s: The world lies warm and likes his place;


s: Nor makes the whole world Thy half-sphere.


s: The Word, which heaven and earth did make,


s: My horse and I both tried, body and mind,


s: With full cry of affections quite astray,


s: There, when I came, whom found I but my dear--


s: My dearest Lord; expecting till the grief


s: Of pleasures brought me to Him; ready there


s: To be all passengers' most sweet relief?


s: O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted light,


s: Wrapt in night's mantle, stole into a manger;


s: Since my dark soul and brutish is Thy right,


s: To man, of all beasts, be not Thou a stranger;


s: Furnish and deck my soul, that Thou may'st have


s: The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?


s: My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds


s: The pasture is Thy word, the stream Thy grace,


s: Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers


s: Then we will chide the sun for letting night


s: We sing one common Lord; wherefore He should


s: A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly


s: Then we will sing and shine all our own day,


s: His beams shall cheer my breast; and both so twine,


s: Till ev'n his beams sing and my music shine.


s: Come to your heaven, you heavenly quires!


s: My soul, with Christ join thou in fight;


s: This day let man rejoice and sweetly sing,


s: Since on this day salvation first began.


s: This day did Christ man's soul from death remove,


s: With glorious saints to dwell in heaven above.


s: This day to man came pledge of perfect peace,


s: This day man's grief began for to surcease,


s: With guilty heart that erst he wandered in.


s: In Christé's flock let love be surely placed,


s: From Christé's flock let concord hate expel,


s: Of Christé's flock let love be so embraced


s: As we in Christ and Christ in us may dwell;


s: O sing unto this glittering, glorious king,


s: O praise His name let every living thing;


s: Let heart and voice, like bells of silver, ring


s: Let lute, let shawm, with sound of sweet delight,


s: The joy of Christé's birth this day recite.


s: _Chor._--What sweeter music can we bring,


s: _From the flourish they come to the song._


s: _Chor._--We see Him come, and know Him ours,


s: Turns all the patient ground to flowers.


s: _Chor._--Which we will give Him; and bequeath


s: As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,


s: Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;


s: And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,


s: A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear,


s: Who, scorchéd with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed,


s: Alas! quoth he, but newly born in fiery heats I fry,


s: Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I.


s: My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns:


s: Love is the fire and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns:


s: The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiléd souls;


s: For which, as now on fire I am, to work them to their good,


s: So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.


s: With that he vanish'd out of sight and swiftly shrunk away.


s: And straight I calléd unto mind that it was Christmas Day.


s: Man is their high-priest, and should rise


s: Yet, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make clean.


s: The time, that all the world in slumber lies,


s: When, like the stars, the singing angels shot


s: To earth, and heaven awaked all his eyes


s: On earth? Was never sight of pareil fame


s: For God before, man like himself did frame,


s: But God himself now like a mortal man became.


s: A child He was, and had not learnt to speak,


s: That with His word the world before did make;


s: His mother's arms Him bore, He was so weak,


s: That with one hand the vaults of heaven could shake;


s: See how small room my infant Lord doth take,


s: Whom all the world is not enough to hold!


s: Who of His years or of His age hath told?


s: Never such age so young, never a child so old.


s: The tyrant's sword with blood is all defiled,


s: And Rachel, for her sons, with fury wild,


s: Cries, "O thou cruel king, and O my sweetest Child!"


s: Who, straight to entertain the rising sun,


s: But now for drought the fields were all undone,


s: So fast the Cynthian mountains pour'd their snow,


s: When once they felt the sun so near them glow,


s: The angels carolled loud their song of peace;


s: To see their Shepherd the poor shepherds press;


s: To see their King, the kingly sophies[S] come;


s: And them to guide unto his Master's home,


s: That springs for joy over the strawy tent,


s: Where gold, to make their prince a crown, they all present.


s: The tones that thrilled the shepherd men:


s: There, by strange light and mystic sign,


s: But hope still guides the wanderer's foot,


s: The wind that tossed my found'ring bark.


s: Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem,


s: And through the storm and danger's thrall,


s: "There is no room," the blind ones cried.


s: Strikes our deaf souls; we pass Thee by,


s: Fling wide the doors! Dear Christ, turn back!


s: Chilled, wind-tossed, as the winter sea?


s: Assist me, Muse divine! to Sing the Morn


s: On which the Saviour of Mankind was born;


s: But oh! what Numbers to the Theme can rise?


s: Unless kind Angels aid me from the Skies!


s: Methinks I see the tunefull Host descend,


s: And with officious Joy the Scene attend!


s: Hark, by their Hymns directed on the Road,


s: The Gladsome Shepherds find the nascent God!


s: And view the Infant conscious of his Birth,


s: For when th' important Æra first drew near


s: In which the great Messiah should appear;


s: Beneath our Form should every Woe sustain,


s: And by triumphant Suffering fix his Reign,


s: Should for lost Man in Tortures yield his Breath


s: Incarnate God our Nature should embrace!


s: That Deity should stoop to our Disguise!


s: That man recover'd should regain the Skies!


s: And view the Serpent's Deadly Malice end,


s: Adorning bless th' Almighty's boundless Grace


s: That gave his son a Ransome for thy Race!


s: But pay in gratefull praise the annual Debt.


s: _From a manuscript volume, written by George Washington._


s: "Glory to God!" from yonder central fire


s: Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry quire;


s: "Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,


s: And love toward men of love--salvation and release."


s: 'Tis not, "the Saviour born in David's home,


s: To whom for power and health obedient worlds should come:"


s: But when they heard the sign, where Christ should be,


s: In sudden light they shone and heavenly harmony.


s: No peaceful home upon His cradle smiled,


s: Guests rudely went and came where slept the royal Child.


s: Bethlehem must lose Thee soon, but Thou wilt grace


s: The single heart to be Thy pure abiding-place.


s: They who have bow'd untaught to nature's sway,


s: And they who follow truth along her star-paved way.


s: Sooner than they should miss where Thou dost dwell,


s: Angels from heaven will stoop to guide them to Thy cell.


s: All through the wintry heaven and chill night air,


s: In music and in light Thou dawnest on their prayer.


s: Still greets you with glad tidings of immortal joy.


s: So shall ye tread untired His pastoral ways,


s: And in the darkness sing your carol of high praise.


s: Our toast it is white, our ale it is brown,


s: Our bowl it is made of the mapling tree;


s: With the wassailing bowl we will drink to thee."


s: Their silvery spheres, there's none may doubt


s: Then may your plants be pressed with fruit,


s: Last, may your harrows, shares, and ploughs,


s: Your stacks, your stocks, your sweetest mows,


s: With noise the servants' eyes from sleep.


s: T' have lost the good ye might have had.


s: Who broach good cheer for Christé's birth.


s: 'Tis Thou that crown'st my glittering hearth


s: And God bless you and send you a happy New Year.


s: We wish you merry Christmas, also a glad New Year;


s: We come to bring you tidings to all mankind so dear:


s: We come to tell that Jesus was born in Bethl'em town,


s: And now He's gone to glory and pityingly looks down


s: A manger was His cradle, the straw it was His bed,


s: The oxen were around Him within that lowly shed;


s: No servants waited on Him with lords and ladies gay;


s: But now He's gone to glory and unto Him we pray.


s: His mother loved and tended Him and nursed Him at her breast,


s: By slaughtering the Innocents in Bethlehem undefiled.


s: Now, all good Christian people, with great concern we sing


s: These tidings of your Jesus, the Saviour, Lord and King;


s: In poverty He passed His days that riches we might share,


s: And of your wealth He bids you give and of your portion spare


s: Your wife shall be a fruitful vine, a hus'sif good and able;


s: Your children like the olive branches round about your table;


s: And now no more we'll sing to you because the hour is late,


s: And we must trudge and sing our song at many another gate;


s: And so we'll wish you once again a merry Christmas time,


s: And pray God bless you while you give good silver for our rhyme.


s: Here we come a-whistling through the fields so green;


s: Here we come a-singing, so fair to be seen.


s: The roads are very dirty, my boots are very thin,


s: I have a little pocket to put a penny in.


s: Bring out your little table and spread it with a cloth,


s: Bring out some of your old ale, likewise your Christmas loaf.


s: God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress, too,


s: And all the little children that round the table strew.


s: The cock sat up in the yew-tree, the hen came chuckling by,


s: I wish you a merry Christmas, and a good fat pig in the sty.


s: Our bread it is white, and our ale it is brown;


s: So here, my good fellow, I'll drink it to thee.


s: The wassailing bowl, with a toast within,


s: With the wassailing bowl I'll drink to thee.


s: Come, butler, come bring us a bowl of your best,


s: And we hope your soul in heaven shall rest;


s: But if you do bring us a bowl of your small,


s: Then down shall go butler, the bowl, and all.


s: O butler, O butler, now don't you be worst,


s: But pull out your knife and cut us a toast;


s: And cut us a toast, one that we may all see;


s: God send our mistress a good Christmas-pie!


s: A good Christmas-pie as e'er we did see;


s: God send our master a good crop of corn,


s: We hope our master and mistress heart will ne'er fail;


s: But bring us a bowl of your good strong beer,


s: And then we shall taste of your happy New Year.


s: Be there here any pretty maids? we hope there be some;


s: Don't let the jolly wassailers stand on the cold stone,


s: That we jolly wassailers may all sail in.


s: _Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale;_


s: _For our blessed Lady's sake, bring us in good ale._


s: Bring us in no brown bread, for that is made of bran,


s: Nor bring us in no white bread, for therein is no game,


s: Bring us in no beef, for there are many bones,


s: But bring us in good ale, for that goeth down at once;


s: Bring us in no bacon, for that is passing fat,


s: But bring us in good ale, and give us enough of that;


s: Bring us in no mutton, for that is often lean,


s: Nor bring us in no tripes, for they be seldom clean;


s: Bring us in no eggs, for there are many shells,


s: But bring us in good ale, and give us nothing else;


s: Bring us in no butter, for therein are many hairs,


s: Nor bring us in no pig's flesh, for that will make us boars;


s: Bring us in no puddings, for therein is all God's good,


s: Nor bring us in no venison, for that is not for our blood;


s: Bring us in no capon's flesh, for that is often dear,


s: Nor bring us in no duck's flesh, for they slobber in the mere;


s: Of curious dishes that are brave and fine,


s: God's plenty's here, it doth not show a dearth.


s: And I will drink a health to honest John;


s: When that is up, I'll tell you more anon.


s: Plum-porridge, roast-beef, and minced-pies


s: For which all Christians should rejoice,


s: Come, mad boys, be glad, boys, for Christmas is here,


s: And we shall be feasted with jolly good cheer;


s: Then let us be merry, 'tis Saint Stephen's day,


s: Let's eat and drink freely, here's nothing to pay.


s: My master bids welcome, and so doth my dame,


s: And 'tis yonder smoking dish doth me inflame;


s: Anon I'll be with you, though you me outface,


s: For now I do tell you I have time and place.


s: I'll troll the bowl to you, then let it go round,


s: My heels are so light they can stand on no ground;


s: My tongue it doth chatter, and goes pitter patter,


s: Here's good beer and strong beer, for I will not flatter.


