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EPUB ISBN: 978-0-908328-84-0
PDF ISBN: 978-0-908331-80-2
The original publication details are as follows:
Title: The tui-cymbalist, and other verses
Author: Andersen, Johannes Carl
Published: Phoenix Printing, Auckland, N.Z., 1951
THE TUI-CYMBALIST
and other verses
By JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN
CONTENTS
TITLE
Page
OLD SONGS 1
DELICATE DREAMS 2-3
FALSTAFF’S DAUGHTER 4-6
THE IDA-FIELDS 7-8
SHIVER HEAVEN’S SPHERE OF STARS 9
JANUARY 10-11
THE LITTLE ANGEL 12- 13
GOODBYE 14
LONG AGO 15
OBLIVION 16
SAPPHO 17
THE SHADOW 18
BRUNELLE 19-2 0
THE ROSE UNZONING 21 -22
THE FERN-GLADE 23-25
THE LURE 26
A WILD BIRD LULLABY 27
N IVALUNE 28-29
THE NEW WORLD 30-31
ON THE PIER 32-33
THE TUI-CYMBALIST 34-35
FORTUNE 36
THE EARLY THRUSH 37
COME AWAY TO KAPITI 30-40
THE DAUGHTER 41-56
OLD SONGS
Less mortal is it than divine;
An eloquence apart —
That Chian -sealed sun-wincing wine
That captivates the heart
Wine stanza-flashed long, long ago,
Through ages mellowing,
It fires our Veins—a song we /(now
The merry vintners sing.
Tal(e heart!—old singers once were young.
Their thoughts and yours the same;
Could songs (thought they) themselves had sung
Win never-dying fame?
What vintage mellow, suave with age.
Sipped they while theirs was new ?
Now theirs how old! singer, be sage;
Your own may mellow 100.
2
DELICATE DREAMS
Whence do pou come.
What pleiad-for brightnesses haunting,
Delicate dreams ?
What are the garths of pour home.
With its groves and their minstrels enchanting.
Its woods, and sleep-chattering streams?
What is our mar-jop, O happiest.
That shadow entwines with pour beams?
What is discordant?—what Wanting,
Delicate dreams?
Are there dim bournes,
Unimagined, though half-apprehended.
Delicate dreams.
Whence the spirit exalted returns.
Its loftiest ideal so transcended
That fugitive shadow it seems?
Are n>e mirage-led, O wanderer
And twines the mirage in paur beams
Till ideal with illusion is blended.
Delicate dreams?
3
Couriers of morn
With anodyne hope for assuaging.
Delicate dreams!
Silvery novas reborn
After star-troubled dusl( of Worlds ageing
That time in his fulness rebeams,—
Twins you Cassandra, unhappiest,
That you come, though men moc}( your presaging,
Delicate dreams?
i
FALSTAFF’S DAUGHTER
Has this lissom slip arisen
From that rough-rind gnarl and wizen.
Masking Youth no eld can dim:
Well has rebel youth assisted:
Cherries ripe on grey-bole twisted.
Life has fined, ve-minted him.
Royslerer? then a bright drop spilt he
When of such sweet chance-come guilty
'Mistress mine’ is’l fools that sing?
'Thwart bright may-fields did he wander,
Won a maid there, trustier, fonder.
Than his quondam princeling king.
Shed was every memory ribald
When of sunned green fields he babbled,
Fingers pined repluclfed his flower.
Quaffed his sun-quaff with his sweeting.
Flung his torch with fate-gage greeting,
Shrived his youth in one white hour
Grant the gaunt eld sweet renewing;
Winter hoar hath spring ensuing;
Blanch from ooze his lily pure;
Brightest when his night D>as darkest.
Starry maid! his stone thou manifest —
'Youth’s a stuff will long endure!,'
5
A FAREWELL
No sunshine, which is song.
Might that grey morn infuse.
Nor was Farewell the long
(So flowered with Oh-be-trues')
Reluctant lovers use.
No touch; but, brief and bright.
A smile, and one quid( lool(
That left me with delight
Though Time, who will not brooh
Delay, that moment tool(.
One dewdrop may enfold
The sun, —Jjes, now I /(now
A moment's glint may hold
In one swift jewel-glow
To-come and Long-ago
In pageant rich and slow.
And you, alas! being gone.
Still moves with me, glad-hearted,
Full-beamed the light that shone
From your heart’s Avalon
Whose veil one moment parted.
While Time stands still, he flies;
That Moment orbs to Ever;
In sanctuary oj your eyes
I saw j) our soul arise.
Sink back; —but gone? oh never!
THE IDA-FIELDS
Mere where the star-eyed sorrowful night has counted her beads in prayer.
Where the sigh of her soul as she bent o'er the roses breathes in the morning ah
Here I sit, and the roses around me, lulling me into sleep
Dear me away to a glimmering world where spirits a vigil keep:
Wonderful vigil that knoweth no end, neither beginning hath known.
Vigil that seeth the luminous stars and fiery tresses blown
Round the head of the seraph that mild through the ages fashionelh out of the void
4 world of light, of life, of laughter, by hearts to be suffered, enjoyed.
