English

Sweet Lady, I have watched thee now for years,
Taking thy stand beneath the almond tree;
When twilight fades, when the shy moon out-peers,
And stars steal out, then also cometh thee.
Yes, we are chosen friends, the stars and me;
They are so patient, and they watch so late;
They may have lovers, too. Howe'er that be,
True love can wait.

But time is fleeting, like the silver light,
The fickle light, that leaves the river's breast;
The winds are robbing blossoms of their white,—
And ah, how lonely is an empty nest!

Where Foyle his swelling waters rolls northward to the main,
Here, Queen of Erin's daughters, fair Derry fixed her reign.
A holy temple crowned her, and commerce graced her street,
A rampart wall was round her, the river at her feet;
And here she sat alone, boys, and looking from the hill
Vowed The Maiden on her throne, boys, would be a maiden still.

From Antrim crossing over in famous eighty-eight
A plumed and belted lover came to the Ferry gate:
She summoned to defend her our sires—a beardless race—

Farewell , kind heart! And if there be
In that unshored immensity
Child-Angels, they will welcome thee.

Clean-souled, clear-eyed, unspoiled, discreet,
Thou gav'st thy gifts to make Life sweet,—
These shall be flowers about thy feet!

At the end of all wrong roads I came
To the gates of the garden without a name.
There, till the spell should fail, I found
Sudden Elysium, strange with sound
Of unknown birds and waters wild
With voices unresolved for rest.
There every flower was fancy's child,
And every tree was glory's guest,
And Love, by darkness undefiled,
Went like the sun from east to west.

after five
times the poem
of thy remembrance
surprises with refrain

of unreasoning summer
that by responding
ways cloaked with renewal
my body turns toward

thee
again for the stars have been
finished in the nobler trees and
the language of leaves repeats

eventual perfection
while east deserves of dawn.
i lie at length, breathing
with shut eyes

the sweet earth where thou liest.

O Distinct
Lady of my unkempt adoration
if i have made
a fragile certain

Men heard this roar of parleying starlings, saw,
A thousand years ago even as now,
Black rooks with white gulls following the plough
So that the first are last until a caw
Commands that last are first again,—a law
Which was of old when one, like me, dreamed how
A thousand years might dust lie on his brow
Yet thus would birds do between hedge and shaw.

Time swims before me, making as a day
A thousand years, while the broad ploughland oak
Roars mill-like and men strike and bear the stroke
Of war as ever, audacious or resigned,

As we sailed on the water blue,
Whisky Johnny,
A good long pull and a strong one too,
Whisky for my Johnny.

Whisky killed my brother Tom,
Whisky Johnny,
I drink whisky all day long,
Whisky for my Johnny.

Whisky made me pawn my clothes,
Whisky Johnny,
Whisky gave me this red nose,
Whisky for my Johnny.

Whisky stole my brains away,
Whisky Johnny,
The bos'n pipes and I'll belay,
Whisky for my Johnny.

O friend—see the lightning there! it flickered, and now is gone, as though flashed a pair of hands in the pillar of crownéd cloud.
Nay, was it its blaze, or the lamps of a hermit that dwells alone, and pours o'er the twisted wicks the oil from his slender cruse?
We sat there, my fellows and I, twixt Darij and al-Udhaib, and gazed as the distance gloomed, and waited its oncoming.

The right of its mighty rain advanced over Katan's ridge: the left of its trailing skirt swept Yadhbul and as-Sitar;

Late in the month a rough east wind had sway,
The old trees thunder'd, and the dust was blown;
But other powers possess'd the night and day,
And soon he found he could not hold his own;
The merry ruddock whistled at his heart,
And strenuous blackbirds pierced his flanks with song,
Pert sparrows wrangled o'er his every part,
And thro' him shot the larks on pinions strong:
Anon a sunbeam broke across the plain,
And the wild bee went forth on booming wing—
Whereat he feeble wax'd, but rose again
With aimless rage, and idle blustering;

a white chrysanthemum—
how strange to see it
bloom in the sun