s: Each tress the sungleam shimmering o'er the sea;


s: She had been reading from the volume old


s: And tinging all things earthly with the gold


s: The calmer, holier radiance of that other fold.


s: "Come unto Me and I will give you rest."


s: What words are these! how beautiful, how blest!


s: And Granny, as she listened, fondly pressed


s: Her darling's little hand, did she not bring


s: When th' sun of life was low--towards evening,


s: And life's fast fleeting pleasures, all had taken wing?


s: But dim were Granny's glasses with a tear


s: While listening to that voice so soft, so low,


s: Oh! what so cherished as that smile below?


s: The depth of human fondness who can know?


s: She dried her tears, imprinting a slow kiss


s: Upon her beauty's cheek, she loved her so,


s: Oh! what more tender, more sublime than this?


s: Beside that hearth there reigned such still, such sacred bliss.


s: Right down delighted that they should have come,


s: For from her eyes a nameless pleasure beamed,


s: Which seemed of all delights to be the sum;


s: And to their kind enquiries she replied,


s: And how's yourselves and those at home beside?"


s: Then to them several little matters did confide.


s: The cot, consisting of two rooms, was thatched;


s: Each room was on the ground. Above the door


s: Clung vines and roses, and the wall was patched,


s: The prettiest little scene you ever saw,


s: Which there had hung for fifteen years or more,


s: Telling of how much service it before had done.


s: Within the corner stood the eight-day clock


s: Which had recounted time for years and years,


s: Tho' it had seen so many smiles and tears;


s: There is a something which, I fancy, cheers


s: In the slow ditty which those songsters sing,


s: Some sweet responsion which the bosom hears,


s: Winding a stilly peace round each familiar thing.


s: And, basking in the sun's delightful ray,


s: A favourite kitten purred with sleepy air,


s: The polished flags were spotless as the day,


s: And groups of flowering plants stood here and there,


s: And industry was most apparent everywhere.


s: Our ladies three had had their little chat,


s: Had likewise done the good they had to do,


s: Moreover had admired and stroked the cat,


s: And then they thought 'twas time that they withdrew;


s: The widow was more thankful than they knew,


s: And twenty times expressed her firm conviction


s: They were disguised archangels (what think you?)


s: Then twenty times pronounced her benediction,


s: Hoping they'd never live to suffer _her_ affliction.


s: Her little grandchild courtesied at the gate,


s: Showed them the way and courtesied once again,


s: They sauntered on at just their former rate


s: And chattered in their usual lively strain;


s: They paused to look around them for the scene


s: Would they have been to rest mid-way between,


s: But forward gaily pressed o'er silent tracts of green.


s: The view was bounded on their right by hills,


s: Those gentle hills that border on the sea,


s: Ah! as I write a thought my bosom stills,


s: That thought, Oh Berwick, is the thought of thee!


s: How kind, how tranquil were thine hours to me,


s: Those hours amongst thy silent valleys cast,


s: While other hours and days and years are fleeting fast!


s: Anon the summit of the cliff they gained,


s: Where Beauty's finger wanders unrestrained


s: Where lavish Nature pours her richest spoil,


s: The tongue is voiceless with bewilderment,


s: Far, far below the ocean's ceaseless toil


s: Makes bosoms inly shudder and all eyes recoil.


s: Our little thoughts are staggered at the scene,


s: Below the surgy yeast was boiling, whence


s: Rose on the summer air its restless roar,


s: It smote the broken cliff's bold battlements,


s: And plunged upon the moss-clad boulders of the shore.


s: The feathery clouds moved slowly through the sky,


s: The storm-bleared headland stood defiantly


s: The boldest feature of that boundless view;


s: In contrast with its chalky front, the hue


s: Of the green sea swept freely far and wide,


s: And o'er the promontory's base there grew,


s: As though its time-torn nakedness to hide,


s: Some shaggy weeds that floated on the swelling tide.


s: It was the ebb. They could not yet descend;


s: So Rose suggested that they should proceed


s: There straightway squat them on the grass and read


s: The books they'd brought; to this they all agreed,


s: Then hastened onward though the sun was hot,


s: And there beneath their sunshades with much speed


s: And very much more chatter did they squat;


s: In those parts foliage umbrageous there was not.


s: They must have read an hour when they discovered


s: Were really hungry, so they all uncovered


s: Their baskets of refreshment for the day,


s: They must, I think, have quite enjoyed their fare


s: Fanned by the soothing breath of the ozonic air.


s: They chatted, read, and dozed in alternation,


s: Not pleased that they were tarrying there still;


s: They saw afar some narrow steps and rude,


s: Beginning some short distance up the hill,


s: And which of course no sooner had they viewed


s: Than thither they repaired as quickly as they could.


s: Descending, they discovered that the sea


s: Had much subsided since they saw it last,


s: Then down they hopped with more than usual glee


s: Weeds, star-fish, and all sorts of shells around,


s: And, as along the level stretch they passed,


s: Which lay all washed and wet upon the solid ground.


s: They cut their names upon the cliff and wrote


s: And rhymes that I'm unable now to quote;


s: All found amusement there on every hand;


s: They thought a life at sea was truly grand


s: Perhaps it is when strolling on the strand,


s: In fact, I think, much more so than _in transitu_.


s: They deemed it a misfortune they were girls;


s: Rose wished she'd been a boy and gone abroad,


s: Flo wished she'd been a sailor lad with curls


s: Then Dora too her present state deplored


s: She loved to listen when the waters roared)


s: All these ideas were most enjoyable of course.


s: At some short distance was a vessel hurled,


s: A dismal wreck, upon the rockbound shoal,


s: Around its hulk th' encircling billows curled,


s: Now thro' its splintered deck the wavelet stole,


s: Then, issuing forth, it gurgled through a hole


s: Staved by the tempest's fury in its side,


s: Afar off did its shattered timbers roll,


s: Its treasures all were scattered in the tide.


s: The headland gained, the swaying wreck they soon espied.


s: Across the smooth white rocks, they to it went;


s: The raging brine had torn off half the bow,


s: Its starboard shivered and its cordage rent;


s: The warring waters had their anger spent


s: And flung its fragments to the cruel blast,


s: Its iron bands were burst apart and bent,


s: There, shattered, at some little distance, lay the mast.


s: When gazing pensively o'er ocean's realm


s: Its wide destruction, its unspoken might,


s: There is a something which doth overwhelm,


s: This was, forsooth, an interesting sight


s: To them, yet no less dreadful, for the scene


s: Was one such as could never yield delight,


s: And so delighted they could not have been,


s: Before they never such a spectacle had seen.


s: They picked up curious items, three or four,


s: And placed them in their baskets to take home,


s: The wreck and its surroundings did explore,


s: Upon the slimy reefs, too, did they roam,


s: While backward and still backward rolled the foam,


s: While faster flew each hour, one after one,


s: 'Twas time they put an end to all their fun,


s: And so to think of their return they had begun.


s: The time indeed had gone exceeding fast,


s: But _how_ it had gone--_that_ they could not say,


s: And nor could I, my reader, if you asked,


s: They tell me that for no man Time will stay:


s: Oh! not for womankind--for such as they?


s: Which is, as you'll agree, a matter of regret.


s: They finished their refreshments seated nicely


s: Upon a spar (just what they all required),


s: Which seemed as if put _for_ them--so precisely


s: Was it the very thing that they desired;


s: They were (or should have been) intensely tired,


s: A lot of pleasant matters had transpired,


s: And all had cracked their lively joke or so;


s: But now the day was o'er, the sun was getting low.


s: Behind the cliff they wished to see him fall,


s: And therefore with that object did they wait,


s: And they could walk it well by half-past eight,


s: They each detached a portion of the wood,


s: For Dora took much pains to demonstrate,


s: (For a memento be it clearly understood).


s: (When thus I speak of course I mean--_to me_)


s: Than wand'ring slowly when the tide is low,


s: Enjoyment's wealth. There, is a world of thought,


s: Each breath, each dreaming ripple is with music fraught.


s: Give me the ocean: let me hear its roll,


s: There is a voice that murmurs to the soul,


s: A strength which thunders in its mighty tide:


s: There let me but my lonely footsteps guide,


s: And find a refuge dear beyond all human ken.


s: There let me be, nor friend nor kinsman near,


s: For earthly friends and kinsmen--what are they?


s: And spend in solitude life's little day,


s: Where strange, strange voices all--all pass away


s: And mingle with the voices that have been,


s: There in those stilly valleys let me stray,


s: Where all is soundless, all is fair and green,


s: And peace, that holy peace, surrounds each smiling scene.


s: A lingering longing, dark and ill-defined,


s: A flaming fire that scorches up the mind


s: I pray--I gasp for light--for I am blind,


s: The light that never, never will be there;


s: What can that something be my spirit may not share?


s: Oh let me be, for mine is Nature's praise;


s: I leave the world for those it doth invite,


s: For those who are untaught in Nature's ways,


s: Who seek their pleasures in the boast of might;


s: Give me the wood, the ocean, and the night,


s: I ask no more, these, these shall be my all,


s: Are not for me, for them I neither care nor call.


s: I ask not Wealth, nor wish one single hour


s: Where Splendour gilds the trophies of the brave,


s: Of purse-proud pomp, of pageantry and power


s: Whose flaunting grandeur can but deck the grave;


s: The pine-capped mountain and the heathery plain,


s: The rolling forest and the leaping wave,


s: Oh give me back their sweetnesses again,


s: Those dear, those silent pleasures which can never wane!


s: The bosom with sweet sadnesses and sighs,


s: When life was like the mellow on far hills


s: Bathed in the sunset of the summer skies


s: And tinged with purple--when the spirit cries


s: And gasps for very language but in vain,


s: When wavelets whisper and the heart replies,


s: When the soul sobs and all is hushed again


s: Save Tritons chanting to this pathless world of pain.


s: Stay, stay thy footsteps, o'er the waters see


s: How calm the weary elements, how still--


s: While holy thoughts and prayers the bosom fill,


s: And dim the daylight quivers o'er the hill,


s: The creatures of the air to home and rest


s: Have winged their lonely journey at their will,


s: And all, yea all, with heavenly quietude is blest.


s: They'd seen the sun descend, the blending hues,


s: Rich, in succession, come, then fade away,


s: Regretting that such splendour they should lose


s: That beauty is short-lived and soon must pass?


s: Our days are as a tale that is told--we are but grass!"


s: Which, like most rules, admits of some exception,


s: I'll tell you that much so there's no deception,


s: In fact, a perfect dunce, you've no conception--


s: But that you'll say is foreign to my _tail_,


s: I thank you for your generous correction,


s: Yet no one ever asked me if I was for sale.


s: For aught I know, my brains are in a batter,


s: And yet--let's see--who was that Philosophic Star?


s: I _can't_ think--never mind. But I maintain


s: That this is true--then--let him come and prove it,


s: If 'twere a lie most certainly I should reprove it.


s: It is when Autumn sweeps the frosty plain


s: And tips the woods with flaming hues, that I


s: Delight to pause and gaze and gaze again


s: Where varied tints the landscape beautify;


s: It is the smirking maiden's nut-brown eye,


s: Fair skin all traversed by the tender blue,


s: Her cherry cheeks and lips that make me sigh,


s: Besides her snowy teeth--now don't they you?


s: That's right, I knew that you'd agree, _of course_ they do.


s: Ah, what is that which makes the sunset dear?


s: It is each varying tinge that stains the air,


s: While ever-changing colours still appear,


s: And fairy-flecks float forward calm and fair.


