Poems in Unrhymed Cadence
I
London, my beautiful,
It is not the sunset
Nor the pale green sky
Shimmering through the curtain
Of the silver birch,
Nor the quietness;
It is not the hopping
Of the little birds
Upon the lawn,
Nor the darkness
Stealing over all things
That moves me.
But as the moon creeps slowly
Over the tree-tops
Among the stars,
I think of her
And the glow her passing
Sheds on men.
London, my beautiful,
I will climb
Into the branches
To the moonlit tree-tops,
That my blood may be cooled
By the wind.
II
Under the lily shadow
And the gold
And the blue and mauve
That the whin and the lilac
Pour down on the water,
The fishes quiver.
Over the green cold leaves
And the rippled silver
And the tarnished copper
Of its neck and beak,
Toward the deep black water
Beneath the arches,
The swan floats slowly.
Into the dark of the arch the swan floats
And the black depth of my sorrow
Bears a white rose of flame.
III—In The Garden
The grass is beneath my head;
And I gaze
At the thronging stars
In the aisles of night.
They fall... they fall. . . .
I am overwhelmed,
And afraid.
Each little leaf of the aspen
Is caressed by the wind,
And each is crying.
And the perfume
Of invisible roses
Deepens the anguish.
Let a strong mesh of roots
Feed the crimson of roses
Upon my heart;
And then fold over the hollow
Where all the pain was.
