Alfred Noyes

In the Heart of the Woods

I

The Heart of the woods, I hear it, beating, beating afar,
In the glamour and gloom of the night, in the light of the rosy star,
In the cold sweet voice of the bird, in the throb of the flower-soft
sea!...
For the Heart of the woods is the Heart of the world and the
Heart of Eternity,
Ay, and the burning passionate Heart of the heart in you and me.

Love of my heart, love of the world, linking the golden moon
With the flowery moths that flutter thro' the scented leaves of June,
And the mind of man with beauty, and youth with the dreaming night
Of stars and flowers and waters and breasts of glimmering white,
And streaming hair of fragrant dusk and flying limbs of lovely light;

Life of me, life of me, shining in sun and cloud and wind,
In the dark eyes of the fawn and the eyes of the hound behind,
In the leaves that lie in the seed unsown, and the dream of the
babe unborn,
O, flaming tides of my blood, as you flow thro' flower and root
and thorn,
I feel you burning the boughs of night to kindle the fires of morn.

Soul of me, soul of me, yearning wherever a lavrock sings,
Or the crimson gloom is winnowed by the whirr of wood-doves' wings,
Or the spray of the foam-bow rustles in the white dawn of the moon,
And mournful billows moan aloud, _Come soon, soon, soon,
Come soon, O Death with the Heart of love and the secret of the rune._

Heart of me, heart of me, heart of me, beating, beating afar,
In the green gloom of the night, in the light of the rosy star,
In the cold sweet voice of the bird, in the throb of the flower-soft
sea!...
O, the Heart of the woods is the Heart of the world and the
Heart of Eternity,
Ay, and the burning passionate Heart of the heart in you and me.


II

O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood,
  The song is in my blood, night and day:
We will pluck a scented petal from the Rose upon the Rood
  Where Love lies bleeding on the way.
We will listen to the linnet and watch the waters leap,
  When the clouds go dreaming by,
And under the wild roses and the stars we will sleep,
  And wander on together, you and I.

We shall understand the mystery that none has understood,
  We shall know why the leafy gloom is green.
O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood
  When we see what the stars have seen!
We have heard the hidden song of the soft dews falling
  At the end of the last dark sky,
Where all the sorrows of the world are calling,
  We must wander on together, you and I.

They are calling, calling, _Away, come away!_
  And we know not whence they call;
For the song is in our hearts, we hear it night and day,
  As the deep tides rise and fall:
_O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood,
  While the hours and the years roll by!_
We have heard it, we have heard it, but we have not understood,
  We must wander on together, you and I.

The wind may beat upon us, the rain may blind our eyes,
  The leaves may fall beneath the winter's wing;
But we shall hear the music of the dream that never dies,
  And we shall know the secret of the Spring.
We shall know how all the blossoms of evil and of good
  Are mingled in the meadows of the sky;
And then--if Death can find us in the heart of the wood--
  We shall wander on together, you and I.