It Was Long Ago
I'll tell you, shall I, something I remember?
Something that still means a great deal to me.
It was long ago.
A dusty road in summer I remember,
A mountain, and an old house, and a tree
That stood, you know,
Behind the house. An old woman I remember
In a red shawl with a grey cat on her knee
Humming under a tree.
She seemed the oldest thing I can remember.
But then perhaps I was not more than three.
It was long ago.
I dragged on the dusty road, and I remember
How the old woman looked over the fence at me
And seemed to know
How it felt to be three, and called out, I remember
"Do you like bilberries and cream for tea?"
I went under the tree.
And while she hummed, and the cat purred, I remember
How she filled a saucer with berries and cream for me
So long ago.
Such berries and such cream as I remember
I never had seen before, and never see
Today, you know.
And that is almost all I can remember,
The house, the mountain, the gray cat on her knee,
Her red shawl, and the tree,
And the taste of the berries, the feel of the sun I remember,
And the smell of everything that used to be
So long ago,
Till the heat on the road outside again I remember
And how the long dusty road seemed to have for me
No end, you know.
That is the farthest thing I can remember.
It won't mean much to you. It does to me.
Then I grew up, you see.
The Shepherd and The King
The Shepherd and the King,
The Angel and the Ass,
They heard Sweet Mary sing,
When her joy was come to pass;
They heard Sweet Mary sing
To the Baby on her knee.
Sing again Sweet Mary,
And we will sing with thee!
Earth, bear a berry!
Heaven, bear a light!
Man, make you merry
On Christmas Night.
The Oxen in the stall,
The Sheep upon the hill,
They are waking all
To hear Sweet Mary still.
The Baby is a Child,
And the Child is running free.
Sing again Sweet Mary,
And we will sing with thee!
Earth, bear a berry!
Heaven, bear a light!
Man, make you merry
On Christmas Night.
The People in the land,
So many million strong,
All silently do stand
To hear Sweet Mary's song.
The Child He is a man,
And the man hangs on a tree.
Sing again Sweet Mary,
And we will sing with thee!
Earth, bear a berry!
Heaven, bear a light!
Man, make you merry
On Christmas Night.
The Stars that are so old,
The Grass that is so young,
They listen in the cold
To hear Sweet Mary's Tongue.
The Man's the Son of God,
And in heaven walketh He.
Sing again Sweet Mary,
And we will sing with thee!
Earth, bear a berry!
Heaven, bear a light!
Man, make you merry
On Christmas Night.
There Isn't Time
There isn't time, there isn't time
To do the things I want to do,
With all the mountain-tops to climb,
And all the woods to wander through,
And all the seas to sail upon,
And everywhere there is to go,
And all the people, every one
Who lives upon the earth , to know.
To know a few, and do a few,
And then sit down and make a rhyme
About the rest I want to do.
The Sounds in the Evening
The sounds in the evening
Go all through the house,
The click of the clock
And the pick of the mouse,
The footsteps of people
Upon the top floor,
The skirts of my mother
That brush by the door,
The crick in the boards,
And the creek of the chairs,
The fluttering murmurs
Outside on the stairs,
The ring of the bell,
The arrival of guests,
The laugh of my father
At one of his
jests,
The clashing of dishes
As dinner goes
in,
The babble of voices
That distance makes thin,
The mewing of cats
That seem just by my ear,
The hooting of owls
That can never seem near,
The queer little noises
That no one explains…
Till the moon through the slats
Of my window-blind rains,
And the world of my eyes
And my ears melts like steam
As I find my pillow
The world of my dream.
Rules
All schools
Have rules
Even those without 'em.
It's the rule of those schools
To have no rules,
That's all there is about 'em.
Peace
I.
I am as awful as my brother War,
I am the sudden silence after clamour.
I am the face that shows the seamy scar
When blood and frenzy has lost its glamour.
Men in my pause shall know the cost at last
That is not to be paid in triumphs or tears,
Men will begin to judge the thing that's past
As men will judge it in a hundred years.
Nations! whose ravenous engines must be fed
Endlessly with the father and the son,
My naked light upon your darkness, dread! -
By which ye shall behold what ye have done:
Whereon, more like a vulture than a dove,
Ye set my seal in hatred, not in love.
II.
Let no man call me good. I am not blest.
My single virtue is the end of crimes,
I only am the period of unrest,
The ceasing of horrors of the times;
My good is but the negative of ill,
Such ill as bends the spirit with despair,
Such ill as makes the nations' soul stand still
And freeze to stone beneath a Gorgon glare.
Be blunt, and say that peace is but a state
Wherein the active soul is free to move,
And nations only show as mean or great
According to the spirit then they prove. -
O which of ye whose battle-cry is Hate
Will first in peace dare shout the name of Love?
Poetry
What is Poetry? Who knows?
Not a rose, but the scent of the rose;
Not the sky, but the light in the sky;
Not the fly, but the gleam of the fly;
Not the sea, but the sound of the sea;
Not myself, but what makes me
See, hear, and feel something that prose
Cannot: and what it is, who knows.
The Week After
The Week After
Thou that diest, Thou that never diest,
Thy day of birth has come ande Highest!
And Earth has sung Peace and Goodwill to men!
And some have feasted, and still more have fasted,
But in the week that now has slipped behind
The movement was a warm one while it lasted,
And the hearts of men were willing to be kind.
Oh, keep that movement warm, not only now
But in the weeks that still beyond us lie!
Oh, keep that movement constant in us, Thou
That ever diest, and wilt never die.
Some Time
Some time! some time!
When will it be?
It might be winter,
It might be spring,
With snow on the ground
Or fruit on the tree,
Some time! some time!
When will it be?
Some one! some one!
What is he like?
Perhaps a coal-man,
Perhaps a king.
Will he come on a horse
Or a motor-bike?
Some one! some one!
What is he like?
Somewhere! somewhere!
Oh, but where?
In a hollow
Or on a height?
Over the water?
At the fair?
Somewhere! somewhere!
Oh, but where?
Some time! some time!
When will it be?
It might be morning,
It might be night,
With the sun in the sky
Or the moon on the sea -
Some time! some time!
When will it be?
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