Read Ebook: By Still Waters: Lyrical Poems Old and New by Russell George William

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Ebook has 1128 lines and 252544 words, and 23 pages

All unwise in thought or duty-- Still our wisdom envies you: We who lack the living beauty Half our secret knowledge rue.

Thought nor fear in you nor dreaming Veil the light with mist about; Joy, as through a crystal gleaming, Flashes from the gay heart out.

IN THE WOMB

Still rests the heavy share on the dark soil: Upon the black mould thick the dew-damp lies: The horse waits patient: from his lowly toil The ploughboy to the morning lifts his eyes.

The unbudding hedgerows dark against day's fires Glitter with gold-lit crystals: on the rim Over the unregarding city's spires The lonely beauty shines alone for him.

And day by day the dawn or dark enfolds And feeds with beauty eyes that cannot see How in her womb the mighty mother moulds The infant spirit for eternity.

FORGIVENESS

At dusk the window panes grew grey; The wet world vanished in the gloom; The dim and silver end of day Scarce glimmered through the little room.

And all my sins were told; I said Such things to her who knew not sin-- The sharp ache throbbing in my head, The fever running high within.

I touched with pain her purity; Sin's darker sense I could not bring: My soul was black as night to me: To her I was a wounded thing.

I needed love no words could say; She drew me softly nigh her chair, My head upon her knees to lay, With cool hands that caressed my hair.

She sat with hands as if to bless, And looked with grave, ethereal eyes; Ensouled by ancient quietness, A gentle priestess of the Wise.

A WOMAN'S VOICE

His head within my bosom lay, But yet his spirit slipped not through: I only felt the burning clay That withered for the cooling dew.

It was but pity when I spoke And called him to my heart for rest, And half a mother's love that woke Feeling his head upon my breast:

And half the lion's tenderness To shield her cubs from hurt or death, Which, when the serried hunters press, Makes terrible her wounded breath.

But when the lips I breathed upon Asked for such love as equals claim I looked where all the stars were gone Burned in the day's immortal flame.

'Come thou like yon great dawn to me From darkness vanquished, battles done: Flame unto flame shall flow and be Within thy heart and mine as one.'

PARTING

As from our dream we died away Far off I felt the outer things; Your wind-blown tresses round me play, Your bosom's gentle murmurings.

And far away our faces met As on the verge of the vast spheres; And in the night our cheeks were wet, I could not say with dew or tears.

As one within the Mother's heart In that hushed dream upon the height We lived, and then we rose to part, Because her ways are infinite.

A PRAYER

O, holy Spirit of the Hazel, hearken now, Though shining suns and silver moons burn on the bough, And though the fruit of stars by many myriads gleam, Yet in the undergrowth below, still in thy dream, Lighting the labyrinthine maze and monstrous gloom Are many gem-winged flowers with gay and delicate bloom; And in the shade, hearken, O Dreamer of the Tree, One wild rose blossom of thy spirit breathed on me With lovely and still light, a little sister flower To those that whitely on the tall moon branches tower, Lord of the Hazel now, oh hearken while I pray, This wild rose blossom of thy spirit fades away.

THE HEROES

RECALL

What call may draw thee back again, Lost dove, what art, what charm may please? The tender touch, the kiss, are vain, For thou wert lured away by these.

Oh, must we use the iron hand, And mask with hate the holy breath, With alien voice give love's command, As they through love the call of death?

BLINDNESS

Our true hearts are forever lonely: A wistfulness is in our thought: Our lights are like the dawns which only Seem bright to us and yet are not.

Something you see in me I wis not: Another heart in you I guess: A stranger's lips--but thine I kiss not, Erring in all my tenderness.

I sometimes think a mighty lover Takes every burning kiss we give: His lights are those which round us hover: For him alone our lives we live.

Ah, sigh for us whose hearts unseeing Point all their passionate love in vain, And blinded in the joy of being, Meet only when pain touches pain.

