Jan Struther Poems

THE raw materials of love are yours-
Fond hearts, and lusty blood, and minds in tune;
And so, dear innocents! you think yourselves
...

THEY are wrong. It is not the knowing of good from evil,
Virtue from vice,
God from devil,
That drives us from paradise:
...

Some god, quite irresponsible and young,
Has jumbled time and place and dealt amiss:
A day of Grecian spring-time he has flung
Into this winter-bound Metropolis.
...

ACROSS our universe of steady stars,
Of maypole planets tethered to the sun,
Sometimes a wonder flies.
...

NOT much longer now
Will the eye see
Bonework of bole and bough,
The beautiful, austere
Essentials of the tree.
Intricate tracery
...

She said, 'I have no need for treasure,
For brooches and for jewelled rings.'
Proudly she said, 'I take my pleasure
In truer, kindlier things.'
She said, 'I have a dear lover,
...

Earth has borne a little son;
He is a very little one.
He has a head of golden hair
And a grave, unwinking stare.
...

Saint Valentine looked down from heaven
Upon his own especial day,
And scanned the broad face of the earth
Below him as it lay.
...

She was too lovely for remembrance-
Let us forget her like a dream,
Lest all our days and all our nights hereafter
Empty should seem.
...

TO grow older is this:
To feel on the first rose
The breath malign and fell
Of the first icicle,
And in the earliest kiss
...