s: Falling like dreams from the stars' solemn mouths.


s: I lie here, I suppose.  Yes, so they said.


s: You see she is so troubled, looking down,


s: Of course, feel nothing while I see her -- save


s: That sometimes when I think the matter out,


s: And what earth-people said of us, of her,


s: It seems as if I must be, here, in heaven,


s: There comes a splatter of oil against my skin,


s: Hurting this time.  And I forget my pride:


s: Of white words that I build up, up, to her


s: May fetch me out.  Meanwhile it isn't bad....


s: But what a sense of humor God must have!


s: The moon, a sweeping scimitar, dipped in the stormy straits,


s: The dawn, a crimson cataract, burst through the eastern gates,


s: The cliffs were robed in scarlet, the sands were cinnabar,


s: There stands the cunning workman, the crafty past all praise,


s: The man who chained the Minotaur, the man who built the Maze.


s: His young son is beside him and the boy's face is a light,


s: A light of dawn and wonder and of valor infinite.


s: Their great vans beat the cloven air, like eagles they mount up,


s: Motes in the wine of morning, specks in a crystal cup,


s: And lest his wings should melt apace old Daedalus flies low,


s: But Icarus beats up, beats up, he goes where lightnings go.


s: He cares no more for warnings, he rushes through the sky,


s: Braving the crags of ether, daring the gods on high,


s: Black 'gainst the crimson sunset, golden o'er cloudy snows,


s: With all Adventure in his heart the first winged man arose.


s: Dropping gold, dropping gold, where the mists of morning rolled,


s: Now he shouts, now he sings in the rapture of his wings,


s: Gazing straight at the sun, half his pilgrimage is done,


s: And he staggers for a moment, hurries on, reels backward, swerves


s: Icarus, Icarus, though the end is piteous,


s: Yet forever, yea, forever we shall see thee rising thus,


s: See the first supernal glory, not the ruin hideous.


s: You were Man, you who ran farther than our eyes can scan,


s: Man absurd, gigantic, eager for impossible Romance,


s: Overthrowing all Hell's legions with one warped and broken lance.


s: On the highest steeps of Space he will have his dwelling-place,


s: Floating downward, very clear, still the echoes reach the ear


s: Of a little tune he whistles and a little song he sings,


s: My friend went to the piano; spun the stool


s: Picked up a fat green volume from the chest;


s: His fingers swept the keys that flashed like swords,


s: ... And to the brute drums of barbarian hordes,


s: An army stormed the bastions of the air!


s: Dreadful with banners, fire to slay and parch,


s: Marching together as the lightnings march,


s: And swift as storm-clouds.  Brazen helms and cars


s: Clanged to a fierce resurgence of old wars


s: Above the screaming horns.  In state they passed,


s: Trampling and splendid on and sought the vast --


s: Rending the darkness like a leaping knife,


s: The flame, the noble pageant of our life!


s: The burning seal that stamps man's high indenture


s: To vain attempt and most forlorn adventure;


s: Romance, and purple seas, and toppling towns,


s: And the wind's valiance crying o'er the downs;


s: That nerves the silly hand, the feeble brain,


s: From the loose net of words to deeds again


s: The last chord shook me as wind shakes a harp!


s: The people flocked in, scores on scores,


s: They praised me with the praise that bores,


s: -- Well, half the town WAS wrecked, no doubt --


s: There is darkness behind the light -- and the pale light drips


s: Cold on vague shapes and figures, that, half-seen loom


s: Like the carven prows of proud, far-triumphing ships --


s: And the firelight wavers and changes about the room,


s: As the three logs crackle and burn with a small still sound;


s: Half-blotting with dark the deeper dark of her hair,


s: Where she lies, head pillowed on arm, and one hand curved round


s: To shield the white face and neck from the faint thin glare.


s: Gently she breathes -- and the long limbs lie at ease,


s: And the rise and fall of the young, slim, virginal breast


s: Is as certain-sweet as the march of slow wind through trees,


s: Or the great soft passage of clouds in a sky at rest.


s: I kneel, and our arms enlace, and we kiss long, long.


s: I am drowned in her as in sleep.  There is no more pain.


s: Only the rustle of flames like a broken song


s: That rings half-heard through the dusty halls of the brain.


s: One shaking and fragile moment of ecstasy,


s: While the grey gloom flutters and beats like an owl above.


s: And I would not move or speak for the sea or the sky


s: Or the flame-bright wings of the miraculous Dove!


s: Gods, what a black, fierce day!  The clouds were iron,


s: Wrenched to strange, rugged shapes; the red sun winked


s: In angry scorn; the grey road twisted, kinked,


s: The trees with magic.  All the wood was still --


s: Cracked, crannied pines bent like malicious cripples


s: Before the gusty wind; they seemed to nose,


s: Nudge, poke each other, cackling with ill mirth --


s: Enchantment's days were over -- sh! -- Suppose


s: That crouching log there, where the white light stipples


s: Should -- break its quiet!  WAS THAT CRIMSON -- EARTH?


s: It smirched the ground like a lewd whisper, "Danger!" --


s: I hunched my cloak about me -- then, appalled,


s: Turned ice and fire by turns -- for -- someone stirred


s: The brown, dry needles sharply!  Terror crawled


s: Along my spine, as forth there stepped -- a Stranger!


s: And all the pines crooned like a drowsy bird!


s: His stock was black.  His great shoe-buckles glistened.


s: His fur cuffs ended in a sheen of rings.


s: And underneath his coat a case bulged blackly --


s: Then took the fiddle out, and, as I listened,


s: Tightened and tuned the yellowed strings, hung slackly.


s: Ping!  Pang!  The clear notes swooped and curved and darted,


s: Rising like gulls.  Then, with a finger skinny,


s: He rubbed the bow with rosin, said, "Your pardon


s: They used to call me!  Tchk! --  The cold grips hard on


s: A poor musician's fingers!" --  His lips parted.


s: A tortured soul screamed suddenly and loud,


s: From the brown, quivering case!  Then, faster, faster,


s: Dancing in flame-like whorls, wild, beating, screaming,


s: Heartbroken murmurs from pale lips once proud,


s: Dead, choking moans from hearts once nobly dreaming.


s: Till all resolved in anguish -- died away


s: Then rose triumphant where the white fires fumed,


s: Terrible, marching, trampling, reeling, gay,


s: Through everlasting hells --  The tears were salt


s: Crouched like violinists, boughs crooked, jerking, blind,


s: Sweeping mad bows to music without fault,


s: Grey cheeks to greyer fiddles, withered knees.


s: Gasping, I fled! -- but still that devilish tune


s: Stunned ears and brain alike -- till clouds of dust


s: Blotted the picture, and the noise grew dim --


s: Shaking, I reached the town -- and turned -- in trust --


s: Wind-smitten, dread, against the sky-line's rim,


s: Black, dragon branches whipped below a moon!


s: Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping.


s: How funny uncle's hat had looked striped red!


s: He chuckled silently.  The moon came, sweeping


s: A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before


s: In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed,


s: Flooding his bed with radiance.  On the floor


s: Fat motes danced.  He sobbed, closed his eyes and dreamed.


s: Warm sand flowed round him.  Blurts of crimson light


s: Splashed the white grains like blood.  Past the cave's mouth


s: Shone with a large, fierce splendor, wildly bright,


s: The crooked constellations of the South;


s: Here the Cross swung; and there, affronting Mars,


s: The Centaur stormed aside a froth of stars.


s: Within, great casks, like wattled aldermen,


s: Sighed of enormous feasts, and cloth of gold


s: Glowed on the walls like hot desire.  Again,


s: Beside webbed purples from some galleon's hold,


s: A black chest bore the skull and bones in white


s: Above a scrawled "Gunpowder!"  By the flames,


s: Decked out in crimson, gemmed with syenite,


s: Hailing their fellows with outrageous names,


s: The pirates sat and diced.  Their eyes were moons.


s: "Doubloons!" they said.  The words crashed gold.  "Doubloons!"


s: An endless tide that swells and falls...


s: Like a drenched moth that creeps and crawls


s: So, as he slept, his hands clenched tighter,


s: Strange brightness stirred him to the bone,


s: A wind puffed out his mind's faint spark.


s: The whole world altered shape and fashion.


s: And ceased, and all things were at rest,


s: Throughout him.  He was quenched and slept.


s: As soil-starved, rough pine-saplings do.


s: "Ah, did you once see Shelley plain?"  -- Browning.


s: "Shelley?  Oh, yes, I saw him often then,"


s: The old man said.  A dry smile creased his face


s: With many wrinkles.  "That's a great poem, now!


s: That one of Browning's!  Shelley?  Shelley plain?


s: The time that I remember best is this --


s: A thin mire crept along the rutted ways,


s: And all the trees were harried by cold rain


s: That drove a moment fiercely and then ceased,


s: Falling so slow it hung like a grey mist


s: Over the school.  The walks were like blurred glass.


s: The buildings reeked with vapor, black and harsh


s: Against the deepening darkness of the sky;


s: Filling the space about with golden motes,


s: And making all things larger than they were.


s: That gave on a black passage.  Round about


s: Struggled a howling crowd of boys, pell-mell,


s: With shouting faces, turned a pasty white


s: By the strange light, for foam.  They all had clods,


s: Or slimy balls of mud.  A few gripped stones.


s: And there, his back against the battered door,


s: His pile of books scattered about his feet,


s: Stood Shelley while two others held him fast,


s: And the clods beat upon him.  `Shelley!  Shelley!'


s: The high shouts rang through all the corridors,


s: `Shelley!  Mad Shelley!  Come along and help!'


s: And all the crowd dug madly at the earth,


s: Scratching and clawing at the streaming mud,


s: And fouled each other and themselves.  And still


s: Shelley stood up.  His eyes were like a flame


s: Set in some white, still room; for all his face


s: Was white, a whiteness like no human color,


s: But white and dreadful as consuming fire.


s: His hands shook now and then, like slender cords


s: Which bear too heavy weights.  He did not speak.


s: "I?  I threw straighter than the most of them,


s: And had firm clods.  I hit him -- well, at least


s: Thrice in the face.  He made good sport that night."


s: He settles to a swinging trot; his hoofs tramp the dust.


s: The clouds pass like great, slow thoughts


s: My horse lopes; the saddle creaks and sways.


s: A thousand glittering spears of sun slant from on high.


s: I would feel the vast heave of its breath.


s: I set myself against the javelins of grass and sun;


s: I lie down and look at the sky, shading my eyes.


s: Here, in this light, there is no end....


s: Italicized words or phrases have been capitalized.


s: some obvious errors have been corrected.]


s: But some are strong and some are weak, --


s: Are shut from countless hearts that seek


s: Will poets mock it with crowned words august;


s: And haggard men will clamber to be kings


s: Drink to the splendor of the unfulfilled,


s: Nor shudder for the revels that are done:


s: The wines that flushed Lucullus are all spilled,


s: The strings that Nero fingered are all gone.


s: We cannot crown ourselves with everything,


s: Nor can we coax the Fates for us to quarrel:


s: Time finds a withered leaf in every laurel.


s: And some, for sorrow and self-scorn, are blind


s: Like flutes in Paradise, they are so glad;


s: Of curses and the cries of men gone mad.


s: Some say the Scheme with love stands luminous,


s: Some say 't were better back to chaos hurled;


s: And so 't is what we are that makes for us


s: The measure and the meaning of the world.


s: The dim White Ship like a white bird lay;


s: Laughing at life and the world they sought her,


s: Then off they flew on their roystering way,


s: And the keen moon fired the light foam flying


s: Up from the flood where the faint stars play,


s: And the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.


