class="poem">Hopes all unearthly are thronging
    In hearts of earth:
Tongues of the starlight are calling
    Our souls to birth.

Down from the heaven its secrets
    Drop one by one;
Where time is for ever beginning
    And time is done.

There light eternal is over
    Chaos and night:
Singing with dawn lips for ever,
    "Let there be light!"

There too for ever in twilight
    Time slips away,
Closing in darkness and rapture
    Its awful day.

THE MORNING STAR

In the black pool of the midnight Lugh has slung the Morning Star,
And its foam in rippling silver whitens into day afar
Falling on the mountain rampart piled with pearl above our glen,
Only you and I, beloved, moving in the fields of men.

In the dark tarn of my spirit, Love, the Morning Star is lit;
And its halo, ever brightening, lightens into dawn in it.
Love, a pearl-grey dawn in darkness, breathing peace without desire;
But I fain would shun the burning terrors of the mid-day fire.

Through the faint and tender airs of twilight star on star may gaze,
But the eyes of light are blinded in the white flame of the days,
From the heat that melts together oft a rarer essence slips,
And our hearts may still be parted in the meeting of the lips.

What a darkness would I gaze on when the day had passed the west,
If my eyes were dazed and blinded by the whiteness of a breast?
Never through the diamond darkness could I hope to see afar
Where beyond the pearly rampart burned the purer Evening Star.

A FAREWELL

I go down from the hills half in gladness, and half with a pain I depart,
Where the Mother with gentlest breathing made music on lip and in heart;
For I know that my childhood is over: a call comes out of the vast,
And the love that I had in the old time like beauty in
        twilight is past.

I am fired by a Danaan whisper of battles afar in the world,
And my thought is no longer of peace, for the banners in dream are unfurled,
And I pass from the council of stars and of hills to a life that is new:
And I bid to you stars and you mountains a tremulous long adieu.

I will come once again as a master, who played here as child in my dawn
I will enter the heart of the hills where the gods of the old world are gone.
And will war like the bright Hound of Ulla with princes of earth and of sky.
For my dream is to conquer the heavens and battle for kingship on high.

THE MESSAGE

Do you not feel the white glow in your breast, my bird?
    That is the flame of love I send to you from afar:
Not a wafted kiss, hardly a whispered word,
    But love itself that flies as a white-winged star.

Let it dwell there, let it rest there, at home in your heart:
    Wafted on winds of gold, it is Love itself, the Dove.
Not the god whose arrows wounded with bitter smart,
    Nor the purple-fiery birds of death and love.

Do not ask for the hands of love or love's soft eyes:
    They give less than love who give all, giving what wanes.
I give you the star-fire, the heart-way to Paradise,
    With no death after, no arrow with stinging pains.

AT ONE

Sometimes a sudden fount of tears jets in my heart
And oft-times golden gleams will through my being dart:
Your cry or laugh, my sweet, though we are far apart.

Above this hidden fount I bend and whisper clear
More words of fonder love than if your heart were near,
More tenderly than if my arms were round you, dear.

I feel your gay love lights such love in me afar,
I would not have you near, for eyes and lips might mar
The silence where we meet and star is lost in star.

I think of you in peace though under alien skies:
    Though death itself bereft, your love in me would rise
In rainbow ripples borne from your heart in Paradise.

THE WELL OF ALL HEALING

There's a cure for all things in the well at Ballylee
Where the scarlet cressets hang over the trembling pool:
And joyful winds are blowing from the Land of Youth to me,
And the heart of the earth is full.

Many and many a sunbright maiden saw the enchanted land
With star faces glimmer up from the druid wave:
Many and many a pain of love was soothed by a faery hand
Or lost in the love it gave.

When the quiet with a ring of pearl shall wed the earth,
And the scarlet berries burn dark by the stars in the pool;
Oh, it's lost and deep I'll be amid the windy mirth,
While the heart of the earth is full.

A NEW BEING

I know myself no more, my child,
    Since thou art come to me,
Pity so tender and so wild
    Hath wrapped my thoughts of thee.

These thoughts a fiery gentle rain
    Are from the Mother shed,
Where many a broken heart hath lain
    And many a weeping head.

A CALL OF THE SIDHE

Tarry thou yet, late lingerer in the twilight's glory;
Gay are the hills with song: earth's faery children leave
More dim abodes to roam the primrose-hearted eve,
Opening their glimmering lips to breathe some wondrous story.
Hush, not a whisper! Let your heart alone go dreaming.
Dream unto dream may pass: deep in the heart alone
Murmurs the Mighty One his solemn undertone.
Canst thou not see down the silver cloudland streaming
Rivers of faery light, dewdrop on dewdrop falling,
Star-fire of silver flames, lighting the dark beneath?
And what enraptured hosts burn on the dusky heath!
Come thou away with them for Heaven to Earth is calling.
These are Earth's voice—her answer—spirits thronging.
Come to the Land of Youth: the trees grown heavy there
Drop on the purple wave the starry fruit they bear.
Drink: the immortal waters quench the spirit's longing.
Art thou not now, bright one, all sorrow past, in elation,
Made young with joy, grown brother-hearted with the vast,
Whither thy spirit wending flits the dim stars past
Unto the Light of Lights in burning adoration.

LOVE FROM AFAR

A burning fire rose up within me,
    You were away long miles apart;
You could not wait the day to win me,
    But came a lightning to my heart.

I call into that flaming centre
    "Spirit, I love you." Far away
Fades from the paradise I enter
    The dim unreal land of day.

BABYLON

The blue dusk ran between the streets: my love was winged within my mind,
It left to-day and yesterday and thrice a thousand years behind.
To-day was past and dead for me, for from to-day my feet had run
Through thrice a thousand years to walk the ways of ancient Babylon.
On temple top and palace roof the burnished gold flung back the rays
Of a red sunset that was dead and lost beyond a million days.
The tower of heaven turns