s: for hard-sword and helmet, if hap should bring


s: stress of this sort! Himself who chose us


s: urged us to glory, and gave these treasures,


s: because he counted us keen with the spear


s: and hardy 'neath helm, though this hero-work


s: who hath got him glory greater than all men


s: that our noble master has need of the might


s: the hero to help while the heat is about him


s: I am far more fain the fire should seize


s: along with my lord these limbs of mine! {34c}


s: on the law of our land if alone the king


s: and sank in the struggle! My sword and helmet,


s: breastplate and board, for us both shall serve!"


s: Through slaughter-reek strode he to succor his chieftain,


s: his battle-helm bore, and brief words spake:  --


s: as in youthful days of yore thou vowedst


s: that while life should last thou wouldst let no wise


s: atheling steadfast, with all thy strength


s: shield thy life! I will stand to help thee."


s: with fire-billows flaming, its foes to seek,


s: that board {34d} to the boss, and the breastplate failed


s: to shelter at all the spear-thane young.


s: went eager the earl, since his own was now


s: all burned by the blaze. The bold king again


s: had mind of his glory:  with might his glaive


s: blow nerved by hate. But Naegling {34e} was shivered,


s: could help him at strife:  too strong was his hand,


s: so the tale is told, and he tried too far


s: with strength of stroke all swords he wielded,


s: though sturdy their steel:  they steaded him nought.


s: Then for the third time thought on its feud


s: and rushed on the hero, where room allowed,


s: with waves of blood from his breast that welled.


s: 'TWAS now, men say, in his sovran's need


s: that the earl made known his noble strain,


s: craft and keenness and courage enduring.


s: Heedless of harm, though his hand was burned,


s: a biting blade by his breastplate hanging,


s: and the Weders'-helm smote that worm asunder,


s: athelings twain:  thus an earl should be


s: this conqueror's-hour of the king was last,


s: of his work in the world. The wound began,


s: which that dragon-of-earth had erst inflicted,


s: in his breast was boiling, baleful and deep,


s: wise in his thought, to the wall of rock;


s: then sat, and stared at the structure of giants,


s: where arch of stone and steadfast column


s: Yet here must the hand of the henchman peerless


s: the king and conqueror covered with blood,


s: with struggle spent, and unspan his helmet.


s: of his file of days, and death was near:


s: who war would wage me with 'warriors'-friends' {35a}


s: and threat me with horrors. At home I bided


s: what fate might come, and I cared for mine own;


s: From the Ruler-of-Man no wrath shall seize me,


s: and gaze on that hoard 'neath the hoary rock,


s: sleeps, heart-sore, of his spoil bereaved.


s: softlier for sight of this splendid hoard


s: my life and the lordship I long have held."


s: I HAVE heard that swiftly the son of Weohstan


s: at wish and word of his wounded king, --


s: battle-sark, bore 'neath the barrow's roof.


s: Then the clansman keen, of conquest proud,


s: by the wall were marvels, and many a vessel


s: in the den of the dragon, the dawn-flier old:


s: wondrously woven. -- Such wealth of gold,


s: booty from barrow, can burden with pride


s: each human wight:  let him hide it who will! --


s: His glance too fell on a gold-wove banner


s: high o'er the hoard, of handiwork noblest,


s: brilliantly broidered; so bright its gleam,


s: and viewed all these vessels. No vestige now


s: was seen of the serpent:  the sword had ta'en him.


s: Then, I heard, the hill of its hoard was reft,


s: he burdened his bosom with beakers and plate


s: at his own good will, and the ensign took,


s: brightest of beacons. -- The blade of his lord


s: -- its edge was iron -- had injured deep


s: spread hot round the barrow in horror-billows


s: Hasted the herald, the hoard so spurred him


s: his track to retrace; he was troubled by doubt,


s: alive, where he left him, the lord of Weders,


s: So he carried the load. His lord and king


s: at the lapse of life. The liegeman again


s: plashed him with water, till point of word


s: broke through the breast-hoard. Beowulf spake,


s: sage and sad, as he stared at the gold. --


s: "For the gold and treasure, to God my thanks,


s: to the Wielder-of-Wonders, with words I say,


s: for the grace that I give such gifts to my folk


s: Now I've bartered here for booty of treasure


s: to the needs of my land! No longer I tarry.


s: for my ashes. 'Twill shine by the shore of the flood,


s: they drive their keels o'er the darkling wave."


s: From his neck he unclasped the collar of gold,


s: with bright-gold helmet, breastplate, and ring,


s: to the youthful thane:  bade him use them in joy.


s: "Thou art end and remnant of all our race


s: the Waegmunding name. For Wyrd hath swept them,


s: earls in their glory:  I after them go."


s: This word was the last which the wise old man


s: of balefire he chose. From his bosom fled


s: on his lord beloved to look and find him


s: lay felled in fight, nor, fain of its treasure,


s: could the writhing monster rule it more.


s: hard and battle-sharp, hammers' leaving; {37a}


s: and that flier-afar had fallen to ground


s: -- though sturdy and strong, as stories tell me,


s: and never so daring in deed of valor, --


s: to brave, and to rush on the ring-board hall,


s: the price of death for that precious hoard;


s: that the laggards in war the wood had left,


s: in the sore distress of their sovran lord.


s: Now in their shame their shields they carried,


s: and they gazed on Wiglaf. Wearied he sat


s: at his sovran's shoulder, shieldsman good,


s: to wake him with water. {37b} Nowise it availed.


s: Though well he wished it, in world no more


s: could he barrier life for that leader-of-battles


s: nor baffle the will of all-wielding God.


s: from the youth for those that had yielded to fear!


s: mournful he looked on those men unloved:  --


s: that the ruler who gave you golden rings


s: and the harness of war in which ye stand


s: bestowed on hall-folk helm and breastplate,


s: which near of far he could find to give, --


s: threw away and wasted these weeds of battle,


s: Not at all could the king of his comrades-in-arms


s: venture to vaunt, though the Victory-Wielder,


s: could serve him in struggle; yet shift I made


s: (hopeless it seemed) to help my kinsman.


s: Its strength ever waned, when with weapon I struck


s: that fatal foe, and the fire less strongly


s: flowed from its head. -- Too few the heroes


s: in throe of contest that thronged to our king!


s: Now gift of treasure and girding of sword,


s: shall lose and leave, when lords high-born


s: THAT battle-toil bade he at burg to announce,


s: at the fort on the cliff, where, full of sorrow,


s: would they wail as dead, or welcome home,


s: their lord beloved? Little {38a} kept back


s: the herald that up the headland rode. --


s: on the slaughter-bed sleeps by the serpent's deed!


s: And beside him is stretched that slayer-of-men


s: with knife-wounds sick:  {38b} no sword availed


s: and heavy of heart a head-watch {38c} keeps


s: o'er friend and foe. -- Now our folk may look


s: to Frisian and Frank the fall of the king


s: when hot on the Hugas {38d} Hygelac fell


s: and fared with his fleet to the Frisian land.


s: plied with such prowess their power o'erwhelming


s: that the bold-in-battle bowed beneath it


s: and fell in fight. To his friends no wise


s: could that earl give treasure! And ever since


s: the Merowings' favor has failed us wholly.


s: when the folk of Geats for the first time sought


s: the sea-king {38f} he slew, and his spouse redeemed,


s: his good wife rescued, though robbed of her gold,


s: Then he followed his foes, who fled before him


s: With his host he besieged there what swords had left,


s: the weary and wounded; woes he threatened


s: the whole night through to that hard-pressed throng:


s: some with the morrow his sword should kill,


s: with dawn of day for those desperate men


s: when they heard the horn of Hygelac sound,


s: had followed their trail with faithful band.


s: and the storm of their strife, were seen afar,


s: how folk against folk the fight had wakened.


s: the proud one's prowess, would prove it no longer,


s: nor hoped from the seamen to save his hoard,


s: his bairn and his bride:  so he bent him again,


s: old, to his earth-walls. Yet after him came


s: with slaughter for Swedes the standards of Hygelac


s: o'er peaceful plains in pride advancing,


s: till Hrethelings fought in the fenced town. {39a}


s: and the folk-king there was forced to suffer


s: and the chieftain's blood, for that blow, in streams


s: flowed 'neath his hair. No fear felt he,


s: stout old Scylfing, but straightway repaid


s: too soon on his head the helm was cloven;


s: and well he waxed, though the wound was sore.


s: when his brother fell, with broad brand smote,


s: giants' sword crashing through giants'-helm


s: There were many to bind the brother's wounds


s: and the hoar-chief's harness to Hygelac carried,


s: who took the trappings, and truly promised


s: rich fee 'mid folk, -- and fulfilled it so.


s: For that grim strife gave the Geatish lord,


s: Each of them had a hundred thousand {39c}


s: in land and linked rings; nor at less price reckoned


s: in pledge of grace, the pride of his home.


s: for this fall of their friends, the fighting-Scylfings,


s: when once they learn that our warrior leader


s: furthered his folk's weal, finished his course


s: to the funeral pyre. No fragments merely


s: treasure at last with his life obtained,


s: all of that booty the brands shall take,


s: nay, sad in spirit and shorn of her gold,


s: now our lord all laughter has laid aside,


s: those warriors wake; but the wan-hued raven,


s: fain o'er the fallen, his feast shall praise


s: and boast to the eagle how bravely he ate


s: when he and the wolf were wasting the slain."


s: sad, they climbed to the Cliff-of-Eagles,


s: went, welling with tears, the wonder to view.


s: Found on the sand there, stretched at rest,


s: their lifeless lord, who had lavished rings


s: had dawned on the doughty-one; death had seized


s: There saw they, besides, the strangest being,


s: it had revelled by night, and anon come back,


s: seeking its den; now in death's sure clutch


s: it had come to the end of its earth-hall joys.


s: dishes lay there, and dear-decked swords


s: eaten with rust, as, on earth's lap resting,


s: of bygone men, was bound by a spell, {39e}


s: so the treasure-hall could be touched by none


s: of human kind, -- save that Heaven's King,


s: A PERILOUS path, it proved, he {40a} trod


s: wealth under wall! Its watcher had killed


s: one of a few, {40b} and the feud was avenged


s: oft ends his life, when the earl no longer


s: in mead-hall may live with loving friends.


s: he sought, and the struggle; himself knew not


s: in what wise he should wend from the world at last.


s: For {40c} princes potent, who placed the gold,


s: with a curse to doomsday covered it deep,


s: so that marked with sin the man should be,


s: hedged with horrors, in hell-bonds fast,


s: racked with plagues, who should rob their hoard.


s: Yet no greed for gold, but the grace of heaven,


s: "At the mandate of one, oft warriors many


s: That guardian of gold he should grapple not, urged we,


s: in his earth-hall waiting the end of the world,


s: the hest of heaven. -- This hoard is ours


s: but grievously gotten; too grim the fate


s: which thither carried our king and lord.