s: But still our weary ladies lingered there,


s: For Flo their fav'rite trio did propose,


s: The eve was still, the day began to close


s: As on the gentle breeze the following words arose:


s: We are ever ever merry as we frolic in the ocean,


s: As we dive beneath the waters to its gem-bestudded floor;


s: And we dance within its grottoes with an ever-whirling motion,


s: And we roll the little wavelets one by one upon the shore.


s: From beneath the leaves in caverns adamantine we are peeping,


s: Now along the blazing pearl and ruby corridors we glide,


s: And amongst the tall fantastic arches slily are we creeping,


s: There within their dark, mysterious recesses do we hide.


s: We recline within the bowers of the ever-rolling billow,


s: We repose upon its bosom with a calm and cool delight,


s: While ecstacies enrapture on its tranquillizing pillow,


s: And we raise a myriad voices to the canopy of Night.


s: Then up they started; 'twas already dim,


s: Still 'twas but half an hour's walk at the most,


s: Altho' they were not quite in walking trim,


s: Fatigued by all their rambles on the coast;


s: In clambering o'er the rocks no time they lost,


s: Altho' their small bottines got somewhat wet,


s: And their incautiousness some duckings cost,


s: For, jumping slippery rocks, what could they hope to get?


s: A channel which was more than ankle-deep,


s: She slipped and fell ere either could have caught her;


s: Her sisters shrieked and, bending, they besought her,


s: And Flora, much alarmed, at once bethought her


s: "What if she has?"--for Dora there remained,


s: And most distressingly she moaned but nought explained.


s: But as she spoke not, what could they surmise,


s: While with red blood bedabbled was her cheek?


s: She fell back helpless when she tried to rise,


s: And seemed unable, tho' she strove, to speak:


s: Upon her forehead gaped a crimson streak,


s: And stretched upon th' unyielding rock she lay,


s: To soothe her pain both sisterlike did seek,


s: They washed the bloody finger-prints away;


s: Alas that such as this should end so bright a day!


s: What could they do? where could they fly for aid


s: With night fast closing over all around?


s: Where could they go, bewildered and afraid,


s: They looked aghast with lips all horror-bound,


s: With none to help and not a cottage near


s: Where they could take her, prostrate on the ground,


s: Where they might bind her brow who was so dear;


s: And stirred they had not with embarrassment and fear.


s: From the sad nature of the wound received,


s: And Rose and Flora were most sorely grieved;


s: Their inward terror could not be conceived,


s: They tried to raise her but they tried in vain,


s: Each asked what should be done, they must not there remain.


s: That was a question which they could not solve,


s: She was too heavy for their strength to bear,


s: But Rose to fly for succour did resolve,


s: Rushed up the cliff and left her sisters there;


s: Within her heart there lurked a trembling prayer


s: Along the soundless road, she knew not where,


s: While darkness quickly gathered overhead,


s: On, on she ran, half overcome, and pale with dread.


s: The first she met--to him she did appeal,


s: A right good heart which others' woes could feel,


s: To whom, too, she was not unknown before;


s: At the sad news he hastened to his door,


s: Brought forth a lighted lantern and a phial,


s: And both strode quickly forward to the shore,


s: He tried to soothe poor Rose's grief the while,


s: Whose agitation told how terrible the trial.


s: They reached the cliff and cautious did descend,


s: In Rose's breast alarm and joy did blend


s: While wondering who the welcome third might be;


s: 'Twas Rowland kneeling at her sister's side


s: The waving kerchief from the cliff had spied,


s: Had heard the call for help and to the beach had hied.


s: His brother Gilbert by some happy chance


s: Both saw what was the matter at a glance


s: Flora with tears besought them both to stay


s: But they'd arranged that Gilbert home should fly


s: (They lived three-quarters of a mile away)


s: And chaise, of course, which was a great necessity.


s: With a damp handkerchief her head was bound,


s: And now and then she took a draught or so


s: Till on the road above the chaise arrived;


s: Gilbert his brother called from down below,


s: Gave him the flask and asked if she'd revived


s: And how her safe removal was to be contrived.


s: There Gilbert waited while his brother went


s: Seemed nothing else but sweet bewilderment,


s: And, at this juncture, so did Rowland too.


s: Since Gilbert brought one, they had lanterns two


s: Which much assisted them their way to see,


s: For 'twas a matter of the utmost urgency.


s: The cottager was stationed on the right,


s: One of the lights did they entrust to Flora,


s: And one to Rose who was exhausted quite;


s: Then on they passed beneath the sultry night,


s: Safe o'er the rocks, upon the hardened sand--


s: With all the haste they could just then command,


s: Befitted to the circumstance you understand.


s: The steps were steep and narrow, and a rail,


s: For wanderers' protection was placed there,


s: With narrow limits they did not despair,


s: And at the summit safely lodge their care;


s: To render her relief all did their best,


s: They knew their parents would be very much distressed.


s: It chanced auspiciously that ladies' dress


s: Was then not as we know it to have been,


s: For their ascent, and with me you'll agree,


s: It would have proved a hopeless case, I ween,


s: Which simply would have been embarrassing you see.


s: The cottager sought nothing for his pains


s: And proffered trifles thankfully declined;


s: Ah! happy they who think not of their gains,


s: Who for the kindness only would be kind;


s: For love of self more often lurks behind


s: The true and real source from which a kindness flows.


s: Now with his charges three was Rowland seated,


s: Then all and everyone exchanged "good night,"


s: The cottager bent homeward with his light


s: And so did Gilbert. 'Twas a blessing quite


s: That matters were all settled as they were


s: In their most awkward and distressing plight,--


s: It was indeed unfortunate it should occur.


s: When they arrived at Elleston Farm they found


s: Such dire dismay as ne'er before was seen,


s: Some messengers to know where they had been,


s: For Dora told them that they should return by eight.


s: Ma gave a dismal shriek and swooned away,


s: And Julia (bless her!) tried to do so too,


s: Soon to the house they hurriedly withdrew,


s: All those who kept their footing and were able;


s: Since they between them made a little Babel,


s: While Hannah screamed and staggered back upon the table.


s: To Dora Rowland was, of course, attentive,


s: Against a second swoon one could suggest;


s: His efforts I am glad to say were blest,


s: Tho' Dora was quite helpless from the fall,


s: But Hannah went on just like one possessed,


s: And wagged her head most drearily against the wall.


s: Ere long there was an end to the confusion,


s: Then all the household joined in the conclusion


s: Poor Dora's sufferings were most intense,


s: And prudently she was despatched to bed,


s: And there the household bandaged up her head,


s: For all lent their assistance as I should have said.


s: Respecting how they spent their length of time


s: There was a lot to say as you'd suppose,


s: (Which I will not repeat to you in rhyme)


s: Concerning their enjoyments and their woes,


s: Or thanks to him to whom such thanks were due,


s: As under the like circumstances always do.


s: Supper despatched, our Rowland started back


s: Loaded with thanks and all that words could speak,


s: The stars were overcast, the night was black,


s: The wind arose as from some sudden freak;


s: And distant rumblings fell upon the ear;


s: 'Twas true a storm had threatened all the week


s: Then was the time they were to have it, it was clear.


s: Yet these were tokens Rowland did not heed,


s: Such trifles then he little cared about,


s: He was disturbed within more than without


s: And dead to all around I've not a doubt,


s: Absorbed in thoughts that words can ne'er define,


s: Yet you can guess, my reader, what about,


s: Most likely such as those have once been thine,


s: I really fail to count how often they've been mine.


s: Though full of sadness, something sweet doth reign,


s: And Rowland for the first time felt _alone_;


s: How often hath this feeling been our own


s: When all is--what? compared to something dear,


s: When former pleasures all, yea, all have flown,


s: And all the world is nothing if one be not near.


s: There was a something in the heaven above


s: That corresponded with his state of mind;


s: When all Earth's sweetest pleasures seem combined,


s: When Life and Love both, both are intertwined,


s: And the young blood is as the desert's thirst,


s: A torrent with its flood-gates open burst;


s: When Youth's most cherished hopes within the breast are nursed.


s: O tell me not that Youth, all youth is folly,


s: Give me the kiss that youth doth first impress,


s: O let me feel love's ling'ring melancholy,


s: And smile on lips all youthful loveliness!


s: While Youth's hot blood is burning in the veins,


s: This world no sweeter thing than this contains;


s: When days of youth are o'er, life's foremost pleasure wanes.


s: Yes, Youth was made for such; it is enough


s: To know in some fond heart our words abide;


s: Oh life's not life but death without a love,


s: All ceaseless darkness where she is denied!


s: Love rolls its endless volumes to the sea,


s: There is a sort of torture which attends


s: That most delightful of the heart's delights,


s: With passion in its most distracted flights;


s: Those maddened cravings which the breast inflame,


s: Those fiery, longing gasps within the fevered frame.


s: To which my friends will pay but little heed,


s: All those I mean who take my book and read


s: Those matters that they studied long ago,


s: And want to hear of something they don't know;


s: I know what's due to them and they shall have it so.


s: 'Twas Dora, as by now you will have guessed,


s: Who was the burden of poor Rowland's thought,


s: But loved her to distraction as he ought,


s: That the best love is love at the first sight;


s: If such is true or not it matters nought,


s: I'd rather not discuss the point to-night,


s: It won't affect our story whether wrong or right.


s: This was a first-sight love, but who can say


s: For certain if it was so? Goodness knows


s: He had been somewhat quieter than before


s: Such oddities betoken love you may be sure.


s: Ah, who may tell what crowding thoughts arose


s: Where boiled the tumult of Love's surging sea,


s: That strength this world itself could not enclose,


s: While men and women both are what they are,


s: And light on dimpled cheeks unknown to Ma,


s: Or eyes that glisten like a polished scimitar.


s: Some pierce as deeply, I can tell you, too,


s: And slash the heart to mincemeat through and through,


s: And make ten thousand lives some few years shorter;


s: Those eyes that make beholding lips quite water,


s: Which yield the love-sick populace no quarter


s: And--(isn't it cruel?) give them no relief,


s: And work no end of miracles in my belief!


s: Which rudely tilt Love's overflowing cup,


s: What is there that they can't do, who shall say?


s: While for one glance a thousand pine away,


s: Our span is not too long as you will say,


s: And what of their short three score years and ten?


s: But this may not apply to woman-jilted men.


s: That women were men's guardian-angels--stay,


s: Once wedded in a week can turn 'em grey,


s: And I myself have known some two or three of these.


s: I do not mean that I've experienced this--


s: I never knew that fancied state of bliss,


s: I'm not, my friends, in short, a married man,


s: Engaged in all the wars of married life,


s: And what's more troublesome than matrimonial strife?


s: I'd fly and fly and fly to--Heaven knows where,


s: And, if such happy chance to me occurred,


s: And do all sorts of things I do declare;


s: 'Twere better, too, I think to be a dove,


s: That gentle bird so suited to affairs of love.


s: My mother calls--there must be some mishap,


s: I should be whacked severely did I stay,


s: But 'tis a great necessity as I have shewn.


s: I'm hungry too, and I must feed sometimes


s: I'm not of those who fatten on their rhymes,


s: With circumstances such you will forgive,


s: That is of course if your attention you will give.


s: The good forbearing friend I knew you once,


s: In spite of these most troublesome affronts;


s: Let's see how long since last I flew my kite,


s: Yes, certainly it must be some few months,


s: It's enough to tax the patience of a Bedlamite.


s: You know the author for you see him here,


s: He weeps or smiles as here he doth rehearse,


s: Oh, critic, stay, and drop but Pity's tear,


s: If not for him, the author--for his verse:


s: Full many have done better but few worse,


s: And surely he's the very first to know it,


s: Of course there's much to talk of when converse,


s: Like friend and friend, the critic and his poet,


s: But now I cannot stay, I'm in a hurry, blow it!


