The South Wind

The south wind rose at dusk of the winter day, The warm breath of the western sea Circling wrapp’d the isle with his cloke of cloud, And it now reach’d even to me, at dusk of the day, And moan’d in the branches aloud: While here and there, in patches of dark space, A star shone forth from its heavenly place, As a spark that is borne in the smoky chase; And, looking up, there fell on my face— Could it be drops of rain Soft as the wind, that fell on my face? Gossamers light as threads of the summer dawn, Suck’d by the sun from midmost calms of the main, From groves of coral islands secretly drawn, O’er half the round of earth to be driven, Now to fall on my face In silky skeins spun from the mists of heaven.

Who art thou, in wind and darkness and soft rain Thyself that robest, that bendest in sighing pines To whisper thy truth? that usest for signs A hurried glimpse of the moon, the glance of a star In the rifted sky? Who art thou, that with thee I Woo and am wooed? That robing thyself in darkness and soft rain Choosest my chosen solitude, Coming so far To tell thy secret again, As a mother her child, in her folding arm Of a winter night by a flickering fire, Telleth the same tale o’er and o’er With gentle voice, and I never tire, So imperceptibly changeth the charm, As Love on buried ecstasy buildeth his tower, —Like as the stem that beareth the flower By trembling is knit to power;— Ah! long ago In thy first rapture I renounced my lot, The vanity, the despondency and the woe, And seeking thee to know Well was’t for me, and evermore I am thine, I know not what.

For me thou seekest ever, me wondering a day In the eternal alternations, me Free for a stolen moment of chance To dream a beautiful dream In the everlasting dance Of speechless worlds, the unsearchable scheme, To me thou findest the way, Me and whomsoe’er I have found my dream to share Still with thy charm encircling; even to-night To me and my love in darkness and soft rain Under the sighing pines thou comest again, And staying our speech with mystery of delight, Of the kiss that I give a wonder thou makest, And the kiss that I take thou takest.

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I climb the mossy bank of the glade: My love awaiteth me in the shade.

She holdeth a book that she never heedeth: In Goddës work her spirit readeth.

She is all to me, and I to her: When we embrace, the stars confer.

O my love, from beyond the sky I am calling thy heart, and who but I?

Fresh as love is the breeze of June, In the dappled shade of the summer noon.

Catullus, throwing his heart away, Gave fewer kisses every day.

Heracleitus, spending his youth In search of wisdom, had less of truth.

Flame of fire was the poet’s desire: The thinker found that life was fire.

O my love! my song is done: My kiss hath both their fires in one.

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To my love I whisper, and say Knowest thou why I love thee?—Nay: Nay, she saith; O tell me again.—

When in her ear the secret I tell, She smileth with joy incredible—

Ha! she is vain—O Nay— Then tell us!—Nay, O nay.

But this is in my heart, That Love is Nature’s perfect art, And man hath got his fancy hence, To clothe his thought in forms of sense.

Fair are thy works, O man, and fair Thy dreams of soul in garments rare, Beautiful past compare, Yea, godlike when thou hast the skill To steal a stir of the heavenly thrill:

But O, have care, have care! ’Tis envious even to dare: And many a fiend is watching well To flush thy reed with the fire of hell.

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My delight and thy delight Walking, like two angels white, In the gardens of the night:

My desire and thy desire Twining to a tongue of fire, Leaping live, and laughing higher;

Thro’ the everlasting strife In the mystery of life.

Love, from whom the world begun Hath the secret of the sun.

Love can tell, and love alone, Whence the million stars were strewn, Why each atom knows its own, How, in spite of woe and death, Gay is life, and sweet is breath:

This he taught us, this we knew, Happy in his science true, Hand in hand as we stood Neath the shadows of the wood, Heart to heart as we lay In the dawning of the day.

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