As launched upon the loneliness of time We float and dream of what the waves conceal, Each like a thought that rolls with rapid zeal Succeeded by a breaker of fierce crime, Or curling passion, or a rhythm of rhyme, Or indolent ripple sighing at the keel— Beyond us, though our fretted longings reel, The lulled horizon sleeps, the still hours climb— So toss our weary ships, till from afar Our visioned island rises suddenly, Where palaces like cloudy colours are, With scented gardens terraced to the sea, The silver steps to our appointed star Where gleam the spires that pierce eternity. 1917 Many things I'd find to charm you, Books and scarves and silken socks, All the seven rainbow colours Black and white with 'broidered clocks. Then a stick of polished whalebone And a coat of tawny fur, And a row of gleaming bottles Filled with rose-water and myrrh. Rarest brandy of the 'fifties, Old liqueurs in leather kegs, Golden Sauterne, copper sherry And a nest of plover's eggs. Toys of tortoise-shell and jasper, Little boxes cut in jade; Handkerchiefs of finest cambric, Damask cloths and dim brocade. Six musicians of the Magyar, Madness making harmony; And a bed austere and narrow With a quilt from Barbary. You shall have a bath of amber, A Venetian looking-glass, And a crimson-chested parrot On a lawn of terraced grass. Then a small Tanagra statue Found anew in ruins old, Or an azure plate from Persia, Or my hair in plaits of gold; Or my scalp that like an Indian You shall carry for a purse, Or my spilt blood in a goblet ... Or a volume of my verse. 1916 |