s: Its hold is filled with memories, its prow it points away


s: To the Port o' Heart's Desire, where I roamed a boy at play.


s: Ships that sail for gold there be, and ships that sail for fame,


s: That the running tides will carry to the Port o' Heart's Desire.


s: And all the ships, if they were mine, I'd gladly give to you,


s: I'd give them all right gladly, with their gold and fame entire,


s: If you would set me down within the Port o' Heart's Desire.


s: Come back with all the memories, the joys and e'en the pain,


s: And take me to the golden hills of boyhood once again.


s: I likes to think that the world's so wide--


s: Ah, now ye're laughin' at poor old John,


s: But laugh if ye will!  When ye're old as me


s: To look at the world--an' love it too!--


s: 'Tis good when the heart grows big at last,


s: Wi' room for the things that was only stuff


s: When workin' an' winnin' seemed more'n enough--


s: That's what I'm thinkin' on all the days


s: (Of readin' in books 'tis little I'd boast),--


s: But the ships, they carries me long, long ways,


s: An' I praises the Lord--to myself I sings--


s: Oh! the ships is comfortin' sights to see,


s: An' they means a lot when they says to me--


s: Come, see the Dolphin's anchor forged! 'tis at a white heat now--


s: And fitfully you still may see the grim smiths ranking round;


s: All clad in leathern panoply, their broad hands only bare,


s: Some rest upon their sledges here, some work the windlass there.


s: It rises, roars, rends all outright--O Vulcan, what a glow!


s: The roof-ribs swarth, the candent hearth, the ruddy lurid row


s: Of smiths that stand, an ardent band, like men before the foe!


s: A hailing fount of fire is struck at every squashing blow;


s: The leathern mail rebounds the hail; the rattling cinders strow


s: The ground around; at every bound the sweltering fountains flow;


s: Leap out, leap out, my masters! leap out, and lay on load!


s: Let's forge a goodly anchor--a bower thick and broad;


s: For a heart of oak is hanging on every blow, I bode;


s: And I see the good ship riding, all in a perilous road,--


s: The low reef roaring on her lee; the roll of ocean poured


s: From stem to stern, sea after sea; the mainmast by the board;


s: And not an inch to flinch he deigns--save when ye pitch sky high;


s: Swing in your strokes in order; let foot and hand keep time;


s: Your blows make music sweeter far than any steeple's chime.


s: But while ye swing your sledges, sing, and let the burthen be--


s: The anchor is the anvil king, and royal craftsmen we!


s: Our anchor soon must change his bed of fiery rich array


s: For a hammock at the roaring bows, or an oozy couch of clay;


s: Our anchor soon must change the lay of merry craftsmen here


s: In livid and obdurate gloom, he darkens down at last;


s: A shapely one he is, and strong, as e'er from cat was cast.


s: O trusted and trustworthy guard! if thou hadst life like me,


s: What pleasure would thy toils reward beneath the deep-green sea!


s: O deep sea-diver, who might then behold such sights as thou?--


s: The hoary monster's palaces!--Methinks what joy 'twere now


s: To go plumb-plunging down, amid the assembly of the whales,


s: And send him foiled and bellowing back, for all his ivory horn;


s: To leave the subtle sworder-fish of bony blade forlorn;


s: And for the ghastly-grinning shark, to laugh his jaws to scorn:


s: To leap down on the kraken's back, where 'mid Norwegian isles


s: He lies, a lubber anchorage for sudden shallowed miles--


s: Till, snorting like an under-sea volcano, off he rolls;


s: Meanwhile to swing, a-buffeting the far astonished shoals


s: Of his back-browsing ocean-calves; or, haply, in a cove


s: Shell-strown, and consecrate of old to some Undine's love,


s: To find the long-haired mermaidens; or, hard by icy lands,


s: To wrestle with the sea-serpent, upon cerulean sands.


s: O broad-armed fisher of the deep! whose sports can equal thine?


s: The Dolphin weighs a thousand tons, that tugs thy cable--line;


s: And night by night 'tis thy delight, thy glory day by day,


s: Through sable sea and breaker white the giant game to play.


s: But, shamer of our little sports! forgive the name I gave:


s: A fisher's joy is to destroy--thine office is to save.


s: O lodger in the sea-kings' halls! couldst thou but understand


s: Whose be the white bones by thy side--or who that dripping band,


s: Slow swaying in the heaving wave, that round about thee bend,


s: Give honor to their memories who left the pleasant strand


s: To shed their blood so freely for the love of fatherland--


s: Who left their chance of quiet age and grassy churchyard grave


s: So freely, for a restless bed amid the tossing wave!


s: Oh, though our anchor may not be all I have fondly sung,


s: Honor him for their memory whose bones he goes among!


s: Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff;


s: I might as well have asked some landsman


s: Like a shaft of light her voice breaks forth,


s: Fair fall the lights, the harbor lights,


s: And the voice, my dear, that rang so clear


s: The clouds are scudding across the moon;


s: The wind in the shrouds has a wintry tune,


s: Thank God, He has given us broad sea-room,


s: Down with the hatches on those who sleep!


s: Good watch, my brothers, to-night we'll keep,


s: Though the rigging shriek in his terrible grip,


s: Lashed to the helm, we'll drive our ship


s: Ah, daylight will look upon many a wreck


s: Yet, courage, brothers! we trust the wave,


s: In slumbers of midnight the sailor-boy lay;


s: His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind;


s: But watch-worn and weary, his cares flew away,


s: And visions of happiness danced o'er his mind.


s: He dreamed of his home, of his dear native bowers,


s: And pleasures that waited on life's merry morn;


s: While Memory stood sideways, half covered with flowers,


s: And restored every rose, but secreted its thorn.


s: Then Fancy her magical pinions spread wide,


s: And bade the young dreamer in ecstasy rise;


s: Now far, far behind him the green waters glide,


s: And the cot of his forefathers blesses his eyes.


s: The jessamine clambers in flowers o'er the thatch,


s: And the swallow sings sweet from her nest in the wall;


s: All trembling with transport he raises the latch,


s: And the voices of loved ones reply to his call.


s: A father bends o'er him with looks of delight;


s: His cheek is impearled with a mother's warm tear;


s: And the lips of the boy in a love-kiss unite


s: With the lips of the maid whom his bosom holds dear.


s: The heart of the sleeper beats high in his breast;


s: Joy quickens his pulses, his hardships seem o'er;


s: And a murmur of happiness steals through his rest,--


s: "O God! thou hast blessed me,--I ask for no more."


s: Ah! whence is that flame which now bursts on his eye?


s: Ah! what is that sound which now larums his ear?


s: 'Tis the lightning's red glare, painting hell on the sky!


s: 'Tis the crash of the thunder, the groan of the sphere!


s: He springs from his hammock, he flies to the deck;


s: Amazement confronts him with images dire;


s: Wild winds and mad waves drive the vessel a wreck;


s: The masts fly in splinters; the shrouds are on fire.


s: Like mountains the billows tremendously swell;


s: In vain the lost wretch calls on mercy to save;


s: Unseen hands of spirits are ringing his knell,


s: And the death-angel flaps his broad wing o'er the wave!


s: O sailor-boy, woe to thy dream of delight!


s: In darkness dissolves the gay frost-work of bliss.


s: Where now is the picture that Fancy touched bright,--


s: Thy parents' fond pressure, and love's honeyed kiss?


s: Shall home, love, or kindred thy wishes repay;


s: Unblessed and unhonored, down deep in the main,


s: Full many a fathom, thy frame shall decay.


s: No tomb shall e'er plead to remembrance for thee,


s: Or redeem form or fame from the merciless surge;


s: But the white foam of waves shall thy winding-sheet be,


s: And winds, in the midnight of winter, thy dirge!


s: On a bed of green sea-flowers thy limbs shall be laid,--


s: Around thy white bones the red coral shall grow;


s: Of thy fair yellow locks threads of amber be made,


s: And every part suit to thy mansion below.


s: Days, months, years, and ages shall circle away,


s: And still the vast waters above thee shall roll;


s: Earth loses thy pattern forever and aye,--


s: O sailor-boy! sailor-boy! peace to thy soul!


s: Her sails from Heaven received no motion,


s: Without either sign or sound of their shock,


s: The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock;


s: So little they rose, so little they fell,


s: Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;


s: On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,


s: When the rock was hid by the surges' swell,


s: The sea-birds screamed as they wheeled around,


s: And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.


s: And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok."


s: And cut the Bell from the Inchcape float.


s: Down sank the Bell with a gurgling sound;


s: Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock


s: Will not bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok."


s: And now, grown rich with plundered store,


s: He steers his course for Scotland's shore.


s: Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,


s: For there is the dawn of the rising Moon."


s: "Canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar?


s: For yonder, methinks, should be the shore."


s: But I wish we could hear the Inchcape Bell."


s: They hear no sound; the swell is strong;


s: Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along,


s: Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock,--


s: The western wind was wild and dank with foam,


s: The western tide crept up along the sand,


s: The rolling mist came down and hid the land:


s: "Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--


s: They rowed her in across the rolling foam,


s: But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home


s: Three fishers went sailing away to the West,


s: Each thought on the woman who loved him the best,


s: And the children stood watching them out of the town;


s: And there's little to earn, and many to keep,


s: Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower


s: And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down;


s: They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower,


s: And the night-rack came rolling up ragged and brown.


s: Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,


s: Three corpses lay out on the shining sands


s: In the morning gleam as the tide went down,


s: And the women are weeping and wringing their hands


s: For those who will never come home to the town;


s: And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep;


s: And wait! cried the night and wind and storm,--


s: And the rain and foam are white in the wind,


s: She sees the torn sails fly in the foam,


s: And the boats go out and the boats come in,


s: They're no brought here without brave darin';


s: Cast their heads, and screw their faces.


s: Truth will stand, when a' thing's failin',


s: For the mild south-wester mischief brews.


s: Bleak and drear the ragged shore she views.


s: There, take my love's gold handkerchief,


s: Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling,


s: And then he'd sing, so blithe and jolly,


s: Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather,


s: Shall give, to call Life's crew together,


s: Thus Death, who Kings and Tars despatches,


s: We dropped him down the side full drearily


s: It's a dead dark watch that he's a-keeping there,


s: And a long, long night that lags a-creeping there,


s: Where the Trades and the tides roll over him


s: He's there alone with green seas rocking him


s: It's a long, lone watch that he's a-keeping there,


s: And a dead cold night that lags a-creeping there,


s: While the months and the years roll over him


s: I wonder if the tramps come near enough,


s: And the battleships' bells ring clear enough


s: If through all the lone watch that he's a-keeping there,


s: And the long, cold night that lags a-creeping there,


s: The voices of the sailor-men shall comfort him


s: Oh, England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high,


s: But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I;


s: And such a port for mariners I ne'er shall see again


s: As the pleasant Isle of Aves, beside the Spanish main.


s: There were forty craft in Aves that were both swift and stout,


s: All furnished well with small arms and cannons round about;


s: And a thousand men in Aves made laws so fair and free


s: To choose their valiant captains and obey them loyally.