s: I take my goosequill for some recreation,


s: A little change without the perturbation


s: Just now I'm somewhat weary of the sight


s: Which tell of crimes now daily brought to light,


s: And horrifying details of the murderer's noose.


s: These are the days when each successive paper


s: Unfolds a tale which can but make it sell


s: And vendors should indeed be doing well;


s: Of blood-red things of horror and of shame


s: And which, in fact, they are, except in name,


s: Altho' of course proprietors are not to blame.


s: Who would not wear the ermine-robe of Power,


s: When tremble thrones and courts and nations cower,


s: And strange alarms await all royal things--


s: When armëd horsemen guard their wanderings


s: When morn discovers with her gleaming wings


s: The dark and direful mysteries of the night,


s: And men alternate weep and shudder at the sight?


s: Of such things as I've said I'm getting weary,


s: Such themes I leave to those who such-like choose,


s: Some people's prospects must be somewhat dreary,


s: I shouldn't care to step within their shoes:


s: So take my pen and ink determined what to do.


s: I will proceed with that which I have writ


s: And tell what came of Dora and her lover,


s: To pardon faults if such you should discover,


s: I mean not that I'm anxious you should cover


s: If in each other's sympathy we seek a place.


s: Their days had hurried past as doth a dream


s: If days like those before they all had known,


s: For some three weeks or more I that must own,


s: But she'd recovered now. Oh how those days had flown!


s: Yes, as I say, their time ere then was up--


s: The harvest in--yet still they seemed to tarry,


s: They'd quaffed the measure of their sparkling cup,


s: They'd done their tithe of mischief like Old Harry,


s: And so the days went on with dilly-dally,


s: At which their expectations seemed to rally,


s: They hoped he'd stay another month beside,


s: While in this doubtful state the days did onward glide.


s: And as for Rowland, there he might be seen


s: Across to Elleston Farm he bent his way:


s: Would they together sing some little air,


s: She in the gloaming hour would sit and play


s: Some little movement that he liked to hear,


s: Which circumstances made it doubly, trebly dear.


s: And there they sat while he, leaf after leaf,


s: With words of fondness, ah, so low and brief,


s: While even o'er them wound that still repose,


s: That hush of spirit and that soul of prayer,


s: That something which is only known to those


s: Who love and are beloved, who inly share


s: That sacred bliss with which no other can compare.


s: They sang of love, while in each other's eye


s: Beamed that rich fulness of the throbbing breast,


s: While on their lips there hung the deep-drawn sigh


s: Which told the form it deemed the loveliest:


s: Ah, in those evening moments both were blest,


s: They read each other's bosom, oh, how well!


s: And each to each their paradise confessed--


s: Which round and round each bosom twined its fairy-spell.


s: And tinged her brow with an angelic light,


s: As tho' a heaven-born being lingered there,


s: And Beauty, shamed, were weeping at the sight;


s: Then out they strolled to meet the starlit night,


s: He breathed Love's message on to rosy lips,


s: While each partook that holy calm delight,


s: And which all other earthly sweetnesses eclipse.


s: Oh, Love! Oh, Woman! What are ye that shine


s: Man's ruling planet o'er this tossing sea,


s: Who are the sculptors of his lot condign,


s: Who form the page of each man's destiny?


s: Oh, Love, the greatest of the great of thee


s: Have said, thou sacrificest all to bless,


s: Designed for thee, and born but to caress?


s: And those--they know thee not--who can thy joys express.


s: "Disguise can't long hide love," 'tis even so:


s: We'll shake hands over that at any rate,


s: Let me refer to our friend Rochefoucauld,


s: He knows a lot concerning Love and Hate.


s: But still we wont these paths perambulate,


s: To give my own experience would be indiscreet.


s: And I, as you will say, should leave it till


s: I'm past my "salad days" and can look sage;


s: Till o'er Life's road I've passed another stage,


s: And learned to smoke the pipe of common sense,


s: Which, you will gather from the present page,


s: Of which the present folly is a consequence.


s: That he had popped the question on the spot


s: Enjoying love-like sweet nonsensicality.


s: 'Twas often that they did together sing,


s: The thirsty flame of Love, and to it cling,


s: Those sadnesses which speak the heart's desire;


s: There's in it that which doth the soul inspire.


s: He gave a last long sigh and left this world of woe.


s: The greatest deeds this world has ever known


s: Were wrought beneath Euterpe's mystic spell.


s: When War's deep thunders boom and nations groan


s: And rolling thunders tales of terror tell,


s: Then--then the heart rebounds within its cell,


s: As th' charger halts to sniff the gory fray


s: And, with the fiery mettle nought can quell,


s: Bounds o'er the dead and dying on his way


s: To plunge amid the foe and meet the dreadful day.


s: Give _me_ the sound of martial music while


s: Ten times ten thousand close in clash of war,


s: And, dashing o'er the red and mangled pile,


s: While unsheathed sabres flash and cannons roar,


s: And Fury, blindfold, hisses in its hate,


s: While Valour's shouts resound from shore to shore


s: And nations strive their sons to vindicate


s: And sovereigns bow the knee to t' inexorable Fate.


s: Give _me_ the note which did the true-born pride--


s: That pride of will in all its strength awake,


s: Inflamed the hearts that for it sank and died,


s: Those British hearts that burned for Glory's sake;


s: That song which bids insurgent nations shake


s: Unto their deep foundations, and the world


s: While battle's blood-red banner is unfurled,


s: And haughty thrones are to their own destruction hurled.


s: Give _me_ the notes that hush the raging seas,


s: That urge the horseman and his charger on,


s: Make foes disarm and fall upon their knees,


s: And garlands fade where Victory once had shone,


s: And vigorous Youth to glitter as the sun,


s: And frenzied Prowess with her tossing plume


s: From off the gore-drenched field that she has won


s: To bear the trophies of a nation's doom,


s: While millions weep above an ignominious tomb.


s: There lies the stalwart form in Death's last sleep,


s: There rest the foamy lip, the bloodshot eye,


s: The noble brow o'er which some heart doth weep,


s: There kneels the friend and comrade who would die


s: Beside the form he loved, alas, so well,


s: When every breath is as a funeral knell,


s: And the soul bleeds with thoughts that Friendship cannot tell.


s: The last long clasp, the hushed and trembling kiss,


s: The mother weeping at her beauty's side,


s: And Death's last look and stiffening clutch--is this,


s: Is _this_ the outcome of a nation's pride?


s: There lie the clammy corpses far and wide,


s: And locks bedabbled and the princely cheek,


s: Son, father, brother, husband, side by side--


s: Oh, such a tale of horror who can speak!


s: Together heaped the dead and dying, strong and weak.


s: But to our text, my friends, as parsons say,


s: My tale, from which I've wandered far away,


s: But what, from such as I, can you expect?


s: Some stanzas back--I think 'twas eight or nine--


s: To Music's wondrous power you'll recollect,


s: But somehow left my subject line by line,


s: To which no doubt you'll say I should myself confine.


s: I am no minstrel, and I'd have you know it,


s: Altho' that is the title of these pages,


s: Those things that should be kept in wire cages,


s: That move to Colney Hatch by easy stages,


s: Who, like our tins of dynamite, explode,


s: And really are most dangerous things to be abroad.


s: But their excitement soon became a craze


s: Since he had made a grand resolve--in short


s: He had--and be it spoken to his praise--


s: The villa, furnished, with its meadows bought;


s: With much rejoicing this intelligence was fraught.


s: Arrangements had been made. The early train


s: He took to town to settle matters there,


s: If all his town arrangements turned out fair.


s: He'd travelled up on three occasions ere


s: His wife's idea had met with his consent,


s: O'er which in town a day or two he'd spent,


s: Now for the self-same reason there he pitched his tent.


s: His daughters went to meet him at the station,


s: And at the news they were in spirits high


s: He was, of course, the very consummation


s: Of all that was "delicious" and "divine,"


s: A home at Elleston pleased their contemplation,


s: And as the sun each countenance did shine,


s: The very cocks and hens beamed with a look benign.


s: The furniture that was not sold was sent,


s: As it had been arranged it should before,


s: To Elleston, and much labour too they spent


s: In fixing all things to their hearts' content,


s: And cook, of course, was busy down there too,


s: And had his City business also to pursue.


s: So all was settled that he should divide


s: For farm indeed he could, and well--for wide


s: The farm, tho' small, was large enough I ween,


s: Than Elleston Farm, I'm sure, by human eyes,


s: And all seemed very happy in the enterprise.


s: Some weeks elapsed e'er everything was straight;


s: The shorter days were slowly coming round,


s: And all things told the year was getting late,


s: And evening mists fell heavy to the ground.


s: The distant woods were getting seared and browned,


s: While leaf by leaf fell with a rustling sound,


s: And Winter, with his glistering crown, was near again.


s: The groves were still, save when the startled breeze,


s: Like a sad smile which comes then fades away,


s: Swept faintly o'er the amber of the trees,


s: And Nature's wheels moved slow and Life was gray:


s: Sadly and surely, like the darkening day,


s: Came dreary tokens of th' impending gloom;


s: And all was heavy as the slumbering tomb,


s: Far thro' the hazy air did th' distant woodlands loom.


s: The lonesome, lingering rose was drenched with dew,


s: With hanging head aggrieving for its mate,


s: It wept above the ground on which it grew,


s: With smiles all past and life disconsolate:


s: There was the flower that clambered o'er the gate


s: Shrunk like the furrows of an old man's tear,


s: Each leaf had fallen at the touch of fate


s: And every breeze was sighing for the death-dealt year.


s: Be still, O heart, for Death steps noiseless nigh,


s: Hist to the dirges o'er the sleeping sea!


s: It is the grave that opes by Heav'n's decree,


s: And steeps each thing in its sepulchral breath,


s: The self-same grave that soon must yawn for thee,


s: The grave wherein all darkness slumbereth,


s: While all around is fastened in the fangs of Death.


s: The garments of the arbour fell to earth,


s: Knew no repast of eve, no song of mirth,


s: No noonday lounge, for summer days were gone.


s: No blinking puppy stretched upon the grass


s: No sportive kitten frolicked there--alas!


s: No gaudy-tinted butterfly that way did pass.


s: When strolling through the dew-bespangled lane,


s: We pause, and, thoughtful, gaze upon the scene,


s: Within there speaks a something as of pain--


s: Some sort of still lament for what hath been.


s: Clustered upon the bank in deepened shade


s: With graceful negligence, while close between


s: The thorny twigs the autumn flowers played,


s: And the broad leaves swung lazily beside the glade.


s: Now all was silence--like a palace hushed,


s: Where wine so lately like a fountain gushed


s: And Grandeur stalked with mein imperial;


s: Where death-like stillness doth the breast appal,


s: Where revelry is changed to slumber sound


s: Departing footfalls, while in mystery all is bound.


s: Like some strange chamber--dimly lighted--vast--


s: Where but an hour ago did Splendour tread,


s: Where royal feet swept on and Beauty passed,


s: Where now the chaplet lies--forsaken--dead;


s: Where Pleasure's palsied and the music fled,


s: Where peers the painted figure from the frame,


s: With dusky mantle and with hanging head,


s: As tho' it felt the pang of inward shame


s: For an imperial ancient line and tarnished name.


s: Yes, autumn sped away and with it passed


s: Its ruddy rich delights, and winds blew high,


s: And shriveled Winter, limping, came at last,


s: And leaden clouds flew o'er the dreary sky;


s: Yet still our cheerful heroines did defy,


s: And long their old enjoyments did pursue,


s: They walked as they had done the happy summer through.


