The Five Books of Youth   By: Robert Hillyer (1895-1961)

THE FIVE BOOKS OF YOUTH

BY ROBERT HILLYER

AUTHOR OF "SONNETS AND OTHER LYRICS"

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments are due to the editors of THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE DIAL, THE SONNET, THE LYRIC, ART AND LIFE, and CONTEMPORARY VERSE, for permission to reprint poems originally published by them.

CONTENTS

BOOK I A MISCELLANY

I La Mare des Fees II Prothalamion III Montmartre IV A Letter V Esther Dancing VI Hunters VII A Wreck VIII Grave Stones in a Front Yard IX Vigil X When the Door was Open XI The Maker Rests XII The Pilgrimage XIII Epilogue XIV Thermopylae

BOOK II DAYS AND SEASONS

I Winds blowing over the white capped bay II Like children on a sunny shore III Against my wall the summer weaves IV Into the trembling air V In gardens when the sun is set VI Now the white dove has found her mate VII When voices sink in twilight silences VIII When noon is blazing on the town IX The trees have never seemed so green X The green canal is mottled with falling leaves XI They who have gone down the hill are far away XII Where two roads meet amid the wood XIII The boy is late tonight binding his sheaves XIV O lovely shepherd Corydon, how far XV O little shepherd boy, what sobs are those XVI The dull eyed girl in bronze implores Apollo XVII The winter night is hard as glass XVIII Chords, tremendous chords XIX I have known the lure of cities XX We wove a fillet for thy head

BOOK III EROS

I Now the sick earth revives, and in the sun II The heavy bee burdened the golden clover III Of days and nights under the living vine IV You seek to hurt me, foolish child, and why? V By these shall you remember VI Two black deer uprise VII When in the ultimate embrace VIII Tonight it seems to be the same IX If you should come tonight X You are very far tonight XI O lonely star moving in still abodes XII A chalice singing deep with wine

BOOK IV THE GARDEN OF EPICURUS

I As dreamers through their dreams surmise II The thinkers light their lamps in rows III I pass my days in ghostly presences IV Each mote that staggers down the sun V He is a priest VI Through hissing snow, through rain, through many hundred Mays VII Gods dine on prayer and sacred song VIII A smile will turn away green eyes IX Two Kings there were, one Good, one Bad X I see that Hermes unawares XI Semiramis, the whore of Babylon XII Bring hemlock, black as Cretan cheese XIII Walking through the town last night XIV The change of many tides has swung the flow XV Piero di Cosimo XVI I would know what cannot be known XVII The yellow bird is singing by the pond

BOOK V SONNETS

I Love dwelled with me with music on her lips II Invoking not the worship of the crowd III And yet think not that I desire to seal IV With the young god who out of death creates V O it was gay! the wilderness was floral VI The snow is thawing on the hanging eaves VII So ends the day with beauty in the west VIII Across the evening calm I faintly hear IX Calmer than mirrored waters after rain X I stood like some worn image carved of stone XI Through the deep night the leaves speak, tree to tree XII I walked the hollow pavements of the town XIII In tireless march I move from sphere to sphere XIV A while you shared my path and solitude XV There is a void that reason can not face XVI The mirrors of all ages are the eyes XVII We sat in silence till the twilight fell XVIII He clung to me, his young face dark with woe

BOOK I A MISCELLANY

I LA MARE DES FEES