s: And fair the feet of thy lover the spring:


s: But what wilt thou say to the spring thy lover?


s: But thou wouldst tarry or I would follow


s: O sweet stray sister, O shifting swallow,


s: But mine goes forth among sea-gulfs hollow


s: The small slain body, the flower-like face,


s: The hands that cling and the feet that follow,


s: The voice of the child's blood crying yet,


s: Who hath remember'd me? who hath forgotten?


s: TOSSING his mane of snows in wildest eddies and tangles,


s: Lion-like March cometh in, hoarse, with tempestuous breath,


s: Through all the moaning chimneys, and 'thwart all the hollows and


s: Round the shuddering house, threating of winter and death.


s: But in my heart I feel the life of the wood and the meadow


s: Thrilling the pulses that own kindred with fibres that lift


s: Bud and blade to the sunward, within the inscrutable shadow,


s: Deep in the oak's chill core, under the gathering drift.


s: Nay, to earth's life in mine some prescience, or dream, or desire


s: Rapture of life ineffable, perfect--as if in the brier,


s: Leafless there by my door, trembled a sense of the rose.


s: O, YOU plant the pain in my heart with your wistful eyes,


s: Like a walking ghost I am, and no words to woo,


s: Sure it 's one complaint that 's on us, asthore, this day,


s: The smart of the bee that stung us his honey must cure, they say,


s: I'll coax the light to your eyes, and the rose to your face,


s: When I feel the warmth of your breast, and your nest is my arm's


s: O where was the King o' the World that day--only me?


s: THERE 's a glade in Aghadoe, Aghadoe, Aghadoe,


s: There 's a green and silent glade in Aghadoe,


s: Where we met, my love and I, Love's fair planet in the sky,


s: O'er that sweet and silent glade in Aghadoe.


s: There 's a glen in Aghadoe, Aghadoe, Aghadoe,


s: There 's a deep and secret glen in Aghadoe,


s: Where I hid from the eyes of the red-coats and their spies,


s: O, my curse on one black heart in Aghadoe, Aghadoe,


s: On Shaun Dhu, my mother's son in Aghadoe!


s: For they track'd me to that glen in Aghadoe, Aghadoe,


s: When the price was on his head in Aghadoe:


s: O'er the mountain, through the wood, as I stole to him with food,


s: But they never took him living in Aghadoe, Aghadoe;


s: With the bullets in his heart in Aghadoe,


s: Gone, to win the traitor's gold, from Aghadoe!


s: I walk'd to Mallow town from Aghadoe, Aghadoe,


s: Brought his head from the gaol's gate to Aghadoe;


s: Then I cover'd him with fern, and I piled on him the cairn,


s: Like an Irish King he sleeps in Aghadoe.


s: O, to creep into that cairn in Aghadoe, Aghadoe!


s: There to rest upon his breast in Aghadoe!


s: Sure your dog for you could die with no truer heart than I,


s: Your own love, cold on your cairn in Aghadoe.


s: O FLY not, Pleasure, pleasant-hearted Pleasure;


s: Fold me thy wings, I prithee, yet and stay:


s: And thou, too, Sorrow, tender-hearted Sorrow,


s: Thou gray-eyed mourner, fly not yet away:


s: To make a mourning for love's yesterday.


s: The voice of Pity, Time's divine dear Pity,


s: Moved me to tears: I dared not say them nay,


s: DARK to me is the earth. Dark to me are the heavens.


s: Where is she that I loved, the woman with eyes like stars?


s: Desolate are the streets. Desolate is the city.


s: A city taken by storm, where none are left but the slain.


s: Sadly I rose at dawn, undid the latch of my shutters,


s: Thinking to let in light, but I only let in love.


s: Birds in the boughs were awake; I listen'd to their chaunting;


s: Each one sang to his love; only I was alone.


s: This, I said in my heart, is the hour of life and of pleasure.


s: Now each creature on earth has his joy, and lives in the sun,


s: Each in another's eyes finds light, the light of compassion,


s: This is the moment of pity, this is the moment of love.


s: Speak, O desolate city! Speak, O silence in sadness!


s: Where is she that I loved in my strength, that spoke to my soul?


s: Speak, thou soul of my soul, for rage in my heart is kindled.


s: See, my desire is fulfill'd in thee, for it fills the earth.


s: Thus in my grief I lamented. Then turn'd I from the window,


s: Turn'd to the stair, and the open door, and the empty street,


s: Crying aloud in my grief, for there was none to chide me,


s: None to mock my weakness, none to behold my tears.


s: Groping I went, as blind. I sought her house, my beloved's.


s: There I stopp'd at the silent door, and listen'd and tried the


s: Love, I cried, dost thou slumber? This is no hour for slumber,


s: This is the hour of love, and love I bring in my hand.


s: I knew where my hope had climb'd to its goal and there encircled


s: All that those desolate walls once held, my beloved's heart.


s: There in my grief she consoled me. She loved me when I loved not.


s: She told me all her pain and show'd me all her trouble.


s: I, like a fool, scarce heard, hardly return'd her kiss.


s: Love, thy eyes were like torches. They changed as I beheld them.


s: Love, thy lips were like gems, the seal thou settest on my life.


s: Love, if I loved not then, behold this hour thy vengeance;


s: This is the fruit of thy love and thee, the unwise grown wise.


s: Weeping strangled my voice. I call'd out, but none answer'd;


s: See whom I love, who loved me, look'd not on my yearning,


s: Gave me no more her hands to kiss, show'd me no more her soul.


s: Therefore the earth is dark to me, the sunlight blackness,


s: Therefore I go in tears and alone, by night and day;


s: Therefore I find no love in heaven, no light, no beauty,


s: A heaven taken by storm, where none are left but the slain!


s: Out of destruction's reach. His fortune then


s: Time is his conquest. Life, if it should fret.


s: Has paid him tribute. He can bear to die,


s: The world before me and survey its range,


s: Its mean ambitions, its scant fantasies,


s: The shreds of pleasure which for lack of change


s: Men wrap around them and call happiness,


s: The poor delights which are the tale and sum


s: Of the world's courage in its martyrdom;


s: When I hear laughter from a tavern door,


s: Watching on tiptoe and with stifled roar


s: Touch strong men's hearts with glory till they weep,


s: When cities deck their streets for barren wars


s: Which have laid waste their youth, and when I keep


s: On what poor stuff my manhood's dreams were fed


s: Will serve a human soul for daily bread,


s: And lived with Esther the world's gods among.


s: I DID not choose thee, dearest. It was Love


s: That made the choice, not I. Mine eyes were blind


s: As a rude shepherd's who to some lone grove


s: His offering brings and cares not at what shrine


s: He bends his knee. The gifts alone were mine;


s: The rest was Love's. He took me by the hand,


s: And fired the sacrifice, and poured the wine,


s: And spoke the words I might not understand.


s: Which was my fortune, and the blind desire


s: Which led my foolish steps to Love's abode,


s: And youth's sublime unreason'd prescience


s: Which raised an altar and inscribed in fire


s: With hounds and horsemen, a brave company


s: On that the Sussex weald, a sea of brown.


s: The wind was light, and brightly the sun shone,


s: And still we gallop'd on from gorse to gorse:


s: And once, when check'd, a thrush sang, and my horse


s: Prick'd his quick ears as to a sound unknown.


s: I knew the Spring was come. I knew it even


s: Better than all by this, that through my chase


s: In bush and stone and hill and sea and heaven


s: I seem'd to see and follow still your face.


s: My horse a thing of wings, myself a god.


s: SEVEN weeks of sea, and twice seven days of storm


s: Of a sweet evening, screen'd by either shore


s: Of Spain and Barbary. Our toils are o'er,


s: Of the fair earth and of the hearts of men.


s: Ay, this is the famed rock which Hercules


s: And Goth and Moor bequeath'd us. At this door


s: England stands sentry. God! to hear the shrill


s: Sweet treble of her fifes upon the breeze,


s: And at the summons of the rock gun's roar


s: To see her red coats marching from the hill!


s: O WORLD, in very truth thou art too young;


s: When wilt thou learn to wear the garb of age?


s: World, with thy covering of yellow flowers,


s: Hast thou forgot what generations sprung


s: Out of thy loins and loved thee and are gone?


s: Hast thou no place in all their heritage


s: Where thou dost only weep, that I may come


s: Nor fear the mockery of thy yellow flowers?


s: O world, in very truth thou art too young.


s: Built thee fair cities for thy naked plains:


s: How hast thou set thy summer growth among


s: The broken stones which were their palaces!


s: Hast thou forgot the darkness where he lies


s: Who made thee beautiful, or have thy bees


s: Found out his grave to build their honeycombs?


s: O world, in very truth thou art too young:


s: They gave thee love who measured out thy skies,


s: And, when they found for thee another star,


s: Who made a festival and straightway hung


s: Hast thou forgot the glory of those eyes


s: Which first look'd love in thine? Thou hast not furl'd


s: There was a voice which sang about thy spring,


s: Till winter froze the sweetness of his lips,


s: And lo, the worms had hardly left his tongue


s: Before thy nightingales were come again.


s: O world, what courage hast thou thus to sing?


s: No sudden weariness that thou art young?


s: Was wrested from me after bitter strife:


s: The leaves fall in the wind without a tear


s: No truce with Time nor Time's accomplice, Death.


s: The fair world is the witness of a crime


s: Repeated every hour. For life and breath


s: The voices of these robbers of the heath


s: Sound in each ear and chill the passer-by.


s: --What have we done to thee, thou monstrous Time?


s: What have we done to Death that we must die?


s: Hears what stamp of Storm with stress is,


s: You shall come with a heart that is bursting


s: You shall certainly come to the fountain


s: Full of cypress-like shadows the place is,


s: You shall surely--without a word spoken,


s: Kneel down there and know your heart broken,


s: For it grows and it grows, as though leaping


s: Yea, so blessed and good seems that fountain,


s: You shall fall down at length in your weeping


s: --O the world shall come up and pass o'er you,


s: Strong men shall not stay to care for you,


s: Your way should seem harder than theirs.


s: But perhaps, while you lie, never lifting


s: Your cheek from the wet leaves it presses,


s: All things in that place Grief hath found you--


s: Yea, e'en to the clouds o'er you drifting,


s: May soothe you somewhat through your tears.