s: Now Rowland and his brothers' home lay near


s: Across the fields, it was a farmhouse too,


s: No parents had they and from year to year


s: They'd given their bailiff orders what to do.


s: There side by side in harmony they grew,


s: Their days were pleasant and their income kind,


s: And hitherto to home their joys had been confined.


s: But _now_ abroad did Rowland daily roam,


s: He knew no pleasure in the gates of home,


s: But pensive strolled beside the surging sea,


s: While all his love flowed forth in poesy,


s: That love that fed the fountain of the soul:


s: In _her_ his youthful hopes were folded like a scroll.


s: The scene is changed and years have onward sped;


s: Dora and Rowland had been long since one;


s: She'd wept above her parents lying dead,


s: She--whose sole murmur was "Thy will be done."


s: For tears but sweetened what was all so fair,


s: Their days were golden as the sinking sun;


s: The calm pervading all the soundless air,


s: And heavenly smiles descended on that happy pair.


s: Flora and Rose ('twas strange that such should be)


s: Were single still, nor on the way to marriage,


s: Perhaps a trifle more than they could manage;


s: By my last line those who would wear the ring,


s: Repeat each phrase and step within their carriage,


s: By all means let them do the happy thing,


s: Yet such a matter's worthy of considering.


s: At least, whate'er the truth may be, they tell


s: (And little folks will always have their say)


s: But matters (and they often chance that way)


s: Abruptly turned and took a fitful start,


s: 'Twas whispered too, but be that as it may.


s: That Rose with pestle and mortar broke his heart;


s: So now it's up for auction in an auction-mart.


s: But somehow matters seemed extremely brief,


s: He rose, I _fancy_, somewhat ill at ease,


s: Then cursed his stars and hers for their decrees


s: (I wouldn't swear I'm telling you the truth),


s: And so the clerk and parson lost their fees,


s: Decidedly their stars were most uncouth,


s: For Flora was as gunpowder to Gilbert's youth.


s: As youngsters do with circumstances thus--


s: They left behind them all that they adored,


s: And said "Good morning" with no further fuss;


s: Indeed what could they be but be resigned


s: A muttered oath or two when so inclined,


s: Which served in some degree to soothe their state of mind.


s: Located were three furlongs from the sand,


s: Three furlongs 'twas exactly from the head


s: Where sweeping views stretched wide on every hand,


s: Far, far the eye could reach, o'er sea and land,


s: Their children, by the ocean breezes fanned,


s: Would gambol long beneath the noontide ray,


s: And with bright laughter wile the long, long hours away.


s: O God, could I so feel that young delight--


s: That young delight that knows no thought of pain,


s: Where all is now the ceaseless gloom of night,


s: And once more pluck the sweets of other days,


s: Few, few of childhood's joys for me remain,


s: And life is bent o'er sterner, stonier ways


s: Whose solitary solace is a backward gaze.


s: Still by the sands live Rowland and his wife,


s: And now the old house rings with boyhood's glee,


s: Their sturdy youngsters number two or three;


s: With Rose and Flora and their blithesome fun,


s: With circumstances thus they ought to be,


s: And now, my indulgent readers all, my tale is done.


s: That very few have borne with me till now,


s: My title-page must bid me blush for shame;


s: Forsooth no solitary laurel can it claim.


s: I'm certain that I can't excuse my rhyme,


s: My tedious numbers are, I know, a crime,


s: An outrage on the world of common sense,


s: 'Tis certain I've not yet contrived to climb


s: Or scale Olympus where the Muses pitch their tents.


s: My reader, 'tis with feelings as of sorrow


s: I've half a mind to drown myself to-morrow


s: And will myself to Hell, like other men,


s: For writing such a thing of rhyme--but then,


s: As someone wrote, "There's good in everything,"


s: So we must both have faith, you see, and when


s: A song that's much more worthy of the publishing.


s: Bright scenes must all depart as they've departed,


s: Unshadowed years will fly as they have flown,


s: And fairer visions leave us silent-hearted,


s: Keen, lashing blasts must blow as they have blown.


s: Old mem'ries must grow dim and fade away,


s: Across the world's wide wastes the sun shall set,


s: Thou shalt press forward on thy toil-trod way,


s: Nor leave me one, just one, one sad regret.


s: Ah, where shall I be then?--forgot--estranged,


s: When years have rolled their glory at thy feet,


s: When friends and kindred all, yea, all have changed


s: And others come their chosen one to greet.


s: And yet what prayer from me could now implore,


s: Could crave for all it would, for words have fled?


s: May Heaven preserve thee as thou wast before,


s: Formed to be great, ennobled in thy pride,


s: All human reverence shall not be denied,


s: And Earth shall give thee all it can bestow.


s: Then Glory's chaplet shall adorn thy brow,


s: Thy sun shall rise, before it Night shall flee,


s: My beauty lives in a cottage grey by a gentle river's mouth,


s: A cottage grey by the lone sea-shore away in the sunny south,


s: Her eye's as fair, oh fairer, than the moonlight o'er the sea,


s: I'm as happy as a monarch as she lingers at my side,


s: As we watch the far horizon of the ever-tossing tide,


s: While the cool refreshing zephyr bears her tresses in its train,


s: Now starting into motion and now slumbering again.


s: She trips beside the waters on the distant yellow sand


s: While holy vespers steal across the ocean and the land,


s: And the sea bears the reflection of the worlds that roll above


s: And every breath of even seems to whisper but of love.


s: Oh what to me is Glory, what is Power, what is Pride!


s: I care not for this bauble with my loved one at my side.


s: I want no other beauty than the beauty of her face,


s: What brighter vision is there than her comeliness and grace!


s: Ah, hast thou gone from him whose breast


s: Where parch the thirsty plains--yet say,


s: That thought which Friendship cannot tell,


s: There are moments we can look to, we can cherish in the past,


s: Like the dew-bespangled petals when we sit and sigh for them.


s: There were sweetnesses unrivalled in those halcyon days of truth,


s: When like the cloudlets o'er the far horizon of the sea,


s: Each fringed with sheeny splendour, are the days of infancy.


s: Yet there are days and moments for enjoyment on before,


s: Tho' the golden skies of youth shall never smile upon us more,


s: When the brow of early womanhood looks forth to pleasures new,


s: And sweeter, lovelier visions are unfolding to the view.


s: O take the gift and when though look'st upon it let it be


s: A token of the wishes, of the hopes I have for thee,


s: And o'er thee breathe a soft "good night."


s: While summer tints thy childhood's light,


s: While angels sing "Good night, Good night."


s: We were friends, and the warmest of friends, he and I,


s: Each glance was a language that broke from the heart,


s: No cloudlet swept over the realm of the sky,


s: And beneath it we swore that we never would part.


s: Our fingers were clasped with the clasp of a friend,


s: Each bosom rebounded with youthful delight,


s: We were foremost to honour and strong to defend,


s: And Heaven, beholding, was charmed at the sight.


s: Around us the pine-crested mountains were piled,


s: The sward in the vale was as down to the feet,


s: The far-rolling woodlands were pathless and wild,


s: And Nature was garbed in a grandeur complete.


s: Said he, "We are here side by side and alone,


s: Let us thus in the shade for a little remain,


s: For we may not return here ere boyhood is flown,


s: Come, friend, and record on this reverend oak


s: Thy name by my own, they shall stand side by side"


s: And I hastened to do so with glee as he spoke,


s: And I gazed on the names with a feeling of pride.


s: Traced deep on the bark they were goodly to see--


s: What traced by the finger of Friendship is not?


s: Together they smiled on the trunk of the tree


s: And as brothers we stood on that sanctified spot.


s: But alas for a murmur that swept through the trees,


s: For the sound was a sound as of something sad,


s: Like a wail that awakes in a breast ill at ease,


s: 'Twas strange it should be so when all was so glad.


s: And often since then have I roamed through the vale,


s: My way have I bent to my favourite tree,


s: But its branches resound with the self-same wail


s: Which seems to repeat "Where is _he_, where is _he_?"


s: And again and again have I loved to behold


s: And fashion the storm-beaten letters anew,


s: While lingering there as in summers of old,


s: That spot--it is sweet, it is dear to me too!


s: Our steps--ah! how fond was our intercourse then--


s: Like the leaves of the autumn have drifted apart,


s: And the voices that moan in that overgrown glen


s: Now melt into weeping the sorrowful heart.


s: I saw on a hedge that was flourishing by


s: A rose that was stirred by the breath of the morn,


s: So smiling and fragrant it looked there, that I


s: Was tempted to seize it, forgetting the thorn.


s: I eagerly plucked it but found to my pain


s: 'Twas scentless and in it an insect was curled,


s: So I flung it away to the hedgerow again


s: And I thought of the joys of this troublesome world.


s: It is ever present with me like an overhanging blight,


s: Thro' the heaviness of morning and the wakefulness of night,


s: When I bend within my chamber in the attitude of prayer--


s: With a look of wrapt devotion is it kneeling--kneeling there.


s: And as silently as ever it precedes me thro' the day


s: A scare of Hell and darkness--a thing of terror unto me!


s: Alone in my chamber, forsaken, unsought,


s: My spirit's enveloped in shadows of night,


s: Is there no one to give me a smile or a thought?


s: Is there none to restore to me faded delight?


s: The zephyrs disport with a light-bosomed song,


s: And the joy-laden songsters flit over the lea--


s: Yet the hours of the spring as they hurry along


s: Bring nothing but sadness and sighing to me!


s: There were friends--but their love is departed and dead,


s: And alone must the tear-drop disconsolate start,


s: All the beauty of Life, all its sweetness is fled,


s: Oh, who shall unburden this weight at my heart!


s: A smile that enlivens the mid-day hours,


s: A peace that the world cannot take away,


s: A thought that is silent, an earnest prayer,


s: _The noiseless step of a phantom there!_


s: And grief that the world can never know;


s: And cries that cursed the curse they craved,


s: "Oh, where shall be my drink, to-night!"


s: A long, long wish for some far off sands,


s: A strengthless effort, a feverish start,


s: "Oh where, oh where, shall I hasten now?"


s: On, on in the gloom, to the still canal;


s: A footfall--oh horror; a slam of doors--


s: Away like a phantom, down far to the East,


s: "Oh when shall the weary and sad be released?"


s: Nor light, nor sound and a flood that gapes,


s: One breathless clasp, one long clasp more--


s: Thou'rt gone like the meteor that blazed in the sky,


s: And the spot thou hast smiled upon knows thee no more,


s: Is there no one that heaves o'er thy ashes a sigh?


s: Is there none to regret? Is there none to deplore?


s: Thy note--it is silent, thy song--it is hushed,


s: No more shall thy music entrance or enthral,


s: The music that like the blue rivulet gushed,


s: When far through the cloisters the anthem was stealing,


s: Thy heart was ablaze with a heavenly ray--


s: When thy organ was softly and tenderly pealing,


s: Or the bass of thy bourdon was rolling away.


s: Thy vespers were sweet and thy exquisite numbers


s: Swelled gently and hung on the tremulous air,


s: And, light as the prayer before infancy's slumbers,


s: Ascended on high--thou hast followed them there.


s: And like the dim eve was thy spirit's repose,


s: When loftily o'er thee, while musing alone,


s: And melted to feeling the passionless stone.


s: While sculptured recess and immortalized shrine


s: And far-stretching arches were bathed in the flood


s: Of the lingering sunset, whose beauties were thine,


s: And the motionless figures were blazoned in blood.


