^<^ > N O ..4* VV <» -O. » "oV ' .o-" *= O N JV9' « I ■» " . ^**'''- ' . A^ u I N a * O » O ^ -^ v^o^ «» »J> ^ W " fVW y)K //in «^ ''lO ^^" >— ^ iiiiiiinp^-^\f ▼>• V N^* V "^ •©lis* 'o . (k - .u / AILES D^LOUETTE F.W.BOURDILLON. AILES i Dia.OUETTE| BOURDIIION AILES D'ALOUETTE AILES D'ALOUETTE BY F. W. BOURDILLON r BOSTON ROBERTS BROTHERS 1891 7V Copyright, 1891, By Roberts Brothers, John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. THE ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDMUND H. GARRETT. PAGE ''When like a lark the soul upsprings" 6 "The night has a thousand eyes" 13 "Sounds of the riverside are in my ear" 19 "The weary ever-wandering waves" 24 "The eyes of a maiden" 30 "When softer breezes blow" 39 "There is no summer ere the swallows come" ... 44 "They grew in the grassy byway" 49 "When rose-leaves in long grasses fall" 52 "The lily weeps at even" 58 "When in the woods I wandered" 62 "I WOULD BE a cloud" 6? I J^ AILES D'ALOUETTE Whe7t like a lark the soul icpsprings. Of verse she makes her airy wijigs. Oil may these verses, pair and pair. Some heart in heavenward JligJit upbear. CONTENTS. PAGE The Night has a Thousand Eyes 13 In an Album 14 A Valentine 15 In April 16 An April Shower 17 A spring Evening 18 June in London ig A Birthday in November 20 A December Greeting 21 Decay 22 Latet Anguis 23 The troubled Sea 24 One Deed of Good 25 c^-^ursum Corda 26 Y Wyddfa 27 Sight and Insight 28 _' Within the gentle Heart Love shelters him . 29 Sapphires ..... 30 9 10 CONTENTS. PAGE Adoration 3^ C^Li 32 A Reproach and the Answer 33 Seaweed 34 Love, Forgive 35 'Twixt thee and me 36 1 give my Heart Z7 In a distant Land 38 A Song 39 A white Dove on a Thundercloud 40 A Moment 41 The Shadow of Love 42 Fast and Loose 43 Love's Meinie 44 A LOST Voice 45 A Ghost 46 A LOST Love 47 Gathered Roses 4S Dropped Primroses 49 -After Love's Death 50 Light at Eventide 5^ Waiting 52 CONTENTS. II PAGE ^,.--The Difference 53 De Profundis 54 Relief 55 Do the Dead think of the Living 56 ]/- Earth's Angels 57 Angels' Tears 58 1^— Patience 59 7 ,^^So LONG ago 60 A LA Chaleur du Jour 61 When in the Woods I wandered 62 The forsaken Dove 63 May Memories 64, 65 After Storm 66 A Thought of Summer 67 Old and new ()2> A Dedication 69 A Day of Love 70 Vibrations 71 An English Eden 72 Autumn Singers 73 THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES. SSTjr'^- THE night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the hght of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes And the heart but one : Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done. n IN AN ALBUM. AS a faded flower Found in a book Brings back some hour, Some word or look ; So, though ill-wrought My verses be, May they bring one thought Of thy friend to thee ! 14 w A VALENTINE. HAT is my wish for thee, sweet Valentine? A song of Spring, while Winter yet is here, Heralding Summer in the silent year, Be thine ! And for myself canst thou my wish divine? To think my greeting may be in thy sight Welcome as Summer's heralds, — this delight Be mine ! 15 IN APRIL. \T 7HAT tidings hath the swallow heard ^' That bid her leave the lands of Summer For woods and fields, where April yields Bleak welcome to the blithe new-comer ? O heart, that hast despaired of Spring, Learn the sweet lesson of the swallow. To have no fear, though days be drear, But sunshine and soft airs must follow ! i6 T AN APRIL SHOWER. HE primrose head is bowed with tears. The wood is rippling through with rain. Though now the heaven once more appears. And beams the bounteous sun ajrain. From every blade and blossom-cup The earth sends thankful incense up. happy hearts of flower and field, That soon as grief be overpast Your fragrant thankfulness can yield For troubled skies and rainful blast! 1 would that I as soon could see The blessings of adversity ! 