s: Here his Worship must elbow the Knight of the Post!


s: For the wicket is free to the great and the small;--


s: Here Betty may flaunt in her mistress's sack!


s: Here Trip wear his master's brocade on his back!


s: Here a hussy may ride, and a rogue take the wall;--


s: Here Beauty may grant, and here Valour may ask!


s: Here the plainest may pass for a Belle (in a mask)!


s: Here a domino covers the short and the tall;--


s: 'Tis a type of the world, with its drums and its din;


s: 'Tis a type of the world, for when once you come in


s: You are loth to go out; like the world 'tis a ball;--


s: She frowned, and turned her eyes away,--


s: I praised her features,--praised her fan,


s: She that I love is neither brown nor fair,


s: Yet of her charms the count is clear, I ween:


s: Her wit, her wisdom are direct from Heaven:


s: Her cheek's warm dye what painter's brush could note?


s: Her supple waist, her arm from Venus came,


s: Incense, and flesh of swine, and this year's grain,


s: At the new moon, with suppliant hands, bestow,


s: Thy crops of blight, thy vine of Afric bane,


s: And hale the nurslings of thy flock remain


s: Through the sick apple-tide. Fit victims grow


s: 'Twixt holm and oak upon the Algid snow,


s: Or Alban grass, that with their necks must stain


s: The Pontiff's axe: to thee can scarce avail


s: Thy modest gods with much slain to assail,


s: Whom myrtle crowns and rosemary can please.


s: More than rich gifts the Powers it shall appease,


s: Though pious but with meal and crackling salt.


s: But mind, you can't come back, you know!


s: "What did I want?"--when, scarce polite,


s: That is, they'll like you while you're young,


s: The Great Unwashed,--then thumbed and sped,


s: When leanest grows the famished Mussulman,


s: A haggard ne'er-do-well, Mahmoud by name,


s: "Lord of the Faithful (quoth he), at the last


s: The long moon waneth, and men cease to fast;


s: Hard then, O hard! the lot of him must be,


s: Who spares to eat ... but not for piety!"


s: "Hast thou no calling, Friend?"--the Caliph said.


s: "Sir, I make verses for my daily bread."


s: "Verse!"--answered OMAR. "'Tis a dish, indeed,


s: Go. Learn the Tenter's or the Potter's Art,--


s: _I know not if that hungry Mahmoud died;


s: But this I know--he must have versified,


s: For, with his race, from better still to worse,


s: The plague of writing follows like a curse;


s: And men will scribble though they fail to dine,


s: Which is the Moral of more Books than mine._


s: (That breeze and brook which blows and falls


s: The broad-faced sun-flower o'er and o'er,


s: When You and I have wandered beyond the reach of call,


s: And all our Works immortal lie scattered on the Stall,


s: It may be some new Reader, in that remoter age,


s: Will find the present volume and listless turn the page.


s: For him I speak these verses. And, Sir (I say to him),


s: This Book you see before you,--this masterpiece of Whim


s: Of Wisdom, Learning, Fancy (if you will, please, attend),--


s: Was written by its Author, who gave it to his Friend.


s: For they had worked together, been Comrades of the Pen;


s: They had their points at issue, they differed now and then;


s: But both loved Song and Letters, and each had close at heart


s: The hopes, the aspirations, the "dear delays" of Art.


s: And much they talked of Measures, and more they talked of Style,


s: Of Form and "lucid Order," of "labour of the File;"


s: And he who wrote the writing, as sheet by sheet was penned


s: (This all was long ago, Sir!), would read it to his Friend.


s: They knew not, nor cared greatly, if they were spark or star;


s: They knew to move is somewhat, although the goal be far;


s: And larger light or lesser, this thing at least is clear,


s: They served the Muses truly,--their service was sincere.


s: This tattered page you see, Sir, this page alone remains


s: (Yes,--fourpence is the lowest!) of all those pleasant pains;


s: And as for him that read it, and as for him that wrote,


s: No Golden Book enrolls them among its "Names of Note."


s: And yet they had their office. Though they to-day are passed,


s: They marched in that procession where is no first or last;


s: Though cold is now their hoping, though they no more aspire,


s: They too had once their ardour--they handed on the fire.


s: In the year Seventeen Hundred and Seventy and Three,


s: When the GEORGES were ruling o'er Britain the free,


s: There was played a new play, on a new-fashioned plan,


s: By the GOLDSMITH who brought out the _Good-Natur'd Man_.


s: New-fashioned, in truth--for this play, it appears,


s: Dealt largely in laughter, and nothing in tears,


s: While the type of those days, as the learnèd will tell ye,


s: Was the CUMBERLAND whine or the whimper of KELLY.


s: So the Critics pooh-poohed, and the Actresses pouted,


s: And the Public were cold, and the Manager doubted;


s: But the Author had friends, and they all went to see it.


s: Shall we join them in fancy? You answer, So be it!


s: Imagine yourself then, good Sir, in a wig,


s: Either grizzle or bob--never mind, you look big.


s: You've a sword at your side, in your shoes there are buckles,


s: And the folds of fine linen flap over your knuckles.


s: You have come with light heart, and with eyes that are brighter,


s: From a pint of red Port, and a steak at the Mitre;


s: You have strolled from the Bar and the purlieus of Fleet,


s: And you turn from the Strand into Catherine Street;


s: Thence climb to the law-loving summits of Bow,


s: Till you stand at the Portal all play-goers know.


s: See, here are the 'prentice lads laughing and pushing,


s: And here are the seamstresses shrinking and blushing,


s: And here are the urchins who, just as to-day, Sir,


s: Buzz at you like flies with their "Bill o' the Play, Sir?"


s: Yet you take one, no less, and you squeeze by the Chairs,


s: With their freights of fine ladies, and mount up the stairs;


s: So issue at last on the House in its pride,


s: And pack yourself snug in a box at the side.


s: Here awhile let us pause to take breath as we sit,


s: Surveying the humours and pranks of the Pit,--


s: With its Babel of chatterers buzzing and humming,


s: With its impudent orange-girls going and coming,


s: With its endless surprises of face and of feature,


s: All grinning as one in a gust of good-nature.


s: Then we turn to the Boxes where TRIP in his lace


s: Is aping his master, and keeping his place.


s: Do but note how the Puppy flings back with a yawn,


s: Like a Duke at the least, or a Bishop in lawn!


s: Then sniffs at his bouquet, whips round with a smirk,


s: And ogles the ladies at large--like a Turk.


s: But the music comes in, and the blanks are all filling,


s: And TRIP must trip up to the seats at a shilling;


s: And spite of the mourning that most of us wear


s: The House takes a gay and a holiday air;


s: For the fair sex are clever at turning the tables,


s: And seem to catch coquetry even in sables.


s: Moreover, your mourning has ribbons and stars,


s: And is sprinkled about with the red coats of Mars.


s: Look, look, there is WILKES! You may tell by the squint;


s: But he grows every day more and more like the print


s: (Ah! HOGARTH _could_ draw!); and behind at the back


s: HUGH KELLY, who looks all the blacker in black.


s: That is CUMBERLAND next, and the prim-looking person


s: In the corner, I take it, is _Ossian_ MACPHERSON.


s: And rolling and blinking, here, too, with the rest,


s: Comes sturdy old JOHNSON, dressed out in his best;


s: How he shakes his old noddle! I'll wager a crown,


s: Whatever the law is _he's_ laying it down!


s: Beside him is REYNOLDS, who's deaf; and the hale


s: Fresh, farmer-like fellow, I fancy, is THRALE.


s: There is BURKE with GEORGE STEEVENS. And somewhere, no doubt,


s: Is the AUTHOR--too nervous just now to come out;


s: He's a queer little fellow, grave-featured, pock-pitten,


s: Tho' they say, in his cups, he's as gay as a kitten.


s: But where is our play-bill? _Mistakes of a Night!_


s: If the title's prophetic, I pity his plight!


s: _She Stoops._ Let us hope she won't fall at full length,


s: For the piece--so 'tis whispered--is wanting in strength.


s: And the humour is "low!"--you are doubtless aware


s: There's a character, even, that "dances a bear!"


s: Then the cast is so poor,--neither marrow nor pith!


s: Why can't they get WOODWARD or Gentleman SMITH!


s: "LEE LEWES!" Who's LEWES? The fellow has played


s: Nothing better, they tell me, than harlequinade!


s: "DUBELLAMY"--"QUICK,"--these are nobodies. Stay, I


s: Believe I saw QUICK once in _Beau Mordecai_.


s: Yes, QUICK is not bad. Mrs. GREEN, too, is funny;


s: But SHUTER, ah! SHUTER'S the man for my money!


s: He's the quaintest, the oddest of mortals, is SHUTER,


s: And he has but one fault--he's too fond of the pewter.


s: From the orchestra comes the first squeak of a fiddle.


s: Then the bass gives a growl, and the horn makes a dash,


s: And the music begins with a flourish and crash,


s: And away to the zenith goes swelling and swaying,


s: While we tap on the box to keep time to the playing.


s: And we hear the old tunes as they follow and mingle,


s: Till at last from the stage comes a ting-a-ting tingle;


s: And the fans cease to whirr, and the House for a minute


s: Grows still as if naught but wax figures were in it.


s: Then an actor steps out, and the eyes of all glisten.


s: Who is it? _The Prologue._ He's sobbing. Hush! listen.


s: handkerchief to his eyes, to speak Garrick's Prologue,


s: after which comes the play. In the volume for which the


s: foregoing additional Prologue was written the following


s: Good-bye to you, KELLY, your fetters are broken!


s: Good-bye to you, CUMBERLAND, GOLDSMITH has spoken!


s: Good-bye to sham Sentiment, moping and mumming,


s: For GOLDSMITH has spoken and SHERIDAN'S coming;


s: And the frank Muse of Comedy laughs in free air


s: As she laughed with the Great Ones, with SHAKESPEARE, MOLIÈRE!


s: Yet, through the dimmed and dripping glass,


s: Of Spring that breaks with all her leaves,


s: Of birds that build in thatch and eaves,


s: Is Peace _so_ peaceful? Nay,--who knows!


s: "_To brandish the poles of that old Sedan Chair!_"--Page 7.


s: A friendly critic, whose versatile pen it is not easy to mistake,


s: Mascarille. _Il est raisonnable, celui-là,_ etc.


s: "_It has waited by portals where Garrick has played._"--Page 8.


s: "_A skill Préville could not disown._"--Page 23.


s: "_Did she wander like that other?_"--Page 50.


s: "_And its tender rain shall lave it._"--Page 52.


s: i.e. _The Art of English Poetry_, by Edward Bysshe, 1702.


s: "_The 'crooked Body with a crooked Mind.'_"--Page 108.


s: "_Neither as Locke was, nor as Blake._"--Page 115.


s: The Shire Hall at Taunton, where these verses were read at the


s: It is, perhaps, needless to say that the reference here is to the


s: These verses appeared in the _Athenæum_ for October 8th, 1892.


s: SWIFT'S verses on _Vanbrugh's House_, 1706.


s: "_The Oaf preferred the_ 'Tongs and Bones.'"--Page 145.


s: _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, Act iv., Sc. i.


s: "_And sighed o'er Chaos wine for Stingo._"--Page 145.


s: "_And spite of the mourning that most of us wear._"--Page 259.


s: Illustrated in Colours. By HELEN BANNERMAN.


