In a Garden / Radclyffe Hall

In a Garden

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.

~~
Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)
from 'Twixt Earth and Stars, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Radclyffe Hall biography

The May Tree / Radclyffe Hall

The May Tree

A garden in the month of May, 

The fading of a golden day 

     Upon the tulip flowers. 

An anthem sung by little birds, 

The sigh more eloquent than words 

     Of earth to listening hours. 

And shadows . . . like the fringe that lies 

On cheek, at close of drowsy eyes, 

     And paths, grown damp with dew; 

And secret places, where to tread 

Were to disturb the bridal bed 

     Of creatures born anew. 

And fairer than each living thing 

That stirs with longings of the Spring, 

     A May tree, bearing flower. 

Like some young nymph the sunlight charms 

She stretches forth her slender arms, 

     New decked with leafy dower, 

While through her wondrous, living form 

The sap of life leaps strong and warm, 

     Awaking from repose 

The folded buds to know the Spring, 

It seems I almost hear them sing 

     For rapture as it flows. 

Ay! and it seems as though my heart 

Strained upward, but to take some part 

     In that sweet hymn of praise; 

As though my pulses quicker beat, 

To see perfection so complete 

     Revealed to my gaze. 

As though the problem of unrest 

Were solved at last, in this behest 

     To silently fulfil; 

And deeper still, my soul perceives 

The mighty Presence that conceives 

     Such beauty at Its will. 

~~

Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)

from 'Twixt Earth and Stars, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Radclyffe Hall biography

Spring Posy / Radclyffe Hall

Spring Posy

A spray of blossoms, and as well
Some violets, gathered yesterday
From leafy wood and shaded dell,
Sweet children of a fruitful May;
Dear minstrels of that silent lay
More potent than an organ's swell.

And now they're withered! all the joy
Has gone for ever, and the scent;
Relentless fingers can alloy
So much of nature's sentiment,
So many strains of deep content,
It takes so little to destroy.

~~
Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)
from 'Twixt Earth and Stars, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Radclyffe Hall biography

Winter on the Zuyder Zee / Radclyffe Hall

Winter on the Zuyder Zee

The world has grown unreal to-day
Far out upon the Zuyder Zee!
We drift towards a mystic isle,
With scarce a breath of wind the while.
I hear the murmur of the tide,
I hear you breathing at my side,
Far out upon the Zuyder Zee.

The drearness of this inland sea!
Doomed thus to lie eternally
A fettered slave, grown old between
The dykes and marshes low and green,
Devoid of wind to stir the deep
Forgotten heart, so long asleep,
Oh! sorrow-ladened Zuyder Zee!

This awful hush engulfing things!
The noon-tide hangs with outspread wings
Above the ship, all motionless.
The penitential sails confess
Their sad inertness, damp and brown,
From silent masts they ripple down
Towards the lifeless Zuyder Zee.

I almost think that you and I
Are floating on a haze of sky,
This is an unknown sphere of dreams,
Or else some region where the beams
Of daylight that have died unblessed
By some kind thought stray seeking rest,
Along the wastes of Zuyder Zee.

How strange to know that youth is ours!
That do we choose a world of flowers
And sunlight waiting to our hand
Is calling for some gladder land,
So easy to attain, yet lo!
We drift amid the mist and woe
Of winter on the Zuyder Zee.

Is there a subtle charm, when sad
Despairing nature makes the glad
Rejoicing spirit pause to think,
Of those dim depths to which may sink
The soul immortal? Where the mind
May grow as sodden as a wind
That dies upon the Zuyder Zee?

When all our loving and our will
To love for ever can't fulfil
Love's promises for age and death?
That like a hushed, unwholesome breath,
From off the marshes in the night
Steals forth, and all our past delight
Is colder than the Zuyder Zee?

The very thought that death is near
Perchance makes life seem doubly dear,
And love more urgent, since they two
May some day fade away, and you
Become a spectral memory,
Devoid of joy! and what of me
Oh! wise, world-weary Zuyder Zee?

Your endless depth of stark despair
But renders sunlit things more fair,
But makes the craving heart more strong
To grasp its pleasures, short or long,
While yet it is To-day, nor wait
Upon the will of doubtful fate,
Lest all emotion rendered numb
With long suppression should become
As you are, soulless Zuyder Zee !

~~
Radclyffe Hall
from A Sheaf of Verses, 1908

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Radclyffe Hall biography

Autumn in Sussex / Radclyffe Hall

Autumn in Sussex

A glory is this autumn day,
That stretches far across the land,
To where the sea along the sand
Sings kindly, with a gentle lay
Upon its lips. The gleam and sway
Of burning leaves ignites the air
To strange soft fire; serene and bare
The wide fields lie on either hand.

Move lovely than the timid Spring
who tells her beads of humble flowers,
More perfect than the sun-warmed hours
Of summer, gay with birds that sing,
Is this fulfillment earth doth bring
To offer up to God; this deep
Vast prayer before the winter sleep,
The final tribute to His powers!

~~
Radclyffe Hall
from Songs of Three Counties, and other poems, 1913

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Radclyffe Hall biography

If you were a Rose and I were the Sun / Radclyffe Hall

If you were a Rose and I were the Sun

                           (Song)

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 that 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.

~~
Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)
from 'Twixt Earth and Stars, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Radclyffe Hall biography