s: You may feel, when a falling leaf brushes


s: Your face, as though some one had kiss'd you,


s: Or think at least some one who miss'd you


s: Had sent you a thought,--if that cheers;


s: Or a bird's little song, faint and broken,


s: And the tears shall flow faster and faster,


s: And roll down blear'd roads to each distance


s: Till they cover the place of each sorrow,


s: But the floods and the tears meet and gather;


s: The sound of them all grows like thunder:


s: For the love that is purest and sweetest


s: BEAUTIFUL must be the mountains whence ye come,


s: And bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, wherefrom


s: Where are those starry woods? O might I wander there,


s: Among the flowers, which in that heavenly air


s: Nay, barren are those mountains and spent the streams:


s: Our song is the voice of desire, that haunts our dreams,


s: Whose pining visions dim, forbidden hopes profound,


s: No dying cadence nor long sigh can sound,


s: We pour our dark nocturnal secret; and then,


s: From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of May,


s: Dream, while the innumerable choir of day


s: WHITHER, O splendid ship, thy white sails crowding,


s: Leaning across the bosom of the urgent West,


s: That fearest nor sea rising, nor sky clouding,


s: Whither away, fair rover, and what thy quest?


s: Ah! soon, when Winter has all our vales opprest,


s: When skies are cold and misty, and hail is hurling,


s: Wilt thou glìde on the blue Pacific, or rest


s: In a summer haven asleep, thy white sails furling.


s: I there before thee, in the country that well thou knowest,


s: Already arrived am inhaling the odorous air:


s: I watch thee enter unerringly where thou goest,


s: And anchor queen of the strange shipping there,


s: Thy sails for awnings spread, thy masts bare:


s: Nor is aught from the foaming reef to the snow-capp'd grandest


s: Peak, that is over the feathery palms, more fair


s: Than thou, so upright, so stately and still thou standest.


s: And yet, O splendid ship, unhail'd and nameless,


s: I know not if, aiming a fancy, I rightly divine


s: That thou hast a purpose joyful, a courage blameless,


s: Thy port assured in a happier land than mine.


s: But for all I have given thee, beauty enough is thine,


s: As thou, aslant with trim tackle and shrouding,


s: From the proud nostril curve of a prow's line


s: In the offing scatterest foam, thy white sails crowding.


s: PERFECT little body, without fault or stain on thee,


s: With promise of strength and manhood full and fair!


s: The bloom and the charm of life doth awhile remain on thee.


s: Thy mother's treasure wert thou;--alas! no longer


s: To visit her heart with wondrous joy; to be


s: Must gather his faith together, and his strength make stronger.


s: To me, as I move thee now in the last duty,


s: Dost thou with a turn or gesture anon respond;


s: With a chance attitude of the head, a freak of beauty.


s: Thy hand clasps, as 'twas wont, my finger, and holds it:


s: But the grasp is the clasp of Death, heartbreaking and stiff;


s: 'Twas still thy will, thy pleasure and trust that enfolds it.


s: So I lay thee there, thy sunken eyelids closing,--


s: Go lie thou there in thy coffin, thy last little bed!--


s: Thy firm, pale hands across thy chest disposing.


s: To a world, do I think, that rights the disaster of this?


s: Who weep for the body, and wish but to warm thee and awaken thee?


s: Ah! little at best can all our hopes avail us


s: To lift this sorrow, or cheer us, when in the dark,


s: --Whence Love's timeless mockery took me,--


s: Lull'd by the song of Circe and her wine


s: Where that Aeaean isle forgets the main,


s: And only the low lutes of love complain,


s: As such an one were glad to know the brine


s: Salt on his lips, and the large air again--


s: So gladly from the songs of modern speech


s: Men turn, and see the stars, and feel the free


s: Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers,


s: And through the music of the languid hours


s: How charged with punishments the scroll,


s: A LATE lark twitters from the quiet skies:


s: Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun,


s: Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night--


s: My task accomplish'd and the long day done,


s: Ringstraked and pied, the great soft moths came flying,


s: And flapping with their mad wings, fann'd


s: The flickering flame, ascending, falling, dying.


s: Saw full rose lips as rounded as the cherry,


s: And flashing eyes decorous, pure, and merry.


s: Once more the silver-starry night was shining,


s: And crystals of a carven moon declining.


s: He sees the ecstatic Human from him stealing;


s: And dares not clutch what Love was half revealing.


s: I WILL make you brooches and toys for your delight


s: Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.


s: I will make a palace fit for you and me,


s: Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.


s: I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,


s: Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,


s: And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white


s: In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.


s: And this shall be for music when no one else is near,


s: The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!


s: That only I remember, that only you admire,


s: Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.


s: IN the highlands, in the country places,


s: Where the old plain men have rosy faces,


s: Where essential silence cheers and blesses,


s: Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted,


s: And the night has come, and planets glinted,


s: There, and with delight to take and render,


s: Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,


s: Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;


s: IN a quiet water'd land, a land of roses,


s: And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations


s: There beneath the dewy hillside sleep the noblest


s: Each below his stone with name in branching Ogham


s: There they laid to rest the seven Kings of Tara,


s: Battle-banners of the Gael that in Kieran's plain of crosses


s: And in Clonmacnois they laid the men of Teffia,


s: Deep the sod above Clan Creide and Clan Conaill,


s: Many and many a son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter


s: Many a blue eye of Clan Colman the turf covers,


s: The spicy sea-pinks and the inborne spray,


s: Keep us, O Thetis, in our western flight!


s: Who is older and greater than thou, as thou


s: Thou art lost in the notes on the lips of his choir


s: 'NOT ours,' say some, 'the thought of death to dread;


s: Asking no heaven, we fear no fabled hell:


s: Life is a feast, and we have banqueted--


s: 'The after-silence, when the feast is o'er,


s: And void the places where the minstrels stood,


s: Differs in nought from what hath been before,


s: The fellowship, the converse, and the wine,


s: And ah, to know not, while with friends I sit,


s: And while the purple joy is pass'd about,


s: And whether, stepping forth, my soul shall see


s: New prospects, or fall sheer--a blinded thing!


s: Makes the lungs laugh, the throat cry:--


s: Where breaking bright with sanguine light


s: 'YE have robb'd,' said he, 'ye have slaughter'd 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 laugh'd: '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 climb'd 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 Yassîn 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 hid the loved and honour'd 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 timber'd roof,


s: The long tables, and the faces merry and keen;


s: The College Eight and their trainer dining aloof,


s: He watch'd the liner's stem ploughing the foam,


s: He felt her trembling speed and the thrash of her screw;


s: He heard the passengers' voices talking of home,


s: And now it was dawn. He rose strong on his feet,


s: And strode to his ruin'd 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 chill'd to a dazzling white;


s: He turn'd, and saw the golden circle at last,


s: 'O glorious Life, Who dwellest in earth and sun,


s: WHEN you and I have play'd the little hour,


s: Have seen the tall subaltern Life to Death


s: Yield up his sword; and, smiling, draw the breath,


s: The first long breath of freedom; when the flower


s: Of Recompense hath flutter'd to our feet,


s: As to an actor's; and, the curtain down,


s: O then, most dear, how shall be told the tale?


s: Clasp'd hands, press'd lips, and so clasp'd hands again;


s: No words. But as the proud wind fills the sail,


s: My love to yours shall reach, then one deep moan


s: Till they come where your sad, sad heart is,


s: WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep


s: And nodding by the fire, take down this book,


s: And slowly read, and dream of the soft look


s: Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;


s: How many loved your moments of glad grace,


s: And loved your beauty with love false or true;


s: But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,


s: And loved the sorrows of your changing face.


s: And bending down beside the glowing bars,


s: I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,


s: And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;


s: Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,


s: And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,


s: I will arise and go now, for always night and day


s: I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;


s: While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,


s: I know, through Thee, the blame if mine.


s: Singing:--'Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover


s: You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind


s: You have heard the song--how long! how long!


s: Ha' done with the Tents of Shem, dear lass,


s: It 's North you may run to the rime-ring'd sun,


s: Or East all the way into Mississippi Bay,


s: Where the blindest bluffs hold good, dear lass,


s: The days are sick and cold, and the skies are gray and old,


s: And I'd sell my tired soul for the bucking beam-sea roll


s: With her load-line over her hatch, dear lass,


s: From Cadiz Bar on the Long Trail--the trail that is always new.


s: There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake,


s: But the sweetest way to me is a ship's upon the sea


s: Can you hear the crash on her bows, dear lass,


s: See the shaking funnels roar, with the Peter at the fore,


s: And the derricks clack and grate, as the tackle hooks the crate,


s: And the fall-rope whines through the sheave;


s: It 's 'Gang-plank up and in,' dear lass,


s: O the mutter overside, when the port-fog holds us tied,


s: When foot by foot we creep o'er the hueless viewless deep


s: It 's down by the Lower Hope, dear lass,


s: O the blazing tropic night, when the wake 's a welt of light


s: Her plates are scarr'd by the sun, dear lass,


s: Then home, get her home, where the drunken rollers comb,


s: And the engines stamp and ring, and the wet bows reel and swing,


s: Yes, the old lost stars wheel back, dear lass,


s: They're all old friends on the old trail, our own trail, the out


s: Fly forward, O my heart, from the Foreland to the Start--


s: And it 's twenty thousand mile to our little lazy isle


s: You have heard the call of the off-shore wind


s: You have heard the song--how long! how long!


s: The Lord knows what we may find, dear lass,


s: But we're back once more on the old trail, our own trail, the out


s: Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--


s: SHE 's somewhere in the sunlight strong,


s: COME then, as ever, like the wind at morning!


s: Joyous, O Youth, in the aged world renew


s: Freshness to feel the eternities around it,


s: Rain, stars and clouds, light and the sacred dew.


