Twenty | Page 3

to a thousand aisles,?A hundred thousand arches ...?The loud lamb-choir about me files,?The bleating bishop marches,
The congregation kneels and nods,?The bishop leads its praises,?So I'll pray too, to their dim gods?Whose feet are decked with daisies:
_Ah, let me not grow old. Ah, let?Me not grow old, and falter?In my delusion, or forget?My heart was once an altar.?Let me still think myself a star?With these my rays about me;?Pretend these green perspectives are?All purposeless without me._
_Ah, bid the sun stand still. Ah, bid?The coming night retire,?And all the good I ever did?Shall feed your altar fire;?The hour shall stand and sing your praise,?The minute shall adore you,?And my ten thousand unborn days?I'll sacrifice before you._
_Gods of great joy, and little grief,?See--I will wear as token?A pear leaf and a cherry leaf?Until this pledge be broken_....
Between a pear and a cherry tree?A cold hand touched my shoulder--
_Ah, my false gods have forsaken me,?I am a minute older_.
THANKS TO MY WORLD FOR THE LOAN OF A FAIR DAY
That day you wrought for me?Shone, and was ended.?Perfect your thought for me,?Whom you befriended.?Such joy was new to me--?New, and most splendid,?More than was due to me.?More than was due to me.
Though I do wrong to you,?Having no power,?Singing no song to you,?Bringing no flower,?Yet does my youth again?Thrill, for the hour?Cometh in truth again.?Cometh in truth again.
I shall possess to-day?All I have wanted,?All I lacked yesterday?Now shall be granted.?No longer dumb to you,?Changed and enchanted,?Singing I'll come to you.?Singing I'll come to you.
I will amass for you?Very great treasure.?Swift years shall pass for you?Dancing for pleasure.?Time shall be slave to me,?Giving--full measure--?All that you gave to me.?All that you gave to me.
SONG
If I have dared to surrender some imitation of splendour, Something I knew that was tender, something I loved that was brave, If in my singing I showed songs that I heard on my road,?Were they not debts that I owed, rather than gifts that I gave?
If certain hours on their climb up the long ladder of time Turned my confusion to rhyme, drove me to dare an attempt, If by fair chance I might seem sometimes abreast of my theme, Was I translating a dream? Was it a dream that you dreamt?
High and miraculous skies bless and astonish my eyes;?All my dead secrets arise, all my dead stories come true. Here is the Gate to the Sea. Once you unlocked it for me; Now, since you gave me the key, shall I unlock it for you?
WORDS
Oh words, oh words, and shall you rule?The world? What is it but the tongue?That doth proclaim a man a fool,?So that his best songs go unsung,?So that his dreams are sent to school?And all die young.
There pass the trav'lling dreams, and these?My soul adores--my words condemn--?Oh, I would fall upon my knees?To kiss their golden garments' hem,?Yet words do lie in wait to seize?And murder them.
To-night the swinging stars shall plumb?The silence of the sky. And herds?Of plum��d winds like huntsmen come?To hunt with dreams the restless birds.?To-night the moon shall strike you dumb,?Oh words, oh words....
REDNECK'S SONG
These thirty years?Old men have filled my ears?With middle-aged ideas?That never have been young,?They made me wise.?I learnt to whitewash lies.?I learnt to shut my eyes,?And hold my tongue.
Damned Philistine.?And was it then so fine?To learn to draw the line.?(Is there a line to draw?)?And must I then?For threescore years and ten?Worship the laws of men?Who worshipped law?
Those laws are dust?To-day, and yet I must?Be faithful still, and trust?In what dead men did prove.?Magic may kill?Their wisdom and their will,?Yet I must follow still?Their path ... my groove....
TO THE UNBORN
Oh, bend your eyes, nor send your glance about.?Oh, watch your feet, nor stray beyond the kerb.?Oh, bind your heart lest it find secrets out.?For thus no punishment?Of magic shall disturb?Your very great content.
Oh, shut your lips to words that are forbidden.?Oh, throw away your sword, nor think to fight.?Seek not the best, the best is better hidden.?Thus need you have no fear,?No terrible delight?Shall cross your path, my dear.
Call no man foe, but never love a stranger.?Build up no plan, nor any star pursue.?Go forth with crowds; in loneliness is danger.?Thus nothing God can send,?And nothing God can do?Shall pierce your peace, my friend.
THE NEWER ZION
When I achieve the chestnut joke of dying,?When I slip through that Gate at Kensal Green,?Shall I go spoil the fantasy by prying?Behind the staging of this darling scene?
Shall I--a cast-off puppet--seek to study?The Showman who manipulates the strings,?The Hand that paints the western drop-scene ruddy,?The prosy truths of all these faery things?
Shall I--self-conscious by a glassy ocean--?Stammer strange songs amid an alien host??Or shall I not, refusing such promotion,?Bequeath to London my contented ghost?
I will come back to my Eternal City;?Her fogs once more my countenance shall dim;?I will enliven your austere committee?With