s: _What's this of death, from you who never will die_


s: _Here is a wound that never will heal, I know_


s: _What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why_


s: _Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare_


s: _Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!_


s: _Say what you will, and scratch my heart to find_


s: Orange orioles hop like music-box birds and sing


s: The bright eyes of song sparrows sitting on spotted eggs


s: Peer restlessly through the light and shadow


s: Holding quiet conversations with an early moon;


s: Settling sideways into the grass of an old road;


s: Lilacs, wind-beaten, staggering under a lopsided shock of bloom


s: You tapped the window when the preacher preached his sermon,


s: And ran along the road beside the boy going to school.


s: You stood by pasture-bars to give the cows good milking,


s: You persuaded the housewife that her dish-pan was of silver


s: You flaunted the fragrance of your blossoms


s: Through the wide doors of Custom Houses--


s: Charging the noses of quill-driving clerks


s: You called to them: "Goose-quill men, goose-quill men,


s: And wrote poetry on their letter-sheets behind the propped-up


s: Writing inventories in ledgers, reading the "Song of Solomon" at


s: And let their thin hair blow through your clustered stems.


s: And of the stone hills which reach a long distance.


s: You are of elm-shaded streets with little shops where they sell


s: And lean over the top to say a hurry-word through the glass


s: The veiled women with eyes like panthers,


s: Friendly to a house-cat and a pair of spectacles,


s: Cape Cod starts you along the beaches to Rhode Island;


s: Connecticut takes you from a river to the sea.


s: Bursting above the leaf-shapes of our hearts,


s: The recollection of the gardens of little children,


s: May is a thrush singing "Sun up!" on a tip-top ash-tree,


s: Puffed out and marching upon a blue sky.


s: Heart-leaves of lilac all over New England,


s: Roots of lilac under all the soil of New England,


s: With edges that seem to draw in and harden.


s: Beat each with a hammer on the end of a rod


s: And the echoes jump, and tinkle, and swell


s: In the Cathedral's carved stone polygons.


s: At least so say the cobbles in the square.


s: The slim bronze men beat the hour again,


s: But only the gargoyles up in the hard blue air heed them.


s: The carved swan looks down at the passing men,


s: And the cobbles wink: "An hour has gone again."


s: But the people kneeling before the Bishop's chair


s: Forget the passing over the cobbles in the square.


s: And the clouds float away in a red-splashed light.


s: An old roof crashing on a Bishop's tomb,


s: And the footsteps blur to a shower, shower, shower,


s: Who beat God's hours: Prime, Tierce, None.


s: They strike their iron edges on the Bishop's chair


s: And fling down the lanterns by the tower stair.


s: The cobbles see this all along the street


s: And the clockmen mark the hours as they go.


s: Staring before him with cold glass eyes.


s: Pleased with his church, pleased with his house,


s: Pleased with the sound of the hammered bell,


s: He is old, and kind, and deaf, and blind,


s: And very, very pleased with his charming moat


s: Your voice is like bells over roofs at dawn


s: The foxgloves were like tall altar candles.


s: Could I have lifted you to the roof of the greenhouse, my Dear,


s: Your shadow is sunlight on a plate of silver;


s: Your footsteps, the seeding-place of lilies;


s: Your hands moving, a chime of bells across a windless air.


s: It is the hopping of birds upon a garden-path.


s: As the perfume of jonquils, you come forth in the morning.


s: Young horses are not more sudden than your thoughts,


s: I eat the whiteness of your hands and feet.


s: Like white water are you who fill the cup of my mouth,


s: Like a brook of water thronged with lilies.


s: You are far and sweet as the high clouds.


s: I dare touch the rim of your brightness.


s: How has the rainbow fallen upon my heart?


s: How have I snared the seas to lie in my fingers


s: And caught the sky to be a cover for my head?


s: Compassing me with the four circles of your mystic lightness,


s: So that I say "Glory! Glory!" and bow before you


s: Do I tease myself that morning is morning and a day after?


s: And those things which I say in consequence


s: Trying to prevent one another from snatching ivy.


s: If you get a leaf, there's another for me;


s: But I want your leaf, Brother, and you mine,


s: Or most that no one else shall have any?


s: We cannot stop to plait them into crowns


s: And there's no room in it for you and me.


s: We've none of us very much chance at a leaf.


s: Which puckers the mouth and burns the heart.


s: Abundance of berries for all who will eat,


s: And who wants to swallow a mouthful of sorrow?


s: Must be well along, and we've no time to waste.


s: Does it matter at all that we don't know why?


s: Has never availed the cumbersome grindstone


s: These hands have helped it go and even race;


s: Not all the motion, though, they ever lent,


s: Not all the miles it may have thought it went,


s: Have got it one step from the starting place.


s: It stands beside the same old apple tree.


s: And some of it on no more legs and wheel


s: Than the grindstone can boast to stand or go.


s: (I'm thinking chiefly of the wheelbarrow.)


s: For months it hasn't known the taste of steel,


s: But standing outdoors, hungry, in the cold,


s: Except in towns, at night, is not a sin.


s: One summer day, all day I drove it hard,


s: And some one mounted on it rode it hard,


s: And poured on water (tears it might have been);


s: And when it almost gayly jumped and flowed,


s: Armed with a scythe and spectacles that glowed.


s: He turned on will-power to increase the load


s: And slow me down--and I abruptly slowed,


s: Like coming to a sudden railroad station.


s: I changed from hand to hand in desperation.


s: For all I knew it may have sharpened spears


s: And arrowheads itself. Much use for years


s: Spheroid that kicked and struggled in its gait,


s: Whose pride has failed to get him anywhere.)


s: I wondered who it was the man thought ground--


s: The one who held the wheel back or the one


s: Who gave his life to keep it going round?


s: For him to have the say when we were done.


s: Such were the bitter thoughts to which I turned.


s: Oh, no!--although, of course, I could have found


s: Than grinding discord out of a grindstone,


s: And beating insects at their gritty tune.


s: Nor was I for the man so much concerned.


s: Once when the grindstone almost jumped its bearing


s: It looked as if he might be badly thrown


s: And wounded on his blade. So far from caring,


s: I laughed inside, and only cranked the faster,


s: (It ran as if it wasn't greased but glued);


s: The thing that made me more and more afraid


s: Was that we'd ground it sharp and hadn't known,


s: And now were only wasting precious blade.


s: And when he raised it dripping once and tried


s: And viewed it over his glasses funny-eyed,


s: It needed a turn more, I could have cried


s: Mightn't we make it worse instead of better?


s: I was for leaving something to the whetter.


s: Behind the mountain, with a mother and son,


s: Two old-believers. They did all the talking.


s: Folks think a witch who has familiar spirits


s: She _could_ call up to pass a winter evening,


s: But _won't_, should be burned at the stake or something.


s: Summoning spirits isn't "Button, button,


s: Who's got the button?" I'd have you understand.


s: And kick with two legs like an army mule.


s: And when I've done it, what good have I done?


s: Tell you what Ralle the Sioux Control once told me.


s: He said the dead had souls, but when I asked him


s: How that could be--I thought the dead were souls,


s: He broke my trance. Don't that make you suspicious


s: That there's something the dead are keeping back?


s: Yes, there's something the dead are keeping back.


s: You wouldn't want to tell him what we have


s: But the headboard of mother's bed is pushed


s: Against the attic door: the door is nailed.


s: It's harmless. Mother hears it in the night


s: Of door and headboard. Where it wants to get


s: Is back into the cellar where it came from.


s: We'll never let them, will we, son? We'll never!


s: And carried itself like a pile of dishes


s: Up one flight from the cellar to the kitchen,


s: Another from the kitchen to the bedroom,


s: Right past both father and mother, and neither stopped it.


s: Father had gone upstairs; mother was downstairs.


s: The only fault my husband found with me--


s: Might just as well be ice and the clothes snow.


s: The night the bones came up the cellar-stairs


s: Toffile had gone to bed alone and left me,


s: But left an open door to cool the room off


s: To wonder where the cold was coming from,


s: When I heard Toffile upstairs in the bedroom


s: And thought I heard him downstairs in the cellar.


s: The board we had laid down to walk dry-shod on


s: When there was water in the cellar in spring


s: Struck the hard cellar bottom. And then some one


s: Began the stairs, two footsteps for each step,


s: The way a man with one leg and a crutch,


s: Or little child, comes up. It wasn't Toffile:


s: The bulkhead double-doors were double-locked


s: And swollen tight and buried under snow.


s: The cellar windows were banked up with sawdust


s: It was the bones. I knew them--and good reason.


s: And hold the door. But the bones didn't try


s: The door; they halted helpless on the landing,


s: Waiting for things to happen in their favor.


s: The faintest restless rustling ran all through them.


s: If the wish hadn't been too strong in me


s: To see how they were mounted for this walk.


s: So suddenly I flung the door wide on him.


s: A moment he stood balancing with emotion,


s: And all but lost himself. (A tongue of fire


s: Flashed out and licked along his upper teeth.


s: Smoke rolled inside the sockets of his eyes.)


s: Then he came at me with one hand outstretched,


s: The way he did in life once; but this time


s: I struck the hand off brittle on the floor,


s: And fell back from him on the floor myself.


s: The finger-pieces slid in all directions.


s: (Where did I see one of those pieces lately?


s: Hand me my button-box--it must be there.)


s: I sat up on the floor and shouted, "Toffile,


s: It's coming up to you." It had its choice


s: And set off briskly for so slow a thing,


s: Still going every which way in the joints, though,


s: So that it looked like lightning or a scribble,


s: From the slap I had just now given its hand.


s: I listened till it almost climbed the stairs


s: From the hall to the only finished bedroom,


s: Then ran and shouted, "Shut the bedroom door,


s: Toffile, for my sake!" "Company," he said,


s: "Don't make me get up; I'm too warm in bed."


s: I pushed myself upstairs, and in the light


s: (The kitchen had been dark) I had to own


s: I could see nothing. "Toffile, I don't see it.


s: It's with us in the room, though. It's the bones."


s: "What bones?" "The cellar bones--out of the grave."


s: That made him throw his bare legs out of bed


s: If I could see it, or else mow the room,


s: With our arms at the level of our knees,


s: And bring the chalk-pile down. "I'll tell you what--


s: The uncommonly deep snow has made him think


s: Of his old song, _The Wild Colonial Boy_,


s: He always used to sing along the tote-road.


s: He's after an open door to get out-doors.


s: Let's trap him with an open door up attic."


s: Toffile agreed to that, and sure enough,


s: Almost the moment he was given an opening,


s: The steps began to climb the attic stairs.


s: I heard them. Toffile didn't seem to hear them.


s: "Quick!" I slammed to the door and held the knob.


s: "Toffile, get nails." I made him nail the door shut,


s: And push the headboard of the bed against it.


s: The attic was less to us than the cellar.


s: If the bones liked the attic, let them like it,


s: Let them _stay_ in the attic. When they sometimes


s: Come down the stairs at night and stand perplexed


s: Behind the door and headboard of the bed,


s: Brushing their chalky skull with chalky fingers,


s: With sounds like the dry rattling of a shutter,


s: That's what I sit up in the dark to say--


s: Let them stay in the attic since they went there.


s: We think they had a grave down in the cellar.


s: We know they had a grave down in the cellar.


s: We never could find out whose bones they were.


s: Yes, we could too, son. Tell the truth for once.


s: They were a man's his father killed for me.


s: The least I could do was to help dig their grave.


s: We were about it one night in the cellar.


s: Son knows the story: but 'twas not for him


s: To tell the truth, suppose the time had come.


