Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough Part 9

THE YOUTHS

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?

Hast 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.

"But many a s.h.i.+p shall Harald have, For I deem the sea well wrought for his grave."

Then none spake save the King again, "If Knut die all my days be vain.

"And whoso the tale of his death shall tell, Hath spoken a word to gain him h.e.l.l.

"Lo here a doom I will not break,"

_So fair upriseth the rim of the sun._ "For life or death or any man's sake,"

_So grey is the sea when day is done._

O merry days in the summer-tide!

_So fair upriseth the rim of the sun._ When the s.h.i.+ps sail fair and the young men ride, _So grey is the sea when day is done._

Now Harald has got him east away, And each morrow of fight was a gainful day.

But Knut is to his fosterer gone To deal in deeds of peace alone.

So wear the days, and well it is Such lovely lords should dwell in bliss.

O merry in the winter-tide When men to Yule-feast wend them wide.

And here lieth Knut in the Lima-firth When the lift is low o'er the Danish earth.

"Tell me now, s.h.i.+pmaster mine, What are yon torches there that s.h.i.+ne?"

"Lord, no torches may these be But golden prows across the sea.

"For over there the sun s.h.i.+nes now And the gold worms gape from every prow."

The sun and the wind came down o'er the sea, "Tell them over how many they be!"

"Ten I tell with s.h.i.+eld-hung sides.

Nought but a fool his death abides."

"Ten thou tellest, and we be three, Good need that we do manfully.

"Good fellows, grip the s.h.i.+eld and spear For Harald my brother draweth near.

"Well breakfast we when night is done, And Valhall's c.o.c.k crows up the sun."