Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: Pan-Worship and Other Poems by Farjeon Eleanor
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 249 lines and 24007 words, and 5 pages
THE MYSTERIOUS FOREST
I stood on the verge of the mysterious forest, Sunlight lay behind me on the meadows, But all the world of the mysterious forest Was a world of wraiths and shadows.
The dim trees beckoned, beckoned with their branches, I said: "The sun's behind me on the meadows." A dim voice calling, calling through the branches From the world of wraiths and shadows.
I saw a pale young Queen, her eyes were mournful, Steal ghostwise ... is the sun yet on the meadows?... More phantoms passed and all their eyes were mournful In the world of wraiths and shadows.
I see a blue light in the mysterious forest, The cold night lies behind me on the meadows. The branches beckon in the mysterious forest ... They beckon, beckon, beckon, call and beckon From the world of wraiths and shadows.
THE OLD GREY QUEEN
The Princess looked from the old grey tower; She was a-weary of being there. She wore no crown but her own gold hair, And the old grey Queen had shut her there, She was so like a flower.
"The young King's-Son comes over the sea From the West," said the Queen who was grey and old. "In an unlit hall were not grey as gold? In an unlit hall what are young and old? We'll greet i' the dark," said she.
The Princess looked from the old grey tower ... Lo! a milk-white sail on the sunlit ocean. Fluttered her heart to its fluttering motion, And the King's-Son looked from the golden ocean ... She was so like a flower.
"Why do the grey seas break and boom? And why is the starless dusk so grey? And why does the young King's-Son delay? Shall I," said the Queen who was old and grey, "Sit all night i' the gloom?"
The grey seas broke on an empty tower Like pain that knocks on an empty breast. Lo! a milk-white sail that flew the crest Of Love and of Youth met breast to breast Melted away in the golden West....
The old grey Queen beat her empty breast: "She was so like a flower."
THE QUEST
A Knight rides forth upon a Quest, And his young Squire follows after; The Knight's eyes dwell on a star's white crest, And the Squire's eyes dwell on laughter.
"What of the Quest that claims our swords?" The young Squire asks his master. The Knight says, "'Tis too high for words," And they speed their horses faster.
A beggar hails them: "Alms! alms, Sir Knight, Or loose my life with your dagger!" The Knight sees only a star's white light, And the Squire's purse pays the beggar.
A sturdy robber the highroad bars: "Sir Knight, our debts we'll settle!" The Knight hears only the song of stars, And the Squire's blade wins the battle.
A lady looks from a castle wall: "Sir Knight, in pity stay thee! Untrammel me who lie here in thrall, And I in love will pay thee."
The Knight is set on a goal heaven-high Where a silver star is risen, And the young Squire it is springs by To free the maid from prison.
"Take, good Sir Knight, my pleasure and pride, The meed of valiant striving! Here wait the lips of your glad bride Whose name is Joy-of-Living."
Starward, starward the rapt Knight goes, The star's true image missing. The lady laughs like a lovely rose And the Squire's lips do the kissing.
"What, boy, are you my love doth woo? What's he that would not woo it?" "He's John-a-Dreams-o'-Dering-do, And I'm Dick-up-an'-Do-it."
THE UNSPOKEN WORD
THE MAN'S SIDE
Two years I have lived in a dream And have dared not to end it-- Owned wealth in a measure supreme And been fearful to spend it.
You, woman of beauty and love In such noble wise fashioned, Are my dreams and my rich treasure-trove. I am shamed that, impassioned,
In secret I levy demands Upon more than you've given-- Crave yourself, heart and soul, eyes and hands, Which in sum make up heaven.
Unconscious of aught, through these days You have let me be near you, Knowing not how your thousand sweet ways Only serve to endear you
To all in your orbit who move, In such innocence wronging As friendship what really is love And unsatisfied longing.
Yet, your friendship--to be just your friend-- So caps love in another, That I would my love, burned to its end, In its own smoke might smother,
Lest I in an outbreak one day Ask of friendship aught stronger-- When you may forbid me to say Even "friend" any longer.
So I come in the old way and go, While my heart's quickened beatings Are hidden, and you never know What I glean from our meetings;
How a word, a look even, which seems So unconsciously meted, Builds new dreams on the wreckage of dreams That were never completed.
You once dropped a flower--did not see That I hid in my bosom What was more than Golconda to me, And to you a bruised blossom.
Ten seconds I once held your hand While you pulled from the river A lily. Could you understand Why my own hand should quiver?
Small matters these things you account Who so lightly diffuse them, But to all my life's joy they amount-- And my fear is, to lose them.
One day, when your eyes are still kind And your voice is still tender, I shall slip the control of my mind, All my future surrender,
Obeying the primal desire To fall down and adore you, And outpour in one instant of fire All the love I have for you.
'Twill be death, and far worse, at your feet When my lips cease to blunder And I look up your dear eyes to meet Overrunning with wonder.
Thereafter--what? Nothing, I fear-- Even dreams will have vanished When I by my act from your sphere Shall for ever be banished.
Dear, that is the moment I dread-- When you hear my confession, When the word I withhold has been said And my love finds expression;
But till then , Till my love grows too strong, lips too weak To much longer disown it,
I shall come, if I may, day by day, My small gleanings to gather, While you think of me--how shall we say? As a brother or father;
And you never will guess, till you learn From a heart brimming over, That I've met you at every turn As a passionate lover.
THE WOMAN'S SIDE
How long will you hold back, belov'd? How long Leave the supreme, the final word unspoken? The barrier of silence hold unbroken? Men--you, too, being a man--have called you strong, A doer of big deeds, great acts. But they are wrong.
You lack in courage. I, being woman, know How often woman shapes man's enterprises, Cloaking her work in manifold disguises Lest he should chafe too large a debt to owe-- Strikes every blow up to the very hundredth blow
Belov'd, how long before you understand? Why, I have known two years you were my lover, That all my being to yours was given over! The thing your heart most yearns for lies at hand Awaiting only this, that you shall make demand.
Have I not worked for all betwixt us two Since first I saw your love spring into being, And you became too faint of heart for seeing That the one peach you longed to garner grew, Ripened, and mellowed here only for you, for you?
Between us. When I met you with a smile, "Love's not for me," you thought, "yet while she kindly Still looks and speaks, I'll stay." And went thus blindly Taking for innocence what sprang from guile That I might hold you by me just a little while.
The day I dropped a flower upon the path, Did you not know it was the thing I aimed for When you behind me loitered , secured it free from scath And hid it close, to reap therefrom love's aftermath
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page