s: 'T was a king's fair son with a king's fair daughter,


s: And full three hundred beside, they say, --


s: Revelling on for the lone, cold slaughter


s: So soon to seize them and hide them for aye;


s: But they danced and they drank and their souls grew gay,


s: Nor ever they knew of a ghoul's eye spying


s: Their splendor a flickering phantom to stray


s: Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.


s: Through the mist of a drunken dream they brought her


s: (This wild white bird) for the sea-fiend's prey:


s: The pitiless reef in his hard clutch caught her,


s: And hurled her down where the dead men stay.


s: Shrieks and curses of mad souls dying --


s: Of the mournful surge and the sea-birds' crying? --


s: Or does love still shudder and steel still slay,


s: Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying?


s: This truth at least, good friend, we know;


s: Up from the street and the crowds that went,


s: Still was the room where his days he spent,


s: And the stars were bleak, and the nights were slow.


s: Year after year, with his dream shut fast,


s: He suffered and strove till his eyes were dim,


s: For the love that his brushes had earned at last, --


s: And the whole world rang with the praise of him.


s: But he cloaked his triumph, and searched, instead,


s: Till his cheeks were sere and his hairs were gray.


s: "There are women enough, God knows," he said. . . .


s: "There are stars enough -- when the sun's away."


s: Then he went back to the same still room


s: That had held his dream in the long ago,


s: When he buried his days in a nameless tomb,


s: And a passionate humor seized him there --


s: Seized him and held him until there grew


s: Like life on his canvas, glowing and fair,


s: All but the eyes.  -- They were there, but yet


s: They seemed somehow like a soul half done.


s: What was the matter?  Did God forget? . . .


s: But he wrought them at last with a skill so sure


s: That her eyes were the eyes of a deathless woman, --


s: With a gleam of heaven to make them pure,


s: And a glimmer of hell to make them human.


s: God never forgets.  -- And he worships her


s: Of the world that was and the world that is.


s: And he wonders yet what her love could be


s: To punish him after that strife so grim;


s: But the longer he lives with her eyes to see,


s: This ancient plain, when night comes on,


s: "Where are you going to-night, to-night, --


s: There's never the sign of a star in sight,


s: Nor a lamp that's nearer than Tilbury Town.


s: Where are you pointing away from the light?


s: And where are you going to-night, to-night, --


s: "Right through the forest, where none can see,


s: There's where I'm going, to Tilbury Town.


s: The men are asleep, -- or awake, may be, --


s: But the women are calling John Evereldown.


s: So right through the forest, where none can see,


s: There's where I'm going, to Tilbury Town."


s: "But why are you going so late, so late, --


s: Though the road be smooth and the path be straight,


s: There are two long leagues to Tilbury Town.


s: Why do you chatter out there by the gate?


s: And why are you going so late, so late, --


s: "I follow the women wherever they call, --


s: God knows if I pray to be done with it all,


s: But God is no friend to John Evereldown.


s: So the clouds may come and the rain may fall,


s: The shadows may creep and the dead men crawl, --


s: But I follow the women wherever they call,


s: And that's why I'm going to Tilbury Town."


s: Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal, --


s: There where the vines cling crimson on the wall, --


s: And in the twilight wait for what will come.


s: The wind will moan, the leaves will whisper some --


s: Whisper of her, and strike you as they fall;


s: But go, and if you trust her she will call.


s: Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal --


s: No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies


s: To rift the fiery night that's in your eyes;


s: But there, where western glooms are gathering,


s: The dark will end the dark, if anything:


s: God slays Himself with every leaf that flies,


s: No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies --


s: Out of a grave I come to tell you this, --


s: Out of a grave I come to quench the kiss


s: That flames upon your forehead with a glow


s: That blinds you to the way that you must go.


s: Yes, there is yet one way to where she is, --


s: Bitter, but one that faith can never miss.


s: Out of a grave I come to tell you this --


s: There is the western gate, Luke Havergal,


s: There are the crimson leaves upon the wall.


s: Go, -- for the winds are tearing them away, --


s: Nor think to riddle the dead words they say,


s: But go! and if you trust her she will call.


s: There is the western gate, Luke Havergal --


s: We people on the pavement looked at him:


s: But still he fluttered pulses when he said,


s: "Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.


s: And he was rich, -- yes, richer than a king, --


s: In fine, we thought that he was everything


s: To make us wish that we were in his place.


s: So on we worked, and waited for the light,


s: And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;


s: And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,


s: Went home and put a bullet through his head.


s: Not by the grief that stuns and overwhelms


s: That come to test us and to strengthen us


s: Rebelliousness, faint-heartedness, and shame.


s: When through hot fog the fulgid sun looks down


s: Upon a stagnant earth where listless men


s: Scans with a close reproach what I have done,


s: Counts with an unphrased patience my arrears,


s: Friendless and faint, with martyred steps and slow,


s: Faint for the flesh, but for the spirit free,


s: Stung by the mob that came to see the show,


s: We gibed him, as he went, with houndish glee,


s: Till his dimmed eyes for us did overflow;


s: We cursed his vengeless hands thrice wretchedly, --


s: And this was nineteen hundred years ago.


s: But after nineteen hundred years the shame


s: Still clings, and we have not made good the loss


s: That outraged faith has entered in his name.


s: Ah, when shall come love's courage to be strong!


s: Tell me, O Lord -- tell me, O Lord, how long


s: Are we to keep Christ writhing on the cross!


s: Dear friends, reproach me not for what I do,


s: Blow bigger then your own:  the games we play


s: Good glasses are to read the spirit through.


s: And whoso reads may get him some shrewd skill;


s: To praise the very thing that he deplores;


s: So, friends (dear friends), remember, if you will,


s: The shame I win for singing is all mine,


s: The gold I miss for dreaming is all yours.


s: No matter why, nor whence, nor when she came,


s: There was her place.  No matter what men said,


s: Faithful or not, he loved her all the same.


s: But ever since that lonely night she fled,


s: With books to blind him, he had only read


s: To fool him back, with penitent scared eyes


s: That had in them the laughter of the moon


s: For baffled lovers, and to make him think --


s: Before she gave him time enough to wink --


s: Sweeping the chords of Hellas with firm hand,


s: He wakes lost echoes from song's classic shore,


s: And brings their crystal cadence back once more


s: To touch the clouds and sorrows of a land


s: Where God's truth, cramped and fettered with a band


s: Of iron creeds, he cheers with golden lore


s: Wrought the romance of ages yet unscanned.


s: Still does a cry through sad Valhalla go


s: For Balder, pierced with Lok's unhappy spray --


s: For Balder, all but spared by Frea's charms;


s: And still does art's imperial vista show,


s: Young Sohrab dying in his father's arms.


s: Once, when I wandered in the woods alone,


s: "Come, friend, and see the grave that I have made


s: Of his complaint such quaver and such moan


s: And long stood looking where his hands had laid


s: An ancient woman, shrunk to skin and bone.


s: The calling of loud progress, and the bold


s: Incessant scream of commerce ringing clear;


s: But though the trumpets of the world were glad,


s: Ah, -- shuddering men that falter and shrink so


s: To look on death, -- what were the days we live,


s: Where life is half a struggle to forgive,


s: But for the love that finds us when we go?


s: Is God a jester?  Does he laugh and throw


s: Poor branded wretches here to sweat and strive


s: For some vague end that never shall arrive?


s: Think of it, all ye millions that have planned,


s: And only planned, the largess of hard youth!


s: Think of it, all ye builders on the sand,


s: Whose works are down! --  Is love so small, forsooth?


s: Be brave!  To-morrow you will understand


s: The doubt, the pain, the triumph, and the Truth!


s: Of hell before your eyes, you are afraid;


s: Because he counts the price that you have paid


s: For innocence, and counts it from the start,


s: You loathe him.  But he sees the human heart


s: Of God meanwhile, and in God's hand has weighed


s: (We call it Christian faith!) are we to scan


s: The racked and shrieking hideousness of Truth


s: To find, in hate's polluted self-defence


s: Throbbing, the pulse, the divine heart of man.


s: Vengeful across the cold November moors,


s: Loud with ancestral shame there came the bleak


s: Sad wind that shrieked, and answered with a shriek,


s: The old man heard it; and he heard, perforce,


s: Words out of lips that were no more to speak --


s: Words of the past that shook the old man's cheek


s: Like dead, remembered footsteps on old floors.


s: And then there were the leaves that plagued him so!


s: The brown, thin leaves that on the stones outside


s: Skipped with a freezing whisper.  Now and then


s: They stopped, and stayed there -- just to let him know


s: How dead they were; but if the old man cried,


s: They fluttered off like withered souls of men.


s: Cursed and unkempt, shrewd, shrivelled, and morose.


s: And eyes like little dollars in the dark.


s: His thin, pinched mouth was nothing but a mark;


s: And when he spoke there came like sullen blows


s: Through scattered fangs a few snarled words and close,


s: Year after year he shambled through the town, --


s: And oftentimes there crept into his ears


s: A sound of alien pity, touched with tears, --


s: And then (and only then) did Aaron laugh.


s: With buds and blossoms and all sorts of leaves;


s: And once, among the roses and the sheaves,


s: He led me to the plot where I had thrown


s: My life!  Ah, yes, there was my life, indeed!


s: And there were all the lives of humankind;


s: And they were like a book that I could read,


s: Outrolled itself from Thought's eternal seed,


s: Love-rooted in God's garden of the mind.


s: With him one day; and after soup and meat,


s: And all the other things there were to eat,


s: Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine


s: And one with wormwood.  Then, without a sign


s: For me to choose at all, he took the draught


s: Of bitterness himself, and lightly quaffed


s: It off, and said the other one was mine.


s: And when I asked him what the deuce he meant


s: And grinned, and said it was a way of his.


s: And though I know the fellow, I have spent


s: When once you knew him, -- for his mouth redeemed


s: In them there was no life-glimpse, good or bad, --


s: Nor joy nor passion in them ever gleamed;


s: His mouth was all of him that ever beamed,


s: His eyes were sorry, but his mouth was glad.


s: And half of what he did say was not heard


s: Till he was dead, so those blank eyes of his


s: Might speak them.  Then we heard them, every word.


s: Here there is death.  But even here, they say, --


s: Here where the dull sun shines this afternoon


s: Did glimmer on dead Sardis, -- men were gay;


s: And there were little children here to play,


s: With small soft hands that once did keep in tune


s: The strings that stretch from heaven, till too soon


s: The change came, and the music passed away.


s: Now there is nothing but the ghosts of things, --


s: No life, no love, no children, and no men;


s: And over the forgotten place there clings


s: That is in dreams.  The music failed, and then


s: God frowned, and shut the village from His sight.


s: My northern pines are good enough for me,


s: A town that always like a friend appears,


s: A downward flash of something new and fierce,


s: That ever strives to clear, but never clears


s: Of twisted innocence that you would plait


s: Of one short shuddering step to the Unseen.


s: No, I have not your backward faith to shrink


s: Lone-faring from the doorway of God's home


s: We cherish, in the life that is to come,


s: The scattered features of dead friends again.


s: To plunge into the crater of the Scheme --


s: Love's handsel and forevermore to slough,


s: Like cerements at a played-out masque, the rough


s: The stigma of scared years -- are we to get


s: Of starlight and of sunlight and soul-shine


s: That we have squandered in sin's frail distress,


s: Till we have drunk, and trembled at the taste,


s: The mead of Thought's prophetic endlessness.


s: I did not think that I should find them there


s: When I came back again; but there they stood,


s: As in the days they dreamed of when young blood


s: Was in their cheeks and women called them fair.


s: Be sure, they met me with an ancient air, --


s: And yes, there was a shop-worn brotherhood


s: About them; but the men were just as good,


s: And you that ache so much to be sublime,


s: And you that feed yourselves with your descent,


s: What comes of all your visions and your fears?


