Poems 1905-1908

Second Best

Day that I Have Loved

Sleeping Out: Full Moon

In Examination

Pine-Trees and the Sky: Evening

Wagner

The Vision of the Archangels

Seaside

On the Death of Smet-Smet, the Hippopotamus-Goddess

The Song of the Pilgrims

The Song of the Beasts

Failure

Ante Aram

Dawn

The Call

The Wayfarers

The Beginning

 

Failure

Because God put His adamantine fate
   Between my sullen heart and its desire,
I swore that I would burst the Iron Gate,
   Rise up, and curse Him on His throne of fire.
Earth shuddered at my crown of blasphemy,
   But Love was as a flame about my feet;
   Proud up the Golden Stair I strode; and beat
Thrice on the Gate, and entered with a cry --

All the great courts were quiet in the sun,
   And full of vacant echoes: moss had grown
Over the glassy pavement, and begun
   To creep within the dusty council-halls.
An idle wind blew round an empty throne
   And stirred the heavy curtains on the walls.