James Elroy Flecker

“ Beyond the sea are towns with towers, carved with lions and lily flowers,
And not a soul in all those lonely streets to while away the hours.
Beyond the towns, an isle where, bound, a naked giant bites the ground:
The shadow of a monstrous wing looms on his back: and still no sound.
Beyond the isle a rock that screams like madmen shouting in their dreams,
From whose dark issues night and day blood crashes in a thousand streams. ”

“ Can frost the magic mirror of our loves.
Thence we shall see the sorrowful world of men,
Old castles fired, old mountains overturned,
Old majesties conculcate in the dust,
With short sad smiles for every thing destroyed.
Why do red eyes draw nearer? Husband, wake!
The palace is tired and falling! Not with love
Thy body’s life, that throbs within me, burns
Lucretius–those same eyes, grey Furies wear them,
They seethe in double dullness ’neath their own! ”

“ All through life it is Love hath been my counsellor only:
Hers be the praise alway if I have followed aright.
For as a mother awakes with kisses her slumbering baby,
As she first has a care—as she alone understands—
So has Love been mine, has watched and tended and kissed me:
Near me when I was a child: near me till I was a man. ”

“ Uncoiled and sprawled and stretched across the cave.
Æneas down the brute-unwardened path
Quick pace pursues. Behind him lies the stream
Whose waves whisper no whisper of return.
Now cries are heard, and thin abundant wind
All down Hell’s forecourt weep the Infant Souls,
Whom shareless of life’s shining dower, Doom
Tore from the breast and whelmed in Death’s sharp wave,
Near, men judged out of life by false decree. ”

“ O none of those who came to mourn The body cold and water-worn, Nor any of us in later days Who walk at evening in soft ways Could bring thee tribute of the morn Or any music that repays The soul of Adonais, borne To heaven on thy fluted phrase. ”

“ Forgive, thou calm and godlike shade, The drooping wreath, the flowers that fade, This passionless pale offering From one who scarcely dares to sing His love and praises, being afraid At the sweet brilliance of thy spring, Seeing his lute is rudely made, His thoughts too dull and weak of wing, More fit for noons that lull and warm Than for the stress of fire and storm. ”

“ Curb, curb, the coal-red chargers, heard not seen.
See, Madam Wife, that loveless lust of thine
Leaves no sweet savour lingering, but a curse:
And ’stead of Love and Reason, palace tenant,
There flits a weak and tremulous loathsomeness! ”

“ Griefs and the Cares have set their couches down–
The vengeful Cares. There pale Diseases dwell,
Sad Eld and Fear and loathsome Poverty
And Hunger, that bad counsellor,–dire shapes–
And Death and Toil, and Sleep brother of Death
And soul-corrupting joys. ”

“ O transient soul, thy thought with dreams adorning,
Cast down the laurel, and unstring the lyre:
the wheels of Time are turning, turning, turning,
The slow stream channels deep and doth not tire. ”

“ Ah, thou at least art lying Safe at the white nymph's feet, Listless, while I, slow-dying, Twist my gaunt limbs for heat! Yet I'll to Earth, my Mother: So, boy, I'll still entreat Forgive me—for none other Like Earth is honey-sweet! ”

“ In waters cool and sweet,
While I, dumb brother, dying,
Faint in the desert heat.
Though thou dost love another,
Still let my lips entreat:
Men call me fair, O brother,
And women honey-sweet. ”

“ The God and all his crew,
Silenus pulled by nymphs, a faun,
A satyr drenched in dew,
Smiled as they wept those shining tears
Only Immortals know,
Whose feet are set among the stars,
Above the shifting snow. ”

“ Seeks the gapped cave where high Apollo reigns
And his dire Sybil murmurs truth of doom,
Mind and soul breathed on by the god-inspired
To flash out prophecies. They have come near
Diana’s garden and her golden fane. ”

“ Spirit of love, draw near this monument And veil the ancient glory of thy head, For he is dead, whose silver days were spent In thy eternal service, he is dead And borne aloft away On gloomy wings outspread More strong and sure than thy bright plumes, O mistress of a day! ”

“ Then darting back, down the dark grove she flies
Unfriendly, where Sichæus, her old spouse,
His gentleness love’s proxy, tends her still.
Æneas, victim of a chance unfair
Still follows, weeps, and pities as she flies. ”

“ Ring with appeal and sorrowful abuse.
There some most lonely are: some try to crown
Mad lovers with sad boughs of formal yews,
And Titan women wandering up and down
Lead on the pale fanatics of the muse. ”

