s: Bearing a sheaf of tracts, a bag of buns:


s: A wee old maid that sweeps the Bridegroom's way,


s: Strong in a cheerful trust that never fails.


s: Mud, and chains, and stores, and anchors,


s: Tramped a squad of battered scarecrows -


s: The grey roads go beckoning and winding,


s: To the slow march of the stately, great horses


s: Sail the blue peacefully.  Green flame the hedgerows.


s: Blackbirds are bugling, and white in wet winds


s: O, the brilliance of blossoming orchards!


s: Gurgle and tinkle and trill.  Thro' the gloamings,


s: Books, beds, bottles, floor, and ceiling


s: When they came, and found, and saved him.


s: In his broad face, tanned and bloodless,


s: Thin-legged, thin-chested, slight unspeakably,


s: Neat-footed and weak-fingered:  in his face -


s: Lean, large-boned, curved of beak, and touched with race,


s: Bold-lipped, rich-tinted, mutable as the sea,


s: There shines a brilliant and romantic grace,


s: A spirit intense and rare, with trace on trace


s: Valiant in velvet, light in ragged luck,


s: Most vain, most generous, sternly critical,


s: O, the wonder, the spell of the streets!


s: I sit, and the carriage rolls on with me


s: That afternoon--that Sunday afternoon! -


s: Young, yet in shape most like an elder, came,


s: (Big, yellow books, quite impudently French),


s: To that transformed back-kitchen where I lay


s: We have been friends, LEWIS and you and I,


s: (How good it sounds, 'LEWIS and you and I!'):


s: Which old DUMAS--the generous, the humane,


s: The seven-and-seventy times to be forgiven! -


s: The liberal and august, his fault atoned,


s: There at the west of Princes Street.  We three -


s: The voice of the Sword from the heart of the Sword


s: 'O mes cheres Mille et Une Nuits!'--Fantasio.


s: Passed with him where he passed.  And Thrones


s: And Dominations, glaived and plumed and mailed,


s: The palaces pell-mell with playing-fields,


s: Domes, cloisters, dungeons, caverns, tents, arcades,


s: Green stillnesses of some enchanted mere. -


s: A flickering snatch of memory that floats


s: Upon the face of a pool of darkness five


s: To curfew his first wails of wrath were whelmed),


s: Let in a-top of the double-columned, close,


s: In all the full-shelved Libraries of Romance?


s: Cream-tarts, and lettered apes, and calendars,


s: They might have overed the tall Minster Tower


s: And Caspian, and the dim, terrific bulk -


s: Ice-ribbed, fiend-visited, isled in spells and storms -


s: Old friends I had a-many--kindly and grim


s: Some morrice of dainty dapperlings.  No Brook


s: Of green-haired, silvry-curving sprites,


s: His lilied margents.  Every lone Hillside


s: That curled about a Bean-stick was of the breed


s: Of that live ladder by whose delicate rungs


s: You climbed beyond the clouds, and found


s: Among the flitches and pewters at the fire,


s: Called for his Faery Harp.  And in it flew,


s: And, perching on the kitchen table, sang


s: Flutes from wet orchards flushed with the triumphing dawn;


s: Or blackbirds rioting as they listened still,


s: In old-world woodlands rapt with an old-world spring,


s: For Pan's own whistle, savage and rich and lewd,


s: The half-door where the cobbler sat in view


s: In square-cut, faded reds and buckle-shoes,


s: Bent at his work in the hedge-side, and know


s: Just how he tapped his brogue, and twitched


s: His wax-end this and that way, both with wrists


s: And the tall quakers trembled, and the West Wind


s: Beside me lolling and lounging through my own,


s: 'Twas good to follow the Miller's Youngest Son


s: On his white horse along the leafy lanes;


s: That market-town, a town of tops, could show:


s: King over All the Catlands, present and past


s: Or Bluebeard's Closet, with its plenishing


s: And wives that hung like fresh-dressed carcases -


s: And windy nights was visiting of the best.


s: Of Herne the Hunter in his antlered helm


s: Galloping, as with despatches from the Pit,


s: And Rip Van Winkle . . . often I lurked to hear,


s: Outside the long, low timbered, tarry wall,


s: The mutter and rumble of the trolling bowls


s: Down the lean plank, before they fluttered the pins;


s: In those blue, booming hills, with Mariners


s: Refreshed from kegs not coopered in this our world.


s: So neighbourly fancies to the spell that brought


s: You borrowed at the chandler's? . . . Or one time


s: For all the embrowning scars in their white breasts


s: Went labouring under some dread ordinance,


s: Which made them whip, and bitterly cry the while,


s: Done in the pride of womanhood and desire . . .


s: Or at the ghostliest altitudes of night,


s: Your sense was fearfully purged; and soon


s: Rose from your side, opened the Box of Doom,


s: Scattered the yellow powder (which I saw


s: And muttered certain words you could not hear;


s: The brook you bathed in, with its weeds and flags


s: Out of the hearthrug over the nakedness,


s: Fair-scrubbed and decent, of your bedroom floor! . . .


s: With his kind Forty.  Yet I could not rest


s: And the Black Horse, which fed on sesame


s: Vouchsafed his back to me, and spread his vans,


s: From air to air, came charging to the ground


s: Sheer, like a lark from the midsummer clouds,


s: And, shaking me out of the saddle, where I sprawled


s: And left me blinded, miserable, distraught


s: When doctors came, and odious things were done


s: Fumble I must my dark, disconsolate way),


s: To get to Bagdad how I might.  But there


s: On wine and roasted lamb, rose-water, dates,


s: Almonds, pistachios, citrons.  And Haroun


s: On Giaffar and Mesrour (I knew the Three


s: For all their Mossoul habits).  And outside


s: Like Severn bend for bend, twinkled and gleamed


s: With broken and wavering shapes of stranger stars;


s: And the leathern wings of genies; words of power


s: Casting their nets with prayer, might draw to shore


s: Dead loveliness:  or a prodigy in scales


s: Worth in the Caliph's Kitchen pieces of gold:


s: Wherein some Squire of Eblis watched and railed,


s: Graven by the seal of Solomon the King . . .


s: In Life as in some olden mirror's quaint,


s: Flash light on light back on the Book; and both


s: From better days, harbouring an errant show


s: Were filled with gruesome visitants in wax,


s: Inhuman, hushed, ghastly with Painted Eyes),


s: Was nearer than the pay-box; and I stared


s: Upon them staring--staring.  Till at last,


s: I strayed upon a mildewed, rat-run room,


s: With the two Dancers, horrible and obscene,


s: Guarding the door:  and there, in a bedroom-set,


s: That made you hanker and hesitate to look,


s: A Woman with her litter of Babes--all slain,


s: All in their nightgowns, all with Painted Eyes


s: Staring--still staring; so that I turned and ran


s: And yet not all the same, I was to find,


s: All day alone--in long, stern, silent streets,


s: Whatever I would:  still there were Shapes of Stone,


s: Motionless, lifelike, frightening--for the Wrath


s: This by her melons and figs, that by his rings


s: And chains and watches, with the hideous gaze,


s: Thrilled with a novel and delicious fear.


s: So the night fell--with never a lamplighter;


s: Dreadfully there, the Painted staring Eyes,


s: Heard in the wondrous Word of God, was--whose?


s: An outcast thousands of leagues beyond the pale! . . .


s: A black blotch in the sunset; and it grew


s: Swiftly . . . and grew.  Tearing their beards,


s: The sailors wept and prayed; but the grave ship,


s: Deep laden with spiceries and pearls, went mad,


s: Wrenched the long tiller out of the steersman's hand,


s: As the most iron would, was haled and sucked


s: And, all awash, with horrible lurching leaps


s: Rushed at that Portent, casting a shadow now


s: Flew screaming out of her, and with clang on clang,


s: A noise of fifty stithies, caught at the sides


s: A broken bundle of firewood, strown piecemeal


s: Passed shrieking, one by one; and I was left


s: But in the morning, O, the smiling coast


s: Skirted with shelving sands!  And a great wave


s: So, giving thanks to God, I dried my clothes,


s: The fellow of fifty built into the Quays:


s: The flight of smooth-hewn, easy-falling stairs,


s: Sunk in the naked rock!  The cool, clean vault,


s: So neat with niche on niche it might have been


s: Of brazen urns (like monstrous chemist's jars)


s: A layer of pickled-walnut-looking things


s: I knew for olives!  And far, O, far away,


s: The Princess of China languished!  Far away


s: Where the old, brown, friendly river shaped


s: Like Tigris shore for shore!  Haply a Ghoul


s: Sat in the churchyard under a frightened moon,


s: Or you might stumble--there by the iron gates


s: Of the Pump Room--underneath the limes -


s: Upon Bedreddin in his shirt and drawers,


s: Whence a tame cornet tenored it throatily


s: Of beer-pots and spittoons and new long pipes,


s: For all the diamonds in the Vale Perilous


s: You had that dark and disleaved afternoon


s: Disguised like Sindbad--but in Christmas beef!


s: Was such a bulse of gems as should amaze


s: Seething with traffic, of enormous Ind. -


s: Thus cried, thus called aloud, to the child heart


s: Spelled out the wizard message by the light


s: They saw, week in week out, pass, and still pass


s: Amongst her water-meadows and her docks,


s: Galliots and luggers, light-heeled brigantines,


s: Bluff barques and rake-hell fore-and-afters--brought


s: The scents of the World's End; the calls


s: That may not be gainsaid to rise and ride


s: Like fire on some high errand of the race;


s: Thus the East laughed and whispered, and the tale,


s: Took on the colours, busked it in the wear


s: Of life that lived and laboured; and Romance,


s: On all I saw, and all I dreamed and did,


s: Or left me, as one bediademed with straws


s: And bits of glass, to gladden at my heart


s: Who had the gift to seek and feel and find


s: Even so dear Hesper, bringer of all good things,


s: Of happiness down her dim, delighted skies


s: On some poor collier-hamlet--(mound on mound


s: Of sifted squalor; here a soot-throated stalk


s: Of flat-faced hovels; black in the gritty air


s: A web of rails and wheels and beams; with strings


s: And roses of Shiraz, or the walls and towers


s: Of Samarcand--the Ineffable--whence you espy


s: The splendour of Ginnistan's embattled spears,


s: That name of names!  That star-vaned belvedere


s: Builded against the Chambers of the South!