s: But an undertone rose thro' the chords like a wail,


s: 'Twas thy elegy mourning thee deep in the sound,


s: Soon, soon did that something of sadness prevail,


s: And the minors commingled and fell to the ground.


s: Rest peacefully, Minstrel, He took thee who gave,


s: That passion is still that once swelled in thy lay,


s: Thy notes are departed, thy fame is thy grave,


s: For the angels descended and bore thee away.


s: Organist of Gloucester Cathedral, who fell dead immediately


s: after the rendering of the anthem "Oh that I had the wings of


s: a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest."]


s: The eve is still and silent and above the tinted plain


s: The passing clouds are driving gentle showers of summer rain,


s: Off I wander and I stroke the gleeful spaniel at my side,


s: And, delighted with each other, do we ramble far and wide,


s: While a ditty is the tribute to the joy that gives it birth,


s: Oh let me gaze again upon the moisture-laden sky,


s: Let me see the rolling masses, let me hear the plover's cry,


s: While enveloping the distant mountain-summits like a shroud,


s: Like a head bent down and hoary, hangs a heavy wreath of cloud.


s: Let me gaze upon the sunshine as it breaks upon the mist,


s: Like the far-resplendent treasure in a monarch's diadem.


s: And all Nature sings for gladness now that sunshine follows rain.


s: When the twilight shadows deepen and the far-off lands are dim,


s: And the vesper dirge is stealing like the chant of cherubim,


s: There's a prayer within my bosom that's responsive to the sound,


s: There's a sorrow in those shadows as they lengthen on the lawn,


s: For the joy of life has vanished and its sweetness--all is gone,


s: And the purple mists of even as they hover o'er the glade


s: Seem to hush in voiceless gloom the deep recesses of the shade.


s: Oh thou beyond those heathery hills, beyond those woodlands blue,


s: Ah, must I lonely linger here, where nought but griefs await,


s: Where life is but one long, long sigh, and all disconsolate?


s: I'm weeping, yes I'm weeping, with the sun of youth gone down,


s: With the blossoms of the summer-time all withering and brown,


s: Oh say thou wilt not turn away, oh say we must not part,


s: Oh give me back thy smile, thy tear--'tis all the world to me.


s: II     A fair, illusive vision that would vanish into air


s: IV     The old bookshelves and prints along the wall


s: V      I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine


s: VI     Its fate with my tobacco and to vanish with the smoke


s: VIII   The voices of my children and the mother as she sings


s: IX     For I find an extra flavor in Memory's mellow wine


s: X      O childhood days enchanted! O the magic of the spring


s: XII    A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy grace


s: XIII   When first I kissed her, and she answered the caress


s: XIV    I slipped the apple in it--and the teacher didn't know


s: XV     She gave me her _photograph_, and printed "Ever Thine"


s: XVI    And again I feel the pressure of her slender little hand


s: XIX    The door is softly opened, and--my wife is standing there


s: With eyes half closed in clouds that ooze


s: _"For old sake's sake!" 'Twere hard to choose_


s: _Than these, that in their cadence bring_


s: _The first pale flush, the morning hues,--_


s: Prologue and Envoi to Abbey's Edition of


s: "_What's not destroyed by Time's devouring Hand?_


s: _Where's Troy, and where's the May-Pole in the Strand?_"


s: It stands in the stable-yard, under the eaves,


s: Propped up by a broom-stick and covered with leaves:


s: It once was the pride of the gay and the fair,


s: But now 'tis a ruin,--that old Sedan chair!


s: It is battered and tattered,--it little avails


s: That once it was lacquered, and glistened with nails;


s: For its leather is cracked into lozenge and square,


s: Like a canvas by Wilkie,--that old Sedan chair!


s: See,--here came the bearing-straps; here were the holes


s: For the poles of the bearers--when once there were poles;


s: It was cushioned with silk, it was wadded with hair,


s: As the birds have discovered,--that old Sedan chair!


s: "Where's Troy?" says the poet! Look,--under the seat,


s: Is a nest with four eggs,--'tis the favoured retreat


s: Of the Muscovy hen, who has hatched, I dare swear,


s: Quite an army of chicks in that old Sedan chair!


s: And yet--Can't you fancy a face in the frame


s: Of the window,--some high-headed damsel or dame,


s: Be-patched and be-powdered, just set by the stair,


s: While they raise up the lid of that old Sedan chair?


s: Can't you fancy Sir Plume, as beside her he stands,


s: With his ruffles a-droop on his delicate hands,


s: With his cinnamon coat, with his laced solitaire,


s: As he lifts her out light from that old Sedan chair?


s: Then it swings away slowly. Ah, many a league


s: It has trotted 'twixt sturdy-legged Terence and Teague;


s: Stout fellows!--but prone, on a question of fare,


s: To brandish the poles of that old Sedan chair!


s: It has waited by portals where Garrick has played;


s: It has waited by Heidegger's "Grand Masquerade;"


s: It has waited--and waited, that old Sedan chair!


s: Oh, the scandals it knows! Oh, the tales it could tell


s: Of Cock-fight and Levee, and (scarcely more rare!)


s: Of Fête-days at Tyburn, that old Sedan chair!


s: It deserves better fate than a stable-yard, though!


s: We must furbish it up, and dispatch it,--"With Care,"--


s: To a Fine-Art Museum--that old Sedan chair!


s: "_Kill not--for Pity's sake--and lest ye slay_


s: _The meanest thing upon its upward way._"


s: With his coat worn bare, and his straggling hair,


s: You may see him pass by the little "_Grande Place_,"


s: He smiles, as he goes, to the _fleuriste_ Rose,


s: He turns, as a rule, through the "_Marché_" cool,


s: And his compliment pays to the "_Belle Thérèse_,"


s: There's a letter to drop at the locksmith's shop,


s: There's a little dispute with a merchant of fruit,


s: That will ended be with a "_Ma foi, oui!_"


s: And a pale cheek fed with a flickering red,


s: But a grander way for the _Sous-Préfet_,


s: And a mock "off-hat" to the Notary's cat,


s: Com'st with rack and rheum to pain us;--


s: Fogs his footsteps swathe and smother,--


s: 'Tis she, no doubt. Brunette,--and tall:


s: M. JOLICOEUR (_entering upon the part forthwith_).


s: And Monsieur's friend who sometimes came?...


s: --And Madame's husband thrives, no doubt?


s: Monsieur de BEAU--?... He died at _Dôle_!


s: "'Dined,'" quoth the man, with angry eyes,


s: Take then this coin, ... but take beside


s: From that day forth his work was planned


s: You "lived," we know, for blame and fame;


s: And held that things were false and true,


s: You watched, at last, the fleet days fly,


s: 'Twas then (why not?) the whim would come


s: (We all have sick-bed dreams!) would gaze,


s: _"Now the Graces are four and the Venuses two,_


s: _For a Muse and a Grace and a Venus are you,--_


s: So he wrote, the old bard of an "old magazine:"


s: If we wonder a moment who she may have been,


s: She was Cornish. We know that at once by the "Tre;"


s: If we say that where Bude bellows back to the sea


s: And she lived in the era of patches and bows,


s: For they needed (I trust) but her natural rose,


s: And I somehow connect her (I frankly admit


s: With BATH in its hey-day of Fashion and Wit,--


s: I fancy her, radiant in ribbon and knot,


s: (How charming that old-fashioned puce is!)


s: All blooming in laces, fal-lals and what not,


s: I fancy her reigning,--a Beauty,--a Toast,


s: And we know that at least of one Bard it could boast,--


s: He says she was "VENUS." I doubt it. Beside,


s: His "little" could scarce be to Venus applied,


s: And rosy, and rounded, and dimpled,--you'll find,--


s: Then he calls her "a MUSE." To the charge I reply


s: It is something too awful,--too acid,--too dry,--


s: But "a GRACE." There I grant he was probably right;


s: It was all that was graceful,--intangible,--light,


s: Was she wooed? Who can hesitate much about that


s: For how could the poet have written so pat


s: And was wed? That I think we must plainly infer,


s: To take to them Wives. So it happened to her,


s: To the Bard? 'Tis unlikely. Apollo, you see,


s: 'Twas a knight of the shire, and a hunting J.P.,


s: And you'll find, I conclude, in the "_Gentleman's Mag._,"


s: At the end, where the pick of the news is,


s: "_On the_ (blank), _at 'the Bath,' to Sir Hilary Bragg_,


s: Thereupon ... But no farther the student may pry:


s: So here, at the threshold, we part, you and I,


s: Look, there is one that tells her beads;


s: With heart-whole thought, and quiet care,


s: Than tend the sick, and teach the young,


s: Look down. What groves that scarcely sway!


s: Who knows what lurks beneath the tide?--


s: With smiles that like red bubbles shine!_


s: "Dear," came the answer, quick as thought,


s: TIME, like the Sultán, sits ... and nods.


s: Did he catch her, trembling, thrilling--


s: Sought the page where love first lighting,


s: Where, through Passion's wild repeating,


s: You don't know Froissart now, young folks.


s: Of high-spiced crime, with "slang" for jokes,


s: Loved "old Montaigne," and praised Pope's _Homer_


s: (Who spoils her grandson, Frank!) would read


s: 'Neath Hogarth's "Midnight Conversation,"


s: It stood; and oft 'twixt spring and fall,


s: I turned the brown old leaves. For there


s: Not that, in truth, our friends gainsaid;


s: (Ann Radcliffe taught us that!) which bred


s: When your time comes. How years slip on!


s: And once, for three long days disdained,


s: "_Hæc decies repetita_ [non] _placebit_."--Ars Poetica.


s: Spring stirred and broke. The rooks once more


s: The swift coach paused a creaking-space,


s: This keen North-Easter nips my shoulder;


s: I've made my Will. Dear, faithful friend--


s: I've learned your candid soul. The venal,--


s: Not gold,--that hearts like yours despise;


s: Not "spacious dirt" (your own expression),


s: You catch my thought? What! Can't you guess?


s: From the ribbons she wears in her favourite hat;


s: And yet have the neatest of taste alive?--


s: Of the strictest sort as to frocks and shoes;


s: When "little Blue-Ribbons" prefers it so.


s: And an arch little mouth, when the teeth peep through;


s: And her primitive look is wise and grave,


s: With a sense of the weight of the word "behave;"


s: To a radiant smile for a private friend;


s: But to smile for ever is weak, you know,


s: And "little Blue-Ribbons" regards it so.


s: She's a staid little woman! And so as well


s: Is her ladyship's doll, "Miss Bonnibelle;"


s: But I think what at present the most takes up


s: The thoughts of her heart is her last new cup;


s: For the object thereon,--be it understood,--


s: Is the "Robin that buried the 'Babes in the Wood'"--


s: It is not in the least like a robin, though,


s: But "little Blue-Ribbons" declares it so.


s: "Little Blue-Ribbons" believes, I think,


s: That the rain comes down for the birds to drink;


s: To the spot where the suns of yesterday set;


s: And I know that she fully expects to meet


s: We may smile, and deny as we like--But, no;


s: For "little Blue-Ribbons" still dreams it so.


s: Dear "little Blue-Ribbons!" She tells us all


s: That she never intends to be "great" and "tall";


s: In her "own, own chair," if she grew one bit!)


s: And, further, she says, she intends to stay


s: In her "darling home" till she gets "quite gray;"


s: Alas! we are gray; and we doubt, you know,


s: But "little Blue-Ribbons" will have it so!


