HANDBOUND
AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF
TORONTO PRESS
RUDYARD KIPLING
Volume XXVII
THE YEARS BETWEEN
AND
POEMS FROM HISTORY
THE WRITINGS IN PROSE AND VERSE OF
RUDYARD KIPLING
THE YEARS BETWEEN
AND
POEMS FROM HISTORY
^^^CELIE D
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1919
50207J
Copyright, IQ04, igos, IQ07, iqoq, igio, iqii
JQ12, igij, igi4, igi6, igiy, igi8, igig
By Rudyard Kipling
All rights reserved, including that of
translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian
PR
14% to
V.27
DEDICATION
TO THE SEVEN WATCHMEN
Seven watchmen sitting in a tower.
Watching what had come upon mankind.
Showed the Man the Glory and the Power,
And bade him shape the Kingdom to his mind.
**All things on Earth your will shall win you."
(*Twas so their counsel ran)
"But the Kingdom — the Kingdom is within you,*'
Said the Mans own mind to the Man.
For time, and some time —
As it was in the bitter years before
So it shall be in the over-sweetened hour —
That a mans m-ind is wont to tell him more
Than Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower.
CONTENTS
AMERICAN WAR, THE 170
BELLS AND QUEEN VICTORIA, THE . . . .175
BENEFACTORS, THE 80
BIG STEAMERS 178
'BROWN BESS' 167
CHOICE, THE 31
'CITY OF BRASS, THE* 124 .
CIVIL WARS, THE 162
COVENANT, THE 12
CRAFTSMAN, THE 75
DANE-GELD 143
DAWN WIND, THE 152
DEAD KING, THE 83
DEATH-BED, A 88
DECLARATION OF LONDON, THE 7
DUTCH IN THE MEDWAY, THE 164
vii
CONTENTS
PAGE
EN-DOR 46
EPITAPHS 113
FEMALE OF THE SPECIES, THE 107
*FOR ALL WE HAVE AND ARE' 18
FRANCE 13
FRENCH WARS, THE 173
GEHAZI 91
GETHSEMANE 71
GLORY OF THE GARDEN, THE 183
HOLY WAR, THE 33
HOUSES, THE 36
HYiENAS, THE 56
IRISH GUARDS, THE 40
JUSTICE 130
KING'S JOB, THE 154
LORD ROBERTS 27
MAKING OF ENGLAND, THE 145
MARY'S SON ey
MESOPOTAMIA 54
MY BOY JACK 51
MY FATHER'S CHAIR 151
viii
CONTENTS
NATIVITY, A 43
NATURAL THEOLOGY loi
NORMAN AND SAXON 146
OLDEST SONG, THE 100
OUTLAWS, THE 23
PILGRIM'S WAY, A 96
PIRATES IN ENGLAND, THE 141
PRO-CONSULS, THE ^^
QUESTION, THE 29
RECANTATION, A 48
REEDS OF RUNNYMEDE, THE 149
RIVER'S TALE, THE 135
ROMAN CENTURION SPEAKS, THE 137
ROWERS, THE 3
RUSSIA TO THE PACIFISTS 37
SECRET OF THE MACHINES, THE 180
SONG AT COCK-CROW, A 104
SONG IN STORM, A 20
SONG OF THE LATHES, THE 68
SONS OF MARTHA, THE 63
SPIES' MARCH, THE 58
ix
CONTENTS
PAGE
THINGS AND THE MAN 77
'TOGETHER' 159
ULSTER 9
VERDICTS, THE 52
VETERANS, THE 6
VIRGINITY, THE 94
WITH DRAKE IN THE TROPICS 157
ZION 25
ILLUSTRATIONS
RUDYARD KIPLING Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
"BEAR WITNESS, EARTH, WE HAVE MADE OUR
CHOICE
WITH FREEDOM'S BROTHERHOOD!". . . 32
"GUNS IN FLANDERS — FLANDERS GUNSl
(I HAD A MAN THAT WORKED 'EM ONCE !) " 68
THE YEARS BETWEEN
THE ROWERS
1902
(When Germany proposed that England should help her in a naval
demonstration to collect debts from Venezuela.)
The banked oars fell an hundred strong,
And backed and threshed and ground,
But bitter was the rowers' song
As they brought the war-boat round.
They had no heart for the rally and roar
That makes the whale-bath smoke —
When the great blades cleave and hold and leave
As one on the racing stroke.
They sang: — 'What reckoning do you keep.
And steer her by what star,
If we come unscathed from the Southern deep
To be wrecked on a Baltic bar ?
*Last night you swore our voyage was done.
But seaward still we go.
And you tell us now of a secret vow
You have made with an open foe !
3
THE YEARS BETWEEN
'That we must lie off a lightless coast
And haul and back and veer,
At the will of the breed that have wronged us most
For a year and a year and a year !
'There was never a shame in Christendie
They laid not to our door —
And you say we must take the winter sea
And sail with them once more ?
'Look South ! The gale is scarce o'erpast
That stripped and laid us down,
When we stood forth but they stood fast
And prayed to see us drown.
'Our dead they mocked are scarcely cold,
Our wounds are bleeding yet —
And you tell us now that our strength is sold
To help them press for a debt !
* 'Neath all the flags of all mankind
That use upon the seas.
Was there no other fleet to find
That you strike hands with these ?
THE ROWERS
*0f evil times that men can choose
On evil fate to fall,
What brooding Judgment let you loose
To pick the worst of all ?
'In sight of peace — from the Narrow Seas
O'er half the world to run —
With a cheated crew, to league anew
With the Goth and the shameless Hun!'
\
THE VETERANS
(Written for the gathering of survivors of the Indian Mutiny, Albert
Hall, 1907.)
To-day, across our fathers' graves,
The astonished years reveal
The remnant of that desperate host
Which cleansed our East with steel.
Hail and farewell! We greet you here,
With tears that none will scorn —
0 Keepers of the House of old,
Or ever we were born !
One service more we dare to ask —
Pray for us, heroes, pray.
That when Fate lays on us our task
We do not shame the Day!
THE DECLARATION OF LONDON
June 29, 1911
('On the re-assembling of Parliament after the Coronation, the Govern-
ment have no intention of allowing their followers to vote according
to their convictions on the Declaration of London, but insist on a
strictly party vote.' — Daily Papers.)
We were all one heart and one race
When the Abbey trumpets blew.
For a moment's breathing-space
We had forgotten you.
Now you return to your honoured place
Panting to shame us anew.
We have walked with the Ages dead —
With our Past alive and ablaze.
And you bid us pawn our honour for bread,
This day of all the days !
And you cannot wait till our guests are sped,
Or last week's wreath decays ?
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The light is still in our eyes
Of Faith and Gentlehood,
Of Service and Sacrifice;
And it does not match our mood.
To turn so soon to your treacheries
That starve our land of her food.
Our ears still carry the sound
Of our once Imperial seas.
Exultant after our King was crowned.
Beneath the sun and the breeze.
It is too early to have them bound
Or sold at your decrees.
Wait till the memory goes.
Wait till the visions fade.
We may betray in time, God knows.
But we would not have it said,
When you make report to our scornful foes,
That we kissed as we betrayed !
8
ULSTER
1912
('Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover them-
selves with their works: their works are works of iniquity and the
act of violence is in their hands.' — Isaiah lix. 6.)
The dark eleventh hour
Draws on and sees us sold
To every evil power
We fought against of old.
Rebellion, rapine, hate.
Oppression, wrong and greed
Are loosed to rule our fate,
By England's act and deed.
The Faith in which we stand.
The laws we made and guard,
Our honour, lives, and land
Are given for reward
To Murder done by night.
To Treason taught by day.
To folly, sloth, and spite,
And we are thrust away.
9
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The blood our fathers spilt.
Our love, our toils, our pains.
Are counted us for guilt.
And only bind our chains.
Before an Empire's eyes
The traitor claims his price.
What need of further Hes ?
We are the sacrifice.
We asked no more than leave
To reap where we had sown.
Through good and ill to cleave
To our own flag and throne.
Now England's shot and steel
Beneath that flag must show
How loyal hearts should kneel
To England's oldest foe.
We know the war prepared
On every peaceful home,
We know the hells declared
For such as serve not Rome —
10
ULSTER
The terror, threats, and dread
In market, hearth, and field —
We know, when all is said.
We perish if we yield.
Believe, we dare not boast,
Believe, we do not fear —
We stand to pay the cost
In all that men hold dear.
What answer from the North ?
One Law, one Land, one Throne.
If England drive us forth
We shall not fall alone.
II
THE COVENANT
1914
We thought we ranked above the chance of ill.
Others might fall, not we, for we were wise —
Merchants in freedom. So, of our free-will
We let our servants drug our strength with lies.
The pleasure and the poison had its way
On us as on the meanest, till we learned
That he who lies will steal, who steals will slay.
Neither God's judgment nor man's heart was
turned.
Yet there remains His Mercy — to be sought
Through wrath and peril till we cleanse the wrong
By that last right which our forefathers claimed
When their Law failed them and its stewards were
bought.
This is our cause. God help us, and make strong
Our wills to meet Him later, unashamed !
12
I
FRANCE
1913
Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all
By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul ;
Furious in luxury, merciless in toil.
Terrible with strength that draws from her tireless soil;
Strictest judge of her own worthy gentlest of mans
mind.
First to follow Truth and last to leave old Truths
behind —
France, beloved of every soul that loves its fellow-kind !
Ere our birth (rememberest thou ?) side by side we
lay
Fretting in the womb of Rome to begin our fray.
Ere men knew our tongues apart, our one task was
known —
Each must mould the other's fate as he wrought
his own.
To this end we stirred mankind till all Earth was
ours,
Till our world-end strifes begat wayside thrones
and powers —
13
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Puppets that we made or broke to bar the other's
path —
Necessary, outpost folk, hirelings of our wrath.
To this end we stormed the seas, tack for tack,
and burst
Through the doorways of new worlds, doubtful
which was first,
Hand on hilt (rememberest thou ?) ready for the
blow —
Sure, whatever else we met, we should meet our
foe.
Spurred or balked at every stride by the other's
strength.
So we rode the ages down and every ocean's length !
Where did you refrain from us or we refrain from
you?
Ask the wave that has not watched war between
us two!
Others held us for a while, but with weaker charms,
These we quitted at the call for each other's arms.
Eager toward the known delight, equally we strove —
Each the other's mystery, terror, need, and love.
To each other's open court with our proofs we came.
14
I
FRANCE
Where could we find honour else, or men to test
our claim ?
From each other's throat we wrenched — valour's
last reward —
That extorted word of praise gasped 'twixt lunge
and guard.
In each other's cup we poured mingled blood and
tears,
Brutal joys, unmeasured hopes, intolerable fears —
All that soiled or salted Hfe for a thousand years.
Proved beyond the need of proof, matched in every
clime,
0 companion, we have lived greatly through all
time!
Yoked in knowledge and remorse, now we come to
rest,
Laughing at old villainies that Time has turned to
jest;
Pardoning old necessities no pardon can efface —
That undying sin we shared in Rouen market-place.
Now we watch the new years shape, wondering if
they hold
15
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Fiercer lightnings in their heart than we launched
of old.
Now we hear new voices rise, question, boast or
gird,
As we raged (rememberest thou ?) when our crowds
were stirred.
Now we count new keels afloat, and new hosts on
land.
Massed like ours (rememberest thou?) when our
strokes were planned.
We were schooled for dear life's sake, to know each
other's blade.
What can blood and iron make more than we have
made ?
We have learned by keenest use to know each
other's mind.
What shall blood and iron loose that we cannot
bind ?
We who swept each other's coast, sacked each
other's home.
Since the sword of Brennus clashed on the scales
at Rome,
i6
FRANCE
Listen, count and close again, wheeling girth to
girth.
In the Hnked and steadfast guard set for peace on
earth !
Broke to every known mischance, Hfted over all
By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the
Gaul;
Furious in luxury, merciless in toil.
Terrible with strength renewed from a tireless soil;
Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of man's
mind.
First to face the Truth and last to leave old Truths
behind —
France, beloved of every soul that loves or serves
its kind !
17
*FOR ALL WE HAVE AND ARE'
1914
For all we have and are,
For all our children's fate,
Stand up and take the war.
The Hun is at the gate !
Our world has passed away.
In wantonness overthrown.
There is nothing left to-day
But steel and fire and stone !
Though all we knew depart.