s: Questing therefrom, you knew not what wild tide


s: One suburb, is stablished on firm earth; but one


s: In lubberlands delectable--isles of palm


s: And lotus, fortunate mains, far-shimmering seas,


s: The shining, shifting Sovranties of Dream.


s: 'The tune of the time.'--HAMLET, concerning OSRIC


s: Your quaint head as with flamelets crowned,


s: Clear shine the hills; the rice-fields round


s: Two cranes are circling; sleepy and slow,


s: Touched with the sundown's spirit and glow,


s: Against the plum-tree's bloomy snow . . .


s: Spring at her height on a morn at prime,


s: The words that ring and the fames that climb -


s: Songs where the singers their souls sublime -


s: A smouldering hearth and a silent stage -


s: With a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams


s: The full world rolls in a rhythm of praise,


s: And the winds are one with the clouds and beams -


s: While the West from a rapture of sunset rights,


s: Faint stars their exquisite lamps upraise -


s: The wood's green heart is a nest of dreams,


s: The lush grass thickens and springs and sways,


s: The rathe wheat rustles, the landscape gleams -


s: In the stilly fields, in the stilly ways,


s: Late lovers murmur and linger and gaze -


s: There's a music of bells from the trampling teams,


s: The rich, ripe rose as with incense steams -


s: And the nightingale as from prophet heights


s: Sings to the Earth of her million Mays -


s: And it's O, for my dear and the charm that stays -


s: It's O, for my Love and the dark that plights -


s: Where are the braveries, fresh or frayed?


s: The plumes, the armours--friend and foe?


s: The youth, the grace, the charm, the glow?


s: The Monarch troops, and troops the Maid;


s: As dust that drives, as straws that blow,


s: The blackbird sang, the skies were clear and clean


s: We bowled along a road that curved a spine


s: Thro' silent symphonies of summer green.


s: Sudden the Forth came on us--sad of mien,


s: No cloud to colour it, no breeze to line:


s: A sheet of dark, dull glass, without a sign


s: Of life or death, two spits of sand between.


s: Water and sky merged blank in mist together,


s: The Fort loomed spectral, and the Guardship's spars


s: Traced vague, black shadows on the shimmery glaze:


s: We felt the dim, strange years, the grey, strange weather,


s: The still, strange land, unvexed of sun or stars,


s: Where Lancelot rides clanking thro' the haze.


s: A starry-glancing daughter of the Bride,


s: With hair escaped from some Arabian Night,


s: Her lip is red, her cheek is golden-white,


s: The bamboo hat she cocks with so much pride,


s: Her dress a dream of daintiness and delight.


s: And when she passes with the dreadful boys


s: And romping girls, the cockneys loud and crude,


s: My thought, to the Minories tied yet moved to range


s: The Land o' the Sun, commingles with the noise


s: Of magian drums and scents of sandalwood


s: Has bronzed and shrivelled sere her face and neck;


s: Her locks are wild and grey, her teeth a wreck;


s: Her foot is vast, her bowed leg spare and strong.


s: A wide blue cloak, a squat and sturdy throng


s: Of curt blue coats, a mutch without a speck,


s: A white vest broidered black, her person deck,


s: Nor seems their picked, stern, old-world quaintness wrong.


s: Her great creel forehead-slung, she wanders nigh,


s: Easing the heavy strap with gnarled, brown fingers,


s: The spirit of traffic watchful in her eye,


s: As looking down the street she onward lingers,


s: Reproachful, with a strange and doleful cry.


s: Flowed radiant round your peacock feather,


s: Your tawny hair, turned strand on strand


s: Streaked the rough tartan, green like heather,


s: That round your lissome shoulder spanned.


s: The quaint looped hat, the twisted tresses,


s: The beach was crowded.  Pausing now and then,


s: His worn face glaring on the thoughtless throng


s: He seemed scarce older than his clothes.  Again,


s: Grotesquing thinly many an old sweet song,


s: So cracked his fiddle, his hand so frail and wrong,


s: You hardly could distinguish one in ten.


s: He stopped at last, and sat him on the sand,


s: Then leaned his head upon his poor old hand.


s: He may have slept:  he did not speak nor stir:


s: A black and glassy float, opaque and still,


s: The loch, at furthest ebb supine in sleep,


s: Reversing, mirrored in its luminous deep


s: The calm grey skies; the solemn spurs of hill;


s: Heather, and corn, and wisps of loitering haze;


s: The wee white cots, black-hatted, plumed with smoke;


s: The braes beyond--and when the ripple awoke,


s: They wavered with the jarred and wavering glaze.


s: The air was hushed and dreamy.  Evermore


s: A noise of running water whispered near.


s: A straggling crow called high and thin.  A bird


s: Trilled from the birch-leaves.  Round the shingled shore,


s: Yellow with weed, there wandered, vague and clear,


s: Strange vowels, mysterious gutturals, idly heard.


s: Looms through the lingering last of day;


s: Two girls are jigging.  Riotously they trip,


s: With eyes aflame, quick bosoms, hand on hip,


s: Youngsters and youngsters round them prance and bound.


s: Two solemn babes twirl ponderously, and skip.


s: The artist's teeth gleam from his bearded lip.


s: High from the kennel howls a tortured hound.


s: The music reels and hurtles, and the night


s: Is full of stinks and cries; a naphtha-light


s: Flares from a barrow; battered and obtused


s: With vices, wrinkles, life and work and rags,


s: Each with her inch of clay, two loitering hags


s: Look on dispassionate--critical--something 'mused.


s: The gods are dead?  Perhaps they are!  Who knows?


s: The wise, the fair, the awful, the jocose,


s: Are one and all, I like to think, retreated


s: In some still land of lilacs and the rose.


s: Once high they sat, and high o'er earthly shows


s: With sacrificial dance and song were greeted.


s: Once . . . long ago.  But now, the story goes,


s: It must be true.  The world, a world of prose,


s: Full-crammed with facts, in science swathed and sheeted,


s: Plangent and sad, in every wind that blows


s: Who will may hear the sorry words repeated:-


s: Let us be drunk, and for a while forget,


s: Live without reason and despite of rhyme,


s: Where place and hour and means for once are met.


s: Where is the use of effort?  Love and debt


s: Let us break out, and taste the morning prime . . .


s: In vain our little hour we strut and fret,


s: And mouth our wretched parts as for a bet:


s: To gain the crystal sphere, the silver dime,


s: When you are old, and I am passed away -


s: Passed, and your face, your golden face, is gray -


s: I think, whate'er the end, this dream of mine,


s: Comforting you, a friendly star will shine


s: Down the dim slope where still you stumble and stray.


s: May serve you memories like almighty wine,


s: Dear Heart, it shall be so.  Under the sway


s: Lies hushed and dark.  Yet though there come no sign,


s: Live on well pleased:  immortal and divine


s: Love shall still tend you, as God's angels may,


s: The ways of Death are soothing and serene,


s: And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.


s: From camp and church, the fireside and the street,


s: She beckons forth--and strife and song have been.


s: A summer night descending cool and green


s: And dark on daytime's dust and stress and heat,


s: O glad and sorrowful, with triumphant mien


s: This last of all your lovers, and to meet


s: Her kiss, the Comforter's, your spirit lean . . .


s: The ways of Death are soothing and serene.


s: What is to come we know not.  But we know


s: That what has been was good--was good to show,


s: Better to hide, and best of all to bear.


s: We are the masters of the days that were:


s: We have lived, we have loved, we have suffered . . . even so.


s: Shall we not take the ebb who had the flow?


s: Life was our friend.  Now, if it be our foe -


s: Dear, though it spoil and break us!--need we care


s: Let the great winds their worst and wildest blow,


s: Or the gold weather round us mellow slow:


s: We have fulfilled ourselves, and we can dare


s: And we can conquer, though we may not share


s: Aqui este encerrada el alma del licenciado Pedro Garcias


s: Life is bitter.  All the faces of the years,


s: Young and old, are grey with travail and with tears.


s: Must we only wake to toil, to tire, to weep?


s: In the sun, among the leaves, upon the flowers,


s: Slumber stills to dreamy death the heavy hours . . .


s: Riches won but mock the old, unable years;


s: Fame's a pearl that hides beneath a sea of tears;


s: Love must wither, or must live alone and weep.


s: In the sunshine, through the leaves, across the flowers,


s: While we slumber, death approaches though the hours! . . .


s: The dream that comes, the wish that goes,


s: How charged with punishments the scroll,


s: Fruits rich with autumn, and frail winter blossoms -


s: Fall through my hands, ever changing, still changeless


s: Viewless and soundless I fashion all being.


s: We'll go no more a-roving by the light of the moon.


s: November glooms are barren beside the dusk of June.


s: The summer flowers are faded, the summer thoughts are sere.


s: We'll go no more a-roving, lest worse befall, my dear.


s: The song we sang rings hollow, and heavy runs the tune.


s: Glad ways and words remembered would shame the wretched year.


s: We'll go no more a-roving, nor dream we did, my dear.


s: If yet we walk together, we need not shun the noon.


s: No sweet thing left to savour, no sad thing left to fear,


s: We'll go no more a-roving, but weep at home, my dear.


s: My restless thoughts among them roam . . .


s: The silken shrouds with spells are manned,


s: Strange fish-folk follow thro' the gloom;


s: Vague thro' the changeless twilight loom,


s: An old, cracked fiddle is begging without,


s: But the wind with scents of the sea is fed,


s: But the fiddle! . . . It giggles and twitters about,


s: And, love and laughter! who gave him the cue? -


s: And the Firth as with laughter dimples . . .


s: And the blackbird plays but a boxwood flute,


s: Your thought to me has leaned and clung,


s: When lights and leaves and loves have been,


s: That fills from verge to verge my dream,


s: In the year that's come and gone, love, his flying feather


s: Stooping slowly, gave us heart, and bade us walk together.


s: In the year that's coming on, though many a troth be broken,


s: We at least will not forget aught that love hath spoken.


s: In the year that's come and gone, dear, we wove a tether


s: All of gracious words and thoughts, binding two together.


s: In the year that's coming on with its wealth of roses


s: We shall weave it stronger, yet, ere the circle closes.


s: In the year that's come and gone, in the golden weather,


s: Sweet, my sweet, we swore to keep the watch of life together.


s: In the year that's coming on, rich in joy and sorrow,


s: We shall light our lamp, and wait life's mysterious morrow.


s: O, Falmouth is a fine town with ships in the bay,


s: And I wish from my heart it's there I was to-day;


s: I wish from my heart I was far away from here,


s: Sitting in my parlour and talking to my dear.


