Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/128
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II
Sometimes I kneel and look above
That dark stairway
At years to come;
My fingers clasp my fears,
Where my hopes go.
Up there beyond that last, gray step,
Afar,
Within that roof of mist,
What is that shape in flight,
Dim, strong and slow?
That dark stairway
At years to come;
My fingers clasp my fears,
Where my hopes go.
Up there beyond that last, gray step,
Afar,
Within that roof of mist,
What is that shape in flight,
Dim, strong and slow?
III
"A wing," some say;
Some answer, "Love";
And some say, "Night
And sleep."
But I?
I do not know.
Some answer, "Love";
And some say, "Night
And sleep."
But I?
I do not know.
The FreemanJeanette Marks
KEATS TO FANNY BRAWNE
Fanny! If in your arms my soul could slip—
Arms that my love first fancied—not the grave!
Cities of Hate and Madness round me rave;
And Love with anguished finger at the lip
Fares shelterless! These have my fellowship—
Memory and Loneliness! What's left? To brave
Death! But before it Tragedy: not to crave
You changed or truly seen! The hemlock drip
Of rains upon half-lived or ruined springs,
Where you dance, smiling, numbs me now, and soothes
Hopes that once sought a beauty gone before.
Losses have stripped me! But the vanishings
Of winter winds leave me to starry truths—
Who once desired you, but desire no more!
Arms that my love first fancied—not the grave!
Cities of Hate and Madness round me rave;
And Love with anguished finger at the lip
Fares shelterless! These have my fellowship—
Memory and Loneliness! What's left? To brave
Death! But before it Tragedy: not to crave
You changed or truly seen! The hemlock drip
Of rains upon half-lived or ruined springs,
Where you dance, smiling, numbs me now, and soothes
Hopes that once sought a beauty gone before.
Losses have stripped me! But the vanishings
Of winter winds leave me to starry truths—
Who once desired you, but desire no more!
Poetry, A Magazine of VerseEdgar Lee Masters
113