s: the chambered treasure, when chance allowed me


s: (and my path was made in no pleasant wise)


s: such heap from the hoard as hands could bear


s: to my liege and lord. Alive was he still,


s: still wielding his wits. The wise old man


s: spake much in his sorrow, and sent you greetings


s: and bade that ye build, when he breathed no more,


s: on the place of his balefire a barrow high,


s: Let us set out in haste now, the second time


s: to see and search this store of treasure,


s: these wall-hid wonders, -- the way I show you, --


s: where, gathered near, ye may gaze your fill


s: at broad-gold and rings. Let the bier, soon made,


s: -- man beloved -- where long he shall bide


s: Then the bairn of Weohstan bade command,


s: that owned their homesteads, hither to bring


s: firewood from far -- o'er the folk they ruled --


s: for the famed-one's funeral. " Fire shall devour


s: and wan flames feed on the fearless warrior


s: when, sped from the string, a storm of arrows


s: shot o'er the shield-wall:  the shaft held firm,


s: and went with these warriors, one of eight,


s: lying there lost. And little they mourned


s: dear-bought treasure! The dragon they cast,


s: the worm, o'er the wall for the wave to take,


s: and surges swallowed that shepherd of gems.


s: Then the woven gold on a wain was laden --


s: countless quite! -- and the king was borne,


s: THEN fashioned for him the folk of Geats


s: and hung it with helmets and harness of war


s: and breastplates bright, as the boon he asked;


s: and they laid amid it the mighty chieftain,


s: Then on the hill that hugest of balefires


s: black over blaze, and blent was the roar


s: of flame with weeping (the wind was still),


s: till the fire had broken the frame of bones,


s: their misery moaned they, their master's death.


s: and shame. -- The smoke by the sky was devoured.


s: on the headland a barrow broad and high,


s: in ten days' time their toil had raised it,


s: the battle-brave's beacon. Round brands of the pyre


s: that wit could prompt in their wisest men.


s: They placed in the barrow that precious booty,


s: the rounds and the rings they had reft erewhile,


s: trusting the ground with treasure of earls,


s: Then about that barrow the battle-keen rode,


s: chant their dirge, and their chieftain honor.


s: They praised his earlship, his acts of prowess


s: that men their master-friend mightily laud,


s: Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland,


s: for their hero's passing his hearth-companions:


s: to his kin the kindest, keenest for praise.


s: {0a} Not, of course, Beowulf the Great, hero of the epic.


s: {0b} Kenning for king or chieftain of a comitatus:  he breaks off


s: rectangular, with opposite doors -- mainly west and east -- and a


s: Planks on trestles -- the "board" of later English literature --


s: {1b} Fire was the usual end of these halls. See v. 781 below. One


s: {1c} It is to be supposed that all hearers of this poem knew how


s: Hrothgar's hall was burnt, -- perhaps in the unsuccessful attack


s: {1d} A skilled minstrel. The Danes are heathens, as one is told


s: presently; but this lay of beginnings is taken from Genesis.


s: {1e} A disturber of the border, one who sallies from his haunt in


s: nuisance is now furnished with biblical credentials as a fiend or


s: {2a} The smaller buildings within the main enclosure but separate


s: {2d} Hrothgar, who is the "Scyldings'-friend" of 170.


s: {2e} That is, in formal or prescribed phrase.


s: {3c} One of the auxiliary names of the Geats.


s: {3d} Or:  Not thus openly ever came warriors hither; yet...


s: {5a} Either merely paved, the strata via of the Romans, or else


s: thought of as a sort of mosaic, an extravagant touch like the


s: reckless waste of gold on the walls and roofs of a hall.


s: {6a} The nicor, says Bugge, is a hippopotamus; a walrus, says Ten


s: {6f} This mighty power, whom the Christian poet can still revere,


s: {7a} There is no irrelevance here. Hrothgar sees in Beowulf's


s: {11a} That is, he was a "lost soul," doomed to hell.


s: very violent, and is of a piece with the general style.


s: {14a} Unferth, Beowulf's sometime opponent in the flyting.


s: {15a} There is no horrible inconsistency here such as the critics


s: {15d} Hrothgar. He is also the "refuge of the friends of Ing,"


s: {16d} There is no need to assume a gap in the Ms. As before about


s: nevertheless has a "castle" outside the Frisian border, marries


s: Hildeburh, a Danish princess; and her brother, Hnaef, with many


s: other Danes, pays Finn a visit. Relations between the two peoples


s: {16f} The "enemies" must be the Frisians.


s: {16h} That is, Finn would govern in all honor the few Danish


s: {16j} The high place chosen for the funeral:  see description of


s: Beowulf's funeral-pile at the end of the poem.


s: {17b} Nephew to Hrothgar, with whom he subsequently quarrels, and


s: {20a} He surmises presently where she is.


s: {20b} The connection is not difficult. The words of mourning, of


s: acute grief, are said; and according to Germanic sequence of


s: skillful and often effective description of the horrors which


s: surround the monster's home and await the attempt of an avenging


s: {22b} This brown of swords, evidently meaning burnished, bright,


s: continues to be a favorite adjective in the popular ballads.


s: {23c} The blade slowly dissolves in blood-stained drops like


s: {24a} That is, "whoever has as wide authority as I have and can


s: {25a} That is, he is now undefended by conscience from the


s: {26a} That is, he might or might not see Beowulf again. Old as he


s: hoping to see his young friend again "and exchange brave words in


s: {27b} Queen to Hygelac. She is praised by contrast with the


s: antitype, Thryth, just as Beowulf was praised by contrast with


s: {28a} Beowulf gives his uncle the king not mere gossip of his


s: journey, but a statesmanlike forecast of the outcome of certain


s: Beowulf was put together also knew, -- Froda was king of the


s: {28c} That is, their disastrous battle and the slaying of their


s: {28f} Not an actual glove, but a sort of bag.


s: {29b} This is generally assumed to mean hides, though the text


s: acres, though "the size of the acre varied."


s: {29e} The text is here hopelessly illegible, and only the general


s: {31a} Literally "loan-days," days loaned to man.


s: {33a} Eofor for Wulf. -- The immediate provocation for Eofor in


s: killing "the hoary Scylfing," Ongentheow, is that the latter has


s: just struck Wulf down; but the king, Haethcyn, is also avenged by


s: {34a} That is, although Eanmund was brother's son to Onela, the


s: practical basis of benefits received and repaid.


s: {34c} Sc. "than to bide safely here," -- a common figure of


s: {37a} What had been left or made by the hammer; well-forged.


s: {38c} Death-watch, guard of honor, "lyke-wake."


s: {39a} The line may mean:  till Hrethelings stormed on the hedged


s: shields, -- i.e. the shield-wall or hedge of defensive war --


s: {39c} Sc. "value in" hides and the weight of the gold.


s: {39e} Laid on it when it was put in the barrow. This spell, or in


s: {40b} That is "one and a few others." But Beowulf seems to be


s: {40c} Ten Brink points out the strongly heathen character of this


s: heathenism of his material by an edifying observation.


s: {41a} Nothing is said of Beowulf's wife in the poem, but Bugge


s: (The greater part of which were originally


s: Have all built their nests in my beard!"


s: Came untied when the birds sate upon it;


s: Whose Grandmother threatened to burn her;


s: So they smashed that Old Man with a gong.


s: Which distressed all the people of Chertsey.


s: Whose conduct grew friskier and friskier;


s: But declared she would never leave Portugal.


s: Who was thirsty, and called out for some beer;


s: That she very soon went back to Dorking.


s: That the street door was partially closed;


s: Upon which he relinquished those habits.


s: Who rushed through a field of blue Clover;


s: Whose daughters wore bottle-green veils;


s: Was so long that it reached to her toes;


s: But knocked them all down with his poker.


s: Who was suddenly seized with the plague;


s: He was choked, that Old Man of the South.


s: You will pass all your life in that box."


s: Which may soften the heart of that Cow."


s: So they smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven.


s: Which distressed that Old Man of Jamaica.


s: That it killed that Old Man of the East.


s: Whose conduct was strange and unmannerly;


s: Who screamed so that no one could hush her;


s: Whose praise all the world was a-telling;


s: That accomplished Young Lady of Welling.


s: Your death will be felt by all Tartary!"


s: And displeased that old person of Chester.


s: Which refreshed that Old Man and his owl.


s: But thought she should go back to Sweden.


s: Who had twenty-five sons and one daughter;


s: Which refreshed that Old Person of Ewell.


s: Who possessed a large Cow, but he lost her;


s: Which relieved that Old Man and his nose.


s: When we were young . . . when we were young;


s: You've learned to know the worth of gold.


s: Of lights that lure and dreams that thrall . . .


s: And if you shake your heads in blame . . .


s: Good friends, God love you all the same.


s: Here is my Garret up five flights of stairs;


s: Here's where I deal in dreams and ply in fancies,


s: Here is the wonder-shop of all my wares,


s: My sounding sonnets and my red romances.


s: Here's where I challenge Fate and ring my rhymes,


s: And grope at glory--aye, and starve at times.


s: Here is my Stronghold:  stout of heart am I,


s: Greeting each dawn as songful as a linnet;


s: (Blessing the world and every soul that's in it),


s: Here's where I thank the Lord no shadow bars


s: My skylight's vision of the valiant stars.


s: Here is my Palace tapestried with dreams.


s: Ah! though to-night ten _sous_ are all my treasure,


s: While in my gaze immortal beauty gleams,


s: Am I not dowered with wealth beyond all measure?


s: Though in my ragged coat my songs I sing,


s: Only the scratch of pen, the candle's flutter;


s: Shabby and bare and small, but O how dear!


s: Mark you--my table with my work a-clutter,


s: My shelf of tattered books along the wall,


s: My bed, my broken chair--that's nearly all.


s: Only four faded walls, yet mine, all mine.


s: Oh, you fine folks, a pauper scorns your pity.


s: Look, where above me stars of rapture shine;


s: See, where below me gleams the siren city . . .


s: If wealth be told in terms of Happiness.


s: Yet there was nothing juvenile in Julot the _apache_.


s: From head to heel as tough as steel, as nimble as a cat,


s: With every trick of twist and kick, a master of _savate_.


s: And Gigolette was tall and fair, as stupid as a cow,


s: With three combs in the greasy hair she banged upon her brow.


s: You'd see her on the Place Pigalle on any afternoon,


s: A primitive and strapping wench as brazen as the moon.


s: And yet there is a tale that's told of Clichy after dark,


s: And two _gendarmes_ who swung their arms with Julot for a mark.


s: And oh, but they'd have got him too; they banged and blazed away,


s: But no!  He turned, ran swiftly back, his arms around her met;


s: They nabbed him sobbing like a kid, and kissing Gigolette.


s: Now I'm a reckless painter chap who loves a jamboree,


s: And one night in Cyrano's bar I got upon a spree;


s: And there were trollops all about, and crooks of every kind,


s: But though the place was reeling round I didn't seem to mind.


s: Till down I sank, and all was blank when in the bleary dawn


s: I woke up in my studio to find--my money gone;


s: Before my cruel landlord kicked me cowering from the door:


s: And that was how I came to know Julot and Gigolette,


s: And we would talk and drink a _bock_, and smoke a cigarette.


s: And I would meditate upon the artistry of crime,


s: And he would tell of cracking cribs and cops and doing time;


s: Or else when he was flush of funds he'd carelessly explain


s: He'd biffed some bloated _bourgeois_ on the border of the Seine.


s: So gentle and polite he was, just like a man of peace,


s: And not a desperado and the terror of the police.


s: Now one day in a _bistro_ that's behind the Place Vendôme


s: I came on Julot the _apache_, and Gigolette his _môme_.


s: And as they looked so very grave, says I to them, says I,


s: "Come on and have a little glass, it's good to rinse the eye.


s: You both look mighty serious; you've something on the heart."


s: "Ah, yes," said Julot the _apache_, "we've something to impart.


