Across the dial that's so warm to feel Like a cold, stealthy, creeping, living thing. You cannot see it steal Minute from minute of the golden day Till all are eaten away, You cannot press it back with both your hands, And, on the shadowed stone Laying your cheek, you never warmth can bring To what beneath the sad triangle stands, Solitary in sunlight: for we know, It takes the whole great swinging earth to throw The little shadow on the little stone. 

 

 

   "TWO ONLY" 

 Only two hearts shall understand the sea That speaks at nightfall, in the wash and lap Of windless evenings under flaming skies; Only two hearts shall hear the rising sap In wet spring woods; and two alone, grown wise In union, shall make discovery Of what lies hidden, though before our eyes. 

 Oh, core of wonder in familiar things: Magic of evening, and of early morn But just created, with the dew of birth All fresh upon it, heaven itself new-born O'er the green splendour of the quiet earth And like a just-awakened bird that sings Because of sunlight, is the spirit's mirth. 

 All forms of beauty but express the soul As in a looking-glass; the wind that goes Low-talking to the trees beneath the stars, Or the small sound of water, as it flows Under old bridges, where the ivy mars The sharp stone outline—these are in the whole Of the World-Symphony small, tuneful bars. 

 And human beings in the span of years Some part of all the world-wealth may receive, More, less, but never all; and with dismay We see slow Time his net of hours weave To catch from us dear mortal night and day, Ere we have taken in our eyes and ears Beauty that lies around, beyond, away. 

 We, singly, feel a sudden sharp regret Behind all beauty, but we—two in one, As white and blue are separate in a flame Yet mingled—we shall watch the hours run Seeing with surer knowledge how the same Eternal splendour for the soul is set, And the day comes again from whence day came. 

 

 

 THE SAINT'S BIRTHDAY 

 One of God's blessed pitying saints one day, Reaching out hands to touch the azure throne: "Because it is my birthday, Lord," he said, "That I was born in heaven, when I was known By an earthly name, and stoned and left for dead, 

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