Francis William Bourdillon Quotes

The night has a thousand eyes
And the day but one
Yet the light of the bright world dies
with the dying sun.

I met a ghost in an old bare house,
That looked with lusterless eyes at me,
And drove from my eyes sweet dreams & drowse,
Till the morning made it flee.

My house is builded of years decayed,
And in vain I fill it with new glad light,
For a love that is lost is a ghost unlaid
That troubles the silent night.

The night has a thousand eyes and the day only one.

So my great love for thee lies tranquil, deep, Forever; though above it passions fierce, Ambition, hatred, jealousy; like waves That seem from earth’s core to the sky to leap, But ocean’s depths can never really pierce; Hide its great calm, while all the surface raves.

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

I walk as one unclothed of flesh, I wash my spirit clean; I see old miracles afresh, And wonders yet unseen. I will not leave Thee till Thou give Some word whereby my soul may live! I listened — but no voice I heard; I looked — no likeness saw; Slowly the joy of flower and bird Did like a tide withdraw; And in the heaven a silent star Smiled on me, infinitely far.

I give thee what is most my own - A Dedication by Francis William Bourdillon

As strong, as deep, as wide as is the sea, Though by the wind made restless as the wind, By billows fretted and by rocks confined, So strong, so deep, so wide my love for thee.

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done

Sudden thy silent beauty on me shone, Fair as the moon had given thee all her spell. Then, as Endymion had found on earth, In unchanged beauty but in fashion changed, Her whom I loved so long; so felt I then, Not that a new love in my heart had birth, But that the old, that far from reach had ranged, Was now on earth, and to be loved of men.

I buoyed me on the wings of dream, Above the world of sense; I set my thought to sound the scheme, And fathom the Immense; I tuned my spirit as a lute To catch wind-music wandering mute. Yet came there never voice nor sign; But through my being stole Sense of a Universe divine, And knowledge of a soul Perfected in the joy of things, The star, the flower, the bird that sings. Nor I am more, nor less, than these; All are one brotherhood; I and all creatures, plants, and trees, The living limbs of God; And in an hour, as this, divine, I feel the vast pulse throb in mine.