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iaAHD'SESNFORD-JVOTOR°VH3VERSnY
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THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
GEORGE MEREDITH
WITH SOME NOTES BY G. M. TREVELYAN
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912
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PubUBbed October, 1912
270534
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PREFACE
b now of the publication of this complete edition of Mnedith'a poHial watke in one volume, I have t>een saked to add to it a few wjlm, m the first instance to explain mythological and historical aBn.'^iijiui, not equally familiar to all readera ; and in the second place, to e^lain the BUbject-mat4«r of particular poems and passages. The Doles He purely eqilanatAry, and in no sense critical or ^>preciative. It is hc^ied that their seclusion at the end of the volu iie will render Ibem inofienaive to those who have no use for them. In preparing Ihoe notes I have had the advantage of possessinK records and manories of cODveisationa in former yean with the poet himself, both 00 the subject of the general ideas expressed in his poems, and on the weuaag and purport of particular passages.
1 have been assisted in no small degree by the suggestions of Miss Udian Stawell, who, though she is not reeponsible for the short- eomings of these 'notes, has much increased any value they may powcBB. I have also received most useful si^gestions or criticisms from Mr. J. C. Bailey, Mr. C. P. Sanger, Mr. O. F. Dowson, ProfesKir Adolpbus Jack, and others.
The test is that of the Memorial Editidn, except for the correction of ■ few obvious mi^mnts, and for two or three substantial emaidatkMis, in making which I had the concurrence of the Editor of the text of the Memorial Edition. The order is generally the ■smeasthatofUie Memorial Edition, but I have made a few changes. In particular, I have collected under the heading 'Poems on K«tiona] Affairs' a number of poems which seemed lo gain in interest bom juxtaposition. The poems which I have called 'Early Poems' woe most of them written in or about 1849, when the poet was twcsiy-one years ct age.
G. M. TREVELYAN
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CONTENTS
{The iol€i inHcaU (Ac year of flrit puUlcoJfoR, <n book or in prrlodlcat) EARLY POEMS
CHILLIANWAI.I.AH 1849 1
BE4DTT RoHTRAtW 1850 2
The Outx Bunch 1851 3
SoNO 1851 e
Love within the lover's breast
The Wiu) Rose Aim tee Snowdrop 1851 7
The Death of Winteh 1851 8
SoNfl 1851 9
The moon ia alone in the sky
John Lackland 1851 10
The SLEEPiNa Cnr 1851 10
The Poetbt of CoAncER 1851 14
The Poetbt of Spenser 1851 14
The Poetrt of Seaxespearb 1851 14
The Poetbt of Milton 1851 16
The Pobtbt of Southet , . 185 1 15
The Poetry op Cousridoe ... 1851 15
The Poetrt of Sbbllet 1851 15
The Poetrt of Wordsworth 1851 16
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vi CO>fTENTS
Tbb Poetht op Keats 1851
Violets 1851
Anoslic Love 1851
TwiuoHT Music 1851
ItxQiiiEif 1851
The Fu>web of the Ruins 1851
The Rape op Acho&a 1851
■I Socth-Wkst Wind in the Woodland 1851
Will o' the Wibp 1851
SoNQ 1851
Fair and false !
SoNo 1851
Two wedded Wera watched Uie rismg mooD,
SoNQ 1851
I cannot lose thae for a day,
■ Daphne 1851
SoNfl , 1851
Should thy love die ;
LoiiDON BY Lampuoht 1851
SoNo 1851
Under boughs of breathing May,
Pabtorals 1851
' To A Sktubk 1851
Song (Sprino) 1851
SoNQ {Autumn) 1851
SoBBOWB Ain> Jots 1850
Bono i8si
The Flower unfolds its dawning cup,
SoNo 1851
Thou to me art such a spring
Antioone 1851
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CONTENTS
Swathed Eoond in Mibt 1851
SoNQ 1851
No, no, the falling bkwaom is no sign
' Tbc Two Bi^ckbibds 1850
JuLT 1851
Song 1851
I would I were the drop of TAin
SoNQ iSst
Come to me in any shape I
The Shifwreck of Idoueneds .... 1851
The Longest Dat 1851
To Robin Redbbeabt 1851
SoNQ 1851
The daisy now ia out upon the great ;
SnNBiSE ......... 1851
PicnmES OF THE RaiNG 1851
' To 1 NraHTiNOALE iSst
To Alkx. Surra, the 'Glasgow Poet' . . . 1851
The Doe: A Fragment 1861
(From ' Wandering Willie,' an unfiniahed early poem)
Intitation to the Countrt 1851
The Swttrt o' the Year 1853
AUTUIDI EVXN-BONO i8sQ
The Song of Courtesy 1859
The Three Maidens 1859
Over the Hillb ...... 1859
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CONTENTS
IniBHAi. Habuont
GUCE AND Lovs
' 1^ Spibtt of Shakebpeabe .
' Thi Sfibtt op Shakbbpeabe (amfinued) .
ApPttBCIATION
Tbb OacmjKK or Wibdou
The State of Agb
/ The Wobld'b Advance .... The Garden of Epicimua A Later Alexandbian .... An Obson of the Mube .... The Point of Taote ....
Cajiblto Sautat
Camzldb Saltat (eanlinued)
Mt TantE
Mr Tbeub (continued)
To Chudben : fob Tibants .
POEMS AND LYRICB OF THE JOY OF EARTH
'ijHB WooDB OF WebtermaiiT;: A Ballad of Pabt Meridian
jDaijohtkr of Hades V ' Tbb Lark Abcendj ' Pboebub with Aduetus
' Mdampcs
' Love in the Vallet '' ^ ■ f- ' "^ Tbb Thbbb SmaEBs to Young Blood Tbe Orcbabd and the Heath
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A Ballad op Paib Ladies im Revolt
BALLADS AND POEMS OF TRAGIC LIFE
The Two Mabks 1887
Ahchducbess Anne
The Sonq of Theodolinda 1873
A Pbeachinq trou a Spanish Ballad .
■ The Youno Princess
Kino Hahald'b Trance
Whimper or Stupatht
YoDNo Retnard
Manpebd
Hernani
The NnPTiALB op Attila 187Q
Men and Man 1887
The Last Contention 1887
Periander
Belleropbon Phaxthon ,
A READING OF EARTH Seed-Tihe
* Hard Weather ... The Sodtb-Wester .
I NiOHT OP Fkoot in Mat .
^ The Thrush in February
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CONTENTS
The Appxasemeht of Demeteb Eabtb and a Wedded Woman
MotBKB TO Babk
Woodland E*iack
The Qubtion Whithcr
' OnTBB AMD InNSK
•- NiiTTKE AND Life
^ DiBCTgtJyooDa
,/lii THE Woods .<
fXyXTta UN Tmu.
Change in Recurrence
yHiMN TO CoLoim~~^
> Meditation under Stabs ....
> Woodman and Echo
The Wibdoh of Eld
EiSTB'S pBErZKBNCE
Winter Heavknb
A Stave of Rovinq Tm
Jtntp-oo^LORT Jane
Teh Riddle fob Men
The Saoe Enamoured and the Honest Ladt Fraqmentb —
Love is wiDged for two, ....
Ask, is Love divine,
Joy is fleet,
The Lebbon or Grief
WncD ON THE LntE
The Youthful Quest
:888 341 :870 341 873*^ 342",
889 372
890 3S0
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CONTENTS
Ope to thk Comic Spumt 189a
CQoK TO Yot^ IN Mem^^ iSgj
Pknetbatiom and Trcst j 1891 409
The TSACHiNa of the INDDB iSga 410
Bkeatb of tbe Bbiar iSga 411
Emfedoclbb 1S92 411
Tardt Sprino 1891 412
FOHEBtOHT AMD PaTIENCS VI894 413
POEMS ON NATIONAL AFFAIRS
To J. M 1867 421
Lings to a Pbibnd Visitino America . . 1867 421
Aneohin'o Harp 1868 428
A Certain Prople 1883 432
pROORB»a 1883 433
On the Danobr op War 1885 433
To Cardinal Manning 1886 434
To Cou>NEL Cbarles 1887 434
Knqland Before the Storm 1891 436
The Larooreh 1893 437
* The Kmptt Purse 1891 438
The Warning 1896 45fl
(HiTiiiDE THE Crowd 1896 458
Thafaloah Day 1896 457
At the Close 1899 458
'Atkins' 1901 459
TriE VoVAOE OF THE 'Ophir' 1901 459
OiTtmSR 21 1905 460
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CONTENTS |
xiii |
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TEjUI |
FAOB |
||
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1l t A cetn AN8 |
. 1908 |
463 |
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MtLTON |
. 1008 |
46ii |
ODES IN CONTRIBUTION TO THE SONG OF FRENCH HISTORY
Thb Revolution 1898 468
NiPOLBOM 1898 477
Frakce. Deckmbbb 1870 1871 407
Albacb-Lobeains 1898 505
The CAOBtNO or Abes 1899 620
The Niqbt-Walk 1899 524
A Gabdem Idtl 1900 528
A READING OF LIFE
Tbe ViTAi. Choice 1901
With the Hitntbess 1901
r With the Perboader 1901
•. The Test or Masbood 1901
^The Huelesb Love 1901
*^Uniom n* DiaaEVSRANCE igoi
Sana IN THE SONQLEBS I9OO
ToB Borden of SmENCrTH 1901
The Maim REORFr igoi
Altebhation .... ... igoi
PouBT HurroRT . 1808
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FRAGMENTS OF THE ILIAD IN ENGLISH HEXAMETER VERSE
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I89I I89I |
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Marbhalung op the Achaianb |
555 |
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1891 |
55n |
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I89I |
558 |
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Clash in Arms of thb Achaians ai |
JD Tbojanb |
1891 |
559 |
|
- - - |
1896 |
559 |
1909 1908
he DJght, outworn,
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On the Tombstoke of James Chbibtopher Wiuon
GoRDOK OP Khabtouu
J. C. M
The Emperor Frederick op ode Time .
'Iblet' the Dachb
On Hearino the Newb prom Venice
Hawarden
At the Fdnehal
Angela BDRDEn^O)Ir^s
The Yeab'b Sheddinob
YocTH IN AoB 1908 S72
APPENDIX
i Love in th» Vau^t
{Firet version from 'PoemB,' 1851) Poems selected prom the Novelb—
Song of Ruark to Bhonavor the Beautiful ■ The Teaching of the Blows of Fortune From the Opera of Camilla Vittoria's Dying Song in the Opera .
Irdbx op First Lines ....
i8s6 1856
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NOTE An asterisk after the title of a poem indicat«fl that there is a note on it at the end of the book, fha Tints «thnr nfarFJQg fo the poem as a whole,
laasage indicated in the text
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p 0 tr-Ri s
CHILLIANW3ii.iAH •
CmujANWALLAB, Ctullian!^allkh I
Where our brothers fought-^Od bledi O thy name is natural music "'1^*'.
And a dirge above the dead t : ..'•_ Though we have not been defeated,'- ■ '
lliough we can't be overcome, Stilt, whene'er thou art repeated, '■■ ,•''.
I would fain that grief were dumb. '•**
Chillianwallah, ChilUanwallah I
lis a name so sad and strange, Like a breeze through midnight harpstringa
Rin^g many a nioumf ul change ; But the wildness and the sorrow
Have a meaning of their own — Oh, whereof no glad to-morrow
Can relieve the dismal tone I
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah I
'Tis a village dark and low, By the bloody Jhelum river
Bridged by the foreboding foe ; And across the wintry water
He is ready to retreat. When the carnage and the slaughter
Shall have pud for Ms defeat.
Chillianwallah, Chilliaawallah I
'Tis a wild and dreary plain. Strewn with plots of thickest jungle.
Matted with the gory stain. There the murder-mouthed artillery.
In the deadly ambuscade. Wrought the thunder of its treachery
On the skeleton brigade.
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EARLY POEMS
ChiUianwallah, Chillian wallah 1
When the night set in with rain. Came the savagp plundering devils
To their wort qmong the slain ; And the wounded and the dj-ing
In cold^^pod did share the doom Of their ci^i^es round them lying,
StifF.i^ Aie dead skyless gloom.
Chitfiaft wallah, ChiUianwallah ! . •'. ^•iTiou wilt be a doleful chord, ■/am a mystic note of mourning
That will need no chiming word ; ;. And that heart will leap with anguish Who may understand thee best; But the hopes of all will languish Till thy memory is at rest.
BEAUTY ROHTRAUT
CTBANSLATION FROM THE OBBMAN OF MORICKE)
What is the name of King Ringang's daughter?
RohtrBut, Beauty Rohtraut I And what does she do the livelong day, Since she dare not knit and spin alway? O hunting and fishing is ever her play 1 And, heigh I that her huntsman I might be I I'd hunt and fish right merrily 1 Be silent, heart !
And it chanced that, after this some time, —
Tln.htTut,t Rnnnty RohtraUt,—
e has gained access,
ot and a huntsman's dress,
cith the merry Princess;
t son I might be t
ive so tenderly,
! my heart.
they sat, Rohtraut I
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BEAUTY ROHTRAUT
She laughs: 'Why look you so slyly at me? If you have heart enough, come, luss me.* Cried the breathless boy, ' kiss thee ? ' But he thinks, kind fortune has favoured my youth; And thrice he has kissed Beauty Rohtraut's mouth. Down 1 down I mad heart.
Then slowly and silently they rode home, —
Rohtraut, Beauty Rohtraut ! The boy was lost in his delight: ' And, wert thou Empress this very mght, I would not heed or feel the blight ; Ye thousand leaves of the wild wood wist How Beauty Rohtraut's mouth I kiss'd. Hush I hush ! wild heart.'
THE OLIVE BRANCH
A DOVE flew with an Olive Branch ; It crossed the sea and reached the shore, And on a ship about to launch Dropped down the happy sign it bore.
'An omen' rang the glad acclaim ! The Captain stooped and picked it up, ' Be then the Olive Branch her name,' Cried she who flung the christening cup.
The vessel took the laughing tides ; It was a joyous revelry To see her dashing from her sides The rough, salt kisses of the sea.
And forth into the bursting foam She spread her sail and sp>ed away, The rolling surge her restless home, Her incense wreaths the showering spray.
Far out, and where the riot waves Run mingling in tumultuous throngs. She danced above a thousand graves. And heard a thousand briny songs.
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Chillianwal'
When Came the -
Totii And the v
In 01 Of their '
Stii- Chilinr . ■">*
What :
I! Audi. Since Ohii And
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THE OLIVE BRANCH
Come, read the meaning of the deep I llie use of winda and waters ieam ! Tis not to make the mother weep For sons that never will return ;
"lis not to make the nations show Contempt for all whom seas divide ; Tis not to pamper war and woe, Nor feed triwlitionary pride ;
*T1s not to make the floating hulk Mask death upon its slippery deck, Itself in turn a shattered hulk, A ghastly raft, a bleeding wreck.
It is to knit with loving lip The interests of land to land ; To join in far-seen fellowship The tropic and the polar strand.
It b to make that foaming Strength Whose rebel forces wrestle still Thro' all his boundaried breadth and length Become a vassal to our will.
It is to make the various skies. And all the various fruits they vaunt. And all the dowers of earth we prize. Subservient to our household want.
And more, for knowledge crowns the gain Of intercourse with other souls, And Wisdom travels not in vain llie plungmg spaces of the poles.
The wild AUantic's weltering gloom, Earth-clasping seas of North and South, The Baltic with its amber spume. The Caspian with its frozen mouth ;
The broad PaciGc, basking bright, And girdling lands of lustrous growth. Vast continents and isles of light. Dumb tracts of undiscovered sloth ;
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EARLY POEMS
She visits these, traver^Qg each ; They ripen to the common sun ; Thro' diverse forms and different speech. The world's humanity is one.
O may her voice have power to say How soon the wrecking discords cease. When every wandering wave is gay With golden argosies of peace !
Now when the ark of human fate, Long baffled by the wayward wind. Is drifting with its peopled freight. Safe haven on the heights to find ;
Safe haven from the drowning slime Of evil deeds and Deluge wrath ; — To plant again the foot of Time Upon a purer, firmer path ;
'Tis now the hour to probe the ground, To watch the Heavens, to speak the word, The fathoms of the deep to sound, And send abroad the missioned bird.
On strengthened wing for evermore. Let Science, swiftly as she can. Fly seaward on from shore to shore. And bind the links of man to man ;
And like that fair propitious Dove Bless future fleets about to launch ; Make every freight a freight of love. And every ship an Olive Branch.
SONG ' 'n the lover's breast Hesper in the west, [les of the sun, r and night are done ; dawn drives up her cai^ ,e morning star.
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THE WILD ROSE AND THE SNOWDROP
Love ! thy love pours down on mine As the sunlight on the vine, As the snow-rill on the vale, As the salt breeze in the sail ; As the song unto the bird. On my lips thy name is heard.
As a dewdrop on the rose In thy heart my passion glows. As a skylark to the sky Up into thy breast I fly ; As a sea-shell of the sea Ever shall I sing of thee.
THE WILD ROSE AND THE SNOWDROP
The Snowdrop is the prophet of the flowers ;
It lives and dies upon its hed of snows ;
And like a thought of spring it comes and goes,
Hanging its head beside our leafless bowers.
The sun's betrothing kiss it never knows,
Nor all the glowing joy of golden showers ;
But ever in a placid, pure repose,
More like a spirit with its look serene.
Droops its paJe cheek veined thro' with infant green.
Queen of her sistsrs is the sweet Wild Rose, Sprung from the earnest sun and ripe young June ; TTie year's own darUng and the Summer's Queen ! Lustrous as the new-throned crescent moon. Much of that early prophet look she shows. Mixed with her fair espoused blush which glows, As if the ethereal fairy blood were seen ; Like a soft evening over sunset snows. Half twilight violet shade, half crimson sheen.
Twin-bom are both in beauteousness, most fair In all that glads the eye and charms the air ; In all that wakes emotions in the mind And sows sweet sympathies for human kind.
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She' Tb...v
Wli.i Will,
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(
THE DEATH OF WINTER
As lightly she loosens her showery locks And flutters her rainy wings ; IjLUghingly stoops
To the glass of the stream. And loosens and loops
Her hair by the gleam. While all the young villagers blithe as the flocks
Go frolicking round in rings ; — Then Winter, he who tamed the fiy. Turns on his back and prepares to die, For he cannot live longer under the sky.
Down the valleys glittering green, Down from the hills in snowy rills, He melts between the border sheen
And leaps the flowery vei^;ea ! He cannot choose but brighten their hues, And tho' he would creep, he fain must leap,
For the quick Spring spirit urges. Down the vale and down the dale He leaps and lights, tUI his moments fail. Buried in blossoms red and pale.
While the sweet birds sing his dirges !
O Winter 1 I'd live that life of thine. With a frosty brow and an icicle tongue, And never a song my whole life long, — Were such delicious burial mine ! To die and be buried, and so remain A wandering brook in April's train. Fixing my dying eyes for aye On the dawning brows of maiden May.
SONG
The moon b alone in the sky
As thou in my soul ; The sea takes her image to lie Where the white ripples roll All night in a dream. With the light of her beam.
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EARLY POEMS
Huahedly, mournfully, mbtily up to the shore.
The pebbles speak low
In the ebb and the flow, Aa I when thy voice came at intervals, tuned to adore :
Nought other stirred
Save my heart all unheard Beating to bliss that is past evermore.
JOHN LACKLAND
A WICKED man is bad enough on earth ; But O the baleful lustre of a chief Once pledged in tyranny I 0 star of dearth Darkly illumining a nation's grief I How many men have worn thee on their brows I Alas for them and us I God's precious gift Of gracious dispensation got by theft — The damning form of false unholy vows ! The thief of God and man must have his fee : And thou, John Lackland, despicable prince — Basest of England's banes before or since I Thrice traitor, coward, thief ! 0 thou shalt be The historic warning, trampled and adhorr'd Who dared to steal and stain the symbols of the Lord !
THE SLEEPING CITY
A PRINCEBS in the eastern tale Paced thro' a marble city pale. And saw in ghastly shapes of stone The sculptured life she breathed alone ;
Saw, where'er her eye might range. Herself the only child of change ; And heard her echoed footfall chime Between Oblivion and Time ;
And in the squares where fountains played. And up the spiral balustrade. Along the drowsy corridors. Even to the inmost sleeping floors,
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EARLY POEMS
The ever-preseot of the past There written ; all that lightened last. Love, anguish, hope, disease, despair, Beauty and rage, all written there ; —
Enchanted Passions I whose pale doom la never flushed by blight or bloom. But sentinelled by silent orbs, Whose light the pallid scene absorbs. —
Like such a one I pace along This City with its sleeping throng ; Like her with dread and awe, that turns To rapture, and sublimely yearns ; —
For now the quiet stars look down
On lighta as quiet aa their own ;
The streets that groaned with traffic show
As if with silence paved below ;
The latest revellers are at peace, The signs of in-door tumult cease. From gay saloon and low resort. Comes not one murmur or report :
The clattering chariot rolls not by. The windows show no waking eye. The houses smoke not, and the air Is clear, and all the midnight fair.
The centre of the striving world, Round which the human fate is curled. To which the future crieth wild, — Is pillowed like a cradled child.
The palace roof that guards a crown. The mansion swathed in dreamy down. Hovel, court, and alley-shed. Sleep in the calmness of the dead.
Now while the many-motived heart Lies hushed — fireside and busy mart, And mortal pulses beat the tune That charms the calm cold ear o' the moon
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THE SLEEPING CITY
Whose yellowing crescent down the West Leans listening, now when every breast Its basest or its purest heaves. The sou! that joys, the soul that grieves ;—
While Fame is crowning happy brows ThtLt day will blindly scorn, while vows Of anguished love, long hidden, speak From faltering tongue and flushing cheek
The language only known to dreams. Rich eloquence of rosy themes I While on the Beauty's folded mouth Disdain just wrinkles baby youth ;
While Poverty dispenses alms To outcasts, bread, and healing balms ; While old Mammon knows himself The greater beggar for hb pelf ;
While noble things in darkness grope. The Statesman's aim, the Poet's hope ; The Patriot's impulse gathers fire. And germs of future fruits aspire ; —
Now while dumb nature owns its links, And from one common fountain drinks, Methinks in all around 1 see This Picture in Eternity ; —
A marbled City planted there With all its pageants and despair; A peopled hush, a Death not dead, But stricken with Medusa's head , —
And in the Gorgon's glance for aye The lifeless immortality Beveab in sculptured calmness all Its latest life beyond recall.
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EARLY POEMS
THE POETRY OF CHAUCER
Gbey with all honours of age ! but fresh-featured and
ruddy As dawn when the drowsy farm-yard has thrice heard
Chaunticlere. Tender to tearfulness — childlike, and manly, and
motherly ; Here beats true English blood richest joyance on sweet
English ground.
THE POETRY OF SPENSER
Lakes where the sunsheen is mystic with splendour and
softness ; Vales where sweet life b all Summer with golden
romance ; Forests that glimmer with twilight round revel-bright
palaces; Here in our May-blood we wander, careering 'mongst ladies
and knights.
THE POETRY OF SHAECESPEARE
PiCTORE some Isle smiling green 'mid the white- foaming ocean ; —
Full of old woods, leafy wisdoms, and frolicsome fays;
Passions and pageants; sweet love sin^ng bird-like above it ; Life in all shapes, aims, and fates, is there warm'd by one great human heart.
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OF MILTON
1 organ whose grand inspira-
ice, lofty and calm, melody great aa !ts burthen □g for ever throughout the
3F SOUTHEY
flight towards the dim etn-
ver royally wends ! robes of the balm-breathing
nfolding the humanest truth.
F COLERIDGE
green leaves, self-delighting,
dy ever renewed — of Heaven, unceasing ii
lushed in the beams of the
OF SHELLEY whose glistening wingleta
the melodious dawn ?
ling distance of heaven it
are the treasures it brings
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EARLY POEMS
THE POETRY OF WORDSWORTH .
A BREATH of the mountains, fresh bom in the regions
majestic. That look with their eye-daring summits deep into the
sky. The voice of great Nature; suhlime with her lofty
conceptions. Yet earnest and ^mple as any sweet child of the green
lowly vale.
THE POETRY OF KEATS
The song of a nightingale sent thro' a slumhroua
valley. Low-lidded with twilight, and tranced with the
dolorous sound. Tranced with a tender enchantment; the yearning of
passion That wins immortality even while panting delirious with
death.
VIOLETS
Violets, shy violets 1
How many hearts with you compare I
Who hide themselves in thickest green. And thence, unseen. Ravish the enraptured air With sweetness, dewey fresh and rare I
Violets, shy violets !
Human hearts to me shall be "iewless violets in the grass, And as I pass, s and sweet imagery 'ait on mine and gladden me 1
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ANGELIC LOVE
Anqeuc love that stoops with heavenly lips
To meet its earthly mate; Heroic love that to its sphere's ech'pse
Can dare to join its fate With one beloved devoted human heart. And share with it the passion and the smart. The undying bliss Of its most fleeting kiss ; The fading grace Of its most sweet embrace : — Angelic love, heroic love 1 Whose birth can only be above, Whose wandering must be on earth. Whose haven where it first had birth I Love that can part with all but its own worth, And joy in every sacrifice That beautifies its Paradise! And gently, like a golden-fruited vine. With earnest tenderness itself consign. And creeping up deliriously entwine Its dear delicious arms
Round the beloved being I With fair unfolded charms.
All-trusting, and all-seeing, — GrapeJaden with full bunches of young wine 1 While to the panting heart's dry yearning drouth Buds the rich dewy mouth — Tenderly uplifted. Like two rose-leaves drifted Down in a long warm sigh of the sweet South ! Such love, such love is thine. Such heart is mine, 0 tbou of mortal visions most divine I
TWILIGHT MUSIC
Know you the low pervading breeze
That softly sings In the trembling leaves of twilight trees.
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EARLY POEMS
As if the wind were dreaming on its wings T And have you marked their still degrees Of ebbing melody, like the strings Of a silver harp swept by a spirit's hand In some atrange glimmering land, 'Mid gushing springs, And glistenings Of waters and of planets, wild and grand 1 And have you marked in that still time The chariots of those shining cars Brighten upon the hushing dark. And bent to hark That Voice, amid the poplar and the lime, Pause in the dilating lustre
Of the spheral cluster ; Pause but to renew its sweetness, deep As dreams of heaven to souls that sleep I And felt, despite earth's jarring wars, When day is done And dead the sun, Still a voice -divine can sing. Still is there sympathy can bring A whisper from the stars I Ah, with this sentience quickly will you know How like a tree I tremble to the tones Of your sweet voice ! How keenly I rejoice When in me with sweet motions slow The spiritual music ebbs and moans — Lives in the lustre of those heavenly eyes, Dies in the light of its own paradise, — Dies, and relives eternal from its death, ImmoriAl melodies in each deep breath ; Sweeps thro' my being, bearing up to thee Myself, the weight of its eternity ; Till, nerved to life from its ordeal fire. It marries music with the human lyre, Blending divine delight with loveliest desire.
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REQUIEM
Where faces are hueless, where eyelids are dewless. Where passion is silent and hearts never crave ;
Where thought hath no theme, and where sleep hath no dream. In patience and peace thou art gone — to thy grave !
Gone where no warning can wake thee to morning, Dead tho' a thousand hands stretch'd out to save.
Thou eam'st to us sighing, and singing and dying. How could it be otherwise, fair as thou wertf
Placidly fading, and sinking and shading
At last to that shadow, the latest desert ;
Wasting and waning, but still, still remaining.
Alas for the hand that could deal the death-hurt I
The Summer that brightens, the Winter that whitens. The world and its voices, the sea and the sky,
The bloom of creation, the tie of relation.
All — all is a blank to thine ear and thine eye ;
The ear may not listen, the eye may not glisten.
Nevermore waked by a smile or a sigh. *
The tree that is rootless must ever be fruitless ;
And thou art alone in thy death and thy birth ; No last loving token of wedded love broken,
No sign of thy singleness, sweetness and worth ; Lost as the flower tliat is drowned in the shower,
Fall'n like a snowflake to melt in the earth.
THE FLOWER OF THE RUINS*
Take thy lute and sing By the ruined caatle walls. Where the torrent-foam falls. And long weeds wave ;
Take thy lute and sing, O'er the grey ancestral grave I
Daughter of a King, Tune thy string.
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RLY POEMS
' happy hours, of rushing time ; echoes chime s gone by ; : passing hours ■-present sky ; — -and let the showers ake thy flowers.
■ glories gone : —
le blazoned fold
anner b unrolled ;
in is set.
is glory gone,
ice may charm him yet;
ter of the dawn,
e is gone I
[>rth all thy grief I y sweep the chords, quivering to thy words; I of wail I
hy withered grief — at Autumn to thy bale; Idy of the leaf !ust be brief I
p to the night :
or streaming tears
; calmness of the spheres ;
F shine;
p to their light ;
views thou may'st divine-
irophetic sight
xim their light !
! windy hills le harebell leans e-grass that it queens, it blue ;
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THE FLOWER OF THE RUINS
Trusting love instils Love and subject reverence true ; Learn what love instils On the hills 1
By the bare wayside Placid snowdrops hang their cheeks, Softly touch'd with pale green streaksi Soon, soon, to die;
On the clothed hedgeside Bands of rosy beauties vie.
In their prophecied Summer pride.
From the snowdrop learn ; Not in her pale life lives she. But in her blushing prophecy. Thus be thy hopes,
Living but to yearn Upwards to the hidden copes ; —
Even within the um X^t them burn I
Heroes of thy race — Warriors with golden crowns. Ghostly shapes with marbled frowns Stare thee to stone ;
Matrons of thy race Pass before thee making moan;
Full of solemn grace Is their pace.
Piteous their despair I Piteous their looks forlorn 1 Terrible their ghostly scorn 1 Still hold thou fast ;—
Heed not their despair ! — Thou art thy future, not thy past ;
Let them glance and glare Thro' the air.
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I
EARLY POEMS
Thou the ruin's bud, Be not that moist rich-smelling weed With its arraa-sembied brede. And ruin-hsunting stalk ;
Thou the ruin's bud, Be still the rose that lights the walk.
Mix thy fragrant blood With the flood I
THE RAPE OF AURORA
Never, 0 never,
Since dewy sweet Flora Was ravished by Zephyr,
Was such a thing heard
In the valleys so hollow I
Till rosy Aurora, Uprising as ever,
Bright Phosphor to follow. Pale Phoebe to sever.
Was caught like a bird
To the breast of Apollo I
Wildly she flutters.
And flushes all over With passionate mutters
(X shame to the hush
Of his amorous whispers :
But 0 such a lover Must win when he utters.
Thro' rosy red lispers. The pains that discover
The wbhes that gush
From the torohes of Hesperus,
One finger just touching
The (Went chamber, Unflooded the gushing
Of light that illumed
All her lustrous unveiling.
On clouds of glow amber.
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THE RAPE OF AURORA
Her limbs richly blushing.
She lay sweetly wailing, la odours that gloomed
On the God as he bloomed
O'er her loveliness paling.
Great Pan in his covert
Beheld the rare glistening, The cry of the love-hurt.
The sigh and the kiss
Of the latest close mingling :
But love, thought he, listening. Will not do a dove hurt,
I know, — and a tingling, Latent with bliss,
Prickt thro' him, I wis.
For the Nymph he was sin^ng.
SOUTH-WEST WIND IN THE WOODLAND*
The silence of preluded song — i^lian silence charms the woods ; Each tree a harp, whose foliaged strings Are waiting for the master's touch To sweep them into storms of joy, ' Stands mute and whispers not ; the biTds Brood dumb in their foreboding nests. Save here and there a chirp or tweet, That utters fear or anxious love. Or when the ouzel sends a swift Half warble, shrinking bock again His golden bill, or when aloud The storm-cock warns the dusking hilb And villages and valleys round : For lo, beneath those ragged clouds That skirt the opening west, a stream Of yellow light and windy Same Spreads lengthening southward, and the sky Begins to gloom, and o'er the ground A moan of coming blasts creeps low
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EARLY POEMS
And rustles in the crisping grass ;
Till suddenly with mighty arms
Outspread, that reach the horizon round,
The great South-West drives o'er the earth,
And loosens all his roaring robes
Behind him, over heath and moor.
He comes upon the neck of night.
Like one that leaps a fiery steed
Whose keen black haunches quivering shine
With eagerness and haste, that needs
No spur to make the dark leagues fly 1
Whose eyes are meteors of speed ;
Whose mane is as a flashing foam ;
Whose hoofs are travelling thunder-shocks ; —
He comes, and while his growing gusts,
Wild couriers of his reckless course.
Are whistling from the daggered gorse.
And hurrying over fern and broom,
Midway, far off, he feigns to halt
And gather m Us streaming train.
' Now, whirring like an eagle's wing Preparing for a wide blue flight ; Now, flapping like a sail that tacks And chides the wet bewildered mast; ' Now, screaming like an anguish'd thing Chased close by some down-breathing beak; Now, wailing like a breaking heart, "" ■ ■" ■ • " ■ ^jj_ ijyj hopes
self in vam ;
itorm-charged cloud ;
[land dove ;
id wrath
veeping ; now,
g down
g woods.
spens frail
bell, heir love,
and wake
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SOUTH-WEST WIND DJ THE WOODLAND 25
The aeighbouriog boughs, auirendering all
Their prophet harmony of leaves.
Had caught his earliest windward thought,
And told it trembling ; naked birk
Down showering her dishevelled hair.
And like a beauty yielding up
Her fate to all the elements.
Had swayed in answer ; hazels close.
Thick brambles and dark brushwood tufts.
And briared brakes that line the dells
With shaggy beetling brows, bad sung
' Shrill music, while the tattered flaws Tore over them, and now the whole Tumultuous concords, seized at once With savage inspiration, — pine. And larch, and beech, and fir, and thorn. And ash, and oak, and oakling, rave And shriek, and shout, and whirl, and toss. And stretch their arms, and split, and crack, And bend their steins, and bow tiieir heads. And grind, and groan, and lion-like Roar to the echo-[>eopled hills And ravenous wilds, and crake-like cry With harsh delight, and cave-like call With hollow mouth, and harp-like thrill With mighty melodies, sublime, From clumps of column 'd pines that wave A lofty anthem to the sky,
( Fit music for a prophet's soul — And like an ocean gathering power, And murmuring deep, while down below Reigns calm profound ; — not trembling now The aspens, but like freshening waves That fall upon a shingly beach ; — And round the oak a solemn roll Of organ harmony ascends. And in the upper foliage sounds A symphony of distant seas.
The voice of nature is abroad
This night ; she fills the air with balm ;
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EARLY POEMS
Her mystery b o'er the land ; And wbo tbat hears her now uid yields His being to her yearning tones, And seats his soul upon her wings. And broadens o'er the wind-swept world With her, will gather in the flight More knowledge of her secret, more
■ Delight in her beneficence, Than hours of musing, or the lore That lives with men could ever give I Nor will it pass away when mom Shall look upon the lulling leaves, And woodland sunshine, Eden-sweet, Dreams o'er the paths of peaceful shade r*
■■ For every elemental power Is kindred to our hearts, and once Acknowledged, wedded, once embraced. Once taken to the unfettered sense, Once daspt into the naked life. The union is eternal.
WILL 0' THE WISP
Follow me, follow me. Over brake and under tree, Thro' the bosky tannery.
Brushwood and bramble I Follow me, follow me.
Laugh and leap and scramble I FcJIow, follow. Hill and hollow.
■eds, KT heads.
I their camps, ramble!
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WILL 0' THE WISP S
0 1 what a mighty fog. What a merry night O ho I Follow, follow, nigher, nigher — Over bank, and pond, and briar, Down into the croaking ditches.
Rotten log.
Spotted frog.
Beetle bright
With crawling light, What a joy O ho 1 Deep into the purple bog — What a joy O ho 1 Where like hosts of puckered witches All the shivering agues sit Warming hands and chafing feet. By the blue marsh-hovering oils : 0 the fools for all their moans I Not a forest mad with fire Could still their teeth, or warm their bones. Or loose them from their chilly coib.
What a clatter.
How they chatter !
Shrink and huddle.
All a muddle I
What a joy O ho I Down we go, down we go. What a joy O ho ! Soon shall I be down below. Plunging with a grey fat friar, Hither, thither, to and fro. Breathing mists and whisking lamps. Plashing in the slimy swamps ; While my cousin Lantern Jack, With cock ears and cunning eyes, Turns him round upon his hack. Daubs him oozy green and black, Sits upon his rolling size. Where he lies, where he lies. Groaning full of sack — Staring with his great round eyes I What a joy Oho!
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EARLY POEMS
Sits upon him is the swamps Breathiag mists and whisking lamps I
What joy O ho ! Such a lad b Lantern Jack, When he rides the black nightmare Through the fens, and puts a glare In the friar's track. Such a frolic lad, good lack I To turn a friar on his back. Trip him, clip him, whip him, nip him. Lay him sprawling, smack I Such a lad b Lantern Jack I Such a tricksy lad, good lock I What a joy O ho I Follow me, follow me, Where he sits, and you shall see I
~ Etwn will greet y as of old ; :h thy feet le so cold ; ip to meet is nest i' the wheat wood and wold, 3gance of gold.
X know why,
e lonely air,
sssed sky,
my despair; —
leart and eye
■ spring quite dry ;
vea my thought may share,
1 and think — how fair I
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SONG
Two wedded lovers watched the rising moon,
That with her strange mysterious beauty glowing. Over misty bills and waters flowing, .
Crowned the long twilight loveliness of June : And thus in me, and thus in me, they spake, The solemn secret of first love did wake.
Above the biHa the blushing orb arose ;
Her shape encircled by a radiant bower.
In which the nightingale with charm&l power
Poured forth enchantment o'er the dark repose: And thus in me, and thus in me, they said, Earth's mists did with the sweet new spirit wed.
Far up the sky with ever purer beam.
Upon the throne of night the moon was seated. And down the valley glens the shades retreated.
And silver light was on the open stream.
And thus in me, and thus in me, they sighed. Aspiring Love has hallowed Fas^n's tide.
SONG
I CANNOT lose thee for a day.
But like a bird with restless wing My heart will find thee far away. And on thy bosom fall and sing.
My nest is here, my rest in here ; — And in the lull of wind and rain. Fresh voices make a sweet refrain,
' His rest is there, his nest is there.'
With thee the wind and sky are fair.
But parted, both are strange and dark ; And treacherous the quiet air
That holds me singing like a lark,
O shield my love, strong arm above 1 Till in the hush of wind and r^n. Fresh voices make a rich refrain,
'The arm above will shield thy love.'
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EARLY POEMS
DAPHNE *
Musing on the fate of Daphne, Many feelings urged my breast, Vot the God so keeo desiring, And the Nymph so deep distrest.
Never flashed thro' sylvan valley Visions so divinely fair 1 He with early ardour glowing, She with rosy anguish rare.
Only still more sweet and lovely For those terrors on her hrowa. Those swift glances wild and brilliant. Those delicious panting vows.
Timidly the timid shoulders Shrinking from the fervid hand I Dark the tide of hair back-flowing From the blue-veined temples bland I
Lovely, too, divine Apollo In the speed of his pursuit ; With his eye an azure lustre. And his voice a summer lute!
Looking like some burnished eagle Hovering o'er a fluttered bird ; Not unseen of silver Naiad, And of wistful Dryad heard I
Many a mom the naked beauty Saw her bright reflection drown In the flowing smooth-faced river. While the god came sheening down.
Down from Pindus bright Peneus Tells its muse-melodious source ; Sacred is its fountained birthplace, And the Orient floods its course.
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DAPHNE
Many a mom the sunny darling Saw the risiag chariot-rays. From the winding river-reaches, Mellowing in amber haze.
Thro' the 6aming mountain gorges Lo, the River leaps the plain ; Like a wild god>stridden courser. Tossing high its foamy mane.
Then he swims thro' lam'clled sunlight, Full of all sensations sweet. Misty with his morning incense. To the mirrored maiden's feet !
Wet and bright the dinting pebbles Shine where oft she paused and stood ; All her dreamy warmth revolving. While the chilly waters wooed.
Ljke to rosy-bom Aurora, Glowing freshly into view, When her doubtful foot she ventures On the first cold morning blue.
White as that Thessalian lily. Fairest Tempe's fairest flower, Ixt, the tall Penelan virgin Stands beneath her bathing bower.
There the laurell'd wreaths o'erarching Crown'd the dainty shuddering maid ; There the dark prophetic laurel Kiss'd her with its sister shade.
There the young green glistening leaflets Hush'd with love their breezy peal ; There the little opening flowerets Blush'd beneath her vermeil heel !
There among the conscious arbours Sounds of soft tumultuous wail, Mysteries of love, melodious. Came upon the lyric gale 1
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DAPHNE
Flowing in like tides attracted To the glowing crescent shine I Clasping her ambrosial whiteness like an Autumn-tinted vine I
Sinking low with love's emotion I levying with look and tone All love's rosy arts to mimic Cytherea's magic zone ! '
Trembling up with adoration To the crimson daisy tip Budding from the snowy bosom — Fainter than the rose-red lip I
Rising in a storm of wavelets. That for shelter, feigning fright, Prest to those twin-heaving havens, Harbour'd there beneath her light;
Gleaming in a whiri of eddies Round her lucid throat and neck ; Eddying in a gleam of dimples Up against her bloomy cheek ;
Bribing all the breezy water With rich warmth, the nymph to keep In a self-imprison 'd plaisance. Tempting her from deep to deep.
TUl at last delirious passion Thrill'd the god to wild excess. And the fervour of a moment Made divinity confess ;
And he stood in all his glory I But so radiant, being near, ■Riat her eyes were frozen on him In a fascinated fear I
All with orient splendour shining, All with roseate birth aglow. Gleam 'd the golden god before her. With his golden crescent bow.
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RLY POEMS
Lzzled light suttNdedt n'd a beauteous youth, ;&in the maiden's murmurs, Ige the vows of truth.
IU3 he had continued I h for her had been I th all godlike beauty, lanly sereoe I
1 mouth, and mellow ringleta, as the mid-day beam ; oks and wistful tremour, 1 maiden's dream !
like a bird's throbb'd bosom ith eagerness, ndals of the roaes, t from the caress 1
nbs, and eyes and ringlets, raying to one prayer, , swept by a spirit, eniaptur'd air.
in some far valley, vishments divine I gs to viewless fingers nodulations fine I
ith melodious fervour! iteous maiden flower, 'oung beloved three paces n the bridal bower.
thro' the dawning stillness 1 within a breast, 'oung beloved is stepping the nuptial nesL
ine I gentle Daphne ! er by degrees ill of hopes and visions ears like honey bees !
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DAPHNE
Never yet was lonely blossom Woo'd with such deliciDiis voice I Never since hath mortal maiden Dwelt on such celestial choice !
Love-suffused she quivers, falters— Falters, sighs, but never speaks. All her rosy blood up-gushing Over6ow3 her ripe young cheeks.
Blushing, sweet with virgin blushes, All her loveliness a-flame. Stands she in the orient waters, Stricken o'er with speechless shame 1
Ah ! but lovelier, ever lovelier. As more deep the colour glows. And the honey-laden lily Changes to the fragrant rose.
While the god with meek embraces. Whispering all his sacred charms. Softly fol(k her, gently holds her. In his white encircling arms I
But, 0 Dian 1 veil not wholly Thy pale crescent from the mom I Vanish not, O virgin goddess, With that look of pallid scorn I
Stil! thy pure protecting influence Shed from those fair watchful eyes I — Lo I her angry orb has vanished. And the bright sun thrones the skies 1
Voicelessly the forest Virgin Vanished ! but one look she gave — Keen as Niobean arrow Thro' the maiden's heart it drove.
Thus toward that throning bosom Where all earth ia warmed, — each spot Nourished with autumnal blessings — Icy chill was Daphne caught.
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EARLY POEMS
,- chni ! but swift reMil^on I her gentler s^ renewed, en as icy Winter quickens ith bud-opeoing warmth imbued.
en as a torpid brooklet, lat to the night-gleaming moon isbed in turn the frozen glances, ;lts upon the breast of noon.
t no more — O never, never, ms she to that bosom bright, iftly ail her senses counsel, her nerves are strung to flight.
;r the brows of radiant Pindus lis a shadow dark and cold, d a sound of lamentation ues from its mournful fold.
ice of the far-sighted Muses ! y of keen foreboding song I ery cieft of startled Tempe igles with it sharp and long.
er bourn and bosk and dingle, er rivers, over rills, ins the sad subservient Echo ward the dim blue distant hills !
d another and another ! s a cry more wild than all ; d the hills with muffled voices swer ' Daphne 1 ' to the call.
d another and another ! s a cry so wildly sweet, at her charmed heart turns rebel the instinct of her feet;
d she pauses for an instant ; t his arms have scarcely slid und her waist in cestian ^rdles, d his low voluptuous lid
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DAPHNE
Lifted pleBding, and the honey Of his mouth for hers athu-st. Ruby glistening, raised for moisture — Like a bud that waits to burst
In the sweet espousing showers — And his tongue has scarce begun With its inarticulate burthen. And the clouds scarce show the sun
Aa it pierces thro' a crevice Of the mass that closed it o'er, When again the horror flashes — And she turns to flight once more 1
And again o'er radiant l^ndus Rolls rtie shadow dark and cold, And the sound of lamentation Issues from its sable fold I
And again the light winds chide her As she darts from his embrace — And again the far-voiced echoes Speak their tidings of the chase.
Loudly now as swiftly, swiftly,
O'er the glimmering sands she speeds ;
Wildly now as in the furzes
From the piercing spikes she bleeds.
Deeply and with direful anguish. As above each crimson drop Passion checks the god Apollo, And love bids him weep and stop. —
He above each drop of crimson Shadowing— like the laurel leaf That above himself will shadow — Sheds a fadeless look of grief.
Then with love's remorseful discord. With its own desire at war. Sighing turns, while dimly fleeting Daphne flies the chase afar.
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)EMS
Binst her I Ivan troop, sodload valleys ith cry and whoop I
lie thickets leir gDaried bougha, nd low curved braaches •eat her brows.
ushwood covert, 3 slumbers route, 'art her passage, tch her foot
lushest verdure ray roesh, I and alleys limbs in le^.
)wery mosses, make her trip ; n sprigs outstretching lip;
le betrays her, ky shoot, 1 many a stumble imp old root,
>eers green and dusky growth of plants, and weltering,
any pants.
red strawberry i trammels frail ; ^ping brambles bomy trail,
>ing greensward >m knoll to knoll ; oak and elm wood 3le to bole.
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DAPHNE
Groves of lemon, groves of citron. Toll high-foliaged plane and palm. Bloomy myrtle, light-blue olive, Wave her back with gusts of balm.
Languid jasmine, scrambling briony, Walb of close-festooning braid. Fling themselves about her, mingling With her wafted locks, waylaid.
Twisting bindweed, honey'd woodbine. Cling to her, while, red and blue. On her rounded form ripe berries Dash and die in gory dew.
Running ivies dark and lingering Round her light limbs drag and twine ; Round her waist with languorous tendrils Reela and wreathes the juicy vine ;
R«ining in the flying creature With its arms about her mouth ; Bursting all its mellowing bunches To seduce her husky drouth ;
Crowning her with amorous clusters ; Pouring down her sloping back Fresh-bom wines in glittering rillets, :. Following her in crimson track.
Buried, drenched in dewy foliage. Thus she glimmers from the dawn. Watched by every forest creature. Fleet-foot Oread, frolic Faun.
Silver-sandalled Arethusa Not more swiftly fled the sands, Fled the plains and fled the sunlights. Fled the murmuring ocean strands.
O, that now the earth would op>en ! O, that now the shades would hide ! 0, that now the gods would shelter ! Caverns lead and seas divide !
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EARLY POEMS
Not more faint soft^lowing lo Panted in those starry eyes. When the sleepless midnight meadows Piteously implored the skies 1
Still her hreathless flight she urges By the sanctuary stream. And the god with golden swiftness Follows like an eastern beam.
Her the close bewildering greenery Darkens with its duskiest green, — Him each little leaflet welcomes. Flushing with an orient sheen.
Thus he nears, and now all Tempe Rings with his melodious cry, Avenues and blue expanses Beam in his Urge lustrous eye 1
All the branches start to mu^c I As if from a secret spring Thousands of sweet bills are bubbling Iq the nest and on the wing.
Gleams and shines the glassy river And rich valleys every one ; But of all the throbbing beauty Brightest I singled by the sun I
Ivy round her glimmering ancle. Vine about her glowing brow. Never sure was bride so beauteous, Daphne, chosen nymph, as thou !
Thus he nears 1 and now she feels him Breathing hot on every limb ; And he hears her own quick pantings — Ah 1 that they might he for him.
O, that like the flower he tramples. Bending from his golden tread. Full of fair celesrial ardours, She would bow her bridal head.
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DAPHNE
0, that like the flower she presses, Nodding from her Uly touch. Light as in the harmless breezes. She would know the god for such I
See ! the golden arms are round her — To the air she grasps and clings 1 See I hia glowing arms have wound her — To the sky she shrieks and springs !
See I the flushing chace of Tempe Trembles with Olympian air — Seel green sprigs and buds are shooting From those white raised arms of prayer I
In the earth her feet are rooting I — Breasts and limbs and lifted eyes, Hair and lips and stretching fingers. Fade away — and fadeless rise.
And the god whose fervent rapture Clasps her finds his close embrace Full of palpitating branches. And new leaves t£at bud apace.
Round his wonder-stricken forehead ; — While in ebbing measures slow Sounda of softly dying pulses Pause and quiver, pause and go ;
Go, and come again, and flutter On the verge of life, — then flee ! All the white ambrosial beauty Is a lustrous Laurel Tree I
Still with the great panting love-chase All its running sap is warmed ; — But from head to foot the virgin Is transfigured and transformed.
Changed ! — yet the green Dryad nature Is instinct with human ties, And above its anguish'd lover ^ Breathes pathetic sympathies;
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EARLY POEMS
Sympathies of love and sorrow ; Joy in her divine escape ; Breathing throu^^ her bursting foliage Comfort to his bending abape.
Vfiinly now the floating Naiads Seek to pierce the laurel maze. Nought but laurel meets their glances, Laurel glistens as they gaze.
Nought but bright prophetic laurel ! Laurel over eyes and brows, Over limbs and over bosom. Laurel leaves and laurel boughs I
And in vain the listening Dryad Shells her hand against her ear I — All b silence — save the echo Travelling in the distance drear.
SONG
Shocu) thy love die ; 0 bury it not under ice-blue eyes !
Ajid lips that deny, With a scornful surprise. The life it once lived in thy breast when it wore no disguise.
Should thy love die ; O bury it where the sweet wild-flowers blow !
And breezes go by. With no whisper of woe ; And strange feet cannot guess of the anguish that slumbers below.
Should thy love die; O wander once more to the haunt of the bee !
Where the foiiaged sky Is most sacred to see. And thy being first felt its wild birth like a wind-wakened tree.
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LONDON BY LAMPLIGHT
Should thy love die ; O dissemble it ! smile ! let the rose hide the thorn 1
While the lark sings on high. And DO thing looks forlorn, Bury it, bury it, bury it where it was born.
LONDON BY LAMPUGHT
There stands a dnger in the street, He bos on audience motley and meet ; Above him towers the London night. And around the lamps are flaring bright.
His minstrelsy may be unchaste — 'Tis much unto that motley taste. And loud the laughter he provokes From those sad slaves of obscene jokes.
But woe is many a passer by Who as he goes turns half an eye, To see the human form divine Thus Circe-wise changed into swine I
Make up the sum of either sex That all our human hopes perplex. With those unhappy shapes that know The silent streets and pale cock-crow.
And can I trace in such dull eyes Of fireside peace or country skies? And could those haggard cheeks presume To memories of a May-tide bloom ?
Those violated forms have been The pride of many a flowering green ; And still the virgin bosom heaves With daisy meads and dewy leaves.
But Stygian darkness reigns within The river of death from the founts of sin ; And one prophetic water rolls Its gas-lit surface for their souls.
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EARLY POEMS
I will not hide the tragic sight —
Those drowo'd black locks, those dead lips white.
Will rise from out the slimy flood.
And cry before God's throne for hlood I
Those stiffened limbs, that swollen face, — Pollution's last and best embrace, Will call, as such a picture can. For retribution upon man.
Hark ! how their feeble laughter rings. While still the ballad-monger sings. And fiatters their unhappy breasts With poisonous words and pungent jests.
O how would every daisy blush To see them 'mid that earthly crush ! O dumb would be the evening thrush. And hoary look the hawthorn bush I
The meadows of their infancy Would shrink from them, and every tree. And every little laughing spot. Would hush itself and know them not.
Precursor to what black despairs
Was that child's face which once was theirs I
And O to what a world of guile
Was herald that young angel smile I
That face which to a father's eye Was balm for all anxiety ; That smile which to a mother's heart Went swifter than the swallow's dart I
O happy homes I that still they know At intervals, with what a woe Would ye look on them, dim and strange. Suffering worse than winter change !
And yet could I transplant them there. To breathe again the innocent air *
Of youth, and once more reconcile Thdr outcast looks with nature's smile;
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LONDON BY LAMPLIGHT
Could I but give them one clear day Of this delicious loving May, Release their souls from anguish dark, And stand them underneath the lark ; —
I think that Nature would have power To graft again her blighted flower Upon the broken stem, renew Some portion of its early hue, —
The heavy flood of tears unlock.
More precious than the Scriptiued rock ;
At least instil a happier mood,
And bring them back to womanhood.
Alas ! how many lost ones claim This refuge from despair and shame I How many, longing for the light, Sink deeper in the abyss this ni^tl
O, crying sin ! O, blushing thought 1 Not only unto those that wrought The misery and deadly blight; But those that outcast them this night I
O, agony of grief I for who Less dainty than his race, will do Such battle for their human right. As shall awake this startled night?
Proclaim this evil human page Will ever blot the Golden Age That poets dream and saints invite, If it be unredeemed this night 7
This night of deep solemnity, And verdurous serenity. While over every fleecy field The dews descend and odoiu^ yield.
This night of gleaming floods and falls. Of forest glooms and sylvan calls. Of starlight on the pebbly rills, And twilight on the circling hills.
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PASTORALS
e with tender coo, voice to woo, msel by;
le deep woodland crooned its ditty ,- irst and try.'
d lark, thy wing,
9t heaven can bnng
fate befall ;
le sky^jinst trilled this ditty, —
give thee all.'
bile June was young,
tb fervent song,
msel coy;
le sweet birds that sang for pity,
r joy.
>et on sunny afternoons,
e who journey light and well,
up a billy rise
ides the prospect far beyond, :y all the landscape lying
Beautiful and still ;
a sky of summer blue, junded cloudlets, folded soft, the scene which we await ure from their peacefulness ; y to the earth inclining Float those loving shapes I
' brides, each singling out } love and bless with love, »my bosoms glowing warm, ince weds them to the bills, 1 its latest gleam the river Sinks in their embrace.
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EARLY POEMS
And silverly the river runs, And many a graceful wind he makes, Dy fields where feed the happy flocks. And hedge-rows hushing pleasant lanes. The charms of English home reflected In his shining eye ;
Ancestral oak, broad-foliaged elm. Rich meadows sunned and starred with flowers. The cottage breathing tender smoke Against the brooding golden air. With glimpses of a stately mansion On a woodland sward ;
And circling rounds as with a ring, The distance spreading amber haze. Enclosing hills and pastures sweet; A depth of soft and mellow light Which filb the heart with sudden yearning Aimless and serene I
No disenchantment follows here. For nature's inspiration moves The dream which she herself fulfils ; And he whose heart, like valley warmth, Steams up with joy at scenes like this Shall never be forlorn.
And O for any human soul The rapture of a wide survey — A valley sweeping to the West, With all its wealth of loveliness, Is more than recompense for days That taught us to endure.
Yon upland slope which hides the sui Ascending from his eastern deeps, And now against the hues of dawn One level line of tillage rears ; The furrowed brow of toil and time; To many it is but a sweep of land I
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PASTORALS 49
To others 'tis an Autumn trust. But unto me a mystery ; — An infiuence strange and swift aa dreams ; A whispering of old romance ; A temple naked to the clouds ; Or one of nature's bosoms freah revealed,
Heaving with adoration ! there The work of husbandry is done, And daily bread is daily earned ; Nor seems there ought to indicate The springs which move in me such thoughts. But from my soul a spirit calls them up.
All day into the open sky. All night to the eternal stars. For ever both at mom and eve When mellow distances draw near, And shadows lengthen in the dusk. Athwart the heavens it rolls its glimmering line I
When twilight from the dream-hued West Sighs bush I and all the land is still ; When, from the lush empurpling East, The twilight of the crowing cock Peers on the drowsy village roofs, Athwart the heavens that glimmering line is seen.
And now beneath the rising sun. Whose shining chariot overpeers The irradiate ridge, while fetlock deep In the rich soil his coursers plunge — How grand in robes of light it looks 1 How glorious with rare suggestive grace !
The ploughman mounting up the height Becomes a glowing shape, as though 'Twere young Triptolemus,' plough in hand. While Ceres in her amber scarf With gentle love directs him how To wed the wilHng earth and hope for fruits I
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PASTORALS
Content with all her truths and fates ; Ev'n as yon strip of grass that bows Above the new-born violet bloom.
And sings with wood and field.
Lo, as a tree, whose wintry twigs Drink in the sun with fibrous joy, And down into its dampest roots Thrills quickened with the drau^t of life, I wake unto the dawn, and leave my griefs to drowse.
I rise and dnnk the fresh sweet ur : Each draught a future bud of Spring; Each glance of blue a birth of green ; I will not mimic yonder oak Hiat dallies with dead leaves ev'n while the primrose peeps.
But full of these warm-whispering beams, like Memnon in his mother's eye, — Aurora t when the statue stone Moaned soft to her pathetic touch, — My soul shall own its parent in the founts of day I
And ever in the recurring light, True to the primal joy of dawn, Forget its barren griefs ; and aye Like aspens in the f^ntest breeze Turn all its silver sides and tremble into song.
Now from the meadow floods the wild duck clamours. Now the wood pigeon wings a rapid flight. Now the homeward rookery follows up its vanguard, And the valley mists are curling up the hills.
Three short songs gives the clear-voiced throstle. Sweetening the twilight ere he fills the nest ; While the little bird upon the leafless branches Tweets to its mate a tiny loving note.
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EARLY POEMS
Deeper the stillness hangs on every motion ; Calmer the silence follows every call ; Now all is quiet save the roosting pheasant. The bell-wether's tinkle and the watch-dog's bark.
Softly shine the lights from the silent kindling homestead, Stars of the hearth to the shepherd in the fold ; Springs of desire to the traveller on the roadway ; Ever breathing incense to the ever-blessing sky I
How barren would this valley be, Without the golden orb that gazes On it, broadening to hues Of rose, and spreading nings of amber ; Blessing it before it falls asleep.
How barren would this valley be, Without the human lives now besting In it, or the throbbing hearts Far distant, who their flower of childhood Cherish here, and water it with tears 1
How barren should I be, were I Without above that loving splendour. Shedding light and warmth ! without Some kindred natures of my kind To joy in me, or yearn towards me now I
Sdmmer glows warm on the meadows, and speedwell, and
gold-cups, and daisies Darken 'raid deepening masses of sorrel, and shadowy grasses Show the ripe hue to the farmer, and suramon the scythe and
the hay-makers Down from the village ; and now, even now, the air smelts
of the mowing. And the sharp song of the scythe whistles daily ; from dawn,
till the gloaming
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PASTORALS 53
Wears iU cool star, sweet and welcome to all flaming faces
afield now ; Heavily weighs the hot season, and drowses the darkening
foliage. Drooping with languor; the white cloud floats, but sails
Dot, for windless Heaven's blue tents it ; no lark singing up in its fleecy white
valleys ; L'p in its fairy white valleys, once feathered with minstrels,
melodious With the invisible joy that wakes dawn o'er the green fields
of England. Summer glows warm on the meadows ; then come, let us roam
thro' them gaily, Heedless of heat, and the hot-kissing sun, and the fear of dark
freckles. Never one kiss will he give on a neck, or a lily-white forehead, Chin, hand, or bosom uncovered, all panting, to take the
chance coolness, But full sure the fiery pressure leaves seal of espousal. Heed him not; come, tho' he kiss till the soft little upper- lip loses Half its pure whiteness ; just speck'd where the curve of
the rosy mouth reddens.
Come, let him kiss, let him kiss, and his kisses shall make thee
the sweeter. Hiou art no nun, veiled and vowed ; doomed to nourish a
withering pallor ! City exotics beside thee would show like bleached linen at
mid-day. Hung upon hedges of eglantine I Thou in the freedom of
nature, FuU of her beauty and wisdom, gentleness, joyance, and
kindness t Come, and like bees will we gather the rich golden honey of
noontide ; Deep in the sweet summer meadows, border'd by hillside and
Lined with long trenches half-hidden, where smell of white meadow-sweet, sweetest.
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ARLY POEMS
weetest ! but pluck it not 1 even in
th and wither; like many, not made
n the meadows, where aU the flowers
' the nightingale scarce ever charms
\ the nest; only known by a 'chuck,
le finch and the linnet and blackcap
yU-side warbles the rich-billed ouzel ; I filling the tangled thickening copses ; id, and most honey'd of flowers, white
lay in the grass of our own beloved
lark mounts at eve with his sweet
See, OD the river the slow-rippled
pie broadens in circles; the bright
vea of the yet unseen water-lily, I. day, ever-varying tactics fantastic, ■ored osiers, the emerald wing of the
beak 1 there the dab-chick dived, and
o' the tall standing army of rushes.
r, till the twilight turns us homeward I leep-blooming splendour of sunset is
mildly in mellowing hues, like a apirit : light never dieth, tho' day is now
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PASTORALS 55
marrow, few hours intervenrng, that
heaven, to-morrow my semblance,
lion eternal to seal and to prophecy. d ; passing down the close path of
with sweetness ; eaeh with a lark in
I will yon lark ever cease to sing
I A SKYLARK
le thee and call thee joy I
thee up to the breast of the dawn ;
re, but thy song is still
le heavens to me I
's when I was a boy ;
ed in them, dear now they're gone :
nger, but still, O still
lieavens to me.
palm do burst and spread
ny feathers in the lane,
lossoms, white and red,
pring delight for Autumn gain ;
kylark shakes his wings in the rain '
eason to look for a bride ! T warily, woo her unseen ; it mai(^ are those that hide ' violets under the green.
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LY POEMS SONG
e hazel-leaf
squirrel that hunts them free, I with the 3Un-bumt sheaf, nflower and the yellowing tree ; lows and beams in bis glee ;
o wed thee a bride !
re filled and the ale-cups foam ;
b the pride
!ry Harvest Home.
IW3, aad they shall rise immortal skies, down like mothers' eyes.
s be fresh as flowers, honey of the showers, :e on huts and towers.
ys be sweet and bright ; eet thy starry night, ve each change of light.
vatch the flowers asleep, 1 feel the soft stars weep, mix sensations deep.
)w, with those above, he brooding dove, L bonds of love.
ture are akin ; ten fruit of sin, ice of life within.
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SORROWS AND JOYS
CbildKn of earth are these ; and those The spirits of divine repose — Death radiant o'er all human woes.
O, think what then had been thy doom,
If homeless and without a. tomb
They had been left to haunt the gloom I
O, think again what now they are — Motherly love, tho' dim and for, Imaged in every lustrous star.
For they, in their salvation, know
No vestige of their former woe.
While thro' them all the heavens do flow.
Thus art thou wedded to the skies. And watched by ever-loving eyes. And warned by yearning sympathies.
SONG
Tae Flower unfolds its dawning cup. And the young sun drinks the star-dews up, At eve it droops with the bliss of day. And dreams in the midnight far away.
So am I in thy sole, sweet glance Pressed with a weight of utterance ; Lovingly all my leaves unfold. And gleam to the beams of thirsty gold.
At eve I droop, for then the swell Of feeling falters forth farewell ; — At midnight I am dreaming deep. Of what has been, in blissful sleep.
When — ah ! when will love's own light Wed me alike thro' day and night. When will the stars with their linking charms Wake us in each other's arms ?
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-, ^_ - -f^ —J 3e^ »^
Digitized byGOOgle
ANTIGONE
But this will dower the« with Elysian breath,
That fade into a never-fading dime.
Dear to the Gods are those that do like thee
A solemn duty! for the tyranny
Of kings is feeble to the soul that dares
Defy them to fulfil its sacred cares :
And weak agaimt a mighty will are men.
O, Torch between two brothers I in whose gleam
Our slaughtered House doth shine as one again,
Tho' severed by the sword ; now may thy dream
Kindle desire in thee for us, and thou,
Fragetting not thy lover and his vow.
Leaving no human memory forgot,
Shalt cross, not unattended, the dark stream
Which runs by thee in sleep and ripples not.
l^e large stars glitter thro' the anxious night.
And the deep sky broods low to look at thee:
The air is hush'd and dark o'er land and aea,
And all is waiting for the morrow light :
So do thy kindred spirits wait for thee.
O Sister I soft as on the downward rill.
Will those first daybeams from the distant hill
Fall on the smoothness of thy placid brow.
Like this calm sweetness breathing thro' me now :
And when the fated sounds shall wake thine eyes.
Wilt thou, confiding in the supreme will,
In all thy maiden steadfastness arise.
Firm to obey and earnest to fulfil ;
Remembering the night thou didst not sleep.
And this same brooding sky beheld thee creep.
Defiant of unnatural decree.
To where I lay upon the outcast land ;
Before the iron gates upon the plain ;
A wretched, graveless ghost, whose wailing chill
Came to thy darkened door imploring thee ;
Yearning for burial like my brother slain ; —
And all was dared for love and piety I
This thought will nerve again thy virgin hand
To serve its purpose and its destiny.'
Sbe woke, they led her forth, and all was still.
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THE TWO BLACKBIRDS 61
Nor is the day of love for ever dead,
When young enchantment and romance are gone; The veil is drawn, but all the future dread
Is lightened by the finger of the dawn.
Love moves with life along a darker way.
They cost a shadow and they call it death :
But rich is the fulfilment of their day ;
The purer passion and the firmer faith.
THE TWO BLACKBIRDS
' A Blackbird in a wicker cage.
That hung and swung 'mid fruits and flowers. Had learnt the song-charm, to assuage The dreamesa of its wingless hours.
And ever when the song was heard,
- From trees that shade the grassy plot Warbled another glossy bird,
Whose mate not long ago was shot.
Strange anguish in that creature's breast. Unwept like human grief, unsaid,
Has quickened in its lonely nest
A living impulse from the dead.
Not to console its own wild smart, — But with a kindling instinct strong,
The novel feeling of its heart
Beats for the captive bird of song.
And when those mellow notes are still.
It hops from off its choral perch. O'er path and sward, with busy bill.
All grateful gifts to peck and search.
Store of ouzel dainties choice
To those white swinging bars it brings ; . And with a low consoling voice
It talks between its fluttering wings.
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ILY POEMS
litter grief ers redprocate, r its woodland life, tr ita murdered mate.
the secret prove, le sad creatures so ; t link of love, a sympathy of woe.
13 day to day
speech between them twain ;
■d is scared away,
bursts to song again.
s flattering voice, d its fluttering wings, inties choice lill the poor bird brings.
fill weak with age
its drowsy branch it drops,
that captive cage,
lose busy searching hopsf
al will not strain ; se will make it range, II soothe its pain, son work a change.
e-long summer, tried, tion we may see ; 7 of Nature's tide; ful sympathy.
It July,
arms and gorgeous blue ;
o'er thy sky,
of drenching dew ;
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rULY 6
en aod glade
their shade ;
: thy pride,
jcm bride.
^ng days are done
that clasp the sun ;
i in his throat
; his last twin note ;
ustroua eye,
ing blooms,
-oiling glooms.
1 doth but sing 'cuk, cuk,'
alone doth coo ;
; spins her coo-r-roo, r-r-roo —
t's halting 'cuk.'
I
ea near the streara,
! and shy,
a dream.
; foot the fern
lestnuts bum ;
ly fierce love,
n above.
est trees hang dumb,
ss o'ercome ;
ngale and thrush,
bough or bush ;
ustrous eye,
se unfold, ibes of gold t
le broods — ' sweet-chuck-3weet'- l flutes so chill, jives but one shrilly trill Qgale's 'sweet-sweet.'
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griil,
ping wind, ife
nimbrined, rtfree.
r clime, : the sail, ited vale 93 the time,
bree.
V thy pride ;
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THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS
Never more to part ; Come into my yearning heart ; I, the serpent, golden-eyed. Twine round thee ; Twine thee with no venomed test ; Absence makea the venomed nest; Come to me I
Come to me, my lover, come 1
Violets on the tender stem
Die and wither in their bloom,
Under dewy grass ; Come, my lover, or, alas !
I shall die, shall die like tbem,
Frail and lone ;
Come to me, my lover, come ;
Let thy bosom be my tomb :
Come, my own I
THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS*
Swept from his fleet upon that fatal night When great Poseidon's sudden-veering wrath Scattered the happy homeward-floating Greeks like foam-flakes off the waves, the King of Crete Held lofty commune with the dark 5ea-god. His brows were crowned with victory, his cheeks Were flushed with triumph, but the mighty joy Of Troy's destruction and his own great deeds Passed, for the thoughts of home were dearer now, And sweet the memory of wife and child. And weary now the ten long, foreign years. And terrible the doubt of short delay— More terrible, O Gods 1 he cried, but stopped ; Then raised his voice upon the storm and prayed. 0 thou, if injured, injured not by me, Poseidon ! whom sea-deities obey And mortals worship, hear me 1 for indeed It was our oath to aid the cause of Greece, Not uneapoused by Gods, and most of all
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THE SHIPWRECK OP IDOMENEUS f
Mingling the screams of birds, the cries of brutes. The wail of creatures in the covert pent, Howls, yells, and shrieks of agony, the hiss Of seething sap, and crash of falling boughs Together in its dull voracious roar.
So closely and so fearfully they throng'd. Savage with phantasies of victory, A sea of dusky shapes ; for day had passed And night fell on their darkened faces, red With fight and torchflare ; shrill the resonant air With eager shouts, and hoarse with angry groans ; Wliile over all the dense and sullen boom. The din and murmur of the myriads, Rolled with its awful intervals, as though The battle breathed, or as against the shore Waves gather back to heave themselves anew. Tliat night sleep dropped not from the dreary skiesi Nor could the prowess of our chiefs oppose That sea of raging men. But what were they? Or what is man opposed to thee? His hopes Are wrecks, himself the drowning, drifting weed That wanders on thy waters ; such as 1 Who see the scattered remnants of my fleet. Remembering the day when first we sailed. Each glad ship shining like the morning star With promise for the world. Oh ! such as I Thus darkly drifting on the drowning waves. O God of waters I 'tis a dreadful thing To suffer for an evil unrevealed ; Dreadful it ia to hear the perishing cry Of those we love ; the silence that succeeds How dreadful 1 Still my trust ia fixed on thee For those that still remain and for myself. And if I hear thy swift foam-snorting steeds Drawing thy dusky chariot, as in The pauses of the wind I seem to hear, Deaf thou art not to my entreating prayer 1 Haste then to give us help, for closely now Crete whispers in my ears, and all my blood Runs keen and warm for home, and 1 have yearning. Such yearning as I never felt before.
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THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS (
And hang itself afresh by the bleeding fangs. Upon the neck of some death-singled stag. Whose royal antlers, eyes, and stumbling knees Will supplicate the Gods in mute despair. This time not mute, nor yet in vain this time 1 For still the burden of the earnest voice And all the vivid glories it revoked Sank in the God, with that absorbed suspense Felt only by the Olympians, whose minds Unbounded like our mortal brain, perceive All things complete, the end, the aim of all ; To whom the crown and consequence of deeds Are ever present with the deed itself.
And now the pouring surges, vast and smooth. Grew weary of restraint, and heaved themselves Headlong beneath him, breaking at his feet With wild importunate cries and angry wail ; Ijke crowds ^at shout for bread and hunger more. And now the surface of their rolling hacks Was ridged with foam-topt furrows, rising high And dashing wildly, like to fiery steeds, Fresh from the Thracian or Thessalian plains, High-blooded mares just tempering to the bit. Whose manes at full<5peed stream upon the winds. And in whose delicate nostrils when the gust Breathes of their native plains, they ramp and rear, Frothing the curb, and bounding from the earth, As though the Sun-god's chariot alone Were fit to follow in their flashing track. Anon with gathering stature to the height Of those colossal giants, doomed long since To torturous grief and penance, that assailed The sky-throned courts of Zeus, and climbing, dared For once in a world the Olympic wrath, and braved The electric spirit which from his clenching hand Pierces the dark-veined earth, and with a touch Is death to mortals, fearfully they grew I And with like purpose of audacity Threatened Titanic fury to the God. Such was the agitation of the sea
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THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS 7
Their briny eyes blind with the showering drops;
Their stormy locks, salt tongues, and scaly backs.
Quivering in harmony with the tempest, fierce
And eager with tempestuous delight ; —
He like a moving rock above them all
Solemnly towering while fitful gleams
Brake from his dense black forehead, which display'd
The enduring chiefs as their distracted fleets .
Tossed, toiling with the waters, climbing high.
And plunging downward with determined beaks.
In lurid anguish ; but the Cretan king
And all his crew were 'ware of under-tides,
That for the groaning vessel made a path.
On which the impending and precipitous waves
Fell not, nor suck'd to their abysmal gorge.
0, happy they to feel the mighty God.
Without his whelming presence near : to feel
Safety and sweet relief from such despair,
And gushing of their weary hopes once more
Within their fond warm hearts, tired limbs, and ej'es
Heavy with much fatigue and want of sleep 1
Prayers did not lack ; like mountain springs they came
After the earth has drunk the drenching rainH,
And throws her fresh-bom jets into the sun
With joyous sparkles , — for there needed not
Evidence more serene of instant grace,
Immortal mercy I and the sense which follows
Divine interposition, when the shock
Of danger hath been thwarted by the Gods,
Visibly, and through supplication deep, —
Rose in them, chiefly in the royal mind
Of him whose interceding vow had saved.
Tears from that great heroic soul sprang up ;
Not painful as in grief, nor smarting keen
W' ith shame of weeping ; but calm, fresh, and sweet ;
Such as in lofty spirits rise, and wed
The nature of the woman to the man ;
A sight most lovely to the Gods ! "Riey fell
like showers of starlight from his stedfast eyes,
As ever towards the prow he gazed, nor moved •
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,Y POEMS
ipa and level lids,
mnds sang in his ears,
hb brown hair in streams
: hours passed, and the oars
id nothing but the sound
d still watery sough,
the storm, was heard.
DQariners in their toil,
the war were dumb :
ith wonder, too much thrilled
I's silence, to disturb
KX)r human speech.
rough slips of driving cloud
d athwart the seas a path
e the Hadean brows,
sion they behold
it hueless cheeks,
1 and lustre, as a ship
ilue and open bay
ed sails, the radiant car
ind on the waves
)m her silver bow
re and tender gaze.
le the chiefs sought rest ; and men to relieve in. Fair it was f \ Some up the prow, n open-handed sleep ;
and bucklers put aside ; rar upon their cheeks, et locks, and on their breasts h of many a proud campaign;
bright invisible crown own radiant form, leads she sings and soars. 0 calmly ; as around raves and swamping surf on the tranquil deeps, nd solemn peace, trands of memory, they
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THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS 73
Launched aod were tossed, long ere they found the
tides Thftt lead to the gentle bosoms of pure rest. And like to one who from a ghostly watch In a lone house where murder hath been done, And secret violations, pale with stealth Emerges, staggering on the first chill gust Wherewith the morning greet him, feeling not Its balmy freshness on his bloodless cheek, — But swift to hide his midnight face afar, 'Mongst the old woods and timid-glancing flowers Hastens, till on the fresh reviving breasts Of tender Dryads folded he forgets The pallid witness of those nameless things, In renovated senses lapt, and joins The full, keen joyance of the day, so they From sights and sounds of battle smeared with blood. And shrieking souls on Acheron's bleak tides. And wail of execrating kindred, sUd Into oblivious slumber and a sense Of satiate deliciousness complete.
Leave them, 0 Muse, in that so happy sleep I Leave them to reap the harvest of their toil. While fast in moonlight the glad vessel glides. As if instinctive to its forest home. O Muse, that in all sorrows and all joys. Rapturous bliss and suffering divine, Dwellest with equal fervour, in the calm Of thy serene philosophy, albeit Thy gentle nature is of joy alone. And loves the pipings of the happy fields, Better than all tJie great parade and pomp Which forms the train of heroes and of kings. And sows, too frequently, the tragic seeds That choke with sobs thy singing, — turn away "Diy lustrous eyes back to the oath-bound man ! For as a shepherd stands above his flock, The lofty figure of the king is seen, Standing above his warriors as they sleep: And still as from a rock grey waters gush.
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THE LONGEST DAY
On yonder hills soft twilight dwells
And Hesper burns where sunset dies, Moist and cbilJ the woodland smells
From the fem-«overed hollows uprise;
Darkness drops not from the skies. But shadows of darkness are flung o'er the vale
From the boughs of the chestnut, the oak, and the elm, While night in yon lines of eastern pines
Preserves alone her inviolate realm Against the twilight pale.
Say, then say, what is this day.
That it lingers thus with half-closed eyes. When the sunset is quenched and the orient ray
Of the roseate moon doth rise,
Like a midnight sun o'er the skies ! Tis the longest, the longest of all the glad year.
The longest in life and the fairest in hue. When day and night, in bridal light.
Mingle their beings beneath the sweet blue, And bless the balmy air I
Upward to this starry height
The culminating seasons rolled ; On one slope green with spring delight.
The other with harvest gold,
And treasures of Autumn untold : And on this highest throne of the midsummer now
The waning but deathless day doth dream. With a rapturous grace, as tho' from the face
Of the unveiled infinity, lo, a far beam
Had fall'n on her dim-flushed brow I
Prolong, prolong that tide of song,
O leafy nightingale and thrush I Still, earnest-throated blackcap, throng
The woods with that emulous gush
Of notes in tumultuous rush,
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SONG
The daisy dow is out upon the green ;
And in the grassy lanes
The child of April rains, Tlie sweet fresh-hearted violet, is smelt and loved unseen.
Along the brooks and meads, the daffodil
lis yellow richness spreads.
And by the fountain-heads Of rivers, cowslips cluster round, and over evay hill.
Tie crocus and the primrose may have gone.
The snowdrop may be low.
But soon the purple glow Of hyacinths will fill the copse, and lilies watch the dawn.
And in the sweetness of the budding year,
The cuckoo's woodland call,
The skylark over all, And then at eve, the nightingale, b doubly sweet and dear.
My soul is singing with the happy birds.
And all my human powers
Are blooming with the flowers, My foot is on the fields and downs, among the flocks and herds.
Deep in the forest where the foliage droops,
I wander, fill'd with joy.
Again as when a boy, The sunny vistas tempt me on with dim delicious hopes.
The sunny vistas, dim with hanging shade.
And old romantic haze : —
Again as in past days, lie spirit of immortal Spring doth every sense pervade.
Oh! do not say that this will ever cease; —
lliis joy of woods and fields.
This youth that nature yields, WiD never speak to me in vain, tho' soundly rapt in peace.
77
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EARLY POEMS
SUNRISE
The clouds are withdrawn And their thin-rippled mist. That stream'd o'er the lawn To the drowsy-eyed west. Cold and grey They slept in the way, And shrank from the ray Of the chariot East : But now they are gone, And the bounding light Leaps thro' the bars Of doubtful dawn ; Blinding the stars, And blessing the sight ; Shedding delight On all below ; Glimmering fields. And wakening wealds, And rising lark, And meadows dark, And idle rilb. And labouring milb. And far-distant hilla Of the fawn and the doe. The sun is cheered And his path is cleared, As he steps to the air From his emerald cave. His heel in the wave. Most bright and bare ; In the tide of the sky His radiant hair From his temples fair Blown back on high ; As forward he bends, And upward ascends, Timely and true. To the breast of the blue ;
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SUNRISE
His warm red lips
Kissing the dew,
With sweetened drips
On his flower cupholders ;
Every hue
From his gleaming shoulders
Shining anew
With colour sky-bom,
As it washes and dips
In the pride of the mom.
Robes of azure.
Fringed with amber,
Fold upon fold
Of purple and gold.
Vine-leaf bloom.
And the grape's ripe gloom.
When season deep
In noontide leisure.
With clustering heap
The tendrils clamber
Full in the face
Of bis hot embrace,
Fill'd with the gleams
Of his firmest beams.
Autumn flushes,
Roseate blushes,
Vemieil tinges,
Violet fringes.
Every hue
Of his flower cupholders,
O'er the clear ether
Mingled together.
Shining anew
From his gleaming shoulders 1
Circling about
In a coronal rout,
And floating behind,
The way of the wind.
As forward he bends,
And upward ascends.
Timely and true.
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PICTURES OF THE RHINE £
To see the mountains on each other climb, With spaces for rich meadows flowery bright ; The winding river freshening the sight At intervals, the trees in leafy prime ; The distant village-roofs of blue and white, With intersections of quaint-fashioned beams All slanting crosswise, and the feudal gleams Of ruined turrets, barren in the light ; — To watch the changing clouds, like clime in clime ; Oh I sweet to lie and.bless the lu:iury of time.
Fresh blows the early breeze, our sail is full ; A merry morning and a mighty tide. Cheerily 0 ! and past St. Goar we glide, Half hid in misty dawn and mountain cool. The river is our own ! and now the sun In saffron clothes the wanning atmosphere ; The sky lifts up her white veil like a nun. And looks upon the landscape blue and clear ; — The lark ia up; the hills, the vines in sight; The river broadens with his waking bliss And throws up islands to behold the light ; Voices begin to rise, all hues to kiss ; — Was ever such a happy mom as this I Birds sing, we shout, flowers breathe, trees shine with one delight !
IV
Between the two white breasts of her we love, A dewy blushing rose will sometimes spring; Thus Nonnenwerth like an enchanted thing Rises mid-stream the crystal depths above. On either side the waters heave and swell, But all is calm within the little Isle ; Content it is to give its holy smile. And bless with peace the lives that in it dwell. Most dear on the dark grass beneath its bower Of kindred trees embracing branch and bough. To dream of fairy foot and sudden flower ; Or haply with a twilight on the brow, To muse upon the legendary hour, And Roland's lonely love and Hildegard's sad vow. '
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T breeees blow
o'er the half-lifted wave,
id branches rave
,, and every cave,
low,
lirling overflow ;
T distant cries
e dim sunrise,
lids ttiat stain the skies •
and frozen glow
f sheeted snow ;
tains shining cold,
ling thro' the wold,
e not to howl and blow.
V decay 1
must be desired,
. long past away, '
they have inspired :
Memory now
tins grey,
13 tic play
is atuck on her brow,
i turret-tops,
ia they ;
, her latest props
the Sun's hot ray
in ru^ed pride,
i on each side.
NGALE
:t thou learnt
«1 dove?
le fern hangs burnt
above!
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. NIGHTINGALE S
many a sky
r dim, that thou mightst hymn,
ice with thy wondrous voice,
irill of thy wild pervading tone I
to woo, thou hast learnt to coo :
ite at the mellowing fruit,
of the flowers is sung by the hours
and twilight alone.
'tis this, 'tis this es thee mock the dove I : past thy marriage bliss, I parent's love, em may fade and burn, ly fall, the flowers and all, mells o'er the oak dells heir drowsy and odorous wings, io nothing but coo, nest with thy brooding breast, ung throng of future song, om the Future sings!
i, THE 'GLASGOW POET,'*
SONNET TO 'fame'
th the earnest voice of man
ng that is his pure desire I
rthright of the living lyre !
Ise Nature puts no ban.
the Sphinx thy voice was raised 1
eat emotions like a sea,
my immortality,
'Ives unheeded and amazed.
rhind her in a blind eclipse :
>ld eyes the end of all
m her large closed lips
le awful riddle of the earth ; —
he might speak, since that wild call,
irning of a Poet's birth.
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84 EARLY POEMS
THE DOE : A FRAGMENT
' : (FROM • WANDERING WILLIE,' AN
: i UNFINISHED POEM)
And — ' Yonder look ! yoho I yoho ! Nancy is off ! ' the farmer cried, * Advancing by the river side,
Red-kerchieft and brown-coated; — 'So, My girl, who else could leap like tbat? So neatly ! like a lady I 'Zounds I Look at ber how she leads the hounds !' And waving bis dusty beaver bat. He cheered across the cbase-filled water. And clapt his arm about his daughter. And gave to Joan a courteous bug. And kiss that, like a stubborn plug
! 1 From generous vats in vastness rounded,
, I The inner wealth and spirit sounded :
Eagerly pointing South, where, lo,
[ The daintiest, fleetest-footed doe
Led o'er the fields and thro' the furze , .;'l Beyond : her lively delicate cars
• ■ Prickt up erect, and in her track
A dappled lengthy-striding pack.
Scarce had they cast eyea upon her.
When every heart was wagered on her.
And half in dread, and half delight.
They watched her lovely bounding flight ;
As now across the flashing green,
And now beneath the stately trees,
And now far distant in the dene,
She headed on with graceful ease :
Hanging aloft with doubled knees.
At times athwart some hedge or gate ;
And slackening pace by slow degrees,
As for the foremost foe to wait.
Renewing her outstripping rate
Whene'er the hot pursuers neared.
By garden wall and paled estate.
Where clambering gazers whooped and cheered.
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THE DOE
Here winding under elm and oak. And slanting up the sunny hill : Splashing the water here like smoke Among the mill-holms rouod the mill.
And — ' Let her go ; she shows her game, My Nancy girl, my pet and treasure ! ' The farmer sighed ; his eyes with pleasure Brimming: "Tis my daughter's name. My second daughter lying yonder.' And Willie's eye in search did wander, And caught at once, with moist regard. The white gleams of a grey churchyard. ' Three weeks before my girl had gone, And while upon her pillows propped. She lay at eve ; the weakling fawn — For still it seems a fawn just dropt A se'nnight — to my Nancy's bed I brought to make my ^rl s gift : The mothers of them both were dead : And both to bless it was my drift, By giving each a friend ; not thinking How rapidly my girl was sinking. And I remember how, to pat Its neck, she stretched her hand so weak And its cold nose against her cheek Pressed fondly : and I fetched the mat To make it up a couch just by her, Where in the lone dark hours to lie : For neither dear old nurse nor I Would any single wish deny her. And there unto the last it lay ; And in the pastures cared to play Little or nothing : there its meals And milk I brought : and even now The creature such affection feels For that old room that, when and how, "Tis strange to mark, it slinks and steals To get there, and all day conceals. And once when nurse who, since that time. Keeps house for me, was very sick.
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- ^•^^'^^•i t™c6*i*«»>«':
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I
THE DOE
I say but little : her fine eyes full
Of memories of my girl, at Yule
And May-time, make her dearer than
Dumb brute to men has been, I think.
So dear I do not find her dumb.
I know her ways, her slightest wink,
So well ; and to my hand she '11 come.
Sideling, for food or a caress.
Just like a loving human thiug.
Nor can I help, I do confess.
Some touch of human sorrowing
To think there may be such a doubt
That from the next world she '11 be shut out.
And parted from me 1 And well I mind
How, when my girl's last moments came.
Her soft eyes very soft and kind,
She joined her hands and prayed the same,
That she "might meet her father, mother.
Sister Bess, and each dear brother.
And with them, if it might be, one
Who was her last companion."
Meaning the fawn — the doe you mark —
For my hay mare was then a foa).
And time has passed since then : — but hark I'
For like the shrieking of a soul
Shut in a tomb, a darkened cry
Of inward-wailing agony
Surprised them, and all eyes on each
Fixed in the mute-appealing speech
Of self-reproachful apprehension :
Knowing not what to think or do :
But Joan, recovering first, broke through
The instantaneous suspension.
And knelt upon the ground, and guessed
The bitterness at a glance, and pressed
Into the comfort of her breast
The deep-throed quaking shape that drooped
In misery's wilful aggravation.
Before the farmer as he stooped.
Touched with accusing consternation :
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EARLY POEMS
Soothing her aa she sobhed aloud : —
' Not me ! not me I Oh, no, no, no I
Not me ! God will not take me in I
Nothing can wipe away my sin I
I shall not see her : you will go ;
You and all that she loves so :
Not me I not me I Oh, no, no, no I'
Colourless, her long black hair,
like seaweed in a tempest tossed
Tangling astray, to Joan's care
She yielded like a creature lost :
Yielded, drooping toward the ground,
As doth a shape one half-hour drowned.
And heaved from sea with mast and spar.
All dark of its immortal star.
And on that tender heart, inured
To flatter basest grief, and fight
Despair upon the brink of night.
She suffered herself to sink, assured
Of refuge ; and her ear inclined
To comfort ; and her thoughts resigned
To counsel ; her wild hair let brush
From off her weeping brows ; and shook
With many little sobs that took
Deeper-drawn breaths, till into sighs.
Long sighs, they sank; and to the 'hushi'
Of Joan's gentle chide, she sought
Childlike to check them as she ou^t,
Looking up at her infantwise.
And Willie, gazing on them both,
Shivered with bliss through blood and brain,
To see the darling of his troth
Like a maternal angel strain
The sinful and the sinless child
At once on either breast, and there
In peace and promise reconciled
Unite them : nor could Nature's care
With subtler sweet beneficence
Have fed the springs of penitence.
Still keeping true, liiough harshly tried,
The vitu prop of human pride.
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TO THE COUNTRY
)od and wold, 'era with cold, here, day by day, ler ray, •er ditty ; w-mated and gay, n every spray — 1 the aongless City 1 >ii and smoke, inter's grey, skins away :
intry awaits thee with pity ee in her delight, thy kindling sight ; and night,
and watch for, and wait thee, ies can thus belate thee.
opping their cones, f pines
e fresher tones, le glad sun shines.
rer the brooks,
decay]
the dead leaves at play,
live with the rooks.
^ cowslips are springing,
with king-cup gold,
lambs in the fold,
, and singing, and singing.
3 when April is fair, brighter the more it may weep : erfly wake from their sleep, 'ater and air.
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RLY POEMS
^very hill,
[leys at eve ; but noon and at midnight the moon throne to Orion's bright zone, t darkened world's repose ; :rD Sinus glows.
of opening buds ; Dt the otter that whistles 'mid the wet winter bristles ned in the fattening floods, lid fish without fear of a gun, ihield him, and thou vilt shun ! I under the sun bounty of Spring doth dwell ow, in the waters that run, man as well.
:et o' the year
Jl lean and weak,
om his famished sleep,
tch doth seek,
can streteh and leap :
y king-cups burning near
m 'tis the sweet o' the year.
)rks up his mound
Idered piny soil,
busy ground
ioy of earnest toil :
ing pine-cones, dry and sere,
him 'tis the sweet o' the year,
lis on the wall
1 out the creature springs,
body small,
1 his dusty wings :
nd cups, all shining clear,
lim 'tis the sweet o' the year.
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THE SWEET 0' THE YEAR 91
Now the brown bee, wild and wise.
Hums abroad, and roves and roams. Storing in his wealthy thighs
Treasure for the golden combs : Dewy buds and blossoms dear Whisper 'tis the sweet o' the year. Now the merry m^ds so fair
Weave the wreaths and choose the queen, Blooming in the open air.
Like fresh flowers upon the green ; Spring, in every thought sincere, liirilJs them with the sweet o' the year. Now the lads, all quick and gay.
Whistle to the browsing herds, Or in the twilight pastures grey
Learn the use of whispered words : First a blush, and then a tear. And then a smile, I' the sweet o' the year. Now the May-fly and the fish
Play again from noon to night; Every breeze begets a wish.
Every motion means delight :
Heaven high over heath and mere Crowns with blue the sweet o' the year. Now all Nature is alive.
Bird and beetle, man and mole; Bee-like goes the human hive,
Lark-like sings the soaring soul : Hearty faith and honest cheer Welcome in the sweet o' the year.
AUTUMN EVEN-SONG
The long cloud edged with streaming grey
Soars from the West ; The red leaf mounts with it away,
Showing the nest A blot among the branches bare : Tbete b a cry of outcasts in the air.
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EVEN-SONG
izes, darting chill,
vn the lake ;
m the yellow hill,
ts wake
r labouring rooks :
; light the river looks.
les of the old hall
the lone space
nset and the squall ;
ts face
nmers to the la^t :
ghty minstrels in the blast.
itted roadways shine
reen light
Br and the pine :
lundering night !
earth with hoards of storm :
lottage beckoos warm.
OF COURTESY
vas led to his bridal-bed, I in scorn God-sped : — eltr e n-ithin
as a snake's old skin ;
sin! ceable, nbraceable ;
on a hag's chin ! — as should we,
fire knew he : ght of Courtesy.
' he lay beside reet his bride.
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THE SONG OF COURTESY
niiat think you he did?
O, to spare her pain. And let not his loathing her loatbliness vain
Mirror too plain,
Sadly, sighingly.
Almost dyingly, ISimed he and kissed her once and again. Like Sir Gawain, gentles, should we? SUcnt, all I But for pattern agree There 's none like the Knight of Courtesy-
Sir Gawain sprang up amid laces and curb : Kisses arc not wasted pearls : — What clung in his arms?
O, a maiden flower. Burning with blushes the sweet bride-bower.
Beauty her dower !
Breathing perfumingly ;
Shall I live bloomingly. Said she, by day, or the bridal hour? Thereat he clasped her, and whispered he. Thine, rare bride, the choice shall be. Said ^e. Twice blest is Courtesy I
Of gentle Sir Gawain they faad no sport. When it was morning in Arthur's court; What think you they cried?
Now, life and eyes ! This bride is the very Saint's dream of a prize,
Fresh from the skies '.
