Latest / The Gods of Mars / Beyond the Stars - Charles Hanson Towne
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Section one of Beyond the Stars. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 0:06Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 0:10Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot o work
- 0:17Speaker 1: recording by Nemo. Beyond the Stars by Charles Hansome Town
- 0:25Speaker 1: Beyond the Stars. Three days I heard them grieve when
- 0:30Speaker 1: I lay dead. It was so strange to me that
- 0:33Speaker 1: they should weep. Tall candles burned about me in the dark,
- 0:38Speaker 1: and a white crucifix was on my breast, and a
- 0:41Speaker 1: great silence filled the lonesome room. I heard one whisper, Lo,
- 0:50Speaker 1: the dawn is breaking, and he has lost the wonder
- 0:53Speaker 1: of the day. Another came, whom I had loved on earth,
- 0:58Speaker 1: and kissed my brow and brushed my dampened hair softly.
- 1:04Speaker 1: She spoke, Oh, that he should not see the april
- 1:08Speaker 1: that his spirit bathed in. Birds are singing in the orchard,
- 1:13Speaker 1: and the grass that soon shall cover him is growing green.
- 1:19Speaker 1: The daisies whiten on the emerald hills, and the immortal
- 1:23Speaker 1: magic that he loved wakens again, and he has fallen asleep.
- 1:30Speaker 1: Another said, last night I saw the moon like a
- 1:35Speaker 1: tremendous lantern shine in heaven, and I could only think
- 1:40Speaker 1: of him, and sob for I remembered evenings wonderful when
- 1:46Speaker 1: he was faint with life's sad loveliness, and watched the
- 1:50Speaker 1: silver ribbons wandering far along the shore and out upon
- 1:55Speaker 1: the sea. Oh, I remembered how he loved the world,
- 2:02Speaker 1: the sighing ocean, and the flaming stars, the everlasting glamor
- 2:06Speaker 1: God had given his tapestries that wrap the earth's wide room.
- 2:13Speaker 1: I minded me of mornings filled with rain, when he
- 2:16Speaker 1: would sit and listen to the sound as if it
- 2:20Speaker 1: were lost to music from the spheres. He loved the
- 2:24Speaker 1: crocus and the hawthorn hedge. He loved the shining gold
- 2:28Speaker 1: of butter cups and the low droning of the drowsy
- 2:32Speaker 1: bees that boomed across the meadows. He was glad at
- 2:37Speaker 1: dawn or sundown, glad when autumn came with her worn
- 2:42Speaker 1: livery and scarlet crown, and glad when winter rocked the
- 2:47Speaker 1: earth to rest. Strange that he sleeps to day, when
- 2:51Speaker 1: life is young and the wild banners of the spring
- 2:55Speaker 1: are blowing with green inscriptions of the old delight. I
- 3:01Speaker 1: heard them whisper in the quiet room. I longed to
- 3:05Speaker 1: open then my sealid eyes and tell them of the
- 3:10Speaker 1: glory that was mine. There was no darkness where my
- 3:14Speaker 1: spirit flew. There was no night beyond the teeming world.
- 3:19Speaker 1: There april was like winter. Where I roamed. Their flowers
- 3:23Speaker 1: were like stones where now I fared earth stay. It
- 3:28Speaker 1: was if I had not known what sunlight meant. Yea,
- 3:33Speaker 1: even as they grieved for all that I had lost
- 3:36Speaker 1: in their pale place, I swung beyond the borders of
- 3:40Speaker 1: the sky and floated through the clouds, myself the air,
- 3:47Speaker 1: myself the ether yet to matchless being whom God had
- 3:52Speaker 1: snatched from penury and pain to draw across the barricades
- 3:56Speaker 1: of heaven. I clomb beyond the sun, beyond the moon.
- 4:02Speaker 1: In flight. On flight, I touched the highest star. I
- 4:08Speaker 1: plunged to regions where the spring is borne myself. I
- 4:13Speaker 1: asked not how the april wind myself the elements that
- 4:19Speaker 1: are of God up flowery stairways of eternity. I whirled
- 4:25Speaker 1: in wonder and untrampled joy, and adam yet a portion
- 4:32Speaker 1: of his dream, his dream that knows no end. I
- 4:39Speaker 1: was the rain. End of poem Peace by Charles Hanson
- 4:50Speaker 1: town read for LibriVox dot org by Nema Peace. There
- 4:58Speaker 1: is a rumor of eternal peace. The wonderful wild news
- 5:02Speaker 1: sweeps through the world that never more loud drums shall
- 5:06Speaker 1: beat alarms, where bugles blow the awful songs of war.
- 5:12Speaker 1: There shall be silence where the sabers clashed, and utter calm,
- 5:16Speaker 1: where once the cannon roared, the lord's green fields shall
- 5:20Speaker 1: not be wet with blood, but white with innocent daisies
- 5:25Speaker 1: in the spring, And where the crashing cavalry once plunged.
- 5:30Speaker 1: Our hearts shall hear the lyrics of the birds when
- 5:33Speaker 1: soft may mornings break and years to be. No more
- 5:39Speaker 1: shall men of alien races march with fiery hearts and
- 5:44Speaker 1: madness in their eyes, to crush their weaker brothers neath
- 5:48Speaker 1: their heel. Nor women wait through aching days of grief,
- 5:53Speaker 1: through pitiless hours of barren loneliness, for husbands and young
- 5:58Speaker 1: sons to come back home. No more shall children stir
- 6:04Speaker 1: in the long nights, dreaming of absent fathers. And no
- 6:09Speaker 1: more shall faithful hounds whine at bleak thresholds, sick for
- 6:14Speaker 1: one whose feet fled. When the trumpets called white peace,
- 6:19Speaker 1: the whisper runs shall wrap the earth, and hushed be
- 6:23Speaker 1: all the thundering cannonade. Wise men have dreamed this dream,
- 6:30Speaker 1: and I have dared to dream it every hour of
- 6:32Speaker 1: the years. When I have stood high in some starlit
- 6:36Speaker 1: hill and watched the moon go her great silver way
- 6:40Speaker 1: in silence that was deeper than the heavens, when I
- 6:44Speaker 1: have seen the majesty of night, and in my contemplation
- 6:48Speaker 1: learned that life was but a thread on times immortal loom,
- 6:53Speaker 1: My life the least of all, and nations less than
- 6:57Speaker 1: ribbons that are fashioned at the last in one divine, amazing,
- 7:02Speaker 1: sumptuous plan. Than I have wondered at our boast and pride,
- 7:07Speaker 1: and marveled at the shallowness of kings, the madness of
- 7:12Speaker 1: all those who rise to lead their little countries, and
- 7:15Speaker 1: tempetuous strife and break men's bodies and break women's hearts.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Be swift, old, laggard years, to bring that day when
- 7:27Speaker 1: right shall be the master of old might and love,
- 7:31Speaker 1: where their soft processes shall see her hour triumphant and
- 7:36Speaker 1: her legions large, tear down the bulwarks of incessant hate,
- 7:42Speaker 1: and let pale pity rise from the dull dust. Her
- 7:46Speaker 1: unfamiliar eyes too, flashing stars emerging from the shadows of
- 7:51Speaker 1: the deep. But dream not. There shall be eternal peace.
