Selected Poems by Radclyffe Hall from her following works:

A SHEAF OF VERSES
'TWIXT EARTH AND STARS
POEMS OF THE PAST & PRESENT

Selected and compiled by Brenda Wood
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From A SHEAF OF VERSES.
 

ODE TO SAPPHO

Immortal Lesbian! canst thou still behold
From some far sphere wherein thy soul doth sing
This earth, that once was thine, while glimmered gold
The joyous beams of youth's forgotten spring?

Can thine unfathomed eyes embrace this sea,
Whose ebb and flow once echoed in thy brain?
Whose tides bear record of thine ecstasy
And thy despair, that in its arms hath lain?

Those love-burnt lips! Can death have quenched
their fire?
Whose words oft stir our senses tto unrest?
Whose eager ardour caught and held desire,
A searing flame against thy living breast?

Passion--wan Lesbian, in that awful place
Where spirits wander lost without a name
Thou still art Sappho, and thine ardent face
Lights up the gloom with love's enduring flame.

Oh! Goddess, woman, lover, all divine
And yet divinely mortal, where thou art
Comes not as cadence from some song of thine
Each throbbing beat that stirs the human heart?

Canst thou forget us who are still thy friends,
Thy lovers, o'er the cloudy gulf of years?
Who live, and love, and dying make amends
For life's short pleasures thro' death's endless fears?

Once thou didst seek the solace of thy kind,
The madness of a kiss was more to theee
Than Heaven or Hell, the greatness of thy mind
Could not concieve more potent ecstasy!

Life was thy slave, and gave thee of her store
Rich gifts and many, yet with all the pain
Of hopeless longing made thy spirit sore,
E'en thou didst yearn, and couldest not attain.

Oh! Sappho, sister, by that agony
Of soul and body hastt thou gained a place
Within each age that shines majestic'ly
Across the world from out the dusk of space.

Not thy deep pleasures, nor thy swiftest joys,
Have made thee thus, immortal and yet dear
To mortal hearts, but that which naught destroys,
The sacred image of thy falling tear.

Beloved Lesbian! we would dare tto claim
By that same tear fond union with thy lot;
Yet 'tis enough, if when we breatthe thy name
Thy soul but listens, and forgets us not.
p. 36
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From 'TWIXT EARTH AND STARS.
 

TO--

Dear heart! I was going away,
Could you not have spared me an hour
Of all your bountiful day?
No moment, no word, no flower
To keep; not even a tear?
My soul was so thirsty, dear!
p. 14
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IF ONLY

Oh! if one could only learn not to care,
To be utterly indifferent storm or fair;
And to saay there's always pain
With the joy, I don't complain,
For the sunshine draws the rain
Everywhere.

Oh! if one could only learn not to feel;
To be absolutely callous, falso or real;
And to let the world go by,
With a laugh to cap its sigh,
With a jest to meet its lie,
Cold as steel.
p. 17
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CONFESSION

Within the portals of thy shrine
Beforee thy presence, dearest mine,
I kneel, beseeching thee to bless
My penitence, while I confess,
And can a saint do any less?

If I have sinned as others do,
All human hearts the wide world through
Are erring things, and then with me
My greatest wrong was loving thee,
Wilt thou condemn my constancy?

Look down, dear heart, and let thine eyes
Commend my soul to Paradise.
He little sins, who sins in this
That obtain eternal bliss
Seeks the communion of a kiss.
p. 18
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THE DAY

The day walks over the mountains,
To the splash of a thousand fountains,
To the song of a million streams.
Her hair is unbound and flowing,
Her eyes are as bluebells growing
In a valley of shade and dreams.

Her breast, than the snow is whiter,
Her lips, than the poppies brighter,
Her limbs are as strong white fire.
Thus she comes from the sky above her
To the arms of the Earth her lover,
In a splendour of warm desire.
p. 32
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MY LOVE

My love is a bird with a broken wing,
Alone in a stormy night;
My love is a lark that forgets to sing
And dies with tthe morning light.

My love is a rose that the wind has torn,
And crushed with a breath of pain;
My love is song with the sweetness gone,
A tune with a lost refrain.

My love is a ghost that has missed its way,
A spirit from Heaven cast;
My love is a joy of a bygone day,
The soul of a burning past.
p. 20
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A MEMORY

No, I have not forgotten you,
Although I went my way
Unanswered, as you wished me to,
With none to bid me stay.

