s: More keenly.  His aspect grew troubled.  A change


s: Darken'd over his features.  He mutter'd "Strange! strange!


s: Any face should so strongly remind me of HER!


s: Fool! again the delirium, the dream! does it stir?


s: Your answer, my time halts but hurriedly.  State


s: She vaguely repeated.  Then, after a pause,--


s: As one who, awaked unawares, would put back


s: The sleep that forever returns in the track


s: Of dreams which, though scared and dispersed, not the less


s: Settle back to faint eyelids that yield 'neath their stress,


s: Like doves to a pent-house,--a movement she made,


s: Less toward him than away from herself; droop'd her head


s: And folded her hands on her bosom: long, spare,


s: Fatigued, mournful hands!  Not a stream of stray hair


s: Escaped the pale bands; scarce more pale than the face


s: Which they bound and lock'd up in a rigid white case.


s: She fix'd her eyes on him.  There crept a vague awe


s: The cause which recalls me again to your side,


s: Is a promise that rests unfulfill'd," she replied.


s: Where he sat, press'd his hand, as in doubt, o'er his face;


s: And, cautiously feeling each step o'er the ground


s: That he trod on (as one who walks fearing the sound


s: Of his footstep may startle and scare out of sight


s: Some strange sleeping creature on which he would 'light


s: Unawares), crept towards her; one heavy hand laid


s: On her shoulder in silence; bent o'er her his head,


s: Search'd her face with a long look of troubled appeal


s: Against doubt: stagger'd backward, and murmur'd... "Lucile?


s: As I pledged you my word that we should meet again.


s: Dead,..." she murmur'd, "long dead! all that lived in our lives--


s: The soul!  'Tis my soul seeks thine own.  What may reach


s: From my life to thy life (so wide each from each!)


s: Save the soul to the soul?  To thy soul I would speak.


s: And sad was the gaze which the Soeur Seraphine


s: Preluding the music yet mute in each string,


s: A swift hand athwart the hush'd heart of the whole,


s: Seeking which note most fitly must first move the soul;


s: And, leaving untroubled the deep chords below,


s: Move pathetic in numbers remote;--even so


s: The voice which was moving the heart of that man


s: Far away from its yet voiceless purpose began,


s: Far away in the pathos remote of the past;


s: Until, through her words, rose before him, at last,


s: Bright and dark in their beauty, the hopes that were gone


s: And still further down the dim past did she lead


s: Each yielding remembrance, far, far off, to feed


s: 'Mid the pastures of youth, in the twilight of hope,


s: And the valleys of boyhood, the fresh-flower'd slope


s: With its indistinct, passionate prescience of joy!


s: The unproved desire--the unaim'd aspiration--


s: The deep conscious life that forestalls consummation


s: With ever a flitting delight--one arm's length


s: In advance of the august inward impulse.


s: Of the spirit which troubles the seed in the sand


s: With the birth of the palm-tree!  Let ages expand


s: The glorious creature!  The ages lie shut


s: (Safe, see!) in the seed, at time's signal to put


s: Forth their beauty and power, leaf by leaf, layer on layer,


s: Till the palm strikes the sun, and stands broad in blue air.


s: So the palm in the palm-seed! so, slowly--so, wrought


s: Year by year unperceived, hope on hope, thought by thought,


s: Trace the growth of the man from its germ in the boy.


s: Ah, but Nature, that nurtures, may also destroy!


s: Charm the wind and the sun, lest some chance intervene!


s: While the leaf's in the bud, while the stem's in the green,


s: A light bird bends the branch, a light breeze breaks the bough,


s: Which, if spared by the light breeze, the light bird, may grow


s: To baffle the tempest, and rock the high nest,


s: And take both the bird and the breeze to its breast.


s: Shall we save a whole forest in sparing one seed?


s: Save the man in the boy? in the thought save the deed?


s: Let the whirlwind uproot the grown tree, if it can!


s: Save the seed from the north wind.  So let the grown man


s: Face our fate.  Spare the man-seed in youth.


s: And love, the wild song-bird, hath flown to the tree.


s: And the whirlwind comes after.  Now prove we, and see:


s: What shade from the leaf? what support from the branch?


s: The last when they met and they parted: a sight


s: For heaven to mourn o'er, for hell to rejoice!


s: An ineffable tenderness troubled her voice;


s: It grew weak, and a sigh broke it through.


s: (Never looking at her, never lifting his head,


s: As though, at his feet, there lay visibly hurl'd


s: Those fragments), "It was not a love, 'twas a world,


s: "So be it!  Perish Babel, arise Babylon!


s: From ruins like these rise the fanes that shall last,


s: And to build up the future heaven shatters the past."


s: "Ay," he moodily murmur'd, "and who cares to scan


s: The heart's perish'd world, if the world gains a man?


s: From the past to the present, though late, I appeal;


s: To the nun Seraphine, from the woman Lucile!"


s: Lucile!... the old name--the old self! silenced long:


s: By death to a new name and nature--surprised


s: 'Mid the songs of the seraphs, hears faintly, and far,


s: Some voice from the earth, left below a dim star,


s: Calling to her forlornly; and (sadd'ning the psalms


s: Of the angels, and piercing the Paradise palms!)


s: The name borne 'mid earthly beloveds on earth


s: Sigh'd above some lone grave in the land of her birth;--


s: So that one word... Lucile!... stirr'd the Soeur Seraphine,


s: For a moment.  Anon she resumed here serene


s: The life of the soldier!"... she said, with a face


s: There her voice rose, and seem'd as when some


s: Pale Priestess proclaims from her temple the praise


s: Of her hero whose brows she is crowning with bays.


s: Step by step did she follow his path from the place


s: Where their two paths diverged.  Year by year did she trace


s: (Familiar with all) his, the soldier's existence.


s: Her words were of trial, endurance, resistance;


s: Of the leaguer around this besieged world of ours:


s: And the same sentinels that ascend the same towers


s: And report the same foes, the same fears, the same strife,


s: Waged alike to the limits of each human life.


s: She went on to speak of the lone moody lord,


s: Shut up in his lone moody halls: every word


s: Held the weight of a tear: she recorded the good


s: He had patiently wrought through a whole neighborhood;


s: And the blessing that lived on the lips of the poor,


s: By the peasant's hearthstone, or the cottager's door.


s: There she paused: and her accents seem'd dipp'd in the hue


s: Of his own sombre heart, as the picture she drew


s: Of the poor, proud, sad spirit, rejecting love's wages,


s: Yet working love's work; reading backwards life's pages


s: For penance; and stubbornly, many a time,


s: Both missing the moral, and marring the rhyme.


s: Then she spoke of the soldier!... the man's work and fame,


s: The pride of a nation, a world's just acclaim!


s: And sank lower.  She spoke of herself: how, apart


s: And unseen,--far away,--she had watch'd, year by year,


s: With how many a blessing, how many a tear,


s: And how many a prayer, every stage in the strife:


s: Guess'd the thought in the deed: traced the love in the life:


s: Thine, Lucile!"... he exclaim'd... "all the worth of it thine,


s: His reward, and her own: joy that cannot be said


s: Alone by the voice... eyes--face--spoke silently:


s: A poor Sister of Charity! hers a life spent


s: Her divine face above him, and fill'd up his heart


s: He, the hero; whose heart hid in glory the pain


s: Of a youth disappointed; whose life had made known


s: The value of man's life!... that youth overthrown


s: And retrieved, had it left him no pity for youth


s: In another? his own life of strenuous truth


s: Accomplish'd in act, had it taught him no care


s: For the life of another?... oh no! everywhere


s: In the camp which she moved through, she came face to face


s: With some noble token, some generous trace


s: Of a man that is dying," she said.  "While we speak,


s: "Medicine? yes, for the mind!  'Tis a heart that needs aid!


s: You, Eugene de Luvois, you (and you only) can


s: Save the life of this man.  Will you save it?"


s: To her object in brief vivid words... The young son


s: Of Matilda and Alfred--the boy lying there


s: Half a mile from that tent door--the father's despair,


s: The mother's deep anguish--the pride of the boy


s: In the father--the father's one hope and one joy


s: In the son:---the son now--wounded, dying!  She told


s: Of the father's stern struggle with life: the boy's bold,


s: Pure, and beautiful nature: the fair life before him


s: If that life were but spared... yet a word might restore him!


s: The boy's broken love for the niece of Eugene!


s: Its pathos: the girl's love for him; how, half slain


s: In his tent, she had found him: won from him the tale;


s: Sought to nurse back his life; found her efforts still fail


s: Beaten back by a love that was stronger than life;


s: Of how bravely till then he had stood in that strife


s: Wherein England and France in their best blood, at last,


s: Had bathed from remembrance the wounds of the past.


s: And shall nations be nobler than men?  Are not great


s: Men the models of nations?  For what is a state


s: But the many's confused imitation of one?


s: Shall he, the fair hero of France, on the son


s: Of his ally seek vengeance, destroying perchance


s: An innocent life,--here, when England and France


s: Have forgiven the sins of their fathers of yore,


s: And baptized a new hope in their sons' recent gore?


s: She went on to tell how the boy had clung still


s: To life, for the sake of life's uses, until


s: From his weak hands the strong effort dropp'd, stricken down


s: By the news that the heart of Constance, like his own,


s: Interrupting, "Forbear!"... his whole face was inflamed


s: With the heart's swarthy thunder which yet, while she spoke,


s: Had been gathering silent--at last the storm broke


s: Checking suddenly short the tumultuous stride,


s: "That I owe these late greetings--for him you are here--


s: For his sake you seek me--for him, it is clear,


s: You have deign'd at the last to bethink you again


s: "Ha! fool that I was!"... he went on,... "and just now,


s: While you spoke yet, my heart was beginning to grow


s: Almost boyish again, almost sure of ONE friend!


s: Yet this was the meaning of all--this the end!


s: Be it so!  There's a sort of slow justice (admit!)


s: In this--that the word that man's finger hath writ


s: In fire on my heart, I return him at last.


s: Must the present be vassal?" she said.  "In the hour


s: We last parted I urged you to put forth the power


s: Which I felt to be yours, in the conquest of life.


s: Yours, the promise to strive: mine--to watch o'er the strife.


s: I foresaw you would conquer; you HAVE conquer'd much,


s: Much, indeed, that is noble!  I hail it as such,


s: And am here to record and applaud it.  I saw


s: Not the less in your nature, Eugene de Luvois,


s: One peril--one point where I feared you would fail


s: To subdue that worst foe which a man can assail,--


s: Himself: and I promised that, if I should see


s: My champion once falter, or bend the brave knee,


s: That moment would bring me again to his side.


s: That moment is come! for that peril was pride,


s: And you falter.  I plead for yourself, and another,


s: For that gentle child without father or mother,


s: To whom you are both.  I plead, soldier of France,


s: For your own nobler nature--and plead for Constance!"


s: At the sound of that name he averted his head.


s: "Constance!... Ay, she enter'd MY lone life" (he said)


s: "When its sun was long set; and hung over its night


s: Her own starry childhood.  I have but that light,


s: In the midst of much darkness!  Who names me but she


s: With titles of love?  And what rests there for me


s: In the silence of age save the voice of that child?


s: The child of my own better life, undefiled!


s: My creature, carved out of my heart of hearts!"