s: And now for remembrance of blessed Saint Stephen,


s: Let's joy at morning, at noon, and at even;


s: Then leave off your mincing, and fall to mince-pies,


s: I pray take my counsel, be ruled by the wise.


s: Bring back the cheer, be Christmas-king,


s: CAROL, _a long tawny coat, with a red cap, and a flute at his


s: girdle, his torch-bearer carrying a song-book open._


s: GAMBOL, _like a tumbler, with a hoop and bells; his torch-bearer


s: armed with a colt-staff, and a binding cloth._


s: POST AND PAIR, _with a pair-royal of aces in his hat; his garment


s: march-pane with a bottle of wine on either arm._


s: OFFERING, _in a short gown, with a porter's staff in his hand, a


s: wyth born before him, and a bason, by his torch-bearer._


s: BABY-CAKE, _drest like a boy, in a fine long coat, biggin-bib,


s: Now God preserve, as you do well deserve,


s: Your highness small, with my good lords all,


s: Give me leave to ask, for I bring you a masque


s: Which say the king likes, I have passed the pikes,


s: _Chris._ Ho, peace! what's the matter there?


s: _Gam._ Here's one o' Friday-street would come in.


s: _Car._ Shall John Butter o' Milk-street come in? Ask him.


s: _Gam._ Yes, he may slip in for a torch-bearer, so he melt not too


s: Our dance's freight is a matter of eight;


s: In all they be ten, four cocks to a hen,


s: Each hath his knight for to carry his light,


s: To bring them here, and to lead them there,


s: _Ven._ A place, forsooth, I do want a place: I would have a good


s: _Ven._ Right, forsooth, I am Cupid's mother, Cupid's own mother,


s: _Chris._ Good lady Venus of Pudding-lane, you must go out for all


s: _Car._ Why, here be half of the properties forgotten, father.


s: _Offer._ Post and Pair wants his pur-chops and his pur-dogs.


s: _New-Year._ Why, let one go to the spicery.


s: _Chris._ Fy, fy, fy! it's naught, it's naught, boys.


s: _Car._ And Mumming has not his vizard, neither.


s: _Offer._ Ay, ay: but Misrule doth not like his suit: he says the


s: players have sent him one too little, on purpose to disgrace him.


s: Which they do bring, and afore the king,


s: _Here the drum and fife sound, and they march about once. In the


s: second coming up_, CHRISTMAS _proceeds in his song:_


s: Even for the sake o' the next new stake,


s: I pray you know, though he want his bow,


s: He might go back for to cry, _What you lack?_


s: For there you may see what his ensigns be,


s: This Carol plays, and has been in his days


s: And he dwells in a lane called Fill-pot.


s: On pain o' your life: she's an honest cook's wife,


s: Next in the trace, comes Gambol in place;


s: My son Hercules, tane out of Distaff-lane,


s: Now Post and Pair, old Christmas's heir,


s: Next in a trice, with his box and his dice,


s: Brings Mumming in; and the knave will win,


s: But New-Year's-Gift, of himself makes shift,


s: With orange on head, and his ginger-bread,


s: She works by the ell, and her name is Nell,


s: And she dwells in Threadneedle-street too.


s: Then Offering, he, with his dish and his tree,


s: Is child Rowlan, and a straight young man,


s: There should have been, and a dozen I ween,


s: And I myself would have been the twelfth


s: O' but Log he was too heavy to dance it.


s: _Cup._  _You worthy wights, king, lords, and knights,_


s: _Ven._ 'Tis a good child, speak out; hold up your head, Love.


s: _Cup._ _And which Cupid--and which Cupid--_


s: _Chris._ Come, you put Robin Cupid out with your water's and your


s: _Chris._ Well done, boys, my fine boys, my bully boys!


s: _Sings._  Nor do you think that their legs is all


s: And in their brave tires, to give their false fires,


s: At Christmas next, if they keep their word,


s: Though, put the case, when they come in place,


s: Their very gold lace, with their silk, would 'em grace,


s: But were I so wise, I might seem to advise


s: They should, sir, I tell ye, spare't out of their belly,


s: Ay, and come to the court, for to make you some sport,


s: As Christmas hath done, with his seventh or eighth son,


s: To keep well crammed with thrifty fare."


s: 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house


s: Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;


s: The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,


s: In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.


s: The children were nestled all snug in their beds,


s: While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;


s: And mamma in her kerchief and I in my cap


s: Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,


s: When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,


s: I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.


s: Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash;


s: The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow


s: Gave the lustre of day to the objects below;


s: When what to my wondering eyes should appear


s: But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,


s: With a little old driver so lively and quick


s: More rapid than eagles, his coursers they came,


s: And he whistled and shouted and called them by name:


s: "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! now, Vixen!


s: To the top of the stoop, to the top of the wall!


s: Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"


s: As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,


s: When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,


s: So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,


s: With the sleigh full of toys and St. Nicholas too;


s: And then in a twinkling I heard on the roof


s: The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.


s: As I drew in my head and was turning around,


s: Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound;


s: He was dressed all in furs from his head to his foot,


s: And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.


s: A bundle of toys he had flung on his back;


s: And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.


s: His eyes, how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!


s: His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;


s: His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,


s: And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.


s: The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,


s: And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath.


s: He had a broad face, and a little round belly


s: That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.


s: He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,


s: And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.


s: A wink of his eye and a twist of his head


s: Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.


s: He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,


s: And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk,


s: And laying his finger aside of his nose,


s: And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.


s: He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,


s: And away they all flew like the down of a thistle;


s: But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,


s: "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"


s: Strange that the termagant winds should scold


s: Stretched o'er the rug, serene and grave,


s: While thus our rippling discourse rolled


s: To shield my purse from Christmas-trees,


s: Kites, marbles, soldiers, towers infirm,


s: Thus, roused--those horns! to sacred rage,


s: Scarce had my Harry ceased, when "Look!"


s: With painful scrambling, scratched and raw,


s: Two hands that seemed like hands of men,


s: "Yes, yes, old friends, you well may stare:


s: "But now with shrinkage, loss, and care,


s: "We've had such hard, hard times this year


s: "'Twas thus: a smooth-tongued railroad man


s: Let's build a Grand Trunk Railway through


s: "'You'll save, the time! Besides, we'll make


s: Compete for freight--and then we'll take


s: We'll bring 'em cheap by steam, and fast:


s: "'We'll make with heaven a contract fair


s: And carry the dead folks' souls up there,


s: My wife e'er cried, ''Tis rash, 'tis rash:'


s: How could I know the stock-thief's ways?


s: "But soon I learned full well, poor fool!


s: "With never an inch of track--'tis true!


s: The debts were large ... the oft-told tale.


s: "'My dear,' says Mrs. Claus, that night,


s: "'This year should leave your poor old bed,


s: "'Since you've been out, the news arrives


s: Ah, Claus, those premiums! Now, our lives


s: You'd go, in spite of all that's passed,


s: These eyes that night ne'er slept a wink;


s: When Christmas morns their eyes unclose,


s: "Then hewed, and whacked, and whittled I;


s: The wife, the girls, and Kris took fire;


s: "Now, hoist me up: there, gently: quick!


s: Dear boys, don't look for much this year:


s: "Great Bears!" growled Santa in his beard,


s: She _would_ make bad things out of good,


s: In vain each chimney-piece they sought--


s: Be out of our bodies before we get through;


s: And you haven't a notion how much there's to do.


s: And my nose has not once been outside of the door.


s: My hammers and tongs and a thousand odd tools,


s: Like ten million children in ten thousand schools.


s: I read all the letters as fast as they come;


s: And the letters would soon squeeze me out of my home.


s: With a night-gown and bed-clothes of pretty bright stuffs,


s: And besides all these things, Dolly's collars and cuffs."


s: Of every stout workman beneath my broad roof.


s: Or a growl, or a grumble come out of your heads;


s: And finish this job ere you go to your beds!"


s: And everything's finished in beautiful style.


s: Every reindeer prepared for ten seconds a mile.


s: So softly, for fear I your slumbers might break.


s: And be gone in a jiffy, before you awake.


s: That I ordered prepared and all marked with your name,


s: You will know just exactly how I was to blame.


s: Up and down these straight chimneys, while you are in bed,


s: Have rubbed all the hair from the top of his head.


s: Bring all kinds of blessings to you from above;


s: Must close, with a great deal of Santa Claus's love.


s: Till the mouldering fire forgot to blaze,


s: That mark the path from the churchyard wall?


s: They are those of the children waked to-night


s: From sleep by the Christmas bells and light:


s: Ring sweetly, chimes! Soft, soft, my rhymes!


s: Where the winter frost all day has lain?


s: They are soulless elves, who fain would peer


s: Within and laugh at our Christmas cheer:


s: Ring fleetly, chimes! Swift, swift, my rhymes!


s: Where the happy children throng and shout,


s: Ere the greens were sere last Christmas-tide?


s: Hush, falling chimes! Cease, cease, my rhymes!


s: Dim dawn the tamarisks--the sky is saffron-yellow--


s: As the women in the village grind the corn,


s: And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow


s: That the day, the staring eastern day, is born.


s: Full day behind the tamarisks--the sky is blue and staring--


s: As the cattle crawl afield beneath the yoke,


s: Call on Rama, going slowly, as ye bear a brother lowly--


s: Call on Rama--he may hear, perhaps, your voice!


s: With our hymn-books and our psalters we appeal to other altars,


s: And to-day we bid "good Christian men rejoice!"


s: High noon above the tamarisks--the sun is hot above us--


s: As at home the Christmas Day is breaking wan,


s: They will drink our healths at dinner--those who tell us how they


s: And forget us till another year be gone!


s: Oh, the toil that knows no breaking! Oh! the heimweh, ceaseless,


s: Oh, the black, dividing sea and alien plain!


s: Youth was cheap--wherefore we sold it. Gold was good--we hoped to


s: And to-day we know the fulness of our gain.


s: Gray dusk behind the tamarisks--the parrots fly together--


s: And his last ray seems to mock us, shackled in a lifelong tether


s: That drags us back, howe'er so far we roam.


s: If a year of life be lent her, if her temple's shrine we enter,


s: The door is shut--we may not look behind.


s: Black night behind the tamarisks--the owls begin their chorus--


s: As the conches from the temple scream and bray.


s: Call a truce, then, to our labors--let us feast with friends and


s: And be merry as the custom of our caste;


s: The flowers are scentless, black, and sere,


s: London seemed shivering in the summer heat;


s: Strangers took up the tale like friends that meet:


s: Street children stopped their games--they knew not why,


s: But some new night seemed darkening down the street;


s: A girl in rags, staying her way-worn feet,


s: He loves thee still in all thy joys and fears:


s: Though he whose smiles made bright thine eyes of gray--


s: Whose brave sweet voice, uttering thy tongueless years,


s: Made laughters bubble through thy sea of tears--


s: Peace and good-will, good-will and peace,


s: "They rest," we said, "their sleep is sweet,"


s: The light that shone when Hope was born.


s: The time draws near the birth of Christ;


s: For change of place, like growth of time,


s: Thro' which the spirit breathes no more?


s: Nor harp be touch'd, nor flute be blown;


s: Ring out false pride in place and blood,


s: Through the small room, with subtle sound


s: Like a sharp, strengthening wine it drank


s: Twelve struck. That sound, by dwindling years


s: Though it would still be long till morn.


