There is darkness between us till the measure’s fulfilment.
Amidst singing thou hear’st not, fair sights that thou seest not,
Think this eve on the deeds thou shalt set in men’s hands
To bring fair days about for which thou hast no blessing.
Then fall asleep fearless of dead days that return not;
Yet dream if thou may’st that thou yet hast a hope!
—For thy dull morrow cometh and is as to-day is.
O sweet wind of the night, wherewith now ariseth
The red moon through the garden boughs frail, overladen,
O faint murmuring tongue of the dream-tide triumphant,
That wouldst tell me sad tales in the times long passed
over,
If somewhat I sicken and turn to your freshness,
From no shame it is of earth’s tangle and trouble,
And deeds done for nought, and change that forgetteth;
But for hope of the lips that I kissed on the sea-strand,
But for hope of the hands that clung trembling about
me,—
And the breast that was heaving with words driven
backward,
By longing I longed for, by pain of departing,
By my eyes that knew her pain, my pain that might
speak not—
Yea, for hope of the morn when the sea is passed over,
And for hope of the next moon the elm-boughs shall
tangle;
And fresh dawn, and fresh noon, and fresh night of
desire
Still following and changing, with nothing forgotten;
For hope of new wonder each morn, when I, waking
Behold her awaking eyes turning to seek me;
For hope of fresh marvels each time the world changing
Shall show her feet moving in noontide to meet me;
For hope of fresh bliss, past all words, half forgotten,
When her voice shall break through the hushed blackness
of night.
—O sweet wind of the summer-tide, broad
moon a-whitening,
Bear me witness to Love, and the world he has fashioned!
It shall change, we shall change, as through rain
and through sunshine
The green rod of the rose-bough to blossoming changeth:
Still lieth in wait with his sweet tale untold of
Each long year of Love, and the first scarce beginneth,
Wherein I have hearkened to the word God hath whispered,
Why the fair world was fashioned mid wonders uncounted.
Breathe soft, O sweet wind, for surely she speaketh:
Weary I wax, and my life is a-waning;
Life lapseth fast, and I faint for thee, Pharamond,
What are thou lacking if Love no more sufficeth?
—Weary not, sweet, as I weary to meet thee;
Look not on the long way but my eyes that were weeping
Faint not in love as thy Pharamond fainteth!—
—Yea, Love were enough if thy lips were
not lacking.
THE MUSIC
LOVE IS ENOUGH: ho ye who seek saving,
Go no further; come hither; there have
been who have found it,
And these know the House of Fulfilment of Craving;
These know the Cup with the roses around
it;
These know the World’s Wound
and the balm that hath bound it:
Cry out, the World heedeth not, “Love, lead
us home!”