The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poems of West & East, by Vita Sackville-West

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Title: Poems of West & East

Author: Vita Sackville-West

Release Date: January 4, 2010 [EBook #30842]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS OF WEST & EAST ***

Produced by Cindy Wolfe Boynton, www.cindywolfeboynton.com

Poems

of

West and East

By V. Sackville-West

(The Hon. Mrs. Harold Nicolson)

London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, Vigo St., W.

New York: John Lane Company, MCMXVII

Printed at The Complete Press, West Norwood

To the unkindest of critics H.G.N.

CONTENTS

FOR ***
SONG: LET US GO BACK
SONG: MY SPIRIT LIKE A SHEPHERD BOY
CONVALESCENCE
TO KNOLE
DISILLUSION
THE BANQUET
MCMXVIII
A CREED
TO A POET
NOMADS
THE GARDEN
THE DANCING ELF
CONSTANTINOPLE:
DHJI-HAN-GHIR
LEBLEBIDJI
THE MUEZZIN
THE GREEK HAN
YANGHIN VAR
MORNING IN CONSTANTINOPLE
RETOUR EN SONGE
CONSTANTINOPLE, MARCH MCMXV
RESOLUTION

POEMS

FOR ***

NO eyes shall see the poems that I write
For you; not even yours; but after long
Forgetful years have passed on our delight
Some hand may chance upon a dusty song

Of those fond days when every spoken word
Was sweet, and all the fleeting things unspoken
Yet sweeter, and the music half unheard
Murmured through forests as a charm unbroken.

It is the plain and ordinary page
Of two who loved, sole-spirited and clear.
Will you, O stranger of another age,
Not grant a human and compassionate tear
To us, who each the other held so dear?
A single tear fraternal, sadly shed,
Since that which was so living, is so dead.

SONG: LET US GO BACK

LET us go back together to the hills.
Weary am I of palaces and courts,
Weary of words disloyal to my thoughts,--
Come, my beloved, let us to the hills.

Let us go back together to the land,
And wander hand in hand upon the heights;
Kings have we seen, and manifold delights,--
Oh, my beloved, let us to the land!

Lone and unshackled, let us to the road
Which ho