s: When such things come to folks like us, it isn't very gay . . .


s: It's Gigolette--she tells me that a _gosse_ is on the way."


s: Then Gigolette, she looked at me with eyes like stones of gall:


s: "If we were honest folks," said she, "I wouldn't mind at all.


s: But then . . . you know the life we lead; well, anyway I mean


s: (That is, providing it's a girl) to call her Angeline."


s: And so the weary winter passed, and then one April morn


s: The worthy Julot came at last to say the babe was born.


s: "I'd like to chuck it in the Seine," he sourly snarled, "and yet


s: I guess I'll have to let it live, because of Gigolette."


s: I only laughed, for sure I saw his spite was all a bluff,


s: And he was prouder than a prince behind his manner gruff.


s: Yet every day he'd blast the brat with curses deep and grim,


s: And swear to me that Gigolette no longer thought of _him_.


s: But Angeline, I joy to say, came through the test all right,


s: Though Julot, so they tell me, watched beside her day and night.


s: And when I saw him next, says he:  "Come up and dine with me.


s: We'll buy a beefsteak on the way, a bottle and some _brie_."


s: And so I had a merry night within his humble home,


s: And laughed with Angeline the _gosse_ and Gigolette the _môme_.


s: And every time that Julot used a word the least obscene,


s: How Gigolette would frown at him and point to Angeline:


s: Oh, such a little innocent, with hair of silken floss,


s: I do not wonder they were proud of Angeline the _gosse_.


s: And when her arms were round his neck, then Julot says to me:


s: And for a year behind the bars they put him safe away.


s: And o'er the tub a strapping wench, her arms in soapy foam;


s: Lo! it was Angeline the _gosse_, and Gigolette the _môme_.


s: And so I kept an eye on them and saw that all went right,


s: You mark my words, the page I turn is going to be clean,


s: I swear it on the head of her, my little Angeline."


s: And so, to finish up my tale, this morning as I strolled


s: Along the boulevard I heard a voice I knew of old.


s: I saw a rosy little man with walrus-like mustache . . .


s: I've half an acre under glass, and heaps of truck to sell.


s: As I stroll down the Boul' Mich' the lingering light has all the


s: With:  "_S'il vous plait, une cigarette?_"


s: What crackling throats have gulped your ale!


s: Here Wilde would talk and Synge would muse,


s: Weigh them well. . . .  Behold yon band,


s: "You're young," they say, "and strong and free."


s: Says:  "Lad, you're free and strong and young."


s: I rise and through the window stare . . .


s: Who on their pillows drowse and doze . . .


s: The poor moon seemed to faint in fright,


s: Like fine old silver, rinsed and bright.


s: And cried:  "Look, look, my lost balloon!"


s: Said Giles, "and that a chap bides there. . . .


s: Said she:  "There's mother, pale and old,


s: Moon-high she stared . . . she shook her head.


s: Like peace its soft white beams had lain;


s: _Like Peace!_ . . .  He closed his eyes again.


s: Ah yes, old Moon, what things you've seen!


s: And tranquil still you'll make your round,


s: You'll find me writing, writing, writing.


s: Some fount of gladness must be springing,


s: She stitched and sang . . . I scarcely think


s: "Of course," said I, "she'll sing again.


s: Poor child; 'twas finished with her song:


s: And while my rhymes of cheer I'm ringing,


s: D'Harcourt, I will dine on the Grand Boulevard, I will go to the


s: But the time was nigh to homeward hie, when, imagine our despair!


s: Oh, the days were slow and packed with woe,


s: And many a hearty feed it had on the heft of my hairy arm.


s: And the Prince he was pleased and friendly-like,


s: In vain, in vain; it was very plain that I hadn't got Lucille.


s: After all, I did not celebrate.  I sat on the terrace of the Cafe


s: Oh, those screams; those hideous screams!


s: You called the page, you learned that he


s: Your tailor's bill . . . well, I'll be blowed!


s: It's good the great green earth to roam,


s: A little boat that dips and swings . . .


s: Take wealth, take fame, but leave to me,


s: He's yonder, on the terrace of the Cafe de la Paix,


s: The little wizened Spanish man, I see him every day.


s: He's sitting with his Pernod on his customary chair;


s: He's staring at the passers with his customary stare.


s: He never takes his piercing eyes from off that moving throng,


s: That current cosmopolitan meandering along:


s: Dark diplomats from Martinique, pale Rastas from Peru,


s: An Englishman from Bloomsbury, a Yank from Kalamazoo;


s: Exotic citizens of all the countries on the map;


s: A tourist horde from every land that's underneath the sun--


s: That little wizened Spanish man, he misses never one.


s: Oh, foul or fair he's always there, and many a drink he buys,


s: And there's a fire of red desire within his hollow eyes.


s: And sipping of my Pernod, and a-knowing what I know,


s: Sometimes I want to shriek aloud and give away the show.


s: I've lost my nerve; he's haunting me; he's like a beast of prey,


s: That Spanish man that's watching at the Cafe de la Paix.


s: Say!  Listen and I'll tell you all . . . the day was growing dim,


s: And he was sitting soberly as if he were asleep,


s: When suddenly he seemed to tense, like tiger for a leap.


s: And then he swung around to me, his hand went to his hip,


s: My heart was beating like a gong--my arm was in his grip;


s: His eyes were glaring into mine; aye, though I shrank with fear,


s: His fetid breath was on my face, his voice was in my ear:


s: "Excuse my _brusquerie_," he hissed; "but, sir, do you suppose--


s: That portly man who passed us had a _wen upon his nose?_"


s: And then at last it dawned on me, the fellow must be mad;


s: And when I soothingly replied:  "I do not think he had,"


s: The little wizened Spanish man subsided in his chair,


s: And shrouded in his raven cloak resumed his owlish stare.


s: But when I tried to slip away he turned and glared at me,


s: And oh, that fishlike face of his was sinister to see:


s: "Forgive me if I startled you; of course you think I'm queer;


s: No doubt you wonder who I am, so solitary here;


s: You question why the passers-by I piercingly review . . .


s: Well, listen, my bibacious friend, I'll tell my tale to you.


s: "It happened twenty years ago, and in another land:


s: A maiden young and beautiful, two suitors for her hand.


s: My rival was the lucky one; I vowed I would repay;


s: Revenge has mellowed in my heart, it's rotten ripe to-day.


s: My happy rival skipped away, vamoosed, he left no trace;


s: And so I'm waiting, waiting here to meet him face to face;


s: For has it not been ever said that all the world one day


s: Will pass in pilgrimage before the Cafe de la Paix?"


s: "But, sir," I made remonstrance, "if it's twenty years ago,


s: You'd scarcely recognize him now, he must have altered so."


s: The little wizened Spanish man he laughed a hideous laugh,


s: And from his cloak he quickly drew a faded photograph.


s: His paunch is senatorial, he cannot see his toes,


s: I'm sure of it; and then, behold! that wen upon his nose.


s: I'm looking for a man like that.  I'll wait and wait until . . ."


s: I'll firmly and politely put--a bullet in his heart."


s: And then that little Spanish man, with big cigar alight,


s: Uprose and shook my trembling hand and vanished in the night.


s: And I went home and thought of him and had a dreadful dream


s: Of portly men with each a wen, and woke up with a scream.


s: And sure enough, next morning, as I prowled the Boulevard,


s: A portly man with wenny nose roamed into my regard;


s: Then like a flash I ran to him and clutched him by the arm:


s: "Oh, sir," said I, "I do not wish to see you come to harm;


s: But if your life you value aught, I beg, entreat and pray--


s: Don't pass before the terrace of the Cafe de la Paix."


s: That portly man he looked at me with such a startled air,


s: Then bolted like a rabbit down the rue Michaudière.


s: "Ha! ha! I've saved a life," I thought; and laughed in my relief,


s: And thus each day I dodged about and kept the strictest guard


s: For portly men with each a wen upon the Boulevard.


s: And then I hailed my Spanish pal, and sitting in the sun,


s: We ordered many Pernods and we drank them every one.


s: And sternly he would stare and stare until my hand would shake,


s: And grimly he would glare and glare until my heart would quake.


s: And I would say:  "Alphonso, lad, I must expostulate;


s: Why keep alive for twenty years the furnace of your hate?


s: 'Twas he who got the happiness, I only got--the girl."


s: With that he looked so devil-like he made me creep and shrink,


s: And there was nothing else to do but buy another drink.


s: Now yonder like a blot of ink he sits across the way,


s: Upon the smiling terrace of the Cafe de la Paix;


s: That little wizened Spanish man, his face is ghastly white,


s: His eyes are staring, staring like a tiger's in the night.


s: I know within his evil heart the fires of hate are fanned,


s: I know his automatic's ready waiting to his hand.


s: I know a tragedy is near.  I dread, I have no peace . . .


s: Oh, don't you think I ought to go and call upon the police?


s: Look there . . . he's rising up . . . my God!


s: The little wizened Spanish man is dancing in his glee. . . .


s: There's BLOOD upon the terrace of the Cafe de la Paix. . . .


s: And houses shrank and smoke was thinner,


s: Poor little chap!  How quick he flew . . .


s: We bruise our breasts, we struggle vainly;


s: Our wondrous wings are arched for flying;


s: We poise, we part, we sing, we soar . . .


s: Light, freedom, love. . . .  Fools call it--Dying.


s: She risked her all, they told me, bravely sinking


s: And there the little shop was, meek and shrinking,


s: The sum of all her dreams and hopes and fears.


s: Ere it was opened I would see them in it,


s: The gray-haired dame, the daughter with her crutch;


s: So fond, so happy, hoarding every minute,


s: Like artists, for the final tender touch.


s: The opening day!  I'm sure that to their seeming


s: With pyramids of jam-jars rubbed to gleaming;


s: Such vivid cans of peaches, prunes and pears;


s: And chocolate, and biscuits in glass cases,


s: And bon-bon bottles, many-hued and bright;


s: Yet nothing half so radiant as their faces,


s: Their eyes of hope, excitement and delight.


s: I entered:  how they waited all a-flutter!


s: How awkwardly they weighed my acid-drops!


s: And then with all the thanks a tongue could utter


s: They bowed me from the kindliest of shops.


s: I'm sure that night their customers they numbered;


s: Discussed them all in happy, breathless speech;


s: And though quite worn and weary, ere they slumbered,


s: Sent heavenward a little prayer for each.


s: And so I watched with interest redoubled


s: That little shop, spent in it all I had;


s: And when I dared to ask how things were going,


s: They told me, with a fine and gallant smile:


s: "Not badly . . . slow at first . . .  There's never knowing . . .


s: I'd often see them through the winter weather,


s: Behind the shutters by a light's faint speck,


s: Poring o'er books, their faces close together,


s: The lame girl's arm around her mother's neck.


s: They dressed their windows not one time but twenty,


s: Each change more pinched, more desperately neat;


s: Ah, who would dare to sing of tea and coffee?


s: Ignoble themes!  And yet--those haggard faces!


s: Within that little shop. . . .  Oh, here I say


s: One does not need to look in lofty places


s: For tragic themes, they're round us every day.


s: And so I saw their agony, their fighting,


s: Their eyes of fear, their heartbreak, their despair;


s: And there the little shop is, black and blighting,


s: And all the world goes by and does not care.


s: They say she sought her old employer's pity,


s: Content to take the pittance he would give.


s: The lame girl? yes, she's working in the city;


s: She coughs a lot--she hasn't long to live.


