I. Rivers to the Sea (1915)

 


1. SPRING NIGHT

(a) The park is filled with night and fog, The veils are drawn about the world, The draggled lights along the paths Are dim and pearled.

(b) Gold and gleaming the empty streets, Gold and gleaming the misty lake, The mirrored lights like sunken swords, Glimmer and shake.

(c) 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. O 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 am I unsatisfied,— I for whom the pensive night Binds her dusky hair with light,— I, for whom all beauty burns Like incense in a million urns? O beauty, are you not enough? Why am I crying after love?

2. THE FLIGHT

(a) 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 flowing rain— But what if I heard my first love calling me again?

(b) 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?

3. NEW LOVE AND OLD

(a) In my heart the old love Struggled with the new; It was ghostly waking All night through. Dear things, kind things, That my old love said, Ranged themselves reproachfully Round my bed.

(c) But I could not heed them, For I seemed to see The eyes of my new love Fixed on me.

(d) Old love, old love, How can I be true? Shall I be faithless to myself Or to you?

4. THE LOOK

(a) Strephon kissed me in the spring, Robin in the fall, But Colin only looked at me And never kissed at all.

(b) Strephon's kiss was lost in jest, Robin's lost in play, But the kiss in Colin's eyes Haunts me night and day.

5. THE KISS

(a) 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?

(b) 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.

(c) 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.

(d) 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?

6. SWANS

(a) 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.

(b) We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place, After 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.

7. THE OLD MAID

(a) 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.

(b) 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.

(c) Her body was a thing grown thin, Hungry for love that never came; Her soul was frozen in the dark Unwarmed forever by love's flame.

8. AT NIGHT

(a) We are apart; the city grows quiet between us, She hushes herself, for midnight makes heavy her eyes, The tangle of traffic is ended, the cars are empty, Five streets divide us, and on them the moonlight lies.

(b) Oh are you asleep, or lying awake, my lover? I send you my thoughts—the air between us is laden, My thoughts fly in at your window, a flock of wild birds.

9. THE YEARS

(a) To-night I close my eyes and see A strange procession passing me— The years before I saw your face Go by me with a wistful grace; They pass, the sensitive shy years, As one who strives to dance, half blind with tears.

(b) The years went by and never knew That each one brought me nearer you; Their path was narrow and apart And yet it led me to your heart— Oh, sensitive, shy years, oh, lonely, That strove to sing with voices drowned in tears.

II. Love Songs (1917)

1. TO E.

(a) I have remembered beauty in the night; Against black silences I waked to see A shower of sunlight over Italy And green Ravello dreaming on her height; I have remembered music in the dark, The clean swift brightness of a fugue of Bach's, And humming water slipping on the rocks When once in English woods I heard a lark.

(b) But all remembered beauty is no more Than a vague prelude to the thought of you— You are the nearest soul I ever knew, Lover of beauty, knightliest and best; My thoughts seek you as waves that seek the shore, And when I think of you, I am at rest.

2. BARTER

(a) Life has loveliness to sell, All beautiful and splendid things, Blue waves whitened on a cliff, Soaring fire that sways and sings, And children's faces looking up Holding wonder like a cup.

(b) Life has loveliness to sell, Music like a curve of gold, Scent of pine trees in the rain, Eyes that love you, arms that hold, And for your spirit's still delight, Holy thoughts that star the night.

(c) Spend all you have for loveliness, Buy it and never count the cost; For one white singing hour of peace Count many a year of strife well lost, And for a breath of ecstasy Give all you have been, or could be.

3. THE FOUNTAIN

(a) All through the deep blue night The fountain sang alone; It sang to the drowsy heart Of the satyr carved in stone.

(b) The fountain sang and sang, But the satyr never stirred— Only the great white moon In the empty heaven heard.

(c) The fountain sang and sang, While on the marble rim The white breasts slept, and dim And their dreams were strange and dim.

(d) Bright dew was on the grass, And on the ivy, dew; The dreamy milk-white birds Were all a-glisten, too.

(e) The fountain sang and sang The things one cannot tell; The dreaming peaks stirred And the gleaming dew-drops fell.

