s: Of grass-green thickets, to the land where all


s: Is ruin, and nothing blossoms but the sky


s: That hastens over them where they endure


s: Sad, smoking, flat horizons, reeking woods,


s: And foundered trench-lines volleying doom for doom.


s: O my brave brown companions, when your souls


s: Flock silently away, and the eyeless dead,


s: Shame the wild beast of battle on the ridge,


s: Death will stand grieving in that field of war


s: Since your unvanquished hardihood is spent.


s: And through some mooned Valhalla there will pass


s: Battalions and battalions, scarred from hell;


s: The legions who have suffered and are dust.


s: Soldiers are citizens of death's gray land,


s: Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.


s: In the great hour of destiny they stand,


s: Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.


s: Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win


s: Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.


s: Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin


s: They think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives.


s: I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,


s: And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,


s: Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,


s: And mocked by hopeless longing to regain


s: Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,


s: Darkness: the rain sluiced down; the mire was deep;


s: It was past twelve on a mid-winter night,


s: When peaceful folk in beds lay snug asleep:


s: There, with much work to do before the light,


s: We lugged our clay-sucked boots as best we might


s: Along the trench; sometimes a bullet sang,


s: And droning shells burst with a hollow bang;


s: We were soaked, chilled and wretched, every one.


s: Darkness: the distant wink of a huge gun.


s: I turned in the black ditch, loathing the storm;


s: A rocket fizzed and burned with blanching flare,


s: And lit the face of what had been a form


s: Floundering in mirk. He stood before me there;


s: I say that he was Christ; stiff in the glare,


s: And leaning forward from his burdening task,


s: Both arms supporting it; his eyes on mine


s: Stared from the woeful head that seemed a mask


s: He wore--an English soldier, white and strong,


s: Who loved his time like any simple chap,


s: Good days of work and sport and homely song;


s: Now he has learned that nights are very long,


s: And dawn a watching of the windowed sky.


s: That Lancaster on Lune may stand secure.


s: Shouldering his load of planks, so hard to bear.


s: I say that he was Christ, who wrought to bless


s: All groping things with freedom bright as air,


s: And with His mercy washed and made them fair.


s: Then the flame sank, and all grew black as pitch,


s: While we began to struggle along the ditch;


s: And some one flung his burden in the muck,


s: Mumbling: "O Christ Almighty, now I'm stuck!"


s: Shaken from sleep, and numbed and scarce awake,


s: Out in the trench with three hours' watch to take,


s: I blunder through the splashing mirk; and then


s: Hear the gruff muttering voices of the men


s: Hark! There's the big bombardment on our right


s: Rumbling and bumping; and the dark's a glare


s: Of flickering horror in the sectors where


s: We raid the Boche; men waiting, stiff and chilled,


s: Or crawling on their bellies through the wire.


s: "What? Stretcher-bearers wanted? Some one killed?"


s: Why did he do it?... Starlight overhead--


s: Blank stars. I'm wide-awake; and some chap's dead.


s: "Pass it along, the wiring party's going out"--


s: And yawning sentries mumble, "Wirers going out."


s: Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud,


s: They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood.


s: The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there,


s: Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghosts


s: Stride hither and thither, whispering, tripped by clutching snare


s: Gleams desolate along the sky, night's misery ended.


s: Young Hughes was badly hit; I heard him carried away,


s: Moaning at every lurch; no doubt he'll die to-day.


s: But _we_ can say the front-line wire's been safely mended.


s: There seemed a smell of autumn in the air


s: At the bleak end of night; he shivered there


s: Legs wrapped in sand-bags,--lumps of chalk and clay


s: Spattering his face. Dry-mouthed, he thought, "To-day


s: We start the damned attack; and, Lord knows why,


s: Zero's at nine; how bloody if I'm done in


s: And then he coughed and dozed, cursing the din.


s: Was it the ghost of autumn in that smell


s: Of underground, or God's blank heart grown kind,


s: That sent a happy dream to him in hell?--


s: Where men are crushed like clods, and crawl to find


s: Some crater for their wretchedness; who lie


s: Far from clean things or any hope of cheer,


s: Cowed anger in their eyes, till darkness brims


s: And roars into their heads, and they can hear


s: Old childish talk, and tags of foolish hymns.


s: He sniffs the chilly air; (his dreaming starts).


s: In quiet September; slowly night departs;


s: And he's a living soul, absolved from pain.


s: Beyond the brambled fences where he goes


s: Are glimmering fields with harvest piled in sheaves,


s: And tree-tops dark against the stars grown pale;


s: Then, clear and shrill, a distant farm-cock crows;


s: And there's a wall of mist along the vale


s: Where willows shake their watery-sounding leaves.


s: That earth is telling its old peaceful tale;


s: He thanks the blessed world that he was born....


s: Then, far away, a lonely note of the horn.


s: They're drawing the Big Wood! Unlatch the gate,


s: _He_ knows the corner where it's best to wait


s: And hear the crashing woodland chorus pass;


s: The corner where old foxes make their track


s: To the Long Spinney; that's the place to be.


s: And then a cub looks out; and "Tally-o-back!"


s: He bawls, and swings his thong with volleying crack,--


s: All the clean thrill of autumn in his blood,


s: And hunting surging through him like a flood


s: In joyous welcome from the untroubled past;


s: While the war drifts away, forgotten at last.


s: Of twilight stares along the quiet weald,


s: And the kind, simple country shines revealed


s: The old horse lifts his face and thanks the light,


s: Then stretches down his head to crop the green.


s: All things that he has loved are in his sight;


s: Are in his eyes, his heart, and they are good.


s: Hark! there's the horn: they're drawing the Big Wood.


s: Three hours ago he blundered up the trench,


s: Sliding and poising, groping with his boots;


s: Sometimes he tripped and lurched against the walls


s: With hands that pawed the sodden bags of chalk.


s: He couldn't see the man who walked in front;


s: Only he heard the drum and rattle of feet


s: Stepping along the trench-boards,--often splashing


s: Wretchedly where the sludge was ankle-deep.


s: Voices would grunt, "Keep to your right,--make way!"


s: When squeezing past the men from the front-line:


s: White faces peered, puffing a point of red;


s: And curtain-flaps of dug-outs; then the gloom


s: Swallowed his sense of sight; he stooped and swore


s: Because a sagging wire had caught his neck.


s: A flare went up; the shining whiteness spread


s: And flickered upward, showing nimble rats,


s: And mounds of glimmering sand-bags, bleached with rain;


s: Then the slow, silver moment died in dark.


s: The wind came posting by with chilly gusts


s: And dreary through the crannies; rifle-shots


s: Would split and crack and sing along the night,


s: And shells came calmly through the drizzling air


s: To burst with hollow bang below the hill.


s: Three hours ago he stumbled up the trench;


s: A nine-stone corpse with nothing more to do.


s: And two pale children in a Midland town;


s: He showed the photograph to all his mates;


s: Who did his work and hadn't much to say,


s: And always laughed at other people's jokes


s: He thought how slow time went, stamping his feet,


s: And blowing on his fingers, pinched with cold.


s: He thought of getting back by half-past twelve,


s: And tot of rum to send him warm to sleep


s: In draughty dug-out frowsty with the fumes


s: Of coke, and full of snoring, weary men.


s: Gave one white glimpse of No Man's Land and wire;


s: And as he dropped his head the instant split


s: His startled life with lead, and all went out.


s: And I'll believe in Your bread and wine,


s: And get my bloody old sins washed white!


s: So Davies wrote: "This leaves me in the pink."


s: Then scrawled his name: "Your loving sweetheart, Willie."


s: With crosses for a hug. He'd had a drink


s: Of rum and tea; and, though the barn was chilly,


s: For once his blood ran warm; he had pay to spend.


s: Winter was passing; soon the year would mend.


s: He couldn't sleep that night. Stiff in the dark


s: He groaned and thought of Sundays at the farm,


s: With brown-eyed Gwen, and whisper in her ear


s: The simple, silly things she liked to hear.


s: And then he thought: to-morrow night we trudge


s: Up to the trenches, and my boots are rotten.


s: Five miles of stodgy clay and freezing sludge,


s: And everything but wretchedness forgotten.


s: To-night he's in the pink; but soon he'll die.


s: And still the war goes on; _he_ don't know why.


s: "Jack fell as he'd have wished," the Mother said,


s: And folded up the letter that she'd read.


s: "The Colonel writes so nicely." Something broke


s: In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.


s: She half looked up. "We mothers are so proud


s: Of our dead soldiers." Then her face was bowed.


s: He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies


s: That she would nourish all her days, no doubt.


s: For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes


s: Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,


s: Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.


s: He thought how "Jack," cold-footed, useless swine,


s: Had panicked down the trench that night the mine


s: Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried


s: To get sent home; and how, at last, he died,


s: Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care


s: Except that lonely woman with white hair.


s: O bear me safe through dark, you low-voiced streams.


s: I scorn the growl and rumble of the fight


s: O river of stars and shadows, lead me through the night.


s: The road is thronged with women; soldiers pass


s: And halt, but never see them; yet they're here--


s: Silent, worn out with waiting, sick with fear.


s: The road goes crawling up a long hillside,


s: All ruts and stones and sludge, and the emptied dregs


s: Of battle thrown in heaps. Here where they died


s: Are stretched big-bellied horses with stiff legs;


s: And dead men, bloody-fingered from the fight,


s: Stare up at caverned darkness winking white.


s: You in the bomb-scorched kilt, poor sprawling Jock,


s: You tottered here and fell, and stumbled on,


s: Half dazed for want of sleep. No dream could mock


s: Your reeling brain with comforts lost and gone.


s: You did not feel her arms about your knees,


s: Her blind caress, her lips upon your head:


s: Too tired for thoughts of home and love and ease,


s: The road would serve you well enough for bed.


s: Trudging by Corbie Ridge one winter's night,


s: (Unless old, hearsay memories tricked his sight),


s: And straggling files of men; when these were gone,


s: Hauling the rations up through ruts and mud


s: To trench-lines digged two hundred years ago.


s: Then darkness hid them with a rainy scud,


s: And soon he saw the village lights below.


s: But when he'd told his tale, an old man said


s: That _he'd_ seen soldiers pass along that hill;


s: "Poor, silent things, they were the English dead


s: Who came to fight in France and got their fill."


s: Moonlight and dew-drenched blossom, and the scent


s: Of summer gardens; these can bring you all


s: Those dreams that in the starlit silence fall:


s: Last night in drizzling dusk along a lane,


s: I passed a squalid farm; from byre and midden


s: Came the rank smell that brought me once again


s: A dream of war that in the past was hidden.


s: Up a disconsolate straggling village street


s: I saw the tired troops trudge: I heard their feet.


s: Saw them file inward, slipping from their backs


s: On filthy straw they sit in the gloom, each face


s: Bowed to patched, sodden boots they must unlace,


s: I'm looking at their blistered feet; young Jones


s: Stares up at me, mud-splashed and white and jaded;


s: Out of his eyes the morning light has faded.


s: Old soldiers with three winters in their bones


s: Puff their damp Woodbines, whistle, stretch their toes


s: _They_ can still grin at me, for each of 'em knows


s: The secret burden that is always mine?--


s: Pride in their courage; pity for their distress;


s: That I must take them to the accursèd Line.


