s: considering the word μαχλοσύνην as un-Homeric. If they are


s: genuine, they furnish the earliest mention of the judgment of


s: Paris. Cf. Mollus on Longus, Past. iii. 27; Intpp. on Hygin. Fab.


s: But her cloud-compelling Jove, answering, addressed:


s: to be that of the traveller Clarke, quoted by Kennedy, as


s: follows: "The Greeks in fishing let their line, with the lead at


s: the end, run over a piece of horn fixed at the side of the boat,"


s: x. 30, 31, merely mentions the μολυβδαίνη among the implements of


s: Her then the silver-footed goddess Thetis answered:


s: "Why does that mighty god call me? I am ashamed to mix with the


s: λιασθείς, _going away, or aside from the pyre_. And so νόσφι


s: λιασθείς, II. α. 349, λ. 80. One of the plainest instances of the


s: the goddesses as they rise from the depths of the sea, which


s: _turn aside_, and yield them a passage."--Buttm. Lexil. p. 404.]


s: that an opportunity might be offered to Achilles of receiving a


s: ransom for it, which would redound to his glory_."--Kennedy.]


s: But her swift-footed Achilles, answering, addressed:


s: "Go quickly, fleet Iris, having left the seat of Olympus, order


s: Thus he spoke; but wind-footed Iris rushed on, about to carry her


s: exhibit the entire contour of his person" (Kennedy), with the


s: Schol. Hesych. t.i.p. 1264. Phavorinus, Suidas, and the Schol. on


s: κεκαλυμμένος est, qui ita adstrinxit vestem, eique se involvit,


s: ut tota corporis figura appareat, quod secus est in toga et


s: Thus he spoke: but his spouse wept, and answered him in words:


s: all respect thee. But let us now lament him apart, sitting in the


s: But her again the aged, godlike Priam addressed:


s: dancers, most skilled in the choirs, and public robbers of lambs


s: Murænam Cato Maledictum est, si vere objicitur, vehementis


s: "Take, offer a libation to father Jove, and pray that thou mayest


s: But her godlike Priam answering, addressed:


s: Thus he spoke, praying; but to him provident Jove hearkened, and


s: Thus he spoke; nor did the messenger, the son of Argus. disobey.


s: Hellespont, and hastened to go, like unto a princely youth, first


s: But him Priam, the godlike old man, then answered:


s: "But who art thou, O best one, and of what parents art thou, who


s: speakest so honourably to me of the death of my luckless son?"


s: But him again the messenger, the slayer of Argus, addressed:


s: But him then Priam, the godlike old man, answered:


s: But him the messenger, the slayer of Argus, again addressed:


s: Thus he spoke; but the old man rejoiced, and answered in words:


s: body," quoting Hesych., ῥύεσθαι, λοτρώσασθαι.]


s: although, as has been before observed, Homer does not mention


s: felicibus aucte Thessaliæ columen Peleu, quoi Juppiter ipse, Ipse


s: But him Priam, the godlike old man, then, answered:


s: But him swift-footed Achilles, sternly regarding, then addressed:


s: "Do not irritate me further, old man, for I also myself meditate


s: Swift Achilles spoke, and leaping up, slew a white sheep, and his


s: serious, reminds Priam of the real circumstances of his


s: situation, not for the sake of alarming him, but of accounting


s: for his choosing the place he did for the couch of the aged


s: But him Priam, the godlike old man, then answered:


s: Thus indeed they performed the funeral of steed-breaking Hector.


s: Coy in my home; as once thy heart was fain


s: Of shelter, when God's terror held thee fast


s: In life's wild wood at Beauty and Sorrow aghast;


s: Thy sainted sense tramme'd in ghostly pain,


s: Thy rare ill-broker'd talent in disdain:


s: Yet love of Christ will win man's love at last.


s: Hell wars without; but, dear, the while my hands


s: Gather'd thy book, I heard, this wintry day,


s: Thy spirit thank me, in his young delight


s: Go forth: amidst our chaffinch flock display


s: Thy plumage of far wonder and heavenward flight!


s: THE poems in this book* (*That is, the MS.


s: described in Editor's preface as B. This


s: preface does not apply to the early poems.)


s: are written some in Running Rhythm, the common


s: rhythm in English use, some in Sprung Rhythm,


s: and some in a mixture of the two. And those in


s: the common rhythm are some counterpointed,


s: Common English rhythm, called Running Rhythm


s: above, is measured by feet of either two or three


s: syllables and (putting aside the imperfect feet at the


s: beginning and end of lines and also some unusual


s: measures, in which feet seem to be paired together and


s: double or composite feet to arise) never more or less.


s: Every foot has one principal stress or accent, and


s: this or the syllable it falls on may be called the Stress


s: of the foot and the other part, the one or two unaccented


s: syllables, the Slack. Feet (and the rhythms made out


s: of them) in which the stress comes first are called


s: Falling Feet and Falling Rhythms, feet and rhythm


s: in which the slack comes first are called Rising Feet


s: and Rhythms, and if the stress is between two slacks


s: there will be Rocking Feet and Rhythms. These


s: distinctions are real and true to nature; but for purposes


s: of scanning it is a great convenience to follow the


s: (2) example of music and take the stress always first, as


s: the accent or the chief accent always comes first in


s: a musical bar. If this is done there will be in common


s: English verse only two possible feet--the so-called


s: accentual Trochee and Dactyl, and correspondingly


s: only two possible uniform rhythms, the so-called


s: Trochaic and Dactylic. But they may be mixed and then


s: what the Greeks called a Logaoedic Rhythm arises.


s: These are the facts and according to these the scanning


s: of ordinary regularly-written English verse is very


s: simple indeed and to bring in other principles is here


s: But because verse written strictly in these feet and


s: by these principles will become same and tame the


s: poets have brought in licences and departures from


s: rule to give variety, and especially when the natural


s: rhythm is rising, as in the common ten-syllable or


s: five-foot verse, rhymed or blank. These irregularities


s: are chiefly Reversed Feet and Reversed or Counterpoint


s: Rhythm, which two things are two steps or degrees


s: of licence in the same kind. By a reversed foot


s: I mean the putting the stress where, to judge by


s: the rest of the measure, the slack should be and the


s: slack where the stress, and this is done freely at the


s: beginning of a line and, in the course of a line, after


s: a pause; only scarcely ever in the second foot or


s: place and never in the last, unless when the poet


s: designs some extraordinary effect; for these places are


s: characteristic and sensitive and cannot well be touched.


s: But the reversal of the first foot and of some middle


s: (3) foot after a strong pause is a thing so natural that


s: our poets have generally done it, from Chaucer down,


s: without remark and it commonly passes unnoticed and


s: cannot be said to amount to a formal change of rhythm,


s: but rather is that irregularity which all natural growth


s: and motion shews. If however the reversal is repeated


s: in two feet running, especially so as to include the


s: sensitive second foot, it must be due either to great


s: want of ear or else is a calculated effect, the super-


s: inducing or mounting of a new rhythm upon the old;


s: and since the new or mounted rhythm is actually heard


s: and at the same time the mind naturally supplies the


s: natural or standard foregoing rhythm, for we do not


s: forget what the rhythm is that by rights we should be


s: hearing, two rhythms are in some manner running at


s: once and we have something answerable to counter-


s: point in music, which is two or more strains of tune


s: going on together, and this is Counterpoint Rhythm.


s: Of this kind of verse Milton is the great master and


s: the choruses of _Samson Agonistes_ are written throughout


s: in it--but with the disadvantage that he does not let


s: the reader clearly know what the ground-rhythm is


s: meant to be and so they have struck most readers as


s: merely irregular. And in fact if you counterpoint


s: throughout, since one only of the counter rhythms is


s: actually heard, the other is really destroyed or cannot


s: come to exist, and what is written is one rhythm only


s: and probably Sprung Rhythm, of which I now speak.


s: Sprung Rhythm, as used in this book, is measured


s: by feet of from one to four syllables, regularly, and for


s: (4) particular effects any number of weak or slack syllables


s: may be used. It has one stress, which falls on the


s: only syllable, if there is only one, or, if there are more,


s: then scanning as above, on the first, and so gives rise to


s: four sorts of feet, a monosyllable and the so-called


s: accentual Trochee, Dactyl, and the First Paeon. And


s: there will be four corresponding natural rhythms; but


s: nominally the feet are mixed and any one may follow


s: any other. And hence Sprung Rhythm differs from


s: Running Rhythm in having or being only one nominal


s: rhythm, a mixed or 'logaoedic' one, instead of three,


s: but on the other hand in having twice the flexibility of


s: foot, so that any two stresses may either follow one


s: another running or be divided by one, two, or three


s: slack syllables. But strict Sprung Rhythm cannot be


s: counterpointed. In Sprung Rhythm, as in logaoedic


s: rhythm generally, the feet are assumed to be equally


s: long or strong and their seeming inequality is made up


s: Remark also that it is natural in Sprung Rhythm for


s: the lines to be _rove over_, that is for the scanning of


s: each line immediately to take up that of the one before,


s: so that if the first has one or more syllables at its end


s: the other must have so many the less at its beginning;


s: and in fact the scanning runs on without break from


s: the beginning, say, of a stanza to the end and all the


s: stanza is one long strain, though written in lines asunder.


s: Two licences are natural to Sprung Rhythm. The


s: one is rests, as in music; but of this an example is


s: scarcely to be found in this book, unless in the _Echos_,


s: (5) second line. The other is _hangers_ or _outrides_ that


s: is one, two, or three slack syllables added to a foot and


s: not counting in the nominal scanning. They are so


s: called because they seem to hang below the line or


s: ride forward or backward from it in another dimension


s: than the line itself, according to a principle needless to


s: explain here. These outriding half feet or hangers are


s: marked by a loop underneath them, and plenty of them


s: The other marks are easily understood, namely


s: accents, where the reader might be in doubt which


s: syllable should have the stress; slurs, that is loops


s: _over_ syllables, to tie them together into the time of


s: one; little loops at the end of a line to shew that the


s: rhyme goes on to the first letter of the next line;


s: what in music are called pauses, to shew that the


s: syllable should be dwelt on; and twirls, to mark


s: Note on the nature and history of Sprung Rhythm--


s: Sprung Rhythm is the most natural of things. For


s: (1) it is the rhythm of common speech and of written


s: prose, when rhythm is perceived in them. (2) It is the


s: rhythm of all but the most monotonously regular music,


s: so that in the words of choruses and refrains and in


s: songs written closely to music it arises. (3) It is


s: found in nursery rhymes, weather saws, and so on;


s: because, however these may have been once made in


s: running rhythm, the terminations having dropped off by


s: the change of language, the stresses come together and


s: so the rhythm is sprung. (4) It arises in common


s: (6) verse when reversed or counterpointed, for the same


s: But nevertheless in spite of all this and though Greek


s: and Latin lyric verse, which is well known, and the old


s: English verse seen in _Pierce Ploughman_ are in sprung


s: rhythm, it has in fact ceased to be used since the


s: Elizabethan age, Greene being the last writer who can


s: be said to have recognised it. For perhaps there was


s: not, down to our days, a single, even short, poem in


s: English in which sprung rhythm is employed not for


s: single effects or in fixed places but as the governing


s: principle of the scansion. I say this because the


s: contrary has been asserted: if it is otherwise the poem


s: Some of the sonnets in this book* (*See previous note.)


