Last night I lay in an open field And looked at the stars with lips sealed; No noise moved the windless air, And I looked at the stars with steady stare. There were some that glittered and some that shone With a soft and equal glow, and one That queened it over the sprinkled round, Swaying the host with silent sound. "Calm things," I thought, "in your cavern blue, I will learn and hold and master you; I will yoke and scorn you as I can, For the pride of my heart is the pride of a man." Grass to my cheek in the dewy field I lay quite still with lips sealed, And the pride of a man and his rigid gaze Stalked like swords on heaven's ways. But through a sudden gate there stole The Universe and spread in my soul; Quick went my breath and quick my heart, And I looked at the stars with lips apart. FLORIAN'S SONG My soul, it shall not take us, O we will escape This world that strives to break us And cast us to its shape; Its chisel shall not enter, Its fire shall not touch, Hard from rim to centre, We will not crack or smutch. 'Gainst words sweet and flowered We have an amulet, We will not play the coward For any black threat; If we but give endurance To what is now within-- The single assurance That it is good to win. Slaves think it better To be weak than strong, Whose hate is a fetter And their love a thong. But we will view those others With eyes like stone, And if we have no brothers We will walk alone. DIALOGUE THE ONE The dead man's gone, the live man's sad, the dying leaf shakes on the tree, The wind constrains the window panes and moans like moaning of the sea, And sour's the taste now culled in haste of lovely things I won too late, And loud and loud above the crowd the Voice of One more strong than we. THE OTHER This Voice you hear, this call you fear, is it unprophesied or new? Were you so insolent to think its rope would never circle you? Did you then beastlike live and walk with ears and eyes that would not turn? Who bade you hope your service 'scape in that eternal retinue? THE ONE No; for I swear now bare's the tree and loud the moaning of the wind, I walked no rut with eyelids shut, my ears and eyes were never blind, Only my eager thoughts I bent on many things that I desired To make my greedy heart content ere flesh and blood I left behind. THE OTHER