Ways of verse online

6023
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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES



WAYS OF VERSE



WAYS OF VERSE
BY ARTHUR LEWIS



THE WINCOT PRESS

CHORLEYWOOD

HCMV



PR



TO
W. H. L.

'...frater, ave atque rale,'



918G5G



CONTENTS

page

MENS SANA . . 9

LONG AGO . .II

BE THOU TO ME . 13

THE RESPONSE . . 14

COME AWAY! . 1 6

SURVIVAL EVER . 1 7
COQUETTE . .18

SAD O' THE SUN . 19

INTIMATION . . 24

PERVERT . .25

MOTHER AN.D CHILD . 26

THE HERO . -27

SOUL'S AWAKENING . 28

IDENTITY . .29

IN HERMITAGE . 30

O HEART OF MAN! . 34

PASTOR FIDELIS . 34

THE PROPHET . 39

GETHSEMANE . 4!
A DEATH AMONG THE VILLAGERS 43

FIASCO . . 45

LIGHT OF LOVE . 45

A RHYME OF THE RIVER 50

THE THINKER'S PLAINT 53

THE WOLF-BOY . 53

THE THIEF . 55

WHERE SILENCE WAS 56



NOW! NOW! . 59

IN MEMORY . . 60

UNUTTERED YET . 63

THE DREAMER . . 64

' WITH A SLEEP ' . 68

INSPIRATION . 70

A DIAMOND-DIGGER . 7 1

BY THE WATERSIDE . 74

THE PYRE . . 74

IN PARTING . 75

SPEAK! SPEAK! . . 75

THE UNFAILING . ?8

DOLOROSA . . 79

SIMULACRA DEI . 79

DIRGE . . 82

THE HARVEST MOON . 83

GREY DAYS . . 84

DO ME RIGHT . 86

THE UNDERWAY . 87

CONFIRMATION . 88

THE FAILURE . . 89

THE TRAIN . 9

WORSHIP . . 9*

OF LITTLE FAITH . 9*

THE SIGH . 92

UNCHANGED , 9$

CLOSE O'THE YEAR 9$



ONE HUNDRED COPIES ONLY OF THIS ISSUE



WAYS OF VERSE



MENS SANA

His walk is with the morning,and the dew,
Alone,his early feet do tread it through;
And their track is far behind them in the veil
Spread of frosted airs all o'er the meadows pale;
And he looks upon the vapours as they rise
From the hollows of the lowlands,and his eyes,
They sight the dripping glitter of the leaves,
The spangle of the web work that he weaves,
The spider,o'er the quickset and the brake.
And from his coolest couch he does awake
The lark to the first earnest of his song,
Never after quite so gladsome and so strong.
And he scares the little black brood of the mere
To the thicket-marge,as draws his step a-near;
And the rookery gives voice above his head
As also well to leave its airy bed;
And he hears the heavy breathing of the kine
Where they lie full-fed upon the green incline,
Heavy-eyed,of each, the thick neck,it is bowed,
And their breath is all about them as a cloud.
And he hears the stealing rustle in the grass
By the hedgerow,as the weasel, he would pass
From his stealthy toil to safer depths away
Through the coppice in the quest of other prey:
9



And the sharp call of the game-biid,when the fox
Hasteth home with lolling tongue,as if he mocks
Pride of plumage,but a vain thing to the fangs.
And the ruddy fruit,a moment more,it hangs,
Then it falleth for his ear upon the green,
Where the mushroom,in its sweetness,it is seen;
And he stoopeth to take harvest of them both.
And to turn him to the hearthside is he loth,
Though the blue smoke,straight and sluggish,

now he spies,

And the hunger of the strong man does arise,
With a love for all the kindness that is there,
So good is all about him,and so fair.
But he bears it all within him,ne'ertheless,
For he knoweth nothing better that should bless
And freshen all the issues of the day,
Fall as frowning and as evil as they may:
Howsoever he be fretted or be worn,
Ne'er forgets he the good gospel of the morn.