17 A SPRING EVENING. A CROSS the glory of the evening skies "^*- A veil is drawn of shadowed mists that rise From lavishness of God's late gift the rain. So, after farewell said, fond memories Of words and looks the sweetest come again Across the glowing heart, a veil of pain. i8 JUNE IN LONDON. S OUXDS of tlie riverside are in my ear Through tlie long day ; The merry haymakers I plainly hear, The tossing hay. O cruel dreams, that tlirough the roaring town Mine ears engage ! Alas, poor lark I wliose home was once the down, i But now a cage ! '^" 19 A EIRTHDAY IX NOVEMBER. \1l /"HAT bird's song for her birthday can I find? ' ' What blossom by the rain not rent and bowed? What green-left spray, of summer to remind. Wlien woods are leafless, and the wind is loud? Sweeter my song shall be than wood-birds sing, Fairer my flower than summer rose shall prove, Greener my leaf-crown than the woods in spring, A simple verse that breathes of living love. 20 A DECEMBER GREETING. jn* LOWERS I give for a gift of flowers, -'■ Lilies with lilies pay: Yours were a gift of golden hours, But how can mine be gay? My flowers are verses, the sad year's last, Yet haply not all in vain, For the grace of your gift to my soul has passed. May it here be given again I 21 o DECAY. LUSTRE of decay! The daylight glides away In glow of richer glory than at noon: Autumn, that steals the flower, Gives the tree golden dower, And crimsons walls that will be leafless soon. O dimness of decay ! The sunset hastes away, And leaves the world the lone and darkling night And Autumn when he flies Leaves only howling skies. And trees that toss their naked boughs in fright. LATET AXGUIS. A H I full of purest influence ''*■ On Iniman mind and mood, Of holiest joy to human sense Are river, held, and wood ; And better must all childhood be That knows a garden and a tree. For where can one diviner orleam On leagues of houses lie? And what of Heaven can childhood dream That scarce has seen the sky? Yet sin and sorrow's pedigree Spring from a Garden and a Tree. 23 THE TROUPiLED SEA. THE weary ever-wandering waves, That know no change from their unrest. Make murmuring in hollow caves, _ And sighing on the soft sand's breast, .^ That they forever to and fro Beneath the pitiless sky must go. The toiling tempest-driven ships. That buffet with the angry foam. Escape at last its hungry lips And hail their white-cliffed harbor-home, But the wild waves no rest may know. But toss forever to and fro. ■"'"'*v«*' ' w HEN softer breezes blow And Winter tlies, How blue the rivers How Beneath blue skies ! Ah. darlinii. it is sweet After long pain When your glad eyes repeat My love again ! %: -* 39 A WHITE DOVE ON A THUNDER-CLOUD. A WHITE dove on a thunder-cloud, A white sail on a sullen sea ; But sail nor dove is white as love That in sorrow came to me. The white dove fled, and tempest came ; The white sail vanished from the sea; But my white dove that is my true love Can never depart from me. 40 w A MOMENT. HEN the lightning flashes by night, The raindrops seem A million jewels of light In the moment's gleam. And often in gathering fears A moment of love To jewels will turn the tears That it cannot remove. 41 T THE SHADOW OF LOVE. HE branching shades in woodland glades Seem to the under fern Wide as the night that leaves no light, — No shape can they discern. And we who seek in senses weak Love's form to entertain — So far Love's whole o'erspreads the soul Too oft see only pain. 42 L FAST AND LOOSE. OVE holds me so ! I would that I could go ! I flutter up and down, and to and fro, In vain; Love holds me so! Love let me go. I seek him high and low ; I wander up and down, and to and fro, In vain, in vain; and life is cruel woe, Since Love has let me go. 43 LOVE'S MEINIE. T HERE is no summer ere the swallows come. Nor Love appears, Till Hope, Love's light- winged herald, lifts the gloom c>^ Of vears. There is no summer left when swallow^s fly, And Love at last, When hopes which filled its heaven droop and die, ^ Is past. 44 A A LOST VOICE. THOUSAND voices fill my ears All day until the light grows pale ; But silence falls when night-time nears, And where art thou, sweet nightingale? Was that thine echo, faint and far? Nay, all is hushed as heaven above ; In earth no voice, in heaven no star. And in my heart no dream of love. 45 A GHOST. MET a ghost in an old bare house, That looked with lustreless eyes at me, And drove from my eyes sweet dreams and drowse. Till the morning made it tiee. My house is builded of years decayed, And in vain I fill it with new gflad light, For a love that is lost is a ghost unlaid That troubles the silent night. 46 A A LOST LOVE. S our childhoocrs world of wood and field. That strangers now possess ; As a dead mother's face in sleep revealed To her child in its lonehness ; As a dream of home to an exile banished Forever beyond the sea, — So vainly sweet, O love long vanished, Is the sound of thv name to me ! 