s: are in five-foot, some in six-foot or Alexandrine lines.


s: Nos. 13 and 22 are Curtal-Sonnets, that is they are


s: constructed in proportions resembling those of the


s: sonnet proper, namely 6 + 4 instead of 8 + 6, with


s: however a halfline tailpiece (so that the equation is


s: Sweet flowers I carry,--sweets for bitter.


s: But these were found in the East and South


s: These drops: which be they? stars or dew?


s: To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail


s: Nostrils, your careless breath that spend


s: Thou hast bound bones and veins in me, fastened me flesh,


s: And after it almost unmade, what with dread,


s: Thy doing: and dost thou touch me afresh?


s: Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.


s: Thou heardst me truer than tongue confess


s: Thou knowest the walls, altar and hour and night:


s: The swoon of a heart that the sweep and the hurl of thee trod


s: Behind, where, where was a, where was a place?


s: And fled with a fling of the heart to the heart of the Host.


s: My heart, but you were dovewinged, I can tell,


s: To flash from the flame to the flame then, tower from the grace


s: I steady as a water in a well, to a poise, to a pane,


s: But roped with, always, all the way down from the tall


s: Of the gospel proffer, a pressure, a principle, Christ's gift.


s: Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west:


s: Since, tho' he is under the world's splendour and wonder,


s: His mystery must be instressed, stressed;


s: For I greet him the days I meet him, and bless when I understand.


s: Nor first from heaven (and few know this)


s: Stroke and a stress that stars and storms deliver,


s: That guilt is hushed by, hearts are flushed by and melt--


s: (And here the faithful waver, the faithless fable and miss),


s: The dense and the driven Passion, and frightful sweat;


s: Thence the discharge of it, there its swelling to be,


s: Though felt before, though in high flood yet--


s: Word last! How a lush-kept plush-capped sloe


s: Gush!--flush the man, the being with it, sour or sweet,


s: Brim, in a flash, full!--Hither then, last or first,


s: Never ask if meaning it, wanting it, warned of it--men go.


s: Beyond saying sweet, past telling of tongue,


s: Thou art lightning and love, I found it, a winter and warm;


s: Father and fondler of heart thou hast wrung:


s: Hast thy dark descending and most art merciful then.


s: Or rather, rather then, stealing as Spring


s: Through him, melt him but master him still:


s: Whether at once, as once at a crash Paul,


s: Or as Austin, a lingering-out sweet skill,


s: Mastery, but be adored, but be adored King.


s: But wé dream we are rooted in earth--Dust!


s: Flesh falls within sight of us, we, though our flower the same,


s: Wave with the meadow, forget that there must


s: The sour scythe cringe, and the blear share come.


s: Take settler and seamen, tell men with women,


s: O Father, not under thy feathers nor ever as guessing


s: The goal was a shoal, of a fourth the doom to be drowned;


s: Yet did the dark side of the bay of thy blessing


s: Not vault them, the million of rounds of thy mercy not reeve


s: The Deutschland, on Sunday; and so the sky keeps,


s: And the sea flint-flake, black-backed in the regular blow,


s: Sitting Eastnortheast, in cursed quarter, the wind;


s: Wiry and white-fiery and whirlwind-swivellèd snow


s: Spins to the widow-making unchilding unfathering deeps.


s: But the combs of a smother of sand: night drew her


s: And she beat the bank down with her bows and the ride of


s: The breakers rolled on her beam with ruinous shock;


s: And canvas and compass, the whorl and the wheel


s: Idle for ever to waft her or wind her with, these she endured.


s: And frightful a nightfall folded rueful a day


s: Nor rescue, only rocket and lightship, shone,


s: To the shrouds they took,--they shook in the hurling and


s: With a rope's end round the man, handy and brave--


s: For all his dreadnought breast and braids of thew:


s: They could tell him for hours, dandled the to and fro


s: Through the cobbled foam-fleece, what could he do


s: (Crushed them) or water (and drowned them) or rolled


s: Night roared, with the heart-break hearing a heart-broke rabble,


s: The woman's wailing, the crying of child without check--


s: Till a lioness arose breasting the babble,


s: A prophetess towered in the tumult, a virginal tongue told.


s: Have you! make words break from me here all alone,


s: O unteachably after evil, but uttering truth,


s: Why, tears! is it? tears; such a melting, a madrigal start!


s: Never-eldering revel and river of youth,


s: What can it be, this glee? the good you have there of your own?


s: And the inboard seas run swirling and bawling;


s: Blinds her; but she that weather sees one thing, one;


s: Has one fetch in her: she rears herself to divine


s: (O Deutschland, double a desperate name!


s: But Gertrude, lily, and Luther, are two of a town,


s: Christ's lily and beast of the waste wood:


s: Abel is Cain's brother and breasts they have sucked the same.)


s: Rhine refused them. Thames would ruin them;


s: Gnashed: but thou art above, thou Orion of light;


s: Thy unchancelling poising palms were weighing the worth,


s: Storm flakes were scroll-leaved flowers, lily showers--sweet


s: But he scores it in scarlet himself on his own bespoken,


s: Before-time-taken, dearest prizèd and priced--


s: For lettering of the lamb's fleece, ruddying of the rose-flake.


s: With the gnarls of the nails in thee, niche of the lance, his


s: And seal of his seraph-arrival! and these thy daughters


s: And five-livèd and leavèd favour and pride,


s: She to the black-about air, to the breaker, the thickly


s: Falling flakes, to the throng that catches and quails,


s: Was calling 'O Christ, Christ come quickly':


s: Is it love in her of the being as her lover had been?


s: They were else-minded then, altogether, the men


s: The keener to come at the comfort for feeling the combating keen?


s: Hovers off, the jay-blue heavens appearing


s: Blue-beating and hoary-glow height; or night, still higher,


s: With belled fire and the moth-soft Milky Way,


s: What by your measure is the heaven of desire,


s: The treasure never eyesight got, nor was ever guessed what for


s: Time's tasking, it is fathers that asking for ease


s: Not danger, electrical horror; then further it finds


s: The appealing of the Passion is tenderer in prayer apart:


s: Burden, in wind's burly and beat of endragonèd seas.


s: Strike you the sight of it? look at it loom there,


s: Thing that she ... there then! the Master,


s: _Ipse_, the only one, Christ, King, Head:


s: He was to cure the extremity where he had cast her;


s: Let him ride, her pride, in his triumph, despatch and have done


s: Wording it how but by him that present and past,


s: Heaven and earth are word of, worded by?--


s: Tarpeian-fast, but a blown beacon of light.


s: For so conceived, so to conceive thee is done;


s: But here was heart-throe, birth of a brain,


s: Word, that heard and kept thee and uttered thee outright.


s: Well, she has thee for the pain, for the


s: Heart, go and bleed at a bitterer vein for the


s: No not uncomforted: lovely-felicitous Providence


s: The recurb and the recovery of the gulfs sides,


s: The girth of it and the wharf of it and the wall;


s: Stanching, quenching ocean of a motionable mind;


s: Ground of being, and granite of it: past all


s: Death with a sovereignty that heeds but hides, bodes but abides;


s: For the listener; for the lingerer with a love glides


s: A vein for the visiting of the past-prayer, pent in prison,


s: The-last-breath penitent spirits--the uttermost mark


s: The Christ of the Father compassionate, fetched in the storm of


s: The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden-furled


s: Mid-numbered He in three of the thunder-throne!


s: Not a dooms-day dazzle in his coming nor dark as he came;


s: Remember us in the roads, the heaven-haven of the


s: Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us,


s: More brightening her, rare-dear Britain, as his reign rolls,


s: Pride, rose, prince, hero of us, high-priest,


s: WHO long for rest, who look for pleasure


s: You'll dare the Alp? you'll dart the skiff?--


s: Each sport has here its tackle and tool:


s: And sheep-flock clouds like worlds of wool.


s: The Mawddach, how she trips! though throttled


s: When grey showers gather and gusts are cool?--


s: Furred snows, charged tuft above tuft, tower


s: Then come who pine for peace or pleasure


s: Spend here your measure of time and treasure


s: To James First Bishop of Shrewsbury on the 25th Year


s: THE world is charged with the grandeur of God.


s: It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;


s: It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil


s: Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?


s: Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;


s: And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with


s: And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:


s: Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.


s: And for all this, nature is never spent;


s: There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;


s: And though the last lights off the black West went


s: Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--


s: World broods with warm breast and with ah!


s: LOOK at the stars! look, look up at the skies!


s: O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!


s: The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!


s: Down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves'-eyes!


s: The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies!


s: Wind-beat whitebeam! airy abeles set on a flare!


s: Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare!--


s: Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.


s: Buy then! bid then!--What?--Prayer, patience, alms,


s: Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs!


s: Look! March-bloom, like on mealed-with-yellow


s: These are indeed the barn; withindoors house


s: The shocks. This piece-bright paling shuts the spouse


s: Christ home, Christ and his mother and all his hallows.


s: When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;


s: Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush


s: Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring


s: The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;


s: The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush


s: The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush


s: With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.


s: What is all this juice and all this joy?


s: A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning


s: In Eden garden. Have, get, before it cloy,


s: Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,


s: Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,


s: Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the


s: SOMETIMES a lantern moves along the night,


s: That interests our eyes. And who goes there?


s: I think; where from and bound, I wonder, where,


s: With, all down darkness wide, his wading light?


s: In mould or mind or what not else makes rare:


s: They rain against our much-thick and marsh air


s: Rich beams, till death or distance buys them quite.


s: Death or distance soon consumes them: wind


s: What most I may eye after, be in at the end


s: I cannot, and out of sight is out of mind.


s: Christ minds: Christ's interest, what to avow or amend


s: There, éyes them, heart wánts, care haúnts, foot


s: Their ránsom, théir rescue, ánd first, fást, last friénd.


s: ON ear and ear two noises too old to end


s: Trench--right, the tide that ramps against the shore;


s: With a flood or a fall, low lull-off or all roar,


s: Frequenting there while moon shall wear and wend.


s: Left hand, off land, I hear the lark ascend,


s: His rash-fresh re-winded new-skeinèd score


s: In crisps of curl off wild winch whirl, and pour


s: And pelt music, till none's to spill nor spend.


s: How these two shame this shallow and frail town!


