s: Dispetals roses; here the house is framed


s: Of kneaded brick and the plumed mountain pine,


s: Such clay as artists fashion and such wood


s: As the tree-climbing urchin breaks.  But there


s: Eternal granite hewn from the living isle


s: And dowelled with brute iron, rears a tower


s: That from its wet foundation to its crown


s: Of glittering glass, stands, in the sweep of winds,


s: MY HOUSE, I say.  But hark to the sunny doves


s: That make my roof the arena of their loves,


s: And fill the chimneys with their murmurous song:


s: OUR HOUSE, they say; and MINE, the cat declares


s: And spreads his golden fleece upon the chairs;


s: And MINE the dog, and rises stiff with wrath


s: So too the buck that trimmed my terraces,


s: Our whilome gardener, called the garden his;


s: Who now, deposed, surveys my plain abode


s: And his late kingdom, only from the road.


s: The labours of my sires, and fled the sea,


s: The towers we founded and the lamps we lit,


s: To play at some with paper like a child.


s: ea = open E as in mere, but this with exceptions, as


s: heather = heather, wean=wain, lear=lair.


s: ui or u-umlaut before R = (say roughly) open A as in


s: ui or u-umlaut before any other consonant = (say roughly)


s: i = pretty nearly what you please, much as in English,


s: Heaven guide the reader through that labyrinth!  But in Scots


s: it dodges usually from the short I, as in grin, to the open E,


s: as in mere.  Find the blind, I may remark, are prounced to


s: "What tongue does your auld bookie speak?"


s: "Few spak it then, an' noo there's nane.


s: Their sense, that aince was braw an' plain,


s: Baith books an' writers, stars an' clegs)


s: "Your book, that in some braw new tongue,


s: An' firs, a stench, auld-farrant clique.


s: An' there the auld housie beeks an' dozes,


s: But noo the auld city, street by street,


s: The heart plays dunt wi' main an' micht;


s: The ither went hame wi' the ither twa men,


s: An' baith wad return him the service again,


s: The clocks were chappin' in house an' ha',


s: An' the guidman's face was turnt to the wa',


s: Noo, Davie was first to get sleep in his head,


s: "The best o' frien's maun twine," he said;


s: "I'm weariet, an' here I'm awa' to my bed."


s: Twa o' them walkin' an' crackin' their lane,


s: An' the birds they yammert on stick an' stane,


s: My lads, ye'll mind on the bield o' the law,


s: The gartened hose, the weel-filled stays,


s: To rowst the slaw, their sides they bang;


s: The faithfu' FRENCH, an' twa-three mair;


s: NOTE. - It may be guessed by some that I had a certain


s: parish in my eye, and this makes it proper I should add a word


s: of disclamation.  In my time there have been two ministers in


s: that parish.  Of the first I have a special reason to speak


s: well, even had there been any to think ill.  The second I have


s: often met in private and long (in the due phrase) "sat under"


s: in his church, and neither here nor there have I heard an


s: unkind or ugly word upon his lips.  The preacher of the text


s: had thus no original in that particular parish; but when I was


s: a boy, he might have been observed in many others; he was then


s: (like the schoolmaster) abroad; and by recent advices, it


s: would seem he has not yet entirely disappeared.


s: O, I wad like to ken - to the beggar-wife says I -


s: Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry.


s: An' siller, that's sae braw to keep, is brawer still to


s: - IT'S GEY AN' EASY SPIERIN', says the beggar-wife to me.


s: Hoo a' things come to be whaur we find them when we try,


s: The lasses in their claes an' the fishes in the sea.


s: Why lads are a' to sell an' lasses a' to buy;


s: An' naebody for dacency but barely twa or three


s: Gin death's as shure to men as killin' is to kye,


s: Why God has filled the yearth sae fu' o' tasty things to


s: O, I wad like to ken - to the beggar wife says I -


s: The reason o' the cause an' the wherefore o' the why,


s: Wi' mony anither riddle brings the tear into my e'e.


s: Weet the lang roads whaur gangrels plod -


s: An' life i' the sun looks braw an' plain,


s: But drink - that's my best counsel till 'e:


s: There's rowth o' wrang, I'm free to say:


s: Have through this queer experience passed;


s: The simple sheep can find their fair'n';


s: Green loans whaur they ne'er fash their thumb.


s: They'll heir your tasteless bite o' breid,


s: It's strange that God should fash to frame


s: But they're made of a commoner clay, I suppose,


s: Pleased - although mebbe no pleased-like -


s: "WEEL," an' says you, wi' heavin' breist,


s: On the aul' spire, the bells' hie cha'mer,


s: Wi' carnal stanes the square bestrewin',


s: Till your loud chaps frae Kyle to Fruin,


s: Tell the guid wark that baith are doin' -


s: In a letter from Mr. Thomson to Mr. Johnstone.


s: Tries a' their graceless means o' grace,


s: Of a' their foreign tricks an' pliskies,


s: As Scotsmen scorn to fyle their moo's wi'.


s: They micht hae named your humble servant.


s: The kirk was filled, the door was steeked;


s: Syne, as though a' the faith was wreckit,


s: An' lichts were lit an' prayers were said


s: The warl', they thocht, wi' land an' sea,


s: My conscience! - you that's like a wife! -


s: Sic-like, some tyke grawn auld and blind,


s: Whan thieves brok' through the gear to p'ind,


s: Whaure'er there's kindly folk to please,


s: An' like your Rab, their things o' clay,


s: It's an owercome sooth for age an' youth


s: That the dearest friends are the auldest friends


s: There's a rival bauld wi' young an' auld


s: For the surest friends are the auldest friends


s: There are kind hearts still, for friends to fill


s: But the nearest friends are the auldest friends


s: MY heart, when first the blackbird sings,


s: I dreamed - but fallen through my dream,


s: The clear sun shines, the loiterers pass,


s: I had rather bring a light to your clear eyes,


s: Than that the whole, hard world with one consent,


s: This is my love's last epitaph and tomb.


s: The still plains heard my distant strokes


s: And the shilling I give to each new ally


s: Till the roar of the march by country and town


s: But whenever I heard the recruiters come,


s: I HAVE left all upon the shameful field,


s: Honour and Hope, my God, and all but life;


s: Spurless, with sword reversed and dinted shield,


s: Degraded and disgraced, I leave the strife.


s: From him that hath not, shall there not be taken


s: E'en that he hath, when he deserts the strife?


s: Life left by all life's benefits forsaken,


s: O keep the promise, Lord, and take the life.


s: I thocht I'd serve wi' you, sirs, yince,


s: THE relic taken, what avails the shrine?


s: The locket, pictureless?  O heart of mine,


s: Still warm, a vacant nest where love once sat?


s: Than cherished memories, healed every smart


s: Or the full summer sun in noon-day shine.


s: This was the little weather gleam that lit


s: The cloudy promontories - the real charm was


s: And walked beside me thro' the solitudes.


s: The sun is set.  My heart is widowed now


s: Of that companion-thought.  Alone I plough


s: A separate furrow far from her and grace.


s: The sea's roar, and the white moon-shine,


s: My earliest thought of love, and Spring's


s: Once more my whole heart leaps and swells


s: They stretch and turn and take their rest.


s: The cock has crown in the steading-yard,


s: Well-pleased, I trace the wandering rills


s: For stricken hearts and lives that pine;


s: O feebly twittering Autumn bird that tells


s: Striv'st thou?  In what importunate morass


s: Awaits success, but leaden gods look down


s: With angry welcome shall turn sour the sweet


s: Insult thee, coming glorious in the sweat


s: THE wind is without there and howls in the trees,


s: And the rain-flurries drum on the glass:


s: Alone by the fireside with elbows on knees


s: Yet now, when to cheer me the crickets begin,


s: Believe me, my friend, tho' the evening draws in,


s: To gossip of days that are over and gone,


s: With much to be glad of and much to deplore,


s: Yet, as these days with those we compare,


s: Believe me, my friend, tho' the sorrows seem more


s: And thou, faded Future, uncertain and frail,


s: His lamp is not more to the miner - their sail


s: For Hope can make feeble ones earnest and brave,


s: And, as forth thro' the years I look on,


s: Believe me, my friend, between this and the grave,


s: To do or to try; and, believe me, my friend,


s: I can leave these foundations uprooted, and tend


s: To do or to try; and if failure be mine,


s: Believe me, my friend, tho' I mourn the design


s: That suits, in this mixed world, the truly wise,


s: And shake their bells in Grandam Grundy's eyes.


s: Singers should sing with such a goodly cheer


s: That the bare listening should make strong like wine,


s: And "shoulds" and motives and beliefs in God.


s: Their life lies all indoors; sad thoughts


s: Must keep the house, while gay thoughts go abroad,


s: Within we hold the wake for hopes deceased;


s: But in the public streets, in wind or sun,


s: Our powers, perhaps, are small to please,


s: Are more than the parade of vain regrets.


s: Let Jacques stand Wert(h)ering by the wounded deer -


s: We shall make merry, honest friends of mine,


s: Hope fades, love fades, a thousand pleasures fade.


s: On which life's daylight darkens, shade by shade.


s: And still, with hopes decreasing, griefs increased,


s: Still, with what wit I have shall I, for one,


s: The old worn motley stained with rain and tears,


s: That filled and strengthened hope in earlier years;


s: If still, with friends averted, fate severe,


s: In the perspective of still hopeful youth


s: Truth to one's self - I know no other truth.


s: I see strange days for thee and thine, O priest,


s: And how your doctrines, fallen one by one,


s: White neck-clothed bigot, fixedly the same,


s: Back, minister of Christ and source of fear -


s: We cherish freedom - back with thee and thine


s: Blood thou mayest spare; but what of tears?


s: But what of riven households, broken faith -


s: Bywords that cling through all men's years


s: And drag them surely down to shame and death?


s: Stand back, O cruel man, O foe of youth,


s: And let such men as hearken not thy voice


s: I'll choose my friends myself, do you hear?


s: Through all the city's thronged approaches.


s: Pray, what was Christ, if you be Christian?


s: Far from the friends I hoped to cherish.


s: Hear, thro' all taunt and scornful laughter,


s: Where, frae the blatherin' wind concealed,


s: They'll crack a while o' kirk an' State,


s: WHAT is the face, the fairest face, till Care,


s: Till Care the graver - Care with cunning hand,


s: Etches content thereon and makes it fair,


s: Or constancy, and love, and makes it grand?


s: FOR some abiding central source of power,


s: Strong-smitten steady chords, ye seem to flow


s: The vain tumultuous passions of the hour


s: Fleet fast and disappear; and as the sun


s: Shines on the wake of tempests, there is cast


s: The long drawn pageant of your passage roll


s: To yon fair land ye come from, to yon sphere


s: Of strength and love where now ye shape your flight,


s: Ye have the power, if but ye had the will,


s: Strong-smitten steady chords in sequence grand,


s: To bear me forth into that tranquil land


s: Where good is no more ravelled up with ill;


s: Or by some quiet river's windless strand,


s: May live, and love, and wander hand in hand,


s: From this grim world, where, sadly, prisoned, we


s: Sit bound with others' heart-strings as with chains,


s: And, if one moves, all suffer, - to that Goal,


s: If such a land, if such a sphere, there be,


s: Thither, from life and all life's joys and pains,


s: FEAR not, dear friend, but freely live your days


s: Though lesser lives should suffer.  Such am I,


s: Gladly would give for you, and what of praise.


s: Step, without trouble, down the sunlit ways.


s: We that have touched your raiment, are made whole


s: From all the selfish cankers of man's soul,


s: And we would see you happy, dear, or die.


s: Therefore be brave, and therefore, dear, be free;


s: Try all things resolutely, till the best,


s: Out of all lesser betters, you shall find;


s: And we, who have learned greatness from you, we,


s: Your lovers, with a still, contented mind,


s: See you well anchored in some port of rest.


s: Seek not, O fool, her wanton flight to stay.


s: All things with a good heart, and still be pure,


s: Still to be foremost in the foremost cause,


s: And still be worthy of the love that was.


s: But not Love going.  Let her go.  The seed


s: Springs in the favouring Summer air, and grows,


s: And waxes strong; and when the Summer goes,


s: For one thing thou hast given, O Love, one thing


s: And as the King discrowned is still a King,


s: The unhappy lover still preserves his love.


