SCEPTIC
This hour has shut us like a tentFrom all but night; we two, alone,So close, so poignantly alert, have grown,That trivial speech, from silence rent,Breaks off—a useless instrument.For all the opening world is ours,And you, tho scarce a woman yet,Your eyes with feasts of lights and vintage set,Hold all the dewy wealth of flowers,And gold of Babylonian towers.Our lives will alter if we move—It were so easy now to riseAnd tell my unimpassioned soul it lies—And claim youth’s heritage of love,Let bald life prove what it may prove!It were so easy to conceiveYour lack my lack would compensate—And by one stroke undo the knot of fate;It were so easy to believeThe lies that such a thing could weave!Or shall I stumble through the nightBiting my lips to hold the tearsBecause your incommunicable yearsMust spend their summer of delightWithout my reach—beyond my sight?The house is still; the midnight seemsInscrutable—no answer there.Oh God!—to break this tension of despair.Between us the calm lamplight streams—“Good night!” and “Pleasant dreams!”—yes—dreams.
This hour has shut us like a tentFrom all but night; we two, alone,So close, so poignantly alert, have grown,That trivial speech, from silence rent,Breaks off—a useless instrument.For all the opening world is ours,And you, tho scarce a woman yet,Your eyes with feasts of lights and vintage set,Hold all the dewy wealth of flowers,And gold of Babylonian towers.Our lives will alter if we move—It were so easy now to riseAnd tell my unimpassioned soul it lies—And claim youth’s heritage of love,Let bald life prove what it may prove!It were so easy to conceiveYour lack my lack would compensate—And by one stroke undo the knot of fate;It were so easy to believeThe lies that such a thing could weave!Or shall I stumble through the nightBiting my lips to hold the tearsBecause your incommunicable yearsMust spend their summer of delightWithout my reach—beyond my sight?The house is still; the midnight seemsInscrutable—no answer there.Oh God!—to break this tension of despair.Between us the calm lamplight streams—“Good night!” and “Pleasant dreams!”—yes—dreams.
This hour has shut us like a tentFrom all but night; we two, alone,So close, so poignantly alert, have grown,That trivial speech, from silence rent,Breaks off—a useless instrument.
This hour has shut us like a tent
From all but night; we two, alone,
So close, so poignantly alert, have grown,
That trivial speech, from silence rent,
Breaks off—a useless instrument.
For all the opening world is ours,And you, tho scarce a woman yet,Your eyes with feasts of lights and vintage set,Hold all the dewy wealth of flowers,And gold of Babylonian towers.
For all the opening world is ours,
And you, tho scarce a woman yet,
Your eyes with feasts of lights and vintage set,
Hold all the dewy wealth of flowers,
And gold of Babylonian towers.
Our lives will alter if we move—It were so easy now to riseAnd tell my unimpassioned soul it lies—And claim youth’s heritage of love,Let bald life prove what it may prove!
Our lives will alter if we move—
It were so easy now to rise
And tell my unimpassioned soul it lies—
And claim youth’s heritage of love,
Let bald life prove what it may prove!
It were so easy to conceiveYour lack my lack would compensate—And by one stroke undo the knot of fate;It were so easy to believeThe lies that such a thing could weave!
It were so easy to conceive
Your lack my lack would compensate—
And by one stroke undo the knot of fate;
It were so easy to believe
The lies that such a thing could weave!
Or shall I stumble through the nightBiting my lips to hold the tearsBecause your incommunicable yearsMust spend their summer of delightWithout my reach—beyond my sight?
Or shall I stumble through the night
Biting my lips to hold the tears
Because your incommunicable years
Must spend their summer of delight
Without my reach—beyond my sight?
The house is still; the midnight seemsInscrutable—no answer there.Oh God!—to break this tension of despair.Between us the calm lamplight streams—“Good night!” and “Pleasant dreams!”—yes—dreams.
The house is still; the midnight seems
Inscrutable—no answer there.
Oh God!—to break this tension of despair.
Between us the calm lamplight streams—
“Good night!” and “Pleasant dreams!”—yes—dreams.
I would I had lain with my love to-night;Her eyes trembled for her body said,“I have smoothed a pillow and made a bed”—But I smiled against itAnd turned away my headTo come into the cold starlight.I would I had lain with my love to-night,For I know how flowers are shed,And the cynical scintillant stars are dead—Dead, dead utterly!Yet I turned away my headTo come into the cold starlight.I would I had lain with my love to-night!Oh, indolent Gods, we too can treadOn the silent spirits, the uncomforted!She did not reproach me,Tho I turned away my headAnd came into the starlight.
I would I had lain with my love to-night;Her eyes trembled for her body said,“I have smoothed a pillow and made a bed”—But I smiled against itAnd turned away my headTo come into the cold starlight.I would I had lain with my love to-night,For I know how flowers are shed,And the cynical scintillant stars are dead—Dead, dead utterly!Yet I turned away my headTo come into the cold starlight.I would I had lain with my love to-night!Oh, indolent Gods, we too can treadOn the silent spirits, the uncomforted!She did not reproach me,Tho I turned away my headAnd came into the starlight.
I would I had lain with my love to-night;Her eyes trembled for her body said,“I have smoothed a pillow and made a bed”—But I smiled against itAnd turned away my headTo come into the cold starlight.
I would I had lain with my love to-night;
Her eyes trembled for her body said,
“I have smoothed a pillow and made a bed”—
But I smiled against it
And turned away my head
To come into the cold starlight.
I would I had lain with my love to-night,For I know how flowers are shed,And the cynical scintillant stars are dead—Dead, dead utterly!Yet I turned away my headTo come into the cold starlight.
I would I had lain with my love to-night,
For I know how flowers are shed,
And the cynical scintillant stars are dead—
Dead, dead utterly!
Yet I turned away my head
To come into the cold starlight.
I would I had lain with my love to-night!Oh, indolent Gods, we too can treadOn the silent spirits, the uncomforted!She did not reproach me,Tho I turned away my headAnd came into the starlight.
I would I had lain with my love to-night!
Oh, indolent Gods, we too can tread
On the silent spirits, the uncomforted!
She did not reproach me,
Tho I turned away my head
And came into the starlight.
Love (as a cloud on the seaHung between poles of blue)Hangs in the heart of meBetween the eyes of you.Love, as a cloud on the sea,Claims the tears of two.Love (as a wind in a treeShaking its tower of green)Shakes all the heart of meAnd leaves no peace between.Love, as the wind the treeTears with hands unseen.Love (as a storm on the seaShatters the sleep of the wave)Shatters the heart of meWith desires that grope and crave.Love, as the storm the sea,Boasts not me his slave.
Love (as a cloud on the seaHung between poles of blue)Hangs in the heart of meBetween the eyes of you.Love, as a cloud on the sea,Claims the tears of two.Love (as a wind in a treeShaking its tower of green)Shakes all the heart of meAnd leaves no peace between.Love, as the wind the treeTears with hands unseen.Love (as a storm on the seaShatters the sleep of the wave)Shatters the heart of meWith desires that grope and crave.Love, as the storm the sea,Boasts not me his slave.
Love (as a cloud on the seaHung between poles of blue)Hangs in the heart of meBetween the eyes of you.Love, as a cloud on the sea,Claims the tears of two.
Love (as a cloud on the sea
Hung between poles of blue)
Hangs in the heart of me
Between the eyes of you.
Love, as a cloud on the sea,
Claims the tears of two.
Love (as a wind in a treeShaking its tower of green)Shakes all the heart of meAnd leaves no peace between.Love, as the wind the treeTears with hands unseen.
Love (as a wind in a tree
Shaking its tower of green)
Shakes all the heart of me
And leaves no peace between.
Love, as the wind the tree
Tears with hands unseen.
Love (as a storm on the seaShatters the sleep of the wave)Shatters the heart of meWith desires that grope and crave.Love, as the storm the sea,Boasts not me his slave.
Love (as a storm on the sea
Shatters the sleep of the wave)
Shatters the heart of me
With desires that grope and crave.