s: What wrongs are borne, what deeds are done


s: WHEN the breath of twilight blows to flame the misty skies,


s: All its vaporous sapphire, violet glow and silver gleam,


s: With their magic flood me through the gateway of the eyes;


s: When the trees and skies and fields are one in dusky mood,


s: Every heart of man is rapt within the mother's breast:


s: Full of peace and sleep and dreams in the vasty quietude,


s: From our immemorial joys of hearth and home and love


s: Stray'd away along the margin of the unknown tide,


s: All its reach of soundless calm can thrill me far above


s: Aye, and deep and deep and deeper let me drink and draw


s: From the olden fountain more than light or peace or dream,


s: Such primaeval being as o'erfills the heart with awe,


s: ITS edges foam'd with amethyst and rose,


s: Withers once more the old blue flower of day:


s: There where the ether like a diamond glows,


s: Sparkle the delicate dews, the distant snows;


s: The great deep thrills--for through it everywhere


s: Moulded to her by deep and deeper breath,


s: Near'd to the hour when Beauty breathes her last


s: Sleepy flowers, flowers bold to stare----'


s: 'Shells with lip, or tooth, or bleeding gum,


s: Tell-tale shells, and shells that whisper Come,


s: 'Eyes so black they draw one trembling near,


s: Brown eyes, caverns flooded with a tear,


s: Cloudless eyes, blue eyes so windy clear----'


s: And left the flush'd print in a poppy there;


s: Like a yawn of fire from the grass it came,


s: And the fanning wind puff'd it to flapping flame.


s: With burnt mouth red like a lion's it drank


s: The blood of the sun as he slaughter'd sank,


s: And dipp'd its cup in the purpurate shine


s: When the eastern conduits ran with wine.


s: Till it grew lethargied with fierce bliss,


s: With mouth wide a-pout for a sultry kiss.


s: But between the clasp of his hand and hers


s: She turn'd, with the rout of her dusk South hair,


s: And snatch'd and snapp'd it in swift child's whim,


s: With--'Keep it, long as you live!'--to him.


s: And his smile, as nymphs from their laving meres,


s: Toss'd on the wave of his troubled heart.


s: The verge shrivell'd inward smoulderingly:


s: 'Though with bruised poppies my feet are red!'


s: The diverse chambers in Love's guest-hall,


s: In how differing accents hear the throng


s: You give--this withering flower of dreams.


s: Do you know what the days will do to you?


s: To your Love and you what the days will do,


s: 'You have loved me, Fair, three lives--or days:


s: 'Twill pass with the passing of my face.


s: Knowing well when certain years are over


s: Yet I know, and love, like the foster-mother.


s: For me--this withering flower of dreams.'


s: The sleep-flower sways in the wheat its head,


s: The goodly grain and the sun-flush'd sleeper


s: And my fruit is dreams, as theirs is bread:


s: The goodly men and the sun-hazed sleeper


s: The world shall glean of me, me the sleeper!


s: Love! love! your flower of wither'd dream


s: From the reaper man, and his reaper Time.


s: The peace of night, or love's divine surprise,


s: High heart, high speech, high deeds 'mid honouring eyes;


s: To us thou givest the scorn, the scourge, the scar,


s: The ache of life, the loneliness of death,


s: Nay, Lord, but unto her be all things given--


s: My light and life and earth and sky be blasted--


s: But let not all that wealth of loss be wasted:


s: None came forth, none shouted 'He is here!


s: Not a hand with laurel would bestrew me,


s: In the low room at the stairway's height,


s: Trembling lest my foot should be belated,


s: Singing, sighing for the long hours' flight


s: Not one guessing what it was that fail'd me,


s: Thousands, thousands, shouted in accord.


s: But through all the joy I knew--I only--


s: How the hostel of my heart lay bare and cold,


s: Never, though you crown me with your gold,


s: Shall I find that little chamber as of old!


s: I MUST not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,


s: I shun the love that lurks in all delight--


s: The love of thee--and in the blue heaven's height,


s: Oh, just beyond the sweetest thoughts that throng


s: This breast, the thought of thee waits hidden yet bright;


s: I must stop short of thee the whole day long.


s: But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,


s: When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,


s: And all my bonds I needs must loose apart,


s: Must doff my will as raiment laid away,--


s: With the first dream that comes with the first sleep


s: I run, I run, I am gather'd to thy heart.


s: Her flocks are thoughts. She keeps them white;


s: PEACE, Shepherd, peace! What boots it singing on?


s: Since long ago grace-giving Phoebus died,


s: And all the train that loved the stream-bright side


s: The clouds that strew their shadows far and wide


s: Yet here, where never muse or god did haunt,


s: Still may some nameless power of Nature stray,


s: Pleased with the reedy stream's continual chant


s: And purple pomp of these broad fields in May.


s: The shepherds meet him where he herds the kine,


s: And careless pass him by whose is the gift divine.


s: IN the hour of death, after this life's whim,


s: When the heart beats low, and the eyes grow dim,


s: The lover of the Lord shall trust in Him.


s: When the will has forgotten the lifelong aim,


s: And the mind can only disgrace its fame,


s: And a man is uncertain of his own name--


s: The power of the Lord shall fill this frame.


s: When the last sigh is heaved, and the last tear shed,


s: And the coffin is waiting beside the bed,


s: And the widow and child forsake the dead--


s: The angel of the Lord shall lift this head.


s: And power must fail, and the pride must fall,


s: And the love of the dearest friends grow small--


s: But the glory of the Lord is all in all.


s: Author of "The Man from Snowy River, and Other Verses",


s: Not for the love of women toil we, we of the craft,


s: We have sung the song of the droving days,


s: Come all you little rouseabouts and climb upon my knee;


s: I'd reckon his weight at eight-stun-eight,


s: My son, if you go to the races to battle with Ikey and Mo,


s: There's some that ride the Robbo style, and bump at every stride;


s: Oh! there once was a swagman camped in the Billabong,


s: Well, I've waited mighty patient while they all came rolling in,


s: Wilt thou love me, sweet, when my hair is grey


s: I ain't the kind of bloke as takes to any steady job;


s: Oh, Mr. Gilhooley he turned up his toes,


s: It was over at Coolgardie that a mining speculator,


s: I had spent the night in the watch-house--


s: Oh, Mulligan's bar was the deuce of a place


s: I wooed her with a steeplechase, I won her with a fall,


s: They came of bold and roving stock that would not fixed abide;


s: It chanced out back at the Christmas time,


s: We're away! and the wind whistles shrewd


s: By the winding Wollondilly where the weeping willows weep,


s: The new chum's polo pony was the smartest pony yet--


s: We have all of us read how the Israelites fled


s: The railway rattled and roared and swung


s: You talk of riders on the flat, of nerve and pluck and pace,


s: Now, this is just a simple tale to tell the reader how


s: Grey dawn on the sand-hills--the night wind has drifted


s: _Not for the love of women toil we, we of the craft,


s: Only because our goddess made us her own and laughed,


s: Claiming our best endeavour--body and heart and brain


s: Not unto us is given choice of the tasks we try,


s: One of her favoured servants toils at an epic high,


s: Yet if we serve her truly in our appointed place,


s: Unto her faithful servants always this saving grace,


s: We have sung the song of the droving days,


s: But the man who now by the land would thrive


s: Where the old flock-masters lived and died


s: Till at last they heard the master-word--


s: They scarce could tarry to blaze the line


s: Ere the team was yoked, and the gates flung wide,


s: Better than cattle and better than sheep


s: For a streak of stubbornness, wide and deep,


s: When the stock is swept by the hand of fate,


s: Lie hid while the whole world thinks him dead;


s: And the breeze sweeps over the rippling rows


s: Till the lurching, groaning waggons bear


s: Of the world's great work he has done his share


s: And his thousand steamships breast the tide


s: To the lands where the teeming millions bide


s: Come all you little rouseabouts and climb upon my knee;


s: To-day, you see, is Christmas Day, and so it's up to me


s: To give you some instruction like--a kind of Christmas tale--


s: Well, whales is sheep I've never shore; I've never been to sea,


s: So all them great Leviathans is mysteries to me;


s: But there's a tale the Bible tells I fully understand,


s: About the time the Patriarchs were settling on the land.


s: Those Patriarchs of olden time, when all is said and done,


s: They lived the same as far-out men on many a Queensland run--


s: A lot of roving, droving men who drifted to and fro,


s: The same we did out Queensland way a score of years ago.


s: Now Isaac was a squatter man, and Jacob was his son,


s: And when the boy grew up, you see, he wearied of the run.


s: So Jacob caught the roving fit and took the drovers' track


s: To where his uncle had a run, beyond the outer back;


s: You see they made for out-back runs for room to stretch and grow,


s: Now, Jacob knew the ways of stock--that's most uncommon clear--


s: For when he got to Laban's Run, they made him overseer;


s: He didn't ask a pound a week, but bargained for his pay


s: So, when he'd done the station work for close on seven year,


s: Why, all the choicest stock belonged to Laban's overseer.


s: It's often so with overseers--I've seen the same thing done


s: By many a Queensland overseer on many a Queensland run.


s: But when the mustering time came on old Laban acted straight,


s: And gave him country of his own outside the boundary gate.


s: He gave him stock, and offered him his daughter's hand in troth;


s: And Jacob first he married one, and then he married both;


s: You see, they weren't particular about a wife or so--


s: No more were we up Queensland way a score of years ago.


s: It's strange in every creed and clime, no matter where you roam,


s: There comes a day when every man would like to make for home.


s: So off he set with sheep and goats, a mighty moving band,


s: To battle down the homeward track along the Overland--


s: But Jacob knew the ways of stock, for (so the story goes)


s: When battling through the Philistines--selectors, I suppose--


s: He thought he'd have to fight his way, an awkward sort of job;


s: So what did Old Man Jacob do? of course, he split the mob.


s: He sent the strong stock on ahead to battle out the way;


s: He couldn't hurry lambing ewes--no more you could to-day--


s: And down the road, from run to run, his hand 'gainst every hand,


s: He moved that mighty mob of stock across the Overland.


s: The thing is made so clear and plain, so solid in and out,


s: There isn't any room at all for any kind of doubt.


s: It's just a plain straightforward tale--a tale that lets you know


s: It's strange to read it all to-day, the shifting of the stock;


s: You'd think you see the caravans that loaf behind the flock,


s: The little donkeys and the mules, the sheep that slowly spread,


s: And maybe Dan or Naphthali a-ridin' on ahead.


s: The long, dry, dusty summer days, the smouldering fires at night;


s: The little kids that skipped about, the camels' dead-slow tramp--


s: _But if I keep the narrer path, some day, perhaps, I'll know


s: How Jacob bred them strawberry calves three thousand years ago._


s: I'd reckon his weight at eight-stun-eight,


s: With a face as plain as an eight-day clock


s: "You's wants smacking across the snout!"


