45-99 (8 96 ^ Dixon Songs and Odes THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES \ in mathe ws't^shillin ggq rJan d Elkin Mathews' Shilling Garland Price One Shilling, net, each pmt. No. I. LONDON VISIONS: Book I. By Lau- rence BiNYON. {Second Edition. " Mr. Binyon leads off in Mr. Elkin Mathews' new poetical series . • . with a book of new verses, ' London Visions,' and there seems to me to be no questioii about the uncommon worth of these. . . • They are twelve geiiuine things cut out of the heart of London life, and some of them are poems of a big order. . . . The stuff of poetry is in him, as it is in few of our pleasant verse writers to-day ; and I doubt if any of the London poets — I am not forgetting Mr. Henley — has put so much of actual London into his poetry. " — Sketch. "A gravity and gentleness of thought and feeling, warm sym- pathies, and a power of making us see pictures, mark all the twelve poems here. . . . His verse impresses us more than that of many stormier, more brilliant singers. We shall look with eager- ness for his Second Book of Visions. " — Bookman. j " Mr. Elkin Mathews has had many happy ideas from the timp he started the little Mecca of Vigo Street, which will figure largelV in the future history of literature in the late nineteenth century! One does not remember any better notion than this of shilling voli umes of new poetry. . . . Any one who has even the faintesl love of poetry should buy this splendid shillingsworth — a thing o| Ijeauly clad in brown paper, decorated as only Mr. Selwyn Image knows how. Apart from the certainty of its being a much sought after volume in coming days, it is genuine true currency,, pure gold, loyally and well wrought."— ^W«<7/?«^. No. 2. PURCELL COMMEMORATION ODE, and other Poems. By Robert Bridges. {Second Edition. No. 3. CHRIST IN HADES, and other Poems. By Stephen Phillips. [Second Edition. "It is a wonderful dream, a dream that stirs the heart in •Almost every line, though Christ himself never utters a word SONGS AND ODES SONGS AND ODES BY R. W. DIXON LONDON KLKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET 1896 The Publisher is glad to be allowed ro offer this sele6lion from Canon Dixon's Lyrical Poems to the public in a cheap form. With three exceptions they are all of them taken from Mr. Daniel's rare volumes dated 1884 and 1887, which have been long out of print. E. M. SONGS AND ODES SONG The feathers of the willow Are half of them grown yellow Above the swelling stream ; And ragged are the bushes, And rusty now the rushes, And wild the clouded gleam. The thistle now is older, His stalk begins to moulder, His head is white as snow ; The branches all are barer. The linnet's song is rarer, The robin pipeth now. 861174: SONGS AND ODES THE SPIRIT WOOED Art thou gone so far, Beyond the poplar tops, beyond the sunset-bar, Beyond the purple cloud that swells on high In the tender fields of sky ? Leanest thou thy head On sunset's golden breadth ? is thy wide hair spread To his solemn kisses ? Yet grow thou not pale As he pales and dies : nor more my eyes avail To search his cloud-drawn bed. O come thou again ! Be seen on the filling slope : let thy footsteps pass Where the river cuts with his blue scythe the grass : Be heard in the voice that across the river comes From the distant wood, even when the stilly rain Is made to cease by light winds : come again, As out of yon grey glooms, When the cloud grows luminous and shiftily riven. SONGS AND ODES ^ Forth comes the moon, the sweet surprise of heaven : And her footfall light Drops on the multiplied wave : her face is seen In evening's pallor green : And she waxes bright With the death of the tinted air : yea, brighter grows In sunset's gradual close. To earth from heaven comes she. So come thou to me. Oh, lay thou thy head i On sunset's breadth of gold, thy hair bespread In his solemn kisses : but grow thou not pale As he pales and dies, lest eye no more avail To search thy cloud-drawn bed. Can the weeping eye Always feel ligh^ through mists that never dry? Can empty arms alone for ever fill Enough the breast ? Can echo