The Poems of Sidney Lanier Part 33

O still vast vision of transfigured features Unvisited by secret crimes or dooms, Remain, remain amid these water-creatures, Stand, s.h.i.+ne among yon water-lily blooms.

For eighteen centuries ripple down the river, And windy times the stalks of empires wave, -- Let the winds come from the moor and sigh and s.h.i.+ver, Fain, fain am I, O Christ, to pa.s.s the grave.

To ----.

The Day was dying; his breath Wavered away in a hectic gleam; And I said, if Life's a dream, and Death And Love and all are dreams -- I'll dream.

A mist came over the bay Like as a dream would over an eye.

The mist was white and the dream was grey And both contained a human cry,

The burthen whereof was "Love", And it filled both mist and dream with pain, And the hills below and the skies above Were touched and uttered it back again.

The mist broke: down the rift A kind ray shot from a holy star.

Then my dream did waver and break and lift -- Through it, O Love, shone thy face, afar.

So Boyhood sets: comes Youth, A painful night of mists and dreams; That broods till Love's exquisite truth, The star of a morn-clear manhood, beams.

____ Boykin's Bluff, Virginia, 1863.

The Wedding.

O marriage-bells, your clamor tells Two weddings in one breath.

SHE marries whom her love compels: -- And I wed Goodman Death!

My brain is blank, my tears are red; Listen, O G.o.d: -- "I will," he said: -- And I would that I were dead.

Come groomsman Grief and bridesmaid Pain Come and stand with a ghastly twain.

My Bridegroom Death is come o'er the meres To wed a bride with b.l.o.o.d.y tears.

Ring, ring, O bells, full merrily: Life-bells to her, death-bells to me: O Death, I am true wife to thee!

____ Macon, Georgia, 1865.

The Palm and the Pine.

From the German of Heine.

In the far North stands a Pine-tree, lone, Upon a wintry height; It sleeps: around it snows have thrown A covering of white.

It dreams forever of a Palm That, far i' the Morning-land, Stands silent in a most sad calm Midst of the burning sand.

____ Point Lookout Prison, 1864.

Spring Greeting.

From the German of Herder.

All faintly through my soul to-day, As from a bell that far away Is tinkled by some frolic fay, Floateth a lovely chiming.

Thou magic bell, to many a fell And many a winter-saddened dell Thy tongue a tale of Spring doth tell, Too pa.s.sionate-sweet for rhyming.

Chime out, thou little song of Spring, Float in the blue skies ravis.h.i.+ng.

Thy song-of-life a joy doth bring That's sweet, albeit fleeting.

Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home: And when thou to a rose shalt come That hath begun to show her bloom, Say, I send her greeting!

____ Point Lookout Prison, 1864.

The Tournament.

Joust First.

I.

Bright shone the lists, blue bent the skies, And the knights still hurried amain To the tournament under the ladies' eyes, Where the jousters were Heart and Brain.

II.

Flourished the trumpets: entered Heart, A youth in crimson and gold.

Flourished again: Brain stood apart, Steel-armored, dark and cold.

III.

Heart's palfrey caracoled gayly round, Heart tra-li-ra'd merrily; But Brain sat still, with never a sound, So cynical-calm was he.

IV.