s: That's the way that he states his case--


s: Watchin' him chuckin' big blokes about--


s: Scrimmage was packed on his prostrate form,


s: Who but the man that we thought was dead,


s: My son, if you go to the races to battle with Ikey and Mo,


s: Beware of the critic who tells you the handicap's absolute rot,


s: "The very best tip in the world is to see the commission go on!"


s: 'Twas mostly leaves, and bark, and dirt;


s: "The home is small," said he, "but still


s: You'll find," he said, "no place like home,


s: "I'll camp the sheep," he said, "and sift


s: They wait till fate shall send them back


s: There's some that ride the Robbo style, and bump at every stride;


s: But all the finest horsemen out--the men to Beat the Band--


s: You'll find amongst the crowd that ride their races in the Stand.


s: They'll say Chevalley lost his nerve, and Regan lost his head;


s: But what you'd get it better done by riders in the Stand.


s: The rule holds good in everything in life's uncertain fight;


s: You'll find the winner can't go wrong, the loser can't go right.


s: You ride a slashing race, and lose--by one and all you're banned!


s: Oh! there once was a swagman camped in the Billabong,


s: And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling,


s: "Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."


s: Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,


s: Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag--


s: Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water-hole,


s: Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee;


s: And he sang as he put him away in his tucker-bag,


s: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"


s: Down came the Squatter a-riding his thorough-bred;


s: Down came Policemen--one, two, and three.


s: "Whose is the jumbuck you've got in the tucker-bag?


s: You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."


s: But the swagman, he up and he jumped in the water-hole,


s: And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong,


s: "Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"


s: Well, I've waited mighty patient while they all came rolling in,


s: Mister Lawson, Mister Dyson, and the others of their kin,


s: With their dreadful, dismal stories of the Overlander's camp,


s: How his fire is always smoky, and his boots are always damp;


s: Now, for instance, Mr. Lawson--well, of course, we almost cried


s: At the sorrowful description how his "little 'Arvie" died,


s: And we lachrymosed in silence when "His Father's Mate" was slain;


s: Ben Duggan and Jack Denver, too, he caused them to expire,


s: And he went and cooked the gander of Jack Dunn, of Nevertire;


s: So, no doubt, the bush is wretched if you judge it by the groan


s: Of the sad and soulful poet with a graveyard of his own.


s: And he spoke in terms prophetic of a revolution's heat,


s: But I "over-write" the bushmen!  Well, I own without a doubt


s: That I always see a hero in the "man from furthest out".


s: I could never contemplate him through an atmosphere of gloom,


s: And a bushman never struck me as a subject for "the tomb".


s: Tho' it's seldom that the drover gets a bed of eider-down,


s: Yet the man who's born a bushman, he gets mighty sick of town,


s: For he's jotting down the figures, and he's adding up the bills


s: While his heart is simply aching for a sight of Southern hills.


s: Then he hears a wool-team passing with a rumble and a lurch,


s: And he seems to sniff the ranges in the scent of wool and tar;


s: And it takes him back in fancy, half in laughter, half in tears,


s: To a sound of other voices and a thought of other years,


s: When the woolshed rang with bustle from the dawning of the day,


s: And the shear-blades were a-clicking to the cry of "Wool away!"


s: Then his face was somewhat browner and his frame was firmer set--


s: But the wool-team slowly passes, and his eyes go sadly back


s: To the dusty little table and the papers in the rack,


s: For to hang around the townships suits us better, you'll agree,


s: And a job at washing bottles is the job for such as we.


s: Let us herd into the cities, let us crush and crowd and push


s: Till we lose the love of roving and we learn to hate the bush;


s: And we'll turn our aspirations to a city life and beer,


s: And we'll slip across to England--it's a nicer place than here;


s: But that ends it, Mr. Lawson, and it's time to say good-bye,


s: We must agree to differ in all friendship, you and I;


s: So we'll work our own salvation with the stoutest hearts we may,


s: And if fortune only favours we will take the road some day,


s: And go droving down the river 'neath the sunshine and the stars,


s: And then return to Sydney and vermilionize the bars.


s: Will say:  "Here's one old landmark gone,


s: "Well, look here, Mister, don't be flash,"


s: Old Peter'll say:  "We pass him through;


s: Wilt thou love me, sweet, when my hair is grey


s: And my cheeks shall have lost their hue?


s: When the charms of youth shall have passed away,


s: For the looks may change, and the heart may range,


s: Wilt thou love with truth in the years of youth


s: Oh, I love you, sweet, for your locks of brown


s: But I love you most for the kindly heart


s: For the eyes are signs of the soul within,


s: And mine own sweetheart, I shall love you still,


s: For the locks may bleach, and the cheeks of peach


s: But mine own sweetheart, I shall love you still,


s: I ain't the kind of bloke as takes to any steady job;


s: I drives me bottle cart around the town;


s: A bloke what keeps 'is eyes about can always make a bob--


s: I couldn't bear to graft for every brown.


s: There's lots of handy things about in everybody's yard,


s: There's cocks and hens a-runnin' to an' fro,


s: And little dogs what comes and barks--we take 'em off their guard


s: So it's any "Empty bottles!  Any empty bottle-O!"


s: You can hear us round for a half a mile or so.


s: When they 'ear us crying, "Empty Bottle-O!"


s: I'm drivin' down by Wexford-street and up a winder goes,


s: A girl sticks out 'er 'ead and looks at me,


s: An all-right tart with ginger 'air, and freckles on 'er nose;


s: I stops the cart and walks across to see.


s: What right you 'ave to stick your 'ead outside the winder ledge,


s: I sometimes gives the 'orse a spell, and then the push and me


s: Oh! ain't it nice the 'ole day long a-gazin' at the sea


s: But as for me, I always says for layin' out a "trap"


s: On the cattle camp, when the stars were bright;


s: And flooded the plain with her mellow light.


s: And he told me the story of Mongrel Grey.


s: Spurred and walloped, and banged and beat;


s: We might have sold him, but someone heard


s: Where he learnt to swim like a waterbird,--


s: In the flooded ground he could find his way,


s: 'Tis a special gift that some horses learn;


s: When the floods are out they will splash along


s: For a man may guess--but the horses _know_.


s: I was camping out with my youngest son--


s: Fresh from the hills with the mountain rain,


s: 'Tis a nasty place when the floods are out,


s: Stretching for miles in the flooded ground.


s: In the dark with the water just racing by.


s: And the wind swept down with the blinding rain;


s: And the water rose till it reached the floor


s: Of our highest room, and 'twas very plain


s: We must shift for the highlands at once, or drown.


s: The horses shaking with cold and fright;


s: But never a yard would they swim that night!


s: They reared and snorted and turned away,


s: And none would face it but Mongrel Grey.


s: And we started off with a prayer to heaven,


s: Through the rain and the wind and the pitchy black,


s: For I knew that the instinct God has given


s: Would lead the footsteps of Mongrel Grey.


s: Till we touched the bank of the broken dam


s: Rank with the smell of the drifting mud.


s: Did he strike the crossing by sight or smell?


s: But the timber brought us to grief at last;


s: And I lost my grip of the brave old grey,


s: At dawn next morning, and grazed around,


s: With the child on top of him safe and sound.


s: Nothing too good for him now, of course;


s: For she owes the child to that old grey horse.


s: (A ballad concerning the amalgamation of the legal professions.)


s: Oh, Mr. Gilhooley he turned up his toes,


s: And Jones was a lawyer, as everyone knows,


s: Gilhooley in life had been living so free


s: 'Twas thought his possessions were great,


s: So Jones, with a smile, says, "There's many a fee


s: They made out a list of his property fine,


s: But the debts were nine hundred and ninety and nine--


s: So Mrs. Gilhooley says, "Jones, my dear man,


s: Just keep the expenses as low as you can


s: But Jones says, "The will isn't clear in its terms,


s: And the law won't allow me (attorneys are worms)


s: So a barrister-man, with a wig on his head,


s: Went up to the Court where they bury the dead,


s: But his Honor the Judge said, "I think that the joint


s: Ex parte Pokehorney is clear on the point--


s: "I order a suit to be brought just to try


s: A nice friendly suit, and the costs, by and by,


s: So Mrs. Gilhooley says, "Jones, you'll appear!


s: The suit is but friendly."  "Attorneys, my dear,


s: From the Barristers' Court there's a mighty hurrah


s: There's two fresh tracks might put you wrong


s: Well, that's where Hogan's old grey mare


s: Well, mind and keep the right-hand side,


s: You'll see the last year's bullock tracks


s: And then, of course, you can't go wrong--


s: There's recitations, songs, and fights--


s: There's one long bloke up there recites,


s: They're lively blokes all right up there,


s: There is scent in the blossom and bough,


s: There is drought on the land, and the stock


s: We are fighting with fate for their lives--


s: It was over at Coolgardie that a mining speculator,


s: Went off to hire a camel from a camel propagator,


s: And the Afghan said he'd lend it if he'd stand the beast a drink.


s: He was cheap, very cheap, as the dromedaries go.


s: So the mining speculator made the bargain, proudly thinking


s: He had bested old Mahomet, he had done him in the eye.


s: That 'twas cheap, very cheap, as the dromedaries go.


s: But the camel kept on drinking and he filled his hold with water,


s: But he's cheap, very cheap, as the dromedaries go."


s: So he drank up twenty buckets--it was weird to watch him suck it,


s: Till the speculator stopped him, saying, "Not another bucket--


s: If I give him any more there'll be a famine in the town.


s: There's a moral to this story--in your hat you ought to paste it,


s: If you chance to strike a camel when you're fool enough to shout,


s: I had spent the night in the watch-house--


s: We have sought, but we sought it vainly,


s: Oh, Mulligan's bar was the deuce of a place


s: To drink and to fight, and to gamble and race;


s: The height of choice spirits from near and from far


s: Were all concentrated on Mulligan's bar.


s: There was "Jerry the Swell", and the jockey-boy Ned,


s: "Dog-bite-me"--so called from the shape of his head--


s: And a man whom the boys, in their musical slang,


s: Designed as the "Gaffer of Mulligan's Gang".


s: Now Mulligan's Gang had a racer to show,


s: Whenever they backed her you safely might swear


s: She'd walk in a winner, would Mulligan's mare.


s: But Mulligan, having some radical views,


s: Neglected his business and got on the booze;


s: He took up with runners--a treacherous troop--


s: Who gave him away and he "fell in the soup".