s: Likewise the merchant captains, with hearts as hard as stone,


s: Who flog men and keelhaul them, and starve them to the bone.


s: Oh, the palms grew high in Aves, and fruits that shone like gold,


s: To welcome gallant sailors, a-sweeping in from sea.


s: Oh, sweet it was in Aves to hear the landward breeze,


s: A-swing with good tobacco in a net between the trees,


s: But Scripture saith, an ending to all fine things must be;


s: So the King's ships sailed on Aves, and quite put down were we.


s: Till for all I tried to cheer her, the poor young thing she died;


s: And brought me home to England here, to beg until I die.


s: And now I'm old and going--I'm sure I can't tell where;


s: One comfort is, this world's so hard, I can't be worse off there:


s: To the pleasant Isle of Aves, to look at it once again.


s: The winds were yelling, the waves were swelling,


s: When the crew with eyes of flame brought the ship without a name


s: "Whence flies your sloop full sail before so fierce a gale,


s: Say, come ye from the shore of the holy Salvador,


s: Above, below our bark dies the sea-fowl and the shark,


s: "To-night there shall be heard on the rocks of Cape de Verde


s: And to-morrow shall the deep with a heavy moaning sweep


s: The stately ship of Clyde securely now may ride


s: And Severn's towering mast securely now hies fast,


s: From St. Jago's wealthy port, from Havannah's royal fort,


s: For since that stormy night not a mortal hath had sight


s: The watch is set, and through the night,


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew;


s: Where first our marriage-vows were given,


s: Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,


s: Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove,


s: Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own;


s: But doth converse with that eternal love.


s: O how more sweet is birds' harmonious moan,


s: Or the soft sobbings of the widowed dove,


s: Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's throne,


s: Which good make doubtful, do the evil approve!


s: Or how more sweet is Zephyr's wholesome breath,


s: And sighs perfumed which do the flowers unfold,


s: Than that applause vain honor doth bequeath!


s: How sweet are streams to poison drunk in gold!


s: The world is full of horrors, falsehoods, slights;


s: Woods' silent shades have only true delights.


s: I like the flap of the wood-pigeon's wings


s: I like the blackbird's shriek, and his rush


s: And the partridge hiding her head in a bush,


s: I like these things, and I like to ride,


s: To the top of the hill where the sky grows wide,


s: The horn with which I rouse their cheer,


s: Or o'er the sculptures, quaint and rude,


s: Where naught but vanity and vice appears.


s: Good God! how sweet are all things here!


s: Is all our business, all our recreation!


s: That man acquainted with himself dost make,


s: For it is thou alone that keep'st the soul awake.


s: To walk, ride, sit, or sleep at one's own ease;


s: And, pleasing a man's self, none other to displease.


s: Such streams Rome's yellow Tiber cannot show,


s: Are puddle-water, all, compared with thine;


s: And Loire's pure streams yet too polluted are


s: Nay, Tame and Isis, when conjoined, submit,


s: And lay their trophies at thy silver feet.


s: And from the vales to view the noble heights above;


s: O my beloved caves! from dog-star's heat,


s: What safety, privacy, what true delight,


s: And my most secret woes intrusted to your privacy!


s: Try to live out to sixty full years old,


s: My walls outside must have some flowers,


s: Where she would in that stone cage live,


s: Till birds, that loved to look on leaves,


s: With this small house, this garden large,


s: With wine of a generous vintage, spilled


s: And still he toiled at the antique mold,--


s: Pursuing, through many a wondrous change,


s: Crowned high the radiant wave with light,


s: All creatures that have life must drink:


s: The mother's breast, this wine must drain.


s: The rose drinks till her cheeks are red,


s: Here Wisdom drowned her dangerous thought,


s: And drain, with its viewless draught, the lore


s: And the fire that maddens the poet's brain


s: With wild sweet ardor and heavenly pain.


s: The sails, like flakes of roseate pearl,


s: And leave the chargeable noise of this great town:


s: 'Tis time that I grow wise, when all the world grows mad.


s: For some slight Puisne of the Inns of Court.


s: When from this tumult we are got secure,


s: Where every word is thought, and every thought is pure?


s: We'll cherries pluck, and pick the strawberry;


s: Go see the wholesome country girls make hay,


s: Where I had rather gain a kiss than meet


s: The beauties of the Cheap, and wives of Lombard Street.


s: Some other pleasures: these to me are none.


s: Of women, that are things against my fate!


s: Let clowns get wealth and heirs: when I am gone


s: We'll rather taste the bright Pomona's store.


s: Our palates, from the damson to the grape.


s: And how the other birds do fill the choir;


s: The thrush and blackbird lend their throats,


s: We will all sports enjoy which others but desire.


s: Where at what fowl we please our hawk shall fly:


s: To hunt the crafty fox or timorous hare;


s: Our pleasures must from their own warrants be,


s: Heaven, earth, are all but parts of her great royalty.


s: To taste of Bacchus' blessings now and then,


s: To civilize with graver notes our wits again.


s: The redbreast pours his sweetest strains


s: Plow deep and straight with all your powers.


s: To walk in the air how pleasant and fair!


s: The fairest of flowers adorning the bowers,


s: Then, folding their sheep, they hasten to sleep


s: Next morning is ringing with birds that are singing


s: Their days are spent, whose minds are bent


s: And open face of heaven,--to breathe a prayer


s: Full in the smile of the blue firmament.


s: Who is more happy, when, with heart's content,


s: Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair


s: And gentle tale of love and languishment?


s: Catching the notes of Philomel,--and eye


s: Watching the sailing cloudlet's bright career,


s: He mourns that day so soon has glided by,


s: E'en like the passage of an angel's tear


s: That falls through the clear ether silently.


s: This busy world and I shall ne'er agree;


s: May I a small house and large garden have;


s: And a few friends, and many books, both true,


s: And since Love ne'er will from me flee,--


s: Myself eased of unpeaceful thoughts espy?


s: O fields!  O woods! when, when shall I be made


s: Here's the spring-head of pleasure's flood!


s: Here naught but winds can hurtful murmurs scatter,


s: From heaven did always choose their way;


s: And one dear She live, and embracing die!


s: She who is all the world, and can exclude


s: "Where are your books?--that light bequeathed


s: Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks;


s: Through all the long green fields has spread,


s: And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!


s: Misshapes the beauteous forms of things:--


s: Be it not mine to steal the cultured flower


s: Nor seek with care, through many a weary hour,


s: Or, in the fields and meadows that I love,


s: Find beauty in their bells of every hue.


s: Thus round my cottage floats a fragrant air,


s: And though the rustic plot be humbly laid,


s: Yet, like the lilies gladly growing there,


s: I have not toiled, but take what God has made.


s: My Lord Ambition passed, and smiled in scorn;


s: I plucked a rose, and, lo! it had no thorn.


s: When the pods went pop on the broom, green broom


s: And we feathered his trail up-wind, up-wind,


s: Then the huntsman's horn rang yap, yap, yap,


s: And "Forwards" we heard the harborer shout;


s: But 'twas only a brocket that broke a gap


s: By warrant and might of the stag, the stag,


s: Was bent on sleep, though beamed and tined


s: With Tinkerman's Pup and Bell-of-the-North;


s: And hunters were sulky and hounds out of tune


s: It was Bell-of-the-North and Tinkerman's Pup


s: That stuck to the scent till the copse was drawn.


s: "Tally ho! tally ho!" and the hunt was up,


s: The tufters whipped and the pack laid on,


s: His hoofs on fire, his horns like flame,


s: "Let your gelding be: if you check or chide


s: He stumbles at once and you're out of the hunt;


s: For three hundred gentlemen, able to ride,


s: On hunters accustomed to bear the brunt,


s: The heather, the rocks, and the river-bed,


s: The pace grew hot, for the scent lay well,


s: By the densest hedge and the highest wall,


s: Through herds of bullocks he baffled the lore


s: When he turned at bay in the leafy gloom,


s: In the emerald gloom where the brook ran deep,


s: He heard in the distance the rollers boom,


s: And he saw in a vision of peaceful sleep,


s: And he tossed his branching antlers high


s: As he headed the hunt down the Charloch glen,


s: For five miles more, the stag, the stag,


s: Three hundred horses as gallant and free,


s: When the horn is on the hill? (Bugle: Tarantara!


s: With the crisp air stinging, and the huntsmen singing,


s: We shall slay the buck of ten; (Bugle: Tarantara!


s: And the priest shall say benison, and we shall ha'e venison,


s: Keep close and house him fair; (Bugle: Tarantara!


s: He'll still be a stranger to the merry thrill of danger


s: Let him come out to-day! (Bugle: Tarantara!


s: For the horses are neighing, and the hounds are baying,


s: Some are thrown in, and some thrown out,


s: Come when the leaf comes, angle with me,


s: Come when the singing bird calleth for thee!


s: Then to the stream side, gladly we'll hie,


s: Then, when the dew falls, homeward we'll speed


s: To our own loved walls down on the mead,


s: We'll drink to sweet friendship in need and in deed.


s: Breathe health and plenty; please my mind,


s: To see sweet dewdrops kiss these flowers,


s: My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;


s: My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;


s: A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,--


s: My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.


s: Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,


s: The birthplace of valor, the country of worth;


s: The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.


s: Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow;


s: Farewell to the straths and green valleys below;


s: Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods;


s: Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.


s: My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer,


s: With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side.


s: When the sorrows of life the soul o'ercast,


s: And, sick of the present, I cling to the past;


s: When the eye is suffused with regretful tears,


s: From the fond recollections of former years;


s: And shadows of things that have long since fled


s: Flit over the brain, like the ghosts of the dead:


s: Bright visions of glory that vanished too soon;


s: Day-dreams that departed ere manhood's noon;


s: Thrills to the heart like electric flame;


s: The home of my childhood; the haunts of my prime;


s: All the passions and scenes of that rapturous time


s: When the feelings were young, and the world was new,


s: Like the fresh bowers of Eden unfolding to view;


s: And I--a lone exile remembered of none--


s: My high aims abandoned,--my good acts undone--


s: With that sadness of heart which no stranger may scan,


s: With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side,


s: When the wild turmoil of this wearisome life,


s: With its scenes of oppression, corruption, and strife--


s: The proud man's frown, and the base man's fear--


s: The scorner's laugh, and the sufferer's tear--


s: And malice, and meanness, and falsehood, and folly,


s: Dispose me to musing and dark melancholy;


s: When my bosom is full, and my thoughts are high,


s: And my soul is sick with the bondman's sigh--


s: Oh! then there is freedom, and joy, and pride,


s: There is rapture to vault on the champing steed,


s: And to bound away with the eagle's speed,


s: With the death-fraught firelock in my hand--


s: With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side.


s: By the wild deer's haunt, by the buffalo's glen;


s: By valleys remote where the oribi plays,


s: Where the gnu, the gazelle, and the hartebeest graze,


s: By the skirts of gray forest o'erhung with wild vine:


s: Where the elephant browses at peace in his wood,


s: And the river-horse gambols unscared in the flood,


s: And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will


s: In the fen where the wild ass is drinking his fill.


