The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q"Quiller-Couch, Arthur
General
The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q"
Quiller-Couch, Arthur
Poetry
[_The Courtiers lift the body in silence and bear it
to the Chapel, the Duke and his train following.
The doors close on them. On the stage are
left only Cesario, standing by the balustrade;
and Gamba, who has seated himself with his
viol and touches it, as still the voice sings
below--_
Addio, Addio! ed un'altra volt'addio!
La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio!
[_On the last note a string of the viol cracks, and with
a cry the Fool flings himself, heart-broken, on
the empty couch. Cesario steps forward and
stands over him, touching his shoulder gently._
CURTAIN.
POEMS
EXMOOR VERSES
I. VASHTI'S SONG
Over the rim of the Moor,
And under the starry sky,
Two men came to my door
And rested them thereby.
Beneath the bough and the star,
In a whispering foreign tongue,
They talked of a land afar
And the merry days so young!
Beneath the dawn and the bough
I heard them arise and go:
And my heart it is aching now
For the more it will never know.
Why did they two depart
Before I could understand?
Where lies that land, O my heart?
--O my heart, where lies that land?
II. SATURN
From my farm, from hèr farm
Furtively we came.
In either home a hearth was warm:
We nursed a hungrier flame.
Our feet were foul with mire,
Our faces blind with mist;
But all the night was naked fire
About us where we kiss'd.
To her farm, to my farm,
Loathing we returned;
Pale beneath a gallow's arm
The planet Saturn burned.
III. DERELICTION
O'er the tears that we shed, dear
The bitter vines twist,
And the hawk and the red deer
They keep where we kiss'd:
All broken lies the shieling
That sheltered from rain,
With a star to pierce the ceiling,
And the dawn an empty pane.
Thro' the mist, up the moorway,
Fade hunters and pack;
From the ridge to thy doorway
Happy voices float back ...
O, between the threads o' mist, love,
Reach your hands from the house.
Only mind that we kiss'd, love,
And forget the broken vows!
TWO FOLK SONGS
I. THE SOLDIER
(_Roumanian_)
_When winter trees bestrew the path,
Still to the twig a leaf or twain
Will cling and weep, not Winter's wrath,
But that foreknown forlorner pain--
To fall when green leaves come again._
I watch'd him sleep by the furrow--
The first that fell in the fight.
His grave they would dig to-morrow:
The battle called them to-night.
They bore him aside to the trees, there,
By his undigg'd grave content
To lie on his back at ease there,
And hark how the battle went.
The battle went by the village,
And back through the night were borne
Far cries of murder and pillage,
With smoke from the standing corn.
But when they came on the morrow,
They talk'd not over their task,
As he listen'd there by the furrow;
For the dead mouth could not ask--
_How went the battle, my brothers?_
But that he will never know:
For his mouth the red earth smothers
As they shoulder their spades and go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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