s: A. E. Housman was born March 26, 1859, and, after a classical


s: Housman has published only one volume of original verse, but that


s: variations. From a melodic standpoint, _A Shropshire Lad_ is a


s: collection of exquisite, haunting and almost perfect songs.


s: Housman has been a professor of Latin since 1892 and, besides his


s: We chaired you through the market-place;


s: Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,


s: Doctor Douglas Hyde was born in Roscommon County, Ireland in, as


s: The poem which is here quoted is one of his many brilliant and


s: (_On a commonplace person who died in bed_)


s: The dust in his throat, the worm in his eyes,


s: The mould in his mouth, the turf on his breast;


s: When his heart is breaking all the while.


s: He will never stretch out his hands in vain


s: Never ask for bread, get a stone instead,


s: Nor sway and sway 'twixt the false and true,


s: Weighing and noting the long hours through.


s: Never ache and ache with the choked-up sighs;


s: Katharine Tynan was born at Dublin in 1861, and educated at the


s: religious themes, and much of her verse is devotional and yet


s: distinctive. In _New Poems_ (1911) she is at her best; graceful,


s: meditative and with occasional notes of deep pathos.


s: There's a drift of dead leaves at the door


s: Their thoughts are in the night and cold,


s: They are come from the land o' the young,


s: (_Who Contends that Christmas is Played Out_)


s: And so you find that Christmas as a fête


s: You fail, in fact, to gather where the fun


s: Roast beef that irks, and pies that agonise


s: Hearing the tale how happy months will follow


s: Visions of youth whose reverence is scant,


s: Who with the brutal _verve_ of boyhood's prime


s: Who run you on toboggans down the stair;


s: This takes your faultless trousers at the knees,


s: The other hurts them rather more behind;


s: Time was when you devoured, like other boys,


s: Time was when 'mid the maidens you would pull


s: When sprigs of mistletoe seemed beautiful


s: Old Christmas changes not! Long, long ago


s: _Yours_ is the dotage--if you want to know


s: Come, now, I'll cure your case, and ask no fee:--


s: Make others' happiness this once your own;


s: All else may pass: that joy can never be


s: Projectile while he calls a "Black Maria."


s: Do not include "The Watch upon the Thames."


s: Nor play what isn't cricket. There's his creed.


s: "_It's a long way to Tipperary_," the most popular song of the


s: In 1898 Newbolt published _The Island Race_, which contains about


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Born in 1865, Arthur Symons' first few publications revealed an


s: I have grown tired of sorrow and human tears;


s: Life is a dream in the night, a fear among fears,


s: A naked runner lost in a storm of spears.


s: I have grown tired of rapture and love's desire;


s: Love is a flaming heart, and its flames aspire


s: Till they cloud the soul in the smoke of a windy fire.


s: I would wash the dust of the world in a soft green flood;


s: Here between sea and sea, in the fairy wood,


s: I have found a delicate, wave-green solitude.


s: Here, in the fairy wood, between sea and sea,


s: I have heard the song of a fairy bird in a tree,


s: And the peace that is not in the world has flown to me.


s: I am the torch, she saith, and what to me


s: Beauty, and I have neither joy nor shame,


s: But live with that clear light of perfect fire


s: Which is to men the death of their desire.


s: Troy burn, and the most loving knight lie dead.


s: The world has been my mirror, time has been


s: My breath upon the glass; and men have said,


s: Love's poor few words, before my image there.


s: The joy of life, mingle to make me wise;


s: Yet now the day is darkened with eclipse:


s: Who is there still lives for beauty? Still am I


s: The torch, but where's the moth that still dares die?


s: It was in the activities of a "Young Ireland" society that Yeats


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: I rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blow


s: Till the seed of the fire flicker and glow.


s: And then I must scrub, and bake, and sweep,


s: Till stars are beginning to blink and peep;


s: But the young lie long and dream in their bed


s: Of the matching of ribbons, the blue and the red,


s: And they sigh if the wind but lift up a tress.


s: And the seed of the fire gets feeble and cold.


s: And the heart and the soul came through,


s: Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;


s: She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.


s: She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;


s: But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.


s: In a field by the river my love and I did stand,


s: And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.


s: She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;


s: But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.


s: _Soldiers Three_ (1888) was the first of six collections of short


s: Considered solely as a poet (see Preface) he is one of the most


s: An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;


s: An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it


s: You limping lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din!


s: An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind,


s: Was all the field-equipment 'e could find.


s: Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl,


s: You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been?


s: If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!"


s: An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear.


s: 'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear.


s: An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire."


s: When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire!


s: With the bullets kickin' dust-spots on the green.


s: With a bullet where my belt-plate should 'a' been.


s: Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Din.


s: An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water--green;


s: 'Ere's a beggar with a bullet through 'is spleen;


s: 'E's chawin' up the ground an' 'e's kickin' all around:


s: For Gawd's sake, git the water, Gunga Din!"


s: An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean.


s: "I 'ope you liked your drink," sez Gunga Din.


s: Where it's always double drill and no canteen;


s: An' I'll get a swig in Hell from Gunga Din!


s: You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!


s: Things 'ave transpired which made me learn


s: 'Ow quick we'd drop 'er!_ But she ain't!


s: Plains which the moonshine turns to sea,


s: When the wind worries through the 'ills--


s: Once--an' struck off. They taught me, too.


s: An' the full roar that lasts till night;


s: An' legs tied down before they're cold--


s: These are the things which make you know.


s: 'Ow quick we'd chuck 'er!_ But she ain't!


s: When the flush of a newborn sun fell first on Eden's


s: Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with


s: And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was


s: Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves: "It's pretty,


s: Wherefore he called to his wife and fled to fashion


s: The first of his race who cared a fig for the first, most


s: And he left his lore to the use of his sons--and that was


s: When the Devil chuckled: "Is it Art?" in the ear of


s: They builded a tower to shiver the sky and wrench the


s: Till the Devil grunted behind the bricks: "It's striking,


s: The stone was dropped by the quarry-side, and the idle


s: While each man talked of the aims of art, and each in


s: They fought and they talked in the north and the south,


s: they talked and they fought in the west,


s: Till the waters rose on the jabbering land, and the poor


s: Had rest till the dank blank-canvas dawn when the dove


s: And the Devil bubbled below the keel: "It's human, but


s: The tale is old as the Eden Tree--as new as the new-cut


s: For each man knows ere his lip-thatch grows he is


s: And each man hears as the twilight nears, to the beat of


s: The Devil drum on the darkened pane: "You did it,


s: We have learned to whittle the Eden Tree to the shape


s: We have learned to bottle our parents twain in the yolk


s: We know that the tail must wag the dog, as the horse


s: But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old: "It's clever,


s: When the flicker of London's sun falls faint on the club-


s: The sons of Adam sit them down and scratch with their


s: They scratch with their pens in the mold of their graves,


s: When the Devil mutters behind the leaves: "It's pretty,


s: Now, if we could win to the Eden Tree where the four


s: And the wreath of Eve is red on the turf as she left it


s: And if we could come when the sentry slept, and softly


s: By the favor of God we might know as much--as our


s: Tommy Atkins' equivalent for "O Brother!"


s: Richard Le Gallienne, who, in spite of his long residence in the


s: United States, must be considered an English poet, was born at


s: The streets are full of lights and loves,


s: Soft gowns, and flutter of soiled doves.


s: Springs this bright flower that charms us so,


s: Cavalier poets of the seventeenth century, mystically devotional.


s: What! hath no cold wind swept your heart at all,


s: Yours are the victories of light: your feet


s: Rest from good toil, where rest is brave and sweet:


s: Have you not read so, looking in these eyes?


s: Is it the common light of the pure skies,


s: Lights up their shadowy depths? The end is set:


s: When gracious music stirs, and all is bright,


s: And beauty triumphs through a courtly night;


s: And in the battle, when the horsemen sweep


s: Against a thousand deaths, and fall on sleep:


s: Seek with thine eyes to pierce this crystal sphere:


s: Canst read a fate there, prosperous and clear?


s: Only the mists, only the weeping clouds,


s: Beneath, what angels are at work? What powers


s: See! the mists tremble, and the clouds are stirred:


s: The clouds are breaking from the crystal ball,


s: Breaking and clearing: and I look to fall.


s: When the cold winds and airs of portent sweep,


s: The mountains, and the lonely death at last


s: Upon the lonely mountains: O strong friend!


s: The wandering over, and the labour passed,


s: Earth was thy mother, and her true son thou:


s: Earth called thee to a knowledge of her ways,


s: Upon the great hills, up the great streams: now


s: Fare thee well, O strong heart! The tranquil night


s: Looks calmly on thee: and the sun pours down


s: Ernest Dowson was born at Belmont Hill in Kent in 1867. His


s: His delicate and fantastic poetry was an attempt to escape from a


s: intoxicating and perhaps immortal music."


s: With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars,


s: Surely he hath his posies, which they tear and twine;


s: Those scentless wisps of straw that, miserable, line


s: His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares.


s: Pedant and pitiful. O, how his rapt gaze wars


s: With their stupidity! Know they what dreams divine


s: Lift his long, laughing reveries like enchanted wine,


s: And make his melancholy germane to the stars'?


s: O lamentable brother! if those pity thee,


s: Am I not fain of all thy lone eyes promise me;


s: Half a fool's kingdom, far from men who sow and reap,


s: All their days, vanity? Better than mortal flowers,


s: Thy moon-kissed roses seem: better than love or sleep,


s: The star-crowned solitude of thine oblivious hours!


s: You would have understood me, had you waited;


s: I could have loved you, dear! as well as he:


s: Had we not been impatient, dear! and fated


s: What is the use of speech? Silence were fitter:


s: Lest we should still be wishing things unsaid.


s: Though all the words we ever spake were bitter,


s: Nay, let this earth, your portion, likewise cover


s: Always, in all, in truth was I your lover;


s: As you were cold, dear! with a grace as rare.


s: Think you, I turned to them, or made surrender,


s: Had we been patient, dear! ah, had you waited,


s: I had fought death for you, better than he:


s: But from the very first, dear! we were fated


s: Late, late, I come to you, now death discloses


s: Love that in life was not to be our part:


s: On your low lying mound between the roses,


s: I would not waken you: nay! this is fitter;


s: Death and the darkness give you unto me;


s: Here we who loved so, were so cold and bitter,


s: Its edges foamed with amethyst and rose,


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


s: There where the ether like a diamond glows,


s: Sparkle the delicate dews, the distant snows;