s: They're brave, but do not want to fight,


s: The French can cook, and fence, and dance,


s: They're fond of shouting "Long live France!"


s: They make the prettiest hats and frocks,


s: They shave their poodles, drink much wine,


s: His waistcoat's red, his sunshade green.


s: Hans sits at home and helps to make them.


s: They dress themselves just like their dolls.


s: Their hair is black to match their eyes;


s: Their robes are black to match their hair,


s: His spears are sharp--they shine like steel;


s: His horse may kick, and plunge, and rear,


s: Her hands are pink, and soft, and small,


s: They peep out from her dark green shawl.


s: She lives on milk, and bread, and honey,


s: A Russian wears his clothes quite loose,


s: They've names like Shuffski and Poppoff.


s: The Scotch wear kilts--both boys and men,


s: They're fond of oatmeal, kail, and brose.


s: Wrote verses and ploughed fields by turns,


s: You climb them best with ropes and guides.


s: You can't want beef while you've Welsh mutton.


s: And wags his head, and shakes his bells,


s: _The voice of the Sword from the heart of the Sword_


s: The crush, the heat, the many-spotted glare,


s: The odour and sense of life and lust aflare,


s: Let us take horse, dear heart, take horse and win--


s: As from swart August to the green lap of May--


s: To quietness and the fresh and fragrant breasts


s: Of the still, delicious night, not yet aware


s: Which tells that soon the flowing springs of day


s: Shall float the sands and brim the shores


s: On this our haunch of Earth, as round she roars


s: (The Lord's first gift, the Lord's especial charge)


s: With light, with living light, from marge to marge,


s: Until the course He set and staked be run.


s: Through street and square, through square and street,


s: Each with his home-grown quality of dark


s: The hansom wheels and plunges.  Hark, O hark,


s: And O the languid midsummer wafts adust,


s: And solemn shapes!  At night this City of Trees


s: Let loose from some dim underworld to range


s: These terrene vistas till their twilight sets:


s: When, dispossessed of wonderfulness, they stand


s: Beggared and common, plain to all the land


s: For stooks of leaves!  And lo! the wizard hour


s: Whose shining, silent sorcery hath such power!


s: Still, still the streets, between their carcanets


s: On this still, spectral, exquisite atmosphere?


s: 'Tis a first nest at matins!  And behold


s: A spent witch homing from some infamous dance--


s: Obscene, quick-trotting, see her tip and fade


s: Through shadowy railings into a pit of shade!


s: The smell of ships (that earnest of romance),


s: A lamplit bridge ouching the troubled sky.


s: And look, O look! a tangle of silver gleams


s: And dusky lights, our River and all his dreams,


s: His dreams of a dead past that cannot die!


s: The night goes out like an ill-parcelled fire,


s: The extinguisher that fain would strut for spire


s: On the formal little church is not yet green


s: Across the water: but the house-tops nigher,


s: The corner-lines, the chimneys--look how clean,


s: How new, how naked!  See the batch of boats,


s: Here at the stairs, washed in the fresh-sprung beam!


s: And those are barges that were goblin floats,


s: Black, hag-steered, fraught with devilry and dream!


s: And in the piles the water frolics clear,


s: The ripples into loose rings wander and flee,


s: And we--we can behold that could but hear


s: New-mailed in morning to the ancient Sea.


s: The gas burns lank and jaded in its glass:


s: The old Ruffian soon shall yawn himself awake,


s: And light his pipe, and shoulder his tools, and take


s: Of casements staring blind to right and left,


s: Each with his gaze turned inward on some piece


s: Of life in death's own likeness--Life bereft


s: (Perchance of shadow-shapes from shadow-shows),


s: Whose upshot all men know yet no man knows.


s: Reach upon reach of burial--so they feel,


s: These colonies of dreams!  And as we steal


s: Homeward together, but for the buxom breeze


s: Greeting the town with news of the summer seas,


s: We might--thus awed, thus lonely that we are--


s: Some world of memories and unbroken graves,


s: So broods the abounding Silence near and far:


s: As though the corn stood yellow in all the land


s: And the ripe apples dropped to the harvest-moon.


s: Lo! the round sun, half down the western slope--


s: Lingers and lolls, loth to be done with day:


s: As with new ore from some enchanted mine,


s: He looks new-tailored, and every 'bus feels clean,


s: And never a hansom but is worth the feeing;


s: Of the strong streams of toil that pause and pour


s: Of lazy seas upon a lotus-eating beach--


s: This mellow magic, that (as a man's caress


s: Brings back to some faded face beloved before


s: Ere the poor eyes were minded to beseech)


s: Old things transfigures, and you hail and bless


s: Their looks of long-lapsed loveliness once more;


s: Of Clement's is all tinctured with romance;


s: The while the fanciful, formal, finicking charm


s: And beauteous with a beauty not its own;


s: Uplifts a voice of living light, and calls--


s: And golden with a gold so suave and fine


s: The looking on it lifts the heart like wine.


s: Gleams like an angel-market.  High aloft


s: As once he flamed it on his ocean round.


s: The dingy dreariness of the picture-place,


s: And shows not all a scandal to the ground.


s: The very blind man pottering on the kerb,


s: Among the posies and the ostrich feathers


s: And the rude voices touched with all the weathers


s: The windows, with their fleeting, flickering fires,


s: The height and spread of frontage shining sheer,


s: The glistering signs, the rejoicing roofs and spires--


s: The Golden City!  And when a girl goes by,


s: Dispersed in wafts and drifts of gold, and shed


s: From the most squalid cellarage of hell,


s: The hangman wind that tortures temper and light--


s: Hard on the skirts of the embittered night:


s: Of excremental humours, roused to strife


s: A craftsman at his bench, he settles down


s: To the grim job of throttling London Town.


s: That might have oppressed the dragons of old time


s: Crunching and groping in the abysmal slime,


s: A cave of cut-throat thoughts and villainous dreams,


s: Hag-rid and crying with cold and dirt and wet,


s: The afflicted city, prone from mark to mark


s: A nightmare labyrinthine, dim and drifting,


s: With wavering gulfs and antic heights and shifting


s: Wherein the lamplight, scattered and sick and pale,


s: Shows like the leper's living blotch of bale:


s: Uncoiling monstrous into street on street


s: Paven with perils, teeming with mischance,


s: Where man and beast go blindfold and in dread,


s: Working with oaths and threats and faltering feet


s: Working through wicked airs and deadly dews


s: At the good places in his black romance,


s: And the poor, loitering harlot rather choose


s: Than lurk and shiver and curse her wretched way


s: From arch to arch, scouting some threepenny prey.


s: Forgot his dawns and far-flushed afterglows,


s: His green garlands and windy eyots forgot,


s: His watchfires cores of menace in the gloom,


s: As he came oozing from the Pit, and bore,


s: Sunk in his filthily transfigured sides,


s: Shoals of dishonoured dead to tumble and rot


s: His voices sounding through the gruesome air


s: As from the ferry where the Boat of Doom


s: With her blaspheming cargo reels and rides:


s: The while his children, the brave ships,


s: Nor tripping it light of heel as home-bound brides,


s: Or feel their course by inches desperately,


s: As through a tangle of alleys murder-haunted,


s: From sinister reach to reach--out--out--to sea.


s: Death with his well-worn, lean, professional smile,


s: Comes to your bedside, unannounced and bland,


s: Feels at your windpipe, fingers you in the lung,


s: Or flicks the clot well into the labouring heart:


s: 'Tis time--'tis time by his ancient watch--to part


s: With books and women and talk and drink and art:


s: Not Death, who is old and very wise, can say:


s: Thus vicious and thus patient sits him down


s: To the black job of burking London Town?


s: As over leagues of myrtle-blooms and may;


s: With the mild and placid pride of increase!  Nay,


s: What makes this insolent and comely stream


s: (Milk from the wild breasts of the wilful Day!),


s: Down Piccadilly dance and murmur and gleam


s: In genial wave on wave and gyre on gyre?


s: Why does that nymph unparalleled splash and churn


s: Her cheerful margents grey and living green,


s: It floats and wanders, glittering and fleeing,


s: --As if my paramour, my bride of brides,


s: Lingering and flushed, mysteriously abides


s: In some dim, eye-proof angle of odorous dark,


s: Some smiling nook of green-and-golden shade,


s: In the divine conviction robed and crowned


s: But as the marrying-place of all things made!


s: But feels the primal blessing in his blood.


s: Brightening like sex made sunshine through her veins,


s: None but, rejoicing, flaunts them as she goes,


s: Bounteous in looks of her delicious best,


s: These with their hopes, with their sweet secrets those,


s: As each were keeping some most prosperous tryst,


s: For look! a magical influence everywhere,


s: Look how the liberal and transfiguring air


s: This centre of ravishments and gracious greetings,


s: Till, through its jocund loveliness of length


s: A tidal-race of lust from shore to shore,


s: A brimming reach of beauty met with strength,


s: It shines and sounds like some miraculous dream,


s: Through this His messenger among the days


s: His word the life He gave is thrice-worth living!


s: Not dead, not dead, as dreamers feigned,


s: Still reigns and triumphs, as he hath triumphed and reigned


s: To sound his ancient music, and prevails


s: Here in this radiant and immortal street


s: In the open hills, the undissembling dales,


s: The laughing-places of the juvenile earth.


s: For lo! the wills of man and woman meet,


s: Meet and are moved, each unto each endeared


s: As once in Eden's prodigal bowers befell,


s: In one great act of faith, while deep and strong,


s: The enormous heart of London joys to beat


s: To the measures of his rough, majestic song:


s: The lewd, perennial, overmastering spell


s: That keeps the rolling universe ensphered


s: And life and all for which life lives to long


s: Calling you still, as friend calls friend


s: From dearer things than your own most dear


s: Leering her battered and inveterate leer,


s: She signals where he prowls in the dark alone,


s: His villainous old bones with villainous talk--


s: The secrets of their grisly housekeeping


s: In the first twilight of self-conscious Time:


s: Goodly and strong, Companions of the Advance


s: Crawls free of their secrets, and their broken sides


s: Bulge with the slime of life.  Thus they abide,


s: The summons of the Trumpet, and the while


s: Hang at the heels of their children--She aloft


s: Tells them this way is safety--this way home.


s: We are the Choice of the Will: God, when He gave the word


s: That called us into line, set in our hand a sword;


s: Set us a sword to wield none else could lift and draw,


s: And bade us forth to the sound of the trumpet of the Law.


s: East and west and north, wherever the battle grew,


s: As men to a feast we fared, the work of the Will to do.


s: Bent upon vast beginnings, bidding anarchy cease--


s: (Had we hacked it to the Pit, we had left it a place of peace!)--


s: Marching, building, sailing, pillar of cloud or fire,


s: Sons of the Will, we fought the fight of the Will, our sire.


s: Road was never so rough that we left its purpose dark;


s: Stark was ever the sea, but our ships were yet more stark;


s: Till now the name of names, England, the name of might,


s: Flames from the austral bounds to the ends of the northern night;


s: And the call of her morning drum goes in a girdle of sound,


s: And the shadow of her flag, when it shouts to the mother-breeze,


s: Floats from shore to shore of the universal seas;


s: And the loneliest death is fair with a memory of her flowers,


s: Who says that we shall pass, or the fame of us fade and die,


s: While the living stars fulfil their round in the living sky?


s: For the sire lives in his sons, and they pay their father's debt,


s: And the Lion in his whelps, his whelps that none shall brave,


s: Is but less strong than Time and the all-devouring Grave.


