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& 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." • DEC 16 1962 8ECDLD A fK U.fEPM9 ^Jj^JL^T^K^ y?W fctffr Ia^czx ^ T b T VUP^ flX 4JBA& « «- 1971 OR. Mfl/26 76 «*h^ BEB»t»* 2 ljNU^ General Library University of California fWL-alM