s: Dim candles in the barn: they gulp their tea,


s: And soon they'll sleep like logs. Ten miles away


s: The battle winks and thuds in blundering strife.


s: And I must lead them nearer, day by day,


s: To the foul beast of war that bludgeons life.


s: Down in the hollow there's the whole Brigade


s: Camped in four groups: through twilight falling slow


s: I hear a sound of mouth-organs, ill-played,


s: And murmur of voices, gruff, confused, and low.


s: Crouched among thistle-tufts I've watched the glow


s: Of a blurred orange sunset flare and fade;


s: To take some cursèd Wood.... O world God made!


s: "_Fall in! Now, get a move on!_" (Curse the rain.)


s: We splash away along the straggling village,


s: Out to the flat rich country green with June....


s: And sunset flares across wet crops and tillage,


s: Blazing with splendour-patches. Harvest soon


s: Up in the Line. "_Perhaps the War'll be done


s: By Christmas-time. Keep smiling then, old son!_"


s: Here's the Canal: it's dusk; we cross the bridge.


s: "_Lead on there by platoons._" The Line's a-glare


s: With shell-fire through the poplars; distant rattle


s: Of rifles and machine-guns. "_Fritz is there!


s: Christ, ain't it lively, Sergeant? Is't a battle?_"


s: More rain: the lightning blinks, and thunder rumbles.


s: "There's overhead artillery," some chap grumbles.


s: "_What's all this mob, by the cross-road?_" (The guides)....


s: "_Lead on with Number One_" (And off they go.)


s: "_Three-minute intervals._" ... Poor blundering files,


s: Sweating and blindly burdened; who's to know


s: If death will catch them in those two dark miles?


s: "_Who's that? O, Sergeant-major; don't get shot!


s: And tell me, have we won this war or not?_"


s: Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,


s: And one arm bent across your sullen cold


s: Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,


s: Deep-shadow'd from the candle's guttering gold;


s: And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder;


s: Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head....


s: _You are too young to fall asleep for ever;


s: And when you sleep you remind me of the dead._


s: He winked his prying torch with patching glare


s: From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.


s: Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know,


s: A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;


s: Tripping, he grabbed the wall; saw some one lie


s: Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug,


s: And stooped to give the sleeper's arm a tug.


s: "I'm looking for headquarters." No reply.


s: "God blast your neck!" (For days he'd had no sleep,)


s: "Get up and guide me through this stinking place."


s: Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap,


s: And flashed his beam across the livid face


s: Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore


s: And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound.


s: Dawn's ghost that filtered down a shafted stair


s: To the dazed, muttering creatures underground


s: Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.


s: At last, with sweat of horror in his hair,


s: He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,


s: I stood with the Dead, so forsaken and still:


s: When dawn was grey I stood with the Dead.


s: And my slow heart said, "You must kill; you must kill:


s: On the shapes of the slain in their crumpled disgrace


s: I stared for a while through the thin cold rain....


s: "O lad that I loved, there is rain on your face,


s: And your eyes are blurred and sick like the plain."


s: I stood with the Dead.... They were dead; they were dead;


s: My heart and my head beat a march of dismay;


s: And gusts of the wind came dulled by the guns....


s: "Fall in!" I shouted; "Fall in for your pay!"


s: Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,


s: At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun


s: Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud


s: The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,


s: Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.


s: The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed


s: With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,


s: Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.


s: Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,


s: They leave their trenches, going over the top,


s: While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,


s: And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,


s: We'd gained our first objective hours before


s: While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,


s: Pallid, unshaved and thirsty, blind with smoke.


s: Things seemed all right at first. We held their line,


s: With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed,


s: And clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.


s: The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs


s: High-booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps


s: And trunks, face downward in the sucking mud,


s: Wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled;


s: And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,


s: Bulged, clotted heads, slept in the plastering slime.


s: And then the rain began,--the jolly old rain!


s: A yawning soldier knelt against the bank,


s: Staring across the morning blear with fog;


s: He wondered when the Allemands would get busy;


s: And then, of course, they started with five-nines


s: Traversing, sure as fate, and never a dud.


s: Mute in the clamour of shells he watched them burst


s: Spouting dark earth and wire with gusts from hell,


s: While posturing giants dissolved in drifts of smoke.


s: He crouched and flinched, dizzy with galloping fear,


s: Sick for escape,--loathing the strangled horror


s: And butchered, frantic gestures of the dead.


s: An officer came blundering down the trench:


s: "Stand-to and man the fire-step!" On he went....


s: Gasping and bawling, "Fire-step ... counter-attack!"


s: Then the haze lifted. Bombing on the right


s: Down the old sap: machine-guns on the left;


s: And stumbling figures looming out in front.


s: "O Christ, they're coming at us!" Bullets spat,


s: And he remembered his rifle ... rapid fire ...


s: And started blazing wildly ... then a bang


s: Crumpled and spun him sideways, knocked him out


s: To grunt and wriggle: none heeded him; he choked


s: And fought the flapping veils of smothering gloom,


s: Lost in a blurred confusion of yells and groans....


s: Down, and down, and down, he sank and drowned,


s: Bleeding to death. The counter-attack had failed.


s: "The effect of our bombardment was terrific. One man told me


s: "_He'd never seen so many dead before._"


s: They sprawled in yellow daylight while he swore


s: And gasped and lugged his everlasting load


s: Of bombs along what once had been a road.


s: Who put that silly gag in some one's head?


s: The lilting words danced up and down his brain,


s: While corpses jumped and capered in the rain.


s: No, no; he wouldn't count them any more....


s: They've choked; they can't come back to life again.


s: Flapping along the fire-step like a fish,


s: After the blazing crump had knocked him flat....


s: "_How many dead? As many as ever you wish.


s: Who'll buy my nice fresh corpses, two a penny?_"


s: Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit,


s: He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knows


s: Each flash and spouting crash,--each instant lit


s: When gloom reveals the streaming rain. He goes


s: Heavily, blindly on. And, while he blunders,


s: "Could anything be worse than this?"--he wonders,


s: Remembering how he saw those Germans run,


s: Screaming for mercy among the stumps of trees:


s: Green-faced, they dodged and darted: there was one


s: Livid with terror, clutching at his knees....


s: Our chaps were sticking 'em like pigs.... "O hell!"


s: He thought--"there's things in war one dare not tell


s: Poor father sitting safe at home, who reads


s: Of dying heroes and their deathless deeds."


s: Quietly they set their burden down: he tried


s: To grin; moaned; moved his head from side to side.


s: He gripped the stretcher; stiffened; glared; and screamed,


s: "O put my leg down, doctor, do!" (He'd got


s: A bullet in his ankle; and he'd been shot


s: Horribly through the guts.) The surgeon seemed


s: So kind and gentle, saying, above that crying,


s: "You _must_ keep still, my lad." But he was dying.


s: Brought nurses to him more than groans and sighs:


s: But hoarse and low and rapid rose and fell


s: His troubled voice: he did the business well.


s: The ward grew dark; but he was still complaining,


s: It's time to go; O Christ, and what's the good?--


s: We'll never take it; and it's always raining."


s: I wondered where he'd been; then heard him shout,


s: I fell asleep ... next morning he was dead;


s: And some Slight Wound lay smiling on his bed.


s: The Bishop tells us: "When the boys come back


s: They will not be the same; for they'll have fought


s: In a just cause: they lead the last attack


s: On Anti-Christ; their comrade's blood has bought


s: They have challenged Death and dared him face to face."


s: "We're none of us the same!" the boys reply.


s: "For George lost both his legs; and Bill's stone blind;


s: Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die;


s: And Bert's gone syphilitic: you'll not find


s: A chap who's served that hasn't found _some_ change."


s: And the Bishop said; "The ways of God are strange!"


s: If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,


s: I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,


s: And speed glum heroes up the line to death.


s: You'd see me with my puffy petulant face,


s: Reading the Roll of Honour. "Poor young chap,"


s: I'd say--"I used to know his father well;


s: Yes, we've lost heavily in this last scrap."


s: And when the war is done and youth stone dead,


s: I found him in a guard-room at the Base.


s: From the blind darkness I had heard his crying


s: And blundered in. With puzzled, patient face


s: A sergeant watched him; it was no good trying


s: To stop it; for he howled and beat his chest.


s: And, all because his brother had gone West,


s: Raved at the bleeding war; his rampant grief


s: Moaned, shouted, sobbed, and choked, while he was kneeling


s: Such men have lost all patriotic feeling.


s: "Good-morning; good-morning!" the General said


s: When we met him last week on our way to the Line,


s: Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,


s: And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.


s: "He's a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack


s: As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.


s: But he did for them both by his plan of attack.


s: Hankering for wreaths and tombs and hearses.


s: But they've been taught the way to do it


s: And shuddering groans; but passing through it


s: He seemed so certain "all was going well,"


s: As he discussed the glorious time he'd had


s: You've gathered big impressions!" grinned the lad


s: "Impressions? Yes, most vivid! I am writing


s: A little book called _Europe on the Rack_,


s: Based on notes made while witnessing the fighting.


s: I hope I've caught the feeling of 'the Line,'


s: By Jove, those flying-chaps of ours are fine!


s: I watched one daring beggar looping loops,


s: Soaring and diving like some bird of prey.


s: And through it all I felt that splendour shine


s: "Ah, yes, but it's the Press that leads the way!"


s: The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying,


s: And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street


s: To cheer the soldiers who'd refrained from dying,


s: "Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought,


s: This moment is the finest." (So they thought.)


s: Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob,


s: Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel.


s: I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal;


s: And with my trusty bombers turned and went


s: To clear those Junkers out of Parliament.


s: You told me, in your drunken-boasting mood,


s: How once you butchered prisoners. That was good!


s: I'm sure you felt no pity while they stood


s: Patient and cowed and scared, as prisoners should.


s: How did you do them in? Come, don't be shy:


s: You know I love to hear how Germans die,


s: Downstairs in dug-outs. "Camerad!" they cry;


s: Then squeal like stoats when bombs begin to fly.


s: And you? I know your record. You went sick


s: When orders looked unwholesome: then, with trick


s: And lie, you wangled home. And here you are,


s: "Yes," wheezed the other, "that's the luck!


s: Still, if there's truth in what we hear,


s: I watched them toddle through the door--


s: The house is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin


s: And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks


s: Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din;


s: "We're sure the Kaiser loves the dear old Tanks!"


s: I'd like to see a Tank come down the stalls,


s: Lurching to rag-time tunes, or "Home, sweet Home,"--


s: And there'd be no more jokes in Music-halls


s: To mock the riddled corpses round Bapaume.


s: You love us when we're heroes, home on leave,


s: That chivalry redeems the war's disgrace.


s: You make us shells. You listen with delight,


s: By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.


s: You crown our distant ardours while we fight,


s: And mourn our laurelled memories when we're killed.


s: You can't believe that British troops "retire"


s: When hell's last horror breaks them, and they run,


s: Trampling the terrible corpses--blind with blood.


s: While you are knitting socks to send your son


s: He's got a Blighty wound. He's safe; and then


s: She can forget the doomed and prisoned men


s: He's back in France. She loathes the listless strain


s: Beseeching Heaven to send him home again,


s: Husbands and sons and lovers; everywhere


s: Mothers and wives and sweethearts,--they don't care


s: There's such splendid work for the blind;


s: Do they matter?--those dreams from the pit?...


