Radclyffe Hall

'Twixt Earth and Stars: Poems

Published by Good Press, 2022
goodpress@okpublishing.info
EAN 4064066233808

Table of Contents


IN A GARDEN
IF YOU WERE A ROSE AND I WERE THE SUN (Song)
DRIFTING
TO ——
LOVE TRIUMPHANT
MY ROSE
IF ONLY
CONFESSION
SUNLIGHT ON DISTANT HILLS (Ledbury)
MY LOVE
A MEMORY
TO ——
ON THE MOUNTAIN
TO ——
THE PRAYER
IF
A LAMENT
TO ——
THOUGHTS
SHIPS
THE DREAM-CHILD
THE DAY
FROM MY SOUL
WE
TO SINGERS
THE MAY TREE
PURGATORY
TO ——
A SPRING POSY
AWAKENING
SHE IS DEAD
TO ——
THE WHOLE OF IT
A SONG
IF LIKE THE BIRD
A FRAGMENT
AN EVEN PSALM
A BUTTERFLY
DISAPPOINTMENT
TO THE SEA
AFTER ALL?
YOU
REMEMBER
AN ECHO
FLOWER LOVE
THE FOND LOVER
ROSES FALL
A FRAGMENT
DISSATISFACTION
ONE EVENING
TO ——
MY SOUL, THE DEATHLESS
WHAT AM I?
WHAT A PITY!
SONG
TIREDNESS
ON THE LAGOON
A MORNING ON COMO
IN ROME
TO ——
HOPES
A MEMORY
THE RIVER
TO ——
SHALL I COMPLAIN?
TO ——
MISTRESS SPRING (Song)
WHAT'S WRONG?
GENTLE DAME PRISCILLA (Song)
TO THE NIGHTINGALE
A MORNING THOUGHT
TO-DAY
LOVE'S COMMAND
CHANCE MEETING
ITALIAN SPRING
TO ——
THE DIRGE OF A LONELY GARDEN
RESIGNATION
ACCUSATION
A SEA CYCLE
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI

BY

MARGUERITE RADCLYFFE-HALL

JOHN AND EDWARD BUMPUS LTD.
350 OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W.

MCMVI

DEDICATED TO
MY INSPIRATION

I know that through the waves of air,
Some part of all I feel for you,
Must surely travel swift and true,
Towards the heart for which I care
So dumbly, and before it lay
The words my lips shall never say.

IN A GARDEN

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In the garden a thousand roses,
A vine of jessamine flower,
Sweetpeas in coquettish poses,
Sweetbrier with its fragrant dower.
There are hollyhocks tall and slender,
And marigolds gay and fair,
And sunflowers in glowing splendour,
Geraniums rich and rare;
And the wee, white, innocent daisy,
Half hidden amid the lawn;
A bee grown drowsy and lazy—
On honey he's drunk since dawn—
Is reposing with wings extended
On some soft, passionate rose,
Aglow with a blush more splendid
Than ever a fair cheek knows.
While a thrush, in the ivy swinging
That clusters over the gate,
Athrob with the spring is singing,
And ardently calls his mate.
For the spirit of all sweet odours
The soul of a June unborn
Has hallowed my humble garden,
And whispered to me since dawn.
And the flowers in a prayer of rapture,
Bent low to that spell divine,
Are wafting their sweetest incense
In clouds, at his sunlit shrine.

IF YOU WERE A ROSE AND I WERE THE SUN
(Song)

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If you were a Rose and I were the Sun
What then, little girl, what then?
I'd kiss you awake when day had begun,
My sweet little girl, what then?
I'd waken you out of your valley of dreams
And open your heart with my passionate beams,
'Till you lifted your face to my ruddiest gleams,
My own little girl, yes then.
If you were the Earth and I were the Dew,
What then, little girl, what then?
Why surely the thing all lovers would do,
My sweet little girl, what then?
I'd steal through the twilight, o'er valley and lea,
And flood you with kisses, both tender and free
'Till the soul in you throbbed with the love that's in me,
My own little girl, yes then.
But I am a man and you are a maid,
What then, little girl, what then?
You're cold in your pride, and I am afraid,
My sweet little girl, what then?
If you cannot love me and I cannot die
There's nothing in life but the ghost of a sigh,
And the day growing dark 'neath a colourless sky;
My own little girl, yes then.

DRIFTING

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It is sweet to lie in a boat,
And drift with the languid stream,
With body and soul afloat
The lake of a perfect dream.
It is sweet in the afternoon,
With just the breath of a breeze,
If the time be the month of June
And the birds sing low in the trees.
And the mind has a pleasant thought,
And the heart has a fond desire,
And the soul is a tissue wrought
Of youth, and it's golden fire.
And the limbs are both clean and strong,
And able to rest with joy,
And our time in the world is long,
With nothing that can destroy
The rapture of God's green earth,
The throb and the ecstasy
That springs into life with birth,
And lives through eternity.

TO ——

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Dear heart! I was going away,
Could you not have spared me an hour
Of all your bountiful day?
No moment, no word, no flower
To keep; not even a tear?
My soul was so thirsty, dear!

LOVE TRIUMPHANT

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