Thus it is he goes abroad,and with a smile,
Through the thick press of the evil and the vile:
And a cool air plays for ever on his brow
As he bends him to his burden,and enow
Is a knowledge of a fitness for the task,
Without a fore or afterword to ask,
As whoso had forever in his gaze
The beginning and the meaning of his days;
For his ears the mighty line that ran along
And chanted the first purpose of the song,
Ere the Minstrel,the Immortal,he could let
The music of his theme be all beset
By the voices of the vulgar and the vain,
10



By the mumblings of the sluggard overlain,
And the whisperings of the futile and the weak,
And of them who ever ask and never seek;
And of them who ever shout Him to the skies,
Yet from His wonderwork do turn their eyes
To cringe upon the footstool of the night
With vision ever fearful of the light.
And at even, when the sun is off the lea,
And the wood is less alive with melody,
And the fish begin to leap above the ford,
While the shadows, they grow long upon the sward,
And the moth conies all a flutter to the flower,
And a stillness stealeth onward with the hour,
Tis then again he looketh where he would
On that chapter of the evil and the good,
One of many, none alike,and none in vain,
Though the writ be all a-blur with sin and pain,
Though the phrasing be all foolish and awry.
For he reads therein what is not to the eye;
And he figures many fancies all unsaid,
Throwing back again in gratitude his head
As he shutteth to the volume,and in peace
Seeks in slumber the brief blessing of release
From a labour of the loving and the true
To render thee,O Earth,thy better due,
Happy Mother,as thou art.but of the few!



LONG AGO

A LAD lay on the rounding
Of the green ridge of a hill;
ii



And wide and all abounding
What did his vision fill;
Though poor had been his eating,
And ragged was his smock,
And life were but the bleating,
The shifting of his flock.

For there below the bending

Of yonder narrow path

The white smoke was upwending

From the cottage in the garth;

And there beyond the reaching

Of yonder valley far

The blue sea and the beaching,

The breaking of the bar.

And the strong sun,he was doffi ng
His cloud-cap of the morn,
Where,away there in the offing,
The fisher fleet was borne:
And the grey gull,he was wheeling,
And his slow wing did he lave
Wherethrough the low sand stealing,
The runlet found the wave.

But there came a stranger scaling
That hill with eager feet;
And the dreaming lad,ere hailing,
With a good look did he greet
And words prophetic,scopeful,
Were his,more than enow,
Of the boy's eyes,black and hopeful,
And the brave breadth of his brow.
12



So that now no eyes are older
In -he knowledge of the strong;
And nowhere is brow aught bolder
To face this life along:
And by none a readier payment.
Another's pride to mock,
Than him who once,his raiment,
Was a sheep-boy's ragged smock.

Yet his look is ever wistful
For what it may not meet;
And his ears are ever listful,
But the lambs,they never bleat;
And the sun is never shining,
And the ships,they never go,
As for one,a boy reclining
On a green hill long ago.



BE THOU TO ME

BE THOU to me as unto day's awaiting
Through rainfall hours of sadness,chill and drear,
Cometh,at touch ofeve,a calm abating,
Light i' the West,and gladness again near.

Be thou to me as unto unavailing,
Night-long, refuse of thought's all sick allure,
Cometh,at creep of dawn's first tender paling,
Dream i' the last,and slumber sweet and pure.



THE RESPONSE

Then drew the TEMPTER nearer to that bed
Whereon the WORKER lay.and thus he said:

' Be obstinate no more: own it is plain,
Thine is the path of loss,and mine of gain.
What else? the way of sweetness is the mouth:
The breath of love is balmiest i' the South;
Where wouldest thou but wend thee with the sun,
Thy long-mocked heritage were well begun
With langour of thy neck upon her knees,
Thy look without that arbour, where the bees,
The gilded rout of winged things to and fro
In honeyed industry do come and go:
Or where the swallows course their skimming flight;
Where yellow fruit outdoes the yellow light;
W T here peeping forms of fawn and nymph confess
The kindly screen of bayleafand cypress:
Or where the cool spray palters with the blaze
Of noonbeams,as it were,in mad amaze
To find itself uplifted to such joy,
Scarce witting how its wild way to employ.
And there the hours shall pass thee without count
And measure of their purpose and amount;
Nor through the vine-leaves shall one blinking bar
Of western glory thy good pleasure mar,
And warn thee of the night,for what were that
But word of what the stars would soon look at,
Such daylongs are in purchase of thy will:
In them the cup is brimmed thou wouldest spill
With gazing elsewhere toward the gadding cloudfy
In that vain aspiration which enshrouds
14