For in my heart there is a space
Whose door you closed to me,
Locked in the memory of your face:
then took away the key.
p. 21
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TO--

What you deny me, you gave;
You cannot take it again
In life and after the grave
There is something that even then,
Death will not kill or destroy,
It is so with the hearts of men.

Even your pride cannot rob
My life of its blessed past;
You cannot recall one throb,
One glance of many cast
From those dear, passionate eyes;
These things will be mine to the last.
p. 22
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ON THE MOUNTAIN

Below and above, yes, over and under us,
Swift clouds hover, and speed and fly;
Nothing we see that can hurt or sunder us
Here in the arms of the circling sky.

Surely we two must belong to eachother,
Silently mated where one are nigh
Save God our Father, and Earth our Mother,
And sweetest of all, dear-- You and I.
p. 23
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TO--

When she turns aside to pass us by,
With a little smile or a glance only
We are all alone, my Heart and I,
We are all alone, and very lonely.
p. 24
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THE PRAYER

There stood beside the road a shrine,
In whose quaint, vaulted shadow smiled
With eys of tenderness devine,
The Blessed Virgin and her Child.

And I, who wandered all alone,
Along a rough and weary way,
Felt that a greatt desire had grown
Within my heart, to kneel and pray.

But Lo!
My voice had lost the power
To utter words so deep and sweet,
And so, I breathed them in a flower,
And left it, at the Virgin's feet.
p. 25
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IF

If all the words you spoke, dear,
Were every one untrue,
There can be nothing good, dear,
In earth, or sun, or dew;
And all the world's a lie, dear,
Because of you.

If all the smiles you gave, dear,
Were only to bequile,
Why then there's nothing sweet, dear,
In any human smile;
Aand what we deem most fair, dear, Is only vile.

If every kiss that lingered
Upon the lips you pressed,
Was but an empty token,
More fickle than the rest;
I wish that I had died, dear,
For death were best.
p. 26
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TO--

The wind's on the hill,
The sun's on the lea,
The lark's on the wing
And the dawn's on the sea,
Aand the rapture that springeth of Love,
is on me.
p. 28
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THOUGHTS

Ah! the kiss of the sweet night air,
And the sttill, deep eyes of the cloudy skies,
Grown dim with peace:
Peace, the angel of death, that is everywhere.

Ah1 the bliss of the soul at rest,
And of eyes that weep growing calm in sleep,
Hushed by night:
Night, the shadow of death, that in blessing is blessed.
p. 29
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FROM MY SOUL

Oh! but to find expression for the thoughts,
So marvellous and yet so undefined,
That flow from out the palpitating soul
To consecrate the mind.

Oh! but to have the gift to put in words,
That potent passion, that divine desire,
That thrills the aching spirit with unrest
And sets the brain on fire.

Oh! God, but once to rise above the flesh,
To breathe out inmost thoughts in one vast sigh
Of rapture.  Oh! to realise ourselves,
And at that moment . . . die.
p. 33
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TO SINGERS

Sing with your intellect and soul combined;
Not all technique, nor yet all wild emotion,
Thus shall you touch the heart and please the mind,
Winning a real and merited devotion.
p. 38
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PURGATORY

She said, "I want to live no matter what
The penalty, give me on earth the lott
 I most desire.
Let me drink deep of love, of joy, of life.
Scatter the roses , let the wine run rife
Dear Gods above, and then let fall the knife
 I will expire."

The Gods smiled sadly, very well they knew
Her ardent spirit could ascend the blue,
 And force their will.
Such weak old Deities these latter days
Could not comply to her imperious ways.
With woeful doubts they showed the flowery maze
 Of rapturous ill.

And she was happy : with that hot content
That burns away the flesh, that ravishment
 Of youth grown bold.
Until one morn the roses of her bed
Were turned to nettles, all the joy was dead,
 The passion cold.

She cried, "Now lett me die, to lie a day
Were Purgatory.  See the awful way
 I gaze upon."
The Gods were silent ; powerless to avert
The consequence, grown wearily inert.
 So--she lived on.
p. 39-40
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AWAKENING

To open your drowsy eyes,
To stretch your limbs and realise
 That day is here.
To watch the dancing, shifting beam
Of sun, awake yet half in dream,
Uncertain if the fitful gleam
 Be far or near.

To turn with soft, contented sigh,
And through the window watch the sky,
 All opal blue.
To feel the air steal in the room,
Made fragrant by the soft perfume
Of lime-trees, when their scented bloom
 Is damp with dew.

To hear the rustling voice of leaves,
The chirp of birds beneath the eaves,
 But now awake.
The tiny hum of timid things
That fly with gauzy, fragile wings,
Where yet the dusk to daylight clings,
 When mornings break.

