A DIRGE FOR SUMMER Now the world is past the prime Let them die, and dying Summer Go, ye days, your deeds are done! Of the free great-hearted prime WHAT THE TRUMPETER SAID For there is nothing new beneath the sun; THE THREAD OF LIFE THE irresponsive silence of the land, me: Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand Thou too aloof, bound with the flawless band Of inner solitude; we bind not thee; But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free? What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand ?· And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek, And sometimes I remember days of old When fellowship seem'd not so far to seek And all the world and I seem'd much less cold, And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold, And hope felt strong and life itself not weak. FROM "LATER LIFE" VI WE lack, yet cannot fix upon the lack: Not this, nor that; yet somewhat, certainly. We see the things we do not yearn to see Around us and what see we glancing back? Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the rack, Hopes that were never ours yet seem'd to be, For which we steer'd on life's salt stormy sea Braving the sunstroke and the frozen pack. Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible sight, And strong to bear ourselves in patient pain? IX STAR Sirius and the Pole Star dwell afar Beyond the drawings each of other's strength: One blazes through the brief bright summer's length Lavishing life-heat from a flaming car; While one unchangeable upon a throne Broods o'er the frozen heart of earth alone, Content to reign the bright particular star Of some who wander or of some who groan. They own no drawings each of other's strength, Nor vibrate in a visible sympathy, Nor veer along their courses each toward each : Yet are their orbits pitch'd in harmony Of one dear heaven, across whose depth and length Mayhap they talk together without speech. |