s: Are keener to sting my soul, than scorpion stings!


s: One white rose in a Desert of weariness.


s: The night, with its fair false dreams of you,


s: My life was like an Aloe flower, beneath an orient sky,


s: Your sunshine touched it for an hour; it blossomed but to die.


s: Every curve of that beauty is known to me,


s: Every tint of that delicate roseleaf skin,


s: And these are printed on every atom of me,


s: My dust will be full of your beauty, as is the blue


s: And infinite ocean full of the azure sky.


s: Playing about your slumber in silver bars,


s: As the palm trees swung their feathery fronds athwart the stars,


s: Pale as the Champa flowers, violet veined,


s: That, sweet and fading, lay in your loosened hair.


s: And touched with circling moonbeams, silver white


s: The one thing, among all the things of this earth, found fair.


s: With the starlight, silver and sable, across your hair!


s: "Come down, come down and swim with me."


s: The clear white moon sails through the skies


s: She is glad to receive your turquoise ring,


s: "She is proud to have held aloof her charms,


s: "She triumphs to think that your heart is won,


s: "She will speak you softly, while skies are blue,


s: I would lose both body and soul for you:


s: "While the ways are fair she will love you well,


s: But I would have followed you down to Hell:


s: "Though you lay at her feet the days to be,


s: You can give her naught that you gave not me:


s: "When the years have shown what is false or true:


s: You will understand how I cared for you,


s: These wide horizons; whether Desert or Sea,--


s: Vague and vast and infinite; faintly clear--


s: Surely, hid in the far away, unknown "There,"


s: Lie the things so longed for and found not, found not, Here.


s: Stretches itself in reaches of golden sand,


s: Only where the sea line is joined to the sky-line, clear,


s: Beyond the curve of ripple or white foamed crest,--


s: Broken by Minaret, mountain, or towering tree,--


s: Shall the weary eyes be assuaged,--be assuaged,--and rest.


s: I lie alone beneath the Almond blossoms,


s: Where we two lay together in the spring,


s: And now, as then, the mountain snows are melting,


s: This year, as last, the water-courses sing.


s: That was another spring, and other flowers,


s: Hung, pink and fragile, on the leafless tree,


s: The land rejoiced in other running water,


s: And I rejoiced, because you were with me.


s: You, with your soft eyes, darkly lashed and shaded,


s: Your red lips like a living, laughing rose,


s: Your restless, amber limbs so lithe and slender


s: Now lost to me.  Gone whither no man knows.


s: You lay beside me singing in the sunshine;


s: The rough, white fur, unloosened at the neck,


s: Showed the smooth skin, fair as the Almond blossoms,


s: On which the sun could find no flaw or fleck.


s: I lie alone, beneath the Almond flowers,


s: And now, who killed you? worse, Ah, worse, who loves you?


s: (My soul is burning as men burn in Hell.)


s: How I have sought you in the crowded cities!


s: I have been mad, they say, for many days.


s: I know not how I came here, to the valley,


s: What fate has led me, through what doubtful ways.


s: Somewhere I see my sword has done good service,


s: Some one I killed, who, smiling, used your name,


s: But in what country?  Nay, I have forgotten,


s: All thought is shrivelled in my heart's hot flame.


s: Where are you now, Delight, and where your beauty,


s: Your subtle curls, and laughing, changeful face?


s: Bound, bruised and naked (dear God, grant me patience),


s: I asked of you of all men.  Who could tell me?


s: What fate was yours?  (Ah, dear God, grant me patience,


s: My heart is burnt, is burnt, with fire and pain.)


s: Oh, lost Delight! my heart is almost breaking,


s: My sword is broken and my feet are sore,


s: The people look at me and say in passing,


s: "He will not leave the village any more."


s: For as the evening falls, the fever rises,


s: With frantic thoughts careering through the brain,


s: Wild thoughts of you.  (Ah, dear God, grant me patience,


s: My soul is hurt beyond all men call pain.)


s: I lie alone, beneath the Almond blossoms,


s: And see the white snow melting on the hills


s: Till Khorassan is gay with water-courses,


s: Glad with the tinkling sound of running rills,


s: And well I know that when the fragile petals


s: Fall softly, ere the first green leaves appear,


s: (Ah, for these last few days, God, grant me patience,)


s: Since Delight is not, I shall not be, here!


s: With your soft eyes and your pulses stilled


s: Do you ever think of me, left in the light,


s: From the endless calm of your dawnless night?


s: That the lips which thrilled to your lips of old


s: Had you wished for this in its narrow sense


s: While the days and nights and the seasons pass,--


s: To the infinite night where perhaps you are.


s: With its deep dark eyes and tranquil brow


s: Where the hair fell softly.  Can this be true


s: Thoughts of me through your dreamless sleep?


s: Oh, gone from me! lost in Eternal Night,


s: Through the weariness of life's afternoon


s: My loved and lost, whom I could not save,


s: My youth went down with you to the grave,


s: Though other planets and stars may rise,


s: While all the world grew cold and strange


s: The Desert sands are heated, parched and dreary,


s: The tigers rend alive their quivering prey


s: In the near Jungle; here the kites rise, weary,


s: Too gorged with living food to fly away.


s: All night the hungry jackals howl together


s: Or seize some small soft thing of fur or feather


s: Whose dying shrieks on the night air are shed.


s: I hear from yonder Temple in the distance


s: Whose roof with obscene carven Gods is piled,


s: Strange rites here, where the archway's shade is deeper,


s: To burn the bodies of their cholera dead.


s: But yet, their lust, their hunger, cannot shame them


s: Goaded by fierce desire, that flays and stings;


s: Poor beasts, and poorer men.  Nay, who shall blame them?


s: Let me rest here where yellow roses bloom


s: And find forgetfulness, remembering only


s: Your face beside me in the scented gloom.


s: Nay, do not shrink!  I am not here for passion,


s: Although I would my face lay, lover's fashion,


s: Against the tender coolness of your breast.


s: The endless, aimless torture, tumult, fears.


s: Surely, if life were any God's free giving,


s: He, seeing His gift, long since went blind with tears.


s: Seeing us; our fruitless strife, our futile praying,


s: Our luckless Present and our bloodstained Past.


s: Poor players, who make a trick or two in playing,


s: But know that death _must_ win the game at last.


s: As round the Fowler, red with feathered slaughter,


s: The little joyous lark, unconscious, sings,--


s: As the pink Lotus floats on azure water,


s: Innocent of the mud from whence it springs.


s: You walk through life, unheeding all the sorrow,


s: The fear and pain set close around your way,


s: Meeting with hopeful eyes each gay to-morrow,


s: Living with joy each hour of glad to-day.


s: I love to have you thus (nay, dear, lie quiet,


s: How should these reverent fingers wrong your hair?)


s: That rages round is seething everywhere.


s: You do not understand.  You think your beauty


s: Is shrunk and shrivelled in the ardent fire.


s: You wrong me, wearied out with thought and grieving


s: As though the whole world's sorrow eat my heart,


s: Caress the soft loose hair a moment's span.


s: Since Loveliness is Life's one Consolation,


s: Ah, give me here beneath the trees in flower,


s: Beside the river where the fireflies pass,


s: Lost in the shadow of the long grown grass


s: Give me, oh you whose arms are soft and slender,


s: Whose eyes are nothing but one long caress,


s: Against your heart, so innocent and tender,


s: Breathing my name still through your dreaming.--


s: Ah! had you stayed, such things had been!


s: Fate with her cold eyes hard and gleaming


s: Ah, could they see these tears that trickle


s: Could see me, prone, beneath the sickle,


s: The lights are low, and more than lonely


s: Want that strange smile that gave me token


s: That thrills the grasses, stirs the trees.


s: On the outer horizon of a dreaming consciousness,


s: She hears the sound of her lover's nearing boat


s: On the river's loneliness, where the Stars are the only light;


s: She lies, with her loose hair spent in soft disorder,


s: On a silken sheet with a purple woven border,


s: Every fibre tense with restrained desire.


s: And the straining oars sound clearer, clearer,


s: Till I see the light of my lover's face?"


s: His fair face turned to the tender skies,


s: While his boat caught in the thickset sedge


s: But the Brain, once kindled, would still be afire


s: Were the whole world pasture to its desire,


s: Though passion fail and desire grow dim,


s: No assuagement comes from the thing possessed


s: "Oh, for the life of the bright hued things


s: In a thousand ways, in a thousand climes,


s: As her lover left her, alone, awake she lies,


s: With a sleepless brain and weary, half-closed eyes.


s: She turns her face where the purple silk is spread,


s: Still sweet with delicate perfume his presence shed.


s: Her arms remembered his vanished beauty still,


s: And, reminiscent of clustered curls, her fingers thrill.


s: While the wonderful, Starlit Night wears slowly on


s: Till the light of another day, serene and wan,


s: "Is it safe to lie so lonely when the summer twilight closes


s: No companion maidens, only you asleep among the roses?


s: "Lonely loveliness means danger, lying in your rose-leaf nest,


s: But she would not heed the warning, lay alone serene and slight,


s: Till the rosy spears of morning slew the darkness of the night.


s: Where are you now?  Who lies beneath your spell?


s: Whom do you lead on Rapture's roadway, far,


s: Oh, pale dispensers of my Joys and Pains,


s: Holding the doors of Heaven and of Hell,


s: How the hot blood rushed wildly through the veins


s: Beneath your touch, until you waved farewell.


s: Pale hands, pink tipped, like Lotus buds that float


s: On those cool waters where we used to dwell,


s: I would have rather felt you round my throat,


s: Crushing out life, than waving me farewell!


s: Softly the feathery Palm-trees fade in the violet Distance,


s: Faintly the lingering light touches the edge of the sea,


s: Take I unto myself, all alone in the light that is dying,


s: Much of the sorrow that lies hid at the Heart of the World.


s: Even the ocean lessens the light of its green opalescence,


s: Since, to my sorrow I loved, loved and grew weary of, you.


s: Why was our passion so fleeting, why had the flush of your beauty


s: Yet, even thus ever is life, save when long custom or duty


s: Moulds into sober fruit Love's fragile and fugitive flower.


s: Fain would my soul have been faithful; never an alien pleasure


s: Lured me away from the light lit in your luminous eyes,


s: But we have altered the World as pitiful man has leisure


s: To criticise, balance, take counsel, assuredly lies.


s: Holding his treasure awhile, all Fate and all forces against it,


s: Knowing it his no more, if ever his vigilance sleep.


s: But we have altered the World as pitiful man has grown stronger,


s: So that the things we love are as easily kept as won,


s: Therefore the ancient fight can engage and detain us no longer,


s: And all too swiftly, alas, passion is over and done.


s: Far too speedily now we can gather the coveted treasure,


s: Enjoy it awhile, be satiated, begin to tire;


s: Ah, if it only had lasted!  After my ardent endeavour


s: Came the delirious Joy, flooding my life like a sea,


s: Days of delight that are burnt on the brain for ever and ever,


s: Days and nights when you loved, before you grew weary of me.


s: Softly the sunset decreases dim in the violet Distance,


s: Even as Love's own fervour has faded away from me,


s: Leaving the weariness, the monotonous Weight of Existence,--


s: All the farewells in the world weep in the sound of the sea.


s: Oh, straight, white road that runs to meet,


s: Across green fields, the blue green sea,


s: "Not this, not this, the Soul's desire!"


s: (Thanks for that sweetness in the past);


s: Some sense that _I_ join _you_, at last.