s: I meekly assured him I was a mere maker of verse.


s: She had the _mode_, and the last at that;


s: On the rue de la Paix she was wont to shine;


s: She doted on Barclay and Dell and Caine;


s: At Vorticist's suppers he sought to please.


s: She thought that Franz Lehar was utterly great;


s: Of Strauss and Stravinsky he'd piously prate.


s: Yet--Cupid and Caprice are hand and glove--


s: They met at a dinner, they fell in love.


s: Seized his scissors and fiercely sheared,


s: Chums looked at him with wondering stare,


s: Fancied they'd seen him before somewhere;


s: A Brummell, a D'Orsay, a _beau_ so fine,


s: Like the dames of Rossetti and E. Burne-Jones;


s: A year went past with its hopes and fears,


s: They met once more. . . .  Oh, at last!  At last!


s: They rushed together, they stopped aghast.


s: They looked at each other with blank dismay,


s: He thought with a shiver:  "Can this be she?"


s: She thought with a shudder:  "This can't be he?"


s: This simpering dandy, so sleek and spruce;


s: They sought to brace from the awful shock:


s: He prattled of dances and ragtime shows;


s: She purred of pictures, Matisse, Cezanne,


s: His tastes to the girls of Kirchner ran;


s: She raved of Tchaikovsky and Caesar Franck,


s: He thought her a bore, she thought him an ass.


s: Don't try to be what you know you're not.


s: She shook her head.  Oh, swift I clasped


s: "The children!  Tell me quick," I gasped,


s: Then, then she spoke; 'mid sobs I caught


s: I'm cold and wet and tired, a sorry plight;


s: Don't turn your back, sir; take one just to try;


s: Oh, thank you, sir; but take the pencil too;


s: Pencils I deal in, red and black and blue;


s: It's hard, but still I do the best I can.


s: Most days I make enough to pay for bread,


s: A cup o' coffee, stretching room at night.


s: One needs so little--to be warm and fed,


s: A hole to kennel in--oh, one's all right . . .


s: Excuse me, you're a painter, are you not?


s: I saw you looking at that dealer's show,


s: The _croûtes_ he has for sale, a shabby lot--


s: What do I know of Art?  What do I know . . .


s: Well, look!  That David Strong so well displayed,


s: "White Sorcery" it's called, all gossamer,


s: (You like the little elfin face of her?)--


s: That's good; but still, the picture as a whole,


s: The values,--Pah!  He never painted worse;


s: Perhaps because his fire was lacking coal,


s: His cupboard bare, no money in his purse.


s: Perhaps . . . they say he labored hard and long,


s: And see now, in the harvest of his fame,


s: When round his pictures people gape and throng,


s: A wretched rag, wrung out of want and woe;


s: A soulless daub, not David Strong a bit,


s: Unworthy of his art. . . .  How should I know?


s: How should I know?  I'm _Strong_--I painted it.


s: There now, I didn't mean to let that out.


s: It came in spite of me--aye, stare and stare.


s: Think what you like, it's neither here nor there.


s: It's true; that picture's mine, done in my youth,


s: The child's my daughter; aye, she posed for me.


s: That's why I come and sit here every night.


s: The painting's bad, but still--oh, still I see


s: Her little face all laughing in the light.


s: A poor, pot-boiling thing, but oh, how dear!


s: "Don't let them buy it, pitying God!" I pray!


s: And hark ye, sir--sometimes my brain's awhirl.


s: Some night I'll crash into that window pane


s: And snatch my picture back, my little girl,


s: A crab can't run.  I'm crippled, withered, lame,


s: Palsied, as good as dead all down one side.


s: It struck me down in all my strength and pride.


s: Triumph was mine, I thrilled with perfect power;


s: Honor was mine, Fame's laurel touched my brow;


s: I was a god and . . . what you find me now.


s: My child, that little, laughing girl you see,


s: She was my nurse for all ten weary years;


s: Her joy, her hope, her youth she gave for me;


s: Her very smiles were masks to hide her tears.


s: And I, my precious art, so rich, so rare,


s: Lost, lost to me--what could my heart but break!


s: I would have killed myself but for her sake. . . .


s: By luck I had some pictures I could sell,


s: And so we fought the wolf back from the door;


s: We often dreamed of brighter days in store.


s: And then quite suddenly she seemed to fail;


s: I saw the shadows darken round her eyes.


s: So tired she was, so sorrowful, so pale,


s: And oh, there came a day she could not rise.


s: The doctor looked at her; he shook his head,


s: And spoke of wine and grapes and Southern air:


s: "If you can get her out of this," he said,


s: "She'll have a fighting chance with proper care."


s: "With proper care!"  When he had gone away,


s: I sat there, trembling, twitching, dazed with grief.


s: Our room was bare and cold beyond belief.


s: "Maybe," I thought, "I still can paint a bit,


s: Some lilies, landscape, anything at all."


s: Down from my fumbling hand I let it fall.


s: "With proper care"--how could I give her that,


s: Half of me dead? . . .  I crawled down to the street.


s: And begged of every one I chanced to meet.


s: I got some pennies, bought her milk and bread,


s: My dear one sinking, sinking day by day.


s: "Please take my hands, I'm cold," I heard her sigh;


s: And soft she whispered, as she held me tight:


s: "Oh daddy, we've been happy, you and I!"


s: She breathed so quietly . . . but though I tried,


s: I could not warm her little hands again:


s: And so there in the icy dark she died. . . .


s: The dawn came groping in with fingers gray


s: And touched me, sitting silent as a stone;


s: I kissed those piteous lips, as cold as clay--


s: At last I rose, groped down the narrow stair;


s: Half-crazed I stumbled on, I knew not where,


s: Like phantoms were the folks that passed me by.


s: But suddenly I halted, stood stock-still--


s: Beside a door that spilled a golden glow


s: "A Sale of Famous Pictures," so it read,


s: Distinguished Works of Art by painters dead."


s: The folks were going in, I followed them.


s: I stood upon the outskirts of the crowd,


s: Soon, soon I heard them call my name aloud:


s: (A brave big picture that, the best I've done,


s: It glowed and kindled half the hall away,


s: Of pipe and bowl, of joyous work and play.


s: I saw the nut-brown fisher-boats put out.)


s: "Five hundred pounds!" rapped out a voice near by;


s: "Six hundred!"  "Seven!"  "Eight!"  And then a shout:


s: "A thousand pounds!"  Oh, how I thrilled to hear!


s: Oh, how the bids went up by leaps, by bounds!


s: And then a silence; then the auctioneer:


s: "It's going!  Going!  Gone!  _Three thousand pounds!_"


s: Three thousand pounds!  A frenzy leapt in me.


s: "That picture's mine," I cried; "I'm David Strong.


s: I painted it, this famished wretch you see;


s: My daughter died for want of Christian care.


s: Look, look at me! . . .  Is it to mock my woe


s: You pay three thousand for my picture there?" . . .


s: O God! I stumbled blindly from the hall;


s: The city crashed on me, the fiendish sounds


s: "Three thousand pounds!" I heard; "Three thousand pounds!"


s: There, that's my story, sir; it isn't gay.


s: Tales of the Poor are never very bright . . .


s: You'll look for me next time you pass this way . . .


s: I hope you'll find me, sir; good-night, good-night.


s: I dreamed I saw three demi-gods who in a cafe sat,


s: And one was small and crapulous, and one was large and fat;


s: And one was eaten up with vice and verminous at that.


s: The first he spoke of secret sins, and gems and perfumes rare;


s: And velvet cats and courtesans voluptuously fair:


s: "Who is the Sybarite?" I asked.  They answered:  "Baudelaire."


s: The second talked in tapestries, by fantasy beguiled;


s: As frail as bubbles, hard as gems, his pageantries he piled;


s: The third was staring at his glass from out abysmal pain;


s: With tears his eyes were bitten in beneath his bulbous brain.


s: Oh votaries of velvet vice! . . .  Oh gods of light divine!


s: Oh Baudelaire, Verlaine and Wilde, they knew the sinks of shame;


s: Their sun-aspiring wings they scorched at passion's altar flame;


s: Yet lo! enthroned, enskied they stand, Immortal Sons of Fame.


s: I dreamed I saw three demi-gods who walked with feet of clay,


s: With cruel crosses on their backs, along a miry way;


s: We're taking Marie Toro to her home in Père-La-Chaise;


s: We're taking Marie Toro to her last resting-place.


s: Behold! her hearse is hung with wreaths till everything is hid


s: Except the blossoms heaping high upon her coffin lid.


s: A by-word of the Boulevard and everybody's butt;


s: A week ago she haunted us, we heard her whining cry,


s: We brushed aside the broken blooms she pestered us to buy;


s: A week ago she had not where to rest her weary head . . .


s: But now, oh, follow, follow on, for Marie Toro's dead.


s: Oh Marie, she was once a queen--ah yes, a queen of queens.


s: High-throned above the Carnival she held her splendid sway.


s: For four-and-twenty crashing hours she knew what glory means,


s: The cheers of half a million throats, the _délire_ of a day.


s: Yet she was only one of us, a little sewing-girl,


s: Though far the loveliest and best of all our laughing band;


s: Then Fortune beckoned; off she danced, amid the dizzy whirl,


s: And we who once might kiss her cheek were proud to kiss her hand.


s: We saw her roped with pearls of price, with princes at her call;


s: And yet, and yet I think her dreams were of the old Boul' Mich',


s: And yet I'm sure within her heart she loved us best of all.


s: For one night in the Purple Pig, upon the rue Saint-Jacques,


s: In satin clad to make us glad, and witch our hearts once more."


s: But no, her face was strangely sad, and at the evening's end:


s: "Dear lads," she said; "I love you all, and when I'm far away,


s: Remember, oh, remember, little Marie is your friend,


s: And though the world may lie between, I'm coming back some day."


s: And so she went, and many a boy who's fought his way to Fame,


s: Can look back on the struggle of his garret days and bless


s: The loyal heart, the tender hand, the Providence that came


s: To him and all in hour of need, in sickness and distress.


s: Time passed away.  She won their hearts in London, Moscow, Rome;


s: They worshiped her in Argentine, adored her in Brazil;


s: We smoked our pipes and wondered when she might be coming home,


s: And some one saw her in Peru, a common drab at last.


s: So years went by, and faces changed; our beards were sadly gray,


s: And Marie Toro's name became an echo of the past.


s: You know that old and withered man, that derelict of art,


s: Who for a paltry franc will make a crayon sketch of you?


s: In slouching hat and shabby cloak he looks and is the part,


s: A sodden old Bohemian, without a single _sou_.


s: A boon companion of the days of Rimbaud and Verlaine,


s: He broods and broods, and chews the cud of bitter souvenirs;


s: Beneath his mop of grizzled hair his cheeks are gouged with pain,


s: Well, one night in the D'Harcourt's din I saw him in his place,


s: When suddenly the door was swung, a woman halted there;


s: A woman cowering like a dog, with white and haggard face,


s: A broken creature, bent of spine, a daughter of Despair.


s: "Not one of all I used to know . . ." she turned to go away . . .


s: Oh Marie Toro, queen of queens, don't you remember Paul?"


s: "Oh Marie, Marie Toro, in my garret next the sky,


s: Where many a day and night I've crouched with not a crust to eat,


s: A portrait of a girl whose face is pure and angel-sweet."


s: Sadly the woman looked at him:  "Alas! it's true," she said;


s: "That little maid, I knew her once.  It's long ago--she's dead."


