s: of forty-nine, all other qualities of mind and body being equally


s: We read what travellers tell us about the King of Dahomey, or the


s: --I thought a shade of regret deepened the lines on his broad,


s: Here is the passage of his Poem the Young Astronomer read to us.


s: O'er the green meadows to the ring of blue,


s: From slope, from summit, and from half-hid vale


s: The sky is stabbed with dagger-pointed spires,


s: Their gilded symbols whirling in the wind,


s: Their brazen tongues proclaiming to the world,


s: Here truth is sold, the only genuine ware;


s: You will buy Poison instead of food across the way,


s: The lies of--this or that, each several name


s: The standard's blazon and the battle-cry


s: And grouped round each I see a huddling crowd


s: Alike in all things save the words they use;


s: In love, in longing, hate and fear the same.


s: Whom do we trust and serve?  We speak of one


s: And bow to many; Athens still would find


s: The shrines of all she worshipped safe within


s: Our tall barbarian temples, and the thrones


s: The god of music rules the Sabbath choir;


s: The lyric muse must leave the sacred nine


s: Plutus limps homeward with us, as we leave


s: The portals of the temple where we knelt


s: (Hermes of ancient days, but now disguised


s: Fights in unequal contest for our souls;


s: The dreadful sovereign of the under world


s: Still shakes his sceptre at us, and we hear


s: The baying of the triple-throated hound;


s: The lovely Goddess born of ocean's foam.


s: These be thy gods, O Israel!  Who is he,


s: The one ye name and tell us that ye serve,


s: Whom ye would call me from my lonely tower


s: Is it the God that walked in Eden's grove


s: In the cool hour to seek our guilty sire?


s: The God who dealt with Abraham as the sons


s: Of that old patriarch deal with other men?


s: With him who made it and his child unborn?


s: The God who plagued his people for the sin


s: Of their adulterous king, beloved of him,


s: While a vast shrieking world of endless woe


s: Blends its dread chorus with their rapturous hymn?


s: Who heeds the sparrow's fall, whose loving heart


s: Is as the pitying father's to his child,


s: Whose lesson to his children is, "Forgive,"


s: Whose plea for all, "They know not what they do"


s: I claim the right of knowing whom I serve,


s: My homage asks it from a reasoning soul.


s: To crawl is not to worship; we have learned


s: A drill of eyelids, bended neck and knee,


s: Hanging our prayers on binges, till we ape


s: To the world's children,--we have grown to men!


s: We who have rolled the sphere beneath our feet


s: The beams of our rude temple, first of all


s: Must frame its doorway high enough for man


s: That He who shaped us last of living forms


s: Has long enough been served by creeping things,


s: Reptiles that left their foot-prints in the sand


s: Of old sea-margins that have turned to stone,


s: And men who learned their ritual; we demand


s: To know him first, then trust him and then love


s: When we have found him worthy of our love,


s: Tried by our own poor hearts and not before;


s: He must be truer than the truest friend,


s: He must be tenderer than a woman's love,


s: Kinder than she who bore us, though we sin


s: Oftener than did the brother we are told,


s: We-poor ill-tempered mortals-must forgive,


s: Though seven times sinning threescore times and ten.


s: This is the new world's gospel: Be ye men!


s: Try well the legends of the children's time;


s: Your steps across the desert of the deep


s: Mountains are cleft before you as the sea


s: Before the wandering tribe of Israel's sons;


s: Still onward rolls the thunderous caravan,


s: A cloud by day, by night a pillared flame;


s: Of them of old who cried, "Thus saith the Lord";


s: They told of cities that should fall in heaps,


s: But yours of mightier cities that shall rise


s: Where yet the lonely fishers spread their nets,


s: Where hides the fox and hoots the midnight owl;


s: The tree of knowledge in your garden grows


s: Its branches lend you their immortal food,


s: That fills you with the sense of what ye are,


s: No servants of an altar hewed and carved


s: From senseless stone by craft of human hands,


s: Rabbi, or dervish, Brahmin, bishop, bonze,


s: But masters of the charm with which they work


s: To keep your hands from that forbidden tree!


s: Ye that have tasted that divinest fruit,


s: Look on this world of yours with opened eyes!


s: Ye are as gods!  Nay, makers of your gods,


s: Each day ye break an image in your shrine


s: Where is the Moloch of your fathers' creed,


s: Whose fires of torment burned for span-long babes?


s: For these same infants through the surety's act


s: Intrusted with their all for earth and heaven,


s: By Him who chose their guardian, knowing well


s: His fitness for the task,--this, even this,


s: As thoughts are reckoned,--and to-day you hear


s: In words that sound as if from human tongues


s: Those monstrous, uncouth horrors of the past


s: That blot the blue of heaven and shame the earth


s: As would the saurians of the age of slime,


s: And wallowing hateful in the eye of day!


s: The young man begged the Lady to pardon anything that might sound


s: I am obliged to confess that he has shown occasional marks of


s: I ought to have told the reader before this that I found, as I


s: They send me all sorts of trumpery,--he said, Orthoptera and


s: made preparations of the very coleoptera the Scarabee studied so


s: He felt the absurdity of his discomfiture, for he turned to me


s: "Poor Johnny Raw!  What madness could impel


s: So rum a flat to face so prime a swell?"


s: smirking and rubbing his hands and felicitating himself on his


s: --Nothing else loves me better than she does, that I know of,--he


s: The Master was greatly interested in the Scarabee's Muscarium.


s: --Woman's rights!--said I,--there you have it! Why don't those


s: --The Master smiled. I think it was an eleemosynary smile, for my


s: --All this last page or so, you readily understand, has been my


s: I thought this question might perhaps bring il disiato riso, the


s: We could not make up our minds to tax the Scarabee's hospitality,


s: I do not know where our Young Astronomer got the notions that he


s: What am I but the creature Thou hast made?


s: What have I save the blessings Thou hast lent?


s: Who but myself shall cloud my soul with fear?


s: Whose hand protect me from myself but Thine?


s: I claim the rights of weakness, I, the babe,


s: Call on my sire to shield me from the ills


s: With snares beyond my wisdom or my strength,


s: That in my childlike folly I have sprung


s: Drawn by the cunning bait to certain doom.


s: Who wrought the wondrous charm that leads us on


s: To sweet perdition, but the self-same power


s: His wretched offspring (as the Rabbis tell),


s: And hid its yawning jaws and treacherous springs


s: In such a show of innocent sweet flowers


s: It lured the sinless angels and they fell?


s: Ah!  He who prayed the prayer of all mankind


s: Summed in those few brief words the mightiest plea


s: For erring souls before the courts of heaven,


s: Save us from being tempted,--lest we fall!


s: Made to be fashioned as the artist wills,


s: That spins upon the swift-revolving wheel


s: Bears to the hand that shapes its growing form,


s: --Such love, no more, will be our hearts' return


s: To the great Master-workman for his care,


s: Or would be, save that this, our breathing clay,


s: Is intertwined with fine innumerous threads


s: That make it conscious in its framer's hand;


s: And this He must remember who has filled


s: These vessels with the deadly draught of life,


s: Life, that means death to all it claims.  Our love


s: Must kindle in the ray that streams from heaven,


s: The sun must warm the earth before the rose


s: Can show her inmost heart-leaves to the sun.


s: He yields some fraction of the Maker's right


s: Who gives the quivering nerve its sense of pain;


s: Is there not something in the pleading eye


s: Of the poor brute that suffers, which arraigns


s: The law that bids it suffer?  Has it not


s: A claim for some remembrance in the book


s: That fills its pages with the idle words


s: Bleeding and aching in the potter's hand,


s: And when he will to cast it at his feet,


s: Shattered, dishonored, lost forevermore?


s: My dog loves me, but could he look beyond


s: His earthly master, would his love extend


s: To Him who--Hush!  I will not doubt that He


s: Is better than our fears, and will not wrong


s: The least, the meanest of created things!


s: He would not trust me with the smallest orb


s: That circles through the sky; he would not give


s: A meteor to my guidance; would not leave


s: He locks my beating heart beneath its bars


s: And keeps the key himself; he measures out


s: The draughts of vital breath that warm my blood,


s: Winds up the springs of instinct which uncoil,


s: My race, my time, my nation, and my creed


s: Out of the band that cuts it to the bone,


s: Not fit to hold the smallest shred in fee


s: Of those most common things he calls his own


s: The care of that to which a million worlds.


s: Filled with unconscious life were less than naught,


s: Has left that mighty universe, the Soul,


s: Turned us adrift with our immortal charge,


s: Let the foul fiends have access at their will,


s: Taking the shape of angels, to our hearts,


s: Our hearts already poisoned through and through


s: Why did the choir of angels sing for joy?


s: Heaven must be compassed in a narrow space,


s: That pass its portals; but the underworld,


s: The godless realm, the place where demons forge


s: Their fiery darts and adamantine chains,


s: Must swarm with ghosts that for a little while


s: Had worn the garb of flesh, and being heirs


s: Of all the dulness of their stolid sires,


s: And all the erring instincts of their tribe,


s: Nature's own teaching, rudiments of "sin,"


s: Fell headlong in the snare that could not fail


s: To trap the wretched creatures shaped of clay


s: And cursed with sense enough to lose their souls!


s: Brother, thy heart is troubled at my word;


s: He will not blame me, He who sends not peace,


s: But sends a sword, and bids us strike amain


s: At Error's gilded crest, where in the van


s: Of earth's great army, mingling with the best


s: And bravest of its leaders, shouting loud


s: The battle-cries that yesterday have led


s: The host of Truth to victory, but to-day


s: Are watchwords of the laggard and the slave,


s: He leads his dazzled cohorts.  God has made


s: This world a strife of atoms and of spheres;


s: And take my tribute from the wandering wind


s: To fan the flame of life's consuming fire;


s: So, while my thought has life, it needs must burn,


s: And burning, set the stubble-fields ablaze,


s: Where all the harvest long ago was reaped


s: And safely garnered in the ancient barns,


s: But still the gleaners, groping for their food,


s: Go blindly feeling through the close-shorn straw,


s: While the young reapers flash their glittering steel


s: Where later suns have ripened nobler grain!


s: satisfactorily." As for King Thomas, the last of the monological


s: thoughts,--those that come and go as the breath does; those that


s: The shore, solid, substantial, a great deal more than eighteen


s: We must get over the habit of transferring the limitations of the


s: I was not a little pleased to find that the Lady, in spite of her


s: popular article with the miscellaneous New-Englander at all great


s: Beings of this kind can be useful if they will only find their


s: appropriate sphere, which is not literature, but that circle of


s: --Good gracious!--exclaimed the Landlady, under glass!


s: I was a little surprised at the liberty That Boy had taken in


s: --And how is your father and your mother? asked the Landlady.


s: The time is racked with birth-pangs; every hour


s: Brings forth some gasping truth, and truth new-born


s: The terror of the household and its shame,


s: That some would strangle, some would only starve;


s: But still it breathes, and passed from hand to hand,


s: And suckled at a hundred half-clad breasts,


s: Comes slowly to its stature and its form,


s: Calms the rough ridges of its dragon-scales,


s: Changes to shining locks its snaky hair,


s: And moves transfigured into angel guise,


s: Welcomed by all that cursed its hour of birth,


s: That cast it like a serpent from their hold!