s: To the glad clods in which spring flowers begin;


s: That speak with pleasant voices in the breeze,


s: That gives and takes with wind and sun and rain


s: And feels keen pleasure to the point of pain.


s: They give and take sweet colour and sweet scent;


s: Long ages hence, with her I love this hour;


s: I AM like one that for long days had sate,


s: With seaward eyes set keen against the gale,


s: On some lone foreland, watching sail by sail,


s: The portbound ships for one ship that was late;


s: And sail by sail, his heart burned up with joy,


s: One ship, the looked-for pennant at its mast,


s: Bore gaily, and dropt safely past the buoy;


s: And lo! the loved one was not there - was dead.


s: Then would he watch no more; no more the sea


s: With myriad vessels, sail by sail, perplex


s: His eyes and mock his longing.  Weary head,


s: Take now thy rest; eyes, close; for no more me


s: Shall hopes untried elate, or ruined vex.


s: For thus on love I waited; thus for love


s: Strained all my senses eagerly and long;


s: Thus for her coming ever trimmed my song;


s: Till in the far skies coloured as a dove,


s: A bird gold-coloured flickered far and fled


s: And with spread hands I watched the bright bird flee


s: And waited, till before me she dropped dead.


s: O golden bird in these dove-coloured skies


s: How long I sought, how long with wearied eyes


s: I sought, O bird, the promise of thy flight!


s: And now the morn has dawned, the morn has died,


s: The day has come and gone; and once more night


s: About my lone life settles, wild and wide.


s: A King, a God, the last, the best of friends -


s: Death, like a host, comes smiling to the door;


s: Smiling, he greets us, on that tranquil shore


s: Where neither piping bird nor peeping dawn


s: Our dreamless rest for evermore we keep.


s: So from this garish life the spirit peers;


s: And lo! as a sleeping city death outspread,


s: Where breathe the sleepers evenly; and lo!


s: After the loud wars, triumphs, trumpets, tears


s: And clamour of man's passion, Death appears,


s: Soon are eyes tired with sunshine; soon the ears


s: Weary with all things, wearies of the years;


s: And our sad spirits turn toward the dead;


s: And the tired child, the body, longs for bed.


s: OUR Johnie's deid.  The mair's the pity!


s: Whate'er the hour, whate'er the weather,


s: The task ance fo(u)nd to which th'were called,


s: The gate was aye ower thrang for Johnie -


s: And kept hands with hoary policy in marriage-bed and pew;


s: And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.


s: LOVE - what is love?  A great and aching heart;


s: Wrung hands; and silence; and a long despair.


s: Life - what is life?  Upon a moorland bare


s: Fades as days darken - goes as flowers go.


s: AS one who having wandered all night long


s: In the first hours, about the matin song,


s: And when the sun uprises in his strength,


s: To the fringed margin of the wood, and sees,


s: Of falling country, many fields and trees,


s: And cities and bright streams and far-off Ocean's smile:


s: Love, and distress, and dusty travelling ways,


s: The steersman's helm, the surgeon's helpful knife,


s: On the lone ploughman's earth-upturning share,


s: Of seas, and mountain-tops aloof in air,


s: And of the circling earth the unsupported round:


s: And, O Melampus, reaching forth my hands


s: And the low caves of mortal things, and flee


s: To the last fields of the universe untrod,


s: Where is no man, nor any earth, nor sea,


s: And the contented soul is all alone with God.


s: And it's drain a health to death before we go!


s: And death that holds the tiller as we ride.


s: And the ruler of the Ocean wild and wide!


s: O'er many a salt, o'er many a desert mile,


s: Hope, the good steersman, with unwearying hand,


s: There, too, you touch that port that you designed -


s: O sailor soul, still sailing for the sky;


s: THE cock's clear voice into the clearer air


s: He sings the morn upon the westward hills


s: He brings to me dear voices of the past,


s: Fife, fife, into the golden air, O bird,


s: While, skipper-like, his course he steers


s: IT'S forth across the roaring foam, and on towards the west,


s: It's many a lonely league from home, o'er many a mountain crest,


s: From where the dogs of Scotland call the sheep around the fold,


s: To where the flags are flying beside the Gates of Gold.


s: Where all the deep-sea galleons ride that come to bring the corn,


s: It's there that I was sick and sad, alone and poor and cold,


s: In yon distressful city beside the Gates of Gold.


s: I slept as one that nothing knows; but far along my way,


s: Before the morning God rose and planned the coming day;


s: Afar before me forth he went, as through the sands of old,


s: And chose the friends to help me beside the Gates of Gold.


s: I have been near, I have been far, my back's been at the wall,


s: Yet aye and ever shone the star to guide me through it all:


s: The love of God, the help of man, they both shall make me bold


s: Against the gates of darkness as beside the Gates of Gold.


s: Through all the land her tale she tells;


s: The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails


s: While, swift and singing, smooth and strong


s: Halt here and there in sweet and sunny dales,


s: They pause; then following bounteous gales


s: Mother we say, no tenderer name we know -


s: Or lest a wrong I say, not she withdrew,


s: But the loud stream of men day after day


s: And great dust columns of the common way


s: And he and she for evermore might yearn,


s: But to the spring the rivulets not return


s: From that dear ingle where his life began


s: In this obstreperous world's ignoble round,


s: From that poor prospect turned his face away.


s: AGAIN I hear you piping, for I know the tune so well, -


s: You rouse the heart to wander and be free,


s: Tho' where you learned your music, not the God of song can tell,


s: For you pipe the open highway and the sea.


s: O piper, lightly footing, lightly piping on your way,


s: Tho' your music thrills and pierces far and near,


s: I tell you you had better pipe to someone else to-day,


s: For you cannot pipe my fancy from my dear.


s: You sound the note of travel through the hamlet and the town;


s: You would lure the holy angels from on high;


s: And not a man can hear you, but he throws the hammer down


s: And is off to see the countries ere he die.


s: But now no more I wander, now unchanging here I stay;


s: By my love, you find me safely sitting here:


s: And pipe you ne'er so sweetly, till you pipe the hills away,


s: You can never pipe my fancy from my dear.


s: The bells that ring, the peaks that climb,


s: And keep their friends in close command.


s: YES, friend, I own these tales of Arabia


s: Smile not, as smiled their flawless originals,


s: Thus, friend, the tales of the old Camaralzaman,


s: Blind-eyed and ill-starred royal scions,


s: Charm us in age as they charmed in childhood.


s: Bright-eyed, in truth, yet soul-less houris


s: Lost, lost, the man who mindeth the minstrelsy;


s: Since still, in sandy, glittering pleasances,


s: Cold, stony fruits, gem-like but quite in-


s: STILL I love to rhyme, and still more, rhyming, to wander


s: Old-time trills and falls by the brook-side still do I ponder,


s: Come here, come, revive me, Sun-God, teach me, Apollo,


s: Since I ancient verses, I emulous follow,


s: Still strange, strange, they sound in old-young raiment invested,


s: Young song-birds elate to grave old temples benested


s: Thoughts?  No thought has yet unskilled attempted to flutter


s: He who writes but aims at fame and his bread and his butter,


s: FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,


s: Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,


s: Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,


s: Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;


s: Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:


s: Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:


s: She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,


s: Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:


s: Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.


s: One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal


s: A wren's flight higher toward the skies;


s: Dance, live and sing through all our furrowed tract;


s: There standing, you should hear with ease


s: From your nice nurseries you would pass,


s: HAIL, guest, and enter freely!  All you see


s: Is, for your momentary visit, yours; and we


s: Who welcome you are but the guests of God,


s: LO, now, my guest, if aught amiss were said,


s: Forgive it and dismiss it from your head.


s: For me, for you, for all, to close the date,


s: Pass now the ev'ning sponge across the slate;


s: Which is the parent and the child of sleep.


s: SO live, so love, so use that fragile hour,


s: That when the dark hand of the shining power


s: Shall one from other, wife or husband, take,


s: The poor survivor may not weep and wake.


s: DEAR sir, good-morrow!  Five years back,


s: When you first girded for this arduous track,


s: Endowed another with your damned defects,


s: Could you have dreamed in your despondent vein


s: That the kind God would make your path so plain?


s: Support my stumbling footsteps on the hill!


s: The little owner had made haste for home;


s: And from the door of where the eternal dwell,


s: Looked back on human things and smiled farewell.


s: The tune of little feet be heard along the floor!


s: See - you shall say - the love they send


s: Then kindly bless; and to your perch aloof,


s: Poor Otto down, and, warming for our sakes,


s: Oft have you spruced my wounded feather,


s: I through the Golden Gates to Golden Isles


s: Steer without smiling, through the sea of smiles,


s: Isle upon isle, in the seas of the south,


s: Why should I sail, why should the breeze?


s: I have been young, and I have counted friends.


s: A hopeless sail I spread, too late, too late.


s: COME, my little children, here are songs for you;


s: Some are short and some are long, and all, all are new.


s: You must learn to sing them very small and clear,


s: Very true to time and tune and pleasing to the ear.


s: Mark the note that rises, mark the notes that fall,


s: Mark the time when broken, and the swing of it all.


s: So when night is come, and you have gone to bed,


s: All the songs you love to sing shall echo in your head.


s: HOME from the daisied meadows, where you linger yet -


s: Home, golden-headed playmate, ere the sun is set;


s: Home with you, home and lay your little head at rest,


s: Safe, safe, my little darling, on your mother's breast.


s: Lullaby, darling; your mother is watching you;


s: Lullaby, slumber, my darling, till morning be


s: All white and smooth at home your little bed is laid.


s: EARLY in the morning I hear on your piano


s: You (at least, I guess it's you) proceed to learn to play.


s: Mostly little minds should take and tackle their piano


s: While the birds are singing in the morning of the day.


s: MINE eyes were swift to know thee, and my heart


s: Steadfast excess of love and laughing care:


s: I knew thee helpful, knew thee true, knew thee


s: With answerable throbbings.  On the stream,


s: Deep, swift, and clear, the lilies floated; fish


s: Through the shadows ran.  There, thou and I


s: Read Kindness in our eyes and closed the match.


s: FIXED is the doom; and to the last of years


s: Teacher and taught, friend, lover, parent, child,


s: Each walks, though near, yet separate; each beholds


s: His dear ones shine beyond him like the stars.


s: With cries approach, with cries behold the gulph,


s: The Unvaulted; as two great eagles that do wheel in air


s: Above a mountain, and with screams confer,


s: Endearing, week by week, till death at last


s: Dissolve that long divorce.  By faith we love,


s: Not knowledge; and by faith, though far removed,


s: Dwell as in perfect nearness, heart to heart.


s: Those things we merely are; and to our souls


s: So from cool night and woodlands to a feast


s: May someone enter, and still breathe of dews,


s: And in her eyes still wear the dusky night.


s: Meanwhile, my Eve, with flower and grass


s: And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush,


s: TO friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost


s: The gracious old, the lovely young, to May


s: These from my blue horizon and green isles,


s: These from this pinnacle of distances I,


s: Or feigned to visit, now, my day being done,


s: Do slumber wholly; nor shall know at all


s: Drink of the blanching ink, or the loud sound


s: Fear no more, O doubting hearted; weep no more, O weeping eye!


s: Lo, the voice of your redeemer; lo, the songful morning near.


s: Here one hour you toil and combat, sin and suffer, bleed and die;


s: Bear a moment, heavy laden, weary hand and weeping eye.


s: Lo, the feet of your deliverer; lo, the hour of freedom here.


s: COME to me, all ye that labour; I will give your spirits rest;


s: Here apart in starry quiet I will give you rest.


s: Come to me, ye heavy laden, sin defiled and care opprest,


s: In your father's quiet mansions, soon to prove a welcome guest.


s: But an hour you bear your trial, sin and suffer, bleed and die;


s: But an hour you toil and combat here in day's inspiring eye.


s: See the feet of your deliverer; lo, the hour of freedom nigh.


s: I NOW, O friend, whom noiselessly the snows


s: Settle around, and whose small chamber grows


s: Dusk as the sloping window takes its load:


s: The kindly hill, as to complete our hap,


s: Well sheltered in our slender grove of trees


s: And ring of walls, we sit between her knees;


s: A disused quarry, paved with rose plots, hung


s: With clematis, the barren womb whence sprung


s: The crow-stepped house itself, that now far seen


s: Stands, like a bather, to the neck in green.


