[ { "title": "Sonnet", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "Most wonderful and strange it seems, that I", "Who but a little time ago was tost", "High on the waves of passion and of pain,", "With aching heat and wildly throbbing brain,", "Who peered into the darkness, deeming vain", "All things there found if but One thing were lost,", "Thus calm and still and silent here should lie,", "Watching and waiting, --waiting passively.", "", "The dark has faded, and before mine eyes", "Have long, grey flats expanded, dim and bare;", "And through the changing guises all things wear", "Inevitable Law I recognise:", "Yet in my heart a hint of feeling lies", "Which half a hope and half a despair." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Ballade of an Omnibus", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "\"To see my love suffices me.\"", "--Ballades in Blue China.", "", "", "Some men to carriages aspire;", "On some the costly hansoms wait;", "Some seek a fly, on job or hire;", "Some mount the trotting steed, elate.", "I envy not the rich and great,", "A wandering minstrel, poor and free,", "I am contented with my fate --", "An omnibus suffices me.", "", "In winter days of rain and mire", "I find within a corner strait;", "The 'busmen know me and my lyre", "From Brompton to the Bull-and-Gate.", "When summer comes, I mount in state", "The topmost summit, whence I see", "Crœsus look up, compassionate --", "An omnibus suffices me.", "", "I mark, untroubled by desire,", "Lucullus' phaeton and its freight.", "The scene whereof I cannot tire,", "The human tale of love and hate,", "The city pageant, early and late", "Unfolds itself, rolls by, to be", "A pleasure deep and delicate.", "An omnibus suffices me.", "", "Princess, your splendour you require,", "I, my simplicity; agree", "Neither to rate lower nor higher.", "An omnibus suffices me." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "A Prayer", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "Since that I may not have", "Love on this side the grave,", "Let me imagine Love.", "Since not mine is the bliss", "Of 'claspt hands and lips that kiss,'", "Let me in dreams it prove.", "What tho' as the years roll", "No soul shall melt to my soul,", "Let me conceive such thing;", "Tho' never shall entwine", "Loving arms around mine", "Let dreams caresses bring.", "To live--it is my doom--", "Lonely as in a tomb,", "This cross on me was laid;", "My God, I know not why;", "Here in the dark I lie,", "Lonely, yet not afraid.", "It has seemed good to Thee", "Still to withhold the key", "Which opes the way to men;", "I am shut in alone,", "I make not any moan,", "Thy ways are past my ken.", "Yet grant me this, to find", "The sweetness in my mind", "Which I must still forego;", "Great God which art above,", "Grant me to image Love,--", "The bliss without the woe." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "At Loschwitz above the city", "The air is sunny and chill;", "The birch-trees and the pine-trees", "Grow thick upon the hill.", "", "Lone and tall, with silver stem,", "A birch-tree stands apart;", "The passionate wind of spring-time", "Stirs in its leafy heart.", "", "I lean against the birch-tree,", "My arms around it twine;", "It pulses, and leaps, and quivers,", "Like a human heart to mine.", "", "One moment I stand, then sudden", "Let loose mine arms that cling:", "O God! the lonely hillside,", "The passionate wind of spring!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "A London Plane-Tree", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "Green is the plane-tree in the square,", "The other trees are brown;", "They droop and pine for country air;", "The plane-tree loves the town.", "", "Here from my garret-pane, I mark", "The plane-tree bud and blow,", "Shed her recuperative bark,", "And spread her shade below.", "", "Among her branches, in and out,", "The city breezes play;", "The dun fog wraps her round about;", "Above, the smoke curls grey.", "", "Others the country take for choice,", "And hold the town in scorn;", "But she has listened to the voice", "On city breezes borne." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Ballade of a Special Edition", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "He comes; I hear him up the street--", "Bird of ill omen, flapping wide", "The pinion of a printed sheet,", "His hoarse note scares the eventide.", "Of slaughter, theft, and suicide", "He is the herald and the friend;", "Now he vociferates with pride--", "A double murder in Mile End!", "", "A hanging to his soul is sweet;", "His gloating fancy's fain to bide", "Where human-freighted vessels meet,", "And misdirected trains collide.", "With Shocking Accidents supplied,", "He tramps the town from end to end.", "How often have we heard it cried--", "A double murder in Mile End.", "", "War loves he; victory or defeat,", "So there be loss on either side.", "His tale of horrors incomplete,", "Imagination's aid is tried.", "Since no distinguished man has died,", "And since the Fates, relenting, send", "No great catastrophe, he's spied", "This double murder in Mile End.", "", "Fiend, get thee gone! no more repeat", "Those sounds which do mine ears offend.", "It is apocryphal, you cheat,", "Your double murder in Mile End." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "A Minor Poet", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "\"What should such fellows as I do,", "Crawling between earth and heaven?\"", "", "", "Here is the phial; here I turn the key", "Sharp in the lock. Click!--there's no doubt it turned.", "This is the third time; there is luck in threes--", "Queen Luck, that rules the world, befriend me now", "And freely I'll forgive you many wrongs!", "Just as the draught began to work, first time,", "Tom Leigh, my friend (as friends go in the world),", "Burst in, and drew the phial from my hand,", "(Ah, Tom! ah, Tom! that was a sorry turn!)", "And lectured me a lecture, all compact", "Of neatest, newest phrases, freshly culled", "From works of newest culture: \"common good ;\"", "\"The world's great harmonies;\"\"must be content", "With knowing God works all things for the best,", "And Nature never stumbles.\" Then again,", "\"The common good,\" and still, \"the common, good;\"", "And what a small thing was our joy or grief", "When weigh'd with that of thousands. Gentle Tom,", "But you might wag your philosophic tongue", "From morn till eve, and still the thing's the same:", "I am myself, as each man is himself--", "Feels his own pain, joys his own joy, and loves", "With his own love, no other's. Friend, the world", "Is but one man; one man is but the world.", "And I am I, and you are Tom, that bleeds", "When needles prick your flesh (mark, yours, not mine).", "I must confess it; I can feel the pulse", "A-beating at my heart, yet never knew", "The throb of cosmic pulses. I lament", "The death of youth's ideal in my heart;", "And, to be honest, never yet rejoiced", "In the world's progress--scarce, indeed, discerned;", "(For still it seems that God's a Sisyphus", "With the world for stone).", "You shake your head. I'm base,", "Ignoble? Who is noble--you or I?", "I was not once thus? Ah, my friend, we are", "As the Fates make us.", "This time is the third;", "The second time the flask fell from my hand,", "Its drowsy juices spilt upon the board;", "And there my face fell flat, and all the life", "Crept from my limbs, and hand and foot were bound", "With mighty chains, subtle, intangible;", "While still the mind held to its wonted use,", "Or rather grew intense and keen with dread,", "An awful dread--I thought I was in Hell.", "In Hell, in Hell ! Was ever Hell conceived", "By mortal brain, by brain Divine devised,", "Darker, more fraught with torment, than the world", "For such as I? A creature maimed and marr'd", "From very birth. A blot, a blur, a note", "All out of tune in this world's instrument.", "A base thing, yet not knowing to fulfil", "Base functions. A high thing, yet all unmeet", "For work that's high. A dweller on the earth,", "Yet not content to dig with other men", "Because of certain sudden sights and sounds", "(Bars of broke music; furtive, fleeting glimpse", "Of angel faces 'thwart the grating seen)", "Perceived in Heaven. Yet when I approach", "To catch the sound's completeness, to absorb", "The faces' full perfection, Heaven's gate,", "Which then had stood ajar, sudden falls to,", "And I, a-shiver in the dark and cold,", "Scarce hear afar the mocking tones of men:", "\"He would not dig, forsooth ; but he must strive", "For higher fruits than what our tillage yields;", "Behold what comes, my brothers, of vain pride!\"", "Why play with figures? trifle prettily", "With this my grief which very simply's said,", "\"There is no place for me in all the world\"?", "The world's a rock, and I will beat no more", "A breast of flesh and blood against a rock. . .", "A stride across the planks for old time's sake.", "Ah, bare, small room that I have sorrowed in;", "Ay, and on sunny days, haply, rejoiced;", "We know some things together, you and I!", "Hold there, you rangèd row of books ! In vain", "You beckon from your shelf. You've stood my friends", "Where all things else were foes; yet now I'll turn", "My back upon you, even as the world", "Turns it on me. And yet--farewell, farewell!", "You, lofty Shakespere, with the tattered leaves", "And fathomless great heart, your binding's bruised", "Yet did I love you less? Goethe, farewell;", "Farewell, triumphant smile and tragic eyes,", "And pitiless world-wisdom!", "", "For all men", "These two. And 'tis farewell with you, my friends,", "More dear because more near: Theokritus;", "Heine that stings and smiles; Prometheus' bard;", "(I've grown too coarse