITANY
oDIEU, purifiez nos coeurs! Purifiez nos coeurs!
Yea, the lines hast thou laid unto me
in pleasant places, And the beauty of this thy Venice
hast thou shown unto me Until is its loveliness become unto me
a thing of tears.
O God, what great kindness
have we done in times past
and forgotten it,
That thou givest this wonder unto us,
O God of waters?
O God of the night,
What great sorrow
Cometh unto us,
That thou thus repayest us
Before the time of its coming?
O God of silence,
Purifiez nos coeurs,
Purifiez nos coeurs, For we have seen
The glory of the shadow of the likeness of thine handmaid,
Yea, the glory of the shadow of thy Beauty hath walked
37
? Night Upon the shadow of the waters
Litany
In this thy Venice.
And before the holiness
Of the shadow of thy handmaid Have I hidden mine eyes, O God of waters.
O God of silence,
Purifiez nos coeurs,
Purifiez nos coeurs,
O God of waters,
make clean our hearts within us
And our lips to show forth thy praise, For I have seen the
Shadow of this thy Venice
Floating upon the waters, And thy stars
Have seen this thing, out of their far courses Have they seen this thing,
O God of waters, Even as are thy stars
Silent unto us in their far-coursing, Even so is mine heart
become silent within me.
Purifiez nos cosurs, O God of the silence,
Purifiez nos coeurs, O God of waters.
? SESTINA: ALTAFORTE
LOQUITUR : En Bertrans de Born.
Dante Alighieri put this man in hell for that he was a stirrer-up of strife.
Eccovi !
Judge ye !
Have I dug him up again ?
The scene is at his castle, Altaforte.
The " Leopard," the device of Richard (Coeur de Lion).
DAYMouN it all ! all this our South stinks peace.
whoreson come dog, Papiols,
music!
I have no life save when the swords clash. Butah! whenIseethestandardsgold,vair,purple,
opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson, Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.
In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace, And the lightnings from black heav'n flash crimson, And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, op-
posing,
And through all the riven skies God's swords clash.
m
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash ! And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing, Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing/
39
""
Papiols is his jongleur.
!
Let's to
? Sestina: Altaforte
Better one hour's stour than a year's peace with fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music! Bah ! there 's no wine like the blood's crimson !
IV
And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson. And I watch his spears through the dark clash And it fills all my heart with rejoicing
And pries wide my mouth with fast music When I see him so scorn and defy peace,
His lone might 'gainst all darkness opposing.
The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson, But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth 's won and the swords clash For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill all the air with my music.
VI
Papiols, Papiols, to the music !
There 's no sound like to swords swords opposing, No cry like the battle's rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson And our charges 'gainst "The Leopard's" rush
clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry "Peace! "
vn
And let the music of the swords make them crimson ! Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash ! Hell blot black for alway the thought "Peace! "
40
? BALLAD OF THE GOODLY FERE1
SIMON ZELOTES SPEAKETH IT SOMEWHILE AFTER THE CRUCIFIXION
FA' we lost the goodliest fere o' all
L For the priests and the gallows tree? Aye lover he was of brawny men,
O' ships and the open sea.
When they came wi' a host to take Our Man His smile was good to see,
"First let these go! " quo' our Goodly Fere, "Or I '11 see ye damned," says he.
Aye he sent us out through the crossed high spears And the scorn of his laugh rang free,
"Why took ye not me when I walked about Alone in the town? " says he.
Oh we drank his "Hale" in the good red wine When we last made company,
No capon priest was the Goodly Fere, But a man o' men was he.
I ha* seen him drive a hundred men j
Wi' a bundle o cords swung free,
That they took the high and holy house For their pawn and treasury.
They '11 no' get him a' in a book, I think,
Though they write it cunningly;
No mouse of the scrolls was the Goodly Fere, But aye loved the open sea.
1
Fere=s Mate, Companion. 41
? Ballad of If think they
ha' snared our Fere
^^
"I '11 go to the feast," quo' our Goodly Fere,
"Though I go to the gallows tree. "
"Ye ha' seen me heal the lame and blind,
And wake the dead," says he,
"Ye shall see one thing to master all:
'T is how a brave man dies on the tree. "
A son of God was the Goodly Fere That bade us his brothers be.
I ha' seen him cow a thousand men. I have seen him upon the tree.
He cried no cry when they drave the nails And the blood gushed hot and free,
The hounds of the crimson sky gave tongue But never a cry cried he.
I ha' seen him cow a thousand men
On the hills o' Galilee,
They whined as he walked out calm between, Wi' his eyes like the grey o' the sea.
Like the sea that brooks no voyaging With the winds unleashed and free, Like the sea that he cowed at Genseret Wi' twey words spoke' suddently.
42
they the Goodly They are {QQ]B tQ
Goodly degree
? A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea,
If they think they ha' slain our Goodly Fere They are fools eternally.
I ha' seen him eat o' the honey-comb Sin' they nailed him to the tree.
PORTRAIT
"
From LaM&reInconnue. "
NOW would I weave her portrait out of all dim
splendour.
Of Provence and far halls of memory,
Lo, there come echoes, faint diversity
Of blended bells at even's end, or
As the distant seas should send her
The tribute of their trembling, ceaselessly Resonant. Outofalldreamsthatbe,
Say, shall I bid the deepest dreams attend her?
