Knowing Elizabeth Daryush: two poems

Elizabeth Daryush

a) 'You should at times go out...' (1934)

You should at times go out
from where the faithful kneel,
visit the slums of doubt
and feel what the lost feel;

you should at times walk on,
away from your friends' ways,
go where the scorned have gone,
pass beyond the blame and praise;

and at times you should quit
(at yes) your sunny home,
sadly awhile should sit,
even, in wrong's dark room,

or ever, suddenly
by simple bliss betrayed,
you shall be forced to flee,
unloved, alone, afraid.

b) 'Children of wealth in your warm nursery...' (1938)

Children of wealth in your warm nursery,
Set in the cushioned window-seat to watch
The volleying snow, guarded invisibly
By the clear double pane through which no touch
Ultimately penetrates, you cannot tell
What winter means; its cruel truths to you
Are only sound and sight; your citadel
Is safe from feeling, and from knowledge too.

Go down, go out to elemental wrong,
Waste your too round limbs, tan your skin too white;
The glass of comfort, ignorance, seems strong
Today, and yet perhaps this very night

You'll wake to horror's wrecking fire - your home
Is wired within for this, in every room.