s: And so it turned out on a fine summer day,


s: A bailiff turned up with a writ of "fi. fa.";


s: He walked to the bar with a manner serene,


s: "I levy," said he, "in the name of the Queen."


s: Then Mulligan wanted, in spite of the law,


s: To pay out the bailiff with "_one_ on the jaw";


s: He drew out to hit him, but, ere you could wink,


s: He changed his intentions and stood him a drink.


s: A great consultation there straightway befel


s: 'Twixt jockey-boy Neddy and Jerry the Swell,


s: And the man with the head, who remarked "Why, you bet!


s: Dog-bite-me!" said he, "but we'll diddle 'em yet.


s: "We'll slip out the mare from her stall in a crack,


s: And put in her place the old broken-down hack;


s: The hack is so like her, I'm ready to swear


s: The bailiff will think he has Mulligan's mare.


s: "So out with the racer and in with the screw,


s: We'll show him what Mulligan's talent can do;


s: And if he gets nasty and dares to say much,


s: I'll knock him as stiff as my grandmother's crutch."


s: Then off to the town went the mare and the lad;


s: The bailiff came out, never dreamt he was "had";


s: But marched to the stall with a confident air--


s: "I levy," said he, "upon Mulligan's mare."


s: He watched her by day and he watched her by night,


s: She was never an instant let out of his sight,


s: And Mulligan's mare had a chance with the best.


s: "Here's a chance," thought the bailiff, "to serve my own ends,


s: I'll send off a wire to my bookmaking friends:


s: Get all you can borrow, beg, snavel or snare


s: And lay the whole lot against Mulligan's mare."


s: The races came round, and a crowd on the course


s: Were laying the mare till they made themselves hoarse,


s: And Mulligan's party, with ardour intense,


s: They backed her for pounds and for shillings and pence.


s: And think of the grief of the bookmaking host


s: At the sound of the summons to go to the post--


s: For down to the start with her thorough-bred air


s: As fit as a fiddle pranced Mulligan's mare!


s: They started, and off went the boy to the front,


s: He cleared out at once, and he made it a hunt;


s: He steadied as rounding the corner they wheeled,


s: Then gave her her head and she smothered the field.


s: The race put her owner right clear of his debts,


s: He landed a fortune in stakes and in bets,


s: He paid the old bailiff the whole of his pelf,


s: And gave him a hiding to keep for himself.


s: So all you bold sportsmen take warning, I pray,


s: Keep clear of the running, you'll find it don't pay;


s: For the very best rule that you'll hear in a week--


s: Is never to bet on a thing that can speak.


s: And whether you're lucky or whether you lose,


s: Keep clear of the cards and keep clear of the booze,


s: And fortune in season will answer your prayer


s: And send you a flyer like Mulligan's mare.


s: I wooed her with a steeplechase, I won her with a fall,


s: I made her heartstrings quiver on the flat


s: When the pony missed his take-off, and we crashed into the wall;


s: Well, she simply _had_ to have me after that!


s: It awoke a thrill of interest when they pulled me out for dead


s: From beneath the shattered ruins of a horse;


s: When I won the Flappers' Flat-race it was "all Sir Garneo",


s: For she praised the way I made my final run.


s: Then they "weighed me in" a winner--it's not often that occurs!


s: She's a mouth as soft as velvet, and she plenty has of heart;


s: I could worship every little step she takes;


s: And the saddling-bell is ringing, so we're going to the start,


s: Certain winners, for the Matrimonial Stakes!


s: They came of bold and roving stock that would not fixed abide;


s: As those explorers of the bush--the brave old pioneers.


s: But now the times are dull and slow, the brave old days are dead


s: When hardy bushmen started out, and forced their way ahead


s: By tangled scrub and forests grim towards the unknown west,


s: And spied the far-off promised land from off the range's crest.


s: Oh! ye that sleep in lonely graves by far-off ridge and plain,


s: We drink to you in silence now as Christmas comes again,


s: To you who fought the wilderness through rough unsettled years--


s: The founders of our nation's life, the brave old pioneers.


s: It chanced out back at the Christmas time,


s: "Rin doon, rin doon, my little son Jack,


s: And we'll hae a crack for Auld Lang Syne,


s: "Nay now, nay now," said the dour good-wife,


s: "Wi' a drover's tales, and a drover's thirst


s: And we shore a seven-pound fleece this year,


s: "There is grass tae spare, and the stock are fat


s: And we owe a tithe to the travelling poor,


s: "Ye can set him a chair tae the table side,


s: "But the native cats hae taen the fowls,


s: "But speak them fair, and speak them saft,


s: Ye can gi' them a feed of thae half-inch nails


s: Till he came where the emus fluffed and scratched


s: And there he has gathered the new-laid egg,


s: And the emus came for the half-inch nails


s: "A waste o' food," said the dour good-wife,


s: "'Tis well, 'tis well," said the bonny wee man;


s: And the food that is given with right good will


s: "But the night draws on to the Christmas Day


s: "And it's there I must load my sledges up,


s: "Tae the Esquimaux," said the dour good-wife,


s: For when he gets up on his journey horse


s: Then out with a laugh went the bonny wee man


s: When the children woke on the Christmas morn


s: For a sword and gun had little son Jack,


s: When an attorney is called before the Full Court to answer


s: for any alleged misconduct it is not usual to publish his name


s: And know that there's mischief in store;


s: Then robs right and left--for he goes it


s: They snap the frail thread which the Furies


s: May the great Final Judge and His juries


s: And some doughy damper to make good cheer,


s: And I'll keep it down with a hard-boiled egg,


s: While the night-mares race through my heated brain


s: The tip for the Cup will reward my pain,


s: Thousands and thousands and thousands more,


s: While races are bought and backers are sold,


s: And the bookies' cries grow fierce and hot,


s: "I'll lay the Cup!  The double, if not!"


s: And so they shout through the livelong day,


s: And stick to the game that is sure to pay,


s: And bet with a "book" that I seem to know--


s: And the hoof-strokes roar like a mighty drum


s: They come like a rushing, roaring flood,


s: Hurrah for the speed of the Chester blood;


s: And Crossfire challenges, fierce and bold,


s: And the lead she'll have and the lead she'll hold,


s: But at length gives way to the black and gold,


s: Now takes the lead with his raking stride,


s: "It's Trident! Trident!  Hurrah for Hales!"


s: "Go at 'em now while their courage fails;"


s: Under the whip! with the ears flat back,


s: Under the whip! though the sinews crack,


s: Stick to it now for your breeding's sake,


s: Stick to it now though your hearts should break,


s: While the yells and roars make the grand-stand shake,


s: The fierce whips cut and the spurs are red,


s: "Give me my money, you hooked-nosed hog!


s: Like the hairy-whiskered bullock that they bred at Gundaroo.


s: Far away by Grabben Gullen, where the Murrumbidgee flows,


s: There's a block of broken countryside where no one ever goes;


s: There came a low informer to the Grabben Gullen side,


s: And he said to Smith the squatter, "You must saddle up and ride,


s: For your bullock's in the harness-cask of Morgan Donahoo--


s: He's the greatest cattle-stealer that abides in Gundaroo."


s: "Oh, ho!" said Smith, the owner of the Grabben Gullen run,


s: "I'll go and get the troopers by the sinking of the sun,


s: And down into his homestead to-night we'll take a ride,


s: With warrants to identify the carcase and the hide."


s: That night rode down the troopers, the squatter at their head,


s: They rode into the homestead, and pulled Morgan out of bed.


s: "Now, show to us the carcase of the bullock that you slew--


s: The great marsupial bullock that you killed in Gundaroo."


s: They peered into the harness-cask, and found it wasn't full,


s: But down among the brine they saw some flesh and bits of wool.


s: "What's this?" exclaimed the trooper--"an infant, I declare;"


s: Said Morgan, "'Tis the carcase of an old man native bear.


s: I heard that ye were coming, so an old man bear I slew,


s: Just to give you kindly welcome to my home in Gundaroo.


s: "The times is something awful, as you can plainly see,


s: So an old man bear for breakfast is a treat in Gundaroo."


s: And along by Grabben Gullen, where the rushing river flows,


s: In the block of broken country where there's no one ever goes,


s: On the Upper Murrumbidgee they're a hospitable crew,


s: But you mustn't ask for "bullock" when you go to Gundaroo.


s: We're away! and the wind whistles shrewd


s: As an eagle might sweep through the sky,


s: Do you mind that fat grocer who crossed?


s: Underneath, and there rang through the fog


s: I cracked my jokes, and the building rang


s: And he picked me out as the brightest star


s: "Oh father," he said, "what _would_ we do


s: And then, when he likes, he makes them laugh."


s: If a man don't keep his lead in the race


s: "Now, there's your crown, my lad," he said,


s: By the winding Wollondilly where the weeping willows weep,


s: And the shepherd, with his billy, half awake and half asleep,


s: Folds his fleecy flocks that linger homewards in the setting sun,


s: Jimmy loved the super's daughter, Miss Amelia Jane McGrath.


s: Long and earnestly he sought her, but he feared her stern papa;


s: And Amelia loved him truly--but the course of love, if true,


s: Never yet ran smooth or duly, as I think it ought to do.


s: Watching with his slow affection once Jim saw McGrath the boss


s: Riding out by Jim's selection, looking for a station 'oss


s: That was running in the ranges with a mob of outlaws wild.


s: Old McGrath "Good day" exchanges--off goes Jim to see his child;


s: Will you come with me to-morrow?  I will let the parson know,


s: And for ever, joy or sorrow, he will join us here below.


s: "Steadily, darling.  There's lots of time,


s: I hope he yards 'em, 'twill do him good;


s: A turn in the road and, fair and square,


s: "What's up?"  "Why, running away, of course,"


s: Says Jim, emboldened.  The old man turned,


s: "I've raced all day through the scorching heat


s: Two distant specks on the mountain side,


s: And him dead beat.  Where have you been?


s: From running old Bowneck."  "Well, I'm kicked--


s: Did you bolt from father across the plain?


s: They're sure to get them now, of course,


s: The sound of a whip comes faint and far,


s: And wheel and break as the yard draws near.


s: Wheel 'em! wheel 'em!  Whoa back there, whoa!