- 7:56Speaker 1: Though red battalions have been scattered far, and mighty armies loss.
- 8:01Speaker 1: Like autumn winds, call in the iron navies of the
- 8:05Speaker 1: world and sink them in the ocean's monstrous heart, sunder
- 8:10Speaker 1: the bastions of the universe, the watchful forts that face
- 8:14Speaker 1: the open sea. Still, we shall hear the rumors of
- 8:17Speaker 1: great wars, and see the smoke of conflict. We shall
- 8:21Speaker 1: know the old old battle of the rich and poor.
- 8:26Speaker 1: The poor with watch fires in the engine room and
- 8:29Speaker 1: regiments of children in the mills. They're rich, with beacon
- 8:34Speaker 1: lights upon their hearths, and golden domes their perfumed tents
- 8:38Speaker 1: at night. But when wild winter bears her icy sword,
- 8:44Speaker 1: one army shall remember valley forge and tremble at the
- 8:48Speaker 1: menace of the days. One army shall meet endless waterloose
- 8:53Speaker 1: in the long line of years, that sing defeat, and
- 8:56Speaker 1: in their tattered uniforms march on death. The last commander
- 9:02Speaker 1: bids them halt, there shall be desolation in their eyes,
- 9:06Speaker 1: and sorrow where they pitch their city camps, and rag
- 9:11Speaker 1: shall be the emblem of their cause. Sad banners that
- 9:16Speaker 1: reveal their very shame, dream not of pace eternal, till
- 9:23Speaker 1: there comes some hour supreme when these two hosts shall
- 9:27Speaker 1: meet in a great whirlwind of high brotherhood and the poem.
- 9:36Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. Aira Perennius by
- 9:46Speaker 1: Charles Hanson town read for LibriVox dot Org by Nima
- 9:52Speaker 1: Aira Perennius one. I never learned the wonder of that lane,
- 10:01Speaker 1: drenched with the summer rain, where through my boyish feet
- 10:05Speaker 1: were wont to pass, until I left it for the
- 10:09Speaker 1: passionate town, marble and iron and brass, filled with all
- 10:16Speaker 1: laughter yeay, and filled alas with life's immortal pain. Then
- 10:25Speaker 1: I beheld its magic. Then I knew how every rosebud grew,
- 10:31Speaker 1: how every leaf rocked in the wind blown noon, far
- 10:35Speaker 1: far away. I saw it beneath the moon on matchless
- 10:39Speaker 1: nights of June, when the untarnished silver of the sky
- 10:44Speaker 1: poured through the boughs, and two young lovers whispered deathless bows.
- 10:51Speaker 1: And then I heard each song and raptured bird pipe
- 10:55Speaker 1: his mad music. As we wandered by, I breathed the
- 10:59Speaker 1: fright rants of the hawthorn flowers. I drank the joy
- 11:03Speaker 1: that the black cup of night poured from my youth's delight,
- 11:09Speaker 1: while round about me, from great steeples and towers, the
- 11:13Speaker 1: punctual city clocks sounded the rushing hours. I shall go
- 11:19Speaker 1: back someday to the enchantment of that wild wood way.
- 11:24Speaker 1: I shall know once again the scent of musk in
- 11:27Speaker 1: the cool summer dusk, and lay my head upon night's pillow,
- 11:33Speaker 1: lay my fevered body where the blossoms sway against the
- 11:37Speaker 1: velvet curtains of the dark. I shall see glow worms
- 11:41Speaker 1: light their little spark in the hushed evening, hear the
- 11:45Speaker 1: cricket's croon, and marvel at the moon. Yet will it
- 11:52Speaker 1: all be lovely? When I take the ancient road for
- 11:56Speaker 1: ancient love's white's sake? Can life repeat one word of
- 12:01Speaker 1: her old story? Restore her tattered glory, revived the dead
- 12:07Speaker 1: allure of her first days. I am enamored of the
- 12:11Speaker 1: city's face and shameless. I am lost in her embrace.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Her flashing fiery eyes sweep and control my piteous soul. Two,
- 12:26Speaker 1: I shut the door on the world's bright face. I
- 12:30Speaker 1: fled from the race, and I clung to the breast
- 12:33Speaker 1: of the holy night, as if the dark were the
- 12:36Speaker 1: bosom of God. I knelt me down on the clean,
- 12:40Speaker 1: green sod, and I looked at the constellation's white as
- 12:45Speaker 1: they swung above me on that blue height. I, who
- 12:50Speaker 1: was lost and crushed and driven, reached till it seemed
- 12:55Speaker 1: I must reach to heaven and snatch the stars from
- 12:59Speaker 1: the hands of the Lord. I, who had lost myself
- 13:04Speaker 1: in the maze of crowded ways and terrible days, had
- 13:09Speaker 1: come to the hour that all men need, after the
- 13:12Speaker 1: grime and dust and greed. Yet I said no word,
- 13:18Speaker 1: for speech was vain, and I could not pray. I
- 13:22Speaker 1: only knew I had found the way, and quiet, and
- 13:26Speaker 1: worn and tired in the great night I lay three.
- 13:34Speaker 1: I never knew the wonder of your eyes. Forgive me
- 13:38Speaker 1: Angel in a woman's guise. Until I left you for
- 13:42Speaker 1: the gleam and lure that never can endure. I left
- 13:47Speaker 1: you for adventures strange and wild. A man who was
- 13:51Speaker 1: a child, I followed gipsy patterns and trails, oceans and sorrows,
- 13:57Speaker 1: joys and stinging gales. Lights in the distant veils, I
- 14:03Speaker 1: followed gold and beauty in the bright moment's duty. I
- 14:08Speaker 1: fared to cities of immortal fame, and drank the wine
- 14:13Speaker 1: of shame. Hate o'er the world, and love o'er the
- 14:17Speaker 1: world I found, and paths unknown of men. In tumult
- 14:23Speaker 1: and in passion, I was drowned, in falseness, and in fury.