47 GATHERED ROSES. /^^NLY a bee made prisoner, ^-^ Caught in a gathered rose ! Was he not ' ware a flower so fair For the first gatherer grows ? Only a heart made prisoner, Going out free no more ! Was he not 'ware a face so fair Must have been gathered before? 48 DROPPED PRIMROSES. nPHEY grew in the grassy byvva}', ■* With the hazel wands overhead ; I They he in the dusty highway, ; Dying or dead. L __ „„ J ^ O flowers too soon forsaken I I . ' O tender hearts grief-torn ! ^ •. * ^M By a hght love idly taken, "^ * "^ '- -^ 'j*,! And left forlorn ! [ K t'^^ 49 AFTER LOVE'S DEATH. A FTER the sunshine, night ; *^*- After the summer, rain ; After days of deUght Come days of pain. After the darkness, light; After the winter, spring. After Love's death, delight, Ah, who can bring ! 50 LIGHT AT EVENTIDE. \1 7HAT heart except to die can find ' ' The rain-beat roses, Though storms be past and heaven grow kind Ere daylight closes? O sunless lives, long taught to bend By years of sadness, What can ye do if sorrows end But die of gladness ? 51 WAITING. ^ -L'"t?w w HEN rose-leaves in long grasses fall To hide their shattered head, All tenderly the grasses tall Bow down to veil the dead. And there are hearts content to wait. Still as the grasses lie. Till those they love, however late, Turn there at last to die. iM^ ;^J ;i f 52 THE DIFFERENCE. SWEETER than voices in the scented hay, Or laughing children gleaning ears astray, Or Christmas songs that shake the snows above, Is the first cuckoo, when he comes wdth love. Sadder than birds on sunless summer eves, Or drip of raindrops on the autumn leaves, Or wail of wintry waves on frozen shore. Is spring that comes but brings us love no more. 53 B DE PROFUNDIS. ELOW the dark waves where the dead go down Are gulfs of night more deep ; But little care they whom the waves once drown How far from light they sleep. But who, in deepest sorrow though he be, Fears not a deeper still ? Would God that sorrow were as the salt sea, Whose topmost waters kill ! 54 B RELIEF. LANK has the day been, Blind all the sky: White has the way been, Chill the snows he. Only at nightfall Heard faint and low, Hark! 'tis the light fall, Rain on the snow. 55 DO THE DEAD THINK OF THE LIVING? DO the dead think of the living, In the blue heaven overhead, All repenting, all forgiving. As the living of the dead? Yes ; but while we weep, surveying Pathways long and lonely feet, They in heaven smile softly, saying, " 'Tis to-morrow and we meet I " 56 EARTH'S ANGELS. "VIZ HAT though no more in human guise, On radiant pinions borne, Are angels seen of mortal eyes, — Earth is not left forlorn. Some bird that sings in hopeless hours God's messenger may be; And I have seen in primrose flowers God's angfels smile on me. ^1 ANGELS' TEARS. T HE lily weeps at even, For vapors fallen anew From the clear vault of heaven Turn at her touch to dew. "Tis only so heaven's tearless eyes With mortal woes can sympathize. Know ye the white-souled maiden That's like the lily bell? When her soft eyes are laden With teardrops, men may tell The angels' sympathy appears, Made visible in human tears. 58 PATIENCE. OTILL are the ships that at anchor ride, '^ Waiting fair winds or turn of the tide; Nothing they fret, though they go not yet Out on the glorious ocean wide. O wild hearts, that yearn to be free, Look and learn from the ships of the sea ! Bravely the ships in the tempest tossed Buffet the waves till the sea be crossed ; Not in despair of the haven fair. Though winds blow backward, and leagues be lost. O weary hearts that yearn for sleep, Look and learn from the ships on the deep ! 59 so LONG AGO. /"^HILD of the dark eyes, do you know ^— ^ What it is makes me kiss you so ? 'Tis that your eyes are dark and deep, And love in their low depths seems to sleep, As in those of my love when he kissed me so. Long ago, ah ! long ago. Child of the dark hair, can you guess Why from yovir head I cut a tress? Because his lock, of the same dark hue. I burnt in scorn when he proved untrue. But now I could look on it calmly, so. It was so long, so long ago. 60 A LA CHALEUR DU JOUR. LANDS of our childish dreams, Of flowers and happy streams, Too far, too far beyond recall ye fade. Children and butterflies. What gain ye, growing wise, To make amends for happiness decayed? The wood's enchanted ways, Trees that were haunts of fays. All, all have lost their spell; and what remains Save memory, and troth-plight With some far-off delight, For Eden's outcast, toiling on hot plains? 