My agony made the willows quiver;
 I heard the knocking of my heart
Die loudly down the windless river,
 I heard the pale skies fall apart,

And the shrill stars' unmeaning laughter,
 And my voice with the vocal trees
Weeping.  And Hatred followed after,
 Shrilling madly down the breeze.

In peace from the wild heart of clamour,
 A flower in moonlight, she was there,
Was rippling down white ways of glamour
 Quietly laid on wave and air.

Her passing left no leaf a-quiver.
 Pale flowers wreathed her white, white brows.
Her feet were silence on the river;
 And "Hush!" she said, between the boughs.

The Charm

In darkness the loud sea makes moan;
And earth is shaken, and all evils creep
About her ways.
                 Oh, now to know you sleep!
Out of the whirling blinding moil, alone,
Out of the slow grim fight,
One thought to wing -- to you, asleep,
In some cool room that's open to the night
Lying half-forward, breathing quietly,
One white hand on the white
Unrumpled sheet, and the ever-moving hair
Quiet and still at length! . . .

Your magic and your beauty and your strength,
Like hills at noon or sunlight on a tree,
Sleeping prevail in earth and air.

In the sweet gloom above the brown and white
Night benedictions hover; and the winds of night
Move gently round the room, and watch you there.
And through the dreadful hours
The trees and waters and the hills have kept
The sacred vigil while you slept,
And lay a way of dew and flowers
Where your feet, your morning feet, shall tread.
And still the darkness ebbs about your bed.
Quiet, and strange, and loving-kind, you sleep.
And holy joy about the earth is shed;
And holiness upon the deep.

Finding

From the candles and dumb shadows,
 And the house where love had died,
I stole to the vast moonlight
 And the whispering life outside.
But I found no lips of comfort,
 No home in the moon's light
(I, little and lone and frightened
 In the unfriendly night),
And no meaning in the voices. . . .
 Far over the lands and through
The dark, beyond the ocean,
 I willed to think of YOU!
For I knew, had you been with me
 I'd have known the words of night,
Found peace of heart, gone gladly
 In comfort of that light.

Oh! the wind with soft beguiling
 Would have stolen my thought away;
And the night, subtly smiling,
 Came by the silver way;
And the moon came down and danced to me,
 And her robe was white and flying;
And trees bent their heads to me
 Mysteriously crying;
And dead voices wept around me;
 And dead soft fingers thrilled;
And the little gods whispered. . . .
                                      But ever
 Desperately I willed;
Till all grew soft and far
 And silent . . .
                   And suddenly
I found you white and radiant,
 Sleeping quietly,
Far out through the tides of darkness.
 And I there in that great light
Was alone no more, nor fearful;
 For there, in the homely night,
Was no thought else that mattered,
 And nothing else was true,
But the white fire of moonlight,
 And a white dream of you.

Song

"Oh! Love," they said, "is King of Kings,
 And Triumph is his crown.
Earth fades in flame before his wings,
 And Sun and Moon bow down." --
But that, I knew, would never do;
 And Heaven is all too high.
So whenever I meet a Queen, I said,
 I will not catch her eye.

"Oh! Love," they said, and "Love," they said,
 "The gift of Love is this;
A crown of thorns about thy head,
 And vinegar to thy kiss!" --
But Tragedy is not for me;
 And I'm content to be gay.
So whenever I spied a Tragic Lady,
 I went another way.

And so I never feared to see
 You wander down the street,
Or come across the fields to me
 On ordinary feet.
For what they'd never told me of,
 And what I never knew;
It was that all the time, my love,
 Love would be merely you.

The Voice

Safe in the magic of my woods
 I lay, and watched the dying light.
Faint in the pale high solitudes,
 And washed with rain and veiled by night,

Silver and blue and green were showing.
 And the dark woods grew darker still;
And birds were hushed; and peace was growing;
 And quietness crept up the hill;

 And no wind was blowing

And I knew
That this was the hour of knowing,
And the night and the woods and you
Were one together, and I should find
Soon in the silence the hidden key
Of all that had hurt and puzzled me --
Why you were you, and the night was kind,
And the woods were part of the heart of me.

And there I waited breathlessly,
Alone; and slowly the holy three,
The three that I loved, together grew
One, in the hour of knowing,
Night, and the woods, and you ----

And suddenly
There was an uproar in my woods,

The noise of a fool in mock distress,
Crashing and laughing and blindly going,
Of ignorant feet and a swishing dress,
And a Voice profaning the solitudes.

The spell was broken, the key denied me
And at length your flat clear voice beside me
Mouthed cheerful clear flat platitudes.

You came and quacked beside me in the wood.
You said, "The view from here is very good!"
You said, "It's nice to be alone a bit!"
And, "How the days are drawing out!" you said.
You said, "The sunset's pretty, isn't it?"

     *    *    *    *    *

By God! I wish -- I wish that you were dead!

Dining-Room Tea

When you were there, and you, and you,
Happiness crowned the night; I too,
Laughing and looking, one of all,
I watched the quivering lamplight fall
On plate and flowers and pouring tea
And cup and cloth; and they and we
Flung all the dancing moments by
With jest and glitter.  Lip and eye
Flashed on the glory, shone and cried,
Improvident, unmemoried;
And fitfully and like a flame
The light of laughter went and came.
Proud in their careless transience moved
The changing faces that I loved.