LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO presented to the LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO by FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY _ MR. JOHN C. ROSE donor THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES AND OTHER POEMS ' M/ THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES AND OTHER POEMS BY F. W. BOURDILLON BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1899 Copyright, iSgr, BY ROBERTS BROTHERS Copyright, z8w, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY All rights reserved JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. THE ILLUSTRATIONS 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" 67 AILES D'ALOUETTE When like a lark the soul upsprings, Of verse she makes her airy wings. Oh may these verses, pair and pair, Some heart in heavenward flight 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 19 A BIRTHDAY IN NOVEMBF.R .20 A DECEMBER GREETING 21 DECAY 22 LATET ANGUIS 23 THE TROUBLED SEA 24 ONE DEED OF GOOD 25 SURSUM CORDA 26 Y WYDDFA 27 SIGHT AND INSIGHT 28 WITHIN THE GENTLE HEART LOVE SHELTERS HIM . 29 SAPPHIRES 30 9 IO CONTENTS. PAGE ADORATION ................. 31 ................... 32 A REPROACH AND THE ANSWER ......... 33 SEAWEED .................. 34 LOVE, FORGIVE .............. 35 'TWIXT THEE AND ME ............. 36 1 GIVE MY HEART .............. 37 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 .............. 48 DROPPED PRIMROSES ............. 49 AFTER LOVE'S DEATH ............. 50 LIGHT AT EVENTIDE ............. 51 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 PATIENCE 59 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 68 A DEDICATION 69 A DAY OF LOVE 70 VIBRATIONS 71 AN ENGLISH EDEN 72 AUTUMN SINGERS 73 THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES. THE night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light 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. 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 ! A VALENTINE. W 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 ! IN APRIL. WHAT 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! 16 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 again. 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 ! 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. 18 JUNE IN LONDON. SOUNDS of the riverside are in my ear Through the long day ; The merry haymakers I plainly hear, The tossing hay. O cruel dreams, that through the roaring town Mine ears engage ! Alas, poor lark ! whose home was once the down, But now a cage! A BIRTHDAY IN NOVEMBER. \I 7 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, When 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. 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 ! 21 DECAY. S~\ 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. 22 LATET ANGUIS. AH ! full of purest influence On human mind and mood, Of holiest joy to human sense Are river, field, and wood ; And better must all childhood be That knows a garden and a tree. For where can one diviner gleam 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. THE TROUBLED 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. ONE DEED OF GOOD. F I might do one deed of good, One little deed before I die, Or think one noble thought that should Hereafter not forgotten lie, I would not murmur though I must Be lost in Death's unnumbered dust. The filmy wing, that wafts the seed Upon the careless wind to earth, Lives only for a moment's deed, To find the germ fit place for birth; For one swift moment of delight It whirls, then withers out of sight. SURSUM CORDA. T T OW can the out-worn heart ** To earth that clings From self-spun cerements start On rainbow wings ? How from its husk had flown The butterfly Save with its wings were grown Love of the sky? Y WYDDFA. THE SUMMIT OF SNOWDON. 'T'HE Place of Presence! Viewless phantoms crowd In mist and cloud; And in dark chasm and deep abyss beneath Hides dreadful Death. Not his nor theirs the Presence nor the Place! Close to the face Of Heaven we stand, and more in love than fear Feel God is here. 27 SIGHT AND INSIGHT. DY land and sea I travelled wide; * ' My thought the earth could span; And wearily I turned and cried " O little world of man ! " I wandered by a greenwood's side The distance of a rod; My eyes were opened, and I cried "O mighty world of God!" 28 WITHIN THE GENTLE HEART LOVE SHELTERS HIM, AS BIRDS WITHIN THE GREEN SHADE OF THE GROVE. 1 OVE in the heart is as a nightingale ^ That sings in a green wood; And none can pass unheeding there, nor fail Of impulses of good. Though cruel brief be Love's bright hour of song, Yet let him sing his fill ! For other hearts the echoes shall prolong When Love's own voice is still. 29 SAPPHIRES. -11 7ONDERFUL is the sea, And the sky above the hill, But the eyes of a maiden be More wondrous still. For not the nightly skies Such depths discover, As, when she loves, her eyes Do to her lover. ADORATION. MAIDEN, do you wonder why my eyes So deeply gaze in thine? Not alone because night's clearest skies With no such lustre shine ; But that deep within the world there lies A mystery divine ; And I know not where, save in such eyes, To worship at its shrine. CJELI. F stars were really watching eyes Of angel armies in the skies, I should forget all watchers there, And only for your glances care. And if your eyes were really stars With leagues that none can mete for bars To keep me from their longed-for day, I could not feel more far away. A REPROACH AND THE ANSWER. T^HE Sun cried to the laughing Sea, * * Leave thy sweet wiling ! Hast thou no depths of love in thee, Too deep for smiling?" But ever, till the day was done, The Sea turned laughing to the Sun. But in the darkness and the storm, Could he discover What terrors toss, what fears deform His