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The Nuts of Knowledge Lyrical Poems Old and New By: George William Russell (1867-1935) |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
The Nuts of Knowledge
Immortality
The Hermit
The Great Breath
The Divine Vision
The Burning Glass
A Vision of Beauty
Rest
The Earth Breath
Divine Visitation
The Master Singer
Aphrodite
Illusion
Babylon
Alter Ego
Krishna
Symbolism
Sung on a By Way
The Hunter
The Vision of Love
A Call of the Sidhe
Janus
The Grey Eros
The Memory of Earth
By the Margin of the Great Deep
Three Counsellors,
Desire
The Place of Rest
Sacrifice
Reconciliation
Epilogue
The Manager of the Dun Emer Press has to thank Mr. John Lane for
permission to reprint ten poems from Homeward Songs By The Way, and
ten from The Earth Breath.
FOR BRIAN WHEN HE IS GROWN UP THIS HANDFUL OF THE NUTS OF KNOWLEDGE I
HAVE GATHERED ON THE SECRET STREAMS.
I thought, beloved, to have brought to you
A gift of quietness and ease and peace,
Cooling your brow as with the mystic dew
Dropping from twilight trees. Homeward I go not yet; the darkness grows;
Not mine the voice to still with peace divine:
From the first fount the stream of quiet flows
Through other hearts than mine. Yet of my night I give to you the stars,
And of my sorrow here the sweetest gains,
And out of hell, beyond its iron bars,
My scorn of all its pains.
THE NUTS OF KNOWLEDGE
A cabin on the mountain side hid in a grassy nook
Where door and windows open wide that friendly stars may look.
The rabbit shy can patter in, the winds may enter free,
Who throng around the mountain throne in living ecstasy. And when the sun sets dimmed in eve and purple fills the air,
I think the sacred Hazel Tree is dropping berries there
From starry fruitage waved aloft where Connla's Well o'erflows;
For sure the enchanted waters pour through every wind that blows. I think when night towers up aloft and shakes the trembling dew
How every high and lonely thought that thrills my being through
Is but a ruddy berry dropped down through the purple air,
And from the magic tree of life the fruit falls everywhere.
IMMORTALITY
We must pass like smoke or live within the spirit's fire;
For we can no more than smoke unto the flame return
If our thought has changed to dream, our will unto desire,
As smoke we vanish though the fire may burn. Lights of infinite pity star the grey dusk of our days:
Surely here is soul: with it we have eternal breath:
In the fire of love we live, or pass by many ways,
By unnumbered ways of dream to death.
THE HERMIT
Now the quietude of earth
Nestles deep my heart within;
Friendships new and strange have birth
Since I left the city's din. Here the tempest stays its guile,
Like a big kind brother plays,
Romps and pauses here awhile
From its immemorial ways. Now the silver light of dawn
Slipping through the leaves that fleck
My one window, hurries on,
Throws its arms around my neck. Darkness to my doorway hies,
Lays her chin upon the roof,
And her burning seraph eyes
Now no longer keep aloof. Here the ancient mystery
Holds its hands out day by day,
Takes a chair and croons with me
By my cabin built of clay. When the dusky shadow flits,
By the chimney nook I see
Where the old enchanter sits,
Smiles, and waves, and beckons me.
THE GREAT BREATH
Its edges foamed with amethyst and rose,
Withers once more the old blue flower of day:
There where the ether like a diamond glows
Its petals fade away. A shadowy tumult stirs the dusky air;
Sparkle the delicate dews, the distant snows;
The great deep thrills for through it everywhere
The breath of beauty blows. I saw how all the trembling ages past,
Moulded to her by deep and deeper breath,
Neared to the hour when Beauty breathes her last
And knows herself in death... Continue reading book >>
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Literature |
Poetry |
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