"For which I cry both day and night, For which I let slip all delight, That maketh me both deaf and blind, To seek within the jaws of death Once seen, once kissed, once reft from me FROM "THE EARTHLY PARADISE" INTRODUCTION Of Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing, I cannot ease the burden of your fears, Or make quick-coming death a little thing, Or bring again the pleasure of past years, Nor for my words shall ye forget your tears, Or hope again for aught that I can say, The idle singer of an empty day. But rather, when aweary of your mirth, From full hearts still unsatisfied ye sigh, And, feeling kindly unto all the earth, Grudge every minute as it passes by, Made the more mindful that the sweet days die-Remember me a little then I pray, The idle singer of an empty day. The heavy trouble, the bewildering care That weighs us down who live and earn our bread, So let me sing of names remembered, Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time, Why should I strive to set the crooked straight? Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme Beats with light wing against the ivory gate, Telling a tale not too importunate To those who in the sleepy region stay, Folk say, a wizard to a northern king At Christmas-tide such wondrous things did show, That through one window men beheld the spring, And through another saw the summer glow, So with this Earthly Paradise it is, Where tossed about all hearts of men must be ; Whose ravening monsters mighty men shall slay, Not the poor singer of an empty day. FROM "LOVE IS ENOUGH" THE MUSIC Love is enough: ho ye who seek saving, Go no further; come hither; there have been who have found it, And these know the House of Fulfilment of Craving; These know the Cup with the roses around it; These know the World's Wound and the balm that hath bound it: Cry out, the World heedeth not, 'Love, lead us home!' He leadeth, He hearkeneth, He cometh to you-ward; Set your faces as steel to the fears that assemble Round his goad for the faint, and his scourge for the froward: Lo his lips, how with tales of last kisses they tremble! Lo his eyes of all sorrow that may not dissemble! Cry out, for he heedeth, 'O Love, lead us home!' O hearken the words of his voice of compassion: 'Come cling round about me, ye faithful who sicken Of the weary unrest and the world's passing fashion! As the rain in mid-morning your troubles shall thicken, But surely within you some Godhead doth quicken, As ye cry to me heeding, and leading you home. 'Come-pain ye shall have, and be blind to the ending! Come-fear ye shall have, mid the sky's overcasting! Come-change ye shall have, for far are ye wending! Come-no crown ye shall have for your thirst and your fasting, But the kissed lips of Love and fair life everlasting! Cry out, for one heedeth, who leadeth you home!' Is he gone? was he with us?-ho ye who seek saving, Go no further; come hither; for have we not found it? Here is the House of Fulfilment of Craving; Here is the Cup with the roses around it; The World's Wound well healed, and the balm that hath bound it : Cry out! for he heedeth, fair Love that led home. THE MESSAGE OF THE MARCH WIND Fair now is the spring-tide, now earth lies beholding Now sweet, sweet it is through the land to be straying, 'Mid the birds and the blossoms and the beasts of the field; Love mingles with love, and no evil is weighing From township to township, o'er down and by tillage, |