- 14:27Speaker 1: I was bound yet always at the last, when the
- 14:32Speaker 1: dread days were past, dreams of you came again. I,
- 14:38Speaker 1: who had fled from your enduring heart to wander ways apart,
- 14:44Speaker 1: knew the rich dream of you, ever ever unto the end.
- 14:50Speaker 1: Why did I leave all that I loved the best
- 14:53Speaker 1: for a sad quest? Why did the wind's voice on
- 14:57Speaker 1: the open road sing till I stifled my warm abode?
- 15:02Speaker 1: Why did the rivers call me, and the sea whisper
- 15:05Speaker 1: of shadowy islands strangely blest? Why did I leave my
- 15:10Speaker 1: fur and my friend for dim uncertainty? Why did I
- 15:16Speaker 1: then forget a woman's face, a woman's eyes, and torture
- 15:21Speaker 1: love with longing Love is wise, and we are fools
- 15:27Speaker 1: who leave her sheltering place. Yet wonder beckoned me. I
- 15:32Speaker 1: followed her with the first leaf's light stir four. I
- 15:38Speaker 1: came to you from the stress of life, Sick with
- 15:42Speaker 1: sorrow and doubt and strife, I dared to touch your
- 15:46Speaker 1: garment's hem. The flooding tears I could not stem. You
- 15:53Speaker 1: had remained like an absolute star. You had been firmer
- 15:58Speaker 1: than the high hills. You had been constant, though I
- 16:02Speaker 1: was gone, like the pale dawn. Your mouth was the
- 16:07Speaker 1: rose that I had lost. Your face was the moon
- 16:10Speaker 1: that I had missed. Your eyes were the steadfast planets
- 16:15Speaker 1: of Heaven, given me once and once again given. Your
- 16:21Speaker 1: hair was the cloud that God had tossed above the
- 16:25Speaker 1: light of your shining face. Your breath was the perfume
- 16:30Speaker 1: of old crushed roses that once I drank in youth's
- 16:34Speaker 1: garden closes. Your voice was the bird that my soul
- 16:40Speaker 1: had heard in the wild wood peace when it sang
- 16:43Speaker 1: the word. You were the sure, unchanging sun lighting me
- 16:49Speaker 1: back from the road I had run. I dared to
- 16:54Speaker 1: return and breathe your name. I dared to show you
- 16:58Speaker 1: my desperate shame. I dared to dream that the shattered story,
- 17:04Speaker 1: the ancient good, the tattered glory, could be restored. But
- 17:10Speaker 1: I dared not say the words that even a judas
- 17:14Speaker 1: may Yet in that hour ye kissed my lips, and
- 17:19Speaker 1: in the hushed darkness alone we lay, and a poem.
- 17:26Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. A Ballad of
- 17:35Speaker 1: Shame and Dread by Charles Hansom town read for LibriVox
- 17:40Speaker 1: dot Org by Nema. A Ballad of Shame and Dread one.
- 17:48Speaker 1: The rain rushed by in silver sheets. I crossed the
- 17:51Speaker 1: empty thoroughfare with visions of my glowing fire. When I
- 17:56Speaker 1: had climbed my lodging stair. The wind was spring like
- 18:00Speaker 1: a ghost. The lights were chains lost in a blur,
- 18:04Speaker 1: And as I hurried on, I heard a voice that said,
- 18:08Speaker 1: good evening, sir. We men know well that ancient sound,
- 18:13Speaker 1: a many affair and starlit night that strives to hail
- 18:17Speaker 1: us tenderly to prospects of a sad delight. But on
- 18:22Speaker 1: a storm swept night like this, how strange it was
- 18:25Speaker 1: that there should be one of that mighty army out
- 18:29Speaker 1: willing to sell herself to me. I turned astonished. In
- 18:35Speaker 1: her eyes. I saw the old, old look a pane,
- 18:39Speaker 1: poor painted girl whose face was wan and terrible in
- 18:43Speaker 1: the falling rain. I read a message in her gaze
- 18:47Speaker 1: that I had never read before. And as I paused,
- 18:50Speaker 1: the tempest shook and rattled every neighboring door. It was
- 18:55Speaker 1: not passion that evoked the sudden impulse in my heart.
- 19:00Speaker 1: But swiftly from the windy street, I drew the lonely
- 19:03Speaker 1: girl apart. I told her that her eyes looked tired.
- 19:07Speaker 1: I never knew such eyes could be. She smiled, that
- 19:11Speaker 1: tragic smile of hers, and like a hound went home
- 19:14Speaker 1: with me. Two. The fire was ruddy on my hearth.
- 19:20Speaker 1: It lit the corners of the room. I poured some
- 19:23Speaker 1: sherry from a flask, and drew two great chairs from
- 19:27Speaker 1: the gloom, And from my cupboard I brought forth a
- 19:31Speaker 1: little supper, just a snack. Mysteriously, she smiled. When I
- 19:36Speaker 1: pulled my best pipe down from its rack. Outside, the
- 19:40Speaker 1: wind howled through the night in desperate delirium, and on
- 19:45Speaker 1: my roof the rain beat fast, as if upon a
- 19:48Speaker 1: muffled drum. Her cloak fell back, her hood fell too.
- 19:53Speaker 1: I saw her wonderful gold hair, a cataract of glowing
- 19:57Speaker 1: fire that shamed my hearth's reflected flare. It was her
- 20:03Speaker 1: eyes that held me most. I never dreamed such eyes
- 20:06Speaker 1: could be tired, as the dust of ancient queens, or
- 20:10Speaker 1: ruined cities by the sea. How strangely, from their blue
- 20:15Speaker 1: gray depths they quietly searched through my own. They held
- 20:19Speaker 1: the knowledge of the years, how much, how much they
- 20:23Speaker 1: must have known. She saw my rows of friendly books,
- 20:28Speaker 1: my littered desk, pipes and cigars, Oh, homely things made
- 20:33Speaker 1: lovelier now since they fell on you, two strange stars,
- 20:39Speaker 1: but always back to me. They came, as if in wonder,
- 20:42Speaker 1: half afraid. Yet even on her fragile hands, no kiss
- 20:47Speaker 1: of mine had yet been laid. Three long long we
- 20:52Speaker 1: sat without one word. Somewhere a clock boomed forth its chime.
- 20:57Speaker 1: I did not count its distant strokes. I did not
- 21:00Speaker 1: heed the hurrying time. At last she stirred. I saw
- 21:05Speaker 1: her lips part for an instant, and then close, red
- 21:09Speaker 1: lips whose crimson made them seem the painted wraiths of
- 21:13Speaker 1: some dead rose. Again they parted, and she spoke. I
- 21:17Speaker 1: never knew a man before who had not told me
- 21:20Speaker 1: his desire the moment that I crossed his door. And
- 21:25Speaker 1: yet her tears fell like the rain. You have not
- 21:29Speaker 1: claimed your old grim right. Ah, can it be, you, guess,
- 21:34Speaker 1: strange friend, the wonder you have wrought to night? I
- 21:39Speaker 1: am as others of my kind. I fell the worn
- 21:43Speaker 1: out tale of pain. You knew me for a harlot.
