Open water Author:Arthur Stringer Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BLACK HOURS I Have drunk deep Of the well of bitterness. Black hours have harried me, Blind fate has bludgeoned my bent head, And on my brow the i... more »ron crown Of sorrow has been crushed. And being mortal, I have cried aloud At anguish ineluctable. But over each black hour has hung Forlorn this star of knowledge: The path of pain too great to be endured Leads always unto peace; And when the granite road of anguish mounts BLACK HOURS 29 Up and still up to its one ultimate And dizzy height of torture, Softly it dips and meets The valley of endless rest! BEFORE RENEWAL Summer is dead. And love is gone. And life is glad of this. For sad were both, with having given much; And bowed were both, with great desires fulfilled; And both were grown too sadly wise Ever to live again. Too aged with hours o'er-passionate, Too deeply sung by throats That took no thought of weariness, Moving too madly toward the crest of things, Giving too freely of the fountaining sap, Crowding too gladly into grass and leaves, BEFORE RENEWAL 31 Breathing too blindly into flower and song! Again the lyric hope may thrill the world, Again the sap may sweeten into leaves, Again will grey-eyed April come With all her choiring throats; But not to-day— For the course is run. And the cruse is full, And the loin ungirt, And the hour ordained! And now there is need of rest; And need of renewal there is; And need of silence, And need of sleep. Too clear the light Now lies on hill and valley; And little is left to say, And nothing is left to give. Summer is dead; And love is gone! HILL-TOP HOURS I Am through with regret. No more shall I kennel with pain. I have called to th...« less