A Lovers Diary | Page 7

the gracious benison
Scattered unstinted by him, do you now?Dispraise the sweet-strung harp, grown tremulous?'Neath fingers overworn for all of us??You cannot tear the laurels from his brow.
He lives above your idle vaunts and fears,?Enthroned where all master souls stand up?In their high place, and fill the golden cup,
God-blest for kings, with wine of endless years,?And greet him one with them. O brotherhood?Of envious dullards, ye are wroth with good.
THE ANOINTED ONES?Why, let them rail! God's full anointed ones?Have heard the world exclaim, "We know you not."?They who by their souls' travailing have brought?Us nearer to the wonder of the suns.
Yet, who can stay the passage of the stars??Who can prevail against the thunder-sound??The wire that flashes lightning to the ground?Diverts, but not its potency debars.
So, men may strike quick stabs at Caesar's worth,-- They only make his life an endless force,?'Scaped from its penthouse, flashing through the earth,
And 'whelming those who railed about his Gorse.?Men's moods disturb not those born truly great:?They know their end; they can afford to wait.
A LOVER'S DIARY
By Gilbert Parker
Volume 2.
CONTENTS:
DREAMS?THE BRIDE?THE WRAITH?SURRENDER?THE CITADEL?MALFEASANCE?ANNUNCIATION?VANISHED DREAMS?INTO THY LAND?DIVIDED?WE MUST LIVE ON?YET LIFE IS SWEET?LOST FOOTSTEPS?THE CLOSED DOOR?THE CHALICE?MIO DESTINO?I HAVE BEHELD?TOO SOON AWAY?THE TREASURE?DAHIN?LOVE'S USURY?THE DECREE?'TIS MORNING NOW?SACRIFICE?SHINE ON?SO, THOU ART GONE?THE THOUSAND THINGS?ONES?THE SEA?THE CHART?REVEALING?OVERCOMING?WHITHER NOW?ARARAT?AS LIGHT LEAPS UP?THE DARKENED WAY?REUNITED?SONG WAS GONE FROM ME?GOOD WAS THE FIGHT?UNCHANGED?ABSOLVO TE?BENEDICTUS?THE MESSAGE?UNAVAILING?YOU SHALL LIVE ON?"VEX NOT THIS GHOST"?THE MEMORY?THE PASSING?ENVOY
DREAMS
And so life passed. I lived from year to year?With shadows, the strong warders of desire;?I learned through them to seek the golden fire?That hides itself in Song's bright hemisphere.
Through them I grew full of imaginings,?I made strange pictures, conjured images?From my deep longings; wrote the passages?Of life inwrought with half-glad wonderings.
For who can know a majesty of peace,?That wanders, ever waiting for a voice?To say to him, "Behold, at last surcease
Of thy unrest has come, therefore, rejoice"??Here set I down some dreams that come again,?Almost forgotten in my higher gain.
THE BRIDE
A ship at sea; a port to anchor in;?Not far a starry light upon the shore.?The sheeted lightning, like a golden door,?Swings to and fro to let earth-angels in.
Most bravely has she sailed o'er every sea,?Withstood the storm-rack, spurned the sullen reef; Cherished her strength; and held her guerdon fief To him who saith, "My ship comes back to me!
Behold, I sent her forth a stately thing,?To be my messenger to farthest lands,?To Fortunate Isles, and where the silver sands
Girdle a summer sea; that she might bring?My bride, who wist not that I loved her so--?This is no bitter day for me, I trow!"
THE WRAITH
A ship in port; well-crossed the harbour-bar;?The hawser swung, the grinding helm at rest;?Hands clasping hands, and eyes with eager zest?Seeking the loved, returning from afar.
And he, the master, holding little reck?Of all, save but the idol of his soul,?Seeks not his loving ardour to control.?Mark how he proudly treads the whitened deck!
"My bride, my bride, my lone soul's best beloved, Come forth, come forth! Where art thou, Isobel?-- Pallid, and wan! Lord, hath it thus befell
This is but dust; where has the spirit roved??O death-cold bride! for this, then, have I strove? O phantom ship, O loveless wraith of Love!"
SURRENDER
A day of sunshine in a land of snow,?And a soft-curtained room, where ruddy flakes?Of fame fall free, in liquid light that slakes?The soft desire of one cold, paleface: lo,
Close-pressed sweet lips, and eyes of violet,?That are filled up as with a sudden fear--?A storm's prelude upon the expectant mere.?Yet deep behind what never they forget,
Who ever see in life's chance or mischance.?And he who saw, what could he do but say,?"Fold up the tents; the camp is struck; away!
Vain victor who rides not in rest his lance!"?Beside the hearthstone where the flame-flakes fell, There lay the cold keys of the citadel.
THE CITADEL
A night wind-swept and bound about with blee?Of Erebus; all light and cheer within;?White restless hands that falter, then begin?To weave a music-voiced fantasy.
And life, and death, and love, and weariness,?And unrequital, thrid the maze of sound;?And one voice saith, "Behold, the lost is found!" And saith not any more for joyfulness.
Out of the night there comes a wanderer,?Who waits upon the threshold, and is still;?And listens, and bows down his head, until
His grief-drawn breath startles the heart of her. The victor vanquished, at her feet he fell,?A prisoner in his conquered citadel.
MALFEASANCE
Two of one name; they standing where the sun?Makes shadows in the orchard-bloom of spring;?She holding in her palm a jewelled ring,?He speaking on what evil it had done.
"Raise thy pale face and wondrous eyes to mine;?Let not thy poor lips quiver in such pain;?Too young and blindly thou hast drunk the wine?Crushed from the lees of love. Be strong again.
Trail back thy golden hair from thy broad brow,?And raise thy lily neck like some tall tower,?That recks not any