Perpetual Light | Page 6

for her to join their host this night,
Mount with their cavalcade for
Thy domain.
Then darkness... but Thy work is done no less.
For she hath looked on Thee, and when on me
Her blue eyes turn by
day, they pass me by.
All offerings--even my heart--slip from her
hands.
She moves in dreams of utter bliss to be,
Longs for what
nought of earth may satisfy.
My heart breaks as I clutch love's
breaking strands.
I clutch--they part--to the wide winds are blown.
And she stands
gazing on a cloud, a star,--
Blind to earth's heart of love where heaven
lies furled.
God, wilt Thou never leave my love alone?
Thou hast
all powers, dominions, worlds that are;
And she is all my world--is all
my world!
THE TAMER OF STEEDS
Beyond this world where skies are free from stain,
Where brilliant
flowers blow in open meads,
I heard the drumming hoofs of many

steeds
Raise maddening music from a grassy plain.
They passed,
with snorting nostril, flying mane,
And fiery spirit; and the lad who
breeds
Their mettled herd, and pastures them, and feeds,
Rode the
black foremost, scorning spur or rein.
His eyes were like a seer's and like a child's.
His body shone
irradiating joy.
He fought his furious mount with strength and art.

And then my mind divined the glorious boy
As Eros, tamer in the
heavenly wilds
Of all the passions of the human heart.
LOVE IN ARMOR
Love scorns that Love implore you
To bind his hurts or heal;
Prays
only, arm around you,
To draw on hours that hound you,
To whirl
his sword before you
And fence your path with steel.
Not for the beauty of you,
The peace of all your ways,
He
burns--but in your quarrel
To hold the pass of peril,
To stand at
arms above you
Against embattled days.
No comfort for his blundering
He cries your heart to yield,
But that
his arm enfold you,
His shield-arm shield and hold you
Safe, when
the foe charge thundering,--
His sword against the field!
WARDROBE OF REMEMBRANCE
Guises your moods once wore are hung within
The closet of my mind.
I take access
This moment to regard them and confess
How spare
for want of you they hang, and thin.
Pity seems all their argument
may win,
That fine, frail rustling of each mood's meet dress.
Yet
starts a subtle incense from the press,
Crushed perfumes of the
flowers your thoughts have been.
Sweeter than ever spoken do they come
Again with finer relish to my
mind
Starved on your absence. False surmise is numb,
For now in

these reliques of you I find
The smile you meant when rebel lips were
dumb,
The kind words agitation made unkind.
THE SECOND COVENANT
I dreamt that we were lying
On a high hill afar,
Our deepest
thoughts replying
To one lone star.
High from the vault of heaven

Its silver rays were shed;
And the deep peace between us
Was the
peace of the dead.
Our busy lives were over,
Our day and night and day;
Of you and
me your lover,
Nought more to say;
And sorrows we had
vanquished
And blisses we had known
And our cares and our
kisses
To the four winds were blown.
The handclasp of contrition,
The eyesight of each
Where each had
recognition,
Were passed, with our speech.
Vast night declared
above us,
"Now sight and semblance fade,
No heart's emotion
bindeth
A shadow to a shade."
Then within me, lying near you,
A dark sadness grew
That, to
cherish or to cheer you,
There was nought left to do.
Of happy daily
service
Nought now remained to me--
Of good news for you and
comfort
As once it used to be.
No beauty save the spirit's
Abode wide heaven's scrolls;
No charm
the flesh inherits,
No strength save the soul's;
As breath upon a
mirror
All recognizing sign.
Yet nearer far and dearer
Your soul
spoke to mine.
For viewed not of each other,
Yet closer side by side

Than child
unto his mother,
Than husband to bride,
Thought unto thought you
answered.
One prayer we seemed--one breath;
And the deep love
between us
Was the love after death.

DEDICATION TO A FIRST BOOK
Braver than sea-going ships with the dawn in their sails,
Than the
wind before dawn more healing and fragrant and free, Fairer than sight
of a city all white from the mountain-top viewed in the vales,
Or the
silver-bright flakes of the moonlight in lakes, when the moon rides the
clouds and the forest awakes,
You are to me!
For you are to me what the bowstring is to the shaft,
Speeding my
purpose aloft and aflame and afar,
Through the thick of the fight, in
your eyes' steady light my soul hath seen splendor, and laughed.
Now,
however I tend betwixt foeman and friend through the riddle of Life to
Death's light at the end,
I ride for your star!
THE SHADOWED ROAD
Our shadows moved before us on the road.
The trees that watched us
brooded dark and still,
Streaked by the frost with phosphorescent
gray.
Chill followed sharply on a gorgeous day
Of winds, blown
leaves, red bonfires. Faintly showed
The mist-ringed moon above the
pasture hill.
Our shadows moved before us. By our side
New mystery, throbbing
through the rhythm of life
Echoed our footsteps; and its presence
grew
So real