BROTHERHOOD

Twilight, a blossom grey in shadowy valleys dwells: Under the radiant dark the deep blue-tinted bells In quietness re?mage heaven within their blooms, Sapphire and gold and mystery. What strange perfumes, Out of what deeps arising, all the flower-bells fling, Unknowing the enchanted odorous song they sing! Oh, never was an eve so living yet: the wood Stirs not but breathes enraptured quietide. Here in these shades the Ancient knows itself, the Soul, And out of slumber waking starts unto the goal. What bright companions nod and go along with it! Out of the teeming dark what dusky creatures flit, That through the long leagues of the island night above Come by me, wandering, whispering, beseeching love; As in the twilight children gather close and press Nigh and more nigh with shadowy tenderness, Feeling they know not what, with noiseless footsteps glide Seeking familiar lips or hearts to dream beside. O voices, I would go with you, with you, away, Facing once more the radiant gateways of the day; With you, with you, what memories arise, and nigh Trampling the crowded figures of the dawn go by, Dread deities, the giant powers that warred on men Grow tender brothers and gay children once again; Fades every hate away before the Mother's breast Where all the exiles of the heart return to rest.

A NEW BEING

I know myself no more, my child, Since thou art come to me, Pity so tender and so wild Hath wrapped my thoughts of thee.

These thoughts, a fiery gentle rain, Are from the Mother shed, Where many a broken heart hath lain And many a weeping head.

THE MAN TO THE ANGEL

I have wept a million tears: Pure and proud one, where are thine, What the gain though all thy years In unbroken beauty shine?

All your beauty cannot win Truth we learn in pain and sighs: You can never enter in To the circle of the wise.

They are but the slaves of light Who have never known the gloom, And between the dark and bright Willed in freedom their own doom.

Think not in your pureness there, That our pain but follows sin: There are fires for those who dare Seek the throne of might to win.

Pure one, from your pride refrain: Dark and lost amid the strife I am myriad years of pain Nearer to the fount of life.

When defiance fierce is thrown At the God to whom you bow, Rest the lips of the Unknown Tenderest upon my brow.

ENDURANCE

He bent above: so still her breath What air she breathed he could not say, Whether in worlds of life or death: So softly ebbed away, away The life that had been light to him, So fled her beauty leaving dim The emptying chambers of his heart Thrilled only by the pang and smart, The dull and throbbing agony That suffers still, yet knows not why. Love's immortality so blind Dreams that all things with it conjoined Must share with it immortal day: But not of this--but not of this-- The touch, the eyes, the laugh, the kiss, Fall from it and it goes its way. So blind he wept above her clay, 'I did not think that you could die. Only some veil would cover you Our loving eyes could still pierce through; And see through dusky shadows still Move as of old your wild sweet will, Impatient every heart to win And flash its heavenly radiance in.' Though all the worlds were sunk in rest The ruddy star within his breast Would croon its tale of ancient pain, Its sorrow that would never wane, Its memory of the days of yore Moulded in beauty evermore. Ah, immortality so blind, To dream all things with it conjoined Must follow it from star to star And share with it immortal years. The memory, yearning, grief, and tears, Fall from it and it goes afar. He walked at night along the sands, And saw the stars dance overhead, He had no memory of the dead, But lifted up exultant hands To hail the future like a boy, The myriad paths his feet might press. Unhaunted by old tenderness He felt an inner secret joy! A spirit of unfettered will Through light and darkness moving still Within the All to find its own, To be immortal and alone.

THE VESTURE OF THE SOUL

I pitied one whose tattered dress Was patched, and stained with dust and rain; He smiled on me; I could not guess The viewless spirit's wide domain.

He said, 'The royal robe I wear Trails all along the fields of light: Its silent blue and silver bear For gems the starry dust of night.'

'The breath of joy unceasingly Waves to and fro its folds starlit, And far beyond earth's misery I live and breathe the joy of it.'

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