The Lonely Dancer and Other Poems   By: Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947)

BY

RICHARD LE GALLIENNE

1913

WITH A FRONTISPIECE PORTRAIT BY

IRMA LE GALLIENNE

TO

IRMA

ALL THE WAY

Not all my treasure hath the bandit Time Locked in his glimmering caverns of the Past: Fair women dead and friendships of old rhyme, And noble dreams that had to end at last: Ah! these indeed; and from youth's sacristy Full many a holy relic hath he torn, Vessels of mystic faith God filled for me, Holding them up to Him in life's young morn.

All these are mine no more Time hath them all, Time and his adamantine gaoler Death: Despoilure vast yet seemeth it but small, When unto thee I turn, thy bloom and breath Filling with light and incense the last shrine, Innermost, inaccessible, yea, thine.

CONTENTS

THE LONELY DANCER

I

FLOS AEVORUM "ALL THE WORDS IN ALL THE WORLD" "I SAID I CARE NOT" "ALL THE WIDE WORLD IS BUT THE THOUGHT OF YOU" "LIGHTNINGS MAY FLICKER ROUND MY HEAD" "THE AFTERNOON IS LONELY FOR YOUR FACE" "SORE IN NEED WAS I OF A FAITHFUL FRIEND" "I THOUGHT, BEFORE MY SUNLIT TWENTIETH YEAR"

II

TO A BIRD AT DAWN ALMA VENUS "AH! DID YOU EVER HEAR THE SPRING" APRIL MAY IS BUILDING HER HOUSE SHADOW JUNE GREEN SILENCE SUMMER SONGS TO A WILD BIRD "I CROSSED THE ORCHARD WALKING HOME" "I MEANT TO DO MY WORK TO DAY" "HOW FAST THE YEAR IS GOING BY" AUGUST MOONLIGHT TO A ROSE INVITATION SUMMER GOING AUTUMN TREASURE WINTER THE MYSTIC FRIENDS THE COUNTRY GODS

III

TO ONE ON A JOURNEY HER PORTRAIT IMMORTAL SPRING'S PROMISES "APRIL IS IN THE WORLD AGAIN" "SINGING GO I" "WHO WAS IT SWEPT AGAINST MY DOOR" "FACE IN THE TOMB THAT LIES SO STILL" "I KNOW NOT IN WHAT PLACE" RESURRECTION "WHEN THE LONG DAY HAS FADED" "HER EYES ARE BLUEBELLS NOW" "THE DEAD AROSE" "THE BLOOM UPON THE GRAPE" THE FRIEND ADORATION "AT LAST I GOT A LETTER FROM THE DEAD"

IV

SONGS FOR FRAGOLETTA

V

A BALLAD OF WOMAN AN EASTER HYMN BALLAD OF THE SEVEN O'CLOCK WHISTLE MORALITY

VI

FOR THE BIRTHDAY OF EDGAR ALLAN POE TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON RICHARD WATSON GILDER IN A COPY OF FITZGERALD'S "OMAR"

VII

A BALLAD OF TOO MUCH BEAUTY SPRING IN THE PARIS CATACOMBS A FACE IN A BOOK TIME, BEAUTY'S FRIEND YOUNG LOVE LOVERS FOR A PICTURE BY ROSE CECIL O'NEIL LOVE IN SPAIN THE EYES THAT COME FROM IRELAND A BALLAD OF THE KIND LITTLE CREATURES BLUE FLOWER THE HEART UNSEEN THE SHIMMER OF THE SOUND A SONG OF SINGERS THE END

THE LONELY DANCER

I had no heart to join the dance, I danced it all so long ago Ah! light winged music out of France, Let other feet glide to and fro, Weaving new patterns of romance For bosoms of new fallen snow.

But leave me thus where I may hear The leafy rustle of the waltz, The shell like murmur in my ear, The silken whisper fairy false Of unseen rainbows circling near, And the glad shuddering of the walls.

Another dance the dancers spin, A shadow dance of mystic pain, And other partners enter in And dance within my lonely brain The swaying woodland shod in green, The ghostly dancers of the rain;

The lonely dancers of the sea, Foam footed on the sandy bar, The wizard dance of wind and tree, The eddying dance of stream and star; Yea, all these dancers tread for me A measure mournful and bizarre:

An echo dance where ear is eye, And sound evokes the shapes of things, Where out of silence and a sigh The sad world like a picture springs, As, when some secret bird sweeps by, We see it in the sound of wings.

Those human feet upon the floor, That eager pulse of rhythmic breath, How sadly to an unknown shore Each silver footfall hurryeth; A dance of autumn leaves, no more, On the fantastic wind of death.

Fire clasped to elemental fire, 'Tis thus the solar atom whirls; The butterfly in aery gyre, On autumn mornings, swarms and swirls, In dance of delicate desire, No other than these boys and girls.

The same strange music everywhere, The woven paces just the same, Dancing from out the viewless air Into the void from whence they came; Ah! but they make a gallant flare Against the dark, each little flame!