ROSE-CROWNED, INSCRUTABLE LOVELY the lily's rays For the pure of soul, White silence of their days, And whispered goal. And the golden apples hang Blown by the breeze, Their gainers loosed from pang,— Hesperides ! Yet neither the white nor the gold I lief would sing, Though the harvest of truth they hold And the white peace bring. Eros with burning plumes— No other prize— On Thy altar rewards and dooms I sacrifice. Rose-crowned, inscrutable Thy faint smile wins High deeds from a world so full Of cluttered sins. Eldest of gods,

TO BOBBY, ON HEARING THAT HE WAS TO BE CAPTAIN OF THE FIRST FOOTBALL TEAM AS those who fare in crowded ways are stopped And feel the hurrying throng most hinder some, My eager thoughts that fain as words would come Are held from their goal, by silence are o'ertopped. Still keep thy own dear trust in my intent, O captain of that team and of my heart; It is no want of love, but lack of art That tarries payment for the wealth you've lent. And who shall gauge the kingdom's-worth you bring ? What sum would tell the joys that are your gift ? I'll not presume that I could half repay. The shrouds of light that cl

TIME-LAPSE BELLS with tongues of brass Measure the hours that pass, In a lofty tower swinging. Worms beneath the grass Make skulls like polished glass (Brief flowers that Time is flinging). Stars will cool to ash, Palaces topple and crash— Time's sword all unions ending.... The Woundless takes no gash : Vain waves of Maya dash On sheer cliffs of Truth ascending. November 20, 1936. Page-238

THE AVATARA MAGNET of all the world's desire, Soul of all music, shepherd of starry gyre, Gopal, Yasoda's foster-child, the demon-slayer, The beauty-hungry hearts to Thee aspire— Limber and lovely Lord, Brindavon's fluteplayer. Blue lotus borne on stem of gold, Mace, discus, trumpet did Vasudev behold, And Devaki, while wind and rain and levin weltered ; Thus were the kinghood and divinity foretold— Doom of Mathura's house by Kansa's dungeon sheltered. Cradled in Vasudeva's arms The Peerless One finds haven from those harms Of throne-usurping Kansa where the hallowed dream-way, Named Yamuna, mirrors the guardian palms Of Gokul

TWO SONGS FROM THE MOON The Shadowy Lake MY heart, come away to the waters of slumber O'erbrimming their shadowy lake, Where over the wavelets fly birds without number (And hardly their wings are awake). The air is entranced by the nenuphars blooming, Is drowsily fragrant and still; While through the grey shadows their whiteness is looming, A targe for the Moon Archer's skill. Voyage to Limbo I leapt aboard the fleeing boat To sail beyond the world— Pan's deft fingers, a shrilling oat Fooled not the sails unfurled. The waves have lost the rhyt

ONLY THE FOAM MADE RAINBOWS ONLY the foam made rainbows In that cloudless land, Where no storm or stain shows Enmities at hand. Under the blue blue ocean Sealed in a pearl-white grot Singers of heart's devotion Frame song-ways to that spot. Flowers are not more fragrant Than the incense of their strain ; The whispering currents vagrant Sift their golden grain. They've a tune of the silver fretting Of love's first eager dawn, And a rune of sun's outward setting In fields of deathless corn Where each poppy's a flaming token Of all that the world denies And a cornflower in sapphire h

BLUE FLOWERS BY A STREAM O WHO or what had called me That blue-skied day— Spring's aftermath of magic And meadowsweet and hay ? Across moon daisies nodding In the dream-surge of grass Time's haste less mirror fretted By a swallow's keening pass ? Certainly between each moment And its mate was set The wizard blade of the Timeless Swordsman no man has met. Thought at each crevice riven Sped swirling through,— A swift stream fringed with brooklime, It danced to a rhythm of blue. And like clear starlight flowing That stream went by Through the un regar

GLEANINGS ONE look beyond the prison-walls, Dream song unseized by ears of flesh— And this all future Time enthralls, And spins round Space a starry mesh. This touch the Everliving send Endures beyond the wreck of world ; Sped from the bow no mortals bend, This arrow-truth on Maya hurled. O kiss from lips of spirit-flame, Embrace of limbs so dazzling fair, Gesture that out of Brightness came And spilt a fragrance on the air— Seal with a loveliness of dream Time-gleanings of your deathless theme. May 16, 1936. Page-192

ANOTHER CLIMATE CRY out against the slough of hindering years, The importunity of oozy hours,— Their Stygian marsh of stagnancy and fears,— Those dreary banks' unscented hue less flowers. I know another climate where you dwell, Enwalled with crystal air forever young .... Whose words like apple-blossoms gently fell, But print no scar, leave no remorseful tongue. Winged calm of hours gliding so softly on,— The shaped intention of each lovely thing,— Cast but a wavering image where you shone, O drop one feather from your dreams hot wing. March 11, 1938 Page-307

A PRAYER GlVE me not only gold, But the use un wasted Of each grain of splendour My dazzled eyes behold— Or be Thy nectar-cup untasted, O Heavenly Lender. Cleanse and furnish new This heart receiving Till, like a child new-born, Its day's unshadowed hue Can no more suffer cloud-rack's reiving. Sunless, forlorn. May my thought in some inmost shrine Be ever deeming Thee as the Taintless Giver— In grateful tranced shine, A soul ensilvered with Thy Gleaming Like a moonlit river. March 16, 1934. Page-60