laughing lover? Oh, vainly love prays love look sad When his mere presence makes her glad. 33 SEAWEED. A LAS, poor weed ! The careless tide '* Has left thee with his lightest foam ; And now a desert drear and wide Divides thee from thy wished-for home. The tide may bear thee back once more, But canst thou live thy life of yore? Alas, I too am left awhile By her I love in lightest play ; On distant loves I see her smile, I hear her laughter far away. Her heart may turn to me again, But can my heart forget the pain? 34 O LOVE FORGIVE. O LOVE forgive! The sunny slopes forgive the passing cloud, And we who live Less near to heaven than they should be less proud. No punishment Can pass the pain e'er to have grieved thee ; And I present My heart thus chastened thy new slave to be. 35 'TWIXT THEE AND ME. WILL not reason why I love, Or what I love in thee. There breathes some secret from above In every flower we see. Suddenly as we pass we own Some glimpse or scent divine. Such secret to none others known My heart has found in thine. I GIVE MY HEART. GIVE my heart ! An empty hand Were never gift to thee ! But oh, that thou couldst understand What mea*ns this gift from me ! No mist that melts into the air, Nor rain into the sea, Doth more its whole of being share Than I do, love, with thee ! 37 IN A DISTANT LAND. MY heart has wandered far from me On wings of love to-night, Has passed a thousand leagues of sea Swifter than swallow's flight. What doth thy journey profit thee, Thou idle wanderer, Who canst not take my eyes to see Nor tongue to talk with her ! A SONG. ' W HEN softer breezes blow And Winter flies, How blue the rivers flow Beneath blue skies ! t^ '* "* Ah, darling, 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. THE SHADOW OF LOVE. '"PHE 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. r ~PHERE is no summer ere the swallows come, Nor Love appears, Till Hope, Love's light-winged herald, lifts the gloom Of years. ~^^ There is no summer left when swallows fly, And Love at last, When hopes which filled its heaven droop and die, Is past. 44 A LOST VOICE. A 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 flee. My house is builded of years decayed, And in vain I fill it with new glad light, For a love that is lost is a ghost unlaid That troubles the silent night. A LOST LOVE. AS our childhood's world of wood and field, That strangers now possess ; As a dead mother's face in sleep revealed To her child in its loneliness; As a dream of home to an exile banished Forever beyond the sea, So vainly sweet, O love long vanished, Is the sound of thy name to me ! 47 GATHERED ROSES. 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. '"THEY grew in the grassy byway, * With the hazel wands o'erhead ; They lie in the dusty highway, Dying or dead. O flowers too soon forsaken ! O tender hearts grief-torn ! By a light love idly taken, And left forlorn ! 49 AFTER LOVE'S DEATH. A FTER the sunshine, night; ** After the summer, rain; After days of delight Come days of pain. After the darkness, light; After the winter, spring. After Love's death, delight, Ah, who can bring ! LIGHT AT EVENTIDE. \I 7 HAT 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 ? WAITING. - < 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. THE DIFFERENCE. O WEETER than voices in the scented hay, v ~' Or laughing children gleaning ears astray, Or Christmas songs that shake the snows above, Is the first cuckoo, when he comes with 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. DE PROFUNDIS. OELOW 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 RELIEF. BLANK has the day been, Blind all the sky, White has the way been, Chill the snows lie. Only at nightfall, Heard faint and low, Hark ! 'tis the light fall, Rain on the snow. 55 DO THE DEAD THINK OF THE LIVING? 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, li 'Tis to-morrow and we meet!" EARTH'S ANGELS. \\ 7 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 angels smile on me. 57 ANGELS' TEARS. '""THE 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. PATIENCE. STILL 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. 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 your 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 ? 61 WHEN IN THE WOODS I WANDERED. \1 7 HEN in the woods I wandered, *" The gift of bird-like 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 ! THE FORSAKEN DOVE. , in the dying day, 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 ! MAY MEMORIES. , 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 ! Oh, the luxuriant Leaves, and the effluent Flowers, and the resonant Raptures of song! Oh, for the mirth-bringing Morns, and the nectarous Noons, and the exquisite Eves, when the fair Face 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! AFTER STORM. "\T 7IND and wave are sleeping now; Leaps no more the lashing surge ; And the lighthouse 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. I 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 white In a heaven all blue, Hanging in men's sight Half a long day through And when daylight goes, Dying in soft rose. 67 OLD AND NEW. \T 7HERE 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 wed 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. 1\ ] OT 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 unvalued lines the shore. Ev'n so his reverent love he shows By giving not his costless pelf, But that which of his being grows, 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. \1 7 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 grown Stealthily, his name unknown ! As at some wandering noiseless air The wind-harp wakens to despair. AN ENGLISH EDEN. OSES 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. \1 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 41489 A 000 671 723 5