s: For they'll know that you've fought for your country,


s: No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain


s: Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.


s: Of course they're "longing to go out again,"--


s: These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk,


s: They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed


s: Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,--


s: Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud


s: Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride....


s: Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;


s: Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.


s: Ring your sweet bells; but let them be farewells


s: To the green-vista'd gladness of the past


s: That changed us into soldiers; swing your bells


s: To a joyful chime; but let it be the last.


s: What means this metal in windy belfries hung


s: When guns are all our need? Dissolve these bells


s: Whose tones are tuned for peace: with martial tongue


s: Let them cry doom and storm the sun with shells.


s: Bells are like fierce-browed prelates who proclaim


s: That "if our Lord returned He'd fight for us."


s: So let our bells and bishops do the same,


s: Shoulder to shoulder with the motor-bus.


s: And, though his wound was healed and mended,


s: Two arms, two legs, though all were lost,


s: He primmed his loose red mouth, and leaned his head


s: Against a sorrowing angel's breast, and said:


s: "You'd think so much bereavement would have made


s: The War comes cruel hard on some poor folk--


s: Unless the fighting stops I'll soon be broke."


s: "There's scores of bodies out abroad, this while,


s: That should be here by rights; they little know'd


s: How they'd get buried in such wretched style."


s: That Germans boil dead soldiers down for fat;


s: And he was horrified. "What shameful sin!


s: O sir, that Christian men should come to that!"


s: Propped on a stick he viewed the August weald;


s: Squat orchard trees and oasts with painted cowls;


s: A homely, tangled hedge, a corn-stooked field,


s: With sound of barking dogs and farmyard fowls.


s: And he'd come home again to find it more


s: How right it seemed that he should reach the span


s: Splendid to eat and sleep and choose a wife,


s: He hobbled blithely through the garden gate,


s: And thought; "Thank God they had to amputate!"


s: "Oh! there's Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader!


s: How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic!


s: "Here's the next carriage!... Jack was once in Leggit's Corps;


s: That's him!... I think the stout one is Sir Godfrey Stoomer.


s: They _must_ feel sad to know they can't win any more


s: Hullo! here's my platoon, the lot I had last year.


s: Then, "Number Seven, 'shun! All present and correct."


s: They're standing in the sun, impassive and erect.


s: Young Gibson with his grin; and Morgan, tired and white;


s: Jordan, who's out to win a D.C.M. some night:


s: And Hughes that's keen on wiring; and Davies ('79),


s: Who always must be firing at the Boche front line.


s: "Old soldiers never die; they simply fide a-why!"


s: That's what they used to sing along the roads last spring;


s: That's what they used to say before the push began;


s: That's where they are to-day, knocked over to a man.


s: Well, how are things in Heaven? I wish you'd say,


s: Because I'd like to know that you're all right.


s: Tell me, have you found everlasting day,


s: For when I shut my eyes your face shows plain;


s: I hear you make some cheery old remark--


s: Though you've gone out patrolling in the dark.


s: You hated tours of trenches; you were proud


s: Of nothing more than having good years to spend;


s: Longed to get home and join the careless crowd


s: Of chaps who work in peace with Time for friend.


s: That's all washed out now. You're beyond the wire:


s: No earthly chance can send you crawling back;


s: Somehow I always thought you'd get done in,


s: Because you were so desperate keen to live:


s: You were all out to try and save your skin,


s: Well knowing how much the world had got to give.


s: You joked at shells and talked the usual "shop,"


s: Stuck to your dirty job and did it fine:


s: With "Jesus Christ! when _will_ it stop?


s: Three years.... It's hell unless we break their line."


s: So when they told me you'd been left for dead


s: I wouldn't believe them, feeling it _must_ be true.


s: Next week the bloody Roll of Honour said


s: "Wounded and missing"--(That's the thing to do


s: When lads are left in shell-holes dying slow,


s: With nothing but blank sky and wounds that ache,


s: It's night, and then it's not worth while to wake!)


s: They won't give in till Prussian Rule's been trod


s: Under the Heel of England.... Are you there?...


s: Yes ... and the War won't end for at least two years;


s: But we've got stacks of men ... I'm blind with tears,


s: I wish they'd killed you in a decent show.


s: When I'm asleep, dreaming and lulled and warm,--


s: They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead.


s: While the dim charging breakers of the storm


s: Out of the gloom they gather about my bed.


s: They whisper to my heart; their thoughts are mine.


s: "Why are you here with all your watches ended?


s: From Ypres to Frise we sought you in the Line."


s: And while the dawn begins with slashing rain


s: Are they not still your brothers through our blood?"


s: I am banished from the patient men who fight.


s: They smote my heart to pity, built my pride.


s: Shoulder to aching shoulder, side by side,


s: They trudged away from life's broad wealds of light.


s: Their wrongs were mine; and ever in my sight


s: They went arrayed in honour. But they died,--


s: To those who sent them out into the night.


s: The darkness tells how vainly I have striven


s: To free them from the pit where they must dwell


s: In outcast gloom convulsed and jagged and riven


s: By grappling guns. Love drove me to rebel.


s: Love drives me back to grope with them through hell;


s: And in their tortured eyes I stand forgiven.


s: October's bellowing anger breaks and cleaves


s: The bronzed battalions of the stricken wood


s: In whose lament I hear a voice that grieves


s: For battle's fruitless harvest, and the feud


s: Of outraged men. Their lives are like the leaves


s: Scattered in flocks of ruin, tossed and blown


s: Along the westering furnace flaring red.


s: O martyred youth and manhood overthrown,


s: The burden of your wrongs is on my head.


s: Now light the candles; one; two; there's a moth;


s: What silly beggars they are to blunder in


s: And scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame--


s: No, no, not that,--it's bad to think of war,


s: When thoughts you've gagged all day come back to scare you;


s: And it's been proved that soldiers don't go mad


s: Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts


s: That drive them out to jabber among the trees.


s: Now light your pipe; look, what a steady hand.


s: Draw a deep breath; stop thinking; count fifteen,


s: And you're as right as rain.... Why won't it rain?...


s: I wish there'd be a thunder-storm to-night,


s: With bucketsful of water to sluice the dark,


s: And make the roses hang their dripping heads.


s: Standing so quiet and patient on their shelves,


s: Dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green


s: And every kind of colour. Which will you read?


s: Come on; O _do_ read something; they're so wise.


s: Is waiting for you on those shelves; and yet


s: You sit and gnaw your nails, and let your pipe out,


s: And listen to the silence: on the ceiling


s: There's one big, dizzy moth that bumps and flutters;


s: And in the breathless air outside the house


s: The garden waits for something that delays.


s: There must be crowds of ghosts among the trees,--


s: Not people killed in battle,--they're in France,--


s: But horrible shapes in shrouds--old men who died


s: Slow, natural deaths,--old men with ugly souls,


s: Who wore their bodies out with nasty sins.


s: You're quiet and peaceful, summering safe at home;


s: You'd never think there was a bloody war on!...


s: O yes, you would ... why, you can hear the guns.


s: Hark! Thud, thud, thud,--quite soft ... they never cease--


s: Those whispering guns--O Christ, I want to go out


s: I'm going stark, staring mad because of the guns.


s: Splashing along the boggy woods all day,


s: And over brambled hedge and holding clay,


s: But when the watery fields grow brown and dim,


s: And hounds have lost their fox, and horses tire,


s: Home through the darkness to the evening fire.


s: He's jumped each stile along the glistening lanes;


s: His hand will be upon the mud-soaked reins;


s: He'll wonder if the frost will come next week.


s: I shall forget him in the morning light;


s: And while we gallop on he will not speak:


s: But at the stable-door he'll say good-night.


s: Out of the twilight; over the grey-blue sand,


s: Shoals of low-jargoning men drift inward to the sound,--


s: The jangle and throb of a piano ... tum-ti-tum ...


s: O sing us the songs, the songs of our own land,


s: Dimness conceals the hunger in our faces,


s: This wall of faces risen out of the night,


s: These eyes that keep their memories of the places


s: Jaded and gay, the ladies sing; and the chap in brown


s: Tilts his grey hat; jaunty and lean and pale,


s: He rattles the keys ... some actor-bloke from town ...


s: "_God send you home_"; and then "_A long, long trail_";


s: Sing slowly ... now the chorus ... one by one


s: We hear them, drink them; till the concert's done.


s: Silent, I watch the shadowy mass of soldiers stand.


s: Silent, they drift away, over the glimmering sand.


s: Out in the blustering darkness, on the deck


s: A gleam of stars looks down. Long blurs of black,


s: The lean Destroyers, level with our track,


s: Plunging and stealing, watch the perilous way


s: Through backward racing seas and caverns of chill spray.


s: Stands mute; the boat heaves onward through the night.


s: And sluiced by floundering waves that hiss and boom


s: And crash like guns, the troop-ship shudders ... doom.


s: Now something at my feet stirs with a sigh;


s: And slowly growing used to groping dark,


s: I know that the hurricane-deck, down all its length,


s: Is heaped and spread with lads in sprawling strength,--


s: Blanketed soldiers sleeping. In the stark


s: Danger of life at war, they lie so still,


s: All prostrate and defenceless, head by head ...


s: We are going home. The troop-ship, in a thrill


s: Of fiery-chamber'd anguish, throbs and rolls.


s: We are going home ... victims ... three thousand souls.


s: When you are standing at your hero's grave,


s: Or near some homeless village where he died,


s: Remember, through your heart's rekindling pride,


s: The German soldiers who were loyal and brave.


s: Men fought like brutes; and hideous things were done:


s: And you have nourished hatred, harsh and blind.


s: But in that Golgotha perhaps you'll find


s: The mothers of the men who killed your son.


s: Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight


s: (Under Lord Derby's scheme). I died in hell--


s: (They called it Passchendaele); my wound was slight,


s: And I was hobbling back, and then a shell


s: Burst slick upon the duck-boards; so I fell


s: Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.


s: In sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,


s: He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;


s: For though low down upon the list, I'm there:


s: "In proud and glorious memory"--that's my due.


s: Two bleeding years I fought in France for Squire;


s: I suffered anguish that he's never guessed;


s: Once I came home on leave; and then went west.


s: He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped


s: Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;


s: Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,


s: Soaring and quivering in the wings of sleep,--


s: Silence and safety; and his mortal shore


s: Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death.


s: Some one was holding water to his mouth.


s: He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped


s: Through crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot


s: The opiate throb and ache that was his wound.


s: Water--calm, sliding green above the weir;


s: Bird-voiced, and bordered with reflected flowers


s: And shaken hues of summer: drifting down,


s: He dipped contented oars, and sighed, and slept.


s: Night, with a gust of wind, was in the ward,


s: Blowing the curtain to a glimmering curve.


s: Night. He was blind; he could not see the stars


s: Glinting among the wraiths of wandering cloud;


s: Queer blots of colour, purple, scarlet, green,


s: Flickered and faded in his drowning eyes.


s: Rain; he could hear it rustling through the dark;


s: Fragrance and passionless music woven as one;


s: Warm rain on drooping roses; pattering showers


s: That soak the woods; not the harsh rain that sweeps


s: Behind the thunder, but a trickling peace


s: He stirred, shifting his body; then the pain


s: Leaped like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore


s: His groping dreams with grinding claws and fangs.