s: He went to her; he laid his hand upon her wasted arm:


s: "Oh, Marie Toro, come with me, though poor and sick am I.


s: For old times' sake I cannot bear to see you come to harm;


s: Ah! there are memories, God knows, that never, never die. . . ."


s: Look! look! you see I'm lost to hope; I live no matter how . . .


s: And so she went her heedless way, and all our help was vain.


s: She trailed along with tattered shawl and mud-corroded skirt;


s: She gnawed a crust and slept beneath the bridges of the Seine,


s: A garbage thing, a composite of alcohol and dirt.


s: The students learned her story and the cafes knew her well,


s: She shuffled round the tables with the flowers she tried to sell,


s: And then last week I missed her, and they found her in the street


s: A week ago she begged for bread; we've bought for her a stone,


s: If she could see the wreaths to-day, the coaches and the crowd!


s: So follow, follow, follow on with slow and sober tread,


s: For Marie Toro, gutter waif and queen of queens, is dead.


s: And my three old pals were with me there,


s: "You've roomed with me twenty year," said I,


s: I've suffered enough of your spite . . . so there!"


s: Bang!  Bang!  I slapped on the table bare


s: I'll loose my belt that you've lugged so tight;


s: Ha!  Ha!  Dame Fortune is smiling bright;


s: You've battened on me for a bitter-long day;


s: But I'm driving you forth, and forever and aye,


s: So I kicked them out with a scornful roar;


s: Yet, oh, they turned at the garret door;


s: We're yours, old chap, till the day you die;


s: Laugh on, you fool!  Oh, you'll never defy


s: Her little head just topped the window-sill;


s: She pressed against the pane, as children will,


s: And watched us playing, oh so wistfully!


s: And then I missed her for a month or more,


s: And idly thought:  "She's gone away, no doubt,"


s: Until a hearse drew up beside the door . . .


s: And after that, towards dusk I'd often see


s: Behind the blind another face that looked:


s: Eyes of a young wife watching anxiously,


s: Then rushing back to where her dinner cooked.


s: Within her heart the sadness of despair,


s: For near to midnight I would vaguely hear


s: A lurching step, a stumbling on the stair.


s: A man weak-willed and fore-ordained to fail . . .


s: The window's empty now, they've gone away,


s: And yonder, see, their furniture's for sale.


s: To all the world their door is open wide,


s: And round and round the bargain-hunters roam,


s: And peer and gloat, like vultures avid-eyed,


s: Above the corpse of what was once a home.


s: And see the patient care, the tender touch,


s: The love that sought to brighten up the gloom,


s: Where now the mob invades with brutal tread,


s: I think:  "What happiness is buried here,


s: What dreams are withered and what hopes are dead!"


s: Oh, woman dear, and were you sweet and glad


s: What ponderings and proud ideas you had!


s: What visions of a shrine of peace and rest!


s: For there's his easy-chair upon the rug,


s: His reading-lamp, his pipe-rack on the wall,


s: All that you could devise to make him snug--


s: And yet you could not hold him with it all.


s: Ah, patient heart, what homelike joys you planned


s: Those silken cushions that you worked by hand


s: When you had time, before the baby came.


s: Oh, how you wove around him cozy spells,


s: And schemed so hard to keep him home of nights!


s: Aye, every touch and turn some story tells


s: Of sweet conspiracies and dead delights.


s: And here upon the scratched piano stool,


s: Tied in a bundle, are the songs you sung;


s: That cozy that you worked in colored wool,


s: The Spanish lace you made when you were young,


s: And lots of modern novels, cheap reprints,


s: And little dainty knick-knacks everywhere;


s: And silken bows and curtains of gay chintz . . .


s: _And oh, her tiny crib, her folding chair!_


s: Sweet woman dear, and did your heart not break,


s: To leave this precious home you made in vain?


s: Poor shabby things! so prized for old times' sake,


s: With all their memories of love and pain.


s: Alas! while shouts the raucous auctioneer,


s: And rat-faced dames are prying everywhere,


s: All, all I see just heartbreak and despair.


s: Let others sing of gold and gear, the joy of being rich;


s: But oh, the days when I was poor, a vagrant in a ditch!


s: When every dawn was like a gem, so radiant and rare,


s: And I had but a single coat, and not a single care;


s: When I would feast right royally on bacon, bread and beer,


s: And dig into a stack of hay and doze like any peer;


s: When I would wash beside a brook my solitary shirt,


s: And though it dried upon my back I never took a hurt;


s: When I went romping down the road contemptuous of care,


s: And slapped Adventure on the back--by Gad! we were a pair;


s: When time was only made for fools, and free as air was I,


s: And hard I hit and hard I lived beneath the open sky;


s: When all the roads were one to me, and each had its allure . . .


s: Ye Gods! these were the happy days, the days when I was poor.


s: Or else, again, old pal of mine, do you recall the times


s: You struggled with your storyettes, I wrestled with my rhymes;


s: Oh, we were happy, were we not?--we used to live so "high"


s: (A little bit of broken roof between us and the sky);


s: Upon the forge of art we toiled with hammer and with tongs;


s: You told me all your rippling yarns, I sang to you my songs.


s: And if I sold a bit of rhyme, or if you placed a tale,


s: What feasts we had of tenderloins and apple-tarts and ale!


s: And yet how often we would dine as cheerful as you please,


s: Beside our little friendly fire on coffee, bread and cheese.


s: We lived upon the ragged edge, and grub was never sure,


s: But oh, these were the happy days, the days when we were poor.


s: Alas! old man, we're wealthy now, it's sad beyond a doubt;


s: We cannot dodge prosperity, success has found us out.


s: Your eye is very dull and drear, my brow is creased with care,


s: We realize how hard it is to be a millionaire.


s: The burden's heavy on our backs--you're thinking of your rents,


s: I'm worrying if I'll invest in five or six per cents.


s: We've limousines, and marble halls, and flunkeys by the score,


s: We play the part . . . but say, old chap, oh, isn't it a bore?


s: We work like slaves, we eat too much, we put on evening dress;


s: We've everything a man can want, I think . . . but happiness.


s: Come, let us sneak away, old chum; forget that we are rich,


s: And earn an honest appetite, and scratch an honest itch.


s: Let's be two jolly garreteers, up seven flights of stairs,


s: And wear old clothes and just pretend we aren't millionaires;


s: And wonder how we'll pay the rent, and scribble ream on ream,


s: And sup on sausages and tea, and laugh and loaf and dream.


s: We'll know the joy the gipsy knows, the freedom nothing mars,


s: The golden treasure-gates of dawn, the mintage of the stars.


s: He starves, I think, too proud to borrow,


s: He gives me such a bold and curious look,


s: Ah well!  He'll make no "document" of me.


s: I lock my door.  Ha! ha!  Now none shall see. . . .


s: Pictures, just pictures piled from roof to floor,


s: Each one a bit of me, a dream fulfilled,


s: My own poor glimpse of glory, passion-thrilled . . .


s: But now my money's gone, I paint no more.


s: For three days past I have not tasted food;


s: They tell me that my pictures are no good,


s: Just crude and childish daubs, a waste of paint.


s: Wet sands at sunset and the smoking seas,


s: The peace of valleys and the mountain's awe:


s: Emotion swayed me at the thought of these.


s: I sought to paint ere I had learned to draw,


s: And there they are, my _croutes_ that none will buy


s: (And doubtless they are right and I am wrong);


s: Well, when one's lost one's faith it's time to die. . . .


s: This knife will do . . . and now to slash and slash;


s: Rip them to ribands, rend them every one,


s: My dreams and visions--tear and stab and gash,


s: So that their crudeness may be known to none;


s: Poor, miserable daubs!  Ah! there, it's done. . . .


s: And now to close my little window tight.


s: The evening star is like a beacon bright.


s: And see! to keep her tender tryst with night


s: How Paris veils herself in violet. . . .


s: Oh, why does God create such men as I?--


s: All pride and passion and divine desire,


s: Raw, quivering nerve-stuff and devouring fire,


s: Foredoomed to failure though they try and try;


s: Abortive, blindly to destruction hurled;


s: Unfound, unfit to grapple with the world. . . .


s: So that no single breath of air may pass;


s: So that I'm sealed air-tight from roof to floor.


s: There, there, that's done; and now there's nothing more. . . .


s: Look at the city's myriad lamps a-shine;


s: See, the calm moon is launching into space . . .


s: There will be darkness in these eyes of mine


s: Oh, it will find such peace upon my face! . . .


s: A laugh or two I've had, but many a sigh;


s: I've run with you the scale from Heav'n to Hell.


s: Paris, I love you still . . . good-by, good-by.


s: It's time to sleep, and now . . . _blow out the gas_. . . .


s: I laugh though my heart may be breaking--


s: Yet . . . oh, the poor little white faces,


s: The tense midnight toil and the fret . . .


s: And if, where the gay lights are glowing,


s: Your pictures, they tell me, are selling,


s: Who walks head bent, with lips a-mutter;


s: With twitching hands and feet that drag,


s: And tattered skirts that sweep the gutter.


s: For a true man's love and a life that's sweet;


s: The beautiful children I might have had;


s: Romping and laughing and shrill with glee,


s: Oh, I see them now and I see them plain.


s: You comfort me so, and you're just . . . Cocaine.


s: Where she might live in peace with none to blame.


s: And how she toiled!  Harder than any slave,


s: What courage! patient, hopeful, tender, brave.


s: So small, so neat, so clean, I see it yet.


s: Poor mother! sewing, sewing late at night,


s: This Paris crushed her.  How she used to sigh!


s: She saw red roofs against a primrose sky


s: And glistening fields and apples dimmed with dew.


s: Hard times we had.  We counted every _sou_,


s: We sewed sacks for a living.  I was quick . . .


s: Oh, we were happy there, till she fell sick. . . .


s: My mother lay, her face turned to the wall,


s: And I, a girl of sixteen, fair and tall,


s: Sat by her side, all stricken with despair,


s: Knelt by her bed and faltered out a prayer.


s: Medicine for which, alas! I could not pay;


s: Medicine to save her life, to soothe her pain.


s: I sought for something I could sell, in vain . . .


s: All, all was gone!  The room was cold and bare;


s: Gone blankets and the cloak I used to wear;


s: Bare floor and wall and cupboard, every shelf--


s: Nothing that I could sell . . . except myself.


s: 'Twas hard.  You cannot understand . . .


s: They turned, who heard my voiceless cry,


s: And clutched the price, a piece of gold.


s: To mother's side.  All still . . . she slept . . .


s: I bent, I sought to raise her head . . .


s: MacBean, before he settled down to the manufacture of mercantile


s: When we thrilled to the joy of a million Junes,


s: And I sought for your soul in the deeps of your eyes?


s: I would love you, I promised, forever and aye,


s: And I meant it too; yet, oh, isn't it odd?


s: I addressed you as Mary instead of as Maude.


s: Oh, don't you remember that moonlit sea,


s: When I gracefully sank on my bended knee


s: At the risk of upsetting our little boat?


s: Oh, I vowed that my life was blighted then,


s: As friendship you proffered with mournful mien;


s: But now as I think of your children ten,


s: When I breathed my love in your shell-like ear,


s: And you plucked at your fan as a maiden will,


s: And you blushed so charmingly, Guenivere?


s: And I think:  What a lucky escape I had!


