The kestrel’s shadow hunted the kestrel up the hill. 
  We climbed, and as we stood (where yet we stand
And of the visioned sun and shadow still drink)
Happiness like a shadow chased our thought
That tossed on free wings up and down the world;
Till by that wild swift-darting shadow caught
Our free spirits their free pinions furled. 
Then as the kestrel began once more the heavens to climb
A new-winged spirit rose clear above the hills of time.

VIII

THE IMAGE

I am a river flowing round your hill,
Holding your image in my lingering water,
With imaged white clouds rising round your head;
And I am happy to bear your image still. 
Though a loud ruffling wind may break and scatter
That happiness, I know it is not fled.

But when the wind is gone or gentled so
That only the least quivering quivers on,
Your image recomposes in my breast
With those high clouds, quiet and white as snow—­
Spiritual company; and when day’s gone
And those white clouds have stepped into the west;

And the dark blue filling the heavens deep
Is bright with stars that sing above your head,
Their light lies in the deep of my dark eyes
With your dark shape, a shadow of your sleep ... 
I am happy still, watching the bright stars tread
Around your shadow that in my bosom lies.

IX

PERVERSITIES

I

Now come,
And I that moment will forget you. 
Sit here
And in your eyes I shall not see you. 
Speak, speak
That I no more may hear your music. 
Into my arms,
Till I’ve forgotten I ever met you.

I shall not have you when I hold you
Body to body,
Though your firm flesh, though your strong fingers
Be knit to these. 
On a wild hill I shall be chasing
The thought of you;
False will be those true things I told you: 
I shall forget you.

No, do not come. 
Where the wind hunts, there shall I find you. 
In cool gray cloud
Where the sun slips through I shall see you,
Or where the trees
Are silenced, and darken in their branches. 
Your coming would
Loosen, when my thought still would bind you.

Against my shoulder your warm shoulder
When last you leaned—­
Think, were you nearer then and dearer,
Or I more glad? 
O eternal love, your body brings you
No nearer. 
Trust me, be bold, be even a little bolder
And do not come.

X

PERVERSITIES

II

Yet when I am alone my eyes say, Come. 
My hands cannot be still. 
In that first moment all my senses ache,
Cells, that were empty fill,
The clay walls shake,
And unimprisoned thought runs where it will.