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第7章

a reading of life-第7章

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XXI。



The city urchin mooned on forest air;

On grassy sweeps and flying arrows; thick

As swallows o'er smooth streams; and sighed him sick

For thinking that his dearer home was there。



XXII。



Familiar; still unseized; the forest sprang

An old…world echo; like no mortal thing。

The hunter's horn might wind a jocund ring;

But held in ear it had a chilly clang。



XXIII。



Some shadow lurked aloof of ancient time;

Some warning haunted any sound prolonged;

As though the leagues of woodland held them wronged

To hear an axe and see a township climb。



XXIV。



The forest's erewhile emperor at eve

Had voice when lowered heavens drummed for gales。

At midnight a small people danced the dales;

So thin that they might dwindle through a sieve



XXV。



Ringed mushrooms told of them; and in their throats;

Old wives that gathered herbs and knew too much。

The pensioned forester beside his crutch;

Struck showers from embers at those bodeful notes。



XXVI。



Came then the one; all ear; all eye; all heart;

Devourer; and insensibly devoured;

In whom the city over forest flowered;

The forest wreathed the city's drama…mart。



XXVII。



There found he in new form that Dragon old;

From tangled solitudes expelled; and taught

How blindly each its antidote besought;

For either's breath the needs of either told。



XXVIII。



Now deep in woods; with song no sermon's drone;

He showed what charm the human concourse works:

Amid the press of men; what virtue lurks

Where bubble sacred wells of wildness lone。



XXIX。



Our conquest these:  if haply we retain

The reverence that ne'er will overrun

Due boundaries of realms from Nature won;

Nor let the poet's awe in rapture wane。







Poem: A Garden Idyl







With sagest craft Arachne worked

Her web; and at a corner lurked;

Awaiting what should plump her soon;

To case it in the death…cocoon。

Sagaciously her home she chose

For visits that would never close;

Inside my chalet…porch her feast

Plucked all the winds but chill North…east。



The finished structure; bar on bar;

Had snatched from light to form a star;

And struck on sight; when quick with dews;

Like music of the very Muse。

Great artists pass our single sense;

We hear in seeing; strung to tense;

Then haply marvel; groan mayhap;

To think such beauty means a trap。

But Nature's genius; even man's

At best; is practical in plans;

Subservient to the needy thought;

However rare the weapon wrought。

As long as Nature holds it good

To urge her creatures' quest for food

Will beauty stamp the just intent

Of weapons upon service bent。

For beauty is a flower of roots

Embedded lower than our boots;

Out of the primal strata springs;

And shows for crown of useful things



Arachne's dream of prey to size

Aspired; so she could nigh despise

The puny specks the breezes round

Supplied; and let them shake unwound;

Assured of her fat fly to come;

Perhaps a blue; the spider's plum;

Who takes the fatal odds in fight;

And gives repast an appetite;

By plunging; whizzing; till his wings

Are webbed; and in the lists he swings;

A shrouded lump; for her to see

Her banquet in her victory。



This matron of the unnumbered threads;

One day of dandelions' heads

Distributing their gray perruques

Up every gust; I watched with looks

Discreet beside the chalet…door;

And gracefully a light wind bore;

Direct upon my webster's wall;

A monster in the form of ball;

The mildest captive ever snared;

That neither struggled nor despaired;

On half the net invading hung;

And plain as in her mother tongue;

While low the weaver cursed her lures;

Remarked; 〃You have me; I am yours。〃



Thrice magnified; in phantom shape;

Her dream of size she saw; agape。

Midway the vast round…raying beard

A desiccated midge appeared;

Whose body pricked the name of meal;

Whose hair had growth in earth's unreal;

Provocative of dread and wrath;

Contempt and horror; in one froth;

Inextricable; insensible;

His poison presence there would dwell;

Declaring him her dream fulfilled;

A catch to compliment the skilled;

And she reduced to beaky skin;

Disgraceful among kith and kin



Against her corner; humped and aged;

Arachne wrinkled; past enraged;

Beyond disgust or hope in guile。

Ridiculously volatile

He seemed to her last spark of mind;

And that in pallid ash declined

Beneath the blow by knowledge dealt;

Wherein throughout her frame she felt

That he; the light wind's libertine;

Without a scoff; without a grin;

And mannered like the courtly few;

Who merely danced when light winds blew;

Impervious to beak and claws;

Tradition's ruinous Whitebeard was;

Of whom; as actors in old scenes;

Had grannam weavers warned their weans;

With word; that less than feather…weight;

He smote the web like bolt of Fate。



This muted drama; hour by hour;

I watched amid a world in flower;

Ere yet Autumnal threads had laid

Their gray…blue o'er the grass's blade;

And still along the garden…run

The blindworm stretched him; drunk of sun。

Arachne crouched unmoved; perchance

Her visitor performed a dance;

She puckered thinner; he the same

As when on that light wind he came。



Next day was told what deeds of night

Were done; the web had vanished quite;

With it the strange opposing pair;

And listless waved on vacant air;

For her adieu to heart's content;

A solitary filament。







Poem: Foresight And Patience







Sprung of the father blood; the mother brain;

Are they who point our pathway and sustain。

They rarely meet; one soars; one walks retired。

When they do meet; it is our earth inspired。



To see Life's formless offspring and subdue

Desire of times unripe; we have these two;

Whose union is right reason:  join they hands;

The world shall know itself and where it stands;

What cowering angel and what upright beast

Make man; behold; nor count the low the least;

Nor less the stars have round it than its flowers。

When these two meet; a point of time is ours。



As in a land of waterfalls; that flow

Smooth for the leap on their great voice below;

Some eddies near the brink borne swift along;

Will capture hearing with the liquid song;

So; while the headlong world's imperious force

Resounded under; heard I these discourse。



First words; where down my woodland walk she led;

To her blind sister Patience; Foresight said:



… Your faith in me appals; to shake my own;

When still I find you in this mire alone。



… The few steps taken at a funeral pace

By men had slain me but for those you trace。



… Look I once back; a broken pinion I:

Black as the rebel angels rained from sky!



… Needs must you drink of me while here you live;

And make me rich in feeling I can give。



… A brave To…be is dawn upon my brow:

Yet must I read my sister for the How。

My daisy better knows her God of beams

Than doth an eagle that to mount him seems。

She hath the secret never fieriest reach

Of wing shall master till men hear her teach。



… Liker the clod flaked by the driving plough;

My semblance when I have you not as now。

The quiet creatures who escape mishap

Bear likeness to pure growths of the green sap:

A picture of the settled peace desired

By cowards shunning strife or strivers tired。

I listen at their breasts:  is there no jar

Of wrestlings and of stranglings; dead they are;

And such a picture as the piercing mind

Ranks beneath vegetation。  Not resigned

Are my true pupils while the world is brute。

What edict of the stronger keeps me mute;

Stronger impels the motion of my heart。

I am not Resignation's counterpart。

If that I teach; 'tis little the dry word;

Content; but how to savour hope deferred。

We come of earth; and rich of earth may be;

Soon carrion if very earth are we!

The coursing veins; the constant breath; th

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