The Poetry of John Galsworthy, by John Galsworthy.

................................................................................................

The Poetry of John Galsworthy:

by John Galsworthy

................................................................................................

"A man is the sum of his actions,

of what he has done,

of what he can do, Nothing else"

................................................................................................

His beautiful imagery, steeped equally in beauty of nature and realities of life, are far more so in his poetry than in his prose. For, when need to make it simpler for comprehension of others has taken flight, as it can when writing poetry, his imagery soars and takes flight.

................................................................................................

Collections

................................................................................................

EARLY POEMS

DEVON AND OTHER SONGS FOR MUSIC

IN TIME OF WAR

FOR LOVE OF BEASTS

THE ENDLESS DREAM

................................................................................................

EARLY POEMS

................................................................................................

The early poems, mostly about love, beauty, et al, are - one feels - about the lovers hiding out at Dartmoor.

................................................................................................

CONTENTS

REMINDER

ERRANTRY

COURAGE

TRUE DEEDS

LOVE

LOVE (EARLIER VERSION)

BEAUTY

ACCEPTATION

SERENITY

DEDICATION.

THE SEEDS OF LIGHT

................................................................................................

REMINDER

Budding of spiritual awakening.

"EACH star, to rise, and sink, and fade —

"Each bird that sings its song and sleeps —

"Each spark of spirit fire that leaps

"Within me — of One Flame are made!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

ERRANTRY

Spiritual, but slightly different this time - on Earth, in world of humanity, using the spirit so to speak, for humanity!

"COME! Let us lay a lance in rest,

"And tilt at windmills under a wild sky!

"For who would live so petty and unblest

"That dare not tilt at something ere he die;

"Rather than, screened by safe majority,

"Preserve his little life to little ends,

"And never raise a rebel cry!"

And more -

"The echo of our challenging

"Sets swinging all the bells of ribaldry,

"And yet those other hidden bells that ring

"The faint and wondering chimes of sympathy"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

COURAGE

He captures the essence-

"The ruddy watch-fire of cold winter days,

"We steal its comfort, lift our weary swords,

"And on. For faith — without it — has no sense;

"And love to wind of doubt and tremor sways;

"And life for ever quaking marsh must tread."

"And when Death calls across his shadowy fields-

"Dying, it answers: “Here! I am not dead!”"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

TRUE DEEDS

Beautiful imagery,

"There is a Lantern of true, silent deeds

"Swinging refulgent in the spacious air,"

"’Tis the presiding sun at every birth,

"The soft consoling moon at every death;

"And in the middle watches of our life

"What is it but the one sweet single star,

"Whose twinkle, like the laughter of dear thoughts,

"Upon the feeble vadings of our hearts

"Sheds ever rays of tender irony!"

But it's unclear if he refers to human "true deeds", or gives it that name in referring to Divine.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LOVE

Millions of poets and others have attempted describing it, and Galsworthy is different! He doesn't turn to roses or stars, but every bit described here is so true!

"O LOVE! — that love which comes so stealthily,

"And takes us up, and twists us as it will —

"What fever’d hours of agony ‘twill bring!

"How oft we wake and cry:

"“God set me free Of love — to never love again!” And still

"We fall, and clutch it by the knees, and cling

"And press our lips — and so, once more are glad!

"And if it go, or if it never come,

"Through what a grieving wilderness of pain

"We travel on! In prisons stripped of light

"We blindly grope, and wander without home.

"The friendless winds that sweep across the plain —

"The beggars meeting us at silent night —

"Than we, are not more desolate and sad!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LOVE (EARLIER VERSION)

The earlier version isn't lesser, but quite the contrary, has a higher flight in the very first few lines, and is far above the usually understood concept of love - did Galsworthy not realise his mind was grasping a reality far higher?

"LIKE lights that pass, each motion of the mind

"Flies through the world, seeking its fellow thought;

"And if but in the twinkling of his days

"A man shall chance to meet the kindred one —

"Then happiness! No more he needs to burn

"Beside the fire of dearth that pipe, whose smoke

"Prays to the heedless stars of lonely men."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

BEAUTY

"If we but catch the glimmer of her wing,

"Then witchery! We needs must follow her!

"If never on our path she comes along —

"Then are we lost, for always we are blind."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

ACCEPTATION

It's unclear if this is about waiting for his love until she appears.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

SERENITY

"In heaven’s field

"Moon’s scimitar

"Is drawn to shield

"One dreaming star."

Why the similar in describing serenity? Because, while the lovers hid at the remote Wingstone in Dartmoor, he needed to shield her?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

DEDICATION.

Having read it, it's unclear if this is English at all, or a rose in a private garden in a home in Persia of yore, or a beauty in Spain in an enclosed garden behind high walls of her home.

"THINE is the solitude that rare flowers know,

"Whose beauty holds the charm of secrecy;

"Of all the flowers that in the garden grow,

"None other has thy sweet supremacy.

"For thine’s the oldest secret in the world:

"How to be loved, and still to keep apart —

"Flower full blown, and bud not yet unfurled —

"Gold-fortuned I, whose very breath thou art!"