s: It came with the threat of a waning moon


s: For life upon life took hold and passed,


s: Leaf out of leaf is the way of the land,


s: And who shall reckon what lives may live


s: Throbs the word like a flinging flame?--


s: Cloud-monsters crawling like a funeral train


s: The far sea waits and wanders, with a sound


s: As the poor dead it huddles and swarms and styes


s: Better a thousand times the roaring hours


s: Remorse thereby feels tolerant, even glad. . . .


s: Rankle, and snarl, and hunger for their due


s: Till there seems naught so despicable as you


s: The sea spurns and the land abhors, you lie


s: His ragman's round, espies you, where you stray,


s: With half-an-eye, and kicks you out of his way;


s: Turns on you, and you feel the convict Worm,


s: In that black bridewell working out his term,


s: That might, yet would not, dared not, let this be,


s: Think of it, here and thus made over to me


s: And like a lover, he his fill shall take


s: Where no triumphant memory lives to make


s: 'How, till you have him gagged and bound,


s: (_God in the Garden laughed and frowned_).


s: 'Choose one of whom your grosser make'--


s: (_God in the Garden laughed outright_)--


s: 'Till both attain Life's highest height.


s: 'There, equal, purged of soul and sense,


s: Touched with the strange-hued blazonings of dawn:


s: And all so solemnly still I seem to hear


s: Renewing the visible miracle of the world.


s: Shine like good memories.  The young morning wind


s: As over a region of roses.  Life and Death


s: Sound on--sound on. . . . And the night magical,


s: Swung wide his valves and filled the dim sea-banks


s: Words fiery-hearted yet, dreams and desires


s: Whose voice comes as the voice of an only child


s: Heard from the grave: shapes of a Might-Have-Been--


s: The Law no man may baffle denied and slew.


s: To let the marvel by.  The grey road glooms . . .


s: Glimmers . . . goes out . . . and there, O there where it fades,


s: What grace, what glamour, what wild will,


s: Heart of my heart, Soul of my soul, but yours?


s: Teems with them even to the gleaming ends


s: Are in the dreaming, even as Life and Death,


s: Some chamber flushed with wine and fire,


s: Gloom out of gloom uncoiling into gloom,


s: Welters and wanders wearily--wretchedly--on;


s: Of the old skeleton bridge, as in the piles


s: Of some dead lake-built city, fall of skulls,


s: Worm-worn, rat-riddled, mouldy with memories,


s: (Once, O the unvoiced music of my heart!)


s: The secret of the unending grief-in-grain,


s: The terror of Time and Change and Death,


s: That wastes this floating, transitory world.


s: That forced the huddled shapes on yonder short


s: That touched the shafts of wavering fire


s: Into long, shining signals from the panes


s: Where life and life might live life lost in life


s: But whither had flown the ancient wrong;


s: 'Tis the faith of the Fool that a race you rule


s: And 'It's O for the time of the New Sublime


s: When the Wolf (poor beast) shall come to his own


s: You have cockered the Brute with your dreadful fruit


s: And 'It's how should we rise to be pure and wise,


s: They will haggle and hew till they hack you through


s: When 'Hey! for the hour of the race in flower


s: They may tug in line at your hempen twine,


s: But your taproot drinks of the Sacred Springs


s: Down a welkin lit with the flare of the Pit


s: And your master-beam be the last thing whelmed


s: They glance and go as the great winds blow,


s: For Time and Change estrange, estrange--


s: They end the song, they right the wrong,


s: And we lie in the peace of the Great Release


s: Stillness and stars and over-mastering dreams


s: Heard over gleaming flats the old unchanging sound


s: O hand in hand let us fare forth, two ghosts,


s: We twain are you and I--two ghosts Omnipotence


s: When the wind storms by with a shout, and the stern sea-caves


s: Exult in the tramp and the roar of onsetting waves,


s: Then, then, it comes home to the heart that the top of life


s: Is the passion that burns the blood in the act of strife--


s: Till you pity the dead down there in their quiet graves.


s: But to drowse with the fen behind and the fog before,


s: When the rain-rot spreads and a tame sea mumbles the shore,


s: Not to adventure, none to fight, no right and no wrong,


s: A vast, grey, listless, inexpressive sky,


s: Of starlight and the song of racing worlds


s: It might have bellied down upon the Void


s: Where as in terror Light was beginning to be.


s: Through the strange dusk of this, the Debateable Land


s: A messenger from some lost and loving soul,


s: A great white moth fades miserably past.


s: Thro' the trees in the strange dead night,


s: Sets to the mystic mere, the phantom fell,


s: What should such things of bulk and multitude


s: Yield of their huge, unutterable selves,


s: Alert to snatch and publish hour by hour


s: Their greenest hints, their leafiest privacies,


s: With broad-blown falsehoods, or the obviousness


s: Of laughter flickering back from shine to shade,


s: Of little boughs that frisk with little boughs?


s: Night of the many secrets, whose effect--


s: Of some mysterious and tremendous guild,


s: Or the anguish of prophecy tears them, and they wring


s: Or, each to the other bending, beckoning, signing,


s: They pass the news, these Gossips of the Prime,


s: Learned on the lawns of Eden, ere they heard


s: Your sense is sealed, or you should hear them tell


s: Sumptuous, of light, firing them as with wine;


s: Wanton with wading in the swirl of the wheat,


s: And how the wet-winged Angel of the Rain


s: Came whispering . . . whispering; and the gifts of the Year--


s: Under the wizardry of the young-eyed Spring,


s: And rich autumnal melancholy, and the shrill,


s: And with them all the goodness of the Master


s: Whose right hand blesses with increase and life,


s: Whose left hand honours with decay and death.


s: Each in his scores of rings, which rings are years,


s: The floor of His workshop, hearkens, full of cheer


s: Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty


s: There had been phantoms, pale-remembered shapes


s: Crowned with the same bright hair above the nape's


s: White rounded firmness, and each body alert


s: With such swift loveliness, that very rest


s: Seemed a poised movement: ... phantoms that impressed


s: But a faint influence and could bless or hurt


s: No more than dreams. And these ghost things were she;


s: Not one she seemed, not clear, but many and dim.


s: One face among the legions of the street,


s: Bright windy sunshine and the shadow of cloud


s: Of life and motion on the drowsing earth;


s: The huge elms stir, till all the air is loud


s: With their awakening from the muffled sleep


s: Of long hot days. And on the wavering line


s: That marks the alternate ebb of shade and shine,


s: In laughing talk. The shadow as it flows


s: Quenches the bright clear gold of hair, the green


s: Of a girl's dress, and life seems faint. The light


s: Swings back, and in the rose a fire is seen,


s: Gold hair's aflame and green grows emerald bright.


s: She leans, and there is laughter in the face


s: She turns towards him; and it seems a door


s: With a burst of light and music. What before


s: Was hidden shines in loveliness revealed.


s: Now first he sees her beautiful, and knows


s: That he must love her; and the doom is sealed


s: That shall be born of pregnant years hereafter.


s: The swift poise of a head, a flutter of laughter--


s: And love flows in on him, its vastness pent


s: Within his narrow life: the pain it brings,


s: Boundless; for love is infinite discontent


s: With the poor lonely life of transient things.


s: Smile through the curve of flesh or moulded clay,


s: In bare ploughed lands that go sloping away


s: To meet the sky in one clean exquisite line.


s: They draw new beauty, whence new thoughts are born


s: And in their turn conceive, as grains of corn


s: Shall live creating. Out of earthly seeds


s: Springs the aerial flower. One spirit proceeds


s: Through change, the same in body and in soul--


s: The spirit of life and love that triumphs still


s: In its slow struggle towards some far-off goal


s: Through lust and death and the bitterness of will.


s: One spirit it is that stirs the fathomless deep


s: Of human minds, that shakes the elms in storm,


s: That sings in passionate music, or on warm


s: Still evenings bosoms forth the tufted sleep


s: Of thistle-seeds that wait a travelling wind.


s: One spirit shapes the subtle rhythms of thought


s: And the long thundering seas; the soul is wrought


s: Of one stuff with the body--matter and mind


s: That flowers may blossom into a song, that flesh


s: May strangely teach the loveliest holiest things


s: To watching spirits. Truth is brought to birth


s: Not in some vacant heaven: its beauty springs


s: The darkness in the loft is sweet and warm


s: With the stored hay ... darkness intensified


s: By one bright shaft that enters through the wide


s: Tall doors from under fringes of a storm


s: Which makes the doomed sun brighter. On the hay,


s: Perched mountain-high they sit, and silently


s: Watch the motes dance and look at the dark sky


s: And yet how close and clear the distance seems,


s: While all at hand is cloud--brightness of dreams


s: So only just beyond the dark. They wait,


s: Scarce knowing what they wait for, half in fear;


s: Expectance draws the curtain from their fate.


s: On their strained spirits: sometimes one will say


s: Some trivial thing as though to ward away


s: In wait, with the strong exorcising grace


s: Defined and hard:--If he could kiss her face,


s: Could kiss her hair! As if by chance, her hand


s: Brushes on his ... Ah, can she understand?


s: From her that little, that infinitely much?


s: And suddenly she kissed him on the cheek.


s: A stronger gust catches the cloud and twists


s: A spindle of rifted darkness through its heart,


s: A gash in the damp grey, which, thrust apart,


s: Reveals black depths a moment. Then the mists


s: Heaves round the climbers and beneath their feet.


s: He strains on upwards through the wind and sleet,


s: Lifting his weight. And if he should let go,


s: What would he find down there, down there below


s: The curtain of the mist? What would he find


s: Beyond the dim and stifling now and here,


s: Beneath the unsettled turmoil of his mind?


s: Oh, there were nameless depths: he shrank with fear.


s: The hills more glorious in their coat of snow


s: Bright streams, and there are lakes that catch the sun,


s: That seem alive with inward light. In smoke


s: The far horizons fade; and there is peace


s: On everything, a sense of blessed release


s: From wilful strife. Like some prophetic cloak


s: The spirit of the mountains has descended


s: On all the world, and its unrest is ended.


s: Even the sea, glimpsed far away, seems still,


s: Hushed to a silver peace its storm and strife.


s: Mountains of vision, calm above fate and will,


s: London unfurls its incense-coloured dusk


s: With the charred gold and the red ember-glow


s: Of secrecy, which, through the day, returns


s: The cheerfulness of fire and lamp invites


s: The darkness inward, curious of what burns


s: With such a coloured life when all is dead--


s: The daylight world outside, with overhead


s: White clouds, and where we walk, the blaze


s: Of wet and sunlit streets, shops and the stream


s: Of glittering traffic--all that the nights erase,


s: Colour and speed, surviving but in dream.


s: Outside the dusk, but in the little room


s: All is alive with light, which brightly glints


s: On curving cup or the stiff folds of chintz,


s: Evoking its own whiteness. Shadows loom,


s: Bulging and black, upon the walls, where hang


s: Rich coloured plates of beauties that appeal


s: Less to the sense of sight than to the feel,


s: So moistly satin are their breasts. A pang,


s: Almost of pain, runs through him when he sees


s: Hanging, a homeless marvel, next to these,


s: She crouches at his feet, while he caresses


s: His light-drawn fingers with the touch of tresses


s: Sleeked round her head, close-banded lustrously,


s: Save where at nape and temple the smooth brown


s: Sleaves out into a pale transparent mist


s: Poised 'twixt the deep of thought where spirits drown


s: And, on the other side, the pain and stress


s: Of clamorous action and the gnawing fire


s: Of will, focal upon a point of earth--even thus


s: And yet self-known, were happiness for us.


