Rose Leaf and Apple Leaf Part 3

ON THE BORDER HILLS

So the dark shadows deepen in the trees That crown the border mountains, all the air Is filled with mist-begotten phantasies, Shaped and transfigured in the sunset glare.

What wildly spurring warrior-wraiths are these?

What tossing headgear, and what red-gold hair?

What lances flas.h.i.+ng, what far trumpet's blare That dies along the desultory breeze?

Slow night comes creeping with her misty wings Up to the hill's crest, where the yew trees grow; About their shadow-haunted circle clings The rumour of an unrecorded woe, Old as the battle of those border kings Slain in the darkling hollow-lands below.

1881.

SONGS

LONG AFTER

I see your white arras gliding, In music o'er the keys, Long drooping lashes hiding A blue like summer seas: The sweet lips wide asunder, That tremble as you sing, I could not choose but wonder, You seemed so fair a thing.

For all these long years after The dream has never died, I still can hear your laughter, Still see you at my side; One lily hiding under The waves of golden hair; I could not choose but wonder, You were so strangely fair.

I keep the flower you braided Among those waves of gold, The leaves are sere and faded, And like our love grown old.

Our lives have lain asunder, The years are long, and yet, I could not choose but wonder.

I cannot quite forget.

1880.

"WHERE THE RHONE GOES DOWN TO THE SEA"

A sweet still night of the vintage time, Where the Rhone goes down to the sea; The distant sound of a midnight chime Comes over the wave to me.

Only the hills and the stars o'erhead Bring back dreams of the days long dead, While the Rhone goes down to the sea.

The years are long, and the world is wide, And we all went down to the sea; The ripples splash as we onward glide, And I dream they are here with me-- All lost friends whom we all loved so, In the old mad life of long ago, Who all went down to the sea.

So we pa.s.sed in the golden days With the summer down to the sea.

They wander still over weary ways, And come not again to me.

I am here alone with the night wind's sigh, The fading stars, and a dream gone by, And the Rhone going down to the sea.

1880.

A SONG OF AUTUMN

All through the golden weather Until the autumn fell, Our lives went by together So wildly and so well.--

But autumn's wind uncloses The heart of all your flowers, I think as with the roses, So hath it been with ours.

Like some divided river Your ways and mine will be, --To drift apart for ever, For ever till the sea.

And yet for one word spoken, One whisper of regret, The dream had not been broken And love were with us yet.

1880.

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The autumn wind goes sighing Through the quivering aspen tree, The swallows will be flying Toward their summer sea; The grapes begin to sweeten On the trellised vine above, And on my brows have beaten The little wings of love.

Oh wind if you should meet her You will whisper all I sing!

Oh swallow fly to greet her, And bring me word in spring!

1881.

ATALANTA

Wait not along the sh.o.r.e, they will not come; The suns go down beyond the windy seas, Those weary sails shall never wing them home O'er this white foam; No voice from these On any landward wind that dies among the trees.

Gone south, it may be, rudderless, astray, Gone where the winds and ocean currents bore, Out of all tracks along the sea's highway This many a day, To some far sh.o.r.e Where never wild seas break, or any fierce winds roar.

For there are lands ye never recked of yet Between the blue of stormless sea and sky, Beyond where any suns of yours have set, Or these waves fret; And loud winds die In cloudless summertide, where those far islands lie.

They will not come! for on the coral sh.o.r.e The good s.h.i.+p lies, by little waves caressed, All stormy ways and wanderings are o'er, No more, no more!

But long sweet rest, In cool green meadow-lands, that lie along the West.

Or if beneath far fathom depths of waves She lies heeled over by the slow tide's sweep, Deep down where never any swift sea raves, Through ocean caves, A dreaming deep Of softly gliding forms, a glimmering world of sleep.

Then have they pa.s.sed beyond the outer gate Through death to knowledge of all things, and so From out the silence of their unknown fate They bid us wait, Who only know That twixt their loves and ours the great seas ebb and flow.

THE DAISY