Nay ! For I have seen the purplest shadows stand Alway with reverent chere that looked on her, Silence himself is grown her worshipper
And ever doth attend her in that land
Wherein she reigneth, wherefore let there stir Naught but the softest voices, praising her.
THE EYES
Master, for we be a-weary, weary, RESATn,d would feel the fingers of the wind
Upon these lids that lie over us Sodden and lead-heavy.
43
Ballad of fere
? The Eyes
Rest, brother, for lo ! the dawn is without !
The yellow flame paleth And the wax runs low.
Free us, for without be goodly colours, Green of the wood-moss and flower-colours, And coolness beneath the trees.
Free us, for we perish
In this ever-flowing monotony Of ugly print marks, black Upon white parchment.
Free us, for there is one Whose smile more availeth
Than all the age-old knowledge of thy books: And we would look thereon.
NILS LYKKE
BEATUhTatIFarUeL, at a-plucking
infinite memories
my heart, Why will you be ever calling and a-calling,
And a-murmuring in the dark there?
And a-reaching out your long hands Between me and my beloved?
"
And why will you be ever a-casting The black shadow of your beauty On the white face of my beloved
And a-glinting in the pools of her eyes? " 44
? "FAIR HELENA" BY RACKHAM "What I love best in all the world? "
WHEToNthe purple twilight is unbound,
watch her tall
slow, grace
and its wistful And to know her face
loveliness,
is in the shadow there, Just by two stars beneath that cloud
The soft, dim cloud of her hair, And to think my voice
can reach to her
As but the rumour of some tree-bound stream,
Heard just beyond the forest's edge, Until she all forgets I am,
And knows of me
Naught but my dream's felicity.
GREEK EPIGRAM
and night are never weary, DAYNor yet is God of creating
For day and night their torch-bearers, The aube and the crepuscule.
So, when I weary of praising the dawn and the sun-
set,
Let me be no more counted among the immortals; But number me amid the wearying ones,
Let me be a man as the herd,
And as the slave that is given in barter.
45
? HISTRION
r
i N:
great
At times pass through us,
And we are melted into them, and are not Save reflexions of their souls.
Thus am I Dante for a space and am One Francois Villon, ballad-lord and thief Or am such holy ones I may not write, Lest blasphemy be writ against my name; This for an instant and the flame is gone.
'T is as in midmost us there glows a sphere Translucent, molten gold, that is the "I" And into this some form projects itself:
Christus, or John, or eke the Florentine; And as the clear space is not if a form 's
Imposed thereon,
So cease we from all being for the time,
And these, the Masters of the Soul, live on.
PARACELSUS IN EXCELSIS
" "DEING no longer human, why should I -D Pretend humanity or don the frail attire?
Men have I known and men, but never one Was grown so free an essence, or become So simply element as what I am.
The mist goes from the mirror and I see ! Behold ! the world of forms is swept beneath
46
O man hath dared to write this thing as yet,
And I how that the souls of all men yet know,
? Turmoil grown visible beneath our peace,
And we that are grown formless rise above, Fluids intangible that have been men,
We seem as statues round whose high risen base Some overflowing river is run mad;
In us alone the element of calm !
A SONG OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER In "Los Pastores de Belen. "
From the Spanish of Lope de Vega.
Paracel- s s if
.
f
k
AsS ye go through these palm-trees,
O
Sith sleepeth my child here Still ye the branches.
O Bethlehem palm-trees That move to the anger
Of winds in their fury,
Tempestuous voices, Make ye no clamour,
Run ye less swiftly,
Sith sleepeth the child here Still ye your branches.
He the divine child Is here a-wearied
Of weeping the earth-pain, Here for his rest would he
Cease from his mourning, 47
holy angels;
? A Song o/Only a little while,
**f V,ir8in Sith sleepeth this child here
Stay ye the branches.
Cold be the fierce winds, Treacherous round him. Ye see that I have not Wherewith to guard him, O angels, divine ones That pass us a-flying,
Sith sleepeth my child here Stay ye the branches.
Ya veis que no tengo Con que guardarlo,
O angeles santos
Que vais volando
For que duerme mi nino Tened los ramos!
SONG
thou thy dream
scorning, Love thou the wind
And here take warning
That dreams alone can truly be, For 't is in dream I come to thee.
48
LOVE
l base love Al
? PLANH FOR THE YOUNG ENGLISH KING THAT IS, PRINCE HENRY PLANTAGENET, ELDER
all the grief and woe and bitterness, IFAll dolour, ill and every evil chance
That ever came upon this grieving world Were set together, they would seem but light
Against the death of the young English King. Worth lieth riven and Youth dolorous,
The world o'ershadowed, soiled and overcast, Void of all joy and full of ire and sadness.
Grieving and sad and full of bitterness
Are left in teen the liegemen courteous,
The joglars supple and the troubadours.
O'er much hath ta'en Sir Death, that deadly warrior, In taking from them the young English King, Who made the freest hand seem covetous.
'Las ! Never was nor will be in this world
The balance for this loss in ire and sadness !
O skilful Death and full of bitterness,
Well mayst thou boast that thou the best chevalier That any folk e'er had, hast from us taken;
Sith nothing is that unto worth pertaineth
But had its life in the young English King,
And better were it, should God grant his pleasure That he should live than many a living dastard That doth but wound the good with ire and sadness.
