Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress and Other Poems Read online

  Supreme yet weightless as an idle mote

  It seemed to tame the waters without force

  Till not a murmur swelled or billow beat:

  Lo, as the purple shadow swept the sands,

  The prudent crocodile rose on his feet

  And shed appropriate tears and wrung his hands.

  What can it mean? you ask. I answer not

  For meaning, but myself must echo, What?

  And tell it as I saw it on the spot.

  SONG

  OH roses for the flush of youth,

  And laurel for the perfect prime;

  But pluck an ivy branch for me

  Grown old before my time.

  Oh violets for the grave of youth,

  And bay for those dead in their prime;

  Give me the withered leaves I chose

  Before in the old time.

  THE HOUR AND THE GHOST

  BRIDE

  O LOVE, love, hold me fast,

  He draws me away from thee;

  I cannot stem the blast,

  Nor the cold strong sea:

  Far away a light shines

  Beyond the hills and pines;

  It is lit for me.

  BRIDEGROOM

  I have thee close, my dear,

  No terror can come near;

  Only far off the northern light shines clear.

  GHOST

  Come with me, fair and false,

  To our home, come home.

  It is my voice that calls:

  Once thou wast not afraid

  When I woo'd, and said,

  'Come, our nest is newly made'—

  Now cross the tossing foam.

  BRIDE

  Hold me one moment longer,

  He taunts me with the past,

  His clutch is waxing stronger,

  Hold me fast, hold me fast.

  He draws me from thy heart,

  And I cannot withhold:

  He bids my spirit depart

  With him into the cold:—

  Oh bitter vows of old!

  BRIDEGROOM

  Lean on me, hide thine eyes:

  Only ourselves, earth and skies,

  Are present here: be wise.

  GHOST

  Lean on me, come away,

  I will guide and steady:

  Come, for I will not stay:

  Come, for house and bed are ready.

  Ah, sure bed and house,

  For better and worse, for life and death:

  Goal won with shortened breath:

  Come, crown our vows.

  BRIDE

  One moment, one more word,

  While my heart beats still,

  While my breath is stirred

  By my fainting will.

  O friend forsake me not,

  Forget not as I forgot:

  But keep thy heart for me,

  Keep thy faith true and bright;

  Through the lone cold winter night

  Perhaps I may come to thee.

  BRIDEGROOM

  Nay peace, my darling, peace:

  Let these dreams and terrors cease:

  Who spoke of death or change or aught but ease?

  GHOST

  O fair frail sin,

  O poor harvest gathered in!

  Thou shalt visit him again

  To watch his heart grow cold;

  To know the gnawing pain

  I knew of old;

  To see one much more fair

  Fill up the vacant chair,

  Fill his heart, his children bear:—

  While thou and I together

  In the outcast weather

  Toss and howl and spin.

  A SUMMER WISH

  LIVE all thy sweet life thro',

  Sweet Rose, dew-sprent,

  Drop down thine evening dew

  To gather it anew

  When day is bright:

  I fancy thou wast meant

  Chiefly to give delight.

  Sing in the silent sky,

  Glad soaring bird;

  Sing out thy notes on high

  To sunbeam straying by

  Or passing cloud;

  Heedless if thou art heard

  Sing thy full song aloud.

  Oh that it were with me

  As with the flower;

  Blooming on its own tree

  For butterfly and bee

  Its summer morns:

  That I might bloom mine hour

  A rose in spite of thorns.

  Oh that my work were done

  As birds' that soar

  Rejoicing in the sun:

  That when my time is run

  And daylight too,

  I so might rest once more

  Cool with refreshing dew.

  AN APPLE GATHERING

  I PLUCKED pink blossoms from mine apple-tree

  And wore them all that evening in my hair:

  Then in due season when I went to see

  I found no apples there.

  With dangling basket all along the grass

  As I had come I went the selfsame track:

  My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass

  So empty-handed back.

  Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,

  Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer;

  Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,

  Their mother's home was near.

  Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,

  A stronger hand than hers helped it along;

  A voice talked with her through the shadows cool

  More sweet to me than song.

  Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth

  Than apples with their green leaves piled above?

  I counted rosiest apples on the earth

  Of far less worth than love.

  So once it was with me you stooped to talk

  Laughing and listening in this very lane:

  To think that by this way we used to walk

  We shall not walk again!

  I let my neighbours pass me, ones and twos

  And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,

  And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews

  Fell fast I loitered still.

  SONG

  TWO doves upon the selfsame branch,

  Two lilies on a single stem,

  Two butterflies upon one flower:—

  Oh happy they who look on them.

  Who look upon them hand in hand

  Flushed in the rosy summer light;

  Who look upon them hand in hand

  And never give a thought to night.

  MAUDE CLARE

  OUT of the church she followed them

  With a lofty step and mien:

  His bride was like a village maid,

  Maude Clare was like a queen.

  'Son Thomas,' his lady mother said,

  With smiles, almost with tears:

  'May Nell and you but live as true

  As we have done for years;

  'Your father thirty years ago

  Had just your tale to tell;

  But he was not so pale as you,

  Nor I so pale as Nell.'

  My lord was pale with inward strife,

  And Nell was pale with pride;

  My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare

  Or ever he kissed the bride.

  'Lo, I have brought my gift, my lord,

  Have brought my gift,' she said:

  'To bless the hearth, to bless the board,

  To bless the marriage-bed.