s: How ring right out our sordid turbid time,


s: Being pure! We, life's pride and cared-for crown,


s: Have lost that cheer and charm of earth's past prime:


s: Our make and making break, are breaking, down


s: To man's last dust, drain fast towards man's first slime.


s: I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king-


s: dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Fal-


s: Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and


s: High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing


s: In his ecstacy! then off, off forth on swing,


s: As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend:


s: Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding


s: Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the


s: Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here


s: Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a


s: Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!


s: No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down


s: Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,


s: Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.


s: For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;


s: For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim:


s: Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;


s: Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and


s: And àll tràdes, their gear and tackle and trim.


s: All things counter, original, spare, strange;


s: Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)


s: With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;


s: He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:


s: SUMMER ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the


s: Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely


s: Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier


s: Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?


s: I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,


s: Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our


s: And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a


s: Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?


s: And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding


s: Majestic--as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!--


s: These things, these things were here and but the


s: And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off


s: As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage


s: Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house,


s: That bird beyond the remembering his free fells;


s: This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age.


s: Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage,


s: Both sing sometimes the sweetest, sweetest spells,


s: Yet both droop deadly sometimes in their cells


s: Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage.


s: Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest--


s: Why, hear him, hear him babble and drop down to his nest,


s: Man's spirit will be flesh-bound when found at best,


s: But uncumbered: meadow-down is not distressed


s: For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bónes rísen.


s: To me, God knows, deserving no such thing:


s: Comforting smell breathed at very entering,


s: Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood.


s: That cordial air made those kind people a hood


s: All over, as a bevy of eggs the mothering wing


s: Will, or mild nights the new morsels of spring:


s: Why, it seemed of course; seemed of right it should.


s: Lovely the woods, waters, meadows, combes, vales,


s: All the air things wear that build this world of Wales;


s: God, lover of souls, swaying considerate scales,


s: Complete thy creature dear O where it fails,


s: Being mighty a master, being a father and fond.


s: THE Eurydice--it concerned thee, O Lord:


s: Felled and furled them, the hearts of oak!


s: For did she pride her, freighted fully, on


s: She had come from a cruise, training seamen--


s: Bright sun lanced fire in the heavenly bay;


s: A beetling baldbright cloud thorough England


s: Riding: there did storms not mingle? and


s: Heavengravel? wolfsnow, worlds of it, wind there?


s: Now Carisbrook keep goes under in gloom;


s: Too proud, too proud, what a press she bore!


s: As half she had righted and hoped to rise


s: Raced down decks, round messes of mortals.


s: 'All hands for themselves' the cry ran then;


s: Was around them, bound them or wound them with her.


s: Kept to her--care-drowned and wrapped in


s: His charge through the champ-white water-in-a-wallow.


s: All under Channel to bury in a beach her


s: 'Her commander! and thou too, and thou this way.'


s: It is even seen, time's something server,


s: Doffs all, drives full for righteousness.


s: Now her afterdraught gullies him too down;


s: Now he wrings for breath with the deathgush brown;


s: Now he shoots short up to the round air;


s: A schooner sights, with another, and saves,


s: He has lost count what came next, poor boy.--


s: Look, foot to forelock, how all things suit! he


s: Is strung by duty, is strained to beauty,


s: So at home, time was, to his truth and grace


s: That a starlight-wender of ours would say


s: Wept, wife; wept, sweetheart would be one:


s: Yet shed what tears sad truelove should.


s: Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes


s: This ecstacy all through mothering earth


s: Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth


s: MY aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,


s: Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,


s: On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding


s: After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.


s: Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-


s: The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and


s: Once encounter in, here coped and poisèd powers;


s: Thou hast a base and brickish skirt there, sours


s: That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded


s: Best in; graceless growth, thou hast confounded


s: Rural rural keeping--folk, flocks, and flowers.


s: He lived on; these weeds and waters, these walls are what


s: He haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace;


s: Of realty the rarest-veinèd unraveller; a not


s: Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece;


s: _The poet wishes well to the divine genius of Purcell


s: and praises him that, whereas other musicians have given


s: utterance to the moods of man's mind, he has, beyond


s: that, uttered in notes the very make and species of man as


s: created both in him and in all men generally._


s: HAVE fair fallen, O fair, fair have fallen, so dear


s: To me, so arch-especial a spirit as heaves in Henry Purcell,


s: An age is now since passed, since parted; with the reversal


s: Of the outward sentence low lays him, listed to a heresy,


s: Not mood in him nor meaning, proud fire or sacred fear,


s: Or love or pity or all that sweet notes not his might nursle:


s: It is the forgèd feature finds me; it is the rehearsal


s: Of own, of abrupt self there so thrusts on, so throngs


s: Let him Oh! with his air of angels then lift me, lay me!


s: Have an eye to the sakes of him, quaint moonmarks, to


s: Wings: so some great stormfowl, whenever he has walked


s: The thunder-purple seabeach plumè purple-of-thunder,


s: If a wuthering of his palmy snow-pinions scatter a


s: Off him, but meaning motion fans fresh our wits with


s: WHEN will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,


s: Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?


s: When, when, Peacè, will you, Peace? I'll not play


s: To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but


s: That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace


s: Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?


s: O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu


s: Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,


s: That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here


s: He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,


s: A BUGLER boy from barrack (it is over the hill


s: There)--boy bugler, born, he tells me, of Irish


s: Shares their best gifts surely, fall how things will),


s: This very very day came down to us after a boon he on


s: My late being there begged of me, overflowing


s: Came, I say, this day to it--to a First Communion.


s: Forth Christ from cupboard fetched, how fain I of feet


s: Low-latched in leaf-light housel his too huge godhead.


s: There! and your sweetest sendings, ah divine,


s: By it, heavens, befall him! as a heart Christ's darling,


s: Breathing bloom of a chastity in mansex fine.


s: Squander the hell-rook ranks sally to molest him;


s: Dress his days to a dexterous and starlight order.


s: How it dóes my heart good, visiting at that bleak hill,


s: When limber liquid youth, that to all I teach


s: Hies headstrong to its wellbeing of a self-wise self-will!


s: Then though I should tread tufts of consolation


s: Just such slips of soldiery Christ's royal ration.


s: Nothing élse is like it, no, not all so strains


s: Us: fresh youth fretted in a bloomfall all portending


s: Realm both Christ is heir to and thére réigns.


s: O now well work that sealing sacred ointment!


s: O for now charms, arms, what bans off bad


s: Let mé though see no more of him, and not disappointment


s: Those sweet hopes quell whose least me quickenings lift.


s: In scarlet or somewhere of some day seeing


s: An our day's God's own Galahad. Though this child's


s: Seems by a divíne doom chánnelled, nor do I cry


s: Disaster there; but may he not rankle and roam


s: That left to the Lord of the Eucharist, I here lie by;


s: Recorded only, I have put my lips on pleas


s: Would brandle adamantine heaven with ride and jar, did


s: Forward-like, but however, and like favourable heaven


s: Her injury's, looks off by both horns of shore,


s: Her flower, her piece of being, doomed dragon's food.


s: Time past she has been attempted and pursued


s: By many blows and banes; but now hears roar


s: A wilder beast from West than all were, more


s: Rife in her wrongs, more lawless, and more lewd.


s: Her Perseus linger and leave her tó her extremes?--


s: His thoughts on her, forsaken that she seems,


s: All while her patience, morselled into pangs,


s: Mounts; then to alight disarming, no one dreams,


s: With Gorgon's gear and barebill, thongs and fangs.


s: SOME candle clear burns somewhere I come by.


s: I muse at how its being puts blissful back


s: With yellowy moisture mild night's blear-all black,


s: Or to-fro tender trambeams truckle at the eye.


s: By that window what task what fingers ply,


s: I plod wondering, a-wanting, just for lack


s: Of answer the eagerer a-wanting Jessy or Jack


s: There   God to aggrándise, God to glorify.--


s: Come you indoors, come home; your fading fire


s: Mend first and vital candle in close heart's vault:


s: You there are master, do your own desire;


s: What hinders? Are you beam-blind, yet to a fault


s: In a neighbour deft-handed? Are you that liar


s: And cast by conscience out, spendsavour salt?


s: 'BUT tell me, child, your choice; what shall I buy


s: You?'--'Father, what you buy me I like best.'


s: With the sweetest air that said, still plied and pressed,


s: He swung to his first poised purport of reply.


s: What the heart is! which, like carriers let fly--


s: Doff darkness, homing nature knows the rest--


s: To its own fine function, wild and self-instressed,


s: Falls light as ten years long taught how to and why.


s: Mannerly-hearted! more than handsome face--


s: Beauty's bearing or muse of mounting vein,


s: All, in this case, bathed in high hallowing grace . . .


s: Of heaven what boon to buy you, boy, or gain


s: Not granted?--Only ... O on that path you pace


s: Run all your race, O brace sterner that strain!


s: FELIX RANDAL the farrier, O he is dead then? my duty all ended,


s: Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-


s: Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some


s: Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?


s: Sickness broke him. Impatient he cursed at first, but mended


s: Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some


s: Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom


s: Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road ever he


s: This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears.


s: My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears,


s: Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal;


s: How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years,


s: When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,


s: Clutched hands down through clasped knees--


s: With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?


s: EARNEST, earthless, equal, attuneable, | vaulty, voluminous, . .


s: Evening strains to be tíme's vást, | womb-of-all, home-of-all,


s: Her fond yellow hornlight wound to the west, | her wild hollow


s: Disremembering, dísmembering | àll now. Heart, you round me


s: With: Óur évening is over us; óur night | whélms, whélms, ánd


s: Only the beak-leaved boughs dragonish | damask the tool-smooth


s: Ever so black on it. Óur tale, óur oracle! | Lét life, wáned,


s: Off hér once skéined stained véined varíety | upon, áll on twó


s: Now her áll in twó flocks, twó folds--black, white; | right,


s: But thése two; wáre of a wórld where bút these | twó tell, each


s: In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam


s: It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.


s: Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,


s: And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.


s: Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,


s: Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.


s: As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;


s: Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's


s: Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;


s: Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:


s: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;


s: Selves--goes itself; _myself_ it speaks and spells,


s: Crying _Whát I do is me: for that I came._


s: Kéeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;


s: Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is--


s: Chríst--for Christ plays in ten thousand places,


s: Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his


s: To the Father through the features of men's faces.


s: EARTH, sweet Earth, sweet landscape, with leavès throng


s: And louchèd low grass, heaven that dost appeal


s: To, with no tongue to plead, no heart to feel;


s: That canst but only be, but dost that long--


s: Thou canst but be, but that thou well dost; strong


s: Thy plea with him who dealt, nay does now deal,


s: Thy lovely dale down thus and thus bids reel


s: Thy river, and o'er gives all to rack or wrong.


s: And what is Earth's eye, tongue, or heart else, where


s: Else, but in dear and dogged man?--Ah, the heir


s: To his own selfbent so bound, so tied to his turn,


s: To thriftless reave both our rich round world bare


s: And none reck of world after, this bids wear


s: Earth brows of such care, care and dear concern.