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


s: Moulded to her by deep and deeper breath,


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


s: I dreamed last night of a dome of beaten gold


s: There shall the eagle blindly dash himself,


s: There the first beam shall strike, and there the moon


s: And it shall be the tryst of sundered stars,


s: Shall send a light upon the lost in Hell,


s: And flashings upon faces without hope.--


s: And I will think in gold and dream in silver,


s: Imagine in marble and conceive in bronze,


s: And stammering tribes from undiscovered lands,


s: And all the streaming seraphim from heaven.


s: appeared in _The London Mercury_, November, 1919.


s: Courses of brick, smothered in nettle and dock,


s: Or a squared stone, lying mossy where it tumbled!


s: Sprawling bramble and saucy thistle mock


s: What once was firelit floor and private charm


s: Where, seen in a windowed picture, hills were fading


s: At dusk, and all was memory-coloured and warm,


s: And voices talked, secure from the wind's invading.


s: Of daffodil flames amid April's cuckoo-flowers,


s: Or a cluster of aconite mixt with weeds entwining!


s: But, dark and lofty, a royal cedar towers


s: By homely thorns: whether the white rain drifts


s: Or sun scorches, he holds the downs in ken,


s: The western vale; his branchy tiers he lifts,


s: I know a green grass path that leaves the field


s: Of birds at noon-day; and no soft throats yield


s: Their music to the moon. The place is sealed,


s: An unclaimed sovereignty of voiceless song,


s: To some sweet singer lost, or unrevealed.


s: Let it be shape of sorrow with wan face,


s: Or love that swoons on sleep, or else delight


s: According to his own biography, William H. Davies was born in a


s: public-house called Church House at Newport, in the County of


s: Autobiography of a Super-Tramp_ (1906), Shaw describes how the


s: When such things are, this world too soon,


s: Oh, thou fair Moon, so close and bright;


s: Though there are birds that sing this night


s: With thy white beams across their throats,


s: More than for them their sweetest notes:


s: While joy gave clouds the light of stars,


s: And calves and lambs had tottering knees,


s: And the great hills of the South Country


s: And it's there walking in the high woods


s: And the men that were boys when I was a boy


s: Their hearts are set upon the waste fells,


s: But the men that live in the South Country


s: They get their laughter from the loud surf,


s: I will gather and carefully make my friends


s: By them and the God of the South Country


s: And there shall the Sussex songs be sung


s: It was the good ship _Billycock_, with thirteen men aboard,


s: Athirst to grapple with their country's foes,--


s: A crew, 'twill be admitted, not numerically fitted


s: It was the good ship _Billycock_ put out from Plymouth Sound,


s: While lustily the gallant heroes cheered,


s: And all the air was ringing with the merry bo'sun's singing,


s: Till in the gloom of night she disappeared.


s: But when the morning broke on her, behold, a dozen ships,


s: (Or, if that isn't plenty, I will gladly make it twenty),


s: Then to the Lord High Admiral there spake a cabin-boy:


s: "Methinks," he said, "the odds are somewhat great,


s: And, in the present crisis, a cabin-boy's advice is


s: That you and France had better arbitrate!"


s: "Pooh!" said the Lord High Admiral, and slapped his manly chest,


s: "Pooh! That would be both cowardly and wrong;


s: Shall I, a gallant fighter, give the needy ballad-writer


s: "Nay--is the shorthand-writer here?--I tell you, one and all,


s: With eager satisfaction let us clear the decks for action


s: And fight the craven Frenchmen!" So they fought.


s: And (after several stanzas which as yet are incomplete,


s: When the _Billycock_ was going, she'd a dozen prizes towing


s: Ah, long in glowing English hearts the story will remain,


s: And, while we rule the ocean, we will picture with emotion


s: _P.S._--I've lately noticed that the critics--who, I think,


s: In praising _my_ productions are remiss--


s: Quite easily are captured, and profess themselves enraptured,


s: For making which you merely take some dauntless Englishmen,


s: Ingredients you mingle in a metre with a jingle,


s: And there you have your masterpiece complete!


s: Why, then, with labour infinite, produce a book of verse


s: The ballad bold and breezy comes particularly easy--


s: I don't knaw mooch o' corliflower plants,


s: In most of the bukes, 'twas once the case


s: Which from the start to the very last page


s: I mayn't knaw mooch o' corliflower plants,


s: "That's a sweet tongue you have, Sarah Casey; but if sleep's


s: a grand thing, it's a grand thing to be waking up a day the


s: like of this, when there's a warm sun in it, and a kind air,


s: and you'll hear the cuckoos singing and crying out on the


s: vocabulary from the time of Malory and of the translators of the


s: spirituality of his associates in the Irish Theatre.


s: anything in his plays; his versions of Villon and Petrarch are


s: Synge died, just as he was beginning to attain fame, at a private


s: Four strings I've brought from Spain and France


s: Sings over us, and golden lights, and green


s: There'll come a season when you'll stretch


s: Then in Mount Jerome I will lie, poor wretch,


s: And dig me a grave where the hill-winds call;


s: But O were I dead, were I dust, the fall


s: Of my own love's footstep would break my rest!


s: My heart in my bosom is black as a sloe!


s: I heed not cuckoo, nor wren, nor swallow:


s: Like a flying leaf in the sky's blue hollow


s: The heart in my breast is, that beats so low.


s: Because of the words your lips have spoken,


s: (O dear black head that I must not follow)


s: My heart is a grave that is stripped and hollow,


s: The swallow goes south with you: I go west


s: Where fields are empty and scythes at rest.


s: Her initial volume, _Poems_ (1898), showed practically no


s: The grand road from the mountain goes shining to the sea,


s: And there is traffic on it and many a horse and cart,


s: But the little roads of Cloonagh are dearer far to me


s: And the little roads of Cloonagh go rambling through my heart.


s: A great storm from the ocean goes shouting o'er the hill,


s: And there is glory in it; and terror on the wind:


s: But the haunted air of twilight is very strange and still,


s: And the little winds of twilight are dearer to my mind.


s: The great waves of the Atlantic sweep storming on their way,


s: Shining green and silver with the hidden herring shoal;


s: But the little waves of Breffny have drenched my heart in spray,


s: And the little waves of Breffny go stumbling through my soul.


s: Free to all souls the hidden beauty calls,


s: The sea thrift dwelling on her spray-swept height,


s: The gliding river and the stream that brawls


s: Down the sharp cliffs with constant breaks and falls--


s: All these are equal in the equal light--


s: God made a garden, it was men built walls;


s: But the wide sea from men is wholly freed;


s: Freely the great waves rise and storm and break,


s: Nor softlier go for any landlord's need,


s: Where rhythmic tides flow for no miser's sake


s: And none hath profit of the brown sea-weed,


s: But all things give themselves, yet none may take.


s: '_Where am I from?_' From the green hills of Erin.


s: '_Have I no song then?_' My songs are all sung.


s: '_What o' my love?_' 'Tis alone I am farin'.


s: Old grows my heart, an' my voice yet is young.


s: '_If she was tall?_' Like a king's own daughter.


s: '_If she was fair?_' Like a mornin' o' May.


s: When she'd come laughin' 'twas the runnin' wather,


s: When she'd come blushin' 'twas the break o' day.


s: '_Where did she dwell?_' Where one'st I had my dwellin'.


s: '_Who loved her best?_' There's no one now will know.


s: '_Where is she gone?_' Och, why would I be tellin'!


s: Youth's for an hour, an' the taste o' life is sweet,


s: Ailes was a girl that stepped on two bare feet;


s: In all my days I never seen the one as fair as she,


s: I'd have lost my life for Ailes, an' she never cared for me.


s: Beauty's a flower, an' the days o' life are long,


s: There's little knowin' who may live to sing another song;


s: For Ailes was the fairest, but another is my wife,


s: An' Mary--God be good to her!--is all I love in life.


s: John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, in 1872. He was


s: written in collaboration with Joseph Conrad. He has written also


s: A moonlight in which there would be no machine-guns!


s: Then, far away to the right thro' the moonbeams


s: "_Wukka Wukka_" will go the machine-guns,


s: A moonlight in which the machine-guns of trouble


s: Long ago, on the cliffs, in the moonlight,


s: Sitting still, looking over at Flatholme.


s: And, far away to the left, under Flatholme,


s: As we should say: "Stick it, the Welch!"


s: Shakespeare rendered by Mother Goose. The trick of revealing the


s: ordinary in whimsical colors, of catching the commonplace off its


s: This poet's second gift is his sense of the supernatural, of the


s: 'Is there anybody there?' said the Traveller,


s: And his horse in the silence champed the grasses


s: And he smote upon the door again a second time;


s: Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,


s: Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight


s: Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,


s: And he felt in his heart their strangeness,


s: While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,


s: Never the least stir made the listeners,


s: Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house


s: Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,


s: And how the silence surged softly backward,


s: He lags the long bright morning through,


s: She'd read, with stern and wrinkled face.


s: In the wind that through the window came.


s: With--'You!--I thought you was in bed!'--


s: Wrinkled with age, and drenched with dew


s: The hedge is quick and green with briar,


s: His ram's bell rings 'neath an arch of stars,


s: various magazines. He is best known as a writer of flashing,


s: paradoxical essays on anything and everything, like _Tremendous


s: , _The Ball and the Cross_ ), a pamphleteer, and a poet.


s: "Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,


s: Don John of Austria is going to the war;


s: Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold


s: In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold;


s: Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,


s: Chesterton, the prose-paradoxer, is a delightful product of a


s: White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,


s: And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;


s: It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;


s: For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.


s: They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,


s: They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,


s: And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,


s: And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.


s: The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;


s: The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;


s: From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,


s: And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.


s: Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,


s: Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,


s: Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,


s: The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,


s: The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,


s: That once went singing southward when all the world was young.


s: In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,


s: Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.


s: Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,


s: Don John of Austria is going to the war,


s: Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold


s: In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,


s: Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,


s: Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,


s: Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.


s: Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star,


s: (_Don John of Austria is going to the war._)


s: He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri's knees,


s: His turban that is woven of the sunsets and the seas.