49
BROTHER TO RICHARD "CCEUR DE LION
From the Provengal of Bertrans de Born, elk marrimen"
"
"
Si tuitli dolelhplor
? Planh for From this faint world, now full of bitterness EnJlisT* Love takes his wa^ and holds his J oy deceitful>
King
Sith no thing is but turneth unto anguish
And each to-day Vails less than yestere'en,
Let each man visage this young English King That was most valiant mid all worthiest men ! Gone is his body fine and amorous,
Whence have we grief, discord and deepest sadness.
Him, whom it pleased for our great bitterness To come to earth to draw us from misventure, Who drank of death for our salvacioun,
Him do we pray as to a Lord most righteous And humble eke, that the young English King He please to pardon, as true pardon is,
And bid go in with honoured companions
There where there is no grief, nor shall be sadness.
ALBA INNOMINATA From the Provencal.
FN a garden where the whitethorn spreads her r leaves
My lady hath her love lain close beside her,
Till the warder cries the dawn Ah dawn that
grieves !
Ah God ! Ah God ! That dawn should come so
soon!
50
? " Please God that night, dear night, should never Alba In- nominata
cease,
Nor that my love should parted be from me,
Nor watch cry 'Dawn' Ah dawn that slayeth
peace!
Ah God ! Ah God ! That dawn should come so
soon!
"Fair friend and sweet, thy lips ! Our lips again Lo, in the meadow there the birds give song !
Ours be the love and Jealousy's the pain !
Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so
soon!
"Sweet friend and fair, take we our joy again Down in the garden, where the birds are loud, Till the warder's reed astrain
Cry God! Ah God! That dawn should come so
soon!
" Of that sweet wind that comes from Far-Away Have I drunk deep of my Beloved's breath,
Yea ! 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?
A Vi%tton-
fjf
lad of the
Gibbet
T^
Drink we to Manenne Ydole,
That hell brenn not her o'er cruelly.
i
.
TVT TT-J i
Drink we the lusty robbers twain,
Black is the pitch o' their wedding dress, Lips shrunk back for the wind's caress
As lips shrink back when we feel the strain Of love that loveth in hell's disdeign
And sense the teeth through the lips that press 'Gainst our lips for the soul's distress
That striveth to ours across the pain.
Drink we skoal to the gallows tree!
Francois and Margot and thee and me,
For Jehan and Raoul de Vallerie
Whose frames have the night and its winds in fee
Maturin, Guillaume, Jacques d'Allmain, Culdou, lacking a coat to bless
One lean moiety of his nakedness,
That plundered St. Hubert back o' the fane: Aie ! the lean bare tree is widowed again For Michault le Borgne that would confess In "faith and troth" to a traitoress,
"Which of his brothers had he slain? "
But drink we skoal to the gallows tree ! Francois and Margot and thee and me:
1 Certain gibbeted corpses used to be coated with tar as a pre- servative ; thus one scarecrow served as warning for considerable time. See Hugo, " L'Homme qui Rit. "
13
1
? A Villon- These that we loved shall God love less
fadoftfie Gibbet
^nc* sm*te alwav at their feebleness?
Skoal ! 1 to the Gallows ! and then pray we: God damn his hell out speedily
And bring their souls to his High City.
MESMERISM
"And a cat 's in the water-butt. " ROBERT BROWNING.
YE, you 're a man that ! ye old mesmerizer !
Tyin' your meanin' in seventy swadelin's, One must of needs be a hang'd early riser
To catch you at worm turning. Holy Odd's bodykins !
"Cat 's i' the water-butt! " Thought 's in your
verse-barrel,
Tell us this thing rather, then we '11 believe you,
You, Master Bob Browning, spite your apparel Jump to your sense and give praise as we 'd lief do.
You wheeze as a head-cold long-tonsilled Calliope, But,God! whatasightyouha'goto'ourin'ards, Mad as a hatter but surely no Myope,
Broad as all ocean and leanin' mankin'ards.
Heart that was big as the bowels of Vesuvius, Words that were wing'd as her sparks in eruption^
Eagled and thundered as Jupiter Pluvius, Sound in your wind past all signs o' corruption.
14
? Here 's to you, Old Hippety-hop o' the accents, True to the Truth's sake and crafty dissector,
You grabbed at the gold sure; had no need to pack cents
Into your versicles.
Clear sight's elector !
Mesmer- ism
FAMAM LIBROSQUE CANO songs?
YOUR Oh
!
The little mothers
Will sing them in the twilight, And when the night
Shrinketh the kiss of the dawn That loves and kills,
What time the swallow fills
Her note, the little rabbit folk
That some call children,
Such as are up and wide
Will laugh your verses to each other, Pulling on their shoes for the day's business, Serious child business that the world Laughs at, and grows stale;
Such is the tale
Part of it of thy song-life. Mine?
A book is known by them that read Thatsame. Thypublicinmyscreed
Is listed. Well ! Some score years hence Behold mine audience,
As we had seen him yesterday.
15
? Famam
Scrawny, be-spectacled, out at heels,
Such an one as the wor d feels !
A sort of curse against its guzzling
And its age-lasting wallow for red greed
And yet, full speed
Though it should run for its own getting, Will turn aside to sneer at
'Cause he hath
No coin, no will to snatch the aftermath Of Mammon.
Such an one as women draw away from For the tobacco ashes scattered on his coat And sith his throat
Show razor's unfamiliarity And three days' beard:
Such an one picking a ragged Backless copy from the stall,
Too cheap for cataloguing, Loquitur,
"Ah-eh! the strange rare name .
