Specula by Thomas Edward Brown
Specula by Thomas Edward Brown When He appoints to meet thee, go thou forth— It matters not If south or north, Bleak waste or sunny plot. Nor think, if haply He thou seek’st be late, He does thee wrong. To stile or gate Lean thou thy head, and long! It may be that to spy […]
Salve! by Thomas Edward Brown
Salve! by Thomas Edward Brown TO live within a cave–it is most good; But, if God make a day, And some one come, and say, ‘Lo! I have gather’d faggots in the wood!’ E’en let him stay, And light a fire, and fan a temporal mood! So sit till morning! when the light is grown […]
Risus Dei by Thomas Edward Brown
Risus Dei by Thomas Edward Brown Methinks in Him there dwells alway A sea of laughter very deep, Where the leviathans leap, And little children play, Their white feet twinkling on its crisped edge; But in the outer bay The strong man drives the wedge Of polished limbs, And swims. Yet there is one will […]
Pain by Thomas Edward Brown
Pain by Thomas Edward Brown The Man that hath great griefs I pity not; ’Tis something to be great In any wise, and hint the larger state, Though but in shadow of a shade, God wot! Moreover, while we wait the possible, This man has touched the fact, And probed till he has felt the […]
Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown
Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown As I was carving images from clouds, And tinting them with soft ethereal dyes Pressed from the pulp of dreams, one comes, and cries:– “Forbear!” and all my heaven with gloom enshrouds. “Forbear!” Thou hast no tools wherewith to essay The delicate waves of that elusive grain: Wouldst have due […]
My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown
My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fringed pool, Ferned grot– The veriest school Of peace; and yet the fool Contends that God is not– Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool? Nay, but I have a sign; ‘Tis very sure God walks in […]
Land, Ho! by Thomas Edward Brown
Land, Ho! by Thomas Edward Brown I know ’tis but a loom of land, Yet is it land, and so I will rejoice, I know I cannot hear His voice Upon the shore, nor see Him stand; Yet is it land, ho! land. The land! the land! the lovely land! ‘Far off,’ dost say? Far […]
Jessie by Thomas Edward Brown
Jessie by Thomas Edward Brown WHEN Jessie comes with her soft breast, And yields the golden keys, Then is it as if God caress’d Twin babes upon His knees– Twin babes that, each to other press’d, Just feel the Father’s arms, wherewith they both are bless’d. But when I think if we must part, And […]
If Thou Could’st Empty All Thyself Of Self by Thomas Edward Brown
If Thou Could’st Empty All Thyself Of Self by Thomas Edward Brown If thou could’st empty all thyself of self, Like to a shell dishabited, Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf, And say, “This is not dead,” And fill thee with Himself instead. But thou are all replete with very thou And […]
Ibant Obscur? by Thomas Edward Brown
Ibant Obscur? by Thomas Edward Brown To-night I saw three maidens on the beach, Dark-robed descending to the sea, So slow, so silent of all speech, And visible to me Only by that strange drift-light, dim, forlorn, Of the sun’s wreck and clashing surges born. Each after other went, And they were gathered to his […]
I bended unto me a Bough by Thomas Edward Brown
I bended unto me a Bough by Thomas Edward Brown I bended unto me a bough of May, That I might see and smell: It bore it in a sort of way, It bore it very well. But, when I let it backward sway, Then it were hard to tell With what a toss, with […]
Dora by Thomas Edward Brown
Dora by Thomas Edward Brown SHE knelt upon her brother’s grave, My little girl of six years old– He used to be so good and brave, The sweetest lamb of all our fold; He used to shout, he used to sing, Of all our tribe the little king– And so unto the turf her ear […]
Disguises by Thomas Edward Brown
Disguises by Thomas Edward Brown High stretched upon the swinging yard, I gather in the sheet; But it is hard And stiff, and one cries haste. Then He that is most dear in my regard Of all the crew gives aidance meet; But from His hands, and from His feet, A glory spreads wherewith the […]