s: He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,


s: And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees;


s: And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring


s: Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.


s: They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn,


s: Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be,


s: On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,


s: Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl;


s: And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,


s: For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west.


s: We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun,


s: Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done.


s: But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know


s: The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago:


s: It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;


s: It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!


s: It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,


s: Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."


s: For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,


s: (_Don John of Austria is going to the war._)


s: St. Michael's on his Mountain in the sea-roads of the north


s: (_Don John of Austria is girt and going forth._)


s: Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift


s: And the sea-folk labour and the red sails lift.


s: He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone;


s: The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone;


s: The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes,


s: And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,


s: And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,


s: And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,


s: And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,--


s: But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.


s: Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse


s: Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,


s: King Philip's in his closet with the Fleece about his neck


s: (_Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck._)


s: The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,


s: And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.


s: He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,


s: He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,


s: And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey


s: Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,


s: And death is in the phial and the end of noble work,


s: But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.


s: Don John's hunting, and his hounds have bayed--


s: Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid.


s: The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,


s: (_Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke._)


s: The hidden room in man's house where God sits all the year,


s: The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear.


s: He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea


s: The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery;


s: They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark,


s: And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,


s: And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,


s: And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell


s: Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,


s: (_But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!_)


s: Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,


s: Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop,


s: Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,


s: Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,


s: Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea


s: White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.


s: Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath


s: (_Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath._)


s: And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,


s: Up which a lean and foolish knight for ever rides in vain,


s: This much, O heaven--if I should brood or rave,


s: Heed you the grass that grows upon my grave.


s: If I dare snarl between this sun and sod,


s: Whimper and clamour, give me grace to own,


s: In sun and rain and fruit in season shown,


s: The shining silence of the scorn of God.


s: Thank God the stars are set beyond my power,


s: Thank God my tears will never vex a moth,


s: Nor any curse of mine cut down a flower.


s: Thought it beat brightly, even on--Calvary:


s: And He that hung upon the Torturing Tree


s: Heard all the crickets singing, and was glad.


s: imitative in manner and sentimentally romantic in tone. With _The


s: village-names and the glamour of the English countryside.


s: As one, at midnight, wakened by the call


s: Of golden-plovers in their seaward flight,


s: Who lies and listens, as the clear notes fall


s: Through tingling silence of the frosty night--


s: Who lies and listens, till the last note fails,


s: And then, in fancy, faring with the flock


s: Far over slumbering hills and dreaming dales,


s: Soon hears the surges break on reef and rock;


s: And, hearkening, till all sense of self is drowned


s: No more remembers the sweet piping sound


s: That startled him from dull, undreaming sleep;


s: So I, first waking from oblivion, heard,


s: With heart that kindled to the call of song,


s: The voice of young life, fluting like a bird,


s: And echoed that light lilting; till, ere long,


s: Lured onward by that happy, singing-flight,


s: And dared the restless deeps that, day and night,


s: Had struck the girl's heart dead in her,


s: Those still, grey eyes that followed me,


s: Those eyes that plucked the heart from me,


s: Those eyes that sucked the breath from me


s: She breathed his name; and, with a sigh,


s: By the lamplit stall I loitered, feasting my eyes


s: On colours ripe and rich for the heart's desire--


s: And apples golden-green as the glades of Paradise.


s: And as I lingered, lost in divine delight,


s: My heart thanked God for the goodly gift of sight


s: And all youth's lively senses keen and quick ...


s: I heard the tapping of a blind man's stick.


s: Macmillan Co. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.


s: possibly overemphasized passion and brutality but, underneath the


s: Masefield has also written several novels of which _Multitude and


s: Not of the princes and prelates with periwigged charioteers


s: Riding triumphantly laurelled to lap the fat of the years,--


s: The men of the tattered battalion which fights till it dies,


s: Dazed with the dust of the battle, the din and the cries.


s: Not the be-medalled Commander, beloved of the throne,


s: Riding cock-horse to parade when the bugles are blown,


s: But the lads who carried the koppie and cannot be known.


s: Not the ruler for me, but the ranker, the tramp of the road,


s: The sailor, the stoker of steamers, the man with the clout,


s: The chantyman bent at the halliards putting a tune to the shout,


s: The drowsy man at the wheel and the tired look-out.


s: Others may sing of the wine and the wealth and the mirth,


s: The portly presence of potentates goodly in girth;--


s: Mine be the dirt and the dross, the dust and scum of the earth!


s: Theirs be the music, the colour, the glory, the gold;


s: Mine be a handful of ashes, a mouthful of mould.


s: I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,


s: And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,


s: I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide


s: Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;


s: And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,


s: And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the seagulls crying.


s: To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's


s: And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,


s: And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.


s: Then came the cry of "Call all hands on deck!"


s: The Dauber knew its meaning; it was come:


s: Cape Horn, that tramples beauty into wreck,


s: Down clattered flying kites and staysails; some


s: Sang out in quick, high calls: the fair-leads skirled,


s: And from the south-west came the end of the world....


s: "Lay out!" the Bosun yelled. The Dauber laid


s: Out on the yard, gripping the yard, and feeling


s: Sick at the mighty space of air displayed


s: Below his feet, where mewing birds were wheeling.


s: A giddy fear was on him; he was reeling.


s: He bit his lip half through, clutching the jack.


s: A cold sweat glued the shirt upon his back.


s: The yard was shaking, for a brace was loose.


s: He felt that he would fall; he clutched, he bent,


s: Snow fluttered on a wind-flaw and was spent;


s: He saw the water darken. Someone yelled,


s: "Frap it; don't stay to furl! Hold on!" He held.


s: Darkness came down--half darkness--in a whirl;


s: The sky went out, the waters disappeared.


s: He felt a shocking pressure of blowing hurl


s: The ship upon her side. The darkness speared


s: At her with wind; she staggered, she careered;


s: Then down she lay. The Dauber felt her go,


s: He saw her yard tilt downwards. Then the snow


s: Whirled all about--dense, multitudinous, cold--


s: Mixed with the wind's one devilish thrust and shriek,


s: Which whiffled out men's tears, defeated, took hold,


s: Flattening the flying drift against the cheek.


s: The yards buckled and bent, man could not speak.


s: The ship lay on her broadside; the wind's sound


s: Had devilish malice at having got her downed.


s: How long the gale had blown he could not tell,


s: Only the world had changed, his life had died.


s: Nature an onslaught from the weather side,


s: A withering rush of death, a frost that cried,


s: Shrieked, till he withered at the heart; a hail


s: Plastered his oilskins with an icy mail....


s: "Up!" yelled the Bosun; "up and clear the wreck!"


s: He caught one giddy glimpsing of the deck


s: Filled with white water, as though heaped with snow.


s: He saw the streamers of the rigging blow


s: Straight out like pennons from the splintered mast,


s: Then, all sense dimmed, all was an icy blast.


s: Roaring from nether hell and filled with ice,


s: Roaring and crashing on the jerking stage,


s: Withering the soul; a minute seemed an age.


s: He clutched and hacked at ropes, at rags of sail,


s: Told long ago--long, long ago--long since


s: Heard of in other lives--imagined, dreamed--


s: There where the basest beggar was a prince.


s: To him in torment where the tempest screamed,


s: Comfort and warmth and ease no longer seemed


s: Things that a man could know; soul, body, brain,


s: Knew nothing but the wind, the cold, the pain.


s: Their horses gleam, their banners shake, their spears are many.


s: And, in the furrow that the ploughmen make,


s: Whose labours do but make the earth a hive


s: The Priests are singing in their stalls,


s: Their singing lifts, their incense burns, their praying clamours;


s: Not touched by King, Merchant, or Priest;


s: Is there a great green commonwealth of Thought


s: Which ranks the yearly pageant, and decides


s: How Summer's royal progress shall be wrought,


s: By secret stir which in each plant abides?


s: The snowdrop of wet winters, shall be first?


s: Does spotted cowslip with the grass agree


s: To hold her pride before the rattle burst?


s: And in the hedge what quick agreement goes,


s: That Summer's pride shall come, the Summer's rose,


s: Before the flower be on the bramble spray?


s: And are breaking the hills with their brood,--


s: _Poems_ (1917), dedicated to Robert Frost, is full of Thomas's


s: villages, birds' nests uncovered by the autumn wind, dusty


s: Thomas was killed at Arras, at an observatory outpost, on Easter


s: I'll buy Codham, Cockridden, and Childerditch,


s: The rent I shall ask of her will be only


s: Each year's first violets, white and lonely,


s: She must find them before I do, that is.


s: Without rent they shall all for ever be hers,


s: I shall give them all to my elder daughter.


s: Tall nettles cover up, as they have done


s: These many springs, the rusty harrow, the plough


s: Long worn out, and the roller made of stone:


s: This corner of the farmyard I like most:


s: I like the dust on the nettles, never lost


s: Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.


s: That once were underwood of hazel and ash


s: In Jenny Pinks's Copse. Now, by the hedge


s: Close packed, they make a thicket fancy alone


s: Can creep through with the mouse and wren. Next Spring


s: Accustomed to them, thinking they will remain


s: This Spring it is too late; the swift has come,


s: Better they will never warm me, though they must


s: Light several Winters' fires. Before they are done


s: The war will have ended, many other things


s: Foresee or more control than robin and wren.


s: Out of the wood of thoughts that grows by night


s: To be cut down by the sharp axe of light,--


s: Out of the night, two cocks together crow,


s: Cleaving the darkness with a silver blow:


s: And bright before my eyes twin trumpeters stand,


s: Heralds of splendour, one at either hand,


s: Each facing each as in a coat of arms:--


s: The milkers lace their boots up at the farms.


s: Here is the soundless cypress on the lawn:


s: It listens, listens. Taller trees beyond


s: That star-enchanted song falls through the air


s: From lawn to lawn down terraces of sound,


s: Darts in white arrows on the shadowed ground;


s: My dreams are flowers to which you are a bee


s: As all night long I listen, and my brain


s: Now is your voice a marble high and white,


s: Delightful creatures that have followed him


s: He sat on, or the Door he entered through:


s: He has not thanked them, overbearing fool!


s: But you should listen to the talk of these.


s: Honest they are, and patient they have kept;


s: Served him without his Thank you or his Please ...


