PR 
 
 6037 
 
 T4 
 
 L6 
 
 1909a 
 
 MAIN 
 
 1DD SD3 
 
THE LONELY GOD 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES STEPHENS 
 
 Neto gorfc 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1909 
 
 All rights reserved 
 

 T4 
 
 «;oi*YBi(riiT, iyuy, 
 Bt THE MaCMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published 
 
 ; i909- 
 
 £4-#9&<v 
 
 Uorfoooti ^re«3 
 
 J. 8. Cashing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
 
 Norwood, Ma»D., U.S.A. 
 
THE LONELY GOD 
 
 i 
 So Eden was deserted, and at eve 
 Into the quiet place God came to grieve. 
 His face was sad: His hands hung slackly 
 
 down 
 Along His robe. Too sorrowful to frown, 
 He paced along the grassy paths and through 
 The silent trees, and where the flowers grew, 
 Tended by Adam. All the birds had gone 
 Out to the world, and singing was not one 
 To cheer the Lonely God out of His grief — 
 The silence broken only when a leaf 
 Tap't lightly on a leaf, or when the wind, 
 Slow-handed, swayed the bushes to its mind. 
 
2 THE LONELY GOD 
 
 II 
 
 And so along the base of a round hill, 
 Rolling in fern, He bent His way until 
 He neared the little hut which Adam made, 
 And saw its dusky roof-tree overlaid 
 With greenest leaves. Here Adam and his 
 
 spouse 
 Were wont to nestle in their little house 
 Snug at the dew-time: here He, standing sad, 
 Sighed with the wind, nor any pleasure had 
 In heav'nly knowledge, for His darlings twain 
 Had gone from Him to learn the feel of pain, 
 And what was meant by sorrow and despair 
 
 — Drear knowledge for a Father to prepare. 
 
 in 
 Then, sad, He looked upon the little place 
 
 — A beehive round it was — with not a 
 
 trace 
 
THE LONELY GOD 3 
 
 Of occupant or owner: standing dim 
 Among the gloomy trees it seemed to Him 
 A final desolation, the last word 
 Wherewith the lips of silence had been stirred. 
 Chaste and remote, so tiny and so shy, 
 So new withal, so lost to any eye, 
 So pac't of memorie:. all innocent 
 Of days and nights that in it had been spent 
 In blithe communion, Adam, Eve and He 
 Afar from heaven and its gaudery. 
 
 IV 
 
 And now no more! He still must be the God, 
 But not the Friend: a Father with a rod 
 Whose voice was fear, whose countenance a 
 
 threat, 
 Whose coming terror and whose going wet 
 With penitential tears: not ever more 
 Would they run forth to meet Him, as 
 
 before, 
 
4 t THE LONELY GOB 
 
 With careless laughter, striving each to be 
 First to His hand, and dancing in their glee 
 To see Him coming — they would hide in- 
 stead 
 At His approach, or stand and hang the head, 
 Speaking in whispers, and would learn to 
 
 pray 
 Instead of asking ""Father, if we may." 
 
 Never again to Eden would He haste 
 
 At cool of evening, when the sun had paced 
 
 Back from the tree-tops, slanting from the 
 
 rim 
 Of a low cloud, what time the twilight dim 
 Knit tree to tree in shadow, gathering slow 
 Till all had met and vanished in the flow 
 Of dusky silence, and a brooding star 
 Stared at the growing darkness from afar. 
 
THE LONELY^ GOD 5 
 
 While haply now and then some nested bird 
 Would lift upon the air a slp_py word 
 Most musical, or swing its airy bed 
 To the high moon that drifted overhead. 
 
 VI 
 
 'Twas good to quit at even His great throne, 
 To lay His crown aside, and all alone 
 Down sloping through the quiet air to glide, 
 Unkenned by angels, silently and hide 
 In the green fields, by dappled shades where 
 
 brooks 
 Through leafy solitudes and quiet nooks 
 Flowed, hid from heav'nly majesty and pride, 
 From light astounding and the wheeling 
 
 wide 
 Of roaring stars. Thus does it ever seem 
 Good to the best to stray aside and dream 
 In narrow places, where the hand can feel 
 Something beside and know that it is real. 
 
(5 THE LONELY GOD 
 
 p 
 
 VII 
 
 His angels! silly creatures who could sing, 
 And sing again, and delicately fling 
 The smoky censer, bow and stand aside 
 In muted adoration; thronging wide 
 Till nowhere could He look, but soon He saw 
 An angel bending humbly to the law 
 Mechanic; knowing nothing more of pain 
 Than when they were forbid to sing again, 
 Or swing anew the censer or bow down 
 In humble adoration of His frown. 
 This was the thought in Eden as He trod 
 . . . It is a lonely thing to be a God. 
 