s: Poets and kings are but the clerks of Time,


s: Tiering the same dull webs of discontent,


s: Clipping the same sad alnage of the years.


s: At first I thought there was a superfine


s: Persuasion in his face; but the free glow


s: That filled it when he stopped and cried, "Hollo!"


s: He said his name was Fleming Helphenstine,


s: He talked of this and that and So-and-So,


s: And laughed and chaffed like any friend of mine.


s: But soon, with a queer, quick frown, he looked at me,


s: And I looked hard at him; and there we gazed


s: With a strained shame that made us cringe and wince:


s: That sounded half confused and half amazed,


s: He dodged, -- and I have never seen him since.


s: With searching feet, through dark circuitous ways,


s: I plunged and stumbled; round me, far and near,


s: Quaint hordes of eyeless phantoms did appear,


s: Twisting and turning in a bootless chase, --


s: When, like an exile given by God's grace


s: I caught the world's first murmur, large and clear,


s: Flung from a singing river's endless race.


s: Then, through a magic twilight from below,


s: I heard its grand sad song as in a dream:


s: It sang me; and, with many a changing gleam,


s: I saw the cottage lights of Wessex beam.


s: The man who cloaked his bitterness within


s: This winding-sheet of puns and pleasantries,


s: His brother was the branded man of Lynn;


s: We laugh, and crown him; but anon we feel


s: A still chord sorrow-swept, -- a weird unrest;


s: And thin dim shadows home to midnight steal,


s: As if the very ghost of mirth were dead --


s: As if the joys of time to dreams had fled,


s: "Dear brother, dearest friend, when I am dead,


s: And you shall see no more this face of mine,


s: Of the white life I lost for him," she said;


s: "No, do not curse him, -- pity him instead;


s: Forgive him! -- forgive me! . . God's anodyne


s: That makes men wise, forgiveness.  I have read


s: Love's message in love's murder, and I die."


s: And so they laid her just where she would lie, --


s: Under red roses.  Red they bloomed and fell;


s: But when flushed autumn and the snows went by,


s: And spring came, -- lo, from every bud's green shell


s: Burst a white blossom.  -- Can love reason why?


s: The present only: -- whether Jove decree


s: Make even this, whose hard, wave-eaten shore


s: Shatters the Tuscan seas to-day, the last --


s: Be wise withal, and rack your wine, nor fill


s: Your bosom with large hopes; for while I sing,


s: The envious close of time is narrowing; --


s: So seize the day, -- or ever it be past, --


s: And let the morrow come for what it will.


s: Did earn an honest living (and did right),


s: I would not have you think that Reuben Bright


s: For when they told him that his wife must die,


s: He stared at them, and shook with grief and fright,


s: And cried like a great baby half that night,


s: The singers and the sexton and the rest,


s: He packed a lot of things that she had made


s: Of hers, and put some chopped-up cedar boughs


s: In with them, and tore down the slaughter-house.


s: Alone, remote, nor witting where I went,


s: A fiery place, whereof there was a gleam


s: Of upward promise, that love's murmur, blent


s: With sorrow's warning, gave but a supreme


s: Whose flood was all for the flame's fury bent.


s: Alas! I said, -- the world is in the wrong.


s: That thrilled the foremost of that martyred throng


s: Thrilled me, and I awoke . . . and was the same


s: Bewildered insect plunging for the flame


s: That burns, and must burn somehow for the best.


s: And look at the rank weeds and the strange grass,


s: The torn blue curtains and the broken glass,


s: And something stiffens up and down my face,


s: With his dead eyes turned on me all aglaze.


s: That once long after midnight, years ago,


s: A stranger galloped up from Tilbury Town,


s: Who brushed, and scared, and all but overran


s: That skirt-crazed reprobate, John Evereldown.


s: To rift this changeless glimmer of dead gray;


s: To put these little sonnet-men to flight


s: Songs without souls, that flicker for a day,


s: What does it mean, this barren age of ours?


s: Here are the men, the women, and the flowers,


s: What does it mean?  Shall not one bard arise


s: To wrench one banner from the western skies,


s: Give him the darkest inch your shelf allows,


s: Hide him in lonely garrets, if you will, --


s: But his hard, human pulse is throbbing still


s: With the sure strength that fearless truth endows.


s: Of his plain excellence and stubborn skill


s: There yet remains what fashion cannot kill,


s: Though years have thinned the laurel from his brows.


s: In books that are as altars where we kneel


s: To consecrate the flicker, not the flame.


s: Of lost, imperial music, played when fair


s: Dead leaves to garlands where no roses are.


s: For one that welcomes, welcomes when he fears,


s: For through it all, -- above, beyond it all, --


s: I know the far-sent message of the years,


s: I shall have killed one grief, at any rate;


s: For then, thank God, I shall not have to wait


s: Much longer for the sheaves that I have sown.


s: But here I am, and here are six or eight


s: Good friends, who most ingenuously prate


s: But everything is all askew to-night, --


s: As if the time were come, or almost come,


s: To lose itself and crumble out of sight,


s: Like a tall ship that floats above the foam


s: A little while, and then breaks utterly.


s: The master and the slave go hand in hand,


s: Though touch be lost.  The poet is a slave,


s: The joyance that a scullion may command.


s: But, ah, the sonnet-slave must understand


s: The mission of his bondage, or the grave


s: May clasp his bones, or ever he shall save


s: The perfect word that is the poet's wand!


s: The sonnet is a crown, whereof the rhymes


s: But shapes and echoes that are never done


s: Will haunt the workshop, as regret sometimes


s: Will bring with human yearning to sad thrones


s: The crash of battles that are never won.


s: Why do you dig like long-clawed scavengers


s: To touch the covered corpse of him that fled


s: Like a sick satyr with doom's worshippers?


s: Come! let the grass grow there; and leave his verse


s: Let the man go:  let the dead flesh be dead,


s: Song sloughs away the sin to find redress


s: In art's complete remembrance:  nothing clings


s: For long but laurel to the stricken brow


s: That felt the Muse's finger; nothing less


s: Than hell's fulfilment of the end of things


s: Can blot the star that shines on Paris now.


s: The measure of love's wisdom with a blow, --


s: And end this murmur for the life we live?


s: To win strange faith, why do we shun to know


s: God's wholeness gleams with light superlative?


s: Oh, brother men, if you have eyes at all,


s: Look at a branch, a bird, a child, a rose, --


s: Or anything God ever made that grows, --


s: Till you can read, as on Belshazzar's wall,


s: There is a drear and lonely tract of hell


s: A flat, sad land it is, where shadows are,


s: Whose lorn estate my verse may never tell.


s: I walked among them and I knew them well:


s: Men I had slandered on life's little star


s: For churls and sluggards; and I knew the scar


s: Into the dark they vanished, one by one,


s: Till, with a shaft of God's eternal day,


s: The dream of all my glory was undone, --


s: I heard the dead men singing in the sun.


s: Look you, Dominie; look you, and listen!


s: Look in my face, first; search every line there;


s: Mark every feature, -- chin, lip, and forehead!


s: You read there; measure my nose, and tell me


s: Where I am wanting!  A man's nose, Dominie,


s: So mark mine well.  But why do you smile so?


s: This face of mine, with a brute's confession?


s: Nothing but sin there? nothing but hell-scars?


s: Or is it because there is something better --


s: Of something that's followed me down from childhood --


s: Followed me all these years and kept me,


s: Just out of hell?  Yes? something of that kind?


s: And you smile for that?  You're a good man, Dominie,


s: The one good man in the world who knows me, --


s: My one good friend in a world that mocks me,


s: Here in this hard stone cage.  But I leave it


s: To-morrow.  To-morrow!  My God! am I crying?


s: Are these things tears?  Tears!  What! am I frightened?


s: I, who swore I should go to the scaffold


s: With big strong steps, and --  No more.  I thank you,


s: But no -- I am all right now!  No! -- listen!


s: I am here to be hanged; to be hanged to-morrow


s: And why am I here?  Not a soul can tell you


s: But this poor shivering thing before you,


s: This fluttering wreck of the man God made him,


s: For God knows what wild reason.  Hear me,


s: And learn from my lips the truth of my story.


s: There's nothing strange in what I shall tell you,


s: Nothing mysterious, nothing unearthly, --


s: But damnably human, -- and you shall hear it.


s: Not one of those little black lawyers had guessed it;


s: The judge, with his big bald head, never knew it;


s: And the jury (God rest their poor souls!) never dreamed it.


s: Once there were three in the world who could tell it;


s: Now there are two.  There'll be two to-morrow, --


s: You, my friend, and --  But there's the story: --


s: I never knew then that the men and the women


s: Who petted and called me a brave big fellow


s: Were ever less happy than I; but wisdom --


s: Which comes with the years, you know -- soon showed me


s: The secret of all my glittering childhood,


s: That held my life in the fresh, glad season


s: When I was the king of the earth.  Then slowly --


s: And yet so swiftly! -- there came the knowledge


s: That the marvellous life I had lived was my life;


s: That the glorious world I had loved was my world;


s: Wrought with a different heat, and fired


s: That the pleasure I felt was not their pleasure,


s: Nor my sorrow -- a kind of nameless pity


s: For something, I knew not what -- their sorrow.


s: And thus was I taught my first hard lesson, --


s: The lesson we suffer the most in learning:


s: I cherished and made my wife, no matter.


s: Enough to say that I found her and kept her


s: Here in my heart with as pure a devotion


s: As ever Christ felt for his brothers.  Forgive me


s: For naming His name in your patient presence;


s: But I feel my words, and the truth I utter


s: Is God's own truth.  I loved that woman, --


s: Not for her face, but for something fairer,


s: Something diviner, I thought, than beauty:


s: I loved the spirit -- the human something


s: That seemed to chime with my own condition,


s: And make soul-music when we were together;


s: And we were never apart, from the moment


s: My eyes flashed into her eyes the message


s: Back through my strange lost being.  My pulses


s: Leapt with an aching speed; and the measure


s: Of this great world grew small and smaller,


s: Till it seemed the sky and the land and the ocean


s: Around us two.  And we stood for a season


s: That we were the king and the queen of the fire


s: That reddened the clouds of love that held us


s: Blind to the new world soon to be ours --


s: Of that great love was a nameless passion,


s: Bright as the blaze of the sun at noonday,


s: Wild as the flames of hell; but, mark you,


s: Burned like a worm, and perished; and nothing


s: Was left me then but a soul that mingled


s: Itself with hers, and swayed and shuddered


s: That wrecked my life for the sake of a woman


s: Who broke with a laugh the chains of her marriage


s: The chains themselves were enough to lead her


s: In love's despite to break them. . . .  Sinners


s: And saints -- I say -- are rocked in the cradle,


s: But never are known till the will within them


s: Speaks in its own good time.  So I foster


s: Even to-night for the woman who wronged me,


s: Nothing of hate, nor of love, but a feeling


s: Of still regret; for the man --  But hear me,


s: Changed and passed in a sweet succession


s: That seemed to me like an endless music:


s: Life was a rolling psalm, and the choirs


s: Of God were glad for our love.  I fancied


s: All this, and more than I dare to tell you


s: To-night, -- yes, more than I dare to remember;


s: And then -- well, the music stopped.  There are moments


s: In all men's lives when it stops, I fancy, --


s: Or seems to stop, -- till it comes to cheer them


s: To give to their sight new joys -- new sorrows --


s: Or nothing at all, sometimes.  I was watching


s: The slow, sweet scenes of a golden picture,


s: That made the murmur of home, when I shuddered


s: And felt like a knife that awful silence


s: That comes when the music goes -- forever.


