Читать книгу Collected Poems: Volume Two - Alfred Noyes - Страница 42

Table of Contents

I

I remember—

a breath, a breath

Blown thro' the rosy gates of birth,

A morning freshness not of the earth

But cool and strange and lovely as death

In Paradise, in Paradise,

When, all to suffer the old sweet pain

Closing his immortal eyes

Wonder-wild an angel lies

With wings of rainbow-tinctured grain

Withering till—ah, wonder-wild,

Here on the dawning earth again

He wakes, a little child.

II

I remember—

a gleam, a gleam

Of sparkling waves and warm blue sky

Far away and long ago,

Or ever I knew that youth could die;

And out of the dawn, the dawn, the dawn,

Into the unknown life we sailed

As out of sleep into a dream,

And, as with elfin cables drawn In dusk of purple over the glowing

Wrinkled measureless emerald sea,

The light cloud shadows larger far

Than the sweet shapes which drew them on,

Elfin exquisite shadows flowing

Between us and the morning star

Chased us all a summer's day,

And our sail like a dew-lit blossom shone

Till, over a rainbow haze of spray

That arched a reef of surf like snow

—Far away and long ago—

We saw the sky-line rosily engrailed

With tufted peaks above a smooth lagoon

Which growing, growing, growing as we sailed

Curved all around them like a crescent moon;

And then we saw the purple-shadowed creeks,

The feathery palms, the gleaming golden streaks

Of sand, and nearer yet, like jewels of fire

Streaming between the boughs, or floating higher

Like tiny sunset-clouds in noon-day skies,

The birds of Paradise.

III

The island floated in the air,

Its image floated in the sea:

Which was the shadow? Both were fair:

Like sister souls they seemed to be;

And one was dreaming and asleep,

And one bent down from Paradise

To kiss with radiance in the deep

The darkling lips and eyes.

And, mingling softly in their dreams,

That holy kiss of sea and sky

Transfused the shadows and the gleams

Of Time and of Eternity:

The dusky face looked up and gave

To heaven its golden shadowed calm;

The face of light fulfilled the wave

With blissful wings and fans of palm.

Above, the tufted rosy peaks

That melted in the warm blue skies,

Below, the purple-shadowed creeks

That glassed the birds of Paradise—

A bridal knot, it hung in heaven;

And, all around, the still lagoon

From bloom of dawn to blush of even

Curved like a crescent moon.

And there we wandered evermore

Thro' boyhood's everlasting years,

Listening the murmur of the shore

As one that lifts a shell and hears

The murmur of forgotten seas

Around some lost Broceliande,

The sigh of sweet Eternities

That turn the world to fairy-land,

That turned our isle to a single pearl

Glowing in measureless waves of wine!

Above, below, the clouds would curl,

Above, below, the stars would shine

In sky and sea. We hung in heaven!

Time and space were but elfin-sweet

Rock-bound pools for the dawn and even

To wade with their rosy feet.

Our pirate cavern faced the West:

We closed its door with screens of palm,

While some went out to seek the nest

Wherein the Phœnix, breathing balm,

Burns and dies to live for ever

(How should we dream we lived to die?)

And some would fish in the purple river

That thro' the hills brought down the sky.

And some would dive in the lagoon

Like sunbeams, and all round our isle

Swim thro' the lovely crescent moon,

Glimpsing, for breathless mile on mile, The wild sea-woods that bloomed below,

The rainbow fish, the coral cave

Where vanishing swift as melting snow

A mermaid's arm would wave.

Then dashing shoreward thro' the spray

On sun-lit sands they cast them down,

Or in the white sea-daisies lay

With sun-stained bodies rosy-brown,

Content to watch the foam-bows flee

Across the shelving reefs and bars,

With wild eyes gazing out to sea

Like happy haunted stars.

IV

And O, the wild sea-maiden

Drifting through the starlit air,

With white arms blossom-laden

And the sea-scents in her hair:

Sometimes we heard her singing

The midnight forest through,

Or saw a soft hand flinging

Blossoms drenched with starry dew

Into the dreaming purple cave;

And, sometimes, far and far away

Beheld across the glooming wave

Beyond the dark lagoon,

Beyond the silvery foaming bar,

The black bright rock whereon she lay

Like a honey-coloured star

Singing to the breathless moon,

Singing in the silent night

Till the stars for sheer delight

Closed their eyes, and drowsy birds

In the midmost forest spray

Took their heads from out their wings,

Thinking—it is Ariel sings

And we must catch the witching words

And sing them o'er by day.

V

And then, there came a breath, a breath

Cool and strange and dark as death,

A stealing shadow, not of the earth

But fresh and wonder-wild as birth.

I know not when the hour began

That changed the child's heart in the man,

Or when the colours began to wane,

But all our roseate island lay

Stricken, as when an angel dies

With wings of rainbow-tinctured grain

Withering, and his radiant eyes

Closing. Pitiless walls of grey

Gathered around us, a growing tomb

From which it seemed not death or doom

Could roll the stone away.

VI

Yet—I remember—

a gleam, a gleam,

(Or ever I dreamed that youth could die!)

Of sparkling waves and warm blue sky

As out of sleep into a dream,

Wonder-wild for the old sweet pain,

We sailed into that unknown sea

Through the gates of Eternity.

Peacefully close your mortal eyes

For ye shall wake to it again

In Paradise, in Paradise.