Across the quiet garden sunlight flows
In wave on wave like water, heavy bees
Hang drowsily upon the drowsy flowers,
For it is very still, and all the trees
Are pyramided high in green and gold.
There is a sun-dial there to mark the hours
Where time is not, where time has grown so old
It does not move now; yet the shadow goes
Across the dial that's so warm to feel
Like a cold, stealthy, creeping, living thing.
You cannot see it steal
Minute from minute of the golden day
Till all are eaten away,
You cannot press it back with both your hands,
And, on the shadowed stone
Laying your cheek, you never warmth can bring
To what beneath the sad triangle stands,
Solitary in sunlight: for we know,
It takes the whole great swinging earth to throw
The little shadow on the little stone.
"TWO ONLY"
Only two hearts shall understand the sea
That speaks at nightfall, in the wash and lap
Of windless evenings under flaming skies;
Only two hearts shall hear the rising sap
In wet spring woods; and two alone, grown wise
In union, shall make discovery
Of what lies hidden, though before our eyes.
Oh, core of wonder in familiar things:
Magic of evening, and of early morn
But just created, with the dew of birth
All fresh upon it, heaven itself new-born
O'er the green splendour of the quiet earth
And like a just-awakened bird that sings
Because of sunlight, is the spirit's mirth.
All forms of beauty but express the soul
As in a looking-glass; the wind that goes
Low-talking to the trees beneath the stars,
Or the small sound of water, as it flows
Under old bridges, where the ivy mars
The sharp stone outline--these are in the whole
Of the World-Symphony small, tuneful bars.
And human beings in the span of years
Some part of all the world-wealth may receive,
More, less, but never all; and with dismay
We see slow Time his net of hours weave
To catch from us dear mortal night and day,
Ere we have taken in our eyes and ears
Beauty that lies around, beyond, away.
We, singly, feel a sudden sharp regret
Behind all beauty, but we--two in one,
As white and blue are separate in a flame
Yet mingled--we shall watch the hours run
Seeing with surer knowledge how the same
Eternal splendour for the soul is set,
And the day comes again from whence day came.