The Desire of Nations And these, His burning words, will break the ban— Words that will grow to be, He comes to make the long injustice right Yea, He will bear the Safety of the State, Who holds the swift heavens in their starry fate. The Elf Child I am a child of the reef and the blowing spray, I am a changeling: can you follow me Through hill and hollow on the wind's dim way? Yes, at the break of a tempestuous day They bore me to the land through starless storm And laid me in the pillow sweetly warm And broken by the first one's little stay. The elf kings found me on an ocean reef, Then need I tell you why the trembling startWhy in my song the sound of ocean dwells — Why the quick gladness when the billow swells, As though remembered voices called the heart? The Goblin Laugh When I behold how men and women grind And when I see them come with wearied brains And then a memory sends upon its billow She comes like the hush and beauty of the night, Her touch is a vibration and a light A Meeting Softly she came one twilight from the dead, For down the leafy ways her white feet took, God! was it joy or sorrow in her face That quiet face? Had it Had it grown old or young? Was it sweet memory or sad that stung Her voiceless soul to wander from its place? grace? Or endless grief for which there is no tongue? |