s: Said the Soeur Seraphine--"are you able to lay


s: Your hand as a knight on your heart as a man


s: And swear that, whatever may happen, you can


s: Feel assured for the life you thus cherish?"


s: He look'd up.  "if the boy should die thus?"


s: What your look would imply... this sleek stranger forsooth!


s: Because on his cheek was the red rose of youth


s: The heart of my niece must break for it!"


s: Unheeding her words, he was pacing the tent,


s: He was muttering low to himself as he went.


s: Ay, these young things lie safe in our heart just so long


s: As their wings are in growing; and when these are strong


s: They break it, and farewell! the bird flies!"...


s: Laid her hand on the soldier, and murmur'd, "The sun


s: Is descending, life fleets while we talk thus! oh, yet


s: Let this day upon one final victory set,


s: If Constance wed the son of this man, by whose hand


s: My heart hath been robb'd, she is lost to my life!


s: Can her home be my home?  Can I claim in the wife


s: Of that man's son the child of my age?  At her side


s: Shall he stand on my hearth?  Shall I sue to the bride


s: Of my Norman forefathers, whose shadow yet falls


s: On my fancy, and fuses hope, memory, past,


s: Present,--all, in one silence! old trees to the blast


s: Of the North Sea repeating the tale of old days,


s: Nevermore, nevermore in the wild bosky ways


s: Shall I hear through your umbrage ancestral the wind


s: Prophesy as of yore, when it shook the deep mind


s: Of my boyhood, with whispers from out the far years


s: Of love, fame, the raptures life cools down with tears!


s: Henceforth shall the tread of a Vargrave alone


s: Of the man whom unjustly you hate; only think


s: Of this young human creature, that cries from the brink


s: (Words my memory mournfully ever records!)


s: How with love may be wreck'd a whole life! then, Eugene,


s: Look with me (still those words in our ears!) once again


s: At this young soldier sinking from life here--dragg'd down


s: By the weight of the love in his heart: no renown,


s: No fame comforts HIM! nations shout not above


s: The lone grave down to which he is bearing the love


s: Which life has rejected!  Will YOU stand apart?


s: You, with such a love's memory deep in your heart!


s: You the hero, whose life hath perchance been led on


s: Through the deeds it hath wrought to the fame it hath won,


s: By recalling the visions and dreams of a youth,


s: Such as lies at your door now: who have but, in truth,


s: To stretch forth a hand, to speak only one word,


s: Still he sought to put from him the cup, bow'd his face


s: on his hand; and anon, as though wishing to chase


s: With one angry gesture his own thoughts aside,


s: He sprang up, brush'd past her, and bitterly cried,


s: "No!--Constance wed a Vargrave!"--I cannot consent!"


s: In her sudden uprising, seem'd dwarf'd by the height


s: From which those imperial eyes pour'd the light


s: He felt, as it were, his own stature shrink under


s: The compulsion of that grave regard!  For between


s: At that moment there rose all the height of one soul


s: O'er another; she look'd down on him from the whole


s: Lonely length of a life.  There were sad nights and days,


s: There were long months and years in that heart-searching gaze;


s: And her voice, when she spoke, with sharp pathos thrill'd through


s: I might have been now--not this wandering nun,


s: But a mother, a wife--pleading, not for the son


s: Of another, but blessing some child of my own,


s: His,--the man's that I once loved!... Hush! that which is done


s: I regret not.  I breathe no reproaches.  That's best


s: Which God sends.  'Twas his will: it is mine.  And the rest


s: Of that riddle I will not look back to.  He reads


s: In your heart--He that judges of all thoughts and deeds.


s: With eyes, mine forestall not!  This only I say:


s: You have not the right (read it, you, as you may!)


s: She murmur'd, "but man!  The lone nun standing here


s: Has no claim upon earth, and is pass'd from the sphere


s: Of earth's wrongs and earth's reparations.  But she,


s: The dead woman, Lucile, she whose grave is in me,


s: Demands from her grave reparation to man,


s: Reparation to God.  Heed, O heed, while you can,


s: The Soeur Seraphine.  There, Lucile! let this pay


s: Every debt that is due to that grave.  Now lead on:


s: I follow you, Soeur Seraphine!... To the son


s: Of Lord Alfred Vargrave... and then,"...


s: He lifted the tent-door, and down the dun smoke


s: Pointed out the dark bastions, with batteries crown'd,


s: Let the old tree go down to the earth--the old tree


s: With the worm at its heart!  Lay the axe to the root!


s: Who will miss the old stump, so we save the young shoot?


s: A Vargrave!... this pays all... Lead on!  In the seed


s: I follow... forth, forth! where you lead."


s: The day was declining; a day sick and damp.


s: In a blank ghostly glare shone the bleak ghostly camp


s: Of the English.  Alone in his dim, spectral tent


s: (Himself the wan spectre of youth), with eyes bent


s: On the daylight departing, the sick man was sitting


s: Upon his low pallet.  These thoughts, vaguely flitting,


s: Cross'd the silence between him and death, which seem'd near,


s: --"Pain o'erreaches itself, so is balk'd! else, how bear


s: With its eye on my heart and its hand on my blood?


s: Pulse by pulse!  Day goes down: yet she comes not again.


s: Other suffering, doubtless, where hope is more plain,


s: Claims her elsewhere.  I die, strange! and scarcely feel sad.


s: Oh, to think of Constance THUS, and not to go mad!


s: But Death, it would seem, dulls the sense to his own


s: But who stands at her side, mute and dark in the door?


s: How oft had he watch'd through the glory and gloom


s: Of the battle, with long, longing looks, that dim plume


s: Which now (one stray sunbeam upon it) shook, stoop'd


s: To where the tent-curtain, dividing, was loop'd!


s: How that stern face had haunted and hover'd about


s: The dreams it still scared! through what fond fear and doubt


s: Had the boy yearn'd in heart to the hero.  (What's like


s: A boy's love for some famous man?)... Oh, to strike


s: A wild path through the battle, down striking perchance


s: Some rash foeman too near the great soldier of France,


s: And so fall in his glorious regard!... Oft, how oft,


s: Had his heart flash'd this hope out, whilst watching aloft


s: The dim battle that plume dance and dart--never seen


s: So near till this moment! how eager to glean


s: Every stray word, dropp'd through the camp-babble in praise


s: Of his hero--each tale of old venturous days


s: In the desert!  And now... could he speak out his heart


s: The sick soldier sprang up: the blood sprang up in him,


s: To his throat, and o'erthrew him: he reel'd back: a dim


s: Sanguine haze fill'd his eyes; in his ears rose the din


s: And rush, as of cataracts loosen'd within,


s: Through which he saw faintly, and heard, the pale nun


s: (Looking larger than life, where she stood in the sun)


s: Point to him and murmur, "Behold!"  Then that plume


s: Seem'd to wave like a fire, and fade off in the gloom


s: Moved the man the boy dreaded yet loved... "Ah!"... he sigh'd,


s: "The smooth brow, the fair Vargrave face! and those eyes,


s: All the mother's!  The old things again!


s: So young? yes! and yet I have tangled among


s: The fray'd warp and woof of this brief life of mine


s: Other lives than my own.  Could my death but untwine


s: The vext skein... but it will not.  Yes, Duke, young--so young!


s: And I knew you not? yet I have done you a wrong


s: Irreparable!... late, too late to repair.


s: If I knew any means... but I know none!... I swear,


s: If this broken fraction of time could extend


s: Into infinite lives of atonement, no end


s: Would seem too remote for my grief (could that be!)


s: To include it!  Not too late, however, for me


s: To entreat: is it too late for you to forgive?


s: Such a very few hours left to life, yet I shrink,


s: I falter... Yes, Duke, your forgiveness I think


s: That a boy's beating heart, burning thoughts, longing eyes


s: Were following you evermore (heeded not!)


s: While the battle was flowing between us: nor what


s: Eager, dubious footsteps at nightfall oft went


s: With the wind and the rain, round and round your blind tent,


s: Persistent and wild as the wind and the rain,


s: Unnoticed as these, weak as these, and as vain!


s: Oh, how obdurate then look'd your tent!  The waste air


s: Grew stern at the gleam which said... "Off! he is there!"


s: Brings you here, whence the man whom you see lying low


s: Other footsteps (not those!) must soon bear to the grave.


s: But death is at hand, and the few words I have


s: Yet to speak, I must speak them at once.


s: As I lie here, (Death's angel too close not to hear!)


s: That I meant not this wrong to you.  Duc de Luvois,


s: I loved your niece--loved? why, I LOVE her! I saw,


s: And, seeing, how could I but love her?  I seem'd


s: Born to love her.  Alas, were that all!  Had I dream'd


s: Of this love's cruel consequence as it rests now


s: That the secret, unknown, had gone down to the tomb


s: Into which I descend... Oh why, whilst there was room


s: In life left for warning, had no one the heart


s: To warn me?  Had any one whisper'd... "Depart!"


s: To the hope the whole world seem'd in league then to nurse!


s: Had any one hinted... "Beware of the curse


s: Which is coming!"  There was not a voice raised to tell,


s: Not a hand moved to warn from the blow ere it fell,


s: And then... then the blow fell on BOTH!  This is why


s: I implore you to pardon that great injury


s: Wrought on her, and, through her, wrought on you, Heaven knows


s: That I came here to seek, not grant, pardon?--


s: No boyish resentment; not one lonely thought


s: That honors you not.  In all this there is naught


s: Of your great life starts forward, an eloquent fact,


s: To confirm in my boy's heart its faith in your own.


s: A hundred great acts from your life?  Nay, all these,


s: Were they so many lying and false witnesses,


s: Does there rest not ONE voice which was never untrue?


s: I believe in Constance, Duke, as she does in you!


s: In this great world around us, wherever we turn,


s: And yet--there sits God, calm in Heaven above!


s: Do we trust one whit less in his justice or love?


s: Your father and I--foes we were in our youth.


s: It matters not why.  Yet thus much understand:


s: The hope of my youth was sign'd out by his hand.


s: I was not of those whom the buffets of fate


s: Tame and teach; and my heart buried slain love in hate.


s: If your own frank young heart, yet unconscious of all


s: Which turns the heart's blood in its springtide to gall,


s: And unable to guess even aught that the furrow


s: Across these gray brows hides of sin or of sorrow,


s: Comprehends not the evil and grief of my life,


s: 'Twill at least comprehend how intense was the strife


s: Which is closed in this act of atonement, whereby


s: The friend of my age.  Let the present release


s: Here acquitted the past!  In the name of my niece,


s: Whom for my life in yours as a hostage I give,


s: Are you great enough, boy, to forgive me,--and live?


s: Whilst he spoke thus, a doubtful tumultuous joy


s: Chased its fleeting effects o'er the face of the boy:


s: As when some stormy moon, in a long cloud confined,


s: Struggles outward through shadows, the varying wind


s: Alternates, and bursts, self-surprised, from her prison,


s: So that slow joy grew clear in his face.  He had risen


s: To answer the Duke; but strength fail'd every limb;


s: A strange, happy feebleness trembled through him.


s: With a faint cry of rapturous wonder, he sank


s: On the breast of the nun, who stood near.


s: This guardian angel," the Duke said.  "I--you,


s: We owe all to her.  Crown her work.  Live! be true


s: To your young life's fair promise, and live for her sake!"