s: Sleeps in the plain eggs of the nightingale._"


s: Five geese,--a landscape damp and wild,--


s: Have sprung from such;--e'en Joan of Arc


s: From righteous sources comes the right,--


s: (And what must grow will still increase,


s: Ah! croyez-moi, l'erreur a son mérite._"


s: From which she scarce can pause to look,


s: Of the kind that is built by MISS GREENAWAY;


s: Where the walls are low, and the roofs are red,


s: And the birds are gay in the blue o'erhead;


s: And the dear little figures, in frocks and frills,


s: Go roaming about at their own sweet wills,


s: And "play with the pups," and "reprove the calves,"


s: And do nought in the world (but Work) by halves,


s: From "Hunt the Slipper" and "Riddle-me-ree"


s: Of their ways "intense" and Italianate,--


s: They may soar on their wings of sense, and float


s: Till the last sun sink in the last-lit West,


s: 'Tis the Art at the Door that will please the best;


s: To the end of Time 'twill be still the same,


s: For the Earth first laughed when the children came!


s: The "Bysshe," the foolscap and the rhyme,--


s: Poor Bard! to dream the verse inspired--


s: And we climb the cold summits once built on


s: Then we drop from the heights atmospheric


s: Or we pour the Greek honey, grown blander,


s: Or we toss the light bells of the mocker


s: Oh, the song where not one of the Graces


s: Where we woo the sweet Muses not starchly,


s: It will last till men weary of laughter ...


s: While cynic CHARLES still trimm'd the vane


s: Whose _Greek_ is sounder than their _hose_;


s: 'Twas there this stain of grease I boast


s: Nay, rather, FRIEND, this favour grant me:


s: Tear me at once; _but don't transplant me_.


s: Was he with sweetness of his lady's eyes,


s: But, unloved ever, still must love the same,


s: Whene'er on adverse shield or crest he came,


s: That though from hence I can but vainly yearn


s: No, I am come too high. Whate'er betide,


s: To find the doubtful thing that fights with me,


s: Toward the mountain tops I still shall ride,


s: No gift of grace, no pity made complete,


s: After much labour done,--much war with woes?


s: Will you deny me still in Heaven, my sweet;--


s: "Buy,--who'll buy?" In the market-place,


s: The quack with his puckered persuasive face


s: "Buy,--who'll buy? In this flask I hold--


s: In this little flask that I tap with my stick, Sir--


s: Is the famed, infallible Water of Gold,--


s: "Buy--who'll buy? There's a maiden there,--


s: Here is a draught that will make you fair,


s: "Buy,--who'll buy? Are you old and gray?


s: Drink but of this, and in less than a minute,


s: Lo! you will dance like the flowers in May,


s: Chirp and chirk like a new-fledged linnet!


s: Drop but a drop of this in his throttle,


s: Straight he will gossip and gorge his fill,


s: "Here is wealth for your life,--if you will but ask;


s: Here is health for your limb, without lint or lotion;


s: Here is all that you lack, in this tiny flask;


s: And the price is a couple of silver groschen!


s: "Buy,--who'll buy?" So the tale runs on:


s: And still in the great world's market-places


s: For he plays on our hearts with his pipe and drum,


s: On our vague regret, on our weary yearning;


s: For he sells the thing that never can come,


s: Or the thing that has vanished, past returning.


s: "_De mémoires de Roses on n'a point vu mourir le Jardinier._"


s: And she laughed in the pride of her youthful blood,


s: As she thought of the Gardener standing by--


s: "He is old,--so old! And he soon must die!"


s: The full Rose waxed in the warm June air,


s: And she spread and spread till her heart lay bare;


s: And she laughed once more as she heard his tread--


s: "He is older now! He will soon be dead!"


s: But the breeze of the morning blew, and found


s: That the leaves of the blown Rose strewed the ground;


s: And he raked them gently under the mould.


s: _And I wove the thing to a random rhyme,


s: Behind thy pasteboard, on thy battered hack,


s: Thy lean cheek striped with plaster to and fro,


s: Thy long spear levelled at the unseen foe,


s: And doubtful Sancho trudging at thy back,


s: Thou wert a figure strange enough, good lack!


s: Rub purblind eyes, and (having watched thee go)


s: Alas! poor Knight! Alas! poor soul possest?


s: Yet would to-day when Courtesy grows chill,


s: And life's fine loyalties are turned to jest,


s: Some fire of thine might burn within us still!


s: Ah, would but one might lay his lance in rest,


s: And charge in earnest--were it but a mill!


s: The shopman shambled from the doorway out


s: Snapped in the blade! 'Twas scarcely dear, I doubt,


s: Useless enough! And yet can still be seen,


s: Whose was it once?--Who manned it once in hope


s: Who was it dreamed his oyster-world should ope


s: Maybe with some stout Argonaut it sailed


s: Or decked by Beauty on some morning lawn


s: Perchance, ere night, for Church and King 'twas drawn--


s: Who knows--or cares? To-day, 'mid foils and gloves


s: Flanked by the favours of forgotten loves,--


s: And oft its legend lends, in hours of stress,


s: Or like a warning comes, in puffed success,


s: With lordly trunk, before they lopped it,


s: Its bulk across the lawn, and dropped it


s: With two young pear-trees to protect it,


s: Some object better worth the sketching:--


s: What time he hacked and hewed and scraped it,


s: "Pansies for thoughts!" and rose and arum;


s: But "Oh! the change" (as Milton sings)--


s: Had come and gone, the rough bark started,--


s: It still flapped up, and dropped, and rotted.


s: Queer fissures gaped, with oozings green,


s: Till, where he meant to carve his Motto,


s: Bare,--shameless,--till, for fresh disaster,


s: Has gone with life's first leaf and bud.


s: Whom _Dennis_, _Cibber_, _Tibbald_ push'd so hard!


s: POPE of the _Dunciad_! POPE who dar'd to woo,


s: That had all _Grub-street_ yelping in his Wake!


s: And who (I ask you) has been never Mean,


s: When urged by Envy, Anger or the Spleen?


s: Not rightly happy till his Life was done;


s: Whose whole Career, romance it as you please,


s: Was (what he call'd it) but a "long Disease:"


s: Think of his Lot,--his Pilgrimage of Pain,


s: Think of his Night-Hours with their Feet of Lead,


s: Think of all this, and marvel then to find


s: Nay rather, marvel that, in Fate's Despite,


s: You find so much to solace and delight,--


s: I grant you freely that POPE played his Part


s: Sometimes ignobly--but he lov'd his Art;


s: I grant you freely that he sought his Ends


s: Not always wisely--but he lov'd his Friends;


s: And who of Friends a nobler Roll could show--


s: Most that he said of _Addison_ was _true_.


s: But leave POPE'S Life. To-day, methinks, we touch


s: The Work too little and the Man too much.


s: What Art supreme, what Elegance, what Ease!


s: The Style how rapid, and the Verse how light!


s: Then read once more, and you shall wonder yet


s: "True Wit is Nature to Advantage dress'd"--


s: "And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line"--


s: Ah, what a Homily on Yours ... and Mine!


s: Or take--to choose at Random--take but This--


s: "Ten censure wrong for one that writes amiss."


s: FR. Pack'd and precise, no Doubt. Yet surely those


s: _Byron_ was certainly and _Bowles_ was not;


s: Or say you grant him, to come nearer Date,


s: What _Dryden_ had, that was denied to _Tate_--


s: FR. Which means, you claim for him the Spark divine,


s: Yet scarce would place him on the highest Line--


s: P. True, there are Classes. POPE was most of all


s: POPE was, like them, the Censor of his Age,


s: When Rhyming turn'd from Freedom to the Schools,


s: And shock'd with Licence, shudder'd into Rules;


s: When _Phoebus_ touch'd the Poet's trembling Ear


s: With one supreme Commandment _Be thou Clear_;


s: When Thought meant less to reason than compile,


s: And the _Muse_ labour'd ... chiefly with the File.


s: Beneath full Wigs no Lyric drew its Breath


s: The Note that _Wordsworth_ heard on _Duddon_-side.


s: The Woof of Wisdom with the Warp of Wit;


s: He trimm'd the Measure on its equal Feet,


s: And smooth'd and fitted till the Line was neat;


s: He taught the Pause with due Effect to fall;


s: You like your _Iliad_ in the Prose of _Bohn_,--


s: Tho' if you'd learn in Prose how _Homer_ sang,


s: 'Twere best to learn of _Butcher_ and of _Lang_,--


s: Suppose you say your Worst of POPE, declare


s: Where have you seen such Artifice before?


s: Where have you seen a Parterre better grac'd,


s: Or gems that glitter like his Gems of Paste?


s: Where can you show, among your Names of Note,


s: And where, in Fine, in all our English Verse,


s: A Style more trenchant and a Sense more terse?


s: That like along the finish'd Line to feel


s: The Ruffle's Flutter and the Flash of Steel;


s: That like my Couplet as compact as clear;


s: That like my Satire sparkling tho' severe,


s: Unmix'd with Bathos and unmarr'd by Trope,


s: I fling my Cap for Polish--and for POPE!


s: _To * * Esq. of * * with a Life of the late Ingenious M^r. W^m.


s: From _Pontack's_ or the _Shakespear's Head_;


s: When TRIP _convey'd_ his Master's Cloaths,


s: When GARRICK play'd the guilty _Richard_,


s: Or mouth'd _Macbeth_ with Mrs. PRITCHARD;


s: From _Bird-Cage Walk_ to _Lewknor's Lane_;--


s: Its brawling Quacks, its starveling Scots;


s: Too boldly. Those whose faults he bared,


s: Writhed in the ruthless grasp that brought


s: "_Couvrez ce sein_," and look that way,--


s: Old "might-have-beens" and "heretofores";--


s: Still sings with note as sweet and clear


s: Blest!--but more blest, whom Summer's heat,


s: "Rather be dead than praised!" Shall we,


s: Who loved thee, now that Death sets free


s: The clash of waves, the roar of winds that blow,


s: The strife and stress of Nature's warring things,


s: Rose like a storm-cloud, upon angry wings.


s: He set the reed-pipe to his lips, and lo!


s: The wreck of landscape took a rosy glow,


s: And Life, and Love, and gladness that Love brings


s: Laughed in the music, like a child that sings.


s: Master of each, Arch-Master! We that still


s: Wait in the verge and outskirt of the Hill


s: Look upward lonely--lonely to the height


s: Where thou has climbed, for ever, out of sight!


s: Where Fancy takes the place of Passion;--


s: And some (of course) more roughly wrought


s: Had ranked him next to GARTH or TICKELL;--


s: The Critics took, and doubtless read it.


s: New Stars shot up, shone out, were gone;


s: Then B.--_These little Songs display...._


s: With Verse, is Form the first, or Sense?


s: "Sense (cry the one Side), Sense, of course.


s: Its heartfelt Woes in 'six' and 'eight'?


s: Most freely where there's least Control,


s: If vouched for by the _Farthing Journal_;


s: But when the _Craftsman's_ self has spoken,


s: Embarked at last, thro' pure Starvation,


s: He praised, it seems, the whole Attempt.


s: Then, pausing long, showed here and there


s: One of those Mushroom Growths that spring


s: From _Grand Tours_ and from Tailoring;--


s: That Forearm, too, has quite the _Gusto_


s: You've sold it?--No?--Then take my word,


s: Nor wholly touch the thing I wanted...."


s: But One grew Great. And which One? Guess.


s: From Morn to Night, and, what was worse,


s: That "sneaking, whey-faced God, APOLLO."


s: This could not last, and like his Betters


s: He found, too soon, the _Cost_ of Letters.


s: The _Muse_, dear Sir, the _Muse_ has claims."


s: This Time he showed but small Contrition,


s: "Through _Asian_ Cities begged his Bread.