The old Commandments stand:
'In courage keep your heart,
In strength Hft up your hand/
Once more we hear the word
That sickened earth of old: —
*No law except the Sword
Unsheathed and uncontrolled/
Once more it knits mankind.
Once more the nations go
To meet and break and bind
A. crazed and driven foe.
l8
'FOR ALL WE HAVE AND ARE'
Comfort, content, delight.
The ages' slow-bought gain,
They shrivelled in a night.
Only ourselves remain
To face the naked days
In silent fortitude,
Through perils and dismays
Renewed and re-renewed.
Though all we made depart.
The old Commandments stand;
'In patience keep your heart.
In strength lift up your hand.'
No easy hope or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul.
There is but one task for all —
One life for each to give.
Who stands if Freedom fall ?
Who dies if England live ?
19
A SONG IN STORM
Be well assured that on our side
The abiding oceans fight,
Though headlong wind and heaping tide
Make us their sport to-night.
By force of weather not of war
In jeopardy we steer,
Then welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it shall appear,
How in all time of our distress,
And our deliverance too.
The game is more than the player of the game,
And the ship is more than the crew.
Out of the mist into the mirk
The ghmmering combers roll.
Almost these mindless waters work
As though they had a soul —
Almost as though they leagued to whelm
Our flag beneath their green:
Then welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it shall be seen, etc.
20
A SONG IN STORM
Be well assured, though wave and wind
Have weightier blows in store,
That we who keep the watch assigned
Must stand to it the more;
And as our streaming bows rebuke
Each billow's baulked career,
Sing, welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it is made clear, etc.
No matter though our deck be swept
And masts and timber crack —
We can make good all loss except
The loss of turning back.
So, 'twixt these Devils and our deep
Let courteous trumpets sound.
To welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it will be found, etc.
Be well assured, though in our power
Is nothing left to give
But chance and place to meet the hour.
And leave to strive to live,
21
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Till these dissolve our Order holds,
Our Service binds us here.
Then welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it is made clear,
How in all time of our distress.
And in our triumph too,
The game is more than the player of the game.
And the ship is more than the crew!
22
THE OUTLAWS
1914
Through learned and laborious years
They set themselves to find
Fresh terrors and undreamed-of fears
To heap upon mankind.
All that they drew from Heaven above
Or digged from earth beneath,
They laid into their treasure-trove
And arsenals of death:
While, for well-weighed advantage sake.
Ruler and ruled alike
Built up the faith they meant to break
When the fit hour should strike.
They traded with the careless earth
And good return it gave;
They plotted by their neighbour's hearth
The means to make him slave.
23
THE YEARS BETWEEN
When all was ready to their hand
They loosed their hidden sword,
And utterly laid waste a land
Their oath was pledged to guard.
Coldly they went about to raise
To life and make more dread
Abominations of old days,
That men beHeved were dead.
They paid the price to reach their goal
Across a world in flame;
But their own hate slew their own soul
Before that victory came.
24
ZION
The Doorkeepers of Zion,
They do not always stand
In helmet and whole armour,
With halberds in their hand;
But, being sure of Zion,
And all her mysteries.
They rest awhile in Zion,
Sit down and smile in Zion;
Ay, even jest in Zion;
In Zion, at their ease.
The Gatekeepers of Baal,
They dare not sit or lean.
But fume and fret and posture
And foam and curse between;
For being bound to Baal,
Whose sacrifice is vain,
Their rest is scant with Baal,
They glare and pant for Baal,
They mouth and rant for Baal,
For Baal in their pain !
25
THE YEARS BETWEEN
But we will go to Zion,
By choice and not through dread,
With these our present comrades
And those our present dead;
And, being free of Zion
In both her fellowships,
Sit down and sup in Zion —
Stand up and drink in Zion
Whatever cup in Zion
Is offered to our lips !
26
I
LORD ROBERTS
1914
He passed in the very battle-smoke
Of the war that he had descried.
Three hundred mile of cannon spoke
When the Master-Gunner died.
He passed to the very sound of the guns;
But, before his eye grew dim,
He had seen the faces of the sons
Whose sires had served with him.
He had touched their sword-hilts and greeted each
With the old sure word of praise;
And there was virtue in touch and speech
As it had been in old days.
So he dismissed them and took his rest,
And the steadfast spirit went forth
Between the adoring East and West
And the tireless guns of the North.
27
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Clean, simple, valiant, well-beloved.
Flawless in faith and fame.
Whom neither ease nor honours moved
An hair's-breadth from his aim.
Never again the war-wise face.
The weighed and urgent word
That pleaded in the market-place —
Pleaded and was not heard !
Yet from his life a new life springs
Through all the hosts to come,
And Glory is the least of things
That follow this man home.
28
THE QUESTION
1916
Brethren, how shall it fare with me
When the war is laid aside,
If it be proven that I am he
For whom a world has died ?
If it be proven that all my good.
And the greater good I will make.
Were purchased me by a multitude
Who suffered for my sake ?
That I was delivered by mere mankind
Vowed to one sacrifice.
And not, as I hold them, battle-blind,
But dying with open eyes ?
That they did not ask me to draw the sword
When they stood to endure their lot —
That they only looked to me for a word,
And I answered I knew them not?
29
THE YEARS BETWEEN
If it be found, when the battle clears,
Their death has set me free.
Then how shall I live with myself through the years
Which they have bought for me ?
Brethren, how must it fare with me,
Or how am I justified.
If it be proven that I am he
For whom mankind has died;
If it be proven that I am he
Who being questioned denied ?
30
THE CHOICE
1917
(the AMERICAN SPIRIT SPEAKs)
To the Judge of Right and Wrong
With Whom fulfilment lies
Our purpose and our power belong,
Our faith and sacrifice.
Let Freedom's Land rejoice!
Our ancient bonds are riven;
Once more to us the eternal choice
Of Good or 111 is given.
Not at a little cost,
Hardly by prayer or tears,
Shall we recover the road we lost
In the drugged and doubting years.
But, after the fires and the wrath,
But, after searching and pain.
His Mercy opens us a path
To live with ourselves again.
31
THE YEARS BETWEEN
In the Gates of Death rejoice !
We see and hold the good —
Bear witness, Earth, we have made our choice
With Freedom's brotherhood !
Then praise the Lord Most High
Whose Strength hath saved us whole.
Who bade us choose that the Flesh should die
And not the living Soul!
To the God in Man displayed —
Where e'er we see that Birth,
Be love and understanding paid
As never yet on earth I
To the Spirit that moves in Man,
On Whom all worlds depend.
Be Glory since our world began
And service to the end!
32
'«r
1^
"BEAR WITNESS, EARTH, WE HAVE MADE OUR CHOICE
WITH FRKFDOxM'S BROTHERHOOD!"
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Death rejoice !
d hold the prnn] —
less, Earth made our choice
V^ ail Freedom's biothcihood!
'ivilOV i,itV- »
.v<^t High
ose Strength hri '^ "aved us whole,
bade us choos he Flesh should die
And not the living 8oull
1 0 lilt Lfoa in Mi.
ayed —
Where eer f/--
'lirth.
Be Icve and V'-
Paid
To the Spi= : MaUy
On Whom ti aependy
Be Glory since .^, .vw?/</ began
And service to the end !
12
" ! aOOHH3HTOHa 8^M0a33^1 WTVIJ
THE HOLY WAR
1917
('For here lay the excellent wisdom of him that built Mansoul, that
the walls could never be broken down nor hurt by the most mighty
adverse potentate unless the townsmen gave consent thereto.'
— Bunyan's Holy War.)
A TINKER out of Bedfordy
A vagrant oft in quod,
A private under Fairfax,
A minister of God —
Two hundred years and thirty
Ere Armageddon came
His single hand portrayed it.
And Bunyan was his name !
He mapped, for those who follow,
The world in which we are —
*This famous town of Mansoul'
That takes the Holy War.
Her true and traitor people,
The gates along her wall,
From Eye Gate unto Feel Gate,
John Bunyan showed them all.
33
THE YEARS BETWEEN
All enemy divisions.
Recruits of every class,
And highly-screened positions
For flame or poison-gas;
The craft that we call modern.
The crimes that we call new,
John Bunyan had 'em typed and filed
In Sixteen Eighty-two.
Likewise the Lords of Looseness
That hamper faith and works,
The Perseverance-Doubters,
And Present-Comfort shirks,
With brittle intellectuals
Who crack beneath a strain —
John Bunyan met that helpful set
In Charles the Second's reign.
Emmanuel's vanguard dying
For right and not for rights,
34
THE HOLY WAR
My Lord Apollyon lying
To the State-kept Stockholmites,
The Pope, the swithering Neutrals,
The Kaiser and his Gott —
Their roles, their goals, their naked souls-
He knew and drew the lot.
Now he hath left his quarters.
In Bunhill Fields to lie.
The wisdom that he taught us
Is proven prophecy —
One watchword through our armies.
One answer from our lands: —
'No dealings with Diabolus
As long as Mansoul stands ! '
A 'pedlar from a hovel.
The lowest of the low,
The father of the Novel,
Salvation's first Defoe,
Eight blinded generations
Ere Armageddon came.
He showed us how to meet it.
And Bunyan was his name !
35
THE HOUSES
(a song of the dominions)
1898
'TwiXT my house and thy house the pathway is
broad,
In thy house or my house is half the world's hoard;
By my house and thy house hangs all the world's
fate,
On thy house and my house Hes half the world's hate.
For my house and thy house no help shall we find
Save thy house and my house — kin cleaving to kind :
If my house be taken, thine tumbleth anon,
If thy house be forfeit, mine followeth soon.
'Twixt my house and thy house what talk can there
be
Of headship or lordship, of service or fee ?
Since my house to thy house no greater can send
Than thy house to my house — friend comforting
friend;
And thy house to my house no meaner can bring
Than my house to thy house — King counseHing King.
36
RUSSIA TO THE PACIFISTS
God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, let nothing you
dismay,
But — leave your sports a little while — the dead are
borne this way !
Armies dead and Cities dead, past all count or care.
God rest you, merry gentlemen, what portent see
you there ?
Singing: — Break ground for a wearied host
That have no ground to keep.
Give them the rest that they covet
most . . .
And who shall next to sleep, good sirs.
In such a trench to sleep .?
God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, but give us leave
to pass.
We go to dig a nation's grave as great as England
was.
For this Kingdom and this Glory and this Power
and this Pride
37
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Three hundred years it flourished — in three hundred
days it died.
Singing: — Pour oil for a frozen throng,
That lie about the ways.
Give them the warmth they have lacked
so long . . .
And what shall be next to blaze, good
sirs,
On such a pyre to blaze .?
God rest you, thoughtful gentlemen, and send your
sleep is light !
Remains of this dominion no shadow, sound, or
sight,
Except the sound of weeping and the sight of burn-
ing fire.
And the shadow of a people that is trampled into
mire.
Singing: — Break bread for a starving folk
That perish in the field.
Give them their food as they take the
yoke . . .
And who shall be next to yield, good sirs,
For such a bribe to yield ?
38
RUSSIA TO THE PACIFISTS
God rest you, merry gentlemen, and keep you in
your mirth !
Was ever kingdom turned so soon to ashes, blood,
and earth ?
'Twixt the summer and the snow — seeding-time and
frost —
Arms and victual, hope and counsel, name and
country lost !
Singing : — Let down by the foot and the head —
Shovel and smooth it all!
So do we bury a Nation dead . . .
And who shall be next to fall, good sirs,
With your good help to fall?
39
THE IRISH GUARDS
1918
We're not so old in the Army List,
But we're not so young at our trade,
For we had the honour at Fontenoy
Of meeting the Guards' Brigade.
'Twas Lally, Dillon, Bulkeley, Clare,
And Lee that led us then,
An.d after a hundred and seventy years
We're fighting for France again !
Old Days ! The wild geese are flighting,
Head to the storm as they faced it before !
For where there are Irish there's bound to be
fighting.
And when there's no fighting, it's Ireland no more I
Ireland no more I
The fashion's all for khaki now,
But once through France we went
Full-dressed in scarlet Army cloth,
The English — left at Ghent.
They're fighting on our side to-day
But, before they changed their clothes,
40
THE IRISH GUARDS
The half of Europe knew our fame,
As all of Ireland knows !
Old Days ! The wild geese are flyingy
Head to the storm as they faced it before !