- 21:47Speaker 1: Still you snatched me from the wind and rain. You
- 21:50Speaker 1: gave me bread, you gave me wine, You let me
- 21:53Speaker 1: sit before your fire, I whom you found upon the streets,
- 21:58Speaker 1: a pallid daughter of desire. You pitied me, and that
- 22:03Speaker 1: was all. Oh, would you guessed how my soul flew
- 22:07Speaker 1: the instant that I read your heart and dared to
- 22:10Speaker 1: dream of loving you. Yes, do not smile. I dared
- 22:15Speaker 1: to dream the dream that every Harlot kills, lest it
- 22:19Speaker 1: should lift her to the heights, lift her to the
- 22:22Speaker 1: exalted hills. We cannot love save for an hour, then
- 22:27Speaker 1: until less our loves we fare each night, each week,
- 22:31Speaker 1: each month, each year, they dwindle, and we reap despair.
- 22:37Speaker 1: That is our dread, that we may love. Our shame
- 22:40Speaker 1: would drag a good man down if he should ever
- 22:43Speaker 1: deign to stoop, to stoop and crown us with a crown.
- 22:48Speaker 1: She rose and trembled toward the door. The fire was low,
- 22:52Speaker 1: and in the gloom I only saw her eyes, strange
- 22:56Speaker 1: stars that wonderfully lit the room. I followed her, Girl, girl,
- 23:02Speaker 1: I cried, for there was madness in my soul. It
- 23:07Speaker 1: was too late. She closed the door and down the
- 23:11Speaker 1: darkened stairways stole four. The rain, rushed by the storm,
- 23:17Speaker 1: still blew. The dawn was lost in a great blur.
- 23:22Speaker 1: I threw my window wide alas there was no single
- 23:25Speaker 1: trace of her. I never saw her face again, but
- 23:30Speaker 1: her strange eyes have haunted me through many a troubled
- 23:34Speaker 1: day and year. I never dreamed such eyes could be.
- 23:41Speaker 1: And the poem This recording is in the public domain.
- 23:50Speaker 1: Love Hath a Chalice by Charles Hanson Town read for
- 23:55Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org by Nemo. Love hath the chalice. Love
- 24:02Speaker 1: hath the chalice filled with glowing wine, wherefrom they drink,
- 24:07Speaker 1: who have confessed Love's name, And having tasted of that
- 24:11Speaker 1: draft divine the hearts go forth more holy than they came.
- 24:18Speaker 1: I have seen one come softly from Love's priest with
- 24:22Speaker 1: such exultance, leaving that high place, I dared not look,
- 24:27Speaker 1: I being among the least save for one instant on
- 24:31Speaker 1: his hallowed face. And a poem. This recording is in
- 24:37Speaker 1: the public domain. The Sword by Charles Hanson Town read
- 24:48Speaker 1: for LibriVox dot org by Nemo. The sword, the one
- 24:54Speaker 1: I love the best hath stabbed me with a jest
- 24:59Speaker 1: to her It was a word to me a shining sword,
- 25:04Speaker 1: a sword that, having slain our love, falls not again
- 25:09Speaker 1: back to its sheath. Foresee its bright blade rust in
- 25:15Speaker 1: me and a poem. This recording is in the public domain.
- 25:26Speaker 1: Two Songs of London by Charles Hanson town read for
- 25:31Speaker 1: LibriVox dot Org by Nemo. Two Songs of London, one London, Unvisited,
- 25:40Speaker 1: nineteen ten. London, I have not heard your thundering voice,
- 25:47Speaker 1: save in my dreams. The magic of your name, your
- 25:52Speaker 1: wonder and your fame, your glory and your shame. I've
- 25:59Speaker 1: not known, save as the winds and hurricanes have blown
- 26:03Speaker 1: rumors of your wild passion to our shores. When will
- 26:08Speaker 1: my heart beat with your iron heart? When will my
- 26:12Speaker 1: pulses quicken and rejoice of your strange music? Stranger than
- 26:17Speaker 1: all art. You are a monster shell that holds the
- 26:21Speaker 1: roar of the wild sea of life, so loudly rings
- 26:26Speaker 1: the strife that even across the waste. I hear you sing,
- 26:32Speaker 1: faint as the murmur of a robin's wing above me
- 26:36Speaker 1: on a silver morn of spring. I hear you as
- 26:40Speaker 1: a sick man hears a fife in a far street,
- 26:44Speaker 1: and the faint marching of ten thousand feet. He cannot
- 26:48Speaker 1: see the pageant in the sun, the flashing sword and gun.
- 26:53Speaker 1: Only the echo of the loud parade comes to his window,
- 26:57Speaker 1: where he dreams, almost afraid. London, you are the heart
- 27:04Speaker 1: of the wide world, wrapped in gray mist. How you
- 27:09Speaker 1: must shine at night, an amethyst whose fiery beams reach
- 27:14Speaker 1: through the terrible dark and flash to every corner of
- 27:19Speaker 1: the earth. You are a woman with time's awful mark
- 27:25Speaker 1: upon your brow. And you are foul and a clean.
- 27:31Speaker 1: You are a harlot and a holy queen. You are
- 27:35Speaker 1: the terror and the joy of life, a desperate mistress
- 27:39Speaker 1: and a patient wife. Oh, London, you are false, and
- 27:45Speaker 1: you are true, evil or good. I am in love
- 27:50Speaker 1: with you. Two London Faces nineteen eleven. I cannot forget
- 27:59Speaker 1: those London faces, tragic eyes that haunt me. Yet ghosts
- 28:05Speaker 1: of men in terrible places, shadows of women I cannot forget.
- 28:13Speaker 1: On the Embankment, they hurried by me, stared at the Thames,
- 28:18Speaker 1: and then moved on. The evening fog that hovered Nimi
- 28:23Speaker 1: hid them an instant, and they were gone. At charing
- 28:28Speaker 1: Cross and Piccadilly, they followed my handsome through the rain
- 28:33Speaker 1: nights were black, and knights were chilly, but thick with
- 28:37Speaker 1: a poor was each London lane, pale, pinched faces. Oh,
- 28:44Speaker 1: how ye haunt me thin gaunt beggars with lifted hand.
