The Necessitarian

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1. Risus Dei Methinks in Him there dwells alway A sea of laughter very deep, Where the leviathans leap, And little children play, Their white feet twinkling on its crisped edge; But in the outer bay The strong man drives the wedge Of polished limbs, And swims. Yet there is one will say: ‘It is but shallow, neither […]...
2. Psalm 116 part 1 Recovery from sickness. I love the Lord; he heard my cries, And pitied every groan; Long as I live, when troubles rise, I’ll hasten to his throne. I love the Lord; he bowed his ear, And chased my griefs away; O let my heart no more despair, While I have breath to pray! My flesh […]...
3. Silence There is a silence where hath been no sound, There is a silence where no sound may be, In the cold grave-under the deep, deep sea, Or in wide desert where no life is found, Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound; No voice is hush’d-no life treads silently, But clouds and cloudy […]...
4. My Trinity For all good friends who care to read, Here let me lyre my living creed. . . One: you may deem me Pacifist, For I’ve no sympathy with strife. Like hell I hate the iron fist, And shun the battle-ground of life. The hope of peace is dear to me, And I to Christian faith […]...
5. Life In A Love Escape me? Never – Beloved! While I am I, and you are you, So long as the world contains us both, Me the loving and you the loth, While the one eludes, must the other pursue. My life is a fault at last, I fear – It seems too much like a fate, indeed! Though […]...
6. Sonnets 11: As To Some Lovely Temple, Tenantless As to some lovely temple, tenantless Long since, that once was sweet with shivering brass, Knowing well its altars ruined and the grass Grown up between the stones, yet from excess Of grief hard driven, or great loneliness, The worshiper returns, and those who pass Marvel him crying on a name that was,- So is […]...
7. The Selfsame Song A bird sings the selfsame song, With never a fault in its flow, That we listened to here those long Long years ago. A pleasing marvel is how A strain of such rapturous rote Should have gone on thus till now Unchanged in a note! But its not the selfsame bird. No: perished to dust […]...
8. Or from that Sea of Time 1 OR, from that Sea of Time, Spray, blown by the wind-a double winrow-drift of weeds and shells; (O little shells, so curious-convolute! so limpid-cold and voiceless! Yet will you not, to the tympans of temples held, Murmurs and echoes still bring up-Eternity’s music, faint and far, Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica’s rim-strains for the […]...
9. The Laughter Of Women The laughter of women sets fire To the Halls of Injustice And the false evidence burns To a beautiful white lightness It rattles the Chambers of Congress And forces the windows wide open So the fatuous speeches can fly out The laughter of women wipes the mist From the spectacles of the old; It infects […]...
10. Psalm 71 part 3 v.17-21 C. M. The aged Christian’s prayer and song. God of my childhood and my youth, The guide of all my days, I have declared thy heav’nly truth, And told thy wondrous ways. Wilt thou forsake my hoary hairs, And leave my fainting heart? Who shall sustain my sinking years, If God my strength depart? […]...
11. Aperotos Eros Strong as death, and cruel as the grave, Clothed with cloud and tempest’s blackening breath, Known of death’s dread self, whom none outbrave, Strong as death, Love, brow-bound with anguish for a wreath, Fierce with pain, a tyrant-hearted slave, Burns above a world that groans beneath. Hath not pity power on thee to save, Love? […]...
12. In Memoriam A. HIn Memoriam A. H. H.: 56. So careful of the type? but no.: 55. The wish, that of the living whol “So careful of the type?” but no. From scarped cliff and quarried stone She cries, “A thousand types are gone: I care for nothing, all shall go. “Thou makest thine appeal to me: I bring to life, I bring to death: The spirit does but mean the breath: I know no more.” And he, shall […]...
13. ANTHEA'S RETRACTATION Anthea laugh’d, and, fearing lest excess Might stretch the cords of civil comeliness She with a dainty blush rebuked her face, And call’d each line back to his rule and space....
14. Sir Richard's Song (A. D. 1066) I followed my Duke ere I was a lover, To take from England fief and fee; But now this game is the other way over But now England hath taken me! I had my horse, my shield and banner, And a boy’s heart, so whole and free; But now I sing in […]...
15. Hymn 163 Complaint of desertion and temptations. Dear Lord! behold our sore distress; Our sins attempt to reign; Stretch out thine arm of conquering grace, And let thy foes be slain. [The lion with his dreadful roar Affrights thy feeble sheep: Reveal the glory of thy power, And chain him to the deep. Must we indulge a […]...
16. Joy and Sorrow chapter VIII Then a woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.” And he answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. […]...
17. Did Not ‘Twas a new feeling – something more Than we had dared to own before, Which then we hid not; We saw it in each other’s eye, And wished, in every half-breathed sigh, To speak, but did not. She felt my lips’ impassioned touch – ‘Twas the first time I dared so much, And yet she […]...
18. 440. Address spoken by Miss Fontenelle STILL anxious to secure your partial favour, And not less anxious, sure, this night, than ever, A Prologue, Epilogue, or some such matter, ‘Twould vamp my bill, said I, if nothing better; So sought a poet, roosted near the skies, Told him I came to feast my curious eyes; Said, nothing like his works was […]...
19. By Their Works Call him not heretic whose works attest His faith in goodness by no creed confessed. Whatever in love’s name is truly done To free the bound and lift the fallen one Is done to Christ. Whoso in deed and word Is not against Him labours for our Lord. When he, who, sad and weary, longing […]...
20. Exile My hands have not touched pleasure since your hands, No, nor my lips freed laughter since ‘farewell’, And with the day, distance again expands Voiceless between us, as an uncoiled shell. Yet, love endures, though starving and alone. A dove’s wings clung about my heart each night With surging gentleness, and the blue stone Set […]...