s: (Maidens' song from St. Winefred's Well)_


s: How to keep--is there ány any, is there none such, nowhere


s: known some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, láce, latch


s: Ó is there no frowning of these wrinkles, rankèd wrinkles deep,


s: Dówn? no waving off of these most mournful messengers, still


s: messengers, sad and stealing messengers of grey?


s: No there's none, there's none, O no there's none,


s: Nor can you long be, what you now are, called fair,


s: Do what you may do, what, do what you may,


s: Be beginning; since, no, nothing can be done


s: Ruck and wrinkle, drooping, dying, death's worst, winding


s: sheets, tombs and worms and tumbling to decay;


s: So be beginning, be beginning to despair.


s: There is one, yes I have one (Hush there!);


s: Not within the singeing of the strong sun,


s: Óne. Yes I can tell such a key, I do know such a place,


s: Where whatever's prized and passes of us, everything that's


s: fresh and fast flying of us, seems to us sweet of us and


s: swiftly away with, done away with, undone,


s: Undone, done with, soon done with, and yet dearly and


s: Of us, the wimpled-water-dimpled, not-by-morning-matchèd face,


s: To its own best being and its loveliness of youth: it is an ever-


s: Come then, your ways and airs and looks, locks, maiden gear,


s: Winning ways, airs innocent, maiden manners, sweet looks,


s: loose locks, long locks, lovelocks, gaygear, going gallant,


s: Resign them, sign them, seal them, send them, motion them


s: And with sighs soaring, soaring síghs deliver


s: Them; beauty-in-the-ghost, deliver it, early now, long before


s: Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty's


s: Nay, what we had lighthanded left in surly the mere mould


s: Will have waked and have waxed and have walked with the wind


s: This side, that side hurling a heavyheaded hundredfold


s: O then, weary then whý should we tread? O why are we so


s: When the thing we freely fórfeit is kept with fonder a care,


s: Fonder a care kept than we could have kept it, kept


s: Yonder.--What high as that! We follow, now we follow.--


s: The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we


s: To what serves mortal beauty | dangerous; does set danc-


s: ing blood the O-seal-that-so | feature, flung prouder form


s: Than Purcell tune lets tread to? | See: it does this: keeps warm


s: Those lovely lads once, wet-fresh | windfalls of war's storm,


s: To man, that needs would worship | block or barren stone,


s: Our law says: Love what are | love's worthiest, were all known;


s: Home at heart, heaven's sweet gift; | then leave, let that alone.


s: YES. Whý do we áll, seeing of a soldier, bless him? bless


s: Our redcoats, our tars? Both these being, the greater part,


s: But frail clay, nay but foul clay. Here it is: the heart,


s: Since, proud, it calls the calling manly, gives a guess


s: That, hopes that, makesbelieve, the men must be no less;


s: It fancies, feigns, deems, dears the artist after his art;


s: And fain will find as sterling all as all is smart,


s: And scarlet wear the spirit of wár thére express.


s: Mark Christ our King. He knows war, served this soldiering


s: He of all can handle a rope best. There he bides in bliss


s: Now, and séeing somewhére some mán do all that man can do,


s: For love he leans forth, needs his neck must fall on, kiss,


s: And cry 'O Christ-done deed! So God-made-flesh does too:


s: Were I come o'er again' cries Christ 'it should be this'.


s: NOT, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;


s: Not untwist--slack they may be--these last strands of man


s: In me ór, most weary, cry _I can no more_. I can;


s: Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.


s: But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me


s: Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against


s: With darksome devouring eyes my bruisèd bones? and fan,


s: O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to


s: Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer


s: Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,


s: Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy,


s: Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling


s: Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each


s: Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my


s: No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,


s: More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.


s: Comforter, where, where is your comforting?


s: Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?


s: My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief


s: Woe, world-sorrow; on an age-old anvil wince and sing--


s: Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked 'No ling-


s: ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief'.


s: O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall


s: Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap


s: May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small


s: Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,


s: Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all


s: Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.


s: TOM--garlanded with squat and surly steel


s: Tom; then Tom's fallowbootfellow piles pick


s: Tom Heart-at-ease, Tom Navvy: he is all for his meal


s: Sure, 's bed now. Low be it: lustily he his low lot (feel


s: That ne'er need hunger, Tom; Tom seldom sick,


s: Seldomer heartsore; that treads through, prickproof,


s: Thousands of thorns, thoughts) swings though. Common-


s: Little I reck ho! lacklevel in, if all had bread:


s: What! Country is honour enough in all us--lordly head,


s: With heaven's lights high hung round, or, mother-ground


s: That mammocks, mighty foot. But no way sped,


s: Nor mind nor mainstrength; gold go garlanded


s: With, perilous, O nó; nor yet plod safe shod sound;


s: Of earth's glory, earth's ease, all; no one, nowhere,


s: In wide the world's weal; rare gold, bold steel, bare


s: This, by Despair, bred Hangdog dull; by Rage,


s: Manwolf, worse; and their packs infest the age.


s: HARD as hurdle arms, with a broth of goldish flue


s: Breathed round; the rack of ribs; the scooped flank; lank


s: Rope-over thigh; knee-nave; and barrelled shank--


s: By a grey eye's heed steered well, one crew, fall to;


s: Stand at stress. Each limb's barrowy brawn, his thew


s: That onewhere curded, onewhere sucked or sank--


s: Though as a beechbole firm, finds his, as at a roll-


s: And features, in flesh, what deed he each must do--


s: He leans to it, Harry bends, look. Back, elbow, and


s: In him, all quail to the wallowing o' the plough:


s: Wag or crossbridle, in a wind lifted, windlaced--


s: Churlsgrace, too, child of Amansstrength, how it hangs


s: Them--broad in bluff hide his frowning feet lashed! raced


s: With, along them, cragiron under and cold furls--


s: To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life


s: Among strangèrs. Father and mother dear,


s: Brothers and sisters are in Christ not near


s: And he my peace my parting, sword and strife.


s: England, whose honour O all my heart woos, wife


s: To my creating thought, would neither hear


s: Me, were I pleading, plead nor do I: I wear-


s: y of idle a being but by where wars are rife.


s: I am in Ireland now; now I am at a thírd


s: Kind love both give and get. Only what word


s: Wisest my heart breeds dark heaven's baffling ban


s: Bars or hell's spell thwarts. This to hoard unheard,


s: Heard unheeded, leaves me a lonely began.


s: I WAKE and feel the fell of dark, not day.


s: What hours, O what black hoürs we have spent


s: This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!


s: And more must, in yet longer light's delay.


s: With witness I speak this. But where I say


s: Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament


s: Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent


s: I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree


s: Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me;


s: Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.


s: Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see


s: The lost are like this, and their scourge to be


s: As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse.


s: PATIENCE, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray,


s: But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks


s: Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks;


s: Rare patience roots in these, and, these away,


s: Nowhere. Natural heart's ivy, Patience masks


s: Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks


s: Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves all day.


s: We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills


s: To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills


s: Of us we do bid God bend to him even so.


s: And where is he who more and more distils


s: Delicious kindness?--He is patient. Patience fills


s: His crisp combs, and that comes those ways we know.


s: MY own heart let me have more pity on; let


s: Charitable; not live this tormented mind


s: With this tormented mind tormenting yet.


s: By groping round my comfortless, than blind


s: Eyes in their dark can day or thirst can find


s: Thirst's all-in-all in all a world of wet.


s: Soul, self; come, poor Jackself, I do advise


s: You, jaded, let be; call off thoughts awhile


s: Elsewhere; leave comfort root-room; let joy size


s: At God knows when to God knows what; whose smile


s: 's not wrung, see you; unforeseen times rather--as skies


s: Betweenpie mountains--lights a lovely mile.


s: CLOUD-PUFFBALL, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then


s: Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm


s: Of yestertempest's creases; in pool and rut peel parches


s: Squandering ooze to squeezed | dough, crust, dust; stanches,


s: Squadroned masks and manmarks | treadmire toil there


s: Footfretted in it. Million-fuelèd, | nature's bonfire burns on.


s: Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark


s: Drowned. O pity and indig | nation! Manshape, that shone


s: Sheer off, disseveral, a star, | death blots black out; nor mark


s: But vastness blurs and time | beats level. Enough! the Resur-


s: A beacon, an eternal beam. | Flesh fade, and mortal trash


s: Fall to the residuary worm; | world's wildfire, leave but ash:


s: I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and


s: This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal


s: HONOUR is flashed off exploit, so we say;


s: And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield


s: Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field,


s: And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day.


s: On Christ they do and on the martyr may;


s: But be the war within, the brand we wield


s: Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled,


s: Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.


s: Yet God (that hews mountain and continent,


s: Earth, all, out; who, with trickling increment,


s: Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)


s: Could crowd career with conquest while there went


s: Those years and years by of world without event


s: That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.


s: _Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum: verum-


s: tamen justa loquar ad te: Quare via impiorum prospera-


s: THOU art indeed just, Lord, if I contend


s: With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.


s: Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must


s: How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost


s: Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust


s: Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,


s: Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes


s: Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again


s: With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes


s: Them; birds build--but not I build; no, but strain,


s: Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.


s: Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.


s: THE fine delight that fathers thought; the strong


s: Spur, live and lancing like the blowpipe flame,


s: Breathes once and, quenchèd faster than it came,


s: Leaves yet the mind a mother of immortal song.


s: Nine months she then, nay years, nine years she long


s: Within her wears, bears, cares and moulds the same:


s: The widow of an insight lost she lives, with aim


s: Now known and hand at work now never wrong.


s: Sweet fire the sire of muse, my soul needs this;


s: I want the one rapture of an inspiration.


s: The roll, the rise, the carol, the creation,


s: My winter world, that scarcely breathes that bliss


s: Now, yields you, with some sighs, our explanation.


s: WHAT being in rank-old nature should earlier have that


s: That hére pérsonal tells off these heart-song powerful


s: A bush-browed, beetle-brówed bíllow is it?


s: With a soúth-wésterly wínd blústering, with a tide rolls


s: Of crumbling, fore-foundering, thundering all-surfy seas


s: Únderneath, their glassy barrel, of a fairy green.


s: Or a jaunting vaunting vaulting assaulting trumpet telling


s: O I admire and sorrow! The heart's eye grieves


s: Discovering you, dark tramplers, tyrant years.


s: A juice rides rich through bluebells, in vine leaves,


s: And beauty's dearest veriest vein is tears.


s: Happy the father, mother of these! Too fast:


s: Not that, but thus far, all with frailty, blest


s: In one fair fall; but, for time's aftercast,


s: Creatures all heft, hope, hazard, interest.


s: And are they thus? The fine, the fingering beams


s: Their young delightful hour do feature down


s: That fleeted else like day-dissolvèd dreams


s: Or ringlet-race on burling Barrow brown.