There at least I may utter the sorrow that cannot be uttered here.
The wish that cannot be shaped in words, escaping the sigh and the tear
The sorrow that gathers like swaying seas when winds have buffeted long,
Till the surge of my heart wells up in my breast and falls from my lips in son j
Mere upon earth we have heard the sigh that follows the broken breath,
In the hush we have almost read the rune that is graved on the heart by death;
But the warring world and its hurrying feet have drowned in their clamour loud
The voice that falls from the trembling star as it burns in the morning cloud.
Is it in vain my thought has flown? —cannot it find a home
In the depths of your heart whence your dreams of desire and high aspirations come?
May it not mingle with these and rise until from your lips it flow
Soul-sweetened, a sigh or a flutter of song whose springs you must surely know?
8
Cannot it mingle, my thought with your thought, and wal(e in your soul a desire
7o move again where n>e moved who loved?—till borne upon wings of fire.
Deep in the soundless world shall mpel my spirit and yours it loved.
Shall meet without sight, or speech, or touch, unhindered and unreproved.
9
SHIVERS HEAVEN’S SPHERE OF STARS
Shiver heaven’s sphere of stars,
To trembling dews,
Morning sun;
Free from the infinite light its blended hues.
And interfuse
Every one
Till the insignificant tremblers that splendour win,
The frangible hues of the sun-beams enshrined therein.
Shiver earth’s night of doubt
To a dawn of seeing
0 Morning Sun,
Out of the broken light of knowledge freeing
The truths of being
In every one
Of their trembling hearts till the mortal-encompassed nrn
The aspect of the Eternal enshrined therein.
JANUARY
Perfectly) comelh
Summer’s green tree,
Morn and eve hummelh
Flower-loving bee;
Blue sl(ies above me,
Grasses below,
One by to love me
And whisper me so.
Youth and its laughter.
Love and its bliss.
No times comes after
Joyous as this;
Youth may be careless,
Thoughtless,—let be;
Youth Is not heirless
If thou lovest me.
Morns that are stilly,
Breaking anew,
lVal(en the lily,
Bathe her In dew;
Red roses barter
Scent for sun-glows —
Summer’s the porter
Of portals of rose.
20
Summer uncloses
My lover’s heart;
Truly, than roses
Sweeter thou art;
Maiden! the duller
Cray of the sl(lcs
Blossoms to colour
And glows In thine ej>es.
21
THE LITTLE ANGEL
(In Bolton Street Cemetery)
I sal to-day where dreaming gleans,
And Time his mortal harvest reaps;
A little marble angel leans.
Holding a rose to one who sleeps.
Her robe, as she stands bending there.
Has slipped along her arm, and rests
Leaving her gleaming shoulder bare.
Looped on the swell of her young breasts.
And oh, my dear, my dear,—her youth,
The rounding of her girlish form.
Recalled your own, as white and smooth
As arums, but love-glowing, warm
And every flower whose scent and hue
Freights the warm air and gems the day
Wakens some memory of you
The Wanderer, the far away
The tapering mullein, holding high
Its palines rich with golden meal
And nectar, for the burnished fly
Hovering within its gauzy wheel;
The campion by the roadway set,
The milk]) whorl the plantain lifts.
Each adds a shadow to regret,
And there's an ache in all their gifts;
1.1
Tor in your ciies lay night and day
Of golden meal and nectarous dem;
My heaven mas in the may
Your circling arms about me threm.
What though carnations nom are here.
Campanulas milh dream-longued bell.
4nd hearls-leaved lilac?—these mere dear
When you, more dear, mere here as well
The honeysuckle memory clings.
Nor ever is its summer spent;
And now the whispering li-palm swings
His clustered load of heavy scent;
And as the fragrance gushes free
Above the rhododendrons’ fire.
A longing gushes up in me.
An inarticulate desire
The little angel drops her rose;
Oblivion is the common lot;
And all this ache my being Ifnoms
For you, my srveet, you /(now it not.
23
GOOD-BYE
Once, and then to leave;
One last l(iss shall sunder;
Lips will sigh, hearts grieve,
Ache, whilst other wonder;
One last touch, to tingle
Life with memory sweet, —
Then, though all earth mingle,
We no more shall meet.
Once, and then no more.
Tears are Vain, true-hearted!
Years will not restore
Lost joys to the parted;
Soon, 100 soon thou leaves!.
Yet, though wrought am I,
Yea, howe’er thou grievesl.
Once, and then Good-bye
15
LONG AGO
She moved as noiseless sunbeams move.
A resurrection of the entombed.
Till what n>as voiceless
Sang of love
And rvhal was barren bloomed.
The morn in rushing ranks of light
Vnraps the star and pales the moon.
With colour flushing
Dervs of night
To flomers that melt as soon
Each tree its Iprisl passioned holds
Charming the thousand-flowering vales.
And rvoofings irised
Hang their folds
In fragrance-misled trails
Srveel bloom of orbing time, a flower.
She charmed a world of warring men
Like dews absorbing
Love and power —
Her cincture yielding then.