"With words the actualities, with thought
The sweet simplicities good flesh has taught
Then such at length abjure,and come about,
And be no more of men who think and doubt'

Another step the TEMPTER neared that head
The WORKER tossed, and this again he said:
* For what avails thee, o' this other hand?
What of thy good completing, is it scanned
By other eye than thy creative pride?
Which is a praise a little less than wide.
I tell thee,man, as owns e'en thy conceit,
Ne'er in thy spell of days shalt thou e'er meet
That heart applause far worthier and more loud
Than all the throaty rantings of the crowd,
Who fawn upon the fashion of the hour,
And are so prompt fool-promptings to devour.
No: to the grave thou comest with thy kind,
When all thy fretted thought is left behind,
Perchance to moulder with unmindful years,
By cause of that decree which breath prefers
To whatsoever leavings of the dead:
Or should somewhere an honouring phrase be said,
Which springs thy merit to the gaze of all,
What that to thee,then sped beyond recall?
Where to,ye know not, to what world beyond:
Which, of a truth, could know nought of the fond
And purblind steps of this poor life-approach:
Of that be well assured. And did encroach
My speech yet further on a theme so droll
As this, the cogitations of a soul
Bereft of this sweet flesh, I would expose
How little worth its bliss these present throes.



Ha! then enough; I see good counsel clings!
Thou smilest? Now the clipping of those wings
Which would have borne thee from the pleasant earth
To where but winds and vapours have their birth,
And irresponsive airs about thee lie.
Why toil all unacclaimed, and toiling die? '

Then cried the WORKER: ' There the reason why! *



COME AWAY!

Go no more by yonder steep:
Tis a thing too black and deep:
Tis a tempter strong and vile,
Would await thee with a smile;
Would but lift another span,
Boastful of the blood of man
Spattered on its barren side:
Horrid rite inhuman pride!

Come away come away -
Come away O come away!

Look no more on yonder eyes:
Twere a deed too little wise.
Tis a witchcraft there within;
Wild bewilderment of sin.
Should a soul there pass afar,
It would wander without star,
Without worship, without rest,
Without word of honour blest
Come away come away -
Come away O come away!
16



SURVIVAL EVER

WHAT if with irremediable forecast
Hath death decreed the paling of that face,
The enfeebling of that form, its pleasure passed;
And for the tomb its all too tender grace:

While to that touch

Of hand,O such
A failing ever, ever, till the last:

Not, then, for me that verdict of despair
Which may be met but with a shuddering wail;
For I will see thee live in all things fair;
And for the wistful view shall never fail

The rendering how

Of lip and brow,
The course and mystery of that gathered hair.

And I will find the likeness of thy smile
Allwhere in sunlit flicker of green trees;
And thy dear voice this ear shall yet beguile
In every lisp and whisper of the breeze:

Those eyes I'll mark

In any dark
Grove-shadow, deep, where mine to watch awhile.

And all the silent intercourse to btr
With rock or stream, grey moor or mossy fell,
And desert shore by lone, untra veiled, sea,
Shall of thy life things so delighted tell,

That thus, O sure

As doth endure
Fair Earth, be thou immortal unto me!



COQUETTE

SERVE thee well those darting eyes:
Let that dimpled cheek devise
Access to the shallow mood
That of thee is understood:
How it may not look away
From that pose and posture gay,
Wooing, winning all there be
In the shape God gave to thee;
All the longing I must know
For the form does,tripping,go
As were earth the fitting walk
Of a courtship without baulk;
As were love the simple theme
Of an idle, flippant, dream;
Whispering word and pressing hand
Reason tricked, and passion fanned;
Thine a conquest slyly scanned,
Mine a manhood half unmanned.

