The Poetical Works of William Motherwell/A Monody
A Monody.
I.
Hour after hour,
Day after day,
Some gentle flower
Or leaf gives way
Within the bower
Of human hearts;
Tear after tear
In anguish starts,
For, green or sere,
Some loved leaf parts
From the arbère
Of human hearts;—
The keen winds blow;
Rain, hail and snow
Fall everywhere!
And one by one,
As life's sands run,
These loved things fare
Till plundered hearts at last are won,
To woo despair.
II.
Why linger on,
Fate’s mockery here,
When each is gone,
Heart-loved, heart-dear?
Stone spells to stone
Its weary tale,
How graves were filled,
How cheeks waxed pale,
How hearts were chilled
With biting gale,
And life’s strings thrilled
With sorrow’s wail.
Flower follows flower
In the heart’s bower,
To fleet away;
While leaf on leaf,
Sharp grief on grief,—
Night chasing day,
Tell as they fall, all joy is brief,
Life but decay.
III.
The sea-weed thrown
By wave or wind,
On strand unknown,
Lone grave to find;
Methinks may own,
Of kindred more
Than I dare claim
On life's bleak shore.
Name follows name
For evermore,
As swift waves shame
Slow waves before;—
For keen winds blow;
Rain, hail, and snow
Fall everywhere,
Till life's sad tree,
In mockery,
Skeletoned bare
Of every leaf, is left to be
Mate of despair.
IV.
The world is wide,
Is rich and fair,
Its things of pride
Flaunt everywhere;
But can it hide
Its hollowness
One mighty shell
Of bitterness,
One grand farewell
To happiness,
One solemn knell
To love's caress,
It seems to me.
The shipless sea
Hath bravery more
Than this waste scene,
Where what hath been
Beloved of yore,
In the heart's bower so fresh and green,
Fades evermore!
V.
From all its kind,
This wasted heart—
This moody mind
Now drifts apart;
It longs to find
The tideless shore.
Where rests the wreck
Of Heretofore,—
The glorious wreck
Of mental ore;
The great heartbreak
Of loves no more.
I drift alone,
For all are gone
Dearest to me;
And hail the wave
That to the grave
On hurrieth me:
Welcome, thrice welcome, then, thy wave
Eternity!