s: Long past the pulse and pain of passion,


s: The sunshine through green shadow glints


s: But the strange thoughts it woke meanwhile


s: Thoughts of Strange Things you used to know


s: Your strange, sad smile forgets these not,


s: Though you, yourself, long since, forgot!


s: They take the Hill-tops to their breast,


s: Watch the pale Lightning's constant glow


s: These visions would be turned to naught,


s: For the fresh flow of streams and springs.


s: Their thoughts to clear and chilly things.


s: Such dreams are mine, and such my thirst,


s: Shake out the sand from the soft loose curls,


s: Would God that I were the senseless stone


s: I hate those wounds that trouble my sight,


s: All I would leave, with delight, to share


s: But hands grow restless about their swords,


s: "The Queen is silent too long!"  "My Lords,


s: Long for the close-curved, delicate lips


s: --Their sinuous sweetness laid on mine--


s: _Might_ make--his days one golden dream,


s: While round them songs and laughter rise.


s: That drips, unheard, though silent hours,


s: The bones of those who have starved and died


s: What care have I that the bones bleach white?


s: The glazing eye and the failing breath,--


s: Your breath is quick and your eyes are bright


s: Thought could but lessen my soul's delight,


s: And pray for grace when I reach the end,


s: To-day, at least, must be clear and bright,


s: But glad, oh, glad, when the day is done


s: Lies left and lonely, while the restless sea,


s: Tired of the green caresses of the land,


s: But still more sad this white and chilly Dawn


s: While little winds blow here and there forlorn


s: And all the stars, weary of shining, die.


s: And more than desolate, to wake, to rise,


s: Leaving the couch, where softly sleeping still,


s: What through the past night made my heaven, lies;


s: See, from the upper window's vantage ground,


s: Of love and labour, toil and strife and pain.


s: How the sad thoughts slip back across the night:


s: The whole thing seems so aimless and so vain.


s: What use the raptures, passion and delight,


s: Burnt out; as though they could not wake again.


s: The worn-out nerves and weary brain repeat


s: The question: Whither all these passions tend;--


s: This curious thirst, so painful and so sweet,


s: So fierce, so very short-lived, to what end?


s: Even, if seeking for ourselves, the Race,


s: Some spark should kindle, or some fruit should grow,


s: What were the use? the gain, to us or it,


s: That we should cause another You or Me,--


s: Another life, from our light passion lit,


s: To suffer like ourselves awhile and die.


s: What aim, what end indeed?  Our being runs


s: Tends to assure us that a thousand Suns,


s: Teeming perchance with life, have ceased to be.


s: Ah, the grey Dawn seems more than desolate,


s: And the past night of passion worse than waste,


s: Love but a useless flower, that soon or late,


s: Turns to a fruit with bitter aftertaste.


s: Youth, even Youth, seems futile and forlorn


s: While the new day grows slowly white above.


s: Pale and reproachful comes the chilly Dawn


s: 'T was _ours_ till last night, but alas! it


s: Through twilight blue-grey and uncertain,


s: Where frost leaves the window-pane free,


s: Lie still in your dreams; for your tresses


s: With shadow and gloom, and purple bloom,


s: Her stars that tremble, would fain dissemble


s: But things that are done by Night remain


s: For a thousand years, 'neath a thousand skies,


s: While Time is scented with musk and rose;


s: I long for love; will you grant me some?


s: (So slight a thing between them and me,)


s: The great waves thundered and throbbed and sighed,


s: The great green waves of the Indian sea!


s: Your face was white as the foam is white,


s: Your hair was curled as the waves are curled,


s: I would we had steamed and reached that night


s: The sea's last edge, the end of the world.


s: Your hair it lifted, your lips it sought,


s: The engines throbbed with their constant beat;


s: Your lips were salt, but I found them sweet,


s: So straight you lay in your narrow berth,


s: Rocked by the waves; and you seemed to be


s: And you were white as the foam is white,


s: Your hair was curled as the waves are curled.


s: Ah! had we but sailed and reached that night,


s: The sea's last edge, the end of the world!


s: 'T is eight miles out and eight miles in,


s: (It cuts like knives, this air so chill,)


s: My heart beats quick, with joy, to think


s: When I am dying, lean over me tenderly, softly,


s: Stoop, as the yellow roses droop in the wind from the South.


s: So I may, when I wake, if there be an Awakening,


s: His guard would, friend-like, let him sit


s: And one there was, she walked less fast,


s: Confined his neck, his thoughts were free,


s: Dear is my inlaid sword; across the Border


s: It brought me much reward; dear is my Mistress,


s: Dear beyond measure are my dreams and Fancies.


s: These I adore; for these I live and labour,


s: For this indeed may rust, and that prove faithless,


s: But, till my limbs are dust, I have my Fancies.


s: Kiss to the landscape to bid it good-bye.


s: Making a bride chamber, sacred and sweet.


s: Know not if they know, the great Ones above.


s: Were it not gilt with the glamour of love.


s: If but for an hour, the Rapture of Youth.


s: Changing your dreams to his Exquisite Truth.


s: Nothing shall trouble the Flight of the Hours.


s: Come, while the twilight is closing the flowers.


s: Cooled by the twilight, refreshed by the dew,


s: In the hushed starlight, is waiting for you.


s: Rose Pink am I, the colour gleams and glows


s: In many a flower; her lips, those tender doors


s: By which, in time of love, love's essence flows


s: From him to her, are dyed in delicate Rose.


s: Mine is the earliest Ruby light that pours


s: Out of the East, when day's white gates unclose.


s: On downy peach, and maiden's downier cheek


s: Clinging, at sunset, to the shimmering peak


s: I veil its snow in floods of Roseate light.


s: Mine is the heavenly hue of Azure skies,


s: Where the white clouds lie soft as seraphs' wings,


s: Mine the sweet, shadowed light in innocent eyes,


s: Whose lovely looks light only on lovely things.


s: Mine the Blue Distance, delicate and clear,


s: All that the soul so longs for, finds not here,


s: Fond eyes deceive themselves, and find in me.


s: Let loose by steel in spirit-freeing flood,


s: Forced from faint forms, by toil or torture torn


s: Staining the patient gates of life new born.


s: Banners that flash, red flags that flaunt and glow,


s: I hide in mines, where unborn Rubies dwell,


s: Flicker and flare in fitful fire in Hell,


s: The outpressed life-blood of the grape is mine,


s: Strong am I, over strong, to eyes that tire,


s: Death and Despair are black, War and Desire,


s: The two red cards in Life's unequal game.


s: Green as the feathery reeds the Florican love,


s: Young as a maiden, who of her marriage dreams,


s: Still sweetly inexperienced in ways of Love.


s: Colour of Youth and Hope, some waves are mine,


s: Some emerald reaches of the evening sky.


s: See, in the Spring, my sweet green Promise shine,


s: Never to be fulfilled; leaves bud, and ever


s: Something is wanting, something falls behind;


s: The flowered Solstice comes indeed, but never


s: That light and lovely summer men divined.


s: I were the colour of Things, (if hue they had)


s: Of curious, twisted thoughts that men call "mad"


s: Of that delicate vice, that is hardly vice,


s: Ethereal, as the scent of buds and spice,


s: On palm-fringed shores I colour the Cowrie shell,


s: And, deep in Datura poison buds, I dwell


s: My lilac tinges the edge of the evening sky


s: Gold am I, and for me, ever men curse and pray,


s: Selling their souls and each other, by night and day.


s: A sordid colour, and yet, I make some things fair,


s: Dying sunsets, fields of corn, and a maiden's hair.


s: Thus they discoursed in the daytime,--Violet, Yellow, and Blue,


s: Emerald, Scarlet, and Rose-colour, the pink and perfect hue.


s: Thus they spoke in the sunshine, when their beauty was manifest,


s: To hold you, sleeping, against my breast,


s: Twelve months ago; that wonderful night!


s: Have I done well, for that past delight,


s: Look down at his face, your face, beloved,


s: And knew that your life and mine had part


s: And learning thus, that your child was mine,


s: Thrilled by the sense of its stirring life,


s: Afar from pleasure, and pain, and strife,


s: Of that you had deigned to cause to dwell


s: Your lips on mine, that enchanted night?


s: You seemed so slender and strangely white.


s: Oh, since you have sought me, Lord, for this,


s: And after death, through the long To Be,


s: (Which, I think, must surely keep love's laws,)


s: I, should you chance to have need of me,


s: Upon the City Ramparts, lit up by sunset gleam,


s: The Blue eyes that conquer, meet the Darker eyes that dream.


s: The Dark eyes, so Eastern, and the Blue eyes from the West,


s: The last alight with action, the first so full of rest.


s: Brown, that seem to hold the Past; its magic mystery,


s: Blue, that catch the early light, of ages yet to be.


s: Meet and fall and meet again, then linger, look, and smile,


s: Time and distance all forgotten, for a little while.


s: Happy on the city wall, in the warm spring weather,


s: All the force of Nature's laws, drawing them together.


s: East and West so gaily blending, for a little space,


s: All the sunshine seems to centre, round th' Enchanted place!


s: One rides down the dusty road, one watches from the wall,


s: Azure eyes would fain return, and Amber eyes recall;


s: Would fain be on the ramparts, and resting heart to heart,


s: But time o' love is overpast, East and West must part.


s: Blue eyes so clear and brilliant!  Brown eyes so dark and deep!


s: Those are dim, and ride away, these cry themselves to sleep.


s: _"Oh, since Love is all so short, the sob so near the smile,_


s: _Blue eyes that always conquer us, is it worth your while?"_


s: There were Roses in the hedges, and Sunshine in the sky,


s: Red Lilies in the sedges, where the water rippled by,


s: A thousand Bulbuls singing, oh, how jubilant they were,


s: And a thousand flowers flinging their sweetness on the air.


s: But you, who sat beside me, had a shadow in your eyes,


s: Their sadness seemed to chide me, when I gave you scant replies;


s: You asked "Did I remember?" and "When had I ceased to care?"


s: In vain you fanned the ember, for the love flame was not there.


s: "And so, since you are tired of me, you ask me to forget,


s: What is the use of caring, now that you no longer care?


s: When Love is dead his Memory can only bring regret,


s: But how can I forget you with the flowers in your hair?"


s: What use the scented Roses, or the azure of the sky?


s: They are sweet when Love reposes, but then he had to die.


s: What could I do in leaving you, but ask you to forget,--


s: I suffered, too, in grieving you; I all but loved you yet.


s: But half love is a treason, that no lover can forgive,


s: I had loved you for a season, I had no more to give.


s: You saw my passion faltered, for I could but let you see,


s: And it was not I that altered, but Fate that altered me.


s: And so, since I am tired of love, I ask you to forget,


s: What is the use you caring, now that I no longer care?


s: When Love is dead, his Memory can only bring regret;


s: Forget me, oh, forget me, and my flower-scented hair!


s: As those who eat a Luscious Fruit, sunbaked,


s: Full of sweet juice, with zest, until they find


s: It finished, and their appetite unslaked,


s: And so return and eat the pared-off rind;--


s: We, who in Youth, set white and careless teeth


s: In the Ripe Fruits of Pleasure while they last,


s: Later, creep back to gnaw the cast-off sheath,


s: And find there is no Rival like the Past.


s: But Love deceived me, wrenched my youth away


s: And made the gold of life for ever grey.


