Poems

Silent labours of the rain Shall be near thee, reconciled; Little lives of leaves and grain, All things shy and wild Tell thee secrets, quiet child.

Earth, set free from thy fair fancies And the art thou shalt resign, Will bring forth her rue and pansies Unto more divine Thoughts than any thoughts of thine.

Nought will fear thee, humbled creature. There will lie thy mortal burden Pressed unto the heart of Nature, Songless in a garden, With a long embrace of pardon.

Then the truth all creatures tell, And His will whom thou entreatest, Shall absorb thee; there shall dwell Silence, the completest Of thy poems, last, and sweetest.

SONG OF THE SPRING TO THE SUMMER

THE POET SINGS TO HER POET

O poet of the time to be, My conqueror, I began for thee. Enter into thy poet's pain, And take the riches of the rain, And make the perfect year for me.

Thou unto whom my lyre shall fall, Whene'er thou comest, hear my call. O, keep the promise of my lays, Take the sweet parable of my days; I trust thee with the aim of all.

And if thy thoughts unfold from me, Know that I too have hints of thee, Dim hopes that come across my mind In the rare days of warmer wind, And tones of summer in the sea.

And I have set thy paths, I guide Thy blossoms on the wild hillside. And I, thy bygone poet, share The flowers that throng thy feet where I led thy feet before I died.

TO THE BELOVED

Oh, not more subtly silence strays Amongst the winds, between the voices, Mingling alike with pensive lays, And with the music that rejoices, Than thou art present in my days.

My silence, life returns to thee In all the pauses of her breath. Hush back to rest the melody That out of thee awakeneth; And thou, wake ever, wake for me.

Full, full is life in hidden places, For thou art silence unto me. Full, full is thought in endless spaces. Full is my life. A silent sea Lies round all shores with long embraces.

Thou art like silence all unvexed Though wild words part my soul from thee. Thou art like silence unperplexed, A secret and a mystery Between one footfall and the next.

Most dear pause in a mellow lay! Thou art inwoven with every air. With thee the wildest tempests play, And snatches of thee everywhere Make little heavens throughout a day.

Darkness and solitude shine, for me. For life's fair outward part are rife The silver noises; let them be. It is the very soul of life Listens for thee, listens for thee.

O pause between the sobs of cares! O thought within all thought that is; Trance between laughters unawares! Thou art the form of melodies, And thou the ecstasy of prayers.

MEDITATION

_Rorate Coeli desuper, et nubes pluant Justum_. _Aperiatur Terra, et germinet Salvatorem_.

No sudden thing of glory and fear Was the Lord's coming; but the dear Slow Nature's days followed each other To form the Saviour from his Mother --One of the children of the year.

The earth, the rain, received the trust, --The sun and dews, to frame the Just. He drew his daily life from these, According to his own decrees Who makes man from the fertile dust.

Sweet summer and the winter wild, These brought him forth, the Undefiled. The happy Springs renewed again His daily bread, the growing grain, The food and raiment of the Child.

TO THE BELOVED DEAD--A LAMENT

Beloved, thou art like a tune that idle fingers Play on a window-pane. The time is there, the form of music lingers; But O thou sweetest strain, Where is thy soul? Thou liest i' the wind and rain.