answer still When the voice has ceased to cry ? SONGS AND ODES TO FANCY I AM here for thee, Art thou there for me? Or, traitress to my watchful heart. Dost thou from rock and wave depart And from the desolate sea? I am here for thee. Art thou there for me ? Or, Fancy, with thy wondrous smile Wilt thou no more my eyes beguile Betwixt the clouds and sea ? I am here for thee : Art thou there for me ? Spirit of brightness, shy and sweet ! My eyes thy glimmering robe would meet Above the glimmering sea. My little skill, My passionate will Are here : Where art thou ? Spirit, bow From darkening cloud thy heavenly brow Ere sinks the ebbing sea. SONGS AND ODES SONG If thou wast still, O stream, Thou wouldst be frozen now : And 'neath an icy shield Thy current warm would flow. But wild thou art and rough ; And so the bitter breeze. That chafes thy shuddering waves. May never bid thee freeze. lO SONGS AND ODES SONG Why fadest thou in death, Oh yellow waning tree ? Gentle is autumn's breath, And green the oak by thee. But with each wind that sighs The leaves from thee take wina; ; And bare thy branches rise Above their drifted ring. SONGS AND ODES n THE FALL OF THE LEAF Rise in their place the woods: the trees have cast, Like earth to earth, their children : now they stand Above the graves where He their very last : Each pointing with her empty hand And mourning o'er the russet floor, Naked and dispossessed ; The queenly sycamore, The linden, and the aspen, and the rest. But thou, fair birch, doubtful to laugh or weep, Who timorously dost keep From the sad fallen ring thy face away ; Wouldst thou look to the heavens that wander grey, The unstilled clouds, slow mounting on their way? They not regard thee, neither do they send 13 SONGS AND ODES One breath to wake thy sighs, nor gently tend Thy sorrow or thy smile to passion's end. Lo, there on high the unlighted moon is hung, A cloud among the clouds : she giveth pledge. Which none from hope debars, Of hours that shall the naked boughs refledge In seasons high : her drifted train among Musing she leads the silent song. Grave mistress of white clouds, as lucid queen of stars. SONGS AND ODES 13 TO A BRAMBLE IN WINTER Oh thou that sinkest lower, changing now Into a vermeil russet thy green brow, Is then the youth, that once shone clear and bright, Within thee still ? Need I but think aright, And in thy weak leaves, bibulous of rain, And flaccid stem, I shall behold again The trim, thorn-guarded vigour of thy prime. And the green boldness of thy summer time, Which dashed Jove's shower from thine unaltered face, And still maintained thy reappearing grace, When the winds shook, but could not rifle thee ? Oh still would I believe thee blithe and free, See thy flowers still, and then thy cherished germ Nodding to ripeness all the summer's term. And richly deepening : still would I confess In later months thy freshness not the less When all were trembling, when the beech turned brown. And life's last relics sought the foxglove's crown, 14 SONGS AND ODES As sunk the year. But now, alas, behold How droop th.y fans ! Some secret touch of cold Trails thy rings lower, and relaxes all The brave-spread stiffness of thy banners tall. The bird that on thy shaken coil may light Trusts not his little weight to thy weak might, But beats his wings till he may spring from thee. Playfellow of the winds no more, thy glee Invites them not : the dark heaven-wandering rain Or smites or spares thee with the like disdain. SONGS AND ODES 15 BOTH LESS AND MORE I RODE my horse to the hostel gate, And the landlord fed it with corn and hay : His eyes were blear, he limped in his gait, His lip hung down, his hair was grey. I entered in the wayside inn ; And the landlady met me without a smile ; Her dreary dress was old and thin. Her face was full of piteous guile. There they had been for threescore years : There was none to tell them they were great : Not one to tell of our hopes and fears ; And not far oft' was the churchyard gate. i6 SONGS AND ODES life and death Life — I AM the daughter of Time, And twin to my brother Death : Where I am, there is