Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Hermes of the Ways

By H. D.

THE HARD sand breaks,

And the grains of it

Are clear as wine.

Far off over the leagues of it,

The wind,

Playing on the wide shore,

Piles little ridges,

And the great waves

Break over it.

But more than the many-foamed ways

Of the sea,

I know him

Of the triple path-ways,

Hermes,

Who awaiteth.

Dubious,

Facing three ways,

Welcoming wayfarers,

He whom the sea-orchard

Shelters from the west,

From the east

Weathers sea-wind;

Fronts the great dunes.

Wind rushes

Over the dunes,

And the coarse, salt-crusted grass

Answers.

Heu,

It whips round my ankles!

Small is

This white stream,

Flowing below ground

From the poplar-shaded hill,

But the water is sweet.

Apples on the small trees

Are hard,

Too small,

Too late ripened

By a desperate sun

That struggles through sea-mist.

The boughs of the trees

Are twisted

By many bafflings;

Twisted are

The small-leafed boughs.

But the shadow of them

Is not the shadow of the mast head

Nor of the torn sails.

Hermes, Hermes,

The great sea foamed,

Gnashed its teeth about me;

But you have waited,

Where sea-grass tangles with

Shore-grass.