John Cowper Powys

“ Wisdom older than any god,
Wisdom older than the world!
There are whispers here, there are whispers deep,
Hid in these places, that can raise
Memories out of caverns of sleep,
That throw strange meanings upon our days!
Is it life, is it life, that all these years,
We've been living, tasting, and calling good?
Ah! Your eyes are full of tears!
The wood has caught you, the magic wood.
Something breaks down where the wood begins;
Something breaks down in this hidden spot!
What are our virtues? What are our sins? ”

“ The night-wind wanders from hill to hill,
The tall June grasses sigh and quiver,
Oh heart, sink into yourself, be still!
Have done with love and its shilly-shally!
Have done with love and its poison-smart! ”

“ You looked at me and the old
Night fled far away.
And the world was blue and gold.
Blue was the sky above me;
Gold was the earth beneath,
When you leapt forth to love me
Like a sword out of its sheath! ”

“ No man walks on that lonely road?
Was it so beautiful, then, that face
That is mingled now with the heavy mould?"
"No! No! Not beautiful at all!
Withered and wasted — what you will!
And the north wind blows thro' that ruined wall,
And no man ever crosses that hill! ”

“ Tender and luminous, O Love —
And its splendour healeth me.
Tender and large you swim into sight,
A Lotus, a lamp of liquid light.
You lean on the sunset and draw the night
As the night draws the sea. ”

“ To the river-weeds.
I played it to the moon,
And the sad dark reeds.
And the face that for so long
Has vexed me hour by hour
Like the rhyme of a lost song,
Like the scent of a dead flower. ”

“ Silent the wind — silent the strain
Of the rain-drops dropping slow.
All would be silent and with one sigh
A silent world would float on the sky.
Worlds such as these, made of silent tears,
They call the music of the spheres! ”

“ Than that I with you by my side,
Wraith-like but lovely still,
Should follow the river and drift and glide,
Past forest and forest — past hill and hill;
Till the river we follow grows one with the sea. ”

“ Can I rob the sky of its blue?
Can I take the green from the spring?
Can I catch the dew as it falls?
Can I reach the fount of the rain?
Can I snare the foam of the waterfalls
And their rain-bow mist retain? ”

“ The willows quivering in the scarce- felt breeze;
Take it with you and with it take along
The vague sweet thoughts that into it I've poured,
Glimpses and dreams, such as the gods afford,
So rarely, that to earth they scarce belong.
Take them with you! They are far better gone
Than mirrored in my heart, as on a stone. ”

“ Whirl on, whirl on, on your way!
I can wait, my sun-kissed flower.
At the bitter end of your burning day,
You will hang your head and the gods will say,
"She is his. It is his hour."
No! No! Forgive me, dear heart! ”

“ Was she that king's dead daughter?
Oh curlew crying again:
Oh reeds that sob in the waters!
They are human tears that make this rain
That darkens the marshes and fills the plain.
Our loves are all kings' daughters! ”

“ But the weary evening let her pass,
And the sun sank pitilessly.
"Oh healing ocean of darkness deep,
Your cool nepenthe pour
Over her sorrow; give her sleep!"
Cried the sea to the silent shore. ”

“ Its petals still bloom on.
They are fed by love; and the love they need
My heart can furnish well;
For the heart whose love has tears that bleed
Can make flowers bloom in hell.
They are fed by pain ”

“ Back for one hour my darling from the dead!
God! How the air is full of shadows and roses!
Shadows and scents and roses fill the lane —
Somewhere — oh listen! — where a river flows is
Music beyond all pleasure and all pain! ”

“ Pour, pour down your consecration,
Though the dream of love has flown.
Large-enfolding night, receive me!
Drown the treacherous siren-songs.
Ah! the love that will not leave me,
Night, to you alone belongs. ”

“ THE CRY
DO you not hear her crying
Out and away and beyond?
Those are the grasses sighing
To the lilies in the pond!
All night long they sigh and talk
As the wind wails up the garden-walk. ”