- 28:51Speaker 1: A sea is between us, but still ye want me
- 28:55Speaker 1: lonely derelics tossed on the strand. A sea is between us,
- 29:03Speaker 1: but I remember the leagues divide us. Ye haunt me
- 29:08Speaker 1: yet eyes with the age of bleak November, Oh London faces,
- 29:17Speaker 1: I cannot forget. And a poem. This recording is in
- 29:23Speaker 1: the public domain. An Easter canticle by Charles Hanson Town
- 29:33Speaker 1: read for LibriVox dot org by Nemo. An Easter canticle.
- 29:40Speaker 1: In every trembling bud and bloom that cleaves the earth,
- 29:45Speaker 1: a flowery sword, I see thee come from out the tomb.
- 29:50Speaker 1: Thou risen Lord. In every april wind that sings down
- 29:57Speaker 1: lanes that make the heart rejoice, yea. In the word
- 30:01Speaker 1: the wood thrush brings, I hear thy voice. Lo. Every
- 30:08Speaker 1: tulip is a cup to hold thy morning's brimming wine.
- 30:12Speaker 1: Drink O my soul, the wonder up? Is it not thine?
- 30:19Speaker 1: The Great Lord God invisible hath roused to rapture the
- 30:23Speaker 1: green grass, through sunlit mead and dew drenched ow. I
- 30:30Speaker 1: see him pass. His old immortal glory wakes the rushing
- 30:35Speaker 1: streams and emerald hills. His ancient trumpet softly shakes the daffodils.
- 30:44Speaker 1: Thou art not dead, Thou art the whole of life
- 30:49Speaker 1: that quickens in the sod green April is thy very soul,
- 30:55Speaker 1: thou great Lord God poem. This recording is in the
- 31:02Speaker 1: public domain. April Madness by Charles Hanson Town Read for
- 31:13Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org by Nemo. April Madness. There is a
- 31:20Speaker 1: time when the young year goes mad with very ecstasy,
- 31:24Speaker 1: when all the rapture of the world is crushed in
- 31:27Speaker 1: one wild melody. It is the hour when April comes
- 31:32Speaker 1: with silver flute and vera lay with magic pipe and
- 31:36Speaker 1: magical and sings their happy heart away. The bloom and
- 31:41Speaker 1: wonder of the spring are vocal on her golden tongue.
- 31:45Speaker 1: The soul of music comes to earth, and life and
- 31:48Speaker 1: love and joy are young. Join, oh my heart, in
- 31:53Speaker 1: this wild song. The jocund April sets you free. Drink
- 31:58Speaker 1: the old wine of her new day, go mad with
- 32:02Speaker 1: very ecstasy and a poem. This recording is in the
- 32:07Speaker 1: public domain. Waiting by Charles hanson Town read for LibriVox
- 32:18Speaker 1: dot org by Nemo Waiting. I thought my heart would
- 32:25Speaker 1: break because this spring was slow. I said, how long
- 32:30Speaker 1: young April sleeps beneath the snow. But when at last
- 32:35Speaker 1: she came and buds broke in the dew, I thought
- 32:39Speaker 1: of my dead love, and my heart broke too. And
- 32:45Speaker 1: a poem. This recording is in the public domain. The
- 32:53Speaker 1: Heights by Charles Hansome Town read for LibriVox dot org
- 33:00Speaker 1: by Nima. The Heights we climbed the hills, the tumbling hills,
- 33:07Speaker 1: the mighty shoulders of the world. When May was rich
- 33:11Speaker 1: with daffodils and spring's green banners were unfurled. We saw
- 33:17Speaker 1: from our exultant height the quiet villages afar, the roads
- 33:23Speaker 1: like ribbons, clean and bright, The river along Silver Bar
- 33:29Speaker 1: how great. From the low plain we deemed the wind
- 33:32Speaker 1: swept summit of the hills, how beautiful the valley seemed
- 33:37Speaker 1: up there among the daffodils. And a poem. This recording
- 33:45Speaker 1: is in the public domain. How Softly runs the Afternoon
- 33:54Speaker 1: by Charles Hansome Town read for LibriVox dot org. How
- 34:02Speaker 1: Softly runs the Afternoon, How softly runs the afternoon beneath
- 34:09Speaker 1: the billowy clouds of June. How brightly every moment slips,
- 34:15Speaker 1: How lightly sail the great cloud ships. How slowly all
- 34:20Speaker 1: the galleons go within that airy sea of snow, their
- 34:26Speaker 1: white sails set vast argaces, bound from mysterious hebrides. Ah,
- 34:34Speaker 1: let them vanish in the light beyond the sun, beyond
- 34:38Speaker 1: the night, faring to harbor strange and dim, beyond the
- 34:43Speaker 1: great world's utter rim. I shall not care. I envy
- 34:49Speaker 1: not their journeyings to lands forgot, For in the wonder
- 34:54Speaker 1: of your smiles, my heart is on enchanted aisles, And
- 35:00Speaker 1: in the silence of your soul I reach love's paradisal goal.
- 35:07Speaker 1: In the soft pressure of your hands, I touch far
- 35:11Speaker 1: magic fairy lands, And in the rapture of your kiss
- 35:17Speaker 1: I find the heavenly peaks of bliss. Beneath the billowy
- 35:22Speaker 1: skies of June. How softly runs the afternoon and a poem.
- 35:31Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. The Harvest of
- 35:40Speaker 1: the Sea by Charles Hansome Town read for LibriVox dotorg
- 35:46Speaker 1: by Nima The Harvest of the Sea in Memory of
- 35:51Speaker 1: the Titanic, The Jealous Sea moaned in the April night.
- 35:57Speaker 1: Lo there are comrades hidden in my heart, unfortunate who
- 36:03Speaker 1: sought me sick of life. But I am hungry for
- 36:07Speaker 1: brave souls, by crave their warmth and passion through my
- 36:11Speaker 1: chilling tides, their heads upon my bosom, and their hands
- 36:17Speaker 1: like children's hands about me in the dark. I need
- 36:20Speaker 1: their blood in my cold loneliness. A titan sailed her
- 36:27Speaker 1: weary leagues of foam, and, knowing her strange wish, her
- 36:31Speaker 1: mad desire. But there was menace in the starlit night,
- 36:36Speaker 1: and sudden doom upon deceiving paths, in a wild horror
- 36:41Speaker 1: on the mighty deep. The gray sea laughed and drew
- 36:46Speaker 1: those brave men down, and braver women who but mock'd
- 36:52Speaker 1: at death, seeing that love went with them. These the
- 36:56Speaker 1: souls the awful Sea desir'd, these the hearts she waited for,
- 37:02Speaker 1: And that stupendous hour they were enough to warm the
- 37:06Speaker 1: arctic waste, to fill with furnace, heat the frozen zones,
- 37:12Speaker 1: and fire the very sea that was their grave. But
- 37:18Speaker 1: dream not, mighty Ocean, They are yours. We have them still,
- 37:24Speaker 1: those high and valiant men who die that others might
- 37:27Speaker 1: reach ports of peace. Not in your jealous depths, their
- 37:32Speaker 1: spirits roam, but through the world to day and up
- 37:36Speaker 1: to heaven end a poem. This recording is in the
- 37:42Speaker 1: public domain. Glory Shall follow Glory by Charles Handsome Town
- 37:53Speaker 1: read for LibriVox dot Org by NeiMa Glory shall follow Glory.