s: There in the clear, warm mornings many a book


s: Has vied with the fair prospect of the hills


s: That, vale on vale, rough brae on brae, upfills


s: Halfway to the zenith all the vacant sky


s: Horace has sat with me whole mornings through:


s: And Montaigne gossiped, fairly false and true;


s: That suit the easy vein, the quiet tide,


s: The calm and certain stay of garden-life,


s: Far sunk from all the thunderous roar of strife.


s: Of pensive memories lays about the braes:


s: The old chestnuts gossip tales of bygone days.


s: Here, where some wandering preacher, blest Lazil,


s: Had made his secret church, in rain or snow,


s: All night the doors stood open, come who might,


s: The hounded kebbock mat the mud all night.


s: Nor are there wanting later tales; of how


s: I have had talents, too.  In life's first hour


s: God crowned with benefits my childish head.


s: Flower after flower, I plucked them; flower by flower


s: Cast them behind me, ruined, withered, dead.


s: Full many a shining godhead disappeared.


s: From the bright rank that once adorned her brow


s: Gone are the fair old dreams, and one by one,


s: As, one by one, the means to reach them went,


s: As, one by one, the stars in riot and disgrace,


s: There shut the door, alas! on many a hope


s: There shut the door, alas! on many a hope,


s: And yet some hopes remain that shall decide


s: My rest of years and down the autumnal slope.


s: Gone are the quiet twilight dreams that I


s: Loved, as all men have loved them; gone!


s: I have great dreams, and still they stir my soul on high -


s: Dreams of the knight's stout heart and tempered will.


s: Not in Elysian lands they take their way;


s: Not as of yore across the gay champaign,


s: The path winds forth before me, sweet and plain,


s: Not now; but though beneath a stone-grey sky


s: November's russet woodlands toss and wail,


s: Still the white road goes thro' them, still may I,


s: Strong in new purpose, God, may still prevail.


s: At whose light fall awaking, all my heart


s: Grew populous with gracious, favoured thought,


s: And all night long thereafter, hour by hour,


s: Went proudly, and old hopes with downcast head


s: Followed like Kings, subdued in Rome's imperial hour,


s: SINCE thou hast given me this good hope, O God,


s: That while my footsteps tread the flowery sod


s: And the great woods embower me, and white dawn


s: From day to day, and night to night, O God,


s: My life shall no wise miss the light of love;


s: Man's one poor star, man's supine lands,


s: My life shall no wise lack the light of love,


s: My hands not lack the loving touch of hands;


s: But day by day, while yet I draw my breath,


s: I shall be one that has a perfect friend.


s: Her heart shall taste my laughter and my tears,


s: And her kind eyes shall lead me to the end.


s: On no dear knees, a privileged babbler, clomb,


s: A father's voice perhaps the child may hear;


s: On that poor father whom you never knew.


s: Sat hand in hand with love, and all day through


s: With your dear mother wondered over you.


s: For all my pack I bear a chartered heart.


s: Forth on the world without a guide or chart,


s: Content to know, through all man's varying fates,


s: IT blows a snowing gale in the winter of the year;


s: The boats are on the sea and the crews are on the pier.


s: The needle of the vane, it is veering to and fro,


s: A flash of sun is on the veering of the vane.


s: That quaintly crowns your graceful head,


s: Though long the way, though hard to bear


s: There shall at length, be sure, O friends,


s: THOU strainest through the mountain fern,


s: WHEN my young lady has grown great and staid,


s: She may take pleasure with a smile to know


s: For her long after, then, this tale I tell


s: Each with a headache sat her sire and I.


s: Instant the hostess waked: she viewed the scene,


s: Divined the giants' languor by their mien,


s: Her pigmy stature scarce attained the seat -


s: She dragged it where she would, and with her feet


s: Surmounted; thence, a Phaeton launched, she crowned


s: And culled a pair of fans; wherewith equipped,


s: Our mountaineer back to the level slipped;


s: And being landed, with considerate eyes,


s: Betwixt her elders dealt her double prize;


s: The small to me, the greater to her sire.


s: Once more approach and put the climax on:


s: So she awhile withdrew, her piece she viewed -


s: For half a moment half supposed it good -


s: Spied her mistake, nor sooner spied than ran


s: In gracious better thought, equipped the guest.


s: From ill to well, from better on to best,


s: Arts move; the homely, like the plastic kind;


s: Once more she backed, once more a space apart


s: Considered and reviewed her work of art:


s: Doubtful at first, and gravely yet awhile;


s: Till all her features blossomed in a smile.


s: And the child, waking at the call of bliss,


s: To each she ran, and took and gave a kiss.


s: Down by the braes and the grey sea-side;


s: Round they rade by the tail of the land;


s: And O! sae bonny as the bour-tree blooms!


s: Wi' red, red coats and braw, braw plumes.


s: And I thought shame to be standing there.


s: . . . And who is this yin? and who is yon


s: That sits and looks sae braw and crouse?


s: The eastland wind blew shrill and snell,


s: He hirpled up by the links and the lane,


s: And chappit laigh in the back-door-stane.


s: . . . Is this Mr. Frank, or a beggarman?


s: And I thought it strange to gang my lane;


s: I thought it strange, I thought it sweet,


s: In the mirk night, when the boats were at sea,


s: In the mirk night, when the folks were asleep,


s: Late and air', when the folks were asleep,


s: O' the bour-tree leaves I busked his bed,


s: NOR judge me light, tho' light at times I seem,


s: And lightly in the stress of fortune bear


s: The innumerable flaws of changeful care -


s: Nor judge me light for this, nor rashly deem


s: To the far haven by the favouring stream.


s: Opposes, all night long, the unwearied oar,


s: Shall reach the Port; but, winged, with some light breeze


s: Shall they, with upright keels, pass in before


s: Whom easy Taste, the golden pilot, steered.


s: So shall this book wax like unto a well,


s: Fairy with mirrored flowers about the brim,


s: Or like some tarn that wailing curlews skim,


s: Glassing the sallow uplands or brown fell;


s: (Weary with noon) to find relief and shade,


s: When on the uneasy sick-bed we are laid,


s: We shall go down into thy book, and tell


s: The leaves, once blank, to build again for us


s: Old summer dead and ruined, and the time


s: So shalt thou stint the meagre winter thus


s: Shall melt before the sunshine in thy book.


s: I have a hoard of treasure in my breast;


s: The grange of memory steams against the door,


s: Full of my bygone lifetime's garnered store -


s: Old pleasures crowned with sorrow for a zest,


s: Old sorrow grown a joy, old penance blest,


s: Chastened remembrance of the sins of yore


s: Supports our halting will toward the best.


s: May bring of joy or sorrow, who can tell?


s: O, knowing not, who cares?  It may be well


s: That we shall find old pleasures and old fears,


s: And our remembered childhood seen thro' tears,


s: The best of Heaven and the worst of Hell.


s: As starts the absent dreamer when a train,


s: Roars forth into the sunlight, to its seat


s: The fragile mist of fair deceit that lay


s: O'er the bleak years that severed me from death.


s: Yes, at the sight I quailed; but, not unwise


s: Or not, O God, without some nervous thread


s: Of that best valour, Patience, bowed my head,


s: And with firm bosom and most steadfast eyes,


s: Strong in all high resolve, prepared to tread


s: The unlovely path that leads me toward the skies.


s: Not undelightful, friend, our rustic ease


s: To grateful hearts; for by especial hap,


s: With its own ring of walls and grove of trees,


s: Sits, in deep shelter, our small cottage - nor


s: With clematis, the quarry whence she sprung,


s: Whither in early spring, unharnessed folk,


s: We join the pairing swallows, glad to stay


s: Where, loosened in the hills, remote, unseen,


s: From its tall trees, it breathes a slender smoke


s: To heaven, and in the noon of sultry day


s: Stands, coolly buried, to the neck in green.


s: Nailed with indifference fondly deemed complete,


s: And (O strange chance, more sorrowful than sweet)


s: The counterfeit of her that was my fate,


s: Dressed in like vesture, graceful and sedate,


s: Went quietly up the vacant village street,


s: The still small sound of her most dainty feet


s: Shook, like a trumpet blast, my soul's estate.


s: Instant revolt ran riot through my brain,


s: And all night long, thereafter, hour by hour,


s: Went proudly; and old hopes, broke loose again


s: From the restraint of wisely temperate power,


s: The strong man's hand, the snow-cool head of age,


s: The certain-footed sympathies of youth -


s: These, and that lofty passion after truth,


s: Or the great men of former years, he needs


s: (Hard task!) black care's inevitable ring


s: Settling with years upon the heart that feeds


s: The narrowing toil grows closer round his feet;


s: With disenchanting touch rude-handed time


s: The unlovely web discloses, and strange fear


s: Leads him at last to eld's inclement seat,


s: The bitter north of life - a frozen clime.


s: As Daniel, bird-alone, in that far land,


s: Kneeling in fervent prayer, with heart-sick eyes


s: Turned thro' the casement toward the westering skies;


s: Who in all times, when persecutions rise,


s: Cherish forgotten creeds with fostering hand:


s: Such do ye seem to me, light-hearted crew,


s: O turned to friendly arts with all your will,


s: One rood of Holy-land in this bleak earth


s: Sequestered still (our homage surely due!)


s: To the twin Gods of mirthful wine and mirth.


s: Deaf, blind, and prone on face and knee,


s: Tall as a guardsman, pale as the east at dawn,


s: Who strides in strange apparel on the lawn?


s: Rails for his breakfast? routs his vassals out


s: (Like boys escaped from school) with song and shout?


s: Kind and unkind, his Maker's final freak,


s: Part we deride the child, part dread the antique!


s: See where his gang, like frogs, among the dew


s: Adjust their staring kilts; and their swift eyes


s: Turn still to him who sits to supervise.


s: He in the midst, perched on a fallen tree,


s: Eyes them at labour; and, guitar on knee,


s: Now twangs a halting chord, now tweaks a boy.


s: Plays both the despot and the volunteer,


s: And for his music, too, exacts applause.


s: Before the dawn, by morning lamplight, by


s: The glow of smelting noon, and when the sun


s: Dips past my westering hill and day is done;


s: So, bending still over my trade of words,


s: I hear the morning and the evening birds,


s: The morning and the evening stars behold;


s: Brown innocent aides in home and husbandry


s: Wonder askance.  What ails the boss? they ask.


s: Him, richest of the rich, an endless task


s: Before the earliest birds or servants stir


s: This cleft in the boar and devil-haunted wood,


s: And bade therein, from sun to seas and skies,


s: Red-roofed, blue-walled, a rainbow on the hill,


s: Scribbles and scribbles, like a German clerk.


s: We see the fact, but tell, O tell us why?


s: My reverend washman and wise butler cry.


s: And coloured pictures rise on me thick and fast:


s: Lamplitten city, shops, and the changing crowd;


s: The winding river, the white moving rhyme,


s: Still brisk of foot, still busy and keen


s: That, huge as countries, swift as birds,


s: Stands anchored in the ensanguined west,


s: Like the stream of gold and the sky above,


s: We have lived, my love, O, we have lived, my love!


s: Softly swam the boat that bore our love,


s: Swiftly swam the boat that bore our love.


s: All the earth and all the sky were ours,


s: Bound with grain and watched by all the sky,


s: Call to mind how bright the vanished angel hours,


s: When our boat drew homeward filled with flowers.


s: O darling, call them to mind; love the past, my love.


s: How the glory died through golden hours,


s: How the boat drew homeward filled with flowers.


s: Threads the inverted forest as she goes,


s: Broke the trembling green of mirrored trees.


s: Still in the river see the shallop floats.


s: Those that loved of yore, O those that loved of yore!


s: Hark through the stillness, O darling, hark!


s: And at the married fireside, sleep of soul and sleep of fancy,


s: Joan and Darby sit and dose and dream and wake -


s: Dream they hear the flowing, singing river,


s: Heaven below and only heaven above azure


s: Safely swam the boat that bore our love.


s: Bright ran the stream, bright hung the sky above.


s: Lo, the shallop sheds the streaming weeds;


s: Starred with lilies . . . with stirring weeds.


s: HERE lies Erotion, whom at six years old


s: Fate pilfered.  Stranger (when I too am cold,


s: Who shall succeed me in my rural field),


s: To this small spirit annual honours yield!