s: The truth came over my life like a darkness


s: Worse than alone.  For a time I staggered


s: And dodged like a frightened thing before me,


s: To quit me at last, and vanish.  Nothing


s: Was left me then but the curse of living


s: And bearing through all my days the fever


s: And thirst of a poisoned love.  Were I stronger,


s: Or weaker, perhaps my scorn had saved me,


s: With hate for her and the world that praised her --


s: To have left her, then and there -- to have conquered


s: That old false life with a new and a wiser, --


s: Such things are easy in words.  You listen,


s: And frown, I suppose, that I never mention


s: That beautiful word, FORGIVE! -- I forgave her


s: And then I tried to forget.  Forgiveness!


s: The credulous fool that holds her, and tells him


s: A thousand things of a good man's mercy,


s: And then slips off with a laugh and plunges


s: Back to the sin she has quit for a season,


s: To tell him that hell and the world are better


s: For her than a prophet's heaven?  Believe me,


s: The love that dies ere its flames are wasted


s: That burns back into the heart that feeds it.


s: For I loved her still, and the more she mocked me, --


s: Fooled with her endless pleading promise


s: Of future faith, -- the more I believed her


s: The penitent thing she seemed; and the stronger


s: Her choking arms and her small hot kisses


s: The more she grew to the heavenly creature


s: That brightened the life I had lost forever.


s: The truth was gone somehow for the moment;


s: The curtain fell for a time; and I fancied


s: But scenes like these, too often repeated,


s: Failed at last, and her guile was wasted.


s: And told her a few straight words.  She took them


s: Full at their worth -- and the farce was over.


s: At first my dreams of the past upheld me,


s: But they were a short support:  the present


s: Pushed them away, and I fell.  The mission


s: Of that foul deal as a sick slave gathers


s: His painful strength at the sight of his master;


s: And when he was past I cursed him, fearful


s: Of that strange chance which makes us mighty


s: Or mean, or both.  I cursed him and hated


s: The stones he pressed with his heel; I followed


s: And cursed myself for the beast within me.


s: But pride is the master of love, and the vision


s: Of those old days grew faint and fainter:


s: If I am the winner now! . . .  I doubt it.


s: My life is a losing game; and to-morrow --


s: To-morrow! -- Christ! did I say to-morrow? . . .


s: Is your brandy good for death? . . .  There, -- listen: --


s: To shun mankind for the scars that make him


s: A joke for all chattering tongues, he carries


s: Their faces and made for myself the story


s: Of all their scattered lives.  Like brothers


s: And sisters they seemed to me then; and I nourished


s: A stranger friendship wrought in my fancy


s: Between those people and me.  But somehow,


s: As time went on, there came queer glances


s: Out of their eyes, and the shame that stung me


s: Harassed my pride with a crazed impression


s: Was turned to me; and I saw sly whispers,


s: With all my sorrow the sorrows of others, --


s: Till I found myself their fool.  Then I trembled, --


s: A poor scared thing, -- and their prying faces


s: Told me the ghastly truth:  they were laughing


s: At me and my fate.  My God, I could feel it --


s: That laughter!  And then the children caught it;


s: And I, like a struck dog, crept and listened.


s: And then when I met the man who had weakened


s: It seemed to me that all hell were laughing


s: In fiendish concert!  I was their victim --


s: And his, and hate's.  And there was the struggle!


s: As long as the earth we tread holds something


s: Of life is not wholly blurred; but after


s: The last loved thing in the world has left us,


s: Of sin is the light that leads us downward --


s: Right through hell; and the souls that follow


s: The cursed ways where its windings lead them


s: All grace that a God can give. --  The fashion


s: In sin's tight snares to eternal glory --


s: Who carry through life their faces graven


s: With sure brute scars that tell the story


s: May flower in hell, when its roots are twisted


s: And wound with the roots of vice; but the stronger


s: Never is known till there comes that battle


s: Things are these demons we call our passions:


s: Fools of their devilish glee. --  You think me,


s: I know, in this maundering way designing


s: To lighten the load of my guilt and cast it


s: Half on the shoulders of God.  But hear me!


s: I'm partly a man, -- for all my weakness, --


s: Before men's eyes the man who had murdered


s: With horns for the world to laugh at.  Trust me!


s: And try to believe my words but a portion


s: Of what God's purpose made me!  The coward


s: That women and men are on earth to travel


s: The roads may meet. . . .  I trust in something --


s: Stung with the shame and the secret fury


s: That comes to the man who has thrown his pittance


s: Till at last the devil spoke.  I heard him,


s: And laughed at the love that strove to touch me, --


s: The dead, lost love; and I gripped the demon


s: Close to my breast, and held him, praising


s: The fates and the furies that gave me the courage


s: Of all to come when the work was over, --


s: Of these three hundred days, -- I cherished


s: And weighed the thing in my mind, and gloried


s: Death at his own dark door, -- and chuckled


s: To think of it done so cleanly.  One evening


s: I knew that my time had come.  I shuddered


s: A little, but rather for doubt than terror,


s: And followed him, -- led by the nameless devil


s: I worshipped and called my brother.  The city


s: Shone like a dream that night; the windows


s: Flashed with a piercing flame, and the pavements


s: Pulsed and swayed with a warmth -- or something


s: That seemed so then to my feet -- and thrilled me


s: And men, like marvellous things of magic,


s: Floated and laughed and sang by my shoulder,


s: A murmur of life, like bees; and I listened


s: And laughed again to think of the flower


s: That grew, blood-red, for me! . . .  This fellow


s: Was one of the popular sort who flourish


s: Unruffled where gods would fall.  For a conscience


s: The man of the time and the place, whatever


s: The time or the place might be.  Were he sounding,


s: With a genial craft that cloaked its purpose,


s: Fooled with his brainless art, or sending


s: The midnight home with songs and bottles, --


s: Shone with the smooth and slippery polish


s: That tells the snake.  That night he drifted


s: Whatever it was -- with a soft assurance


s: Gripping his death, and waited.  Coward,


s: I think, is the name the world has given


s: Thought of my own disgrace when I shot him --


s: Yes, in the back, -- I know it, I know it


s: Now; but what if I do? . . .  As I watched him


s: Lying there dead in the scattered sawdust,


s: That things were still; that the walnut tables,


s: Where men but a moment before were sitting,


s: Were gone; that a screen of something around me


s: Shut them out of my sight.  But the gilded


s: Flashed from the walls above, and the mirrors


s: Burned like death, and I fell.  The story


s: What does the whole thing mean?  What are we, --


s: Pulled by a fiend? or gods, without knowing it?


s: Do we shut from ourselves our own salvation, --


s: There are times in the lives of us poor devils


s: When heaven and hell get mixed.  Though conscience


s: May come like a whisper of Christ to warn us


s: Away from our sins, it is lost or laughed at, --


s: And then we fall.  And for all who have fallen --


s: Than mine must shrive him. --  And I -- I am going


s: Into the light? -- or into the darkness?


s: Why do I sit through these sickening hours,


s: And hope?  Good God! are they hours? -- hours?


s: Yes!  I am done with days.  And to-morrow --


s: We two may meet!  To-morrow! --  To-morrow! . . .


s: That sang them is a name.  And so is God


s: A name; and so is love, and life, and death,


s: And everything.  But we, who are too blind


s: To read what we have written, or what faith


s: Last night it was the song that was the man,


s: But there are some that hear him, and they know


s: That he shall sing to-morrow for all men,


s: And that no names are dead names.  When we write


s: Men's letters on proud marble or on sand,


s: Ye gods that have a home beyond the world,


s: Ye that have seen this woe that we have seen, --


s: Here on the shattered corpse of a shattered king,


s: Here on a suffering world where men grow old


s: And wander like sad shadows till, at last,


s: O shades of you that loved him long before


s: The cruel threads of that black sail were spun,


s: Here in this flickering dance of changing days,


s: Where a battle is lost and won for a withered wreath,


s: Woe for the fateful day when Delphi's word was lost --


s: Woe for the loveless prince of Aethra's line!


s: Woe for a father's tears and the curse of a king's release --


s: Woe for the wings of pride and the shafts of doom! --


s: Sing the fell tidings back to that thrice unhappy ship! --


s: A dirge for the sundered years and a dirge for the years to be!


s: Better his end had been as the end of a cloudless day,


s: Bright, by the word of Zeus, with a golden star,


s: Wrought of a golden fame, and flung to the central sky,


s: To gleam on a stormless tomb for evermore: --


s: The sheen of his purple robe and the shine of his diadem,


s: But the fates are ever the fates, and a crown is ever a crown.


s: Come away! come away! there's a frost along the marshes,


s: _Come away! come away! you can hear them calling, calling,


s: Calling us to come to them, and roam no more.


s: Over there beyond the ridges and the land that lies between us,


s: There's an old song calling us to come!_


s: Come away! come away! -- for the scenes we leave behind us


s: _Come away! come away! there is nothing now to cheer us --


s: Nothing now to comfort us, but love's road home: --


s: Come away! come away! -- or the roving-fiend will hold us,


s: And make us all to dwell with him to the end of human faring:


s: For the freedom that God gave us and the dread we do not know: --


s: _Come away! come away! there are dead men all around us --


s: Frozen men that mock us with a wild, hard laugh


s: To get at the eternal strength of things,


s: And fearlessly to make strong songs of it,


s: The world would call a poet.  He may sing


s: But if he touch to life the one right chord


s: To truth one drowsed ambition, he sings well.


s: We thrill too strangely at the master's touch;


s: We shrink too sadly from the larger self


s: We dare not feel it yet -- the splendid shame


s: The while we groan, that God's accomplishment


s: To mortal ears the plainest word may ring


s: Did ring the prayers of man-made maniacs;


s: But if that word be the plain word of Truth,


s: To brainless carnage by drunk trumpeters.


s: Rings like a lonely music played in hell


s: By one with art enough to cleave the walls


s: While we are drilled in error, we are lost


s: Alike to truth and usefulness.  We think


s: We are great warriors now, and we can brag


s: Like Titans; but the world is growing young,


s: And we, the fools of time, are growing with it: --


s: We are too proud of death, and too ashamed


s: There is one battle-field whereon we fall


s: To fight there till our days are whirled and blurred


s: Of anguish take us eastward, where the clouds


s: Of human gloom are lost against the gleam


s: That shines on Thought's impenetrable mail.


s: When we shall hear no more the cradle-songs


s: Of ages -- when the timeless hymns of Love


s: Defeat them and outsound them -- we shall know


s: The rapture of that large release which all


s: Right science comprehends; and we shall read,


s: That record of All-Soul whereon God writes


s: The guerdon of new childhood is repose: --


s: Once he has read the primer of right thought,


s: A man may claim between two smithy strokes


s: God's parallel completeness in the vague


s: There is no loneliness: -- no matter where


s: We go, nor whence we come, nor what good friends


s: And though forlornly joyless be the ways


s: Of Wisdom shaft the darkness here and there,


s: Like scattered lamps in unfrequented streets.


s: When one that you and I had all but sworn


s: An angel has come back restigmatized, --


s: Faith wavers, and we wonder what there is


s: Where does a dead man go? --  The dead man dies;


s: But the free life that would no longer feed


s: And when the dead man goes it seems to me


s: With weeping, and be glad that he is gone.


s: Still through the dusk of dead, blank-legended,


s: To get where life begins, and still we groan


s: Where no spark ever was; and thus we die,


s: Still searching, like poor old astronomers


s: With conscious eyes not yet sincere enough


s: To pierce the glimmered cloud that fluctuates


s: That screens itself with knowledge, I discern


s: The searching rays of wisdom that reach through


s: Like mine have any message for the dead.


s: I grant you friendship is a royal thing,


s: His best friend in himself.  'T is then, perforce,


s: Of its own conscious freedom the old shame,


s: And love's revealed infinitude supplants


s: Of its own wealth and wisdom the old scorn.