s: Long I lived lonely, yet I tried in vain


s: There _is_ no other joy, I learned to know,


s: Yet I, this little while ere I go hence,


s: The listless Palm-trees catch the breeze above


s: The pile-built huts that edge the salt Lagoon,


s: There is no Breeze to cool the heat of love,


s: No wind from land or sea, at night or noon.


s: Perfumed and robed I wait, my Lord, for you,


s: And my heart waits alert, with strained delight,


s: My flowers are loath to close, as though they knew


s: That you will come to me before the night.


s: And softly veiled in rose to please your eyes,


s: Their wings transparent on the lilac skies.


s: Come soon, my Lord, come soon, I almost fear


s: My heart may fail me in this keen suspense,


s: Break with delight, at last, to know you near.


s: Pleasure is one with Pain, if too intense.


s: I envy these: the steps that you will tread,


s: The jasmin that will touch you by its leaves,


s: When, in your slender height, you stoop your head


s: At the low door beneath the palm-thatched eaves.


s: And love has done his utmost 'twixt us twain,


s: Your slightest, careless touch yet seems to be


s: The night breeze blows across the still Lagoon,


s: And stirs the Palm-trees till they wave above


s: Our pile-built huts; Oh, come, my Lord, come soon,


s: There is no Breeze to cool the heat of love.


s: The gift seems greater, and yourself more fair,


s: This slight-built, palm-thatched hut has come to be


s: A temple, since, my Lord, you visit there.


s: Among the piles beneath the slender floor;


s: Of the great Wonder seen upon the shore.


s: The Miracle, that you should come to me,


s: Whom the whole world, seeing, can but desire,


s: It is as though some White Star stooped to be


s: The messmate of our little cooking fire.


s: And yet;--I look into your brilliant eyes,


s: And find content; Oh, come, my Lord, come soon.


s: Perfumed and robed I wait for you, I wait,


s: The flowers that please you wreathed about my hair,


s: So more than proud since you have found it fair.


s: My lute is ready, and the fragrant drink


s: Your lips may honour, how it will rejoice


s: Losing its life in yours! the lute I think


s: But wastes the time when I might hear your voice.


s: Your slightest, as your utmost, wish or will,


s: Whether it please you to caress or slay,


s: It would please me to give obedience still.


s: I would delight to die beneath your kiss;


s: So her warm blood, flowing beneath the kiss,


s: Might ease the wounded Sultan of his pain--


s: If she loved him as I love you, my Lord.


s: There is no pleasure on the earth so sweet


s: If I lay crushed beneath your slender feet


s: I should be happy!  Ah, come soon, come soon,


s: See how the stars grow large and white above,


s: The land breeze blows across the salt Lagoon,


s: There is no Breeze to cool the heat of love.


s: Blown from the mainland, where there grows


s: The flower that you have named Tube rose,


s: You will be mine; those lightly dancing feet,


s: Falling as softly on the careless street


s: As the wind-loosened petals of a flower,


s: Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.


s: And all the Temple's little links and laws


s: Will not for long protect your loveliness.


s: I have a stronger force to aid my cause,


s: Nature's great Law, to love and to possess!


s: Throughout those sleepless watches, when I lay


s: I knew (it helped those hours, from dusk to day),


s: In this one thing, Fate would be kind to me.


s: You will consent, through all my veins like wine


s: This prescience flows; your lips meet mine above,


s: Your clear soft eyes look upward into mine


s: The clustered softness of your waving hair,


s: That curious paleness which enchants me so,


s: And all your delicate strength and youthful air,


s: Your young reluctance does but fan the flame;


s: My partner, Love, waits, with a tender smile,


s: Who play against him play a losing game.


s: I, strong in nothing else, have strength in this,


s: The subtlest, most resistless, force we know


s: Is aiding me; and you must stoop and kiss:


s: Yet, make it not too long, nor too intense


s: My thirst; lest I should break beneath the strain,


s: And the worn nerves, and over-wearied sense,


s: Enjoy not what they spent themselves to gain.


s: Lest, in the hour when you consent to share


s: I, over worn, should find you over fair,


s: Lest I should die before I make you mine.


s: You will consent, those slim, reluctant feet,


s: Falling as lightly on the careless street


s: As the white petals of a wind-worn flower,


s: Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.


s: On the wooden deck of the wooden Junk, silent, alone, we lie,


s: With silver foam about the bow, and a silver moon in the sky:


s: As a wayward Fancy, tired at times, of the cultured Damask Rose,


s: Drifts away to the tangled copse, where the wild Anemone grows;


s: So the ordered and licit love ashore, is hardly fresh and free


s: As this light love in the open wind and salt of the outer sea.


s: Life is ever a slave to Time; we have but an hour to rest,


s: Give here your lips and kiss me again, we have but a moment more,


s: Do you think me faithless, who gleam and glow


s: The brown earth covered there, long ago.


s: O Stars, you saw it, you know, you know.


s: In a search for pleasure and love?  Not so,


s: All warm with sunshine and sweet with spice,


s: It lifted his curls and kissed him thrice,


s: And come with me to the rice fields now,


s: There is one God: Mahomed his Prophet.  Had I his power


s: I would take the topmost peaks of the snow-clad Himalayas,


s: Your courtyard should ever be filled with the fleetest of camels


s: And the sacred waters of Zem-Zem well, transported thither,


s: Should bubble and flow in your chamber, to bathe the delicate


s: Slender and wayworn feet of my Lord, returning from travel,


s: And if ever your clear and stately thoughts should turn to women,


s: That the youth and the strength of my Lord might never be wasted


s: In light or sterile love; but enrich the world with his children.


s: Whilst I should sit in the outer court of the Water Palace


s: To await the time when you went forth, for Pleasure or Warfare,


s: How hard the daily toil, how keen the strife,


s: How salt the falling tear; the joys how few.


s: He who thinks hard soon finds it hard to live,


s: So, leaving thought, the singer strove to give


s: Each finds the old, lost Paradise again,


s: Unfolding leaves, and roses, nesting doves.


s: And though that sunlit time flies all too fleetly,


s: Delightful Days that dance away too soon!


s: Its early morning freshness lingers sweetly


s: Throughout life's grey and tedious afternoon.


s: And he, whose dreams enshrine her tender eyes,


s: And she, whose senses wait his waking hand,


s: Impatient youth, that tired but sleepless lies,


s: Will read perhaps, and reading, understand.


s: Oh, roseate lips he would have loved to kiss,


s: What should you know of him, or words of his?--


s: But all the songs he sang were sung for you!


s: He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh,


s: His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh,


s: Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare.


s: The green and stagnant waters lick His feet,


s: Clouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat,


s: Rise with His gifts: Death and Delirium.


s: His messengers: They bear the deadly taint


s: Making thin music, strident and yet faint,


s: The baffled sleeper hears th' incessant whine


s: Through his tormented dreams, and finds no rest


s: The thirsty insects use his blood for wine,


s: Probe his blue veins and pasture on his breast.


s: Staining the stagnant water with His breath,


s: A famine unassuaged, whose food is Death.


s: He hides among the ghostly mists that float


s: Over the water, weird and white and chill,


s: And peasants, passing in their laden boat,


s: A thousand burn and die; He takes no heed,


s: Their bones, unburied, strewn upon the plain,


s: To add more victims to th' already slain.


s: He loves the haggard frame, the shattered mind,


s: Gloats with delight upon the glazing eye,


s: He sends them lovely dreams before they die;


s: Dreams that bestow on them their heart's desire,


s: Visions that find them mad, and leave them blest,


s: Far in the Further East the skilful craftsman


s: Fashioned this fancy for the West's delight.


s: This rose and azure Dragon, crouching softly


s: Upon the satin skin, close-grained and white.


s: And you lay silent, while his slender needles


s: Pricked the intricate pattern on your arm,


s: That subtle union, whose child is charm.


s: Charm irresistible: the lovely something


s: We follow in our dreams, but may not reach.


s: This from the blue design exhales towards me,


s: As incense rises from the Homes of Prayer,


s: While the unfettered eyes, allured and rested,


s: Urge the forbidden lips to stoop and share;


s: Share in the sweetness of the rose and azure


s: Traced in the Dragon's form upon the white


s: Curve of the arm.  Ah, curb thyself, my fancy,


s: Where would'st thou drift in this enchanted flight?


s: (The Pearls are lost if the Necklace break!)


s: From palm-trees, clustered around a Spring,


s: The great, grim Desert lay vast and bare,


s: And rent the folds of her veiling gauze.


s: They struck the lips that they might have kissed,


s: And wrenched the gold from her broken wrist,


s: But Fate dissented, and stepped between.


s: Thus it was written that she should die.


s: This month the Almonds bloom in Kandahar.


s: The Almond-trees, that sheltered my Delight,


s: It was well worth--that most Enchanted Night--


s: This life in torment, and the next in Hell!


s: People are kind to me; one More than Kind,


s: Her lashes lie like fans upon her cheek,


s: For though that Kaffir's bullet holds me here,


s: My thoughts are ever free, and wander far,


s: To where the Lilac Hills rise, soft and clear,


s: The Horse-fair, where he shot me weeks ago,


s: But since they fettered him I have no care


s: That my returning steps to health are slow.


s: They will not loose him till they know my fate,


s: And I rest here till I am strong to slay,


s: Meantime, my Heart's Delight may safely wait


s: Among the Almond blossoms, sweet as they.


s: That cursed Kaffir! Well, he won by day,


s: _My_ arms held what his lack till Judgment Day!


s: To kill, before the Almond-trees are green,


s: _So that thou art not, and thou hast not been!_


s: To rid the World from Shiah dogs like thee,


s: They are but ill-placed moles on Islam's beauty,


s: Thy Shiah blood might serve to salve the ill.


s: Now I grow stronger, I have days of leisure


s: And, undisturbed by call of War or Pleasure,


s: I shall not torture thee, thy friends might rally,


s: Some Fate assist thee and prove false to me;


s: Oh! shouldst thou now escape me, Amir Ali,


s: Aye, Shuffa-Jan, I will be quiet indeed,


s: Give here the Hakim's powder if thou wilt,


s: And thou mayst sit, for I perceive thy need,


s: And rest thy soft-haired head upon my quilt.


s: That loves and hates beneath a fiercer Star.


s: Also, thou know'st, my Heart is left behind,


s: The Rosy Hearth, The Lamplight's Narrow Beam


s: I See You Still. I Softly Pushed the door


s: Some Moments I'm the Tempest-driven Bark


s: What Sayst Thou, Traveller, Of All Thou Saw'st Afar?


s: Your soul is as a moonlit landscape fair,


s: That play on lutes and dance and have an air


s: The while they celebrate in minor strain


s: They have an air of knowing all is vain,--


s: And through the quiet moonlight their songs rise,


s: The melancholy moonlight, sweet and lone,


s: That makes to dream the birds upon the tree,


s: And in their polished basins of white stone


s: Powdered and rouged as in the sheepcotes' day,


s: Along the shaded alley, where green grows


s: The moss on the old seats, she wends her way


s: Her long gown with the train is blue; the fan


s: Suggestion, her eyes smile the while they scan.


s: Blonde; dainty nose; plump, cherry lips, divine


s: With pride unconscious.--Subtler, certainly,


s: Than is the mouche there set to underline


s: The rather foolish brightness of the eye.


s: Seem smiling on the light costumes we wear,--


s: Our gauzy floating veils that have an air


s: Of wings, our satins fluttering in the breeze.


s: And in the marble bowl the ripples gleam,


s: And dying, like the sunshine of a dream.


s: Tender of heart, but little tied by vows,


s: And playfully the lovers plague the fair.