s: Bright be thy hearth, hale be thy babes, I crave


s: And this, in thy green farm, the only grave.


s: Counts of his life the fifteenth finished stage.


s: The rounded days and the safe years he sees,


s: Nor fears death's water mounting round his knees.


s: Not one but that its memory makes him glad.


s: So good men lengthen life; and to recall


s: The past is to have twice enjoyed it all.


s: O NEPOS, twice my neigh(b)our (since at home


s: We're door by door, by Flora's temple dome;


s: And in the country, still conjoined by fate,


s: Behold our villas standing gate by gate),


s: Thou hast a daughter, dearer far than life -


s: But why for her, { neglect the flowing } can


s: Hoard casks of money, if to hoard be thine;


s: But let thy daughter drink a younger wine!


s: Let her go rich and wise, in silk and fur;


s: Lay down a { bin that shall }  grow old with her;


s: But thou, meantime, the while the batch is sound,


s: With pleased companions pass the bowl around;


s: Nor let the childless only taste delights,


s: For Fathers also may enjoy their nights.


s: And watched me all the days that I was young;


s: You, at whose step the laziest slaves awake,


s: And both the bailiff and the butler quake;


s: The barber's suds now blacken with my beard,


s: And my rough kisses make the maids afeared;


s: But with reproach your awful eyebrows twitch,


s: And for the cane, I see, your fingers itch.


s: Straight you exclaim: "Your father did not so."


s: And fuming, count the bottles on the board


s: As though my cellar were your private hoard.


s: And your own mistress hails me for a man.


s: YOU fear, Ligurra - above all, you long -


s: That I should smite you with a stinging song.


s: This dreadful honour you both fear and hope -


s: Both all in vain: you fall below my scope.


s: He does not harm the midge along the pool.


s: Lo! if so close this stands in your regard,


s: From some blind tap fish forth a drunken barn,


s: Who shall with charcoal, on the privy wall,


s: BEYOND the gates thou gav'st a field to till;


s: A farm, d'ye say?  Is this a farm to you,


s: Where for all woods I spay one tuft of rue,


s: And that so rusty, and so small a thing,


s: Where one cucumber covers all the plain;


s: And where one serpent rings himself in vain


s: Here shall my gardener be the dusty mole.


s: Here shall I wait in vain till figs be set,


s: And till the spring disclose the violet.


s: Through all my wilds a tameless mouse careers,


s: Here finds he scarce a pedestal to foot.


s: The gathered harvest scarcely brims a spoon;


s: Generous are you, but I more generous still:


s: Take back your farm and stand me half a gill!


s: Of Rome the glory and of Rome the grace,


s: Before from labour I make haste to live?


s: Some burn to gather wealth, lay hands on rule,


s: Or with white statues fill the atrium full.


s: The talking hearth, the rafters sweet with smoke,


s: Live fountains and rough grass, my line invoke:


s: Nights filled with slumber, and a quiet life.


s: MY Martial owns a garden, famed to please,


s: Where the cool grottos trench the hanging rock.


s: The moderate summit, something plain and bare,


s: And while the clouds besiege the vales below,


s: Keeps the clear heaven and doth with sunshine glow.


s: To the June stars that circle in the skies


s: The dainty roofs of that tall villa rise.


s: Hence do the seven imperial hills appear;


s: And you may view the whole of Rome from here;


s: And the cool groves and the cool falling rills,


s: Stretch far broad below the dome of day;


s: And lo! the traveller toiling towards his home;


s: And all unheard, the chariot speeds to Rome!


s: For here no whisper of the wheels; and tho'


s: The Mulvian Bridge, above the Tiber's flow,


s: Hangs all in sight, and down the sacred stream


s: The seaman's shrilling pipe not enters here,


s: Nor the rude cries of porters on the pier.


s: The welcome and the weal that therein are!


s: So free the access, the doors so widely thrown,


s: GO(D) knows, my Martial, if we two could be


s: To the true life together bend our mind,


s: And take a furlough from the falser kind.


s: No rich saloon, nor palace of the great,


s: Nor suit at law should trouble our estate;


s: On no vainglorious statues should we look,


s: Baths, wells and meads, and the veranda shade,


s: Let all our travels and our toils be made.


s: And the good suns we see, that flash and pass


s: And perish; and the bell that knells them cries:


s: WOULDST thou be free?  I think it not, indeed;


s: But if thou wouldst, attend this simple rede:


s: When quite contented    }thou canst dine at home


s: And drink a small wine of the march of Rome;


s: When thou canst see unmoved thy neighbour's plate,


s: And wear my threadbare toga in the gate;


s: When thou hast learned to love a small abode,


s: When thus contained and bridled thou shalt be,


s: Then, Maximus, then first shalt thou be free.


s: CALL me not rebel, though { here at every word


s: If I no longer hail thee  { King and Lord


s: And now possess my fortunes poor but glad.


s: And escaped at once from slavery and pelf.


s: Our high desires do our low fortunes make:


s: Do bear the fetters and the frowns of Kings;


s: Set free thy slave; thou settest free thyself.


s: LOOK round: You see a little supper room;


s: But from my window, lo! great Caesar's tomb!


s: And the great dead themselves, with jovial breath


s: THIS girl was sweeter than the song of swans,


s: And daintier than the lamb upon the lawns


s: Or Curine oyster.  She, the flower of girls,


s: Outshone the light of Erythraean pearls;


s: The teeth of India that with polish glow,


s: The untouched lilies or the morning snow.


s: Compared to her the peacock seemed not fair,


s: The squirrel lively, or the phoenix rare;


s: Her on whose pyre the smoke still hovering waits;


s: My child-love and my playmate - snatcht away.


s: Who know that lord that is the lord of all;


s: Come to the brim and nose the friendly hand


s: That sways and can beshadow all the land.


s: Nor only so, but have their names, and come


s: When they are summoned by the Lord of Rome.


s: Here once his line an impious Lybian threw;


s: And as with tremulous reed his prey he drew,


s: He groped, nor found the prey that he had ta'en.


s: Thou, then, while still thine innocence is pure,


s: Flee swiftly, nor presume to set thy lure;


s: Respect these fishes, for their friends are great;


s: And green Ravello dreaming on her height;


s: The clean swift brightness of a fugue of Bach's,


s: When once in English woods I heard a lark.


s: Than a vague prelude to the thought of you--


s: My thoughts seek you as waves that seek the shore,


s: With isles like flowers against her breast,


s: The voice and the eyes and the soul of a man;


s: Only through love will you enter heaven.


s: Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,


s: I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful


s: And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted


s: My throat should ache with praise, and I


s: Love in my heart was a fresh tide flowing


s: The sun was keen and the foam was blowing


s: But now in the dusk the tide is turning,


s: And the waves that rose in resistless yearning


s: Night is over the park, and a few brave stars


s: Look on the lights that link it with chains of gold,


s: The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars


s: That seem too heavy for tremulous water to hold.


s: We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place,


s: And now and again one wakes and uplifts its head;


s: How still you are--your gaze is on my face--


s: We watch the swans and never a word is said.


s: Where we stood while the storm swept by,


s: But my heart was full of my new love's glory,


s: But we talked of a thousand things together,


s: Of words unuttered that breathed and stirred.


s: Oh, love that lives its life with laughter


s: Goes like a ghost through the winding years. . . .


s: My heart was full of my new love's glory,--


s: How many and many a night we two together


s: Was low in a happy place to let us cross,


s: And down the hill a tree that dripped with bloom


s: The frail white stars moved slowly over the sky.


s: Dreamily before her mirror shakes from her hair


s: This year's blossoms, clinging in its coils?


s: Ordering my earthly thoughts and things;


s: "The myrtle flowers will grow more blue."


s: Look back with longing eyes and know that I will follow,


s: Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow,


s: Let our flight be far in sun or blowing rain--


s: _But what if I heard my first love calling me again?_


s: Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam,


s: Take me far away to the hills that hide your home;


s: Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door--


s: _But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?_


s: I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea,


s: And I have loved the green, bright north,


s: As one who strives to dance, half blind with tears.


s: Oh, sensitive, shy years, oh, lonely years,


s: That strove to sing with voices drowned in tears.


s: Caught in the web of the years that pass,


s: Will be as the gray stones in the grass.


s: To gather me close in the old sweet way--


s: The key in the latch and the strong, quick tread--


s: When we come home at night and close the door,


s: Safe in our own love and the gentle gloom,


s: Glad of familiar wall and chair and floor,


s: Glad to leave far below the clanging city;


s: Looking far downward to the glaring street


s: Gaudy with light, yet tired with many feet,


s: Men have tried hard to put away the dark;


s: Inlay with squares of gold the winter night,


s: But to us standing here there comes the stark


s: Sense of the lives behind each yellow light,


s: And not one wholly joyous, proud, or free.


s: But what if my soul broke faith with you?


s: If I can bear your love like a lamp before me,


s: When I go down the long steep Road of Darkness,


s: I shall not fear the everlasting shadows,


s: If I can find out God, then I shall find Him,


s: If none can find Him, then I shall sleep soundly,


s: Knowing how well on earth your love sufficed me,


s: A chain of stars down either side the street--


s: Why can't you lift the chain and give it to me,


s: A necklace for my throat?  I'd twist it round


s: And you could play with it.  You smile at me


s: Behind whose eyes the fairies live. . . .  And see,


s: We watch our subjects with a haughty joy. . . .


s: How still you are!  Have you been hard at work


s: And are you tired to-night?  It is so long


s: Since I have seen you--four whole days, I think.


s: My heart is crowded full of foolish thoughts


s: And I must give them to you, all of them,


s: Before they fade.  The people I have met,


s: The play I saw, the trivial, shifting things


s: That loom too big or shrink too little, shadows


s: Haunting or gay--and yet they all grow real


s: And take their proper size here in my heart


s: When you have seen them. . . .  There's the Plaza now,


s: A lake of light!  To-night it almost seems


s: That all the lights are gathered in your eyes,


s: Drawn somehow toward you.  See the open park


s: Scattered in wise disorder like the stars.


s: We look down on them as God must look down


s: Tangled in clouds. . . .  Come, then, and let us walk


s: Since we have reached the park.  It is our garden,


s: All black and blossomless this winter night,


s: We set the whole world on the trail of spring.


s: Has marked our footprints in mysterious fire,


s: When they wake up at dawn in hollow tree-trunks


s: And come out on the drowsy park, they look


s: Along the empty paths and say, "Oh, here


s: They went, and here, and here, and here!  Come, see,


s: Here is their bench, take hands and let us dance


s: When they come back again!" . . .  Look at the lake--


s: Do you remember how we watched the swans


s: That night in late October while they slept?


s: Swans must have stately dreams, I think.  But now


s: The lake bears only thin reflected lights


s: That shake a little.  How I long to take


s: One from the cold black water--new-made gold


s: To give you in your hand!  And see, and see,


s: There is a star, deep in the lake, a star!


s: Oh, dimmer than a pearl--if you stoop down


s: Your hand could almost reach it up to me. . . .


s: There was a new frail yellow moon to-night--


s: With stars like dew to fill it to the brim. . . .


s: How cold it is!  Even the lights are cold;


s: They have put shawls of fog around them, see!


s: What if the air should grow so dimly white


s: That we would lose our way along the paths


s: Made new by walls of moving mist receding


s: The more we follow. . . .  What a silver night!


s: That was our bench the time you said to me


s: The long new poem--but how different now,


s: Making it strange to all the friendly trees!


s: There is no wind, and yet great curving scrolls


s: Carve themselves, ever changing, in the mist.


s: Walk on a little, let me stand here watching


s: To see you, too, grown strange to me and far. . . .


s: If one night we could have it all alone--


s: No lovers with close arm-encircled waists


s: To whisper and break in upon our dreams.


s: And now we have it!  Every wish comes true!


s: Even the stars have gone.  We two alone!


s: "Vhen he found dat a blace was ploonder-fool, he


s: 'Men, sack und pack! I shoots mine eyes for only shoost an uhr.'


s: Boot if de blace vas fery rich, he vouldt say mit a solemn mien:


s: 'Men - I only shleep for von half uhr more - ve moost


s: "He vas shoost like Koenig Etzel, of whom de shdory dell,


s: Der Hun who go for de Romans und gife dem shinin hell:


s: Only dis dat dey say no grass vouldt crow vhere


s: Und I really peliefe vhere Breitmann go, de hops


s: If once you tie a dog loose, dere ish more soon geds aroundt,


s: Und vhen dis vas shtartedt on Breitmann id was


s: Dough vhy he moost hafe somedings vas nod by no means glear,


s: Nor tid id, like Paulus' confersion, on de snap to all abbear!