s: O'er the brown karroo, where the bleating cry


s: Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively:


s: And the timorous quagga's shrill whistling neigh


s: Is heard by the fountain at twilight gray;


s: Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane,


s: With wild hoof scouring the desolate plain;


s: And the fleet-footed ostrich over the waste


s: Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste,


s: Where she and her mate have scooped their nest,


s: Far hid from the pitiless plunderer's view


s: In the pathless depths of the parched karroo.


s: With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side.


s: Where the white man's foot hath never passed,


s: Hath rarely crossed with his roving clan:


s: A region of emptiness, howling and drear,


s: Which man hath abandoned from famine and fear;


s: Which the snake and the lizard inhabit alone,


s: With the twilight bat from the yawning stone;


s: Where grass, nor herb, nor shrub takes root,


s: Save poisonous thorns that pierce the foot;


s: And the bitter melon, for food and drink,


s: Is the pilgrim's fare by the salt-lake's brink;


s: A region of drought, where no river glides,


s: But the barren earth and the burning sky,


s: And here, while the night-winds round me sigh,


s: And the stars burn bright in the midnight sky,


s: "A still small voice" comes through the wild,


s: Like a father consoling his fretful child,


s: Which banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear,


s: Saying--Man is distant, but God is near!


s: Yonder in the heather there's a bed for sleeping,


s: Drink for one athirst, ripe blackberries to eat;


s: Yonder in the sun the merry hares go leaping,


s: And the pool is clear for travel-wearied feet.


s: Sorely throb my feet, a-tramping London highways,


s: (Ah! the springy moss upon a northern moor!)


s: Through the endless streets, the gloomy squares and byways,


s: Homeless in the City, poor among the poor!


s: London streets are gold--ah, give me leaves a-glinting


s: London water's wine, poured out for all unstinting--


s: God!  For the little brooks that tumble as they run!


s: Oh, my heart is fain to hear the soft wind blowing,


s: Soughing through the fir-tops up on northern fells!


s: Oh, my eye's an ache to see the brown burns flowing


s: Through the peaty soil and tinkling heather-bells.


s: In the highlands, in the country places,


s: Where the old plain men have rosy faces,


s: Where essential silence cheers and blesses


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


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


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


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


s: Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;


s: Blow from the mountains, blow from the west.


s: Or down where the prairie grasses sweep,


s: The reckless waves you must plunge into.


s: We've raced the rapids; we're far ahead:


s: (Morning waits at the end of the world),


s: Nipping the flanks of their plunging ranks,


s: And the bows are gray with the frozen spray,


s: Where the besom of God is the wild south wind,


s: Till the junk-sails lift through the houseless drift,


s: And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid,


s: The heart of a man to the heart of a maid--


s: Beyond the East the sunrise, beyond the West the sea,


s: And East and West the wanderlust that will not let me be;


s: It works in me like madness, dear, to bid me say good-by!


s: And there's no end of voyaging when once the voice is heard,


s: Yonder the long horizon lies, and there by night and day


s: The old ships draw to home again, the young ships sail away;


s: And come I may, but go I must, and if men ask you why,


s: You may put the blame on the stars and the sun and the white road


s: Oh come, let's fare to the heart-o'-the-wood


s: Strike in by the gnarled way through the swamp


s: An intimate close where you meet yourself


s: Stout-hearted thrust through gold-green copse


s: 'Twill shield you all winter from frosty eyes,


s: Such greens!--how the Lord Himself loves green!


s: What have I gained by the toil of the trail?


s: I have found once again the lore I had lost


s: I have broadened my hand to the cinch and the axe,


s: I have touched the most primitive wildness again.


s: I have threaded the wild with the stealth of the deer,


s: No mountain can thwart me, no torrent appall,


s: So long as I live these joys will remain,


s: You'll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,


s: All in the golden weather, forth let us ride to-day,


s: You and I together, on the King's Highway,


s: The blue skies above us, and below the shining sea;


s: There's many a road to travel, but it's this road for me.


s: It's a long road and sunny, and the fairest in the world--


s: There are peaks that rise above it in their snowy mantles curled,


s: Down to the waters where the sea gulls call.


s: It's a long road and sunny, it's a long road and old,


s: And the brown padres made it for the flocks of the fold;


s: They made it for the sandals of the sinner-folk that trod


s: From the fields in the open to the shelter-house of God.


s: They made it for the sandals of the sinner-folk of old;


s: Now the flocks they are scattered and death keeps the fold;


s: But you and I together we will take the road to-day,


s: With the breath in our nostrils, on the King's Highway.


s: We will take the road together through the morning's golden glow,


s: We will stop at the Missions where the sleeping padres lay,


s: And we'll bend a knee above them for their souls' sake to pray.


s: We'll ride through the valleys where the blossom's on the tree,


s: Through the orchards and the meadows with the bird and the bee,


s: And we'll take the rising hills where the manzanitas grow,


s: Past the gray tails of waterfalls where blue violets blow.


s: Old Conquistadores, O brown priests and all,


s: Give us your ghosts for company when night begins to fall;


s: There's many a road to travel, but it's this road to-day,


s: With the breath of God about us on the King's Highway.


s: There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood--


s: With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.


s: The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry


s: To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.


s: There is something in October sets the gipsy blood astir;


s: She calls and calls each vagabond by name.


s: Swells that doltish hands should pin him


s: Rills that run and streams that stammer,


s: And loiter through the woods with spring;


s: That night, and slept beneath the stars.


s: Now the joys of the road are chiefly these:


s: In early fall, when the wind walks, too;


s: And the striding heart from hill to hill;


s: And a hope to make the day go through,--


s: The crickets mourning their comrades lost,


s: In the night's retreat from the gathering frost;


s: (Or is it their slogan, plaintive and shrill,


s: As they beat on their corselets, valiant still?)


s: A thirst like that of the Thirsty Sword,


s: But minting his words from a fund of thought.


s: Of the mettled breed, yet abhorring strife,


s: A taster of wine, with an eye for a maid


s: But, smiling, takes the world in his hands,--


s: And gave it the weight of his will for law.


s: But follows and follows the journeying sun,


s: By marsh and tide, by meadow and stream,


s: From morrow to morrow, from year to year,


s: When the stealthy, sad-heart leaves go home;


s: Of the mould and the sun and the wind and the dew!)


s: And two brown arms at the journey's end!


s: Sighed, "While still 'tis pheasant weather,


s: Touched her, saying, "Wench, what matters!


s: Up and kissed him.... Forth they wandered,


s: And when the August moon comes up and like a shallow, silver cup


s: Pours out upon the fields and roads her amber-colored beams,


s: And watch, above the dreaming trees, Orion and the Hyades


s: And all the stars, like golden bees, around the lily-moon.


s: Then who can say if I have gone a-gipsying from dusk till dawn


s: In company with fay and faun, where firefly-lanterns gleam?


s: And have I danced on cobwebs thin to Master Locust's mandolin--


s: Or I have spent the night in bed, and was it all a dream?


s: Something calls and whispers, along the city street,


s: Through shrill cries of children and soft stir of feet,


s: And makes my blood to quicken and makes my flesh to pine.


s: The mountains are calling; the winds wake the pine.


s: Past the quivering poplars that tell of water near


s: The long road is sleeping, the white road is clear.


s: Yet scent and touch can summon, afar from brook and tree,


s: The deep boom of surges, the gray waste of sea.


s: Sweet to dream and linger, in windless orchard close,


s: On bright brows of ladies to garland the rose,


s: But all the time are glowing, beyond this little world,


s: The still light of planets and the star-swarms whirled.


s: The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave break in fire,


s: And he shall see old planets pass and alien stars arise,


s: And give the gale his seaworn sail in shadow of new skies.


s: Strong lust of gear shall drive him forth and hunger arm his hand


s: He shall desire loneliness, and his desire shall bring


s: Hard on his heels a thousand wheels, a People, and a King;


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


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


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


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


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


s: Or East all the way into Mississippi Bay,


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


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


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


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


s: And her nose held down on the old trail, our own trail,


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Her plates are flaked by the sun, dear lass,


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Mary's Lamb                  Sarah Josepha Hale


s: Baby's Breakfast             Emilie Poulsson


s: Sephestia's Lullaby          Robert Greene


s: Rebecca's After-Thought      Elizabeth Turner


s: A Little Page's Song         William Alexander Percy


s: The World's Music            Gabriel Setoun


s: The Wind's Song              Gabriel Setoun


s: Child's Song in Spring       Edith Nesbit


s: Answer to a Child's Question Samuel Taylor Coleridge


s: The Cricket's Story          Emma Huntington Nason


s: Nurse's Song                 William Blake


s: October's Party              George Cooper


s: The Peddler's Caravan        William Brighty Rands


s: See'n Things                 Eugene Field


s: The Captain's Daughter       James Thomas Fields


s: Mary's Baby                  Shaemas OSheel


s: A Child's Song of Christmas  Marjorie L. C. Pickthall


s: A Visit from St. Nicholas    Clement Clarke Moore


s: The Children's Hour          Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


s: A Child's Laughter           Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: Letty's Globe                Charles Tennyson Turner


s: Dove's Nest                  Joseph Russell Taylor


s: The Child's Heritage         John G. Neihardt


s: Children's Song              Ford Madox Hueffer


s: In the Children's Hospital   Alfred Tennyson


s: The Mother's Prayer          Dora Sigerson Shorter


s: For Charlie's Sake           John Williamson Palmer


s: The First Snow-fall          James Russell Lowell


s: The Child's Wish Granted     George Parsons Lathrop


s: Sonnets from "Mimma Bella"   Eugene Lee-Hamilton


s: Somebody's Child             Louise Chandler Moulton


s: To-morrow                    John Collins


s: The Old Man's Comforts       Robert Southey


s: The Year's End               Timothy Cole


s: An Old Man's Song            Richard Le Gallienne


s: Blossom where there blows"  Giles Fletcher


s: in My bosom"                Thomas Lodge


s: full of woes"               Samuel Daniel


s: Love's Perjuries             William Shakespeare


s: Love's Emblems               John Fletcher


s: Love's Horoscope             Richard Crashaw


s: something of the sea"       Charles Sedley


s: love is bought"             Isaac Pocock


s: winning"                    Thomas Campbell


s: ever"                       George Gordon Byron


s: A Woman's Shortcomings       Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: "Love hath a Language"       Helen Selina Sheridan


s: ground"                     Alfred Tennyson


s: "When will Love Come"        Pakenham Beatty


s: Song of Eros from "Agathon"  George Edward Woodberry


s: Song, "Take it, love"        Richard Le Gallienne


s: the house of love"          Alfred Noyes


s: Upon Julia's Clothes         Robert Herrick


s: Jove bestows"               Thomas Carew


s: others Prize"               Mark Akenside


s: The Lover's Choice           Thomas Bedingfield


s: none of Beauty's daughters" George Gordon Byron


s: "Flowers I would Bring"      Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: outward view"               Hartley Coleridge


