The tui-cymbalist, and other verses

Andersen, Johannes Carl, Phoenix Printing, Auckland, N.Z., 1951

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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."