Renunciation (Howard)
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Renunciation
By the crimson cliffs where the spray is blown
By the silver sands and the rose red stone,
There bides a shadow—alone, all alone—
Waiting the day, waiting the day.
The wind comes out of the East at morn,
When the sheen of the sea is green,
The wind comes up from the Matterhorn
And the great red ships careen.
The gulls carved white in the blasting blue,
Their wings are silver and snow;
They hear the great tides thunder through
To beat on the beach below—
They hear waves hammer on sands below,
The clash and the clamor, the flee and the flow,
The magic and wonder of reef riven thunder,
The sands going under the spray white as snow.
The sunset is calling,
The dawn’s on the lea;
The silence is falling
Across the white sea,
And dim through the scorn of a morn on the Horn
The galliots, galleys and galleons flee.
To the ends of the earth
And the roads of the world,
To the ocean’s broad girth,
With their banners unfurled—
Will you laugh in the bend of a curse when the shout of the
Trade wind is hurled?
Or bide in the market place while the beard of a king is hurled?
Oh, follow the shadows
Across the high meadows,
To dreaming green uplands where walls of the mountains
Like purple tall towers
Encastle the hours,
And showers of flowers discover the fountains.
Follow the river
Where wild willows part,
Where shadow trees shiver
And winds start and dart—
The whiter the soul is,
The brighter the goal is,
The blacker the troll is
That eats at the heart.
Leave men to their labor with lust for a neighbor,
Leave minstrel to tabor, the king to the crown,
Great blossoms still quiver along the dim river,
And winds out of silence steal over the down.
There are Beings of twilight
As thin as the mist,
They seek not the highlight,
The stars they have kissed.
They rape not the grape,
Nor douse to carouse
With the shape of the ape
In the house of the mouse.
On amaranth mountains their pleasure is taken,
By rainbow fountains, by ghost winds shaken,
On the frosty cold nectar of stars their thirst is enraptured and slaken.
Leave life for men and follow with me
To the winds of the fen and the song of the sea.
This work is from the United States and in the public domain because it was not legally published with the permission of the copyright holder before January 1, 2003 and the author died 89 years ago. This is a posthumous work and its copyright in certain countries and areas may depend on years since posthumous publication, rather than years since the author's death. Translations or editions published later may be copyrighted.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 88 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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