Ah-eh ! He must be rare if even / have not And lost mid-page
Such age
As his pardons the habit,
He analyzes form and thought to see
How I 'scaped immortality.
16
. .
? TEMPORE SENECTUTIS OR we are old
And the earth passion dieth;
We have watched him die a thousand times, When he wanes an old wind crieth,
For we are old
And passion hath died for us a thousand times
But we grew never weary.
Memory faileth, as the lotus-loved chimes
Sink into fluttering of wind, But we grow never weary For we are old.
The strange night-wonder of your eyes Dies not, though passion flieth
Along the star fields of Arcturus And is no more unto our hands;
My lips are cold
And yet we twain are never weary,
And the strange night-wonder is upon us,
The leaves hold our wonder in their flutterings, The wind fills our mouths with strange words
For our wonder that grows not old.
The moth-hour of our day is upon us Holding the dawn;
There is strange Night-wonder in our eyes Because the Moth-Hour leadeth the dawn
As a maiden, holding her fingers,
The rosy, slender fingers of the dawn. "
17
? InTem- Hesaith:"Redspearsborethewarriordawn Of old
**: Strange! Love, hast thou forgotten
The red spears of the dawn, The pennants of the morning? "
She saith: "Nay, I remember, but now Cometh the Dawn, and the Moth-Hour
Together with him ; softly For we are old. "
CAMARADERIE
"Etuttogite tofossealacantpagniadimolti,quantaaliavista"
I feel thy cheek against my face
SOMETIMES soft as is the South's first breath Close-pressing,
That all the subtle earth-things summoneth To spring in wood-land and in meadow space.
Yea sometimes in a bustling man-filled place Meseemeth some-wise thy hair wandereth Across mine eyes, as mist that halloweth The air awhile and giveth all things grace.
Or on still evenings when the rain falls close There comes a tremor in the drops, and fast
My pulses run, knowing thy thought hath passed That beareth thee as doth the wind a rose.
18
nectutis. OA
,
T ,
? FOR E. McC.
THAT WAS MY COUNTER-BLADE UNDER LEONARDO TERRONE, MASTER OF FENCE
i~* ONE while your tastes were keen to you, \J Gone where the grey winds call to you,
By that high fencer, even Death,
Struck of the blade that no man parrieth;
Such is your fence, one saith, One that hath known you.
Drew you your sword most gallantly, Made you your pass most valiantly
'Gainst that grey fencer, even Death.
Gone as a gust of breath
Faith ! no man tarrieth,
"Se il cor ti manca" but it failed thee not!
"Non tifidar" it is the sword that speaks
1
Thou trusted'st in thyself and met the blade Thout mask or gauntlet, and art laid
As memorable broken blades that be
Kept as bold trophies of old pageantry.
As old Toledos past their days of war
Are kept mnemonic of the strokes they bore,
So art thou with us, being good to keep
In our heart's sword-rack, though thy sword-arm
sleep.
ENVOI
Struck of the blade that no man parrieth,
Pierced of the point that toucheth lastly all,
'Gainst that grey fencer, even Death,
Behold the shield ! He shall not take thee all.
1 Sword-rune, " If thy heart fail thee trust not in me. " 19
"In me. "
? BALLAD FOR GLOOM
God, our God, is a gallant foe FOTRhat playeth behind the veil.
I have loved my God as a child at heart That seeketh deep bosoms for rest,
I have loved my God as maid to man, But lo, this thing is best:
To love your God as a gallant foe
that plays behind the veil,
To meet your God as the night winds meet beyond Arcturus' pale.
I have played with God for a woman,
I have staked with my God for truth,
I have lost to my God as a man, clear eyed;
His dice be not of ruth.
For I am made as a naked blade, But hear ye this thing in sooth :
Who loseth to God as man to man Shall win at the turn of the game.
I have drawn my blade where the lightnings meet But the ending is the same:
Who loseth to God as the sword blades lose
Shall win at the end of the game.
For God, our God, is a gallant foe
that playeth behind the veil,
Whom God deigns not to overthrow
hath need of triple mail.
20
? AT THE HEART O' ME A. D. 751
j ever one fear at the heart o me
WITH still sea-coasts Long by
coursed my Grey-Falcon, And the twin delights
of shore and sea were mine, Sapphire and emerald with
fine pearls between.
Through the pale courses of
the land-caressing in-streams Glided my barge and
the kindly strange peoples Gave to me laugh for laugh,
and wine for my tales of wandering. And the cities gave me welcome
and the fields free passage, With ever one fear
j
at the heart o me.
An thou should'st grow weary
ere my returning,
An "they" should call to thee
from out the borderland, What should avail me
booty of whale-ways? What should avail me
gold rings or the chain-mail? What should avail me
the many-twined bracelets? What should avail me,
O my beloved,
21
? At the g ^|j
Here in this "Middan-gard" what should avail me
Out of the booty and gain of my goings?
*
THE TREE
From " A Lume Spento. "
T STOOD still and was a tree amid the wood,
A Knowing the truth of things unseen before; Of Daphne and the laurel bow
And that god-feasting couple old
That grew elm-oak amid the wold.
'T was not until the gods had been
Kindly entreated, and been brought within Unto the hearth of their heart's home That they might do this wonder thing; Nathless I have been a tree amid the wood And many a new thing understood
That was rank folly to my head before.
