Flame and Shadow | Page 5

them cry: "Forever
Seek for
Beauty, she only
Fights with man against Death!"
III
Day and Night
In Warsaw in Poland
Half the world away,
The one I love best of
all
Thought of me to-day;
I know, for I went
Winged as a bird,
In the wide flowing wind

His own voice I heard;
His arms were round me
In a ferny place,
I looked in the pool

And there was his face --
But now it is night
And the cold stars say:
"Warsaw in Poland
Is
half the world away."
Compensation

I should be glad of loneliness
And hours that go on broken wings,

A thirsty body, a tired heart
And the unchanging ache of things,
If I
could make a single song
As lovely and as full of light,
As hushed
and brief as a falling star
On a winter night.
I Remembered
There never was a mood of mine,
Gay or heart-broken, luminous or
dull,
But you could ease me of its fever
And give it back to me
more beautiful.
In many another soul I broke the bread,
And drank the wine and
played the happy guest,
But I was lonely, I remembered you;
The
heart belongs to him who knew it best.
"Oh You Are Coming"
Oh you are coming, coming, coming,
How will hungry Time put by
the hours till then? --
But why does it anger my heart to long so
For
one man out of the world of men?
Oh I would live in myself only
And build my life lightly and still as a
dream --
Are not my thoughts clearer than your thoughts
And
colored like stones in a running stream?
Now the slow moon brightens in heaven,
The stars are ready, the
night is here --
Oh why must I lose myself to love you,
My dear?
The Return
He has come, he is here,
My love has come home,
The minutes are
lighter
Than flying foam,
The hours are like dancers
On
gold-slippered feet,
The days are young runners
Naked and fleet --

For my love has returned,
He is home, he is here,
In the whole
world no other
Is dear as my dear!

Gray Eyes
It was April when you came
The first time to me,
And my first look
in your eyes
Was like my first look at the sea.
We have been together
Four Aprils now
Watching for the green

On the swaying willow bough;
Yet whenever I turn
To your gray eyes over me,
It is as though I
looked
For the first time at the sea.
The Net
I made you many and many a song,
Yet never one told all you are --

It was as though a net of words
Were flung to catch a star;
It was as though I curved my hand
And dipped sea-water eagerly,

Only to find it lost the blue
Dark splendor of the sea.
The Mystery
Your eyes drink of me,
Love makes them shine,
Your eyes that lean

So close to mine.
We have long been lovers,
We know the range
Of each other's
moods
And how they change;
But when we look
At each other so
Then we feel
How little we
know;
The spirit eludes us,
Timid and free --
Can I ever know you
Or
you know me?
In a Hospital
IV

Open Windows
Out of the window a sea of green trees
Lift their soft boughs like the
arms of a dancer,
They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"

But I cannot answer.
I am alone with Weakness and Pain,
Sick abed and June is going,
I
cannot keep her, she hurries by
With the silver-green of her garments
blowing.
Men and women pass in the street
Glad of the shining sapphire
weather,
But we know more of it than they,
Pain and I together.
They are the runners in the sun,
Breathless and blinded by the race,

But we are watchers in the shade
Who speak with Wonder face to
face.
The New Moon
Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
As rain beats down the bright,
proud sea,
Beaten my body, bruised my soul,
Left me nothing
lovely or whole --
Yet I have wrested a gift from you,
Day that dies
in dusky blue:
For suddenly over the factories
I saw a moon in the cloudy seas --

A wisp of beauty all alone
In a world as hard and gray as stone --

Oh who could be bitter and want to die
When a maiden moon wakes
up in the sky?
Eight O'Clock
Supper comes at five o'clock,
At six, the evening star,
My lover
comes at eight o'clock --
But eight o'clock is far.
How could I bear my pain all day
Unless I watched to see
The
clock-hands laboring to bring
Eight o'clock to me.

Lost Things
Oh, I could let the world go by,
Its loud new wonders and its wars,

But how will I give up the sky
When winter dusk is set with stars?
And I could let the cities go,
Their changing customs and their creeds,
--
But oh, the summer rains that blow
In silver on the jewel-weeds!
Pain
Waves are the sea's white daughters,
And raindrops the children of
rain,
But why for my shimmering body
Have I a mother like Pain?
Night is the mother of stars,
And wind the mother of foam --
The
world is brimming