Arthur Clark Kennedy

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The scholar wore his gem in all men's sight,
Pleased it should glitter, glorying in its light.
The man of social pleasures kept his close,
And strictly guarded it within his house.
The scholar's wife shines on him night and day ”

“ Sand in his eyes and mouth and ears,
But awake to the secret of manifold years,
Under the broad desert-sheet he lies
Asleep!
Lost are all sounds of strife,
Dead as the body that dies.
We weep! ”

“ Thou art rich, and should'st rejoice in my choice.'
Compared with this man he was poor, though glorious of soul and face;
But a crooked back and mind are accounted small disgrace—
To have a shrunken purse is worse. ”

“ And crept o'er the sands to a cottage-door—
Through the door, half-opened, it entered in.
A woman, ragged, haggard, and wild,
Bent a tear-stained face on her sleeping child,
Fondling its fingers pallid and thin. ”

“ With livid lightning between its lips.
A levin-bolt split the castle keep,
⁠And opened a way for the enemy's sword;
⁠But the Earl still smiled at the witches' word
When they killed him in his sleep. ”

“ 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.' ”

“ Where the long Atlantic rollers lash the rugged Orcades,
And a stately lady walking up and down beneath the trees.
Why does the lady wander there, in robes of white array'd?
Why does she carry in her hand a sharp and shining blade,
While her features work with agony, her eyes with fear dismay'd? ”

“ And with its first breath on the breeze
⁠I stooped and kissed his eyes.
But when he woke not even then,
⁠Although my whispers stirred his hair,
I knew he breathed, away from men,
⁠A higher and a purer air. ”

“ To their windows, as scattering the mud you race.
Wingless sparrows and, like them, brown,
Bullied, then bullying—when ye are grown,
What is the outcome? Make it known.
Brothers, gather these waifs of the street,
Wash off their mudstains, make them meet,
With strengthened minds, our minds to greet. ”

“ My honey-bees do congregate
Near barns which groan beneath the weight
Of corn, and shrivelled fruit, in rows,
Hangs rafter-strung; whilst daily grows
More loud the lowing in my stalls.
Atlanta, too, this day has foaled. ”

“ 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 ”

“ But add you to her list to be
One amid many?
Or did she love you as you her?—
This last the theory I prefer
Better than any.
A case of true love's crooked course:
Two wedded souls; a stern divorce ”

“ Of health a very harbinger.
My doctor says I would aver
That she was Mercy's minister.
He says 'The Wells,' but I exclaim,
⁠’I came on Lily.'
Despite M.D.'s, I do not err,
Love is a potent sorcerer. ”

“ They had thrust their pikes through the panelled walls,
Their sabots clattered across the halls.
⁠But under the carven balustrade
⁠They paused, surprised, afraid.
↑ 'Its delicate blade called colichenade
From that Swedish spark, Count Königsmarke.
"In his hand a glittering rapier shone"
A vase of bronze was held in its place,
On the stair-angle's marble face,
⁠By its Bacchanalian handle;
And golden lilies were growing therein,
Type of the great who ne'er toil or spin ”