Tomorrow will be today tomorrow,
today will be yesterday.
This happiness will be sorrow
when 'Goodbye' you, Love, say.
O my Love, rose like red,
if this love once hatred-
why have we come so close?
O my Love, red red rose!
O My Lord, Your dwelling places are lovely
Your Presence is manifest, not in mystery.
My dream brought me to the Temple of God
And I praised its delightful servants,
And the burnt offering, its meal and libation
Which rose up in great pillars of smoke.
I delighted in the song of the Levites,
In their secrets of the sacrificial service.
Then I woke, and still I was with you, O Lord,
And I gave thanks - for to You it is pleasant to give thanks
O my hart and O my hart!
My hart it is so sore,
Sens I must nedys from my love depart
And know no cunse wherefore.
O moon, large golden summer moon,
Hanging between the linden trees,
Which in the intermittent breeze
Beat with the rhythmic pulse of June!
O night-air, scented through and through
With honey-coloured flower of lime,
Sweet now as in that other time
When all my heart was sweet as you!
The sorcery of this breathing bloom
Works like enchantment in my brain,
Till, shuddering back to life again,
My dead self rises from its tomb.
And, lovely with the love of yore,
Its white ghost haunts the moon-white ways;
O' Lyric Love, half angel and half bird,
And all a wonder and a wild desire,-
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
Took sanctuary within the holier blue,
And sang a kindred soul out to his face,-
Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart-
When the first summons from the darkling earth
Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue,
And bared them of the glory-to drop down,
To toil for man, to suffer or to die,-
This is the same voice: can thy soul know change?
Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help!
I told a truth, a tragic truth
That tore the sullen sky;
A million shuddered at my sooth
And anarchist was I.
Red righteousness was in my word
To winnow evil chaff;
Yet while I swung crusading sword
I heard the devil laugh.
I framed a lie, a rainbow lie
To glorify a thought;
And none was so surprised as I
When fast as fire it caught.
Like honey people lapped my lie
And peddled it abroad,
Till in a lift of sunny sky
I saw the smile of God.
O lovely heart! O Love
No more be sorrowful
Blue are the skies above
The Spring is beautiful
And all the flowers
Are blest with gentle showers.
Although the morning skies
Are heavy now with rain
And your incredulous eyes
Are wondering at your pain,
Let them but weep.
And after give them sleep.
O sorrowful! O heart
Whose joy is difficult
Though we two are apart—
Know you shall yet exult
And all the years
Be fresher for your tears.
O Love, dark animal,
With your strangeness go
Like any freak or clown:
Appease tee child in her
Because she is alone
Many years ago
Terrified by a look
Which was not meant for her.
Brush your heavy fur
Against her, long and slow
Stare at her like a book,
Her interests being such
No one can look too much.
Tell her how you know
Nothing can be taken
Which has not been given:
For you time is forgiven:
Informed by hell and heaven
You are not mistaken
O LOVE, how strangely sweet
Are thy weak passions,
That Love and Joy should meet
In self-same fashions!
Oh, who can tell
The cause why this should move?
But only this:
No reason ask of Love.
O love, as lovely as the tulips in bloom ! Be my guest;
I've kept brimful goblets of wine for you ! -
And 0, let me show you my lacerated heart !
How prompt to promise faith, but how faithless
You have been ! How shall I tell you
How promptly you forgot your first love !
Placing at your feet my life, the only thing I have,
Is now the only way I can offer you my love.
Else, I will hug you hard, and with blood gushing out
Of my torn heart, dye you in crimson guilt.