s: She leans on him with such contentment fond


s: As well the sister sits, would well the wife;


s: His looks, the soul's own letters, see beyond,


s: Gaze on, and fall directly forth on life.


s: But ah, bright forelock, cluster that you are


s: Of favoured make and mind and health and youth,


s: Where lies your landmark, seamark, or soul's star?


s: There's none but truth can stead you. Christ is truth.


s: There's none but good can bé good, both for you


s: And what sways with you, maybe this sweet maid;


s: One once that was found wanting when Good weighed.


s: Man lives that list, that leaning in the will


s: No wisdom can forecast by gauge or guess,


s: The selfless self of self, most strange, most still,


s: Fast furled and all foredrawn to No or Yes.


s: Your feast of; that most in you earnest eye


s: May but call on your banes to more carouse.


s: Worst will the best. What worm was here, we cry,


s: To have havoc-pocked so, see, the hung-heavenward


s: Enough: corruption was the world's first woe.


s: What need I strain my heart beyond my ken?


s: Against the wild and wanton work of men.


s: THE sea took pity: it interposed with doom:


s: 'I have tall daughters dear that heed my hand:


s: Let Winter wed one, sow them in her womb,


s: And she shall child them on the New-world strand.'


s: NOT of all my eyes see, wandering on the world,


s: Is anything a milk to the mind so, so sighs deep


s: Poetry to it, as a tree whose boughs break in the sky.


s: Say it is ashboughs: whether on a December day and


s: Fast ór they in clammyish lashtender combs creep


s: Apart wide and new-nestle at heaven most high.


s: They touch heaven, tabour on it; how their talons sweep


s: The smouldering enormous winter welkin! May


s: Mells blue and snowwhite through them, a fringe and fray


s: Of greenery: it is old earth's groping towards the steep


s: They touch, they tabour on it, hover on it[; here, there


s: The smouldering enormous winter welkin. [Eye,


s: Mells blue with snowwhite through their fringe and fray


s: Of greenery and old earth gropes for, grasps at steep


s: Heaven with it whom she childs things by.


s: HOPE holds to Christ the mind's own mirror out


s: To take His lovely likeness more and more.


s: It will not well, so she would bring about


s: And turns to wash it from her welling eyes


s: And breathes the blots off all with sighs on sighs.


s: Her glass is blest but she as good as blind


s: Holds till hand aches and wonders what is there;


s: Her glass drinks light, she darkles down behind,


s: I told you that she turned her mirror dim


s: Betweenwhiles, but she sees herself not Him.


s: _Enter Teryth from riding, Winefred following._


s: T. WHAT is it, Gwen, my girl? why do you hover and haunt me?


s: Some messenger there might have met you from my uncle.


s: T. Your uncle met the messenger--met me; and this the


s: W.           There needs but little doing.


s: T. Let what there needs be done. Stay! with him one com-


s: His deacon, Dirvan Warm: twice over must the welcome be,


s: But both will share one cell. This was good news,


s: T. Why, get thee gone then; tell thy mother I want her.


s: No man has such a daughter. The fathers of the world


s: Call no such maiden 'mine'. The deeper grows her


s: And more and more times laces round and round my heart,


s: The more some monstrous hand gropes with clammy fingers


s: Tampering with those sweet bines, draws them out, strains


s: Meantime some tongue cries 'What, Teryth! what, thou


s: How when this bloom, this honeysuckle, that rides the air


s: Is all, all sheared away, thus!' Then I sweat for fear.


s: Or else a funeral, and yet 'tis not a funeral,


s: Some pageant which takes tears and I must foot with


s: Alive or dead my girl is carried in it, endlessly


s: Goes marching thro' my mind. What sense is this? It


s: This is too much the father; nay the mother. Fanciful!


s: I here forbid my thoughts to fool themselves with fears.


s: Act II.--_Scene, a wood ending in a steep bank over a dry dene,


s: Winefred having been murdered within. Re-enter Caradoc


s: What stroke has Caradoc's right arm dealt? what done?


s: Struck off it has; written upon lovely limbs,


s: In bloody letters, lessons of earnest, of revenge;


s: Monuments of my earnest, records of my revenge,


s: On one that went against me whéreas I had warned her--


s: Warned her! well she knew. I warned her of this work.


s: What work? what harm 's done? There is no harm done,


s: Perhaps we struck no blow, Gwenvrewi lives perhaps;


s: To makebelieve my mood was--mock. I might think so


s: But here, here is a workman from his day's task sweats.


s: Wiped I am sure this was; it seems not well; for still,


s: Still the scarlet swings and dances on the blade.


s: I cán scour thee, fresh burnish thee, sheathe thee in thy


s: Never, never, never in their blue banks again.


s: The woeful, Cradock, the woeful word! Then what,


s: What have we seen? Her head, sheared from her shoulders,


s: And lapped in shining hair, roll to the bank's edge; then


s: Down the beetling banks, like water in waterfalls,


s: It stooped and flashed and fell and ran like water away.


s: In all her beauty, and sunlight to it is a pit, den, darkness,


s: Foam-falling is not fresh to it, rainbow by it not beaming,


s: In all her body, I say, no place was like her eyes,


s: No piece matched those eyes kept most part much cast down


s: But, being lifted, immortal, of immortal brightness.


s: Several times I saw them, thrice or four times turning;


s: Round and round they came and flashed towards heaven:


s: There they did appeal. Therefore airy vengeances


s: Are afoot; heaven-vault fast purpling portends, and what


s: Any instant falls means me. And I do not repent;


s: I do not and I will not repent, not repent.


s: The blame bear who aroused me. What I have done violent


s: Honouring an uncontrolled royal wrathful nature,


s: Mantling passion in a grandeur, crimson grandeur.


s: Now be my pride then perfect, all one piece. Henceforth


s: In a wide world of defiance Caradoc lives alone,


s: Loyal to his own soul, laying his own law down, no law nor


s: Lord now curb him for ever. O daring! O deep insight!


s: What is virtue? Valour; only the heart valiant.


s: And right? Only resolution; will, his will unwavering


s: Who, like me, knowing his nature to the heart home,


s: Despatches with no flinching. But will flesh, O can flesh


s: Second this fiery strain? Not always; O no no!


s: We cannot live this life out; sometimes we must weary


s: And in this darksome world what comfort can I find?


s: Down this darksome world cómfort whére can I find


s: When 'ts light I quenched; its rose, time's one rich rose,


s: By her bloom, fast by her fresh, her fleecèd bloom,


s: Hideous dashed down, leaving earth a winter withering


s: With no now, no Gwenvrewi. I must miss her most


s: That might have spared her were it but for passion-sake. Yes,


s: To hunger and not have, yét hope ón for, to storm and


s: Be at every assault fresh foiled, worse flung, deeper dis-


s: The turmoil and the torment, it has, I swear, a sweetness,


s: Keeps a kind of joy in it, a zest, an edge, an ecstasy,


s: Next after sweet success. I am not left even this;


s: I all my being have hacked in half with her neck: one part,


s: Reason, selfdisposal, choice of better or worse way,


s: Is corpse now, cannot change; my other self, this soul,


s: Life's quick, this kínd, this kéen self-feeling,


s: With dreadful distillation of thoughts sour as blood,


s: Must all day long taste murder. What do nów then?


s: Deed-bound I am; one deed treads all down here cramps


s: Not hope, not pray; despair; ay, that: brazen despair out,


s: Brave all, and take what comes--as here this rabble is come,


s: Whose bloods I reck no more of, no more rank with hers


s: Than sewers with sacred oils. Mankind, that mobs, comes.


s: _Enter a crowd, among them Teryth, Gwenlo, Beuno._


s: _After Winefred's raising from the dead and the breaking


s: BEUNO. O now while skies are blue, now while seas are salt,


s: While rushy rains shall fall or brooks shall fleet from


s: While sick men shall cast sighs, of sweet health all despairing.


s: While blind men's eyes shall thirst after daylight, draughts


s: Or deaf ears shall desire that lipmusic that's lost upon them,


s: While cripples are, while lepers, dancers in dismal limb-


s: Fallers in dreadful frothpits, waterfearers wild,


s: Stone, palsy, cancer, cough, lung wasting, womb not bearing,


s: Rupture, running sores, what more? in brief, in burden,


s: As long as men are mortal and God merciful,


s: So long to this sweet spot, this leafy lean-over,


s: With the uproll and the downcarol of day and night


s: Water, which keeps thy name, (for not in róck wrítten,


s: But in pale water, frail water, wild rash and reeling water,


s: That will not wear a print, that will not stain a pen,


s: Thy venerable record, virgin, is recorded).


s: Here to this holy well shall pilgrimages be,


s: And not from purple Wales only nor from elmy England,


s: But from beyond seas, Erin, France and Flanders, every-


s: What sights shall be when some that swung, wretches, on


s: Their crutches shall cast from them, on heels of air departing,


s: Or they go rich as roseleaves hence that loathsome cáme


s: Those dearer, more divine boons whose haven the heart is.


s: As sure as what is most sure, sure as that spring primroses


s: Shall new-dapple next year, sure as to-morrow morning,


s: Amongst come-back-again things, thíngs with a revival,


s: WHAT shall I do for the land that bred me,


s: Her homes and fields that folded and fed me?--


s: Be under her banner and live for her honour:


s: Under her banner I'll live for her honour.


s: CHORUS. Under her banner live for her honour.


s: But country and flag, the flag I am under--


s: There is the shilling that finds me willing


s: To follow a banner and fight for honour.


s: CH. We follow her banner, we fight for her honour.


s: Spend me or end me what God shall send me,


s: But under her banner I live for her honour.


s: CH. Under her banner we march for her honour.


s: Where is the field I must play the man on?


s: If under her banner I fall for her honour.


s: CH. Under her banner we fall for her honour.


s: THE times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;


s: The times are winter, watch, a world undone:


s: They waste, they wither worse; they as they run


s: Or bring more or more blazon man's distress.


s: And I not help. Nor word now of success:


s: All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one--


s: Work which to see scarce so much as begun


s: Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.


s: Or what is else? There is your world within.


s: There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.


s: Your will is law in that small commonweal . . .


s: BEYOND Mágdalen and by the Bridge, on a place called


s: When the air was sweet-and-sour of the flown fineflower of


s: Those goldnails and their gaylinks that hang along a lime;


s: That struggling should not sear him, a gift should cheer


s: Like that poor pocket of pence, poor pence of mine.


s: DENIS, whose motionable, alert, most vaulting wit


s: Yet Arthur is a Bowman: his three-heeled timber'll hit


s: The bald and bóld blínking gold when áll's dóne


s: Right rooting in the bare butt's wincing navel in the sight


s: Fallow, foam-fallow, hanks--fall'n off their ranks,


s: Rough-Robin or five-lipped campion clear


s: And the sunlight sidled, like dewdrops, like dandled


s: Through the sieve of the straw of the plait.


s: For brier, bough, furrow, or gréen ground


s: With white strokes and strains of the blue


s: Till the longing is less and the good gone


s: That I dó thínk there is not to be had . . .


s: And the braided ear breaks out of the sheath,


s: I AWOKE in the Midsummer not to call night, |in the


s: The moon, dwindled and thinned to the fringe | of a


s: Or paring of paradisaïcal fruit, | lovely in waning but


s: Stepped from the stool, drew back from the barrow, | of


s: A cusp still clasped him, a fluke yet fanged him, | en-


s: This was the prized, the desirable sight, | unsought, pre-


s: Parted me leaf and leaf, divided me, | eyelid and eyelid of


s: Cuckoo, bird, and open ear wells, heart-springs, delight-


s: Off trundled timber and scoops of the hillside ground,


s: The whole landscape flushes on a sudden at a sound.


s: Epigrams, which successive editors have joined in deploring, in a


s: Turns all the patient ground to flowers".


s: The quarterly stipend was paid through various booksellers, but


s: "I've more to bear my charge than way to go";


s: (Heaven and my soul bear record of my vow)


s: Them and my thoughts to that sublime respect


s: And conscience unto priesthood. 'Tis not need


s: (The scarecrow unto mankind) that doth breed


s: I've more to bear my charge than way to go;


s: Or had I not, I'd stop the spreading itch


s: And shapes my function for more glorious ends."


s: parishioners, and jotting down sermon-notes in verse.


s: unquestioning loyalty, but in others he is less certain of kingly


s: illustrations of Herrick's reading added in the notes, which have


s: _Effugient avidos Carmina nostra Rogos._


s: and are to be sold by _Tho: Hunt_, Book-seller


s: Well may my book come forth like public day


s: When such a light as you are leads the way,


s: And look how all those heavenly lamps acquire


s: Light from the sun, that inexhausted fire,


s: So all my morn and evening stars from you


s: Have their existence, and their influence too.


s: Full is my book of glories; but all these


s: I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds and bowers,


s: Of April, May, of June and July-flowers;


s: I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,


s: Of bridegrooms, brides and of their bridal cakes;


s: I write of youth, of love, and have access


s: I sing of dews, of rains, and piece by piece


s: Of balm, of oil, of spice and ambergris;


s: I sing of times trans-shifting, and I write


s: How roses first came red and lilies white;


s: I write of groves, of twilights, and I sing


s: I write of hell; I sing (and ever shall)


s: Of heaven, and hope to have it after all.


s: _Hock-cart_, the last cart from the harvest-field.


s: There, there, perhaps, such lines as these


s: Where thou mayst hear thine own lines read


s: While thou didst keep thy candour undefil'd,


s: Dearly I lov'd thee as my first-born child,


s: From house to house, and never stay at home,


s: I brake my bonds of love, and bade thee go,


s: Regardless whether well thou sped'st or no.


s: On with thy fortunes then, whate'er they be:


s: If good, I'll smile; if bad, I'll sigh for thee.


s: But when he's gone, read through what's writ,


s: Come thou not near those men who are like bread


s: O'er-leaven'd, or like cheese o'er-renneted.


s: But when that men have both well drunk and fed,


s: Let my enchantments then be sung or read.


s: When laurel spirts i'th' fire, and when the hearth


s: Smiles to itself, and gilds the roof with mirth;


s: When up the thyrse[C] is rais'd, and when the sound


s: Of sacred orgies[D] flies, a round, a round.


s: When the rose reigns, and locks with ointments shine,


s: Let rigid Cato read these lines of mine.


s: _Cato_, see Martial, x. 17, quoted in Note.


s: _Beams_, perhaps here = branches: but cp. 440.


s: Let us, though late, at last, my Silvia, wed,


s: Thy watch may stand, my minutes fly post-haste;


s: No sound calls back the year that once is past.


s: Then, sweetest Silvia, let's no longer stay;


s: _True love, we know, precipitates delay._


s: Away with doubts, all scruples hence remove;


s: _No man at one time can be wise and love._


s: To get thine ends, lay bashfulness aside;


s: _Who fears to ask doth teach to be deny'd._


s: Me, day by day, to steal away from thee?


s: Age calls me hence, and my grey hairs bid come,


s: 'Twill not be long, Perilla, after this,


s: That I must give thee the supremest kiss.


s: Dead when I am, first cast in salt, and bring


s: Part of the cream from that religious spring;


s: With which, Perilla, wash my hands and feet;


s: That done, then wind me in that very sheet


s: Which wrapt thy smooth limbs when thou didst implore


s: The gods' protection but the night before.


s: Let fall a primrose, and with it a tear:


s: Then, lastly, let some weekly-strewings be


s: Then shall my ghost not walk about, but keep


s: Still in the cool and silent shades of sleep.


s: _Weekly strewings_, _i.e._, of flowers on his grave.


s: Made all that touched her, with her scent,


s: So that the more I look the more I prove


s: There's still more cause why I the more should love.


s: The seeds of treason choke up as they spring:


s: _He acts the crime that gives it cherishing_.


s: Two of a thousand things are disallow'd:


s: _Æson_, rejuvenated by Medea; see Ovid, Met. vii.


s: That heart to bleed, yours ne'er will ache


s: Thy sacred corse with odours I will burn,


s: And with my laurel crown thy golden urn.


s: Then holding up there such religious things


s: As were, time past, thy holy filletings,


s: Near to thy reverend pitcher I will fall


s: Down dead for grief, and end my woes withal:


s: So three in one small plat of ground shall lie--


s: The mellow touch of music most doth wound


s: The soul when it doth rather sigh than sound.


s: 'Twixt kings and subjects there's this mighty odds:


s: Subjects are taught by men; kings by the gods.


s: _Small shots paid often waste a vast estate_.


s: Love is a circle that doth restless move


s: When what is lov'd is present, love doth spring;


s: But being absent, love lies languishing.


s: _Lace_, any kind of girdle; used here for the necklace.


s: When that day comes, whose evening says I'm gone


s: Those deities which circum-walk the seas,


s: For one drink-offering poured out by thee.


s: Mercy and truth live with thee! and forbear


s: (In my short absence) to unsluice a tear;


s: But yet for love's sake let thy lips do this,


s: Give my dead picture one engendering kiss:


s: Work that to life, and let me ever dwell


s: You say I love not, 'cause I do not play


s: Still with your curls, and kiss the time away.


s: You blame me too, because I can't devise


s: Some sport to please those babies in your eyes:


s: By love's religion, I must here confess it,


s: The most I love when I the least express it.


s: _Small griefs find tongues_: full casks are ever found


s: _Deep waters noiseless are_; and this we know,


s: _That chiding streams betray small depth below_.


s: So, when love speechless is, she doth express


s: A depth in love and that depth bottomless.


s: Now, since my love is tongueless, know me such


s: Who speak but little 'cause I love so much.


s: Methought last night Love in an anger came


s: And brought a rod, so whipt me with the same;


s: Love strikes, but 'tis with gentle cruelty.


s: And strok'd the stripes, and I was whole again.


s: Thus, like a bee, Love gentle still doth bring


s: Honey to salve where he before did sting.


s: I'm free from thee; and thou no more shalt hear


s: My puling pipe to beat against thine ear.


s: Farewell my shackles, though of pearl they be;


s: Such precious thraldom ne'er shall fetter me.


s: He loves his bonds who, when the first are broke,


s: At childish push-pin, for our sport, did play;


s: I put, he pushed, and, heedless of my skin,


s: Love pricked my finger with a golden pin;


s: Since which it festers so that I can prove


s: 'Twas but a trick to poison me with love:


s: Little the wound was, greater was the smart,


s: The finger bled, but burnt was all my heart.


s: _Tent_, a roll of lint for probing wounds.


s: They show'd me then how fine 'twas spun,


s: _Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave_.


s: Laid out for dead, let thy last kindness be


s: With leaves and moss-work for to cover me:


s: And while the wood-nymphs my cold corpse inter,


s: Sing thou my dirge, sweet-warbling chorister!


s: For epitaph, in foliage, next write this:


s: _Here, here the tomb of Robin Herrick is_.


s: O earth! earth! earth! hear thou my voice, and be


s: Banish'd from thee I live, ne'er to return,


s: Unless thou giv'st my small remains an urn.


s: And for your breaths, too, let them smell


s: Now is the time, when all the lights wax dim;


s: And thou, Anthea, must withdraw from him


s: Where, though thou see'st not, thou may'st think upon


s: Or, for mine honour, lay me in that tomb


s: In which thy sacred relics shall have room.


s: For my embalming, sweetest, there will be


s: No spices wanting when I'm laid by thee.


s: Here we are all by day; by night we're hurl'd


s: By dreams, each one into a sev'ral world.


s: Fight thou with shafts of silver and o'ercome,


s: When no force else can get the masterdom.


s: When some shall say, Fair once my Silvia was,


s: Thou wilt complain, False now's thy looking-glass,


s: Which renders that quite tarnished which was green,


s: And priceless now what peerless once had been.


s: Upon thy form more wrinkles yet will fall,


s: And, coming down, shall make no noise at all.


s: So smooth, so sweet, so silv'ry is thy voice,


s: As, could they hear, the damn'd would make no noise,


s: But listen to thee, walking in thy chamber,


s: Melting melodious words to lutes of amber.


s: _All things decay with time_: the forest sees


s: The growth and downfall of her aged trees;


s: That timber tall, which threescore lusters stood


s: The proud dictator of the state-like wood,--


s: I mean (the sovereign of all plants) the oak--


s: Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke.


s: _Lusters_, the Roman reckoning of five years.


s: More wealth brings in than all those three.


s: Thou sail'st with others in this Argus here;


s: Nor wreck or bulging thou hast cause to fear;


s: Who swims with virtue, he shall still be sure


s: And 'midst a thousand gulfs to be secure.


s: Next, how I love thee, that my grief must tell,


s: Wherein thou liv'st for ever. Dear, farewell.


s: Ah, my Anthea! Must my heart still break?


s: (_Love makes me write, what shame forbids to speak_.)


s: Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score;


s: Treble that million, and when that is done


s: Let's kiss afresh, as when we first begun.


s: But yet, though love likes well such scenes as these,


s: There is an act that will more fully please:


s: Kissing and glancing, soothing, all make way


s: Name it I would; but, being blushing red,


s: The rest I'll speak when we meet both in bed.


s: Some ask'd how pearls did grow, and where;


s: Welcome, most welcome to our vows and us,


s: The drooping West, which hitherto has stood


s: Looks like a bride now, or a bed of flowers


s: Newly refresh'd both by the sun and showers.


s: War, which before was horrid, now appears


s: Lovely in you, brave prince of cavaliers!


s: By your access, O you the best of kings!


s: Ride on with all white omens; so that where


s: Your standard's up, we fix a conquest there.