The hoard of ages was her dower;
Her spendlhifl treasure did she know?
To kings and sages
Fell the flower —
How long and long ago.
16
OBLIVION
Bright recollections garnered da}) bp da}/,
Lil(e apples in sweet-vernal laid awa}).
Age-denping memories.
Iduna's apple-hoard are these;
Her gift forbids the grap;
The hand is hers
The ruin of our temples that defers.
With ardent hope we set our seal assured,
Our Work against the hand of lime secured;
See! swiftlp fell proud Egppl's doom.
Wrecked was her violated tomb, —
Thus long her kings endured;
In nameless dust
They drive with that wherein they set their trust.
The unpilying years our brightest hopes dispel,
Ev'n tenderness proves not an immortelle;
Our effigies that vigil l(eep
With memory self are blind in sleep;
The frailly-born Farewell
Of friends who grieved
Shall near outlast the noblest we achieved.
17
SAPPHO
Sappho! pour name
A lyric is;
A rosy flame
Cod's blow upon
To quench, but only brighten!
To one, pour blush
The lyric is;
To one, the hush
With you, sweet, gone
With all men lake delight in.
To one, 'tis death
Whom you defied.
Who took Dour breath
O starry-eyed
But could not take ji our singing;
To one, 'tis love
You squandered so
That flamed still move
Your wild songs—oh
How passionately ringing!
27
THE SHADOW
Entreat him not, he is deaf;
Veil that sweet look, he is blind;
Bare no warm breast, he can feel not;
The flower with the weed he will bind
The song to him falls, and the sigh.
The tearful, the laughing eye;
He is neither kind nor unkind.
No wherefore he knows, no why;
Though you hide from him, yet he will find
Though you flee from him, you first will lire
He knows neither thwart nor desire.
He knows neither mercy nor might; —
Yet you, and the day, and the light.
Shall be naught when he comes with his night.
28
BRUNELLE
(The Moth Selidosema dejectaria)
Brunelle, hrunelle, shy wanderling,
What tempted you from gloam and glade
To Wander here, on envied wing,
Unsure, hut unafraid?
Coy powdered pompadour of eve.
In umber robe of sendaline
The twinkling courts of night receive
And Welcome you, their queen.
Bright summer heaps the green cascades
Of wait-a-bit to brealf in foam.
And rata crests and myrtle braids
To bower your fragrant home.
And there when dusl( calls out the stars
7 be nectarous grails content you well;
For whom glow then l ;our crescents, bars.
And plume-edged fans, brunelle?
Do baffling memories there encloud
Where, clear-becked in ihe shining leaves
Lilfe drcam-wells, recollections crowd
Of other starlight eves?
29
Do J) ou recall how tranced, you dreamt.
Fall’n torpid, in leaves fall'n and sere ,
As we, from like sleep unexempt.
Muse strangely dreaming here?
Drunelle, brunclle, shy wanderling.
We move in inlervolving shade
And darkling both; yet sip, or sing.
Unsure, but unafraid.
21
THE ROSE UNZONING
4s the earth has turned to summer, and sleep turns to drear;.
Shall I turn to you for an hour?
For think; perhaps desire
New-wakened soon will tire.
And the sweetness fall away like the flower.
Full breasted and full hearted With your eyes misty grey.
In cold winds the grey may blow to rain;
Should sighing hopes and fears
Fill your grey eyes with tears.
Would pleasure remembered conquer pain?
For, ever Pleasure brings to us her younger sister Sorrow,
Meek, 100, with milky folding arms;
But sleeping by her breast.
The heart finds never rest.
For the love-dreams she thorns with wild alarms.
If this bud must never bloom, let it fall; cast it by;
! will leave you, and never need you know
If I cared not or I cared
That your heart was never hared;
In the breast as many love-buds die as blow.
But if bud shall break to bloom, and sleep shall break to dream ,
And 1 turn to you for an hour.
Then dream not that desire
May pass or quickly tire.
For si vest though it fade is the flower.
22
Then come my love my lily with your breath a wild desire
Uprvelling from your heart's unzoning rose;
May flying-fooled fear
Dissolve in sigh and tear
4nd l(iss you all to sweetness as it goes.
23
THE FERN-GLADE
I lingered in a leafy glade
Roofed with a fretted bower.
Where silent-fingered time gave shape
To thought, and roclg, and flower.
And wild luxuriant careless things
Clothed all the rugged steep.
Time's hand at worl( unceasingly
Though time seemed fast asleep.
How many unremembered days
Concentrate in the flower;
It sums the grace of countless years
And sheds it in an hour
Its silver stars the ravel-weed
From kindled staff sets free.
And mist-rayed novas ride the winds
To immortality.
The l(ohel(ohe, fragrant-breathed
With nectarous ivory sprays.
For liberal chalices the birds
In broken music praise.
If transient beauty l(indles joy
And in its fragrant hour
Wings thought intransienl, whence the source
Of fragrance and of flower?
24
Tor insects’ and for birds’ delight
If bright flowers breathe and burn ,
IVhorn does the l(opuru delight?
The aromatic fern?
