Foliage: Various Poems

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Foliage, by William H. Davies
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Title: Foliage
Author: William H. Davies
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9323]?[This file was first posted on September 22, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FOLIAGE ***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
FOLIAGE
VARIOUS POEMS
BY
WILLIAM H. DAVIES
1913
CONTENTS
THUNDERSTORMS
STRONG MOMENTS
A GREETING
SWEET STAY-AT-HOME
THE STARVED
A MAY MORNING
THE LONELY DREAMER
CHRISTMAS
LAUGHING ROSE
SEEKING JOY
THE OLD OAK TREE
POOR KINGS
LOVE AND THE MUST
MY YOUTH
SMILES
MAD POLL
JOY SUPREME
FRANCIS THOMPSON
THE BIRD-MAN
WINTER'S BEAUTY
THE CHURCH ORGAN
HEIGH HO, THE RAIN
LOVE'S INSPIRATION
NIGHT WANDERERS
YOUNG BEAUTY
WHO I KNOW
SWEET BIRDS, I COME
THE TWO LIVES
HIDDEN LOVE
LIFE IS JOLLY
THE FOG
A WOMAN'S CHARMS
DREAMS OF THE SEA
THE WONDER-MAKER
THE HELPLESS
AN EARLY LOVE
DREAM TRAGEDIES
CHILDREN AT PLAY
WHEN THE CUCKOO SINGS
RETURN TO NATURE
A STRANGE CITY
THUNDERSTORMS
My mind has thunderstorms,?That brood for heavy hours:?Until they rain me words,?My thoughts are drooping flowers?And sulking, silent birds.
Yet come, dark thunderstorms,?And brood your heavy hours;?For when you rain me words,?My thoughts are dancing flowers?And joyful singing birds.
STRONG MOMENTS
Sometimes I hear fine ladies sing,?Sometimes I smoke and drink with men;?Sometimes I play at games of cards--?Judge me to be no strong man then.
The strongest moment of my life?Is when I think about the poor;?When, like a spring that rain has fed,?My pity rises more and more.
The flower that loves the warmth and light,?Has all its mornings bathed in dew;?My heart has moments wet with tears,?My weakness is they are so few.
A GREETING
Good morning, Life--and all?Things glad and beautiful.?My pockets nothing hold,?But he that owns the gold,?The Sun, is my great friend--?His spending has no end.
Hail to the morning sky,?Which bright clouds measure high;?Hail to you birds whose throats?Would number leaves by notes;?Hail to you shady bowers,?And you green fields of flowers.
Hail to you women fair,?That make a show so rare?In cloth as white as milk--?Be't calico or silk:?Good morning, Life--and all?Things glad and beautiful.
SWEET STAY-AT-HOME
Sweet Stay-at-Home, sweet Well-content,?Thou knowest of no strange continent:?Thou hast not felt thy bosom keep?A gentle motion with the deep;?Thou hast not sailed in Indian seas,?Where scent comes forth in every breeze.?Thou hast not seen the rich grape grow?For miles, as far as eyes can go;?Thou hast not seen a summer's night?When maids could sew by a worm's light;?Nor the North Sea in spring send out?Bright hues that like birds flit about?In solid cages of white ice--?Sweet Stay-at-Home, sweet Love-one-place.?Thou hast not seen black fingers pick?White cotton when the bloom is thick,?Nor heard black throats in harmony;?Nor hast thou sat on stones that lie?Flat on the earth, that once did rise?To hide proud kings from common eyes,?Thou hast not seen plains full of bloom?Where green things had such little room?They pleased the eye like fairer flowers--?Sweet Stay-at-Home, all these long hours.?Sweet Well-content, sweet Love-one-place,?Sweet, simple maid, bless thy dear face;?For thou hast made more homely stuff?Nurture thy gentle self enough;?I love thee for a heart that's kind--?Not for the knowledge in thy mind.
THE STARVED
My little Lamb, what is amiss??If there was milk in mother's kiss,?You would not look as white as this.
The wolf of Hunger, it is he?That takes away thy milk from me,?And I have much to do for thee.
If thou couldst live on love, I know?No babe in all the land could show?More rosy cheeks and louder crow.
Thy father's dead, Alas for thee:?I cannot keep this wolf from me,?That takes thy milk so bold and free.
If thy dear father lived, he'd drive?Away this beast with whom I strive,?And thou, my pretty Lamb, wouldst thrive.
Ah, my poor babe, my love's so great?I'd swallow common rags for meat--?If they could make milk rich and sweet.
My little Lamb, what is amiss??Come, I must wake thee with a kiss,?For Death would own a sleep like this.
A MAY MORNING
The sky is clear,?The sun is bright;?The cows are red,?The sheep are white;?Trees in the meadows?Make happy shadows.
Birds in the hedge?Are perched and sing;?Swallows and larks?Are on the wing:?Two merry cuckoos?Are making echoes.
Bird and the beast?Have the dew yet;?My road shines dry,?Theirs bright and wet:?Death gives no warning,?On this May morning.
I see no Christ?Nailed on a tree,?Dying for sin;?No sin I