s: "Yes, Duke: I will live.  I MUST live--live to make


s: My whole life the answer you claim," the boy said,


s: Declined on the nun's gentle bosom.  She saw


s: His lips quiver, and motion'd the Duke to withdraw


s: Them both with a wistful regard; turn'd and sigh'd,


s: And lifted the tent-door, and pass'd from the tent.


s: Like a furnace, the fervid, intense occident


s: From its hot seething levels a great glare struck up


s: On the sick metal sky.  And, as out of a cup


s: Some witch watches boiling wild portents arise,


s: As of snakes, salamanders, efts, lizards, storks, apes,


s: Chimeras, and hydras: whilst--ever the same


s: In the midst of all these (creatures fused by his flame,


s: And changed by his influence!) changeless, as when,


s: Ere he lit down to death generations of men,


s: O'er that crude and ungainly creation, which there


s: With wild shapes this cloud-world seem'd to mimic in air,


s: The eye of Heaven's all-judging witness, he shone.


s: And shall shine on the ages we reach not--the sun!


s: Nature posted her parable thus in the skies,


s: And the man's heart bore witness.  Life's vapors arise


s: And fall, pass and change, group themselves and revolve


s: Round the great central life, which is love: these dissolve


s: And resume themselves, here assume beauty, there terror;


s: And the phantasmagoria of infinite error,


s: And endless complexity, lasts but a while;


s: Life's self, the immortal, immutable smile


s: Of God, on the soul in the deep heart of Heaven


s: Lives changeless, unchanged: and our morning and even


s: Watched the skies, with this thought in his heart; while he set


s: Thus unconsciously all his life forth in his mind,


s: Summ'd it up, search'd it out, proved it vapor and wind,


s: And embraced the new life which that hour had reveal'd,--


s: Love's life, which earth's life had defaced and conceal'd;


s: Aroused him; and, turning towards her, he said:


s: What is happier than to have hoped not in vain?"


s: "Thank Heaven!" she murmur'd.  He musingly bent


s: His looks on the sunset, and somewhat apart


s: Where he stood, sigh'd, as though to his innermost heart,


s: "O bless'd are they, amongst whom I was not,


s: Whose morning unclouded, without stain or spot,


s: Predicts a pure evening; who, sunlike, in light


s: Have traversed, unsullied, the world, and set bright!"


s: But she in response, "Mark yon ship far away,


s: Asleep on the wave, in the last light of day,


s: With all its hush'd thunders shut up!  Would you know


s: A thought which came to me a few days ago,


s: Whilst watching those ships?... When the great Ship of Life


s: Surviving, though shatter'd, the tumult and strife


s: Of earth's angry element,--masts broken short,


s: Decks drench'd, bulwarks beaten--drives safe into port;


s: When the Pilot of Galilee, seen on the strand,


s: Stretches over the waters a welcoming hand;


s: When, heeding no longer the sea's baffled roar,


s: What will then be the answer the helmsman must give?


s: Will it be... 'Lo our log-book!  Thus once did we live


s: In the zones of the South; thus we traversed the seas


s: Of the Orient; there dwelt with the Hesperides;


s: Thence follow'd the west wind; here, eastward we turn'd;


s: The stars fail'd us there; just here land we discern'd


s: On our lee; there the storm overtook us at last;


s: That day went the bowsprit, the next day the mast;


s: There the mermen came round us, and there we saw bask


s: A siren?'  The Captain of Port will he ask


s: Any one of such questions?  I cannot think so!


s: But... 'What is the last Bill of Health you can show?'


s: Not--How fared the soul through the trials she pass'd?


s: But--What is the state of that soul at the last?"


s: "May it be so!" he sigh'd.  "There the sun drops, behold!"


s: And indeed, whilst he spoke all the purple and gold


s: In the west had turn'd ashen, save one fading strip


s: Of light that yet gleam'd from the dark nether lip


s: Of a long reef of cloud; and o'er sullen ravines


s: And ridges the raw damps were hanging white screens


s: "O God of the living! whilst yet 'mid the dead


s: And the dying we stand here alive, and thy days


s: Returning, admit space for prayer and for praise,


s: Needs the compass to steer by.  Pray always.  Again


s: We two part: each to work out Heaven's will: you, I trust,


s: In the world's ample witness; and I, as I must,


s: In secret and silence: you, love, fame, await;


s: Me, sorrow and sickness.  We meet at one gate


s: When all's over.  The ways they are many and wide,


s: And seldom are two ways the same.  Side by side


s: May we stand at the same little door when all's done!


s: The ways they are many, the end it is one.


s: He that knocketh shall enter: who asks shall obtain:


s: And who seeketh, he findeth.  Remember, Eugene!"


s: She stretch'd forth her hand where, already outspread


s: On the darken'd horizon, remotely they saw


s: "See yonder vast host, with its manifold heart


s: Made as one man's by one hope!  The hope 'tis your part


s: To aid towards achievement, to save from reverse


s: Mine, through suffering to soothe, and through sickness to nurse.


s: On the wide wasting evening there distantly broke


s: The low roll of musketry.  Straightway, anon,


s: From the dim Flag-staff Battery bellow'd a gun.


s: Her form, now and then, on the flat lurid sky


s: Rise, and sink, and recede through the mists: by and by


s: The vapors closed round, and he saw her no more.


s: Nor shall we.  For her mission, accomplish'd, is o'er.


s: The mission of genius on earth!  To uplift,


s: Purify, and confirm by its own gracious gift,


s: The world, in despite of the world's dull endeavor


s: To degrade, and drag down, and oppose it forever.


s: The mission of genius: to watch, and to wait,


s: The mission of woman on earth! to give birth


s: To the mercy of Heaven descending on earth.


s: The mission of woman: permitted to bruise


s: The head of the serpent, and sweetly infuse,


s: Through the sorrow and sin of earth's register'd curse,


s: The blessing which mitigates all: born to nurse,


s: And to soothe, and to solace, to help and to heal


s: The sick world that leans on her.  This was Lucile.


s: A power hid in pathos: a fire veil'd in cloud:


s: Yet still burning outward: a branch which, though bow'd


s: By the bird in its passage, springs upward again:


s: Through all symbols I search for her sweetness--in vain!


s: Judge her love by her life.  For our life is but love


s: In act.  Pure was hers: and the dear God above,


s: Who knows what His creatures have need of for life,


s: And whose love includes all loves, through much patient strife


s: Led her soul into peace.  Love, though love may be given


s: In vain, is yet lovely.  Her own native heaven


s: More clearly she mirror'd, as life's troubled dream


s: Wore away; and love sigh'd into rest, like a stream


s: That breaks its heart over wild rocks toward the shore


s: Of the great sea which hushes it up evermore


s: With its little wild wailing.  No stream from its source


s: Flows seaward, how lonely soever its course,


s: But what some land is gladden'd.  No star ever rose


s: And set, without influence somewhere.  Who knows


s: What earth needs from earth's lowest creature?  No life


s: Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife


s: And all life not be purer and stronger thereby.


s: The spirits of just men made perfect on high,


s: The army of martyrs who stand by the Throne


s: And gaze into the face that makes glorious their own,


s: Know this, surely, at last.  Honest love, honest sorrow,


s: Honest work for the day, honest hope for the morrow,


s: Are these worth nothing more than the hand they make weary,


s: The heart they have sadden'd, the life they leave dreary?


s: Hush! the sevenhold heavens to the voice of the Spirit


s: Echo: He that o'ercometh shall all things inherit.


s: The moon was, in fire, carried up through the fog;


s: The loud fortress bark'd at her like a chained dog.


s: The horizon pulsed flame, the air sound.  All without,


s: War and winter, and twilight, and terror, and doubt;


s: Eugene de Luvois with a deep, thoughtful smile


s: Linger'd, looking, and listening, lone by the tent.


s: At last he withdrew, and night closed as he went.


s: Poems Written under the Influence of Wordsworth


s: ERRATUM:  Reader, a blot hath escaped the watchfulness of the


s: thirteen lines withal:  add another to thy liking, if thou art a


s: Maker; or, if thou art none, even be content with what is set


s: Whose sires were to the Auld Alliance true,


s: One stood by thee that fiery torment through,


s: Till the White Dove from thy pure lips had passed,


s: And thou wert with thine own St. Catherine at the last.


s: Thine own face painted, and that precious thing


s: Alas, what price would not thy people bring


s: Gulf of devouring years that hide the Maid from us!


s: One of that name I would were kin to me,


s: To fight for France, and memory of thee:


s: Not on the North may fall the shadow of that shame.


s: Of coward hate and treason black must be;


s: And still thy Church unto the Maid denies


s: The halo and the palms, the Beatific prize.


s: Of Orleans; and makes its prayer to thee;


s: Yet art thou with this earth's immortal Three,


s: With him in Athens that of hemlock died,


s: And with thy Master dear whom the world crucified.


s: Ye hae heard Whigs crack o' the Saints in the Bass, my faith, a


s: How the Remnant paid at a tippeny rate, for a quart o' ha'penny


s: The Bass stands frae North Berwick Law a league or less to sea,


s: About its feet the breakers beat, abune the sea-maws flee,


s: There's castle stark and dungeon dark, wherein the godly lay,


s: That made their rant for the Covenant through mony a weary day.


s: For twal' years lang the caverns rang wi' preaching, prayer, and


s: Ye'd think the winds were soughing wild, when a' the winds were


s: There wad they preach, each Saint to each, and glower as the


s: And Peden wared his malison on a bonny leaguer lass,


s: As she stood and daffed, while the warders laughed, and wha sae


s: But a wind o' ill worked his warlock will, and flang her out to


s: Then wha sae bright as the Saints that night, and an angel came,


s: And sang in the cell where the Righteous dwell, but he took na a


s: Wi' Cess, and Press, and Presbytery, and a' the dule sin' syne,


s: The Saints won free wi' the power o' the key, and cavaliers maun


s: It was Halyburton, Middleton, and Roy and young Dunbar,


s: And they were warded in the Bass, till the time they should be


s: Where bluidy Mitchell, and Blackader, and Earlston lang had lain;


s: It isna by preaching half the night, ye'll burst a dungeon door,


s: It wasna by dint o' psalmody they broke the hold, they four,


s: There's but ae pass gangs up the Bass, it's guarded wi' strong


s: And this did they do when they helped a crew that brought their


s: And they trained the guns on the soldier loons that were down wi'


s: They had nae desire to face the fire; it was mair than men might


s: And they hirpled doun to Edinburgh toun, wi' the story of their


s: But they never could catch the Cavaliers, who took toll of ships


s: And they lifted the kye o' Whigs far and nigh, and they revelled


s: Then Wullie Wanbeard sends his ships to siege the Bass in form,


s: And first shall they break the fortress down, and syne the Rock


s: After twa days' fight they fled in the night, and glad eneuch to


s: With their rigging rent, and their powder spent, and many a man


s: Till nae food had they, but twa ounce a day o' meal was the maist


s: And men fight but tame on an empty wame, so they sent a flag o'


s: And blithe were the Privy Council then, when the Whigs had heard


s: Twa Lords they sent wi' a strang intent to be dour on each


s: And the Whigs thocht then he had food and men to stand for the


s: Wi' sword by side, and flag o' pride, free men might they gang


s: Wullie Wanbeard's purse maun pay the keep o' the men that did him


s: Men never hae gotten sic terms o' peace since first men went to


s: As got Halyburton, and Middleton, and Roy, and the young Dunbar.