AN IDYL FOR GLAUCUS
Nel suo aspetto tal dentro mifei Glauco nel gustar del? erba
guahlesilffe"**consorto in mar degli altri dei* PARADISO, i, 67-9. "As Glaucus tasting the grass that made
hint sea-fellow with the other gods. "
I
WHITHER he went I may not follow him.
His eyes Were strange to-day. They always were,
After their fashion, kindred of the sea.
i Anglo-Saxon, "Earth. " 22
? To-dayIfoundhim. Itwasverylong
That I had sought among the nets, and when I
asked
The fishermen, they laughed at me.
I sought long days amid the cliffs thinking to find The body-house of him, and then
There at the blue cave-mouth my joy
Grew pain for suddenness, to see him 'live. Whither he went I may not come, it seems
He is become estranged from all the rest,
And all the sea is now his wonder-house.
And he may sink unto strange depths, he tells me of, That have no light as we it deem. E'ennowhespeaksstrangewords. Ididnotknow One half the substance of his speech with me. And then when I saw naught he sudden leaped, And shot, a gleam of silver, down, away.
And I have spent three days upon this rock
And yet he comes no more.
He did not even seem to know
I watched him gliding through the vitreous deep.
n
They chide me that the skein I used to spin Holds not my interest now,
They mock me at the route. Well, I have come
again.
Last night I saw three white forms move,
Out past the utmost wave that bears the white foam
crest.
I somehow knew that he was one of them.
23
AnIdyl
? AnIdyl ^Glaucus
Oime, Oime! I think each time they come
^P *rom t^ie sea ^eart to our rea m
"
^ f a*1 They are more far-removed from the shore.
When first I found him here, he slept
E'en as he might after a long night's taking on the
deep,
And when he woke some whit the old kind smile
Dwelt round his lips and held him near to me. But then strange gleams shot through the grey-deep
eyes
As though he saw beyond and saw not me, And when he moved to speak it troubled him. And then he plucked at grass and bade me eat. And then forgot me for the sea its charm
And leapt him in the wave and so was gone.
in
I wonder why he mocked me with the grass.
I know not any more how long it is
Since I have dwelt not in my mother's house.
I know they think me mad, for all night long
I haunt the sea-marge, thinking I may find
Some day the herb he offered unto me. Perhapshedidnotjest; theysaysomesimpleshave More wide-spanned power than old wives draw
from them.
Perhaps, found I this grass, he 'd come again. Perhaps 't is some strange charm to draw him here, 'Thout which he may not leave his new-found crew That ride the two-foot coursers of the deep,
And laugh in storms and break the fishers' nets. Oime, Oime!
24
? SONG
Voices in the Wind.
We have worn the blue and vair,
And all the sea-caves
Know us of old, and know our new-found mate. There 's many a secret stair
The sea-folk climb . . .
Out of the Wind. Oime, Oime !
I wonder why the wind, even the wind doth seem To mock me now, all night, all night, and
I have strayed among the cliffs here.
They say, some day I '11 fall
Down through the sea-bit fissures, and no more Know the warm cloak of sun, or bathe
The dew across my tired eyes to comfort them. They try to keep me hid within four walls.
I will not stay !
Oime!
And the wind " Oime " saith, !
I am quite tired now.
I know the grass
Must grow somewhere along this Thracian coast, If only he would come some little while and find
it me.
ENDETH THE LAMENT FOR GLAUCUS 25
An Idyl for
Glaucus
? MARVOIL 1
A POOR clerk I, "Arnaut the less" they call me,
And because I have small mind to Day long, long day cooped on a stool
A-jumbling o' figures for Maitre Jacques Polin, I ha' taken to rambling the South here.
The Vicomte of Beziers 's not such a bad lot.
I made rimes to his lady this three year:
Vers and canzone, till that damn'd son of Aragon, Alfonso the half-bald, took to hanging
His helmet at Beziers.
Then came what might come, to wit: three men and
one woman,
Beziers off at Mont-Ausier, I and his lady Singing the stars in the turrets of Beziers, And one lean Aragonese cursing the seneschal To the end that you see, friends:
Aragon cursing in Aragon, Beziers busy at Beziers Bored to an inch of extinction,
Tibors all tongue and temper at Mont-Ausier, Me! in this damn'd inn of Avignon,
Stringing long verse for the Burlatz;
All for one half-bald, knock-knee'd king of the
Aragonese,
Alfonso, Quatro, poke-nose.
And if when I am dead
They take the trouble to tear out this wall here, They '11 know more of Arnaut of Marvoil Than half his canzoni say of him.
1
See note at end of volume. 26
sit
t
? As for will and testament I leave none,
Save this: "Vers and canzone to the Countess of
Beziers
In return for the first kiss she gave me. "
May her eyes and her cheek be fair
To all men except the King of Aragon,
And may I come speedily to Beziers
Whither my desire and my dream have preceded
me.
O hole in the wall here ! be thou my jongleur As ne'er had I other, and when the wind blows,
Sing thou the grace of the Lady of Beziers,
For even as thou art hollow before I fill thee with
this parchment,
So is my heart hollow when she filleth not mine eyes, And so were my mind hollow, did she not fill utterly
my thought.
Wherefore, O hole in the wall here,
When the wind blows sigh thou for my sorrow That I have not the Countess of Beziers Close in my arms here.
Even as thou shalt soon have this parchment.
