VIII

     Death begs of Life his blush; Life Death persuades
     To keep long day with his caresses graced. 
     He is the heart of light, the wing of shades,
     The crown of beauty:  never soul embraced
     Of him can harbour unfaith; soul of him
     Possessed walks never dim.

     IX

     Love eyed his rosy memories:  he sang: 
     O bloom of dawn, breathed up from the gold sheaf
     Held springing beneath Orient! that dost hang
     The space of dewdrops running over leaf;
     Thy fleetingness is bigger in the ghost
     Than Time with all his host!

     X

     Of thee to say behold, has said adieu: 
     But love remembers how the sky was green,
     And how the grasses glimmered lightest blue;
     How saint-like grey took fervour:  how the screen
     Of cloud grew violet; how thy moment came
     Between a blush and flame.

     XI

     Love saw the emissary eglantine
     Break wave round thy white feet above the gloom;
     Lay finger on thy star; thy raiment line
     With cherub wing and limb; wed thy soft bloom,
     Gold-quivering like sunrays in thistle-down,
     Earth under rolling brown.

     XII

     They do not look through love to look on thee,
     Grave heavenliness! nor know they joy of sight,
     Who deem the wave of rapt desire must be
     Its wrecking and last issue of delight. 
     Dead seasons quicken in one petal-spot
     Of colour unforgot.

     XIII

     This way have men come out of brutishness
     To spell the letters of the sky and read
     A reflex upon earth else meaningless. 
     With thee, O fount of the Untimed! to lead,
     Drink they of thee, thee eyeing, they unaged
     Shall on through brave wars waged.

     XIV

     More gardens will they win than any lost;
     The vile plucked out of them, the unlovely slain. 
     Not forfeiting the beast with which they are crossed,
     To stature of the Gods will they attain. 
     They shall uplift their Earth to meet her Lord,
     Themselves the attuning chord!

     XV

     The song had ceased; my vision with the song. 
     Then of those Shadows, which one made descent
     Beside me I knew not:  but Life ere long
     Came on me in the public ways and bent
     Eyes deeper than of old:  Death met I too,
     And saw the dawn glow through.

     Meditation under stars

     What links are ours with orbs that are
     So resolutely far: 
     The solitary asks, and they
     Give radiance as from a shield: 
     Still at the death of day,
     The seen, the unrevealed. 
     Implacable they shine
     To us who would of Life obtain
     An answer for the life