s: Sae I drink to ye here, To the Young Chevalier!  I hae said ye an


s: To the hills and the sounds of the North:


s: For thy father, thy faith, and thy crown!


s: And make a Heaven of Earth, ere Heaven begin?


s: The wise may search the world from end to end,


s: From dusty nook to dusty nook, my friend,


s: And nothing better find than girls and wine,


s: Of all the things they neither make nor mend.


s: Nay, listen thou who, walking on Life's way,


s: Hast seen no lovelock of thy love's grow grey


s: Listen, and love thy life, and let the Wheel


s: Of Heaven go spinning its own wilful way.


s: Man is a lamp, wherein the Soul doth shine,


s: Man is a shaken reed, wherein that wind,


s: Each morn I say, to-night I will repent,


s: Repent! and each night go the way I went -


s: The way of Wine; but now that reigns the rose,


s: Lord of Repentance, rage not, but relent.


s: I wish to drink of wine--so deep, so deep -


s: The scent of wine my sepulchre shall steep,


s: Shall breathe it, and in Wine shall fall asleep.


s: Lay the King's skull, whereby a bird flew down


s: 'And where,' he sang, 'is all thy clash of arms?


s: Where the sonorous trumps of thy renown?'


s: 'Of these, from those,' he cried, 'we come,


s: Our hearts, our brains descend from these.'


s: Who strive and toil:  strange race of men.


s: 'But were there cause for moan or mirth,


s: Most childish children Earth has borne.'


s: This morning I vowed I would bring thee my Roses,


s: They were thrust in the band that my bodice encloses,


s: But the breast-knots were broken, the Roses went free.


s: The breast-knots were broken; the Roses together


s: Floated forth on the wings of the wind and the weather,


s: And they drifted afar down the streams of the sea.


s: And the sea was as red as when sunset uncloses,


s: But my raiment is sweet from the scent of the Roses,


s: Thou shalt know, Love, how fragrant a memory can be.


s: All we, whose beards are flecked with grey,


s: No squire, nor dame, nor knight remains,


s: Leap'd, and the world was glad with May!


s: Shifts for a while, then mournful stands


s: To touch these lips that ne'er said 'Nay,'


s: This gift for Maude, and that for Molly,


s: Though half we sigh, Heigh-ho, the Holly!


s: Bird of the graces, dear sea-mew, whose note


s: In death thy wings and thy sweet spirit float


s: For homeward safe did other vessels fly,


s: I love not the wine-cup, but if thou art fain


s: I should drink, do thou taste it, and bring it to me;


s: If it touch but thy lips it were hard to refrain,


s: It were hard from the sweet maid who bears it to flee;


s: For the cup ferries over the kisses, and plain


s: Does it speak of the grace that was given it by thee.


s: Crowned with thy lover's flowers, forget


s: That breathe o'er isles where memories dwell


s: The bruised Marsh-myrtle breatheth keen;


s: Thy mouth is fresh as cherries on the bough,


s: Red cherries in the dawning, and more white


s: Than milk or white camellias is thy brow;


s: And as the golden corn thy hair is bright,


s: The corn that drinks the Sun's less fair than thou;


s: While through thine eyes the child-soul gazeth now -


s: Eyes like the flower that was Rousseau's delight.


s: Yellow and long; while thou, all skin and bone,


s: Shalt hosts of children to the sermon hale,


s: Blare hymns, read chapters, backbite, and intone?


s: While coats were turning, crowns were falling,


s: Now far from heaven, and safe from hell,


s: Ye're far frae kelpie, wraith, and ghaist,


s: The voice o' him that tells them quavers


s: Mist, though I love thee not, who puttest down


s: Trout in the Lochs, (they feed not, as a rule,


s: When fogs have fallen, and the air is lown,


s: The fat folds rest,) thou, Mist, hast power to cool


s: Who raves reciting through the heather brown.


s: Who cries 'How lovely!' and who does not spare


s: When light and shadow on the mountain pass,--


s: Shadow and light, and gleams exceeding fair,


s: O'er rock, and glade, and glen,--to shout, the Ass,


s: To me, to me the Poet, 'Oh, look there!'


s: When now the hills are swathed in modest mist,


s: Here once thy daughters, young Romance, did dwell,


s: Where that fond Matron knew her Lover near,


s: And here we sit, and wait for tea, and sigh,


s: While the sad rain sobs in the sullen mere,


s: And all our hearts go forth into the cry,


s: Would that the teller of the tale were here!


s: And many a love was smirched with lust -


s: When much was talked of boats and crews,


s: Salvator.  Her history is quite unknown.]


s: They know not her 'whence' nor her 'whither,'


s: Was she pretty or plain?  Did she mate, or


s: The learned may scorn her and scout her,


s: Here's to Kate! she's our own, and she's dear to


s: When "Moon," and "tune," and "afternoon,"


s: These things can pierce the heart like swords!


s: Though mayflies down the Test are rolling,


s: Though sweet, the silver showers between,


s: They write:  from Deal, and from Dacotah,


s: O friends with postage-stamps in plenty,


s: Or wreak yourselves upon your neighbours,


s: With 'babe' there's scarce a sound will chime,


s: There's not one sound is worth a 'dime':


s: The thought of 'move' (pronounced as muv).


s: Ye're seekin' sport!  There's nane ava',


s: While through them flit their ghosts--to wit,


s: Call them not shams--from haunted Glamis


s: That House I'd sought with anxious thought,


s: The next in turn saw corpse lights burn,


s: 'A French writer (whom I love well) speaks of three kinds of


s: companions,--men, women, and books.'--Sir John Davys.


s: Three kinds of companions, men, women, and books,


s: Were enough, said the elderly Sage, for his ends.


s: And the women we deem that he chose for their looks,


s: And the men for their cellars:  the books were his friends:


s: 'Man delights me not,' often, 'nor woman,' but books


s: Are the best of good comrades in loneliest nooks.


s: For man will be wrangling--for woman will fret


s: Like the Sage in our Plato, I'm 'anxious to get


s: On the side'--on the sunnier side--'of a wall.'


s: Let the wind of the world toss the nations like rooks,


s: If only you'll leave me at peace with my Books.


s: And which are my books? why, 'tis much as you please,


s: For, given 'tis a book, it can hardly be wrong,


s: And Bradshaw himself I can study with ease,


s: Though for choice I might call for a Sermon or Song;


s: 'Tom Brown,' and Plotinus, they're all of them Books.


s: There's Fielding to lap one in currents of mirth;


s: There's Herrick to sing of a flower or a fay;


s: Or good Maitre Francoys to bring one to earth,


s: If Shelley or Coleridge have snatched one away:


s: There is Tylor on Totems, there's all sorts of Books.


s: There's roaming in regions where every one's been,


s: Encounters where no one was ever before,


s: There's 'Leaves' from the Highlands we owe to the Queen,


s: There's Holly's and Leo's adventures in Kor:


s: There's Tanner who dwelt with Pawnees and Chinooks,


s: You can cover a great deal of country in Books.


s: There are books, highly thought of, that nobody reads,


s: There is Geusius' dearly delectable tome


s: Of the Cannibal--he on his neighbour who feeds -


s: And in blood-red morocco 'tis bound, by Derome;


s: There's Montaigne here (a Foppens), there's Roberts (on Flukes),


s: There's Elzevirs, Aldines, and Gryphius' Books.


s: There's Bunyan, there's Walton, in early editions,


s: There's quaint old Quevedo adream with his visions,


s: There's Johnson the portly, and Burton the spare;


s: There's Boston of Ettrick, who preached of the 'Crooks


s: In the Lots' of us mortals, who bargain for Books.


s: There's Ruskin to keep one exclaiming 'What next?'


s: There's Browning to puzzle, and Gilbert to chaff,


s: And Marcus Aurelius to soothe one if vexed,


s: And good MARCUS TVAINUS to lend you a laugh;


s: There be capital tomes that are filled with fly-hooks,


s: And I've frequently found them the best kind of Books.


s: Poet, beware!  The sonnet's primrose path


s: Is all too tempting for thy feet to tread.


s: Not on this journey shalt thou earn thy bread,


s: Because the sated reader roars in wrath:


s: And little sense in all that he hath said;


s: Such rhymes are lightly writ but hardly read,


s: And naught but stubble is his aftermath!'


s: Then shall he cast that bonny book of thine


s: Where the extreme waste-paper basket gapes,


s: There shall thy futile fancies peak and pine,


s: Who come a long way short of the divine,


s: Ho, warders, cry a tournay! ho, heralds, call the knights!


s: What gallant lance for old Romance 'gainst modern fiction fights?


s: St. Chad to shield, a stricken field shall we behold to-day!


s: First to the Northern barriers pricks Roland of Roncesvaux,


s: And by his side, in knightly pride, Wilfred of Ivanhoe,


s: The Templar rideth by his rein, two gallant foes were they;


s: And proud to see, le brave Bussy his colours doth display.


s: Ready at need he comes with speed, William of Deloraine,


s: And Hereward the Wake himself is pricking o'er the plain.


s: The good knight of La Mancha's here, here is Sir Amyas Leigh,


s: And Eric of the gold hair, pride of Northern chivalry.


s: There shines the steel of Alan Breck, the sword of Athos shines,


s: Dalgetty on Gustavus rides along the marshalled lines,


s: But who upon the Modern side are champions?  With the sleeve


s: Adorned of his false lady-love, rides glorious David Grieve,


s: A bookseller sometime was he, in a provincial town,


s: But now before his iron mace go horse and rider down.


s: Ho, Robert Elsmere! count thy beads; lo, champion of the fray,


s: With brandished colt, comes Felix Holt, all of the Modern day.


s: And Silas Lapham's six-shooter is cocked:  the Colonel's spry!


s: There spurs the wary Egoist, defiance in his eye;


s: There Zola's ragged regiment comes, with dynamite in hand,


s: And Flaubert's crew of country doctors devastate the land.


s: On Robert Elsmere Friar Tuck falls with his quarter-staff,


s: Nom De! to see the clerics fight might make the sourest laugh!


s: About the mace of David Grieve his blood is flowing red,


s: Alas for ancient chivalry, le brave Bussy is sped!


s: Yet where the sombre Templar rides the Modern caitiffs fly,


s: The Mummer (of The Mummer's Wife) has got it in the eye,


s: From Felix Holt his patent Colt hath not averted fate,


s: And Silas Lapham's smitten fair, right through his gallant pate.


s: There Dan Deronda reels and falls, a hero sore surprised;


s: Ha, Beauseant! still may such fate befall the Circumcised!


s: The Egoist is flying fast from him of Ivanhoe:


s: Beneath the axe of Skalagrim fall prigs at every blow:


s: The ragged Zolaists have fled, screaming 'We are betrayed,'


s: But loyal Alan Breck is shent, stabbed through the Stuart plaid;


s: In sooth it is a grimly sight, so fast the heroes fall,


s: Three volumes fell could scarcely tell the fortunes of them all.


s: At length but two are left on ground, and David Grieve is one.


s: Ma foy, what deeds of derring-do that bookseller hath done!


s: The other, mark the giant frame, the great portentous fist!


s: 'Tis Porthos!  David Grieve may call on Kuenen an he list.


s: The swords are crossed; Doublez, degagez, vite! great Porthos


s: And David drops, that secret botte hath pierced his overalls!


