The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 4 (of 5) Poems of mystery and of myth and romance

And now I felt her presence near, I, full of life; yet knew no fear There in the sombre silence, mark. And it was dark, yes, deadly dark: But when I slowly drew away The pall, d...

In farther planets there are men who talk, Not with their lips, but with their eyes alone, With beaming eyes and brows that burn with thought: Pure souls whose sentiments need b...

Drouth weights the trees, and from the farm-house eaves The locust, pulse-beat of the summer day, Throbs; and the lane, that shambles under leaves Limp with the heat--a league o...

Beneath an old beech-tree They sat together, Fair as a flower was she Of summer weather. They spoke of life and love, While, through the boughs above, The sunlight, like a dove,...

Stars above her, stars beneath, White she rose, as white as death, Where the waters glassed the splendor Of a thousand thousand stars, Twinkling where the lilies slender Rocked...

So it ends--the path that crept Through a land all slumber-whist; Where the faded moonlight slept Like a pale antagonist. Now the star that led me onward,-- Reassuring with its...

The old enigmas of the deathless dawns, And riddles of the all immortal eves,-- That still o'er Delphic lawns Speak as the gods spoke through oracular leaves-- I read with new-b...

For, all around me, upon field and hill, Enchantment lies as of mysterious flutes; As if the music of a god's good-will Had taken on material attributes In blooms, like chords;...

For, on a sudden, the woman of fashion, Soft at my side in her diamonds and lace, Vanished, and pale with reproach or with passion, You, my dead sweetheart, looked up in my face.

Or, haply 'tis a Naiad now who slips, Like some white lily, from her fountain's glass, While from her dripping hair and breasts and hips The moisture rains cool music on the gra...

"What made gold Horus smile with golden lips? Anubis dire forget his ghosts to lead To Hell's profoundness?--He, who stayed to sip One winking bubble from the wine-god's cup, An...

Not for you and me the path Winding through the shadowless Fields of morning's dewiness! Where the brook that hurries hath Laughter lighter than a boy's; Where recurrent odors p...

Without a moon when night comes on There is a sighing in its trees As of sad lips that no one sees; And the far-dwindling forest, large Beyond fenced fields, seems shadowy drawn...

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber notes: | | | | P. 61. Stanza 'X' should be 'IX', changed to 'IX'. | | P. 178. Added end quotat...