s: She turns her head and in a flash of laughter


s: Looks up at him: and helplessly he feels


s: That life has circled with returning wheels


s: Back to a starting-point. Before and after


s: Merge in this instant, momently the same:


s: For it was thus she leaned and laughing turned


s: When, manifest, the spirit of beauty burned


s: And first he knew and loved her. In full tide


s: Life halts within him, suddenly stupefied.


s: Sight blackness, lightning-struck; but blindly tender


s: He draws her up to meet him, and she lies


s: Close folded by his arms in glad surrender,


s: Smiling, and with drooped head and half closed eyes.


s: "I give you all; would that I might give more."


s: He sees the colour dawn across her cheeks


s: And die again to white; marks as she speaks


s: The trembling of her lips, as though she bore


s: Some sudden pain and hardly mastered it.


s: Within his arms he feels her shuddering,


s: Piteously trembling like some wild wood-thing


s: Mounts up within him. Thus to hold and keep


s: And comfort her distressed, lull her to sleep


s: And gently kiss her brow and hair and eyes


s: Seems love perfected--templed high and white


s: Against the calm of golden autumn skies,


s: And shining quenchlessly with vestal light.


s: But passion ambushed by the aerial shrine


s: Comes forth to dance, a hoofed obscenity,


s: His satyr's dance, with laughter in his eye,


s: Of his bright smiling mouth. All uncontrolled,


s: Love's rebel servant, he delights to beat


s: The maddening quick dry rhythm of goatish feet


s: To mime himself the godhead of the place.


s: He turns in terror from her trance-calmed face,


s: From the white-lidded languor of her eyes,


s: From lips that passion never shook before,


s: But glad in the promise of her sacrifice:


s: "I give you all; would that I might give more."


s: Should open wide her eyes and let him see


s: The passionate conquest of her virgin will


s: Shine there in triumph, starry-bright with tears.


s: He thrusts her from him: face and hair and breast,


s: Hands he had touched, lips that his lips had pressed,


s: Seem things deadly to be desired. He fears


s: Lest she should body forth in palpable shame


s: Those dreams and longings that his blood, aflame


s: Through the hot dark of summer nights, had dreamed


s: And longed. Must all his love, then, turn to this?


s: Was lust the end of what so pure had seemed?


s: He must escape, ah God! her touch, her kiss.


s: Laughing, "To-night," I said to him, "the Park


s: Those old great trees that rise above the mist,


s: Gold with the light of evening, and the dark


s: Those ancient gardens mirrored by the eyes


s: Of poets that hate the world of common folks,


s: Like you and me and that thin pious crowd,


s: Which yonder sings its hymns, so humbly proud


s: Lies here; a small green world, and still the bride


s: I had forgotten what I had lightly said,


s: And without speech, without a thought I went,


s: Steeped in that golden quiet, all content


s: To drink the transient beauty as it sped


s: To light and burn and know itself a fire;


s: Yet doomed--ah, fate of the fulfilled desire!--


s: Of our material earth. A strange despair,


s: Filled me ... Oh laughter! youth's conceit


s: Grown almost conscious of youth's feebleness!


s: He spoke abrupt across my dream: "Dear Garden,


s: Beyond your walls, lost in a fevered land


s: Of stones and fire. Would that the gods would harden


s: My soul against its torment, or would blind


s: Those yearning glimpses of a life at rest


s: Through unpassed bars. And here, without, the wind


s: Of scattering passion blows: and women pass


s: Glitter-eyed down putrid alleys where the glass


s: Of some grimed window suddenly parades--


s: Ah, sickening heart-beat of desire!--the grace


s: Of bare and milk-warm flesh: the vision fades,


s: And at the pane shows a blind tortured face."


s: The days pass by, empty of thought and will:


s: His thought grows stagnant at its very springs,


s: With every channel on the world of things


s: Dammed up, and thus, by its long standing still,


s: All his high love for her, his fair desire,


s: Loses its light; and a dull rancorous fire,


s: Burning darkness and bitterness that prey


s: Upon his heart are left. His spirit burns


s: Sometimes with hatred, or the hatred turns


s: To a fierce lust for her, more cruel than hate,


s: Till he is weary wrestling with its force:


s: And evermore she haunts him, early and late,


s: Streets and the solitude of country places


s: Were once his friends. But as a man born blind,


s: Opening his eyes from lovely dreams, might find


s: The world a desert and men's larval faces


s: Of beauties inward--so, that fresh delight,


s: Vision of bright fields and angelic men,


s: That love which made him all the world, is gone.


s: An island-point, measureless gulfs apart


s: From other lives, from the old happiness


s: Of being more than self, when heart to heart


s: Gave all, yet grew the greater, not the less.


s: A small wind stirs, the copse is bright in the sun:


s: Like quicksilver the shine and shadow run


s: Across the leaves. A bramble whips his face,


s: The tears spring fast, and through the rainbow mist


s: He sees a world that wavers like the flame


s: Of a blown candle. Tears of pain and shame,


s: And lips that once had laughed and sung and kissed


s: Trembling in the passion of his sobbing breath!


s: The world a candle shuddering to its death,


s: And life a darkness, blind and utterly void


s: This friendship and this God: all shams destroyed,


s: Shepherd, to yon tall poplars tune your flute:


s: Let the grass cry with an anguish of evening gold,


s: Then hearken how the poplar trees unfold


s: Their buds, yet close and gummed and blind,


s: Rustling in silvery whispers the twin-hued scales


s: "Poplars and fountains and you cypress spires


s: Or say, say: Are you all an upward agony


s: That leads the withering moon on cloudy stairs


s: "Is it towards sorrow or towards joy you lift


s: That blur the sky, in the heart of the triumphing blue,


s: In the blue murmur of hills, and a golden cry


s: Goggling in on me through the misty panes;


s: My rotting leaves and fields spongy with rains;


s: I could leave all, clearness and mistiness;


s: Sodden or goldenly crystal, all too still.


s: Yes, and I too rot with the leaves that fill


s: The hollows in the woods; I am grown less


s: Than human, listless, aimless as the green


s: Who loiter down their dim tunnels and come


s: And look at me and drift away, nought seen


s: Reflected. Upwards, upwards through the shadows,


s: Through the lush sponginess of deep-sea meadows


s: Where hare-lipped monsters batten, let me ply


s: Winged fins, bursting this matrix dark to find


s: And gulfs of blue brightness, too deep for sight.


s: Free, newly born, on roads of music and air


s: Speeding and singing, I shall seek the place


s: Where all the shining threads of water race,


s: Drawn in green ropes and foamy meshes. There,


s: Of coral rooted in the depths, shall break


s: An endless sequence of joy and speed and power:


s: Green shall shatter to foam; flake with white flake


s: Shall create an instant's shining constellation


s: Full of a million wings that swift and free


s: Laugh in the sun, all power and strong elation.


s: Yes, I shall seek that reef, which is beyond


s: In tideless seas, uncharted and unconned


s: Save by blind eyes; beyond the laughter and weeping


s: That brood like a cloud over the lands of men.


s: Movement, passion of colour and pure wings,


s: Curving to cut like knives--these are the things


s: Of our foiled violences, and, more swift


s: Than any blow which man aims against time,


s: The invulnerable, motion that shall rift


s: All dimness with the lightning of a rhyme,


s: Or note, or colour. And the body shall be


s: Quick as the mind; and will shall find release


s: From bondage to brute things; and joyously


s: Soul, will and body, in the strength of triune peace,


s: Shall live the perfect grace of power unwasted.


s: And love consummate, marvellously blending


s: Passion and reverence in a single spring


s: Of quickening force, till now never yet tasted,


s: But ever ceaselessly thirsted for, shall crown


s: The new life with its ageless starry fire.


s: I go to seek that reef, far down, far down


s: Beyond the magical islands, where of old


s: I was content, dreaming, to give the lie


s: To misery. They were all strong and bold


s: That thither came; and shall I dare to try?


s: And pools in the rocks whose unplumbed blue is pregnant


s: White Anadyomene and her shallow breasts


s: And oh the April, April of straight soft hair,


s: Falling smooth as the mountain water and brown;


s: Across a huge gulf ... on the other bank


s: Crouches April with her hair as smooth and straight and brown


s: As a great star one has watched all night


s: Voice and desires have dropped out of sight.


s: I am all alone, dreaming she would come and kiss me.


s: Fine as the dust of plumy fountains blowing


s: Across the lanterns of a revelling night,


s: The tiny leaves of April's earliest growing


s: They seem to float, billows of emerald foam


s: Blown by the South on its bright airy tide,


s: Seeming less trees than things beatified,


s: Come from the world of thought which was their home.


s: For a while only. Rooted strong and fast,


s: Soon will they lift towards the summer sky


s: Their mountain-mass of clotted greenery.


s: They grow opaque, and therefore needs must die,


s: Since every earth to earth returns at last.


s: In the middle of countries, far from hills and sea,


s: Are the little places one passes by in trains


s: And never stops at; where the skies extend


s: Stretch green and yellow and green without an end.


s: And behind the glass of their Grand Express


s: With nothing to think of, nothing to do,


s: Mark how the furrows, formed and wheeled


s: With stripe on stripe of varied greens ...


s: It seems a glory that nought surpasses--


s: The stars are golden instants in the deep


s: Flawless expanse of night: the moon is set:


s: The river sleeps, entranced, a smooth cool sleep


s: The hollow booming bridges, where it slides,


s: Dark with the sad looks that it bears along,


s: Ravish the sighted ships and the sailors' song.


s: Halts and looks backward and draws breath


s: The drought of fluttering leaves had grown


s: This world of drought and dust and stone


s: That hang as light and bright as flowers


s: Shall speak! Oh movement of white wings,


s: The new world's brightness and cleanness


s: For the light that shows the huddled things


s: And think that our love and thought and laughter


s: Puff out with the death of our flickering sense,


s: Is a rose of fire that must blossom its way


s: Through temporal stuff, nor else could be


s: With the sound of a far-off falling stream


s: Grey ghost in the mountain world of grey.


s: And the names (dear friends, your name and yours)


s: The world and the friends that lived in it


s: I had remarked--how sharply one observes


s: When life is disappearing round the curves


s: I had remarked when it was "good luck" and "good night"


s: And "a good journey to you," on her face


s: Certain enigmas penned in the hieroglyphs


s: Of that half frown and queer fixed smile and trace


s: Always so happily clear of hows and ifs--


s: My poor bleared mind!--and haunting whys.


s: There I stood, holding her farewell hand,


s: And smaller pressed, why there I'd stand


s: Dead when they vanished with the sight of her).


s: Beyond the present and her own young speed,


s: Of yesterday and what new days might breed


s: In the midst of her speed she had made pause,


s: And doubts with all their threat of claws,


s: Outstripped till now by her unconsciousness,


s: Had seized on her; she was proved mortal now.


s: And life recedes, recedes; the curve is bare,


s: My handkerchief flutters blankly in the air;


s: Dear absurd child--too dear to my cost I've found--


s: God made your soul for pleasure, not for use:


s: It cleaves no way, but angled broad obtuse,


s: Full upon life, and on the rind of things


s: Rubs its sleek self and utters purr and snore


s: And all the gamut of satisfied murmurings,


s: Content with that, nor wishes anything more.