s: Fearing the sounds o'erhead--should they


s: She stooped an instant, calm, and turned;


s: With woe, and her eyes gazed and yearned.


s: Frost-pearl'd are all the boughs of forests old,


s: The sheep are huddling close upon the wold,


s: And over them the stars tremble on high.


s: Pure joys these winter nights around me lie;


s: 'Tis fine to loiter through the lighted streets


s: At Christmas-time, and guess from brow and pace


s: The doom and history of each one we meet,


s: What kind of heart beats in each dusky case;


s: Whiles, startled by the beauty of a face


s: To dream of silent fields where calm and deep


s: The sunshine lieth like a golden sleep--


s: Recalling sweetest looks of summers dead.


s: Joy like a stream flows through the Christmas streets,


s: To-night, while half the world the other greets


s: With smiles and grasping hands and drinks and meats,


s: Like the dim scent within a budded rose,


s: I think on poets nurtured 'mong the throes


s: And by the lowly hearths of common men,--


s: Think of their works, some song, some swelling ode


s: Deep muffled as the dead-march of a god,--


s: There is gladness to all at its ancient call,


s: And from far and near, o'er the landscape drear,


s: All the frozen ground is in fetters bound;


s: The loveliest star among the hosts of night,


s: While the gray tide ebbs with the ebbing light--


s: Now round the yule-log and the glittering tree


s: Twinkling with festive tapers, eyes as bright


s: Sparkle with Christmas joys and young delight


s: But I--a waif on earth where'er I roam--


s: Uprooted with life's bleeding hopes and fears,


s: From that one heart that was my heart's sole home,


s: Feel the old pang pierce through the severing years,


s: That fair star trembles through my falling tears.


s: At Christmas-tide await the opening door,


s: Around the tree with goodly gifts for all,


s: Oft in the darkness to each other call,--


s: Trying to guess their happiness before--


s: To tell what fortune unto them may fall,--


s: So wait we in time's dim and narrow room,


s: And, with strange fancies or another's thought,


s: The wondrous scene; forgetting that the gloom


s: Must shortly flee from what the ages sought,--


s: The Father's long-planned gift of Paradise.


s: Now of all the trees by the king's highway,


s: O! the one that is green upon Christmas-day,


s: Now the holly with her drops of blood for me:


s: Its leaves are sweet with our Saviour's name,


s: O! the holly with her drops of blood for me:


s: 'Tis a bush that the birds will never leave:


s: 'Tis the merriest sound upon earth and sea:


s: For it comes from our own Aunt Mary's tree.


s: So, of all that grow by the king's highway,


s: 'Tis a bower for the birds upon Christmas-day,


s: What Christmas ghost can make us chill--


s: Beat back the shades, beat down the woe,


s: We part, like guests who've joyed their fill;


s: Meantime the village rouses up the fire:


s: While well attested, and as well believed,


s: Heard solemn, goes the goblin story round,


s: Till superstitious horror creeps o'er all.


s: Or, frequent in the sounding hall, they wake


s: The rural gambol. Rustic mirth goes round;


s: The simple joke that takes the shepherd's heart,


s: Easily pleased; the long, loud laugh, sincere;


s: The kiss, snatched hasty from the side-long maid,


s: On purpose guardless, or pretending sleep;


s: The leap, the slap, the haul; and, shook to notes


s: Thus jocund fleets with them the winter-night.


s: A wrinkled, crabbéd man they picture thee,


s: Blue-lipt, an ice-drop at thy sharp blue nose,


s: Plodding alone through sleet and drifting snows.


s: They should have drawn thee by the high-heapt hearth,


s: Old winter! seated in thy great armed-chair,


s: Watching the children at their Christmas mirth;


s: Some merry jest, or tale of murder dire,


s: Or troubled spirit that disturbs the night;


s: Pausing at times to rouse the smouldering fire,


s: Or taste the old October brown and bright.


s: And after him came next the chill December:


s: Yet he, through merry feasting which he made,


s: And great bonfires, did not the cold remember;


s: His Saviour's birth his mind so much did glad:


s: The same wherewith Dan Jove in tender years,


s: They say, was nourisht by th' Idæan Mayd;


s: And in his hand a broad deep bowle he beares,


s: Of which he freely drinks an health to all his peeres.


s: Thickens the air with strange delight, and lays


s: No sun, yet all around that inward light


s: Bosomed by mountains, darkened by huge glens,


s: (Where the lone altar raised by Druid hands


s: Stands like a mournful phantom,) hidden clouds


s: Let fall soft beauty, till each green fir branch


s: Is plumed and tasselled, till each heather stalk


s: Of boughs, are draped with silver. All the green


s: Of sweet leaves playing with the subtle air


s: In dainty murmuring; the obstinate drone


s: Of limber bees that in the monk's-hood bells


s: Like ghosts in glimpsing moonshine, wildly run


s: Softly--with delicate softness--as the light


s: Quickens in the undawned east; and silently--


s: With definite silence--as the stealing dawn


s: Dapples the floating clouds, slow fall, slow fall,


s: The white-winged flakes,--calm as the sleep of sound,


s: Shines with mild radiance, as when through a cloud


s: Enlarged and strange, sank low and visibly,


s: Spreading fierce orange o'er the west) a scene


s: Of winter in his milder mood. Green fields,


s: Which no kine cropped, lay damp; and naked trees


s: Threw skeleton shadows. Hedges, thickly grown,


s: Twined into compact firmness, with no leaves,


s: To lustre touched the tremulous water-drops.


s: The ploughboy shouted to his reeking train;


s: And at the clamor, from a neighboring field


s: Arose, with whirr of wings, a flock of rooks


s: More clamorous; and through the frosted air,


s: Blown wildly here and there without a law,


s: They flew, low-grumbling out loquacious croaks.


s: Red sunset brightened all things; streams ran red


s: Yet coldly; and before the unwholesome east,


s: Searching the bones and breathing ice, blew down


s: The hill, with a dry whistle, by the fire


s: How shall I speak the wonder of thy snow?


s: What though we know its essence and its birth,


s: The how, and whence, and manner of its fall;


s: Yet, oh, the inner beauty and the life--


s: The life that is in snow! The virgin-soft


s: Unblown by vulgar winds, innumerous flakes


s: Fall gently, with the gentleness of love!


s: The earth is cherished, for beneath the soft,


s: Warmth and rich mildness, fitting the dead roots


s: Now while I write, the wonder clothes the vale,


s: Calmed every wind and loaded every grove;


s: And looking through the implicated boughs


s: I see a gleaming radiance. Sparkling snow,


s: Refined by morning-footed frost so still,


s: Mantles each bough; and such a windless hush


s: Breathes through the air, it seems the fairy glen


s: Of fabled Sleeping Beauty. Songless birds


s: Flit restlessly about the breathless wood,


s: Waiting the sudden breaking of the charm;


s: And as they quickly spring on nimble wing


s: From the white twig, a sparkling shower falls


s: Starlike. It is not whiteness, but a clear


s: The winking eyes with such a silvery gleam.


s: No sunshine, and the sky is all one cloud.


s: The vale seems lonely, ghostlike; while aloud


s: The housewife's voice is heard with doubled sound.


s: I have not words to speak the perfect show;


s: Of inspiration which o'erflows the world,


s: So thus with fair delapsion softly falls


s: The sacred shower; and when the shortened day


s: The rising moon displays a cold blue night,


s: And keen as steel the east wind sprinkles ice.


s: Thicker than bees, about the waxing moon


s: Gather the punctual stars. Huge whitened hills


s: Rise glimmering to the blue verge of the night,


s: Ghostlike, and striped with narrow glens of firs


s: Black-waving, solemn. O'er the Luggie-stream


s: With elfin feet around each stone and reed,


s: Working fine masonry; while o'er the dam,


s: Dashing, a noise of waters fills the clear


s: And nitrous air. All the dark, wintry hours


s: Sharply the winds from the white level moors


s: Keen whistle. Timorous in his homely bed


s: The school-boy listens, fearful lest gaunt wolves


s: Or beasts, whose uncouth forms in ancient books


s: He has beheld, at creaking shutters pull


s: Howling. And when at last the languid dawn


s: Gleams chill, while hazy, half-transparent clouds


s: Slow-range the freezing ether of the west.


s: Along the woods the keenly vehement blasts


s: Wail, and disrobe the mantled boughs, and fling


s: A snow-dust everywhere. Thus wears the day:


s: While grandfather over the well-watched fire


s: Hangs cowering, with a cold drop at his nose.


s: Now underneath the ice the Luggie growls,


s: And to the polished smoothness curlers come


s: The clinking stones are slid from wary hands,


s: And Barleycorn, best wine for surly airs,


s: Bites i' th' mouth, and ancient jokes are cracked.


s: And oh, the journey homeward, when the sun,


s: Sinks large, and all the amber-skirted clouds,


s: His flaming retinue, with dark'ning glow


s: Diverge! The broom is brandished as the sign


s: Of how this shot was played,--with what a bend


s: That stone came rolling grandly to the Tee


s: With victory crowned, and flinging wide the rest


s: They by the roaring chimney sit, and quaff


s: O, when the precious liquid fires the brain


s: To joy, and every heart beats fast with mirth


s: And ancient fellowship, what nervy grasps


s: Of horny hands o'er tables of rough oak!


s: What singing of Lang Syne till tear-drops shine,


s: And friendships brighten as the evening wanes!


s: And, ringing, springs from brand and mail;


s: For the kettle sings on the blackened hook,


s: What though i' the churchyard graves be dug;


s: And what would you do in the falling snow?


s: The flakes fall and the night grows late.


s: Where do you haste through the lamp-lit street,


s: It is drear and chill where the dear lie dead,


s: But what would you do with that Christmas-tree


s: Oh, how should I not have a thought for thee,


s: When the children sleep in their dream of glee,


s: Poor little grave but a twelvemonth old!


s: While the living slept by the warm fireside,


s: And flakes fell white on your Christmas toy,


s: Because you remembered the one that died.


s: How will it dawn, the coming Christmas-day?


s: A northern Christmas, such as painters love,


s: And kinsfolk shaking hands but once a year,


s: And dames who tell old legends by the fire?


s: Red sun, blue sky, white snow, and pearléd ice,


s: Keen ringing air, which sets the blood on fire,


s: And makes the old man merry with the young


s: Through the short sunshine, through the longer night?


s: Or southern Christmas, dark and dank with mist,


s: And heavy with the scent of steaming leaves,


s: And rose-buds mouldering on the dripping porch;


s: On twilight, without rise or set of sun,


s: Till beetles drone along the hollow lane


s: And round the leafless hawthorns, flitting bats


s: Hawk the pale moths of winter? Welcome then,


s: At best, the flying gleam, the flying shower,


s: The rain-pools glittering on the long white roads,


s: And shadows sweeping on from down to down


s: Come fair, come foul, 'twill still be Christmas-day.


s: How will it dawn, the coming Christmas-day?


s: Beneath the rushing trade-wind? or, to him


s: Watches swart arms roll down the precious bales,


s: Spoils of the tropic forests; year by year


s: Amid the din of heathen voices, groaning,


s: Himself half heathen? How to those--brave hearts!


