GLAUCON'S CAVE I DREAMT I fell through silver wave To the gold sand below And gazed upon an emerald cave Where green-lit swordfish go. With sea-den yawning shadowy And swordfish sailing slow, The emerald thoughts fare drowsily. Greenly the moments flow. No future's threatening wry-light, No glooms of bygone shame Fretted the verdurous twilight Of a dawn that nowise came. February 24, 1936. Page-157

MUSIC'S GRAVE WITHIN this dawning vacancy of Death How sightly are the lips of gaping skulls, How comely are the ribs that draw no breath— Significant of utterance the Eyeless shade annuls. Assembled here, a tuneless orchestra, With hand a sheaf of bones and head sans None that had wielded sound this Silence mar In music's grave, and passion-splendoured voice can no more speak. October 8, 1936. Page-211

TO BOBBY, ON THINKING OF HIS MIRROR HOW strange that in a mirror's confined space The strength and freshness pf the morning nears Those times when, as you lean to view your face, Brown eye and brown eye each on its fellow peers. Hold, mirror, guard that comeliness of him : The delicate mould of lip,—the steady eye,— A crest of smooth brown hair,—and fairness trim Shading to tan where deeper freckles dye. And all this Brightness but shadow of a soul Enshrined in hues no lips of earth could name. What mirror then could hold the high repose Of framing that sweet poise, that sure control ? Be cleansed, O

DUALITIES IF to spread these wings and sail Were given to me, Would this compass much avail ? If sailorly Flight steered due East or North or South Or, deathward, West Held grimly on, how quench this drouth At the Wells of Rest Which live beyond our mortal world Changeless, not by moons impearled, And know not intermittent sun,— Or aught grave-ended, womb-begun,— Or gaps of Foul for Fair to fill, On twain-poised scales for ' Good ' and ' Ill'? Athirst for Rest, one—wings unbound— By viewless ways those waters found. October 17, 1936. Page-220

SACRIFICE BRAZIERS of aromatic fire, Balsams and odorous leaves And myrrh and costly gums Breathe forth blue wisps of gyre, Proffer what Height receives, Await what answer comes ; Until the silence-hearted prayer Of blueness offers up Commingling and release : Quivering expectant air Within the sky-rimmed cup Borders the Vast, the Peace. October 13, 1936. Page-217

NIGHTFALL DAYLIGHT wilts upon her stalk ; Grey wings of evening sweep Over the fields and garden walk And brooks where fishes leap. Through level reaches of the air Aflicker with bats' wings The stars are trooping from their lair Each one his banner brings, And stands to guard his wonted place With glittering flag unfurled. ......So Dark unveils Its ancient face, The liege lord of the world. October 23, 1936. Page-223

AT THE TIME OF THE NEW MOON: TO ONE WHO IS LOVED IF at joy's noon you are the sun, A sapphire-girded flame, Each veering crescent and half moon Turns light ward memory's aim When noon is done. If one star fills the day bright thought, The myriad glitter-play Of evening spreads in a thousand rills For the delta of dreams that ray Which you have brought. If the new moon leave my barren sky Emptied of thoughts of you, Behind this bleakening world receive From a shrine the votive blue Petals of ecstasy. February 14, 1934. Page-49

BEYOND THE VALLEY-SPAN BEYOND one valley-span Range upon range Of ever more vast and lofty hills Raise the august silences of snow Far up into the dome of blueness, The height-and-width horizon-enfolding benediction of the sky. November 12, 1936. Page-233

PHOENIX THE sky of night is but the ebon door, star-golden with nails of fire : beyond, the unimaginable floor is flecked with glory from the kindled pyre of gift immortal in the mortal giving and firth serene 'cross war, wing worthiness and alchemy of living,-— flooding with trust our gloom-sad corridor. The phoenix egg of quintessential light Death in the desert place vainly encompasses : beyond their night loves the archetypal Form of lovers' race in Whom the shadow-barriers have vanished and prison walls of name come not between (for blended incense banished their wraith in ashes winnowed by the flame). A

VILE MYTHOLOGIES A TABLELAND with painful moving shapes Is cleft in two by this ravine which gapes, Miasma'd with the leasing of its swamp,— With crown and sword and phantom feudal pomp. It is an unrcofed sewer, open grave, And source of vile mythologies that rave About the need for this dividing curse And Social Duty to make badness worse. But now the earth can bear the load no more ; And stirs and groans in sleep from shore to shore. When shall the Planetary Sleeper wake, And shatter lies, and cry " For Beauty's sake "? March 16, 1938. Page-310