s: We'd kept up all these years between ourselves


s: But to-night I don't care enough to lie--


s: Toffile, if he were here, I don't believe


s: Could tell you why he ever cared himself....


s: She hadn't found the finger-bone she wanted


s: Among the buttons poured out in her lap.


s: I verified the name next morning: Toffile;


s: The rural letter-box said Toffile Lajway.


s: The farm house lingers, though averse to square


s: That held the house as in an elbow-crook?


s: I ask as one who knew the brook, its strength


s: And impulse, having dipped a finger-length


s: And made it leap my knuckle, having tossed


s: A flower to try its currents where they crossed.


s: The apple trees be sent to hearth-stone flame.


s: Is water wood to serve a brook the same?


s: No longer needed? Staunch it at its source


s: With cinder loads dumped down? The brook was thrown


s: In fetid darkness still to live and run--


s: No one would know except for ancient maps


s: That such a brook ran water. But I wonder


s: These thoughts may not have risen that so keep


s: This new-built city from both work and sleep.


s: I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,


s: Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--


s: Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--


s: A snow-drop spider, a flower like froth,


s: And dead wings carried like a paper kite.


s: What had that flower to do with being white,


s: What brought the kindred spider to that height,


s: Then steered the white moth thither in the night?


s: Down Pennsylvania Avenue to-day the riders go,


s: men and boys riding horses, roses in their teeth,


s: stems of roses, rose leaf stalks, rose dark leaves--


s: the line of the green ends in a red rose flash.


s: Skeleton men and boys riding skeleton horses,


s: the rib bones shine, the rib bones curve,


s: a skull dome runs with a long white arch,


s: shining in the sun, past the White House,


s: past the Treasury Building, Army and Navy Buildings,


s: so they go down Pennsylvania Avenue to-day,


s: skeleton men and boys riding skeleton horses,


s: rose dark leaves at their white jaw slants--


s: and a horse laugh question nickers and whinnies,


s: moans with a whistle out of horse head teeth:


s: said a cadaverous man--with a black umbrella--


s: spotted with white polka dots--with a missing


s: singing to the silver sashes of the sun.)


s: If he picked himself and said, "I am ready to die,"


s: if he gave his name and said, "My country, take me,"


s: then the baskets of roses to-day are for the Boy,


s: the flowers, the songs, the steamboat whistles,


s: the proclamations of the honorable orators,


s: If the government of the Republic picked him saying,


s: "You are wanted, your country takes you"--


s: if the Republic put a stethoscope to his heart


s: and looked at his teeth and tested his eyes and said,


s: "You are a citizen of the Republic and a sound


s: animal in all parts and functions--the Republic takes you"--


s: then to-day the baskets of flowers are all for the Republic,


s: the roses, the songs, the steamboat whistles,


s: the proclamations of the honorable orators--


s: and an understanding goes--his long sleep shall be


s: under arms and arches near the Capitol Dome--


s: there is an authorization--he shall have tomb companions--


s: the martyred presidents of the Republic--


s: the buck private--the unknown soldier--that's him.


s: The man who was war commander of the armies of the Republic


s: The man who is peace commander of the armies of the Republic


s: for the sake of the Boy, for the sake of the Republic.


s: so soft is the drumming, so soft the roll call


s: of the grinning sergeants calling the roll call--


s: so soft is it all--a camera man murmurs, "Moonshine.")


s: of the officers of the armies of the Republic.


s: (Among pigeon corners of the Congressional Library--they


s: file documents quietly, casually, all in a day's work--


s: this human document, the buck private nobody knows the


s: name of--they file away in granite and steel--with music


s: and roses, salutes, proclamations of the honorable


s: Across the country, between two ocean shore lines,


s: where cities cling to rail and water routes,


s: there people and horses stop in their foot tracks,


s: cars and wagons stop in their wheel tracks--


s: faces at street crossings shine with a silence


s: of eggs laid in a row on a pantry shelf--


s: among the ways and paths of the flow of the Republic


s: faces come to a standstill, sixty clockticks count--


s: in the name of the Boy, in the name of the Republic.


s: (A million faces a thousand miles from Pennsylvania Avenue


s: stay frozen with a look, a clocktick, a moment--


s: skeleton riders on skeleton horses--the nickering high horse


s: the whinny and the howl up Pennsylvania Avenue:


s: (So people far from the asphalt footing of Pennsylvania


s: Avenue look, wonder, mumble--the riding white-jaw


s: phantoms ride hi-eeee, hi-eeee, hi-yi, hi-yi, hi-eeee--


s: the proclamations of the honorable orators mix with the


s: happening to sit up as Lazarus sat up, in the story,


s: then the first shivering language to drip off his mouth


s: might have come as, "Thank God," or "Am I dreaming?"


s: or "Was that ... a rat ... ran over my face?"


s: or "For Christ's sake, gimme water, gimme water,"


s: and promises lived in the air of the night,


s: Said a Washington newspaper correspondent,


s: Said a hanky-pank selling jumping-jacks.


s: "Hokum--they lap it up," said the bunch.


s: Made a speech of his own for the hero boy,


s: Sent an earful of his own to the dead buck private:


s: Jumping from jokes back to the want ads,


s: Buttoning the buttons on their prinz alberts,


s: Pronouncing the syllables "sac-ri-fice,"


s: Juggling those bitter salt-soaked syllables--


s: Do they ever gag with hot ashes in their mouths?


s: Do their tongues ever shrivel with a pain of fire


s: Across those simple syllables "sac-ri-fice"?


s: (There was one orator people far off saw.


s: He had on a gunnysack shirt over his bones,


s: And he lifted an elbow socket over his head,


s: And he had nothing to say, nothing easy--


s: He mentioned ten million men, mentioned them as having gone west,


s: We could write it all on a postage stamp, what he said.


s: move out and on, up the Potomac, over on the Ohio


s: and down to the Rio Grande, and on to the Yazoo,


s: over to the Chattahoochee and up to the Rappahannock?


s: did you see 'em, stars of the night sky?


s: they lay him away in granite and steel--


s: On a mountain-side the real estate agents


s: Put up signs marking the city lots to be sold there.


s: A man whose father and mother were Irish


s: Ran a goat farm half-way down the mountain;


s: Shot grouse, buffalo, Indians, in a single year,


s: And now was raising goats around a shanty.


s: A man and woman were in rows of sweet peas


s: To put in baskets and take to the Los Angeles market.


s: There in the morning sun, the big people and the baby-faces.


s: Across the road, high on another mountain,


s: Stood a house saying, "I am it," a commanding house.


s: There was the home of a motion picture director


s: Clothes ransacked from the latest designs for women


s: In the combats of "male against female."


s: The mountain, the scenery, the layout of the landscape,


s: And the peace of the morning sun as it happened,


s: The miles of houses pocketed in the valley beyond--


s: It was all worth looking at, worth wondering about,


s: How long it might last, how young it might be.


s: They go down shot, hanged, sick, broken.


s: They live on, fighting, singing, lucky as plungers.


s: Call hallelujah, call amen, call deep thanks.


s: Sifting soft winds with sentence and rhyme_.]


s: Found the glades of rotting leaves, the soft deer-pastures,


s: Feasting in the dim, volunteer farms of the forest.


s: On the ramparts of our Hoosiers' nest and citadel,


s: The smallest, blindest puppies toddled west


s: At the glow-worms and the marsh lights and the lightning-bugs,


s: And turned to delirious, flower-dressed fairies


s: Haughtiest swans and peacocks swept west,


s: Chief of the fastnesses, dappled and vast,


s: The ghosts of all the forests and the groves--


s: To-morrow's peaches, pears and cherries,


s: Planting the trees that would march and train


s: Master and ruler of the unicorn-ramping forest,


s: The rooster-trumpeting, boar-foaming, wolf-ravening forest,


s: The spirit-haunted, fairy-enchanted forest,


s: Painted kings in the midst of the clearing


s: To guard each planted seed and seedling.


s: Then he was a god, to the red man's dreaming;


s: Then the chiefs brought treasures grotesque and fair,--


s: Beads and furs from their medicine-lair,--


s: The orchard god was their guest through the night.


s: While the late snow blew from bleak Lake Erie,


s: And as though his heart were a wind-blown wheat-sheaf,


s: As though his heart were a new-built nest,


s: As though their heaven house were his breast,


s: And I hear his bird heart beat its story,


s: Hear yet how the ghost of the forest shivers,


s: Hear yet the cry of the gray, old orchards,


s: And the timid wings of the bird-ghosts beating,


s: And the ghosts of the tom-toms beating, beating.


s: But he left their wigwams and their love.


s: By the hour of dawn he was proud and stark,


s: Sleep in the trees, while the years howled by--


s: With the gorgeous turkey gobblers mocking,


s: With the lean-necked eagles boxing and shouting;


s: Trading hearts with all beasts and weathers


s: Bare-armed, barefooted, and bare-breasted.


s: The bucks toss their horns, the fuzzy fawns fly._]


s: The maples, shedding their spinning seeds,


s: Vast chestnut-trees, with their butterfly nations,


s: Hawthorne and crab-thorn bent, rain-wet,


s: And dropped their flowers in his night-black hair;


s: And the soft fawns stopped for his perorations;


s: And his black eyes shone through the forest-gleam,


s: And he plunged young hands into new-turned earth,


s: And prayed dear orchard boughs into birth;


s: And he ran with the rabbit and slept with the stream.


s: They asked of the birds: "Who gave this fruit?


s: Who watched this fence till the seeds took root?


s: Who gave these boughs?" They asked the sky,


s: "To the farthest West he has followed the sun,


s: Self-scourged, like a monk, with a throne for wages,


s: Stripped like the iron-souled Hindu sages,


s: Draped like a statue, in strings like a scarecrow,


s: But worn in the love of the heart of man,


s: With the apple, the sun of his burning breast--


s: And Johnny Appleseed, priestly and free,


s: Knotted and gnarled, past seventy years,


s: Where still he burnt out flesh and bone.


s: Twenty days ahead of the Indian, twenty years ahead of the white


s: At last the Indian overtook him, at last the Indian hurried past


s: At last the white man overtook him, at last the white man hurried


s: At last his own trees overtook him, at last his own trees hurried


s: And the real frontier was his sun-burnt breast.


s: From the fiery core of that apple, the earth,


s: Love's orchards climbed to the heavens of the West,


s: And snowed the earthly sod with flowers.


s: Farm hands from the terraces of the blest


s: Danced on the mists with their ladies fine;


s: And Johnny Appleseed laughed with his dreams,


s: And swam once more the ice-cold streams.


s: And the doves of the spirit swept through the hours,


s: With doom-calls, love-calls, death-calls, dream-calls;


s: Lifted his hands to the farm-filled sky,


s: The sun was his turned-up broken barrel,


s: An angel in each apple that touched the forest mold,


s: Each red, rich, round, and bouncing moon


s: Like scrolls and rolled-up flags of silk,


s: And all our expectations in one wild-flower-written dream,


s: Confusion and death sweetness, and a thicket of crab-thorns,


s: Heart of a hundred midnights, heart of the merciful morns.


s: Heaven's boughs bent down with their alchemy,


s: And the dew on the grass and his own cold tears


s: Though death's loud thunder came upon him,


s: Though death's loud thunder struck him down--


s: The boughs and the proud thoughts swept through the thunder,


s: Till he saw our wide nation, each State a flower,


s: The vista of ten thousand years, flower-lighted and complete.


s: Hear the lazy weeds murmuring, bays and rivers whispering,


s: Listen to the eagles, screaming, calling,


s: In the four-poster bed Johnny Appleseed built,


s: Autumn rains were the curtains, autumn leaves were the quilt.


