Chapter I: Front Matter

PERPETUAL LIGHT

"Ah, do not turn to me that face which is no longer of this world!... There are enough angels to serve the mass in Heaven! Have pity on me, who am only a man without wings, who rejoiced in this companion God had given me, and that I should hear her sigh with her head resting on my shoulder!... the bitterness like the bitterness of myrrh... And for you age is already come. But how hard it is to renounce when the heart is young!"

"THE TIDINGS BROUGHT TO MARY"

PERPETUAL LIGHT

A Memorial.

BY

WILLIAM ROSE BENÉT

..that we may be able to arrive with pure minds at the festival of perpetual light. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. --_Oremus._

DEDICATION

TO KATHLEEN AND MARGARET

Think of no verse when you read this, But think of her alone And her enduring benefice, Sunlight on stone.

For day is stone and night is stone Save she has made them bright, Now she knows all that may be known Of day and night.

Courage like hers we have from her, Strength to be straight and brave, And noble memories that recur And heal and save.

By her clear eyes, by her pure brows, We take the Sign, And kneel within her Father's house-- And yours and mine.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first eleven poems in the section entitled, "Before" originally appeared in my first volume, "Merchants from Cathay" published by the Century Company. This volume is now out of print and I hold the copyright. The three poems following these originally appeared in my second volume, "The Falconer of God and Other Poems." For permission to reprint a few of the remaining poems I have to thank the editors of _Reedy's Mirror, The Bang, The Lyric, The Madrigal_, The Sun Dial _(New York Evening Sun), Everybody's Magazine, The Century Magazine_, and "Books and the Book World" (New York Sunday Sun). For the group, "The Long Absence" in the section entitled, "After," I owe thanks to _The Yale Review_.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

BEFORE
The Snare of the Fowler
Thwarted Utterance
The Song of Her
"Always I Know You Anew"
The Rival Celestial
The Tamer of Steeds
Love in Armor
Wardrobe of Remembrance
The Second Covenant
Dedication to a First Book
The Shadowed Road
Love in the Dawn
"Had I a Claim to Fame?"
The One
Dream and Deed
A Taper of Incense
To Purity
Atonement
The Adoration
Talisman
Recognition
The Silver Hind
Aristeas Relates His Youth
Man Possessed
Miniature
Death Will Make Clear
Sunlight
And a Long Way Off He Saw Fairyland
In Time of Trouble
Anomaly
The Lover
Judgment
Unforgotten
The Pale Dancer
Premonition

AFTER
Introductory Poem
The Long Absence
By the Counsel of Her Hands
Strength Beyond Strength
Que Sais-Je?
Ebb-Tide
Coward
Aquilifer
The Woman
Pervigilium
Time Was
The Masters
When
Children
The Retreat
Sealed