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第81章

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。




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