cart--

THE ICE CART

Perched on my city office-stool,

I watched with envy, while a cool

And lucky carter handled ice...

And I was wandering in a trice,

Far from the grey and grimy heat

Of that intolerable street,

O'er sapphire berg and emerald floe,

Beneath the still, cold ruby glow

Of everlasting Polar night,

Bewildered by the queer half-light,

Until I stumbled, unawares,

Upon a creek where big white bears

Plunged headlong down with flourished heels,

And floundered after shining seals

Through shivering seas of blinding blue.

And as I watched them, ere I knew,

I'd stripped, and I was swimming, too,

Among the seal-pack, young and hale,

And thrusting on with threshing tail,

With twist and twirl and sudden leap

Through crackling ice and salty deep--

Diving and doubling with my kind,

Until, at last, we left behind

Those big, white, blundering bulks of death,

And lay, at length, with panting breath

Upon a far untravelled floe,

Beneath a gentle drift of snow--

Snow drifting gently, fine and white,

Out of the endless Polar night,

Falling and falling evermore

Upon that far untravelled shore,

Till I was buried fathoms deep

Beneath that cold white drifting sleep--

Sleep drifting deep,

Deep drifting sleep...

 

The carter cracked a sudden whip:

I clutched my stool with startled grip,

Awakening to the grimy heat

Of that intolerable street.

TO E. M.

(IN MEMORY OF R. B.)

The night we saw the stacks of timber blaze

To terrible golden fury, young and strong

He watched between us with dream-dazzled gaze

Aflame, and burning like a god of song,

As we together stood against the throng

Drawn from the midnight of the city ways.

 

To-night the world about us is ablaze

And he is dead, is dead ... Yet, young and strong

He watches with us still with deathless gaze

Aflame, and burning like a god of song,

As we together stand against the throng

Drawn from the bottomless midnight of hell's ways.

 

10th June, 1915.

MARRIAGE

Going my way of old,

Contented more or less,

I dreamt not life could hold

Such happiness.

 

I dreamt not that love's way

Could keep the golden height

Day after happy day,

Night after night.

ROSES

Red roses floating in a crystal bowl

You bring, O love; and in your eyes I see,

Blossom on blossom, your warm love of me

Burning within the crystal of your soul--

Red roses floating in a crystal bowl.

FOR G.

All night under the moon

Plovers are flying

Over the dreaming meadows of silvery light,

Over the meadows of June,

Flying and crying--

Wandering voices of love in the hush of the night.

 

All night under the moon,

Love, though we're lying

Quietly under the thatch, in silvery light

Over the meadows of June

Together we're flying--

Rapturous voices of love in the hush of the night.

 

1915

HOME

I. RETURN