s: Though the sick beast infect us, we are fraught


s: Transitional, transcendent.  Grief and loss,


s: That flouts deformity and laughs at years.


s: We lack the courage to be where we are: --


s: We love too much to travel on old roads,


s: To triumph on old fields; we love too much


s: Something as one with eyes that look below


s: The battle-smoke to glimpse the foeman's charge,


s: We through the dust of downward years may scan


s: Where blood pays blood for nothing, and where life


s: Pays life to madness, till at last the ports


s: Of gilded helplessness be battered through


s: To you that sit with Sorrow like chained slaves,


s: I would say this:  The night will never come,


s: Are not enough; your eyes are not enough;


s: Like a white wall whereon forever breaks


s: With its imperial silence the lost waves


s: Of insufficient grief.  This mortal surge


s: That beats against us now is nothing else


s: Than plangent ignorance.  Truth neither shakes


s: Nor wavers; but the world shakes, and we shriek.


s: Which is itself all music.  Stronger notes


s: Than any that have ever touched the world


s: Must ring to tell it -- ring like hammer-blows,


s: On anvils, in the gleaming of God's forge.


s: The prophet of dead words defeats himself:


s: The foregleam and the glory of the real,


s: Must work with something else than pen and ink


s: With unseen implements that have no names,


s: And he must win withal, to do that work,


s: Good fortitude, clean wisdom, and strong skill.


s: To curse the chilled insistence of the dawn


s: Because the free gleam lingers; to defraud


s: These are the fleshly clogs of human greed,


s: Forebodings are the fiends of Recreance;


s: The master of the moment, the clean seer


s: He sees beyond the groaning borough lines


s: Of Hell, God's highways gleaming, and he knows


s: That Love's complete communion is the end


s: But yet companioned.  There the vessel goes,


s: And there my friend goes with it; but the wake


s: That melts and ebbs between that friend and me


s: Love's earnest is of Life's all-purposeful


s: And all-triumphant sailing, when the ships


s: Of Wisdom loose their fretful chains and swing


s: Forever from the crumbled wharves of Time.


s: So are the common, concrete things of life


s: Divinely shadowed on the walls of Thought.


s: We shriek to live, but no man ever lives


s: Till he has rid the ghost of human breath;


s: Till he has quit the road that runs to death.


s: We were all boys, and three of us were friends;


s: And we were more than friends, it seemed to me: --


s: Yes, we were more than brothers then, we three. . . .


s: Brothers? . . .  But we were boys, and there it ends.


s: And James has vanished from our view, --


s: Where the sun's light shone silvered and leaf-split;


s: The boom, the foam, and the mad flash of it


s: And turn to gold the silver of that spray,


s: I shuddered.  Yet a gladness now and then


s: For screaming saws to sound above the chime


s: Were steps to the great place where trees and torrents go.


s: Now in a thought, now in a shadowed word,


s: Of some transcendent music I have heard;


s: No piteous thing by soft hands dulcimered,


s: But a glad strain of some still symphony


s: That no proud mortal touch has ever stirred.


s: There is no music in the world like this,


s: No kind of instrument?  Ah, yes, there is!


s: And after time and place are overthrown,


s: God's touch will keep its one chord quivering.


s: On stretchers stiff and bleared with blood;


s: Through sickly fields all shrapnel-sown,


s: With flowers of flame festoon the night.


s: I've cheered my heart with scraps of song.


s: Ringing and swinging of clamorous bells,


s: There will be little of sleeping to-night;


s: There will be wailing and weeping to-night;


s: "But it isn't playing the game," he said,


s: "The Latin and Greek I've got in my head


s: D'ye think he'd listen?  Oh, not at all:


s: Now he's finished with,--nothing to show:


s: For his hand was clenched on his broken blade,


s: And I called him a fool . . . oh how blind was I!


s: So long as we've fond and fearless fools,


s: Turn out with the rallying cry of their schools,


s: He died with the glory of faith in his eyes,


s: And though there's never a grave to tell,


s: Thank God! we know that he "batted well"


s: Sez I:  My Country calls?  Well, let it call.


s: I grins perlitely and declines wiv thanks.


s: Go, let 'em plaster every blighted wall,


s: 'Ere's _ONE_ they don't stampede into the ranks.


s: Them politicians with their greasy ways;


s: Them empire-grabbers--fight for 'em?  No fear!


s: I've seen this mess a-comin' from the days


s: But . . . wot the 'ell, Bill?  Wot the 'ell?


s: Sez I:  My Country?  Mine?  I likes their cheek.


s: Me mud-bespattered by the cars they drive,


s: And sweats red blood to keep meself alive!


s: Fight for the right to slave that they may spend,


s: Them in their mansions, me 'ere in my slum?


s: No, let 'em fight wot's something to defend:


s: But me, I've nothin'--let the Kaiser come.


s: Sez I:  If they would do the decent thing,


s: And shield the missis and the little 'uns,


s: Why, even _I_ might shout "God save the King",


s: And face the chances of them 'ungry guns.


s: But we've got three, another on the way;


s: It's that wot makes me snarl and set me jor:


s: The wife and nippers, wot of 'em, I say,


s: If I gets knocked out in this blasted war?


s: Ay, wot the 'ell's the use of all this talk?


s: To-day some boys in blue was passin' me,


s: And some of 'em they 'ad no legs to walk,


s: And some of 'em they 'ad no eyes to see.


s: And--well, I couldn't look 'em in the face,


s: To face the music with the bunch out there.


s: . . . So I walked among the willows very quietly all night;


s: There was no moon at all, at all; no timid star alight;


s: There was no light at all, at all; I wint from tree to tree,


s: And I called him as his mother called, but he nivver answered me.


s: Oh I called him all the night-time, as I walked the wood alone;


s: And I listened and I listened, but I nivver heard a moan;


s: Then I found him at the dawnin', when the sorry sky was red:


s: I was lookin' for the livin', but I only found the dead.


s: Sure I know that it was Shamus by the silver cross he wore;


s: But the bugles they were callin', and I heard the cannon roar.


s: Oh I had no time to tarry, so I said a little prayer,


s: And I clasped his hands together, and I left him lyin' there.


s: Now the birds are singin', singin', and I'm home in Donegal,


s: And it's Springtime, and I'm thinkin' that I only dreamed it all;


s: Where I knelt beside me brother when the battle-dawn was red.


s: Where I prayed beside me brother ere I wint to fight anew:


s: Such dreams as these are evil dreams; I can't believe it's true.


s: 'Twas calling me to pull my freight and hop across the sea.


s: And a-mending of my fish-nets sure I started up in wonder,


s: For I heard a savage roaring and 'twas coming from afar;


s: Oh the wife she tried to tell me that 'twas only summer thunder,


s: And she laughed a bit sarcastic when I told her it was War;


s: 'Twas the chariots of battle where the mighty armies are.


s: Oh the dogs they took to howling, and the missis took to crying,


s: As I flung my silver foxes in the little birch canoe:


s: Yes, the old girl stood a-blubbing till an island hid the view.


s: For I joined the Foreign Legion, and they put me for a starter


s: In the trenches of the Argonne with the Boche a step away;


s: And the partner on my right hand was an 'apache' from Montmartre;


s: (Poor fellow!  They collected him in bits the other day.)


s: But I'm sprier than a chipmunk, save a touch of the lumbago,


s: And they calls me Old Methoosalah, and 'blagues' me all the day.


s: And laugh to see me plug a Boche a half a mile away.


s: Oh I hold the highest record in the regiment, they say.


s: And at night they gather round me, and I tell them of my roaming


s: In the Country of the Crepuscule beside the Frozen Sea,


s: Where the musk-ox runs unchallenged, and the cariboo goes homing;


s: Men of every crime and colour, how they harken unto me!


s: And I tell them of the Furland, of the tumpline and the paddle,


s: Of secret rivers loitering, that no one will explore;


s: And I tell them of the ranges, of the pack-strap and the saddle,


s: And I find myself a-thinking:  Sure I wish that I was back.


s: So I brag of bear and beaver while the batteries are roaring,


s: And the fellows on the firing steps are blazing at the foe;


s: And I yarn of fur and feather when the 'marmites' are a-soaring,


s: And they listen to my stories, seven 'poilus' in a row,


s: Seven lean and lousy 'poilus' with their cigarettes aglow.


s: And I tell them when it's over how I'll hike for Athabaska;


s: And I'll get my traps in order, and I'll start to work anew.


s: And a city all a-smoulder, and . . . as if it really mattered,


s: For the lake is yonder dreaming, and my cabin's on the shore;


s: And the dogs are leaping madly, and the wife is singing gladly,


s: And I'll rest in Athabaska, and I'll leave it nevermore.


s: _Tramp, tramp, the grim road, the road from Mons to Wipers


s: (I've 'ammered out this ditty with me bruised and bleedin' feet);


s: And bellies that was 'oller was the drums we 'ad to beat.


s: Tramp, tramp, the bad road, the bits o' kiddies cryin' there,


s: The fell birds a-flyin' there, the 'ouses all aflame;


s: Tramp, tramp, the sad road, the pals I left a-lyin' there,


s: Red there, and dead there. . . .  Oh blimy, it's a shame!_


s: A-singin' "'Oo's Yer Lady Friend?" we started out from 'Arver,


s: A-singin' till our froats was dry--we didn't care a 'ang;


s: The Frenchies 'ow they lined the way, and slung us their palaver,


s: And all the pretty gels was out to kiss us as we passed;


s: And 'ow they all went dotty when we 'owled the Marcelaisey!


s: Oh, Gawd!  Them was the 'appy days, the days too good to last.


s: We started out for God Knows Where, we started out a-roarin';


s: We 'ollered:  "'Ere We Are Again", and 'struth! but we was dry.


s: The dust was gummin' up our ears, and 'ow the sweat was pourin';


s: The road was long, the sun was like a brazier in the sky.


s: We wondered where the 'Uns was--we wasn't long a-wonderin',


s: For down a scruff of 'ill-side they rushes like a flood;


s: Then oh! 'twas music 'eavenly, our batteries a-thunderin',


s: And arms and legs went soarin' in the fountain of their blood.


s: For on they came like bee-swarms, a-hochin' and a-singin';


s: We pumped the bullets into 'em, we couldn't miss a shot.


s: You should 'ave 'eard the beggars squeal;


s: And 'ow we cussed and wondered when the word came:  Retreat!


s: Retreat!  That was the 'ell of it.  It fair upset our 'abits,


s: A-runnin' from them blighters over 'alf the roads of France;


s: A-scurryin' before 'em like a lot of blurry rabbits,


s: And knowin' we could smash 'em if we just 'ad 'alf a chance.


s: Retreat!  That was the bitter bit, a-limpin' and a-blunderin';


s: All day and night a-hoofin' it and sleepin' on our feet;


s: A-fightin' rear guard actions for a bit o' rest, and wonderin'


s: If sugar beets or mangels was the 'olesomest to eat.


s: Ho yus, there isn't many left that started out so cheerily;


s: There was no bands a-playin' and we 'ad no autmobeels.


s: Our tummies they was 'oller, and our 'eads was 'angin' wearily,


s: The stiffs that lined the wayside, me own pals a-lyin' there,


s: Their faces covered over wiv a little 'eap of stror.


s: _Tramp, tramp, the red road, the wicked bullets 'ummin'


s: (I've panted out this ditty with me 'ot 'ard breath.)


s: Tramp, tramp, the dread road, the Boches all a-comin',


s: The lootin' and the shootin' and the shrieks o' death.


s: Tramp, tramp, the fell road, the mad 'orde pursuin' there,


s: And 'ow we 'urled it back again, them grim, grey waves;


s: Tramp, tramp, the 'ell road, the 'orror and the ruin there,


s: The graves of me mateys there, the grim, sour graves._


s: "Hae ye heard whit ma auld mither's postit tae me?