  'Here's my half of the golden chain

  You wore about your neck,

  That day we waded ankle-deep

  For lilies in the beck:

  'Here's my half of the faded leaves

  We plucked from budding bough,

  With feet amongst the lily leaves,—

  The lilies are budding now.'

  He strove to mat
ch her scorn with scorn,

  He faltered in his place:

  'Lady,' he said,—'Maude Clare,' he said,—

  'Maude Clare:'—and hid his face.

  She turn'd to Nell: 'My Lady Nell,

  I have a gift for you;

  Though, were it fruit, the bloom were gone,

  Or, were it flowers, the dew.

  'Take my share of a fickle heart,

  Mine of a paltry love:

  Take it or leave it as you will,

  I wash my hands thereof.'

  'And what you leave,' said Nell, 'I'll take,

  And what you spurn, I'll wear;

  For he's my lord for better and worse,

  And him I love, Maude Clare.

  'Yea, though you're taller by the head,

  More wise, and much more fair;

  I'll love him till he loves me best,

  Me best of all, Maude Clare.'

  ECHO

  COME to me in the silence of the night;

  Come in the speaking silence of a dream;

  Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright

  As sunlight on a stream;

  Come back in tears,

  O memory, hope, love of finished years.

  Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,

  Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,

  Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;

  Where thirsting longing eyes

  Watch the slow door

  That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

  Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live

  My very life again though cold in death:

  Come back to me in dreams, that I may give

  Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:

  Speak low, lean low,

  As long ago, my love, how long ago!

  MY SECRET

  I TELL my secret? No indeed, not I:

  Perhaps some day, who knows?

  But not today; it froze, and blows, and snows,

  And you're too curious: fie!

  You want to hear it? well:

  Only, my secret's mine, and I won't tell.

  Or, after all, perhaps there's none:

  Suppose there is no secret after all,

  But only just my fun.

  Today's a nipping day, a biting day;

  In which one wants a shawl,

  A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:

  I cannot ope to every one who taps,

  And let the draughts come whistling through my hall;

  Come bounding and surrounding me,

  Come buffeting, astounding me,

  Nipping and clipping through my wraps and all.

  I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows

  His nose to Russian snows

  To be pecked at by every wind that blows?

  You would not peck? I thank you for good will,

  Believe, but leave that truth untested still.

  Spring's an expansive time: yet I don't trust

  March with its peck of dust,

  Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,

  Nor even May, whose flowers

  One frost may wither through the sunless hours.

  Perhaps some languid summer day,

  When drowsy birds sing less and less,

  And golden fruit is ripening to excess,

  If there's not too much sun nor too much cloud,

  And the warm wind is neither still nor loud,

  Perhaps my secret I may say,

  Or you may guess.

  ANOTHER SPRING

  IF I might see another Spring

  I'd not plant summer flowers and wait:

  I'd have my crocuses at once,

  My leafless pink mezereons,

  My chill-veined snowdrops, choicer yet

  My white or azure violet,

  Leaf-nested primrose; anything

  To blow at once not late.

  If I might see another Spring

  I'd listen to the daylight birds

  That build their nests and pair and sing,

  Nor wait for mateless nightingale;

  I'd listen to the lusty herds,

  The ewes with lambs as white as snow,

  I'd find out music in the hail

  And all the winds that blow.

  If I might see another Spring—

  Oh stinging comment on my past

  That all my past results in 'if'—

  If I might see another Spring

  I'd laugh today, today is brief;

  I would not wait for anything:

  I'd use today that cannot last,

  Be glad today and sing.

  A PEAL OF BELLS

  STRIKE the bells wantonly,

  Tinkle tinkle well;

  Bring me wine, bring me flowers,

  Ring the silver bell.

  All my lamps burn scented oil,

  Hung on laden orange-trees,

  Whose shadowed foliage is the foil

  To golden lamps and oranges.

  Heap my golden plates with fruit,

  Golden fruit, fresh-plucked and ripe;

  Strike the bells and breathe the pipe;

  Shut out showers from summer hours—

  Silence that complaining lute—

  Shut out thinking, shut out pain,

  From hours that cannot come again.

  Strike the bells solemnly,

  Ding dong deep:

  My friend is passing to his bed,

  Fast asleep;

  There's plaited linen round his head,

  While foremost go his feet—

  His feet that cannot carry him.

  My feast's a show, my lights are dim;

  Be still, your music is not sweet,—

  There is no music more for him:

  His lights are out, his feast is done;

  His bowl that sparkled to the brim

  Is drained, is broken, cannot hold;

  My blood is chill, his blood is cold;

  His death is full, and mine begun.

  FATA MORGANA

  A BLUE-EYED phantom far before

  Is laughing, leaping toward the sun:

  Like lead I chase it evermore,

  I pant and run.

  It breaks the sunlight bound on bound:

  Goes singing as it leaps along

  To sheep-bells with a dreamy sound

  A dreamy song.

  I laugh, it is so brisk and gay;

  It is so far before, I weep:

  I hope I shall lie down some day,

  Lie down and sleep.

  'NO, THANK YOU, JOHN'

  I NEVER said I loved you, John:

  Why will you tease me day by day,

  And wax a weariness to think upon

  With always 'do' and 'pray'?

  You know I never loved you, John;

  No fault of mine made me your toast:

  Why will you haunt me with a face as wan

  As shows an hour-old ghost?

  I dare say Meg or Moll would take

  Pity upon you, if you'd ask:

  And pray don't remain single for my sake

  Who can't perform that task.

  I have no heart?—Perhaps I have not;

  But then you're mad to take offence

  That I don't give you what I have not got:

  Use your own common sense.