Emile Verhaeren

“ The million laws of nature's realm
Are stirring about thee.
The silver tides from all the universe o'erwhelm
Thy heart, but thou hast naught of fear or strife,
For thy soul knows—it is that love may be,
The love that is the work of life
And its mystery in thee.
Take then this peace the skies have sent,
And lay it to thy soul, since fear has gone,
This peace that floats, like some strange dawn,
Across the midnight of the firmament.
XI
How swiftly is she caught in ecstasy,
With her clear eyes of leaping flame;
She, so sweet with clarity,
Meek before life's sternest claim. ”

“ But, dumb, I listen, hear their footfalls reach
The shadows where the aged eve
Holds the black night in leash.
XXI
In those hours when we seem shut out
From all that is not part of us,
What cleansing flood is it, so nebulous,
That bathes and circles our two hearts about?
Joining our hands, without a prayer,
Arm to arm, without a cry,
Seeking we know not what nor where,
Something far off, more pure than thou or I—
Thou fervent soul, oh say
How does one live in this yearned-for day?
In those high hours how deep doth grow our will
In front of life's supremacies! ”

“ Speak not, for words may hurt; but with thine eyes
Speak to my soul that it may understand.
The flow'r that is my heart, my sacrifice,
Tells thee quite simply that one must
Confide in virgin love, as children trust
In God who is so good and great and wise.
Let the bold spirit revel in the hills
In wilful dalliance and vanity,
But let us worship in simplicity
The very truth that holds our hearts and wills ”

“ Star-dust that there
Sinks in a scintillating swoon.
It is the hour divine, when wistfully
A million eyes look down upon the earth—
Upon the hazards of our human birth—
From out immutable eternity. ”

“ Must in our spirits fall and break below;
If, spite of all, I lie at last supine,
Vanquish'd for not having been enough
The prey of great, divine,
Utter nobility—
Oh! let us be like maddened fools that climb the height
Beneath the ruin'd sky; and let us closer, closer cling,
And in one monstrous flight,
With sun-drenched souls, cleave the on-rushing night! ”

“ Of this are all things—all things, save the naked light
That wells up from thy heart and gathers in thine eyes.
XV
To all thy smiles and tears
My sweetest thoughts I give,
Those from a brimming heart,
And those that live
Too deep for language to impart.
To all thy smiles and tears,
And to thy soul, my soul,
With all its smiles and tears,
And its caress.
See thou, how dawn has blanched all the earth,
The shades of gloom seem put to flight,
To vanish comfortless ”

“ As two stain'd windows, smitten by the sun,
Mingle their lights in separate clarity
And melt to one!
I am sometimes impatient of my lot
As being one who has not and can not
Attain the perfectness he would espouse ”