But I know another good
Somewhere wrapped in womanhood:
Tis a thing in life and line,
Lip and brow, as sweet as thine;
Though it scarce would seem to guess
What its gift of loveliness,
Nor to grasp what stuff it be,
Clad in that simplicity
Which of innocence is heir;
With a shade of sadness there,
And of reticence forlorn,
As unwitting where were borne
Strange felicities of thought,
18



Winged with love, and only caught
In the corners of the mind
With blush, then left behind.
But I know that could I touch-
Were in fate a favour such
Clutch and hold that spirit pure
For a space, ne'er could endure
Eyes of mine to meet again
Sparkle of these others vain;
Never might this shallow mood
That of thee is understood
Serve thee well; and never should
Thing, as thou, by me be wooedl



SAD O' THE SUN

MOTHER

O true, my child, 'tis summer,sweet with ease,

Again that's here. But never can it please

My heart, as yours.

DAUGHTER

O Mother! still endures

This saddest state?

MOTHER

Which is the will of fate!

DAUGHTER

But wherefore? why?

MOTHER

Should I at last reply



My words about your life, as mine, were weight.
DAUGHTER
How can that be!
MOTHER
Dear girl, felicity

Is fragile as yon gauzy petalled flower
That droops upon the least unfeeling hour,
Or bluff touch of the wind.
DAUGHTER
O call to mind

My father's thought,that we should ever cloak
Our good with grace more as yon might of oak!
MOTHER

So true it is,then,I should hate this air
Which letteth bloom things all too frail and fair.
He loathed it too.
DAUGHTER

But he was stern, while you
MOTHER

On such day as this your father slew.
DAUGHTER

O Mother! what a word!
MOTHER

Shall still deferred,
O Wrong! be thy narration?
DAUGHTER
What O what

Is this you murmur? O of too long grief begot
Is this vague self-accusing! Such remorse,
Conjured of jarring trifles, keens our loss.
My father died of sickness all men know
To snatch the breath alike of high and low
20



Who suck its poison in.
MOTHER

Which was my sin!
Shall I now speak?
DAUGHTER

Yes, Mother, do begin!
MOTHER

'Twas such a summer's first of light and flower,
And I a three month's bride, when in this bower:
He touched his lips to mine, and left me lone
Once more, for his good labours; though did own
My heart,alas! not half the grudging thought
Of absence,his,that to this face I brought
Such friendship as was mine, it is a thing
Which gives and takes, but never does it cling
And here was all this scene before my eyes;
And in my lap a little volume lies
That I would read, one that he gave to me,
At my request, though could I not but see
His soul's scorn of the sweetness of that verse
I' the gracious smile that would his lips unpurse:
Which made me clutch it firmer to this palm,
And now did ope it in delicious calm
'Neath this green,arboured, draping, for a while
To live with them on that Ionian isle,
Those two, for whom sufficed its silence fair,
So love-sweet were its depths of sea and air.
And thereof did I read some space unknown,
All timeless were the word-winged moments flown;
And if I raised mine eyes at length to look
At all which lay without this dreaming nook,
That lawn, the humming blaze of honied flowers,
Of rose and bell, and trellicing that embowers
21



Yon hive-row from the sun; or where beyond
Lies under lilied face the little pond;
And thickest swath is ripening to the seed
O'er all the air-stirred slumber of that mead;
'Twas but with inward vision that I gazed,
So with all fancy was the present hazed
And overcome, until this wakening ear
Caught hint of footstep that drew gently near;
At which, this hand up went, this breath was short|
And there once more the love I had outfought!
DAUGHTER

