No More Learning

NEEDS must thou be upon the wastelands, yearning
For earlier, richer colours yet?
Towards the fallow deserts ever turning,
And crops of barren summers still regret?
Console thyself if ptlt in shadow's veiling
Soft shimmering, thou thy previous plenty seest,
And a Redeemer through the breezes sailing;
The distant wind that falters from the East.
And look! within our annals past, those hours
That burned as wounds, now fade in silent breath,
For all the things we ever christened flowers
Regather round the well of Death.
84

? FROM
THE TAPESTRY OF LIFE AND
THE SONGS OF DREAM AND
DEATH. WITH A PRELUDE

?
? From the Prelude ix
SEEK not to know which song or saying yields
The palm of praise or garland at the feast,
What yester tempest blew through arid fields,
Now lies 'mid laurels in the hallowed Bast.
Erewhile 'twas corn resplendent and unstained,
Or crystal, that through morning radiance shone,
Now flowing agate, deep and sombre-veined,
Then like a crimson sparkling precious stone.
What as a gurgling softly simmered through
The soil, within the dead deserted brake,
--And no more than a drop of fragrant dew
That fell from flowerlet unto deepest lake:
Becomes the clinging mist that cleaves the heights,
And which in darkest midnights as a beam
The heart of the chasm suddenly be-smites
To spring and ramble like a ruddy stream.
37

? XXI
As long as tinted haze the mountain covered,
Upon my course the track I soon discovered.
And through the copse a few known voices stray,
Now all is silent on the evening way.
Now no one fares awhile my road, forsaken,
I find no wight within me hope to waken,
Who yet the smallest solace might implore,
So deep in darkness plods no pilgrim more.
And with the dying strain--the songful cricket--
Remembrance too fades in the silent thicket,
A fallow vapour broods the woods around
And veils the pathway without gleam or sound.
A damp and death-like odour from the hollow
--Where all must slumber--rises, yet I follow
Thy wafture still, which fire enkindles new
And Thy great love which ever watches true.

? The Disciple
YB speak of raptures that are void and friendless,
With me all love ascends towards my Lord,
Ye know alone the luscious, I the endless,
I live but for mine endless Lord.
More than for any work your guild adjureth,
Am I ordained to labour for my Lord,
Thus I will prosper, for my Lord endureth,
I ever serve my kindly Lord.
I know the way we tread is dark and snary
And many fainted, yet beside my Lord
I dare all dangers, for my Lord is wary,
I ever trust my wary Lord.
And should he deem it well, and ne'er requite me
My comfort is the vision of my Lord,
Are others richer, he is the most mighty,
I follow my most mighty Lord,
39

? Azure Hour
LOOK at this azure hour.
Dissolving o'er the garden tent,
It brought a joyful dower,
For sisters pale a sweet lament.
Resplendent, fleet and flowing
It hastens with the clouds; behold
An offering's-billet glowing:
It tells what it bestowed when cold.
"That it so swiftly passes"
--For thus in rapt regret we trow--
A night of joy amasses
Its wealth of arches even now.
Tis like a burden olden
That renders grave or renders gay,
In heaven new and golden
Still charms and thrills when died away.
40

? A Boy who Sang to me of Autumn and
Evening
I STOOD in summer waiting. Now with pallor,
I see the scarlet flag already waving;
It means the harvest-hirelings' dance with Death;
With unpicked fruitage tempest-toused and torn.