s: Receiving, should they overstep a point,


s: To kiss the little finger's littlest joint.


s: A frigid glance rewards the daring swain,--


s: Not quite o'erbalancing with its disdain


s: The wind the other night blew down the Love


s: So subtly used to smile, bending his arc,


s: One day! The other night's wind blew him down!


s: The marble dust whirls in the morning breeze.


s: Oh, sad to view, o'erblotted by the trees,


s: There on the base, the name of great renown!


s: Foreshadowed is--I know what will befall!


s: Oh, sad!--And you are saddened also, Sweet,


s: Are not you, by this scene? although your eye


s: That flutters o'er the wreck strewn at our feet.


s: Erewhile two shadowy glimmering figures passed.


s: Their lips were colorless, and dead their eyes;


s: Their words were scarce more audible than sighs.


s: Two spectres conjured up the buried past.


s: "Why, pray, should I remember it at all?"


s: "Does still your heart at mention of me glow?


s: Do still you see my soul in slumber?" "No!"


s: "Ah, blessed, blissful days when our lips met!


s: You loved me so!" "Quite likely,--I forget."


s: "How sweet was hope, the sky how blue and fair!"


s: "The sky grew black, the hope became despair."


s: Thus walked they 'mid the frozen weeds, these dead,


s: And Night alone o'erheard the things they said.


s: Since shade relents, since 'tis indeed the day,


s: Since hope I long had deemed forever flown,


s: Wings back to me that call on her and pray,


s: Since so much joy consents to be my own,--


s: Above all with the narrowed lips, the sneer,


s: The heartless wit that laughed where one should sigh.


s: Away, clenched fist and bosom's angry swell,


s: That knave and fool at every turn abound.


s: By favor of her smile, her glance, her grace,


s: Wherein mine trembles,--led, sweet eyes, by you,


s: To walk straight, lie the path o'er mossy land


s: Or barren waste that rocks and pebbles strew.


s: Yes, calm I mean to walk through life, and straight,


s: It shall be duty done with cheerful soul.


s: She'll listen to me graciously, I say,--


s: The scene behind the carriage window-panes


s: Goes flitting past in furious flight; whole plains


s: With streams and harvest-fields and trees and blue


s: Are swallowed by the whirlpool, whereinto


s: The telegraph's slim pillars topple o'er,


s: Whose wires look strangely like a music-score.


s: A smell of smoke and steam, a horrid din


s: As of a thousand clanking chains that pin


s: A thousand giants that are whipped and howl,--


s: What is it all to me? Since in mine eyes


s: Since still the soft voice murmurs in mine ear,


s: And since the Name, so sweet, so high, so dear,


s: Pure pivot of this madding whirl, prevails


s: The rosy hearth, the lamplight's narrow beam,


s: With looks that lose themselves in cherished looks;


s: The hour of steaming tea and banished books;


s: The dear fatigue, and right to rest attained,


s: And worshipped expectation of the night,--


s: Oh, all these things, in unrelenting flight,


s: My dream pursues through all the vain delays,


s: Impatient of the weeks, mad at the days!


s: The sun, my joy's accomplice, bright shall shine,


s: To your dear radiance still another ray;


s: Shall shake out their blue folds to droop and trail


s: About our happy brows, that shall be pale


s: And when day closes, soft shall be the air


s: That in your snowy veils, caressing, plays,


s: And with soft-smiling eyes the stars shall gaze


s: Il pleut doucement sur la ville.--ARTHUR RIMBAUD


s: Son joyeux, importun, d'un clavecin sonore.--PÉTRUS BOREL


s: The keyboard, over which two slim hands float,


s: Shines vaguely in the twilight pink and gray,


s: Whilst with a sound like wings, note after note


s: Takes flight to form a pensive little lay


s: That strays, discreet and charming, faint, remote,


s: About the room where perfumes of Her stray.


s: To that dim ditty's dreamy rise and fall?


s: "That we, though far from her, are near,


s: Le rossignol qui du haut d'une branche se regarde


s: dedans, croit être tombé dans la rivière. Il est au sommet


s: d'un chene, et toutefois il a peur de se noyer.


s: The trees' reflection in the misty stream


s: Whilst up among the actual boughs, forlorn,


s: You were not over-patient with me, dear;


s: This want of patience one must rightly rate:


s: You had not all the needful kindness, no;


s: You're very young, cold sister mine, and so


s: Not gay, of course! but doing what I can


s: To bear up bravely,--deeply though I grieve


s: To be, through you, the most unhappy man.


s: But you will own that I was in the right


s: That your sweet eyes, my hope, once, and delight!


s: Were come to look like eyes that will betray.


s: And your glance, which was lying, dear, would flame,--


s: Poor fire, near out, one stirs to make it flare!--


s: And in your soft voice you would say, "Je t'aime!"


s: Alas! that one should clutch at happiness


s: In sense's, season's, everything's despite!--


s: When I became convinced that I was right!


s: And wherefore should I lay my heart-wounds bare?


s: You love me not,--an end there, lady mine;


s: And as I do not choose that one shall dare


s: Yes, suffer! For I loved you well, did I,--


s: Till, hurt to death, he staggers off to die,


s: Still filled with love for an ungrateful land.


s: Although from you derive all my mischance,


s: Are not you still my Home, then, you alone,


s: As young and mad and beautiful as France?


s: Now I do not intend--what were the gain?--


s: To dwell with streaming eyes upon the past;


s: But yet my love which you may think lies slain,


s: My love, perhaps,--which now is memory!--


s: Although beneath your blows it cringe and cry


s: And bleed to will, and must, as I foresee,


s: Still suffer long and much before it die,--


s: Reproaching you, "Ah, fi! it was ill done!"


s: I see you still. I softly pushed the door--


s: As one o'erwhelmed with weariness you lay;


s: But O light body love should soon restore,


s: You bounded up, tearful at once and gay.


s: Myself, from brimming eyes I laughed to you


s: Those moments, among all, O lovely child,


s: Shall be my saddest, but my sweetest, too.


s: I will remember your smile, your caress,


s: Your eyes, so kind that day,--exquisite snare!--


s: Yourself, in fine, whom else I might not bless,


s: Only as they appeared, not as they were.


s: I see you still! Dressed in a summer dress,


s: Yellow and white, bestrewn with curtain-flowers;


s: But you had lost the glistening laughingness


s: Spoke plainly in your bearing's least detail,--


s: That stared me from behind your dotted veil.


s: I treasure up,--and you, no doubt, see why,--


s: Remembrance of the lightning to one side


s: That used to flash from your indignant eye!


s: Some moments, I'm the tempest-driven bark


s: That runs dismasted mid the hissing spray,


s: And seeing not Our Lady through the dark


s: Makes ready to be drowned, and kneels to pray.


s: Some moments, I'm the sinner at his end,


s: Sees Hell already gape, and feels it glow.


s: Oh, but! Some moments, I've the spirit stout


s: A nerve's revolt, the turning of a hair!


s: See, blossoms, branches, fruit, leaves I have brought,


s: And then my heart that for you only sighs;


s: With those white hands of yours, oh, tear it not,


s: But let the poor gift prosper in your eyes.


s: The dew upon my hair is still undried,--


s: The morning wind strikes chilly where it fell.


s: To dream the hour that shall it quite dispel.


s: Allow my head, that rings and echoes still


s: With your last kiss, to lie upon your breast,


s: Till it recover from the stormy thrill,--


s: And let me sleep a little, since you rest.


s: More clear than stars of cloudless skies,


s: What sayst thou, traveller, of all thou saw'st afar?


s: On every tree hangs boredom, ripening to its fall,


s: Didst gather it, thou smoking yon thy sad cigar,


s: Black, casting an incongruous shadow on the wall?


s: Thine eyes are just as dead as ever they have been,


s: Unchanged is thy grimace, thy dolefulness is one,


s: Thou mind'st one of the wan moon through the rigging seen,


s: The wrinkled sea beneath the golden morning sun,


s: The ancient graveyard with new gravestones every day,--


s: But, come, regale us with appropriate detail,


s: Those disillusions weeping at the fountains, say,


s: Those new disgusts, just like their brothers, littered stale,


s: Those women! Say the glare, the identical dismay


s: Of ugliness and evil, always, in all lands,


s: And say Love, too,--and Politics, moreover, say,


s: With ink-dishonored blood upon their shameless hands.


s: And then, above all else, neglect not to recite


s: Thy proper feats, thou dragging thy simplicity


s: Wherever people love, wherever people fight,


s: In such a sad and foolish kind, in verity!


s: Has that dull innocence been punished as it should?


s: What say'st thou? Man is hard,--but woman? And thy tears,


s: Who has been drinking? And into what ear so good


s: Dost pour thy woes for it to pour in other ears?


s: Ah, others! ah, thyself! Gulled with such curious ease,


s: That used to dream (Doth not the soul with laughter fill?)


s: One knows not what poetic, delicate decease,--


s: Thou sort of angel with the paralytic will!


s: But now what are thy plans, thine aims? Art thou of might?


s: Or has long shedding tears disqualified thy heart?


s: The tree is scarcely hardy, judging it at sight,


s: And by thy looks no topping conqueror thou art.


s: So awkward, too! With the additional offence


s: Of being now a sort of dazed idyllic bard


s: That poses in a window, contemplating thence


s: The silly noon-day sky with an impressed regard.


s: So totally the same in this extreme decay!


s: But in thy place a being with some sense, pardy,


s: Would wish at least to lead the dance, since he must pay


s: The fiddlers,--at some risk of flutt'ring passers-by!


s: Canst not, by rummaging within thy consciousness,


s: Find some bright vice to bare, as 't were a flashing sword?


s: Some gay, audacious vice, which wield with dexterousness,


s: And make to shine, and shoot red lightnings Heavenward!


s: Hast one, or more? If more, the better! And plunge in,


s: And bravely lay about thee, indiscriminate,


s: And wear that face of indolence that masks the grin


s: Of hate at once full-feasted and insatiate.


s: Not well to be a dupe in this good universe,


s: Where there is nothing to allure in happiness


s: Save in it wriggle aught of shameful and perverse,--


s: And not to be a dupe, one must be merciless!


s: --Ah, human wisdom, ah, new things have claimed mine eyes,


s: And of that past--of weary recollection!--


s: Thy voice described, for still more sinister advice,


s: In all the curious movements of my sad career,


s: Of others and myself, the chequered road I trod,


s: Of my accounted sorrows, good and evil cheer,


s: I nothing have retained except the grace of God!


s: If I am punished, 'tis most fit I should be so;


s: Played to its end is mortal man's and woman's rôle,--


s: But steadfastly I hope I too one day shall know


s: The peace and pardon promised every Christian soul.


s: Well not to be a dupe in this world of a day,


s: But not to be one in the world that hath no end,


s: That which it doth behoove the soul to be and stay


s: Is merciful, not merciless,--deluded friend.


s: The false fair days have flamed the livelong day,


s: And still they flicker in the brazen West.


s: Cast down thine eyes, poor soul, shut out the unblest:


s: All day they flashed in flakes of fire, that lay


s: The vintage low upon the hill's green breast,


s: The harvest low,--and o'er that faithfullest,


s: The blue sky ever beckoning, shed dismay.


s: Oh, clasp thy hands, grow pale, and turn again!


s: Those memories, must each anew be slain?


s: One fierce assault, the best, no doubt, the last!


s: Go pray against the gathering storm, go pray!


s: When death is come, shall naught remain.