s: Oh, maidens I've set in a sacred shrine,


s: I've deemed you in turn the most divine,


s: In turn you've broken my heart . . . and yet


s: It's easily mended.  What's past is past.


s: For I'm sure that I know true love at last,


s: "Sow your wild oats in your youth," so we're always told;


s: But I say with deeper sooth:  "Sow them when you're old."


s: I'll be wise till I'm about seventy or so:


s: Then, by Gad! I'll blossom out as an ancient _beau_.


s: I'll assume a dashing air, laugh with loud Ha! ha! . . .


s: How my grandchildren will stare at their grandpapa!


s: Their perfection aureoled I will scandalize:


s: Won't I be a hoary old sinner in their eyes!


s: Watch me, how I'll learn to chaff barmaids in a bar;


s: Scotches daily, gayly quaff, puff a fierce cigar.


s: I will haunt the Tango teas, at the stage-door stand;


s: Wait for Dolly Dimpleknees, bouquet in my hand.


s: Then at seventy I'll take flutters at roulette;


s: While at eighty hope I'll make good at poker yet;


s: And in fashionable togs to the races go,


s: Gayest of the gay old dogs, ninety years or so.


s: Till you're threescore years and ten, take my humble tip,


s: Sow your nice tame oats and then . . .  Hi, boys!  Let 'er rip.


s: Its leaves are crisp and edged with gold;


s: Poor ghost!  For homes you've failed to cheer,


s: Rare Absinthe!  Oh, it gives me strength


s: rebellious rhymes.  Ah! those moments of despair and defeat.


s: Then suddenly the mind grows lucid, imagination glows, the snarl


s: unravels. In the end is always triumph and success.  O delectable


s: On jetties heaped head-high with plunder


s: Strange stars swarm down to burn above me,


s: Strange shadows haunt, strange voices greet;


s: Strange women lure and laugh and love me,


s: With lips that tell the strangest stories


s: Till sick of storm and strife and slaughter,


s: Then through some jungle python-haunted,


s: The pathless plains shall swoon around me,


s: Wild dooms shall daunt, and dawns be gory,


s: Oh, anguish sweet!  Oh, triumph splendid!


s: So through dim seas I'll ne'er go spoiling;


s: Please God! I'll keep the pot a-boiling,


s: My children's path shall gleam with roses,


s: With tender thoughts of praise and peace.


s: Brave Thackeray has trolled of days when he was twenty-one,


s: And bounded up five flights of stairs, a gallant garreteer;


s: And yet again in mellow vein when youth was gaily run,


s: Has dipped his nose in Gascon wine, and told of Forty Year.


s: But if I worthy were to sing a richer, rarer time,


s: I'd tune my pipes before the fire and merrily I'd strive


s: To praise that age when prose again has given way to rhyme,


s: The Indian Summer days of life when I'll be Sixty-five;


s: For then my work will all be done, my voyaging be past,


s: Oh, let the seas show all their teeth, I'll sit and smile serene.


s: And many a scene of sail and trail within the flame I'll see;


s: For I'll have worn away the spur of passion and desire. . . .


s: Oh yes, when I am Sixty-five, what peace will come to me.


s: I'll take my breakfast in my bed, I'll rise at half-past ten,


s: When all the world is nicely groomed and full of golden song;


s: I'll smoke a bit and joke a bit, and read the news, and then


s: I'll potter round my peach-trees till I hear the luncheon gong.


s: And after that I think I'll doze an hour, well, maybe two,


s: And then I'll show some kindred soul how well my roses thrive;


s: I'll do the things I never yet have found the time to do. . . .


s: Oh, won't I be the busy man when I am Sixty-five.


s: I'll revel in my library; I'll read De Morgan's books;


s: I'll grow so garrulous I fear you'll write me down a bore;


s: I'll watch the ways of ants and bees in quiet sunny nooks,


s: I'll understand Creation as I never did before.


s: When gossips round the tea-cups talk I'll listen to it all;


s: On smiling days some kindly friend will take me for a drive:


s: I'll own a shaggy collie dog that dashes to my call:


s: I'll celebrate my second youth when I am Sixty-five.


s: Ah, though I've twenty years to go, I see myself quite plain,


s: A wrinkling, twinkling, rosy-cheeked, benevolent old chap;


s: I think I'll wear a tartan shawl and lean upon a cane.


s: I hope that I'll have silver hair beneath a velvet cap.


s: I see my little grandchildren a-romping round my knee;


s: So gay the scene, I almost wish 'twould hasten to arrive.


s: Let others sing of Youth and Spring, still will it seem to me


s: The golden time's the olden time, some time round Sixty-five.


s: As you lay so still in the cupboard dim,


s: Were you thinking . . . what has become of _him_?


s: Do you sometimes long for a chubby hand,


s: You sit with your muzzle propped on your paws,


s: Don't wait, don't wait for your friend . . . because


s: Aye, sleeping long. . . .  You remember how


s: And he clutched you close to his breast.


s: Maybe he'll come and he'll kiss you there,


s: And my Hope:  will I see him again, again?


s: From this incident I wrote the verses that follow:


s: Crept out and cowered and licked his feet.


s: Come Heav'n, come Hell, what did it care?


s: Here is my latest ballad, short if not very sweet:


s: Walking, walking, oh, the joy of walking!


s: Swinging down the tawny lanes with head held high;


s: Striding up the green hills, through the heather stalking,


s: Swishing through the woodlands where the brown leaves lie;


s: Marveling at all things--windmills gaily turning,


s: Apples for the cider-press, ruby-hued and gold;


s: Tails of rabbits twinkling, scarlet berries burning,


s: Wedge of geese high-flying in the sky's clear cold,


s: Light in little windows, field and furrow darkling;


s: Whistling up the garden, ruddy-cheeked and sparkling,


s: Oh, but I am happy as I walk, walk, walk!


s: Walking, walking, oh, the curse of walking!


s: Slouching round the grim square, shuffling up the street,


s: Slinking down the by-way, all my graces hawking,


s: Peering in the gin-shop where the lads are drinking,


s: Halting in a doorway, shuddering and shrinking


s: (Oh, my draggled feather and my thin, wet shoes).


s: Here's a drunken drover:  "Hullo, there, old dearie!"


s: No, he only curses, can't be got to talk. . . .


s: On and on till daylight, famished, wet and weary,


s: God in Heaven help me as I walk, walk, walk!


s: The other evening MacBean was in a pessimistic mood.


s: "Why do you write?" he asked me gloomily.


s: "If you were a millionaire, would you still write?"


s: "I guess they're not losing much sleep over it," I said.


s: Soaked through and through with shadows,


s: If you had a friend strong, simple, true,


s: Who knew your faults and who understood;


s: And who cared for you as a father would;


s: Who would smile however the world might frown:


s: I'm sure you would try to please your friend,


s: You never would think to throw him down.


s: And supposing your friend was high and great,


s: And his praise was loud on the lips of all;


s: And he singled you out from all the crowd,


s: And he called you up to his golden throne,


s: So sweet and tender, so strong and true,


s: You'd live at your bravest--now, wouldn't you?


s: His worth would shine in the words you penned;


s: You'd shout his praises . . . yet now it's odd!


s: You tell me you haven't got such a friend;


s: You haven't?  I wonder . . . _What of God?_


s: There is such an one I sometimes see being wheeled about in the


s: Luxembourg. His face is beautiful in its thankfulness.


s: That best of prayers, a grateful heart?"


s: "For look! though gone is all my wealth,


s: "Though health and wealth are gone, it's true;


s: The Spirit of the Unborn Babe peered through the window-pane,


s: And how the little room was crammed with coziness and light!


s: Except the flirting of the fire there was no sound at all;


s: The Woman sat beside the hearth, her knitting on her knee;


s: The shadow of her husband's head was dancing on the wall;


s: She looked with staring eyes at it, she looked yet did not see.


s: She only saw a childish face that topped the table rim,


s: A little wistful ghost that smiled and vanished quick away;


s: And then because her tender eyes were flooding to the brim,


s: (Ah! they who little children have, grant hostages to pain).


s: The Spirit of the Unborn Babe went wildered in the dark;


s: Like termagants the winds tore down and whirled it with the snow.


s: A window broad, a spacious room all goldenly aglow,


s: A woman slim and Paris-gowned and exquisitely fair,


s: Who smoked his cigarette and looked with frank admiring gaze.


s: Let's seek the beauty-spots of earth, Dear Heart, just you and I;


s: The Spirit of the Unborn Babe went whirling on and on;


s: It soared above a city vast, it swept down to a slum;


s: It saw within a grimy house a light that dimly shone;


s: It peered in through a window-pane and lo! a voice said:  "Come!"


s: And lived in spite of everything, for life is ordered so;


s: A child whose eyes first opened wide to swinishness and sin,


s: A child whose love and innocence met only curse and blow.


s: And so in due and proper course she took the path of shame,


s: And gladly died in hospital, quite old at twenty years;


s: And when God comes to weigh it all, ah! whose shall be the blame


s: For all her maimed and poisoned life, her torture and her tears?


s: For oh, it is not what we do, but what we have not done!


s: And on that day of reckoning, when all is plain and clear,


s: What if we stand before the Throne, blood-guilty every one? . . .


s: Then that stale and weary wind rustles the leaves of the nearest


s: sycamore, and I am sure it whispers:  "Brittany."


s: So to-morrow I am off, off to the Land of Little Fields.


s: My satchel's swinging on my back, my staff is in my hand;


s: I'll go alone and glorying, with on my lips a song of joy;


s: I'll leave behind the city with its canker and its care;


s: I'll swing along so sturdily--oh, won't I be the happy boy!


s: A-singing on the rocky roads, the roads of Finistère.


s: Oh, have you been to Finistère, and do you know a whin-gray town


s: That echoes to the clatter of a thousand wooden shoes?


s: And have you seen the fisher-girls go gallivantin' up and down,


s: And watched the tawny boats go out, and heard the roaring crews?


s: Yes, I'll come back from Finistère with memories of shining days,


s: Of ancient women knitting as they watch the tethered cattle graze


s: Of headlands silvering the sea, of Calvarys against the sky,


s: Of scorn of angry sunsets, and of Carnac grim and bare;


s: Behold me with staff and scrip, footing it merrily in the Land of


s: And just pretend to fish . . . and dream.


s: They climbed the hill and clutched the prize.


s: I've loved it all . . ."--and so he died.


s: With pride I think:  "It's mine!  It's mine!"


s: So much is good. . . .  We thank Thee, God,


s: I have some friends, some worthy friends,


s: I have some friends, some honest friends,


s: I have some friends, some good, good friends,


s: I have some friends, some golden friends,


s: A tawny Irish terrier, a purple shading pine,


s: But these, the friends I've worked to win,


s: But Calvert did not always see thus.  At one time he was a Pagan,


s: I raised my eyes . . . and there was God.


s: We'll read till it's time to go to bed."


s: So they all are glad, and they nestle in,


s: And the fire leaps up and all's so snug;


s: And how they are eager and sweet and wise,


s: And they cup their chins in their hands and stare


s: At the heart of the flame with thoughtful eyes.


s: And the little ones sit entranced and still . . .


s: He's there--he's standing beside my knee;


s: I see him so well, my wee, wee son. . . .


s: For the firelight glints in his golden hair,


s: And his wondering eyes are fixed on my face,


s: And he rests on the arm of my easy-chair,


s: And the book's a blur and I lose my place:


s: And I touch my lips to his shining head,


s: And my voice breaks down and--the story's done. . . .