s: The gentle Bed, a sigh between each word,


s: The Kettle puffed a tentacle of breath:--


s: "Pooh! I have boiled his water, I don't know


s: Why; and he always says I boil too slow.


s: He never calls me 'Sukie, dear,' and oh,


s: Sitting submissive on his kitchen fire."


s: Bumping and crying: "I can fall by myself;


s: Rested upon the floor, and, while I stare,


s: The Rafters creak; an Empty-Cupboard door


s: Swings open; now a wild Plank of the floor


s: Breaks from its joist, and leaps behind my foot.


s: Down from the chimney, half a pound of Soot


s: Tumbles and lies, and shakes itself again.


s: The Putty cracks against the window-pane.


s: Another piece, and toward the bottom moves.


s: Breaks at the point: the ruminating Clock


s: Warning the waiting presence of the Night,


s: Strikes the dead hour, and tumbles to the plain


s: I want your dear acquaintances, although


s: Your lovely sounds, and squander them along


s: My busy days. I'll do you no more wrong.


s: Purr for me, Sukie, like a faithful cat.


s: You, my well trampled Boots, and you, my Hat,


s: Remain my friends: I feel, though I don't speak,


s: Your touch grow kindlier from week to week.


s: Not much to choose, I know it well, in fine,


s: And your eventual Rubbish Heap, and mine.


s: If suddenly a clod of earth should rise,


s: And walk about, and breathe, and speak, and love,


s: How one would tremble, and in what surprise


s: "Earth! How have you done this? What can you be?"


s: I can't learn how to know men, or conceal


s: In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown


s: To beauty proud as was your mother's prime,


s: In that desired, delayed, incredible time,


s: And the dear heart that was your baby throne,


s: To dice with death. And oh! they'll give you rhyme


s: And reason: some will call the thing sublime,


s: So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,


s: And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor,


s: Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,


s: Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,--


s: But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed,


s: And for the secret Scripture of the poor.


s: What is most appealing about his best verse is its ease and


s: heartiness; this singer's gift lies in the almost personal bond


s: genuinely inspired nonsense of the earlier _Forest of Wild Thyme_


s: literary phase of the same period, is less successful; but these


s: Sherwood in the twilight, is Robin Hood awake?


s: Grey and ghostly shadows are gliding through the brake;


s: Shadows of the dappled deer, dreaming of the morn,


s: Dreaming of a shadowy man that winds a shadowy horn.


s: Robin Hood is here again: all his merry thieves


s: Hear a ghostly bugle-note shivering through the leaves,


s: Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,


s: In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.


s: Merry, merry England has kissed the lips of June:


s: All the wings of fairyland were here beneath the moon;


s: Like a flight of rose-leaves fluttering in a mist


s: Of opal and ruby and pearl and amethyst.


s: Merry, merry England is waking as of old,


s: With eyes of blither hazel and hair of brighter gold:


s: For Robin Hood is here again beneath the bursting spray


s: Love is in the greenwood building him a house


s: Of wild rose and hawthorn and honeysuckle boughs;


s: Love it in the greenwood: dawn is in the skies;


s: And Marian is waiting with a glory in her eyes.


s: Hark! The dazzled laverock climbs the golden steep:


s: Marian is waiting: is Robin Hood asleep?


s: Round the fairy grass-rings frolic elf and fay,


s: Rake away the red leaves, roll away the mould,


s: Rake away the gold leaves, roll away the red,


s: And wake Will Scarlett from his leafy forest bed.


s: Friar Tuck and Little John are riding down together


s: With quarter-staff and drinking-can and grey goose-feather;


s: The dead are coming back again; the years are rolled away


s: In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.


s: Softly over Sherwood the south wind blows;


s: All the heart of England hid in every rose


s: Hears across the greenwood the sunny whisper leap,


s: Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep?


s: Hark, the voice of England wakes him as of old


s: And, shattering the silence with a cry of brighter gold,


s: Bugles in the greenwood echo from the steep,


s: _Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep?_


s: Where the deer are gliding down the shadowy glen


s: All across the glades of fern he calls his merry men;


s: Doublets of the Lincoln green glancing through the May,


s: In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day;


s: Calls them and they answer: from aisles of oak and ash


s: Rings the _Follow! Follow!_ and the boughs begin to crash;


s: The ferns begin to flutter and the flowers begin to fly;


s: And through the crimson dawning the robber band goes by.


s: _Robin! Robin! Robin!_ All his merry thieves


s: Answer as the bugle-note shivers through the leaves:


s: Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,


s: In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.


s: There's a barrel-organ carolling across a golden street


s: And the music's not immortal; but the world has made it sweet


s: And it pulses through the pleasures of the City and the pain


s: That surround the singing organ like a large eternal light;


s: And they've given it a glory and a part to play again


s: In the Symphony that rules the day and night.


s: And now it's marching onward through the realms of old romance,


s: And now it's roaring cannon down to fight the King of France,


s: And now it's prattling softly to the moon.


s: And all around the organ there's a sea without a shore


s: To remember and to recompense the music evermore


s: Go down to Kew in lilac-time, in lilac-time, in lilac-time;


s: Go down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn't far from London!)


s: And there they say, when dawn is high and all the world's


s: The cuckoo, though he's very shy, will sing a song for London.


s: The linnet and the throstle, too, and after dark the long halloo


s: And golden-eyed _tu-whit, tu-whoo_ of owls that ogle London.


s: For Noah hardly knew a bird of any kind that isn't heard


s: At Kew, at Kew in lilac-time (and oh, so near to London!)


s: _Come down to Kew in lilac-time, in lilac-time, in lilac-time;


s: Come down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn't far from London!)


s: And then the troubadour begins to thrill the golden street,


s: And in all the gaudy busses there are scores of weary feet


s: Marking time, sweet time, with a dull mechanic beat,


s: And a thousand hearts are plunging to a love they'll never meet,


s: Verdi, Verdi, when you wrote _Il Trovatore_ did you dream


s: Of the organ and the monkey and the many-coloured stream


s: On the Piccadilly pavement, of the myriad eyes that seem


s: To be litten for a moment with a wild Italian gleam


s: As _A che la morte_ parodies the world's eternal theme


s: There's a portly man of business with a balance of his own,


s: There's a clerk and there's a butcher of a soft reposeful tone,


s: And they're all of them returning to the heavens they have known:


s: There's a labourer that listens to the voices of the dead


s: And his hand begins to tremble and his face is rather red


s: As he sees a loafer watching him and--there he turns his head


s: And stares into the sunset where his April love is fled,


s: For he hears her softly singing and his lonely soul is led


s: Through the land where the dead dreams go ...


s: There's a barrel-organ carolling across a golden street


s: Though the music's only Verdi there's a world to make it sweet


s: Just as yonder yellow sunset where the earth and heaven meet


s: Mellows all the sooty City! Hark, a hundred thousand feet


s: Are marching on to glory through the poppies and the wheat


s: My own love, my true love is coming home to-day.


s: And it's buy a bunch of violets for the lady


s: (_It's lilac-time in London; it's lilac-time in London!_)


s: On the other side the street you'll find it shady


s: But buy a bunch of violets for the lady,


s: In the City as the sun sinks glittering and slow;


s: And the music's not immortal; but the world has made it sweet


s: And enriched it with the harmonies that make a song complete


s: In the deeper heavens of music where the night and morning meet,


s: And it pulses through the pleasures of the City and the pain


s: That surround the singing organ like a large eternal light,


s: And they've given it a glory and a part to play again


s: In the Symphony that rules the day and night.


s: _Come down to Kew in lilac-time, in lilac-time, in lilac-time;


s: Come down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn't far from London!)


s: National Theatre, afterwards called The Abbey Theatre.


s: Colum began as a dramatist with _Broken Soil_ (1904), _The Land_


s: Sunset and silence! A man: around him earth savage,


s: Earth savage, earth broken, the brutes, the dawn man


s: And the Plough that is twin to the Sword, that is founder


s: "Brute-tamer, plough-maker, earth-breaker! Can'st hear?


s: "Is it praying you are as you stand there alone in the


s: "Surely our sky-born gods can be naught to you, earth


s: "Surely your thoughts are of Pan, or of Wotan, or Dana?


s: "Yet, why give thought to the gods? Has Pan led your


s: "Has Dana numbed pain of the child-bed, or Wotan put


s: "What matter your foolish reply! O, man, standing


s: "Your task is a day near its close. Give thanks to the


s: Slowly the darkness falls, the broken lands blend


s: The brute-tamer stands by the brutes, a head's breadth


s: A head's breadth? Ay, but therein is hell's depth, and


s: And the thrones of the gods and their halls, their chariots,


s: The ticking clock and the shining delph!


s: And roads where there's never a house nor bush,


s: And the crying wind and the lonesome hush!


s: Stephens's outstanding characteristic is his delightful blend of


s: The slow, sad murmur of the distant seas,


s: Save what the dreary winds and waves incur.


s: Their long, cold tentacles of slimy grey.


s: Was twilight only and the frightened croon,


s: And then I loosed my ear ... O, it was sweet


s: To hear a cart go jolting down the street.


s: He looked upon the World and all about it:


s: His beard swung on a wind far out of sight


s: Behind the world's curve, and there was light


s: Most fearful from His forehead, and He sighed,


s: "That star went always wrong, and from the start


s: Over the spinning Earth. Then I said, "Stay,


s: You must not strike it, God; I'm in the way;


s: And I will never move from where I stand."


s: He said, "Dear child, I feared that you were dead,"


s: With a huge, loose forefinger, crooked and black,


s: And puffed out again and hung down slack:


s: One fang shone through his lop-sided smile,


s: In his little pouched eye flickered years of guile.


s: And the horse, poor beast, it was ribbed and forked,


s: And its ears hung down, and its eyes were old,


s: And its knees were knuckly, and as we talked


s: It swung the stiff neck that could scarcely hold


s: Its big, skinny head up--then I stepped in,


s: And the driver climbed to his seat with a grin.


s: And the people and beasts who have never a friend,


s: For the driver easily might have been you,


s: And nobody knows how their days will cease,


s: And the poor, when they're old, have little of peace.


s: I do not think that skies and meadows are


s: Yet these are things invested in my mood


s: With constancy, and peace, and fortitude;


s: And envy fields, and wish that I might be


s: James Joyce was born at Dublin, February 2, 1882, and educated in


s: And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:


s: Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,


s: Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.


