Day, you have bruised and beaten me, As rain beats down the bright, proud sea, Beaten my body, bruised my soul, Left me nothing lovely or whole-- Yet I have wrested a gift from you, Day that dies in dusky blue: For suddenly over the factories I saw a moon in the cloudy seas-- A wisp of beauty all alone In a world as hard and gray as stone-- Oh who could be bitter and want to die When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky? Eight O'Clock Supper comes at five o'clock, At six, the evening star, My lover comes at eight o'clock-- But eight o'clock is far. How could I bear my pain all day Unless I watched to see The clock-hands laboring to bring Eight o'clock to me. Lost Things Oh, I could let the world go by, Its loud new wonders and its wars, But how will I give up the sky When winter dusk is set with stars? And I could let the cities go, Their changing customs and their creeds,-- But oh, the summer rains that blow In silver on the jewel-weeds! Pain Waves are the sea's white daughters, And raindrops the children of rain, But why for my shimmering body Have I a mother like Pain? Night is the mother of stars, And wind the mother of foam-- The world is brimming with beauty, But I must stay at home. The Broken Field My soul is a dark ploughed field In the cold rain; My soul is a broken field Ploughed by pain. Where grass and bending flowers Were growing, The field lies broken now For another sowing. Great Sower when you tread My field again, Scatter the furrows there With better grain. The Unseen Death went up the hall Unseen by every one, Trailing twilight robes Past the nurse and the nun. He paused at every door And listened to the breath Of those who did not know How near they were to Death. Death went up the hall Unseen by nurse and nun; He passed by many a door-- But he entered one. A Prayer When I am dying, let me know That I loved the blowing snow Although it stung like whips; That I loved all lovely things And I tried to take their stings With gay unembittered lips; That I loved with all my strength, To my soul's full depth and length, Careless if my heart must break, That I sang as children sing Fitting tunes to everything, Loving life for its own sake. V Spring Torrents Will it always be like this until I am dead, Every spring must I bear it all again With the first red haze of the budding maple boughs, And the first sweet-smelling rain? Oh I am like a rock in the rising river Where the flooded water breaks with a low call-- Like a rock that knows the cry of the waters And cannot answer at all. "I Know the Stars" I know the stars by their names, Aldebaran, Altair, And I know the path they take Up heaven's broad blue stair.