Robert Winkworth Norwood

“ Here within the grind and clamour
I forget what I have known;
Life and love have lost their glamour,
And my heart is turned to stone.
Shrub and bird and beast are mingled
With a clumsy dream of man;
Lost the ancient art that singled
Hoof and brow of brooding Pan!
Strike the rock, release the river,
Bid it through the desert go;
Let its shallows dance and quiver,
And its flood majestic flow;
Till again the rushing rapture
Of the poet's soul is mine,
With its swift pursuit to capture
Visions that are all divine.
WHAT IS RELIGION? ”

“ Yea, Thou hast pity! and Man will forgive—
Man will forgive and Thine anger forget—
Man who hath learned in the dying, to live!
Open the books, for the judgment is set:
Was I to blame that Lazarus lurked
Loathsome with sores at the banqueting hall,
Vile in return for the labour he shirked,
Begging for crumbs when the world was his all?
"The race to the swift," the proverb hath said;
Fleet-footed I strove and won to the goal,
Got me a palace, anointed my head,
Unctioned my body and pleasured my soul—
Pleasured my soul that is tortured in hell! ”

“ We soar and sink together through the vast
And unrevealed, dim reaches of the Room
Whose walls are Night, and its wide portals three—
The Future, and the Present, and the Past!
IV
Leave thou thy chamber and its spectral glooms;
Rise like the morn upon the mountains; stand,
My Rose of Dawn, among all lesser blooms,
And with white lilies mate each slender hand,
And let the sky grow glorious and blue
To match thine eyes! ... Come, Queen, and my Adored,
Clothed in thy splendour as I saw thee first!
Oh, come, ere I thwart Cæsar on my sword,
And with my body pay him what is due! ”

“ Sometimes the strings are smitten by harsh hands
Of anger, doubt, and frowning jealousies;
And sometimes are drawn forth sad threnodies
For dear Love dead. Let him who understands
Man's way with Woman loose the mystic bands
That bind my parabled heart-secrecies.
In dreams again o'er leagues of purple sea
My bark is borne to some far, fabled strand—
Dear, how the world is young! I seem to be
One of famed Helen's lovers; her command
Is in your eyes as you gaze forth from Troy—
Immortal in your beauty and your joy. ”

“ My glory, too, shall know the moth and rust,—
Come quickly, Death, and be it: Dust to dust!
XVIII
And I have lost you, so the voices say—
Voices that taunt, deride my silent pain;
Voices that fall incessant, like the rain
Throughout this dim and memory-haunted day!
Dear Love, come back, resume your ancient sway
For my strong pleading! Or is it in vain
That I beneath the stars all night have lain
Prone upon earth, clay crying unto clay?
No answer.... O thou God-vacated sky,
Thunder upon my head the riving flame!
There is no more for me to do but die! ”

“ The cup at last; and all that thou hast borne
Pleads thy release! ... Lord Christ, and crowned with thorn,
Lay bare each sacred agony that spills
Blood of the crucified pure hearts and wills,
Brows, hands, and feet, the centuries have torn!
This be the song that you have taught me sing,
The strain you on my ready harp confer.
Love seeks, as sought each Christ-adoring king,
But to bow down ... Gold, frankincense, and myrrh,
Are offered, not the body to possess,
Neither command, but reverently to bless.
XXIV
I am all gladness like a little child! ”

“ Youth and the innocent delights of youth.
Young Rabbi Saul the Thunderer, and Saul
Consenting unto Stephen's death, are dead;
Slain by the piercing of the Cross of Christ!
Christ of the lilies—He Who loved the fields,
And heard the children in the market place
Complaining at the unresponsive feet,
And ears deaf to their piping and sweet song.
Doth He know my lad singing in the street—
My young Athenian, whose voice for Paul
Breathes Ave atque Vale on the world?
Christ is not quickly learned; and gradual
Is the progression of a soul to Him. ”

“ A balm that soothes the soul, a flame that sears.
I, too, know of a secret garden where
Pale asphodels are rivals of the rose;
And all life's opposites are gathered there
Before the spirit's agony, that knows
Gladness ineffable through loving One
Who hath no equal underneath the sun. ”

“ Sing to the Lord on their harps, with a psalm!
Taunt me not, Lazarus, thou, and thy smile!
Pity or scorn I regard not! Away!
Is Paradise lonely that thou must beguile
Hell with thy holiness! What does thou say?
Nay, thou are silent; why wilt thou not speak?
This is the torment: that never a word,
Touch of a hand, or of lips on my cheek
Cloud of Gehenna's death-stillness hath stirred. ”

