Robert Winkworth Norwood

Name: The Piper and the Reed
Author: Robert Winkworth Norwood

Summary

“The Piper and the Reed”, is a work by Robert Winkworth Norwood. It explores elements such as more appearing, urge and Godhood.

Quotes from The Piper and the Reed (Robert Winkworth Norwood)

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ To show an awful Face—
The Judge is in His place
Of Judgment! Oh, the love
That we have lost! Above,
Beneath and all around us sounds the cry
Of Rachel weeping over little hands
And little feet! Her babes are dead! You, I,
Alone are guilty; for while error stands
Must all the starry Christs be crucified!
Nay, do not hang your head:
Though Christs be crucified,
And Rachel's babes are dead,
One river floweth wide
Out of the urge of God;
Of that eternal stream—
Its mother-bosom broad
With vision and with dream—
Are you, Comrade and I! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ What is the end? 'Tis a realized dream
Dreamt in the depths of an infinite peace
Ere the first star of the morning arose
Over the earth! Since that river's release
From the pure spring, how it flows! How it flows,
Bears on its bosom the sorrows of man,
Sin and the wreckage of faith and of truth,
Lust and hot murder, the primitive ban:
"Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Gleams of your Godhood!
Laugh at the voices,
Wailing in valleys
Like to Gehinnom—
Lurid with fires
Fed by the bodies
Of dead men forgotten!
Rise up and claim
All things as yours,
You who are God—
God in Becoming!
O WILL YOU COME WITH ME
O will you come with me away,
Brother—my Brother!
The night is spent, and breaks the day,
Brother—my Brother!
Have done with the dream and the pillowing stone!
Awake! Over vast spaces the winds are blown
To buffet and bear you from shadowing sleep. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Love found Me and I found Love!
On my breast have I carried the Soul,
Have laid him to rest at the end of a day
With a dream and a song through the dream!
How oft he has risen—
Awaked at my word,
Reclothed by my hand!
How oft have I let him go free
To the toys and the tasks,
While he grew in stature and wisdom!
Dear is my Son in the strength of his great growing Godhood! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ What dreams do you dream,
What sounds do you hear
Out of the splendour—
Out of the wonder—
Out of the peace
Of Rest-A-While Land?
How little they know
Who call this a grave—
'Tis but a cradle,
And death is a sleep
From which you will waken
To try it again!
How little they know
Who prattle of sin,
And tell on their beads
Misereres for grace:
Baby must fall
That baby may rise! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Lords of the Flame—and whose day is a dream
Known in the night: O my Brother, all hail!
Hither a prophet, a priest or a slave,
Came you, my Brother—a king or a knave,
Black man or red man or brown man or white,
Out of the land of an infinite light? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ To a chime of the bridle-bells.
A WOMAN'S PRAYER
God of the heaven and earth,
Bring to the birth
Soul of the man that I love;
From the Above,
Send Him the light of Thy face;
Grant to him grace,
Brave in the battle, his shield
Never to yield!
God of the zephyr and gale,
That is a nail
Holding the hand of my dream
Hard to the beam! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Know you a garden near the road?
Its walls are very high;
A gift of dream on me bestowed,
And covered with the sky:
There one may walk and talk and talk,
Forgetful of aught else but friends,
When twilight into evening blends. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Made strong by the dream,
More firmly your feet
Shall find out a way
Past the old blunders
Into the dawn!
Lullaby baby,
Hushaby baby!
After the day
Comes night with a kiss
Soft on the brow,
Hands and the feet—
Folding them,
Holding them—
Feet that are tired from falling;
Hands that are weary from failing;
Brow that is furrowed from weeping:
Brow, hands, feet—resting for mastery!
A SONG OF THE ALL
Brother, my Brother! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ And dream the ancient dream again above the yellow Nile!
BARTIMÆUS
Bartimæus at the highroad,
Begging from the passer by
Just enough to stop his hunger—
Hear him cry!
Blind is he and lone and ragged,
With no friendly hand to lead—
And the sky all blue above him! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ In the testamented terror
Of the lengthened scroll he reads;
While the beggar at the highroad
Vainly pleads!
Comes a wanton in her madness,
Drifting down the human stream;
In her eyes the haunting horror
Of a dream! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ DEAR LITTLE MAID OF DREAM
Dear little Maid of Dream,
My heart, dear Heart, is breaking;
Things are not what they seem,
And sorrow comes with waking!
I yearn to hold you fast,
My Dream, but then comes waking ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Deriding that you leave the less—
Their idle dream of happiness!
If you would find the way of wings,
Wide-open wings,
That lift one to a star,
You must be free from hamperings
Of lock and bolt and bar ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Birth is a form of the Self once more appearing—
Self who is child of these Lovers eternally wooing!
How many births, deaths have we known!
Eternally going out of the urge of Love for Life,
We are the Sons of the Highest! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ What makes you so strong
Underneath your load,
Lilting such a joyous little tune?
Tell me, little brother,
What I want to know—
Why your lips are tremulous with joy—
Why you, like a mother,
Soothe and love me so,
As she used to when I was a boy.
All the way behind
Fades into a dream
Hideous with faces in the gloom ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Each sentence was an æon long:
"Thou art"—he thundered, "the first star
To lead earth out of mist,
When man looked up and felt afar
Urge of an ancient tryst
Made ere God lit the morning sun
To mark the length of day begun. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Gasped, clutched his throat and found eternal sleep;
Ceased in the temple, horn and holy drum,
And all the vested choristers were dumb!
Rain as of fire!
The shivering of earth;
Dead is the baby at its birth—
With horror in her great dark eyes,
The new-made mother lifeless lies ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Robert Winkworth Norwood, The Piper and the Reed

“ Beat on the cymbals—
Strike on the harpstrings—
Let sound the psalteries—
Thunder the tabour!
Shout with the Levites,
White-robed and ready,
Round the old world-walls!
Shatter with sound
Jericho! Jericho!
Topple its bastions,
Bloodstained and brutal,
Down to the dust
Drifting to deserts
Remote and forgotten!
Bring in the New Year,
Brothers, my brothers—
Proclaim this the Sabbath!
THE OPTIMIST
"There is no evil anywhere"—
Said I unto the priest
Who answered: "Life is cursed with care,
Sin makes of man a beast!"
"Care is not any curse"—I cried,
"To fail is not to sin." ”

Robert Winkworth Norwood

Summary

Quotes from The Piper and the Reed (Robert Winkworth Norwood)

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