s: A happy infant, daubed to the eyes in juice


s: Of peaches that flush bloody at the core,


s: While o'er your tumbling bosom the hair floats loose.


s: The wild flowers bloom and die; the heavens go round


s: With the song of wheeling planetary rings:


s: You wriggle in the sun; each moment brings


s: Its freight for you; in all things pleasures abound.


s: You taste and smile, then this for the next pass over;


s: And there's no future for you and no past,


s: And when, absurdly, death arrives at last,


s: 'Twill please you awhile to kiss your latest lover.


s: For the sun dreams there, and no time is or was.


s: At your mouth, white and milk-warm sphinx,


s: That brought me passionate to your lips:


s: Your charnel beauty; yet my spirit drinks


s: Of those that wake from piercing ecstasies.


s: Noon with a depth of shadow beneath the trees


s: Shakes in the heat, quivers to the sound of lutes:


s: Half shaded, half sunlit, a great bowl of fruits


s: Glistens purple and golden: the flasks of wine


s: Cool in their panniers of snow: silks muffle and shine:


s: Dim velvet, where through the leaves a sunbeam shoots,


s: Rifts in a pane of scarlet: fingers tapping the roots


s: Keep languid time to the music's soft slow decline.


s: Hideous broken laughter, scarce human in sound;


s: Gaunt clawed hands, thrust through the bars despairingly,


s: Clutch fast at the scented air, while on the ground


s: Lie the poor plague-stricken carrions, who have found


s: Strength to crawl forth and curse the sunshine and die.


s: Still life, still life ... the high-lights shine


s: Smooth yellow ice, through which there passes


s: The lamp's bright pencil of down-struck light.


s: Part of this still, still life ... they've lost their soul.


s: And amongst these frozen faces you smiled,


s: "What about God?" you said. "I have found


s: This bottle, for instance ..." I recall,


s: God-in-the-bottle--and pushed Him across:


s: Moved God-in-the-salt in front and shouted: "Check!"


s: And thinking about God and the Devil and all,


s: Other young men have been battling with the days


s: And others have been kissing the beautiful women.


s: They have brazen faces like battering-rams.


s: I crumble to impotent dust before the struggling,


s: But when it comes to fumbling over books


s: But perhaps the battering-rams are in the right of it,


s: If I can't think strangely, I can at least look queerly.


s: With the soul in my eyes hanging dizzily


s: Like the gatherer of proverbial samphire


s: And there's straw in my tempestuous hair,


s: I'll madly live the poems I shall never write.


s: I am getting on well with this anecdote,


s: And all the worked-up phrases, and the dying fall


s: Of voice, well timed in the crisis, the note


s: And my face all tingles and pricks with shame


s: But I finish the story triumphantly all the same.


s: Why there are folk whose flesh should seem


s: Men's bodies into such fantastic shapes:


s: Yes, failing to see the point of it all, I sometimes wish


s: That I were a fabulous thing in a fool's mind,


s: Or, at the ocean bottom, in a world that is deaf and blind,


s: Very remote and happy, a great goggling fish.


s: Crash and bump ... my poor bruised body!


s: An elegant instrument, but infinitely second-hand,


s: And if I have not got phthisis it is only an accident.


s: Instants in the quiet, small sharp stars,


s: Pierce my spirit with a thrust whose speed


s: But I am a pool of waters, summer-still,


s: I take it their glance means nothing at all?


s: --Clearly, oh clearly! Nothing at all ...


s: Out in the gardens, moonlit and forlorn,


s: Shrill peals that waver and crack and break.


s: Interrupt with their hurrying rumour every thought


s: Thought is an unseen net wherein our mind


s: Is taken and vainly struggles to be free:


s: Words, that should loose our spirit, do but bind


s: And action bears us onward like a stream


s: Past fabulous shores, scarce seen in our swift course;


s: Glorious--and yet its headlong currents seem


s: There are slow curves, more subtle far than thought,


s: That stoop to carry the grace of a girl's breast;


s: And hanging flowers, so exquisitely wrought


s: Of souls; and there are distant hills that lift


s: The shoulder of a goddess towards the light;


s: And arrowy trees, sudden and sharp and swift,


s: Piercing the spirit deeply with delight.


s: Would I might make these miracles my own!


s: Like a pure angel, thinking colour and form,


s: Hardening to rage in a flame of chiselled stone,


s: Spilling my love like sunlight, golden and warm


s: On noonday flowers, speaking the song of birds


s: Among the branches, whispering the fall of rain,


s: Beyond all thought, past action and past words,


s: I would live in beauty, free from self and pain.


s: Books and a coloured skein of thoughts were mine;


s: Till their much-whispered music turned a wine


s: Whose subtlest power was all in my control.


s: These things were mine, and they were real for me


s: As lips and darling eyes and a warm breast:


s: Like a fair woman, worshipped and possessed.


s: I scorned all fire that outward of the eyes


s: Could kindle passion; scorned, yet was afraid;


s: Feared, and yet envied those more deeply wise


s: Who saw the bright earth beckon and obeyed.


s: But a time came when, turning full of hate


s: And weariness from my remembered themes,


s: Beauty more palpable than words and dreams.


s: All loveliness with which an act informs


s: Of that great earth that draws a breath and stirs


s: To meet the spring. But I could wish my heart


s: Were still a winter of frosty gossamers.


s: With the blue shadowiness of distant hills;


s: New life at the lamp's round pool of gold;


s: Sometimes in lands where mountains throw


s: Robbed of all speech and thought and act,


s: Have seen the headlong wheel made still,


s: I would immortalize these nymphs: so bright


s: It floats like drowsing down. Loved I a dream?


s: My doubts, born of oblivious darkness, seem


s: The tree's true self--proving that I have known


s: But think. These nymphs, their loveliness ... suppose


s: They bodied forth your senses' fabulous thirst?


s: Illusion! which the blue eyes of the first,


s: As cold and chaste as is the weeping spring,


s: Is she the wind, warm in your fleece at noon?


s: No, through this quiet, when a weary swoon


s: Crushes and chokes the latest faint essay


s: Of morning, cool against the encroaching day,


s: There is no murmuring water, save the gush


s: Of my clear fluted notes; and in the hush


s: Blows never a wind, save that which through my reed


s: Puffs out before the rain of notes can speed


s: Upon the air, with that calm breath of art


s: That mounts the unwrinkled zenith visibly,


s: The sun's own mirror which I love to take,


s: Silent beneath your starry flowers, tell


s: Tamed by my skill, when on the glaucous gold


s: Of distant lawns about their fountain cold


s: A living whiteness stirs like a lazy wave;


s: And at the first slow notes my panpipes gave


s: These flocking swans, these naiads, rather, fly


s: Or dive._ Noon burns inert and tawny dry,


s: Nor marks how clean that Hymen slipped away


s: Wake, then, to the first ardour and the sight,


s: O lonely faun, of the old fierce white light,


s: Other than their lips' delicate pretence,


s: The light caress that quiets treacherous lovers,


s: My breast, I know not how to tell, discovers


s: The bitten print of some immortal's kiss.


s: I dare not tell, save to my double reed,


s: Dreams down its cadenced monologues that we


s: Falsely confuse the beauties that we see


s: With the bright palpable shapes our song creates:


s: Purges the common dream of flank and breast,


s: Seen through closed eyes and inwardly caressed,


s: Bloom then, O Syrinx, in thy flight malign,


s: A reed once more beside our trysting-lake.


s: So when the grape's transparent juice I drain,


s: I quell regret for pleasures past and feign


s: A new real grape. For holding towards the sky


s: Remembered joys and plump the grape once more.


s: _Between the reeds I saw their bodies gleam


s: Crying to the woods the rage of their desire:


s: Where crystal broke and dazzled shudderingly.


s: I check my swift pursuit: for see where lie,


s: Bruised, being twins in love, by languor sweet,


s: Two sleeping girls, clasped at my very feet.


s: I seize and run with them, nor part the pair,


s: Breaking this covert of frail petals, where


s: Roses drink scent of the sun and our light play


s: 'Mid tumbled flowers shall match the death of day._


s: Thrill when a maiden body shrinks, defiled,


s: Shuddering like arctic light, from lips that sear


s: Its nakedness ... the flesh in secret fear!


s: Contagiously through my linked pair it flies


s: Where innocence in either, struggling, dies,


s: Wet with fond tears or some less piteous dew.


s: _Gay in the conquest of these fears, I grew


s: So rash that I must needs the sheaf divide


s: Of ruffled kisses heaven itself had tied.


s: Of one my passionate laughter (taking care


s: With a stretched finger, that her innocence


s: Might stain with her companion's kindling sense


s: To touch the younger little one, who lay


s: Child-like unblushing) my ungrateful prey


s: Slips from me, freed by passion's sudden death,


s: Nor heeds the frenzy of my sobbing breath._


s: Let it pass! others of their hair shall twist


s: A rope to drag me to those joys I missed.


s: See how the ripe pomegranates bursting red


s: To quench the thirst of the mumbling bees have bled;


s: So too our blood, kindled by some chance fire,


s: Flows for the swarming legions of desire.


s: At evening, when the woodland green turns gold


s: And ashen grey, 'mid the quenched leaves, behold!


s: Whene'er the flames in thunderous slumber die.


s: Forgetful let me lie where summer's drouth


s: Sifts fine the sand and then with gaping mouth


s: Dream planet-struck by the grape's round wine-red star.


s: Nymphs, I shall see the shade that now you are.


s: When the child's forehead, full of torments red,


s: Cries out for sleep and its pale host of dreams,


s: Having long fingers, tipped with silvery gleams.


s: On seas of flowers that stir in the blue airs,


s: And through his curls, all wet with dew, they slide


s: Those terrible searching finger-tips of theirs.


s: He hears them breathing, softly, fearfully,


s: Then a sharp hiss breaks time and melody--


s: Spittle indrawn, old kisses new-desired.


s: Down through the perfumed silences he hears


s: Their eyelids fluttering: long fingers thrill,


s: Probing a lassitude bedimmed with tears,


s: While the nails crunch at every louse they kill.


s: He is drunk with Languor--soft accordion-sigh,


s: Longings for tears come welling up and die,


s: As slow or swift he feels their magical caress.


s: ¶ The series is limited in the case of each volume to an edition


s: of five hundred copies on hand-made paper, printed in two


s: colours in Dolphin old style type, and published at two shillings


s: ¶ "Beautiful little books ... containing poetry, real poetry."--


s: One by one the pale stars die before the day now,


s: One by one the great ships are stirring from their sleep,


s: Cables all are rumbling, anchors all a-weigh now,


s: Now the fleet's a fleet again, gliding towards the deep.


s: _Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways,


s: Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray;


s: Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!


s: Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!_


s: Far away behind us town and tower are dwindling,


s: Home becomes a fair dream faded long ago;


s: Infinitely glorious the height of heaven is kindling,


s: Infinitely desolate the shoreless sea below.


s: Once again with proud hearts we make the old surrender,


s: Once again with high hearts serve the age to be,


s: Not for us the warm life of Earth, secure and tender,


s: Ours the eternal wandering and warfare of the sea.