6i WHEN IN THE WOODS I WANDERED. W HEN in the woods I wandered, The gift of bird-hke song Came on me full and strong; And many a verse I squandered The woods and ways along. But now my verse, though pondered With labor sad and long, Strives vainly to be strong. Ah me ! the gift so squandered ! Ah me ! the bird-like song ! ,.^\K 62 THE FORSAKEN DOVE. /^NCE, in the dying clay, ^-^ Into the golden skies, On wings as gold as they I watched a wood-dove rise. Into the shining clouds afar He shot, and vanished like a star. But all the moonless night I heard in the dark wood One plaining her sad plight In doleful solitude. O cruel light to take my love ! O lonely night ! O forlorn dove ! 63 MAY MEMORIES. y^H, for the light-hearted ^^ Life and the passionate Pulse, and the fetterless Feet, and the strong Stream of enthusiast Thought, when the spirit of Spring like a Bacchanal Bore me along I Oh, the luxuriant Leaves, and the effluent Flowers, and the resonant Raptures of song! 64 II Oh, for the mirth-brino-inor Morns, and the nectarous Noons, and the exquisite Eves, when the fair P^ace of the noiseless queen Night, with her eloquent Eyes, and her azure Abysses, lay bare; And like a breath from the Briar, from the sensitive Soul rose the innocent Incense of prayer! 65 w AFTER STORM. IND and wave are sleeping now j Leaps no more the lashing surge; And the hghthouse on the brow Glimmers to the distant verge. Still below, vague and low. Croons the sea her solemn dirge. Sail and seagull all are flown : Safe in haven or cleft they lie; And the stately moon alone Moves along the stainless sky. Still for aye, night and day, The sea-voices moan and sigh. 66 A THOUGHT OF SUMMER. WOULD be a cloud Half-way up to heaven; Not aloft and proud, Nor too low, and driven In a whirl of rain O'er the shivering plain. But a cloud all w^hite In a heaven all blue. Hanging in men's sight Half a long day through, And when daylight goes, Dying in soft rose. (^1 OLD AND NEW. ^T T^HERE are they hidden, all the vanished years? ^ ^ Ah, who can say ! Where is the laughter flown to, and the tears ? Perished? Ah, nay ! Beauty and strength are born of sun and showers ; These too shall surely spring again in flowers. Yet let them sleep, nor seek herein to w^ed Effect to cause, For Nature's subtlest influences spread By viewless laws. This only seek, that each new^ year may bring, Born of past griefs and joys, a fairer spring ! 68 A DEDICATION. ]\TOT of his treasures gives the sea, Not gold or jewels to the land, Nor of all precious things that he Has ravished with his robber hand. With worthless weeds he wreathes her o'er. With shells inivalued lines the shore. Ev'n so his reverent love he shows By giving not his costless pelf, But that which of his beinsf 2:rows, — True gift it is to give of self. For my poor gift let this atone : I give thee what is most my own. 69 A DAY OF LOVE. DEAR is the sunny between-while Of April skies, Though black with storm in the meanwhile The clouds arise. Tho' the clouds that shall burst on the morrow Be gathering above, So dear in a year of sorrow Is a day of love. 70 VIBRATIONS. W HAT wonder if when Love awakes Suddenly the tense heart breaks ! As at the organ's thundering Breaks the lute's responsive string ! Ah. sadder heart, where Love has o-rown Stealthily, his name unknowai ! As at some wandering noiseless air The wind-harp wakens to despair. 71 AN ENGLISH EDEN. "PTOSES drop their petals all around ^ ^ In that enchanted ground, And all the air is murmurous with sound From the white-tumbling weir; So that all sounds or voices heard anear Do half unreal appear. As one half-waking from a dreamless sleep Is fain his thought to keep Thus floating ever 'twixt the night's black deep And the blank glare of day: So in that Eden pauses life midway 'Twixt dawning and noonday. 72 AUTUMN SINGERS. "II 7" HEN woods are gold and hedges gay ' " With jewelled Autumn's brief array, And diamonds sprinkle every spray, The robin sings His soft melodious well-a-day For dying things. Yet often, when a riotous night Has ruined half the wood's delight, There breaks a spring-day warm and bright; And the thrush sings, As if his April were in sight. Of quickening things. 73 H3^ 83 On© ^^•n^ 35^x. M ' ^i^U t^- ' 9 , \ s •• o • » ^- O •o.o' .0-' *• — •^ "' • • .- %. .0^ * ^P'^^ .V 0^ t-' . ^F s ♦• .." 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