For where there are Irish there* s memory undying,
And when we forget, it is Ireland no more !
Ireland no more !
From Barry Wood to Gouzeaucourt,
From Boyne to Pilkem Ridge,
The ancient days come back no more
Than water under the bridge.
But the bridge it stands and the water runs
As red as yesterday.
And the Irish move to the sound of the guns
Like salmon to the sea.
Old Days ! The wild geese are ranging.
Head to the storm as they faced it before !
For where there are Irish their hearts are un-
changing.
And when they are changed, it is Ireland no
more I
Ireland no more!
41
THE YEARS BETWEEN
We're not so old in the Army List,
But we're not so new in the ring,
For we carried our packs with Marshal Saxe
When Louis was our King.
But Douglas Haig's our Marshal now,
And we're King George's men.
And after one hundred and seventy years
We're fighting for France again !
Ah, France ! And did we stand by you.
When life was made splendid with gifts and
rewards ?
Ahy France ! And will we deny you
In the hour of your agony ^ Mother of Swords?
Old Days I The wild geese are flighting.
Fie ad to the storm as they faced it before !
For where there are Irish there^s loving and fight"
ingy
And when we stop either, it's Ireland no more !
Ireland no more !
42
A NATIVITY
1916
Tee Babe was laid in the Manger
Between the gentle kine —
All safe from cold and danger —
'But it was not so with mine.
(With mine ! With mine !)
Is it well with the child, is it well V
The waiting mother prayed.
*For I know not how he fell,
And I know not where he is laid/
A Star stood forth in Heaven ;
The watchers ran to see
The Sign of the Promise given —
'But there comes no sign to me.
(To me ! To me !)
'My child died in the dark.
Is it well with the child, is it well?
There was none to tend him or mark,
And I know not how he fell.'
43
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The Cross was raised on high ;
The Mother grieved beside —
'But the Mother saw Him die
And took Him when He died.
(He died ! He died !)
'Seemly and undefiled
His burial-place was made —
Is it well, is it well with the child ?
For I know not where he is laid.'
On the dawning of Easter Day
Comes Mary Magdalene ;
But the Stone was rolled away.
And the Body was not within —
(Within! Within!)
'Ah, who will answer my word?'
The broken mother prayed.
'They have taken away my Lord,
And I know not where He is laid.'
44
A NATIVITY
The Star stands forth in Heaven,
The watchers watch in vain
For a Sign of the Promise given
Of peace on Earth again —
(Again ! Again !)
'But I know for Whom he fell' —
The steadfast mother smiled.
*Is it well with the child — is it well?
It is well — it is well with the child!'
45
EN-DOR
('Behold there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor.' —
I Samuel xxviii. 7.)
The road to En-dor is easy to tread
For Mother or yearning Wife.
There, it is sure, we shall meet our Dead
As they were even in life.
Earth has not dreamed of the blessing in store
For desolate hearts on the road to En-dor.
Whispers shall comfort us out of the dark —
Hands — ah God ! — that we knew !
Visions and voices — look and heark ! —
Shall prove that our tale is true,
And that those who have passed to the further shore
May be hailed — at a price — on the road to En-dor.
But they are so deep in their new eclipse
Nothing they say can reach,
Unless it be uttered by alien lips
And framed in a stranger's speech.
The son must send word to the mother that bore.
Through an hireling's mouth. 'Tis the rule of En-
dor.
46
EN-DOR
And not for nothing these gifts are shown
By such as deHght our dead.
They must twitch and stiffen and slaver and groan
Ere the eyes are set in the head,
And the voice from the belly begins. Therefore,
We pay them a wage where they ply at En-dor.
Even so, we have need of faith
And patience to follow the clue.
Often, at first, what the dear one saith
Is babble, or jest, or untrue.
(Lying spirits perplex us sore
Till our loves — and our lives — are well-known at
En-dor). . . .
Oh the road to En-dor is the oldest road
And the craziest road of all!
Straight it runs to the Witches abode.
As it did in the days of Saul,
And nothing has changed of the sorrow in store
For such as go down on the road to En-dor I
47
A RECANTATION
(to lyde of the music halls)
What boots it on the Gods to call ?
Since, answered or unheard,
We perish with the Gods and all
Things made — except the Word.
Ere certain Fate had touched a heart
By fifty years made cold,
I judged thee, Lyde, and thy art
Overblown and over-bold.
But he — but he, of whom bereft
I suffer vacant days —
He on his shield not meanly left —
He cherished all thy lays.
Witness the magic coflTer stocked
With convoluted runes
Wherein thy very voice was locked
And linked to circling tunes.
48
A RECANTATION
Witness thy portrait, smoke-defiled,
That decked his shelter-place.
Life seemed more present, wrote the child,
Beneath thy well-known face.
And when the grudging days restored
Him for a breath to home,
He, with fresh crowds of youth, adored
Thee making mirth in Rome.
Therefore, I, humble, join the hosts.
Loyal and loud, who bow
To thee as Queen of Songs — and ghosts —
For I remember how
Never more rampant rose the Hall
At thy audacious line
Than when the news came in from Gaul
Thy son had — followed mine.
But thou didst hide it in thy breast
And, capering, took the brunt
Of blaze and blare, and launched the jest
That swept next week the front.
49
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Singer to children ! Ours possessed
Sleep before noon — but thee,
Wakeful each midnight for the rest,
No holocaust shall free.
Yet they who use the Word assigned,
To hearten and make whole,
Not less than Gods have served mankind.
Though vultures rend their soul.
50
MY BOY JACK
'Have you news of my boy Jack?'
Not this tide,
'When d*you think that he'll come back?'
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide,
'Has any one else had word of him ?'
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
'Oh, dear, what comfort can I find ?'
None this tide,
Nor any tide.
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.
Then hold your head up all the more.
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide I
51
THE VERDICTS
(JUTLAND)
Not in the thick of the fight,
Not in the press of the odds,
Do the heroes come to their height,
Or we know the demi-gods.
That stands over till peace.
We can only perceive
Men returned from the seas,
Very grateful for leave.
They grant us sudden days
Snatched from their business of war;
But we are too close to appraise
What manner of men they are.
And, whether their names go down
With age-kept victories.
Or whether they battle and drown
Unreckoned, is hid from our eyes.
52
THE VERDICTS
They are too near to be great,
But our children shall understand
When and how our fate
Was changed, and by whose hand.
Our children shall measure their worth.
We are content to be blind . . .
But we know that we walk on a new-born earth
With the saviours of mankind.
53
MESOPOTAMIA
1917
They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young.
The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave:
But the men who left them thriftily to die in their
own dung.
Shall they come with years and honour to the
grave ?
They shall not return to us, the strong men coldly
slain
In sight of help denied from day to day:
But the men who edged their agonies and chid them
in their pain,
Are they too strong and wise to put away?
Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night
divide —
Never while the bars of sunset hold:
But the idle-minded overHngs who quibbled while
they died.
Shall they thrust for high employments as of old ?
54
MESOPOTAMIA
Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour ?
When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back
to power
By the favour and contrivance of their kind ?
Even while they soothe us, while they promise large
amends,
Even while they make a show of fear,
Do they call upon their debtors, and take council
with their friends.
To confirm and re-establish each career?
Their lives cannot repay us — their death could not
undo —
The shame that they have laid upon our race:
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance
that slew,
Shall we leave it unabated in its place ?
S5
THE HYENAS
After the burial-parties leave
And the baffled kites have fled;
The wise hyaenas come out at eve
To take account of our dead.
How he died and why he died
Troubles them not a whit.
They snout the bushes and stones aside
And dig till they come to it.
They are only resolute they shall eat
That they and their mates may thrive,
And they know that the dead are safer meat
Than the weakest thing alive.
(For a goat may butt, and a worm may sting,
And a child will sometimes stand;
But a poor dead soldier of the King
Can never lift a hand.)
56
THE HYiENAS
They whoop and halloo and scatter the dirt
Until their tushes white
Take good hold in the army shirt.
And tug the corpse to light.
And the pitiful face is shewn again
For an instant ere they close;
But it is not discovered to living men^ —
Only to God and to those
Who, being soulless, are free from shame,
Whatever meat they may find.
Nor do they defile the dead man's name —
That is reserved for his kind.
51
THE SPIES' MARCH
(before the war)
('The outbreak is in full swing and our death-rate would sicken Napo-
leon. . . . Dr. M died last week, and C on Monday, but
some more medicines are coming. . . . We don't seem to be able
to check it at all. . . . Villages panicking badly. ... In some
places not a living soul. . . . But at any rate the experience
gained may come in useful, so I am keeping my notes written up
to date in case of accidents. . . . Death is a queer chap to live
with for steady company.* — Extract from a 'private letter from Man-
churia.)
There are no leaders to lead us to honour, and yet
without leaders we sally.
Each man reporting for duty alone, out of sight,
out of reach, of his fellow.
There are no bugles to call the battalions, and yet
without bugles we rally '
From the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth,
to follow the Standard of Yellow !
Fall in ! 0 fall in I 0 fall in !
58
THE SPIES* MARCH
Not where the squadrons mass,
Not where the bayonets shine,
Not where the big shell shout as they pass
Over the firing-Hne;
Not where the wounded are.
Not where the nations die,
Killed in the cleanly game of war —
That is no place for a spy !
0 Princes, Thrones and Powers, your work
is less than ours —
Here is no place for a spy!
Trained to another use.
We march with colours furled.
Only concerned when Death breaks loose
On a front of half a world.
Only for General Death
The Yellow Flag may fly.
While we take post beneath —
That is the place for a spy.
Where Plague has spread his pinions over
Nations and Dominions —
Then will be work for a spy!
59
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The dropping shots begin,
The single funerals pass,
Our skirmishers run in,
The corpses dot the grass !
The howling towns stampede.
The tainted hamlets die.
Now it is war indeed —
Now there is room for a spy !
0 Peoples, Kings and Lands, we are waiting
your commands —
What is the work for a spy ?
(Drums) — ^ Fear is upon us, spy !
*Go where his pickets hide —
Unmask the shapes they take.
Whether a gnat from the waterside,
Or stinging fly in the brake.
Or filth of the crowded street,
Or a sick rat limping by.
Or a smear of spittle dried in the heat —
That is the work of a spy !
(Drums) — Death is upon us, spy !
60
THE SPIES' MARCH
'What does he next prepare ?
Whence will he move to attack ? —
By water, earth or air ? —
How can we head him back ?
Shall we starve him out if we burn
Or bury his food-supply ?
Slip through his lines and learn —
That is work for a spy !
(Drums) — Get to your business, spy !
'Does he feint or strike in force?
Will he charge or ambuscade ?
What is it checks his course ?
Is he beaten or only delayed ?
How long will the lull endure?
Is he retreating ? Why ?
Crawl to his camp and make sure —
That is the work for a spy !
(Drums) — Fetch us our answer, spy !
6i
THE YEARS BETWEEN
'Ride with him girth to girth
Wherever the Pale Horse wheels.
Wait on his councils, ear to earth.
And say what the dust reveals.
For the smoke of our torment rolls
Where the burning thousands lie;
What do we care for men's bodies or souls ?
Bring us deliverance, spy!'
62
THE SONS OF MARTHA
The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have
inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the
careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because
she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world with-
out end, reprieve, or rest.
It! is their care in all the ages to take the buffet
and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their
care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their
care to embark and entrain.
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary
by land and main.
63
THE YEARS BETWEEN
They say to mountains, 'Be ye removed.' They
say to the lesser floods 'Be dry.'
Under their rods are the rocks reproved — they are
not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit — then
is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly
sleeping and unaware.
They finger death at their gloves' end where they
piece and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him
hungry behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into
his terrible stall.
And hale him forth like a haltered steer, and goad
and turn him till evenfall.
64
THE SONS OF MARTHA
To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these
till death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden — under
the earth-line their altars are:
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn
to restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them
again at a city's drouth.
They do not preach that their God will rouse them
a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to
leave their work when they damn-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the
dark and the desert they stand.
Wary and watchful all their days that their breth-
ren's days may be long in the land.
65
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a
path more fair or flat;
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of
Martha spilled for that !
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a wit-
ness to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in
their common need.
And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed — they
know the angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for
them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the Feet — they hear the Word — they
see how truly the Promise runs:
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and —
the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!
66
MARY'S SON
If you stop to find out what your wages will be
And how they will clothe and feed you,
Willie, my son, don't you go on the Sea,
For the Sea will never need you.
