Frederic Manning

“ Love is born as the day over the floods, rising in tides of light, Quenching glitter of stars, gloom of the woods, flowing into the night. Out of delicate dreams, out of a sleep, Love awakens, his eyes Filled with marvellous light as from the deep wells in the wakened skies. Glad is he of the earth, glad of the gems morning strews on the lawn, Trembling on every flower bright diadems: Love, Love too is a dawn! ”

“ The rain is sweet upon the leaves Now Winter's wrath is overpast, A wreath of blossom April weaves.
Swift through the air thy light wings pass, Young willows droop their garlands green Over the tranquil pool, thy glass Where silver lilies float serene,
O songless bird! The cuckoo sings, Filling the valley with his voice; The larks, on their exultant wings, In the blue deep of skies rejoice.
There is more music in thy flight, Through sun or showers, swift and strong, A creature of the air and light Thou art, the very soul of song. ”

“ The shy things that love silence and the night Are fearless at their coming; as they pass, Neither the nightingale nor owl take flight, So gentle is each footfall on the grass; They are a part of silence, and a part Of sweetness sprung from tears hid in the heart.
[Pg 88] Their faces we may not caress, nor hear The little bodies that are soft as dreams; Their life is rounded by another sphere, They are as frail as shadows seen in streams: A ripple might efface them, but they keep Shadows of their existence in our sleep. ”

“ I would ride Over the glittering Bifrost bridge with Thor And the great host of heroes; with the wind Playing upon our banners, and the dawn Leaping as flame from all the lifted swords, And press of spears: and some day we shall come Battering at the crystal walls of Heaven, With brazen clangour of arms, and burn the towers To be our torches, and make all the streets Of jasper, and chalcedony, and pearl, Slippery with the bloodshed. Will your saints Pray back the onslaught of our lusting swords With any prayers? I would not lie in earth Under the sheep ”

“ A half-drowned rat we haled from out the sea, Who says God saved him! He stakes his poor life, Having not strength enough to lift mine axe, Against a greater glory. Love to him Is as a golden net to snare his feet, And women perilous lures: he would keep them maids, Nor make one mother, but would rather see Life, which the gods made lovely, fade and die Ashen as winter woods, nor break again In all the foaming blossom of the spring, Whitening every field. ”

“ Wherefore, though in the cold I wail my plight, And wander, through the hoary woods, alone, Hunted, and smitten of the wind and sleet, Among these rooted souls, I would not wrong The intense white flame of beauty mine eyes met, And married for a moment: in this pit My blinded soul feeds on her memories.
Go, thou, my song! Tell her, though weeping, yet Her face is mine: such joy have I in it I cannot shut the splendour from mine eyes. ”

“ They speak not, but hands Meet hands, mouth mouth, and desire Broods like a God in the night, Under the yellow moon: They speak not, having all things.
Lovely thou art, O Dawn! Healing comes in thine hands, The wide sea laughs at thy birth, The multitudinous waves [Pg 22] Ripple about thy feet, For joy at thy coming; the birds Shake the dew from the leaves, Shake the song from their throats; The full ewes call to the lambs; Lowing, the cattle come To drink at the reed-fringed pool, Bending, they drink, and lift Dripping muzzles, to gaze With patient, satisfied eyes Over the plenteous earth. ”

“ These soft-bosomed doves Who flutter round our footsteps, croon and coo Amorous music through the languorous nights, Low laughter stifled by close kisses shut Hot on the laughing lips, love being a game Now of your tamer men-folk with soft speech. But love to me was no light laughter heard Under a sickle moon, when blossoming brakes Thrill with the nightingales, and eve is hushed Like a blind maid, whose eyes are shut, and seem To shut within herself her secret thoughts Lest men should know them, and be ware of love, And waken, eager. ”

“ Lovely thou art, O Dawn! As a maiden, who wakes, Opening eyes on a world Filled with wonder and light, After a sleep of dreams. Issuing, clad in a robe Of blue, and silver, and green. From the tents of God in the east Comest thou; as a thought Slippeth into the mind Of a maid, awakened from sleep, By the swallows, under the eaves, Twittering to their young ”