s: For it's home, dearie, home--it's home I want to be.


s: Our topsails are hoisted, and we'll away to sea.


s: O, the oak and the ash and the bonnie birken tree


s: They're all growing green in the old countrie.


s: In Baltimore a-walking a lady I did meet


s: With her babe on her arm, as she came down the street;


s: And I thought how I sailed, and the cradle standing ready


s: For the pretty little babe that has never seen its daddie.


s: O, if it be a lass, she shall wear a golden ring;


s: And if it be a lad, he shall fight for his king:


s: With his dirk and his hat and his little jacket blue


s: He shall walk the quarter-deck as his daddie used to do.


s: O, there's a wind a-blowing, a-blowing from the west,


s: And that of all the winds is the one I like the best,


s: For it blows at our backs, and it shakes our pennon free,


s: And it soon will blow us home to the old countrie.


s: NOTE:  The burthen and the third stanza are old.


s: The ways are green with the gladdening sheen


s: O, the shadows that fleet o'er the springing wheat!


s: We march to a tune from the fifes of June,


s: When the meadow glows, and the orchard snows,


s: When fancies break, and the senses wake,


s: That whoever has dipped in her manuscript


s: Now the summer prime is her blithest rhyme


s: A late lark twitters from the quiet skies;


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


s: Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night -


s: My task accomplished and the long day done,


s: The Past was goodly once, and yet, when all is said,


s: The best of it we know is that it's done and dead.


s: Dwindled and faded quite, perished beyond recall,


s: Nothing is left at last of what one time was all.


s: Coming back like a ghost, staring and lingering on,


s: Never a word it speaks but proves it dead and gone.


s: Duty and work and joy--these things it cannot give;


s: And the Present is life, and life is good to live.


s: Let it lie where it fell, far from the living sun,


s: The Past that, goodly once, is gone and dead and done.


s: And the strength of my mother, the Earth.


s: I am that which forgives and forgets.' -


s: Living flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone -


s: Lay uncomplaining, still, contemptuous, strange:


s: The good, heroic soul with all its wealth -


s: Suffering and passionate faith--was reabsorbed


s: And life was changed to us for evermore.


s: Forgiveness, reconcilement, where in truth,


s: To her Death came--the great Deliverer came! -


s: As equal comes to equal, throne to throne.


s: The stars shine as of old.  The unchanging River,


s: And the brave truth comes overwhelmingly home:-


s: In us thy children, in ours whose life is thine -


s: Our best and theirs!  What is that best but thee -


s: Thou dost return, thine influences return


s: But Life in act?  How should the Unteeming Grave


s: Crosses and troubles a-many have proved me.


s: One or two women (God bless them!) have loved me.


s: I have worked and dreamed, and I've talked at will.


s: I've comforted here, and I've succoured there.


s: I've faced my foes, and I've backed my friends.


s: I've blundered, and sometimes made amends.


s: I have prayed for light, and I've known despair.


s: Come storm, come shine, whatever befall,


s: With a grateful heart and a constant mind,


s: Quiring their innocent, old-world canticles,


s: Of woods at evensong, and sands and seas


s: Disconsolate for that the night is nigh.


s: O, the low, lingering lights!  The large last gleam


s: (Hark! how those brazen choristers cry and call!)


s: Touching these solemn ancientries, and there,


s: With the strange glimmer and glamour of a dream!


s: The Sabbath peace is in the slumbrous trees,


s: And from the wistful, the fast-widowing sky


s: (Hark! how those plangent comforters call and cry!)


s: Falls as in August plots late roseleaves fall.


s: Comes from the dry, dust-coloured street,


s: Where in their summer frocks the girls go by,


s: And sweethearts lean and loiter and confer,


s: Just as an hundred years to come they will:-


s: When you and I, Dear Love, lie lost and low,


s: And sweet-throats none our welkin shall fulfil,


s: But, being dead, we shall not grieve to die.


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


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


s: Let us take horse, Dear Heart, take horse and win -


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


s: To quietness and the fresh and fragrant breasts


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


s: Which tells that soon the flowing springs of day


s: Shall float the sands, and brim the shores,


s: On this our lith of the World, as round it roars


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


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


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


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


s: Each with his home-grown quality of dark


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


s: And O, the languid midsummer wafts adust,


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


s: Let loose from some dim underworld to range


s: These terrene vistas till their twilight sets:


s: When, dispossessed of wonderfulness, they stand


s: Beggared and common, plain to all the land


s: For stooks of leaves!  And lo! the Wizard Hour,


s: His silent, shining sorcery winged with power!


s: Still, still the streets, between their carcanets


s: On this still, spectral, exquisite atmosphere?


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


s: A spent witch homing from some infamous dance -


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


s: Through shadowy railings into a pit of shade!


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


s: A lamplit bridge ouching the troubled sky,


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


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


s: His dreams that never save in our deaths can die.


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


s: The extinguisher, that perks it like a spire


s: On the little formal church, is not yet green


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


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


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


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


s: And those are barges that were goblin floats,


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


s: And in the piles the water frolics clear,


s: The ripples into loose rings wander and flee,


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


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


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


s: The old Ruffian soon shall yawn himself awake,


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


s: Pass ere the sun leaps and your shadow shows -


s: Of casements staring blind to right and left,


s: Each with his gaze turned inward on some piece


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


s: Of living looks as by the Great Release -


s: Pass to an exquisite night's more exquisite close!


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


s: These colonies of dreams!  And as we steal


s: Homeward together, but for the buxom breeze,


s: With news of dawn-drenched woods and tumbling seas,


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


s: Some world of memories and unbroken graves,


s: So broods the abounding Silence near and far:


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


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


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


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


s: As with new ore from some enchanted mine,


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


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


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


s: Eastward and westward, sounds suffused -


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


s: Brings back to some faded face, beloved before,


s: Ere the poor eyes were minded to beseech)


s: Old things transfigures, and you hail and bless


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


s: Till Clement's, angular and cold and staid,


s: Gleams forth in glamour's very stuffs arrayed;


s: And Bride's, her aery, unsubstantial charm


s: Through flight on flight of springing, soaring stone


s: Laughs into life full-mooded and fresh-blown;


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


s: And golden with a gold so suave and fine


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


s: Shines like an angel-market.  High aloft


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


s: The dingy dreariness of the picture-place,


s: Takes on a luminous transiency of grace,


s: And shows no more a scandal to the ground.


s: The very blind man pottering on the kerb,


s: Among the posies and the ostrich feathers


s: And the rude voices touched with all the weathers


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


s: The height and spread of frontage shining sheer,


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


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


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


s: From the most squalid cellarage of hell,


s: The Hangman Wind that tortures temper and light -


s: Hard on the skirts of the embittered night;


s: Of excremental humours, roused to strife


s: By the operation of some ruinous change,


s: Wherever his evil mandate run and range,


s: A craftsman at his bench, he settles down


s: To the grim job of throttling London Town.


s: That might have oppressed the dragons of old time


s: Crunching and groping in the abysmal slime,


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


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


s: The afflicted City, prone from mark to mark


s: A nightmare labyrinthine, dim and drifting,


s: With wavering gulfs and antic heights, and shifting,


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


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


s: Uncoiling monstrous into street on street


s: Paven with perils, teeming with mischance,


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


s: Working with oaths and threats and faltering feet


s: Working through wicked airs and deadly dews


s: At the good places in his black romance,


s: And the poor, loitering harlot rather choose


s: Than lurk and shiver and curse her wretched way


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


s: Forgot his dawns and far-flushed afterglows,


s: His green garlands and windy eyots forgot,


s: His watchfires cores of menace in the gloom,


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


s: Sunk in his filthily transfigured sides,


s: Shoals of dishonoured dead to tumble and rot


s: His voices sounding through the gruesome air


s: As from the Ferry where the Boat of Doom


s: With her blaspheming cargo reels and rides:


s: The while his children, the brave ships,


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


s: Or feel their course by inches desperately,


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


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


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


s: Comes to your bedside, unannounced and bland,


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


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


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


s: From books and women and talk and drink and art.


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


s: Thus vicious and thus patient, sits him down


s: To the black job of burking London Town?


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


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


s: What makes this insolent and comely stream


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


s: Down Piccadilly dance and murmur and gleam


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


s: Why does that nymph unparalleled splash and churn


s: Her cheerful margents, grey and living green,


s: It floats and wanders, glittering and fleeing,


s: - Sure, sure my paramour, my Bride of Brides,


s: Lingering and flushed, mysteriously abides


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


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


s: In the divine conviction robed and crowned


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


s: But feels the primal blessing in his blood.


s: Brightening like sex made sunshine through her veins -


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


s: Bounteous in looks of her delicious best,


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


s: As each were keeping some most prosperous tryst,


s: For look! a magical influence everywhere,


s: Look how the liberal and transfiguring air


s: This centre of ravishments and gracious greetings,


s: Till, through its jocund loveliness of length


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


s: A brimming reach of beauty met with strength,


s: It shines and sounds like some miraculous dream,


s: Through this His messenger among the days


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


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


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


s: To sound his ancient music, and prevails,


s: Here in this radiant and immortal street


s: In the open hills, the undissembling dales,


s: The laughing-places of the juvenile earth.


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


s: Meet and are moved, each unto each endeared,


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


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


s: The enormous heart of London joys to beat


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


s: The lewd, perennial, overmastering spell


s: That keeps the rolling universe ensphered,


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


s: The grace of sunset solitudes, the march


s: Of the solitary moon, the pomp and power


s: Of round on round of shining soldier-stars


s: Patrolling space, the bounties of the sun -


s: The multitudinous friendliness of the sea,


s: The Autumn rain-rot deeper and wider soaks


s: And spreads, the burden of Winter heavier weighs,


s: Cleaves, and those incantations of the Spring


s: That made the heart a centre of miracles


s: Grow formal, and the wonder-working bours


s: 'Tis time to creep in close about the fire


s: And tell grey tales of what we were, and dream


s: Old dreams and faded, and as we may rejoice


s: In the young life that round us leaps and laughs,


s: A fountain in the sunshine, in the pride


s: Of God's best gift that to us twain returns,


s: Calling you still, as friend calls friend


s: From dearer things than your own most dear


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Bent upon vast beginnings, bidding anarchy cease -


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


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


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


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


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


s: We tracked the winds of the world to the steps of their very


s: The secret parts of the world were salted with our bones;


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


s: Flames from the austral fires to the bounds of the boreal night;


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


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


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


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


s: And the end of the road to Hell with the sense of her dews and


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


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


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


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


s: Is but less strong than Time and the great, all-whelming Grave.


s: Leering her battered and inveterate leer,


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


s: His villainous old bones with villainous talk -


s: The secrets of their grisly housekeeping


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


s: Goodly and strong, Companions of the Advance,


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


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


s: The summons of the Trumpet, and the while


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


s: He as in ambush at some accomplice door.


