Arthur Clark Kennedy

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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! ”

“ Because in years ago
Two people lived and loved,
Because two hearts were moved
By the same mighty throe
That thrilled them through and through,
A nation is alive.
A nation is alive,
Though he and she are dead. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We once more parted. In the street,
As strangers now, we never greet
Each other.
I saw you walking yesterday,
Beside you, slightly streaked with grey,
Your brother,
Reminding me of years that range
Against us. ”