But then, the reserve of an English mindset would do just as well for a wall!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE SEEDS OF LIGHT

Beautiful and more, most of it.

"ONCE of a mazy afternoon, beside that summer sea,

"I watched a shoal of sunny beams come swimming close to me.

"Each was a whited candle flamelet, flickering in air;

"Each was a silver daffodil astonied to be there;

"Each was a diving summer star, its brightness come to lave;"

"And while I sat, and while I dreamed, beside that summer sea,

"There came the fairest thought of all that ever came to me;

"The tiny lives of tiny men, no more they seemed to mean

"Than one of those sweet seeds of light sown on that water green;"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

................................................

August 04, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

DEVON AND OTHER SONGS FOR MUSIC

................................................................................................

Devon poetry continues with the themes of love and of beauty of nature of his ancestral corner of England, of the prewar occupation of heart. Most do seem ready for music, too, with a rhythm of their own.

................................................................................................

CONTENTS

GAULZERY (GALSWORTHY) MOOR

LAND SONG OF THE WEST COUNTRY

VILLAGE SLEEP SONG

DEVON TO ME!

THE CLIFF CHURCH: (WEMBURY)

COUNTING THE STARS

THE MOOR GRAVE

THE COVE

MOUNTAIN LOVERS

HIGHLAND SPRING

THE DOWNS

ON A SOLDIER’S FUNERAL

OLD YEAR

WIND

STREET LAMPS

STRAW IN THE STREET

RHYME AFTER RAIN

LET

LOVE’S A FLOWER

ROSE AND YEW

MAGPIE

THE MOON AT DAWN

RHYME OF THE LAND AND SEA

PAST

THE GOLDEN GIPSY

MOUNTAIN AIR

TITTLE-TATTLE

THE FLOWER

VOICE IN THE NIGHT

AVOWAL

................................................................................................

GAULZERY (GALSWORTHY) MOOR

Moor of his name -

"MOOR of my name, where the road leads high,

"Thro’ heather and bracken, gorse and grass,

"Up to the crown of the western sky,

"A questing traveller, slow, I pass.

"Silent and lonely the darkening moor,"

Loneliness is brought out, but beauty is what it's steepest in, yet!

"And I on the road alone — alone;

"And the south-west wind is beginning to croon,

"And a listening lonely pine-tree sways;

"And behind it is hanging a golden moon

"For a resting sign at the cornerways.

"A thousand years since the stranger came,

"And homed him here, and gave me name."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LAND SONG OF THE WEST COUNTRY

Very picturesque verses, with the land brought alive, and too the rhythm of traversing it.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

VILLAGE SLEEP SONG

This one is far more successful a lullaby than those one hears generally, except its music isn't clear; but that's the wonder too, it induces sleep as one read it!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

DEVON TO ME!

Having read about his parents and his upper class bringing up in England, reading this poem isn't as misleading as it could have otherwise been - he's wring of the land and the people, in images he names his parents.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE CLIFF CHURCH: (WEMBURY)

"I stand fast —

"Let the waters cry!

"Here I last

"To Eternity!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

COUNTING THE STARS

This one brings back vividly his The Apple Tree, and one understands he wrote it about himself.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE MOOR GRAVE

This one again is reminiscent of The Apple Tree, and far more so, being about the grave on the moor. Is the story his own?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE COVE

Galsworthy brings alive the hidden cove of a lonely corner of England's coast with wind, rain, waves, and much more.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

MOUNTAIN LOVERS

Is this one really about Devon? It seems far more alpine!

"And now the clock is set at noon; "The butterflies are kittens black; "And cowbells tumble out a tune

"Which yellow bees do mumble back.

"We’ve climbed the snow into the sky;

"Below, streams run a tinkling race,

"And valleys glisten drowsily, For all the world lies on its face.

"The crystals bubble from the pine,

"And grasses teem with little legs —"

"Blueberries are ripe and warm,

"Sparkle-fairies swim to land;

"Hay is packing to the farm,

"Cows, for milkmaids begging, stand."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

HIGHLAND SPRING

"And solemn gaze young maids, heart-free.

"The white clouds race, the sun rays flare

"And turn to gold the pallid mist;

"With greedy mouth the Spring has kissed

"The wind that links the sky with sea.

"The blue and lonely mountains stare,

"As if to draw the blue above."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE DOWNS

"Fairy-spun of the thistle floss;

"And the beech-grove, and a wood-dove,

"And the trail where the shepherds pass;

"And the lark’s song, and the wind-song,

"And the scent of the parching grass!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

ON A SOLDIER’S FUNERAL

"The wind shrills high;

"The darkened day is chasing grief

"With lash of blinding rain — and brief

"The footfalls die."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

OLD YEAR

"The moonlight floods the grass,

"The music’s hushed, and all the festal din;

"The pale musicians pass,

"Each clasping close his green-cased violin.

"Old Year! — not breathing now,

"Along the polished floor you lie alone;

"I bend, and touch your brow —

"The dead year, that has slipped away and gone!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 05, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

WIND

Evocative as ever, he describes the wind

"Sweet with scent of clover,

"Salt with breath of sea."

