Ode to Lady Hope
O Gentle Lady Hope, thou star of Summer's night,
Thou, from whose delicate eyes the love born
Is seen, like roses from a dawning light,
Purple, and pink, and bright, and clear blue,
Joyous-- enamoured masses: O thou,
Who walkest to their honest fate true
The cosy lovers, where they sit young but wise,
Each as a Dragon within its cave, until
Thine open heart of the Moon shall rise
With her vassal o'er the gleaming sands, and brings
(Singing wild songs like eagles to fly in air)
The black stallions and ravens upon trusted wings:
Gentle Hope, who are dreaming everywhere;
Creator and Lady Fair; Listen, O Listen!
Thou on whose smile, 'mid the soft wind's delight
Orange clouds like love's new blossom are wed
Grown from the fertile seeds of Day and Night,
Unicorns of snow and ice: there they dread
On the crystal mirror of thine holy face,
Like the rising sleep removed from the bed
Of some young Maiden, even from the arid place
Of the mountain and the barren Glen,
The passion of the oncoming affair. Thou chase
Off the listless fear, to which these hopeful men
Will be the suitors of a quiet cherubim
Summoned with all thy beauty then
Of sight, from whose auspicious kin
White snow, and sun, and river will flow: O Listen!
Thou who didst flee from his want and ware
The still Loch Chon, where he prays,
Scared by the evil in the black jackal's lair,
Inside a silent wood of Sun rays,
And behold in haze grey pastures and meadows
Shivering within the saint's blessed days,
All closed with brown bark and shadows
So ominous, the heart weeps capturing them! Thou
For whose love the Cupid's wily ways
Seep themselves into blood, while long ago
The oceans-echoes and the seas-voice which behold
The moral passage of the world, know
Thy beauty, and slowly grow old without sin
And rejoice and indulge themselves: O Listen!
If I were a faithful man thou wouldest hold;
If I were a red salmon to swim with thee;
A slave to worship beneath thy glory, and fold
The pleats of thy hair, an idol free
Than thou, O Unhappiness! If even
I were like an avid Romeo, and would be
The saviour of thy sadness over Love,
As then, when to outlive thy heavenly kind
Hardly seemed a dream; I could n'er have driven
As thus with thee in thought in my opal mind.
Oh! Gather me as a fawn, a tulip, a feast!
On the earth to be found
As I sat by the table of life! I dined!
A morbid chalice of tears has bound and drowned
One much like me; shameless, and solemn, and triste.
Take me thy lover, just as the lake is:
What if my waters are emptying like her own!
The thunder of thy vanquished melodies
Will steal from both a quiet, sleepy tone,
Tender though in melancholy. Be thou, Love honest,
My love! Be thou mine, graceful one!
Throw my cold worries across the field
Like decayed soil to hasten a new light!
And, by the poetic words I yield
Offer, as from and unexpected gift
Joy and gladness, their souls will lift!
Be with my kindness to resurrected Earth
The call of a Seer! O Hope,
With the wild waves of love we drift.
O Gentle Lady Hope, thou star of Summer's night,
Thou, from whose delicate eyes the love born
Is seen, like roses from a dawning light,
Purple, and pink, and bright, and clear blue,
Joyous-- enamoured masses: O thou,
Who walkest to their honest fate true
The cosy lovers, where they sit young but wise,
Each as a Dragon within its cave, until
Thine open heart of the Moon shall rise
With her vassal o'er the gleaming sands, and brings
(Singing wild songs like eagles to fly in air)
The black stallions and ravens upon trusted wings:
Gentle Hope, who are dreaming everywhere;
Creator and Lady Fair; Listen, O Listen!
Thou on whose smile, 'mid the soft wind's delight
Orange clouds like love's new blossom are wed
Grown from the fertile seeds of Day and Night,
Unicorns of snow and ice: there they dread
On the crystal mirror of thine holy face,
Like the rising sleep removed from the bed
Of some young Maiden, even from the arid place
Of the mountain and the barren Glen,
The passion of the oncoming affair. Thou chase
Off the listless fear, to which these hopeful men
Will be the suitors of a quiet cherubim
Summoned with all thy beauty then
Of sight, from whose auspicious kin
White snow, and sun, and river will flow: O Listen!
Thou who didst flee from his want and ware
The still Loch Chon, where he prays,
Scared by the evil in the black jackal's lair,
Inside a silent wood of Sun rays,
And behold in haze grey pastures and meadows
Shivering within the saint's blessed days,
All closed with brown bark and shadows
So ominous, the heart weeps capturing them! Thou
For whose love the Cupid's wily ways
Seep themselves into blood, while long ago
The oceans-echoes and the seas-voice which behold
The moral passage of the world, know
Thy beauty, and slowly grow old without sin
And rejoice and indulge themselves: O Listen!
If I were a faithful man thou wouldest hold;
If I were a red salmon to swim with thee;
A slave to worship beneath thy glory, and fold
The pleats of thy hair, an idol free
Than thou, O Unhappiness! If even
I were like an avid Romeo, and would be
The saviour of thy sadness over Love,
As then, when to outlive thy heavenly kind
Hardly seemed a dream; I could n'er have driven
As thus with thee in thought in my opal mind.
Oh! Gather me as a fawn, a tulip, a feast!
On the earth to be found
As I sat by the table of life! I dined!
A morbid chalice of tears has bound and drowned
One much like me; shameless, and solemn, and triste.
Take me thy lover, just as the lake is:
What if my waters are emptying like her own!
The thunder of thy vanquished melodies
Will steal from both a quiet, sleepy tone,
Tender though in melancholy. Be thou, Love honest,
My love! Be thou mine, graceful one!
Throw my cold worries across the field
Like decayed soil to hasten a new light!
And, by the poetic words I yield
Offer, as from and unexpected gift
Joy and gladness, their souls will lift!
Be with my kindness to resurrected Earth
The call of a Seer! O Hope,
With the wild waves of love we drift.