If you ask for the reason of every command.
And argue with people about you,
Willie, my son, don't you go on the Land,
For the Land will do better without you.
If you stop to consider the work you have done
And to boast what your labour is worth, dear,
Angels may come for you, Willie, my son,
But you'll never be wanted on Earth, dear!
(fi
THE SONG OF THE LATHES
1918
(Being the words of the tune hummed at her lathe by Mrs. L. Embsay,
widow.)
The fans and the beltings they roar round me.
The power is shaking the floor round me
Till the lathes pick up their duty and the mid-
night-shift takes over.
It is good for me to be here!
Guns in Flanders — Flanders guns !
(/ had a man that worked 'em once !)
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders !
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders !
Shells for guns in Flanders ! Feed the guns !
The cranes and the carriers they boom over me,
The bays and the galleries they loom over me,
With their quarter-mile of pillars growing little in
the distance:
It is good for me to be here!
68
VH^ .N ^ I A
li^AADliKb ILAXDERS GUNS!
(I HAD A MAN THAT WORKFD 'K>r OX(
THF
LATHES
1... ....
I hey roar round me.
The pov
Hoor round me
duty and the
mght-sh =
f
to be here!
Guns in ^ .^-
guns !
(/ had a mrr
em once /)
Shells for
Flanders !
^yhells for g-u
Flanders!
Shells
nders ! Feed the gun.
The cranes :...
hey boom over n
The bays and t
V loom over me,
With th.
pillars growing little
iht disf
It is ^
here !
••oaovio M3' aa^iHOW taht mam a qah d
THE SONG OF THE LATHES
The Zeppelins and Gothas they raid over us.
Our lights give warning, and fade over us.
(Seven thousand women keeping quiet in the dark-
ness !)
Oh, it IS good for me to be here !
The roofs and the buildings they grow round me,
Eating up the fields I used to know round me;
And the shed that I began in is a sub-inspector's
office —
So long have I been here!
ve seen six hundred mornings make our lamps
grow dim,
Through the bit that isn't painted round our sky-
light rim.
And the sunshine in the window slope according
to the seasons.
Twice since I've been here.
69
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The trains on the sidings they call to us
With the hundred thousand blanks that they
haul to us;
And we send 'em what we've finished, and they
take it where it's wanted,
For that is why we are here!
Man's hate passes as his love will pass.
God made woman what she always was.
Them that bear the burden they will never grant
forgiveness
So long as they are here !
Once I was a woman, but that's by with me.
All I loved and looked for, it must die with me.
But the Lord has left me over for a servant of the
Judgment,
And I serve His Judgments here !
Guns in Flanders — Flanders guns !
(/ had a son that worked ^em once !)
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders !
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders I
Shells for guns in Flanders ! Feed the guns I
70
GETHSEMANE
The Garden called Gethsemane
In Picardy it was,
And there the people came to see
The English soldiers pass.
We used to pass — we used to pass
Or halt, as it might be,
And ship our masks in case of gas
Beyond Gethsemane.
The Garden called Gethsemane,
It held a pretty lass.
But all the time she talked to me
I prayed my cup might pass.
The officer sat on the chair.
The men lay on the grass.
And all the time we halted there
I prayed my cup might pass —
It didn't pass — it didn't pass —
It didn't pass from me.
I drank it when we met the gas
Beyond Gethsemane.
71
THE PROCONSULS
Tee overfaithful sword returns the user
His heart's desire at price of his heart's blood.
The clamour of the arrogant accuser
Wastes that one hour we needed to make good.
This was foretold of old at our outgoing ;
This we accepted who have squandered, knowing,
The strength and glory of our reputations,
At the day's need, as it were dross, to guard
The tender and new-dedicate foundations
Against the sea we fear — not man's award.
They that dig foundations deep,
Fit for realms to rise upon,
Little honour do they reap
Of their generation,
Any more than mountains gain
Stature till we reach the plain.
With no veil before their face
Such as shroud or sceptre lend —
Daily in the market-place.
Of one height to foe and friend —
72
THE PROCONSULS
They must cheapen self to find
Ends uncheapened for mankind.
Through the night when hirelings rest.
Sleepless they arise, alone,
The unsleeping arch to test
And the o'er-trusted corner-stone,
'Gainst the need, they know, that lies
Hid behind the centuries.
Not by lust of praise or show
Not by Peace herself betrayed —
Peace herself must they forego
Till that peace be fitly made;
And in single strength uphold
Wearier hands and hearts acold.
On the stage their act hath framed
For thy sports, 0 Liberty !
Doubted are they, and defamed
By the tongues their act set free.
While they quicken, tend and raise
Power that must their power displace.
73
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Lesser men feign greater goals,
Failing whereof they may sit
Scholarly to judge the souls
That go down into the pit,
And, despite its certain clay,
Heave a new world towards the day.
These at labour make no sign.
More than planets, tides or years
Which discover God's design.
Not our hopes and not our fears;
Nor in aught they gain or lose
Seek a triumph or excuse.
FoTy so the Ark be home to Zion, who
Heeds how they perished or were paid that bore it ?
Fory so the Shrine abide, what shame — what pride —
// we, the priests^ were bound or crowned before it ?
74
THE CRAFTSMAN
Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid,
He to the overbearing Boanerges
Jonson, uttered (If half of it were liquor,
Blessed be the vintage !)
Saying how, at an alehouse under Cotswold,
He had made sure of his very Cleopatra,
Drunk with enormous, salvation-contemning
Love for a tinker.
How, while he hid from Sir Thomas's keepers.
Crouched in a ditch and drenched by the midnight
Dews, he had listened to gipsy Juliet
Rail at the dawning.
How at Bankside, a boy drowning kittens
Winced at the business; whereupon his sister
(Lady Macbeth aged seven) thrust 'em under.
Sombrely scornful.
15
THE YEARS BETWEEN
How on a Sabbath, hushed and compassionate —
She being known since her birth to the townsfolk-
Stratford dredged and delivered from Avon
Dripping Ophelia.
So, with a thin third finger marrying
Drop to wine-drop domed on the table,
Shakespeare opened his heart till sunrise
Entered to hear him.
London wakened and he, imperturbable.
Passed from waking to hurry after shadows . . .
Busied upon shows of no earthly importance ?
Yes, but he knew it !
76
THINGS AND THE MAN
(in MEMORIAM, JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN)
1904
*And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren and they
hated him yet the more.' — Gerusis zzxvii. 5.
Oh ye who hold the written clue
To all save all unwritten things,
And, half a league behind, pursue
The accomplished Fact with flouts and flings,
Look ! To your knee your baby brings
The oldest tale since Earth began —
The answer to your worryings:
'Once on a time there was a Man.*
He, single-handed, met and slew
Magicians, Armies, Ogres, Kings.
He lonely 'mid his doubting crew —
'In all the loneliness of wings' —
77
THE YEARS BETWEEN
He fed the flame, he filled the springs,
He locked the ranks, he launched the van
Straight at the grinning Teeth of Things.
*Once on a time there was a Man.'
The peace of shocked Foundations flew
Before his ribald questionings.
He broke the Oracles in two,
And bared the paltry wires and strings.
He headed desert wanderings;
He led his soul, his cause, his clan
A little from the ruck of Things.
'Once on a time there was a Man'
Thrones, Powers, Dominions block the view
With episodes and underlings —
The meek historian deems them true
Nor heeds the song that Clio sings —
The simple central truth that stings
The mob to boo, the priest to ban;
Things never yet created things —
'Once on a time there was a Man'
78
THINGS AND THE MAN
A bolt is fallen from the blue.
A wakened realm full circle swings
Where Dothan's dreamer dreams anew
Of vast and farborne harvestings;
And unto him an Empire clings
That grips the purpose of his plan.
My Lords, how think you of these things ?
Once — in our time — is there a Man ?
79
THE BENEFACTORS
Ah ! What avails the classic bent
And what the cultured word.
Against the undoctored incident
That actually occurred ?
And what is Art whereto we press
Through faint and prose and rhyme-
When Nature in her nakedness
Defeats us every time ?
It is not learning, grace nor gear,
Nor easy meat and drink.
But bitter pinch of pain and fear
That makes creation think.
When in this world's unpleasing youth
Our god-like race began,
The longest arm, the sharpest tooth,
Gave man control of man;
80
THE BENEFACTORS
Till, bruised and bitten to the bone
And taught by pain and fear,
He learned to deal the far-off stone,
And poke the long, safe spear.
So tooth and nail were obsolete
As means against a foe.
Till, bored by uniform defeat,
Some genius built the bow.
Then stone and javelin proved as vain
As old-time tooth and nail;
Ere, spurred anew by fear and pain,
Man fashioned coats of mail.
Then was there safety for the rich
And danger for the poor,
Till someone mixed a powder which
Redressed the scale once more.
Helmet and armour disappeared
With sword and bow and pike,
And, when the smoke of battle cleared,
All men were armed alike. . . .
8l
THE YEARS BETWEEN
And when ten million such were slain
To please one crazy king,
Man, schooled in bulk by fear and pain.
Grew weary of the thing;
And, at the very hour designed.
To enslave him past recall.
His tooth-stone-arrow-gun-shy mind
Turned and abolished all.
All Powefy each Tyrant, every Mob
Whose head has grown too large.
Ends by destroying its own job
And earns its own discharge.
And Man, whose mere necessities
Move all things from his path.
Trembles meanwhile at their decrees.
And deprecates their wrath !
82
THE DEAD KING
(EDWARD VII.)
1910
Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the
sake of a land more dear ?
And, unconcerned for his own estate^ toils till the
last grudged sands have run ?
Let him approach. It is proven here
Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our
King himself has done.
For to him above all was Life good, above all he
commanded
Her abundance full-handed.
The peculiar treasure of Kings was his for the taking:
All that men come to in dreams he inherited wak-
ing:—
His marvel of world-gathered armies — one heart
and all races;
His seas 'neath his keels when his war-castles foamed
to their places;
83
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The thundering foreshores that answered his her-
alded landing;
The huge lighted cities adoring, the assemblies up-
standing;
The Councils of Kings called in haste to learn how
he was minded —
The Kingdoms, the Powers, and the Glories he
dealt with unblinded.
To him came all captains of men, all achievers of
glory,
Hot from the press of their battles they told him
their story.
They revealed him their life in an hour and, salut-
ing, departed.
Joyful to labour afresh — he had made them new-
hearted.
And, since he weighed men from his youth, and no
lie long deceived him,
He spoke and exacted the truth, and the basest
believed him.
84
THE DEAD KING
And God poured him an exquisite wine, that was
daily renewed to him,
In the clear-welling love of his peoples that daily
accrued to him.
Honour and service we gave him, rejoicingly fear-
less;
Faith absolute, trust beyond speech and a friendship
as peerless.
And since he was Master and Servant in all that
we asked him.
We leaned hard on his wisdom in all things, know-
ing not how we tasked him.
For on him each new day laid command, every
tyrannous hour.
To confront, or confirm, or make smooth some dread
issue of power;
To deliver true judgment aright at the instant,
unaided.
In the strict, level, ultimate phrase that allowed or
dissuaded;
85
THE YEARS BETWEEN
To foresee, to allay, to avert from us perils unnum-
bered,
To stand guard on our gates when he guessed that
the watchmen had slumbered;
To win time, to turn hate, to woo folly to service
and, mightily schooling
His strength to the use of his Nations, to rule as
not ruling.
These were the works of our King; Earth's peace
was the proof of them.
God gave him great works to fulfil, and to us the
behoof of them.
We accepted his toil as our right — none spared,
none excused him.
When he was bowed by his burden his rest was
refused him.
We troubled his age with our weakness — the blacker
our shame to us !
Hearing his People had need of him, straightway
he came to us.
86
THE DEAD KING
As he received so he gave — nothing grudged, naught
denying,
Not even the last gasp of his breath when he strove
for us, dying.
For our sakes, without question, he put from him
all that he cherished.
Simply as any that serve him he served and he
perished.
All that Kings covet was his, and he flung it aside
for us.
Simply as any that die in his service he died for us.
Who in the Realm to-day has choice of the easy road or
the hard to tread?
Andy much concerned for his own estate, would sell
his soul to remain in the sun ?
Let him depart nor look on Our dead.
Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our
King himself has done.
87
A DEATH-BED
'This is the State above the Law.
The State exists for the State alone.'
