The Wild Knight And Other Poems Part 6

THE LAST MASQUERADE

A wan new garment of young green Touched, as you turned your soft brown hair And in me surged the strangest prayer Ever in lover's heart hath been.

That I who saw your youth's bright page, A rainbow change from robe to robe, Might see you on this earthly globe, Crowned with the silver crown of age.

Your dear hair powdered in strange guise, Your dear face touched with colours pale: And gazing through the mask and veil The mirth of your immortal eyes.

THE EARTH'S SHAME

Name not his deed: in shuddering and in haste We dragged him darkly o'er the windy fell: That night there was a gibbet in the waste, And a new sin in h.e.l.l.

Be his deed hid from commonwealths and kings, By all men born be one true tale forgot; But three things, braver than all earthly things, Faced him and feared him not.

Above his head and sunken secret face Nested the sparrow's young and dropped not dead.

From the red blood and slime of that lost place Grew daisies white, not red.

And from high heaven looking upon him, Slowly upon the face of G.o.d did come A smile the cherubim and seraphim Hid all their faces from.

VANITY

A wan sky greener than the lawn, A wan lawn paler than the sky.

She gave a flower into my hand, And all the hours of eve went by.

Who knows what round the corner waits To smite? If s.h.i.+pwreck, snare, or slur Shall leave me with a head to lift, Worthy of him that spoke with her.

A wan sky greener than the lawn, A wan lawn paler than the sky.

She gave a flower into my hand, And all the days of life went by.

Live ill or well, this thing is mine, From all I guard it, ill or well.

One tawdry, tattered, faded flower To show the jealous kings in h.e.l.l.

THE LAMP POST

Laugh your best, O blazoned forests, Me ye shall not s.h.i.+ft or shame With your beauty: here among you Man hath set his spear of flame.

Lamp to lamp we send the signal, For our lord goes forth to war; Since a voice, ere stars were builded, Bade him colonise a star.

Laugh ye, cruel as the morning, Deck your heads with fruit and flower, Though our souls be sick with pity, Yet our hands are hard with power.

We have read your evil stories, We have heard the tiny yell Through the voiceless conflagration Of your green and s.h.i.+ning h.e.l.l.

And when men, with fires and shouting, Break your old tyrannic pales; And where ruled a single spider Laugh and weep a million tales.

This shall be your best of boasting: That some poet, poor of spine.

Full and sated with our wisdom, Full and fiery with our wine,

Shall steal out and make a treaty With the gra.s.ses and the showers, Rail against the grey town-mother, Fawn upon the scornful flowers;

Rest his head among the roses, Where a quiet song-bird sounds, And no sword made sharp for traitors, Hack him into meat for hounds.

THE PESSIMIST

You that have snarled through the ages, take your answer and go-- I know your h.o.a.ry question, the riddle that all men know.

You have weighed the stars in a balance, and grasped the skies in a span: Take, if you must have answer, the word of a common man.

Deep in my life lies buried one love unhealed, unshriven, One hunger still shall haunt me--yea, in the streets of heaven; This is the burden, babbler, this is the curse shall cling, This is the thing I bring you; this is the pleasant thing.

'Gainst you and all your sages, no joy of mine shall strive, This one dead self shall shatter the men you call alive.

My grief I send to smite you, no pleasure, no belief, Lord of the battered grievance, what do you know of grief?

I only know the praises to heaven that one man gave, That he came on earth for an instant, to stand beside a grave, The peace of a field of battle, where flowers are born of blood.

I only know one evil that makes the whole world good.

Beneath this single sorrow the globe of moon and sphere Turns to a single jewel, so bright and brittle and dear That I dread lest G.o.d should drop it, to be dashed into stars below.

You that have snarled through the ages, take your answer and go.

A FAIRY TALE

All things grew upwards, foul and fair: The great trees fought and beat the air With monstrous wings that would have flown; But the old earth clung to her own, Holding them back from heavenly wars, Though every flower sprang at the stars.

But he broke free: while all things ceased, Some hour increasing, he increased.

The town beneath him seemed a map, Above the church he c.o.c.ked his cap, Above the cross his feather flew Above the birds and still he grew.

The trees turned gra.s.s; the clouds were riven; His feet were mountains lost in heaven; Through strange new skies he rose alone, The earth fell from him like a stone, And his own limbs beneath him far Seemed tapering down to touch a star.

He reared his head, s.h.a.ggy and grim, Staring among the cherubim; The seven celestial floors he rent, One crystal dome still o'er him bent: Above his head, more clear than hope, All heaven was a microscope.