s: Who toil with laden loins and sinking stride


s: Beside the bitter wells of treeless sands


s: Toward the peaks which flood the ancient Nile,


s: To free a tyrant's captives? How to those--


s: New patriarchs of the new-found under world--


s: Who stand like Jacob, on the virgin lawns,


s: And count their flocks' increase? To them that day


s: Shall dawn in glory, and solstitial blaze


s: Of full midsummer sun: to them that morn


s: Gay flowers beneath their feet, gay birds aloft


s: Shall tell of naught but summer; but to them,


s: They spring into the saddle, thrills may come


s: From that great heart of Christendom which beats


s: Round all the worlds; and gracious thoughts of youth;


s: Of steadfast folk, who worship God at home,


s: Of wise words, learnt beside their mother's knee;


s: From selfish cares, and growing lust of gain


s: And phantoms of this dream, which some call life,


s: Summer or winter, 'twill be Christmas-day.


s: Blest day, which aye reminds us year by year


s: What 'tis to be a man: to curb and spurn


s: Which boasts, not loathes, its likeness to the brute,


s: And owns no good save ease, no ill save pain,


s: No purpose, save its share in that wild war


s: In which, through countless ages, living things


s: Are we as creeping things, which have no Lord?


s: That we are brutes, great God, we know too well:


s: Apes daintier-featured; silly birds who flaunt


s: Their plumes, unheeding of the fowler's step;


s: Spiders who catch with paper, not with webs;


s: Tigers who slay with cannon and sharp steel,


s: Instead of teeth and claws; all these we are.


s: Are we no more than these save in degree?


s: No more than these; and born but to compete--


s: Mere fools of nature; puppets of strong lusts,


s: Taking the sword to perish with the sword


s: Even as the things upon the moor outside?


s: The heath eats up green grass and delicate flowers,


s: The pine eats up the heath, the grub the pine,


s: The finch the grub, the hawk the silly finch;


s: And man, the mightiest of all beasts of prey,


s: Eats what he lists;--the strong eat up the weak;


s: The many eat the few; great nations, small;


s: Shall, greediest, triumph by the greed of all;


s: And armed by his own victims, eat up all.


s: Looks patient down the great magnanimous God


s: Who taught mankind on that first Christmas-day


s: What 'twas to be a man: to give not take;


s: To serve not rule; to nourish not devour;


s: To help, not crush; if need, to die, not live.


s: Oh, blessed day which givest the eternal lie


s: To self and sense and all the brute within;


s: To hall and hovel, come, to all who toil


s: Who sundered by the wastes of half a world


s: Ill warned, and sorely tempted, ever face


s: Nature's brute powers and men unmanned to brutes,


s: Come to them, blest and blessing, Christmas-day.


s: Tell them once more the tale of Bethlehem,


s: The kneeling shepherds and the Babe Divine,


s: And keep them men indeed, fair Christmas-day.


s: Thou lose some minutes of so blest a day.


s: The Word itself was mute and could not speak.


s: Let's sing towards men good-will and charity,


s: Hark, the cock crows, and yon bright star


s: For Christ's circumcision this day we keep,


s: And now with New-Year's gifts each friend


s: And here for good liquor we shall not lack,


s: It will whet my brains and strengthen my back;


s: This jolly good cheer it must go to wrack:


s: Come, give's more liquor when I do call,


s: The young men and maids on New-Year's day,


s: Expressing their loves in ribbons and gloves,


s: Young bachelors will not spare their coin,


s: Will give to the men choice presents again


s: For this the young men will them embrace


s: As bodkins and rings with other fine things


s: All those that have it will dress good cheer,


s: With many healths more, which we have store,


s: And, when he's laughed and said his say,


s: On life's wide scene you, too, have parts,


s: And wish you health, and love, and mirth,


s: Be this, good friends, our carol still--


s: I am like Christ shockt out of dreaming,


s: That Love should call thro' joy and pain


s: What drove them turn the sweet green earth


s: To have that plunder'd, and two hearts sunder'd--


s: Who kiss to shield yourselves from blame,


s: Would the storm-blast had snapt the mast


s: That little old house that seems to stoop


s: It's thinking of my little sweet Mother,


s: Thing there was none, said, thought or done,


s: 'Twas joy of life, 'twas strength to fare


s: The boys would jump and catch your shoulder


s: And the wind that makes the cheek to sting


s: With the idle song of Sons and Daughters


s: How have they taught us treat sons and daughters


s: So still, so still!--hangs o'er the thatch;


s: The board was spread with cakes and bread


s: Give thanks, you maids, that there's your work


s: From thoughts that lurk in them who shirk


s: Till sap and milk fill'd spine and breast,


s: No fond look caught by eyes well taught,


s: Our lips kept tryst, and long we kiss'd;


s: The earth can teach them without speech,


s: Why should they preach to the out-of-reach,


s: He'd say, "What use is it to shout them?


s: For fear you'd see the hunger and thirst


s: Too good, too sweet, too fond, too kind,


s: Now let hearts shrink from scythes that drink


s: Two strangers past, "Then that means war----"


s: "Then that means war," I heard them say,


s: Whose steadfast joys and passing sorrows


s: While England braced her limbs and thews


s: "There's no rebelling in a poor man's dwelling,


s: And no heart-swelling meets God's compelling,


s: They made me blench with noise and stench,


s: Or nurst to health when, quiet and limp,


s: Shrink not altho' the quick flesh smart--


s: Good-bye, sweetheart, Good-bye, Blush Rose:


s: With lichen'd stumps which lean'd or stood


s: Can it be own'd that kings were crown'd,


s: The Village Wife knows nothing of the Germans, however, and her


s: That is near enough to the Nature of Man for present purposes.


s: "Teach us man's worth, that we may know it,


s: All rights reserved, including that of translation


s: He served his England, with the imminent death


s: Poised at his heart. Nor could the world divine


s: The constant peril of each burdened breath.


s: England, and the honour of England, he still served


s: Walking the strict path, with the old high pride


s: Of those invincible knights who never swerved


s: One hair's breadth from the way until they died.


s: Quietness he loved, and books, and the grave beauty


s: Of England's Helicon, whose eternal light


s: Shines like a lantern on that road of duty,


s: And his own pen, foretelling his release,


s: Told us that he foreknew "the end was peace."


s: Soldier of England, he shall live unsleeping


s: Among his friends, with the old proud flag above;


s: For even today her honour is in his keeping.


s: He has joined the hosts that guard her with their love.


s: They shine like stars, unnumbered happy legions,


s: In that high realm where all our darkness dies.


s: He moves, with honour, in those loftier regions,


s: Above this "world of passion and of lies":


s: For so he called it, keeping his own pure passion


s: A silent flame before the true and good;


s: Not fawning on the throng in this world's fashion


s: To come and see what all might see who would.


s: Soldier of England, brave and gentle knight,


s: The soul of Sidney welcomes you tonight.


s: SPRING-RICE                                       v


s: Tossing the flags of the nations to flame:


s: _I am the breath of God. I am His laughter.


s: Lighting the lordliest street of the world


s: With half of the banners that earth has unfurled;


s: Over the lamps that are brighter than stars.


s: Death and destruction like notes in a song,


s: Joyous as God when he moved to create,--


s: Never was voice of a nation so glorious,


s: Glad of its cause and afire with its fate!


s: Tower to the height of a brighter dominion,


s: Kindling the hope of the prophets to flame,


s: _Cleave me a way for an army with banners.


s: Know you the meaning of all they are doing?


s: Know you the light that their soul is pursuing?


s: Know you the might of the world they are making,


s: This nation of nations whose heart is awaking?


s: What is this mingling of peoples and races?


s: Look at the wonder and joy in their faces!


s: Look how the folds of the union are spreading!


s: Look, for the nations are come to their wedding.


s: How shall the folk of our tongue be afraid of it?


s: England was born of it. England was made of it,


s: Made of this welding of tribes into one,


s: This marriage of pilgrims that followed the sun!


s: By winds of this Pentecost, out of the dawn,


s: Westward, to make her one people of many;


s: But here is a union more mighty than any.


s: Know you the soul of this deep exultation?


s: Know you the word that goes forth to this nation?


s: _I am the breath of God. I am His Liberty.


s: Let there be light over all His creation._


s: They that were foemen in Europe are plighted.


s: Here, in a league that our blindness and pride


s: Doubted and flouted and mocked and denied,


s: Dawns the Republic, the laughing, gigantic


s: Driving her rails from the palms to the snow,


s: Through States that are greater than Emperors know,


s: Forty-eight States that are empires in might,


s: But ruled by the will of one people tonight,


s: Nerved as one body, with net-works of steel,


s: Merging their strength in the one Commonweal,


s: Building their cities to talk with the stars.


s: Till even in numbers old Europe may wane.


s: How shall a son of the England they fought


s: Fail to declare the full pride of his thought,


s: Stand with the scoffers who, year after year,


s: Bring the Republic their half-hidden sneer?


s: Now, as in beauty she stands at our side,


s: Who shall withhold the full gift of his pride?


s: Not the great England who knows that her son,


s: Washington, fought her, and Liberty won.


s: England, whose names like the stars in their station,


s: Stand at the foot of that world's Declaration,--


s: Washington, Livingston, Langdon, she claims them,


s: It is her right to be proud when she names them,


s: Proud of that voice in the night as it came,


s: Tossing the flags of the nations to flame:


s: _I am the breath of God. I am His laughter.


s: Flags, in themselves, are but rags that are dyed.


s: Flags, in that wind, are like nations enskied.


s: See, how they grapple the night as it rolls


s: And trample it under like triumphing souls.


s: Thousands of tri-colors, laughing for France,


s: Ripple and whisper and thunder and dance;


s: Thousands of flags for Great Britain aflame


s: Italy burgeons in red, white, and green.


s: See, how they climb like adventurous flowers,


s: Over the tops of the terrible towers....


s: _There, in the darkness, the glories are mated.


s: There, in the darkness, a world is created.


s: There, in this Pentecost, streaming on high.


s: There, with a glory of stars in the sky.


s: There the broad flag of our union and liberty


s: Rides the proud night-wind and tyrannies die._


s: Marked with the only sign on earth that saves.


s: The wings of death were hurrying overhead,


s: The loose earth shook on those unquiet graves;


s: For the deep gun-pits, with quick stabs of flame,


s: Made their own thunders of the sunlit air;


s: Yet, as I read the crosses, name by name,


s: _Mort pour la France_, it seemed that peace was there;


s: Sunlight and peace, a peace too deep for thought,


s: The peace of tides that underlie our strife,


s: The peace with which the moving heavens are fraught,


s: The loose earth shook. The very hills were stirred.


s: The silence of the dead was all I heard.


s: We, who lie here, have nothing more to pray.


s: To all your praises we are deaf and blind.


s: Our hope, to make earth better for mankind.


s: Only our silence, in the night, shall grow


s: More silent, as the stars grow in the sky;


s: And, while you deck our graves, you shall not know


s: For we have heard you say (when we were living)


s: That some small dream of good would "cost too much."


s: But when the foe struck, we have watched you giving,


s: And seen you move the mountains with one touch.


s: What can be done, we know. But, have no fear!


s: If you fail now, we shall not see or hear.


s: (Written after the British Service at Trinity Church, New York)


s: Before those golden altar-lights we stood,


s: Each one of us remembering his own dead.