s: If thou wouldst live in honor, die in peace,


s: Have the fine words the marble-workers learn


s: To carve so well, upon thy funeral-stone,


s: In all the many-colored robes of praise,


s: Of that same foundling truth, until it grows


s: The smiles of hard-mouthed men and light-upped dames,


s: Then snatch it from its meagre nurse's breast,


s: Fold it in silk and give it food from gold;


s: So shalt thou share its glory when at last


s: It drops its mortal vesture, and revealed


s: In all the splendor of its heavenly form,


s: Spreads on the startled air its mighty wings!


s: Alas! how much that seemed immortal truth


s: That heroes fought for, martyrs died to save,


s: Reveals its earth-born lineage, growing old


s: And limping in its march, its wings unplumed,


s: Its heavenly semblance faded like a dream!


s: Here in this painted casket, just unsealed,


s: Lies what was once a breathing shape like thine,


s: Once loved as thou art loved; there beamed the eyes


s: That looked on Memphis in its hour of pride,


s: That saw the walls of hundred-gated Thebes,


s: And all the mirrored glories of the Nile.


s: See how they toiled that all-consuming time


s: Might leave the frame immortal in its tomb;


s: Filled it with fragrant balms and odorous gums


s: That still diffuse their sweetness through the air,


s: And wound and wound with patient fold on fold


s: The flaxen bands thy hand has rudely torn!


s: Perchance thou yet canst see the faded stain


s: The sacred beetle, bound upon the breast


s: Of the blind heathen!  Snatch the curious prize,


s: Give it a place among thy treasured spoils


s: --Place for the Memphian beetle with thine hoard!


s: Ah! longer than thy creed has blest the world


s: This toy, thus ravished from thy brother's breast,


s: On the still bosom of our white-robed dead,


s: And raise above their dust that all may know


s: Here sleeps an heir of glory.  Loving friends,


s: With tears of trembling faith and choking sobs,


s: And prayers to those who judge of mortal deeds,


s: Wrapped this poor image in the cerement's fold


s: Might know their own and claim the ransomed soul


s: Sometimes he carves it out of gleaming stone,


s: And sometimes moulds it out of glittering gold,


s: Or lifts it heavenward in a lofty spire,


s: Or shapes it in a cunning frame of words,


s: Or pays his priest to make it day by day;


s: For sense must have its god as well as soul;


s: A new-born Dian calls for silver shrines,


s: Let us be true to our most subtle selves,


s: We long to have our idols like the rest.


s: Think! when the men of Israel had their God


s: Encamped among them, talking with their chief,


s: And watching o'er them in the shaft of fire,


s: They still must have an image; still they longed


s: Whereon to hang their garlands, and to fix


s: Their wandering thoughts, and gain a stronger hold


s: For their uncertain faith, not yet assured


s: If those same meteors of the day and night


s: Are we less earthly than the chosen race?


s: Than they who gathered manna every morn,


s: Reaping where none had sown, and heard the voice


s: Of him who met the Highest in the mount,


s: And brought them tables, graven with His hand?


s: Yet these must have their idol, brought their gold,


s: That star-browed Apis might be god again;


s: Yea, from their ears the women brake the rings


s: Of sunburnt cheeks,--what more could woman do


s: To show her pious zeal?  They went astray,


s: We too, who mock at Israel's golden calf


s: Would have our amulets to clasp and kiss,


s: And flood with rapturous tears, and bear with us


s: His bones, the columns that uphold his frame


s: Mere fragments of the temple incomplete.


s: At twoscore, threescore, is he then full grown?


s: Nay, still a child, and as the little maids


s: Dress and undress their puppets, so he tries


s: To dress a lifeless creed, as if it lived,


s: And change its raiment when the world cries shame!


s: So grave, so thoughtful, with maternal care


s: Nursing the wisps of rags they call their babes;


s: Does He not smile who sees us with the toys


s: He is still The Father of this helpless nursery-brood,


s: Whose second childhood joins so close its first,


s: That in the crowding, hurrying years between


s: We scarce have trained our senses to their task


s: Before the gathering mist has dimmed our eyes,


s: And with our hollowed palm we help our ear,


s: And trace with trembling hand our wrinkled names,


s: And then begin to tell our stories o'er,


s: And see--not hear-the whispering lips that say,


s: "You know--?  Your father knew him.--This is he,


s: Tottering and leaning on the hireling's arm,--"


s: And so, at length, disrobed of all that clad


s: The simple life we share with weed and worm,


s: --I thought there was something going on between her and the


s: The Landlady showed her usual tendency to "break" from the


s: Never had that lady's carriage stood before the door of our


s: It is plain enough what is at the bottom of this disturbance. The


s: as industrious with that pen of hers as if she was at work with a


s: I will not pretend that it needed the Landlady's sagacious guess


s: --What do you do when you receive a book you don't want, from the


s: --That is as good an excuse for lying as almost any,--I said.


s: appeared a flourishing and eminently flattering dedication to


s: --I tell you what,--he said,--there 's so much intelligence about


s: He began, reading from the manuscript portion of his book:


s: it was--said some pretty audacious things about what he called


s: When one fright is gone, another doth him seize."


s: If invalidism and the nervous timidity which is apt to go with it


s: What is the secret of the profound interest which "Darwinism" has


s: To study nature without fear is possible, but without reproach,


s: The real difficulty of the student of nature at this time is to


s: --Do you think cheap manufactures encourage idleness?--said I.


s: The Master stared. Well he might, for I had been getting a little


s: My young friend, the Astronomer, has, I suspect, been making some


s: What if a soul redeemed, a spirit that loved


s: While yet on earth and was beloved in turn,


s: And still remembered every look and tone


s: Of that dear earthly sister who was left


s: Itself admitted with the bridegroom's train,


s: What if this spirit redeemed, amid the host


s: Of chanting angels, in some transient lull


s: Condemned to be the sport of cruel fiends,


s: Sleepless, unpitying, masters of the skill


s: From worn-out souls that only ask to die,


s: Would it not long to leave the bliss of Heaven,


s: To moisten those poor lips that plead in vain


s: So changed in such as taste celestial joy


s: They hear unmoved the endless wail of woe,


s: The daughter in the same dear tones that hushed


s: Her cradled slumbers; she who once had held


s: Hoarse with its cry of anguish, yet the same?


s: Stamped his huge footprints, and the Fearful Beast


s: Strode with the flesh about those fossil bones


s: We build to mimic life with pygmy hands,


s: Not in those earliest days when men ran wild


s: And gashed each other with their knives of stone,


s: When their low foreheads bulged in ridgy brows


s: And their flat hands were callous in the palm


s: With walking in the fashion of their sires,


s: To work their will on such as human wrath


s: Had wrought its worst to torture, and had left


s: With rage unsated, white and stark and cold,


s: Could hate have shaped a demon more malign


s: Than him the dead men mummied in their creed


s: And taught their trembling children to adore!


s: Made in his image!  Sweet and gracious souls


s: Dear to my heart by nature's fondest names,


s: Is not your memory still the precious mould


s: That lends its form to Him who hears my prayer?


s: Long-suffering, gentle, ever slow to wrath,


s: If wrath it be that only wounds to heal,


s: The door he seeks, forgetful of his sin,


s: Longing to clasp him in a father's arms,


s: And seal his pardon with a pitying tear!


s: Four gospels tell their story to mankind,


s: And none so full of soft, caressing words


s: That bring the Maid of Bethlehem and her Babe


s: Before our tear-dimmed eyes, as his who learned


s: The tones which like the medicinal balms


s: That calm the sufferer's anguish, soothe our souls.


s: So long a listener at her Master's feet,


s: Had left us Mary's Gospel,--all she heard


s: Too sweet, too subtle for the ear of man!


s: Mark how the tender-hearted mothers read


s: Of the same page that loads the bitter tongue


s: With threatening words of wrath that scorch like flame!


s: They tell of angels whispering round the bed


s: Of the sweet infant smiling in its dream,


s: Of lambs enfolded in the Shepherd's arms,


s: Of Him who blessed the children; of the land


s: Where crystal rivers feed unfading flowers,


s: Of cities golden-paved with streets of pearl,


s: Of the white robes the winged creatures wear,


s: The crowns and harps from whose melodious strings


s: One long, sweet anthem flows forevermore!


s: --We too bad human mothers, even as Thou,


s: Whom we have learned to worship as remote


s: From mortal kindred, wast a cradled babe.


s: The milk of woman filled our branching veins,


s: She lulled us with her tender nursery-song,


s: While the first unremembered twilight year


s: Shaped us to conscious being; still we feel


s: Her pulses in our own,--too faintly feel;


s: Would that the heart of woman warmed our creeds!


s: Not from the sad-eyed hermit's lonely cell,


s: Not from the conclave where the holy men


s: They battle for God's glory and their own,


s: Till, sick of wordy strife, a show of hands


s: Ah, not from these the listening soul can hear


s: The Father's voice that speaks itself divine!


s: Love must be still our Master; till we learn


s: What he can teach us of a woman's heart,


s: We know not His, whose love embraces all.


s: themselves under the Great Elm, drawn thither, no doubt, by the


s: trembling in the wave before them, and the three great stars of


s: Presently the young man asked his pupil:


s: --Do you know what the constellation directly over our heads is?


s: --Is it not Cassiopea?--she asked a little hesitatingly.


s: --No, it is Andromeda. You ought not to have forgotten her, for I


s: At last: Do you know the story of Andromeda? he said.


s: --Perhaps I did once, but suppose I don't remember it.


s: a star-gazer's tower, a prey by turns to ambition, and lonely


s: So there was a new double-star in the living firmament. The


s: tranquillity and fearlessness which a very simple trusting creed


s: otherwise. I could not always do it if I tried, but I do not want


s: Philosophy and poetry came--to me before I knew their names.


s: Je fis mes premiers vers, sans savoir les ecrire.


s: are anticipated in the eye, and how our best musical instruments


s: Interpellandi locus hic erat; Est tibi mater?


s: Chommoda dicebat, siquando commoda vellet


s: Et tum mirifice sperabat se esse locutum,


s: Cum quantum poterat, dixerat hinsidias...


s: Hoc misso in Syriam, requierant omnibus aures...


s: Ionios fluctus, postquam illue Arrius isset,


s: "The sage council, as has been mentioned in a preceding chapter,


s: He came back to his arm-chair, and began reading again


s: Hen! quanto minus est cum to vivo versari


s: Quam erit (vel esset) tui mortui reminisse!


s: "Alas! how much less the delight of thy living presence


s: Than will (or would) be that of remembering thee when thou hast


s: --My heart does not warm as it should do towards the persons, not


s: Perhaps I should be wiser if I refused to attempt any such brief


s: The old Master adjusted his large round spectacles, and began:


s: When the Landlady had recovered her composure, she began again:


s: And that reminds me to tell you that I'm agoing to live with my


s: It is whispered that our two young folks are to be married before


s: The Capitalist, however, seems to have felt it impossible to move


s: Though Hamlet pah!'d, and dropped his skull.


s: Why, here comes rain!  The sky grows dark,


s: Read, flattered, honored?  Who shall say?


s: Where passion throbs, where friendship glows,


s: Many years ago you used to rock me to sleep, cradling me in your


s: arms and singing me petty songs.  Surely you have not forgotten


s: that time, and I recall it with tenderness.  You were very


s: maternity have impressed their saintly grace upon the dear face I


s: Beloved lady, in memory of years to be recalled only in thought,


s: and in token of my gratitude and affection, I bring you these


s: little love-songs, and reverently I lay them at your feet.


