Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (238 page)

In those days, though, I never analysed
Myself even. All analysis comes late.
You catch a sight of Nature, earliest,
In full front sun-face, and your eyelids wink
And drop before the wonder of ‘t; you miss
The form, through seeing the light. I lived, those days,
And wrote because I lived–unlicensed else:
My heart beat in my brain. Life’s violent flood
Abolished bounds,–and, which my neighbour’s field,
Which mine, what mattered ? It is so in youth.
We play at leap-frog over the god Term;
The love within us and the love without
Are mixed, confounded; if we are loved or love,
We scarce distinguish. So, with other power.
Being acted on and acting seem the same:
In that first onrush of life’s chariot-wheels,
We know not if the forests move or we.

And so, like most young poets, in a flush
Of individual life, I poured myself
Along the veins of others, and achieved
Mere lifeless imitations of life verse,
And made the living answer for the dead,
Profaning nature. ‘Touch not, do not taste,
Nor handle,’–we’re too legal, who write young:
We beat the phorminx till we hurt our thumbs,
As if still ignorant of counterpoint;
We call the Muse . . ‘O Muse, benignant Muse !’–
As if we had seen her purple-braided head .
With the eyes in it start between the boughs
As often as a stag’s. What make-believe,
With so much earnest! what effete results,
From virile efforts! what cold wire-drawn odes
From such white heats!–bucolics, where the cows
Would scare the writer if they splashed the mud
In lashing off the flies,–didactics, driven
Against the heels of what the master said;
And counterfeiting epics, shrill with trumps
A babe might blow between two straining cheeks
Of bubbled rose, to make his mother laugh;
And elegiac griefs, and songs of love,
Like cast-off nosegays picked up on the road,
The worse for being warm: all these things, writ
On happy mornings, with a morning heart,
That leaps for love, is active for resolve,
Weak for art only. Oft, the ancient forms
Will thrill, indeed, in carrying the young blood.
The wine-skins, now and then, a little warped,
Will crack even, as the new wine gurgles in.
Spare the old bottles!–spill not the new wine.

By Keats’s soul, the man who never stepped
In gradual progress like another man,
But, turning grandly on his central self,
Ensphered himself in twenty perfect years
And died, not young,–(the life of a long life,
Distilled to a mere drop, falling like a tear
Upon the world’s cold cheek to make it burn
For ever;) by that strong excepted soul,
I count it strange, and hard to understand,
That nearly all young poets should write old;
That Pope was sexagenarian at sixteen,
And beardless Byron academical,
And so with others. It may be, perhaps,
Such have not settled long and deep enough
In trance, to attain to clairvoyance,–and still
The memory mixes with the vision, spoils,
And works it turbid.
       
Or perhaps, again,
In order to discover the Muse-Sphinx,
The melancholy desert must sweep round,
Behind you, as before.–
         
For me, I wrote
False poems, like the rest, and thought them true.
Because myself was true in writing them.
I, peradventure, have writ true ones since
With less complacence.
         
But I could not hide
My quickening inner life from those at watch.
They saw a light at a window now and then,
They had not set there. Who had set it there?
My father’s sister started when she caught
My soul agaze in my eyes. She could not say
I had no business with a sort of soul,
But plainly she objected,–and demurred,
That souls were dangerous things to carry straight
Through all the spilt saltpetre of the world.

She said sometimes, ‘Aurora, have you done
Your task this morning?–have you read that book?
And are you ready for the crochet here?’–
As if she said, ‘I know there’s something wrong,
I know I have not ground you down enough
To flatten and bake you to a wholesome crust
For household uses and proprieties,
Before the rain has got into my barn
And set the grains a-sprouting. What, you’re green
With out-door impudence? you almost grow?’
To which I answered, ‘Would she hear my task,
And verify my abstract of the book?
And should I sit down to the crochet work?
Was such her pleasure?’ . . Then I sate and teased
The patient needle til it split the thread,
Which oozed off from it in meandering lace
From hour to hour. I was not, therefore, sad;
My soul was singing at a work apart
Behind the wall of sense, as safe from harm
As sings the lark when sucked up out of sight,
In vortices of glory and blue air.

And so, through forced work and spontaneous work,
The inner life informed the outer life,
Reduced the irregular blood to settled rhythms,
Made cool the forehead with fresh-sprinkling dreams,
And, rounding to the spheric soul the thin
Pined body, struck a colour up the cheeks,
Though somewhat faint. I clenched my brows across
My blue eyes greatening in the looking-glass,
And said, ‘We’ll live, Aurora! we’ll be strong.
The dogs are on us–but we will not die.’