“ Gratings and caves and rayless catacombs,
And the unrelenting rack and tourniquet
Grind death in cells where jetting gaslight gloams,
And iron ladders stretching far away
Dive to the depths of those eternal domes. ”

“ I hate this glittering land where nothing stirs:
I would go back, for I would see again
Mountains less vast, a less abundant plain,
The Northern Cliffs clean-swept with driven foam,
And the rose-garden of my gracious home. ”

“ Trembling and veiled, to view her traitor spouse.
Was it one last bright smile she thought to claim,
Such as made sweet the morning of his vows?
A great stone man rose like a tower on board,
Stood at the helm and cleft the flood profound:
But the calm hero, leaning on his sword,
Gazed back, and would not offer one look round. ”

“ We seek an emblem of our pain The dry scant holly of the shore, The grass upon the dunes—What more Can sorrow bring? We cannot drain The spacious Sea for his rich store Of coloured weeds that shine in vain Upon the wide inhuman floor, The lonely yard where drowned men lie And gaze through water to white sky. ”

“ Gates of Damascus
Four great gates has the city of Damascus,
⁠And four Grand Wardens, on their spears reclining,
All day long stand like tall stone men
⁠And sleep on the towers when the moon is shining. ”

“ Where the wise snailfish move their pearly towers
To carven rocks and sculptured promont'ries,"
Hearing you whisper, "Lands
Where blaze the unimaginable flowers."
Beneath me in the valley waves the palm,
Beneath, beyond the valley, breaks the sea ”

“ They have their urn, their Umpire, these abodes:
'Tis Minos draws the lots, he who may call
The council of the silent : he who reads,
Grand arbiter, the histories of men.
And next them flt the Sad Ones who prepared
With their rash hands their own extinction’s cup
And flung their souls on dark to spite the day.
Ah could they, could they back to the bright sky
What years would they not bear of toil or pain!
Law bars them fast: the mere’s grim loveless wave
Bounds their domain : Styx nine times interfused
Imprisons. Here the Broken-hearted Fields
Roll out to the horizon. ”

“ Where terrors move and angry phantoms cry, Titans and tyrants in a ragged sky, Where in tall caves magicians read the rune, And white limbs glitter in the plenilune; And where a voice more human, more divine, Commends a brother dead to Proserpine. But now that Queen of undivided rest Reopening the closures of her breast Has taken our royal-wingèd child of light, And bathed his forehead in the pool of night. ”

“ Whither dost thou sink, my heart?
There’s a house with shutters green
Far away from town, Where the river rolls serene
Moving, murmuring down. Bowers, Flowers! Fold it in! Would I were a guest within! ”

“ Since men have always crowned the tomb With those sweet diadems of doom. The twinings of memorial flowers, So that their brother's first few hours Of waiting in his lonely room May pass in peace while Time devours The body's brief and bitter bloom, The last extortion of sad powers, And downwards through the grudging soil The piteous perfumes strain and toil ”

“ Now fire chased shadow round the room;
Tables and chairs grew vast in gloom:
We crept about like mice, while Nurse
Sat mending, solemn as a hearse,
And even our unlearned eyes
Half closed with choking memories. ”

“ Oh I will go to France again, and tramp the valley through, And I will change these gentle clothes for clog and corduroy, And work with the mill-hands of black Rioupéroux, And walk with you, and talk with you, like any other boy. ”

“ The world below is clear to see:
I count the escalading pines
Upon the rocks of Meillerie.
Like a dull bee the steamer plies
And settles on the jutting pier :
The barques, strange sailing butterflies,
Round idle headlands idly veer. ”

“ Awake, awake! The world is young,
For all its weary years of thought:
The starkest fights must still be fought,
The most surprising songs be sung.
And those who have no other Gods
May still behold, if they bestir,
The windy amphitheatre
Where dawn the timeless periods. ”

“ More lovely than the fierce sunrise,
More visionary than the storm.
Here would I dream away long years
Till with the mountains I was one,
Knowing not loves or hates or fears,
Standing immutably alone. ”

“ Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing. Have you heard
That silence where the birds are dead yet something pipeth like a bird? ”

“ I answered truthfully, "There’s nothing there
For common soldier or for officer
Wherewith to purchase grease for home-bound hair."
"You found at least"–said she–"one always can:
Some aboriginals for your sedan?" ”

“ Half to remember days that have gone by,
And dream and dream that I am home again! ”

“ And thou shalt see the gleaming Worlds as men see dew upon the grass. ”