- 38:01Speaker 1: One keats died, who knows in the wild bloom of
- 38:06Speaker 1: youth and learned all truth, that adonnaie might be sadly sung,
- 38:14Speaker 1: that through the halls of heaven from Shelley's tongue, that
- 38:18Speaker 1: royal dirge might thrill and surge deathlessly young. Perhaps a
- 38:25Speaker 1: poet passed that one might tell at last in this
- 38:30Speaker 1: immortal song his beauty and glory, chant his lament for
- 38:35Speaker 1: shining days soon spent in a great glowing story. Two
- 38:43Speaker 1: does Love thus go whither? We do not know that
- 38:49Speaker 1: one may sing the grandeur of Love's name, that one
- 38:54Speaker 1: who felt his fire and his flame may stand in
- 38:58Speaker 1: adoration at his palm, and in a song supreme, majestical voice,
- 39:05Speaker 1: the eternal wonder of the dead air Love has fled silent,
- 39:12Speaker 1: are we before his face Divine? But when the lamps
- 39:16Speaker 1: are wasted and the last cup is tasted, and stern
- 39:20Speaker 1: death sets her crown upon his head. There is a
- 39:24Speaker 1: singer who must sing Love's praise, record his dreams and days,
- 39:29Speaker 1: and keep the light forever before his shrine. End A poem.
- 39:35Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. An August Night
- 39:44Speaker 1: in the City by Charles Hansome Town read for LibriVox
- 39:49Speaker 1: dot org by Nimo. An August Night in the City.
- 39:56Speaker 1: I know a sad park, where, on breathless night throng
- 40:01Speaker 1: those whom, through the day the hot sun smites the
- 40:06Speaker 1: pallid pour, unlettered and alone, whose hearts are hotter than
- 40:11Speaker 1: the aching stone. This is their dormitory. Here they fare
- 40:18Speaker 1: after the summer noon's relentless glare. See here they crowd
- 40:24Speaker 1: like sheep without a fold, while all around them rings
- 40:28Speaker 1: the city's gold. But there are coasts beside, a lonely sea,
- 40:34Speaker 1: and hills and glens, and many a windsweptly where man
- 40:38Speaker 1: has never broken the silence deep. Yet here tonight an
- 40:44Speaker 1: army falls asleep. And a poem. This recording is in
- 40:50Speaker 1: the public domain. Dust and Dream by Charles Hansen Town
- 41:01Speaker 1: read for LibriVox dodorg buy Nima, Dust and Dream. Even
- 41:10Speaker 1: as rust hides the sword's gleam, so Earth's dull dust
- 41:15Speaker 1: obscures Heaven's dream. Yet do I trust death, Sour Supreme
- 41:23Speaker 1: for being dust? I shall live the dream and a poem.
- 41:29Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. Nevertheless by Charles
- 41:39Speaker 1: Hansome Town Read for LibriVox dodworg buy Nima Nevertheless. One
- 41:50Speaker 1: he heard the fifes at the end of the street.
- 41:54Speaker 1: He heard the marching of thousands of feet, the rush
- 41:58Speaker 1: and the murmur, the beat of the drum, the sudden,
- 42:01Speaker 1: strange delirium. He saw the gold banners and flying flags,
- 42:07Speaker 1: the rapturous faces of lads and hags, the light, romance
- 42:11Speaker 1: and the gleam of it all, the wonder, the magic,
- 42:16Speaker 1: the dream of it all. But he did not see
- 42:20Speaker 1: the lonely camp fires burning on distant fields, And he
- 42:24Speaker 1: forgot the yearning of aching hearts when knights were filled
- 42:27Speaker 1: with dread. He did not see the piteous, helpless dead.
- 42:33Speaker 1: He did not think of sorrow and alarms, the empty
- 42:37Speaker 1: years that mocked his empty arms. He did not think
- 42:42Speaker 1: of many a blood stained hill. Yet had he thought,
- 42:47Speaker 1: he would have followed still. Two she heard the story
- 42:56Speaker 1: old as the years. She waded through knights of girlhood,
- 43:00Speaker 1: years for the dream to come as come it must,
- 43:04Speaker 1: and make a glory of the dust. She said, no
- 43:08Speaker 1: love shall be like ours. Life's roadway bright with eternal flowers.
- 43:14Speaker 1: She saw the beauty, the light of it all, and
- 43:18Speaker 1: the terrible, splendid mte of it all. But she did
- 43:23Speaker 1: not know of days and nights of weeping, heart breaking
- 43:27Speaker 1: absence in slow shadows creeping around her couch to hide
- 43:32Speaker 1: love's blazing light. She did not know love has its
- 43:37Speaker 1: day and night. And she forgot the thorns amid the roses,
- 43:43Speaker 1: forgot that sometimes Love's book softly closes. She did not
- 43:47Speaker 1: know love's sorrow's blind and kill. Yet had she known,
- 43:52Speaker 1: she would have followed still and a poem. This recording
- 43:58Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Risen Indeed by Charles Hansome
- 44:08Speaker 1: Town read for LibriVox dot Org by Nemo Risen. Indeed,
- 44:18Speaker 1: how can I doubt that he has risen? Indeed, since
- 44:22Speaker 1: at the spring's exultant birth through his green earth, I
- 44:26Speaker 1: see the flowering of each hidden seed and feel again
- 44:31Speaker 1: the old immortal need. How can I doubt when through
- 44:37Speaker 1: white lanes I pass seeing the ancient beauty on the
- 44:40Speaker 1: boughs in God's great house. Hearing the bells at this
- 44:45Speaker 1: a prillion mass, seeing the congregation of the grass, how
- 44:52Speaker 1: can I doubt? Nay, let me bow my head before
- 44:56Speaker 1: the wonder of the april, flame and tears and shame,
- 45:00Speaker 1: since for one instant, o black moment of dread, I
- 45:05Speaker 1: dared to think that the Great Lord was dead and
- 45:11Speaker 1: the poem. This recording is in the public domain. The
- 45:21Speaker 1: Mystery by Charles Hansome Town read for LibriVox dot org
- 45:27Speaker 1: by Nimo. The Mystery They who have loved too well
- 45:34Speaker 1: and been betrayed, tried in the fire, and utterly dismayed.