Whoever lives true life, will love true love.
I learnt to love that England. Very oft,
Before the day was born, or otherwise
Through secret windings of the afternoons,
I threw my hunters off and plunged myself
Among the deep hills, as a hunted stag
Will take the waters, shivering with the fear
And passion of the course. And when, at last
Escaped,–so many a green slope built on slope
Betwixt me and the enemy’s house behind,
I dared to rest, or wander,–like a rest
Made sweeter for the step upon the grass,–
And view the ground’s most gentle dimplement,
(As if God’s finger touched but did not press
In making England!) such an up and down
Of verdure,–nothing too much up or down,
A ripple of land; such little hills, the sky
Can stoop to tenderly and the wheatfields climb;
Such nooks of valleys, lined with orchises,
Fed full of noises by invisible streams;
And open pastures, where you scarcely tell
White daisies from white dew,–at intervals
The mythic oaks and elm-trees standing out
Self-poised upon their prodigy of shade,–
I thought my father’s land was worthy too
Of being my Shakspeare’s.
         
Very oft alone,
Unlicensed; not unfrequently with leave
To walk the third with Romney and his friend
The rising painter, Vincent Carrington,
Whom men judge hardly, as bee-bonneted,
Because he holds that, paint a body well,
You paint a soul by implication, like
The grand first Master. Pleasant walks! for if
He said . . ‘When I was last in Italy’ . .
It sounded as an instrument that’s played
Too far off for the tune–and yet it’s fine
To listen.
   
Often we walked only two,
If cousin Romney pleased to walk with me.
We read, or talked, or quarrelled, as it chanced;
We were not lovers, nor even friends well-matched–
Say rather, scholars upon different tracks,
And thinkers disagreed; he, overfull
Of what is, and I, haply, overbold
For what might be.
       
But then the thrushes sang,
And shook my pulses and the elms’ new leaves,–
And then I turned, and held my finger up,
And bade him mark that, howsoe’er the world
Went ill, as he related, certainly
The thrushes still sang in it.–At which word
His brow would soften,–and he bore with me
In melancholy patience, not unkind,
While, breaking into voluble ecstasy,
I flattered all the beauteous country round,
As poets use . . .the skies, the clouds, the fields,
The happy violets hiding from the roads
The primroses run down to, carrying gold,–
The tangled hedgerows, where the cows push out
Impatient horns and tolerant churning mouths
‘Twixt dripping ash-boughs,–hedgerows all alive
With birds and gnats and large white butterflies
Which look as if the May-flower had sought life
And palpitated forth upon the wind,–
Hills, vales, woods, netted in a silver mist,
Farms, granges, doubled up among the hills,
And cattle grazing in the watered vales,
And cottage-chimneys smoking from the woods,
And cottage-gardens smelling everywhere,
Confused with smell of orchards. ‘See,’ I said,
‘And see! is God not with us on the earth?
And shall we put Him down by aught we do?
Who says there’s nothing for the poor and vile
Save poverty and wickedness? behold!’
And ankle-deep in English grass I leaped,
And clapped my hands, and called all very fair.

In the beginning when God called all good,
Even then, was evil near us, it is writ.
But we, indeed, who call things good and fair,
The evil is upon us while we speak;
Deliver us from evil, let us pray.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Edward Fitzgerald

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam of Naishapur

Second Edition

Edward Fitzgerald (1809–1883)

I

WAKE! For the Sun behind yon Eastern height
Has chased the Session of the Stars from Night;
 
And to the field of Heav’n ascending, strikes
The Sulta´n’s Turret with a Shaft of Light.

II

Before the phantom of False morning died,
  
5
Methought a Voice within the Tavern cried,
 
“When all the Temple is prepared within,
Why lags the drowsy Worshipper outside?”

III

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted— “Open then the Door!
  
10
 
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more.”

IV

Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
 
Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough
  
15
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

V

Iram indeed is gone with all his Rose,
And Jamshy´d’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows;
 
But still a Ruby gushes from the Vine,
And many a Garden by the Water blows.
  
20

VI

And David’s lips are lockt; but in divine
High-piping Pe´hlevi, with “Wine! Wine! Wine!
 
Red Wine!” — the Nightingale cries to the Rose
That sallow cheek of hers to incarnadine.

VII

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
  
25
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
 
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter — and the Bird is on the Wing.

VIII

Whether at Naisha´pu´r or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
  
30
 
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.

IX

Morning a thousand Roses brings, you say;
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?
 
And this first Summer month that brings the Rose
  
35
Shall take Jamshy´d and Kaikoba´d away.

X

Well, let it take them! What have we to do
With Kaikoba´d the Great, or Kaikhosru´?
 
Let Rustum cry “To Battle!” as he likes,
Or Ha´tim Tai “To supper!” — heed not you.
  
