As some people have commented favourably on my earlier poems, I thought that from time to time I would share a few more of my better poems.
This is what is probably my favourite among the many poems I have written and I recite it quietly to myself from time to time.
NIGHT-TIME
O Night! immortal queen of loveliness:
the moon thy crown; the stars entwine
Thy hair and limbs of jet.
Thy breath like dusky wine
That fills each corner of my sense,
Making the world seem more not less divine.
Spreading wide the borders of my being
With calm that fills my soul; aware
No more of flesh and blood,
A spirit of the air
I seem, and in my thought ascend
Far upward into realms where all is fair.
And heaven’s curtains tremble in the breeze
Of some unearthly wind that blows
From far beyond the seas,
Which to my spirit shows
A fleeting glimpse of hidden things
That half elusive seem and half one knows.
Then soft as sighs my thoughts once more return
To this sad quiet world, now lain
Within thy arms, O Night,
Who soothes away the strain
And restless weariness of life
That never brings forth joy except in pain.
As long as I can remember, I loved the night and spent much time leaning out of my bedroom window looking at the stars. My room faced north and I knew all the northerly constellations.
This poem however I think was begun as I was walking back from the railway station one evening. I was twenty-two. However it does speak of those times I stood at my bedroom window and listened to the night.
And perhaps, as an indulgence, I will add a much earlier poem that is also inspired by the night sky. This was written when I was fourteen and is not an especially good poem but perhaps it captures something.
SILVER NIGHT
The silver sea lapped on the silver shore,
And up above ‘mongst silver stars, the moon,
Wrapped in sacred mystery and awe,
Shone through the silver silent night of June.
The moon serene shone on the earth so clear,
And all around the stars shone out so bright;
No space was vacant in that starry sphere,
And all the earth was bathed in full moon light.
Clustering round the moon, like silver moths, the stars;
As if flitting delighted enchanted around a white rose;
They shone like a thousand shields round the planet Mars,
A silver host gone out to fight his foes.
The silver waves played on the silver sands,
And all around deep harmony and peace;
The silence was like heavenly angel bands,
Deep music that at sound or noise would cease.
