CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES
WHITTINGHAM
AND CO.
H. D. - Sea Garden
net
Title: Sea Garden
Author: Hilda Doolittle
Release Date: May 2, 2009 [EBook #28665]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA GARDEN ***
Produced by Meredith Bach and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries. )
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note |
| |
| Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in |
| this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of |
| this document. |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
SEA GARDEN
The editors and publishers concerned have kindly given me permission to
reprint some of the poems in this book which appeared originally in
"Poetry" (Chicago), "The Egoist" (London), "The Little Review"
(Chicago), "Greenwich Village" (New York), the first Imagist anthology
(New York: A. and C. Boni. London: Poetry Bookshop), the second Imagist
anthology ("Some Imagist Poets," London: Constable and Co. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co. ).
SEA GARDEN
BY
H. D.
LONDON
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD.
1916
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
CONTENTS
PAGE
SEA ROSE 1
THE HELMSMAN 2
THE SHRINE 4
MID-DAY 7
PURSUIT 8
THE CONTEST 10
SEA LILY 12
THE WIND SLEEPERS 13
THE GIFT 14
EVENING 17
SHELTERED GARDEN 18
SEA POPPIES 20
LOSS 21
HUNTRESS 23
GARDEN 24
SEA VIOLET 25
THE CLIFF TEMPLE 26
ORCHARD 29
SEA GODS 30
ACON 33
NIGHT 35
PRISONERS 36
STORM 39
SEA IRIS 40
HERMES OF THE WAYS 41
PEAR TREE 43
CITIES 44
THE CITY IS PEOPLED 47
SEA GARDEN
SEA ROSE
Rose, harsh rose,
marred and with stint of petals,
meagre flower, thin,
sparse of leaf,
more precious
than a wet rose
single on a stem--
you are caught in the drift.
Stunted, with small leaf,
you are flung on the sand,
you are lifted
in the crisp sand
that drives in the wind.
Can the spice-rose
drip such acrid fragrance
hardened in a leaf?
THE HELMSMAN
O be swift--
we have always known you wanted us.
We fled inland with our flocks,
we pastured them in hollows,
cut off from the wind
and the salt track of the marsh.
We worshipped inland--
we stepped past wood-flowers,
we forgot your tang,
we brushed wood-grass.
We wandered from pine-hills
through oak and scrub-oak tangles,
we broke hyssop and bramble,
we caught flower and new bramble-fruit
in our hair: we laughed
as each branch whipped back,
we tore our feet in half buried rocks
and knotted roots and acorn-cups.
We forgot--we worshipped,
we parted green from green,
we sought further thickets,
we dipped our ankles
through leaf-mould and earth,
and wood and wood-bank enchanted us--
and the feel of the clefts in the bark,
and the slope between tree and tree--
and a slender path strung field to field
and wood to wood
and hill to hill
and the forest after it.
We forgot--for a moment
tree-resin, tree-bark,
sweat of a torn branch
were sweet to the taste.
We were enchanted with the fields,
the tufts of coarse grass
in the shorter grass--
we loved all this.
But now, our boat climbs--hesitates--drops--
climbs--hesitates--crawls back--
climbs--hesitates--
O be swift--
we have always known you wanted us.
THE SHRINE
("SHE WATCHES OVER THE SEA")
I
Are your rocks shelter for ships--
have you sent galleys from your beach,
are you graded--a safe crescent--
where the tide lifts them back to port--
are you full and sweet,
tempting the quiet
to depart in their trading ships?
Nay, you are great, fierce, evil--
you are the land-blight--
you have tempted men
but they perished on your cliffs.
Your lights are but dank shoals,
slate and pebble and wet shells
and seaweed fastened to the rocks.
Title: Sea Garden
Author: Hilda Doolittle
Release Date: May 2, 2009 [EBook #28665]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA GARDEN ***
Produced by Meredith Bach and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries. )
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note |
| |
| Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in |
| this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of |
| this document. |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
SEA GARDEN
The editors and publishers concerned have kindly given me permission to
reprint some of the poems in this book which appeared originally in
"Poetry" (Chicago), "The Egoist" (London), "The Little Review"
(Chicago), "Greenwich Village" (New York), the first Imagist anthology
(New York: A. and C. Boni. London: Poetry Bookshop), the second Imagist
anthology ("Some Imagist Poets," London: Constable and Co. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co. ).
SEA GARDEN
BY
H. D.
LONDON
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD.
1916
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
CONTENTS
PAGE
SEA ROSE 1
THE HELMSMAN 2
THE SHRINE 4
MID-DAY 7
PURSUIT 8
THE CONTEST 10
SEA LILY 12
THE WIND SLEEPERS 13
THE GIFT 14
EVENING 17
SHELTERED GARDEN 18
SEA POPPIES 20
LOSS 21
HUNTRESS 23
GARDEN 24
SEA VIOLET 25
THE CLIFF TEMPLE 26
ORCHARD 29
SEA GODS 30
ACON 33
NIGHT 35
PRISONERS 36
STORM 39
SEA IRIS 40
HERMES OF THE WAYS 41
PEAR TREE 43
CITIES 44
THE CITY IS PEOPLED 47
SEA GARDEN
SEA ROSE
Rose, harsh rose,
marred and with stint of petals,
meagre flower, thin,
sparse of leaf,
more precious
than a wet rose
single on a stem--
you are caught in the drift.
Stunted, with small leaf,
you are flung on the sand,
you are lifted
in the crisp sand
that drives in the wind.
Can the spice-rose
drip such acrid fragrance
hardened in a leaf?
THE HELMSMAN
O be swift--
we have always known you wanted us.
We fled inland with our flocks,
we pastured them in hollows,
cut off from the wind
and the salt track of the marsh.
We worshipped inland--
we stepped past wood-flowers,
we forgot your tang,
we brushed wood-grass.
We wandered from pine-hills
through oak and scrub-oak tangles,
we broke hyssop and bramble,
we caught flower and new bramble-fruit
in our hair: we laughed
as each branch whipped back,
we tore our feet in half buried rocks
and knotted roots and acorn-cups.
We forgot--we worshipped,
we parted green from green,
we sought further thickets,
we dipped our ankles
through leaf-mould and earth,
and wood and wood-bank enchanted us--
and the feel of the clefts in the bark,
and the slope between tree and tree--
and a slender path strung field to field
and wood to wood
and hill to hill
and the forest after it.
We forgot--for a moment
tree-resin, tree-bark,
sweat of a torn branch
were sweet to the taste.
We were enchanted with the fields,
the tufts of coarse grass
in the shorter grass--
we loved all this.
But now, our boat climbs--hesitates--drops--
climbs--hesitates--crawls back--
climbs--hesitates--
O be swift--
we have always known you wanted us.
THE SHRINE
("SHE WATCHES OVER THE SEA")
I
Are your rocks shelter for ships--
have you sent galleys from your beach,
are you graded--a safe crescent--
where the tide lifts them back to port--
are you full and sweet,
tempting the quiet
to depart in their trading ships?
Nay, you are great, fierce, evil--
you are the land-blight--
you have tempted men
but they perished on your cliffs.
Your lights are but dank shoals,
slate and pebble and wet shells
and seaweed fastened to the rocks.