s: Und, in facdt, Balthazar Bumchen saidt he couldtent


s: Vhy a feller for gaddrin' riches shood dus revartedt pe:


s: Der Breitmann own drei Houser, mit a weinhandle in a stohr,


s: Dazu ein Lager-Wirthschaft, und sonst was - somedings more.


s: Dis plasted plackguard none-sense ve couldn't no means shtand


s: From a narrow-mineted shvine's kopf, of our nople captain grand:


s: Soosh low, goarse, betty bornirtheit a shentleman deplores;


s: So ve called him verfluchter Hundsfott, und shmysed


s: So ve all dissolfed dat Breitmann shouldt hafe a nomination


s: To go to de Legisladoor, to make some dings off de nation;


s: Mit de helb of a Connedigut man, in whom ve hafe great hobes,


s: Who hat shange his boledics fivdeen dimes, und


s: Denn for our Insdructions Comedy de ding vas protocollirt,


s: By Docktor Emsig Grubler, who in Jena vonce studiret;


s: Und for Breitmann his insdrugtions de comedy tid say


s: Dat de All out-going from de Ones vash die first Moral Idee.


s: Und de segondt crate Moral Idee dat into him ve rings,


s: Vas dat government for every man moost alfays do efery dings;


s: Und die next Idee do vitch his mindt esbecially ve gall,


s: Is to do mitout a Bresident und no government ad all.


s: Und die fourt' Idee ve vish der Hans vouldt alfays keeb in fiew,


s: Ish to cooldifate die Peaudifool, likevise de Goot und Drue;


s: Und de form of dis oopright-hood in proctise to present,


s: He must get our liddle pills all bassed, mitout id's


s: Und die fift' Idee - ash learnin' ish de cratest ding on eart',


s: Und ash Shoopider der Vater to Minerfa gife gebirt'-


s: Ve peg dat Breitmann oonto oos all pooplic tocuments


s: Vhich he can grap or shteal vill sendt - franked - mit


s: Die sechste crate Moral Idee - since id fery vell ish known


s: Dat mind is de resooldt of food, ash der Moleschott has shown,


s: Now ash all dese insdrugdions vere showed to Mishder Twine,


s: De Yangee boledician, he say dey vere fery fine:


s: Boot yet, mit our bermission, if de shentlemans allow-


s: Here all der Sharmans in de room dake off deir hats und pow-


s: He vouldt gife our honored gandidate some nodions of his own,


s: Hafing managed some elegdions mit sookcess, as vell vas known.


s: Let him plow id all his own vay, he'd pet as sure as born,


s: Dat our mann vouldt not coom oud of der liddle endt der horn,


s: Mit his goot proad Sharman shoulders - dis maket


s: So de comedy shtart for Breitmann's - Nota bene - after a trink!


s: Dere in his crate corved oaken shtuhl der Breitemann sot he:


s: He lookt shoost like de shiant in de Kinder hishdorie:


s: Und pefore him, on de tische, was - vhere man alfays foundt it-


s: Dwelf inches of good lager, mit a Boemisch glass around it.


s: Vhen in commed liddle Gottlieb und Trina mit a shtock


s: Of allerbest Markgraefler wein - dazu dwelf glaeser Bock.


s: Denn Mishder Twine deglare dat he vas happy to denounce


s: Dat as Coptain Breitmann suited oos egsockdly do an ounce,


s: He vas ged de nomination, and need nod more eckshblain:


s: Der Breitmann dink in silence, and denn roar aloudt, CHAMPAGNE!


s: Denn Mishder Twine, while drinkin' wein, mitwhiles


s: Dat long instruckdions in dis age vere nod de dime of tay;


s: Und de only ding der Breitmann need to pe of any use


s: Vas shoost to dell to efery man he's soundt oopon der coose.


s: Und ash dis liddle frase berhops vas nod do oos bekannt,


s: He dakes de liberdy do make dat ve shall oonder-shtand,


s: And vouldt dell a liddle shdory vitch dook blace pefore de wars:


s: Here der Breitmann nod to Trina, und she bass aroundt cigars.


s: "Id ish a longe dime, now here, in Bennsylfanien's Shtate,


s: All in der down of Horrisburg dere rosed a vierce depate,


s: 'Tween vamilies mit cooses, und dose vhere none vere foundt-


s: If cooses might, by common law, go squanderin' aroundt?


s: "Dose who vere nod pe-gifted mit cooses, und vere poor,


s: All shvear de law forbid dis crime, py shings und cerdain sure;


s: But de coose-holders teklare a coose greadt liberdy tid need,


s: And to pen dem oop vas gruel, und a mosdt oon-Christian teed.


s: "Und denn anoder barty idself tid soon refeal,


s: Of arisdograts who kepd no coose, pecause 'twas nod shendeel:


s: Tey tid not vish de splodderin' keese shouldt on deir


s: So dey shoined de anti-coosers, or de oonder lower glass!"


s: Here Breitmann led his shdeam out: "Dis shdory goes to show


s: De drecks ish ad de pottom - de skoom floads high inteed;


s: Boot das bier ish in de mittle, says an goot old Sharman lied.


s: "Und shoost apout elegdion-dimes de scoom und drecks, ve see,


s: Have a pully Wahl-verwandtschaft, or election-sympathie."


s: "Dis is very vine," says Mishder Twine, "Vot here you indrotuce:


s: Mit your bermission I'll grack on mit my shdory of de coose.


s: "A gandertate for sheriff de coose-beholders run


s: Who shvear de coose de noblest dings vot valk peneat' de sun;


s: For de cooses safe de Capidol in Rome long dimes ago,


s: Und Horrisburg need safin' mighty pad, ash all do know.


s: "Acainsd dis mighdy Coose-man anoder veller rose,


s: Who keepedt himself ungommon shtill vhen oders came to plows;


s: Und if any ask how 'twas he shtoodt, his friendts


s: "'He's O.K. oopon de soobject: shoost pet your pile on dat:


s: On dis bartik'ler quesdion he indends to coot it fat.'


s: So de veller cot elegded pefore de beople foundt


s: On vhitch site of der coose it vas he shtick so awful soundt.


s: "Und efer in America, hencevorwart from dat day,


s: Ash mit de Native Mericans, de fashion vas to say-


s: Likes well in de Kansas droples - de shap who tid not refuse


s: To go mit beoples ash vanted him, vas soundt oopon der coose.


s: "Dis shdory's all I hafe to dell," says Mishder Hiram Twine;


s: "Und I advise Herr Breitmann shoost to vight id on dis line."


s: De volk who of dese boledics would oder shapders read,


s: Moost waiten for de segondt pardt of dis here Breitmann's Lied.


s: ID hoppinet in de yar of crace, vhen all dese dings pegan,


s: Dat Mishder Schmit, de shap who rooned acainsd der Breitmann,


s: Vas a man who look like Mishder Twine so moosh dat beoples say


s: Dey pliefe dey moost ge-brudert pe - Gott weiss in vot a vay!


s: A fery gommon dodge ish mit de arisdocracie;


s: So dat votefer cardt doorns op, id's game for de familie!


s: Nun, goot! Howefer dis might pe, 'tvas cerdain on dis hit


s: Der Twine vas do his tyfelest to euchre Mishder Schmit;


s: Und Schmit, I criefe to say, exglaimed: "Gaul darn me for a fool,


s: So dey cot some liddle ledders, ash brifate ash could pe,


s: Vhitch Breitmann writed long agone to friendts in Germany;


s: Und dey brinted dem in efery vay to make de beoples laugh,


s: Und comment on dem in de shtyle dat "sports" call "slasher-gaff."


s: Dere-to - as vash known py shoodshment und glearly ascertained,


s: Dat Breitmann shtole de gelt himself und rop de oder man.


s: Boot de ding dat jam de hardest on de men dat bull de vires,


s: Dey had pud him in a tisdrigt vhere he hadn't half a shanse.


s: For ash de pold solidaten ish more prafe ash oder mans,


s: Dey moost lead de hope verloren und pattle in de vans;


s: Und ash defeat ish honoraple to men in honor shtrict,


s: Dey honor dem py puttin' em vhere dey're cerdain to be licked.


s: Boot dis dimes it shlopped over.  'Tvas de dird or secondt heat,


s: Dat a soldier in dis tisdrigt had been poot oop und beat;


s: So de Plue Goats dink it over und go quietly to vork:


s: De bow vhen too moosh aufgespannt vlies packward mit a yerk.


s: Now Mishder Twine deglaret dat de ding seemed doubtenful,


s: Boot mitout delay he dook de horns so poldly py de bull,


s: Und shpread de shdory eferyvhere, dill folk to pliefe pecan,


s: Dat Mishder Schmit had sold de vight unto der Breitemann!


s: He fix de liddle tedails - how moosh der Schmit hafe got


s: For sellin' out his barty to let Breitmann haul de pot;


s: Und he showed a brifate letter from Breitemann to Schmit,


s: Vhere he bromise him for Congress if he shoost let oop a bit.


s: Der Twine vas writet dis ledder; for der Copitain Breitemann


s: Vould nefer hafe shtood soosh hoompoogks since virst


s: He hat tone some rough dings in de war, in de


s: Boot vas hoockleperry-persimmoned mit dese boledics of Twine.


s: Howefer, dis ledder vorket foorst-rate - mit de


s: Und dey nefer sooposed a Dootchman hafe de sense to do de same.


s: Dere's nodings in dis vorldt so pad, ash all oov us may learn,


s: Boot may shange from dark to lighthood, if loock


s: So it hoppinet mit Breitmann, who in spite of sin and Schmit,


s: Gontrifed ad shoost dis yooncture do make a glucky hit.


s: Dey hat sendet out some plackarts to de Deutsche burgers all


s: (N.B. - Dish ish not mean blackguards, boot de pills


s: To say dat a Massenversammlung - or a meeding of all dem asses-


s: Vouldt be held in de Arbeiter-Halle, to consisd of de


s: Now dey gife de brinting of de pills to a new gekommene man,


s: Who dinked dat Demokratisch vas de same ash Repooblican:


s: Got im Himmel weiss vhere he'd hid himself on dis


s: Dat he scaped de naturalizationisds, und hand't found out pefore.


s: Boot to dis Deutsche brinter, de only tifference he


s: Petween Repooplicanish and Demokratisch tid see,


s: Vas dat von vash dwo ledders longer; so he dook


s: To make de poster handsome - likewise a liddle fat.


s: How ofden in dis buzzlin' life shmall grubs grows oop to vings!


s: Van't klein komt men tot't groote, ash de Hollanders hafe said:


s: Mit dese dwo ledders Breitmann caved in der Schmitsy's head.


s: Dis tale dat Schmit hafe sell de vight cot so mooch put apout,


s: Dat many of his beoples vere in fery tupious toubt;


s: 'Pove all, dose who were on de make, and easy change deir lodge,


s: Und, pein awfool smart demselfs, pelieve in efery dodge.


s: Vhen de meeding vas gesempled, und dey found no Schmit vas dere,


s: Dey looket at von anoder mit a ganz erstaunished air;


s: But dey saw it glear as taylighd, und around a vink dere ran,


s: Vhen pefore dem rose de shiant form of Copitain Breitemann!


s: Denn Breitemann vent los at dem: "He could nichts vell exbress


s: De rapdure dat besqueezed his hearts - de wonnevol hoppiness-


s: To meed in friendtlich council and glasp de hand of dose,


s: Who had peen mit most oonreason and unkindly galled his foes.


s: "Berhaps o'er all dis shmilin' eart' - he vould say it


s: Soosh shpecdagles couldt nod pe seen of soosh imbardial men,


s: So tefoid of base sospicion, so apofe all betty dricks,


s: "Dat ish to say, a so-galled voe - for he feeled id in his soul


s: Dat de brinciples vitch mofed dem vere de same oopon de whole;


s: But he lack a vord to exbress dem in manners opportunes"-


s: Here a veller in de gallery gry oud, oonkindly, "Shpoons!"


s: Und dere der Breitmann goppled him: "If shpoons our modifes pe.