Love, as the storm the sea,
Boasts not me his slave.
You, flower-named, and as a flower arrayed,Open to all the wandering airs that pass,Opened to me—yet I drew back afraid,Craven to the blood that would have preyedAnd the sly viper coiling in the grass.
You, flower-named, and as a flower arrayed,Open to all the wandering airs that pass,Opened to me—yet I drew back afraid,Craven to the blood that would have preyedAnd the sly viper coiling in the grass.
You, flower-named, and as a flower arrayed,Open to all the wandering airs that pass,Opened to me—yet I drew back afraid,Craven to the blood that would have preyedAnd the sly viper coiling in the grass.
You, flower-named, and as a flower arrayed,
Open to all the wandering airs that pass,
Opened to me—yet I drew back afraid,
Craven to the blood that would have preyed
And the sly viper coiling in the grass.
Love, when you smiled and beckonedMy cold thought stood aloof and reckonedSome heights above you.But now you have turned and goneSmiling, fugitive as dawn,I know (oh fool!) I love you.
Love, when you smiled and beckonedMy cold thought stood aloof and reckonedSome heights above you.But now you have turned and goneSmiling, fugitive as dawn,I know (oh fool!) I love you.
Love, when you smiled and beckonedMy cold thought stood aloof and reckonedSome heights above you.But now you have turned and goneSmiling, fugitive as dawn,I know (oh fool!) I love you.
Love, when you smiled and beckoned
My cold thought stood aloof and reckoned
Some heights above you.
But now you have turned and gone
Smiling, fugitive as dawn,
I know (oh fool!) I love you.
Love, with her queen’s face and child lipsWalked at my side; her hair about her headStreamed, with riotous and exuberant spreadLike sails and cordage of sea-breasting ships,And as the tides, her mirthful glints and dipsTugged at my anchor’d calmness—then she said,Chilling to gravity, “You are lead.”It was as when the bright blade cruelly slips,For in my soul that hid its vain desiresUnder closed hatch, I knew the stifled firesDevoured in silence, as stealthy serpents writheTheir folds about their prey; and seemed to hearThe passing of some irrevocable year,And faint for whistle of a monstrous scythe.
Love, with her queen’s face and child lipsWalked at my side; her hair about her headStreamed, with riotous and exuberant spreadLike sails and cordage of sea-breasting ships,And as the tides, her mirthful glints and dipsTugged at my anchor’d calmness—then she said,Chilling to gravity, “You are lead.”It was as when the bright blade cruelly slips,For in my soul that hid its vain desiresUnder closed hatch, I knew the stifled firesDevoured in silence, as stealthy serpents writheTheir folds about their prey; and seemed to hearThe passing of some irrevocable year,And faint for whistle of a monstrous scythe.
Love, with her queen’s face and child lipsWalked at my side; her hair about her headStreamed, with riotous and exuberant spreadLike sails and cordage of sea-breasting ships,And as the tides, her mirthful glints and dipsTugged at my anchor’d calmness—then she said,Chilling to gravity, “You are lead.”It was as when the bright blade cruelly slips,For in my soul that hid its vain desiresUnder closed hatch, I knew the stifled firesDevoured in silence, as stealthy serpents writheTheir folds about their prey; and seemed to hearThe passing of some irrevocable year,And faint for whistle of a monstrous scythe.
Love, with her queen’s face and child lips
Walked at my side; her hair about her head
Streamed, with riotous and exuberant spread
Like sails and cordage of sea-breasting ships,
And as the tides, her mirthful glints and dips
Tugged at my anchor’d calmness—then she said,
Chilling to gravity, “You are lead.”
It was as when the bright blade cruelly slips,
For in my soul that hid its vain desires
Under closed hatch, I knew the stifled fires
Devoured in silence, as stealthy serpents writhe
Their folds about their prey; and seemed to hear
The passing of some irrevocable year,
And faint for whistle of a monstrous scythe.
Pain of widest range—The intimate grown strange.
Pain of widest range—The intimate grown strange.
Pain of widest range—The intimate grown strange.
Pain of widest range—
The intimate grown strange.