Leonora Speyer

“ Out of the side of Hungry Heart.
And mixed with the toast, a violin,
Mellow and merry above the din,
Held shoulder high ’neath a woman’s chin. [Pg 17]
XIII
Hungry Heart, come, make haste, make haste,
Out of the house of hopes laid waste,
Out of the town of teeth laid bare
Under its smiling debonair.
Wait not, weep not, get you gone,
Better the stones to rest upon,
The wind and the rain for a roof secure,
Hyssop and tares for your nouriture:
These shall endure. These shall endure. ”

“ That I let spill.
Over us lift the years—
Hill upon hill
Of days that wither into night,
And nights that ache to day;
Reiterated emptiness of shade and light
Crowding the empty way.
Up to this sullen therapy
Of time,
Shall we two climb?
* * *
I am too tired to climb ”

“ On with the tale, old Hungry Heart!
VII
On with the tale and on to a door
Where a man had passed to pass no more: [Pg 14]
A quiet man with a quiet strength,
And over the threshold his shadow’s length
Lay like an answer for Time to weigh ”

“ Comes bruised from battered jetty and sea-wall;
Comes as one limping from a sailor’s brawl,
Seeking the comfort of tall roofs and trees,
With tales of dying on disastrous seas—
This city wind that is not wind at all. ”

“ See, how the apple-boughs are twisted in their pain,
Weighed down with many a red-cheeked little Cain,
And how the serpent writhes away
From man to this far day.
An angel is a lovely lonely thing
Of boundless wing.
They are the banished ones that grieve ”

“ The mountain scatters flowers from an ample garden,
(Fox-glove and hare-bell pirouetting on the giddy ledges) ,
And we of the summer valley
Stumble shivering along its constant snows
On feet that never climbed. [Pg 109]
Our voices are thin in the thin air,
Our little hearts thud strangely. ”

“ Of singing, mellow and muted, staid,
Pass unbewildered now
With this processional of rhymed recording words.
Be not afraid.
* * *
What is a violin?
Who shall reveal this mystery of thin
Vibrating wood? ”

“ Oak flesh that fades on iron bone;
And not deserted,
Just alone
And drowsy-hearted.
[Pg 54]
Migration
The dawn is dizzy with birds:
Summer’s last handful scattered wide,
Summer’s last pennies sung aside! ”

“ Like drowsy lizards creep into the sun.
I EXCAVATE
They let me play at digging in that place,
Scoop ash from painted walls—a girl’s Greek face
Stared from the frieze! Between her and the skies
I hid the smoking mountain from her eyes.
[Pg 74]
GREEK FRAGMENTS
These arching feet that trip their shattered dance,
This satyr’s mocking mouth, the tumbled scroll,
Straight thigh of boy, strong hand upon the lance:
If these be fragments, tell me, what is whole?
OLIVE TREE
Moonlight is always on its leaves ”

“ Hungry Heart, Hungry Heart, what did you then?
I fell on my knees and I cried, Amen!
But now and again—now and again—
I come to the door in the dead of night,
I wander the rooms till the panes are white; [Pg 18]
A landlord ghost! Aye, one who knows
His lease out-lived with the cock that crows,
A wraith content that contented goes.
Goes at the cry of the bird unseen,
Calling the friends of what has been ”

“ The music file is the music transcriber's interpretation of the printed notation and is placed in the public domain. At the time of this writing, music file links will not work in mobile e-book formats like epub or Kindle/mobi. Users who are reading the e-book in one of these formats can listen to the music or download music file in the HTML version. ”

“ She holds her gushing nipple to the child upon her knee,
Plucks vermin from its curls and sells her oranges to me.
[Pg 72]
STREET OF STEPS
(Flower Market)
In the noon shadows milch-goats lie and doze,
The air drips musk, carnation, lilac, rose;
The gutters ooze and spill, one walks with care—
And yet Pan might come leaping down the stair! ”

“ In singing fragments, roses all;
The air is heavy on the Nile,
The drowsy gods drowse on the while
As gods are wont to do.
[Pg 40]
Hyacinths
Leda, they say, once found an egg
Hidden under hyacinths ...
... much whiter than an egg ...
Sappho
Did she pluck it from the curly flowers ”

“ The Century Magazine, the North American Review, the Nation, the American Mercury, Chicago Poetry, Voices, the Measure, the Forum, Contemporary Verse, Rhythmus, the Freeman, the Literary Supplement of the New York Evening Post, the Saturday Review, the Bookman, Commonweal and the Lyric. ”

“ Also the Poetry Society of South Carolina, which awarded the poem “Oberammergau” the Blindman Prize for 1923.
“Fiddler’s Farewell” was read at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., before the Alpha Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa at the author’s initiation as a member of that Society. ”