WIND FLOWERS

IMPRESSION DU MATIN

The Thames nocturne of blue and gold
   Changed to a Harmony in grey:
   A barge with ochre-coloured hay
Dropt from the wharf: and chill and cold

The yellow fog came creeping down
   The bridges, till the houses’ walls
   Seemed changed to shadows and St. Paul’s
Loomed like a bubble o’er the town.

Then suddenly arose the clang
   Of waking life; the streets were stirred
   With country waggons: and a bird
Flew to the glistening roofs and sang.

But one pale woman all alone,
   The daylight kissing her wan hair,
   Loitered beneath the gas lamps’ flare,
With lips of flame and heart of stone.

MAGDALEN WALKS

The little white clouds are racing over the sky,
   And the fields are strewn with the gold of the flower of March,
   The daffodil breaks under foot, and the tasselled larch
Sways and swings as the thrush goes hurrying by.

A delicate odour is borne on the wings of the morning breeze,
   The odour of deep wet grass, and of brown new-furrowed earth,
   The birds are singing for joy of the Spring’s glad birth,
Hopping from branch to branch on the rocking trees.

And all the woods are alive with the murmur and sound of Spring,
   And the rose-bud breaks into pink on the climbing briar,
   And the crocus-bed is a quivering moon of fire
Girdled round with the belt of an amethyst ring.

And the plane to the pine-tree is whispering some tale of love
   Till it rustles with laughter and tosses its mantle of green,
   And the gloom of the wych-elm’s hollow is lit with the iris sheen
Of the burnished rainbow throat and the silver breast of a dove.

See! the lark starts up from his bed in the meadow there,
   Breaking the gossamer threads and the nets of dew,
   And flashing adown the river, a flame of blue!
The kingfisher flies like an arrow, and wounds the air.

ATHANASIA

To that gaunt House of Art which lacks for naught
   Of all the great things men have saved from Time,
The withered body of a girl was brought
   Dead ere the world’s glad youth had touched its prime,
And seen by lonely Arabs lying hid
In the dim womb of some black pyramid.

But when they had unloosed the linen band
   Which swathed the Egyptian’s body,—lo! was found
Closed in the wasted hollow of her hand
   A little seed, which sown in English ground
Did wondrous snow of starry blossoms bear
And spread rich odours through our spring-tide air.

With such strange arts this flower did allure
   That all forgotten was the asphodel,
And the brown bee, the lily’s paramour,
   Forsook the cup where he was wont to dwell,
For not a thing of earth it seemed to be,
But stolen from some heavenly Arcady.

In vain the sad narcissus, wan and white
   At its own beauty, hung across the stream,
The purple dragon-fly had no delight
   With its gold dust to make his wings a-gleam,
Ah! no delight the jasmine-bloom to kiss,
Or brush the rain-pearls from the eucharis.

For love of it the passionate nightingale
   Forgot the hills of Thrace, the cruel king,
And the pale dove no longer cared to sail
   Through the wet woods at time of blossoming,
But round this flower of Egypt sought to float,
With silvered wing and amethystine throat.

While the hot sun blazed in his tower of blue
   A cooling wind crept from the land of snows,
And the warm south with tender tears of dew
   Drenched its white leaves when Hesperos up-rose
Amid those sea-green meadows of the sky
On which the scarlet bars of sunset lie.

But when o’er wastes of lily-haunted field
   The tired birds had stayed their amorous tune,
And broad and glittering like an argent shield
   High in the sapphire heavens hung the moon,
Did no strange dream or evil memory make
Each tremulous petal of its blossoms shake?

Ah no! to this bright flower a thousand years
   Seemed but the lingering of a summer’s day,
It never knew the tide of cankering fears
   Which turn a boy’s gold hair to withered grey,
The dread desire of death it never knew,
Or how all folk that they were born must rue.

For we to death with pipe and dancing go,
   Nor would we pass the ivory gate again,
As some sad river wearied of its flow
   Through the dull plains, the haunts of common men,
Leaps lover-like into the terrible sea!
And counts it gain to die so gloriously.

We mar our lordly strength in barren strife
   With the world’s legions led by clamorous care,
It never feels decay but gathers life
   From the pure sunlight and the supreme air,
We live beneath Time’s wasting sovereignty,
It is the child of all eternity.

SERENADE

(FOR MUSIC)

The western wind is blowing fair
   Across the dark Ægean sea,
And at the secret marble stair
   My Tyrian galley waits for thee.
Come down! the purple sail is spread,
   The watchman sleeps within the town,
O leave thy lily-flowered bed,
   O Lady mine come down, come down!

She will not come, I know her well,
   Of lover’s vows she hath no care,
And little good a man can tell
   Of one so cruel and so fair.
True love is but a woman’s toy,
   They never know the lover’s pain,
And I who loved as loves a boy
   Must love in vain, must love in vain.

O noble pilot, tell me true,
   Is that the sheen of golden hair?
Or is it but the tangled dew
   That binds the passion-flowers there?
Good sailor come and tell me now
   Is that my Lady’s lily hand?
Or is it but the gleaming prow,
   Or is it but the silver sand?

No! no! ’tis not the tangled dew,
   ’Tis not the silver-fretted sand,
It is my own dear Lady true
   With golden hair and lily hand!
O noble pilot, steer for Troy,
   Good sailor, ply the labouring oar,
This is the Queen of life and joy
   Whom we must bear from Grecian shore!

The waning sky grows faint and blue,
   It wants an hour still of day,
Aboard! aboard! my gallant crew,
   O Lady mine, away! away!
O noble pilot, steer for Troy,
   Good sailor, ply the labouring oar,
O loved as only loves a boy!
   O loved for ever evermore!