s: Dere's nod a man pefore oos who lossed a shpoon by me:


s: Far rader had I gife you all a shpoons to eaten mit,


s: Und I hope to ged a ladle for mein friendt, der Mishder Schmit."


s: Dis fetch das Haus like doonder - it raise der tyfel's dust,


s: Und for sefen-lefen minudes dey ooplouded on a bust;


s: Und de chaps dat dinked of hedgin' saw a ring as round as O;


s: So dey boked each oder in de rips und said, "I dold you so!"


s: For dis d'lusion to de ladle vas as glear ash city milk,


s: Und drawd it on de beoples so vine ash flossen silk,


s: Dat Hans und Schmit vere rollin' locks, und de locks


s: Only Breitmann hafe de liddle end, und Schmitsy dake de butt!


s: Denn Breitmann he crack onward: "If any 'lightened man


s: Vill seeken in his Bibel, he'll find dat a publican


s: Is a barty ash sells lager; und de ding is fery blain,


s: Dat a re-publican ish von who sells id 'gain und 'gain.


s: "Now since dat I sells lager, I gant agreen mit


s: De demprance brinciples I hear dishtriputet to Schmit;


s: Boot dis I dells you vairly, und no one to teseife-


s: If I were Schmit, I'd pliefen shoost vot der Schmit peliefe.


s: Und also dat he coes to shoorsh - mit a brayer-book -


s: I vould not for die welt say dings to hoort his repudation.


s: "Und noding is more likely dat it all a shlander pe,


s: So also de rumor dat vhen young he shtoody divinidy:


s: I myself, ash a publican, moost pe a sinner py fate,


s: Und in dis sense I denounce mineself ash Republican-didate!


s: "Ash Deutschers say - und Yankees doo - vhen der


s: So ish oopon de oder part, de wise-hood in de can,


s: Vhitch brofes dat wein und wise-hood ish all de same, py shinks!


s: Und de only real can-didate ish der veller ash coes for trinks:


s: "Und dat ve may meed in gommon, I deglare here in dis hall-


s: Und I shvears mineself to holt to it, votefer may pefall-


s: Dat any man who gifes me his fote - votefer his boledics pe-


s: Shall alfays pe regartet ash bolidigal friendt py me."


s: (Dis voonderfol Condescension pring down drementous applause,


s: Und dose who catch de nodion gife most derriple hooraws:


s: Eshbecially some Amerigans ash vas shtandin' near de door,


s: "Dese ish de brinciples I holts, and dose in vitch I run:


s: Dey ish fixed firm und immutaple ash de course of de 'ternal sun:


s: I shall only pe too happy to alder dem right afay.


s: "Und undo my Demogratic friendts I vould fery glearly shtate-


s: Since dis useless mit oop-gecleared minds to hold a long depate-


s: Dat dere's no man in de cidy who sells besser liquor ash I,


s: "Ad finem - in de ende - I moost mendion do you all,


s: Dat a dootzen parrels of lager bier ish a-gomin' to dis hall:


s: Dere ish none of mine own barty here, bot we'll do


s: Und I kess, on de whole, 'twill pe shoost so goot if ve


s: Soosh drementous up-loudation pefore vas nefer seen,


s: Ash dey svored dat der Copitain Breitmann vas a


s: Und dey trinked demselfs besoffen, sayin', "Hobe you


s: De nexter theil will pe de ent of dis historisch lied.


s: DERE'S a liddle fact in hishdory vitch few hafe oondershtand,


s: Deutschers are, de jure, de owners of dis land,


s: Und I brides mineslf oonshpeak-barly dat I foorst make be-known,


s: De primordial cause dat Columbus vas derivet from Cologne.


s: For ash his name vas Colon, it fisiply does shine,


s: Dat his Eldern are geboren been in Cologne on der Rhein,


s: Und Colonia peing a colony, it sehr bemerkbar ist,


s: Dat Columbus in America was der firster colonist.


s: Und ash Columbus ish a tove, id ish wort' de drople to mark,


s: Dat an bidgeon foorst tiscofer land a-vlyin' from de ark;


s: Und shtill wider - in de peginnin', mitout de leastest toubt,


s: A tofe vas vly ofer de wassers und pring de vorldt herout.


s: Ash mein goot oldt teacher der Kreutzer to me tid ofden shbeak,


s: De mythus of name rebeats itself - vhitch see in his "Symbolik,"


s: So also de name America, if we a liddle look,


s: Vas coom from der oldt king Emerich in de Deutsche Heldenbuch.


s: Und id vas from dat fery Heldenbuch - how voonderful it ron,


s: Dat I shdole de Song of Hildebrand, or der Vater und der Sohn,


s: Dese laws of un-endly un-windoong ish so teep and broad and tall,


s: Und should I write mine dinks all out, I tont peliefe inteed,


s: Dat I mineslf vould versteh de half of dis here Breitmann's Lied.


s: Ash der Hegel say of his system - dat only von mans knew,


s: Vot der tyfel id meant - und he couldn't tell - und der


s: Who saidt: "Gott knows I meant somedings vhen


s: Boot Gott only wise vot das buch means now - for I


s: Und all of dis be-wises so blain ash de face on your nose,


s: Ish dat oder volk hafe more soopose - und lesser intellect.


s: Yet oop-righty I confess it - mitout ashkin' vhy or vhence,


s: Vas dishblayed in dis elegdion py Mishder Hiram Twine.


s: Vide licet.  Dere vas a fillage whose vote alone vouldt pe


s: Apout enof to elegdt a man und give a mayority,


s: So de von who couldt "scoop" dis seddlement vouldt


s: But dough dey vere Deutschers, von und all, dey all


s: Now id hoppinet to gome to bass, dat in dis little town,


s: De Deutsch vas all exshpegdin' dat Mishder Schmit coom down,


s: His brinciples to foresetzen und his idees to deach-


s: (Id est, fix oop de brifate pargains) - und telifer a


s: Now Twine vas a gyrotwistive cuss ash blainly ish peen shown,


s: Und vas always an out-findin' votefer might pe known,


s: Und mit some of his circumswindles he fix de matter so,


s: Dat he'd pe himself at dis meeding, und see how dings vas go.


s: Oh shdrangely in dis leben de dings kits vorked apout,


s: Oh voonderly Fortuna makes doorn us inside out.


s: Oh sinkular de loock-vheel rolls - dis liddle meeding dere,


s: Fixt Twine ad perpendiculum: - shoosh suit him to a hair.


s: Now it hopponet on dis efenin', de Deutschers von und all,


s: Vere erwaitin' mit oonpatience de onfang of de Ball,


s: Dey hear some hoofs a dramplin' - und dey saw und


s: De bretty greature coomin' on his horse entlang de road,


s: Und ash he ride town invard de likeness vas so blain,


s: Dey donnered out "Hoora for Schmit!" enof to make it rain.


s: Der Twine vas shdart like plazes - boot oop shdardet too his vit,


s: Gaul darn my heels I'll do it - and go the total swine,


s: Oh soap balls! - what a chance!" said dis dissembulatin' Twine.


s: Denn'twas "Willkomm! willkomm! Mishder Schmit!"


s: Und "First-rate - how dy do, yourself?" der Hiram Twine replied,


s: Dey ashk him "Coom und dake a trink" - boot dey


s: Vhen Twine informed em none boot hogs vould


s: Dat lager vas nodings boot boison, und as for Sharman wein,


s: He dinks it vas erfounden exbressly for Sharman schwein,


s: Dat he himself was a demperanceler, dat he gloria in de name,


s: Und adfised dem all for tecence's sake to go und do de same.


s: Dese bemarks, among de Deutschers, vere apout as vell receife,


s: Ash cats in a game of den-pins - ash you may of coorse peliefe,


s: De heats of de recebtion vent down a dootzen degrees,


s: Und in blace of hurraws was only heardt de roostlin' of de drees.


s: Und so in solemn stille dey scorched him to de hall,


s: Vhere he maket de crate oradion vhitch vas so moosh


s: Und dis vay he pegin it: "Pefore I furder go,


s: I vish dat my obinions, you puddin-het Dutch, shouldt know.


s: "Und eher I norate furder, I dink it only fair,


s: Ve shouldt oonderstand each oder, prezackly, chunk and square;


s: Dere are points on vitch ve tisagree, und I will plank de facts-


s: I tont go round slanganderin' my friendts pehind deir packs.


s: "So I beg you dake it easy, if on de raw I touch,


s: Vhen I say I can't apide de sound of your groonting


s: Should I in de Legisladure as your slumgullion stand,


s: I'll have a bill forbidding Dutch, droo all dis 'versal land.


s: "Should a husband talk it to his frau, to deat' he should pe led,


s: Und I'm sure dat none vill atvocate id's use in pooplic schools,


s: Here Mishder Twine, to gadder breat', shoost make a liddle pause,


s: Und von saidt: "Ish id shleeps I'm treamin' -


s: Twine keptet von eye on de vindow, - boot boldly vent ahet,


s: "Of your oder shtinkin' hobits no vordt needt here pe set;


s: Shdop goozlin' bier - shdop shmokin' bipes - shdop rootin'


s: Und shoost un-Dutchify yourselfs! - dat's all dat I require."


s: Und denn dere coomed a shindy ash if de shky hat trop:


s: "Trow him mit ecks, py doonder! - go - shlog him on de kop!


s: Hei! shoot him mit a powie-knifes! - go for him, ganz and gar!


s: Shoost tar him mit some fedders! - led's fedder him mit tar!"


s: Sooch a teufel's row of furie vas nefer oopkicket pefore,-


s: Some roosh to on-climb de blatform, - some hoory


s: Von veller vired his refolfer - boot de pullet missed her mark,


s: Oh vell vas it for Hiram Twine dat nimply he couldt shoomp!


s: Und vell dat he light on a mist-hauf und nefer feel de boomp!


s: Und vell for him dat his coot cray horse shtood sottelet


s: Und vell dat in an augenblick he vas off on a teufel's ride!


s: Bang! bang! de sharp pistolen shots vent pipin' py his ear,


s: Boot he tortled oop de barrick road like any moundain deer,


s: Dey trowed der Hiram Twine mit shteins - boot dey


s: Von climpse of his vhite ober-coat - und a clotterin'


s: So dey gesempeled togeder, ein ander to sprechen mit,


s: Und allow dat soosh a Rede dey nefer exshpegt from Schmit!


s: Dat he vas a foorst-glass plackguard, und so pig a lump ash ran,


s: So - nemine contradicente - dey vented for Breitemann.


s: Und 'twas annerthalb yar dere after before de Schmit vas know,


s: Vhat maket dis rural fillage go pack oopon him so,


s: Und he schwored at de Dutch more schlimmer ash


s: Note bene: he tid it in earnest, while der Hiram's vas


s: Boot vhen Breitmann heardt de shtory how de fillage


s: He schwore bei Leib und Leben, dat he'd rader hafe peen licked,


s: Dan be helpet droo sooch slumgoozlin', - und 'twas


s: Dan a schvindlin', honeyfooglin' shnake, like dat lyin'


s: Und pegot so heavy disgootet mit de boledics of dis land,


s: Dat his friendts could barely keep him from trowin' oop his hand,


s: In de science of pokerology, ash if he got de game.


s: So Breitmann cot elegdet, py vollowin' de vay,


s: Ve manage our elegdions oonto dis fery day.


s: Dis shows de Deutch Dummehrlichkeit - also de Yankee "wit:"-


s: Das ist das abenteuer how Breitmann lick der Schmit.


s: "Dere vas vonce oopon a dimes a Frantchman who asket if a Sharman


s: GOTTS blitz! blau Feuer, potz bomben Tod!


s: Like hell-shtrom boorst o'er heafen's plain,


s: From grin und screech of shaps dey slew;


s: Und crows valk round knee teep im ploot,


s: Dere - ten pottles troonk - Hans Breitmann lay.


s: Vill dell de worlt, troo blut and flame,


s: Reaped mit deat's sword und reapt by dee!


s: Oh denn you know dat de Dootch hafe coom,


s: Und de roompitty, pumpitty, poompity pum!


s: Dou'st hafe schworn dat Coptain Breitmann


s: "Tres estime ami, - Ick seyn nock nit verdorb,


s: Vielleickt Sie denck wohl kar, das ick sey tod gestorb,


s: Ock ne Kott loben Danck, ick leb nock kanss wohl auf.