7 he raufyawa, that renews
Its aromatic leaf
Responding to the hands that bruise
As we respond to grief?
The Ifarelu, whose fragrant blades
Their odorous tufts unfold
As sl(ies whence fell the clematis
Their glittering cloth of gold?
The gentle wide~e))ed clematis
That up the malai twines
Persuading down the angelic host
Along its slant) bines —
Tawhalfi's road where thought pursues
Imagination's flight
dnd down from deeps and darfnessc.
Persuades the eternal light.
25
I lingered in a leafy glade
Roofed with a fretted bower,
Where silent-fingered time gave shape
To thought, and rock, an d flower.
4nd wild luxurious careless things
Clothed all the rugged sleep.
Time s hand at work unceasingly
Though time seemed fast asleep.
26
THE LURE
Oh once again and yet again
I turn to you my song.
You true heart where so much is vain
I never leave you long.
Though up and down the sunny 'scape
Where dream’s immortals dwell,
From you my meteor course I shape
I never cry Farewell
Though Nature's babbling leafy tongue
May charm me to explore
Her dim recesses where are sung
Deep songs of Ever more.
Though wings of thought may bear me up
Till earth beneath me seem
A flashing drop in sapphire cup
And man no more than dream,
Yet soft mV heart; and O my love;
Persuasive calls your worth;
(The lark too from pure skies above
Falls singing back to earth).
27
A WILD-BIRD LULLABY
Harlf! the stealing wel(a cries
Ko-e here.
Ko-e there,
In the dusl( how bright his eyes
Searching everywhere!
Close your eyes and he'll pass by you;
Hush, oh hush! he'll not come nigh you
Ko-e, that’s the Wel[a’s cry
Ko-e, l(0-e, — hush, by-bye!
Harl(! the horning wild-ducl( cries —-
Ke-I(e here.
Ke-I(e there
Dlacl( and bright his beady eyes
Searching everywhere!
Close your eyes and he'll not fret you
Hush, oh hush! and he’ll forget vou;
Ke-he! that’s the wild-duch’s cry —
Ke-he, I(e-l(e — hush, by-bye!
Hush! the flying moreporl( cries —
Kou-hou here.
Kou-hou there.
In the du'k how bright his eyes
Searching everywhere!
Close Pour eyes and he'll not see you :
Hush, oh hush! and sleep will free J >ou;
Light-wing morepork!—hark! kou-hou!
Sleep; how far he flies from pouf
28
NIVALUNE
(The black-and-white crested moth Declana alronivea).
The cupels of the lichens glow.
The mosses plume the rifts.
Enriching savageness with grace
And barrenness with gifts
Lavish as all the best things arc
The houhou spreads her fans.
The umbels of her offered fruits
For other use than man’s.
What spell constrained you, nivalune.
To Wear that dragonish mein,
And feed, as once a wretched !( ing.
On leaves of tender green ?
That spell annulled in magic sleep.
You haunt the dusl( of day.
White shining spirit with jetty freal(
And underflosses grey.
If 100 our chrysalizing thought
That creeps as you once crept ,
Might sleep through melamorphic change
As you slow-changing slept.
Lethargic through a wintry muse
Where spirits creative throng ,
Might melt, dissolve, re-knit, emcrgi
A nivalune of song.
38
Our dusl( is a mysterious dawn
1 he slarshine rveaves for you.
A dawn as thronging as our day
Of rimuroa-blue
The hunger-hearted birds asleep,
You mate among the flowers.
Your fragrant World the twilight-twin
Of this bright world of ours.
39
THE NEW WORLD
The mistp, the golden-glowing.
The April of autumn is round us; but in our hearts
Spring's old-world April lingers with laughter and tear
Well is it autumn flames, ghosllp in mists.
Now that from pouth’s first world.
The tear-bright world and wonder-filled.
Your face you turn to that undping other;
For under the leaves of the pears unageing lie
Life’s first spring flowers, that shall grace pour breast.
Shall light pour eyes with fire.
Heaven-pure and pouth-hopeful.
Though you move dream-borne to the quiet night
That starless shuts on all.
Turn once again to me, before the hour irrevocable
Ffas tal(en you, has borne you from mp sidt
For this full Well I £now —
Once having gone, no more will you return.
Lift pour Lenl-lilp face, whose soft grey eyes
I jopouslp have glanced in, and have seen
Fleet glimpses of a summer-land of dream.
A never dplng, never ageing land.
Wherein unsleeping, ever dreaming, moves
Your spirit, calling clearlp without speech
I see pour upturned face
There in that summer-world, I touch pour lips
That never hut in dream on mine have trembled;
Take pour hands, and see pour ageless soul
Sit in the paradise of clouded epes,
That lovers’ world,
IVhere love is sustenance and lime stands still.
40
April, the russet-golden, frostily breathing;
And oh, the scent of the latest roses!
With their exquisiieness from me you go.
Leaving a poignant memory of gladness;
A love-flomer that has budded, but too late;
For autumn comes.
ON THE PIER
We in silence sal and listened, side bp side.