he. Space to the star, to the earth her ch'me, I make by my breath : To the heart its beat. The world's circumference I take for my seat : Nor less man's pageantry. His ring of sense. Round the one on guard The stars keep burning ward : The other is made sure By phantoms I conjure. Vermilion, saffron, white, Weave ever my delight. Lest Death should disenchant Those whom I fain would haunt. SONGS AND ODES Death — I am the brother of Life : Of old she named me Strife. In sorrow and in tears I ruin what she rears. She is a sorceress Of might, of skill not less : Who by her magic power Gathers from hour to hour Grains from the infinite : And in them skills to write The knowledge that they are. Then pain and pleasure war Within them, till I come And redissolve her sum. Forth from her painted hall Her slaves I disenthrall : But when I come to break The subtle bond, they shriek. 17 i8 SONGS AND ODES TERROR Touch me not with fiery wand, If the spell is in thine handj Neither drag me by the wrist Through the valley full of mist. I will sit with thee beneath The arbour of the trees of death, Where from the spotted laurel bov/er Creeps the ivy's snaky flower. SONGS AND ODES 19 SONG Oh, what shall lift the night, The lightning or the moon ? There is no other light, The day is gone too soon. The lightning with his flash An instant and no more. Is as an angel's lash Smiting the dusk-loved shore. The moon with trembling light From her pale shell of sleep Shall kindlier break the night Of yon thick clouds that weep. 20 SONGS AND ODES UNREST Day is again begun By the unresting sun : Morning o'er all the lands Rises with clasped hands: And in the increasing light Sickens the Moon of night : For darkness leaves her there To linger pale and bare, Till fullest light, more kind, From view her form shall wind. But in this rising morn Muse not on things forlorn. Knowing thyself the thrall Of life beyond them all. Another day shall pass Like yesterday that was ; Another night shall come. Like the last perished gloom : And thou shalt never rest. Nor yet attain thy quest: But, like thy verv earth, SONGS AND ODES 21 Betwixt dark death, dark birth, Speed, and not know thy speed, While days and nights recede : Thy seeming rest to be Gyres in immensity. The paces of thy strength Small measures of fate's length : Thy will revolving still Against the heavenly will : Thy waste or use of powers Predestined to their hours : And thou thyself? — The sob Of pallid lips, the throb Of every heart this day, By which life ebbs away. And yet by which life lives, — Ah, this thy emblem gives. 22 SONGS AND ODES ODE ON CONFLICTING CLAIMS Hast thou no right to joy, Oh youth grown old, who palest with the thought Of the measureless annoy. The pain and havoc wrought By Fate on man : and of the many men The unfed, the untaught. Who groan beneath that adamantine chain Whose tightness kills, whose slackness whips the flow Of waves of futile woe : Hast thou no right to joy ? Thou thinkest in thy mind In thee it were unkind To revel in the liquid Hyblian store. While more and more the horror and the shame. The pity and the woe grow more and more, Persistent still to claim The filling of thy mind. SONGS AND ODES 23 Thou thlnkest that if none in all the rout Who compass thee about Turn full their soul to that which thou desirest, Nor seek to gain thy goal, Beauty, the heart of beauty, The sweetness, yea, the thoughtful sweetness. The one right way in each, the best, Which satisfies the soul, The firmness lost in softness, the touch of typical meetness. Which lets the soul have rest ; Those things to which thyself aspirest: — That they, though born to quaff the bowl divine. As thou art, yield to the strift law of duty ; And thou from them must thine example take, Leave the amaranthine ^vine. And the prized joy forsake. Oh thou, forgone in this, Long struggling with a world that is amiss. Reach some old volume down. Some poet's book, which in thy bygone years, Thou hast consumed with joys as keen as fears, When o'er it thou wouldst hang with rapturous frown. Admiring with sweet envy all The exquisite of words, the