s: A more than earthly beauty seemed to brood


s: On that hushed throng, and bless each bending head.


s: Beautiful on that gold, the deep-sea blue


s: Of those young seamen, ranked on either side,


s: Blent with the khaki, while the silence grew


s: Deep, as for wings--Oh, deep as England's pride.


s: Beautiful on that gold, two banners rose--


s: Two flags that told how Freedom's realm was made,


s: One fair with stars of hope, and one that shows


s: The glorious cross of England's long crusade;


s: Two flags, now joined, till that high will be done


s: Which sent them forth to make the whole world one.


s: There were no signs of joy that eyes could see.


s: Our hearts were all three thousand miles away.


s: There were no trumpets blown for victory.


s: A million dead were calling us that day.


s: And eyes grew blind, at times; but grief was deep,


s: Deeper than any foes or friends have known;


s: For Oh, my country's lips are locked to keep


s: Her bitterest loss her own, and all her own.


s: The funeral march to which our pulses beat;


s: For all our dead went by, to a muffled drum


s: We heard the tread of all those phantom feet.


s: Yes. There was victory! Deep in every soul.


s: We heard them marching to their unseen goal.


s: There, once again, we saw the Cross go by,


s: The Cross that fell with all those glorious towers,


s: Burnt black in France or mocked on Calvary,


s: Till--in one night--the crosses rose like flowers,


s: Legions of small white crosses, mile on mile,


s: Pencilled with names that had outfought all pain,


s: Where every shell-torn acre seems to smile--


s: _Who shall destroy the cross that rose again?_


s: Out of the world's Walpurgis, where hope perished,


s: Where all the forms of faith in ruin fell,


s: Where every sign of heaven that earth had cherished


s: Shrivelled among the lava-floods of hell,


s: The eternal Cross that conquers might with right


s: Rose like a star to lead us through the night.


s: How shall the world remember? Men forget:


s: Our dead are all too many even for Fame!


s: Man's justice kneels to kings, and pays no debt


s: Cheat not your heart with promises to pay


s: For gifts beyond all price so freely given.


s: Where is the heart so rich that it can say


s: To those who mourn, "I will restore your heaven"?


s: But these, with their own hands, laid up their treasure


s: Where never an emperor can break in and steal,


s: Treasure for those that loved them past all measure


s: In those high griefs that earth can never heal,


s: Proud griefs, that walk on earth, yet gaze above,


s: Knowing that sorrow is but remembered love.


s: Love that still holds us with immortal power,


s: Yet cannot lift us to His realm of light;


s: Love that still shows us heaven for one brief hour


s: Only to daunt the heart with that sheer height;


s: In form and thought and act; and still must shame us


s: And yet let slip the shining hands that claim us.


s: O, if this Love might cloak with rags His glory,


s: Laugh, eat and drink, and dwell with suffering men,


s: Sit with us at our hearth, and hear our story,


s: This world--we thought--might be transfigured then.


s: "But Oh," Love answered, with swift human tears,


s: "All these things have I done, these many years."


s: "This day," Love said, "if ye will hear my voice;


s: I mount and sing with birds in all your skies.


s: I am the soul that calls you to rejoice.


s: And every wayside flower is my disguise.


s: "Look closely. Are the wings too wide for pity?


s: Look closely. Do these tender hues betray?


s: How often have ye turned your hearts away?


s: "Is there not healing in the beauty I bring you?


s: Am I not whispering in green leaves and rain,


s: Singing in all that woods and seas can sing you?


s: Look, once, on Love, and earth is heaven again.


s: "O, did your Spring but once a century waken,


s: The heaven of heavens for this would be forsaken."


s: There's but one gift that all our dead desire,


s: One gift that men can give, and that's a dream,


s: Unless we, too, can burn with that same fire


s: Of sacrifice; die to the things that seem;


s: Die to the little hatreds; die to greed;


s: Die to the base contempts of sect and creed,


s: And rise again, like these, with souls as true.


s: Nay (since these died before their task was finished)


s: Attempt new heights, bring even their dreams to birth:--


s: Build us that better world, Oh, not diminished


s: By one true splendor that they planned on earth.


s: And that's not done by sword, or tongue, or pen,


s: There's but one way. God make us better men.


s: (Written after entering New York Harbor at Daybreak)


s: Gigantic towers arose, the night was done,


s: Silent, the great torch lifted in one hand,


s: Silent, for all the shouts that vex her land,


s: Hailing that mightier Kingdom of the Blest


s: The dream that lured the nations through the West,


s: But westward, westward, moved the gleaming goal,


s: Westward and ever westward ran the call,


s: Seeking that land which should enfold them all,


s: Swells the first throb of that immortal heart,


s: Still, at these towers, our Old-World cities jest,


s: The brood of gods at that gigantic breast,


s: An end, an end to that wild blood-red age,


s: When, following, following on that Pilgrim sun,


s: You that have gathered together the sons of all races,


s: Lifting the torch of your Freedom on hungering faces


s: You that have made of mankind in your own proud regions


s: How should the old earth sing of you, now, as your legions


s: How should the singer that knew the proud vision and loved it,


s: How should he sing when the Spirit of Freedom in thunder


s: Flag of the sky, proud flag of that wide communion,


s: Flag of the many in one, and that last world-union


s: Ours was a dream, in the night, of that last federation,


s: The marshalled nations and stars that shall make one nation


s: Its quiet graves were made for peace till Gabriel blows his horn.


s: Only the red-winged blackbird, and the rustle of thick ripe corn.


s: But all of them were names we knew beneath our English skies.


s: John Applegate was fast asleep; and Temperance Olden, too.


s: And Prudence veiled her eyes at last, as Prudence ought to do.


s: Could lift the heavy eyelids on one gossip's up-turned face.


s: For William Speakman could not tell--so thick the grasses grow--


s: Or if 'twas but the summer bees that blundered to and fro.


s: And then, across the breathless wood, a Bell began to sound,


s: And called to all the deacons in the ancient burial-ground.


s: "The Bell, the Bell is ringing! Give me back my rusty sword.


s: Yet I signed the Declaration, and the dead must keep their word.


s: "There's only one great ghost I know could make that 'larum ring.


s: So the sunset saw them mustering beneath their brooding boughs,


s: _Here Freedom stood, by slaughtered friend and foe,


s: And ere the wrath paled or that sunset died,


s: Looked through the ages: then, with eyes aglow,


s: Laid them, to wait that future, side by side._


s: Now lamp-lit gardens in the blue dusk shine


s: And round the gray quadrangles, line by line,


s: Where Princeton calls to Magdalen, tower to tower,


s: And those cream-white magnolia boughs embower


s: The dark bronze tigers crouch on either side


s: And round the bird-loved house where Mercer died


s: To feed the old enemy's harvest fifty-fold


s: Through this May night if one great ghost should stray


s: Where that old meadow of battle smiles away


s: If Washington should walk, where friend and foe


s: Be sure his unquenched heart would leap to know


s: Be sure he walks, in shadowy buff and blue,


s: He bends his head to bless, as dreams come true,


s: Then with a vaster hope than thought can scan,


s: Prays for that mightier realm of God in man,


s: "Land of new hope, land of the singing stars,


s: The vision of a world set free from wars


s: Where all the jarring nations of this earth,


s: Bring the new music of mankind to birth,


s: And those old comrades rise around him there,


s: With eyes like stars upon the brave night-air,


s: To hear your bells, O beautiful Princeton towers,


s: They see you, piercing like gray swords through flowers,


s: (After a glimpse of a certain monument in New York, during the


s: The thousand-windowed towers were all alight.


s: Throngs of all nations filled that glittering way;


s: And, rich with dreams of the approaching day,


s: Flags of all nations trampled down the night.


s: No clouds, at sunset, die in airs as bright.


s: No clouds, at dawn, awake in winds as gay;


s: Crowned with the stars and weaponed for the right.


s: Then, in a place of whispering leaves and gloom,


s: One tragic head that bowed against the sky;


s: With his own grief, and his own majesty.


s: Out of her darkened fishing-ports they go,


s: A fleet of little ships, whose every name--


s: Burns in this blackness like an altar-flame;


s: Out of her past they sail, three thousand strong,


s: The people's fleet that never knew its worth,


s: And every name is a broken phrase of song


s: There's _Barbara Cowie_, _Comely Bank_ and _May_,


s: Christened, at home, in worlds of dawn and dew:


s: There's _Ruth_ and _Kindly Light_ and _Robin Gray_


s: With _Mizpah_. (May that simple prayer come true!)


s: Out of old England's inmost heart they sail,


s: A fleet of memories that can never fail.


s: Dark, dark lay the drifters against the red West,


s: As they shot their long meshes of steel overside;


s: And the oily green waters were rocking to rest


s: When Kilmeny went out, at the turn of the tide;


s: And nobody knew where that lassie would roam,


s: For the magic that called her was tapping unseen.


s: It was well-nigh a week ere Kilmeny came home,


s: She'd a gun at her bow that was Newcastle's best,


s: And a gun at her stern that was fresh from the Clyde,


s: And a secret her skipper had never confessed,


s: Not even at dawn, to his newly-wed bride;


s: And a wireless that whispered above, like a gnome,


s: The laughter of London, the boasts of Berlin....


s: O, it may have been mermaids that lured her from home;


s: It was dark when Kilmeny came home from her quest


s: With her bridge dabbled red where her skipper had died;


s: But she moved like a bride with a rose at her breast,


s: And _Well done Kilmeny!_ the Admiral cried.


s: Now, at sixty-four fathom a conger may come


s: And nose at the bones of a drowned submarine;


s: But--late in the evening Kilmeny came home,


s: There's a wandering shadow that stares at the foam,


s: Though they sing all the night to old England, their queen.


s: Late, late in the evening, Kilmeny came home;


s: They are buffeting out in the bitter grey weather,


s: _Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down!_


s: And burly blue waters all swelling aroun'.


s: There's _Thunderstone_ butting ahead as they wallow,


s: With death in the mesh of their deep-sea trawl;


s: There's _Night-Hawk_ swooping by wild _Sea-swallow_;


s: And old Cap'n Storm-along leading 'em all.


s: Look at the fleet that he leads to the fight.


s: O, they're dancing like witches to open the ball;


s: And old Cap'n Storm-along's lord of 'em all._


s: Now, where have you seen such a bully old sailor?


s: His eyes are as blue as the scarf at his throat;


s: And he rolls on the bridge of his broad-beamed whaler,


s: In trawler and drifter, in dinghy and dory,


s: Wherever he signals, they leap to his call;


s: They batter the seas to a lather of glory,


s: With old Cap'n Storm-along leading 'em all.


s: _You'll find he's from Devon, the sailor I mean,


s: Look at his whaler now, shipping it green.


s: O, Fritz and his "U" boat must crab it and crawl


s: When old Cap'n Storm-along sails to the ball._


s: Ay, there is the skipper that knows how to scare 'em.


s: _Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down!_


s: Look at the sea-wives he keeps in his harem,


s: Wicked young merry-maids, buxom and brown:


s: There's _Rosalind_, the sea-witch, and _Gipsy_ so lissom,


s: All dancing like ducks in the teeth of the squall,


s: With a bright eye for Huns, and a Hotchkiss to kiss 'em;


s: For old Cap'n Storm-along's lord of 'em all.