See ye not, Courtesy
Is the true Alchemy, Turning to gold all it touches and tries? Like the true knight, so may we Make the basest that there be Beautiful by Courtesy 1
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THE THREE MAIDENS
There were three maidens met on the highway ;
The sun was down, the ni^t was late : And two sang loud with the hirds of May,
O the nightingale is merry with its mate.
Said they to the youngest. Why walk you there so still ?
The land is dark, the night is late : O, but the heart in my side is ill,
And the nightingale will languish for its mate.
Said they to the youngest, Of lovers there is store ;
The moon mounts up, the night b late : O, I shall look on man no more.
And the nightingale is dumb without its mate.
Said they to the youngest. Uncross your arms and sing ;
The moon mounts high, the night is late : O my dear lover can hear no thing,
And the nightingale sings only to its mate.
They slew him in revenge, and his true-love was his lure ;
The moon is pale, the night is late : His grave is shallow on the moor ;
0 the nightingale is dying for its mate.
His blood is on his breast, and the moss-roots at hb hair ;
The moon is chill, the night is late : But I will lie beside him there :
O the nightingale is dying for its mate.
OVER THE HILLS
The old hound wags his shaggy tail, I know what he would say : the hills we 'II bound, old hound, the bills, and away.
lought for us here save to count the dock,
hang the head all day :
the hills we '11 bound, old hound,
the hills and away.
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OVER THE HILLS
Here among men we 're like the deer
That yonder b our prey : So, over the hills we '11 bound, old hound, ' Over the hills and away.
The hypocrite is master here.
But he 's the cock of clay : So, over the hills we '11 bound, old hound.
Over tile hills and away.
The women, they shall sigh and smile. And madden whom they may :
It 's over the hills we '11 bound, old hound. Over the hills and away.
Let silly lads in couples run
To pleasure, a wicked fay : 1^ ours on the heather to bound, old hound.
Over the hills and away.
Hie torrent glints under the rowan red, And shakes the bracken spray :
What joy on the heather to bound, old hound. Over the hilb and away.
The suD bursts broad, and the heathery bed Is purple, and orange, and gray :
Away, and away, we '11 bound, old hound. Over the hills and away.
JUGGLING JERRY
Pitch here the tent, while the old horse grazes :
By the old hedge-mde we 'II halt a stage. It 's nigh my last above the daisies :
My next leaf '11 be man's blank page. Yes, my old prl ! and it 's no use crying :
Juggler, constable, king, must bow. One that outjuggles all 's been spying
Long to have me, and he has me now.
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JUGGLING JERRY
I, lass, have lived no gipsy, flaunting
Finery while his poor helpmate grubs : Coin I 've stored, and you woa't be wanting:
You shan't beg from the troughs and tul:». Nobly you 've stuck to me, though in bis kitchen
Many a Marqub would bail you Cook ! Palaces you could have ruled and grown rich in.
But your old Jerry you never forsook.
Hand up the chirper ! ripe ale winks in it ;
Let 's have comfort and be at peace. Once a stout draught made me light as a lionet.
Cheer up ! the Lord must have his lease. May be — for none see in that black hollow —
It 's just a place where we 're held in pawn. And, when the Great Juggler makes as to swallow.
It 's just the sword-trick — I un't quite gone I
Yonder came smells of the gorse, so nutty,
Gold-like and wann : it 's the prime of May. Better than mortar, brick and putty,
Is God's house on a blowing day. Lean me more up the mound ; now I feel it :
All the old heath-smells! Ain't it strange? There 's the world laughing, as if to conceal it.
But He 's by us, juggling the change.
I mind it well, by the sea-beach lying.
Once — it 's long gone — when two gulls we beheld. Which, as the moon got up, were flying
Down a big wave that sparked and swelled. Crack, went a gun : one fell : the second
Wheeled round him twice, and was oS for new luck: There in the dark her white wing beckon'd : —
Drop me a kiss — I 'm the bird dead-atnick 1
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THE CROWN OF LOVE
O MIGHT I load my arms with thee,
Like that young lover of Romance Who loved and gained 90 gloriously
The fair Princess of France I Because he dared to love so high,
He, bearing her dear weight, shall speed To where the mountain touched on sky :
So the proud king decreed. Unhalting he must bear her on.
Nor pause a space to gather breath. And on the height she will be won ; —
And she was won in death I Red the far summit flames with mom.
While in the plain a glistening Court Surrounds the king who practised acorn
Through such a mask of sport. She leans into his arms ; she lets
Her lovely shape be clasped : he fares. God speed him whole 1 The knights make bets :
The ladies lift soft prayers,
O have you seen the deer at chase ?
O have you seen the wounded kiteT So boundingly he runs the race.
So wavering grdws his fii|^t. — My lover ! linger here, and slake
Thy thirst, or me thou wilt not win. — See'st thou the tumbled heavens T they break I
They beckon us up and in. — Ah, hero-love t unloose thy hold :
0 drop me like a cursM thing. — See'st thou the crowded swards of goldT
They wave to us Rose and Ring. — O death-white mouth I 0 cast me down !
Thou diest? Then with thee I die. —See'st thou the angels with their Crown?
We twain have reached the sky.
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Tar Stmi n" 3nn. TTatf -THicn le'TS-
T) ibwne the aiiRNid :
Sttw it. se^^r.
And vidi one bknr.
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THE HEAD OF BRAN THE BLEST
' Be it written,
Tliat all I wrought Waa for Britain,
Id deed and thought : Be it written,
That while I di^\ Glory to Britain ! '• •' .*"■
Is my last cry. ■...•.*
' Glory to Britain ! ' •',;•''...
Death echoes me rouira,*'* "". Gloiy to Britain ! .-' _> ,^
The worid shall resound. "'•*•*• . Glory to Britain ! •',.■' ".
In niin and fall, Glory to Britain !
Is heard over all.'
Bum, Sun, down the seal Bran lies low with thee.
Burst, Mom, from the main I Bran so shall rise again. '
Blow, Wind, from the field 1 Bran's Head is the Briton's shield.
Beam, Star, in the West I
Bright bums the Head of Bran the Blest
Crimson-footed, like the stork,
From great ruts of slaughter. Warriors of the Golden Torque •
Cross the lifting water. Princes seven, enchaining hands.
Bear the live head homeward. Lo I it speaks, and still commands :
Gazbg far out foamward.
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HE MEETING
of lightning sense he hollows thunder; h know not whence the speech, and wonder. i,o,n the steep, th« f»ithful Seven !dnight, hear, in sleep, BT under heaven. taing on the mere, »stle shadow, their heads, and Fear Jie miaty meadow. :1 it is not Death g dark espousal : id of endless breath, giog carousal 1 rn 1 a health is drunk, lat shall keep going : he pebble sunk ; the circle growing I dge the Head of Bran ! lis lead they follow, leads in Britain plan Death cannot swalloV I
IE MEETING
-road through a common of furze,
lis of pine, ran white ;
iron, with thistles, and burrs,
r-threads, droop'd in the light.
thin blue veil peered sick ;
I grazed close and still ;
a farm by a yellow rick
lily under a hill.
he round of the silver net ;
the swift bird chased ;
filers moved and met
tt hazy waste.
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THE BEGGAR'S SOLILOQUY 1
One was a girl with a babe that throve.
Her ruin and her bliss ; One was a youth with a Uwless love,
WTio clasped it the more for thb.
The girl for her babe hummed prayerful speech ;
The youth for his love did pray ; Each cast a wistful look on each,
And either went their way.
THE BEGGAR'S SOLILOQUY
Now, this, to my notion, is pleasant cheer.
To lie all alone on a ragged heath, Where your nose isn't sniffing for bones or beer.
But a peat-fire smells like a garden beneath. The cottagers bustle about the door.
And ^e girl at the window ties her strings. She 's a dish for a man who 's a mind to be poor;
Lord I women are such expensive things.
We don't marry beggars, says she : why, no :
It seems that to make 'em is what you do ; And as I can cook, and scour, and sew,
1 needn't pay half my victuals for you. A man for himself should be able to scratch,
But tickling 's a luxury : — love, indeed I Love bums as long as the lucifer match,
Wedlock 's the candle ! Now, that 's my creed.
The church-bells sound water-like over the wheat ;
And up the long path troop pair after pair. The man 's well-brushed, and the woman looks neat:
It 's man and woman everywhere ! Unless, like me, you lie here flat.
With a donkey for friend, you must have a wife : She pulls out your hair, but she brushes your hat.
Appearances make the best half of life.
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, ^BBK . x^ onvx VT=2. i^ softest ot taps, ^^M wM "^ ne^K ^9' a taUowy face !
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THE BEGGAR'S SOLILOQUY
On the contrary, I 'm Conservative quite ;
There 's beggara in Scripture 'mongst Gentiles and Jews: It '3 nonsense, trying to set things right.
For if people will give, why, who '11 refuse T That stopping old custom wakes my spleen :
The poor and the rich both in giving agree : Your tight-fisted sbopmaii 'a the Radical mean :
Tliere 's nothing in conunon 'twixt him and me.
He says I 'm no use I but I won't reply.
You 're lucky not being of use to him I On week-days he 's playing at Spider and Fly,
And on Sundays he sings about Cherubim I Nailing shillings to counters is his chief work :
He nods now and then at the name on his door: But judge of us two, at a bow and a smirk,
I tUnk I 'm Ms match : and I 'm honest — that 'b
No use I well, I mayn't be. You ring a pig's snout.
And then call the animal glutton 1 Now, he, Mr. Shopman, he 's nought but a pipe and a spout
Who won't let the goods o' this world pass free, Tlis blazing blue weather all round the brown crop.
He can't enjoy ! all but cash he hates. He 's only a snail that crawb under bis shop ;
Though he has got the ear o' the magistrates.
Now, giving and taking '3 a proper exchange.
Like question and answer : you 're both content.
But buying and selling seems always strange ;
You 're hostile, and that 's the thing that 's meant.
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re no pride
e chaps to
-hnghol
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BY THE ROSANNA'
Stakebr Thal, Ttbol. The old grey Alp has caught the cloud, And the torrent river sings aloud ; The glacier-green Rosanoa sings An organ song of its upper springs. Foaming under the tiers of pine, I see it dash down the dark ravine, And it tumbles the rocks in boisterous play, With an earnest will to find its way. Sharp it throws out an emerald shoulder,
And, thundering ever of the mountain. Slaps in sport some giant boulder.
And tops it in a silver fountain. A chain of foam from end to end. And a solitude so deep, my friend. You may forget that man abides Beyond the great mute mountain-sides. Yet to me, in this high-walled solitude Of river and rock and forest rude. The roaring voice through the long white chain Is the voice of the world of bubble and brain.
I Gnd it where I sought it least ; I sought the mountain and the beast. The young thin air that knits the nerves, The chamois ledge, the snowy curves ; Earth in her whiteness looking bold To Heaven for ever as of old.
And lo, if I translate the sound Now thundering in my ears around, 'Tis London rushing down a hill. Life, or London ; which you will !
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ROSANNA
a follow the bubble, bo hurry and eddy, pasaioD, and trouble I true, though unsteady.
>ar aod the strife,
life I
ndmost, too ;
las a beauty in view;
lasing the rocks :
es, and wooing of blocks.
Dt monotoue
niix'd with shrieks ;
;'s stifled moan,
ible usurer, tweaks.
bellows the Topic ;
lay clean for a penny :
roscopic
ves in the face of the many.
13 the word,
:he volume gone, uty, undeterred : s we both ward, willing or loth.
your mood, 10 think it sad on your haunts intrude, 1 're hunting the bubble like mad ?
ise the Nymph alone;
in a region of lymph, s evade your own.
i wistfully
ipe, tender and fresh ; thless, or kiss'd fully, red of flesh.
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BY THE ROSANNA H
She dances, and gleams, now under the wave. Now on a fem-branch, or fox-glove bell ;
ITiro' a wreath of the bramble she eyes me grave; She has a secret she will not tell.
But if I follow her more and more.
If 1 hold her sacred to each lone spot. She 'II tell me — what I knew before ;
For the secret is, that she can't be caught I
She lives, I swear ! We join hands there. But what 's her use? Can you declare? If she serves no purpose, she must take wing : Art stamps her for an ugly thing.
Will she fly with the old gods, or join with the new ?
Is she made of the stuff for a thorough alliance? Or, standing alone, does she dare to go thro'
The ordeal of a scrutiny of Science ?
What say you, if, in this retreat,
While she poises tiptoe on yon granite slab, man, I introduce her, shy and sweet,
To a short-neck'd, many-caped, London cabman ?
You gasp I she totters I And is it too much ? Mayn't he take off his hat to her ? hope tor a touch ? Get one kind curtsey of atrial grace For his most liberal grimace ?
It would do him a world of good, poor devil I And Science makes equal on this level : Remember that ! — and his friend, the popular Mr. Professor, learned and jocular. Were he to inspect her, and call her a foam-bow, I very much fear it would prove a bome-blow. We couldn't save her ! — she 'd vanish, fly ;
Tlio' she 's more than that, as we know right well ; But who shall expound to a hard cold eye
The infinite impalpable ?
A Queen on sufferance must not act My lady Scornful : — thus presuming.
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} BY THE HOSANNA
If Sentiment won't wed with Fact, Poor Sentiment soon needs perfuming.
Let her curtsey with becoming tact To cabman caped and poet blooming ! —
No, I wouldn't mix Porter with Montepulciano !
I ask you merely, without demanding. To give a poor beggar his buon' mono : —
Make my meaning large with your understanding !
The cicada sits spinning his wheel on the tree ; The little green lizard slips over the stone Like water : the waters flash, and the cone
Drops at my feet. Say, how shall it be?
Your Nymph is on trial. Will she own Her parentage Humanity ? Of her essence these things but form a part ; Her heart comes out of the human heart.
Tremendous Thought, which I scarce dare blab, man ! The soul she yet lacks — the illumination Immortal ! — it strikes me like inspiration.
She must get her that soul by wedding the cabman !
Don't ask me why : — when Instinct speaks.
Old Mother Reason is not at home. But how gladly would dance the days and the weeks !
And the sky, what a mirth -em bracing dome ! If round sweet Poesy's waist were curl'd The arm of him who drives the world !
Could she claim a higher conquest, she? And a different presence bis would be 1 I see him lifting hb double chin
On his three-fold comforter, snifBng and smirking. And showing us all that the man within
Has had his ideas of her secretly lurking.
Confess that the sight were as fine — ay, as fair I As if from a fire-ball in mid-air She glow'd before you woman, spreading With hands the hair her foot was treading I
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BY THE ROSANNA 111
'Twere an effort for Nature both ways, and which
The mightier I can't aver; If we screw ourselves up to a certain pitch,
She meets us — that I know of her.
She is ready to meet the grim cabman half-way I
Now 1 and where better than here, where, with thunder Of waters, she might bathe his clay, ^ And enter him by the gate of wonder?
It takes him doubtless long to peel.
Who wears at least a dozen capes :
' Yet if but once she makes bim feel,
The Man comes of hb multiform shapes.
To make him feel, friend, is not easy.
/ once did nourish that ambition : But there he goes, purple, and greasy, and wheezy.
And waits a greater and truer magician 1
Hark to the wild Rosanna cheering !
Never droops she, while changing clime At every leap, the levels nearing:
F^th in ourselves is faith in Time I
And faith in Nature keeps the force
We have in us for daily wear. Come from thy keen Alps down, and, hoarse,
Tell to the valleys the tale I bear,
0 River!
Now, my friend, adieu ! In contrast, and in likeness, you Have risen before me from the tide. Whose channel is narrow, whose noise is wide; Whose rage is that of your native seas ; Buzzing of battle like myriad bees. Which you have heard on the Euxine shore
Sounding in earnest. Here have I placed Tile delicate spirit with which you adore
Dame Nature in lone haunts embraced. Have I frighted it, frail thing, aghast?
1 have shown it the way to live and last I
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ng links of foam ih home,
1 hear them bellow, tand of a gallant fellow !
g here, and they u far away.
and the aah-pale peaks, to my cheeks, eck'd, clear light green— 3 course be seen, emerald shoulder, ■ of the mountain, at boulder, r fountain.
e Toes,
passionate Wili, :«t rose, village lily.
en I took flight ity whose carol ;r's loud in the night, is barrel.
: Alps to scale, ing river ; t like a gale, ;hts in a quivn.
ipe, and vine under my vision, th the green-eyed wine my head for admission.
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J
I held the village lily cheap,
And the dmuD around her idle :
Lo, quietly as I lay to sleep,
The bells led me off to a bridal.
My bride wore the hood of a B^guine, And mine was the foot to falter";
Three cowled monks, rat-eyed, were seen ; The Cross was of bones o'er the altar.
The Cross waa of bones ; the priest that read,
A spectacled necromancer : But at the fourth word, the bride I led
Changed to an Opera dancer.
A young ballet-beauty, who perked in her place,
A darling of pink and spangles ; One fair foot level with her face,
And the hearts of men at her ankles.
She whirled, she twirled, the mock-priest grinned. And quickly his m^k unriddled ;
TwBS Adnan I loud his old laughter dinned ; Then he seized a fiddle, and fiddled.
He fiddled, he glowed with the bottomless fire,
like Sathanas in feature : All through me He fiddled a wolfish desire
To dance wiUi that bright creature.
And gathering courage I said to my soul.
Throttle the thing that hinders ! When the tliree cowled monks, from black as coal.
Waxed hot as furnace-cinders.
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twiriing: they leapt between-whiles: ered with laughter : lown the awful aisles, iding after.
XIII
s, by the fretted walls, thic arches : — Lck confession's ubbing his marches.
stone warriors frowned, mts strode forward : ; them from holy ground ; d them nor'ward.
he great cathedral door ; ley traversed ocean : n its boiling floor, id commotion.
alleys they spun like tops : 'or ages and ages, ife bereft of stops, intinuous pages.
XVII
;e awake,
?ith the fever fretting,
■rest-lake,
the moon were netting.
lite, by the curls
lat leaves hung swaying.
twining girls
rd, long locks disarraying.
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Tbeir cheeks had the satin frost-glow of the moon ;
Their eyea the fire of Sirius. TTiej' circled, and droned a monotonous tune,
Abandoned to love delirious.
Uke lengths of convolvulus torn from the hedge.
And trailing the highway over, TTie dreamy-eyed mistresses circled the sedge.
And called for a lover, a lover 1
I sank, I rose through seas of eyes. In odorous swathes delicious :
TTiey fanned me with impetuous sighs, They bit me with kisses vicious.
My ears were spelled, my neck was coiled. And I witli their fury was glowing,
When the marbly waters bubbled and boiled At a watery noise of crowing.
They dragged me low and low to the lake : Their kisses more stormily showered ;
On the emerald brink, in the white moon's wake. An earthly damsel cowered.
Fresh heart-sobs shook her knitted hands
Beneath a tiny suckling, As one by one of the doleful bands
Dived like a fairy duckling.
XXV
And now my turn had come — O me !
What wisdom was mine that second I I dropped on the adorer's knee ;
To that sweet figure I beckoned.
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PHANTASY
ne ! for now I know that Nature gave me, t honest love I know : — lily I save me 1
and the alaterhood, lassioD-born phantoma are fleeing ! lie to flesh and blood b own being !
alse to flesh and blood he star within him : d hungry sisterhood le tides shall win bim I
save me I save I 1 is with the holy ; — ered to feel the wave, nkiag slowly : —
ave and the under-tug es, when — starting and shrin) the water-jug 1 with mom is blioking.
sunny pnme reak and arbour : telfry -chime
Sevilla's Barber.
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THE OLD CHARTIST
Whate'er I be, old Eogland is my dam I
So there '3 my answer to the judges, clear I 'm nothing of a fox, nor of a lamb ; I don't know how to bleat nor how to leer :
I 'm for the nation ! That 's why you see me by the wayside here, Ketuming home from transportation.
It 's Summer in her bath this mom, I think. I 'm fresh as dew, and chirpy as the birds : And just for joy to see old England wink Thro' leaves again, I could harangue the herds :
Isn't it something To speak out like a man when you 've got words. And prove you 're not a stupid dumb thing?
Hiey shipp'd me off for it ; I 'm here again.
Old England is my dam, whate'er I be !
Says I, I 'II tramp it home, and see the grain:
' If yOu see well, you 're king of what you see :
Eyesight is having, L If you 're not given, I said, to gluttony. ' Such talk to ignorance sounds as raving.
You dear old brook, that from his Grace's park
Come bounding 1 on you run near my old town : My lord can't lock the water ; nor the lark. Unless he kills him, can my lord keep down.
Up, is the song-note I I 've tried it, too : — for comfort and renown, I rather pitch'd upon the wrong note.
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THE OLD CHARTIST
[ 'm not ashamed : Not beaten 'a still my boast :
Again I '11 rouse the people up to strike. But home 's where different politics jar most. Resffectability the women like.
Thifl form, or that form, — The Government may be hungry pike, But don't you mount a Chartist platform I
Well, well 1 Not beaten — spite of them, I shout ;
And my estate is suffering for the Cause. — Now, what b yon brown water-rat about. Who washes his old poll with busy paws?
What does he mean by 't? It 's like defying all our natural laws. For him to hope that he '11 get clean by 't.
His seat b on a mud-bank, and his trade
Is dirt : — he 's quite contemptible ; and yet The fellow 's all as anxious as a maid To show a decent dress, and dry the wet.
Now it 's his whisker. And now his nose, and ear : he seems to get Each moment at the motion brisker I
To see him squat like little chaps at school, I could let fly a laugb with all my might. He peers, hangs both his fore-paws : — bless that fool, He 's bobbing at his frill now 1 — what a sight 1
Licking the dish up, As if he thought to pass from black to white, like parson into lawny bishop.
The elms and yellow reed-flags in the sun
Look on quite grave : — the sunlight flecks his ^de ;
And links of bindweed-flowers round him run. And shine up doubled with him in the tide.
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THE OLD CHARTIST
/ 'm nearly splitting. But nature seems like seconding his pride, And thinks that his behaviour 's fitting.
That isle o' mud looks baking dry with gold.
His needle-muzzle still works out and in. It really is a wonder to behold. And makes me feel the bristles of my chin ;
Judged by appearance, I fancy of the two I 'm nearer Sin, And might as well commence a clearance.
And that 's what my fine daughter said : — she meant :
Pray, hold your tongue, and wear a Sunday face. Her husband, the young linendraper, spent Much argument thereon : — I 'm their disgrace.
Bother the couple ! I feel superior to a chap whose place Commands bim to be neat and supple.
But if I go and say to my old hen :
I 'II mend the gentry's boots, and keep discreet, Until they grow loo violent, — why, then, A warmer welcome 1 might chance to meet :
Warmer and better. And if she fancies her old cock is beat. And drops upon her knees — so let her I
She suffered for me : — women, you 'II observe,
Don't suffer for a Cause, but for a man. When I was in the dock she show'd her nerve : I saw beneath her shawl my old tea-can Trembling . . . she brought it To screw me for my work : she loath'd my plan. And therefore doubly kind I thought it.
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e of that same tea : gic floats like oil,
fellows disagree, all are in a coil : it pardon. ry pot will boil
great Tea-garden !
the Dandy's day,
[e 's furbishing his dress,-
— and I say,
:at amid the cress, —
ard labour ! —
to godliness,
s heaven's neighbour I
3on, my old boy ! iperiors far too long, profit as my joy, ;nt while I 've denounced the
later!
le the sniggering throng,
and my Creator.
er and his wife
; taking off my hat.
'II answer ; in my life
B democrat, tion
r own esteem, old rat I the British nation.
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GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN
'Heicb, boysl' cried Grandfather Bridgeman, 'it's time
btioK dinner to-day.' He lifted the crumpled letter, and thumped a surprising
'Hurrah!' Up jumped all the echoing young ones, but John, with the
starch in his throat. Said, ' Father, before we make noises, let 'a see the contents
of the note.' lbs aid man glared at him harshly, and twinkling made
answer: 'Too bad! John Bridgeman, I 'm always the whisky, and you are the
water, my lad I '
But soon it was known thro' the house, and the house ran
over for joy, That news, good news, great marvels, had come from the
soldier boy ; Young Tom, the luckless scapegrace, oflfshoot of Methodist
John; His grandfather's evening tale, whom the old man hfdled
as his son. And the old man's shout of pride was a shout of his victory,
too; For he called his affection a method : the neighbours' opinions
he knew.
Meantime, from the morning table removing the stout break- fast cheer,
He drink of the three generations, the milk, the tea, and thebeer
(Alone in its generous reading of pints stood the Grandfather's
m).
The women for sight of the missive came pressing to coax and to hug.
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JEMAN
1 smack ; thereupon
luDday, the naughty
e auctioneer, miller, ted in the range of £ntiful ladies, prime fd, in meek hope to said, and the light puddings well made
'obin still piped, but
ces of larks ringing
ssoms that fell from
licken the sap. eadows in gold, and
the maiden breath
fifteen of his blood, that the dinner was
ing laburnums con- liair of the Grand-
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GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN 123
^e heard one little child crying, 'Dear brave Cousin Tom 1'
as it leapt ; Then murmured she: 'Let me spare them!' and passed
round the walnuts, and wept.
Yet not from sight had she slipped ere feminine eyes could
detect The figure of Mary Charlworth. ' It 's just what we all might
expect,' Was uttered: and: 'Didn't I tell you?' Of Mary the
rumour resounds, That she is now her own mistress, and mbtress of five thousand
pounds. 'Twas she, they say, who cruelly sent young Tom to the war. Miss Mary, we thank you now I If you knew what we 're
thanking you for 1
But, 'Have her in: let her hear it,' called Grandfather
Bridgeman, elate. While Mfury's black-gloved fingers hung trembling with flight
on the gate. Despite the women's remonstrance, two little ones, lighter
than deer. Were loosed, and Mary, imprisoned, her whole face white as
a tear. Came forward with culprit footsteps. Her punishment was
The pity in her pale visage they read in a different sense.
'You perhaps may remember a fellow. Miss Charlworth, a
sort of black sheep,' The old man turned his tongue to ironical utterance deep : ' He caraeof a Methodist dad, so It wasn't his fault if he kicked. He earned a sad reputation, but Methodists are mortal strict. His name was Tom, and, dash me I but Bridgeman I think
you might add : Whatever he was, bear in mind that he came ot a Methodist
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El BRIDGEMAN
E
ened, till Mary, starting, ex~ randson?' 'Tom Bridgeman rther, the words that sent Tom to whom they all owed mighty ith her eyes on the letter, she dtered, 'The date, may I ask,
CI
jok at in a letter,' the farmer be parson.' The Bridgeman One turned, and while shifting rtaio she knows more than we ro I' The some, resuming her I the moment she found it a
s snarling noises of cats,
aed. '"Three cheers, and off
iten them, Daddy, and tough ight hours smelling powder and
-and now he commands asalute, i^glandl Heigh I see him lift
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GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN
' — An officer ! ay. Miss Charlworth, he is, or he is ao to be ;
You 11 own war isn't such humbug : and Glory means some- thing, you see.
"But don't say a word," he continues, "against the brave French any more."
— That stopt me : we 'il now march together, I couldn't read further before.
That " brave French " 1 couldn't stomach. He can't see their cunning to get
Us Britons to fight their battles, while best half the winnings they net 1'
The old man sneered, and read forward. It was of that
desperate fight ; — The Muscovite stole thro' the miat-wreatha that wrapped the
chill Inkermann height, Where stood our silent outposts : old England was in them
that day I O sharp worked his ruddy wrinkles, as if to the breath of the
fray They moved 1 He sat bareheaded : his long hair over him
slow Swung white aa the silky bog-9owers in purple heath-hollows
that grow.
And louder at Tom's first person : acute and in thunder the
'I' Invaded the ear with a whinny of triumph, that seem'd to
defy The hosts of the world. All heated, what wonder he little
could brook To catch the sight of Mary's demure piuitanical look ? And still as he led the onslaught, bis treacherous side^hots
be sent At her who was fighting a battle as fierce, and who sat there
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?TOFATHER BRIDGEMAN
le, and like hedgehogs the Rus^ns rolled
Ic.
me there."— He '3 no coward; for when,
me at the quick,
ais, was a breakfast. — "My stomach felt
impse
; at home with the dear cuddled-up little
e winter brickfields at midnight, hot fire
It.
iust leashed bloodhounds : no heart of the
It.
xvu grumbler, Bob Harris, remarked that we :en:
ick Grady, 'just tell 'em they know how t men ! ' our old words : ' If the opposite side isn't
ve counted a dozen, the pluckiest lads have
le enemies' pepper; the Colonel roared, we
Fwas first like a blanket : and then a long sea.
xvni lit me and the Frenchman : it happened u how : , hear, if you love me, and put aside pre-
Grandfather" — ^Tom don't — aave it '3 a
; some pits for the rifles, just dug od our
g wing :
nd forwards, and backwards we went, and
v-exed,
I never surrender a foot when the Russians
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GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN 127
'"I know that life's worth keeping." — Ay, so it is, lad; so
itis!— "But my life belongs to a woman." — Does that mean Her
Majesty, Miss? — " These Russians came lumping and grinning : they 're fierce
at it, though they are blocks. Our fellows were pretty well pumped, and looked sharp for
the little French cocks. Lord, didn't we pray for their crowing ! when over us, on the
hill-top, Behold the first line of them skipping, like kangaroos seen
on the bop.
' " That sent me into a passion, to think of them spying our
flight!" Heigb, Tom! you've Bridgeman blood, boy! And, "'Face
them I ' I shouted : ' All right ; Sure, Serjeant, we '11 take their shot dacent, like gentlemen,'
Grady replied. A ball in his mouth, and the noble old Irishman dropped by
my side. Hien ^ere was just an instant to save myself, when a short
wheeze Of bloody lungs under the smoke, and a red-coat crawled up
on his knees.
' " Twas Ensign Baynea of our pariah." — Ah, ah, Miss Charl-
worth, the one Our Tom fought for a young lady T Come, now we 've got
into the fun ! — "I shouldered bim : he primed his pistol, and I trailed my
musket, prepared," Wfay, that 's a fine pick-a-back for ye, to make twenty
Russians look scared ! " TTiey came — never mind how many ; we couldn't have run
very well. We fought back to back : ' face to face, our lost time I ' he
sud, smiling, and fell.
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ANDFATHEB BBIDGEMAN xxn
: wild for liis body : the beggars saw glittering
0 send to his mother. I got some hard knocks itings,
1 more than angel, or devil, except in the wind, wore at a Russian for showing his teeth, and
lick, as from heaven, a man on a horse rode
swung his bright sabre: I can't write you : scene.
xxm lb arms, and half at his stirrup, he bore roe
: among my old comrades : before I could tell
north,
hand up, and kissed it 1 Don't ever let any
. Frenchmen, I near him I I can't find his I seek.
d a General, surely he was, and, God bless him
love a whole nation.'" The ancient man iking dim.
half woeful, was seen on his face as he turned ;ach of his children, like one who but faintly
an old mirror. Then gathering sense in his
lard on his knee-cap. 'Your hand, Tom, the
]w kissed I
loy's old pounder ! I say he 's a gentleman ! '
ssed to one daughter ; bade her the remainder
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GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN
Tom properly stated his praises in facts, but the lady pre*
ferred To deck tbe narration with brackets, and drop her additional
word. What nobler Chrbtian natures these women could boast, who,
'twas known. Once spat at the name of their nephew, and now made his
praises their own ! TTk letter at last was finished, the hearers breathed freely,
and sign Was given, ' Tom's health ! ' — Quoth the farmer : ' Eh, Miss T
are you weak in the spine? '
For Mary bad sunk, and her body was shaking, as if in a fit. Tom's letter she held, and her thumb-nail the month when
the letter was writ Fast-dinted, while she hung sobbing: 'O, see, Sir, the letter
b old! 0, do not be too happy I' — 'If I understand you, I'm
bowled t' Said Grandfather Bridgeman, 'and down go my wickets 1 —
not happy I when here, Heie 's Tom Uke to marry his General's daughter — or widow
— I '11 swear !
'I wager he knows how to strut, too I It 's all on the cards
l£at the Queen Will ask him to Buckingham Palace, to say what he 's done
and he 's seen. Victoria 's fond of her soldiers : and she 's got a nose for
a fight. If Tom tells a cleverish story — there is such a thing as a
knight ! And don't he look roguish and handsome! — To see a girl
snivelling there — By George, Miss, it 's clear that you 're jealous I ' — ' I love
him ! ' she answered his stare.
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DFATHER BRIDGEMAN
led the voice of a womao. — 'Ah! now!' ic reply, a bit too lat«, so it 'a oo use your piping
luifly : ' Old Lawyer Charlworth was rich ; structions in kicking Tom into the ditdi. utiful daughter, that doesn't prove Tom
s my motto ! and here 's my grog growing
XXIX
lintly repeated : ' for four long weeks I
on you my burden; such grief for you
d!
ed for you ! ' The old man burst on her
likely time, Miss! a pretty occasion to
ageous, that now, of all times, one should
lible pity! Far better had Mary been
: stammered in this bewildering way, ^r could bear it, and begged her to go,
pering nonsense at such a time. Pricked
nt him to glory : — you 've come here to
sowed.
ed ; and the silence the elders preserved
I)03om this begging-petition was read.
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GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN
And that it was scarcely a bargain that she who had driven him wild
Should share now the fruits of hb valour, the womea ex- pressed, as they smiled.
The family pride of the Bridgemans was comforted; still, with contempt,
They looked on a monied damsel of modesty quite so exempt.
' 0 give me force to tell them ! ' cried Mary, and even as ^e spoke,
A shout and s hush of the children : a vision on all of them broke.
Wheeled, pate, in a chair, and shattered, the wreck of their
hero was seen ; The ghost of Tom drawn slow o'er the orchard's shadowy
green. Could this be the martial darting they joyed in a moment
ago? 'He knows it?' to Mary Tom murmured, and closed his
weak lids at her 'No.' ' Beloved I ' she said, falling by him, ' I have been a coward :
I thought You lay in the foreign country, and some strange good might
be wrought.
'Each day I have come to tell him, and failed, with my hand
on the gate. I bore the diieadful knowledge, and crushed my heart with its
weight The letter brought by your comrade — he has but just read it
aloud! It only reached him tbb morning I ' Her head on his shoulder
she bowed. Thm Tom with pity's tenderest lordiness patted her arm. And eyed the old white-head fondly, with something of doubt
and alarm.
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THE PROMISE IN DISTURBANCE •
How low when angels fall their black descent. Our primal thunder tells : known is the pain Of music, that nigh throning wisdom went, And one false note cast wailful to the insane. Now seems the language heard of Love as rain To make a mire where truitfulness was meant. The golden harp gives out a jangled strain, Too like revolt from heaven's Omnipotent. But listen in the thought; so may there come Conception of a newly-added chord. Commanding space beyond where ear has home. In labour of the trouble at its fount, Leads Life to an intelligible Lord The rebel discords up the sacred mount.
MODERN LOVE •
Br this he knew she wept with waking eyes :
That, at his hand's light quiver by her head.
The strange low sobs that shook their common bed
Were called into her with a sharp surprise.
And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes.
Dreadfully venomous to him. She lay
Stone-still, and the long darkness flowed away
With muffled pulses. Then, as midnight makes
Her giant heart of Memory and Tears
Drink the pale drug of silence, and so beat
Sleep's heavy measure, they from head to feet
Were moveless, looking through their dead black years.
By vain regret scrawled over the blank wall,
like sculptured effigies they might be seen
Upon their marriage-tomb, the sword between ;
Each wishing for the sword that severs all.
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brought the task.
, that let him in
: for their sio :
each wore a mask.
T beauty had !
f poison-flowers :
long the hours,
:ered, he went mad,
I the light was brown
world, forgot,
I dull murder-spot.
le seemed to crown
en again
neas, and strove
f love,
dering heap of pain.
t now of the man ?
s beneath a heel,
le cannot feel,
I he can.
ig? Only mark
from her on him I
;n her eyes swim
, leaving dark
mad'st the thing so fair,
r even now 1
her cool brow leet him there I
I know too well 3 overcast :
in the Past.
;h I heard not the bell !
Dve to warm, lem to his lip : wreck with the ship, i" from the storm.
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MODERN LOVE
Or if Delusion came, 'twas but to show The coming minute mock the one that went Cold as a mountain in its star-pitched tent, Stood high Philosophy, less friend than foe : ^liom self-caged Passion, from its prison-bars. Is always watching with a wondering hate. Not till the fire b dying in the grate. Look we for any kinship with the stars. Oh, wisdom never comes when it is gold, And the great price we pay for it full worth : We have it only when we are half earth. Little avails that coinage to the old I
A message from her set his brain aSame.
A world of household matters filled her mind.
Wherein he saw hypocrisy designed ;
She treated him as sometfiing that is tame,
And but at other provocation bites.
Familiar was her shoulder in the glass.
Through that dark mn : yet it may come to pass
That a changed eye finds such familiar sights
More keenly tempting than new loveliness.
The ■ What has been ' a moment seemed his own :
The splendours, mysteries, dearer because known.
Nor less divine : Love's inmost sacredness
Called to him, 'Gomel' — In his restraining start.
Eyes nurtured to be looked at scarce could see
A wave of the great waves of Destiny
Convulsed at a checked impulse of the heart.
It chanced his lips did meet her forehead cool. She had no blush, but slanted down her eye. Shamed nature, then, confesses love can die : An?'lt)(}St she punishes the tender fool Who will believe what honoura her the most ! Dead I is it dead t She has a pulse, and flow Of tears, the price of blood-drops, as I know. For whom the midnight sobs arbund Love's ghost.
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MODERN LOVE
I do not know myself without thee more : In this unholy battle I grow base : If the same soul be under the same face. Speak, and a taste of that old time restore 1
He felt the wild beast in him betweenwhilea
So masterfully rude, that he would grieve
To see the helpless delicate thing receive
His guardianship through certain dark defiles.
Had he not teetb to rend, and hunger too ?
But still he spared her. Once; 'Have you nofear?'
He said : 'twas dusk ; she in his grasp ; none near.
She laughed : ' No, surely ; am I not with you ? '
And uttering that soft starry 'you,' she leaned
Her gentle body near him, looking up ;
And from her eyes, as from a poison-cup.
He drank until the flittering eyelids screened.
Devilish mahgnant witch I and oh, young beam
Of heaven's circle-glory I Here thy shape
To squeeze like an intoxicating grape —
I might, and yet thou goest safe, supreme.
But where began the change ; and what 's my crime ?
The wretch condemned, who has not been arraigned,
Chafes at his sentence. Shall f, unsustained.
Drag on Love's nerveless body thro' all time?
I must have slept, since now I wake. Prepare,
You lovers, to know Love a thing of moods :
Not, like hard life, of laws. In Love's deep woods,
I dreamt of loyal Life : — the offence is there I
Love's jealous woods about the sun are curled ;
At least, the sun far brighter there did beam. —
My crime is, that the puppet of a dream,
I plotted to be worthy of the world.
Ob, had I with my darling helped to mince
The facts of life, you .still had seen me go
With hindward feather and with forward toe,
Her much-adored delightful Fairy Prince 1
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low3, where the bee
loney of the Spring,
jotes from the larks on wing
an-dew, wander we.
. then ? for now,
I running rings pour showera:
y is on the flowers,
jance upon her brow.
ture swears there is no change
Now, as then, the grace ig earth in its embrace. 13 she to feel it strange? k'est. There wilt thou see the sun's decline : n in death divine, slain by thee.
ture she destroys,
in the distance lies
out from dim rich skies : Dur's supporting joys ed flavour, which begat 3, and still should breed ope, — earth's modest seed, apting ; not that the world is flat reature I embraced Illusion went : loss I were content, lich my foot is based,
blotted : but the whole ocking Past will stay :
of a day, e of my soul.
it Eternities I' on her way. ' So nHist 3 nothing more than dust I' •f her harmonies
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MODERN LOVE 139
She is full sure I Upoo her dying rase
She drops a look of fondness, and goes by.
Scarce any retrospection in her eye ;
For she the laws of growth most deeply knows,
Whose hands bear, here, a seed-bag — there, an urn.
Pledged she herself to aught, 'twould mark her end !
This lesson of our only visible friend
Can we not teach our foolish hearts to learn 1
Yes ! yes ! — but, oh, our human rose is fair
Surpassingly 1 Lose calmly Love's great bliss.
When the renewed for ever of a kiss
Whirls life within the shower of loosened hair I
What soul would bargain for a cure that brings
Contempt the nobler agony to kill ?
Rather let me bear on the bitter ill,
And strike this rusty bosom with new stings I
It seems there is another veering fit,
Since on a gold-haired lady's eyeballs pure
I looked with little prospect of a cure,
The while her mouth's red bow loosed shafts of wit.
Just heaven I can it be true that jealousy
Has decked the woman thus ? and does her head
Swim somewhat for possessions forfeited ?
Madam, you teach me many things that be.
I open an old book, and there I find
That ' Women still may love whom they deceive.'
Such love I prize not, madam ; by your leave.
The game you play at is not to my mind.
I think she sleeps : it must be sleep, when low Hangs that abandoned arm toward the floor ; The face turned with it. Now make fast the door. Sleep on : it is your husband, not your foe. The Poet's black stage-lion of wronged love Frights not our modern dames . — well if he did ! Now will I pour new light upon that lid, FuU-sloping like the breasts beneath. 'Sweet dove.
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DERN LOVE
Nay, pardon : I disturb. Her waking infant-stare Jie burden my hands bear : ing to tne when no curb >n's tongue. She trembles through; e — the whole instrument : — ter lately sent. y like : the name is new.
tcked days there was an hour, ;ht steadily aglow,
beheld the red chasm grow g coab. Our library-bower to us : and hushed we sat 1 Time is whispering, led doors we heard them sing : S mixed good wine with chat, t Life's greatest treasure lay
was our talk. ' Ah, yes '. : I never thought it less. i that sentence to unsay, e domed blackening, I found t against my kiss, and swift ! of sobs her breast did lift : — d by that taste ! that sound I
lostess, I am host. er cheerfuller? She keeps tellectual deeps t. They see no ghost, rface-eyes we ply the ball : ist contagious game : ETON, shall be its name, the devils might appal I ;ater wonder ; in Uiat we, acting nought can tire, ■ue hypocrites, admire ; (s. Love's ephemerioe,
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MODERN LOVE 141
Shoot gaily o'er the dbhes and the wine.
We waken envy of our happy lot.
Fast, sweet, and golden, shows the marriage-knot.
Dear guests, you now have seen Love's corpse-light shine.
XVIII * Here Jack and Tom are paired with Moll and Meg. Curved open to the river-reach is seen A country merry-making on the green. Fair space for signal shakings of the leg. That little screwy fiddler from his booth, Whence flows one nut-brown stream, commands the
joints Of all who caper here at various points. I have known rustic revels in my youth : The May-fly pleasures of a mind at ease. An early goddess was a country lass : A charmed Amphion-oak she tripfted the grass. What life was that 1 lived? The life of these? Heaven keep them happy 1 Nature they seem near. They must, I think, be wiser than I am ; They have the secret of the bull and lamb. Tis true that when we trace its source, 'tis beer.
XIX
No state is enviable. To the luck alone
Of some few favoured men I would put cl^m.
I bleed, but her who wounds I will not blame.
Have I not felt her heart as 'twere my own
Beat thro' me ? could I hurt her ? heaven and hell 1
But I could hurt her cruelly 1 Can I let
My Love's old time-piece to another set.
Swear it can't stop, and must for ever swell?
Sure, that 's one way Love drifts into the mart
Where goat-legged buyers throng. I see not plain : —
My meaning is, it must not be again.
Gj^t God ! the maddest gambler throws his heart.
"ff any state be enviable on earth,
"Tis yon bora idiot's, who, a3 days go by.
Still rubs his hands before him, like a fly.
In s queer sort of meditative mirth.
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MODERN LOVE
Qot of those miserable males iniiT at vice and, daring not to snap, erefore hope for heaven. I take the hap my deeds. The wind that fills my saib Is ; but I am helmsman. Am 1 wrecked, K the devil has sufficient weight ar : I Uy it not on him, or fate. ^, he 's damned. That man I do suspect •aird, who would burden the poor deuce what ensues from his own slipperiness. * just found a wanton-scented tress old desk, dusty for lack of use. ys and nights it is demonstrative, like some aged star, gleam luridly, those times I must ask charity, I not any charity to give T
iree are on the cedar-shadowed lawn ;
iend being third. He who at love once laughed
:he weak rib by a fatal shaft
c through, and telb his passion's bashful dawn
adiant culmination, glorious crown,
'this 'she said : went'thus': most wondrous she.
yes grow white, encountering : that we are three,
tful ; then together we look down.
e demands our blessing; b convinced
words of wedded lovers must bring good.
lestion ; if we dare ! or if we should !
lat him, with light laugh. We have not winced.
she has fallen. Fainting points the sign
ppy things in wedlock. When she wakes,
loks the star that thro' the cedar shakes :
)St moist hand clings mortally to mine.
may the woman labour to confess? ■ is about her mouth a nervous twitch.
imething to be told, or hidden : — which?
[I glimpse of hell in thb mild guess.
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MODERN LOVE
She has desires of touch, as if to feel
That bU the household things are things she knew.
She stops before the glass. What sight in view?
A face that seems the latest to reveal !
For she turns from it hastily, and tossed
Irresolute steals shadow-like to where
I stand ; and wavering pale before me there.
Her tears fall still as oak-leaves after frosL
She will not apeak. I will not ask. We are
League-sundered by the silent gulf between.
You burly lovers on the village green.
Yours is a lower, and a happier star 1
'Tis Christmas weather, and a country house Receives us : rooms are full : we can but get An attic-crib. Such lovers will not fret At that, it b half-said. The great carouse Knocks hard upon the midnight's hollow door, But when 1 knock at hers, 1 see the pit. Why did I come here in that dullard fit? I enter, and lie couched upon the floor. Passing, I caught the coverlet's quick beat : — Come, Shame, bum to my soul I and Pride, and Pain- Foul demons that have tortured me, enchain I Out in the freezing darkness the lambs bleat. The small bird stiffens in the low starlight. I know not how, but shuddering as I slept, I dreamed a banished angel to me crept : My feet were nourished on her breasts all night.
The misery is greater, as I live ! To know her flesh so pure, so keen her sense. That she does penance now for no offence. Save against Love. The less can I forgive 1 The less can I forgive, though I adore That cruel lovely pallor which surrounds Her footsteps ; and the low vibrating sounds Tliat come on me, as from a magic shore.
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JODERN LOVE
lut most subtle to find out loul. Madam, 'tis understood ilay upon their womanhood, ison gone. And yet 1 doubt d. That nun-like look waylays L ! I do but wait a sign ! yes of pride I thy mouth to mine I I die Uiirsting. Go thy ways I
lat French novel? Tell me why, lite unnatural. Let us see. it seems, the usual three : wife, and lover. She — but fie I '11 not hear of it. Edmond, devout chagrin doth share ; id absinthe are his penitent fare, ject makes her over-fond : fresh sin, he tries rosbif. iiusband is no more abused : » her ere the tear is used, dl on one tremendous If i^ — ise between tbem. She does choose ; 3usband, like a proper wife, [y dear, these things are life : think, is worthy of the Muse.
eds, an eagle in high skies,
ath his wings : from reddened eve
ay dawn. In vain they weave
>elow while far he flies.
TFOw strikes him, there 's a change.
D the track of bis spent pain,
>s are the links of a harsh chain,
the ground, with narrow range, t then haa Love become.
in my bosom erst :
»ith the serpent I am cursed.
where the mouth b dumb.
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MODERN LOVE
Speak, and I see the side>lie of a truth. Perchance my heart may pardon you this deed : But be no coward : — you that made Love bleed, You must bear all the venom of his tooth I
Distraction ia the panacea, Sir I I hear my oracle of Medicine say. Doctor ! that same sjieciiic yesterday I tried, and the result will not deter A second trial. Is the devil's line Of golden hair, or raven black, composed T And does a cheek, like any sea-shell rosed, Or clear as widowed sky, seem most divine? No matter, so I taste forgetful ness. And if the devil snare me, body and mind, I Here gratefully I score : — he seemgd kind. When not a soul would comfort my distress I O sweet new world, in which 1 rise new made ! O Lady, once I gave love : now I take ! Lady, 1 must be flattered. Shouldst thou wake The passion of a demon, be not afraid.
I must be flattered. The imperious Desire speaks out. Lady, I am content To play with you the game of Sentiment, And with you enter on paths perilous ; But if across your beauty I tlm)w light. To make it threefold, it must be all mine. First secret ; then avowed. For I must shine Envied, — I, lessened in my proper sight I Be watchful of your beauty, Lady dear ! How much hangs on that lamp you cannot tell. Most earnestly I pray you, tend it well ; And men shall see me as a burning sphere : And men shall mark you eyeing me, and groan To be the God of such a grand sunflower I I feel the promptings of Satanic power, While you do homage unto me alone.
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MODERN LOVE
f For no longer can I cast
d about this head of gold.
ars, but springing from the mould ;
consecration of the Past I
!ggared ? Something more than earth
: I cannot be at peace
ve upon a mortal lease.
! the woman at her worth !
ancient wealth wherewith I clothed
lakedness, and could endow
J splendour a white brow
I grinned at me the fact I loathed ?
a kiss now I and no wave
od that whirls me to the sea.
rill 1 we 'II sit contentedly,
xtt of honey on the grave.
XXX*
first? First, animals; and next at a leap; on whom jistant shadow of the tomb, draweth on the tobib for text, ^te comes Love, the drowning sun : je light the shadow loses form, irds of life, and life is warm, nd instinct now are one. lys : ' My children most they seem ast know me : therefore I decree all suffer.' Swift doth young Love flee, I wakened, shivering from our dream, udy Nature we are wise, few who live but with the day : animals are they. — my sonnet to your eyes,
lead has wit in it. I live far higher life, near her. like a young philosopher ; cause he is diminutive.
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MODERN LOVE
For woman's manly god must not exceed Proportions of the natural nursing size. Great poets and great sages draw no prize With women : but the little lap-dog breed, Who can be hugged, or on a mantel-piece Perched up for adoration, these obtain Her homage. And of this we men are vain ? Of this ! "Tis ordered for the world's increase I Small flattery I Yet she has that rare gift To beauty, Common Sense. I am approved. It is not half so nice as being loved. And yet I do prefer it. What 's my drift f
Full faith I have she holds that rarest ^ft
To beauty. Common Sense. To see her lie
With her fair visage an inverted sky
Bloom-covered, while the underlids uplift.
Would almost wreck the faith ; but when her mouth
(Can it kiss sweetly ? sweetly !) would address
The inner me that thirsts for her no less.
And has so long been languishing in drouth,
I feel that I am matched ; that 1 am man I
One restless comer of my heart or bead.
That holds a dying something never dead.
Still frets, though Nature giveth all she can.
It means, that woman is not, I opine,
Her sex's antidote. Who seeks the asp
For serpents' bites? "Twould calm me could I clasp
Shrieking Bacchantes with their soub of wine !
'In Parb, at the Louvre, there have I seen The sumptuously-feathered angel pierce Prone Lucifer, descending. Looked he fierce. Showing the fight a fair one ? Too serene 1 The young Pharsalians did not disarray Less willingly their locks of floating silk : That suckling mouth of his upon the milk Of heaven might still be feasting through the fray.
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MODERN LOVE
;1 ! when men the Fiend do fight, ler not upon such easy terms. it in the struggle grow these worms, e grow half human, all is right.' Lady in a distant spot, kerne : WhUe mind is mastering day, ntadet it. If the spy you play, ad thisl Stjvnge love-talk, is it not?
uld speak with me. So, now it comes : ; or else Fire ! She 's well ; she thanks dship. Our chain on silence chinks, between, above his twiddling thumbs, well? Most excellent in health ! Is, too, I diligently peruse, expected to give news : no noisier. By stealth irt scrutinizing snakes. She 's glad , says her quivering under-lip. )t you?' 'How can I be?' 'Take ship 1 ess is somewhere to be had.' or me !' Her voice is barely heard, elted, and make no pretence, lonplace I freeze her, tongue and sense. Vesuvius is deferred.
gar nature I have wived, ensitive, she takes a wound r soul, as if the sense had swooned, :hought of vengeance had survived, ices has she : but relief to one whose suffering is acute, ire of natures that are mute I b you in acts : their steps are brief. ! doing? What does she demand idence or me? She is not one lure this torpidly, and shun Jiat crowd about a woman's hand.
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MODERN LOVE 149
At Forfeits during snow we played, and I
Must kiss her. 'Well performed 1' I said: then she:
"Tis hardly worth the money, you agree?'
Save her? What for? To act this wedded Uel
My lady unto Madam makes her bow.
The charm of women is, that even while
You 're probed by them for tears, you yet may amile,
Nay, laugh outright, as I have done just now.
The interview was gracious : they anoint
(To me aside) each other with fine praise :
Discriminating compliments they raise.
That hit with wondrous aim on the w^c point :
My Lady's nose of Nature might complain.
It is not fashioned aptly to express
Her character of large-browed steadfastness.
But Madam says : Thereof she may be vain I
Now, Madam's faulty feature is a ^azed
And inaccessible eye, that has soft fires.
Wide gates, at love-time, only. This admires
My L^y. At the two I stand amazed.
Along the garden terrace, under which
A purple valley (lighted at its edge
By smoky torch-flame on the long cloud-ledge
Whereunder dropped the chariot) glimmers rich,
A quiet company we pace, and wait
The dinner-bell in prae-digestive calm.
So sweet up violet banks the Southern balm
Breathes round, we care not if the bell be late :
Though here and there grey seniors question Time
In irritable coughings. With slow foot
The low rosed moon, the face of Music mute.
Begins among her silent bars to climb.
As in and out, in silvery dusk, we thread,
I hear the laugh of Madam, and discern
My Lady's heel before me at each turn.
Our tragedy, is it alive or dead ?
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MODERN LOVE
Give to imaginatioti some pure light
Id human form to fix it, or you shame
The devils with that hideous human game : —
Imagination urging appetite I
Thus fallen have earth's greatest Gogmagogs,
Who dazzle us, whom we can not revere :
Imagination is the charioteer
That, in default of better, drives the hogs.
So, therefore, my dear Lady, let me love !
My soul is arrowy to the light in you.
You know me that I never can renew
The bond that woman broke : what would you have?
'Tis Love, or Vileness ! not a choice between,
Save petrifaction I What does Pity here?
She killed a thing, and now it 'a dead, 'tis dear.
Oh, when you counsel me, think what you mean I
She yields : my Lady in her noblest tnood
Has yielded : she, my gold en -crowned rose I
The bride of every sense ! more sweet than those
Who breathe the violet breath of maidenhood.
0 visage of still music in the sky 1
Soft moon 1 I feel thy song, my fairest friend !
True harmony within can apprehend
Dumb harmony without. And hark 1 'tis nigh I
Belief has struck the note of sound : a gleam
Of living silver shows me where she shook
Her long white fingers down the shadowy brook.
That ^ngs her song, half waking, half in dream.
What two come here to mar this heavenly tune?
A man is one : the woman bears my name.
And honour. Their hands touch I Am I still tame?
God, what a dancing spectre seems the moon I
I bade my Lady think what she might mean. Know I my meaning, I? Can I love one, And yet be jealous of another ? None Commits such folly. Terrible Love, I ween.
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MODERN LOVE
Has might, even dead, half sighing to upheave llie lightless seas of selfishness amain : Seas that in a man's heart have no run To fall and still them. Peace can I achieve. By tmning to this fountain-source of woe. This woman, who 's to Love as fire to wood ? She breathed the violet breath of maidenhcxtd Against my kisses once I but I say, No 1 The thing b mocked at ! Helplessly afloat, I know not what I do, whereto I strive. The dread that my old love may be alive Has seized my nursling new love by the throat.
How many a thing which we cast to the ground. When others pick it up becomes a gem I We grasp at all the wealth it is to them ; And by reflected light its worth is found. Yet for us still 'tis uothing I and that zeal Of false appreciation quickly fades. This truth is little known to human shades. How rare from their own instinct 'tis to feel ! They waste the soul with spurious desire, That is not the ripe flame upon the bough. We two have taken up a lifeless vow To rob a living passion : dust for fire I Madam b grave, and eyes the clock that tells Approaching midnight. We have struck despair Into two hearts. 0, look we like a pair Who lor fresh nuptials joyfully yield all else?
XUI* I am to follow her. There is much grace In women when thus bent on martyrdom. They think that dignity of soul may come, Perchance, with dignity of body. Base ! But I was taken by that air of cold And statuesque sedateness, when she said 'I 'm going' ; lit a taper, bowed her head. And went, as with the stride of Pallas bold.
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MODERN LOVE
Fleshly indifference horrible I The hands Of Time now signal : O, she 'a safe from me I Within those secret walls what do I see? Where first she set the taper down she stands : Not Pallas : Hebe shamed 1 Thoughts black as death Like a stirred pool in sunshine break. Her wrists I catch : she faltering, as she half resists, 'You love . . . ? love , , . ? love ... T' all on an indrawn breath. ,
XLIII * Mark where the pressing wind shoots j'avelin-like Its skeleton shadow on the broad-backed wave I Here is a fitting spot to dig Love's grave ; Here where the ponderous breakers plunge and strike. And dart their hissing tongues high up the sand : In hearing of the ocean, and in sight Of those ribbed wind-streaks running into white. If I the death of Love had deeply planned, I never could have made it half so sure. As by the unblest kisses which upbraid The full-waked sense ; or failing that, degrade I 'Tis morning : but no morning can restore What we have forfeited. I see no sin : The wrong is mixed. In tragic life, God wot. No villain need be ! Passions spin the plot : L^ We are betrayed by what is false within.
XLiv" They say, that Pity in Love's service dwells, A porter at the rosy temple's gate. I missed him going : but it is my fate To come upon him now beside his wells ; Whereby I know that I Love's temple leave. And that the purple doors have closed behind. Poor soul ! if, in those early days unkind. Thy power to sting had been but power to grieve. We now might with an equal spirit meet. And not be matched like innocence and vice. She for the Temple's worship has paid price, And takes the coin of Pity as a cheat.
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MODERN LOVE
She sees through simulation to the booe : What 's best in her impeb her to the worst ; Never, she cries, shall Pity soothe Love's thirst, Or foul hypocriay for tru^ atone !
It is the season of the sweet wild rose.
My Lady's emblem in the heart of me 1
So golden-crowned shines she gloriously,
And with that softest dream of blood she glows :
Mild as an evening heaven round Hesper bright !
Ipluck the flower, and smell it, and revive
The time when in her eyes I stood alive,
I seem to look upon it out of Night.
Here 's Madam, stepping hastily. Her whims
Bid her demand the flower, which I let drop.
As I proceed, I feel her sharply stop,
And crush it under heel with trembling limbs.
She joins me in a cat-like way, and talks
Of company, and even condescends
To utter laughing scandal of old friends.
These are the summer days, and these our walks.
XLVI " At last we parley : we so strangely dumb In such a close communion I It befell About the sounding of the Matin-bell, And lo ! her place was vacant, and the hum Of loneliness was round me. Then I rose. And my disordered brain did guide my foot To that old wood where our first love-salute Was interchanged : the source of many throes ! There did I see her, not alone. I moved Toward her, and made proffer of my arm. She took it simply, with no rude alarm ; And that disturbing shadow passed reproved. I felt the pained speech coming, and declared My firm belief in her, ere she could speak. A ghastly morning came into her cheek, While with a widening soul on me she stared.
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5ur /The '•-Lovi
MODERN LOVE
We saw the swallows gathering in the sky. And in the osier-isle we heard them noise. We had not to look back on summer joys. Or forward to a summer of bright dye : But in the largeness of the evening earth spirits grew as we went side by side. le hour became her husband and my bride. Liivu, thai faad lubbed Us so, IhUl) blcaaed-dur dearth I The pilgrims of the year waxed very loud In multitudinous chatterings, as the flood Full brown came from the West, and like pale blood Expanded to the upper crimson cloud. Love, that had robbed us of immortal things, This little moment merfiifjjlli^^gave. Where 1 have seen f across Uie twilight wave The swan sail with her young beneath her n-ings.
XLVIIl "
Their sense is with their senses all mixed in.
Destroyed by subtleties these women are !
More brain, 0 Lord, more brain 1 or we shall mar
Utteriy this fair garden we might win.
Behold ! I looked for peace, and thought it near.
Our inmost hearts had opened, each to each.
We drank the pure daylight of honest speech,
Alas I that was the fatal draught, I fear.
For when of my lost Lady came the word.
This woman, O this agony of flesh 1
Jealous devotion bade her break the mesh.
That I might seek that other like a bird.
I do adore the nobleness ! despise
The act I She has gone forth, I know not where.
Will the hard world my sentience of her share?
I feel the truth ; so let the worid surmise.
xux • He found her by the ocean's moaning verge. Nor any wicked change in her discerned ; And she believed his old love had returned. Which was her exultation, and her scourge, t ' And atlll I see,' In the ralBtnal venloD.
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THE PATRIOT ENGINEER 155
She took his haDd, and walked with him, and seemed The wife he sought, though shadow-like and dry. She had one terror, lest her heart should sigh. And tell her loudly she no longer dreamed. She dared not say, 'This is my breast : look in.' But there 's a strength to help the desperate weak. That night he learned how silence best can speak The awful things when Pity pleads for Sin. About the middle of the night her call Was heard, and he came wondering to the bed. ■ 'Now kiss me, dear! it may be, now!' she said. Lethe had passed those lips, and he knew all.
Thus piteously Love closed what he begat :
The union of this ever-diverse pair 1
These two were rapid falcons in a snare.
Condemned to do the Sitting of the bat.
Lovers beneath the singing sky of May,
They wandered once ; clear as the dew on flowers :
But they fed not on the advancing hours :
Their hearts held cravings for the buried day.
Then each applied to each that fatal knife.
Deep questioning, which probes to endless dole.
Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul l
When hot for certainties in this our life ! —
In tragic hints here see what evermore
Moves dark as yonder midnight ocean's forA^-. ^
Thundering like ramping hosts of warrior horsel
To throw that faint thin line upon the shore ! J "^ fe
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THE PATRIOT ENGINEER •
' Sirs 1 may I shake your hands f
My countrymen, I see ! I 've lived in foreign lands Till England 's Heaven to me. A hearty shake will do me good. And freshen up my sluggish blood.'
"S^
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THE PATRIOT ENGINEER
Into his hard right hand we struck. Gave the shake, and wish'd him luck.
' — From Austria I come.
An English wife to win,
And find an Englbh home,
And live and die therein.
Great Lord I how many a year I 've pined
To drink old ale and speak my mind ! '
Loud rang our laughter, and the shout Hills round the Meuse-boat echoed about.
' — ^Ay, no offence : laugh on,
Young gentlemen : 1 'II join. Had you to exile gone. Where free speech is base coin, You 'd sigh to see the jolly nose Where Freedom's native liquor flows 1'
He this time the laughter led. Dabbing his oily bullet head.
' — Give me, to suit my moods,
An ale-house on a heath, I 'U hand the crags and woods To B'elzebub beneath. A fig for scenery 1 what scene Can beat a Jackass on a green?'
Gravely be seem'd, with gaze intense, Putting the question to common sense.
' — Why, there 's the ale>house b^ich: The furze-flower shining round ;
And there 's my waiting-wench, As lissome as a hound.
With "(inn Rritnnnia!" ere I drink, m artful wink.'
reign landscape while our native Isle.
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THE PATRIOT ENGINEER ]
' — The geese may swim hard-by ;
They gahhle, and you talk : You 're sure there 's not a. spy To mark your name with chalk. My heart 's an oak, and it won't grow In flower-pots, foreigners must know.'
Pensive he stood : then shook his head Sadly ; held out his fist, and said :
' — You 've heard that Hungary 's floor'd ?
They 've got her on the ground. A traitor broke her sword ; Two despots hold her bound.' I 've seen her gasping her last hope : I 've seen her sons strung up b' the rope. 'Nine gallant gentlemen
In Arad they strung up I '
I work'd in peace till then : —
That poison'd all my cup.
A smell of corpses haunted me :
My nostril sniR'd like life for sea.
' Take money for my hire
From butchers ? — not the man I I 've got some natural fire. And don't flash in the pan ; — A few ideas I reveal'd : — Twas well old England stood my shield I 'Said I, "The Lord of Hosts Have mercy on your land 1 I see those dangling ghosts, — And you may keep command. And hang, and shoot, and have your day : They hold your bill, and you must pay.
'"You 've sent them where they 're strong.
You carrion Double-Head I ' 1 hear them sound a gong In Heaven above!" — I said. "My God, what feathers won't you moult For thb 1 " says I : and then I bolt.
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THE PATRIOT ENGINEER
'The Bird 'a a beastly Bird,
And what is more, a fool.
I shake hands with the herd
That flock beneath his rule.
They 're kindly ; and their land is fine.
I thought it rarer once than mine.
' And rare would be its lot.
But that he baulks its powers : It '3 juat an earthen pot For hearts of oak like ours. Think ! Think ! — four days from those frontiers. And I 'm a-head full fifty years.
' tt tingles to your scalps,
To think of it, my boys ! Confusion on their Alps, And all their baby toys I The mountains Britain boasts are men : And scale you them, my brethren ! ' Cluck, went his tongue ; his fingers, snap. Britons were proved all heights to cap. And we who worshipp'd crags,
Where purple splendours bum'd, Our idol saw in rags,
And right about were turn'd. Horizons rich with trembling spirea On violet twilights lost their fires.
And heights where morning wakes
With one check over snow ; — And iron-wallM lakes Where sits the white moon low ; — For us on youthful travel bent, Ti u; -"turesque was rent.
Beauty show'd nders of her face, his Jackass rode, spot of the place. ' our enchanted life his shrill island fife.
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CASSANDRA
And yet we liked him well ;
We laugh'd with honest hearts : — He shock'd some inner spell, And rous'd discordant parts. We echoed what we half abjured ; And hating, smilingly endured.
Moreover, could we be
To our dear land disloyal? And were not also we Of History's blood-Royal? We glow'd to think how donkeys graze Id Eagland, thrilling at their brays.
For there a man may view An aspect more sublime Than Alps against the blue : — The morning eyes of Time 1 The very Ass participates The glory Freedom radiates 1
CASSANDRA •
Captive on a foreign shore, Far from Ilion's hoary wave, Agamemnon's bridal slave Speaks Futurity no more : Death is busy with her grave.
Thick as water, bursts remote Round her ears the alien din, While her little sullen chin Fills the hollows of her throat : Silent lie her slaughter'd kin.
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Once to many a pealing shriek, Lo, from Ilion's topmost tower, llion's fierce prophetic flower Cried the coming of the Greek ! Black in Hades sits the hour.
Eyeing phantoms of the Fast, Folded like a prophet's scroll, In the deep's long shoreward roll Here she sees the anchor cast : Backward moves her sunless soul.
Chieftains, brethren of her joy. Shades, the white light in their eyes Slanting to her lips, arise. Crowding quick the plains of Troy: Now they tell her not she lies.
O the bliss upon the pUins, Where the joining heroes clashed Shield and spear, and, un abash edp Challenged with hot chariot-reins Gods ! — they glimmer ocean-washed.
Alien voices round the ships. Thick as water, shouting Home. Argives, pale as midnight foam, Wax before her awful lips : White as stars that front the gloom.
VI I
Like a torch-flame that by day Up the daylight twists, and, pale. Catches air in leaps that fail. Crushed by the inveterate ray. Through her shines the Ten- Years' Tale.
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Ince to many a pealing ahriek, ■ o, from Ilion's topmost tower, lion's fierce prophetic flower 'ried the coming of the Greek 1 Dock in Hades sits the hour.
till upon her sunless soul rleams the narrow hidden space orward, where her fiery race alters on its ashen goal : till the Future strikes her face.
ee toward the conqueror's car tep the purple Queen whose hate ^fraps red-anned her royal mate I'ith his Asian tempest-star : low Cassandra views her Fate.
[ing of men ! the blinded host hout : — she lifts her brooding chin : Had along the joyous din miles the grand majestic ghost : llytemnestra leads him in.
o, their smoky limbs aloof, hadowing heaven and the seas, 'ates and Furies, tangUng Threes, 'ear and mix above the roof : 'ates and fierce Eumenides.
i the prophetess with rods leaten, that she writhes in air? i^ith the Gods who never spare, Wrestling with the unsparing Gods, one, her body struggles there.
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CASSANDRA
Like the snaky torch-flame wtiite. Levelled as aloft it twists. She, her soaring arms, and wrists Drooping, struggles with the light, Helios, bright above all mbts 1
In his orb she sees the tower. Dusk against its flaming rims, Where of old her wretched limbs Twisted with the stolen power : Ilion all the lustre dims I
O the bliss upon the plfuns. Where the joining heroes clashed Shield and spear, and, unabashed. Challenged with hot chariot-reins Gods ! — they glimmer ocean^washed.
Thrice the Sun-god's name she calls; Shrieks the deed that shames the sky ; Uke a fountain leaping high, Falling as a fountain falls : Lo, the blazing wheeb go by I
reign shore, . hoary wave, ridal slave
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THE YOUNG USURPER
On my darling's bosom Has dropped a living rosy bud.
Fair as brilliant Hesper
Against the brimming flood. She handles him. She dandles him.
She fondles him and eyes him : And if upon a tear he wakes,
With many a kiss she dries him : She covets every move he makes.
And nevec enough can prize him. Ah, the young Usurper 1 I yield my golden throne : Such angel bands attend his hands To claim it for his own.
MARGARET'S BRIDAL EVE
The old grey mother she thrummed on her knee :
There w a rose thai '» ready ; And which of the handsome young men shall it be?
There 's a rose that 's ready for clipping.
My daughter, come hither, come hither to me :
There is a rose that 's ready ; Come, point me your finger on him that you see :
There 's a rose that 'g ready for clipping.
O mother, my mother, it never can be :
There is a rose thai 's ready ; For I shall bring shame on the man marries me :
There '9 a rose thai 's ready for clipping.
Now let your tongue be deep as the sea :
There M a rose thai 's ready ; And the man 'II jump for you, right briskly will he:
There 's a rose that 'a ready for clipping.
L
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OlET'S BRIDAL EVE
pt bitterly t
a rote thai 'a ready ;
t bade did she :
a rose that '» ready for clipping.
F'oung man dropped down on bis knee :
a rose tkal 's ready ;
ve him her hand, woe 's me !
a rose that 'a ready for clipping.
itber, this thing I must say : a ro9e in the garden ; breast where that other lay : bird ainga over the roaea.
iughter, for men are men : a rote in the garden ; blindfold, I tell you agun : bird ainga over the roaea.
len he kisses me I a rose in the garden ; ich shall sweetest be I bird ainga over the roaes.
len I awake in the mom I a rose in the garden ; : his, and the ring b worn : bird airiga over the roaea.
hed and loosened a tress : a rote in the garden ; had of her comeliness : bird ainga over the roaea.
Ink if this thing be sud : a rose in the garden ; rothed came thrice to my bed : bird tinga over the roaet.
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MARGARErs BRIDAL EVE
He died on my shoulder the third cold night : There is a rose in the garden ;
I dragged his body all through the moonhght : And tke bird lingt over the rotes.
But when I came by my father's door : There is a rose in tke garden ;
I felt in a lump on the stiff dead floor : And the bird sir^/s over the rotes.
O neither to heaven, nor yet to hell : There is a rose in the garden ;
Could I follow the lover I loved so well 1 And the bird sings oner the roaet.
The bridesmaids slept in their chambers apart : There it a rote that 's ready ;
Tall Margaret walked with her thumping heart : There 's a rote that 's ready for dipping.
The frill of her nightgown below the left breast : There is a rote that 't ready ;
Had fall'n like a cloud of the moonlighted West : There 's a rose that 's ready /or dipping.
But where the West-cloud breaks to a star : There is a rose that 's ready ;
Pale Margaret's breast showed a winding scar: There 's a rose that > ready for dipping.
0 few are the brides with such a sign I
There is a rose thiU 't ready ; Though I went mad the fault was mine :
There 's a rose that 's ready /or clipping.
1 must speak to him under this roof to-night :
There ts a rose that 'a ready ; I shall bum to death if I speak in the light :
There 'i a rose that '» ready for dipping.
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MARGARET'S BRIDAL EVE
0 my breast ! I must strike you a bloodier wound :
There w o rose that 's ready ; Thtui when I scored you red and swooned :
There 's a rose that 's ready /or clipping.
1 will stab my honom- under his eye :
There is a rose that 's ready ; Though I bleed to the death, I shall let out the lie: There '» a rote that 's ready for clipping.
O happy my bridesmaids I white sleep is with you I
There is a rose thai 's ready ; Had he chosen among you he might sleep too !
There 's a rose thai 'a ready for clipping.
O happy my bridesmaids ! your breasts are clean :
There is a rose thai 's ready ; You carry no mark of what has been 1
There '3 a rose that 's ready for clipping.
An hour before the chilly beam :
Red rose and while in the garden ; The bridegroom started out of a dream : And the bird sings over the rosea.
He went to the door, and there espied :
Red rose and white in the garden ;
The figure of his silent bride :
And the bird ainga tner tAe rosea.
CHe went to the door, and let her in : Red rose and white in the garden ; Whiter looked she than a child of sin : And the bird aings over the roses.
! looked 30 white, she looked so sweet ;
Red rose and white in the garden ; i looked so pure he fell at her feet :
And the bird sings over the rosea.
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MARGARETS BRIDAL EVE
He fell st her feet with love and awe :
Red rote and vikite in the garden ;
A stainless body of light he saw :
And die bird «iny« over the rotes.
0 Margaret, say you are not of the dead !
Red rose and while in the garden ; My bride I by the angels at night are you led ? And the bird sings over the roses.
1 am not led by the angels about :
Red rose and whOe in the garden ; But I have a devil within to let out :
And the bird singi over the roses.
0 Mai^ret I my bride and saint 1
Red rose and whiie in the garden ; There is on you no earthly taint :
And the bird sings over the rases.
1 am no s^t, and no bride can I be :
Red rose and white in the garden ; Until I have opened my bosom to thee : And the bird sings oner the roses.
To catch at her heart she laid one hand : Red rose and white in the garden ;
She told the tale where she did stand : And the bird sings oner the roses.
She stood before him pale and tall :
Red rose and white in the garden ;
Her eyes between his, she told him all : And the bird sings over the roses.
She saw how her body grew freckled and foul :
Red rose and white in the garden ; She b^rd from the woods the hooting owl : And the bird sings over the roses.
With never a quiver her mouth did speak : Red rose and white in the garden ;
O when she had done she stood so meek ! And Ike bird sings over the roses.
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Sbb can be as wise as we,
And wiser when she wishes ; She can knit with cunning wit.
And dress the homely dishes. She can flourish staff or pen,
And deal a wound that lingers; She can talk the talk of men.
And touch with thrilling fingers.
Match her ye across the sea.
Natures fond and fiery ; Ye who zest the turtle's nest
With the eagle's eyrie. Soft and loving is her soul.
Swift and lofty soaring ; Mixing with its dove-like dole
Passionate adoring.
Such a she who 'II match with me ?
In flying or pursuing. Subtle wiles are in her smiles
To set the worid a-wooing. She is steadfast as a star.
And yet the maddest maiden : She can wage a gallant war,
And give the peace of Eden. .
BY MORNING TWILIGHT
NiQHT, like a dying mother. Eyes her young offspring, Day. lie birds are dreamily piping. And O, my love, my darling ! The night is life ebb'd away :
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SHEMSELNIHAR ■ 171
Yet with thee like a full throbbing rose how I bloom !
Like a rose by the fouatain whose showering we hear, As we lie, 0 my lover ! in this rich gloom.
Smelling faint the cool breath of the lemon-groves near. As we lie gazing out on that glowing great star — Ab ! dark on the bosom of Shemselnihar.
Yet with thee am I not as an arm of the vine,
Finn to bind thee, to cherish thee, feed thee sweet?
Swear an oath on my lip to let none disentwine
The life that here fawns to give warmth to thy feet,
1 on thine, thus I no more shall that jewelled Head jar
The music thou breathest on Shemselnihar.
Far away, far away, where the wandering scents
Of all flowers are sweetest, white mountains among.
There my kindred abide in their green and blue tents : Bear me to them, my lover ! they lost me so young.
Let us slip down the stream and leap steed till afar
None question thy claim upon Shemselnihar.
O that long note the bulbul gave out — meaning love 1 O my lover, hark to him and think it my voice 1
The blue night like a great bell-flower from above
Drooping low and gold-eyed : O, but hear him rejoice I
Can it be? 'twas a flash I that accurst scimit&r
In thought even cuts thee from Shemselnihar.
Yes, I would that, less generous, he would oppress.
He would chain me, upbraid me, burn deep brands for hate.
Than with tliis mask of freedom and gorgeousness Bespangle my slavery, mock my strange fate.
Would, would, would, O my lover, he knew — dared debar
Thy coming, and earn curse of Shemselnihar 1 •
A ROAR THROUGH THE TALL TWIN ELM-TREES
A KOAR thro' the tall twin elm-trees The mustering storm betrayed :
The South-wind seized the willow That over the water swayed.
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172 THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN
Then fell the steady deluge In which I strove to doze.
Hearing all night at my window The knock of the winter rose.
The rainy rose of winter !
An outcast it must pine. And from thy bosom outcast
Am I, dear lady mine.
WHEN I WOULD IMAGE
When I would image her features.
Conies up a shrouded head : I touch the outlines, shrinking ;
She seems of the wandering dead.
But when love asks for nothing, f i ...
-And IHiH on Ills bed ot snowA '»'-^ "^ ^-^ The face slips under my eyelids, , ***■
All io its living glow. '*^ "its tlj
Like a dark cathedral city.
Whose spires, and domes, and towers Quiver in violet lightnings,
My soul basl^ on for hours.
ODE TO THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN •
Faib Mother Earth lay on her back last night To gaze her fill on Autumn's sunset skies. When at a waving of the fallen light Sprang realms of rosy fruitage o'er her eyes. A lustrous heavenly orchard hung the West, Wherein the blood of Eden bloomed again : Red were the myriad cherub-mouths that pressed. Among the clusters, rich with song, full fain. But dumb, because that overmastering spell Of rapture held them dumb : then, here and there, A golden harp lost strings ; a crimson shell Burnt grey ; and sheaves of lustre fell to air.
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THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN 173
The illimitable eagerness of hue
Bronzed, and the beamy winged bloom that flew
'Mid those bunched fruits and thronging figures failed.
A green-edged lake of saffron touched the blue.
With isles of fireless purple lying through :
And Fancy on that lake to seek lost treasures sailed.
Not long the silence followed :
The voice that issues from thy breast, O glorious South-west,
Along the gloom-horizon holloa 'd ; Warning the valleys with a mellow roar Through flapping wings ; then sharp the woodland bore
A shudder and a noise of hands :
A thousand horns from some for vale
In ambush sounding on the gale.
Forth from the cloven sky came bands Of revel-gathering spirits ; trooping down. Some rode the tree-tops ; some on torn cloud-strips
Burst screaming thro' the lighted town : And scudding seaward, some fell on big ships :
Or mounting the sea-horses blew
Bright foam-flakes on the black review
Of heaving hulis and burying beaks.
Still on the farthest line, with outpuffed cheeks, Twixt dark and utter dark, the great wind drew ■p 1 *u_i -ligenchanted harmony
liter in the midnight blind :
ihonis to the shrieks
Preluding him : then he,
ig tbunderingly behind,
aim of stiffened Day,
land alleys signals three;
ressure of a sea
L the vale that under lay.
tiling foliage fell :
: old hymning night,
Dryad voices well,
I as their leaves took flight,
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174 THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN
Like souls to wander after death : Great armies in imperial dyes. And mad to tread the air and rise. The savage freedom of the skies To taste before they rot. And here, Like frail white-bodied girls in fear, The birches swung from shrieks to sighs ; The aspens, laughers at a breath. In showering spray-falls mixed their cries. Or raked a savage ocean-strand With one incessant drowning screech. Here stood a solitary beech. That gave its gold with open hand. And all its branches, toning chill, Did seem to shut their teeth right fast. To shriek more mercilessly shrill, And match the fierceness of the blast.
But heard I a low swell that noised Of far-off ocean, I was 'ware Of pines upon their wide roots poised. Whom never madness in the air Can draw to more than loftier stress Of moumfulness, not moumfulness For melancholy, but Joy's excess, That singing on the lap of sorrow faints : And Peace, as in the hearts of saints Who chant unto the Lord their God ; Deep Peace below upon the muffled sod, The stillness of the sea's unswaying floor. Could I be sole there not to see The life within the life awake ; Till onni- bursting from the tree,
From the troubled lake? le wines of Heaven i>ourl L Harp is struck once more, music is for me I le wines of Heaven pour I r a night of Pagan glee I
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THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN 175
There is & curtain o'er us. "^
For once, good souls, we 'II not pretend To be aught better than her who bore us, And is our only visible friend. Hark to her laughter 1 who laughs like this. Can she be dead, or rooted in pain ? She has been slun by the narrow brain. But for us who love her she lives again.
Can she die ? 0, take her kiss !
The crimson-footed nymph is panting up the glade.
With the wine-jar at her arm-pit, and the drunken ivy- braid
Round her forehead, breasts, and thighs : starts a Satyr, and they speed :
Hear the crushing of the leaves : hear the cracking of the bough!
And the whistling of the bramble, the piping of the weed I
But the bull-voiced oak is battling now : The storm has seized him half-asleep. And round him the wild woodland throngs To hear the fury of his songs. The uproar of an outraged deep. He wakes to find a wrestling giant Trunk to trunk and limb to limb. And on his rooted force reliant He laughs and grasps the broadened giant. And twist and roll the Analdm ; And multitudes, acclaiming to the cloud, Cry which is breaking, which is bowed.
Away, for the cymbak clash aloft In the circles of pine, on the moss-floor soft. The nymphs of Uie woodland are gathering there. They huddle the leaves, and trample, and toss; They swing in the branches, they roll in the moss.
They blow the seed on the air. Back to back they stand and blow Hie winged seed on the cradling air.
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THE SPIRIT OP EARTH IN AUTUMN
A fountain of leaves over bosom and back. The pipe of the Fsun comes on their track. And the weltering alleys overflow With musical shrieks and wind-wedded hair. The riotous companies melt to a pair. Bless them, mother of kindness I A star has nodded through The depths of the flying blue. Time only to plant the light Of a memory in the blindness. But time to show me the sight Of my life thro' the curtain of night; Shining a moment, and mixed With the onward-hurrying stream, Whose pressure is darkness to me; Behind the curtain, fixed. Beams with endless beam That star on the changing sea.
Great Mother Nature I teach me, like thee, To kiss the season and shun regrets. And am I more than the mother who bore. Mock me not with thy harmony !
Teach me to blot regrets.
Great Mother I me inspire
With faith that forwanl sets
But feeds the living fire.
Faith that never frets
For vagueness in the form.
In life, O keep me warm I
For, what is human grief?
And what do men desire? Teach me to feel myself the tre^
And not the withered leaf. Fixed am I and await the dark to-be.
And O, green bounteous Earth ! Bacchante Mother ! stern to those Who live not in thy heart of mirth ;
I shrink from, loving thee? ast that gives the rose, with shuddering fall?
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THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN 177
Earth, the mother of all. Moves on her stedfast way. Gathering, flinging, sowing. Mortals, we live in her day. She in her children is growing.
She can lead us, only she,
Unto God's footstool, whither she reaches :
Loved, enjoyed, her gifts must be,
Reverenced the truths she teaches.
Ere a man may hope that he
Ever can attain the glee
"f things without a destiny !
She knows not loss: '
She feels but her need.
Who the winged seed
With the leaf doth toss.
And may not men to this attain ?
lluit the joy of motion, the rapture of being,
Shall throw strong light when our season is fleeing.
Nor quicken aged blood in vain.
At the gates of the vault, on the verge of the plain ?
Life thoroughly lived is a fact in the brain, .
While eyes are left for seeing. Behold, in yon stripped Autumn, shivering grey,
Earth knows no desolation.
She smells regeneration
In the moist breath of decay.
^ophetic of the coming joy and strife.
Like the wild western war-chief sinking Calm to the end he eyes unblinking,
Her voice is jubilant in ebbing life.
He for his happy hunting-fields Forgets the droning chant, and yidds His numbered breaths to exultation In the proud anticipation : Shouting the glories of his nation. Shouting the grandeur of hb race.
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MARTIN'S PUZZLE
Shouting his own great deeds of daring : And when at last desth grasps his face, And stiffened on the ground in peace
He lies with all hb painted terrors glaring ;
Hushed are the trib« to hear a tbr^ding cry : Not from the dead man ; Not from the standers-by : The spirit of the red man
Is welcomed by his fathers up on high.
MARTIN'S PUZZLE
Thkbe she goes up the street with her book in her hand.
And her Good morning, Martin I Ay, lass, how d' ye do? Very well, thank you, Martin 1 — I can't understand 1
I might just as well never have cobbled a shoe ! I can't understand it. She talks like a song;
Her voice takes your ear like the ring of a ^ass ; She seems to give gladness while limping along,
Yet sinner ne'er suffer'd like that little lass.
First, a fool of a boy ran her down with a cart.
Then, her fool of a father — a blacksmith by trade — Why the deuce does he tell us it half broke his heart?
His heart ! — where 's the leg of the poor little raaid 1 Well, that 's not enough ; they must push her downstairs.
To make her go crooked : but why count the list? If it 's right to suppose that our human affairs
Are all order'd by heaven — there, bang goes my fist I
nt For if angels can look on such sights — never mind !
When you 're next to blaspheming, it 's best to be mum. The parson declares that her woes weren't designed ; But, then, with the parson it 's all kingdom-come. T^viA a. \pir. sBVp a soul — a convenient text ;
octrine, not savouring of God. Molly wants 'chastening,' why, next I Michael might taste of the rod.
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MARTIN'S PUZZLE
But, to see the poor darling go limping for miles I
To read booi^ to sick people 1 — and just of sn age \Mien girts learn the meaning of ribands and smiles I
Makes me feel like a squirrel that turns in a cage. The more I push thinking the more I revolve :
I never get farther : — and as to her face, It starts up when near on my puzzle I solve.
And says, 'This cnish'd body seems such a sad case.'
Not that she 's for complaining : she reads to earn pence ;
And from those who can't pay, simple thanks are enough. Does she leave lamentation for chaps without sense T
Howsoever, she 's made up of wonderful stuff. Ay, the soul in her body must be a stout cord ;
She sings little hymns at the close of the day, Though she has but three fingers to lift to the Lord,
And only one leg to kneel down with to pray.
What I ask is, Why persecute such a poor dear.
If there 's Low above all ? Answer that if you can 1 Irreligious I 'm not; but I look on this sphere
As a place where a man should just think like a man. •It isn't fair dealing ! But, contrariwise.
Do bullets in battle the wicked select ? Why, then it 's all chance-work ! And yet, in her eyes.
She holds a fixed something by which I am checked.
Yonder riband of sunshine aslope on the wall.
If you eye it a minute 'II have the same look : So kind ! and so merciful I God of us all !
It 's the very same lesson we get from the Book. Then, is Life but a trial ? Is that what is meant ?
Some must toil, and some perish, for others below : The injustice to each spreads a common content ;
Ay 1 I 've lost it again, for it can't be quite so.
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SONNETS
Am I of them whose blooms are shed, Whose fruits are spent.
Who from dead eyes see Life half dead ; — Because desire is feeble discontent ?
Ah, DO I desire and hope should die. Thus were I.
But in me something clipped of wing
Within its ring Frets ; for I have lost what made The dawn-breeze magic, and the twilight beam A hand with tidings o'er the glade
Waving seem.
TEUE AND SENTIMENT
I SEE a fair young couple in a wood.
And as they go, one bends to take a flower.
That so may be embalmed their happy hour,
And in another day, a kindred mood.
Haply together, or in solitude,
Recovered what the teeth of Time devour.
The joy, the bloom, and the illusive power.
Wherewith by their young blood they are endued
To move all enviable, framed in May,
And of an aspect sisterly with Truth :
Yet seek they with Time's laughing things to wed :
Who will be prompted on some pallid day
To lift the hueless flower and show that dead.
Even such, and by this token, is their youth.
LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT •
On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose. Tired of hb dark dominion swung the fiend Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened. Where sinners hugged their spectre of repose. Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those. And now upon his western wing he leaned, Now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careened.
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EARTH'S SECRET
Not solitarily in fields we find
Earth's secret open, though one page is there ;
Her plainest, such as children spell, and share
With bird and beast ; raised letters for the blind.
Not where the troubled passions toss the mind.
In turbid cities, can the key be bare.
It hangs for those who hither thither fare.
Close interthreading nature with our kind.
They, hearing History speak, of what men were.
And have become, are wise. The gain is great
In vision and solidity ; it lives.
Yet at a thought of life apart from her.
Solidity and vision lose their state.
For Earth, that gives the milk, the spirit givea.
INTERNAL HARMONY
Abbtjked of worthiness we do not dread Competitors; we rather give them hail And greeting in the lists where we may fail : Must, if we bear an aim beyond the head I My betters are my masters : purely fed By their sustainmeot I likewise shall scale Some rocky steps between the mount and vale ; Meanwhile the mark I have and I will wed. So that I draw the breath of finer air. Station is nought, nor footways laurel-strewn. Nor rivals tightly belted for the race. Good speed to them 1 My place is here or there ; My pride is that among them I have place : And thus I keep this instrument in tune.
GRACE AND LOVE •
Two flower-enfolding crystal vases she
1 love fills daily, mindful but of one :
And close behind pale morn she, like the sun
pours, sweet to see,
And dose behind pale morn a Priming our worlcf with light.
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SONNETS
Clear water in the cup, and into me
The image of herself : and that being done,
Choice of what blooms round her fair garden run
In climbers or in creepers or the tree
She ranges with unerring fingers fine.
To harmony so vivid that through sight
I hear, I have her heavenliness to fold
Beyond the senses, where such love as mine,
Such grace as hers, should the strange Fates withhold
Ttieir starry more from her and me, unite.
THE SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE
Tht greatest knew thee, Mother Earth ; unsoured He knew thy sOns. He probed from hell to hell Of human passions, but of love deflowered His wisdom was not, for he knew thee well. Thence came the honeyed corner at his lips, The conquering smile wherein his spirit sails Calm as the God who the white sea-wave whips. Yet full of speech and intershifting tales. Close mirrors of us : thence had lie the laugh We feel b thine : broad as ten thousand beeves At pasture ! thence thy songs, that winnow chaff From grain, bid sick Philosophy's last leaves Whirl, if they have no response — they enforced To fatten Earth when from her soul divorced.
THE SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE
(amtimutt) How smiles he at a generation ranked In gloomy noddings over life ! They pass. Not he to feed upon a breast unthanked, Or eye a beauteous face in a cracked glass. But he can spy that little twist of brain Which moved some weighty leader of the blind Unwitting 'twas the goad of personal pain, ~ ' r in curst eclipse our Mother's mind.
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L
SONNETS
And show m of some rigid harridan The wretched bondmen till the end of time. O lived the Master now to paint ua Man, That little twist of brain would ring a chime Of whence it came and what it caused, to start Thunders of laughter, clearing air and heart.
APPRECIATION
Earth was not Earth before her sous appeared. Nor Beauty Beauty ere young Love was bom : And thou when I lay hidden wast as morn At city-wmdows, touching eyelids bleared ; To none by her fresh wingedness endeared ; Unwelcome unto revellers outworn. I the last echoes of Diana's horn Id woodland heard, and saw thee come, and cheered. No longer wast thou then mere light, fair soul I And more than simple duty moved thy feet. New colours rose in thee, from fear, from shame. From hope, effused : though not less pure a scroll May men read on the heart I taught to beat : That change in thee, if not thyself, I claim.
THE DISCIPLINE OF WISDOM
Rich labour is the struggle to be wise. While we make sure the struggle cannot cease. Else better were it in some bower of peace Sothfu) to swing, contending with the Sies. You point at Wisdom fixed on lofty skies, ' As mid barbarian hordes a sculptured Greece : She falb. To live and shine, she grows her fleece. Is shorn, and rubs with follies and with lies. So following her, your hewing may attain The right to speak unto the mute, and shun That sly temptation of the illumined brain, Deliveries oracular, self-spun. Who sweats not with the flock will seek in vdn To shed the words which are ripe fruit of sun.
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Rub thou thy batteredJaiap : nor claini,jror beg Honours from aught about thee! Light the young. Thy frame b as a dusty mantle hung, O grey one ! pendant on a loosened peg. Thou art for this our life an ancient egg, Or a tough bird : thou hast a rudderless tongue. Turning dead trifles, like the cock of dung. Which runs, Time's contrast to thy halting leg. Nature, it b most sure, not thee admires. But hast thou in thy season set her fires To bum from Self to Spirit through the lash, Honoured the sons of Earth shall hold thee high : Yea, to spread light when thy proud letter I Drops prone and void as any thoughtless dash.
THE WORLD'S ADVANCE ♦
JuDOK mQdIy the tasked world ; and disincline
To brand it, for it bears a heavy pack.
You have perchance observed the inebriate's track
At ni^t when he has quitted the inn-sign :
He plays diversions on the homeward line,
Still that way bent albeit his legs are slack :
A hedge may take him, but he turns not back,
Nor turns this burdened world, of curving spine.
'Spiral,* the memorable Lady terms
Our mind's ascent : our world's advance presents
That figure on a flat ; * the way of worms.
Cherish the promise of its good intents.
And warn it, not one instinct to efface
Ere Reason ripens for the vacant place.
THE GARDEN OP EPICURUS
That Garden of sedate Philosophy
Once flourished, fenced from passion and mishap,
A shining spot upon a shaggy map ;
Where mind and body, in fair junction free.