40

XI

With me along the strip of Herbage strown
That just divides the desert from the sown,
 
Where name of Slave and Sulta´n is forgot —
And Peace to Ma´hmu´d on his golden Throne!

XII

Here with a little Bread beneath the Bough,
  
45
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou
 
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

XIII

Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;
  
50
 
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Promise go,
Nor heed the music of a distant Drum!

XIV

Were it not Folly, Spider-like to spin
The Thread of present Life away to win —
 
What? for ourselves, who know not if we shall
  
55
Breathe out the very Breath we now breathe in!

XV

Look to the blowing Rose about us— “Lo,
Laughing,” she says, “into the world I blow,
 
At once the silken tassel of my Purse
Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw.”
  
60

XVI

For those who husbanded the Golden grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain,
 
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn’d
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

XVII

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
  
65
Turns Ashes — or it prospers; and anon,
 
Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face,
Lighting a little hour or two — was gone.

XVIII

Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai
Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day,
  
70
 
How Sulta´n after Sulta´n with his Pomp
Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.

XIX

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
The Courts where Jamshy´d gloried and drank deep:
 
And Bahra´m, that great Hunter — the Wild Ass
  
75
Stamps o’er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep.

XX

The Palace that to Heav’n his pillars threw,
And Kings the forehead on his threshold drew —
 
I saw the solitary Ringdove there,
And “Coo, coo, coo,” she cried; and “Coo, coo, coo.”
  
80

XXI

Ah, my Belove´d, fill the Cup that clears
TO-DAY of past Regret and Future Fears:
 
To-morrow
! — Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n thousand Years.

XXII

For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
  
85
That from his Vintage rolling Time has prest,
 
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest.

XXIII

And we, that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom,
  
90
 
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend — ourselves to make a Couch — for whom?

XXIV

I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled;
 
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
  
95
Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.

XXV

And this delightful Herb whose living Green
Fledges the River’s Lip on which we lean —
 
Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows
From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!
  
100

XXVI

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
 
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and — sans End!

XXVII

Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
  
105
And those that after some TO-MORROW stare,
 
A Muezzi´n from the Tower of Darkness cries,
“Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!”

XXVIII

Another Voice, when I am sleeping, cries,
“The Flower should open with the Morning skies.”
  
110
 
And a retreating Whisper, as I wake —
“The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.”

XXIX

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly are thrust
 
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
  
115
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

XXX

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
 
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door as in I went.
  
120

XXXI

With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand wrought to make it grow;
 
And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d —
“I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”

XXXII

Into this Universe, and
Why
not knowing
  
125
Nor
Whence,
like Water willy-nilly flowing;
 
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not
Whither,
willy-nilly blowing.

XXXIII

What, without asking, hither hurried
Whence?
And, without asking,
Whither
hurried hence!
  
130
 
Ah, contrite Heav’n endowed us with the Vine
To drug the memory of that insolence!

XXXIV

Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate;
 
And many Knots unravel’d by the Road;
  
135
But not the Master-knot of Human Fate.

XXXV

There was the Door to which I found no Key:
There was the Veil through which I could not see:
 
Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
There was — and then no more of THEE and ME.
  
140

XXXVI

Earth could not answer; nor the Seas that mourn
In flowing Purple, of their Lord forlorn;
 
Nor Heaven, with those eternal Signs reveal’d
And hidden by the sleeve of Night and Morn.

XXXVII

Then of the THEE IN ME who works behind
  
145
The Veil of Universe I cried to find
 
A Lamp to guide me through the Darkness; and
Something then said— “An Understanding blind.”

XXXVIII

Then to the Lip of this poor earthen Urn
I lean’d, the secret Well of Life to learn:
  
150
 
And Lip to Lip it murmur’d— “While you live,
Drink! — for, once dead, you never shall return.”

XXXIX

I think the Vessel, that with fugitive
Articulation answer’d, once did live,
 
And drink; and that impassive Lip I kiss’d,
  
155
How many Kisses might it take — and give!

XL

For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay:
 
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmur’d— “Gently, Brother, gently, pray!”
  
160

XLI

For has not such a Story from of Old
Down Man’s successive generations roll’d
 
Of such a clod of saturated Earth
Cast by the Maker into Human mould?

XLII

And not a drop that from our Cups we throw
  
165
On the parcht herbage, but may steal below
 
To quench the fire of Anguish in some Eye
There hidden — far beneath, and long ago.

XLIII

As then the Tulip for her wonted sup
Of Heavenly Vintage lifts her chalice up,
  
170
 
Do you, twin offspring of the soil, till Heav’n
To Earth invert you like an empty Cup.

XLIV

Do you, within your little hour of Grace,
The waving Cypress in your Arms enlace,
 
Before the Mother back into her arms
  
175
Fold, and dissolve you in a last embrace.

XLV