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


s: It came with the threat of a waning moon


s: For life upon life took hold and passed,


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


s: And who shall reckon what lives may live


s: Throbs the word like a flinging flame? -


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


s: Rankle and snarl and hunger for their due,


s: Till there seems naught so despicable as you


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


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


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


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


s: In that black bridewell working out his term,


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


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


s: And like a triumphing lover, he shall take


s: His fill where no high memory lives to make


s: 'He fought, he hacked, he crushed his way:


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


s: (God in the Garden laughed and frowned).


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


s: 'Till both attain to Life's last height.


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


s: The shining, sensitive silver of the sea


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


s: And all so solemnly still I seem to hear


s: Renewing the visible miracle of the world.


s: Shine like good memories.  The young morning wind


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


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


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


s: Words fiery-hearted yet, dreams and desires


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Teems with them even to the gleaming ends


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


s: Some chamber flushed with wine and fire,


s: Gloom out of gloom uncoiling into gloom,


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: The terror of Time and Change and Death,


s: That wastes this floating, transitory world.


s: That forced the huddled shapes on yonder shore


s: That touched the shafts of wavering fire


s: Into long, shining signals from the panes


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


s: But whither had flown the ancient wrong;


s: Cloud-monsters crawling, like a funeral train


s: The far sea waits and wanders with a sound


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


s: Better a thousand times the roaring hours


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


s: So 'It's O, for the time of the new Sublime


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


s: You have cockered the Brute with your dreadful fruit


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


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


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


s: And for the lack the fires of Hell gone out


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


s: But your taproot drinks of the Sacred Springs


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


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


s: O, Time and Change, they range and range


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


s: For Time and Change estrange, estrange -


s: O, we that were dear, we are all-too near


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


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


s: Stillness and stars and over-mastering dreams


s: Heard over gleaming flats, the old, unchanging sound


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Of starlight and the song of racing worlds,


s: It might have bellied down upon the Void


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


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


s: A messenger from some lost and loving soul,


s: A great white moth fades miserably past.


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


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


s: For all the importunate questionings he pursues


s: Shall those mild things of bulk and multitude,


s: Yield of their huge, unutterable selves.


s: They keep their greenest musings, and the dim dreams


s: Dissembled, baffling the random gapeseed still


s: With blank full-faces, or the innocent guile


s: Of laughter flickering back from shine to shade,


s: Of little boughs that frisk with little boughs.


s: Night of the many secrets, whose effect -


s: Of some mysterious and tremendous guild,


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Their rich autumnal melancholy, and the shrill,


s: And with them all the goodness of the Master,


s: Whose right hand blesses with increase and life,


s: Whose left hand honours with decay and death.


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


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


s: These, to you now, O, more than ever now -


s: Has passed, and we, we two that are one, have seen


s: The Arch-Discomforter might well have smiled


s: Even as he bore his lovely and innocent spoil


s: From those home-kingdoms he left desolate!


s: On the great, sullen, roaring pool of Time


s: But they are yours, as I am, till we attain


s: That end for which me make, we two that are one:


s: Between us, smiling with the serenest eyes


s: Seen in this world, and calling, calling still


s: In that clear voice whose infinite subtleties


s: Of sweetness, thrilling back across the grave,


s: Like a soft thick fringe to hide your eyes.


s: I have a secret from everybody in the world full of people


s: But I cannot always remember how it goes;


s: With a curl of cloud and a feather of blue


s: Thanks are due to the editors of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, The


s: Where childhood betrays genius is in the mounting up of detail.


s: A bluebird has a back "like a feathered sky." Apostrophizing a


s: "--silvery lonesome lapping of the long wave."


s: Again, enchanted by a little bell of rhyme, we have this amusing


s: That is the conscious Hilda, the gay little girl, but it shows a


s: evidently belongs to the second category. "Treasure," and "The


s: "Gift" is a lovely poem, it has feeling, expression, originality,


s: Oh wrinkling star, wrinkling up so wise,


s: When you go to sleep do you shut your eyes?


s: When I'm asleep, the moon comes pattering up


s: The blossoms will be gone in the winter:


s: The big blue ocean lies around in the sun


s: And the water was the color of blue flowers.


s: With her hands in the pockets of her pinafore.


s: The birds came to tell Siegfried a story,


s: And there were things it could do for him


s: And Brunnhilda slept in a wreath of fire.


s: Grane watched her, standing close beside,


s: She dreamed she was far from her father,


s: I love Narcissus when he bends his head.


s: I can hardly keep March and spring and Sunday and daffodils


s: God knows about it while winter is lasting.


s: Up there in the sky trying to keep his worlds happy.


s: I keep reminding him about his flowers he has forgotten,


s: When the clouds come deep against the sky


s: Listening to the rustling out of the trees.


s: Shady Bronn is the name of my little farm:


s: And the wind rings them like little bells.


s: The Sandman comes pattering across the Bay:


s: The Sandman comes searching across the Bay:


s: And why the lake-gull leaves the moon alone.


s: There are no wings to moonlight any more,


s: I think things to myself that you don't know,


s: They remember the sky, my little dreams,


s: They have wings, they are quick, they are sweet.


s: Help me give bread to the other children


s: Let me hold their little hands in the dark,


s: The babies that have no mothers any more.


s: Had wound themselves in their winter coats.


s: I was a queen of yellow leaves and brown,


s: When I slept, I thought I was upon the mountain-tops,


s: I saw the little people come out into the night,


s: I saw their wings glittering under the stars.


s: Crickets played all the tunes they knew.


s: The bottoms of their little gowns were roses!


s: And the hermit thrush and the black and white warbler


s: But I cannot forget my dream I had of the sea,


s: The hiding bees would not come out of the flowers


s: When I heard the bees humming in the hive,


s: Wait till the sky drops down and touches the spear,


s: The sky leans down where the spear stands upward. . .


s: Grow peacock feathers of daylight colors


s: I have heard that night gathers these feathers


s: But I should not be sure of it, my dear,


s: O stately creature with tail-feathers red and blue,


s: The short feathers smooth along your back


s: When I look at their sides through water.


s: I don't know how you happened to be made


s: Shouting all day long your crooked words,


s: Unless a star squeezes through the leaves,


s: Or a moth looks sharply at a gray branch.


s: Raindrops and mist, starriness over the trees,


s: The moon, the dew, the other little singers,


s: Cricket . . . toad . . . leaf rustling . . .


s: When night comes trailing her starry cloak,


s: With tree-toads calling along the roadside.


s: Good-night, I say to one, Good-by, I say to another:


s: I hope to hear you singing on the Road of Dreams!


s: No more silvery lonesome lapping of the long wave . . .


s: Have you looked under the trembling caps


s: Your faces watch us from outside the shade.


s: For mine floats like a swan in featheriness


s: Whiter than anything your eyes remember.


s: The trees drop their leaves into the water;


s: Small ferns up-coming through the mossy green,


s: And the straight brook like a lily-stem:


s: Who keeps sighing to himself all day long


s: There I find people whose eyes are heavy,


s: If you touch the sky where those clouds are passing


s: With the moon and stars shining round the world:


s: For they love the wind in their feathery branches.


s: It was the highest, widest, thickest tower,


s: Because it went above tree-tops and clouds.


s: It was lonely up there where the trees stopped


s: "Tower!  Do you know you are the highest, finest, roundest,


s: Into another country under a different sky:


s: (Made for the picture on the jacket of the


s: Norwegian book, The Great Hunger, by Johan Bojer)


s: The point of the slope came down to the water's edge;


s: It was green with a fairy ring of forget-me-not and fern.


s: The white foam licked the side of the slope


s: It curled up like a beautiful cinder-tree


s: As the moon came leaning across dark blue rays of light.


s: The spruce trees saw the white ships sailing away,


s: Where stars were twinkling like fairy lamps;


s: The boy was looking toward foreign lands


s: Their white sails glittering in the moonlight.


s: "Do you want to go across the deep blue sea?


s: "Oh," cried the little boy, "who sent you?


s: They flew as the night-wind flowed, very softly,


s: They heard sweet singing that the water sang,


s: They came to a place where the sea was shallow


s: The Dew-man comes over the mountains wide,


s: Out of the misty dew-light that leans over him


s: I have to watch the willow bend in the wind.


s: I have often seen your shadow in the glittering creek;


s: That was the last I saw of father or mother.


s: The birds are nested; their song is silent.


s: The wind says oo--oo--oo--through the trees


s: The moon shines down on the sleeping birds.


s: My apple-trees are bare as the oaks in the forest;


s: O little soldier with the golden helmet,


s: If I could tell you the way to this place,


s: Petal of my crimson-white flower out of June,


s: The morning is like the inside of a snow-apple.


s: To hear you sing your songs of starlight


s: And tell your stories of the wonderful land


s: To say to you that Seagarde will soon be here,


s: And your blue back like a feathered sky,


s: And my flower-beds are covered with fluff out of the clouds.


s: Of darkies singing their babies to sleep,


s: By their grayish bluish silverish look of smoke.


s: Like the legs of the red chickens in our poultry yard.


s: I shall have a hillside of spruce and hemlock


s: And I shall mark a walk of spires on my map,


s: Trees Fat smell like a wind out of fairy-land


s: A scarlet bird went sailing away through the wood . . .


s: Beautiful gray arms stretched out to me,


s: Swaying to and fro like angels' wings . . .


s: The moon shines down on the crusty snow:


s: The stars make the sky sparkle like gold-fish


s: It is time for summer when the birds come back


s: Coming home from somewhere down the long tired road


s: The grass-blades are crowned with snowflakes.


s: And you thank the dew for giving you a drink.


s: I watched clouds float past and flow back


s: And you stretch out flowers of palest white


s: He wagged his head this way . . . that way . . .


s: As though he were from a different country.


s: I have always said he carries his house on his back . . .


s: Send home the birds to build nests in my arms,


s: There is a little girl coming for cherries too . . .


s: (I am that little girl, I who am singing . . .)


s: The butterflies will be going (says the cherry)


s: On the tips of tall slender green grasses


s: Or on the cheeks of fruit I have ripened,


s: Black bat goes searching . . . searching . . .