s: lovely hair"                Charles Swain


s: not love her"               Robert Browning


s: The Henchman                 John Green1eaf Whittier


s: "Girl of the Red Mouth"      Martin MacDermott


s: The Lover's Song             Edward Rowland Sill


s: Ballade of My Lady's Beauty  Joyce Kilmer


s: loosened hair"              Bliss Carman


s: happy tread"                William Watson


s: said, 'is King of Kings'"   Rupert Brooke


s: Song, "How do I love you"    Irene Rutherford McLeod


s: Of Corinna's Singing         Thomas Campion


s: Men's are"                  Thomas Campion


s: your conquering eyes"       George Etherege


s: Long He would Love Her"     George Etherege


s: I'll Never Love Thee More    James Graham


s: To Althea, from Prison       Richard Lovelace


s: A Deposition from Beauty     Thomas Stanley


s: agree at last"              John Sheffield


s: "False though She be"        William Congreve


s: and over the earth"         James Thomson


s: with Me"                    Thomas Percy


s: Cavalier's Song              Robert Cunninghame-Graham


s: falsehood framed"           Richard Brinsley Sheridan


s: "Take back the Virgin Page"  Thomas Moore


s: The Wandering Knight's Song  John Gibson Lockhart


s: highroad"                   Dana Burnett


s: The Lady's "Yes"             Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: daughter"                   Alfred Tennyson


s: and I can tarry"            Robert Browning


s: Kate Temple's Song           Mortimer Collins


s: were Gone"                  William Ernest Henley


s: To-day"                     John Bennett


s: To-day                       Benjamin R. C. Low


s: The Serf's Secret            William Vaughn Moody


s: Song, "Song is so old"       Hermann Hagedorn


s: it said"                    Walter Savage Landor


s: Love's Philosophy            Percy Bysshe Shelley


s: first"                      Robert Browning


s: in the land, my love"       Joaquin Miller


s: Sabina wakes"               William Congreve


s: "Come into the Garden, Maud" Alfred Tennyson


s: A Lover's Lullaby            George Gascoigne


s: secure his Treasure"        Matthew Prior


s: "Wouldn't You Like to Know"  John Godfrey Saxe


s: "Sing Heigh-ho"              Charles Kingsley


s: Don't                        James Jeffrey Roche


s: Time's Revenge               Walter Learned


s: back my Heart"              John Suckling


s: Muckle-Mou'd Meg             James Ballantine


s: whose hearts are free"      George Etherege


s: The Lover's Resolution       George Wither


s: I love"                     William Browne


s: fond Lover"                 John Suckling


s: luster see"                 Richard Brinsley Sheridan


s: Love's Spite                 Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: "When I was One-and-Twenty"  Alfred Edward Housman


s: Love's Young Dream           Thomas Moore


s: "We'll go no More a Roving"  George Gordon Byron


s: amid the sounds dispersing" Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: Field-path"                 Charles Swain


s: A Woman's Last Word          Robert Browning


s: Windle-straws                Edward Dowden


s: The Chess-board              Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton


s: white rapture"              Charles Hanson Towne


s: The Nymph's Song to Hylas    William Morris


s: garden, yea"                Arthur O'Shaughnessy


s: without the rose"           Arthur O'Shaughnessy


s: whose sacred wine"          Edward Coote Pinkney


s: A Woman's Thought            Richard Watson Gilder


s: Lies"                       Irene Rutherford McLeod


s: Love's Prisoner              Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer


s: "I heard a Soldier"          Herbert Trench


s: where are you roaming"      William Shakespeare


s: at land"                    Charles Sackville


s: parting lover"              Matthew Prior


s: rising morn"                Allan Ramsay


s: "My Nannie's Awa"            Robert Burns


s: The Sea-lands                Orrick Johns


s: The Palm-tree and the Pine   Richard Monckton Milnes


s: The Flower's Name            Robert Browning


s: A song of Parting            H. C. Compton Mackenzie


s: and fair the day"           William Morris


s: absence Conquers love"      Frederick William Thomas


s: the sunlight strong"        Richard Le Gallienne


s: Love's Rosary                Alfred Noyes


s: array"                      William Blake


s: Porphyria's Lover            Robert Browning


s: Affaire d'Amour              Margaret Deland


s: The Lass that Died of Love   Richard Middleton


s: Of Joan's Youth              Louise Imogen Guiney


s: There's Wisdom in Women      Rupert Brooke


s: Maid's Tragedy"             John Fletcher


s: from "Aella"                Thomas Chatterton


s: His dying child"            Thomas Campbell


s: The Maid's Lament            Walter Savage Landor


s: "She is Far from the Land"   Thomas Moore


s: Beauty's Bloom"             George Gordon Byron


s: Rosalind's Scroll            Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: The King of Denmark's Ride   Caroline E. S. Norton


s: "O that 'Twere Possible"     Alfred Tennyson


s: rocky dells"                Emily Bronte


s: dearest"                    Christina Georgina Rossetti


s: Love's Resurrection Day      Louise Chandler Moulton


s: Janette's Hair               Charles Graham Halpine


s: waited"                     Ernest Dowson


s: The King's Ballad            Joyce Kilmer


s: Her Dwelling-place           Ada Foster Murray


s: The Wife from Fairyland      Richard Le Gallienne


s: garden"                     Maurice Baring


s: "My True-love Hath My Heart" Philip Sidney


s: Song, "O sweet delight"      Thomas Campion


s: I sat against her feet"     Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: buds unfold"                Florence Earle Coates


s: lover's breast"             George Meredith


s: Love among the Ruins         Robert Browning


s: Earl Mertoun's Song          Robert Browning


s: Mary Beaton's Song           Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: A Woman's Question           Adelaide Anne Procter


s: low song of night"          Hildegarde Hawthorne


s: medlar"                     Theophile Marzials


s: The Newly-wedded             Winthrop Mackworth Praed


s: Love's Calendar              William Bell Scott


s: The Land of Heart's Desire   Emily Huntington Miller


s: The Irish Wife               Thomas D'Arcy McGee


s: The Shepherd's Wife's Song   Robert Greene


s: "Truth doth Truth Deserve"   Philip Sidney


s: A Wife's Song                William Cox Bennett


s: The Sailor's Wife            William Julius Mickle


s: An Old Man's Idyl            Richard Realf


s: The Poet's Song to his Wife  Bryan Waller Procter


s: Sonnets from "Amoretti"      Edmund Spenser


s: Sonnets from "To Delia"      Samuel Daniel


s: Sonnets from "Idea"          Michael Drayton


s: Sonnets from "Diana"         Henry Constable


s: upon the Air"               Louise Chandler Moulton


s: Sonnets after the Italian    Richard Watson Gilder


s: Stanzas from "Modern Love"   George Meredith


s: Sonnets from "Thysia"        Morton Luce


s: God's World                  Edna St. Vincent Millay


s: Song, "Phoebus, arise"       William Drummond


s: Dawn-angels                  A. Mary F. Robinson


s: Night's Mardi Gras           Edward J. Wheeler


s: spring"                     Robert Browning


s: A Starling's Spring Rondel   James Cousins


s: Spring, from "In Memoriam"   Alfred Tennyson


s: Nature sees"                Robert Burns


s: Home Thoughts, from Abroad   Robert Browning


s: Corinna's Going a-Maying     Robert Herrick


s: Summer Longings              Denis Florence MacCarthy


s: To the Willow-tree           Robert Herrick


s: The Holly-tree               Robert Southey


s: "Woodman, Spare that Tree"   George Pope Morris


s: The Beech Tree's Petition    Thomas Campbell


s: The Brook's Song             Alfred Tennyson


s: White Azaleas                Harriet McEwen Kimball


s: Four-leaf Clover             Ella Higginson


s: Lessons from the Gorse       Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: To the Man-of-War-Bird       Walt Whitman


s: Lament of a Mocking-bird     Frances Anne Kemble


s: merry lark                  Hartley Coleridge


s: The Wood-Dove's Note         Emily Huntington Miller


s: Harold's Pilgrimage"        George Gordon Byron


s: A Passer-by                  Robert Bridges


s: The Port o' Heart's Desire   John S. McGroarty


s: "How's My Boy"               Sydney Dobell


s: The Mariner's Dream          William Dimond


s: The Fisher's Widow           Arthur Symons


s: The Leadman's Song           Charles Dibdin


s: Coridon's Song               John Chalkhill


s: Wields"                     Ernest McGaffey


s: The Angler's Invitation      Thomas Tod Stoddart


s: The Angler's Wish            Izaak Walton


s: A Maine Trail                Gertrude Huntington McGiffert


s: The King's Highway           John S. McGroarty


s: Ballad of Low-lie-down       Madison Cawein


s: whispers"                   Georgiana Goddard King


s: "I'd be a Butterfly"         Thomas Haynes Bayly


s: "I'm not a Single Man"       Thomas Hood


s: The Belle of the Ball-room   Winthrop Mackworth Praed


s: My Mistress's Boots          Frederick Locker-Lampson


s: Nell Gwynne's Looking-Glass  Laman Blanchard


s: A Dialogue from Plato        Austin Dobson


s: The Ladies of St. James's    Austin Dobson


s: The Cure's Progress          Austin Dobson


s: A Ballad of Dead Ladies      Justin Huntly McCarthy


s: If I Were King               Justin Huntly McCarthy


s: The Poet and the Wood-louse  Helen Parry Eden


s: Throckmorton's Bullfinch    William Cowper


s: Geist's Grave                Matthew Arnold


s: Villon's Ballade             Andrew Lang


s: The World's Way              Thomas Bailey Aldrich


s: at Saint Praxed's Church    Robert Browning


s: The Deacon's Masterpiece     Oliver Wendell Holmes


s: The Philosopher's Scales     Jane Taylor


s: The V-a-s-e                  James Jeffrey Roche


s: Then Ag'in                   Sam Walter Foss


s: Women's Longing              John Fletcher


s: Woman's Will                 John Godfrey Saxe


s: Epigram                      Byron's epitaph for Pitt


s: The Willow-tree              William Makepeace Thackeray


s: The Jam-pot                  Rudyard Kipling


s: The Poster-girl              Carolyn Wells


s: "What did the dark-haired Iberian laugh at before the tall blonde


s: The entangling blooms of Beauty's spring:


s: I heard the words, "How sweet! how sweet!"


s: In a minute, their doubts and their quarrels;


s: And 'twill soon put an end to their morals.


s: When you swear that you'll love me for ever.


s: Where roses and lilies and violets meet;


s: And kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet!


s: I'd never languish for wealth, or for power,


s: I'd never sigh to see slaves at my feet:


s: Kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet.


s: I'd have a pair of those beautiful wings;


s: Their summer days' ramble is sportive and airy,


s: They sleep in a rose when the nightingale sings.


s: Those who have wealth must be watchful and wary;


s: Rocked in a rose when the nightingale sings!


s: What, though you tell me each gay little rover


s: Shrinks from the breath of the first autumn day:


s: To die when all fair things are fading away.


s: Some in life's winter may toil to discover


s: Yet do not, though the world's cold school


s: Through clean-clipt rows of box and myrtle;


s: Wagged all their tails, and seemed to say,


s: "Our master knows you; you're expected!"