[This is a gland at the hack of the jawy
And an answering lump hy the collar-bone \
Some die shouting in gas or fire;
Some die silent, by shell and shot.
Some die desperate, caught on the wire;
Some die suddenly. This will not.
'Regis suprema Voluntas lex'
[It will follow the regular course of — throats,]
Some die pinned by the broken decks.
Some die sobbing between the boats.
Some die eloquent, pressed to death
By the sliding trench, as their friends can hear.
Some die wholly in half a breath.
Some — give trouble for half a year.
88
A DEATH-BED
'There is neither Evil nor Good in Hfe
Except as the needs of the State ordain.'
[Since it is rather too late for the knife.
All we can do is to mask the pain.]
Some die saintly in faith and hope —
One died thus in a prison-yard —
Some die broken by rape or the rope;
Some die easily. This dies hard.
*I will dash to pieces who bar my way.
Woe to the traitor! Woe to the weak!'
[Let him write what he wishes to say.
It tires him out if he tries to speak.]
Some die quietly. Some abound
In loud self-pity. Others spread
Bad morale through the cots around . . .
This is a type that is better dead.
*The war was forced on me by my foes.
All that I sought was the right to live.'
[Dont be afraid of a triple dose ;
The pain will neutralize half we give.
89
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Here are the needles. See that he dies
While the effects of the drug endure. . . .
What is the question he asks with his eyes ?-
Yes, Jll'Highest, to God, he sure.]
90
GEHAZI
'Whence comest thou, Gehazi,
So reverend to behold,
In scarlet and in ermines
And chain of England's gold?'
Trom following after Naaman
To tell him all is well,
Whereby my zeal hath made me
A Judge in Israel/
Well done, well done, Gehazi,
Stretch forth thy ready hand,
Thou barely 'scaped from judgment,
Take oath to judge the land,
Unswayed by gift of money
Or privy bribe, more base,
Of knowledge which is profit
In any market-place.
91
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Search out and probe, Gehazi,
As thou of all canst try,
The truthful, well-weighed answer
That tells the blacker lie —
The loud, uneasy virtue
The anger feigned at will,
To overbear a witness
And make the Court keep still.
Take order now, Gehazi,
That no man talk aside
In secret with his judges
The while his case is tried.
Lest he should show them — reason
To keep a matter hid.
And subtly lead the questions
Away from what he did.
Thou mirror of uprightness.
What ails thee at thy vows ?
What means the risen whiteness
Of the skin between thy brows ?
92
GEHAZI
The boils that shine and burrow,
The sores that slough and bleed —
The leprosy of Naaman
On thee and all thy seed ?
Stand up, stand up, Gehazi,
Draw close thy robe and go,
Gehazi, Judge in Israel,
A leper white as snow!
93
THE VIRGINITY
Try as he will, no man breaks wholly loose
From his first love, no matter who she be.
Oh, was there ever sailor free to choose.
That didn't settle somewhere near the sea ?
Myself, it don't excite me nor amuse
To watch a pack o' shipping on the sea,
But I can understand my neighbour's views
From certain things which have occurred to me.
Men must keep touch with things they used to use
To earn their living, even when they are free;
And so come back upon the least excuse —
Same as the sailor settled near the sea.
He knows he's never going on no cruise —
He knows he's done and finished with the sea;
And yet he likes to feel she's there to use —
If he should ask her — as she used to be.
94
THE VIRGINITY
Even though she cost him all he had to lose,
Even though she made him sick to hear or see,
Still, what she left of him will mostly choose
Her skirts to sit by. How comes such to be?
Parsons in pulpits, tax-payers in pews,
Kings on your thrones, you know as well as me.
We've only one virginity to lose,
And where we lost it there our hearts will he !
95
A PILGRIM'S WAY
I DO not look for holy saints to guide me on my way,
Or male and female devilkins to lead my feet astray.
If these are added, I rejoice — if not, I shall not
mind,
So long as I have leave and choice to meet my
fellow-kind.
For as we come and as we go (and deadly-soon
go we !)
The people. Lord, Thy people, are good enough
for me!
Thus I will honour pious men whose virtue shines
so bright
(Though none are more amazed than I when I by
chance do right).
And I will pity foolish men for woe their sins have
bred
(Though ninety-nine per cent, of mine I brought on
my own head).
And, Amorite or Eremite, or General Averagee,
The people. Lord, Thy people, are good enough
for me!
96
A PILGRIM'S WAY
And when they bore me overmuch, I will not shake
mine ears,
Recalling many thousand such whom I have bored
to tears.
And when they labour to impress, I will not doubt
nor scofF;
Since I myself have done no less and — sometimes
pulled it off.
Yea, as we are and we are not, and we pretend
to be,
The people. Lord, Thy people, are good enough
for me !
And when they work me random wrong, as often-
times hath been,
I will not cherish hate too long (my hands are none
too clean).
And when they do me random good I will not feign
surprise.
No more than those whom I have cheered with
wayside charities.
97
THE YEARS BETWEEN
But, as we give and as we take — ^whate'er our
takings be —
The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough
for me !
But when I meet with frantic folk who sinfully
declare
There is no pardon for their sin, the same I will
not spare
Till I have proved that Heaven and Hell which in
our hearts we have
Show nothing irredeemable on either side the grave.
For as we live and as we die — if utter Death
there be —
The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough
for me !
98
A PILGRIM'S WAY
Deliver me from every pride — the Middle, High,
and Low —
That bars me from a brother's side, whatever pride
he show.
And purge me from all heresies of thought and
speech and pen
That bid me judge him otherwise than I am judged.
Amen !
That I may sing of Crowd or King or road-borne
company.
That I may labour in my day, vocation and
degree.
To prove the same in deed and name, and hold
unshakenly
(Where'er I go, whatever I know, whoe'er my neigh-
"bour be)
This single faith in Life and Death and all Eternity:
*The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough
for me 1 '
99
THE OLDEST SONG
(For before Eve was Ulith.— Old Tale.)
These were never your true love's eyes.
Why do you feign that you love them ?
You that broke from their constancies.
And the wide calm brows above them !
This was never your true love's speech.
Why do you thrill when you hear it ?
You that have ridden out of its reach
The width of the world or near it!
This was never your true love's hair, —
You that chafed when it bound you
Screened from knowledge or shame or care.
In the night that it made around you !
'Jll these things I knozv, I know.
And that's why my heart is breaking!'
Then what do you gain by pretending so ?
' The joy of an old wound waking.'
100
NATURAL THEOLOGY
PRIMITIVE
I ATE my fill of a whale that died
And stranded after a month at sea. . . .
There is a pain in my inside.
Why have the Gods afflicted me?
Ow ! I am purged till I am a wraith !
Wow ! I am sick till I cannot see !
What is the sense of Religion and Faith ?
Look how the Gods have afflicted me !
PAGAN
How can the skin of rat or mouse hold
Anything more than a harmless flea ? . . .
The burning plague has taken my household.
Why have my Gods afflicted me .?
All my kith and kin are deceased,
Though they were as good as good could be.
I will out and batter the family priest,
Because my Gods have afflicted me.
lOI
THE YEARS BETWEEN
MEDIi«:VAL
My privy and well drain into each other
After the custom of Christendie. . . .
Fevers and fluxes are wasting my mother.
Why has the Lord afflicted me ?
The Saints are helpless for all I off'er —
So are the clergy I used to fee.
Henceforward I keep my cash in my coflPer,
Because the Lord has aflilicted me.
MATERIAL
I run eight hundred hens to the acre.
They die by dozens mysteriously. . . .
I am more than doubtful concerning my Maker.
Why has the Lord aflflicted me ?
What a return for all my endeavour —
Not to mention the L. S. D. !
I am an atheist now and for ever,
Because this God has afllicted me!
PROGRESSIVE
Money spent on an Army or Fleet
Is homicidal lunacy. . . .
102
NATURAL THEOLOGY
My son has been killed in the Mons retreat.
Why is the Lord afflicting me ?
Why are murder, pillage and arson
And rape allowed by the Deity ?
I will write to the Times, deriding our parson
Because my God has afflicted me.
CHORUS
We had a kettle: we let it leak:
Our not repairing it made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week. . . .
The bottom is out of the Universe!
CONCLUSION
This was none of the good Lord's pleasure,
For the Spirit He breathed in Man is free;
But what comes after is measure for measure,
And not a God that afflicteth thee.
As was the sowing so the reaping
Is now and evermore shall be.
Thou art delivered to thy own keeping.
Only Thyself hath afflicted thee !
103
A SONG AT COCK-CROW
('///^ autevt iterum negavit.'')
The first time that Peter denied his Lord
He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the
cord,
But followed far ofF to see what they would do,
Till the cock crew — till the cock crew —
After Gethsemane, till the cock crew!
The first time that Peter denied his Lord
'Twas only a maid in the palace who heard.
As he sat by the fire and warmed himself through.
Then the cock crew ! Then the cock crew !
(*Thou also art one of them.') Then the cock crew !
The first time that Peter denied his Lord
He had neither the Throne, nor the Keys nor the
Sword —
A poor silly fisherman, what could he do
When the cock crew — ^when the cock crew —
But weep for his wickedness when the cock crew?
104
A SONG AT COCK-CROW
The next time that Peter denied his Lord
He was Fisher of Men, as foretold by the Word,
With the Crown on his brow and the Cross on his
shoe.
When the cock crew — ^when the cock crew —
In Flanders and Picardy when the cock crew.
The next time that Peter denied his Lord
'Twas Mary the Mother in Heaven Who heard,
And She grieved for the maidens and wives that
they slew
When the cock crew — ^when the cock crew —
At Tirmonde and Aerschott when the cock crew.
The next time that Peter denied his Lord
The Babe in the Manger awakened and stirred.
And He stretched out His arms for the playmates
He knew —
When the cock crew — ^when the cock crew —
But the waters had covered them when the cock crew.
105
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The next time that Peter denied his Lord
'Twas Earth in her agony waited his word,
But he sat by the fire and naught would he do,
Though the cock crew — though the cock crew —
Over all Christendom^ though the cock crew.
The last time that Peter denied his Lord,
The Father took from him the Keys and the Sword,
And the Mother and Babe brake his Kingdom in
two,
When the cock crew — ^when the cock crew —
(Because of his wickedness) when the cock crew !
1 06
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
1911
When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in
his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn
aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant
tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than
the male.
When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless
foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it as
he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she
camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than
the male.
107
THE YEARS BETWEEN
When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons
and Choctaws,
They prayed to be deHvered from the vengeance of
the squaws.
'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those
stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than
the male.
Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he
must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to
give away;
But when hunter meets with husband, each con-
firms the other's tale —
The female of the species is more deadly than the
male.
Man, a bear in most relations — ^worm and savage
otherwise, —
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the com-
promise.
1 08
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a
fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the
wicked low.
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest
foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger! Doubt and Pity
oft perplex
Him in deaHng with an issue — to the scandal of
The Sex!
But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of
her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and
engined for the same;
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations
fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than
the male.
109
THE YEARS BETWEEN
She who faces Death by torture for each Hfe be-
neath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity — must not swerve
for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions — not in these her
honour dwells.
She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and
nothing else.
She can bring no more to living than the powers
that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of
the Mate!
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides
unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is
the same.
She IS wedded to convictions — in default of grosser
ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him
who denies ! —
no
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant,
white-hot, wild,
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse
and child.
Unprovoked and awful charges — even so the she-
bear fights.
Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons — even so
the cobra bites,
Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw
And the victim writhes in anguish — like the Jesuit
with the squaw !
So it comes that Man the coward, when he gathers
to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a
place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts
his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice — ^which no woman
understands.
Ill
THE YEARS BETWEEN
And Man knows it ! Knows, moreover, that the
Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern — shall enthral
but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him and Her
instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her Species is more deadly
than the Male.
112
»» »
EPITAPHS
'Equality of Sacrifice'
A. 'I was a *'have."' B. *I was a **have-not.'
(Together), 'What hast thou given which I gave
not?'
A Servant
We were together since the War began.
He was my servant — and the better man.
A Son
My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I
would I knew
What it was, and it might serve me in a time when
jests are few.
An Only Son
I have slain none except my Mother. She
(Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.
113
THE YEARS BETWEEN
Ex-Clerk
Pity not! The Army gave
Freedom to a timid slave:
In which Freedom did he find
Strength of body, will, and mind:
By which strength he came to prove
Mirth, Companionship, and Love:
For which Love to Death he went:
In which Death he lies content.