s: He played with the fleet as a boy with boats


s: And he laugh'd with the roar of a thousand throats


s: But I am the fellow you've first to fight--


s: The lesson was all of a ship and a shot,


s: But the word they heard and never forgot


s: But wherever he goes, with friends or foes,


s: Brag about your cruisers like Leviathans--


s: We're all of us his brothers and his sons,


s: And he's worth, O he's worth at the very least


s: And the whole fleet flying like the wild geese


s: Where's the mighty will that shows the way to them,


s: The mind that sees ahead so quick and clear?


s: He's there, Sir, walking all alone there--


s: The little man whose voice you never hear.


s: There are queer things that only come to sailormen;


s: They're true, but they're never understood;


s: I've been with him when hope sank under us--


s: He hardly seemed a mortal like the rest,


s: I could swear that he had stars upon his uniform,


s: And one sleeve pinned across his breast.


s: Some day we're bound to sight the enemy,


s: Keel to keel and gun to gun he'll challenge us


s: But we'll all give our bodies and our souls


s: With thunderstroke of terror and of pride,


s: Come! . . .  Come! . . . for thou must come!


s: This is the day and this the glorious hour


s: The fields of Earth and the wide ways of Thought--


s: Did not thy purpose count them all as nought


s: That in this moment thou thyself mayst give


s: And in thy country's life for ever live?


s: Youth's nobler hope disdained the spoils of Time


s: In the great hour of life that men call Death


s: The beat that bids thee draw heroic breath,


s: Come! . . .  Come! . . . the time is come!


s: Greet them again with tender words and grave,


s: For, saving thee, themselves they could not save.


s: They found the secret of the word that saith,


s: "Service is sweet, for all true life is death."


s: Far off they served, but now their deed is done


s: For evermore their life and thine are one.


s: "Partial firing continued until 4.30, when a victory having been


s: reported to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B., and


s: England! to-day let fire be in thine eyes


s: And in thy heart the throb of leaping guns;


s: Crown in thy streets the deed that never dies,


s: And tell their fathers' fame to all thy sons!


s: Cloud after towering cloud of billowy sail


s: Full charged with thunder and the bolts of death.


s: Yet when the noon is past, and thy delight,


s: More delicate for these good hundred years,


s: Has drunk the splendour and the sound of fight


s: And the sweet sting of long-since vanished fears,


s: Then, England, come thou down with sterner lips


s: From the bright world of thy substantial power,


s: To watch the soul of man in his dark hour


s: Redeeming yet his dear lost land of home.


s: What place is this?  What under-world of pain


s: All shadow-barred with glare of swinging fires?


s: What writhing phantoms of the newly slain?


s: What cries?  What thirst consuming all desires?


s: This is the field of battle: not for life,


s: Not for the deeper life that dwells in love,


s: Not for all these the fight: all these above


s: The soul of this man cherished Duty's name.


s: His steadfast hope from self has turned away,


s: For the Cause only must he still contend:


s: "How goes the day with us?  How goes the day?"


s: He craves not victory, but to make an end.


s: Therefore not yet thine hour, O Death: but when


s: The weapons forged against his country's peace


s: Then let the tumult of his warfare cease


s: And the last dawn dispel his anguished dream.


s: "Drake, and Blake, and Nelson's mighty name."


s: Drake he's in his hammock an' a thousand mile away,


s: (Capten, art tha sleepin' there below?),


s: Slung atween the round shot in Nombre Dios Bay,


s: An' dreamin' arl the time o' Plymouth Hoe.


s: Yarnder lumes the Island, yarnder lie the ships,


s: An' the shore-lights flashin', an' the night-tide dashin',


s: He sees et arl so plainly as he saw et long ago.


s: Drake he was a Devon man, an' ruled the Devon seas,


s: Rovin' tho' his death fell, he went wi' heart at ease,


s: "Take my drum to England, hang et by the shore,


s: Strike et when your powder's runnin' low;


s: If the Dons sight Devon, I'll quit the port o' Heaven,


s: An' drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago."


s: Drake he's in his hammock till the great Armadas come,


s: Slung atween the round shot, listenin' for the drum,


s: Call him on the deep sea, call him up the Sound,


s: Where the old trade's plyin' an' the old flag flyin'


s: They shall find him ware an' wakin', as they found him long ago!


s: And honour, as long as waves shall break,


s: He was playing at Plymouth a rubber of bowls


s: But he said, "They must wait their turn, good souls,"


s: But he anchored them fast where the Texel shoaled


s: "I've taken the depth to a fathom," he cried,


s: For I know when we're all of us under the tide,


s: "Mark you, I wouldn't be elsewhere now,"


s: He clapped the glass to his sightless eye


s: But they left us a kingdom none can take,


s: To be ruled by the rightful sons of Blake


s: It was morning at St. Helen's, in the great and gallant days,


s: And the sea beneath the sun glittered wide,


s: When the frigate set her courses, all a-shimmer in the haze,


s: And she hauled her cable home and took the tide.


s: She'd a right fighting company, three hundred men and more,


s: Nine and forty guns in tackle running free;


s: And they cheered her from the shore for her colours at the fore,


s: _She'd a right fighting company, three hundred men and more


s: And they cheered her from the shore for her colours at the fire,


s: She was clear of Monte Cristo, she was heading for the land,


s: When she spied a pennant red and white and blue;


s: She was nearer, nearer, nearer, they were caught beyond a doubt,


s: But they slipped her, into Orbetello Bay,


s: And the lubbers gave a shout as they paid their cables out,


s: With the guns grinning round them where they lay.


s: Now Sir Peter was a captain of a famous fighting race,


s: And he looked upon the batteries, he looked upon the chase,


s: And he heard the shout that echoed out to sea.


s: And he called across the decks, "Ay! the cheering might be late


s: If they kept it till the _Menelaus_ runs;


s: Bid the master and his mate heave the lead and lay her straight


s: For the prize lying yonder by the guns."


s: When the summer moon was setting, into Orbetello Bay


s: Came the _Menelaus_ gliding like a ghost;


s: And her boats were manned in silence, and in silence pulled away,


s: With a volley from her broadside the citadel she woke,


s: And they hammered back like heroes all the night;


s: But before the morning broke she had vanished through the smoke


s: With her prize upon her quarter grappled tight.


s: It was evening at St. Helen's, in the great and gallant time,


s: And the sky behind the down was flushing far;


s: And the flags were all a-flutter, and the bells were all a-chime,


s: She'd a right fighting company, three hundred men and more,


s: Nine and forty guns in tackle running free;


s: And they cheered her from the shore for her colours at the fore,


s: _She'd a right fighting company, three hundred men and more,


s: When the bold _Menelaus_ came from sea._


s: The French King's Admiral with twenty of the line,


s: Was sailing forth, to sack us, out of Brest.


s: The ports of France were crowded, the quays of France a-hum


s: With thirty thousand soldiers marching to the drum,


s: For bragging time was over and fighting time was come


s: 'Twas long past noon of a wild November day


s: He heard the breakers thundering in Quiberon Bay


s: But he flew the flag for battle, line abreast.


s: Down upon the quicksands roaring out of sight


s: Fiercely beat the storm-wind, darkly fell the night,


s: But they took the foe for pilot and the cannon's glare for light


s: The Frenchmen turned like a covey down the wind


s: One he sank with all hands, one he caught and pinned,


s: And the shallows and the storm took the rest.


s: The guns that should have conquered us they rusted on the shore,


s: And we call her, if you please, the bright _Medu--sa_;


s: She's a flash o' golden light, the bright _Medu--sa_.


s: She's as gentle as a dove, the bright _Medu--sa_;


s: He's a merry man would slight the bright _Medu--sa_.


s: There she found the river low, the bright _Medu--sa_;


s: And she taught the Dons to fight the bright _Medu--sa_.


s: First she walks him round and round, the bright _Medu--sa_;


s: And she grabs him like a kite, the bright _Medu--sa_.


s: And you'll call her, if you please, the bright _Medu--sa_;


s: She shall bear her name by right, the bright _Medu--sa_.


s: The wind was rising easterly, the morning sky was blue,


s: The Straits before us opened wide and free;


s: We looked towards the Admiral, where high the Peter flew,


s: And all our hearts were dancing like the sea.


s: "The French are gone to Martinique with four-and-twenty sail!


s: The Old _Suberb_ is old and foul and slow,


s: But the French are gone to Martinique, and Nelson's on the trail,


s: Round the world if need be, and round the world again,


s: The Old _Suberb_ was barnacled and green as grass below,


s: Her sticks were only fit for stirring grog;


s: The pride of all her midshipmen was silent long ago,


s: And long ago they ceased to heave the log.


s: Four year out from home she was, and ne'er a week in port,


s: And nothing save the guns aboard her bright;


s: But Captain Keats he knew the game, and swore to share the sport,


s: Aloft, aloft with studding sails, and lash them on the yard,


s: For night and day the Trades are driving blind!"


s: So all day long and all day long behind the fleet we crept,


s: And how we fretted none but Nelson guessed;


s: But every night the Old _Superb_ she sailed when others slept,


s: Till we ran the French to earth with all the rest!


s: _Oh, 'twas Westward ho! for Trinidad and Eastward ho! for Spain,


s: We lay at St. Helen's, and easy she rode


s: With one anchor catted and fresh-water stowed;


s: When the barge came alongside like bullocks we roared,


s: For we knew what we carried with Nelson aboard.


s: Our Captain was Hardy, the pride of us all,


s: I'll ask for none better when danger shall call;


s: He was hardy by nature and Hardy by name,


s: And soon by his conduct to honour he came.


s: The third day the Lizard was under our lee,


s: Where the _Ajax_ and _Thunderer_ joined us at sea,


s: But what with foul weather and tacking about,


s: When we sighted the Fleet we were thirteen days out.


s: The Captains they all came aboard quick enough,


s: But the news that they brought was as heavy as duff;


s: They were harder to come at than Cheeks the Marine.


s: The lubbers had hare's lugs where seamen have ears,


s: So we stowed all saluting and smothered our cheers,


s: And to humour their stomachs and tempt them to dine,


s: In the offing we showed them but six of the line.


s: The old _Agamemnon_ escaped from the foe.


s: Says Nelson: "My lads, there'll be honour for some,


s: For we're sure of a battle now Berry has come."


s: "Up hammocks!" at last cried the bo'sun at dawn;


s: The guns were cast loose and the tompions drawn;


s: The gunner was bustling the shot racks to fill,


s: And "All hands to quarters!" was piped with a will.


s: And to East of them Cape Trafalgar it was said,


s: 'Tis a name we remember from father to son,


s: That the days of old England may never be done.


s: The _Victory_ led, to her flag it was due,


s: Tho' the _Téméraires_ thought themselves Admirals too;


s: But Lord Nelson he hailed them with masterful grace:


s: "Cap'n Harvey, I'll thank you to keep in your place."


s: To begin with we closed the _Bucentaure_ alone,


s: An eighty-gun ship and their Admiral's own;


s: We raked her but once, and the rest of the day


s: Like a hospital hulk on the water she lay.


s: To our battering next the _Redoutable_ struck,


s: But her sharpshooters gave us the worst of the luck:


s: Lord Nelson was wounded, most cruel to tell.


s: "They've done for me, Hardy!" he cried as he fell.


s: To the cockpit in silence they carried him past,


s: And sad were the looks that were after him cast;


s: His face with a kerchief he tried to conceal,


s: But we knew him too well from the truck to the keel.


s: When the Captain reported a victory won,


s: "Thank God!" he kept saying, "my duty I've done."


s: At last came the moment to kiss him good-bye,


s: And the Captain for once had the salt in his eye.