s: The poppies they hang from her head to her feet,


s: And each hath a dream that is tiny and fleet--


s: She bringeth her poppies to you, my sweet,


s: There is one little dream of a beautiful drum--


s: There is one little dream of a big sugar-plum,


s: And lo! thick and fast the other dreams come


s: Of popguns that bang, and tin tops that hum,


s: And dollies peep out of those wee little dreams


s: And boats go a-floating on silvery streams,


s: And the stars peek-a-boo with their own misty gleams,


s: And up, up, and up, where the Mother Moon beams,


s: Would you dream all these dreams that are tiny and fleet?


s: So shut the two eyes that are weary, my sweet,


s: For the Rock-a-By Lady from Hushaby street,


s: With poppies that hang from her head to her feet,


s: On afternoons, when baby boy has had a splendid nap,


s: And sits, like any monarch on his throne, in nurse's lap,


s: In some such wise my handkerchief I hold before my face,


s: And cautiously and quietly I move about the place;


s: Then, with a cry, I suddenly expose my face to view,


s: And you should hear him laugh and crow when I say "Booh"!


s: Sometimes the rascal tries to make believe that he is scared,


s: Till mamma and the nurse agreed it was a "cruel shame"--


s: But now what does that same wee, toddling, lisping baby do


s: But laugh and kick his little heels when I say "Booh!"


s: He laughs and kicks his little heels in rapturous glee, and then


s: In shrill, despotic treble bids me "do it all aden!"


s: And I--of course I do it; for, as his progenitor,


s: It is such pretty, pleasant play as this that I am for!


s: And it is, oh, such fun I and sure that we shall rue


s: The time when we are both too old to play the game "Booh!"


s: When our babe he goeth walking in his garden,


s: Around his tinkling feet the sunbeams play;


s: When our babe he goeth walking in his garden.


s: When our babe he goeth swinging in his cradle,


s: Then the night it looketh ever sweetly down;


s: A song, the gentle song of Bethlem-town,


s: When our babe he goeth swinging in his cradle.


s: Have you ever heard the wind go "Yooooo"?


s: It seems to chill you through and through


s: 'T is the voice of the night that broods outside


s: And the night would say in its ghostly way:


s: With the blankets pulled up round my head,


s: And the voice would say in its meaningful way:


s: For the wind will moan in its ruefulest tone:


s: Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,


s: Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!


s: Mighty glad I ain't a girl--ruther be a boy,


s: Without them sashes, curls, an' things that's worn by Fauntleroy!


s: Hate to take the castor-ile they give for bellyache!


s: Got a yeller dog named Sport, sick him on the cat;


s: First thing she knows she doesn't know where she is at!


s: Got a clipper sled, an' when us kids goes out to slide,


s: 'Long comes the grocery cart, an' we all hook a ride!


s: But sometimes when the grocery man is worrited an' cross,


s: He reaches at us with his whip, an' larrups up his hoss,


s: An' then I laff an' holler, "Oh, ye never teched me!"


s: But jest 'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!


s: Gran'ma says she hopes that when I git to be a man,


s: I'll be a missionarer like her oldest brother, Dan,


s: As was et up by the cannibuls that lives in Ceylon's Isle,


s: Where every prospeck pleases, an' only man is vile!


s: But gran'ma she has never been to see a Wild West show,


s: Nor read the Life of Daniel Boone, or else I guess she'd know


s: That Buff'lo Bill an' cow-boys is good enough for me!


s: Excep' jest 'fore Christmas, when I'm good as I kin be!


s: And then old Sport he hangs around, so solemn-like an' still,


s: His eyes they seem a-sayin': "What's the matter, little Bill?"


s: The old cat sneaks down off her perch an' wonders what's become


s: Of them two enemies of hern that used to make things hum!


s: But I am so perlite an' 'tend so earnestly to biz,


s: That mother says to father: "How improved our Willie is!"


s: But father, havin' been a boy hisself, suspicions me


s: When, jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I kin be!


s: So wash yer face an' bresh yer hair, an' mind yer p's and q's,


s: An' don't bust out yer pantaloons, and don't wear out yer shoes;


s: Say "Yessum" to the ladies, an' "Yessur" to the men,


s: An' when they's company, don't pass yer plate for pie again;


s: But, thinkin' of the things yer'd like to see upon that tree,


s: Jest 'fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!


s: For the boys with their little red drum!


s: It's when the birds go piping and the daylight slowly breaks,


s: That, clamoring for his dinner, our precious baby wakes;


s: Then it's sleep no more for baby, and it's sleep no more for me,


s: For, when he wants his dinner, why it's dinner it must be!


s: And of that lacteal fluid he partakes with great ado,


s: You'd think, to see us carrying on about that little tad,


s: That, like as not, that baby was the first we'd ever had;


s: But, sakes alive! he isn't, yet we people make a fuss


s: As if the only baby in the world had come to us!


s: And, morning, noon, and night-time, whatever he may do,


s: But once--a likely spell ago--when that poor little chick


s: From teething or from some such ill of infancy fell sick,


s: You wouldn't know us people as the same that went about


s: A-feelin' good all over, just to hear him crow and shout;


s: It makes us all feel good to have a baby on the place,


s: With his everlastin' crowing and his dimpling, dumpling face;


s: The patter of his pinky feet makes music everywhere,


s: And when he shakes those fists of his, good-by to every care!


s: No matter what our trouble is, when he begins to coo,


s: Off to the garden where dreamikins grow;


s: And here is a kiss on your winkyblink eyes,


s: And here is a kiss on your dimpledown cheek


s: And here is a kiss for the treasure that lies


s: In the beautiful garden way up in the skies


s: Now mind these three kisses wherever you go--


s: There's one little fumfay who lives there, I know,


s: For he dances all night where the dreamikins grow;


s: I send him this kiss on your droopydrop eyes,


s: I send him this kiss on your rosyred cheek.


s: And here is a kiss for the dream that shall rise


s: When the fumfay shall dance in those far-away skies


s: Be sure that you pay those three kisses you owe--


s: And here is her kiss on your weepydeep eyes,


s: And here is her kiss on your peachypink cheek,


s: And here is her kiss for the dreamland that lies


s: Like a babe on the breast of those far-away skies


s: The blinkywink garden where dreamikins grow--


s: "'T is little Luddy-Dud in the morning--


s: Of that waddling, toddling, coddling little mite,


s: Of that growing, crowing, knowing little sprite,


s: Of my nearest and my dearest heart's delight,


s: 'T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)


s: The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate


s: What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)


s: While the old Dutch clock in the chimney place


s: What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)


s: And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"


s: And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!


s: There's a dear little home in Good-Children street--


s: Where tinkle of tongues and patter of feet


s: Where the sunshine of love illumines each face


s: And warms every heart in that old-fashioned place.


s: For dear little children go romping about


s: And, my! how they frolic and scamper and shout


s: Oh, days they are golden and days they are fleet


s: With little folk living in Good-Children street.


s: See, here comes an army with guns painted red,


s: And swords, caps, and plumes of all sorts;


s: The captain rides gaily and proudly ahead


s: On a stick-horse that prances and snorts!


s: Oh, legions of soldiers you're certain to meet--


s: Nice make-believe soldiers--in Good-Children street.


s: And yonder Odette wheels her dolly about--


s: For one of her blue china eyes has dropped out


s: Then, too, I observe she is minus her feet,


s: Which causes much sorrow in Good-Children street.


s: 'T is so the dear children go romping about


s: And I venture to say they are sadly put out


s: With little folk living in Good-Children street!


s: But when falleth night over river and town,


s: And an angel all white from the sky cometh down


s: And guardeth the babes through the night,


s: And singeth her lullabies tender and sweet


s: To the dear little people in Good-Children Street.


s: Though elsewhere the world be o'erburdened with care,


s: Though toil and vexation be always my share,


s: This thought maketh life ever joyous and Sweet:


s: There's a dear little home in Good-Children street.


s: "Have done with tears," they rudely quoth,


s: But still they strove with might and main


s: Was strewn with hair and gouts of gore--


s: That brings us toils and pains and wounds


s: A bottle tree bloometh in Winkyway land--


s: A snug little berth in that ship I demand


s: That rocketh the Bottle-Tree babies away


s: Where the Bottle Tree bloometh by night and by day


s: And reacheth its fruit to each wee, dimpled hand;


s: You take of that fruit as much as you list,


s: For colic's a nuisance that doesn't exist!


s: For I hunger and thirst for that precious repast--


s: The Bottle Tree bloometh by night and by day!


s: And Bottle-Tree fruit (as I've heard people say)


s: Makes bellies of Bottle-Tree babies expand--


s: And that is a trick I would fain understand!


s: A bottle of milk that is creamy and white!


s: Hed most o' the virtues, an' nary a vice.


s: Some folks called him Sooner, a name that arose


s: From his predisposition to chronic repose;


s: But, rouse his ambition, he couldn't be beat--


s: Yer bet yer he got thar on all his four feet!


s: Mos' dorgs hez some forte--like huntin' an' such,


s: But the sports o' the field didn't bother him much;


s: Wuz just a plain dorg, an' contented to be


s: On peaceable terms with the neighbors an' me;


s: Used to fiddle an' squirm, and grunt "Oh, how nice!"


s: When I tickled the back of that bench-legged fyce!


s: He wuz long in the bar'l, like a fyce oughter be;


s: His tail, curlin' upward, wuz long, loose, an' slim--


s: When he didn't wag it, why, the tail it wagged him!


s: His legs wuz so crooked, my bench-legged pup


s: Wuz as tall settin' down as he wuz standin' up!


s: He'd lie by the stove of a night an' regret


s: The various vittles an' things he had et;


s: When a stranger, most likely a tramp, come along,


s: He'd lift up his voice in significant song--


s: You wondered, by gum! how there ever wuz space


s: In that bosom o' his'n to hold so much bass!


s: Of daytimes he'd sneak to the road an' lie down,


s: An' tackle the country dorgs comin' to town;


s: By common consent he wuz boss in St. Joe,


s: For what he took hold of he never let go!


s: An' a dude that come courtin' our girl left a slice


s: Of his white flannel suit with our bench-legged fyce!


s: He wuz good to us kids--when we pulled at his fur


s: Or twisted his tail he would never demur;


s: He seemed to enjoy all our play an' our chaff,


s: For his tongue 'u'd hang out an' he'd laff an' he'd laff;


s: An' once, when the Hobart boy fell through the ice,


s: He wuz drug clean ashore by that bench-legged fyce!


s: We all hev our choice, an' you, like the rest,


s: Allow that the dorg which you've got is the best;


s: I wouldn't give much for the boy 'at grows up


s: With no friendship subsistin' 'tween him an' a pup!


s: When a fellow gits old--I tell you it's nice


s: To think of his youth and his bench-legged fyce!


s: To think of the springtime 'way back in St. Joe--


s: Of the peach-trees abloom an' the daisies ablow;


s: To think of the play in the medder an' grove,


s: When little legs wrassled an' little han's strove;


s: To think of the loyalty, valor, an' truth


s: Of the friendships that hallow the season of youth!