s: They blush'd, and look'd more fresh than flowers


s: Woe, woe to them, who, by a ball of strife,


s: Do, and have parted here a man and wife:


s: CHARLES the best husband, while MARIA strives


s: Like streams, you are divorc'd; but 'twill come when


s: These eyes of mine shall see you mix again.


s: Thus speaks the oak here; C. and M. shall meet,


s: Treading on amber, with their silver-feet,


s: Nor will't be long ere this accomplish'd be:


s: The words found true, C. M., remember me.


s: As oft as night is banish'd by the morn,


s: So oft we'll think we see a king new born.


s: That neither hair was cut, or true tears shed


s: By me, o'er thee, as justments to the dead,


s: Forgive, forgive me; since I did not know


s: Whether thy bones had here their rest or no,


s: But now 'tis known, behold! behold, I bring


s: And look what smallage, night-shade, cypress, yew,


s: Unto the shades have been, or now are due,


s: Here I devote; and something more than so;


s: Thou gav'st me life, but mortal; for that one


s: For my life mortal rise from out thy hearse.


s: _Hair was cut_, according to the Greek custom.


s: Were I to give thee baptism, I would choose


s: To christen thee, the bride, the bashful Muse,


s: Or Muse of roses: since that name does fit


s: Best with those virgin-verses thou hast writ:


s: Which are so clean, so chaste, as none may fear


s: Cato the censor, should he scan each here.


s: Dean Bourn, farewell; I never look to see


s: Thy rocky bottom, that doth tear thy streams


s: And makes them frantic even to all extremes,


s: Were thy streams silver, or thy rocks all gold.


s: Thy men, and rocky are thy ways all over.


s: With whom I did, and may re-sojourn when


s: Rocks turn to rivers, rivers turn to men.


s: How rich and pleasing thou, my Julia, art


s: First, for thy queenship, on thy head is set


s: A golden ring that shines upon thy thumb:


s: Between thy breasts (than down of swans more white)


s: There plays the sapphire with the chrysolite.


s: No part besides must of thyself be known,


s: A sacred laurel springing from my grave:


s: _That man loves not who is not zealous too_.


s: Which done, to still their wanton cries,


s: She kiss'd, and wip'd their dove-like eyes,


s: _Luxurious love by wealth is nourished_.


s: Let me be lean, and cold, and once grown poor,


s: I shall dislike what once I lov'd before.


s: See and not see, and if thou chance t'espy


s: Wink at small faults; the greater, ne'ertheless,


s: Hide, and with them their father's nakedness.


s: Let's do our best, our watch and ward to keep;


s: Homer himself, in a long work, may sleep.


s: Good princes must be pray'd for; for the bad


s: They must be borne with, and in rev'rence had.


s: Do they first pill thee, next pluck off thy skin?


s: _Good children kiss the rods that punish sin_.


s: Touch not the tyrant; let the gods alone


s: To strike him dead that but usurps a throne.


s: More than the stones i' th' street by far,


s: _Cess_, the parish assessment for church purposes.


s: We two are last in hell; what may we fear


s: Alas! if kissing be of plagues the worst,


s: We'll wish in hell we had been last and first.


s: Flashed out between the middle and extreme.


s: Like to a twilight, or that simpering dawn


s: That roses show when misted o'er with lawn.


s: Twilight is yet, till that her lawns give way;


s: Which done, that dawn turns then to perfect day.


s: More white than pearls, or Juno's thigh,


s: Thrice, and above, bless'd, my soul's half, art thou


s: Could'st leave the city, for exchange, to see


s: And it to know and practise, with intent


s: The last is but the least; the first doth tell


s: And both are known to thee, who now can'st live


s: Justice to soon-pleased nature; and to show


s: And keep one centre: this with that conspires


s: And know that riches have their proper stint


s: And can'st instruct that those who have the itch


s: These things thou know'st to th' height, and dost prevent


s: With that heav'n gave thee with a wary hand,


s: Keeping the barking stomach wisely quiet,


s: But that which most makes sweet thy country life


s: Whom, stars consenting with thy fate, thou hast


s: By whose warm side thou dost securely sleep,


s: With those deeds done by day, which ne'er affright


s: But still thy wife, by chaste intentions led,


s: The damask'd meadows and the pebbly streams


s: The purling springs, groves, birds, and well-weav'd bowers,


s: Present their shapes; while fantasy discloses


s: Then dream ye hear the lamb by many a bleat


s: While Faunus in the vision comes to keep


s: With thousand such enchanting dreams, that meet


s: Nor can these figures so thy rest endear


s: Warns the last watch; but with the dawn dost rise


s: Making thy peace with heav'n, for some late fault,


s: Which done, thy painful thumb this sentence tells us,


s: _Jove for our labour all things sells us_.


s: Th' industrious merchant has; who, for to find


s: And back again, tortured with fears, doth fly,


s: But thou at home, bless'd with securest ease,


s: Sitt'st, and believ'st that there be seas


s: And watery dangers; while thy whiter hap


s: And viewing them with a more safe survey


s: _"A heart thrice wall'd with oak and brass that man


s: But thou at home, without or tide or gale,


s: Seeing those painted countries, and so guess


s: And, from thy compass taking small advice,


s: Nor are thine ears so deaf but thou canst hear,


s: Fame tell of states, of countries, courts, and kings,


s: When of these truths thy happier knowledge lies


s: And when thou hear'st by that too true report


s: Thy pious wishes are, though thou not there,


s: But thou liv'st fearless; and thy face ne'er shows


s: But with thy equal thoughts prepared dost stand,


s: Nor car'st which comes the first, the foul or fair:


s: And, like a surly oak with storms perplex'd,


s: Grows still the stronger, strongly vex'd.


s: Be so, bold spirit; stand centre-like, unmov'd;


s: Who keep'st no proud mouth for delicious cates:


s: Canst, and unurg'd, forsake that larded fare,


s: To taste boil'd nettles, colworts, beets, and eat


s: While soft opinion makes thy Genius say,


s: Nor is it that thou keep'st this stricter size


s: To numb the sense of dearth, which should sin haste it,


s: Thou might'st but only see't, not taste it.


s: Yet can thy humble roof maintain a choir


s: And the brisk mouse may feast herself with crumbs


s: And thus thy little well-kept stock doth prove


s: Nor art thou so close-handed but canst spend,


s: As well as spare, still conning o'er this theme,


s: Ordaining that thy small stock find no breach,


s: But to live round, and close, and wisely true


s: There to disport yourselves with golden measure:


s: Live, and live blest, thrice happy pair; let breath,


s: And as there is one love, one faith, one troth,


s: Till when, in such assurance live ye may,


s: _Spirting-salt_, the "saliente mica" of Horace, See Note.


s: _Lar_, the "closet-gods," or gods of the house.


s: _Size_ or _assize_, a fixed allowance of food, a ration.


s: Next, make his cheeks with breath to swell,


s: _Burling iron_, pincers for extracting knots.


s: When my date's done, and my grey age must die,


s: Nurse up, great lord, this my posterity:


s: Weak though it be, long may it grow and stand,


s: Shored up by you, brave Earl of Westmoreland.


s: Whene'er my heart love's warmth but entertains,


s: Oh frost! oh snow! oh hail! forbid the banes.


s: One drop now deads a spark, but if the same


s: Once gets a force, floods cannot quench the flame.


s: As shows the air when with a rainbow grac'd,


s: So smiles that riband 'bout my Julia's waist:


s: Wherein all pleasures of the world are wove.


s: Let there be patrons, patrons like to thee,


s: Brave Porter! poets ne'er will wanting be:


s: In thee, thou man of men! who here do'st give


s: For which, before thy threshold, we'll lay down


s: Our thyrse for sceptre, and our bays for crown.


s: For, to say truth, all garlands are thy due:


s: That gallant tulip will hang down his head,


s: Pansies will weep, and marigolds will wither,


s: But bid good-night, and close their lids for ever.


s: None goes to warfare but with this intent--


s: The gains must dead the fears of detriment.


s: When I did go from thee I felt that smart


s: Which bodies do when souls from them depart.


s: Thou did'st not mind it; though thou then might'st see


s: Me turn'd to tears; yet did'st not weep for me.


s: 'Tis true, I kiss'd thee; but I could not hear


s: Methought 'twas strange that thou so hard should'st prove,


s: Whose heart, whose hand, whose every part spake love.


s: Prithee, lest maids should censure thee, but say


s: Thou shed'st one tear, whenas I went away;


s: And that will please me somewhat: though I know,


s: And Love will swear't, my dearest did not so.


s: What times of sweetness this fair day foreshows,


s: What next is look'd for? but we all should see


s: Farewell thou thing, time past so known, so dear


s: To me as blood to life and spirit; near,


s: Nay, thou more near than kindred, friend, man, wife,


s: The kiss of virgins, first fruits of the bed,


s: Soft speech, smooth touch, the lips, the maidenhead:


s: These and a thousand sweets could never be


s: So near or dear as thou wast once to me.


s: O thou, the drink of gods and angels! wine


s: That scatter'st spirit and lust, whose purest shine


s: More radiant than the summer's sunbeams shows;


s: Each way illustrious, brave, and like to those


s: Comets we see by night, whose shagg'd portents


s: Foretell the coming of some dire events,


s: Or some full flame which with a pride aspires,


s: Throwing about his wild and active fires;


s: 'Tis thou, above nectar, O divinest soul!


s: That which subverts whole nature, grief and care,


s: Vexation of the mind, and damn'd despair.


s: 'Tis thou alone who, with thy mystic fan,


s: Work'st more than wisdom, art, or nature can


s: The frost-bound blood and spirits, and to make


s: Them frantic with thy raptures flashing through


s: The soul like lightning, and as active too.


s: 'Tis not Apollo can, or those thrice three


s: Castalian sisters, sing, if wanting thee.


s: Horace, Anacreon, both had lost their fame,


s: Had'st thou not fill'd them with thy fire and flame.


s: Phœbean splendour! and thou, Thespian spring!


s: Of which sweet swans must drink before they sing


s: Their true-pac'd numbers and their holy lays,


s: Which makes them worthy cedar and the bays.


s: Since I must leave thee, and enforc'd must say


s: But if thy whimpering looks do ask me why,


s: Then know that nature bids thee go, not I.


s: 'Tis her erroneous self has made a brain


s: As is thy powerful self. Prithee not smile,


s: Or smile more inly, lest thy looks beguile


s: My vows denounc'd in zeal, which thus much show thee


s: That I have sworn but by thy looks to know thee.


s: Let others drink thee freely, and desire


s: Thee and their lips espous'd, while I admire


s: And love thee, but not taste thee. Let my muse


s: Her inadult'rate strength: what's done by me


s: Hereafter shall smell of the lamp, not thee.


s: _Mystic fan_, the "mystica vannus Iacchi" of Georgic, i. 166.