s: Her husband clasped his ponderous Barrow;


s: And twenty curious scraps of knowledge;--


s: He 'stablished Truth, or startled Error,


s: That Earth is foul, that Heaven is gracious,


s: The hand and head that penned and planned them,


s: Cat's-cradle, leap-frog, and Quae genus.


s: To steal the staff he put such trust in,


s: Whose hand is white, whose voice is clear,


s: There, when the sounds of flute and fiddle


s: Of all that sets young hearts romancing:


s: And then she danced,--oh, heaven, her dancing!


s: And wondered where she'd left her sparrows.


s: Of Southey's prose, or Wordsworth's sonnets,


s: I might have thought they murmured Little.


s: Black eyes, fair forehead, clustering locks,--


s: Such wealth, such honors, Cupid chooses;


s: She sketched; the vale, the wood, the beach,


s: Grew lovelier from her pencil's shading;


s: For hours and hours to blow the bellows.


s: Well filled with all an album's glories;


s: Patterns for trimmings, Persian stories,


s: And she was flattered, worshipped, bored;


s: Her steps were watched, her dress was noted;


s: 'Twas there "his worship" held his state


s: When winter's cold brought frost and snow,


s: And though threescore and ten his years,


s: But time, though old, is strong in flight,


s: A Little Saint best fits a little Shrine,


s: As my small Cruse best fits my little Wine.


s: As my small Jar best fits my little Oil.


s: As my small Stuff best fits my little Shed.


s: A little Hearth best fits a little Fire,


s: As my small Bell best fits my little Spire.


s: A little Stream best fits a little Boat,


s: As my small Pipe best fits my little Note.


s: As sweetly, lady, give me leave to tell ye,


s: This little Pipkin fits this little Jelly.


s: When softest test sighs were breathed in rhyme,


s: And knights and spearmen showed their might,


s: And hearts were soft, though blows were hard;


s: And there's an inn, not rich and splendid,


s: Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffern,


s: Should love good victuals and good drinks.


s: The waiter stares and shrugs his shoulder;--


s: "What will Monsieur require for dinner?"


s: "Oh, oui, Monsieur," 's the waiter's answer;


s: "He's done with feasting and with drinking,


s: This well-known chair since last I took,


s: Around the board they take their places,


s: There's Jack has made a wondrous marriage;


s: There's brave Augustus drives his carriage;


s: And sweetly spoke and smiled to cheer me.


s: --There's no one now to share my cup....


s: Come, fill it, and have done with rhymes;


s: With thankful heart, whate'er the meal is.


s: We have loitered and laughed in the flowery croft,


s: Her voice is the dearest voice, and soft


s: By that prim box path where I felt the glow


s: And the sweep of her silk as she turned and smiled


s: The breeze was in love with the darling Child,


s: She showed me her ferns and woodbine sprays,


s: But I said--"Though roses and bees have spells,


s: A squirrel, some rabbits with long lop ears,


s: And I told her that eloquent truth inheres


s: Why have squirrels these ample tails, and why


s: She smiled and said, as she twirled her veil,


s: Heigh-ho! they're wed. The cards are dealt,


s: I've laughed, and fooled, and loved. I've felt--


s: Last year I trod these fields with Di,--


s: Which tells us though young Love is strong,


s: Some love their hobby till it flings them.


s: For love of the eclat she brings them!...


s: I've thrown off this disjointed chatter,


s: Which may n't be quite your charming spouse's;


s: And nights in probing where our smart is,


s: And die,--but not of that he's dreading....


s: Where sunbeams play, where shadows darken,


s: That sound was not to make you start meant:


s: While the dew fell in showers from the passion flowers


s: Of the Fairy Queen, and are seen, I ween,


s: That I failed to remark: it was rather dark


s: My eyes were p'haps blurred; and besides I'd heard


s: That beat under that sheltering shawl,--


s: (If shawl she had on, which I doubt),--has gone,


s: As to why we were there, who on earth we were,


s: Smooth, square forehead with uprolled hair;


s: Look! there's a rent the light shines through,


s: Flat as a rose that has long been pressed;


s: And still to the three-hilled rebel town


s: The youthful sire and the gray-haired son.


s: The bodice swelled with the bosom's thrill?


s: Through all the battles of wave and blast,


s: There were tones in the voice that whispered then


s: Edward's and Dorothy's--all their own,--


s: For the tender whisper that bade me live?


s: I will heal the stab of the Red-Coat's blade,


s: And freshen the gold of the tarnished frame,


s: And gild with a rhyme your household name;


s: So you shall smile on us brave and bright


s: As first you greeted the morning's light,


s: Through a second youth of a hundred years.


s: They laced her up, they starved her down,


s: They pinched her feet, they singed her hair,


s: Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,


s: (A landscape,--foreground golden dirt,--


s: Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these,


s: Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn,


s: Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys?


s: If there has, take him out, without making a noise.


s: Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite!


s: Old Time is a liar!  We're twenty to-night!


s: We're twenty!  We're twenty!  Who, says we are more?


s: He's tipsy,--young jackanapes!--show him the door!


s: "Gray temples at twenty?"--Yes! white if we please!


s: Where the snow-flakes fall thickest there's nothing can freeze!


s: Was it snowing I spoke of?  Excuse the mistake!


s: Look close,--you will not see a sign of a flake!


s: We want some new garlands for those we have shed,--


s: And these are white roses in place of the red.


s: We've a trick, we young fellows, you may have been told,


s: Of talking (in public) as if we were old:--


s: That boy we call "Doctor," and this we call "Judge;"


s: It's a neat little fiction,--of course it's all fudge.


s: That fellow's the "Speaker,"--the one on the right;


s: "Mr. Mayor," my young one, how are you to-night?


s: That's our "Member of Congress," we say when we chaff;


s: There's the "Reverend" What's his name?--don't make me laugh.


s: That boy with the grave mathematical look


s: Made believe he had written a wonderful book,


s: And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true!


s: So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too!


s: There's a boy, we pretend, with a three-decker brain,


s: That could harness a team with a logical chain;


s: When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire,


s: We called him "The Justice," but now he's "The Squire."


s: And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith,--


s: Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;


s: But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,--


s: Just read on his medal, "My country," "of thee!"


s: You hear that boy laughing?--You think he's all fun;


s: But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done;


s: The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,


s: And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!


s: Yes, we're boys,--always playing with tongue or with pen,--


s: And I sometimes have asked,--Shall we ever be men?


s: Shall we always be youthful, and laughing, and gay,


s: Till the last dear companion drops smiling away?


s: Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray!


s: The stars of its winter, the dews of its May!


s: And when we have done with our life-lasting toys,


s: Dear Father, take care of thy children, The Boys!


s: His form was bent, and his gait was slow,


s: His long, thin hair was as white as snow,


s: But a wonderful twinkle shone in his eye;


s: And he sang every night as he went to bed,


s: The living should live, though the dead be dead,"


s: He taught his scholars the rule of three,


s: For a kind old heart in his breast had he,


s: And the wants of the littlest child he knew:


s: "Learn while you're young," he often said,


s: "There is much to enjoy, down here below;


s: Life for the living, and rest for the dead!"


s: With the stupidest boys he was kind and cool,


s: The rod was hardly known in his school...


s: And too hard work for his poor old bones;


s: Besides, it was painful, he sometimes said:


s: "We should make life pleasant, down here below,


s: The living need charity more than the dead,"


s: He lived in the house by the hawthorn lane,


s: His rooms were quiet, and neat, and plain,


s: But a spirit of comfort there held reign,


s: And made him forget he was old and poor;


s: "And my friends and relatives here below


s: But the pleasantest times that he had, of all,


s: Were the sociable hours he used to pass,


s: With his chair tipped back to a neighbor's wall,


s: "Who has no cronies, had better be dead!"


s: He stirred his glass with an old-school grace,


s: Chuckled, and sipped, and prattled apace,


s: Till the house grew merry, from cellar to tiles:


s: "I've lingered a long while, here below;


s: But my heart is fresh, if my youth is fled!"


s: While the soft wind played in his silvery hair,


s: And, feeling the kisses, he smiled and said,


s: 'Twas a glorious world, down here below;


s: "Why wait for happiness till we are dead?"


s: He sat at his door, one midsummer night,


s: Made his kindly old face look warm and bright,


s: While the odorous night-wind whispered "Rest!"


s: There were angels waiting for him, I know;


s: He was sure of happiness, living or dead,


s: Not made for love's despairs and blisses:


s: Was Wisdom's mouth so shaped for kisses?


s: And set this vine-work round it running,


s: For some brown girl that scorned his passion.


s: His work outlives him,--there's his glory!


s: A Middle-aged Lyrical Poet Is supposed To Be Taking


s: though "parting is such sweet sorrow"...


s: Looks over Wall Street's mingled nations;


s: To throng for trade and last quotations;


s: Even there I heard a strange, wild strain


s: The curbstone war, the auction's hammer;


s: It led, from all this strife for millions,


s: The reeds give out that strain impassioned.


s: From haunts of shepherd, nymph, and satyr,


s: His gnarled horns were somewhere sprouting;


s: Were crossed, as on some frieze you see them,


s: Concealed his crooked shanks beneath them.


s: He filled the quivering reeds with sound,


s: And o'er his mouth their changes shifted,


s: The nymphs and herdsmen ran to hear him,


s: Even now the tradesmen from their tills,


s: With clerks and porters, crowded near him.


s: From some new-fangled lunch-house handy,


s: With throbs her vernal passion taught her,--


s: New forms may fold the speech, new lands


s: "Great Pan is dead!"--and all the people


s: Yet, though debarred from tilt and fight,


s: The fans that swayed, the wigs that bowed,


s: We might in Leicester Fields have swelled


s: Through drowsy hours and hours that proved


s: "Sweet Nell" set "Rowley's" heart alight!


s: When wild conceits were piled in scores,


s: Where wave and wind were light and free,


s: Poll and Bet with their twang of the sea,


s: Ruth like a gillyflower smells and blows,


s: Where were you measured?  In Sais, or On,


s: Fitting them neatly your brown toes upon,


s: Lacing them deftly with finger and thumb,


s: And here are your sandals: yet none of us know


s: What name, or fortune, or face you bore.


s: Your lips would have laughed, with a rosy scorn,


s: If the merchant, or slave-girl, had mockingly said,


s: "The feet will pass, but the shoes they have worn


s: Two thousand years onward Time's road shall tread,


s: To think that calf-skin, gilded and stitched,


s: Should Rome and the Pharaohs outlive--and you


s: Be gone, like a dream, from the world you bewitched!


s: Not that we mourn you! 'Twere too absurd!


s: You have been such a very long while away!


s: Your dry spiced dust would not value one word


s: Of the soft regrets that my verse could say.


s: If you ever felt them, have vaporized hence


s: Of course they embalmed you!  Yet not so sweet


s: Were aloes and nard, as the youthful glow


s: Which Amenti stole when the small dark feet


s: Look! it was flood-time in valley of Nile,


s: When your slippers tripped lightly their latest mile--


s: The mud on the soles renders that fact clear.


s: But there! if questions could answers draw


s: Nor vex your heart for the men that were;


s: The one point to learn that would fascinate me


s: Is, where and what are you to-day, my dear!