s: But (as you know) she has her Claims...."


s: "Friend," quoth his Uncle then, "I doubt


s: And--if it please this precious _Muse_--


s: Though harkye, Sir...." The Youth was gone,


s: He strove to rise, and wagged his Head--


s: "The _Muse_, dear Sir, the _Muse_--" he said.


s: "The _Muse_ shan't serve you, I assure ye.


s: That makes young Fools forget their Trade,--


s: She's just...." But he began to stutter,


s: And most--let that sad Truth be written--


s: Nay,--there are some so strangely wrought,--


s: So warped and twisted in their Thought,--


s: The Oaf preferred the "Tongs and Bones!"


s: 'Squire HOMESPUN from _Clod-Hall_ rode down,


s: That knocks your Nose against your Knees.


s: And sighed o'er _Chaos_ Wine for Stingo.


s: At length, blind Fate, that drives us all,


s: Dazed with the Din and Crowd, the 'Squire


s: The 'Squire grew dull, the 'Squire grew bored;


s: His chin dropt down; he slept; he snored.


s: Then, straying thro' the "poppied Reign,"


s: He heard once more the well-known Sounds,


s: The 'Squire in Transport slapped his Knee


s: Something that struggled, scraped, and squeaked


s: Where most the Flowers of Thought expand,


s: There lived, at _Dumpelsheim_ the Lesser,


s: And should have been the Heart and Soul--


s: E'en Friendship's self must hang the head,


s: There stood a church that men would praise


s: They called the "Virgin with the Bells."


s: Of great or small. But this they told:--


s: And bickering folk that bought and sold,


s: More moved no doubt of heat than prayer,


s: "Or, likelier still, your doll's-eyed queen


s: Shall ring her bells ... but not of craft.


s: "For fasting folk!" With that he laughed,


s: At those his words, since gear and store


s: It chanced that when the priest would kneel


s: "There's nothing new"--Not that I go so far


s: As he who also said "There's nothing true,"


s: Since, on the contrary, I hold there are


s: There's nothing new,--especially in fiction.


s: Hence, at the outset, I make no apology,


s: Being, indeed, that idyll of mythology,--


s: The Cyclops' love,--which, somewhat varied, I'm


s: To tell once more, the adverse Muse permitting,


s: In easy rhyme, and phrases neatly fitting.


s: "Once on a time"--there's nothing new, I said--


s: Seaward from Town, there used to stand of yore,


s: With low-built bar and old bow-window shady,


s: An ancient Inn, the "Dragon and the Lady."


s: Say that by chance, wayfaring Reader mine,


s: You cast a shoe, and at this dusty Dragon,


s: Where beast and man were equal on the sign,


s: Inquired at once for Blacksmith and for flagon:


s: The landlord showed you, while you drank your hops,


s: A road-side break beyond the straggling shops.


s: Your halting roadster to a kind of pass,


s: This you descended with a crumbling tread,


s: And found the sea beneath you like a glass;


s: And soon, beside a building partly walled--


s: Half hut, half cave--you raised your voice and called.


s: Then a dog growled; and straightway there began


s: Tumult within--for, bleating with affright,


s: A goat burst out, escaping from the can;


s: And, following close, rose slowly into sight--


s: Blind of one eye, and black with toil and tan--


s: An uncouth, limping, heavy-shouldered man.


s: Part smith, part seaman, and part shepherd too:


s: You scarce knew which, as, pausing with the pail


s: Half filled with goat's milk, silently he drew


s: An anvil forth, and reaching shoe and nail,


s: And then he lit his fire.... But I dispense


s: Henceforth with you, my Reader, and your horse,


s: Since this our smith, for reasons never known,


s: Women declared that he'd an "Evil Eye,"--


s: This in a sense was true--he had but one;


s: Men, on the other hand, alleged him shy:


s: We sometimes say so of the friends we shun;


s: But, wrong or right, suffices to affirm it--


s: Dwelling below the cliff, beside the sea,


s: Caved like an ancient British Troglodyte,


s: Spearing the fish along the flats at night,


s: One of those bright bewitching little creatures,


s: Who, if she once but shyly looked and smiled,


s: Would soften out the ruggedest of features;


s: Fragile and slight,--a very fay for size,--


s: With pale town-cheeks, and "clear germander eyes."


s: Nurses, no doubt, might name her "somewhat wild;"


s: And pedants, possibly, pronounce her "slow;"


s: Is that whene'er she spoke, or laughed, or romped, you


s: Felt in each act the beauty of impromptu.


s: Who, lest the ozone should in aught avail,


s: So that, in wandering at her will, the Child


s: At first but peering at the sanded floor


s: And great shark jaw-bone in the cosy bar;


s: Some old ship's figure-head--until at last,


s: Straying with each excursion more and more,


s: She reached the limits of the road, and passed,


s: Plucking the pansies, downward to the shore,


s: And so, as you, respected Reader, showed,


s: There by the cave the occupant she found,


s: Weaving a crate; and, with a gladsome cry,


s: The dog frisked out, although the Cyclops frowned


s: Then from a mound came running, too, the goat,


s: The Child stood wondering at the silent man,


s: She held behind her; so that, laughing, she


s: Turned her light steps, retreating, to the sea.


s: But the goat followed her on eager feet,


s: And therewithal an air so grave and mild,


s: Of injured confidence, that soon the Child


s: Filled the lone shore with louder merriment,


s: And e'en the Cyclops' heavy brow unbent.


s: Thus grew acquaintanceship between the pair,


s: The girl and goat;--for thenceforth, day by day,


s: The Child would bring her four-foot friend such fare


s: As might be gathered on the downward way:--


s: Foxglove, or broom, and "yellow cytisus,"


s: Dear to all goats since Greek Theocritus.


s: Having, by stress of circumstances, smiled,


s: Further encroachment, and as one beguiled


s: By adverse fortune, with the half-door shut,


s: And yet not less from thence he still must see


s: That daily coming, and must hear the goat


s: Bleating her welcome; then, towards the sea,


s: The happy voices of the playmates float;


s: Here was, of course, a pitiful surrender;


s: For soon the Child, on whom the Evil Eye


s: Seemed to exert an influence but slender,


s: Would run to question him, till, by and by,


s: His moody humor like a cloud dispersing,


s: That was a sow's-ear, that an egg of skate,


s: And then, at last, the Child, without alarm


s: Would even spell the letters on his arm.


s: On his part, like some half-remembered tale,


s: The new-found memory of an ice-bound crew,


s: And vague garrulities of spouting whale,--


s: Till, in his heart, which hitherto had been


s: Locked as those frozen barriers of the North,


s: There came once more the season of the green,--


s: The tender bud-time and the putting forth,


s: So that the man, before the new sensation,


s: Felt for the child a kind of adoration;--


s: Rising by night, to search for shell and flower,


s: To lay in places where she found them first;


s: Hoarding his cherished goat's milk for the hour


s: When those young lips might feel the summer's thirst;


s: By that clear laughter of the little maid.


s: Where no to-morrow quivers in suspense,--


s: Where scarce the changes of the sky suffice


s: To break the soft forgetfulness of sense,--


s: Where dreams become realities; and where


s: I willingly would leave him--did I dare.


s: Yet for a little space it still endured,


s: The softened Cyclops, by his hopes assured,


s: Came the stern moment that should all destroy,


s: Bringing a pert young cockerel of a Boy.


s: A black-eyed, sun-burnt, mischief-making imp,


s: Pet of the mess,--a Puck with curling locks,


s: Who straightway travestied the Cyclops' limp,


s: And marveled how his cousin so could care


s: Thus there was war at once; not overt yet,


s: For still the Child, unwilling, would not break


s: The new acquaintanceship, nor quite forget


s: The pleasant past; while, for his treasure's sake,


s: The boding smith with clumsy efforts tried


s: To win the laughing scorner to his side.


s: There are some sights pathetic; none I know


s: More sad than this: to watch a slow-wrought mind


s: Humbling itself, for love, to come and go


s: Saddest, ah!--saddest far,--when it can do


s: Naught to advance the end it has in view.


s: This was at least the Cyclops' case, until,


s: Whether the boy beguiled the Child away,


s: Woke from her novel-reading trance, one day


s: But, from that hour, they never came again.


s: Yet still he waited, hoping--wondering if


s: They still might come, or dreaming that he heard


s: The sound of far-off voices on the cliff,


s: Or starting strangely when the she-goat stirred;


s: But nothing broke the silence of the shore,


s: And, from that hour, the Child returned no more.


s: Therefore our Cyclops sorrowed,--not as one


s: But as a man who feels his days are done,


s: For, though he'd lived a hermit, 'twas but only


s: Now he discovered that his life was lonely.


s: The very sea seemed altered, and the shore;


s: Time was an emptiness that o'er and o'er


s: Ticked with the dull pulsation "Will she come?"


s: Much like his old forerunner, Polypheme.


s: Until there came the question, "Is she gone?"


s: With such sad sick persistence that at last,


s: Urged by the hungry thought which drove him on,


s: And by the summit panting stood, and still,


s: Just as the horn was sounding on the hill.


s: Then, in a dream, beside the "Dragon" door,


s: The smith saw travellers standing in the sun;


s: Then came the horn again, and three or four


s: Looked idly at him from the roof, but One,--


s: A Child within,--suffused with sudden shame,


s: Thrust forth a hand, and called to him by name.


s: Thus the coach vanished from his sight, but he


s: Limped back with bitter pleasure in his pain;


s: And yet the knowledge made the memory vain;


s: And then--he felt a pressure in his throat,


s: So, for that night, forgot to milk his goat.


s: What new resolvings then might intervene,


s: The goat stood tethered on the "Dragon" green,


s: And those who, wondering, questioned thereupon,


s: Found the hut empty,--for the man was gone.


s: "Love mocks us all"--as Horace said of old:


s: From sheer perversity, that arch-offender


s: The short and tall, the hardened and the tender;


s: And makes a Hercules forget his gender:--


s: I add a fresh one from the page of BAYLE.


s: It was in Athens that the thing occurred,


s: The studious murmur of its learned school;--


s: Nay, 'tis one favoured of Minerva's bird


s: Who plays therein the hero (or the fool)


s: With a Megarian, who must then have been


s: A maid, and beautiful, and just eighteen.


s: I shan't describe her. Beauty is the same


s: The type is still that witching One who came,


s: Between the furrows, from the bitter sea;


s: 'Tis but to shift accessories and frame,


s: And this our heroine in a trice would be,


s: Save that she wore a _peplum_ and a _chiton_,


s: Like any modern on the beach at Brighton.


s: Stay, I forget! Of course the sequel shows


s: To which, in general, her sex are foes,--


s: Who now-a-days descant on "Woman's Mission,"


s: Or tread instead that "primrose path" to knowledge,


s: That milder Academe--the Girton College.


s: The truth is, she admired ... a learned man.


s: There were no curates in that sunny Greece,


s: Fine-art habiliments in gold and fleece;


s: To shake the centres of domestic peace;)


s: So that "admiring," such as maids give way to,


s: Turned to the ranks of Zeno and of Plato.


s: The "object" here was mildly prepossessing,


s: His _forte_, it seems, lay chiefly in expressing


s: His ways were primitive; and as to dressing,


s: He kept, besides, the _régime_ of the Stoic;--


s: In short, was not, by any means, "heroic."


s: _Sic visum Veneri!_--The thing is clear.


s: Her friends were furious, her lovers nettled;


s: 'Twas much as though the Lady Vere de Vere


s: On some hedge-schoolmaster her heart had settled.