“ But you never knew.
And now, when you weep o'er the spot
Where, earth in earth, I rot.
Do you read, as the rank-grown grass you pull,
What remorse has a grinning skull?
And do you laugh too and let all go? ”

“ Which trouble us like a whispering,
Heard at the bottom of the sea.
We have been too far; we have dived too deep,
Death itself cannot quench the spark.
We know too much of the ways of sleep
To fear the everlasting dark. ”

“ Do you want to break my heart
That you let your head fall so?
Hush! Let us pray together!
Though we have deeply sinned,
If on the wind stirs a feather,
If a leaf stirs on the wind,
We are saved. Oh, far apart! ”

“ THE purple waves recede,
The wings of the sunset sink —
Sea-birds, sea-foam, sea-weed
Are lost on the world's brink,
The flowing darkness covers the deep
And I weep — and I weep!
Oh, desperate memory! ”

“ Might listen all night to a ghost's foot-fall,
If you had seen that old parterre
Of roses red with forbidden passion
You would know too well why I wander there,
Too well why my dreams are out of fashion!
Oh, their classic skies are blue and white.
But grey upon grey is best ”

“ Talks to the silence at his side.
Talks to the silence and talks to the trees.
But what is beyond, beyond all these?
Beyond is a house with a ruined wall,
Where the long road enters an ancient wood. ”

“ With every drop of your blood.
Fear not. When back you steal,
Broken and weary, to me,
With oil and wine I will surely heal
Each bruise and hurt that your senses feel,
As I take you on my knee. ”

“ Led by Algol, at break of day,
Into that harbour slip!
But one fled not. One stood
On the edge of the little pier,
A boy — a boy in his solitude!
A girl — a girl in her fear!
No boy — no girl; a god, a god! ”

“ For all the tears that your heart may bleed
And the tears your eyes may fill.
Till the rivers flow back to their source,
Till the grass grow on desert sand,
Till the terrible planets change their course,
He will not understand. ”

“ Your ways, your looks, your tones,
There must be no flowers by Lethe set,
Or only scentless ones!
Ah, God — the scent of a flower!
All else the flesh can endure.
But for that — in its hour — in its hour —
There is no cure. ”

“ Your presence vague and nebulous
Moves with me as I cross the street;
Your sweetness like an angelus
Makes holy ground beneath my feet.
In every lovely form I pass
You shape yourself as in a glass. ”

“ To those whom the world had crushed.
All of us, sitting in darkness,
Saw a great light.
You danced as dance the morning stars
And the universe was conquered.
You smote the universe in the mouth ”

“ Flowed towards lands unknown,
'Twas you, O child of a thousand moods,
Who waited for me alone!
But now, oh now that you've touched me and fled
The long white roads grow cold;
And the water at every bridge's head
Flows darker than of old. ”

“ I saw her. Too well I knew her look.
O lost one — lost one — from days long dead,
When love gave all and died when it gave!
O head thrown back! O arms outspread!
O passion stronger than the grave! ”

“ Very quiet I stand
⁠At your darkened window-sill.
Does the rain that beats on your roof,
⁠Thro' your dreams send not one cry?
In all the world is there no reproof
⁠For your thoughtless cruelty? ”

“ Alas! I have no love.
Far off — somewhere — a shining head —
O sweet Lord Christ who canst raise the dead.
Take my soul and give me my love instead!
Will my love come to me?
Alas! I have no love. ”

“ With our pulses' ancient riot
Hushed and silenced by our will,
There will come thro' the green shadows,
Thro' the eternal leafy shadows,
Lingering, pausing, watching, dreaming,
Turning all our pain to seeming ”

“ We shall die before our feet have found it.
Yet by its borders all streams flow;
And there's not a wind but blows around it!
It is near, yet far — our natural home.
That an evil magic has hidden aside ”