“ Death hath not slain thee all: when twilight spends Her liquid amber in the latest ebb Withdrawing, and the day in silence ends, Expectant of the stars, when through the web Of woven boughs fall glimmering silver spears, Our dreaming heart will stir, as if a light Caress had touched it, and fill up with tears, Remembering: nor only with the night Fall that sweet sadness, light in a dark place, Memory. ”

“ Ye have loved women, some of ye, and know Therefore how I have loved the fickle sea, Blue in the sunlight, sometimes, as the eyes Of laughing children, wanton as a girl, And then all hunger for us men, all fierce Passionate longing, and then gray with rain, Sullen. A very harlot is the sea, A thing for men to master, full of moods, Treacherous, as you see it when it crawls Snakily over sunken rocks, or slinks Furtively by, and snarls to show its teeth Like a starved wolf. Many a goodly man Women have loved and slain, but more the sea! ”

“ Yea, the very darkness glowed With secret heat, as if the night were quick By Love's own lord, and pregnant with a flame.
So was she mine, by the sword's right, whose heart Went dreaming out over the unquiet sea To Bergthorsknoll; and Sigurd, Olaf's son, Such an one as the hearts of maids desire, Being tall, and straight, and comely: never a man Made such a friend or foe, on land or sea His hands were skilful. I can love such men In friendship or in fighting. He had come To Swinefell in his fighting-ship, when Spring Was white and ruddy in the fields and woods ”

“ I grasped the joy, The quick, warm, breathing life; and if the dream Fled from me, yet mine hands held priceless things, And dreams are winged to fly. They are poor fools Who deem the better love is a bowed heart [Pg 65] And silent lips. If thou hadst beauty close, Because the white bird fluttered on thy breast, Wouldst loose it? Or would not a quicker pulse Beat in thine heart, and eager fingers close More firmly on the snowy, ruffled plumes, Till the thing yielded, panting? Will ye win? ”

“ In the soul of man there are many voices, That silence wakens, and sound restrains: A song of love, that the soul rejoices, With windy music, and murmuring rains;
A song of light, when the dawn arises, And earth lies shining, and wet with dew; And life goes by, in a myriad guises, Under a heaven of stainless blue. ”

“ Balder, the bright Beautiful Balder, whose eyes hold our hope, Who hath made love a light, and life a song, In all men's eyes, and on their lips, who hath sown The fields of heaven thick with golden fires, As men sow corn: and forges in this flame, Of life, with ringing blows, a strong man's soul As swords are fashioned, keen-edged, straight, and blue, [Pg 67] How shall I die dispraising thee, whose praise Comes, laden with the blown scents of the spring, Opening dewy eyelids of bright buds, And brings the swallows? ”

“ So have I gone Over blue windless seas, bare of all life, And urged the labouring oars; but every dawn Showed still the same blue, stainless shield, whose boss [Pg 64] Was our one ship, until it hushed our songs, That deep, vast, desolating blue of sky And tranquil waters. I had all of her But some few drops of joy she yielded not, They being hers to give or keep, a dew Distilled within her soul. Yea, I loved her! I think no love is peace, and we but break Against each other; and our hands are vain To grasp what is worth holding ”

“ In the wheat, With the sunlight gilding their greaves, Helmets, and shields, and mail, They lay, strewn thickly as leaves When Autumn has swung his flail. But afar, where Thermodon rolled The deep, swift strength of its flood To the ocean turbidly gold, Drave Theseus, eager for blood; And as herds stampede in affright At the reek of the beast in the air Precipitately through the night When a lion forth comes from his lair, So the women before him fled In a rout, headlong, overborne, For he drave as a beast all red, With the blood of the prey he had torn, Circled them round ”

“ She, like sunlight through the rain, Drifted through our world of pain, Fed her joy with myriad kisses, Stolen pleasures, honeyed blisses; Then danced on her wanton way Like a gleam of gold through gray. Men fell, knowing they would fall, For Math gave no heart at all.
[Pg 43] Blodeuwedd, I have made in thee Of my love's deep sorcery, Even as Math made the gay Heartless one from flowers of May, Foam, and frost, and shining dew, Shall I find a heart in you? ”

