PAGE 16

The Convergence of the Twain 

(lines on the loss of the Titanic)

In a solitude of the sea            
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
     
Steel chambers, late the pyres            
Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.
      
Over the mirrors meant            
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls - grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

      
Jewels in joy designed            
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.
         
Dim moon-eyed fishes near            
Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" 
     
Well: while was fashioning            
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything
        
Prepared a sinister mate            
For her - so gaily great -
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.
        
And as the smart ship grew            
In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
        
Alien they seemed to be;            
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,

        
Or sign that they were bent            
By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,
        
Till the Spinner of the Years            
Said "Now!" And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

-o0o-

The Farm Woman’s Winter

If seasons all were summers,
And leaves would never fall,
And hopping casement-comers
Were foodless not at all,
And fragile folk might be here
That white winds bid depart;
Then one I used to see here
Would warm my wasted heart!

One frail, who, bravely tilling
Long hours in gripping gusts,
Was mastered by their chilling,
And now his ploughshare rusts.
So savage winter catches
The breath of limber things,
And what I love he snatches,
And what I love not, brings.
 

-o0o-

The Chimes play “Life’s a Bumper”

"Awake! I'm off to cities far away,"
I said; and rose, on peradventures bent.
The chimes played "Life's a Bumper!" on that day
To the measure of my walking as I went:
Their sweetness frisked and floated on the lea,
As they played out "Life's a Bumper!" there to me.

"Awake!" I said. "I go to take a bride!"

- The sun arose behind me ruby-red
As I journeyed townwards from the countryside,
The chiming bells saluting near ahead.
Their sweetness swelled in tripping tings of glee
As they played out "Life's a Bumper!" there to me.
 

"Again arise." I seek a turfy slope,
And go forth slowly on an autumn noon,
And there I lay her who has been my hope,
And think, "O may I follow hither soon!"
While on the wind the chimes come cheerily,
Playing out "Life's a Bumper!" there to me.
 

-o0o-

Birds at Winter Nightfall

Around the house the flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone
From holly and cotoneaster
Around the house. The flakes fly! - faster
Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster
We used to see upon the lawn
Around the house. The flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone!

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- 

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