for Shelley latterly:)", "And one wild singer of to-day, whose song", "Is all aflame with passionate bard's blood", "Lash'd into foam by pain and the world's wrong.", "At least, he has a voice to cry his pain;", "For him, no silent writhing in the dark,", "No muttering of mute lips, no straining out", "Of a weak throat a-choke with pent-up sound,", "A-throb with pent-up passion. . .", "Ah, my sun!", "That's you, then, at the window, looking in", "To beam farewell on one who's loved you long", "And very truly. Up, you creaking thing,", "You squinting, cobwebbed casement!", "So, at last,", "I can drink in the sunlight. How it falls.", "Across that endless sea of London roofs,", "Weaving such golden wonders on the grey,", "That almost, for the moment, we forget", "The world of woe beneath them.", "Underneath,", "For all the sunset glory, Pain is king.", "", "Yet, the sun's there, and very sweet withal;", "And I'll not grumble that it's only sun,", "But open wide my lips--thus--drink it in;", "Turn up my face to the sweet evening sky", "(What royal wealth of scarlet on the blue", "So tender toned, you'd almost think it green)", "And stretch my hands out--so--to grasp it tight.", "Ha, ha! 'tis sweet awhile to cheat the Fates,", "And be as happy as another man.", "The sun works in my veins like wine, like wine!", "'Tis a fair world: if dark, indeed, with woe,", "Yet having hope and hint of such a joy,", "That a man, winning, well might turn aside,", "Careless of Heaven . . .", "O enough; I turn", "From the sun's light, or haply I shall hope.", "I have hoped enough; I would not hope again:", "'Tis hope that is most cruel.", "Tom, my friend,", "You very sorry philosophic fool;", "'Tis you, I think, that bid me be resign'd,", "Trust, and be thankful.", "Out on you! Resign'd?", "I'm not resign'd, not patient, not school'd in", "To take my starveling's portion and pretend", "I'm grateful for it. I want all, all, all;", "I've appetite for all. I want the best:", "Love, beauty, sunlight, nameless joy of life.", "There's too much patience in the world, I think.", "We have grown base with crooking of the knee.", "Mankind--say--God has bidden to a feast;", "The board is spread, and groans with cates and drinks;", "In troop the guests; each man with appetite", "Keen-whetted with expectance.", "In they troop,", "Struggle for seats, jostle and push and seize.", "What's this? what's this? There are not seats for all!", "Some men must stand without the gates; and some", "Must linger by the table, ill-supplied", "With broken meats. One man gets meat for two,", "The while another hungers. If I stand", "Without the portals, seeing others eat", "Where I had thought to satiate the pangs", "Of mine own hunger; shall I then come forth", "When all is done, and drink my Lord's good health", "In my Lord's water? Shall I not rather turn", "And curse him, curse him for a niggard host?", "O, I have hungered, hungered, through the years,", "Till appetite grows craving, then disease;", "I am starved, wither'd, shrivelled.", "Peace, O peace!", "This rage is idle; what avails to curse", "The nameless forces, the vast silences", "That work in all things.", "This time is the third,", "I wrought before in heat, stung mad with pain,", "Blind, scarcely understanding; now I know", "What thing I do.", "There was a woman once;", "Deep eyes she had, white hands, a subtle smile,", "Soft speaking tones: she did not break my heart,", "Yet haply had her heart been otherwise", "Mine had not now been broken. Yet, who knows?", "My life was jarring discord from the first:", "Tho' here and there brief hints of melody,", "Of melody unutterable, clove the air.", "From this bleak world, into the heart of night,", "The dim, deep bosom of the universe,", "I cast myself. I only crave for rest;", "Too heavy is the load. I fling it down.", "", "", "EPILOGUE.", "", "We knocked and knocked; at last, burst in the door,", "And found him as you know--the outstretched arms", "Propping the hidden face. The sun had set,", "And all the place was dim with lurking shade.", "There was no written word to say farewell,", "Or make more clear the deed.", "I search'd and search'd;", "The room held little: just a row of books", "Much scrawl'd and noted; sketches on the wall,", "Done rough in charcoal; the old instrument", "(A violin, no Stradivarius)", "He played so ill on; in the table drawer", "Large schemes of undone work. Poems half-writ;", "Wild drafts of symphonies; big plans of fugues;", "Some scraps of writing in a woman's hand:", "No more--the scattered pages of a tale,", "A sorry tale that no man cared to read.", "Alas, my friend, I lov'd him well, tho' he", "Held me a cold and stagnant-blooded fool,", "Because I am content to watch, and wait", "With a calm mind the issue of all things.", "Certain it is my blood's no turbid stream;", "Yet, for all that, haply I understood", "More