To the anger of the sea, while the dapilght
Flaring once behind the Alps,
In smouldering clouds died.
From the cast the seawind followed l(ecn the wave.
And the sprap from the piers rudelp scattered,
On pour cheel( and pour hair fainllp shone
In the last light of day.
From the darkness cold and hitter, how the waves
Lifted us-ward. till afraid of their menace
We together closer drew, and in silence
From a touch sought assurance
Up from glimmering eastern seas arose the moon.
Half above, half below the wild Waters;
When a ship with lighted sides from the harbour
Glided into the night.
To the moon across the waters crept the ship,
One bp one the lights were lost in the golden
Great orb as it stood in the water.
The Portal of Dream.
Ocean-cradled, did the]) dream in the darkness?
From the sea arose the moon, but the lights
From the ship gleamed no more; hand in hand
Sleep and Death walked the waves
32
42
Sleep and Death, thou best beloved; is it sleep
That hath laid thee in the bed where the odour
Breathe of spring, and the dew-hearted violets
4re for wonder thine eyes?
43
THE TUI-CYMBALIST
When the star less brightly trails.
When its gold to silver pales.
When the waking young wind turns
Couched on pensive silver ferns
Korimako! what inspires you
Thus to free the song that fires you,
Yield to such ecstatic spending
Song-fount new and never ending?
Nature deep her spell has cast;
She in sleep has held us fast.
Chryzed in self-spun dream maybe
Lest We catch that minstrelsy.
Ravished, should we wake and listen
Proud as gods while pale stars glisten,
Soon the lui, realist,
Silver-throated humorist
Dent to enchance that heaven’s worth
Jangling calls us back to earth
Vee-00, vee-00, tiok, tiok.
Kree, kraw, kwang;
Scorner he of sentiment.
Loftiest thoughts are soonest spent,
Markless is the bow unbent.
Tioo, tioo. llang.
Sculptor Morn from parian night
Craves with raps of chiselling light,
Freeing shape of hill and sea.
Petalled flower and leaf]) tree.
Carves the fern's fine-damasked curls,
Sets the manuka with pearls, —
4nd the l(orimal(o, she
Threads them all with melody.
44
But, should Fancy prune her wing
Hearing thus the morning sing,
Comes the tui's machine tone.
Cymbal, jews-harp, saxophone;
Sing?—that matchless Vocalist
Rather play the humorist
Tioh.lioh, vee-00, vee-00.
TsWee, tswee, llang;
Bright Elysium, how he scolds it!
Yet H\i-brazil his sons holds it ■
Avenal too, his l(Wang enfolds it.
V ee-00, vee-00, llang!
45
FORTUNE
She grants our full desire, to show
How poor our wish whose thought delighted;
Her offered gift resumes; —we know
How rare the proffer was we slighted.
37
THE EARLY THRUSH
Almost with a wild Halloo!
Wolfe the thrush at daydawn,
Boldly, blithely, carolling through
All the dewy grey dawn
There’s a thing I would sa\);
Sleep no more; it is dap;
Not a winlf; not a winlf.
And dull sleep left my eyes,
For I heard in his cries —
Pen and inlf! Pen and inlf!
Right is he! his ringing notes
Warn away the grey light;
How my heart on carolling floats
Through the flashing daylight:
There’s a thing I Would say
And it broods no delay.
Not a winl(, not a winl(;
Horn he sings!—helps me write
To my love, my delight, —
Pen and infy! Pen and inl(!
38
COME AWAY TO KAPITI
Come away to Kapili, to Kapiti oh hasten now.
Birds have cupped their caskets for agate and for Dearl.
Birds have turned to brooding, and all the bush is lighting now
Torches that arc moth-lures for mantling boy and girl.
Much there is of strangeness, apparition-beauty.
I nsm-glow W’.de-welling empools the hovering cloud ove the sea at sunset, when breath/esslv the watcher
4b
Sees day in exaltation to one full moment bowed
When breathlessly the watcher from high Paekaharihi
See Kapili aloof there in chrysoberyl sea,
And rapt in wide horizon a gathering-up of splendow
4 furrowing and star-sowing for harvest-dawn to be;
A concentrated moment that wanes through night to day-dawn.
When earth lies jewel-largessed, a morn-forwandered dream.
The hoard in star-night scattered to break in morning sacrament
j »ic iiul u u ..i .luciiij/it oluuucu iu in mu iiifiv ju.iui Transmuted and transfused, a disinlrinsicated beam.
Then sail the flaslvng sea-way the sun has disced In paua.
Greeted at the stone-strand with lui-donged bell;
From shine to shadow move then, to sharp-breathed spring from summer ,
Where water-music daylong in trebles lulls the dell.
Hangehange cinquefoils star the plumy mosses.
Scattering green corollas whose fragrance scatters 100.
Neighbouring the ngaio whose strewn rose-windows
Still are flushed with beaming of light that won through.
48
Creamy rangiora elates the air with sweetness,
Coveriins its whitenesses as maids covert theirs
Until a sudden eusiins of summer-wind or love-breath
Clints the snowy furtives a blanching moment bares.
