Arthur Clark Kennedy

“ Rising and falling—to rise at the last in a tone of triumph strong:
It spoke of life, it spoke of death, of love, and of love's home,
And the soul of the singer thrill'd the crowd, and soar'd through the gilded dome.
Now the voice is dumb, and its echoes lost on the waves of infinite space,
While long, lithe grasses shake in the wind o'er the singer's sleeping-place.
The art of the singer is dead and done,
And the singer herself has gone ”

“ Against the full nature and grossness of earth.
A smoky glare
Of torches, which jaundice the lower air,
And blacken the forehead of Heaven,
As the children of Mammon toil up to the scale,
Seven times seventy-seven.
In they pour their glittering store,
Stream on stream,
Till the scale with the world flashes up to the beam,
Bought and sold—
Sold to the sons of the Genius of Gold.
Thus the fair Universe,
Untouched by the power of the sword,
Unmoved by the power of the word,
Is enthralled by the power of the purse. ”

“ They float above the knowledge of things gross,
Serenely still and smiling through the void,
And yet methinks theirs is an unknown loss,
Not theirs contrasted peace, nor tempests' toss
Followed by calms enjoyed.
So will I pray that Love's lips set their seal
Once more on thine, that thou be born again
Of this earth earthy; let Love's lips reveal
Secrets of laughter turned to tears and deal
Out Love's delicious pain. ”

“ Pick up yon rose—the one bud that has strayed—
Cast down the lid. Our last tribute is paid
To the infant, the child, the girl, and the maid,
Wife and mother.
Let her sleep in the bloom
Of the roses' perfume,
One flower with another.
All white, white, white,
Let them sleep through the night,
To the light.
From the earth was their birth;
On the earth grew they in beauty, burning
With whitest, purest flames,
To earth returning. ”

“ For hunger of this woman yet unseen,
Whose presence felt is seared upon my brain,
My heart pervaded by her scent is fain
To beat no more for women who have been,
Or are, but only for her. Who is she? ”

“ Till a mist creeps over the hill, shuts down
On our home's white walls and o'erhanging eaves,
And the nightingales hush as the distant town
Puts out her lights and leaves
The rest of the night to darkness and love
Consecrated to thee and me,
Whilst my world spins on about and above,
Centred in thee. ”

“ For demons were loose on the hot-breathing wind,
And entered the souls of our men.
A feverish delight filled our bones,
Heightened by curses and groans—
The mind taking hold of the body, the body reacting on mind.
Ha!⁠'twas a glorious ride,
Though I miss an old friend from my side,
And sadness is mingled with pride.
Still, 'twas a glorious ride—
That race through the darkness, the straining, the shock,
The struggle, and slaughter by Kassassin lock. ”

“ I heard "Oh Love, I love you so!"
That long kiss sanctified a year,
A month, a week, a day.
Perhaps 'twas but an hour, who knows?
Time stays for such as they.
Love counts not time, but this I know,
'Twas very, very long ago. ”

“ Love born of lust is soonest dead!—
To loose his bonds was her endeavour.
Under the snowy steppes, down the silent river,
Where the dark pines gather, where their dark plumes quiver,
Is his sepulchre.
His love consumed his inmost soul,
Resistless, passed beyond control;
From his love with life he could not sever. Under the snowy steppes, down the silent river,
Where the dark pines gather, where their dark plumes quiver,
Is his sepulchre.
He urged his love with passionate force ”

“ But it hung in the voiceless void,
And on my quest I wandered far
Unsatisfied.
Until I whispered to the ground,
"O, Mother Earth, canst thou not prove
That such exist?" and then I found
My heaven, your arms; my God, your love! ”

“ When we shall cease in human guise to haunt this world of men,
Is that the end? or will our souls revive to live again
In some state, higher, purer far than any we have known,
With endless life and endless love, when both shall be our own? ”

“ Ah, say not so,
You would have loved me years ago.
Then why not now! What earthly ties
Made by mankind can bind our souls
Which rush together! Let us rise
Above such bondage. What controls
A love like ours? ”

“ And tinsel seems earth's gold. The loss
Of all the world holds dear avails
Nothing against such perfect wealth
As we in Love's own land to-day
Gather with both hands. Let us pray
That Love walk hand in hand with Health. ”

