You too have temperate eyes, Have put your heart to school, Are prov'd. I recognize A brother of the rule. I knew it by your lip, A something when you smil'd, Which meant "close scholarship, A master of the guild." Well, and how good is life; Good to be born, have breath, The calms good, and the strife, Good life, and perfect death. Come, for the dancers wheel, Join we the pleasant din, Comrade, it serves to feel The sackcloth next the skin. LEONARDO'S "MONNA LISA MAKE thyself known, Sibyl, or let despair Hides 'twixt the lips which smile and still forbear? Secret perfection! Mystery too fair! A LONELY way, and as I went my eyes Could not unfasten from the Spring's sweet things, Lush-sprouted grass, and all that climbs and clings In loose, deep hedges, where the primrose lies In her own fairness, buried blooms surprise The plunderer bee and stop his murmurings, And the glad flutter of a finch's wings Outstartle small blue-speckled butterflies. Blissfully did one speed well plot beguile My whole heart long; I lov'd each separate flower, Kneeling. I look'd up suddenly - Dear God! There stretch'd the shining plain for many And yet I dream'd of a fair land Where you and I were met at last, And face to face, and hand in hand, Smil'd at the sorrow overpast. The eastern sky was touch'd with fire, What though the end of all be come, The latest hour, the latest breath, This is life's triumph, and its sum, The aloe-flower of love and death! And yet your kisses wake a life Will Death have power to hold his Shall I not rush from out the night Ah, the black moment comes! Draw Lady Currie ("VIOLET FANE") Before the mowing of the hay, Twin'd daisy-chains and cowslip-balls, And caroll'd glees and madrigals, Before the hay, beneath the may, My love (who lov'd me then) and I. For long years now my love and I Tread sever'd paths to varied ends; We sometimes meet, and sometimes say The trivial things of every day, And meet as comrades, meet as friends, My love (who lov'd me once) and I. But never more my love and I Will wander forth, as once, together, Or sing the songs we us'd to sing Some word forgot we us'd to say A FOREBODING I Do not dread an alter'd heart, Which comes to some when they have gain'd The dear endeavor of their soul. ers, Columbines prim of the folded core, And lupins, and larkspurs, and "London pride"; Where the heron is waiting amongst the reeds, Grown tame in the silence that reigns Broken only, now and then, But where never the purposeless laugh- Or the seething city's murmurous sound Will float up under the river-weeds. Here may I live what life I please, Married and buried out of sight, Married to pleasure, and buried to Hidden away amongst scenes like these, Living my child-life over again, Nor take account of changing winds that blow, Shifting the golden arrow, set on high On the gray spire, nor mark who come and go. Yet would I lie in some familiar place, Nor share my rest with uncongenial dead, Somewhere, maybe, where friendly feet will tread, As if from out some little chink of space Mine eyes might see them tripping over head. There stands an ancient tavern, The landlord with his helpers, Lucus a non lucendo Thus named might seem the inn, GORDON I CN through the Libyan sand Rolls ever, mile on mile, To Nebra, by the Unstrut, The world! 't is worn and weary — SOUL AND BODY WHERE wert thou, Soul, ere yet my body born Became thy dwelling-place? Didst thou on earth, Or in the clouds, await this body's birth? Or by what chance upon that winter's morn Didst thou this body find, a babe forlorn? Didst thou in sorrow enter, or in mirth? Or for a jest, perchance, to try its worth Thou tookest flesh, ne'er from it to be torn? Nay, Soul, I will not mock thee; well I know Thou wert not on the earth, nor in the sky; For with my body's growth thou too didst grow; But with that body's death wilt thou too die? I know not, and thou canst not tell me, so In doubt we'll go together, — thou and I. Ernest Mpers |