s: He laid him down sweetly, and slept through the night,


s: Like a bump on a log, like a stone washed white,


s: Oh, gipsies, proud and stiff-necked and perverse,


s: Saying: "We tell the fortunes of the nations,


s: And revel in the deep palm of the world.


s: The head-line is the road we choose for trade.


s: The love-line is the lane wherein we camp.


s: Are finger-tips of ranges clasping round


s: Saying: "We will swap horses till the doom,


s: And mend the pots and kettles of mankind,


s: And lend our sons to big-time vaudeville,


s: Or to the race-track, or the learned world.


s: But India's Brahma waits within their breasts.


s: They will return to us with gipsy grins,


s: And chatter Romany, and shake their curls


s: And hug the dirtiest babies in the camp.


s: They will return to the moving pillar of smoke,


s: The whitest toothed, the merriest laughers known,


s: The blackest haired of all the tribes of men.


s: What trap can hold such cats? The Romany


s: Has crossed such delicate palms with lead or gold,


s: Wheedling in sun and rain, through perilous years,


s: All coins now look alike. The palm is all.


s: Our greasy pack of cards is still the book


s: Most read of men. The heart's librarians,


s: We tell all lovers what they want to know.


s: Out of the skyscraper, the Fine Arts Building,


s: Our sons will come with fiddles and with loot,


s: Dressed, as of old, like turkey-cocks and zebras,


s: Telling the fortunes of the bleeding world,


s: And kiss the sunset, ere their day is done."


s: Oh, gipsies, proud and stiff-necked and perverse,


s: Picking the brains and pockets of mankind,


s: You will go westward for one-half hour yet.


s: You will turn eastward in a little while.


s: You will go back, as men turn to Kentucky,


s: Land of their fathers, dark and bloody ground.


s: When Chinese cooks go back to Canton, China,


s: And Scotch accountants back to Edinburgh,


s: You will go back to India, whence you came.


s: When you have reached the borders of your quest,


s: Homesick at last, by many a devious way,


s: By foot and horse will trace the long way back!


s: Fiddling for ocean liners, while the dance


s: Sweeps through the decks, your brown tribes all will go!


s: Those east-bound ships will hear your long farewell


s: On fiddle, piccolo, and flute and timbrel.


s: I know all this, when gipsy fiddles cry.


s: That hour of their homesickness, I myself


s: Will turn, will say farewell to Illinois,


s: And go with them to India, whence they came.


s: For they have heard a singing from the Ganges,


s: And cries of orioles,--from the temple caves,--


s: They smell the supper smokes of Amritsar.


s: Green monkeys cry in Sanskrit to their souls


s: They think of towns to ease their feverish eyes,


s: And make them stand and meditate forever,


s: Domes of astonishment, to heal the mind.


s: What music will be blended with the wind


s: When gipsy fiddlers, nearing that old land,


s: Bring tunes from all the world to Brahma's house?


s: Passing the Indus, winding poisonous forests,


s: Blowing soft flutes at scandalous temple girls,


s: Filling the highways with their magpie loot,


s: What brass from my Chicago will they heap,


s: Will they pile near the Bodhi Tree, and laugh?


s: They will dance near such temples as best suit them,


s: Though they will not quite enter, or adore,


s: Looking on roofs, as poets look on lilies,


s: Looking at towers, as boys at forest vines,


s: That leap to tree-tops through the dizzy air.


s: I know all this, when gipsy fiddles cry.


s: And with the gipsies there will be a king


s: And a thousand desperadoes just his style,


s: With all their rags dyed in the blood of roses,


s: Splashed with the blood of angels, and of demons.


s: And he will boss them with an awful voice.


s: And with a red whip he will beat his wife.


s: And rattle cruel spurs against the rocks,


s: And shake Calcutta's walls with circus bugles.


s: He will kill Brahmins there, in Kali's name,


s: And please the thugs, and blood-drunk of the earth.


s: Oh, sweating thieves, and hard-boiled scalawags,


s: That still will boast your pride until the doom,


s: Reaching at last your Hindu goal to smash


s: The caste rules of old India, and shout:


s: "Down with the Brahmins, let the Romany reign."


s: When gipsy girls look deep within my hand


s: That I am one of those star-crossed to wed


s: So there will be a tender gipsy princess,


s: And I will fight with knives the gipsy man


s: Who tries to steal her wild young heart away.


s: And at the rainbow's end, and in the incense


s: That curls about the feet of sleeping gods,


s: And sing with her in canebrakes and in rice fields,


s: We will sow secret herbs, and plant old roses,


s: In her strange fairy mill-wheel eyes will wait


s: All windings and unwindings of the highways,


s: All windings and unwindings of my fancy,


s: All windings and unwindings of all souls,


s: All windings and unwindings of the heavens.


s: I know all this, when gipsy fiddles cry.


s: We gipsies, proud and stiff-necked and perverse,


s: We will heal Hindu hermits there with oil


s: Brought from California's tall sequoias.


s: And we will be like gods that heap the thunders,


s: And start young redwood trees on Time's own mountains.


s: We will swap horses with the rising moon,


s: And mend that funny skillet called Orion,


s: Color the stars like San Francisco's street-lights,


s: And paint our sign and signature on high


s: In planets like a bed of crimson pansies;


s: While a million fiddles shake all listening hearts,


s: Whispering adventure to the Ganges waves,


s: And to the spirits, and all winds and gods.


s: Within the gipsy king's great striped tent,


s: And asks his fortune told by that great love-line


s: That winds across his palm in splendid flame.


s: Will end the endless march of gipsy feet.


s: When they go back to India whence they came.


s: I know all this, when gipsy fiddles cry.


s: I come of a mighty race.... I come of a very mighty race....


s: Adam was a mighty man, and Noah a captain of the moving waters,


s: Moses was a stern and splendid king, yea, so was Moses....


s: And let me roll in the Isaiah thunder....


s: Ho! the mightiest of our young men was born under a star in the


s: His name is written on the sun and it is frosted on the moon....


s: Mighty race! mighty race!--my flesh, my flesh


s: I go about with a dark heart where the Ages sit in a divine


s: My blood is cymbal-clashed and the anklets of the dancers tinkle


s: Harp and psaltery, harp and psaltery make drunk my spirit....


s: I am of the terrible people, I am of the strange Hebrews....


s: Amongst the swarms fixed like the rooted stars, my folk is a


s: Ho! we have turned against the mightiest of our young men


s: And in that denial we have taken on the Christ,


s: And the Magdalen at the feet of the Christ,


s: And the Judas with thirty silver pieces selling the Christ,--


s: And our twenty centuries in Europe have the shape of a Cross


s: On which we have hung in disaster and glory....


s: I listened, there was not a sound to hear


s: In the great rain of moonlight pouring down,


s: The eucalyptus trees were carved in silver,


s: And a light mist of silver lulled the town.


s: And on the garden-walk a snail beside me


s: Tracing in crystal the slow way he came.


s: And there were hemlocks heaped with snow,


s: With a sound like surf on long sea-beaches


s: "Let come what may," your eyes were saying,


s: There was an evening when the sky was clear,


s: The tide was falling, and the sea withdrew


s: In hushed and happy music from the sheer


s: Of what life may be, and what death can do,


s: Fell from us like steel armor, and we knew


s: The beauty of the Law that holds us here.


s: It was as though we saw the Secret Will,


s: It was as though we floated and were free;


s: In the south-west a planet shone serenely,


s: And the high moon, most reticent and queenly,


s: Seeing the earth had darkened and grown still,


s: Misted with light the meadows of the sea.


s: I shall gather myself into myself again,


s: I shall take my scattered selves and make them one,


s: I shall fuse them into a polished crystal ball


s: Where I can see the moon and the flashing sun.


s: I shall sit like a sibyl, hour after hour intent,


s: Watching the future come and the present go--


s: And the little shifting pictures of people rushing


s: My heart has grown rich with the passing of years,


s: I have less need now than when I was young


s: Or shape my thoughts into words with my tongue.


s: If I have myself and the drive of my will,


s: And watch the stars swarm over the hill.


s: Let them think I love them more than I do,


s: Let them think I care, though I go alone,


s: If it lifts their pride, what is it to me


s: Who am self-complete as a flower or a stone?


s: Can that be you, _la mouche?_ Wait till I lift


s: This palsied eye-lid and make sure.... Ah, true.


s: Next time you come you'll find no dying poet--


s: Without sufficient spleen to see me through,


s: I have that--something--heavier on my chest


s: And then, you see, I've been exchanging thoughts


s: With Doctor Franz. He talked of Kant and Hegel


s: As though he'd nursed them both through whooping cough


s: And, as he left, he let his finger shake


s: Too playfully, as though to say, "Now off


s: With that long face--you've years and years to live."


s: I think he thinks so. But, for Heaven's sake,


s: Don't credit it--and never tell Mathilde.


s: Poor dear, she has enough to bear already....


s: This _was_ a month! During my lonely weeks


s: Meissner was also here; he caught me unawares,


s: Scribbling to my old mother. "What!" he cried,


s: "Is the old lady of the _Dammthor_ still alive?


s: And do you write her still?" "Each month or so."


s: How wretched you must be?" "How can she know?


s: You see," I laughed, "she thinks I am as well


s: As when she saw me last. She is too blind


s: To read the papers--some one else must tell


s: What's in my letters, merely signed by me.


s: I drop the mask to-day; the half-cracked shield


s: Of mockery calls for younger hands to wield.


s: Laugh--or I'll hug it closer to my breast.


s: And give my thoughts an airing, let them loose


s: For one last rambling stroll before--Now look!


s: Why tears? You never heard me say "the end."


s: And so get rid of them once and for all.


s: This is their holiday--we'll let them run--


s: Some have escaped already. There goes one ...


s: What, I have often mused, did Goethe mean?


s: So many years ago at Weimar, Goethe said


s: "Heine has all the poet's gifts but love."


s: More than enough! So much of love to give


s: And so I flashed and snapped in my own fires


s: Until I stood, with nothing left to burn,


s: _Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam_--you recall?


s: I was that Northern tree and, in the South,


s: Amalia.... So I turned to scornful cries,


s: Crouching behind my pointed wall of words,


s: Enchanted roses, sphinxes, love-sick birds,


s: Giants, dead lads who left their graves to dance,


s: Fairies and phoenixes and friendly gods--


s: A curious frieze, half Renaissance, half Greek,


s: I lay and laughed--and wept--till I was weak.


s: Words were my shelter, words my one escape,


s: Words were my weapons against everything.


s: Give me the lyre, I said, and let me sing


s: My song of battle: Words like flaming stars


s: Shot down with power to burn the palaces;


s: Words like bright javelins to fly with fierce


s: Through all the seven heavens till they pierce


s: I am all joy and song, all sword and flame!"


s: To curb these wild emotions lest they soar


s: Or drive against my will. (So I have said


s: These many years--and still they are not tame.)


s: Scraps of a song keep rumbling in my head ...


s: Ah, that was how it used to be. But now,


s: How more than calm I am. Franz said it shows


s: Power of religion, and it does, perhaps--


s: Religion or morphine or poultices--God knows.


s: And long for saviours and a physical God.


s: When health is all used up, when money goes,


s: When courage cracks and leaves a shattered will,


s: A long-nosed heathen playing with his scars,


s: A pagan killed by weltschmerz ... I remember,


s: Once when I stood with Hegel at a window,


s: I, being full of bubbling youth and coffee,


s: Spoke in symbolic tropes about the stars.


s: Abodes of all the blest" provoked his temper.


s: "Abodes? The stars?" He froze me with a sneer,


s: "But," cried romantic I, "is there no sphere


s: And Hegel mocked, "A very pleasant whim.