To feel the soul look forth and smile,
Contented with each fruitful mile
 That it beholds.
To hear the heart beat loud and strong,
In unison with Nature's song,
That echoes tremulous and long
 While dawn unfolds.

To know yourself a thing complete,
With strength of mind and limb replete,
 With vast desire ;
A creature made to dominate
The lesser things of earth, a fate
On whom the universe must wait,
 With force entire.

And then to cry in deep delight
God made the world and made it right;
 Dear Heaven above!
Was ere completeness so complete,
Was ever sweetness half so sweet,
Was ever loving half so meet;
 Thank God for love.
p. 43-44
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SHE IS DEAD

Well! She is dead and gone,
 God willed it so.
Died ere her child was bron,
 Ever to know.

Dead! oh, how still and cold!
 Yet full of rest.
She was not very old
 Still, it was bestt.

Hush, chide her not, not now,
 Save by tear,
Dropped on that marble brow
 So smooth and dear.

Pity her as she lies
 There all alone;
Tenderly close her eyes,
Sorrowful grown.

Yes; she has sinned maybe,
 Willing to fall,
Yett now forgive . . . ah! see,
Death atones all.
p. 45
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THE WHOLE OF IT

A joy that passes, a pain that staays,
 Such is life.
A moment's rapture, then weary days,
 Years of strife,
 Such is life.

A kiss of passion , a sigh of pain,
 Such is love.
A flash of spendour, then nights again,
 God above,
 Such is love!

Aa sudden blindness, a creeping fear,
 Such is death.
Aan awful vastness, an unknown sphere,
 Choking breath,
 And then. . .death.
p. 47
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A FRAGMENT

Chance made me look at you,
  Chance was no friend!
Sight made me worship you.
  Time without end.

Had I been only blind
  What had I cared,
And thus, afflicted sore
  How much been spared!
p. 50
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from A SHEAF OF VERSES

RE-INCARNATION

Meeting you I felt a thrill,
  Strangely sad, and straangeely sweet!
Some compelling force of will,
  Sprungg from sympathies complete,
Sympathies, that rose again
After death's ennobling pain.
p. 35
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from POEMS OF THE PAST & PRESENT
(London, Chapman & Hall,1910)

A REFLECTION

I looked on Death a moment eye to eye,
  And feared him not, so swift the vision came;
  So hard upon the heels of life, that flame
Aand darkness mingled as they passed me by.

The sleepy winter fields about me lay,
  And hopeful trees that thought on future Springs,
  And peaceful farms, all dear familiar things,
That go to make the bounty of the day.

The blue smoke drifted on the happy air,
  A dog barked sharply, and a rabbit sped
  Into the thicket : slowly overhead
Some white clouds gathered very cold and fair.

Nothing was changed.  In that momentous hour
  It counted little that my soul should pass;
  The wings of Death stirred not a blade of grass,
Nor thrilled the slumber of one hidden flower!
p. 5
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AT DAYBREAK

I saw the beauty of this gracious earth
  Stretch like a dream before my wondering eyes,
  Beneath the iridescent morning skies
Deep-breasted hills pondered the coming birth
Of a new day, while little strains of mirth
  Rustled the woods with many laughing sighs.
  And in that hour of waking, I grew wise
With tender wisdom, knowing love's true worth.
I turned my gaze towards the distant blue
  That hid you from me, and with passion's might
I cried your name, and lo! my heart anew
  Was flooded over with the old delight.
  Your soul was with me, and my new-found sign
Percieved you in the day--the day in you.
p. 11
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TO A SONG

My little song, thou shamest me,
  Unless thou findest wings
To bear to one beyond the sea
  The love of one who sings.

Quick! get thee gone across the miles
  Of waves, and sky, and earth,
And turn the tears to happy smiles
  Of her who gave thee birth.
p. 32
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A FAREWELL

Take me in your arms and say,
Dear, I loved you yesterday,
    Loved your lips, and eyes, and hair,
    Gazed upon you, found you fair;
Then I'll kiss you and reply--
That was yesterday.  Good-bye!

Take me in your arms and say,
Dear, you loved me yesterday,
    Loved me with your strong sweet youth,
    All its passion, and its truth;
Then I'll kiss you and reply---
That was yesterday.  Good-bye!
p. 33
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Compiled by Brenda Wood:  20 FEB 2000
Page creeated 12 March 2000 20:00PST
Page last updated 12 March 2000 20:00PST