s: "Now anchor, dear Hardy," the Admiral cried;


s: But before we could make it he fainted and died.


s: All night in the trough of the sea we were tossed,


s: And for want of ground-tackle good prizes were lost.


s: Then we hauled down the Hag, at the fore it was red,


s: And blue at the mizzen was hoisted instead


s: By Nelson's famed Captain, the pride of each tar,


s: Who fought in the _Victory_ off Cape Trafalgar.


s: With thankful heart, and lips refrained from praise;


s: They rest beyond the speech of human pride


s: Who served with Nelson and with Nelson died.


s: Over the turret, shut in his iron-clad tower,


s: Craven was conning his ship through smoke and flame;


s: Gun to gun he had battered the fort for an hour,


s: Now was the time for a charge to end the game.


s: There lay the narrowing channel, smooth and grim,


s: A hundred deaths beneath it, and never a sign;


s: There lay the enemy's ships, and sink or swim


s: The flag was flying, and he was head of the line.


s: The fleet behind was jamming; the monitor hung


s: Beating the stream; the roar for a moment hushed,


s: Craven spoke to the pilot; slow she swung;


s: Again he spoke, and right for the foe she rushed.


s: Into the narrowing channel, between the shore


s: And the sunk torpedoes lying in treacherous rank;


s: She turned but a yard too short, a muffled roar,


s: A mountainous wave, and she rolled, righted, and sank.


s: Over the manhole, up in the iron-clad tower,


s: Pilot and Captain met as they turned to fly:


s: The hundredth part of a moment seemed an hour,


s: For one could pass to be saved, and one must die.


s: They stood like men in a dream: Craven spoke,


s: Spoke as he lived and fought, with a Captain's pride,


s: Down the ladder he went, and Craven died.


s: _All men praise the deed and the manner, but we--


s: We set it apart from the pride that stoops to the proud,


s: The strength that is supple to serve the strong and free,


s: The grace of the empty hands and promises loud:_


s: _Sidney thirsting a humbler need to slake,


s: Nelson waiting his turn for the surgeon's hand,


s: Lucas crushed with chains for a comrade's sake,


s: _These were paladins, these were Craven's peers,


s: These with him shall be crowned in story and song,


s: Crowned with the glitter of steel and the glimmer of tears,


s: Princes of courtesy, merciful, proud and strong._


s: We dropped him down the side full drearily


s: It's a dead dark watch that he's a-keeping there,


s: And a long, long night that lags a-creeping there,


s: Where the Trades and the tides roll over him


s: He's there alone with green seas rocking him


s: It's a long, lone watch that he's a-keeping there,


s: And a dead cold night that lags a-creeping there,


s: While the months and the years roll over him


s: And the battle-ships' bells ring clear enough


s: If through all the lone watch that he's a-keeping there,


s: And the long, cold night that lags a-creeping there,


s: The voices of the sailor-men shall comfort him


s: Laden with spoil of the South, fulfilled with the glory


s: And freshly crowned with never-dying fame,


s: Sweeping by shores where the names are the names of the


s: Across the Bay the squadron homeward came.


s: Proudly they came, but their pride was the pomp of a


s: When dreader yet the lonely morrow looms;


s: Few are the words that are spoken, and faces are gaunt


s: That does but darken more the nodding plumes.


s: Low on the field of his fame, past hope lay the Admiral


s: And fain to rest him after all his pain;


s: Yet for the love that he bore to his own land, ever


s: He prayed to see the western hills again.


s: Fainter than stars in a sky long gray with the coming of


s: Or sounds of night that fade when night is done,


s: So in the death-dawn faded the splendour and loud


s: And life of all its longings kept but one.


s: "Oh! to be there for an hour when the shade draws in


s: And falling apples wake the drowsy noon:


s: Oh! for the hour when the elms grow sombre and


s: And gardens dream beneath the rising moon.


s: "Only to look once more on the land of the memories of childhood,


s: Only to bid farewell to the combe and the orchard and


s: And sleep at last among the fields of home!"


s: So he was silently praying, till now, when his strength


s: The Lizard lay before them faintly blue;


s: Now on the gleaming horizon the white cliffs laughed


s: And now the forelands took the shapes they knew.


s: There lay the Sound and the Island with green leaves


s: The town, the Hoe, the masts with sunset fired--


s: Dreams! ay, dreams of the dead! for the great heart


s: And darkness took the land his soul desired.


s: With the old glory of dawn that cannot die,


s: The sleeping city began to moan and stir,


s: As one that fain from an ill dream would fly;


s: Yet more she feared the daylight bringing nigh


s: Such dreams as know not sunrise, soon or late,--


s: Visions of honour lost and power gone by,


s: Of loyal valour betrayed by factious hate,


s: And craven sloth that shrank from the labour of forging fate.


s: They knew and knew not, this bewildered crowd


s: That up her streets in silence hurrying passed,


s: What manner of death should make their anguish loud,


s: What corpse across the funeral pyre be cast,


s: For none had spoken it; only, gathering fast


s: As darkness gathers at noon in the sun's eclipse,


s: A shadow of doom enfolded them, vague and vast,


s: And a cry was heard, unfathered of earthly lips,


s: What of the ships, O Carthage!  Carthage, what of the ships?"


s: They reached the wall, and nowise strange it seemed


s: To find the gates unguarded and open wide;


s: They climbed the shoulder, and meet enough they deemed


s: The black that shrouded the seaward rampart's side


s: And veiled in drooping gloom the turrets' pride;


s: But this was nought, for suddenly down the slope


s: They saw the harbour, and sense within them died;


s: Keel nor mast was there, rudder nor rope;


s: It lay like a sea-hawk's eyry spoiled of life and hope.


s: Beyond, where dawn was a glittering carpet, rolled


s: From sky to shore on level and endless seas,


s: Hardly their eyes discerned in a dazzle of gold


s: That here in fifties, yonder in twos and threes,


s: The ships they sought, like a swarm of drowning bees


s: By a wanton gust on the pool of a mill-dam hurled,


s: Floated forsaken of life-giving tide and breeze,


s: Their oars broken, their sails for ever furled,


s: For ever deserted the bulwarks that guarded the wealth


s: A moment yet, with breathing quickly drawn


s: Stared in the bright untroubled face of dawn,


s: And strove with vehement heaped denial to choke


s: Their sure surmise of fate's impending stroke;


s: A thousand delicate spires of distant smoke


s: Reddened the disc of the sun with a stealthy haze,


s: And the smouldering grief of a nation burst with the


s: "O dying Carthage!" so their passion raved,


s: "Would nought but these the conqueror's hate assuage?


s: If these be taken, how may the land be saved


s: Whose meat and drink was empire, age by age?"


s: The greed that coveted gold above renown,


s: The feeble hearts that feared their heritage,


s: The hands that cast the sea-kings' sceptre down


s: And left to alien brows their famed ancestral crown.


s: The endless noon, the endless evening through,


s: All other needs forgetting, great or small,


s: They drank despair with thirst whose torment grew


s: As the hours died beneath that stifling pall.


s: At last they saw the fires to blackness fall


s: One after one, and slowly turned them home,


s: A city enslaved, and wear the bonds of Rome,


s: With weary hearts foreboding all the woe to come.


s: Sitting at times over a hearth that burns


s: My thought, leaving the book, gratefully turns


s: Not of the great only you deigned to tell--


s: But lights out of the night that flashed, and fell


s: Such as were those, dogs of an elder day,


s: And those later who dared grapple their prey


s: Some with flag at the fore, sweeping the world


s: And some who joined war to their trade, and hurled


s: Whether their fame centuries long should ring


s: But cared greatly to serve God and the king,


s: And fought to build Britain above the tide


s: And passed content, leaving to us the pride


s: "Drake's luck to all that sail with Drake


s: He's sailed in a hundred builds o' boat,


s: He's fought in a thousand kinds o' coat,


s: And answer clear to the voice that calls,


s: By the glint o' the stars that cover his breast


s: By the forehead grim with an ancient scar,


s: By the voice that rolls like thunder far,


s: For he left the laggard, and took the bold,


s: And the fight was fought, and the story's told,


s: Her storms forgot, her weary watches past;


s: Northward she glides, and through the enchanted haze


s: Faint on the verge her far hope dawns at last.


s: Like noon-day ghosts of summer moonshine gleam--


s: Soft as old sorrow, bright as old renown,


s: There lies the home of all our mortal dream.


s: A horseman crossed him, staggering blind.


s: The Devil that stabs by night," he said,


s: "Trumpeter, sound for the Light Dragoons,


s: Their rowels ripped their horses' sides,


s: Their hearts were red with a deeper goad,


s: The walls were lined, the gates were barred;


s: And called above to the Sergeant's Guard.


s: They bound their belts to serve his need;


s: But pulled his trigger and cursed his aim,


s: They swept the wall like a stream in spate,


s: But still their thought was forward cast,


s: Through tortured days and fevered nights


s: And the silence beat to a soundless tune


s: To the fetters clank they rose and drank


s: The lads were bonny, the lads were young,


s: "God grant your Highness length of days,


s: And I pray you send your Captains hither,


s: They came to the house of John Nicholson


s: "They have ruled us for a hundred years,


s: "Take off, take off those shoes of pride,


s: The Captains said, "When the strong command


s: Sons of the Island Race, wherever ye dwell,


s: Who speak of your fathers' battles with lips that burn,


s: The deed of an alien legion hear me tell,


s: And think not shame from the hearts ye tamed to learn,


s: When succour shall fail and the tide for a season turn,


s: To fight with a joyful courage, a passionate pride,


s: To die at the last as the Guides at Cabul died.


s: For a handful of seventy men in a barrack of mud,


s: Foodless, waterless, dwindling one by one,


s: Answered a thousand yelling for English blood


s: With stormy volleys that swept them gunner from gun,


s: And charge on charge in the glare of the Afghan sun,


s: Till the walls were shattered wherein they crouched at bay,


s: And dead or dying half of the seventy lay.


s: Twice they had taken the cannon that wrecked their hold,


s: Thrice they toiled, and alone, wary and bold,


s: Whirling a hurricane sword to scatter the rack,


s: Hamilton, last of the English, covered their track.


s: "Never give in!" he cried, and he heard them shout,


s: And grappled with death as a man that knows not doubt.


s: And the Guides looked down from their smouldering barrack again,


s: And behold, a banner of truce, and a voice that spoke:


s: "Come, for we know that the English all are slain,


s: We keep no feud with men of a kindred folk;


s: Rejoice with us to be free of the conqueror's yoke,"


s: Silence fell for a moment, then was heard


s: A sound of laughter and scorn, and an answering word.


s: "Is it we or the lords we serve who have earned this wrong,


s: That ye call us to flinch from the battle they bade us fight?


s: We that live--do ye doubt that our hands are strong?


s: They that have fallen--ye know that their blood was bright!


s: Think ye the Guides will barter for lust of the light


s: The pride of an ancient people in warfare bred,


s: Honour or comrades living, and faith to the dead?"


s: Then the joy that spurs the warrior's heart


s: To the last thundering gallop and sheer leap


s: Came on the men of the Guides; they flung apart


s: The doors not all their valour could longer keep;


s: They dressed their slender line; they breathed deep,


s: And with never a foot lagging or head bent,


s: To the clash and clamour and dust of death they went.


s: Who's for the Gathering, who's for the Fair?