s: One lifetime and refrained from poisoning


s: Your testy grandmother!" ... How much of him


s: To be eternal--what a brilliant thought!


s: It must have been conceived and coddled first


s: His slippers warm, his children amply nursed,


s: Who, with his lighted meerschaum in his hand,


s: His nightcap on his head, one summer night


s: Sat drowsing at his door. And mused, how grand


s: If all of this could last beyond a doubt--


s: This placid moon, this plump _gemüthlichkeit_;


s: Pipe, breath and summer never going out--


s: God, if he can, keep me from such a blight.


s: Slightly propped up upon this mattress-grave


s: In which I've been interred these few eight years,


s: Running about and barking. I would have given


s: Heaven could I have been that dog; to thrive


s: Like him, so senseless--and so much alive!


s: And once I called myself a blithe Hellene,


s: Who am too much in love with life to live.


s: (The shrug is pure Hebraic) ... For what I've been,


s: A lenient Lord will tax me--and forgive.


s: But this is jesting. There are other scandals


s: You haven't heard ... Can it be dusk so soon?


s: Or is this deeper darkness ...? Is that you,


s: Mother? How did you come? Where are the candles?...


s: _Over my bed a strange tree gleams_--half filled


s: With stars and birds whose white notes glimmer through


s: Its seven branches now that all is stilled.


s: What? Friday night again and all my songs


s: What presses about us here in the evening


s: As you open a window and stare at a stone-gray sky,


s: And the streets give back the jangle of meaningless movement


s: That is tired of life and almost too tired to die.


s: Night comes on, and even the night is wounded;


s: There, on its breast, it carries a curved, white scar.


s: What will you find out there that is not torn and anguished?


s: Can God be less distressed than the least of His creatures are?


s: Below are the blatant lights in a huddled squalor;


s: Above are futile fires in freezing space.


s: What can they give that you should look to them for compassion


s: Though you bare your heart and lift an imploring face?


s: They have seen, by countless waters and windows,


s: The women of your race facing a stony sky;


s: They have heard, for thousands of years, the voices of women


s: Let the night be; it has neither knowledge nor pity.


s: One thing alone can hope to answer your fear;


s: It is that which struggles and blinds us and burns between us....


s: Though for fifteen years you have chaffed me across the table,


s: Slept in my arms and fingered my plunging heart,


s: I scarcely know you; we have not known each other.


s: For all the fierce and casual contacts, something keeps us apart.


s: Are you struggling, perhaps, in a world that I see only dimly,


s: Except as it sweeps toward the star on which I stand alone?


s: Are we swung like two planets, compelled in our separate orbits,


s: Yet held in a flaming circle far greater than our own?


s: Last night we were single, a radiant core of completion,


s: Surrounded by flames that embraced us but left no burns,


s: To-day we are only ourselves; we have plans and pretensions;


s: Merging and rending, we wait for the miracle. Meanwhile


s: The fire runs deeper, consuming these selves in its growth.


s: Can this be the mystical marriage--this clash and communion;


s: This pain of possession that frees and encircles us both?


s: And the sure-fingered rods that never miss.


s: While this vast engine that could rend the soil


s: It does not vent its loathing, does not turn


s: Its master's bread and laughs to see this great


s: Lord of the earth, who rules but cannot learn,


s: Become the slave of what his slaves create.


s: What news is that to make you see so red,


s: To swear and almost tear your beard in half?


s: Have you forgot your Midrash!... They were right,


s: The little _goyim_, with their angry stones.


s: You should be buried in the desert out of sight


s: And not a dog should howl miscarried moans


s: Because of stinking days and rotting nights?


s: Eternal feasting, drinking, blazing lights


s: Discussions, great debates with prophet-kings!


s: And rings of riddling scholars all surrounding


s: God who sits in the very middle, expounding


s: The Torah.... _Now_ your dull eyes glisten!


s: The last haze from our eyes, and we can see


s: Past the three hundred skies and gaze upon


s: The Ineffable Name engraved deep in the sun.


s: A sudden music spins great webs of sound


s: Spanning the ground, the stars and their companions;


s: While from the cliffs and cañons of blue air,


s: Prayers of all colors, cries of exultation


s: And at the height of this bright consecration,


s: The other six declining: Those that hold


s: The stars and moons, together with all those


s: Containing rain and fire and sullen weather;


s: Cellars of dew-fall higher than the brim;


s: Infinite rows of storms and swarms of seraphim....


s: Divided now are winds and waters. Sea and land,


s: Tohu and Bohu, light and darkness, stand


s: Pours a vast file of strange and hidden things:


s: Forbidden monsters, crocodiles with wings


s: With more fresh colors than the rainbow knows....


s: The _reëm_, those great beasts with eighteen horns,


s: Who mate but once in seventy years and die


s: In their own tears which flow ten stadia high.


s: The _shamir_, made by God on the sixth morn,


s: But stronger than the bull of Bashan and so hard


s: It cuts through diamonds. Meshed and starred


s: With precious stones, there struts the shattering _ziz_


s: For thrice three hundred years the full parade


s: Files past, a cavalcade of fear and wonder.


s: Now comes our constantly increased reward.


s: What cheers ascend from horde on ravenous horde!


s: One hears the towering creature rend the seas,


s: Frustrated, cowering, and his pleas ignored.


s: In vain his great, belated tears are poured--


s: For this he was created, kept and nursed.


s: Cries burst from all the millions that attend:


s: God now commands the multi-colored bands


s: That His good sons may have a feast of food.


s: But as they come, Leviathan sneezes twice ...


s: And, numb with sudden pangs, each arm hangs slack.


s: Black terror seizes them; blood freezes into ice


s: God, with a look that spells eternal law,


s: But, though they fight and smite him tail and jaw,


s: Nothing avails; upon his scales their swords


s: Break like frayed cords or, like a blade of straw,


s: Bend towards the hilt and wilt like faded grass.


s: Defeat and fresh retreat.... But once again


s: God's murmurs pass among them and they mass


s: With firmer steps upon the crowded plain.


s: Vast clouds of spears and stones rise from the ground;


s: But every dart flies past and rocks rebound


s: To the disheartened angels falling around.


s: With empty boasts throughout its sullen files.


s: On the walls of heaven a tumble of light is caught.


s: Low thunder rumbles like an afterthought;


s: That twelve tall mountains can produce._


s: Dripping sleep and languor from his heavy haunches,


s: And, with weird cries of sickening despair,


s: None can surmise the struggle that ensues--


s: The eyes lose sight of it and words refuse


s: And still the fight continues, still the sparks


s: Fly from the iron sinews, ... till the marks


s: Of fire and belching thunder fill the dark


s: And, almost torn asunder, one falls stark,


s: What clamor now is born, what crashings rise!


s: Hot lightnings lash the skies and frightening cries


s: Clash with the hymns of saints and seraphim.


s: The bloody limbs thrash through a ruddy dusk,


s: Till one great tusk of Behemot has gored


s: Leviathan, restored to his full strength,


s: Who, dealing fiercer blows in those last throes,


s: Straight through the jaws to his disjointed head.


s: With hoists and levers, joists and poles,


s: With knives and cleavers, ropes and saws,


s: Down the long slopes to the gaping maws,


s: So nought will be lacking for the starving


s: Realize now what the terrible thunder meant.


s: How their mouths water while they are looking


s: At miles of slaughter and sniffing the cooking!


s: Spice-laden vagrants that float and entice,


s: Tickling the throat and brimming the eye.


s: Ah! what rejoicing and crackling and roasting!


s: Ah! How the boys sing as, cackling and boasting,


s: The angels' old wives and their nervous assistants


s: The Fairest of All, they call from the distance


s: The rare ones of Time, they share our enjoyment;


s: Their only employment to bear jars of wine


s: And shine like the stars in a circle of glory.


s: Here sways Rebekah accompanied by Zilpah;


s: Hagar has tales for us, Judith her story;


s: Esther exhales bright romances and musk.


s: There, in the dusky light, Salome dances.


s: Fairer than ever and all in their youth,


s: And, from her bower of beauty, walks Eve


s: While, with the voice of a flower, she sings


s: Of Eden, young earth and the birth of all things....


s: Peace will descend on us, discord will cease;


s: And we, now so wretched, will lie stretched out


s: Free of old doubt, on our cushions of ease.


s: The skin of Leviathan, tail-tip to head,


s: Soon will be spread till it covers the skies.


s: Light will still rise from it; millions of bright


s: So Time shall pass and rest and pass again,


s: Burn with an endless zest and then return,


s: Walk at our side and tide us to new joys;


s: God's voice to guide us, beauty as our staff.


s: Thus shall Life be when Death has disappeared....


s: We would have no more power left to look on that dead face.


s: A word of flame and force when that which hurled


s: The stars into their places in the night


s: Lay not your hand on it, for while the iron hours beat


s: Ragged, forlorn, still looking at the land;


s: The dry blue chaos of mountains in the distance,


s: The slender blades of grass it shelters are


s: Its own dark thoughts of what is near and far.


s: Your thoughts are yours, too; naked let them stand.


s: Curved bows of blue and white are flying over the pebbles,


s: See them attack the chords--dark basses, glinting trebles.


s: Dimly and faint they croon, blue violins.


s: "Suffer without regret," they seem to cry,


s: "Though dark your suffering is, it may be music,


s: Waves of blue heat that wash midsummer sky;


s: And bury our feet in the sands of seven deserts;


s: Washing our ears with the far-off sounds of the foam.


s: Green turf and a branch or two of back-tossed trees;


s: The deep unquenchable answer of the wind.


s: My mind is a puddle in the street reflecting green Sirius;


s: In thick dark groves trees huddle lifting their branches like


s: All but a song which moves across the plain like the wind's


s: Bleak factory-chimneys are etched on the filmy distance,


s: It seems I have lived for a hundred years


s: And it is useless for me now to make complaint against them.


s: For I know I shall never escape from this dull barbarian country,


s: Or share with me a single human thought.


s: Blue-white like angels with broad wings,


s: They have been here now for too long a time.


s: Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,


s: Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.


s: Barrier broken down by those who do not need


s: The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,


s: Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice


s: The mists that dance and drive before the sun.


s: Man will ascend the last long pass to know


s: That all the summits which he saw at dawn


s: Below him endless gloomy valleys, chill,


s: Will wreathe and whirl with fighting cloud, driven by the wind's


s: But on the summit, wind and cloud are still:--


s: And staggering up to the brink of the gulf man will look down


s: And painfully strive with weak sight to explore


s: The silent gulfs below which the long shadows drown;


s: Through every one of these he passed before.


s: Then since he has no further heights to climb,


s: And naught to witness he has come this endless way,


s: On the wind-bitten ice cap he will wait for the last of time,


s: And watch the crimson sunrays fading of the world's latest day:


s: And blazing stars will burst upon him there,


s: Speeding no answer back to his last prayer,


s: A hundred miles of landscape spread before me like a fan;


s: Hills behind naked hills, bronze light of evening on them shed;


s: How many thousand ages have these summits spied on man?


s: Across the hot square, where the barbaric sun


s: Negresses, greased and turbaned in green and yellow,


s: Weave and interweave in the merciless glare of noon.


s: The sun flicks here and there like a throned tyrant,


s: Of overripe peaches mingled with dust and heated oils.


s: Rolling their eyes and grinning with huge, frightened mouths.


s: And from a high window--a square of black velvet--


s: A haughty figure stands back in the shadow,


s: They say I have a constant heart, who know


s: First here, first there; nor how in separate fields


s: It runs to reap and then remains to sow;


s: How, with quick worship, it will bend and glow


s: Seek and find all that Beauty can bestow.