The Wonder
Body and Spirit I surrendered whole
To harsh Instructors — and received a soul . . .
If mortal man could change me through and
through
From all I was — ^what may The God not do?
Hindu Sepoy in France
This man in his own country prayed we know not
to what Powers.
We pray Them to reward him for his bravery in
ours.
114
EPITAPHS
The Coward
I could not look on Death, which being known,
Men led me to him, blindfold and alone.
Shock
My name, my speech, my self I had forgot.
My wife and children came — I knew them not.
I died. My Mother followed. At her call
And on her bosom I remembered all.
A Grave Near Cairo
Gods of the Nile, should this stout fellow here
Get out — get out ! He knows not shame nor fear.
Pelicans in the Wilderness
(a grave near halfa)
The blown sand heaps on me, that none may learn
Where I am laid for whom my children grieve. . . .
0 wings that beat at dawning, ye return
Out of the desert to your young at eve !
115
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The Favour
Death favoured me from the first, well knowing I
could not endure
To wait on him day by day. He quitted my
betters and came
Whistling over the fields, and, when he had made
all sure,
'Thy line is at end,' he said, 'but at least I have
saved its name.'
The Beginner
On the first hour of my first day
In the front trench I fell.
(Children in boxes at a play
Stand up to watch it well.)
R. A. F. (Aged Eighteen)
Laughing through clouds, his milk-teeth still un-
shed.
Cities and men he smote from overhead.
His deaths delivered, he returned to play
Childlike, with childish things now put away.
ii6
EPITAPHS
The Refined Man
I was of delicate mind. I went aside for my needs,
Disdaining the common office. I was seen from
afar and killed. . . .
How is this matter for mirth ? Let each man be
judged by his deeds.
/ have paid my price to live with myself on the terms
that I willed.
Native Water-Carrier (M. E. F.)
Prometheus brought down fire to men.
This brought up water.
The Gods are jealous — now, as then.
They gave no quarter.
Bombed in London
On land and sea I strove with anxious care
To escape conscription. It was in the air!
117
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The Sleepy Sentinel
Faithless the watch that I kept: now I have none
to keep.
I was slain because I slept: now I am slain I sleep.
Let no man reproach me again, whatever watch is
unkept —
I sleep because I am slain. They slew me because
I slept.
Batteries out of Ammunition
If any mourn us in the workshop, say
We died because the shift kept holiday
Common Form
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
A Dead Statesman
I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue.
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall save me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young ?
Ii8
EPITAPHS
The Rebel
If I had clamoured at Thy Gate
For gift of Life on Earth,
And, thrusting through the souls that wait,
Flung headlong into birth —
Even then, even then, for gin and snare
About my pathway spread.
Lord, I had mocked Thy thoughtful care
Before I joined the Dead !
But now? ... I was beneath Thy Hand
Ere yet the Planets came.
And now — though Planets pass, I stand
The witness to Thy Shame.
The Obedient
Daily, though no ears attended.
Did my prayers arise.
Daily, though no fire descended
Did I sacrifice. . . .
Though my darkness did not lift.
Though I faced no lighter odds.
Though the Gods bestowed no gift,
None the less.
None the less, I served the Gods !
119
THE YEARS BETWEEN
A Drifter off Tarentum
He from the wind-bitten north with ship and com-
panions descended,
Searching for eggs of death spawned by invisible
hulls.
Many he found and drew forth. Of a sudden the
fishery ended
In flame and a clamorous breath not new to the
eye-pecking gulls.
Destroyers in Collision
For Fog and Fate no charm is found
To lighten or amend.
I, hurrying to my bride, was drowned —
Cut down by my best friend.
Convoy Escort
I was a shepherd to fools
Causelessly bold or afraid.
They would not abide by my rules.
Yet they escaped. For I stayed.
120
EPITAPHS
Unknown Female Corpse
Headless, lacking foot and hand,
Horrible I come to land.
I beseech all women's sons
Know I was a mother once.
Raped and Revenged
One used and butchered me: another spied
Me broken — for which thing a hundred died.
So it was learned among the heathen hosts
How much a freeborn woman's favour costs.
Salonikan Grave
I have watched a thousand days
Push out and crawl into night
Slowly as tortoises.
Now I, too, follow these.
It is fever, and not fight —
Time, not battle — ^that slays.
121
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The Bridegroom
Call me not false, beloved,
If, from thy scarce-known breast
So little time removed,
In other arms I rest.
For this more ancient bride
Whom coldly I embrace
Was constant at my side
Before I saw thy face.
Our marriage, often set-
By miracle delayed —
At last is consummate.
And cannot be unmade.
Live, then, whom Life shall cure.
Almost, of Memory,
And leave us to endure
Its immortality.
122
EPITAPHS
V. A. D. (Mediterranean)
Ah, would swift ships had never been, for then we
ne'er had found,
These harsh JEgezn rocks between, this little virgin
drowned.
Whom neither spouse nor child shall mourn, but
men she nursed through pain
And — certain keels for whose return the heathen
look in vain.
123
*THE CITY OF BRASS'
1909
*Here was a people whom after their works thou shalt see wept over
for their lost dominion: and in this palace is the last information
respecting lords collected in the dust.' — The Arabian Nights.
In a land that the sand overlays — the ways to her gates
are untrod —
A multitude ended their days whose fates were made
splendid by God,
Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness
and went to their jail.
And of these is a story written: hut Allah alone know-
eth all!
When the wine stirred in their heart their bosoms
dilated,
They rose to suppose themselves kings over all
things created —
To decree a new earth at a birth without labour or
sorrow —
To declare: 'We prepare it to-day and inherit to-
morrow.'
124
•THE CITY OF BRASS'
They chose themselves prophets and priests of
minute understanding,
Men swift to see done, and outrun, their extremest
commanding —
Of the tribe which describe with a jibe the perver-
sions of Justice —
Panders avowed to the crowd whatsoever its lust is.
Swiftly these pulled down the walls that their
fathers had made them —
The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and
relaid them
As playgrounds of pleasure and leisure with hmit-
less entries,
And havens of rest for the wastrels where once
walked the sentries;
And because there was need of more pay for the
shouters and marchers.
They disbanded in face of their foemen their bow-
men and archers.
They replied to their well-wishers' fears — to their
enemies' laughter.
Saying: 'Peace! We have fashioned a God Which
shall save us hereafter.
125
THE YEARS BETWEEN
We ascribe all dominion to man in his factions con-
ferring,
And have given to numbers the Name of the Wis-
dom unerring.'
They said: *Who has hate in his soul? Who has
envied his neighbour ?
Let him arise and control both that man and his
labour.'
They said: 'Who is eaten by sloth? Whose un-
thrift has destroyed him ?
He shall levy a tribute from all because none have
employed him.'
They said: *Who hath toiled? Who hath striven,
and gathered possession ?
Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of
transgression.'
They said: *Who is irked by the Law? Though
we may not remove it.
If he lend us his aid in this raid, we will set him
above it!'
So the robber did judgment again upon such as
displeased him,
The slayer, too, boasted his slain, and the judges
released him.
126
•THE CITY OF BRASS'
As for their kinsmen far off, on the skirts of the
nation,
They harried all earth to make sure none escaped
reprobation,
They awakened unrest for a jest in their newly-
won borders,
And jeered at the blood of their brethren betrayed
by their orders.
They instructed the ruled to rebel, their rulers to
aid them;
And, since such as obeyed them not fell, their Vice-
roys obeyed them.
When the riotous set them at naught they said:
'Praise the upheaval!
For the show and the word and the thought of
Dominion is evil!'
They unwound and flung from them with rage, as a
rag that defiled them
The imperial gains of the age which their fore-
fathers piled them.
They ran panting in haste to lay waste and em-
bitter for ever
127
THE YEARS BETWEEN
The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strength which are
Faith and Endeavour.
They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth
and exposed to derision
All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint
and prevision:
And it ceased, and God granted them all things
for which they had striven,
And the heart of a beast in the place of a man's
heart was given. . . .
When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant
in error.
Out of the sea rose a sign — out of Heaven a terror.
Then they saw, then they heard, then they knew —
for none troubled to hide it.
An host had prepared their destruction, but still
they denied it.
They denied what they dared not abide if it came
to the trial,
But the Sword that was forged while they lied did
not heed their denial.
It drove home, and no time was allowed to the
crowd that was driven.
128
'THE CITY OF BRASS'
The preposterous-minded were cowed — they thought
time would be given.
There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue
them;
It was decreed their own deed, and not chance,
should undo them.
The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to
the reaping,
The trust they had leagued to disown was removed
from their keeping.
The eaters of other men's bread, the exempted
from hardship.
The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their
wardship.
For the hate they had taught through the State
brought the State no defender,
And it passed from the roll of the Nations in head-
long surrender.
129
JUSTICE
October 1918
Across a world where all men grieve
And grieving strive the more.
The great days range like tides and leave
Our dead on every shore.
Heavy the load we undergo^
And our own hands prepare^
If we have parley with the foe.
The load our sons must hear.
Before we loose the word
That bids new worlds to birth,
Needs must we loosen first the sword
Of Justice upon earth;
Or else all else is vain
Since life on earth began,
And the spent world sinks back again
Hopeless of God and Man.
130
JUSTICE
A people and their King
Through ancient sin grown strong,
Because they feared no reckoning
Would set no bound to wrong;
But now their hour is past,
And we who bore it find
Evil Incarnate held at last
To answer to mankind.
For agony and spoil
Of nations beat to dust,
For poisoned air and tortured soil
And cold, commanded lust,
And every secret woe
The shuddering waters saw —
Willed and fulfilled by high and low-
Let them relearn the Law.
That when the dooms are read,
Not high nor low shall say: —
'My haughty or my humble head
Has saved me in this day.'
131
THE YEARS BETWEEN
That, till the end of time,
Their remnant shall recall
Their fathers' old, confederate crime
Availed them not at all.
That neither schools nor priests.
Nor Kings may build again
A people with the heart of beasts
Made wise concerning men.
Whereby our dead shall sleep
In honour, unbetrayed.
And we in faith and honour keep
That peace for which they paid.
132
POEMS FROM HISTORY
THE RIVER'S TALE
Prehistoric
Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew
Wanted to know what the River knew,
For they were young and the Thames was old.
And this is the tale that the River told: —
*I walk my beat before London Town,
Five hours up and seven down.
Up I go and I end my run
At Tide-end-town, which is Teddington.
Down I come with the mud in my hands
And plaster it over the Maplin Sands.
But rd have you know that these waters of mine
Were once a branch of the River Rhine,
When hundreds of miles to the East I went
And England was joined to the Continent.
I remember the bat-winged lizard-birds.
The Age of Ice and the mammoth herds.
And the giant tigers that stalked them down
Through Regent's Park into Camden Town.
POEMS FROM HISTORY
And I remember like yesterday
The earliest Cockney who came my way,
When he pushed through the forest that lined the
Strand,
With paint on his face and a club in his hand.
He was death to feather and fin and fur.
He trapped my beavers at Westminster,
He netted my salmon, he hunted my deer,
He killed my herons off Lambeth Pier;
He fought his neighbour with axes and swords,
FHnt or bronze, at my upper fords.
While down at Greenwich for slaves and tin
The tall Phoenician ships stole in.
And North Sea war-boats, painted and gay.
Flashed like dragon-flies Erith way;
And Norseman and Negro and Gaul and Greek
Drank with the Britons in Barking Creek,
And life was gay, and the world was new.
And I was a mile across at Kew !
But the Roman came with a heavy hand.
And bridged and roaded and ruled the land.
And the Roman left and the Danes blew in —
And that's where your history books begin!'
136
THE ROMAN CENTURION SPEAKS
A.D. 300
Legate, I had the news last night. My cohort's
ordered home
By ship to Portus Itius and thence by road to
Rome.
Fve marched the companies aboard, the arms are
stowed below:
Now let another take my sword. Command me
not to go!
I've served in Britain forty years, from Vectis to
the Wall
I have none other home than this, nor any life at all.
Last night I did not understand, but, now the
hour draws near
That calls me to my native land, I feel that land
is here.
137
POEMS FROM HISTORY
Here where men say my name was made, here
where my work was done,
Here where my dearest dead are laid — my wife —
my wife and son;
Here where time, custom, grief and toil, age, mem-
ory, service, love.