s: And found, of course, such theories smashed


s: What next did you do?  Did you transmigrate?


s: Have we seen you since, all modern and fresh?


s: Mislaid its mummy, and sought new flesh.


s: Were you she whom I met at dinner last week,


s: With eyes and hair of the Ptolemy black,


s: Who still of this find in Fayoum would speak,


s: And to Pharaohs and scarabs still carry us back?


s: As of somebody born when the Earth was young;


s: And she wore of gilt slippers a lovely pair.


s: Perchance you were married?  These might have been


s: Part of your trousseau--the wedding shoes;


s: And you laid them aside with the garments green,


s: And painted clay Gods which a bride would use;


s: And, may be, to-day, by Nile's bright waters


s: But vainly I beat at the bars of the Past,


s: Little green slippers with golden strings!


s: For all you can tell is that leather will last


s: When loves, and delightings, and beautiful things


s: Have vanished; forgotten--No! not quite that!


s: I catch some gleam of the grace you wore


s: When you finished with Life's daily pit-a-pat,


s: And left your shoes at Death's bedroom door.


s: You were never sad with our new-fashioned sorrows:


s: You were sure, when your play-days on Earth ran out,


s: Of play-times to come, as we of our morrows!


s: Oh, wise little Maid of the Delta!  I lay


s: Your shoes in your mummy-chest back again,


s: And wish that one game we might merrily play


s: At "Hunt the Slippers"--to see it all plain.


s: Looks through the side-light of the door;


s: Wooed her in stiff, old-fashioned phrase,--


s: So sweet, I fain would breathe it still:


s: One dear dead friend's remembered tones.


s: And by that dangerous cord down-sliding,


s: Thou standest at the stair-foot singing!


s: Thou singest, 'neath the light tale's cover,


s: Though each new year thou hast new lovers.


s: Your flowers of love, O flower of lovers!


s: "There are the barefoot monks and friars


s: The saints who lift their eyes and whine:


s: Who'd care with folk like these to dine?


s: That you and I should take, ma belle!"--


s: "There, too, are jousts and joyance rare,


s: With furs, and crests in vair and gray,"--


s: Whose breathless thought so briefly stays,


s: Scene.--A small neat Room.  In a high Voltaire Chair


s: And once, I know, she peeped and laughed


s: "She was an Angel"... "Once she laughed"...


s: Le tempo le mieux employe est celui qu'on perd.--Claude Tillier


s: I'd "read" three hours.  Both notes and text


s: "You're reading Greek?" "I am--and you?"


s: "But hear,--the next's in stronger style:


s: She smiled once more.  "My book, I find,


s: She blushed,--this time.  "If Plato's page


s: With his coat worn bare, and his straggling hair,


s: You may see him pass by the little "Grande Place",


s: He smiles, as he goes, to the fleuriste Rose,


s: He turns, as a rule, through the "Marche" cool,


s: And his compliment pays to the "Belle Therese",


s: There's a letter to drop at the locksmith's shop,


s: There's a little dispute with a merchant of fruit,


s: That will ended be with a "Ma foi, oui!"


s: And a pale cheek fed with a flickering red,


s: And a mock "off-hat" to the Notary's cat,


s: His Christian name, I think, was John,--


s: Filled with a fine, old-fashioned grace,


s: Fresh-colored, frank, with ne'er a trace


s: He liked the well-wheel's creaking tongue,--


s: He liked the thrush that fed her young,--


s: He liked their ruffling, puffed content;


s: And still when time had turned him gray,


s: Ah! Sainte Nitouche, you don't refuse it!


s: By this white down, whene'er you use it.


s: Ah, Sainte Nitouche, you don't refuse it!


s: She whose beauty was more than human?...


s: Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine?...


s: White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,


s: And where's the Queen who willed to slay


s: Where's Bertha Broad-foot, Beatrice fair?


s: Prince, all this week thou needst not pray,


s: "Nay, but where is the last year's snow?"


s: Sheep without shepherd, left to chance--


s: As one that knots his necktie for a ball;


s: But just as all the neighbors--on the wall--


s: Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!"


s: The strangest whim has seized me... After all


s: My uncle's sword is hanging in the hall--


s: I see a little cloud all pink and gray--


s: Perhaps the rector's mother will not call--


s: That mushrooms could be cooked another way--


s: The world will have another washing day;


s: And H. G. Wells has found that children play,


s: And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall;


s: And through thick woods one finds a stream astray,


s: So secret that the very sky seems small--


s: Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,


s: The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;


s: Foul, hunched, a plague to dainty sight,


s: He has married the stately widow of Thrace--"


s: His palette gleamed with a burnished green,


s: His gold-leaf shone like the robe of a queen,


s: Deep as the blue of the king-whale's lair:


s: Is about to wed with a Prince much older,


s: The red flowers trellised the parchment page,


s: The yellow fruit swayed and drooped and swung,


s: (O, but his cheek was shrivelled and shrunk!)


s: "The child of the Basileus," wrote the Monk,


s: "Is golden-haired--tender the Queen's arms fold her.


s: "The Queen," wrote the Monk, "rules firm this realm,


s: The Norseman Thorkill is brave and fair--"


s: While the slim bird its lean wires shakes,


s: Dream, wake; wake, dream, in one brief bar;


s: And Jeanne that smile with which she woos


s: It's deux-cinquante, but Jeanne's desire);


s: Till the rain fell that would not cease.


s: Through one long alley how they raced!--


s: Though the cab crawled it sped too fast.


s: The convent walls, the glimpsed tree-tops;


s: Book-stalls, old men like dwarfs in plays;


s: Where stiff silk roses range their bloom.


s: And the game that they played I'll tell you,


s: It was Hide-and-Go-Seek they were playing,


s: Though you'd never have known it to be--


s: So it must be the clothes-press, Gran'ma!"


s: Then she covered her face with her fingers,


s: And she guessed where the boy was hiding,


s: And they never had stirred from their places,


s: To the little sick child in the basement--


s: No fiddlers three were called or needed;


s: He seemed the more to court their candor,


s: That's good.  The sun will soon be rising."


s: My grandshire sailed three years from home,


s: When you were a Tadpole and I was a Fish,


s: Through the depths of the Cambrian fen--


s: The world turned on in the lathe of time,


s: Till we caught our breath from the womb of death,


s: We coiled at ease 'neath the dripping trees


s: Croaking and blind, with our three-clawed feet,


s: Our forms were rolled in the clinging mold


s: Then light and swift through the jungle trees


s: Or breathed the balms of the fronded palms


s: When life was filled and our senses thrilled


s: And breath by breath, and death by death,


s: Till there came a time in the law of life


s: And the moon hung red o'er the river bed,


s: Through brawn and bone I drave the stone,


s: Loud I howled through the moonlit wastes,


s: For we lived by blood and the right of might,


s: Your eyes are deep as the Devon springs,


s: We have left our bones in the Bagshot stones,


s: God wrought our souls from the Tremadoc beds


s: He sowed our spawn in the world's dim dawn,


s: Though cities have sprung above the graves


s: And the ox-wain creaks o'er the buried caves


s: Nor would they still have smiled so gay.


s: Dear Alice! you'll laugh when you know it,--


s: Just caught, as they call it, this spring;


s: And his head, love, is stuffed full of knowledge


s: But it never would answer,--good gracious!


s: He sneers,--how my Alice would scold him!--


s: He laughed--only think!--when I told him


s: He's hideous, I own it.  But fame, love,


s: He's lame,--but Lord Byron was lame, love,


s: Then his voice,--such a voice! my sweet creature,


s: But to-day, when we drive in the carriage,


s: Voila pourquoi je ne saurais l'aimer."--Scribe


s: Taught us both how to sing and to speak,


s: How we shared with the milkmaids their pottage,


s: My heart is the same;--is yours altered?


s: They wore the red cross on their shoulder,


s: They had vanquished and pardoned their foe--


s: You know, when Lord Rigmarole's carriage,


s: You wept, dearest girl, at the marriage,


s: You said you were sure it would kill you,


s: And he who would share it with me, love,--


s: If he's not what Orlando should be, love,


s: If he calls himself "Thompson" or "Skinner,"


s: If he's sleepy while you are capricious,


s: If he does not call Werther delicious,--


s: If he don't stand six feet in his shoes,


s: Hills, valleys, rocks, waters, and trees,


s: If he knows not the language of flowers,--


s: If he speak, smile, or walk like a mortal,


s: "There are plenty of roses" (the patriarch speaks)


s: "Alas not for me, on your lips and your cheeks;


s: Fair maiden rose-laden enough and to spare,


s: Spare, spare me that rose that you wear in your hair."


s: Of course you know "Janet's Repentance"?


s: They tell me Cockaigne has been crowning


s: It was you that first told me of Browning,--


s: I have read the report of your speeches,


s: There's a whisper of hearts you are breaking,


s: But, perhaps, one is blest with "a measure


s: That I'm pretty, because it's a pleasure,


s: Love, some day they'll print it, because it


s: In short, sir, "the belle of the season"


s: They say he'll be rich,--when he grows up,--


s: "And aren't they a change to the ditches


s: And the dance that we had on "The Fork;"


s: Of the candles that shed their soft lustre


s: Of the steps that we took to one fiddle,


s: Of that ride,--that to me was the rarest,


s: Well, well, it's all past; yet it's funny


s: Just to dance with old Folinsbee's daughter,


s: But goodness! what nonsense I'm writing!


s: Good-night!--here's the end of my paper;


s: And are poor, dearest Joe, and all that,


s: That my heart's somewhere there in the ditches,


s: A coeur blesse--l'ombre et le silence.--Balzac


s: Slumbered like Goldsmith's Madam Blaize,


s: "Dear John (the letter ran), it can't, can't be,


s: For Father's gone to Chorley Fair with Sam,


s: And Mother's storing Apples,--Prue and Me


s: But we shall meet before a Week is gone,--


s: ''Tis a long Lane that has no Turning,' John!


s: "Only till Sunday next, and then you'll wait


s: Behind the White-Thorn, by the broken Stile--


s: We can go round and catch them at the Gate,


s: All to Ourselves, for nearly one long Mile;


s: Dear Prue won't look, and Father he'll go on,


s: And Sam's two Eyes are all for Cissy, John!


s: "John, she's so smart,--with every Ribbon new,


s: Flame-colored Sack, and Crimson Padesoy:


s: As proud as proud; and has the Vapors too,


s: Just like My Lady;--calls poor Sam a Boy,


s: And vows no Sweet-heart's worth the Thinking-on


s: Till he's past Thirty... I know better, John!


s: "My Dear, I don't think that I thought of much


s: And now, why, John, your least, least Finger-touch,


s: Gives me enough to think a Summer through.


s: See, for I send you Something!  There, 'tis gone!


s: Look in this corner,--mind you find it, John!


s: Ah, heart that wrote! Ah, lips that kissed!


s: And see, through two-score years of smoke,


s: The pale, smooth forehead, silver-tressed;


s: Who killed thee.  Thou ne'er didst, alive,


s: Though they should wash their guilty hands


s: In this warm life-blood, which doth part


s: Yet could they not be clean; their stain


s: It waxed more white and sweet than they.