s: And the foam-flakes fly like the driven snow,


s: And Jim, hands down, and teeth firm set,


s: On a horse that never has failed him yet,


s: Well ridden! well ridden! they wheel--whoa back!


s: Wheel that black horse--give Sam a clout.


s: "Will you come after all? the job is done,


s: Will you come, my girl?"  "I will, you bet,


s: By the winding Wollondilly stands the hut of Ringer Jim.


s: And his loving little Meely makes a perfect god of him.


s: The new chum's polo pony was the smartest pony yet--


s: The owner backed it for the Cup for all that he could get.


s: The books were laying fives to one, in tenners; and you bet


s: The bell was rung, the nags came out their quality to try,


s: The band played "What Ho! Robbo!" as our hero cantered by,


s: The people in the Leger Stand cried out, "Hi, Mister, Hi!


s: The pony finished first all right, but then our hero bold


s: Wouldn't you know 'im again when you met 'im?


s: It's the _look_ of a 'orse and the way that 'e moves


s: All of a minute, and off down the track.


s: True, so 'e did!  But, my eyes, what a treat!


s: Of each bumble-faced kid of a boy that I meet?


s: We have all of us read how the Israelites fled


s: And Pharaoh's fierce troop were all put "in the soup"


s: When the water rolled softly o'er every galoot of 'em.


s: That they sounded their timbrels and capered like mad.


s: You see he was hated from Jordan to Cairo--


s: Whence comes the expression "to buck against faro".


s: For forty long years, 'midst perils and fears


s: In deserts with never a tramline to follow by,


s: Like so many sundowners out on the wallaby.


s: When Moses, who led 'em, and taught 'em, and fed 'em,


s: Was dying, he murmured "A rorty old hoss you are:


s: I give you command of the whole of the band"--


s: And handed the Government over to Joshua.


s: And let the high priest confess on the beast


s: The sins of the people, the worst and the least.


s: Lay your sins on the goat!  Sure the plan ought to suit yer,


s: Because all your sins are "his troubles" in future.


s: Then lead him away to the wilderness black


s: To die with the weight of your sins on his back:


s: Of thirst let him perish alone and unshriven,


s: For thus shall your sins be absolved and forgiven!"


s: 'Tis needless to say, though it reeked of barbarity,


s: This scapegoat arrangement gained great popularity.


s: Though he burgled, or murdered, or cheated at loo,


s: Or meat on Good Friday (a sin most terrific) ate,


s: Could get his discharge, like a bankrupt's certificate.


s: (Just here let us note--_DID THEY CHOOSE THEIR BEST GOAT?_


s: It's food for conjecture; to judge from the picture


s: By Hunt in the Gallery close to our door, a


s: Man well might suppose that the scapegoat they chose


s: Was a long way from being their choicest Angora.


s: In fact I should think he was one of their weediest;


s: 'Tis a rule that obtains, no matter who reigns,


s: When making a sacrifice, offer the seediest;


s: Which accounts for a theory known to my hearers


s: Who live in the wild by the wattle beguiled,


s: That a "stag" makes quite good enough mutton for shearers.)


s: Be that as it may, as each year passed away,


s: A scapegoat was led to the desert and freighted


s: With sin (the poor brute must have been overweighted)


s: And left there--to die as his fancy dictated.


s: The day it has come; with trumpet and drum,


s: With pomp and solemnity fit for the tomb,


s: They led the old billy-goat off to his doom:


s: And the oldest rab_bi_, with a tear in his eye,


s: (We haven't his name--whether Cohen or Harris, he


s: No doubt was the "poisonest" kind of a Pharisee.)


s: The sermon was marked by a deal of humility


s: And pointed the fact, with no end of ability,


s: That being a Gentile's no mark of gentility,


s: And, according to Samuel, would certainly d--n you well.


s: Then, shedding his coat, he approaches the goat


s: And, while a red fillet he carefully pins on him,


s: Confesses the whole of the Israelites' sins on him.


s: With this eloquent burst he exhorts the accurst--


s: "Go forth in the desert and perish in woe,


s: The sins of the people are whiter than snow!"


s: Then signs to his pal for to let the brute go.


s: Lowered his head, made a kind of a feint,


s: And charged straight at that elderly saint.


s: So fierce his attack, and so very severe, it


s: Quite floored the Rabbi, who, ere he could fly,


s: Was rammed on the--no, not the back--but just near it.


s: The scapegoat he snorted, and wildly cavorted,


s: A light-hearted antelope "out on the ramp",


s: Then stopped, looked around, got the "lay of the ground",


s: And made a bee-line back again to the camp.


s: The elderly priest, as he noticed the beast


s: So gallantly making his way to the East,


s: Says he:  "From the tents may I never more roam again


s: If that there old billy-goat ain't going home again.


s: He's hurrying, too!  This never will do.


s: Can't somebody stop him?  I'm all of a stew.


s: After all our confessions, so openly granted,


s: He's taking our sins back to where they're not wanted.


s: We've come all this distance salvation to win agog,


s: If he takes home our sins--it'll burst up the Synagogue!"


s: He turned to an Acolyte making his bacca light,


s: A fleet-footed youth who could run like a crack o' light.


s: "Run, Abraham, run!  Hunt him over the plain,


s: And drive back the brute to the desert again.


s: The Sphinx is a-watching, the Pyramids frown on you,


s: From those granite tops forty cent'ries look down on you--


s: Run, Abraham, run!  I'll bet half-a-crown on you."


s: So Abraham ran; like a man did he go for him,


s: But the goat made it clear each time he drew near


s: That he had what the racing men call "too much toe" for him.


s: The crowd with great eagerness studied the race--


s: "Great Scott! isn't Abraham forcing the pace--


s: And don't the goat spiel?  It is hard to keep sight on him,


s: The sins of the Israelites ride mighty light on him.


s: The scapegoat is leading a furlong or more,


s: And Abraham's tiring--I'll lay six to four!


s: He rolls in his stride; he's done, there's no question!"


s: But here the old Rabbi brought up a suggestion.


s: ('Twas strange that in racing he showed so much cunning),


s: "It's a hard race," said he, "and I think it would be


s: A good thing for someone to take up the running."


s: As soon said as done, they started to run--


s: The priests and the deacons, strong runners and weak 'uns


s: All reckoned ere long to come up with the brute,


s: And so the whole boiling set off in pursuit.


s: And then it came out, as the rabble and rout


s: Streamed over the desert with many a shout--


s: The Rabbi so elderly, grave, and patrician,


s: Had been in his hot youth a bold metallician,


s: And offered, in gasps, as they merrily spieled,


s: Alas! the whole clan, they raced and they ran,


s: And Abraham proved him an "even-time" man,


s: But the goat, now a speck they could scarce keep their eyes on,


s: Stretched out in his stride in a style most surprisin'


s: And vanished ere long o'er the distant horizon.


s: Away in the camp the bill-sticker's tramp


s: Is heard as he wanders with paste, brush, and notices,


s: And paling and wall he plasters them all,


s: "I wonder how's things gettin' on with the goat," he says,


s: Then pulls out his bills, "Use Solomon's Pills":


s: Must each bring a stone--Great sport will be shown;


s: Enormous Attractions!  And prices as usual!


s: Roll up to the Hall!!  Wives, children, and all,


s: For naught the most delicate feelings to hurt is meant!"


s: Here his eyes opened wide, for close by his side


s: Was the scapegoat devouring the latest advertisement!


s: One shriek from him burst--"You creature accurst!"


s: And he ran from the spot like one fearing the worst.


s: His language was chaste, as he fled in his haste,


s: But the goat stayed behind him--and "scoffed up" the paste.


s: With downcast head, and sorrowful tread,


s: The people came back from the desert in dread.


s: "The goat--was he back there?  Had anyone heard of him?"


s: In very short order they got plenty word of him,


s: In fact as they wandered by street, lane and hall,


s: "The trail of the serpent was over them all."


s: A poor little child knocked out stiff in the gutter


s: Proclaimed that the scapegoat was bred for a "butter".


s: The billsticker's pail told a sorrowful tale,


s: The scapegoat had licked it as dry as a nail;


s: He raced through their houses, and frightened their spouses,


s: But his latest achievement most anger arouses,


s: For while they were searching, and scratching their craniums,


s: One little Ben Ourbed, who looked in the flower-bed,


s: Discovered him, eating the Rabbi's geraniums.


s: The moral is patent to all the beholders--


s: Don't shift your own sins on to other folk's shoulders;


s: Nor curse them nor kick them, nor spitefully use them;


s: Take their lives if needs must--when it comes to the worst,


s: But don't let them perish of hunger or thirst.


s: Remember, no matter how far you may roam,


s: Their talent stupendous for "getting back home".


s: Your sins, without doubt, will aye find you out,


s: And so will a scapegoat, he's bound to achieve it--


s: But, die in the wilderness?  Don't you believe it!


s: Down the street they spurred their cattle


s: "Redman!  Ginger!  Heave there!  Yank her!


s: The railway rattled and roared and swung


s: With jolting carriage and bumping trucks.


s: In the Western sky:  and the tireless tongue


s: And the party that ought to have kept the ducks.


s: "Well, it ain't all joy bein' on the land


s: With an overdraft that'd knock you flat;


s: And the rabbits have pretty well took command;


s: But the hardest thing for a man to stand


s: Is the feller who says 'Well, I told you so!


s: You should ha' done this way, don't you know!'--


s: "The grasshoppers struck us in ninety-one


s: And what they leave--well, it ain't 'de luxe'.


s: But a growlin' fault-findin' son of a gun


s: Who'd lent some money to stock our run--


s: You had a right to have kept some ducks!'


s: "To have kept some ducks!  And the place was white!


s: And when with a swoosh they rose in flight,


s: If you didn't look out for yourself they'd fly


s: And knock it out of the back of your head.


s: Or a duck that quacks, or a hen that clucks,


s: When a grasshopper plague has once begun;


s: The job,' I says, 'is too big for ducks!


s: "'You must fetch a duck when you come to stay;


s: You turn your duck into the lucerne patch,


s: That the grasshoppers eats his feathers off!'


s: And it just so happened one day in Spring


s: And nine miles thick, and nine hundred wide,


s: You'd hear 'em smackin' against the wall,


s: And they'd rise and jump at the house again


s: Till their crippled carcases piled outside.