s: Naturlich wie Kespenst die off die Kasse keh."


s: Olim Studiosus Theologiae, now Uhlan free-lancer,


s: Dere's silber toughts vot might hafe peen,


s: Vot shdreet lie shoost pehind his house?


s: Vhile shdraight ahet, agross de shdreet,


s: Vent lecdures here, too, shoost like me,


s: VHEN sommer drees shake fort deir leafs,


s: Und here we'll prove dat Troot is Health,"


s: Farevell, schveet Spa - dou home of vlowers,


s: Vhere vild pirds sing und de band ish blay


s: Dere's right goot fisch at Blankenberghe,


s: Vhere de surf rise oop nine tausend feet,


s: Und schwimmed dat surf ash I hafe schwimmed,


s: Und says he, "Mijn Heer - dey're beter hier


s: IN dis boem, mein freund der Herr Breitmann hafe his fiews on art


s: art, und maket efery podies from Baumgartner doun to Fischer und


s: Taine, look shoost like puddin-headet old gasbalgs.  Boot to de


s: technik de first of all Holland malers), vas nefer paint nodings


s: "Shoost see dat vight of troonken boors-


s: Boot e'er night's plack hat toorned to red


s: Boot oh, mijn Gott! - how she vas shkreem


s: Ish shtickin here - shdraighdt out de dirt,


s: Und since you've shtirred me out, I kess


s: Und doughts ish schwell dat mighdy heart,


s: Where beoples bays shoost half de brice,


s: Dose awfool schmells in gass' und strass'


s: For rocks ish shdeep und vales ish teep,


s: "Liebsherz, if dou could'st landwarts gehn,


s: Boot we are leafs, und shdrong's de shdem


s: "Vot ish Art?  Id ish somedings to drink, objectively


s: foregebrought in de Beaudiful.  Doubtest dou? - denn read, ash


s: I hafe read, de Dyonisiacs of Nonnus, and learn dat de


s: oopboorstin of infinite worlds into edernal Light und mad goldnen


s: -     Caupo Recauponatus, MS. by Fritz Swackenhammer, olim


s: VONCE oopon a dimes in Frankfort der Herr Breitemann exsberiencet


s: Mine tress-goat is shpouted, mine tress-goat aint hier,


s: Vhile you in your ball-ropes go splurgin, mein tear!


s: To barties mit you I'm infitet you know,


s: Boot my pest coat ish shpouted - mine poots are no go.


s: To hell mit mine Onkel - dat rasgally knafe!


s: Dis pledgin und pawnin has mate me his slafe!


s: Ven I dink of his sign-bost, den dree dimes I bawl,


s: Vhile mine plack pants hang lonely und dark on de wall.


s: Goot night to dee fine lofe - so lofely und rich,


s: Mein tress-goat ish shpouted - gon-fount efery stitch!


s: I dinks dat olt Satan troo all mine affairs,


s: Lofe, business, und fun, has peen sewin his tares.


s: My tress-goat ish shpouted - mine tress-goat aint here,


s: While you in your glorie go shinin, mein tear,


s: Und de luck of der teufel ish loose ofer all,


s: Vhile my black pants hang lonely und dark on de wall.


s: Dis four-goin song vas over-set by der Hans Breitmann from de


s: German of Wilhelm Caspary, whose lyric vas a barody on a


s: dranslation made indo Deutsch by Freiligrath from anoder boem py


s: Sir Waldherr Scott, vitch Sir Waldherr vas kit de idee of from an


s: "My hearts in de Hielands, mein hearts ish nae hier,


s: Mein hearts in de Hielands, in wilden revier;


s: It hoonts for de shtag, und id hunts for de reh,


s: Mein hearts ist im Hochland wo immer ich geh."


s: Dis is de original Scotch, as goot as I can mineself rememper it.


s: perplexified dransitions from Scotch to English, and dence into


s: phrase too familiar to mine readers to require any wider


s: Boot de bools all comes from Irish priests,


s: "Hans Wurst ist stets ein Deutscher g'west,"


s: "Ve're shoost von hoondert dirty strong,


s: Boot to-night we'll trink togedder - nun


s: Boot oh, his heart burned vild mit fire,


s: Und he sopped - "Ach liebes Deutschland,


s: Und sait - "Oldt Hans! vile you're apout


s: Id's bopes und kings, und gotts and dings,


s: Nota bene. - Dis boem was all written in 1869, pefore de


s: VON efenin ash der Breitmann vent from his weinhaus vinkin,


s: So peepy mit Falernian vitch he vas starkly trinkin,


s: Der Breitmann poot de triangel oopon his het, and whistled,


s: Den rop de cloak around his form, and down de Corso mizzled.


s: De beoples gazed mit staunischment as bey dem he go vheelin,


s: He look ganz oltra tramontane, so twisty vas his reelin.


s: Next tay in Vaticano, while he shtared at frescoes o'er him,


s: He proke two holes in de bavement - und likevise shblit


s: "Ego video," says de Bope - "tu es antistes ex Almania,


s: Est una mala gente et corrupta con insania,


s: Un fons hereticorum et malorum tut terrible,


s: Perche non vultis che ego - il Papa - sei infallibile."


s: "Sit verbo venia," said Hans, "permitte, Sancte Pater,


s: Num verum est ut noster rum gemixta est mit water?


s: In coelis wo die gotter live, non semper est sereno,


s: Nor de wein ash goot ash decet in each spaccio di vino.


s: "Sunt mihi multi fratres qui si denkunt ut dicisti,


s: Ego kickerem illos, valide, per sanguine de Christi!


s: In nostro monasterio si habemus nostrum rentum


s: Contra infallibilita non curamus rubrum centrum.


s: Quid debemus super hoc ipsi respondere?"


s: Et dixit noster presul, "Es ist mir omnis unus,


s: Si Papa est infallibilis, tanquam non sum jejunus,


s: Diabolis curat.  Non accipio dieser onus.


s: "Si possum me jacere circum vitrum Rhenovini


s: Es ist mir wurst si Papa est originis divini:


s: Et nunc Papa noster will sich selbst zum Gott erheben.


s: "Ita dixit Breitmann et sanctus Pater respondit:


s: Me piace semper intendere tutto cio che l'on dit,


s: "Tonitrus et cespes!" dixit Johanes Breitmann.


s: "Si veritatem cupies, tunc ego sum der right man;


s: Percute semper ferrum dum caldum est et malleable,


s: Nunc est tuum tempus te facere infallible.


s: "In nostra America quum Praeses decet abire,


s: Die ultimo fecit omne quod posset imaginire.


s: Appointet ambasciatores et post-magistros,


s: Consules et alios, per dextros et sinistros.


s: Compulsus fuit to shin it - ut dixit Africanus-


s: Fecit ultimo die ducos et countos, vanus.


s: (Inter alios M'Closkey, tuus Hibernicus chanberlanus.)


s: "Et quia tu es; ut credo; ultimus Poporum,


s: Facis bene devenire, quod dicitur High Cockalorum-


s: Sei magnissimus toad in the puddle, ite caput, magnamente;


s: Et ERITIS SICUT DEUS, nemine contradicente!


s: "Unus error solus, Sancte Pater commisisti.


s: Quia primus infallible non te proclamavisti,


s: Nam nemo audet dicere: Papa fecit quod non est bonus.


s: Decet semper jactare super alios probandi onus.


s: 'Conceptio Immaculata, hoc modo fixisti,


s: Et nemo audet dicere unum verbum, de isti:


s: Non vides si infallibilis es, et vultis es exdare,


s: Non alius sed tu solus hanc debet proclamare."


s: Tua verba sunt mi dulcior quam ostriche cum Chablis


s: Tibi mitterem photographiam in quo sum depictus.


s: Tu comprendes situatio - il punto et gravamen.


s: Sunt pauci clerici ut te.  Nunc dico tibi. - Amen!"


s: Dey will tread de road of Sturm and Drang,


s: Und vired at Fritz mit de shootin-shtick,


s: Shvear he hope to Gott he mighd pie de forms


s: Und de yallow-pine liked him petter ash you,


s: It vly troo de air like a boomshell - denn-


s: Foorst vere crooshed in ploot and shdorm,


s: ICH bin ein Deutscher, und mein name is Cobus Hagelstein,


s: I coom from Cincinnati, and I life peyond der Rhein;


s: Und I dells you all a shdory dot makes me mad ash blitz,


s: Pout how a Yankee gompany vas shvindle me to fits.


s: I heardt apout dis gompany, und vished to see dot same,


s: Das Lebensfeuerversicherunggesellschaft vos ids name;


s: Dot is de name in Sherman - in English it will say


s: Dot it insures your life mit fire, ven you de money pay.


s: Now, I hod a liddle house-line vhere I life so shtill ash mice,


s: Und yoost drei tausand dollar vos dot little pilding's brice;


s: I vos always yoost so happy ash ein Kaisar in de land


s: Dill at last I kit in drople, for mein haus vas abgebrannt.


s: Den I goes undo dot gompany und dells em right afay


s: (Das Lebensfeuerversicherunggesellschaft), und I say,


s: "At last de youngest day ist coom for you to plank de cash,


s: And you moost bay me monies, for mine haus is purned to ash."


s: Den de segredary answered, "All dis is fery drue,


s: Boot you know ve have de option to pild your house anew;


s: Dere ist a lot of beoples vot burns deir hauser doun,


s: Den coom to kit de money pack all over in de toun."


s: I look indo de bapers und I find it ash he say,


s: Das Lebensfeuerversicherunggesellschaft need not bay;


s: So I dells em all to go ahet und pild anoder shdore,


s: Und dey make me von in Yankee shdyle more petter ash pefore.


s: Den I met der segredary dereafter on a day,


s: Of Das Lebensfeuerversicherunggesellschaft, und he say,


s: "You've found oos vellers honoraple und honest in our line,


s: Vy tont you go insure de life of Madame Hagelstein?"


s: I poots mine dum oopon mine nose, and vinks him mit mine eye,


s: Und says I cooms to do it ven de ocean runs dry,


s: Ven gooses turn to ganders, und de bigs kits shanged to shvine;


s: Oh, den I makes insure de life of Madame Hagelstein.


s: "I haf dried you on insurance, ash you know, yust vonce pefore,


s: Und ven mein haus vas abgebrannt you pild anoder shdore;


s: Id's drue you pild it goot enough, boot I dell you allaweil,


s: I vas liket id moosh petter if it vas in Sharman shdyle.


s: "Now, if I goes insure my wife anoder dime mit you


s: Inshtead of paying gelt you'd kit for me a Yankee vife!"


s: I poots mine dum pelow mine eye, und vinks him merrily,


s: Und say, "Go find soom Deutscherman dot is more creen ash me.


s: Dere's blendy of dem creen enough, I know, peyond der Rhein,


s: But none among dem wears de name of Cobus Hagelstein."


s: Und sinned, und sinned - den sighftserd.


s: Und der Ritter he spies her great plack eyes,


s: Dere vas nefer a deer vot hafe soosh eyes


s: Nota bene. - Dis song moost pe sung mit exbression.


s: IT was stiller, dimmer twilight - amber toornin' into gold,


s: All lofely, yet neclected - like an oldt und silent song.


s: Out shpoke der Ritter Breitmann, "Ven I hafe not forgot,


s: Ich kenn an anciendt shtory of dis inderesdin shpot,


s: Of the Deutscher Middleolter vot de Minnesingers sung,


s: Ven dot olt ruine oben vas a-bloomin, fair, und yung.


s: "Vonce dere lifed a noble fraulein - fery peautiful vas she,


s: More ash twendy dimes goot lookin - it is in de historie;


s: Might beholdt mitout a discount she vas of de upper ten.


s: "But dough lofely as an angel, mit eyes of turkos plue,


s: She vas cruel ash a teufel, und de vorst man efer knew.


s: Vonce ven a nople young one kneeled down to her mit lofe,


s: She kicket him mit her slipper und oopset him on de shtove.


s: "Und said, 'I do refuse you, as you may plainly see;


s: Und from dis day henseforvart mine refuse you shall pe,


s: Und when I do run afder you like dogs run afder men,


s: Den I vill pe your vife, yung man - boot keep avay dill denn!'


