The Star-Treader and other poems Part 7

They pa.s.sed, and lo, a plague of darkness fell, Unsleeping, and accurst with nameless things, And dreams that stood the ministers of h.e.l.l!

TO THE DARKNESS

Thou hast taken the light of many suns, And they are sealed in the prison-house of gloom.

Even as candle-flames Hast thou taken the souls of men, With winds from out a hollow place; They are hid in the abyss as in a sea, And the gulfs are over them As the weight of many peaks, As the depth of many seas; Thy shields are between them and the light; They are past its burden and bitterness; The spears of the day shall not touch them, The chains of the sun shall not hale them forth.

Many men there were, In the days that are now of thy realm, That thou hast sealed with the seal of many deeps; Their feet were as eagles' wings in the quest of Truth-- Aye, mightily they desired her face, Hunting her through the lands of life, As men in the blankness of the waste That seek for a buried treasure-house of kings.

But against them were the veils That hands may not rend nor sabers pierce; And Truth was withheld from them, As a water that is seen afar at dawn, And at noon is lost in the sand Before the feet of the traveller.

The world was a barrenness, And the gardens were as the waste.

And they turned them to the adventure of the dark, To the travelling of the land without roads, To the sailing of the sea that hath no beacons.

Why have they not returned?

Their quest hath found end in thee, Or surely they had fared Once more to the place whence they came, As men that have travelled to a fruitless land.

They have looked on thy face, And to them it is the countenance of Truth.

Thy silence is sweeter to them than the voice of love, Thine embrace more dear than the clasp of the beloved.

They are fed with the emptiness past the veil, And their hunger is filled; They have found the waters of peace, And are athirst no more.

They know a rest that is deeper than the gulfs, And whose seal is unbreakable as the seal of the void; They sleep the sleep of the suns, And the vast is a garment unto them.

A DREAM OF BEAUTY

I dreamed that each most lovely, perfect thing That Nature hath, of sound, and form, and hue-- The winds, the gra.s.s, the light-concentering dew, The gleam and swiftness of the sea-bird's wing; Blueness of sea and sky, and gold of storm Trans.m.u.ted by the sunset, and the flame Of autumn-colored leaves, before me came, And, meeting, merged to one diviner form.

Incarnate Beauty 'twas, whose spirit thrills Through glaucous ocean and the greener hills, And in the cloud-bewildered peaks is pent.

Like some descended star she hovered o'er, But as I gazed, in doubt and wonderment, Mine eyes were dazzled, and I saw no more.

THE DREAM-BRIDGE

All drear and barren seemed the hours, That pa.s.sed rain-swept and tempest-blown.

The dead leaves fell like brownish notes Within the rain's grey monotone.

There came a lapse between the showers; The clouds grew rich with sunset gleams; Then o'er the sky a rainbow sprang-- A bridge unto the Land of Dreams.

A LIVE-OAK LEAF

How marvellous this bit of green I hold, and soon shall throw away!

Its subtile veins, its vivid sheen, Seem fragment of a G.o.d's array.

In all the hidden toil of earth, Which is the more laborious part-- To rear the oak's enormous girth, Or shape its leaves with poignant art?

PINE NEEDLES

O little lances, dipped in grey, And set in order straight and clean, How delicately clear and keen Your points against the sapphire day!

Attesting Nature's perfect art Ye fringe the limpid firmament, O little lances, keenly sent To pierce with beauty to the heart!

TO THE SUN

Thy light is as an eminence unto thee, And thou are upheld by the pillars of thy strength.

Thy power is a foundation for the worlds; They are builded thereon as upon a lofty rock Whereto no enemy hath access.

Thou puttest forth thy rays, and they hold the sky As in the hollow of an immense hand.

Thou erectest thy light as four walls, And a roof with many beams and pillars.

Thy flame is a stronghold based as a mountain; Its bastions are tall, and firm like stone.

The worlds are bound with the ropes of thy will; Like steeds are they stayed and contrained By the reins of invisible lightnings.

With bands that are stouter than iron manifold, And stronger than the cords of the gulfs, Thou withholdest them from the brink Of outward and perilous deeps, Lest they perish in the desolations of the night, Or be stricken of strange suns; Lest they be caught in the pitfalls of the abyss, Or fall into the furnace of Arcturus.

Thy law is as a sh.o.r.e unto them, And they are restrained thereby as the sea.

Thou art food and drink to the worlds; Yea, by thy toil are they sustained, That they fail not upon the road of s.p.a.ce, Whose goal is Hercules.

When thy pillars of force are withdrawn, And the walls of thy light fall inward, Borne down by the sundering night, And thy head is covered with the Shadow, The worlds shall wander as men bewildered In the sterile and lifeless waste.

Athirst and unfed shall they be, When the springs of thy strength are dust, And thy fields of light are black with dearth.

They shall perish from the ways That thou showest no longer, And emptiness shall close above them.

THE FUGITIVES

O fugitive fragrances That tremble heavenward Unceasing, or if ye linger, Halt but as memories On the verge of forgetfulness, Why must ye pa.s.s so fleetly On wings that are less than wind, To a death unknowable?

Soon ye are gone, and the air Forgets your faint unrest In the garden's breathlessness, Where fall the snows of silence.

AVERTED MALEFICE