A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass. Lowell Amy. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Lowell Amy
Издательство: Bookwire
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Жанр произведения: Языкознание
Год издания: 0
isbn: 4057664654359
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on this book.

       For it contains a song surpassing thine,

       Richer, more sweet, more poignant. And the poet

       Who felt this burning beauty, and whose heart

       Was full of loveliest things, sang all he knew

       A little while, and then he died; too frail

       To bear this untamed, passionate burst of song.

       Table of Contents

      Glinting golden through the trees,

       Apples of Hesperides!

       Through the moon-pierced warp of night

       Shoot pale shafts of yellow light,

       Swaying to the kissing breeze

       Swings the treasure, golden-gleaming,

       Apples of Hesperides!

       Far and lofty yet they glimmer,

       Apples of Hesperides!

       Blinded by their radiant shimmer,

       Pushing forward just for these;

       Dew-besprinkled, bramble-marred,

       Poor duped mortal, travel-scarred,

       Always thinking soon to seize

       And possess the golden-glistening

       Apples of Hesperides!

       Orbed, and glittering, and pendent,

       Apples of Hesperides!

       Not one missing, still transcendent,

       Clustering like a swarm of bees.

       Yielding to no man's desire,

       Glowing with a saffron fire,

       Splendid, unassailed, the golden

       Apples of Hesperides!

       Table of Contents

      April had covered the hills

       With flickering yellows and reds,

       The sparkle and coolness of snow

       Was blown from the mountain beds.

       Across a deep-sunken stream

       The pink of blossoming trees,

       And from windless appleblooms

       The humming of many bees.

       The air was of rose and gold

       Arabesqued with the song of birds

       Who, swinging unseen under leaves,

       Made music more eager than words.

       Of a sudden, aslant the road,

       A brightness to dazzle and stun,

       A glint of the bluest blue,

       A flash from a sapphire sun.

       Blue-birds so blue, 't was a dream,

       An impossible, unconceived hue,

       The high sky of summer dropped down

       Some rapturous ocean to woo.

       Such a colour, such infinite light!

       The heart of a fabulous gem,

       Many-faceted, brilliant and rare.

       Centre Stone of the earth's diadem!

      . … .

       Centre Stone of the Crown of the World,

       "Sincerity" graved on your youth!

       And your eyes hold the blue-bird flash,

       The sapphire shaft, which is truth.

       Table of Contents

      Life is a stream

       On which we strew

       Petal by petal the flower of our heart;

       The end lost in dream,

       They float past our view,

       We only watch their glad, early start.

       Freighted with hope,

       Crimsoned with joy,

       We scatter the leaves of our opening rose;

       Their widening scope,

       Their distant employ,

       We never shall know. And the stream as it flows

       Sweeps them away,

       Each one is gone

       Ever beyond into infinite ways.

       We alone stay

       While years hurry on,

       The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays.

       Table of Contents

      As one who sails upon a wide, blue sea

       Far out of sight of land, his mind intent

       Upon the sailing of his little boat,

       On tightening ropes and shaping fair his course,

       Hears suddenly, across the restless sea,

       The rhythmic striking of some towered clock,

       And wakes from thoughtless idleness to time:

       Time, the slow pulse which beats eternity!

       So through the vacancy of busy life

       At intervals you cross my path and bring

       The deep solemnity of passing years.

       For you I have shed bitter tears, for you

       I have relinquished that for which my heart

       Cried out in selfish longing. And to-night

       Having just left you, I can say: "'T is well.

       Thank God that I have known a soul so true,

       So nobly just, so worthy to be loved!"

       Table of Contents

      Stupefy my heart to every day's monotony,

       Seal up my eyes, I would not look so far,

       Chasten my steps to peaceful regularity,

       Bow down my head lest I behold a star.

       Fill my days with work, a thousand calm necessities

       Leaving no moment to consecrate to hope,

       Girdle my thoughts within the dull circumferences

       Of facts which form the actual in one short hour's scope.

       Give me dreamless sleep, and loose night's power over me,

       Shut my ears to sounds only tumultuous then,