Luted their joyful concord ; like the tree
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SONNETS
From root to fiowering twigs a flowing sap. Clear Wisdom fouod in tended Nature's lap Of gentlemen the happy nursery. That Garden would on light supremest verge, Were the long drawing of an equal breath Healthful for Wisdom's head, her heart, her aims. Our world which for its Babels wants a scourge. And for its wilds a husbandman, acclaims The crucifix that came of Nazareth.
A LATER ALEXANDRIAN
An inspiration caught from dubious hues
Filled him, and mystic wrynesses he chased ;
For they lead farther than the single-faced.
Wave subtler promise when desire pursues.
The moon of cloud discoloured was his Muse,
Hb pipe the reed of the old moaning waste.
Love was to him with anguish fast enlaced.
And Beauty where she walked blood-shot the dews.
Men railed at such a singer women thrilled
Reaponsively : he sang not Nature's own
Divinest, but his lyric had a tone.
As 'twere a forest-echo of her voice :
What barrenly they yearn for seemed distilled
From what they dread, who do through tears rejoice.
ON OF THE MUSE
/■alt Whitman]
; Muse's livery
Illy paces rouse his taunts,
I his savage haunts,
II he bend the knee ; s of her distillery
urces ; and his woes and wants
il limitation daunts
p; the nymphs blush, not he.
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( SONNETS
Him, when he blows of Earth, and Man, and Fate,
The Muse will hearken to with graver ear
Than many of her train can waken : him
Would fain have taught what fruitful things and dear
Must sink beneath the tidewaves, of their weight,
If in no vessel built for sea they swim.
THE POINT OF TASTE
Unhappt poets of a sunken prime I
You to reviewers are as ball to bat.
They shadow you with Homer, knock you flat
With Shakespeare : bludgeons brainingly sublime
On you the excommunicates of Rhyme,
Because you sing not in the living Fat.
The wiry whizz of an intrusive gnat
Is verse that shuns their self-producing time.
Sound them their clocks, with loud alarum trump.
Or watches ticking temporal at their fobs,
You win their pleased attention. But, bright God
O' the lyre, what bully-drawl era they applaud I
Rather for us a tavern-catch, and bump
Chorus where Lumpkin with his Giles hobnobs.
CAMELUS SALT AT •
What say you, critic, now you have become An author and maternal ? — in this trap (To quote you) of poor hollow folk who rap On instruments as like as drum to drum. You snarled tut-tut for welcome to tum-tum. So like the nose fly-teased in its noon' nap. You scratched an insect-slaughtering thunder-clap wrui. *!,»* i.ai«>^n t\.^ fi""trs and the thumb. Olympian couch, ble or reject, ily pecked, om his pouch I the voice austere, ere, the jeer, the sneer.
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CAMELUS SALTAT •
(Continued)
Oracle of the market I thence you drew
TTie taste which stamped you guide of the inept. —
A North-sea pilot, Hildebrand yclept,
A sturdy and a briny, once men knew.
He loved small beer, and for that copious brew.
To roll ingurgitation till he slept,
Rations exchanged with flavour for the adept :
And merrily plied him captain, mate and crew.
At last this dancer to the Polar star
Sank, washed out within, and overboard was pitched,
To drink the aea and pilot him to land.
O captain-critic ! printed, neatly stitched,
Know, while the pillory-eggs fly fast, they are
Not eggs, hut the drowned soul of Hildebraud.
MY THEME *
Of me and of my theme think what thou wilt : The song of gladness one straight bolt can check. But I have never stood at Fortune's beck : Were she and her light crew to run atilt At my poor holding little would be spilt ; Small were the praise for singing o'er that wreck. Who courts her dooms to strife his bended neck ; He grasps a blade, not always by the hilt. Nathless she strikes at random, can be fell With other than those votaries she deals The black or brilliant from her thunder-rift I say but that this love of Earth reveals A soul beside our own to quicken, quell. Irradiate, and through ruinous floods uplift.
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1) TO CHILDREN: FOR TYRANTS
MY THEME •
{Continued)
'Tib true the wisdom that niy mind exacts
Through contemplation from a heart unbent
By many tempests may be stained and rent :
The Slimmer flies it mightily attracts.
Yet they seem choicer than your sons of facts.
Which scarce give breathing of the sty's content
For their diurnal carnal nourishment :
Which treat with Nature in official pacts.
The deader body Nature could proclaim.
Much life have neither. Let the heavens of wrath
Rattle, then both scud scattering to froth.
But during calms the flies of idle aim
Less put the spirit out, less baffle thirst
For light than swinish grunters, bleat or curst,
TO CHILDREN : FOR TYRANTS *
SnuKE not thy dog with a stick !
I did it yesterday : Not to undo though I gained The Paradise i heavy it rained
On Kobold's flanks, and he lay.
II Little Bruno, our long-ear pup.
From his hunt bad come back to my heel. I heard a sharp worrying sound, And Bruno foamed on the ground.
With Koby as making a meal.
Ill I did what I could not undo
of the Paradise shut
ed it was just.
d in the dust,
m the woodman's hut.
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TO CHILDREN ; FOR TYRANTS
He bewhimpered his welting, and I
Scarce thought it enough for him : so,
By degrees, through the upper box-grove.
Within me an old story hove.
Of a matt and a dog : you shall know.
The dog was of a novel breed.
The Shannon retriever, untried : His master, an old Irish lord. In an oaken armchair snored At midnight, whiskey beside.
Perched up a desolate tower,
Where the black storm -wind was a whip To set it nigh spinning, these two Were alone, like the last of a crew.
Outworn in a wave-beaten ship.
The dog lifted muzzle, and sniffed ;
He quitted his couch on the rug. Nose to Soor, nose aloft ; whined, barked ; And, finding the signals unmarked.
Caught a hand in a death-grapple tug.
He pulled till his master jumped
For fury of wrath, and laid on With the length of a tough knotted staff, Fit to drive the life flying like chaff. And leave a sheer carcase anon.
That done, he sat, panted, and cursed
• cross of this brute : nevermore
luse it to rear such a cur !
gged his legs, pained to stir,
s master, dropped, barked at the door.
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POEMS AND LYRICS OF THE JOY OF EARTH
THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN *
Enter these enchanted woods.
You who dare. Nothing harms beneath the leaves More than waves a swimmer cleaves. • Toss your heart up with the lark. Foot at peace with mouse and worm.
Fair you fare. Only at a dread of dark Quaver, and they quit their form : Thousand eyeballs under hoods
Have you by the hair. Enter these enchanted woods.
You who dare.
Here the snake across your path Stretches in his golden bath : Mossy-footed squirrels leap Soft as winnowing plumes of Sleep : < Ya69es on a chuckle skim Low to laugh from branches dim : Up the pine, where sits the star, Rattles deep the moth-winged jar Each has business of his own ; t But should you distrust a tone, \
Then beware. Shudder all the haunted roods, All the eyeballs under hoods
Shroud you in their glare. Enter these enchanted woods.
You who dare.
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THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
Open hither, open hence, Scarce a bramble weaves a fence. Where the strawberry runs red. With white star-flower overhead ; Cumbered by dry twig and cone, Shredded husks of seedlings flown. Mine of mole and spotted flint : Of dire wizardry no hint. Save mayhap the print that shows Hasty outward -tripping toes. Heels to terror, on the mould. These, the woods of Westermain, Are as others to behold. Rich of wreathing sun and rain ; Foliage lustreful around Shadowed leagues of slumbering sound. Wavy tree-tops, yellow whins. Shelter eager minikins. Myriads, free to peck and pipe : Would you better? would you wprseT You with them may gaaier~r!pe Pleasures flowing not from purse. Quick and far as Colour flies Taking the delighted eyes. You of any well that springs May unfold the heaven of things ; Have it homely and within. And thereof its likeness win, Will you so in soul's deare : This do sages grant t' the lyre, ' This is being bird and more. More than glad musician this ; Granaries you will have a store Past the world of. woe and bliss ; Shariag stiitits bliss -Mid woe ; Harnessed Jojts hungers, no. On the throne Success usurps You shall seat the joy you feel Where a race of water chirps.
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L
THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
Twisting hues of flourished steel : Or where light is caught io hoop Up a clearing's leafy rise. Where the crossing deerherds troop ^ Classic splendours, knightly dyes. Or, where old-eyed oxen chew \ Speculation with the cud, \
Read their pool of vision through, ] - Back to hours when mind was mud / Nigh the knot, which did untwine / Timelessly to drowsy suns ; \
Seeing Earth a slimy spine, \
Heaven a 3[>ace for winging tons^i^- ' Farther, deeper, may you readT" Have you sight for things afield. Where peeps she, the Nurse of seed,* ' Cloaked, but in the peep revealed ; Showing a kind face and sweet : Look you with the soul you see 't. Glory narrowing to grace, Grace to glory magnified. Following that will you embrace Close in arms or aery wide. Banished is the white Foam-bom * Not from here, nor under ban Phoebus lyrist, Phoebe's horn, Kpings of the reedy Fan. Loved of Earth of old they were, I Loving did interpret her ; '
And the sterner worship bars None whom Song has made her stars. You have seen the huntress moon Radiantly facing dawn. Dusky meads between them strewn Glimmering like downy awn ; Argent Westward glows the hunt. East the blush about to climb ; One another fair they front, Transient, yet outshine the time ■ Even as dewlight off the rose In the mind a jewel sows.
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THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
Thus opposing grandeurs live
Here if Beauty be their dower :
Doth she of her spirit give.
Fleetingness will spare her flower.
This is in the time we phiy.
Which no spring of strength would quell;
In subduing does not slay ;
(juides the channel, guards the well :
Tempered holds the young blood-heat.
Yet through measured grave accord
Hears the heart of wildaess beat
Like a centaiu-'s hoof on sward.
I .Drink the sense the notes infuse. You a larger self will find : Sweetest fellowship ensues
JJlHiib the creatures of your kind.
TAy, and Love, if Love it be
I Flaming over / and ME,
I Love meet they who do not shove
(| Cravings in the van of Love.
Knowing love if it be true- Reverence the blossom-shoot Fervently, they are the fruit. Mark them stepping, bear them talk, Goddess is no myth inane. You will say of those who walk In the wood of Westermain. Waters that from throat and thigh Dart the sun his arrows back ; Leaves that on a woodland sigh Chat of secret things no lack ; Shadowy branch-leaves, waters clear, Bare or veiled they move sincere ; Not by slavish terrors tripped ; Being anew in nature dipped,
they step on, these ;
le grace of trees.
ley give, nor hide,
ttered pride,
rished not by light.
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- THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
Lurks the shuffling trickster sprite : * Whereof are strange tales to tell ; Some in blood writ, tombed in hell. Here the ancient battle ends Joining two astonished friends, Who the kiss can give and take With more warmth than in that world Where the tiger claws the snake, Snake her tiger clasps infurled. And the issue of their fight Peoples lands in snarling plight. Here her splendid beast she leads Silken-leashed and decked with weeds Wild as he, but breathing faint Sweetness of unfelt constraint. Love, the great volcano, flings Fires of lower Earth to aky ; I "Love, the sole permitted, sings I Sovereignly of ME and /. ^~Bowers he has of sacred shade. Spaces of superb parade, Voiceful. . , . But bring you a note Wrangling, howsoe'er remote. Discords out of discord spin Round and round derisive din :
vill a pallor pant
icreeches miscreant ;
ipeetres, thick they flee ;
re upon horror broods ;
aughter, monkish glee,
s the vital air.
sse enchanted woods who dare.
t love the light so wetlJ darkness will seem fell/ o you could accost *■ a livid ghost, the phantom wisps away, n smoke to cocks of day.
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THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
In your breast the light must bum
Fed of you, like corn id quern
Ever plumping while the wheel
Speeds the mill and drains the meal.
Light to light seea little strange.
Only features heavenly new ;
Then you touch the nerve o/ Change,
Then of Earth you have the clue ;
Then her two-sexed meanings melt
Through you, wed the thought and felt.
Sameness locks no scurfy pond
Here for Custom, crazy-fond :
Change is on the wing to bud
Rose in brain from rose in blood.
Wisdom throbbing shall you see
Central in complexity ;
From her pasture 'mid the beasts
Rise to her ethereal feasts,
Not, though lightnings track your wit
Starward, scorning them you quit:
For be sure the bravest wing
Preens it in our common spring.
Thence along the vault to soar.
You with others, gathering more,
Glad of more, till you reject
Your proud title of elect.
Perilous even here while few
Roam the arched greenwood with you.
Heed that snare. Muffled by his cavem-cowl Squats the scaly Dragon-fowl,' Who was lord ere light you drank. And lest blood of knightly rank Stream, let not your fair princess Stray : he holds the leagues in stress,
Watches keenly there. Oft has he been riven ; slain
termain.
I forge him curbs,
jes, tame,
as cunning herbs.
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THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
How to cure him sick and lame. Much restricted, much enringed, Much he frets, the hooked and winged.
Never known to spare. "Tis enough : the name of Sage Hits no thing in nature, nought ; Man the leaat, save when grave Age From yon Dragon guards his thought. Eye him when you hearken dumb To what words from Wisdom come. When she says how few are by Listening to her, eye his eye.
Self, his name declare. Him shall Change, transforming late, Wonderously renovate. Hug himself the creature may : What he hugs is loathed decay. Crying, slip thy scales, and slough 1 Change will strip his armour off ; Make of him who was all maw. Inly only thrilling-shrewd, Such a servant as none saw Through his days of dragoohood : Days wheH growling o'er his bone. Sharpened he for mine and thine ; Sensitive within alone; Scaly as in clefts of pine. Change, the strongest son of Life, Has the Spirit here to wife. Lo, their young of vivid breed Bear the lights that onward speed. Threading thickets, mounting glades, Up the verdurous colonnades. Round the fluttered curves, and down. Out of sight of Earth's blue crown. Whither, in her central space. Spouts the Fount and Lure o' the chase.* Fount unresting. Lure divine! There meet all : too late look most. Fire in water hued as wine Springs amid a shadowy host ;
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THE WOODS OP WESTERMAIN
Circled : one close-headed mob, Breathless, scanning divers heaps Where a Heart begins to throb. Where it ceases, slow, with leaps : And 'tis very strange, 'tis said, How you spy in each of them Semblance of that Dragon red. As the oak in bracken-stem.' And, 'tis said, how each and each : Which commences, which subsides : First my Dragon 1 doth beseech Her who food for all provides.' And she answers with no sign ; Utters neither yea nor nay ; Fires the water hued as wine ; Kneads another spark in clay. Terror is about her hid ; Silence of the thunders locked ; Lightnings lining the shut lid ; Fixity on quaking rocked. Lo, you look at Flow and Drought Interflashed and interwrought: Ended b begun, begun Ended, quick as torrents run. Young Impulsion spouts to sink ; Luridness and lustre link ; "lis your come and go of breath ; Mirrored pants the Life, the Death ; Each of either reaped and sown : Rosiest rosy wanes to crone. See you so ? your senses drift ; 'Tis a shuttle weaving swift. ^ Look with spirit past the sense. Spirit shines in permanence. That is she, the view of whom Is the dust within the tomb. Is the inner blush above. Look to loathe, or look to love ; lliink her Lump, or know her Flame ; Dread her scourge, or read her aim ; Shoot your hungers from their nerve ;
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)DS OF WESTERMAIN
xample, serve.
found her sitting grave;
onie ; or, browed with sweat,
it of fool and knave
; smithy's jet.
:e not well to speak ;
, you need but seek.
i she gives the key
Y doorway, she ;
ou stop or steer
^ou are the aeer,
ace she will witeh.
Beauty yours, but gaze
the soul is rich iting, past amaze, rage that endures ivful tremhle yours, eflex of that Fount ', will Reason mount a quenchless force, lin to its mad source, ir till Fear escapes, ;h all its phantom shapes. spirit will perceive 1 of fleshly sins ; passions interweave, rpent tangle spins e of Earth misprised, unrecognized ; ipirit in her clods,
the God of Gods. )u are pleasures pure, the stars are sure : nton beckoning flags lattery and delight, -
grim Habit-Hags s of men to night : lat through blood run sane,
spirit from the brain, ih in sequent birth, brain and spirit, three
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THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
(Say the deepest gnomes of Earth), Join for true felicity. Are they parted, then expect Some one sailing will be wrecked : Separate hunting are they sped. Scan the morsel coveted.
■/ Earth that Triad is :' she hides Joy from him who that divides ; Showers it when the three are one Glassing her in union. Earth your haven. Earth your helm. You command a double realm ; Labouring here to pay your debt. Till your little sun shall set ; Leaving her the future task :
J Loving her too well to ask. Eglantine that climbs the yew, She her darkest wreathes for those Knowing her the Ever-new, And themselves the kin o' the rose. Life, the chisel, axe and sword. Wield who have her depths explored : " Life, the dream, shall be their robe. Large as air about the globe ; Life, the question, hear its cry Ek;hoed with concordant Why ; Life, the small self-dragon ramped. Thrill for service to be stamped. Ay, and over every height Life for them shall wave a wand : That, the last, where sits affright. Homely shows the stream beyond. Love the light and be its lynx, You will track her and attain ; Read her as no cruel Sphinx In the woods of Westermain. Daily fresh the woods are ranged ; Glooms which otherwhere appal. Sounded : here, their worths exchanged. Urban joins with pastoral : Little lost, save what may drop
Digitized byGOOglt^
THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
Husk-like, and the mind preserves. Natural overgrowths they lop. Yet from nature neither swerves. Trained or savage : for this cause : Of our Earth they ply the laws. Have in Earth their feeding root. Mind of man and bent of brute.
" Hear that song; both wild and ruled. Hear it : is it wail or mirth ? Ordered, bubbled, quite unschooled? None, and all : it springs of Earth. 0 but hear it ! 'tis the mind ; ('Mind that with deep Earth unites,' Round the solid trunk to wind Rings of clasping parasites. Music have you there to feed Simplest and most soaring need. Free to wind, and in desire Winding, they to her attached Feel the trunk a spring of fire. And ascend to heights unmatched. Whence the tidal world is viewed As a sea of windy wheat. Momently black, barren, rude ; Golden-brown, for harvest meet; Dragon-reaped from folly-sown ; Bride-like to the sickle-blade : Quick it varies, while the moan, Moan of a sad creature strayed,
J Chie6y is its voice. So flesh Conjures tempest-flails to thresh Good from worthless. Some clear lamps LJght it ; more of dead marsh-damps. Monster is it still, and blind. Fit but to be led by Pain. Glance we at the paths behind, Fruitful sight has Westermain. There we laboured, and in turn Forward our blown lamps discern, As you see on the dark deep Far the loftier billows leap.
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THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN
Foam for beacon bear. Hither, hither, if you will, Drink instruction, or instil. Run tJie woods like vernal sap. Crying, hail to luminousness 1
But have care. In yourself may lurk the trap: On conditions they caress. Here you meet the light invoked : Here is never secret doaked. Doubt you with the monster's fry All his orbit may exclude ; Are you of the stiff, the dry, Cursing the not understood ; Grasp you with the monster's claws ; Govern with his tmncheon-saws ; Hate, the shadow of a grain ; You are lost in Westermain : " Earthward swoops a vulture sun, Nighted upon carrion : Stnughtway venom winecups shout Toasts to One whose eyes are out : '* Flowers along the reeling floor Drip henbane and hellebore : Beauty, of her tresses shorn. Shrieks as nature's maniac : Hideousness on hoof and horn Tumbles, yapping in her track: Hazard Wisdom, stately once. Leers fantastical and trips : Allegory drums the sconce, Impiousness nibblenips. Imp that dances, imp that flits. Imp o' the demon-growing gir). Maddest ! whirl with imp o' the pits Round you, and with them you whirl Fast where pours the fountain-rout Out of Him whose eyes are out : Multitudes on multitudes. Drenched in wallowing devilry ; And you ask where you may be.
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A BALLAD OF PAST MERIDIAN ■
In what reek of a lair Given to bones and ogre-broods :
And they yell you Where. Enter these enchanted woods.
You who dare.
A BALLAD OF PAST MERIDIAN
Last night returning from my twilight walk I met the grey mbt Death, whose eyeless brow Was bent on me, and from his hand of chalk He reached me flowers as from a withered bough : O Death, what bitter nosegays gjvest thou I
Death said, I gather, and pursued his way. Another stood by me, a shape in stone. Sword-hacked and iron-stained, with breasts of clay. And metal veins that sometimes fiery shone : O Life, how naked and how hard when known I
Life said, As thou bast carved me, such am I. Then memory, like the nightjar on the pine. And sightless hope, a woodlark in night sky. Joined notes of Death and Life till night's decline : Of Death, of Life, those inwound notes are mine.
THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES •
He who has looked upon Earth Deeper than flower and fruit, Ixising some hue of his mirth, As the tree striking rock at the root. Unto him shall the marvellous tale Of Callistes more humanly come With the touch on his breast than a hail From the markets that hum.
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206 THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES
Now the youth footed awift to the dawn.
'Twas the season when wintertide,
In the higher rack-hollows updrawD,
Leaves meadows to bud, and he spied.
By light throwing shallow shade,
Between the beam and the gloom,
Sicilian Eiina, whose Maid
Such aspect wears in her bloom
Underneath since the Charioteer
Of Darkness whirled her away.
On a reaped afternoon of the year.
Nigh the poppy -droop of Day.
O and naked of her, all dust, '
The majestic Mother and Nurse,
Ringing cries to the God, the Just,
Curled the land with the blight of her curse :
Recollected of this glad isle
Still quaking. But now more fair.
And momently fraying the while
The veil of the shadows there,
Soft Enoa that prostrate grief
Sang through, and revealed round the vineSi
Bronze-orange, the crisp young leaf.
The wheat-blades tripping in lines,
A hue unillumined by sun
Of the flowers flooding grass as from founts :
All the penetrable dun
Of the mom ere she mounts.
Nor had saffron and sapphire and red Waved aloft to their sisters below. When gap>ed by the rock-channel head Of the l^e, black, a cave at one blow, Reverberant over the plain : A sound oft fearfully swung For the coming of wrathful rain : And forth, like the dragon-tongue Of a fire beaten flat by the gale.
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THE DAUGHTER OF HADES 207
the amoke to behold, rst. Then a wail b of the love that would fold urable, bigger than heart, id'9 : and the wheels were stayed, 1 of the chariot swart irble, the six, dismayed, lat by night plashing sea .mp from the vast swan-wave ; rreat Mother, She 1 I gazed, he gave up to the sight : of the Twain, of whom heir day, their night, I and the shearing tomb : the Sheaves of Hadea, the Sweet saw through leaves and Daughter meet. y the chariot-wheel, cry tall, most like rs, wind-taken, that reel hivering columns and strike I, crossing throats : and apart, of the look, they drew, less no longer could thwart ; >ke together anew, ears, flower and bud. t of the Rayleas was grave : it Sleep on its flood, of all we crave : ce of eyes awake t enshrouded, she cast erworld on the lake, re so, and they passed.
ho knew the law } : he stood alive it this he saw : I see, and survive.
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208 THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES
Now the youth was not ware of the beams With the grasses intertwined, For each thing seen, as in dreams, Came stepping to rear through his mind, Till it struck his remembered prayer To be witness of this which had flown Like a smoke melted thinner than air. That the vacancy doth disown. And viewing a maiden, he thought It might now be mom, and afar Within him the memory wrought Of a something that slipped from the car When those, the august, moved by : Perchance a scarf, and perchance This maiden. She did not 8y, Nor started at his advance : She looked, as when infinite thirst Pants pausing to bless the springs. Refreshed, unsated. Then first He trembled with awe of the things He had seen ; and he did transfer. Divining and doubting in turn, His reverence unto her; Nor asked what be crouched to learn : The whence of her, whither, and why Her presence there, and her name. Her parentage : under which sky Her birth, and how hither she came. So yoimg, a virgin, alone, Unfriended, having no fear. As Oreads have ; no moan. Like the lost upon earth ; no tear ; Not a sign of the torch in the blood, Though her stature had reached the height When mantles a tender md In maids that of youths have sight. If maids of our seed they be : For he said : A glad vision art thou I And she answered him : Thou to me I As men utt^r a vow.
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THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTEE OF HADES 209
Then said she, quick as the cries
Of the rainy cranes : Light I light t
And Helios rose in her eyes,
That were full as the dew-halb bright,
Relueent to him as dews
Unshaded. Breathing, she sent
Her voice to the God o! the Muse,
And along the vale it went.
Strange to hear : not thin, not shrill :
Sweet, but no young maid's throat :
The echo beyond the hill
Ran falling on half the note :
And under the shaken ground
Where the Hundred-headed groans
By the roots of great Aetna bound.
As of him were hollow tones
Of wondering roared : a tale
Repeated to sunless halls.
But now off the face of the vale
Shadows fled in a breath, and the walb
Of the lake's rock-head were gold,
And the breast of the lake, that swell
Of the crestless long wave rolled
To shore-bubble, pebble and shell.
A morning of radiant lids
O'er the dance of the earth opened wide :
T^e bees chose their flowers, the snub kids
Upon hindlegs went sportive, or plied,
Nosing, hard at the dugs to be filled :
There was milk, honey, music to make :
Up their branches the little birds billed :
Chirrup, drone, bleat and buzz ringed the lake.
0 shining in sunlight, chief
After water and water's caress.
Was the young bronze-orange leaf.
That clung to the tree as a tress.
Shooting lucid tendrils to wed
With the vine-hook tree or pole,
Like Arachne launched out on her thread.
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210 THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES
Then the maideo her dusky stole In the span of the black-starred zone Gathered up tor her footing fleet. As one that bad toil of her own She followed the lines of wheat Tripping straight through the field, green bladeSi To tie groves of olive grey. Downy-grey, golden-tinged : and to glades \Vhere the pear-blossom thickens the spray In a night, like the snow-packed storm : Pear, apple, almond, plum : Not wintry now : pushing, warm ! And she touched them with finger and thumbi As the vine-hook closes : she smiled, Recounting again and again. Corn, wine, fruit, oil ! like a child. With the meaning known to men. For hours in tbe track of the plough And the pmning-knife she stepped, And of how the seed works, and of how Yields the soil, she seemed adept. Then she murmured that name of the dearth, The Beneficent, Hers, who bade Our husbandmen sow for the birth Of the grain making earth full glad. She murmured that Other's : the dirge Of life-light ; for whose dark lap Our locks are clipped on the verge Of the realm where runs no sap.' She said : We have looked on both I And her eyes had a wavering beam Of various lights, like the froth Of the storm -swollen ravine stream In flame of the bolt. What links Were these which bad made him her friend T He eyed her, as one who drinks. And would drink to the end.
Now the meadows with crocus besprent. And the asphodel woodsides she left.
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THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES 2U
And the lake-aiopes, the ravishing scent Of narcissus, dark-sweet, for the cleft That tutors the torrent-brook. Delaying its forceful spleen With many a wind and crook Through rock to the broad ravine. By the hyadnth-bells in the brakes, And the shade-loved white windflower, half hid, And the sun-loving lizards and snakes On the cleft's barren ledges, that sUd Out of sight, smooth as waterdrops, all, At a snap of twig or bark In the track of the foreign foot-fall. She climbed to the pineforest dark, Overbrowing an emerald chine Of the erass-billows. Thence, as a wreath, and cypress to pine,
are seen, and beneath,
«, groves, rivers, towers, farms,
ching the bay,
je town in its arms,
ig white as the spray
sea-wave on the rock,
stars the girdle of sea,
s the midday flock,
:, rings the round of the tree.
e piercing shaft
h-shadows, confused
and she laughed,
mouth amused,
e flock, adroop,
tree-stem as one,
illing the loop
a slant of sun.
r pent of the crag,
herds in piping recline,
I stops, burst and flag
outstretched swine :
are slack and unsure,
(sues querulous : — thorns
>ut she listened demure.
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212 THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES
Comparing day's music with morn's.
Of the gentle spirit that slips
From the bark of the tree she discoursed.
And of her of the wells, whose hps
Are coolness enchanting, rock-sourced.
And much of the sacred loon,
The frolic, the Goatfoot God,
For stories of indolent noon
In the pineforest's odorous nod,
She questioned, not knowing : be can
Be waspish, irascible, rude.
He is oftener friendly to man.
And ever to beasts and their brood.
For the which did she love him welt.
She said, and his pipes of the reed.
His twitched Hps puffing to tell
In music bis tears and his need.
Against the sharp catch of his hurt.
Not as shepherds of Pan did she speak.
Nor spake as the schools, to divert.
But fondly, perceiving him weak
Before Gods, and to shepherds a fear,
A holiness, bom and heel.
AH this she had learnt in her ear
From Callistes, and taught him to feel.
Yea, the solemn divinity flushed
Through the shaggy brown skin of the beast.
And the steeps where the cataract rushed.
And the wilds where the forest is priest.
Were his temple to clothe him in awe.
While she spake : 'twas a wonder : she read
The haunts of the beak and the claw
As plain as the land of bread.
But Cities and martial States,
Whither soon the youth veered his theme.
Were impervious barrier-gates
To her : and that ship, a trireme,
Nearing harbour, scarce wakened her glance.
Though he dwelt on the message it bore
Of sceptre and sword and lance
To the bee-swarms black on the shore.
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THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES 213
Which were audible almost, So black they were. It befeU lliat he called up the warrior host Of the Song pouring hydromel Id thunder, the wide-winged Song. And be named with his boyish pride He heroes, the noble throng Past Acheron now, foul tide 1 With his joy of the godlike band And the verse divine, he named lie chiefs pressing hot on the strand. Seen of Gods, of Gods aided, and maimed. The Seetfoot and ireful ; the King ; Him, the prompter in stratagem, Many-ishifted and masterful : Sing, 0 Muse I But she cried : Not of them I She breathed as if breath had failed. And her eyes, while she bade him desbt. Held the lost-to-light ghosts grey-mailed. As you see the grey river-mist Holds shapes on the yonder bank. A moment her body waned, The light of her sprang and sank : llieD she looked at the sun, she regained Clear featiu^, and she breathed deep. She wore the wan smile he had seen, As the flow of the river of Sleep, On the mouth of the Shadow-Queen. In sunlight she craved to bask, Saying: Life! And who was she? who? Of what issue? He dared not ask. For that partly he knew.
A noise of the hollow ground Turned the eye to the ear in debate : Not the soft overflowing of sound Of the pines, ranked, lofty, straight. Barely swayed to some whispers remote. Some swarming whispers above : Not the pines with the taint airs afloat.
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214 THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES
Huah-hushing the nested dove :
It was not the pines, or the rout
Oft heard from mid-forest in chase.
But the long muffled roar of a shout
Subterranean. Sharp grew her face.
She rose, yet not moved hy affright ;
"Twas rather good haste to use
Her holiday of delight
In the beams of the God of the Muse.
And the steeps of the forest she crossed.
On its dry red sheddings and cones
Up the paths by roots green-mossed,
Spotted amber, and old mossed stones.
TTien out where the brook-torrent starts
To her leap, and from bend to curve
A hurrying elbow darts
For the instant-glancing swerve.
Decisive, with violent will
In the action formed, like hers,
The maiden's, ascending ; and still
Ascending, the bud of the furze.
The broom, and all blue-berried shoots
Of stubborn and prickly kind,
The juniper flat on its roots.
The dwtuf rbododaphne, behind
She left, and the mountain sheep
Far bebdnd, goat, herbage and flower.
The island was hers, and the deep,
All heaven, a golden hour.
Then with wonderful voice that rang
Through air as the swan's nigh death.
Of the glory of Light she sang,
She sang of the rapture of Breath.
Nor ever, says he who heard.
Heard Earth in her boundaries broad,
inger or bird
: rich of the God
9 always are sane.
(w and seed, of the grain, the showers that feed.
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THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES 215
And the green blades waxing mature For the husbandman's armful brown. 0, the song in its burden nm pure, And burden to song was a crown. Callistes, a singer, skilled In the ^t he could measure and praise. By a rival's art was thrilled, liiough she sang but a Song of Days, Where the husbandman's toil and strife Little varies to strife and toil : But the milky kernel of hfe. With her numbered : com, wine, fruit, oil I The song did pve him to eat : Gave the first rapt vision of Good, And the fresh young sense of Sweet : Tbe grace of the battle for food. With the Issue Earth cannot refuse When men to their labour are sworn. 'Twaa a song of the God of the Muse To the forehead of Mom.
Him loved she. Lo, now was he veiled : Over sea stood a swelled cloud-rack : The fishing-boat havenward sailed, Bent abeam with a whitened track. Surprised, fast hauling the net. As it flew : sea dashed, earth shook. S9ie said : Is it night ? 0 not yet 1 With a travail of thoughts in her look. The mounts heaved up to its peak : Sea darkened : earth gathered her fowl : Of bird or of branch rose the shriek. Night? but never so fell a scowl Wore night, nor the sky since then When ocean ran swallowing shore. And the Gods looked down for men. Broke tempest with that stem roar Never yet, save when black on the whirl Rode wrath of a sovereign Power. Thqn the youth and the shuddering girl,
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216 THE DAY OP THE DAUGHTER OP HADES
Dim as shades in the angry shower,
Joined hands and descended a maze
Of the paths that were racing alive
Round boulder and bush, cleaving ways.
Incessant, with sound of a hive.
The height was a fountain-um
Pouring streams, and the whole solid height
Leaped, chasing at every turn
The pair in one spirit of flight
To the folding pineforest. Yet here,
Like the piause to things hunted, in douot,
The stillness bred spectral fear
Of the awful ness ranging without,
And imminent. Downward they fled.
From under the haunted roof.
To the valley aquake with the tread
Of an iron-resounding hoof,
As of legions of thunderful horse
Broken loose and in line tramping hard.
For the rage of a hungry force
Roamed blind of its mark over sward :
They saw it rush dense in the cloak
Of its travelling swathe of steam,
All the vale through a thin thread-smoke
Was thrown back to distance extreme:
And dull the full breast of it blinked,
Like a buckler of steel breathed o'er,
Diminished, in strangeness distinct.
Glowing cold, unearthly, hoar :
An Enna of fields beyond sun,
in a lurid web,
ersing fury spun
1 with a wave's flow and ebb ;
breaks to grasp and to spurn,
n ravenous greed,
well its return.
1, as if wringing from speed
aade the unsighted appear,
dissolve, on it scoured.
m land held career
plain of the vale half-devoured.
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THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES 217
Calliates of home and escape Muttered swiftly, unwitting of speech. She gazed at the Void of shape. She put her white hand to hia reach. Saying : Now have we looked on the Three.* And divided from day, from night. From air that is breath, stood she, Like the vale, out of light.
Then again in disorderly words
He muttered of home, and was mute.
With the heart of the cowering birds
Ere they burst off the fowler's foot.
He gave her some redness that streamed
Through her limbs in a flitting glow.
The sigh of our life she seemed,
The bliss of it clothing in woe.
Frailer than flower when the round
Of the sickle encircles it : strong
To tell of the things profound.
Our inmost uttering song,
Unspoken. So stood she awhile
In the gloom of the terror afield.
And the silence about her smile
Said more than of tongue is revealed.
I have breathed : I have gazed ; I have been :
It said : and not joylessly shone
The remembrance of light through the screen
Ot a face that seemed shadow and stone.
She led the youth trembling, appalled,
To the lake-banks be saw sink and rise
Like a panic-struck breast. Then she called.
And the hurricane blackness had eyes.
It launched like the Thunderer's bolt.
Pale she drooped, and the youth by her side
Would have clasped her and dared a revolt
Sacrilegious as ever defied
High Olympus, but vainly for strength
Hia compassionate heart shook a frame
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218 THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES
Stricken rigid to ice all its length. On amain the black traveller came. Lo, a chariot, cleaving the storm. Clove the foimtaining lake with a plough. And the lord of the steeds was in form He, the God of implacable brow, Darkness : he : he in person : he raged Through the wave like a boar of the wilds From the hunters and hounds disengaged, And a name shouted hoarsely : his child's. Horror melted in anguish to hear. Lo, the wave hissed apart for the path Of the terrible Charioteer, With the foam and torn features of wrath, Hurled aloft on each arm in a sheet ; And the steeds clove it, rushing at land Like the teeth of the famished at meat. Then he swept out his hand.
This, no more, doth Callistes recall : He saw, ere he dropped in swoon. On the maiden the chariot fall. As a thundercloud swings on the moon. Forth, free of the deluge, one cry From the vanishing gallop rose clear : And : Skiigeneia ! the sky Rang : Ski^geneia 1 the sphere. And she left him therewith, to rejoice, Repine, yearn, and know not his aim, The life of their day in her voice, L^t her life in her name.
Now the valley in ruin of fields And fair meadowland, showing at eve Like the spear-pitted warrior's shields After battle, bade men believe That no other than wrathfidlest God
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THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OP HADES 219
Had been loose on her beautiful breast.
Where the flowery grass was clod,
Wheat and vine as a trailing nest.
The valley, discreet in grief,
Disclosed hut the open truth,
And Enna had hope of the sheaf :
There was none for the desolate youth
Devoted to mourn and to crave.
Of the secret he had divined
Of his friend of a day would he rave :
How for light of our earth she pined :
For the olive, the vine and the wheat
Biuning through with inherited fire:
And when Mother went Mother to meet,
She was prompted by simple desire
In the day-destined car to have place
At the skirts of the Goddess, unseen.
And be drawn to the dear earth's face.
She was fire for the blue and the green
Of our earth, dark fire ; athirst
As a seed of her bosom for dawn.
White air that had robed and nursed
Her mother. Now was she gone
With the Silent, the God without tear.
Like a bud peeping out of its sheath
To be sundered and stamped with the sere.
And Callistes to her beneath,
As she to our beams, extinct.
Strained arms : he was shade of her shade.
In division so were they Unked.
But the song which had betrayed
Her flight to the cavernous ear
For its own keenly wakeful : that song
Of the sowing and reaping, and cheer
Of the husbandman's heart made strong
Through droughts and deluging rains
With his faith in the Great Mother's love :
O the joy of the breath she sustains.
And the lyre of the light above,
And the first rapt vision of Good,
And the fresh young sense of Sweet :
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220 THE DAY OP THE DAUGHTER OF HADES
That soDg the youth ever pursued In the track of her footing fleet For men to be profited much By her day upon earth did he sing : Of her voice, and her steps, and her touch On the blossoms of tender Spring, Immortal : and how in her soul She is with them, and tearless abides, Folding grain of a love for one goal In patience, past flowing of tides. And if unto him she was tears, He wept not : he wasted within : Seeming sane in the song, to his peers. Only crazed where the cravings begin. Our Lady of Gifts prized he leas Than her issue in darkness : the dim Lost Ski^geneia's caress Of our earth made it richest for him. And for that was a curse on him raised. And he withered rathe, dry to his prime, Though the bounteous Giver he praised Through the island with rites of old time Exceedingly fervent, and reaped Veneration for teachings devout. Pious hymns when the com-sheaves are heaped. And the wine-presses niddily spout. And the olive and apple are Juice At a touch light as hers lost below. Whatsoever to men is of use Sprang his worship of them who bestow. In a measure of song? unexcelled : But that soul loving earth and the sun From her home of the shadows he held For his beacon where beam there is none : And to join her, or have her brought back. In his frenzy the singer would call. Till he followed where never was track, the path trod of all.
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THE LARK ASCENDING
He rises and begins to round, He drops the silver chain of sound. Of many links without a break. In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake, All intervolved and spreading wide, Like water-dimples down a tide Where ripple ripple overcurla And eddy into eddy whirls ; A press of hurried notes that run So fleet they scarce are more than one, Yet changeingly the trills repeat And linger ringing while they fleet, Sweet to the quick o' the ear, and dear To her beyond the handmaid ear. Who sits beside our inner springs, Too often dry for this he brings, Which seems the very jet of earth At sight of sun, her music's mirth. As up he wings the spiral stair, A song of light, and pierces air With fountain ardour, fountain play. To reach the shining tops of day, And drink in everything discerned An ecstasy to music turned. Impelled by what his happy bill Disperses ; drinking, showering still, Unthinking save that he may give His voice the outlet, there to live Renewed in endless notes of glee, So thirsty of his voice is he. For all to hear and all to know That he is joy, awake, aglow. The tumult of the heart to hear Through pureness filtered crystal-clear, And know the pleasure sprinkled bright By simple singing of delight. Shrill, irreflective, unrestrained. Rapt, ringing, on the jet sustained
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THE LARK ASCENDING
Without a break, without a fall,
Sweet-silvery, sheer lyrical.
Perennial, quavering up the chord
Ijke myriad dews of sunny sward
That trembling into fulness sbioe,
And sparkle dropping argentine ;
Such wooing as the ear receives
From zephyr caught in choric leaves
Of aspens when their chattering net
Is flushed to white with shivers wet;
And such the water-spirit's chime
On mountain heights in morning's prime.
Too freshly sweet to seem excess.
Too animate to need a stress ;
But wider over many heads
The starry voice ascending spreads,
Awakening, as it waxes thin.
The best in us to him akin ;
And every face to watch him raised
Puts on the light of children praised.
So rich our human pleasure ripes
When sweetness on aincereness pipes,
Though nought be promised from the seas.
But only a soft-ruffling breeze
Sweep glittering on a still content,
Serenity in ravishment.
For singing till his heaven fills,
Ti^ Invp f,t t^nj^'h thyf hp inqtili,
Arid ever winging up and up.
Our valtey is bis golden cup.
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes :
The woods and brooks, the sheep and kine.
He is, the hills, the human line.
The meadows green, the fallows brown.
The dreams of labour in the town ;
He sings' the sap, the quickened veins ;
The wedding song of sun and rains
He b, the dance of children, thanks
Of sowers, shout of primrose-banks,
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1 throat, free ]
THE LARK ASCENDING
And eye of violets while they breathe ; All these the circling song will wreathe, And you shall hear the herb and tre^-" The hetter heart of men shall see, \ Shall feel celestially, as long i
As you crave nothing save the song.l
Was never voice of ours could aay Our inmost in the sweetest way, Ijke yonder voice aloft, and link All hearers in the song they drink. Our wisdom speaks from failing blogd, Our passion is.toQ fuU.in. flood, We want the key of his wild note Of truthful in a tuneful t' JiThe song seraphicallxlree j Of taint of personality, ' So pure that it salutes the suns. The voice of one for millions! In whom the millions rejoice For giving their one spirit voice.
Yet men have we, whom we revere, Now names, and men stilt housing here, Whose lives, by many a hattle-dint Defaced, and grinding wheels on fiint, Yield substance, though they sing not, sweet For song our highest heaven to greet : Whom heavenly singing gives us new. Enspheres them brilliant in our blue, From firmest base to farthest leap. Because their love of Earth is deep, And they are warriors in accord With life to serve, and pass reward. So touching purest and so heard In the brain's reflex of yon bird : Wherefore their soul in me, or mine. Through self-forgetfulness divine. In them, that song aloft maintains. To fill the sky and thrill the plains
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PHOEBUS WITH ADMETUS
With showerings drawn from humfui stores,
As he to silence nearer soars.
Extends the world at wings and dome.
More spacious making more our home.
Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.
PHOEBUS WITH ADMETUS *
When by Zeus relen^ng the mandate was revoked.
Sentencing to exile the bright Sun-God, Mindful were the ploughmen of who the steer had yoked.
Who : and what a track showed the upturned sod ! Mindful were the shepherds as now the noon severe
Bent a burning eyebrow to brown evetide, How the rustic flute drew the silver to the sphere Sister of his own, till her rays fell wide.' God ! of whom music And song and blood are pure, The day is never darkened That had thee here obscure.
Chirping none the scarlet cicalas crouched in ranks :
Slack the thistle-head piled its down-silk grey : Scarce the stony Hzard sucked hollows in his flanks : Thick on spots of umbrage our drowsed flocks lay. Sudden bowed the chestnuts beneath a wind unheard,
Lengthened ran the grasses, the sky grew slate : Then amid a swift flight of winged seed white as curd, Clear of limb a Youth smote the master's gate. God ! of whom music And song and blood are pure. The day is never darkened niat had thee here obscure.
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PHOEBUS WITH ADMETUS
Water, first of stngers, o'er rocky mount and mead,
First of earthly aingers, the sun-loved rill, Sang of him, and flooded the ripples on the reed.
Seeking whom to waken and what ear fill. Water, sweetest soother to kiss a wound and cool,
Sweetest and divineat, the sky-bom brook. Chuckled, with a whimper, and made a mirror-pool Round the guest we welcomed, the strange hand shook. God ! of whom music And song and blood are pure. The day is never darkened That had thee here obscure.
Many swarms of wild bees descended on our Gelds :
Stately stood the wheatstalk with head bent high : Big of heart we laboured at storing mighty yields, Wool and com, and clusters to make men cry I Hand-like rushed the vintage ; we strung the bellied skins
Flump, and at the sealing the Youth's voice rose: Maidens clung in circle, on little fists their chins ; Gentle beasties through pushed a cold long nose. God 1 of whom music And song and blood are pure. The day is never darkened That had tnee here obscure.
Foot to fire in snowtime we trimmed the slender shaft:
Often down the pit spied the lean wolf's teeth Grin against his will, trappted by masterstrokes of craft;
Helpless in his froth-wrath as green logs seethe ! S^fe the tender Iambs tugged the teats, and winter sped
Whirled before the crocus, the year's new gold. Hung the hooky beak up aloft the arrowhead Reddened through his feathers for our dear fold. God [ of whom music And song and blood are pure. The day is never darkened That had thee here obscure.
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PHOEBUS WITH ADMETCS
Tales we drank of giants at war with Gods above :
Rocks were they to look on, and earth climbed air I Tales of search for simples, and those who sou^t of love
Ease because the creature was all too fair. Pleasant run our thinking that while our work was good,
Sure as fruits for sweat would the praise come fast. He that wrestled stoutest and tamed the billow-brood Danced in rings with girls, like a sail-flapped mast. God ! of whom music And song and blood are pure, The day is never darkened That had thee here obscure.
Lo, the herb of healing, when once the herb b known,
Shines in shady woods bright as new-spnuig flame.
Ere the string was tightened we heard the mdlow tone.
After he had taught how the sweet sounds came. Stretched about bis feet, labour done, 'twas as you see
Red pomegranates tumble and burst hard rind. So began contention to give delight and be Excellent in things aimed to make life kind. God ! of whom music And song and blood are pure, The day is never darkened That had thee here obscure.
You with shelly boms, rams I and promontory goats,
You whose browsing beards dip in coldest dew ! Bulls, that walk the pastures in kingly-flashing coats I
Laurel, ivy, vine, wreathed for feasts not few ! You that build the shade-roof, and you that court the rays.
You that leap besprinkling the rock stream-rent : He has been our fellow, the morning of our days ; Us he chose for housemates, and this way went. God I of whom music And song and blood are pure. The day is never darkened That had thee here obscure.
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MELAMPUS • I With love exceeding a simple love of the things
That glide in grasses and rubble of woody wreck ; Or change their perch on a beat of quivering wings
From branch to branch, only restful to pipe and peck ; Or, bristled, curl at a touch their snouts in a ball ;
Or cast their web between bramble and thomy hook ; The good physician Melampus, loving them all,
Among them walked, as a scholar who reads a book.
n
For him the woods were a home and gave him the key
Of knowledge, thirst for then- treasures in herbs and flowers. The secrets held by the creatures nearer than we
To earth he sought, and the link of their life with ours : And where alike we are, unlike where, and the veined
Division, veined par^lel, of a blood that flows In them, in us, from the source by man unattained
Save marks he well what the mystical woods disclose, iti And this he deemed'might be boon of love to a breast
Embracing tenderly each little motive shape. The prone, the flitting, who seek their food whither best
Their wits direct, whither best from their foes escape : For closer drawn to our mother's natural milk,
As babes they learn where her motherly help is great : Tbey know the juice for the honey, juice for the silk,
And need they medical antidotes find them straight.
IV
Of earth and sun they are wise, they nourish tbeir broods,
Weave, build, hive, burrow and battle, take joy and pain Like swimmers varying billows : never in woods
Runs white insanity fleeing itself : all sane The woods revolve : as the tree its shadowing limns
To some resemblance in motion, the rooted life Restrains disorder : you hear the primitive hymns
Of earth in woods issue wild of the web of strife.
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Now sleeping once on a day of marvellous fire,
A brood of snakes he had cherished in grave regret That death his people had dealt their dam and their sire,
Through savage dread of them, crept to his neck, and set Their tongues to lick him : the swift affectionate tongue
Of each ran licking the slumberer : then his ears A forked red tongue tickled shrewdly : sudden upsprung,
He heard a voice piping : Ay, for be has no feai^ !
A bird said that, in the notes of birds, and the speech
Of men, it seemed : and another renewed : He moves To learn and not to pursue, he gathers to teach ;
He feeds his young as do we, and as we love loves. No fears have I of a man who goes with his head
To earth, chance looking aloft at us, kind of hand : I feel to him as to earth of whom we are fed ;
I pipe him much for bis good could be understand.
Melampus touched at his ears, laid finger on wrist :
He was not dreaming, he sensibly, felt and heard. Above, through leaves, where the tree-twigs thick intertwist
He spied the birds and the bill of the speaking bird. His cushion mosses in shades of various green,
The lumped, the antlered, he pressed, while the sunny snake Slipped under : draughts he had drunk of clear Hippocrene,
It seemed, and sat with a gift of the Gods aw^e.
VIII
Divinely thrilled was the man, exultjngly full.
As quick well-waters that come of the heart of earth. Ere yet they dart in a brook, are one bubble-pool
To light and sound, wedding both at the leap of birth. The soul of light vivid shone, a stream within stream ;
The soul of sound from a musical shell outflew ; Where others hear but a hum and see but a beam.
The tongue and eye of the fountain of life he knew.
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He knew the Hours : they were round him, laden with seed
Of hours bestrewn upon vapour, and one by one They winged aa ripened in fruit the burden decreed
For each to scatter : they flushed hke the buds id sun. Bequeathing seed to successive similar rings,
Their abtets, bearers to men of what men have earned : He knew them, talked with the yet unreddened ; the stings
The sweets, they warmed at their bosoms divined, dis- cemed.
Not unsolicited, sought by diligent feet.
By riddling fingers expanded, oft watched in growth With brooding deep as the noon-ray's quickening wheat,
Ere touch'd, the pendulous flower of the plants of sloth. The plants of ri^dness, answered question and squeeze,
Revealing wherefore It bloomed uninviting, bent, Yet making harmony breathe of life and disease,
The deeper chord of a wonderful instrument
So passed he luminous-eyed for earth and the fates
We arm to bruise or caress us : his ears were charged With tones of love in a whirl of voluble hates.
With music wrought of distraction his heart enlarged. Celestial-shining, though mortal, singer, though mute.
He drew the Master of harmonies, voiced or stilled. To seek him ; heard at the silent medicine-root
A song, beheld in fulfilment the unfulfilled.
Him Phoebus, lending to darkness colour and form
Of light's excess, many lessons and counsels gave ; Showed Wisdom lord of the human intricate swarm.
And whence prophetic it looks on the hives that rave ; And how acquired, of the zeal of love to acquire.
And where it stands, in the centre of life a sphere; And Measure, mood of the lyre, the rapturous lyre,
He said was Wisdom, and struck him the notes to hear.
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LOVE IN THE VALLEY 231
Had I the heart to slide an arm beneath her. Press her parting Ups as her wabt I gather slow.
Waking in amazement she could not but embrace me : llien would she hold me and never let me go?
Shy as the squirrel and wayward as the swallow,
Swift as the swallow along the river's light Circleting the surface to meet his mirrored wingleta.
Fleeter she seems in her stay than in her flight. Shy as the squirrel that leaps among the pine-tops.
Wayward as the swallow overhead at set of sun. She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer.
Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won !
When her mother tends her before the laughing mirror.
Tying up her laces, looping up her hair, Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,
More love shoidd I have, and much less care. When her mother tends her before the lighted mirror.
Loosening her laces, combing down her curls. Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,
I should miss but one for many boys and girb.
Heartless she b as the shadow in the meadows
Flying to the hills on a blue and breezy noon. No, she is athirst and drinking up her wonder :
Earth to her is young as the slip of the new moon. Deals she an unkindness, 'tis but her rapid measure.
Even as in a dance ; and her smile can heal no less : like the swinging May-clood that pelts the flowers with hailstones
Off a sunny border, she waa made to bruise and bless.
Lovely are the curves of the white owl sweeping
Wavy in the dusk lit by one large star. Lone on the fir-branch, his rattle-note unvaried.
Brooding o'er the gloom, spins the brown eve-jar. Darker grows the valley, more and more forgetting :
So were it with me if forgetting could be willed. Tell the grassy hollow that holds the bubbling well-spring.
Tell it to forget the source that keeps it filled.
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232 LOVE IN THE VALLEY
Stepping down the hill with her fair companions.
Arm in arm, all against the raying West, Boldly she sings, to the merry tune she marches.
Brave in her shape, and sweeter unpossessed. Sweeter, for she is what my heart first awaking
Whispered the world was ; morning light is she. Love that so desires would fain keep her changeless ;
Fain would fiing the net, and fain have her free.
Happy happy time, when the white star hovers
Low over dim fields fresh with bloomy dew. Near the face of dawn, that draws athwart the darkness.
Threading it with colour, like yewberries the yew. Thicker crowd the shades as the grave East deepens
Glowing, and with crimson a long cloud swdls. Maiden still the morn is ; and strange she is, and secret ;
Strange her eyes ; her cheeks are cold as cold sea-shells.
Sunrays, leaning on our southern hills and lighting
Wild cloud-mountains that drag the hilb along. Oft ends the day of your shifting brilliant laughter
Chill as a dull face frowning on a song. Ay, but shows the South-West a ripple-feathered bosom
Blown to silver while the clouds are shaken and ascend Scaling the mid-heavens as they stream, there comes a sunset
Rich, deep like love in beauty without end.
When at dawn she sighs, and like an infant to the window
Turns grave eyes craving light, released from dreams, Beautiful she looks, like a white water-lily
Bursting out of bud in havens of the streams. When from bed she rises clothed from neck to ankle
In her long nightgown sweet as boughs of May, Beautiful she looks, like a tall garden lily
Pure from the night, and splendid for the day.
Mother of the dews, dark eye-lashed twilight.
Low-lidded twilight, o'er the valley's brim. Rounding on thy breast sings the dew-delighted skylark,
Clear as though the dewdrops had their voice in him.
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LOVE IN THE VALLEY 233
Hidden whwe the rose-flush drinks the rayless planet. Fountain-full he pours the spraying foun tain-showers.
Let me hear her Uughter, I would have her ever Cool as dew in twilight, the lark above the flowers.
All the girb are out with their baskets for the primrose ;
Up lanes, woods through, they troop in joyful bands. My sweet leads : she knows not why, but now she loiters.
Eyes the bent anemones, and hangs her hands. Such a look will tell that the violets are peeping.
Coming the rose : and unaware a cry Springs in her bosom for odours and for colour.
Covert and the nightingale ; she knows not why.
Kerchiefed head and chin she darts between her tulips,
Streaming like a willow grey in arrowy rain : Some bend beaten cheek to gravel, and their angel
She will be ; she lifts them, and on she speeds again. Black the driving raincloud breasts the iron gateway :
She is forth to cheer a neighbour lacking mirth. So when sky and grass met rolling dumb for thunder
Saw I once a white dove, sole light of earth.
Prim little scholars are the flowers of her garden.
Trained to stand in rows, and asking if they please. I might love them well but for loving more the wild ones :
O my wild ones I they tell me more than these. You, my wild one, you tell of honied field-rose,
Violet, blushing eglantine in life ; and even as they, They by the wayside are earnest of your goodness,
You are of life's, on the banks that line the way.
Peering at her chamber the white crowns the red rose.
Jasmine winds the porch with stars two and three. Parted is the window ; she sleeps ; the starry jasmine
Breathes a falling breath that carries thoughts of me- Sweeter unpossessed, have I said of her my sweetest?
Not while she sleeps : while she sleeps the jasmine breathes. Luring her to love ; she sleeps ; the starry jasmine
Bears me to her pillow under white rose-wreaths.
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234 LOVE IN THE VALLEY
Yellow with birdfoot-trefoil are the graas-glades ' ..
Yellow with cinquefoil of the dew-grey leaf ; ' Yellow with stonecrop ; the moss-mounds are yellow ;
Blue-necked the wheat sways, yellowing to the sheaf. Green-yellow bursts from the copse the laughing yafHe:
Sharp as a sickle is the edge of shade and shine : Earth in her heart laughs looking at the heavens.
Thinking of the harvest : I look and think of mine.
This I may know : her dressing and undressing
Such a change of light shows as when the skies in sport Shift from cloud to moonlight ; or edging over thunder
Slips a ray of sun; or sweeping into port White sails furl ; or on the ocean borders
White saib lean along the waves leaping green. Visions of her shower before me, but from eyesight
Guarded she would be like the sun were sJie seen.
Front door and back of the mossed old farmhouse
Open with the mom, and in a breezy link Freely sparkles garden to stripe-shadowed orchard,
Green across a rill where on sand the minnows wink. Busy in the grass the early sun of summer
Swarms, and the blackbird's mellow fiuting notes Call my darling up with round and roguish challenge :
Quaintest, richest carol of all the singing throats I
Cool was the woodside ; cool as her white dairy
Keeping sweet the cream-pan; and there the boys from school. Cricketing below, rushed brown and red with sunshine ;
O the dark translucence of the deep-eyed cool I Spying from the farm, herself she fetched a pitcher
Full of milk, and tilted for each in turn the beak. Then a little fellow, mouth up and on tiptoe.
Said, 'I will kiss you': she laughed and leaned her cheek.
Doves of the fir-wood walling high our red roof Through the long noon coo, crooning through the coo.
Loose droop the leaves, and down the sleepy roadway Sometimes pipes a chaffinch ; loose droops the blue.
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LOVE IN THE VALLEY 235
Cows flaf alow tail knee-deep in thfe river, Breathl. j, given up to sun and gnat and fly.
Nowhere b she seen ; and if I see her nowhere. Lightning may come, straight rains and tiger sky.
O the golden sheaf, the rustling treasure-armful I
O the nutbrown tresses nodding interlaced ! O the treasure-tresses one "another over
Nodding 1 0 the girdle slack about the waist ! Slain are the poppies that shot their random scarlet
Quick amid the wheatears : wound about the waist, Gathered, see these brides of Earth one blush of ripeness I
O the nutbrown tresses nodding interlaced I
Large and smoky red the sun's cold disk drops, |
Clipped by n^ed hills, on violet shaded snow t 1
Eastward large and still lights up a bower of moonrise.
Whence at her leisure steps the moon aglow. Nightlong on black print-branches our beech-tree
Gazes in this whiteness : nightlong could L Here may life on death or death on life be painted.
Let me clasp her soul to know she cannot die !
Gossips count her faults ; they scour a narrow chamber
Where there is no window, read not heaven or her. 'When she was a tiny,' one aged woman quavers.
Plucks at my heart and leads me by the ear. Faults she had once as she learnt to run and tumbled :
Faults of feature some see, beauty not complete. Yet, good gossips, beauty that makes holy
E^ih and air, may have faults from head to feet.
Hither she comes ; she comes to me ; she lingers.
Deepens her brown eyebrows, while in new surprise High rise the lashes in wonder of a stranger ;
Yet am I the light and living of her eyes. Something friends have told her fills her heart to brimming,
Nets her in her blushes, and wounds her, and tames. — Sure of her haven, 0 like a dove alighting,
Arms up, she dropped : our souls were in our names.
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m LOVE IN THE VALLEY
Soon will she lie like a white-frost sunrise.
Yellow oats and brawn wheat, barley pale as rye. Long since your sheaves have yielded to the thnsher.
Felt the girdle loosened, seen the tresses fly. Soon will she lie like a blood-red sunset.
Swift with the to-morrow, green-winged Spring! Sing from the South-West, bring her back the truants.
Nightingale and swallow, son^ and dipping wing.
Soft new beech-leavea, up to beamy April
Spreading bough on bough a primrose mountain, you. Lucid in the moon, raise lilies to the skyfields.
Youngest green transfused in silver shining through : Fairer than the lily, than the wild white cherry :
Fair as in image my seraph love appears Borne to me by dreams when dawn is at my eyelids ;
Fair as in the flesh she swims to me on tears.
Could I find a place to be alone with heaven,
I would speak my heart out : heaven is my need. Every woodland tree is flushing like the dogwood.
Flashing like the whitebeam, swaying like the reed. Flushing like the dogwood crimson in October ;
Streaming like the flag-reed South-West blown ; Flashing as in gusts the sudden -lighted whitebeam :
All seem to know what is for heaven alone.
THE THREE SINGERS TO YOUNG BLOOD*
Carols nature, counsel men. Different notes as rook from wren Hear we when our steps begin, And the choice is cast within. Where a robber raven's tale 'jn's nightingale.
I three. Chimed they in one, lusic of the sun. , and then the caw, y that knows not law.
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THE THREE SINGERS TO YOUNG BLOOD 237
As the birds do, so do we, Bill our mate, and choose our tree. Swift to building work addressed. Any straw will help a nest. Mates are warm, and this is truth, Glad the young that come of youth. They have bloom i' the blood and sap Chilling at no thunder-clap. Man and woman on the thorn Trust not Earth, and have her scorn. They who in her lead confide. Wither me if they spread not wide I Look for aid to little things. You will get them quick as wings. Thick as feathers ; would you feed. Take the leap that springs the need.
Contemplate the rutted road : Life ia both a lure and goad. Each to hold in measure just, Trample appetite to dust. Mark the fool and wanton spin : Keep to harness as a sldn. Ere you follow nature's lead, Of her powers in you have heed ; Else a shiverer you will find You have challenged humankind. Mates are chosen marketwise : Coolest bargainer best buys. Leap not, nor let leap the heart : Trot your track, and drag your cart. So your end may be in wool. Honoured, and with manger full.
O the rosy light 1 it fleets, Dearer dying than all sweets. That is life : it waves and goes ; Solely in that cherished Rose
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THE ORCHARD AND THE HEATH
Palpitates, or else 'tis death.
Call it love with all thy breath.
Love ! it lingers '. Love I it nears :
Love ! O Love 1 the Rose appears.
Blushful, magic, reddening air.
Now the choice is on thee : dare !
Mortal seems the touch, but makes
Immortal the hand that takes.
Feel what sea within thee shames
Of its force all other claims.
Drowns them. Clasp ! the world will be
Heavenly Rose to swelling sea.
THE ORCHARD AND THE HEATH •
I CBANCED upon an early walk to spy
A troop of children through an orchard gate :
The boughs hung low, the grass was high ;
They had but to lift hands or wait For fruits to fill them ; fruits were all their sky.
They shouted, running on from tree to tree.
And played the game the wind plays, on and round.
'Twas visible invisible glee
Pursuing ; and a fountain's sound Of laughter spouted, pattering fresh on me.
I could have watched them till the daylight fled. Their pretty bower made such a light of day. A small one tumbling sang, ' Oh 1 head ! ' The rest to comfort her straightway Seized on a branch and thumped down apples red.
The tiny creature flashing through green grass, And laughing with her feet and eyes among
Fresh apples, while a little lass
Over as o'er breeze-ripples hung : That sight I saw, and passed as aliens pass.
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THE ORCHARD AND THE HEATH 23S
My footpath left the pleasant farms and lanes,
Soft cottage-emoke, straight cocks a-crow, gay fiowers ;
Beyond the wheel-ruta of the waina,
Across a heath I walked for hours. And met its rival tenants, rays and rains.
Still in my view mile-distant firs appeared. When, under a patched channel-bank enriched
With foxglove whose late belb dropped seared.
Behold, a family had pitched Their camp, and labouring the low tent upreared.
Here, too, were many children, quick to scan
A new thing coming ; swarthy cheeks, white teeth ;
In many-coloured rags they ran,
like iron runlets of the heath. Dispersed lay broth-pot, sticks, and drinking-can-
Three girls, with shoulders like a boat at sea Tipped sideways by the wave (their clothing slid
From either ridge unequally).
Lean, swift and voluble, bestrid A starting-point, unfrocked to the bent knee.
They raced; their brothers yelled them on, and broke In act to follow, but as one they snuffed
Wood-fumes, and by the fire that spoke
Of provender its pale flame puffed, And rolled athwart dwarf furzes grey-blue smoke.
Soon on the dark edge of a ruddier gleam. The mother-pot perusing, all, stretched Hat,
Paused for its bubbling-up supreme :
A dog upright in circle sat, And oft his nose went with the flying steam.
7 t,,,^^ ^T,A looked on heaven awhile, where now d sunset broaden'd with red light; ;h aloft a golden bough, Ed the desert of the night I mellow orchards to endow.
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EARTH AND MAN •
On her great venture, Man, Earth gazes while her fingers dint the breast Which is his well of strength, his home of rest, And fair to scan.'
II More aid than that embrace. That nourishment she cannot give : his heart Involves his fate ; and she who urged the start Abides the race.
Ill For he is in the lists , Contentious with the elements, whose dower First sprang him ; for swift vultures to devour If he desists.
IV
His breath of instant thirst
Is warning of a creature matched with strife.
To meet it as a bride, or let fall life
On life's accursed.
No longer forth he bounds
The lusty animal, afield to roam.
But peering in Earth's entraib, where the gnome
Strange themes propounds.
By hunger sharply sped To grasp at weapons ere he learns their use, In each new ring he bears a giant's thews. An infant's head.
VII
• " isk
is and whence be came, : wilder letters Same
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EARTH AND MAN
She bears his wailful prayer,
When now to the Invisible • he raves
To rend him fram her, now of his mother craves
Her calm, her care.
The thing that shudders most Within him is the burden of his cry. Seen of his dread, she is to his blank eye The eyeless Ghost.
Or sometimes she will seem Heavenly, but her blush, soon wearing white. Veils like a gorsebusb in a web of blight. With gold-buds dim.
Once worshipped Prime of Powers,
She still was the Implacable : as a beast.
She struck him down and- dragged him ^m the feast
She crowned with flowers.
Her popip of glorious hues. Her revelries of ripeness, her kind smile. Her songs, her peeping faces, lure awhile With symbol-clues.
The mystery she holds For him, inveterately he strains to see, And sight of his obtuseness is the key Among those folds.
He may entreat, aspire.
He may despair, and she has never heed.
She drinking his warm sweat will soothe his need.
Not his desire.
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EARTH AND MAN
She prompts him to rejoice. Yet scares him on the threshold with the shroud. He deema her cherishing of her best-endowed ' A wanton's choice.
Albeit thereof he has found Firm roadway between lustfulness and pain; Has half transferred the battle to his brun. From bloody ground ;
XVII
. He will not read her good. Or wise, but with the passion Self obscures ; Through that old devil of the thousand lures. Through that dense hood :
Through terror, through distrust ; The greed to touch, to view, to have, to live: Through all that makes of him a sensitive Abhorring dust.
Behold his wormy home !
And he the wind-whipped, anywhither wave
Crazily tumbled on a shingle-grave
To waste in foam.
Therefore the wretch inclines Afresh to the Invisible, who, he saith. Can raise him high : with vows of living faith For little signs.
Some signs he must demand.
Some proofs of slaughtered nature ; some prized few.
To satisfy the senses it is true.
And in his hand.
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EARTH AND MAN
XXII
This miracle which saves Himself, himself doth from extinction clutch, By virtue of his worth, contrasting much With brutes and knaves.
From dust, of him abhorred.
He would be snatched by Grace discovering worth.
' Sever me from the hoUowncss of Earth I
Me take, dear Lord I'
She hears him. Him she owes
For half her loveliness a love well won
By work that lights the shapeless and the dun,
Their common foes.
XXV
- He builds the soaring spires, That sing his soul in stone ; of her he draws, Though blind to her, by spelling at her laws, Her purest fires.
XXVI
Through him hath she exchanged. For the gold harvest-robes, the mural crown. Her haggard quarry-features and thick frown Where monsters ranged.
And order, high discourse, And decency, than which is life less dear, She has of him ; the lyre of language clear, Love's tongue and source.
xxvni
She hears him, and can hear With glory in his gains by work achieved : With grief for grief that is the unperceived In her so near.
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EARTH AND MAN
If he aloft for aid
Imploring stonns, her essence is the spur.
His cry to heaven is a cry to her
He would evade.
Not elsewhere can he tend. Those are her rules which bid him wash foul sins ; Those her revulsions from the skull that grins To ape bis end.
XXXI
And her desires are those For happiness, for lastingness, for light. 'Tis she who kindles in his haunting night The hoped dawn-rose.
XXXlt
Fair fountains of the dark Daily she waves him, that his inner dream May clasp amid the glooms a springing beam, ' A quivering lark :
xxxin
This life and her to know For Spirit : with awakenedness of glee To feel stern joy her oiigin : not he The child of woe.
But that the senses still
Usurp the station of their issue mind,
He would have burst the chrysalis of the blind :
As yet he will ;
prays,
listempered devil of Sdf ; —
r fruits, the wily elf
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EARTH AND MAN
That captain of the scorned ; The coveter of life in soul and shell, The fratricide, the thief, the infidel, The hoofed and homed , —
xxxvn He angularly doomed To what he execrates and writhes to shun ;- When fire has passed him vapour to the sui And sun relumed.
Then shall the horrid pall Be lifted, and a spirit nigh divine, 'Live in thy offspring as I live in mine,' Will hear her caU.
Whence looks he on a land Whereon his labour is a carven page ; And forth from heritage to heritage Nought writ on sand.
His fables of the Above,
And his gapped readings of the crown and sword. The hell detested and 5ie heaven adored. The hate, the love.
The bright wing, the black hoof. He shall peruse, from Reason not disjoined, , And never unfaith clamouring to be coined To faith by proof.
She her just Lord may view, ' Not he, her creature, till his soul has yearned With all her gifts to reach the light decerned Her spirit thn>u^.*
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246 A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT
xuit Then in him time shall run As in the hour that to young sunlight crows ; -' And — ' If thou hast good faith it can repose,' She tells her son.
Meanwhile on him, her chief Expression, her great word of life, looks she ; Twi-minded of him, as the waxing tree. Or dated leaf.
A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT *
See the sweet women, friend, that lean beneath The ever-falling fountain of green leaves Round the white bending stem, and like a wreath Of our most blushful flower shine trembling through. To teach philosophers the thirst of thieves : Is one for me ? b one for you ?
—Fair sirs, we give you welcome, yield you place, And you shall choose among us which you will. Without the idle pastime of the chase. If to this treaty you can well agree : To wed our cause, and its high task fulfil. He who 's for us, for hjm are we I
—Most gradous ladies, nigh when light has birth, A troop of maids, brown as burnt heather^bells. And rich with life as moss-roots breathe of earth In the first plucking of them, past us flew To labour, sin^ng rustic ritomells :
Had they a cause ? are they of you ?
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A BALLAD OP PAIR LADIES IN REVOLT 247
—Sirs, they are as UDthiakiag armies are To thoughtful leaders, and our cause is theirs. When they know men they know the state of war : But now they dream like sunlight on a sea. And deem you hold the half of happy pairs. He who 's for us, for him are we I
—Ladies, I listened to a ring of dames ; Judicial in the robe and wig ; secure As venerated portraits in their frames ; And they denounced some insurrection new Against sound laws which keep you good and pure. Are you of them ? are they of you ?
— Sirs, they are of us, as their dress denotes. And by as much : let them together chime : It b an ancient bell within their throats. Fulled by an aged ringer ; with what glee Befits the yellow yesterdays of time.
He who 's for us, for him are we 1
—Sweet ladies, you with beauty, you with wit ; Dowered of all favours and aJl blessed things Whereat the ruddy torch of Love ia lit ; Wherefore this vain and outworn strife renew. Which stays the tide no more than eddy brings ? W^o is for love must be for you.
—The manners of the market, honest airs, "lis hard to quit when you behold the wares. You Batter us, or perchance our milliners You flatter ; so this vain and outworn She May still be the charmed snake to your soft ai A higher lord than Love claim we.
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248 A BALLAD OF PAIR LADIES IN REVOLT
— One day, dear Udy, missiog the broad track, I came on a wood's border, by a mead, Where golden May ran up to moted black : And there I saw Queen Beauty hold review. With Love before her throne in act to plead. Take him for me, take her for you.
— Ingenious gentleman, the tale is known.
Love pleaded sweetly : Beauty would not melt : She would not melt : he turned in wrath : her throne The shadow of his back froze witheringly, And sobbing at his feet Queen Beauty knelt. O not such slaves of Love are we I
— Love, lady, like the star above that lance Of radiance flung by sunset on ridged cloud, Sad as the last line of a brave romance !^ Young Love hung dim, yet quivering round him threw Beams of fresh fire while Beauty waned and bowed. Scorn Love, and dread the doom for you.
— Called she not for her mirror, sir? Forth ran Her women : I am lost, she cried, when lo. Love in the form of an admiring man Once more in adoration bent the knee And brought the faded Pagan to full blow :
For which her throne she gave : not we I
—My version, madam, runs not to that end. A certain madness of an hour half past Caught her like fever : her just lord no friend She fancied ; aimed beyond beauty, and thence grew The prim acerbity, sweet Love's outcast.
Great heaven ward off that stroke from you .'
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A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT 249
—Your prayer to heaven, good air, b generous : How generous likewise that you do not name Offended nature I She from all of U9 Couched idle UDdemeath our showering tree May quite withhold her most destructive flame ; And then what woeful women we I
— Quite, could not be, fair lady ; yet your youth May run to drought in visionary schemes : And a late waking to perceive the truth, When day falls shrouding her supreme adieu. Shows daricer wastes thaii unaccomplished dreams : And that may be in store for you.
— 0 sir, the truth, the truth I is 't in the skies. Or in the grass, or in this heart of ours ? But 0 the truth, the truth I the many eyes That look on it I the diverse things they see, Ac(»rding to their thirst for fruit or flowers 1 Pass on : it b the truth seek we.
— Lady, there b s truth of settled laws
That down the past bums like a great watch-fire. Let youth hail changeful mornings ; but your cause. Whetting its edge to cut the race in two, la felony : you forfeit the bright lyre.
Much honour and much glory you I
3cvni — Sir, was it glory, was it honour, pride. And not as cat and serpent and poor slave. Wherewith we walked in union by your sidef Spare to false womanliness her delicacy, (> hid true manliness give ear, we crave : In our defence thus chained are we.
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250 A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT
—Yours, madam, were the privileges of life Proper to man's ideal ; you were the mark Of action, and the banner in the strife : Yea, of your very weakness once you drew The strength that sounds the wells, outflies the lark : Wrapped in a robe of flame were you !
—Your friend looks thoughtful. Sir, when we were chill. You clothed us warmly ; all in honour ! when We starved you fed us ; all in honour still : Oh, all in honour, ultra-honourably 1 Deep is the gratitude we owe to men. For privileged indeed were we !
XXI
—You cite ext^eptions, madam, that are sad. But come in tiie red struggle of our growth. Aloq that I should have to say it! bad
sed upon earth : this which you do imal impatience, mental sloth : Ein monstrous, pining seraphs you 1
XXII
uld ask your friend . . . but I will ask bow if in place of numbers vague, exceptions were to break that mask ir for your cool mind historically, : like black lists of' a preaeni plague ? it in that light behold them we.
it breathes a mist upon our world,
1 like a rain to pierce the roof
ch the bed where toil-toased man lies curled
rd-eamed oblivion ! You are few,
, ill-counselled, blinded : for a proof,
lave lived, and have known none like you.
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A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT 251
XXIV
—We may be blind to men, sir : we embrace A future now beyond the fowler's nets. Though few, we hold a promise for the race That was not at our rising : you are free To wiD brave matea; you lose but marionnettes. He who 's for us, for him are we.
XXV
—Ah ! madam, were they puppets who withstood Youth's cravings for adventure, to preserve The dedicated ways of womanhood ? The light which leads us from the paths of rue. That light above us, never seen to swerve,
Should be the home-lamp trimmed by you.
XXVI
—Ah ! sir, our worshipped posture we perchance Shalt not abandon, though we see not how. Being to that lamp-post fixed, we may advance Beside our lords in any real degree. Unless we move : and to advance is now
A sovereign need, think more than we.
—So push you out of harbour in small craft. With little seamanship ; and comes a gale, The world will laugh, the world has often laughed, Lady, to see how bold when skies are blue. When black winds chum the deeps how panic-pale. How swift to the old nest fly you I
—What thinks your friend, kind sir? We have escap< But partly that old half-tamed wild beast's paw Whereunder woman, the weak thing, was shaped : Men too have known the cramping enemy In grim brute force, whom force of brdn shall awe : Him our deliverer await we !
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252 A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT
— Delusions are with eloquence endowed, And yours might pluck an angel from the spheres To play in this revolt whereto you are vowed. Deliverer, lady I but like summer dew O'er fields that crack for rain your friends drop teai Who see the awakening for you.
XXX
— Is he our friend, there silent? he weeps not. O sir, delusion mounting like a sun On a mind blank as the white wife of Lot, Giving it warmth and movement 1 if this be Delusion, think of what thereby was won
For men, and dream of what win we.
XXXI
— Lady, the destiny of minor powers. Who would recast us, is but to convulse: You enter on a strife that frets and sours ; You can but win sick disappointment's hue ; And simnlv an accelerated pulse ;
Du have drunk moves you.
»? Good sir, yout wit b bright ;
to speak the popular voice
and puts out its light ;
your conqueror's decree
and we have no chmce s or rebellion, we I
diate way is clef ssion : you that rave to right and left ladam : and 'tis due un it as the grave, pie offered you.
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A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT 253
—This apple is not ripe, it is not sweet ; Nor rosy, sir, nor golden : eye and mouth Are little wooed by it ; yet we would eat. We are somewhat tired of Eden, is our plea. We have thirsted long ; this apple suits our drouth : "Tis good for men to halve, think we.
—But aay, what seek you, madam ? Tis enough That you should have dominion o'er the springs Domestic and man's heart : those ways, how rough. How vile, outside the stately avenue Where you walk sheltered by your angel's wings. Are happily unknown to you.
XXXVI
— We hear women's shrieks on them. We like your phras Dominion domestic I And that roar, 'What seek you?' is of tyrants in all days. Sir, get you something of our purity, And we will of your strength : we a^ no more. That is the sum of what seek we.
XXXVII
— O for an image, madam, in one word, To show you, as the lightning night reveals, Your error and your perils : you have erred Id mind only, and the perils that ensue Swift heeb may soften ; wherefore to swift heels Address your hopes of safety you 1
XXXVIII
— ^To err in mind, sir . . . your friend smiles : he may ! To err in mind, if err in mind we can. Is grievous error you do well to stay. But O how different from reality Men's fiction is ! how like you in the p)an Is woman, knew you her as we 1
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254 A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT
— Look, lady, where yon river winds its line
Toward sunset, and receives on breast and face ^The splendour of fair life : to be divine, f^Tis nature bids you be to nature true, I Flowing with beauty, lending earth your grace. Reflecting heaven in clearness you.
—Sir, you speak well : your friend no word vouchsafes. To flow with beauty, breeding fools and worse. Cowards and worse : at such fair life she chafes Who is not wholly of the nursery, Nor of your schools : we shore the primtd curse ; Together shake it off, say we I
— Hear, then, my friend, madam ! Tongue-restrained he " stands Till words are thoughts, and thoughts, like swords enriched With traceries of the artificer's hands, |iAre fire-proved steel to cut, fair flowers to view. — f Do I hear him? Oh, he is bewitched, bewitched 1 (^ Heed him not ! Traitress beauties you 1
xui — We have won a champion, sisters, and a sage I — Ladies, you win a guest to a good feast I — Sir spokesman, sneers are weakness veiling rage. — Of weakness, and wise men, you have the key. — Then are there fresher mornings mounting East Than ever yet have dawned, sing we !
xuii " ' ' • ■ • idam, be sure I
^use purifies I le lure ?
high light pursue, lown : the wary wise lasque with you I
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A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT 255
xuv — Sir, for the friend you bring us, take our thanks. Yes, Beauty was of old tfab barren goal ; A thing with claws ; and brute-like in her pranks I But could she give more loyal guarantee Than wooing wisdom, that in her a soul
Has risen ? Adieu : content are we 1
rniose ladies led their captive to the flood's Green edge. He floating with them seemed the most Fool-flushed old noddy ever crowned with buds. Happier than 1 1 llien, why not wiser too? For he that lives with Beauty, he may boast His comrade over me and you. '
Have women nursed some dream since Helen sailed. Over the sea of blood the blushing star. That beauty, whom frail man as Goddess hailed, When not possessing her (for such ia he !), Might in a wondering season seen afar
Be tamed to say not ' I,' but ' we ' ?
And shall they make of Beauty their estate, Tlie fortress and the weapon of their sex? Shall she in her frost-brilliancy dictate. More queenly than of old, how we must woo. Ere she will melt? The halter 's on our necks. Kick as it likes us, I and you.
XLVIII
Certain it is, if Beauty has disdained Her ancient conquests, with an aim thus high : If this, if that, if more, the fight is gwned. But can she keep her followers without fee? Yet ah I to hear anew those ladies cry, He who 's for us, for him are we I
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BALLADS AND POEMS OF TRAGIC LIFE THE TWO MASKS'
Melpouene among her livid people. Ere stroke of lyre, upon Thaleia looks, Warned by old contests that one museful ripple Along those lips of rose with tendril hooks Forebodes disturbance in the springs of pathos, Perehance may change of masks midway demand Albeit the man rise mountainous as Athos, The woman wild as Cape Leucadia stand.
For this the Comic Muse exacts of creatures Appealing to the fount of tears : that they Strive never to outleap our human features, And do Right Reason's ordinance obey. In peril of the hum to laughter nighest. But prove they under stress of action's fire Nobleness, to that test of Reason highest. She bows : she waves them for the loftier lyie.
ARCHDUCHESS ANNE*
In middle age an evil thing ihess Anne : ie her wedding-ring ly man.
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:HDUCHESS ANNE
ub was for horse and arma ; its beacon waved, but ladies had not charms ch a danger braved.
Gelds he was the bow ig to fly the sliaft : urs bis heart would flow is on currents waft
was of those warrior tribes reamed from morning's fire, w with traps and now with bribes iy Council wire.
ess Anne the Council ruled, Louis hia great dame ; to both when one had cooled 1 'as she to blame.
!r chiefs who spun their plots, aken stood the sword : his wits for cutting knots jie he abhorred.
need her name and line, ler merit had ierwise to wait her sign, the deed she bade.
ST hand jump at her side ally she smiled and his fair young bride courtly ranks defiled.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
That was a moment when & shock
Through the procession ran. And thrilled the plumes, and stayed the clock.
Yet smiled Archduchess Anne.
No touch gave she to hound in leash. No wink to sword in sheath :
She seemed a woman scarce of flesh ; Above it, or beneath.
Old Kraken spied with kennelled snarl. His Lady deemed disgraced.
He footed as on burning marl. When out of Hall he paced.
; hammered striding legs, id, and strode again, ice has a brood of eggs, ce must be hen.
xni they for wrath to hatch, r time to rear. :ept unwinking watch ; his day appear.
XIV
laugh, though moods were rough
iards in revolt :
[x>l£ the news for snuff,
ng lips for salt
XV
wavy cock's plumes led of black-haired manes, old Kraken sped m OD the plains.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
Then camp opposed to camp did they Fret earth with panther claws
For signal of a bloody day. Each reading from the Laws.
'Forefendit, heaven t' Count Loub cried, ' And let the righteous [dead :
My country is a willing bride, Waa never slave deo^eed.
'Not we for thirst of blood appeal To sword and slaughter curst ;
We have God's blesung on our steel, Do we our pleading first.'
Count Louis, soul of chivalry. Put trust in plighted word ;
By starlight on the broad brown lea. To bar the strife he spuired.
Across his breast a crimson spot, That in a quiver glowed.
The ruddy crested camp-fires shot, As he to darkness rode.
He rode while omens called, beware Old Kraken's pledge of faith 1
A smile and waving hand in air. And outward flew the wnutb.
Before pale mom had mixed with gold. His army roared, and chilled.
As men who have a woe foretold, And see it red fulfilled.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
mil
Away and to hia young wife speed. And say that Honour 's dead !
Another word she will not need To bow a widow's head.
Old Kraken roped hia white moustache Right, left, for savage glee:
— To swing him in his soldier's sash Were kind for auch as be 1
XXV
Old Kraken's look hard Winter wears When sweeps the wild snow-blast :
He had the hug of Arctic bears For captives he held faat.
Archduchesa Anne sat carved in frost. Shut off from priest and spouse.
Her lips were locked, her arms were crossed. Her eyes were in het brows.
fWio hanA enclosed a paper scroll, strangled asp. ee the woman's soul ; tempter's grasp.
croll Count Louia' doom till the letters flamed, in his scornful bloom, im chained and shamed.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
Around that scroll Count Louis' fate
Was acted to her stare. And hate in love and love in hate
Fought fell to amite or spare.
Between the day that struck her old, And this black star of days,
Her heart swung like a storm-beli tolled Above a town ablaze.
His beauty pressed to intercede.
His beauty served him ill. — Not Vengeance, 'tis his rebel's deed,
Tis Justice, not our will 1
Yet who had sprung to life's full force A breast that loveless dried ?
But who had sapped it at the source, With scarlet to het pride !
He brought her waning heart as 'twere New message from the sides.
And he betrayed, and left on her The burden of their sighs.
In floods her tender memories poured ;
They foamed with waves of spite : She crushed them, high her heart outsoared,
"To keep her mind alight.
— Tbe crawling creature, called in scorn
A woman 1 — with this pen We sign a paper that may warn
His crowing fellowmen.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
— ^We read them lesson of a power They slight who do us wrong.
That bitter hour this bitter hour Provokes ; by turns the strong I
XII
— That we were woman once is known :
That we are Justice now. Above our sex, above the throne.
Men quaking shall avow.
Arohduchess Anne ascending flew. Her heart outsoared, but felt
The demon of her sex pursue. Incensing or to melt.
Those counterfloods below at leap Still in her breast blew storm.
And farther up the heavenly steep Wrestled in angels' form.
To disentangle one clear wish Not of her sex, she sought ;
And womanish to womanish Discerned in lighted thought.
With Louis' chance it went not well When at herself she raged ;
A woman, of whom men mi^t.tell She doted, crazed and aged.
Or else enamoured of a sweet Withdrawn, a vengeful crone !
And say, what figure at her feet Is this that utters moan?
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:HDUCHESS ANNE
3CVIII
teas Loub from her head eil : ' Great Lady, hear ! ind deems you Justice dread, you Meroy dear.
upon him may fall ;
not breathe a nay. lelpless mate in ail, for grace to pray.
e on me his choice inclined, his House an heir : marriage with his mind, nsel could not share.
t no portion for his weal i one instinct true, Is me in my weakness kneel, :hess Anne, to you.'
XXII
ling Lady uttered, 'Forth!' k forbade delay : mine to weigh your worth ; isband's others weigh.
th the woman in your speech, hing it avails 's fashion to beseech lustice holds the scales.'
: and went the lady wan, ^bhness made grey ;hts that through Archduchess Ann sd like stormy spray.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
XXV
LoDg sat she there, as flame that strives
To hold on beating wind : — His wife must be the fool of wives.
Or cunningl}' designed I
She sat until the tempest-pitch
In her torn bosom fell ; — His wife must be a subtle witch
Or else God loves her well I
Old Kraken read a missive penned By his great Lady's hand.
Her condescension called him friend. To raise the crest she fanned.
Swiftly to where he lay encamped
It flew, yet breathed aloof From woman's feeling, and he atamped
A heel more like a hoof.
She wrote of Mercy : 'She was loth
Too hard to goad a foe.' He stamped, as when men drive an oath
Devils transcribe below.
She wrote : ' We have him half by theft.'
His wrinkles listened keen : And see the Winter storm-cloud cleft
To lurid skies between I
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CHESS ANNE
Crakenr 'ChriatourG
spikes of apar :
te snow-storm divide
itart
1 to understand,' 1 further prayed ht rule the land, laughter nnghed.
ok ; her nods and winks man's fog. : his mistress thinks, lithfui dog.
lak old Kraken ripped ; m he loathed.
nadam, shows you stripped, iU keep you clothed.
IX
red scar in haste his cheek-bone. I man shall taste ; ill be shown.
)nour to your race QUncil-hall : ope by special grace, Jier fall.'
many sins, irtue die,
1. — They play at shins, ( the reply.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
Uprose the day of crimson sight,
The day without a God. At mom the hero said Good-night :
See there that stain on sod !
xm At mom the Countess Louis heard
Young light sing in the lark. Ere eve it was that other bird.
Which brings the starless dark.
To heaven she vowed herself, and yearned
Beside her lord to lie. Archduchess Anne on Kraken turned.
All white as a dead eye.
If I could kill thee 1 shrieked her look : \g from Will 1 Kraken shook, tank or kill.
ed her heart in mail
las torn.
am leaped a wail,
-bom.
iKJurtly use, ,rd them prate red upon views raised debate.
d must she trust,
>au3e so just, essing moan.
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
Austerely she her heart kept down. Her woman's tongue was mute
When voice of People, voice of Crown, In cannon held dispute.
XX
The Crown on seas of blood, like swine, Swam forefoot at the throat :
It drank of its dear veins for wine. Enough if it might float !
XXI
It sank with piteous yelp, resurged
Electrical with fear. O had she on old Kraken urged
Her word of mercy dear 1
XXII
0 had they with Count Louis been
Accordant in his plea 1 Cursed are the women vowed to screen
A heart that all can see I
The godless drove unto a goal Was worse than vile defeat.
Did vengeance prick Count Louis' soul They dressed him luscious meat.
XXIV
Wonns will the faithless find their lies
In the close treasure-chest. Without a God no day can rise,
llough it should slay our b»t.
XXV
The Crown it furled a draggled flag, It sheathed a broken blade.
Behold its triumph in the hag That lives with looks decayed I
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ARCHDUCHESS ANNE
XXVI
And lo, the man of oaken head, Of soldier's honour bare,
He fled his land, but most be &ed Hia Lady's frigid stare.
Judged by the issue we discern God's blessing, and the bane.
Count Louis' dust would fill an urn. His deeds are waving grain.
XXVIII
And she that helped to slay, yet bade
To spore the fated man. Great were her errors, but she had
Great heart. Archduchess Anne.
THE SONG OF THEODOLINDA •
Qdeen Thgodound has built In the earth a furnace-bed :
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THE SONG OF THEODOLINDA
Brown-cowled hammermen around Nerve their naked anna to strike Death with Resurrection crowned. Each upon that cruel spike. R«d of heat the furnace leaps, White of heat transfigured sleeps.
Hard against the furnace core Holds the Queen her streaming eyes : Lo I that thing of piteous gore In the lap of radiance lies. Red of heat, as when He takes. White of heat, whom earth forsakes.
id fear! thus, >f ua.
jased Tliee, Lord I
ouch it : dear,
irred:
hcxe.
heat,
set
out with rods
lay
1 was God's !
pressed,
ay breast I
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THE SONG OF THEODOUNDA
Quick I the reptile in me shrieks, Not the soul. Again ; the Cross Bum there. Oh ! this pain it wreaks Rapture is : pain is not loss. . Red of heat, the tooth of Death, White of heat, has caught my breath.
Brand me, hite me, bitter thing ! Thus He felt, and thus am I One with Him in sufTering, One with Him in bliss, the Lamb. Red of heat, 0 white of heat. Thus is bitterness made sweet.
Now am I, who bear that stamp Scorched in me, the living sign Sole on earth — the lighted lamp Of the dreadful day divine. White of heat, beat on it fast 1 Red of heat, its shape has passed.
Out in angry sparks they fly, They that sentenced Him to bleed : Pontius and his troop : they die. Damned for ever for the deed I White of heat in vain they soar : Red of heat they strew the floor.
Fury on it ! have its debt I Thunder on the Hill accurst, Golgotha, be ye I and sweat Blood, and thirst the Passion's thirst. Red of heat and white of heat. Champ it like fierce teeth that eat.
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THE SONG OF THEODOUNDA
Strike it as the ages crush Towers ! for while s shape is seen I am rivalled. Quench its blush. Devil ! But it crowns me Queen, Red of heat, as none before, White of heat, the circlet wore.
XIV
Lowly I will be, and quail. Crawling, with a beggar's hand : On my breast the branded Nail, On my head the iron band. Red of heat, are none so base ! White of heat, none know such grace I
In their heaven the sainted hostSi Robed in violet unflecked, Gaze on humankind as ghosts : I draw down a ray direct. Red of heat, across my brow. White of heat, I touch Him now.
Robed in violet, robed in gold. Robed in pearl, they make our dawn. What am I to them ? Behold What ye are to me, and fawn. Red of heat, be humble, ye 1 White of heat, O teach it me I
XVII
Martyrs I hungry peaks in air, Rent with lightnings, clad with snow. Crowned with stars ! you strip me bare. Pierce me, shame me, stretch me low. Red of heat, but it may be, White of heat, some envy me I
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THE SONG OF THEODOLINDA
O poor enviers ! God's own gifts Have a. <Iev!l for the weak. Yea, the very force that lifts Finds the vessel's secret leak. Red of heat, I rise o'er all : White of heat, I faint, I fall.
Those old Martyrs sloughed their pride.
Taking humbleness like mirth.
I am to His Glory tied,
I that witness Him on earth t
Red of heat, my pride of dust,
White of heat, feeds fire in trust.
XX
Kindle me to constant lire, Lest the nail be but a nail 1 Give me wings of great desire. Lest I look within, and fail I Red of heat, the furnace light White of heat, fix on my sight.
XXI
Never for the Chosen peace I Know, by me tormented know. Never shall the wrestling cease Till with our outlasting Foe, Red of heat to white of heat. Roll we to the Godhead's feet!
Beat, beat I white of heat.
Red of heat, beat, beat !