than he ever deem'd; nor held so light", "The poet in him. Nay, I sometimes doubt", "If they have not, indeed, the better part--", "These poets, who get drunk with sun, and weep", "Because the night or a woman's face is fair.", "Meantime there is much talk about my friend.", "The women say, of course, he died for love;", "The men, for lack of gold, or cavilling", "Of carping critics. I, Tom Leigh, his friend", "I have no word at all to say of this.", "Nay, I had deem'd him more philosopher;", "For did he think by this one paltry deed", "To cut the knot of circumstance, and snap", "The chain which binds all being?" ], "linecount": "224" }, { "title": "In the Black Forest", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "I lay beneath the pine trees,", "And looked aloft, where, through", "The dusky, clustered tree-tops,", "Gleamed rent, gay rifts of blue.", "", "I shut my eyes, and a fancy", "Fluttered my sense around:", "\"I lie here dead and buried,", "And this is churchyard ground.", "", "\"I am at rest for ever;", "Ended the stress and strife.\"", "Straight I fell to and sorrowed", "For the pitiful past life.", "", "Right wronged, and knowledge wasted;", "Wise labour spurned for ease;", "The sloth and the sin and the failure;", "Did I grow sad for these?", "", "They had made me sad so often;", "Not now they made me sad;", "My heart was full of sorrow", "For joy it never had." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "The Lost Friend", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "The people take the thing of course,", "They marvel not to see", "This strange, unnatural divorce", "Betwixt delight and me.", "", "", "I know the face of sorrow, and I know", "Her voice with all its varied cadences;", "Which way she turns and treads; how at her ease", "Things fit her dreary largess to bestow.", "", "Where sorrow long abides, some be that grow", "To hold her dear, but I am not of these;", "Joy is my friend, not sorrow; by strange seas,", "In some far land we wandered, long ago.", "", "O faith, long tried, that knows no faltering!", "O vanished treasure of her hands and face!--", "Beloved--to whose memory I cling,", "Unmoved within my heart she holds her place.", "", "And never shall I hail that other \"friend,\"", "Who yet shall dog my footsteps to the end." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "The Dream", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "Believe me, this was true last night,", "Tho' it is false to-day.", "-- A.M.F. Robinson.", "", "", "A fair dream to my chamber flew:", "Such a crowd of folk that stirred,", "Jested, fluttered; only you,", "You alone of all that band,", "Calm and silent, spake no word.", "Only once you neared my place,", "And your hand one moment's space", "Sought the fingers of my hand;", "Your eyes flashed to mine; I knew", "All was well between us two.", "", "* * * * *", "", "On from dream to dream I past,", "But the first sweet vision cast", "Mystic radiance o'er the last.", "", "* * * * *", "", "When I woke the pale night lay", "Still, expectant of the day;", "All about the chamber hung", "Tender shade of twilight gloom;", "The fair dream hovered round me, clung", "To my thought like faint perfume:--", "Like sweet odours, such as cling", "To the void flask, which erst encloses", "Attar of rose; or the pale string", "Of amber which has lain with roses." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "A Wall Flower", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "I lounge in the doorway and languish in vain", "While Tom, Dick and Harry are dancing with Jane", "", "", "My spirit rises to the music's beat;", "There is a leaden fiend lurks in my feet!", "To move unto your motion, Love, were sweet.", "", "Somewhere, I think, some other where, not here,", "In other ages, on another sphere,", "I danced with you, and you with me, my dear.", "", "In perfect motion did our bodies sway,", "To perfect music that was heard alway;", "Woe's me, that am so dull of foot to-day!", "", "To move unto your motion, Love, were sweet;", "My spirit rises to the music's beat--", "But, ah, the leaden demon in my feet!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "A Farewell", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "(After Heine.)", "", "", "The sad rain falls from Heaven,", "A sad bird pipes and sings ;", "I am sitting here at my window", "And watching the spires of \"King's.\"", "", "O fairest of all fair places,", "Sweetest of all sweet towns!", "With the birds, and the greyness and greenness,", "And the men in caps and gowns.", "", "All they that dwell within thee,", "To leave are ever loth,", "For one man gets friends, and another", "Gets honour, and one gets both.", "", "The sad rain falls from Heaven;", "My heart is great with woe--", "I have neither a friend nor honour,", "Yet I am sorry to go." ], "linecount": "17" } ]