EXIT For what we owe to other days, Before we poisoned him with praise, May we who shrank to find him weak Remember that he cannot speak. For envy that we may recall, And for our faith before the fall, May we who are alive be slow To tell what we shall never know. For penance he would not confess, And for the fateful emptiness Of early triumph undermined, May we now venture to be kind. NORMANDY (From the French of Bérat) When all the land’s alive again With winter far away, And heaven over France again Is fairer than to-day, When spring puts off her gray for green, And swallows all return-- Then I’ll go back to Normandy, The land where I was born. I know the fields of Switzerland, The peaks and icy meres; I know the skies of Italy, I know the gondoliers; But let me wander where I will, I say that I’ll return To Normandy, my Normandy, The land where I was born. At last there comes a time to us When all dreams lose their glow; There comes a time when in our souls We need the long ago; So when my songs are cold in me, And love will not return-- Then I’ll go back to Normandy, The land where I was born. LEONORA They have made for Leonora this low dwelling in the ground, And with cedar they have woven the four walls round. Like a little dryad hiding she’ll be wrapped all in green, Better kept and longer valued than by ways that would have been. They will come with many roses in the early afternoon, They will come with pinks and lilies and with Leonora soon; And as long as beauty’s garments over beauty’s limbs are thrown, There’ll be lilies that are liars, and the rose will have its own. There will be a wondrous quiet in the house that they have made, And to-night will be a darkness in the place where she’ll be laid; But the builders, looking forward into time, could only see Darker nights for Leonora than to-night shall ever be. THE WISE BROTHERS FIRST VOICE So long adrift, so fast aground, What foam and ruin have we found-- We, the Wise Brothers? Could heaven and earth be framed amiss, That we should land in fine like this-- We, and no others? SECOND VOICE Convoyed by what accursèd thing Made we this evil reckoning-- We, the Wise Brothers? And if the failure be complete, Why look we forward from defeat-- We, and what others? THIRD VOICE Blown far from harbors once in sight, May we not, going far, go right,-- We, the Wise Brothers? Companioned by the whirling spheres, Have we no more than what appears-- We, and all others? BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD “_There, but for the grace of God, goes...._”