A PREACHING FROM A SPANISH BALLAD •
I
Ladies who in chains of wedlock
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FROM A SPANISH BALLAD 273
Prado strolled my seigneur, dly bow OD hip, nming his moiistachios, rate fellowship.
ihe that owned him master ; )wer heat to ground arged and sun-forsaken ; : her hair unbound.
IV
her feet a lover ; knelt and wooed ; 'ery gift from heaven •ved of common food.
she his vows repeated ; oft sung and thrummed : as on earth a stranger ;
rusted, and succumbed.
youth I my lover ! lover I take my life line in soul and body, ii of more than wife !
or no helplea oward, though I sink le thee, like an infant lame ere it can think.
lence to do thee service, cour, prove thy shield ; II bear! — in house thy handmaid, n the battlefield.
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274 A PREACHING FROM A SPANISH BALLAD
At my breasts I cool thy footsoles ; Wine I pour, I dress thy meats ; Humbly, when my lord it pleaseth, lie with him on perfumed sheets :
Fray for him, my blood's dear fountun, While be sleeps, and watch his yawn In that wakening babeiike moment, Sweeter to my thought than dawn I —
"nimideTed then her lord of thunders; Burst the door, snd, flashing sword. Loud disgorged the woman's title: Condemnation in one word.
Grand by righteous wrath transfigured, Towers the husband who provides In his person Judge and witness, Death's black doorkeeper besides I
XIII
Round hb head the ancient terrora* Conjured of the stronger's law. Circle, to abash the creature Daring twist beneath his paw.
XIV
How though he hath squandered Honour High of Honour let him scold : Gilding of the man's possesaon, 'Tis the wpinao's coin of gold.
She inheriting from many Bleeding mothers bleeding sense Feels 'twixt her and sharp-fanged nature Honour first did plant the fence.
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A PREACHING FROM A SPANISH BALLAD 275
Nature, that 30 shrieks for justice ; Honour's thirst, that biood will slake ; lliese are women's riddles, roughly Mixed to write them saiat or snake.
xvn
Never nature cherished woman : She throughout the sexes' war Serves as temptress and betrayer, Favouring man, the muscular.
XVIII
Lureful is she, bent for folly ; Doating on the child which crows : Yours to teach him grace in fealty. What the bloom Is, what the rose.
XIX
Hard the task : your prison-chamber Widens not for lifted latch Till the giant thews and sinews Meet their Godlike overmatch.
Read that nddle, scorning pity's Tears, of cockatrices shed : When the heart ia vowed for freedom. Captaincy it yields to head.
Meanwhile you, freaked nature's martyrs, Honour's army, flower and weed. Gentle ladies, wedded ladies. See for you this fair one bleed.
XXII
Sole stood her offence, she faltered ; Prayed her lord the youth to spare ; IVayed that in the orange garden She might lie, and ceased her prayer.
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L
THE YOUNG PRINCESS
When the South was a fervid nightingale.
And she a chilling moon, Twas pity to see on the garden swai^, Agunst Love's laws, those rival lords
As willow-wan^ lie strewn.
> The South had throat of a nightingale For her, the young princess : She gave no vine of Love to rear. Love's wine drank not, yet bent her ear To themes of Love no less.
The lords of the Court they sighed heart-sick.
Heart-free Lord Dusiote laughed : I prize her no more than a fling o' the dice. But, or shame to my manhood, a lady of ice. We master her by craft I
Heart-sick the lords of joyance yawned.
Lord Dusiote laughed heart-free : I count her as much as a crack o' my thumb. But, or shame of my manhood, to me she shall come
Like the bird to roost in the tree I
At dead of night when the palace-guard
Had passed the measured rounds. The young princess awoke to feel A shudder of blood at the crackle of steel Within the garden-bounds.
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THE YOUNG PRINCESS
You are dying) 0 greitt-hearted lord. You are dying for me, she cried ; O take my band, O take my kiss. And take of your right, for love like this, The vow that plights me bride.
She hade the priest retnte his words While hand in hand were they,
Lord I>usiot«'s soul to waft to hliss ;
He had her hand, her vow, her kiss. And his hody was home away.
Lord Dusiote sprang from priest and squire ;
He gazed at her lighted room : The laughter in his heart grew slack ; He knew not the foree that pushed him back
From her and the mom in bloom.
Like a drowned man's length on the strong 6ood-tide,
Like the shade of a bird in the sun. He fled from his lady whom he might claim As ghost, and who made the daybeams flame To scare what he had done.
There was grief at Court for one so gay. Though he was a lord less keen
For training the vine than at vintage-press ;
But in her soul the young princess Believed that love had been.
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THE YOUNG PRINCESS
Lord Dusiote fled the Court and land.
He crossed the woeful seas, Till his traitorous doing seemed clearer to bum, And the lady beloved drew hia heart for return,
like the banner of war in the breese.
He neared the palace, he spied the Court,
And music he heard, and they told Of foreign lords arrived to bring The nuptial gifts of a bridegroom king To the princess grave and cold.
The masque and the dance were cloud on wave. And down the masque and the dance
Lord Dusiote stepped from dame to dame.
And to the young princess he came, With a bow and a burning glance.
Do you take a new husband to-morrow, lady ?
She shrank a^ at prick of steel. Must the first yield place to the second, he sighed. Her eyes were like the grave that is wide
For the corpse from head to heel.
My lady, my love, that little hand
Has mine ringed fast in plight : I bear for your lips a lawful thirst, And as justly the second should follow the first,
I come to your door this night.
nc
If a ghost should come a ghost will go :
wrath began living man.
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THE YOUNG PRINCESS
IV* I The soft night-wind went laden to death With smell of the orange in flower ; The light leaves prattled to neighbour ears ; The bird of the passion sang over his tears ; The night named hour by hour. 11 Sang loud, sang low the rapturous bird
Till the yellow hour was nigh. Behind the folds of a darker cloud : He chuckled, be sobbed, alow, aloud ; The voice between earth and sky. ui O will you, will you, women are weak ;
The proudest are yielding mates
For a forward foot and a tongue of fire :
So thought Lord Dusiote's trusty squire.
At watch by the palace-gates.
rv
1 The song of the bird was wine in his blood.
And woman the odorous bloom :
His master's great adventure stirred
Within him to mingle the bloom and bird.
And mom ere its coming illume.
Beside him strangely a piece of the dark
Had moved, and the undertones Of a priest in prayer, like a cavernous wave, He heard, as were there a soul to save For urgency now in the groans.
VI
No priest was hired for the play this night : And the squire tossed head like a deer At sniff of the tainted wind ; he gazed Where cresset-lamps in a door were raised, Belike on a passing bier.
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THE YOUNG PRINCESS
All cloaked and masked, with naked blades,
lliat flashed of a judgement done. The lords of the Court, from the palace-door. Came issuing silently, bearers four. And flat on their shoulders one.
They marched the body to squire and priest, They lowered it sad to earth :
The priest they gave the burial dole
Bade wrestle hourly for his soul, Who was a lord of worth.
One said, farewell to a gallant knight I
And one, but a restless ghost I "T^ a year and a day since in this place He died, sped high by a lady of grace. To join the blissful host.
Not vainly on us she charged her cause,
"ITie lady whom we revere For faith in the mask of a love untrue To the Love we honour, the Love her due,
llie Love we have vowed to rear.
A trap for the sweet tooth, lures for the light.
For the fortress defiant a mine : Right well I But not in the South, princess. Shall the lady snared of her nobleness Ever shamed or a captive pine.
When the South had voice of a nightingale
Above a Maying bower, On the heights of Love walked radiant peers ; The bird of the passion sang over hb tears
To the breeze and the orange-flower.
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KING HARALD'S TRANCE *
Sword in Ieng;th & reaping-hook amBin Harald sheared his field, blood up to shank :
'Mid the swathes of slain,
First at moonrise drank, u Thereof hunger, as for meats the knife. Pricked his ribs, in one sharp spur to reach
Home and his young wife.
Nigh the sea-ford beach. Ill After battle keen to feed was he : Smoking flesh the thresher washed down fast.
Like an angry sea
Ships from keel to mast.
IV
Name us glory, singer, name us pride Matching Huald's in his deeds of strength ; Chiefs, wife, sword by side, Foemen stretched their length I
V
Half a winter night the toasts hurrahed. Crowned him, clothed him, trumpeted him high
Till awink he bade
Wife to chamber fly.
VI
Twice the sun had mounted, twice had sunk. Ere his ears took sound ; he lay for dead ;
Mountain on his trunk.
Ocean on his head.
VII
Clamped to couch, his fiery hearing sucked Whispers that at heart made iron-dang ;
Here fool-women ducked.
There men held harangue.
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KING HARALD'S TRANCE
vin Burial to 6t their lord of war They decreed him : hailed the kingling : ha I
Hateful ! but this Thor
Failed a weak lamb's baa.
IX
KiQg they hailed a hranchlet, shaped to fare. Weighted so, like quaking shingle spume.
When his blood's own heir
Ripened in the womb I
Still he heard, and doglike, hoglike, ran Nose of hearing till his blind sight saw :
Woman stood with man
Mouthing low, at paw.
XI
Woman, man, they mouthed ; they spake a thing Armed to split a mountain, sunder seas :
Still the frozen king
Lay and ieit him freeze.
Doglike, boglike, borselike now he raced. Riderless, in ghost across a ground
Flint of breast, blank-faced,
Past the fleshly bound.
Smell of brine his nostrils filled with might : Nostrils quickened eyelids, eyelids hand : Hand for sword at right Groped, the great haft spanned.
XIV
Wonder struck to ice his people's eyes : Him they saw, the prone upon the bier.
Sheer from backbone rise,
Sword uplifUng peer.
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KING HARALD'S TRANCE
Sitting did he breathe against the blade. Standing kiss it for that proof of life :
Strode, as netters wade.
Straightway to his wife.
XVI
Her he eyed : his judgement was one word, Foulbed 1 and she fell : the blow clove two.
Fearful for the third,
All their breath indrew.
XVII
Morning danced along the waves to beach ;
Dumb his chiefs fetched breath for what might hap :
Glassily on each
Stared the iron cap. xvin Sudden, as it were a monster oak Split to yield a limb by stress of heat,
Strained he, staggered, broke
Doubled at their feet.
WHIMPER OF SYMPATHY
Hawk or shrike has done this deed Of downy feathers : rueful sight I Sweet sentimentalist, invite Your bosom's Power to intercede.
So hard it seems that one must bleed Because another needs will bite I All round we find cold Nature slight The feelings of the totter-knee'd.
O it were pleasant with you
To fiy from this tussle of foes.
The shambles, the chamel, the wrinkle I
To dwell in yon dribble of dew
On the cheek of your sovereign rose.
And live the young life of a twinkle.
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YOUNG REYNARD
Gracepullest leaper, the dappled fox-cub Curves over brambles with berries and buds. Light as a bubble that flies from the tub, Whisked by the laundry-wife out of her suds. Wavy he comes, woolly, all at his ease, Elegant, fashioned to foot with the deuce ; Nature's own prince of the dance : then he sees Me, and retires as if making excuse.
Never closed minuet courtlier ! Soon Cub-hunting troops were abroad, and a yelp Told of sure scent : ere the stroke upon noon Reynard the younger lay far beyond help. Wild, my poor friend, ha^ the fate to be chased ; Civil will conquer : were 'l other 'twere worse ; Fair, by the flushed early morning embraced, Haply you live a day longer in verse.
Projected from the bilious Childe,
This clatterjaw his foot could set
On Alps, without a breast beguiled
To glow in shedding rascal sweat.
Somewhere about Us grinder teeth.
He mouthed of thoughts that grilled beneath,
And summoned Nature to her feud
With bile and buskin Attitude.
Considerably was the world Of spinsterdom and clergy racked While he his hinted horrors hurled. And she pictorially attacked.
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HERNANI
A duel hugeous. Tragic f Hoi The cities, not the mountains, blow Such bladders ; in their shapes confessed An after-dinner's indigest.
HERNANI *
CiBTERCUNS might crack tbeir sides With laughter, and exemption get. At sight of heroes clasping brides. And bearing — 0 tbe horn ! the horn I The horn of their obstructive debt 1
But quit the stage, that note applies For sermons cosmopolitan, Hemani. Have we filched our prize. Forgetting . . . ? O the horn I the horn t The horn of the Old Gentleman I
THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA *
Flat as to an eagle's eye.
Earth hung under Attila. Sign for carnage gave be none. In the peace of bis disdain. Sun and rain, and rain and sun, Cherished men to wax again. Crawl, and in their manner die. On his people stood a frost. Like tbe charger cut in stone. Rearing stiff, the warrior host, Which had life from him alone, Craved the trumpet's eager note, As the bridled earth the Spring. Rusty was tbe trumpet's throat. He let chief and prophet rave ; Venturous earth around him string
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THE NUPTIALS OF ATHLA
Threads of grass and slender rye.
Wave them, and untrampled wave.
0 for the time when God did cry,
Eye and have, my Attila I
Scom of conquest filled tike sleep Him that drank of havoc deep When the Green Cat pawed the globe : When the horsemen from his bow Shot in sheaves and made the foe Crimson fringes of a robe, Trailed o'er towns and fields in woe ; When they streaked the rivers red. When the saddle was the bed. Attila, my Attila 1
He breathed peace and pulled a flower.
Eye and have, my Attila I Thb was the damsel Ildico, Rich in bloom until that hour : Shyer than the forest doe Twinkling slim through branches green. Yet the shyest shall be seen.
Make the bed for Attila I
Seen of Attila, desired.
She was led to him straightway :
Radiantly was she attired ;
Rifled lands were her array,
Jewels bled from weeping crowns.
Gold of woeful fields and towns.
She stood pallid in the light.
How she walked, how withered white.
From the blessing to the board.
She who should have proudly blushed,
Women whispered, asking why,
Hinting of a youth, and hushed.
Was it terror of her lord ?
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THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA
Was she childish T was ahe sly T Was it the bright mantle's ilyo Drained her blood to hues of unci Like the ash that shoots the nimrkT See the green tree all in leaf ; See the green tree strippw! «f bark I— Make the bed for Attila !
V
Round the banquet-tabk'n load Scores of iron horsemen rink ; Chosen warriors, keen and hard ; Grain of threshing Uttk-dinU ; Attila's fierce l>ody-«u«"l' Smelling war like fir* in ftintJi. Gnot them pea'*r !«»■ fu/i'iv<r , Iroo-cappeH and i/on-t.**^.'-'), Eacb ajraia^t i.U Hl'/w', r.t.M-i
Afila' K-y A"J-»'. Eari*- «^ '/ ''-^ '/f**^, E«^ t«:i '-'-^ '■^"•" '-'■^' '^ ■ Bavi- ii«-. JCjC v-'_>*-'. vt : ^- ■*,
Be WW 'Jf -T.^ V.-rX V. «• - iiTunat n. j".-'- ' f-'r >>« "^ '-"■ Jiatnumr ■ ■"-' "■'*^ c-f"'^ •■
IxMt^^ lit 'A'^ • *»'' '-" ' '■
i,-*r nut IlE-» «',■ <--'■
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THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA
Under the thin hoop of gold Whence in waves her hair outroUed, 'Twixt her brows the women saw Shadows of a vulture's claw Gript in flight : strange knots that sped Closing and dissolving aye : Such as wicked dreams betray When pale dawn creeps o'er the bed. They might show the common pang Known to virgins, in whom dread Hunts their bliss like famished hounds ; While the chiefs with roaring rounds Tossed her to her lord, and sang Praise of him whose hand was large. Cheers for beauty brought to yield. Chirrups of the trot afield. Hurrahs of the battle-charge.
Those rock-faces hung with weed Reddened : their great days of speed. Slaughter, triumph, flood and flame, Like a jealous frenzy wrought. Scoffed at them and did them shame, Quaffing idle, conquering naught. 0 for the time when God decided
Earth the prey of Attila I God called on thee in his wrath. Trample it to mire I "Twas done. Swift as Danube clove our path Down from East to Western sun, Huns ! behold your pasture, gaze, Take, our king said : heel to flank (Whisper it, the warhorse neighs !) Forth we drove, and blood we drank Fresh as dawn-dew : earth was ours : Men were flocks we lashed and spumed : Fast as windy flame devours, Flame along the wind, we burned.
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THE NUPTIALS OF AITILA
Arrow, javelin, spear, and sword ! Here the snows and there the plains ; On I our signal : onward poured Torrents of the tightened reins, Foaming over vine and com Hot against the city-wall. Whisper it, you sound a horn To the grey beast in the stall 1 Yea, he whinnies at a nod. O for sound of the trumpet-notes I O for the time when, thunder-shod, He that scarce can munch his oats Hung on the peaks, brooded aloof. Champed the grain of the wrath of God, Pressed a cloud on the cowering roof. Snorted out of the blackness fire ! Scarlet broke the sky, and down. Hammering West with print of his hoof. He burst out of the bosom of ire Sharp as eyeUght under thy frown, Attila, my Attila 1
IX
Ravaged cities rolling smoke Thick on cornfields dry and black Wave his banners, bear his yoke. Track the lightning, and you track Attila. They moan : 'tis he ! Bleed : 'tis he I Beneath his foot Leagues are deserts charred and mute ; Where he passed, there passed a sea, Attila, my Attila 1
X
— Who breathed on the king cold breath ? Said a voice amid the host. He is Death that weds a ghost. Else a ghost that weds with Death f Ildico's chill little hand Shuddering he beheld : austere Stared, as one who would command Sight of what has filled his ear :
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THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA
Plucked his thin beard, laughed disdain. Feast, ye Huns I His arm he raised. Like the warrior, battle-dazed, Joining to the fight amain. Make the bed for Attila 1
Silent Ildico stood up. King and chief to pledge her well Shocked sword sword and cup on cup. Clamouring like a brazen bell. Silent stepped the queenly slave. Fair, by heaven ! she was to meet On a midnight, near a grave. Flapping wide the winding-^eet.
XII
Death and she walked through the crowd. Out beyond the flush of light. Ceremonious women bowed Following her : 'twas middle night. Then the warriors each on each Spied, nor overloudly laughed ; Like the victims of tibe leech. Who have drunk of a strange draught.
XI I Attila remained. Even so Frowned he when he struck the blow, Bruned his horse that stumbled twice, On a bloody day in Gaul, Bellowing, Perish omens 1 All Marvelled at the sacrifice. But the battle, swinging dim, Rang off that axe-blow for him. Attila, my Attila 1
XIV
Brightening over Danube wheeled Star by star ; and she, most fair. Sweet as victory half-revealed, Seized to make him glad and young ;
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THE NUPTIAI^ OP AITILA
She, 0 swe«t as the dark sign Given him oft io battles gone. When the voice within said. Dare I And the trumpet-notes were sprung Rapturous for the charge in line : She lay waiting : fair as dawn Wrapped in folds of night she lay ; Secret, lustrous ; flaglike there. Waiting him to stream and ray. With one loosening blush outflung, Colours of his hordes of horse Ranked for combat : still he hung Like the fever-dreading air. Cursed of heat ; and as a corse Gathers vultures, in his brain Images of her eyes and kiss Plucked at the limbs that could remain Loitering nigh the doors 'of bliss. Make the bed for Attila I
Fasten on one band, on one Destiny led forth the Hun. Heard ye outcries of affright. Voices that through many a fray, In the press of flag and spear. Warned the king of peril near ? Men were dumb, they gave him way, Eager heads to left and right. Like the bearded standard, thrust. As in battle, for a nod Prom their lord of battle-dust.
Attila, my Attila I Slow between the lines he trod. Saw ye not the sun drop slow On this nuptial day, ere eve Pierced him on the couch aglow?
Attila, my Attila ! Here and there his heart would cleave Clotted memory for a space : Some stout chief's familiar face.
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THE NUPTIAl^ OF ATTILA
Choicest of hb fighting brood. Touched him, as 'twere one to know Ere he met his bride's embrace.
Attila, my Attila ! Twisting fingers in a beard Scant as winter underwood, With a narrowed eye he peered ; Like the sunset's graver red Up old pine-stems. Grave he stood Eyeing them on whom was shed Burning light from him alone.
Attila, my Attila I Red were they whose mouths recalled Where the slaughter mounted high, High on it, o'er earth appalled. He; heaven's finger in their sight Raising him on waves of dead : Up to heaven his trumpets blown. O for the time when God's delight
Crowned the head of Attila ! Hungry river of the crag Stretehing hands for earth he came : Force and Speed astride his nune Pointed back to spear and flag. He came out of miracle cloud. Lightning-swift and spectre-lean. Now those days are in a shroud : Have him to bis ghostly queen.
Make the bed for Attila I
One, with winecups overstrung,
CrieJ him farewell in Rome's tongue.
Who ? for the great king turned as though
Wrath to the shaft's head strained the bow.
Nay, not wrath the king possessed,
But a radiance of the breast.
In that sound he had the key
Of his cunning malady.
Lo, where gleamed the sapphire lake,
Leo, with his Rome at stake.
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THE NUPTIAI5 OF ATTILA
Drew blank air to hues and forms ; Whereof Two that shone distinct,' Linked as orbed stars are linked. Clear among the myriad swarms. In a constellation, dashed Full on horse and rider's eyes Sunless light, but light it was — Light that blinded and abashed, Froze his members, bade him pause, Caught him mid-gallop, blazed him home.
Attila, my Attila ! What are streams that cease to flow ? What was Attila, rolled thence, Cheated by a juggler's show? Like that lake of blue intense. Under tempest lashed to foam. Lurid radiance, as he passed, Filled him, and around was glassed, When deep-voiced he uttered, Rome 1
XVII
Rome I the word was : and like meat Flung to dogs the word was torn. Soon Rome's magic priest shall bleat Round their magic Pope forlorn ! Loud they swore the lung had sworn Vengeance on the Roman cheat. Ere he passed a», grave and still, Danube through the shouting hill : Sworn it by his naked life ! Eagle, snakes these women are : Take them on the wing ! but war, Smoking war 's the warrior's wife I Then for plunder ! then for brides Won without a winking priest ! — Danube whirled his train of tides Black toward the yellow East. Make the bed for Attila !
XVIll
Chirrups of the trot afield. Hurrahs of the battle-charge.
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THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA
How they answered, how they pealed. When the morning rose and drew Bow and javelin, lance and targe. In the nuptial casement's view I
Attila, my Attila 1 Down the hillspurs, out of tents Glimmering in mid-forest, through Mists of the cool morning scents. Forth from city-alley, court, Arch, the bounding horsemen flew. Joined along the plains of dew. Raced and gave the rein to sport. Closed and streamed like curtain-rents Fluttered by a wind, and flowed Into squadrons : trumpets blew. Chargers neighed, and trappings glowed Brave as the briglit Orient's. Look on the seas that run to greet Sunrise : look on the leagues of wheat : Look on the lines and squares that fret Leaping to level the lance blood-wet. Tens of thousands, man and steed, Tossing like field-flowers in Spring; Ready to be hurled at need Whither their great lord may sling. Finger Homeward, Homeward, King I
Attila, my Attila 1 Still the woman holds him fast As a night-flag round the mast.
Nigh upon the fiery noon. Out of ranks a roaring burst. 'Ware white women like the moon I They are poison : they have thirst First for love, and next for rule. Jealous of the army, she? Ho, the little wanton fool ! We were his before she squealed Blind for mother's milk, and heeled
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THE NUPTIALS OP ATTILA
Kickiog on her mother's knee. His in life and death are we : She but one flower of a field. We have given him bliss tenfold In an hour to match her night :
Attila, my Attila I Still her arras the master bold, As on wounds the scarf winds tif^t.
Over Danube day no more. Like the warrior's planted spear. Stood to hail the King : in fear Western day knocked at his door.
Attila, my Attila I Sudden in the army's eyes Rolled a blast of lights and cries : Flashing through them : Dead are ye I Dead, ye Huns, and torn piecemeal t See the ordered army reel Stricken through the ribs : and see. Wild for speed to cheat despair, Horsemen, clutching knee to chin. Crouch and dart they know not where.
Attila, my Attila ! Faces covered, faces bare, Light the palace-front like jets Of a dreadful fire within. Beating hands and driving hair Start on roof and parapets. Dust rolls up ; the slaughter din. — Death to them who call him dead ! Death to them who doubt the tale I Choking in his dusty veil, Sank the sun on his death-bed.
Make the bed for Attila 1
XXI
*Tis the room where thunder sleeps. Frenzy, as a wave to shore Surging, burst the silent door, And drew back to awful deeps,
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THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA
Breath beaten out, foam-wtute. Anew Howled and pressed the ghastly crew. Like storm-waters over rocks.
Attila, my AttUa I One long shaft of sunset red Laid a Biiger on the bed. Horror, with the snaky locks. Shocked the surge to stiiTened heaps. Hoary as the glacier's head Paced to the moon. Insane they look. God it is in heavea who weeps Fallen from his hand the Scourge he shook.
Make the bed for AtdU t
XXII
Square along the couch, and stark. Like the sea-rejected thing Sea-sucked white, behold their King.
Attila, my Attila I Beams that panted black and bright. Scornful lightnings danced their sight : Him they see an oak in bud. Him an oaklog stripped of bark : Him, their lord of day and night, White, and lifting up his blood Dumb for vengeance. Name us that. Huddled in the comer dark. Humped and grinning like a cat. Teeth for lips ! — 'tis she I she stares, Glittering through her bristled hairs. Rend her I Pierce her to the hilt 1 oi.. :- Murder ; have her out I this little fist, as big southern summer fig I Madness, none may doubt, who dares deny her guilt I who says his blood she spilt I oke the bed for Attila I
XXIII
and lamp and sunset-red ree-fing^«d on the bed.
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THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA
In the torch the beord-bair scant With the great breast seemed to pant: Id the yellow lamp the limbs Wavered, as the lake-Bower awims : In the sunset red the dead Dead avowed him, dry blood-red.
XXIV
Hatred of that abject slave, Earth, was in each cbiettain's heart. Earth baa f!ot him, whom God gave. Earth may sing, and earth shall smart I Attila, my Attilal
XXV
Thus their prayer was raved and ceased. Then had Veiigeance of ber feast Scent in their quick pang to smite Which they knew not, but huge pain Urged them for some victim slain Swift, and blotted from the sight. Each at each, a crouching beast. Glared, and quivered for the word. Each at each, and all on that. Humped and grinning like a cat. Head-bound with its bridal- wreath. Then the bitter chamber heard Vengeance in a cauldron seethe. Hurried counsel rage and craft Yelped to hungry men, whose teeth Hard the grey lip-ringlet gnawed. Gleaming till their fury laughed. With the steel-hilt in the clutch, Eyes were shot on her that froze In tbeir blood-thirst overawed ; Burned to rend, yet feared to touch. She that was bis nuptial rose. She was of his heart's blood clad : Oh 1 the last of him she had ! — Could a little fist as big As the southern summer fig
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THE NUPTIA1£ OF ATTILA
xxvni
Thus their prayer was raved and passed : Passed in peace their red sunset : HeWD and earthed those men of sweat Who had housed him in the vast, Where no mortal might declare. There lies he — his end was there ! Attila, my Attilal
^ngless was the army left : Of its head the race bereft. Every fury of the pit Tortured and dismembered it. Lo, upon a silent hour, When the pitch of frost subsides, Danube with a shout of power Loosens his imprisoned tides : Wide around the frighted pl^ns Shake to hear his riven chains, Dreadfuller than heaven in wrath. As he mokes himself a path : High leap the ice-cracks, towering pile Floes to bergs, and giant peers Wrestle on a drifted isle ; Island on ice-island rears; Dissolution battles fast; Big the senseless Titans loom, Through a mist of common doom Striving which shall die the last : Till a gentle-breathing mom Frees the stream from bank to bank So the Empire built of scorn Agonized, dissolved and sank. Of the Queen no more was told Than of leaf on Danube rolled. Moke the bed for Attila !
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THE LAST CONTENTION •
YoDNO captain of a crazy bark ! O tameless heart in battered frame I Thy sailing orders have a mark. And hers is not the name.
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THE LAST CONTENTION
For action alt thine iron clanks In cravings for a splendid prize; Again to race or bump thy planks With any flag that flies.
Consult them ; they are eloquent For senses not inebriate. They trust thee on the star intent. That leads to land their freight.
And they have known thee high peruse The heavens, and deep the earth, til! thou Didst into the flushed circle cruise Where reason quits the brow.
Iliou animatest ancient tales, To prove our worid of linear seed : Thy very virtue now assails, A tempter to mislead.
But thou host answer : I am I ; My passion hallows, bids command : And she is gracious, she is nigh : One motion of the hand !
It will suffice ; a whirly tune These winds will pipe, and thou perform llie nodded part of pantaloon In thy created storm.
Admires thee Nature with much pride; She clasps thee for a pft of mom. Till thou art set against the tide. And then beware her scorn.
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Men til. Ami h. • And il Men . .linl I rTli.1
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PERIANDER
Bloom of the generous fires of his fair Spring Still coloured him when men forbore to sting; Admiring meekly where the ordered seeds Of his good sovereignty showed gardens trim ; And owning that the hoe he struck at weeds Was author of the flowers raised face to him.
His Connth, to each mood subservient
In homage, made he as an instrument
To yield him music with scarce touch of stops.
He breathed, it piped ; he moved, it rose to fly :
At whiles a bloodhorse racing till it drops;
At whiles a crouching dog, on him all eye.
His wisdom men acknowledged ; only one. The creature, issue of him, Lycophron, That rebel with his mother in his brows. Contested : such an infamous would foul Pirene I ' Little heed where he might house The prince gave, hearing : so the fox, the owl 1
To prove the Gods benignant to his rule. The years, which fasten rigid whom they cool. Reviewing, saw him hold the seat of power. A grey one asked : Who next ? nor answer had : One greyer pointed on the pallid, hour To come : a river dried of waters glad.
For which of his male issue promised grip To stride yon people, with the curb and whip? This Lycophron ! he sole, the father like. Fired prospect of a line in one strong tide. By right of mastery ; stern will to strike ; Pride to support the stroke : yea, Godlike pride !
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PERIANDER
Himself the prince beheld a failiDg fount His line stretched back unto its holy mount : The thirsty onward waved for htm no sign. Then stood before his vision that hard son. l^e seizure of a passion for his tine Impelled him to the path of Lycophron.
The youth was tossing pebbles in the sea ;
A figure shimned along the busy quay.
Perforce of the harsh edict for who dared
Address him outcast. Naming it, he crossed
His father's look with look that proved them paired
For stitfness, and another pebble tossed.
An enle to the Island ere nightfall
He passed from sight, from ^e hushed mouths cA all.
It had resemblance to a death : and on.
Against a coast where sapphire shattered white,
The seasons rolled like troops of billows blown
To spraymist. The prince gazed on capping night.
Deaf Age spake in his ear with shouts : Thy son 1
Deep from his heart Life raved of work not done.
He heard historic echoes moan his name.
As of the prince in whom the race had pause ;
Till Tyranny paternity became.
And him he hated loved he for the cause.
Not Lycophron the exile now appeared, But young Periander, from the shadow cleared, That haunted his rebellious brows. The prince Grew bright for him ; saw youth, if seeming loth. Return : and of pure pardon to convince. Despatched the messenger most dear with both.
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PERIANDER
His daughter, from the exile's laland home. Wrote, as a flight of halcyons o'er the foam, Sweet words : her brother to his father bowed ; Accepted his peace-offering, and rejoiced. To bring him back a prince the father vowed, CommaDded man the oars, the white sails hoist.
He waved the fleet to strain its westward way
On to the sea-hued hills that crown the bay :
Soil of those hospitable islanders
Whom now his heart, for honour to his blood.
Thanked. They should learn what boons a prince confers
When happiness enjoins him gratitude I
Id watch upon the ofEng, worn with haste
To see his youth revived, and, close embraced.
Pardon who had subdued him, who had gained
Surely the stoutest battle between two
Since Titan pierced by young Apollo stained
Earth's breast, the prince looked forth, himself looked through.
Errors aforetime unperceived were bared.
To be by his young masterful repaired :
Renewed hb great ideas gone to smoke ;
His policy confirmed amia the surge
Of States and people fretting at his yoke.
And lo, the fleet brown-flocked on the sea-verge I
Oars pulled : they streamed in harbour ; without cheer
For welcome shadowed round the heaving bier.
They, whose approach in such rare pomp and stress
Of numbers the free islanders dismayed
At Tyranny come masking to oppress,
Found Lycophron this breathless, this lone-laid.
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} PERIANDER
xvni
Who smote the man thrown open to young joyT
The image of the mother of his boy
Came forth from his unwary breast in wreaths,
With eyes. And shall a woman, that extinct,
Smite out of dust the Powerful who breathes?
Her loved the son ; her served ; they lay close-linked !
XIX
Dead was he, and demanding earth. Demand Sharper for vengeance of an instant hand. The Tyrant in the father beard him cry, And raged a plague ; to prove on free Hellenes How prompt the Tyrant for the Persian dye ; How black his Gods behind their marble screens.
The Tyrant passed, and friendlier was his eye
On the great man of Athens, whom for foe
He knew, than on the sycophantic fry
That broke as waters round a galley's flow.
Bubbles at prow and foam along the wake.
Solidity the Thunderer could not shake,
Beneath an adverse wind still stripping bare.
His kbsman, of the light-in-cavem look.
From thought drew, and a countenance could wear
Not less at peace than fields in Attic air
Shorn, and shown fruitful by the reaper's hook.
Most enviable so ; yet much insane
To deem of minds of men they grow ! these sheep,
By fits wild horses, need the crook and rein ;
Hot bulls by fits, pure wisdom bold they cheap,
My Lawgiver, when 6ery b the mood.
For ones and twos and threes thy words are good ;
For thine own government are pillars : mine
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SOLON 3<
Stand acta to fit the herd ; which has quick thirst. Rejecting elegiacs, though they shine On polished brass, and, worthy of the Nine, In showering columns from their fountain burst.
TTius museful rode the Tyrant, princely plumed. To his high seat upon the sacred rock : And Solon, blank beside his rule, resumed The meditation which that passing mock Had buffeted awhile to sallowness. He little loved the man, his office less. Yet owned him for a flower of his kind. Therefore the heavier curse on Athens he I The people grew not in themselves, but, blind, Accepted sight from him, to him resigned Their hopes of stature, rootless as at sea.
As under sea lay Solon's work, or s<
By turbid shore-waves beaten day by day ;
Defaced, half formless, like an image dreamed.
Or child that fashioned in another clay
Appears, by strangers' bands to home returned.
But shall the Present tyrannize us? earned
It was in some way, justly says the sage.
One sees not how, while husbanding regrets ;
While tossing scorn abroad from righteous rage,
High vision is obscured ; for this is age
When robbed — more infant than the babe it frets I
Yet see Athenians treading the black path Laid by a prince's shadow ! well content To wait his pleasure, shivering at his wrath : They bow to their accepted Orient With offer of the all that renders bright : Forgetful of the growth of men to light. As creatures reared on Persian milk they bow.
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SOLON
Unripe I unripe I The times are overcast But still may they who sowed behind the plough True seed fix in ^e mind an unborn Now To make the plagues afflicting us things past.
BELLEROPHON •
Maimed, beggared, grey ; seeking an alms ; with nod Of palsy doing task of thanks for bread ;
U[x>n the st&ture of a God, He whom the Gods have struck bends low his head.
Weak words be has, that slip the nerveless tongue Deformed, like his great frame : a broken arc :
Once radiant as the javelin flung Right at the centre breastplate of his mark.
^-eyed inward look, irrative be tells, !in heat the brook t in the upland swells.
him fruit and crust 1 hear him prate; K, and comes the dust, ', more bent of late.
for a meal
Drid to say.
jicient wheel
ad the livelong day.
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BELLEROPHON
He caoDot, nor do they, the tale connect ; For never singer in the land had been
Who him for theme did not reject : Spumed of the hoof that sprang the Hippocrene.'
Albat a theme of flame to bring them straight The snorting white-winged brother of the wave.
They hear him as a thing by fate Cuised in unholy babble to his grave.
As men that spied the wings, that heard the snort, Their sires have told ; and of a martial prince
Bestriding him ; and old report Speaks of a monster slain by one long since.
DC
There is that story of the golden bit
By Goddess given to tame the lightning steed :
A mortal who could mount, and sit Flying, and up Olympus midway speed.
He rose like the loosed fountain's utmost leap ; He played the star at span of faeaVen right o'er
Men's heads : they saw the snowy steep. Saw the winged shoulders : him they saw not more.
He fell : and says the shattered man, I fell : And sweeps an arm the height an eagle wins ;
And in his breast a mouthless well Heaves the worn patches of his coat of skins.
Lo, this is he in whom the surgent springs Of recollections richer than our skies
To feed the flow of tuneful strings, Show but a pool of sciun for shooting flies.
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ATTEUPTED IN THE QALLIAMBIC UEASITRE
At the coming up of Phoebus the all-luminoua charioteer, Double-visaged stand the mountains in Imperial multitudes, And with shadows dappled men sing to him, Hail, 0 Beneficent! For they shudder chill, the earth-vales, at his clouding, shudder
to black ; In the light of him there is music thro' the poplar and river- sedge. Renovation, chirp of brooks, hum of the forest — an ocean-song. Never pearl from ocean-hollows by the diver exultiogly. In his breathlessness, above thrust, is as earth to Helios. Who usurps his place there, rashest ? Aphrodite's loved one
it is] To his son the flaming Sun-God, to the tender youth,
Phaethon, Rule of day this day surrenders as a thing hereditary. Having sworn by Styx tremendous, for the proof of his
parentage. He would grant his son's petition, whatsoever the sign thereof. Thea, rejoiced, the stripling answered : ' Rule of day give
me ; give it me, 'Give me place that men may see me bow I blaze, and
traoscendingly 'I, divine, proclaim my birthright.' Darkened Helios, and
his utterance Choked prophetic: '0 half mortal I' he exclaimed in an
agony, ' 0 lost son of mine ! lost son I No ! put a prayer for
another thing : 'Not for this: insane to wish it, and to crave the ^t
impious 1 'Cannot other gifts my godhead shed upon thee? miraculous ' Mighty gifts to prove a blessing, that to earth thou shalt be
a joy? * Gifts of healing, wherewith men walk as the Gods beneficently ; ' As a God to sway to concord hearts of men, reconciling them ; 'Gifts of verse, the lyre, the laurel, therewithal that thine
origin
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PHAETHON 313
'Shall be known even as when / strike on the string'd shell
with melody, 'And the golden notes, like medicine, darting straight to the
cavities, 'Fill them up, till hearts of men bound as the billows, the
ships thereon.' Thus intently urged the Sun-God ; but the force of his
eloquence Was the pressing on of sea-waves scattered broad from the
rocks away. What shall move a soul from madness? Lost, lost in
delirium. Rock-fast, the adolescent to his father, irrevereDt, 'By the oath! the oath! thine oath!' cried. The effidgent
foreseer then, Quivering in his loins parental, on the boy's beaming
countenance Looked and moaned, and urged him for love's sake, for sweet
life's sake, to yield the claim, To abandon his mad hunger, and avert the calamity. But he, vehement, passionate, called out: 'Let me show I
am what I say, "Diat the taunts I hear be silenced : I am stung with their
whispering. 'Only, Thou, my Father, Thou tell how aloft the revolving
wheels, ' How aloft the cleaving horse-crests I may guide peremptorily, "Hll I drink the shadows, fire-hot, like a flower celestial, 'And my fellows see me curbing the fierce steeds, the dear
dew-drinkers : ' Yea, for this I gaze on life's light ; throw for this any sacrifice.'
All the end foreseeing, Phoebus to his oath irrevocable
Bowed obedient, deploring the insanity pitiless.
Then the fiame-outsnorting horses were led forth : it was so
decreed. They were yoked before the glad youth by his sister-
ancillaries. Swift the ripple ripples foilow'd, as of aureate Helicon, Down their flanks, while they impatient pawed desire of the
distances,
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314 PHAETHON
And the bit with fury champed. Ob 1 unimaginable delight t UnimagiDed speed and splendour in the circle of upper air ! Glory grander than the armed host upon earth singing victory ! Chafed the youth with their spirit sdrcharged, as when blossom
is shaken by winds, Mark«l that labour by hb sister Phaethontiades finished,
quick On the slope of the car his forefoot set assured: and the
morning rose : Seeing whom, and what a day dawned, stood the God, as in
harvest fields. When the reaper grasps the full sheaf and the sickle that
severs it : Hugged the withered head with one hand, with the other, to
indicate (If this woe might be averted, thb immeasurable evil). Laid the kindling course in view, told how the reins to
manipulate : Named the horses fondly, fearful, caution 'd urgently between-
whiles: Their diverging tempers dwelt on, and their wantonness,
wickedness. That the voice of Gods alone held in restraint; but the
voice of Gods ; None but Gods can curb. He spake: vain were the words:
scarcely listening. Mounted Phaethon, swingmg reins loose, and, 'Behold me,
companions, ' It is 1 here, 1 1' he shouted, glancing down with supremacy ; ' Not to any of you was this gift granted ever in annals of
men; ' 1 alone what only Gods can, 1 alone am governing day I ' Short the triumph, brief his rapture: see a hurricane suddenly Beat the lifting billow crestless, roll it broken this way and
that ;— At the leap on yielding ether, in despite of bis reprimand. Swayed tumultuous the Sre-steeds, plunging reckless hither
; Troubled East:— the charioteer, ed in his arid wits ;
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PHAETHON 315
The mns stiff ahind his shoulder madly pulled for the mastery. Till a thunder off the tense chords thro' his ears dinnld
horrible. Panic seized him : fled his vision of inviolability ; Fled the dream that be of mortab rode mischances pre- dominant ; And he cried, 'Had I petitioned for a cup of chill aconite, ' My descent to awful Hades bad been soft, for now must I go ' With the curse by father Zeus cast on ambition immoderate. 'Oh, my sisters I TTiou, my Goddess, in whose love I was
enviable, ' From whose arms I rushed befrenzied, what a wreck will this
body be, 'That admired of thee stood rose-warm in the courts where
thy mysteries ' Celebration had from me, me the most splendidly privileged ! ' Never more shall I thy temple fill with incenses bewildering ; 'Not again hear thy half-murmurs — I am lost! — never,
never more. 'I am wrecked on seas of air, hurled to my death in a vessel
of flame I 'Hither, sisters! Father, save mel Hither, succour me,
Cyprial'
Now a wail of men to Zeus rang: from Olympus the
Thunderer Saw the rage of the havoc wide-mouthed, the bright car
superim pending Over Asia, ^rica, low down ; ruin flaming over the vales ; Light disastrous rising savage out of smoke inveterately ; Beast-black, conflagration like a menacing shadow move With voracious roaring southward, where aslant, insufferable, The bright steeds careered their parched way down an arc of
the firmament. For the day grew Uke to thick night, and the orb was its
beacon-Sre, And from hill to hill of darkness burst the day's apparition
forth. Lo, a wrestler, not a God, stood in the chariot ever lowering : Lo, the shape of one who raced there to outstrip the legitimate
hours:
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316 PHAETHON
Lo, the rsvish'd beams of Phoebus dragged in shame at the
ch&riot-wheels : Light of days of happy pipings by the mead-singing rivulets ! Lo, lo, increasing lustre, torrid breath to the nostrils; lo. Torrid brilliancies thro' the vapours lighten swifter, penetrate
them. Fasten merciless, ruminant, hueless, on earth's frame craclding
busily. He aloft, the freimed driver, in the glow of the universe. Like the paling of the dawn-atar wipers visibly, he aloft : Bitter fury in bis aspect, bitter death in the heart of him. Crouch the herds, contract the reptiles, crouch the lions under
their paws. White as metal in the furnace are the faces of humankind : Inarticulate creatures of earth dumb all await the ultimate
shock. To the bolt he launched, 'Strike dead, thou,' uttered Zeus,
very terrible ; ' Perish folly, else 'tis man's fate' ; and the bolt flew unerringly. Then the kindler stooped; from the torch-car down the
measureless altitudes Leaned his rayless head, relinquished rein and footing, raised
not a cry. Like the flower on the river's siuface when expanding it
vanishes. Gave his limbs to right and left, quenched : and so fell he
precipitate, Seen of man as a glad rain-fall, sending coolness yet ere it
comes: So he showered above them, shadowed o'er the blue archi- pelagoes. O'er the silken-shining pastiu-es of the continents and the
isles; So descending brought revival to the greenery of our earth.
Lither, noisy in the breezes now his sisters shivering weep, By the river flowing smooth out to the vexed sea of Adria, Where he fell, and where they suffered sudden change to the
tremulous Ever-wailful trees bemoaning htm, a bruised purple cyclamen.
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A HEADING OF EARTH SEED-TIME • I Flowem of Uie willow-herb are wool ■ IWe^ of the briar berries red • '
Speeding their seed as the breeze may rule Bower, ot the thistle loosea the th,^ ' Flower, of the clematis drip i„ bird SWk from the fir-tree younglj Srf ■ £'•&'•■"'".'«« foliage sired; ' Heeled upon earth, lie cluster rimrf.
» Where were skia ot the mantle stoned a»ngeand,ejrlet,.coatoffrie», Travel, from North till day ha, waned, Tattered, joaked in the diteh's dyes; rumble, the rook under grey or .lati ;
amts me Life as a wheezy erone.
rii JowMsems none but the spider lord ■ tar m circle hi, web waits prey ilvering bush-mounds, blue brushing sward ■ low runs the hour, swift flits the ray ow to this thrcad-shroud is he nigh
e who frobcked the jewelled fly ■
] is adroop on the down and the weald.
ists more lone for the sheep-bell enwrap ghts that tardily let slip a mom ler than moons, and on noontide's lap ime die, cold, like the roM late bom.
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SEED-TIME
Rose born late, bom withered in bud I — I, even I, for a zenith of sun Cry, to fulfil me, nourish my blood : O for a day of the long light, one !
Master the blood, nor read by chills. Earth admonishes : Hast thou ploughed. Sown, reaped, harvested grain for the mills, Thou hast the tight over shadow of cloud. Steadily eyeing, before that wail, Animal-infant, thy mind began. Momently nearer me : should sight fail, Plod in the track of the husbandman.'
Verily now is our season of seed.
Now in our Autumn ; and Earth discerns
Them that have served her in them that can read,
Glassing, where under the surface she bums,
Quick at her wheel, while the fuel, decay.
Brightens the fire of renewal : and we ?
Death b the word of a bovine day,
Know you the breast of the springing To-be.
HARD WEATHER
Bursts from a rending East in flaws The young green leaflet's harrier, sworn To strew the garden, strip the shaws. And show our Spring with banner torn. Was ever such virago mom ? The wind has teeth, the wind has claws.
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HARD WEATHER
Is the land ship f we are rolled, we drive Tritonly, deaving hiss and hum ; Whirl with the dead, or mount or dive, Or down in dre({s, or on in scum. And drums the distant, pipes the near. And vale and hiil are grey in grey, As when the surge is crumbling sheer. And sea-mewa wing the haze of spray. Clouds — are they bony witches? — swarms, vift on the robber's flight, infant sky in arms : t becks ; 'tis day, 'tis night, le over the loop of blue le is closed, like shroud on corse, wift the Furies flew, at heel at a cry to horse I
me the savage whirr : !^ature scourged, or she, ing's executioner, land to barren sea ? re meaning in a day I fierce angel of the air, throw, and haply slay, hat breath of life we bear wrestle ? Call to mind ' meanings glistening up ture, to her nurslings kind, ;m the fruitage and the cup ! we rich signiflcance where than with those tides K on the sunned expanse, w deludes, whose ebb derides T
le face of men who fare
thed, a match in lungs and thews
erce angel of the air,
vith him and take his bruise.
le face belov«l of old
young mother of her brood :
m for us shows the mould
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HARD WEATHER
When muscle is in mind reDewed :
Though farther from her nature rude,
Yet nearer to her spirit's hold :
And though of gentler mood serene,
Still forceful of her fountain-jet.
So shall her blows be shrewdly met.
Be luminously read the scene
Where Life is at her grindstone set,
That she m^ fivr iii rdgning Ifrrn,
String i^jofbattle, till as play
The cOffimon^trokes of fortune shower.
Such meaning in a dagger-day
Our wits may clasp to wax in power.
Yea, feel us warmer at her breast,
By spin of blood in lusty driU,
uhan when her honeyed hands caressed,
knd Pleasure, sapping, seemed to fill.
Behold the life at ease ; it drifts. The sharpened life commands'its course. She winnows, winnows roughly ; sifts, To dip her chosen in her sZurce : V Contention is the vital fo^e, Whence pluck they brain', her prize of gifts, Sky of the senses I on which height. Not disconnected, yet released. They see how spirit comes to light, Through conquest of the inner beast, Which Measure tames to movement sane. In harmony with what is fair. > Never is Earth'misread by brain : 1 Thtitirtte wfeHtng^Ther," there Irhe mirror : with one step beyond, - /For likewise is it voice ; and more, / Benignest kinship bids respond, J When wail the weak, and them restore / Whom days as fell as this may rive, ( While Earth sits ebon in her gloom, I Us atomies of life alive / Unheeding, bent on lite to come. * — Her childi«a of the labouring brain.
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THE SOUTH-WESTER
These are the champions of the race. True parents, and the sole humane, ^ With rniderstanding for their base. ' Earth yields the milk, but all her mind Is vowed to thresh for stouter stock. Her paasion for old giantkind, That scaled the mount, uphurled the rock. Devolves oc them who read aright Her meaning and devoutly serve ; Nor in her starlessness of night Peruse her with the craven nerve : But even as she from grass to com. To eagle high from grubbing mole. Prove in strong brain her noblest bom, The station for the flight of soul.
THE SOUTH-WESTER •
Da.t of the doud in fleets ! O day
Of wedded white and blue, that sail
Immingled, with a footing ray
In shadow-sandals down our vale ! —
And swift to ravish golden meads,
Swift up the run of tiurf it speeds.
Thy bright of head and dark of heel,
To where the hilltop flings on sky,
As hawk from wrist or dust from wheel.
The tiptoe scalers tossed to fly : —
Thee tiie last thunder's caverned peal
Delivered from a wailful night :
All dusky round thy cradled light,
Those brine-bom issues, now in bloom
Transfigured, wreathed as raven's plume
And briony-leaf to watch thee lie :
Dark eyebrows o'er a dreamful eye
Nigh opening : till in the braid
Of purpled vapours thou wert rosed :
Till that new babe a Goddess maid
Appeared and vividly disclosed
Her beat of life : then crimson played
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THE SOUTH-WESTER
On edges of the plume and leaf :
Shape had they and fair feature brief,
The wings, the smiles : they flew the breast*
Earth's milk. But what imperial march
Their standards led for earth, none guessed
Ere, upward of a coloured arch.
An arrow straining eager head
Lightened, and high for zenith sped.
Fierier followed ; followed Fire.
Name the young lord of Earth's desire.
Whose look her wine is, and whose mouth
Her music I Beauteous was she seen
Beneath her midway West of South ;
And sister was her quivered green
To sapphire of the Nereid eyes
On sea when sun is breeze ; she winked
As they, and waved, heaved waterwise
Her flood of leaves and grasses linked :
A myriad lustrous butterflies
A moment in the fluttering sheen ;,
Becapped with the slate air that throws
The reindeer's antlers black between
Low-frowning and wide-fallen snows,
A minute after ; hooded, stoled
To suit a graveside Season's dirge.
Lo, but the breaking of a surge,
And she b in her lover's fold.
Illumined o'er a boundless range
Anew : and through quick morning hours
The Tropic-Arctic counterchange
Did seem to pant in beams and showers.
But noon beheld a larger heaven ; Beheld on our reflecting field The Sower to the Bearer given. And both their inner sweetest yield. Fresh as when dews were grey or first Received the flush of hues athirst. Heard we the woodland, eyeing sun, As harp and harper were they one. A murky cloud a fair pursued,
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THE SOUTH-WESTER ;
Assailed, and felt the limbs elude :
He sat him down to pipe his woe.
And some strange b^t of sky became :
A giant's club withheld the blow ;
A milky cloud went all to flame.
And there were groups where silvery springs
The ethereal forest showed begirt
By companies in choric rings,
Whom but to see made ear alert.
For music did each movement rouse,
And motion was a minstrel's rage
To have our spirits out of house,
And bathe them on the open page.
This was a day that knew not age.
Since flew the vapoury twos and threes
From western pile to eastern rack ;
As on from peaks of Pyrenees
To Groans ; youngness ruled the track.
When songful beams were shut in eaves,
And rainy drapery swept across ;
When the ranked clouds were downy waves,
Breast of swan, eagle, albatross.
In ordered lines to screen the blue.
Youngest of light was nigh, we knew.
The silver finger of it laughed
Along the narrow rift : it shot.
Slew the huge gloom with golden shaft,
Then haled on high the volumed blot,
To build the hurling palace, cleave
The dazzling chasm ; the flying nests.
The many glory-garlands weave.
Whose presence not our sight attests
Till wonder with the splendour blent,
And passion for the beauty flown.
Make evanescence permanent,
The thing at heart our endless own.
Only at gathered eve knew we The marvels of the day : for then Mount upon mountain out of sea Arose, and to our spacious ken
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NIGHT OF FROST IN MAY
The black twig dropped without a twirl ; The bud in jewelled grasp was nipped ; The brown leaf cracked a scorching curl ; A crystal off the green leaf slipped. Across the tracks of rimy tan. Some busy thread at whiles would shoot; A limping minnow-rillet ran. To hang upon an icy foot.
In this shrill hush of quietude. The ear conceived a severing cry.' Almost it let the sound elude. When chuckles three, a warble shy. From hazels of the garden came. Near by the cnmson-windowed farm. They laid the trance on breath and frame, A prelude of the passion-charm.
Then soon was heard, not sooner heard Than answered, doubled, trebled, more. Voice of an Eden in the bird Renewing with his pipe of four The sob : a troubled Eden, rich In throb of heart : unnumbered throats Flung upward at a fountain's pitch The fervour of the four long notes, That on the fountain's pool subside. Exult and ruffle and upspring : Endless the crossing multiplied Of silver and of golden string. There chimed a bubbled underbrew . With witch-wild spray of vocal dew.
It seemed a single harper swept Our wild wood's inner chords and waked A spirit that for yearning ached Ere men desired and joyed or wept. Or now a legion ravishing Musician rivals did unite In love of sweetness high to sing ~ The subtle song that rivals light ;
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NIGHT OP FROST IN MAY
From breast of earth to breast of sky : And they were secret, they were nigh : A hand the magic might dbperse ; The magic swung my universe.
Yet sharpened breath forbade to dream,
Where all was visionary gleam ;
Where Seasons, as with cymbals, clashed ;
And feelings, passing joy and woe,
Chm^ed, gurgled, spouted, interflashed.
Nor either was the one we know :
Nor pregnant of the heart contained
In us were they, that griefless plained,
That plaining soared ; and through the heart
Struck to one note the wide apart i —
A passion surgent from despair;
A paining bliss in fervid cold ;
Off the last vital edge of air.
Leap heavenward of the lofty-souled,
For rapture of a wine of tears ;
As had a star among the spheres
Caught up our earth to some mid-height
Of double life to ear and sight.
She giving voice to thought that shines
Keen-brilliant of her deepest mines ;
While steely drijjs the rillet clinked,
And hoar with crust the cowslip swelled.
Then was the lyre of earth beheld. Then heard by me : it holds me linked ; Across the years to dead-ebb shores I stand on, my blood-thrill restores. But would I conjure into me Those issue notes, I must review What serious breath the woodland drew ; The low throb of expectancy ; How the white mother-muteness pressed On leaf and meadow-herb ; how shook. Nigh speech of mouth, the sparkle-crest Seen spinning on the bracken-crook.
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THE THRUSH IN FEBRUARY •
I SNOW him, February's thrush,
And loud &t eve he v&lentines
On sprays that paw the naked bush
Where soon will sprout the thorns and binea.
Now ere the foreign singer thrilb Our vale his plain-song pipe he pours, A herald of the million bills ; And heed him not, the loss is yours.
My study, flanked with ivied fir
And budded beech with dry leaves curled.
Perched over yew and juniper,
He neighbours, piping to his world : —
The wooded pathways dank on brown. The branches on grey cloud a web. The long green roller of the down. An image of the deluge-ebb : —
And farther, they may hear along The stream beneath the poplar row. By fits, like welling rocka, Uie song Spouts of a blushful Spring in flow.
But most he loves to front the vale When waves of warm South-western raina Have left our heavens clear in pale. With faintest beck of moist red veins :
Vermilion wings, by distance held To pause aflight white fleeting swift : And high aloft the pearl inshelied ' Her lucid glow in glow will lift ;
A little south of coloured sky ; Directing, gravely amorous. The human of a tender eye Through pure celestial on us :
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THE THRUSH IN FEBRUARY
R«iDote, not alien ; still, not cold ; Unraying yet, more pearl than star ; She seems a while the vale to hold In trance, and homelier makes the far.
Then Earth her sweet unscented breathes ; An orb of lustre quits the height ; And like broad iris-flags, in wreaths The sky takes darkness, long ere quite.
Hb ' Island voice then shall you hear, Nor ever after separate From such a twilight of the year Advancing to the vernal gate.
He sings me, out of Winter's throat. The young time with the life ahead ; And my young time his leaping note Recalls to spirit-mirth from dead.
Imbedded in a land of greed, Of mammon-quakings dire as Earth's, My care was but to soothe my need ; At peace among the tittle worths.
To light and song my yearning aimed ; To that deep breast of song and light * Which men have barrenest proclaimed ; As 'tis to senses pricked with fright.
So mine are these new fruitings rich The simple to the common brings ; I keep the youth of souls who pitch Ti,-;- .•„.. ;» *u:„ „i j i—art of things :
oung as aye, Txiund we plough ; die; needling Now.
though he, :ing too,
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THE THRUSH IN FEBRUARY
With that I bear my senses fraught Till what I am fast shoreward drives. They are the vessel of the Thought. The vessel splits, the Thought survives.
Nought else are we when sailing hrave. Save husks to raise and bid it bum. Glimpse of its Uvingness will wave A light the senses can discern
Across the river of the death. Their close. Meanwhile, O twilight bird Of promise ! bird of happy breath I I hear, I would the City heard.
The City of the smoky fray ; A prodded ox, it drags and moans: Its Morrow no man's child ; its Day A vulture's morsel beaked to bones.
It strives without a mark for strife ; It feasts beside a famished bost : The loose restraint of wanton life. That threatened penance in the ghost !
Yet there our battle urges ; there _ Spring heroes many : issuing thence, Names that should leave no vacant air For fresh delight in confidence.
Ijfe was to them the hag of grain. And Death the weedy harrow's tooth. Those warriors of the sighting brain Give worn Humanity new youth.
Our song and star are they to lead The tidal multitude and blind From bestial to the higher breed By lighting souls of love divined.
They scorned the ventral dream of peace. Unknown in nature. This they knew : That life begets with fair increase Beyond the flesh, if life be true.
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THE THRUSH IN FEBRUARY
Just reason based on valiant blood The instinct bred afield would match To pipe thereof a swelling flood, Were men of Earth made wise in watch.*
Though now the numbers count as drops An um might bear, they father Time.' She shapes anew her dusty crops ; Her quick in their own likeness climb.
pf their own force do they create; They climb to light, in her their root. Your brutish cry at muffled fate She smites with pangs of worse than brute.
She, judged of shrinking nerves, appears A Mother whom no cry can melt ; But read her past desires and fears, The letters on her breast are spelt.
A slayer, yea, as when she pressed Her savage to the slaughter-heaps. To sacrifice she prompts her best : She reaps them as the sower reaps.
But read her thought to speed the race. And stars rush forth of blackest night : You chill not at a cold embrace . To come, nor dread a dubious might.
Her double visage, double voice. In oneness rise to quench the doubt. This breath, her gift, has only choice Of service, breathe we in or out.
Since Pain and Pleasure on each hand Led our wild steps from slimy rock To yonder sweeps of gardenland, We breathe but to be sword or block,*
The sighting brun her good decree Accepts ; obeys those guides, in faith, By reason hourly fed, that she. To some the clod, to some the wraith.
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THE THRUSH IN FEBRUARY
Is more, do mask; a flame, a stream. Flame, stream, are we, in mid career From torrent source, delirious dream, i To heaven-reflecting currents clear.
And why the sods of Strength have been Her cherished offspring ever ; how The Spirit served by her is seen Through Law ; perusing love wilt show.
Love bom of knowledge, love that gains Vitality as Earth it mates. The meaning of the Pleasures, Fains, The Life, the Death, illuminates.
For love we Earth, then serve we all ; Her mystic secret then is ours : We fall, or view our treasures fall, Unclouded, as beholds her flowers
Earth, from a night of frosty wreck. Enrobed in morning's mounted fire. When lowly, with a broken neck, V- The crocus lays her cheek to mire.
THE APPEASEMENT OF DEMETER •
Demetes devastated our good land. In blackness for her daughter snatched below. Smoke-pillar or loose hillock was the sand. Where soil had been to clasp warm seed and throw ' The wheat, vine, olive, ripe to Summer's ray. Now whether night advancing, whether day. Scarce did the baklness show : The hand of man was a defeated hand.
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THE APPEASEMENT OF DEMETER
Necessity, the primal goad to growth. Stood shrunken ; Youth and Age appeared as one; Like Winter Summer ; good as labour sloth ; Nor was there answer wherefore beamed the sun. Or why men drew the breath to carry pain. High reared the ploughshare, broken lay the wain.
Idly the flox-wheel spun Unridered : starving lords were wasp and moth.
Lean grassblades losing green on their bent flags.
Sang chilly to themselves; lone honey-bees
Pursued the flowers that were not with dry bags ;
Sole sound aloud the snap of sapless trees.
More sharp than slingstones on hard breastplates hurled.
Back to first chaos tumbled the stopped world.
Careless to lure or please. A nature of gaunt ribs, an Earth of crags.
No smile Demeter cast : the gloom she saw Well draped her direful musing; for in gloom, In thicker gloom, deep down the cavem-maw. Her sweet had vanished ; liker unto whom, And whose pale place of habitation mute, She and all seemed where seasons, pledged for fruit
Anciently, gaped for bloom : Where hand of man was as a plucked fowl's claw.
ided on a vale, for richness heaved.
y tale,
}d-cheeked, green-leaved.
lad withdrawn, her jests were gone.
r her who grieved,
me have piped the wail.
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THE APPEASEMENT OF DEMETER
lambe, her dear mountaiD-rivulet
To waken laughter from cold stones, beheld
A riven wheatfield cracking for the wet.
And seed like infant's teeth, that never swelled,
Apeep up flinty ridges, milkless round.
Teeth of the giants marked she where thin ground
Rocky in spikes rebelled Against the hand here slack as rotted net.
The valley people up the ashen scoop
She beckoned, aiming hopelessly to win
Her Mistress in compassion of yon group
So pinched and wizened ; with their aged grin.
For lack of warmth to smile, on mouths of woe.
White as in chalk outhning little O
Dumb, from a falling chin ; Young, old, alike half-bent to make the hoop.
Their tongues of birds they wagged, weak-voiced as when
Dark underwaters the recesses choke ;
With cluck and upper quiver of a hen
In grasp, past pecking ; cry before the croak.
Relentlessly their gold-haired Heaven, their fount
Bountiful of old days, heard them recount
This and that cruel stroke : Nor eye nor ear had she for piteous men.
A figure of black rock by sunbeams crowned
Through stormclouds, where the volumed shades enfold
An earth in awe before the claps resound
And woods and dwellings are as billows rolled,
The barren Nourisher unmelted shed
Death from the looks that wandered with the dead
Out of the realms of gold, In famine for her lost, her lost unfound.
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She laughed : since our first harvesting heard none Like thunder of the song of heart : her face. The dreadful darkness, shook to mounted sun. And peal on peal across the hills held chase. She laughed herself to water ; laughed to fire ; laughed the torrential laugh of dam and sire
Full of the marrowy race. Her laughter, Gods ! was flesh on skeleton.
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THE APPEASEMENT OF DEMETER
The valley people huddled, broke, afrwd.
Assured, and taking lightning in the veins
They puffed, they leaped, linked hands, together swayed.
Unwitting happiness till golden rains
Of tears in laughter, laughter weeping, smote
Knowledge of milky mercy from that throat
Pouring to heal their pains : And one bold youth set mouth at a shy maid.
lambe clapped to see the kindly lusts Inspire the valley people, still on seas, Like poplar-tops relieved from stress of gusts, With rapture in their wonderment ; but these, Low homage being rendered, ran to plough, Fed by the laugh, as by the mother cow
Calves at the teats they tease : Soon drove they through the yielding furrow-crusts.
Uprose the blade in green, the leaf in red,
The tree of water and the tree of wood :
And soon among the branches overhead
Gave beauty juicy issue sweet for food.
O Laughter I beauty plumped and love had birth.
Laughter 1 O thou reviver of sick Earth I
Good for the spirit, good For body, thou ! to both art wine and bread I
EARTH AND A WEDDED WOMAN •
The shepherd, with his eye on hazy South, Has told of rain upon the fall of day. But promise is there none for Susan's drouth. That he will come, who keeps m dry delay.
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EARTH AND A WEDDED WOMAN
The freshest of the village three years gone,
She hangs as the white field-rose hangs short-lived ;
And she and Earth are one
In withering unrevived. Rain ! O the glad refresher of the grain I And welcome waterspouts, had we sweet rain 1
Ah, what is Marriage, sajs each pouting maid. When she who wedded with the soldier hides At home as good as widowed in the shade, A lighthouse to the girls that would be brides : Nor dares to give a. lad an ogle, nor To dream of dancing, but must hang and moan.
Her husband in the war.
And she to lie alone. Rain ! O the glad refresher of the grain ! And welcome waterspouts, had we sweet rain !
in They have not known ; they are not in the stream ; Light as the flying seed-ball is their play, The silly maids ! and happy souls they seem ; Yet Grief would not change fates with such as they. They have not struck the roots which meet the fires Beneath, and bind us fast with Earth, to know
The strength of her desires,
The sternness of her woe. Rain ! 0 the glad refresher of the grain I And welcome waterspouts, had we sweet rain!
IV
Now, shepherd, see thy word, where without shower A borderless low blotting Westward spreads. The hall-clock holds the valley on the hour ; Across an inner chamber thunder treads : The dead leaf trips, the tree-top swings, the floor Of dust whirls, dropping lumped : near thunder speaks. And drives the dames to door. Their kerchiefs flapped at cheeks. Rain ! O the glad refresher of the grain ! And welcome waterspouts of blessed rain I
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EARTH AND A WEDDED WOMAN
Through night, with bedroom window wide for air. Lay Susan tranced to hear all heaven deticend : And gurgling voices came of Earth, and rare, Past 8owerful, breathings, deeper than life's end. From her heaved breast of sacred common mould ; Whereby this lone-laid wife was moved to feel
Unworded things and old
To her pained heart appeal. Rain I 0 the glad refresher of the grain I And down in deluges of blessed rain I
VI
At mom she stood to live for ear and sight,
Love sky or cloud, or rose or grasses drenched.
A lureful devil, that in glow>worm light
Set languor writhing all its folds, she quenched.
But she would muse when neighbours praised her face.
Her services, and staunchness to her mate :
Knowing by some dim trace.
The change might bear a date. Rain ! O the glad refresher of the grain ! Thrice beauteous b our sunshine after rain I
MOTHER TO BABE *
Fleck of sky you are. Dropped through branches dark,
O my little one, mine ! Promise of the star, Outpour of the lark ;
Beam and song divine. u See this precious gift. Steeping in new birth
All my being, for sign Earth to heaven can lift. Heaven descend on earth.
Both in one be mine I
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WOODLAND PEACE
Life ID light you glass* When you peep and coo.
You, my little one, mine ! Brooklet chirps to grass, Daisy looks in dew
Up to dear sunshine.
WOODLAND PEACE
Sweet as Eden is the air,
And Eden-sweet the ray. No Paradise is lost for them Who foot by branching root and stem. And lightly with the woodland share The change of night and day.
Here all say. We serve her, even as I : We brood, we strive to sky,t We gaze upon decay. We wot of life through death. How each feeds each we spy ; And is a tangle round. Are patient ; what is dumb We question not, nor ask The silent to give sound. The hidden to unmask, The distant to draw near. And this the woodland saith : I know not hope or fear ; I take whate'er may come ; I raise my head to aspects fair, From foul I turn away.
Sweet as Eden is the air, And Eden-sweet the ray.
a the orlgtnal venlini these three line* ran thus: — Here all thlngB say ' Wa know Dot,' even aa I. ' We brocxl, wo Mflve U) «hy.' etc
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THE QUESTION WHITHER •
When we have thrown off this old suit.
So much in need of mending, To «nk among the naked mute,
la that, think you, our ending ? We follow many, more we lead,
And you who sadly turf us, Believe not that all living seed
Must flower above the surface.
Sensation is a gracious gift,
But were it cramped to station, The prayer to have it cast adrift
Would spout from all sensation.' Enough if we have winked to sun.
Have sped the plough a season; There is a soul for labour done,
Endureth fixed as reason.
Then let our trust be firm in Good,
Though we be of the fasting ; Our questions are a mortal brood.
Our work ia everlasting. We children of Beneficence
Are in its being sharers ; And Whhher vainer sounds than Whence,
For word with such wayfarers.
OUTER AND INNER
From twig to twig the spider weaves At noon his webbing fine.
So near to mute the lephyrs flute That only leaflets dance.
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OUTER AND INNER
The sun draws out of hazel leaves A smell of woodland wine.
I wake a swarm to sudden stonn At any step's advance.
Along my path is bugloss blue,
The star with fruit in moss ; The foxgloves drop from throat to top
A daily lesser bell. The blackest shadow, nurse of dew.
Has orange skeins across ; And keenly red is one thin thread
That flashing seems to swell.
My world I note ere fancy comes.
Minutest hushed observe : What busy bits of motioned wits
Through antlered mosswork strive. But now so low the stillness hums,
My springs of seeing swerve. For half a wink to thrill and think
The woods with nymphs alive.
I neighbour the invisible
So close that my consent Is only asked for spirits masked
To leap from trees and flowers. And this because with them I dwell
In thought, while calmly bent To read the lines dear Earth designs
Shall speak her life on ours.
Accept, she says ; it is not hard In woods : but she in towns
Repeats, accept ; and have we wept. And have we quailed with fears.
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NATURE AND LIFE
Or shrunk with horrors, sure reward We have whom knowledge crowns ;
Who see in mould the rose unfold, The soul through blood and tears.
NATURE AND LIFE •
Leave the uproar: at a leap Thou shalt strike & woodland path. Enter silence, not of sleep. Under shadows, not of wrath ; Breath which is the spirit's bath In the old Beginnings find. And endow them with a mind. Seed for seedling, swathe for swathe. That gives Nature to us, this Give we her, and so we kiss.
It
Fruitful is it so : but hear How within the shell thou art. Music sounds ; nor other near Can to such a tremor start. Of the waves our life is part ; They our running harvests bear: Back to them for manful air. Laden with the woodland's heart I That gives Battle to us, this - Give we it, and good the kiss.
DIRGE IN WOODS
A WIND sways the pines,
And below Not a breath of wild air; Still as the mosses that glow On the flooring and over the lines Of the roots here and there.
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I have made my choice to proceed By the light I have within ; And the issue rests with me. Who might sleep in a chrysalis. In the fold of a simple prayer. Between the two twilights.
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IN THE Woods
Flying safe from even to mora : Not stumbling abroad in air That shudders to touch and to kiaa. And is luifratemal and thin : Self-hunted in it, forlorn. Unloved, unresting, bare.
Between the two twilights : Having nought but the light in me, Which I take for my soul in arms. Resolved to go unto the wells For water, rejecting spells, And mouthings of magic for charms, And the cup that does not flow. I am in deep woods
Between the two twilights : Over valley and hill I bear the woodland wave, Like the voice of T^me, as slow. The voice of Life, aa grave. The voice of Death, as still.
Take up thy aong from woods and fields Whilst thou hast heart, and living yields
Delight : let that expire — Let thy delight in living die. Take Utou thy song from star and sky.
And join the silent quire.
IV
With the butterfly roaming abroad
On the sunny March day. The pine-cones opened and blew Winged seeds, and aloft they flew Butterfly-like in the ray.
And hung to the breeze : Spinning they fell to the sod.
Ask you my rhyme
Which shall be trees?
They have had their time.
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IN THE WOODS
I know that since the hour of birth. Rooted in earth, I have looked above. In joy and in grief. With eyes of belief.
For love, A mother trains us so. But the love I saw was a fitful thing; I looked on the sun That clouds or is blinding aglow : And the love around had more of wing Than substance, and of spirit none. Then looked I on the green earth we are rooted ii Whereof we grow, And nothing of love it said, But gave me warnings of sin. And lessons of patience let fall. And told how pain was bred. And wherefore I was weak, And of good and evil at strife. And the struggle upward of all, And my choice of the glory of life : Was love farther to seek?
VI
The lover of life holds life in his band,
Like a ring for the bride. The lover of life is free of dread : The lover of life holds life in his hand.
As the bilb hold the day. But lust after life waves life like a brand.
For an ensign of pride. The lust after life is life half-dead : Yea, lust after life hugs life like a brand. Dreading air and the ray. For the sake of life. For that life is dear, The lust after life Clings to it fast.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
For the sake of life. For that life is fair, The lover of life Flings it broadcast.
The lover of life knows his labour divine,
That the Ufe si
The lust after life in the chilb of its lust Claims a passport of death.
The lover of life sees the fiame in our duat And a gift in our breath.
A FAITH ON TRIAL •
On the morning of May,
Ere the children had entered my gate
Viiih their wreaths and mechanical lay,
A metal ding-dong of the date 1
I mounted our hill, bearing heart
That had little of life save its weight :
The crowned Shadow poising dart
Hung over her : she, my own,
My good companion, mate,
FtJse of me : she who had shown
Fortitude quiet as Earth's
At the shedding of leaves. And around
The sky was in garlands of cloud.
Winning scents from unnumbered new births,
Pointed buds, where the woods were browned
By a mouldered beechen shroud ;
(i over our meads of the vale.
Such an answer to sun as he.
Brave in his gold ; to a sound,
None sweeter, of woods flapping sail.
With the first full flood of our year,
For their voyage on lustreful sea :
Unto what curtained haven in chief.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Will be writ in the book of the sere.
But surely the crew are we,
Eager or stamped or bowed ;
Counted thinner at fall of the leaf.
Grief heard them, and passed like a bier.*
Due Summerward, lo, they were set.
In volumes of foliage proud.
On the heave of their favouring tides.
And their song broadened out to the cheer
When a neck of the ramping surf
Rattles thunder a boat overrides.
All smiles ran the highways wet ;
The worm drew Its links from the turf ;
The bird of felicity loud
Spun high, and a South wind blew.
Weak out of sheath downy leaves
Of the beech quivered ludd as dew.
Their radiance asking, who grieves ;
For nought of a sorrow they knew :
No space to the dread wrestle vowed.
No diamber in shadow of night.
At times as the steadier breeze
Flutter-huddled their twigs to a crowd.
The beam of them wafted my sight
To league-long sun upon seas :
The golden path we had crossed
Many years, till her birthtand swung
Recovered to viaon from lost,
A light in her filial glance.
And sweet was her voice with the tongue.
The speechful tongue of her France,
Soon at ripple about us, like rills
Ever busy with little : away
Through her Normandy, down where the mills
Dot at lengths a rivercourse, grey
As its bordering poplars bent
To gusts off the plains above.
Old stone cb&teau and farms,
Home of her birth and her love !
On the thread of the pasture you trace.
By the river, their miJk, for miles.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Spotted once with the English tent. In dsys of the tocsin's alarms, To tower of the tallest of piles, The country's surveyor breast-high. Home of her birth and her love I Home of a diligent race ; Thrifty, deft-handed to ply Shuttle or needle, and woo Sun to the roots of the pear Frogging each mud-walled cot. The elders had known her in arms. There plucked we the bluet, her hue Of the deeper forget-me-not ; Well wedding her ripe-wheat hair.
I saw, unsighting : her heart
I saw, and the home of her love
There printed, mournfully rent :
Her ebbing adieu, her adieu.
And the stride of the Shadow athwart.
For one of our Autumns there I . . .
Straight as the flight of a dove
We went, swift winging we went.
We trod solid ground, we breathed air.
The heavens were unbroken. Break Uiey,
The word of the world is adieu :
Her word : and the torrents are round.
The jawed wolf -waters of prey.
We stand upon isles, who stand :
A Shadow before us, and back,
A phantom the habited land.
We may cry to the Sunderer, spare
That dearest 1 he loosens his pack.
Arrows we breathe, not air.
The memories tenderly bound
To us are a drifting crew.
Amid grey-gapped waters for ground.
Alone do we stand, each one,
1^11 rootless as they we strew
Those deeps of the corse-like stare
At a foreign and stony sun.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Eyes had I but for the scene
Of my cirele, what neighbourly grew.
If haply no finger lay out
To the figures of days that had been,
I gathered my herb, and endured;
My old cloak wrapped me about.
Unfooted was ground-ivy blue,
Whose rustic shrewd odour allured
In Spring's fresh of morning : unseen
Her favourite wood-sorrel bell
As yet, though the leaves' green floor
Awaited their flower, that would tell
Of a red-veined moist yestreen,
With its droop and the hues it wore.
When we two stood overnight
One, in the dark van-gtow
On our hill-top, seeing beneath
Our household's twinkle of light
Through spruce*boughs, gem of a wreath.
Budding, the service-tree, white Almost as whitebeam, threw. From the under of leaf upright. Flecks like a showering snow On the flame-shaped junipers green. On the sombre mounds of the yew- Like silvery tapers bright By a solemn cathedral screen. They glbtened to closer view. Turf for a rooks' revel striped Pleased those devourers astute. Chorister blackbird and thrush Together or alternate piped ; A free-hearted harmony large. With meaning for man, for brute. When the primitive forces are brimmed. Like featherings hither and yon Of aery tree-twigs over marge. To the comb of the winds, untrimmed. Their measure is found in the vast.' Grief heard them, and stepped her way on.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
She has but a narrow embrace. Distrustful of hearing she passed. They piped her young Earth's Bacchic rout; The race, and the prize of the race ; Earth's lustihead pressing to sprout.
But sight holds a soberer space.
Colourless dogwood low
Curled up a twisted root,
Nigh yellow-green mosses, to flush
Redder than sun upon rocks.
When the creeper clematis-shoot
Shall climb, cap his branches, and show.
Beside veteran green of the box.
At close of the year's maple blush,
A bleeding greybeard is he,
Now hale in the leafage lush.
Our parasites paint us. Hard by,
A wet yew-trunk flashed the peel
Of our naked forefathers in fight ;
With stains of the fray sweating free ;
And him came no parasite nigh :
Firm on the hard knotted knee,
He stood in the crown of his dun ;
Earth's toughest to stay her wheel :
Under whom the full day is night ;
Whom the century-tempests call son.
Having striven to rend him in vain.
T walked to observe, not to feel. Not to fancy, if »mple of eye One may be among images reaped For a shift of the glance, as grain : Profitless froth you espy Ashore after billows have leaped. I fled nothing, nothing pursued : The changeful visible face Of our Mother I sought for ray food ; • Crumbs by the way to sustain. Her sentence I knew past grace. Myself I bad lost of us twain.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Once bound in mirroring thought.
She had flung me to dust in her wake ;
And I, as your convict drags
His chain, by the scourge untaught.
Bore life for a goad, without aim.
I champed the sensations that make
Of a ruffled philosophy rags.
For them was no meaning too blunt,
Nor aspect too cutting of steel.
This Earth of the beautiful breasts.
Shining up in ^1 colours aflame.
To them had visage of hags : *
A Mother of aches and jests :
Soulless, heading a hunt
Aimless except for the meal.
Hope, with the star on her front ;
Fear, with an eye in the heel ;
Our links to a Mother of grace ;
They were dead on the nerve, and dead
For the nature divided in three ;
Gone out of heart, out of brain.
Out of soul : I had in their place
The calm of an empty room.
We were joined but by that thin thread,
My disciplined habit to see.
And those conjure images, those,
The puppets of loss or gmn ;
Not he who is bare to his doom ;
For whom never semblance plays
To bewitch, overcloud, illume.
The dusty mote-images rose;
Sheer film of the surface awag :
They sank as they rose ; their pain
Declaring them mine of old days.
Now gazed I where, sole upon gloom. As flower-bush in sun-specked crag. Up the spine of the double combe With yew-boughs heavily cloaked, A young apparition shone : Known, yet wonderful, white
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Surpassingly ; doubtfully known.
For it struck as the birth of Light :
Even Day from the dark unyoked.
It waved like a pilgrim flag
O'er processional penitents flown
When of old they broke rounding yon spine:
0 the pure wild-cherry in bloom ! '
For their Eastward march to the shrine
Of the footsore far-eyed Faith,
Was banner so brave, so fair,
So quick with celestial sign
Of victorious rays over death ?
For a conquest of coward despair ; —
Di\-ision of soid from wits.
And these made rulers ; — full sure,'
More etarlike never did shine
To illumine the sinister Geld
Where our life's old night-bird flits.
1 knew it : with her, my own, Had hailed it pure of the pure ; Our beacon yearly : but strange When it strikes to within is the known; Richer than newness revealed.
There was needed darkness like mine.
Its beauty to vividness blown
Drew the life in me forward, chased,
From aloft on a pinnacle's range.
That hindward spidery line,
The length of the ways I had paced,
A footfarer out of the dawn.
To Youth's wild forest, where sprang,
For the morning of May long gone,
The forest's white virgin ; she
Seen yonder; and sheltered me, sang;
She in me, I in her ; what songs
The fawn-eared wood-hoDows revive
To pour forth their tune-footed throngs;
Inspire to the dreaming of good
Illimitable to come :
Sbe, the white wild cherry, a tree.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Earth-rooted, taogibly wood.
Yet a presence throbbing alive ;
Nor she in our language dumb :
A spirit bom of a tree ;
Because earth-rooted alive :
Huntress of things worth pursuit
Of souls ; in our naming, dreams.
And each unto other was lute.
By fits quick as breezy gleams.
My quiver of aims and desires
Had colour that she would have owned ;
And if by humaner fires
Hued later, these held her enthroned:
My crescent of Earth ; my blood
At the silvery early stir ;
Hour of the thrill of the bud
About to burst, and by her
Directed, attuned, englobed :
My Goddess, the chaste, not chill ;
Choir over choir white-robed ;
White-bosomed fold within fold :
For so could I dream, breast-bare,
In my time of blooming ; dream still
Through the maze, the mesh, and the wreck,
Despite, since manhood was bold.
The yoke of the flesh on my neck.
She beckoned, I gazed, unaware
How a shaft of the blossoming tree
Was shot from the yew-wood's core.
I stood to the touch of a key
Turned in a fast-shut door.
They rounded my garden, content. The small fry, clutching their fee. Their fruit of the wreath and the pole ; And, chatter, bop, skip, they were sent, In a buzz of young company glee. Their natural music, swift shoal To the next easy sheddera of pence.' Why not ? for they had me in tune With the hungers of my kind.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Do readings of earth draw thence,
Then a concord deeper than cries
Of the Whither whose echo is Whence,
To jar unanswered, shall rise
As a fountain-jet in the mind
Bowed dark o'er the falling and strewn.
Unwitting where it might lead, How it came, for the anguish to cease, And the Questions that sow not nor spin, This wisdom, rough-written, and hlack. As of veins that from venom bleed, I had with the peace within ; Or patience, mortal of peace. Compressing the surgent strife In a heart laid open, not mailed. To the last blank hour of the rack, When struck the dividing knife : When the hand that never had failed In its pressure to mine hung slack.
But this in myself did I know. Not needing a studious brow, Or trust in a governing star. While my ears held the jangled shout The children were lifting afar : That natures at interflow With all of their past and the now, Are chords to the Nature without. Orbs to the greater whole : First then, nor utterly then Till our lord of sensations at war. The rebel, the heart, yields place To brain, each prompting the soul. Thus our dear Earth we embrace For the milk, her strength to men. And crave we her medical herb. We have but to see and hear. Though pierced by the cruel acerb. The troops of the memories armed Hostile to strike at the nest
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
That nourished and Hew them warmed.
Not she gives the tear for the tear.
Weep, bleed, rave, writhe, be distraught.
She b moveless. Not of her breast
Are the symbols we conjure when Fear
Takes leaven of Hope. I caught.
With Death in me shrinking from Death,
As cold from cold, for a sign
Of the life beyond ashes : I cast,
Believing the vision divine.
Wings of that dream of my Youth
To the spirit beloved : 'twas unglassed
On her breast, in her depths austere:'
A flash through the mist, mere breath.
Breath on a buckler of steel.
For the flesh in revolt at her laws,
Neither song nor smile in rutb.
Nor promise of things to reveal,
Has she, nor a word she saith :
We are asking her wheels to pause.
Well knows she the cry of unfaith.
If we strain to the farther shore,
We are catching at comfort near.
Assurances, symbols, saws.
Revelations in legends, light
To eyes rolling darkness, these
Desired of the flesh in affright.
For the which it will swear to adore.
She yields not for prayers at her knees ;
The woolly beast bleating will shear.
These are our sensual dreams ;
Of the yearning to touch, to fed
The dark Impalpable sure.
And have the Unveiled appear ;
Whereon ever black she beams,
Doth of her terrible deal,
She who dotes over ripeness at play,
Rosiness fondles and feeds.
Guides it with shepherding crook.
To her sports and her pastures alway.
Not she gives the tear for the tear :
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Harsh wisdom gives E^arth, no more ; In one the spur and the curb : An answer to thoughts or deeds; To the Legends an alien look ; To the Questions a figure of clay. Yet we have but to see and hear. Crave we her medical herb. For the road to her soul is the Real : The root of the growth of man : And the senses must traverse it fresh With a love that no scourge shall abate. To reach the lone heights where we scan In the mind's rarer vision this flesh ; In the charge of the Mother our fate ; Her law as the one common weal.
We, whom the view benumbs, We, quivering upward, each hour Know battle in ait and in ground For the breath that goes as it comes. For the choice between sweet and sour. For the smallest grain of our worth : And he who the reckoning sums Finds nought in his hand save Earth. Of Earth are we stripped or crowned. The fleeting Present we crave, Barter our best to wed. In hope of a cushioned bower. What is it but Future and Past Uke wind and tide at a wave I Idea of the senses, bred For the senses to snap and devour : Thin as the shell of a sound In delivery, withered in light Cry we for permanence fast, Permanence hangs by the grave ; Sits on the grave green-grassed. On the roll of the heaved grave-mound. By Death, as by Life, are we fed : ' The two are one spring ; our bond With the numbers ; with whom to unite
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Here feathers wings for beyond :
Only they can waft ua in flight.
For they are Reality's Sower.
Of them, and the contact with them.
Issues Garth's dearest daughter, the firm
In footing, the stately of stem ;
Unshaken though elements lour ;
A warrior heart unquelled ;
Mirror of Earth, and guide
To the Holies from sense withheld :
Reason, man's germinant fruit.
She wrestles with our old worm
Self in the narrow and wide :
Relentless quencher of lies,
With laughter she pierces the brute;
And hear we her laughter peal,
lis Light in us dancing to scour
The loathed recess of bis dens;
Scatter his monstrous bed.
And hound him to harrow and plough.
She is the world's one prize ;
Our champion, rightfully head ;
The vessel whose piloted prow.
Though Folly froth round, hiss and boot,
Leaves legible print at the keel.
Nor least b the service she does,
That service to her may cleanse
The well of the Sorrows in us ;
For a common delight will drain
The rank individual fens
Of a wound refusing to heal
While the old worm slavers its root.
I bowed as a leaf in rain ;
As a tree when the leaf is shed
To winds in the season at wane :
And when from my soul I said.
May the worm be trampled : smite.
Sacred Reality ! power
Filled me to front it aright.
I bad come of my faith's ordeal.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
It is not to stand on a tower
And 3ee the flat universe reel ;
Our mortal sublimities drop
Like raiment by glisterlings worn.
At a sweep of the scythe for the crop.
Wisdom is won of its fight,
The combat incessant ; and dries
To mummywrap perching a height.*
It chews the contemplative cud
In peril of isolate scorn,
Unfed of the onward flood.
Nor view we a different mora
If we gaze with the deeper sight,
With the deeper thought forewise :
The world is the same, seen throu^ ;
The features of men are the same.
But let their historian new
In the language of nakedness write.
Rejoice we to know not shame.
Not a dread, not a doubt: to have done
With the tortures of thought in the throes,
Our animal tangle, and grasp
Very sap of the vital in this :
That from flesh unto spirit man grows
Even here on the sod under sun :
That she of the wanton's kiss.
Broken through with the bite of an aap.
Is Mother of simple truth.
Relentless quencher of lies ;
Eternal in thought ; discerned
In thought mid-ferry between
The Life and the Death, which are one,
As our breath in and out, joy or teen.
She gives the rich vision to youth.
If we will, of her prompting wise;
Or men by the lash made lean,
Who in harness the mind subserve.
Their title to read her have earned ;
Having mastered sensation — insane
At a stroke of the terrified nerve;
And out of the sensual hive
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
Grown to the flower of brain ;
To know her a thing alive,
Whose aspects mutfiibly swerve.
Whose laws immutably reign.
Our sentencer, clother in mist,
Her morn bends breast to her noon.
Noon to the hour dark-eyed.
If we will, of her promptings wise :
Her light is our own if we list.
The legends that sweep her aside,
Crying loud for an opiate boon.
To comfort the human want.
From the bosom of magical skies,
She smiles on, marking their source:
They read her with infant eyes.
Good ships of morality they,
For our crude developing force ;
Granite the thought to stay.
That she is a thing alive
To the living, the falling and strewn.
But the Questions, the broods that haunt
Sensation insurgent, may drive,
The way of the channelling mole.
Head in a ground-vault gaunt
As your telescope's skeleton moon."
Barren comfort to these will she dole ;
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
' Spirit mves, not for a goal.
' Shapes ia man's likeness hewn
' Desires not ; neither desires
' The sleep or the glory : it trusts ;
' Uses my gifts, yet aspires ;
' Dreams of a higher than it.
' The dream is an atmosphere ;
' A scale still ascending to knit
' The clear to the loftier Clear.
' "Ks Reason herself, tiptoe
' At the ultimate bound of her wit,
' On the verges of Night and Day.
' But is it a dream of the lusts,
' To my dustiest 'tb decreed ;
' And them that so shuffle astray
' I touch with no key of gold
' For the wealth of the secret nook ;
' Though I dote over ripeness at play,
' Rosiness fondle and teed,
' Guide it with shepherding crook
' To my sports and my pastures alway.
' The key will shriek in the lock,
' The door will rustiiy hinge,
' Will open on features of mould,
' To vanish corrupt at a glimpse,
' And mock as the wild echoes mock,
' Soulless in mimic, doth Greed
' Or the passion for fruitage tiiige
' That dream, for your parricide imps
' To nnng through the body of Time,
' Yourselves in slaying him slay.
' Much are you shots of your prime,
' You men of the act and the dream :
' And please you to fatten a weed
' That perishes, pledged to decay,
' Tis dearth in your season of need,
' Down the slopes of the shoreward way ;-
' Nigh on the misty stream,
' Where Ferryman under his hood,
' With a call to be ready to pay
' The small coin, whitens red blood.
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A FAITH ON TRIAL
' But the young ethereal seed
' Shall bring you the bread no buyer
' Can have for his craving supreme ;
' To my quenchless quick shall speed
' The soul at her wrestle rude
' With de^il, with angel more dire ;
' With the flesh, with the Fates, enringed.
' The dream of the blossom of Good
' Is your banner of battle unrolled
' In ita waver and current and curve
' {Choir over choir whit«-winged,
' Wliite-bosomed fold within fold) :
' Hopeful of victory most
' When hard 13 the task to sustain
' Assaults of the fearful sense
' At a mind in desolate mood
' With the Whither, whose echo is Whence;
' And humanity's clamour, lost, lost;
' And ita clasp of the staves that snap;
' And evil abroad, as a main
' I'proarious, bursting its dyke,
' For back do you look, and lo,
' Forward the harvest of grain ! —
' Numbers in council, awake
' To love more than things of my lap,
' Love me; and to let the types break,
' Men be grass, rocks rivers, all flow ;
' All save the dream sink alike
' To the source of my vital in sap :
' Their battle, their loss, their ache,
' For my pledge of vitality know.
' The dream is the thought in the ghost;
' The thought sent flying for food ;
' Eyeless, but sprung of an aim
' Supernal of Reason, to find
' The great Over-Reason we name
' Beneficence : mind seeking Mind.
' Dream of the blossom of Good,
' In its waver and current and curve,
' With the hopes of my offspring enacrolled I
' Soon to be seen of a host
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CHANGE IN RECURRENCE
' The flag of the Master I serve I ' And life in them doubled on Life, ' As flame upon flame, to behold, ' High over Time-tumbled sea, ' The bliss of his headship of strife, ' Him through handmaiden me.' '*
CHANGE IN RECURRENCE*
I STOOD at the gate of the cot Where my darling, with side-glance demure. Would spy, on her trim garden-plot. The busy wild things chase and lure. For these with their ways were her feast; They bad surety no enemy lurked. Their deftest of tricks to their least She gathered in watch as she worked.
When berries were red on her ash,
The blackbird would rifle them rough.
Till the ground underneath looked a gash,
And her rogue grew the round of a chough.
The squirrel cocked ear o'er his hoop.
Up the spruce, quick as eye, trailing brush.
She knew any tit of the troop
All as well as the snail-tappiag thrush.
I gazed : 'twas the scene of the frame. With the face, the dear life for me, fled. No window a tute to my name, No watcher there plying the thread. But the blackiiird hung pecking at will ; The squirrel from cone hoppeil to cone ; The thrush had a snail in his bill. And tap-tapped the shell hard on a stone.
