Joseph Skipsey Poems

I THANK my God I ever lived to see the blessèd day,
When the spirit's immortality to me is rendered clear
Not by a logic might be made some other tune to play,
But by a flash of inner light too keen for doubt to bear.
...

'I HAVE oped my inner vision,'
(Spake the Spirit to the Seer,)
'Now I'll show to thee the mission
Which whatever betides—whate'er—
...

A PHANTOM to me thou appearest
But, spite of this seeming, I know,
The magical image thou wearest
Is real as the lilies in blow—
...

THEE glory of her charms I felt,
And thro' my frame electric ran
What made my stubborn heart to melt,
And feel as hearts of passion can;
...

THE stars are twinkling in the sky,
As to the pit I go;
I think not of the sheen on high,
But of the gloom below.
...

WHAT can he ail? I hear them ask
And what can make his cheek so pale?
Ah, that to answer were a task
For which no effort could avail,
...

'LOVE'S a pleasure, love's a treasure,
Why the joys of love withstand?'
Alf so pleadeth, Effie heedeth
And—What ails the lily-wand?
...

I HAD a vision of the dear departed,
The while stone-dead to outer thing I lay;
And 'Go,' she said—'and tell the broken-hearted,
What now my will shall to thy mind convey.
...

PERFIDIOUS damsel, with thy dazzling eyes,
Those skill'd enchanters of a sunnier clime,
Thou, thou hast charmed the dragon Reason, couched
Before my soul's Hesperides, and filched
...

LAST night at the Fair did I lose thee, my honey—
I hunted thee south and I hunted thee north;
I'd rather than lost thee have lost all the money
That all the great lords in the kingdom are worth.
...