second april-第3章
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
At my kitchen…door。
For the sake of dim things
That were once so plain
I will set a barrel
Out to catch the rain;
I will hang an iron pot
On an iron crane。
Many things be dead and gone
That were brave and gay;
For the sake of these things
I will learn to say;
〃An it please you; gentle sirs;〃
〃Alack!〃 and 〃Well…a…day!〃
THE POET AND HIS BOOK
Down; you mongrel; Death!
Back into your kennel!
I have stolen breath
In a stalk of fennel!
You shall scratch and you shall whine
Many a night; and you shall worry
Many a bone; before you bury
One sweet bone of mine!
When shall I be dead?
When my flesh is withered;
And above my head
Yellow pollen gathered
All the empty afternoon?
When sweet lovers pause and wonder
Who am I that lie thereunder;
Hidden from the moon?
This my personal death?
That lungs be failing
To inhale the breath
Others are exhaling?
This my subtle spirit's end?
Ah; when the thawed winter splashes
Over these chance dust and ashes;
Weep not me; my friend!
Me; by no means dead
In that hour; but surely
When this book; unread;
Rots to earth obscurely;
And no more to any breast;
Close against the clamorous swelling
Of the thing there is no telling;
Are these pages pressed!
When this book is mould;
And a book of many
Waiting to be sold
For a casual penny;
In a little open case;
In a street unclean and cluttered;
Where a heavy mud is spattered
From the passing drays;
Stranger; pause and look;
From the dust of ages
Lift this little book;
Turn the tattered pages;
Read me; do not let me die!
Search the fading letters; finding
Steadfast in the broken binding
All that once was I!
When these veins are weeds;
When these hollowed sockets
Watch the rooty seeds
Bursting down like rockets;
And surmise the spring again;
Or; remote in that black cupboard;
Watch the pink worms writhing upward
At the smell of rain;
Boys and girls that lie
Whispering in the hedges;
Do not let me die;
Mix me with your pledges;
Boys and girls that slowly walk
In the woods; and weep; and quarrel;
Staring past the pink wild laurel;
Mix me with your talk;
Do not let me die!
Farmers at your raking;
When the sun is high;
While the hay is making;
When; along the stubble strewn;
Withering on their stalks uneaten;
Strawberries turn dark and sweeten
In the lapse of noon;
Shepherds on the hills;
In the pastures; drowsing
To the tinkling bells
Of the brown sheep browsing;
Sailors crying through the storm;
Scholars at your study; hunters
Lost amid the whirling winter's
Whiteness uniform;
Men that long for sleep;
Men that wake and revel;
If an old song leap
To your senses' level
At such moments; may it be
Sometimes; though a moment only;
Some forgotten; quaint and homely
Vehicle of me!
Women at your toil;
Women at your leisure
Till the kettle boil;
Snatch of me your pleasure;
Where the broom…straw marks the leaf;
Women quiet with your weeping
Lest you wake a workman sleeping;
Mix me with your grief!
Boys and girls that steal
From the shocking laughter
Of the old; to kneel
By a dripping rafter
Under the discolored eaves;
Out of trunks with hingeless covers
Lifting tales of saints and lovers;
Travelers; goblins; thieves;
Suns that shine by night;
Mountains made from valleys;
Bear me to the light;
Flat upon your bellies
By the webby window lie;
Where the little flies are crawling;
Read me; margin me with scrawling;
Do not let me die!
Sexton; ply your trade!
In a shower of gravel
Stamp upon your spade!
Many a rose shall ravel;
Many a metal wreath shall rust
In the rain; and I go singing
Through the lots where you are flinging
Yellow clay on dust!
ALMS
My heart is what it was before;
A house where people come and go;
But it is winter with your love;
The sashes are beset with snow。
I light the lamp and lay the cloth;
I blow the coals to blaze again;
But it is winter with your love;
The frost is thick upon the pane。
I know a winter when it comes:
The leaves are listless on the boughs;
I watched your love a little while;
And brought my plants into the house。
I water them and turn them south;
I snap the dead brown from the stem;
But it is winter with your love;
I only tend and water them。
There was a time I stood and watched
The small; ill…natured sparrows' fray;
I loved the beggar that I fed;
I cared for what he had to say;
I stood and watched him out of sight;
Today I reach around the door
And set a bowl upon the step;
My heart is what it was before;
But it is winter with your love;
I scatter crumbs upon the sill;
And close the window;and the birds
May take or leave them; as they will。
INLAND
People that build their houses inland;
People that buy a plot of ground
Shaped like a house; and build a house there;
Far from the sea…board; far from the sound
Of water sucking the hollow ledges;
Tons of water striking the shore;
What do they long for; as I long for
One salt smell of the sea once more?
People the waves have not awakened;
Spanking the boats at the harbor's head;
What do they long for; as I long for;
Starting up in my inland bed;
Beating the narrow walls; and finding
Neither a window nor a door;
Screaming to God for death by drowning;
One salt taste of the sea once more?
TO A POET THAT DIED YOUNG
Minstrel; what have you to do
With this man that; after you;
Sharing not your happy fate;
Sat as England's Laureate?
Vainly; in these iron days;
Strives the poet in your praise;
Minstrel; by whose singing side
Beauty walked; until you died。
Still; though none should hark again;
Drones the blue…fly in the pane;
Thickly crusts the blackest moss;
Blows the rose its musk across;
Floats the boat that is forgot
None the less to Camelot。
Many a bard's untimely death
Lends unto his verses breath;
Here's a song was never sung:
Growing old is dying young。
Minstrel; what is this to you:
That a man you never knew;
When your grave was far and green;
Sat and gossipped with a queen?
Thalia knows how rare a thing
Is it; to grow old and sing;
When a brown and tepid tide
Closes in on every side。
Who shall say if Shelley's gold
Had withstood it to grow old?
WRAITH
〃Thin Rain; whom are you haunting;
That you haunt my door?〃
Surely it is not I she's wanting;
Someone living here before
〃Nobody's in the house but me:
You may come in if you like and see。〃
Thin as thread; with exquisite fingers;
Have you seen her; any of you?
Grey shawl; and leaning on the wind;
And the garden showing through?
Glimmering eyes;and silent; mostly;
Sort of a whisper; sort of a purr;
Asking something; asking it over;
If you get a sound from her。
Ever see her; any of you?
Strangest thing I've ever known;
Every night since I moved in;
And I came to be alone。
〃Thin Rain; hush with your knocking!
You may not come in!
This is I that you hear rocking;
Nobody's with me; nor has been!〃
Curious; how she tried the window;
Odd; the way she tries the door;
Wonder just what sort of people
Could have had this house before 。 。 。
EBB
I know what my heart is like
Since your love died:
It is like a hollow ledge
Holding a little pool
Left there by the tide;
A little tepid pool;
Drying inward from the edge。
ELAINE
OH; come again to Astolat!
I will not ask you to be kind。
And you may go w