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HYMN TO COLOUR'
With Life and Death I walked when Love appeared. And made them on each side a shadow seem. Through wooded vales the land of dawn we neared, Where down smooth rapids whirls the helmless dream To fall on daylight ; and night puts away Her darker veil for grey.
In that grey veil green grassblades brushed we by ; We came where woods breathed sharp, and overhead Rocks raised clear homa on a transforming sky : Around, save for those shapes, with him who led And linked them, desert varied by no sign Of other life than mine.
By this the dark-winged planet, raying wide. From the mild pearl-glow to the rose upborne. Drew in his fires, less faint than far descried. Pure-fronted on a stronger wave of mom : And those two shapes the splendour interweaved Hung web-like, sank and heaved.
Love took my hand when hidden stood the sud To fling his robe on shoulder-heights of snow. Then said : There lie they. Life and Death io oni
_ . . Whichever is, the other is : but know, J
•^^i^ *^ It is thy craving self that thou dost see, /
v«^*~1[*^_ Not in them seeing me. •• —^
Shall man into the mystery of breath
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HYMN TO COLOUR
iTnow where Colour, the soul's bridegroom, makes
e house of heaven splendid for the bride.
^o him as leaps a fountain she awakes^>^ v '^■tw.*--^ In'Rnolting ai'tflS, yel IJUuiidlMsTmm beside, ^ " e holds the flower to heaven, and by his power Brings heaven to the flower.
He gives her homeliness in desert air. And sovereignty in spaciousness ; he leads Through widening chambers of surprise to where Throbs rapture near an end that aye recedes, Because his touch is infinite and lends A yonder to all ends.
Death begs of I^fe his blush ; Life Death persuades To keep long day with his caresses graced, is the heart of light, the wing of shades, rhe crown of beauty ; never soul embraced !)f him can harbour unfaith ; soul of him Possessed walks never dim.
Love eyed his rosy memories : he sang : O bloom of dawn, breathed up from the gold sheaf Held springing beneath Orient ! that dost hang The space of dewdrops running over leaf ; Thy fleetingness is bigger in the ghost Than Time with all his host !
' behold, has said adieu : !mbers how the sky was green, grS^es glimmered lightest blue ; e grey took fervour : how the screen ■ violet ; how thy moment came feen a blush and dame. ~*
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HYMN TO COLOUR
Love saw the emissary eglantine
Break wave round thy white feet above the gloc
l*y finger on thy star ; thy raiment Une
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MEDITATION UNDER STARS *
What links are ours with orba that are
So resolutely far : The solitary asks, and they Give radiance as from a shield :
Still at the death of day.
The seen, the unrevealed.
Implacable they shine To us who would of lAte ohtain An answer for the life we strain
To nourish with one sign. Nor can imagination throw The penetrative shaft : we pass TTie breath of thought, who would divine
If haply they may grow As Earth ; have our desire to know ; If life comes there to grain from grass. And flowers like ours of toil and pain ;
Has passion to beat bar,
Win space from cleaving brain ;
The mystic link attain,
Whereby star holds on star.
Those visible immortals beam
Allurement to the dream :
Ireful at human hungers brook
No question in the look. For ever virgin to our sense, Remote they wane to gaze intense : Prolong it, and in ruthlessness they smite The beating heart behind the ball of sight : "nil we conceive their heavens hoar,
;hey raise but sparkles frore, blood-warm Earth, a shuddering prey f of brainless ray.
;iven for breath of thought lounds when musing : more musing love is brought, iked of love's wherefore.'
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5 MEDITATION UNDER STAHS
'Tis Earth's, her gift ; else have we nought :
Her gift, her secret, here our tie.
And not with her and yonder sky?
Bethink you : were it Earth alone
Breeds love, would not her region be The sole dehght and throne Of generous Deity ?
To deeper than this bait of sight Appeal the lustrous people of the night. Fronting yon shoreless, sown with fiery saib,
It is our ravenous that quails, Flesh by its craven thirsts and fears distraught. The spirit leaps alight, Doubts not in them is he. The binder of his sheaves, the sane, the right : * Of magnitude to magnitude is wrought, To feel it large of the great life they hold : In them to come, or vaster intervolved. The issues known in us, our unsolved solved : That there with toil Life climbs the self-same Tree, Whose roots enrichment have from ripeness dropped.* So may we read and little find them cold : Let it but be the lord of Mind to guide Our eyes ; no branch of Reason's growing lopped ; Nor dreaming on a dream ; but fortified By day to penetrate black midnight ; see. Hear, feel, outside the senses ; even that we, The specks of dust upon a mound of mould, We who reflect those rays, though low our placet To them are lastingly allied.
So may we read, and little find them cold :
Not frosty lamps illumining dead space,
Not distant aliens, not senseless Powers.
The fire is in them whereof we are bom ;
The music of their motion may be ours.
Spirit shall deem them beckoning Earth and voiced
Sisterly to her, in her beams rejoiced.
Of love, the grand impulsion, we behold
The love that lends her grace
Among the starry fold.
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WOODMAN AND ECHO 367
Then at new flood of customary mom.
Look at her through her showers,
Her mists, her streaming gold, A wonder edges the familiar face : She wears no more that robe of printed hours ; Half strange seema Earth, and sweeter than her flowers.
WOODftUN AND ECHO
Close Echo hears the woodman's axe. To double on it, as in glee. With clap of hands, and little lacks Of meaning in her repartee.
For all shall fall.
As one has done,
The tree of me.
Of thee the tree ;
And unto all
The fate we wait
Reveals the wheels
Whereon we run :
We tower to flower.
We spread the shade.
We drop for crop,
At length are laid ;
Are rolled in mould,
From chop and lop : And are we thick in woodland tracks, Or tempting of our stature we. The end is one, we do but wax For service over land and sea.
So, strike ! the like
Shall thus of us, My brawny woodman, claim the tax.
Nor foe thy blow.
Though wood he good. And shriekingly the timber cracks :
The ground we crowned
Shall speed the seed Of younger into swelhng sacks.
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THE WISDOM OF ELD
For use he hews.
To make awake The spirit of what stuff we be :
Our earth of mirth
And tears he clears For hraver, let our minda agree ;
And then will men
Within them win An Echo clapping harmony.
THE WISDOM OF ELD •
We tpend our livea in learning pihlage,
And grow good steersmen when the cessel 'a crank !
Gap-toothed he spake, and with a tottering shank
Sidled to gain the sunny bench of Age.
It is the sentence which completes that stage ;
A testament of wisdom reading blank.
The seniors of the race, on their last plank,
Pass mumbling it as nature's final page.
These, bent by such experience, are the band
Who captain young enthusiasts to maint^n
What things we view, and Earth's decree withstand,
Lest dreaded Change, long dammed by dull decay.
Should bring the world a vessel steered by brain,
And ancients musical at close of day.
EARTH'S PREFEREN'CE *
Earth loves her young : a preference manifest r
She prompts them to her fruits and flower-beds;
Their beauty with her choicest interthreads,
And makes her revel of their merry zest;
As in our East much were it in our West,
If men had risen to do the work of heads.
Her gabbling grey she eyes askant, nor treads
The ways they walk ; by what they speak oppressed.
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SOCIETY 31
How wTougiit they in their zenith T Tb not writ ; Not all ; yet she by one sure sign can read : Have they but held her laws and nature dear. They mouth no sentence of inverted wit.' More prizes she her beasts than this high breed Wry in the shape she wastes her milk to rear.
SOCIETY*
Historic be the survey of our kind. And how their brave Society took ^lape. lion, wolf, vulture, fox, jackal and ape, llie strong of limb, the keen of nose, we find. Who, with some jars in harmony, combined, Their primal instincts taming, to escape The brawl indecent, and hot passions drape. Convenience pricked conscience, that the mind.' Thus entered they the field of milder beasts. Which in some sort of civil order graze. And do half-homage to the God of Laws. But are they still for their old ravenous feasts. Earth gives the edifice they build no base : They spring another flood of fangs and claws.
WINTER HEAVENS
Sharp b the night, but stars with frost ahve
Leap oS the rim of earth across the dome.
It is a night to make the heavens our home
More than the nest whereto apace we strive.
Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive.
In swarms outrushing from the golden comb.
They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam :
The living throb in me, the dead revive.
Yon mantle clothes us : there, past mortal breath.
Life glbtens on the river of the death.
It folds us, fiesh and dust ; and have we knelt,
Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs
Of radiance, the radiance enrings :
And tbb b the soul's haven to have felt.
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A STAVE OF ROVING TIM
(addressed to certain nUENDLT TRAUFs)
The wind is Eaat, the wind is West,
Blows in and out of haven ; The wind that blows is the wind that 's best.
And croak, my jolly raven ! If here awhile we jigged and laughed,
The like we will do yonder ; For he '3 the man who masters a craft, And light as a lord can wander.
So, toot the measure. Roving Tim,
And croak, my jolly raven I The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven. 11 You live in rows of snug abodes.
With gold, maybe, for counting ; And mine 's the beck of the rainy roads
Against the sun a-mounting. I take the day aa it behaves,
Nor shiver when 'tis airy ; But comes a breeze, all you are on waves. Sick chickens o' Mother Carey 1
So, now for next, cries Roving Tim,
And croak, my jolly raven ! The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven. Ill Sweet lass, you screw a lovely leer.
To make a man consider If you were up with the auctioneer,
I 'd be a handsome bidder. But wedlock clips the rover's wing;
She tricks him fly to spider ; And when we get to fights in the Ring, It 's trumps when you play outsider.
So, wrench and split, cries Roving Tim,
And croak, my jolly raven I The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven.
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A STAVE OF ROVING TIM
Along my winding way I know
A shady dell that 's winking ; The very comer for Self and Co To do a world of thinking. And shall I this? and shall 1 that?
Till Nature answers, ne'tber I Strike match and light your pipe in your hat. Rejoicing in sound shoe-leather I
So lead along, cries Roving Tim, And croak, my jolly raven I The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven.
A cunning hand 11 hand you bread.
With freedom for your capers.
I 'm not so sure of a cunning head ;
It steers to pits or vapours. But as for Life, we 'II bear in sight
The lesson Nature teaches ; Regard it in a sailoring light.
And treat it like thirsty leeches.
So, fly your jib, cries Roving Tim,
And top your boom, old raven I The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven.
She 'II take, to please her dame and dad.
The shopman nicely shaven, ^e 'U learn to think o' the marching lad When perchers show they 're craven. You say the shopman piles a heap.
While I perhaps am fasting ; And bless your wits, it haunts him in sleep, His tin-kettle chance of lasting !
So bail the road, cries Roving Tim,
And hail the rain, old raven I The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven.
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A STAVE OF ROVING TIM
He 's half a wife, yon pecker bill ;
A book and likewise preacher.
With any soul, in a game of skill,
He '11 prove your over-reacher. The reason is, his brains are bent On doing things right single. You 'd wish for tbem when pitching your tent At night in a whirly dingle !
So, off we go, cries Roving Tim,
And on we go, old raven I The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven.
Lord, no, man's lot is not for bliss;
To call it woe is blindness : It 's here a kick, and it 's there a kiss,
And here and there a kindness. He starts a hare and calls her joy ; He runs her down to sorrow : The dogs within him bother the boy, But 'tis a new day to-morrow.
So, I at helm, cries Roving Tim, And you at bow, old raven I The wind according to its whim Is in and out of haven.
JUMP-TO-GLORY JANE •
A REVELATION Came on Jane, The widow of a labouring swaiu : And first her body trembled sharp, Then all the woman was a harp With winds along the strings ; she heard, Though there was neither tone nor word.
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JUMP-TO-GLORY JANE
For past our hearing was the air. Beyond our speaking what it bare, And she within herself had sight Of heaven at work to cleanse outright. To make of her a mansion fit For angel hosts inside to sit
They entered, and forthwith entranced. Her body braced, her members danced ; Surprisingly the woman leapt ; And countenance composed she kept : Aa gossip neighbours in the lane Declared, who saw and pitied Jane.
These knew she had been reading books.
The which was witnessed by her looks
Of late : she had a mania
For mad folk in America,
And said for sure they led the way.
But meat and beer were meant to stay.
That she had visited a fair, Had seen a gauzy lady there, Alive with tricks on legs alone. As good as wings, was also known : And longwhiles in a sullen mood, Before her jumping, Jane would brood.
A good knee's height, they say, she sprang ;
Her arms and feet like those who hang :
As if afire the body sped,
And neither pair contributed.
She jumped in silence : she was thought
A corpse to resurrection caught.
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JUMP-TO-GLORY JANE
The villagers were mostly dazed ;
They je«red, they wondered, aad they praised.
'Twas guessed by some she was mspired.
And some would have it she had hired
An engine in her [>etticoats.
To turn their wits and win their votes.
Her first was Winny Earnes, a kind Of woman not to dance inclined ; But she went up, entirely won, Ere Jump-to-glory Jane had done ; Aod once a vixen wild for speech. She found the better way to preach.
No long time after, Jane was seen Directing jumps at Daddy Green ; Aod that old man, to watch her fly. Had eyebrows made of arches high ; Till homeward he likewise did hop, Oft calling on himself to stop !
It was a scene when man and maid. Abandoning all other trade, And careless of the call to meals. Went jumping at the woman's heels. By dozens they were counted soon. Without a sound to tell their tune.
Along the roads they came, and crossed The Gelds, and o'er the hills were lost. And in the evening reappeared ; Then short like hobbled horses reared. And down upon the grass they plumped : Alone their Jane to glory jumped.
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jump-t(w;lory jane
At room they rose, to see her spring All going as an engine thing ; And lighter than the gossamer She led the bobbers following her, Past old acquaintances, and where They made the stranger stupid stare.
When turnips were a filling crop, In scorn they jumped a butcher's shop : Or, spite of threats to flog and souse, Hiey jumped for shame a public-house: And much their legs were seized with rage If passing by the vicarage.
The tightness of a hempen rope Their bodies got ; but laundry soap Not handsomer can rub the skin For token of the washed within. Occasionally coughers cast A leg aloft and coughed their last.
The weaker maids and some old men, Requiring rafters for the pen ' On rainy nights, were those who fell. The rest were quite a miracle, Refreshed as you may search all round On Club-feast days and cry. Not found 1
For these poor innocents, that slept
Against the sky, soft women wept :
For never did they any theft ;
Twas known when they their camping left.
And jumped the cold out of their rags ;
In spirit rich as money-bags.
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JUMP-TO-GLORY JANE
They jumped the question, jumped reply ; And whether to insist, deny, Reprove, persuade, they jumped in ranks Or sin^y, straight the arms to flanks. And straight the legs, with just a knee For bending in a mild degree.
^e villagers might call them mad ;
An endless holiday they had,
Of pleasure in a serious work :
They taught by leaps where perils lurk.
And with the lambkins practised sports
For 'scaping Satan's pounds and quarts.'
It really seemed on certain days,
^Mien they bobbed up their Lord to praise.
And bobbing up they caught the glance
Of light, our secret is to dance.
And hold the tongue from hindering peace;
To dance out preacher and police.
Tlioae flies of boys disturbed them sore On Sundays and when daylight wore : With withies cut from hedge or copse, They treated them as whipping-tops, And flung big stones with cruel aim ; Yet all the flock jumped on the same.
For what could persecution do To worry such a blessed crew. On whom it was as wind to Are, Which set them always jumping higher? The parson and the lawyer tried. By meek persistency defied.
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JUMP-TO-GLORY JANE
But if they bore, they could pursue Aa well, and this the Bishop too ; When inner warnings proved him plain The chase for Jump-to-glory Jane. She knew it by his being sent To bless the feasting in the tent.
Not less than fifty years on end. The Squire had been the Bishop's friend : And hb poor tenants, harmless ones, With souls to save ! fed not on buns. But angry meats : she took her place Outside to show the way to grace.
In apron suit the Bishop stood ; The crowding people kindly viewed. A gaunt grey woman he s&w rise On air, with most beseeching eyes : And evident as light in dark It was, she set to him for mark.
Her highest leap had come : with ease She jumped to reach the Bishop's knees : Compressing tight her arms and lips. She sought to jump the Bishop's lups : Her aim flew at his apron-band. That he might see and understand.
The mild inquiry of his gaze
Was altered to a peaked amaze.
At sight of thirty in ascent.
To gain his notice clearly bent :
And greatly Jane at heart was vexed
By his ploughed look of mind perplexed.
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JUMP-TCMJLORY JANE
Id jumps that sud. Beware the pit ! More eloquent than speaking it — That said, Avoid the boiled, the roast ; The heated nose on face of gbost. Which comes of drinking : up and o'er The flesh with me 1 did Jane implore.
She jumped him high as huntsmen go Acrosa the gate ; she jumped him low, To coax him to begin and feel His infant steps returning, peel His mortal pride, exposing fruit. And off with hat and sprao suit
We need much patience, well she knew. And out and out, and through and through, When we would gentlefolk address. However we may seek to bless ; At times they hide them like the beasts From sacred beams ; and mostly priests.
He gave no sign of making bare. Nor she of faintness or despair. Inflamed with hope that she might win. If she but coaxed him to begin. She used all arts for making fain ; The mother with her babe was Jane.
Now stamped the Squire, and knowing not
Her business, waved her from the spot.
Encircled by the men of might.
The head of Jane, like flickering light.
As in a charger, they beheld
Ere she was from the park expelled.
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JUMP-TO-GLORY JANE
Her grief, in jumps of earthly weight, Did Jane around communicate : For that the moment when began The holy but mistaken man. In view of light, to take his lift. They cut him from her charm adrift I
And he was lost : a banished face For ever from the ways of grace, Unless pinched hard by dreams in fright. They saw the Bishop's wavering sprite Within her look, at come and go. Long after he had caused her woe.
Her greying eyes (until she sank At Fredsham on the wayside bank. Like cinder heaps that whitened he From coals that shot the flame to sky) Had glassy vacancies, which yearned For one in memory discerned.
May those who ply the tongue that cheats, And those who rush to beer and meats, And those whose mean ambition aims At palaces and titled names. Depart in such a cheerful strain As did our Jump-to-glory Jane I
Her end was beautiful : one sigh.
She jumped a foot when it was nigh.
A lily in a linen clout
She looked when they had laid her out
It b a lily-light she bears
For England up the ladder-stairs.
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THE RIDDLE FOR MEN •
This Kiddle rede or die. Says History since our Flood, To warn her sons of power . — It can be truth, it can be lie ; Be parasite to twist awry ; The drouthy vampire for your blood ; The fountun of the silver flower ; A brand, a lure, a web, a crest ; Supple of wax or tempered steel ; The spur to honour, snake in nest : "Tis as you will with it to deal ; To wear upon the breast, Or trample under heel.
n And rede you not aright. Says Nature, still in red Shall History's tale be writ ! For solely thus you lead to light The trailing chapters she must write. And pass my fiery test of dead Or living through the fumace-pit : Dislinked from who the softer hold In grip of brute, and brute remain : Of whom the woeful tale is told, How for one short Sultanic reign, T^eir bodies lapse to' mould, Th^ souls behowl the plain.
THE SAGE ENAMOURED AND THE HONEST LADY *
One fairest of the ripe unwed ded left
Her shadow on the Sage's path ; he found.
By common signs, that she had done a theft.
He could have made the sovereign heights resound
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THE SAGE ENAMOURED 381
With questions of the wherefore of her state :
He on far other but an hour before
Intent. And waa it man, or waa it mate,
That she dbdained f or was there haply more J
About her mouth a ptaeid humour slipped
The dimple, as you see smooth lakes at eve
Spread melting rings where late a swallow dipped.
The surface was attentive to receive,
The secret underneath enfolded fast.
She had the step of the unconquered, brave,
Not arrogant ; and if the vessel's mast
Waved liberty, no challenge did it wave.
Her eyes were the sweet world desired of souls.
With something of a wavering line unspelt.
They held the look whose tenderness condoles
For what the sister in the look has dealt '
Of fatal beyond healing ; and her tones
A woman's honeyed amorous outvied.
As when in a dropped viol the wood-throb moans
Among the sobbing strings, that plain and chide
Like infants for themselves, leas deep to thrill
Than those rich mother-notes for them breathed round.*
Those voices are not magic of the will
To strike love's wound, but of love's wound give sound,
Conveying it; the yearnings, pains and dreams.
They waft to the moist tropics after storm.
When out of passion spent thick incense steams,
And jewel-belted clouds the wreck transform.
Was never hand on brush or lyre to paint
Her gracious manners, where the nuptial ring
Of melody clasped motion in restraint :
The reed-blade with the breeze thereof may sing.
With such endowments armed was she and decked
To make her spoken thoughts eclipse her kind ;
Surpassing many a giant intellect.
The marvel of that cradled infant mind.
It clenched the tiny fist, it curled the toe ;
Cherubic laughed, enticed, dispensed, absorbed ;
And promised in fair feminine to grow
A Sage's match and mate, more heavenly orbed.
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THE SAGE ENAMOURED
Across his path the spouseless Lady cast
Her shadow, and the man that thing became.
His youth uprising called his age the Past.
This was the strong grey head of laurelled name,
And in his bosom an inverted Sage
Mistook for light of morn the light which sank.
But who while veins run blood shall know the page
Succeeding ere we turn upon our blank?
Comes Deauty with her tale of moon and cloud.
Her silvered rims of mystery pointing in
To hollows of the half-veiled unavowcd.
Where beats her secret life, grey heads will spin
Quick as the young, and spell those hieroglyphs
Of phosphorescent dusk, devoutly bent ;
They drink a cup to whirl on dizzier cliffs
For their shamed fall, which asks, why was she sent I
Why, and of whom, and whence ; and tell they truth;
The legends of her mission to beguile?
Hard likeness to the toilful apes of youth
He bore at times, and tempted the sly smile ;
And not on her soft lips was it descried.
She stepped her way benevolently grave :
Nor sign that Beauty fed her worm of pride.
By tossing victim to the courtier knave.
Let peep, nor of the naughty pride gave sign.
Rather 'twas humbleness in being pursued.
As pilgrim to the temple of a shrine.
Had he not wits to pierce the mask be wooed T
All wisdom's armoury this man could wield ;
And if the cynic in the Sage it pleased
Traverse her woman's curtain and poor shield,
For new example of a world diseased ;
Showing her shrineless, not a temple, bare;
A curtain ripped to tatters by the blast ;
Yet she most surely to this man stood fair :
He worshipped like the young enthusiast.
Named simpleton or poet. Did he read
Right through, and with the voice she held reserved
Amid her vacant ruins jointly plead ?
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THE SAGE ENAMOURED 38
CompasmoQ for the man thus noble nerved
The pity for herself she felt in him.
To wreak a deed of gacrifice, and save ;
At least, be worthy. That our soul may swim,
We sink our heart down bubbling under wave.
It bubbles till it drops among the wrecks.
But, ah I confession of a woman's breast :
She eminent, she honoured of her sex !
Truth speaks, and takes the spots of the confessed.
To veil them. None of women, save their vile,
Plays traitor to an army in the field.
The cries most vindicating most defile.
How shall a cause to Nature be appealed,
When, under pressure of their common foe,
Her sisters shun the Mother and disown.
On pain of his intolerable crow
Above the fiction, built for him, o'erthrownT
Irrational he is, irrational
Must they be, though not Reason's light shall wane
In them with ever Nature at close call.
Behind the fiction torturing to sustain ;
Who hear her in the milk, and sometimes make
A tongueless answer, shivered on a sigh :
Whereat men dread their lofty structure's quake
Once more, and in their hosts for tocsin ply
The crazy roar of peril, leonine
For injured majesty. That sigh of dames
Is rare and soon suppressed. Not they combine
To shake the structure sheltering them, which tames
Their lustier if not wilder : fixed are they.
In elegancy scarce denoting ease ;
And do they breathe, it is not to betray
The martyr in the caryatides.
Yet here and there along the graceful row
Is one who fetches breath from deeps, who deema.
Moved by a desperate craving, their old foe
May yield a trustier friend than woman seems.
And aid to bear the sculptured floral weight
Massed upon heads not utterly of stone :
May stamp endurance by expounding fate.
She turned to him, and. This you seek is gone ;
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I THE SAGE ENAMOURED
Look in, she said, as pants the furnace, brief.
Frost-white. She gave his hearing sight to view
The silent chamber of a brown cuHed leaf :
Thing that had throhbed ere shot black lightning through.
No further sign of heart could he discern :
The picture of her speech was winter sky ;
A headless figure folding a cleft urn.
Where tears once at the overflow were dry.
So spoke she her first utterance on the rack. It softened torment, in the funeral hues Round wan Romance at ebb, but drove her back To listen to herself, herself accuse Harshly as Love's imperial cause allowed. She meant to grovel, and her lover praised So high o'er the condemnatory crowd. That she perforce a fellow phoenix blazed.
The picture was of hand fast joined to hand.
Both pushed from angry skies, their grasp more pledged
Under the threatened flash of a bright brand
At arm's length up, for severing action edged.
Why, then Love's Court of Honour contemplate ;
And two drowned shorecasts, who, for the Ufe esteemed
Above their lost, invoke an advocate
In passion's purity, thereby redeemed.
Redeemed, uplifted, glimmering on a throne. The woman stricken by an arrow falls. His advocate she can be, not her own, If, Traitress to thy sex ! one sister calls. Have we such scenes of drapery's moumfulness On Beauty's revelations, witched we plant, Over the fair shape humbled to confess. An angel's buckler, with loud choiric chant.
No knightly sword to serve, nor harp of hard. The lady's hand in her physician's knew. She had not hoped for them as her award. When zig-zag on the tongue electric flew
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THE SAGE ENAMOURED 3&
Her cbarge of counter-motives, none impure :
But muteness whipped her akin- She could have said,
Her free confession was to work his cure,
Shows proofs for why she could not love or wed.
Were they not shown ? His muteness shook in thrall
Her body on the verge of that black pit
Sheer from the treacherous confessional.
Demanding further, while perusing it.
Slave is the open mouth beneath the closed.
She sank ; she snatched at colours ; they were peel
Of fruit past savour, in derision rosed.
For the dork downward then her soul did reel.
A press of hideous impulse urged to speak :
A novel dread of man enchained her dumb.
She felt the silence thicken, heard it shriek,
Heard Life subsiding on the eternal hum :
Welcome to women, when, between man's laws
And Nature's thirsts, they, soul from body torn.
Give suck at breast to a celestial cause.
Named by the mouth infernal, and forsworn.
Nathless her forehead twitched a sad content,
To think the cure so manifest, so frail
Her charm remaining. Was the curtain's rent
Too wide? he but a man of that herd male?
She saw him as that herd of the forked head
Butting the woman harrowed on her knees.
Clothed only in life's last devouring red.
Confession at her fearful instant sees
Judicial Silence write the devil fact
In letters of the skeleton : at once,
Swayed on the supplication of her act.
The rabble reading, roaring to denounce.
She joins. No longer colouring, with skips
At tangles, picture that for eyes in tears
Might swim the sequence, she addressed her lips
To do the scaffold's office at his ears.
Into the bitter judgement of that herd
On women, she, deeming it present, fell.
Her frenzy of abasement hugged the word
They stone with, and so pile their ci^del
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} THE SAGE ENAMOURED
To launch &t outcasts the foul levin bolt.
As had he flung it, in her breast it burned.
Face and reflect it did her hot revolt
From hardness, to the writhing rebel turned ;
Because the golden buckler was withheld,
She to herself applies the powder-spark.
For joy of one wild demon burst ere quelled.
Perishing to astound the tyrant Dark.
She had the Scriptural word so scored on brain.
It rang through air to sky, and rocked a world
That danced down shades the scarlet dance profane ;
Most women I see ! by the man's view dustward hurled.
Impenitent, submissive, torn in two.
They sink upon their nature, the unnamed.
And sops of nourishment may get some few.
In place of understanding, scourged and shamed.
Barely have seasoned women understood
The great Irrational, who thunders power.
Drives Natm« to her primitive wild wood.
And courts her in the covert's dewy hour;
R«tuming to his fortress nigh night's end.
With execration of her daughters' lures.
They help him the proud fortress to defend.
Nor see what front it wears, what life immiues.
The murder it commits ; nor that its base
Is shifty as a huckster's opening deal
For bargain under smoothest market face.
While Gentleness bids frigid Justice feel.
Justice protests that Reason is her seat ;
Elect Convenience, as Reason masked.
Hears calmly cramped Humanity entreat ;
Until a sentient world is overtasked,
And rouses Reason's fountain-self : she calls
On Nature ; Nature answers : Share your guilt
In common when contention cracks the walls
Of the big house which not on me is built.
The Lady said as much as breath will bear;
To happier sisters inconceivable :
Contemptible to veterans of the fair.
Who show for a convolving pearly shell.
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THE SAGE ENAMOURED 38
A treasure of the shore, their written book. As much as woman's breath will bear and live Shaped she to words beneath a knotted look, That held as if for grain the summing sieve.
Her judge now brightened without pause, as wakes Our homely daylight after dread of spells. Lips sugared to let loose the little snakes Of slimy lustres ringing elfin bells About a story of the naked flesh, Intending but to put some garment on. Should learn, that in the subject they enmesh, A trMtor lurks and will be known anon. Delusion heating pricks the torpid doubt. Stationed for index down an ancient track : And ware of it was he while she poured out A broken moon on forest-waters black.
Though past the stage where midway men are skilled To scan their senses wriggling under plough, ^Vhen yet to the charmed seed of speech distilled. Their hearts are fallow, he, and witless how. Loathing, had yielded, like bruised limb to leech. Not handsomely ; but now beholding bleed Soul of the woman in her prostrate speech. The valour of that rawness he could read. Thence flashed it, as the crimson currents ran From senses up to thoughts, how she had read Maternally the warm remainder man Beneath his crust, and Nature's pity shed. In shedding dearer than heart's blood to light His vision of the path mild Wisdom walks. Therewith he could espy Confession's fright ; Her need of him : these flowers grow on stalks ; They suck from soil, and have their urgencies Beside and with the lovely face mid leaves. Veins of divergencies, convergencies. Our botanist in womankind perceives ; And if he hugs no wound, the roan can prize That splendid consummation and sure proof Of more than heart in her, who might despise. Who drowns herself, for pity up aloof
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i THE SAGE ENAMOURED
To soar and be like Nature'spity : she
Instinctive of what virtue in young days
Had served him for his pilot-star on sea,
To trouble him in haven. Thus his gaze
Came out of rust, and more than the schooled tongue
Was gifted to encourage and assure.
He gave her of the deep well she had sprung;
And name it gratitude, the word b poor.
But name it gratitude, is aught as rare
From sex to sex T And let it have siu'vived
Their conflict, comes the peace between the pwr,
Unknown to thousands husbanded and wived :
Unknown to Passion, generous for prey :
Unknown to Love, too blissful in a truce.
Their teoderest of self did each one slay ;
Hb cloak of dignity, her fleur de luce ;
Her lily flower, and his abolla cloak,
Things living, slew they, and no artery bled.
A moment of some sacrificial smoke
They passed, and were the dearer for their dead.
He ieamt how much we gain who make no churns.
A nightcap on hb flicker of grey fire
Was thought of her sharp shudder in the flames,
Confessing ; and its conjured image dire,
Of love, the torrent on the valley dashed ;
The whirlwind swathing tremulous peaks; young forcei
Visioned to hold corrected and abadied
Our senile emulous ; which roUs its course
Proud to the shattering end ; with these few last
Hot quintessential drops of bryony juice.
Squeezed out in anguish : all of that once vast I
And still, though having skin for man's abuse.
Though no more glorying in the beauteous wreath
Shot skyward from a blood at passionate jet,
Repenting but in words, that stand as teeth
Between the vivid lips ; a vassal set ;
And numb, of formal value. Are we true
In nature, never natural thing repents ;
Albeit receiving punishment for due.
Among the group of thb world's penitents ;
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THE SAGE ENAMOURED S
Albeit remorsefully r^retting, oft
Craveoly, while the scourge no shudder spares.
Our world believes it stabler if the soft Are whipped to show the face repentance wears. Then hear it, in a moan of atheist gloom, Deplore the weedy growth of hypocrites ; Count Nature devilish, and accept for doom The chasm between our paasioos and our wits 1
Affecting lunar whiteness, p>atent snows. It trembles at betrayal of a sore. Hers is the glacier-conscience, to expose Impurities for clearness at the core.
She to her hungered thundering in breast. Ye shaU not alane, not feebly designates The world repressing as a life repressed. Judged by the wasted martyrs it creates. How Sin, amid the shades Cimmerian, Repents, she points for sight : and she avers. The hoofed half-angel in the Puritan Nigh reads her when no brutish wrath deters.
Sin against immaturity, the sin Of ravenous excess, what deed divides Man from vitality ; these bleed within ; Bleed in the crippled relic that abides. Perpetually they bleed ; a limb is lost, A piece of life, the very spirit maimed. But culprit who the law of man has crossed With Nature's dubiously within is blamed ; Despite our cry at cutting of the whip. Our shiver in the night when numbers frown, We but bewail a broken fellowship, A sting, an isolation, a fall'n crown.
Abject of sinners is that sensitive.
The flesh, amenable to stripes, miscalled
Incorrigible ; such title do we give
To the poor shrinking stuff wherewith we are walled ;
And, taking it for Nature, place in ban
Our Mother, as a Power wanton-willed.
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3. THE SAGE ENAMOURED
The ahame and baffler of the soul of man, The recreant, reptilious. Do thou build Thy mind on her foundations in earth's bed ; Behold man's mind the child of her keen rod. For teaching how the wits and passions wed To rear that temple of the credible God ; Sacred the letters of her laws, and plain. Will shine, to guide thy feet and hold thee firm i Then, as a pathway through a field of grain, Man's laws appear the blind progressive worm. That moves by touch, and thrust of linking rings The which to endow with vision, lift from mud To level of their natiu'e's aims and springs. Must those, the twain beside our vital flood. Now on opposing banks, the twain at strife (Whom the so rosy ferryman invites 'To junction, and mid-channel over Life, Unmasked to the ghostly, much asunder smites) Instruct in deeper than Convenience, In higher than the harvest of a year. Only the rooted knowledge to high sense Of heavenly can mount, and feel the spur For fniitfullcst advancement, eye a mark Beyond the path with grain on either hand. Help to the steering of our social Ark Over the barbarous waters unto land.
For us the double conscience and its war. The serving of two masters, false to both. Until those twain, who spring the root and are The knowledge in division, plight a troth Of equal hands : nor longer circulate A pious token for their current coin, To growl at the exchange ; they, mate and mate. Fair feminine and masculine shall join Upon an upper plane, still common mould. Where stamped religion and reflective pace A statelier measure, and the hoop of gold Rounds to horizon for their soul's embrace. Then shall those noblest of the earth and sun Inmix unlike to waves on savage sea.
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THE SAGE ENAMOURED
But not till Nature's laws and inan's are one. Can mania^ of the man and woman be.
He passed her through the sermon's dull defile.
Down under billowy vapour-gorges heaved
The city and the vale and mountain-pile.
She felt strange push of shuttle-threads that weaved.
A new land in an old beneath her lay ;
And forth to meet it did her spirit rush,
As bride wbo without shame has come to say.
Husband, in his dear face that caused her blush.
A natural woman's heart, not more than clad
By station and bright raiment, gathers heat
From nakedness in trusted hands : she had
The joy of those who feel the worid's heart beat,
After long doubt of it as fire or ice ;
Because one man had helped her to breathe free ;
Surprised to faith in something of a price
Past the old charity in chivalry : —
Our first wild step to right the loaded scales
Displaying women shamefully outweighed.
The wisdom of humaneness best avails
For serving justice till that fraud is brayed.
Her buried body fed the life she drank.
And not another stripping of her wound !
The startled thought on black delirium sank,
While with her gentle surgeon she communed.
And woman's prospect of the yoke repelled.
Her buried body gave her flowers and food ;
The peace, the homely skies, the springs that welled ;
Love, the large love that folds the multitude.
Soul's chastity in honesty, and this With beauty, made the dower to men refused. And little do they know the prize they miss ; Which is their happy fortune I Thus he mused.
For him, the cynic in the Sage had play A hazy moment, by a breath dispelled ;
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FRAGMENTS
To think, of all alive most wedded they,
Whom time disjoined 1 He needed her quick thirat
For renovated earth t on earth she gazed.
With humhle aim to foot beside the wise.
Lo, where the eyelashes of night are raised
Yet lowly over morning's pure grey eyes.
FRAGMENTS
Love is winged for two,
In the worst he weathers,
When their hearts are tied ;
But if they divide,
0 too true! Cracks a globe, and feathers, feathers. Feathers all the ground bestrew.
I was breast of morning sea. Rosy plume on forest dun, I the laugh in rainy fleeces,
While with me
She made one. Now must we pick up our pieces, For that then so winged were we,
Abk, is Love divine. Voices all are, ay. Question for the sign. There 's a common sigh. Would we, through our years, Love forego, Quit of scars and tears ? Ah, but no, no, no I
Jot b fleet, Sorrow slow. Love, so sweet. Sorrow will sow. Love, that has flown Ere day's decline. Love to have known. Sorrow, be mine I
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THE LESSON OF GRIEF •
Not ere the bitter herb we taste. Which ages thought of happy times,' To plant us in a weeping waste. Rings with our fellows this one heart Accordant chimes.
When I had shed ray glad year's leaf, I did believe I stood alone. Till that great company of Grief Taught me to know this craving heart For not roy own.
WIND ON THE LYRE •
That was the chirp of Ariel You heard, as overhead it flew. The farther going more to dwell, And wing our green to wed our blue ; But whether note of joy or knell, Not his own Father-singer knew ; Nor yet can any mortal tell, Save only how it shivers through ; The breast of us a sounded ^ell. The blood of us a lighted dew.
THE YOUTHFUL QUEST
Hia Lady queen of woods to meet. He wanders day and night :
The leaves have whisperings discreet, The mossy ways invite.
Across a lustrous ring of space, By covert hoods and caves.
Is promise of her secret face Id film that onward waves.
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THE YOUTHFUL QUEST
For darkness is the light astrain, Astraio for light the dark.
A grey moth down a larches' lane Unwinds a ghostly spark.
Her lamp be sees, and young de^re Is fed while cloaked she flies.
She quivers shot of violet fire To ash at look of eyes.
ODE TO THE COMIC SPIRIT*
Sword of Common Sense ! —
Our surest gift : the sacred chain
Of man to man : firm earth for trust
In structures vowed to permanence : —
Thou guardian issue of the harvest brain I
Implacable perforce of just ;
With that good treasure in defence.
Which is our gold crushed out of joy and pain
Since first men planted foot and hand was king :
Bright, nimble of the marrow-nerve
To wield thy double edge, retort
Or hold the deadlier reserve,
And through thy victim's weapon sting ;
Thine is the service, thine the sport
This shifty heart of ours to hunt
Across its webs and round the many a ring
Where fox it is, or snake, or mingled seeds
Occasion heats to shape, or the poor smoke
Struck from a puff-baJl, or the troughster's grunt ,-
Once lion of our desert's trodden weeds ;
And but for thy straight finger at the yoke.
Again to be the lordly paw.
Naming his appetites his needs,
Behind a decorative cloak :
Thou, of the highest, the unwritten Law
We read upon that building's architrave
In the mind's firmament, by men upraised
With sweat of blood when they had quitted cave
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THE COMIC SPIRIT
For fellowship, and rearward looked amazed,
Where the prime motive gapes a lurid jaw.
Thou, soul of wakened heads, art armed to warn.
Restrain, lest we hackslide on whence we sprang.
Scarce better than our dwarf beginning shoot.
Of every gathered peart and blossom shorn ;
Through thee, in novel wiles to win disguise,
Seen are the pits of the disruptor, seen
Hia rebel agitation at our root :
Thou hast him out of hawking eyes ;
Nor ever rooming of the clang
Young EJcho sped on hill from horn
In forest blown when scent was keen
Off earthly dews besprinkling blades
Of covert grass more merrily rang
The yelp of chase down alleys green,
Forth of the headlong-pouring glades,
Over the dappled fallows wild away.
Than thy fine unaccented scorn
At sight of man's old secret brute.
Devout for pasture on his prey.
Advancing, yawning to devour;
With step of deer, with voice of flute.
Haply with visage of the lily flower.
Let the cock crow and ruddy mom
His handmaiden appear ! Youth claims his hour.
The generously ludicrous
Espouses it. But see we sons of day,
On whom Life leans for guidance in our fight.
Accept the throb ' for lord of us ;
For lord, for the main central light
That gives direction, not the eclipse ;
Or dost thou look where niggard Age,
Demanding reverence for wrinkles, whips
A tumbled top to grind a wolf's worn tooth ; —
Hoar despot on our flnal stage.
In dotage of a stunted Youth ; —
Or it may be some venerable sage,
Not having thee awake in him, compact
Of wisdom else, the breast's old tempter trips ;
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i THE COMIC SPIRIT
Or see we ceremonial state,
Robing the gilded beast, exact
Abjection, while the crackskuU name of Fate
Is used to stamp aQd hallow printed fact;
A cruel corner lengthens up tiiy lips ;
These are thy game wherever men engage :
These and, majestic in a borrowed shape.
The major and the minor potentate,
Creative of their various ape ; —
The tiptoe mortals triumphing to write
Upon a perishable page
An inch above then- feQows' height ; —
The criers of foregone wisdom, who impose
Its slough on live conditions, much for the greed
Of our first hungry figure wide agape ; —
Call up thy hounds of laughter to their run.
These, that would have men still of men be foes.
Eternal fox to prowl and pike to feed ;
Would keep our life the whirly pool
Of turbid stuff dishonouring History;
The herd the drover's herd, the fool the fool,
Ourself our slavish self's infernal sun :
These are the children of the heart untaught
By thy quick founts to beat abroad, by thee
Untamed to tone its passions under thought.
The rich humaneness reading in thy fun.
Of them a world of coltish heels for school
We have; a world with driving wrecks bestrewn.
'Tis written of the Gods of human mould,
Those Nectar Gods, of glorious stature hewn
To quicken hymns, that they did hear, incensed.
Satiric comments overbold,
From one whose part was by decree
The jester's ; but they boiled to feel him bite.
Better for them had they with Reason fenced
Or smiled corrected ! 'They in the great Gods' might
Their prober crushed, aa fingers flea.
Crumbled Olympus when the sovereign sire
His fatal kick to Momus gave, albeit
Men could behold the sacred Mount aspire.
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THE COMIC SPIRIT 3i
The Satirist pass by on limping feet.*
Those Gods who saw the ejected laugh alight
Below had then their last of airy glee ;
They in the cup sought Laughter's drownM sprite,
Fed to dire fatness off uncurbed conceit.
Eyes under saw them waddle on their Mount,
And drew them down ; to flattest earth they rolled.
This know we veritable. O Sage of Mirth 1
Can it be true, the story men recount
Of the fall'n plight of the great Gods on earth?
How they being deathless, though of human mould.
With human cravings, undecaying frames,
Must labour for subsistence ; are a band
Whom a loose-cheeked, wide-hpped gay cripple leads
At haunts of holiday on summer sand : '
And lightly he will hint to one that heeds
Names in pained designation of them, names
Ensphered on blue skies and on black, which twiri
Our hearing madly from our seeing dazed.
Add Bacchus unto both ; * and he entreats
(His baby dimples in maternal chaps
Running wild labyrinths of line and curi)
Compassion for his masterful Trombone,
Whose thunder is the brass of how he blazed
Of old : for him of the mountain-muscle feats.
Who guts a drum to fetch a snappish groan :
For his 6eroe bugler homing onset, whom
A truncheon-battered helmet caps. . . .
The creature is of earnest mien
To plead a sorrow darker than the tomb.
His Harp and Triangle, in tone subdued,
He names ; they are a rayless red and white ; '
The dawn-hued libertine, the gibbous prude.
And, if we recognize his Tambourine,
He asks ; exhausted names her : she has become
A globe in cupolas ; the blowziest queen
Of overflowing dome on dome ;
Redundancy contending with the tight.
Leaping the dam 1 He fondly calls, his girl.
The buxom tripper with the goblet-smile,
Refreshful.' O but now his brows are duo.
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i THE COMIC SPIRIT
Bunched are his lips, as when distilling guile,
To drop his venomous : the Dame of dames.
Flower of the world, that honey one,
She of the earthly rose in the sea-pearl,
To whom the world ran ocean for her kiss ;
He names her, as a worshipper he names.
And indicates with a contemptuous thumb.
The lady meanwhile lures the mob, alike
Ogles the bursters of the horn and drum.
Curtain her close ! her open arms
Have suckers for beholders : she to this?
For that she could not, save in fury, hear
A sharp corrective utterance flick
Her idle manners, for the laugh to strike
Beauty so breeding beauty, without peer
Above the snows, among the flowers? She reaps
This mouldy gamer of the fatal kick?
Gross with the sacrifice of Circe-swarms,
Astarte of vile sweets that slay, malign.
From Greek resplendent to Phoenician foul.
The trader in attractions sinks,' all brine
To thoughts of taste ; is *t love ? — bark, dog ! hoot, owl I
And she is blushless : ancient worship weeps.
Suicide Graces dangle down the channs
Sprawling like gourds on outer garden-heaps.
She stands in her unholy oily leer
A statue losing feature, weather-sick
Mid draggled creepers of twined ivy sere.
The curtain cried for magnifies to see ! —
We cannot quench our one corrupting glance:
The vision of the rumour will not flee.
Doth the Boy own such Mother? ' — shoot his dart
To bring her, countless as the crested deeps,.
Her subjects of the uncorrected heart?
False is that vision, shrieks the devotee ;
Incredible, we echo ; and anew
Like a far growling lightning-cloud it leaps.
Low humourist this leader seems ; * perchance
Pitched from his University career,
Adept at classic fooling. Yet of mould
Human those Gods were : deathless too :
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THE COMIC SPIRIT
On high they not aa meditatives paced :
Prodigiously they did the deeds of flesh :
Descending, they would touch the lowest here:
And she, that lighted form of blue and gold.
Whom the seas gave, all earth, all earth embraced;
GxulUng in the great hauls of her mesh ;
Desired and hated, desperately dear ;
Most human of them was. No more pursue I
Enough that the black story can be told.
It preaches to the eminently placed :
For whom disastrous wreckage is nigh due.
Paints omen. Truly they our throbber had ; *
The passions plumping, passions playing leech.
Cunning to trick us for the day's good cheer.
Our uncorrected human heart will swell
To notions monstrous, doings mad
As billows on a foam-lashed beach ;
Borne on the tides of alternating heats.
Will drug the brain, will doom the soul as well ;
Call the closed mouth of that harsh final Power
To speak in judgement : Nemesis, the fell :
Of those bright Gods assembled, offspring sour;
The last surviving on the upper seats ;
As with men Reason when their hearts rebel.
Ah, what a fruitless breeder is this heart.
Full of the mingled seeds, each eating each.
Not wiser of our mark than at the start.
It surges like the wrath-faced father Sea
To countering winds ; a force blind-eyed,
On endless rounds of aimless reach ;
Emotion for the source of pride,
The grounds of faith in fixity
Above our flesh ; its cravings urging Speech,
Inspiring prayer ; by turns a lump
Swung on a time-piece, and by turns
A quivering energy to jump
For seats angelical ; it shrinks, it yearns,
Loves, loathes ; is flame or cinders ; lasdy cloud
Capping a sullen crater : and mankind
We see cloud-capped, an army of the dark,
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THE COMIC SPIRIT
Because of thy straight leadership declined ;
At heeb of this or that delusive spark :
Now when the multitudinous races press
Elbow to elbow hourly more,
A thickened host ; when now we hear aloud
Life for the very life implore
A signal of a visioned mark ;
Light of the mind, the mind's discourse,
The rational in graciousness.
Thee by acknowledgement enthroned,
To tame and lead that blind-eyed force
In harmony of harness with the crowd.
For payment of their dues ; as yet disowned.
Save where some dutiful lone creature, vowed
To holy work, deems it the heart's intent ;
Or where a silken circle views it cowled.
The seeming figure of concordance, bent
On satiating tyrant lust
Or barren 6ts of sentiment.
Thou wilt not have our paths befouled
By simulation ; are we vile to view,
The heavens shall see us clean of our own dust,
Beneath thy breezy Bitting wing :
They make their mirror upon faces true ;
And where they win reflection, lucid heave
The under tides of this hot heart seen through.
Beneficently wilt thou clip
All oversteppings of the plumed.
The puffed, and bid the masker strip.
And into the crowned windbag thrust,
Tearing the mortal from the vital thing,
A lightning o'er the half-illumed.
Who to base brute-dominion cleave,
Yet mark effects, and shun the flash,
Till their drowsed wits a beam conceive,
To spy a wound without a gash,
The magic in a turn of wrist.
And how are wedded heart and head regaled
When Wit o'er Folly blows the mort.
And their high note of union spreads
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THE COMIC SPIRIT
Wide from the timely word with conquest charged ;
Victorious laughter, of no loud report,
If heard ; derision aa divinely veiled
As terrible Immortals in rose-mist.
Given to the vision of arrested men :
Whereat they feel within tbem weave
Community its closer threads.
And are to our fraternal state enlarged ;
Like warm fresh blood is their enlivened ken :
They learn that thou art not of alien sort.
Speaking the tongue by vipers hissed,
& of the frosty heights unsealed.
Or of the vain who simple speech distort.
Or of the vapours pointing on to nought
Along cold skies ; though sharp and high thy pitch:
As when sole homeward the belated treads.
And hears aloft a clamour wailed.
That once had seemed the broomstick witch
Horridly violating cloud for drought :
He, from the rub of minds dispersing fears.
Hears migrants marshalling their midnight train;
Homeliest order in black sky appears.
Not less than in the lighted village steads.
So do those half-illumed wax clear to share
A cry that is our common voice ; the note
Of fellowship upon a loftier plane.
Above embattled castle-wall and moat ;
And toning drops as from pure heaven it sheds.
So thou for washing a phantasmal air.
For thy sweet singing kej-note of the wise,
Laughter — the joy of Reason seeing fade
Obstruction into Earth's renewing beds.
Beneath the stroke of her good servant's blade —
llienceforth art as their earth-star hailed ;
Gain of the years, conjunction's prize.
The greater heart in thy appeal to heads
They see, thou Captain of our civil Fort I
By more elusive savages assailed
{>[i each ascending stage ; untired
Both inner foe and outer to cut short.
And blow to chaff pretenders void of grist :
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I THE COMIC SPIRIT
Showing old tiger's claws, old crocodile's
Yard-grin of eager grinders, slim to sight.
Like forms in niimiDg water, oft when smiles.
When pearly tears, when fluent lips delight :
But never with the slayer's malice fired :
As little as informs an Infant's fist
Clenched at the sneeze 1 Thou wouidst hut have us be
Good sons of mother soil, whereby to grow
Branching on fairer skies, one stately tree ;
Broad of the tilth for flowering at the Court :
Which is the tree bound fast to wave its tress;
Of strength controlled sheer beauty to bestow.
Ambrosial heights of possible acquist.
Where soub of men with soul of man consort.
And all look higher to new loveliness
Begotten of the look : thy mark is there ;
While on our temporal ground alive,
Kightly though fearfully thou wieldest sword
Of flner temper now a numbered learn
That they resisting thee themselves resist ;
And not thy bigger joy to smite and drive.
Prompt the dense herd to butt, and set the snare
Witching them into pitfalls for hoarse shouts.
More now, and hourly more, and of the Lord
Thou lead'st to, doth this rebel heart discern.
When pinched ascetic and red sensualist
Alternately recurrent freeze or burn,
And of its old religions it has doubts.
It fears thee less when thou hast shown it bare;
Less hates, part understands, nor much resents,
When the prized objects it has raised for prayer.
For fitful prayer ; — repentance dreading fire.
Impelled by aches ; the blindness which repents
Like the poor trampled worm that writhes in mire ; —
Are sounded by thee, and thou darest probe
Old institutions and establishments.
Once fortresses against the floods of sin.
For what their worth ; and questioninAly prod
For why they stand upon a racing globe.
Impeding blocks, leas useful than the clod ;
Their angel out of them, a demon in.
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I
THE COMIC SPIRIT 4
This half-enlightened heart, still doomed to tret.
To hurl at vanities, to drift in shame
Of gain or loss, bewailing the sure rod.
Shall of predestination wed thee yet.
Something it gathers of what things should drop
At entrance on new times ; of how thrice hroad
The worid of minds communicative ; how
A straggling Nature classed in school, and scored
AVith stripes admonishing, may yield to plough
Fniitfullest furrows, nor for waxing tame
Be feeble on an Earth whose gentler crop
Is its most living, in the mind that steers.
By Reason led, her way of tree and flame.
Beyond the genuflexions and the tears;
Upon an Earth that cannot stop.
Where upward is the visible aim.
And ever we espy the greater God,
For simple pointing at a good adored :
Proof of the closer neighbourhood. Head on.
Sword of the many, light of the tew I untwist
Or cut our tangles till fair space is won
Beyond a briared wood of austere brow,
Relieved of discord by thy timely word
At intervals refreshing life : for thou
Art verily Keeper of the Muse's Key ;
Thyself no vacant melodist ;
On lower land elective even as she ;
Holding, as sh^, all dissonance abhorred ;
Advising to her measured steps in flow ;
And teaching how for being subjected free
Past thought of freedom we may come to know
The music of the meaning of Accord.
ODE TO YOUTH IN MEMORY •
Days, when the hall of our vision Had eagles that flew unabashed to sun ; When the grasp on the bow was decision. And arrow and hand and eye were one ;
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YOUTH IN MEMORY
When the Pleaaurea, like waves to a 3wimnm, Came heaving for rapture ahead ! — Invoke them, they dwindle, they glimmer As lights over mounds of the dead.
Behold the winged Olympus,' off the mead. With thunder of wide piniona, lightning speed. Wafting the shepherd-boy through ether clear. To bear the golden nectar-cup. So flies desire at view of its delight, When the young heart is tiptoe perched on sight. We meanwhile who in hues of the sick year The Spring-time paint to prick us for our lost. Mount but the fatal half way up — Whereon abut eyes 1 This is decreed, For Age that would to youthful heavens ascend, By passion for the arms' possession tossed. It falls the way of sighs and hath their end ; A spark gone out to more sepulchral night. Good if tbe arrowy eagle of the height Be then the little bird that hops to feed.
Lame falls the cry to kindle days
Of radiant orb and daring gaze.
It does but clank our mortal chain.
For Earth reads through her felon old.
The many-numbered of her fold.
Who forward tottering backward strain.
And would be thieves of treasure spent,
With their grey season soured.
She could write out their history in their thirst
To have again the much devoured,
And be the bud at burst ;
In honey fancy join the flow,
Where Youth swims on as once they went,
All choiric for spontaneous glee
Of active eager lungs and thews ;
They now bared roots beside the river bent;
Whose privilege themselves to see ;
Their place in yonder tideway know ;
The current glass peruse ;
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YOUTH IN MEMORY 405
The depths intently sound ; And sapped by each returning flood Accept for monitory nourishment Those worn roped features under crust of mud. Reflected in the silvery smooth around : Not less the branching and high singing tree, A home of nests, a landmark and a tent. Until their hour for losing hold on ground. Even such good harvest of the things that flee Earth offers her subjected, and they choose Rather of Bacchic Youth one beam to drink, And warm alow marrow with the sensual wink. So block they at her source the Mother of the Muse.
Who cheerfully the little bird becomes.
Without a fall, and pipes for peck at crumbs,
May have her doltngs to the lightest touch ;
As where some cripple muses by his crutch.
Unwitting that the spirit in him sings :
'When I had legs, then had I wings,
As good as any born of eggs,
To feed on all aerial things,
When I had legs!'
And if not to embrace he sighs.
She gives him breath of Youth awhile,
Perspective of a breezy mile,
Companionable hedgeways, lifting skies ;
Scenes where his nested dreams upon their hoard
Brooded, or up to empyrean soared :
Enough to link him with a dotted hne.
But cravings for an eagle's flight.
To top white peaks and serve wild wine
Among the rosy undecayed,
Bring only flash of shade
From her full throbbing breast of day in night.
Sk^ what they crave are they betrayed : /And cavernous is that young draguu'!^ ' I Crimson for all the fiery reptile saw Vin time now coveted, for teeth to flay, ^Qnce more consume, were Life recurrent Ma/
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t YOUTH IN MEMORY
They to their moment of drawn breath.
Which is the life that makes the death.
The death that makes ethereal life would bind :
The death that breeds the spectre do they find.
Darkness is wedded and the waste regrets
Beating as dead leaves on a fitful gust.
By souls no longer dowered to climb
Beneath their pack of dust,
Whom envy of a lustrous prime,
Eclipsed while yet invoked, besets.
And dooms to sink and water sable flowers,
Thnt^rrrr gladdened eye or loaded bee.
/strain we the arms for Memory's hours,
I We are the seized Persephone.'
Responsive never to the soft desire
For one prized tune is this our chord of life.
Tis clipped to deadoess with a wanton knife,
In wishes that for ecstasies aspire.
Yet have we glad companionship of Youth,
Elysian meadows for the mind,
Dare we to face deeds done, and in our tomb
Filled with the parti-coloured bloom
Of loved and hated, grasp all human truth
Sowed by us down the mazy paths behind.
To feel that heaven must we that hell sound through :
Whence comes a line of continuity,
That brings our middle station into view.
Between those poles ; a novel Earth we see.
In likeness of us, made of banned and blest;
The sower's bed, but not the reaper's rest ;
An Earth alive with meanings, wherein meet
Buried, and breathing, and to be.
Then of the junction of the three,
Even as a heart in brain, full sweet
May sense of soul, the sum of music, beat.
Only the soul can walk the dusty track Where hangs our flowering under vapours black. And bear to see how these pervade, obscure. Quench recollection of a spacious pure.
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YOUTH IN MEMORY W,
They take phantasmal forms, divide, convolve, Hard at each other point and gape. Horrible ghosts I in agony dissolve, To reappear with one they drape For criminal, and. Father 1 shrieking name. Who such distorted issue did beget.' Accept them, them and him, though hiss thy sweat rT)f! brow on breast, whose furnace flame Has eaten, and otd Self consumes. Out of the purification will they leap. Thee renovating while new light illumes The dusky web of evil, known as pain, That heavily up healthward mounts the steep ; Our fleshly road to beacon-fire of brain : Midway the tameless oceanic brute Below, whose heave is topped with foam for fruit. And the fair heaven reflecting inner peace On righteous warfare, that asks not to cease.
Porth of such passage through black fire we win
3lear hearing of the simple, lute,
Vhereon, and not on other. Memory plays
■"or them who can in quietness receive
{er restorative airs : a ditty thin As note of hedgerow bird in ear of eve. Or wave at ebb, the shallow catching rays On a transparent sheet, where curves a glass To truer heavens than when the breaker neighs Loud at the plunge for bubbly wreck in roar. Sitlidity and bulk and martial brass, /Once tyrants of the senses, faintly score I A mark on pebbled sand or fluid slime. While present in the spirit, vital there, Are things that seemed the phantoms of their time ; Eternal as the recurrent cloud, as air Imperative, refreshful as dawn-dew. Some evanescent hand on vapour scrawled Historic of the soul, and heats anew Its coloured lines where deeds of flesh stand bald. True of the man, and of mankind 'tb true. Did we stout battle with the Shade, Despair,
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YOUTH IN MEMORY
Our cowardice, it blooms ; or haply warred
Against the primal beast in us, and flung ;
Or cleaving mists of Sorrow, left it starred
Above self-pity slain : or it was Prayer
First taken for Life's cleanser ; or the tongue
Spake for the world against this heart ; or rings
Old laughter, from the founts of wisdom sprung;
Or clap of wing of joy, that was a throb
From breast of Earth, and did no creature rob :
These quickening live. But deepest at her springs.
Most filial, is an eye to love her young.
And had we it, to see with it, alive
Is our lost garden, flower, bird and hive.
Blood of her blood, aim of her aim, are then
The green-robed and grey-crested sons of men :
She tributary to her aged restores
The living in the dead ; she will inspire
Faith homelier than on the Yonder shores,
Abhorring these as mire.
Uncertain steps, in dimness gropes,
With mortal tremours pricking hopes.
And, by the final Bacchic of the lusts
Propelled, the Bacchic of the spirit trusts :
A fervour drunk from mystic hierophants ;
Not utterly misled, though blindly led,
Led round fermenting eddies. Faith she plants
In her own firmness as our midway road :
Which rightly Youth has read, though blindly read;
Her essence reading in her toothsome goad ;
Spur of bright dreams experience disenchants.
But love we well the young, her road midway
The darknesses runs consecrated clay.
Despite our feeble hold on this green home.
And the vast outer strangeness void of dome,
Shall we be with them, of them, taught to feel,
Up to the moment of our prostrate fall.
The life they deem voluptuously real
Is more than empty echo of a call.
Or shadow of a shade, or swing of tides ;
As brooding upon age, when veins congeal,
Grey paby nods to think. With us for guides.
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YOUTH IN MEMORY 40
Another atep above the animal.
To views in Alpin* thought are they helped on.
Good it so far we live in them when gone !
And there the arrowy eagle of the height
Becomes the little bird that hops to feed.
Glad of a crumb, for tempered appetite
To make it wholesome blood and fruitful seed.
Then Memory strikes on no alack string.
Nor sectional will varied Life appear :
Perforce of soul discerned in mind, we hear
Earth with her Onward chime, with Winter Spring.
And ours the mellow note, while sharing joys
No more subjecting mortals who have learnt
To build for happiness on equipoise,
The Pleasures read in sparks of substance burnt;
Know in our seasons an integral wheel.
That rolls us to a mark may yet be willed.
This, the tniistic rubbish under heel
Of all the world, we peck at and are filled.
PENETRATION AND TRUST *
Sleek as a lizard at round of a stone. The look of her heart slipped out and in. Sweet on her lord her soft eyes shone, As innocents clear of a shade of sin.
He laid a finger under her chin. His arm for her girdle at waist was thrown : Now, what will happen and who will win. With me in the fight and my lady lone ?
He clasped her, clasping a shape of stone ; Was fire on her eyes till they let him in. Her breast to a God of the daybeams shone. And never a comer for serpent sin.
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PENETRATION AND TRUST
Tranced she stood, with a chattering chin ; Her shrunken form at his feet was thrown : At home to the death my lord shall win, When it is no tyrant who leaves me lone I
THE TEACHING OF THE NUDE*
. A Satyr spied a Goddess in her bath, Unseen of her attendant nymphs ; none knew. Forthwith the creature to his fellows drew. And looking backward on the curtained path. He strove to tell ; he could but heave a breast Too full, and point to mouth, with failing leers : Vainly he danced for speech, he giggled tears, Made as if torn in two, as if tight pressed. As if cast prone ; then fetching whimpered tunes For words, flung heel and set his hairy 6ight Through forest-hollows, over rocky height. Tlie green leaves buried him three rounds of moons. A senatorial Satyr named what herb Had hurried him outrunning reason's curb.
II "Tis told how when that hieaway unchecked To dell returned, he seemed of tempered mood : Even as the valley of the torrent rude. The torrent now a brook, the valley wrecked. In him, to bale him high or huri aheap, Goddess and Goatfoot hourly wrestled sore ; Hourly the immortal prevailing more : Till one hot noon saw Meliboeus peep From thicket-sprays to where his full-blown dame, In circle by the lusty frJskers gripped, Laughed the showered rose-leaves while her limbs were
stripped. She beckoned to our Satyr, and he came. I
llien twirled she mounds of ripeness, wreath of arms. His hoof kicked up the clothing for such charms.
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BREATH OF THE BRIAR
0 BRIAR-3CENT3, on yon wet wing Of warm South-west wind brushing by. You mind me of tlie sweetest thing That ever mingled frank and shy : When she and I, by love enticed. Beneath the orchard-apples met. In equal halves a ripe one sliced, And smelt the juices ere we ate.
II That apple of the briar-scent, Among our lost in Britain now. Was green of rind, and redolent Of sweetness as a milking cow. The briar gives it back, well nigh The damsel with her teeth on it ; Her twinkle between frank and shy. My thirst to bite where she had bit.
EMPEDOCLES •
He leaped. With none to hinder. Of Aetna's fiery scoriae In the next vomit-shower, made he
A more pecuhar dnder. And this great Doctor, can it be, He left no saner recipe For men at issue with despair? Admiring, even his poet owns. While noting his fine lyric tones, The last of him was heels in air I
Comes Reverence, her features Amazed to see high Wisdom hear. With glimmer of a faunish leer.
One mock her pride of creatures.
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EMPEDOCLES
Shall such sad incident degrade A stature casting sunniest shade f O Reverence ! let Reason switn ; Each life it^ critic deed reveals ; And him reads Reason at his heels. If heels in air the last of him I
TARDY SPRING
Now the North wind ceases, The warm South-west awakes ; Swift fly the fleeces, lUck the blossom-flakes.
Now hill to hiU has made the stride. And distance waves the without end : Now in the breast a door flings nide ; Our farthest smiles, our next is friend. And song of England's rush of flowers Is this full breeze with mellow stops. That spins the lark for shine, for showers ; He drinks his hurried ftight, and drops. The stir in memorj- seem these things, ^Miich out of moistened turf and clay Astrain for light push patient rings. Or leap to find the waterway. Tis equal to a wonder done. Whatever simple lives renew Their tricks beneath the father sun. As though they caught a broken due: So hard was earth an eyewink back ; But now the common life has come, The blotting cloud a dappled pack, The grasses one vast underiium. A City clothed in snow and soot. With lamps for day in ghostly rows. Breaks to the scene of hosts afoot, Tlie river that reflective flows :
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TARDY SPRING
And there did fog down crypts of street
Play spectre upon eye and mouth : —
Their faces are a glass to greet
This magic of the whirl for South.
A burly joy each creature swells
With sound of its own hungry quest;
Earth has to fill her empty wells,
And speed the service of the nest ;
The phantom of the snow-wreath melt,
That haunts the farmer's look abroad,
Who sees what tomb a white night built,
Where flocks now bleat and sprouts the clod.
For iron Winter held her firm ;
Across her sky he laid his hand ;
And bird he starved, he stiffened worm ;
A sightless heaven, a shaven land.
Her shivering Spring feigned fast asleep,
The bitten buds dared not unfold :
We raced on roads and ice to keep
Thought of the girl we love from cold.
But now the North wind ceases. The warm South-west awakes. The heavens are out in fleeces. And earth's green banner shakes.
FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE*
Sprung of the father blood, the mother brain. Are they • who point our pathway and sustain. They rarely meet ; one soars, one walks retired. W'hen they do meet, it is our earth inspired.
To see Ljfe's formless offspring and subdue Desire of times unripe, we have these two. Whose union is right reason : join they hands. The world shall know itself and where it stands; What cowering angel and what upright beast Make man, behold, nor coimt the low the least, Nor less the stars have round it than its flowers. When these two meet, a point of time is ours.
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414 FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE
As in a land of waterfalls, that flow Smooth for the leap on their great voice below, Some eddies near the brink borne swift along Will capture hearing with the liquid song. So, while the headlong world's imperious force Resounded under, heard I these discourse.
First words, where down my woodland walk she led. To her blind sbter PatieDce, Foresight said :
(Foresight) — Your faith in me appals, to shake my own. When still I 6ncl you in this mire alone.
(Patience) — The few steps taken at a funeral pace By men had slain me but for those you trace.
(Foresight) — Look I once back, a broken pinion I : Black as the rebel angeb rained from sky 1
(Patience) — Needs must you drink of me while here you live. And make me rich in feeling I can give.
(Foresight)— A brave To-be is dawn upon my brow : Yet must I read my sbter for the How. My daisy better knows her God of beams Than doth an eagle that to mount him seems. She hath the secret never fieriest reach Of wing shall master till men hear her teach.*
(Patience) — Liker the clod flaked by the driving plough, My semblance when I have you not as now. The quiet creatures who escape mishap Bear likeness to pure growths of the green sap : A picture of the settled peace desired By cowards shunning strife or strivers tired. I listen at their breasts : is there no jar Of wrestlings and of stranglings, dead they are. And such a picture as the piercing mind Ranks beneath vegetation. Not resigned Are my true pupils while the world b brute. What edict of the stronger keeps me mute, Stronger impels the motion of my heart. I am not Resignation's counterpart.
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FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE 415
If that I t«ach, 'tjs little the dry word,
Content, but how to aavour hope deferred.
We come of earth, and rich of earth may be ;
Soon carrion if very earth are we I
The coursing veins, the constant breath, the use
Of sleep, declare that strife allows short truce ;
Unless we clasp decay, accept defeat.
And pass despised ; ' a-cold for lack of heat,'
IJke other corpses, but without death's plea.
(Foresight) — My sister calls for battle; is it aheT
(Patience) — Rather a world of pressing men in arms, Than stagnant, where the sensual piper channs Each drowsy malady and coiling vice With dreams of ease whereof the soul pays price I No home is here for peace while evil breeda, While error governs, none ; and must the seeds You sow, you that for long have reaped disdain. Lie barren at the doorway of the brain. Let stout contention drive deep furrows, blood Moisten, and make new channels of its flood 1
(Foresight) — My sober little maid, when we meet first. Drinks of me ever with an eager thirst.* So can I not of her till circumstance Drugs cravings. Here we see how men advance A doubtful foot, but cirele if much stirred, Lake dead weeds on whipped waters. Shout the word Prompting their hungers, and they grandly mareh, As to band-music under Victory's arch. Thus was it, and thus is it ; save that then The beauty of frank animals had men.
(Patience) — Observe them, and down rearward for a term. Gaze to the primal twistings of the worm. Thence look this way, across the fields that show Men's early form of speech for Yes and No, My sbter a bruised infant's utterance had ; And issuing stronger, to mankind 'twas mad. I knew my home where I had choice to feel The toad beneath a harrow or a heel.*
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416 FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE
CFoREaiGHx) — Speak of this Age.
(Patience) — When you it shall discern
Bright as you are, to me the Age will turn.
(Foresight) — For neither of us has it any care ; Its learning is through Science to despair.
(Patience) — Despair lies down and grovels, grapples not With evil, casts the burden of its lot. This Age climbs earth.
(Fobebiobt) — To challenge heaven.
(Patience) — Not less
The lower deeps. It laughs at Happiness 1 That know I, though the echoes of it wail, For one step upward on the crags you scale. Brave b the Age wherein the word will rust, Which means our soul asleep or body's lust,' Until from warmth of many breasts, that beat A temperate common music, sunlike heat The happiness not predatory sheds 1
(FoREsiaHT) — But your fierce Yes and No of butting heads Now rages to outdo a homy Past. Shades of a wild Destroyer on the vast Are thrown by every novel light upraised. The world's whole round smokes ominously, amazed And trembling as its pregnant Aetna swelb. Combustibles on hot combustibles Run piling, for one spark to roll in fire The mountain-torrent of infernal ire And leave the track of devils where men built.* Perceptive of a doom, the sinner's guilt Confesses in a cry for help shrill loud. If drops the chillness of a passing cloud. To conscience, reason, human love ; in vain : None save they but the souls which them contain. No extramural God, the God within Alone gives aid to city charged with sin. A world that for the spur of fool and knave Sweats in its laboratory what shall saveT
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FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE 417
But men who ply their wits in such a school Must pray the mercy of the knave and fool.
(Patience) — Much have I studied hard Necessity I To know her Wisdom's mother, and that we May deem the harshness of her later cries In labour a sure goad to prick the wise, If men among the warnings which convulse Can gravely dread without the craven's pulse. Long ere the rising of this age of ours. The knave and fool were stamped as monstrous Powers. Of human lusts and lassitudes they spring. And are as lasting as the parent thing. Yet numbering locust hosts, bent they to drill. They might o'ermatch and have mankind at will. Behold such army gathering ; ours the spur, No scattered foe to face, but Lucifer. Not fool or knave is now the enemy O'ershadowing men, 'tis Folly, Knavery ! A sea ; nor stays that sea the bastioned beach. Now must the brother soul alive in each His traitorous individual devildom Hold subject lest the grand destruction come. Dimly men see it menacing apace To overthrow, perchance uproot, the race. Within, without, they are a field of tares : Fruitfuller for them when the contest squares. And wherefore warrior service they must yield. Shines visible as life on either field. That is my comfort, following shock on shock. Which sets faith quaking on their firmest rock. Since with his weapions, all the arms of Night, Frail men have challenged Lucifer to fight, Have matched in hostile ranks, enrolled, erect, The human and Satanic intellect, Determined for their uses to control What forces on the earth and under roll, Their granite rock runs igneous ; now they stand Pledged to the heavens for safety of their land. They cannot learn save grossly, gross that are ; Through fear they learn whose aid is good in war.
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418 FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE
(Foresiobt) — My sister, as I read them in my ^ass. Their 6eld of tares they take for pasture grass. How waken them that have not any bent Save browsing — the concrete indifferent ! Friend Lucifer supplies them solid stuff : They fear not for the race when full the trough. They have much fear of giving up the ghost ; And these are of mankind the unnumbered host.
(Patience) — If I could see with you, and did not faint In beating wing, the future I would paint. Those massed indifferents will learn to quake : Now meanwhile is another mass awake,' Once denser than the grunters of the sty. If 1 could see with you! Could I but fly!
(Foresight) — The length of days that you with them have housed, An outcast else, approves their cause espoused.
(Patience) — 0 true, they have a cause, and woe for us, While still they have a cause too piteous I Yet, happy for us when, their cause defined. They walk no longer with a stumbler blind. And quicken in the virtue of their cause. To think me a. poor mouther of old saws ! I wait the issue of a battling Age ; The toilers with your ' troughsters ' now engage ; Instructing them, through their acutest sense. How close the dangers of indifference ! Already have my people shown their worth. More love they light, which folds the love of Earth. That love to love of labour leads : thence love Of humankind — earth's incense flung above.
(Foeehight) — Admit some other features ; Faithless, mean ; Encased in matter ; vowed to Gods obscene ; Contemptuous of the impalpable, it swells On Doubt ; for [jastime swallows miracles ; ' And if I bid it face what / observe. Declares me hoodwinked by my optic nerve I
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FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE 41t
(Patience) — Oft has your prophet, for reward of toil. Seen nests of seeming cockatrices coU : Disowned them as the unholiest of Time, Which were his offspring, bom of flame on slime. Nor him, their sire, have known the filial fry : As little as Time's earliest knew the sky. Perchance among them shoots a lustrous flame At intervals, in proof of whom they came. To strengthen our foundations is the task Of this tough Age ; not in your beams to bask. Though, lighted by your beams, down mining caves The rock it blasts, the hoarded foulness braves.
' My sbter sees no round beyond her mood ; To hawk, this Age has dressed her head in hood. Out of the course of ancient nits and grooves, It moves : O much for me to say it moves ! About his ^thiop Highlands Nile is Nile, Though not the stream of the paternal smile: And where his tide of nourishment he drives. An Abyssinian wantonness revives. Calm as his lotus-leaf to-day he swims ; He is the yellow crops, the rounded limbs, The Past yet flowing, the fair time that fills ; Breath of all mouths and grist of many milb. To-morrow, warning none with tempest-showers, He is the vast Insensate who devours His golden promise over leagues of seed, Then sits in a smooth lake upon the deed. The races which on barbarous force begin Inherit onward of their origin, And canceUed blessings will the current length Reveal till they know need of shaping strength. 'Tis not in men to recognize the need Before they clash in hosts, in hosts they bleed. Then may sharp suffering their nature grind ; Of rabble passions grow the chieftain Mind. Yet mark where still broad Nile boasts thousands fed. For tens up the safe mountains at his head. Few would he feed, not far his course prolong, Save for the troublous blood which makes him strong.*
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420 FORESIGHT AND PATTENCE
(FoHESiaHx) — That ringa of truth I More do your people thrive ; Your Many are more merrily alive Than erewhile when I gloried io the page Of radiant singer and anointed sage. Greece was my lamp : burnt out for lack of oil ; Rome, Python Rome, prey of its robber spoil I All structures built upon a narrow space Must fall, from having not your hosts for base. O thrice must one be you,'" to see them shift Along their desert flats, here dash, there drift ; With faith, that of privations and spilt blood, Comes Reason armed to clear or bank the flood I And thrice must one be you, to wait release From duress in the swamp of their increase. At which oppressive scene, beyond arrest, A darkness not with stars of heaven dressed Philosophers behold ; desponding view Your Many nourished, starved my brilliant few ; Then flinging heels, as charioteers the reins, Dive down the fumy Aetna of their brains. Belated vessels on a rising sea, They seem : they pass ! "
(Patience) — But not Philosophy I
(Foresiobt) — Ay, be we faithful to ourselves : despise
Nought but the coward in us ! That way lies
The wisdom making passage through our slough.
Am I not heard, my head to Earth shall bow;
Like her, shall wait to see, and seeing wait.
Philosophy is Life's one match for Fate.
That photosphere of our high fountain One,
Our spirit's Lord and Reason's fostering sun.
Philosophy, shall light us in the shade,
Warm in the frost, make Good our aim and aid.
Companioned by the sweetest, ay renewed.
Unconquerable, whose aim for aid is Good I
Advantage to the Many : that we name
God's voice ; have there the surety in our aim.
This thought unto my sister do I owe.
And irony and saUre off me throw.
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FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE 41
They " crack a childish wh!p, drive puny herds.
Where numbers crave their sustenance in words.
Now let the perils thicken : clearer seen.
Your Chieftain Mind mounts over them serene.
Who never yet of scattered lamps was bom
To speed a world, a marchiag world to warn,
But sunward from the vivid Many springs.
Counts conquest but a step, and through disaster sings.
POEMS ON NATIONAL AFFAIRS
[John Morlet, 1867]
Let fate or Insufficiency provide
Mean ends for men who what they are would be :
Penned in their narrow day no change they see
Save one which strikes the blow to brutes and pride.
Our faith is ours and comes not on a tide :
And whether Earth's great offspring, by decree.
Must rot if they abjure rapacity,
Not argument but effort shall decide.
They number many heads in that hard flock :
Trim swordsmen they push forth : yet try thy steel,
Thou, fighting for poor humankind, wilt feel
The strength of Roland in thy wrist to hew
A chasm sheer into the barrier rock.
And bring the army of the faithful through.
LINES TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA •
Now farewell to you I you are One of my dearest, whom I trust : Now follow you the Western star, And cast the old world off as dust.
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TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA
From many friends adieu I adieu ! The quick heart of the word therein. Much that we hope for hangs with you : We lose you, but we lose to win.
The beggar-king, November, frets : His tatters rich with Indian dyes Goes hugging : we our season's debts Pay calmly, of the Spring forewise.
We send our worthiest; can no less. If we would now be read aright, — To that great people who may bless Or curse mankind : they have the might.
The proudest seasons find their graves. And we, who would not be wooed, must court. We have let the blunderers and the waves Divide us, and the devil had sport.
The blunderers and the waves no more Shall sever kindred sending forth Their worthiest from shore to shore For welcome, bent to prove their worth.
Go you and such as you afloat.
Our lost kinsfellowship to revive.
The battle of the antidote
Is tough, though silent: may you thrive!
I, when in this North wind I see The str^ning red woods blown awry, Feel shuddering like the winter tree. Ail vein and artery on cold sky.
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TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA
The leaf that clothed me is torn away ; My friend b as a flying seed. Ay, true; to bring replenished day Light ebbs, but I am bare, and bleed.
What husky habitations seem These comfortable sayings I they fell, In some rich year become a dream : — So cries my heart, the infidel 1 . . .
Oh ! for the strenuous mind in quest, Arabian visions could not vie With those broad wonders of the West, And would I bid you stay 7 Not 1 1
The strange experimental land Where men continually dare take Niagara leaps ; — unshattered stand Twixt fall and fall , — for conscience' sake.
Drive onward like a flood's increase; — Fresh rapids and abysms engage ; — (We live — we die) scorn fireside peace, And, as a garment, put on rage.
Rather than bear God's reprimand. By rearing on a full fat soil Concrete of sin and sloth ; — this land. You will observe it coil in coil.
The land has been discover'd long. The people we have yet to know ; Themselves they know not, save that strong For good and evil still they grow.
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TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA
XVI
Nor know they us. Yea, well enough In that inveterate machine Through which we speak the printed stuff Daily, with voice most hugeous, mien
XVII
Tremendous : — as a lion's show The grand menagerie paintings hide : Hear the drum beat, the trombones blow 1 The poor old Lion hes inside I . . .
It is not England that they hear. But mighty Mammon's pipers, tmned To trumpet out his moods, and stir His sluggish soul : her voice is chained :
Almost her spirit seems moribund I 0 teach them, 'tis not she displays The panic of a purse rotund, Eternal dread of evil days, —
That haunting spectre of success Which shows a heart sunk low in the girths : Not En^and answers nobleness, — 'live for thyself: thou art not earth's.'
XXI
Not she, when struggling manhood tries For freedom, air, a hopefuller fate, Pointa out the planet. Compromise, And shakes a mild reproving pate :
XXII
Says never : ' I am well at ease. My sneers upon the weak I shed : The strong have my cajoleries : And those beneath my feet I tread.'
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TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA
XXIII
Nay, but 'tis stud for her, great Lord I The misery 's there 1 The shameless one Adjures mankind to sheathe the sword. Herself not yielding what it won : —
tier sermon at cock-crow doth preach. On sweet Prosperity — or greed. ' Lo I as the b^ts feed, each for each, God's hiessings let us take, and feed I '
Ungrateful creatures crave a part — She telb them firmly she is full ; Lest sheared sheep hurt her tender heart With bleating, stops her ears with wool : —
Seized sometimes by prodigious qualms (Nightmares of bankruptcy and death), — Showers down in lumps a load of alma. Then pants as one who has lost a breath ;
XXVII
Believes high heaven, whence favours flow, Too kmd to ask a sacrifice For what it specially doth bestow: — Gives ike,'tis generous, cheese to mice.
xxvtu She saw the young Dominion strip For battle with a grievous wrong. And curled a noble Norman lip. And looked with half an eye sidelong;
And in stout Saxon wrote her sneers. Denounced the waste of blood and coii Implored the combatants, with tears. Never to think they could rejoin.
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TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA
XXX
Oh 1 was it England that, alas ! Turned sharp the victor to cajole ? Behold her features in the glass : A monstrous semblance mocks her soul 1
A false majority, by stealth. Have got her fast, and sway the rod : A headless tyrant built of wealth. The hypocrite, the belly-God.
To him the daily hymns they ruse : His tastes are sought : his will is done : He sniffs the putrid steam of praise. Place for true England here is none I
But can a distant race discern The difference 'twixt her and him? My friend, that will you hid them team. He shames and binds her, head and limb.
Old wood has blossoms of this sort. Though sound at core, she is old wood. If freemen hate her, one retort She has ; but one ! — ' You are my blood.'
XXXV
A poet, half a prophet, rose In recent days, and called for power.' I love him ; but his mountain prose — His Alp and valley and wild flower —
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TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA
Why, these are great at City feasts ; From City riches mainly rise ; Tia well to hear them, when the beasts That die for us they eulogize 1
XXXVIII
But these, of all the liveried crew Obeisant in Mammon's walk, Most deferent ply the facial screw, The spinal bend, submissive talk.
Small fear that they will run to books (At least the better form of seed) I I, too, have hoped from their good looks, And fables of their Northman breed ; —
Have hoped that they the land would head In acts magnanimous ; but, lo. When fainting heroes beg for bread ■Riey frown : where they are driven they go.
Good health, my friend ! and may your lot Be cheerful o'er the Western rounds. Thb butter-woman's market-trot Of verse is passing market4>ounds.
Adieu I the sun sets ; he b gone. On banks of fog faint lines extend : Adieu I bring back a braver dawn To England, and to me my friend.
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ANEURIN'S HARP*
Prince of Barda was old ADeurin ; He the grand Gododin sang ; All his numbers threw such fire in. Struck his harp so wild a twang ; — Still the wakeful Briton borrows Wisdom from its ancient heat : Still it haunts our source of sorrows. Deep excess of liquor sweet I
Here the Briton, there the Saxon, Face to face, three fields apart. Thirst for light to lay their thwacks on Each the other with good heart. Dry the Sanon sits, 'mid dinful Noise of iron knits his steel ; Fresh and roaring with a skinful, Britons round the hirlas ' reel.
Yellow flamed the meady sunset ; Red runs up the flag of mom. Signal for the British onset Hiccups through the British horn. Down these hillmen pour like cattle Snifiing pasture : grim below, Showing eager teeth of isattle, In his spear-heads lies the foe.
—Monster of the sea I we drive him
Back into his hungry brine. —You shall lodge him, feed him, wive him.
Look on us ; we stand in line. —Pale sea-monster ! foul the waters
Cast him ; foul he leaves our land. —You shall yield us land and daughters:
Stay the tongue, and try the band.
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ANEURIN'S HARP
Swift as toirent-streams our warriors, Tossing torrent lights, find way ; Burst the ridges, crowd the barriers, Pierce them where the spear-heads play ; Turn them as the clods in furrow. Top them like the leaping foam ; Sorrow to the mother, sorrow. Sorrow to the wife at home I
Stags, they butted ; bulb, tliey bellowed ; Houuds, we baited them ; oh, brave ! Every second man, unfellowed. Took the strokes of two, and gave. Bare as hop-stakes in November's Mists they met our battle-flood : Hoary-red as Winter's embers Lay their dead lines done in blood.
Thou, my Bard, didst hang thy Ijtc in Oak-leaves, and with crimson brand Rhythmic fury spent, Aneurin ; Songs the churls could understand : Thrumming on their Saxon sconces Straight, the invariable blow. Till they snorted true responses. Ever thus the Bard they know I
But ere nightfall, harper lusty I When the sun was like a ball Dropping on the battle dusty. What was yon discordant call ? Cambria's old metheglin demon Breathed against our rushing tide Clove us midst the threshing Gashed, we saw our ranks divide
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ANEURIN'S HARP
Britam then with valedictory Shriek veiled off her face and knelt. Full of liquor, full of victory, Chief oD chief old vengeance dealt. Backward swung their hurly-burly ; None but dead men kept the fight. They that drink their cup too early, Darkness they shall see ere night.
Loud we heard the yellow rover Laugh to sleep, while we raged thick, Thick as ants the ant-hill over. Asking who has thrust the stick. Lo, as frogs that Winter cumbers Meet the Spring with sfiffen'd yawn. We from our hard night of slumbers Marched into the bloody dawn.
Day on day we fought, though shattered ;
Pushed and met repulses sharp,
Till our Raven's plumes were scattered :
All, save old Aneurin's harp.
Hear it wailing like a mother
O'er the strings of children slain !
He in one tongue, in another.
Alien, I ; one blood, yet twain.
Old Aneurin I droop do longer. That squat ocean-scum, we own. Had fine stoutness, made us stronger. Brought us much-required backbone :
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ANEURIN'S HARP
Glorious men, with heads of eagles. Chopping arms, and cupboard lips ; Warriors, hunters, keen as beagtes. Mounted aye on horse or ships. Active, being hungry creatures ; Silent, having nought to say : High they raised the lord of features, SaxoQ-worshipped to this day.
Hear its deeds, the great recital I Stout as bergs of Arctic ice Once it led, and lived ; a title Now it is, and names its price. This our Saxon brothers cherish : This, when by the worth of wits Lands are reared aloft, or perish, Sole illumes their lucre-pits.
Know we not our wrongs, unwritten Though they be, Aneurin? Sword, Song, and subtle mind, the Briton Brings to market, all ignored. 'Gainst the Saxon's bone impinging, Still is our Gododin played ; Shamed we see him humbly cringing In a shadowy nose's shade.
Bitter is the weight that crushes Low, my Bard, thy race of fire. Here no fair young future blushes Bridal to a man's desire. Neither chief, nor aim, nor splendour Dressing distance, we perceive. Neither honour, nor the tender Bloom of promise, mom or eve.
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ANEURIN'S HARP
Joined we are ; a tide of races Rolled to meet a common fate ; England clasps in her embraces Many: what is England's state? England her distended middle Thumps with pride as Mammon's wife ; Says that thus she reads thy Hddle, Heaven I 'tis heaven to plump her life.
xviii 0 my Bard I a yellow liquor, Like to that we drank of old — Gold is her metheglin beaker. She destruction drinks in gold. Warn her. Bard, that Power is pressing Hotly for his dues this hour; Tell her that no drunken blessing Stops the onward march of Power.
XIX
Has she ears to take forewamings She will cleanse her of her stains. Feed and speed for braver mornings Valorously the growth of brains. Power, the hard man knit for action. Reads each nation on the brow. Cripple, fool, and petrifaction Fall to him — are falling now !
18S&
A CERTAIN PEOPLE
As Puritans they prominently wax, And none more kindly gives and takes hard knocks. Strong psalmic chanting, like to nasal cocks. They join to thunderings of their hearty thwacks. But naughtiness, with hoggery, not lacks When Peace another door in them unlocks. Where conscience shows the eyeing of an ox Grown dully apprehensive of an Axe.
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PROGRESS
Graceless they are when gone to frivolousness. Fearing the God they flout, the God they glut. They need their pious exercises leas Than schooling in the Pleasures : fair belief That these are devilish only to their thief, Charged with an Axe nigh on the occiput.
PROGRESS *
Ik Progress you have little faith, say you :
Men will maintain dear interests, wr^k base bates,
By force, and gentle women choose their mates
Most amorou^ from the gilded fighting crew :
The human heart Bellona's mad halloo
Will ever fire to dicing with the Fates.
' Now at this time,' says History, ' those two States
' Stood ready their past wrestling to renew.
' They sharpened arms and showed them, like the brutes
' Whose haunches quiver. But a yellow bUght
' Fell on their waxing harvests. They deferred
' The bloody settlement of their disputes
* Till God should bless them better.' They did right.
And naming Progress, both shall have the word.'
ON THE DANGER OF WAR
Avert, High Wisdom, never vainly wooed, This threat of War, that shows a land brain-sick. When nations gain the pitch where rhetoric Seems reason they are ripe for cannon's food. Dark looms the issue though the cause be good, But with the doubt 'tis our old devil's trick. 0 now the down-slope of the lunatic Illumine lest we redden of that brood. For not since man in his first view of thee Asrended to the heavens giving sign Within him of deep sky and sounded sea. Did he unforfeiting thy laws transgress ; In peril of his blood his ears incline To drums whose loudness is their emptiness.
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TO CARDINAL MANNDJO ♦
I, WAKEFUL for the skylark voice in men.
Or straining for the angel of the light.
Rebuked am I by hungry ear and the sight,
When I behold one lamp that through our fen
Goes hourly where moat noisome ; hear again
A tongue that loathsomeness will not affright
From speaking to the soul of us forthright
What things our craven senses keep from ken.
This b the doing of the Christ ; the way
He went on earth ; the service above guile
To prop a tyrant creed : ' it sings, it shines ;
Cries to the Mammonites : Allay, allay
Such misery as by these present signs
Brings vengeance down ; nor them who rouse revile.
TO COLONEL CHARLES* (Dying General CB.B.)
An English heart, my commandant, A soldier's eye you have, awake To right and left ; with looks askant On bulwarks not of adamant. Where white our Channel waters break.
Where Grisnez winks at Dungeness Across the ruffled strip of salt. You look, and like the prospect less. On men and guns would you lay stress. To bid the Island's foemen halt.
While loud the Year is raising cry At birth to know if it must bear In history the bloody dye. An English heart, a soldier's eye. For the old country first will care.
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TO COLONEL CHARLES
And how stands she, artilterist,
Among the vapours waxing dense.
With cannon charged ? 'Tis hist 1 and hist !
And now she screws a gouty fist.
And now she counts to clutch her pence.
With shudders chill as aconite. The couchant chewer of the cud Will start at times in pussy fright Before the dogs, when reads her sprite The streaks predicting streama of blood.
VI
She thinks they may mean something ; thinks They may mean nothing : haply both. Where darkness all her daylight drinks. She fain would find a leader lynx, Not too much taxing mental sloth.
Cleft like the fated house in twain, One half is. Arm 1 and one, Retrench ! Gambetta's word on dull MacMahon : ' The cow that sees a passing train' : So spies she Russian, German, French.
She? no, her weakness : she unbraced Among those athletes fronting storms I The muscles less of steel than paste. Why, they of nature feel distaste For flash, much more for push, of arms.
The poet sings, and well know we, That ' iron draws men after it.' But towering wealth may seem the tree Which hears the fruit Indemnity, And draw as fast as battle 's fit,
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TO COLONEL CHARLES
If feeble be the hand on guard,
Alas, alas I And nations are
Still the mad forces, though the scarred.
Should they once deem our emblem Pard
Wagger of tail for all save war ; —
Mechanically screwed to flail His flanks by Presses conjuring fear; — A money-bag with head and tail ; — Too late may valour then avail ! As you behdd, my cannonier.
When with the staff of Benedek, On the plateau of Koniggratz, You saw below that wedgeing speck ; Foresaw proud Austria rammed to wreck, Where Cblum drove deep in smoky jets. Ftbniarv 1887. _
ENGLAND BEFORE THE STORM
The day that is the night of days. With cannon-fire for sun ablaze. We spy from any billow's lift; And England still this tidal drift I Would she to sainted forethought va\ A space before the thunders flood. That martyr of its hour might now Spare her the tears of blood.
Asleep upon her ancient deeds. She hugs the vision plethora breeds, And counts her manifold increase Of treasure in the fruits of peace.
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ENGLAND BEFORE THE STORM
What curse on earth's improvident. When the dread trumptet shatters rest. Is wreaked, she knows, yet smiles content As cradle rocked from breast.
She, impious to tlie Lord of.HoJts, The valour of her offspring boasts. Mindless that now on land and main His heeded prayer is active brain. No more great heart may guard the home, Save eyed and armed and skilled to clea\'e Yon swallower wave with shroud of foam. We see not distant heave.