s: I felt the last wound open in my breast,


s: The last, whose perfect torture doth attest


s: Most timely came it from their dreams to wrest


s: The sluggish scruples laid too long to rest,--


s: And all my Christian blood hymned fervently.


s: I still hear, still I see! O worshipped rule


s: How I shall love you, sweet hands of my child,


s: Whose task shall be to close our eyes one day!


s: "Son, thou must love me! See--" my Saviour said,


s: "My heart that glows and bleeds, my wounded side,


s: My hurt feet that the Magdalene, wet-eyed,


s: Clasps kneeling, and my tortured arms outspread


s: "To bear thy sins. Look on the cross, stained red!


s: The nails, the sponge, that, all, thy soul shall guide


s: To love on earth where flesh thrones in its pride,


s: My Body and Blood alone, thy Wine and Bread.


s: Have I not suffered, as was writ I must,


s: "And with thine agony sobbed out my breath?


s: Hath not thy nightly sweat bedewed my brow,


s: O lamentable friend that seek'st me now?"


s: Hope shines--as in a stable a wisp of straw.


s: Propped on your hand, you dozed--But let me draw


s: Cool water from the well for you, at least,


s: Poor soul! There, drink! Then sleep. See, I remain,


s: And you shall murmur like a child appeased.


s: Noon strikes. Approach not, Madam, pray, or call....


s: He sleeps. Strange how a woman's light footfall


s: Re-echoes through the brains of grief-worn men!


s: Noon strikes. I bade them sprinkle in the room.


s: Sleep on! Hope shines--a pebble in the gloom.


s: --When shall the Autumn rose re-blossom,--when?


s: Say, with your youth, you man that weep,


s: It is you, it is you, poor better thoughts!


s: The needful hope, shame for the ancient blots,


s: Heart's gentleness with mind's severity,


s: And all!--But slow as yet, though well awake;


s: Though sturdy, shy; scarce able yet to break


s: The spell of stifling night and heavy dreams.


s: One comes after the other, and each seems


s: Uncouther, and all fear the moonlight cold.


s: "Thus, sheep when first they issue from the fold,


s: Come,--one, then two, then three. The rest delay,


s: With lowered heads, in stupid, wondering way,


s: Waiting to do as does the one that leads.


s: He stops, they stop in turn, and lay their heads


s: Across his back, simply, not knowing why."*


s: Your shepherd, O my fair flock, is not I,--


s: The reasons, He that so long kept you close,


s: But timely with His own hand set you free.


s: Him follow,--light His staff. And I shall be,


s: Beneath his voice still raised to comfort you,


s: I shall be, I, His faithful dog, and true.


s: 'Tis the feast of corn, 'tis the feast of bread,


s: On the dear scene returned to, witnessed again!


s: So white is the light o'er the reapers shed


s: Their shadows fall pink on the level grain.


s: The stalked gold drops to the whistling flight


s: Of the scythes, whose lightning dives deep, leaps clear;


s: The plain, labor-strewn to the confines of sight,


s: Changes face at each instant, gay and severe.


s: All pants, all is effort and toil 'neath the sun,


s: The stolid old sun, tranquil ripener of wheat,


s: Who works o'er our haste imperturbably on


s: To swell the green grape yon, turning it sweet.


s: Work on, faithful sun, for the bread and the wine,


s: Feed man with the milk of the earth, and bestow


s: The frank glass wherein unconcern laughs divine,--


s: Ye harvesters, vintagers, work on, aglow!


s: For from the flour's fairest, and from the vine's best,


s: Fruit of man's strength spread to earth's uttermost,


s: God gathers and reaps, to His purposes blest,


s: The Flesh and the Blood for the chalice and host!


s: I am the Empire in the last of its decline,


s: That sees the tall, fair-haired Barbarians pass,--the while


s: Composing indolent acrostics, in a style


s: Of gold, with languid sunshine dancing in each line.


s: The solitary soul is heart-sick with a vile


s: Ennui. Down yon, they say, War's torches bloody shine.


s: Alas, to be so faint of will, one must resign


s: The chance of brave adventure in the splendid file,--


s: Of death, perchance! Alas, so lagging in desire!


s: Ah, all is drunk! Bathyllus, hast done laughing, pray?


s: Ah, all is drunk,--all eaten! Nothing more to say!


s: Alone, a vapid verse one tosses in the fire;


s: Alone, a somewhat thievish slave neglecting one;


s: Alone, a vague disgust of all beneath the sun!


s: The Sages of old time, well worth our own,


s: Believed--and it has been disproved by none--


s: That laughter oft is a misguiding thing,


s: Now all that born beneath Saturnus be,--


s: Inherit, ancient magic-books make clear,


s: Good share of spleen, good share of wretchedness.


s: In them makes the resolves of reason vain.


s: The blood within them, subtle as a bane,


s: Burning as lava, scarce, flows ever fraught


s: With sad ideals that ever come to naught.


s: Such must Saturnians suffer, such must die,--


s: If so that death destruction doth imply,--


s: Their lives being ordered in this dismal sense


s: Remembrance, what wilt thou with me? The year


s: Declined; in the still air the thrush piped clear,


s: Among the thinned leaves of the forest sere.


s: We were alone, and pensively we strolled,


s: With straying locks and fancies, when, behold


s: Her turn to let her thrilling gaze enfold,


s: Her fresh young voice, "What was thy happiest day?"


s: --Ah, me! The earliest flowers, how sweet are they!


s: The earliest "Yes" from well-beloved lips!


s: When I had pushed the narrow garden-door,


s: Once more I stood within the green retreat;


s: Nothing is changed. I see it all once more:


s: The vine-clad arbor with its rustic seat....


s: The waterjet still plashes silver sweet,


s: As they were wont, the tall proud lilies sway.


s: Each bird that lights and twitters is a friend.


s: Whose plaster crumbles at the alley's end,


s: --Slim, 'mid the foolish scent of mignonette.


s: Oft do I dream this strange and penetrating dream:


s: An unknown woman, whom I love, who loves me well,


s: Who does not every time quite change, nor yet quite dwell


s: The same,--and loves me well, and knows me as I am.


s: For she knows me! My heart, clear as a crystal beam


s: To her alone, and she alone knows to dispel


s: My grief, cooling my brow with her tears' gentle stream.


s: Is she of favor dark or fair?--I do not know.


s: Her name? All I remember is that it doth flow


s: Softly, as do the names of them we loved and lost.


s: Her eyes are like the statues',--mild and grave and wide;


s: And for her voice she has as if it were the ghost


s: Of other voices,--well-loved voices that have died.


s: To you these lines for the consoling grace


s: Of your great eyes wherein a soft dream shines,


s: For your pure soul, all-kind!--to you these lines


s: From the black deeps of mine unmatched distress.


s: 'Tis that the hideous dream that doth oppress


s: My soul, alas! its sad prey ne'er resigns,


s: But like a pack of wolves down mad inclines


s: Goes gathering heat upon my reddened trace!


s: So that the first man's cry at Eden lost


s: And that the sorrows, Dear, that may have crossed


s: Your life, are but as swallows light that fly


s: --Dear!--in a golden warm September sky.


s: Like to a swarm of birds, with jarring cries


s: Light mid the yellow leaves, that shake and sigh,


s: They settle screaming--Then the evil sound,


s: By the moist wind's impatient hushing drowned,


s: Dies by degrees, till nothing more is heard


s: Save the clear voice--O singer, sweetly done!--


s: Warbling the praises of the Absent One....


s: Sultry and splendid, by a late moon's light


s: That sad and sallow peers above the hill,


s: The humid hushing wind that ranges still


s: Rocks to a whispered sleepsong languidly


s: The bird lamenting and the shivering tree.


s: Kiss! Hollyhock in Love's luxuriant close!


s: Brisk music played on pearly little keys,


s: Love in the ardent heart repeating goes.


s: Sonorous, graceful Kiss, hail! Kiss divine!


s: Man, bent o'er thine enthralling chalice, Kiss,


s: Grows drunken with a rapture only thine!


s: Thou comfortest as music does, and wine,


s: And grief dies smothered in thy purple fold.


s: Let one greater than I, Kiss, and more bold,


s: Bouquet of rhymes I tender half in fear....


s: Be gracious, and in guerdon, on the dear


s: Red lips of One I know, alight and smile!


s: The sun, less hot, looks from a sky more clear;


s: Nod to the cradling wind. The atmosphere


s: For once hath Nature left the splendid throne


s: Of her indifference, and through the mild


s: Sun-gilded air of Autumn, clement grown,


s: Descends to man, her proud, revolted child.


s: She takes, to wipe the tears upon our face,


s: And her eternal soul, her deathless grace,


s: Strengthen and calm the weak heart that we are.


s: The waving of the boughs, the lengthened line


s: And scattered songs, all,--sing it, sail, or shine!--


s: To-day consoles, delivers!--Let us muse.


s: So, then this book is closed. Dear Fancies mine,


s: That streaked my grey sky with your wings of light,


s: And passing fanned my burning brow, benign,--


s: Thou, ringing Rhyme, thou, Verse that smooth didst glide,


s: Ye, throbbing Rhythms, ye, musical Refrains,


s: Fair Figures called to life with anxious pains,


s: We needs must part. Until the happier day


s: When Art, our Lord, his thralls shall re-unite,


s: Companions sweet, Farewell and Wellaway,


s: Fly home, ye may, to your blue Infinite!


s: And true it is, we spared not breath or force,


s: And our good pleasure, like foaming steed


s: Blind with the madness of his earliest course,


s: Of rest within the quiet shade hath need.


s: Egeria with the lightsome eyes profound,


s: Old picture Angel of the gilt background,


s: Muse,--ay, whose voice is powerful indeed,


s: Since in the first come brain it makes to grow


s: Thick as some dusty yellow roadside weed,


s: Gabriel and lute, Latona's son and lyre,--


s: What we have need of, we, the Poets True,


s: That not believe in Gods, and yet revere,


s: For whom no Beatrix leaves her radiant sphere,


s: And moving verses shape with unmoved mind,


s: Whom wandering in groups by evening seas,


s: In musical converse ye scarce shall find,--


s: What we need is, in midnight hours dim-lit,


s: Sleep daunted, knowledge earned,--more knowledge still!


s: Is Faust's brow, of the wood-cuts, sternly knit,


s: That grasps--as doth a noble bird of prey


s: The steaming flanks of the foredoomed brute,--


s: Its project, and with it,--skyward, away!


s: Unequalled effort, strife that shall not cease,


s: Is night, the bitter night of labor, whence


s: Arises, sun-like, slow, the Master-piece!


s: Let our Inspired, hearts by an eye-shot tined,


s: Sway with the birch-tree to all winds that blow,


s: Poor things! Art knows not the divided mind--


s: Speak, Milo's Venus, is she stone or no?


s: We therefore, carve we with the chisel Thought


s: The pure block of the Beautiful, and gain


s: From out the marble cold where it was not,


s: Some starry-chitoned statue without stain,


s: Our Work, new Memnon, shall to ears unborn


s: Make quiver in the singing air our name!


s: For the sleety wind that hammered them down,


s: That chilled their faces and chapped their skin,


s: And froze their fingers and bit their feet,


s: Their shivering bodies about the street;


s: And the fact is most of them didn't roam


s: In the face of the storm, but stayed at home;


s: While here and there a policeman, stamping


s: To keep himself warm or sedately tramping


s: Or peered where out of the blizzard's welter


s: Some wretched being had crept to shelter,


s: And now, drenched through by the sleet, a muddled


s: Blur of a man and his rags, lay huddled.