- after he's said

"WIND, wind — heather gipsy,

Whistling in my tree!

"All the heart of me is tipsy

"On the sound of thee!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

STREET LAMPS

Who'd ever think of writing a word, much less a poem, about street lamps! And John Galsworthy goes to write a marvellous one -

"LAMPS, lamps! Lamps everywhere!

"You wistful, gay, and burning eyes,

"You stars low-driven from the skies

"Down on the rainy air.

"You merchant eyes, that never tire Of spying out our little ways,

"Of summing up our little days In ledgerings of fire — Inscrutable your nightly glance,

"Your lighting and your snuffing out,

"Your flicker through the windy rout,

"Guiding this mazy dance.

"O watchful, troubled gaze of gold,

"Protecting us upon our beats —

"You piteous glamour of the streets,

"Youthless — and never old!"

- it keeps a reader marvelling!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

STRAW IN THE STREET

Again, who'd ever imagine the title for a topic of a poem! And yet, as one reads through

"Straw in the street!

"To wintry sleeping

"Turns all our summer laughter.

"The brooms are sweeping...

There’s naught for me hereafter!"

it brings not only comprehension, but much more, the whole scene alive, summer turned to winter, - and comprehension of all that the verses imply.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

RHYME AFTER RAIN

Beautiful verses, painting the lovely and live portrait of a countryside after rain in April, and singing of spring and life,

"STARRY-EYED is April morn,

"Rainbells glitter on the thorn,

"Birds are tuning down the lane

Patter song of fallen rain."

and transients of it all.

"Gather the sob, gather the song!

"Neither will last, neither will last!

"All is yours, but not for long —

"Life travels fast!"

So beautiful -

"Rainbow’s dipping out to sea,

"Lambs are whispering devilry,

"Leaves are sweet as e’er you’ve seen,

"Sun is golden, grass is green.

"Meadow’s pied with flowers wet,

"Thrushes sing: “Forget, forget!”

"Gather the grey, gather the gleam!

"Neither will last, neither will last!

"Certainty—’tis but a dream!

"Life travels fast!"

one is tempted to quote all of it!

"Winds are merry, sky is blue.

"Spring has laughter, Spring has tears,

"Life has courage, life has fears.

"Gather the tears, gather the mirth!

"Neither will last, neither will last!

"Old Year’s death is Young Year’s birth —

"Life travels fast!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LET

The title, Let, reminds one of the authors last book, To Let, in the famous trilogy, The Forsyte Saga, and the verses confirm it -

"MY Love lived there! And now

"’Tis but a shell of brick,"

But Irene did leave her home, Robin Hill, thus; not so, John Galsworthy, that is known of - Ada lived with him through his life, and lived after him! So was there someone else, before her?

He continues

"From windows gaily wide,

"Where once the curtained dark

"My heaven used to hide,"

and the impression strengthens that perhaps The Apple Tree, and the Moor Grave, was all real, in his life, even if not exactly as he wrote it.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LOVE’S A FLOWER

From the beginning

"LOVE’S a flower, ’tis born and broken,

"Plucked apace, and hugged apart;

"Evening comes, it clings — poor token —

"Dead and dry, on lover’s heart."

to the end

"Love’s a shimmery morning bubble

"Puffed all gay from pipe of noon;

"Spun aloft on breath of trouble —

"Bursts in air — is gone — too soon!"

again one is left with the impression that there was another love in his life.

Unless this - these - were written during the transient phase before Ada be with him.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

ROSE AND YEW

Beautiful verses, beautiful imagery -

"LOVE flew by! Young wedding day,

"Peeping through her veil of dew,

"Saw him, and her heart went fey —

"His wings no shadows threw."

and very intriguing.

"Love flew by! Young day was gone,

"Owls were hooting — Whoo-to-whoo!

"Happy wedded lay alone,

"Who’d vowed that love was true."

Was this about the first wedding of Ada?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

MAGPIE

Galsworthy continues with the theme of loss of love,

"Loved to-day — is lost to-morrow!"

asking

"Magpie! flying, flying —

"What have you brought to me?"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE MOON AT DAWN

How, why, does a poet look at the beautiful, golden, full moon setting at dawn, and think of a woman cheating, stealing out after a night while her lover sleeps?

What's wrong with John Galsworthy, from time to time?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

RHYME OF THE LAND AND SEA

Mysterious, the whole, as much as the bit

"But her smile — like the wine-red, shadowy sea,"

about "wine-red, shadowy sea,"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

PAST

This one seems about coming to a certain age -

"The stars have twinkled, and died out —

"Fair candles blown!

"The hot desires burn low, and gone

"To ash the fire that flamed anon.

"The stars have twinkled, and died out!"

and while it's beautiful, it is only sad in a familiar sense.

"The leaves are dropping from my tree!

"Dead leaves and flown,

"The vine-leaf ghosts are round my brow,

"For ever frosts and winter now.

"The leaves are dropping from my tree!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE GOLDEN GIPSY

(FROM ‘THE LITTLE DREAM’)

"THE windy hours through darkness fly —

"Canst hear them, little heart?