s: And goodly Porthos, as of old the famed Orthryades,


s: Raises the trophy of the fight, then falling on his knees,


s: He writes in gore upon his shield, 'Romance, Romance, has won!'


s: And blood-red on that stricken field goes down the angry sun.


s: Night falls upon the field of death, night on the darkling lea:


s: Oh send us such a tournay soon, and send me there to see!


s: She shoots, and stabs, and robs, and flings


s: Runs red waist-high with slain men's blood.


s: And strew the green boughs on the ground,


s: Since I have set my lips to your full cup, my sweet,


s: Since I my pallid face between your hands have laid,


s: Since I have known your soul and all the bloom of it,


s: And all the perfume rare, now buried in the shade,


s: Since it was given to me to hear one happy while


s: The words wherein your heart spoke all its mysteries,


s: Since I have seen you weep, and since I have seen you smile,


s: Your lips upon my lips, and your eyes upon my eyes;


s: Since I have known above my forehead glance and gleam,


s: A ray, a single ray of your star veiled always,


s: Since I have felt the fall upon my lifetime's stream


s: Of one rose-petal plucked from the roses of your days;


s: I now am bold to say to the swift-changing hours,


s: Pass, pass upon your way, for I grow never old.


s: Fleet to the dark abyss with all your fading flowers,


s: One rose that none may pluck within my heart I hold.


s: Your flying wings may smite, but they can never spill


s: The cup fulfilled of love from which my lips are wet,


s: My heart has far more fire than you have frost to chill.


s: My soul more love than you can make my soul forget.


s: Hide this one night thy crescent, kindly Moon,


s: So shall Endymion faithful prove, and rest


s: Thy quiet course, for now the night is boon,


s: And through the friendly night unseen I fare


s: And watch of hostile spies in the bright noon.


s: Thou know'st, O Moon, the bitter power of Love.


s: 'Tis told how shepherd Pan found ways to move


s: With a small gift thy heart; and of your grace,


s: Sweet stars, be kind to this not alien fire,


s: Because on earth ye did not scorn desire,


s: Bethink ye, now ye hold your heavenly place.


s: As in the gardens, all through May, the Rose,


s: When dawn upon the dew of dawning glows;


s: Graces and Loves within her breast repose,


s: The woods are faint with the sweet odour shed,


s: Till rains and heavy suns have smitten dead


s: The languid flower and the loose leaves unclose, -


s: So this, the perfect beauty of our days,


s: When heaven and earth were vocal of her praise,


s: The fates have slain, and her sweet soul reposes:


s: And tears I bring, and sighs, and on her tomb


s: Pour milk, and scatter buds of many a bloom,


s: That, dead as living, Rose may be with roses.


s: 'Rhymes,' in truth, 'are stubborn things.'


s: Jeanne d'Arc is said to have led a Scottish force at Lagny, when


s: she defeated the Burgundian, Franquet d'Arras.  A Scottish artist


s: Dunfermline, who continued Fordun's Chronicle, avers that he was


s: with the Maiden in her campaigns, and at her martyrdom.  He calls


s: These verses were written, curiously enough, the day before the


s: Maiden was raised to the rank of 'Venerable,' a step towards her


s: This story is versified from the account in Memoirs of the Rev.


s: and only escaped hanging by virtue of the terms extorted by


s: Middleton.  Patrick Walker tells the tale of Peden and the girl.


s: Wodrow, in his Analecta, has the story of the Angel, or other


s: shining spiritual presence, which is removed from its context in


s: the ballad.  The sufferings from weak beer are quoted in Mr.


s: tortured, and, by an act of perjury (probably unconscious) on the


s: such as an old cavalier, surviving to 1743, might perhaps have


s: entertained.  'Wullie Wanbeard' is a Jacobite name for the Prince


s: Frequently my eyes would fill with tears when, having ascended a


s: At the barriers a new difficulty arose.  We delivered up our


s: At eleven o'clock on the same night we reached


s: On Monday morning I once more hastened to the office in anxious


s: The first fourteen miles are very agreeable; gardens, fields, and


s: Among the public buildings, those which pleased me most were the


s: corroborate what I was so unwilling to believe!


s: The breadth of the Elbe at Blankenese exceeds two miles.


s: I noticed with pleasure that on this railway even the third-class


s: neighbourhood presents only widely-extended plains, turf-bogs and


s: The squares are all large and regularly built.  The finest is the


s: Smaller, but more beautiful in its perfect symmetry, is the


s: Among the vessels lying at anchor in the harbour I saw but few


s: three-masters, and still fewer steamers.  The ships of the fleet


s: sea-sickness; so with all patience and resignation I received the


s: To be cheerful in the midst of all this requires a very quiet and


s: Before I land in Iceland, I must trouble the reader with a few


s: The first school was founded at Skalholt, about the middle of the


s: introduction of Christianity, all the Icelanders enjoyed an


s: unostentatious but undisturbed practice of their religion.


s: From these handsome houses I betook myself to the cottages of the


s: Fire-wood there is none throughout the whole island.  The rich


s: The neighbourhood of Havenfiord is formed by a most beautiful and


s: willingness to oblige.  I can only say, may Heaven requite them a


s: With me this was not the case: I gave no parties--I brought no


s: refreshment, and to rejoice with his friends over the dangers and


s: residence.  Every Sunday he must do duty at one or other of these


s: Fishing and the chase are open to all, with the exception of the


s: At Reikjavik I had an opportunity of witnessing a great religious


s: On this occasion a considerable number of the country people were


s: Our road lay through fields of lava, swamps, and very poor grassy


s: throughout the whole kitchen, drying the fish which hung from the


s: The little island of Vidoe, four miles distant from Reikjavik, is


s: I was, however, assured that I should have no more such places to


s: Churches are in this country not only used for purposes of public


s: immediately began; they seemed particularly struck by my mode of


s: instances they formed long narrow chains.


s: On the following day (June 6th) I had a long ride to Reikjavik,


s: thirty-six good miles, mostly through fields of lava.


s: Tired and almost benumbed with cold, I arrived in the evening at


s: Loading the pack-horses is a business of some difficulty, and is


s: It is impossible to remember how many times our baggage had to be


s: A sunset seen in the sublime wildness of Icelandic scenery has a


s: The best room, _i.e._ the store-room, was thrown open for my


s: accommodation, and a small wooden bedstead placed at my disposal.


s: On our way back we noticed, near a cottage, another remarkable


s: I should have felt tolerably comfortable in my present quarters,


s: Almanagiau, which we had passed on such a wretched road.


s: My unsteady guide pointed those out which we might unhesitatingly


s: When I had accustomed myself to these temporary effusions of my


s: It is singular how many people repeat every thing they hear from


s: Of the want of cleanliness of the Icelanders, no one who has not


s: distinguished for wealth, bravery, and civilisation.


s: The little town of Skalholt, my station this night, was once as


s: The smooth jet-black, bright, and dense lava is only found on the


s: I think, indeed, that the Icelanders are second to no nation in


s: The best soil in Iceland is on the Norderland.  There are a few


s: potato-grounds there, and some little trees, which, without any


s: The inhabitants of more southern regions have no idea of the


s: Towards eleven o'clock in the forenoon we reached the port of


s: I was fortunate enough to be in Christiania at the time when the


s: On the 25th August, at three o'clock in the afternoon, I left


s: A long, well-built wooden bridge, furnished with beautiful iron


s: The peasantry in this district have no peculiar costume; only the


s: Two remarkable sights claimed my attention at Kongsberg,--a rich


s: There are no proper hotels or posthouses on the little-frequented


s: The termination of the lake, which we soon reached, was already


s: wildly-romantic scenery in spite of the incessant rain and my wet


s: We arrived at Gottenburg at nine instead of at six o'clock in the


s: insufficiently protected against rain.  The consequence of this


s: Further off rises the Kinne Kulle, {51} to which the traveller's


s: A large glass-factory is established at Bromoe, which fabricates


s: window-glass exclusively.  We stopped a short time, and took a


s: considerable cargo of the brittle material on board.


s: While the ship descended through the many locks, we visited the


s: On the summit of a steep precipice of the shore the hat of the


s: Two kings, John III. and Eric XIV., the latter with four of his


s: There is a large picture-gallery in this castle; but it contains


s: principally portraits of kings, not only of Sweden, but of other


s: First I visited the cathedral.  I entered, and stood still with


s: Several other monuments are erected in the side-chapels; those of


s: The monuments are in no way distinguished; only two are rather


s: characters.  The good people have united in this monument two


s: characteristics of the ancients of two entirely distinct empires.


s: brownish-red colour of the houses, which has a peculiarly sombre


s: The little town of Danemora lies in the midst of a wood, and only


s: The stations are unequal,--sometimes long, sometimes short.  The


s: continent, till a nearer approach dispels the illusion.


s: In the afternoon we passed the Danish island Malmo.


s: abundance of green fields and fine meadows.


s: I arrived in Hamburgh about two o'clock in the afternoon; and my


s: engine-driver, the passengers having none.


s: I have never seen a town more beautifully or regularly built than


s: The splendid royal palace, the extensive buildings for the


s: The Gens-d'arme Square is distinguished by the French and German


s: Before quitting Berlin, I must mention an arrangement which is


s: particularly convenient for strangers--namely, the fares for


s: comparison with the finest bathing-places of the world.


s: Otiorhynchus laevigatus, _Dhl_.  Otiorhynchus Pinastri, _Fabr_.


s: Otiorhynchus ovatus.  Staphylinus maxillosus.  Byrrhus pillula.


s: b.  _Neuroptera_.  Limnophilus lineola, _Schrank_.


s: _Cyperaceae_.  Carea filiformis.  Carea caespitosa.  Eriophorum


s: _Juncaceae_.  Luzula spicata.  Luzula campestris.


s: _Polygoneae_.  Remux arifolus.  Oxyria reniformes.


s: _Rubiaceae_.  Gallium pusillum.  Gallium verum.


s: _Asperifoliae_.  Myosotis alpestris.  Myosotis scorpioicles.


s: _Scrophularineae_.  Bartsia alpina (in the interior north-western


s: _Utricularieae_.  Pinguicula alpina.  Pinguicula vulgaris.


s: _Umbelliferae_.  Archangelica officinalis (Havenfiord).


s: _Cruciferae_.  Draba verna.  Cardamine pratensis.


s: _Geraniaceae_.  Geranium sylvaticum (in pits near Thingvalla).


s: _Rosaceae_.  Rubus arcticus.  Potentilla anserina.  Potentilla


s: UNDERNEATH protected branches, from the highway just aloof;


s: Many a time, I well remember, I have gazed with Childish awe


s: At the bullet-hole remaining in the sturdy oaken door,


s: Turning round half-apprehensive (recking not how time had fled)


s: Of the lurking, savage foeman from whose musket it was sped..


s: Just below in deep recesses, safe from wintry frost chill,


s: There are heaps of ruddy apples from the orchard the hill.


s: Sturdy sons and comely daughters, growing up from childish plays,


s: Of the lurking savage foeman from whose musket it was sped.


s: Not far off, the barn, plethoric with the autumn harvest spoils,


s: Just below in deep recesses, safe from wintry frost and chill,


s: There are heaps of ruddy apples from the orchard on the hill.


s: When the autumn work is over, and the harvest gathered in,


s: Once again the old house echoes to a long unwonted din.


