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| MASTER of the murmuring courts | |
| Where the shapes of sleep convene!— | |
| Lo! my spirit here exhorts | |
| All the powers of thy demesne | |
| For their aid to woo my queen. | 5 |
| What reports | |
| Yield thy jealous courts unseen? | |
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| Vaporous unaccountable, | |
| Dreamland lies forlorn of light, | |
| Hollow like a breathing shell. | 10 |
| Ah! that from all dreams I might | |
| Choose one dream and guide its flight! | |
| I know well | |
| What her sleep should tell to-night. | |
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| There the dreams are multitudes: | 15 |
| Some whose buoyance waits not sleep, | |
| Deep within the August woods; | |
| Some that hum while rest may steep | |
| Weary labour laid a-heap; | |
| Interludes, | 20 |
| Some, of grievous moods that weep. | |
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| Poets’ fancies all are there: | |
| There the elf-girls flood with wings | |
| Valleys full of plaintive air; | |
| There breathe perfumes; there in rings | 25 |
| Whirl the foam-bewildered springs; | |
| Siren there | |
| Winds her dizzy hair and sings. | |
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| Thence the one dream mutually | |
| Dreamed in bridal unison, | 30 |
| Less than waking ecstasy; | |
| Half-formed visions that make moan | |
| In the house of birth alone; | |
| And what we | |
| At death’s wicket see, unknown. | 35 |
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| But for mine own sleep, it lies | |
| In one gracious form’s control, | |
| Fair with honourable eyes, | |
| Lamps of an auspicious soul: | |
| O their glance is loftiest dole, | 40 |
| Sweet and wise, | |
| Wherein Love descries his goal. | |
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| Reft of her, my dreams are all | |
| Clammy trance that fears the sky: | |
| Changing footpaths shift and fall; | 45 |
| From polluted coverts nigh, | |
| Miserable phantoms sigh; | |
| Quakes the pall, | |
| And the funeral goes by. | |
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| Master, is it soothly said | 50 |
| That, as echoes of man’s speech | |
| Far in secret clefts are made, | |
| So do all men’s bodies reach | |
| Shadows o’er thy sunken beach,— | |
| Shape or shade | 55 |
| In those halls pourtrayed of each? | |
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| Ah! might I, by thy good grace | |
| Groping in the windy stair, | |
| (Darkness and the breath of space | |
| Like loud waters everywhere,) | 60 |
| Meeting mine own image there | |
| Face to face, | |
| Send it from that place to her! | |
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| Nay, not I; but oh! do thou, | |
| Master, from thy shadowkind | 65 |
| Call my body’s phantom now: | |
| Bid it bear its face declin’d | |
| Till its flight her slumbers find, | |
| And her brow | |
| Feel its presence bow like wind. | 70 |
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| Where in groves the gracile Spring | |
| Trembles, with mute orison | |
| Confidently strengthening, | |
| Water’s voice and wind’s as one | |
| Shed an echo in the sun. | 75 |
| Soft as Spring | |
| Master, bid it sing and moan. | |
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| Song shall tell how glad and strong | |
| Is the night she soothes alway; | |
| Moan shall grieve with that parched tongue | 80 |
| Of the brazen hours of day: | |
| Sounds as of the springtide they, | |
| Moan and song, | |
| While the chill months long for May. | |
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| Not the prayers which with all leave | 85 |
| The world’s fluent woes prefer,— | |
| Not the praise the world doth give, | |
| Dulcet fulsome whisperer;— | |
| Let it yield my love to her, | |
| And achieve | 90 |
| Strength that shall not grieve or err. | |
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| Wheresoe’er my dreams befall, | |
| Both at night-watch (let it say,) | |
| And where round the sundial | |
| The reluctant hours of day, | 95 |
| Heartless, hopeless of their way, | |
| Rest and call;— | |
| There her glance doth fall and stay. | |
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| Suddenly her face is there: | |
| So do mounting vapours wreathe | 100 |
| Subtle-scented transports where | |
| The black firwood sets its teeth. | |
| Part the boughs and look beneath,— | |
| Lilies share | |
| Secret waters there, and breathe. | 105 |
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| Master, bid my shadow bend | |
| Whispering thus till birth of light, | |
| Lest new shapes that sleep may send | |
| Scatter all its work to flight;— | |
| Master, master of the night, | 110 |
| Bid it spend | |
| Speech, song, prayer, and end aright. | |
| |
| Yet, ah me! if at her head | |
| There another phantom lean | |
| Murmuring o’er the fragrant bed,— | 115 |
| Ah! and if my spirit’s queen | |
| Smile those alien words between,— | |
| Ah! poor shade! | |
| Shall it strive, or fade unseen? | |
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| How should love’s own messenger | 120 |
| Strive with love and be love’s foe? | |
| Master, nay! If thus, in her, | |
| Sleep a wedded heart should show,— | |
| Silent let mine image go, | |
| Its old share | 125 |
| Of thy sunken air to know. | |
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| Like a vapour wan and mute, | |
| Like a flame, so let it pass; | |
| One low sigh across her lute, | |
| One dull breath against her glass; | 130 |
| And to my sad soul, alas! | |
| One salute | |
| Cold as when death’s foot shall pass. | |
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| Then, too, let all hopes of mine, | |
| All vain hopes by night and day, | 135 |
| Slowly at thy summoning sign | |
| Rise up pallid and obey. | |
| Dreams, if this is thus, were they:— | |
| Be they thine, | |
| And to dreamland pine away. | 140 |
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| Yet from old time, life, not death, | |
| Master, in thy rule is rife: | |
| Lo! through thee, with mingling breath, | |
| Adam woke beside his wife. | |
| O Love bring me so, for strife, | 145 |
| Force and faith, | |
| Bring me so not death but life! | |
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| Yea, to Love himself is pour’d | |
| This frail song of hope and fear. | |
| Thou art Love, of one accord | 150 |
| With kind Sleep to bring her near, | |
| Still-eyed, deep-eyed, ah how dear! | |
| Master, Lord, | |
| In her name implor’d, O hear! | |
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