s: And seeing her not dead, but all disleav'd,


s: He chirp'd for joy to see himself deceiv'd.


s: With all that can be this heaven grac't,


s: _Chamlets_, _i.e._, camlets, stuffs made from camels' hair.


s: Go, perjured man; and if thou e'er return


s: To see the small remainders in mine urn,


s: When thou shalt laugh at my religious dust,


s: And ask: where's now the colour, form and trust


s: Of woman's beauty? and with hand more rude


s: Rifle the flowers which the virgins strewed:


s: Know I have prayed to Fury that some wind


s: May blow my ashes up, and strike thee blind.


s: At which she smiled; then, with her hairs


s: Come tell me then, how great's the smart


s: To conquered men, some comfort 'tis to fall


s: You say, to me-wards your affection's strong;


s: Pray love me little, so you love me long.


s: Slowly goes far: the mean is best: desire,


s: But that it had some intermitting hours;


s: The last watch out, and saw the dawning too;


s: But they left hope-seed to fill up again.


s: So you, my lord, though you have now your stay,


s: Your night, your prison, and your ebb, you may


s: Spring up afresh, when all these mists are spent,


s: And star-like, once more gild our firmament.


s: Let but that mighty Cæsar speak, and then


s: All bolts, all bars, all gates shall cleave; as when


s: That earthquake shook the house, and gave the stout


s: Though you, my lord, have been unkind to me,


s: Well, though my grief by you was gall'd the more,


s: Yet I bring balm and oil to heal your sore.


s: Promis'd should come to crown your youth.


s: Is it, sweet maid, your fault these holy


s: Night now hath watch'd herself half blind,


s: And make whate'er they touch turn sweet.


s: With direful notes to fright your sleeps;


s: That ne'er knew bride's or bridegroom's touch,


s: On your minutes, hours, days, months, years,


s: Let bounteous Fate[s] your spindles full


s: _Domiduca_, Juno, the goddess of marriage, the "home-bringer".


s: _Barley-break_, a country game, see 101.


s: When Julia chid I stood as mute the while


s: Air coin'd to words my Julia could not hear,


s: But she could see each eye to stamp a tear;


s: By which mine angry mistress might descry


s: Tears are the noble language of the eye.


s: And when true love of words is destitute


s: The eyes by tears speak, while the tongue is mute.


s: Let all chaste matrons, when they chance to see


s: Praise me for having such a fruitful womb,


s: Noonday and midnight shall at once be seen:


s: Trees, at one time, shall be both sere and green:


s: Summer and winter shall at one time show


s: Ripe ears of corn, and up to th' ears in snow:


s: Seas shall be sandless; fields devoid of grass;


s: Shapeless the world, as when all chaos was,


s: False to my vow, or fall away from thee.


s: If thou wilt say that I shall live with thee,


s: There where no language ever yet was known.


s: Though a wise man all pressures can sustain,


s: Large shoulders though he has, and well can bear,


s: He feels when packs do pinch him, and the where.


s: Which, starlike, sparkle in their skies;


s: All hearts your captives, yours yet free;


s: To find that tree of life whose fruits did feed


s: And leaves did heal all sick of human seed:


s: Stirring the waters, I am come; and here,


s: And all in your blest hand, which has the powers


s: Of all those suppling-healing herbs and flowers.


s: To that soft charm, that spell, that magic bough,


s: And to that hand (the branch of heaven's fair tree),


s: I kneel for help; O! lay that hand on me,


s: I shall be heal'd if that my king but touch.


s: "Mine is the evil, but the cure the king's".


s: And when (though long, it comes to pass)


s: Ah! then too late, close in your chamber keeping,


s: In dens of darkness or condemn'd to die.


s: Since none so good are but you may condemn,


s: 'Tis good confirm'd, for you have bishop'd it.


s: _Blood-guiltiness_, guilt betrayed by blushing; cp. 837.


s: _Excathedrated_, condemned _ex cathedra_.


s: Where others love and praise my verses, still


s: Thy long black thumb-nail marks them out for ill:


s: To scratch or claw, so that thy tongue not rails:


s: Some numbers prurient are, and some of these


s: Are wanton with their itch; scratch, and 'twill please.


s: _Fellon_, a sore, especially in the finger.


s: I ask'd thee oft what poets thou hast read,


s: And lik'st the best. Still thou reply'st: The dead.


s: I shall, ere long, with green turfs cover'd be;


s: Then sure thou'lt like or thou wilt envy me.


s: Which, erring here, and wandering there,


s: Sometimes 'twould pant, and sigh, and heave,


s: Sometimes 'twould blaze, and then abate,


s: Begin to charm, and, as thou strok'st mine ears


s: With thy enchantment, melt me into tears.


s: Then let thy active hand scud o'er thy lyre,


s: And make my spirits frantic with the fire.


s: That done, sink down into a silvery strain,


s: And make me smooth as balm and oil again.


s: To safeguard man from wrongs, there nothing must


s: And to thyself be best this sentence known:


s: _Hear all men speak, but credit few or none_.


s: Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morn


s: Upon her wings presents the god unshorn.


s: Each flower has wept and bow'd toward the east


s: Above an hour since: yet you not dress'd;


s: And sung their thankful hymns, 'tis sin,


s: Spring, sooner than the lark, to fetch in May.


s: Rise and put on your foliage, and be seen


s: To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green,


s: Besides, the childhood of the day has kept,


s: Against you come, some orient pearls unwept;


s: Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying:


s: Few beads are best when once we go a-Maying.


s: Come, my Corinna, come; and, coming, mark


s: How each field turns a street, each street a park


s: Made green and trimm'd with trees: see how


s: Or branch: each porch, each door ere this


s: Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove;


s: As if here were those cooler shades of love.


s: And sin no more, as we have done, by staying;


s: But, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying.


s: There's not a budding boy or girl this day


s: But is got up, and gone to bring in May.


s: Some have despatch'd their cakes and cream


s: And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth,


s: And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth:


s: This night, and locks pick'd, yet we're not a-Maying.


s: Come, let us go while we are in our prime;


s: And take the harmless folly of the time.


s: Then while time serves, and we are but decaying,


s: Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying.


s: Breathe, Julia, breathe, and I'll protest,


s: Love and they'll thank you for't. Adieu.


s: _Hor._  While, Lydia, I was loved of thee,


s: The Persian king lived not more happily.


s: _Lyd._  While thou no other didst affect,


s: (So fate spares her) am well content to die.


s: To save his life, twice am content to die.


s: _Hor._  Say our first loves we should revoke,


s: _Lyd._  Though mine be brighter than the star,


s: Will live with thee, or else for thee will die.


s: For some fresh, fragrant, luscious flowers,


s: Days may conclude in nights, and suns may rest


s: Yet, the next morn, regild the fragrant east.


s: The staff, the elm, the prop, the shelt'ring wall


s: Now, now blown down; needs must the old stock fall.


s: When I had thee, my chief preserver, by.


s: The debt is paid; for he who doth resign


s: Invites fresh grapes to fill his press with wine.


s: Life of my life, 'take not so soon thy flight,


s: But stay the time till we have bade good-night.


s: Thou hast both wind and tide with thee; thy way


s: As soon despatch'd is by the night as day.


s: Till we have wept, kissed, sigh'd, shook hands, or so.


s: There's pain in parting, and a kind of hell,


s: When once true lovers take their last farewell.


s: What! shall we two our endless leaves take here


s: He knows not love that hath not this truth proved,


s: _Love is most loth to leave the thing beloved_.


s: Pay we our vows and go; yet when we part,


s: Then, even then, I will bequeath my heart


s: Into thy loving hands; for I'll keep none


s: To warm my breast when thou, my pulse, art gone.


s: No, here I'll last, and walk (a harmless shade)


s: About this urn wherein thy dust is laid,


s: Heavy to hurt those sacred seeds of thee.


s: Yet when your lawns and silks shall flow,


s: Like to a bride, come forth, my book, at last,


s: Say, if there be, 'mongst many gems here, one


s: Blush not at all for that, since we have set


s: Some pearls on queens that have been counterfeit.


s: _All and some_, anything and everything.


s: So soft streams meet, so springs with gladder smiles


s: Meet after long divorcement by the isles;


s: When love, the child of likeness, urgeth on


s: So meet stolen kisses, when the moony nights


s: Call forth fierce lovers to their wish'd delights;


s: So kings and queens meet, when desire convinces


s: All thoughts but such as aim at getting princes,


s: As I meet thee. Soul of my life and fame!


s: Eternal lamp of love! whose radiant flame


s: Out-glares the heaven's Osiris,[H] and thy gleams


s: Out-shine the splendour of his mid-day beams.


s: Welcome, O welcome, my illustrious spouse;


s: Aye! far more welcome than the happy soil


s: The sea-scourged merchant, after all his toil,


s: Salutes with tears of joy, when fires betray


s: Where hast thou been so long from my embraces,


s: Poor pitied exile? Tell me, did thy graces


s: Did rather choose to bless another clime?


s: Or went'st thou to this end, the more to move me,


s: By thy short absence, to desire and love thee?


s: Why frowns my sweet? Why won't my saint confer


s: Why are those looks, those looks the which have been


s: Time-past so fragrant, sickly now drawn in


s: Like a dull twilight? Tell me, and the fault


s: I'll expiate with sulphur, hair and salt;


s: And, with the crystal humour of the spring,


s: Purge hence the guilt and kill this quarrelling.


s: Wo't thou not smile or tell me what's amiss?


s: Have I been cold to hug thee, too remiss,


s: Too temp'rate in embracing? Tell me, has desire


s: To thee-ward died i' th' embers, and no fire


s: Left in this rak'd-up ash-heap as a mark


s: 'Twas done by me more to confirm my zeal


s: And double my affection on thee, as do those


s: Whose love grows more inflam'd by being foes.


s: But to forsake thee ever, could there be


s: When thou thyself dar'st say thy isles shall lack


s: Grapes before Herrick leaves canary sack.


s: Thou mak'st me airy, active to be borne,


s: Thou mak'st me nimble, as the winged hours,


s: To dance and caper on the heads of flowers,


s: And ride the sunbeams. Can there be a thing


s: Under the heavenly Isis[I] that can bring


s: Help from the garlic, onion and the leek


s: And pay no vows to thee, who wast their best


s: God, and far more transcendent than the rest?


s: Had Cassius, that weak water-drinker, known


s: Small chalice of thy frantic liquor, he,


s: Had not Jove's son,[J] that brave Tirynthian swain,


s: Full goblets of thy gen'rous blood, his sprite


s: Ne'er had kept heat for fifty maids that night.


s: Come, come and kiss me; love and lust commends


s: Thee and thy beauties; kiss, we will be friends


s: Too strong for fate to break us. Look upon


s: As queens meet queens, or come thou unto me


s: When her high carriage did at once present


s: Swell up my nerves with spirit; let my blood