WILD HEART

Wild heart, wild heart,
Where does the wind find home? 
Wild heart, wild heart,
Where does the wild blood rest? 
Home, home,
Rest, rest—­
Unto you I come
And catch you to my breast.

Wild heart, wild heart,
There the wind will sleep. 
Wild heart, wild heart,
And the blood gently flow. 
Come, come,
Unresting rest
Within my heart’s cave deep
Where thoughts like bright stars glow.

Wild heart, wild heart,
Here, here is your home. 
Wild heart, wild heart,
With that winged star I come. 
Home, home,
Rest in unrest—­
Unto you, wild heart, I come. 
My wild heart is your home.

III

HOME FOR LOVE

Because the earth is vast and dark
  And wet and cold;
Because man’s heart wants warmth and light
  Lest it grow old;

Therefore the house was built—­wall, roof
  And brick and beam,
By a lost hand following the lost
  Delight of a dream,

And room and stair show how that hand
  Groped in eager doubt,
With needless weight of teasing timber
  Matching his thought—­

Such fond superfluousness of strength
  In wall and wood
As his half-wise, half-fearful eye
  Deemed only good.

His brain he built into the house,
  Laboured his bones;
He burnt his heart into the brick
  And red hearth-stones.

It is his blood that makes the house
  Still warm, safe, bright,
Honest as aim and eye and hand,
  As clean, as light.

Because the earth is vast and dark
  The house was built—­
Now with another heart and fire
  To be fulfilled.

IV

THE ALDE

How near I walked to Love,
How long, I cannot tell. 
I was like the Alde that flows
Quietly through green level lands,
So quietly, it knows
Their shape, their greenness and their shadows well;
And then undreamingly for miles it goes
And silently, beside the sea.

Seamews circle over,
The winter wildfowl wings,
Long and green the grasses wave
Between the river and the sea. 
The sea’s cry, wild or grave,
From, bank to low bank of the river rings;
But the uncertain river though it crave
The sea, knows not the sea.

Was that indeed salt wind? 
Came that noise from falling
Wild waters on a stony shore? 
Oh, what is this new troubling tide
Of eager waves that pour
Around and over, leaping, parting, recalling?... 
How near I moved (as day to same day wore)
And silently, beside the sea!

V

AGAINST THE COLD PALE SKY

Against the cold pale sky
The elm tree company rose high. 
All the fine hues of day
That flowered so bold had died away. 
Only chill blue, faint green,
And deepening dark blue were seen.