s: "He lishten to her crimly, and no single vort he said,


s: Boot de bitter dings she spoken poot der teufel in his head;


s: "Vonce, at de end of autoom, ven de vind vos bitter cold,


s: Dis maiden out a-ridin' met a voman poor and old;


s: Her feets vere bare and pleedin', and she said, 'Ah! ton't refuse


s: "De lady boorst out laughin', 'Fool here, or fool me dere,


s: You give to me a couple, I gives to you a pair.'


s: Denn she rode avay a-laughin'; de old voman says 'I wete,


s: I'll give you shoes, my lady, dot vill fit your soul and feet!'


s: "Dis voman vas a vitche, an bitter one dere to,


s: All dot vot she had shpoken she light enough could do;


s: De Ritter did not know it, but he told her of his love,


s: And how dot shkornful lady hat oopset him mit de shtove.


s: "Out spoke de grimme witche, 'She shall pay dee well to boot,


s: If yo pring to me de measure of dat lady's liddle foot.'


s: He got it from her shoemaker, and gafe id to de vitch,


s: Denn she gafe it to de damsel pooty soon as hot as pitch.


s: "Von morn de lofely lady, on openin' her toor,


s: Found de nicest pair of gaiter boots she efer saw pefore;


s: Dey vitted her exoctly - mitouten any doubt-


s: Boot, mein Gott! how she vas shrocken ven dey 'gun to valk apout!


s: "Und ash de poots go valkin', like de buds go mit de stem,


s: It vollowed dot de lady had to valk apout in dem.


s: Dey took her out into de street - dey run her on de road,


s: Bym-by she saw a man ahead vot led her vhere she goed.


s: "Vhen he vent valkin' longsome denn longsome vas her pace,


s: Vhen he roon like a greyhound she skompered in a race;


s: He led her o'er de moundains und cross de lonely plain,


s: Until de evenin' shadows, ven he took her home again.


s: "Denn she dink mit hate and fury of dis man she used to skoff,


s: Und den go at de gaiters - boot she couldn't pull dem off,


s: She vork mit all de servants, boot 'tvasent any use,


s: Und so she hafe to go to bett - a-shleepin' in her shoes.


s: "Next mornin' off dey shtarted, apout de broke of day,


s: Den he led her to a castle in de woods and far away,


s: And shpeak to her, 'My lady - I dink at last you see


s: Dat de dime has come in earnesdt vhen you've cot to vollow me!'


s: "Oh vat ish female nature?  Oh vat ish mortal pride?


s: How all dot shtands de firmest most quickly shlips aside


s: De cloudts dot o'er de moundains look shkornful at de plain,


s: Ere long mit shtormy wetter come toomble down in rain.


s: "So de storm-cloud of Superbia vhich shweep her soul above,


s: Vas meltet mit his shternness and be-turned into love,


s: As his words like donner wetter croshed ven de lightnin' flies,


s: So downward coom de torrents of dear trops from her eyes.


s: "Und she gry, 'Mit shame I own it, to say de fery least,


s: I gonfess dat in dis matter I hafe acted like a peast;


s: Ven I made of you my refuse, I dinked it no account,


s: But now de pack is on my back it seems a big amount.


s: "'But if you vish to ved me, I vill do vat you require.


s: He answered, 'Now you're talkin' - dot is yoost vot I tesire,


s: For I am very willin', and you do not refuse,


s: Boot remember vot you bromised - send de vitch a pair of shoes!'


s: "She answered, 'I vill follow verever you may go,


s: All ofer hills and falleys, in sunshine, rain, or schnow,


s: All over in der Welt, dear, I'll vander on vith thee,


s: I do not care how rough de road or dark de path may be!


s: "'Or in de bloomin' meadows, vhere de grass is soft and sweet,


s: Or in de rocky passes, vhere de stones are under veet,


s: Or if I vear de shoes, love, vitch you hafe given me,


s: Or if I moost go barefoot, is all de same to me.'


s: "He drew away de gaiters.  She said, 'As I'm rich


s: I vill fill dem both mit money, and take dem to de vitch.'


s: Ja wohl, she saw die Hexe, and takin' her aside,


s: She danked her for de lesson vot hat dook avay her pride.


s: "On de vay vhen dey vere married, how vere dey all erstaun


s: To see a lofely lady come in mit golden crown,


s: All in a rosy-silken dress vot shined as pright as glass,


s: Said, 'My dears, I am de vitch dot fetch dis ding to pass.


s: "'You know I look so ogly vonce, und now am peautiful,


s: Dot ist de vay dot all dings vork ven folks pe dutiful.


s: Ash de lily toorns to vhitey vot once vas dirty green,


s: So all ist fair ven virdue ist runnin' de machine.'"


s: Dis is de vondrous shtory vot de Ritter Breitmann told


s: Besides the rooshin' Danube of de schloss so grey und old,


s: Vhile a shmokin' of his meerschaum; und till all time pe gone


s: The rustlin' of de vasser tells de tale for ever on.


s: Dat is an alt legende, und yet 'tis efer new,


s: Und to efery von dot hears it it fits yoost like a shoe.


s: Und dis de shinin' moral dot in de oyster lies-


s: Some day you may roon after de dings you vonce despise!


s: THIS Glossary was prepared entirely by Mr. NICHOLAS TRUBNER.  I


s: am not aware that he had any assistance in writing it.  I mention


s: familiar with obscure and obsolete old German facetious


s: literature (as the text indicates), and at the same time with


s: Americanisms.  I should say that in all of the later ballads, or


s: at least in fully one half of all in the book, the author was


s: indebted to him for ideas, suggestions, and emendations, and that


s: translation from Scheffel's poems indicates.  A very few words


s: have been added to explain the poems in the ballads which appear


s: Abenddammerung,(Ger.) - Evening dim light; twilight.


s: Abendsonnenschein,(Ger.) - Evening sunshine.


s: Abbordez-moi vodre mere,(German-French) - Bring me your mayor.


s: Alles wird ewig zu eins,(Ger.) - And all for ever becomes one.


s: Alter Schwed',(old Swede) - A familiar phrase like "old fellow."


s: Annerthalb Yar, Anderthalb Jahr,(Ger.) - Year and a half.


s: Apple-tod,(Amer.) - Apple toddy.  Spirit distilled from cider.


s: Arminius,(Herman.) - The Duke of the Cheruskans, and destroyer of


s: Arriere pensee,(Fr.) - A reserved thought or intention.


s: Augenblick,(Ger.) - Twinkling of an eye.


s: Baldface corn,(Amer.) - Plain maize whisky.


s: Barell-hell pars - Parallel-bars; a part of the gymnastic


s: Be-ghostet,(Ger. Begeistert) - Inspired.


s: Bei Leib und Leben,(Ger.) - By my body and soul.


s: Bemerkbar,(Ger.) - Observable.  Should be noticed.


s: Bemoost,(Ger.) - Mossgrown, in student's language, ein bemoostes


s: Bender,(Amer.) - A spree; a frolic.  To "go on a bender" -


s: Be-raised - Raised, with the augment, literal for Ger. erhoben.


s: Bestimmung des Menschen - Vocation of Man, title of one


s: Bewises,(Ger. Beweist, from Beweisen) - Proves.


s: Birra gazzosa,(Italian) - Aerated, gaseous beer.


s: Bix Buchse,(box) - Rifle.  Bess in Brown Bess is the equivalent


s: of the German Buchse, (Brown being merely an alliterative


s: epithet;) French, buse tube; Flemish, buis.  (Still


s: found in blunderbuss, arquebuss.)  See Blackley's "Word Gossip."


s: Bole Jack road - Near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.


s: Bountiee,(Amer.) - Bounty-money paid during the war as a premium


s: to soldiers.  To jump the bounty, was to secure the premium and


s: Bowery - A street at New York, inhabited principally by Germans.


s: Brandy smash,(Amer.) - A plain half-glass mint julep of only


s: sugar,ice, spirits, and mint.  A regular julep is larger, and


s: Bring it down to dots - Reduce it to figures.


s: Broosh-pinder - Brushbinder,(Ger. Buerstenbinder.) -


s: Brushmaker. The brushmakers are supposed, probably on account


s: of their throat-parching business, to be always thirsty.


s: Bugs - In America all insects, especially Coleoptera.


s: Bummer,(Amer.) - A fellow haunting low taverns; applied during


s: the late civil war in the United States to hangers-on of the


s: army.  Probably a corruption of the German bummler(loafer).


s: Canyon,(Span. Canon) - A narrow passage between high and


s: precipitous banks, formed by mountains or tablelands, often


s: with a river running beneath.  These occur in the great Western


s: Carmosine,(Ger.) - Crimson.  French, cramoisoi.


s: Change their lodge - Shift from one "society" to another.


s: Chroc, Chrocus, Crocus - An Alemannic leader, who overran Gaul,


s: Clam - The popular name of a bivalvular shell-fish, the Venus.


s: Colle belle,(Ital.) - With the beauties.


s: Conradin - The last of the imperial house of the Hohenstaufen -


s: Coot - (To cut) a dash, (to come out a "swell,")


s: Coster - The inventor of the art of printing, according


s: Crecian pend - When Breitmann says "Dat pend of the bow ish


s: the Crecian pend," it is a rather eqivocal compliment.


s: "Grecian bend" has lately become a common newspaper


s: expression.  Smuggling done by women is called a "Case of


s: Grecian bend."  The present style of skirt, full at the back,


s: Deck - A pack of cards, piled one upon another.


s: Demperanceler, Temperenzler - Temperance man.


s: Die wile as mohte leben - During all its life.


s: Dink - he, they think; my dinks - my thoughts.


s: Donnerwetter,(Ger.) - Thunder and lightning.


s: Dorn - A thorn.  Dorn lieder - Thorn-songs.


s: Drawed he in - (literal rendering of the German Zog er ein,)


s: Drocks - Drakes, dragons; (Ger. Drachen.)


s: Dummehrlichkeit,(Ger.) - Honest simplicity.


s: Eckhartshausen - A German supernaturalist.


s: Eher,(Ger.) - Sooner.  In the dialect it has the meaning


s: Einander to sprechen mit,(Ger.) - To speak together.


s: Emerich - King Emerich, hero of a German legend.


s: Emsig Gruebler,(Ger.) - Assiduous inquirer.


s: Erstaun, Erstaunished, erstaunt - Astonished.


s: Erwaitin',(Ger. Erwartend) - Awaiting, expecting.


s: Euchred - From Euchre, the game of cards.


s: Fore-by - Literal translation of the German Vorbei.


s: Fore-lying - Literal translation of Vorliegend.


s: Foresetzen - To set, put (lay) before an audience.


s: Francois Villon - An old French humorous poet, whom Boileau


s: speaks of as the first who began to write truly modern French.


s: Freischarlinger,(Ger. Freischaerler) - A member of a Free Corps;


s: especially applied to those who belonged to the Free Corps


s: formed in Southern Germany during the Revolution in 1848.


s: Freischuetz,(Ger.) - Free shot, one who shoots with charmed


s: bullets, the name of Karl Maria Von Weber's celebrated opera.


s: Friederich Rothbart - Frederic Barbarossa, the great Emperor of


s: Germany and one of the German legendary heroes.  He is supposed


s: to sleep in the Kyffhauser in Thuringia, and to awaken one day,


s: when he will bring great glory over Germany.


s: Froze to de ready - Held fast to the money.


s: Fullenden - Vollenden - To complete, perfect.


s: Fust or Faust - The partner of Gutemberg, the inventor of the


s: Gambrinus - A mythical King of Brabant, supposed to have been


s: Ganz und gar,(Ger.) - Altogether, all over.


s: Gass und Strass,(Ger.) - Lane and street.


s: Gauner-sprache,(Ger.) - Thieves' language.


s: Ge-bildet - Built, with the German augment.


s: Ge-brudert,(formed like ge-schwister,) - Brothers.


s: Geh hin mein Puch,(German of the 16th century).


s: Gehst nit mit rechten Dingen zu - Dost not do it by any natural


s: Ge-kostet - Cost, with the German augment.)


s: Ge-screech, Geschrei - Bawling, clamour.


s: Gesembled - Assembled, with the augment of the German preterite.


s: Geshmasht - Smashed, with German augment.


s: Gestohlen und bekannt,(Ger.) - Stolen, and known.


s: Gilt - In the ordinary sense, and also in the same verse, "gilt,"


s: Glee-wine, Glueh-wein - Hot-spiced wine.