s: Unheard! Intolerable!--a lumbering steer


s: To plod the upland with a mare high-mettled!--


s: They would, no doubt, with far more pleasure hand her


s: And so they used due discipline, of course,


s: To lead to reason this most erring daughter,


s: Confinement (solitary), and bread and water;


s: Then, having lectured her till they were hoarse,


s: Finding that this to no submission brought her,


s: At last, (unwisely) to the man they sent,


s: Being, they fancied, but a bloodless thing;


s: Or else too well forewarned of that commotion


s: Which poets feign inseparable from Spring


s: To suffer danger from a school-girl notion;


s: Also they hoped that she might find her king,


s: On close inspection, clumsy and Boeotian:--


s: This was acute enough, and yet, between us,


s: I think they thought too little about Venus.


s: Something, I know, of this sort is related


s: In Garrick's life. However, the man came,


s: And taking first his mission's end as stated,


s: In other words,--he broke the matter gently.


s: Meanwhile, the lady looked at him intently,


s: Although he went on steadily, but faster.


s: There were some maladies he'd read about


s: Which seemed, at first, most difficult to master;


s: They looked intractable at times, no doubt,


s: But all they needed was a little plaster;


s: This was a thing physicians long had pondered,


s: Considered, weighed ... and then ... and then he wandered.


s: ('Tis so embarrassing to have before you


s: With lips that speak no sentence to restore you,


s: And aspect, generally, of pained surprise;


s: Then, if we add that all these things adore you,


s: Of course it mattered not to him a feather,


s: But still he wished ... they'd not been left together.)


s: "Of one," he said, continuing, "of these


s: The young especially should be suspicious;


s: Could be at once so tedious and capricious;


s: More fatal, deadlier, and more delicious--


s: Pernicious,--he should say,--for all its seeming...."


s: It seemed to him he simply was blaspheming.


s: If she had only turned askance, or uttered


s: Word in reply, or trifled with her brooch,


s: Or sighed, or cried, grown petulant, or fluttered,


s: He might (in metaphor) have "called his coach";


s: Yet still, while patiently he hemmed and stuttered,


s: She wore her look of wondering reproach;


s: (And those who read the "Shakespeare of Romances"


s: Know of what stuff a girl's "dynamic glance" is.)


s: "But there was still a cure, the wise insisted,


s: There was no knot so intricately twisted,


s: There was no riddle but at last should be


s: By Love--he meant Philosophy--resolved...."


s: The truth is, he was getting quite involved.


s: O sovran Love! how far thy power surpasses


s: Aught that is taught of Logic or the Schools!


s: Here was a man, "far seen" in all the classes,


s: Strengthened of precept, fortified of rules,


s: Nay, at an age when every passion cools,


s: Conscious of nothing but a sudden yearning


s: Stronger by far than any force of learning!


s: Therefore he changed his tone, flung down his wallet,


s: Described his lot, how pitiable and poor;


s: The hut of mud,--the miserable pallet,--


s: The scanty fare of bitter bread and sallet,--


s: Could she this shame,--this poverty endure?


s: I scarcely think he knew what he was doing,


s: But that last line had quite a touch of wooing.


s: And so she answered him,--those early Greeks


s: Took little care to keep concealment preying


s: At any length upon their damask cheeks,--


s: She could and would:--and said it as one speaks


s: Who takes no course without much careful weighing....


s: Was this, perchance, the answer that he hoped?


s: It might, or might not be. But they eloped.


s: Sought the free pine-wood and the larger air,--


s: The leafy sanctuaries, remote and inner,


s: Where the great heart of nature, beating bare,


s: Receives benignantly both saint and sinner;--


s: And shake its head, like Burleigh, after dinner,


s: From pure incompetence to mar or mend them:


s: They fled and wed;--though, mind, I don't defend them.


s: I don't defend them. 'Twas a serious act,


s: No doubt too much determined by the senses;


s: We lose the future in the present tenses!)


s: Besides, the least establishment's a fact


s: That not remote contingent--_la famille_.


s: Yet these, maybe, were happy in their lot.


s: Milton has said (and surely Milton knows)


s: _Not_ harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose;"


s: And some, no doubt, for Love's sake have forgot


s: Much that is needful in this world of prose:--


s: Perchance 'twas so with these. But who shall say?


s: Time has long since swept them and theirs away.


s: "Unwisely," surely. But 'tis well to mention


s: That this particular is _not_ invention.


s: What then? the Nymph no doubt was young?


s: With which, Dear Friend, your spouse or mine,


s: What that might be, the Muse must spare:


s: Strange shapes that dangled from the ceiling,


s: CARDENIO felt his spouse was frightened,


s: Then frowned again, then smiled:--'twas found!


s: Whene'er you feel your tones grow shrill


s: Who 'scape those _Caudine Forks_ of praise!


s: Dropped in at _Wills_ and _Tom's_ o' nights;


s: Heard BURNET preach, saw BICKNELL dance,


s: ('Tis true the feast was half by stealth:


s: PRUE was in bed: they drank her health.)


s: But thought--at length--it might go down;


s: Was scarce that candid youth's vocation:


s: But there--the choice was that, or none.


s: With HORACE and with TOOKE'S _Pantheon_,


s: The old church clock at home would chime.


s: "Used when she _read_,"--why, CIS could _say_


s: The great doors creaked. The reader fled.


s: Forth came a crowd with muffled laughter,


s: Dipped on its springs beneath his weight;


s: It began when she feared it would wet her,


s: Then it grew when she begged me to reach her


s: Which was promptly arranged to her order


s: Then it drooped, and revived at some hovels--


s: She thought "Wives and Daughters" "so jolly;"


s: Like the rest, I should dote upon "Molly;"


s: "Like Browning?" "But so-so." His proof lay


s: That preferred your mere metrical _soufflé_


s: Then we trifled with concerts and croquêt,


s: Then she sprinkled herself with "Ess Bouquet,"


s: And the price of two buns that she noted


s: And the carriage, her smile seemed to fill it


s: And I watched in the lamplight's swerving


s: That we sailed through the sunniest places


s: And we split on a rock labelled MARRIAGE,


s: Each waltzes, each warbles, each paints--


s: I've a scruple,--a grain, more affection,


s: Should appear, is it wrong to suppose,--


s: As the claims of the others are equal,--


s: That I might ... But no matter,--the sequel


s: Who, cramped beneath the "Simla's" deck,


s: Still constant, though with stiffened neck,


s: Your "blameless Arthur" hears them speak


s: Then _here_ we'll stay, please. Once for all,


s: But spare me these, for good and ill....


s: "Paint you some pictures!" Come, that's kind!


s: --"Which she accords with smile seraphic."


s: What!--all at once! But that's absurd;--


s: And word, and thought--In short--in fact--


s: (Too late! Here come both Aunts together.)


s: How much I've _longed_ for home and you,--


s: And _won't_ we read in "Traveller's Rest"!


s: How tired one grows of "calls and balls!"


s: I'm longing, quite, for "Notes on Knox";


s: Has Hawthorn stubbed the common clear?--


s: You'll let me give _some_ picnics, Dear,


s: I met Belle Vane. "HE'S" still in Spain!


s: In the room with the cedar-wood presses,


s: She'd the frock that she wore at fifteen,--


s: Short-waisted, of course--my abhorrence;


s: She'd "the loveliest"--something in "een"


s: That she wears in her portrait by Lawrence;


s: She'd the "jelick" she used--"as a Greek," (!)


s: She'd the habit she got her bad fall in;


s: That she opened Squire Grasshopper's ball in:--


s: New and old they were all of them there:--


s: To the "_paniers_" she's taken to lately


s: (Which she showed me, I think, by mistake).


s: And I conned o'er the forms and the fashions,


s: Till the faded old shapes seemed to wake


s: All the ghosts of my passed-away "passions;"--


s: From the days of love's youthfullest dream,


s: There was Lucy, who "tiffed" with her first,


s: And who threw me as soon as her third came;


s: There was Norah, whose cut was the worst,


s: For she told me to wait till my "berd" came;


s: Plain Ann, that I wooed for the "siller;"--


s: Like "The Zephyrs" that somebody painted,


s: Shy, scornful, seductive, and sainted,--


s: To my Wife, in the days she was young....


s: There was surely good ground for a quarrel,--


s: She had checked me when just on the brink


s: Those evenings when she slumbered through


s: When this old-fashioned screen was planned


s: All night through Daisy's sleep, it seems,


s: And franked of course with due Queen's-head,--


s: Yes, there they are! With quirk and twist,


s: (Save Grandpapa's dear stiff old "fist,"


s: But which is his,--her young Lothair's,--


s: With three sweet cakes, and two ripe pears,


s: 'Tis there, be sure. Though truth to speak,


s: But wait. Your time will come. And then,


s: "_The blue fly sung in the pane._"--Tennyson.


s: With some one to soothe and to still you;--


s: With some one to soothe and to still you,


s: Come to the Terrace, May,--the sun is low.


s: Thanks, I prefer my Browning here instead.


s: There are two peaches by the strawberry bed.


s: Then the Park-aloe is in bloom, you know.


s: 'Tis useless, Frank, you see I shall not stir.


s: Still, I had something you would like to hear.


s: Nay,--'tis a thing the gentler sex deplores


s: There are no eyes more beautiful than yours!


s: Young Love's for us a farce that's played;


s: The heart's still sound. Shall "cakes and ale"


s: I drink of the Ale of Southwark, I drink of the Ale of Chepe;


s: At noon I dream on the settle; at night I cannot sleep;


s: For my love, my love it groweth; I waste me all the day;


s: And when I see sweet Alison, I know not what to say.


s: The sparrow when he spieth his Dear upon the tree,


s: He beateth-to his little wing; he chirketh lustily;


s: But when I see sweet Alison, the words begin to fail;


s: I wot that I shall die of Love--an I die not of Ale.


s: Her lips are like the muscadel; her brows are black as ink;


s: Her eyes are bright as beryl stones that in the tankard wink;


s: But when she sees me coming, she shrilleth out--"Te-Hee!


s: Fye on thy ruddy nose, Cousin, what lackest thou of me?"


s: "Fye on thy ruddy nose, Cousin! Why be thine eyes so small?


s: Why go thy legs tap-lappetty like men that fear to fall?


s: Why is thy leathern doublet besmeared with stain and spot?


s: Go to. Thou art no man (she saith)--thou art a Pottle-pot!"


s: "No man," i'faith. "No man!" she saith. And "Pottle-pot" thereto!


s: Or would that I were fish, in truth, and all the sea were Ale!


s: So I drink of the Ale of Southwark, I drink of the Ale of Chepe;


s: All day I dream in the sunlight; I dream and eke I weep,


s: But little lore of loving can any flagon teach,


s: For when my tongue is looséd most, then most I lose my speech.


s: _He._ Stay thou, and watch this flock of mine.


s: _She._ With thee? Nay, that were idleness.


s: _He._ Thy kine will pasture none the less.


s: _She._ Not so: they wait me and my sign.


s: _He._ I'll pipe to thee beneath the pine.


s: _She._ Thy pipe will soothe not their distress.


s: _He._ Dost thou not hear beside the spring


s: _He._ Farewell then, Sweetheart! Farewell now.


s: _She._ Shepherd, farewell----Where goest thou?


s: _He._ I go ... to tend thy kine for thee!


s: Come hither ye gallants, come hither ye maids,


s: To the trim gravelled walks, to the shady arcades;


s: Come hither, come hither, the nightingales call;--


s: Come hither, ye cits, from your Lothbury hives!


s: Come hither, ye husbands, and look to your wives!


s: For the sparks are as thick as the leaves in the Mall;--


s: Here the 'prentice from Aldgate may ogle a Toast!