 VIII 
 
 So long! afar through Time He bent His 
 
 mind 
 For the beginning which He could not 
 find. 
 
THE LONELY GOD < 
 
 Through endless centuries and backwards 
 
 still, 
 Endless for ever, till His 'stonied will 
 Halted in circles, dizzied in the swing 
 Of mazy nothingness — His mind could 
 
 bring 
 Not to subjection, grip, or hold the theme 
 Whose wide horizon melted like a dream 
 To thinnest edges. Infinite -behind 
 The piling centuries were trodden blind 
 In gulfs chaotic — so He could not see 
 When He was not who always had To Be. 
 
 IX 
 
 Not even Godly Fortitude can stave 
 
 Into Eternity, nor easy bear 
 
 The insolent vacuity of Time: 
 
 It is too much, the mind can never climb 
 
 Up to its meaning, for, without an end, 
 
 Without beginning, plan, or scope, or trend 
 
8 THE LONELY GOD 
 
 To point a path, there nothing is to hold 
 And steady surmise: so the mind is rolled 
 And swayed and drowned in dull Immensity. 
 Eternity outfaces even Me 
 With its indiff'rence, and the fruitless year 
 Would swing as fruitless were I never here. 
 
 x 
 
 And so forever, day and night the same, 
 
 Years flying swiftly nowhere, like a game 
 Played random by a madman — without end 
 Or any reasoned object but to spend 
 What is unspendable '— Eternal Woe! 
 O Weariness of Time that fast or slow 
 Goes never farther, never has in view 
 An ending to the thing it seeks to do, 
 And so does nothing: merely ebb and flow 
 From nowhere into nowhere, touching so 
 The shores of many stars, and passing on, 
 Careless of what may co.ae or what has gone. 
 
THE LOS ELY GOD . ( .> 
 
 XI 
 
 O solitude unspeakable! to be 
 For ever with oneself, never to see 
 An equal face or feel an equal hand, 
 To sit in state and issue reprimand, 
 Admonishment or glory, and to smile 
 Disdaining what was happening the while. 
 to be breast to breast against a foe! 
 Against a friend! To strive and not to know 
 The laboured outcome: Love nor be aware 
 How much the other loved and greatly care 
 With angry passion for that love or hate, 
 Nor know what joy or dole was hid in Fate. 
 
 XII 
 
 For I have ranged the spacy widths and 
 
 gone 
 Swift north and south, and strove to look 
 upon 
 
10 THE LONELY GOD 
 
 An ending somewhere. Many days I sped ' 
 Hard to the west, a thousand years I fled 
 Eastwards in fury, but I could not find 
 The fringes of the Infinite. Behind 
 And yet behind, and ever at the end 
 Came new beginnings, paths that did not 
 
 wend 
 To anywhere were there; and ever vast 
 And vaster spaces opened till at last, 
 Dizzied with distance, thrilling to a pain 
 Unnameable, I turned to Heaven again. 
 
 XIII 
 
 And there my angels were prepared to fling 
 The cloudy incense, there prepared to sing 
 My praise and glory — O in fury I 
 Then roared them senseless, then threw down 
 
 the sky 
 And stamped upon it, buffeted a star 
 With my great fist, and flung the sun afar: 
 
THE LOS FAY GOD 11 
 
 Shouted my anger till the mighty sound 
 Rung to the width, frighting the furthest 
 
 bound 
 And scope of hearing: tumult vaster still, 
 Thronging the echo, dinned my ears until 
 I fled in silence, seeking some dark place 
 To hide Me from the very thought of Space. 
 
 XIV 
 
 And so, thought He, in my own image I 
 Have made a man, remote from heaven high 
 And all its humble angels. I have poured 
 My essence in his nostrils. I have cored 
 His heart with my own spirit. Part of Me 
 His mind with laboured growth unceasingly 
 Must strive to equal Mine, must ever grow 
 By virtue of my essence till he know 
 Both Good and Evil through the solemn 
 
 test 
 Of Sin and Retribution, till, with zest, 
 
12 THE LONELY GOD 
 
 He feels his godhead, soars to challenge Me 
 In mine own heaven for supremacy. 
 
 xv 
 Through savage beasts and still more savage 
 
 clay, 
 Invincible, I bid him fight a way 
 To greater battles; crawling through defeat 
 Into defeat again; ordained to meet 
 Disaster in disaster; prone to fall, 
 I prick him with my memory to call 
 Defiance at his victor, and arise 
 With anguished fury to his greater size. 
 Through tribulation, terror and despair, 
 Astounded, he must fight to higher air, 
 Climb battle into battle till he be 
 Confronted with a flaming sword and Me. 
 
