Rivers to the Sea | Page 3

SONG?MAY DAY?CROWNED?TO A CASTILIAN SONG?BROADWAY?A WINTER BLUEJAY?IN A RESTAURANT?JOY?IN A RAILROAD STATION?IN THE TRAIN?TO ONE AWAY?SONG?DEEP IN THE NIGHT?THE INDIA WHARF?I SHALL NOT CARE?DESERT POOLS?LONGING?PITY?AFTER PARTING?ENOUGH?ALCHEMY?FEBRUARY?MORNING?MAY NIGHT?DUSK IN JUNE?LOVE-FREE?SUMMER NIGHT, RIVERSIDE?IN A SUBWAY STATION?AFTER LOVE?DOORYARD ROSES?A PRAYER
PART II
INDIAN SUMMER?THE SEA WIND?THE CLOUD?THE POOR HOUSE?NEW YEAR'S DAWN-BROADWAY?THE STAR?DOCTORS?THE INN OF EARTH?IN THE CARPENTER'S SHOP?THE CARPENTER'S SON?THE MOTHER OF A POET?IN MEMORIAM F. O. S?TWILIGHT?SWALLOW FLIGHT?THOUGHTS?TO DICK, ON HIS SIXTH BIRTHDAY?TO ROSE?THE FOUNTAIN?THE ROSE?DREAMS?"I AM NOT YOURS"?PIERROT'S SONG?NIGHT IN ARIZONA?DUSK IN WAR TIME?SPRING IN WAR TIME?WHILE I MAY?DEBT?FROM THE NORTH?THE LIGHTS OF NEW YORK?SEA LONGING?THE RIVER?LEAVES?THE ANSWER
PART III
OVER THE ROOFS?A CRY?CHANCE?IMMORTAL?AFTER DEATH?TESTAMENT?GIFTS
PART IV
FROM THE SEA?VIGNETTES OVERSEAS
PART V
SAPPHO

I
SPRING NIGHT
THE park is filled with night and fog,
The veils are drawn about the world,?The drowsy lights along the paths
Are dim and pearled.
Gold and gleaming the empty streets,
Gold and gleaming the misty lake,?The mirrored lights like sunken swords,
Glimmer and shake.
Oh, is it not enough to be?Here with this beauty over me??My throat should ache with praise, and I?Should kneel in joy beneath the sky.?Oh, beauty are you not enough?
Why am I crying after love?With youth, a singing voice and eyes?To take earth's wonder with surprise??Why have I put off my pride,?Why am I unsatisfied,?I for whom the pensive night?Binds her cloudy hair with light,?I for whom all beauty burns?Like incense in a million urns??Oh, beauty, are you not enough??Why am I crying after love?
THE FLIGHT
LOOK back with longing eyes and know that I will follow,?Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow,?Let our flight be far in sun or windy rain--?BUT WHAT IF I HEARD MY FIRST LOVE CALLING ME AGAIN?
Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam,?Take me far away to the hills that hide your home;?Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door--
BUT WHAT IF I HEARD MY FIRST LOVE CALLING ME ONCE MORE?
NEW LOVE AND OLD
IN my heart the old love
Struggled with the new;?It was ghostly waking
All night thru.
Dear things, kind things,
That my old love said,?Ranged themselves reproachfully
Round my bed.
But I could not heed them,
For I seemed to see?The eyes of my new love
Fixed on me.
Old love, old love,
How can I be true??Shall I be faithless to myself
Or to you?
THE LOOK
STREPHON kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,?But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.
Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,?But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.
SPRING
IN Central Park the lovers sit,
On every hilly path they stroll,?Each thinks his love is infinite,
And crowns his soul.
But we are cynical and wise,
We walk a careful foot apart,?You make a little joke that tries
To hide your heart.
Give over, we have laughed enough;
Oh dearest and most foolish friend,?Why do you wage a war with love
To lose your battle in the end?
THE LIGHTED WINDOW
HE SAID:?"In the winter dusk?When the pavements were gleaming with rain,?I walked thru a dingy street?Hurried, harassed,?Thinking of all my problems that never are
solved.?Suddenly out of the mist, a flaring gas-jet?Shone from a huddled shop.?I saw thru the bleary window?A mass of playthings:?False-faces hung on strings,?Valentines, paper and tinsel,?Tops of scarlet and green,?Candy, marbles, jacks--?A confusion of color?Pathetically gaudy and cheap.?All of my boyhood?Rushed back.?Once more these things were treasures?Wildly desired.?With covetous eyes I looked again at the marbles,?The precious agates, the pee-wees, the chinies--?Then I passed on.
In the winter dusk,?The pavements were gleaming with rain;?There in the lighted window?I left my boyhood."
THE KISS
BEFORE YOU kissed me only winds of heaven
Had kissed me, and the tenderness of rain--?Now you have come, how can I care for kisses
Like theirs again?
I sought the sea, she sent her winds to meet me,
They surged about me singing of the south--?I turned my head away to keep still holy
Your kiss upon my mouth.
And swift sweet rains of shining April weather
Found not my lips where living kisses are;?I bowed my head lest they put out my glory
As rain puts out a star.
I am my love's and he is mine forever,
Sealed with a seal and safe forevermore--?Think you that I could let a beggar enter
Where a king stood before?
SWANS
NIGHT is over the park, and a few brave stars
Look on the lights that link it with chains of gold,?The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars
That seem too heavy for tremulous water to hold.
We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place,
And now and again one wakes and uplifts its head;?How still you are--your gaze is on my face--
We watch the swans and never a word is said.
THE OLD MAID
I SAW her in a Broadway car,
The woman I might grow to be;?I felt my lover look at her
And then turn suddenly to me.
Her hair was dull and drew no light
And yet its color was as mine;?Her eyes were strangely like my eyes
Tho' love had never made them shine.
Her body was a