s: Yet they do well who name it with a name,


s: For all its rash surrenders call it true.


s: Though many lamps be lit, yet flame is flame;


s: The tribute to each fragment is the same


s: Praying half-crazed to a moon that burned


s: Freed and stripped of my fear and rage--


s: I stand between them and the outer winds,


s: They told me they could bear the blast alone,


s: I reared and braced myself to shelter them


s: Lais who turned the lovers from the porch,


s: wishing to see that face and finding this._


s: _'I will bring you the lily that laughs,


s: and the song in my breast, yours, yours forever--


s: but as the Pythoness stands by the altar,


s: from all the lethargy of love and its heat,


s: It was not chastity that made me cold nor fear,


s: only I knew that you, like myself, were sick


s: of the puny race that crawls and quibbles and lisps


s: of love and love and lovers and love's deceit.


s: It was not chastity that made me wild but fear


s: that my weapon, tempered in different heat,


s: was over-matched by yours, and your hand


s: skilled to yield death-blows, might break.


s: With the slightest turn--no ill-will meant--


s: my own lesser, yet still somewhat fine-wrought


s: fiery-tempered, delicate, over-passionate steel.


s: The ragged pilgrim, on the road to nowhere,


s: Waits at the granite milestone. It grows dark.


s: Willows lean by the water. Pleas of water


s: Cry through the trees. And on the boles and boughs


s: Green water-lights make rings, already paling.


s: Leaves speak everywhere. The willow leaves


s: Silverly stir on the breath of moving water,


s: Birch-leaves, beyond them, twinkle, and there on the hill,


s: And the hills beyond again, and the highest hill,


s: Serrated pines, in the dusk, grow almost black.


s: By the eighth milestone on the road to nowhere


s: He drops his sack, and lights once more the pipe


s: There often lighted. In the dusk-sharpened sky


s: A pair of night-hawks windily sweep, or fall,


s: Booming, toward the trees. Thus had it been


s: Last year, and the year before, and many years:


s: Ever the same. "Thus turns the human track


s: By this small stream..." Now the rich sound of leaves,


s: Turning in air to sway their heavy boughs,


s: Burns in his heart, sings in his veins, as spring


s: Flowers in veins of trees; bringing such peace


s: As comes to seamen when they dream of seas.


s: "O trees! exquisite dancers in gray twilight!


s: Witches! fairies! elves! who wait for the moon


s: To thrust her golden horn, like a golden snail,


s: Above that mountain--arch your green benediction


s: Once more over my heart. Muffle the sound of bells,


s: Mournfully human, that cries from the darkening valley;


s: Close, with your leaves, about the sound of water:


s: Take me among your hearts as you take the mist


s: Among your boughs!" ... Now by the granite milestone,


s: On the ancient human road that winds to nowhere,


s: The pilgrim listens, as the night air brings


s: The murmured echo, perpetual, from the gorge


s: Of barren rock far down the valley. Now,


s: Though twilight here, it may be starlight there;


s: Mist makes elfin lakes in the hollow fields;


s: The dark wood stands in the mist like a somber island


s: With one red star above it.... "This I should see,


s: Should I go on, follow the falling road,--


s: This I have often seen.... But I shall stay


s: Here, where the ancient milestone, like a watchman,


s: Lifts up its figure eight, its one gray knowledge,


s: A lantern, which he does not know is out."


s: Now by the wall of the ancient town I lean


s: Myself, like ancient wall and dust and sky,


s: And the purple dusk, grown old, grown old in heart.


s: Shadows of clouds flow inward from the sea.


s: The mottled fields grow dark. The golden wall


s: Grows gray again, turns stone again, the tower,


s: No longer kindled, darkens against a cloud.


s: Old is the world, old as the world am I;


s: The cries of sheep rise upward from the fields,


s: Forlorn and strange; and wake an ancient echo


s: In fields my heart has known, but has not seen.


s: "These fields"--an unknown voice beyond the wall


s: Murmurs--"were once the province of the sea.


s: Where now the sheep graze, mermaids were at play,


s: Walked slowly, looking upward at the waves,


s: Bearing upon his back a thousand barnacles,


s: A white acropolis ..." The ancient tower


s: Sends out, above the houses and the trees,


s: And the wide fields below the ancient walls,


s: A measured phrase of bells. And in the silence


s: I hear a woman's voice make answer then:


s: "Well, they are green, although no ship can sail them....


s: Sky-larks rest in the grass, and start up singing


s: Before the girl who stoops to pick sea-poppies.


s: Spiny, the poppies are, and oh how yellow!


s: And the brown clay is runneled by the rain...."


s: A moment since, the sheep that crop the grass


s: Had long blue shadows, and the grass-tips sparkled:


s: Now all grows old.... O voices strangely speaking,


s: Voices of man and woman, voices of bells,


s: Which flows and bears us with it into dusk,


s: Repeat the things you say! Repeat them slowly


s: For ancient tower, old wall, the purple twilight,


s: This dust, and me. But all I hear is silence,


s: And something that may be leaves or may be sea.


s: When the tree bares, the music of it changes:


s: Hard and keen is the sound, long and mournful;


s: Pale are the poplar boughs in the evening light


s: Above my house, against a slate-cold cloud.


s: When the house ages and the tenants leave it,


s: Cricket sings in the tall grass by the threshold;


s: Spider, by the cold mantel, hangs his web.


s: Here, in a hundred years from that clear season


s: When first I came here, bearing lights and music,


s: To this old ghostly house my ghost will come,--


s: Pause in the half-light, turn by the poplar, glide


s: Above tall grasses through the broken door.


s: Who will say that he saw--or the dusk deceived him--


s: A mist with hands of mist blow down from the tree


s: And open the door and enter and close it after?


s: Who will say that he saw, as midnight struck


s: Its tremulous golden twelve, a light in the window,


s: And first heard music, as of an old piano,


s: Music remote, as if it came from the earth,


s: Far down; and then, in the quiet, eager voices?


s: "... Houses grow old and die, houses have ghosts--


s: Once in a hundred years we return, old house,


s: And live once more." ... And then the ancient answer,


s: In a voice not human, but more like creak of boards


s: Or rattle of panes in the wind--"Not as the owner,


s: But as a guest you come, to fires not lit


s: By hands of yours.... Through these long-silent chambers


s: Move slowly, turn, return, and bring once more


s: Your lights and music. It will be good to talk."


s: "This is the hour," she said, "of transmutation:


s: It is the eucharist of the evening, changing


s: All things to beauty. Now the ancient river,


s: That all day under the arch was polished jade,


s: Becomes the ghost of a river, thinly gleaming


s: Under a silver cloud.... It is not water:


s: It is that azure stream in which the stars


s: Bathe at the daybreak, and become immortal...."


s: "And the moon," said I--not thus to be outdone--


s: "What of the moon? Over the dusty plane-trees


s: Which crouch in the dusk above their feeble lanterns,


s: The moon, the waxen moon, now almost full,


s: Creeps whitely up.... Westward the waves of cloud,


s: Vermilion, crimson, violet, stream on the air,


s: Shatter to golden flakes in the icy green


s: Translucency of twilight.... And the moon


s: Drinks up their light, and as they fade or darken,


s: Brightens.... O monstrous miracle of the twilight,


s: That one should live because the others die!"


s: "Strange too," she answered, "that upon this azure


s: Pale-gleaming ghostly stream, impalpable--


s: So faint, so fine that scarcely it bears up


s: The petals that the lantern strews upon it,--


s: These great black barges float like apparitions,


s: "Thus always," then I answered,--looking never


s: Toward her face, so beautiful and strange


s: It grew, with feeding on the evening light,--


s: "The gross is given, by inscrutable God,


s: Power to beat wide wings upon the subtle.


s: Thus we ourselves, so fleshly, fallible, mortal,


s: Stand here, for all our foolishness, transfigured:


s: While one more evening like a wave of silence


s: Gathers the stars together and goes out."


s: Now the great wheel of darkness and low clouds


s: Whirs and whirls in the heavens with dipping rim;


s: Against the ice-white wall of light in the west


s: Skeleton trees bow down in a stream of air.


s: Leaves, black leaves and smoke, are blown on the wind;


s: Mount upward past my window; swoop again;


s: In a sharp silence, loudly, loudly falls


s: The first cold drop, striking a shriveled leaf....


s: Doom and dusk for the earth! Upward I reach


s: To draw chill curtains and shut out the dark,


s: To watch, between black ruined portals of cloud,


s: One star,--the tottering portals fall and crush it.


s: Here are a thousand books! here is the wisdom


s: Alembicked out of dust, or out of nothing;


s: Choose now the weightiest word, most golden page,


s: Most somberly musicked line; hold up these lanterns,--


s: These paltry lanterns, wisdoms, philosophies,--


s: Above your eyes, against this wall of darkness;


s: And you'll see--what? One hanging strand of cobweb,


s: A window-sill a half-inch deep in dust ...


s: Speak out, old wise-men! Now, if ever, we need you.


s: Cry loudly, lift shrill voices like magicians


s: Against this baleful dusk, this wail of rain....


s: But you are nothing! Your pages turn to water


s: Under my fingers: cold, cold and gleaming,


s: Arrowy in the darkness, rippling, dripping--


s: All things are rain.... Myself, this lighted room,


s: What are we but a murmurous pool of rain?...


s: The slow arpeggios of it, liquid, sibilant,


s: Thrill and thrill in the dark. World-deep I lie


s: Under a sky of rain. Thus lies the sea-shell


s: Cleaves the long darkness with a sword of light.


s: Heaven, you say, will be a field in April,


s: A friendly field, a long green wave of earth,


s: With one domed cloud above it. There you'll lie


s: In noon's delight, with bees to flash above you,


s: Drown amid buttercups that blaze in the wind,


s: Forgetting all save beauty. There you'll see


s: With sun-filled eyes your one great dome of cloud


s: Adding fantastic towers and spires of light,


s: Ascending, like a ghost, to melt in the blue.


s: Heaven enough, in truth, if you were there!


s: Could I be with you I would choose your noon,


s: Drown amid buttercups, laugh with the intimate grass,


s: Dream there forever.... But, being older, sadder,


s: Having not you, nor aught save thought of you,


s: It is not spring I'll choose, but fading summer;


s: Not noon I'll choose, but the charmed hour of dusk.


s: Poppies? A few! And a moon almost as red....


s: But most I'll choose that subtler dusk that comes


s: Into the mind--into the heart, you say--


s: When, as we look bewildered at lovely things,


s: Striving to give their loveliness a name,


s: They are forgotten; and other things, remembered,


s: Flower in the heart with the fragrance we call grief.


s: In the long silence of the sea, the seaman


s: Strikes twice his bell of bronze. The short note wavers


s: And loses itself in the blue realm of water.


s: One sea-gull, paired with a shadow, wheels, wheels;


s: Circles the lonely ship by wave and trough;


s: Lets down his feet, strikes at the breaking water,


s: Draws up his golden feet, beats wings, and rises


s: Over the mast.... Light from a crimson cloud


s: Crimsons the sluggishly creeping foams of waves;


s: The seaman, poised in the bow, rises and falls


s: As the deep forefoot finds a way through waves;


s: And there below him, steadily gazing westward,


s: Facing the wind, the sunset, the long cloud,


s: The goddess of the ship, proud figurehead,


s: Smiles inscrutably, plunges to crying waters,


s: Fierily from carved wings and golden breasts;


s: Steadily glides a moment, then swoops again.


