Poems by George Meredith Volume Ii Part 14

x.x.xI

And her desires are those For happiness, for lastingness, for light.

'Tis she who kindles in his haunting night The hoped dawn-rose.

x.x.xII

Fair fountains of the dark Daily she waves him, that his inner dream May clasp amid the glooms a springing beam, A quivering lark:

XXIII

This life and her to know For Spirit: with awakenedness of glee To feel stern joy her origin: not he The child of woe.

x.x.xIV

But that the senses still Usurp the station of their issue mind, He would have burst the chrysalis of the blind: As yet he will;

x.x.xV

As yet he will, she prays, Yet will when his distempered devil of Self; - The glutton for her fruits, the wily elf In s.h.i.+fting rays; -

x.x.xVI

That captain of the scorned; The coveter of life in soul and sh.e.l.l, The fratricide, the thief, the infidel, The hoofed and horned; -

x.x.xVII

He singularly doomed To what he execrates and writhes to shun; - When fire has pa.s.sed him vapour to the sun, And sun relumed,

x.x.xVIII

Then shall the horrid pall Be lifted, and a spirit nigh divine, 'Live in thy offspring as I live in mine,'

Will hear her call.

x.x.xIX

Whence looks he on a land Whereon his labour is a carven page; And forth from heritage to heritage Nought writ on sand.

XL

His fables of the Above, And his gapped readings of the crown and sword, The h.e.l.l detested and the heaven adored, The hate, the love,

XLI

The bright wing, the black hoof, He shall peruse, from Reason not disjoined, And never unfaith clamouring to be coined To faith by proof.

XLII

She her just Lord may view, Not he, her creature, till his soul has yearned With all her gifts to reach the light discerned Her spirit through.

XLIIII

Then in him time shall run As in the hour that to young sunlight crows; And--'If thou hast good faith it can repose,'

She tells her son.

XLIV

Meanwhile on him, her chief Expression, her great word of life, looks she; Twi-minded of him, as the waxing tree, Or dated leaf.

A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT

I

See the sweet women, friend, that lean beneath The ever-falling fountain of green leaves Round the white bending stem, and like a wreath Of our most blushful flower s.h.i.+ne trembling through, To teach philosophers the thirst of thieves: Is one for me? is one for you?

II

- Fair sirs, we give you welcome, yield you place, And you shall choose among us which you will, Without the idle pastime of the chase, If to this treaty you can well agree: To wed our cause, and its high task fulfil.

He who's for us, for him are we!

III

- Most gracious ladies, nigh when light has birth, A troop of maids, brown as burnt heather-bells, And rich with life as moss-roots breathe of earth In the first plucking of them, past us flew To labour, singing rustic ritornells: Had they a cause? are they of you?

IV

- Sirs, they are as unthinking armies are To thoughtful leaders, and our cause is theirs.

When they know men they know the state of war: But now they dream like sunlight on a sea, And deem you hold the half of happy pairs.

He who's for us, for him are we!

V

- Ladies, I listened to a ring of dames; Judicial in the robe and wig; secure As venerated portraits in their frames; And they denounced some insurrection new Against sound laws which keep you good and pure.

Are you of them? are they of you?

VI

- Sirs, they are of us, as their dress denotes, And by as much: let them together chime: It is an ancient bell within their throats, Pulled by an aged ringer; with what glee Befits the yellow yesterdays of time.

He who's for us, for him are we!

VII

- Sweet ladies, you with beauty, you with wit; Dowered of all favours and all blessed things Whereat the ruddy torch of Love is lit; Wherefore this vain and outworn strife renew, Which stays the tide no more than eddy-rings?

Who is for love must be for you.