POETRY.
NOCTURNE.
SEE how the dying west puts forth her song,
Soft stars for requiem, hung bosom-low, Riding like sorrow as day breathes her last With deep-drawn sigh. The wintry Hunter long, Long since has vanished in his frosted race, Calling his Dog into the south below, Striding to fresh eternities. The sky Holds now but peaceful fires, beacons of grace, Lanterns for mating-lips to meet, and eyes To gleam beneath, troubled with prophecies And births foretold. The rustling creepers fold Their ghostly fingers, cold with clasping green, Round all things bared by winter misery.
The cuckoo lingers in the woodland deeps Long after thrushes' silence, long after mellow Slow, pouring, yellow mouthed notes Have died on the ousel's throat, leaving the air Tumultuous. Hark, Oh rapt listeners I Strange hands pluck at the forest branches, strains Waft upward, legendary notes, and lore Holding such harmony that beauty floats Half unheard upon it from the seared Heart of the nightingale.
Ah ! could they hear, Those sleeping innocents, could they draw near Even in sleep, what would their childhood thought Construe from this slow agony, so fraught With centuries of brooding ? But no ! deep, Deep they lie, so late the night has grown, Safe under eaves and attic, all their dreams Gardened in other worlds behind the close Firm-bolted eyelids ; and the daylight mirth With all its fleetness stalled behind the tread Of slumber-pacing lips, that count the hours In vital blood-pulse, as the souls within Ride up and fall like ships upon the tide.
The tide ! The ebb, the flow of life. It comes Almost with visible waves upon the night, This earth but jetsam, and our dreams but wrack, Tumbling our music over, and our old Familiar leaf and feather, voice and thought. Hark I you mothers, and you expectant brides, Hear in yourselves the lapping waves creep up, Carrying others to the ancient sides
And shores of isled mortality, time-wrought And garlanded with spring. It is through you That beauty lives, you make the midnight sing I
Ricuaan CHURCH'
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