Ah, Mother! as I guessed!
MOTHER

It stood confessed,

I fear, as ever, in my look: else had he not,
In honour, stayed him longer on that spot
In absence of his friend, to whom I knew
Had been his prayer, as mine, to stand all true.
But ah! that rapture which was o'er my soul!
Magnetic sight! it drew, and in he stole;
And to this seat beside me did he fall,
And ours were words of which love is the all:
Though with a converse scholarlike we clad
The thought alway too tremulous we had
Within our inmost beings, in our eyes,
O there it is herself truth ne'er denies!
And as some word of classic worth was said
The nearer drew to mine the speaker's head;
And as my lesser store his own equips
With luscious phrase, I feel the pressing lips,
As 'twere, already feeding these with breath
Against their promise of poetic death:
Until, indeed, a touch! and speech no more;
22



But life and love alone was all they bore;
And thought and memory.both alike, were o'er!
DAUGHTER

O Mother! but a kiss!
MOTHER

But that. Yet this,

The knell and end of two poor mortals' bliss!
DAUGHTER
Ah, so! I see.
MOTHER

He stood there; and on me
His gaze was set: it scowled not at the wrong
That other shared, as though he knew too strong
Love must have been for honour in that will
Of onetime friend, for whom was friendship still:
But waved his hand, and with a forced smile,
Forbade the words of shame that self revile;
And ever just, in judgement of the wise,
Your father, so alone for me his eyes
Of sorrow, not of wrath, as though they saw,
At length, unblinded, all that lay before;
And caught the spirit chains that held me to
His gaoler-love, to flinch whene'er he drew
Me nearer to the prison of his heart,
Howe'er I smiled endurance of the smart.
The which was henceforth all our way of life;
Though ever to deny it was the strife,
Unending,of our effort, each for each:
As alway with fond look would we impeach
The hapless meaning of that summer's morn,
When was faith's holiest wear too sadly torn,
And had a rent forever that might ne'er
The deftest industry quite all repair:
23



Till that dread ill beset him, and I know

It was a fate he little would forego,

And welcomed with the best, for all that he

Spoke ever of the life yet his to be,

And planned an honoured age, lest I should guess

Some trifle of his true life weariness^

And of his vision still of jingling chain

Which, from his wrist to mine, made all love vain:

A spectre-presence, solely such a weal*

Of summer soft, as this, did first reveal,

When, dreaming richest things, I fell as one

Drunk with the spellful lustre of the sun;

And lost the look of earth m sabtle ways

Of mote-like fancy, tossing in- the rays

Of yonder kindling,bloom-unfolding,blaze fc

For me, aot ever friend!

DAUGHTER

Ah, God forfendt



INTIMATION

FORGIVE me, love, if but a failing thought*

A hazed imagination, made thee mine;

Through groping years and blindfold ever brought

Where alway for some Presence must I pine,

No gift of insight wholly could define.

But this believe^ that intimation true
Of that strange Something-More not yet espied
Was never wanting to the fairest view:
However well with all foregone it vied,
Yet was an absence vague for which I sighed.
24



The freshest morn that e'er uplifted crown
Of glory o'er yon grove-enguarded,crest;
The richest eve that ever slumbered down
To roseate silence in the dreamful West,
Ne'er had my heart of thanks quite all confessed.

No symphony of so delirious touch
The very stones would quiver and be flesh,
But of its uttermost did leave me such
Whose life yet slips the capture of its mesh,
And I must hearken to some note afresh.

No deep emotion of the meeting eyes,
No languor of the eyelash and the hair,
Fondling the gentle cheek, but truth denies
To love her pure perfection even there:
It was a thing for seeking yet elsewhere.

Thus of unrest was I sped ever on
Through one pursuit unspeakable of thee,
As though thy spirit-self were that did con
Alike what would my better portion be:
Soul of mine own! 'twas that delivered me!



PERVERT

HE tasted onetime of forbidden fruit,
And knows not since if 'twere all sweet or gall;
But this alone: none now will ever suit:
No other fruit has any taste at all.
25



MOTHER AND CHILD

PALE was she as lily bloom,
Now for life and now for death;
But her eyes did search the room:
Came this whisper to her breath:
4 1 am mother that am I:
Wherefore have ye ta'en my son?
Bring him quick, that he may lie
Here by me, and we be one.'