"New loves are born, and old loves die,

"And kissing lips must part!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

MOUNTAIN AIR

"TELL me of Progress if you will,

"But give me sunshine on a hill —

"The grey rocks spiring to the blue,

"The scent of larches, pinks, and dew,

"And summer sighing to the trees,

"And snowy breath on every breeze.

"Take towns and all that you’ll find there,

"And leave me sun and mountain air!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

TITTLE-TATTLE

John Galsworthy is probably addressing those corresponding to the Forsyte clan that was his, as Forsyte clan was that of Jolyon old and young.

"TITTLE-TATTLE! Scandal and japes,

"Gibe, and gossip, and folly’s rattle!

"Ringed to fashion, caught like apes

"In your cage of tittle-tattle!

"Mean your skies, And mean the ways you tread;

"The meanness of your eyes Is never fully fed.

"You that have birth In gold and grovellings!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE FLOWER

Amazing!

"THERE’S a flower with a cup- A cup of dew;

"Golden god plucked it up

"And gave it you.

"If you shake — let it spill —

"Its pretty rain,

"All the world will not fill It up again.

"Careless death it must die,

"And, like a weed,

"In the sun ever lie Disherited."

He probably meant that about love, but it's so true about so much more!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

VOICE IN THE NIGHT

(FROM ‘TO LET’)

From "To Let", it can only be about the younger generation.

"VOICE in the night — crying —

"Down in the old sleeping Spanish city,

"Darkened under her white stars;

"What says the voice — its clear lingering anguish?

"Just the watchman telling his dateless tale of safety?

"Just a roadman flinging to the moon his song?

"No. ’Tis one deprived — a lover’s prayer for pity,

"Just his cry: “How long?”"

Holly was married to Val Dartie whom she loved, and June had lost her love a while ago; is this the anguish of Fleur?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

AVOWAL

(FROM ‘THE ROOF’)

Most beautifully worded appeal that a lover true could make, especially the final words!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

................................................

August 05, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

IN TIME OF WAR

................................................................................................

Some penned in anguish, and then Frivols.

................................................................................................

CONTENTS

VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

THE BELLS OF PEACE

PICARDY

YOUTH’S OWN

WONDER

UNKNOWN

THE PRAYER

I ASK

TIME

FRIVOLS

MR. COLUMMY

HOLIDAY SONG

UNICORNS

LINES WRITTEN IN THE AUTHOR’S COPY OF ‘FROM THE FOUR WINDS’ SOLD FOR A CHARITY

DEDICATIONS TO TWO GODSONS

LINES WRITTEN IN A VOLUME OF 27 PLAYS BY J. G. GIVEN AS A PRIZE BY THE ‘SAVE THE CHILDREN’ FUND

IN A VOLUME OF 27 PLAYS BY J. G. SOLD ON BEHALF OF A HOSPITAL

IN A COPY OF ‘FOUR FORSYTE STORIES’ SOLD ON BEHALF OF A HOUSING SCHEME

TO PRINCETON

ON ACCIDENTAL EXCHANGE OF OPERA HATS WITH JOHN MASEFIELD

................................................................................................

VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

Most of this is the heartfelt call of most,

"GOD, I am travelling out to death’s sea,

"I who exulted in sunshine and laughter,

"Dreamed not of dying — death is such waste of me! —

"Grant me one prayer: Doom not the hereafter

"Of mankind to war, as though I had died not —"

but the comes the last bit -

"Let not my sinking

"In dark be for naught, my death a vain thing!"

"Make my last breath a bugle call, carrying

"Peace o’er the valleys and cold hills for ever!"

and surely, most soldiers couldn't fight at all if this were their thought, surely they are more into victory for their own side, their country, and security of their loved ones!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE BELLS OF PEACE

Galsworthy begins beautifully -

"LILIES are here, tall in the garden bed,

"And on the moor are still the buds of May;

"Roses are here — and, tolling for our dead

"The Bells of Peace make summer holiday.

"And do they hear, who in their Springtime went?

"The young, the brave young, leaving all behind,

"All of their fate, love, laughter, and content,

"The village sweetness, and the Western wind,"

and goes on to count all the beauty of peaceful land and home they lost; but his view is slightly askance -

"Bells of remembrance, on this summer’s eve

"Of our relief, Peace and Goodwill ring in!

"Ring out the Past, and let not Hate bereave

"Our dreaming Dead of all they died to win!"

It's perhaps that of most who feel more for peace and friendship across borders than most who care for security within, and hence seek to blame it on no simple reality as the actual identity of the aggressor, but would rather see it as a mess caused by every government, or capital.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

PICARDY

"WHEN the trees blossom again;

"When our spirits lighten —"

. . . .

"When the sweet waters can flow,

"When the world’s forgetting —

"When once more the cattle low

"At golden calm sun-setting;

"Each peaceful evening’s murmur, then,

"And sigh the waters give,

"Will tell immortal tale of men

"Who died that we might live."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

YOUTH’S OWN

"Since Youth has vanished from our eyes,

"Who of us glad can be?"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

WONDER

Rather simplistic -

"If God laughs when the guns thunder,

"If He yells when the bullet sings —

"Then, bewildered, I but wonder

"The God of Love can love such things!"

