Part 2

“Only yourself can heal you, Only yourself can lead you, The road is heavy going And ends where no man knows; Take love when love is given, But never think to find it A sure escape from sorrow Or a complete repose.”

_A Reply_

Four people knew the very me, Four is enough, so let it be; For the rest I make no chart, There are no highroads to my heart; The gates are locked, they will not stir For any ardent traveller. I have not been misunderstood, And on the whole, I think life good-- So waste no sympathy on me Or any well-meant gallantry; I have enough to do to muse On memories I would not lose.

_Leisure_

If I should make no poems any more There would be rest at least, so let it be; Time to read books in other tongues and listen To the long mellow thunder of the sea.

The year will turn for me, I shall delight in All animals, and some of my own kind, Sharing with no one but myself the frosty And half ironic musings of my mind.

“_I Shall Live to be Old_”

I shall live to be old, who feared I should die young, I shall live to be old, I shall cling to life as the leaves to the creaking oak In the rustle of falling snow and the cold.

The other trees let loose their leaves on the air In their russet and red, I have lived long enough to wonder which is the best, And to envy sometimes the way of the early dead.

_Wisdom_

It was a night of early spring, The winter-sleep was scarcely broken; Around us shadows and the wind Listened for what was never spoken.

Though half a score of years are gone, Spring comes as sharply now as then-- But if we had it all to do It would be done the same again.

It was a spring that never came, But we have lived enough to know What we have never had, remains; It is the things we have that go.

_The Old Enemy_

Rebellion against death, the old rebellion Is over; I have nothing left to fight; Battles have always had their meed of music But peace is quiet as a windless night.

Therefore I make no songs--I have grown certain Save when he comes too late, death is a friend, A shepherd leading home his flock serenely Under the planet at the evening’s end.

VII

BERKSHIRE NOTES

_Winter Sun_

(Lenox)

There was a bush with scarlet berries And there were hemlocks heaped with snow; With a sound like surf on long sea-beaches They took the wind and let it go.

The hills were shining in their samite, Fold after fold they flowed away-- “Let come what may,” your eyes were saying, “At least we two have had to-day.”

_A December Day_

Dawn turned on her purple pillow And late, late came the winter day, Snow was curved to the boughs of the willow, The sunless world was white and grey.

At noon we heard a blue-jay scolding, At five the last thin light was lost From snow-banked windows faintly holding The feathery filigree of frost.

_February Twilight_

I stood beside a hill Smooth with new-laid snow, A single star looked out From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature That saw what I could see-- I stood and watched the evening star As long as it watched me.

“_I Have Seen the Spring_”

Nothing is new, I have seen the spring too often; There have been other plum-trees white as this one Like a silvery cloud tethered beside the road, I have been waked from sleep too many times By birds at dawn boasting their love is beautiful. The grass-blades gleam in the wind, nothing is changed. Nothing is lost, it is all as it used to be, Unopened lilacs are still as deep a purple, The boughs of the elm are dancing still in a veil of tiny leaves, Nothing is lost but a few years from my life.

_Wind Elegy_

(W. E. W.)

Only the wind knows he is gone, Only the wind grieves, The sun shines, the fields are sown, Sparrows mate in the eaves;

But I heard the wind in the pines he planted And the hemlocks overhead, “His acres wake, for the year turns, But he is asleep,” it said.

_In the Wood_

I heard the water-fall rejoice Singing like a choir, I saw the sun flash out of it Azure and amber fire.

The earth was like an open flower Enamelled and arrayed, The path I took to find its heart Fluttered with sun and shade.

And while earth lured me, gently, gently, Happy and all alone, Suddenly a heavy snake Reared black upon a stone.

_Autumn Dusk_

I saw above a sea of hills A solitary planet shine, And there was no one near or far To keep the world from being mine.

VIII

ARCTURUS IN AUTUMN

_Arcturus in Autumn_

When, in the gold October dusk, I saw you near to setting, Arcturus, bringer of spring, Lord of the summer nights, leaving us now in autumn, Having no pity on our withering;

Oh then I knew at last that my own autumn was upon me, I felt it in my blood, Restless as dwindling streams that still remember The music of their flood.

There in the thickening dark a wind-bent tree above me Loosed its last leaves in flight-- I saw you sink and vanish, pitiless Arcturus, You will not stay to share our lengthening night.

“_I Could Snatch a Day_”

I could snatch a day out of the late autumn And set it trembling like forgotten springs, There would be sharp blue skies with new leaves shining And flying shadows cast by flying wings.

