"And will you cut a stone for him,
To set above his head?
And will you cut a stone for him--
A stone for him?" she said.
Three days before, a splintered rock
Had struck her lover dead--
Had struck him in the quarry dead,
Where, careless of a warning call,
He loitered, while the shot was fired--
......
THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QUEENE
Contayning
THE LEGENDE OF THE KNIGHT OF THE
RED CROSSE, OR OF HOLINESSEProemi
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses having slept in silence long,
......
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
......
I
We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage
And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die,
We Poets of the proud old lineage
Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why, -
What shall we tell you? Tales, marvellous tales
Of ships and stars and isles where good men rest,
Where nevermore the rose of sunset pales,
And winds and shadows fall towards the West:
......
He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.
About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,-
......
My gaze is turned above.
Trees fall down and streets elope and face follows a frown,
Of straight along and circly roads won't further mark my path,
So step for step just past the grass and you there somewhere dad
But the light that fills my eyes is still so rare and so delight,
Why as I reach the follow rise and walk to watch her dream,
The slide gathers like a woven thread just knitted by the beam
......
MULBERRY TREES AND BUTTERFLIES
Don’t go back to heavy sleep
dwell in wakefulness
of I AM THAT I AM
here mulberries and butterflies
beckon across filtered fences
which you can comely climb
for a bountiful bestowing
pick, a Sunday spongy
......
Soon dawn at plum morn
though pearly moon still keeps watch,
for the golden end.
Afternoon's recalled in dreams
adorned in wild color schemes.
Memory Lane sleeps
as orange noon is coming,
after dusk scarlet.
Lemon-lime hours revisit
......
Hues of pink and purple tuck the day,
Now fading into gray—
A fragile husk, an empty shell,
Now quiet in the dusk.
Soft, wispy clouds of fluff drift low and slow,
Their curves kissed by a golden glow.
They blush and hush, then pale with grace,
As dusk begins to take their place.
They cradle your silent ache,
The weight you never dared to wake.
......
The elderly Elmer Brown dwelled alone, like a solitary tree on a hill,
Loving quiet, glazed life still, in burgundy, sunset moments of until.
A widower, Elmer Brown had generations of offspring, living far away,
Feeling fresh, foreign breezes, in fruitful terrains, younger than today.
Though retired, Elmer had his hobbies, which gave much satisfaction;
Like a storm of sudden, scathing terror, afore a red hot sun reaction.
Elmer's friends told tales, of truth and fiction; like dream chronicles.
......