The roamer and other poems/Golden Fragments
GOLDEN FRAGMENTS
"THOU CREATIVE SILENCE STRANGE!"
Hath the lily breathed to the rootWhat stars from it shall shoot?What bloom life hath in its fragrant hour,Hath the seed told the flower?Hath the dark whispered to the sunWhat heaven shall be when day is done?—Thou Creative Silence strange,Dumbly bear us, change through change!
THE EBB
Like echoing cliffs above my bloodMy senses are; with passion roarsThe ear, eyes darken,—life's abud!But when love ebbs,—Atlantic shoresSorrow not so when the sea's floodBack on the sea's heart pours.
THE CHEAT
When my tiny hands would holdSticks and straw, they turned to gold. Life reverses fairy law,The wealth I hold turns sticks and straw.'Tis a cheat, whichever way,Boy or man, with gold we play.
VALE!
Rear who will a marble pile!Of death I know but this:No rising sun gives back thy smile,No darkness yields thy kiss.
THE STATUE
All flawed in beauty, shorn of fate,Deep droops yon statue, sad at heart;Some Greek isle hides his lovely mate,And robs his form of perfect art.
THE ONYX
Love, the sexton, from the sodGave me this onyx; prize it, you;A carven Eros, graved "Adieu!"—Who breaks the image, finds the god.