 XVI 
 
 So growing age by age to greater strength, 
 To greater beauty, skill and deep intent: 
 
THE LONELY GOD 13 
 
 With wisdom wrung from pain, with energy 
 Nourished in Sin and Sorrow he will be 
 Strong, pure and proud an enemy to meet 
 Tremendous on a battlefield, or sweet 
 To talk to as a friend with candid mind. 
 — Dear Enemy or Friend, so hard to 
 
 find, 
 I yet shall find you, yet shall put My breast 
 In enmity or love against your breast: 
 Shall srnite or clasp with equal ecstacy 
 Thy Enemy or Friend who grows to Me. 
 
 XVII 
 
 The topmost blossom of his growing I 
 Shall take unto Me, cherish and lift high 
 Beside Myself upon My holy Throne: 
 
 - It is not good for God to be alone. 
 The perfect Woman of his perfect race 
 Shall sit beside Me in the highest place 
 
14 THE LONELY GOD 
 
 And be My Goddess, Queen, Companion, 
 
 Wife, 
 The rounder of My majesty, the life 
 Of My ambition She will smile to see 
 Me bending down to worship at her knee 
 Who never bent before, and she will say 
 "Dear God, who was it taught Thee how to 
 
 pray?" 
 
 XVIII 
 
 And through Eternity, adown the slope 
 
 Of never-ending Time, compact of hope, 
 Of zest and young enjoyment, I and She 
 
 Will walk together, sowing jollity 
 
 Among the raving stars, and laughter through 
 
 The vacancies, of heaven, till the blue 
 
 Vast amplitudes of Space lift up a song, 
 
 The echo of our presence, rolled along 
 
 And ever rolling where the Planets sing, 
 
 The majesty and glory of the King. 
 
THE LONELY GOD 15 
 
 Then, conquered, thou Eternity, shall lie 
 Under My hand as little as a fly 
 
 XIX 
 
 I am the Master. I the Mighty God 
 And you my Workshop. Your pavilions trod 
 By Me and Mine shall never cease to be, 
 For you are but the magnitude of Me, 
 The width of My extension, the surround 
 Of My dense splendour. Rolling, rolling 
 
 round 
 To steeped Infinity and out beyond 
 My own strong comprehension you are 
 
 bond 
 And servile to My doings. Let you swing 
 More wide and ever wide you do but fling 
 Around this instant Me and measure still 
 The breadth and the proportion of My 
 
 Will. 
 
16 THE LONELY GOD 
 
 XX 
 
 Then stooping to the hut, — a beehive 
 
 round, — 
 God entered in and saw upon the ground 
 A dusty garland, Adam, learned to weave, 
 Had loving placed upon the head of Eve 
 Before the terror came, when joyous they 
 Could look for God at closing of the day 
 Profound and happy. So the Mighty Guest 
 Bent, took and placed the blossoms in His 
 
 breast. 
 "This," said He, gently, "I shall show My 
 
 Queen 
 When She hath grown to Me in space serene 
 And say, "Twas worn by Eve." So, smiling 
 
 fair, 
 He spread abroad His wings upon the air. 
 
ASTRAY 
 
 Little lady! as you walk 
 With a shy and pensive pare: 
 Little lady! as you talk 
 I am looking in your fare. 
 
 Who am I? you do not know, 
 Or you wouldn't eye me so. 
 
 Sure your step is like a wave, 
 And your voice is sweet to charm, 
 And your face, composed and grave, 
 Shows no motion of alarm. 
 Little lady! If I say 
 Who I am, you'll run away. 
 
 Little lady! I am Death, 
 
 I am sent to comfort thee: 
 17 
 
18 ASTRAY 
 
 Now you start and catch your breath 
 Lady, do not run from me. 
 
 Just awhile ago you smiled, 
 
 Little lady! Little child! 
 
 Little lady! Smile of Grace! 
 
 This is not the road for you. 
 
 This is not a fitting place. 
 
 — Once there was a Lily grew 
 In a garden. — Cease to roam, 
 I have come to bring you home. 
 
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE 
 
 I saw this is a place at the world's end 
 When He was left alone without a friend 
 
 From every place, from far and near they 
 
 came, 
 The blind and battered, and the lewd and 
 
 lame, 
 The frightened people and the helpless crew 
 Who hid in cellars, and the stragglers who 
 Dodged here and there in corners of the earth 
 Cursing the sun,""and they who from their 
 
 birth 
 Were lap't in madness, raved and strode 
 
 along, 
 
 Chanting in fury to a holy song 
 
 in 
 
20 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE 
 
 Their flighty wrath: and all the hungry folk, 
 Who through the world had rummaged, 
 
 yelped and broke 
 Stiff to a run, for vengeance was in view, 
 And everyone knew what he had to do. 
 
