Flame and Shadow | Page 9

sea,?Here for a single hour in the wide starlight?We shall be happy, for the dead are free.
X
Thoughts
When I am all alone?Envy me most,?Then my thoughts flutter round me?In a glimmering host;
Some dressed in silver,?Some dressed in white,?Each like a taper?Blossoming light;
Most of them merry,?Some of them grave,?Each of them lithe?As willows that wave;
Some bearing violets,?Some bearing bay,?One with a burning rose?Hidden away --
When I am all alone?Envy me then,?For I have better friends?Than women and men.
Faces
People that I meet and pass?In the city's broken roar,?Faces that I lose so soon?And have never found before,
Do you know how much you tell?In the meeting of our eyes,?How ashamed I am, and sad?To have pierced your poor disguise?
Secrets rushing without sound?Crying from your hiding places --?Let me go, I cannot bear?The sorrow of the passing faces.
? People in the restless street, Can it be, oh can it be In the meeting of our eyes That you know as much of me?
Evening: New York
Blue dust of evening over my city,?Over the ocean of roofs and the tall towers?Where the window-lights, myriads and myriads,?Bloom from the walls like climbing flowers.
Snowfall
"She can't be unhappy," you said,?"The smiles are like stars in her eyes,?And her laugh is thistledown?Around her low replies."?"Is she unhappy?" you said --?But who has ever known?Another's heartbreak --?All he can know is his own;?And she seems hushed to me,?As hushed as though?Her heart were a hunter's fire?Smothered in snow.
The Silent Battle
(In Memory of J. W. T. Jr.)
He was a soldier in that fight?Where there is neither flag nor drum,?And without sound of musketry?The stealthy foemen come.
Year in, year out, by day and night?They forced him to a slow retreat,?And for his gallant fight alone?No fife was blown, and no drum beat.
In winter fog, in gathering mist?The gray grim battle had its end --?And at the very last we knew?His enemy had turned his friend.
The Sanctuary
If I could keep my innermost Me?Fearless, aloof and free?Of the least breath of love or hate,?And not disconsolate?At the sick load of sorrow laid on men;?If I could keep a sanctuary there?Free even of prayer,?If I could do this, then,?With quiet candor as I grew more wise?I could look even at God with grave forgiving eyes.
At Sea
In the pull of the wind I stand, lonely,?On the deck of a ship, rising, falling,?Wild night around me, wild water under me,?Whipped by the storm, screaming and calling.
Earth is hostile and the sea hostile,?Why do I look for a place to rest??I must fight always and die fighting?With fear an unhealing wound in my breast.
Dust
When I went to look at what had long been hidden,?A jewel laid long ago in a secret place,?I trembled, for I thought to see its dark deep fire --?But only a pinch of dust blew up in my face.
I almost gave my life long ago for a thing?That has gone to dust now, stinging my eyes --?It is strange how often a heart must be broken?Before the years can make it wise.
The Long Hill
I must have passed the crest a while ago?And now I am going down --?Strange to have crossed the crest and not to know,?But the brambles were always catching the hem of my gown.
All the morning I thought how proud I should be?To stand there straight as a queen,?Wrapped in the wind and the sun with the world under me --?But the air was dull, there was little I could have seen.
It was nearly level along the beaten track?And the brambles caught in my gown --?But it's no use now to think of turning back,?The rest of the way will be only going down.
XI
Summer Storm
The panther wind?Leaps out of the night,?The snake of lightning?Is twisting and white,?The lion of thunder?Roars -- and we?Sit still and content?Under a tree --?We have met fate together?And love and pain,?Why should we fear?The wrath of the rain!
In the End
All that could never be said,?All that could never be done,?Wait for us at last?Somewhere back of the sun;
All the heart broke to forego?Shall be ours without pain,?We shall take them as lightly as girls?Pluck flowers after rain.
And when they are ours in the end?Perhaps after all?The skies will not open for us?Nor heaven be there at our call.
"It Will Not Change"
It will not change now?After so many years;?Life has not broken it?With parting or tears;?Death will not alter it,?It will live on?In all my songs for you?When I am gone.
Change
Remember me as I was then;?Turn from me now, but always see?The laughing shadowy girl who stood?At midnight by the flowering tree,?With eyes that love had made as bright?As the trembling stars of the summer night.
Turn from me now, but always hear?The muted laughter in the dew?Of that one year of youth we had,?The only youth we ever knew --?Turn from me now, or you will see?What other years have