s: They cry unto the night their battle-name:


s: I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.


s: They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,


s: Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.


s: They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:


s: They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.


s: My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?


s: My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?


s: Now very quietly, and rather mournfully,


s: And all the stubble-fields that were so warm to him


s: Keep but in memory their borrowed fires.


s: And I, the traveller, break, still unsatisfied,


s: From that faint exquisite celestial strand,


s: And turn and see again the only dwelling-place


s: In this wide wilderness of darkening land.


s: The house, that house, O now what change has come to it.


s: Its crude red-brick façade, its roof of slate;


s: What imperceptible swift hand has given it


s: No hand has altered it, that parallelogram,


s: That hard blue roof in shape and colour's what it was;


s: No, it is not that any line has changed.


s: And, as the dusk unveils the heaven's deep cave,


s: This small world's feebleness fills me with awe again,


s: And this mean edifice, which some dull architect


s: Built for an ignorant earth-turning hind,


s: Takes on the quality of that magnificent


s: Darkness and stars will come, and long the night will be,


s: Avoiding gallantly the stars' chill scrutiny,


s: Ignoring secrets in the midnight's breast.


s: Thunders may shudder it, and winds demoniac


s: May howl their menaces, and hail descend:


s: Yet it will bear with them, serenely, steadfastly,


s: And all a universe of nameless messengers


s: From unknown distances may whisper fear,


s: And it will imitate immortal permanence,


s: And stare and stare ahead and scarcely hear.


s: It stood there yesterday; it will to-morrow, too,


s: When there is none to watch, no alien eyes


s: From this great solitude of evening skies.


s: So lone, so very small, with worlds and worlds around,


s: While life remains to it prepared to outface


s: May hide and wait for it in time and space.


s: What thing shall be held up to woman's beauty?


s: Where are the bounds of it? Yea, what is all


s: The world, but an awning scaffolded amid


s: This Heaven-wander'd princess, woman's beauty?


s: The East and West kneel down to thee, the North


s: And South; and all for thee their shoulders bear


s: The load of fourfold space. As yellow morn


s: Runs on the slippery waves of the spread sea,


s: Thy feet are on the griefs and joys of men


s: That sheen to be thy causey. Out of tears


s: Indeed, and blitheness, murder and lust and love,


s: Thy flesh was tempered. Behold in thy body


s: The yearnings of all men measured and told,


s: Given thy flesh, the meaning of thy shape!


s: What beauty is there, but thou makest it?


s: How is earth good to look on, woods and fields,


s: The season's garden, and the courageous hills,


s: All this green raft of earth moored in the seas?


s: The stars God has imagined for the night?


s: What's this behind them, that we cannot near,


s: Secret still on the point of being blabbed,


s: The ghost in the world that flies from being named?


s: Where do they get their beauty from, all these?


s: They do but glaze a lantern lit for man,


s: And woman's beauty is the flame therein.


s: Of her eyes, and her own fair countenance


s: Another remarkable poet whose early death was a blow to English


s: I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep


s: Beyond the village which men still call Tyre,


s: With leaden age o'ercargoed, dipping deep


s: That rings black Cyprus with a lake of fire;


s: And all those ships were certainly so old--


s: Who knows how oft with squat and noisy gun,


s: Questing brown slaves or Syrian oranges,


s: Blood, water, fruit and corpses up the hold.


s: But now through friendly seas they softly run,


s: Painted the mid-sea blue or shore-sea green,


s: Still patterned with the vine and grapes in gold.


s: Pointing her shapely shadows from the dawn


s: Thought I--who knows--who knows--but in that same


s: (Twelve patient comrades sweating at the oar)


s: And with great lies about his wooden horse


s: Set the crew laughing, and forgot his course.


s: It was so old a ship--who knows, who knows?


s: --And yet so beautiful, I watched in vain


s: And the whole deck put on its leaves again.


s: David Herbert Lawrence, born in 1885, is one of the most


s: As a poet he is often caught in the net of his own emotions; his


s: passion thickens his utterance and distorts his rhythms, which


s: Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;


s: Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see


s: A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the


s: And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who


s: In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song


s: Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong


s: To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside


s: And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.


s: So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour


s: With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour


s: Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast


s: John Freeman, born in 1885, has published several volumes of


s: pleasantly descriptive verse. The two most distinctive are _Stone


s: Came but the owl's hoot, ghostly, clear.


s: Sprang golden corn, nor from those chill


s: No song broke through the close-fall'n night,


s: The daughter of Francis Darwin, third son of Charles Darwin, Mrs.


s: There are new waters, and a new Humanity.


s: For all old myths give us the dream to be.


s: I walked the street as silent as a mouse,


s: Buying fine clothes, and fittings for the house.


s: His poetry divides itself sharply in two moods--the lyric and the


s: "glorification" and false glamour of war.


s: _Counter-Attack_ appeared in 1918. In this volume Sassoon turned


s: Can Sassoon see nothing glorious or uplifting in war? His friend,


s: synthesize in poetry what Barbusse's _Under Fire_ spreads out in


s: Return to greet me, colours that were my joy,


s: But shining as a garden; come with the streaming


s: I want to fill my gaze with blue and silver,


s: Radiance through living roses, spires of green,


s: Rising in young-limbed copse and lovely wood,


s: Where the hueless wind passes and cries unseen.


s: Tired of the greys and browns and leafless ash.


s: I would have hours that move like a glitter of dancers,


s: Far from the angry guns that boom and flash.


s: Return, musical, gay with blossom and fleetness,


s: Days when my sight shall be clear and my heart rejoice;


s: Come from the sea with breadth of approaching brightness,


s: When the blithe wind laughs on the hills with uplifted voice.


s: Soldiers are citizens of death's gray land,


s: Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.


s: In the great hour of destiny they stand,


s: Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.


s: Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win


s: Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.


s: Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin


s: They think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives.


s: I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,


s: And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,


s: Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,


s: And mocked by hopeless longing to regain


s: Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,


s: He winked his prying torch with patching glare


s: From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.


s: Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know,


s: A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;


s: Tripping, he grabbed the wall; saw someone lie


s: Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug,


s: And stooped to give the sleeper's arm a tug.


s: "I'm looking for headquarters." No reply.


s: "God blast your neck!" (For days he'd had no sleep.)


s: "Get up and guide me through this stinking place."


s: Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap,


s: And flashed his beam across the livid face


s: Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore


s: And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound.


s: Dawn's ghost that filtered down a shafted stair


s: To the dazed, muttering creatures underground


s: Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.


s: At last, with sweat of horror in his hair,


s: He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,


s: Tossed on the glittering air they soar and skim,


s: Whose voices make the emptiness of light


s: Of dawn, and bold with song at edge of night,


s: They clutch their leafy pinnacles and sing


s: Scornful of man, and from his toils aloof


s: Whose heart's a haunted woodland whispering;


s: Whose thoughts return on tempest-baffled wing;


s: And storms the gate of nothingness for proof.


s: For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,


s: Like traffic checked a while at the crossing of city ways:


s: Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.


s: _But the past is just the same,--and War's a bloody game....


s: Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz,--


s: The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled


s: Do you remember the rats; and the stench


s: Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,--


s: And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?


s: Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"


s: Do you remember that hour of din before the attack,--


s: Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back


s: With dying eyes and lolling heads, those ashen-grey


s: Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?


s: Look up, and swear by the green of the Spring that you'll


s: school. As a youth, Brooke was keenly interested in all forms of


s: naturally romantic disposition; his early poems are a blend of


s: This occasional cynicism was purged, when after several years of


s: travel (he had been to Germany, Italy and Honolulu) the war came,


s: "A world grown old and cold and weary ...


s: And half men, and their dirty songs and dreary,


s: Brooke never reached his destination. He died of blood-poison at


s: details of life, remembered and catalogued with delightful zest."


s: I have been so great a lover: filled my days


s: So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise,


s: The pain, the calm, and the astonishment,


s: And all dear names men use, to cheat despair,


s: For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear


s: Our hearts at random down the dark of life.


s: Now, ere the unthinking silence on that strife


s: Steals down, I would cheat drowsy Death so far,


s: That outshone all the suns of all men's days.


s: Shall I not crown them with immortal praise


s: Whom I have loved, who have given me, dared with me


s: High secrets, and in darkness knelt to see


s: Love is a flame;--we have beaconed the world's night.


s: A city:--and we have built it, these and I.


s: An emperor:--we have taught the world to die.


s: So, for their sakes I loved, ere I go hence,


s: And the high cause of Love's magnificence,


s: And to keep loyalties young, I'll write those names


s: And set them as a banner, that men may know,


s: Out on; the wind of Time, shining and streaming....


s: Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust;


s: Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust


s: Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food;


s: Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;


s: And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;


s: And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,


s: Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;


s: Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon


s: Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss


s: Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is


s: Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen


s: The benison of hot water; furs to touch;


s: The good smell of old clothes; and other such--


s: The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,


s: Hair's fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers


s: About dead leaves and last year's ferns....


s: And thousand others throng to me! Royal flames;


s: Sweet water's dimpling laugh from tap or spring;


s: Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing:


s: Voices in laughter, too; and body's pain,


s: Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;


s: Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam


s: That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;


s: And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold


s: Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mould;


s: Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew;


s: And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new;


s: And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass;--


s: All these have been my loves. And these shall pass.


s: Nor all my passion, all my prayers, have power


s: To hold them with me through the gate of Death.


s: They'll play deserter, turn with the traitor breath,


s: Break the high bond we made, and sell Love's trust


s: --Oh, never a doubt but, somewhere, I shall wake,


s: And give what's left of love again, and make


s: Stays here, and changes, breaks, grows old, is blown


s: About the winds of the world, and fades from brains


s: O dear my loves, O faithless, once again


s: This one last gift I give: that after men


s: Shall know, and later lovers, far-removed


s: Praise you, "All these were lovely"; say, "He loved."


s: And the weak passionless hearts will burn


s: And they will know--poor fools, they'll know!--


s: That there's some corner of a foreign field


s: That is for ever England. There shall be


s: In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;


s: A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,


s: Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,


s: A body of England's breathing English air,


s: Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.


s: And think, this heart, all evil shed away,


s: Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;


s: Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;


s: And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,


s: In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.


s: Winifred M. Letts was born in Ireland in 1887, and her early work


s: So hidden that no shadow of man may break


s: Whiteness of sea-born cloud drooping to shake


s: Cool rain upon the reed-beds, or the wake


s: Of churned cloud in a howling wind's descent.


s: For there shall be no terror in the night


s: When stars that I have loved are born in me,


s: And cloudy darkness I will hold most fair;


s: But this shall be the end of my delight:--


s: That you, my lovely one, may stoop and see


s: Your image in the mirrored beauty there.


s: Within your magic web of hair, lies furled


s: The fire and splendour of the ancient world;


s: The dire gold of the comet's wind-blown hair;


s: The songs that turned to gold the evening air


s: When all the stars of heaven sang for joy.


s: The flames that burnt the cloud-high city Troy.


s: The mænad fire of spring on the cold earth;


s: The myrrh-lit flame that gave both death and birth


s: To the soul Phoenix; and the star-bright shower


s: That came to Danaë in her brazen tower....


s: Within your magic web of hair lies furled


s: The fire and splendour of the ancient world.


s: Withdrew, His labour done. Thus did begin


s: For some to ploughshares did the metal twist,


s: And others--dreaming empires--straightway cut


s: Crowns for their aching foreheads. Others beat


s: Long nails and heavy hammers for the feet


s: Of their forgotten Lord. (Who dares to boast


s: That he is guiltless?) Others coined it: most


s: Did with it--simply nothing. (Here again


s: Who cries his innocence?) Yet doth remain


s: Metal unmarred, to each man more or less,


s: (For sake of Him our Lord, now long forsaken)


s: With one high morning note a drowsing man:


s: That sound may come, 'twill echo far and wide


s: Trumpeting men through beauty to God's side.


s: "Tony" P. Cameron Wilson was born in South Devon in 1889 and was


s: educated at Exeter and Oxford. He wrote one novel besides several


s: When the war broke out he was a teacher in a school at Hindhead,


s: "_God! but it's England_," someone said,


s: Patrick MacGill was born in Donegal in 1890. He was the son of


s: poverty-stricken peasants and, between the ages of 12 and 19, he


s: These be the little verses, rough and uncultured, which


s: I've written in hut and model, deep in the dirty ditch,


s: On the upturned hod by the palace made for the idle rich.


s: Out on the happy highway, or lines where the engines go,


s: Which fact you may hardly credit, still for your doubts 'tis so,


s: For I am the person who wrote them, and surely to God, I know!


s: Wrote them beside the hot-plate, or under the chilling skies,


s: Some of them true as death is, some of them merely lies,


s: Some of them very foolish, some of them otherwise.


s: Little sorrows and hopings, little and rugged rhymes,


s: Some of them maybe distasteful to the moral men of our times,


s: Some of them marked against me in the Book of the Many Crimes.


s: These, the Songs of a Navvy, bearing the taint of the brute,


s: Unasked, uncouth, unworthy out to the world I put,


s: Stamped with the brand of labor, the heel of a navvy's boot.


s: From its blue vase the rose of evening drops;


s: The hills all blue with distance hide their tops


s: A little wind said "Hush!" and shook a spray


s: Heavy with May's white crop of opening bloom;


s: Night tells her rosary of stars full soon,


s: They drop from out her dark hand to her knees.


s: From all her changes which have stirred the seas.


s: Across the ears of Toil, Rest throws her veil.


s: A little flock of clouds go down to rest


s: In some blue corner off the moon's highway,


s: With shepherd-winds that shook them in the West


s: To borrowed shapes of earth, in bright array,


s: Perhaps to weave a rainbow's gay festoons


s: Around the lonesome isle which Brooke has made


s: Or dot it with his country's mountain shade.


s: Ah, little wanderers, when you reach that isle


s: Tell him, with dripping dew, they have not failed,


s: What he loved most; for late I roamed a while


s: Thro' English fields and down her rivers sailed;


s: And they remember him with beauty caught


s: Heard in his heart with singing overwrought;


s: And still on Purley Common gooseboys sing.


s: The island of Skyros where Rupert Brooke was buried. (See page


s: Irene Rutherford McLeod, born August 21, 1891, has written three


s: I'm a lean dog, a keen dog, a wild dog, and lone;


s: I'm a rough dog, a tough dog, hunting on my own;


s: I'm a bad dog, a mad dog, teasing silly sheep;


s: I love to sit and bay the moon, to keep fat souls from sleep.


s: I'll never be a lap dog, licking dirty feet,


s: A sleek dog, a meek dog, cringing for my meat,


s: Not for me the fireside, the well-filled plate,


s: But shut door, and sharp stone, and cuff and kick, and hate.


s: Not for me the other dogs, running by my side,


s: Some have run a short while, but none of them would bide.


s: O mine is still the lone trail, the hard trail, the best,


s: Wide wind, and wild stars, and hunger of the quest!


s: Alas, how poor the gifts that lovers give--


s: I can but give you of my flesh and strength,


s: I can but give you these few passing days


s: And passionate words that, since our speech began,


s: No lover yet in all the world has found;


s: And fix bright youth for ever in your limbs?


s: Could they not give you all things that I lack?


s: You should have loved a god; I am but dust.


s: Yet no god loves as loves this poor frail dust.


s: Drifting along the dank canals of Venice,


s: Like swirling clouds of birds vanishing.


s: A young beech tree on the edge of the forest


s: Yet shudders through all its leaves in the light air


s: So does my heart fill slowly with tears,


s: "I dream of silent verses where the rhyme


s: The fishes skim like umber shades through the undulating weeds,


s: The oleanders drop their rosy petals on the lawns,


s: And the swallows dive and swirl and whistle


s: About the cleft battlements of Can Grande's castle....


s: Edward Shanks was born in London in 1892 and educated at Trinity


s: When in the mines of dark and silent thought


s: Sometimes I delve and find strange fancies there,


s: With heavy labour to the surface brought


s: That lie and mock me in the brighter air,


s: Poor ores from starvèd lodes of poverty,


s: That in the darkness cheat the miner's eye,


s: I turn away from that base cave, the mind.


s: Yet had I but the power to crush the stone


s: There are strange metals hid in flakes therein,


s: Each flake a spark sole-hidden and alone,


s: That only cunning, toilsome chemists win.


s: Fails and the pregnant treasures useless lie.


s: Rain down their first sweet April showers


s: Is sweet with breath of spring and flowers,


s: Whose faces, gorged with blood and gold,


s: Its lowered lamps glow in the midnight air


s: Like mammoth orange-moths that flit and flare


s: Through the dark tapestry of night. The tall


s: Black houses crush the creeping beggars down,


s: Who walk beneath and think of breezes cool,


s: Or trees that whisper in some far, small town


s: Whose quiet nursed them, when they thought that gold


s: In which men bury all that's fine and fair.


s: Through the green bracken-scented lanes or sigh


s: For all the future held so rich and rare;


s: When, though they knew it not, their baby cries


s: Robert Nichols was born on the Isle of Wight in 1893. His first


s: Endurances_ (1917) is the most representative work of this poet,


s: Saints have adored the lofty soul of you.


s: Poets have whitened at your high renown.


s: Do hourly wait to pass your pathway down.


s: You, so familiar, once were strange: we tried


s: We see your straight and steadfast signpost there.


s: I think it like that signpost in my land


s: Upward, into the hills, on the right hand,


s: Where the mists swim and the winds shriek and blow,


s: A homeless land and friendless, but a land


s: I did not know and that I wished to know.


s: Such, such is Death: no triumph: no defeat:


s: Only an empty pail, a slate rubbed clean,


s: A merciful putting away of what has been.


s: And this we know: Death is not Life effete,


s: Life crushed, the broken pail. We who have seen


s: So marvellous things know well the end not yet.


s: Victor and vanquished are a-one in death:


s: Coward and brave: friend, foe. Ghosts do not say,


s: "Come, what was your record when you drew breath?"


s: And your bright Promise, withered long and sped,


s: Is touched; stirs, rises, opens and grows sweet


s: And blossoms and is you, when you are dead.


s: You are blind like us. Your hurt no man designed,


s: And no man claimed the conquest of your land.


s: But gropers both, through fields of thought confined,


s: And we the tapering paths of our own mind,


s: And in each other's dearest ways we stand,


s: And hiss and hate. And the blind fight the blind.


s: When it is peace, then we may view again


s: With new-won eyes each other's truer form


s: And wonder. Grown more loving-kind and warm


s: We'll grasp firm hands and laugh at the old pain,


s: When it is peace. But until peace, the storm,


s: The darkness and the thunder and the rain.


s: Robert Graves was born July 26, 1895. One of "the three rhyming


s: musketeers" (the other two being the poets Siegfried Sassoon and


s: It's hard to know if you're alive or dead


s: When steel and fire go roaring through your head.


s: One moment you'll be crouching at your gun


s: Traversing, mowing heaps down half in fun:


s: The next, you choke and clutch at your right breast--


s: No time to think--leave all--and off you go ...


s: To Treasure Island where the Spice winds blow,


s: To lovely groves of mango, quince and lime--


s: Breathe no good-bye, but ho, for the Red West!


s: When somehow something gives and your feet drag.


s: You fall and strike your head; yet feel no pain


s: And find ... you're digging tunnels through the hay


s: In the Big Barn, 'cause it's a rainy day.


s: Oh, springy hay, and lovely beams to climb!


s: You're back in the old sailor suit again.


s: Or you'll be dozing safe in your dug-out--


s: A great roar--the trench shakes and falls about--


s: You're struggling, gasping, struggling, then ... _hullo_!


s: Elsie comes tripping gaily down the trench,


s: Hanky to nose--that lyddite makes a stench--


s: The trouble is, things happen much too quick;


s: Up jump the Boches, rifles thump and click,


s: You stagger, and the whole scene fades away:


s: Even good Christians don't like passing straight


s: Of golden harps ... and ... I'm not well to-day ...


s: O then, be careful, or with sudden clutch


s: You'll hurt the delicate thing you prize so much.


s: Old birds are neither caught with salt nor chaff:


s: They watch you from the apple bough and laugh.


s: But when he nestles in your hand at last,


s: Close up your fingers tight and hold him fast.


s: That island rising from the steamy seas!


s: The candle's a tall lightship; my two hands


s: Are boats and barges anchored to the sands,


s: They're full of wine and riches from far lands....


s: _I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?_


s: And storms, and then with head and ears well under


s: Blow bubbles with a monstrous roar like thunder,


s: The seas run high and the boats split asunder....


s: And slithers like a shark under the ships.


s: My toes are on the soap-dish--that's the effect


s: Of my huge storms; an iron steamer's wrecked.


s: He's biting the old sailors, I expect....


s: The bugler sent a call of high romance--


s: "Lights out! Lights out!" to the deserted square.


s: On the thin brazen notes he threw a prayer:


s: "God, if it's _this_ for me next time in France,


s: Dead in the gas and smoke and roar of guns,


s: Lying so stiff and still under the sky--


s: Jolly young Fusiliers, too good to die ..."


s: The music ceased, and the red sunset flare


s: Was blood about his head as he stood there.


s: MACCATHMHAOIL, SEOSAMH (_see Joseph Campbell_)


s: Their tears but bootless, bootless fall.


s: Full fifteen lordships in fief he holds,


s: “Good morrow, good day, thou little Sir Alf,


s: But if thou become the King’s prisoner to-day,


s: Said: “Thou art the little Norwegian Alf,


s: If to-day thou wilt swear thou knowest me not,


s: But straight they took the little Sir Alf,


s: “Now take little Alf to the chamber high,


s: That the Queen at her ease, and her maids, if they please.


s: “The man that I see cannot surely be he,


s: Whose fame through the world is flying.”


s: “Though I of stature be little and mean,


s: And ne’er wilt thou bear thy lord an heir,


s: For then, I ween, thou would’st beg, fair Queen,


s: “Why hang’st thou not Ivor of Holsterbro,


s: They were thieves like me, but they slept with thee,


s: And their death would have caused thee sorrow.”


s: For the beauteous Queen and her ladies had seen


s: With contrite breast he his sins confess’d,


s: With his equals dwell in the land, for well


s: That filled me with pride, and my will I would have,


s: “First, first on all who my hate had won


s: Then to wife and maid no respect I paid,


s: Let me gain, when this death of shame I’ve thol’d,


s: “’Tis well to trust in thy faulchion good,


s: All Danneved’s swains they took their leave,


s: ’Till thou hast given the young Swayne Trost


s: Where didst thou bear the young Swayne Trost,


s: “God’s blessing upon thee, young Swayne Trost,


s: I’ll ne’er deceive thee, young Swayne Trost,


s: “I’ll give thee gold and silver to hold,


s: In wrathful mood, with five swains good,


s: Sir Pall, and Sir Bear, and Sir Liden, three were,


s: They took up with care Sir Pall and Sir Bear,


s: To the earn and the owl and the beasts that prowl


s: His brothers twain had remained unslain,


s: “Woe’s me,” cried she, “That e’er my eyes


s: For Pall she wept sore, and still, still more


s: _But happy the shepherd who finally gains_


s: _The beautiful prize of his manifold pains_.


s: _How happy the shepherd who finally gains_


s: _The beautiful prize of his labour and pains_.


s: Printed for THOMAS J. WISE, Hampstead, N.W.


s: Let no one in greatness too confident be,


s: Nor trust in his kindred, though high their degree;


s: Thy murder, Brown William, fills Mona with woe.


s: Thou wast the Receiver of Mona’s fair state,


s: Thy conduct was noble, thy wisdom was great,


s: And ne’er of thy rule did she weariness show:


s: Thy right hand was Earley, and Theah thy right eye;


s: Thy state caused thy foemen with rage to swell high;


s: How blest thy condition in fair Ronaldsway!


s: Thy mansion, how stately! thy garden, how gay!


s: But oh! what disasters from envy do flow:


s: ’Twas said at thy trial, by men void of faith,


s: The king, by a letter, demanded thy death;


s: The jury was frighten’d, and dared not say “No!”


s: The clan of wild Colcad could ne’er be at rest


s: Whilst the race of Christeen their own acres possess’d;


s: And envy and spite will bring any man low:


s: Thy murder Brown William, fills Mona with woe.


s: For Ronaldsway lust, as they did for Logh Molley;


s: Of Naboth, the tragedy’s played here anew:


s: Thy murder, Brown William, fills Mona with woe.


s: Not one of the band but received his just meed,


s: To dwindle away the whole band was not slow:


s: To Callaghyn-doo, and to Vannyster roam,


s: And call on the Colcad till hoarse ye become;


s: Gone, gone is the name so well known long ago:


s: A cripple was Robin for many years long,


s: Who troubled and bullied the island when strong;


s: His own friends of tending him weary did grow:


s: Sly Richard took ship with thy blood on his hand,


s: But God can avenge on the sea as on land;


s: The waves would not bear him, but whelm’d him, I trow:


s: And now, if a few of the seed do remain,


s: They’re vile as the thistles and briars of the plain;


s: They ply for their neighbours the pick and the hoe:


s: Should ye walk through all Man you’ll find no one, I reckon,


s: To mourn for the name that was once in Beemachan;


s: But thousands of poor who rejoice that ’tis low:


s: Thy murder, Brown William, fills Mona with woe.


s: Proceed to Creganyn, and Balla-logh green,


s: But where’s there a Colcad to bid ye walk in?


s: By strangers their homes and their lands are held now:


s: Great Scarlett, in wealth who dwelt down by the bay,


s: Must toil now with paupers for sixpence a-day;


s: And oft, as I’ve heard, has no morsel to chew:


s: The band by whose weapons the great Cæsar died


s: Were hunted by foes, and all peace were denied;


s: Not one died the death of kind Nature, O, no!


s: So it fared with the band by whom Willie did die,


s: Their lands are a waste, their names stink to the sky;


s: They melted like rime in the ruddy sun’s glow:


s: But comfort I take, for ’tis common report


s: There are shoots of dear Will who are sitting at court,


s: Who have punished his foes by king’s mandate, although


s: O, ’tis pleasant to think, when one’s wither’d and grey,


s: There’s race of Brown William in fair Ronaldsway,


s: That his foemen are crush’d, and their faces can’t show,


s: While the clan of Christeen have no trouble or woe. {10}


s: To the counsellors false, both in church and in state,


s: Bear the public of Mona both loathing and hate,


s: Who set man against man, and the peace would break now,


s: As thy murder, Brown William, broke hearts long ago.


s: The lord of our island, Duke Athol the great,


s: They would gladly persuade, with their parle and their prate,


s: The corner-stones high of his house to lay low,


s: And to King, Duke and Mona are foemen, I trow.


s: Sir Peter would forth from the castle ride,


s: Grieving and weeping did sit his young bride.


s: _Belov’d of my heart_, _wherefore sorrowest thou so_?


s: “Art grieving for saddle, or steed black or white,


s: Or because I have wed thee art thou in this plight?”


s: “I grieve not for saddle, or steed black or white,


s: Nor because thou hast wed me am I in this plight.”


s: “Dost sorrow because little wealth I have got,


s: Or dost sorrow because thine equal I’m not?”


s: “I sorrow not because little of wealth thou hast got,


s: Nor grieve I because thou mine equal art not.”


s: “Dost sorrow because thy fond father is dead,


s: Or dost sorrow because thou’rt no longer a maid?”


s: “I grieve not because my dear father is dead,


s: Nor sorrow I because that I am not a maid.”


s: “I grieve and I weep, and to grieve I have need,


s: I know but too well what for me is decreed.”


s: “For the bridge, the broad bridge, I sorrow much more,


s: For oh! my five sisters together fell o’er.”


s: _Belov’d of my heart_, _wherefore sorrowest thou so_?


s: “I think of the stream, and I sorrow much more,


s: My sisters sank in it and never rose more.”


s: “My dearest, my dearest, cast sorrow aside,


s: Before thee shall twelve of my merry men ride.”


s: “Before thee shall twelve of my merry men speed,


s: And I will myself hold the reins of thy steed.”


s: And when they arrived in the green forest shade


s: A hart they beheld at gold tables that played.


s: All stopped at the strange brown hart to take heed,


s: And allowed the young bride by herself to proceed.


s: And as the broad bridge she went galloping o’er,


s: Stumbled her steed on his golden shoes four.


s: Golden shoes four, each with golden nails three,


s: And the bride was cast into the boiling sea.


s: Sir Peter he turned at her terrified cry,


s: But the bride she had sunk ’neath the waters high.


s: _Belov’d of my heart_, _wherefore sorrowest thou so_?


s: He called to his men as their hands they wring:


s: “Bring quickly my harp with the golden string!”


s: Sir Peter began with such sweetness to play,


s: That the birds all sang as they sat on the spray.


s: The Merman rose from the depths of the sea,


s: And the fair young bride by the hand led he.


s: “Sir Peter, Sir Peter, thy playing give o’er,


s: Thy beautiful bride to thy arms I restore.”


s: “For my bonny bride only I will not give o’er,


s: Her five sisters also thou must restore.”


s: That the birds came down from their seat on the spray.


s: The Merman arose from the depth of the sea,


s: For in truth have I now no maidens more.”


s: In the arm of Sir Peter each night sleeps she.


s: “Thou knowest I brought thee as my dower


s: “Two filled with sable and mard skins rare,


s: “To thy brother a ship from off the wave,


s: To your sister gold from my breast I gave.


s: “If my brothers a deed so dire did dare,


s: “And thou for thy father’s death wast paid


s: “What more, my Lord, canst thou require,


s: “To-day thou shall sit within and mourn,


s: There she sits and her hands she wrings,


s: Till she heard the clang of the Raven’s wings.


s: Can’st thou the tune of the watchman sing?”


s: So little was I when the tune I caught.”


s: “I’ll give thee, Raven, a red gold band,


s: “Here art thou sitting and drinking wine,


s: To-morrow they’ll burn sweet sister thine.”


s: He viewed the brown, and the gray as well,


s: “Blacklille, Blacklille, if me thou’lt bear,


s: Thou on winnowed wheat all thy days shalt fare.”


s: “Then willingly, willingly, thee I’ll bear,


s: But to breathe my name thou must not dare.”


s: He placed himself Blacklille’s back upon,


s: And when to the midst of the Sound they came,


s: He in evil hour uttered Blacklille’s name.


s: On the Ting stood the damsel at break of day,


s: Then heard she afar off Blacklille neigh.


s: Blacklille ran towards the Ting in wrath,


s: Back scattered both women and men from his path.


s: Blacklille he kicked, the Raven he hewed,


s: With the blood of men was his beak embrued.


s: Black took on his back the fair young dame,


s: He went from the Ting and with her was tame.


s: “Welcome, sweet Kirsten, dear sister mine,


s: Is because I’ve far from my dear home been.”


s: “My darling sister, pray sorrow no more.


s: “I’ve saved thee by shedding human blood.


s: On their mouths she kissed them both with glee—


s: From hideous thrall were they both set free.


s: She kissed them both with good will, I ween,


s: They changed to her brothers who lost had been.


s: They all pressed her fondly to their breast,


s: As one day I wandered lonely, in extreme distress of mind,


s: I a pleasant garden entered, hoping comfort there to find.


s: Up and down I paced the garden till an open space I spied,


s: There I saw a crowd of people, and I heard a voice that cried:


s: “Come and see what Love is doing, here is Love performing more


s: Hearing this at once I entered ’midst the crowd collected there,


s: Some of whom no doubt were eager like myself to banish care.


s: I would fain behold this being, this same wondrous lad survey,


s: Who ’twas said in each encounter bore with ease the prize away.


s: Quickly I the crowd divided, soon I pierced the multitude,


s: Rather roguish were his glances, but how lovely was his face!


s: Soon as I beheld this warrior gibings I began to throw


s: At the wretches who had suffered fell defeat from such a foe.


s: Then, to me his visage turning, of the conquered standing by


s: One replied, and in replying tears he shed abundantly:


s: Every kind of evil treatment such as no one can endure.”


s: When these words I heard him utter I was filled with bitter rage,


s: “Hearken, Master Love,” I shouted, “from this spot stir not away,


s: That it may be known for certain which is strongest of us two.”


s: Then into the arena bounding there I stood in all men’s view,


s: In the midst of it expecting firm the onset of the foe,


s: Doubting not should he attack me him at once to overthrow.


s: Love he was not slow to follow with a blythe and joyous air,


s: Crying out, “My dearest fellow, for the fight yourself prepare!


s: Then around the waist I clasped him, he his arms around me wound,


s: Very much fatigued and weary, really friend just fit to die.


s: Then a blast of wild consuming fire he breathed into my breast,


s: Such a zest he has for conflict, in such fray is his delight.


s: As for me I fell half senseless on the fatal, fatal spot,


s: Fierce consuming fire within me, never sure was one so hot.


s: Rising up I followed shrieking, “Oh have mercy, Love, on me!


s: See my tears, my sad affliction, cure me of my misery!”


s: Thus he cried, and proudly left me, and wherever now I rove,


s: I reproach myself for thinking I could vanquish mighty Love.


s: Printed for THOMAS J. WISE, Hampstead, N.W.


s: And straight I shot the King’s Kempions twelve,


s: And into the heart of the King’s liege-man


s: There was nothing for me but to hasten and flee,


s: I’d nothing to eat in that dark retreat,


s: No bed-fellows crept to the place where I slept,


s: The King of the Swedes his followers leads,


s: Now lies on the ground the Swedish King,


s: And the blood from his death-wound showers;


s: So blythe is my breast, though still I must rest


s: Till Death I’ll prize and bless the eyes


s: With the leaves of the myrtle I’ll cover my brand,


s: When the tyrant they slew, and their dear native land


s: They caused with just laws to be governed once more.


s: O, beloved Harmodius! thou still art not dead,


s: In the Isles of the Blest thou still livest, they say;


s: Where the swift-heel’d Achilles and bold Diomed


s: Through sweet flowery meadows continually stray.


s: With the leaves of the myrtle I’ll cover my blade,


s: Who, whilst the high rites to Athena were paid,


s: The bold tyrant Hipparchus extended in gore.


s: And on earth ever, ever your glory shall glow,


s: Because ye the damnable tyrant laid low,


s: And restored to your country her law and her right.


s: Thy bed shall be the leaves heaped high,


s: The floor with grass and flowers is gay!


s: On Taf’s green banks than Teivi’s bounds;


s: Ah! better here, in love’s sweet thrall,


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! thy turrets are tall,


s: Descried from their top is the oncoming foe;


s: Though numerous the warriors that watch on thy wall,


s: Thy hope and thy trust are in Grasach Abo.


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! thy chieftains abound


s: With courage no dangers can ever lay low;


s: In the day of the fight can their equals be found,


s: When is roared to the heaven’s heights Grasach Abo?


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! brave helps thou hast nigh,


s: Will rise at thy summons full quickly I trow;


s: The Shortuls, Roothes, Shees, clans so mighty and high,


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! thy banner shall bound


s: Blood red in the winds o’er the battle that blow;


s: When thy lion so gallant breathes terror around,


s: And thy soldiers are shouting out Grasach Abo.


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! thy armoury boasts


s: The arms of great chiefs on the wall in a row;


s: Gilliepatrick let fall, and O More of the hosts,


s: When they ran in red rout before Grasach Abo.


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! when blazed the bright swords,


s: Thy sons gave the Butlers a signal o’erthrow;


s: When Desmond was scattered with all his dark hordes,


s: He loathed the wild war whoop of Grasach Abo.


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! thou needest no aid


s: Of strangers the day when the blood torrents flow;


s: The Brennaghs, Powrs, Parcels with buckler and blade,


s: Shall triumph and feast with the Grasach Abo.


s: O, Baillie Na Cortie! thy bards hope to praise


s: Thee, thee through long ages undarkened with woe;


s: And him, thy brave chieftain, his bountiful ways,


s: And the heroes who bleed for the Grasach Abo.


s: Green as the leaves which deck the tree,


s: These were the words the voice proffer’d


s: O, would that with last and shoe I had stay’d,


s: Each Saturday night, when slept the rest,


s: To the forest, so murky and drear, in quest


s: And down to the earth my wishing-rod low


s: I dug then, and gripped the chest’s ring amain,


s: But the copper deceitful burst in twain,


s: Just, just as long was the treasure my own,


s: But soon as I held it secure, down, down


s: And ne’er more in Satan I trust will lay,


s: The fisherman saddleth his good winged horse,


s: To be on the deep seems to him his best course.


s: Against the white strand loud and hoarse the wave breaks,


s: And towards the strand now the fisherman makes.


s: And up when the fisher his fishing-line drew,


s: A fine golden fish on the hook met his view.


s: Then he laughed in his beard: “I’ve of fish seen a store,


s: But ne’er one with golden cloth kirtle before.


s: “If I a gold piece for each gold-scale possess’d,


s: With poverty I should no more be distrest.”


s: With its tail the fish ’gan the bench furious to smite,


s: And a strange dance it seemed to the fisherman’s sight.


s: “Thou wealthy man, be not, I pray thee, so gay,


s: A much quieter part a poor fisher should play.”


s: The golden fish heard every word as it lay,


s: Began straight to talk and discourse in this way:—


s: “I’m full as rich, fisherman, as thou art poor,


s: And soon for thee happiness I will procure.


s: “Straight cast me again in the ocean my home,


s: And a well-doing man thou, I swear, shalt become.


s: “The Queen of the ocean my mother is, know,


s: She linen and bolsters on thee shall bestow.


s: “My father is King in the depths of the sea,


s: And healthy and strong he shall cause thee to be.


s: “My lover he sorrows for me in the brine,


s: My golden cloth kirtle shall also be thine.”


s: “For the sovereign of fishes I care not a straw,


s: On myself, if I did, I but laughter should draw.


s: “For thy mother’s fine cushions I care little more,


s: My own Queen could make better ware any hour.


s: “But if thou to a wooer thy troth didst allot,


s: The repose of two lovers destroy I will not.”


s: The trembling gold fish in the water placed he:


s: “From such wretched captures the Lord preserve me!


s: “If to-morrow a like one upon my hook bite,


s: I shall perish of hunger, poor miserable wight.”


s: He the rest of the day sat at home by his hearth


s: And spake not a word that repeating is worth.


s: He early next morn in his boat his seat took,


s: And straightway adjusted a bait to his hook.


s: And soon as he’d overboard cast the fish-line,


s: The float it descended deep under the brine.


s: Then he laughed in his beard, and with bitterness said:


s: “A catch of another gold fish I have made!”


s: The thin lengthy line he up-drew half unwilling,


s: And, behold! there upon the hook hung a gold shilling.


s: And I can forsooth and for certainty say,


s: That he for delight had no rest the whole day.


s: But as oft as the line he up-drew from the tide,


s: For whene’er for the fish he upon the hook sought,


s: He found that a shilling of gold he had caught.


s: And fresh the down was fraught with dew.


s: The meads were flowering, bright the woods,


s: Which decks with foliage dense the grove,


s: And through all nature breathes of love.


s: “Hush, hush, I’ll not believe thy voice,


s: ’Tis false, O Bird, what thou dost state,


s: “For what thou’st sung within the grove,


s: Printed for THOMAS J. WISE, Hampstead, N.W.


s: And there he meeteth the Dwarf’s daughter,


s: And there he meets the Dwarf’s daughter,


s: Then bloomed the mead, the bough burst forth,


s: “Here sitt’st thou, Daughter of the Dwarf,


s: And plays with gold that round is strewn;


s: Then answered straight the Dwarf’s daughter,


s: But ne’er, Sir Knight, wilt thou gain me.


s: She peeped from out the mountain’s side;


s: “The King of the Dwarfs has wedded thee.


s: But hear what did the wife of the Dwarf:


s: “Much more, Sir Knight, for thee I’ll do,


s: Forth stepped the Daughter of the Dwarf,


s: “Thou ne’er shalt ride through wood so wide


s: Sir Thunye rides in the good green wood,


s: To his mountain home as the Dwarf would ride.


s: “Well met, well met, Sir Thunye the Knight,


s: “Ride on thy way, Sir Thunye the Knight,


s: Nought else than peace thou shalt have from me;


s: Will willingly break a lance with thee.”


s: And there he found nine stalwart knights,


s: Upon their heads their helms were placed,


s: Their good shields glittered before their breasts;


s: By their sides hung down their gilded swords,


s: And their spears hung ready within the rests.


s: The first course that together they rode


s: And their broken spears flew o’er the plain.


s: And again they meet with a crash like thunder;