Section X

 


1. THOUGHTS

(a) When I am all alone Envy me the most, Then my thoughts flutter round me In a glimmering host;

(b) Some dressed in silver, Some dressed in white, Each like a taper Blossoming light;

(c) Most of them merry, Some of them grave, Each of them lithe As willows that wave;

(d) Some bearing violets, Some bearing bay, One with a burning rose Hidden away—

(e) When I am all alone Envy me then, For I have better friends Than women and men.

2. FACES

(a) People that I meet and pass In the city's fearless roar, Faces that I lose so soon And have never found before.

(b) Do you know how much you tell In the meeting of our eyes, How ashamed I am, and sad To have pierced your poor disguise?

(c) Secrets rushing from your hiding places— Crying "Let me go, I cannot bear The sorrow of the passing faces— People in the restless street Can it be, oh it can be

Section IV

1. THE UNCHANGING

(a) Sun-swept beaches with a light wind blowing From the immense blue circle of the sea, And the soft thunder where long waves whiten— These were the same for Sappho as for me.

(b) Two thousand years—much has gone by forever, Change takes the gods and ships and speech of men— But here on the beaches—that time lashes over— The heart aches now as then.

2. JUNE NIGHT

(a) Oh Earth, you are too dear to-night, How can I sleep while all around Floats rainy fragrance and the far Deep voice of the ocean that talks to the ground?

(b) Oh Earth, you gave me all I have, I love you, I love you—oh what have I Except my body after I die?

3. "LIKE BARELY BENDING"

(a) Like barely bending Singing in hard wind Ceaselessly;

(b) Like barely bending And rising again, So would I unbroken, Rise from pain;

(c) So would I softly, Day long, Night long, Change my sorrow Into Song.

4. "OH DAY OF FIRE AND SUN"

(a) Oh day of fire and sun, Pure as a naked flame, Blue sea, blue sky and the dun Sands where he spoke my name;

(b) Laughter and hearts so high That the spirit flew off free, Lifting into the sky Diving into the sea;

(c) Oh day of fire and sun Like a crystal burning, Slow days go by me, But you have no returning.

Section VIII

1. "THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS"

(a) There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

(b) And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

(c) Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

(d) And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.

(e) Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly;

(f) And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone.

2. NAHANT

(a) Bowed as an elm under the weight of its beauty, So earth is bowed, under the weight of splendor, Molten sea, richness of leave and the breathless Bronze of sea-grasses.

(b) Cliffs in the cliff shelter the purple sand-peas And chicory flowers bluer than the ocean And its foam high, white fire in sunshine, Flinging Jewels of water.

(c) Joyous thunder of blown waves on the ledges, Make me forget war and the dark war-sorrow— Against the sky a sentry paces the sea-cliff Slim in his khaki.

Section XII

1. THE TREE

(a) Oh to be free of myself, With nothing left to remember, To have my heart as bare As a tree in December;

(b) Resting, as a tree rests After its leaves are gone, Waiting no more for a rain at night Nor for the rest at dawn;

(c) But still, oh so still While the winds come and go, With no more fear of the hard frost Or the bright burden of snow;

(d) And heedless, heedless If anyone pass and see On the white page of the sky Its thin black tracery.

2. AT MIDNIGHT

(a) Now at last I have come to see what life is, Nothing is ever ended, everything only begun, And the brave victories that seem so splendid Were never really won.

(b) Even love that I built my spirit's house for, Comes like a brooding and baffled ghost, And music and men's praise and even laughter Are not so good at rest.

Section XI

1. IN THE END

(a) All that could never be said, All that could never be done, Wait for us at last Somewhere back of the sun;

(b) All the heart broke to forego Shall be ours without pain, We shall take them as lightly as girls Pluck flowers after rain.

(c) And when they were ours in the end Perhaps after all The skies will not open for us Nor heaven be there at our call.

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