4. TIDES

(a) Love in my heart was a fresh tide flowing Where the starlike sea gulls soar; The sun was keen and the foam was blowing High on the rocky shore.

(b) But now in the dusk the tide is retiring, Lower the sea gulls soar, And the waves that rose in restless yearning Are broken forevermore.

III. Additional Poems / Sections

10. PEACE

(a) Peace flows into me As the tide to the pool by the shore; It is mine forevermore, It ebbs not back like the sea.

(b) I am the pool of blue That watches the vivid sky; My hopes were heaven-high, They are all fulfilled in you.

(c) I am the pool of gold When sunset burns and dies,— You are my deepening skies, Give me your stars to hold.

11. APRIL

(a) The roofs are shining from the rain, The sparrows twitter as they fly, And with a windy April grace The little clouds go by.

(b) Yet the back-yards are bare and brown With only one unchanging tree— I could not be sure of spring Save that it sings in me.

12. COME

(a) Come, when the pale moon like a petal Floats in the pearly dusk of spring, Come with arms outstretched to take me, Come with lips pursed up to cling.

(b) Come, for life is a frail moth flying Caught in the web of the years that pass, And soon we two, so warm and eager, Will be as the gray stones in the grass.

13. MOODS

(a) I am the still rain falling, Too tired for singing mirth— Oh, be the green fields calling, Oh, be for me the earth!

(b) I am the brown bird pining To leave the nest and fly— Oh, be the fresh clouds shining, Oh, be for me the sky!

The Long Alley / Theodore Roethke (Sections)

2. THE LONG ALLEY

  1. (a) A river glides out of the grass. A river or a serpent. A fish floats belly upward, Sliding through the white current, Slowly turning, Slowly.

(b) The dark flows on itself. A dead mouth sings under an old tree. The ear hears only in low places. Remember an old sound. Remember.

(c) This slag runs slow. What bleeds when metal breaks? Flesh, you offered this metal. How long need the bones endure? Are those horns on top of the hill? Yesterday has a long look.

(d) Loo, loo, said the sulphurous water, There's no filth on the plateau of cinders. This smoke's from the glory of God.

(e) Can you name it? I can't name it. Let's not hurry. The dead don't hurry. Who else breathes here? What does the grave say? My gates are all caves.

  1. (a) The friend's far away. Lord, what do you require? The soul resides in the horse barn. Believe me, there's no one else, Ritter-limp sister.

(c) A lucky understandable spirit Once entertained you. It will come again. Be still. Wait.

3) (a) Stay close. Must I kill something else? Can feathers eat me? There's no clue in the slit. This wind gives me scales. Have mercy, gristle: It's my last waltz with an old itch.

(b) A waiting ghost warms up the dead Until they creak their knees: So up and away and what do we do But barely-brake and tricksey goes

(c) Tricksey comes and tricksey goes Bold in fire therefore; The hay hops in the horse's mouth, The chin jumps to the nose. Rich me cherries a fondling's kiss, The summer bumps of ha: Hand me a feather, I'll fan you warm, I'm happy with my paws.

(e) Gilliflower ha, Gilliflower ho, My love's locked in The old silo.

(f) She cries to the hen, She waves to the goose, But they don't come To let her loose.

4) (a) That was a close knock. See what the willows This air could flesh a dead stick. Sweet Jesus, make me sweet. Are there flowers here? The birds are. Shall I call the flowers?

(b) Come littlest, come tenderest, Come whistling over the small water, Reach me rose, sweet rose, still moist in the leaf, Come, come out of the shade, the cool ways, The long alleys of the string and stem; Bend down, small breathers, creepers and winders, Lean from the trees and benches, Cyclamen dripping and lilies. What fish-ways you have, littlest flowers, Swaying over the walks, in the watery air, Drowsing in soft light, petals pulsing. Light airs! Light airs! A piece of angels! The leaves, the leaves became me! The tendrils have me!

5) (a) Bricks flake before my face. Master of water, Reach me a peach, fondling, the hills are there, Nuts are money: wherefore and what else?

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