 It was the Judgement Day, and so they sped, 
 These vagabonds who always had been dead 
 E'en when alive, and massed into the space 
 Between two stars: a deep and hollow place 
 Rolling immense, a swirl of blue and grey 
 Steeped out of eyesight: so it ever lay 
 Swinging in whispers, prickling to the sound 
 Till a wind's whimper, rolling round and 
 
 round, 
 Jolted in thunder, or the dreary sigh 
 Of a dead man drummed madness on the sky. 
 
 Here they kept silence, every face intent 
 With a dumb grin upon the sun was bent, 
 
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE 21 
 
 Till sudden, huge and stately, came He fleet 
 Red from the sun, with fire about His feet 
 And flaming brow : and as He walked in fire 
 Those million, million muzzles lifted higher, 
 Stared at Him, grinned damnation, toned a 
 
 yelp, 
 A vast malignant query, "Did you help?" 
 And at the sound the jangled spaces threw 
 Echo to echo: thunders bit and flew 
 Through deeper thunders into such a bay 
 The Judge stood frightened, turned and stole 
 
 away. 
 
CHANGE 
 
 There's a cloud upon the sky 
 There's a voice upon the air. 
 'Tis the wind that with a sigh 
 Stays awhile and hushes by, 
 Mourning where the trushes were, 
 Mourning that the trees are bare. 
 
 All the leaves have fallen slow: 
 Now they rustle on the ground, 
 Crinkle-tip and russet glow, 
 Yellow leaf and brown they go 
 With a little withered sound, 
 Flitting on the air around. 
 
 All the birds have gone away, 
 All the daisies too have fled: 
 
CHANGE 23 
 
 Buttercups have had their day, 
 And the grass is turning grey 
 Thinking of the pansy dead, 
 And the poppy's sleepy head. 
 
 Sad and sad the breezes blow. 
 Leaves are lifted up and thrown 
 — Crinkle-tip and russet glow — 
 Withered to the earth below. 
 Death's the harvest, Death alone. 
 What's the use in having grown? 
 
WHO'LL CARRY A MESSAGE? 
 
 Father unto whom we lift 
 
 At the closing of the day 
 
 Prayer and praise — a tiny gift — 
 
 Thou art very far away. 
 
 Feeble little people we 
 
 Vainly tell our misery. 
 
 If we cannot understand, 
 Even while we pray to Thee, 
 Why Thou dost not stretch a hand 
 To allay our misery: 
 Father unto whom we pray, 
 Thou art very far away. 
 
 It is strange a Father should 
 From His children thus be far. 
 
 24 
 
who'll carry a message f 25 
 
 Thou who art so great and good 
 Surely cannot know we are 
 Weeping here in misery, 
 
 Mourning we are far from Thee. 
 
 « 
 
 Tears are very fragile things, 
 Hopeless things that cannot rise: 
 Sorrow has not any wings. 
 How can Sorrow reach the skies? 
 Fathers when they live too high 
 Cannot hear their children cry. 
 
 If You hear us when we pray, 
 Smitten down by hunger dread, 
 Unto Thee from day to day, 
 "Give us now our daily bread." 
 Father, while Thy children groan 
 Can Thou sit upon a throne.' 
 
SECRETS 
 
 When I was young, I used to think 
 That every eye peered through a chink; 
 And every man was hid behind 
 His own thick self where none could find; 
 That every woman in the street, 
 Looking fair and smiling sweet, 
 Was maybe hiding thoughts that were 
 Not quite so sweet, nor quite so fair 
 As her kind smile and blossom fare: 
 She hived in some forgotten place 
 Within herself, and could not bear 
 That any man should see her there. 
 . . . And though I'm older, still I see 
 In every face a mystery. 
 
 20 
 
LIGHT O' LOVE 
 
 But now, said she, I must away. 
 And if I tend another fire 
 In some one's house, this you will say 
 It is not that her love doth tire; 
 This is the price she has to pay 
 For bread she gets no other way, 
 Still craving for her heart's desire. 
 
 And so she went out from the door 
 While I sat quiet in my chair. 
 She ran back once again, no more: 
 I heard a creaking on the stair, 
 A lifted latch, one moment fleet 
 I heard the noises of the street. 
 Then silence booming everywhere. 
 
 27 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 on the date to which renewed. . — ^ 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall." 
 
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 DEC 16 1962 
 
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 1971 
 
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 BEB»t»* 2 ljNU^ 
 
 
 General Library 
 University of California 
 
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