No More Learning

I have remembered beauty in the night,
Against black silences I waked to see
A shower of sunlight over Italy
And green Ravello dreaming on her height;
I have remembered music in the dark,
The clean swift brightness of a fugue of Bach's,
And running water singing on the rocks
When once in English woods I heard a lark.

But all remembered beauty is no more
Than a vague prelude to the thought of you--
You are the rarest soul I ever knew,
Lover of beauty, knightliest and best;
My thoughts seek you as waves that seek the shore,
And when I think of you, I am at rest.






Prefatory Note



Beside new poems, this book contains lyrics taken from "Rivers to the
Sea", "Helen of Troy and Other Poems", and one or two from an earlier
volume.




Contents



I

Barter
Twilight
Night Song at Amalfi
The Look
A Winter Night
A Cry
Gifts
But Not to Me
Song at Capri
Child, Child
Love Me
Pierrot
Wild Asters
The Song for Colin
Four Winds
Debt
Faults
Buried Love
The Fountain
I Shall Not Care
After Parting
A Prayer
Spring Night
May Wind
Tides
After Love
New Love and Old
The Kiss
Swans
The River
November
Spring Rain
The Ghost
Summer Night, Riverside
Jewels


II

Interlude: Songs out of Sorrow

I. Spirit's House
II. Mastery
III. Lessons
IV. Wisdom
V. In a Burying Ground
VI. Wood Song
VII. Refuge


III

The Flight
Dew
To-night
Ebb Tide
I Would Live in Your Love
Because
The Tree of Song
The Giver
April Song
The Wanderer
The Years
Enough
Come
Joy
Riches
Dusk in War Time
Peace
Moods
Houses of Dreams
Lights
"I Am Not Yours"
Doubt
The Wind
Morning
Other Men
Embers
Message
The Lamp


IV

A November Night




Love Songs


I



Barter


Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.




Twilight


Dreamily over the roofs
The cold spring rain is falling;
Out in the lonely tree
A bird is calling, calling.

Slowly over the earth
The wings of night are falling;
My heart like the bird in the tree
Is calling, calling, calling.
Night Song at Amalfi


I asked the heaven of stars
What I should give my love--
It answered me with silence,
Silence above.

I asked the darkened sea
Down where the fishers go--
It answered me with silence,
Silence below.

Oh, I could give him weeping,
Or I could give him song--
But how can I give silence,
My whole life long?




The Look


Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.




A Winter Night


My window-pane is starred with frost,
The world is bitter cold to-night,
The moon is cruel, and the wind
Is like a two-edged sword to smite.

God pity all the homeless ones,
The beggars pacing to and fro,
God pity all the poor to-night
Who walk the lamp-lit streets of snow.

My room is like a bit of June,
Warm and close-curtained fold on fold,
But somewhere, like a homeless child,
My heart is crying in the cold.




A Cry


Oh, there are eyes that he can see,
And hands to make his hands rejoice,
But to my lover I must be
Only a voice.

Oh, there are breasts to bear his head,
And lips whereon his lips can lie,
But I must be till I am dead
Only a cry.




Gifts


I gave my first love laughter,
I gave my second tears,
I gave my third love silence
Through all the years.

My first love gave me singing,
My second eyes to see,
But oh, it was my third love
Who gave my soul to me.




But Not to Me


The April night is still and sweet
With flowers on every tree;
Peace comes to them on quiet feet,
But not to me.

My peace is hidden in his breast
Where I shall never be;
Love comes to-night to all the rest,
But not to me.




Song at Capri


When beauty grows too great to bear
How shall I ease me of its ache,
For beauty more than bitterness
Makes the heart break.

Now while I watch the dreaming sea
With isles like flowers against her breast,
Only one voice in all the world
Could give me rest.