s: But the dinner--ah! the dinner--words are feeble to portray


s: What a culinary triumph is achieved Thanksgiving Day!


s: Then the richness of the pudding, and the flavor of the pie,


s: "Now unto God, the Gracious One, we thanks and homage pay,


s: Who guardeth us, and guideth us, and loveth us always!


s: "He scatters blessings in our paths, He giveth us increase,


s: He crowns us with His kindnesses, and granteth us His peace.


s: "Unto himself, our wandering feet, we pray that He may draw,


s: And may we strive, with faithful hearts, to keep His holy law!"


s: His simple words in silence died: a moment's hush. And then


s: From all the listening hearts there rose a solemn-voiced Amen!


s: Since, in the light of a summer's night,


s: Flooding my heart with your mellow shine?


s: There came to my ears the sound of speech.


s: Perchance--I thought--they may speak of me;


s: And a joyous heart that was free from fears;


s: Would weigh on my heavy heart for years.


s: "Rose, my Rose! for your heart is mine,"


s: I heard in a low voice, passion-fraught,


s: "In the sight of Heaven we are truly one;


s: "Will you give your hand where your heart goes not


s: To a man who is grave and stern and old;


s: And whose love compared with my passion-heat,


s: As the snow of the frozen North, is cold?"


s: And Rose--I could feel her cheek grow pale--


s: Her voice was tremulous, then grew strong--


s: "Richard," she said, "your words are wild,


s: "Did you never hear how, years gone by,"--


s: "Bereft of friends, o'er the world's highways,


s: "I thank him for all he has done for thee;


s: But is there no voice in your heart for me?"


s: And then--Heaven gave me strength, I think--


s: You might have thought my tranquil breast


s: When I want her most she's out of the way.


s: "Where have you been? and what have you there?"


s: "To the pasture for buttercups wet with dew."


s: "My patience! I think you are out of your wits;


s: "There's pennyroyal you might have got,--


s: I've just put two loaves in the oven to bake;


s: When they are clone take them carefully out,


s: And put in their place this loaf of cake,


s: Her son, from the mines, has just got back.


s: I don't believe he's a cent in his purse,


s: "It was very different when I was young;


s: Young men were prudent, and girls were wise;


s: That her hands were idle, or tongue was still.


s: But her mind was on other thoughts intent,


s: And here and there she dropped a stitch.


s: While the kitchen clock, with its frame of oak,


s: And challenged time with its measured stroke.


s: The bread in the oven, her good aunt's frown,


s: And blended with thoughts of Reuben Brown:


s: How they walked together on summer days,


s: To the little school-house on Sligo Hill.


s: How both grew older, and school-days passed,


s: The warm flush deepened on Phoebe's cheek,


s: And she breathed a low, half-conscious sigh;


s: Which, while she was thinking, had fallen down,


s: When her quick ear caught a strange footfall,


s: And there in the doorway stood Reuben Brown,


s: With the same frank, handsome face she knew,


s: A smile as bright, and an eye as black--


s: "Phoebe," he said, "I have wandered far;


s: Are you glad to see your playmate back?"


s: The kitten still purred on the kitchen hearth,


s: And the ancient clock, with its frame of oak,


s: And challenged time with its measured stroke.


s: A pleased light shone in the maiden's eyes;


s: Reuben had gone, but she sat quite still,


s: And the knitting lay untouched at her feet.


s: "Why, Phoebe, child, what have you done?


s: The bread is baked as black as my shoe!"


s: And Phoebe started, and blushed for shame,


s: Took up her knitting and dropped it down;


s: And when her aunt said, "What ails you, child?"


s: But it burns with the brightest, purest flame


s: In the hidden depths of a young maid's heart.


s: Young Colin passed with blithesome steps alert.


s: And all the birds were hushed to hear him sing.


s: So, in true huntsman's guise, he threads the wood.


s: And reeks with summer heat in every pore.


s: And ope for him the ivory gate of dreams.


s: And marks with startled eye the sleeping youth.


s: She gazed in wonder on his fair young face.


s: She lightly pressed her lips, and blushing fled.


s: He felt--he knew not how--his heart had flown.


s: But could not find his lost heart anywhere.


s: Went out into the world beyond the wood.


s: "I prithee, hast thou seen a heart astray?"


s: "Your heart has gone in search of your lost wits"


s: To where a cottage stood embowered in trees.


s: Who sings low songs the while she plies her wheel.


s: And straight a warm flush crimsons all her face.


s: She seems to see the marks her lips have made.


s: He said, "I think, fair maid, you have my heart.


s: If thou wilt give to me thine own therefor."


s: Would sink beneath the lake's blue waves,


s: Alas, too late! Though quick, and sharp,


s: "Head her south-east!" the captain shouts,


s: Three hundred souls, the steamer's freight,


s: John Maynard watched the nearing flames,


s: Through flame and smoke that dauntless heart


s: Unawed, though face to face with death,--


s: His nerveless hands released their task,


s: Which being done he drew back, self-abhorred,


s: And, kneeling down, besought, with bitter cry,


s: Since life was worthless grown, that he might die.


s: All night he knelt, and, when the morning broke,


s: In patience still he waits death's fatal stroke.


s: When all at once a cry of sharp distress


s: And, looking from the convent window high,


s: Just underneath, who, bruised and stricken sore,


s: Had crawled for aid unto the convent door.


s: The friar's heart with deep compassion stirred,


s: When the poor wretch's groans for help were heard


s: With gentle hands, and touched with love divine,


s: He bathed his wounds, and poured in oil and wine.


s: With tender foresight cared for all his needs,--


s: In such devotion passed seven days. At length


s: The poor wayfarer gained his wonted strength.


s: With grateful thanks he left the convent walls,


s: When, lo! his cell was filled with sudden light,


s: (An angel in whose likeness he could trace,


s: More noble grown, the traveller's form and face),


s: "Courage, Anselmo, though thy sin be great,


s: God grants thee life that thou may'st expiate.


s: "Thy guilty stains shall be washed white again,


s: His soul was lightened of its past despair.


s: Henceforth he strove, obeying God's high will,


s: And many a soul, oppressed with pain and grief,


s: One autumn day, when hedges yet were green,


s: And thick-branched trees diffused a leafy gloom,


s: Hard by where Avon rolls its silvery tide,


s: I stood in silent thought by Shakspeare's tomb.


s: O happy church, beneath whose marble floor


s: The many-sided Shakespeare, rare of soul,


s: Through the stained windows rays of sunshine fall


s: stand with bare head in reverential awe.


s: Churches there are within whose gloomy vaults


s: Repose the bones of those that once were kings;


s: Their power has passed, and what remains but clay?


s: While in his grave our Shakspeare lives and sings.


s: Kings were his puppets, kingdoms but his stage,--


s: Faint shadows they without his plastic art,--


s: He waves his wand, and lo! they live again,


s: And in his world perform their mimic part.


s: Sits crowned and sceptred in the realms of mind.


s: Kingdoms may fall, and crumble to decay,


s: Time but confirms his empire o'er mankind.


s: And the lights that stream from the windows


s: Whose lofty summits are tipped with clouds,


s: For when clouds and darkness are round me,


s: Since I feel, in the depths of my own heart,


s: I can see, through the rifts of the apple-boughs,


s: And the changing clouds with their marvellous tints


s: And strange, sweet thoughts sing through my brain,


s: And gladdened all hearts with its bloom;


s: While over the fields, on the scented air,


s: But the clouds grew dark in the angry sky,


s: He wandered one day to the river's verge,


s: And the heart that we loved with a boundless love


s: For our hearts were bound by a sorrowful tie


s: We heed them not, for we think of the voice


s: With a longing heart that will scarce believe


s: But, alas! there comes the sorrowful thought,


s: We shall walk sometimes to his little grave,


s: We will speak his name in a softened voice,


s: We will think of him in his heavenly home,--


s: IN the hushed hours of night, when the air quite still,


s: I hear the strange cry of the lone whippoorwill,


s: Who Chants, without ceasing, that wonderful trill,


s: Of which the sole burden is still, "Whip-poor-Will."


s: And why should I whip him? Strange visitant,


s: Has he been playing truant this long summer day?


s: I listened a moment; more clear and more shrill


s: Rang the voice of the bird, as he cried, "Whip-poor-Will."


s: But what has poor Will done? I ask you once more;


s: I'll whip him, don't fear, if you'll tell me what for.


s: I paused for an answer; o'er valley and hill


s: Has he come to your dwelling, by night or by day,


s: And snatched the young birds from their warm nest away?


s: Well, well, I can hear you, don't have any fears,


s: I can hear what is constantly dinned in my ears.


s: The obstinate bird, with his wonderful trill,


s: Still made but one answer, and that, "Whip-poor-Will."


s: But what HAS poor Will done? I prithee explain;


s: I'm out of all patience, don't mock me again.


s: Still made the same answer, and that, "Whip-poor-Will."


s: Well, have your own way, then; but if you won't tell,


s: I'll shut down the window, and bid you farewell;


s: But of one thing be sure, I won't whip him until


s: You give me some reason for whipping poor Will.


s: But nothing was heard but the bird's mocking cry.


s: I caught the faint echo from valley and hill;


s: It breathed the same burden, that strange "Whip-poor-Will."


s: * Written by request for the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair.


s: And the lines of care on his furrowed brow


s: And, not content with his own broad lands,


s: And, gazing with pride on his palace walls,


s: And the storms of war, in their violence,


s: Now Famine stalks through the palace halls,


s: The king can see, from his palace walls.


s: And he seems to see, in the lowering sky,


s: Shall be hurled from his blood-stained throne;


s: And the palace of Wrong shall crumble to dust,


s: And within its shelter alike shall stand


s: Straightway the Lord stretched forth his hand,


s: They gathered up their flocks and herds,


s: But, when the spoilers, following close,


s: Therefore we mourn for our first-born;--


s: Speed, speed the news from State to State,


s: His nerveless hand still grasped the sword.


s: Fair Harvard, dear guide of our youth's golden days;


s: At thy name all our hearts own a thrill,


s: We turn from life's highways, its business, its cares,


s: And the warm blood of youth to our veins, as of yore,


s: Reviving the scenes and the hopes that were ours


s: Once more through thy walks, Alma Mater, we tread,


s: And we dream youth's fair dreams once again,


s: We are heroes in fight for the Just and the Right,


s: We are knights without fear, without stain;


s: Its doors in fair prospect the world opens wide,


s: We are strong in our faith, we are bold in our might,


s: Though dimmed are our hopes, and our visions are fled,


s: Dust-stained from the contest we gather to-night,


s: Enough for to-morrow the cares it shall bring,


s: And our hearts, warm with love, Alma Mater, to thee,


s: As we meet in thy name, Alma Mater, to-night,


s: All our hearts and our hopes are as one,


s: And love for the mother that nurtured his youth


s: The sweet chords of Memory bridge o'er the Past,


s: By the banks of Cephissus, beneath the green trees,


s: The heights of Hymettus that bound the near view


s: As the beautiful clusters of sun-tinted grapes


s: From the vineyards that lie at our feet.


s: O realm of enchantment, O Wonderful land,


s: Where the gods hold high converse with men,


s: Come out from the dusk of past ages once more,


s: Let us drink to the Past as our glasses we lift,


s: Let the bonds of sweet fellowship bind each to each,


s: And thou, Alma Mater, grown fairer with age,


s: From thy motherly lips, as we stood at thy side,


s: And thou bad'st us God-speed and Farewell.


