the home book of verse-1-第81章
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Seven times one are seven。
I am old; so old; I can write a letter;
My birthday lessons are done;
The lambs play always; they know no better;
They are only one times one。
O moon! in the night I have seen you sailing
And shining so round and low;
You were bright! ah; bright! but your light is failing; …
You are nothing now but a bow。
You moon; have you done something wrong in heaven
That God has hidden your face?
I hope if you have; you will soon be forgiven;
And shine again in your place。
O velvet bee; you're a dusty fellow;
You've powdered your legs with gold!
O brave marsh marybuds; rich and yellow;
Give me your money to hold!
O columbine; open your folded wrapper;
Where two twin turtle…doves dwell?
O cuckoopint; toll me the purple clapper
That hangs in your clear green bell!
And show me your nest with the young ones in it;
I will not steal them away;
I am old! you may trust me; linnet; linnet; …
I am seven times one to…day。
Seven Times Two。 … ROMANCE
You bells in the steeple; ring; ring out your changes;
How many soever they be;
And let the brown meadow…lark's note as he ranges
Come over; come over to me。
Yet birds' clearest carol by fall or by swelling
No magical sense conveys;
And bells have forgotten their old art of telling
The fortune of future days
〃Turn again; turn again;〃 once they rang cheerily;
While a boy listened alone;
Made his heart yearn again; musing so wearily
All by himself on a stone。
Poor bells! I forgive you; your good days are over;
And mine; they are yet to be;
No listening; no longing shall aught; aught discover:
You leave the story to me。
The foxglove shoots out of the green matted heather
Preparing her hoods of snow;
She was idle; and slept till the sunshiny weather:
Oh! children take long to grow。
I wish and I wish that the spring would go faster;
Nor long summer bide so late;
And I could grow on like the foxglove and aster;
For some things are ill to wait。
I wait for the day when dear hearts shall discover;
While dear hands are laid on my head;
〃The child is a woman; the book may close over;
For all the lessons are said。〃
I wait for my story; … the birds cannot sing it;
Not one; as he sits on the tree;
The bells cannot ring it; but long years; oh; bring it!
Such as I wish it to be。
Seven Times Three。 … LOVE
I leaned out of window; I smelt the white clover;
Dark; dark was the garden; I saw not the gate;
〃Now; if there be footsteps; he comes; my one lover; …
Hush; nightingale; hush! O sweet nightingale; wait
Till I listen and hear
If a step draweth near;
For my love he is late!
〃The skies in the darkness stoop nearer and nearer;
A cluster of stars hangs like fruit in the tree;
The fall of the water comes sweeter; comes clearer:
To what art thou listening; and what dost thou see?
Let the star…clusters grow;
Let the sweet waters flow;
And cross quickly to me。
〃You night…moths that hover; where honey brims over
From sycamore blossoms; or settle or sleep;
You glowworms; shine out; and the pathway discover
To him that comes darkling along the rough steep。
Ah; my sailor; make haste;
For the time runs to waste;
And my love lieth deep; …
〃Too deep for swift telling; and yet; my one lover;
I've conned thee an answer; it waits thee to…night。〃
By the sycamore passed he; and through the white clover;
Then all the sweet speech I had fashioned took flight;
But I'll love him more; more
Than e'er wife loved before;
Be the days dark or bright。
Seven Times Four。 … MATERNITY
Heigh…ho! daisies and buttercups!
Fair yellow daffodils; stately and tall!
When the wind wakes how they rock in the grasses;
And dance with the cuckoo…buds slender and small!
Here's two bonny boys; and here's mother's own lasses;
Eager to gather them all。
Heigh…ho! daisies and buttercups;
Mother shall thread them a daisy chain;
Sing them a song of the pretty hedge…sparrow;
That loved her brown little ones; loved them full fain;
Sing; 〃Heart; thou art wide though the house be but narrow;〃 …
Sing once; and sing it again。
Heigh…ho! daisies and buttercups!
Sweet wagging cowslips; they bend and they bow;
A ship sails afar over warm ocean waters;
And haply one musing doth stand at her prow。
O bonny brown sons; and O sweet little daughters;
Maybe he thinks of you now。
Heigh…ho! daisies and buttercups!
Fair yellow daffodils; stately and tall!
A sunshiny world full of laughter and leisure;
And fresh hearts unconscious of sorrow and thrall!
Send down on their pleasure smiles passing its measure;
God that is over us all!
Seven Times Five。 … WIDOWHOOD
I sleep and rest; my heart makes moan
Before I am well awake;
〃Let me bleed! O let me alone;
Since I must not break!〃
For children wake; though fathers sleep
With a stone at foot and at head:
O sleepless God; forever keep;
Keep both living and dead!
I lift mine eyes; and what to see
But a world happy and fair!
I have not wished it to mourn with me; …
Comfort is not there。
Oh; what anear but golden brooms;
But a waste of reedy rills!
Oh; what afar but the fine glooms
On the rare blue hills!
I shall not die; but live forlore; …
How bitter it is to part!
Oh; to meet thee; my love; once more!
O my heart; my heart!
No more to hear; no more to see!
Oh; that an echo might wake
And waft one note of thy psalm to me
Ere my heart…strings break!
I should know it how faint soe'er;
And with angel voices blent;
Oh; once to feel thy spirit anear;
I could be content!
Or once between the gates of gold;
While an entering angel trod;
But once; … thee sitting to behold
On the hills of God!
Seven Times Six。 … GIVING IN MARRIAGE
To bear; to nurse; to rear;
To watch; and then to lose:
To see my bright ones disappear;
Drawn up like morning dews; …
To bear; to nurse; to rear;
To watch and then to lose:
This have I done when God drew near
Among his own to choose。
To hear; to heed; to wed;
And with thy lord depart
In tears; that he; as soon as shed;
Will let no longer smart; …
To hear; to heed; to wed;
This while thou didst I smiled;
For now it was not God who said;
〃Mother; give ME thy child。〃
O fond; O fool; and blind!
To God I gave with tears;
But when a man like grace would find;
My soul put by her fears; …
O fond; O fool; and blind!
God guards in happier spheres;
That man will guard where he did bind
Is hope for unknown years。
To hear; to heed; to wed;
Fair lot that maidens choose;
Thy mother's tenderest words are said;
Thy face no more she views;
Thy mother's lot; my dear;
She doth in naught accuse;
Her lot to bear; to nurse; to rear;
To love; … and then to lose。
Seven Times Seven。 … LONGING FOR HOME
A song of a boat: …
There was once a boat on a billow:
Lightly she rocked to her port remote;
And the foam was white in her wake like snow;
And her frail mast bowed when the breeze would blow;
And bent like a wand of willow。
I shaded mine eyes one day when a boat
Went curtsying over the billow;
I marked her course till a dancing mote;
She faded out on the moonlit foam;
And I stayed behind in the dear…loved home;
And my thoughts all day were about the boat;
And my dreams upon the pillow。
I pray you hear my song of a boat
For it is but short: …
My boat you shall find none fairer afloat;
In river or port。
Long I looked out for the lad she bore;
On the open desolate sea;
And I think he sailed to the heavenly shore;
For he came not back to me …
Ah me!
A song of a nest: …
There was once a nest in a hollow:
Down in the mosses and knot…grass pressed;
Soft and warm and full to the brim …
Vetches leaned over it purple; and dim;
With buttercup buds to follow。