“ I thought that I would gather wealth,
⁠To clothe and educate the poor,
To reach unto the stricken, health—
⁠'Twas dust that strewed my garner-floor.
I think that when I die, my soul
⁠Will melt into another land
Of all things perfected—the goal
⁠Of what we cannot understand. ”

“ Stately she moved, my lady, through the wood,
With lingering footfalls following her own thought
Which like a child at random, heeding naught,
Sped on before, one of a merry brood
As yet by Love untaught. ”

“ I love the quiet night, when earth,
Shackled in iron chains of sleep,
Scarce draws her respirations deep;
⁠For then I weigh
Just what this world is worth,
⁠When dead is day.
It is not in the night alone,
And darkness, evil things have power:
Their foreheads greet the noonday hour
⁠With brazen face,
Vice flaunts it on a throne
⁠I’ the market-place. ”

“ The goal of our desire
We reach with brain on fire,
But reach it to expire.
Alas, how low the fall
When passions duller burn;
Then Life begins to spurn
Love that will not return;
And Death is lord of all. ”

“ Is the tremulous breath she draws between
Her pearly teeth, save by me unseen,
And her cheeks are flushed, but not with the heat
Love is called blind, and I love her—I!
But my eyesight is sharpened by jealousy. ”

“ And envious crows plant feet of care
About your eyes, my hourly dreams
Hold but your image, sweetest heart,
Deep set within a shrine of gold,
With it I live a life apart
Where time is not, and like my art,
You never can grow old. ”

“ His talents slept,
Securely hid,
'Neath social custom's ponderous lid;
And all men kept
The vast white pearls
Of truth from him,
Who held his wealth in changing curls
Of many girls,
By passion's passing whim. ”

“ Peace reigns in place of party passionate
When all go home.
When thinner blood through this my body crawls,
And slackening sense is bound in Death's dark thralls,
Love, shall I find you waiting at the gate
With open arms? Ah! ”

“ A meteor-man of destiny,
Who trod,
Through others' weakness, up the paths of strength,
Uncumbered and unshod
Of charity,
Till in the sky
He flamed, at length,
A mid-day sun,
A people's god—
Napoleon. ”

“ The words that swell upon my tongue
Fall still-born back, unsaid, unsung;
Canst not divine
The mute appeal that shines from each
Of my soul's windows, lit within
By burning love, yet does not win
Return from thine? ”

“ Two steps lead to the lady's bed—
Arras and cloth of red.
Bending to wake her with love's caresses,
He slips one arm 'neath her rich brown tresses,
And whispers words she can never hear,
For her throat is cut from ear to ear. ”

“ But through my veins with sudden heat
It passed and burst into a flame—
'Twas molten once that lava stream,
Ran with red riotings, but now
It cannot melt the winter snow
That time has piled upon my brow! ”

“ Nooked in a cool recess we sat,
⁠Whilst her tongue, like a bee from flower to flower,
First touched on this, and then on that—
⁠Madame de Pompadour.
Many a laughing word was said
⁠Ere a hush crept over that green alcove,
And the light tongue ceased, for another had strayed
⁠Into the perilous paths of love.
At first our hands met, then our eyes,
⁠And then our lips. Ah! ”

“ At last that she is wholly mine.
And I am hers. Each pulse of me
Beats red rebellion, and each vein
Swells with an overwhelming sea
Of sad, glad, pleasurable pain
Pervading every sense, my brain
Throbs with a mad intensity. ”

“ Some single word, some simple deed,
Which at the time we scarcely heed,
Opens the door, or shuts the gate
On our high hopes. We wander far,
Down loveless vistas, or with Love,
Dreaming we lie within the grove. ”

“ Holding a mirror in an idle hand,
I chanced to breath thereon,
When through the film there gleamed
A sudden face that seemed
Hers I had made my own
Once in that far-off sunny stranger land,
Once, and once only, had I held her, kissed
Her eyes that through her hair
Shone starlike, lit with heat
From fires that throbbed and beat
In her brown bosom bare,
Long blanch'd since then beneath Time's nether mist. ”

“ For seven long years the spell had worked—
Comes then the Prince too late?
Lo! from her fair limbs fall the chains,
The rank weeds fade away;
Her Prince awakes her with a kiss
And knowledge brings the day. ”

