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قراءة كتاب The Pier-Glass
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اللغة: English
الصفحة رقم: 3
his distress
And clouded vision came
An unknown gradual flame
By silent hands controlled,
Pale at first and cold,
Like wizard's lily-bloom
Conjured from the gloom,
Like torch of glow-worm seen
Through grasses shining green
By children half in fright,
Or Christmas candlelight
Flung on the outer snow,
Or tinsel stars that show
Their evening glory
With sheen of fairy story.
No more, no more,
Forget that went before!
Not a wrack remains
Of all his former pains.
Here's Love a drench of light,
A Sun dazzling the sight,
Well started on his race
Towards the Zenith space
Where fixed and sure
He shall endure,
Holding peace secure.
Now with his blaze
He dries the cobweb maze
Dew-sagging on the corn,
He brings the flowering thorn,
The fly and butterfly,
And pigeons in the sky,
The robin and the thrush,
And the long bulrush,
And cherry under the leaf,
Earth in a silken dress,
With end to grief,
With love in steadfastness.
REPROACH
Your grieving moonlight face looks down
Through the forest of my fears,
Crowned with a spiny bramble-crown,
Dew-dropped with evening tears.
Why do you spell "untrue, unkind,"
Reproachful eyes plaguing my sleep?
I am not guilty in my mind
Of aught would make you weep.
Untrue? but how, what broken oath?
Unkind? I know not even your name.
Unkind, untrue, you charge me both,
Scalding my heart with shame.
The black trees shudder, dropping snow,
The stars tumble and spin.
Speak, speak, or how may a child know
His ancestral sin?
THE MAGICAL PICTURE
Glinting on the roadway
A broken mirror lay:
Then what did the child say
Who found it there?
He cried there was a goblin
Looking out as he looked in—
Wild eyes and speckled skin,
Black, bristling hair!
He brought it to his father
Who being a simple sailor
Swore, "This is a true wonder,
Deny it who can!
Plain enough to me, for one,
It's a portrait aptly done
Of Admiral, the great Lord Nelson
When a young man."
The sailor's wife perceiving
Her husband had some pretty thing
At which he was peering,
Seized it from his hand.
Then tears started and ran free,
"Jack, you have deceived me,
I love you no more," said she,
"So understand!"
"But, Mary," says the sailor,
"This is a famous treasure,
Admiral Nelson's picture
Taken in youth."
"Viper and fox," she cries,
"To trick me with such lies,
Who is this wench with the bold eyes?
Tell the full truth!"
Up rides the parish priest
Mounted on a fat beast.
Grief and anger have not ceased
Between those two;
Little Tom still weeps for fear;
He has seen Hobgoblin, near,
Great white teeth and foul leer
That pierced him through.
Now the old priest lifts his glove
Bidding all for God's love
To stand and not to move,
Lest blood be shed.
"O, O!" cries the urchin,
"I saw the devil grin,
He glared out, as I looked in;
A true death's head!"
Mary weeps, "Ah, Father,
My Jack loves another!
On some voyage he courted her
In a land afar."
This, with cursing, Jack denies:—
"Father, use your own eyes:
It is Lord Nelson in disguise
As a young tar."
When the priest took the glass,
Fresh marvels came to pass
"A saint of glory, by the Mass!
"Where got you this?"
He signed him with the good Sign,
Be sure the relic was divine,
He would fix it in a shrine
For pilgrims to kiss.
There the chapel folk who come
(Honest, some, and lewd, some),
See the saint's eyes and are dumb,
Kneeling on the flags.
Some see the Doubter Thomas,
And some Nathaniel in the glass,
And others whom but old Saint Judas
With his money bags?
DISTANT SMOKE
Seth and the sons of Seth who followed him
Halted in silence: labour, then, was vain.
Fast at the zenith, blazoned in his splendour,
Hung the