- 45:39Speaker 1: Strange is it not? How they returned to love and
- 45:42Speaker 1: bear their hearts to His great gleaming blade. And the poem.
- 45:49Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. Penance by Charles
- 45:58Speaker 1: Hansome Town red for LibriVox dot org by Nema Penance.
- 46:08Speaker 1: Sometimes it seems to me the sea must ache, the
- 46:12Speaker 1: vast loneliness, its great heart nose, its mighty beat, its
- 46:18Speaker 1: thundering surge, and sway lost in the empty spaces, in
- 46:23Speaker 1: the dark of desolate nights, unpierced by any star on coast, forlorn,
- 46:30Speaker 1: it sheds its tears in vain up storm swept crags,
- 46:34Speaker 1: It sweeps with joy, and then falls back to sob
- 46:39Speaker 1: in the old terrible way. Who knows but that for
- 46:44Speaker 1: all the voiceless dead the sea has grasped and hidden
- 46:48Speaker 1: in its heart, It now must pay with this wild loneliness,
- 46:54Speaker 1: must beat forever on far. Solitudes of rock and ruin
- 46:59Speaker 1: and unrest sponsor isles and sing colossal sinner of the world,
- 47:06Speaker 1: an endless chant for its unending crimes end A poem.
- 47:14Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. The Pool by
- 47:23Speaker 1: Charles hansome Town read for LibriVox dot org by Nemo.
- 47:30Speaker 1: The Pool, to that great poppy pool, whence all pale
- 47:36Speaker 1: visions come sleep led me only yesternight, her white lips
- 47:42Speaker 1: sealed and dumb. I found them There old days that
- 47:48Speaker 1: I had lost arewhile and lo I found one dear thing,
- 47:54Speaker 1: my vanished love. Sad smile, I drank of that blessed
- 48:00Speaker 1: pool whose waters sang and tossed asleep, I knew the
- 48:05Speaker 1: ecstasy of all I ever lost. And a poem. This
- 48:14Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Youth is Cruel by
- 48:23Speaker 1: Charles hansome Town read for LibriVox dot org by Nemo.
- 48:30Speaker 1: Youth is cruel. Youth is cruel to the old. See
- 48:37Speaker 1: it flaunt its locks of gold in the windy morns
- 48:40Speaker 1: of spring. Hear its laughter, that mad ring, mocking ages echoing,
- 48:49Speaker 1: See its jubilant light skip and its own good fellowship,
- 48:54Speaker 1: crowding old ones from its way. Youth is cruel, lackaday.
- 49:01Speaker 1: Youth is cruel. Youth is blind. Nay, it would not
- 49:06Speaker 1: be unkind. Youth is heedless, that is all as it
- 49:12Speaker 1: sings its madragal only crabbed age is small. Youth knows
- 49:19Speaker 1: not its mighty strength till a sad day comes at length,
- 49:24Speaker 1: when it whispers in the cold. Youth is cruel to
- 49:29Speaker 1: the old. And a poem. This recording is in the
- 49:34Speaker 1: public domain. The Dead March by Charles Hansome Town read
- 49:46Speaker 1: for LibriVox dot Org by Nimo. The Dead March in Gododamerung.
- 49:55Speaker 1: Not only did I hear the thundering chords that swept
- 49:59Speaker 1: round beer, but I heard mysteriously low the far and
- 50:06Speaker 1: solemn tread of the old army of the mighty Dead,
- 50:11Speaker 1: they who went marching long and long ago toward the
- 50:15Speaker 1: great blinding glory of God's place. I saw each beautiful
- 50:20Speaker 1: face more beautiful now in death. I heard their quiet
- 50:26Speaker 1: footfalls as they passed. I saw triumphant banners in the sun,
- 50:33Speaker 1: as one by one they filed before me, happy, happy,
- 50:39Speaker 1: at last, I heard faint bugles and far mystic singing.
- 50:45Speaker 1: I heard the echo of a lark song ringing above
- 50:49Speaker 1: the hushed solemnity and peace of the slow march that
- 50:54Speaker 1: sang the great release. They moved before me, the exultant
- 51:00Speaker 1: and dead one came a glistening helmet on his head.
- 51:05Speaker 1: Then popes and kings in white and purple and red,
- 51:10Speaker 1: and legions from old battles, Emperors and mighty captains from
- 51:15Speaker 1: adventurous wars, high poets and sad seekers of the graal
- 51:21Speaker 1: with countenances, pale imperial host that dazed me with their glory,
- 51:29Speaker 1: silent yet eloquent of death's news story, a wonder on
- 51:34Speaker 1: their lips I could not read I who was living. Indeed,
- 51:41Speaker 1: I saw them pass, sinner and saint and sage, sovereign
- 51:47Speaker 1: and beggar of an ancient age, tatters and pomp one
- 51:52Speaker 1: at the final hour, one one at last, in that
- 51:58Speaker 1: vast harmony, the concentrated utterance of sound, that every falseness
- 52:04Speaker 1: drowned in a wide peace, immortality profound, beyond the borders
- 52:11Speaker 1: of immensity, and a poem. This recording is in the
- 52:18Speaker 1: public domain. Sunday by Charles Hansome Town read for LibriVox
- 52:29Speaker 1: dot Org by NeiMa Sunday. When I was a very
- 52:36Speaker 1: little lad, I used to go walking with my dad Sunday. Yes,
- 52:43Speaker 1: that was the day for me, the day of days
- 52:46Speaker 1: when Dad was free. He always bought me a red
- 52:50Speaker 1: balloon that seemed to me as big as the moon,
- 52:54Speaker 1: and he always took me to some fine shop and
- 52:57Speaker 1: gave me a glass of ginger pop. He took me
- 53:01Speaker 1: out in the country too, where buttercups and daisies grew,
- 53:06Speaker 1: and on one big bridge we used to stand and
- 53:09Speaker 1: watch the boats. It was fairy land. Dad died when
- 53:15Speaker 1: I was still quite small. I think I missed him
- 53:19Speaker 1: the most of all. And though I've seen most every
- 53:23Speaker 1: sight since I was such a tiny white, I often
- 53:27Speaker 1: longed for those Sunday walks, my red balloon and our
- 53:32Speaker 1: simple talks. And I've sought, but I never can seem
- 53:36Speaker 1: to find those curious streets that used to wind to
- 53:41Speaker 1: that wonderful bridge on which we stood, and that flower
- 53:45Speaker 1: filled meadow by the wood. Yet I know if I've
- 53:48Speaker 1: found them, the tears would start, and I think it
- 53:53Speaker 1: would almost break my heart. And a poem. This recording
- 53:59Speaker 1: is the public domain. The rush Hour by Charles Hansome
- 54:09Speaker 1: Town read for LibriVox dot Org by Nima. The rush Hour.