s: To the rich little lady from over the way


s: As she looks at her own white, dainty slip,


s: For little Miss Brag she lays much stress


s: Yet she envies the raggedy home-made doll


s: Her nose is inked, and her mouth is, too,


s: And one eye's black and the other's blue--


s: Her father would trundle her in the park;--


s: That, sometimes, her mother would sing the things


s: To the rich little lady from over the way;


s: In the grace of the tongue that loves to sing


s: Will ever his heart feel faint and cold,


s: Leap to the back of this steed, if you dare,


s: I hope you'll be sure to sit fast in your seat,


s: For this calico mare is prodigiously fleet,


s: And many adventures you're likely to meet


s: She paces, she shies, and she stumbles, in spots,


s: And sometimes this strangely mercurial steed


s: Will suddenly stop and refuse to proceed,


s: Which, all will admit, is vexatious indeed,


s: She's scared of the cars when the engine goes "Toot!"


s: You'd better look out for that treacherous brute


s: With a snort she rears up on her hindermost heels,


s: Words fail to explain how embarrassed one feels


s: It's over the hilltop and down through the bog


s: It's rattletybang over boulder and stump,


s: There are rivers to ford, there are fences to jump,


s: And the corduroy road it goes bumpytybump,


s: Perhaps you'll observe it's no easy thing


s: So I think, on the whole, it were prudent to bring


s: For, though she has uttered no protest or plaint,


s: The calico mare must be blowing and faint--


s: What's more to the point, I'm blowed if I ain't!


s: There were rushes and willows in that place,


s: And they clutched at the brook as the brook ran by;


s: That is wroth with the flame of the morning sky!"


s: The rushes are dead in the old-time place,


s: And the willows I knew when a child was I.


s: That is gray with the peace of the evening sky!"


s: It's June ag'in, an' in my soul I feel the fillin' joy


s: That's sure to come this time o' year to every little boy;


s: For, every June, the Sunday-schools at picnics may be seen,


s: It's June ag'in, an' with it all what happiness is mine--


s: There's goin' to be a picnic, an' I'm goin' to jine!


s: One year I jined the Baptists, an' goodness! how it rained!


s: (But grampa says that that's the way "baptizo" is explained.)


s: And once I jined the 'Piscopils an' had a heap o' fun--


s: But the boss of all the picnics was the Presbyteriun!


s: They had so many puddin's, sallids, sandwidges, an' pies,


s: That a feller wisht his stummick was as hungry as his eyes!


s: Oh, yes, the eatin' Presbyteriuns give yer is so fine


s: That when they have a picnic, you bet I'm goin' to jine!


s: But at this time the Methodists have special claims on me,


s: For they're goin' to give a picnic on the 21st, D. V.;


s: Why should a liberal universalist like me object


s: To share the joys of fellowship with every friendly sect?


s: However het'rodox their articles of faith elsewise may be,


s: Their doctrine of fried chick'n is a savin' grace to me!


s: So on the 21st of June, the weather bein' fine,


s: They're goin' to give a picnic, and I'm goin' to jine!


s: Planted and trimmed for my Little-Oh-Dear!


s: Posies so gaudy and grass of such brown--


s: Search ye the country and hunt ye the town


s: And never ye'll meet with a garden so queer


s: As this one I've made for my Little-Oh-Dear!


s: The cactus that trails over trellis and wall,


s: Make proper obeisance and reverent cheer


s: When into her garden steps Little-Oh-Dear.


s: For, ever and only, she singeth the song


s: "I love you--I love you!" the happy day long;--


s: Then the echo--the echo that smiteth me here!


s: "I love you, I love you," my Little-Oh-Dear!


s: The garden may wither, the silver-bird fly--


s: But what careth my little precious, or I?


s: From her pathway of flowers that in spring time upstart


s: She walketh the tenderer way in my heart


s: And, oh, it is always the summer-time here


s: With that song of "I love you," my Little-Oh-Dear!


s: Oh, a wonderful horse is the Fly-Away Horse--


s: Perhaps, while you slept, his shadow has swept


s: Through the moonlight that floats on the floor.


s: For it's only at night, when the stars twinkle bright,


s: And a pull at his rein and a toss of his mane,


s: It is yonder, out yonder, the Fly-Away Horse


s: Over meadows and lanes, over mountains and plains,


s: Over streamlets that sing at their play;


s: And over the sea like a ghost sweepeth he,


s: And he speedeth so fast that the men at the mast


s: And the Fly-Away Horse seeks those faraway lands


s: Where candy-trees grow, and honey-brooks flow,


s: And the beasts in the wood are ever so good


s: Off! scamper to bed--you shall ride him tonight!


s: With a jubilant neigh he shall bear you away


s: But tell us, my dear, all you see and you hear


s: Where the Fly-Away Horse wings his faraway course


s: It's off for a sailor thy father would go;


s: And it's here in the harbor, in sight of the sea,


s: He hath left his wee babe with my song and with me:


s: It's oh for the waiting as weary days go!


s: And it's oh for the heartache that smiteth me when


s: And it waileth anon in its ebb and its flow;


s: And a sleeper sleeps on to that song of the sea


s: 'T was off for a sailor thy father would go!"


s: In through the lattice the moonlight crept,


s: With the dimples on the sun-browned cheek--


s: And, oh! the dreams--the dreams I dreamed!


s: For the grace that through the lattice streamed


s: For in at the lattice the moon would peep,


s: The crosses and griefs of the years away


s: From the heart that is weary and faint to-day;


s: And those dreams should give me back again


s: To the ghost of the past come back to-day!


s: Or, play that you sought this nestling-place


s: For your own sweet self, with that dual guise


s: And the look of that other in your eyes!


s: I ain't afeard uv snakes, or toads, or bugs, or worms, or mice,


s: An' things 'at girls are skeered uv I think are awful nice!


s: I'm pretty brave, I guess; an' yet I hate to go to bed,


s: An' leaves me lyin' all alone an' seein' things at night!


s: Sometimes they're in the corner, sometimes they're by the door,


s: Sometimes they're all a-standin' in the middle uv the floor;


s: Once, when I licked a feller 'at had just moved on our street,


s: An' father sent me up to bed without a bite to eat,


s: I woke up in the dark an' saw things standin' in a row,


s: A-lookin' at me cross-eyed an' p'intin' at me--so!


s: Oh, my! I wuz so skeered that time I never slep' a mite--


s: It's almost alluz when I'm bad I see things at night!


s: Lucky thing I ain't a girl, or I'd be skeered to death!


s: Bein' I'm a boy, I duck my head an' hold my breath;


s: An' I am, oh! so sorry I'm a naughty boy, an' then


s: I promise to be better an' I say my prayers again!


s: Gran'ma tells me that's the only way to make it right


s: When a feller has been wicked an' sees things at night!


s: An' so, when other naughty boys would coax me into sin,


s: I try to skwush the Tempter's voice 'at urges me within;


s: An' when they's pie for supper, or cakes 'at 's big an' nice,


s: I want to--but I do not pass my plate f'r them things twice!


s: No, ruther let Starvation wipe me slowly out o' sight


s: Than I should keep a-livin' on an' seein' things at night!


s: And she won't keep still till she's had her fill--


s: As there she stands and waves her hands--


s: From the Far Above to my sweetest love--


s: The little French doll was a dear little doll


s: Her dear little mouth was fluted and red,


s: And this little French doll was so very well bred


s: That whenever accosted her little mouth said


s: The stockinet doll, with one arm and one leg,


s: Yet his heart gave a curious thump as he lay


s: In the little toy cart near the window one day


s: And heard the sweet voice of that French dolly say:


s: He listened so long and he listened so hard


s: He up and he wooed her with soldierly zest


s: But all she'd reply to the love he professed


s: Were these plaintive words (which perhaps you have guessed):


s: Her mother--a sweet little lady of five--


s: So soldier and dolly were wedded one day,


s: And a moment ago, as I journeyed that way,


s: I'm sure that I heard a wee baby voice say:


s: With his bonnie wife an' his little boys;


s: 'T wuz "Blow, ye winds, as blow ye will--


s: Though the wind was fresh and the sea was high,


s: And he listened in vain for the welcoming cry.


s: And he clinched his hands and he bowed his head--


s: 'T wuz a pitiful time for Fisherman Jim,


s: With them darlin's a-dyin' afore his eyes,


s: An' a-breakin' his heart with the old-time cries


s: For they thought they wuz helpin' his boat ashore--


s: As a man will live when his heart is gone,


s: Till once in those years they come an' said:


s: "It's a long, long cruise-you understand--


s: Just as they used to--ah, mate, you know!--


s: "They're holdin' me by the hands!" he cried,


s: There once was a bird that lived up in a tree,


s: And all he could whistle was "Fiddle-dee-dee"--


s: For one to be whistling the summer day long!


s: With that vocal recurrence of "Fiddle-dee-dee."


s: Hard by lived a brave little soldier of four,


s: "I prithee, Dear-Mother-Mine! fetch me my gun,


s: For, by our St. Didy! the deed must be done


s: That shall presently rid all creation and me


s: Of that ominous bird and his 'Fiddle-dee-dee'!"


s: Then out came Dear-Mother-Mine, bringing her son


s: The stock was of pine and the barrel of tin,


s: The "bang" it came out where the bullet went in--


s: The right kind of weapon I think you'll agree


s: For slaying all fowl that go "Fiddle-dee-dee"!


s: The brave little soldier quoth never a word,


s: But he up and he drew a straight bead on that bird;


s: And, while that vain creature provokingly sang,


s: The gun it went off with a terrible bang!


s: Then loud laughed the youth--"By my Bottle," cried he,


s: "I've put a quietus on 'Fiddle-dee-dee'!"


s: Out came then Dear-Mother-Mine, saying: "My son,


s: Right well have you wrought with your little red gun!


s: With such a brave soldier as You-My-Love here!"


s: Continued to whistle his "Fiddle-dee-dee")


s: A little boy steals from his morning play


s: He lies and he dreams of the things to be:


s: Of wrongs o'erthrown and of great deeds done--


s: Of the valor that he shall prove some day,


s: It's, oh, for the toil the livelong day!


s: With a love for riches and power and fame!


s: His battles fought and his victories won--


s: The trustfulness and the friends of youth,


s: I thought that such were for the Saints -


s: The time was scarce profaned - by speech -


s: Sufficient troth - that we shall _rise_,


s: _Justified_ - through Calvaries - of Love!


s: From the handwriting, it is not always clear which are dashes,


s: which are commas and which are periods, nor it is entirely


s: clear which initial letters are capitalized.


s: However, this transcription may be compared with the edited


s: version in the main text to get a flavor of the changes made


s: Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!


s: Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing


s: How orderly the kitchen 'd look by night,


s: Mine by the right of the white election!


s: Titled, confirmed, -- delirious charter!


s: Have you got a brook in your little heart,


s: Then look out for the little brook in March,


s: And the snows come hurrying from the hills,


s: I thought that such were for the saints,


s: Called to my full, the crescent dropped,


s: And instead of tolling the bell for church,


s: So instead of getting to heaven at last,


s: And thread the dews all night, like pearls,


s: Like flowers that heard the tale of dews,


s: Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn


s: These are the days when birds come back,


s: Could she have guessed that it would be;


s: Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,


s: Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,


s: Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;


s: Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence, --


s: Grand go the years in the crescent above them;


s: Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,


s: And trilled, and quivered, and shook his throat


s: How many times these low feet staggered,


s: Buzz the dull flies on the chamber window;


s: Brave shines the sun through the freckled pane;


s: Fearless the cobweb swings from the ceiling --


s: To know just how he suffered would be dear;


s: To whom he could intrust his wavering gaze,


s: To know if he was patient, part content,


s: What was his furthest mind, of home, or God,


s: Till love that was, and love too blest to be,


s: With eyes in death still begging raised,


s: We passed the school where children played,


s: Past sunrise! Ah! what leagues there are


s: "Dissolve," says Death. The Spirit, "Sir,


s: Death doubts it, argues from the ground.