Have rooted me in British soil. Ah, how shall I
remove ?
For me this land, that sea, these airs, those folk
and fields suffice.
What purple Southern pomp can match our change-
ful Northern skies.
Black with December snows unshed or pearled
with August haze.
The clanging arch of steel-grey March, or June's
long-lighted days ?
You'll follow widening Rhodanus till vine and
olive lean
Aslant before the sunny breeze that sweeps Ne-
mausus clean
To Arelate's triple gate; but let me linger on.
Here where our stiff-necked British oaks confront
Euroclydon !
138
THE ROMAN CENTURION SPEAKS
You'll take the old Aurelian Koad through shore-
descending pines
Where, blue as any peacock's neck, the Tyrrhene
Ocean shines.
You'll go where laurel crowns are won, but will
you e'er forget
The scent of hawthorn in the sun, or bracken in
the wet ?
Let me work here for Britain's sake — at any task
you will —
A marsh to drain, a road to make or native troops
to drill.
Some Western camp (I know the Pict) or granite
Border keep.
Mid seas of heather derelict, where our old mess-
mates sleep.
Legate, I come to you in tears — My cohort ordered
home !
I've served in Britain forty years. What should
I do in Rome?
139
POEMS FROM HISTORY
Here is my heart, my soul, my mind — the only
life I know. —
I cannot leave it all behind. Command me not
to go!
140
THE PIRATES IN ENGLAND
A. D. 600
When Rome was rotten-ripe to her fall,
And the sceptre passed from her hand,
The pestilent Picts leaped over the wall
To harry the British land.
The little dark men of the mountain and waste,
So quick to laughter and tears,
They came panting with hate and haste
For the loot of five hundred years.
They killed the trader, they sacked the shops,
They ruined temple and town —
They swept like wolves through the standing crops
Crying that Rome was down.
They wiped out all that they could find
Of beauty and strength and worth,
But they could not wipe out the Viking's Wind,
That brings the ships from the North.
141
POEMS FROM HISTORY
They could not wipe out the North-East gales,
Nor what those gales set free —
The pirate ships with their close-reefed sails,
Leaping from sea to sea.
They had forgotten the shield-hung hull
Seen nearer and more plain,
Dipping into the troughs like a gull.
And gull-like rising again —
The painted eyes that glare and frown.
In the high snake-headed stem,
Searching the beach while her sail comes down.
They had forgotten them !
There was no Count of the Saxon Shore
To meet her hand to hand,
As she took the beach with a surge and a roar.
And the pirates rushed inland.
142
DANE-GELD
A.D. 1000
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile
nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say: —
'We invaded you last night — ^we are quite pre-
pared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.'
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That youVe only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane !
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To pufF and look important and to say: —
'Though we know we should defeat you, we have
not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.'
143
POEMS FROM HISTORY
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any
nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: —
^We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost.
For the end of that game is oppression and
shame.
And the nation that plays it is lost!'
144
THE MAKING OF ENGLAND
(WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR)
England's on the anvil — hear the hammers ring —
Clanging from the Severn to the Tyne !
Never was a blacksmith like our Norman King —
England's being hammered, hammered, ham-
mered into line !
England's on the anvil ! Heavy are the blows !
(But the work will be a marvel when it's done)
Little bits of Kingdoms cannot stand against their
foes.
England's being hammered, hammered, ham-
mered into one !
There shall be one people — it shall serve one Lord —
(Neither Priest nor Baron shall escape!)
It shall have one speech and law, soul and strength
and sword.
England's being hammered, hammered, ham-
mered into shape !
145
NORMAN AND SAXON
A.D. 1120
*My son/ said the Norman Baron, *I am dying,
and you will be heir
To all the broad acres in England that William
gave me for my share
When we conquered the Saxon at Hastings, and a
nice little handful it is.
But before you go over to rule it I want you to
understand this: —
*The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners
are not so polite,
But he never means anything serious till he talks
about justice and right;
When he stands like an ox in the furrow with his
sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, "This isn't fair dealing," my son,
leave the Saxon alone.
146
NORMAN AND SAXON
*You can horsewhip your Gascony archers, or tor-
ture your Picardy spears,
But don't try that game on the Saxon; you'll have
the whole brood round your ears.
From the richest old Thane in the county to the
poorest chained serf in the fields,
They'll be at you and on you like hornets, and, if
you are wise, you will yield !
'But first you must master their language, their
dialect, proverbs and songs,
Don't trust any clerk to interpret when they come
with the tale of their wrongs.
Let them know that you know what they're say-
ing; let them feel that you know what to say;
Yes, even when you want to go hunting, hear them
out if it takes you all day.
'They'll drink every hour of the daylight and poach
every hour of the dark.
It's the sport not the rabbits they're after (we've
plenty of game in the park).
147
POEMS FROM HISTORY
Don't hang them or cut off their fingers. That's
wasteful as well as unkind,
For a hard-bitten, South-country poacher makes
the best man-at-arms you can find.
'Appear with your wife and the children at their
weddings and funerals and feasts;
Be polite but not friendly to Bishops; be good to
all poor parish priests;
Say "we", *'us" and "ours" when you're talking
instead of "you fellows" and "I".
Don't ride over seeds; keep your temper; and
never you tell 'em a lie I'
148
THE REEDS OF RUNNYMEDE
(magna CHARTA, JUNE I5, I215)
At Runnymede, at Runnymede,
What say the reeds at Runnymede ?
The lissom reeds that give and take,
That bend so far, but never break,
They keep the sleepy Thames awake
With tales of John at Runnymede.
At Runnymede, at Runnymede,
Oh hear the reeds at Runnymede: —
'You mustn't sell, delay, deny,
A freeman's right or liberty.
It wakes the stubborn Englishry,
We saw 'em roused at Runnymede!
'When through our ranks the Rarons came.
With little thought of praise or blame.
Rut resolute to play the game,
They lumbered up to Runnymede;
149
POEMS FROM HISTORY
And there they launched in solid line,
The first attack on Right Divine —
The curt, uncompromising "Sign!"
That settled John at Runnymede.
'At Runnymede, at Runnymede,
Your rights were won at Runnymede!
No freeman shall be fined or bound,
Or dispossessed of freehold ground,
Except by lawful judgement found
And passed upon him by his peers ! —
Forget not, after all these years.
The charter signed at Runnymede.'
And still when mob or monarch lays
Too rude a hand on English ways.
The whisper wakes, the shudder plays,
Across the reeds at Runnymede.
And Thames, that knows the moods of kings.
And crowds and priests and suchlike things.
Rolls deep and dreadful as he brings
Their warning down from Runnymede!
150
MY FATHER'S CHAIR
(the first parliament)
There are four good legs to my Father's Chair —
Priest and People and Lords and Crown.
I sit on all of 'em fair and square,
And that is the reason it don't break down.
I won't trust one leg, nor two, nor three,
To carry my weight when I sit me down,
I want all four of 'em under me —
Priest and People and Lords and Crown.
I sit on all four and I favour none —
Priest, nor People, nor Lords, nor Crown —
And I never tilt in my chair, my son.
And that is the reason it don't break down!
When 3^our time comes to sit in my Chair,
Remember your Father's habits and rules.
Sit on all four legs, fair and square,
And never be tempted by one-legged stools!
151
THE DAWN WIND
(on the eve of the renaissance)
At two o'clock in the morning, if you open your
window and listen,
You will hear the feet of the Wind that is going
to call the sun.
And the trees in the shadow rustle and the trees in
the moonlight glisten.
And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that
the night is done.
So do the cows in the field. They graze for an hour
and lie down.
Dozing and chewing the cud; or a bird in the
ivy wakes.
Chirrups one note and is still, and the restless
Wind strays on.
Fidgeting far down the road, till, softly, the dark-
ness breaks.
152
THE DAWN WIND
Back comes the Wind full strength with a blow
like an angel's wing,
Gentle but waking the world, as he shouts:
The Sun! The Sun!'
And the light floods over the fields and the birds
begin to sing.
And the Wind dies down in the grass. It is
Day and his work is done.
So when the world is asleep, and there seems no
hope of her waking
Out of some long, bad dream that makes her
mutter and moan,
Suddenly, all men arise to the noise of fetters break-
ing,
And every one smiles at his neighbour and tells
him his soul is his own !
153
THE KING'S JOB
(the tudors)
Once on a time was a King anxious to understand
What was the wisest thing a man could do for his
land.
Most of his population hurried to answer the ques-
tion,
Each with a long oration, each with a new sugges-
tion.
They interrupted his meals, he wasn't safe in his
bed from 'em.
They hung round his neck and heels, and at last
His Majesty fled from 'em.
He put on a leper's cloak (people leave lepers alone),
Out of the window he broke, and abdicated his
throne.
All that rapturous day, while his Court and his
Ministers mourned him.
He danced on his own highway till his own Police-
men warned him.
154
THE KING'S JOB
Gay and cheerful he ran (lepers don't cheer as a
rule)
Till he found a philosopher-man teaching an infant
school.
The windows were open wide, the King sat down
on the grass,
And heard the children inside reciting *Our King
is an ass.'
The King popped in his head, 'Some people would
call this treason,
But I think you are right,' he said; 'will you kindly
give me your reason.?'
Lepers in school are rare as kings with a leper's
dress on,
But the class didn't stop or stare; it calmly went
on with the lesson:
' The wisest thing, we suppose, that a man can do for
his land.
Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that
lie under his hand*
The King whipped off his cloak, and stood in his
crown before 'em.
He said: — 'My dear little folk, Ex ore parvulorum
155
POEMS FROM HISTORY
(Which is Latin for "Children know more than
grown-ups would credit")
You have shown me the road to go, and I propose
to tread it.'
Back to his Kingdom he ran, and issued a Proc-
lamation,
'Let every living man return to his occupation!'
Then he explained to the mob that cheered in his
palace and round it,
'I've been to look for a job, and Heaven be praised
I've found it!'
156
WITH DRAKE IN THE TROPICS
South and far south below the Line,
Our Admiral leads us on,
Above, undreamed-of planets shine —
The stars we knew are gone.
Around, our clustered seamen mark
The silent deep ablaze
With fires, through which the far-down shark
Shoots glimmering on his ways.
The sultry tropic breezes fail
That plagued us all day through;
Like molten silver hangs our sail,
Our decks are dark with dew.
Now the rank moon commands the sky.
Ho ! Bid the watch beware
And rouse all sleeping men that lie
Unsheltered in her glare.
How long the time 'twixt bell and bell!
How still our lanthorns burn 1
How strange our whispered words that tell
Of England and return !
157
POEMS FROM HISTORY
Old towns, old streets, old friends, old loves,
We name them each to each,
While the lit face of Heaven removes
Them farther from our reach.
Now is the utmost ebb of night
When mind and body sink,
And loneliness and gathering fright
Overwhelm us, if we think —
Yet, look, where in his room apart,
All windows opened wide,
Our Admiral thrusts away the chart
And comes to walk outside.
Kindly, from man to man he goes,
With comfort, praise, or jest,
Quick to suspect our childish woes.
Our terror and unrest.
It IS as though the sun should shine —
Our midnight fears are gone!
South and far south below the Line,
Our Admiral leads us on!
158
'TOGETHER'
(ELIZABETH AND HER PEOPLE)
When Horse and Rider each can trust the other
everywhere,
It takes a fence and more than a fence to pound
that happy pair;
For the one will do what the other demands, al-
though he is beaten and blown,
And when it is done, they can live through a run
that neither could face alone.
When Crew and Captain understand each other to
the core,
It takes a gale and more than a gale to put their
ship ashore;
For the one will do what the other commands, al-
though they are chilled to the bone.
And both together can live through weather that
neither could face alone.
159
POEMS FROM HISTORY
When King and People understand each other past
a doubt,
It takes a foe and more than a foe to knock that
country out;
For the one will do what the other one asks as soon
as the need is known,
And hand in hand they can make a stand which
neither could make alone!
This wisdom had Elizabeth and all her subjects too.
For she was theirs and they were hers, as well the
Spaniard knew;
For when his grim Armada came to conquer the
Nation and Throne,
Why, back to back they met an attack that neither
could face alone!
It is not wealth nor talk nor trade nor schools nor
even the Vote,
Will save your land when the enemy's hand is
tightening round your throat.
1 60
'TOGETHER'
But a King and a People who thoroughly trust
each other in all that is done
Can sleep on their bed without any dread — for the
world will leave *em alone!