O hole in the wall here, be thou my jongleur, And though thou sighest my sorrow in the wind,
Keep yet my secret in thy breast here; Even as I keep her image in my heart here.
Mihi pergamena deest. 27
Marvoil
? IN THE OLD AGE OF THE SOUL
DO not choose to dream; there cometh on me i Some strange old lust for deeds.
As to the nerveless hand of some old warrior The sword-hilt or the war-worn wonted helmet
Brings momentary life and long-fled cunning, So to my soul grown old
Grown old with many a jousting, many a foray, Grown old with many a hither-coming and hence-
going
Till now they send him dreams and no more deed ; So doth he flame again with might for action, Forgetful of the council of the elders,
Forgetful that who rules doth no more battle, Forgetful that such might no more cleaves to him; So doth he flame again toward valiant doing.
REVOLT
AGAINST THE CREPUSCULAR SPIRIT IN MODERN POETRY
WOULD shake off the lethargy of this our time, I and give
For shadows shapes of power, For dreams men.
"It is better to dream than do? "
Aye! and, No!
28
? Aye ! if we dream great deeds, strong men, Revolt Hearts hot, thoughts mighty.
No ! if we dream pale flowers,
Slow-moving pageantry of hours that languidly Drop as o'er-ripened fruit from sallow trees.
If so we live and die not life but dreams,
Great God, grant life in dreams, Not dalliance, but life !
Let us be men that dream,
Not cowards, dabblers, waiters
For dead Time to reawaken and grant balm For ills unnamed.
Great God, if we be damn'd to be not men but only
dreams,
Then tet us be such dreams the world shall tremble
at
And know we be its rulers though but dreams ! Then let us be such shadows as the world shall
tremble at
And know we be its masters though but shadow !
High God, if men are grown but pale sick
phantoms
That must live only in these mists and tempered
lights
And tremble for dim hours that knock o'er loud
Or tread too violent in passing them; 29
? Revolt Great God, if these thy sons are grown such thin
ephemera,
I bid thee grapple chaos and beget
Some new titanic spawn to pile the hills and stir This earth again.
AND THUS IN NINEVEH
YE! I am a poet and upon my tomb Shall maidens scatter rose leaves
And men myrtles, ere the night Slays day with her dark sword.
"Lo! this thing is not mine
Nor thine to hinder,
For the custom is full old,
And here in Nineveh have I beheld
Many a singer pass and take his place
In those dim halls where no man troubleth
His sleep or song.
And many a one hath sung his songs
More craftily, more subtle-souled than I;
And many a one now doth surpass
My wave-worn beauty with his wind of flowers, Yet am I poet, and upon my tomb
Shall all men scatter rose leaves ere the night Slay light with her blue sword.
"It is not, Raana, that my song rings highest Or more sweet in tone than any, but that I Am here a Poet, that doth drink of life
As lesser men drink wine. "
30
? THE WHITE STAG
HA* seen them mid the clouds on the heather. i Lo! they pause not for love nor for sorrow,
Yet their eyes are as the eyes of a maid to her lover, When the white hart breaks his cover
And the white wind breaks the morn.
"
Bid the world's hounds come to horn! "
'T is the white stag, Fame, we 're a-hunting,
PICCADILLY
tragical faces, BEAYUeTIthFatUwLe,re whole, and are so sunken;
And, O ye vile, ye that might have been loved, That are so sodden and drunken,
Who hath forgotten you? O wistful, fragile faces, few out of many!
The gross, the coarse, the brazen,
God knows I cannot pity them, perhaps, as I should
do,
But, oh, ye delicate, wistful faces,
Who hath forgotten you?
? EXULTATIONS
? / am an eternal spirit and the things I make are
but ephemera, yet I endure:
Yea, and the little earth crumbles beneath our feet
and we endure.
? TO CARLOS TRACY CHESTER
?
NIGHT LITANY
oDIEU, purifiez nos coeurs! Purifiez nos coeurs!
Yea, the lines hast thou laid unto me
in pleasant places, And the beauty of this thy Venice
hast thou shown unto me Until is its loveliness become unto me
a thing of tears.
O God, what great kindness
have we done in times past
and forgotten it,
That thou givest this wonder unto us,
O God of waters?
O God of the night,
What great sorrow
Cometh unto us,
That thou thus repayest us
Before the time of its coming?
O God of silence,
Purifiez nos coeurs,
Purifiez nos coeurs, For we have seen
The glory of the shadow of the likeness of thine handmaid,
Yea, the glory of the shadow of thy Beauty hath walked
37
? Night Upon the shadow of the waters
Litany
In this thy Venice.
And before the holiness
Of the shadow of thy handmaid Have I hidden mine eyes, O God of waters.
O God of silence,
Purifiez nos coeurs,
Purifiez nos coeurs,
O God of waters,
make clean our hearts within us
And our lips to show forth thy praise, For I have seen the
Shadow of this thy Venice
Floating upon the waters, And thy stars
Have seen this thing, out of their far courses Have they seen this thing,
O God of waters, Even as are thy stars
Silent unto us in their far-coursing, Even so is mine heart
become silent within me.
Purifiez nos cosurs, O God of the silence,
Purifiez nos coeurs, O God of waters.
? SESTINA: ALTAFORTE
LOQUITUR : En Bertrans de Born.
Dante Alighieri put this man in hell for that he was a stirrer-up of strife.
Eccovi !
Judge ye !
Have I dug him up again ?
The scene is at his castle, Altaforte.