s: But what did it matter if thousands died--


s: "We were drinkin' grasshoppers--so to speak--


s: Till we skimmed their carcases off the spring;


s: And they fell so thick in the station creek


s: They choked the waterholes all the week.


s: There was scarcely room for a trout to rise,


s: When the hoppers rose for their morning flight


s: With a flapping noise like a million flags:


s: And the kitchen chimney was stuffed with bags


s: For they'd fall right into the fire, and fry


s: Till the cook sat down and began to cry--


s: "We strolled across to the railroad track--


s: I stoops and I pulls the tarpaulin back--


s: 'Mister,' I says, 'There's your blanky ducks!'"


s: You talk of riders on the flat, of nerve and pluck and pace,


s: Not one in fifty has the nerve to ride a steeplechase.


s: It's right enough while horses pull and take their fences strong,


s: But what about the last half-mile, with horses blown and beat--


s: When every jump means all you know to keep him on his feet?


s: When any slip means sudden death--with wife and child to keep--


s: It needs some nerve to draw the whip and flog him at the leap--


s: But Corrigan would ride them out, by danger undismayed,


s: He never flinched at fence or wall, he never was afraid;


s: With easy seat and nerve of steel, light hand and smiling face,


s: He held the rushing horses back, and made the sluggards race.


s: He gave the shirkers extra heart, he steadied down the rash,


s: He rode great clumsy boring brutes, and chanced a fatal smash;


s: He got the rushing Wymlet home that never jumped at all--


s: But clambered over every fence and clouted every wall.


s: They were, indeed, a glorious pair--the great upstanding horse,


s: The gamest jockey on his back that ever faced a course.


s: Though weight was big and pace was hot and fences stiff and tall,


s: And every man on Ballarat raised all he could command


s: To put on Tommy Corrigan when riding old Lone Hand.


s: But now we'll keep his memory green while horsemen come and go,


s: We may not see his like again where silks and satins glow.


s: We'll drink to him in silence, boys--he's followed down the track


s: And let us hope in that far land where shades of brave men reign,


s: _Now, this is just a simple tale to tell the reader how


s: They civilised the Maori tribe at Rooti-iti-au._


s: The Maoris are a mighty race--the finest ever known;


s: Before the missionaries came they worshipped wood and stone;


s: But now-a-days about the pahs in idleness they lurk,


s: Prepared to smoke or drink or talk--or anything but work.


s: The richest tribe in all the North in sheep and horse and cow


s: Were those who led their simple lives at Rooti-iti-au.


s: 'Twas down to town at Wellington a noble Maori came,


s: A Rangatira of the best, Rerenga was his name--


s: (The word Rerenga means a "snag"--but until he was gone


s: This didn't strike the folk he met--it struck them later on).


s: He stalked into the Bank they call the "Great Financial Hell",


s: And told the Chief Financial Fiend the tribe had wool to sell.


s: The Bold Bank Manager looked grave--the price of wool was high.


s: The Chief he thanked him courteously and said he wished to state


s: In all the Rooti-iti tribe his mana would be great,


s: But still the tribe were simple folk, and did not understand


s: To lay the case before the tribe at Rooti-iti-au.


s: They held a great korero in the Rooti-iti clan,


s: With speeches lasting half a day from every leading man.


s: They called themselves poetic names--"lost children in a wood";


s: They said the Great Bank Manager was Kapai--extra good!


s: And so they sent Rerenga down, full-powered and well-equipped,


s: To draw as much as he could get, and let the wool be shipped;


s: And wedged into a "Cargo Tank", full up from stern to bow,


s: A mighty clip of wool went Home from Rooti-iti-au.


s: It was the Bold Bank Manager who drew a heavy cheque;


s: Rerenga cashed it thoughtfully, then clasped him round the neck;


s: A hug from him was not at all a thing you'd call a lark--


s: You see he lived on mutton-birds and dried remains of shark--


s: But still it showed his gratitude, and, as he pouched the pelf,


s: "I'll haka for you, sir," he said, "in honour of yourself!"


s: The haka is a striking dance--the sort they don't allow


s: In any place more civilised than Rooti-iti-au.


s: He "haka'd" most effectively--then, with an airy grace


s: Rubbed noses with the Manager, and vanished into space.


s: But when the wool-return came back, ah me, what sighs and groans!


s: Yes--thumping great New Zealand rocks among the wool they found;


s: On every rock the Bank had lent just seven pence a pound.


s: And now the Bold Bank Manager, with trouble on his brow,


s: Is searching vainly for the chief from Rooti-iti-au.


s: When, worn and faint, it reached its goal.


s: Grey dawn on the sand-hills--the night wind has drifted


s: All night from the rollers a scent of the sea;


s: With the dawn the grey fog his battalions has lifted,


s: At the call of the morning they scatter and flee.


s: Like mariners calling the roll of their number


s: The sea-fowl put out to the infinite deep.


s: And far over-head--sinking softly to slumber--


s: Worn out by their watching, the stars fall asleep.


s: To eastward, where resteth the dome of the skies on


s: The sea-line, stirs softly the curtain of night;


s: And far from behind the enshrouded horizon


s: Comes the voice of a God saying "Let there be light."


s: And lo, there is light!  Evanescent and tender,


s: It glows ruby-red where 'twas now ashen-grey;


s: And purple and scarlet and gold in its splendour--


s: Behold, 'tis that marvel, the birth of a day!


s: "Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis


s: vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:


s: Sibylla ti theleis; respondebat illa: apothanein thelo."


s: Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee


s: With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,


s: And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,


s: And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.


s: Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.


s: And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,


s: I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.


s: What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow


s: You cannot say, or guess, for you know only


s: A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,


s: And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,


s: And the dry stone no sound of water. Only


s: (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),


s: And I will show you something different from either


s: Your shadow at morning striding behind you


s: Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;


s: I will show you fear in a handful of dust.


s: "You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;


s: - Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,


s: Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not


s: Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither


s: Looking into the heart of light, the silence.


s: Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,


s: With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,


s: Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,


s: (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)


s: Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,


s: And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,


s: Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,


s: Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find


s: I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.


s: Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,


s: A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,


s: I had not thought death had undone so many.


s: Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,


s: And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.


s: Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,


s: To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours


s: With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.


s: There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson!


s: "You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!


s: "That corpse you planted last year in your garden,


s: "Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?


s: "Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?


s: "Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,


s: "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!


s: "You! hypocrite lecteur! - mon semblable, - mon frere!"


s: The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,


s: Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines


s: Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra


s: From satin cases poured in rich profusion;


s: Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,


s: Unguent, powdered, or liquid - troubled, confused


s: And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air


s: That freshened from the window, these ascended


s: In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,


s: Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.


s: Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,


s: In which sad light a carved dolphin swam.


s: As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene


s: The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king


s: So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale


s: Filled all the desert with inviolable voice


s: And still she cried, and still the world pursues,


s: Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.


s: Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair


s: Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.


s: "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.


s: "Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.


s: "What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?


s: "I never know what you are thinking. Think."


s: "What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?"


s: "You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember


s: "Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?"


s: I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street


s: "With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?


s: Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.


s: When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said -


s: I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,


s: Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.


s: He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you


s: To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.


s: You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,


s: He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.


s: And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,


s: He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,


s: And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.


s: Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said.


s: If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.


s: Others can pick and choose if you can't.


s: But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling.


s: You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.


s: I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,


s: It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.


s: (She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.)


s: Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said,


s: What you get married for if you don't want children?


s: Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,


s: And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot -


s: The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf


s: Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind


s: Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.


s: Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.


s: The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,


s: Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends


s: Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.


s: And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;


s: Line 161 ALRIGHT. This spelling occurs also in


s: By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . .


s: Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,


s: Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.


s: The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.


s: A rat crept softly through the vegetation


s: On a winter evening round behind the gashouse


s: And on the king my father's death before him.


s: White bodies naked on the low damp ground


s: And bones cast in a little low dry garret,


s: Rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year.


s: The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring


s: Et O ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole!


s: Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants


s: At the violet hour, when the eyes and back


s: Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits


s: I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,


s: Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see


s: At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives


s: Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,


s: The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights


s: Her drying combinations touched by the sun's last rays,


s: On the divan are piled (at night her bed)


s: Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.


s: Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest -


s: A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare,


s: As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.


s: The time is now propitious, as he guesses,


s: The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,


s: Which still are unreproved, if undesired.


s: Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;


s: And walked among the lowest of the dead.)


s: And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . .


s: She turns and looks a moment in the glass,


s: Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:


s: "Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over."


s: She smoothes her hair with automatic hand,


s: "This music crept by me upon the waters"


s: And along the Strand, up Queen Victoria Street.


s: Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street,


s: Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls


s: Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.


s: I made no comment. What should I resent?"


s: Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,


s: Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell


s: Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell


s: He passed the stages of his age and youth


s: O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,


s: Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.


s: After the torchlight red on sweaty faces


s: Of thunder of spring over distant mountains


s: The road winding above among the mountains


s: Which are mountains of rock without water


s: If there were water we should stop and drink


s: Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think


s: If there were only water amongst the rock


s: Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit


s: Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit


s: There is not even silence in the mountains


s: There is not even solitude in the mountains


s: Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees


s: Who is the third who walks always beside you?


s: When I count, there are only you and I together


s: There is always another one walking beside you


s: - But who is that on the other side of you?


s: Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth


s: Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air


s: A woman drew her long black hair out tight


s: And fiddled whisper music on those strings


s: And bats with baby faces in the violet light


s: And crawled head downward down a blackened wall


s: Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours


s: And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.


s: In this decayed hole among the mountains


s: In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing


s: Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel


s: There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.


s: In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust


s: The awful daring of a moment's surrender


s: Which an age of prudence can never retract


s: Which is not to be found in our obituaries


s: Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider


s: Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor


s: Turn in the door once and turn once only


s: Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison


s: Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar


s: The sea was calm, your heart would have responded


s: London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down


s: Quando fiam ceu chelidon - O swallow swallow


s: These fragments I have shored against my ruins


s: Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.


s: Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the


s: incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested


s: by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book on the Grail legend:


s: so deeply am I indebted, Miss Weston's book will elucidate


s: the difficulties of the poem much better than my notes can do;


s: Death by Water is executed in Part IV.  The Man with Three Staves


s: "Fourmillante cite;, cite; pleine de reves,


s: Ou le spectre en plein jour raccroche le passant."


s: dependent lychni laquearibus aureis incensi, et noctem flammis


s: "When of the sudden, listening, you shall hear,


s: "A noise of horns and hunting, which shall bring


s: "Where all shall see her naked skin . . ."


