A Lonely Flute

Excerpt

Beyond the pearly portal,Beyond the last dim star,Pale, perfect, and immortal,The eternal visions are,That never any raptureOf sorrow or of mirthOf any song shall captureTo dwell with men on earth.

Many a strange and tragicOld sorrow still is muteAnd melodies of magicStill slumber in the flute,Many a mighty visionHas caught my yearning eyeAnd swept with calm derisionIn robes of splendor by.

The rushing susurrationOf some eternal wingBeats mighty variationThrough all the song I sing;The vague, deep-mouthed commotionFrom its ancestral homeBooms like the shout of oceanAcross the crumbling foam;And these low lyric whispersMake answer wistfullyAs sea-shells ... dreaming lispersBeside the eternal sea.

There is a name like some deep melodyHallowed by sundown, delicate as the plashOf lonely waves on solitary lakesAnd rounded as the sudden-bursting bloomOf bold, deep-throated notes in a midnight cloudWhen shadowy belfries far away roll outAcross the dark their avalanche of sound.

It is a wild voice lost in the wail of the wind;The silvery-twinkling plectrum of the rainPlays in the poplar tree no other tuneAnd pines intone it softly as a prayerIn leafy litanies.The name is raisedEven to God's ear from ancient arches dimWith caverned twilight and dull altar smokeWhere tapers weave athwart the azure hazeInnumerable pageantries of dusk.

Low-voiced and soft-eyed women must they liveWho bear that holy name. And now for oneTime has no other honor than to beThe meaning of an unremembered rhyme,The breath of a forgotten singer's song.

(October, 1903)

I must forget awhile the mellow flutesAnd all the lyric wizardry of strings;The fragile clarinet,Tremulous over meadows rich with dawn,Must knock against my vagrant heartAnd throb and cry no more.

For I am shaken by the lovelinessAnd lights and laughter and beguiling songOf all this siren world;The regal beauty of women, round on round,The swift, lithe slenderness of girls,And children's loyal eyes,

Hill rivers and the lilac fringe of seasLazily plunging, glow of city nightsAnd faces in the glow—These things have stolen my heart away, I lieParcelled abroad in sound and hue,Dispersed through all I love.

I must go far away to a still placeAnd draw the shadows down across my eyesAnd wait and listen thereFor wings vibrating from beyond the stars,Wide-ranging, swiftly winnowing wingsBearing me back mine own.

So soon, now, I shall lie deep hidden awayFrom sound or sight, with hearing strangely dullAnd heavy-lidded eyes,—'T is time, O passionate soul, for me to goSome far, hill-folded road apartAnd learn the ways of peace.

In a crumbling glory setsThe unhastening sun;The fishers draw their shining nets;The day is done.

Across the ruddy wineThat brims the seaBlack boats drag shoreward through the brineDreamily,

And dark against the glowFiring the west,By three and two the great gulls goSeaward to rest....