“ All night my soul groped blindly till the dawn
Woke on the world with matin song of birds
And choral thunder of the wind upon
The mountains; while the trees chanted the words
Of an old litany that cried the grief
Of lovers sundered through their lost belief!
XVII
Dear Love is fallen, fallen by my hand! ”

“ Since that fair night ashine with stars and cold,
When even angels paused their wings to fold—
Love to adore made one with man and beast.
Accept three gifts I to thee gladly bring;
Each hath its own divine significance:
Gold is the Body thou hast crowned a king ”

“ Along the cobbled highroad straight and wide,
They have gone bleeding, stumbling forth, and died
That Man through them might his redemption find.
This your rebuke has taught me. Take my sword,
And on your form divine my purple bear;
While, kneeling at your feet, I pledge my word
For King Love's sake in Woman's cause to fare
Against Tradition's standard—church or state—
And be my Sister's knight and laureate.
XXIII
O woman, now thy golden day's at morn! ”

“ I heard three children wailing in the night;
I met three men of diverse rank and birth:
A king; a priest; a slave whose wretched plight
Moved me to pity, till mine ancient dream
Recalled the proverb: "Things are not what they seem!"
JACOB'S DREAM
Lonely and worn by day's dull toil and heat,
Life lay before me stark, and dead, and drear;
Night had engulfed the desert, and a fear
Was on me as of slow, resistless feet
Of foes invisible, from whom retreat
Denied me respite! ”

“ To make each, crude, imperfect member grow
To the completed plan, rise thou, and fling
Aside all doubt and languor; strive to bring
The deed up to its best; in gladness go
Undaunted; have full confidence; and know
Thou and thy God can perfect everything!
Throughout the busy day He works with us
And knows that we are tired; He hears and feels
The grind of every cog, the plaint, the fuss,
The purr of pinions in the thousand wheels
That whir forever down the endless walls,
Where, as we toil, His light perpetual falls.
POSCA
The light within the sky was growing dim. ”

“ For what we to ourselves have said:
"Thou hast much goods; peace, O my Soul,
Nor fret if beggars cry for bread,
And show their rags in hope of dole.
God giveth thee much pleasure,
Want is the poor man's measure!" ”

“ Yet Thou hast made
Me Thy sword-blade—
Sheathed, that its brightness
Flash up to win,
When the last sin
Burns into whiteness.
Hand that can smite,
Hold the hilt tight,
Draw, and strike faster!
Strike with me, Lord!
My soul Thy sword,
And Thou its Master.
Strike! till the day
Grow from the gray
Gloom of the peril ”

“ Love and the laughter of maidens who tell
Life is revealed in the breath of a kiss;
Softly they sing it: "Home, home from the well!"
Flight of the Seraph, delay, oh, delay!
Spread wide those pinions of purple and gold;
Strike on the strings, O my Harpist, and play! ”

“ Within the presses purple-stainéd feet
Bruise joy from out the grape, and o'er and o'er
The tale of Bacchus and the vine is told.
Laughter and dance and song are everywhere.
Shall we who live and love be then denied
The harvest? Nay; the fields are not all bare;
Still have they fragrant autumn gourds of gold;
The trees have yet their majesty and pride.
IX
Listen and hear Rome roaring from afar! ”

“ An opalescent splendour, like a noon
Of lilies; and I wonder that the height
Should darken for the depth to give me light—
Light of your face, so lovely that I swoon
With gazing, and then wake to find how soon
Joy of the world fades when you fade from sight. ”

“ Have taught us how to love for evermore.
Dear Comrade, we have often changed our state;
We have been slaves and masters, serfs and kings;
You have been man, I woman, wont to wait
Upon my lover's word; rememberings
Are in the mystic rapture that we feel
Whenever at your feet a while I kneel.
IX
Two faces haunt the stillnesses of sleep. ”

“ To you, alone upon the morning-height:
Praise and thanksgiving for the throw and fall!
Vanquished by you, I shall rise up and fight
Him armed with trident and the subtle mesh—
Mankind's most ancient enemy, the Flesh! ”

“ With which God mixed for thee life's cup of gold?
Against the sadness of thy lot I hold
The joy of him who sees and feels and hears
Earth's splendour, fulness, music, night and day.
A POET'S PRAYER
Give me pause and time for dreaming ”

“ Turned to tearful gray,
When I said to you,
"Good-bye," and went away!
DAVID'S SONG TO MICHAL
From "The Witch of Endor"
O Heart, dear Heart, Heart of the wild, red rose!
Hid in the loveliest flower that grows ”