s: Christ will explain each separate anguish


s: must at least have suspected it, for in a letter dated 5th


s: MY DEAR FRIEND,-- What portfolios full of verses


s: you must have! It is a cruel wrong to your "day and


s: generation" that you will not give them light.


s: If such a thing should happen as that I should outlive


s: you, I wish you would make me your literary legatee


s: and executor. Surely after you are what is called


s: "dead" you will be willing that the poor ghosts you


s: have left behind should be cheered and pleased by your


s: verses, will you not? You ought to be. I do not think


s: we have a right to withhold from the world a word or


s: a thought any more than a deed which might help a


s: evidence of having been thrown off at white heat, still more had


s: received thoughtful revision. There is the frequent addition of


s: rather perplexing foot-notes, affording large choice of words and


s: important exception, her friends have generously placed at the


s: disposal of the Editors any poems they had received from her; and


s: To what further rigorous pruning her verses would have been


s: subjected had she published them herself, we cannot know. They


s: should be regarded in many cases as merely the first strong and


s: suggestive sketches of an artist, intended to be embodied at some


s: winter of 1862. In a letter to one of the present Editors the


s: The handwriting was at first somewhat like the delicate, running


s: Italian hand of our elder gentlewomen; but as she advanced in


s: breadth of thought, it grew bolder and more abrupt, until in her


s: latest years each letter stood distinct and separate from its


s: fellows. In most of her poems, particularly the later ones,


s: everything by way of punctuation was discarded, except numerous


s: The variation of readings, with the fact that she often wrote in


s: absolutely inevitable has been avoided. The very roughness of her


s: Like impressionist pictures, or Wagner's rugged music, the very


s: absence of conventional form challenges attention. In Emily


s: particular order of words might not be sacrificed to anything


s: virtually extrinsic; and her verses all show a strange cadence of


s: humorously, more often with weird and peculiar power; but she is


s: She had tried society and the world, and found them lacking.  She


s: Storm, wind, the wild March sky, sunsets and dawns; the birds and


s: human friends, were sufficient companionship. The coming of the


s: epoch. Immortality was close about her; and while never morbid or


s: Then there 's a pair of us -- don't tell!


s: Staring, bewildered, at the mocking sky.


s: Approached, the amber flits a little, --


s: Adored with caution, as a brittle heaven,


s: Yet persevered toward, surer for the distance;


s: Ungained, it may be, by a life's low venture,


s: The meadows mine, the mountains mine, --


s: He preached upon "breadth" till it argued him narrow, --


s: And of "truth" until it proclaimed him a liar, --


s: Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence


s: What confusion would cover the innocent Jesus


s: Undue significance a starving man attaches


s: Far off; he sighs, and therefore hopeless,


s: Partaken, it relieves indeed, but proves us


s: Just girt me for the onset with eternity,


s: In little wealths, -- as girls could boast, --


s: Sweet debt of Life, -- each night to owe,


s: "GOING to him! Happy letter! Tell him --


s: And then you wished you had eyes in your pages,


s: "Tell him it was n't a practised writer,


s: You guessed, from the way the sentence toiled;


s: You could hear the bodice tug, behind you,


s: You almost pitied it, you, it worked so.


s: For it would split his heart to know it,


s: "Tell him night finished before we finished,


s: And you got sleepy and begged to be ended --


s: Tell him just how she sealed you, cautious,


s: Gesture, coquette, and shake your head!"


s: See where it hurt me, -- that 's enough, --


s: Where men made hay, then struggling hard


s: Some shook their heads, and others smiled,


s: They 're here, though; not a creature failed,


s: Then stepped straight through the firmament


s: Perhaps the kingdom of Heaven 's changed!


s: And shook their fists and gnashed their teeth.


s: They looked like frightened beads, I thought;


s: The one that could repeat the summer day


s: It sounded as if the streets were running,


s: Eclipse was all we could see at the window,


s: By and by the boldest stole out of his covert,


s: The leaves unhooked themselves from trees


s: Blazing in gold and quenching in purple,


s: It can't be summer, -- that got through;


s: There 's that long town of white to cross


s: It can't be dying, -- it's too rouge, --


s: Who, till they died, did not alive become;


s: They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars,


s: Had notched the place that pleased him, --


s: Strange that the feet so precious charged


s: 'T is sweet to know that stocks will stand


s: One need not be a chamber to be haunted,


s: Than, moonless, one's own self encounter


s: When everything that ticked has stopped,


s: But most like chaos, -- stopless, cool, --


s: Since breaking then, since breaking then,


s: Abd-el-Kader at Toulon; or, The Caged Hawk


s: Mr. Molony's Account of the Ball given to the Nepaulese


s: A Woeful New Ballad of the Protestant Conspiracy to take the


s: The beer makes his tongue run the quicker,


s: Strange changes and chances I've seen,--


s: "Ah! those were the days for commanders!


s: And at Blenheim, in spite of our valiance,


s: When he heard they had taken my grandsire:


s: Cheer up! 'tis no use to be glum, boys,--


s: At Rossbach, in spite of dad's drumming,


s: "In the year fifty-nine came the Britons,--


s: They knocked at our gates for admittance,


s: Says our general, 'Drive me yon redcoats


s: So we marched against Wolfe and his bull-dogs,


s: "Come, drink, 'tis no use to be glum, boys,


s: Here's a glass to the health of all drum-boys,


s: And were thanked for our glorious actions


s: D'Artois, who could dance the tightrope.


s: While the King, that majestical monarch,


s: "Yes, I drumm'd for the fair Antoinette,


s: And so smiling she look'd and so tender,


s: That our officers, privates, and drummers,


s: But she cared not for us honest fellows,


s: We storm'd and we broke the great gate in,


s: Let's drink to the famed tenth of August:


s: "With pikes, and with shouts, and with torches


s: We storm'd the fair gardens where tower'd


s: "With the crown of his sires on his head,


s: But no: when we burst through his barriers,


s: In vain through the chambers we sought him--


s: And the Cities of France on their thrones,


s: Each crown'd with his circlet of flowers


s: And to think of the deeds that were done there


s: "Young virgins with fair golden tresses,


s: With the best that our nation could bring,


s: And straight from his prison we drew him;


s: And took him, and bound him, and slew him.


s: I'll fling them the head of King Louis,'


s: And linger'd, and fain would have spoke.


s: Says Santerre, 'with a beat of your drum.'


s: 'Twas then that our pikes drunk the blood


s: As she felt the foul fingers that touch'd her,


s: She shrunk, but she deigned not to speak:


s: As they fell 'neath our guns at Saint Rock.


s: And the Pope he tell down on his knees.--


s: Pierre's comrades here call'd a fresh bottle,


s: Rude presents that Fortune had made him,


s: "This came when I follow'd bold Kleber--


s: "'Twas thus that we conquer'd and fought;


s: But has heard of our chief and our glory,--


s: But has heard of our chief and our fame,


s: And they long'd but for one battle more,


s: I still might have struggled with fortune,


s: "'But France would have suffer'd the while,


s: "'Be true to the king that they give you,


s: As he pass'd through the lines of his guard,


s: When we fought on the Mount of St. John.


s: Stretch'd wide through the Waterloo corn.


s: And a curse on those red-coated English,


s: And shouts "Saint George for Marlborow!"


s: With stirring tales how blows were struck.


s: Though more than half the world was his,


s: * This ballad was written at Paris at the time of the Second


s: Blunt idle talons, idle beak, with spurning of thy chain,


s: Shatter against thy cage the wing thou ne'er may'st spread again.


s: How thou swept'st the desert over, bearing down the wild El Riff,


s: How thy razzia was a whirlwind, thy onset a simoom,


s: Nor less quick to slay in battle than in peace to spare and save,


s: Availéd not or steel or shot 'gainst that charmed life secure,


s: Till cunning France, in last resource, tossed up the golden lure;


s: Weep, maidens of Zerifah, above the laden loom!


s: Scar, chieftains of Al Elmah, your cheeks in grief and gloom!


s: Sons of the Beni Snazam, throw down the useless lance,


s: Twas not in fight they bore him down; he never cried amàn;


s: He never sank his sword before the PRINCE OF FRANGHISTAN;


s: But with traitors all around him, his star upon the wane,


s: He heard the voice of ALLAH, and he would not strive in vain.


s: They gave him what he asked them; from king to king he spake,


s: As one that plighted word and seal not knoweth how to break;


s: How have they kept their promise?  Turned they the vessel's prow


s: Unto Acre, Alexandria, as they have sworn e'en now?


s: Not so: from Oran northwards the white sails gleam and glance,


s: And the wild hawk of the desert is borne away to France!


s: O noble faith of noble heart!  And was the warning vain,


s: The text writ by the BOURBON in the blurred black book of Spain?


s: Words are but wind, conditions must be construed by GUIZOT;


s: Dash out thy heart, thou desert hawk, ere thou art made a show!


s: I've three-per-cents and five-per-cents;


s: "Your Grace knows best," the lawyer said


s: Such was old Brentford's honest testament,


s: And lies in Brentford church in peaceful rest.


s: Prince Edward lived, and money made and spent;


s: But his good sire was wrong, it is confess'd


s: To say his son, young Thomas, never lent.


s: And nobly took his twenty-five per cent.


s: Long time the famous reign of Ned endured


s: O'er Chiswick, Fulham, Brentford, Putney, Kew,


s: And when both died, as mortal men will do,


s: 'Twas commonly reported that the steward


s: Then the Greeks they groaned and quivered,


s: And they knelt, and moaned, and shivered,


s: (While still the wondrous banquet stays,)


s: O'er English waves float Star and Stripe,


s: With countless ships we bridge the straits,


s: Gleam cross and fountain, bell and vase,


s: With these she sails, she weaves, she tills,


s: God's peaceful sunlight's beaming through,


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


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


s: Should love good victuals and good drinks.


s: The waiter stares and shrugs his shoulder--


s: "What will Monsieur require for dinner?"


