the complete poetical works-第121节
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The slumberous watchman wakes and strikes the hour;
A mellow; measured; melancholy sound。
Midnight! the outpost of advancing day!
The frontier town and citadel of night!
The watershed of Time; from which the streams
Of Yesterday and To…morrow take their way;
One to the land of promise and of light;
One to the land of darkness and of dreams!
II
O River of Yesterday; with current swift
Through chasms descending; and soon lost to sight;
I do not care to follow in their flight
The faded leaves; that on thy bosom drift!
O River of To…morrow; I uplift
Mine eyes; and thee I follow; as the night
Wanes into morning; and the dawning light
Broadens; and all the shadows fade and shift!
I follow; follow; where thy waters run
Through unfrequented; unfamiliar fields;
Fragrant with flowers and musical with song;
Still follow; follow; sure to meet the sun;
And confident; that what the future yields
Will be the right; unless myself be wrong。
III
Yet not in vain; O River of Yesterday;
Through chasms of darkness to the deep descending;
I heard thee sobbing in the rain; and blending
Thy voice with other voices far away。
I called to thee; and yet thou wouldst not stay;
But turbulent; and with thyself contending;
And torrent…like thy force on pebbles spending;
Thou wouldst not listen to a poet's lay。
Thoughts; like a loud and sudden rush of wings;
Regrets and recollections of things past;
With hints and prophecies of things to be;
And inspirations; which; could they be things;
And stay with us; and we could hold them fast;
Were our good angels;these I owe to thee。
IV
And thou; O River of To…morrow; flowing
Between thy narrow adamantine walls;
But beautiful; and white with waterfalls;
And wreaths of mist; like hands the pathway showing;
I hear the trumpets of the morning blowing;
I hear thy mighty voice; that calls and calls;
And see; as Ossian saw in Morven's halls;
Mysterious phantoms; coming; beckoning; going!
It is the mystery of the unknown
That fascinates us; we are children still;
Wayward and wistful; with one hand we cling
To the familiar things we call our own;
And with the other; resolute of will;
Grope in the dark for what the day will bring。
BOSTON
St。 Bototlph's Town! Hither across the plains
And fens of Lincolnshire; in garb austere;
There came a Saxon monk; and founded here
A Priory; pillaged by marauding Danes;
So that thereof no vestige now remains;
Only a name; that; spoken loud and clear;
And echoed in another hemisphere;
Survives the sculptured walls and painted panes。
St。 Botolph's Town! Far over leagues of land
And leagues of sea looks forth its noble tower;
And far around the chiming bells are heard;
So may that sacred name forever stand
A landmark; and a symbol of the power;
That lies concentred in a single word。
ST。 JOHN'S; CAMBRIDGE
I stand beneath the tree; whose branches shade
Thy western window; Chapel of St。 John!
And hear its leaves repeat their benison
On him; whose hand if thy stones memorial laid;
Then I remember one of whom was said
In the world's darkest hour; 〃Behold thy son!〃
And see him living still; and wandering on
And waiting for the advent long delayed。
Not only tongues of the apostles teach
Lessons of love and light; but these expanding
And sheltering boughs with all their leaves implore;
And say in language clear as human speech;
〃The peace of God; that passeth understanding;
Be and abide with you forevermore!〃
MOODS
Ohthat a Song would sing itself to me
Out of the heart of Nature; or the heart
Of man; the child of Nature; not of Art;
Fresh as the morning; salt as the salt sea;
With just enough of bitterness to be
A medicine to this sluggish mood; and start
The life…blood in my veins; and so impart
Healing and help in this dull lethargy!
Alas! not always doth the breath of song
Breathe on us。 It is like the wind that bloweth
At its own will; not ours; nor tarries long;
We hear the sound thereof; but no man knoweth
From whence it comes; so sudden and swift and strong;
Nor whither in its wayward course it goeth。
WOODSTOCK PARK
Here in a little rustic hermitage
Alfred the Saxon King; Alfred the Great;
Postponed the cares of king…craft to translate
The Consolations of the Roman sage。
Here Geoffrey Chaucer in his ripe old age
Wrote the unrivalled Tales; which soon or late
The venturous hand that strives to imitate
Vanquished must fall on the unfinished page。
Two kings were they; who ruled by right divine;
And both supreme; one in the realm of Truth;
One in the realm of Fiction and of Song。
What prince hereditary of their line;
Uprising in the strength and flush of youth;
Their glory shall inherit and prolong?
THE FOUR PRINCESSES AT WILNA
A PHOTOGRAPH
Sweet faces; that from pictured casements lean
As from a castle window; looking down
On some gay pageant passing through a town;
Yourselves the fairest figures in the scene;
With what a gentle grace; with what serene
Unconsciousness ye wear the triple crown
Of youth and beauty and the fair renown
Of a great name; that ne'er hath tarnished been!
From your soft eyes; so innocent and sweet;
Four spirits; sweet and innocent as they;
Gaze on the world below; the sky above;
Hark! there is some one singing in the street;
〃Faith; Hope; and Love! these three;〃 he seems to say;
〃These three; and greatest of the three is Love。〃
HOLIDAYS
The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart;
When the full river of feeling overflows;
The happy days unclouded to their close;
The sudden joys that out of darkness start
As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart
Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!
White as the gleam of a receding sail;
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air;
White as the whitest lily on a stream;
These tender memories are;a Fairy Tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where;
But lovely as a landscape in a dream。
WAPENTAKE
TO ALFRED TENNYSON
Poet! I come to touch thy lance with mine;
Not as a knight; who on the listed field
Of tourney touched his adversary's shield
In token of defiance; but in sign
Of homage to the mastery; which is thine;
In English song; nor will I keep concealed;
And voiceless as a rivulet frost…congealed;
My admiration for thy verse divine。
Not of the howling dervishes of song;
Who craze the brain with their delirious dance;
Art thou; O sweet historian of the heart!
Therefore to thee the laurel…leaves belong;
To thee our love and our allegiance;
For thy allegiance to the poet's art。
THE BROKEN OAR
Once upon Iceland's solitary strand
A poet wandered with his book and pen;
Seeking some final word; some sweet Amen;
Wherewith to close the volume in his hand。
The billows rolled and plunged upon the sand;
The circling sea…gulls swept beyond his ken;
And from the parting cloud…rack now and then
Flashed the red sunset over sea and land。
Then by the billows at his feet was tossed
A broken oar; and carved thereon he read;
〃Oft was I weary; when I toiled at thee〃;
And like a man; who findeth what was lost;
He wrote the words; then lifted up his head;
And flung his useless pen into the sea。
THE CROSS OF SNOW
In the long; sleepless watches of the night;
A gentle facethe face of one long dead
Looks at me from the wall; where round its head
The night…lamp casts a halo of pale light。
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight。
There is a mountain in the distant West
That; sun…defying; in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side。
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years; through all the changing scenes
And seasons; changeless since the day she died。
**************
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
FLIGHT THE FOURTH
CHARLES SUMNER
Garlands upon his grave;
And flowers upon his hearse;
And to the tender heart and brave
The tribute of this verse。
His was the troubled life;
The conflict and the pain;
The grief; the bitterness of strife;
The honor without stain。
Like Winkelried; he took
Into his manly breast
The sheaf of hostile spears; and broke
A path for the oppressed。
Then from the fatal field
Upon a nation's heart
Borne like a warrior on his shield!
So should t