lance-like fall Of mighty verses, each on each, The sweetness which did ne\'er cloy. 24 SONGS AND ODES (So wrought of thought ere touched with speech), And ask again. Hast thou no right to joy. Take the most precious tones that thunderstruck thine ears In gentler days gone by : And if they yield no more the old ecstasy, Then give thyself to tears. SONGS AND ODES 25 1; MERCY Earth, sad earth, thou roamest Through the day and night ; Weary with the darkness. Weary with the light. Clouds of hanging judgment, And the cloud that weeps for me. Swell above the mountain, Strive above the sea. But, sad earth, thou knowest All my love for thee; Therefore thou dost welcome The cloud that weeps for me. 36 SONGS AND ODES ODE ON ADVANCING AGE Thou goest more and more To the silent things : thy hair is hoar, Emptier thy weary face : Hlce to the shore Far-ruined, and the desolate billow white, That recedes and leaves^it waif-wrinkled, gap- rocked, weak. : The shore and the billow white Groan, they cry and rest not : they would speak, And call the eternal Night To cease them for ever, bidding new things issue From her cold tissue : Night, that is ever young, nor knows decay, Though older by eternity than they. Go down upon the shore. The breakers dash, the smitten spray drops to \ the roar; The spit upsprings, and drops again, Where'er the white waves clash in the main. . Their sound is but one : 'tis the cry That has risen from of old to: the sky. SONGS AND ODES 27 'Tis their silence ! Go now from the shore Far-ruined : the grey shingly floor To thy crashing step answers ; the doteril cries, And on dipping wing flies : 'Tis their silence ! And thou, oh thou To that wild silence sinkest now. No more remains to thee than the cry of silence, the cry Of the waves, of the shore, of the bird to the sicy. Thy bald eyes neath as bald a brow Ask but what Nature gives To the inarticulate cries Of the waves, of the shore, of the bird. Earth in earth thou art being interred : No longer in thee lives The lordly essence, which was unlike all. That was thy flower of soul, the imperial Glory that separated thee From all others that might be. Thy dog hath died before. Didst thou not mark him ; did he not negleft What roused his rapture once, but still loved thee ? Till, weaker grown, was he not fain rejeft Thy pitying hand, thy meat and drink, For all thou couldst implore ? Then, at the last, how mournfully 28 SONGS AND ODES Did not his eyelids sink With wearied sighs? He sought at last that never-moving night Which is the same in darkness as in light, The closing of the eyes. So, Age, thou dealest us. To the elements : but no ! Resume thy pride, O man, that musest thus. Be to the end vi^hat thou hast been before : The ancient joy shall v^^rap thee still — the tide Return upon the shore. SONGS AND ODES 29 SONG Through the clearness of heaven to the north The sun casts his ceaseless rays : And all day the clouds come forth To float in the azure blaze. They come o'er the long long hill, That is yellow with corn to see, Whose head wears the merry windmill. Whose foot turns the watermill free. 30 SONGS AND ODES SONG In the heart of the thorn is the thrush, On its breast is the blossom of May : On its knees is the head of the rush, At its feet are the buttercups gay. SONGS AND ODES 31 WINTER WILL FOLLOW The heaving roses of the hedge are stirred By the sweet breath of summer, and the bird Makes from within his jocund carols heard. The winds that kiss the roses sweep the sea Of uncut grass, whose billows rolling free Half drown the hedges which part lea from lea. But soon shall look the wondering roses down Upon an empty field cut close and brown. That lifts no more its hight against their own. And in a little while those roses bright. Leaf after leaf, shall flutter from their hight, And on the reaped field lie pink and white. And yet again the bird that sings so high Shall ask the snow for alms with piteous cry, Take fright in his bewildering bower, and die. U. •- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. lii if4«j' 7-4 4-9 JUN 301984 )rm L9-50?n-7, '54 (5990)444 iJNiv —- f\t\ UUW