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


s: "Tell me a good one."--"That I can, Sir:


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


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


s: Around the board they take their places,


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


s: There's brave AUGUSTUS drives his carriage;


s: And sweetly spoke and smiled to cheer me


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


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


s: "A surgeon of the United States' army says that on inquiring of


s: the Captain of his company, he found that NINE-TENTHS of the men


s: "I am Miss Catherine's book," the album speaks;


s: "I've lain among your tomes these many weeks;


s: I'm tired of their old coats and yellow cheeks.


s: "Quick, Pen! and write a line with a good grace:


s: And, prithee, send me back to Chesham Place."


s: "I am my master's faithful old Gold Pen;


s: I've served him three long years, and drawn since then


s: And thoughts, since I am his, these thousand days,


s: "His ways? his thoughts?  Just whisper me a few;


s: And write 'em quickly off, good Mordan, do!"


s: "Since he my faithful service did engage


s: To follow him through his queer pilgrimage,


s: I've drawn and written many a line and page.


s: "Caricatures I scribbled have, and rhymes,


s: And dinner-cards, and picture pantomimes;


s: And merry little children's books at times.


s: "I've writ the foolish fancy of his brain;


s: The aimless jest that, striking, hath caused pain;


s: The idle word that he'd wish back again.


s: "I've help'd him to pen many a line for bread;


s: And make your laughter when his own heart bled.


s: "I've spoke with men of all degree and sort--


s: Peers of the land, and ladies of the Court;


s: Oh, but I've chronicled a deal of sport!


s: "Feasts that were ate a thousand days ago,


s: Biddings to wine that long hath ceased to flow,


s: Gay meetings with good fellows long laid low;


s: "Summons to bridal, banquet, burial, ball,


s: Tradesman's polite reminders of his small


s: Account due Christmas last--I've answered all.


s: "Poor Diddler's tenth petition for a half-


s: "Condole, congratulate, invite, praise, scoff.


s: Day after day still dipping in my trough,


s: And sure as comes the postman and the sun,


s: Where soft hearts greet us whensoe'er we come!


s: "Dear, friendly eyes, with constant kindness lit,


s: "Kind lady! till my last of lines is penn'd,


s: My master's love, grief, laughter, at an end,


s: Whene'er I write your name, may I write friend!


s: "Not all are so that were so in past years;


s: Voices, familiar once, no more he hears;


s: Names, often writ, are blotted out in tears.


s: "So be it:--joys will end and tears will dry--


s: He'll send you to your mistress presently.


s: "And thus with thankful heart he closes you;


s: Blessing the happy hour when a friend he knew


s: So gentle, and so generous, and so true.


s: Nor sign'd the page that register'd a lie."


s: When he was young and lutes were strung,


s: In tattered old slippers that toast at the bars,


s: And a ragged old jacket perfumed with cigars,


s: Away from the world and its toils and its cares,


s: I've a snug little kingdom up four pair of stairs.


s: To mount to this realm is a toil, to be sure,


s: But the fire there is bright and the air rather pure;


s: Is grand through the chimney-pots over the way.


s: This snug little chamber is cramm'd in all nooks


s: With worthless old knick-knacks and silly old books,


s: And foolish old odds and foolish old ends,


s: Crack'd bargains from brokers, cheap keepsakes from friends.


s: Old armor, prints, pictures, pipes, china, (all crack'd,)


s: Old rickety tables, and chairs broken-backed;


s: What matter? 'tis pleasant to you, friend, and me.


s: No better divan need the Sultan require,


s: Than the creaking old sofa that basks by the fire;


s: And 'tis wonderful, surely, what music you get


s: From the rickety, ramshackle, wheezy spinet.


s: That praying-rug came from a Turcoman's camp;


s: By Tiber once twinkled that brazen old lamp;


s: A mameluke fierce yonder dagger has drawn:


s: 'Tis a murderous knife to toast muffins upon.


s: Long, long through the hours, and the night, and the chimes,


s: Here we talk of old books, and old friends, and old times;


s: This chamber is pleasant to you, friend, and me.


s: But of all the cheap treasures that garnish my nest,


s: There's one that I love and I cherish the best:


s: For the finest of couches that's padded with hair


s: I never would change thee, my cane-bottom'd chair.


s: 'Tis a bandy-legg'd, high-shoulder'd, worm-eaten seat,


s: With a creaking old back, and twisted old feet;


s: But since the fair morning when Fanny sat there,


s: I bless thee and love thee, old cane-bottom'd chair.


s: If chairs have but feeling, in holding such charms,


s: A thrill must have pass'd through your wither'd old arms!


s: I look'd, and I long'd, and I wish'd in despair;


s: I wish'd myself turn'd to a cane-bottom'd chair.


s: It was but a moment she sat in this place,


s: She'd a scarf on her neck, and a smile on her face!


s: A smile on her face, and a rose in her hair,


s: And she sat there, and bloom'd in my cane-bottom'd chair.


s: And so I have valued my chair ever since,


s: Like the shrine of a saint, or the throne of a prince;


s: Saint Fanny, my patroness sweet I declare,


s: The queen of my heart and my cane-bottom'd chair.


s: When the candles burn low, and the company's gone,


s: In the silence of night as I sit here alone--


s: I sit here alone, but we yet are a pair--


s: My Fanny I see in my cane-bottom'd chair.


s: She comes from the past and revisits my room;


s: She looks as she then did, all beauty and bloom;


s: So smiling and tender, so fresh and so fair,


s: And yonder she sits in my cane-bottom'd chair.


s: (Perhaps they've bribed him not to peep):


s: That beardless doughty champion staunch;


s: He'd drill it through the rival's paunch


s: The rose upon my balcony the morning air perfuming,


s: Was leafless all the winter time and pining for the spring;


s: The nightingale, whose melody is through the greenwood ringing,


s: Was silent when the boughs were bare and winds were blowing keen:


s: It is because the sun is out and all the leaves are green.


s: "Quand vous serez bien vielle, le soir à la chandelle


s: Assise auprès du feu devisant et filant,


s: Direz, chantant mes vers en vous esmerveillant,


s: Ronsard m'a célébré du temps que j'étois belle."


s: They'll say; "she once was fresh and fair,


s: Ah! dreary thoughts and dreams are those,


s: That never has known the Barber's shear,


s: Sighing and singing of midnight strains,


s: The brightest eyes that ever have shone,


s: And though, good friend, with whom I dine,


s: The cottage hearth was bright and warm--


s: Beside the old hall-fire--upon my nurse's knee,


s: Of happy fairy days--what tales were told to me!


s: I thought the world was once--all peopled with princesses,


s: The pretty fairy people--would visit me in sleep.


s: I saw them in my dreams--come flying east and west,


s: With wondrous fairy gifts--the newborn babe they bless'd;


s: And one has brought a curse--but she is wrinkled and old.


s: The gentle queen turns pale--to hear those words of sin,


s: But the king he only laughs--and bids the dance begin.


s: The babe has grown to be--the fairest of the land,


s: And rides the forest green--a hawk upon her hand,


s: An ambling palfrey white--a golden robe and crown:


s: I've seen her in my dreams--riding up and down:


s: And heard the ogre laugh--as she fell into his snare,


s: At the little tender creature--who wept and tore her hair!


s: But ever when it seemed--her need was at the sorest,


s: A prince in shining mail--comes prancing through the forest,


s: A waving ostrich-plume--a buckler burnished bright;


s: I've seen him in my dreams--good sooth! a gallant knight.


s: His lips are coral red--beneath a dark moustache;


s: See how he waves his hand--and how his blue eyes flash!


s: "Come forth, thou Paynim knight!"--he shouts in accents clear.


s: The giant and the maid--both tremble his voice to hear.


s: Saint Mary guard him well!--he draws his falchion keen,


s: The giant and the knight--are fighting on the green.


s: I see them in my dreams--his blade gives stroke on stroke,


s: The giant pants and reels--and tumbles like an oak!


s: With what a blushing grace--he falls upon his knee


s: And takes the lady's hand--and whispers, "You are free!"


s: Ah! happy childish tales--of knight and faërie!


s: I waken from my dreams--but there's ne'er a knight for me;


s: I waken from my dreams--and wish that I could be


s: A child by the old hall-fire--upon my nurse's knee!


s: "Why seek, my love, your wounds to hide?


s: She's home again! she's home, she's home!


s: My home was in the rocks, the lonely rocks.


s: I saw the hunters scouring on the plain;


s: I lived among the rocks, the lonely rocks.


s: I ventured to the tents beneath the rocks.


s: Zuleikah brought me water from the well;


s: Since then I have been faithless to the rocks.


s: Her camels since have marched into the rocks.


s: ZULEIKAH!  The young Agas in the bazaar are slim-wasted and wear


s: The peacock is an Aga, but the little bird is a Bulbul.


s: I am a little brown Bulbul.  Come and listen in the moonlight.


s: Thou brawny oarsman with the sunburnt cheek,


s: Quick! for it soothes my heart to hear the Bulbul speak.


s: Hark! what a ravishing note the lovelorn Bulbul pours.


s: Behold, the boughs seem quivering with delight,


s: The Lover of the Rose sits singing through the night.


s: Under the boughs I sat and listened still,


s: "How comes," I said, "such music to his bill?


s: Tell me for whom he sings so beautiful a trill."


s: And in the garden where the loved one grows,


s: I straightway did begin sweet music to compose."


s: "O bird of song, there's one in this caïque


s: So he might learn like you to love and speak."


s: Then answered me the bird of dusky beak,


s: "The Rose, the Rose of Love blushes on Leilah's cheek."


s: Where pearl's on neck, and wreath on brow,


s: Where joy-lamps shine and flowers are set--


s: Till death--till death I'll think of thee--


s: But my soul, and my truth, and my tears,


s: The faithful night keeps watch and ward,


s: Thou art my prayer, my saint, my shrine!


s: "--'s war Einer, dem's zu Herzen gieng."


s: And swore he'd change the pigtail's place,


s: I'll turn me round,"--he turned him round;


s: And though he twist, and twirl, and tack,


s: "Wear it, 'twill blossom soon," she said,


s: When from the garland's leaves there sprung


s: When midst the wreath that bound her hair


s: The cold gray hills they bind me around,


s: The darksome valleys lie sleeping below,


s: But the winds as they pass o'er all this ground,


s: Oh! for all I have suffered and striven,


s: Care has embittered my cup and my feast;


s: But here is the night and the dark blue heaven,


s: Right have I spoken, and right have I done:


s: Till I see you stars in their fullest light,


s: "Und Du gingst einst, die Myrt' im Haare."


s: Odd's fish!--must wet his whistle first;


s: And marched a league from home, and then


s: And made (O princes, learn from hence),--


s: There was a king in Brentford,--of whom no legends tell,


s: But who, without his glory,--could eat and sleep right well.


s: His Polly's cotton nightcap,--it was his crown of state,


s: He slept of evenings early,--and rose of mornings late.


s: All in a fine mud palace,--each day he took four meals,


s: And for a guard of honor,--a dog ran at his heels,


s: Sometimes, to view his kingdoms,--rode forth this monarch good,


s: And then a prancing jackass--he royally bestrode.


s: There were no costly habits--with which this king was curst,


s: Except (and where's the harm on't?)--a somewhat lively thirst;


s: But people must pay taxes,--and kings must have their sport,


s: So out of every gallon--His Grace he took a quart.


s: He pleased the ladies round him,--with manners soft and bland;


s: With reason good, they named him,--the father of his land.


s: Each year his mighty armies--marched forth in gallant show;


s: Their enemies were targets--their bullets they were tow.


s: He vexed no quiet neighbor,--no useless conquest made,


s: But by the laws of pleasure,--his peaceful realm he swayed.


s: And in the years he reigned,--through all this country wide,


s: There was no cause for weeping,--save when the good man died.


s: The faithful men of Brentford,--do still their king deplore,


s: His portrait yet is swinging,--beside an alehouse door.


s: And topers, tender-hearted,--regard his honest phiz,


s: And envy times departed--that knew a reign like his.


s: Bravant le monde et les sots et les sages,


s: Dans un grenier qu'on est bien a vingt ans.


s: C'est un grenier, point ne veux qu'on l'ignore.


s: Là fut mon lit, bien chétif et bien dur;


s: Trois pieds d'un vers charbonnés sur le mur.


s: Que d'un coup d'aile a fustigés le temps,


s: Vingt fois pour vous j'ai ma montre en gage.


