John Shaw Neilson Poems

THE STARS are pale.
Old is the Night, his case is grievous,
His strength doth fail.
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Shyly the silver-hatted mushrooms make
Soft entrance through,
And undelivered lovers, half awake,
Hear noises in the dew
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Let your song be delicate.
The skies declare
No war — the eyes of lovers
Wake everywhere.
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YOU, AND YELLOW AIR by John Shaw Neilson
I dream of an old kissing-time
And the flowered follies there;
In the dim place of cherry-trees,
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Fear it has faded and the night:
The bells all peal the hour of nine:
The schoolgirls hastening through the light
Touch the unknowable Divine.
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I would be dismal with all the fine pearls of the crown of a king;
But I can talk plainly to you, you little blue flower of the Spring!
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ALL singers have shadows
That follow like fears,
But I know a singer
Who never saw tears;
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Three women walked upon a road,
And the first said airily,
“Of all the trees in all the world
Which is the loving tree?”
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Ragged, unheeded, stooping, meanly shod,
The poor pass to the pond: not far away
The spires go up to God.
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The bird is my neighbour, a whimsical fellow and dim;
There is in the lake a nobility falling on him.
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