s: The bravest of the brave are at dead-lock there,


s: There are bullets by the hundred buzzing in the air;


s: There are bonny lads lying on the hillside bare;


s: But the Gordons know what the Gordons dare


s: Is the heart of the Colonel, hide it as he may


s: And he's thinking of the tune that the Gordons play


s: They're up through the fire-zone, not to be denied;


s: Thirty bullets straight where the rest went wide,


s: And thirty lads are lying on the bare hillside;


s: But they passed in the hour of the Gordons' pride,


s: "Ye have robbed," said he, "ye have slaughtered and made an end,


s: Take your ill-got plunder, and bury the dead:


s: What will ye more of your guest and sometime friend?"


s: He laughed: "If one may settle the score for five,


s: I am ready; but let the reckoning stand till day:


s: I have loved the sunlight as dearly as any alive."


s: He flung his empty revolver down the slope,


s: He climbed alone to the Eastward edge of the trees;


s: All night long in a dream untroubled of hope


s: He did not hear the monotonous roar that fills


s: The ravine where the Yassin river sullenly flows;


s: He did not see the starlight on the Laspur hills,


s: He saw the April noon on his books aglow,


s: The wistaria trailing in at the window wide;


s: He heard his father's voice from the terrace below


s: He saw the gray little church across the park,


s: The mounds that hide the loved and honoured dead;


s: The Norman arch, the chancel softly dark,


s: He saw the School Close, sunny and green,


s: The runner beside him, the stand by the parapet wall,


s: The distant tape, and the crowd roaring between


s: He saw the dark wainscot and timbered roof,


s: The long tables, and the faces merry and keen;


s: The College Eight and their trainer dining aloof,


s: He watched the liner's stem ploughing the foam,


s: He felt her trembling speed and the thrash of her screw;


s: He heard her passengers' voices talking of home,


s: And now it was dawn.  He rose strong on his feet,


s: And strode to his ruined camp below the wood;


s: He drank the breath of the morning cool and sweet;


s: Light on the Laspur hills was broadening fast,


s: The blood-red snow-peaks chilled to a dazzling white:


s: He turned, and saw the golden circle at last,


s: "O glorious Life, Who dwellest in earth and sun,


s: I live--I am old--I return to the ground--


s: Blow trumpets! and still I can dream to the sound.


s: But still through all his heart was young,


s: Of the strength and splendour of England's war.


s: He watched with Wolfe till the morning star;


s: The sweep and splendour of England's war.


s: But his heart was high to the end, and dreamed


s: Of the sound and splendour of England's war.


s: Among a race high-handed, strong of heart,


s: Sea-rovers, conquerors, builders in the waste,


s: He had his birth; a nature too complete,


s: Eager and doubtful, no man's soldier sworn


s: And no man's chosen captain; born to fail,


s: Fulfilled the ancestral rites, and kept alive


s: The eternal fire; it may be, not in vain;


s: For out of those who dropped a downward glance


s: Upon the weakling huddled at his prayers,


s: Perchance some looked beyond him, and then first


s: Beheld the glory, and what shrine it filled,


s: Some heard him chanting, though but to himself,


s: The old heroic names: and went their way:


s: And hummed his music on the march to death.


s: Ye that with me have fought and failed and fought


s: To the last desperate trench of battle's crest,


s: Not yet to sleep, not yet; our work is nought;


s: On that last trench the fate of all may rest,


s: Draw near, my friends; and let your thoughts be high;


s: Great hearts are glad when it is time to give;


s: Life is no life to him that dares not die,


s: And death no death to him that dares to live.


s: Draw near together; none be last or first;


s: With the same burning of the soul we thirst,


s: And the same wine to-night shall quench our fire.


s: Then to the land of all our loves, and then


s: To the long parting, and the age to come.


s: Your father thought the thoughts of youth,


s: "_Que procul hinc_," the legend's writ,--


s: There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night--


s: And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,


s: But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote--


s: Red with the wreck of a square that broke;--


s: The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,


s: And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.


s: The river of death has brimmed his banks,


s: But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:


s: Bear through life like a torch in flame,


s: They saw the cables loosened, they saw the gangways cleared,


s: They heard the women weeping, they heard the men that cheered;


s: Far off, far off, the tumult faded and died away,


s: And all alone the sea-wind came singing up the Bay.


s: "I came by Cape St. Vincent, I came by Trafalgar,


s: I swept from Torres Vedras to golden Vigo Bar,


s: I saw the beacons blazing that fired the world with light


s: When down their ancient highway your fathers passed to fight.


s: "O race of tireless fighters, flushed with a youth renewed,


s: Right well the wars of Freedom befit the Sea-kings' brood;


s: Yet as ye go forget not the fame of yonder shore,


s: The fame ye owe your fathers and the old time before.


s: "Long-suffering were the Sea-kings, they were not swift to kill,


s: But when the sands had fallen they waited no man's will;


s: Though all the world forbade them, they counted not nor cared,


s: They strove and knew not hatred, they smote and toiled to save,


s: They tended whom they vanquished, they praised the fallen brave.


s: "Their fame's on Torres Vedras, their fame's on Vigo Bar,


s: Far-flashed to Cape St. Vincent it burns from Trafalgar;


s: Mark as ye go the beacons that woke the world with light


s: When down their ancient highway your fathers passed to fight."


s: Watched, with the sea-dogs round him growling,


s: Knowing the night that toward him crept,


s: "Pride of the West!  What Devon hath kept


s: Call to the storm and drive them flying,


s: Locked in a death-grip all day tightening,


s: O bitter wind toward the sunset blowing,


s: In yonder gray old hall what fires are glowing,


s: _"In the great window as the day was dwindling


s: His head was proudly held and his eyes kindling,


s: O wind of twilight, was there no word uttered,


s: _"'A great fight and a good death,' he muttered;


s: What of the chamber dark where she was lying


s: _"Within her heart she rocks a dead child, crying


s: Here VERTUE fell, and here he sleeps his sleep.*


s: To stand sole monument on Valour's grave.


s: For through the dream that stilled their breath


s: And grappled with the fierce old friends,


s: No more to watch by Night's eternal shore,


s: With England's chivalry at dawn to ride;


s: No more defeat, faith, victory--O! no more


s: A cause on earth for which we might have died.


s: I sat by the granite pillar, and sunlight fell


s: And the hour was the hour my heart remembered well,


s: As it used to roll when the place was still unhaunted,


s: And the strangest tale in the world was still untold.


s: And I knew that of all this rushing of urgent sound


s: The green young forest of saplings clustered round


s: Their heads were bowed in a still serried patience


s: Such as an angel's breath could never have stirred.


s: For some were already away to the hazardous pitch,


s: And some were in glorious battle, or great and rich,


s: And among the rest was one like my own young phantom,


s: Dreaming for ever beyond my utmost call.


s: "O Youth," the preacher was crying, "deem not thou


s: Thou bearest the will of the ages, seeing how


s: And within thy blood the Great Age sleeps sepulchred


s: Till thou and thine shall roll away the stone.


s: "Therefore the days are coming when thou shalt burn


s: Rest shall be rest no more; thy feet shall spurn


s: And One that is stronger shall gird thee, and lead thee swiftly


s: Whither, O heart of Youth, thou wouldest not."


s: And the School passed; and I saw the living and dead


s: And I longed to hear them speak of the word that was said,


s: And they stretched forth their hands, and the wind of the


s: Lightly as drifted leaves on an endless plain.


s: Where the Downs look out to the Severn Sea.


s: We held by the game and hailed the team,


s: For many could play where few could dream.


s: Some were for profit and some for pride,


s: The work of the world must still be done,


s: But a lad there was to his fellows sang,


s: But what will ye give to the lad that sings?


s: For the voice ye hear is the voice of home,


s: And the voice of Youth with the world to roam.


s: And the voice of the vision that lights the years.


s: Though long we've missed the sight of her,


s: In that eclipse of noon when joy was hushed


s: Like the bird's song beneath unnatural night,


s: And Terror's footfall in the darkness crushed


s: Then, even then, though no man cried "He comes,"


s: And no man turned to greet him passing there,


s: I saw the King of England, hale and fair,


s: Ride out with a great train through London town.


s: Unarmed he rode, but in his ruddy shield


s: The lions bore the dint of many a lance,


s: And up and down his mantle's azure field


s: Were strewn the lilies plucked in famous France.


s: Before him went with banner floating wide


s: The yeoman breed that served his honour best,


s: And mixed with these his knights of noble blood;


s: Convoyed him close like galleons on the flood.


s: Full of a strength unbroken showed his face


s: And his brow calm with youth's unclouded dawn,


s: But round his lips were lines of tenderer grace


s: Such as no hand but Time's hath ever drawn.


s: In dull decay, nor unto Death must bend,


s: Yet surely too of lengthening shadows dreamed


s: So brief his beauty now, so near the end,


s: O King among the living, these shall hail


s: Sons of thy dust that shall inherit thee:


s: O King of men that die, though we must fail


s: Thy life is breathed from thy triumphant sea.


s: O man that servest men by right of birth,


s: Our hearts' content thy heart shall also keep,


s: Thou too with us shalt one day lay thee down


s: Full sure the King of England, while we sleep,


s: For ever rides abroad through London town.


s: Far wanders ancient Nile in slumber gliding:


s: Flash out and fade like stars in midnight sliding.


s: Only to cease when Time shall reach the eternal deep.


s: They waned and perished with the faith that made them;


s: Are dust among the dust that once obeyed them.


s: From Memnon's lips at dawn wakens the desert meres.


s: Of Grecian lore and the sweet Grecian singer?


s: Had these no fame that by thy shore might linger?


s: And shattered in mid-swoop the great world-eagle's flight.


s: Whose splendour rushed to no eternal setting:


s: The dark world's light is still of their begetting.


s: Until the immortal dawn shall make all glories dim.


s: Or the bright sword, or knowledge of earth's wonder;


s: And heard the still small voice above the thunder.


s: Thou and thy land shall keep the tale of lost Khartoum.


s: Lapped in silence lies the House of Dying,


s: House of them to whom the twilight calls.


s: There within when day was near to ending,


s: Then the songman, flinging wide his songnet,


s: On the last token laid his master's hand,


s: "Yonder sun that fierce and fiery-hearted


s: "There he sees the heroes by their river,


s: Yet they are but shadows hunting shadows,


s: "There he sees the kings among their headmen,


s: Yet they are but shadows ruling shadows,


s: "Bid farewell to all that most thou lovest,


s: Drew his hand and touched the woman's head;


s: "Know they not, then, love in Sráhmandázi?


s: Then the songman answered, "O my master,


s: Love they know, but none may learn it there;


s: Only souls that reach that land together


s: Keep their troth and find the twilight fair.


s: "Thou art still a king, and at thy passing


s: If thou willest, here am I, thy songman;


s: If thou lovest, here is she, thy bride."


s: Hushed and dreamy lay the House of Dying,


s: Dreamily the chief on eyes that loved him


s: Looked with eyes the coming twilight veiled.


s: Then he cried, "My songman, I am passing;


s: Yet, when there within the House of Dying


s: While the songman, far beneath the forest


s: Dear Earth, near Earth, the clay that made us men,


s: Fast dawns the last dawn, and what shall comfort then


s: The lonely hearts that roam the outer sea?


s: Gray wakes the daybreak, the shivering sails are set,


s: O Mother, think on us who think on thee!


s: Earth-home, birth-home, with love remember yet