s: Dans un grenier qu'on est bien à vingt ans!


s: Respecte, Amour, ses plis longs et flottans.


s: A table un jour, jour de grande richesse,


s: De mes amis les voix brillaient en choeur,


s: Quand jusqu'ici monte on cri d'allégresse;


s: Le canon gronde; un autre chant commence;


s: Oh! qu'ils sont loin ces jours si regrettés!


s: Contre un des mois qu'ici Dieu ma comptés.


s: Pour rêver gloire, amour, plaisir, folie,


s: With pensive eyes the little room I view,


s: Where, in my youth, I weathered it so long;


s: With a wild mistress, a stanch friend or two,


s: And a light heart still breaking into song:


s: Making a mock of life, and all its cares,


s: Lightly I vaulted up four pair of stairs,


s: In the brave days when I was twenty-one.


s: Yes; 'tis a garret--let him know't who will--


s: There was my bed--full hard it was and small;


s: Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall.


s: Ye joys, that Time hath swept with him away,


s: Come to mine eyes, ye dreams of love and fun;


s: For you I pawned my watch how many a day,


s: She comes with pouting lips and sparkling eyes:


s: Behold, how roguishly she pins her shawl


s: Across the narrow casement, curtain-wise;


s: Now by the bed her petticoat glides down,


s: And when did woman look the worse in none?


s: I have heard since who paid for many a gown,


s: One jolly evening, when my friends and I


s: Made happy music with our songs and cheers,


s: A shout of triumph mounted up thus high,


s: We rise,--we join in the triumphant strain,--


s: Tyrants shall never tread us down again,


s: In the brave days when I was twenty-one.


s: Let us begone--the place is sad and strange--


s: How far, far off, these happy times appear;


s: All that I have to live I'd gladly change


s: For one such month as I have wasted here--


s: To draw long dreams of beauty, love, and power,


s: From founts of hope that never will outrun,


s: And drink all life's quintessence in an hour,


s: Jack's bed was straw, 'twas warm and soft,


s: And think there's faith among the Turks,


s: I vow by the saints and the blessed Marie,


s: Since the desolate hour when we stood by the shore,


s: And your dark galley waited to carry you o'er:


s: My faith then I plighted, my love I confess'd,


s: As I gave you the BATTLE-AXE marked with your crest!


s: When the bold barons met in my father's old hall,


s: Was not Edith the flower of the banquet and ball?


s: In the festival hour, on the lips of your bride,


s: Was there ever a smile save with THEE at my side?


s: To blazon your BANNER and broider your crest.


s: The knights were assembled, the tourney was gay!


s: Sir Ulric rode first in the warrior-mêlée.


s: In the dire battle-hour, when the tourney was done,


s: And you gave to another the wreath you had won!


s: Though I never reproached thee, cold, cold was my breast,


s: As I thought of that BATTLE-AXE, ah! and that crest!


s: But away with remembrance, no more will I pine


s: That others usurped for a time what was mine!


s: There's a FESTIVAL HOUR for my Ulric and me:


s: Once more, as of old, shall he bend at my knee;


s: Once more by the side of the knight I love best


s: Shall I blazon his BANNER and broider his crest.


s: "Your Molly has never been false," she declares,


s: "Since the last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs;


s: When I said that I would continue the same,


s: And I gave you the 'bacco-box marked with my name.


s: When I passed a whole fortnight between decks with you,


s: Did I e'er give a kiss, Tom, to one of your crew?


s: To be useful and kind to my Thomas I stay'd,


s: For his trousers I washed, and his grog too I made.


s: "Though you promised last Sunday to walk in the Mall


s: With Susan from Deptford and likewise with Sall,


s: In silence I stood your unkindness to hear


s: Why should Sall, or should Susan, than me be more prized?


s: For the heart that is true, Tom, should ne'er be despised;


s: Then be constant and kind, nor your Molly forsake,


s: Still your trousers I'll wash and your grog too I'll make."


s: At Sir Charles, or the rich county member,


s: You were busy with dogs and with horses,


s: And I've made you the sweetest of purses,


s: I have braved, since first we met, love,


s: Many a clime I've ranged since then, love,


s: Our arms are red, and our foes are dead,


s: Dear Jack, this white mug that with Guinness I fill,


s: And drink to the health of sweet Nan of the Hill,


s: Was once Tommy Tosspot's, as jovial a sot


s: As e'er drew a spigot, or drain'd a full pot--


s: In drinking all round 'twas his joy to surpass,


s: And with all merry tipplers he swigg'd off his glass.


s: One morning in summer, while seated so snug,


s: In the porch of his garden, discussing his jug,


s: Stern Death, on a sudden, to Tom did appear,


s: And said, "Honest Thomas, come take your last bier."


s: We kneaded his clay in the shape of this can,


s: From which let us drink to the health of my Nan.


s: KING CANUTE was weary hearted; he had reigned for years a score,


s: Sliding after like his shadow, pausing when he chose to pause,


s: If to laugh the king was minded, out they burst in loud hee-haws.


s: Languidly he sank into it: it was comfortably wadded.


s: "What avail me all my kingdoms?  Weary am I now and old;


s: Those fair sons I have begotten, long to see me dead and cold;


s: Would I were, and quiet buried, underneath the silent mould!


s: "Oh, remorse, the writhing serpent! at my bosom tears and bites;


s: Horrid, horrid things I look on, though I put out all the lights;


s: "Cities burning, convents blazing, red with sacrilegious fires;


s: Mothers weeping, virgins screaming vainly for their slaughtered


s: Never, never does she leave her benefactors in the lurch.


s: Men have lived a thousand years, and sure his Majesty will do't.


s: "HE to die?" resumed the Bishop.  He a mortal like to US?


s: Death was not for him intended, though communis omnibus:


s: Keeper, you are irreligious, for to talk and cavil thus.


s: "With his wondrous skill in healing ne'er a doctor can compete,


s: "Might I stay the sun above us, good sir Bishop?" Canute cried;


s: "Could I bid the silver moon to pause upon her heavenly ride?


s: If the moon obeys my orders, sure I can command the tide.


s: "Will the advancing waves obey me, Bishop, if I make the sign?"


s: "From the sacred shore I stand on, I command thee to retreat;


s: Venture not, thou stormy rebel, to approach thy master's seat:


s: Ocean, be thou still!  I bid thee come not nearer to my feet!"


s: But the sullen ocean answered with a louder, deeper roar,


s: And the rapid waves drew nearer, falling sounding on the shore;


s: Back the Keeper and the Bishop, back the king and courtiers bore.


s: And he sternly bade them never more to kneel to human clay,


s: But alone to praise and worship That which earth and seas obey:


s: And his golden crown of empire never wore he from that day.


s: King Canute is dead and gone:  Parasites exist alway.


s: The castle towers of Bareacres are fair upon the lea,


s: Where the cliffs of bonny Diddlesex rise up from out the sea:


s: I stood upon the donjon keep and view'd the country o'er,


s: I saw the lands of Bareacres for fifty miles or more.


s: I stood upon the donjon keep--it is a sacred place,--


s: Where floated for eight hundred years the banner of my race;


s: Argent, a dexter sinople, and gules an azure field:


s: There ne'er was nobler cognizance on knightly warrior's shield.


s: The first time England saw the shield 'twas round a Norman neck,


s: On board a ship from Valery, King William was on deck.


s: A Norman lance the colors wore, in Hastings' fatal fray--


s: St. Willibald for Bareacres! 'twas double gules that day!


s: O Heaven and sweet St. Willibald! in many a battle since


s: A loyal-hearted Bareacres has ridden by his Prince!


s: At Acre with Plantagenet, with Edward at Poictiers,


s: The pennon of the Bareacres was foremost on the spears!


s: 'Twas pleasant in the battle-shock to hear our war-cry ringing:


s: Oh grant me, sweet St. Willibald, to listen to such singing!


s: Three hundred steel-clad gentlemen, we drove the foe before us,


s: And thirty score of British bows kept twanging to the chorus!


s: O knights, my noble ancestors! and shall I never hear


s: St. Willibald for Bareacres through battle ringing clear?


s: I'd cut me off this strong right hand a single hour to ride,


s: And strike a blow for Bareacres, my fathers, at your side!


s: Dash down, dash down, yon Mandolin, beloved sister mine!


s: Those blushing lips may never sing the glories of our line:


s: Our ancient castles echo to the clumsy feet of churls,


s: The spinning-jenny houses in the mansion of our Earls.


s: Sing not, sing not, my Angeline! in days so base and vile,


s: 'Twere sinful to be happy, 'twere sacrilege to smile.


s: I'll hie me to my lonely hall, and by its cheerless hob


s: I'll muse on other days, and wish--and wish I were--A SNOB.


s: Well guarded and walled was this town, and called


s: By different names, I'd have you to know;


s: For if you looks in the g'ography books,


s: In those dictionaries the name it varies,


s: And they write it off Kieff or Kioff, Kiova or Kiow.


s: Thus guarded without by wall and redoubt,


s: With more advantages than in those dark ages


s: Were commonly known to belong to a town.


s: There were places and squares, and each year four fairs,


s: And regular aldermen and regular lord-mayors;


s: And streets, and alleys, and a bishop's palace;


s: And a church with clocks for the orthodox--


s: With clocks and with spires, as religion desires;


s: In service-time, when they DIDN'T make a noise;


s: And a chapter and dean, and a cathedral-green


s: With ancient trees, underneath whose shades


s: clergyman, and one that preached rare good sermons.]


s: From the tall tall steeple; and all the people


s: Which HYACINTH preached godly to those Germans and Poles,


s: He'd exert his powers for three or four hours,


s: (A Cockney rhyme, but no better I know)--


s: Built by missionaries I can't tell when;


s: Who by their discussions converted the Russians,


s: With special favor did regard this house;


s: And to uphold her converts' new devotion


s: Her statue (needing but her legs for HER ship)


s: Walks of itself across the German Ocean;


s: Whither all Kiovites come and pay it grateful worship.


s: Thus with her patron-saints and pious preachers


s: You would have thought in all the Russian states


s: The citizens the happiest of all creatures,--


s: Down they came, these ruthless Russians,


s: From their steppes, and woods, and fens,


s: Killed the burghers when they caught 'em,


s: He spoke and he sat down; the people of the town,


s: Now rose with one accord, and voted thanks unto the lord-


s: The envoy they dismissed, never placing in his fist


s: And all with courage fired, as his lordship he desired,


s: Then every city ward established a guard,


s: Militia volunteers, light dragoons, and bombardiers,


s: There was muster and roll-calls, and repairing city walls,


s: And the captains and the majors, gallant and courageous,


s: To be guarded at all hours they built themselves watch-towers,


s: And surely and secure, each from out his embrasure,


s: A battle-song was writ for the theatre, where it


s: And rapturous applause; and besides, the public cause,


s: The pretty ladies'-maids were pinning of cockades,


s: And dropping gentle tears, while their lovers bluster'd fierce,


s: The ladies took the hint, and all day were scraping lint,


s: And got bandages and beds for the limbs and for the heads


s: The men, both young and old, felt resolute and bold,


s: Even the tailors 'gan to brag, and embroidered on their flag,


s: The Cossack chief, too cunning to despise it,


s: Wherewith to batter the place in proper form,


s: Some of these nights I'll carry it by storm,


s: "Let's see, however, if the cits stand firmish."


