Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 20 pages of information about Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems.

Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 20 pages of information about Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems.

VIII.

    By mead and marsh and sandhill clad with bent,
    Soothed by the wistful musings of the wind
    That in scarce listening ears are mildly dinned,
    On plods the traveller till the day be spent,
    And day-dreams end in dreamless night at last. 
    He hears, beyond the grey bent’s silken waves,
    The foam-embroidered waters ever cast
    On sighing sands and into echoing caves. 
    And from the west, where the last sunset glow
    Still lingers on the border hills afar,
    Come pastoral sounds, attenuate and low,
    Thence where the night shall bring, ’neath cloud and star,
    Silence to yearn o’er folk worn with day’s strife,
    Lost in blank sleep to hope, regret, death, life.

    [An alternative ending

    While from the West comes murmuring earthly noise,
    Sweet, slumberous, attenuate and afar;
    Sad sunglows in the border mountains poise,
    There where he knows to-night, mid cloud and star,
    Silence shall yearn o’er folk worn out with strife,
    Lost in blank sleep to hope, regret, death, life.]

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS

I.

    What though my voice cease like a moan o’ the wind? 
    Not the less shall I
    Cast on this life a kindly eye,
    Glad if through its mystery
    Faint gleams of love and truth glance o’er my mind.

    What though I end like a spring leaf shed on the wind? 
    Restrained by pure-eyed Sorrow’s hand,
    Lithe Joy through this wondrous land
    Leads me; nothing have I scanned
    Unmixed with good.  Fate’s sharpest stroke is kind.

    To me, thoughts lived of old anew are born
    From glances at the unsullied sea,
    Or breath of morning purity,
    From cloud or blown grass tossing free,
    Or frail dew quivering on leaf, rose or thorn.

    What though behind me all is mist and shade,
    Yet warmth of afterglow bathes all. 
    Hallowed spirits move and call
    Each to me, a willing thrall,
    With kindly speech of mountain, plain or glade.

    Before me, through the veil that covers all,
    Rays of a vasty Dawn strike high
    To the zenith of the sky. 
    Intense, yet low as true love’s sigh,
    Prophetic voices to my spirit call.

    So, though my voice cease like a moan o’ the wind,
    Not the less shall I
    Cast on life a kindly eye,
    Glad if through its mystery
    Stray gleams of love and truth illume my mind.

II.

    An Afternoon Soliloquy.

    How good some years of life may be! 
    Ah, once it was not guessed by me,
    Past years would shine, like some bright sea,
    In golden dusks of memory.

Copyrights
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Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.