s: Have sought it oft, where it should lie,


s: Still had she gazed, but 'midst the tide


s: She stretched, in vain, to reach the prize.


s: Know, one false step is ne'er retrieved,


s: And as thou sit'st, thine eye seems fraught


s: Thy brain seems wandering through eternity,


s: Could I then catch the thoughts that flow,


s: Thoughts such as ne'er were hatched below,


s: Eight years and five round-rolling moons


s: Well-taught, he all the sounds expressed


s: With which, when neatly peeled and dried,


s: Night veiled the pole--all seemed secure--


s: Long-backed, long-tailed, with whiskered snout,


s: His teeth were strong, the cage was wood--


s: Shock's fate I mourn; poor Shock is now no more:


s: Ye Muses! mourn; ye Chambermaids! deplore.


s: Doomed to survive thy joy and only care.


s: Thy wretched fingers now no more shall deck,


s: And tie the favorite ribbon round his neck;


s: No more thy hand shall smooth his glossy hair,


s: And comb the wavings of his pendent ear.


s: Let cease thy flowing grief, forsaken maid!


s: Our surest hope is in an hour destroyed,


s: And love, best gift of Heaven, not long enjoyed.


s: Methinks I see her frantic with despair,


s: Her streaming eyes, wrung hands, and flowing hair;


s: Her Mechlin pinners, rent, the floor bestrow,


s: And her torn fan gives real signs of woe.


s: Hence, Superstition! that tormenting guest,


s: That haunts with fancied fears the coward breast;


s: Stream eyes no more, no more thy tresses rend.


s: Though certain omens oft forewarn a state,


s: And dying lions show the monarch's fate,


s: Why should such fears bid Celia's sorrow rise?


s: For, when a lap-dog falls, no lover dies.


s: Cease, Celia, cease; restrain thy flowing tears.


s: Some warmer passion will dispel thy cares.


s: In man you'll find a more substantial bliss,


s: More grateful toying and a sweeter kiss.


s: He's dead.  Oh! lay him gently in the ground!


s: And may his tomb be by this verse renowned:


s: Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid,


s: Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.


s: The ground, which hides thee now, but four?


s: To run their course, and reach their goal


s: That steadfast, mournful strain, consoled


s: What, was four years their whole short day?


s: Which man, proud man, finds hard to bear,


s: Such ways, such arts, such looks hadst thou!


s: Here, where the grass is smooth and warm,


s: Then some, who through this garden pass,


s: The dachs-hound, Geist, their little friend.


s: I know, where Hampshire fronts the Wight,


s: While crouched before their feet reclines


s: Frowns o'er the oak wood's summer state,


s: My lord, his surcoat streaked with sand,


s: Just for a handful of silver he left us,


s: Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat--


s: Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,


s: They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,


s: So much was theirs who so little allowed:


s: How all our copper had gone for his service!


s: Rags--were they purple, his heart had been proud--


s: We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him,


s: Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,


s: Made him our pattern to live and to die!


s: Burns, Shelley, were with us,--they watch from their graves!


s: He alone breaks from the van and the freemen,


s: --He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!


s: We shall march prospering,--not through his presence;


s: Songs may inspirit us,--not from his lyre;


s: Deeds will be done,--while he boasts his quiescence,


s: Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire:


s: Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,


s: One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,


s: One more devil's-triumph and sorrow for angels,


s: One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!


s: Life's night begins: let him never come back to us!


s: There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,


s: Forced praise on our part--the glimmer of twilight,


s: Best fight on well, for we taught him--strike gallantly,


s: Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,


s: Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!


s: He stays to his home an' looks arter his folks;


s: He draws his furrer ez straight ez he can,


s: We can't never choose him o' course,--thet's flat;


s: Guess we shall hev to come round, (don't you?)


s: An' go in fer thunder an' guns, an' all that;


s: He's ben on all sides that give places or pelf;


s: But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,--


s: He's ben true to one party,--an' thet is himself;--


s: He don't vally princerple more'n an old cud;


s: Wut did God make us raytional creeturs fer,


s: But glory an' gunpowder, plunder an' blood?


s: We were gittin' on nicely up here to our village,


s: With good old idees o' wut's right an' wut aint,


s: We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage,


s: An' thet eppyletts worn't the best mark of a saint;


s: Sez this kind o' thing's an exploded idee.


s: The side of our country must ollers be took,


s: An' Presidunt Polk, you know, he is our country,


s: An' the angel thet writes all our sins in a book


s: Puts the debit to him, an' to us the per contry;


s: Sez this is his view o' the thing to a T.


s: Parson Wilbur he calls all these argimunts lies;


s: Sez they're nothin' on airth but jest fee, faw, fum;


s: An' thet all this big talk of our destinies


s: Is half on it ign'ance, an' t'other half rum;


s: Sez it aint no sech thing; an', of course, so must we.


s: Parson Wilbur sez he never heerd in his life


s: That th' Apostles rigged out in their swaller-tail coats,


s: An' marched round in front of a drum an' a fife,


s: To git some on 'em office, an' some on 'em votes;


s: Sez they didn't know everythin' down in Judee.


s: Wal, it's a marcy we've gut folks to tell us


s: The rights an' the wrongs o' these matters, I vow,--


s: God sends country lawyers, an' other wise fellers,


s: To start the world's team wen it gits in a slough;


s: Sez the world'll go right, ef he hollers out Gee!


s: "Here we stan' on the Constitution, by thunder!


s: It's a fact o' wich ther's bushils o' proofs;


s: Fer how could we trample on 't so, I wonder,


s: Ef't worn't thet it's ollers under our hoofs?"


s: "The North haint no kind o' bisness with nothin',


s: An' you've no idee how much bother it saves;


s: We aint none riled by their frettin' an' frothin',


s: We're used to layin' the string on our slaves,"


s: The holl gang, by the gret horn spoon!" sez he.


s: "Freedom's Keystone is Slavery, thet ther's no doubt on,


s: An' the slaves thet we ollers make the most out on


s: Air them north o' Mason an' Dixon's line,"


s: "The mass ough' to labor an' we lay on soffies,


s: Thet's the reason I want to spread Freedom's aree;


s: It puts all the cunninest on us in office,


s: An' reelises our Maker's orig'nal idee,"


s: It's ez clear ez the sun is at noon," sez he.


s: "Now don't go to say I'm the friend of oppression,


s: But keep all your spare breath fer coolin' your broth,


s: Fer I ollers hev strove (at least thet's my impression)


s: To make cussed free with the rights o' the North,"


s: Is in skinnin' that same old coon," sez he.


s: "Slavery's a thing thet depends on complexion,


s: It's God's law thet fetters on black skins don't chafe;


s: Ef brains wuz to settle it (horrid reflection!)


s: "Thet exception is quite oppertoon," sez he.


s: "Gen'nle Cass, Sir, you needn't be twitchin' your collar,


s: Your merit's quite clear by the dut on your knees;


s: At the North we don't make no distinctions o' color:


s: You can all take a lick at our shoes wen you please,"


s: They all on 'em know the old toon," sez he.


s: "The slavery question aint no ways bewilderin',


s: North an' South hev one int'rest, it's plain to a glance,


s: No'thern men, like us patriarchs, don't sell their childrin,


s: But they du sell themselves, ef they git a good chance,"


s: I wish I could dive like a loon," sez he.


s: "It'll break up the Union, this talk about freedom,


s: An' your fact'ry gals (soon ex we split) 'll make head,


s: An' gittin' some Miss chief or other to lead 'em,


s: 'll go to work raisin' permiscoous Ned,"


s: Would go down like a busted balloon," sez he.


s: "Jest look wut is doin', wut annyky's brewin'


s: In the beautiful clime o' the olive an' vine,


s: All the wise aristoxy's atumblin' to ruin,


s: An' the sankylot's drorin' an' drinkin' their wine,"


s: "The South's safe enough, it don't feel a mite skeery,


s: Our slaves in their darkness an' dut air tu blest


s: Not to welcome with proud hallylugers the ery


s: Wen our eagle kicks yourn from the naytional nest,"


s: Than our priv'leges tryin' to proon?" sez he.


s: Stick their nose in our bizness, we git so darned riled;


s: We think it's our dooty to give pooty sharp hints,


s: Thet the last crumb of Edin on airth sha'n't be spiled,"


s: Thet slavery's airth's grettest boon," sez he.


s: Who fought his country's fights--and one,


s: Diced, wenched and drank--at last got shot,


s: His brow scarce wrinkled!--Brows keep so


s: His hand 's ungloved!--it shakes, 'tis true,


s: (High birth's true sign) and shape, as on


s: Perchance our lives, should men be scarce,


s: Haughty, being great--purse-proud, being rich--


s: Who went from England in his patron's suit,


s: One day, at table, flushed with pride and wine,


s: His Honor, proudly free, severely merry,


s: "Young man," he said, "by what art, craft, or trade,


s: Did your good father gain a livelihood?"--


s: The joke applauded, and the laugh went round.


s: Said (craving pardon, if too free he made),


s: "My father's trade! by heaven, that's too bad!


s: My father's trade?  Why, blockhead, are you mad?


s: My father, sir, did never stoop so low--


s: Modestus said, with archness on his brow,


s: Jack's bed was straw, 'twas warm and soft,


s: And think there's faith among the Turks,


s: There was a King in Brentford,--of whom no legends tell,


s: But who, without his glory,--could eat and sleep right well.


s: His Polly's cotton nightcap--it was his crown of state,


s: He slept of evenings early,--and rose of mornings late.


s: All in a fine mud palace,--each day he took four meals,


s: And for a guard of honor,--a dog ran at his heels.


s: Sometimes to view his kingdoms,--rode forth this monarch good,


s: And then a prancing jackass--he royally bestrode.


s: There were no costly habits--with which this King was cursed,


s: Except (and where's the harm on't)--a somewhat lively thirst;


s: But people must pay taxes,--and Kings must have their sport;


s: So out of every gallon--His Grace he took a quart.


s: He pleased the ladies round him,--with manners soft and bland;


s: With reason good, they named him,--the father of his land.


s: Each year his mighty armies--marched forth in gallant show;


s: Their enemies were targets,--their bullets they were tow.


s: He vexed no quiet neighbor,--no useless conquest made,


s: But by the laws of pleasure,--his peaceful realm he swayed.


s: And in the years he reigned,--through all this country wide,


s: There was no cause for weeping,--save when the good man died.


s: The faithful men of Brentford,--do still their King deplore,


s: His portrait yet is swinging,--beside an alehouse door.


s: And topers, tender-hearted,--regard his honest phiz,


s: And envy times departed,--that knew a reign like his.


s: Mein soldiers sing der "Wacht am Rhein,"


s: Dere's grandma dinks she's nicht shmall beer,


s: She dinks, goot frau, some ships she's got,


s: Ach! ve could knock dem--pouf! like dot,


s: 'Twas, "Monsieur, je vous n'entends pas."


s: "I say, whose house is that there here?"


s: "House!  Je vous n'entends pas, Monsieur."