“ The wood Hid her indeed from his eyes, But the track of her feet lay clean As the slot of a deer in the grass. Slower he followed, and keen Were his downcast eyes. As a glass A wide lake gleamed in the ebb Of the latest tide of the light; Stars shone clear through the web Of the branches, beckoning night; The leaves fell softly, gilt With autumn, and tawny and red; And the blue of the skies lay spilt, Pooled, shining, from late rains shed; [Pg 9] The tall reeds seemed to dream By the full lake's murmuring marge. ”

“ Quietly sitting there, She peoples all the blue of sea and skies With golden hopes of youth, giving them life From her own yearning, though they are long dead And havened where dead years are. Such still eyes She hath; and that strange patience women have Whose dreams are broken. Love, with a keen sword, [Pg 50] Smote me; I saw the blue flame leap and fall, When first I saw her eyes: and dim the earth, And warfare, and seafaring, and the life Which sang, and went with joyful colours clad, Became until they were as frail as dreams ”

“ May sleep come to thee as slow And as soft as falling snow!
Stars set in their spheres Presage for thee all delight; Sleep fall soft as tears Of the stars the dews of night; All fair things about thee keep, Music that doth mix with sleep.
Dreams come, shining things, Through the curtains of thy bed; Doves fly with soft wings Round thy golden, drowsy head: Sleep, dream, dreaming smile, Curtained from the world awhile.
[Pg 92]
MEMORY
Sweet as the lutes of love, from fields of sleep Come murmurs of the rain ”

“ For every man, and each, Is like a venture putting forth to sea, Voyaging into unknown ways to find Kindlier lands; and urges on to reach Kingdoms which there may be Hidden the grey gloom of the sea behind: Fabulous kingdoms piled with golden toil And the slow garnering of mortal dreams: Such as lured forth the splendid sails of Spain. So, journeying, we, in hope of that great spoil, Steer hardily through all conflicting streams Of Ocean, and count all the exultant battling gain. ”

“ All of life I have seen, and many cities of proud kings, And I have gotten gold, and wine, and fame, Among strange peoples, and white girls were mine To love a little while on drowsy nights, When a low, yellow moon lights up a land Full of ripe stooks. ”

“ Thy hair is like fine gold, Over the pillows spread And on the sheet's white fold
The light falls on thine head And trembles in thine eyes From which the dreams have fled.
But they keep memories; Love burnt us up like grass: Surely Love never dies!
Yea, it is dawn, alas! ”

“ As Sigurd went, Send me; and she will watch me burning, drift Over the rim of Ocean, ere I sink Into the dark still deeps, where are ribbed wrecks And strong men dead. Lo! it is time to die, For the old glory fades out of the world [Pg 68] And the swords rust in peace. Yea, I would go Now, for this death is but another sea To venture on; a strong man will win through And cast up somewhere on another shore With his old lust for fighting. ”

“ Love is but a wind that blows Over waves, or fields of corn, Floating petals, falling snows, The swift passing of the dawn.
These are all Love's signs, perchance, Floating, fragile, drifting things! Dead leaves are we in the dance, Moved by his unresting wings.
Love is light within thine eyes, Dearest! Love is all thy tears. Let us for this hour be wise: What have we to hope from years?
[Pg 82]
TOUT PASSE
Like foam and fire and frost The hours dissolve and go ”

“ Came from the beached black ships, as April, hears About the populous hives, when the blown scents Lure, to their garnering, the frugal bees, And they swarm forth: so swarmed upon the shore Sigurd's well-armoured men: some by the fires Eating, some buckling on their gleaming arms, Shouting their war-songs, beating on their shields Full of rude jests; and I saw Sigurd there, Standing apart, long-haired, and great of limb, With a soft silken kirtle, and his helm, Winged, flaming in the sunlight. ”

“ Your Eden lies among soft-slipping streams, Green meadows, orchards of o'er-laden boughs, Red with ripe apples. It hath lofty walls Beyond our scaling, that the peaceful folk [Pg 45] May sleep each night securely: white-faced priests, And convent women, such as wail all day Before lit candles, in the idle fume Of incense rising. I would go where sit Tall Odin, and his golden-mailéd sons, Thor, Hermod, Tyr and Heimdail, Frey and Niord, With the blue-vestured Mother of the Gods, And saffron-snooded Freya, and Idun, And Brage, harping. There the heroes are, Whose armour rusts in ocean ”