The " Leopard," the device of Richard (Coeur de Lion).
DAYMouN it all ! all this our South stinks peace.
whoreson come dog, Papiols,
music!
I have no life save when the swords clash. Butah! whenIseethestandardsgold,vair,purple,
opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson, Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.
In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace, And the lightnings from black heav'n flash crimson, And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, op-
posing,
And through all the riven skies God's swords clash.
m
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash ! And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing, Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing/
39
""
Papiols is his jongleur.
!
Let's to
? Sestina: Altaforte
Better one hour's stour than a year's peace with fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music! Bah ! there 's no wine like the blood's crimson !
IV
And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson. And I watch his spears through the dark clash And it fills all my heart with rejoicing
And pries wide my mouth with fast music When I see him so scorn and defy peace,
His lone might 'gainst all darkness opposing.
The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson, But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth 's won and the swords clash For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill all the air with my music.
VI
Papiols, Papiols, to the music !
There 's no sound like to swords swords opposing, No cry like the battle's rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson And our charges 'gainst "The Leopard's" rush
clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry "Peace! "
vn
And let the music of the swords make them crimson ! Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash ! Hell blot black for alway the thought "Peace! "
40
? BALLAD OF THE GOODLY FERE1
SIMON ZELOTES SPEAKETH IT SOMEWHILE AFTER THE CRUCIFIXION
FA' we lost the goodliest fere o' all
L For the priests and the gallows tree? Aye lover he was of brawny men,
O' ships and the open sea.
When they came wi' a host to take Our Man His smile was good to see,
"First let these go! " quo' our Goodly Fere, "Or I '11 see ye damned," says he.
Aye he sent us out through the crossed high spears And the scorn of his laugh rang free,
"Why took ye not me when I walked about Alone in the town? " says he.
Oh we drank his "Hale" in the good red wine When we last made company,
No capon priest was the Goodly Fere, But a man o' men was he.
I ha* seen him drive a hundred men j
Wi' a bundle o cords swung free,
That they took the high and holy house For their pawn and treasury.
They '11 no' get him a' in a book, I think,
Though they write it cunningly;
No mouse of the scrolls was the Goodly Fere, But aye loved the open sea.
1
Fere=s Mate, Companion. 41
? Ballad of If think they
ha' snared our Fere
^^
"I '11 go to the feast," quo' our Goodly Fere,
"Though I go to the gallows tree. "
"Ye ha' seen me heal the lame and blind,
And wake the dead," says he,
"Ye shall see one thing to master all:
'T is how a brave man dies on the tree. "
A son of God was the Goodly Fere That bade us his brothers be.
I ha' seen him cow a thousand men. I have seen him upon the tree.
He cried no cry when they drave the nails And the blood gushed hot and free,
The hounds of the crimson sky gave tongue But never a cry cried he.
I ha' seen him cow a thousand men
On the hills o' Galilee,
They whined as he walked out calm between, Wi' his eyes like the grey o' the sea.
Like the sea that brooks no voyaging With the winds unleashed and free, Like the sea that he cowed at Genseret Wi' twey words spoke' suddently.
42
they the Goodly They are {QQ]B tQ
Goodly degree
? A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea,
If they think they ha' slain our Goodly Fere They are fools eternally.
I ha' seen him eat o' the honey-comb Sin' they nailed him to the tree.
PORTRAIT
"
From LaM&reInconnue. "
NOW would I weave her portrait out of all dim
splendour.
Of Provence and far halls of memory,
Lo, there come echoes, faint diversity
Of blended bells at even's end, or
As the distant seas should send her
The tribute of their trembling, ceaselessly Resonant. Outofalldreamsthatbe,
Say, shall I bid the deepest dreams attend her?
Nay ! For I have seen the purplest shadows stand Alway with reverent chere that looked on her, Silence himself is grown her worshipper
And ever doth attend her in that land
Wherein she reigneth, wherefore let there stir Naught but the softest voices, praising her.
THE EYES
Master, for we be a-weary, weary, RESATn,d would feel the fingers of the wind
Upon these lids that lie over us Sodden and lead-heavy.
43
Ballad of fere
? The Eyes
Rest, brother, for lo ! the dawn is without !
The yellow flame paleth And the wax runs low.
Free us, for without be goodly colours, Green of the wood-moss and flower-colours, And coolness beneath the trees.
Free us, for we perish
In this ever-flowing monotony Of ugly print marks, black Upon white parchment.
Free us, for there is one Whose smile more availeth
Than all the age-old knowledge of thy books: And we would look thereon.
NILS LYKKE
BEATUhTatIFarUeL, at a-plucking
infinite memories
my heart, Why will you be ever calling and a-calling,
And a-murmuring in the dark there?
And a-reaching out your long hands Between me and my beloved?
"
And why will you be ever a-casting The black shadow of your beauty On the white face of my beloved
And a-glinting in the pools of her eyes? " 44
? "FAIR HELENA" BY RACKHAM "What I love best in all the world? "
WHEToNthe purple twilight is unbound,
watch her tall
slow, grace
and its wistful And to know her face
loveliness,
is in the shadow there, Just by two stars beneath that cloud
The soft, dim cloud of her hair, And to think my voice
can reach to her
As but the rumour of some tree-bound stream,
Heard just beyond the forest's edge, Until she all forgets I am,
And knows of me
Naught but my dream's felicity.