- but then, most natural -

"If you must kill me — why the lark,

"The hawthorn bud, and the corn?

"Why do the stars bedew the dark?

"Why is the blossom born?"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

UNKNOWN

Confused, post Darwin's theory, about genesis at al - and far more so, with the WWI causing all but genocide, and in Europe, too -

"You who had worked in perfect ways

"To turn the wheel of nights and days,

"Who coaxed to life each running rill

"And froze the snow-crown on the hill,

"The cold, the starry flocks who drove And made the circling seasons move;

"How came your jesting purpose, when

"You fashioned monkeys into men?"

So, the thinker adult questions the God, of faith he assumes true from preaching he was subjected to as a boy -

"What set you frolicking when we

"Were given power to feel and see?

"Why not have kept the stellar plan

"Quite soulless and absolved from man?

"What heavy need to make this thing —

"A monkey with an angel’s wing;

"A murderous poor saint who reaps

"His fields of death, and, seeing — weeps!"

And, hearing no response, thinks one out for himself!

"And Mother Nature’s fingers strummed,

"And flock of dandelion was blown,

"And yew-trees cast their shadows down;

"Such beauty seemed to you forlorn —

"And lo! — this playboy, Man, was born!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE PRAYER

A trifle Emily Bronte here

"O Lord of Courage grave,

"O Master of this night of Springl

"Make firm in me a heart too brave

"To ask Thee anything!"

Emily Bronte's was superior.

No surprises there!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

I ASK

Poet here describes beauty of life -

"MY happy lime is gold with flowers;

"From noon to noon the breezes blow

"Their love pipes; and the wild bees beat

"Their drums, and sack the blossom bowers."

- and then, turning to

"Behind the fairest masks of life

"Dwells ever that pale constant death."

questions if it should be simply hidden, forgotten - but with a really bad turn of phrase!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

TIME

"BENEATH this vast serene of sky

"Where worlds are but as mica dust,

"From age to age the wind goes by;

"Unnumbered summer bums the grass.

"On granite rocks, at rest from strife,

"The aeons lie in lichen rust.

"Then what is man’s so brittle life? —

"The humming of the bees that pass!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

FRIVOLS

................................................................................................

MR. COLUMMY

This one begins sounding ridiculous, but as one goes through, a serious portrait of a prototype emerges.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

HOLIDAY SONG

"Birds are piping, insects hum;

"Take the path of play and laughter!

"Why go caring what comes after?

"Nature’s drum-sticks all a-drum!

"Clowns and Christians count the loss!

"Ope your mouth — let berries tumble!

"Eat no more of pie that’s humble!

"Let your heart play pitch and toss!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

UNICORNS

"IF I were asked to take my pick

"Of all the creatures fantastic,"

"I should choose white unicorns!"

White?

Not Golden? Not Rainbow-hued? Not even pink?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LINES WRITTEN

IN THE AUTHOR’S COPY OF

‘FROM THE FOUR WINDS’

SOLD FOR A CHARITY

"I WROTE this book and certify

"That sh e’s been mine in days gone by.

"In fact the slim and timid tome

"Has only known her parent’s home.

"There, with a slightly elder twin

"She’s stabled been, with kith and kin;

"Thereof, lest any have a doubt

"I write these words, and send her out."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

DEDICATIONS TO TWO GODSONS

"But we conspirators must be

"And hide up our unworthiness.

"Together we will tread the way

"That leads to mansions in the sky,

"Or, if we don’t, at least we’ll say

"We surely mean to, by and by."

"Small John, I fear when you grow up you’ll say:

"“They gave to me as pilot to the sky

"A silly man who didn’t know the way,

"And couldn’t put me wise — I wonder why?

"He never gave me book morocco-bound,

"Or silver cup with christening date engraved;

"He let me wander round and round and round,

"And quite neglected for to get me saved!”"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LINES WRITTEN IN A VOLUME

OF 27 PLAYS BY J. G.

GIVEN AS A PRIZE BY THE

‘SAVE THE CHILDREN’ FUND

"Who wins this prize has work cut out,

"The volume is so very stout,

"Indeed ‘twill take many days

"To read these twenty-seven plays.

"But then he/she need not take the thing

"Au sérieux, but have a fling; his

"Present the object to her Ma,

"Or leave it in a motor car.

"June 8, 1932."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

IN A VOLUME OF 27 PLAYS BY J. G.

SOLD ON BEHALF OF A HOSPITAL

"THE buyer gapes and stammers: “What!

"You mean to tell me I have got

"To read these Plays — to read them all!

"Oh! no — the man’s a criminal,"

"I make the buyer this reply:

"“Far better burned than read, poor buyer,

"So spare your eyes, and feed your fire!”"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

IN A COPY OF ‘FOUR FORSYTE STORIES’

SOLD ON BEHALF OF A HOUSING SCHEME

"When signed editions he goes marketing,

"Priced at as many guineas as he dare,

"And, trusting to the Public’s want of flair,

"Makes major money from a minor thing.”"

