Title : Farewell
Author : F. W. Harvey
Release date
: October 16, 2021 [eBook #66550]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024
Language : English
Original publication : United Kingdom: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd
Credits : D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by University of California libraries)
FAREWELL
BY
F. W. HARVEY
AUTHOR OF “A GLOUCESTERSHIRE LAD”
“GLOUCESTERSHIRE FRIENDS”
ETC., ETC.
LONDON
SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD.
1921
In spite of all the soulful utterances of people comfortably off, economic independence remains the first condition of happiness.
This is not to say that people aren’t great fools for preferring law to literature. It is rather to imply that a poet who can do both is a fool if he does not.
I am not a fool.
Farewell!
F. W. H.
The author desires to acknowledge gratefully permissions to reprint certain of these poems granted by the editors of The Spectator , The Athenæum , The London Mercury , The Nation , The Woman’s Leader , The Gloucestershire Chronicle and The Gloucestershire Journal .
PAGE | |
Preface | 5 |
NATURE POEMS | |
PRAYERS: I. | 11 |
” II. | 12 |
” III. | 13 |
” IV. | 14 |
THE HOLLOW LAND | 15 |
ON BIRDLIP | 16 |
OUT OF THE CITY | 17 |
A SONG | 18 |
MAY-FLOOD | 18 |
BIG THINGS AND SMALL | 19 |
AFTER LONG WANDERING | 20 |
THE MOON | 22 |
THE WIND’S GRIEF | 23 |
A WINDY NIGHT | 24 |
RIDDLE CUM RUDDLE | 25 |
GLOUCESTERSHIRE FROM THE TRAIN | 26 |
LASSINGTON | 27 |
JEALOUSY | 28 [8] |
ELVERS | 29 |
JOHN HELPS | 32 |
LOVE POEMS | |
THE GOLDEN SNAKE | 33 |
IN A CATHEDRAL | 34 |
THE LANTHORN | 35 |
SONNET: “MY NATIVE LAND IS ONLY WHERE YOU ARE” | 36 |
SINCE I HAVE LOVED | 37 |
SAFETY | 38 |
HAPPY SINGING | 39 |
SONG | 40 |
IDENTITY | 41 |
JUNE | 42 |
SONNET: “THAT DEATH SHALL TAKE AND SLAY ME MATTERS NOT” | 43 |
SONNET: “BUT NOW SINCE DEATH HATH CERTAIN DATE” | 44 |
“LOCAL FATALITIES ARE REPORTED” | 45 |
MY JOY | 46 [9] |
THE WATCHING MOON | 46 |
HARVEST HOME | 47 |
POEMS OF REFLECTION | |
EXPERIMENTS IN VERS LIBRE | 48 |
THE PHILOSOPHER VISITS THE NIGHT CLUB | 50 |
MISERERE DOMINE | 52 |
NOW, IF I WERE RICH | 53 |
THE RABBLE FATES—TO HELL WITH THEM! | 54 |
THE LAUGHTER OF LITTLE BABIES | 55 |
PETITION TO THE ALMIGHTY | 56 |
LAST WORD | 57 |
VANITY OF VANITIES | 58 |
TRIOLET: “FLESH TRIUMPHS AWHILE” | 61 |
FIRE (REVISED VERSION) | 62 |
THE LIFE THAT’S UNDER THE GROUND | 66 |
EPITAPH | 67 |
INVOCATION—AND REPLY | 68 |
MADNESS | 70 |
GLOUCESTERSHIRE MEN | 71 |
BALLADE OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE TOWNS | 72 [10] |
LUCKY | 74 |
CAROL | 75 |
GOD’S BEAUTY IN THE SKY | 76 |
THE LOST WORLD | 77 |
PROSE POEMS | |
DAWN | 78 |
THE VISIBLE WORLD | 78 |
FUEL | 78 |
BLOW, INVISIBLE MOUTHS! | 78 |
ANGRY LOVER | 79 |
HOME | 79 |
LOVE SONG | 79 |
THE WINDOW | 80 |
BROTHERS | 80 |
HOLY BROTHERHOOD | 80 |
[12]
[13]
[14]
[29]
“I never saw a soul save in the body.”
( Revised Version [1] )
[63]
[1] First version was published in Ducks, and other Verses , 1919.
Arise!—Arise!
Dew, like a thousand gems, is in the hair of the dear earth eager to dance.
Rub your eyes! If a man believe not in earth, how should he believe in heaven? If he love not the visible, how should he its high symbol?
You are burning me in a flame whereat starved men and women may warm themselves. But you are angry that the winds blow my ashes into your eyes.
Did God blow upon a reed (having cut it to His mind), what melodies might not be piped!—what news of glorious birth! To you, beloved Dead, I give my life that is but a reed. Blow, blow, invisible mouths of God!
[79]
Before God’s throne came the angry lover. “I am betrayed!” he cried, and the courts of Heaven rang again with the sound of the word. “Thy daughter Life have I wooed. For her have I given all—yea, all—since that is the price of love, and now, behold, Thou hast given me her dark sister, Death!”
“Yet have I but one daughter,” answered God.
“Is it possible that even yet thou dost not know me?” whispered the veiled one.
Home!—Home!
All night the orchards sighing and surging.... All night the branches tossing and gesturing against the moon.... All night the scent of the blossom.... But why do they say that I am dead?
He sang of the strong labouring of stars that wheel in their courses, and of passionate Suns.... Songs of courage against destiny, of scorn against mean riches; songs of sorrow, and of dancing [80] joy; of childhood, old age, and life again after. But never a song sang he of his beloved. Therefore she laughed, and knew that he was still her slave.
Blinking at the sun, what things of horror come peering out of me!—what ages of beasts! O that God would look out of me upon His world—that I might be a window for the eyes of Christ!
Are men only our brothers? Were not the animals and the stars at Bethlehem?
O you who have found mankind for a brother, be not content! You are brothers and sisters of angels and archangels: and your feet are on the glimmering roadways of unimaginable stars.
Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.