They stand to be her sacrifice. The sons this mother flings like dice, To face the odds and brave the Fates ; As in those days of starry dates. When cannon cannon's counterblast Awakened, muzzle muzzle bowled, And high in swathe of smoke the mast Its fighting rag outrolled.
THE LABOURER*
Fob a Heracles in his fighting ire there is never the glory that follows When ashen he lies and the poets arise to sing of the work he has done. But to vision alive under shallows of sight, to, the Labourer's crown is Apollo's, While stands he yet in his grime and sweat — to wrestle for fruits of the Sun.
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438 THE LABOURER
Can an enemy wither his cheer? Not you, ye fair yellow- fiowerins ladies, Who join with your lorda to jar the chords of a bosom heroic, and clog. "Tia the faltering friend, an inanimate land, may drag a great 30ul to their Hades, And plunge htm far from a beam of star till he hears the deep bay of the Dog.
Apparition is then of a monster-task, in a policy carving new fashions : l^e winninger course than the rule of force, and the springs lured to run in a stream : He would bend tough oak, he would stiffen the reed, point Reason to swallow the passions. Bid Britons awake two steps to take where one is a trouble lel
Not the less is be nerved with the Labourer's resolute hope : that by him shall be written, To honour his race, this deed of grace, for the weak from the strong made just : That her sons over seas in a rally of praise may behold a thrice vitalised Britain, Ashine with the light of the doing of right : at the gates of the Futiue in trust
THE EMPTY PURSE-
A BERUON TO OITB LATER PBODIQAL BON
Thou, run to the dry on this wayside bank. Too plainly of all the propellers bereft 1
Quenched youth, and is that thy purse? Even such limp slough as the snake has left Slack to the gale upon spikes of whin. For cast-off coat of a life gone blank. In its frame of a grin at the seeker, b thine ; And thine to crave and to curse Tlie aweet thing once within.
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THE EMPTY PURSE
Accuse him : some devil committed the theft. Which leaves of the portly a skin. No more ; of the weighty a whine.
Pursue him : and first, to be sure of bb track, Over devious ways that have led to this.
In the stream's consecutive line.
Let memory lead thee back To where waves Morning her fleur-de-lys, Unflushed at the front of the roseate door Unopened yet : never shadow there
Of a Tartarus lighted by Dia
For souls whose cry is, alack t An ivory cradle rocks, apeep Through his eyelashes' laugh, a breathing pearl. There the young chief of the animals wore A likeness to heavenly hosts, unaware Of his love of himself ; with the hours at leap. In a dingle away from a rutted highroad. Around him the earliest throstle and merle, Our human smile between milk and sleep.
Effervescent of Nature he crowed. Fair was that season ; furl over furl The banners of blossom ; a dancing floor This earth ; very angels the clouds ; and fair Thou on the tablets of forehead and breast : Careless, a centre of vigilant care. Thy mother kisses an infant curl. The room of the toys was a boundless nest,
A kingdom the field of the games,
Till entered the craving for more.
And the worshipped small body bad aims. A good little idol, as records attest. When they tell of him lightly appeased in a scream By sweets and caresses : he gave but sign lliat the heir of a purse-plumped dominant race. Accustomed to plenty, not dumb would pine. Almost magician, his earliest dream
Was lord of the unpossessed
For a look ; himself and his chase.
As on puffs of a wind at whirl.
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0 THE EMPTY PURSE
Made one in the wink of a gleam.
She kisses a locket curl, She conjures to vision a cherub face.
When her butterfly counted his day
All meadow and flowers, mishap
Derided, and taken for play
The fling of an urchin's cap. When her butterfly showed him an eaglet bom.
For preying too heedlessly bred.
What a. heart clapped in thee then I
With what fuller colours of mom ! And high to the uttermost heavens it flew,
Swift as on poet's pen.
It flew to be wedded, to wed
The mystery scented around :
Issue of flower and dew,
Issue of light and sound :
Thinner than either ; a thread
Spun of the dream they threw
To kindle, allure, evade. It ran the sea-wave, the garden's dance. To the forest's dark heart down a dappled glade ;
Led on by a perishing glance,
By a twinkle's eternd waylaid. Woman, the name was, when she took form ; Sheaf of the wonders of life. She fled. Close imaged ; she neared, far seen. How she made Palpitate earth of the living and dead I Did she not show thee the world designed Solely for loveliness? Nested warm, The day was the morrow in flight. And for thee. She muted the discords, tuned, refined ; Drowned sharp edges beneath her cloak. Eye of the waters, and throb of the tree. Sliding on radiance, winging from shade. With her witch-whisper o'er mins, in reeds, Rhe fULnir low the snnir nf her nromiqp Hf>ln.ved •
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THE EMPTY PURSE
Shone she a lure of the hooey-bag swarm, Most was her beam on the knightly : she led For the honours of manhood more than the prize ;
Waved her magnetical yoke
Whither the warrior bled.
Ere to the bower o( sighs. And shy of her secrets she was ; under deeps Plunged at the breath of a thirst that woke The dream in the cave where the Dreaded sleeps.
Away over heaven the young heart flew. And caught many lustres, till some one said (Or was it the thought into hearing grew?},
Not thou cu commoner men I
Thy stature puffed and it swayed.
It stiffened to royal-erect ;
A brassy trumpet brayed ;
A whiHing seized thy head ;
The vision of beauty was flecked.
Note well the how and the when.
The thing that prompted and sped.
Tbereanon the keen passions clapped wing,
Fixed eye, and the world was prey. No simple world of thy greenblade Spring,
Nor world of thy flowerfui prime
On the topmost Orient peak
Above a yet vaporous day.
Flesh was it, breast to beak : A four-walled windowless world without ray. Only darkening jets on a river of slime, Where harsh over music as woodland jay,
A voice chants. Woe to the weak I
And along an insatiate feast,
Women and men are one
In the cup transforming to beast. Ma^n worship they paid to their sun. Lord of the Purse I Behold him climb.
Stalked ever such figure of fun For monarch in great-grin paatomimef See now the heart dwindle, the frame distend ; The soul to its anchorite cavern retreat.
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THE EMPTY PUBSE
By serpent Apollyon blest : His plea in apology, blindfold Fool. A fool surcharged, propelled, imwamed ;
Not viler, you hear him protest : Of a popular countenance not incorrect. But deeds are the picture in essence, deeds
Paint him the hooved aod homed.
Despite the poor pother he pleads,
And his look of a nation's elect.
We have him, our quarry confessed I
And scan him : the features inspect
Of that bestial multiform : cry. Corroborate I, 0 Samian Sage 1 •
The book of thy wisdom, proved
On me, its last hieroglyph page.
Alive in the homed and hooved?
Hiou ! vill he make reply.
Thus has the plenary purse Done often : to do will engage Anew upon all of thy like, or worse. And now is thy deepest regret To be man, clean rescued from beast: From the grip of the Sorcerer, Gold, Celestially released.
But now from his cavernous hold.
Free may thy soul be set. As a child of the Death and the Life, to learn.
Refreshed by some bodily sweat.
The meaning of either in turn.
What issue may come of the two : — A mom beyond mornings, beyond all reach Of emotional arms at the stretch to enfold : A firmament passing our visible blue. To those having nought to reflect it, 'tis nought ; To those who are misty, 'tis mist on the beach From the billow withdrawing ; to those who see
Earth, our mother, in thought.
Her spirit it is, our key.
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I THE EMPTY PURSE
Ay, the Life and the Death are her words to us here.
Of one significance, pricking the blind.
This is thy gain now the surface is clear :
To read with a soul in the mirror of mind
Is man's chief lesson. — Thou smilest 1 1 preach I
Acid smiling, my friends, reveals Abysses within ; frigid preaching a street
Paved unconcernedly smooth
For the lecturer straight on his heeb,
Up and down a pohceman's beat ;
Bearing tonics not labelled to soothe. Thou hast a disgust of the sermon in rhyme. It is not attractive in being too chaste. The popular tale of adventure and crime Would equally sicken an overdone taste. So, then, onward. Philosophy, thoughtless to soothe, LJfts, if thou wilt, or there leaves thee supine.
Thy condition, good sooth, has so seeming of sweet ; It walks our first crags, it is flint for the tooth.
For the thirsts of our nature brine. But manful has met it, manful will meet. And think of thy privilege : supple with youth.
To have sight of the headlong swine,
Once fouling thee, jumping the dips 1
As the coin of thy purse poured out :
An animal's holiday past : And free of them thou, to begin a new bout ; To start a fresh hunt on a resolute blast: No more an imp-ridden to bournes of eclipse : Having knowledge to spur thee, a gift to compare; Rubbing shoulder to shoulder, as only the book Of the world can be read, by necessity urged. For witness, what blinkers are they who look From the state of the prince or the millionaire I
They see but the fish they attract.
The hungers on them converged ; And never the thought in the shell of the act.
Nor ever life's fangless mirth. But first, that the poisonous of thee be purged,
Go into thyself, strike Earth.
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THE EMPTY PURSE «
She is there, she is felt in a blow struck hard. Thou findest a pu^list countering quick, Cunning at drives where thy shutters are barred ; Not, after the studied professional trick. Blue-sealing ; she brightens the sight. Strike Earth, Antaeus, young giant, whom fortune tripa ! '
And thou com'st on a saving fact,
To nourish thy planted worth. Be it clay, flint, mud, or the rubble of chips. Thy roots have grasp in the stem-exact : The redemption of sinners deluded ! the last
Dry handful, that bruises and saves. To the comraon big heart are we bound right fast,
When our Mother admonishing nips
At the nakedness bare of a clout.
And we crave what the commonest craves.
This wealth was a fortress-wall. Under which grew our grim little beast-god stout; Self-worshipped, the foe, in di^■ision from all ; With crowds of illogical Christians, no doubt ;
Till the rescuing earthquake cracked.
Thus are we man made firm ;
Made warm by the numbers compact. We follow no longer a trumpet-snout.
At a trot where the hog is tracked.
Nor wriggle the way of the worm.
Thou wilt spare us the cynical pout At humanity : sign of a nature bechuried. No stenchy anathemas cast Upon Providence, women, the world. Distinguish thy tempers and trim thy wits. The purchased are things of the mart, not classed Among resonant types that have freely grown.
Thy knowledge of women might be surpassed : As any sad dog's of sweet flesh when he quits
The wayside wandering bone 1 No revilings of comrades as ingrates : thee The tempter, misleader, and criminal (screened
By laws yet barbarous) own.
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5 THE EMPTY PURSE
If some one performed Fiend's deputy.
He was for awhile the Fiend.
Still, nursing a passion to speak. As the punch-bowl does, in the moral vein.
When the ladle has finished its leak. And the vessel is loquent of nature's inane.
Hie where the demagogues roar Like a Phalaris bull, with the victim's force:
Hurrah to their jolly attack
On a City that smokes of the Plain ; *
A city of sin's death-dyes.
Holding revel of worms in a corse;
A city of malady sore.
Over-ripe for the big doom's crack :
A city of hymnical snore ;
Connubial truths and lies
Demanding an instant divorce.
Clean as the bright from the black. It were well for thy system to sermonize. There are giants to slay, and they call for their Jack.
Then up stand thou in the midst :
Thy good grain out of thee thresb.
Hand upon heart : relate
What things thou legally didst
For the Archseducer of flesh. Omitting the murmurs at women and fate.
Confess thee an instrument armed
To be snare of our wanton, oiur weak,
Of all by the sensual charmed. For once shall repentance be done by the tongue:
Speak, though execrate, speak
A word on grandmotherly Laws
Giving rivers of gokl to our young,
In the days of their hungers impure ;
To furnish them beak and claws.
And make them a banquet's lure.
Thou the example, saved Miraculously by this poor skin I
Thereat let the Purse be waved : The snake-slough sick of the snaky sin :
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THE EMPTY PURSE 447
A devil, if devil as devil behaved
Ever, thou knowest, look thou but in,
Where he shivers, a culprit fettered and shaved ;
O a bird stripped of feather, a fish dipped of fin I
And commend for a washing the torrents of wrath, Whieh hurl at the foe of the dearest men prize
Rough-rolling boulders and froth.' Gigantical enginery they can command, For the crushing of enemies not of great size :
But hold to thy desperate stand. Men's right of bequeathing their all to their own (With little regard for the creatures they squeezed) ■ "Dieir mill and mill-water and nether mill-stone Hed fast to their infant ; lo, this is the last Of their hungers, by prudent devices appeased. The law they decree is their ultimate slave ; Wherein we perceive old Voracity glassed. It works from their dust, and it reeks of their grave. Point them to greener, though Journals be guns ; To brotherly fields under fatherly skies ; Where the savage still primitive learns of a debt He has owed since he drummed on his belly for war; And how for his giving, the more will he get ; For trusting his fellows, leave friends round his sons : mi they see, with the gape of a startled surprise. Their adored tyrant-monster a brute to abhor. The sun of their system a father of flies I
So, for such good hope, take their scourge unashamed; 'Tis the portion of them who civilize.
Who speak the word novel and true : How the brutish antique of our springs may be tamed. Without loss of the strength that should push us to flower; How the God of old time will act Satan of new. If we keep him not straight at the higher God aimed ; For whose habitation within us we scour This house of our life ; where our bitterest pains Are those to eject the Infernal, who heaps Mire on the soul. Take stripes or chains;
Grip at thy standard reviled.
i
i THE EMPTY PURSE
And what if our body be dashed from the steeps? Our spoken in protest remains. A young generation reaps.
The young generation I ah, there is the child
Of our souls down the Ages ! to bleed for it, proof
That souls we have, with our senses filed.
Our shuttles at thread ot the woof.
May it be braver than ours, To encounter the rattle of hostile bolts. To look on the rising of Stranger Powers, May it know how the mind in expansion revolts From a nursery Past with dead letters aloof. And the piping to stupor of Precedents shun. In a field where the forefather print of the hoof Is not yet overgrassed by the watering hours. And should prompt us to Change, as to promise of sun
Till brain-rule splendidly towers. For that large light we have laboured and tramped Through forests and bogland, still to perceive
Our animate morning stamped
With the lines of a sombre eve.
A timorous thing ran the innocent hind.
When the wolf was the hypocrite fang under hood,
The snake a lithe lurker up sleeve.
And the lion effulgently ramped. Then our forefather hoof did its work in the wood.
By right of the better in kind. But now will it breed yon bestial brood Three-fold thrice over, if bent to bind,
As the healthy in chains with the sick, Unto despot usage our issuing mind. It signifies battle or death's dull knell. Precedents icily written on high Challenge the Tentatives hot to rebel. Our Mother, who speeds her bloomful quick For the march, reads which the impediment well. She smiles when of sapience is their boast. 0 loose of the tug between blood run dry
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THE EMPTY PURSE 449
And blood ninning flame may our offspring run I * May brain democratic be king of the host 1 Less then shall the volumes of History tell Of the step in progression, the slip in relapse. That counts us a sand-slack inch hard won Beneath an oppressive incumbent perhaps.
Let the senile lords in a parchment sky.
And the generous turbulents drunken of room.
Their battle of instincts put by,
A moment examine this field : On a Roman street cast thoughtful eye. Along to the mounts from the bog-forest weald. It merits a glance at our history's maps, To see across Britain's old shaggy unshorn. Through the Parties in strife internecine, foot The ruler's close-reckoned direct to the mark. From the head ran the vanquisher's orderly route. In the stride of his forts through the tangle and dark.
From the head runs the paved firm way for advance,
And we shoulder, we wrangle ! The light on us shed
Shows dense beetle blackness in swarm, lurid Chance,
The Goddess of gamblers, above. From the head.
Then when it worked for the birth of a star
Fraternal with heaven's in beauty and ray,
Sprang the Acropolis. Ask what crown
Comes of our tides of the blood at war.
For men to bequeath generations down !
And ask what thou wast when the Purse was brimmed :
What high'bounding ball for the Gods at play :
A Conservative youth I who the cream-bowl skimmed.
Desiring affairs to be left as they are.
So, thou takest Youth's natural place in the fray,
As a Tentative, combating Peace,
Our lullaby word for decay. —
There will come an immediate decree In thy mind for the opposite party's decease.
If he bends not an instant knee. Expunge it : extinguishing counts poor gain.
And accept a mild word of police . —
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0 THE EMPTY PURSE
Be manneriy, measured ; refrain From the puffings of him of the bagpipe chedcs. Our political, even as the merchant main,
A temperate gale requires
For the ship that haven seeks ; Neither God of the winds nor hb bellowsy squires.
Then observe the antagonist, con His reasons for rocking the lullaby word. You stand on a different stage of the stairs. He fought certain battles, yon senile lord. In the strength of thee, feel his bequest to his heirs. We are now on his inches of ground hard won, For a perch to a flight o'er his resting fence.
Does it knock too hard at thy head if I say.
That Time is both father and son ? Tough lesson, when senses are floods over sense I —
Discern the paternal of Now
As the Then of thy present tense.
You may puU as you will either way.
You can never be other than one.
So, be filial. Giants to slay
Demand knowing eyes in their Jack.
There are those whom we push from the path with respect
Bow to that elder, though seeing him bow
To the backward as well, for a thunderous back
Upon thee. In his day he was not all wrong.
Unto some foundered zenith he strove, and was wrecked.
He scrambled to shore with a worship of shore.
The Future he sees as the slippery murk ;
The Past as his doctrinal library lore.
He stands now the rock to the wave's wild wash.
Yet thy lumpish antagonist once did work
Heroical, one of our strong. His Kold to retain and his dross reject.
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THE EMPTY PURSE 451
Lest rhetoric moonily waft Whither horrid activities snare. Rhetoric, juice for the mob Despising more luminous grape. Oft at its fount has it laughed In the cataracts rolling for rape Of a Reason left ^gle to sob 1
Tia known how the permanent never is writ In blood of the passions : mercurial they. Shifty their issue : stir not that pit To the game' our brutes best play.
But with rhetoric loose, can we check man's brute T Assemblies of men on their legs invoke Excitement for wholesome diversion : there shoot Electrical sparks between their dry thatch And thy waved tprch, more to kindle than light. 'Tis instant between you : the trick of a catch
(To match a Batrachian croak ') Will thump them a frenzy or fun in their veins. Then may it be rather the well-worn joke Thou repeatest, to stop conflagration, and write Penance for rhetoric. Strange will it seem. When thou readest that form of thy homage to brains I
For the secret why demagogues fail. Though they carry hot mobs to the red extreme.
And knock out or knock in the nail
(We will rank them as flatly sincere.
Devoutly detesting a wrong. Engines o'ercharged with our human steam). Question thee, seething amid the throng. And ask, whether Wisdom is bom of blood-heat ; Or of other than Wisdom comes victory here ; — Aught more than the banquet and roundelay, That is closed with a terrible terminal wail,
A retributive black ding-dong? And ask of thyself : This furious Yea
Of a speech I thump to repeat,
la the cause I would have prevail.
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THE EMPTY PURSE
For seed of a nourishing wheat,
Is it accepted o/ Son^ t
Does it sound to the mind through the ear. Right sober, pure sane? has it disciplined feet?
Thou wilt find it a test severe ;
Unerring whatever the theme. Rings it for Reason a melody clear.
We have bidden old Chaos retreat ;
We have called on Creation to bear ; All forces that make us are one full stream. Simple islander 1 thus may the spirit in verse. Showing it^ practical value and weight. Pipe to thee clear from the Empty Purse, Lead thee aloft to that high estate. —
The test is conclusive, I deem :
It embraces or mortally bites.
We have then the key-note for debate :
A Senate that sits on the heights
Over discords, to shape and amend.
And no singer is needed to serve
The musical God, my friend. Needs only his law on a. sensible nerve :
A law that to Measure invites,
Forbidding the passions contend.
Is it accepted of Song ?
And if then the blunt answer be Nay, Dislink thee sharp from the ramping honje, Slaves of the Goddess of hoar-old sway.
The Queen of delirious rites,' Queen of ^ose issueless mobs, that rend For frenzy the strings of a fruitful accord. Pursuing insensate, seething in throng. Their wild idea to its ashen end. Off to their Phrypa, shriek and gong. Shorn from their fellows, behold them wend I
But thou, should the answer ring Ay, Hast warrant of seed for thy word : The musical God is nigh To inspirit and temper, tune it, and ste^
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THE EMPTY PURSE
Through the shoals : b it worthy of Song,
There are souls all woman to hear.
Woman to bear and renew. For he is the Master of Measure, and weighs,
Broad aa the arms of his blue.
Fine as the web of his rays. Justice, whose voice is a melody clear, The one sure life for the numbered long.
From him are the brutal and vain.
The vile, the excessive, out-thrust : He points to the God on the upmost throne :
He is the saver of grain.
The sifter of spirit from dust. He, Harmony, tells how to Measure pertain
The virilities ; Measure alone
Has votaries rich in the male:
Fathers embracing no cloud,
Sowing no harvestlesa main : Alike by the fiesh and the spirit endowed To create, to perpetuate ; woo, win, wed ; Send progeny streaming, have earth for their ov Over-run the insensates, disperse with a puff
Simulacra, though solid they sail.
And seem such imperial stuff :
Yes, the living divide off the dead.
Then thou with thy furies outgrown, Not as Cybele's beast will thy head lash tail So prwter-determinedly thermonous. Nor thy cause be an Attis far fled.' Thou under stress of the strife Shalt hear for sustainment supreme The cry of the conscience of Life : Keep the young generations in hail, And bequeath them no tumbled house I
There hast thou the sacred theme. Therein the inveterate spur, Of the Innermost. See her '" one blink In vision past eyeballs. Not thee She cares for, but us. Follow her.
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iQ C
1 THE EMPTY PURSE
Follow her, and thou wilt not sink.
With thy soul the Life espouse : Thia Life of the visible, audible, ring With thy love tight about ; and no death will be ;
The name be an empty thing,
And woe a forgotten old trick : And battle will come as a challenge to drink ; As a warrior's wound each transient sting. She leads to the Uppermost link by link ; Exacts but vision, desires not vows. Above us the singular number to see ; The plural warm round us ; ourself in the thick, A dot or a stop : that is our task ; Her lesson in figured arithemetic, For the letters of Life behind its mask ; Her flower-like look under fearful brows.
As for thy special ease, O my friend, one must think Massilia's victim, who held the carouse
For the length of a carnival year. Knew worse : but the wretch had his opening choice. For thee, by our law, no alternatives were : Thy fall was assured ere thou camest to a voice.
He cancelled the ravaging Plague,
With the roll of his fat off the cliff." Do thou with thy lean as the weapon of ink. Though they call thee an angler who fishes the vague
And catches the not too pink. Attack one as murderous, knowing thy cause Is the cause of community. Iterate, Iterate, iterate, harp on the trite : Our preacher to win is the supple in stiff : Yet always in measure, with bearing polite : The manner of one that would expiate
His share in grandmotheriy Laws,
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THE EMPTY PURSE 45t
Repentance b proved, forgiveness is earned. And 'tis bony : denied thee thy succulent half Of the parable's blessing, to swineherd returned : A Sermon thy slice of the Scriptural calf !
By my f^th, there is feasting to come,
Not rfie less, when our Earth we have seen Beneath and on surface, her deeds and designs : Who gives us the man-loving Nazarenc, The martyrs, the poets, the com and the vines. By my faith in the head, she has wonders in loom ; Revelations, delights. I can hear a faint crow Of the cock of fresh mornings, far, far, yet distinct;
As down the new shafting of mines,
A cry of the metally gnome.
When our Earth we have seen, and have linked With the home of the Spirit to whom we unfold, Imprisoned humanity open will throw Its fortress gates, and the rivers of gold
For the congregate friendliness flow. Then the meaning of Earth in her children behold ; Glad eyes, frank hands, and a fellowship real : And laughter on lips, as the birds' outburst At the flooding of light. No robbery then The feast, nor a robber's abode the home. For a furnished model of our first den !
Nor Life as a stationed wheel ; Nor History written in blood or in foam. For vendetta of Parties in cursing accursed. The God in the conscience of multitudes feel.
And we feel deep to Earth at her heart,
We have her communion with men.
New ground, new skies for appeal. Yield into harness thy best and thy worst ; Away on the trot of thy servitude start. Through the rigours and joys and sustainments of air. If courage should falter, 'tis wholesome to kneel. Remember that well, for the secret with some, Who pray for no gift, hut have cleansing in prayer. And free from impurities tower-like stand. I promise not more, save that feasting will come To a mind and a body no longer inverstnl :
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3 THE EMPTY PURSE
The sense of large charity over the land.
Earth's wheaten of wisdom dispensed in the rough.
And a bell ringing thanks for a sustenance meal
Through the active machine : lean fare, But it carries a sparkle 1 And now enough,
And part we as conu-ades part. To meet again never or some day or soon.
Our season of drought is reminder rude : —
No later than yesternoon,
I looked on the horse of a cart.
By the wayside water-trough. How at every draught of his bride of thirst His nostrils widened ! The sight was good :
Food for us, food, such as first
Drew our thoughts to earth's lowly for food.
THE WARNING
We have seen mighty men ballooning high.
And in another moment bump the ground.
He falls ; and in his measurement is found
To count some inches o'er the common fry.
'Twas not enough to send him climbing sky,
Yet 'twas enough above his fellows crowned.
Had he less panted. Let his faithful hound
Bark at detractors. He may walk or lie.
Concerns it most ourselves, who with our gas —
This little Isle's insatiable greed
For Continents— filled to inflation burst
So do ripe nations into squalor pass.
When, driven as herds by their old pirate thirst.
They scorn the brain's wild search for virtuous li^t.
lom 'twas writ! wit, awled on fur.
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TRAFALGAR DAY 4J
If more than hands' and armsful be our share, Snatch we for substance we see vapours flit.' Have we not beard derision inBnite When old men play the youth to chase the snare? Let us be belted athletes, matched for foes, Or stand aloof, the great Benevolent, The Lord of Lands no Robber-birds annex. Where Justice holds the scales with pure intent ; Armed to support her sword ; — lest we compose That Chapter for the historic word on Wrecks.
TRAFALGAR DAY
He leads : we hear our Seaman's call
In the roll of battles won ; For he is Britain's Admiral
Till setting of her sun.
When Britain's life was in her ships.
He kept the sea as his own right ; And saved us from more fell eclipse
Than drops on day from blackest night. Again his battle spat the flame I
Again his victory flag men saw I At sound of Nelson's chieftain name,
A deeper breath did Freedom draw.
Each trusty captain knew his part :
They served as men, not marshalled kine : The pulses they of his great heart.
With heads to work his main design. Their Nelson's word, to beat the foe.
And spare the fall'n, before them shone. Good was the hour of blow for blow.
And clear their course while they fought on.
Behold the Envied vanward sweep ! — A day in mourning weeds adored !
Then Victory was wrought to weep ; Then sorrow crowned with laurel soared.
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AT THE CLOSE
A breezeless flag above a shroud All Britain was when wind and wave.
To make her, passing human, proud, Brought his last gift from o'er the grave [
Uprose the soul of htm a star
On that brave day of Ocean days : It rolled the smoke from Trafalgar
To darken Austerlitz ablaze. Are we the men of old, its light
Will point us under every sky The path he took ; and must we fight,
Our Nelson be our battle-cry I
He leads : we hear our Seaman's call
In the roll of battles won ; For he is BritMn's Admiral
Till setting of her sun.
AT THE CLOSE *
To Thee, dear God of Mercy, both appeal.
Who straightway sound the call to arms. Thou know'sl
And that black spot in each embattled host,
Spring of the blood-stream, later wilt reveal.
Now is it red artillery and white steel ;
Till on a day will ring the victor's boast,
lliat 'tis Thy chosen towers uppermost,
Where Thy rejected grovels under heel.
So in all times of man's descent insane
To brute, did strength and craft combining strike,
Even as a God of Armies, his fell blow.
But at the close he entered Thy domain,
Dear God of Mercy, and if lion-like
He tore the fall'n, the Eternal was his Foe.
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•ATKINS'
Yonder *b the man with his life in his hand, Legs on the march for whatever the land. Or to the slaughter, or to the maimiog. Getting the dole of a dog for pay. Laureb he clasps in the words 'duty done,' England his heart under every sun : —
Exquisite humour I that gives him a naming Base to the ear as an ass's bray.
THE VOYAGE OF THE 'OPHIR' •
Men of our race, we send you one Round whom Victoria's holy name Is halo from the sunken sun Of her grand Summer's day aflame. The heart of your loved Motherland, To them she loves as her own blood. This Flower of Ocean bears in hand. Assured of gift as good.
Forth for our Southern shores the fleet Which crowns a nation's wisdom steams, That there may Briton Briton greet. And stamp as fact Imperial dreams. Across the globe, from sea to sea. The long smoke-pennon trails above. Writes over sky how wise will be The Power that trusts to love.
A love that springs from heart and brain In union gives for ripest fruit The concord Kings and States in vain Have sought, who played the lofty brute, And fondly deeming they possessed. On force relied, and found it break ; That truth once scored on Britain's breast Now keeps her mind awake.
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THE VOYAGE OF THE * OPHIR '
Australian, Canadian, To tone old veins with streams of youth. Our trust be on the best in man Henceforth, and we shall prove that truth. Prove to a world of brows down-bent That in the Britain thus endowed. Imperial means beneficent.
And strength to service vowed.
OCTOBER 21, 1905
The hundred years have passed, and he Whose name appeased a nation's fears. As with a hand laid over sea ; To thunder through the foeman's ears Defeat before his blast of fire ; Lives in the immortality lliat poets dream and noblest souls desire.
Never did nation's need evoke Hero like him for aid, the while A continent was cannon-smoke Or peace in slavery : tliis one Isle Reflecting Nature : this one man Her sea>hound and her mortal stroke. With war-worn body aye in battle's van.
And do we Jove him well, as well As he hia country, we may greet. With hand on steel, our passing bell Nigh on the swing, for prelude sweet To the music heard when his last breath Hung on its ebb beside the knell. And Victory in his ear sang gracious Death.
Ah, day of glory ! day of tears I Day of a people bowed as one I Behold across those hundred years The lion flash of gun at gun :
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OCTOBER 21, 1905
Our bitter pride ; our love bereaved ;
What pall of cloud o'ercame our sun
That day, to bear his wreath, the end achieved.
Joy that no more with murder's frown The ancient rivals bark apart. Now Nelson to brave France is shown A hero after her own heart : And he now scanning that quick race. To whom through life his glove was thrown. Would know a sister spirit to embrace.
THE CALL *
Under what apell are we debased
By fears for our inviolate Isle, Whose record is of dangers faced
And flung to heel with even smile? Is it a vaster force, a subtler guile?
Tbey say Exercitus designs To match the famed Sabipotent '
Where on her sceptre she reclines ; Awake : but were a slumber sent By guilty gods, more fell bis foul intent.
The subtler web, the vaster foe.
Well may we meet when drilled for deeds ; But in these days of wealth at Bow,
A word of breezy warning breeds The pained responses seen in lakeside reeds.
We fain would stand contemplative,
All innocent as meadow grass ; In human goodness fain believe. Believe a cloud is formed to pass ; Its shadows chase with draughts of hippocras.
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THE CALL
Others have gone ; the way they went Sweet sunny now, and safe our nest.
Humanity, enlightenment. Against the warning bum protest : Let the world bear tbat we know what is best.
So do the beatific speak ;
Yet have they ears, and eyes as well ; And if not with a paler cheek.
They feel the shivers in them dwell, Tbat something of a dubious future tell.
For huge possessions reader slack The power we need to hold them fast;
Save when a quickened heart shall make
Our people one, to meet what blast
May blow from temporal heavens overcast.
Our people one ! Nor they with strength
Dependent on a single arm : Alert, and braced the whole land's length. Rejoicing in their manhood's charm For friend or foe ; to succour, not to harm.
Has ever weakness won esteem ? Or counts it as a prized ally ? They who have read in History deem It ranks among the slavish fry, Whose claim to live justiciary Fates deny.
It can not be declared we are
A nation till from end to end The land can show such front to war As bids a crouching foe expend His ire in air, and preferably be friend.
We dreading him, we do him wrong;
For fears discolour, fears invite. Like him, our task is to be strong ; Unlike him, claiming not by might To snatch an envied treasure as a right.
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THE CALL
So may a stouter brotherhood At home be signalled over sea
For righteous, and be understood, Nay, welcomed, when 'tis shown that we All duties have embraced in being free.
This Britain slumbering, she is rich ;
Lies placid as a cradled child ; At times wi^ an uneasy twitch.
That tells of dreams unduly wild. Shall she be with a foreign drug defiled?
The grandeur of her deeds recall ; Look on her face so kindly fair : This Britain 1 and were she to fall, Mankind would breathe a harsher air. The nations miss a light of leading rare. 1908.
IL Y A CENT ANS •
That march of the funereal Past behold ;
How Glory sat on Bondage for its throne ; How men, like dazzled insects, through the mould
Still worked their way, ttnd bled to keep their own.
We know them, as they strove and wrought and yearned ;
Their hopes, their fears ; what page of Life they wist : At whiles their vision upon us was turned.
Baffled by shapes limned loosely on thick mist.
Beneath the fortress bulk of Power they bent
Blunt heads, adoring or in shackled hate. All save the rebel hymned him ; and it meant
A world submitting to incarnate Fate.
From this he drew fresh appetite for sway, And of it fell : whereat was chorus raised.
How surely shall a mad ambition pay Dues to Humanity, erewhile amazed.
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1 IL Y A CENT ANS
Twaa dreamed by some the deluge would enaue. So trembling was the tension long constrained;
A spirit of faith was in the chosen few. That steps to the millenmum had been gained.
But mainly the rich business of the hour. Their sight, made blind by urgency of blood,
Embraced ; and facts, the passing sweet or sour. To them were solid things that nought withstood.
Their tacts are going headlong on the tides. Like commas on a line of History's page ; .Nor that which once they took for Truth abides, Save in the form of youth enlarged from age.'
Meantime give ear to woodland notes around, Look on our Earth full-breasted to our sun :
So was it when their poets heard the sound. Beheld the scene : in them our days are one.
What figures will be shown the century hence?
What lands intact ? We do but know that Power From piety divorced, though seen immense,
Shall sink on envy of the humblest flower.
Our cry for cradled Peace, while men are still The three-parts brute which smothers the divine.
Heaven answers : Guard it with forethoughtful will, Or buy it ; all your gains from War resign,
A land, not indefensibly alarmed.
May see, unwarned by hint of friendly gods.
Between a hermit crab at all points armed. And one without a shell, decisive odds.
IRELAND
Fire in her ashes Ireland feels And in her veins a glow of heat.
To her the lost old time appeals For resurrection, good to greet :
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IRELAND 465
Not as a shape with spectral eyes,
But humanly maternal, young In all that quickens pride, and wise
To speak the best her bards have sung.
You read her as a land distraught.
Where bitterest rebel passiona seethe. Look with a core of heart in thought.
For so is known the truth beneath. She came to you a loathing bride.
And it has been no happy bed. Believe in her as friend, allied
By bonds as close as those who wed.
Her speech is held for hatred's cry;
Her silence tells of treason hid : Were it her aim to burst the tie.
She sees what iron laws forbid. Excess of heart obscures from view
A head as keen as yours to count. Trust her, that she may prove her true
In links whereof is love the fount.
May she not call herself her own ?
That is her cry, and thence her spits Of fury, thence her graceless tone
At justice given in bits and bits. The limbs once raw with gnawing chains
Will fret at silken when God's beams Of Freedom beckon o'er the plains
From mounts that show it more than dreams.
She, generous, craves your generous dole ;
That will not rouse the crack of doom. It ends the blundering past control
Simply to give her elbow-room. Her offspring feel they are a race.
To be a nation is their claim ; Yet stronger bound in your embrace
Than when the tie was but a name.
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IRELAND
A nation she, and formed to charm,
With heart for heart and bands all round. No longer England's broken arm.
Would England know where strength is found. And strength to-day is England's need ;
To-morrow it may be for both Salvation : heed the portents, heed
The warnings ; free the mind from sloth.
Too long the pair have danced in mud,
With no advance from sun to sun. Ah, what a bomiding course of blood
Has England with an Ireland one ! Behold yon shadow cross the downs.
And off away to yeasty seas. Ughtly will fly old rancour's frowns
When solid with high heart stand these.
DECEMBEB 9, 1608: DECEMBER 9, 1908
What splendour of imperial station man,
The Tree of Life, may reach when, rooted fast.
His branching stem points way to upper dr
And skyward still aspires, we see in hira
Who sang for us the Archangelical host.
Made Morning, by old Darkness urged to the abyss;
A voice that down three centuries onward rolls ;
Onward will roll while lives our English tongue.
In the devout of music unsurpassed
Since Piety won Heaven's ear on Israel's harp.
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MILTON 46
Beside his peers to raise the voice for Freedom :
Nor has fair Uberty a champion armed
To meet on heights or plains the Sophister
Throughout the ages, equal to this man.
Whose spirit breathed high Heaven, and drew thence
The ethereal sword to smite.
Were England sunk Beneath the shifting tides, her heart, her brain. The smile she wears, the faith she holds, her best. Would live full-toned in the grand delivery Of his cathedral speech : an utterance Almost divine, and such as Hellespont, Crashing its breakers under Ida's frown. Inspired : ' yet worthier he, whose instrument Was by comparison the coarse reed-pipe ; Whereof have come the marvellous harmonies. Which, with his lofty theme, of infinite range. Abash, entrance, exalt.
Wc need him now. This latest Age in repetition cries : For Belial, the adroit, b in our midst ; Mammon, more swoln to squeeze the slavish sweat From hopeless toil : and overshadowingly (Aggrandized, monstrous in bis grinning mask Of hypocritical Peace,) inveterate Moloch Remains the great example.
Homage to him His debtor band, innumerable as waves Running all golden from an eastern sun. Joyfully render, in deep reverence Subscribe, and as they speak their Milton's name, Rays of his glory on their foreheads bear.
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ODES IN CX)NTRIBtrnON TO THE SONG OF FRENCH HISTORY
THE REVOLUTION *
Not yet had History's Aetna smoked the skies. And low the Gallic Giantesa lay enchained, While overhead in ordered set and rise Her kingly crowns immutably defiled ; EfFulgent on funereal piled Across the vacant heavens, and distrained Her body, mutely, even as earth, to bear ; Despoiled the tomb of hope, her mouth of air.
Through marching scores of winters racked she tay.
Beneath a hoar-frost's brilliant crust.
Whereon the jewelled flies that drained
Her breasts disported in a glistering spray ;
She, the land's fount of fruits, enclosed with dust;
By good and evil angels fed, sustained
In part to curse, in part to pray,
Sucking the dubious rumours, till men saw
The throbs of her charged heart before the Just,
So worn the harrowed surface had become :
And still they deemed the dance above was Law,
Amort all passion in a rebel dumb.*
Then, on the unanticipated day,
Earth heaved, and rose a veinous mound
To roar of the underfloods ; and off it sprang,
Ravishing as red wine in woman's form,
A splendid Maenad, she of the delirious laugh.
Her body twisted flames with the smoke-cap crowned ;
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THE REVOLUTION 4
She of the Bacchic foot ; the challenger to the fray,
Bewitchment for the embrace ; who sang, who sang
Intoxication to her swarm.
Revolved them, hair, voice, feet, in her carmagnole,
As with a stroke she snapped the Royal staff,
Dealt the awaited blow on gilt decay
(0 ripeness of the time I O Retributioo sure.
If but our vital lamp illume us to endure !)
And, like a glad releasing of her soul.
Sent the word Liberty up to meet the midway blue.
Her bridegroom in descent to her ; and they joined.
In the face of men they joined : attest it true,
The million witnesses, that she.
For ages lying beside the mole,
Was on the unanticipated miracle day
Upraised to midway heaven and, as to her goal,
Enfolded, ere the Immaculate knew
What Lucifer of the Mint had coined
His bride's adulterate currency
Of burning love corrupt of an infuriate hate ;
She worthy, she unworthy ; that one day his mate :
His mate for that one day of the unwritten deed.
Read backward on the hoar-frost's brilliant crust;
Beneath it read.
Athirst to kiss, athiret to slay, she stood,
A radiance fringed with grim affright;
For them that hungered, she was nourisliing food,
For those who sparkled. Night.
Read in her heart, and how before the Just
Her doings, her misdoings, plead.
Down on her leap for him the young Angelical broke
To husband a resurgent France :
From whom, with her dethroning stroke.
Dishonour passed ; the dalliance,
That is occasion's yea or nay.
In issues for the soul to pay,
Discarded ; and the cleft 'twi.\t deed and word.
The sinuous lie which warbles the sweet bird,
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) THE REVOLUTION
Wherein we see old Darkness peer,
Cold Dissolution beck, she had flung hence ;
And hence the talons and the beak of prey ;
Hence all the lure^to silken swine
Thronging the troughs of indolence ;
With every sleek convolvement serpentine;
With pride in elfin arta to veil an evil leer.
And bid a goatfoot trip it like a fay.
He clasped in this revived, uprisen Prance,
A valorous dame, of countenance
The lightning's upon cloud : unlit as yet
On brows and lips the lurid shine
Of seas in the night-wind'a whirl ; unstirred
Her pouch of the centuries' injuries compressed ;
The shriek that tore the world as yet unheard :
Earth's animate full flower she looked, intense
For worship, wholly given him, fair
Adoring or desiring; in her bright jet,
Earth's crystal spring to sky : Karth's warrior Best
To win Heaven's Pure up that midway
We vision for new ground, where sense
And spirit are one for the further flight ; breast-bare,
Bare-hmbed ; nor graceless gleamed her disarray
In scorn of the seductive insincere,
But martially nude for hot Bellona's play.
And amorous of the loftiest in her view.
She sprang from dust to drink of.earth's cool dew. The breath of swaying grasses share. Mankind embrace, their weaklings rear, At wrfHit)(> with (h* tvrftnnip ittmrnr-
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THE EEVOLUnON 471
Between the Pains and Pleasures ; warned of both. Of either aided on their hard ascent. Now when she looked, with love's benign delight After great ecstasy, along the plains, What foulest impregnation of her sight Transformed the scene to multitudinous troops Of human sketches, quaver-figures, bent, As were they winter sedges, broken hoops, Dry udders, vineless poles, worm-eaten posts. With features like the flowers defaced by deluge rains T Recked she that some perverting devil had limned Earth's proudest to spout scorn of the Maker's hand. Who could a day behold these deathly hosts. And see, decked, graced, and delicately trimmed, A ribanded and gemmed elected few. Sanctioned, of milk and honey starve the land : — Like melody in flesh, its pleasant game Olympianwise perform, cloak but the shame : B^utiful statures ; hideous.
By Christian contrast ; pranked with golden chains, And flexile where is manhood straight ; Mortuaries where warm should beat The brotherhood that keeps blood sweet : Who dared in cantique impious Proclaim the Just, to whom was due Cathedral gratitude in the pomp of state. For that on those lean outcasts hung the sucker Pains, On these dect the swelling Pleasures grew. Surely a devil's land when that meant death for each ! Fresh from the breast of Earth, not thus, With all the body's life to plump the leech. Is Nature's way, she knew. The abominable scene Spat at the skies ; and through her veins, To cloud celestially sown. Ran venom of what nourishment Her dark sustainer subterrene Supplied her, stretched supine on the rack. Alive in ^e shrewd nerves, the seething brains. Under derisive revels, prone
As one clamped fast, with the interminable senseless blent.
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Now woa her face white waves in the tempest's sharp
flame-blink ; Her skies shot black. Now was it visioned i of amy to drink Of earth's cool dew, and through the vines Frolic in pearly laughter with her young, Watehing the healthful, natural, happy signs Where hands of lads and m^ds like tendrils clung. After their siy shy ventures from the leaf. And promised bunches. Now it seemed The worid was one malarious mire. Crying for purification r chief lliis land of France. It seemed A duteous desire To drink of life's hot flood, and the crimson streamed.
She drank what makes man demon at the draught.
Her skies lowered black.
Her lover flew.
There swept a shudder over men.
Her heavenly lover fled her, and she laughed.
For laughter was her spirit's weapon then.
The Infernal rose uncalled, he with his crew.
As mighty thews burst manacles, she went mad :
Her heart a flaring torch usurped her wits.
Such enemies of her next-drawn breath she had 1
To tread her down in her live grave beneath
Their dancing floor sunned blind by the Royal wreath,
They ringed her steps with crafty prison pits.
Without they girdled her, made nest within.
There ramped the lion, here entrailed the snake.
They forcM the cup to her lips when she drank blood ;
Believing it, in the mother's mind at strain.
In the mother's fears, and in young Liberty's wail
Alarmed, for her encompassed children's sake.
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The sole sure way to save her priceless bud. Wherewith, when power had gifted her to prevail, Vengeance appeared as logically akin. Insanely rational they ; she rationally insane. And in compute of sin, was hers the appealing sin.
Amid the plash of scariet mud
Stained at the mouth, drunk with our common air.
Not lack of love was her defect ;
"Hie Fury mourned and raged and bled for France ;
Breathing from exultation to despair
At every wild-winged hope struck by mischance.
Soaring at each faint gleam o'er her abyss.
Heard still, to be heard while France shall stand erect,
The frontier march she piped her sons, for where
Her crouching outer enemy camped.
Attendant on the deadlier inner'a hiss.
She piped her sons the frontier march, the wine
Of martial music, History's cherished tune ;
And they, the saintliest labourers that aye
Dropped sweat on soil for bread, took arms and tramped ;
High-breasted to match men or elements.
Or Fortune, harsh schoolmistress with the undrilled :
War's ragged pupils ; many a wavering line,
Tom from the dear fat soil of champaigns hopefully
tiUed, Tom from the motherly bowl, the homely spoon. To jest at famine, ply
The novel scythe, and stand to it on the field ; lie in the furrows, rain-clouds for then- tents; Fronting the red artillery straighten spine; Buckle the shiver at sight of comrades strewn ; Over an empty platter affect the merrily filled ; Die, if the multiple hazards around said die ; Downward measure a foeman mightily sized ; Laugh at the legs that would run for a life despised ; Lyrical on into death's red roaring jaw-gape, steeled Gaily to take of the foe hia lesson, and give reply. Cheerful apprentices, they shall be masters soon 1
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Lo, where hurricaae flocks of the North-wind rattle their
thunder Loud through a night, and at dawa cornea change to the
great South-west, Hounds are the hounded in clouds, waves, forests, inverted
the race: Lo, in the day's young beams the colossal invading pursuets Burst upon rocks and were foam ; Ridged up a torrent crest ;
Crumbled to ruin, still gazing a glacial wonder ; Turned shamed feet toe to heel on their track at a panic pace. Yesterday's clarion cock scudded hen of the invalid comb ; They, the triumphant tonant towering upper, were under ; They, violators of home, dared hope an inviolate home ; They that had stood for the stroke were the vigorous hewers ; Quick as the trick of the wrist with the rapier, they the
pursuers. Heavens and men amazed heard the arrogant crying for grace ; Saw the once hearth-reek rabble the scourge of an army
dispieced : Saw such a shift of the hunt as when Titan Olympus clomb. Fly I was the sportsman's word ; and the note of the quarry
rang. Chase t *
Banners from South, from East,
Sheaves of pale banners drooping hole and shred ;
The captive wives of valour, Sabine Wives
Plucked from the foeman's blushful bed.
For glorious muted battle-tongues
Of deeds along the horizon's red,
At cost of unreluctant lives ;
Her toilful heroes homeward poured.
To give their fevered mother air of the lungs.
She breathed, and in the breathing craved.
Environed as she was, at bay,
Safety she kissed on her drawn sword.
And waved for victory, for fresh victory waved :
She craved for victory as her daily bread ;
For victory as her daily banquet raved.
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Now had her glut of vengeance left her grey
Of blood, who in her entrails fiercely tore
To clutch and squeeze her snakes ; herself the more
Devitalizing: red was her Auroral ray;
Desired if but to paint her pallid hue.
The passion for that young horizon red,
Which dowered her with the flags, the blazing fame.
Like dotage of the past-meridian dame
For some bright Sun-god adolescent, swelled
Insatiate, to the voracious grew,
The glutton's inward raveners bred ,
1111 she, mankind's most dreaded, most abhorred,
Witless in her demands on Fortune, asked.
As by the weaving Fates impelled,
To have the thing most loathed, the iron lord.
Controller and chastiser, under Victory masked.
Banners from East, from South,
She hugged him in them, feared the scourge they meant,
Yet blindly hugged, and hungering built his throne.
So may you see the village innocent.
With curtsey of shut lids and open mouth,
In act to beg for sweets expect a loathly stone :
See furthermore the Just in his measures weigh
Her sufferings and her sins, dispense her meed.
False to her bridegroom lord of the miracle day,
She fell : from his ethereal home observed
Through love, grown alien love, not moved to plead
Against the season's fruit for deadly Seed,
But marking how she had aimed, and where she swecved,
Why suffered, with a sad consenting thought.
Nor would he shun her sullen look, nor monstrous hold
The doer of the monstrous ; she aroused.
She, the long tortured, suddenly freed, distraught.
More strongly the divine in him than when
Joy of her as she sprang from mould
Drew him the midway heavens adown
To clasp her in his arms espoused
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Before the sight of wonderiag men.
And put upon the day a deathless crown.
The veins and arteries of her, fold in fold.
His alien love laid op>en, to divide
The martyred creature from her crimea ; he knew
What cowardice in her valour could reside ;
What strength her weakness covered ; what abased
Sublimity so illumining, and what raised
This wallower in old slime to noblest heights,
Up to the union on the midway blue :—
Day that the celestial grave Recorder hangs
Among dark History's nocturnal lights,
With vivid beams indicative to the quick
Of all who have felt the vaulted body's pangs
Beneath a mind in hopeless soaring sick.
She had forgot how, long enslaved, she yearned
To the one helping hand above;
Forgot her faith in the Great Undiscemed,
Whereof she sprang aloft to her Angelical love
That day: and he, the bright day's husband, still with
love. Though alien, though to an upper seat retired. Beheld a wrangling heart, as 'twere her soul On eddies of wild waters cast; In wilderness division ; fired For domination, freedom, lust. The Pleasures ; lo, a witch's snaky bowl Set at her lips ; the blood -drinker's madness fast Upon her ; and therewith mistrust. Most of herself : a mouth of guile. Compassionately could he smile, To hear the mouth disclaiming God, And clamouring for the Just ! Her thousand impulses, like torches, coursed City and field ; and pushed abroad O'er hungry waves to thirsty sands, Flaring at further ; she had grown to be The headless with the fearful hands ; To slaughter, else to suicide, enforced. But he, remembering how his love began. And of what creature, pitied when was plain
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Another raeosure of captivity :
The need for strap and rod ;
The penitential prayers again ;
Again the hitter bowing down to dust ;
The burden on the flesh for who discUims the God,
The answer when is call upon the Just.
Whence her lost virtue had found refuge strode
Her master, saying, ' I only ; I who can ! '
And echoed round her army, now her chain.
So learns the nation, closing Anarch's reign.
That she had been in travail of a Man.
Cannon his name.
Cannon his voice, he came.
Who heard of him heard shaken hilla,
An earth at quake, to quiet stamped ;
Who looked on him beheld the will of wills,
The driver of wild flocks where lions ramped :
Beheld War's liveries flee him, like lumped grass
Nid-nod to ground beneath the cuffing storm ;
While laurelled over his Imperial form,
Forth from her bearded tube of lacquey brass,
Reverberant notes and long blew volant Fame.
Incarnate Victory, Power manifest.
Infernal or God-given to mankind,
On the quenched volcano's cusp did he take stand,
A conquering army's height above the land,
Which calls that army offspring of its hreast,
And sees it mid the starry camps enshrined ;
His eye the cannon's flame.
The cannon's cave his mind.
II To weld the nation in a name of dread, And scatter carrion flies off wounds unhealed, The Necessitated came, as comes from out Electric ebon lightning's javelin-head.
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I^ireatening anoihilation in the revealed
Founts of our being ; terrible with doubt,
With radiance restorative. At one stride
Athwart the Law he stood for sovereign sway.
That Soliform made featureless beside
Hia brilliancy who neighboured : vapour they ;
Vapour what postured statutes barred his tread.
On high in amphitheatre field on field,
Italian, Egyptian, Austrian,
Far heard and of the carnage discord clear,
Bella of his escalading triumphs pealed
In crashes on a choral chant severe.
Heraldic of the authentic Charlemagne,
Globe, sceptre, sword, to enfold, to rale, to smite.
Make unity of the mass.
Coherent or refractory, by his might.
Forth from her bearded tube of lacquey brass,
Fame blew, and tuned the jangles, bent the knees
Rebellious or submissive ; his decrees
Were thunder in those heavens and compelled :
Such as disordered earth, eclipsed of stars.
Endures for sign of Order's calm return,
Whereunto she is vowed ; and his wreckage-spara.
His harried ships, old riotous Ocean lifts alight.
Subdued to splendour in his delirant chum.
Glory suffused the accordant, quelled.
By magic of high sovereignty, revolt :
And he, the reader of men, himself unread ;
The name of hope, the name of dread ;
Bloom of the coming years or blight ;
An arm to hurl the bolt
With aim Olympian ; bore
Likeness to Godhead. Whither his flashes hied
Hosts fell 1 what he constructed held rock-fast.
So did earth's abjects deem of him that built end clove.
Torch on imagination, beams he cast,
Whereat they hailed him deified :
If less than an eagle-speeding Jove, than Vulcan more.
Or it might be a Vulcan-Jove,
Europe for smithy, Europe's floor
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Lurid with sparks in evanescent showers, Loud echo-clap of hammers at all hours. Our skies the reflex of its furnace blast.
On him, the long enchained, released
For bride of the miracle day up the midway blue,
She from her heavenly lover fallen to serve for feast
Of rancours and raw hungers, she, the untrue.
Yet pitiable, not despicable, gazed.'
Fawning, her body bent, she gazed
With eyes the moonstone portals to her heart :
Eyes magnifyiQg through hysteric t«ars
liiis apparition, ghostly for belief ;
Demoniac or divine, but sole
Over earth's mightiest written Chief ;
Earth's chosen, crowned, unchallengeable upstart :
The trumpet word to awake, transform, renew;
The arbiter of circumstance ;
High above limitations, as the spheres.
Nor ever had heroical Romance,
Never ensanguined History's lengthened scroll.
Shown fulminant to shoot the levin dart
Terrific as this man, by whom upraised,
Aggrandized and begemmed, she outstripped her peers;
Like midnight's levying brazier-beacon blazed
Defiant to the world, a rally for her sons, -
Day of the darkness ; this man's mate ; by him.
Cannon his name.
Rescued from vivisectionist and knave,
Her body's dominators and her shame ;
By him with the rivers of ranked battalions, brave
Past mortal, girt : a march of swords and guns
Incessant ; his proved warriors ; loaded dice
He flung on the crested board, where chilly Fears
Behold the Reaper's ground. Death sitting grim,
Awatcb for his predestined ones,
Mid shrieks and torrent-hooves ; but these,
Inebriate of his inevitable device.
Hail it their hero's wood of lustrous laurel-trees.
Blossom and fruit of fresh Hesperides,
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The boiling life-blood in their cheers. Unequalled since the world was man they pour A spiky girdle round her ; these, her sons, His cataracts at smooth holiday, soon to roar Obstruction shattered at his will or whim : Kind to her ear as quiring Cherubim, And tramping earth like scornful mastodons.
IV
The flood that swept her to be slave
Adoring, under thought of being his mate.
These were, and unto the visibly unexcelled,
As much of heart as abjects can she gave,
Or what of heart the body bears for freight
When Majesty apparent overawes ;
By the flash of his ascending deeds upheld.
Which let not feminine pride in him have pause
To question where the nobler pride rebell«l.
She read the hieroglyphic on his brow.
Felt his firm hand to wield the giant's mace;
Herself whiried upward in an eagle's claws.
Past recollection of her earthly place;
And if cold Reason pressed her, called him Fate ;
Offering abashed the servile woman's vow.
Delirium was her virtue when the look
At fettered wrists and violated laws
Faith in a rectitude Supernal shook,
l^ll worship of him shone as her last rational state.
The slave's apology for gemmed disgrace.
Far in her mind that leap from earth to the ghost
Midway on high ; or felt as a troubled pool ; '
Or as a broken sleep that hunts a dream half lost.
Arrested and rebuked by the common school
Of ddly things for truancy. She could rejoice
To know with wakeful eyebalb Violence
Her crowned possessor, and, on every sense
Incumbent, Fact, Imf)erial Fact, her choice.
In scorn of barren visions, aims at a glassy void.
Who sprang for Liberty once, found slavery sweet;
And Tyranny, on alert subservience buoyed.
Spurred a blood-mare immeasurably fleet
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NAPOLEON 481
To shoot the transient leagues in a passing wink. Prompt for the glorious bound at the f anged abyss's brink. Scarce felt she that she bled when battle scored On riddled flags the further conjured line ; From off the meteor gleam of his waved sword Reflected bright in permanence : she bled As the Bacchante spills her challengeing wine With whirl o' the cup before the kiss to lip ; And bade drudge History in his footprints tread. For pride of sword<stroke3 o'er slow penmanship : Each step of his a volume : bis sharp word The shower of steel and lead Or pastoral sunshine.
Per^tent through the brazen chorus round
His thunderous footsteps on the foeman's ground,
A broken carol of wild notes was heard.
As when an ailing infant wails a dream.
Strange in familiarity it rang :
And now along the dark blue vault might seem
Winged migratories having but heaven for home,
Now the lone sea-bird's cry down shocks of foam.
Beneath a ruthless paw the captive's pang.
It sang the ^t that comes from God
To mind of man as air to limg.
So through her days of under sod
Her faith unto her heart had sung,
Like bedded seed by frozen clod.
With view of wide-armed heaven and buds at bunt.
And midway up, Earth's fluttering little lyre.'
Even for a glimpse, for even a hope in chained desire
Tlie vi^on of it watered thirst.
But whom those errant moans accused As liberty's murderous mother, cried accursed, France blew to deafness : for a space she mused ; She smoothed a startled look, and sought.
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482 NAPOL^N
From treasuries of the adoriag slave.
Her surest way to strangle thought ;
Picturing her dread lord decree advance
Into the enemy's land ; artillery, bayonet, lance ;
His ordering fingers point the dial's to time their ranks :
Himself the black storm-cloud, the tempest's bayonet-glaive.
Like foam-heads of a loosened freshet bursting banks.
By mount and fort they thread to swamp the slu^^rd plains.
Shines his gold-laurel sun, or cloak coimivent rains.
They press to where the hosts in line and square throng
mute; He watchful of their form, the Audadoua, the Astute ; Eagle to grip the field ; to work his craftiest, fox. From his brief signal, straight the stroke of the leveller falls ; From him those opal puffs, those arcs with the clouded balls : He waves, and the voluble scene is a quagmire shifting blocks ; They clash, they are knotted, and now 'tis the deed of the
axe on the log ; Here away moves a spiky woodland, and yon away sweep Rivers of horse torrent-mad to the shock, and the heap over
heap Right through the troughed black lines turned to bunches or
shreds, or a fog Rolling off sunlight's arrows. Not mightier Phoebus in ire, Nor deadlier Jove's avenging right hand, than be of the
brain Keen at an enemy's mind to encircle and pierce and constrain, Muffling his own for a fate-charged blow very Gods may
admire. Sure to behold are his eagles on high where the conflict raged. Rightly,then, should France worship, and deafen thedisaccord Of those who dare withstand an irresistible sword To thwart his predestined subjection of Europe. Let them
submit I She said it aloud, and heard in her breast, as a singer caged. With the beat of wings at bars. Earth's fluttering little lyre. No more at midway heaven, but liker midway to the pit : Not singing the spirally upward of rapture, the downward of
pain Rather, the drop sheer downward from pressure of merciless
weight.
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NAPOL^N 483
Her strangled thought got breath, with her worship held
debate; To yield and sink, yet eye askant the mark she had missed. Over the black-blue rollers of that broad Westerly main. Steady to sky, the light of Liberty glowed In a flaming pillar, that cast on the troubled waters a road For Europe to cross, and see the thing lost subsist. For there 'twas a shepherd led hia people,* no butcher of
sheep; Firmly there the banner he first upreared Stands to rally ; and nourishing grain do his children reap From a father beloved in life, in his death revered. Contemplating him and his work, shall a skyward glance Clearer sight of our dreamed and abandoned obtain ; Nay, but as if seen in station above the Republic, France Had view of her one-day's heavenly lover again ; Saw him amid the bright host looking down on her ; knew
she had erred. Knew him her judge, knew yonder the spirit preferred ; Yonder the base of the summit she strove that day to ascend. Ere cannon mastered her soul, and all dreams had end.
Soon felt she in her shivered frame
A bodeful drain of blood illume
Her wits with frosty fire to read
The dazzling wizard who would have her bleed
On fruitless marsh and snows of spectral gloom
For victory that was victory scarce in name.*
Husky his clarions laboured, and her sighs
O'er slaughtered sons were heavier than the prize ;
Recalling how he stood by Frederic's tomb.
With Frederic's country underfoot and spurned:
There meditated ; till her hope might guess.
Albeit his constant star prescribe success.
The savage strife would sink, the civil aim
To head a mannered world breathe zephyrous
Of morning after storm ; whereunto she yearned ;
And Labour's lovely peace, and Beauty's courtly bloom,
The mind in strenuous tasks hilarious.
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t ■■(*." 'I
">i —
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NAPOLEON
Where peeps the weedy poppy, him of the sea ; Earth's power to baffle Ocean's power resume ; Vii!toriou3 army crown o'er Victory's fleet ; And bearing low that Seaman upon knee. Stay the vexed question of supremacy. Obnoxious in the vault by Frederic's tomb.
Poured streams of Europe's veins the flood Full Rhine or Danube rolls off moming-tide Through shadowed reaches into crimson-dyed : And Rhine and Danube knew her gush of blood Down the plucked roots the deepest in her breast. He tossed her cordiab, from his laurels pressed. She drank for dryness thirstily, praised his gifts. The blooded frame a powerful draught uplifts Writhed the devotedness her voice rang wide In cries ecstatic, as of the martyr-Blest, Their spirits issuing forth of bodies racked. And crazy chuckles, with life's tears at feud ; While near her heart the sunken sentinel Called Critic marked, and dumb in awe reviewed This torture, this anointed, this untracked To mortal source, this alien of his kind ; Creator, slayer, conjuror, Solon-Mars, The cataract of the abyss, the star of stars ; Whose arts to lay the senses under spell Aroused an insturectionary mind.
He, did he love her ? ■ France was his weapon, shrewd
At edge, a wind in onset : he loved well
Hb tempered weapon, with the which he hewed
Clean to the ground impediments, or hacked.
Sure of the blade that served the great man-miracle.
He raised her, robed her,. gemmed her for his bride.
Did but her blood in blindness given exact.
Her blood she gave, was blind to him as guide :
She quivered at his word, and at bis touch
Was hound or ateed for any mark be espied.
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i NAPOLEON
He loved her more than little, less than much.
The fair subservient of Imperi&l Fact
Next to hia consanguineous was placed
In ranked esteem ; above the diurnal meal.
Vexatious caraal appetites above.
Above his hoards, while she Imperial Fact embraced.
And rose but at command from under heel.
The iove devolvent, the ascension love,
Receptive or profuse, were fires he lacked.
Whose marrow had expelled their wasteful sparks ;
Whose mind, the vast machine of endless haste.
Took up but solids for its glowing seal.
The hungry love, that fish-like creatures feel.
Impelled for prize of hooks, for prey of sharks.
His night's first quarter sicklied to distaste,
In warm enjoyment barely might distract.
A head that held an Europe half devoured
Taste in the blood's conceit of pleasure soured.
Nought save bis rounding aim, the means he plied.
Death for hia cause, to him could point appeal.
His mistress was the thing of uses tried.
Frigid the netting smile on whom he wooed,
But on his Policy his eye was lewd.
That sharp long zig-zag into distance brooked
No foot across ; a shade bis ire provoked.
The blunder or the cruelty of a deed
Hia Policy imperative could plead.
He deemed nought other precious, nor knew he
Legitimate out^de bis Policy.
Men's lives and works were due, from their birth's date.
To the State's shield and sword, himself the State.
He thought for them in mass, as Titan may ;
For their pronounced well-being bade obey ;
O'er each obstructive thicket tlmnderclapped.
And straight their easy road to market mapped.
Watched Argus to survey the huge preserves
He held or coveted ; Mars was armed alert
At sign of motion ; yet his brows were murk,
His gorge would surge, to see the butcher's work.
The Reaper's field ; a sensitive in nerves.
He rode not over men to do them hurt.
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NAPOLEON 48;
As one who claimed to have for paramour Earth's fairest form, he dealt the cancelling blow ; Impassioned, still imffersonal ; to ensure Possession ; free of rivals, not their foe.
The common Tyrant's frenzies, rancour, spites.
He knew as little as men's claim on rights.
A kindness for old servants, early friends.
Was constant in him while they served his ends ;
And if irascible, 'twas the moment's reek
From fires diverted by some gusty freak.
His Policy the act which breeds the act
Prevised, in issues accurately summed
From reckonings of men's tempers, terrors, needs : —
That universal army, which he leads
Viho builds Imperial on Imperious Fact.
Within his hot brain's hammering workshop hummed
A thousand furious wheels at whirr, untired
As Nature in her reproductive throes ;
And did they grate, he spake, and cannon fired :
The cause being aye the incendiary foes
Proved by prostration culpable. His dispense
Of Justice made his active conscience ;
His passive was of ceaseless labour formed.
So found this Tyrant sanction and repose ;
Humanly just, inhumanly un warmed.
Preventive fencings with the foul intent
Occult, by him observed and foiled betimes.
Let fool historians chronicle as crimes.
His blows were dealt to clear the way he went :
Too busy sword and mind for needless blows.
The mighty bird of sky minutest grains
On ground perceived ; in heaven but rays or rains ;
In humankind diversities of masks,
For rule of men the choice of bait or goads.
The statesman steered the despwt to large tasks;
The despot drove the statesman on short roads.
For Order's cause he laboured, as inclined
A soldier's training and his Euclid mind.
His army unto men he could present
As model of the perfect instrument.
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I NAPOLEON
That creature, woman, was the sofa soft.
When warriors their dusty armour doffed,
And read their manuals for the tnalcing truoe
With rosy frailties framed to reproduce.
He farmed his land, distillingly alive
For the utmost extnict he might have and hive,
^Mierewith to marshal force ; and in like sch^ne.
Benign shone Hymen's torch on young love's dream.
Thus to be strong was be beneficent ;
A fount of earth, likewise a firmament.
The disputant in words his eye dismayed :
Opinions blocked tus passage. Rent
Were Councils with a gesture ; brayed
By hoarse camp-phrase what argument
Dared interpose to waken spleen
In him whose \ision grasped the unseen,
^liose counsellor was the ready blade,
Whose argument the cannonade.
He loathed his land's divergent parties, loth
To grant them speech, they were such idle troops ;
The friable and the grumous, dizzards both.'
Men were good sticks his mastery wrought from hoops;
Some serviceable, none credible on oath.
llie silly preference they nursed to die
In beds he scorned, and led where they should He.
If magic made them [diable for his use.
Magician he could be by planned surprise.
For do they see the deuce in human guise.
As men's acknowledged head appears the deuce.
And they will toQ with de^'ilish craft and zeal.
Among them certain vagrant wits that had
Ideas buzaed ; they were the feebly mad ;
Pursuers of a film they hailed ideal ;
But could be dangerous fire-flies for a brain
Subdued by fact, still amorous of the inane.
With a breath he blew them out, to beat their wings
The way of such transfeminated things,
And France had sense of vacancy in Light
That is the soul's dead darkness, making clutch Wild hands for aid at musdes nithin touch ;
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Adding to slavery's chain the stringent twist ; Even when it brings close surety that aright She reads her Tyrant through his golden mist ; Perceives him fast to a harsher Tyrant bound; Self-ridden, self-hunted, captive of his aim ; Material grandeur's ape, the Infemal's hound ; Enormous, with no infinite around ; No starred deep sky, no Muse, or lame The dusty pattering pinions. The voice as through the brazen tube of Fame.
Hugest of engines, a much limited man,
She saw the Lustrous, her great lord, appear
Through that smoked glass her last privation brought
To point her critic eye and spur her thought :
A heart but to propel Leviathan ;
A spirit that breathed but in earth's atmosphere.
Amid the plumed and sceptred ones
Irradiatingly Jovian,
Hie mountain tower capped by the floating cloud ;
A nursery screamer where dialectics ruled :
Mannerless, graceless, laughteriess, unlike
Herself in all, yet with such power to strike,
Hiat she the various features she could scan
Dared not to sum, though seeing : and befooled
By power which beamed omnipotent, she bowed.
Subservient as roused echo round his guns.
Invulnerable Prince of Myrmidons,
He sparkled, by no sage Athene schooled.
Partly she read her riddle, stricken and pained ;
But irony, her spirit's tongue, restrained.
The Critic, last of vital in the proud
Enslaved, when most detectively endowed.
Admired how irony's venom off him ran,
like rain-drops down a statue cast in bronze :
Whereby of her keen rapier disarmed,
Again her chant of eulogy began,
Protesting, but with slavish senses charmed.
Her warrior, chief among the valorous great In arms he was, dispelling shades of blame.
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) NAPOLEON
With radiance palpable in fruit and weight.
Heard she reproach, his victories blared response;
His victories bent the Critic to acclaim.
As with fresh blows upon a ringing sconce.
Or heard she from scajred ranks of jolly growls
Hia veterans dwarf their reverence and, like owls.
Laugh in the pitch of discord, to exalt
Their idol for some genial trick or fault,
She, too, became hia marching veteran.
Again she took her breath from them who bore
His eagles through the tawny roar,
And murmured at a peaceful state,
That bred the title charlatan.
As missile from the mouth of hate.
For one the daemon Serily filled and hurled.
Cannon his name,
Shattering against a barrier world ;
Her supreme player of man's primaeval game.
The daemon filled him, and he filled her sons; Strung them to stature over human height. As march the standards down the smoky fight ; Her cherubim, her towering mastodons ! Directed vault or breach, break through Earth's toughest, seasons, elements, tame; Dash at the bulk the sharpened few ; Count death the smallest of their debts : Show that the will to do Is masculine and begets t
These princes unto him the mother owed ;
These jewels of manhood that rich hand bestowed.
What wonder, though with wits awake
To read her riddle, for these her offspring's sake ; —
And she, before high heaven adulteress.
The lost to honour, in his glory clothed.
Else naked, shamed in sight of men, self-loathed; —
That she should quench her thought, nor worship lea;
Than ere she bled on sands or snows and knew
The slave's alternative, to worship or to rue !
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Bright from the shell of that much limited man.
Her hero, like the falchion out of sheath,
Like soul that quits the tumbled body, soared :
And France, impulsive, nuptial with his plan.
Albeit the Critic fretting her, adored
Once more. Exultingly her heart went forth,
Submissive to his mind and mood.
The way of those pent-eyebrows North ;
For now was he to win the wreath
Surpassing sunniest in camp or Court ;
Next, as the blessed harvest after years of blight,
Sit, the Great Emperor, to be known the Good I
Now had the Seaman's volvent sprite.
Lean from the chase that barked his contraband,
A beggared applicant at every port,
To strew the profitless deeps and rot beneath.
Slung northward, for a hunted beast's retort
On sovereign power ; there his final stand.
Among the perjured Scythian's shaggy horde.
The hydrocephalic aerolite
Had taken ;■" flashing thence repellent teeth.
Though Europe's Master Europe's Rebel banned
To be earth's outcast, ocean's lord and sport.
Unmoved might seem the Master's taunted sword.
Northward his dusky legions nightly slipped.
As on the map of that all-provident head ;
He luring Peace the while, like morning's cock
The quiet day to round the hours for bed ;
No pastoral shepherd sweeter to his flock.
Then Europe first beheld her Titan stripped.
To what vast length of limb and mounds of thews.
How trained to scale the eminences, pluck
The hazards for new footing, how compel
Those timely incidents by men named luck.
Through forethought that defied the Fates to choose.
Her grovelling admiration had not yet
Imagined of the great man-miracle ;
And France recounted with her comic smile
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I NAPOLEON
Duplicities of Court and Cabinet,
The silky female of his male in guile,
Wherewith her two-faced Master could amuse
A dupe he charmed In sunny beams to bask.
Before his feint for camisado struck
The lightning moment of the cast-off mask.
Splendours of earth repeating heaven's at set
Of smi down mountain cloud in masses arched ;
Since Asia upon Europe marched.
Unmatched the copious multitudes ; unknown
To Gallia's over-runner, Rome's inveterate foe.
Such hosts ; all one machine for overthrow,
Coruacant from the Master's hand, compact
As reasoned thoughts in the Master's head ; were shown
Yon lightning moment when his acme might
Blazed o'er the stream that cuts the sandy tract
Borussian from Sarmatia's famished flat ;
The century's flower ; and off its pinnacled throne.
Rayed servitude on Europe's ball of sight.
Behind the Northern curtain-folds he passed."
There heard hushed France her muffled heart beat fast
Against the hollow ear-drum, where she sat
In expectation's darkness, until cracked
The straining curtain-seams : a scaly light
Was ghost above an army under shroud.
Imperious on Imperial Fact
Incestuously the inci:edible begat.
Hia veterans and auxiliaries.
The trained, the trustful, sanguine, proud.
Princely, scarce numerable to recite, —
Tetanic of all Titan tragedies t —
That Northern curtain took them, as the seas
Gulp the great ships to ^ve back shipmen white.
Alive in marble, she conceived in soul.
With barren eyes and mouth, the mother's loss ;
The bolt from her abandoned heaven sped ;
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The snowy Krmy rolling knoll on knoll Beyond horizon, under no blest Cross : By the vulture dotted and engarlanded.
Was it a necromancer lured
To weave his tense betraying spell?
A 'ntan whom our God endured
Till he of his foul hungers fell.
By all tus craft and labour scourged 1
A deluge Europe's liberated wave,
Fteaa to sky, leapt over that vast grave.
Its shadow-points against her sacred land converged.
And him, her yoke-fellow, her black lord, her fate.
In doubt, in fevered hope, in chills of hate.
That tore her old credijity to strips.
Then pressed the auspicious relics on her lips.
His withered slave for foregone miracles urged.
And he, whom now his ominous halo's round,
A three parts blank decrescent sickle, crowned,
Prodigious in catastrophe, could wear
The realm of Darkness with its Prince's air;
Assume in mien the resolute pretence
To satiate an hungered confidence,
Proved criminal by the sceptic seen to cower
Beside the generous face of that frail flower.
Desire and terror then had each of each :
His crown and sword were staked on the magic stroke ;
Her blood she gave as one who loved her leech ;
And both did barter under union's cloak.
An union in hot fever and fierce need
Of cither's aid, distrust in trust did breed. >*
Their trafGc instincts hooded their live wits
To issues. Never human fortune throve
On such alliance. Viewed by fits,
From Vulcan's forge a hovering Jove
Evolved. The slave he dragged the Tyrant drove.
Her awe of him his dread of her invoked :
His nature with her shivering faith ran yoked.
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I NAPOLEON
What wisdom counselled. Policy declined ;
All perils dared he save the step behind."
Ahead his grand initiative becked :
One spark of radiance blurred, his orb was wrecked,
Stripf)ed to the despot upetart, for success
He raged to clothe a perilous nakedness.
He would not fall, while falling ; would not be taught,
While learning; would not relax his grasp on aught
He held in hand, while losing it ; pressed advance,
Pricked for her lees the veins of wasted France ;
Who, had he stayed to husband her, had spun
Hie strength he taxed unripened for his throw.
In vengeful casts calamitous.
On fields where palsying Pyrrhic laurels grow.
The luminous the ruinous.
An incalescent scorpion.
And fierier for the mounded cirxjue
That narrowed at him thick and murk,
This gambler with his genius
Flung lives in angry volleys, bloody lightnings, flung
His fortunes to the hosts he stung.
With victories clipped his eagle's wings.
By the hands that built him up was he undone :
By the star aloft, which was hb ram's-head will
Within ; by the toppling throne the soldier won ;
By the yeasty ferment of what once had been.
To cloud a rational mind for present things;
By his own force, the suicide in his mill.
Needs never God of Vengeance intervene
When giants their last lesson have to learn.
Fighting against an end he could discern.
The chivalry whereof he had none
He called from his worn slave's abundant springs :
Not deigning spousally entreat
That ever blinded by his martial skill.
But harsh to have her worship counted out
In human coin, her vital rivers drained.
Her infant forests felled, commanded die
The decade thousand deaths for his Imperial seat.
Where throning he her faith in him maintained ;
Bound Reason to believe delayed defeat
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NAPOLEON 49
Was triumph ; and what strength in her remuned To head agamst the ultimate foreseen rout, Insensate taxed ; of his impenitent will. Servant and sycophant : without ally, In Python's coils, the Master Craftsman still ; The smiter, panther springer, trapper sly. The deadly wrestler at the crucial bout. The penetrant, the tonant, tower of towers. Striking from black disaster starry showers. Her supreme player of man's primaeval game. He won hb harnessed victim's rapturous shout. When every move was mortal to her frame. Her prayer to life that stricken he might lie. She to exchange his laurels for earth's flowers.
The innumerable whelmed him, and he fell :
A vessel in mid-ocean under storm.
Ere ceased the lullaby of his passing bell.
He sprang to sight, in human form
Revealed, from no celestial uds :
The shades enclosed him, and he fired the shades.'*
Cannon his name,
Cannon his voice, he came.
The fount of miracles from drought-dust arose,
Amazing even on his Imperial stage.
Where marvels lightened through the alternate hours
And winged o'er human earth's heroical shone.
Into the press of cumulative foes.
Across the friendly fields of smoke and rage,
A broken structure bore his furious powers ;
The man no more, the Warrior Chi^ the same ;
Match for all rivals ; in himself but flame
Of an outworn lamp, to illumine nought anon.
Yet loud as when he first showed War's effete
Their Schoolman off his eagle mounted high,
And summoned to subject who dared compete,
The cannon in the name Napoleon
Discoursed of sulphur earth to curtained sky.
So through a tropic day a regnant sun.
Where armies of aasulant vapours thronged,
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Hb glory's trappings laid on them : comes night,
Enwraps him in a bosom quick of heat
From hia anterior splendours, and shall seem
Day instant. Day's own lord in the furnace gleam.
The virulent quiver on ravished eyes prolonged,
When severed darkness, all flaminica) bright.
Slips vivid eagles linked in rapid flight;
Which bring at whiles the lionly far roar,
As wrestled he with manacles and gags.
To speed across a cowering world once more.
Superb in ordered floods, fes lordly flags.
His name on silence thundered, on the obscure
Lightened ; it haunted mom and even-song:
Earth of her prodigy's extinction long.
With shudderings and with thrilliDgs, hung unsure.
Snapped was the chord that made the resonant bow.
In Prance, abased and like a shrunken corse ;
Amid the weakest weak, the lowest low.
From the highest fallen, stagnant off her soiurce ;
Condemned to hear the nations' hostile mirth ;
See curtained heavens, and smell a sulphurous earth ;
Which told how evermore shall tyrant Force
Beget the greater for its overthrow.
The song of Liberty in her bearing spoke
A foreign tongue; Earth's fluttering little lyre
Unlike, but like the raven's ravening croak."
Not till her breath of being could aspire
Anew, this loved and scourged of Angels found
Our common brotherhood in sight and sound :
When mellow rang the name Napoleon,
And dim aloft her young Angehcal waved."
Between ethereal and gross to choose.
She swung; her soul desired, her senses craved.
They pricked her dreams, while oft her skies were dun
Behind o'ershadowing foemen : on a tide
They drew the nature having need of pride
Among her fellows for its vital dues :
He seen like some rare treasure-galleon,
Hull down, with masts against the Western hues.
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FRANCE
I 1870 •
We look for her that sunlike stood
Upon the forehead of our day.
An orb of nations, radiating food
For body and for mind alway.
Where is the Shape of glad array ;
The nervous hands, the front of steel,
The clarion tongue ? Where is the bold proud face T
We see a vacant place ;
We hear an iron heel.
n O she that made the brave appeal For manhood when our time was dark,' And from our fetters drove the spark Which was as lightning to reveal New seasons, with the swifter play Of pulses, and benigner day ; She that divinely shook the dead From living man ; that stretched ahead Her resolute forefinger straight. And marched toward the gloomy gate Of earth's Untried, gave note, and in The good name of Humanity Called forth the daring vision 1 she, She likewbe half corrupt of sin, Angel and Wanton 1 can it be T Her star has foundered in eclipse. The shriek of madness on her lips ; Shreds of her, and no more, we see. There is horrible convulsion, smothered din. As of one that in a grave-cloth struggles to be tree.
ni Look not for spreading boughs On the riven forest tree. Look down where deep in blood and mire Black thunder plants his feet and ploughs
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5 FRANCE, 1870
The soil for ruin : that is France :
Still thrilling like a lyre.
Amazed to shivering discord from a fall
Sudden as that the lurid hosts recall
Who met in heaven the irreparable mischance.
0 that is France !
The brilliant eyes to kindle bliss.
The shrewd quick lips to laugh and kiss.
Breasts that a sighing worid inspire,
And laughter-dimpled countenance
Where soul and senses caught desire I
Ever invoking fire from heaven, the fire Has grasped her, uoconsumable, but framed For all the ecstasies of suffering dire. Mother of Pride, her sanctuary shamed : Mother of Delicacy, and made a mark For outrage : Mother of Luxury, stripped stark : Mother of Heroes, bondsmen : thro' the rains, Across her boundaries, lo the league-long chains I Fond Mother of her martial youth ; they pass, Are spectres in her sight, are mown as grass I Mother of Honour, and dishonoured : Mother Of Glory, she condemned to crown with bays Her victor, and be fountain of his praise. Is there another curse ? There is another : Compassionate her madness : is she not Mother of Reason ? she that sees them mown Like grass, her young ones ! Yea, in the low groan And under the fixed thunder of this hour Which holds the animate world in one foul blot Tranced circumambient while relentless Power Beaks at her heart and claws her limbs down-thrown, She, with the plungeing lightnings overshot. With madness for an armour against pain. With milkless breasts for little ones athirst.
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FRANCE, 1870
Gives answer of the cause of her great woe.
Inexorably echoing thro' the vaults,
' 'Tb thus they reap in blood, in blood who sow ;
'This is the sum of self-absolved faults.'
Doubt not that thro' her grief, with sight supreme.
Thro' her delirium and despair's last dream,
Thro' pride, thro' bright illusion and the brood
Bewildering of her various Motherhood,
The high strong light within her, tho' she bleeds,
Traces the letters of returned misdeeeds.
She sees what seed long sown, ripened of late,
Bears this fierce crop ; and she tUscems her fate
From origin to agony, and on
As far as the wave washes long and wan
Off one disastrous impulse : for of waves
Our life is, and our deeds are pregnant graves
Blown rolling to the sunset from the dawn.
Ah, what a dawn of splendour, when her sowers *
Went forth and bent the necks of populations
And of their terrors and humiliations
Wove her the starry wreath that earthward lowers
Now in the figure of a burning yoke !
Her legions traversed North and South and East,
Of triumph they enjoyed the glutton's feast :
They grafted the green sprig, they lopped the oak.
They caught by the heard the tempests, by the scalp
The icy precipices, and clove sheer through
The heart of horror of the pinnacled Alp,
Emerging not as men whom mortals knew.
They were the earthquake and the hurricane.
The lightnings and the locusts, plagues of blight.
Plagues of the revel : they were Deluge rain.
And dreaded Conflagration ; lawless Might.
Death writes a reeling line along the snows.
Where imder frozen mists tiiey may be tracked,
Who men and elements provoked to foes.
And Gods : they were of god and beast compact :
Abhorred of all. Yet, how they sucked the teats
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) FRANCE, 1870
Of Carnage, thirsty issue of their dam, '
Whose eagles, angrier than their oriflt
Flushed the vext earth with blood, green earth forgets.
The gay young generations mask her grief ;
Where bled her c-hildren hangs the hwided sheaf.
Forgetful is green earth ; the Gods alone
Remember everlastingly : they strike
Remorselessly, and ever like for like.
By their great memories the Gods are known.
They are with her now, and in her ears, and known.
'Tis they that cast her to the dust for Strength,
Their slave, to feed on her fair body's length,
That once the sweetest and the proudest shone;
Scoring for hideous dismemberment
Her limbs, as were the anguish-taking breath
Gone out of her in the insufferable descent
From her high chieftainship ; as were she death.
Who hears a voice of justice, feels the knife
Of torture, drinks all ignominy of life.
They are with her, and the painful Gods might weep.
If ever rain of tears came out of heaven
To flatter Weakness and bid conscience sleep.
Viewing the woe of this Immortal, driven
For the soul's life to drain the maddening cup
Of her own children's blood implacably :
Unsparing even as they to furrow up
The yellow land to likeness of a sea :
The bountiful fair land of vine and grain.
Of wit and grace and ardour, and strong roots.
Fruits perishable, imperishable fruits ;
Furrowed to likeness of the dim grey main
Behind the black obliterating cydone.
Behold, the Gods are with her, and are known. Whom they abandon misery persecutes No more : them half-eyed apathy may loan The happiness of pitiable brutes.
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FRANCE, 1870 501
Whom the just Gods abandoo have no light,
No ruthless light of introspective eyes
That in the midst of misery scrutinize
The heart and its iniquities outright.
They rest, they smile and rest ; have earned perchance
Of ancient service quiet for a term ;
Quiet of old men dropping to the worm ;
And so goes out the soul. But not of France.
She cries for grief, and to the Gods she cries,
For fearfully their loosened hands chastize.
And icily they watch the rod's caress
fiavage her flesh from scourges merciless.
But she, inveterate of brain, discerns
That Pity has as little pUce as Joy
Among their roU of gifts ; for Strength she yearns.
For Strength, her idol once, too long her toy.
Lo, Strength is of the plain root-Virtues bom :
Strength shall ye gain by service, prove in scorn.
Train by endurance, by devotion shape.
Strength is not won by miracle or rape.
It is the offspring of the modest years.
The gift of sire to son, thro' those firm laws
Which we name Gods ; which are the righteous cause.
The cause of man, and manhood's ministers.
Could France accept the fables of her priests,'
Who blest her banners in this game of beasts.
And now bid hope that heaven will intercede
To violate its laws in her sore need.
She would find comfort in their opiates ;
Mother of Reason ! can she cheat the Fates ?
Would she, the champion of the open mind.
The Omnipotent's prime gift — the gift of growth —
Consent even for a night-time to be blind,
And sink her soul on the delusive sloth.
For fruits ethereal and material, both,
In peril of her place among mankind ?
The Mother of the many Laughters might
Call one poor shade of laughter in the light
Of her unwavering lamp to mark what things
The world puts faith in, careless of the trutJi :
What silly puppet-bodies danced on strings.
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Attached by credence, we appear in sooth.
Demanding intercession, direct aid,
When the whole tragic tale hangs on a broken blade I
She swung the sword for centuries ; in a day It slipped her, like a stream cut ofT from source. She struck a feeble hand, and tried to pray. Clamoured of treachery, and had recourse To drunken outcries in her dream that Force Needed but hear her shouting to obey. Was she not formed to conquer? The bright plumes Of crested vanity shed graceful nods : Transcendent in her foundries. Arts and looms. Had France to fear the vengeance of the Gods? Her faith was on her battle-roll of names Sheathed in the records of old war ; with dance And song she thrilled her warriors and her dames. Embracing her Dishonour : ' gave him France From head to foot, France present and to come. So she might hear the trumpet and the drum — Bellona and Bacchante 1 rushing forth On yon stout marching Schoolmen of the North.
Inveterate of brain, well knows she why Strength failed her, faithful to himself the first; Her dream is done, and she can read the sky, And she can take into her heart the worst Calamity to drug the shameful thought Of days that made her as the man she served A name of terror, but a thing unnerved : Buying the trickster, by the trickster bought. She for dominion, he to patch a throne.
Henceforth of her the Gods are known. Open to them her breast is laid. Inveterate of brain, heart-valiant. Never did fairer creature pant Before the altar and the blade I
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FRANCE, 1870
Swift fall the blows, and men upbraid. And friends ^ve echo blimt and cold. The echo of the forest to the axe. Witbin her are the fires that wax For resurrection from the mould.
She snatched at heaven's flame of old.
And kindled nations : she was weak :
Frail sister of her heroic prototype.
The Man ; for sacrifice unripe.
She too must fill a Vulture's beak.
Deride the vanquished, and acclaim
The conqueror, who stains her fame.
Still the Gods love her, for that of high aim
Is this good France, the bleeding thing they stripe.
She shall rise worthier of ber prototype Thro' her abasement deep ; the pain that runs From nerve to nerve some victory achieves. They lie like circle-strewn soaked Autumn-leaves Which stain the forest scarlet, her fair sons ! And of their death her life is : of their blood From many streams now urging to a flood, No more divided, France shall rise afresh. Of them she learns the lesson of the flesh : — The lesson writ in red since first Time ran, A hunter hunting down the beast in man : That till the chasing out of its last vice. The flesh was fashioned but for sacrifice.
Immortal Mother of a mortal host I
Thou suffering of the wounds that will not slay.
Wounds that bring death but take not life away ! —
Stand fast and hearken while thy victors boast :
Hearken, and loathe that music evermore.
Slip loose thy garments woven of pride and shame :
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I FRANCE, 1870
The torture lurks in them, with them the blame Shall pass to leave thee purer than before. Uado thy jewels, thinking whence they came. For what, and of the abominable name Of her who in imperial beauty wore.
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ALSACE-LORRAINE •
The sbter Hours in circles linked,' Daughters of men, of men the mates, Are gone on flow with the day that winked. With the night that spanned at golden gates. Mothers, they leave us, quickening seed ; They bear us grain or flower or weed. As we have sown ; is nought ejctinct For them we fill to be our Fates. Life of the breath is but the loan ; Passing death what we have sown.
Pearly are they till the pale inherited stain Deepens in us, and tbe mirrors they form on their flow Darken to feature and nature : a volumed chain, Sequent of issue, in various eddies they show. Theirs b the Book of the River of Life, to read Leaf by leaf by reapers of long-sown seed : There doth our shoot up to light from a spiriting sane Stand as a tree whereon numberless clusters grow : Legible there how the heart, with its one false move Cast Eiirydice pallor on all we love.
Our fervid heart has filled that Book in chief ; Our fitful heart a wild reflection views; Our craving heart of passion suckling grief Disowns the author's work it must peruse ; Inconscient in its leap to wreak the deed, A round of harvests red from crimson seed. It marks the current Hours show leaf by leaf, And raib at Destiny ; nor traces clues ; Though sometimes it may think what novel light Will strike their faces when the mind shall write.
Succourful daughters of men are the rosed and starred Revolving Twelves in their fluent germinal rings. Despite the burden to chasten, abase, depose. Fallen on Prance, as the sweep of scythe over sward,
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506 ALSACE-LORRAINE
They breathed in her ear tkm voice of the crystal springs. That nm from a twilight rise, from a twilight close, Through alternate beams and glooms, rejoicingly young. Only to Earth's best loved, at the breathless turns Where Life in fold of the Shadow reclines unstrung. And a ghostly lamp of their moment's union bums. Will such pure notes from the fountain-head be sung.
Voice of Earth's very soul to the soul she would see renewed :
A song that sought no tears, that laid not a touch on the breast
Sobbing aswoon and, like last foJtglovts' bells upon ferns
In sandy alleys of woodland silence, shedding to bare.
Daughters of Earth and men, they piped of her natural brood ;
Her patient helpful four-feet ; wings on the flit or in nest ;
Paws at our old-woHd task to scoop a defensive lair ;
Snouts at hunt through the scented grasses; enhavened scuta
Flashing escape under show of a laugh nigh the mossed burrow- mouth.*
Sack-like droop bronze pears on the nailed branch-frontage of huts,
To greet those wedded toilers from acres where sweat is a shower.
Snake, cicada, lizard, on lavender slopes up South,
Pant for joy of a sunlight driving the fielders to bower.
Sharpened in silver by one chance breeze is the olive's grey ;
A royal-mantle floats, a red fritillary hies ;
The bee, for whom no flower of garden or wild has nay.
Noises, heard if but named, so hot is the trade he plies.
Processions beneath green arches of herbage, the long colon- nades;
Laboured mounds that a foot or a wanton stick may subvert ;
Homely are they for a lowly look on bedewed grass-blades.
On citied fir-droppings, on twisted wreaths of the worm in dirt.
Does nought so loosen our sight from the despot heart, to receive
Balm of a sound Earth's primary heart at its active beat:
The motive, yet servant, of energy ; simple as mom and eve ;
Treasureless, fetterless ; free of Uie bonds of a great conceit :
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ALSACE-LORRAINE 507
Unwounded even by cruel blows on a body that writhes ; Nor whimpering under misfortune; elusive of obstacles;
prnnpt To quit any threatened familiar domiun seen doomed by the
scythes; Its day's hard business done, the score to the good accompt. Creatures of forest and mead. Earth's essays in being, all
Bound by the navel-knot to the Mother, never astray, They in the ear upon ground will pour their intuitive minds, Cut man's tangles for Earth's first broad rectilinear way : Admonishing loftier reaches, the rich adventurous shoots, Pushes of tentative curves, embryonic upwreathings in air ; Not always the sprouts of Earth's root-Laws preserving her
brutes; Oft but our primitive hungers licentious in fine and fair.
Yet the Hke aerial growths may chance be the delicate sprays.
Infant of Earth's most urgent in sap, her fierier zeal
For entry on Life's upper fields: and soul thus fiourishing
Her, from a nerveless well among stagnant pools of the dry. Through her good aim at divine, shall commune with Earth
remake; Fraternal unto sororial, her, where abashed she may lie, Divinest of man shall clasp ; a world out of darkness awake. As it were with the Resurrection's eyelids uplifted, to see Honour in shame, in substance the spirit, in that dry fount Jets of the songful ascending silvery-bright water-tree Spout, with our Earth's unbaffled resurgent desire for the
mount. Though broken at intervals, clipped, and barren in seeming
it be.
