In April OnceYale University Press, 1920 - 134 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
adventure APRIL ONCE art thou battle beauty beneath bird blood bloom blow blue breath broadsword Christ CORINTH crusade dark David dawn dead death deeds deep Douarnenez dream earth Emperor eternal eyes faith Felice fight flame flesh France God's gods Greece grey guard hath hear hear the sea heard heart heaven heretic Hugo Hush ILIUM jailer Jesus kiss land laughter leaves LEVKAS light live Lord loveliness lovers Master moon never night pale Palermo parapet perfume perhaps Persephone prayers Provence rain rapture road rush sail SAPPHO Sebastien Sepulchre Serle de Lanlarazon shining Sicily sing skies sleep Socrates song you love soul spirits spring stars sunlight sweet sword tears tempest there's Thessaly thine Thou art thou dost to-night tree troubadour turn Twill Voice watch weariness wilt wind wisdom wood young youth
Popular passages
Page 99 - And all their quarrellings with God Are soon made up again; They grant forgiveness when He sends His silver, tardy rain. Their pleasure is so grave and full When gathered crops are trim, You know they think their work was done In partnership with Him.
Page 96 - Heigh-ho, what a day! What a lovely day! Even too lovely to hop and play With my sheep, Or sleep In the sun! And so I lie in the deep, deep grass And watch the pages as they pass, And sing to them as they to me Till they turn the bend by the poplar tree. And then — O then, I sing right on To the leaves and the lambs and myself alone!
Page 109 - A VOLUNTEER'S GRAVE Not long ago it was a bird In vacant, lilac skies Could stir the sleep that hardly closed His laughing eyes. But here, where murdering thunders rock The lintels of the dawn, Although they shake his shallow bed Yet he sleeps on. Another spring with rain and leaf And buds serenely red, And this wise field will have forgot Its youthful dead. And, wise of heart, who loved him best Will be forgetting, too, Even before their own beds gleam With heedless dew. Yet what have all the centuries...
Page 69 - Overtones I HEARD a bird at break of day Sing from the autumn trees A song so mystical and calm, So full of certainties, No man, I think, could listen long Except upon his knees. Yet this was but a simple bird, Alone, among dead trees.
Page 96 - Century) The leaves, the little birds, and I, The fleece clouds and the sweet, sweet sky, The pages singing as they ride Down there, down there where the river is wide — Heigh-ho, what a day ! What a lovely day ! Even too lovely to hop and play With my sheep, Or sleep In the sun ! And so I lie in the deep, deep grass And watch the pages as they pass, And sing to them as they to me Till they turn the bend by the poplar tree. And then...
Page 24 - Century) GOD'S lark at morning I would be! I'd set my heart within a tree Close to His bed and sing to Him Right merrily A sunrise hymn. At night I'd be God's troubadour! Beneath His starry walls I'd pour Across the moat such roundelays He'd love me sure — And maybe praise! William Alexander Percy [1885HOW THE LITTLE KITE LEARNED TO FLY "I NEVER can do it...
Page 99 - I watch the farmers in their fields And marvel secretly. They are so very calm and sure, They have such dignity. They know such simple things so well, Although their learning's small, They find a steady, brown content Where some find none at all. And all their quarrelings with God Are soon made up again; They grant forgiveness when He sends His silver, tardy rain.
Page 98 - Do you remember how the twilight stood And leaned above the river just to see If still the crocus buds were in her hood And if her robes were gold or shadowy? Do you remember how the twilight stood When we were lovers and the world our wood? And then, one night, when we could find no word But silence trembled like a heart — like mine! — And suddenly that moon-enraptured bird Awoke and all the darkness turned to wine? How long ago that was! And how absurd For us to own a wood that owned a bird!...
Page 125 - twill be With accolade and spurs, And many a tale of chivalry, And the deeds of warriors. And should I not, O break for me No buds nor funeral boughs — I go with the noblest company That ever death did house.
Page 73 - And striking vaguely hand on tired hand For an encore, to fill the ghastly pause? I do not know. Some rhythm there may be I cannot hear. But I — oh, I must go Back where the breakers of deep sunlight roll Across flat fields that love and touch the sky; Back to the more of earth, the less of man, Where there is still a plain simplicity, And friendship, poor in everything but love, And faith, unwise, unquestioned, but a star. Soon now the peace of summer will be there With cloudy fire of myrtles...