s: _Look at him, battering darkness to light!


s: Look at the fleet that he leads to the fight!


s: O, hearts that are mighty, in ships that are small,


s: Your old Cap'n Storm-along's lord of us all._


s: Was a big black trawler with a deep-sea crew--


s: _Sing, my bullies, let the bullgine run._


s: There was one old devil with a broken nose


s: _But, sing, my bullies, let the bullgine run._


s: We was wrecked last March, in a Polar storm


s: And we asked the old cripple if his feet was warm--


s: And the old, old devil (he was ninety at the most)


s: Roars, "Ay, warm as a lickle piece of toast"--


s: _So sing, my bullies, let the bullgine run._


s: "For I soaked my sea-boots and my dungarees


s: In the good salt water that the Lord don't freeze"--


s: _Oh, sing, my bullies, let the bullgine run._


s: But where's the brown drifter that went out alone?


s: Was her name Peggy Nutten? That name is my own.


s: They sang in the dark, "Let her go! Let her go!"


s: And she sailed to the West, where the broad waters flow;


s: And the others come back, but ... the bitter winds blow.


s: The women, at evening, they wave and they cheer.


s: They're waiting to welcome their lads at the pier.


s: They're all coming home in the twilight below;


s: But there's one little boat.... Let her go! Let her go!


s: She carried my heart, and a heart for the foe.


s: They come to their namesakes, and leave me alone.


s: And names are kep' dark, for the spies mustn't know;


s: But they'll look in my face, an' I think it will show;


s: Peggy Nutten's my name. Let her go! let her go!


s: Quick, through all the storms that blind them,


s: Quick with words that rush to find them.


s: O what is that whimpering there in the darkness?


s: _"Let him lie in my arms. He is breathing, I know.


s: Look. I'll wrap all my hair round his neck."--"The sea's rising,


s: The boat must be lightened. He's dead. He must go."_


s: See--quick--by that flash, where the bitter foam tosses,


s: The cloud of white faces, in the black open boat,


s: And the wild pleading woman that clasps her dead lover


s: And wraps her loose hair round his breast and his throat.


s: _"Come, lady, he's dead." "No, I feel his heart beating.


s: He's living, I know. But he's numbed with the cold.


s: See, I'm wrapping my hair all around him to warm him"----


s: --"No. We can't keep the dead, dear. Come, loosen your hold._


s: _"Come. Loosen your fingers."--"O God, let me keep him!"_


s: O, hide it, black night! Let the winds have their way!


s: For there are no voices or ghosts from that darkness,


s: To fret the bare seas at the breaking of day.


s: "You were weeping in the night," said the Emperor,


s: "It was nothing but a dream," said the Empress;


s: "You thought you saw our German God defeated?"


s: "Oh, no!" she said. "I saw no lightnings fall.


s: I dreamed of a whirlpool of green water,


s: Where something had gone down. That was all.


s: _"All but the whimper of the sea gulls flying,


s: Waiting for the faces, the faces from the darkness,


s: The dreadful rising faces of the drowned._


s: "It was nothing but a dream," said the Empress.


s: And the foam rushed up in a wild smother,


s: And a crowd of little faces looked at me.


s: They were drowning! They were drowning," said the Empress,


s: "And they stretched their feeble arms to the sky;


s: But the worst was--they mistook me for their mother,


s: _"Nothing but a whimper of the sea-gulls flying,


s: With the cruel yellow beaks that were waiting for the faces,


s: The little floating faces of the drowned."_


s: "It was nothing but a dream," said the Emperor,


s: "Oh, I saw the red letters on a life belt


s: "What were they?" said the Emperor. "What were they?"--


s: "Some of them were hidden," said the Empress,


s: "In God's name, stop!" said the Emperor.


s: _"Told me that you dreamed of the sea gulls flying,


s: Waiting for the faces, and the eyes in the faces,


s: The eyes of the children that we drowned._


s: "Kiss me and forget it," said the Emperor,


s: "Dry your tears on the tassel of my sword.


s: I shall now take up My Cross as Count of Prussia--


s: Which is not a heavy burden, you'll agree.


s: Why, before the twenty million dead are rotten


s: There'll be yachting days again for you and me.


s: It would mean a rope for anyone but Me."


s: _"Oh, take care!" said the Empress. "They are flying,


s: They have finished with the faces, the dreadful little faces,


s: The little eyeless faces of the drowned."_


s: How should we praise those lads of the old _Vindictive_


s: England, in her proud history, proudly enrolls them,


s: And the deep night in her remembering skies


s: There were no throngs to applaud that hushed adventure.


s: They were one to a thousand on that fierce emprise.


s: O, they knew fear, be assured, as the brave must know it,


s: With youth and its happiness bidding their last good-byes;


s: For if, as we think, they remembered the brown-roofed homesteads,


s: One dream was dearer that night than the best of their boyhood,


s: One hope more radiant than any their hearts could prize.


s: So, age to age shall tell how they sailed through the darkness


s: Where, under those high, austere, implacable stars,


s: They saw the ferry-boats, _Iris_ and _Daffodil_, creeping


s: Darkly as clouds to the shimmering mine-strewn bars,


s: But, under the twelve-inch guns of the black land-batteries


s: The hacked bright hulk, in a glory of crackling spars,


s: That, while the raw rent flesh in a furnace is tortured,


s: Reigns by a law no agony ever can shake,


s: There, on a wreck that blazed with the soul of England,


s: The lads that died in the dark for England's sake


s: Nelson, and all the ghostly fleets of his island,


s: Fighting beside them there, and the soul of Drake!--


s: _How should we praise you, lads of the old Vindictive,


s: And the red foolscap all stuck with may,


s: For the chimney-sweeps of Cheltenham town,


s: And Jack-in-the green, by a clown in blue,


s: With the little wee lads that wriggled up the flue


s: Ere Cheltenham town cried "dancing day."


s: For brooms were short and the chimneys tall,


s: And the gipsies caught 'em these blackbirds cheap,


s: So Cheltenham bought them, spry and small,


s: And shoved them up in the dark to sweep.


s: But she has been gathering garlands gay,


s: And the little wee lads are in green and gold,


s: With teeth as white as their faces are black,


s: But when they are ranged in the market-place,


s: The clown's wife comes with an iron spoon,


s: Then, hushing the riot of that mad throng,


s: And sweet as the voice of a long-dead May,


s: And the sooty faces, they try to recall....


s: As they gather around in their spell-struck rings....


s: Why are you dancing, O chimney-sweeps of Cheltenham,


s: And where did you win you these may-coats so fine;


s: For some are red as roses, and some are gold as daffodils,


s: But who, ah, who remembers, now, a little lad of mine?


s: Lady, we are dancing, as we danced in old England


s: When the may was more than may, very long ago:


s: As for our may-coats, it was your white hands, lady,


s: Filled our sooty hearts and minds with blossom, white as snow.


s: It was a beautiful face we saw, wandering through Cheltenham.


s: It was a beautiful song we heard, very far away,


s: Weeping for a little lad stolen by the gipsies,


s: Broke our hearts and filled 'em with the glory of the may.


s: Many a little lad had we, chirruping in the chimney-tops,


s: Twirling out a sooty broom, a blot against the blue.


s: Ah, but when we called to him, and when he saw and ran to her,


s: All our winter ended, and our world was made anew.


s: Then she gave us may-coats of gold and green and crimson,


s: Then, with a long garland, she led our hearts away,


s: Whispering, "Remember, though the boughs forget the hawthorn,


s: Yet shall I return to you, that was your lady May."--


s: But why are you dancing now, O chimney-sweeps of Cheltenham,


s: And why are you singing of a May that is fled?--


s: And we dance, dance, dreaming of a lady most beautiful


s: That shall walk the green valleys of this dark earth one day,


s: And call to us gently, "O chimney-sweeps of Cheltenham,


s: I am looking for my children. Awake, and come away."


s: After success that locked your feet in chains,


s: And left you with a heart so tired and old,


s: Strange--is it not?--to find your chief desire


s: Is what you might have had for nothing then--


s: And friendly laughter with your fellow-men?


s: You were so rich when fools esteemed you poor.


s: You ruled a field that kings could never buy;


s: And all those quiet stars were in your sky.


s: The nook of ferns below the breathless wood


s: Where one poor book could unlock Paradise ...


s: What will you give us now for that lost good?


s: Better forget. You cannot pay the price.


s: You left them for the fame in which you trust.


s: But youth, and hope--did you forsake them, too?


s: Courage! When dust at length returns to dust,


s: In your last dreams they may come back to you.


s: _The old gentleman, tapping his amber snuff-box


s: (A heart-shaped snuff-box with a golden clasp)


s: Stared at the dying fire. "I'd like them all


s: To understand, when I am gone," he muttered.


s: Apologize. I'll hint at it ... in verse;


s: And, to be sure that Rosalind reads it through,


s: --Still cynical, you see. He couldn't help it.


s: He had seen much, felt much. He snapped the snuff box,


s: Shook his white periwig, trimmed a long quill pen,


s: And then began to write, most carefully,


s: These couplets, in the old heroic style:--_


s: The few sad truths that time has made my own,


s: I had not lost the best that youth can give,


s: Nay, life itself, in learning how to live.


s: This laboring heart would not be tired so soon,


s: This jaded blood would jog to a livelier tune:


s: And some few friends, could I begin again,


s: Should know more happiness, and much less pain.


s: I should not wound in ignorance, nor turn


s: In foolish pride from those for whom I yearn.


s: I should have kept nigh half the friends I've lost,


s: And held for dearest those I wronged the most.


s: With colder tact, the blunders that I made;


s: Is not still mine, who lacked their subtle art.


s: For I have conned my book in harsher schools,


s: And learned from struggling what they worked by rules;


s: Learned--with some pain--more quickly to forgive


s: My fellow-blunderers, while they learn to live;


s: Learned--with some tears--to keep a steadfast mind,


s: And think more kindly of my own poor kind.


s: _He read the verses through, shaking his wig.


s: "Perhaps ... perhaps"--he whispered to himself,


s: "I'd better leave it to the will of God.


s: They'd understand. Jocelyn might, perhaps;


s: But Rosalind never; nor that nephew of mine,


s: They'd say my mind was wandering, I'm afraid."


s: He tossed his verses into the dying fire,


s: They found him, cold and stiff by the cold hearth,


s: "You see," they said, "he never needed friends.


s: He had no heart--only an amber snuff-box.


s: He died quite happily, taking a pinch of snuff."


s: His epitaph should be "Snuffed Out." The clubs


s: Laughed, and the statesman's reputation grew._


s: Your thoughts are for the poor and weak?


s: The clerk that sings "God save the King,"


s: You loved the weak! Was that all vapour?


s: And, where those linen folds are shaking,


s: You sneer, and dine with those that pay him;


s: That sucks its cheeks to make the dimple.


s: You hate the hearth, the wife, the child,


s: You hate the heavens that bend above them.


s: Like jungle-beasts before you love them.


s: Free from all change? Your word "Victorian"


s: And--unlike yours--it's been a long one.


s: And went with Strindberg for a ride, sir.


s: I've fought through your own day as well,


s: I read free verse (the Psalms) on Sunday.


s: Kicking his mother round the scene, sir.


s: And die like Christ, in Christ's own glory.