s: It fair maks me hamesick," says Private McPhee.


s: "And whit did she send ye?" says Private McPhun,


s: As he cockit his rifle and bleezed at a Hun.


s: "A haggis!  A _HAGGIS!_" says Private McPhee;


s: And think! it's the morn when fond memory turns


s: Tae haggis and whuskey--the Birthday o' Burns.


s: We maun find a dram; then we'll ca' in the rest


s: O' the lads, and we'll hae a Burns' Nicht wi' the best."


s: "Be ready at sundoon," snapped Sergeant McCole;


s: "I want you two men for the List'nin' Patrol."


s: Then Private McPhee looked at Private McPhun:


s: "I'm thinkin', ma lad, we're confoundedly done."


s: Then Private McPhun looked at Private McPhee:


s: "I'm thinkin' auld chap, it's a' aff wi' oor spree."


s: But up spoke their crony, wee Wullie McNair:


s: "Jist lea' yer braw haggis for me tae prepare;


s: And as for the dram, if I search the camp roun',


s: We maun hae a drappie tae jist haud it doon.


s: Sae rin, lads, and think, though the nicht it be black,


s: O' the haggis that's waitin' ye when ye get back."


s: My! but it wis waesome on Naebuddy's Land,


s: And the deid they were rottin' on every hand.


s: And the rockets like corpse candles hauntit the sky,


s: And the winds o' destruction went shudderin' by.


s: There wis skelpin' o' bullets and skirlin' o' shells,


s: And breengin' o' bombs and a thoosand death-knells;


s: But cooryin' doon in a Jack Johnson hole


s: Little fashed the twa men o' the List'nin' Patrol.


s: For sweeter than honey and bricht as a gem


s: Wis the thocht o' the haggis that waitit for them.


s: Yet alas! in oor moments o' sunniest cheer


s: And while the twa talked o' their puddin' divine


s: The Boches below them were howkin' a mine.


s: And while the twa cracked o' the feast they would hae,


s: The fuse it wis burnin' and burnin' away.


s: Then sudden a roar like the thunner o' doom,


s: A hell-leap o' flame . . . then the wheesht o' the tomb.


s: "Haw, Jock!  Are ye hurtit?" says Private McPhun.


s: "Ay, Geordie, they've got me; I'm fearin' I'm done.


s: It's ma leg; I'm jist thinkin' it's aff at the knee;


s: Ye'd best gang and leave me," says Private McPhee.


s: "Oh leave ye I wunna," says Private McPhun;


s: "And leave ye I canna, for though I micht run,


s: It's no faur I wud gang, it's no muckle I'd see:


s: I'm blindit, and that's whit's the maitter wi' me."


s: Then Private McPhee sadly shakit his heid:


s: "If we bide here for lang, we'll be bidin' for deid.


s: And yet, Geordie lad, I could gang weel content


s: If I'd tasted that haggis ma auld mither sent."


s: "That's droll," says McPhun; "ye've jist speakit ma mind.


s: Oh I ken it's a terrible thing tae be blind;


s: And yet it's no that that embitters ma lot--


s: It's missin' that braw muckle haggis ye've got."


s: For a while they were silent; then up once again


s: Spoke Private McPhee, though he whussilt wi' pain:


s: "And why should we miss it?  Between you and me


s: We've legs for tae run, and we've eyes for tae see.


s: You lend me your shanks and I'll lend you ma sicht,


s: And we'll baith hae a kyte-fu' o' haggis the nicht."


s: Oh the sky it wis dourlike and dreepin' a wee,


s: When Private McPhun gruppit Private McPhee.


s: Oh the glaur it wis fylin' and crieshin' the grun',


s: When Private McPhee guidit Private McPhun.


s: "Keep clear o' them corpses--they're maybe no deid!


s: Haud on!  There's a big muckle crater aheid.


s: Look oot!  There's a sap; we'll be haein' a coup.


s: A staur-shell!  For Godsake!  Doun, lad, on yer daup.


s: Bear aff tae yer richt. . . .  Aw yer jist daein' fine:


s: Before the nicht's feenished on haggis we'll dine."


s: There wis death and destruction on every hand;


s: There wis havoc and horror on Naebuddy's Land.


s: And the shells bickered doun wi' a crump and a glare,


s: And the hameless wee bullets were dingin' the air.


s: Yet on they went staggerin', cooryin' doun


s: When the stutter and cluck o' a Maxim crept roun'.


s: And the legs o' McPhun they were sturdy and stoot,


s: And McPhee on his back kept a bonnie look-oot.


s: "On, on, ma brave lad!  We're no faur frae the goal;


s: I can hear the braw sweerin' o' Sergeant McCole."


s: But strength has its leemit, and Private McPhun,


s: Wi' a sab and a curse fell his length on the grun'.


s: Then Private McPhee shoutit doon in his ear:


s: "Jist think o' the haggis!  I smell it from here.


s: It's gushin' wi' juice, it's embaumin' the air;


s: It's steamin' for us, and we're--jist--aboot--there."


s: Then Private McPhun answers:  "Dommit, auld chap!


s: For the sake o' that haggis I'll gang till I drap."


s: And he gets on his feet wi' a heave and a strain,


s: And onward he staggers in passion and pain.


s: And the flare and the glare and the fury increase,


s: Till you'd think they'd jist taken a' hell on a lease.


s: And on they go reelin' in peetifu' plight,


s: And someone is shoutin' away on their right;


s: And someone is runnin', and noo they can hear


s: A sound like a prayer and a sound like a cheer;


s: And swift through the crash and the flash and the din,


s: The lads o' the Hielands are bringin' them in.


s: "They're baith sairly woundit, but is it no droll


s: Hoo they rave aboot haggis?" says Sergeant McCole.


s: When hirplin alang comes wee Wullie McNair,


s: And they a' wonnert why he wis greetin' sae sair.


s: And he says:  "I'd jist liftit it oot o' the pot,


s: And there it lay steamin' and savoury hot,


s: When sudden I dooked at the fleech o' a shell,


s: And oh but the lads were fair taken aback;


s: Then sudden the order wis passed tae attack,


s: And up from the trenches like lions they leapt,


s: And on through the nicht like a torrent they swept.


s: On, on, wi' their bayonets thirstin' before!


s: On, on tae the foe wi' a rush and a roar!


s: And wild to the welkin their battle-cry rang,


s: And doon on the Boches like tigers they sprang:


s: And there wisna a man but had death in his ee,


s: For he thocht o' the haggis o' Private McPhee.


s: The bleared, blood-boltered fields of hate


s: How strange the hush!  Yet sudden, hark!


s: Hurls at us hopes of such strange things


s: (If there's one dead corpse, I'll betcher


s: (Which is 'ard, for 'e's big and I'm small).


s: There's all kinds of 'owlin' and 'ootin';


s: Old sport, you're a-slackin' your grip."


s: Hey, presto!  It's somewheres in France,


s: Them gharstly green star-shells is beamin',


s: And I'm sayin':  "Bert 'Iggins, you're dreamin',


s: You'll wake up and 'ear yourself sayin':


s: 'Would you like, sir, to 'ave a shampoo?'


s: And you've been and you've slaughtered a man.


s: But you wish you was back in your diggin's


s: Oh, you're doin' yer bit, 'Erbert 'Iggins,


s: It's my silly old feet wot are slippin',


s: Just stick it, old sport, play the game.


s: Did you say:  Put you down?  Damn it, no, sir!


s: ('Anged lucky we aren't booked through).


s: Come!  Buck up and greet 'em, my 'earty,


s: With weather at zero it's hard for a hero


s: Oh, weren't they the fine boys!  You never saw the beat of them,


s: Singing all together with their throats bronze-bare;


s: Fighting-fit and mirth-mad, music in the feet of them,


s: Swinging on to glory and the wrath out there.


s: Laughing by and chaffing by, frolic in the smiles of them,


s: On the road, the white road, all the afternoon;


s: Strangers in a strange land, miles and miles and miles of them,


s: Battle-bound and heart-high, and singing this tune:


s: "Come, Yvonne and Juliette!  Come, Mimi, and cheer for them!


s: Throw them flowers and kisses as they pass you by.


s: Aren't they the lovely lads!  Haven't you a tear for them


s: What is it they're singing so?  Some high hymn of Motherland?


s: Some immortal chanson of their Faith and King?


s: 'Marseillaise' or 'Brabanc,on', anthem of that other land,


s: Dears, let us remember it, that song they sing:


s: And yet it seems but yesterday, that great, glad sight of them,


s: Swinging on to battle as the sky grew black and black;


s: But oh their glee and glory, and the great, grim fight of them!--


s: And she kissed him and kissed him, and oh


s: And you're all a-shakin' like you 'ad the chills;


s: And you're green as gorgonzola round the gills;


s: And you want to turn about and do a bunk:


s: You're just sufferin' from funk, funk, funk.


s: To grin and grip your rifle by the butt,


s: As a bunch of shrapnel sprays 'im on the nut;


s: To discover you're a bloomin' bit o' spunk;


s: For that's the way good soldier-men is made.


s: There ain't no bloomin' funk, funk, funk.


s: "Flowers, only flowers--bring me dainty posies,


s: Blossoms for forgetfulness," that was all he said;


s: So we sacked our gardens, violets and roses,


s: Lilies white and bluebells laid we on his bed.


s: Soft his pale hands touched them, tenderly caressing;


s: Soft into his tired eyes came a little light;


s: Such a wistful love-look, gentle as a blessing;


s: There amid the flowers waited he the night.


s: "I would have you raise me; I can see the West then:


s: I would see the sun set once before I go."


s: So he lay a-gazing, seemed to be at rest then,


s: So he lay a-watching rosy castles crumbling,


s: Moats of blinding amber, bastions of flame,


s: Rugged rifts of opal, crimson turrets tumbling;


s: So he lay a-dreaming till the shadows came.


s: "Open wide the window; there's a lark a-singing;


s: There's a glad lark singing in the evening sky.


s: How it's wild with rapture, radiantly winging:


s: Oh it's good to hear that when one has to die.


s: I am horror-haunted from the hell they found me;


s: Ah!  It's good to die so, blossoms all around me,


s: And a kind lark singing in the golden West.


s: "Flowers, song and sunshine, just one thing is wanting,


s: Just the happy laughter of a little child."


s: So we brought our dearest, Doris all-enchanting;


s: Tenderly he kissed her; radiant he smiled.


s: "In the golden peace-time you will tell the story


s: How for you and yours, sweet, bitter deaths were ours. . . .


s: God bless little children!"  So he passed to glory,


s: So we left him sleeping, still amid the flow'rs.


s: I've been sittin' starin', starin' at 'is muddy pair of boots,


s: (Look out there, lad!  That sniper--'e's a dysey when 'e shoots;


s: 'E'll be layin' of you out the same as Jim.)


s: Jim as lies there in the dug-out wiv 'is blanket round 'is 'ead,


s: To keep 'is brains from mixin' wiv the mud;


s: And 'is face as white as putty, and 'is overcoat all red,


s: Like 'e's spilt a bloomin' paint-pot--but it's blood.


s: And I'm tryin' to remember of a time we wasn't pals.


s: 'Ow often we've played 'ookey, 'im and me;


s: And sometimes it was music-'alls, and sometimes it was gals,


s: For when 'e copped Mariar Jones, the one I liked the best,


s: I shook 'is 'and and loaned 'im 'arf a quid;


s: I saw 'im through the parson's job, I 'elped 'im make 'is nest,


s: So when the war broke out, sez 'e:  "Well, wot abaht it, Joe?"