But they knew not what should be
Their reply, as round they stood,
Mute and fearful, until he
Spoke, the strong man, wise and good.
1 Bring him bring him. I no more
Do withstand ye with a ' no.'
Well or ill, my work is o'er:
Let the hot tears fill and flow.'



So they bore him to her touch,
Little thing that ne'er had breath.
White her fingers, they did clutch
O for life! and O for death!
For a moment they did glow,
Her sweet eyes, on him,her son;
Then, the next, the truth they know;
And again those two are one!



THE HERO

His name was great on every tongue;
By every throat his work was sung:
His right, the rule of every heart;
His aim, for each soul set apart:
And that he braved, and that he freed,
But that for which they too would bleed.

And dear the speech his lips had spelt;
And dear the land where he had dwelt]
Green steep and pine, and height of snow;
Clear lake and stream that lie below:
They scarce could hold their honest vaunt)
Twas this their hero's eyes did haunt

But on a day the rumour ran
Of what had writ a learned man,
All bald of brow, with snuffy clothes,
And glasses great upon his nose;
Who said, alas! his searching ne'er
Through mighty tomes the truth could spare.

Their brave man was but thing of fame,
A baseless fiction, with a name,
By forbears fond in days of old,
With other fireside fables told;
And 'twas a thing amusing .much,
To find him hailed a hero,sucb.

Then o'er that land a shadow passed,
And grave was every feature cast:
'Twas something of the spirit fled
27



From that good clime which left it dead.
No mighty peak, nor grassy vale,
But there the sun shone sick and

Till one arose, and thus he cried:
' Grant, if they will, we be belied
In his true self, O that were what
To them to us, by whom begot,
In his great name, the best that we
For now for aye will ever be?'

So 'tis again the land is glad;

And true is what as truth it had

In blood and bone the soul, it knows

To be the surest of its throes:

And man, the maker of his creed

In freedom, maketh him who freed.



SOUL'S AWAKENING

How with a flash, a fleck of thought,
The wave, as of a wizard-hand,
Am I to spheres of feeling wrought,
Rare aspirations rich and grand,
I never dreamt I know not why
Were in the reach of such as I!

What was the word that did invoke?
But seek not for the flitting cause.
A start! a gasp? this sight awoke!
This breath another ether draws!
28



And swiftly to the fixed ear
Do novel voicings whisper near.

And in the wonder of the sun
On herb and bank, o'er hill and lea;
Blest rumour of good things begun,
For endings blessed and to be;
In heart of earth, or sad or gay,
Am I participate for aye!



IDENTITY.

Am I the man who had a will
To snatch a joy a year ago?
Am I the one who took his fill
Of sorrow sick one drear ago?

Am I the youth who wandered on
With thought adrift a lone ago?
The lad whose wonderment did con
Things new to that unknown ago?

Why, there the thing that I would know!
New bark is bound about the tree.
Quite other buds, they push and grow,
Nor with the years foregone agree.

The seed-winds course about the globe,
Germ-laden, unto many lands;
In strange habiliment they robe
And liken the remoter strands:
29



And men and nations gaze,aghast,
On grim beginning s,storied,old;
And feel no portion in the past,
And doubt if all be truly told.

With them am I: in head and limb,
And voice, they hail me for the same;
But answer none to wonder dim
Why to this other shore I came:

And am transmuted to pursuit
Of vistas and horizons far,
To view the lustre of new fruit,
The white light upon reef and bar:

And stand a witness to design,
Creative, noway could it know,
That self they tell me once was mine
Within the long forgot ago.



IN HERMITAGE

HA! little wife! come hither here the grot!
Found have we,then,at last, the very spot
Where went his days:

Here, on this rugged hillside's farthest slope,
Beyond, above, communion's common hope,
Earth's meeting ways!

Inlet us pass, and, hand in hand, create
Imagination's ownership of fate,
3



Strange as was this;

Here, in this cavern-chamber, still and lone,