Carlanding the manuka glances our maid-marian,
Younger sweeter sister of England's virgins-bower.
Coy beneath her evercranz, wooed on winds so fragrantly.
Thoughts enhancing fancy, as fragrances the flower
Like a tree-caught snowdrift the hekelara raises
From mechim-web of mosses and valencienne of ferns
All its frangranl clusters of comc-a-maying daisies,
Ever-filling chalices, never-emptied urns. . . .
And you, 0 you who fellow me, you are the enhancement
Of witchery and minstrelsy transfiguring tree and flower;
Shape, in hue and fragrance, like beauty veiled in kindness.
AH the summer blossom-swath the reaping of an hour.
You, O vou who feVow me, none escape the urging;
Sweet and swift the eye-glance that sets the veins a-tmgle.
And under lifted lashes an inner-lil beseeching
Where 'Take me not' and ‘Take me’ bewildered storm and mingle;
Inextricably mingle with 'Yea and Nay contending,
The heart at once persuading to do and not to do.
A petal-parting welling-up of bliss the heart invading.
Rich ripe for wooing but timorous to woo;
w
A pain that cups a pleasure-core whose warmth the pain suffuses
To mingle love's rose-amaranth in mated frost and fire.
A janus-choice bewildering him who pauses ere he chooses.
Till heart-urge smother prudence to wail upon desire.
All the iris bubble-bloom provocative with voices.
Korimako bellulels in kowhai-grove aswing, —
Oh silkier than the poppy, than creamy arum smoother.
Seize fast! for comes he, goes he, we never hear joys wing.
Then come away to Kapili, to Kapiti oh hasten now.
Birds have cupped their caskets for agate and for pearl.
Birds have turned to brooding, and all the bush is lighting now
Torches that are moth-lures for mantling boy and girl.
50
THE DAUGHTER
I
“The while waves threaten the heavens.
The black clouds threaten the sea.
So fierce they drive they must ere long
Envelop the earth and me.
2
The darkness beats up from the ocean
Blending the cloud and the spray;
Like djin from jar black darkness comes
From the angry grey.
3
"What haven tonight from tempest?
The wreckers there on the hill
IVi II deem the storm by heaven is sent
Their hungry hoards to fill
4
"The fishermen's boats toss mildly
The seamen watch the ships;
The lighthouse keeper Is cursing the storm
With pallid lips.
5
“The cheeriest, warmest, safest.
Of shelters I shall seek;
Forget the night and its warring;
Forget the tempest bleak-
6
‘Brr! — but the rain comes slinging;
The salt foam spiteful flies;
The clouds have plunged to the leaping Waves
And the waves to the lowering skies!
51
7
"A light in yon window burning;
I, as a mariner come
From league-long year-long voyaging
Will hail it as 'twere home.”
8
He neared the one bright window
That beckoned in gathering gloom;
He neared, and smiled as he san> within
The homely room.
9
A table that promised supper;
A deep warm chair at the fire;
Thought he, ‘No better haven than this
Could heart of man desire!'
10
A girl at the hearth rvas sitting;
A fettle hissed and steamed;
She thought of the night and shivered;
She looked at the fire and dreamed.
I I
The wind in the chimney rumbled.
The rain-beat window shook;
A cat sat purring and blinking
In drowsy chimney-nool(.
I 2
He found the porch; in the doorway
He stumbled; —the door flung tvide
Revealed the girl to the stranger;
"You've come then, father?” she cried.
52
13
“Naught do I know of 'father','
Said he, “my pretty child;
The rain and the wind have beat me
With spite and anger wild.”
14
"Then come to the fire till father
Come in” said she, “from the pier.
He entered; —“A good wind surely
Was that which blew me here.
15
“Though I in my buffeting, beating.
Had few good words to spare
For the spite of the stormy weather
Through the window there.”
16
His hat she took, °nd his gleaming
Wet cloak on a knag s he hung;
He latched the door; the hanging lamp
A little swayed and swung.
I 7
He sat in the deep chair smiling;
The driftwood crackled and blazed;
Around the room with its presses and chests
His dark eyes brightly gazed.
I 8
Sea-shells, and the spoils of the ocean,
And models of while-winged ships, —
'Your father has been a mariner?"
Said he with laughing lips.
53
19
“He was, till he brought mp mother
And me to the cabin here;
But mother has left us two alone
This many a year.”
20
"Not many, so man}), my pretty?
Yourself have seen — fourteen?"
'Fifteen, when ninth of August comes.
And busp have thep been.”
21
“ Fifteen, come ninth of August,
Would mp lost daughter be;
Thirteen long pears since she I Wed
And daughter were slol'n from me; —
22
'But what of that, mp preltp ?
As free as the winds am I;
Laughter on earth I still can hear.
See sunshine in the sl(y.
23
Ha! I too !(noiv of the dangers,
The jops, the sailor knows.
The tvonders he sees in his journepings
As up and down he goes.
24
“ I’ve seen the coral islands
Where great nuts load the trees.
