Adelaide Crapsey

“If itWere lighter touchThan petal of flower restingOn grass, oh still too heavy it were,Too heavy!”

“If illness' end be health regained then I Will pay you, Asculapeus, when I die.”

“The old Old winds that blew When chaos was, what do They tell the clattered trees that I Should weep?”

“Three grey women walk with me Fate and Grief and Memory. My fate brought grief; my grief must be With me through Eternity, Such thy power, memory.Three grey women walk with me.”

“Not thou, White rose, but thy Ensanguined sister is The dear companion of my heart's Shed blood.”

“Is it as plainly in our living shown,By which way the wind hath blown?”

“Sea-foam And coral! Oh, I'll Climb the great pasture rocks And dream me mermaid in the sun's Gold flood.”

“Oh Lady, let the sad tears fall To speak thy pain, Gently as through the silver dusk The silver rain. Oh, let thy bosom breathe its grief In such soft sigh As hath the wind in gardens where Pale roses die.”

“Why do You thus devise Evil against her?' 'For that She is beautiful, delicate; Therefore.”

“And the centurion who stood by said: Truly this was a son of God. Not long ago but everywhere I go There is a hill and a black windy sky. Portent of hill, sky, day's eclipse I know; Hill, sky, the shuddering darkness, these am I. The dying at His right hand, at His left, I am - the thief redeemed and the lost thief; I am the careless folk; I those bereft, The Well-Belov'd, the women bowed in grief. The gathering Presence that in terror cried, In earth's shock in the Temple's veil rent through, I; and a watcher, ignorant, curious-eyed, I the centurion who heard and knew”

“Sun and wind and beat of sea,Great lands stretching endlessly...Where be bonds to bind the free?All the world was made for me!”

“Peter stands by the gate, And Michael by the throne. 'Peter, I would pass the gate And come before the throne.' 'Whose spirit prayed never at the gate In life nor at the throne, In death he may not pass the gate To come before the throne:' Peter said from the gate; Said Michael from the throne.”

“Pain ebbs, And like cool balm, An opiate weariness Settles on eye-lids, on relaxed Pale wrists.”

“Thou hast Drawn laughter from A well of secret tears And thence so elvish it rings, -mocking And sweet.”