The Poems of Joseph Mary Plunkett

Index by First Line

Occulta

Written Between November 1911 and July 1915

As blazes forth through clouds the morning sun

Because I used to shun

Beside the golden gate there grows a tree

Crowns and imperial purple, thrones of gold

Gaunt windy moons bedraggled in the dusk

Her hair’s the canopy of heaven

I am the Seer: for in you I see

I do not know how you can shun

If I have you then I have everything

If the dread all-seeing stars

I loose the secrets of my soul

I thought I’d never hear your tongue

I’ve watched with Death a dreadful year

No hungry star ascendant at my birth

O Covenant! O Temple! O frail pride

Our lips can only stammer, yet we chant

Rougher than Death the road I choose

She sings, but we are silent: when shall Spring

She walks the azure meadows where the stars

Sing all ye mouths of music, sing her praise

The drunken stars stagger across the sky

These words that may not reach your heart

They say I sing in secrets—they have ears

The worm is clad in plated mail

To-day when I beheld you all alone

What have I dared to claim

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Lane Core Jr. (lane@elcore.net)

http://poetry.elcore.net/CatholicPoets/Plunkett/O_EaL_FirstLine.html
Created March 20, 2001; revised March 26, 2001.