Robert Winkworth Norwood

“ Touch of the hand and a fall of the feet!
Voice that was coo of the dove and a cry
Heard in the night when the seraphim meet!
Sometimes I fancy Gehenna's abyss
Gleams with a light that is love; and I feel
Lips on my lips in the tenderest kiss,
Making hell heaven: as though the appeal
Sent from my soul to Pomona had gained
Heart and the whole of her throned on a star,
Where for an son of bliss she hath reigned
Lonely for Dives so lost and afar!
Lazarus! Nearer! The light on thy face
Shines through the dark! Oh, what glory is thine! ”

“ To a chime of the bridle-bells.
A WOMAN'S PRAYER
God of the heaven and earth,
Bring to the birth
Soul of the man that I love;
From the Above,
Send Him the light of Thy face;
Grant to him grace,
Brave in the battle, his shield
Never to yield!
God of the zephyr and gale,
That is a nail
Holding the hand of my dream
Hard to the beam! ”

“ We soar and sink together through the vast
And unrevealed, dim reaches of the Room
Whose walls are Night, and its wide portals three—
The Future, and the Present, and the Past!
IV
Leave thou thy chamber and its spectral glooms;
Rise like the morn upon the mountains; stand,
My Rose of Dawn, among all lesser blooms,
And with white lilies mate each slender hand,
And let the sky grow glorious and blue
To match thine eyes! ... Come, Queen, and my Adored,
Clothed in thy splendour as I saw thee first!
Oh, come, ere I thwart Cæsar on my sword,
And with my body pay him what is due! ”

“ What is the end? 'Tis a realized dream
Dreamt in the depths of an infinite peace
Ere the first star of the morning arose
Over the earth! Since that river's release
From the pure spring, how it flows! How it flows,
Bears on its bosom the sorrows of man,
Sin and the wreckage of faith and of truth,
Lust and hot murder, the primitive ban:
"Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"! ”

“ Here within the grind and clamour
I forget what I have known;
Life and love have lost their glamour,
And my heart is turned to stone.
Shrub and bird and beast are mingled
With a clumsy dream of man;
Lost the ancient art that singled
Hoof and brow of brooding Pan!
Strike the rock, release the river,
Bid it through the desert go;
Let its shallows dance and quiver,
And its flood majestic flow;
Till again the rushing rapture
Of the poet's soul is mine,
With its swift pursuit to capture
Visions that are all divine.
WHAT IS RELIGION? ”

“ Love found Me and I found Love!
On my breast have I carried the Soul,
Have laid him to rest at the end of a day
With a dream and a song through the dream!
How oft he has risen—
Awaked at my word,
Reclothed by my hand!
How oft have I let him go free
To the toys and the tasks,
While he grew in stature and wisdom!
Dear is my Son in the strength of his great growing Godhood! ”

“ Yea, Thou hast pity! and Man will forgive—
Man will forgive and Thine anger forget—
Man who hath learned in the dying, to live!
Open the books, for the judgment is set:
Was I to blame that Lazarus lurked
Loathsome with sores at the banqueting hall,
Vile in return for the labour he shirked,
Begging for crumbs when the world was his all?
"The race to the swift," the proverb hath said;
Fleet-footed I strove and won to the goal,
Got me a palace, anointed my head,
Unctioned my body and pleasured my soul—
Pleasured my soul that is tortured in hell! ”

“ What dreams do you dream,
What sounds do you hear
Out of the splendour—
Out of the wonder—
Out of the peace
Of Rest-A-While Land?
How little they know
Who call this a grave—
'Tis but a cradle,
And death is a sleep
From which you will waken
To try it again!
How little they know
Who prattle of sin,
And tell on their beads
Misereres for grace:
Baby must fall
That baby may rise! ”

“ Gleams of your Godhood!
Laugh at the voices,
Wailing in valleys
Like to Gehinnom—
Lurid with fires
Fed by the bodies
Of dead men forgotten!
Rise up and claim
All things as yours,
You who are God—
God in Becoming!
O WILL YOU COME WITH ME
O will you come with me away,
Brother—my Brother!
The night is spent, and breaks the day,
Brother—my Brother!
Have done with the dream and the pillowing stone!
Awake! Over vast spaces the winds are blown
To buffet and bear you from shadowing sleep. ”

“ My glory, too, shall know the moth and rust,—
Come quickly, Death, and be it: Dust to dust!
XVIII
And I have lost you, so the voices say—
Voices that taunt, deride my silent pain;
Voices that fall incessant, like the rain
Throughout this dim and memory-haunted day!
Dear Love, come back, resume your ancient sway
For my strong pleading! Or is it in vain
That I beneath the stars all night have lain
Prone upon earth, clay crying unto clay?
No answer.... O thou God-vacated sky,
Thunder upon my head the riving flame!
There is no more for me to do but die! ”

“ Sometimes the strings are smitten by harsh hands
Of anger, doubt, and frowning jealousies;
And sometimes are drawn forth sad threnodies
For dear Love dead. Let him who understands
Man's way with Woman loose the mystic bands
That bind my parabled heart-secrecies.
In dreams again o'er leagues of purple sea
My bark is borne to some far, fabled strand—
Dear, how the world is young! I seem to be
One of famed Helen's lovers; her command
Is in your eyes as you gaze forth from Troy—
Immortal in your beauty and your joy. ”

“ Learn by the way that Jesu trod
How from the brute man grows a god!
Who stands against you in your path
May reap with you your aftermath;
And less of bitterness than bliss
Is stored within a traitor's kiss:
The demon who holds back your soul
Will crown you victor at the goal!
The bugles blow, the trumpets call,
And at their sound the towers fall;
Beleaguered bastions are down
Within yon ancient fortressed town:
Go up and let each cobbled street
Clang back to your triumphant feet!
A CRADLE SONG OF LIFE
Lullaby baby,
Hushaby baby!
After the day
Comes night with a dream! ”

“ Lords of the Flame—and whose day is a dream
Known in the night: O my Brother, all hail!
Hither a prophet, a priest or a slave,
Came you, my Brother—a king or a knave,
Black man or red man or brown man or white,
Out of the land of an infinite light? ”

“ The cup at last; and all that thou hast borne
Pleads thy release! ... Lord Christ, and crowned with thorn,
Lay bare each sacred agony that spills
Blood of the crucified pure hearts and wills,
Brows, hands, and feet, the centuries have torn!
This be the song that you have taught me sing,
The strain you on my ready harp confer.
Love seeks, as sought each Christ-adoring king,
But to bow down ... Gold, frankincense, and myrrh,
Are offered, not the body to possess,
Neither command, but reverently to bless.
XXIV
I am all gladness like a little child! ”

“ Know you a garden near the road?
Its walls are very high;
A gift of dream on me bestowed,
And covered with the sky:
There one may walk and talk and talk,
Forgetful of aught else but friends,
When twilight into evening blends. ”

“ A balm that soothes the soul, a flame that sears.
I, too, know of a secret garden where
Pale asphodels are rivals of the rose;
And all life's opposites are gathered there
Before the spirit's agony, that knows
Gladness ineffable through loving One
Who hath no equal underneath the sun. ”

“ Youth and the innocent delights of youth.
Young Rabbi Saul the Thunderer, and Saul
Consenting unto Stephen's death, are dead;
Slain by the piercing of the Cross of Christ!
Christ of the lilies—He Who loved the fields,
And heard the children in the market place
Complaining at the unresponsive feet,
And ears deaf to their piping and sweet song.
Doth He know my lad singing in the street—
My young Athenian, whose voice for Paul
Breathes Ave atque Vale on the world?
Christ is not quickly learned; and gradual
Is the progression of a soul to Him. ”

“ Birth is a form of the Self once more appearing—
Self who is child of these Lovers eternally wooing!
How many births, deaths have we known!
Eternally going out of the urge of Love for Life,
We are the Sons of the Highest! ”

“ To make each, crude, imperfect member grow
To the completed plan, rise thou, and fling
Aside all doubt and languor; strive to bring
The deed up to its best; in gladness go
Undaunted; have full confidence; and know
Thou and thy God can perfect everything!
Throughout the busy day He works with us
And knows that we are tired; He hears and feels
The grind of every cog, the plaint, the fuss,
The purr of pinions in the thousand wheels
That whir forever down the endless walls,
Where, as we toil, His light perpetual falls.
POSCA
The light within the sky was growing dim. ”

“ DEAR LITTLE MAID OF DREAM
Dear little Maid of Dream,
My heart, dear Heart, is breaking;
Things are not what they seem,
And sorrow comes with waking!
I yearn to hold you fast,
My Dream, but then comes waking ”

“ Sing to the Lord on their harps, with a psalm!
Taunt me not, Lazarus, thou, and thy smile!
Pity or scorn I regard not! Away!
Is Paradise lonely that thou must beguile
Hell with thy holiness! What does thou say?
Nay, thou are silent; why wilt thou not speak?
This is the torment: that never a word,
Touch of a hand, or of lips on my cheek
Cloud of Gehenna's death-stillness hath stirred. ”

“ Deriding that you leave the less—
Their idle dream of happiness!
If you would find the way of wings,
Wide-open wings,
That lift one to a star,
You must be free from hamperings
Of lock and bolt and bar ”

“ All night my soul groped blindly till the dawn
Woke on the world with matin song of birds
And choral thunder of the wind upon
The mountains; while the trees chanted the words
Of an old litany that cried the grief
Of lovers sundered through their lost belief!
XVII
Dear Love is fallen, fallen by my hand! ”

“ And dream the ancient dream again above the yellow Nile!
BARTIMÆUS
Bartimæus at the highroad,
Begging from the passer by
Just enough to stop his hunger—
Hear him cry!
Blind is he and lone and ragged,
With no friendly hand to lead—
And the sky all blue above him! ”

“ Yet Thou hast made
Me Thy sword-blade—
Sheathed, that its brightness
Flash up to win,
When the last sin
Burns into whiteness.
Hand that can smite,
Hold the hilt tight,
Draw, and strike faster!
Strike with me, Lord!
My soul Thy sword,
And Thou its Master.
Strike! till the day
Grow from the gray
Gloom of the peril ”

“ Since that fair night ashine with stars and cold,
When even angels paused their wings to fold—
Love to adore made one with man and beast.
Accept three gifts I to thee gladly bring;
Each hath its own divine significance:
Gold is the Body thou hast crowned a king ”

“ What makes you so strong
Underneath your load,
Lilting such a joyous little tune?
Tell me, little brother,
What I want to know—
Why your lips are tremulous with joy—
Why you, like a mother,
Soothe and love me so,
As she used to when I was a boy.
All the way behind
Fades into a dream
Hideous with faces in the gloom ”

“ Love and the laughter of maidens who tell
Life is revealed in the breath of a kiss;
Softly they sing it: "Home, home from the well!"
Flight of the Seraph, delay, oh, delay!
Spread wide those pinions of purple and gold;
Strike on the strings, O my Harpist, and play! ”