Cecil Day Lewis
'Cyprian! Cyprian!'
I
Here is green lacquer
Spread by the willows
On glossy water
Where the ballet of minnows
Moving together
In lithe sarabande
Suddenly waver
When they have seen your hand
Ruffle the water—
Stare and are hesitant,
So gracious a dancer
That ivory visitant.
II
Here, as I lay and watched the sunlight playing
A visual music in your eyes,
I thought, 'This grand surprise
We have of Beauty's disarraying
Alone is real: without it we are less
Than ghosts, as the musician's even
Poised hands are meaningless
But for the fire they take from heaven!'
III
How little the love that cramps similitude
Of the beloved within this transient mirage,
Earth's beauty! For you there is no image
In wave and tree:
No branch has motion or quietude
To match your fingers' wizardry
That do but touch, and Reason
Is futile as a creaking skeleton.
I hear your voice make of each trivial thought
Aria so lovely that all philosophies seem
An ocean of greybeard waves
Chattering the same old, outworn theme.
Save in your body Poetry is naught
But a painted bawd who lives
On another's graces at any cross-road bought.
And so will I throw off this flaunting
Motley of wisdom: it only would obscure
In my heart's clouded air
That bright and birdlike haunting
When you and Love are moving there.
Page(s) 15-16
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