s: Carved by the hand of man, grieved by the wind;


s: Worn by the tumult of all the tragic seas,


s: Yet smiling still, unchanging, smiling still


s: Inscrutably, with calm eyes and golden brow--


s: What is it that she sees and follows always,


s: Beyond the molten and ruined west, beyond


s: The light-rimmed sea, the sky itself? What secret


s: Gives wisdom to her purpose? Now the cloud


s: In final conflagration pales and crumbles


s: Into the darkening waters. Now the stars


s: Burn softly through the dusk. The seaman strikes


s: His small lost bell again, watching the west


s: As she below him watches.... O pale goddess


s: Whom not the darkness, even, or rain or storm,


s: Changes; whose great wings are bright with foam,


s: Whose breasts are cold as the sea, whose eyes forever


s: Inscrutably take that light whereon they look--


s: Speak to us! Make us certain, as you are,


s: That somewhere, beyond wave and wave and wave,


s: That dreamed-of harbor lies which we would find.


s: How shall we praise the magnificence of the dead,


s: The great man humbled, the haughty brought to dust?


s: Is there a horn we should not blow as proudly


s: For the meanest of us all, who creeps his days,


s: Guarding his heart from blows, to die obscurely?


s: I am no king, have laid no kingdoms waste,


s: Taken no princes captive, led no triumphs


s: Of weeping women through long walls of trumpets;


s: Say rather, two great gods in a vault of starlight


s: Play ponderingly at chess; and at the game's end


s: One of the pieces, shaken, falls to the floor


s: And runs to the darkest corner; and that piece


s: Forgotten there, left motionless, is I....


s: Say that I have no name, no gifts, no power,


s: One who came with lips and hands and a heart,


s: Looked on beauty, and loved it, and then left it.


s: Say that the fates of time and space obscured me,


s: Led me a thousand ways to pain, bemused me,


s: Wrapped me in ugliness; and like great spiders


s: Dispatched me at their leisure.... Well, what then?


s: Should I not hear, as I lie down in dust,


s: The horns of glory blowing above my burial?


s: Morning and evening opened and closed above me:


s: Houses were built above me; trees let fall


s: Yellowing leaves upon me, hands of ghosts,


s: Rain has showered its arrows of silver upon me


s: Seeking my heart; winds have roared and tossed me;


s: Music in long blue waves of sound has borne me


s: A helpless weed to shores of unthought silence;


s: Time, above me, within me, crashed its gongs


s: Of terrible warning, sifting the dust of death;


s: And here I lie. Blow now your horns of glory


s: Harshly over my flesh, you trees, you waters!


s: You stars and suns, Canopus, Deneb, Rigel,


s: Let me, as I lie down, here in this dust,


s: Hear, far off, your whispered salutation!


s: Roar now above my decaying flesh, you winds,


s: Whirl out your earth-scents over this body, tell me


s: Of ferns and stagnant pools, wild roses, hillsides!


s: Anoint me, rain, let crash your silver arrows


s: On this hard flesh! I am the one who named you,


s: I, your son, your daughter, treader of music,


s: Lie broken, conquered.... Let me not fall in silence.


s: I, the restless one; the circler of circles;


s: Herdsman and roper of stars, who could not capture


s: The secret of self; I who was tyrant to weaklings,


s: Striker of children; destroyer of women; corrupter


s: Of innocent dreamers, and laugher at beauty; I,


s: Too easily brought to tears and weakness by music,


s: Baffled and broken by love, the helpless beholder


s: Of the war in my heart of desire with desire, the struggle


s: Of hatred with love, terror with hunger; I


s: Who laughed without knowing the cause of my laughter, who grew


s: Without wishing to grow, a servant to my own body;


s: Loved without reason the laughter and flesh of a woman,


s: Enduring such torments to find her! I who at last


s: Grow weaker, struggle more feebly, relent in my purpose,


s: Choose for my triumph an easier end, look backward


s: At earlier conquests; or, caught in the web, cry out


s: In a sudden and empty despair, "Tetélestai!"


s: Pity me, now! I, who was arrogant, beg you!


s: Tell me, as I lie down, that I was courageous.


s: Blow horns of victory now, as I reel and am vanquished.


s: Shatter the sky with trumpets above my grave.


s: ... Look! this flesh how it crumbles to dust and is blown!


s: Dig through the interlaced roots--nevermore will you find me;


s: I was no better than dust, yet you cannot replace me....


s: Take the soft dust in your hand--does it stir: does it sing?


s: Has it lips and a heart? Does it open its eyes to the sun?


s: Listen!... It says: "I lean by the river. The willows


s: Are yellowed with bud. White clouds roar up from the south


s: And darken the ripples; but they cannot darken my heart,


s: Nor the face like a star in my heart!... Rain falls on the water


s: And pelts it, and rings it with silver. The willow trees glisten,


s: Is a secret of music.... I wait in the rain and am silent."


s: Listen again!... It says: "I have worked, I am tired,


s: The pencil dulls in my hand: I see through the window


s: Walls upon walls of windows with faces behind them,


s: Smoke floating up to the sky, an ascension of seagulls.


s: I am tired. I have struggled in vain, my decision was fruitless,


s: Why then do I wait? with darkness, so easy, at hand!...


s: But to-morrow, perhaps.... I will wait and endure till


s: Or again: "It is dark. The decision is made. I am vanquished


s: By terror of life. The walls mount slowly about me


s: In coldness. I had not the courage. I was forsaken.


s: I cried out, was answered by silence.... Tetélestai!..."


s: Hear how it babbles!--Blow the dust out of your hand,


s: The lover, the husband and father, the struggler with shadows,


s: The one who went down under shoutings of chaos! The weakling


s: A fanfare of glory.... And which of us dares to deny him!


s: Dearer than words on paper, shall depart,


s: Whereof again myself shall hold the key;


s: And be no more, what now you seem to be,


s: The sun, from which all excellencies start


s: Of moonlight, even, splintered on the sea;


s: And weep somewhat, as now you see me weep--


s: The pathos of your love, that, like a flower,


s: Droops for a moment and beholds, dismayed,


s: The wind whereon its petals shall be laid.


s: What's this of death, from you who never will die?


s: Think you the wrist that fashioned you in clay,


s: The thumb that set the hollow just that way


s: In your full throat and lidded the long eye


s: So roundly from the forehead, will let lie


s: The work he most had been remembered by?


s: I tell you this: whatever of dust to dust


s: To its essential self in its own season,


s: Loveliness such as yours will not be lost,


s: Make known him Master, and for what good reason.


s: And not the full four seasons of the year;


s: Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear.


s: No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell


s: And I have loved you all too long and well


s: To carry still the high sweet breast of spring.


s: Wherefore I say: O love, as summer goes,


s: I must be gone, steal forth with silent drums,


s: That you may hail anew the bird and rose


s: When I come back to you, as summer comes.


s: Else will you seek, at some not distant time,


s: Here is a wound that never will heal, I know,


s: Being wrought not of a dearness and a death


s: But of a love turned ashes and the breath


s: Gone out of beauty; never again will grow


s: The grass on that scarred acre, though I sow


s: Young seed there yearly and the sky bequeath


s: Its friendly weathers down, far underneath


s: That April should be shattered by a gust,


s: That August should be leveled by a rain,


s: Of man should settle to the earth again;


s: But that a dream can die, will be a thrust


s: What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,


s: I have forgotten, and what arms have lain


s: Under my head till morning; but the rain


s: Is full of ghosts to-night, that tap and sigh


s: And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain,


s: Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,


s: Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,


s: Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:


s: I cannot say what loves have come and gone;


s: A little while, that in me sings no more.


s: Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,


s: And lay them prone upon the earth and cease


s: To ponder on themselves, the while they stare


s: In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese


s: Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release


s: When first the shaft into his vision shone


s: Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they


s: Who, though once only and then but far away,


s: Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.


s: Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!


s: Give back my book and take my kiss instead.


s: "What a big book for such a little head!"


s: Come, I will show you now my newest hat,


s: And you may watch me purse my mouth and prink.


s: Oh, I shall love you still and all of that.


s: I never again shall tell you what I think.


s: I shall be sweet and crafty, soft and sly;


s: And some day when you knock and push the door,


s: Some sane day, not too bright and not too stormy,


s: I shall be gone, and you may whistle for me.


s: Say what you will, and scratch my heart to find


s: The roots of last year's roses in my breast;


s: As if the fruit stood in the stalls confessed.


s: Laugh at the unshed leaf, say what you will,


s: Call me in all things what I was before,


s: My branches weigh me down, frost cleans the air,


s: My sky is black with small birds bearing south;


s: Say what you will, confuse me with fine care,


s: Hugs the brown bough and sighs before it goes.


s: (The following lists include poetical works only)


s: Can Grande's Castle                    The Macmillan Company


s: A Boy's Will                           Henry Holt and Company


s: Helen of Troy                          G. P. Putnam's Sons


s: "--and Other Poets"                    Henry Holt and Company


s: Fool's Gold                            Max Goschen (London)


s: A Few Figs from Thistles               Frank Shay


s: It is hoped that the essay may prove useful as a contribution to


s: ‘Tractatus nobilissimus Poeticè scriptus. Præfationis hoc est


s: The first nineteen lines follow, transcribed with a few errors.


s: ‘Initium autem primi Capitis sic se habet.’


s: Lines 53-73, transcribed with a few errors.


s: ‘In hoc libro, qui Poeseos Anglo-Saxonicæ egregium est exemplum,


s: descripta videntur bella quæ Beowulfus quidam Danus, ex Regio


s: Scyldingorum stirpe Ortus, gessit contra Sueciæ Regulos.’ Page


s: No further notice was taken of the MS. until 1786, when Thorkelin


s: unintelligible. It would therefore be a safe assumption that such


s: Translation of Extracts from the first two Parts.


s: _Points of Difference between the Various Editions._


s: A part of this may be stated in the words of the author:--


s: ‘The poem had remained untouched and unnoticed both here and


s: announced it to the public. I could then give it only a hasty


s: perusal, and from the MS. having a leaf interposed near its


s: commencement, which belonged to a subsequent part, and from the


s: to apply a closer attention. But in the year 1818 I took it up


s: again, as I was preparing my third edition, and then made that


s: more correct analysis which was inserted in that and the


s: subsequent editions, and which is also exhibited in the present.’


s: No further changes were made in later editions of the History.


s: Sweden.” But this account of the contents of the MS. is


s: Beowulf and Hrothgar and their partisans make to each other, with


s: In the second edition the following lines were added:--


s: ‘After Hunferthe, another character is introduced:


s: ‘Via tandem mihi data fuit ad desideratum nimis diu divini vatis


s: Danici incomparabile opus. Arcta etenim, quæ nos et Britannos


s: intercessit amicitia, me allexit, ut, clementissime annuentibus


s: Augustissimis patriæ patribus CHRISTIANO VII. et FREDERICO VI.


s: iter in Britanniam anno seculi præteriti LXXXVI. ad thesauros


s: bibliothecarum Albionensium perscrutandos facerem....


s: A curatoribus, Musæi Britannici, aliarumque Bibliothecarum,


s: potestas mihi data [est] inspiciendi, tractandi, et exscribendi


s: Richardus Southgate dicti Musæi Brit. præfecti in me sua officia


s: humanissime contulerunt. Optimo igitur successu et uberrimo cum


s: fructu domum reversus sum ...’ (pp. viii, ix).


s: edition. The account of his studies continues:--


s: ‘Quæcunque igitur possent hoc meum negotium adjuvare, comparare


s: coepi, magnamque librorum copiam unde quaque congessi, quorum


s: opera carmen aggrederer. In hoc me sedulum ita gessi, ut opus


s: totum anno MDCCCVII confecerim, idem brevi editurus ...’ (p. xv).