GREEK EPIGRAM
and night are never weary, DAYNor yet is God of creating
For day and night their torch-bearers, The aube and the crepuscule.
So, when I weary of praising the dawn and the sun-
set,
Let me be no more counted among the immortals; But number me amid the wearying ones,
Let me be a man as the herd,
And as the slave that is given in barter.
45
? HISTRION
r
i N:
great
At times pass through us,
And we are melted into them, and are not Save reflexions of their souls.
Thus am I Dante for a space and am One Francois Villon, ballad-lord and thief Or am such holy ones I may not write, Lest blasphemy be writ against my name; This for an instant and the flame is gone.
'T is as in midmost us there glows a sphere Translucent, molten gold, that is the "I" And into this some form projects itself:
Christus, or John, or eke the Florentine; And as the clear space is not if a form 's
Imposed thereon,
So cease we from all being for the time,
And these, the Masters of the Soul, live on.
PARACELSUS IN EXCELSIS
" "DEING no longer human, why should I -D Pretend humanity or don the frail attire?
Men have I known and men, but never one Was grown so free an essence, or become So simply element as what I am.
The mist goes from the mirror and I see ! Behold ! the world of forms is swept beneath
46
O man hath dared to write this thing as yet,
And I how that the souls of all men yet know,
? Turmoil grown visible beneath our peace,
And we that are grown formless rise above, Fluids intangible that have been men,
We seem as statues round whose high risen base Some overflowing river is run mad;
In us alone the element of calm !
A SONG OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER In "Los Pastores de Belen. "
From the Spanish of Lope de Vega.
Paracel- s s if
.
f
k
AsS ye go through these palm-trees,
O
Sith sleepeth my child here Still ye the branches.
O Bethlehem palm-trees That move to the anger
Of winds in their fury,
Tempestuous voices, Make ye no clamour,
Run ye less swiftly,
Sith sleepeth the child here Still ye your branches.
He the divine child Is here a-wearied
Of weeping the earth-pain, Here for his rest would he
Cease from his mourning, 47
holy angels;
? A Song o/Only a little while,
**f V,ir8in Sith sleepeth this child here
Stay ye the branches.
Cold be the fierce winds, Treacherous round him. Ye see that I have not Wherewith to guard him, O angels, divine ones That pass us a-flying,
Sith sleepeth my child here Stay ye the branches.
Ya veis que no tengo Con que guardarlo,
O angeles santos
Que vais volando
For que duerme mi nino Tened los ramos!
SONG
thou thy dream
scorning, Love thou the wind
And here take warning
That dreams alone can truly be, For 't is in dream I come to thee.
48
LOVE
l base love Al
? PLANH FOR THE YOUNG ENGLISH KING THAT IS, PRINCE HENRY PLANTAGENET, ELDER
all the grief and woe and bitterness, IFAll dolour, ill and every evil chance
That ever came upon this grieving world Were set together, they would seem but light
Against the death of the young English King. Worth lieth riven and Youth dolorous,
The world o'ershadowed, soiled and overcast, Void of all joy and full of ire and sadness.
Grieving and sad and full of bitterness
Are left in teen the liegemen courteous,
The joglars supple and the troubadours.
O'er much hath ta'en Sir Death, that deadly warrior, In taking from them the young English King, Who made the freest hand seem covetous.
'Las ! Never was nor will be in this world
The balance for this loss in ire and sadness !
O skilful Death and full of bitterness,
Well mayst thou boast that thou the best chevalier That any folk e'er had, hast from us taken;
Sith nothing is that unto worth pertaineth
But had its life in the young English King,
And better were it, should God grant his pleasure That he should live than many a living dastard That doth but wound the good with ire and sadness.
49
BROTHER TO RICHARD "CCEUR DE LION
From the Provengal of Bertrans de Born, elk marrimen"
"
"
Si tuitli dolelhplor
? Planh for From this faint world, now full of bitterness EnJlisT* Love takes his wa^ and holds his J oy deceitful>
King
Sith no thing is but turneth unto anguish
And each to-day Vails less than yestere'en,
Let each man visage this young English King That was most valiant mid all worthiest men ! Gone is his body fine and amorous,
Whence have we grief, discord and deepest sadness.
Him, whom it pleased for our great bitterness To come to earth to draw us from misventure, Who drank of death for our salvacioun,
Him do we pray as to a Lord most righteous And humble eke, that the young English King He please to pardon, as true pardon is,
And bid go in with honoured companions
There where there is no grief, nor shall be sadness.
ALBA INNOMINATA From the Provencal.
FN a garden where the whitethorn spreads her r leaves
My lady hath her love lain close beside her,
Till the warder cries the dawn Ah dawn that
grieves !
Ah God ! Ah God ! That dawn should come so
soon!
50
? " Please God that night, dear night, should never Alba In- nominata
cease,
Nor that my love should parted be from me,
Nor watch cry 'Dawn' Ah dawn that slayeth
peace!
Ah God ! Ah God ! That dawn should come so
soon!
"Fair friend and sweet, thy lips ! Our lips again Lo, in the meadow there the birds give song !
Ours be the love and Jealousy's the pain !
Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so
soon!
"Sweet friend and fair, take we our joy again Down in the garden, where the birds are loud, Till the warder's reed astrain
Cry God! Ah God! That dawn should come so
soon!
" Of that sweet wind that comes from Far-Away Have I drunk deep of my Beloved's breath,
Yea ! 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?