"A very peacock-fantail-phoenix, he;

"The more you warn him of his coming fall

"Or tell him that he’s nothing worth at all,

"The more his pinnacle in air he’ll see!”"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

TO PRINCETON

"LORD! I plump for Princeton —

"Peaceful there I be!

"Peace and plump and Princeton

"All begin with P!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

ON ACCIDENTAL EXCHANGE OF OPERA HATS

WITH JOHN MASEFIELD

"O FRIENDLY hat — hat of my friend!

"And must I pack thee up and end

"That brief encircling halo torn

"From noble Masefield’s peg, and worn

"In ecstasy one hour? Dear hat!

"So much more beautiful than that

"I left behind — from me depart!

"Be crushed once more against his heart!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

................................................

August 06, 2021 - August 06, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

FOR LOVE OF BEASTS

................................................................................................

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4159972641

................................................................................................

Galsworthy writes to and about animals, in this collection, but only in the first few - the rest is about his love of land, beauty of nature, and his travels. Perhaps the title is kept nevertheless because his love of animals was relevant to him, but keeping only those poems would make this collection far too small to publish.

................................................................................................

CONTENTS

PRAYER FOR GENTLENESS TO ALL CREATURES

TO MY DOG

LOST!

DONKEYS

NEVER GET OUT!

PITIFUL

AKIN

IMPRESSIONS

SILVER POINT

BOTTICELLI’S ‘THE BIRTH OF VENUS’

BOTTICELLI’S TRIMAVERA’

THE CUP

AUTUMN

BY THE SEA PROMENADE

THE FRANCE FLOWER

SWEET OATH IN MALLORCA

AT VALDEMOSA

NOVEMBER

MERLE

DESERT SONG

AT SUNSET

THE PASS OF THE SONG

AUTUMN

DREAM HOUSE

FLOWERS

THE NATIVE STAR

TO LIBERTY

................................................................................................

PRAYER FOR GENTLENESS TO ALL CREATURES

"And to our hearts the rapture bring

"Of love for every living thing;"

Including those slaughtered regularly, without any mercy?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

TO MY DOG

But for the title, one would be under the impression it's addressed to a lover, a child, a parent!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

LOST!

About a lost dog.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

DONKEYS

Very moving, and yet -

"WHEN to God’s Fondouk the donkeys are taken —

"Donkeys of Barbary, Sicily, Spain —

"If peradventure the Deity waken

"He shall not easily slumber again.

"Where in the sweet of the straw they have laid them,

"Broken and dead of their burdens and sores,

"He, for a change, shall remember He made them

"(One of the best of His numerous chores),

"Order from someone a sigh of repentance —

"Donkeys of Syria, Araby, Greece —

"Over the Fondouk distemper the sentence:

"“For God’s own forsaken — the Stable of Peace!”"

Very moving, and yet - nary a thought for those slaughtered regularly, even as their milk is taken for consumption for lifelong sustenance of humans after babyhood.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

NEVER GET OUT!

"I KNEW a little Serval cat —"

"From bar to bar she’d turn and turn,

"And in her eyes a fire would burn —"

"But if by hap a ray of sun

Came shining in her cage, she’d run

"And sit upon her haunches where

"Into the open she could stare,

"And with the free that sunlight share —"

"That catling’s jungle heart forlorn

"Will die as wild as it was born..."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

PITIFUL

About the treatment meted out to animals who aren't pets in West - and horrors thereof, Galsworthy catalogues all but those actually slaughtered, regularly, for no fault of those thus killed.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

AKIN

"But if his sentient ardour flow

"For things that pad or fly,

"With you and me — oh! surely know

"He hath affinity.

"America and England breed

"Those who are brothers still,

"For that the beasts they love, and heed

"Bird music on the hill!"

All but those slaughtered regularly??!!!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

IMPRESSIONS

................................................................................................

SILVER POINT

Severe, lonely beauty of midwinter of Nordic latitudes.

"Every silver twig up-curled,

"Not a budding leaf unfurled,

"Not a breath to fan the day!

"World aspiring and severe,

"Not a hum of fly or bee,

"Not a song, and not a cry,

"Not a perfume stealing by —

"Stillest moment of the year!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

BOTTICELLI’S ‘THE BIRTH OF VENUS’

He brings it all alive, if one has seen it -

"THE Spring wind fans her hair,

"And after her fly little waves;

"Her feet are shod in pearly shoen,

"And down her foam-white breast do shine

"Petals encarnadine. Her eyes are deaths to care,

"Her eyes of love are tender caves.

"The blossoms blowing on the trees —

"The leafy Spring’s enchanted stir —

"The humming of the golden bees —

"Are but the voice of her!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

BOTTICELLI’S TRIMAVERA’

"HANDMAIDS of the Queen of Love!

"Earth grows white with stars;"

"You alone do dream!

"Maidens of the Queen of Flowers!

"Trees hang orange lamps;

"All the winds are pollen blowing;

"Through the failing golden light"

"Earth below and skies above

"Teach the hour of sweet unresting: —

"All the world is Love!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE CUP

This ought to have been part of the Devon poems -

"Here is my Cup;

"A fairy soul,

"With the sun all gold on her curves,

"And the moon milk-white in her bowl!