s: to the buyer upon payment of the sight draft.


s: the Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct


s: from Ferdinand Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman,


s: and the two sexes meet in Tiresias.  What Tiresias sees, in fact,


s: '. . . Cum Iunone iocos et maior vestra profecto est


s: Quam, quae contingit maribus,' dixisse, 'voluptas.'


s: Illa negat; placuit quae sit sententia docti


s: Quaerere Tiresiae: venus huic erat utraque nota.


s: Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu


s: Deque viro factus, mirabile, femina septem


s: Vidit et 'est vestrae si tanta potentia plagae,'


s: Dixit 'ut auctoris sortem in contraria mutet,


s: Nunc quoque vos feriam!' percussis anguibus isdem


s: Forma prior rediit genetivaque venit imago.


s: Arbiter hic igitur sumptus de lite iocosa


s: Dicta Iovis firmat; gravius Saturnia iusto


s: At pater omnipotens (neque enim licet inrita cuiquam


s: Facta dei fecisse deo) pro lumine adempto


s: Scire futura dedit poenamque levavit honore.


s: the finest among Wren's interiors.  See The Proposed Demolition


s: From line 292 to 306 inclusive they speak in turn.


s: should not be married if the queen pleased."


s: where a cauldron of unholy loves sang all about mine ears."


s: of the great pioneers of Buddhist studies in the Occident.


s: of these two representatives of eastern and western asceticism,


s: as the culmination of this part of the poem, is not an accident.


s: In the first part of Part V three themes are employed:


s: the journey to Emmaus, the approach to the Chapel Perilous


s: (see Miss Weston's book) and the present decay of eastern Europe.


s: which I have heard in Quebec County.  Chapman says (Handbook of


s: Birds of Eastern North America) "it is most at home in secluded


s: of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one


s: of Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers,


s: at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion


s: that there was one more member than could actually be counted.


s: control). The fable of the meaning of the Thunder is found


s: in the Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad, 5, 1.  A translation is found


s: in Deussen's Sechzig Upanishads des Veda, p.  489.


s: Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere the spider


s: "My external sensations are no less private to myself than are my


s: Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)


s: There to some group of mates the chants resuming,


s: (Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)


s: Ever and ever yet the verses owning--as, first, I here and now


s: Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,


s: One's-self I sing, a simple separate person,


s: Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.


s: The Female equally with the Male I sing.


s: Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,


s: Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine,


s: Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long,


s: A Phantom arose before me with distrustful aspect,


s: With finger pointing to many immortal songs,


s: And menacing voice, What singest thou? it said,


s: Know'st thou not there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards?


s: And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles,


s: and retreat, victory deferr'd and wavering,


s: (Yet methinks certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) the


s: For life and death, for the Body and for the eternal Soul,


s: Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles,


s: The boundless blue on every side expanding,


s: Where joyous full of faith, spreading white sails,


s: Here are our thoughts, voyagers' thoughts,


s: Then falter not O book, fulfil your destiny,


s: You not a reminiscence of the land alone,


s: You too as a lone bark cleaving the ether, purpos'd I know not


s: Consort to every ship that sails, sail you!


s: Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates,


s: Pressing the pulse of the life that has seldom exhibited itself,


s: Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be,


s: Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands,


s: After a strange sad war, great war for thee,


s: (I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will be


s: These chants for thee, the eternal march of thee.


s: With all its angry and vehement play of causes,


s: (With vast results to come for thrice a thousand years,)


s: These recitatives for thee,--my book and the war are one,


s: Merged in its spirit I and mine, as the contest hinged on thee,


s: As a wheel on its axis turns, this book unwitting to itself,


s: Passing the hues and objects of the world,


s: The fields of art and learning, pleasure, sense,


s: No more the puzzling hour nor day, nor segments, parts, put in,


s: Ever the growth, the rounding of the circle,


s: Ever the summit and the merge at last, (to surely start again,)


s: Ever materials, changing, crumbling, re-cohering,


s: Ever the ateliers, the factories divine,


s: Or woman, man, or state, known or unknown,


s: We seeming solid wealth, strength, beauty build,


s: The substance of an artist's mood or savan's studies long,


s: Based on the ancient pinnacles, lo, newer, higher pinnacles,


s: From science and the modern still impell'd,


s: America's busy, teeming, intricate whirl,


s: Of aggregate and segregate for only thence releasing,


s: Of vanish'd lands, of all the reigns of kings across the sea,


s: Old conquerors, old campaigns, old sailors' voyages,


s: Strata of mountains, soils, rocks, giant trees,


s: Far-born, far-dying, living long, to leave,


s: Of orbic tendencies to shape and shape and shape,


s: (The stars, the terrible perturbations of the suns,


s: Swelling, collapsing, ending, serving their longer, shorter use,)


s: The infinite oceans where the rivers empty,


s: The separate countless free identities, like eyesight,


s: Nor these the universes, they the universes,


s: Purport and end, ever the permanent life of life,


s: Sweeping the present to the infinite future,


s: Shall yet maintain themselves, in higher stages yet,


s: Shall mediate to the Modern, to Democracy, interpret yet to them,


s: Thy yearning amply fed at last, prepared to meet,


s: The only purport of the form thou art, the real I myself,


s: No special strains to sing, none for itself,


s: But from the whole resulting, rising at last and floating,


s: To make himself by them the law unto himself.


s: When I read the book, the biography famous,


s: And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life?


s: And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?


s: (As if any man really knew aught of my life,


s: I seek for my own use to trace out here.)


s: Beginning my studies the first step pleas'd me so much,


s: The mere fact consciousness, these forms, the power of motion,


s: The least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love,


s: The first step I say awed me and pleas'd me so much,


s: I have hardly gone and hardly wish'd to go any farther,


s: But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs.


s: How they inure to themselves as much as to any--what a paradox


s: How people respond to them, yet know them not,


s: How there is something relentless in their fate all times,


s: Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,


s: Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever


s: On journeys through the States we start,


s: (Ay through the world, urged by these songs,


s: Sailing henceforth to every land, to every sea,)


s: We willing learners of all, teachers of all, and lovers of all.


s: We have watch'd the seasons dispensing themselves and passing on,


s: We dwell a while in every city and town,


s: We pass through Kanada, the North-east, the vast valley of the


s: We confer on equal terms with each of the States,


s: We make trial of ourselves and invite men and women to hear,


s: We say to ourselves, Remember, fear not, be candid, promulge the


s: I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general,


s: One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea, the


s: Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel;


s: Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,


s: Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less


s: Me toward the Mexican sea, or in the Mannahatta or the Tennessee,


s: A river man, or a man of the woods or of any farm-life of these


s: States or of the coast, or the lakes or Kanada,


s: Thither hours, months, years--thither trades, compacts,


s: On its breast a ship starting, spreading all sails, carrying even


s: The pennant is flying aloft as she speeds she speeds so stately--


s: They surround the ship with shining curving motions and foam.


s: I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,


s: Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,


s: The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young


s: Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.


s: What place is besieged, and vainly tries to raise the siege?


s: Lo, I send to that place a commander, swift, brave, immortal,


s: And with him horse and foot, and parks of artillery,


s: And artillery-men, the deadliest that ever fired gun.


s: (One, yet of contradictions made,) I dedicate to Nationality,


s: I leave in him revolt, (O latent right of insurrection! O


s: Shut not your doors to me proud libraries,


s: For that which was lacking on all your well-fill'd shelves, yet


s: Forth from the war emerging, a book I have made,


s: The words of my book nothing, the drift of it every thing,


s: Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!


s: Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,


s: But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than


s: I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,


s: I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a


s: casual look upon you and then averts his face,


s: Leaving it to you to prove and define it,


s: Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why


s: Thou reader throbbest life and pride and love the same as I,


s: Therefore for thee the following chants.


s: Starting from fish-shape Paumanok where I was born,


s: Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother,


s: After roaming many lands, lover of populous pavements,


s: Dweller in Mannahatta my city, or on southern savannas,


s: Or a soldier camp'd or carrying my knapsack and gun, or a miner


s: Or rude in my home in Dakota's woods, my diet meat, my drink from


s: Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep recess,


s: Far from the clank of crowds intervals passing rapt and happy,


s: Aware of the fresh free giver the flowing Missouri, aware of


s: Aware of the buffalo herds grazing the plains, the hirsute and


s: Having studied the mocking-bird's tones and the flight of the


s: And heard at dawn the unrivall'd one, the hermit thrush from the


s: Solitary, singing in the West, I strike up for a New World.


s: The indissoluble compacts, riches, mystery,


s: Eternal progress, the kosmos, and the modern reports.


s: Underfoot the divine soil, overhead the sun.


s: The ancestor-continents away group'd together,


s: As in a dream they change, they swiftly fill,


s: With firm and regular step they wend, they never stop,


s: Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions,


s: One generation playing its part and passing on,


s: Another generation playing its part and passing on in its turn,


s: With faces turn'd sideways or backward towards me to listen,


s: Americanos! conquerors! marches humanitarian!


s: Foremost! century marches! Libertad! masses!


s: Take my leaves America, take them South and take them North,


s: And you precedents, connect lovingly with them, for they connect


s: I sat studying at the feet of the great masters,


s: In the name of these States shall I scorn the antique?


s: Why these are the children of the antique to justify it.


s: Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since,


s: Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate,


s: I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left


s: I have perused it, own it is admirable, (moving awhile among it,)


s: Regarding it all intently a long while, then dismissing it,


s: I stand in my place with my own day here.


s: Here spirituality the translatress, the openly-avow'd,


s: The ever-tending, the finale of visible forms,


s: The satisfier, after due long-waiting now advancing,


s: Forever and forever--longer than soil is brown and solid--longer


s: And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality,


s: And I will make a song that there shall be comity by day and by


s: night between all the States, and between any two of them,


s: And I will make a song for the ears of the President, full of


s: And behind the weapons countless dissatisfied faces;


s: And a song make I of the One form'd out of all,


s: The fang'd and glittering One whose head is over all,


s: Resolute warlike One including and over all,


s: (However high the head of any else that head is over all.)


s: And employments! I will put in my poems that with you is heroism


s: And I will report all heroism from an American point of view.


s: I will show what alone must finally compact these,


s: I believe these are to found their own ideal of manly love,


s: I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were