s: But some one was beside him; soon he lay


s: Shuddering because that evil thing had passed.


s: And Death, who'd stepped toward him, paused and stared.


s: Light many lamps and gather round his bed.


s: Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.


s: Speak to him; rouse him; you may save him yet.


s: He's young; he hated war; how should he die


s: When cruel old campaigners win safe through?


s: But Death replied: "I choose him." So he went,


s: And there was silence in the summer night;


s: Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.


s: Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.


s: For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,


s: Like traffic checked awhile at the crossing of city ways:


s: _But the past is just the same,--and War's a bloody game,...


s: Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz,--


s: Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,--


s: And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?


s: Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"


s: Do you remember that hour of din before the attack,--


s: Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back


s: With dying eyes and lolling heads,--those ashen-grey


s: Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?


s: And then he'll speak of Haig's last drive,


s: And smashed, to cleanse the world of guilt.


s: But the boys, with grin and sidelong glance,


s: Will think, "Poor grandad's day is done."


s: Orchards and dark green fields; on; on; and out of sight.


s: My heart was shaken with tears and horror


s: "The Custer Wail" was composed in a dream, in 1877.


s: The "Soldier Songs" and the "Love Songs" are printed alternately.


s: Foiled on the field with his dead boys around him,


s: All waiting for Earth to recover her own,


s: Fortune hath missed him, but Glory hath found him,


s: While fighting a thousand fierce foemen alone.


s: Custer's the right wing, the left and the center,


s: Where One makes an army to conquer or die.


s: Straight on his steed doth he meet the grim battle,


s: The red line of danger grows deadly and large,


s: Loud from the hills rings the rifleman's rattle,


s: But Custer is ready, so forward and charge!


s: Firing with left hand, and fencing with right,


s: The reins in his teeth, like a handless young Hun,


s: The thousands hath slain him, yet Custer hath won.


s: His foemen still seek him in terror and wonder,


s: Alive in the tempest that darkens the vale;


s: His charge they still fear in the echoing thunder,


s: His sword in the lightning, his voice in the gale.


s: Is she whose home adorns the loam of this fair land of mine:


s: And dominates the heart of man as by a right divine.


s: Whose hopes to win are centered in his pale Platonic plan;


s: Then, speeds him to the army mess to prove himself a man.


s: The peer of peers of ancient years, for highest functions fit;


s: Come any day what will or may, she meets the world at par;


s: But brings to _one_ a crystal love as stainless as a star.


s: Through home and hall, and over all the sovereign of the scene;


s: And holds the heart of him she loves, a Woman and a Queen.


s: Swift o'er the lee when the wind flies free,


s: With skies o'ercast she bends to the blast,


s: And she'll leave all behind in a whispering wind


s: Or when o'er the Lakes the storm-cloud breaks,


s: And the waves scoop their murderous hollow,


s: While the weaker ship to its mooring must slip


s: In the front of the storm she fills her white form,


s: O for the life 'mid the storm and the strife


s: But give me the grave of the mutinous wave


s: Down from the skies look the spectral eyes


s: And gathering in crowds by the shivering shrouds,


s: And they sing as they sweep o'er the clamorous deep:


s: Always for your weal and never for your woe,


s: Your little heart will gallop on the go,


s: Till you land yourself in toto at her toe.


s: And you'll never get the poor thing back.


s: That will fling you at two queenly feet.


s: You'll surrender all your soul at sight.


s: The Blue Eye will do if the courting is through


s: And it helps in the fun till the sweet life is done


s: If the girl brings a mint of good money.


s: But when aft or before the good parson's front door,


s: For Love red, red hot, with the ducats or not,


s: The Hazel is true to you all the way through,


s: And it burns with a light warm and steady;


s: Only if it is Fred that she has in her head,


s: But the Black Eye will veer and stake kingdoms to spear


s: And as a love-lance to its lord in the dance


s: Here then is good health and without or with wealth


s: It's a heavenly spell when it loves very well,


s: And it's little I care, only so I get there,


s: _"By the splendor of God!" was a characteristic oath


s: By the splendor of God! We come! We come!


s: To fight to the death for Old England's crown,


s: To reign by God's grace or in gore go down.


s: In swoop for fierce flesh, like a bird of prey,


s: In scent of the blood of the brave to-day,


s: Advance! Drink health to the Norman line,


s: Beware of the shock of the serried rank!


s: We fight till death for Old England's crown,


s: Till Harold, or We, with our crowns, go down,


s: As I stroll by the stream where you stray,


s: Her lithe, blithe form outbraves the storm


s: The kiss that thrills, the glance that kills,


s: Make wild the wise and laugh at Treason;


s: Heaven blooms fair, but Love blooms fairer,


s: Hold up your banner of light to the eye,


s: Blessing the earth and rejoicing the sky.


s: Long as the earth shows the sight of a slave,


s: Fronting the fight in the eye of the brave.


s: Lashed to the palm tree or nailed to the pine,


s: There is blood upon the Banner, the Banner of the Free,


s: There is blood upon _our_ Banner, and it lies 'twixt you and me,


s: And, like the blood of Abel, it crieth from the sod,


s: And it crieth unto God throughout the Morning.


s: There's a blot upon the Banner, the Banner of the Free,


s: There's a blot upon _our_ Banner, and it lies 'twixt you and me,


s: And, like the soul of Samuel, it riseth from the clod,


s: And it crieth unto God throughout the Nooning.


s: There's a curse upon the Banner, the Banner of the Free,


s: There's a curse upon _our_ Banner, and it lies 'twixt you and me,


s: And it sears a Brother's brain throughout the E'ening.


s: May the Lord now bleach this Banner, the Banner of the Free,


s: And keep that Banner floating as a pledge 'twixt you and me,


s: And, like the eyes of Noah, as the Flood of Blood flies from us,


s: Our Banner, then, unsullied, this Banner of the Free,


s: Will be a Brother's Banner, held up by you and me,


s: And, like a Christian people, as example unto others,


s: We will wave the Flag of Brothers on that Morning.


s: _Inscribed to Dennis F. Burke, last Commander of the


s: Why leave ye the hills of your native heath,


s: We have come to save man's flesh from the lash,"


s: And we've come, my friends, through peace or war,


s: You will have to fight till the last man falls


s: We have come to fight till the last man falls,"


s: We have come to fight till the Rebels reel


s: From the shotted shell of our cannon peal,


s: 'Twixt you and the South, at the cannon's mouth,


s: And a Hell he will feel who dares our steel,"


s: That the field was won by the Celtic sons;


s: For Hell flashed Leeward from out their guns,


s: Where the songs of sad hearts shrive him,


s: Weep not for him who, in the battle dying,


s: Lives in the lays of those he sought to save;


s: Weep not for him who on the cold turf lying,


s: Finds in his native land a patriot's grave;


s: Weep not for him for whom the night wind, sighing,


s: Spreads o'er his bier the banner of the brave;


s: Shout to the thunder and the trump of war.


s: Go weep for her who, by her Love's side sighing,


s: Gives to the grave the form she loved so well;


s: And weep for her who meets no soft replying


s: To the sweet story she would die to tell;


s: Aye, weep for her whose Love, to Lethe flying,


s: Left on her lip no mark of his farewell;


s: Oh, weep for her whose star of life is dim;


s: Weep, weep for her; but weep no more for him.


s: He hath raised His strong arm to smite furrow and fen,


s: And he'll smite them and smite them again and again.


s: And he'll smite them and smite them again and again,


s: And all the first-born in the land shall die,


s: The fathers shall perish, the mothers shall sigh.


s: And all the first-born in the land shall die;


s: The fathers shall perish, the mothers shall sigh,


s: The Lord hath hardened the heart of the King,


s: So the creatures that crawl and the insects that sting


s: Will add terror to life and bring death on the wing.


s: Will add terror to life and bring death on the wing,


s: There is blood on the river and blood on the door,


s: The land shall be red on the sea and the shore,


s: And the blood of the Ruler shall reign nevermore.


s: And the blood of the Ruler shall reign nevermore,


s: We all know the face of the chap who can tell


s: Through whose terrible yell all the enemy fell


s: We all know the pate of the chap who was late,


s: A year or two late for a soldierly fate,


s: We all know the voice of Goliah the Great,


s: Who came to the field of battle too late


s: We all know the tale of the chap who delights


s: Of the terrible sights, of the feuds and the fights,


s: That he fought in the depths of his mind.


s: Who can trace his proud place without fear,


s: Who claims the drum-tap found him first in the gap,


s: Though he skulked forty miles in the rear.


s: Know'st thou Jersey Pirates smuggle in the bay?


s: Won't you take me with you for a little fly?


s: If the Pirates catch you, I'll shoot 'em with my eye.


s: Come, Manhattan Maiden, share the sailor's pains.


s: If the Pirates catch me, save me from their chains.


s: Meantime mark the sailor mount the topmast high,


s: Till his trim tarpaulin almost scrapes the sky,


s: Luffing to the starboard, tacking o'er the bay,


s: Thus Manhattan Captains sail their lives away.


s: Who's the girl out yonder reaching up so high,


s: With her jack-o'-lantern darkening up the sky?


s: Do you think she's pretty? Do you think it pays


s: Standing up so bare like, with no polonaise?


s: Now, Manhattan Maiden, 'tis the Law Marine


s: No form but that of Captain must on this Bay be seen;


s: So look at me, my maiden, mark my windward eye,


s: Neptune his sweet Venus loves no more than I.


s: Luffing to the starboard, tacking o'er the bay


s: Thus the loving Captain sails his life away.


s: What are those far Highlands, blue as Beauty's eye


s: Looking like the islands of an upper sky?


s: Take me to their summits that I may explore


s: All the caves and creatures I never saw before.


s: 'Tis a mystic saying: "He who seeks that shore


s: Fades and then his fate is never heard of more."


s: Such a distant prospect seek not now to spy,


s: Let one loving sailor fill your starry eye.


s: Luffing to the starboard, tacking o'er the Bay,


s: Thus the gallant Captain sails his life away.


s: Where is the Atlantic? I've heard grandfather say


s: He sailed on its huge surge from Holland far away,


s: O take me to the Ocean where the steamer sails,


s: A wonder to the lubbers and terror to the whales.


s: Lubbers' yarns! My Maiden, trust you what I say,


s: There never was an Ocean--nothing but this Bay,


s: And if you'll be my bride, the whole world we'll explore,


s: In sight of New York Harbor and Staten Island shore.


s: Thus the married Captain sails his life away.


s: Ye Parsons, desirous all sinners to save,


s: If two thousand long years have not made us behave,


s: Ye Husbands, who wish your sweet mates to grow mum,


s: And whose tongues you have never subdued,


s: Ye Matrons of men whose brown meerschaum still mars


s: After pleading nine years, if they still puff cigars,


s: Ye Lawyers, who aim to reform all the land,


s: If five thousand lost years have not worked as you planned,


s: Ye Lovers, who sigh for the heart of a maid,


s: If two scores of young years have not taught you your trade,


s: Ye Doctors, who claim to cure every ill,


s: If the _Comma Bacillus_ still laughs at your pill,


s: If Jack with his whiskers is not at your side,


s: After three bloody years of your miscreant rule,


s: We commend to your mind Bill McKinley's big toe


s: When that boot and that toe give you notice to go,


s: Walk Spanish from Cuba, with Miles at your heel,


s: Or you'll learn from a thrust of American steel


s: And Sigsbee will soon shoot it all very plain


s: That the cry from the blood of the Men of the Maine


s: Makes it meet for mere talk to conclude.