s: We have seen how Sharon Turner could describe the _Beowulf_.


s: Hunferþ maleode                 _Hunferd_ loquebatur


s: Ecglafes bearn                  _Ecglavi_ filius,


s: Þe æt fotum sæt                 Qui ad pedes sedit


s: On band beadu                   Emeritus stipendiis


s: Beowulfes siþ modges            _Beowulfi_ itinere elati


s: Mere faran                      Maria sulcando


s: Micel æfþunca                   Magna indignatio,


s: For þon þe he ne uþe     10     Propterea quod ille nesciret


s: Þæt ænig oþer man               Ullum alium virum


s: Æfre mærþa                      Magis celebrem


s: Þon ma middangardes             In mundo


s: Gehedde under heofenum          Nominari sub coelo


s: Þon he sylfa eart               Quam se ipsum.


s: Se þe wiþ breccan               Qui ob prædas


s: Wunne on sidne sæ               Ceris per latum æquor


s: Ymb sund flite                  Et maria pugnas.


s: Þær git for wlence       20     Ibi vos ob divitias


s: Wada cunnedon                   Vada explorastis,


s: And for dol gilpe               Et ob falsam gloriam


s: On deop wæter                   Profundas æquas.


s: Aldrum neþdon                   Annis subacto


s: Ne mic ænig mon                 Non mihi aliquis


s: Ne leof ne laþ                  Amicus aut hostis


s: Belean mighte.                  Objicere potest,


s: Sorh fullne siþ                 Illacrimabiles expeditiones.


s: Þa git on sund reon.            Ubi vos per æquora ruistis,


s: Þa git ea gor stream     30     Ibi fluctus sanguinis rivis


s: Earmum þehton                   Miseri texistis.


s: Mæton mere stræta               Metiti estis maris strata:


s: Mundum brugdon                  Castella terruistis:


s: Glidon ofer garsecg             Fluitavistis trans æquora.


s: Geofon yþum                     Salis undæ


s: Weol wintris wylm               Fervuerunt nimborum æstu.


s: Git on wæteris æht              Vos in aquarum vadis


s: Seofon night swuncon            Septem noctibus afflicti fuistis.


s: Oferflat hæfde          40      Transvolasset,


s: Mare mægen                      Magis intensæ vires


s: Þa hine on morgen tid           Illum tempore matutino


s: On heaþo Ræmis                  In altam Ræmis


s: Holm up æt baer                 Insulam advexere.


s: Þonon he gesohte                Deinde petiit


s: Leof his leodum                 Charam suo populo


s: Freoþo burh fægere.             Libertate urbem conspicuam


s: Þaer he folc ahte       50      Ibi populo possessam


s: Burh and beagas                 Urbem et opes


s: Beot eal wiþ                    Correpsit. Omne contra


s: Þe sunu Beanstanes              Tibi filius _Beansteni_


s: Sode gelæste.                   Vere persolvit.


s: and for this combination of syllables he chose the translation:--


s: There is, of course, no such word as ‘wegar’ in Old English.


s: ‘Nothing but malevolence could cavil at the trivial errors which


s: the very best scholars are daily found to commit, but the case is


s: destroy the value of a work. I am therefore most reluctantly


s: compelled to state that not five lines of Thorkelin’s edition can


s: transcription or translation, does not betray the editor’s utter


s: ignorance of the Anglo-Saxon language.’ --Edition of 1835,


s: THORPE. (The work of the learned Icelander exhibits) ‘a text


s: formed according to his ideas of Anglo-Saxon, and accompanied by


s: See also Grundtvig’s criticism in _Beowulfs Beorh_, pp. xvii ff.


s: But Rask, upon his return, thought differently, and proposed to


s: _Differences between the First and Second Editions._


s: We begin by quoting the author’s words:--


s: ‘I have studied the poem as if I were going to translate it word


s: for word ... but I will not and have not translated it in that


s: way, and I will venture to maintain that my translation is a


s: faithful one, historically faithful, inasmuch as I have never


s: possesses a poetical sense will see what I mean, and whoever is


s: deficient in knowledge or sense, or both, may stick to his own


s: view, if he will only let me stick to mine, which may be weak


s: readers of the truth of his words”: methinks I need no other


s: defence as regards connoisseurs and just judges, and if I am much


s: Trætten med Hunferd Drost og Trøsten derover.


s: regarding it is from a scribe in the British Museum.]


s: Anglo-Saxon Poem concerning the Exploits of Beowulf the Dane, pp.


s: ‘Any attempt to restore the metre, and to correct the version


s: throughout, would have exceeded the bounds, and involved much


s: discussion foreign to the purpose of the present work. This must


s: be left to the labours of the Saxon scholar. It is evident,


s: however, that without a more correct text than that of Thorkelin,


s: deficiency, may perhaps apologize for the occupying, by this


s: Collation, so large a space of a work strictly dedicated to other


s: Hwæt we Gar-Dena              Hwæt wegar Dena


s: In ȝear-dagum                 In geardagum


s: Ðeod cyninga                  Þeod cyninga


s: Ðrym ȝefrunon,                Þrym gefrunon


s: Hu ða Æðelingas               Hu ða æþelingas


s: Ellen fremodon. --Page 82.    Ellen fremodon. --Page 3.


s: The translations are even more interesting:--


s: Aliquid nos _de_ Bellicorum Danorum     Quomodo Danorum


s: In diebus antiquis                      In principio


s: Popularium regum                        Populus Regum


s: Gloriâ accepimus,                       Gloriam auxerit,


s: Quomodo tunc principes                  Quomodo principes


s: Virtute valuerint.                      Virtute promoverit.


s: popularize the _Beowulf_, he used as a medium of translation a


s: ‘At a single stroke he (Beowulf) cut through the “_ringed bones_”


s: Through the frail mantle of the quivering flesh


s: Drove with continuous wound. She to the dust


s: Fell headlong,--and, its work of slaughter done,


s: The gallant sword dropp’d fast a gory dew.


s: Instant, as though heaven’s glorious torch had shone,


s: Light was upon the gloom,--all radiant light


s: From that dark mansion’s inmost cave burst forth.


s: With hardier grasp the thane of Higelac press’d


s: His weapon’s hilt, and furious in his might


s: Paced the wide confines of the Grendel’s hold.’


s: ... Ossium annulos fregit; telum per omnem penetravit moribundam


s: carnem. Illa in pavimentum corruit. Ensis erat cruentus, militare


s: quàm cum a cœlo lucidus splendet ætheris lampas. Ille per ædes


s: gradiebatur, incessit juxta muros ensem tenens fortiter a capulo


s: Higelaci minister irâ ac constantiâ (_sc._ Iratus et constans


s: but the reference is from the editor, not the author.]


s: A Translation of the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf, with a copious


s: ‘The text was an improvement on Thorkelin, but still very


s: faulty;--to say nothing of inaccuracies from want of proper


s: oversight as the sheets were passing through the press. The


s: Glossary, though short, was a valuable acquisition ... Of this


s: edition only 100 copies were printed;--and it was a happy


s: limitation, as it left room for a new edition as early as 1835,


s: in which the text was edited with far greater care. All the rest


s: remained as before, and the Preface was reprinted word for word.’


s: _The Text of 1835. Kemble’s Scholarship._


s: language, ascertained by wide and careful examination of all the


s: cognate tongues, of the hidden springs and ground-principles upon


s: Persians and alter not, yet the very errors of the old writer are


s: being and spiritual tendencies of the language itself. The reader


s: necessity of taking his editor’s qualifications too much for


s: accomplish this end by printing the text, letter for letter,


s: interpreting the poem. He therefore made it strictly literal.


s: ‘The translation is a literal one; I was bound to give, word for


s: word, the original in all its roughness: I might have made it


s: smoother, but I purposely avoided doing so, because had the Saxon


s: principally by the want of inflections in New English (since we


s: have now little more than their position by which to express the


s: relations of words to one another) are all that I have allowed


s: myself, and where I have inserted words I have generally printed


s: Hunferth the son of Eglaf spake, _he_ that sat at the feet of the


s: was the journey of Beowulf, the proud sea-farer, a great disgust;


s: thou the Beowulf that didst contend with Brecca on the wide sea,


s: in a swimming match, where ye for pride explored the fords, and


s: out of vain glory ventured your lives upon the deep water? nor


s: might any man, friend or foe, blame your sorrowful expedition:


s: hands, glided over the ocean; with the waves of the deep the


s: fury of winter boiled; ye two on the realms of water laboured for


s: at the morning tide the deep sea bore him up on Hēathoræmes,


s: whence he sought his own paternal land, dear to his people, the


s: inaccurate. Kemble’s editions became at once the authoritative


s: wintrys wylm, so Kemble reads in his text, and for this reading


s: the translation is correct, but he failed to discern the kenning


s: First German Translation. Imitative measures.


s: selections from the _Beowulf_ in his _Engla and Seaxna Scôpas and


s: Ettmüller gives full expression to his theories and aims:--


s: ‘Vor Allem habe ich so wörtlich als möglich übersetzt, da Treue


s: das erste Erforderniss einer guten Übersetzung ist. Dann aber war


s: Einzelheiten wiedergebe. Aber dieweil diese so mühsam an der


s: Schale knacken, entschlüpft ihnen nicht selten der Kern. Mein


s: Bestreben war demnach keineswegs, z.B. jeden Vers ängstlich dem


s: Originale nachzubilden, so dass die genaueste Übereinstimmung


s: zwischen der Silbenzahl und den Hebungen oder gar dem Klange der


s: Verse Statt fände. Das wäre ohnehin, ohne der deutschen Sprache


s: die schreiendste Gewalt anzuthun, unmöglich gewesen. Ich habe


s: vielmehr darnach mit Sorgfalt gestrebt, die Versbildung des


s: angelsächsischen Gedichtes mir in allen ihren Erscheinungen klar


s: zu machen, und dann frei nach dem gewonnenen Schema gearbeitet.


s: Daher kann ich versichern, dass man für jeden Vers meiner


s: Übersetzung gewiss ein angelsächsisches Vorbild findet, wenn auch


s: übrigens der höheren Rhythmik, d.h. dem ästhetisch richtigen


s: Verhältnisse des Ausdruckes zu dem Ausgedrückten oder, mit


s: Klopstock zu reden, des Zeitausdruckes oder Tonverhaltes (der


s: The translation is founded on Kemble’s text of 1835, to which the


s: der zu Füssen sass dem Fürsten der Skildinge,


s: entband Beadurunen--ihm war Beowulfes Beginn,


s: des muthigen Meergängers, mächtig zuwider;


s: ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der mit Breca kämpfte


s: von der sorgvollen That, als zur See ihr rudertet.


s: Dort ihr den Egistrom mit Armen wandtet,


s: masset die Meerstrasse, mischtet mit Händen,


s: sieben Nächt’ ihr sorgtet: Er, Sieger der Wogen,


s: hatte mehr der Macht, denn zur Morgenzeit ihn


s: lieb seinen Leuten, das Land der Brondinge,


s: der Sohn Beanstânes sorglichst erfüllte.’


s: word-combinations which he often transcribed literally from the


s: inspiration from Kemble and Thorpe rather than from Ettmüller.


s: In this book the Old English text and the Danish translation were


s: The translation is literal. Grundtvig’s translation had been so


s: ‘With respect to the Work now presented to the Public, shortly


s: Dictionary. I still however wrought my Way onward, under the


s: my little Nephews and Nieces, and so I went through about a


s: Quarter of the Poem when Illness put an entire stop to my


s: Progress. Afterwards, though the Appearance of Mr. Kemble’s


s: Matters required my Attention, and the MS. lay untouched until


s: revised, much being cancelled and retranslated.’ --Introduction,


s: ‘In my Version I have scrupulously adhered to the text of Mr.


