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The light; the heat; the heart's desire。



Around Assisi's convent gate

The birds; God's poor who cannot wait;

From moor and mere and darksome wood

Came flocking for their dole of food。



〃O brother birds;〃 St。 Francis said;

〃Ye come to me and ask for bread;

But not with bread alone to…day

Shall ye be fed and sent away。



〃Ye shall be fed; ye happy birds;

With manna of celestial words;

Not mine; though mine they seem to be;

Not mine; though they be spoken through me。



〃O; doubly are ye bound to praise

The great Creator in your lays;

He giveth you your plumes of down;

Your crimson hoods; your cloaks of brown。



〃He giveth you your wings to fly

And breathe a purer air on high;

And careth for you everywhere;

Who for yourselves so little care!〃



With flutter of swift wings and songs

Together rose the feathered throngs;

And singing scattered far apart;

Deep peace was in St。 Francis' heart。



He knew not if the brotherhood

His homily had understood;

He only knew that to one ear

The meaning of his words was clear。







BELISARIUS



I am poor and old and blind;

The sun burns me; and the wind

    Blows through the city gate

And covers me with dust

From the wheels of the august

    Justinian the Great。



It was for him I chased

The Persians o'er wild and waste;

    As General of the East;

Night after night I lay

In their camps of yesterday;

    Their forage was my feast。



For him; with sails of red;

And torches at mast…head;

    Piloting the great fleet;

I swept the Afric coasts

And scattered the Vandal hosts;

    Like dust in a windy street。



For him I won again

The Ausonian realm and reign;

    Rome and Parthenope;

And all the land was mine

From the summits of Apennine

    To the shores of either sea。



For him; in my feeble age;

I dared the battle's rage;

    To save Byzantium's state;

When the tents of Zabergan;

Like snow…drifts overran

    The road to the Golden Gate。



And for this; for this; behold!

Infirm and blind and old;

    With gray; uncovered head;

Beneath the very arch

Of my triumphal march;

    I stand and beg my bread!



Methinks I still can hear;

Sounding distinct and near;

    The Vandal monarch's cry;

As; captive and disgraced;

With majestic step he paced;

    〃All; all is Vanity!〃



Ah! vainest of all things

Is the gratitude of kings;

    The plaudits of the crowd

Are but the clatter of feet

At midnight in the street;

    Hollow and restless and loud。



But the bitterest disgrace

Is to see forever the face

    Of the Monk of Ephesus!

The unconquerable will

This; too; can bear;I still

    Am Belisarius!







SONGO RIVER



Nowhere such a devious stream;

Save in fancy or in dream;

Winding slow through bush and brake

Links together lake and lake。



Walled with woods or sandy shelf;

Ever doubling on itself

Flows the stream; so still and slow

That it hardly seems to flow。



Never errant knight of old;

Lost in woodland or on wold;

Such a winding path pursued

Through the sylvan solitude。



Never school…boy in his quest

After hazel…nut or nest;

Through the forest in and out

Wandered loitering thus about。



In the mirror of its tide

Tangled thickets on each side

Hang inverted; and between

Floating cloud or sky serene。



Swift or swallow on the wing

Seems the only living thing;

Or the loon; that laughs and flies

Down to those reflected skies。



Silent stream! thy Indian name

Unfamiliar is to fame;

For thou hidest here alone;

Well content to be unknown。



But thy tranquil waters teach

Wisdom deep as human speech;

Moving without haste or noise

In unbroken equipoise。



Though thou turnest no busy mill;

And art ever calm and still;

Even thy silence seems to say

To the traveller on his way:



〃Traveller; hurrying from the heat

Of the city; stay thy feet!

Rest awhile; nor longer waste

Life with inconsiderate haste!



〃Be not like a stream that brawls

Loud with shallow waterfalls;

But in quiet self…control

Link together soul and soul〃





************



KERAMOS



Turn; turn; my wheel?  Turn round and round

Without a pause; without a sound:

  So spins the flying world away!

This clay; well mixed with marl and sand;

Follows the motion of my hand;

Far some must follow; and some command;

  Though all are made of clay!