s: "Well, wot abaht it, lad?" sez I to 'im.


s: 'Is missis made a awful fuss, but 'e was mad to go,


s: Well, none of it's been 'eaven, and the most of it's been 'ell,


s: But we've shared our baccy, and we've 'alved our bread.


s: Now wot I wants to know is, why it wasn't me was took?


s: I've only got meself, 'e stands for three.


s: I'm plainer than a louse, while 'e was 'andsome as a dook;


s: 'E was goin' 'ome next Toosday; 'e was 'appy as a lark,


s: And 'e'd just received a letter from 'is kid;


s: And 'e struck a match to show me, as we stood there in the dark,


s: When . . . that bleedin' bullet got 'im on the lid.


s: 'E was killed so awful sudden that 'e 'adn't time to die.


s: 'E sorto jumped, and came down wiv a thud.


s: Them corpsy-lookin' star-shells kept a-streamin' in the sky,


s: And there 'e lay like nothin' in the mud.


s: And there 'e lay so quiet wiv no mansard to 'is 'ead,


s: And I'm sick, and blamed if I can understand:


s: You can blame the war and blast it, but I 'opes it won't be done


s: Till I gets the bloomin' blood-price for me mate.


s: It'll take a bit o' bayonet to level up for Jim;


s: Then if I'm spared I think I'll 'ave a bid,


s: Wiv 'er that was Mariar Jones to take the place of 'im,


s: There's a drip of honeysuckle in the deep green lane;


s: There's old Martin jogging homeward on his worn old wain;


s: There are cherry petals falling, and a cuckoo calling, calling,


s: For you see I'm in the trenches where the crump-crumps fall;


s: Oh I've thought of it so often since I've come down here;


s: And I never dreamt that any place could be so dear;


s: The silvered whinstone houses, and the rosy men in blouses,


s: And the kindly, white-capped women with their eyes spring-clear.


s: And mother's sitting knitting where her roses climb,


s: And the angelus is calling with a soft, soft chime,


s: Oh it's Sunday, for she's wearing of her broidered gown;


s: And she draws the pasture pickets and the cows come down;


s: And Yvonne is dreaming after, but her eyes are blue;


s: And her lips are made for laughter, and her white teeth too;


s: And her mouth is like a cherry, and a dimple mocking merry


s: Is lurking in the very cheek she turns to you.


s: So I walk beside her kindly, and she laughs at me;


s: And I heap her arms with lilac from the lilac tree;


s: And a golden light is welling, and a golden peace is dwelling,


s: And a thousand birds are telling how it's good to be.


s: And what are pouting lips for if they can't be kissed?


s: And I've filled her arms with blossom so she can't resist;


s: And the cows are sadly straying, and her mother must be saying


s: That Yvonne is long delaying . . . _GOD!  HOW CLOSE THAT MISSED!_


s: A nice polite reminder that the Boche are nigh;


s: That we're here to fight like devils, and if need-be die;


s: That from kissing pretty wenches to the frantic firing-benches


s: Of the battered, tattered trenches is a far, far cry.


s: Yet still I'm sitting dreaming in the glare and grime;


s: And once again I'm hearing of them church-bells chime;


s: And how I wonder whether in the golden summer weather


s: We will fetch the cows together when it's milking time. . . .


s: "Where are you going, Young Fellow My Lad,


s: "But you're only a boy, Young Fellow My Lad;


s: "So you're off to France, Young Fellow My Lad,


s: "God bless you and keep you, Young Fellow My Lad,


s: "Don't worry.  I'll soon be back, dear Dad,


s: "Why don't you write, Young Fellow My Lad?


s: And I've had the fire in the parlour lit,


s: "What is the matter, Young Fellow My Lad?


s: I hear them tell that we've gained new ground,


s: God grant, my boy, that you're safe and sound;


s: "They've told me the truth, Young Fellow My Lad:


s: For you passed in the night, Young Fellow My Lad,


s: Of the screaming shell and the battle hell


s: "So you'll live, you'll live, Young Fellow My Lad,


s: In the wood-note wild and the laugh of the child,


s: No, Bill, I'm not a-spooning out no patriotic tosh


s: (The cove be'ind the sandbags ain't a death-or-glory cuss).


s: And though I strafes 'em good and 'ard I doesn't 'ate the Boche,


s: I guess they're mostly decent, just the same as most of us.


s: I guess they loves their 'omes and kids as much as you or me;


s: And just the same as you or me they'd rather shake than fight;


s: And if we'd 'appened to be born at Berlin-on-the-Spree,


s: Oh, I've 'ad more thoughts on a sentry-go


s: I wonder, Bill, if 'Ans and Fritz is wonderin' like me


s: Wot's at the bottom of it all?  Wot all the slaughter's for?


s: 'E thinks 'e's right (of course 'e ain't) but this we both agree,


s: If them as lies in feather beds while we kips in the mud;


s: Don't it seem funny the things you think


s: They talks o' England's glory and a-'oldin' of our trade,


s: Of Empire and 'igh destiny until we're fair flim-flammed;


s: But if it's for the likes o' that that bloody war is made,


s: Then wot I say is:  Empire and 'igh destiny be damned!


s: But Fritz out there will tell you 'e's a-doin' of the same.


s: Trussed on the wire . . . the wire. . . .


s: Caught on the wire . . . the wire. . . .


s: I'm gatherin' flowers by the wayside to lay on the grave of Bill;


s: To see me 'ere in the cornfield, wiv a big bookay in me 'and.


s: For Jim and me we are rough uns, but Bill was one o' the best;


s: We 'listed and learned together to larf at the wust wot comes;


s: Then Bill copped a packet proper, and took 'is departure West,


s: So sudden 'e 'adn't a minit to say good-bye to 'is chums.


s: But not for the love of glory I wouldn't 'ave Jim to know.


s: But some'ow it changes a feller, 'avin' a taste o' war.


s: It 'elps a man to be 'elpful, to know wot 'is pals is worth


s: (Them golden poppies is blazin' like lamps some fairy 'as lit);


s: I likes them blue chaps wot's 'idin' so shylike among the corn.


s: Won't Bill be glad!  We was allus thicker 'n thieves, us three.


s: Quick!  Drop me posy be'ind me.  I watches 'im for a while,


s: So 'e goes away in a 'urry, and I wishes 'im best o' luck,


s: and . . . I stares like a man wot's stuck,


s: Of course I won't never tell 'im, bein' a tactical lad;


s: Oh ye whose hearts are resonant, and ring to War's romance,


s: Hear ye the story of a boy, a peasant boy of France;


s: A lad uncouth and warped with toil, yet who, when trial came,


s: Could feel within his soul upleap and soar the sacred flame;


s: Could stand upright, and scorn and smite, as only heroes may:


s: Oh, harken!  Let me try to tell the tale of Jean Desprez.


s: With fire and sword the Teuton horde was ravaging the land,


s: And there was darkness and despair, grim death on every hand;


s: Red fields of slaughter sloping down to ruin's black abyss;


s: The wolves of war ran evil-fanged, and little did they miss.


s: And on they came with fear and flame, to burn and loot and slay,


s: "Rout out the village, one and all!" the Uhlan Captain said.


s: "Behold!  Some hand has fired a shot.  My trumpeter is dead.


s: They drove the cowering peasants forth, women and babes and men,


s: And from the last, with many a jeer, the Captain chose he ten;


s: But there was one who gazed unseen, who heard the frenzied cries,


s: A Zouave wounded in a ditch, and knowing death was nigh,


s: He laughed with joy:  "Ah! here is where I settle ere I die."


s: They dragged the wounded Zouave out; their rage was like a flame.


s: A blonde, full-blooded man he was, and arrogant of eye;


s: He stared to see with shattered skull his favourite Captain lie.


s: "Nay, do not finish him so quick, this foreign swine," he cried;


s: "Go nail him to the big church door:  he shall be crucified."


s: "Water!  A single drop!" he moaned; but how they jeered at him,


s: And mocked him with an empty cup, and saw his sight grow dim;


s: And as in agony of death with blood his lips were wet,


s: The Prussian Major gaily laughed, and lit a cigarette.


s: But mid the white-faced villagers who cowered in horror by,


s: Was one who saw the woeful sight, who heard the woeful cry:


s: It was the little bare-foot boy who came with cup abrim


s: And walked up to the dying man, and gave the drink to him.


s: A roar of rage!  They seize the boy; they tear him fast away.


s: The Prussian Major swings around; no longer is he gay.


s: His teeth are wolfishly agleam; his face all dark with spite:


s: Quick! give the lad a rifle charged, and set him squarely there,


s: And all his kindred they shall see, and all shall curse his name,


s: And then the dying Zouave heard, and raised his weary head:


s: And I will murmur:  _VIVE LA FRANCE!_ and bless you ere I die."


s: He saw the woods go sheening down; the larks were singing clear;


s: The summer days and summer ways, how bright with hope and bliss!


s: The autumn such a dream of gold . . . and all must end in this:


s: This shining rifle in his hand, that shambles all around;


s: The Zouave there with dying glare; the blood upon the ground;


s: The brutal faces round him ringed, the evil eyes aflame;


s: That Prussian bully standing by, as if he watched a game.


s: "Make haste and shoot," the Major sneered; "a minute more I give;


s: They only saw a bare-foot boy, with blanched and twitching face;


s: They did not see within his eyes the glory of his race;


s: The glory of a million men who for fair France have died,


s: The splendour of self-sacrifice that will not be denied.


s: I'm goin' 'ome to Blighty--ain't I glad to 'ave the chance!


s: I'm loaded up wiv fightin', and I've 'ad my fill o' France;


s: I'm feelin' so excited-like, I want to sing and dance,


s: For I'm goin' 'ome to Blighty in the mawnin'.


s: I'm goin' 'ome to Blighty:  can you wonder as I'm gay?


s: I've got a wound I wouldn't sell for 'alf a year o' pay;


s: A harm that's mashed to jelly in the nicest sort o' way,


s: For it takes me 'ome to Blighty in the mawnin'.


s: 'Ow everlastin' keen I was on gettin' to the front!


s: I'd ginger for a dozen, and I 'elped to bear the brunt;


s: To sniff the air of Blighty in the mawnin'.


s: But oh, the finest scoff will be, when all is done and said,


s: A pint o' Bass in Blighty in the mawnin'.


s: I'm goin' back to Blighty, which I left to strafe the 'Un;


s: I've fought in bloody battles, and I've 'ad a 'eap of fun;


s: But now me flipper's busted, and I think me dooty's done,


s: And I'll kiss me gel in Blighty in the mawnin'.


s: Oh, there be furrin' lands to see, and some of 'em be fine;


s: And there be furrin' gels to kiss, and scented furrin' wine;


s: But there's no land like England, and no other gel like mine:


s: Thank Gawd for dear old Blighty in the mawnin'.


s: When a girl's sixteen, and as poor as she's pretty,


s: And she hasn't a friend and she hasn't a home,


s: As a lamb night-strayed where the wild wolves roam;


s: And that was I; oh, it's seven years now


s: (Some water's run down the Seine since then),


s: And I've almost forgotten the pangs and the tears now,


s: And I've almost taken the measure of men.


s: Oh, I found me a lover who loved me only,


s: And my heart was bruised, and my life was lonely,


s: If he'd come to me with his pockets empty,


s: Then came the War, and of bliss bereft me;


s: All that he had in the world he left me,


s: With the rose-wreathed villa at Viroflay.


s: Then came the news and the tragic story:


s: And he died with my name on his lips, they said.