s: He rode up to the city gates; for answers,


s: Out rushed an eager troop of the town élite,


s: And straightway did begin a gallant skirmish:


s: Leaving the victory with the city lancers.


s: They took two prisoners and as many horses,


s: And the whole town grew quickly so elate


s: With this small victory of their virgin forces,


s: That they did deem their privates and commanders


s: They utterly despised these Cossack thieves;


s: Than porters carpets think, or ushers boys.


s: Meanwhile, a sly spectator of their joys,


s: The Cossack captain giggled in his sleeves.


s: "Whene'er you meet yon stupid city hogs."


s: (He bade his troops precise this order keep),


s: "Don't stand a moment--run away, you dogs!"


s: 'Twas done; and when they met the town battalions,


s: The Cossacks, as if frightened at their valiance,


s: Turned tail, and bolted like so many sheep.


s: They fled, obedient to their captain's order:


s: And now this bloodless siege a month had lasted,


s: When, viewing the country round, the city warder


s: (Who, like a faithful weathercock, did perch


s: Upon the steeple of St. Sophy's church),


s: Sudden his trumpet took, and a mighty blast he blasted.


s: His voice it might be heard through all the streets


s: (He was a warder wondrous strong in lung),


s: "The foe retreats!" each cries to each he meets;


s: "The foe retreats!" each in his turn repeats.


s: Gods! how the guns did roar, and how the joy-bells rung!


s: Arming in haste his gallant city lancers,


s: The mayor, to learn if true the news might be,


s: A league or two out issued with his prancers.


s: The Cossacks (something had given their courage a damper)


s: Hastened their flight, and 'gan like mad to scamper:


s: Blessed be all the saints, Kiova town was free!


s: Now, puffed with pride, the mayor grew vain,


s: And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.


s: For the magistrates and the corporation;


s: Each house that night did beam with light


s: But shame, O shame! not a soul in the town,


s: Now the city was safe and the Cossacks flown,


s: Ever thought of the bountiful saint by whose care


s: The town had been rid of these terrible Turks--


s: Said even a prayer to that patroness fair,


s: Lord Hyacinth waited, the meekest of priors--


s: He waited at church with the rest of his friars;


s: He went there at noon and he waited till ten,


s: Expecting in vain the lord-mayor and his men.


s: He waited and waited from mid-day to dark;


s: But in vain--you might search through the whole of the church,


s: Not a layman, alas! to the city's disgrace,


s: From mid-day to dark showed his nose in the place.


s: The pew-woman, organist, beadle, and clerk,


s: Kept away from their work, and were dancing like mad


s: Away in the streets with the other mad people,


s: Not thinking to pray, but to guzzle and tipple


s: Amidst this din and revelry throughout the city roaring,


s: The silver moon rose silently, and high in heaven soaring;


s: Prior Hyacinth was fervently upon his knees adoring:


s: "Towards my precious patroness this conduct sure unfair is;


s: I cannot think, I must confess, what keeps the dignitaries


s: And our good mayor away, unless some business them contraries."


s: He puts his long white mantle on and forth the prior sallies--


s: (His pious thoughts were bent upon good deeds and not on malice):


s: About the hall the scullions ran with meats both and fresh and


s: The pages came with cup and can, all for the guests allotted;


s: He entered in the ante-rooms where sat the mayor's court in;


s: He found a pack of drunken grooms a-dicing and a-sporting;


s: The horrid wine and 'bacco fumes, they set the prior a-snorting!


s: And having got no portion small of buffeting and tussling,


s: At last he reached the banquet-hall, where sat the mayor


s: And by his side his lady tall dressed out in white sprig muslin.


s: Around the table in a ring the guests were drinking heavy;


s: They'd drunk the church, and drunk the king, and the army and the


s: The prior's face quite red was grown, with horror and with anger;


s: And 'gan a-preaching with a frown--he was a fierce haranguer.


s: He tried the mayor and aldermen--they all set up a-jeering:


s: He tried the common-councilmen--they too began a-sneering;


s: He turned towards the may'ress then, and hoped to get a hearing.


s: He knelt and seized her dinner-dress, made of the muslin snowy,


s: Alas, the lady-mayoress fell back as drunk as Chloe!


s: Out from this dissolute and drunken court


s: Went the good prior, his eyes with weeping dim:


s: They too, alas, were bent upon their sport,


s: But all were swigging schnaps and guzzling beer.


s: He found the cits, their daughters, sons, and spouses,


s: Spending the live-long night in fierce carouses:


s: One or two sentinels the ramparts guarded,


s: The rest were sharing in the general feast:


s: "God wot, our tipsy town is poorly warded;


s: Sweet Saint Sophia help us!" cried the priest.


s: Careful he locked the mighty oaken door;


s: Oh, but it grieved the gentle prior sore,


s: To think of those lost souls, given up to drink and fate!


s: The mighty outer gate well barred and fast,


s: The poor old friars stirred their poor old bones,


s: And pattering swiftly on the damp cold stones,


s: They through the solitary chancel passed.


s: The chancel walls looked black and dim and vast,


s: And rendered, ghost-like, melancholy tones.


s: Onward the fathers sped, till coming nigh a


s: Small iron gate, the which they entered quick at,


s: They locked and double-locked the inner wicket


s: Vain were it to describe this sainted place,


s: Vain to describe that celebrated trophy,


s: Which formed its chiefest ornament and grace.


s: Here the good prior, his personal griefs and sorrows


s: In his extreme devotion quickly merging,


s: At once began to pray with voice sonorous;


s: The other friars joined in pious chorus,


s: And passed the night in singing, praying, scourging,


s: "All the night, my love, I'll miss you."


s: Ah, full well might the sentinel cry, "Who goes there!"


s: But echo was frightened too much to declare.


s: Who goes there? who goes there?  Can any one swear


s: To the number of sands sur les bords de la mer,


s: Or the whiskers of D'Orsay Count down to a hair?


s: As well might you tell of the sands the amount,


s: Or number each hair in each curl of the Count,


s: Of the hundreds and thousands that up the wall came!


s: Down, down the knaves poured with fire and with sword:


s: There were thieves from the Danube and rogues from the Don;


s: There were Turks and Wallacks, and shouting Cossacks;


s: Of all nations and regions, and tongues and religions--


s: Ah, horrible sight was Kioff that night!


s: The gates were all taken--no chance e'en of flight;


s: And with torch and with axe the bloody Cossacks


s: Went hither and thither a-hunting in packs:


s: Women and children, they slaughtered them too.


s: Some, saving their throats, plunged into the moats,


s: Or the river--but oh, they had burned all the boats!


s: But here let us pause--for I can't pursue further


s: This scene of rack, ravishment, ruin, and murther.


s: Too well did the cunning old Cossack succeed!


s: His plan of attack was successful indeed!


s: The night was his own--the town it was gone;


s: 'Twas a heap still a-burning of timber and stone.


s: One building alone had escaped from the fires,


s: Saint Sophy's fair church, with its steeples and spires,


s: And as if 'twould defy all the conqueror's power,--


s: The chimes ringing soberly every half-hour!


s: And then it was the conqueror first heeded


s: Furious towards his aides-de-camp he turns,


s: And (speaking as if Byron's works he knew)


s: "Villains!" he fiercely cries, "the city burns,


s: Burn me yon church, and murder all within!"


s: The Cossacks thundered at the outer door;


s: And Father Hyacinth, who, heard the din,


s: (And thought himself and brethren in distress,


s: Did to her statue turn, and thus his woes outpour.


s: "And is it thus, O falsest of the saints,


s: Was not thy name the very first that broke


s: Have I not tried with fasting, flogging, penance,


s: Forgetful of my prayers, and thine own promise,


s: Murder out burghers, seize upon their spouses,


s: Is such a breach of faith to be endured?


s: Light from the insolent invader's torches


s: E'en now, with thundering battering-ram and hammer


s: With axemen, swordsmen, pikemen, billmen, bowmen,


s: O Sophy! beat your gate about your ears,


s: Whose souls shall quickly from their bodies be thrusted,


s: Do you not know the Calmuc chiefs desires--


s: And you, of all the saints most false and fickle,


s: (Here, to the astonishment of all her backers,


s: Saint Sophy, opening wide her wooden jaws,


s: Like to a pair of German walnut-crackers,


s: Began), "I did not think you had been thus,--


s: Besiege our town, that you distrust in ME, then?


s: Think'st thou that I, who in a former day


s: (Not mentioning, for shortness, other seas),--


s: That I, who skimmed the broad Borysthenes,


s: Am frightened at a set of men like THOSE?


s: I have a mind to leave you to your fate:


s: Such cowardice as this my scorn inspires."


s: For at this very moment in tumbled the gate,


s: When he heard that villanous shout Calmuc!


s: Spite of all that we've done and we've pray'd,


s: Folded his robes around his sides, and took


s: Place under sainted Sophy's legs of oak,


s: (Each being absorbed in his particular case),


s: Else had they seen with what celestial race


s: A wooden smile stole o'er the saint's mahogany face.


s: "Well done, well done, Hyacinthus, my son!"


s: "Though you doubted me in the hour of need,


s: You deserve good luck for showing such pluck,


s: And couldn't contain their astonishment,


s: And twisted her legs, sure as eggs is eggs,


s: "Ho! forwards," cried Sophy, "there's no time for waiting,


s: The Cossacks are breaking the very last gate in:


s: See the glare of their torches shines red through the grating;


s: We've still the back door, and two minutes or more.


s: Now boys, now or never, we must make for the river,


s: For we only are safe on the opposite shore.


s: Run swiftly to-day, lads, if ever you ran,--


s: Put out your best leg, Hyacinthus, my man;


s: And I'll lay five to two that you carry us through,


s: Away went the priest through the little back door,


s: And light on his shoulders the image he bore:


s: The honest old priest was not punished the least,


s: Though the image was eight feet, and he measured four.


s: Away went the prior, and the monks at his tail


s: Went snorting, and puffing, and panting full sail;


s: And just as the last at the back door had passed,


s: The Tartars so fierce, with their terrible cheers;


s: With axes, and halberts, and muskets, and spears,


s: With torches a-flaming the chapel now came in.


s: They tore up the mass-book, they stamped on the psalter,


s: They pulled the gold crucifix down from the altar;


s: The vestments they burned with their blasphemous fires,


s: And many cried, "Curse on them! where are the friars?"


s: When loaded with plunder, yet seeking for more,


s: One chanced to fling open the little back door,


s: Spied out the friars' white robes and long shadows


s: In the moon, scampering over the meadows,


s: And stopped the Cossacks in the midst of their arsons,


s: By crying out lustily, "THERE GO THE PARSONS!"


s: With a whoop and a yell, and a scream and a shout,


s: At once the whole murderous body turned out;


s: And swift as the hawk pounces down on the pigeon,


s: Pursued the poor short-winded men of religion.


s: When the sound of that cheering came to the monks' hearing,


s: O heaven! how the poor fellows panted and blew!


s: At fighting not cunning, unaccustomed to running,


s: When the Tartars came up, what the deuce should they do?


s: "They'll make us all martyrs, those bloodthirsty Tartars!"


s: The shouts they came clearer, the foe they drew nearer;


s: Oh, how the bolts whistled, and how the lights shone!


s: "I cannot get further, this running is murther;


s: Come carry me, some one!" cried big Father John.


s: And even the statue grew frightened, "Od rat you!"


s: It cried, "Mr. Prior, I wish you'd get on!"