s: Fair Harvard, the months have accomplished their round


s: And a year stands full-orbed and complete,


s: Since last at thy summons, with dutiful hearts,


s: Since last in thy presence, grown youthful once more,


s: Shaking off every care that encumbered our years,


s: To-night once again in thy presence we meet


s: In the freshness and flush of life's spring;


s: We wait but thy blessing, we ask but thy smile,


s: The winds breathe auspicious that waft us along,


s: Hope stands at the prow, and the waters gleam bright


s: And thy voice, Alma Mater, so potent and sweet,


s: And thy motherly counsel we hear, wisdom-fraught,


s: As we push our frail barks from the shore.


s: From the foam-crested waves of the mountainous sea


s: We see the dear face of our mother benign,


s: There's a fountain of Fable whose magical power


s: And replace the bowed form and the tottering step,


s: By the brown flowing locks and the graces of youth,


s: Could mantle the cheek with its long-vanished bloom


s: But the fable, the dream, shall come true,


s: As thy sons, Alma Mater, assemble to-night


s: Our eyes shall grow bright with their old wonted light,


s: And the Goddess of Hope, with her fresh rainbow tints,


s: How sweet were the friendships we formed in thy halls!


s: Our hearts to the mother whose provident care


s: Now strong in our manhood we cherish her still;


s: Our strength shall support her, our arms bear her up,


s: And sustain her through weal and through woe.


s: * Sung at the bi-centennial celebration of the incorporation


s: From the door of the homestead the mother looks forth,


s: With a glance half of hope, half of fear,


s: For the clock in the corner now points to the hour


s: When the children she loves should appear.


s: For have they not promised, whatever betide,


s: To gather once more round the family board,


s: From the East and the West, from the North and the South,


s: Her children have come, on this festival day,


s: And our mother,--God bless her benevolent face!--


s: How her heart thrills with motherly joys,


s: As she stands at the portal, with arms opened wide,


s: And yet, when the first joyful greetings are o'er,


s: Of the children whose voices once rang through her fields,


s: Till, tired with the burden and heat of the day,


s: They have gone from our midst, but their labors abide


s: On the fields where they prayerfully wrought;


s: They scattered the seed, but the harvest is ours,


s: By their toil and self-sacrifice bought.


s: As we scan the fair scene that once greeted their eyes,


s: As we tread the same paths which they trod,


s: Let us tenderly think of our elders by birth,


s: Who have gone to their rest, and their God.


s: God bless the old homestead! some linger there still,


s: In the haunts which their childhood has known,


s: While others have wandered to places remote,


s: But Time cannot weaken the ties Love creates,


s: The filial devotion which thrills all our hearts,


s: This verdant field that smiles to Heaven


s: When, pacing through these hallowed walks,


s: Their trustful hearts shall rest on God,


s: For Dolly--Who does not Learn her Lessons


s: The grass was gray with the moonlit dew,


s: The stones were white as I came through;


s: I came down the path by the thirteen yews,


s: Through the blocks of shade that the moonlight hews.


s: Then I came down the road where the moonlight lay


s: Like the fallen ghost of the light of day.


s: The bats shrieked high in their zigzag flight,


s: The owls' spread wings were quiet and white,


s: The wind and the poplar gave sigh for sigh,


s: Little live creatures that love the night -


s: I passed, and they were not afraid of me.


s: It was over the meadow and down the lane


s: And the ghosts, they say, get leave to walk.


s: I wore the clothes that we all must wear,


s: My garden was hung with the veil of spring -


s: It lay in the moon's cold sheet of light


s: In garlands and silence, wondrous and white


s: Held close in the arms of the blossomed boughs:


s: To feel if the heart of my house beat right.


s: It was warm as the house of the dead is cold.


s: The black-faced presses against the wall,


s: The gleam of china, the glitter of glass,


s: All the little things that were home to me -


s: Then I said, "The fire of life still burns,


s: And I have returned whence none returns:


s: I will warm my hands where the fire is lit,


s: I will warm my heart in the heart of it!"


s: There was never a stir or an answering breath -


s: Then I beat on the window, and called, and cried.


s: And I wept as the dead, forgotten, weep;


s: But deep in the silence something stirred -


s: Kissed in the moonlight and kissed again,


s: And looked, through my face, to the moon-shroud, spread


s: And--"How ghostly the moonlight is!" she said.


s: Back through the garden, the wood, the lane,


s: Through the white of the stones and the gray of the grass,


s: In the hollow where drifted dreams lie deep


s: It is good to sleep:  it was good to sleep:


s: But my bed has grown cold with the drip of the dew,


s: You see the fairies dancing in the fountain,


s: Laughing, leaping, sparkling with the spray;


s: You see the gnomes, at work beneath the mountain,


s: Make gold and silver and diamonds every day;


s: You see the angels, sliding down the moonbeams,


s: Bring white dreams like sheaves of lilies fair;


s: You see the imps, scarce seen against the moonbeams,


s: Rise from the bonfire's blue and liquid air.


s: All the enchantment, all the magic there is


s: Hid in trees and blossoms, to you is plain and true.


s: Every flower that blows is a miracle for you.


s: Air, earth, water, fire, spread their splendid wares for you.


s: Millions of magics beseech your little looks;


s: Every soul your winged soul meets, loves you and cares for you.


s: Ah! why must we clip those wings and dim those eyes with books?


s: Soon, soon enough the magic lights grow dimmer,


s: Marsh mists arise to cloud the radiant sky,


s: Dust of hard highways will veil the starry glimmer,


s: Tired hands will lay the folded magic by.


s: Storm winds will blow through those enchanted closes,


s: Fairies be crushed where weed and briar grow strong . . .


s: Leave her her crown of magic stars and roses,


s: Leave her her kingdom--she will not keep it long!


s: They lie in the bed that is hung with red


s: Each one lies down in her white nightgown


s: In the great green park with the wooden palings -


s: There are fern and foxglove, primrose and violet,


s: Pretty and proud in their proper places,


s: And they call to the bluebells down in the wood:


s: "Are you out--are you in?  We have been so good


s: We are out and at play.  Where are you?"


s: In the gritty garden inside the railings,


s: There are neat little beds of geraniums and fuchsia


s: There's a neat little grass plot, bald in places,


s: He cuts the grass with his mowing-machine,


s: But even on the lawn, all dry and gritty,


s: He cuts off their heads with his mowing-machine


s: He sweeps up the poor little pretty faces,


s: The dear little white-frilled daisy faces;


s: Says things must be kept in their proper places


s: There was a garden, very strange and fair


s: Lighted its boughs, and I, even I, was there.


s: There were new heavens, and the earth was new,


s: And still I told my heart the dream was true.


s: But when the sun stood still, and Time went out


s: Like a blown candle--when she came to me


s: Under the bride-veil of the blossomed tree,


s: Chill through the garden blew the winds of doubt,


s: And when, with starry eyes, and lips too near,


s: She leaned to me, my heart knew what to fear.


s: "It is no dream," she said.  "What dream had stayed


s: So long?  It is the blessed isle that lies


s: Then, then at last my heart was well deceived;


s: Her very voice my restless fears beguiled,


s: And it was Life that clasped me when she smiled,


s: But when she said "I love you!" it was Death.


s: That, that at least could neither be nor seem -


s: Oh, then, indeed, I knew it was a dream!


s: I was picking raspberries, my head was in the canes,


s: I love you hot as fire, my girl, and you know you know it too.


s: Out among the raspberries all on a summer day.


s: And I says, "You ask in winter, if your love's so hot,


s: For it's summer now, and sunny, and my hands is full," says I,


s: And the flower-show'll be presently and hop-picking's to come,


s: And my new white gown to make, and the jam all to be done.


s: Till the fires be lighted early, and the curtains drawed for tea?


s: And he took it as I said it, an' not as it was meant.


s: The hay was stacked, the fruit was picked, the hops were dry and


s: And everything was garnered, and the year turned upside down,


s: And the winter it come on, and the fires were early lit,


s: And he'd never come anigh again, and all my life was sick.


s: And I was cold alone, with nought to do but sit


s: With my hands in my black lap, and hear the clock tick.


s: And his coffin was that black I could see it through the wall;


s: I wanted to be cold alone, and learn to bear it all.


s: Then I heard him.  I'd a-known it for his footstep just as plain


s: If he'd brought his regiment with him up the rutty frozen lane.


s: And I hadn't drawed the curtains, and I see him through the pane;


s: And oh, I took and kissed him again and again,


s: In the winter, in the dusk, in the quiet house-place,


s: With the coffin lying black and full the other side the wall;


s: Life's to live, you know, and death's to die;


s: For the love in life that loves while life endures,


s: For the earth-path that the Heaven-flight ensures


s: For the moment that a garland takes to twine,


s: For the human hour that sorcery shews divine


s: Nought's to seek now, gain, attain, discover.


s: If you loved me I could trust you to your fancy's furthest bound


s: While the sun shone and the wind blew, and the world went round,


s: To the utmost of the meshes of the devil's strongest net . . .


s: If you loved me, if you loved me--but you do not love me yet!


s: I love you--and I cannot trust you further than the door!


s: I shall trust you, I shall trust you, but I shall not love you


s: You have taken our clean quick longings,


s: You have taken our faith in each other -


s: But, by God, we will not yield you our God,


s: Through storms no ship could dare to brave


s: Of fields gold with buttercups, woodlands all blue


s: Will the sun wake the princess?  O thrush, is it true?


s: Will the violet be sweet where the dead leaves have lain?


s: And the may and the lilac?  Will Spring come again?


s: ". . . a dripping shower of notes from the softening blue.  It is


s: Their April song thrilled Tonbridge air;


s: Rhymed with the bean-flower scent in June.


s: Is the blaze of light on a Saturday night,


s: And the shops where they sell the chairs,


s: Oh! the snap in her eyes--and her smiles and her sighs


s: But you dream that you've pounds and pounds;


s: With his sword of ice and his banner of snow


s: Winter was young then, young and strong;


s: Fight for the Summer, fight for the Queen!"


s: See the swords of the flag-leaves shine;


s: To fight for the Summer, fight for the Queen.


s: And wherever the green of the new grass peers,


s: Hundreds of milkmaids by field and fold;


s: Thousands of buttercups licked with gold;


s: Spring brings freedom and life to these.


s: But Spring is no king, but a faithful knight;


s: He will ride on through the meadows bright


s: Till at Summer's feet he shall light him down


s: She will lean down where the roses twine


s: And look in the eyes of the dying knight


s: "Oh, live, O love!  O my true love, stay!"


s: While he smiles and sighs her arms between


s: And dies for the Summer, dies for the Queen.


s: Where all the dreams we dare not dream come true.


s: We slip and tumble in the doubtful night,


s: And clouds our breath has made obscure the day.


s: The blank unhappy towns, where sick men strive,


s: Still doing work that yet is never done;


s: The hymns to Gold that drown their desperate voice;


s: The weeds that grow where once corn stood alive,


s: The black injustice that puts out the sun:


s: These are our portion, since they are our choice.


s: Yet there the garden blows with rose on rose,


s: The sunny, shadow-dappled lawns are there;


s: There the immortal lilies, heavenly sweet.


s: O lilies, that we shall not pluck or wear!