s: Of the One who will never grow up at all,


s: Who will always be just a child at play,


s: Tender and trusting and sweet and small,


s: Who will never hurt me and give me pain;


s: Yet a thought shines out from the dark of pain,


s: We may come to the Gates of Eternal Light,


s: Because you have lost, but kiss the rod;


s: From the depths of your woe be glad, believe


s: Rejoice!  You've a child whose youth endures,


s: Wistful for love, oh, yours, just yours,


s: I hate violence.  I would not willingly cause pain to anything


s: So it is all settled.  To-morrow I give up my freedom.


s: The Chateau seems all spires and towers, the glorified dream of a


s: Here is a rhyme I have made of such an one:


s: Stalled in the mud where the red lights glowed,


s: Swore:  "She's the beat of the best big six,


s: "Looks pretty rotten right now," says he;


s: Seemed that Priscilla just took the word;


s: Up with a leap like a horse that's spurred,


s: Shell-holes shoot at them out of the night;


s: A lurch to the left, a wrench to the right,


s: Hands grim-gripping and teeth clenched tight,


s: "Priscilla, you're doing me proud this day;


s: Another . . . another. . . .  "Strike me dead


s: If the Huns ain't strafing the road ahead


s: Fierce old messes of blood and bone. . . .


s: With a rush and a roar her way she clears,


s: Straight at the hell of flame she steers,


s: She's almost over, she'll win, she'll win!


s: A Strange Shape leapt to the driving wheel


s: But Jerry, he says in his drawling tone:


s: "Rats!  Why, Priscilla came in on her own.


s: Bless her, she did it alone, alone. . . ."


s: _Hill 71.  Two couchés.  Send car at once._


s: And the lips blood-crisped, and the eyes flame-bright,


s: And the poor hands folded and cold as clay--


s: Oh, I've thought and I've thought of him all the day.


s: Blown off by a bomb. . . .  So, lad, go slow,


s: And there was I cursing the road like mad,


s: When I hears a ghost of a voice from the car:


s: "Tell me, old chap, have I 'copped it' bad?"


s: So I answers "No," and he says, "I'm glad."


s: There's so much good that a chap might do,


s: And I've fought from the start and I've suffered so.


s: 'Twould be hard to get knocked out now, you know."


s: "Forget it," says I; then I drove awhile,


s: Says I:  "Is there nothing that I can do?"


s: Then he opens his eyes and he smiles at me;


s: And he takes my hand in his trembling hold;


s: "Thank you--you're far too kind," says he:


s: "I'm awfully comfy--stay . . . let's see:


s: My _feet_, please wrap 'em--they're cold . . . they're cold."


s: There is a city that glitters on the plain.  Afar off we can see


s: its tall cathedral spire, and there we often take our wounded


s: their cots are never empty, their surgeons never still.


s: to our village hospital, puzzling out the road on our maps.


s: The wounded make no moan.  They lie, limp, heavily bandaged,


s: with bare legs and arms protruding from their blankets.


s: They do not know where they are going; they do not care.


s: to see that no charge remains.  Sometimes they shake our hands


s: With jagged holes where her breasts should be,


s: So I looked and I saw our Colonel there,


s: And his grand head, snowed with the years,


s: And, oh, there was grief in his frozen stare,


s: Then at last he turned from the woeful tree,


s: Oh, the crimson strands of her hair downpoured


s: And our grim old Colonel leaned on his sword,


s: And the men filed past with their rifles lowered,


s: But I'll never forget till the day I die,


s: And the jaded columns of men slouched by,


s: And some would like madmen stand aghast,


s: And some would cross themselves as they passed,


s: And some would curse in a scalding blast,


s: Yea, some would be sobbing, and some would pray,


s: They passed; then down on his bended knee


s: "Poor martyred daughter of France!" said he,


s: Now they hold that we are the best of the best,


s: Like a gash of crimson across his chest,


s: As one fierce-proved in the battle-test,


s: For each as he leaps to the top can see,


s: With two black holes where her breasts should be,


s: So we fight like fiends, and of us they say


s: Oh, we have the bitterest debt to pay. . . .


s: Have we paid it?-- Look--how we wear to-day


s: Like a trophy, gallant and proud and gay,


s: And, oh, but the soothering ways he had,


s: A bonny babe, though it's me that speaks;


s: With his sunny hair and his apple cheeks.


s: And my! but the blue, blue eyes he'd got,


s: And just where his wee mouth dimpled dim


s: Oh, the war, the war!  How my eyes were wet!


s: But he says:  "Don't be sorrowing, mother dear;


s: 'Twas at Mons he fell, in the first attack;


s: For so they said, and their eyes were dim;


s: But I laughed in their faces:  "He'll come back,


s: There!  I must hurry . . . hear him cry?


s: My new little baby. . . .  See! that's him.


s: With his rosy cheeks and his sunny hair,


s: And look, just look . . . his beauty spot


s: In the selfsame place. . . .  Oh, I can't explain,


s: And of course you think it's a mother's whim,


s: Come with his love and his heart of glee.


s: Oh, I cried and I cried, but the Lord was good;


s: From the shadow of Death he set Jim free.


s: So I'll have him all over again, you see.


s: Can you wonder my mother-heart's a-brim?


s: He caught them, thrilled them, shouting:


s: He plunged . . . and there, blood-sated,


s: It was in thinking of our lost comrade I wrote the following:


s: And Harley, the writer of stories, so whimsical, tender and glad!


s: And speaking of Harley, the writer, I fancy I looked on him last,


s: No, each did a Something Grander than ever he dreamed to do;


s: And as for the work unfinished, all will be paid their due;


s: The broken ends will be fitted, the balance struck will be true.


s: Jist knock the heid aff o' a bottle. . . .


s: _"She'll think it's a wean that wass greetin',"


s: "Ma conscience!  I'm hanged but yer richt.


s: _"It's the last thing she'll think o' denyin',"


s: Noo, rin, lad! good luck and good-by. . . .


s: _"Hoots, mon! it's ye baith she'll be takin',"


s: As I cannot sleep, I think of a story I heard to-day. It is of a


s: Canadian Colonel, and in my mind I shape it like this:


s: "I'm going, Billy, old fellow.  Hist, lad!  Don't make any noise.


s: The order came to go forward to a trench-line traced on the map;


s: I knew the brass-hats had blundered, I knew and I told 'em so;


s: I knew if I did as they ordered I would tumble into a trap,


s: And I tried to explain, but the answer came like a pistol:  "Go."


s: Tested in many a battle, I knew their sorrows and joys,


s: To march my Boys to a shambles as soon as the dawn of day;


s: And then I arose and I muttered:  "It's either them or it's you."


s: I rose and I donned my rain-coat; I buckled my helmet tight.


s: I remember you watched me, Billy, as I took my cane in my hand;


s: I vaulted over the sandbags into the pitchy night,


s: Into the pitted valley that served us as No Man's Land.


s: I strode out over the hollow of hate and havoc and death,


s: I fancy I cursed you, Billy; but not so much as I ought!


s: And so we went forward together, till we came to the valley rim,


s: They saw me too, and they got me; they peppered me till I fell;


s: And there I scribbled my message with my life-blood ebbing away;


s: "Billy, old boy, I love you, I kiss your shiny black nose;


s: Now, home there. . . .  Hurry, you devil,


s: or I'll cut you to ribands. . . .  See . . ."


s: I'm crawlin' out in the mangolds to bury wot's left o' Joe--


s: Joe, my pal, and a good un (God! 'ow it rains and rains).


s: I'm sick o' seein' him lyin' like a 'eap o' offal, and so


s: I'm crawlin' out in the beet-field to bury 'is last remains.


s: 'E might 'a bin makin' munitions--'e 'adn't no need to go;


s: Joe was the pick o' the posy, might 'a bin sifely at 'ome,


s: Only son of 'is mother, 'er a widder as well.


s: cheer 'er up like. . . .  (Well, I'm blowed,


s: (_As he touches the body there is a tremendous explosion.


s: Then _biff!_  I guess I got 'im _crack_--


s: And then . . . I knew that I'd got mine,


s: "It's just the Army life, mother, the drill, the left and right,


s: "It's just a man I killed, mother, a mother's son like me;


s: It seems he's always hauntin' me, he'll never let me be. . . ."


s: "But maybe he was bad, Michael, maybe it was right


s: To kill the inimy you hate in fair and honest fight. . . ."


s: "I did not hate at all, mother; he never did me harm;


s: I think he was a lad like me, who worked upon a farm. . . ."


s: "And what's it all about, Michael; why did you have to go,


s: A quiet, peaceful lad like you, and we were happy so? . . ."


s: "And what will be the end, Michael, and what's the use, I say,


s: Of fightin' if whoever wins it's us that's got to pay? . . ."


s: "Oh, it will be the end, mother, when lads like him and me,


s: "It's coming soon and soon, mother, it's nearer every day,


s: When only men who work and sweat will have a word to say;


s: When all who earn their honest bread in every land and soil


s: Will claim the Brotherhood of Man, the Comradeship of Toil;


s: That's what he wrote, and hark! the chime


s: Oh, will they lift the clouds that low'r,


s: (How can I tell her?)  "See, we'll light


s: The room reels round, I faint, I fall. . . .


s: As the banners flare and the brasses blare


s: As the women laugh like they'd all gone mad,


s: Oh, you're grippin' me hand so tightly, lad,


s: How they'd have cheered as the joy-bells chime,


s: And now--they're rottin' in Flanders slime,


s: When the youth and the strength of us sapped away,


s: And yet--we haven't a word to say. . . .


s: I'm scared that they pity us.  Come, old boy,


s: Let's leave them their flags and their fuss.


s: We'd surely be hatin' to spoil their joy


s: "Hullo, young Jones! with your tie so gay


s: Will you mark my cheque in the usual way?


s: And you hand it back with a soft white hand,


s: _"Was it you, young Jones, was it you I saw


s: With a live bomb gripped in your grimy paw


s: With your lips asnarl and your eyes gone mad


s: With a fury that thrilled you through. . . .


s: Oh, I look at you now and I think, my lad,


s: "Hullo, young Smith, with your well-fed look


s: Then you smile as you polish a finger-nail,


s: And you suavely hand me a thrilling tale


s: _"Was it you, young Smith, was it you I saw


s: As you stood like a fiend on the firing-shelf


s: And you stabbed and hacked and slew. . . .


s: "Hullo, old Brown, with your ruddy cheek


s: And you mop your brow and you blithely say:


s: _"Was it you, old Brown, was it you I saw


s: Your eyes aflame with the battle-hate. . . .


s: Which is the wrong and which is the right?


s: And the face of the third was featureless,


s: I heard them whispering there by the bed . . .


s: Oh, but the ears of the blind are quick!


s: Was a stab of pain and my heart turned sick.


s: And they laughed to think that I couldn't see;


s: But I felt the flame of their hot desire.


s: And the fat of sloth, and my face of clay--


s: By the side of a fire that's seldom lit,


s: When every one else is out on the field,


s: Or tossing around the new-mown hay. . . .


s: Oh, the shimmering wheat that frets the sky,


s: And I'll hear the cows as they chew their hay;


s: And they'll look at me with their velvet eyes


s: And I'll stroke their flanks with my woman's hand,


s: And they'll answer to me with soft replies,


s: I'm sure that they pity my wretched lot,


s: And the big fat ram with the jingling bell . . .


