Many Voices | Page 9

to fly -?Great wings like seagulls' wings -?How would we soar?Above the roar?Of loud unneeded things!
We two would rise?Through changing skies?To blue unclouded space,?And undismayed?And unafraid?Meet the sun face to face.
But wings we know not;?The feathers grow not?To carry us so high;?And low in the gloom?Of a little room?We weep and say good-bye.
POEM: BEFORE WINTER
The wind is crying in the night,?Like a lost child;?The waves break wonderful and white?And wild.?The drenched sea-poppies swoon along?The drenched sea-wall,?And there's an end of summer and of song -?An end of all.
The fingers of the tortured boughs?Gripped by the blast?Clutch at the windows of your house?Closed fast.?And the lost child of love, despair,?Cries in the night,?Remembering how once those windows were?Open and bright.
POEM: THE VAULT--AFTER SEDGMOOR
You need not call at the Inn;?I have ordered my bed:?Fair linen sheets therein?And a tester of lead.?No musty fusty scents?Such as inn chambers keep,?But tapestried with content?And hung with sleep.
My Inn door bears no bar?Set up against fear.?The guests have journeyed far,?They are glad to be here.?Where the damp arch curves up grey,?Long, long shall we lie;?Good King's men all are they,?A King's man I.
Old Giles, in his stone asleep,?Fought at Poictiers.?Piers Ralph and Roger keep?The spoil of their fighting years.?I shall lie with my folk at last?In a quiet bed;?I shall dream of the sword held fast?In a round-capped head.
Good tale of men all told?My Inn affords;?And their hands peace shall hold?That once held swords.?And we who rode and ran?On many a loyal quest?Shall find the goal of man -?A bed, and rest.
We shall not stand to the toast?Of Love or King;?We be all too tired to boast?About anything.?We be dumb that did jest and sing;?We rest who laboured and warred . . .?Shout once, shout once for the King.?Shout once for the sword!
POEM: SURRENDER
Oh, the nights were dark and cold,?When my love was gone.?And life was hard to hold?When my love was gone.?I was wise, I never gave?What they teach a girl to save,?But I wished myself his slave?When my love was gone.
I was all alone at night?When my love came home.?Oh, what thought of wrong or right?When my love came home??I flung the door back wide?And I pulled my love inside;?There was no more shame or pride?When my love came home.
POEM: VALUES
Did you deceive me? Did I trust?A heart of fire to a heart of dust??What matter? Since once the world was fair,?And you gave me the rose of the world to wear.
That was the time to live for! Flowers,?Sunshine and starshine and magic hours,?Summer about me, Heaven above,?And all seemed immortal, even Love.
Well, the mortal rose of your love was worth?The pains of death and the pains of birth;?And the thorns may be sharper than death--who knows? -?That crowd round the stem of a deathless rose.
POEM: IN THE PEOPLE'S PARK
Many's the time I've found your face?Fresh as a bunch of flowers in May,?Waiting for me at our own old place?At the end of the working day.?Many's the time I've held your hand?On the shady seat in the People's Park,?And blessed the blaring row of the band?And kissed you there in the dark.
Many's the time you promised true,?Swore it with kisses, swore it with tears:?"I'll marry no one without it's you -?If we have to wait for years."?And now it's another chap in the Park?That holds your hand like I used to do;?And I kiss another girl in the dark,?And try to fancy it's you!
POEM: WEDDING DAY
The enchanted hour,?The magic bower,?Where, crowned with roses,?Love love discloses.
"Kiss me, my lover;?Doubting is over,?Over is waiting;?Love lights our mating!"
"But roses wither,?Chill winds blow hither,?One thing all say, dear,?Love lives a day, dear!"
"Heed those old stories??New glowing glories?Blot out those lies, love!?Look in my eyes, love!
"Ah, but the world knows -?Naught of the true rose;?Back the world slips, love!?Give me your lips, love!
"Even were their lies true,?Yet were you wise to?Swear, at Love's portal,?The god's immortal."
POEM: THE LAST DEFEAT
Across the field of day?In sudden blazon lay?The pallid bar of gold?Borne on the shield of day.?Night had endured so long,?And now the Day grew strong?With lance of light to hold?The Night at bay.
So on my life's dull night?The splendour of your light?Traversed the dusky shield?And shone forth golden bright.?Your colours I have worn?Through all the fight forlorn,?And these, with life, I yield,?To-night, to Night.
POEM: MAY DAY
Will you go a-maying, a-maying, a-maying,?Come and be my Queen of May and pluck the may with me??The fields are full of daisy buds and new lambs playing,?The bird is on the nest, dear, the blossom's on the tree."
"If I go with you, if I go a-maying,?To be your Queen and wear my crown this May-day bright,?Hand in hand straying, it must be only playing,?And playtime ends at sunset, and then good-night.
"For I have heard of maidens who laughed and went a-maying, Went out queens