Edward Shanks

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A Dream in Early Spring

Now when I sleep the thrush breaks through my dreams

With sharp reminders of the coming day:

After his call, one minute I remain

Unwaked, and on the darkness which is Me

There springs the image of a daffodil,

Growing upon a grassy bank alone,

And seeming with great joy his bell to fill

With drops of golden dew, which on the lawn

He shakes again, where they lie bright and chill.

His head is drooped; the shrouded winds that sing

Bend him which way they will: never on earth

Was there before so beautiful a ghost.

Alas! he had a less than flower-birth,

And like a ghost indeed must shortly glide

From all but the sad cells of memory,

Where he will linger, an imprisoned beam,

Or fallen shadow of the golden world,

Long after this and many another dream.

The World

I wish this world and its green hills were mine,

But it is not; the wandering shepherd star

Is not more distant, gazing from afar

On the unreapéd pastures of the sea,

Than I am from the world, the world from me.

At night the stars on milky way that shine

Seem things one might possess, but this round green

Is for the cows that rest, these and the sheep:

To them the slopes and pastures offer sleep;

My sleep I draw from the far fields of blue,

Whence cold winds come and go among the few

Bright stars we see and many more unseen.

Birds sing on earth all day among the flowers,

Taking no thought of any other thing

But their own hearts, for out of them they sing:

Their songs are kindred to the blossom heads,

Faint as the petals which the blackthorn sheds,

And like the earth -- not alien songs as ours.

To them this greenness and this island peace

Are life and death and happiness in one;

Nor are they separate from the white sun,

Or those warm winds which nightly wash the deep.

Or starlight in the valleys, or new sleep;

And from these things they ask for no release.

But we can never call this world our own,

Because we long for it, and yet we know

That should the great winds call us, we should go;

Should they come calling out across the cold,

We should rise up and leave the sheltered fold

And follow the great road to the unknown.

We should pass by the barns and haystacks brown,

Should leave the wild pool and the nightingale;

Across the ocean we should set a sail

And, coming to the world's pale brim, should fly

Out to the very middle of the sky,

On past the moon; nor should we once look down.

The New Ghost

And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus.

And he cast it down, down, on the green grass,

Over the young crocuses, where the dew was --

He cast the garment of his flesh that was full of death,

And like a sword his spirit showed out of the cold sheath.

He went a pace or two, he went to meet his Lord,

And, as I said, his spirit looked like a clean sword,

And seeing him the naked trees began shivering,

And all the birds cried out aloud as it were late spring.

And the Lord came on, He came down, and saw

That a soul was waiting there for Him, one without flaw,

And they embraced in the churchyard where the robins play,

And the daffodils hang down their heads, as they burn away.

The Lord held his head fast, and you could see

That he kissed the unsheathed ghost that was gone free --

As a hot sun, on a March day, kisses the cold ground;

And the spirit answered, for he knew well that his peace was found.

The spirit trembled, and sprang up at the Lord's word --

As on a wild, April day, springs a small bird --

So the ghost's feet lifting him up, he kissed the Lord's cheek,

And for the greatness of their love neither of them could speak.

But the Lord went then, to show him the way,

Over the young crocuses, under the green may

That was not quite in flower yet -- to a far-distant land;

And the ghost followed, like a naked cloud holding the sun's hand.

A Man Dreams That He Is the Creator

I sat in heaven like the sun

   Above a storm when winter was:

I took the snowflakes one by one

   And turned their fragile shapes to glass:

I washed the rivers blue with rain

And made the meadows green again.

I took the birds and touched their springs,

   Until they sang unearthly joys:

They flew about on golden wings

   And glittered like an angel's toys:

I filled the fields with flowers' eyes,

As white as stars in Paradise.

And then I looked on man and knew

   Him still intent on death -- still proud;

Whereat into a rage I flew

   And turned my body to a cloud:

In the dark shower of my soul

The star of earth was swallowed whole.

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