THE LOOM OF YEARS
by: Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)
- N the light
of the silent stars that shine on the struggling sea,
- In the weary cry of the wind and the whisper of flower and
tree,
- Under the breath of laughter, deep in the tide of tears,
- I hear the Loom of the Weaver that weaves the Web of Years.
-
- The leaves of the winter wither and sink in the forest mould
- To colour the flowers of April with purple and white and
gold:
- Light and scent and music die and are born again
- In the heart of a grey-haired woman who wakes in a world
of pain.
-
- The hound, the fawn, and the hawk, and the doves that croon
and coo,
- We are all one woof of the weaving and the one warp threads
us through,
- One flying cloud on the shuttle that carries our hopes and
fears
- As it goes thro the Loom of the Weaver that weaves
the Web of Years.
-
- The green uncrumpling fern and the rustling dewdrenched rose
- Pass with our hearts to the Silence where the wings of music
close,
- Pass and pass to the Timeless that never a moment mars,
- Pass and pass to the Darkness that made the suns and stars.
-
- Has the soul gone out in the Darkness? Is the dust sealed
from sight?
- Ah, hush, for the woof of the ages returns thro the
warp of the night!
- Never that shuttle loses one thread of our hopes and fears,
- As it comes thro the Loom of the Weaver that weaves
the Web of Years.
-
- O, woven in one wide Loom thro the throbbing weft of
the whole,
- One in spirit and flesh, one in body and soul,
- Tho the leaf were alone in its falling, the bird in
its hour to die,
- The heart in its muffled anguish, the sea in its mournful
cry,
-
- One with the flower of a day, one with the withered moon
- One with the granite mountains that melt into the noon
- One with the dream that triumphs beyond the light of the
spheres,
- We come from the Loom of the Weaver that weaves the Web of
Years.
"The Loom of Years" is
reprinted from The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse.
Ed. D. H. S. Nicholson & A. H. E. Lee. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1917. |
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POEMS BY ALFRED NOYES |
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