Goblin Market, The Princes Progress, and Other Poems | Page 5

For twilight cold and lorn?And water springs.?Through sleep, as through a veil,?She sees the sky look pale,?And hears the nightingale?That sadly sings.
Rest, rest, a perfect rest?Shed over brow and breast;?Her face is toward the west,?The purple land. 20 She cannot see the grain?Ripening on hill and plain;?She cannot feel the rain?Upon her hand.
Rest, rest, for evermore?Upon a mossy shore;?Rest, rest at the heart's core?Till time shall cease:?Sleep that no pain shall wake;?Night that no morn shall break 30 Till joy shall overtake?Her perfect peace.
AT HOME
When I was dead, my spirit turned?To seek the much-frequented house:?I passed the door, and saw my friends?Feasting beneath green orange boughs;?From hand to hand they pushed the wine,?They sucked the pulp of plum and peach;?They sang, they jested, and they laughed,?For each was loved of each.
I listened to their honest chat:?Said one: 'To-morrow we shall be 10 Plod plod along the featureless sands,?And coasting miles and miles of sea.'?Said one: 'Before the turn of tide?We will achieve the eyrie-seat.'?Said one: 'To-morrow shall be like?To-day, but much more sweet.'
'To-morrow,' said they, strong with hope,?And dwelt upon the pleasant way:?'To-morrow,' cried they, one and all,?While no one spoke of yesterday. 20 Their life stood full at blessed noon;?I, only I, had passed away:?'To-morrow and to-day,' they cried;?I was of yesterday.
I shivered comfortless, but cast?No chill across the tablecloth;?I, all-forgotten, shivered, sad?To stay, and yet to part how loth:?I passed from the familiar room,?I who from love had passed away, 30 Like the remembrance of a guest?That tarrieth but a day.
A TRIAD
Sonnet
Three sang of love together: one with lips?Crimson, with cheeks and bosom in a glow,?Flushed to the yellow hair and finger-tips;?And one there sang who soft and smooth as snow?Bloomed like a tinted hyacinth at a show;?And one was blue with famine after love,?Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and low?The burden of what those were singing of.?One shamed herself in love; one temperately?Grew gross in soulless love, a sluggish wife;?One famished died for love. Thus two of three?Took death for love and won him after strife;?One droned in sweetness like a fattened bee:?All on the threshold, yet all short of life.
LOVE FROM THE NORTH
I had a love in soft south land,?Beloved through April far in May;?He waited on my lightest breath,?And never dared to say me nay.
He saddened if my cheer was sad,?But gay he grew if I was gay;?We never differed on a hair,?My yes his yes, my nay his nay.
The wedding hour was come, the aisles?Were flushed with sun and flowers that day; 10 I pacing balanced in my thoughts:?'It's quite too late to think of nay.'--
My bridegroom answered in his turn,?Myself had almost answered 'yea:'?When through the flashing nave I heard?A struggle and resounding 'nay.'
Bridemaids and bridegroom shrank in fear,?But I stood high who stood at bay:?'And if I answer yea, fair Sir,?What man art thou to bar with nay?' 20
He was a strong man from the north,?Light-locked, with eyes of dangerous grey:?'Put yea by for another time?In which I will not say thee nay.'
He took me in his strong white arms,?He bore me on his horse away?O'er crag, morass, and hairbreadth pass,?But never asked me yea or nay.
He made me fast with book and bell,?With links of love he makes me stay; 30 Till now I've neither heart nor power?Nor will nor wish to say him nay.
WINTER RAIN
Every valley drinks,?Every dell and hollow:?Where the kind rain sinks and sinks,?Green of Spring will follow.
Yet a lapse of weeks?Buds will burst their edges,?Strip their wool-coats, glue-coats, streaks,?In the woods and hedges;
Weave a bower of love?For birds to meet each other, 10 Weave a canopy above?Nest and egg and mother.
But for fattening rain?We should have no flowers,?Never a bud or leaf again?But for soaking showers;
Never a mated bird?In the rocking tree-tops,?Never indeed a flock or herd?To graze upon the lea-crops. 20
Lambs so woolly white,?Sheep the sun-bright leas on,?They could have no grass to bite?But for rain in season.
We should find no moss?In the shadiest places,?Find no waving meadow grass?Pied with broad-eyed daisies:
But miles of barren sand,?With never a son or daughter, 30 Not a lily on the land,?Or lily on the water.
COUSIN KATE
I was a cottage maiden?Hardened by sun and air,?Contented with my cottage mates,?Not mindful I was fair.?Why did a great lord find me out,?And praise my flaxen hair??Why did a great lord find me out?To fill my heart with care?
He lured me to his palace home--?Woe's me for joy thereof-- 10 To lead a shameless shameful life,?His plaything and his love.?He wore me like a silken knot,?He changed me like a glove;?So now I moan, an unclean thing,?Who might have been a dove.
O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate,?You grew more fair than I:?He saw you at your father's gate,?Chose you, and cast me by. 20 He watched your steps along the lane,?Your