I've seen the blacl( pearl-divers
Bring white pearls from the seas;
43
25
“Tve seen great ice-bergs slowly
Sail sunward in a fleet,
And barring fierce-eyed creatures
With foolish fins for feel!
26
“/ ve seen the whole sea burning
With thousand flashing things.
I've seen the birds of paradise
With jewels on their wings:
27
"Tve seen as much of wonder
As well on earth may be,
And things Cod grant your dancing eijes
May never see!”
28
She nodded; “Tales and Wonders
Has father told to me;
Of strange things amid people strange,
And terrors of the sea
29
‘But you—you said your daughter
Was stolen away from you;
Who stole her?”—"He who with him took
Her gentle mother too
30
But that s long since, my home-bird.
Time heals’ the saw avers;
/ thought I had forgotten; but,
Your eyes seemed hers.
55
31
“A merry tale for a merry maid;
And many such have I;
And one I’ll tell you fhen the cups
Have been set by."
32
She gave him food and steaming drink,
But from his breast he took
A flasl(, and laughed as at his ear
The flasl( he lightly shook.
33
“A raw night needs a Warmer sup;
'Tis magic drink,” quoth he;
It malfes the savage man a sage.
It sets the slave-man free."
34
It bubbled brightly in the cup;
He lifted it, looked wise;
He nodded slofly;—“In magic dnnh
I drinlf your laughing eyes!”
35
His supper done, at the chimney
He sat him at her side;
He told her tales of foreign lands
Till her upraised eyes grew fide.
36
Mp little one, you’re thawing
M\> heart to another spring;
For the sal(e of her you conjure up
I have a ring."
47
37
He drew a case from his bosom;
He carefully unrolled
A ring like a jewel of ocean.
Sapphire and pearl and gold;
38
His lips a moment trembled;
He laughed as at last he said
“You have made me wish for the living.
Or wish for the lost, the dead, —
39
“/ k n °w not which. — Your finger
Is still too slight,” said he.
But l(eep the ring for the still dear sal(e
Of a dear one lost to me.
40
“And here, a careless wanderer
With heart at lip am I!
Perhaps my own hand held the scourge —•
Well, Well, let that pass by.”
41
Then she from her chest of treasures
Drought trinkets, and shells, and dolls;
‘Aha!" cried the stranger; “/ know the shells
Of the booming wide atolls;
42
And trinkets of teeth that the black rnen
Steal from the cruel sharl(.
In the Warm bright isles where the fire-flies
Flash through the darlf.”
57
43
‘And here’s my best of treasures,’
As out from its Wrapping came
A picture of one with babe on arm.
In old-gold frame.
44
“My mother and me," she told him.
Her eyes with loving lit
His laugh was gone; the smile of the dead.
A shadow, had silenced it
45
His laugh Was gone; and the maiden.
Prattling, was soon aware
T Was not the careless stranger
Sat silent in the chair.
46
She stopped; looked up; but smiling,
He leaned and stroked her head
“Her face is lil(e the one I lost —
/ threw away," he said.
47
‘‘And you arc her child? her daughter?'
He sighed, ‘Praise Cod for this;
That I have seen her eyes again;
Have given our child a hiss.’
48
He kissed her hair; she wondered
As he arose and cried
‘Heigh-ho! the darkling Ways of Fate;
I thought the world was wide!
58
49
Thanks for your kindness, daughter;
My pretty, I must go.
However fierce the rain may beat
Or bitter the wind may blow.”. . . .
50
Scarce had he spoken ere rattled
The latch of the door; he turned;
Mayhap he will never learn at all
What I by chance have learned.'
51
A grey broad man that the Weather
Had beaten and bronzed and set.
Came in and cast his oil-skin by,
Gleaming and wet.
52
'Have years so wrought a change in me’.
The stranger thought, 7 sure
Shall pass unknown ; and thinking thus
He felt secure.
53
Like shipmen meeting in storm}; seas
On planl(s of English oak.
Like shipmen met in seas unknown
They hailed and spo!(e.
54
Whilst these two speak of storm and port
The girl the supper sets;
The sailor, spreading his hands lo the glow
The I vind and the rain for gels.
59
55
The stranger chatted; the sailor
Fell heartily to his meal.
When over the noise of the storm came far
A thunder-peal.
56
The sailor glanced at the window.
And pity twitched his lips;
'Show mercy O Cod to the manners who
Co down to the sea in ships.”
57
His short prayer offered, “The tempest
In thunder breads," said he;
“And calm will soon again possess
The wind-torn sea.”
58
"Unlool(ed-for ports,” said the stranger.
"The mariners now will make;
Unwelcome some, and some most dear
For old time sake;
59
"And 1 have m\>self been driven."
He touched the maiden's hand,
“Tve found what never I thought to find
sea or land, —
60
"A haven of havens from tempest —
And you, my pretty bride,”
Said he as the maiden, allured by his ways.
Again sat down at his side.
60
61
He look her hand; and, "See now ;
I have given her this,” he said.
In memory) of one I never shall see,
Of one long dead.”
62
His dark cj)es smiled on the sailor.
Who smiled on the child; the ring,
Turned in the lamp and the firelight.