s: But he is thinking of his mother with dark hair


s: Of his father with a voice like ice and velvet,


s: Fairies with sparkling crowns and dewy hands,


s: Sprinkle flowers and mosses to keep them fresh,


s: It is at morningbreak you must tell me tales


s: He looked hard down into my lettuce-bed.


s: I said, Well, I am here!  Don't you see me?


s: When I can't go out into flowery places;


s: Petals were falling, faces were looking out,


s: Shapes like his were coming in the buds;


s: and I shall know more than any of them!"


s: Oh little mushrooms with brown faces underneath


s: You think of summer and you think of song . . .


s: You think only of your singsong and your dances,


s: It was as red, as yellow, as white, as blue


s: As gold and stones with the light through!


s: Angel-love . . . golden-yellow and far white . . .


s: Fairy-love . . . golden yellow and green . . .


s: Wave-love . . . scarlet and azure blue . . .


s: I will give them to people who need love,


s: Because of the wind and the sea and my heart.


s: When breezes stir nothing but happiness . . .


s: As the swallows lift and blow upward . . .


s: I see colors fade out, they die away . . .


s: I blow across a cloud . . . I am lifted . . .


s: How can I change again into a little girl


s: When wings are in my feeling of gladness?


s: The moon has a dove-cote safe and small,


s: The moon is calm and never wears an anxious look,


s: And found that the loveliest shells of all


s: I saw little fish, the children of the sea;


s: I wanted the sea-weed purple; I wanted the shells;


s: I wanted a little fish to hold in my hands;


s: I wanted the big fish to stop wandering about,


s: Where the light played, and the green shadows:


s: What would you do . . . I asked my heart . . .


s: If you were a floating ship of the sky . . .


s: Snow-capped mountain, so white, so tall,


s: Snow-capped mountain, with the wind on your forehead,


s: Where are the magic stones, your children?"


s: To keep me from this shady path of happiness;


s: While I travel fields of elm and poplar."


s: The Bird of Paradise is like flowers of many trees


s: But it was the gray bird I heard singing


s: About green moss, about fish that get lost.


s: But most of the time silver birch trees,


s: On heavy branches till they are aching . . .


s: Birches like silver bars they can hardly lift


s: With grass so thick about their feet to hinder . . .


s: I went slowly through the wood of shadows,


s: Over the sea swam a cloud the outline of a ship:


s: There you are, Primrose!  I see you, Black Wing!


s: They change and fall, they are not steady,


s: Raindrops slide down your little shoulders . . .


s: It is not only through the day I see you,


s: Because of daisies and such summer blooms.


s: While through the faint blue, clear and pale,


s: My barque had thought for helm and sail,


s: Where one swift tide of wind there flows,


s: But the Wind doth touch them, over and o'er,


s: And the Wind's breath in the reeds will sigh.


s: Wheeled, and ran in, and grounded there;


s: With these doth each guest twine his crown


s: Where rains weep, and the curlews shrill


s: And these my whole heart seeks are found


s: Chill through the dwellings of the dead,


s: And turned the shattered stones to gold,


s: (Who also had rhymed on the Fortune Islands of Lucian).


s: Each something takes and something leaves


s: While yours are wreathed with poppies red,


s: With flowers that Helen's feet have kissed,


s: 'Midst these, but ah, more slow of speed,


s: The means by which thou fain wouldst cope


s: "JUSTICE!"--how prompt the witling's sneer, -


s: "Justice!  Thou wouldst have Justice here!


s: These arms wherewith we'd vanquish Fate!


s: Shall seize and hoard the fruits of skill.


s: Such dens and husks as beasts disdain, -


s: Though shrunken from thine ancient pride


s: The "flying terms" with bands of gold, -


s: And these, and all things must you miss?


s: And pure from fret, and smooth as sleep,


s: This hush of earth that pleased thee so,


s: Hadst pleasure still, I might not grieve.


s: Our ears were deaf, our eyes were blind,


s: With pains and joys each morning brought?


s: Though youth "turns spectre-thin and dies,"


s: Our hearts are young 'neath wrinkled rind:


s: I've sighed, reeled up, and dreamed my dream!


s: Her hands fulfilled of flowers and snow,


s: Dreamed of the singing showers that break,


s: And rouse the trout, and stir "the take"


s: Breaks the black wave with sudden spray!


s: Though Gods have walked your woods among,


s: Though nymphs have fled your banks along;


s: Than Tweed's, that through death's twilight dim,


s: When strawberry pottles are common and cheap,


s: When midnight dances are murdering sleep,


s: And far from Fleet Street, far from here,


s: The Summer is Queen in the length of the land,


s: And moonlit nights they are soft and clear,


s: When fans for a penny are sold in the Strand!


s: When clamour that doves in the lindens keep


s: Where drowned green tresses of crowsfoot creep,


s: And better a crust and a beaker of beer,


s: Than a palace in town and a prince's cheer,


s: When big trout late in the twilight leap,


s: When glittering scythes in the hayfield reap,


s: And it's oh to sail, with the wind to steer,


s: Where kine knee deep in the water stand,


s: Friend, with the fops while we dawdle here,


s: And the Summer runs out, like grains of sand,


s: Such shapes return with Christmas snow, -


s: We part, like guests who've joyed their fill;


s: She has just "put her gown on" at Girton,


s: But lawn tennis she plays with a skirt on


s: Should her bark, by mischance, spring a leak,


s: She can fence, she can put with a cleek,


s: (The village in the bay of Spezia, near which Shelley was living


s: Mid April seemed like some November day,


s: When through the glassy waters, dull as lead,


s: Our boat, like shadowy barques that bear the dead,


s: Slipped down the long shores of the Spezian bay,


s: Before us, that gay village, yellow and red,


s: The roof that covered Shelley's homeless head, -


s: His house, a place deserted, bleak and grey.


s: The waves broke on the door-step; fishermen


s: Cast their long nets, and drew, and cast again.


s: Deep in the ilex woods we wandered free,


s: When suddenly the forest glades were stirred


s: With waving pinions, and a great sea bird


s: Flew forth, like Shelley's spirit, to the sea!


s: We are more than content, if you please,


s: With the scent of the limes, when the bees


s: Hummed low 'round the doves in their nest,


s: He'd have dwelt, where the heart of us flees,


s: And the soul of the Southron might rest,


s: Of the hills of the North, we would fleet


s: Where our hearts might their longing appease


s: It is far from the sounds of the street,


s: VILLANELLE--(To M. Joseph Boulmier, author of "Les Villanelles.")


s: Alas, the strong, the wise, the brave, -


s: They are sown, and are not raised again;


s: Here shalt thou make a "five" and there a "four,"


s: And then upon thy bat shalt lean, and say,


s: Yea, the loud ring applauding thee shall roar,


s: And thou to rival THORNTON shalt aspire,


s: When lo, the Umpire gives thee "leg before," -


s: "This is the end of every man's desire!"


s: The burden of much bowling, when the stay


s: Of all thy team is "collared," swift or slower,


s: When "bailers" break not in their wonted way,


s: And "yorkers" come not off as here-to-fore,


s: When length balls shoot no more, ah never more,


s: When all deliveries lose their former fire,


s: When bats seem broader than the broad barn-door, -


s: The burden of long fielding, when the clay


s: Clings to thy shoon in sudden shower's downpour,


s: And running still thou stumblest, or the ray


s: Of blazing suns doth bite and burn thee sore,


s: And blind thee till, forgetful of thy lore,


s: Thou dost most mournfully misjudge a "skyer,"


s: And lose a match the Fates cannot restore, -


s: Alas, yet liefer on Youth's hither shore


s: Would I be some poor Player on scant hire,


s: Than King among the old, who play no more, -


s: "THIS is the end of every man's desire!"


s: "It is told of the last Lovers which watched May-night in the


s: the very Venus herself, who bade them 'make such cheer as they


s: might, for' said she, 'I shall live no more in these Woods, nor


s: shall ye endure to see another May time.'"--EDMUND GORLIOT, "Of


s: "Whence do ye come, with the dew on your hair?


s: From what far land are the boughs ye bear,


s: The blossoms and buds upon breasts and tresses,


s: The light burned white in your faces fair?"


s: "In a falling fane have we built our house,


s: With the dying Gods we have held carouse,


s: And our lips are wan from their wild caresses,


s: Our hands are filled with their holy boughs.


s: She was not decked as for glee and game,


s: She was not veiled with the veil of flame,


s: The saffron veil of the Bride that covers


s: The face that is flushed with her joy and shame.


s: The woodland rides and the fragrant grasses,


s: White flowers fell as the night wind blew.


s: For grief that abides, and joy that passes,


s: For pain that tarries and mirth that flies.


s: With weary lips, and palled with pleasure


s: "Ye have made your choice, and the better part,


s: In the wild May night drank all the measure,


s: The perfect pleasure of heart and heart.


s: "Ye shall walk no more with the May," she said,


s: "Shall your love endure though the Gods be dead?


s: Shall the flitting flocks, mine own, my chosen,


s: Abide no more, for the springs are frozen,


s: And fled the Gods that ye loved and knew.


s: Ye shall never know Summer again like this;


s: Ye shall play no more with the Fauns, I wis,


s: No more in the nymphs' and dryads' playtime


s: "Though the flowers in your golden hair be bright,


s: Your golden hair shall be waste and white


s: By shaft and pit; foiled waters wander slow


s: Through plains where Simois and Scamander went


s: The dust and awful treasures of the Dead,


s: Hath Learning scattered wide, but vainly thee,


s: Homer, she meteth with her tool of lead,


s: And strives to rend thy songs; too blind to see


s: The crown that burns on thine immortal head


s: Nay, from the sea there came a ghost that kissed


s: That crusts the blighted flowers with bitter foam!


s: Nay, for his arms are cold and strong to bind,


s: And I must dwell with him and make my home!


s: Come, for the Spring is fair in Joyous Guard


s: And down deep alleys sweet birds sing again.


s: Although the Spring be fair in Joyous Guard,


s: And in the gardens glad birds sing again!


s: Their hour of dear-bought love; but THEE


s: The waves lull, 'neath thine olives hoar,


s: To tell, the shores where float and cling


s: While dreams of hers, like angels, float


s: That dreams of mine might speak with hers,


s: Down to the border line of sky and foam,


s: Back, like a ghost from her forbidden home!


s: Alas, his grave was wide and deep enough,


s: And left him to his rest.  An end of Love.