s: Adieu to France! Land of the Brave, farewell!


s: Sleep sweetly there, thy sons will watch by thee,


s: High as thy hills their burning blood will swell,


s: To leave thee as they find thee, fair and free.


s: The nations gaze and tremble at thy spell,


s: Yet, France, farewell! One son may find his grave


s: Beneath thy soil, and leave thee marching still,


s: Napoleon with his millions of the brave,


s: Soldiers, farewell! And when your banners wave


s: Above my bones beside some nameless hill,


s: Stop not the thunder of your glorious tread,


s: To mark me sleeping with th' inglorious dead.


s: And farewell, Foes! Brave hearts and grand of soul;


s: We fought in fierceness, now in peace we part.


s: My luckless heart hath ever been the goal


s: Sought by your sabres, but in vain, O Heart!


s: Welcome to death amid the drum's far roll,


s: Great souls, where I no more will dare your dart.


s: 'Tis best to die where war's bluff banners wave,


s: Swathed in your guerdon, "Bravest of the brave."


s: Farewell, the storm-voiced Steed! the hero Horse


s: That snuffs the battle's sulphury breath afar;


s: The proudest form, the best compacted force,


s: That hurls the earthquake on the field of war.


s: No more I'll ride, on his terrific course,


s: That meteor maddened through the lines ajar,


s: While the foe, blanching at the onset, reels


s: Before his breath and thunder of his heels.


s: Farewell, volcanic din, Olympian brattle,


s: The bursting bomb, the thousand-throated cheer


s: Tartarean roar, the volleyed rifle rattle,


s: The rocket's lightning line of fire and fear.


s: I sought my fate 'mid foes in brilliant battle,


s: Gorging with souls the hungry atmosphere;


s: I find my fate from one cold coward's command,


s: Thus I, once Michael Ney, Marshal of France,


s: And soon a heap of dust, dishonored, sink;--


s: I, who have vanned the Empire's fierce advance


s: And bore its backward but still levelled lance


s: To the linked thunders of th' embattled world.


s: No bandage bring. Stark-eyed the hero dies.


s: Do you not know that thus for twenty years


s: I've faced both ball and bullet!--for no prize


s: But weal of France, my country? In man's ears,


s: Yea and before God's all-beholding eyes,


s: I swear I never wronged her. But Death nears.


s: So now, make ready! Aim! Dear comrades, fire!


s: That he laughs himself out of his shkin.


s: That I kape her quite close to my waist.


s: While we master this question of shtate,


s: While I shpake out this Scripture to thee.


s: If, at pig-faystes, you ate, shpake or swig,


s: Though here fair blooms the rose and the woodbine waves on high,


s: And oak and elm and bracken frond enrich the rolling lea,


s: And winds as if from Arcady breathe joy as they go by,


s: Yet I yearn and I pine for my North Countrie.


s: I leave the drowsing south and in dreams I northward fly,


s: And walk the stretching moors that fringe the ever-calling sea;


s: And am gladdened as the gales that are so bitter-sweet go by,


s: While grey clouds sweetly darken o'er my North Countrie.


s: And larger thoughts have birth among the moors and lowly glades


s: And reedy mounds and sands of my North Countrie.


s: Life with its Love ever haunted by Hate!


s: Life's laughing morrows frowned over by Fate!


s: Young Life's wild gladness still waylaid by Age!


s: All its sweet badness still mocking the sage!


s: What can e'er measure the joy of its strife?


s: Young were her sister souls, Sorrow and Mirth.


s: Lorn fleeting shadows of beautiful days.


s: With a slow smile at your pleasure and care.


s: Tenderer, wilder, than songs that we know.


s: And though the fields of corn and grass,


s: My _Love_ grows old ... in spite of this


s: Low mourned the Oread round the Arcadian hills;


s: The Naiad murmured and the Dryad moaned;


s: Yet here one lay dead by her dead oak-tree.


s: The others cried in sorrow and in wonder.


s: "I," answered Death, close by in ashen suit;


s: "Yet fear not me for this, nor start asunder;


s: Arcadian life shall keep its ancient zest


s: Though I be here. My name?--is it not Rest?"


s: In quest of peace and what is best of pleasure,


s: Because I, Death, am here to fix the measure


s: And fields flower-decorated all the year,


s: And streams that carry secrets to the sea,


s: And hills that hold back something evermore


s: Though wild their speech with clouds in thunder-roar,--


s: Yea, every sylvan sight and peaceful tone


s: Are thine to give thy days their purer zest.


s: Let not the legend grieve thee on this stone.


s: I Death am here. What then? My name is Rest."


s: On these unpeopled tracks the happy close


s: Of Day, whose advent rang with noise elate,


s: Whose later stage was quick with mirthful shows


s: And clasping loves, with hate and hearty blows,


s: And dreams of coming gifts withheld by Fate


s: Dread eyes 'gan tell of other gifts than those,


s: And her advancing wings gloomed like a pall;


s: Her speech foretelling joy became a dirge


s: And lost me ere Fate raised her blinding wings....


s: Hark! through the dusk a bird "at heaven's gate sings."


s: "Despairless? Hopeless? Join the cheerful hunt


s: Whose hounds are Science, high Desires the steeds,


s: No help to human anguish bring, that bleeds


s: For all two thousand years of Christian deeds.


s: Let Use and Wont in styes still feed and grunt,


s: Or, bovine, graze knee-deep in flowering meads.


s: Mount! follow! Onward urge Life's dragon-hunt!"


s: --So cries the sportsman brisk at break of day.


s: "The sound of hound and horn is well for thee,"


s: And friendly is my quest as you may see.


s: Though slow my pace, full surely in the dark


s: I'll chance on it at last, though none may mark."


s: Hopeless! Despairless! like that Indian wise


s: To gain that sweet Nirvana each one tries,


s: Thinks to assuage soul-wearing passion so.


s: From the white rest, the ante-natal bliss,


s: Not loth, the wondrous wondering soul awakes;


s: Now drawn to that illusion, now to this,


s: With gathering strength each devious pathway takes;


s: Till at the noon of life his aims decline;


s: Evermore earthward bend the tiring eyes,


s: Evermore earthward, till with no surprise


s: They see Nirvana from Earth's bosom shine.


s: The still kind mother holds her child again


s: In blank desirelessness without a stain.


s: He comes to me like air on parching grass;


s: His eyes are wells where truth lives, found at last;


s: Summer is fragrant should he this way pass;


s: His calm love is a chain that binds me fast....


s: That time when I shall have grown old--when he--


s: Still rapturous in his struggle with life's blast--


s: Straining mine eyes to catch what shadowy sign


s: Only some hints of doubtful sound and light,


s: That lonelier leave the uncompanioned night.


s: She scanned the record of Beethoven's thought,


s: And spread the dead man's voice till I was caught


s: While centuries like steeds tramped overhead,


s: To the wild rhythms that, by night and day,


s: From nature and man's passions still are made.


s: The music of their motion as they pranced


s: Unknown the dew of bliss, or fate's hard rod.


s: Thus dreamed I ... But I know our mother Earth


s: Waits to give back the peace she reft at birth.


s: By mead and marsh and sandhill clad with bent,


s: Soothed by the wistful musings of the wind


s: That in scarce listening ears are mildly dinned,


s: On plods the traveller till the day be spent,


s: And day-dreams end in dreamless night at last.


s: He hears, beyond the grey bent's silken waves,


s: On sighing sands and into echoing caves.


s: And from the west, where the last sunset glow


s: Come pastoral sounds, attenuate and low,


s: Thence where the night shall bring, 'neath cloud and star,


s: Silence to yearn o'er folk worn with day's strife,


s: Lost in blank sleep to hope, regret, death, life.


s: While from the West comes murmuring earthly noise,


s: Sad sunglows in the border mountains poise,


s: There where he knows to-night, mid cloud and star,


s: Silence shall yearn o'er folk worn out with strife,


s: Lost in blank sleep to hope, regret, death, life.]


s: What though my voice cease like a moan o' the wind?


s: Faint gleams of love and truth glance o'er my mind.


s: What though I end like a spring leaf shed on the wind?


s: Unmixed with good. Fate's sharpest stroke is kind.


s: To me, thoughts lived of old anew are born


s: Or frail dew quivering on leaf, rose or thorn.


s: What though behind me all is mist and shade,


s: With kindly speech of mountain, plain or glade.


s: Before me, through the veil that covers all,


s: So, though my voice cease like a moan o' the wind,


s: Stray gleams of love and truth illume my mind.


s: Past years would shine, like some bright sea,


s: Half guessed, half named from age to age,


s: Sweet, sweet are these to man and woman;


s: Who thinks them poor is less than human.


s: Long is it since they ceased to look on light,


s: To thrill with hope in our fond human way.


s: Why grudge them rest in their sweet ancient night,


s: Is it because at times when storms subside


s: Through which thou oarest Life's ill-fitted bark,


s: Dreams rise, from sounds of lapping of the tide,


s: What was their joy here? Absence of great pain?


s: The mystic whispers of the dripping rain?


s: For these would'st thou revoke their flawless rest?


s: Restore hope unfulfilled which they knew here?


s: Oh! well they fare, safe sheltered in that nest


s: Of revocation from their stainless state!


s: Love them: haste on, till thou to others seem


s: Till then, the low keen sound of Life's "Alas!"


s: Change as thou canst to themes in every key,


s: That so for thee and others time may pass


s: _"And there shall be no night there and they


s: need no candle, and neither light of the sun;


s: Your place is Heaven, a stormless nightless home?


s: Then we twain never more shall live together


s: Such days of gladdest thought as here, whilom,


s: We spent amid the change of earthly weather.


s: No white young day like hope smiles in yon east,


s: Or, westering, cleaves wild-omened scarlet glooms;


s: No frosty breezes wreathe your woods in mist;


s: No breaker o'er Heaven's glassy ocean booms.


s: No storm-blue pall in state hangs hill or lea;


s: Nor old Earth's sweet decays dye herb or tree.


s: Do wan gold tints shot on the midnight air


s: Or moony sea-gleams peep and beckon there


s: From sapphire dark or mystic silver grey?


s: No, not the olden pleasure shall be there


s: We knew, before the grass sprang o'er your breast;


s: Yet that is yours which here hearts cannot share--


s: Heaven's summer peace eterne and noonday rest.


s: _The breakers roar through rain and mist._


s: There's blood and smoke and wide red wounds,


s: There's peace on low mounds and shallow dells,


s: And thrumming and booming of village bells:


s: Dry light reverberates, colour withdrawing


s: Into a sky so white, sight cannot follow it.


s: While in the shadows cast, rich hues, intenser


s: Far than in light spaces, offer me gladness.


s: Sun reigns triumphantly, thinning all vapour


s: Into translucency, through which the foliage


s: Bears out in sparkles of full golden greenery.


s: O'er this, short dashes of keen grey-green masses lie;


s: Even the cooler tints, pitched in this higher key--


s: Purpling and greening greys--are fierce as fires.


s: All the vast universe lives in one beautiful


s: Summer--made lambent light, offering gladness.