s: A wonderful, hook-nosed bright-eyed fellow


s: In a thin brown cape and a cap of yellow


s: That perched on his dripping coal-black hair.


s: A red scarf set off his throat and bound him,


s: Crossing his breast, and, winding round him,


s: And his hose were red, with a purple sheen


s: From his tunic's blue, and his shoes were green.


s: He was most outlandishly patched together


s: With ribbons of silk and tags of leather,


s: And chains of silver and buttons of stone,


s: And a turquoise brooch and a collar of jade,


s: Rakishly stuck in the red scarf's fold--


s: A dress, in short, that might suit a wizard


s: But was hardly fit for an autumn blizzard.


s: Whence had he come there? Who could say,


s: As he swung through Danbury town that day,


s: With a friendly light in his deep-set eyes,


s: And his free wild gait and his upright bearing,


s: And his air that nothing could well surprise,


s: So bright it was and so bold and daring?


s: He might have troubled the slothful ease


s: And swooped on the hosts of the unbeliever.


s: Whatever his birth and his nomenclature,


s: Something he seemed to have, some knowledge


s: That never was taught at school or college,


s: But was part of his very being's nature:


s: Though they hardly know what it is they know.


s: From the inmost depths of his ardent soul;


s: But the wind took hold of the notes and tossed them


s: And the few who chanced to be near him lost them.


s: He came to a street that turned and twisted;


s: He suddenly stopped as though affrighted,


s: Stopped and stared with his deep gaze centred


s: On something seen, like a dream's illusion,


s: Through the streaming glass, mid the queer confusion


s: And then with his lips set tight he entered.


s: There were rusty daggers and battered breastplates,


s: And jugs of pewter and carved oak cases,


s: And cracked old plates that had once been best plates;


s: Cut-glass bottles for wines and brandies,


s: Sticks once flourished by bucks and dandies;


s: And golden boxes they took their snuff in;


s: Rings that flashed on a gallant's knuckles,


s: Prints and pictures and quaint knick-knackery,


s: Stood an old man holding a dusty fiddle.


s: The Vagabond bowed and the old man bowed,


s: And so we shall come to a fair agreement,


s: Since I am for you and you're for me meant.


s: And I, having travelled hither from far, gain


s: Who when he perceives such stores of beauty


s: Or something equally rare and priceless,


s: Though its outward fashions perhaps entice less:


s: Or the helmet owned by a Roundhead fighter,


s: Or an old buff coat by the years worn thin,


s: I'll wager you've many, so you can't miss one,


s: And I--well, I have a mind for this one,


s: That flamed to a fight on the Afghan border;


s: And, whatever it costs, I am bound to win it,


s: For I left the half of my full soul in it."


s: To shiver the heart of the grey old man;


s: "The words you speak are the merest riddle,


s: But-five pounds down, and you own the fiddle!


s: And I'll choose for your hand, while the pounds you dole out,


s: A bow with which you may pick that soul out."


s: Swift through the twisting street he passed


s: Where a pent-house, leant to a wall, gave shelter


s: From the brunt of the blizzard's helter-skelter,


s: Now steady your hearts for an hour of joy!"


s: And, rounding his arm in a movement gay,


s: There hasn't been heard since the world spun round


s: Such a marvellous blend of thrilling sound.


s: It streamed, it flamed, it rippled and blazed,


s: And now it reproached and now it praised,


s: And the liquid notes of it wove a scheme


s: That was one-half life and one-half a dream.


s: Now, foiled and shattered, it rose again


s: And plucked at the souls and hearts of men;


s: And still as it rose the sleet came down


s: A crowd pressed out to the Market Square


s: And stood in the storm and listened there.


s: And, oh, with what a solemn tender strain


s: The long-drawn music eased their hearts of pain;


s: And gave them visions of divine content;


s: Green fields and happy valleys far away,


s: And rippling streams and sunshine and the scent


s: Of bursting buds and flowers that come in May.


s: And one spoke in a rapt and gentle voice,


s: "For now," he said, "I see, I see once more


s: Standing, as long ago she used to stand,


s: And beckoning to me with her dimpled hand.


s: And each one had his private joy, his own,


s: All the old happy things he once had known,


s: Renewed and from the prisoning past set free,


s: And mixed with hope and happy things to be.


s: Then faded to a close, and all was hushed,


s: And the tranced people woke and looked about,


s: And fell to wondering what had brought them out


s: On such a night of wind and piercing sleet,


s: Exposed with hatless heads and thin-shod feet.


s: Something, they knew, had chased their heavy sadness;


s: And for the years to come they still may keep,


s: Some broken gleam of half-remembered gladness.


s: But the wild fiddler on his feet of flame


s: Vanished and went the secret way he came.


s: I heard--'twas on a morning, but when it was and where,


s: Except that well I heard it, I neither know nor care--


s: I heard, and, oh, the sunlight was shining in the blue,


s: A little water singing as little waters do.


s: At Lechlade and at Buscot, where Summer days are long,


s: The tiny rills and ripples they tremble into song;


s: And where the silver Windrush brings down her liquid gems,


s: There's music in the wavelets she tosses to the Thames.


s: The eddies have an air too, and brave it is and blithe;


s: I think I may have heard it that day at Bablockhythe;


s: And where the Eynsham weir-fall breaks out in rainbow spray


s: The Evenlode comes singing to join the pretty play.


s: But where I heard that music I cannot rightly tell;


s: I only know I heard it, and that I know full well:


s: I heard a little water, and, oh, the sky was blue,


s: Like winds that with the setting of the sun


s: So is her little struggle fought and done;


s: The lately-breathing dust they may not hurt again.


s: Now all that Wilma was is made as naught:


s: Stilled is the laughter that was erst our pleasure;


s: The pretty air, the childish grace untaught,


s: The cheek that flushed to greet some tiny treasure;


s: The mouth demure, the tilted chin held high,


s: The gleeful flashes of her glancing eye;


s: Her shy bold look of wildness unconfined,


s: Dancing in airy rapture o'er the ground--


s: All these with that faint sigh are made to be


s: Man's breath upon a glass, a mortal memory.


s: Then from the silent room where late she played,


s: Setting a steady course toward the light,


s: Swifter than thistledown the little shade,


s: Reft from the nooks that she had made her own


s: And from the love that sheltered, fared alone


s: Forth through the gloomy spaces of the night,


s: Where all the suppliant shades must stand and wait.


s: He blinked his flaming eyes and ceased to frown,


s: And, fawning on her, smoothed his shaggy crest,


s: Composed his savage limbs and settled down


s: With ears laid back and all his care at rest;


s: For often she had tugged old Rollo's mane,


s: Of childish arms about her glossy neck--


s: Now cast about the haunts and hiding-places


s: To find their friend, but ever cast in vain.


s: So now, set free from all that can oppress,


s: Alert she wanders through the starry glade;


s: Or, where the blissful Shades intone their praise,


s: Gushes the pretty notes and careless trills


s: And with her music all the joyous valley fills.


s: Yet, oh ye Powers whose rule is set above


s: These fair abodes that ring the firmament,


s: And thou, too, mild-eyed Spirit of Content,


s: Ye will not chide if sometimes in her play


s: The child should start and droop her shining head,


s: Back tow'rd the dimness of our mortal day


s: And the loved home from which her soul was sped.


s: Who now, dear heart, is young for your eternity.


s: There's nothing I know of to make you spend


s: Of the hills that flank it on either side.


s: There's a large grey church with a square stone tower,


s: And a clock to mark you the passing hour


s: In a chime that shivers the village calm


s: With a row of elms thick-trunked and high,


s: (No tie could be neater or whiter than _his_ tie)


s: He makes mince-meat of the modern Germans,


s: Who finds his life for his needs the aptest;


s: An earnest man with a tongue that stings--


s: Who has dared to utter some dreadful things


s: North of the village lies Cragwell Hall;


s: And stretching far as the eye can reach,


s: Of the hills so keeping their guard about it


s: That the north wind never may chill or flout it,


s: Through forests as dense as that of Arden,


s: With orchard and park and trim-kept garden,


s: And farms for pasture and farms for tillage,


s: The Hall maintains its rule of the village.


s: Girt round with all that our hearts desire


s: Of leisure and wealth, the ancient Squire.


s: When he cheered the hounds on a hunting day.


s: He was hard on dissenters and such encroachers,


s: He was hard on sinners and hard on poachers;


s: That the pick of the earth to him was due:


s: The right to this and the right to that,


s: The right to partridge and hare and pheasant;


s: Through his own or anyone else's grounds;


s: And to snore the whole of the night away;


s: Was "A Darville holds what a Darville gained."


s: Small merit in one who has most things free;


s: "Old Darville's a just man, is he? Bust his


s: Gills, we could do without his justice!"


s: The twists of the street, as our hamlets do,


s: It's a quaint old ramshackle moss-grown place,


s: Not moved at all by the rush and flurry,


s: Of the big world tossing in rage and riot,


s: While the village holds to its old-world quiet.


s: There's a family grocer, a family baker,


s: A butcher, proud of his craft and willing


s: To admit that his business in life is killing,


s: Who parades a heart as soft as his meat's tough--


s: There's a little shop for the sale of sweet stuff;


s: There's a maker and mender of boots and shoes


s: Of the sort that the country people use,


s: Studded with iron and clamped with steel,


s: And in the neat little inn's trim garden


s: The old men, each with his own churchwarden,


s: While the anvil-notes ring high and clear


s: To the rushing bass of the mighty bellows.


s: And thence they look on a cheerful scene


s: As the little ones play on the Village Green,


s: As if no Darville could ever squire them,


s: And nothing on earth could tame or tire them.


s: On the central point of the pleasant Green


s: Which has never stinted its ice-cold waters


s: There was always enough for can and pail--


s: To the dried-out rivals of Cragwell End.


s: Crowded and crammed together in one day,


s: One vast soap-sudded and wash-tubbed Monday,


s: And, however fast they might wind the winch,


s: For the legend runs that Crag the Saint,


s: At the high noon-tide of a summer's day,


s: To the site of the well once made his way,


s: And blessed the place, and thenceforth never


s: The waters have ceased but they run for ever.


s: They burnt St. Crag, so the stories say,


s: But the well survives, and the block of wood


s: Stands--nay, stood where it always stood,


s: And still was the village's pride and glory


s: On the day of which I shall tell my story.


s: Battered and cracked, it still remained;


s: "Who'll buy? Who'll buy?" was the call he cried


s: As the folk came flocking from every side;


s: His free wild words and his laughter bold:


s: By the village well in the autumn weather,


s: And the reckless lilt of his hare-brained patter.


s: And eyed with a look that was almost sinister


s: And the Squire, it happened, was riding by,


s: With an angry look in his bloodshot eye,


s: At the wasted toil of a bad day's hunting;


s: And he stopped his horse on its homeward way


s: Then the pedlar called to the crowd to hear,


s: And his voice rang loud and his voice rang clear;


s: And he lifted his head and began to troll


s: "_Since last I talked to you here I've hurled


s: I've fought with man and I've fought with beast_;


s: _And I've opened the gates and cleared the bar


s: That blocks the road to the morning star!_


s: But the King said, 'Wizards are off,' said he;


s: "_So I sat by the King and began to spout


s: As the day drew in and the sun went out;


s: Till the light returned and the night grew pale;


s: And none of the Wizards blinked or stirred


s: While the King sat drinking it word by word._


s: "_Then he gave me rubies and diamonds old;


s: Till I came to the kingdom of Prester John;


s: And sang the song of 'The First Wise Fool':


s: Till John he whimpered and piped his eye._


s: "_Then I drew a tooth from the lively jaw


s: And he bubbled and laughed so long, d'you see,


s: That his wife looked glum and I had to flee.


