s: Ne I sey not this al-only for these men,


s: Through false folk; god yeve hem sorwe, amen!


s: To speke, and in effect yow alle I preye,


s: And kis the steppes, wher-as thou seest pace


s: And red wher-so thou be, or elles songe,


s: But yet to purpos of my rather speche. --


s: Dispitously him slough the fiers Achille.


s: And whan that he was slayn in this manere,


s: Up to the holownesse of the seventh spere,


s: And doun from thennes faste he gan avyse


s: This wrecched world, and held al vanitee


s: That is in hevene above; and at the laste,


s: And in him-self he lough right at the wo


s: Of hem that wepten for his deeth so faste;


s: The blinde lust, the which that may not laste,


s: And forth he wente, shortly for to telle,


s: Ther as Mercurie sorted him to dwelle. --


s: Swich fyn hath, lo, this Troilus for love,


s: Swich fyn hath al his grete worthinesse;


s: Swich fyn his lust, swich fyn hath his noblesse;


s: Swich fyn hath false worldes brotelnesse.


s: As I have told, and in this wyse he deyde.


s: In which that love up groweth with your age,


s: This world, that passeth sone as floures fayre.


s: And loveth him, the which that right for love


s: First starf, and roos, and sit in hevene a-bove;


s: That wol his herte al hoolly on him leye.


s: And sin he best to love is, and most meke,


s: Lo here, these wrecched worldes appetytes;


s: Lo here, the fyn and guerdon for travaille


s: Of Iove, Appollo, of Mars, of swich rascaille!


s: Lo here, the forme of olde clerkes speche


s: To thee, and to the philosophical Strode,


s: To vouchen sauf, ther nede is, to corecte,


s: With al myn herte of mercy ever I preye;


s: And to the lord right thus I speke and seye:


s: Thou oon, and two, and three, eterne on-lyve,


s: That regnest ay in three and two and oon,


s: For love of mayde and moder thyn benigne! Amen.


s: Whose sounds are mingled with his noble verse,


s: Now lies the shell that never more will house


s: The fine, strong spirit of my gifted friend.


s: Who sang the first great songs these lands can claim


s: To be their own; the one who did not seem


s: Has passed away; and we who knew him, sit


s: While over yonder churchyard, hearsed with pines,


s: The night-wind sings its immemorial hymn,


s: The bard, the scholar, and the man who lived


s: That frank, that open-hearted life which keeps


s: From dying out; the one who never wronged


s: A fellow-man; the faithful friend who judged


s: By what he saw, and not by what he heard,


s: As lesser spirits do; the brave great soul


s: Of that bright company this sin-stained world


s: The hundreds who had read his sturdy verse,


s: Which runs through all he wrote, and often takes


s: Of forest winds in March; nor did they think


s: That on that healthy-hearted man there lay


s: The wild specific curse which seems to cling


s: Who culled a garland from the flowers of song


s: To place where Harpur sleeps; I, left alone,


s: I dedicate these lines; and if 'tis true


s: That, past the darkness of the grave, the soul


s: Becomes omniscient, then the bard may stoop


s: From his high seat to take the offering,


s: And read it with a sigh for human friends,


s: In human bonds, and gray with human griefs.


s: And having wove and proffered this poor wreath,


s: At nightfall through the glimmering moony mists,


s: And strained in vain to hear the going voice.


s: "'Twas merry in the glowing morn, among the gleaming grass,


s: To wander as we've wandered many a mile,


s: 'Twas merry 'mid the blackwoods, when we spied the station roofs,


s: With a running fire of stockwhips and a fiery run of hoofs,


s: Oh! the hardest day was never then too hard!


s: "Aye! we had a glorious gallop after 'Starlight' and his gang,


s: When they bolted from Sylvester's on the flat;


s: Hard behind them in the timber, harder still across the heath,


s: Close behind them through the tea-tree scrub we dashed;


s: And the golden-tinted fern leaves, how they rustled underneath!


s: And the honeysuckle osiers, how they crash'd!"


s: This is genuine. There is no "poetic evolution from the depths of


s: Hopeless explorers have named them out of their sufferings--Mount


s: Fragmentary Scenes from the Road to Avernus


s: Through the tent's wide entrance streaming,


s: Swords that ring on shields that rattle,


s: Blades that gash and darts that pierce;--


s: Was there nought save bloodshed throbbing


s: Through the death mist hovering o'er me,


s: Think'st thou, love, 'twill chafe my ghost in


s: Room--who knows?--The gods are gracious;


s: In Collins-street standeth a statue tall--


s: Of the dust reclaimed from the sand waste lone.


s: Who has gone, my friends, where we all must go.


s: There are perils by land, and perils by water,


s: Of the landsman lost, but they may be shorter


s: With the mariner lost in the trackless seas;


s: And well for him when the timbers start,


s: And the stout ship reels and settles below,


s: Who goes to his doom with as bold a heart


s: As that dead man gone where we all must go.


s: Are the dews of battle, shed on the field,


s: By a nation's wrath or a despot's pride;


s: But few who have heard their death-knell roll,


s: From the cannon's lips where they faced the foe,


s: Who pass'd with mourners standing around,


s: Did he envy such ending? 'twere hard to say;


s: Can the spirit feel for the senseless clay


s: When it once has gone where we all must go?


s: What matters the sand or the whitening chalk,


s: The blighted herbage, the black'ning log,


s: Or the hot red tongue of the native dog?


s: That couch was rugged, those sextons rude,


s: Yet, in spite of a leaden shroud, we know


s: That the bravest and fairest are earth-worms' food,


s: When once they've gone where we all must go.


s: With the pistol clenched in his failing hand,


s: With the death mist spread o'er his fading eyes,


s: 'Twas well; he toil'd till his task was done,


s: The storm was weathered, the battle was won,


s: When he went, my friends, where we all must go.


s: Our course is run and our goal is reach'd,


s: We may meet our fate as steady and straight


s: As he whose bones in yon desert bleach'd;


s: No tears are needed--our cheeks are dry,


s: Shall we sigh for one who has ceased to sigh,


s: Having gone, my friends, where we all must go?


s: He fought against odds, he struggled up hill,


s: He has fairly earned his season of rest;


s: Let the goblets clash, and the grape juice flow;


s: Ho! pledge me a death-drink, comrade mine,


s: To a brave man gone where we all must go.


s: Oh! the sun rose on the lea, and the bird sang merrilie,


s: And the steed stood ready harness'd in the hall,


s: And he left his lady's bower, and he sought the eastern tower,


s: And he lifted cloak and weapon from the wall.


s: "We were wed but yester-noon, must we separate so soon?


s: Must you travel unassoiled and, aye, unshriven,


s: "Tho' it were but yester-even we were wedded, still unshriven,


s: Across the moor this morning I must ride;


s: I must gallop fast and straight, for my errand will not wait;


s: Fear naught, I shall return at eventide."


s: "If I fear, it is for thee, thy weal is dear to me,


s: As we've sown so must we reap, and I've started in my sleep


s: At the voice of the avenger, 'Life for life'."


s: "My arm is strong, I ween, and my trusty blade is keen,


s: And the courser that I ride is swift and sure,


s: And I cannot break my oath, though to leave thee I am loth,


s: There is one that I must meet upon the moor."


s: Oh! the sun shone on the lea, and the bird sang merrilie,


s: Down the avenue and through the iron gate,


s: Spurr'd and belted, so he rode, steel to draw and steel to goad,


s: And across the moor he galloped fast and straight.


s: Oh! the sun shone on the lea, and the bird sang full of glee,


s: Ere the mists of evening gather'd chill and grey;


s: But the wild bird's merry note on the deaf ear never smote,


s: And the sunshine never warmed the lifeless clay.


s: Ere the sun began to droop, or the mist began to stoop,


s: The youthful bride lay swooning in the hall;


s: Empty saddle on his back, broken bridle hanging slack,


s: The steed returned full gallop to the stall.


s: Oh! the sun sank in the sea, and the wind wailed drearilie;


s: For the night rack nestles dark round the body stiff and stark,


s: And unshriven to its Maker flies the soul.


s: "Beneath the greenwood bough."--W. Scott.


s: Lightly the breath of the spring wind blows,


s: 'Tis the fragrance rare that the bushman knows,


s: Two-thirds of our journey at least are done,


s: In the shade from the glare of the noonday sun,


s: Your bridle I'll slip, your saddle ungirth,


s: For you'll roll in that track of reddish earth,


s: Upon yonder rise there's a clump of trees--


s: You can crop the grass as fast as you please,


s: 'Tis pleasant, I ween, with a leafy screen


s: To the memories old that, like tales fresh told,


s: "They have saddled a hundred milk-white steeds,


s: They have bridled a hundred black."--Old Ballad.


s: "He turned in his saddle, now follow who dare.


s: Where I once heard the blast of the huntsman's horn,


s: Jack Esdale was there, and Hugh St. Clair,


s: With the lean game head of the Blacklock breed,


s: And the resolute eye that loves the lead,


s: A tower of strength, with a promise of speed


s: In a country so deep, with a scent so hot,


s: I remember how few in the front rank shew'd,


s: On the brown hill-side, where we cross'd the road,


s: The dark-brown steed on the left was there,


s: And between the pair, on a chestnut mare,


s: What business had "this child" there to ride?


s: Yet I held my own for a while in "the pride


s: Though rashness can hope for but one result,


s: We are heedless when fate draws nigh us,


s: And the maxim holds good, "Quem perdere vult


s: The right hand man to the left hand said,


s: "Harden your heart like a millstone, Ned,


s: You must have it at speed or not at all,


s: For the stream runs wide on the take-off side,


s: Here goes for a pull, 'tis a madman's ride,


s: But I saw him shorten his horse's stroke


s: As we splash'd through the marshy ground;


s: So he rode to his death, with that careless smile,


s: From the shattered lungs as merry and clear


s: I remember one thrust he gave to his hat,


s: I remember the snort and the stag-like bound


s: And the laugh of the rider while, landing sound,


s: He turned in his saddle and glanced around;


s: Save a bird's-eye gleam of the dashing stream,


s: A shock and the blank of a nightmare's dream--


s: Can take such honourable place."--Ballad of the Wild Huntsman.


s: When I think one drop of the blood he bore


s: He said that as from the blood of grape,


s: So the coward will dare on the gallant horse


s: And it may be so, yet this difference lies


s: The spurious courage that drink supplies


s: But the stimulant which the horseman feels


s: And the yarns of "Nimrod" and "Martingale"


s: Now tell me for once, old horse of mine,


s: Where "the POWERS that be" in the front rank ride,


s: Or to plunge at "Faugh-a-Ballagh's" side


s: Don't tread on my toes, you're no foolish weight,


s: Your carcase I lay, when you rose too late,


s: What! sulky old man, your under-lip falls!


s: At your kinship remote to that duffer at walls,


s: There's a formula which the west country clowns


s: At the fairs on the Devon and Cornwall downs,


s: In the crossing-guard, where the ash-plants kiss,


s: If you hold the willow, a shooter from Wills


s: And the football meadow is rife with spills,


s: In a rattling gallop with hound and horse


s: On the sward, with the saddle your loins across,


s: In the stubbles you'll find it hard to frame


s: When oft as "our mutual friend" takes aim,


s: Long odds may be laid on the rising game,


s: There's danger even where fish are caught,


s: For what's worth having must aye be bought,


s: And sport's like life and life's like sport,


s: Shall we leave to others their gathering,


s: And turn from clustering fruits that cling


s: Let us pause and try, ere we pass them by,


s: Wear woollen socks, they're the best you'll find,


s: And whatever you do, don't change your mind


s: With a bank of cloud in the south south-east,


s: Don't stop with your head too frequently


s: Look before you leap, if you like, but if


s: Or the weakest place will soon grow stiff,


s: And hit out straight, 'tis your shortest plan,


s: Mere pluck, though not in the least sublime,


s: Since "No sparrow can fall before its time",


s: Like the honest boors in the far-off west,


s: They were men for the most part rough and rude,


s: But they nursed no quarrel, they cherished no feud,


s: In a kindly spirit they took their stand,


s: How a man should uphold the sports of his land,


s: And strike his best with a strong right hand,


s: "'Twas a barbarous practice," the Quaker cries,


s: "'Tis a thing of the past, thank heaven"--


s: Keep your thanks till the combative instinct dies


s: Yes, the times are changed, for better or worse,


s: Our burdens are heavy, our natures weak,


s: May we look for? "Puritan elder, speak!"


s: "Yea, friend, peradventure thou mayest seek


s: For of music I never one note could learn,


s: Tho' the Philistine's mail could not avail,


s: There are episodes yet in the Psalmist's tale,


s: With his monarch in blissful concert, free


s: Zeruiah's offspring, who served so well,


s: Yet between the horns of the altar fell--


s: Does HIS voice the "Quid gloriaris" swell,


s: But while earth to earthy matter clings,


s: Neither you nor the bravest of Judah's kings


s: To beasts of the field, and fowls of the air,


s: With a license to kill, and to work our will,


s: To our heart's content we may take our fill


s: Where the weak and the timid seem lawful prey


s: Fins, furs, and feathers, they are and were


s: We can shoot, and hunt, and angle, and snare,


s: I have neither the will nor the right to blame,


s: The sweets of destruction are somewhat tame


s: If they suffer at all, our field sports must


s: Shall we, hard-hearted to their fates, thus


s: When the measure we mete is meted to us,


s: Shall we who for pastime have squander'd life,


s: Recoil from our chance of more equal strife,


s: Though short is the dying pheasant's pain,


s: And the partridge slain is a triumph vain,


s: You feel, when you lower the smoking gun,


s: But you've no remorseful qualms or pangs


s: On that conical bullet your sole chance hangs,


s: Should you miss, one vision of home and friends,


s: Three savage knife stabs, so your sport ends


s: In the worrying grapple that chokes and rends;--


s: Short shrift! sharp fate! dark doom to dree!


s: Ah! friend, did you think when the LONDON sank,


s: How alone at least, with never a flinch,


s: When a livid wall of the sea leaps high,


s: While the howling storm-gust seems to vie


s: With the crash of splintered beams that fly,


s: To despairing sobs from their lov'd one's lips,


s: Where the green wave thus slowly shatters,


s: May long for the crescent-claw that rips


s: Oh! sunderings short of body and breath!


s: Oh! "battle and murder and sudden death!"


s: By the will of a just, yet a merciful Power,


s: Less bitter, perchance, in the mystic hour,


s: When the wings of the shadowy angel lower,


s: "Nec propter vitam vivendi perdere causas."


s: Though the pitcher that goes to the sparkling rill


s: There are scores of others its place to fill


s: Keep that pitcher at home, let it never roam,


s: Is it wise, then, say, in the waning day,


s: Take care of yourself, dull, boorish elf,


s: Your pitcher will break on the musty shelf,


s: Dipping my nose in Gascoigne wine."--Wamba's Song--Thackeray.


s: And the trees on the broad and sloping sward


s: "Time flies." The current will be no joke,


s: To cross in the dark, so I'll have a smoke,


s: What's up, old horse? Your ears you prick,


s: 'Tis the wild dog's note in the tea-tree thick,


s: But I feel the qualm of a chilling doubt,


s: Let the dingo rest, 'tis all for the best;


s: Yet at times we long for one gallop more,


s: Did our spirits quail at a new four-rail,


s: Could we stand a merry cross-counter then,


s: (I tell the truth, though to tell it loth)


s: The young leaves shoot, the sere leaves fall,


s: While the preacher cries, "'Tis vanity all,


s: Yes, the preacher's right, 'tis vanity all,


s: Some toil for their Church, and some for their State,


s: Some traffic and trade in the city's mart,


s: Some follow science, some cleave to art,


s: And some for their country and their queen


s: Good sooth, 'twere a sorry world, I ween,


s: Yet if once we efface the joys of the chase


s: Where the burn runs down to the uplands brown,


s: From the heights of the snow-clad range,


s: What anodyne drawn from the stifling town


s: For the stalker's stride, on the mountain side,


s: To the slopes where couch, in their antler'd pride,


s: Oh! the vigour with which the air is rife!


s: The lungs with the living gas grow light,


s: While the chest expands with its madd'ning might,


s: Thus the measur'd stroke, on elastic sward,


s: Hard held, the breath of his nostrils broad,


s: Then the leap, the rise from the springy turf,


s: And the light shock landing--the veriest serf


s: Such scenes! sensation and sound and sight!


s: On the current of Time's remorseless flight


s: While, like phantoms bright of the fever'd night,


s: You follow us still in your ghostly might,


s: Till the fingers are cold that entwin'd of old


s: Till stay'd for aye are the roving feet,


s: Till the stubborn heart has forgotten to beat,


s: The Bacchanal steep'd in the flagon's tide,


s: When we go to the place from whence we came,


s: Thy riddles grow dark, oh! drifting cloud,


s: Thou hang'st in the air like a shadowy shroud,


s: Though the wise ones of earth will blame us,


s: Though our saddles will rot, and our rides be forgot,


s: Shall be unriddled by-and-bye."--Tennyson.


s: Perhaps some strain of rude thanksgiving


s: Right, 'tis joy that makes them call so,


s: Shall we sleep through night's long slumber


s: These trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a


s: view to their redemption from the many improvements to which


s: they have been subjected while going at random the rounds of


s: the Press. I am naturally anxious that what I have written


s: should circulate as I wrote it, if it circulate at all. * *


s: * * * * In defence of my own taste, nevertheless, it is


s: incumbent upon me to say that I think nothing in this volume


s: of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself.


s: Ah! friend, you may shake your head sadly,


s: When he, that shepherd false, 'neath Phrygian sails,


s: Carried his hostess Helen o'er the seas,


s: In fitful slumber Nereus hush'd the gales,


s: That he might sing their future destinies.


s: With her, whom Greece, with many a soldier bold


s: Shall seek again, in concert sworn to break


s: Your nuptial ties and Priam's kingdom old.


s: Alas! what sweat from man and horse must flow,


s: Her wrath, preparing buckler, car, and helm.


s: You comb your locks, and on the girlish lyre


s: Select the strains most pleasant to the fair;


s: To shun the darts that threaten, and the thrust


s: Of Cretan lance, the battle's wild turmoil,


s: Condemned, though late, your wanton curls to soil.


s: Ah! see you not where (fatal to your race)


s: Laertes' son comes with the Pylean sage;


s: Fearless alike, with Teucer joins the chase


s: Stenelaus, skill'd the fistic strife to wage,


s: Nor less expert the fiery steeds to quell;


s: A warrior, than his sire more fierce and fell,


s: Whom like the stag that, far across the vale,


s: The wolf being seen, no herbage can allure,


s: The day of wrath to Troy and Trojan dame;


s: And Dardan roofs must waste in Argive flame.


s: Wheels the wild bull, vengeance seeking,


s: O'er the horn'd front drops the streamer,


s: From the stream to the castle's western wing


s: On the sedgy brink where the osiers cling


s: Where the porch through the western turret led


s: "What aileth thee, Margaret?" the lady said,


s: "Say, what hast thou seen by the streamlet side--


s: That thou comest with eyes so wild and wide,


s: "Nor nymph nor sprite," the maiden cried,


s: "But the corpse of a slaughtered knight."


s: Of the guests who tarried within the gate


s: I can scarce believe that the maiden lies--


s: And the knight replies, "Till we test her eyes


s: Down the rocky path knight and lady led,


s: Followed in haste, for like wildfire spread


s: How the spirit had pass'd in the moments last


s: On the still calm face lay no imprint ghast,


s: Yet the hands were clench'd in a death-grip fast,


s: Sir Hugh by the side of the dead man knelt,


s: We have faced each other where blows were dealt,


s: While he ripp'd the doublet, and tore the lace,


s: And strain'd, till he wrench'd it out of its place,


s: "May the brand of Cain, with its withering stain,


s: For he never was slain on the open plain,


s: Solemn and stern were the words he spoke,


s: But his speech no answering echoes woke,


s: Till a clear, cold voice the silence broke:--


s: His glance met hers, the twain stood hush'd,


s: But the blood to her snowy temples rush'd


s: Then paled, but a thin red streak still flush'd


s: Four yeomen raised the corpse from the ground,


s: It was borne to the western turret round,


s: With never a sob nor a mourning sound,--


s: Yet that night was neither revel nor dance


s: Men looked askance with a doubtful glance


s: Of his prowess, but he, like one in a trance,


s: Night black and chill, wind gathering still,


s: And its headlong blast like a catapult cast


s: And its hail and rain on the crashing pane,


s: A corpse upstairs, and a woman at prayers,


s: The guests were gone, save Sir Hugh alone,


s: On the pale hearth-stone, and flickered and shone


s: He was 'ware of no presence except his own


s: "I've risen, Sir Hugh, at the mirk midnight,


s: It lies, the blood of yon northern knight,


s: "Oh! the wild wind raves and rushes along,


s: For the fever'd dreams on thy rest that throng!"


s: "Let storm winds eddy, and scream, and hurl


s: "This dagger snapp'd so close to the hilt--


s: Will it match with the broken blade that spilt


s: Nay! read her handwriting an' thou wilt,


s: And his face might have match'd the face of the dead,


s: Then he tore the parchment shred by shred,


s: And he muttered, "Densely those shadows fall


s: There she bade him come to her, once for all--


s: Though the gusts that pass through the riven glass


s: Across the floor, through the opening door,


s: The lamplight streams, and flickers, and gleams,


s: 'Tis Sir Hugh de Vere, and he cometh more near,


s: "'Tis little," he said, "that I know or care


s: That lies 'twixt thee and yon dead man there,


s: I thought thee pure, thou art only fair,


s: "Yet, Mabel, I could ask, dost thou dare


s: And call on thy Maker, and boldly swear,


s: I ask not, while threescore proofs I share


s: And her tresses black, as the glossy back


s: Her fingers slight, like the ivory white,


s: Yet with steady lip, and with fearless eye,


s: The knight bow'd low as he turn'd to go;


s: The salt tear fell from her clear blue eye.


s: "'Tis fixed for better, for worse," she cried,


s: "And to-morrow the bridegroom claims the bride.


s: I was merry, nathless, in my girlhood's hours,


s: 'Mid the waving grass when the bright sun shone,


s: Shall I be as merry in Marmaduke's towers?"


s: The rain-drops fall and the wind-gusts blow.


s: "I'll mend the old roof-tree," so he said,


s: "And repair the cottage when we are wed."


s: And my pulses throbb'd, and my cheek grew red,


s: Will my pulses throb with pleasure or pain?


s: Old Giles, the gardener, strok'd my curls


s: Quoth he, "In laces and silks and pearls


s: Now I trust in my heart that your lord will be


s: When I lay in the gaol, and my children three,


s: With their sickly mother, kept bitter fast."


s: Does the sheath of velvet cover the claw?


s: Saying, "There are words that I fain would speak--


s: I can't persuade you to change your mind,


s: Dame Martha's wise, though her hair is white,


s: Her sense is good, though her sight is gone--


s: Can she really be gifted with second sight?


s: He flung them down at the door-step there,


s: Said, "Elsie! ask your lord, if you dare,


s: Who gave him the blow as well as the lie."


s: And Marmaduke's face grew white and wan,


s: Am I pledged to one of a spirit so tame?


s: The station in life which he needs must fill;


s: But we can't win all gifts under the sun--


s: The mansion is stately, the manor is wide,


s: Their lord for a while may pamper and pet;


s: Though the peasant girl is their master's bride,


s: At her shyness, mingled with awkward pride,--


s: 'Twere folly for trifles like these to fret;


s: Will it last when the gloss of his toy is gone?


s: Is there naught beyond, below, or above?


s: Oh! wind that whistles o'er thorns and thistles,


s: Of this fruitful earth like a goblin elf;


s: Why should he labour to help his neighbour


s: The wail of the breeze in the bending trees


s: Is something between a laugh and a groan;


s: And the hollow roar of the surf on the shore


s: I wish I could guess what sense they express,


s: There's a meaning, doubtless, in every sound,


s: Yet no one can tell, and it may be as well--


s: Whom would it profit?--The world goes round!


s: On this earth so rough we know quite enough,


s: And, I sometimes fancy, a little too much;


s: The sage may be wiser than clown or than kaiser,


s: The kaiser may rule, but the slippery stool,


s: That he calls his throne, is no sinecure;


s: And as for the clown, you may give him a crown,


s: And before you can wink he may spend it in drink--


s: To whom does it profit?--We ripe and rot!


s: All sow and some reap, and few gather the heap


s: And the dreamer, waiting for time and tide,


s: For awhile may shirk his share of the work,


s: But he grows with his dream dissatisfied;


s: He may climb to the edge of the beetling ledge,


s: Where the loose crag topples and well-nigh reels


s: 'Neath the lashing gale, but the tonic will fail--


s: What does it profit?--Wheels within wheels!


s: Some folk grow fatter--what does it matter?


s: 'Tis a weary round to which we are bound,


s: Much toil and trouble, and a glittering bubble,


s: That rises and bursts, is the best we gain;


s: And we murmur, and yet 'tis certain we get


s: What good we deserve--can we hope for more?--


s: They are roaring, those waves, in their echoing caves--


s: Thou art still, not with stillness of languor,


s: And locks that are snake-like to strangle,


s: And eyes from whose depths may be glean'd


s: Through features too proud to dissemble,


s: That flows from thy wine-press of wrath.


s: Thine arm, strong and cruel, and shapely,


s: Some share of thy strength thou hast given


s: Our senses are trapp'd, our souls tricked


s: And strikes his last stroke with slack hand,


s: On his dead face thy wrath and thy scorn is


s: When the blood of thy victims lies red on


s: When the smoke of thy hot conflagrations


s: Where nations have fought against nations,


s: White steeds of ocean, that leap with a hollow and wearisome roar


s: My ears are constantly smitten by that dreary monotone,


s: In a hieroglyphic 'tis written--'tis spoken in a tongue unknown;


s: through the spray of your glittering tears.


s: Is your song a song of gladness? a paean of joyous might?


s: Not far from this very place, on the sand and the shingle dry,


s: He lay, with his batter'd face upturned to the frowning sky.


s: When your waters wash'd and swill'd high over his drowning head,


s: When his nostrils and lungs were filled,


s: When against the rock he was hurl'd, and suck'd again to the sea,


s: On the verge of annihilation, did it come to that swimmer strong,


s: "Mortal! that which thou askest, ask not thou of the waves;


s: Fool! thou foolishly taskest us--we are only slaves;


s: Might, more mighty, impels us--we must our lot fulfil,


s: He who gathers and swells us curbs us, too, at His will.


s: Think'st thou the wave that shatters questioneth His decree?


s: Little to us it matters, and naught it matters to thee.


s: Not thus, murmuring idly, we from our duty would swerve,


s: Over the world spread widely ever we labour and serve."


s: Oh, gaily sings the bird! and the wattle-boughs are stirr'd


s: And rustled by the scented breath of spring;


s: Oh, the dreary wistful longing! Oh, the faces that are thronging!


s: Oh, tell me, father mine, ere the good ship cross'd the brine,


s: On the gangway one mute hand-grip we exchang'd;


s: Do you, past the grave, employ, for your stubborn, reckless boy,


s: Those petitions that in life were ne'er estranged?


s: Oh, tell me, sister dear, parting word and parting tear


s: Never pass'd between us;--let me bear the blame,


s: Are you living, girl, or dead? bitter tears since then I've shed


s: For the lips that lisp'd with mine a mother's name.


s: Oh, tell me, ancient friend, ever ready to defend,


s: In our boyhood, at the base of life's long hill,


s: Oh, whisper, buried love, is there rest and peace above?--


s: There is little hope or comfort here below;


s: With an apathy that mocks at man's distress;


s: Laugh, scoffer, while you may! I could bow me down and pray


s: For an answer that might stay my bitterness.


s: Oh, harshly screams the bird! and the wattle-bloom is stirr'd;


s: There's a sullen, weird-like whisper in the bough:


s: "Aye, kneel, and pray, and weep, but HIS BELOVED SLEEP


s: The shore-boat lies in the morning light,


s: The skies are clear, and the dawn is bright,


s: Tho' the bar of the bay is fleck'd with white,


s: Near the tiller stands the priest, and the knight


s: "There is time while the vessel tarries still,


s: There is time while her shrouds are slack,


s: There is time ere her sails to the west wind fill,


s: Ere her tall masts vanish from town and from hill,


s: There is time for confession to those who will,


s: "Sir priest, you can shrive these men of mine,


s: And shrive those hardy sons of the brine,


s: Then pledge me a cup of the Cyprus wine,


s: "And hast thou naught to repent, my son?


s: Ere thy sands from the glass of time shall run


s: Is there naught undone that thou should'st have done,


s: Naught done that thou should'st have left?


s: The guiltiest soul may from guilt be won,


s: "Have my ears been closed to the prayer of the poor,


s: Have I brought a curse to the widow's door?


s: Have I steep'd my fingers in guiltless gore,


s: Hast thou yielded naught to the lust of the eye,


s: Hast thou pass'd all snares of pleasure by?


s: Hast thou shunn'd all wrath and strife?"


s: I may suffer still, but my hope has fled,--


s: "Dost suffer? thy pain may be fraught with grace,


s: We are saved;--the penitent thief may trace


s: The wealth of love in the Saviour's face


s: And the Magdalene's arms may yet embrace


s: And (not with the words of the Pharisee)


s: So she pray'd with clasp'd hands, white and thin,--


s: For the light of repentance bursting in,


s: "Say, priest! when the saint must vainly plead,


s: Let the wither'd branch for itself take heed,


s: I've striven, though feebly, to grasp your creed,


s: "By the little within thee, good and brave,


s: By the soul that crieth beyond the grave,


s: The love that He once in His mercy gave,


s: I conjure thee, oh! sinner, pardon crave,


s: In my sin, in my sorrow, you may not share,


s: And yet could I meet with one who must bear


s: With him I might strive to blend one prayer,


s: Thou hast sinn'd, thou sayest; I ask not how,


s: And with thee I must bow, crying, 'Shrive us now!


s: The lamps are trimm'd, although the light


s: Who cares, 'mid wines and fruits and flowers,


s: We drank his health with three-times-three,


s: Good sooth, 'twere somewhat hard to say.


s: Since false notes taint the skylark's hymn,


s: There's something good in Spartan creed--


s: The sun has gone down, spreading wide on


s: Strong man, in the pride of thy strength?


s: See, closed are the curtains, the lights


s: And through the silk awning steals lightly


s: Will He take back that strength He has given,


s: Neither God should restrain me, nor devil,


s: Pause not till thy strength shall forsake thee,


s: Strong chest, where her drapery rustles,


s: Sleep sound on that breast fair and ample;


s: Dull brain, and dim eyes, and deaf ears,


s: It comes!--with the gleam of the lamps on


s: On thy soul in the night-watch? Ho! Samson,


s: through the housetops, casements, and eaves,


s: And whisper'd low in the hearts of the men, and the men replied,


s: Let us follow our own devices, and foster our own desires.


s: We are bruis'd, we are shorn, we are thinn'd,


s: From the skies that are dark and leaden,


s: They have flown, the blue and the green,


s: With the elm in the place of the wattle,


s: Have I done with those childish fancies?


s: What might be!--the dreams were scatter'd,


s: Where I dreamt that the skies were blue.


s: Yet these, on earth, are lords and kings,


s: Those words, I wot, blood thick and hot,


s: Each pilgrim strong, who joins our throng,


s: The staff is snapp'd, the sandal fray'd,


s: Hardly drawn through tight-clenched teeth,


s: And the shuddering wave strikes, linking


s: "Thou hast gone astray," quoth the preacher,


s: Thou hast taught me in vain, oh, teacher!


s: T'wards the mist where the breakers moan


s: Through the shoals and the quicksands shifting--


s: In the end shall the night-rack lifting,


s: But whose granite base the breakers surge,


s: Outstretched, I gaze on the eddying wreath


s: With the surf beneath, and between my teeth


s: With the anodyne cloud on my listless eyes,


s: From the brown bowl up to the sullen skies,


s: Through the smoke-rack drifting and veering,


s: In their own generation the wise may sneer,


s: Of the works of His hand, by sea or by land,


s: Did they quail, those steeds of the squadrons light,


s: When they burst on the guns of the Muscovite,


s: On! on! to the cannon's mouth they stride,


s: Oh! the minutes of yonder maddening ride,


s: No slave, but a comrade staunch, in this,


s: Not in peril alone, but in feverish bliss,


s: Where bullets whistle, and round shot whiz,


s: The wind has slumbered throughout the day,


s: (And a shocking bad one it is, by the way),


s: Blow a denser cloud from my stunted clay,


s: And then, friend BELL, as the Frenchmen say,


s: There's a lull in the tumult on yonder hill,


s: Though the Babel of tongues is never still,


s: The racers stripp'd for the "Melbourne Cup",


s: And the course is seen, with its emerald sheen,


s: Like a ribbon of green stretched out between


s: The flag is lowered. "They're off!" "They come!"


s: They came with the rush of the southern surf,


s: And like muffled drums on the sounding turf


s: The rose and black draws clear of the ruck,


s: As the brave old colours that never were struck,


s: Though the feathery ferns and grasses wave


s: Though the turf is green on Fisherman's grave,


s: She's tailing them off, she's running strong,


s: She won't be caught: she comes right away;


s: See, Strop falls back, though his reins are slack,


s: And the top-weight tells on the Sydney crack,


s: The rowels, as round the turn they sweep,


s: Like the hunted deer that flies through the sheep,


s: The hot breath steams at your saddle girth,


s: The shouts of the Ring for a space subside,


s: When Sparrowhawk's backers cease to cheer,


s: When hushed is the clamour for Volunteer--


s: They're neck and neck; they're head and head;


s: They're stroke for stroke in the running;


s: The whalebone whistles, the steel is red,


s: One effort, Seagull, the blood you boast


s: Should struggle when nerves are strained;--


s: With a rush on the post, by a neck at the most,


s: In whose 'scutcheon lurks no sinister bar,


s: Aye, Shorthouse, laugh--laugh loud and long,


s: The fair one in fig leaves, who d----d us all


s: There was scarce a ripple in yonder bay,


s: Each column that sailed from my swarthy clay


s: Though the skies wore a tinge of leaden grey,


s: But the red sun sank to his evening shroud,


s: There's a misty glare in the yellow moon,


s: There'll be storm, and rattle, and tempest soon,


s: And the breakers moan, and--by Jove, it rains


s: Though it can't well damage my shabby hat,


s: Though my coat looks best when it's damp;


s: Since the shaking I got (no matter where at),


s: I'll be stiff, and sore, and sorry, no doubt,


s: On the fields of Col'raine there'll be labour in vain


s: The nags will have toil'd, and the silks will be soil'd,


s: And the rails will require to be mended.


s: For the gullies are deep, and the uplands are steep,


s: And the tough stringy-bark, that invites us to lark,


s: Though Ballarat's fast, and they say he can last,


s: Yet the judge's decision to the Border division


s: Will bring neither shouting nor laughter.


s: And Blueskin, I've heard that he goes like a bird,


s: And I'm told that to back him would pay me;


s: He's a good bit of stuff, but not quite good enough,


s: Alfred ought to be there, we all of us swear


s: He's not the real jam, by the blood of his dam,


s: Now, Hynam, my boy, I wish you great joy,


s: I know that when fresh you can jump, sir;


s: But you'll scarce be in clover, when you're ridden all over,


s: And punished from shoulder to rump, sir.


s: Archer goes like a shot, they can put on their pot,


s: Their pot will boil over, the run of his dover


s: There's a horse in the race, with a blaze on his face,


s: He's proved himself stout, of his speed there's no doubt,


s: When Hynam's outstripp'd, and when Alfred is whipp'd,


s: While Blueskin runs true, but his backers look blue,


s: For his rider's at work with the bleeders;


s: When his carcase of beef brings "the bullock" to grief,


s: When Archer's in trouble--who's that pulling double,


s: He wins all the way, and the rest--sweet, they say,


s: Is the smell of the newly-turned plough, friend,


s: But you smell it too close when it stops eyes and nose,


s: And you can't tell your horse from your cow, friend.


s: Dear Bell,--I enclose what you ask in a letter,


s: A short rhyme at random, no more and no less,


s: And you may insert it, for want of a better,


s: Or leave it, it doesn't much matter, I guess;


s: And as for a tip, why, there isn't much in it,


s: I may hit the right nail, but first, I declare,


s: I haven't a notion what's going to win it


s: (The Champion, I mean), and what's more, I don't care.


s: Imprimis, there's Cowra--few nags can go quicker


s: Than she can--and Smith takes his oath she can fly;


s: While Brown, Jones, and Robinson swear she's a sticker,


s: There's old Volunteer, I'd be sorry to sneer


s: At his chance; he'll be there, if he goes at the rate


s: He went at last year, when a customer queer,


s: Johnny Higgerson, fancied him lock'd in the straight;


s: I've heard that the old horse has never been fitter,


s: I've heard all performances past he'll outvie;


s: He may gallop a docker, and finish a splitter,


s: I know what they say, sir, "The Hook" he can stay, sir,


s: And stick to his work like a sleuth-hound or beagle;


s: He stays "with a HOOK", and he sticks in the clay, sir;


s: I'd rather, for choice, pop my money on Seagull;


s: I'm told that the Sydney division will rue, sir,


s: Their rashness in front of the stand when they spy,


s: With a clear lead, the white jacket spotted with blue, sir,


s: There's The Barb--you may talk of your flyers and stayers,


s: All bosh--when he strips you can see his eye range


s: Round his rivals, with much the same look as Tom Sayers


s: Once wore when he faced the big novice, Bill Bainge.


s: Like Stow, at our hustings, confronting the hisses


s: Of roughs, with his queer Mephistopheles' smile;


s: Like Baker, or Baker's more wonderful MRS.,


s: The terror of blacks at the source of the Nile;


s: Like Triton 'mid minnows; like hawk among chickens;


s: Like--anything better than everything else:


s: He stands at the post. Now they're off! the plot thickens!


s: Quoth Stanley to Davis, "How is your pulse?"


s: He skims o'er the smooth turf, he scuds through the mire,


s: He waits with them, passes them, bids them good-bye!


s: Two miles and three-quarters, cries Filgate, "He'll tire."


s: Lest my tale should come true, let me give you fair warning,


s: You may "shout" some cheroots, if you like, no champagne


s: For this child--"Oh! think of my head in the morning,"


s: Old chap, you don't get me on that lay again.


s: The last time those games I look'd likely to try on,


s: Says Bradshawe, "You'll feel very sheepish and shy


s: This writing bad verses is very fatiguing,


s: The brain and the liver against it combine,


s: And nerves with digestion in concert are leaguing,


s: To punish excess in the pen and ink line;


s: Already I feel just as if I'd been rowing


s: Hard all--on a supper of onions and tripe


s: (A thing I abhor), but my steam I've done blowing,


s: I am, my dear BELL, yours truly, "The Pipe".


s: P.S.--Tell J. P., if he fancies a good 'un,


s: That old chestnut pony of mine is for sale.


s: N.B.--His forelegs are uncommonly wooden,


s: I fancy the near one's beginning to fail,


s: And why shouldn't I do as W----n does oft,


s: And swear that a cripple is sound--on the Bible--


s: Hold hard! though the man I allude to is soft,


s: He's game to go in for an action of libel.


s: Of chases and courses dogs dream, so do horses--


s: The crowd and the bustle were there, and the rustle


s: The stand throng'd with faces, the broadcloth and laces,


s: The booths, and the tents, and the cars,


s: The bookmakers' jargon, for odds making bargain,


s: We formed into line, 'neath the merry sunshine,


s: Near the logs at the end of the railing;


s: "Are you ready, boys? Go!" cried the starter, and low


s: Sank the flag, and away we went sailing.


s: In the van of the battle we heard the stones rattle,


s: Some slogging was done, but no slaughter,


s: A shout from the stand, and the whole of our band


s: Two fences we clear'd, and the roadway we near'd,


s: When three of our troop came to trouble;


s: Like a bird on the wing, or a stone from a sling,


s: And Western was there, head and tail in the air,


s: Could so name a horse? I should feel some remorse


s: In and out of the lane, to the racecourse again,


s: And Ingleside lit in my tracks, with the bit


s: In his teeth, and came up "like a bird".


s: In the van of the battle we heard the rails rattle,


s: Says he, "Though I don't care for shunning


s: My share of the raps, I shall look out for gaps,


s: When the light weight's away with the running."


s: At the fence just ahead the outsider still led,


s: Oh! the devil a gap, he went into it slap,


s: Says Ingleside, "Mate, should the pony go straight,


s: You've no time to stop or turn restive;"


s: Says I, "Who means to stop? I shall go till I drop;"


s: Says he, "Go it, old cuss, gay and festive."


s: The fence stiff and tall, just beyond the log wall,


s: We cross'd, and the walls, and the water,--


s: I took off too near, a small made fence to clear,


s: And just touch'd the grass with my snorter.


s: At the next post and rail up went Western's bang tail,


s: To earth went his nose, for the panel he chose


s: I dreamt someone said that the bay would have made


s: The race safe if he'd STOOD a while longer;


s: IF he had,--but, like if, there the panel stands stiff--


s: In and out of the road, with a clear lead still show'd


s: Says Johnson, "Old man, catch him now if you can,


s: 'Tis the second time round you'll remember."


s: At the road once again, pulling hard on the rein,


s: I followed like smoke and the pace was no joke,


s: For his friends were beginning to shout.


s: And Ingleside came to my side, strong and game,


s: But I felt the steel gore, and I shot to the fore,


s: In the van of the battle I heard the logs rattle,


s: And thrice I drew near him, and thrice he drew clear,


s: For the weight served him well at the finish.


s: Ha! Cadger goes down, see, he stands on his crown--


s: A long sliding blunder--he's up--well, I wonder


s: All loosely he's striding, the amateur's riding


s: Of a "vision in smoke", or a "wayfaring bloke",


s: Now comes from afar the faint cry, "Here they are,"


s: "Fred goes up like a shot," "Does he catch him or not?"


s: To his haunches I spring, and my muzzle I bring


s: To his flank, to his girth, to his shoulder;


s: Through the shouting and yelling I hear my name swelling,


s: Neck and neck! head and head! staring eye! nostril spread!


s: Girth and stifle laid close to the ground!


s: And "Banker for choice" is the cry, and one voice


s: "Banker wins," "Banker's beat," "Cadger wins," "A dead heat"--


s: Ah! there goes Fred's whalebone a flanker.


s: Springs the whip with a crack! nine stone ten on his back,


s: Fit and light he can race like the devil;


s: I draw past him--'tis vain; he draws past me again,


s: Springs the whip! and again we are level.


s: Steel and cord do their worst, now my head struggles first!


s: Nose to nose! lip to lip! from the sound of the whip


s: How they swim through the air, as we roll to the chair,


s: Calm and clear! the bright day is declining,


s: Like a shield of pure metal, lies shining


s: While the little waves leap in the sunset,


s: Calm and clear! the sea-breezes are laden


s: With a scent like the scent of a flower;


s: And a whisper, half-weird, half-prophetic,


s: In trials whence touts take their winner,


s: Since I scarce know Van Tromp from Blue Bonnet,


s: If I had some loose coins I might chuck one,


s: "Here goes! this is tails for the black one,


s: One chime--though I sing more or sing less,


s: And it might have been better if, stringless


s: But with song out of tune, sung to pass time,


s: Where the false notes that ring for the last time,


s: May blend with some real ones, who knows?


s: In the stand they are crushing for room,


s: Like midge-flies they swarm on the heather,


s: They flutter like moths round a candle--


s: Hark! the shuffle of feet that are many,


s: Friends left?"--How I hate your turf slang;


s: Good words when they slate a good horse.


s: They're off! lights and shades! silk and satin!


s: See, they come round the last turn careering,


s: And the green in the vanguard is steering,


s: Are the stripes in the shade doom'd to lie long?


s: Do the blue stars on white skies wax dim?


s: As the shell through the breach that is riven


s: As the bolt from the thunder-cloud driven,


s: Through yon mass parti-colour'd that dashes


s: Past The Fly, falling back on the right, and


s: Past Tamworth, who feels the whip smite, and


s: As if eight stone twelve were a feather,


s: While behind the hoof-thunder is blended


s: With the whistling and crackling of whips.


s: And these rhymes are but moonshine and vapour,


s: Free, gratis, for just what they're worth,


s: When, with satellites round them the centre,


s: You may feel, as you might feel, just landed


s: Of a vicious cross-counter, right-handed,


s: And that's not so bad if you're pick'd up


s: Loose teeth by the sponge are soon lick'd up,


s: Still I'm not sure you'd like it exactly


s: And you'll find in a nutshell this fact lie,


s: As the mill grinds the corn to the meal;


s: Thus we build an air-castle that crumbles


s: And the fool builds again while he grumbles,


s: And the wise one laughs, building again.


s: "How came they to pass, these rash blunders,


s: Our friend puts the question and wonders,


s: Could you trace the first stride falsely taken,


s: When you pick'd yourself up, stunn'd and shaken,


s: At the fence 'twixt the turf and the plough?"


s: In the ears to the earth shock resounding!


s: In great things, it crushes and stifles,


s: The past! the dead past! that has swallow'd


s: Brighter dreams than mere pastimes we've follow'd,


s: Aye, and worse things--that past is it really


s: Feel sharply, hear plainly, see clearly,


s: Past days with their joy and their pain?


s: Our souls on the wings of thought carried,


s: They conjure strange tales, rarely read,


s: Of the priests of dead Pharaohs presiding


s: Strong incense, rare wines, and rich spices,


s: Does our thraldom fall short of completeness


s: And the flavour of a poisonous sweetness,


s: And the links of the past--but, no matter,


s: And with the aid of your lexicon tell us


s: Thus we know not the day, nor the morrow,


s: Nor the storm, nor the sleep, nor the sorrow,


s: Nor the strife, nor the rest, nor the wrath.


s: Yet the skies are still tranquil and starlit,


s: Dies in purple, and crimson, and scarlet,


s: Since again from the earth his effulgence


s: The nobler and the manlier one?"--Byron.


s: One line of swart profiles and bearded lips dressing,


s: One ridge of bright helmets, one crest of fair plumes,


s: One streak of blue sword-blades all bared for the fleshing,


s: One row of red nostrils that scent battle-fumes.


s: Forward! the trumpets were sounding the charge,


s: That music, like wild-fire spreading at large,


s: Madden'd the war-horse as well as the man.


s: Forward! still forward! we thunder'd along,


s: Steadily yet, for our strength we were nursing;


s: Tall Ewart, our sergeant, was humming a song,


s: Lance-corporal Black Will was blaspheming and cursing.


s: Open'd their volley of guns on our right,


s: Puffs of grey smoke, veiling gleams of red flame,


s: Curling to leeward, were seen on the height,


s: Where the batteries were posted, as onward we came.


s: Eagles wait calmly the sparrow-hawk's stoop.


s: Forward! still forward! steed answering steed


s: Cheerily neigh'd, while the foam flakes were toss'd


s: From bridle to bridle--the top of our speed


s: Was gain'd, but the pride of our order was lost.


s: Though we were racing he kept to the fore,


s: Still as a rock in his stirrups he stood,


s: Suddenly tottering, backwards he crash'd,


s: Loudly his helm right in front of us rung;


s: Iron hoofs thunder'd, and naked steel flash'd


s: Over him--youngest, where many were young.


s: Now we were close to them, every horse striding


s: Madly;--St. Luce pass'd with never a groan;--


s: Sadly my master look'd round--he was riding


s: On the boy's right, with a line of his own.


s: Thrusting his hand in his breast or breast-pocket,


s: While from his wrist the sword swung by a chain,


s: Swiftly he drew out some trinket or locket,


s: Kiss'd it (I think) and replaced it again.


s: Burst, while his fingers reclosed on the haft,


s: Jarring concussion and earth shaking din,


s: Horse 'counter'd horse, and I reel'd, but he laugh'd,


s: Down went his man, cloven clean to the chin!


s: Wedged in the midst of that struggling mass,


s: After the first shock, where each his foe singled,


s: Little was seen, save a dazzle, like glass


s: In the sun, with grey smoke and black dust intermingled.


s: Here and there redden'd a pistol shot, flashing


s: Through the red sparkle of steel upon steel!


s: Redder the spark seem'd, and louder the clashing,


s: Struck from the helm by the iron-shod heel!


s: Over fallen riders, like wither'd leaves strewing


s: Uplands in autumn, we sunder'd their ranks;


s: Steeds rearing and plunging, men hacking and hewing,


s: Fierce grinding of sword-blades, sharp goading of flanks.


s: Short was the crisis of conflict soon over,


s: Being too good (I suppose) to last long;


s: Through them we cut, as the scythe cuts the clover,


s: Batter'd and stain'd we emerg'd from their throng.


s: Some of our saddles were emptied, of course;


s: To heaven (or elsewhere) Black Will had been carried!


s: Ned Sullivan mounted Will's riderless horse,


s: His mare being hurt, while ten seconds we tarried.


s: And then we re-formed, and went at them once more,


s: And ere they had rightly closed up the old track,


s: We broke through the lane we had open'd before,


s: And as we went forward e'en so we came back.


s: Our numbers were few, and our loss far from small,


s: They could fight, and, besides, they were twenty to one;


s: We were clear of them all when we heard the recall,


s: And thus we returned, but my tale is not done.


s: For the hand of my rider felt strange on my bit,


s: He breathed once or twice like one partially choked,


s: And sway'd in his seat, then I knew he was hit;--


s: He must have bled fast, for my withers were soak'd,


s: And scarcely an inch of my housing was dry;


s: I slacken'd my speed, yet I never quite stopp'd,


s: Ere he patted my neck, said, "Old fellow, good-bye!"


s: And dropp'd off me gently, and lay where he dropp'd!


s: I tried hard to neigh, but the sobs took my breath,


s: Yet I guess'd gazing down at those still, quiet features,


s: He was never more happy in life than in death.


s: Two years back, at Aldershot, Elrington mentioned


s: My name to our colonel one field-day. He said,


s: "'Count', 'Steeltrap', and 'Challenger' ought to be pension'd;"


s: "Count" died the same week, and now "Steeltrap" is dead.


s: That morning our colonel was riding "Theresa",


s: The filly by "Teddington" out of "Mistake";


s: His girls, pretty Alice and fair-haired Louisa,


s: Were there on the ponies he purchased from Blake.


s: I remember he pointed me out to his daughters,


s: Said he, "In this troop I may fairly take pride,


s: But I've none left like him in my officers' quarters,


s: Whose life-blood the mane of old 'Challenger' dyed."


s: Where are they? the war-steeds who shared in our glory,


s: The "Lanercost" colt, and the "Acrobat" mare,


s: And the Irish division, "Kate Kearney" and "Rory",


s: And rushing "Roscommon", and eager "Kildare",


s: And "Freeny", a favourite once with my master,


s: And "Warlock", a sluggard, but honest and true,


s: And "Tancred", as honest as "Warlock", but faster,


s: All vanish'd, what wonder! twelve summers have pass'd


s: Since then, and my comrade lies buried this day,--


s: Old "Steeltrap", the kicker,--and now I'm the last


s: Of the chargers who shared in that glorious fray.


s: Come, "Harlequin", keep your nose out of my manger,


s: You'll get your allowance, my boy, and no more;


s: Snort! "Silvertail", snort! when you've seen as much danger


s: As I have, you won't mind the rats in the straw.


s: Our gallant old colonel came limping and halting,


s: The day before yesterday, into my stall;


s: Oh! light to the saddle I've once seen him vaulting,


s: In full marching order, steel broadsword and all.


s: And now his left leg than his right is made shorter


s: Three inches, he stoops, and his chest is unsound;


s: He spoke to me gently, and patted my quarter,


s: I laid my ears back, and look'd playfully round.


s: For that word kindly meant, that caress kindly given,


s: More sadness I drew from the face of the living


s: Than years back I did from the face of the dead.


s: For the dead face, upturn'd, tranquil, joyous, and fearless,


s: Look'd straight from green sod to blue fathomless sky


s: With a smile; but the living face, gloomy and tearless,


s: And haggard and harass'd, look'd down with a sigh.


s: Did he think on the first time he kiss'd Lady Mary?


s: On the morning he wing'd Horace Greville the beau?


s: On the winner he steer'd in the grand military?


s: On the charge that he headed twelve long years ago?


s: Did he think on each fresh year, of fresh grief the herald?


s: On lids that are sunken, and locks that are grey?


s: On Alice, who bolted with Brian Fitzgerald?


s: On Rupert, his first-born, dishonour'd by "play"?


s: On Louey, his darling, who sleeps 'neath the cypress,


s: That shades her and one whose last breath gave her life?


s: I saw those strong fingers hard over each eye press--


s: Oh! the dead rest in peace when the quick toil in strife!


s: Scoff, man! egotistical, proud, unobservant,


s: Since I with man's grief dare to sympathise thus;


s: Why scoff?--fellow-creature I am, fellow-servant


s: Of God, can man fathom God's dealings with us?


s: The wide gulf that parts us may yet be no wider


s: Than that which parts you from some being more blest;


s: And there may be more links 'twixt the horse and his rider


s: Than ever your shallow philosophy guess'd.


s: You are proud of your power, and vain of your courage,


s: And your blood, Anglo-Saxon, or Norman, or Celt;


s: Though your gifts you extol, and our gifts you disparage,


s: Your perils, your pleasures, your sorrows we've felt.


s: We, too, sprung from mares of the prophet of Mecca,


s: And nursed on the pride that was born with the milk,


s: And filtered through "Crucifix", "Beeswing", "Rebecca",


s: We love sheen of scarlet and shimmer of silk.


s: We, too, sprung from loins of the Ishmaelite stallions,


s: We glory in daring that dies or prevails;


s: From 'counter of squadrons, and crash of battalions,


s: To rending of blackthorns, and rattle of rails.


s: In all strife where courage is tested, and power,


s: From the meet on the hill-side, the horn-blast, the find,


s: The burst, the long gallop that seems to devour


s: The champaign, all obstacles flinging behind,


s: To the cheer and the clarion, the war-music blended


s: With war-cry, the furious dash at the foe,


s: The terrible shock, the recoil, and the splendid


s: Bare sword, flashing blue, rising red from the blow.


s: I've borne ONE through perils where many have seen us,


s: No tyrant, a kind friend, a patient instructor,


s: And I've felt some strange element flashing between us,


s: Till the saddle seem'd turn'd to a lightning conductor.


s: Did he see? could he feel through the faintness, the numbness,


s: While linger'd the spirit half-loosed from the clay,


s: And what then? the colours reversed, the drums muffled,


s: The black nodding plumes, the dead march and the pall,


s: The stern faces, soldier-like, silent, unruffled,


s: The slow sacred music that floats over all!


s: Cross carbine and boar-spear, hang bugle and banner,


s: Spur, sabre, and snaffle, and helm--Is it well?


s: Vain 'scutcheon, false trophies of Mars and Diana,--


s: Can the dead laurel sprout with the live immortelle?


s: It may be,--we follow, and though we inherit


s: Our strength for a season, our pride for a span,


s: Say! vanity are they? vexation of spirit?


s: Not so, since they serve for a time horse and man.


s: They serve for a time, and they make life worth living,


s: In spite of life's troubles--'tis vain to despond;


s: Oh, man! WE at least, WE enjoy, with thanksgiving,


s: God's gifts on this earth, though we look not beyond.


s: YOU sin, and YOU suffer, and we, too, find sorrow,


s: Perchance through YOUR sin--yet it soon will be o'er;


s: We labour to-day, and we slumber to-morrow,


s: Strong horse and bold rider!--and WHO KNOWETH MORE?


s: In our barrack-square shouted Drill-sergeant M'Cluskie,


s: The colonel wheel'd short, speaking once, dry and husky,


s: "Would to God I had died with your master, old man!"


s: My rhymes are rough, and often in my rhyming


s: Men of the High North, the wild sky is blazing;


s: One of the Down and Out--that's me.  Stare at me well, ay, stare!


s: I tried to refine that neighbor of mine, honest to God, I did.


s: I took a contract to bury the body of blasphemous Bill MacKie,


s: Now wouldn't you expect to find a man an awful crank


s: He's the man from Eldorado, and he's just arrived in town,


s: The man above was a murderer, the man below was a thief;


s: I strolled up old Bonanza, where I staked in ninety-eight,


s: I'm a homely little bit of tin and bone;


s: He was an old prospector with a vision bleared and dim.


s: In the little Crimson Manual it's written plain and clear


s: "Black is the sky, but the land is white--


s: We talked of yesteryears, of trails and treasure,


s: I've drifted, silver-sailed, on seas of dream,


s: Hearing afar the bells of Elfland chiming,


s: I was the thrall of Beauty that rejoices


s: Yet to mine aerie ever pierced the voices,


s: The pregnant voices of the Things That Are.


s: The Here, the Now, the vast Forlorn around us;


s: The lusts that lure us on, the hates that hound us;


s: Our red rags in the patch-work quilt of Life.


s: The nameless men who nameless rivers travel,


s: And in strange valleys greet strange deaths alone;


s: The grim, intrepid ones who would unravel


s: The mysteries that shroud the Polar Zone.


s: These will I sing, and if one of you linger


s: And on some lone line lay a calloused finger,


s: Saying:  "It's human-true--it hits me right";


s: Then will I count this loving toil well spent;


s: Then will I dream awhile--content, content.


s: Men of the High North, the wild sky is blazing;


s: Swift splendors kindle, barbaric, amazing;


s: Ringed all around us the proud peaks are glowing;


s: Fierce chiefs in council, their wigwam the sky;


s: Far, far below us the big Yukon flowing,


s: Like threaded quicksilver, gleams to the eye.


s: Men of the High North, you who have known it;


s: You in whose hearts its splendors have abode;


s: Can you forget it, its glory and its goad?


s: Where is the hardship, where is the pain of it?


s: Lost in the limbo of things you've forgot;


s: Zest of the foray, and God, how you fought!


s: You who have made good, you foreign faring;


s: You money magic to far lands has whirled;


s: Can you forget those days of vast daring,


s: There with your soul on the Top o' the World?


s: Nights when no peril could keep you awake on


s: Spruce boughs you spread for your couch in the snow;


s: Taste all your feasts like the beans and the bacon


s: Can you remember your huskies all going,


s: Barking with joy and their brushes in air;


s: You in your parka, glad-eyed and glowing,


s: Monarch, your subjects the wolf and the bear?


s: Monarch, your kingdom unravisht and gleaming;


s: Mountains your throne, and a river your car;


s: Crash of a bull moose to rouse you from dreaming;


s: Forest your couch, and your candle a star.


s: You who this faint day the High North is luring


s: You who are steel-braced, straight-lipped, enduring,


s: Whether she crown you, or whether she slay;


s: He who would rule he must learn to obey.


s: Men of the High North, fierce mountains love you;


s: Proud rivers leap when you ride on their breast.


s: See, the austere sky, pensive above you,


s: Children of Freedom, scornful of frontiers,


s: Lords of the wilderness, Princes of Pioneers,


s: Let's have a rouse that will ring round the earth.


s: One of the Down and Out--that's me.  Stare at me well, ay, stare!


s: Slouching along in smelly rags, a bleary-eyed, no-good bum;


s: A knight of the hollow needle, pard, spewed from the sodden slum.


s: Wet my throat--it's as dry as chalk, and seeing as how it's you,


s: Bold were we, and they called us three the "Unholy Trinity";


s: We were the discards of the pack, the foreloopers of Unrest,


s: Reckless spirits of fierce revolt in the ferment of the West.


s: We were bound to win and we revelled in the hardships of the way.


s: We were rich in a day beyond our dreams,


s: But I jeered at him, and then there came the Sailor Swede to me,


s: And he said:  "I dreamed of my sister's son,


s: The mighty river snatched us up and it bore us swift along;


s: Through the black canyon's angry foam we hurled to dreamy bars,


s: So we came at last to a tundra vast and dark and grim and lone;


s: Sorry of heart and sore of foot, weary men were we.


s: And you thought to hear with an outward ear


s: Oh, it was wild and weird and wan, and ever in camp o' nights


s: And in and out and around about the little trail ran clear,


s: Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came.


s: Pennants of silver waved and streamed, lazy banners unfurled;


s: We were climbing up a glacier in the neck of a mountain pass,


s: Go on, go on while the trail is good, and leave me down to die."


s: Then all at once he grabbed my gun and he put it to his head,


s: So we sewed him up in a canvas sack and we slung him to a tree;


s: And the Northern Lights in the crystal nights


s: They danced and they danced the devil-dance over the naked snow;


s: It seemed to us, as we gazed aloft with an everlasting stare,


s: Day after day was sinister, and I fought fierce-eyed despair,


s: And the world around was purged of sound like a frozen continent.


s: Or they poised above the Polar rim like a coronal of flame.


s: There on the roof-pole of the world as one bewitched I gazed,


s: There is a mountain round and low that lies by the Polar rim,


s: And I climbed its height in a whirl of light,


s: And there in a crater deep and vast, ungained, unguessed of men,


s: The mystery of the Arctic world was flashed into my ken.


s: In that vast white world where the silent sky


s: In hunger and cold and misery I wandered to and fro.


s: But the Lord took pity on my pain, and He led me to the sea,


s: A craven, cowering bag of bones that once had been a man.


s: I'ts a million dollars a pound, they say,


s: His cheeks were blanched as the flume-head foam


s: Deep in their dark, sin-calcined pits were his sombre eyes aglow;


s: "Did ever you see such a skin?" quoth he;


s: Such fullness of fur as black as the night,


s: "For look ye, the skin--it's as smooth as sin,


s: By gun or by trap, whatever the hap, I swore I would capture it;


s: By star and by star afield and afar, I hunted and would not quit.


s: "It sniffed and ran from the ptarmigan I had poisoned to excess;


s: "From the vastitudes where the world protrudes


s: Yet there was never a sign of wound, and never a drop he bled.


s: "So that was the end of the great black fox,


s: Put your faith in the mountain cat if you lie within his lair;


s: Wherefore it was beyond all laws that lusts of man restrain,


s: A man drank deep and sank to sleep never to wake again;


s: The black fox skin a shadow cast from the roof nigh to the floor;


s: "The skin is mine, all mine," she cried; "I did the deed alone."


s: "It's share and share with a guilt-yoked pair",


s: And so they snarled like malamutes over a mildewed bone.


s: And so they fought, by fear untaught, till haply it befell


s: One dawn of day she slipped away to Dawson town to sell


s: She slipped away as still he lay, she clutched the wondrous fur;


s: Her pulses beat, her foot was fleet, her fear was as a spur;


s: She laughed with glee, she did not see him rise and follow her.


s: The bluffs uprear and grimly peer far over Dawson town;


s: They see its lights a blaze o' nights and harshly they look down;


s: The river chafed beneath its rind with many a mighty throe.


s: And up the swift and oozy drift a woman climbed in fear,


s: Clutching to her a black fox fur as if she held it dear;


s: And hard she pressed it to her breast--then Windy Ike drew near.


s: She made no moan--her heart was stone--she read his smiling face,


s: She rolled for nigh an hundred feet; she bounded like a ball;


s: A bird sang for the joy of spring, so piercing sweet and frail;


s: A wedge-faced man there was who ran along the river bank,


s: He travelled like a hunted thing, hard harried, sore distrest;


s: The old grandmother moon crept out from her cloud-quilted nest;


s: The aged mountains mocked at him in their primeval rest.


s: Grim shadows diapered the snow; the air was strangely mild;


s: The river writhed beneath the ice; it groaned like one in pain,


s: And yawning chasms opened wide, and closed and yawned again;


s: And sheets of silver heaved on high until they split in twain.


s: From out the road-house by the trail they saw a man afar


s: But they did not see him crash and sink into the icy flow;


s: They did not see him clinging there, gripped by the undertow,


s: Clawing with bleeding finger-nails at the jagged ice and snow.


s: They found a note beside the hole where he had stumbled in:


s: "Here met his fate by evil luck a man who lived in sin,


s: And to the one who loves me least I leave this black fox skin."


s: Though one man said he saw the tread of HOOFS deep in the ground.


s: I tried to refine that neighbor of mine, honest to God, I did.


s: I swore to prevail; I camped on his trail;


s: I followed him into Gehennas of sin, I sat where the sirens sit;


s: In the shade of the Pole, for the sake of his soul,


s: I shadowed him down to the scrofulous town;


s: God knows what I did he should seek to be rid


s: God knows what I bore that night when he swore


s: I started to tell of the horrors of hell,


s: And "Chuck it," says he, "don't persecute me


s: with your cant and your saving of souls."


s: I'll swear I was mild as I'd be with a child,


s: And, grabbing his gun with a leap and a run,


s: Our cabins were near; I could see, I could hear;


s: And all summer through, with a rancor that grew,


s: Then a shuddery breath like the coming of Death


s: The trees were like lace where the star-beams could chase,


s: The soft white hush lapped the Northland and wrapped


s: So still I could hear quite loud in my ear


s: So bright I could see, as plain as could be,


s: As I read in the Book I would oftentimes look


s: A system to bear through the frost-spangled air


s: If you'd noticed them twist, as they mounted and hissed


s: If you'd seen them rebound with a horrible sound,


s: If you'd watched IT with dread, as it hissed by your bed,


s: that thing with the feelers that crawls--


s: You'd have settled the brute that attempted to shoot


s: Oh, some they were blue, and they slithered right through;


s: And some they were green; they were wriggly and lean;


s: My blood seemed to freeze; I fell on my knees;


s: Oh, the Green and the Blue, they were gruesome to view;


s: They came through the door, they came through the floor,


s: they came through the moss-creviced logs.


s: They were savage and dire; they were whiskered with fire;


s: They ravined in rings like iniquitous things;


s: they gulped down the Green and the Blue.


s: I crinkled with fear whene'er they drew near,


s: And then came the crown of Horror's grim crown,


s: Its belly was white with a sulphurous light,


s: It came and it came; I could breathe of its flame,


s: And deathlike I lay till the dawn of the day.


s: 'Twas a death's head that peered through the tangle of beard;


s: Sunk eyes full of woe, and they troubled me so


s: with their pleadings and anguish, and yet


s: "for Christ's sake, Peter, don't shoot!"


s: But it's all Gospel true what I'm telling to you--


s: I took a contract to bury the body of blasphemous Bill MacKie,


s: Whenever, wherever or whatsoever the manner of death he die--


s: Whether he die in the light o' day or under the peak-faced moon;


s: In cabin or dance-hall, camp or dive, mucklucks or patent shoon;


s: On velvet tundra or virgin peak, by glacier, drift or draw;


s: In muskeg hollow or canyon gloom, by avalanche, fang or claw;


s: For Bill was a dainty kind of cuss, and his mind was mighty sot


s: So long as he had a grave with frills and a tombstone "epigram".


s: So I promised him, and he paid the price in good cheechako coin


s: So I thought of the contract I'd made with him,


s: through the crust of the pale blue snow;


s: Oh, the awful hush that seemed to crush me down on every hand,


s: As I blundered blind with a trail to find


s: Half dazed, half crazed in the winter wild,


s: Passed like a dream I slept to lose and I waked to dream again.


s: River and plain and mighty peak--and who could stand unawed?


s: As their summits blazed, he could stand undazed


s: Have you ever stood in an Arctic hut in the shadow of the Pole,


s: With a little coffin six by three and a grief you can't control?


s: As I sat there gazing at that stiff and studying what I'd do.


s: So I buried him as the contract was in a narrow grave and deep,


s: And there he's waiting the Great Clean-up,


s: And as I sit and the parson talks, expounding of the Law,


s: I often think of poor old Bill--AND HOW HARD HE WAS TO SAW.


s: As the Northlights gleamed and curved and streamed,


s: And there I lay, and for many a day I hatched plan after plan,


s: For a golden haul of the wherewithal to crush and to kill my man;


s: About as fat as a chancel rat, and lo! despite my will,


s: It fell one night in the waning light by the Yukon's oily flow,


s: I smoked and sat as I marvelled at the sky's port-winey glow;


s: It gurgled near, and clear and clear and large and large it grew;


s: With the witless roll of a sodden soul it wantoned to my feet.


s: That you may note and gaze and gloat, and say `Revenge is sweet',


s: So sad it seemed, and its cheek-bones gleamed,


s: _This was the tale he told to me, that man so warped and gray,


s: Ere he slept and dreamed, and the camp-fire gleamed


s: That crystal eye that raked the sky in the weird Auroral ray._


s: Tellus, the brawny worker in iron, hairy and heavy of hand,


s: Under a grave of oaks it was, hushed and drowsily sweet.


s: as swift through their throng she pressed;


s: A little white, fragile, fluttering thing


s: Then the heart of Tellus, the smith, was proud,


s: Eager and winning in manner, full of such radiant charm,


s: Womenkind fought for his favor and loved to their uttermost harm.


s: And so he drank deep of pleasure, and then it fell on a day


s: He gazed on the wife of Tellus and marked her out for his prey.


s: Drift on the dreamy river, every man with his love."


s: Then to himself:  "Oh, Beloved, sweet will be your surprise;


s: To-day will we sport like children, laugh in each other's eyes;


s: Weave gay garlands of poppies, crown each other with flowers,


s: Pull plump carp from the lilies, rifle the ferny bowers.


s: To-day with feasting and gladness the wine of Cyprus will flow;


s: To-day is the day we were wedded only a twelvemonth ago."


s: Like a nun whose faith in the Virgin is met with a prurient jibe,


s: Tellus went back to his smithy; he reeled like a drunken man;


s: His heart was riven with anguish; his brain was brooding a plan.


s: Straight to his anvil he hurried; started his furnace aglow;


s: Heated his iron and shaped it with savage and masterful blow.


s: Sparks showered over and round him; swiftly under his hand


s: There at last it was finished--a hideous and infamous Brand.


s: That night the wife of his bosom, the light of joy in her eyes,


s: (For passion ripens a woman as the sunshine ripens a peach).


s: He clenched his teeth into silence; he yielded up to her lure,


s: The morrow was come, and Tellus swiftly stole up the hill.


s: Heard he the low laugh of dalliance, heard he the rapture of sin.


s: No man kindle and joy in, no man on earth save he.


s: Was it a door that shattered, shell-like, under his blow?


s: Was it his saint, that strumpet, dishevelled and cowering low?


s: Then bound he the naked Philo with thongs that cut in the flesh,


s: Dragged her lover unto her under her frenzied stare.


s: Then (for the thing was finished) he said to the woman:  "See


s: How you have branded your lover!  Now will I let him go free."


s: The man who was fair as Apollo, god-like in woman's sight,


s: Hideous now as a satyr, fled to the pity of night.


s: _Then came they before the Judgment Seat,


s: Brutish and bold on his brow be it stamped,


s: He shall seek the caves and the shroud of night,


s: Outcast forever from homes of men, far and far shall he roam.


s: Such be the doom, sadder than death, of him who shameth a home."_


s: Now wouldn't you expect to find a man an awful crank


s: Of camps where men got gold in chunks and he got none at all;


s: That's prospected a bit of ground and sold it for a song


s: To see it yield a fortune to some fool that came along;


s: That's sunk a dozen bed-rock holes, and not a speck in sight,


s: Yet sees them take a million from the claims to left and right?


s: Now aren't things like that enough to drive a man to booze?


s: But Hard-Luck Smith was hoodoo-proof--he knew the way to lose.


s: And lo! as if to make amends for all the futile past,


s: Late in the year he struck it rich, the real pay-streak at last.


s: The riffles of his sluicing-box were choked with speckled earth,


s: And night and day he worked that lay for all that he was worth.


s: And when in chill December's gloom his lucky lease expired,


s: He found that he had made a stake as big as he desired.


s: One day while meditating on the waywardness of fate,


s: He felt the ache of lonely man to find a fitting mate;


s: A petticoated pard to cheer his solitary life,


s: A woman with soft, soothing ways, a confidant, a wife.


s: And while he cooked his supper on his little Yukon stove,


s: For there in pencilled letters was the magic name of Peg.


s: The supercilious cheechako might designate them high,


s: But one acquires a taste for them and likes them by-and-by.


s: Well, Hard-Luck Henry took this egg and held it to the light,


s: And there was more faint pencilling that sorely taxed his sight.


s: At last he made it out, and then the legend ran like this--


s: That night he got to thinking of this far-off, unknown fair;


s: It seemed so sort of opportune, an answer to his prayer.


s: She flitted sweetly through his dreams, she haunted him by day,


s: She smiled through clouds of nicotine, she cheered his weary way.


s: Wisconsin his objective point; his object, Margaret.


s: With every mile of sea and land his longing grew and grew.


s: He practised all his pretty words, and these, I fear, were few.


s: At last, one frosty evening, with a cold chill down his spine,


s: He found himself before her house, the threshold of the shrine.


s: His courage flickered to a spark, then glowed with sudden flame--


s: Oh, she was fair as any flower, and huskily he spoke:


s: "I'm all the way from Klondike, with a mighty heavy poke.


s: I'm looking for a lassie, one whose Christian name is Peg,


s: Who sought a Klondike miner, and who wrote it on an egg."


s: The lassie gazed at him a space, her cheeks grew rosy red;


s: She gazed at him with tear-bright eyes, then tenderly she said:


s: "Yes, lonely Klondike miner, it is true my name is Peg.


s: It's also true I longed for you and wrote it on an egg.


s: My heart went out to someone in that land of night and cold;


s: But oh, I fear that Yukon egg must have been mighty old.


s: I waited long, I hoped and feared; you should have come before;


s: I've been a wedded woman now for eighteen months or more.


s: I'm sorry, since you've come so far, you ain't the one that wins;


s: He's the man from Eldorado, and he's just arrived in town,


s: He's gaunt as any Indian, and pretty nigh as brown;


s: He's greasy, and he smells of sweat and dirt.


s: He sports a crop of whiskers that would shame a healthy hog;


s: Hard work has racked his joints and stooped his back;


s: He slops along the sidewalk followed by his yellow dog,


s: But he's got a bunch of gold-dust in his sack.


s: He seems a little wistful as he blinks at all the lights,


s: His stomach's out of kilter and his system full of lead,


s: But it's over, and his poke is full of gold.


s: He has panted at the windlass, he has loaded in the drift,


s: He has pounded at the face of oozy clay;


s: He has taxed himself to sickness, dark and damp and double shift,


s: And now, praise God, it's over, and he seems to breathe again


s: Of new-mown hay, the warm, wet, friendly loam;


s: He sees a snowy orchard in a green and dimpling plain,


s: And a little vine-clad cottage, and it's--Home.


s: He's the man from Eldorado, and he's had a bite and sup,


s: And he's met in with a drouthy friend or two;


s: He's cached away his gold-dust, but he's sort of bucking up,


s: So he's kept enough to-night to see him through.


s: His eye is bright and genial, his tongue no longer lags;


s: His heart is brimming o'er with joy and mirth;


s: He may be far from savory, he may be clad in rags,


s: But to-night he feels as if he owns the earth.


s: Says he:  "Boys, here is where the shaggy North and I will shake;


s: I kept on making misses; but at last I've got my stake;


s: There's no more thawing frozen muck for me.


s: I am going to God's Country, where I'll live the simple life;


s: I'll buy a bit of land and make a start;


s: I'll carve a little homestead, and I'll win a little wife,


s: And raise ten little kids to cheer my heart."


s: They signified their sympathy by crowding to the bar;


s: They bellied up three deep and drank his health.


s: He shed a radiant smile around and smoked a rank cigar;


s: They wished him honor, happiness and wealth.


s: They drank unto his wife to be--that unsuspecting maid;


s: They drank unto his children half a score;


s: And when they got through drinking very tenderly they laid


s: He's the man from Eldorado, and he's only starting in


s: His poke is full of gold-dust and his heart is full of sin,


s: And he's dancing with a girl called Muckluck Mag.


s: She's as light as any fairy; she's as pretty as a peach;


s: She's mistress of the witchcraft to beguile;


s: There's sunshine in her manner, there is music in her speech,


s: And there's concentrated honey in her smile.


s: Oh, the fever of the dance-hall and the glitter and the shine,


s: The madness of the music, the rapture of the wine,


s: She is like a lost madonna; he is gaunt, unkempt and grim;


s: But she fondles him and gazes in his eyes;


s: Her kisses seek his heavy lips, and soon it seems to him


s: He has staked a little claim in Paradise.


s: "Who's for a juicy two-step?" cries the master of the floor;


s: The music throbs with soft, seductive beat.


s: They know they've got him going; he is buying wine for all;


s: They crowd around as buzzards at a feast,


s: Then when his poke is empty they boost him from the hall,


s: And spurn him in the gutter like a beast.


s: He's the man from Eldorado, and he's painting red the town;


s: Behind he leaves a trail of yellow dust;


s: In a whirl of senseless riot he is ramping up and down;


s: There's nothing checks his madness and his lust.


s: And soon the word is passed around--it travels like a flame;


s: They fight to clutch his hand and call him friend,


s: The chevaliers of lost repute, the dames of sorry fame;


s: He's the man from Eldorado, and he gives a grand affair;


s: There's feasting, dancing, wine without restraint.


s: The smooth Beau Brummels of the bar, the faro men, are there;


s: The tinhorns and purveyors of red paint;


s: The sleek and painted women, their predacious eyes aglow--


s: Then Muckluck Mag proposed the toast, "The giver of the show,


s: The livest sport that ever hit the pike."


s: The "live one" rises to his feet; he stammers to reply--


s: And then there comes before his muddled brain


s: A vision of green vastitudes beneath an April sky,


s: And clover pastures drenched with silver rain.


s: He knows that it can never be, that he is down and out;


s: Life leers at him with foul and fetid breath;


s: And then amid the revelry, the song and cheer and shout,


s: He suddenly grows grim and cold as death.


s: He grips the table tensely, and he says:  "Dear friends of mine,


s: I've let you dip your fingers in my purse;


s: I've crammed you at my table, and I've drowned you in my wine,


s: And I've little left to give you but--my curse.


s: I've failed supremely in my plans; it's rather late to whine;


s: My poke is mighty weasened up and small.


s: I thank you each for coming here; the happiness is mine--


s: And now, you thieves and harlots, take it all."


s: They rattle over roof and wall; they scatter, roll and spread;


s: The dust is like a shower of golden rain.


s: The guests a moment stand aghast, then grovel on the floor;


s: They fight, and snarl, and claw, like beasts of prey;


s: And then, as everybody grabbed and everybody swore,


s: He's the man from Eldorado, and they found him stiff and dead,


s: Half covered by the freezing ooze and dirt.


s: A clotted Colt was in his hand, a hole was in his head,


s: And he wore an old and oily buckskin shirt.


s: His eyes were fixed and horrible, as one who hails the end;


s: And there, half lying on his breast, his last and only friend,


s: There crouched and whined a mangy yellow dog.


s: The man above was a murderer, the man below was a thief;


s: And I lay there in the bunk between, ailing beyond belief;


s: A weary armful of skin and bone, wasted with pain and grief.


s: The skin on my gums was a sullen black, and slowly peeling away.


s: I was sure enough in a direful fix, and often I wondered why


s: But no; they brewed me the green-spruce tea,


s: Yet they were woefully wicked men, and often at night in pain


s: I heard the murderer speak of his deed and dream it over again;


s: I heard the poor thief sorrowing for the dead self he had slain.


s: I'll never forget that bitter dawn, so evil, askew and gray,


s: When they wrapped me round in the skins of beasts


s: And we started out with the nearest post an hundred miles away.


s: And oftentimes I would die the death, yet wake up to life anew;


s: And the camps we made when their strength outplayed


s: I strolled up old Bonanza, where I staked in ninety-eight,


s: I kept thinking mighty sadly of the funny ways of Fate,


s: And the lads who once were with me in the game.


s: And me, I'm still prospecting, old and battered, gaunt and gray,


s: And I'm looking for a grub-stake, and I'm broke.


s: I strolled up old Bonanza.  The same old moon looked down;


s: The same old landmarks seemed to yearn to me;


s: But the cabins all were silent, and the flat, once like a town,


s: Was mighty still and lonesome-like to see.


s: And there a giant gold-ship of the very newest plan


s: Was tearing chunks of pay-dirt from the shore.


s: It wallowed in its water-bed; it burrowed, heaved and swung;


s: It gnawed its way ahead with grunts and sighs;


s: Its bill of fare was rock and sand; the tailings were its dung;


s: It glared around with fierce electric eyes.


s: Full fifty buckets crammed its maw; it bellowed out for more;


s: It looked like some great monster in the gloom.


s: With two to feed its sateless greed, it worked for seven score,


s: And I sighed:  "Ah, old-time miner, here's your doom!"


s: The idle windlass turns to rust; the sagging sluice-box falls;


s: The holes you digged are water to the brim;


s: The battle-field is silent where of old you fought it out;


s: The claims you fiercely won are lost and sold;


s: But there's a little army that they'll never put to rout--


s: The men who simply live to seek the gold.


s: The men who can't remember when they learned to swing a pack,


s: Or in what lawless land the quest began;


s: The solitary seeker with his grub-stake on his back,


s: On the mesas of the Southland, on the tundras of the North,


s: You will find us, changed in face but still the same;


s: And it isn't need, it isn't greed that sends us faring forth--


s: It's the fever, it's the glory of the game.


s: For once you've panned the speckled sand and seen the bonny dust,


s: It's little else you care about; you go because you must,


s: And you feel that you could follow it to hell.


s: You'd follow it in hunger, and you'd follow it in cold;


s: Yet look you, if I find the stuff it's just like so much dirt;


s: I fling it to the four winds like a child.


s: It's wine and painted women and the things that do me hurt,


s: Till I crawl back, beggared, broken, to the Wild.


s: There's the gold in millions, millions, but I haven't got a cent;


s: It was my dream that made it good, my dream that made me go


s: To lands of dread and death disprized of man;


s: But oh, I've known a glory that their hearts will never know,


s: When I picked the first big nugget from my pan.


s: That heaps my heart with eager hope, that glimmers on before--


s: My dream that will uplift me to the last.


s: My hobby is to hunt out gold; it's fortressed in my brain;


s: It's life and love and wife and home to me.


s: I hear the hoarse stampeding of an army on my trail,


s: To the last, the greatest gold camp of them all.


s: Beyond the shark-tooth ranges sawing savage at the sky


s: There's a lowering land no white man ever struck;


s: Maybe I'll fail--what matter?  It's a mandate, it's a vow;


s: And when in lands of dreariness and dread


s: You seek the last lone frontier, far beyond your frontiers now,


s: You will find the old prospector, silent, dead.


s: You will find a tattered tent-pole with a ragged robe below it;


s: You will find a rusted gold-pan on the sod;


s: But I've sought the last Recorder, and He's--God.


s: "We're all of us white, but he's black as night,


s: I'm up on the bally wood-pile at the back of the barracks yard;


s: "Six months hard and dismissed, sir."  Isn't that rather hell?


s: At least they SAY that I did it.  It's so in the town report.


s: All that I can recall is a night of revel and sport,


s: When I woke with a "head" in the guard-room,


s: And the O. C. said:  "You are guilty", and I said never a word;


s: But the one that cooked my bacon was Grubbe, of the City Patrol.


s: And now he is getting even, landing me down in the hole.


s: Plugging away on the wood-pile; doing chores round the square.


s: There goes an officer's lady--gives me a haughty stare--


s: Me that's an earl's own nephew--that is the hardest to bear.


s: To think of the poor old mater awaiting her prodigal son.


s: Where I have been won't matter; what I have seen I won't tell.


s: That's past; when one's nature's a cracked one,


s: So long as the road is level, so long as I've cash to spend.


s: I'm bound to go to the devil, and it's all the same in the end.


s: I'll lie in my cell and listen; I'll wish that I couldn't hear


s: The laugh and the chaff of the fellows swigging the canteen beer;


s: What shall we find when death gives leave


s: Face to face with my soul-self, weighing my life at its worth;


s: Wondering what I was made for, here in my last retreat.


s: Last!  Ah, yes, it's the finish.  Have ever you heard a man cry?


s: And I think it's only the river that keeps me from going mad.


s: By day it's a ruthless monster, a callous, insatiate thing,


s: With oily bubble and eddy, with sudden swirling of breast;


s: By night it's a writhing Titan, sullenly murmuring,


s: Ever and ever goaded, and ever crying for rest.


s: It cries for its human tribute, but me it will never drown.


s: I've learned the lore of my river; my river obeys me well.


s: I hew and I launch my cordwood, and raft it to Dawson town,


s: Where wood means wine and women, and, incidentally, hell.


s: Hell and the anguish thereafter.  Here as I sit alone


s: I'd give the life I have left me to lighten some load of care:


s: (The bitterest part of the bitter is being denied to atone;


s: Lips that have mocked at Heaven lend themselves ill to prayer.)


s: _Impotent as a beetle pierced on the needle of Fate;


s: A wretch in a cosmic death-cell, peaks for my prison bars;


s: 'Whelmed by a world stupendous, lonely and listless I wait,


s: Drowned in a sea of silence, strewn with confetti of stars_.


s: See! from far up the valley a rapier pierces the night,


s: The white search-ray of a steamer.  Swiftly, serenely it nears;


s: A proud, white, alien presence, a glittering galley of light,


s: Confident-poised, triumphant, freighted with hopes and fears.


s: I look as one looks on a vision; I see it pulsating by;


s: I glimpse joy-radiant faces; I hear the thresh of the wheel.


s: Maybe you've seen me sometimes; maybe you've pitied me then--


s: The lonely waif of the wood-camp, here by my cabin door.


s: Some day you'll look and see not; futile and outcast of men,


s: I shall be far from your pity, resting forevermore.


s: _My life was a problem in ciphers, a weary and profitless sum.


s: Slipshod and stupid I worked it, dazed by negation and doubt.


s: (With apologies to the singer of the "Song of the Banjo".)


s: I'm a homely little bit of tin and bone;


s: I don't attempt your high-falutin' flights;


s: But I tell you, boys, there's lots and lots of nights


s: When you've taken mighty comfort out of me.


s: I weigh an ounce or two, and I'm so small


s: You can pack me in the pocket of your vest;


s: Into your bunk and stretch your limbs to rest,


s: You take me out and play me soft and low,


s: The simple songs that trouble your heartstrings;


s: Before you made a rotten mess of things.


s: Then a dreamy look will come into your eyes,


s: And you break off in the middle of a note;


s: And then, with just the dreariest of sighs,


s: And, as you turn around and face the wall,


s: You don't feel quite so spineless and unfit--


s: Do you recollect the bitter Arctic night;


s: Your camp beside the canyon on the trail;


s: Your tent a tiny square of orange light;


s: The moon above consumptive-like and pale;


s: Your supper cooked, your little stove aglow;


s: You tired, but snug and happy as a child?


s: Then 'twas "Turkey in the Straw" till your lips were nearly raw,


s: And you hurled your bold defiance at the Wild.


s: Do you recollect the flashing, lashing pain;


s: The lightning making rapiers of the rain;


s: The cattle-horns like candles of the dead


s: In your slicker, saddle-sore and sick with cold?


s: Do you think the silent herd did not hear "The Mocking Bird",


s: Or relish "Silver Threads among the Gold"?


s: Do you recollect the wild Magellan coast;


s: The head-winds and the icy, roaring seas;


s: The nights you thought that everything was lost;


s: The days you toiled in water to your knees;


s: The frozen ratlines shrieking in the gale;


s: The hissing steeps and gulfs of livid foam:


s: Let the jammy banjo voice the Younger Son,


s: Who sweats his bones to keep himself alive;


s: Who's up against the real thing from his birth;


s: I voice the weary, smeary ones of earth,


s: I'm the Steinway of strange mischief and mischance;


s: In the down-world, when the devil leads the dance,


s: I'm the small boy playing knuckle down with Death;


s: I'm a humble little bit of tin and horn;


s: I'm a byword, I'm a plaything, I'm a jest;


s: But there's times when I am better than the best.


s: Ask the stoker and the sailor of the sea;


s: Ask the mucker and the hewer of the pine;


s: Ask the herder of the plain, ask the gleaner of the grain--


s: There's a lowly, loving kingdom--and it's mine.


s: Fearless, unfound, unfitted, far from the night and the cold,


s: Heard we the clarion summons, followed the master-lure--Gold!


s: Never was seen such an army, pitiful, futile, unfit;


s: Never was seen such a spirit, manifold courage and grit.


s: Never has been such a cohort under one banner unrolled


s: The spectral shores flitted past us, and every whirl of the screw


s: Do with the gold when we got it--big, shiny nuggets like plums,


s: There in the sand of the river, gouging it out with our thumbs.


s: And one man wanted a castle, another a racing stud;


s: Leaping to wealth in our visions long ere the trail began.


s: We landed in wind-swept Skagway.  We joined the weltering mass,


s: Clamoring over their outfits, waiting to climb the Pass.


s: Gone was the joy of our faces, grim and haggard and pale;


s: Step by step to the summit in the bale of the winter days.


s: Floundering deep in the sump-holes, stumbling out again;


s: Then from the depths of our travail, ere our spirits were broke,


s: Grim, tenacious and savage, the lust of the trail awoke.


s: "Klondike or bust!" rang the slogan; every man for his own.


s: Oh, how we flogged the horses, staggering skin and bone!


s: Oh, how we cursed their weakness, anguish they could not tell,


s: Oh, we were brutes and devils, goaded by lust and fear!


s: Never will I forget it, there on the mountain face,


s: Antlike, men with their burdens, clinging in icy space;


s: Dogged, determined and dauntless, cruel and callous and cold,


s: Cursing, blaspheming, reviling, and ever that battle-cry--"Gold!"


s: Shapeless, grotesque, lopsided, flimsy, makeshift and crude,


s: Each man after his fashion builded as best he could.


s: Each man worked like a demon, as prow to rudder we raced;


s: Stake in the Great White Channel, stake ere the best be gone.


s: The greed of the gold possessed us; pity and love were forgot;


s: Covetous visions obsessed us; brother with brother fought.


s: Partner with partner wrangled, each one claiming his due;


s: Wrangled and halved their outfits, sawing their boats in two.


s: Thuswise we voyaged Lake Bennett, Tagish, then Windy Arm,


s: Sinister, savage and baleful, boding us hate and harm.


s: Many a scow was shattered there on that iron shore;


s: Many a heart was broken straining at sweep and oar.


s: We roused Lake Marsh with a chorus, we drifted many a mile;


s: There was the canyon before us--cave-like its dark defile;


s: The shores swept faster and faster; the river narrowed to wrath;


s: Waters that hissed disaster reared upright in our path.


s: Leaping and boiling and seething, saw we a cauldron afume;


s: There was the rage of the rapids, there was the menace of doom.


s: Then with the crash of a demon springs to the onset again.


s: Dared we that ravening terror; heard we its din in our ears;


s: Then there were days of drifting, breezes soft as a sigh;


s: The moonlit stream was a python, silver, sinuous, vast,


s: That writhed on a shroud of velvet--well, it was done at last.


s: There were the tents of Dawson, there the scar of the slide;


s: Swiftly we poled o'er the shallows, swiftly leapt o'er the side.


s: Fires fringed the mouth of Bonanza; sunset gilded the dome;


s: _He was an old prospector with a vision bleared and dim.


s: He asked me for a grubstake, and the same I gave to him.


s: He hinted of a hidden trove, and when I made so bold


s: To question his veracity, this is the tale he told._


s: "I do not seek the copper streak, nor yet the yellow dust;


s: I am not fain for sake of gain to irk the frozen crust;


s: Let fellows gross find gilded dross, far other is my mark;


s: Oh, gentle youth, this is the truth--I go to seek the Ark.


s: "I prospected the Pelly bed, I prospected the White;


s: The Nordenscold for love of gold I piked from morn till night;


s: Afar and near for many a year I led the wild stampede,


s: Until I guessed that all my quest was vanity and greed.


s: "Then came I to a land I knew no man had ever seen,