- 54:18Speaker 1: This is the big excitement of their lives, this teeming
- 54:23Speaker 1: rush hour, six o'clock at night. I never saw such
- 54:28Speaker 1: tired eyes. I never saw such faces so weary at
- 54:33Speaker 1: the close of a hard day. Those bright electric bulbs
- 54:38Speaker 1: in the thundering subway bring out the tragic lines on
- 54:42Speaker 1: their tragic brows, girls old before their time, dizzily swaying
- 54:49Speaker 1: in that awful conglomeration of human beings. Those merciless lights
- 54:55Speaker 1: hiding no single blemish, placed there with their flaming candle power,
- 55:01Speaker 1: so that the throngs may read their evening papers. But
- 55:05Speaker 1: some of the girls are far too tired to read.
- 55:08Speaker 1: They only hang on the straps, sick with the noise
- 55:12Speaker 1: of the train speeding uptown, yet glad to hear it,
- 55:16Speaker 1: since it means to them that every moment they are
- 55:19Speaker 1: near their sad homes. It seems to me they are
- 55:24Speaker 1: always rushing the forlorn sweatshop workers, the tired sales girls,
- 55:32Speaker 1: the pale clerks who light a cigarette, the moment that
- 55:35Speaker 1: they leave the crowded subway, hurrying, rushing, pushing, shoving, always
- 55:42Speaker 1: moving in a monotonous procession. In the morning, they rush
- 55:48Speaker 1: to perform miserable occupations in factories and lofts and darkened rooms.
- 55:55Speaker 1: And in the evening, when the whistle blows, they rush
- 55:57Speaker 1: for the same inevitable cars that hurl them to their
- 56:01Speaker 1: undesired homes. Always these tragic people are rushing, rushing. But
- 56:10Speaker 1: someday they shall go slowly, very slowly, one at a time,
- 56:18Speaker 1: to a distant, quiet place, the only leisurely ride they
- 56:24Speaker 1: shall ever know. And a poem this recording is in
- 56:29Speaker 1: the public domain. The Two Old Men by Charles Hanson
- 56:39Speaker 1: Town read for LibriVox dot Org by Nimo The Two
- 56:45Speaker 1: Old Men. There was something quaint and lovely about the
- 56:50Speaker 1: two old men as they sat together in the crowded car.
- 56:56Speaker 1: I and the other young people around me watch them
- 57:00Speaker 1: and heard their quiet conversation. We gathered in that little
- 57:06Speaker 1: trip down town through the great city, thundering with pain
- 57:11Speaker 1: that these two wise yet simple comrades knew each other
- 57:15Speaker 1: long ago, and here revived through some exquisite accident their
- 57:20Speaker 1: boyish friendship. After many years we caught but fragments of
- 57:26Speaker 1: their pleasant talk, but quite enough to love them for
- 57:30Speaker 1: the way they both recalled the record of old times.
- 57:36Speaker 1: And I thought, when I am very old and very tired,
- 57:41Speaker 1: I hope God sends to me so naturally, an old
- 57:45Speaker 1: old crony to renew lost days. A comrade whom I
- 57:50Speaker 1: knew when I was young, one unashamed as I to
- 57:54Speaker 1: show his heart wholly to me, unmindful of the crowd,
- 58:00Speaker 1: the curious crowd that might be all about us. And
- 58:06Speaker 1: a poem. This recording is in the public domain. Anniversaries
- 58:17Speaker 1: by Charles Hansome Town Read for LibriVox dot org by
- 58:23Speaker 1: Nemo Anniversaries. Always it is a woman who remembers of
- 58:31Speaker 1: two who might forget a certain day, whether it be
- 58:35Speaker 1: a love's by gun novembers or happily out of the
- 58:40Speaker 1: heart of May. Always a woman sits at life's cold embers,
- 58:45Speaker 1: seeking the gem where once a chining lay. Always it
- 58:50Speaker 1: is a woman who remembers, while heedless goes a man
- 58:54Speaker 1: upon his way. And a poem. This recording is in
- 58:59Speaker 1: the public domain. No Well by Charles Hansome Town read
- 59:10Speaker 1: for LibriVox dot Org by Nemo no Well. One, hark
- 59:18Speaker 1: to each wonderful bell singing, no well know well the
- 59:25Speaker 1: jubilant chimes, and a thousand towers swinging in winter like
- 59:30Speaker 1: iron flowers lost in the cold December hours. They sing
- 59:36Speaker 1: and swing, and the old world bring the wise old
- 59:40Speaker 1: message that never dies. Under the steadfast starlit skies. Two.
- 59:49Speaker 1: The loud winds tell it is our noell, and they
- 59:53Speaker 1: echo the song of each clamoring bell. They shout in
- 59:57Speaker 1: the darkness, over the snow, through the world the tidings blow.
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: The bells are the great glad voice of the Lord,
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: and the winds are his angels and sweet accord, whose
- 1:00:10Speaker 1: whispers surge and sweep through the night where the watchers
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: wait for the ancient light. Noel Noel sings each sudden
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: bell from the flowers, and the towers come a wild
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: no Well. Three, It is Christ's own hour. It is Christ,
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: no Well, And the sad world faints, and the wonderful
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: swell the voice of God rings down the years to
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: hush our old discordant fears. No weel, no Well, I
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: hear him call a time of peace. Hath come to all.
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: His rapture, shakes the moonlit hills. His glory wakes our
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: souls and thrills be on the world beyond the sea,
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: to glory and infinity. No well, no well, it is
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: Christ's own hour thunders each bell like an iron flower
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: in every far and wind blown tower. And a poem.
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. The Last Sleep
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: by Charles Handsome Town read for LibriVox dot Org by Nemo.
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: The Last Sleep, some shining April. I shall be asleep,
- 1:01:46Speaker 1: and over me the ancient joy shall pass. I shall
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: not see young spring dance down the world with ribbons
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: of green grass, but I shall dream of all that
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: I have lost, breath of the wind, immortal loveliness, wild beauty,
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: of the sunlight on the hills. Now mine no less
- 1:02:11Speaker 1: because I slumber, nay, but more than mine, since I
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: a part of them, shall strangely be Only I ask,
- 1:02:22Speaker 1: when the pink hawthorn breaks, that one shall think of me.
- 1:02:30Speaker 1: End a poem. This recording is in the public domain.
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: End of Beyond the Stars by Charles Henson Town