s: So I fled to the place where the Rajahs grow,


s: "_The Rajahs summoned the turbaned hordes


s: And gave me sheaves of their inlaid swords;


s: Who's brother and friend to the Big Bashaw;


s: And he sent me a rope of turquoise stones


s: "_But a little brown Pygmie took my hand


s: Where the little brown Pygmie boys and girls


s: Are cradled and rocked to sleep in pearls._


s: _And the Pygmies flattered me soft and low,


s: 'You are tall; be King of us, Gipsy Joe.'_


s: But it came to an end, and now I'm here.


s: Oh, I've opened the gates and cleared the bar,


s: And I've come, I've come to my friends from far.


s: But I've come to the friends my soul desired._


s: "_So it's watches and lockets, and who will buy?


s: It's ribbon and lace, and they're not priced high.


s: If you're out for a ring or a golden chain


s: From a tree that's grown by the AEthiops!_


s: "_I've a chip of the tooth of a mastodont


s: That's sure to give you the girl you want.


s: I've a packet of spells to make men sigh


s: For the lustrous glance of your liquid eye--


s: But it's much too dark for such wondrous wares,


s: So back, stand back, while I light my flares!_"


s: Then he lit a match, but his fingers fumbled,


s: And, striking his foot on a stone, he stumbled;


s: And the match, released by the sudden shock,


s: But before you could have counted three,


s: Lighting the crowd that shrank from its flashes,


s: As the seat of St. Crag was burnt to ashes!


s: But in the smoke that drifted on the Green


s: Queer freaks of vision weirdly wrought were seen:


s: For on that shifting background each one saw


s: Saw himself there, a bright light shining through him,


s: Not as he thought himself, but as men knew him.


s: Each rag of sham, each tatter of pretence


s: Withered and vanished, as dissolved in air,


s: And left the shuddering human creature bare.


s: But when they turned and looked upon a friend


s: They saw a sight that all but made amend:


s: Indued with virtue and surpassing merit,


s: Not vain or dull or mean or keen for pelf,


s: Darville and Fall were drawn to one another,


s: And both to Bent as to their heart's own brother;


s: And a strange feeling grew in every breast,


s: Which from that moment's flash composed their strife,


s: Informed their nature and controlled their life.


s: But when they sought the Gipsy, him they found,


s: His dark eyes staring, dead upon the ground.


s: Now here, now there, from wall to floor,


s: I stretched my hand and touched him; then


s: Till, worn with failure, vexed with doubt,


s: RUPERT is dead, and RUPERT was my friend;


s: But six months back I saw him full of life,


s: Ardent for fighting; now he lies at ease


s: In some obscure but splendid field of France,


s: His strivings over and his conflicts done.


s: And quaint contrivings, ever on the point


s: But always baulked of meeting them at last.


s: He could not brook--and always so declared--


s: Scorned all the tin-gods of our petty world,


s: And smashed conventions with a reckless zeal,


s: Holding his luck and not himself to blame


s: For aught that might betide when reckoning came.


s: But he was true as steel and staunch as oak.


s: And if he pledged his word he bore it out


s: Whate'er he had of strength to help a friend.


s: When the great summons came he rushed to arms,


s: Counting no cost and all intent to serve


s: Yet he could laugh at all his ardour too


s: Laughs at a bauble but will guard it well.


s: Now he is fall'n, and on his shining brow


s: How, when the word was given, he stood erect,


s: Sprang from the trench and, shouting to his men,


s: Led them forthright to where the sullen foe


s: Waited their coming; and his brain took fire,


s: "Forward!" his cry rang out, and all his men


s: Thundered behind him with their eyes ablaze,


s: "Forward for England! Clear the beggars out!


s: Remember--" and death found him, and he fell


s: Fronting the Germans, and the rush swept on.


s: Thrice blesséd fate! We linger here and droop


s: And may not, though we envy, give our lives


s: For England and for honour and for right;


s: But still must wear our weary hours away,


s: While he, that happy fighter, in one leap,


s: Breaks through the bonds that bound him to the earth.


s: His very faults are into virtues turned;


s: And, reft for ever from the haunts of men,


s: With those who fought for England and are dead.


s: And stirred each generous heart to flame.


s: You with the hawk's eyes and the nerves of steel,


s: How was it with you when the hurried word


s: Roused you and sent you swiftly forth to deal


s: A blow for justice? Sure your pulses stirred,


s: And all your being leapt to meet the call


s: Murder and ravening flame were hid intent to fall.


s: Where in the vault of heaven the high stars swing,


s: Of fateful motion, till at last you sped


s: For this we thank you, and we bid you know


s: That henceforth in the air, by day or night,


s: A myriad hopes of ours, where'er you go,


s: Rise as companions of your soaring flight;


s: And well we know that when there comes the need


s: Will rush to prove the daring of the island breed.


s: Blow, Father Triton, blow your wreathéd horn


s: Cheerly, as is your wont, and let the blast


s: Blow, while the shining hours go swiftly past.


s: Rise, Proteus, from the cool depths rise, and be


s: A friend to them that breast your ancient sea.


s: I shall be there to greet you, for I tire


s: Of the dull meadows and the crawling stream.


s: I come to greet you and to catch the gleam


s: The sportive tresses of their amber hair.


s: Stung by the buffets of the wind-borne spray;


s: Or join the troops that sport upon the sand,


s: With shouts and laughter wearing out the day;


s: Of the great waves that beat the crumbling shore.


s: Then, when the children all are lapped in sleep


s: The pretty Nymphlets of the sea shall rise,


s: And we shall know them as they flit and creep


s: And peep and glance and murmur lullabies;


s: While the pale moon comes up beyond the hill,


s: And Proteus rests and Triton's horn is still.


s: On your pebble-buttressed forts of sand,


s: And a burst of rollicking high-pitched laughter


s: The stealthy trickling waves that lap you


s: And the crested breakers that tumble after


s: To souse and batter you, sting and sap you--


s: Down-again, up-again, not-a-bit brittle folk,


s: For, lo, he comes, your tricksy little friend,


s: From the clear caverns of his crystal home


s: Planner of sandy romps and wet delights,


s: Robin the Sea-boy, prince of ocean-sprites,


s: Is come, is come to lead you in your play


s: And fill your hearts with mirth and jocund sport to-day!


s: What! Can't you see him? There he stands


s: Down through the emerald vaults self-hurled


s: He breasts the waves, he spurns their blows;


s: Where the great sea-birds wheel their troops.


s: Three broad-winged gulls, himself their lord,


s: He floats, he stoops, he darts, he soars;


s: Then straight, without a check, he speeds


s: And all his flights and his swoops are done


s: He will drop to the shore and lend a hand


s: He will cover with flints its frowning face


s: And the waves shall employ their utmost damp art


s: She will give us praise when we get wet through;


s: In fact she will smile and think it better


s: When we get as wet as we like and wetter.


s: As for eating too much, you can safely risk it


s: With chocolate, lollipop, cake, and biscuit,


s: And your mother will revel with high delight


s: Great shells there shall be of a rainbow hue


s: Wonderful nets for the joy of making 'em.


s: And scores of shrimps for the trouble of taking 'em;


s: And perhaps he will tire of his shape and habit


s: With a twitching nose and a coat of yellow,


s: From his flashing scut to his flattened ear.


s: And waves his hand and prepares to fly--


s: Sweetheart, where all the dancing joys compete


s: Take now your choice; the world is at your feet,


s: All turned into a gay and shining pleasance,


s: And every face has smiles to greet your presence.


s: And the dear Birthday-elves unseen conspire


s: To flush your cheeks and set your eyes on fire.


s: Mayhap they whisper what a birthday means


s: That sets you spinning through your pretty teens.


s: A slim-grown shape adorned with golden shimmers


s: Of tossing hair that streams and waves and glimmers,


s: Or change to silence as you stand and hear


s: Some kind old tale that moves you to a tear.


s: And, since this is your own bright day, my dear,


s: Of all the days that gem the sparkling year,


s: See, we have picked as well as we were able


s: And set your gifts upon your own small table:


s: Lest you should cut your friendship for the boy,


s: Receives a halfpenny and departs with joy.


s: The burnished inkstand was your mother's choice;


s: For six new handkerchiefs I gave my voice,


s: Having in view your tender little nose's


s: Soft comfort; and the agate pen is Rosie's;


s: When ways are dark, and, last, behold with these


s: That were so long, so ardently concealed--


s: All save the cake which still is in the making,


s: Not yet smooth-iced and unprepared for taking


s: Thrones it triumphant, teened and unafraid.


s: So through the changing years may all delight


s: Live in your face and make your being bright.


s: May the good sprites and busy fays befriend you,


s: And cheerful thoughts and innocent defend you;


s: When in the chambers of your mind you see


s: Those who have loved you, then remember me.


s: When good-nights have been prattled, and prayers have been said,


s: And the last little sunbeam is tucked up in bed,


s: Then, skirting the trees on a carpet of snow,


s: The elves and the fairies come out in a row.


s: Pirouetting and setting they cross and advance


s: In a ripple of laughter, and pair for a dance.


s: And it's oh for the boom of the fairy bassoon,


s: And the oboes and horns as they strike up a tune,


s: And the twang of the harps and the sigh of the lutes,


s: And the clash of the cymbals, the purl of the flutes;


s: While the chief all on fire, with a flame for a hand,


s: Rattles on the gay measure and stirs up his band.


s: With a pointing of toes and a lifting of wrists


s: They are off through the whirls and the twirls and the twists;


s: Thread the mazes of marvellous figures, and chime


s: With a bow to a curtsey, and always keep time:


s: And their gauze and their sparkles, designed for a dance


s: By the leaders of fairy-land fashion in France.


s: But the old lady fairies sit out by the trees,


s: And the old beaux attend them as pert as you please.


s: They quiz the young dancers and scorn their display,


s: And deny any grace to the dance of to-day;


s: "When we went out at night we could temper our fun


s: With some manners in dancing, but now there are none."


s: But at last, though the music goes gallantly on,


s: And the dancers are none of them weary or gone,


s: When the gauze is in rags and the hair is awry,


s: Comes a light in the East and a sudden cock-cry.


s: Leaving never a trace of their gay little selves


s: Or the winter-night dance of the fairies and elves.


s: Tufted and bunched and ranged with careless art


s: Here, where the paving-stones are set apart,


s: The little pansies nod their heads and smile.


s: With what a whispering and a lulling sound


s: They watch the children sport about the ground,


s: Longing, it seems, to join the pretty play


s: That laughs and runs the light-winged hours away.


s: Who shone and played and made the garden fair,


s: To whom the pansies in their robes of white


s: And gold and purple gave a welcome bright.


s: Gone are those voices, but the others came.


s: Joyous and free, whose spirit was the same;


s: And other pansies, robed as those of old,


s: Peeped up and smiled in purple, white and gold.


s: For pansies are, I think, the little gleams


s: Of children's visions from a world of dreams,


s: Alight with laughter as they fall to earth.


s: Below, the ancient guardian, it may hap,


s: The kindly mother, takes them in her lap,


s: Decks them with glowing petals and replaces


s: In the glad air the friendly pansy-faces.


