Chapter I: Front Matter

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| Transcriber's Note |
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| Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in |
| this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of |
| this document. |
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SEA GARDEN

The editors and publishers concerned have kindly given me permission to reprint some of the poems in this book which appeared originally in "Poetry" (Chicago), "The Egoist" (London), "The Little Review" (Chicago), "Greenwich Village" (New York), the first Imagist anthology (New York: A. and C. Boni. London: Poetry Bookshop), the second Imagist anthology ("Some Imagist Poets," London: Constable and Co. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.).

SEA GARDEN

BY

H. D.

LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD. 1916

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

CONTENTS

PAGE

SEA ROSE 1

THE HELMSMAN 2

THE SHRINE 4

MID-DAY 7

PURSUIT 8

THE CONTEST 10

SEA LILY 12

THE WIND SLEEPERS 13

THE GIFT 14

EVENING 17

SHELTERED GARDEN 18

SEA POPPIES 20

LOSS 21

HUNTRESS 23

GARDEN 24

SEA VIOLET 25

THE CLIFF TEMPLE 26

ORCHARD 29

SEA GODS 30

ACON 33

NIGHT 35

PRISONERS 36

STORM 39

SEA IRIS 40

HERMES OF THE WAYS 41

PEAR TREE 43

CITIES 44

THE CITY IS PEOPLED 47

SEA GARDEN

SEA ROSE

Rose, harsh rose,
marred and with stint of petals,
meagre flower, thin,
sparse of leaf,

more precious
than a wet rose
single on a stem--
you are caught in the drift.

Stunted, with small leaf,
you are flung on the sand,
you are lifted
in the crisp sand
that drives in the wind.

Can the spice-rose
drip such acrid fragrance
hardened in a leaf?

THE HELMSMAN

O be swift--
we have always known you wanted us.

We fled inland with our flocks,
we pastured them in hollows,
cut off from the wind
and the salt track of the marsh.

We worshipped inland--
we stepped past wood-flowers,
we forgot your tang,
we brushed wood-grass.

We wandered from pine-hills
through oak and scrub-oak tangles,
we broke hyssop and bramble,
we caught flower and new bramble-fruit
in our hair: we laughed
as each branch whipped back,
we tore our feet in half buried rocks
and knotted roots and acorn-cups.

We forgot--we worshipped,
we parted green from green,
we sought further thickets,
we dipped our ankles
through leaf-mould and earth,
and wood and wood-bank enchanted us--

and the feel of the clefts in the bark,
and the slope between tree and tree--
and a slender path strung field to field
and wood to wood
and hill to hill
and the forest after it.

We forgot--for a moment
tree-resin, tree-bark,
sweat of a torn branch
were sweet to the taste.

We were enchanted with the fields,
the tufts of coarse grass
in the shorter grass--
we loved all this.

But now, our boat climbs--hesitates--drops--
climbs--hesitates--crawls back--
climbs--hesitates--
O be swift--
we have always known you wanted us.

THE SHRINE

("SHE WATCHES OVER THE SEA")