White Poppy, heavy with dreams, Though I am hungry for their lips When I see them a-hiding And a-passing out and in through the shadows —And it is white they are— But if one should look at me with the old hunger in her eyes, How will I be answering her eyes? For I have followed the white folk of the forest. Aye! It’s a long hunting And it’s a deep hunger I have when I see them a-gliding And a-flickering there, where the trees stand apart. But oh, it is sorrow and sorrow When love dies-down in the heart. CANZONIERE STUDIES IN FORM “_Ma qui la morta poesi risurga._” TO OLIVIA AND DOROTHY SHAKESPEAR OCTAVE Fine songs, fair songs, these golden usuries Her beauty earns as but just increment, And they do speak with a most ill intent Who say they give when they pay debtor’s fees. I call him bankrupt in the courts of song Who hath her gold to eye and pays her not, Defaulter do I call the knave who hath got Her silver in his heart and doth her wrong. SONNET IN TENZONE LA MENTE “O thou mocked heart that cowerest by the door And durst not honour hope with welcoming, How shall one bid thee for her honour sing, When song would but show forth thy sorrow’s store? What things are gold and ivory unto thee? Go forth, thou pauper fool! Are these for naught? Is heaven in lotus leaves? What hast thou wrought, Or brought, or sought wherewith to pay the fee?” IL CUORE “If naught I give, naught do I take return. ‘_Ronsard me celebroit!_’ behold I give The age-old, age-old fare to fairer fair And I fare forth into more bitter air; Though mocked I go, yet shall her beauty live Till rimes unrime and Truth shall truth unlearn.” SONNET If on the tally-board of wasted days They daily write me for proud idleness, Let high Hell summons me, and I confess, No overt act the preferred charge allays. To-day I thought—what boots it what I thought? Poppies and gold! Why should I blurt it out? Or hawk the magic of her name about Deaf doors and dungeons where no truth is brought? Who calls me idle? I have thought of her. Who calls me idle? By God’s truth I’ve seen The arrowy sunlight in her golden snares. Let him among you all stand summonser Who hath done better things! Let whoso hath been With worthier works concerned, display his wares! CANZON: THE YEARLY SLAIN (Written in reply to Manning’s “Korè.”) “_Et huiusmodi stantiae usus est fere in omnibus cantionibus suis Arnaldus Danielis et nos eum secut, sumus._” (DANTE, _De Vulgari Eloquio_, II. 10.) I