Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: Cover] POEMS 1916-1918 BY FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG LONDON: 48 PALL MALL W. COLLINS SONS & CO. LTD. GLASGOW MELBOURNE AUCKLAND Copyright 1919 BY THE SAME AUTHOR _Novels:_ THE YOUNG PHYSICIAN THE CRESCENT MOON THE IRON AGE THE DARK TOWER DEEP SEA UNDERGROWTH (with E. Brett Young) _Poems:_ FIVE DEGREES SOUTH _Belles Lettres:_ ROBERT BRIDGES: A Critical Study MARCHING ON TANGA TO EDYTH GOODALL _Remember thus our sweet conspiracy: That I, having dreamed a lovely thing, with dull Words marred it--and you gave it back to me A thousand, thousand times more beautiful._ ERRATA Page 26, line 17, _for_ "Lybian" _read_ "Libyan." Page 46, line 9, _for_ "lythe" _read_ "lithe." Page 70, line 13, _for_ "tyrranous" _read_ "tyrannous." [Transcriber’s note: the above errata have been applied to this etext. The word "Lybia" was also on page 32, and was corrected as above. Similarly, "tyrranous" was also on page 86, and was corrected.] CONTENTS PROTHALAMION TESTAMENT LOCHANILAUN LETTERMORE LAMENT THE LEMON-TREE PHTHONOS EASTER THE LEANING ELM THE JOYOUS LOVER DEAD POETS PORTON WATER AN OLD HOUSE THE DHOWS THE GIFT FIVE DEGREES SOUTH 104° FAHRENHEIT FEVER-TREES THE RAIN-BIRD MOTHS BÊTE HUMAINE DOVES SONG (i) BEFORE ACTION ON A SUBALTERN KILLED IN ACTION AFTER ACTION SONNET A FAREWELL TO AFRICA SONG (ii) THE HAWTHORN SPRAY THE PAVEMENT TO LYDIA LOPOKOVA (i) TO LYDIA LOPOKOVA (ii) TO LYDIA LOPOKOVA (iii) GHOSTLY LOVES FEBRUARY SONG OF THE DARK AGES WINTER SUNSET SONG (iii) ENGLAND, APRIL 1918 SLENDER THEMES INVOCATION THAMAR ENVOI PROTHALAMION When the evening came my love said to me: Let us go into the garden now that the sky is cool, The garden of black hellebore and rosemary, Where wild woodruff spills in a milky pool. Low we passed in the twilight, for the wavering heat Of day had waned, and round that shaded plot Of secret beauty the thickets clustered sweet: Here is heaven, our hearts whispered, but our lips spake not. Between that old garden and seas of lazy foam Gloomy and beautiful alleys of trees arise With spire of cypress and dreamy beechen dome, So dark that our enchanted sight knew nothing but the skies Veiled with soft air, drench’d in the roses’ musk Or the dusky, dark carnation’s breath of clove; No stars burned in their deeps, but through the dusk I saw my love’s eyes, and they were brimmed with love.