SWANS

SWANS

  NIGHT is over the park, and a few brave stars
     Look on the lights that link it with chains of gold,
  The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars
     That seem too heavy for tremulous water to hold.

  We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place,
     And now and again one wakes and uplifts its head;
  How still you are—your gaze is on my face—
     We watch the swans and never a word is said.

THE OLD MAID

  I SAW her in a Broadway car,
     The woman I might grow to be;
  I felt my lover look at her
     And then turn suddenly to me.

  Her hair was dull and drew no light
     And yet its color was as mine;
  Her eyes were strangely like my eyes
     Tho' love had never made them shine.

  Her body was a thing grown thin,
     Hungry for love that never came;
  Her soul was frozen in the dark
     Unwarmed forever by love's flame.

  I felt my lover look at her
     And then turn suddenly to me,—
  His eyes were magic to defy
     The woman I shall never be.

FROM THE WOOLWORTH TOWER

  VIVID with love, eager for greater beauty
  Out of the night we come
  Into the corridor, brilliant and warm.
  A metal door slides open,
  And the lift receives us.
  Swiftly, with sharp unswerving flight
  The car shoots upward,
  And the air, swirling and angry,
  Howls like a hundred devils.
  Past the maze of trim bronze doors,
  Steadily we ascend.
  I cling to you
  Conscious of the chasm under us,
  And a terrible whirring deafens my ears.

The flight is ended.

  We pass thru a door leading onto the ledge—
  Wind, night and space
  Oh terrible height
  Why have we sought you?
  Oh bitter wind with icy invisible wings
  Why do you beat us?
  Why would you bear us away?
  We look thru the miles of air,
  The cold blue miles between us and the city,
  Over the edge of eternity we look
  On all the lights,
  A thousand times more numerous than the stars;
  Oh lines and loops of light in unwound chains
  That mark for miles and miles
  The vast black mazy cobweb of the streets;
  Near us clusters and splashes of living gold
  That change far off to bluish steel
  Where the fragile lights on the Jersey shore
  Tremble like drops of wind-stirred dew.
  The strident noises of the city
  Floating up to us
  Are hallowed into whispers.
  Ferries cross thru the darkness
  Weaving a golden thread into the night,
  Their whistles weird shadows of sound.

  We feel the millions of humanity beneath us,—
  The warm millions, moving under the roofs,
  Consumed by their own desires;
  Preparing food,
  Sobbing alone in a garret,
  With burning eyes bending over a needle,
  Aimlessly reading the evening paper,
  Dancing in the naked light of the café,
  Laying out the dead,
  Bringing a child to birth—
  The sorrow, the torpor, the bitterness, the frail joy
  Come up to us
  Like a cold fog wrapping us round.
  Oh in a hundred years
  Not one of these blood-warm bodies
  But will be worthless as clay.
  The anguish, the torpor, the toil
  Will have passed to other millions
  Consumed by the same desires.
  Ages will come and go,
  Darkness will blot the lights
  And the tower will be laid on the earth.
  The sea will remain
  Black and unchanging,
  The stars will look down
  Brilliant and unconcerned.

  Beloved,
  Tho' sorrow, futility, defeat
  Surround us,
  They cannot bear us down.
  Here on the abyss of eternity
  Love has crowned us
  For a moment
  Victors.

AT NIGHT

  WE are apart; the city grows quiet between us,
     She hushes herself, for midnight makes heavy her eyes,
  The tangle of traffic is ended, the cars are empty,
     Five streets divide us, and on them the moonlight lies.

  Oh are you asleep, or lying awake, my lover?
     Open your dreams to my love and your heart to my words,
  I send you my thoughts-the air between us is laden,
     My thoughts fly in at your window, a flock of wild birds.