s: "Hast thou been diligent to foster and save


s: "From thorns and nettles I have kept it clear.


s: I have not lost a flower of all the flowers


s: "It cries for cold and hunger in the night:


s: And in its soul the flowers you set are dead."


s: The Spring's bright banners came:  there woke


s: Gave thanks, and strove towards the sun.


s: The sulky sage scarce condescends to see


s: This pretty world of sun and grass and leaves;


s: No sage am I, and yet, by Love's decree,


s: To me the world's a masque of shadows too,


s: Where stars in garlands hung like flowers:


s: Dim groves and glimmering fountains there


s: And there's an end of summer and of song -


s: What matter?  Since once the world was fair,


s: And you gave me the rose of the world to wear.


s: That was the time to live for!  Flowers,


s: Well, the mortal rose of your love was worth


s: The pains of death and the pains of birth;


s: And the thorns may be sharper than death--who knows? -


s: That crowd round the stem of a deathless rose.


s: Swore it with kisses, swore it with tears:


s: Will you go a-maying, a-maying, a-maying,


s: Come and be my Queen of May and pluck the may with me?


s: The fields are full of daisy buds and new lambs playing,


s: The bird is on the nest, dear, the blossom's on the tree."


s: To be your Queen and wear my crown this May-day bright,


s: Hand in hand straying, it must be only playing,


s: And playtime ends at sunset, and then good-night.


s: "For I have heard of maidens who laughed and went a-maying,


s: Went out queens and lost their crowns and came back slaves.


s: I will be no young man's slave, submitting and obeying,


s: Bearing chains as those did, even to their graves."


s: "If you come a-maying, a-straying, a-playing,


s: We will pluck the little flowers, enough for you and me;


s: And when the day dies, end our one day's playing,


s: Give a kiss and take a kiss and go home free."


s: There was never winter, summer only:  roses,


s: Shining down the warm rich garden closes;


s: Quiet trees and lawns of dappled shadow,


s: Good gold sun that kissed me when we met,


s: Shadows of floating clouds on sunny meadow.


s: By fresh airs blown, drifted into sleep;


s: Slept and dreamed there.  Winter was the dream.


s: Summer never was, was always winter only;


s: Of the puddles and the spiteful wind and sleet,


s: Blinded by the spitting hailstones, lost


s: I found a doorway, crouched there for just shelter,


s: Crouched there, gathered somehow warmth to sleep;


s: Slept and dreamed there.  Summer was the dream.


s: In the wood of lost causes, the valley of tears,


s: Old hopes, like dead leaves, choke the difficult way;


s: Dark pinions fold dank round the soul, and it hears:


s: "It is night, it is night, it has never been day;


s: Thou hast dreamed of the day, of the rose of delight;


s: It was always dead leaves and the heart of the night.


s: Drink deep then, and rest, O thou foolish wayfarer,


s: For night, like a chalice, holds sleep in her hands."


s: Then you drain the dark cup, and, half-drugged as you lie


s: In the arms of despair that is masked as delight,


s: You thrill to the rush of white wings, and you hear:


s: "It is day, it is day, it has never been night!


s: Thou hast dreamed of the night and the wood of lost leaves;


s: It was always noon, June, and red roses in sheaves,


s: Unlock the blind lids, and behold the light-bearer


s: Who holds, like a monstrance, the sun in his hands."


s: There were no soft curtains round her head;


s: That the pains I bear are the pains of hell;


s: But the thought of the child that sin has given


s: Is like the thought of the airs of Heaven."


s: In the clutch of pain like the pains of Death,


s: And through her heart, like the mortal knife,


s: Went the pang of joy and the pang of life.


s: In the little garments that babies wear?"


s: And hands that were full of baby things;


s: And the new-born child was bathed and dressed


s: To keep him safe from the Powers of the Dark?


s: For my hands are cold and my breasts are dry,


s: And I think that my time has come to die."


s: And his lips shall lie where my own Son's lay.


s: "Poor mother, thy tears have washed thee clean.


s: Thy last poor pains, they will soon be done,


s: And My Mother shall give thee back thy son."


s: "A drab and her brat that are better dead."


s: That this, our house, still, still is yours.


s: Sunrise is in your eyes, and in your heart


s: The hope and bright desire of morn and May.


s: Yet lend my hand your hand, and let us sit


s: And see your life unfolding like a scroll,


s: My soul bears arms too, but the scroll's rolled tight,


s: Yet the one strip of faded brightness shown


s: Proclaims that when 'twas splendid in the light


s: And wrong was false, and right was true -


s: The new shawl, the new comb, the new fan,


s: Where she burnt her life for my worship.


s: Gray is the sea, and the skies are gray;


s: They are ghosts of our blue, bright yesterday;


s: And gray are the breasts of the gulls that scream


s: There is white on the wings of the sea and sky,


s: And white are the gulls' wings wheeling by,


s: And white, like snow, is the pall that lies


s: For the dead is dead, and its shroud is wrought


s: Yet from God's good magic there ever springs


s: In the eyes and the hair of a child at play;


s: And the spell of joy that our youth beguiled


s: Is woven anew in the laugh of the child.


s: And within she moves with her gracious hands


s: And the heart that loves and that understands,


s: And to bind with her blessing the hearts that bleed.


s: The gray of the sky and the gray of the stone.


s: And the house of welcome, known yet unseen;


s: It's all for nothing:  I've lost him now.


s: And a field where the grass was down . . .


s: Me--gay!  When I'd cried, and I'd asked him not,


s: An' whatever he wanted seemed right to me . . .


s: Well, the river is deep, and drowned folk sleep sound,


s: But oh! the long days and the death-long nights


s: And wonder whether he thinks of Us . . .


s: It cried for food and a place by the fire.


s: When it should have fawned on the hand that fed,


s: It turned to a devil all teeth and claws,


s: To pay for the fish and the milk and the hay


s: But its hate and my blood were required to pay


s: Hopes, dreams, ambitions, faith would disappear,


s: Drowned in your eyes; and I should touch your hand,


s: Which were, and are not, and can never be; . . .


s: Ah! keep the whole earth between you and me.


s: And throw them down at the foot of the throne,


s: Then the steps will be cleared of the burdens


s: And we shall be washed in the tears of Christ,


s: Good-bye, good-bye; it is not hard to part!


s: You have my heart--the heart that leaps to hear


s: You have my soul that, like an untroubled stream,


s: Reflects your soul that leans so dear, so near -


s: Your heartbeats set the rhythm for my heart.


s: What more could Life give if we gave her leave


s: To give, and Life should give us leave to take?


s: Only each other's arms, each other's eyes,


s: Each other's lips, the clinging secrecies


s: That are but as the written words to make


s: Records of what the heart and soul achieve.


s: This, only this we yield, my love, my friend,


s: To Fate's implacable eyes and withering breath.


s: We still are yours and mine, though, by Time's theft,


s: It is not hard to part--not harder than Death;


s: And each of us must face Death in the end!


s: Where bluebells draw the sky down to the wood,


s: Where, 'mid brown leaves, the primroses awake


s: Beneath green leaves bright-fluttered by the wing


s: Of fleeting, beautiful, immortal Spring,


s: I should have said, "I love you," and your eyes


s: Have said, "I, too . . . "  The gods saw otherwise.


s: For this is winter, and the London streets


s: Are full of soldiers from that far, fierce fray


s: Where life knows death, and where poor glory meets


s: Full-face with shame, and weeps and turns away.


s: And in the broken, trampled foreign wood


s: Is horror, and the terrible scent of blood,


s: And love shines tremulous, like a drowning star,


s: That to Thy feet we have lost the way . . .


s: That our soft lives might gorge, full-fed,


s: The terror that walketh by night, and the horror by day,


s: The legions of Evil, alert and awake and aware,


s: Press round him each hour; and I pray here alone, far away.


s: God! call up Thy legions to fight on the side of my love,


s: Let the seats of the mighty be cast down before him, O Lord,


s: Send strong wings of angels to shield him beneath and above,


s: Let glorious Michael unsheath his implacable sword.


s: Let the whole host of Heaven take part with my dear in his fight,


s: Inspire him, protect him, and bring him home victor at last.


s: But if--ah, dear God, give me strength to withhold nothing now! -


s: Thou gavest Thy Son for the world, and shall I not give mine?


s: Last year the fields were all glad and gay


s: There were kingcups gold by the river's edge


s: This year the fields are trampled and brown,


s: And the flower of hopes, and the flowers of dreams,


s: The tree of life with its fruit and bud,


s: Are trampled down in the mud and the blood.


s: The magic of Spring to our wood and plain:


s: Though the Spring be so green as never was seen


s: The crosses will still be black in the green.


s: Who trampled our country and laid her low . . .


s: God! hold our hands on the reckoning day,


s: And Thy word was made flesh for me . . .


s: By the thoughts that cut like a living knife,


s: We have watched on till the light burned low,


s: But they will sneak round to the drink-shop,


s: Then He'd say, "What's the good of churches


s: And you have taken your share and theirs


s: And they'd say, "But we never knew, Lord!"


s: And the best would say, "We were wrong, Lord.


s: With a common kid cuddled up on His knee


s: Why haven't you worked for your brothers


s: But you've built their bones into churches


s: You have lived by the death of your brothers,


s: They'll never believe till He comes again,


s: And his tongue shall be fillèd with praise.


s: For they know when their shepherd is nigh.


s: But I am black, as if bereaved of light.


s: And, sitting down before the heat of day,


s: And, pointing to the East, began to say:


s: ‘Look on the rising sun: there God does live,


s: And gives His light, and gives His heat away,


s: And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive


s: ‘And we are put on earth a little space,


s: That we may learn to bear the beams of love;


s: And these black bodies and this sunburnt face


s: Are but a cloud, and like a shady grove.


s: ‘For, when our souls have learned the heat to bear,


s: The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice,


s: Saying, “Come out from the grove, my love and care,


s: And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.”’


s: When I from black, and he from white cloud free,


s: And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,


s: I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear


s: And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair,


s: And be like him, and he will then love me.


s: And my father sold me while yet my tongue


s: Could scarcely cry ‘Weep! weep! weep! weep!’


s: So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.


s: There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,


s: That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved; so I said,


s: ‘Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head’s bare,


s: You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.’


s: And so he was quiet, and that very night,


s: As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!—


s: Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.


s: And by came an angel, who had a bright key,


s: And he opened the coffins, and set them all free;


s: Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run


s: And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.


s: Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,


s: They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind:


s: And the angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,


s: He’d have God for his father, and never want joy.


s: And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,


s: And got with our bags and our brushes to work.


s: Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm:


s: So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.


s: Speak, father, speak to your little boy,


s: The night was dark, no father was there,


s: The mire was deep, and the child did weep,


s: He kissed the child, and by the hand led,


s: Who in sorrow pale, through the lonely dale,


s: When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,


s: And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;


s: When the air does laugh with our merry wit,


s: And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;


s: When the meadows laugh with lively green,


s: And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene;


s: With their sweet round mouths sing ‘Ha ha he!’


s: When the painted birds laugh in the shade,


s: Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:


s: Come live, and be merry, and join with me,


s: ’Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,


s: The children walking two and two, in red, and blue, and green:


s: Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,


s: Till into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames waters flow.


s: O what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town!


s: Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own.


s: The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,


s: Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.


s: Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,


s: Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among: