George William Russell (1867 - 1935)

George William Russell went by the psuedonym AE. He was an Irish author who was born in Lurgan and educated in Dublin. An active member of the Irish nationalist movement, he edited the Irish Homestead (1904–23) and the Irish Statesman (1923–30). He worked with Sir Horace Plunkett for Irish agricultural improvement, and he was also a talented amateur painter and a renowned conversationalist. Russell was one of the major writers in the Irish literary renaissance. His poems and plays are noted for their mystical tone, their delicate melodious style, and their view of humanity's spiritual nature. Among his works are Homeward: Songs by the Way (1894), The Candle of Vision (1918), and Selected Poems (1935).

Met fellow poet and mysticist W. B. Yeats in Dublin 1881 when they both studied at the Metropolitan School of Art.

The poems are by default sorted according to volume, but you can also choose to sort them alphabetically or by page views.

First Line	Comments
I WOULD I could weave in
A CABIN on the mountain side hid in a grassy nook
A DIAMOND glow of winter o’er the world:
A FRIENDLY mountain I know;
A LAUGHTER in the diamond air, a music in the trembling grass;
A MAN went forth one day at eve:
A SHAFT of fire that falls like dew,
ALL the morn a spirit gay
AS flow the rivers to the sea
AS from our dream we died away
AS one by one the veils took flight,
AT dusk the window panes grew grey;
BEARDED with dewy grass the mountains thrust
BURNING our hearts out with longing
BY many a dream of God and man my thoughts in shining flocks were led:
COME earth’s little children pit-pat from their burrows on the hill;
COULD you not in silence borrow
DARK glowed the vales of amethyst
DARK head by the fireside brooding,
DO you not feel the white glow in your breast, my bird?
DOES the earth grow grey with grief
DREAM faces bloom around your face
DUSK its ash-grey blossoms sheds on violet skies,
DUSK wraps the village in its dim caress;
DUSK, a pearl-grey river, o’er
ERE I lose myself in the vastness and drowse myself with the peace,
EVEN as a bird sprays many-coloured fires,	2 Comments
FAINT grew the yellow buds of light
FAR up the dim twilight fluttered
FROM the cool and dark-lipped furrows
HE bent above: so still her breath	1 Comment
HEART-HIDDEN from the outer things I rose;
HER mist of primroses within her breast
HERE where the loves of others close
HIS head within my bosom lay,
HOW came this pigmy rabble spun,
HOW I could see through and through you!
HOW often have I said,
HOW shallow is this mere that gleams!
I AM the tender voice calling “Away,”
I BEGIN through the grass once again to be bound to the Lord;
I COULD praise you once with beautiful words ere you came
I DID not deem it half so sweet
I FAIN would leave the tender songs
I GO down from the hills half in gladness, and half with a pain I depart,
I HAVE wept a million tears:
I HEARD them in their sadness say,
I KNOW myself no more, my child,
I PAUSED beside the cabin door and saw the King of Kings at play,
I PITIED one whose tattered dress
I SAID my pleasure shall not move;
I THOUGHT, beloved, to have brought to you
I WHO had sought afar from earth
I WILL not follow you, my bird,
I WOKE to find my pillow wet
I WOULD not have the love of lips and eyes,
IMAGE of beauty, when I gaze on thee,
IN day from some titanic past it seems
IN summer time, with high imaginings
IN the black pool of the midnight Lu has slung the morning star,
IN the wet dusk silver sweet,
IT was the fairy of the place,
IT’S a lonely road through bogland to the lake at Carrowmore,
ITS edges foamed with amethyst and rose,
LET us leave our island woods grown dim and blue;
LIGHTEST of dancers, with no thought
LIKE winds or waters were her ways:
LOVE and pity are pleading with me this hour.
MEN have made them gods of love,
MOTHER, with whom our lives should be,	2 Comments
NOT her own sorrow only that hath place
NOT the soul that’s whitest
NOT unremembering we pass our exile from the starry ways:
NOW the quietude of earth
NOW the rooftree of the midnight spreading,
NOW when the spirit in us wakes and broods,
O HOLY SPIRIT of the Hazel, hearken now:
OH, at the eagle’s height
OH, be not led away,	1 Comment
OH, if my spirit may foretell
OH, the sudden wings arising from the ploughed fields brown
ON me to rest, my bird, my bird:
ON the bird of air blue-breasted glint the rays of gold,
ON the twilight-burnished hills I lie and long and gaze
ONE thing in all things have I seen:
ONLY in my deep heart I love you, sweetest heart.
OUR true hearts are forever lonely:
OUT of the dusky chamber of the brain
OVER all the dream-built margin, flushed with grey and hoary light,	1 Comment
POOR little child, my pretty boy,
PURE at heart we wander now:
SEE where the light streams over Connla’s fountain
SHADOWWHO art thou, O Glory,
SHADOWY-PETALLED, like the lotus, loom the mountains with their snows:
STILL as the holy of holies breathes the vast,
STILL rests the heavy share on the dark soil:
TARRY thou yet, late lingerer in the twilight’s glory:
THE BLUE dusk ran between the streets: my love was winged within my mind,
THE CHILDREN awoke in their dreaming
THE CHILDREN were shouting together
THE EAST was crowned with snow-cold bloom
THE GREY road whereupon we trod became as holy ground:
THE HEAVENS lay hold on us: the starry rays
THE HERO first thought it
THE LIGHTS shone down the street
THE MIGHT that shaped itself through storm and stress
THE SEA was hoary, hoary,
THE SKIES from black to pearly grey
THE SWEETEST song was ever sung
THE TWILIGHT fleeted away in pearl on the stream,
THE TWINKLING mists of green and gold
THE WARMTH of life is quenched with bitter frost;
THE WHILE my mad brain whirled around
THE WINDS, the stars, and the skies though wrought
THE WONDER of the world is o’er:
THERE in her old-world garden smiles
THERE were many burning hours on the heartsweet tide,
THERE’S a cure for sorrow in the well at Ballylee
THEY bathed in the fire-flooded fountains:
THEY call us aliens, we are told,
THEY tell me that the earth is still the same
THIS is the hero-heart of the enchanted isle,	1 Comment
THIS is the red, red region
THIS mood hath known all beauty, for it sees
THOSE delicate wanderers,
THOUGH now thou hast failed and art fallen, despair not because of defeat,
THOUGH your eyes with tears were blind,	1 Comment
THROUGH the blue shadowy valley I hastened in a dream:
TWILIGHT, a blossom grey in shadowy valleys dwells:
TWILIGHT, a timid fawn, went glimmering by,
UNTO the deep the deep heart goes,
WE air tired who follow after
WE are desert leagues apart;
WE have left our youth behind:
WE laid him to rest with tenderness;
WE must pass like smoke or live within the spirit’s fire;
WE turned back mad from the mystic mountains,
WE woke from our sleep in the bosom where cradled together we lay:
WELL, when all is said and done
WHAT call may draw thee back again,
WHAT domination of what darkness dies this hour,
WHAT is the love of shadowy lips
WHAT miracle was it that made this grey Rathgar
WHAT of all the will to do?
WHEN for love it was fain of
WHEN in my shadowy hours I pierce the hidden heart of hopes and fears,
WHEN mine hour is come
WHEN our glowing dreams were dead,
WHEN the breath of twilight blows to flame the misty skies,
WHEN the dawn comes forth I wonder
WHEN the morning breaks above us
WHEN the soul sought refuge in the place of rest,
WHEN the unquiet hours depart
WHEN twilight flutters the mountains over,
WHERE are now the dreams divine,
WHERE the Greyhound River windeth through a loneliness so deep,
WHERE we sat at dawn together, while the star-rich heavens shifted,
WHILE the earth is dark and grey
WHILE the yellow constellations shine with pale and tender glory,
WHO are exiles? As for me
WHO gave thee such a ruby flaming heart
WHO is that goddess to whom men should pray,
WHO is this unseen messenger
WHO would think this quiet breather
WHY does this sudden passion smite me?
WITH eyes all untroubled she laughs as she passes,
WITH the glamour of the Gay
WITH Thee a moment! Then what dreams have play!
WITHIN the iron cities
YOU and I have found the secret way,
YOU look at me with wan, bright eyes	1 Comment
YOU remember, dear, together
YOUR paths were all unknown to us: