Nets to Catch the Wind

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nets to Catch the Wind, by Elinor
Wylie
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Title: Nets to Catch the Wind
Author: Elinor Wylie
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6682]
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[This file was first posted on January 12,
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Edition: 10
Language: English
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NETS TO
CATCH THE WIND ***
Produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Tom Allen, Charles Franks
and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
NETS TO CATCH THE WIND
By ELINOR WYLIE
CONTENTS
BEAUTY
THE EAGLE AND THE MOLE
MADMAN'S SONG
THE PRINKIN' LEDDIE
AUGUST
THE CROOKED STICK
ATAVISM
WILD PEACHES
SANCTUARY
THE LION AND THE LAMB
THE CHURCH-BELL
A CROWDED TROLLEY CAR
BELLS IN THE RAIN
WINTER SLEEP

VILLAGE MYSTERY
SUNSET ON THE SPIRE
ESCAPE
THE FAIRY GOLDSMITH
"FIRE AND SLEET AND CANDLELIGHT"
BLOOD FEUD
SEA LULLABY
NANCY
A PROUD LADY
THE TORTOISE IN ETERNITY
INCANTATION
SILVER FILIGREE
THE FALCON
BRONZE TRUMPETS AND SEA WATER--ON TURNING
LATIN INTO ENGLISH
SPRING PASTORAL
VELVET SHOES
VALENTINE
BEAUTY
Say not of Beauty she is good,
Or aught but beautiful,
Or sleek to
doves' wings of the wood
Her wild wings of a gull.

Call her not wicked; that word's touch
Consumes her like a curse;

But love her not too much, too much,
For that is even worse.
O, she is neither good nor bad,
But innocent and wild!
Enshrine her
and she dies, who had
The hard heart of a child.
THE EAGLE AND THE MOLE
Avoid the reeking herd,
Shun the polluted flock,
Live like that stoic
bird,
The eagle of the rock.
The huddled warmth of crowds
Begets and fosters hate;
He keeps,
above the clouds,
His cliff inviolate.
When flocks are folded warm,
And herds to shelter run,
He sails
above the storm,
He stares into the sun.
If in the eagle's track
Your sinews cannot leap,
Avoid the lathered
pack,
Turn from the steaming sheep.
If you would keep your soul
From spotted sight or sound,
Live like
the velvet mole;
Go burrow underground.
And there hold intercourse
With roots of trees and stones,
With
rivers at their source,
And disembodied bones.
MADMAN'S SONG
Better to see your cheek grown hollow,
Better to see your temple
worn,
Than to forget to follow, follow,
After the sound of a silver
horn.
Better to bind your brow with willow
And follow, follow until you
die,
Than to sleep with your head on a golden pillow,
Nor lift it up
when the hunt goes by.

Better to see your cheek grown sallow
And your hair grown gray, so
soon, so soon,
Than to forget to hallo, hallo,
After the milk-white
hounds of the moon.
THE PRINKIN' LEDDIE
_"The Hielan' lassies are a' for spinnin'
The Lowlan' lassies for
prinkin' and pinnin';
My daddie w'u'd chide me, an' so w'u'd my
minnie
If I s'u'd bring hame sic a prinkin' leddie."_
Now haud your tongue, ye haverin' coward,
For whilst I'm young I'll
go flounced an' flowered,
In lutestring striped like the strings o' a
fiddle,
Wi' gowden girdles aboot my middle.
In your Hielan' glen, where the rain pours steady,
Ye'll be gay an'
glad for a prinkin' leddie;
Where the rocks are all bare an' the turf is
all sodden,
An' lassies gae sad in their homespun an' hodden.
My silks are stiff wi' patterns o' siller,
I've an ermine hood like the hat
o' a miller,
I've chains o' coral like rowan berries,
An' a cramoisie
mantle that cam' frae Paris.
Ye'll be glad for the glint o' its scarlet linin'
When the larks are up an'
the sun is shinin';
When the winds are up an' ower the heather
Your
heart'll be gay wi' my gowden feather.
When the skies are low an' the earth is frozen,
Ye'll be gay an' glad
for the leddie ye've chosen,
When ower the snow I go prinkin' an'
prancin'
In my wee red slippers were made for dancin'.
It's better a leddie like Solomon's lily
Than one that'll run like a
Hielan' gillie
A-linkin' it ower the leas, my laddie,
In a raggedy kilt
an' a belted plaidie!
AUGUST

Why should this Negro insolently stride
Down the red noonday on
such noiseless feet?
Piled in his barrow, tawnier than wheat,
Lie
heaps of smoldering daisies, somber-eyed,
Their