s: Well, I'm your grandson. You'll grow wiser.


s: Where warm keen incense on the sea-wind blows,


s: And all the winter long the skies are blue,


s: And the brown deserts blossom with the rose.


s: Cactus and palm and earth of thirsty gold,


s: Dark purple blooms round eaves of sun-washed white,


s: And that Hesperian fruit men sought of old.


s: Under the palm-trees, on that sunset shore,


s: Where the waves break in song, and the bright air


s: Is crystal clean; and peace is ours, once more.


s: Beauty, re-born in whiteness from the foam;


s: And Youth returns with all its magic spells,


s: And the heart finds its long-forgotten home,--


s: For, when I dream it found, the old hungering cry


s: Aches in the soul, drives me from all I planned,


s: What shining spell, what exquisite sorcery,


s: And fight with bees round this one flowering tree?


s: What whisper or gleam or elfin-wild perfumes


s: And drew you to this hive of rosy bloom?


s: Of all that load this magic air with spice,


s: Three thousand miles across the summer's waste


s: Less finely fit for your ethereal taste.


s: Even so the quivering April thoughts will fly,--


s: Those winged and tiny denizens of the sky.


s: They suck a redder honey than bees know.


s: Sleeps in this bloom; and, when it falls, they go.


s: Where gold-skinned Mexicans loll at ease,


s: And the red half-moons of their black-pipped melons


s: Drop from their hands in the sunset seas,


s: And an incense, out of the old brown missions,


s: Had found his way to this rose-red West;


s: That Keats had walked by the wide Pacific


s: And cradled his head on its healing breast,


s: And made new songs of the sun-burned sea-folk,


s: I thought of him, under the ripe pomegranates


s: At the desert's edge, where the grape-vines grow,


s: In a sun-kissed ranch between grey-green sage-brush


s: And amethyst mountains, peaked with snow,


s: Or watching the lights of the City of Angels


s: He should walk, at dawn, by the lemon orchards,


s: And breathe at ease in that dry bright air;


s: And the Spanish bells in their crumbling cloisters


s: And the old Franciscans would bring him their baskets


s: And the mandolins, in the deep blue twilight,


s: Would pluck, once more, at his golden heart-strings,


s: And tell him the old sea-tales of Spain;


s: And there should the daughters of Hesperus teach him


s: Then, the dusk blew sweet over seas of peach-bloom;


s: The moon sailed white in the cloudless blue;


s: The tree-toads purred, and the crickets chirruped;


s: And better than anything dreamed came true;


s: For, under the murmuring palms, a shadow


s: A shadow, perhaps, of the tall green fountains


s: That rustled their fronds on that glittering sky,


s: But I heard him whisper the strange dark music


s: The Paradise palms, and the wild white orchards,


s: The night, and its roses, were all one breath,


s: Bearing the song of a nightingale seaward,


s: There came a crowder to the Mermaid Inn,


s: Fiddling a tune that quelled our motley din,


s: It haunts me yet, as old lost airs will do,


s: _Look for me once, lest I should look for you,


s: In that old wood, where ghosts of lovers walk,


s: Gleaning such fragments of their ancient talk


s: From leaves that brushed their faces, wet with dew,


s: Have we not seen them--pale forgotten shades


s: Groping for those dim paths, those fragrant glades,


s: Only to find that, of the may they knew,


s: _Yet they still look, as I should look for you,


s: They see those happier ghosts that waned away--


s: Ghosts that come back with music and the may,


s: Lover and lass, to sing the old burden through,


s: So, after death, if in that starless deep,


s: I'll haunt familiar places. I'll not keep


s: I'll haunt the whispering elms that found us true,


s: _Look for me there, lest I should look for you,


s: There, as of old, under the dreaming moon,


s: Floats through the fern, to a ghostly morrice tune,


s: Hands link with hands, eyes drown in eyes anew,


s: _Look for me, once, lest I should look for you,


s: "You'd never say that green leaves grow.


s: "If I could whisper you all I've heard,"


s: You'd say, 'I'll listen, and p'raps I'll learn


s: One word of His joy as He passed this way,


s: "You'd hug your griefs against your breast


s: 'I am one with the sorrow that made the may,


s: (It is supposed that Shadow-of-a-Leaf uses the word "clear" in a


s: As along a dark pine-bough, in slender white mystery


s: The moon lay to listen, above the thick fern,


s: In a deep dreaming wood that is older than history


s: I heard a lad sing, and I stilled me to learn;


s: So rarely he lilted his long-forgot litany,--


s: _Fall, April; fall, April, in dew on our dearth!


s: Bring balm, and bring poppy, bring deep sleepy dittany


s: For Marian, our clear May, so long laid in earth._


s: Then I drew back the branches. I saw him that chanted it.


s: I saw his fool's bauble. I knew his old grief.


s: I knew that old greenwood and the shadow that haunted it,--


s: My fool, my lost jester, my _Shadow-of-a-Leaf_!


s: And "why," I said, "why, all this while, have you left me so


s: "Oh, why," he sang, "why has this world then bereft me so


s: Soon of my Marian, so long laid in earth?


s: "In the years that are gone," he said, "love was more fortunate.


s: Grief was our minstrel of things that endure.


s: Now, ashes and dust and this world grow importunate.


s: Time has no sorrow that time cannot cure.


s: Once, we could lose, and the loss was worth cherishing.


s: Now, we may win, but, O, where is the worth?


s: Memory and true love," he whispered, "are perishing,


s: With Marian, our clear May, so long laid in earth."


s: "Ah, no!" I said, "no! Since we grieve for our grief again,


s: Touch the old strings! Let us try the old stave!


s: And memory may wake, like my _Shadow-of-a-Leaf_ again,


s: Singing of hope, in the dark, by a grave."


s: So we sang it together--that long-forgot litany:--


s: _Fall, April; fall, April; bring new grief to birth.


s: Bring wild herb of grace, and bring deep healing dittany,


s: For Marian, our clear May, so long laid in earth._


s: And the night praised them--and prevailed.


s: The world has crowned the "rebel's" brow


s: The masks have altered. Names are names;


s: They praise the "truth" that is not true.


s: Weaponed with light and helmed with mirth,


s: Shall front the kingdoms and the powers.


s: Loveliness over the strings of the heart may stray


s: But Oh, the hand of the Master must not stay,


s: For to prolong one joy, or even to dwell


s: Beyond the pulse of the song, would untune heaven


s: And find new life and deeper wonder there.


s: There is peace, peace, where the sea-birds wheel,


s: Now, in a breath, we'll burst those gates of gold,


s: And ransack heaven before our moment fails.


s: Now, in a breath, before we, too, grow old,


s: We'll mount and sing and spread immortal sails.


s: Love and an hour may quite out-run the years,


s: And give us more to hear and more to see


s: Than life can wash away with all its tears.


s: Dear, when we part, at last, that sunset sky


s: Shall not be touched with deeper hues than this;


s: But we shall ride the lightning ere we die


s: And seize our brief infinitude of bliss,


s: With time to spare for all that heaven can tell,


s: While eyes meet eyes, and look their last farewell.


s: If souls could sing to heaven's high King


s: What white-robed throng could lift a song


s: If earthly dreams be touched with gleams


s: Some wings, perchance, of earth may glance


s: (_On many recent novels by the conventional unconventionalists_.)


s: Old Pantaloon, lean-witted, dour and rich,


s: After grim years of soul-destroying greed,


s: Weds Columbine, that April-blooded witch


s: "Too young" to know that gold was not her need.


s: Then enters Pierrot, young, rebellious, warm,


s: With well-lined purse, to teach the fine-souled wife


s: That the old fool's gold should aid a world-reform


s: (Confused with sex). This wrecks the old fool's life.


s: O, there's no doubt that Pierrot was clever,


s: Quick to break hearts and quench the dying flame;


s: But why, for his own pride, does Pierrot never


s: Choose his own mate, work for his own high aim,


s: Stand on his feet, and pay for his own tune?


s: Why scold, cheat, rob and kill poor Pantaloon?


s: Waiting for light, for music and for song.


s: And beautiful; but, in that modish throng,


s: None heeded her. They said, "In our first youth


s: Surely, long since, your hair was touched with grey."


s: "I do not change," she answered. "I am Truth."


s: "Old and banal," they sneered, and turned away.


s: Then came a formless thing, with breasts dyed scarlet.


s: The roses in her hair were green and blue.


s: Then with the eyes and gesture of a harlot


s: She led them all forth, whinneying, "New, how new!


s: With half the force and thought you waste in rage


s: Over your neighbor's house, or heart of stone,


s: You might have built your own new heritage,


s: O fools, have you no hands, then, of your own?


s: Where is your pride? Is this your answer still,


s: This the red flag that burns above our strife,


s: This the new cry that rings from Pisgah hill,


s: "_Our neighbor's money, or our neighbor's life_"?


s: Be prouder. Let us build that nobler state


s: With our own hands, with our own muscle and brain!


s: Your very victories die in hymns of hate;


s: And your own envies are your heaviest chain.


s: "We'll stand on our own feet, and win the day"?


s: Beware, in this dark masque of things that seem,


s: Which you discern in this our mortal strife,


s: Trick you and trap you, also, with a dream.


s: The city streets, passing a boisterous throng


s: That never ceased to laugh and shout and dance:


s: For all the poison bitter minds might brew


s: That the stern Truth would not permit her glance


s: Thus to be foiled by flying straws of chance,


s: For her keen eyes on deeper skies are set,


s: She saw the dead man's life, from birth to death,--


s: All that he knew of love and sin and pain,


s: Success and failure (not as this world sees),


s: His doubts, his passions, inner loss and gain,


s: And borne on darker tides of constant law


s: All that had left his body with the breath.


s: These things, to her, were still realities.


s: His clay were colder, or his God less true,


s: Or that his grave, at length, would be less green.


s: Nor would she assume he lacked that unseen friend


s: Were better than the seen, in his last end.


s: You mock yourselves anew with shapes of air,


s: Lest it be you, lip-worshippers of Truth,


s: With shadows, and forget your own pure light;


s: Lest it be you who, with a little shroud


s: Snatched from the sightless faces of the dead,


s: Hoodwink the world, and keep the mourner bowed


s: In dust, real dust, with stones, real stones, for bread;


s: Lest, as you look one eighth of an inch beneath


s: You dream yourselves discoverers of the skull


s: Through this dissolving stuff of hill and cloud;


s: Lest it be you who darken heart and mind,


s: Sell the strong soul in bondage to a dream,


s: And fetter us once more to things that seem.


s: "intellectual" who attacked one of the noblest poets and greatest


s: those who are too busy to read carefully or understand fully what


s: If this were true, England indeed were dead.


s: If the wild fashion of that poisonous hour


s: Wherein the new Salome, clothed with power,


s: Wriggled and hissed, with hands and feet so red,


s: Should even now demand that glorious head,


s: Whose every word was like an English flower,


s: Whose every song an English April shower,


s: Whose every thought immortal wine and bread;


s: If this were true, if England should prefer


s: Darkness, corruption, and the adulterous crew,


s: Shakespeare and Browning would cry shame on her,


s: And those who died in Flanders yesterday


s: Would thank their God they sleep in cleaner clay.