s: Who can accept of it? Hearts where no echo rings


s: Wildly recalling deeds done by old Destiny--


s: Deeds of finality, darkening the spirit--


s: Rousing the echoes of thought to reverberate


s: Once in a burning day's brightness like this,


s: Light that had mantled and flickered and ebbed out


s: Unto some twilight of hope and of reason.


s: Out of his own unto future time's darkness


s: Wistfully gazed he, as one who unhelped floats,


s: Swept by a current past land out to sea.


s: He started alertly with laughter and mockery,


s: Loud at its height with the rapture of contest.


s: For him the light focusses now to one vision,


s: Shot through its beautiful heart with black terror,


s: Terror from weakness, remorse and leave-taking.


s: To his scared eye the day's bitter brightness


s: Awaiting his entrance ere shut to for ever.


s: Cruelly shouting: "This, this was the true path;


s: Here greatness lay, by humility guarded,


s: She whom thou soughtest through mountains of pride!


s: What gaining love with no deed as its child?"


s: Down sank the last sun save one he should gaze on.


s: In the next dawning, with dull apprehensiveness,


s: Groped he mid recent and older remembrance,


s: Mingled with mad vain desires for a helping hand;


s: Then off reeled his soul from my speechless adieus.


s: Once more the whole blaze triumphed through the welkin,


s: Bitter in brightness in memory for ever.


s: Cries, "John he ca's my noketurns 'fudge':


s: annum cardo rotat, dum fruimur sole volubili.


s: Quid nos utile tanti spatio temporis egimus?


s: infectum vitiis falsa loqui, non sine crimine.


s: foedavit iuvenem nequitiae sordibus ac luto.


s: vincendi studium subiacuit casibus asperis.


s: ius civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos.


s: adsumptum propius stare iubens ordine proximo.


s: oblitum veteris me Saliae consulis arguens:


s: pratis post glaciem reddiderit, nix capitis probat.


s: cum iam, quidquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit?


s: non sunt illa Dei, quae studuit, cuius habeberis.


s: saltem voce Deum concelebret, si meritis nequit:


s: pugnet contra hereses, catholicam discutiat fidem,


s: carmen martyribus devoveat, laudet apostolos.


s: liber, quo tulerit lingua sono mobilis ultimo.


s: Full fifty years my span of life hath run,


s: Have further sped while I the sun enjoy.


s: Yet now the end draws nigh, and by God's will


s: Old age's bound is reached: how have I spent


s: And with what fruit so wide a tract of days?


s: I wept in boyhood 'neath the sounding rod:


s: Youth's toga donned, the rhetorician's arts


s: I plied and with deceitful pleadings sinned:


s: (Alas! the recollection stings to shame!)


s: Fouled and polluted manhood's opening bloom:


s: And then the forum's strife my restless wits


s: Enthralled, and the keen lust of victory


s: And to the rank that borders on the throne.


s: The years are speeding onward, and gray hairs


s: And Salia's consulship from memory dies.


s: What frost-bound winters since that natal year


s: The meads with roses,--this white crown declares.


s: Of fortune, when the body's spark is quenched


s: This sentence I must hear: "Whate'er thou art,


s: Thy mind hath lost the world it loved: not God's


s: The things thou soughtest, Whose thou now shalt be."


s: Yet now, ere hence I pass, my sinning soul


s: Shall doff its folly and shall praise my Lord


s: If not by deeds, at least with humble lips.


s: Let each day link itself with grateful hymns


s: Unfold the meanings of the Catholic faith,


s: Trample on Gentile rites, thy gods, O Rome,


s: Dethrone, the Martyrs laud, th' Apostles sing.


s: O while such themes my pen and tongue employ,


s: May death strike off these fetters of the flesh


s: And bear me whither my last breath shall rise!


s: They cheer with hope of gladdening light


s: The hearts that spend in toil their might.


s: Christ's voice peals forth with urgent cry,


s: But, when the cock crows, take their flight


s: What meaning that shrill strain should hold,


s: That from his lips the words had passed,


s: And faith still reigned within his breast.


s: What hour the cock doth greet the skies,


s: Black thoughts be stilled beyond recall:


s: Bound by the dazzling world's soft chain


s: Gold, honours, pleasure, wealth and ease,


s: Earth's gloom flees broken and dispersed,


s: The daystar's eyes rain influence bright


s: The sin-stained heart's gross dusky shade:


s: And tears with songs of praise to blend.


s: As when my stains were cleansed by Thee,


s: If e'er since then the world's gross night


s: Shall find of nature's strength forlorn,


s: Smit with shame their conscience grieves:


s: Refreshed we rise, and for this bread that feeds,


s: By law of man's weak flesh, our daily needs,


s: Let every tongue, the Father's praises sing;


s: Who ne'er began and ne'er shall cease to be,


s: Fountain of Life that flows from out the sky,


s: Great Conqueror of Death, Salvation's Lord.


s: From Him each creature life and vigour gains,


s: When, dovelike, on pure hearts the heavenly Guest


s: Descends, they are by God's own presence blest,


s: With speed from out the sin-defilèd cell;


s: For, driven forth by guilt's black, surging tide,


s: The offended Godhead may not there abide


s: Where conscious sin and noisome foulness dwell.


s: Build up for Christ an everlasting throne


s: Deep in the inmost heart, devoid of shame:


s: Should bind about the abode of faith its chain.


s: Yet simple saints, content with frugal fare,


s: More surely find the Spirit present there,


s: Who is our soul's true strength and heavenly food:


s: Thy love for us a twofold feast supplies,


s: O Father, whence the soul may strengthened rise


s: Thus, fed and sheltered by Thy matchless might,


s: The lions' hideous roar could not affright


s: And stood with stubborn head uplifted high


s: That scorned to bow before a god of gold.


s: Then Babylon's vile mob with fury glows;


s: Death is his doom; and straight the tyrant throws


s: But faith and piety Thou still dost save,


s: For lo! the untamed brutes no longer rave,


s: But round God's unscathed child they gently play.


s: Close by his side they stand with drooping mane,


s: The grisly, gaping jaws from blood refrain


s: And with rough tongues their whilom prey caress:


s: But when in prayer he raised his hands to heaven


s: And called the God, from Whom such help was given,


s: Close-prisoned, hungry, and in sore distress,


s: Who swiftly through the parting clouds descends


s: To feed His servant, proven by the test:


s: By chance he sees from far the unbought fare


s: Which the good seer Habakkuk's kindly care


s: With rustic art had for the reapers dressed:


s: Then, grasping in strong hand the prophet's hair,


s: He bears him gently through the rushing air,


s: Still burdened with the platter's savoury load,


s: Till o'er the lions' den at last they stayed


s: And straightway to the starving youth displayed


s: The food thus brought, by God's good grace bestowed.


s: "Take this with joy," he said, "and thankful feed,


s: The bread that in thy hour of direst need,


s: By the great Father sent, Christ's angel brings."


s: Then Daniel lifts his eyes to heaven above


s: And, strengthened by the wondrous gift of love,


s: Thus, therefore, by Thy bounties now restored,


s: Giver of all things good, Almighty Lord,


s: We render thanks and sing glad hymns to Thee:


s: Though prisoned in an evil world we dwell


s: Where sin's grim tyrant rules, Thou dost repel


s: He roars around us, and would fain devour,


s: Grinding his angry teeth when 'gainst his power


s: Tormented, hated, harassed and perplexed,


s: Our faith by cruel suffering sorely tried,


s: Yet help ne'er fails us in our time of need,


s: For Thou canst quell the lions' rage, and feed


s: And if some soul no meagre taste would gain


s: Full measure of the heavenly sweets to share,


s: And shall partake the loyal reapers' bread


s: Who labour in the eternal Master's field:


s: For nothing sweeter than the Word can be


s: That fell from righteous lips, once touched by Thee,


s: And nought can richer grace to mortals yield.


s: With this sustained, though vaunting tyranny


s: By unjust judgment doom us straight to die,


s: And starvèd lions rush these limbs to tear;


s: His cross with faith unshaken will we bear.


s: Inplet castra cibus tunc quoque ninguidus,


s: quae conflata in humum, cum semel agmina


s: Tu lux vera oculis, lux quoque sensibus,


s: Per Christum genitum, summe Pater, tuum,


s: Per quem splendor, honos, laus, sapientia,


s: Blest Lord, Creator of the glowing light,


s: At Whose behest the hours successive move,


s: The sun has set: black darkness broods above:


s: Christ! light Thy faithful through the coming night.


s: Thy courts are lit with stars unnumberèd,


s: And in the cloudless vault the pale moon rides;


s: Yet Thou dost bid us seek the fire that hides


s: Till swift we strike it from its flinty bed.


s: So man may learn that in Christ's body came


s: The hidden hope of light to mortals given:


s: He is the Rock--'tis His own word--that riven


s: Sends forth to all our race the eternal flame.


s: From lamps that brim with rich and fragrant oil,


s: Or torches dry this heaven-sent fire we feed;


s: Or make us rushlights from the flowering reed


s: And wax, whereon the bees have spent their toil.


s: Bright glows the light, whether the resin thick


s: Of pine-brand flares, or waxen tapers burn


s: With melting radiance, or the hollow urn


s: Yields its stored sweetness to the thirsty wick.


s: Beneath the might of fire, in slow decay


s: The scented tears of glowing nectar fall;


s: So by Thy gifts, great Father, hearth and hall


s: Are all ablaze with points of twinkling light


s: That vie with daylight spent; and vanquished Night


s: Rends, as she flies away, her sable pall.


s: Who knoweth not that from high Heaven first came


s: Our light, from God Himself the rushing fire?


s: Ah, happy he! deemed worthy face to face


s: To see heaven's Lord within that sacred brake;


s: Bidden the sandals from his feet to take,


s: Nor with his shoon defile that holy place.


s: Saved by the merits of their sires, and free


s: Through the drear desert followed still that flame.


s: Striking their camp beneath the silent night


s: Where'er they went, to lead their darkling way,


s: And shone more splendid than the noonday light.


s: Calls his great host to battle for their lord:


s: And down the mail-clad lines the clarions ring.


s: Girding their trusty swords the warriors go


s: To fill the ranks; hoarse bugles rend the air;


s: These seize their massy javelins, these prepare


s: The death-winged arrow and the Cretan bow.


s: The footmen throng in close battalions pressed;


s: The chariots thunder; to the saddle spring


s: The riders of the Nile, as forth they fling


s: Thy children, tortured by the desert heat,


s: Drag to the Red Sea's brink their weary feet,


s: See! with their forsworn king the savage foe


s: Draws nigh: the threatening squadrons nearer ride;


s: But ever onward urged the intrepid guide


s: And through the waves bade Israel fearless go.


s: Before that steadfast march the billows fall,


s: Then raise on either hand their crystal mass,


s: While through the sundered deep Thy people pass


s: And ocean guards them with a liquid wall.


s: But, mad with baffled rage, the dusky horde


s: Athirst the hated Hebrews' blood to shed


s: Pursued, all reckless of the o'er-arching flood.


s: Swift as the wind the royal squadrons ride,


s: But swifter yet the crystal barriers break,


s: The waves exultantly their bounds forsake


s: 'Mid steeds and chariots and drifting mail


s: With all their swart retainers 'neath the wave;


s: And in their haughty courts the mourners wail.


s: What tongue, O Christ, Thy glories can unfold?