Thus sang the Potter at his task

Beneath the blossoming hawthorn…tree;

While o'er his features; like a mask;

The quilted sunshine and leaf…shade

Moved; as the boughs above him swayed;

And clothed him; till he seemed to be

A figure woven in tapestry;

So sumptuously was he arrayed

In that magnificent attire

Of sable tissue flaked with fire。

Like a magician he appeared;

A conjurer without book or beard;

And while he plied his magic art

For it was magical to me

I stood in silence and apart;

And wondered more and more to see

That shapeless; lifeless mass of clay

Rise up to meet the master's hand;

And now contract and now expand;

And even his slightest touch obey;

While ever in a thoughtful mood

He sang his ditty; and at times

Whistled a tune between the rhymes;

As a melodious interlude。



Turn; turn; my wheel!  All things must change

To something new; to something strange;

  Nothing that is can pause or stay;

The moon will wax; the moon will wane;

The mist and cloud will turn to rain;

The rain to mist and cloud again;

  To…morrow be to…day。



Thus still the Potter sang; and still;

By some unconscious act of will;

The melody and even the words

Were intermingled with my thought

As bits of colored thread are caught

And woven into nests of birds。

And thus to regions far remote;

Beyond the ocean's vast expanse;

This wizard in the motley coat

Transported me on wings of song;

And by the northern shores of France

Bore me with restless speed along。

What land is this that seems to be

A mingling of the land and sea?

This land of sluices; dikes; and dunes?

This water…net; that tessellates

The landscape? this unending maze

Of gardens; through whose latticed gates

The imprisoned pinks and tulips gaze;

Where in long summer afternoons

The sunshine; softened by the haze;

Comes streaming down as through a screen;

Where over fields and pastures green

The painted ships float high in air;

And over all and everywhere

The sails of windmills sink and soar

Like wings of sea…gulls on the shore?



What land is this? Yon pretty town

Is Delft; with all its wares displayed;

The pride; the market…place; the crown

And centre of the Potter's trade。

See! every house and room is bright

With glimmers of reflected light

From plates that on the dresser shine;

Flagons to foam with Flemish beer;

Or sparkle with the Rhenish wine;

And pilgrim flasks with fleurs…de…lis;

And ships upon a rolling sea;

And tankards pewter topped; and queer

With comic mask and musketeer!

Each hospitable chimney smiles

A welcome from its painted tiles;

The parlor walls; the chamber floors;

The stairways and the corridors;

The borders of the garden walks;

Are beautiful with fadeless flowers;

That never droop in winds or showers;

And never wither on their stalks。



Turn; turn; my wheel!  All life is brief;

What now is bud wilt soon be leaf;

  What now is leaf will soon decay;

The wind blows east; the wind blows west;

The blue eyes in the robin's nest

Will soon have wings and beak and breast;

  And flutter and fly away。



Now southward through the air I glide;

The song my only pursuivant;

And see across the landscape wide

The blue Charente; upon whose tide

The belfries and the spires of Saintes

Ripple and rock from side to side;

As; when an earthquake rends its walls;

A crumbling city reels and falls。



Who is it in the suburbs here;

This Potter; working with such cheer;

In this mean house; this mean attire;

His manly features bronzed with fire;

Whose figulines and rustic wares

Scarce find him bread from day to day?

This madman; as the people say;

Who breaks his tables and his chairs

To feed his furnace fires; nor cares

Who goes unfed if they are fed;

Nor who may live if they are dead?

This alchemist with hollow cheeks

And sunken; searching eyes; who seeks;

By mingled earths and ores combined

With potency of fire; to find

Some new enamel; hard and bright;

His dream; his passion; his delight?



O Palissy! within thy breast

Burned the hot fever of unrest;

Thine was the prophets vision; thine

The exultation; the divine

Insanity of noble minds;

That never falters nor abates;

But labors and endures and waits;

Till all that it foresees it finds;

Or what it cannot find creates!



Turn; turn; my wheel!  This earthen jar

A touch can make; a touch can mar;

  And shall it to the Potter say;

What makest thou。  Thou hast no hand?

As men who think to understand

A world by their Creator planned;

  Who wiser is than they。



Still guided by the dreamy song;

As in a trance I float along

Above the Pyrenean chain;

Above the fields and farms of Spain;

Above the bright Majorcan isle;

That lends its softened name to art;

A spot; a dot upon the chart;

Whose little towns; red…roofed with tile;

Are ruby…lustred with the light

Of blazing furnaces by night;

And crowned by day with wreaths of smoke。

Then eastward; wafted in my flight

On my enchanter's magic cloak;

I sail across the Tyrrhene Sea

Into the land of Italy;

And o'er the windy Apennines;

Mantled and musical with pines。



The palaces; the princely halls;

The doors of houses and the walls

Of churches and of belfry towers;

Cloister and castle; street and mart;

Are garlanded and gay with flowers

That blossom in the fields of art。

He

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