第 1 节
作者:
想聊 更新:2021-02-24 22:39 字数:9322
DREAMS & DUST
DREAMS & DUST
POEMS BY DON MARQUIS
TO MY MOTHER VIRGINIA WHITMORE MARQUIS
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DREAMS & DUST
PROEM
〃SO LET THEM PASS; THESE SONGS OF
MINE〃
So let them pass; these songs of mine; Into oblivion; nor repine;
Abandoned ruins of large schemes; Dimmed lights adrift from nobler
dreams;
Weak wings I sped on quests divine; So let them pass; these songs of
mine。 They soar; or sink ephemeral I care not greatly which befall!
For if no song I e'er had wrought; Still have I loved and laughed and
fought; So let them pass; these songs of mine; I sting too hot with life to
whine!
Still shall I struggle; fail; aspire; Lose God; and find Gods in the mire;
And drink dream…deep life's heady wine So let them pass; these songs of
mine。
DAYLIGHT HUMORS
THIS IS ANOTHER DAY
I AM mine own priest; and I shrive myself Of all my wasted
yesterdays。 Though sin And sloth and foolishness; and all ill weeds Of
error; evil; and neglect grow rank And ugly there; I dare forgive myself
That error; sin; and sloth and foolishness。 God knows that yesterday I
played the fool; God knows that yesterday I played the knave; But shall I
therefore cloud this new dawn o'er With fog of futile sighs and vain
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DREAMS & DUST
regrets?
This is another day! And flushed Hope walks Adown the sunward
slopes with golden shoon。 This is another day; and its young strength Is
laid upon the quivering hills until; Like Egypt's Memnon; they grow quick
with song。 This is another day; and the bold world Leaps up and grasps its
light; and laughs; as leapt Prometheus up and wrenched the fire from Zeus。
This is another dayare its eyes blurred With maudlin grief for any
wasted past? A thousand thousand failures shall not daunt! Let dust clasp
dust; death; deathI am alive! And out of all the dust and death of mine
Old selves I dare to lift a singing heart And living faith; my spirit dares
drink deep Of the red mirth mantling in the cup of morn。
APRIL SONG
FLEET across the grasses Flash the feet of Spring; Piping; as he
passes Fleet across the grasses; 〃Follow; lads and lasses! Sing; world;
sing!〃 Fleet across the grasses Flash the feet of Spring!
Idle winds deliver Rumors through the town; Tales of reeds that
quiver; Idle winds deliver; Where the rapid river Drags the willows
down Idle winds deliver Rumors through the town。
In the country places By the silver brooks April airs her graces; In
the country places Wayward April paces; Laughter in her looks; In the
country places By the silver brooks。
Hints of alien glamor Even reach the town; Urban muses stammer
Hints of alien glamor; But the city's clamor Beats the voices down;
Hints of alien glamor Even reach the town。
THIS EARTH; IT IS ALSO A STAR
WHERE the singers of Saturn find tongue; Where the Galaxy's
lovers embrace; Our world and its beauty are sung! They lean from
their casements to trace If our planet still spins in its place; Faith fables
the thing that we are; And Fantasy laughs and gives chase: This earth; it
is also a star!
Round the sun; that is fixed; and hung For a lamp in the darkness of
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space We are whirled; we are swirled; we are flung; Singing and
shining we race And our light on the uplifted face Of dreamer or
prophet afar May fall as a symbol of grace: This earth; it is also a star!
Looking out where our planet is swung Doubt loses his writhen
grimace; Dry hearts drink the gleams and are young; Where agony's
boughs interlace His Garden some Jesus may pace; Lifting; the wan
avatar; His soul to this light as a vase! This earth; it is also a star!
Great spirits in sorrowful case Yearn to us through the vapors that
bar: Canst think of that; soul; and be base? This earth; it is also a star!
THE NAME
IT shifts and shifts from form to form; It drifts and darkles; gleams
and glows; It is the passion of the storm; The poignance of the rose;
Through changing shapes; through devious ways; By noon or
night; through cloud or flame; My heart has followed all my days
Something I cannot name。
In sunlight on some woman's hair; Or starlight in some woman's
eyne; Or in low laughter smothered where Her red lips wedded mine;
My heart hath known; and thrilled to know; This unnamed presence
that it sought; And when my heart hath found it so; 〃Love is the name;〃
I thought。
Sometimes when sudden afterglows In futile glory storm the skies
Within their transient gold and rose The secret stirs and dies; Or when
the trampling morn walks o'er The troubled seas; with feet of flame;
My awed heart whispers; 〃Ask no more; For Beauty is the name!〃
Or dreaming in old chapels where The dim aisles pulse with
murmurings That part are music; part are prayer (Or rush of hidden
wings) Sometimes I lift a startled head To some saint's carven
countenance; Half fancying that the lips have said; All names mean
God; perchance!〃
THE BIRTH
THERE is a legend that the love of God So quickened under Mary's
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heart it wrought Her very maidenhood to holier stuff。 。 。 。 However that
may be; the birth befell Upon a night when all the Syrian stars Swayed
tremulous before one lordlier orb That rose in gradual splendor; Paused;
Flooding the firmament with mystic light; And dropped upon the breathing
hills A sudden music Like a distillation from its gleams; A rain of spirit
and a dew of song!
A MOOD OF PAVLOWA
THE soul of the Spring through its body of earth Bursts in a bloom
of fire; And the crocuses come in a rainbow riot of mirth。。。。 They flutter;
they burn; they take wing; they aspire。 。 。 。 Wings; motion and
music and flame; Flower; woman and laughter; and all these the
same! She is light and first love and the youth of the world; She is
sandaled with joy 。 。 。 she is lifted and whirled; She is flung; she is
swirled; she is driven along By the carnival winds that have torn her
away From the coronal bloom on the brow of the May。 。 。 。 She
is youth; she is foam; she is flame; she is visible Song!
THE POOL
REACH over; my Undine; and clutch me a reed Nymph of mine
idleness; notch me a pipe For I am fulfilled of the silence; and long For
to utter the sense of the silence in song。
Down…stream all the rapids are troubled with pebbles That fetter
and fret what the water would utter; And it rushes and splashes in
tremulous trebles; It makes haste through the shallows; its soul is
aflutter;
But here all the sound is serene and outspread In the murmurous
moods of a slow…swirling pool; Here all the sounds are unhurried and
cool; Every silence is kith to a sound; they are wed; They are mated; are
mingled; are tangled; are bound; Every hush is in love with a
sound; every sound By the law of its life to some silence is bound。