Raymond Chandler - The Quest

The Westminster Gazette, XXXIII (2 June 1909), p. 2. 

The Quest 

I sought among the trampling herds of men 
  That choke the cities of the cast and west.
The proudest mansion and the foulest den
  I entered, seeking wisdom yet unguessed. 
I searched them through unpausing, without rest,
  Until the bricks and plaster of each wall 
Became transparent at my thought's behest, 
  But still I could not hear the Master's call. 

I wandered on the moorland and the fen,
  I climbed the mountain to its silent crest,
I watched the robin redbreast and the wren 
  Choose out the leaves wherewith to build a nest.
I looked upon the plain by dawn caressed, 
  I saw its contours gaunt beneath night's pall.
All nature told her tale at my behest, 
  But still I could not hear the Master's call. 

I thought to keep all knowledge in a pen,
  All human hardship was to me a test, 
There seemed naught undiscovered to my ken,
But that I sought I found nowhere expressed. 
  I left my learning for a maiden's breast, 
I scorned my wisdom to become her thrall,
Blasphemed my task at her unspoke behest, 
  But still I could not hear the Master's call. 

She spurned the love which all my soul possessed,
  She threw it down and jested at its fall. 
I laughed and turned to recommence my quest,
  And in the laugh I heard the Master's call. 

R. T. CHANDLER. 

http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/html/works/quest.txt

Raymond Chandler - The Unknown Love

    
    When the evening sun is slanting,
    When the crickets raise their chanting,
  And the dewdrops lie a-twinkling on the grass,
    As I climb the pathway slowly,
    With a mien half proud, half lowly,
  O'er the ground your feet have trod I gently pass.
    
    Round the empty house I wander,
    Where the ivy now is fonder
  Of your memory than those long gone away;
    And I feel a sweet affection
    For the plant that lends protection
  To the window whence you looked on me that day.
    
    Was it love or recognition,
    When you stormed my weak position
  And made prisoner my heart for evermore?
    For I felt I long had known you,
    That I'd knelt before the throne you
  Graced in Pharaoh's days or centuries before.
    
    Though your face from me was hidden,
    Yet the balm was not forbidden
  On your coffin just to see the wreath I sent.
    Though no word had passed between us,
    Yet I felt that God had seen us
  And had joined your heart to mine e'en as you went.
    
    Let them talk of love and marriage,
    Honeymoon and bridal carriage,
  And the glitter of a wedding   la mode!
     Could they understand the union
     Of two hearts in dear communion
  Who were strangers in the world of flesh and blood?
  
    In my eyes the tears are welling
    As I stand before your dwelling,
  In my pilgrimage to where you lived, my fair.
    And ere I return to duty
    In this world of weary beauty,
  To the stillness of the night I breathe my prayer:
    
    When the last great trump has sounded,
    When life's barque the point has rounded,
  When the wheel of human progress is at rest,
    My beloved, may I meet you,
    With a lover's kiss to greet you,
  Where you wait me in the gardens of the blest!
    
                       R. T. CHANDLER.

http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/html/works/unknown.txt