I could take the heavy wheel of the world and break it, But we sit brooding while the ashes fall, Cowering over an old fire that dwindles, Waiting for nothing at all.

_An End_

I have no heart for any other joy, The drenched September day turns to depart, And I have said good-bye to what I love; With my own will I vanquished my own heart.

On the long wind I hear the winter coming, The window panes are cold and blind with rain; With my own will I turned the summer from me And summer will not come to me again.

_Foreknown_

They brought me with a secret glee The news I knew before they spoke, And though they hoped to see me riven, They found me light as dry leaves driven Before the storm that splits an oak.

For I had learned from many an autumn The way a leaf can drift and go, Lightly, lightly, almost gay Taking the unreturning way To mix with winter and the snow.

_Winter_

I shall have winter now and lessening days, Lit by a smoky sun with slanting rays, And after falling leaves, the first determined frost. The colors of the world will all be lost. So be it; the faint buzzing of the snow Will fill the empty boughs, And after sleet storms I shall wake to see A glittering glassy plume of every tree. Nothing shall tempt me from my fire-lit house, And I shall find at night a friendly ember And make my life of what I can remember.

_Winter Night Song_

Will you come as of old with singing, And shall I hear as of old? Shall I rush to open the window In spite of the arrowy cold?

Ah no, my dear, ah no, I shall sit by the fire reading, Though you sing half the night in the snow I shall not be heeding.

Though your voice remembers the forest, The warm green light and the birds, Though you gather the sea in your singing And pour its sound into words,

Even so, my dear, even so, I shall not heed you at all; Though your shoulders are white with snow, Though you strain your voice to a call, I shall drowse and the fire will drowse, The draught will be cold on the floor, The clock running down, Snow banking the door.

_Never Again_

Never again the music blown as brightly Off of my heart as foam blown off a wave; Never again the melody that lightly Caressed my grief and healed the wounds it gave.

Never again--I hear my dark thoughts clashing Sullen and blind as waves that beat a wall-- Age that is coming, summer that is going, All I have lost or never found at all.

_The Tune_

I know a certain tune that my life plays; Over and over I have heard it start With all the wavering loveliness of viols And gain in swiftness like a runner’s heart.

It climbs and climbs; I watch it sway in climbing High over time, high even over doubt, It has all heaven to itself--it pauses And faltering blindly down the air, goes out.

IX

THE FLIGHT

_The Beloved_

It is enough of honor for one lifetime To have known you better than the rest have known, The shadows and the colors of your voice, Your will, immutable and still as stone.

The shy heart, so lonely and so gay, The sad laughter and the pride of pride, The tenderness, the depth of tenderness Rich as the earth, and wide as heaven is wide.

“_When I Am Not With You_”

When I am not with you I am alone, For there is no one else And there is nothing That comforts me but you. When you are gone Suddenly I am sick, Blackness is round me, There is nothing left. I have tried many things, Music and cities, Stars in their constellations And the sea, But there is nothing That comforts me but you; And my poor pride bows down Like grass in a rain-storm Drenched with my longing. The night is unbearable, Oh let me go to you For there is no one, There is nothing To comfort me but you.

_Dedication_

At least I have loved you; Though much went wrong, This was good, This was strong.

Unshaken In spite of the going of years, Too sure to retract, Too proud for tears.

Let my love be the pillow Under your head, On your lips like a song, To your hunger, bread.

_On a March Day_

Here in the teeth of this triumphant wind That shakes the naked shadows on the ground, Making a key-board of the earth to strike From clattering tree and hedge a separate sound,

Bear witness for me that I loved my life, All things that hurt me and all things that healed, And that I swore to it this day in March, Here at the edge of this new-broken field.

You only knew me, tell them I was glad For every hour since my hour of birth, And that I ceased to fear, as once I feared, The last complete reunion with the earth.

_Let It Be You_

Let it be you who lean above me On my last day, Let it be you who shut my eyelids Forever and aye.

Say a “Good-night” as you have said it All of these years, With the old look, with the old whisper And without tears.

You will know then all that in silence You always knew, Though I have loved, I loved no other As I love you.

_The Flight_

We are two eagles Flying together Under the heavens, Over the mountains, Stretched on the wind. Sunlight heartens us, Blind snow baffles us, Clouds wheel after us Ravelled and thinned.

We are like eagles, But when Death harries us, Human and humbled When one of us goes, Let the other follow, Let the flight be ended, Let the fire blacken, Let the book close.