s: Kemble, adopting in almost every Instance his Emendations.... My


s: thanks are due to Mr. Kemble ... to the Rev. Dr. Bosworth ... who


s: ‘I have throughout endeavoured to render the Sense and the Words


s: either from sacrificing Elegance to Faithfulness (for no


s: Translator is at liberty to misrepresent his Author and make an


s: old Saxon Bard speak the Language of a modern Petit Maître) or


s: from uniting English Words to express important Anglo-Saxon


s: compounds.... Some may ask why I have not preserved the


s: Anglo-Saxon alliterative Metre. My Reason is that I do not think


s: the Taste of the English People would at present bear it. I wish


s: to get my book read, that my Countrymen may become generally


s: adopt a Metre suited to the Language; whereas the alliterative


s: Metre, heavy even in German, a Language much more fitted for it


s: O’er Seas ye rowed, your Arms o’erspread


s: Wackerbarth’s translation is not to be considered as a rival of


s: Kemble’s--the author did not wish it to be so considered. Kemble


s: In passages calling for calmness, solemnity, or elevation of


s: ‘Twenty-four years have passed since, while residing in Denmark,


s: I first entertained the design of one day producing an edition of


s: Fortunately, no doubt, for the work, a series of cares, together


s: with other literary engagements, intervened and arrested my


s: the appearance of Mr. Kemble’s first edition of the text of


s: ‘My first impulse was to print the text of the poem as it appears


s: so numerous and so enormous and puerile did the blunders of the


s: copyist appear, and, consequently, so great the discrepance


s: between the text and the translation, that I found myself


s: compelled to admit into the text the greater number of the


s: conjectural emendations, consigning to the foot of the page the


s: corresponding readings of the manuscript. In every case which I


s: thought might by others be considered questionable, I have


s: followed the more usual course, of retaining in the text the


s: reading of the manuscript, and placing the proposed correction at


s: ‘Very shortly after I had collated it, the manuscript suffered


s: ‘In forming this edition I resolved to proceed independently of


s: the version or views of every preceding editor.’ --Pages vii,


s: At line 2218 the MS., badly mutilated at this point, reads,


s: _... slæpende be syre ... de þeofes cræfte._


s: In Thorpe’s edition the line reads (4443),


s: _... slæpende be fire, fyrena hyrde þeófes cræfte._


s: Þæt is undyrne,                    þ̷ is un-dyrne,


s: dryhten Higelác,                   dryhten Hige-lác,


s: (uncer) gemeting                   ... ge-meting


s: monegum fyra,                      monegū fira


s: hwylce (orleg)-hwíl         5      hwylce ... hwíl


s: uncer Grendles                     uncer Grendles


s: wearð on þám wange,                wearð on wange,


s: þær he worna fela                  þær he worna fela


s: Sige-Scyldingum                    síge-(Scyl)dingum


s: sorge gefremede,           10      sorge ge-fremede,


s: yrmðe tó aldre.                    yrmð(o) tó aldre;


s: Ic þæt eall gewræc,                ic þ̄ eall ge-wræc,


s: swá ne gylpan þearf                swá (ne) gylpan ðearf


s: Grendles maga                      Grendeles maga


s: (ǽnig) ofer eorðan         15      (ǽnig) ofer eorðan


s: uht-hlem þone,                     uht-hlem ðone,


s: se þe lengest leofað               (se þe) lengest leofað


s: láðan cynnes.                      ládan cynnes,


s: Fǽr-bifongen, ...                  (fǽr)-bí-fongen.


s: measure. I am unable to agree with them. Probably any short-line


s: The influence of this edition has been considerable. It was the


s: principal authority used by Grein and Heyne in constructing their


s: _Grein’s Preparation for Scholarly Work._


s: In 1855 he assumed the position of Praktikant at the Kassel


s: Landesbibliothek. Here he was able to devote a large part of his


s: The text of _Beowulf_ is found in Grein’s _Bibliothek der


s: following Thorpe. As has been pointed out, this is an impossible


s: ‘Bei der Behandlung des Textes galt als erste Pflicht,


s: handschriftliche Lesarten, wo es nur immer möglich war, zu retten


s: Wörter als wolbegründet nachzuweisen: nur da, wo Verderbniss auf


s: aufgenommen, wobei ich mich möglichst eng an das handschriftlich


s: gebotene anzuschliessen suchte.’ --Vorwort, iv. (_Bibl._).


s: This was wise. Since the days of Kemble, emendation had become


s: ‘Die Sammlung von metrischen Uebersetzungen angelsächsischer


s: Dichtungen, deren erster Band hiermit der Oeffentlichkeit


s: übergeben wird, soll einen doppelten Zweck erfüllen. Einerseits


s: betrachte ich dieselben als eine wesentliche Ergänzung, gleichsam


s: Verlag erscheinenden Textausgabe der angelsächsischen Dichter,


s: indem sie meine Interpretation der Originaltexte, worin ich oft


s: von meinen Vorgängern abweiche, einfach vor Augen legen.


s: Andrerseits aber bezweckte ich dadurch die Bekanntschaft mit den


s: in vieler Beziehung so herrlichen dichterischen Erzeugnissen des


s: uns engverwandten englischen Volkes aus der Zeit vor dem


s: gewaltsamen Eindringen des romanischen Elements durch die


s: normannische Eroberung auch in weiteren Kreisen anzubahnen, was


s: sie sowol nach ihrem Inhalte als auch nach der poetischen


s: Behandlung des Stoffes gewiss in hohem Grade verdienen. Daher war


s: namentlich suchte ich, soweit es immer bei dem heutigen Stande


s: unserer Sprache thunlich war, auch den Rhythmus des Originals


s: nachzubilden, wobei es vor allem auf die Beibehaltung der


s: eigentümlichen Stellung der Stabreime ankam, ein Punkt, der bei


s: der Uebertragung alter Alliterationspoesien nur zu oft


s: der zu den Füssen sass dem Fürst der Skildinge,


s: entband Streitrunen, (ihm war Beowulfs Reise


s: da er durchaus nicht gönnte, dass ein anderer Mann


s: besässe unterm Himmel, denn er selber hatte):


s: ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der einst mit Breka schwamm


s: wo in Verwegenheit ihr die Gewässer prüftet


s: und aus tollem Prahlen in die tiefen Fluten


s: wagtet euer Leben? Nicht wehren konnt’ euch beiden


s: die sorgenvolle Fahrt, als in den Sund ihr rudertet,


s: wo ihr den Oceansstrom mit euren Armen decktet,


s: die Holmstrassen masset, mit den Händen schluget


s: und über den Ocean glittet: der Eisgang des Winters


s: lieb seinen Leuten, das Land der Brondinge,


s: die liebliche Friedeburg, wo er sein Volk hatte,


s: Burg und Bauge. Da hatte all sein Erbot wider dich


s: _Bibliothek_, Band III, 2te Hälfte, p. vii.]


s: save the omission of the comma in line 501.]


s: _Nibelungenlied_, a work which, in 1892, had passed into its


s: Simrock wished to do for _Beowulf_ what he had done for the


s: ‘Geist und Stimmung einer fernen Heldenzeit anklingen zu lassen,


s: und doch dem Ausdruck die frische Farbe des Lebens zu verleihen.’


s: ‘Vor Allem aber den Wohllaut, der echter Poesie unzertrennlich


s: von Blatt zu Blatt getragen werde. Nur so glaubte ich eine


s: _Relation of Translation and other Parts of the Book._


s: Der zu Füssen sass    dem Fürsten der Schildinge,


s: Kampfrunen zu entbinden:    ihm war Beowulfs Kunft,


s: Des kühnen Seeseglers,    schrecklich zuwider.


s: Allzu ungern sah er,    dass ein anderer Mann


s: In diesem Mittelkreiss    mehr des Ruhmes


s: Unterm Himmel hätte    als Hunferd selbst:


s: ‘Bist du der Beowulf,    der mit _Breka_ schwamm


s: Im Wettkampf einst    durch die weite See?


s: Mit vermessnem Muth    in den Meeresschlünden


s: Das Leben wagtet?    Vergebens wehrten euch


s: Die Lieben und Leiden,    die Leute zumal


s: So sorgvolle Reise,    als ihr zum Sunde rudertet,


s: Das angstreiche Weltmeer    mit Armen decktet,


s: Die Meerstrassen masset,    mit den Händen schlugt


s: Durch die Brandung gleitend;    aufbrauste die Tiefe


s: Wider des Winters Wuth.    Im Wasser mühtet ihr


s: Euch sieben Nächte:    da besiegt’ er dich im Schwimmen.


s: Seiner Macht war mehr:    in des Morgens Frühe


s: Von dannen sucht’ er    die süsse Heimat,


s: Die feste Friedensburg,    wo er Volk besass,


s: Burg und Bauge.    Sein Erbieten hatte dir


s: Da _Beanstans_ Geborner    vollbracht und geleistet.’


s: Simrock’s translation is commendable for its faithfulness. It is,


s: ‘Es ist nicht die erste, die ich biete; gleichwol hoffe ich es


s: werde die erste sein, die auch einem grössern Publicum, das noch


s: nicht Gelegenheit hatte, sich mit den ältern Dialecten unserer


s: Sprache zu beschäftigen, verständlich ist. Die ältern deutschen


s: Uebersetzer haben, bei allen Verdiensten ihrer Arbeit, unserer


s: neuhochdeutschen Muttersprache teilweise übel mitgespielt.’


s: ‘Die vorliegende Uebertragung ist so frei, dass sie das für uns


s: ängstlich anschmiegt; dagegen auch wieder so genau, dass sie


s: hoffentlich ein Scherflein zum vollkommenern Verständniss des


s: Hē bēot ne āleh, l. 80 (he belied not his promise)


s: Da sagte Hunferd, Ecglafs Sohn, der Hrodgar


s: zu Füssen sass, dem Herrn der Schildinge,


s: es Niemand, mehr des Ruhmes als er selber


s: ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der einst mit Breca


s: sich auf der weiten See im Schwimmkampf mass,


s: als ihr euch kühnlich in die Tiefen stürztet,


s: im tiefen Wasser wagtet? Niemand konnte,


s: nicht Freund, nicht Feind, des mühevollen Weges


s: euch hindern. Da schwammt ihr hinaus in See,


s: wo ihr die wilde Flut mit Armen decktet,


s: des Wassers Strassen masset und die Hände


s: hin übers Meer. Die winterlichen Wellen,


s: sie giengen hoch. Der Tage sieben mühtet


s: im Schwimmen, denn er hatte grössre Kraft.


s: erreichte. Dort besass er Land und Leute


s: das hatte Beanstans Sohn fürwahr erfüllt.’


s: translation, it is undoubtedly the most enjoyable of the German


s: Beovulf (Bärwelf). Das älteste deutsche Heldengedicht. Aus dem


s: Volume 430 of Reclam’s Universal-Bibliothek. Small 8vo, pp. 104.


s: Hans von Wolzogen (born 1848), popularly known as a writer on the


s: ‘... diese angelsächsische Form selbst nur eine Uebertragungsform


s: gemacht worden war.’ --Vorbemerkung, p. 5.


s: _So sagte Hunfrid_, der Sohn des _Eckleif_,


s: Dem Schildingenfürsten zu Füssen gesessen,


s: Kampfrunen entbindend (es kränkte des _Bärwelf_


s: _Muthige Meerfahrt_ mächtig den Stolzen,