John Freeman Poems

I heard a voice upon the window beat
And then grow dim, grow still.
Opening I saw the snowy sill
Marked with the robin's feet.
...

I will ask primrose and violet to spend for you
Their smell and hue,
And the bold, trembling anemone awhile to spare
Her flowers starry fair;
...

To make a fairer,
A kinder, a more constant world than this;
To make time longer
And love a little stronger,
...

In that dark silent hour
When the wind wants power,
And in the black height
The sky wants light,
...

The birds return,
The blossom brightens again the cherry bough.
The hedges are green again
In the airless lane,
...

In those old days you were called beautiful,
But I have worn the beauty from your face;
The flowerlike bloom has withered on your cheek
...

Young as the Spring seemed life when she
Came from her silent East to me;
Unquiet as Autumn was my breast
When she declined into her West.
...

Sleep, sleep, you great and dim trees, sleeping on
The still warm, tender cheek of night,
And with her cloudy hair
...

Because the earth is vast and dark
And wet and cold;
Because man's heart wants warmth and light
...

When I came home from wanderings
In a tall chattering ship,
I thought a hundred happy things,
...