s: And men look at me with eyes that borrow


s: The brightness of love, but I turn away;


s: And they say that pity from love's not far;


s: Let me tell you all:  last week in the city


s: And the carriage was crowded to overflowing,


s: Two wounded 'poilus' with medals showing,


s: You should have seen them:  they'd slipped death's clutches,


s: But sadder a sight you will rarely find;


s: One had a leg off and walked on crutches,


s: And they both sat down, and the lad was trying


s: And half of the women around were crying,


s: And some of the men had tears in their eyes.


s: How he stirred me, this blind boy, clinging


s: To love and to serve--'twould make life Heaven


s: So I left my 'poilus':  and now you wonder


s: They're bringing my blind boy in at the gate.


s: When first I left Blighty they gave me a bay'nit


s: And told me it 'ad to be smothered wiv gore;


s: But blimey!  I 'aven't been able to stain it,


s: So far as I've gone wiv the vintage of war.


s: For ain't it a fraud! when a Boche and yours truly


s: Gits into a mix in the grit and the grime,


s: 'E jerks up 'is 'ands wiv a yell and 'e's duly


s: At toasting a biscuit me bay'nit's a dandy;


s: For pokin' the fire it comes in werry 'andy;


s: For any old thing but for stickin' a man.


s: 'Ow often I've said:  "'Ere, I'm goin' to press you


s: Into a 'Un till you're seasoned for prime,"


s: And fiercely I rushes to do it, but bless you!


s: I'm 'untin' for someone to christen me bay'nit,


s: Some nice juicy Chewton wot's fightin' in France;


s: I'm fairly down-'earted--'ow _CAN_ yer explain it?


s: As soon as they sees me they ups and surrenders,


s: Extended like monkeys wot's tryin' to climb;


s: And I uses me bay'nit--to slit their suspenders--


s: It's easy to fight when everything's right,


s: And you're mad with the thrill and the glory;


s: It's a different song when everything's wrong,


s: When it's ten against one, and hope there is none,


s: You're glaring and staring and hitting out blind;


s: You're muddy and bloody, but never you mind.


s: It's looking like death, but while you've a breath,


s: And so in the strife of the battle of life


s: It's easy to slave, and starve and be brave,


s: But the man who can meet despair and defeat


s: With a cheer, there's the man of God's choosing;


s: The man who can fight to Heaven's own height


s: Is the man who can fight when he's losing.


s: But show that you haven't a cowardly streak,


s: And though you're unlucky you never are weak.


s: It's looking like hell, but--you never can tell:


s: There are some who drift out in the deserts of doubt,


s: There are others, I know, who in piety go


s: But to labour with zest, and to give of your best,


s: For the sweetness and joy of the giving;


s: To help folks along with a hand and a song;


s: Why, there's the real sunshine of living.


s: Believe in your mission, greet life with a cheer;


s: There's big work to do, and that's why you are here.


s: And at last when you die, let this be your cry:


s: I stand at the sandbags and take my chance;


s: But at night, at night I'm a reckless rover,


s: Romance!  Romance!  How I've dreamed it, writing


s: And the blood of vikings to thrill my heart.


s: But little I thought that my time was coming,


s: As I crawl and I curse the light of the moon.


s: Prone with the dead when a star-shell, bursting,


s: There are ruby stars and they drip and wiggle;


s: And the grasses gleam in a light blood-red;


s: There are emerald stars, and their tails they wriggle,


s: And ghastly they glare on the face of the dead.


s: But the worst of all are the stars of whiteness,


s: Pretty as gems in their silver brightness,


s: Yet oh, it's great to be here with danger,


s: In the devil's pasture a stealthy ranger,


s: When the moon is decently hiding.  Hark!


s: The rustle of grass, or the passing quiver


s: It's only at night when the ghosts awaken,


s: Ugh!  What was that?  It felt like a jelly,


s: That flattish mound in the noisome grass;


s: You three big rats running free of its belly,


s: But if there's horror, there's beauty, wonder;


s: The trench lights gleam and the rockets play.


s: With a rush and a singing a great shell passes;


s: The rifles resentfully bicker and brawl,


s: And here I crouch in the dew-drenched grasses,


s: God!  What a life!  But I must make haste now,


s: It's little the time there is to waste now,


s: My bombs are right and my clippers ready,


s: When I hear a rustle . . . Steady! . . . Steady!


s: There in the dark I can hear him breathing,


s: And my heart beats hard, and my brain is seething,


s: And I know he's a Hun by the smell of his breath.


s: Then:  "Will you surrender?"  I whisper hoarsely,


s: For it's death, swift death to utter a cry.


s: "English schwein-hund!" he murmurs coarsely.


s: "Then we'll fight it out in the dark," say I.


s: So we grip and we slip and we trip and wrestle


s: And I feel my nails in his wind-pipe nestle,


s: And he tries to gouge, but I bite his hand.


s: And he tries to squeal, but I squeeze him tighter:


s: But tell me first, you Teutonic blighter!


s: Have you any children?"  He answers:  "Nein."


s: _NINE!_  Well, I cannot kill such a father,


s: So I tie his hands and I leave him there.


s: Do I finish my little job?  Well, rather;


s: And I get home safe with some light to spare.


s: But oh! with the night--joy, glory, beauty:


s: You want me to tell you a story, a yarn of the firin' line,


s: Of our thin red kharki 'eroes, out there where the bullets whine;


s: Just order another drink, boys, and I'll tell you of Soulful Sam.


s: For a card or a skirt or a beer-mug he 'adn't a friendly word;


s: But when it came down to Scriptures, say!  Wasn't he just a bird!


s: For I--and oh, 'ow I shudder at the 'orror the word conveys!


s: 'Ave been--let me whisper it 'oarsely--a gambler 'alf of me days;


s: I've gambled the 'ole world over, from Monte Carlo to Maine;


s: From Dawson City to Dover, from San Francisco to Spain.


s: And Sam 'e would sit and watch me, as I shuffled a greasy deck,


s: And 'e'd say:  "You're bound to Perdition,"


s: Me crouchin' be'ind a sandbag, tryin' 'ard to keep calm,


s: On its mission of death that bullet 'ustled along, and it caved


s: On through the night it cavorted, seekin' its 'aven of rest,


s: And it zipped through a crack in the sandbags,


s: Was I killed, do you ask?  Oh no, boys.  Why am I sittin' 'ere


s: Gazin' with mournful vision at a mug long empty of beer?


s: I 'ad no 'oly leaflets to baffle a bullet's aim;


s: When he's shot in the head, and worse than dead,


s: However, I say, we brought him in.  _DIABLE!_  The mud was bad;


s: Now there he lies in the dug-out dim, awaiting the ambulance,


s: And the doctor shrugs his shoulders at him,


s: And we squat and smoke at our game of bridge


s: With the usual tiny rosebud mouths and the usual silken curls.


s: "Zut!" I say.  "He has beaten me; for me, I have only two,"


s: And I push the locket beneath his shirt, feeling a little blue.


s: Oh, it isn't cheerful to see a man, the marvellous work of God,


s: Crushed in the mutilation mill, crushed to a smeary clod;


s: Oh, it isn't cheerful to hear him moan; but it isn't that I mind,


s: And there where the crosses are greyest,


s: For they cry to us:  'Friends, we are lonely,


s: Oh, come with the hearts of you glowing,


s: And here where our graves will be greening,


s: 'Struth!  But 'e was sich a 'andsome bloke.


s: Quick 'e throws 'is 'ands above 'is nob;


s: It's me 'oo'll 'ave a free trip to Berlin;


s: Them saucy dooks o' yours, above yer 'ead."


s: Give me blocks of stone, I'll give yer gods.


s: You, my friend, are still obscure. . . ."


s: "In war," says I, "that makes no blurry odds."


s: Then says 'e:  "I've painted picters too. . . .


s: Oh, dear God!  The work I planned to do,


s: Don't you give yerself no friskin' airs.


s: That the best ye done?  Just say yer prayers."


s: _POPPIES,_ you try to tell me, glowing there in the wheat;


s: It leaps to the startled heavens; it smothers the sun; it cries


s: With scarlet voices of triumph from blossom and bough and blade.


s: See the bright horror of it!  It's roaring out of the skies,


s: Look!  It's the dead, my comrades, stark on the dreadful plain,


s: All in their dark-blue blouses, staring up at the skies.


s: See how they sprawl and huddle!  See how their brows are white!


s: Goaded on to the shambles, there in death and defeat. . . .


s: Father of Pity, hide them!  Hasten, O God, Thy night!


s: _LILIES_ (the light is waning), only lilies you say,


s: Nestling and softly shining there where the spear-grass waves.


s: No, my friend, I know better; brighter I see than day:


s: It's the poor little wooden crosses over their quiet graves.


s: You make it in your mess-tin by the brazier's rosy gleam;


s: You watch it cloud, then settle amber clear;


s: You lift it with your bay'nit, and you sniff the fragrant steam;


s: The very breath of it is ripe with cheer.


s: You're awful cold and dirty, and a-cursin' of your lot;


s: You scoff the blushin' 'alf of it, so rich and rippin' 'ot;


s: It bucks you up like anythink, just seems to touch the spot:


s: God bless the man that first discovered Tea!


s: Since I came out to fight in France, which ain't the other day,


s: I think I've drunk enough to float a barge;


s: All kinds of fancy foreign dope, from caffy and doo lay,


s: To rum they serves you out before a charge.


s: In back rooms of estaminays I've gurgled pints of cham;


s: I've swilled down mugs of cider till I've felt a bloomin' dam;


s: But 'struth! they all ain't in it with the vintage of Assam:


s: God bless the man that first invented Tea!


s: I think them lazy lumps o' gods wot kips on asphodel


s: Swigs nectar that's a flavour of Oolong;


s: I only wish them sons o' guns a-grillin' down in 'ell


s: Could 'ave their daily ration of Suchong.


s: Hurrah!  I'm off to battle, which is 'ell and 'eaven too;


s: And if I don't give some poor bloke a sexton's job to do,


s: To-night, by Fritz's campfire, won't I 'ave a gorgeous brew


s: (For fightin' mustn't interfere with Tea).


s: To-night we'll all be tellin' of the Boches that we slew,


s: Posting the same old greasy books, catching the same old train:


s: Oh, how will I manage to stick it all, if I ever get back again?_


s: Scornful men who have diced with death under the naked skies.


s: Don't you guess that the things we're seeing now


s: Heaven and hell rolled into one, glory and blood and tears;


s: Oh, we're booked for the Great Adventure now,


s: We'll breathe free air and we'll bivouac under the starry sky;


s: We'll march with men and we'll fight with men,


s: _For some of us smirk in a chiffon shop,


s: He hurried away, young heart of joy, under our Devon sky!


s: And I watched him go, my beautiful boy, and a weary woman was I.


s: Ah me!  If he called from the ends of the earth


s: Yet the thought comes thrilling through all my pain:


s: Yea, a loss like that is a glorious gain, and pitiful proud am I.


s: There's nothing like Nickyteen, me boys,


s: When I've eat my fill and my belt is snug,


s: And the bowl of me old clay pipe I cram.


s: And the good pipe glimmers and fades and glows;


s: In its throat it chuckles a cheery song,


s: For I likes it hot and I likes it strong.


s: Oh, it's good is grub when you're feeling hollow,


s: But the best of a meal's the smoke to follow.


s: There was Micky and me on a night patrol,


s: And sure I thought I was worse than dead


s: Wi' them crump-crumps hustlin' over me head.


s: And cold!  A monkey of brass would freeze.


s: A "typewriter" clattered its pills about.


s: The field of glory!  Well, I don't think!


s: Then Micky, he goes and he cops one bad,


s: He always was having ill-luck, poor lad.


s: Says he:  "Old chummy, I'm booked right through;


s: But . . . 'aven't you got a pinch of shag?--


s: And there he shivered and cussed his luck,


s: So I gave him me old black pipe to suck.


s: And he heaves a sigh, and he takes to it