s: John saw Versailles from Marli's height,


s: "State!  Je vous n'entends pas, Monsieur."


s: I should like to dine with Nongtongpaw."


s: "Ventch!  Je vous n'entends pas, Monsieur."


s: "But hold! whose funeral's that?" cries John.


s: "Je vous n'entends pas."--"What, is he gone?


s: Good night t' ye, Mounseer Nongtongpaw!"


s: Nay, even with fools whole nights will sit,


s: He caught their manners, looks, and airs;


s: And from the deep-mouthed thunder flies:


s: She starts, she stops, she pants for breath;


s: "J'admire," said he, "ton beau plumage,"


s: Two things there are, no doubt you know,


s: Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going?


s: Rough is the road; your wheel is out of order.--


s: Bleak blows the blast;--your hat has got a hole in't.


s: Weary knife-grinder! little think the proud ones


s: Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike-


s: Road, what hard work 'tis crying all day,


s: Tell me, knife-grinder, how you came to grind knives?


s: Was it the squire? or parson of the parish?


s: Was it the squire for killing of his game? or


s: Covetous parson, for his tithes destraining?


s: Or roguish lawyer made you lose your little


s: (Have you not read the Rights of Man, by Tom Paine?)


s: Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids,


s: Ready to fall, as soon as you have told your


s: Story? God bless you! I have none to tell, sir;


s: Only, last night, a-drinking at the Chequers,


s: This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were


s: Custody; they took me before the justice;


s: I should be glad to drink your honor's health in


s: A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence;


s: I give thee sixpence!  I will see thee damned first,--


s: Wretch! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance!--


s: Rhyme, rail, dance, play the cymbals sweet,


s: Go jigging through the field and street,


s: Where all your gain at passage passes,--


s: Turn groom, give horse and mule their meat,


s: But--sow hempseed and such wild grasses,


s: Kind words and chickens, jams and coals;


s: While heaven shall still vouchsafe me health,


s: At Haroun's court it chanced, upon a time,


s: "The new moon is a horseshoe, wrought of God,


s: Wherewith the Sultan's stallion shall be shod."


s: On hearing this, the Sultan smiled, and gave


s: The man a gold-piece.  Sing again, O slave!


s: That wanders, silver-footed, down a hill.


s: The Sultan, listening, nodded as before,


s: Still gave the gold, and still demanded more.


s: The nimble fancy that had climbed so high


s: Strange discords rose; the sense went quite amiss;


s: The singer's rhymes refused to meet and kiss:


s: Invention flagged, the lute had got unstrung,


s: And twice he sang the song already sung.


s: The Sultan, furious, called a mute, and said,


s: O Musta, straightway whip me off his head!


s: You get beheaded when your skill is gone.


s: As doctors give physic by way of prevention,


s: Mat, alive and in health, of his tombstone took care;


s: For delays are unsafe, and his pious intention


s: May haply be never fulfilled by his heir.


s: Then take Mat's word for it, the sculptor is paid;


s: That the figure is fine, pray believe your own eye;


s: Yet credit but lightly what more may be said,


s: For we flatter ourselves, and teach marble to lie.


s: Yet counting as far as to fifty his years,


s: His virtues and vices were as other men's are;


s: High hopes he conceived, and he smothered great fears,


s: In a life parti-colored, half pleasure, half care.


s: Nor to business a drudge, nor to faction a slave,


s: He strove to make interest and freedom agree;


s: In public employments industrious and grave,


s: And alone with his friends, lord! how merry was he!


s: Now in equipage stately, now humbly on foot,


s: Both fortunes be tried, but to neither would trust;


s: And whirled in the round, as the wheel turned about,


s: He found riches had wings, and knew man was but dust.


s: This verse, little polished, though mighty sincere,


s: Sets neither his titles nor merit to view;


s: It says that his relics collected lie here,


s: And no mortal yet knows too if this may be true.


s: Fierce robbers there are that infest the highway,


s: So Mat may be killed, and his bones never found;


s: False witness at court, and fierce tempests at sea,


s: So Mat may yet chance to be hanged or be drowned.


s: If his bones lie in earth, roll in sea, fly in air,


s: To Fate we must yield, and the thing is the same;


s: And if passing thou giv'st him a smile or a tear,


s: He cares not--yet, prithee, be kind to his fame.


s: Draw round my bed: is Anselm keeping back?


s: Nephews--sons mine.. ah God, I know not!  Well--


s: She, men would have to be your mother once,


s: What's done is done, and she is dead beside,


s: And as she died so must we die ourselves,


s: And thence ye may perceive the world's a dream.


s: Life, how and what is it?  As here I lie


s: In this state-chamber, dying by degrees,


s: Hours and long hours in the dead night, I ask


s: "Do I live, am I dead?"  Peace, peace seems all.


s: Saint Praxed's ever was the church for peace;


s: And so, about this tomb of mine.  I fought


s: With tooth and nail to save my niche, ye know:


s: --Old Gandolf cozened me, despite my care;


s: Shrewd was that snatch from out the corner South


s: He graced his carrion with, God curse the same!


s: Yet still my niche is not so cramped, but thence


s: One sees the pulpit o' the epistle-side,


s: And somewhat of the choir, those silent seats,


s: The angels, and a sunbeam's sure to lurk:


s: And I shall fill my slab of basalt there,


s: With those nine columns round me, two and two,


s: The odd one at my feet where Anselm stands:


s: Peach-blossom marble all, the rare, the ripe


s: As fresh-poured red wine of a mighty pulse.


s: --Old Gandolf with his paltry onion-stone,


s: Put me where I may look at him!  True peach,


s: Rosy and flawless: how I earned the prize!


s: Draw close: that conflagration of my church


s: --What then?  So much was saved if aught were missed!


s: My sons, ye would not be my death?  Go dig


s: The white-grape vineyard where the oil-press stood,


s: Drop water gently till the surface sink,


s: And if ye-find... Ah God, I know not, I!...


s: Bedded in store of rotten fig-leaves soft,


s: Blue as a vein o'er the Madonna's breast...


s: Sons, all have I bequeathed you, villas, all,


s: That brave Frascati villa with its bath,


s: So, let the blue lump poise between my knees,


s: Like God the Father's globe on both his hands


s: For Gandolf shall not choose but see and burst!


s: Swift as a weaver's shuttle fleet our years:


s: Man goeth to the grave, and where is he?


s: Did I say basalt for my slab, sons?  Black--


s: 'T was ever antique-black I meant!  How else


s: Shall ye contrast my frieze to come beneath?--


s: The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me,


s: Those Pans and Nymphs ye wot of, and perchance


s: Some tripod, thyrsus, with a vase or so,


s: Ready to twitch the Nymph's last garment off,


s: Ye mark me not!  What do they whisper thee,


s: Child of my bowels, Anselm?  Ah, ye hope


s: Bricked o'er with beggar's mouldy travertine


s: Which Gandolf from his tomb-top chuckles at!


s: Nay, boys, ye love me--all of jasper, then!


s: 'T is jasper ye stand pledged to, lest I grieve


s: My bath must needs be left behind, alas!


s: One block, pure green as a pistachio-nut,


s: There's plenty jasper somewhere in the world--


s: And have I not Saint Praxed's ear to pray


s: Horses for ye, and brown Greek manuscripts,


s: And mistresses with great smooth marbly limbs?


s: Choice Latin, picked phrase, Tully's every word,


s: No gaudy ware like Gandolf's second line--


s: Tully, my masters?  Ulpian serves his need!


s: And then how I shall lie through centuries,


s: And hear the blessed mutter of the mass,


s: And see God made and eaten all day long,


s: And feel the steady candle-flame, and taste


s: Good strong thick stupefying incense-smoke!


s: For as I lie here, hours of the dead night,


s: Dying in state and by such slow degrees,


s: I fold my arms as if they clasped a crook,


s: And stretch my feet forth straight as stone can point,


s: And let the bedclothes, for a mortcloth, drop


s: Into great laps and folds of sculptor's-work:


s: And as yon tapers dwindle, and strange thoughts


s: Grow, with a certain humming in my ears,


s: About the life before I lived this life,


s: And this life too, popes, cardinals and priests,


s: Saint Praxed at his sermon on the mount,


s: Your tall pale mother with her talking eyes,


s: And new-found agate urns as fresh as day,


s: And marble's language, Latin pure, discreet,


s: All lapis, all, sons!  Else I give the Pope


s: Ever your eyes were as a lizard's quick,


s: They glitter like your mother's for my soul,


s: Or ye would heighten my impoverished frieze,


s: Piece out its starved design, and fill my vase


s: With grapes, and add a visor and a Term,


s: That in his struggle throws the thyrsus down,


s: "Do I live, am I dead?"  There, leave me, there!


s: To death--ye wish it--God, ye wish it!  Stone--


s: Gritstone, a-crumble!  Clammy squares which sweat


s: As if the corpse they keep were oozing through--


s: Well, go!  I bless ye.  Fewer tapers there,


s: But in a row: and, going, turn your backs


s: And leave me in my church, the church for peace,


s: That I may watch at leisure if he leers--


s: Old Gandolf--at me, from his onion-stone,


s: Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare,


s: The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city-square.


s: Ah, such a life, such a life, as one leads at the window there!


s: Something to see, by Bacchus, something to hear, at least!


s: There, the whole day long, one's life is a perfect feast;


s: Well now, look at our villa! stuck like the horn of a bull


s: Just on a mountain-edge as bare as the creature's skull,


s: Save a mere shag of a bush with hardly a leaf to pull!


s: --I scratch my own, sometimes, to see if the hair's turned wool.


s: But the city, oh the city--the square with the houses!  Why?


s: You watch who crosses and gossips, who saunters, who hurries by;


s: What of a villa?  Though winter be over in March by rights,


s: Is it better in May, I ask you?  You've summer all at once;


s: In a day he leaps complete with a few strong April suns.


s: Late August or early September, the stunning cicala is shrill


s: And the bees keep their tiresome whine round the resinous firs


s: You get the pick of the news, and it costs you never a pin.


s: By and by there's the travelling doctor gives pills, lets blood,


s: Or the Pulcinello-trumpet breaks up the market beneath.


s: And beneath, with his crown and his lion, some little new law


s: Or a sonnet with flowery marge, to the Reverend Don So-and-so,


s: "And moreover," (the sonnet goes rhyming), "the skirts of


s: Having preached us those six Lent-lectures more unctuous than


s: Noon strikes,--here sweeps the procession! our Lady borne


s: Bang-whang-whang, goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife.


s: Oh, a day in the city-square, there is no such pleasure in life!


s: In a church which is furnished with mullion and gable,


s: With altar and reredos, with gargoyle and groin,


s: The penitents' dresses are sealskin and sable,


s: But only could Lucifer, flying from Hades,


s: Gaze down on this crowd with its paniers and paints,


s: He would say, as he looked at the lords and the ladies,


s: "Oh, where is All Sinners' if this is All Saints'?"


s: I, for their thoughtless, careless sakes,


s: Their donsie tricks, their black mistakes,


s: Till, quite transmugrified, they've grown


s: Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,