BEFORE THE MIRROR (A FRAGMENT)

BEFORE THE MIRROR

(A FRAGMENT)

White rose in red rose-garden

Is not so white;

Snowdrops that plead for pardon

And pine for fright

Because the hard East blows

Over their maiden rows

Grow not as this face grows from pale to bright.

Behind the veil, forbidden,

Shut up from sight,

Love, is there sorrow hidden,

Is there delight?

Is joy thy dower or grief,

White rose of weary leaf,

Late rose whose life is brief, whose loves are light?

Soft snows that hard winds harden

Till each flake bite

Fill all the flowerless garden

Whose flowers took flight

Long since when summer ceased,

And men rose up from feast,

And warm west wind grew east, and warm day night.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler SYMPHONY IN WHITE № 2: THE LITTLE WHITE GIRL Oil on canvas. 1864 Tate, London

Джеймс Эббот Макнейл Уистлер СИМФОНИЯ В БЕЛОМ № 2: МАЛЕНЬКАЯ БЕЛАЯ ДЕВУШКА Холст, масло. 1864 Галерея Тейт, Лондон

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SIR LAUNCELOT AND QUEEN GUINEVERE A FRAGMENT Like souls that balance joy and pain, With tears and smiles from heaven again The maiden Spring upon the plain Came in a sunlit fall of rain. In crystal vapour everywhere Blue isles of heaven laugh’d between, And far, in forest-deeps unseen, The topmost elm-tree gather’d green From draughts of balmy air. Sometimes the linnet piped his song: Sometimes the throstle whistled strong: Sometimes the sparhawk, wheel’d

THE BLESSED DAMOZEL (A FRAGMENT) The blessed damozel leaned out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters stilled at even; She had three lilies in her hand, And the stars in her hair were seven. Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, No wrought flowers did adorn, But a white rose of Mary’s gift, For service meetly worn; Her hair that lay along her back Was yellow like ripe corn. Herseemed she scarce had

FRAGMENT OF A BALLAD Many a mile over land and sea Unsummoned my love returned to me; I remember not the words he said But only the trees moaning overhead. And he came ready to take and bear The cross I had carried for many a year, But words came slowly one by one From frozen lips shut still and dumb. How sounded my words so still and slow To the great strong heart that loved me so, Who came to save me from pain and wrong And to comfort me with his love so strong? I felt the wind

THE EARTHLY PARADISE (A FRAGMENT) Forget six counties overhung with smoke, Forget the snorting steam and piston stroke, Forget the spreading of the hideous town; Think rather of the pack-horse on the down, And dream of London, small and white and clean, The clear Thames bordered by its gardens green; Think, that below bridge the green lapping waves Smite some few keels that bear Levantine staves, Cut from the yew wood on the burnt-up hill, And pointed jars that Greek hands toiled to

ADIEUX ? MARIE STUART (A FRAGMENT) Queen, for whose house my fathers fought, With hopes that rose and fell, Red star of boyhood’s fiery thought, Farewell. They gave their lives, and I, my queen, Have given you of my life, Seeing your brave star burn high between Men’s strife. The strife that lightened round their spears Long since fell still; so long Hardly may hope to last in years My song. But still through strife

BEFORE THE MIRROR (A FRAGMENT)

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SIR LAUNCELOT AND QUEEN GUINEVERE A FRAGMENT

THE BLESSED DAMOZEL (A FRAGMENT)

FRAGMENT OF A BALLAD

THE EARTHLY PARADISE (A FRAGMENT)

ADIEUX À MARIE STUART (A FRAGMENT)