s: So tread not rashly, children, lest you crush


s: A part of childhood in a thoughtless rush.


s: Would you not treat them gently if you knew


s: Pansies are little bits of children too?


s: This is the tale the old men tell, the tale that was told to me,


s: Some hundreds of thousands of years ago.


s: The news went round in the camp that night;


s: "I was out," he said, "for a fat young buck,


s: A green head flapped with a snarling lip,


s: And a long tongue set with an arrow's tip.


s: And I cast my coat, and I changed my plan,


s: Of the terrible slaughtering fierce-eyed fellow


s: Who has made his lair on the gorse-clad summit,


s: And the Bards with their long beards flowing down,


s: But at last the Chief Bard up and spoke,


s: "Now I swear by beech and I swear by oak,


s: By the grass and the streams I swear," said he,


s: Some dragon's egg, as it seems, contrived


s: Where at last it managed to hatch itself.


s: Whatever the cause, the result is plain:


s: We haven't the time, and, what is worse,


s: The flocks and herds on the gorse-clad summit,


s: That would shatter the beast and lay him low,


s: It was "Up with your heart, and at him, John!"


s: Or "Gurth, you'll bring me his ugly head,"


s: Or "Lance, my man, when you've struck him dead,


s: When he hasn't a wag in his fearful tail,


s: Carve off and bring me a blue-green scale."


s: Then they set to work at their swords and spears--


s: Such a polishing hadn't been seen for years.


s: They made the tips of their arrows sharp,


s: Re-strung and burnished the Chief Bard's harp,


s: And all in the midst of the talk and racket


s: And a nubble of beef, and, to moisten these,


s: A flask of her home-brewed, not too thin,


s: Who had perched his length on the gorse-clad summit,


s: With a good round dozen of bards to lead them


s: And their wives all waving their hands to speed them,


s: While the Chief Bard, fixed in his chair of state,


s: With his harp and his wreath looked most sedate.


s: When the warriors went he stayed in camp;


s: But still from his chair he harped them on


s: Till the very last of the host had gone,


s: Then he yawned and solemnly shook his head


s: Has checked his natural lust for battle,


s: And sent the rest to the gorse-clad summit,


s: Marching at ease in the cheerful air, on duty and daring bent,


s: The sleek rooks, washed in the morning's dew,


s: Rose at their coming and flapped and flew


s: And the cropping ewes and the old bell-wether


s: Looked up in terror and pushed together;


s: With their lips drawn tight and their eyes all glowing,


s: And the sunshine laughing on swords and spears,


s: They have neared the stream, they have crossed the bridge,


s: And they stop in sight of the rugged ridge,


s: And it's "Flankers back!" and "Skirmishers in!"


s: And the summit is theirs to lose or win--


s: At the arduous summit, the gorse-clad summit,


s: But where was the dragon, the scale-clad dragon,


s: Lo, just as the word to charge rang out,


s: And before they could give their battle shout,


s: With its lips curled back and its teeth laid bare,


s: What shape of courage and wrath appears?


s: And they took the kittens with shouts of laughter


s: And turned for home, and the cat came after.


s: And when in the camp they told their tale,


s: And was kept in comfort and fed with honour;


s: The dragonless summit, the gorse-clad summit,


s: And all, in fact, is planned--and that's


s: "Here lies," we say, "from care released


s: And, oh, but the flowers are rich and rare,


s: For there's never a wind that dares to scatter


s: And it's built of ivory splashed with gold.


s: It has silver ceilings and jasper floors


s: And I tickle their ears and pull their tails


s: And pat their heads and polish their scales;


s: Then I pour them drink out of golden flagons,


s: Who's a terrible fellow for chattering on,


s: And the palace itself, he has often said,


s: In the vaulted hall where we have the dances


s: There are suits of armour and swords and lances,


s: Plenty of steel-wrought who's-afraiders,


s: Corslets, helmets and shields and things


s: But, bother the boy, here comes our John


s: And the sword with its keen Toledo blade


s: In the gardener's silly old lean-to shed.


s: And sometimes, too, when the night comes soon


s: Through the nursery-window I peep and see


s: And I think I shall try to go there instead


s: They are Indian braves, a terrible band,


s: Are the dragons awake? Are the dragons sleepers?


s: Will they meet and scatter these crafty creepers?


s: What ho! ... But John, who has sorely tried me,


s: Trots up and flattens his nose beside me;


s: "Come, Peggy, put your toys away; you needn't shake your head,


s: Your bear's been working overtime; he's panting for his bed.


s: He's turned a thousand somersaults, and now his head must ache;


s: It's cruelty to animals to keep the bear awake."


s: At this she stamped in mutiny, and then she urged her plea,


s: Her wonted plea, "A little time, a minute more, for me."


s: "Be off, you little rogue of rogues," I sternly made reply;


s: "It's wicked to be sitting up with sand in either eye.


s: And some day some one else will come, a gallant youth and gay,


s: To harry me and marry you and carry you away."


s: At this the storm broke out afresh:--"You know I hate the boys;


s: I'll never marry any boy; I'll only marry _you_."


s: "Agreed," I cried--the imp, of course, had won the bout of wits;


s: Had gained her point and got her time and beaten me to fits--


s: Made, as doth from these presents appear,


s: Between Peggy, being now in her sixth year,


s: Between the said contractress, that is to say,


s: And a person with whom she is often good enough to play;


s: Who happens to have been something of a factor


s: In bringing her into the world, who, in short, is her father,


s: And is hereinafter spoken of as the said contractor.


s: Now the said contractress declares she would rather


s: Marry the said contractor than any other.


s: At the same time she affirms with the utmost steadiness


s: To take any other fellow on as a brother.


s: Still, she means to marry her father, and to be his wife,


s: And to live happily with him all the rest of her life.


s: This contract is made without consideration,


s: The said contractress had it read through


s: And she took her pen, and she held it tight


s: And she made her mark with a blotted cross,


s: And the said contractor he signed in full,


s: When sixteen years or so are gone, I'll hunt for it myself


s: And take it gently from its drawer, or get it from its shelf.


s: Unless my hand have lost its strength, unless my eye be dim,


s: I'll lift the shoe, the contract too, and fling the lot at him."


s: And that's the long and (chiefly) the short of it,


s: And the point of it and the wonderful sport of it;


s: And two chubby fists to clutch it and grasp it,


s: And two fat arms to embrace it and clasp it;


s: And, as to his cheeks, they're also fat--


s: I've seen them in ancient prints like that,


s: And strewing them over the patient earth,


s: With the work of his lungs and cheeks and lips.


s: Take a look at his eyes; I put it to you,


s: If you went and worried the whole world through


s: In the coats and scarves of a Cambridge crew.


s: But it's right for a boy with its crisp, short curls


s: His four-legged playmate--and John is spilt.


s: Black coat, kind eye and a stride that's free.


s: His two short legs having failed to score


s: And then he laughed and he went and hugged her,


s: Seized her tail in his fist and tugged her,


s: And so, with a sister's hand to guide him,


s: Continued his march with the dog beside him.


s: He does it alone, though he finds it steep.


s: He is stripped and gowned, and he says his prayers,


s: And a tattered monkey to form his Court,


s: Conceives that this is the time for play


s: But at last, tucked in for the hundredth time,


s: Gives one long sigh of unalloyed content


s: And so begins to breathe his quiet night away.


s: Exalt the rook's black satin dress-coat,


s: Still, though your wickedness must harrow


s: Still, though I oft and gravely doubt you,


s: Your darting flight, your bouts of play,


s: And for your faults I'll still defend you,


s: Tested and staunch through many a changing year,


s: Gelert, his master's faithful hound, lies here.


s: Humble in friendship, but in service proud,


s: He gave to man whate'er his lot allowed;


s: And, rich in love, on each well-trusted friend


s: Spent all his wealth and still had more to spend.


s: Now, reft beyond the unfriendly Stygian tide,


s: For these he yearns and has no wish beside.


s: Full in the splendour of this morning hour,


s: With tramp of men and roll of muffled drums,


s: Borne to his grave, our lord, King EDWARD, comes!


s: Lo, the proud cavalcade of comrade Kings,


s: Heralds and Pursuivants and Men-at-arms,


s: Scarred Captains who have baffled war's alarms


s: And Courtiers glittering in their robes of state,


s: All in their blazoned ranks, with eyes cast down,


s: Where that which bore the sceptre and the crown


s: Cleaves at their head the silence of the throng.


s: Looking and longing for his lord in vain,


s: A little playmate whom the KING held dear,


s: Caesar, the terrier, tugs his silver chain!


s: Hail, Caesar, lonely little Caesar, hail!


s: Little for you the gathered Kings avail.


s: In the strange silence, lo, you prick your ear


s: For one loved voice, and that you shall not hear.


s: So when the monarchs with their bright array


s: Of gold and steel and stars have passed away,


s: When, to their wonted use restored again,


s: All things go duly in their ordered train,


s: You shall appeal at each excluding door,


s: Search through the rooms and every haunt explore;


s: From lawn to lawn, from path to path pursue


s: The well-loved form that still escapes your view.


s: To stir your tail and animate your eyes,


s: And at each turn, with gathering strength endued,


s: Hope, still frustrated, must be still renewed.


s: How should you rest from your appointed task


s: Till chance restore the happiness you ask,


s: Take from your heart the burden, ease your pain,


s: And grant you to your master's side again,


s: Proud and content if but you could beguile


s: His voice to flatter and his face to smile?


s: Caesar, the kindly days may bring relief;


s: Swiftly they pass and dull the edge of grief.


s: You too, resigned at last, may school your mind


s: To miss the comrade whom you cannot find,


s: The world has secrets which no skill reveals.


s: Henceforth, whate'er the ruthless fates may give,


s: You shall be loved and cherished while you live.


s: Reft of your master, little dog forlorn,


s: To one dear mistress you shall now be sworn,


s: And in her queenly service you shall dwell,


s: At rest with one who loved your master well.


s: And she, that gentle lady, shall control


s: The faithful kingdom of a true dog's soul,


s: And for the past's dear sake shall still defend


s: Caesar, the dead KING'S humble little friend.


s: I praise your heart's deep love that shows


s: (And if they bulge--forgive the allusion--


s: The smaller eyes are, sure, the blinder,


s: She blinks and blinks and lets you share


s: Even should you growl her hair stays flat:


s: With John, their brother, in his shorts,


s: That thins his tail and spoils his shape,


s: Have lustrous eyes that bulge like buds,


s: Released, he barks and rolls, and speeds


s: Our Peter, who's famed as an eater of things,


s: Is a miniature dragon without any wings.


s: He can gallop or trot, he can amble or jog,


s: But he flies like a flash when he's after his prog;


s: And the slaves who adore him, whatever his mood,


s: He considers the garden his absolute own:


s: It's the place where a digger can bury a bone.


s: Then he tests his pin-teeth on a pansy or rose,


s: Spreading ruin and petals wherever he goes;


s: And his mistress declares, when he's nibbled for hours,


s: Having finished his dinner he wheedles the cook,


s: Picks a coal from the scuttle or tackles a book,


s: Or devotes all his strength to a slipper or mat,


s: To the gnawing of this and the tearing of that;


s: _Faute de mieux_ takes a dress; and his mistress asserts


s: But at last he has supped, and the moment is come


s: When, his stretchable turn being tight as a drum,


s: He is meek and submissive, who once was so proud,


s: And he creeps to his basket and slumbers aloud.


s: And his mistress proclaims, as she tucks up his shawl,