s: And graves give up their ghosts, he will not rise!"


s: Set far apart in lands of North and South,


s: And kissed us with the kisses of his mouth!


s: And still the shape evades the longing hands.


s: The learned groves, 'neath rainless skies,


s: There's Eve,--not our first mother fair, -


s: (Clement Marot's Frere Lubin, though translated by Longfellow and


s: I have painted "arrangements in greens,"


s: I have lived, as a chief, with the Crows;


s: I have "interviewed" Princes and Queens;


s: I abstain, like the ancients, from beans, -


s: When he says that to eat them's a crime, -


s: And my sketches are quainter than Keene's,


s: I'm acquainted with Dukes and with Deans,


s: They've made the slow time fleetly flow,


s: Hither, come hither, ye Clouds renowned, and unveil yourselves


s: Come, though ye dwell on the sacred crests of Olympian snow,


s: Or whether ye dance with the Nereid choir in the gardens clear,


s: Or whether your golden urns are dipped in Nile's overflow,


s: And hearken to us, and accept our gifts ere ye rise and go.


s: Of the father of streams, from the sounding sea,


s: Let us look on the tree-clad mountain crest,


s: On the sacred earth where the fruits rejoice,


s: On the tumbling sea with his moaning voice,


s: For unwearied glitters the Eye of the Air,


s: Then cast we our shadows of mist, and fare


s: In our deathless shapes to glance everywhere


s: From the height of the heaven, on the land and air,


s: Let us on, ye Maidens that bring the Rain,


s: In the country of Cecrops, fair and dear


s: Where the Rites unspoken securely dwell,


s: And the gifts of the Gods that know not stain


s: And a people of mortals that know not fear.


s: For the temples tall, and the statues fair,


s: And the feasts of the Gods are holiest there,


s: The feasts of Immortals, the chaplets of flowers


s: And the Bromian mirth at the coming of spring,


s: And the musical voices that fill the hours,


s: And the dancing feet of the Maids that sing!


s: The Knights with their helms and their lances,


s: Their shields and the favours they wore?


s: Shall the shepherds drive silvery flocks,


s: Nor the ladies their languors deplore, -


s: And the Music!  The songs and the dances?


s: The Divine, and the Sceptic who mocks, -


s: They are "cropped," they are "foxed" to the core, -


s: Where they lie by the Bookseller's door, -


s: I would my days had been in other times,


s: That knew the sway of Horus and of hawk,


s: In peaceful lands that border on the Nile.


s: Lulled by the sacrifice and mumbled hymn


s: Between the Five great Rivers, or in shade


s: And shelter of the cool Himalayan hills.


s: Had watched the rounding grapes, and lived my life,


s: Drift down the sacred Rivers to the Sea!


s: Take tip the pen, my friend, and write!"


s: Telleth of a young man that fain would be fairly tattooed on his


s: flesh, after the heathen manner, in devices of blue, and that,


s: falling among the Dyacks, a folk of Borneo, was by them tattooed


s: in modern fashion and device, and of his misery that fell upon


s: Smirks, Bishops, Babies, left and right,


s: recurs in almost all savage mythologies, and I have made the


s: We would have you to wit, that on eggs though we sit, and are


s: spiked on the spit, and are baked in the pan,


s: Birds are older by far than your ancestors are, and made love and


s: For when all things were dark, not a glimmer nor spark, and the


s: world like a barque without rudder or sail


s: For the Hawk, so they tell, was then known as Pundjel, {5} and a-


s: Then he went on the quest, as we thought, of a nest, with some


s: bark of the best, and a clawful of clay. {6}


s: And with these did he frame two birds lacking a name, without


s: feathers (his game was a puzzle to all);


s: Next around them he fluttered a-dancing, and muttered; and,


s: And THIS was the baking of Man, and his making; but now he's


s: Now these creatures of mire, they kept whining for fire, and to


s: crown their desire who was found but the Wren?


s: To the high heaven he came, from the Sun stole he flame, and for


s: this has a name in the memory of men! {7}


s: And in India who for the Soma juice flew, and to men brought it


s: While the Thlinkeet's delight is the Bird of the Night, the beak


s: And who for man's need brought the famed Suttung's mead? why 'tis


s: 'Twas the Eagle god who brought the drink from the blue, and gave


s: Next, who gave men their laws? and what reason or cause the young


s: Till he thinks it a shame to wed one of his name, and his conduct


s: For you still hold it wrong if a lubra {10} belong to the self-


s: To take HER as a bride to your ebony side; nay, you give her a


s: For her father, you know, is YOUR father, the Crow, and no


s: blessing but woe from the wedding would spring.


s: Thus on Earth's little ball to the Birds you owe all, yet your


s: gratitude's small for the favours they've done,


s: And their feathers you pill, and you eat them at will, yes, you


s: plunder and kill the bright birds one by one;


s: There's a price on their head, and the Dodo is dead, and the Moa


s: Have brains and hearts, and feel and know.


s: "What did the dark-haired Iberian laugh at before the tall blonde


s: These versions from classical passages are pretty close to the


s: original, except where compression was needed, as in the sonnets


s: Famed warriors, now in council more of fame.


s: Always above the gates, in converse thus


s: Who marking Helen, swore "it is no shame


s: That armed Achaean knights, and Ilian men


s: For such a woman's sake should suffer long.


s: Fair as a deathless goddess seemeth she.


s: Nay, but aboard the red-prowed ships again


s: Home let her pass in peace, not working wrong


s: To us, and children's children yet to be."


s: Now the light of the sun, in the night of the Earth, on the souls


s: Shines, and their city is girt with the meadow where reigneth the


s: And deep is the shade of the woods, and the wind that flits o'er


s: Sings of the sea, and is sweet from the isles where the


s: Green is their garden and orchard, with rare fruits golden it


s: And the souls of the Blessed are glad in the pleasures on Earth


s: And in chariots these have delight, and in dice and in minstrelsy


s: And the savour of sacrifice clings to the altars and rises anew.


s: But the Souls that Persephone cleanses from ancient pollution and


s: These at the end of the age be they prince, be they singer, or


s: Thanks of the people, and songs of the minstrels that praise them


s: And their glory shall dwell in the land where they dwelt, while


s: But through the night with torch in hand


s: Here be the fairest homes the land can show,


s: The silvery-cliffed Colonus; always here


s: The nightingale doth haunt and singeth clear,


s: For well the deep green gardens doth she know.


s: Groves of the God, where winds may never blow,


s: Nor men may tread, nor noontide sun may peer


s: For here he loves to dwell, and here resort


s: These Nymphs that are his nurses and his court,


s: The crocus burns, and the narcissus fair


s: Clusters his blooms to crown thy clustered hair,


s: Demeter, and to wreathe the Maiden's brows!


s: Yea, here the dew of Heaven upon the grain


s: Fails never, nor the ceaseless water-spring,


s: But chiefly here the Muses quire and sing,


s: And here they love to weave their dancing ring,


s: And here there springs a plant that knoweth not


s: The Asian mead, nor that great Dorian isle,


s: Unsown, untilled, within our garden plot


s: It dwells, the grey-leaved olive; ne'er shall guile


s: Nor force of foemen root it from the spot:


s: Save Theseus only? for there neither came


s: The burning bolt of thunder, and the flame


s: To blast him into nothing, nor the swell


s: Of sea-tide spurred by tempest on him fell.


s: Called him, or inmost Earth's abyss became


s: The painless place where such a soul might dwell.


s: Howe'er it chanced, untouched of malady,


s: With comfort on the twilight way he went,


s: From this world's death to life divinely rent,


s: Unschooled in Time's last lesson, how we die.


s: (Sidero, the stepmother of Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus, cruelly


s: entreated her in all things, and chiefly in this, that she let


s: At fierce Sidero's word the thralls drew near,


s: And shore the locks of Tyro,--like ripe corn


s: They fell in golden harvest,--but forlorn


s: The maiden shuddered in her pain and fear,


s: Like some wild mare that cruel grooms in scorn


s: Hunt in the meadows, and her mane they sheer,


s: And drive her where, within the waters clear,


s: She spies her shadow, and her shame doth mourn.


s: Who marking that wild thing made weak and tame,


s: Broken, and grieving for her glory gone,


s: Could mock her grief; but scornfully apart


s: Sidero stood, and watched a wind that came


s: And tossed the curls like fire that flew and shone!


s: For thee soft crowns in thine untrampled mead


s: Thither no shepherd drives his flocks to feed,


s: Nor scythe of steel has ever laboured there;


s: Nay, through the spring among the blossoms fair


s: The brown bee comes and goes, and with good heed


s: Thy maiden, Reverence, sweet streams doth lead


s: About the grassy close that is her care!


s: May pluck these holy blooms and grasses green


s: That now I wreathe for thine immortal head,


s: I that may walk with thee, thyself unseen,


s: And by thy whispered voice am comforted.


s: Long life hath taught me many things, and shown


s: That lukewarm loves for men who die are best,


s: Not Love, that stings the soul within the breast;


s: Happy, who wears his love-bonds lightliest,


s: Now cherished, now away at random thrown!


s: Grievous it is for other's grief to moan,


s: Hard that my soul for thine should lose her rest!


s: Wise ruling this of life:  but yet again


s: He lives not best who dreads the coming pain


s: FLEE THOU EXTREMES, this word alone is plain,


s: Of all that God hath given to Man to spell!


s: From forth the cave, and call me, and be mine?


s: Lo, apples ten I bear thee from the steep,


s: These didst thou long for, and all these are thine.


s: Through ivy, and the bracken, and woodbine;


s: To watch thee waken, Love, and watch thee sleep,


s: The wild beast bare him in the wild wood drear;


s: But, black-browed Amaryllis, ne'er a tear,


s: Nor sigh, nor blush, nor aught have I from thee;


s: Nay, nor a kiss, a little gift and dear.


s: Ere Zeus the meat of mortals learned to shun,


s: And here hath he a grove whose haunted fold


s: The driven deer seek and huntsmen dread:  'tis told


s: Thenceforth shall cast no shadow in the Sun,


s: Ay, and within the year his life is cold!


s: Hard by dwelt he {13} who, while the Gods deigned eat


s: At good men's tables, gave them dreadful meat,


s: A child he slew: --his mountain altar green


s: Here still hath Zeus, with rites untold of me,


s: Piteous, but as they are let these things be,


s: And as from the beginning they have been!


s: INVOCATION OF ISIS--(Apuleius, Metamorph.  XI.)


s: Thou that art sandalled on immortal feet


s: With leaves of palm, the prize of Victory;


s: Thou that art crowned with snakes and blossoms sweet,


s: Queen of the silver dews and shadowy sky,


s: I pray thee by all names men name thee by!


s: Demeter, come, and leave the yellow wheat!


s: From worlds of wailing spectres, ah, draw near;


s: Come, Artemis, and this night spare the deer:


s: By all thy names and rites I summon thee;


s: By all thy rites and names, Our Lady, hear!


s: So Lucius prayed, and sudden, from afar,


s: Floated the locks of Isis, shone the bright


s: Crown that is tressed with berry, snake, and star;


s: She came in deep blue raiment of the night,


s: Above her robes that now were snowy white,


s: Now red, now flecked with many a cloudy bay,


s: Now stained with all the lustre of the light.


s: Then he who saw her knew her, and he knew


s: The golden urn that laves Demeter's dew,


s: The handles wreathed with asps, the mystic wand;


s: The shaken seistron's music, tinkling through


s: This piece is a rhymed loose version of a passage in the Vera


s: Historia of Lucian.  The humorist was unable to resist the


s: temptation to introduce passages of mockery, which are here


s: omitted.  Part of his description of the Isles of the Blest has a


s: Apocalypse.  The clear River of Life and the prodigality of gold


s: and of precious stones may especially be noticed.


s: WHOSO DOTH TASTE THE DEAD MEN'S BREAD, &.c.  This belief that the


s: advised to abstain from food.  Kohl found the myth among the


s: Ojibbeways, Mr. Codrington among the Solomon Islanders; it occurs


s: wine of earth, and will not suffer him to touch the fruits which


s: grow "in this countrie."  See also "Wandering Willie" in


s: AS NOW THE HUTTED ESKIMO.  The Eskimo and the miserable Fuegians


s: are almost the only Socialists who practise what European


s: may have a rag.  The Eskimo are scarcely such consistent walkers,


s: proprietors.  Formerly no Eskimo was allowed to possess more than


s: audible as we knelt around the bed and his eldest son kissed and


s: closed his eyes."--Lockhart's Life of Scott, vii., 394.


s: RONSARD'S GRAVE.  This version ventures to condense the original


s: which, like most of the works of the Pleiad, is unnecessarily


s: THE SNOW, AND WIND, AND HAIL.  Ronsard's rendering of the famous


s: passage in Odyssey, vi., about the dwellings of the Olympians.


s: The vision of a Paradise of learned lovers and poets constantly


s: recurs in the poetry of Joachim du Bellay, and of Ronsard.


s: ROMANCE.  Suggested by a passage in La Faustin, by M. E. de


s: Goncourt, a curious moment of poetry in a repulsive piece of


s: M. BOULMIER, author of Les Villanelles, died shortly after this


s: villanelle was written; he had not published a larger collection


s: BIRD-GODS.  Apparently Aristophanes preserved, in a burlesque


s: SPINET.  The accent is on the last foot, even when the word is


s: {1}  N.B.  There is only one veracious statement in this ballade,


s: {2}  These lines do NOT apply to Miss Annie P. (or Daisy) Miller,


s: edition of Mr. James's novels, if ever I go to Gades.


s: {3}  Tonatiu, the Thunder Bird; well known to the Dacotahs and


s: {4}  The Hawk, in the myth of the Galinameros of Central


s: {5}  Pundjel, the Eagle Hawk, is the demiurge and "culture-hero"


s: {6}  The Creation of Man is thus described by the Australians.


s: {9}  Indra stole Soma as a Hawk and as a Quail.  For Odin's feat


s: as a Bird, see Bragi's Telling in the Younger Edda.


s: {10}  Pundjel, the Eagle Hawk, gave Australians their marriage


s: {11}  Lubra, a woman; kobong, "totem;" or, to please Mr. Max


s: I'd like to be a water-lily sleeping on the river,


s: Where solemn rushes whisper, and funny ripples quiver.


s: All day I'd watch the blue sky--all night I'd watch the black,


s: Floating in the soft waves, dreaming on my back,


s: And when I'd tired of dreaming, I'd call a passing fish,


s: He'd bite me from my moorings, and softly I would slip


s: To the center of the river like an ocean-going ship.


s: The waves would laugh upon me.  The wind would blow me fast,


s: And oh, what shores and wonders would greet me as I passed!


s: Yes, if I were a water-lily, I'd sail to sea in state--


s: A green frog for my captain--and a dragon-fly for mate!


s: Have you ever watched the clowns at play,


s: Do you think, then, I'd grow tired of fun,


s: When there's neither a sound nor a light,


s: I've watched the clouds by day and night,


s: Great fleecy ones all filled with light,


s: To be always so simple and modest and tame,


s: While the hare-brained pink roses can dance in the sun!


s: But consider the naughty wild ways of the rose--


s: There _must_ be _respectable_ flowers, I suppose!


s: Why doesn't she dance like the gay daffodil?


s: Why doesn't she blush like the rose or the pink,


s: Or, like mischievous pansy, indulge in a wink?


s: Do you think it's because she is holier than they,


s: Or did God just decide he would make her that way?


s: Oh, most probably plants are like children--


s: I'll cross that rainbow bridge some day;


s: The windmill stands up like a flower on the hill


s: With its petals a-whirling--they seldom stay still--


s: And its funny old voice creaking all the long day


s: As it scolds little breezes for running away.


s: The cat-fish with whiskers that lives in the brook,


s: Is an ugly old beast with the wickedest look.


s: I suppose there were mouse-fish one time in brook town


s: Till that ugly old cat-fish gulped all of them down.


s: I used to build me castles of moisty sand and shells,


s: And dream they were for princesses who wove me magic spells;


s: But yesterday along the beach my fairy princess came--


s: And she's too big for castles--now isn't that a shame!


s: The birches that dance on the top of the hill


s: Are so slender and young that they cannot keep still,


s: They bend and they nod at each whiff of a breeze,


s: For you see they are still just the children of trees.


s: But the birches below in the valley are older,


s: They are calmer and straighter and taller and colder.


s: Perhaps when we've grown up as solemn and grave,


s: We, too, will have children who do not behave!


s: The sun has a face that is laughing and red


s: When nurse pulls me out in the morning from bed;


s: But he's not half so sly as the silly old moon,


s: Who winks when I'm sent to my bedroom too soon.


s: The cuckoo stopped the clock from fright!


s: May show their white teeth if they please,


s: With your helmet pulled down on your ears


s: Don't you think it's just to learn of them


s: And some day I'd be sailing with the wind before my prow,


s: And all the mermaids of the sea would clamber up the bow.


s: And just as I'd be fluttering across the yellow moon,


s: The angels would come singing a solemn Sunday tune.


s: The stars swung out like bells and rang.


s: And gently, then, the Christ smiled down.


s: As a young editor in New York, Farrar volunteered in 1922 for the


s: expression and continues its activism to this day. (See


s: Shake up the dust of thanes like thunder


s: Seems like the tales a whole tribe feigns


s: Where the tortured trumpets scream aloud


s: Walked where they fought the unknown fight


s: And saw black trees on the battle-height,


s: Ride through the silent earthquake lands,


s: When Rome was sunk in a waste of slaves,


s: When the ends of the earth came marching in


s: And the roads of the world that lead to Rome


s: Were filled with faces that moved like foam,


s: And men brake out of the northern lands,


s: Where a spell is laid upon life and lust


s: And the rain is changed to a silver dust


s: Hath blanched with fear all beasts and birds,


s: And the cry of the palms and the purple moons,


s: And gripped the ground and grasped the air,


s: Ringed with a roar that would not cease,


s: Who cried for blood like beasts at night,


s: And even their ghosts in that great stress


s: And if ever he climbed the crest of luck


s: It was wrought in the monk's slow manner,


s: Where the scenes are little and terrible,


s: Or like a friend's face seen in a glass;


s: She stood and stroked the tall live grass


s: Men came from hall and school and street


s: Or if our hearts shall break with bliss,


s: "The gates of heaven are lightly locked,


s: Through the door of the darkness fallen ajar,


s: "The men of the East may spell the stars,


s: But the men signed of the cross of Christ


s: "The men of the East may search the scrolls


s: They trim sad lamps, they touch sad strings,


s: But all his friends, he signed and said,


s: "Come not to me, King Alfred, Save always for the ale:


s: Friend, I will watch the certain things,


s: Swine, and slow moons like silver rings,


s: Turning but once e'er the door was shut,


s: That he bring all spears to the woodman's hut


s: And he turned his back and broke the fern,


s: Friends fallen of all the wide world's ends,


s: And a monk's house white like a skeleton


s: The long farm lay on the large hill-side,


s: A bronzed man, with a bird's bright eye,


s: That they came in the shining ship of old,


s: And all the kings of the earth drank ale,


s: The tribes to bicker, the beasts to squeal;


s: But the eyes in his head were strong like steel,


s: "But out of the mouth of the Mother of God


s: Blazed, drenched with dawn and dew-empearled


s: While faintlier coloured, freshlier curled,


s: "These vines be ropes that drag me hard,"


s: Half Wiltshire and the White Horse wold,


s: That you brought all fighting folk you knew


s: Where the tall pines ran up, tier on tier


s: But he leaned on his spear as on a staff,


s: In a great grey cave far off to the south


s: Where a thick green forest stopped the mouth,


s: But his soul stood with his mother's folk,


s: But his eyes grew often blind and bright,


s: And the sea that rose in the rocks at night


s: Even they that walked on the high cliffs,


s: "A tale where a man looks down on the sky


s: And there in the cool and soundless woods


s: Then laughed; and watched the finches flash,


s: And lichen and thorn could crawl and feed,


s: Since the foes of settled house and creed


s: Till a rally of Danes with shield and bill


s: And as they went through the high green grass


s: Till Harold laughed and snatched the harp,


s: "Smells that a man might swill in a cup,


s: He sang the song of the thief of the world,


s: And he yelled aloud at the cloister-yards,


s: "Doubtless your sires were sword-swingers


s: And as he stirred the strings of the harp


s: And they felt the land of the folk-songs


s: "The thing on the blind side of the heart,


s: And I know there are gods behind the gods,


s: "While there is one tall shrine to shake,


s: For the wrath of the gods behind the gods


s: When the taut rope parts under the pull,


s: "And you that sit by the fire are young,


s: With wide eyes bright as the one long day


s: "It is good to sit where the good tales go,


s: But the hour shall come after his youth,


s: When a man shall know not tales but truth,


s: But every flower, like a flower of the sea,


s: And the owls moaned from the mighty trees


s: And his stroke had all the rattle and spark


s: "But though I lie on the floor of the world,


s: And bow to the White Lord's broken yoke;


s: That though we scatter and though we fly,


s: But you go clothed in feasts and flames,


s: Yet by God's death the stars shall stand


s: And the owls moaned from the mighty trees,


s: The paling of pine, the sentries' tramp,


s: As though he sank through the under-skies;


s: They stretch stiff arms, the yawning trees,


s: Save in faint figures and failing words,


s: That are in the childish hearts of kings


s: Those friends creeping from far-off farms,


s: And the strange spears hung with ancient charms


s: Farm-hands and farm-beasts blundering by


s: And straw clung to the spear-shafts tall.