"As twilight dark,

"Like dew a-shine,

"The goblet she

"Of ev’ry wine!"

The Cup is the very Earth, if it isn't the land of Devonshire!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

AUTUMN BY THE SEA

So different, this autumn, from those we've known - the brilliant sapphire blue skies and bright gold sun, crisp cool breezes and brilliant foliage of reds and golds, of autumn that we have known, in New England!

"And gentle heat’s gold pathway fails

"In autumn’s opal smoke;

"Then long we’ll watch the journey of the soft half-moon —

"A gold-bright moth slow-spinning up the sky;

"And know the dark flight — all too soon —

"Of land-birds wheeling by."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

PROMENADE

He sets out to write of his love walking to him in the park, and does, but the beauty he writes of is of spring in England - and very familiar to those who have seen it, in England or Germany, France or Austria.

"The little bushes puffing green,

"The candles pale that light the chestnut-trees,

"The tulip and the jonquil spies;

The sunshine and the sudden dark;"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE FRANCE FLOWER

All too familiar, this, loving the beauty of another land despite loving ones own homeland -

"I love well my English home;

"Yet far thoughts do stealing come

"To throng me like honey-bees,

"Till far flowers my fancy sees —

"’Tis almond against the snows,

"And gentian, and mountain rose,

"And Iris, in purple bright —

"The France flower, the flower of light!"

And the last line sheds light on just how cloudy his homeland is - but there's another little detail before these lines, where he mentions "print frocks"! So that was quite new then!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

SWEET OATH IN MALLORCA

Galsworthy doesn't tell what oath, exactly, but describes the enchantment of beauty of Mallorca -

"Under the sun among the almond flowers,"

- and more.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

AT VALDEMOSA

(MALLORCA, JANUARY 2, 1930)

He certainly brings the beauty alive -

"LEMONS and roses — guide-book said —

"A courtyard, and a simple bed

"Or two, for that romantic pair!"

"But with such wonders for your sight,

"Such scatter of the stars at night,

"Such sunset light upon the hills,

"What need you reck of little ills?"

"The almond, winter-blossoming,

"The buds not waiting for the Spring,

"The olive trees, the tinkling bells

"Of sheep among the asphodels.

"What with the Paradise down there,

"The scent of lemons on the air,

"And all the music that you scored —

"Chopin! I know you were not bored!"

Did Chopin recommend it personally to Galsworthy?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

NOVEMBER

November he's captured well, and it would seem very similar to that of New England, too, until he says -

"Not till the Spring recapture

"Joy as it flits along,

"Shall we regain the rapture

"Either of scent or song!"

No, in New England the snow brought a festive, elevating beauty that lasted even into spring, often snowfall covering up the earlier blossoms of spring!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

MERLE

This would make it seem December is dreary in England, unless he speaks of old age -

"THE sea and sky are grey —

"As with the grief of those who’ve mourned;

"Yet through this drear December day

"A lonely merle to song has turned.

"Brave bird, for you no fears!

"Though to the sun you’re strange — as we,

"Across the waste of these last years

"Bereft of all hilarity.

"Then, bird! be voice for all

"The sad who have forgotten song.

"Shake far that trilling lift and fall

"Of notes, and take our hearts along!"

But no, this must have been of war years, of WWI.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

DESERT SONG

True son of England, Galsworthy writes of traversing the desert of Santa Fé, and missing rain.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

AT SUNSET

"I’ve seen the beautiful, so clear —

"And it has gone to the heart of me;

"So there’ll be magic ever near

"To me, remembering Tennessee."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE PASS OF THE SONG

He's titled it Pass Of The Song, switching the two words to describe the landscape - it's Song Of The Pass to begin with.

"Lone and far, lone and far,

"Till the eye to the summit wins,

"And below, the plains and the mountains are,

"And the lilt of the song begins."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

AUTUMN

The bleak landscape he paints in this could only be the Southwest of U.S..

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

DREAM HOUSE

First couple of lines sound like a town dwelling -

"DOWN on our house good shelter falls

"From those high neighbouring white walls,"

But the rest, including

" ... sun’s hot eye

"Cools in the lime-trees, down the sky;"

sounds like his house in Dartmoor.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

FLOWERS

"In my heart the wind is roaming

"Wild, the grass is parched with sadness.

"Spring! my lovely Spring, come soon!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE NATIVE STAR

The poet has travelled wide, extensively,

"Yet craved for a salt heaven wide

Above the English sea."

has seen beautiful lands,

"I have been mazed and mazed again

"Where California glows,

"And marvelled at a flowered Spain —

"Her orange and her rose; I’ve dreamed

"Japan, all cherry white;

"Yet would I liefer see

"The Springtime stars of blossom light

"An English apple tree."

And he wonders

"And yet my heart has longed

"For English sound and scent and scene

"Though all my reason knows

"They’ll never be, have never been

"Fit to compare with those."

And answers

"Be not dismayed that each is born

"Under his native star I”"

True! So why go colonizing others' lands, only to loot and deprive them, leaving the sons and daughters of the soil to starve to death??!!!