s: Thine was the arm, outstretched in wrath, that made


s: The stricken land of Pharaoh, sore afraid,


s: Thy pathless deep did at the voice restrain


s: Its surging billows, till with Thee for guide


s: Thy host passed scathless, and the refluent tide


s: Swept down the wicked to the engulfing main.


s: At Thy command the desert, parched and dry,


s: Breaks into laughing rills, and water clear


s: Wells from the smitten rock Thy flock to cheer


s: And quench their thirst beneath that brazen sky.


s: Then Marah's bitterness grew passing sweet,


s: Touched by the mystic tree; so by the grace


s: Of Thine own Tree, O Christ, our sinful race


s: Regains its lost hopes at Thy piercèd feet.


s: Like snow down drifting from a wintry sky;


s: The feast is set: they heap the tables high


s: With that rich food from Thy celestial halls.


s: Fresh blow the breezes from the distant shore


s: And bear a fluttering cloud that hides the light,


s: Till the frail pinions, faltering in their flight,


s: How great the love of God's own Son, that shed


s: Such wondrous bounty on His chosen race!


s: And still to us He proffers in His grace


s: The mystic Feast, wherewith our souls are fed.


s: Through the world's raging sea He bids us come,


s: And 'twixt the sundered billows guides our path,


s: Till, spent and wearied with the ocean's wrath,


s: He calls His storm-tossed saints to Heaven and home.


s: Sweet balsams, welling from the slender tree,


s: And precious spices fill the fragrant air,


s: And, hiding by the stream, that blossom rare


s: Whose leaves the river hurries to the sea.


s: There the blest souls with one accord unite


s: To hymn in dulcet song their Saviour's praise,


s: And as the chanting quire their voices raise


s: They tread with shining feet the lilies bright.


s: Yea, e'en the spirits of the lost, that dwell


s: Where the black stream of sullen Acheron flows,


s: Rest on that holy night when Christ arose,


s: Their darkness, with his flaming shafts far-hurled,


s: But from the cross of Christ o'er that wan world


s: There streams the radiance of a new-born day.


s: The sulphurous floods with lessened fury glow,


s: The aching limbs find respite from their pain,


s: While, in glad freedom from the galling chain,


s: The tortured ghosts a short-lived solace know.


s: In holy gladness let this night be sped,


s: As here we gather, Lord, to watch and pray;


s: To Thee with one consent our vows we pay


s: From pendent chains the lamps of crystal blaze;


s: By fragrant oil sustained the clear flame glows


s: With strength undimmed, and through the darkness throws


s: High o'er the fretted roof a golden haze,


s: As 'twere Heaven's starry floor our wondering eye


s: Beheld, wherein the Bears their light display,


s: Where Phosphor heralds the approach of day


s: And Hesper's radiance floods the evening sky.


s: Thine own most precious gift we bring--the light


s: Thou art the Light indeed; on our dull eyes


s: And on our inmost souls Thy rays are poured;


s: To Thee we light our lamps: receive them, Lord,


s: Filled with the oil of peace and sacrifice.


s: O hear us, Father, through Thine only Son,


s: Our Lord and Saviour, by Whose love bequeathed


s: The Paraclete upon our hearts has breathed,


s: With Him and Thee through endless ages one.


s: Through Christ Thy Kingdom shall for ever be,


s: Thy grace, might, wisdom, glory ever shine,


s: animusque pigris stertat in praecordiis.


s: fragore ab omni quem remotum et segregem


s: sed tincta postquam membra defaecaverat,


s: tectam latenter vertit in Tharsos fugam.


s: praeceps rotatur et profundo inmergitur:


s: Hoc nos sequamur quisque nunc pro viribus,


s: Hoc est, quod atri livor hostis invidet,


s: Perfusa non sic amne flamma extinguitur,


s: Est quippe et illud grande virtutis genus


s: The inward parts are cleansed from stain,


s: Should choke the soul and cloud the brain.


s: Moses, through whom from His dread throne


s: No food might touch till through the sky


s: Tears were his meat, while bent in prayer


s: Through the long night he bowed his head


s: Prepared the way, the rough made smooth,


s: That, when Truth came from heaven to earth,


s: All fair and straight His path should be.


s: Nor wished to strike,--towards Tarshish town


s: They loosed the dripping rope, and passed


s: And when their peril's cause they sought,


s: Then, seized by monstrous jaws, is plunged


s: "Believe!" he cried, "the Judge draws nigh


s: Whose wrath shall wrap your streets in flame."


s: Where he might watch the smoke-cloud lower


s: Poor craftsmen, throng the highways fair;


s: Enwrapped, fair maids their faces shroud


s: None thought to drink, none thought to eat;


s: And curbed His righteous wrath; for aye,


s: Seeks but God's praise, and flings his gold


s: Thou would'st not have us scorn the grace


s: Let him that fasts, Thou saidst, be clean,


s: God sees what 'scapes our neighbour's eye


s: Fleece torn with briers of thickets deep,


s: He drives the wolves far from the track:


s: The lamb restores, where no thorn balks,


s: But leaves of green herbs brightly glance


s: Marrow and strength throughout our flesh:


s: Da puer plectrum, choreis ut canam fidelibus


s: dulce carmen et melodum, gesta Christi insignia:


s: hunc camena nostra solum pangat, hunc laudet lyra.


s: Christus est, quem rex sacerdos adfuturum protinus


s: infulatus concinebat voce, chorda et tympano,


s: spiritum caelo influentem per medullas hauriens.


s: Facta nos et iam probata pangimus miracula,


s: testis orbis est, nec ipsa terra, quod vidit, negat,


s: cominus Deum docendis proditum mortalibus.


s: Corde natus ex parentis, ante mundi exordium


s: alpha et _Ô_ cognominatus, ipse fons et clausula


s: omnium, quae sunt, fuerunt quaeque post futura sunt.


s: Ipse iussit et creata, dixit ipse, et facta sunt


s: terra, caelum, fossa ponti, trina rerum machina,


s: quaeque in his vigent sub alto solis et lunae globo.


s: Corporis formam caduci, membra morti obnoxia


s: induit, ne gens periret primoplasti ex germine,


s: merserat quam lex profundo noxialis tartaro.


s: edidit nostram salutem feta sancto spiritu,


s: et puer redemptor orbis os sacratum protulit.


s: Psallat altitudo  caeli, psallite omnes angeli,


s: quidquid est virtutis usquam psallat in laudem Dei:


s: nulla linguarum silescat, vox et omnis consonet.


s: Ecce quem vates vetustis concinebant seculis,


s: quem prophetarum fideles paginae spoponderant,


s: emicat promissus olim: cuncta conlaudent eum.


s: Cantharis infusa lympha fit Falernum nobile,


s: nuntiat vinum minister esse promptum ex hydria,


s: ipse rex sapore tinctis obstupescit poculis.


s: Membra morbis ulcerosa, viscerum putredines


s: mando, ut abluantur, inquit; fit ratum, quod iusserat,


s: turgidam cutem repurgant vulnerum piamina.


s: Tu perennibus tenebris iam sepulta lumina


s: inlinis limo salubri, sacri et oris nectare,


s: mox apertis hac medela lux reducta est orbibus.


s: Increpas ventum furentem, quod procellis tristibus


s: vertat aequor fundo ab imo, vexet et vagam ratem:


s: ille iussis obsecundat, mitis unda sternitur.


s: Extimum vestis sacratae furtim mulier attigit,


s: protinus salus secuta est, ora pallor deserit,


s: sistitur rivus, cruore qui fluebat perpeti.


s: Exitu dulcis iuventae raptum ephebum viderat,


s: orba quem mater supremis funerabat fletibus:


s: surge, dixit: ille surgit, matri et adstans redditur.


s: Sole iam quarto carentem, iam sepulcro absconditum


s: fetidum iecur reductus rursus intrat halitus.


s: Ambulat per stagna ponti, summa calcat fluctuum,


s: mobilis liquor profundi pendulam praestat viam,


s: nec fatiscit unda sanctis pressa sub vestigiis.


s: Suetus antro bustuali sub catenis frendere,


s: mentis inpos efferatis percitus furoribus


s: prosilit ruitque supplex, Christum adesse ut senserat.


s: Pulsa pestis lubricorum milleformis daemonum


s: conripit gregis suilli sordida spurcamina,


s: seque nigris mergit undis et pecus lymphaticum.


s: Quinque panibus peresis et gemellis piscibus


s: adfatim refecta iam sunt adcubantum milia,


s: fertque qualus ter quaternus ferculorum fragmina.


s: Tu cibus panisque noster, tu perennis suavitas;


s: nescit esurire in aevum, qui tuam sumit dapem,


s: nec lacunam ventris inplet, sed fovet vitalia.


s: Clausus aurium meatus et sonorum nescius


s: purgat ad praecepta Christi crassa quaeque obstacula,


s: vocibus capax fruendis ac susurris pervius.


s: Omnis aegritudo cedit, languor omnis pellitur,


s: lingua fatur, quam veterna vinxerant silentia,


s: gestat et suum per urbem laetus aeger lectulum.


s: Quin et ipsum, ne salutis inferi expertes forent,


s: tartarum benignus intrat, fracta cedit ianua,


s: vectibus cadit revulsis cardo indissolubilis.


s: Illa prompta ad inruentes, ad revertentes tenax,


s: obice extrorsum repulso porta reddit mortuos:


s: lege versa et limen atrum iam recalcandum patet.


s: Sed Deus dum luce fulva mortis antra inluminat,


s: dum stupentibus tenebris candidum praestat diem,


s: tristia squalentis aethrae palluerunt sidera.


s: Sol refugit et lugubri sordidus ferrugine


s: igneum reliquit axem seque maerens abdidit:


s: fertur horruisse mundus noctis aeternae chaos.


s: Solve vocem mens sonoram, solve linguam mobilem,


s: dic tropaeum passionis, dic triumphalem crucem,


s: pange vexillum, notatis quod refulget frontibus.


s: O novum caede stupenda vulneris miraculum!


s: hinc cruoris fluxit unda, lympha parte ex altera:


s: lympha nempe dat lavacrum, tum corona ex sanguine est.


s: Vidit anguis inmolatam corporis sacri hostiam,


s: vidit et fellis perusti mox venenum perdidit,


s: saucius dolore multo colla fractus sibilat.


s: Quid tibi, profane serpens, profuit, rebus novis


s: plasma primum perculisse versipelli hortamine?


s: diluit culpam recepto forma mortalis Deo.


s: Ad brevem se mortis usum dux salutis dedidit,


s: mortuos olim sepultos ut redire insuesceret,


s: dissolutis pristinorum vinculis peccaminum.


s: Tunc patres sanctique multi conditorem praevium


s: carnis indumenta sumunt, eque bustis prodeunt.


s: Cerneres coire membra de favillis aridis,


s: frigidum venis resumptis pulverem tepescere,


s: ossa, nervos, ac medullas glutino cutis tegi.


s: Post, ut occasum resolvit vitae et hominem reddidit,


s: arduum tribunal victor adscendit Patris,


s: inclitam caelo reportans passionis gloriam.


s: Macte index mortuorum, macte rex viventium,


s: dexter in parentis arce qui cluis virtutibus


s: omnium venturus inde iustus ultor criminum.