“ Till heaven darkened, and the rain,
Smoking athwart the watery plain,
Fell down with wintry weather;
Then, like a lark that upward flies,
Love swiftly lessened through the skies,
On winnowing feather. ”

“ But have you quite forgotten
⁠Those songs we used to sing
In that dim room—begotten
⁠When love was king?
Why should those days return not?
⁠You ask me: ask that ring.
Fires of pure poesy burn not
⁠Where Wealth is king. ”

“ Mere bankrupts are they, spending thriftlessly;
Heed not their love.
Take, then, my love, 'tis Fate's ordained decree,
Let it encompass, thrill through, melt in thee,
Making us one to all eternity ”

“ Doomed on his weary beat to go,
Every night from ten till two,
A Coastguard paces to and fro.
If the wind blows high, if the wind blows low,
Through the pelting rain, through the driving snow,
To and fro, to and fro. ”

“ When wolds lie panting under June,
When tempering earthward tears to prove
Heaven's pity cease to fall, we swoon
Wrapped in heat's hazy hanging mist
With seeming far-off souls and list
To that immeasurable tune
Nature plays Love. ”

“ In the wan shadow-land which lies
Hidden from sight of human eyes,
Half-way 'twixt here and Heaven,
You, my good grandfather, await
The utterance of that mandate
Which strikes all odd scores even. ”

“ Throned mid the flaunted crowd,
Lifted aloft and crowned
With men's applause, the sound
Making me proud?
Or shrined within my heart,
Hidden where none may come,
Under a golden dome
Always apart. ”

“ The golden cloud sailed into the West,
⁠Where the sun in blood sank down;
While the poet passed to his humble nest
⁠By the river-ways of town.
'Tis years since then, and, called from their rest,
The crowd would find that the poet knew best—
⁠He lives in his renown. ”

“ Her footsteps softly fall, she seems
Re-risen from the hand of death.
The violets bud beneath her tread,
The teeming earth in tongues of flame
Spits lambent crocus shoots, with shame
Each challenged snowdrop hangs its head. ”

“ Vision of ruddy lips, and golden hair
Crowned with red cap of Liberty! Take care
How you exchange your maiden surety
For the full cup of love's maturity,
Lest you become less happy than you are! ”

“ The flames were bright and beautiful,
And each tongue seemed to minister
A pleasant warmth unto her soul;
Her light-breathed laughter drove them back
To line the path her feet would track,
Her sunny tears reflected them. ”

“ And laid in narrow cell,' she said;
'And laid in narrow cell,
For life is hell.'
'Bodies are bought for gold,' she said,
'Bodies are bought for gold;
But hearts can not be forced to wed,
Though worlds grow grey and old,' she said ”

“ All entrance was denied there,
They vainly sought to force the ward
Who tried before I tried there.
They tried with gold and silver keys,
With vows and protestations,
They summoned every art to please,
Exotics of all nations. ”

“ A Genius takes form
From the breath of the storm—
Tall and gaunt,
Scarred of front;
Blown over a blood-bestained vest,
A tawny beard, sweeping his chest,
Reaches down to the clasp of his girth.
At his footsteps the earth
Shrinks back in affright ”

“ RONDEAU
'Twixt ivory pales uprose a precious dome,
A shrine thatched over where no man might come,
For vestals only could the entrance win
To worship her who sat enthroned therein—
A Goddess fresh begotten of the foam. ”

“ Eyes seeking what the distance never brought,
Strained through a lattice-window finely wrought—
Sweet-smelling veil of woven cedar-wood.
Where the white pigeons lit, and softly cooed,
Ere fluttering down to their accustomed food
In the broad, marble, many-creviced court.
The brook of Kishon slowly reddening;
The trailing chariot, and the bitter ring
Of intercepted, swift-descending swords.
The panting fugitive. The lying words,
'Turn in; behold this tent, it is my lord's!'
The cloak of camel's hair for safe shrouding. ”

“ Gallows that beckon and grin and nod,
And a strong man shrill in his agony:
'The green leaves, See, O mother of God!
The green leaves call me; I cannot die.'
His fingers grip the bars of his cell,
And his thirsty face is turned to the sky,
While his voice comes over the tolling bell:
'The green leaves call me; I cannot die.' ”