s: And though the King had called them forth


s: Mark's were the mixed tribes of the west,


s: Gurth, with rank hair like yellow grass,


s: And the earth shook and the King stood still


s: And the squirrels stirred in dusty dreams,


s: And the startled birds went up in streams,


s: And the beasts of the earth and the birds looked down,


s: On a stranger sight than a sylph or elf,


s: Where greed is an ape and pride is an ass,


s: And the miser is banged with all his brass,


s: And the clock gone wrong and the world gone right,


s: That the mummers sing upon Christmas night


s: For he that is struck for an ill servant


s: "Pride juggles with her toppling towers,


s: In the van of the violent marching, then


s: When the sky is torn of the trumpets ten,


s: For this is the night of the drawing of swords,


s: And the tainted tower of the heathen hordes


s: As the wrath of the last red autumn--then


s: More sweet for hate and for heart's desire,


s: And where the northern thornwoods stand,


s: And the birds sprang clamouring harsh and high,


s: All life went forth, and the forest fled


s: And each with a small, far, bird-like sight


s: And though strange joys had grown in the night,


s: And when white dawn crawled through the wood,


s: And the great feasts and the friends he had;


s: As gleams where the Northman saileth new


s: The world grows stern and strange and new,


s: But you shall raid the whole land through


s: Though every leaf is a tongue taught true


s: Past the sharp point of the cloven ways,


s: With songs and spells that change the blood;


s: Pushed through his people, giving tongue


s: And he cried: "What broken bits of earth


s: Are here? For what their clothes are worth


s: And the small white daisies all waxed red


s: And the King said, "Do thou take my sword


s: For this is the manner of Christian men,


s: That they cast their hearts out of their ken


s: "For love, our Lord, at the end of the world,


s: "Love with the shield of the Broken Heart


s: And the ultimate bolt that parts and flies


s: The two hosts shocked with dust and din,


s: Men could not count the crests he broke,


s: Spoke some stiff piece of childish prayer,


s: And he stood with the face of a dead man,


s: For the death-light on the wizard lance--


s: Stand Gurth, stand Gorlias, Gawen stand!


s: Even now your old thatch smoulders, Gurth,


s: As Elf charged with the Rhine maids' spear,


s: For the men were borne by the waving walls


s: But Mark was come of the glittering towns


s: Of doubt and reason and falsehood found,


s: "Spears at the charge!" yelled Mark amain.


s: How long she stood on the roof of the world


s: "No more shall the brown men of the south


s: "No more shall the white towns of the south,


s: "Down from the dome of the world we come,


s: "Down from the dome of the world and down,


s: "And when we come to the end of the world


s: "But whatso hap at the end of the world,


s: Shall keep us back from the end of the world,


s: Shall stay us now that descend in thunder,


s: Rending the realms and the realms thereunder,


s: There was that in the wild men back of him,


s: The Danes poured in like a brainless plague,


s: Played some small game through hours that pass,


s: That was wise with his tongue and brave;


s: But the men seemed scattered in the brier,


s: One half-way through the thorn hedge tall,


s: And by all the stars of Christ that sink,


s: Wild stared the Danes at the double ways


s: When the broken shield hung on the breast,


s: And the hopeless lance was laid in rest,


s: For Our Lady stood on the standards rent,


s: How stray their spears, how knock their knees,


s: And the storm-cloud drifts from city and dale,


s: And the White Horse stamps in the White Horse Vale,


s: And we all shall yet drink Christian ale


s: And the psalm is roaring above the rune,


s: And the Cross goes over the sun and moon,


s: When from the wood-road's blackening throat


s: Had gathered and grown and heard the din,


s: Called to the horns of White Horse Vale,


s: And the turn was more certain and more strange


s: For not till the floor of the skies is split,


s: Or the stars look up through the rent earth's knees,


s: (For not till the night's blue slate is wiped


s: And fierce new signs writ there to read,


s: And he gat good laws of the ancient kings,


s: Then men would come from the ends of the earth,


s: And men would go to the ends of the earth


s: And some had knocked at the northern gates


s: Where the fish freeze and the foam turns black,


s: And he knew the might of the Terre Majeure,


s: Where the river turned to the broad sea,


s: Where flowers are flowers indeed and fit,


s: Were a straight road and a steady light,


s: They stripped the White Horse of the grass


s: And the torchlight touched the pale hair


s: And the frame of his face was made of cords,


s: Crying: "Arm, Lord King, the hamlets arm,


s: They have burnt Brand of Aynger's farm--


s: Crying: "Ill the watchmen watch, and ill


s: But the young earl said: "Ill the saints,


s: And spared with a hand hard at the throat,


s: Then Alfred smiled. And the smile of him


s: When one green star of grass grows here;


s: Chaos has charged you, charger and spear,


s: "And though skies alter and empires melt,


s: But dark and thick as thronged the host,


s: But ordering all things with dead words,


s: Strings shall they make of beasts and birds,


s: "They shall come mild as monkish clerks,


s: "What though they come with scroll and pen,


s: By a broken heart in the breast of the world,


s: While the levies thronged from near and far,


s: From the warm woods of the western star,


s: The walls sank crowded, say the scribes,


s: Broke through their dreaming gods, and loud


s: And the little sorrel, while all men slept,


s: And the grass, like a great green witch's wheel,


s: And the smoke changed and the wind went by,


s: This translation is intended to supplement a work entitled "The


s: Authoress of the Odyssey", which I published in 1897. I could


s: not give the whole "Odyssey" in that book without making it


s: unwieldy, I therefore epitomised my translation, which was


s: already completed and which I now publish in full.


s: I shall not here argue the two main points dealt with in the work


s: (1) that the "Odyssey" was written entirely at, and drawn


s: entirely from, the place now called Trapani on the West Coast of


s: Sicily, alike as regards the Phaeacian and the Ithaca scenes;


s: while the voyages of Ulysses, when once he is within easy reach


s: of Sicily, solve themselves into a periplus of the island,


s: practically from Trapani back to Trapani, via the Lipari islands,


s: (2) That the poem was entirely written by a very young woman,


s: who lived at the place now called Trapani, and introduced


s: herself into her work under the name of Nausicaa.


s: The main arguments on which I base the first of these somewhat


s: startling contentions, have been prominently and repeatedly


s: before the English and Italian public ever since they appeared


s: (without rejoinder) in the "Athenaeum" for January 30 and


s: February 20, 1892. Both contentions were urged (also without


s: rejoinder) in the Johnian "Eagle" for the Lent and October terms


s: of the same year. Nothing to which I should reply has reached me


s: from any quarter, and knowing how anxiously I have endeavoured


s: to learn the existence of any flaws in my argument, I begin to


s: feel some confidence that, did such flaws exist, I should have


s: heard, at any rate about some of them, before now. Without,


s: therefore, for a moment pretending to think that scholars


s: generally acquiesce in my conclusions, I shall act as thinking


s: them little likely so to gainsay me as that it will be incumbent


s: upon me to reply, and shall confine myself to translating the


s: "Odyssey" for English readers, with such notes as I think will


s: be found useful. Among these I would especially call attention


s: to one on xxii. 465-473 which Lord Grimthorpe has kindly allowed


s: I have repeated several of the illustrations used in "The


s: Authoress of the Odyssey", and have added two which I hope may


s: bring the outer court of Ulysses' house more vividly before the


s: reader. I should like to explain that the presence of a man and


s: a dog in one illustration is accidental, and was not observed by


s: me till I developed the negative. In an appendix I have also


s: reprinted the paragraphs explanatory of the plan of Ulysses'


s: house, together with the plan itself. The reader is recommended


s: In the preface to my translation of the "Iliad" I have given my


s: views as to the main principles by which a translator should be


s: guided, and need not repeat them here, beyond pointing out that


s: the initial liberty of translating poetry into prose involves


s: the continual taking of more or less liberty throughout the


s: translation; for much that is right in poetry is wrong in prose,


s: and the exigencies of readable prose are the first things to be


s: considered in a prose translation. That the reader, however, may


s: see how far I have departed from strict construe, I will print


s: here Messrs. Butcher and Lang's translation of the sixty lines


s: or so of the "Odyssey." Their translation runs:


s: Tell me, Muse, of that man, so ready at need, who wandered


s: far and wide, after he had sacked the sacred citadel of


s: Troy, and many were the men whose towns he saw and whose


s: mind he learnt, yea, and many the woes he suffered in his


s: heart on the deep, striving to win his own life and the


s: return of his company. Nay, but even so he saved not his


s: company, though he desired it sore. For through the


s: blindness of their own hearts they perished, fools, who


s: devoured the oxen of Helios Hyperion: but the god took from


s: them their day of returning. Of these things, goddess,


s: daughter of Zeus, whencesoever thou hast heard thereof,


s: Now all the rest, as many as fled from sheer destruction,


s: were at home, and had escaped both war and sea, but


s: Odysseus only, craving for his wife and for his homeward


s: path, the lady nymph Calypso held, that fair goddess, in her


s: hollow caves, longing to have him for her lord. But when


s: now the year had come in the courses of the seasons,


s: wherein the gods had ordained that he should return home to


s: Ithaca, not even there was he quit of labours, not even


s: among his own; but all the gods had pity on him save


s: Poseidon, who raged continually against godlike Odysseus,


s: till he came to his own country. Howbeit Poseidon had now


s: departed for the distant Ethiopians, the Ethiopians that are


s: sundered in twain, the uttermost of men, abiding some where


s: Hyperion sinks and some where he rises. There he looked to


s: receive his hecatomb of bulls and rams, there he made merry


s: sitting at the feast, but the other gods were gathered in


s: the halls of Olympian Zeus. Then among them the father of


s: men and gods began to speak, for he bethought him in his