s: It is not true. Only these "rebel" wings,


s: These glittering clouds of "intellectual" flies


s: Out of the stagnant pools of midnight rise


s: From the old dead creeds, with carrion-poisoned stings


s: They strike at noble and ignoble things,


s: Immortal Love with the old world's out-worn lies,


s: Dissolves in smoke their coteries and wings.


s: See, their divorced idealist re-divorces


s: The wife he stole from his own stealing friend!


s: And _these_ would pluck the high stars from their courses,


s: And mock the fools that praise them, till the end!


s: Well, let the whole world praise them. Truth can wait


s: Till our new England shall unlock the gate.


s: Yes. Let the fools go paint themselves with woad,


s: For we've a jest between us, Truth and I.


s: We know that those who live by fashion die


s: Also by fashion, and that mode kills mode.


s: We know the great new age is on the road,


s: But we've a jest between us, Truth and I.


s: And we have locked the doors to our abode.


s: Yet if some great new "rebel" in his pride


s: Should pass that way and hear us laughing low


s: Like lovers, in the darkness, side by side,


s: He might catch this:--"The dullards do not know


s: That names are names. New 'rebel' is old 'thrall.'"


s: And we're the lonely dreamers after all.


s: How few are they that voyage through the night


s: For that strange light beyond our light,


s: And they who, seeking beauty, once descry


s: Thenceforth like changelings from the sky


s: From those foul trenches, black with blood,


s: And loveliness over the wounded earth awakes


s: They rise like flowers, they wander on wings of light,


s: The deep black forests have covered them.


s: How should I thread these tangled mazes,


s: I stumble round the thickets, and they turn me


s: Yet, sometimes, at a word, an elfin pass-word,


s: (O, thin, deep, sweet with beaded rain!)


s: There shines, through a mist of ragged-robins,


s: That leads me from myself; for, at a whisper,


s: At a breath, if my heart help another heart,


s: A thin thread, a rambling lane for lovers


s: Where the white dropping flakes may wet our faces


s: As we lift them to the bloom-bowed spray:


s: O Master, shall we ask Thee, then, for high-roads,


s: That Thou wilt ever lose us in Thy little lanes,


s: Too clear for speech, too near for seeing;


s: The Eternal takes his earth-bound child.


s: Beat with thy rhythm in blood and breath,


s: There is one road, one only, to the Light:


s: A narrow way, but Freedom walks therein;


s: A straight, firm road through Chaos and old Night,


s: And all these wandering Jack-o-Lents of Sin.


s: It is the road of Law, where Pilate stays


s: To hear, at last, the answer to his cry;


s: And mighty sages, groping through their maze


s: _Truth? What is Truth?_ Come, look upon my tables.


s: _Twice one is two!_ Though all the rest be fables,


s: Here's one poor glimpse of Truth to keep you sane.


s: For Truth, at first, is clean accord with fact,


s: Whether in line or thought, or word, or act.


s: Then, by those first, those clean, precise, accords,


s: Build to the Lord your temples and your song;


s: The curves of beauty, music's wedded chords


s: Resolving into heaven all hate and wrong.


s: Let harmonies of colour marry and follow


s: And breaking waves in a rhythmic dance ensue;


s: And all your thought fly free as the wings of the swallow,


s: Whose arrowy curves obey their measure, too.


s: Then shall the marching stars and tides befriend you,


s: And your own heart, and the world's heart, pulse in rhyme;


s: Then shall the mob of the passions that would rend you


s: Crown you their Captain and march on in time.


s: So shall you repossess your struggling soul,


s: Conquer your world, and find the eternal goal.


s: "_And that a reply be received before midnight._"


s: Where the Admiral stands there's a star,


s: His strength is the strength of the skies,


s: He shall raise the weak to the spheres._


s: And the skulls that his cubs have stripped bare,


s: The old skulls they still toss in their play.


s: And the last light dies from their path;


s: From the East to the West he is crouching.


s: It is night, black night, where he lies;


s: Black-veiled, black-gowned, she rides in bus and train,


s: With eyes that fill too listlessly for tears.


s: Her waxen hands clasp and unclasp again.


s: _Good News_, they cry. She neither sees nor hears.


s: Good News, perhaps, may crown some far-off king.


s: Good News may peal the glory of the state--


s: Good News may cause the courts of heaven to ring.


s: For her dull ears are tuned to other themes;


s: She glides--a ghost--through all her April dreams,


s: To meet his eyes at dawn, his lips at night.


s: Wraiths of a truth that others never knew;


s: And yet--for her--the only truth that's true.


s: _Good News! Good News!_ There is no way but this.


s: I know not where my soul's deep Master is;


s: Nor can I hear those angels in the skies;


s: Nor follow him, as childhood used of old,


s: By radiant seas, in those time-hallowed tales.


s: From this blind gloom, stand out the iron nails.


s: Yet, at this world's heart stands the Eternal Cross,


s: The ultimate frame of moon and star and sun,


s: Where Love with out-stretched arms, in utter loss,


s: Points East and West and makes the whole world one.


s: _Good News! Good News!_ There is no hope, no way,


s: No truth, no life, but leads through Christmas Day.


s: Then the gods told the blue-robed bonze:


s: Or you shall shake the heavens in vain._"


s: Men brought the wealth that no man missed.


s: Yea, they brought silver, they brought gold,


s: And melted them into the seething mould.


s: It jarred the stars with its harsh tongue.


s: Then they poured wine, and bullock's blood,


s: But a white-robed woman, queenly and tall,


s: One breast, like a golden fruit lay bare;


s: She plucked him off, she lifted him high,


s: She pressed her lips to the budded feet,


s: And murmured softly, "_Oh, sweet, my sweet._"


s: She whispered, "_Gods, that my land may live,


s: Before one cry from their white lips broke,


s: Her child, her baby, her flesh and blood.


s: And the crisp hissing waves closed round


s: "_Too quick for pain_," they heard her say,


s: And she sobbed, once, and she turned away.


s: _Mother, Oh, mother, the Bell rings true!--


s: You were all that I had!--Oh, mother, my mother!--


s: With the land and the Bell it is well. Is it well,


s: Is it well with the heart that had you and none other?_


s: "Our cavalry have rescued Nazareth from the enemy whose supermen


s: described Christianity as a creed for slaves."


s: And the Power we mocked as wasted breath


s: The sunset lingered in the pale green West:


s: In rosy wastes the low soft evening star


s: Woke; while the last white sea-mew sought for rest;


s: And tawny sails came stealing o'er the bar.


s: But, in the hillside cottage, through the panes


s: The light streamed like a thin far trumpet-call,


s: And quickened, as with quivering battle-stains,


s: The printed ships that decked the parlour wall.


s: From oaken frames old admirals looked down:


s: They saw the lonely slumberer at their feet:


s: They saw the paper, headed _Talk from Town;


s: Our rusting trident, and our phantom fleet_:


s: And from a neighbouring tavern surged a song


s: With eyes unconquerably proud and strong,


s: But he, the slumberer in that glimmering room,


s: Saw distant waters glide and heave and gleam;


s: The pictures clustered slowly to a dream.


s: He saw how England, resting on her past,


s: Woke; for a whisper reached her heart at last,


s: And once again she raised her steel-clad head.


s: Her eyes were filled with sudden strange alarms;


s: She heard the westering waters change and chime;


s: She heard the distant tumult of her arms


s: Knowledge had made a deadlier pact with death,


s: Nor strength nor steel availed against that bond:


s: Slowly approached--and Britain held her breath--


s: The battle booming from the deeps beyond.


s: O, then what darkness rolled upon the wind,


s: Threatening the torch that Britain held on high?


s: Where all her navies, baffled, broken, blind,


s: Slunk backward, snarling in their agony!


s: _Who guards the gates of Freedom now?_ The cry


s: Stabbed heaven! _England, the shattered ramparts fall!_


s: Then, like a trumpet shivering through the sky


s: O, like white lightning rending the black pall


s: Of heaven, an answer pealed: _Her dead shall hear that call._


s: Then came a distant light of great waves breaking


s: That brought the sunset on each crumbling crest,


s: And mighty spirits rising from their rest;


s: Then ghostly clouds arose, with billowing breast,


s: White clouds that turned to sails upon their way,


s: Red clouds that burned like flags against the West,


s: Till even the conquering fleet in silence lay


s: Dazed with that strange old light, and night grew bright as day.


s: _We come to fight for Freedom!_ The great East


s: Heard, and was rent asunder like a veil.


s: Host upon host out of the night increased


s: Its towering clouds and crowded zones of sail:


s: _England, our England, canst thou faint or fail?


s: We come to fight for Freedom yet once more!_


s: This, this is ours at least! Count the great tale


s: Of all these dead that rise to guard thy shore


s: By right of the red life they never feared to pour.


s: _We come to fight for Freedom!_ On they came,


s: One cloud of beauty sweeping the wild sea;


s: And there, through all their thousands, flashed like flame


s: _Duty_, that deathless lantern of the free;


s: As through the phantom fleet the message ran;


s: And his tall frigate rushed before the stormy van.


s: Nelson, our Nelson, frail and maimed and blind,


s: Stretched out his dead cold face against the foe:


s: And England's Raleigh followed hard behind,


s: With all his eager fighting heart aglow;


s: Glad, glad for England's sake once more to know


s: The old joy of battle and contempt of pain;


s: Glad, glad to die, if England willed it so,


s: The traitor's and the coward's death again;


s: But hurl the world back now as once he hurled back Spain.


s: And there were all those others, Drake and Blake,


s: With deathless eyes aflame for England's sake,


s: As on their ancient decks they proudly stood,--


s: Decks washed of old with England's purplest blood;


s: And there, once more, each rushing oaken side


s: Bared its dark-throated, thirsty, gleaming brood


s: Of cannon, watched by laughing lads who died


s: Long, long ago for England and her ancient pride.


s: _We come to fight for England!_ The great sea


s: Ship after phantom ship, with guns a-rake


s: And shot-rent flags a-stream from every mast


s: Moved in a deepening splendour, not to make


s: A shield for England of her own dead past;


s: But, with a living dream to arm her soul at last.


s: _We come to die for England_: through the hush


s: Of gathered nations rose that regal cry,


s: From naked oaken walls one word could crush


s: If those vast armoured throats dared to reply:


s: Felt his eyes fill with gladder, prouder tears,


s: To some diviner goal above the waste of years.


s: Through the hushed fleets the vision streamed away,


s: Then slowly turned once more to that deep West,


s: While voices cried, O, England, the new day


s: Is dawning, but thy soul can take no rest.


s: Thy freedom and thy peace are only thine


s: Peace is not slumber. Peace, in every hour,


s: Throbs like the heart of music. This alone


s: Can save thy heritage and confirm that power


s: Whereof the past is but the cushioned throne.


s: Hear us who storm thy heart with this one cry.


s: Hear us, who cannot help, though fair and fain,


s: To hold thy seas before thee, and to die.


s: Look to the fleet! Thy fleet, the first, last line:


s: The sword of Liberty, her strength, her shield,


s: Her food, her life-blood! Britain, it is thine,


s: Here, now, to hold that birth-right, or to yield.


s: So, through the dark, those phantom ships of old


s: Faded, it seemed, through mists of blood and tears.


s: Sails turned to clouds, and slowly westward rolled


s: On tides of light, where all our tumults cease,