For this at our nature arises rejuvenescent from Earth, However respersive the blow and nigh on infernal the fall. The chastisement drawn down on us merited : are we of
worth Amid our satanic excrescences, this, for the less than a call.
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fiOS ALSACE-LORRAINE
Will Earth reprime, man cherish ; the God who is in us and
round. Consenting, the God there seen. Impiety speaks despair ; Religion the virtue of serving as things of the furrowy ground. Debtors for breath while breath with our fellows in service we
share. Not such of the crowned discrowned Can Earth or humanity spare ; Such not the God let (&e.
Eastward of Paris mom is high ;
And darkness on that Eastward side
The heart of France beholds : * a thorn
Is in her frame where shines the mom :
A rigid wave usurps her sky.
With eagle crest and eagle-eyed
To scan what wormy wrinkles hint
Her forces gathering : she the thrown
From station, lopped of an arm, astounded, lone,
Reading late History as a foul misprint :
Imperial, Angelical,
At strife commingled in her frame convulsed ;
Shame of her broken sword, a ravening gall ;
Pmu of the limb where once her warm blood pulsed ;
These tortures to distract her underneath
Her whelmed Aurora's shade. But in that space
When lay she dumb beside her trampled wreath,
Like an unburied body mid the tombs.
Feeling against her heart life's bitter probe
For life, she saw how children of her race.
The many sober sons and daughters, plied,
By cottage lamplight through the water-globe.
By simmering stew-pots, by the serious looms,
Afield, in factories, with the birds astir,
Their nimble feet and fingers ; not denied
Refreshful chatter, laughter, galliard songs.
So like Earth's indestructible they were.
That wrestling with its anguish rose her pride.
To feel where in each breast the thought of her,
On whom the circle Hours laid leaded thongs.
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ALSACE-LORRAINE 509
Was const&Dt ; spoken sometimes in low tone
At lip or in a fluttered look,
A shortened breath : and they were ber loved own;
Nor ever did they waste tbeir strength with tears,
For pity of the weeper, nor rebuke.
Though mainly they were charged to pay her debt.
The Mother having conscience in arrears ;
Ready to gush the flood of vain regret.
Else hearken to her weaponed children's moati
Of stifled rage invoking vengeance : hell's.
If heaven should fail the counter-wave that swells
In blood and brain for retribution swift.
Those helped not : wings to her soul were these who yet
Could welcome day for labour, night for rest,
Enrich her treasury, built of cheerful thrift,
Of honest heart, beyond all miracles ;
And likened to Earth's humblest were Earth's best.*
Brooding on her deep fall, the many strings
Which formed her nature set a thought on Kings,
As aids that might the low-laid cripple lift;
And one among them hummed devoutly leal.
While passed the sighing breeze along her breast.
Of Kings by the festive vanquishers rammed down
Her gorge since fell the Chief, she knew their crown ;
Upon her through long seasons was its grasp.
For neither soul's nor body's weal ;
As much bestows the robber wasp.
That in the hanging apple makes a meal,
And carves a face of abscess where was fruit
Ripe ruddy. They would blot
Her radiant leap above the slopes acute,
OS summit to celestial ; impute
The wanton's aim to her divinest shot ; *
Bid her walk History backward over gaps ;
Abhor the day of Phrygian caps ;
Abjure ber guerdon, execrate herself;
The Hapsburg, Hohenzollem, Guelph,
Admire repentant ; reverently prostrate
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510 ALSACE-LORRAINE
Her person unto the belly-god ; of whom
Is inward plenty and external bloom ;
Enough of pomp and state
And carnival to queneh
The breast's desires of an intemperate wench,
The head's ideas beyond legitimate.
She flung them : she was France : nor with far frown
Her lover ' from the embrace of her refrained :
But in her voice an interwoven wire.
The exultation of her gross renown.
Struck deafness at her heavens, and they waned
Over a look ill-gifted to aspire.
Wherefore, as in abandonment, irate.
The intemperate summoned up her trumpet days,
Her treasure-galleon's wondrous freight.'
The cannon-name she sang and shrieked ; transferred
Her soul's allegiance ; o'er the Tyrant slurred.
Tranced with the zeal of her first fawning gaze,
To clasp his trophy flags and hail him Saint.
She hailed him Saint :
And her Jeanne unsainted, foully sung I'
The virgin who conceived a France when funeral glooms
Across a land aquake with sharp disseverance hung:
Conceived, and under stress of battle brought her forth ;
Crowned her in purification of feud and foeman's taint ;
Taught her to feel her blood her being, know her worth.
Have joy of unity i the Jeanne bescreeched, bescoffed.
Who flamed to ashes, flew up wreaths of faggot furoes ;
Through centuries a star in vapour-folds aloft.
For her people to hail her Saint, Were no lifting of her, Earth's gem. Earth's chosen, Earth's throb on divine : In the ranks of the starred she is one. While man has thought on our line : No lifting of her, but for them. Breath of the mountain, beam of the sun
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ALSACE-LORRAINE 51
Through mist, out at swamp-fires' lures release, Youth on the forehead, the rough right way Seen to be footed : for them the heart's peace. By the mind 's war won for a permanent miracle day.
Her arms below her sword-hilt crossed.
The heart of that high-hallowed Jeanne
Into the furnace-pit she tossed
Before her body knew the flame,
And sucked lU essence : warmth for righteous work>
An undivided power to speed her aim.
She had no self but France : the sainted man
No France but self. Him warrior and-clerk.
Free of his iron clutch ; and him her young.
In whirled imagination mastodonized ;
And him her penman, him her poets ; all
For the visioned treasure-galleon astrain ;
Sent zenithward on bass and treble tongue,
Till solely through his glory France was prized.
She who had her Jeanne ;
The child of her industrious ;
Earth's truest, earth's pure fount from the main ;
And she who had her one day's mate,
In the soul's view illustrious
Past blazonry, lier Immaculate,
Those hours of slavish Empire would recall ;
Thrill to the rattling anchor-chain
She heard upon a day in 'I who can';
Start to the softened, tremulous bugle-blare
Of that Caesarean Italian
Across the storied fields of trampled grain,
As to a Vercingetorix of old Gaul
Blowing the rally against a Caesar's reign.
Her soul's protesting sobs she drowned to swear
Fidelity unto the sainted man,
Whose nimbus was her crown ; and he again
The foreigner in Europe, known of none.
None knowing ; sight to dazzle, voice to stun.
Rearward she stepped, with thirst for Europe's van ;
The dream she nursed a snare,
The flag she bore a pall.
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AI£ACE-LORRAmE
In Npture is no rearward step allowed. Hard on the rock Reality do we dash To be shattered, if the material dream propels. The worship to departed splendour vowed Conjured a simulacrum, wove her lash. For the slow measure timed her peal of bells.
Thereof was the cannon-name a mockery round her hills ;
For the will of wills.
Its flaccid ape,
Weak as the final echo off a giant's bawl :
Napoleon for disdaio.
His banner steeped in crape.
Thereof the barrier of Alsace-Lorraine;
The frozen billow crested to its fall ;
Dismemberment ; disfigurement ;
Her history blotted ; her proud mantle rent;
And ever that one word to reperuse.
With eyes behind a veil of fiery dews ;
Knelling the spot where Gallic soil defiled
Showed her sons' valour as a frenzied child
In arms of the mailed man.
Word that her mind must bear, her heart put under ban,
Lest burst it : unto her eyes a ghost,
Incredible though manifest : a scene
Stamped with her new Saint's name : and all his host
A wattled flock the foeman's dogs between I *
Mark where a credible ghost pulls bridle to view that bare Corpse of a field still reddening cloud," and alive in its throes Beneath her Purgatorial Saint's evocative stare : Brand on his name, the gulf of his glory, his Legend's close. Alustreless Phosphor heading for daybeam Night's dead-bom. His underworld eyeballs grip the cast of the land for a fray Expugnant ; swift up the heights, with the Victor's instinctive
scorn Of the trapped below, he rides ; he beholds, and a two-fold
Even as the misty sun growmg moon that a frost ennngs,
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ALSACE-LORRAINE 513
Is shroud on the shrouded ; he knows him there in the hel-
meted ranlis. The golden ea^es flap lame wings, The black double-headed are round their flanks. He is there in midst of the pupils he harried to brains awake,
trod into union ; lo. These ore his Epic's tutored Dardans, yon that Rhapsode's
Achaeans to know. Nor is aught of an equipollent conflict seen, nor the weaker's
flashed device ; Headless is ofFered a breast to beaks deliberate, formal, assured,
precise. Ruled by the mathematician's hand, they solve their problem,
as on a slate. This is the ground foremarked, and the day; their leader
modestly hazarded date. His helmeted ranks might be draggers of poob or reapers of
plains for the warrior's guile Dbplayed; they haul, they rend, as in some orderly office
mercantile. And a timed artillery speaks full-mouthed on a stuttering
feeble reduced to nought. Can it be France, an army of France, tricked, netted, con- vulsive, all writhen caught?
Arterial blood of an army's heart outpoured the Grey Ob- server sees: A forest of France in thunder comes, like a landslide hurled
off her Pyrenees." Torrent and forest ramp, roll, sling on for a charge against
iron, reason. Fate ; It is gapped through the mass midway, bare ribs and dust
ere the helmeted feel its weight. So the blue billow white-plumed is plunged upon shingle to
screaming withdrawal, but snatched, Waved is the laurel eternal yielded by Death o'er the waste
of brave men outmatched. The France of the fury was there, the thing he had wielded,
whose honour was dearer than life ; The Prussia despised, the harried, the trodden, was here;
his pupil, the scholar in strife.
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ALSACE-LORRAINE 51
Cold, comfortless, but braced to disabuse. Ran tbrough the mind of this most lowly laid ; From the top billow of victorious War, Down in the fla^ess troughs at ebb and flow ; A wreck ; her past, her future, both in shade.
She read the things that are ;
Reality unacceptwl read
For sign of the distraught, and took her blow
To brain ; herself read through ;
Wherefore her predatory Glory paid
Napoleon ransom knew.
Her nature's many strings hot gusts did jar
Against the note of reason uttered low,
Ere passionate with duty she might wed,
Compel the bride's embrace of her stern groom.
Joined at an altar liker to the tomb,
Nest of the Furies their first nuptial bed.
They not the less were mated and proclaimed
The ration^ their issue. Then she rose.
See how the rush of southern Springtide glows
Oceanic in the chariot-wheel's ascent,
Illuminated with one breath. The maimed,
Tom, tortured, winter-visaged, suddenly
Had stature ; to the world's wonderment.
Fair features, grace of mien, nor least
The comic dimples round her April mouth.
Sprung of her intimate humanity.
She stood before mankind the very South
Rapt out of frost to flowery drapery ;
Unshadowed save when somewhiles she looked East.
Let hut the rational prevail,
Our footing is on ground though all else fail :
Our kiss of Earth is then a plight
To w^k within her Laws and have her light.
Choice of the life or death lies in ourselves;
There is no fate but when unreason lours.
This Land the cheerful toiler delves.
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J ALSACE-LORRAINE
The thinker brightens with fine wit.
The lovelier grace as lyric flowers.
Those rosed and starred revolving Twelves
Shall nurse for effort infinite
WTiile leashed to brain the heart of France the Fair
Beats tempered music and its lead subserves.
Washed from her eyes the Napoleonic glare.
Divinely raised by that in her divine,
Not the clear sight of Earth's blunt actual swerves
When her lost look, as on a wave of wine.
Rolls Eastward, and the mother-flag descries
Caress with folds and curves
The fortress over Rhine,
Beneath the one tall spire."
Despite her brooding thought, her nightlong sighs,
Her anguish in desire.
She sees, above the brutish paw
Alert on her still quivering limb —
As little in past time she saw.
Nor when dispieced as prey,
As victris when abhorred —
A Grand Germania, stout on soil ;
Audacious up the ethereal dim ;
The forest's Infant ; the strong hand for toil ;
The patient brain in twilights when astray ;
Shrewdest of heads to foil and counterfoil ;
The sceptic and devout ; the potent sword ;
With will and armed to help in hewing way
For Europe's march ; and of the most golden chord
Of the Hehconian lyre
Excellent mistress. Yea, she sees, and can admire;
Still seeing in what walks the Gallia leads ;
And with what shield upon Alsace-Lorraine
Her wary sister's doubtful look misreads
A mother's throbs for her lost : " so loved : so near :
Magnetic. Hard the course for her to steer,
The leap against the sharpened spikes restrain.
For the belted Overshadower " hard the course.
On whom devolves the spirit's touchstone, Force ;
Which is the strenuous arm, to strike inclined.
That too much adamantine makes the mind ;
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ALSACE-LORRAINE
Forgets it coin of Nature's rich Exchange ; Contracts horizons within present sight : Amalekite to-day, across its range Indisputable ; to-morrow Simeonite.
The mother who gave birth to Jeanne ;
Who to her young Angelical sprang ; "
Who lay with Earth and heard the notes she sang,
And heard her truest sing them ; she may reach
Heights yet unknown of nations ; haply teach
A thirsting world to learn 'tis 'she who can.'
She that in History's Heliaea pleads
The nation flowering conscience o'er the heast ;
With heart expurged of rancour, tame of greeds ;
With the winged mind from fang and claw released ; —
Will such a land be seen ? It will be seen ; —
Shall stand adjudged our foremost and Earth's Queen.
Acknowledgement that she of God proceeds,
The invisible makes visible, as his priest.
To her is yielded by a world reclaimed.
And stands she mutilated, fancy-shamed.
Yet strong in arms, yet strong in self-control.
Known valiant, her maternal throbs repressed,
Discarding vengeance, Giant with a soul ; —
My faith in her when she lay low
Was fountain ;" now as wave at flow
Beneath the lights, my faith in God b best ; —
On France has come the test
Of what she holds within
Responsive to Life's deeper springs.
She above the nations blest
In fruitful and in liveliest.
In all that servant earth to heavenly bidding brings.
The devotee of Giory, she may win
Glory despoiling none, enrich her kind.
Illume her land, and take the royal seat
Unto the strong self-conqueror assigned.
But ah, when speaks a loaded breath the double name,"
Humanity's old Foeman winks agrin.
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3 ALSACE-LORRAINE
Her constant Angel eyes her heart's quick beat,
The thrill of shadow coursing through her frame.
Like wind among the ranks of amber wheat.
Our Europe, vowed to unity or torn.
Observes her face, as shepherds note the mom.
And in a ruddy beacon mark an end
That for the flock in their grave hearing rings.
Specked overhead the imminent vulture wings
At poise, one fatal movement indiscreet,
Sprung from the Aetna passions' mad revolts.
Draws down ; the midnight hovers to descend ;
And dire as Indian noons of ulcer heat
Anticipating tempest and the bolts.
Hangs curtained terrors round her next day's door,
Death's emblems for the breast of Europe Hings ;
The breast that waits a spark to fire her stores
Shall, then, the great vitality, France,
Signal the backward step once more ;
Again a Goddess Fortune trace
Amid the Deities, and pledge to chance
One whom we never could replace ?
Now may she tune her nature's many strings
To noble harmony, be seen, be known.
It was the foreign France, the unruly, feared ;
Little for all her witcheries endeared ;
llieBtrical of arrogance, a sprite
With gaseous vapours overblown.
In her conceit of power ensphered.
Foredoomed to violate and atone ;
Her the grim conqueror's iron might
Avenging clutched, distrusting rent ;
Not that sharp intellect with fire endowed
To cleave our webs, run lightnings through our cloud ;
Not virtual France, the France benevolent.
The chivalrous, the many-stringed, sublime
At intervals, and oft in sweetest chime ;
Though perilously instrument,
A breast for any having godlike gleam.
This France could no antagonist disesteem.
To spurn at heel and confiscate her brood.
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ALSACE-LORRAINE 61
Albeit a waverer between heart and mind, And laurels won from sky or plucked from blood. Which wither all the wreath when intertwined, This cherishable France ahe may redeem. Beloved of Earth, her heart should feel at length How much unto Earth's offspring it doth owe. Obstructions are for levelling, have we strength ; "Tis poverty of soul conceives a foe. Rejected be the wrath that keeps unhealed Her panting wound ; to higher Courts appealed The wrongs discerned of higher ; Europw waits : She chooses God or gambles with the Fates. Shines the new Helen in Alsace-Lorr^e, A darker river severs Rhine and Rhone, Is heard a deadlier Epic of the twain ; We see a Paris bum Or France Napoleon.
For yet he breathes whom less her heart forswears While trembles its desire to thwart her mind : The Tj rant lives in Victory's return. What figure with recurrent footstep fares Around those memoried tracks of scarlet mud. To sow her future from an ashen urn By lantern-light, as dragons' teeth are sownf Of bleeding pride the piercing seer is blind. But, cleared her eyes of that ensanguined scud Distorting her true features, to be shown Benignly luminous, one who bears Humanity at breast, and she might learn ■How surely the excelling generous find Renouncement is possession. Sure As light enkindles light when heavenly earthly mates. The flame n( pure immits the flame of pure. Magnanimous magnanimous creates. So to majestic beauty stricken rears Hard-visaged rock against the risen glow ; And men are in the secret with the spheres. Whose glory is celestially to bestow.
Now nation looks to nation, that may live Their common nurseling, like the torrent's flower.
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) ALSACE-LORRAINE
Shaken by foul Destruction's fast-piled heap.
On France is laid the proud initiative
Of sacrifice in one self-mastering hour.
Whereby more than her lost one will she reap ;
Perchance tlie very lost regain,
To count it less than her superb reward.
Our Europe, where is debtor each to each.
Past measure of excess, and war is Cain,*
Fraternal from the Seaman's beach.
From answering Rhine in grand accord,
From Neva beneath Northern cloud.
And from our Transatlantic Europe loud.
Will hail the rare example for their theme ;
Give response, as rich foliage to the breeze;
In their entrusted nurseling know them one :
Like a brave vessel under press of steam,
Abreast the winds and tides, on angry seas,
Plucked by the heavens forlorn of present sun.
Will drive through darkness, and, with faith supreme.
Have ^ght of haven and the crowded quays.
THE CAGEING OF ARES"
Iliad, v. 385
[dedicated to the council at the hague, 1899]
How big of breast our Mother Gaea laughed
At sight of her boy Giants on the leap
Each over other as they neighboured home.
Fronting the day's descent across green slopes.
And up fired mountain crags their shadows danced.
Close with them in their fun, she scarce could guess.
Though these two billowy urchins reeked of craft.
It signalled some adventurous master-trick
To set Olympians buzzing in debate.
Lest it might be their godhead undermined.
The Tyranny menaced. Ephialtes high
On shoulders of his brother Otos waved
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THE CAGEING OP ARES 5
For the bull-bellowiDgs given to grand good news.
Compact, complexioned in his gleeful roar
While Otos aped the prisoner's wrists and knees,
With doleful sniffs between recurrent howls ;
Till, Gaea's lap receiving them, they stretched.
And both upon her bosom shaken to speech.
Burst the hot story out of throats of both,
Like rocky head-founts, bafiBing in their glut
The hurried spout. And as when drifting storm
Disburdened loses clasp of here and yon
A peak, a forest mound, a valley's gleam
Of grass and the river's crooks and snaky coils,
Signification marvellous she caught.
Through gurglings of triumphant jollity.
Which now engulphed and now gave eye; at last
Subsided, and the serious naked deed.
With mountain-cloud of laughter banked around,
Stood in her sight confirmed : she could believe
That these, her sprouts of promise, her most prized.
These two made up of hon, bear and fox.
Her sportive, suckling mammoths, her young joy.
Still by the reckoning infants among men.
Had done the deed to strike the Titan host
In envy dumb, in envious heart elate :
These two combining strength and craft had soared.
Enmeshed, bound fast with thongs, discreetly caged
The blood-shedder, the terrible Lord of War;
Destroyer, ravager, superb In plumes ;
The barren furrower of anointed fields ;
The scariet heel in towns, foul smoke to sky.
Her hated enemy, too long her scourge :
Great Ares. And they gagged his trumpet mouth
When they had seized on his implacable spear.
Hugged him to reedy helplessness despite
His godlike fury startled from amaze.
For he had eyed them nearing him in play,
The giant cults, who gambolled and who snarled.
Unheeding his fell presence, by the mount
Ossa, beside a brushwood cavern ; there
On Earth's original fisticuffs they called
For ease of sharp dispute : whereat the God,
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! THE CAGEING OP ARES
Approving, deemed that sometime trained to arms, Good servitors of Ares they would be. And ply the pointed spear to dominate Their rebel restless fellows, villain brood Vowed to defy Immortals. So it chanced Amusedly he watched them, and as one The lusty twain were on him and they had him. Breath to us. Powers of air, for laughter loud I Cock of Olympus he, superb in plumes 1 Bound like a wheaten sheaf by those two babes t Because they knew our Motlier Gaea loathed him. Knew him the famine, pestilence and waste ; A desolating fire to blind the sight With splendour built of fruitful things in ashes; The gory chariot-wheel on cries for justice ; Her deepest planted and her liveliest voice. Heard from the babe as from the broken crone. Behold him in his vessel of bronze encased. And tumbled down the cave. But rather look — Ah, that the woman tattler had not sought. Of all the Gods to let her secret 6y, Hermes, after the thirteen songful months ! Prompting the Dexterous to work his arts. And shatter earth's delirious holiday. Then first, as where the fountain runs a stream, Resolving to composure on its throbs. But see her in the Seasons through that year ; That one glad year and the fair opening month. Had never our Great Mother such sweet face 1 War with her, gentle war with her, each day Her sons and daughters urged ; at eve were flung, On the morrow stood to challenge ; in their strength Renewed, indomitable ; whereof they won. From hourly wrestlings up to shut of lids. Her ready secret : the abounding life Returned for valiant labour ; she and they " Defeated and victorious turn by turn ; By loss enriched, by overthrow restored. Exchange of powers of this conflict came; Defacement none, nor ever squandered force. Is battle nature's mandate, here it reigned.
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. THE CAGEING OP ARES 52:
A3 music unto the hand that amot« the strings ;
And she the rosier from their showery brows,
They fruitful from her ploughed and harrowed breast.
Back to the primal rational of those
AVho suck the teats of milky earth, and clasp
Stability in hatred of the insane,
Man stepped ; with wits less fearful to pronounce
The mortfd miod's concept of earth's divorced
Above; those beautiful, those masterful.
Those lawless. High they sit, and if descend,
Descend to reap, not sowing. Is it just?
Earth in her happy children asked that word.
Whereto within their breast was her reply.
Those beautiful, those masterful, those lawless.
Enjoy the life prolonged, outleap the years ;
Yet they ('twas the Great Mother's voice inspired
The audacious thought), they, glorious over dust,
Outleap not her ; disrooted from her soar.
To meet the certain fate of earth's divorced.
And clap lame wings across a wintry haze,
Up to the farthest bourne : immortal still.
Thenceforth innocuous ; lovelier than when ruled
The Tyranny. This her voice witliin them told.
When softly the Great Mother chid her sons
Not of the giant brood, who did create
Those lawless Gods, first offspring of our brain
Set moving by an abject blood, that waked
To wanton under elements more benign.
And planted aliens on Olympian heights ; —
Imagination's cradle poesy
Become a monstrous pressure upon men ; —
Foes of good Gaea ; until dispossessed
By light from her, bom of the love of her,
llieir lordship the illumined brain rejects
For earth's beneficent, the sons of Law,
Her other name. So spake she in their heart,
Among the wheat-blades proud of stalk ; beneath
Young vine-leaves pushing timid fingers forth.
Confidently to cling. And when brown com
Swayed armied ranks with softened cricket song.
With gold necks bent for any zephyr's kiss ;
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I THE CAGEING OF ARES
When vine-roots daily down a nibble soil
Drank fire of heaven athirat to swell the grape ;
When swelled the grape, and in it held a ray,
Rich issue of the embrace of heaven and earth ;
The very eye of passion drowsed by excess.
And yet a burning lion for the spring ;
Then in that time of general cherisfanient,
Sweet breathing balm and flutes by cool woodside,
He the harsh rouser of ire being absent, caged.
Then did good Gaea's children gratefully
Lift hymns to Gods they judged, but praised for peace.
Delightful Peace, that answers Reason's call
Harmoniously and images her Law ;
Reflects, and though short-lived as then, revives.
In memories made present on the brain
By natural yearnings, all the happy scenes ;
The picture of an earth allied to heaven ;
Between them the known smile behind black masks ;
Rightly their various moods interpreted ;
And frolic because toilful children home
With larger comprehension of Earth's aim
At loftier, clearer, sweeter, by their aid.
THE NIGHT-WALK •
Awakes for me and leaps from shroud Ail radiantly the moon's own night Of folded showers in streamer cloud ; Our shadows down the highway white Or deep in woodland woven-boughed. With yon and yon a stem ahght.
I see marauder runagates Across us shoot their dusky wink ; I hear the parliament of chats In haws beside the river's brink ; And drops the vole off alder-banka. To push his arrow through the stream. These busy people had our thanks For tickling sight and sound, but theme
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THE NIGHT-WALK
They were not more than breath we drew Delighted with our world's embrace : The moss-root smell where beeches grew, And watered grass in breezy space ; The silken heights, of ghosdy bloom Among their folds, by distance draped. Twas Youth, rapacious to consume, That cried to have ita chaos shaped : Absorbing, little noting, still Enriched, and thinking it bestowed ; With wistful looks on each far hill For something hidden, something owed. Unto his mantled sbter. Day Had ^ven the secret things we sought And she was grave and saintly gay ; At times she fluttered, spoke her thought; She flew on it, then folded wings. In meditation passing lone, To breathe around the secret things. Which have no word, and yet are known ; Of thirst for them are known, as air Is health in blood : we gained enough By this to feel it honest fare; Impalpable, not barren, stuff.
A pride of legs in motion kept Our spirits to their task meanwhile. And what was deepest dreaming slept : The posts tliat named the swallowed mile ; Beside the straight canal the hut Abandoned ; near the river's source Its infant chirp; the shortest cut ; The roadway missed ; were our discourse ; At times dear poets, whom some view Transcendent or subdued evoked To speak the memorable, the true. The luminous as a moon uncloaked : For proof that there, among earth's dumb, A soul had passed and said our best. Or it might be we chimed on some Historic favourite's astral crest.
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THE NIGHT-WALK
With part to reverence in its gleam. And part to rivalry the shout : So royal, unuttered, is youth's dream Of power within to strike without. But most tlie silences were sweet, Ljke mothers' breasts, to bid it feel It lived in such divine conceit As envies aught we stamp for real.'
To either then an untold tale Was Life, and author, hero, we. The chapters holding peaks to scale. Or depths to fathom, made our glee; For we were armed of inner fires, Unbled in us the ripe desires ; And passion rolled a quiet sea. Whereon was Love the phantom sail.
A GARDEN IDYL •
With sagest craft Arachne worked Her web, and at a comer lurked. Awaiting what should plump her soon, To case it in the death-cocoon. Sagaciously her home she chose For visits that would never close ; Inside my chalet-porch her feast Plucked all the winds but chill North-east
The finished structure, bar on bar, Had snatched from light to form a star. And struck on sight, when quick with dews, IJke music of the very Muse. Great artists pass our single sense ; We hear in seeing, strung to tense ; Then haply marvel, groan mayhap, To think such beauty means a trap. But Nature's genius, even man's At best, is practical in plans ;
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A GARDEN IDYL
Subservient to the needy thought, However rare the weapon wrought. As long as Nature holds it good To urge her creatures' quest for food Will beauty stamp the Just intent Of weapons ufMn service bent. For beauty is a flower of roots Embedded lower than our boots ; Out of the primal strata springs. And shows for crown of useful things.
Arachne's dream of prey to size Aspired ; so she could nigh despise The puny specks the breezes round Supplied, and let them shake unwound ; Assured of her fat fly to come ; Perhaps a blue, the spider's plum ; Who takes the fatal odds in fight. And gives repast an appetite. By plunging, whizzing, till his wings Are webbed, and in the lists he swings A shrouded lump, for her to see Her banquet in her victory. This matron of the unnumbered threads, One day of dandelions' heads Distributing their gray pemiques Up every gust, I watched with looks Discreet beside the chalet-door ; And gracefully a light wind bore. Direct upon my Webster's wall, A monster in the form of ball ; The mildest captive ever snared. That neither struggled nor despaired, On half the net invading hung, And plain as in her modier tongue. While low the weaver cursed her lures, Remarked, 'You have me; I am yours.' Thrice magnified, in phantom shape. Her dream of size she saw, agape. Midway the vast round-raying beard A desiccated midge appeared ;
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A GARDEN IDYL
Whose body pricked the name of me^. Whose hair bad growth in earth's uni^ ; Provocative of dread and wrath. Contempt and horror, in one froth. Inextricable, insensible, His poison presence there would dwell. Declaring him her dream fulfilled, A catch to compliment the skilled ; And she reduced to beaky skin. Disgraceful among kith and kin.
Against her comer, humped and ^ed, Arachne wrinkled, past enraged, Beyond disgust or hope in guile. Ridiculously volatile He seemed to her last spark of mind ; And that in pallid ash declined Beneath the blow by knowledge dealt. Wherein throughout her frame she felt That he, the light wind's libertine. Without a scoff, without a grin. And mannered like the courtly few. Who merely danced when light winds blew. Impervious to beak and claws. Tradition's ruinous Whitebeard was; Of whom, as actoi^ in old scenes. Had grannam weavers warned their weans. With word, that less than feather-weight. He smote the web like bolt of Fate.'
This muted drama, hour by hour,
I watched amid a worid in flower,
Ere yet Autumnal threads had laid
Their gray-blue o'er the grass's blade.
And still along the garden-run
The blindworm stretched him, drunk of sun.
Arachne crouched unmoved ; perchance
Her visitor performed a dance ;
She puckered thinner ; he the same
As when on that light wind he came.
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THE VITAL CHOICE
Next day was told what deeds of night Were done ; the web had vanished quite ; With it the strange opposing pair; And listless waved on vacant air. For her adieu to heart's content, A soHtary filament.
A READING OF LIFE THE VITAL CHOICE •
Or shall we run with Artemis
Or yield the breast to Aphrodite?
Both are mighty ;
Both give hiiss ;
Each can torture if derided ;
Each claims worship undivided,
In her wake would have us wallow.
n Youth must ofler on bent knees Homage unto one or other ; Earth, the mother. This decrees ;
And unto the pallid Scyther Either points us shun we either. Shun or too devoutly follow.
WITH THE HUNTRESS *
Through the water-eye of night, Midway between eve and dawn. See the chase, tlie rout, the flight In deep forest; oread, faun.
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32 WITH THE PERSUADER
To clasp and strike a slackened lyre, Till over smiles of hyacinth seas, Flame in a crystal vessel sails Beneath a dome of jewelled spray, For land that drops the rosy day On nights of throbbing nightin^es.
Landward did the wonder flit,
Or heart's desire of her, all earth in it.
We saw the heavens fling down their rose;
On rapturous waves we saw her glide ;
The pearly sea-shell half enclose ;
The shoal of sea-nymphs flush the tide ; '
And we, aBre to kiss her feet, no more
Behold than tracks along a startled shore.
With brightened edges of dark leaves that feign
An ambush hoped, as heartless night remain.
More closely, warmly : hither, hither ! she. The very she called forth by ripened blood For its next breath of being, murmurs ; she. Allurement ; she, fulfilment ; she. The stream within us urged to flood ; Man's cry, earth's answer, heaven's consent; O she, IMaid, woman and divinity | Xhir over-eartnly, inner-earthly mate Unmated ; she, our hunger and our fruit Untasted ; she our written fate Unread; Life's flowering, Life's root: Unread, divined ; unseen, beheld ; The evanescent, ever-present she. Great Nature's stem necessity In radiance clothed, to softness quelled ; With a sword's edge of sweetness keen to take Our breath for bliss, our hearts for fulness break. The murmur hushes down, the veil is rent. Man's cry, earth's answer, heaven's consent. Her form is given to pardoned sight. And lets our mortal eyes receive The sovereign loveliness of celestial white; Adored by them who solitarily pace.
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WITH THE PERSUADER
In dusk of the underworld's perpetual eve,
The paths among the meadow asphodel,
Remembering. Never there her face
Is planetary ; reddens to shore sea-shell
Around such whiteness the enamoured air
Of noon that clothes her, never there.
Daughter of light, the joyful light.
She stands unveiled to nuptial sight.
Sweet in her disregard of aid
Divine to conquer or persuade.
A fountain jets from moss ; a flower
Bends gently where her sunset tresses shower.
By guerdon of her brilliance may be seen
With eyeUds unabashed the passion's Queen.
Shorn of attendant Graces she can use
Her natural snares to make her will supreme.
A simple nymph it is, inclined to muse
Before the leader foot shall dip in stream :
One arm at curve along a rounded thigh ;
Her firm new breasts each pointing its own way;
A knee half bent to shade its fellow shy.
Where innocence, not nature, signals nay.
The bud of fresh virginity awaits
The wooer, and all roseate will she burst :
She touches on the hour of happy mates ;
Still is she unaware she wakens thirst.
And while commanding blissful sight believe It holds her as a body strained to breast, Down on the underworld's perpetual eve She plunges the possessor dispossessed ; And bids believe that image, heaving warm, Is lost to float like torcli-smoke after Rame; The phantom any breeze blows out of form ; A thirst's delusion, a defeated aim.
The rapture shed the torture weaves ; The direst blow on human heart she deals : The pain to know the seen deceives ; Nought true but what insufferably feels.
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[ WITH THE PERSUADEK
And stabs of her delicious note, That is as heavenly light to hearing, heard Through shelter leavea, the laughter from her throat. We answer as the midnight's morning's bird.
She laughs, she wakens gleeful cries ; In her delicious laughter part revealed ; Yet mother is she more of moans and sighs, For longings unappeased and wounds unhealed. Yet would she hless, it is her task to bless : Yon folded couples, passing under shade, Are her rich harvest ; bidden caress, caress. Consume the fruit in bloom ; not disobeyed. We dolorous complainers had a dream, Wrought on the vacant air from inper fire, We saw stand bare of her celestial beam The glorious Goddess, and we dared desire.
Thereat are shown reproachful eyes, and lips Of upward curl to meanings half otecure ; And glancing where a wood-nymph lightly skips She nods : at once that creature wears her lure. Blush of our being between birth and death : ■ Sob of our ripened blood for its nest breath : Her wily semblance nought of her denies; Seems it the Goddess runs, the Goddess hies, The generous Goddess yields. And she can arm Her dwarfed and twisted with her secret charm ; Benevolent as Earth to feed her own. Fully shall they be fed, if they beseech. But scorn she has for them that walk alone; Blanched men, starved women, whom no arts can pleach. The men as chief of criminals she disdains,
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WITH THE PERSUADER 5
For couples crowned with flowers that bum in dew.
Comes ibere a tremor of night's forest horn
Across her garden from the insaner crew,'
She darkens to malignity of scorn.
A shiver courses through her garden-grounds :
Gnmt of the tusky boar, the baying hounds.
The hunter's shouts, are heard afar, and bring
Dead on her heart her crimsoned flower of Spring.
These, the irreverent of Life's design,'
Division between natural and divine
Would cast ; these vaunting barrenness for best,
Iq veins of gathered strength Life's tide arrest ;
And these because the roses flood their cheeks.
Vow them in nature wise as when Love speaks.*
With them is war; and well the Goddess knows
What undermines the race who mount the rose;
How the ripe moment, lodged in slumberous hours.
Enkindled by persuasion overpowers :
Why weak as are her frailer trailing weeds.
The strong when Beauty gleams o'er Nature's needs,
And timely guile unguarded linds them He.
They who her sway withstand a sea defy.
At every point of juncture must be proof ;
Nor look for mercy from the incessant surge
Her forces mixed of craft and passion urge
For the one whelming wave to spring aloof.
She, tenderness, is pitiless to them
Resisting in her godhead nature's truth.
No flower their face shall be, but writhen stem ;
Their youth a frost, their age the dirge for youth.
These miserably disinclined,
The lamentably unembraced,
Insult the Pleasures Earth designed
To people and beflower the waste.
Wherefore the Pleasures pass them by :
For death they live, in life they die.
Her head the Goddess from them turns. As from grey mounds of ashes in bronze urns. She views her quivering couples uuconsoled, And of her beauty mirror they become.
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i WITH THE PERSUADER
Like orchard blossoms, apple, pear and plum.
Free of the cloud, beneath the flood of gold.
CrowDed with wreaths that bum in dew.
Her couples whirl, sun-satiated,
Athirst for shade ; they sigh, they wed.
They play the music made of two :
Oldest of earth, earth's youngest till earth's end;
Cunninger than the numbered strings.
For melodies, for harmonies.
For mastered discords, and the things
Not vocable, whose mysteries
Are inmost Love's, life's reach of Life extend.
Is it an anguish overflowing shame
And the tongue's pudency confides to her.
With eyes of embers, breath of incense myrrh.
The woman's marrow in some dear youth's name.
Then is the Goddess tenderness
Maternal, and she has her sister's tones
Benign to soothe intemperate distress.
Divide despair from hope, and sighs from moans.
Her gentleness imparts exhaling ease
To those of her milk-bearer votaries
As warm of bosom-earth as she ; of the soiu-ce
Direct; erratic but in heart's excess;
Being mortal and ill-matched for Love's great force ;
Like green leaves caught with flames by his impress.
And pray they under skies less overcast.
That swiftly may her star of eve descend.
Her lustrous morning star fly not too fast.
To lengthen blissful night will she befriend.
Unfailing her reply to woman's voice In supplication instant. Is it man's. She hears, approves his words, her garden scatta. And him : the flowers are various, he has choice. Perchance hb wound is deep ; she listens long ; Enjoys what music fills the plaintive song ; And marks how he, who would be hawk at poise Above the bird, his plaintive song enjoys.
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WITH THE PERSUADER 53
She reads him when his humbled manhood weeps
To her invoked : distraction is implored.
A smile, and he is up on godlike leaps
Above, with his bright Goddess owned the adored.
His tales of her declare she condescends ;
Can share his firea, not always goads and rends :
Moreover, quits a throne, and must enclose
A queenlier gem than woman's wayside rose.
She bends, he quickens ; she breathes low, he springs
Enraptured ; low she laughs, his woes disperse ;
Aloud she laughs and sweeps his varied strings.
*Tis taught him how for touch of mournful verse
Rarely the music made of two ascends.
And Beauty's Queen some other way is won.
Or it may solve the riddle, that she lends
Herself to all, and yields herself to none.
Save heavenliest : though claims by men are raised
In hot assurance under shade of doubt :
And numerous are the images bepraised
As Beauty's Queen, should passion head the rout.
Be sure the ruddy hue is Love's : to woo
Love's Fountain we must mount the ruddy hue.
That is her garden's precept, seen where shines
Her blood-flower, and its unsought neighbour pines.
Daughter of light, the joyful light.
She bids her couples face full East,
Reflecting radiance, even when from her feast
Their outstretched arms brown deserts disunite,
The lioD-haunted thickets hold apart.
In love the ruddy hue declares great heart ;
High confidence in her whose aid is lent
To lovers lifting the tuned instrument.
Not one of rippled strings and funeral tone.
And doth the man pursue a tightened zone.
Then be it as the laurel God he runs,
Confirmed to win, with countenance the Sun's.*
Should pity bless the tremulous voice of woe He lifts for pity, limp his offspring show. For him requiring woman's arts to please Infantile tastes with babe reluctances.
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i WITH THE PERSUADER
No race of giants ! In the woman's vans Persuasion ripely runs, through hers the pains. Her choice of him, should kind occasion nod. Aspiring blends the Titan with the God ; Yet unto dwarf and mortal, she, submiss In her high Lady's mandate, yields the kiss; And ia it needed that Love's daintier brut« Be snared as hunter, she will tempt pursuit.* She is great Nature's ever intimate Id breast, and doth as ready handmaid wait, Until, perverted by her senseless male. She plays the winding snake, the shrinkiDg snail. The flying deer, aU tricks of evil fame, Elusive to allure, since he grew tame.
Hence has the Goddess, Nature's earliest Power,
And greatest and most present, with her dower
Of the transcendent beauty, gained repute
For meditated guile. She laughs to hear
A charge her garden's labyrinths scarce confute,
Her garden's histories tell of to all near.
Let it be said. But less upon her guile
Doth she rely for her immortal smile.
S^l let the rumour spread, and terror screens
To push her conquests by the simplest means.
While man abjures not lustihead, nor swerves
From earth's good labours. Beauty's Queen he serves.
Her spacious garden and her garden's grant She offers in reward for handsome cheer : Choice of the nymphs whose looks will slant The secret down a dewy leer Of comer eyelids into haze : Many a fair Aphrosyne Like flower-bell to honey-bee : And here they flicker round the maze Bewildering him in heart and head : And here they wear the close demure With subtle peeps to reassure : Others parade where love has bled
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WITH THE PERSUADER 539
And of its crimson weave th«r meah ; Others to snap of fingers leap. As bearing breast with love asleep. These are her laughters in the flesh. Or would she fit a warrior mood. She lights her seeming unsubdued. And indicates the fortress-key. Or is it heart for heart that craves. She flecks along a run of waves The one to promise deeper sea.
Bands of her limpid primitives.
Or patterned in the curious braid.
Are the blest man's ;' and whatsoe'er he gives.
For what he gives is he repaid.
Good is it if by him 'tis held
He wins the fairest ever welled
From Nature's founts : she whispers it : Even I
Not fairer 1 and forbids hiro to deny.
Else little is he lover. Those he clasps,
Intent as tempest, worshipful as prayer, —
And be they doves or be they asps, —
Must seem to him the sovereignly fair ;
Else counts he soon among life's wholly tamed.
Him whom from utter savage she reclaimed.
Half savage must he stay, would he be crowned
The lover. Else, past ripeness, deathward bound.
He reasons ; and the totterer Earth detests,
Love shuns, grim Logic scrcns in grasp, is he.'
Doth man divide divine Necessity
From Joy, between the Queen of Beauty's breasts
A sword is driven ; for those most glorious twain
Present her ; armed to bless and to constrain.
Of this he perishes ; not she, the throned
On rocks that spout their springs to the sacred mounts.
A loftier Reason out of deeper founts
Earth's chosen Goddess bears : by none disowned
While red blood runs to swell the pulse, she boasts.
And Beauty, like her star, descends the sky ;
Earth's answer, heaven's consent unto man's cry,
Ul^if ted by the innumerable hosts.
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THE TEST OF MANHOOD 541
Nor either points for us the way of flame. From him' predestined mightier it came; His task to hold them both id breast, and yield Their dues to each, and of their war be field. The foes that in repulsion never ceased. Must he, who once has been the goodly beast Of one or other, at whose beck he ran, Constrain to make him serviceable man ; Offending neither, nor the natural claim Each pressed, denying, for his true man's name.
Ah, what a sweat of anguish in that strife
To hold them fast conjoined within him still ;
Submissive to his will
Along the road of life !
And marvel not be wavered if at whiles
The forward step met frowns, the backward smiles.
For Pleasure witched him her sweet cup to drain ;
Repentance offered ecstasy in pain.
Delicious licence called it Nature's cry ;
Ascetic rigours crushed the fleshly sigh ;
A tread on shingle timed his lame advance
Flung as the die of Bacchanalian Chance,
He of the troubled marching army leaned
On godhead visible, on godhead screened ;
The radiant roseate, the curtained white ;
Yet sharp his battle strained through day, through night.
He drank of fictions, till celestial aid
Might seem accorded when he fawned and prayed
Sagely the generous Giver circumspect.
To choose for grants the egregious, his elect ; '
And ever that imagined succour slew
The soul of brotherhood whence Reverence drew.
In fellowship religion has its founts :
The solitary his own God reveres :
Ascend no sacred Mounts
Our hungers or our fears.
As only for the numbers Nature's care
Is shown, and she the personal nothing heeds.
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I THE TEST OF MANHOOD
So to Divinity the spring of prayer
From brotherhood the one way upward leads.
Like the sustaining air
Are both for flowers and weeds.
But he who claims in spirit to be flower
Will find thero both an air that doth devour.*
Whereby he smelt his treason, who implored
ExtemaJ gifts bestowed but on the sword ; *
Beheld himself, with less and less disguise,
Through those blood-cataracts which dimmed his eyes,
His army's foe, condemned to strive and fail ;
See a black adversary's ghost prevail ; '
Never, though triumphs hailed him, hope to win
While still the conflict tore his breast within.
Out of that agony, misread for those
Imprisoned Powers warring unappeased,
The ghost of his black adversary rose.
To smother light, shut heaven, show earth diseased.
And long with him was wrestling ere emerged
A mind to read in him the reflex shade
Of its fierce torment ; this way, that way urged ;
By craven compromises hourly swayed.
Crouched as a nestling, still its wings untried,
The man's mind opened uoder weight of cloud.
To penetrate the dark was it endowed ;
Stood day before a vision shooting wide.
Whereat the spectral enemy lost fonn ; '
The traversed wilderness exposed its track.
He felt the far advance in looking back ;
Thence trust in his foot forward through the storm.
Under the low-browed tempest's eye of ire. That ere it lightened smote a coward heart. Earth nerved her chastened son to hail athwart All ventures perilous his shrouded Sire ; ■ A stranger still, religiously divined ; Not yet with understanding read aright. But when the mind, the cherishable mind. The midtitude's grave shepherd, took full Bight,
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THE TEST OF MANHOOD 54
Himself as mirror raised among his kind „
He saw, and first of brotherhood had sight : ' "
Knew that his force to fly, his will to see,
His heart enlarged beyond its ribbed domain.
Had come of many a grip in mastery,
IMiich held conjoined the hostile rival twain,*
And of his bosom made him lord, to keep
The starry roof of his unruffled frame
Awake to earth, to heaven, and plumb the deep
Below, above, aye with a wistful aim.
The mastering mind in hira, by tempests blown.
By traitor inmates baited, upward burned ;
Perforce of growth, the Master mind discerned.
The Great Unseen, nowise the Dark Unknown."*
To whom unwittingly did he aspire
In wilderness, where bitter was his need :
To whom in blindness, as an earthy seed
For light and air, he struck through crimson, mire.
But not ere he upheld a forehead lamp.
And viewed an army, once the seeming doomed.
All choral in its fruitful garden camp.
The spiritual the palpable illumed.
This gift of penetration and embrace.
His prize from tidal battles lost or won.
Reveals the scheme to animate his race :
How that it is a warfare but begun ;
Unending ; with no Power to interpose ;
No prayer, save for strength to keep his ground.
Heard of the Highest ; never battle's close,
The victory complete and victor crowned :
Nor solace in defeat, save from that sense
Of strength well spent, which is the strength renewed.
In manhood must he find his competence ;
In his clear mind the spiritual food :
God being there while he his fight maintains ;
Throughout his mind the Master Mind being there.
While he rejects the suicide despair ;
Accepts the spur of explicable pains ;
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I THE TEST OP MANHOOD
Obedient to Nature, not her slave :
Her lord, if to her rigid laws he bows ;
Her dust, if with his conscience he plays knave.
And bids the Passions on the Pleasures browse : —
Whence Evil in a world unread before ;
That mystery to simple springs resolved.
His God the Known, diviner to adore.
Shows Nature's savage riddles kindly solved.
Inconscient, insensitive, she reigns
In iron laws, though rapturous fair her face.
Back to the primal brute shall he retrace
His path, doth he permit to force her chains
A soft Persuader coursing through his veins,
An icy Huntress stringing to the chase :
What one the flesh disdains ;
What one so gives it grace."
But is he rightly manful in her eyes,
A splendid bloodless knight to gain the skies.
A blood-hot son of Earth by all her signs,
Desireing and desireable he shines ;
As peaches, that have caught the sun's uprise
And kissed warm gold till noonday, even as vines.
Earth fills him with her juices, without fear
That she will cast him drunken down the steeps.
All woman is she to this man most dear ;
He sows for bread, and she in spirit reaps :
She conscient, she sensitive, in him ;
With him enwound, his brave ambition hers :
By him humaner made ; by his keen spurs
Pricked to race past the pride in giant limb.
Her crazy adoration of big thews.
Proud in her primal sons, when crags they burled.
Were thunder spitting lightnings on the world
In daily deeds, and she their evening Muse.
s not to destroy ; in ocean stands ; — e myriad hands s joy.
or purity is shown rge to make it clean.
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THE TEST OF MANHOOD 54
Withal his pitch of pride would Dot disown A sober world that walks the balanced mean Between its tempters, rarely overthrown:" And such at times his army's march has been.
Near is he to great Nature in the thought Each changing Season intimately saith. That nought save apparition knows the death ; To the God-lighted mind of man 'tis nought. She counts not loss a word of any weight ; It may befal his passions and his greeds To lose their treasures, like the vein that bleeds. But life gone breathless will she reinstate.
Close on the heart of Earth his bosom beats. When he the mandate lodged in it obeys, Alive to breast a future wrapped in haze. Strike camp, and onward, like the wind's cloud-fleets. Unresting she, unresting he, from change To change, as rain of cloud, as fruit of rain ; • She feels her blood-tree throbbing in her grain, ' '' Yet skyward branched, with loftier mark and range. No miracle the sprout of wheat from clod, She knows, nor growth of man in grisly brute ; But he, the flower at head and soil at root. Is miracle, guides he the brute to God. And that way seems he bound ; that way the road, With his dark-lantern mind, unled, alone, Wearifidly through forest-tracks unsown. He travels, urged by some internal goad.
Dares he behold the thing he is, what thing He would become is in his mind its child ; Astir, demanding birth to light and wing ; For battle prompt, by pleasure unbeguiled. So moves he forth in faith, if he has made His mind God's temple, dedicate to truth. Earth's nourishing delights, no more gainsaid. He tastes, as doth the bridegroom rich in youth. Then knows he Love, that beckons and controls ; The star of sky upon his footway cast ; Then match in him who holds his tempters fast,
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5 THE TEST OF MANHOOD
The body'a love and mind's, whereof the soul's.
Then Earth her man for woman finds at last.
To speed the pair unto her goal of goals.
Or is 't the widowed's dream of her new mate?
Seen has she virulent days of heat in flood ;
The sly Persuader snaky in his blood ;
With her the barren Huntress alternate ;
His rough refractory off on kicking heels
To rear; the man dragged rearward, shamed, amazed;
And as a torrent stream where cattle grazed.
His tumbled world. What, then, the faith she feels?
May not his aspect, like her own so fair
Reflexively, the central force belie.
And he, the once wild ocean storming sky,
Be rebel at the core? What hope is there?
'Tis that in each recovery he preserves, Between his upper and his nether wit. Sense of his march ahead, more brightly lit ; He less the shaken thing of lusts and nerves ; With such a grasp upon his brute as tells Of wisdom from that vile relapsing spun, A Sun goes down in wasted fire, a Sun Resplendent springs, to faith refreshed compels.
THE HUELESS LO\T *
Unto that love must we through fire attain, Which those two held as breath of common air; The hands of whom were given in bond elsewhere;
Whom Honour was untroubled to restrain.
Midway the road of our life's term they met. And one another knew without surprise ; Nor cared that beauty stood in mutual eyes ;
Nor at their tardy meeting nursed regret.
To them it was revealed how they had found The kindred nature and the needed mind ; The mate by long conspiracy designed ;
Tlie flower to plant in sanctuary ground.
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THE HUELESS LOVE
Avowed in vigilant solicitude
For either, jvhat most lived within each breast They let be seen : yet every human test
Demanding righteousness approved them good.
She leaned on a strong arm, and little feared Abandonment to help if heaved or sank Her heart at intervals while Love looked blank.
Life rosier were she biit less revered.
An arm that never shook did not obscure Her woman's intuition of the bliss — Their tempter's moment o'er the black abyss.
Across the narrow plank — he could abjure.
Then came a day that clipped for him the thread. And their first touch of lips, as he lay cold, Was all of earthly in their love untold.
Beyond all earthly known to them who wed.
So has there come the gust at South-west flung By sudden volt on eves of freezing mist. When sister snowfiake sister snowdrop kissed.
And one passed out, and one the belUhead hung.
UNION IN DISSEVERANCE
Sunset worn to its last vermilion he; She that star overhead in slow descent : That white star with the front of angel she ; He undone in his rays of glory spent.
Halo, fair as the bow-shot at his rise, He casts round her, and knows his hour of rest Incomplete, were tbe light for which he dies Less like joy of the dove that wings to nest.
Lustrous momently, near on earth she sinks ; Life's full throb over breathless and abased : Yet stand they, though impalpable the links. One, more one than Uie bridally embraced.
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SONG IN THE SONGLESS
Thet have do song, the sedges dry,
And still they sing. It is within my breast they sing,
As I pass by. Within my breast they touch a string,
They wake a sigh. There is but sound of sedges dry ;
In me tfaey sing.
THE BURDEN OF STRENGTH
If that thou hast the gift of strength, then know
Thy part is to uplift tlie trodden low ;
Else in a giant's grasp until the end
A hopeless wrestler shall thy soul contend.
THE MAIN REGRET
[WBHTEN FOB 'THE CHARINU CH088 ALBDM']
Seen, too clear and historic within us, our sins of omission Frown when the Autumn days strip us all ruthlessly bare.
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ALTERNATION
Between the founudn and the rill I passed, and saw the mighty will To leap at sky ; the careless run, Aa earth would lead her little sod.
Beneath them throbs an urgent well. That here is play, and there is war. I know not which had most to tell Of whence we spring and what we are.
FOREST HISTORY •
Beneath the vans of doom did men pass in. Heroic who came out ; for round them hung A wavering phantom's red volcano tongue,
With league-long lizard tail and fishy fin :
Old Earth's original Dragon ; there retired To his last fastness ; overthrown by few. Him a laborious thrust of roadway slew.
Then man to play devorant straight was fired.
More intimate became the forest fear While pillared darkness hatched malicious life At either elbow, wolf or gnome or knife.
And wary slid the glance from ear to ear.
In chillness, like a clouded lantem-ray.
The forest's heart of fog on mossed morass, On purple pool and silky cotton-grass.
Revealed where lured the swallower byway.
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FOREST HISTORY
Dead outlook, flattened back with hard rebound Off walls of distance, left each mounted height. It seemed a giant hag-fiend, churning spite
Of humble human being, held the ground.
Through friendless wastes, through treacherous woodland.
The feet sustained by track of feet pursue<l Pained steps, and found the common brotherhood By sign of Heaven indifferent. Nature foe.
VII Anon a mason's work amazed the sight.
And long-frocked men, called Brothers, there abode.
They pointed up, bowed head, and duR and sowed ; Whereof was shelter, loaf, and warm firelight.
VIII What words they taught were nails to scratch the head.
Benignant works explained the chanting brood.
Their monastery lit black solitude. As one might think a star that heavenward led.
Uprose a fairer nest for weary feet.
Like some gold flower nightly inward curled. Where gentle maidens fled a roaring world,
Or played with it, and had their white retreat.
Into big books of metal clasps they pored.
They governed, even as men ; they welcomed lays.
The treasures women are whose aim is praise Was shown in them : the Garden half restored.
A deluge billow scoured the land off seas. With widened jaws, and slaughter was its foam. For food, for clothing, ambush, refuge, home,
The lesser savage offered bogs and trees.
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FOREST HISTORY
Whence reverence round grey-haired story grew ; And inmost spots of ancient horror shone As temples under beams of trials bygone ;
For in them sang brave timea with God in view.
Till now trim homesteads bordered spaces green. Like night's first little stars through clearing showers. Was rumoured how a castle's falcon towers
The wilderness commanded with fierce mien.
Therein a serious Baron stuck his lance ;
For minstrel songs a beauteous Dame would pout.
Gay knights and sombre, felon or devout. Pricked onward, bound for their unsung romance.
It might be that two errant lords across
The block of each came edged, and at sharp cry They charged forthwith, the better man to try.
One rode his way, one couched on quiet moss.
Perchance a lady sweet, whose lord lay slain. The robbers into gruesome durance drew. Swift should her hero come, like lightning's blue !
She prayed for him, as crackling drought for rain ;
As we, that ere the worst her hero ha[». Of Angels guided, nigh that loathly den : A toady cave beside an ague fen,
Where long forlorn the lone dog whines and yaps.
By daylight now the forest fear could rend Itself, and at new wonders chuckling went. Straight for the roebuck's neck the bowman s[>ent
A dart that laughed at distance and at speed.
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! FOREST HISTORY
XIX
Right loud the bugle's hallali elate Rang forth of merry dingles round the tors ; And deftest hand was he from foreign wars.
But sooD he hailed the home-bred yeoman mate.
Before the blackbird pecked the turf they woke ;
At dawn the deer's wet nostrils blew their last.
To forest, haunt of runs and prime repast, With paying blows, the yokel strained his yoke.
The city urchin mooned on forest air. On grassy sweeps and flying arrows, thick As swallows o'er smooth streams, and sighed him sick
For thinking that his dearer home ^aa there.
Familiar, still unseized, the forest sprang An old-world echo, like no mortal thing. The hunter's hom might wind a jocund ring,
But held in ear it bad a chilly clang.
Some shadow lurked aloof of ancient time ; Some warning haunted any sound prolonged. As though the leagues of woodland held them wronged
To hear an axe and see a township climb.
The forest's erewhile emperor at eve
Had voice when lowered heavens drummed for gates.
At midnight a small people danced the dales. So thin that they might dwindle through a sieve.
Ringed mushrooms told of them, and in their throats Old wives that gathered herbs and knew too much. The pensioned forester beside his crutch
Struck showers from embers at those bodeful notes-
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FOREST HISTORY
Came then the one, all ear, all eye, all heart ;
Devourer, and insensibly devoured ;
In whom the city over forest flowered. The forest wreathed the city's drama-mart.
There found he in new form that Dragon old. From tangled solitudes expelled ; and taught How blindly each its antidote besought ;
For cither's breath the needs of either told.
xxviii
Now deep in woods, with song no sermon's drone. He showed what charm the human concourse works : Amid the press of men, what virtue lurks
Where bubble sacred wells of wildness lone.
XXIX
Our conquest these : if haply we retain The reverence that ne'er will overrun Due boundaries of realms from Nature won.
Nor let the poet's awe in rapture wane.
FRAGMENTS OF THE ILIAD IN ENGLISH HEXAMETER VERSE
Iliad, i. 149 THE INVECTIVE OF ACHILLES
'Heigh mel brazen of front, thou glutton for plunder, how
can one. Servant here to thy mandates, heed thee among our Achaians, Either the mission hie on or stoutly do flght with the ff>emen ? I, not hither I fared on account of the spear-armM Trojans, Pledged to the combat ; they unto me have in nowise a harm
done;
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654 TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER
Never have they, of a truth, come lifting my horses or oxen ;
Never in deep-soiled Phthia, the nurser of heroes, my harvests
Ravaged, they ; for between us is numbered full many a darksome
Mountain, ay, therewith too the stretch of the windy sea- waters,
0 hugely shameless 1 thee did we follow to heaKen thee,
justice Pluck from the Dardans for him, Menelaos, thee too, thou
dog-eyed ! Whereof little thy thought is, nought whatever thou reckest. Worse, it is thou whose threat 'tis to ravish my prize from
me, portion Won with much labour, the which my gjft from the sons of
Achaia. Never, in sooth, have I known my prize equal thine when
Achaians Gave some flourishing populous Trojan town up to pillage. Nay, sure, mine were the hands did most in the storm of the
combat. Yet when came pcradventure share of the booty amongst us. Bigger to thee went the prize, while I some small bless^l
thing bore Off to the ships, my share of reward for my toil in the blood- shed 1 So now go I to Phthia, for better by much it beseems me Homeward go with my beaked ships now, and I hold not in
prospect,
1 being outraged, thou mayest gather here plunder and wealth-
store.'
i. 225 'Bibber besotted, with scowl of a cur, having heart of a
deer, thou 1 Never to join to tliy warriors armed for the press of the
conflict. Never for ambush forth with the princeliest sons of Achaia Dared thy soul, for to tliee that thing would have looked as a
death-stroke. Sooth, more easy it seems, down the lengthened array of
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TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER 555
Snatch at the prize of the one whose voice has been lifted
against thee. Ravening king of the folk, for that thou hast thy rule over
abjects ; Else, son of Atreus, now were this outrage on me thy last one. Nay, but I teli thee, and I do swear a big oath on it hkewise : Yea, by the sceptre here, and it surely bears branches and
leaf-buds Never again, since first it was lopped from its trunk on the
mountains. No more sprouting ; for round it all clean has the sharp metal
clipped otT Leaves and the bark ; ay, verily now do the sons of Achaia, Guardian hands of the counsels of Zeus, pronouncing the
judgement. Hold it aloft ; so now unto thee shall the oath have its portent; Loud will the cry for Achilles burst from the sons of Achaia Throughout the army, and thou chafe powerless, though in an
anguish. How to give succour when vast crops down under man-slajing
Hector Tumble expiring; and thou deep in thee shalt tear at thy
heart-strings. Rage-wrung, thou, that in nought thou didst honour the
flower of Achaians.'
lUAD, ii. 455
MARSHALLING OF THE ACHAIANS
Like as a terrible fire feeds fast on a forest enormous.
Up on a mountain height, and the blaze of it radiatios round
far. So on the bright blest arms of the host in their march did the
splendour Gleam wide round through the circle of air right up to the
sky-vault. They, now, as when swarm thick in the air multitudinous
winged flocks, Be it of geese or of cranes or the long-necked troops of the
wild-swans,
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556 TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER
Off that Asian mead, by the flow of the waters of Kustros ; Hither and yon fly they, and rejoicing in pride of their pinions, CUmour, shaped to their ranks, and the mead all about them
resoundeth ; So those numerous tribes from their ships and their shelterings
poured forth On that plain of Scamander, and horrible rumbled beneath
them Earth to the quick-paced feet of the men and the tramp of
the horse-hooves. Stopped they then on the fair-flower'd field of Scamander,
their thousands Many as leaves and the blossoms bom of the flowerf ul season. Even as countless hot-pressed flies in their multitudes traverse. Clouds of them, under some herdsman's wonning, where then
are the milk-pails Also, full of their milk, in the bountiful season of spring-time ; Even so thickly the long-haired sons of Achaia the plain held. Prompt for the dash at the Trojan host, with the passion to
crush them. Those, likewise, as the goatherds, eyeing their vast flocks of
goats, know Easily one from the other when all get mixed o'er the pasture. So did the chieftains rank them here there in their places far
onslaught. Hard on the push of the fray; and among them King
Agamemnon, He, for his eyes and his head, as when Zeus glows glad in his
thunder. He with the girdle of Ares, he with the breast of Poseidon.
lUAD, xi. 148 AGAMEMNON IN THE FIGHT
These, then, he left, and away where ranks were now dashing the thickest.
Onward rushed, and with him rushed all of the bright-greaved Achaians.
Foot then footmen slew, that were flying from direful com- pulsion.
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TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER 557
Horse at the horsemen (up from off under them mounted the dust-cloud.
Up off the plain, raised up cloud-thick by the thundering horse-hooves)
Hewed with the sword's sharp edge ; and so meanwhile Lord Agamemnon
Followed, chasing and slaughtering aye, on-urgeing the Arpves.
Now, as when Bre voracious catches the unclippM woodland.
This way bears it and that the great whirl of the wind, and the scnibwood
Stretches uptom, fiung forward alength by the fire's fury ragmg.
So beneath Atreides Agamemnon heads of the scattered
Trojans fell ; and in numbers amany the horses, neck- stiffened,
Rattled their vacant cars down the roadway gaps of the war- field,
ACssing the blameless charioteers, but, for these, they were outstretched
Flat upon earth, far clearer to vultures than to their home-
PARIS AND DIOMEDES
So he, with a clear shout of laughter.
Forth of his ambush leapt, and he vaunted him, uttering thisnise :
'Hit thou artl not in vain Sew the shaft; how by rights it had pierced thee
Into the undermost gut, therewith to have rived thee of life- breath!
Following that had the Trojans plucked a new breath from their direst.
They all frighted of thee, as the goats bleat in flight from a lion.'
Then unto him untroubled made answer stout Diomedes :
'Bow-puller, jiber, thy bow for thy glorying, spyer at virgins I
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558 TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER
If that thou dared'at face me here out in the open with
weapons, Nothing then would avail thee thy bow and thy thick shot of
arrows. Now thou plumest thee vainly because of a graze of my foot- Reck I as were that stroke from a woman or some pettish
infant. Aye flics blunted the dart of the man that 'a emasculate,
nought worth ! Otherwise hits, forth flying from me, and but strikes it the
slightest. My keen shaft, and it numbers a man of the dead fallen
straightway. Torn, troth, then are the cheeks of the wife of that man fallen
slaughtered, Orphans his babes, full surely he reddens the earth with his
blood-drops. Rotting, round hira the birds, more numerous they than the
luAD, xiv. 283
HYPNOS ON IDA
Thet then to fountain-abundant Ida, mother of wild beasts. Came, and they first left ocean to fare over mainland at
Lektos, Where underneath of their feet waved loftiest growths of the
woodland. There hung Hypnos fast, ere the vision of Zeus was obser\'ant. Mounted upon a tall pine-tree, tallest of pines that on
soil for the shoot up aloft into aether, ivell-cloaked by the wide-branched pine for
1 his form like, that perched high up in the
I by the Gods, hut of mortals known as
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TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER 559
lUAD, xiv. 394
CLASH IN ARMS OF THE ACHAIANS AND
TROJANS
Not the sea-wave so bellows abroad when it bursts upon
Whipped from the sea's deeps up by the terrible blast of the Northwind ;
Nay, nor is ever the roar of the fierce fire's rush ao arousing,
Down along mountain-glades, when it surges to kindle a woodland ;
Nay, nor so tOnant thunders the stress of the gale in the oak- trees'
Foliage-tresses high, when it rages to raveing its utmost ;
As rose then stupendous the Trojans' cry and Achaians',
Dread upshouting as one when together they dashed in the conflict.
lUAD, xvii. 426
THE HORSES OF ACHILLES
So now the horses of Aiakides, off wide of the war-ground. Wept, since first they were ware of their charioteer over- thrown there. Cast down low in the whirl of the dust under man-slaying
Hector, Sooth, meanwhile, then did Automedon, brave son of
DJores, Oft, on the one hand, urge them with flicks of the swift whip,
and oft, too, Coax entreatingly, hurriedly ; whiles did he angrily threaten. Vainly, for these would not to the ships, to the Hellespont
spacious. Backward turn, nor be whipped to the battle among the
Achaians. Nay, as a pillar remains immovable, fixed on the tombstone. Haply, of some dead man or it may be a woman thereunder ; Even like hard stood they there attached to the glorious
war-car.
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560 TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER
Earthward bowed with their heads ; and of them so lamenting incessant
Ran the hot teardrops downward on to the earth from their eyelids,
Mourning their charioteer; all their lustrous manes dusty- clotted.
Right side and left of the yoke-ring tossed, to the breadth of the yoke-bow.
Now when the issue of Kronos beheld that sorrow, his head shook Pitying them for their grief, these words then he spake in his
bosom; ' Why, ye hapless, gave we to Peleus you, to a mortal Master ; ye that are ageless both, ye both of you deathless I Was it that ye among men most wretched should come to have
heart-grief? "Tia most true, than the race of these men is there wretcheder
nowhere Aught over earth's range found that is ^ted with breath
and has movement.'
THE MARES OF THE CAMARGUE
FBOM THE 'MIREIO' OF UIBTRAL
A HUNDRED mares, all white 1 their manes Like mace-reed of the marshy plains Thick-tufted, wavy, free o' the shears : And when the fiery squadron rears Bursting at speed, each mane appears
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THE CRISIS 561
And on a day, with prompt rebound. They have flung their riders to the ground.
And at a single gallop, scouring free.
Wide nostril'd to the wind, twice ten
Of long marsh-leagues devour'd, and then,
Back to the Vacar^ again,
After ten years of slavery just to breathe salt sea.
For of this savage race unbent
The ocean is the element. Of old escaped from Neptune's car, full sure
Still with the white foam 6eck'd are they.
And when the sea puffs black from grey.
And ships part cables, loudly neigh The stalUons of Canmrgue, all joyful in the roar ;
And keen as a whip they lash and crack Their tails that drag the dust, and back
Scratch up the earth, and feel, entering their flesh, where he, The God, drives deep his trident teeth, ^Vho in one horror, above, beneath. Bids storm and watery d^uge seethe.
And shatters to their depths the abysses of the sea.
Cant. iv.
THE CRISIS*
Spirit of Russia, now has come
The day when thou canst not be dumb.
Around thee foams the torrent tide.
Above thee its fell fountain. Pride.
The senseless rock awaits thy word
To crumble ; shall it be unheard ?
Already, like a tempest-sun.
That shoots the flare and shuts to dun.
Thy land 'twixt flame and darkness heaves.
Showing the blade wherewith Fate cleaves,
If mortals in high courage fail
At the one breath before the gale.
Those rulers in all forms of lust.
Who trod thy children down to dust
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, THE CRISIS
On the red Sunday, know right well
What word for them thy voice would spell,
What quick perdition for them weave.
Did they in such a voice believe.
Not thine to raise the avenger's shriek,
Nor turn to them a Tolstoi cheek;
Nor menace him, the waverer still,
Man of much heart and little wilt.
The criminal of his high seat.
Whose plea of Guiltless judges it.
For him thy voice shall bring to hand
Salvation, and to thy torn land.
Seen on the breakers. Now has come
The day when thou canst not be dumb.
Spirit of Russia l— those who bind
Thy limbs and iron-cap thy mind.
Take thee for quaking flesh, misdoubt
That thou art of the rabble rout
Which cries and flees, with wljimpering lip,
From reckless gun and brutal whip ;
Sut he who has at heart the deeds
Of thy heroic offspring reads
In them a soul ; not given to shrink
From peril on the abyss's brink ;
With never dread of murderous power;
With view beyond the crimson hour ;
Neither an instinct-driven might.
Nor visionary erudite ;
A soul ; that art thou. It remains
For thee to stay thy children's veuis.
The countertides of hate arrest.
Give to thy sons a breathing breast.
And Him resembling, in His sight.
Say to thy land. Let there be Ught.
THE CENTENARY OP GARIBALDI •
We who have seen Italia in the throes, Half risen but to be hurled to ground, and now Like a ripe field of wheat where once drove plough All bounteous as she b fair, we tbiok of those
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GARIBALDI S
l^lio blev the breath of life into her fratne : Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi : Three : Her Brain, her Soul, her Sword ; and set her free From ruinous discords, with one lustrous aim.
That aim, albeit they were of minds diverse, Conjoioed them, not to strive without surcease;' For them could be no babblement of peace While lay their country under Slavery's curse.
The set of torn Italia's glorious day Was ever sunrise in each filial breast. Of eagle beaks by righteousness unblest They felt her pulsing body made the prey.
Wherefore they struck, and had to count their dead. With bitter smile of resolution nerved To try new issues, holding faith unswerved. Promise they gathered from the rich blood shed.
In them Italia, visible to us then
As living, rose ; for proof that huge brute Force
Has never being from celestial source.
And is the lord of cravens, not of men.
Now breaking up the crust of temporal strife. Who reads their acts enshrined in History, sees That Tyrants were the Revolutionaries, The Rebels men heart-vowed to hallowed life.
Pure as the Archangel's cleaving Darkness thro'. The Sword he sees, the keen unwearied Sword, A single blade against a circling horde. And aye for Freedom and the trampled few.
The cry of Liberty from dungeon cell. From exile, was his God's command to smite. As for a swim in sea he joined the fight, With radiant face, full sure that he did weU.
Behold a warrior dealing mortal strokes. Whose nature was a child's : amid his foes A wary trickster : at the battle's close. No gentler friend this leopard dashed with fox.
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GARIBALDI
Down the long roll of History will run The story of those deeds, and speed his race Beneath defeat more hotly to embrace The noble cause and trust to another sun.
And lo, that aun is in Italia's skies This day, by grace of his good sword in part. It beckons her to keep a warrior heart For guard of beauty, all too sweet a prize.
Earth gave him : blessM be the Earth that gave. Earth's Master crowned his honest work on earth : Proudly Italia names hb place of birth : The bosom of Humanity his grave.
THE WILD ROSE
High climbs June's wild rose. Her bush all blooms in a swarm ; And swift from the bud she blows. In a day when the wooer is warm ; Frank to receive and give. Her bosom b open to bee and sun : Pride she has none. Nor shame she knows ; Happy to live.
Unlike those of the garden ni^,
Her queenly sisters enthroned by art ;
Loos«iing petals one by one
To the fiery Passion's dart
Superbly shy.
For them in some glory of hair.
Or nest of the heaving mounds to lie,
Or path of the bride bestrew.
Ever are they the theme for song.
But nought of that is her share.
Hardly from wayfarers tramping along,
A glance they care not to renew.
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THE WILD ROSE
And she at a word of the claima of kin
Shrinks to the level of roads and meads :
She b only a plsio princess of the weeds,
As an outcast witless of sin :
Much disregarded, save by the few
Who love her, that has not a spot of deceit.
No promise of sweet beyond sweet,
Often descending to sour.
On any fair breast she would die in an hour.
Praises she scarce could bear, Were any wild poet to praise. Her aim is to rise into light and air. One of the darlings of Earth, no more. And little it seems in the dusty ways. Unless to the grasses nodding beneath ; The bird clapping wings to soar. The clouds of an evetide's wreath.
THE YEARS HAD WORN THEIR SEASONS' BELT
The years had worn their seasons' belt.
From bud to rosy prime, Since Nellie by the larch-pole knelt
And helped the hop to climb.
Most diligent of teachers then.
But now with all to learn. She breathed beyond a thought of men.
Though formed to make men bum.
She dwelt where 'twixt low-beaten thorns
Two mill-blades, like a snail, Enormous, with inquiring boms.
Looked down on half the vale.
You know the grey of dew on grass
Ere with the young sun fired. And you know well the thirst one has
For the coming and desired.
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THE YEARS HAD WORN
Quick in our ring she leapt, and gave
Her hand to left, to right. No claim on her had any, save
To feed the joy of sight. For man and maid a laughing word
She tossed, in notes as clear As when the February bird
Sings out that Spring is near. Of what befell behind that scene.
Let none who knows reveal. In ballad days she might have been
A heroine rousing steel.
On us did she bestow the hour,
And fixed it firm in thought ; Her spirit like a meadow flower
That gives, and asks for nought. She seemed to make the sunlight stay
And show her in its pride. O she was fair as a beech in May
With the sun on the yonder side. There was more life than breath can ^ve,
In the looks in her fair form ; For little can we say we live
Until the heart is warm.
ON COMO
A RAINLESS darkness drew o'er the lake
As we lay in our boat with oars unshipped.
It seemed neither cloud nor water awake,
And forth of the low black curtain slipped
Thunderiess lightning. Scoff no more
At angels imagined in downward flight
For the daughters of earth as fabled of yore:
Here was beauty might well invite
Dark heavens to gleam with the fire of a sun
Resurgent ; here the exchanged embrace
Worthy of heaven and earth made one.
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FRAGMENTS «
And witness it, ye of the privileged space.
Said the flash ; and the mountains, as from an abyss
For quivering seconds leaped up to attest
That given, received, renewed was the kiss ;
The lips to lips and the breast to breast;
All in a glory of ecstasy, swift
Aa an eagle at prey, and pure as the prayer
Of an infant bidden joined hands uplift
To be guarded through darkness by spirits of air,
Ere setting the sails of sleep till day.
Slowly the low cloud swung, and far
It panted along its mirrored way ;
Above loose threads one sanctioning star,
The wonder of what had been witnessed, sealed.
And with me still as in crystal glassed
Are the depths alight, the heavens revealed,
Where on to the Alps the muteness passed.
Open horizons round,
O mounting mind, to scenes unsung,
Wherein shall walk a lusty Time:
Our Earth is young ;
Of measure without bound ;
Infinite are the heights to climb,
The depths to sound.
A WILDING little stubble flower The sickle scorned which cut for wheat. Such was our hope in that dark hour When nought save uses held the street. And daily pleasures, daily needs. With barren vision, looked ahead. And still the same result of seeds Gave likeness 'twixt the live and dead.
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Frou labours through the night, outworn. Above the hills the front of mora We see, whose eyes to heights are raised. And the worid's wise may deem us crazed. While yet her lord lies under seas, She takes us as the wind the trees' Delighted leafage; all in song We mount to her, to her belong.*
This love of nature, that allures to take Irregularity for harmony Of larger scope than our hard measiues make. Cherish it as thy school for when on thee The ills of life descend.
EPITAPHS
TO A FRIEND LOST
(tou tatlor]
When I remember, friend, whom lost I call,
Because a man beloved is taken hence.
The tender humour and the fire of sense
In your good eyes ; how full of heart for all,
And chie8y for the weaker by the wall.
You bore that lamp of sane benevolence ;
Then see 1 round you Death his shadows dense
Divide, and at your feet his emblems fall.
For surely are you one with the white host,
Spints, whose memory ii our vital air,
Tiirough the great love of Earth they had : lo, these,
Uke beams that throw the path on tossing seas.
Can bid us feel we keep them in the ghost.
Partakers of a strife they joyed to share.
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M. M.
(UARIE MEREDITH]
Who call her Mother and who calls her Wife Look on her grave and see not Death but life.
LADY C. M.
[lADT CAROUNE MAXBE]
To them that knew her, there is vital 6ame Id these the simple letters of her name. To them that knew her not, be it but said. So strong a spirit is not of the dead.
ON THE TOMBSTONE OF
JAMES CHRISTOPHER WILSON (d. APRIL 11, 1884)
IN HBADLBT CHDRCHTARD, SURRET
Thou our beloved and light of Earth bast crossed The sea of darkness to the yonder shore. There dost thou shine a light transferred, not lost, Through love to kindle in our souls the more.
GORDON OF KHARTOUM
Of men he would have raised to light he fell : In soul he conquered with those nerveless hands. His country's pride and her abasement knell The Man of England circled by the sands.
J. C. M.
[JAHEB COTTER MORISON]
A FOUNTAIN of our sweetest, quick to spring In fellowship abounding, here subsides : And never passage of a cloud on wing To gladden blue forgets him ; near he hides.
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THE EMPEROR FREDERICK OF 6UR TIIVIE
With Alfred and St. Louk he doth win Grander than crowned head's mortuary dome: His gentle heroic manhood enters in The ever-flowering common heart for home.
'ISLET' THE DACHS
Our 'Islet' out of Helgoland, dismissed
From his quaint tenement, quits hates and loves.
There lived with us a wagging humourist
In that hound's arch dwarf-legged on boxing-gloves.
OX HEARING THE NEWS FROM VENICE
[the death of ROBERT BROWNING]
Now dumb is he who waked the world to speak.
And voiceless hangs the world beside his bier.
Our words are sol^ our cry of praise a tear :
We are the smitten mortal, we the weak.
We see a spirit on Earth's loftiest peak
Shine, and wing hence the way he makes more clear:
See a great Tree of Life that never sere
Dropped leaf for aught that age or storms might wTeak.
Such ending is not Death : such living shows
What wide illumination brightness sheds
From one big heart, to conquer man's old foes :
The coward, and the tyrant, and the force
Of all those weedy monsters raising heads
When Song is murk from springs of turbid source.
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[on the death or oladstoxe)
When comes the lighted day for men to read Life's meaniag, with the work before their hands Till this pood gift of breath from debt is freed, Earth will not hear her children's wailful bands Deplore the chieftain fall'n in sob and dirge ; Nor they look where is darkness, but on high. The sun that dropped down our horizon's verge Illumes his labours through the travelled sky. Now seen in sum, most glorious ; and 'tis known By what our warrior wrought we hold him fast. A splendid image built of man has flown ; His deeds inspired of God outstep a Past. Ours the great privilt^ to have had one Among us who celestial tasks has done.
AT THE FU.\ERAL
FEBRCAKT 2, 1901
Heb satred body bear: the tenement
Of that strong soul now ranked with GimI's Elect Her heart upon her people's heart nhe spent ;
Hence is she Royalty's lodestar U) direct.
The peace is hen, of whom all lands have praised
Majestic virtues ere her day uaseen. Aloft the name of Womanhood she rai.snl.
And gave new readings to the Title, Queen.
ANGELA BUKDETT-COl'TTS
Long with us, now she l>^ves un ; she has rest
Beneath our sscrei] Mjd : A woman voved to Good, whom all attetit.
The da}-ligbt gift of God.
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THE YEAR'S SHEDDINGS
[dead leaves]
The varied coloura are a fitful heap : They pass in constant service though they sleep ; The self gone out of them, therewith the piun : Read that, who still to spell our earth remain.
YOUTH IN AGE
Once I was part of the music I heard On the boughs or sweet between earth aad sky. For joy of the beating of wings on high
My heart shot into the breast of the bird.
I hear it now and I see it fly. And a life in wrinkles again is stirred. My heart shoots into the breast of the bird.
As it will for sheer love till the last long sigh.
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APPENDIX
LOVE IN THE VALLEY
[nitST VERSION, FROM 'POEUB,' 18Sl]
Under yonder beech-tree standing on the green sward,
Couch'd with her arma behind her little head. Her knees folded up, and her tresses on her bosom,
Ues my young love sleeping in the shade. Had I the heart to slide one arm beneath her I
Press her dreaming lips as her waist I folded slow. Waking on the instant she could not but embrace me —
Ah I would she bold me, and never let me go ?
Shy as the squirrel, and wayward as the swallow ;
Swift as the swallow when athwart the western flood Circleting the surface he meets his mirror'd wioglets, —
Is that dear one in her maiden bud. Shy as the squirrel whose nest is in the pine tops ;
Gentle — ah 1 that she were jealous as the dove 1 Full of all the wildness of the woodland creatures,
Happy in herself is the maiden that I love 1
What can have taught her distrust of all I tdl herT
Can she truly doubt me when looking on my brows T Nature never teaches distrust of tender love-tales.
What can have taught her distrust of all my vowsf No, she does not doubt me ! on a dewy eve-tide
Whispering together beneath the listening moon, I pray'd till her cheek flush'd, implored till she faltered—
Fluttered to my bosom — ah I to fly away so soon !
When her mother tends her before the laughing mirror.
Tying up her laces, looping up her hair. Often she thinks— were this wild thing wedded,
I should have more love, and much less care.
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574 APPENDIX
When her mother tends her before the bashful mirror, Loosening her lices, combing down her curls,
Often she thinks — were this wild thing wedded, I should lose but one for so many boys and girls.
Clambering roses peep into her chamber.
Jasmine and woodbine, breathe sweet, sweet. White-necked swallows twittering of Summer,
Fill her with balm and nested peace from head to feet. Ah ! will the rose-bough see her lying lonely.
When the petals fall and fierce bloom is on the leaves ? Will the Autumn gamers see her still ungathered.
When the fickle swallows forsake the weeping eaves ?
Comes a sudden question — should a strange hand pluck herl
Oh 1 what an anguish smites me at the thought. Should some idle lordling bribe her mind with jewels I —
Can such beauty ever thus be bought? Sometimes the huntsmen prancing down the valley
Eye the village lasses, full of sprightly mirth ; They sec as I see, mine is the fairest I
Would she were older and could read my worth I
Are there not sweet maidens If she still deny met
Show the bridal Heavens but one bright star? Wherefore thus then do I chase a shadow.
Clattering one note like a brown eve-jarf So I rhyme and reason till she darts before me —
Thro' the milky meadows from flower to flower she flies. Sunning her sweet palms to shade her dazzled eyelids
From the golden love that looks too eager in her eyes.
When at dawn she wakens, and her fair face gazes
Out on the weather thro' the window panes. Beauteous she looks ! like a white water-lily
Bursting out of bud on the rippled river plains. When from bed she rises clothed from neck to ankle
In her long nightgown, sweet as boughs of May, Beauteous she looks ! like a tall garden lily
Pure from the night and perfect for the day I
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APPENDIX 575
Happy, happy time, when the grey star twinkles
Over the fields all fresh with bloomy dew ; When the cold-cheeked dawn grows ruddy up the twilight.
And the gold sun wakes, and weda her in the blue. Then when my darling tempts the early breezes.
She the only star that dies not with the dark I Powerless to speak all the ardour o( my passion
I catch her little hand as we listen to the lark.
Shall the birds in vain then valentine their sweethearts.
Season after season tell a fruitless tale? Will not the virgin listen to their voices,
Take the honeyed meaning, wear the bridal veil ? Fears she frost of winter, fears she the bare branches ?
Waits she the garlands of spring for her dower? Is she a nightingale that will not be nested
Till the April woodland has built her bridal bower?
Then come merry April with all thy birds and beauties !
With thy crescent brows and thy flowery, showery glee: With thy budding leafage and fresh green pastures ;
And may thy lustrous crescent grow a honeymoon for met Come merry month of the cuckoo and the violet !
Come weeping Loveliness in all thy blue delight 1 Lo ! the nest is ready, let me not languish longer I
Bring her to my arms on the first May night.
POEMS SELECTED FROM THE NOVELS SONG OF RUARK TO BHANAVAR THE BEAUTIFUL
[from 'the 3HAVIN0 OF SHAGPAT*]-
Shall I counsel the moon in her ascending? Stay under that tall palm-tree through the night ;
Rest on the mountain-slope
By the couching antelope, O thou enthroned supremacy of light I
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576 APPENDIX
And for ever the lustre thou art lending. Lean on the fair long brook that leaps and leaps, — Silvery leaps and falls. Hang by the mountain walls. Moon I and arise no more to crown the steeps. For a danger and dolour is thy wending !
THE TEACHING OF THE BLOWS OF FORTUNE [from 'the bhavino op shacpat']
Ye that nourish hopes of fame !
Ye who would be known in song ! Fonder old history, and duly frame Your souls to meek acceptance of the thong.
Lo 1 of hmidreds who aspire,
Eighties perish — nineties tire ! They who bear up, in spite of wrecks and wracks. Were season'd by celestial hail of thwacks.
Fortune in this mortal race
Builds on thwackings for its base; Thus the All-Wise doth make a flail a staff. And separates his heavenly com from chaS.
Think ye, had he never known
Nooroa a belabouring crone, Shibli Bagarag would have shaved Shagp£t7 The unthwack'd lives in chronicle a rat 1
'Tis the thwacking in this den
Maketh lions of true men ! So are we nerved to break the clinging mesh Which tames the noblest efforts of poor flesh.
THE OPERA OF CAMILLA
[from 'vittobia'] r.mitii. H,n».w^ ly Camilm)
not hard to bear, iks up my blood so fast breads of my own hair the one I cast
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APPENDIX t
That midnight from my window, when you stood AJooe, and heaven seemed to love you so I I did not think to wet it with my blood When next I tossed it to my love below.
Cauillo (cherishing her) iCamilla, pity ! say you will not die. Your voice is like a soul lost in the sky.
Camilla. I know not if my soul has flown ; I know My body is a weight I cannot raise : My voice between them issues, and I go Upon a journey of uncounted days. Forgetfulness is like a closing sea ; But you are very bright above me still. My life I give as it was given to me : I enter on a darkness wide and chilL
Camillo
0 noble heart I a million fires consume
The hateful hand that sends you to your doom. Camilla There b an end to joy : there is no end To striving ; therefore ever let U3 strive In purity that shall the toil befriend. And keep our poor mortality alive. I hang upon the boundaries like light Along the hills when downward goes the day ; I feel the silent creeping up of night. For you, my husband, lies a flaming way.
Camillo
1 lose yoiir eyes : I lose your voice : 'tis faint. Ah, Christ ! see the fallen eyelids of a saint.
Camilla Our life is but a little holding, lent To do a mighty labour : we are one With heaven and the stars when it is spent To serve God's aim : else die we with Uie sun.
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VITTORIA'S DYING SONG IN THE OPERA OF CAMILLA, MILAN, 1847
I CANNOT count the years,
That you will drinJc, like me. The cup of blood and tean. Ere she to you appears : — Italia, Italia shall be free!
You dedicate your Uvea
To her, and you will be The food on which she thrives, "nil her great day arrivea : — Italia, Italia shall be free!
She asks you but for faith T
Your faith in her takes she As draughts of heaven's breath. Amid defeat and death : — Italia, Italia shall be free!
I enter the black boat
Upon the wide grey sea. Where all her set suns float ; Thence hear my voice remote : — Italia, Italia shall be free!
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CHILLIANWALLAH, pp. 1-2.
Meredith's Ant eztaiit poem, written uid publlsbed br blm at the
*ge or twentj-one. The battle of ChlUlanwallkh. ooe of the moat Banguloari' la the Sikh wan. wu fought oD Juioar; 13. 1S49. The poem appeared Id Chambert' SiKnfrureft Journal on July 7 of that rear.
THE FLOWER OF THE RUINS, pp. 19-22.
Thta last dBUgbl«r of a Unglr vanlahed race, alnglng In the rulna. and alDging not only of Autumn but of Spring, embodies the spirit that sorrows for the loat and gone, and ret will not nurse Mnrow to Its own destruction, but ever goes forward without being parali'sed by the tragedy of the past.
SOUTH-WEST WIND IN THE WOODLAND, pp. 2M.
This youthful poem, published In IBSl, sbonld be compared to the 'Ode to the Spirit of Earth hi Autumn' (1862). pp. 172-8, which appears to have grown out of It.
■ * Long w^ted there,' etc.
The south-west wind has been long expected In the woods, bo- cause the aspens, more sensitive than the other trees, have felt early premonitions of his coming.
DAPHNE, pp. 35-42.
Daphne is loved by Apollo, the sun-god, who woos her Qrat In the form of the waters of the river Peneus. then In human shape. When she is yielding to him she la warned by a severe look from DIan, godden of chastity and oT the moon, who Is vanishing at the coming of the sun-god. Thus warned. Daphne flees from his embraces, but is overtaken by him in the forast, and It delivered from him only by being transformed into a laurel-tree.
< Cytherea' Aphrodite (Venus), Greek goddess of love and beauty. She possessed a magic girdle which bad tb« power of inspiring love and dedre for those who wore it.
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PASTORAI£ 01), pp. 48-60.
< Triptclemua vu the young legendary hero vbo waa ungbl tlia arts of ssriculture by Cem (Demeter).
■ Demeter'i daugbMr Proaerplne «m Ckrrled off by Pluto, god of the nnderw<Hid.
SORROWS AND JOYS, pp. 56-7.
' ' Both ' = the tarraai that have riwn to the sky above and become starry aplrits (no longer 'the uhen fruit of bId' which they onoe were) — and the tayi that are QoTarlng 'children of earth' below.
ANTIGONE, pp. 58-9.
Antigone had two brotben. Etaoclee and Polyneloea. Tbe latter, having been expelled from Thebes by the former, marched agalnat the dly, In the war of 'Seven agaloBt Thebes." The two brothen fell In the battle, aod Creon. »bo had succeeded to the throne, tsmed an edict forbidding the burial of the bodlea. under penalty of death. ADtlgone. notwithstandlDg. burled her brother Polyneloes. and waa therefore 'led forth' to execution, aa the laat tine of this poem
THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS, pp, 65-74.
When the Oreeka ealled to tbeir bomee after the aack of Troy, PoMldOD, tb« sea-god. waa wroth, and aenC a tempest to acatter them. Idomeneus of Crete vowed to Poseldoo to aacrlBce whatever he should first meet on hia landing. If the god would grant bin safe return. The atorm abaMd. but the flrat person he met on landing was his own son. He sacrificed him ; aod the Ct«taiu In anger drove Idomoieus
PICTURES OF THE RHINE, pp. 8(k2.
'Terae it refsra to the 'little Isle' of Nonoenwertb in the Bliine between Bonn and LIni. On the west bank of Che river, over agalnat the Island, rise* the hill and ruined caatle of RolaDdsecli, aald Co have been built by ChBTlemagne*! paladin Roland aa his place of retire- ment, when be found that his lady-love Hlldegard had become a nun under the mistaken beUef that he had perished In war with the lafldels.
TO ALEX. SMITH, THE 'GLASGOW POET,' p. 83.
This sonnet appeared In The Leeitr, Deoember 30, 1861. The brother-poet to whom It waa addressed was not at that time twenty- one years of age. and his work had scarcely begun to gain general attention. He lived until 1807, and his poems eventually attracted serious notice from the public and from Matthew Arnold and Clough: the latter called him ' the latest diMiple of the school of Eeata.'
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THE HEAD OF BRAN THE BLEST, pp. lOft-2.
Bmi, BOD of LI;t. was (bs lesendarr hero of the Welih M&binogl of Bnuwen. Many curlou* legend*, ot pre-CbrlstUo origlD. grew round the naine of Brui In primitive timea. One of tbeae here 4ppekn In k ChriaU&n and > Utenur form.
■ A 'torque' la a twisted collar of annlet of gold, •adeotlT worn by the Gallic, Celtic, and klodred racea.
BY THE ROSANNA, pp. 107-12.
■ The marriage of the splrll of the Alpine rainbow to the London cabman U a humorou* exprotdon of a rundamentsl conviction of the poet's; the spirit of Nature at her lonelleM and moat 'poeUe' — 'the Nrmph' — miut be united to the spirit ot everydair humanity at lU conunoneat. until we can feel Chat the aame eaaence stirs both.
•The poem was addressed to 'A Friend — V. M,.' tIi. Captain (after- wards Admiral) Maiae, R. N,. who had fought In the Crimean War by the 'Euilne,' as readers of SraueAamp will remeinber.
PHANTASY, pp. 112-16.
