Poems By the Way Part 8

_The Maidens_.

Come, love, delay not; come, and slay my dread!

Already is the banquet table spread; In the cool chamber flower-strewn is my bed: Come, love, what king shall keep us long alone?

_The Youths_.

O city, city, open thou thy gate!

See, with life s.n.a.t.c.hed from out the hand of fate!

How on thy glittering triumph I must wait!

Are not her hands stretched out to me? Her eyes, Grow they not weary as each new hope dies, And lone before her still the long road lies?

O golden city, fain would I be gone!

_The Maidens_.

And thou art happy, amid shouts and songs, And all that unto conquering men belongs.

Night hath no fear for me, and day no wrongs.

What brazen city gates can keep us, lone?

_The Youths_.

O long, long road, how bare thou art, and grey!

Hill after hill thou climbest, and the day Is ended now, O moonlit endless way!

And she is standing where the rushes grow, And still with white hand shades her anxious brow, Though 'neath the world the sun is fallen now, O dreary road, when will thy leagues be done?

_The Maidens_.

O tremblest thou, grey road, or do my feet Tremble with joy, thy flinty face to meet?

Because my love's eyes soon mine eyes shall greet?

No heart thou hast to keep us long alone.

_The Youths_.

O wilt thou ne'er depart, thou heavy night?

When will thy slaying bring on the morning bright, That leads my weary feet to my delight?

Why lingerest thou, filling with wandering fears My lone love's tired heart; her eyes with tears For thoughts like sorrow for the vanished years?

Weaver of ill thoughts, when wilt thou be gone?

_The Maidens_.

Love, to the east are thine eyes turned as mine, In patient watching for the night's decline?

And hast thou noted this grey widening line?

Can any darkness keep us long alone?

_The Youth_.

O day, O day, is it a little thing That thou so long unto thy life must cling, Because I gave thee such a welcoming?

I called thee king of all felicity, I praised thee that thou broughtest joy so nigh; Thine hours are turned to years, thou wilt not die; O day so longed for, would that thou wert gone!

_The Maidens_.

The light fails, love; the long day soon shall be Nought but a pensive happy memory Blessed for the tales it told to thee and me.

How hard it was, O love, to be alone.

LOVE FULFILLED.

Hast thou longed through weary days For the sight of one loved face?

Mast thou cried aloud for rest, Mid the pain of sundering hours; Cried aloud for sleep and death, Since the sweet unhoped for best Was a shadow and a breath?

O, long now, for no fear lowers O'er these faint feet-kissing flowers.

O, rest now; and yet in sleep All thy longing shalt thou keep.

Thou shalt rest and have no fear Of a dull awaking near, Of a life for ever blind, Uncontent and waste and wide.

Thou shalt wake and think it sweet That thy love is near and kind.

Sweeter still for lips to meet; Sweetest that thine heart doth hide Longing all unsatisfied With all longing's answering Howsoever close ye cling.

Thou rememberest how of old E'en thy very pain grew cold, How thou might'st not measure bliss E'en when eyes and hands drew nigh.

Thou rememberest all regret For the scarce remembered kiss, The lost dream of how they met, Mouths once parched with misery.

Then seemed Love born but to die, Now unrest, pain, bliss are one, Love, unhidden and alone.

THE KING OF DENMARK'S SONS.

In Denmark gone is many a year, _So fair upriseth the rim of the sun_, Two sons of Gorm the King there were, _So grey is the sea when day is done_.

Both these were gotten in lawful bed Of Thyrre Denmark's Surety-head.

Fair was Knut of face and limb As the breast of the Queen that suckled him.

But Harald was hot of hand and heart As lips of lovers ere they part.

Knut sat at home in all men's love, But over the seas must Harald rove.

And for every deed by Harald won, Gorm laid more love on Knut alone.

On a high-tide spake the King in hall, "Old I grow as the leaves that fall.

"Knut shall reign when I am dead, So shall the land have peace and aid.