The Nuts of Knowledge | Page 4

and seek we play
In and out the courts of Time.
Fairy lover, when my feet
Through the tangled woodland go,
'Tis
thy sunny fingers fleet
Fleck the fire dews to and fro.
In the moonlight grows a smile
Mid its rays of dusty pearl--
'Tis but
hide and seek the while,
As some frolic boy and girl.
When I fade into the deep
Some mysterious radiance showers
From
the jewel-heart of sleep
Through the veil of darkened hours.
Where the ring of twilight gleams
Round the sanctuary wrought,

Whispers haunt me--in my dreams
We are one yet know it not.
Some for beauty follow long
Flying traces; some there be
Seek thee
only for a song:
I to lose myself in thee.
KRISHNA
'I am Beauty itself among beautiful things.'
Bhagavad-Gita
The East was crowned with snow-cold bloom
And hung with veils of
pearly fleece:
They died away into the gloom,
Vistas of peace--and
deeper peace.
And earth and air and wave and fire
In awe and breathless silence
stood;
For One who passed into their choir
Linked them in mystic
brotherhood.

Twilight of amethyst, amid
Thy few strange stars that lit the heights,

Where was the secret spirit hid?
Where was Thy place, O Light of
Lights?
The flame of Beauty far in space--
Where rose the fire: in thee? in me?

Which bowed the elemental race
To adoration silently?
SYMBOLISM
Now when the spirit in us wakes and broods,
Filled with home
yearnings, drowsily it flings
From its deep heart high dreams and
mystic moods,
Mixed with the memory of the loved earth things;

Clothing the vast with a familiar face;
Reaching its right hand forth to
greet the starry race.
Wondrously near and clear the great warm fires
Stare from the blue;
so shows the cottage light
To the field labourer whose heart desires

The old folk by the nook, the welcome bright
From the house-wife
long parted from at dawn--
So the star villages in God's great depths
withdrawn.
Nearer to Thee, not by delusion led,
Though there no house fires burn
nor bright eyes gaze,
We rise, but by the symbol charioted,
Through
loved things rising up to Love's own ways
By these the soul unto the
vast has wings
And sets the seal celestial on all mortal things.
SUNG ON A BY-WAY
What of all the will to do?
It has vanished long ago,
For a
dream-shaft pierced it through
From the Unknown Archer's bow.
What of all the soul to think?
Some one offered it a cup
Filled with
a diviner drink,
And the flame has burned it up.
What of all the hope to climb?
Only in the self we grope
To the

misty end of time:
Truth has put an end to hope.
What of all the heart to love?
Sadder than for will or soul,
No light
lured it on above;
Love has found itself the whole.
THE HUNTER
Twilight, a timid fawn, went glimmering by,
And night, the dark blue
hunter, followed fast:
Ceaseless pursuit and flight were in the sky,

But the long chase had ceased for us at last.
We watched together while the driven fawn
Hid in the golden thicket
of the day:
We from whose hearts pursuit and flight were gone

Knew on the hunter's breast her refuge lay.
THE VISION OF LOVE
The twilight fleeted away in pearl on the stream,
And night, like a
diamond dome, stood still in our dream. Your eyes like burnished
stones or as stars were bright With the sudden vision that made us one
with the night.
We loved in infinite spaces, forgetting here
The breasts that were lit
with life and the lips so near; Till the wizard willows waved in the wind
and drew
Me away from the fulness of love and down to you.
Our love was so vast that it filled the heavens up:
But the soft white
form I held was an empty cup,
When the willows called me back to
earth with their sigh, And we moved as shades through the deep that
was you and I.
A CALL OF THE SIDHE
Tarry thou yet, late lingerer in the twilight's glory:
Gay are the hills
with song: earth's faery children leave More dim abodes to roam the
primrose-hearted eve,
Opening their glimmering lips to breathe some
wondrous story. Hush, not a whisper! Let your heart alone go dreaming.


Dream unto dream may pass: deep in the heart alone
Murmurs the
Mighty One his solemn undertone.
Canst thou not see adown the
silver cloudland streaming Rivers of faery light, dewdrop on dewdrop
falling,
Starfire of silver flames, lighting the dark beneath?
And
what enraptured hosts burn on the dusky heath!
Come thou away with
them, for Heaven to Earth is calling. These are Earth's voice--her
answer--spirits thronging. Come to the Land of Youth: the trees grown
heavy there
Drop on the purple wave the starry fruit they bear.

Drink: the immortal waters quench the spirit's longing. Art thou not
now, bright one, all sorrow past, in elation, Made young with joy,
grown brother-hearted with the vast, Whither thy spirit wending flits
the dim stars past
Unto the Light of Lights in burning adoration.
JANUS
Image of beauty, when I gaze on