The poet Is starting on a Journer to the Rhine and Alps <iii) with 'cynical Adrian' — a name perbapa choaen in reminiscence of 'the wise youth' in Richard Fewerel, which waa published only two jean befon this poem. Before leaTlng London be has watched the danoer 'Will' twirling In the opera house, the 'Temple of the Toes.' but he itUl sighs for bis village maiden (i). At Bruges, tbe 'old dMtd dty with the bmous chimes In the belfry ot the Bailee (ii). he haa a nightmare which forms the aublect ot the poem. He dreams that he Is being married to the opera dancer In a gbaatly. monldsb bridal (r-xvi). and then that he la lured to watery destruction by siren* (xvii-xxii), and at last Just saved by the sudden vision ot his true love, his 'village lUy' (xiiti-xxix). In xxi 'Adrian' wakens tbe poet from bl* dream by throwing water over him.
THE PROMISE IN DISTURBANCE, p. 133.
Tbe 'Promise in Disturbance' Is an Introduction t« 'Modem Love.' written many years after the poem Itaelf. The 'primal thunder' In line a Is the thunder beard In heaven on tbe tall of Ludter and his
MODERN LOVE, pp. 133-SS.
I. 'He' and 'she' are the busband and wife, who loved each other once, but whose love haa long been dying. They are lying awake at midnight, side by side, but divided In heart. The years past are Imagined (U. 13-lS) as forming a dreary calendar written by the band of Regret oo tbe wall hdng them as they lie.
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582 NOTES
III. This la the flrat ot the looaetat lo which the faiubuid (peiJcs In his own peraon — u 'I.' 'The m&n' In line 1 (referred to In the rest of the ■unnet u 'he' or 'him') Is the other man, on vhom the wife la beslaalDg to look with fSTOur.
IV. r. 'He' is now ac&iD the hnsbutd. In v (I. 14) the 'erea nurtured to be looked at' Instead of to look, are his wife's ejrea. which bll to see taow near he still is u> loving her poulonatdy.
VI. In the Drtt two and last two Unea of vi. the poet Is speaking, but in all the middle part of the sonnet the husband Is speaking in bia own penon. He calls himseir a 'tender fool' to believe any longer tbat she loves him. He sa;s that love Is not dead in her, but has been transferred by her to another object; he knows this since lie heard her panlanate sobbing at midnight. He Is tempted to fling at ber the hardest of all names for a woman.
Tii, VIII. The husband la spealclDg.
II. The poet Is speaking, and 'be' Is the husband. But In the last four lines of ii the husband speaks, and continues to do so from X to XL VIII inclusive.
X. This sonnet suggests the original eauw of the division : when the first rush of their love-passion had calmed down, and other interests called to the husband, the wife resented hla caring for anything save their lovers' ■alBshneas i dtui. 3he looked to him to be always her ' Fairy Prince,' bringing her nothing but the joys of love, rather than to become a comrade in work for the world. Cf. lines 7-S of sonnet i. and last.
iiii. The husband tries vainly to persuade hlmaelf that it is the law of Nature, and should be the law of mortal men, that everjitbing, including love, has its season and muat pass. In the last line 'for ever' is a noun and the subject of 'whirls,' to which 'life' Is the object.
XIV. In lines d-8 ws have the Dnt mention of the 'Lady,' gold- haired and witty, with whom the husband seeks distraction laler on (iivii. nil). His wife. 'Madam.' thinks tbat he Is attractml by the 'Lady' and Is Jealous. The husband says tiiat If liis wife tries to win bim back to her while at the same time playing with the other man herself, he would feel for her a contempt that would kill hla present sufferliig, ' the nobler agony.'
XV. He ahows his wife two love-letters, one which she wrote to him In the old days, and one which she has written now to the other
XVIII. I. 11. Amphioa was a legendary singer of Greece, who, like Orplieus, charmed the trees Into movemeat. The tall dancing country lass seemed to the lad's fancy like an oak-tree moving to
XXVII. He seeks 'distraction' by phllnndering with the 'golden liead' with 'wit in It* (xiv and xxxi). This personage In the poem Is always called 'Lady' or 'my Lady.' while the wife la ' Madam.'
I Swinburne wrote of them as ' sonnela,' though tbey have sixteen lines each.
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NOTES 583
x*x. A* tbe two praeedlng wnineta have ilioirn, tbe hiubvtd ti XBttlns llule saUafacHon. save to hla vanJCr. out or b[B neir amour. Thla ■onnet <iii) opeiu with sU noble llnea on the triumph Of Love over the fear of Death. But from line 9 to the end the huiband'a CTnlcal mood And* expreolon : he says that Nature Is a decepUve anil cruel mother; the young, In the purity and joy of their Bnt lore, seem to be her bappleat children and cloae to her. but they do not know ber, or realise that her law Is that Love should be only for tbe day (cf. Till). She t«achea them by tbe torture of loss to live for the day only, and to study themselves sclentUICBlly aa animals with 111111111 devlra.
xvxiii refers to Bapbael's picture of the spruce and comfortable youns archangel slayias the Bend. He look* 'too serene' for hard flshtlns. like the young Roman dandles at the battle of Pharaalla. In the real itroBgle of men and devil, men become 'halt serpent,' and It Is lucky If the Bend irows half human.
xiziv. His wttO b drawing nearer to blm once more, and make* •dvancea towards an explanation. He freezes her with polite banter. It Is his worst crime, and be soon pays the penalty (iut).
xixviii. He asks 'my Lady' to give him an Ideal love, tbe only alternative to more carnal appetite — 'vUeness.' For, as to his wife, be aax no longer even pity her, who slew tbe love that was between him and her, and who, how that It Is dead. senUmraitally prliea It. Tharetore he insists oo being allowed to love 'my Lady,' or he will
zziix. 'My Lady' has conceded his request of the previous sonnet. Tbe sUent moon, as eiquWte as music, seems to him a symbol of his 'Lady,' and the sound of tbe moonlit stream like a song from ber. Suddenly his wife appears with the other man.
XL. In a revulsion of feeling he has to ask himself whether he can be Jealous of his wife while loving 'my Lady.' Tbe shock of the scene In the wood has effected a change In his attitude towards bis wife. Tbe note of cynicism that marked the middle of the poem, disappears entirely from tbe husband's solUoqulss.
lu. Husband and wife agree to forgive each other and renew their love, though not without misgivings tbat tbey are talflog up 'a Uto- leM TOW to rob a living passion.'
iLii, IL1I1. Tbe renewal ot perfect love between husband and wife Is Impossible. They seeii reruge from this truth In each other'* arms : but there the barren fact Is all tbe more apparent.
Their kisses being 'unbleat' by love, only serve to separate tbem. He learn* this, and next morning wanders disconsolate by the sea-
XLiv. II. T-IO. Had she. In tbe early days ot their division, only made Mm suffer and not estranged him. It might have been possible for him to meet her heart now with no shadow Of hypocrisy In bis own. LI. II-IQ: as It Is. she detects that bis restored affection Is more pity than love, and will have none ot It.
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684 NOTES
ZLT. Id the night of this misery, he rememben bla drekm of lora wtth the 'IdUJy.' Etla wife dlBCenu tbU, from the incident of the rose, and haa an agoDlsIng Bt of Jealousy.
XLTi. She seeks an Interview with tiie otiicr man. courtooiuly Interruptied by her husband. Before she CAn speak he assurea her tiiat he has no base suspicions.
XLTiii. After a real explanation, from wiiich lie vainly hoped tbat a settled relationship would emerse. Ills wife flies, with tlie quixotic desire to leave him free to return to his 'Lady.' He knows that such is lier motive, but fears the world will attribute to her a worse one.
lui. la the last two sonaets of the sequence, the poet speaks, and 'he' onca more means the husband. He follows his wife and flods Iter by tbe sea. She thinks his love for her has returned, and allows herself to dream that their old mutual relatloos are restored. But she knows her own heart well enough to be aware that this Is ■ dream, and to forestall the awakening she eommlls suldde — the 'strength' of tbe 'desperate weak.' (Meredith told the writer of these notes that he meant tbat she killed herself.)
THE PATRIOT ENGINEER, pp. 155-9.
Tbe young poet and bis companion, on a pleasure tour that talcea them to the Alps, fail in with an English engineer, on board a Meuse steamer. He is returning home to Englaod. having thrown up Ills employment In Hungary, out of disgust with the Austrian tyrannr over tbe brave Magyar patriots, which he can no longer endure to witness In silence. Tbe historical events referred to are Uiose of 164B.
■The 'traitor' refers to OArgel. the general who effected tiie sur- render of the Magyar army at VUagAs on Aug. 13. 1S49. The 'two despots' were Russia and Austria. Their combined torcea rendered the suhmlssloQ at Vllagfis necessary In the eyes of Gbrgei. who was therefore long regarded oa a traitor by hia countrymen — unjustly, as Meredith himself thought In later years when he had read tbe history.
' Following on the surrender of VUagAs. the Austrians shot tour and hanged nine of the lurrendered Magyar generals.
• The 'Double-Head' Is the two-headed Austrian eagle, the 'beastly Bird' of the next ■tania.
CASSANDRA, pp. 159-62. . daughter ot Priam of Troy, was loved by ApoUo. tbe sun-god. who taught her tbe secrets of prophecy : hut Dndlng his love unrequited, he laid upon iier tliB curse that no ooe should believe ber. When therefore she foretold tbe evil coming on Troy (lUon). tier brethren thought ber mad. 'When this poem opens, the doom liaa already fallen on Illon. which has been burnt by the O reeks (Argtvee) after the 'Ten-Years' TbIb' of the siege. Cassandra's hero lirethren are all slain, and glimmer as ghosts that iiave passed the stream of ocean to Hades. She herself is lielDg led captive In the
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NOTES 685
tllen ahlps b]r Ajtamemnon. king of men. In verae it he reaches his home In Argos, In hla canqlieror'a car, with Caanuidrti, 'bi< Aalaa tempeBt-atu,' captive at hla aide. HU wire Clytemneatra, 'the purple Queen.' cornea to welcome him Into hli iiaiace: but. aa he paaaea Into the fatal houae, Caaaandra. In a, laat atrugile and apaam or prophecy (iiv-xv), toreaeea that Clytemneetnt la about to commit the 'deed that abame* the sky' — the murder of her huaband Aiamemnon (iviii). Caasaodra ahares Asamemiion'R rai« (xix). In xt ' Helios' la the sun (Apollo).
ODE TO THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN, pp. 172-S.
Compara the early poem 'South-Wen Wind In the Woodland' (1S61), pp. 23-6, where some of the Ideas, phraseology, and spirit of this ■ Ode ' may be foimd In embryo.
Hark to her laughter I And would you wondf To hear amazing laughter thunder From one who contemplateth man? — Knowing the plan 1 The great procession of the Comedy, Paaaes before her. Let tha curtain down 1 For she must laugh to shake her alairy crown. To mark the strange perversions that are we ; Who boUt our ihoulden confldenc of wings. When we have named her Ashes, dug her ditch : Who do regard her as a damned witch. Fair to the eye. but full of foulest things. We. pious humpback mountebanks meanwhile. Break off our antics to stand forth, «hll«-eyed, And tOndly hope for our Creator's smile. By tdllng him that his prime work Is vile. Whom, through our no«B, we 've renounced, dcnl
Good fHtnds of mine, who love b«r.
And would not see ber bleeding :
The Uibt that Is above her.
From eyesight la receding,
A« ever we grow older.
And blood is waxing odder.
But grasp tn spirit tightly.
That ahe Is no pretendtt.
While Mill the aye eeee brightly.—
Then darkness knows her spkudour.
And coldDesa feels her glory.
As In yon cloud-acud hoary.
From gloom to gloom swlTt winging.
The sunset l»am> have found mo :
111 this blank roar around me I
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Friendil we an ret In the mnnth of our blood And awlfl ma the tidea upm which we Are bome There '■ a long blue rift In the apeedliig acud. That shews like a boat oo a lea forlorn. With stars to mau It I That boat Is ours. And we are the martDen of the sreat flood Of the shlftlikg slopes and the drtttloE flowers. That oar uarestliiB towards the mom t Aod are we the children of Heaven and earth. We 11 be true to the mother with whom we are, So to be worth)' of Him who afar, Beckma us on to a brishler birth.
'LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT/ pp. 181-2.
> The scan forniorly reccdved bj Ludfer durlns ' the old revolt from Awe' were those of Mb battle with the angels and his fall throimh the resloiia of all with his rebel hosts.
THE STAR 8IRIUS, p. 182.
SENSE AND SPHUT, p. 182.
The secret of Earth (Nature) Will never be read by those who. allowing their senses to enslave thdr Intellect, spin supersUtlons dictated by their fears, hoping to find In Earth enduring satisfaction. rtthoT of the senses or of the aspirations. There Is salvation only In the conception that she has a living Spirit, which prompts us. her children, to heroic life. Cf. the last three lines of the flrat sonnet oa 'My Theme.' p. ISO.
GRACE AND LOVE, pp. 183-4,
The 'two vaaea' are CD the literal varc In wblcb the lady arranges the flowers, and (2) the cup oT the lover's soul Into which she pours the 'Image of herwlf,' though unn^dful that she Is doing so. Her grace and his love 'unite.' even If the 'strange fates' withhold from him the 'starry more' which would be realised If she rewarded his love with her own.
THE WORLD'S ADVANCE, p. 186.
I'ThBt flgura on a flat': vii.. Just as spiritually the mind's aaoont is In changing directions but always upwards ('spiral'), so histori- cally the progreaa of the world is from side to side but alwaj-a forwards (slg-zag). The 'memorable Lady' who called 'our mind's ascent'
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■ What la art But life upon the larger scale, the higber. Whea, BraduaUng up in a splraJ lino Of mm aipBndlng and uceadlng gyres. It pusbes towards the Intense sigalflcance Of all thlnga. hungry for the InQnlte? Art'i Ufe, — ^aod were we live we aulTer and toll.'
CAMELUS SALTAT, (2 SonneU), pp. 188-9.
Wlieii a 'camel dances' It la doing what it wri not meant to do b7 nature. Uke thli critic, formerly the thunderoua slaughterer of tbe ■mall fllee or literature, but now turned author on his own account. Sla book la DOW criticised and pilloried by the public, whoae tsate be bad formerly helped to ruin by his bad criticism, much as the captain In tbe story (2nd sonnet) ruined the body and aoul of tbe pilot by awUlIng htm with amall beer, which he preferred to rations of betto" flavour. Such at least would seem to bo the meaning of this obtcure paisage.
MY THEME, (2 Sonnets), pp, 139-»
The poet nyi that bta gladness can be overcoat, but hla philosophy cannot be shaken by any blow of fortune. Nevertheless (line 9). Fortune strike* at random, and can be hard on people like himself, and not merely on those devotees of bers to whom she deals her Uows or favoim. His 'theme' Is deHned in the last three llnea of the sonnet : cf. note to 'Sense and Spirit' above.
In this second sonnet be says his tbeme Is better understood by tba Idlaa, 'the summer aiea' of muiklnd. than by the Pblllstlnes, 'the soiks of facta.' 'tbe swlniab grunters.' whom Nature proclaims more dead than tbe Idlers ; but 'much life have oeltbw.'
TO CHILDREN: FOR TYRANTS, pp. 19(>-2.
Bruno ranges hunting and comes back to heel ; whereupon the other dog, Kobidd, eidted by witnessing Bruno's feats, 'part sympa- thetic, and part Imitative.' flies at Bruno and worries him. The poet thereon beats Bruno, and afterwards writes this poem of repentance. Verses xi. iii retell the Inddent already told in verses i-iii. In verse IV. Kobold'a unnecessarily humble air Of having done wrong makes the poet conscious that It la he and not Kobold who la really to blame, and makes hlra feel remorse like that of Prince Uewellyn after he had slain the dog that bad saved his child.
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THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN, pp. 193-205.
The woods oT WeMermaln &re the myvlerlotu woods of Nstnre. wbose spirit no dud e»a iDlerpret unless ba enter cbe woods with courage and love. Nature turns borrible to those who fear or carp At her.
I In the dull, patient, prtmsval stare of cattle 70U can read tha spirit of the prehistoric aces, before mind bad deTelaped : when crea- tion slowly evolved through jreara and boun that were uncounted 1 when earth was a slliiiir ridge emerging out of the waters: when heaven was merely a iiiace through which were whirled the lumps of
■ ' She ' thmuBbout this poem, as In so many others, mean* our Mother Earth (Nature), conceived as a spirit somehow preaent In the woods and the sky and wild animals, and In body and mind oT man. The fullest exposition of the theme will be found In the poem 'Sarth and Man.' p. 240 above.
■'The white Foam-bom' Is Aphrodite, the Oreek goddess of loT« and beauty, who roM BrsC out of the sea. She. and the other goda of the classical pantheon. Phoebus. Diana (Phoebe) and Pan. may still have their place, says tbe poet. In any true modern reading ot Earth, because they were conceived tmai deep knowledBe of nature.
' Tbe proper relation of men and women Is discussed. If man plays the tyrant, and, to Satler bis own pride, will not let the woman show and cultivate her mind, tbe woman grows trickster. Tragedlee have come from this, and tbe relation of man and woman, as the poet says a tew lines further down, beeomea like • battle of tiger and snake. They may In this fashion people the world, but It will only be in 'snarling plight.'
, 'The 'Dragon' or 'Dragon-fowl' Is self, egoism. Savage and cruel as he Is before ha Is tamed, it Is an error to attempt to kill him. He must be constrained and set to sociable uses, when he win prove a servant of great power. But this is only ponlble by possliig through a series of changes : so Change must not be feared.
■'The Fount and Lure o' the chase' Is Love: It la symbolised as a fount of 'water hued as wine.'
' Even In tbe heart that Is under the purifying and altruistic In- fluence of Love, you may discern tbe semblance ot the Dragon of Self, though reduced to his proper place and dimensions — just as according to old country tradition you may see the diminutive sem- blance of an oak In the section of a bracken stem.
■She 'who food for all provides' la Earth or Nature, who works through Death as well as through Life.
•The 'Triad' la 'blood, brain and spirit.' or tbe body, tbe mind, and the soul. Tbe three must all work together for any great object. or there will be disaster. The mere athlete, the mere Intellectual, the mere emotionalist are all astray (cf. ' Rose In brain from rose la blood' In IT above). 'Glasslog,' three lines below — ' reflecting. '
" Those who have explored the depths of tbe meaning of Earth, con wield Life, 'the chisel, oie and sword.' And for them (continues the poet In tbe following couplets) Life shnll hold prophetic dreams: shall re-echo In Itself on answer to Its quaatlon as to what It Is for ;
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■hall thrfU to be ctumged [rom the runpant dragon or egolnn, and ■tamped for aerrlce to otben : and sball suggeBt oonietlilng that shaD always conquer the f«ar o( dsath.
" Vli. : If with the brood ot the monster Self, you doubt every- thing wblch SelTB narrow orbit excludes, if you are ot the BttlT, etc. . ■ . ir yon hate at all. then you are lost In Weeterm^n.
'•'One whose eya ore ouC la Death — the skeleton, Meredith told . the writer ot these notes.
THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES, pp. 20&-20.
This tale ot CaUlstas and Sklftgeneia Is tbe inventloD ot the poet, baaed on the old myth of Pluto and Persephone. Tbe scene Is laid In tbe flower; vale of Enna Id Sicily, whitber Pluto (Had«), the god of death had formerly come up in a chariot to carry off to bis kingdom of Darkness tbe Maid of Enno — Persepbone. the daughter ot Demeter. tbe eartb-goddeas. Demeter cursed the scene of the rape, and the green valley withered. But now again It blooms at sprlng-Ume. And in tbe twilight before dawn CalllBtes goes out to wait for the ■nn to rise over tbe bills that siuround tbe sacred valley and lis lake (ii). But before the colours of dawn wave In the iky their signal to the colours ot earth, tbe rock is rent and a chariot bursts out. It carries Persephone, coming up from her kingdom of Dark- ness, to visit her mother Demeter In; the light of the ran. Such was the myth Into wblch tbe Greeks translated the yeariy spring- ing ot the com. Cailiaus thus chancea to witness the meeting ot 'the Twain' — Demeter, the 'great Mother,' 'our Lady of tbe ■heaves.' and her daughter Persephone, the 'Lily of Hades.' the 'mate of the Raylees.' Persephone has brought trom her dim under- world a grave smile, a smile like Steep that purifles us from our cravings (iii).
When the vision of 'the Twain' has gone by, Calllstes recover* his senses and bis memory, and sees standing near blm a maiden who had 'slipped from tbe car' (v). Sbe is Skitgenda, the shadow-bom child ot Persephone and Pluto : she Is the Daughler of Bada.
The rest ot the poem denaibes her 'day upon earth,' which she passes In company with Calllstes, Her Drst song to Helios, tbe sun- god, Is answered by a hollow roar from underground, like the vtdce of the Hundred-headed Titan bound under Mount Aetna banl by: It is really the voice of her father Pluto calling after her. She con- tinues ail day to rejoice In tbe sight of tbe fecundity ot earth (vi).
Finally her song of Joy in all things, uttered from the mountain- top (Tin), betrays her whereabouts to her tather Pluto, who comes up In his terrible chariot to fetch her. Day turns to night as In eclipse, while Callistes and tbe maiden hurry down off the mountain, and stand shuddering by the shore of the lake of Enna (ix). The dark driver •ees them, and tears bis way through tbe waters of the lake to seise her <i). Callistes Is left alone with her name and her cry In his ears <xi). to long for her till he dies (xii).
The central thought of the poem is the strange link between Lite and Death In spite of their opposition. Just because SUigenda is bom from the Darkness as well as ttom the spirit of Spring, she can
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undenUnd tb« secrvU of Bartb Mid Pao (tit) better tbui the humui children of Butb. She bu an loanlte thirst Tor life, ble^ng tbe rmitrulneu of men &nd Kbunnliig their wanton destructlvene« M Id war (vii| : but she knowa she miut return to the Darknen. and when she goea It la not without Joy In her heart aa well as oorrow. She baa made tbe most or her 'day upon Earth,' Inilead of uaeleasly replnloB because It was so brief.
< (n) The hair of the dying was cut for Ferseiihone, by an andeot QrsBk custom. 'The Beneflcent.' mentioned a tew lines before, la Demeter. ' Both ' = Demeter and Persephone.
> (ix) 'The Three '• Demeter. Peraepbone, and Pluto.
PHOEBUS WITH ADMETUS, pp. 224-6.
Pboebo* Apollo, the sun-god. having slatn the Cyclops, was senWnced by Zeua to aerre a mortal for one year. His arrival at the farm of 'the master' Admetus Is described In verse ii. The water welcomes him (iii). and prosperity cornea to the farm where he lealdea (IV). We are then told of the arts and crafts irblcb be taught monklDd during this sojourn — trapping beasts and abooUng birds of prey (v). story-telling and dancing (ti). woodland pharmacy and tbe music c^ the lyre (tii). In the last verse the shepherds call on animate and Inanimate nature, the beasU of the farm and the branches In woodland and rocky stream, to remember the god who had been their fellow.
■ Phoebus being tbe aun-god. the moon Is his sister sphere. The farm-serranta. when Pboebua baa ceased to be one of them, remember how be played on bis flute at evening, till the moon sHvered and
MELAMPU8, pp. 227-30.
The Greek legend that the physician Mdampu* obtained tbe power of tmderstanding the language of birds, after his ears had been licked by some young snakes which be had preserved from death, Is tised to Illustrate the proper relation of the highest human life to the life of animals and Insects, and of nature In general. Melampus. as we are told In tbe first and last lines of the poem, has that love which adds wisdom and Insight to almple affection, and so leams Rvm nature a barmon; of healing as profound aa the harmony of aong.
I The Pleridea were tbe Nine Muses, They were the chorus of Phoebus Apollo ('his own chorus'), god of tbe sun, of poetry, and
THE THREE SINGERS TO YOUNG BLOOD, pp. 23M.
Three vlewa of love. Flnl. gentle young love, heedlen of all but nature's promptings. Secondlv. the warnings of worldly calcula- Uon. TMrilii. the irrealatlble cry of passion.
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THE ORCHARD AND THE HEATH, pp. 238-9. Tba contrast 1b between the farmer'! children of the rich orcbard land and the glpa; children encamped on the moor.
EARTH AND MAN, pp. 240-6.
1 Thli poem (which containa the fullest expraasloD of Meredlth'i doctrine of Earth our Mother and her relation to ua). opeoa with the Ogure of Earth feeding her offspring Man at her breast.
■'The Invisible' Is used throughout this poem (asafo la vemM ix «t seg.) to mean the supernatural God as conceived by superstition, bjr Man dealrlns to escape from and deny his Mother Earth (Nature).
• Earth's 'cherishing of her best-endowed' Is the suniTal of the Attest, which, though It seems to Man a 'wanton's choice,' has yet proved the path ot progren (ivi)-
•'Her ]ust Lord' Is the true Ood, whom Man can only attain to see when he bos already understood hit Mother Earth. This, says the poet. Is the true conception of Ood, as opposed to the mlracle- mongertng 'Invisible' of verses viii and xx, Man must attain to the spiritual through the natural, not through the supernatural. Meredith again and again In his poems reverts to the idea oT the ■ ultimate sttalnmBnt to God throuffli Earth (see end of 'A Faith on Trial') — or a marriage of earth and heaven — e.t. 'wing our green to wed our blue' In 'Wind oo the Lyre.'
A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT, pp, 24M5.
A debate on 'woman's rights.' In the form of a dialogue between the fair ladles In revolt on the one hand, and a male champion ot the old order on the other. The conservative spokesman has brought with him a 'friend,' who never tpealu, but la throughout regarded as umpire of the debate. Finally, between lines 4 and E of ill both of which are spoken by the conservattve pleader, the umpire gives judg- ment tor the rebels, and Is carried off by them in triumph. Verses 1 and xLv-xLviii are the words ot the namtor-poet, but all the rest fs dialogue between the Fair Ladies and their antagonist.
THE TWO MASKS, p. 256. Melpomene is the Tragic Muse, Tlialela the Oomlft
ARCHDUCHESS ANNE, pp. 256-68.
ArcbdnclMSS Anne, a married woman, loves Count Louis, chief- tain of the warrior tribes Often in revolt against her royal power (iv). He returns her love and 'rules' lier, till at length he turns his Bdectlons elsewhere (v). At sight of Mm with his new bride, the Archduchess pots her band to her heart, and her taltbtui savage old
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wurlor KrkkeD Bess the motjcm and g deMrmlDM to wuh out her dishonour In Count Louli' blood. Shortly afterwards, in a war witb the rebels headed by Count Louis, Kiaken captures him br treachery.
Archduchess Anne holds det»t« with henelT whether U executed as a rebel or not. Hate and love for t heart. Suddenly Louis' wife appeiin to plead for blm h
wardly. being too proud to confena her love For Louis, b trust In the young wife's heart touches the generoalty li Uiough not enough to make her do right.
She wrlt«s to Krakeu. wtshlng him to spare Comit Louis, but her pride will not let ber give deSnlte orders for forglverms. She oaly ■peaks vaguely of mercy (i-vi). Kraken la convinced that forstve- ness will be taken aa a sign of her infatuation for Louis, and cboossa to undorstand 'mercy' as meaning that Louis Is to be shot Instead of hanged (vii-i). The Archduchees hates Kraken for the deed, for which her own pride, not her will, was In part responsible. A popular rising onauas (iix). After a cfvll war (xx) Kraken flies the land (xxvi). The power of the Crown barely survives the struggle, and OD with a broken heart (zxr).
THE SONO OF THEODOLINDA, pp. 268-72.
Meredith's own not« to this poem was — 'The legend of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, formed of a nail of the true Cross by order of the devout Quoen TheodoUnda. Is well known. In This dramatic song ■he li seen passing through one of the higher temptations ot the believing Christian.' [The 'temptation.' presumably, was that of qilritual pride. When the nail is white hot in the Are, Theodollnda has it laid on her breast (vii-i). sjid then hammered Into the Crown (iii-iiii) by 'brown-cowled' monks (iii)J.
A PREACHING FROM A SPANISH BALLAD, pp, 272-6.
The faithless husband considers himself the Just executioner oT his unfaithful wife. The poet in bis comment (nv-iiii) uses 'nature' In 4 sense inferior to that In which he often uses the word. — to mean the mere Impulse towards personal satisfaction causing woman to dote on man and man to be unlust to woman. Until nature grows Into some- thing more than that, until ' the bead ' helps ' the heart ' ( it) , physical force will always have the last word in any struggle between the sexes. In ivm-xxi the poet Is speaking to women ('you'} : 'the' is nature: 'he' Is man ('the child which grows'): the 'OodUke orsr- mat«h' or brute force la Reason.
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3 YOUNG PRINCESS, pp. 27fW2.
At lut lion] Dualote. preMndlng to h&ve been wounded to death In flgbtlDg tor her honour, obtains her troth, which ahe glvea Mm M to a d;ltig man. In pit; and gratitude.
Not darfng to face her b; dafltght, be letves the court. After a year be returns to cialm her, when she Is being married to wiotber; but (he treat! him oi if be were » ghoat returning.
At midnight In the garden Lord Dualote'a squire waits under the orange boughs tor the return ot his master, who has gone In to claim the Princess as hla ananced bride. He returns — dead, borne on the shoulders ot the otlier lords, who have made him 'a ghost' Indeed.
KING HARALD'S TRANCE, pp. 283-5. King Harald, after excessive exertions In battle and feasting, falls into a trance. Awaking from It, but slUl unable to move or speak, he lies sUent and hears treason talked at the side of his couch by bis wife and a warrior. With a final effort be bursts the bands of his trance enough to j:ut down his wife dead. (The words 'the blow clove two' in xvi U explained by the last two lines of ix.) Then his life-force maps and he falls dead before ha can alay 'the third,' her
MANFRED, pp. 286-7. Byron's play Manfred Is here mocked for a piece of egoistic melan- choly posed before the footlights. Manfred, successor of 'Childe' Harold, goes up Alpioe heights to soliloquise tbere on bis own superior Inability to love either man or nature — but with one eye turned down at ' tha world of aphuterdom and clergy,' whose shocked attention It Is his object to concentrate on himself. It Is here sug- gested tbat If Manfred had really climbed tlie Alps. 'liieddlng rascal sweat.' he would have felt better for the eierdse when he reached the lop. Spiritual indigestion Is bred In dtlea, not on mouotaliu.
HERNANI, p. 287.
In Victor Hugo's tragedy. HemanI wins Ms bride, to whom he
bad not a perfect right, on condition tlut he will kill blmnelf whenever
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be hesTB the old gentleman, her former pnimfiiiii . blov tala honi. Ae tnight be expected In » romanUc trmsody. the born soundi at a highlT Inconvenient moment. The poet here laughi at the ■entlment of the place, but ends hj pointing out Its true moral— a eeiiona one, but even ao not quite dlvorceO from the Comic Mum.
THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA, pp. 287-301.
Attlla the Hun la camped near the Danube, tlrad Tor a wMle of woiid-destructlon. 'Scorn of conquest' flUi him, and he turns to tboughts of love. 'The damsel Ildlco' Is his cboaen bride. Her dumb horror of him Is hlnl«d, irhUe tala warriors dislike his strange effeminacy and clamour to be led to trash conquests. Throughout the nunJage feast the bride neither speaks nor smiles. At last AttUa rises to go forth to the bridsJ chamber (it), when some one cries out 'Vale' ('fare- well') In the tongue of Rome, and be answers with a look of terrible radiance, 'Rome' (xti). The warriors sbout witb iaj at this promise or fresh war on Rome (xvn). Next morning they surge round the bridal chamber shouting to be led against the Cllr, but all day there la no sign of life fram their Idng. Next day, at sunaet, he la found dead on the marriage bed (xxi). The Huna do not know, any more than posterity knows, whether he died by Ildleo'a hand or by Uie bursting of a blood-vessel ; Ildlco Is found speechless and mad tn k corner of the room (iii>ixt). They honour him In death by ktlUng those who dug his grave, so that no man may know where be Ilea (xxvii-xxTiii). The army of foolish giants breaks up la bewilder- ment, wretb. and mutual suspicion (xiii).
<{xvi) A few months before his fatal 'nuptials' beside the Danube, Attlla had advanced on Rome, and been turned back by 'the prea- sing eloquence of (Pope) Leo. his majestic aspect, and sacerdotal robes.' and. as legend narrates, by 'tbe apparition of the two apostles. St. Peter and at. Paul.'— aibbon. chap. iixt.
MEN AND MAN, p. 302.
In the Srst line. 'Men' Is the object of the verb, and 'Angela' la the subject; similarly tn the second verse. Ibie l. 'Man' is tbe object. The Angels do not admire the ways ot 'Men' coUectlvely. till they see them united In the peace of the churchyard. The In- dividual 'Man' is the hero preferred.
THE LAST CONTENTION,' pp. 302-4.
An old man is In love with a young woman, and is warned by the poet not to marry her. His young spirit Is captain oT an old body — 'a crazy bark' (i). Hie 'planks' — If he will 'consult them' (iii)— be will flod not seaworthy. His 'very virtue' (v), that Is what he has of manhood and vigour left In him now tempts to mislead him. He may 'worship,' but only tbe young may 'embrace' her (x).
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rERlANDER, pp. 304-8.
Periuider, Trrant of Corinth (c&lled in tbe poem 'the prince') In a rage slew hla wife MelUu. His bod, LycophroD, Brieved for bar, *o Feri&nder turned him out at doon and forbade any one u> succour or even to apeak to hlra (i). The hoy remained Brm, and the father knowing be «a< the only one of his eons fit to succeed bim- (tii-tiii) sought bim out to parley with him. But Lycophron only replied that bis father had broken hli own edict in spealdni to him (ix). Periander thereupon banished him to the Island of Ooreyra. Many years later. Periander grew weary of governing Corinth, and recalled Lycophron to take Mb place. He lends his fleet to Corcyra to fetch his son borne to Corinth : but It retmms to him bearing Lycophron's corpse, for the 'Ine Ulanders' of Corcyra. In their dread of Perlander's interference with them, hare slain Lyoophron. Peri- ander determines to take vengeance on them.
> Firene (v) Is the fountain at Corinth.
SOLON, pp. 308-10.
Feislslratiu. couslti and forma- friend of Solon the Lawgiver, towards the end of Solon's Ufe made hlinseir Tyrant at Athena. During this usurpation by one man of the power which Solon's laws had divided among the dassea of the people. 'Solon's work' lay buried 'aa under Boa.' though deatlned later to reappear when the waters of tyranny receded.
BELLEROPHON, pp. 310-11.
Bellerophon, mounted oa the winged horse Pegasus, slew the monster Chimaera. There la another tradition, the basis of this poem, that be afterwards attempted to rise with Pegasus to the home of the goda on Olympus, but that Zeus sent a gadfly which atuog Pegasus, so that he tbrew Bellerophon, who. thus falling from on high to earth, was lamed and blinded. His pitiable latter state Is here deecribad : hla attempts to tell his own story are regarded as the babble of an old bsKgar. whom no one connects with the famous rider of Pegasus.
' HfppDcrMM. Pegasus with hla hoof stamped forth the Mnses' well of HIppocrene on Mount Paruasiua. whence flow the Inspirations of poetry. The old beggar does not seem a at theme for poetry — be Is 'spumed of the hoof that sprang the HIppocrene' — for no one guesses tbat be was in fact the rider of Pegaatu.
PHAETHON, pp. 312-16.
Fhaethon. son of Helios (Phoebus Apollo) the sun-god, won leave of his father to drive the chariot of the sun for one day. Aa he failed to manage the steeds, earth was In danger of being burned, till Zeua struck Pbaethon dead. The last four lines of the poem refer to the
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tndltlon that be fell Into the Fo. ftnd waa chuiged iaU> a cydiamao, and that bli iliMn were changed Into poplan.
Meredith's own note on the galllamblc meamre, the metre of thb poem, Is M follow! : —
'Hermann (Eltmtnta Doctrtnae Afetrtcat). after dUng lines from the Tragic poet Pbrynlcbus and from the Comic, obeerree :
' Dill supra. Phrynlehoram venua vldert puros lontoos eaae. Id d vemm eat, QalllamU non alia re ab hli dlffarunt. quam quod aa aclaalm, CDDtractioneeque et solutlones redplunt. Itaque versus Qalllamblcna ex duobus veralbua Anacreontels conatat, quomm wcundus cataJectlcua est. bac forma :
"The wonderfnl AtHi of Oatnlltu Is the one danlc wunple. A few lines haTC been gathered elsewhere. Lord Tennyson's Boadiaa rides over many difllcultles and Is a noble poem. Catullus makes general use of the variant second of the above metrical forms :
'Mihi JaniuM frequenUa, mlftf Ifmlna upUc:
'With stress on the emotion:
'Jam. }am dolet fuod egt. jam lamipu pomffcl.
' A perfect conquest of the measure Is not possible In our tongue. For the sake of an occasional succasB In the velocity, sweep, volume of the line. It seems worth an effort : and. If to some degree serviceable Tor narrative verse. It Is one of the eierdses of a writer which readers may be InviUid to share.'
SEED-TIME, pp. 317-18.
> In verse iv the poet has uttered a cry ot longing to escape from the chill of autumn for a 'day of tbe long light' to nourish hli blood. This lapse of faith In Nature merita the reproof In vwse v. 'Animal- Infant' Is Earth's word of contempt for that 'wall' or for him who utters It: before uttering It he had. by 'steadily eyeing,' come dally Into a cloaer relation with Eartb. Animal-Infant means undevelop«l like an animal, i.e. one by whom Nature's methods are simply Judged according to the physical comfort (or the reverse) which they proifucs at the moment.
Nature's direction to any one whose faith In ber falters Is to obserre the husbandman, whose craft depends upon Nature's wise preparations for tbe future.
NIGHT OF FROST IN MAY, pp. 32M.
I In the second stanza Cbeginning 'In this shrill hush') and following stanzas, tbe song of tbe nightingales Is described. First one slogs alone from haiels near the farm, and then a number from the wood-
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THE THRUSH IN FEBRUARY, pp. 327-31.
> The ' molit red rcdoi ' and ' Termllfon wttiBi ' kre the clmu doudi at ninset. Tho 'pearl uuhelled' ts the evenlns atar — the subject of the toUowlnB two staDiaa — 'she SBems a while the vale to hold Id trance.' Bverywhere elM In the poem, for inatance In the but thirteen itaDzai. 'ihe* meani 'Earth.' Mother Natuie.
■ ' Hii laland votce ' meani the English voice of the thrush.
• 'That deep breast of aoog and liftht' Is Earth's.
• It modem men would patiently learn the secret of Earth, their Intellect, based on couratce, would match the primitive Instincts, and so raise a swelUng flood of song.
■Though scantr In numbers, the heroes are the fathers of the future.
'This and the former veree mean that Earth's double aspects of Fain and Pleasure, Life and Death, have but one atm: to make us active warriors of good — otherwiHe we can but serve as raw material for heroic life In others. In the following verse 'those guides' mean Pain and Pleasure, nature's means of forcing men along the path of evolution to higher things.
THE APPEASEMENT OF DEMETER, pp. 331-5.
DemeMT. the earth^oddess. embittered by the carrying off of her daughter Persephone by Pluto, King of Death, cursea the Vale of Enna. where the rape took place. People, cattle, and crops are perishing of drought. Demeter's maid-servant lambe pities them, but her mistress la still Implacable, Instinct In the starved creatures ■till, at times, half-heartedly makes dumb attempt to play. The sight of this in a horse and mare mores Demeter to lat^bter, and her laughter puts an end to her black mvtd and to the blight on the land, aa true laughter ttlwkys doee.
EARTH AND A WEDDED WOMAN, pp. 335-7.
The spirit of Earth includes the spirit of endurance, Susan, a wife left lonely and sad (i, ii), learns this on a, night of summer rain after long drought, when the splendour of Eartb'a elemental forces are revealed to her (iv, v) : thenceforth her weakness Is gone, and her '□eigbbours' notice the 'change.' which she hereelt knows can be dated from the night of sumjDer rain (vil.
MOTHER TO BABE, pp. 337-8. ■' Glass" = ' reflect.'
THE QUESTION WHITHER, d. 339.
• The life ot the senses ('sensation') la Joyful, but the universe of living tliinga ('all sensation') could not endure that It should con- tinue for ever limited to Individual life on e«rth.
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NATURE AND LIFE, p. 34!.
I. Nftture in tbe wooda cm give mao refrMbment by maktog bim feel tbo primitive elsmBntal forces, the seed oT all tblnga. But man bu KimetblDg to give in return, namely mind. Nature can onlr ba interpreted by hia mind, which Is thus In Its turn the glrer of »ed.
II, Bveo so. there Is more fn man than can be developed by the woodland. He baa tones In his own being ('tbe shell thou arc') of rousic that cannot awak* ('start') anything In the woods to an answering echo ('to such a tremor'). For this he must go back to tbe ■ waves ' of ordinary life, and win the courage that comes m>m the human struggle when he takes back Into It the peacefulnesa tound In the woods,
A FAITH ON TRIAL, pp. 345-6L
I Tbe poet, on the Mayday morning when his wife Ilea dying, goes alone for one of their familiar walk* tn the woodlands of BoxhlU. At Snt even nature can no longer appeal to him. The sound of tbe young foUage of the spring woods In the breeze mores him not : In his grief he paam on &■ callous to wayside impresaloni aa a bier carried along In a funeral,
• You cannot see the full beauty of tree-tops waving feathery In the wind unless you look at tbem against the vastness of tbe ak;: aod » too you cannot feel tbe glory of the birds' song unlen you are largo- hearted enough to pass beyond your private grief — whlcb aa yet tha poet could not do as he walked.
>'Our Mother' Is Earth. As he continues hia walk, be wlabrs only to 'observe' 'her changeful visible face.' not 'to feel' or 'to fancy': though he cannot belp creating Images of whatever be sees at 'a shift of tbe glance' — such images aa those described In the previous verse, where he compares the ' wet yew-trunk ' to tbe naked Oghtlng Briton. His 'obflervatlon' of every detail of nature comes to him now at his need, because It has long ago become Insttno- tlve In him: thus he speaks, thirty lines lower down, of 'my discip- lined habit to see,'
• 'To thein' = to tb« poet's 'sensatlrais.' that have made 'rags' of his 'ruffled philosophy.' Meredith often uses 'senses' or 'sensations' for the rebellious Insttncta In conflict with reason.
' The ' young apparition ' of a ' wild white cherry In bloom ' suddenly compels him not merely to 'observe' but to Teed.' and renews his Faith,
Tbe Pltgrim'B Way 'of old' leading the march Kaatwan) of the 'procesdonal penitents.' vli. the medlsval pilgrims, to Canterbury. runs along tbe southern slope of BoihlU. But the poet asks. In the first lines of the next aectloil, whether their pilgrim banner was sign of such 'victorious rays over death' as Is this white banner of tbe blossoming wild cberryT It teaches him to conquer coward despair; aod not to divide bis soul from his Intellect, letting tbe Intellect alone bear rule. It restores Ms Faith.
• Referring to the children begging with the licence of Mayday —
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NOTES 599
numtloned In the flreC four lloee of Che poem, be |oe« on to ray, In the followlog Unea, that he now feela sympsthy with them beouae hto human nifferlng hu drawn him closer to all human beings. And It 'readlnxi ot eirth' are drawn from lucb community ot feeling, a comfort will be won deeper than any attempt at answering tbe quee- tlon. 'What comes after deathT' which cod get no answer save the other Question, ' Whence are waJ" Such 'Queatlona' are useless — ' they sow not nor spin.'
'The consolations we seek 'when Fear takes leaven of Hope' are not sanctloDed by Earth. The hopes of life beyond the grave — 'Ufe beyond aabes'^ — are not reflected on the breast of Earth, In her 'depths austere.* If we 'strain to the farther shore.' It la 'flesh to t Earth's laws— not Faith. Earth gives no material gifta In I, but 'shears' 'the woolly beast bleating' for mercy.
' If we crave for sure Permanence, we must learn to see it In the aliwnatlon* of Ufe and Death by which the generations succeed each other. Thus Permanence 'alia on the grave green-grassed.' he says. In a txdd figure. We must accept both Ufa and Death as being equally parts of the law of Reality.
' Wisdom, If removed from the busy progress and ' combat inces- sant' of the world, withers and becomes like a Cloak round a dead body. If It be perched like a monument on 'a height' to instruct us. Cf. 'The DladpUae of Wisdom,' p. ISfi.
'The 'Questions.' tbe unanswerable ultimate Questions about the dcmlny of tbe race, become an obseaalon with some sensitive rebellious natures, and drive them to burrow into the earth In a blind alley, only to find things as gaunt as tbe moon seen tlirough a telescope. (On 'the Quenlons.' see p. 339, 'The Question Whither,' verae ni.)
i> Earth's 'Master' Is the true Ood. to be reached through his hand- inatdea Barth. See note 2 on 'Earth and Man.' p, 591.
CHANGE IN RECURRENCE, p. 361. A quiet aftermath, following on the ordeal of 'A Faith on Trial.' The poet Is In tbeir cottage garden again, amorg the birds and 't*'""'* which his wife loved to watch. It Is the frame without the picture: no one now calls hli name musically from the open window, sewing as she watches tbe garden. But the birds and '"'""■■i« are about their tasks and paatlmeg. diligent as ever.
HYMN TO COLOUR, pp. 362-4. A dualism runs through the thought of this poem. Light, Dark- ness, and Colour answer respectively to Life. Death, and Love. Colour Is to Light and Darkness as Love la to Life and Death.
I. Tbe poet, walking between Death and Life, is met by Love In the pale 'land of dawn.' betweei night and day, where dreams are floating fast to wreck on daylight.
II. Tbe mist of twilight Is still grey, but already the natural green of the graas Is visible. The aky In thia mountain land begins to
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I. NBturc !■
hU Bomi-llii' iDterpreli'iJ l<
the 'wat iD tbc U
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NOTES \[E WISDOM OF ELD, p. 368.
jLvlBlit of tholr falm e
\ilTH'S PREFERENCE, pp. 398-9.
.M' ' vrousht' well to their prims of life ('zenith') ..m ('Inverted irit') In their old aga. See the pre- it' Wisdom of Eld.'
■•!■ pricked coiudence.' etc. Vli. : the obyioiu utility .It-r. discovered b; experience in primitive times, Bret rihclence In such m&ttera ; and the conscience Id turn
JLMP-TO-GLORY JANE, pp, 372-9. a 'icct of Jumpera who found a means of srace In bodily
.- nflen for the pen' (xr) » requiring b roof for the pen ihem. vli,. being unable to sleep under the open heaven "hiB, like the rest of the sect. Mq and quarts' (xTiii)~pounds of meat and quarts of ale. . ^:, vegetarian, m Is staown la iiii. xiiii. and iivii.
THE RIDDLE FOR MEN, p. 380.
'"<1 Is warned of power, not to abuse It. The poet aeems to iilly to man's 'grip of brute' on the 'softer' sex: unleas it '< for aomething more human, his 'Sultanlc reign' will as ever Jumlty. and history will record no progress.
■ SAGE ENAMOURED AND THE HONEST LADY, pp. 380-92.
HI) tioulh uprising called hit aee the Pasi ;
' - IiMm that she baa stolen his heart, and looking on her beauty, he
Dunled as to 'the wlierefore' of bar unmarried state. It seems
'"Tifltble that she hides some secret. The lady finds that she Is loved
'>v the sage, and thinking It due to hb noble nature, makes a con-
,ua of what once befell her. The greater part of the poem
t by that confession, the poet pleading for
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602 NOTES
eqiul laws of punlahmeDt for man and woman. It exi>osGS the tyranny of num —
The UTetU Irralionat, vho thundert jtovtr, clalmlDg aU license for the male ; aulgnlng no punlahnwnt to bim, but permitting no lernt to be put to the punUhment of hli victlmi. Tlie poet'i concliuloD U not that all punlihment !■ wrotig : —
Tht hooftd halS-ang»i in Ou Puritan nearly readi Nature rightly, when severity la not a mere cloak for 'brutisli wrath.' But thou who undernand Nature read her beheM to man and woman —
Sliait umir gaiU Incommm. And puntahment cannot achieve Its purifying purpose It It never comes to an end. The theme Is the same as that of AAoda Flfinfiiff — ' Help poor girls.'
The sage listens to her confeaslon In silence — an awful aOence for ber — driving her to speak yet more things, till the whole truth Is laid bare to him. At lei^tb (t) he speaks: he paases her 'through the sermon's duU defile.' but only to raise new boriions to ber view. The poem ends wltb the wisdom of his middle age as companion to her youthful zest for earth, which his 'humaneness' has 'renovated'
> The metaphor compares this lady's voice to the sound which the woodwork of the viol gives out when It Is dropped upon the floor: other voices may sound sweet u the atriugs. but hers was like the more deeply thrilling 'rich mother notes' ot the very 'wood-throb.' There are snch voices, and those who have beard remember them.
THE LESSON OF GRIEF, p. 393.
which make* us feel old
WIND ON THE LYRE, p. 393.
The ' Father-singer' of Ariel, the spirit In Tin Tempest. Is Sbakeapeare. who was neither optimist nor pessimist, but poet. 'Green' and 'blue' are commonly used by Meredith to denominate ' earth ' and ' heaven,' whose ' marriage ' is a favourite theme In his poems. The farther the sound travels through the sky, the more It seem* to dwell In our hearts.
ODE TO THE COMIC SPIRIT, pp. 394-403.
■'The throb ' = the heart. When otherwise excellent people take the heart Instead of the brain to be lord, they become proper subjects for the shafts of the Comic Spirit. The whole of this section de- scribes a number of different cases requiring the reproor of Comedy.
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NOTES 603
iThs extTMrdinar; Bectlon of the poem that here followa l> based OD the mylbologlcal story of Momus, exp&aded hy the fancy of the modem poet. The story ran that Momua, 'the Jesl^r.' was hurled otf Olympua by the other gods, who could not endure his ■atliical crltldsm. When Zeus gave the 'fatal kick' that sent Momiu otT Olympiu, It was fatal not so much to Momus as to the mountain of the soda, although apparently Olympus still aspired to heaven, while Momus vent limping, crippled by his fall. But the gods, lacking the crltldsm of his Comic Spirit, rapidly deceneral«d, and loon fell to earth.
■ The poet here expands the ancient legend. He narrates that the gods, ruined and brought to earth after their Ul-advlsed expulsion of Momus. have to earn their living by becoming minstrels oo the sand at a watering-place. The 'cripple' who leads them is Momus, lamed by hia old foil from Olympus.
• Momus satirically names the members of his troupe (the fallen gods) to pasaers-by on the sands. The august names, coupled with the pitiful figures before them, make the ears of the listeners seem to contradict their eyes, and boUi sight and hearing to reel as though under the Influence of drink.
'His Trombone Is Father Zeus: strong Heracles beats the drum: Area, god of war. Is bis bugler : the Harp is played by Apollo, god of the lyre and of the sun at dawn, now 'raylees': the Triangle Is played by bis twIn-slster Artemis, the moon-goddeas of chastity, 'tbe gibbous prudJ.' (Gibbous— humpbacked, of a person: particularly of the moon. It It exceeds a seml-drcle but Is not as large as a circle.) His Tambourine Is Hebe, the graceful cup-bearer of Olympus, now blowKy and run to fat. The long passage beginning wltb 'O but now . . .' refers to Aphrodite, goddess of love and l>eauty. ' the Dame of Dames.' Like all the other gods and goddesses, she has come 'to thia' from rejecting tbe correction of Momus' Comic Spirit when on Olympus. The 'fatal kick' Zeus gave to Momus has ruined
Aphrodiia also.
' Astarte. the Phoenician version of tho Greek Aphrodite, stands for the vulgar carnal love into which Aphrodite degenerates If uncorreclfld by humour.
' 'The Boy' = Aphrodite's son. Cupid.
■ 'This leader'^ Momus. loading bis troop of minstrel gods.
''Our throbber ' = our human heart, which the gods bad. and wliich required even In them correction by the Comic Spirit.
ODE TO YOUTH IN MEMORY, pp. 403-9. > ' Tbe winged Olympus ' = the eagle of Zeus, who carried the shepherd boy Ganymede up from the plains of Troy to Olympus to bear the nectar-cup at tbe feasts of the gods.
■ The whole of this long section means that age should be content with Its lot, and the retrospect of a life well s]>eut. If age atWmpts to repeat the experiences and Joys of youth. It wins only darkness, like Persephone snatched from light and life into the dark under- world. The 'dragon.' referred to in tbe middle of this section. will be familiar to readers of Meredith's poems (s.p. 'The Woods ot
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Weatemuln') u hli conataDt STmbol for nlllBbiieai — iiAtural Id Tsrjr roung pBople. but abomlokble In Uu old.
■The 'vapoun black.' which turn to 'btKrtble ihoMa' and ihrlelc 'Fallter' at a man. are the memorle* at tbu and nMumeai. which a man muK face Id hli retroapectlon aa wall aa hli jouthrul joya and achlevemente, If he would leant In laur ;eara the ISMon ot hii youth
PENETRATION AND TRUST, pp. 409-10.
A h)rd Is boIdb to the distant war, and Is aaTlnB farewell to his lady. He looks in her eyes to see If she wiu be faltlifiil In hii abeence, penetrates her Innocent, Inmost taught, and trusts her. She thererora cries out. In tbe I>M two lines of the poem, that what- ever happens In the war he will always be victor at home In bar heart, because he trusts her Instead of playing the ausptdoui tyraol.
THE TEACHING OP THE NUDE. p. 410.
The nudity of Uie goddess, by Its very splendour, drives the Satyr, half mad. Into the wlldeni«« to struggle with hi* conflicting emotions (i). He returns tamed and purified, though tbe struggle Is still aUve Id blm. TUl Bnally tbe shepherd Mellboeiu sees the last act of the woodland drama : Mellboeus' own wife, no goddMS of chastity, la revealing the charms of half-nudlt;. amid roae leaves, to a band of Satyrs. 'Our Satyr.' coming at the same time upon the scene, kicks up the rose leav« to Indicate tbe feelings aroused In him.
EMPEDOCLES, pp. 411-12.
The Qreek phlloaophBr Empedoclea, according to a tradition Inunor- tallaed by 'his poet' Matthew Arnold, leaped down tbe crater of £tna Id a Dt ot pessimism. Hla leap does not seem to Meredith a truly philosophical geature.
FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE, pp. 413-21.
To aarist tbe reader of the duologue, tbe worda ForeHfiU and Pollencc have In thla edition been Inserted In each caae opposite to tbe apeecbea put Into the mouth of each by the poet. Thla poem sbowi bow keenly seositlve be was to the moat mddem develop- ments, and how far be conceived them to tally with his theory oT general progrees. The poem tskee the form of a dialogue between Foredgbt. the active spirit of progress that aspires and plans and sometimes despairs, with her sister PatJeniv. the spirit that waits In faith and 'savours hope deferred.' but who la not ' ResIgoatloD's counterpart.' and whose teaching Is not that ot 'the dry word Content.' Foresight Is horror-struck by the gross, material aspect ot tbe mUllons who are now so rapidly mastering the Earth. Patience pirinta out tbe hopeful aspect of the matter.
> They — Foresight and Patience.
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NOTES 605
•Foresight Iraowa th»t • brave future will d&wn. but 'hoir' It will dftwn li not so dear, and to leain 'how' she must take rniinnni of Patience. Foresleht comparM berself to the ea<le that die* at the ■un, anil Patience to the dalsr. Men wlU learn more about the tun from the daisy than from the flight of the eagle.
• Forodght says tovingly that her slater Patience, 'my sober Utile maM.' Is always ready to listen to her when they flrsl meet. For her part Foresight Is le« able to learn the lessons of PalleDce, tor she is disgusted at sight of mankind turning Its forward march Into a cIrcUng round and round. like that of dead weeds on boubled
• Fomlgbt, Id her last speech, has said that men are no wiser than la primitlTS times, and that then at least they had 'the beauty of (Tank animals.' To this Patience repllM. bidding her look back at the i^lmlllTe tlmea and see Chat man was really worse then, when 'yes' and 'no' always meant a light. Then Foresight ('my sister') was nnhoard or unheeded, while Patience herself knew the virtue of possessing her soul In evil times.
■Patience takes up the defance of 'this Age' flast decade ot nineteenth century) against Foresight, who has complained that It la given over to pessimism. Patience says that 'the word' — hap- piness— 'which means our soul asleep or body's lust,' is despised and left to rust by the 'brave Age' that refuses to enjoy Individual . happlneaa till It can be shared In common with multitudes, and so be no longer ' predatory.'
• The fear of war In Europe.
'The 'other mBss' Is the working class, referred to as 'the toilers' a doxen lines below, waking to challenge tor possession of the world the grossly material upi>er and middle clasa oF whom Foreslgbt has been complaining.
' Our Age. comptoina Foresight, feeds Itself on Doubt — scepticism about progress, morality, elc. — and 'for paatime' compounds for Its sceptldim by spasmodic returns to superstition.
■ Patience compsres our Age to the Nile In lie lower reaches which, owing to the vigorous force that It gets from Its sources In the moun- talru, disastrously floods tbe lower ground, and destroys the 'golden promise over leagues of seed.' Yet our broad Nile can boast now that It feeds thousands where the Upper Nile (the vigorous early Ages) only fed lens. And but for the vigour that It derives from Its sources, 'troublous' as tbe vigour Is, It could do little.
■■ Foresight admits that Patience Is right In pointing to the advan- tage of 'numbers' aa tbe basis of our modem dvtilsation, on which It will stand longer than did Greece or Rome, that bad not 'numbers,' or Irapt them In slavery. Yet Foresight cannot reprew the cry. 'O thrice must one be you (Patience)' — thrice patient must one be to view without despair tbe undistinguished modem multitudes In 'the swamp of tbdr increase. '
■' The sight of modem vulgarity causes philosophers, not of the true creed of philosophy, to despair, and. like Bmpedoclea (see p. 411 above), to commit suicide by plimglns down tbe crater of Aetna — tbe smoicy recesses of their own brains. The phllosoplierB tbus pass away In vain — 'but not Philosophy,' kdds Patience, aad Foredght
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noiT ngreei. 'Advaatage to tbe Muiy' Is to be the watchword of a brighter future.
»They = lroDy and satire.
LINES TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA, pp. 421-7.
Thia poem. writleQ In 1867. rafera to the then receat dvll war Id the 'young DomlDloD' (xxriii) of the UnlMd Stat«. when the British upper cUuies and tbeir Pre«s — 'that laveterate machine' (iTi)— had aided with the robel Hlave-owners. while Bright and tbe worklng-mea took the opposite side. As the upper classei were abiB to be more loudly vocal, and the working daasea had not got tbe vote. England appeared to the Indignant Americana to have desired the destruction of tholr Republic. When, therefore, slaTery and rebellion had been put down, relations were atrained between America and England, although our 'blunderers' over here saw the dangerous mistake they had made, and 'turned sharp the victor to cajole' (ixx), and 'we who would not be wooed must court' (v). The poet looks to Ma friend vlaltlUB America to explain to our kins- men that the true England was not the England of the upper-dan
■ 'A poet, half a prophet.' etc. (xtxt-iixti). Carlyle. who a few months before this poem was written, had publlahed bla ShooHna Niatara, and Aftet. in which he eipresaed his aympathy ) In America, and the 'titular aristocracy' la
ANEURIN'S HARP, pp. 42^32.
Aneurin. Welsh bard (flourished circa 603). composed Tfw Godoiin, an epic relating the defeat of the Britons of Stratbdyde by tbe Saxons at the battle of Cattraeth. a defeat which Aneurin ascribes to drunkenness on tbe part of the Britona. 'Blue mead (methegUn) was their drink, and proved their poison,'
The modern poet, writing still aa a Welshman or Briton, again tells the story of the battle |i-xil, and then proceeds to point the moral In the light of subsequent history. The Saxon, the 'pale sea-monster' (iv). after all had hla usea. and ruled till he submitted to the 'Norman noae' (iii). To that 'lord of features' the Saxon still pays feudal homage, thus exciting tbe shame and rage of the subjugated Cdtlc fringe, that haa no such feudal feeling (xiii-xvi). But we are now one race — Norman. Saxon, Briton^' rolled to meet a common fate.* and our common danger la leat wealth ahould do to Ua what tho 'metheglln beaker' did to tho drunken Britons of old — unBt us for the competition and strife of modern natlooa (xvii-iix).
'The 'BIrlas' horn was a drinking-horn. The word occur* In ancient Welah poetry.
PROGRESS, p. 433.
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TO CARDINAL MANNING, p. 434.
TO COLONEL CHARLES, pp. 434-6,
A plB» for iteady. Bfatematlc ftrnuiiileDt. iDslesd ot laxity varied b; OtM of panic, a Dheme frequenUy recurring In these poem*. Colooel Charlea, to whom the poem Is (ddreascd, had wltneased the deetruo tlon of unprepared Aiutrls's armr at KOnlggrtti. the great Prunlan victory of 1SQ6. Chtum (zii) wai the vIllaEO In the centre of the Austrian position, wrapped that day In lets of snake. The 'poet' referred to (ix) ts Bomer; the famoua phrase quoted occurs In Od. XII. 13 and elsenhere.
THE LABOURER, pp. 437-8.
Flr«t published In the Walmituler Qaitue. Feb. fl, 1893. 'The Labourer' li Oiadstone; the * monster-tssk ' la Home Rule: the 'yellow-flowering ladles' are Primrose Dames; 'the dog* Is Cerberus, guardian ot Hades.
THE EMPTY PURSE, pp. 438-58,
A young man has, fortunately for himseir thinks the poet, run through his wealth early In life, and so has a chance to become a real man Instead of a drainpipe ot gold and bought pleasures. The poet gives blm much advice as to how to serve his generation — with bis eye on generations to come. He Is exhorted to enter politics — with certain progressive ends In view, and with certain standards In oratory and political tone.
■ Zeus wooed Dana6 by descending Into her lap In a shower of gold. ■The 'Samlan Sage' was Pythagoras, who l>tiieved in the trans-
mlgratlon ot souls. The poet says that the souls of hooved and homed animals are Indeed Interchangeable with those of wealthy debauchees let loose on women,
■ The struggle with actual poverty means a struggle with the taws of the Earth. And a tjout with Earth does not give black or blue eyes to close our vision, but opens the eyes and windows of the Boul, Con- tact with Earth, even through a fall. Is vivifying to man now, as It was to tbe giant- wrestler Anteus, who drew strength whenever hs touched tbe soil.
• Phalarts roiist«d men Inside a brazen bull, which therefore seemed lo be bellowing when tbe victim inside roared. The 'cities of the plain' were Sodom and Gomorrah, doomed (or th^ sins to destruction
■ Tbe best thing to wash a man pure Is for blm to subject himself to ' the torrents of wrath ' ever ready to t» let loose on any one who criticises the distribution of property — 'the dearest men prize' — the unrestricted right of bequest, etc., spoken of a few lines tunher
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dovD. 'JoamalB mia buiu' directed aeklnst critica of the praaeot
* Tha young (tha 'TentBtlvea') are s1wb]ib esgar for aiperlment. and tugging ig&liut tlie old. Nsture knows It Ic Che old wbo are ttie 'Impediment' to progren.
' Batracblsn cro»k= cro&k of a fn^.
•'The Queen of delirious rltea' la Cybele.t to whom tbe mad 'Phrygian' mudc was played by her ecatatic worablppere. Hence. Ave Udbh below, we read tbat sucb frcuited polltldans mu«t go 'oS to tbeir Phrygla' — to tear their paaston to rags there. The right muale of life or of oratory la not 'Phrygian,' but the mualc of ' Meaauro' or balaoced wladom.
* For the mythology of tbla paasage. sea CatuUua, Carm,. 63. ' Cybele'a beast ' = the Uon.
' Pnet«r - determinedly thermonoua' •• over - determinedly hot- minded. Such la the 'Cybele' type of poUtldan. whoae 'cauae' conaequently become* «■ unaerrlceabla as * Attls ' — the Bhepberd loved by Cybele who went mad and fled from human aodety after castrating hlmaeir But tbe right bind of cauae (or peiwin) does not go mad, and produces ' progeny ' and la In touch with the coming generatlona.
"'8be' of tbla stania, 'the Innermost.' la Earth. Mother Nature.
■' The young man'a caae ia compared to that of the man who chos« Co be fed royally for a year and then railed off tbe cliff, thereby wving tbe city of Masstlla from plague. The young man of tbe Bmpli; Parte bod no choice In tbe matter, as the law forced him to atart llTe handi- capped with rlchea.
" Now In hia lean atata, after hia cataatropfae, be may aa politician ■erre tbe community by attsdcing tbe 'grandmotherly Laws' of in- haritanca. hts share In the abuse of wbtcb he would now expiate. Be Is advised to be courteous as an orator, and not to be afraid ot rei>eBt- Ing himself, but to deal with one problem by many Illustrations, because the succeaaful preacher Is 'supple' In his methods, but 'atlS' in Ma one purpose.
OUTSIDE THE CROWD, pp. 456-7.
' If Britain trlea to take a larger abare of tile world than aba can bold in her banda and arms, she will, in snatchlDg for substance, find that she bas really snatched only at a flitting vapour. Better arm ounelvea to stand on guard over what we have got. and be Juat and benevolent In our use of It.
AT THE CLOSE, p. 458.
Written at the beginning of tbe second Boer War, 1S99. Since we have not 'torn the fall'n,' the conditional curse of the laat Una baa not come upon us.
THE VOYAGE OF THE 'OPHIR,' pp. 459-60.
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THE CALL, pp. 461-3.
IL Y A CENT ANS, pp. 463-*.
Flnt printed Id The Flat, leOS. BLtXen to Napoleon's rule oq the CoDtinent snd bis falli and goea on to tboughu on modera natlona and amumeats.
■The 'tacta' our grandfatben thought permanent reallUea turn out to be Incidents, Rmall haltlDB-places In history. Nor can the 'tnitha' they believed In endure unless the; grow with the times.
MILTON, pp. 466-7. Ida waa the mountain above Tror. The reference la to Homer.
THE REVOLUTION, pp. 468-77.
The poem opens with a picture or the anctin rfgime of France, before the gr«at eruption (i-ii). Neit. the early and happier stages or the Bevolutlon (1789-90) are typified b; a Qgure which reappears coDBtODtly both In this and the following pooma. viz. France rising midway to heaven to meet her bridegroom descending from 'the blue" <iii-it). This 'heavenly lover,' 'the young Angelical.' repre- aents True Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, the original Idaaa of 1789. Throughout the history of the next hundred years the poet shows us France constantty desBrting tbls, her true lover, for the Terror or for Napoleon i. or iii.. and seeking him again with tears. for she Is both ' Angel and Wanton.'
Her first unfaJthfuInesa to the 'heavenly lover.' the madness ot the Terror, Is analysed (v-viii). The 'heavenly lover' flies from her (vu). The confederate kings beside her with assault from witboat and treason within (viii), but her peasant soldiers (ii) turn the tables on the kings and hunt the hunters (x). But tbe lust for victory, glory, and plunder rise In her at sight of the captured banners (ii). and by tbem Napoleon, 'tbe Iron lord.' wins her heart (xu). Her sins and madness, not wholly noble, get what they demrve in Justice — tbe hard taskmaster Napoleon: her 'lost virtue' 'had found refuge' In the army, whence 'strode her master' (xiu).
'Id section ii, 'the lewelled flies' are the nobles, courtiers, etc., that drained Prance under the anclen rtgimt,
'Amort' = llfeless. Inanimate: they thought that dnca tbe rebel (France) was dumb, all passion was Ureleaa In her.
NAPOLEON, pp. 477-96.
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Liberty (ne ootea to last poem), noir fiUi away from her h«»Tet>]y lover. KDd sues art him (Nkpoleon). Oramm^Ucnlly, 'gmsed' govenu ' on blm ' : and the subject ol the lenleDCe li, ' ihe. the lona- enduined,' etc.
' Her leap up the iky to meet her Bptrlt-loyer (see lut poem, ni KDd note) hsB dow receded Into the distuice, stlnins In her memory only like * a troubled pool ' or a half-loat dream. She now rejects ber old Ideal* aa uaeleas vtBtons, and accept* the 'Imperial Fact' of Napoleon.
■'Earth's flutterlog little lyre' Is the lark. tyi>lfylns the voice of liberty and humaotty that rouaad Prance from her 'boar-froet' before the Revolution (see the last poem, section ii. p. MS above) aa the lark rouses the seed In the frozen earth at aprlitg: this vc4ce of liberty and humanity Is still heard by France through all the Napoleonic roar in Europe, faintly, like an Infant's cry, """'"'""if bcr at Intervals of the better things which she bad deserted to worship ber master.
But In the Orst lines of the next section (vi) we read how Fiance again throws off tbme suggestions of her better self, and Is deaf to the 'arrant moans' accusing her of being the mother anil yet the murderer of liberty, and therefore accursed. She again becomes the 'adoring ■lave' of Napoleon and hU fresh conquests.
• The 'Bhepherd' la Washington lob. 179B) who realised the Ideal from which France has fallen away.
■Refers to the terrible Hlaugbter at Eyiau, 1S07, amid the 'marsh and snows,' when the Russians first made Napoleon wonder whether there was not some naceasary limit to hla conquesU. He thinks the matter out bealdH Frederick the Great's tomb In conquered Prussia, and deddM to drop 'batUe'a dice-boi,' and makes the Treaty of Tildt with Russia <1807]. Such Is the meaning of this first stania of
•But 'the Seaman' (England), by help at money, puts hoart again Into conquered Europe to rebel, and so puis Into the distance Napoleon's dream of conquering India like 'Macedoniao* Alexander, and becoming an Emperor 'Cbariemagne.' with no 'mark' or bound to his Empire.
' The Seaman (England), girdling round Napoleon's land Empire, by turning Russia againat him. will soon 'lure and goad him' to the fatal Russian campa^ (1812), where he will meet the sea power of England In those battalions of Ruaslana, 'suborned' by English
■Sections II and x are a discussion of the relations of 'him and her.' Napoleon and Franco. It is packed wlLh historical Insight and knowledge, the latter being the result of Meredith's deep reading In Napoleonic literature.
• 'Friable'~crumbly : 'grumous'^cloCtod. thick; 'dlizards'vfools. blockheads. Napoleon regarded all politicians of all parties In Prance aa fools, despising equally thoee who gave way to hlm easily and those who resisted Um olMtlnateiy.
I* The same Idea aa that explained In note 7 above. Engtacd. the sea power, of the hydra heads, ever falling from heaven like an
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4
NOTES 611
aflroUte in uneipecMd plac«a. tkka up her lut M&nd beltlnd the Scythian (RuaalanJ.
» The iovuioa oT Suntii, 181Z.
"The feverish union of Fnnce and Napoleon after the Ion of the grand army In Russia, to save one another In the hour of defeat, though Prance la now really dlsQIu^oDed about her master.
>• This and the following llaes describe bow Napoleon played 'double or quits' In the campaigns of 1813-14. refusing to accept a mere half of Europe.
H ReToiiag to the escape from Elba and the Hundred Days — a human miracle. The following section refers to the Waterloo cam- paign.
|> ATler Waterloo, France i* freed from the great oppression of Napoleon, but by foreigners who are not the sons of true freedom. She Is not Mt ftee to rejoin her heavenly lover. The voice of the Cossack and of the Holy Alliance Is 'the raven's croak.' not 'Earth's fluttering little lyre.' for which see note 3 above.
" As the years go by. and the liberal movement begins in FraDM in the twentJes, the Naixdeonic Legend assumes the mellow hues of peace and liberty which the real Napoleon had hatod. The 'young Angelical' — the heavenly lover — True Liberty waves aloft again as
FRANCE— DECEMBER 1870, pp. 497-504.
'Prance — December 1S70' was written actually Is that month, when the Germans were round Pads, and were covering eastern Trance with their 'league-long chains' of armlis. It first appeared in the FoTtninMlii Bnletn, January 1871. and afterwards in the vidume Ballads and Poena. The other poems of the series, 'The Revolution.' ' NapolSon.' and ' Alsace-Lorraine,' are much later -. Unt published, 1898.
' Referring to the French Bevolutlon, 1789 e( ttq.
■ This section (v) refers to the llrat Napoleon's armies of seventy years before, whose violences and conquests are now being punished, remembered by the remorseless memories of the gods.
\ The rest of this section refers to the revival of supersUtlon, and the rash to the cburchea to supplicate 'miraculous' deliverance from the Prusalans. But the 'Mother of Reason' and of 'the many Laugbters,' the land of Voltaire, con surely not expect much from that, says the poet.
'Her 'Dishonour' (* Dlshonounr' In flist edition) means Napoleon m.
ALSACE-LORRAINE, pp. 605-20,
This poem, dated 1898, refers to the recovery of Prance from the disaster of 1870, a recovery propbealed by a poet in the previous poem written a generation before. Peace, not revenge; a spiritual, not a material restitution, is being won. and France will lead us again in the better paths of the new era. The writer of these notes
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612 NOTES
h»d the advantage of the poet's InatracUon u to the mewilDg of KimB of the more dlncult panacea of tUs poem.
< The twelve boura are linked Id the drde of the clock face. The 'houn' that rlpea the fateful aeed we have mwn. are 'the;' Id this flret sectloa. aad are also the 'rovolvliig Twelves' Id the ■ecoDd line of section ii. The 'hours.' revolving since 1870, have done much for the raoowol of FrBDce.
■Dogs' snouts bunting through the grasacs: rabbits bolting for safety Into their burrows.
This secdon <ii) pictures for u3 the natural lite and scenery of rural France, both to north and to south, the breast of earth that has made (julet recovery possible for the children of France. afl«r 1870. 'Commune wllb Earth' 'shall remake' 'ber' — that Is France.
■ ' Darkness on that Eastward side' Is Alsace-Lorraine lost.
< The soldlera are mad tor vengeance. But It Is not the soldiers who restore France ; It Is the tollers.
> Boyallst movement In France after 1870 Is referred to In section IT. The reactionary Royalists urge Prance to abjure her 'dlvlnest shot.' her great Revolution, her leap at the 'celestial' In 178Q, and abhor those days of the Phrygian caps of liberty.
•Her lover— True Liberty. See note to 'The Revolution.' p. 608 above. She 'flings' the Royalists, and retuma to her true lover. Liberty, but only oDCe mora to leave him to hanker after Buona- partlsm.
'The 'treasure-galleon' Is Napoleon In memory, the Napoleonic Legend. See last two llnea of 'NapolAon.' p. 496. The reference la to the revived Buonapartiat movement In France In the lalo
■ France. In lata seventies, halla Napoleon i. as saint. She should rather, says the poet, have hailed Jeanne d'Arc as saint, for ahe atanila for a purer patrlotbm. 'She had no self but France,' white Napoleon bad ' no France but self. '
■This section refers to the battle of Sedan. Sedan Is the 'ODe word' which FrODce cannot forget, and It ia for ever linked with that of her new-chosen 'Saint' Napoleon, The 'cannon-Dame' and 'wHI of wills' recall the opeDiDg of the poem 'NapoUSon,' p. 477.
I" This section (vii) describee the ghoat of Napoleon i. viewing the battle of Sedan (1S70) — 'his Legand'a close.' The great ghost rides up the heights to gloat over the army entrapped In the valley of Sedan, making no doubt In bis 'victor's Instinctive scorn' tbat It la the enemy who la trapped by the French armies. But when the ghost Joins the victors on the heights, he Bads himself among 'the belmetpd ranks' of the Prussians. It la 'an army of France, tricked, netted, convulsive.' In the valley below.
'< The famous charge of the French cuirassiers In the vain attempt to break the net at Sedan, — watctied by the gbost of Napoleon i., 'the Grey Observer.'
"The gboBt of Napoleon i,. In bis anger at tlndlng who Is oon- quered and who conqueror at Sedan, caUa up Tbierv, the 'mannikln squire.' with a head which Meredith always compared to a 'merlin hawk,' and the 'quill' with which he wrote the bombastic Comulat el
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NOTES 613
L'Emjiirt 'aeroir oa Mb ear.' Tblen hod brought France to tbli dIsaiMr by pufflng the Napoleonic Legend Id bU bUtory, and so briiig- Ing OD the clamour tor the fatal war of 1870.
■■ Every aniilversary day of Sedan Napoleoa i.'a gboat will hale Tbiera' ghost atl«r him to show him the vIbIod of the battle of Sedan — which tbey two between them brought on France by making the 'Napoleonic Legend' of 'glory.'
" The Bplre of Strasburg Cathedral.
'■ France aeea Germany and can admire her, seeing also In whit walks Prance can atUt lead : and she can me what wary natch over Alsace-Lorraine her sister Germany keeps, misreading her 'mother's throbs' for the lost provinces aa the Intention to recover them.
"The 'belted Overabadower' Is Germany — becoming too 'ada- mantine' In her rtal-palilll:, with the poaaeadon of Force, and limiting her borlaon to ' present sight.'
I' France, who gave birth to Jeanne d'Arc, and who sprang to the heavenly marriage In ITSO. may reach 'beiehta yet unknown of nations.' In the judgment-court (Hetlaea) of History she may make good her claim to have brought to birth a conscience and a love of
'■ For the poet's 'faith' In France In 1870. see the loat poem.
" The 'double name' ~ Alsace-Lorraine.
" Viz. Europe, where each nation owes so much U> each that there Is no measuring who gives or takes mo^t, and where war la Cain . . . will hall the rare example of France the peacemaker.
THE CAGEING OF ARES, pp. 5204,
The legend, used as an allegory of the work of keeping peace. Is that Coea (Mother Earth) learns from ber two boys. Otoa and Ephlaltee. Titans, bow they have snared Ares, tho god of war, and bound bim in a 'vessel of bronze.' Finally Hermes prompM Hephaestus, the smith-god. to 'shatter earth's delirious holiday' by brealiing open Area' prison. But till tben. Tor 'thirteen songful months.' Eart^i and her children enjoyed peace and happiness.
THE NIGHT-WALK, pp. 524-8.
Though written in old age, this poem recalls the poet's thoughts
and aensatlona on a nlgbt-wolk; taken by blmselT and a (Tieod as very
' The moments of silence between the poet and his walking- companion, were like mothers' breasts, a soft refuge and nursery to It (youth's dream), maldng It feel a state of divine conceit (imagination). Bucb OS roaUty must envy.
A GARDEN IDYL, pp. 52G-9. Arachne la the spider. The poet watches her web. till one day a dandelion's head gels In where the fly should l>e, much to the perturbation of the spider.
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■ Onndmotber ipldsn have wmnied their ehadno wlUi the tole tb»t the dkadelioD wed. light tbougb II mar be. on itrlke the web Mi •J to deatro; It.
THE VITAL CHOICE, WITH THE HUNTRESS, WITH THE PERSUADER, THE TEST OF MANHOOD, pp. 529-46.
The brief preUmlnkir ituuu of 'The Vital Choice' (tate the problem aflerwardi worked out more fully la 'The Ten of Manhood.' Artamla aod Aphrodite each dalm all from Youth, who miut stve to each her dUM, but not more. If we 'sbun' either sodden, or 'too devoutly follow' either, they point ua to Death. The subject through- out If the old rivalry of the two. and thetr ultimate harmony. 'The Huntren' la Artemii (Diana), Qreek goddea of chartlty and hunting — aymbol here of our development of body, brain, and iplrit In purity. In (trlfe with the elements. 'The Fenuader' la Aphrodite ' (Venus) — love. 'The Teat of Manhood' la to give each goddeaa her doe, and no more, aa the laat poem of the cycle ahowa.
WITH THE HUNTRESS, pp. 52*51.
The picture la that of Anemia (who waa goddeaa of the moon aa well as of hunting and chaatlty) hunting by night through the foreat- dad mountalna.
WITH THE PERSUADER, pp. 531-40.
■'Nlgbt'a foreat bom' and 'the Inaaner crew' denote the ritaa and devoteea irf Artemla. 'The Huntress.' here viewed from the sumdpolnt of Aphrodite, and therefore In a leas favourable light than In the laat
•'Theae. the Irreverent of LlfB'a dealgn.' etc.. are the foUowen of Artemla, the deaplaera of love and generation.
• 'The rosea lluab the cheeka' of the foUowera of Artemla, becauae they take healthy eierdae. They therefore . think they are 'In nature wlae.' but they are really foolish, deaplslng love. These are 'the race who mount the roee' — ot health in tbetr cheeks, mentioned two lines further down. Aphrodite makes war on then, and often undermines their virtue at unexpected polnta.
> The ' Laurel Ood ' la ApoUo, god of music, poetry, and the sun. High and loyoua courage, even In sullerlng and dlsappolntnlent. is the mark of true love. Aphrodite does not Uhe men who whine.
• ' And la It needed.' etc. This couplet and the next ali Unas, down to the end Ot the section, meiui that woman la naturally the one who 'walla' as a 'handmaid' for tbe man to approacli her with love: but if niaa plays the 'dainty' brute, and will not became 'hunter' till he has himself bean 'snared,' she knows how to tempt him to
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NOTES 615
pnnue ber. IT thai 'pcrrerted' by tlM 'muolen' ap^thj of ttao male, the tua uidu of coQuetry to lura him on, IT be ha< ■rown 'tUM' in pursuit.
' Women &re here divided Into two clasMO — tbe simple and the complex. Bleat nun hu his choice from both.
• An element of paaslon. beyond reftaon and locic, li neoeaury In ttie lover, or be la doomed by the law Ot NMuTO. He miut believe Ui cboaeu to be the fklrest.
THE TEST OF MANHOOD, pp. 54(M.
1 The ' army ' that ' ianie* out of wlldemew.' la mukldnd emerging from iMrbkrtim. Tbe treatment of the subject U to some eiI«Dt tiistorlcal. The 'tempiee' luggeet those raised by the Oreelis, Later In the poem, tbe asceticism and belief in tbe devU recuJl the Middle Ages: and tbe emergence from aupentltton hlots at the modem
< 'Htm' = man.
• This passage refers to tbe more selOsb aipect ot popular religloD, the prayer of the individual to Ood for personal salvation, and ipedal grants to ' tbe elect,' as distinguished from the rest of manldnd.
•Both— Mature and Divinity. Both are 'sustaining' alike to the higher and lower types of humanity. But both are cruel to the tplrltual prelenslona of the individual to superiority.
* Man saw his treason to bis fellow-men In praying to Ood for external possesaloni. wblcb are won by Oghtlng. and have nothing to do with rellgloi}.
* The ' black adversary's ghost' Is the devil.
'The emancipation or religion from superstition — a new 'vision' opens and the devil Is dematerlallaed. 'The spectral enemy' — 'the black advenory's ghost' of the previous section.
*Man'B 'shrouded Sire' Is Ood.
■'The hostile rival twain' are Artemis and Aphrodite, whom It la man's triumph to hold wlttiin himself, each In her proper place and station.
"Mao's 'mastering mind' dlscema 'the Maater mind,' '(he Oreat Dnseen. nowise the Dark Unknown' : that Is — Ood.
" Man returns to brute if he lets loose of all control either the Icy Art«mls, who '<'"'»'"■ the llssh. or the soft Aphrodite, who lends it
<* ' Its tempters ' ^ Artemis and Aphrodite.
THE HUELESS LOVE, pp. 5«-7.
The Platonic love of a man and woman divided by marriage. He dies, and 'their llrst touch of ilpe' is 'as he lay cold.' Something Bimlhv Is suggested In thb next poem. 'Union in Disseverance.' where the harmony of the dying sunset and the evening star is spoken of as a union between man and woman deeper than that ot ordinary marriage.
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FOREST HISTORY, pp. H9-53.
The poet deacrtbea In order oT their historic^ bapiMmliig the phaaoi <>t nun's reUition lo the forest — Its mystery And rom&ace.
I'll. Mbu'b prUnoTAl strife witb the wUdemess. and legends of the * phantom ' dragon ot the forest — a tf ' mitigated by driving roads tbrough the heart of darknen.
iii-ii. The fear of the forest survives In a mitigated, 'more IntlmaU' rorm. even after man hu made his roads and setUed down In the clearings. Man learns brotherhood la the struggle against nature.
Tii-Tiii. Monasteriea are planted In the roreat.
ii-x. And nunneries. ' The garden '• that ot Eden.
ii'iii. Barbarian Invasions, to escape which the weaker races offer to the monasteries land In return for protection, food. etc. The memory of these InvasliMu and the scenes connected with them make history and tradition.
II1I-XVII. The feudal castle and the knlghts^erraDt tilting against each other In mossy glades.
iTiii-ii. Robin Hood and the shooters of deer.
xii-iiiii. The bauntlDg effect of the forest on the child Of the medieval city,
iiiT-iiT. The Fairies.
xxvi-ixviii. To crown all came Shakespeare, who Inherited each of these Instincts and traditions, bock to the most primitive forest fear (the Dragon). Be is. besides, half townsman.
nxix. And so. as Stiokespeare has shown us. these two worlds of thought and feeling, the social and aolltary, may be woven together In our lives. They are 'our conquest.' The woods and the cities are both our Inheritance, provided that we do not on the one hand lose respect for the advantages of dvlllaatlon. and retrogresslvely overstep the 'boundaries of realms from Nature won' : nor, on the other hand, become sophisticated out of all depth of feeling and lose 'the poet's awe In raptive,' which he Qrst drew Itom tbe forest but may lieep in the dty.
THE CRISIS, pp. 561-2.
f tbe Busstana to win
THE CENTENARY OF GARIBALDI, pp. 562-1.
■ 'Not to strive' means 'not to strive against one another.'
FRAGMENTS (No. Ill), pp. 567-8.
1 In tbU 'Fragment' we are exhorted to look up lo the light of •Doming In the sky. while as yet tbe sim. the lord of the morning. Is nnrlsen. 'She' and 'her' mean 'mom.'
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INDEX OF FIRST LINES
A Blackbird tn a wicker cage. A breath oT the moantaiiu. rreab bom in the raglons A brook glaDdDg under green leaves. >elf-dellghtlng. A dove Dew with an OUv« Branch : A fountain or our iweeleat. quick to spring A hundred mares, all white 1 their manes A princvst in the eaBtern tale A rainless darkness drew o 'er the lake A revelation came on Jane A roar thro' the t*JI twin elm'treee A Satyr spied a Ooddess In her batb. A wicked man Is bad eaough on earth ; A wilding little stubble Bower A wind Bways the plan. An English heart, my commandant. An Inspiration caught rrom dubious hues And — ' Vonder look I yohol yohol Angelic love that etoopR with heavenly lips As Puritans they prominently wax. Ask, Is Love dlvloe, Assured oT worthiness we do not dread At the coming up of Phoebus the all- Avert. High Wlwlom. never vainly wooed. Awakw tor me and leaps from shroud
;h the vans or doom did men JD the fountain and the rill T besotted, with scowl of a
', having heart of
Blue July, bright July,
Bright SIriual that when Orion pales
Bursts from a rending East In Baws
Bury tby torrows. and they shall rise
By this he knew she wept with waking eyes :
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Hll]-«ldes are dark. .... Hla Ladj queeo ot woods to meet. HiBtoric be the nirvej of our kind. How barren would thli TsUey be. . How big of breut our Mother Oaea laughed How died Meliasa none dare* ibape In words. How low when angeli rail their black deacent, How amllM ba at a generation nuked How iweet on m
lot count the yean, . I cannot low thee for a day, . ,
I chafe at darkneai In the night, I chanced upon an earl; walk to apy I know him, Febnuur'i tbnuh, t fee a Air roung couple In a wood. I atood at the gate ot the cot [. wakeful for the ikTlark voice !□ men. . I would I were the drop of rain If that thou baat the gift of nrength, tbeo know. If thic ii death. It ii not hard to bear.
n middle age an srU thing
n Progren you have Uttle talth. aay you :
Laat ulgbt returning from my twilight walk
Leave tbe uproar : at a leap
Let Fal« or InsufSclency provide .
Like a flood river whirled at rocky baoka.
Like aa a terrible Are feeda faat on a fc
Like to some deep-chested organ wboae grand Inspiration,
Lo, aa a tree, whosa wintry twlgi .
Long with ui. now she leaves ua ; >he I
Love ti winged for two.
Love within the lover's breast
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Men tho Angola ejed ; Merrily 'mid the faded le&ves. Musing OD (be rtle of Dtphne.
Never, O never, ....
Might, like a dying mother.
No, no. the falling bloaaony ii no dgn
Not ere the bitter herb we tute. .
Not BoUtarlly In fields we Bad
Not the Bea-wave bo bellows abroad when
■hingla. ....
Not vatnir doth (be earnest voice of man Not yet had History's Aetna smoked the bMm, Now dumb Is he wbo waked tbe world to speak. Now farewell (o you 1 you are Now from the meadow floods the wild duck Now staodlnE on this hedgeslde path. Now the rrog. all lean and weak. . Now the North wind ceases. Now, this, to my notion, Is pleasant cheer. Now 'tis Spring on wood and wold.
It bursts upon
O brlar-scenla, on yon wot wing .
O might I load my arms with thee,
O my lover I tbe night like a broad smooth wave
O nightingale I how hast thoti learnt
O skylark 1 I see thee and call thee joy 1
or me and or my theme tblok what tbou wilt :
Of men he would have raised to light be fell :
On a starred night Prince Ludfer uprose.
On her great venture, Man.
On my darling's bosom
On the morning of May.
On yonder bills soft twilight dwells
Once I was part of the music I heard
One fairest ot the ripe unwedded left
Open horizons round.
Oracle of the market I thence yon drew
Or shall we run with Artemis
Our Islet out ot Helgoland,
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INDEX
Picture aome I ale ■mlllng green 'mid the trhlte-TiMmlag
Pltcb here the tenc. while tbs old hone gr&Eee: .
Prince of BanlB was old Aneurln ; .
Projected rrom the blUom Chlldo, ....
Queen Theodollnd has built ....
B war-grounij.
apeedwell. and
See the sweet women, friend, that lelui beneath
Seen, too clear and historic wlthhi ua, our sins of omlsslan
See'st thou a Skjrlark whose gUstenlDS wlngleU ascending
Shall I counsel, the moon in her ascending T
Sharp Is the nlghl. but stars with frost oUvi
She can be as wise as we. .
Should thy )o*e die :
' Sirs I may I shake your bands T
Sleek as > lizard M round of a stone.
So he. with a clear about of laughter,
So now the horsea of Alakldea. off wide of
Spirit of Bunia, now has coi
Sprung or the fatber blood, the mother brain.
Strike not thy dog with a atlckt
Summer glows warm on the
gold-cups. and daisies Sunset worn to Its last vermilion Swathed round in mist and crowi Sweet as Eden Is the olr, . Swept from his fleet upon that fatal night Sword In length a reaplng-book Sword of Common Seoaol —
Take tby lute and sing
That Oarden of sedate Philosophy
That march of the funereal Past behold:
That wB« the cblrp of Ariel
The buried voice bespoke Antigone.
The clouds are withdrawn .
Tbe daisy now Is out upon the green :
The day that Is the night of daya.
The Flower unfolda Its dawning cup.
The hundred yeara have passed, and be
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The long doud edged with it
The mooD I* »lane la the sky
The old cosch-roBd thnnigh m common ot fane. .
The old grey Alp tuu aoght the doud.
The (dd gray mother the thnimmed on ber knee :
The old hound wags hla ■h&ggj' tall.
The MDBe> lOThig Euth or weU or U
The ihepherd, with hli eye oo haiy South,
The silence of preluded song —
The skter Boun In Circles linked. .
The Snowdrop la the prophet of the flowen :
The song of a nightingale sent thro' a dumbrons vklley.
The spirit of Bomuics dies not to those
The Tyrant passed, and friendlier wa> his eye
The varied colours are a lltful heap :
The wind Is East, the wind la West,
The years had worn their seaaons' belt.
There she goes up the street with her book In her hand,
There stands a Binger In the street,
There were three maidens met on the highway:
These, then, he left, and away where ranks were now c
They have no song, the sedges dry.
They then to fountain-abundant Ida. mother of wild beasts.
This love of nature, that allures to take
This Riddle rede or die, .
Thou our beloved and light of Earth hast crossed
Thou, run to the dry on this wayside bank.
Thou to me art sudi a spring
Though I am faithful to my lovea lived through.
Through the water-eye of night. .
Thy greatest knew tbee. Mother Earth : unsoured
'Tls true the wisdom that my mind eiacta
To Hit on History In ao easy chair.
To Thee, dear God of Mercy, both appeal.
To tbem that knew her. there is vital flame
Two Sower-enfolding crystal vases she
Two wedded lovers watched the rising moon.
Under boughs of breathing May.
Under what spell are we debased
Under yonder beech-tree single on
Under yonder beech-tree standing on the green sward.
Unhappy poets of a sunken prime I
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Unto that lore must we through Bra attain,
Titdeu. abr violats I . . . .
We luTe teen mighty men bAllooolng high.
We look for her that ninllke stood
Wt tpend our lUti in Itamtng pilolagt.
We who have seen Italia In the throei,
Wliat la the name of King Hingang'i daughMr?
What Unla are oun with <MtM that are
What sar rou, critic, now 70U have become
What iplendour of imperial aUitlon man. .
Whate'ar t be. old England la mjr dam I
Wben April with her wUd blue e;e
When buda of palm do bunt and iproul ■
When by Zeuj relenting the mandate waa revoked.
When comes the llghud day for men to read
When I remember, friend, whom loat I t^,
When I would Image her featurca,
Wheo nuts behind the luuel-leftf .
When Sir Oawaln waa led to Ma bridal-bed.
When the Head of Bran
When the South aaag like a nightingale
When we have thrown off thla old suit.
Where face* are hueleea. where ey^da are dewlesa.
Who call her Mother and who calls her Wife
Who murmurs, hither, hither: who
With Alfred and St. Loula he doth win
With Life and Death 1 walked when Iiove appeared.
With love exceeding a simple love of the things
With aageat craft Arachne worked
With splendour of a sUvn' day.
Within a Temple of the Toes,
Ye that nouriah hopes of fame I . Yon upland alope which hides the sun Yonder 's the man with hla Ufa In hla hand. Young captain of a crazy bark 1 .
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