The Lion and the Rose Read Online Free PDF Page A

blood?
    That wilderness is always where we meet
    And a cool shadow falls across your feet
    As if the air were boughs over the street.
    Although the city bells are loudly clanging
    Defeat and terror, although doom is ringing,
    In that dark wood the silences are singing,
    In that deep wood a green and airy light
    Preserves from time, from change, from war, from night
    The wild and secret powers of delight.

IN MEMORIAM
    I
    “Veglio, fenso, ardo, piange” —P ETRARCH
    Think, weep, love, O watch
    This casket that no keys unlatch
    And may your eyes once locked in her
    Gently release their prisoner.
    Watch, love, weep, O think
    Till it is thought not tears you drink
    And thought can keep all pain apart
    From her dissolved and open heart.
    Love, watch, think, O weep
    For her no love nor watch could keep
    And may your tears be the release
    Of what kept you not her from peace.
    Weep, think, watch, O love
    Her who lies here and cannot move
    And may your love rest lightly on
    Her quiet consummation.
    II
    Only the purest voices,
    The formal, the most disciplined,
    Those that spring fully armed
    From the dark caverns of the mind
    Can stand beside her name,
    Bright crystal, not bright flame.
    And when those inward rivers rise
    And flood your outward-looking eyes,
    Wring the essential oils from pain:
    Go back to Mozart once again,
    Play Beethoven’s great Emperor,
    Play Monteverdi, Bach for her.
    Hear trumpet Milton and the flutes of Marvell:
    Triumph not grief is what they have to tell.
    The mastery that comes from discipline,
    The joy that springs from form
    (Where fumbling and facility are sin)
    This was her element, her power, her charm—
    On luminous and stern foundations
    Built her detached, creative meditations.
    Now fling the arches high and far from grief,
    The light-swung bridges of your work and days.
    Live now with knowledge, with compassion, and with praise.
    Wherever spirit triumphs is her faith designed,
    “By this great light upon our mind.”
    III
    Now you blood-richness, brilliance of nerve,
    Spring of the spirit, you all-human wonder,
    Break out of all the houses and unlock the doors!
    You who can turn to ash the body’s pain,
    Now burn grief too, now turn all grief to praise!
    The point of intersection of all time and space
    Where the huge face of death meets the small human face,
    Where all is lost and all forever found,
    Where all is loosed and all is bound,
    Where all is stricken and all healed,
    Where all is opened and all sealed,
    Where all is unity, all separation,
    Pure metaphysics, pure sensation,
    Where love is nowhere and is everywhere
    As light as ash, as light as blessed air,
    Gift to the living from the palm of dust,
    Fill us with your tremendous gust!
    Leap from the green gloom of the summer trees,
    Leap from the grasses and the glittering seas,
    O terrible, life-giving marvelous shock,
    The source that jets up from the rigid rock,
    You, Praise, break from our hearts and change all grief
    Into the living rivers of belief!

POEM IN AUTUMN
    Now over everything the autumn light is thrown
    And every line is sharp, and every leaf is clear.
    Now without density or weight the airy sun
    Sits in the flaming boughs, an innocent fire,
    That shines but does not burn nor wither.
    The leaves, light-penetrated, change their essence,
    Take on the gold transparence of the weather,
    Are touched by death, then by light’s holy presence.
    So we, first touched by death, were changed in essence,
    As if grief grew transparent and turned to airy gold,
    And we were given days of special radiance,
    Light-brimmed, light-shaken and with love so filled
    It seemed the heart-beat of the world was in our blood;
    And when we stood together, love was everywhere,
    And no exchange was needed if exchange we could
    The blessedness of sunlight poised on air.

NOW VOYAGER
    Now voyager, lay here your dazzled head.
    Come back to earth from air, be nourishèd,
    Not with that light on light, but with this bread.
    Here close to earth be