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Lionel Johnson

Lionel Johnson

The Precept of Silence

I KNOW you: solitary griefs
Desolate passions, aching hours!
I know you: tremulous beliefs,
Agonized hopes, and ashen flowers!
The winds are sometimes sad to me,
The starry spaces, full of fear;
Mine is the sorrow on the sea,
And mine the sigh of places drear.
Some players upon plaintive strings
Publish their wistfulness abroad;
I have not spoken of these things,
Save to one man, and unto God.

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July

SUMMER lightning, and rich rain… Roses perfume the hot air. All the breathless night is faint, All the flowery night is fair. Philomel her joy or plaint
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All, that he came to give, He gave, and went again: I have seen one man live, I have seen one man reign, With all the graces in his train.
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A TERRIBLE and splendid trust, Heartens the host of Innisfail; Their dream is of the swift sword-… The lightning glory of the Gael. Croagh Patrick is the place of pr…
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To Dr. Birbeck Hill Why, no Sir! If a barren rascal c… That he is most in love with pleas… ’Tis plain, Sir! what to think of… The dog lies; and the dog, too, kn…
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THE night is full of stars, full… Nightingales hold the wood, and fr… Behold, what fires august, what li… What passionate music poured in pa… Breathe but the wafting wind’s noc…
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IMAGERIES of dreams reveal a g… Black armour, falling lace, and al… The courtesy of saints, their gent… Lights on an earth more fair, than… The courtesy of knights, fair calm…
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To Morfydd

A VOICE on the winds, A voice by the waters, Wanders and cries: Oh! what are the winds? And what are the waters?
In Memory

Ah! fair face gone from sight, With all its light Of eyes that pierced the deep! Oh human night! Ah! fair face calm in sleep!
The Dark Angel

DARK Angel, with thine aching lu… To rid the world of penitence: Malicious Angel, who still dost My soul such subtile violence! Because of thee, no thought, no th…
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The Destroyer of a Soul

I HATE you with a necessary hate… First, I sought patience: passion… My patience turned in very scorn o… That I should dare forgive a sin… As this, through which I sit disc…
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Dead

To Olivier Georges Destrée IN Merioneth, over the sad moor Drives the rain, the cold wind blo… Past the ruinous church door, The poor procession without music…
To a Traveller

The mountains, and the lonely deat… Upon the lonely mountains: O stro… The wandering over, and the labour… Thou art indeed at rest: Earth gave thee of her best,
Mystic and Cavalier

GO from me: I am one of those who… What! hath no cold wind swept your… In my sad company? Before the end… Go from me, dear my friend! Yours are the victories of light:…
Oxford

OVER, the four long years! And n… One voice of freedom and regret:… Now old remembrance sorrows, and n… But song from sorrow, now, I cann… City of weathered cloister and wor…
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross

SOMBRE and rich, the skies, Great glooms, and starry plains; Gently the night wind sighs; Else a vast silence reigns. The splendid silence clings



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