The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell Part 2

TO PERDITA, SINGING

Thy voice is like a fountain, Leaping up in clear moons.h.i.+ne; Silver, silver, ever mounting, Ever sinking, Without thinking, To that brimful heart of thine.

Every sad and happy feeling, Thou hast had in bygone years, Through thy lips comes stealing, stealing, Clear and low; 10 All thy smiles and all thy tears In thy voice awaken, And sweetness, wove of joy and woe, From their teaching it hath taken: Feeling and music move together, Like a swan and shadow ever Floating on a sky-blue river In a day of cloudless weather.

It hath caught a touch of sadness, Yet it is not sad; 20 It hath tones of clearest gladness, Yet it is not glad; A dim, sweet twilight voice it is Where to-day's accustomed blue Is over-grayed with memories, With starry feelings quivered through.

Thy voice is like a fountain Leaping up in suns.h.i.+ne bright, And I never weary counting Its clear droppings, lone and single, 30 Or when in one full gush they mingle, Shooting in melodious light.

Thine is music such as yields Feelings of old brooks and fields, And, around this pent-up room, Sheds a woodland, free perfume; Oh, thus forever sing to me!

Oh, thus forever!

The green, bright gra.s.s of childhood bring to me, 39 Flowing like an emerald river, And the bright blue skies above!

Oh, sing them back, as fresh as ever, Into the bosom of my love,-- The suns.h.i.+ne and the merriment, The unsought, evergreen content, Of that never cold time, The joy, that, like a clear breeze, went Through and through the old time!

Peace sits within thine eyes, With white hands crossed in joyful rest, 50 While, through thy lips and face, arise The melodies from out thy breast; She sits and sings, With folded wings And white arms crost, 'Weep not for bygone things, They are not lost: The beauty which the summer time O'er thine opening spirit shed, The forest oracles sublime 60 That filled thy soul with joyous dread, The scent of every smallest flower That made thy heart sweet for an hour, Yea, every holy influence, Flowing to thee, thou knewest not whence, In thine eyes to-day is seen, Fresh as it hath ever been; Promptings of Nature, beckonings sweet, Whatever led thy childish feet, Still will linger unawares 70 The guiders of thy silver hairs; Every look and every word Which thou givest forth to-day, Tell of the singing of the bird Whose music stilled thy boyish play.'

Thy voice is like a fountain, Twinkling up in sharp starlight, When the moon behind the mountain Dims the low East with faintest white, Ever darkling, 80 Ever sparkling, We know not if 'tis dark or bright; But, when the great moon hath rolled round, And, sudden-slow, its solemn power Grows from behind its black, clear-edged bound, No spot of dark the fountain keepeth, But, swift as opening eyelids, leapeth Into a waving silver flower.

THE MOON

My soul was like the sea.

Before the moon was made, Moaning in vague immensity, Of its own strength afraid, Unresful and unstaid.

Through every rift it foamed in vain, About its earthly prison, Seeking some unknown thing in pain, And sinking restless back again, For yet no moon had risen: Its only voice a vast dumb moan, Of utterless anguish speaking, It lay unhopefully alone, And lived but in an aimless seeking.

So was my soul; but when 'twas full Of unrest to o'erloading, A voice of something beautiful Whispered a dim foreboding, And yet so soft, so sweet, so low, It had not more of joy than woe;

And, as the sea doth oft lie still, Making its waters meet, As if by an unconscious will, For the moon's silver feet, So lay my soul within mine eyes When thou, its guardian moon, didst rise.

And now, howe'er its waves above May toss and seem uneaseful, One strong, eternal law of Love, With guidance sure and peaceful, As calm and natural as breath, Moves its great deeps through life and death.

REMEMBERED MUSIC

A FRAGMENT

Thick-rus.h.i.+ng, like an ocean vast Of bisons the far prairie shaking, The notes crowd heavily and fast As surfs, one plunging while the last Draws seaward from its foamy breaking.

Or in low murmurs they began, Rising and rising momently, As o'er a harp aeolian A fitful breeze, until they ran Up to a sudden ecstasy.

And then, like minute-drops of rain Ringing in water silvery, They lingering dropped and dropped again, Till it was almost like a pain To listen when the next would be.

SONG

TO M.L.

A lily thou wast when I saw thee first, A lily-bud not opened quite, That hourly grew more pure and white, By morning, and noontide, and evening nursed: In all of nature thou hadst thy share; Thou wast waited on By the wind and sun; The rain and the dew for thee took care; It seemed thou never couldst be more fair.

A lily thou wast when I saw thee first, A lily-bud; but oh, how strange, How full of wonder was the change, When, ripe with all sweetness, thy full bloom burst!

How did the tears to my glad eyes start, When the woman-flower Reached its blossoming hour, And I saw the warm deeps of thy golden heart!

Glad death may pluck thee, but never before The gold dust of thy bloom divine Hath dropped from thy heart into mine, To quicken its faint germs of heavenly lore; For no breeze comes nigh thee but carries away Some impulses bright Of fragrance and light, Which fall upon souls that are lone and astray, To plant fruitful hopes of the flower of day.

ALLEGRA

I would more natures were like thine, That never casts a glance before, Thou Hebe, who thy heart's bright wine So lavishly to all dost pour, That we who drink forget to pine, And can but dream of bliss in store.

Thou canst not see a shade in life; With sunward instinct thou dost rise, And, leaving clouds below at strife, Gazest undazzled at the skies, With all their blazing splendors rife, A songful lark with eagle's eyes.

Thou wast some foundling whom the Hours Nursed, laughing, with the milk of Mirth; Some influence more gay than ours Hath ruled thy nature from its birth, As if thy natal stars were flowers That shook their seeds round thee on earth.

And thou, to lull thine infant rest, Wast cradled like an Indian child; All pleasant winds from south and west With lullabies thine ears beguiled, Rocking thee in thine oriole's nest, Till Nature looked at thee and smiled.

Thine every fancy seems to borrow A sunlight from thy childish years, Making a golden cloud of sorrow, A hope-lit rainbow out of tears,-- Thy heart is certain of to-morrow, Though 'yond to-day it never peers.

I would more natures were like thine, So innocently wild and free, Whose sad thoughts, even, leap and s.h.i.+ne, Like sunny wavelets in the sea, Making us mindless of the brine, In gazing on the brilliancy.

THE FOUNTAIN

Into the suns.h.i.+ne, Full of the light, Leaping and flas.h.i.+ng From morn till night;

Into the moonlight, Whiter than snow, Waving so flower-like When the winds blow;

Into the starlight Rus.h.i.+ng in spray, Happy at midnight, Happy by day;

Ever in motion, Blithesome and cheery, Still climbing heavenward, Never aweary;

Glad of all weathers, Still seeming best, Upward or downward.

Motion thy rest;

Full of a nature Nothing can tame, Changed every moment, Ever the same;

Ceaseless aspiring, Ceaseless content, Darkness or suns.h.i.+ne Thy element;

Glorious fountain.

Let my heart be Fresh, changeful, constant, Upward, like thee!

ODE