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

TO LIBERTY

"Bird, my bird, I hear thee singing

"Over the waste, over the foam,

"Clear and high, the far white-winging

"Song of Freedom, flighting home!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE ENDLESS DREAM

................................................................................................

Here, Galsworthy evokes his first Interlude of the Forsyte Saga, connecting the beauty of his last home of Sussex Downs between sea and sky with a vision of beauty for his last.

................................................................................................

CONTENTS

PRAISED BE THE SUN!

TO BEAUTY

SPRING

PEACE IN THE WORLD

BURY HILL

SO MIGHT IT BE!

THE MOMENT WAITING

MOON-NIGHT

AMBERLEY WILDBROOKS

................................................................................................

PRAISED BE THE SUN!

Actually, it is praise to the Sun, in an old fashioned worship offering, admitting a recognition of all that the Sun does for life on Earth.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

TO BEAUTY

Galsworthy sings paens to Beauty -

"BEAUTY on your wings — flying the far blue,"

- and gives specific instances of it -

"The gold-cups a-field, the flight of the swallow;

"The eyes of the cow who has calved;

"The wind passing from ash-tree to ash-tree!

"For thee shall I never cease aching?"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

SPRING

"There’s performed in everything

"A miracle of throat and wing.

"Needs but a swallow to flit by

"And print its pattern on the sky.

"Oh! Smell this air!

"The wind it wanders; everywhere

"It plucks a scent. Ah! Exquisite

"The ache of Spring that comes with it!

"And whence it comes, or where it goes —

"The troubling wind of Spring — who knows?"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

PEACE IN THE WORLD

On one hand, a backhanded-

" ... banish far

"The incense and the reeking breath,

"The lances and the fame of war,

"And all the devilments of death."

-and on the other, a vision -

"So shall we see the eyes of Peace,

"And feel the wafting of Her wings."

Attaching incense to war, death and so forth, is that Europe being empire, looking down at colonies, or CoE doing so at Rome?

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

BURY HILL

Almost comparable to a miniature of the Beethoven's symphony Pastoral, in its paen to the beauty of Sussex downs, with sheep and grass and hills down to sea under a clear sky.

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

SO MIGHT IT BE!

Galsworthy wrote his first Interlude in Forsyte Saga with a wish for himself -

"DEATH, when you come to me, tread with a footstep

"Light as the moon’s on the grasses asleep,"

And

"Death, when you come to me, let there be sunlight,"

With

"Flowers in the fields and the song of the blackbird —

"Spring in the world when you fetch me away!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

THE MOMENT WAITING

Galsworthy goes on with beauty of Sussex Downs between sea and sky,

"FOLDED is every sheep, the sunlight’s gone,

"A lonely bird re-takes its evening flight;

"Warmth on the downs, and colour, there is none,

"And yet a Presence — in this lingered light

"Conjured of sky and the green-coated chalk,

"Of air no longer sunlit, and so still —"

but now his vision takes wings, soaring beyond -

"We of the life ephemeral can bow In recognition of eternity.

"Sun and the moon and stars are sequestrate,

"And time — it is not dawn nor noon nor night;

"All is unbounded, and each mortal date

"So little set as thistledown in flight."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

MOON-NIGHT

Galsworthy continues with the wish he wrote up as the first Interlude of the Forsyte Saga -

"THE moon shines full, the elm-trees stand

"Like sentinels, and shadows spill,

"And up that quiet, unearthly land

"The sheepbells with their tinkling fill

"A silence reaching to the sky;

"The rounded farm-stacks that were gold

"Now moon-lit and unreal lie;

"And all is magical and cold.

"But here, beneath my window, one

"Magnolia flower blooms, alight, Moon-glinted, lovely, and alone,

"As fastened in the hair of night,

"And from it to my nostrils creep

"Such spicy odours as might move

"To raptured waking all who sleep,

"The very moon herself, to love."

- hoping

"It will be dream-like, and goodbye

"Will not be harder than it must;

"For life will leave me with a kiss

"Upon my brow of moonlit dust —

"If night be beautiful like this!"

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

AMBERLEY WILDBROOKS

Galsworthy continues on Sussex beauty -

"Here when in winter-time the wild brooks brimmed

"And with their salty flood annulled the earth,

"Till with a lake the dreaming down was rimmed,

"And wandering water-beauty came to birth,

"With floating birds, and the green icy sky,

"And far the sun so pale and pitying shone;"

and connecting it to his end -

"Man is a dreamer, waking for a day,

"Until the wild brooks of oblivion brim;

"’Tis well his waking self should slip away,

"And momentary dreaming comfort him;

"For so he learns, before the long sleep comes,

"That in himself revolves the starry scheme,

"In him the winter’s mute, the summer hums,

"Just as it will be in the endless dream."

................................................................................................

................................................

August 07, 2021 - August 07, 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

................................................

August 04, 2021 - August , 2021.

................................................

................................................................................................

Reviews - Books I Read - DRJG

Saturday, August 7, 2021

The Poetry of John Galsworthy, by John Galsworthy.

Light Explodes Across Heavens

Blog Archive

Serene, Reflecting

Contributors

Followers

My Shelfari Bookshelf