s: Te senes et te iuventus, parvulorum te chorus,


s: turba matrum virginumque simplices puellulae,


s: voce concordes pudicis perstrepant concentibus.


s: Fluminum lapsus et undae, littorum crepidines,


s: imber, aestus, nix, pruina, silva, et aura, nox, dies,


s: omnibus te concelebrent seculorum seculis.


s: Let me chant in sacred numbers, as I strike each sounding string,


s: When the king in priestly raiment sang the Christ that was to be,


s: While the Spirit, heaven-descended, touched his lips to prophecy.


s: Sing we now the works sure proven, wrought of God in mystic wise;


s: Of the Father's heart begotten, ere the world from chaos rose,


s: He is Alpha; from that Fountain all that is and hath been flows;


s: He is Omega, of all things yet to come the mystic Close.


s: By His word was all created; He commands and lo! 'tis done;


s: Earth and sky and boundless ocean, universe of three in one,


s: He assumed this mortal body, frail and feeble, doomed to die,


s: That the race from dust created might not perish utterly,


s: Every tongue His name confessing, countless voices answering.


s: This is He whom seer and sibyl sang in ages long gone by;


s: This is He of old revealèd in the page of prophecy;


s: In the urns the clear, cold water turns to juice of noblest vine,


s: To the leper worn and wasted, white with many a loathsome sore,


s: On the eyes long sealed in darkness, buried in unbroken night,


s: Wind and wave, their fury stilling, sank to calm at Thy behest.


s: Once a woman's timid fingers touched Thy garment's lowest braid,


s: And the pallor left her visage, healing power the touch conveyed,


s: Lazarus, who lay in darkness till three nights had passed away,


s: At Thy voice awoke to soundness, rising to the light of day,


s: As the breath his frame re-entered touched already with decay.


s: See, He walks upon the waters, treads the billow's rolling crest;


s: Rushes forth and falls adoring, when he sees that Christ is nigh.


s: Then the legion of foul spirits, driven from their human prey,


s: "Gather in twelve woven baskets all the fragments that remain:"


s: He hath fed the weary thousands, resting o'er the grassy plain,


s: Grace whereby no mortal body but the soul is nourishèd.


s: Sickness at His word departed, pain and pallid languor fled,


s: Bolt and massy hinge were shattered, adamantine portals rent.


s: For the door that all receiveth, but releaseth nevermore,


s: Opens now and, slowly turning, doth the ghosts to light restore,


s: Who, the eternal laws suspended, tread again its dusky floor.


s: In the darkened vault of heaven stars forlorn refuse their light.


s: For the sun in garb of mourning veiled his radiant orb and passed


s: Deemed that o'er a world of chaos Night's eternal pall was cast.


s: Now, my soul, in liquid measures let the sounding numbers flow;


s: Sing the trophy of His passion, sing the Cross triumphant now;


s: Sing the ensign of Christ's glory, marked on every faithful brow.


s: Ah! how wondrous was the fountain flowing from His piercèd side,


s: In that hour the ancient Serpent saw the holy Victim slain,


s: Saw, and shed his hate envenomed, all his malice spent in vain;


s: See! the hissing neck is broken as he writhes in sullen pain.


s: God hath ta'en a mortal body and hath washed the guilt away.


s: Breaking by His great example ancient sins' enthralling chain.


s: Thus, upon the third glad morning, patriarchs and saints of yore,


s: From forgotten graves proceeding, habited in flesh once more.


s: Limb to limb unites and rises from the ashes dry and cold,


s: Bringing back to heaven the glory by His passion made complete.


s: Hail! Thou Judge of souls departed: hail! of all the living King!


s: Now let old and young uniting chant to Thee harmonious lays,


s: Maid and matron hymn Thy glory, infant lips their anthem raise,


s: The soul that lives, the clay that dies,


s: Till through these limbs the life shall flow,


s: Who, though the feast was set, would run


s: His feet have trod the world's rough ways.


s: And bloom with youth that ne'er shall fail.


s: Ne'er shall crabbed age their beauty dim


s: Christ's precious gift of wisdom glowed.


s: "In Mine own footsteps shalt thou tread."


s: Guide him, we pray, to that blest bourn,


s: Lo! Christ is born, and o'er earth's night


s: And with its erstwhile splendour reigns.


s: And light's foundations first were laid:


s: And man released from death's grim snare


s: What guerdon thy chaste soul shall bless,


s: The earth is spread with clustering flowers:


s: Whose minds the sensual feast doth cloud.


s: Though, by the faithful Spirit impelled,


s: Vain all thy tears, when loud shall sound


s: The trump, when flames shall scorch the ground,


s: To these shall grant the prize of light,


s: Then, Israel, shalt thou learn at length


s: The Cross hath, as the lightning, strength:


s: Whom Death once grasped but soon restored.


s: What means this star, whose piercing rays


s: Yet ofttimes 'neath the dun cloud's haze


s: God's orb shall quench their sultry heats


s: And drive them from their haughty seats.


s: Wields o'er the world its lordship fair.


s: The myrrh declares that Death shall thrust


s: And Death's strong prison-fetters break.


s: For thou man's King didst bring to birth.


s: O'er mother's breast its life-blood flow.


s: Those throats so silken-fragile, slight.


s: Ye first fruits of Christ's bitter pain!


s: Christ spared from fate's malignant blow.


s: To manhood's strength their offspring dear.


s: From stain, what time they crossed the tide.


s: He prayed with arms stretched out above,


s: Rejoice: the world's great King is born!


s: Behold your Chief! His praise forth tell:


s: gravisque et ampla argentea est parabsis.


s: The pure and faithful saint, whose heart is whole,


s: From out the treasures of a stainless soul,


s: Glad gifts of innocence, beyond all price:


s: Another with free hand bestows his gold,


s: No wealth of holiness my heart doth hold,


s: No store have I to buy my brothers bread:


s: Thine ear will listen to Thy servant's gift.


s: The rich man's halls are nobly furnishèd;


s: And there the golden goblet brightly gleams;


s: Hard by some crock of clumsy earthen ware,


s: And rough-hewn cups of oak or elm are there


s: The priceless salver and the bowl of wood


s: Alike He needs to make His home complete.


s: Therefore within His Father's spacious hall


s: Christ fits me for the service of a day,


s: Mean though I be, a vessel poor and small,--


s: I play the earthen pitcher's humble part;


s: Yet to have done Him meanest service brings


s: A thrill of rapture to my thankful heart:


s: Whate'er the end, this thought will joy afford,


s: My lips have sung the praises of my Lord.


s: We know little more of the life of Prudentius than he himself has


s: _Prudentium, unum inter Christianos vere facundum poetam._


s: white-coloured garb of a Roman citizen who at his sixteenth year


s: laid aside the purple-edged _toga praetexta_, which was worn


s: Though in the translation the usual meaning has been given to


s: _militia_, it must be regarded as uncertain in the absence of


s: monastery of St. Paul's outside the city bearing the words


s: He chides the sluggard's slumbrous ease,


s: See also Ambrose, _Hexaem._, v. 24, for an eloquent passage in


s: passage serves as a kind of text for Prudentius' first two hymns,


s: unsworn is the heart." Cf. Augustine, _cont. mendacium_: "In that


s: Nazianzen: "What can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the


s: for Thursday at Lauds, consisting of ll. 25 (_lux ecce surgit


s: knelt down and began to pray." Dressel quotes from Juvencus (iv.


s: _genibus nixi regem dominumque salutant_, "on bended knees they


s: make obeisance unto their King and Lord."


s: last verse contains a distinct echo of the closing words of the


s: fourth chapter of Polycarp: "None of the reasonings or thoughts,


s: nor any of the hidden things of the heart escape His notice."


s: Prudentius cannot be guilty of the error which he expressly


s: condemns (_Apoth._ 249) as _perquam ridiculum_ and regard the


s: original of "the Word was made flesh" (_verbum caro factum est_),


s: Greek equivalents. (_Vid._ also note on iv. 15.)


s: The idea is familiar to readers of Herbert and Herrick, though it


s: 'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth


s: "But (what's more strange) their modest appetites,


s: Averse from Venus, fly the nuptial rights;


s: Nor wastes their strength on wanton womankind,


s: But in their mouths reside their genial powers,


s: They gather children from the leaves and flowers."


s: Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage."


s: latter is assigned by several critics to 400 or thereabouts, and


s: translation (see the essay on _The Greek Christian Poets_) of a


s: Shivering through his dark to view Thee.


s: For a modern treatment of the theme see _Christ in Hades_, by


s: not only in an actual sarcophagus or stone coffin, as expressly


s: mentioned in the text, but in hollow places cut out of rock or


s: "Alexander is not dead, but lives above the stars


s: (_Ep. ad Turib._, c. 1), "_de utroque processit._" The addition


s: was not embodied into the Creed as used at Rome as late as the


s: the doctrine generally held by the Spanish Church of his day; in


s: Vespers. The Mozarabic Breviary (seventh century) contains the


s: psalms, one responsory and lauds, a hymn and prayer are to be


s: said." St. Basil also writes: "It seemed good to our fathers not


s: to receive in silence the gift of the evening light, but to give


s: thanks as soon as it appeared." It is probable, therefore, that


s: question is fully discussed by Brockhaus (_A. Prudentius Clemens


s: Still as thou burn'st, and the warm droppings creepe


s: vigil into the light of day by means of lamps suspended in every


s: part, setting up also great waxen tapers, as large as columns,


s: throughout the city." Gregory of Nyssa also speaks of "the cloud


s: "So much the rather thou, Celestial Light,


s: Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers


s: The last seven stanzas of this hymn are used in the Moz. Brev. at


s: _non pii_ is not equivalent to _impii_, but rather refers to the


s: class that is neither decidedly good nor definitely bad, and that


s: condemned in proportion to the number that deserve condemnation.


s: however, while expressly affirming that John's baptism differed


s: from that of Christ, allowed that the stains of sin were washed


s: away by the former. St. Chrysostom draws this distinction: "There


s: placing the prophet in the very jaws of the whale.


s: "_Transmissa raptim praeda cassos dentium


s: was an endeavour to ascertain whether Jesus was the Son of God


s: "Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems


s: In all his lineaments, though in his face


s: The glimpses of his Father's glory shine."


s: declares that prayers are to be offered up with thanksgiving when


s: century it was a fairly common practice as a preparation for Holy


s: The stated fasts of the Western Church were (1) _annual_, that


s: is, ante-paschal or Lent; (2) _monthly_, or the fasts of the four


s: pipe in his hand; while the poets Calpurnius and Tibullus both


s: refer to the custom of carrying a stray or neglected lamb on the


s: therefore used for His own purpose and transfigured with new


s: meaning a familiar figure. The gradual transition from paganism


s: syllable), appears to indicate that the names Omega and Omikron


s: during the first three centuries, the dead were laid in the


s: Catacombs, in which Prudentius took conspicuous interest (see


s: Translator's Note), but after 338 A.D. this practice became less


s: frequent, and was completely abandoned after 410 A.D. Elsewhere,


s: chants expressive of triumphant faith were sung as the body was


s: merely of a name and age, or simple words like--


s: but later (cf. l. 171), they were engraved on small marble slabs.


s: Burthened and tired, shall the pure Soul depress,


s: Weigh down this Portion of celestial Birth,


s: grave, the assembled company were conscious of a spicy odour