Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Fragment XXXVI

H. D.

I KNOW not what to do—

My mind is reft.

Is song’s gift best?

Is love’s gift loveliest?

I know not what to do,

Now sleep has pressed

Weight on your eyelids.

Shall I break your rest,

Devouring, eager?

Is love’s gift best?—

Nay, song’s the loveliest.

Yet, were you lost,

What rapture could I take from song?—

What song were left?

I know not what to do:

To turn and slake

The rage that burns,

With my breath burn

And trouble your cool breath—

So shall I turn and take

Snow in my arms,

(Is love’s gift best?)

Yet flake on flake

Of snow were comfortless,

Did you lie wondering,

Wakened yet unawake.

Shall I turn and take

Comfortless snow within my arms,

Press lips to lips that answer not,

Press lips to flesh

That shudders not nor breaks?

Is love’s gift best?—

Shall I turn and slake

All the wild longing?

Oh, I am eager for you!

As the Pleiads shake

White light in whiter water,

So shall I take you?

My mind is quite divided;

My minds hesitate,

So perfect matched

I know not what to do.

Each strives with each:

As two white wrestlers,

Standing for a match,

Ready to turn and clutch,

Yet never shake

Muscle or nerve or tendon;

So my mind waits

To grapple with my mind—

Yet I am quiet,

I would seem at rest.

I know not what to do.

Strain upon strain,

Sound surging upon sound,

Makes my brain blind;

As a wave line may wait to fall,

Yet waiting for its falling

Still the wind may take,

From off its crest,

White flake on flake of foam,

That rises

Seeming to dart and pulse

And rend the light,

So my mind hesitates

Above the passion

Quivering yet to break,

So my mind hesitates above my mind

Listening to song’s delight.

I know not what to do.

Will the sound break,

Rending the night

With rift on rift of rose

And scattered light?

Will the sound break at last

As the wave hesitant,

Or will the whole night pass

And I lie listening awake?