21. Inchcape Rock No stir in the air, no stir in the sea, The Ship was still as she could be; Her sails from heaven received no motion, Her keel was steady in the ocean. Without either sign or sound of their shock, The waves flow’d over the Inchcape Rock; So little they rose, so little they fell, […]...
22. Psalm 9 part 2 v.12 C. M. The wisdom and equity of Providence. When the great Judge, supreme and just, Shall once inquire for blood, The humble souls that mourn in dust Shall find a faithful God. He from the dreadful gates of death Does his own children raise; In Zion’s gates, with cheerful breath, They sing their Father’s […]...
23. Epitaph The first time I died, I walked my ways; I followed the file of limping days. I held me tall, with my head flung up, But I dared not look on the new moon’s cup. I dared not look on the sweet young rain, And between my ribs was a gleaming pain. The next time […]...
24. An Irish Face NOT her own sorrow only that hath place Upon yon gentle face. Too slight have been her childhood’s years to gain The imprint of such pain. It hid behind her laughing hours, and wrought Each curve in saddest thought On brow and lips and eyes. With subtle art It made that little heart Through its […]...
25. Hymn 14 The triumph of faith or, Christ’s unchangeable love. Rom. 8:33ff. Who shall the Lord’s elect condemn? ‘Tis God that justifies their souls; And mercy, like a mighty stream, O’er all their sins divinely rolls. Who shall adjudge the saints to hell? ‘Tis Christ that suffered in their stead; And, the salvation to fulfil, Behold him […]...
26. Dynamiter I SAT with a dynamiter at supper in a German saloon Eating steak and onions. And he laughed and told stories of his wife and children And the cause of labor and the working class. It was laughter of an unshakable man knowing life to be A rich and red-blooded thing. Yes, his laugh rang […]...
27. Litany to the Holy Spirit IN the hour of my distress, When temptations me oppress, And when I my sins confess, Sweet Spirit, comfort me! When I lie within my bed, Sick in heart and sick in head, And with doubts discomforted, Sweet Spirit, comfort me! When the house doth sigh and weep, And the world is drown’d in sleep, […]...
28. Incense Think not that incense-smoke has had its day. My friends, the incense-time has but begun. Creed upon creed, cult upon cult shall bloom, Shrine after shrine grow gray beneath the sun. And mountain-boulders in our aged West Shall guard the graves of hermits truth-endowed: And there the scholar from the Chinese hills Shall do deep […]...
29. The Happiest Day, The Happiest Hour The happiest day – the happiest hour My sear’d and blighted heart hath known, The highest hope of pride and power, I feel hath flown. Of power! said I? yes! such I ween; But they have vanish’d long, alas! The visions of my youth have been- But let them pass. And, pride, what have I […]...
30. Psalm 118 part 2 v.17-21 C. M. Public praise for deliverance from death. Lord, thou hast heard thy servant cry And rescued from the grave; Now shall he live; and none can die, If God resolve to save. Thy praise, more constant than before, Shall fill his daily breath; Thy hand, that hath chastised him sore, Defends him still […]...
31. A Song In Storm Be well assured that on our side The abiding oceans fight, Though headlong wind and heaping tide Make us their sport to-night. By force of weather, not of war, In jeopardy we steer. Then welcome Fate’s discourtesy Whereby it shall appear How in all time of our distress, And our deliverance too, The game is […]...
32. Psalm 74 The church pleading with God under sore persecutions. Will God for ever cast us off? His wrath for ever smoke Against the people of his love, His little chosen flock? Think of the tribes so dearly bought With their Redeemer’s blood; Nor let thy Zion be forgot, Where once thy glory stood. Lift up thy […]...
33. The Rabbi's Song “The House Surgeon” Actions and Reactions 2 Samuel XIV. 14. If Thought can reach to Heaven, On Heaven let it dwell, For fear the Thought be given Like power to reach to Hell. For fear the desolation And darkness of thy mind Perplex an habitation Which thou hast left behind. Let nothing linger after No […]...
34. Minstrel Man Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long? Because my mouth Is wide with laughter, You do not hear My inner cry? Because my feet Are gay with dancing, You do not know I die?...
35. Psalm 146 Praise to God for his goodness and truth. Praise ye the Lord, my heart shall join In work so pleasant, so divine; Now, while the flesh is mine abode, And when my soul ascends to God. Praise shall employ my noblest powers, While immortality endures; My days of praise shall ne’er be past, While life, […]...
36. A first Mute Coming A first Mute Coming In the Stranger’s House A first fair Going When the Bells rejoice A first Exchange of What hath mingled been For Lot exhibited to Faith alone...
37. When I hoped I feared When I hoped I feared Since I hoped I dared Everywhere alone As a Church remain Spectre cannot harm Serpent cannot charm He deposes Doom Who hath suffered him...
38. Mortification How soon doth man decay! When clothes are taken from a chest of sweets To swaddle infants, whose young breath Scarce knows the way; Those clouts are little winding-sheets, Which do consign and send them unto Death. When boyes go first to bed, They step into their voluntarie graves; Sleep binds them fast; onely their […]...
39. Psalm XXXVI: High in the Heav'ns High in the heav’ns, eternal God, Thy goodness in full glory shines; Thy truth shall break through ev’ry cloud That veils and darkens thy designs. For ever firm thy justice stands, As mountains their foundations keep; Wise are the wonders of thy hands; Thy judgments are a mighty deep. Thy providence is kind and large, […]...
40. Subway Wind Far down, down through the city’s great, gaunt gut, The gray train rushing bears the weary wind; In the packed cars the fans the crowd’s breath cut, Leaving the sick and heavy air behind. And pale-cheeked children seek the upper door To give their summer jackets to the breeze; Their laugh is swallowed in the […]...