s: Oh, the beasts are the only friends I've got.


s: Thank God for the beasts that are all so kind,


s: With a reaping-hook, to kill, to kill? . . .


s: I'll do it . . . they're there in the mow of hay,


s: I hear them saying:  "He's out of the way!"


s: Hark! how they're kissing and whispering. . . .


s: Closer I creep . . . I crouch . . . I spring. . . .


s: And it isn't real . . . I'm glad, I'm glad!


s: I'll sell the farm and I'll seek my kind,


s: And we'll eat and drink, and we'll laugh and joke,


s: And we'll talk of our battles, and smoke and smoke;


s: And brushes of bristle we'll make for sale,


s: While one of us reads a book of Braille.


s: And there will be music and dancing too,


s: And we'll seek to fashion our life anew;


s: And we'll walk the highways hand in hand,


s: Till the years at last shall bring respite


s: And our night is lost in the Greater Night.


s: _My mind goes back to Fumin Wood, and how we stuck it out,


s: We fought like fiends and waited for relief that never came.


s: Eight days and nights they rolled on us in battle-frenzied mass!


s: They pinned two medals on my chest, a yellow and a brown,


s: And lovely ladies made me blush, such pretty words they said.


s: I felt a cheerful man, almost, until my eyes went down,


s: And there I saw the blankets--how they sagged upon my bed.


s: And then again I drank the cup of sorrow to the dregs:


s: Oh, they can keep their medals if they give me back my legs.


s: I think of how I used to run and leap and kick the ball,


s: And ride and dance and climb the hills and frolic in the sea;


s: And all the thousand things that now I'll never do at all. . . .


s: _Mon Dieu!_ there's nothing left in life, it often seems to me.


s: And as the nurses lift me up and strap me in my chair,


s: If they would chloroform me off I feel I wouldn't care.


s: Ah yes! we're "heroes all" to-day--they point to us with pride;


s: To-day their hearts go out to us, the tears are in their eyes!


s: But wait a bit; to-morrow they will blindly look aside;


s: No more they'll talk of what they owe, the dues of sacrifice


s: (One hates to be reminded of an everlasting debt).


s: It's all in human nature.  Ah! the world will soon forget.


s: _My mind goes back to where I lay wound-rotted on the plain,


s: And ate the muddy mangold roots, and drank the drops of dew,


s: And dragged myself for miles and miles when every move was pain,


s: And over me the carrion-crows were retching as they flew.


s: Oh, ere I closed my eyes and stuck my rifle in the air


s: I wish that those who picked me up had passed and left me there._


s: Officially I'm dead.  Their hope is past.


s: How long I stood as missing!  Now, at last


s: Look in my face--no likeness can you see,


s: Than go through life like that, I think.


s: No face.  Just eyes that seemed to stare


s: I'm dead.  I think it's better to be dead


s: When little children look at you with dread;


s: And when you know your coming home again


s: Will only give the ones who love you pain.


s: Ah! who can help but shrink?  One cannot blame.


s: They see the hideous husk, not, not the flame


s: Of sacrifice and love that burns within;


s: While souls of satyrs, riddled through with sin,


s: _Mon Dieu!_ how different we all would be


s: If this our flesh was ordained to express


s: (Oh, you who look at me with fear to-day,


s: And shrink despite yourselves, and turn away--


s: For you I braved red battle at its worst;


s: For you I fought and bled and maimed and slew;


s: I faced the flame that scorched me with its glare;


s: I drank unto the dregs the devil's brew--


s: Look at me now--for _you_ and _you_ and _you_. . . .)


s: I'm thinking of the time we said good-by:


s: We took our dinner in Duval's that night,


s: We laughed.  And yet our eyes, they weren't gay.


s: I sought all kinds of cheering things to say.


s: "Don't grieve," I told them.  "Soon the time will pass;


s: My next permission will come quickly round;


s: We'll all meet at the Gare du Montparnasse;


s: Three times I've come already, safe and sound."


s: (But oh, I thought, it's harder every time,


s: "Pray God," I said, "the war may soon be done,


s: But no, oh never, never till we've won!")


s: And though it hurt us, cheerfully we talked.


s: We chatted bravely at the platform gate.


s: I watched the clock.  My train must go at eight.


s: One minute to the hour . . . we kissed good-by,


s: Then, oh, they both broke down, with piteous cry.


s: I went. . . .  Their way was barred; they could not pass.


s: I looked back as the train began to start;


s: Once more I ran with anguish at my heart


s: And through the bars I kissed my little lass. . . .


s: Three years have gone; they've waited day by day.


s: I thought that I had better . . . stay away.


s: A friendless friend who perished by my side.


s: In Prussian prison camps three years of hell


s: And now I'm free, but none shall ever know;


s: They think I died out there . . . it's better so.


s: To-day I passed my wife in widow's weeds.


s: I brushed her arm.  She did not even look.


s: So white, so pinched her face, my heart still bleeds,


s: And at the touch of her, oh, how I shook!


s: And then last night I passed the window where


s: They sat together; I could see them clear,


s: The lamplight softly gleaming on their hair,


s: My wife was sewing, while my daughter read;


s: And then I cursed myself:  "You're dead, you're dead!"


s: God! how I watched them from the darkness there,


s: Clutching the dripping branches of a tree,


s: I'll find a ship and sail before the mast;


s: In some wild land I'll bury all the past.


s: I'll live on lonely shores and there forget,


s: Or tell myself that there has never been


s: Sometimes I'll look towards the North and smile


s: To think they're happy, and they both believe


s: I died for France, and that I lie at rest;


s: And for my glory's sake they've ceased to grieve,


s: And hold my memory sacred.  Ah! that's best.


s: And in that thought I'll find my joy and peace


s: We've won what we were fighting for . . .


s: The River Phlegethon.  The Violent against their Neighbours.


s: against themselves.  Suicides.  Pier della Vigna.


s: Virgil reproaches Dante's Pity.  Mantua's Foundation.


s: Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa de' Donati,


s: Adam of Brescia, Potiphar's Wife, and Sinon of Troy.


s: First Division, Caina: Traitors to their Kindred.


s: Traitors to their Country.  Dante questions


s: of Count Ugolino's Sons.  Third Division of the Ninth Circle,


s: Ptolomaea: Traitors to their Friends.  Friar Alberigo,


s: Traitors to their Lords and Benefactors.  Lucifer,


s: translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


s: (e-text courtesy ILT's Digital Dante Project)


s: For the straightforward pathway had been lost.


s: What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,


s: Which in the very thought renews the fear.


s: But of the good to treat, which there I found,


s: Speak will I of the other things I saw there.


s: I cannot well repeat how there I entered,


s: But after I had reached a mountain's foot,


s: At that point where the valley terminated,


s: Which had with consternation pierced my heart,


s: Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,


s: Which leadeth others right by every road.


s: That in my heart's lake had endured throughout


s: The night, which I had passed so piteously.


s: And even as he, who, with distressful breath,


s: Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,


s: So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,


s: So that the firm foot ever was the lower.


s: Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!


s: And never moved she from before my face,


s: The time was the beginning of the morning,


s: And up the sun was mounting with those stars


s: That with him were, what time the Love Divine


s: At first in motion set those beauteous things;


s: The hour of time, and the delicious season;


s: But not so much, that did not give me fear


s: He seemed as if against me he were coming


s: With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,


s: So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;


s: And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings


s: And many folk has caused to live forlorn!


s: With the affright that from her aspect came,


s: That I the hope relinquished of the height.


s: And the time comes that causes him to lose,


s: Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,


s: E'en such made me that beast withouten peace,


s: Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.


s: While I was rushing downward to the lowland,


s: Before mine eyes did one present himself,


s: Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.


s: "Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man!"


s: He answered me: "Not man; man once I was,


s: 'Sub Julio' was I born, though it was late,


s: And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,


s: During the time of false and lying gods.


s: Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,


s: But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?


s: Why climb'st thou not the Mount Delectable,


s: Which is the source and cause of every joy?"


s: "Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain


s: Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?"


s: I made response to him with bashful forehead.


s: "O, of the other poets honour and light,


s: That have impelled me to explore thy volume!


s: The beautiful style that has done honour to me.


s: Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;


s: Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,


s: For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble."


s: Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,


s: "If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;


s: Because this beast, at which thou criest out,


s: But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;


s: And has a nature so malign and ruthless,


s: That never doth she glut her greedy will,


s: And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound


s: Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.


s: He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,


s: But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;


s: 'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;


s: Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,


s: Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;


s: Through every city shall he hunt her down,


s: Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,


s: There from whence envy first did let her loose.


s: Therefore I think and judge it for thy best


s: Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,


s: And lead thee hence through the eternal place,


s: Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,


s: Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,


s: Who cry out each one for the second death;


s: And thou shalt see those who contented are


s: Within the fire, because they hope to come,


s: Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people;


s: To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,


s: A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;


s: With her at my departure I will leave thee;


s: Wills that through me none come into his city.


s: He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;


s: By that same God whom thou didst never know,


s: So that I may escape this woe and worse,


s: Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,


s: That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,


s: Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.


s: Day was departing, and the embrowned air


s: Both of the way and likewise of the woe,


s: Which memory that errs not shall retrace.


s: O memory, that didst write down what I saw,


s: Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me.


s: Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent,


s: Was courteous, thinking of the high effect


s: That issue would from him, and who, and what,


s: To men of intellect unmeet it seems not;


s: For he was of great Rome, and of her empire


s: In the empyreal heaven as father chosen;


s: The which and what, wishing to speak the truth,


s: Were stablished as the holy place, wherein


s: Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.


s: Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt,


s: Things did he hear, which the occasion were


s: Both of his victory and the papal mantle.


s: Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,


s: To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,


s: Which of salvation's way is the beginning.


s: But I, why thither come, or who concedes it?


s: Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it.


s: Thou'rt wise, and knowest better than I speak."


s: And as he is, who unwills what he willed,


s: And by new thoughts doth his intention change,


s: So that from his design he quite withdraws,


s: Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise,


s: Which was so very prompt in the beginning.


s: "If I have well thy language understood,"


s: It turns him back from honoured enterprise,


s: As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.


s: That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,


s: I'll tell thee why I came, and what I heard


s: At the first moment when I grieved for thee.


s: In such wise, I besought her to command me.


s: Her eyes where shining brighter than the Star;


s: With voice angelical, in her own language:


s: Of whom the fame still in the world endures,


s: And shall endure, long-lasting as the world;


s: A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune,


s: Upon his way, that he has turned through terror,


s: That I too late have risen to his succour,


s: From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.


s: Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate,


s: And with what needful is for his release,


s: I come from there, where I would fain return;


s: Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak.


s: Full often will I praise thee unto him.'


s: Then paused she, and thereafter I began:


s: 'O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom


s: Within the heaven that has the lesser circles,


s: To obey, if 'twere already done, were late;


s: No farther need'st thou ope to me thy wish.


s: But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun


s: The here descending down into this centre,


s: From the vast place thou burnest to return to.'


s: 'Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,


s: Briefly will I relate,' she answered me,


s: Of those things only should one be afraid


s: Which have the power of doing others harm;


s: Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful.


s: Nor any flame assails me of this burning.


s: At this impediment, to which I send thee,


s: So that stern judgment there above is broken.


s: And said, "Thy faithful one now stands in need


s: Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him."


s: Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel.


s: "Beatrice" said she, "the true praise of God,


s: Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so,


s: For thee he issued from the vulgar herd?


s: Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint?


s: Dost thou not see the death that combats him


s: Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?"