Flashed, a living thing.
63
“I too once had a daughter
Till a serpent my pathway cross’d —
And she who gladly beside me sits
Reminds me of her I lost!
64
“Ay, ap; in her heart there lingers
The Wakening spirit of old;
Her heart has gone out on the roving tales
That I have told.
“A};, ay,—but the e\>es of her mother.
Her mother's smile, has she;
Her mother’s heart■—good heritage
Is that," quoth he.
66
His heart beat fast as the other
A keen glance toward him turned;
Bui reckless as ever, on he drove
And prudence as ever spurned.
65
32
67
He spolge of years departed
With jest and careless Word;
The maiden, listening to his chat
Could I(no TV not what she heard.
68
He glanced at the silent sailor
He laughed as he nodded twice
To the question the other frowning pul
With troubled brorvs and eyes.
69
"Strange ports in stress of weather
Past doubt We mariners malfe;
Unwelcome some, and some most dear
For old time sal(e."
70
“And some though awrecl(,” said the sailor.
The blindest storm Would face
Rather than ride in the port they left
In shame and disgrace.
71
"Ha! one there was who fled the port
Nor ever his anchor weighed,
But slipping cable he bore to sea
A helpless mother and maid
72
“And one in tveary journeying
Has sought in vain,” cried he.
“ Till storm has driven him to port
In a wild and angry sea!”
53
73
The sailor looked on him in Wrath;
Said he, as his word he stayed.
“The first watch wears; the night hours fly;
Her pillow awaits my maid."
74
The maid arose; her glances
Showed Wonder, and regret;
The sailor she kissed, to the stranger held
Her hand, the ring there yet.
75
"Are there no loves , no losses ,
My pretty, for me to-night?'
She kissed him and ran; from her chamber-door
LU(e his, her eyes were bright.
76
Cood-night; and dreams of the wonders
Of ocean and land be yours; —
And pray for those whom stress tonight
Thrusts harshly out of doors!"
77
She went; and dreaming ere she slept.
Her hand round the ring, she heard
4s twere two men in anger met
With wrathful word;
78
One spal(e with careless laughter.
And one in trembling tones.
Till laughter and word became the storm
With muffled cries and moans.
54
79
I hen quiet sleep came lulling
More powerful than storm;
In dream she sailed on tropic seas
Cem-lit, and clear, and warm;
80
In dream she sailed with the stranger
Those bright seas coral-isled.
Whilst he with beautiful sea-won things
The happy hours beguiled.
8 I
She dreamed of happy children
Swimming In wide lagoons;
She dreamed of flowers and fire-flies.
And sudden tropic moons.
82
She dreamed that a face came smiling
From somewhere in the night.
'Mother', she murmured, and old days came
With half-l(noWn old delight
83
From sleep she rose in a morning
That still was sullen and grey;
She thought of her dreams, and sighed that night
Had slipped so soon away
84
Still watching the dying embers.
The sailor wordless sal;
In the room she busily, quietly moved.
At this and that.
55
85
Not often thus in silence
He sat as though deaf and blind.
But if then she tried the spell to breal(
He was rough, unwind.
86
He rose, and from their corner
His coat and sea-boots took.
His cap, and striding to the door
Left her, with never a look.
87
“So early away, dear father?"
She said, with tearful eyes.
“ Will you not breal( your fast with him
Who weary, sleeping lies?" —
88
"Now hear me, child; would'st rather
With him rove land and sea.
Or in this couthless cabin slat).
Forgetting him, with me?”
89
She laid her hands on his shoulders 4 ,
But he shook them off, and said,
'Nat;, answer me first, lest I forget
The dying wish of the dead."
90
"With jj ou I'd stay though treasures
Untold were in his hand;
Though he had all the Wealth he tells
Of sea and land."
56
91
His smile rvhen careless, merry,
She has; but rvben she sighs’ ,
He thought as in her face he gazed.
‘She has her gentle eyes’.
92
His grey face melted; in his arms
The tearful maid he tooI(;
Feeling the sobbing of her breast
Hi s own broad bosom shook.■
93
Dear child, dear child, for her TVc love
Believe me not unwind.
For you, lil(c her, my heart have found,
You to my heart / bind.
94
"And him rvho through the night and rain
Has gone, forget him, child;
He is as tempest and cold seas,
Heartless, and false, and I vild;
95
A storm-bird, he has come and gone
Through black slfies, lightning-lit;
But fiercely as the storm has raged
Sweet peace comes after it."
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/books/ALMA1951-9917503743502836-The-tui-cymbalist--and-other-ver
Bibliographic details
APA: Andersen, Johannes Carl. (1951). The tui-cymbalist, and other verses. Phoenix Printing.
Chicago: Andersen, Johannes Carl. The tui-cymbalist, and other verses. Auckland, N.Z.: Phoenix Printing, 1951.
MLA: Andersen, Johannes Carl. The tui-cymbalist, and other verses. Phoenix Printing, 1951.
Word Count
6,733
The tui-cymbalist, and other verses Andersen, Johannes Carl, Phoenix Printing, Auckland, N.Z., 1951
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