(king JAMES i)
The child of Mary Queen of Scots,
A shifty mother's shiftless son,
Bred up among intrigues and plots,
Learned in all things, wise in none!
Ungainly, babbling, wasteful, weak.
Shrewd, clever, cowardly, pedantic,
The sight of steel would blanch his cheek,
The smell of baccy drive him frantic.
He was the author of his line —
He wrote that witches should be burnt;
He wrote that monarchs were divine,
And left a son who proved they weren't !
i6i
THE CIVIL WARS
(Before Edgehill, October, 1642)
Naked and grey the Cotswolds stand
Beneath the autumn sun,
And the stubble fields on either hand
Where Stour and Avon run,
There is no change in the patient land
That has bred us every one.
She should have passed in cloud and fire
And saved us from this sin
Of war — red war — 'twixt child and sire,
Household and kith and kin,
In the heart of a sleepy Midland shire.
With the harvest scarcely in.
But there is no change as we meet at last
On the brow-head or the plain.
And the raw astonished ranks stand fast
To slay or to be slain
By the men they knew in the kindly past
That shall never come again —
162
THE CIVIL WARS
By the men they met at dance or chase,
In the tavern or the hall,
At the justice-bench and the market-place,
At the cudgel-play or brawl.
Of their own blood and speech and race.
Comrades or neighbours all !
More bitter than death this day must prove
Whichever way it go.
For the brothers of the maids we love
Make ready to lay low
Their sisters' sweethearts, as we move
Against our dearest foe.
Thank Heaven! At last the trumpets peal
Before our strength gives way.
For King or for the Commonweal
No matter which they say,
The first dry rattle of new-drawn steel
Changes the world to-day!
163
THE DUTCH IN THE MEDWAY
(CHARLES II)
If war were won by feasting,
Or victory by song,
Or safety found in sleeping sound.
How England would be strong!
But honour and dominion
Are not maintained so.
They're only got by sword and shot.
And this the Dutchmen know !
The moneys that should feed us.
You spend on your delight,
How can you then have sailor-men
To aid you in your fight ?
Our fish and cheese are rotten.
Which makes the scurvy grow —
We cannot serve you if we starve,
And this the Dutchmen know !
164
THE DUTCH IN THE MEDWAY
Our ships in every harbour
Be neither whole nor sound,
And, when we seek to mend a leak,
No oakum can be found.
Or, if it is, the caulkers,
And carpenters also.
For lack of pay have gone away,
And this the Dutchmen know !
Mere powder, guns, and bullets.
We scarce can get at all.
Their price was spent in merriment
And revel at Whitehall,
While we in tattered doublets
From ship to ship must row.
Beseeching friends for odds and ends —
And this the Dutchmen know I
No King will heed our warnings.
No Court will pay our claims —
Our King and Court for their disport
Do sell the very Thames !
165
POEMS FROM HISTORY
For, now De Ruyter's topsails,
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet-
And this the Dutchmen know !
i66
•BROWN BESS'
English Army, 1700-1815
In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes and brocade
Brown Bess was a partner whom none could
despise —
An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade,
With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes —
At Blenheim and Ramillies fops would confess
They were pierced to the heart by the charms of
Brown Bess.
Though her sight was not long and her weight was
not small.
Yet her actions were winning, her language was
clear;
And everyone bowed as she opened the ball
On the arm of some high-gaitered, grim grenadier.
Half Europe admitted the striking success
Of the dances and routs that were given by Brown
Bess.
167
POEMS FROM HISTORY
When ruffles were turned into stifF leather stocks
And people wore pigtails instead of perukes
Brown Bess never altered her iron-grey locks,
She knew she was valued for more than her looks.
'Oh, powder and patches was always my dress.
And I think I am killing enough,' said Brown Bess.
So she followed her red-coats, whatever they did,
From the heights of Quebec to the plains of
Ass aye.
From Gibraltar to Acre, Cape Town and Madrid,
And nothing about her was changed on the way;
(But most of the Empire which now we possess
Was won through those years by old-fashioned
Brown Bess.)
In stubborn retreat or in stately advance.
From the Portugal coast to the cork-woods of
Spain
She had puzzled some excellent Marshals of France
Till none of them wanted to meet her again:
But later, near Brussels, Napoleon, no less.
Arranged for a Waterloo ball with Brown Bess.
i68
'BROWN BESS*
She had danced till the dawn of that terrible day —
She danced on till dusk of more terrible night.
And before her linked squares his battalions gave
way
And her long fierce quadrilles put his lancers to
flight.
And when his gilt carriage drove off in the press,
'I have danced my last dance for the world!' said
Brown Bess.
If you go to Museums — there's one in Whitehall —
Where old weapons are shown with their names
writ beneath,
You will find her, upstanding, her back to the wall,
As stiff as a ramrod, the flint in her teeth.
And if ever we English have reason to bless
Any arm save our mothers', that arm is Brown Bess !
169
THE AMERICAN WAR
(before)
'TwAS not while England's sword unsheathed
Put half a world to flight,
Nor while their new-built cities breathed
Secure behind her might;
Not while she poured from Pole to Line
Treasure and ships and men —
These worshippers at Freedom's shrine
They did not quit her then!
Not till their foes were driven forth
By England o'er the main —
Not till the Frenchman from the North
Had gone, with shattered Spain;
Not till the clean-swept ocean showed
No hostile flag unrolled,
Did they remember what they owed
To Freedom — and were bold !
170
THE AMERICAN WAR
(after)
The snow lies thick on Valley Forge,
The ice on the Delaware,
But the poor dead soldiers of King George
They neither know nor care —
Not though the earliest primrose break
On the sunny side of the lane,
And scuffling rookeries awake
Their England's spring again.
They will not stir when the drifts are gone
Or the ice melts out of the bay.
And the men that served with Washington
Lie all as still as they.
They will not stir though the mayflower blows
In the moist dark woods of pine.
And every rock-strewn pasture shows
Mullein and columbine.
171
POEMS FROM HISTORY
Each for his land, in a fair fight,
Encountered, strove, and died.
And the kindly earth that knows no spite
Covers them side by side.
She is too busy to think of war;
She has all the world to make gay,
And, behold, the yearly flowers are
Where they were in our fathers' day!
Golden-rod by the pasture wall
When the columbine is dead.
And sumach leaves that turn, in fall.
Red as the blood they shed.
172
THE FRENCH WARS
(NAPOLEONIC)
The boats of Newhaven and Folkestone and Dover
To Dieppe and Boulogne and to Calais cross over;
And in each of those runs there is not a square yard
Where the English and French haven't fought and
fought hard !
If the ships that were sunk could be floated once
more,
They'd stretch like a raft from the shore to the
shore,
And we'd see, as we crossed, every pattern and plan
Of ship that was built since sea-fighting began.
There'd be biremes and brigantines, cutters and
sloops,
Cogs, carracks and galleons with gay gilded poops —
Hoys, caravels, ketches, corvettes and the rest.
As thick as regattas, from Ramsgate to Brest.
173
POEMS FROM HISTORY
But the galleys of Caesar, the squadrons of Sluys,
And Nelson's crack frigates are hid from our eyes,
Where the high Seventy-fours of Napoleon's days
Lie down with Deal luggers and French chasse-
marees.
They'll answer no signal — they rest on the ooze
With their honey-combed guns and their skeleton
crews —
And racing above them, through sunshine or gale,
The Cross-Channel packets come in with the Mail.
Then the poor sea-sick passengers, English and
French,
Must open their trunks on the Custom-house
bench.
While the officers rummage for smuggled cigars
And nobody thinks of our blood-thirsty wars !
174
THE BELLS AND QUEEN VICTORIA
1911
'Gay go up and gay go down
To ring the Bells of London Town/
When London Town's asleep in bed
You'll hear the Bells ring overhead,
In excelsis gloria !
Ringing for Victoria,
Ringing for their mighty mistress — ten years dead !
Here is more gain than Gloriana guessed,
Than Gloriana guessed or Indies bring —
Than golden Indies bring. A Queen confessed,
A Queen confessed that crowned her people King.
Her people King, and crowned all Kings above,
Above all Kings have crowned their Queen their
love —
Have crowned their love their Queen, their Queen
their love !
175
POEMS FROM HISTORY
Denying her, we do ourselves deny,
Disowning her are we ourselves disowned.
Mirror was she of our fidelity,
And handmaid of our destiny enthroned;
The very marrow of Youth's dream, and still
Yoke-mate of wisest Age that worked her will !
Our fathers had declared to us her praise.
Her praise the years had proven past all speech.
And past all speech our loyal hearts always.
Always our hearts lay open, each to each;
Therefore men gave their treasure and their blood
To this one woman — for she understood !
Four o' the clock ! Now all the world is still.
Oh, London Bells, to all the world declare
The Secret of the Empire — read who will !
The Glory of the People — touch who dare !
The Bells:
Power that has reached itself all kingly powers,
St, Margaret's : By love o'erpowered —
St. Martin's : By love o'erpowered —
St. Clement Danes : By love overpowered.
The greater power confers !
176
THE BELLS AND QUEEN VICTORIA
The Bells:
For we were hers, as she, as she was ours,
Bow Bells : And she was ours —
St. Paul's : And she was ours —
Westminster : And she was ours,
As we, even we, were hers !
The Bells:
As we were hers !
177
BIG STEAMERS
(modern war)
'Oh, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers,
With England's own coal, up and down the salt
seas ? '
'We are going to fetch you your bread and your
butter,
Your beef, pork, and mutton, eggs, apples, and
cheese/
'And where will you fetch it from, all you Big
Steamers,
And where shall I write you when you are away ? '
'We fetch it from Melbourne, Quebec, and Van-
couver,
Address us at Hobart, Hong-kong, and Bombay.'
'But if anything happened to all you Big Steamers,
And suppose you were wrecked up and down the
salt sea ? '
'Why, you'd have no coffee or bacon for breakfast,
And you'd have no muffins or toast for your tea.'
178
BIG STEAMERS
'Then I'll pray for fine weather for all you big
Steamers,
For little blue billows and breezes so soft.*
'Oh, billows and breezes don't bother Big Steamers,
For we're iron below and steel-rigging aloft/
'Then ril build a new lighthouse for all you Big
Steamers,
With plenty wise pilots to pilot you through.'
'Oh, the Channel's as bright as a ball-room already,
And pilots are thicker than pilchards at Looe.'
'Then what can I do for you, all you Big Steamers,
Oh, what can I do for your comfort and good ?'
'Send out your big warships to watch your big
waters.
That no one may stop us from bringing you food.
^ For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble.
The sweets that you suck and the joints that you
carve,
They are brought to you daily by all us Big Steamers,
And if any one hinders our coming you*ll starve !'
179
THE SECRET OF THE MACHINES
We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,
We were melted in the furnace and the pit —
We were cast and wrought and hammered to de-
sign,
We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to
fit.
Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask.
And a thousandth of an inch to give us play.
And now if you will set us to our task.
We will serve you four and twenty hours a day !
We can pull and haul and push and lift and
drive.
We can print and plough and weave and heat
and light.
We can run and jump and swim and fly and
dive.
We can see and hear and count and read and
write !
1 80
THE SECRET OF THE MACHINES
Would you call a friend from half across the world ?
If you'll let us have his name and town and state,
You shall see and hear your crackling question
hurled
Across the arch of heaven while you wait.
Has he answered ? Does he need you at his side ?
You can start this very evening if you choose,
And take the Western Ocean in the stride
Of seventy thousand horses and some screws !
The boat-express is waiting your command !
You will find the Mauretania at the quay,
Till her captain turns the lever 'neath his hand
And the monstrous nine-decked city goes to sea.
Do you wish to make the mountains bare their
head
And lay their new-cut forests at your feet .?
Do you want to turn a river in its bed,
And plant a barren wilderness with wheat ?
Shall we pipe aloft and bring you water down
From the never-failing cisterns of the snows,
To work the mills and tramways in your town.
And irrigate your orchards as it flows ?
l8l
POEMS FROM HISTORY
It is easy ! Give us dynamite and drills !
Watch the iron-shouldered rocks lie down and
quake
As the thirsty desert-level floods and fills,
And the valley we have dammed becomes a
lake!
But remember, please, the Law by which we live,
We are not built to comprehend a He,
We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.
If you make a slip in handling us you die !
We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings —
Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods ! —
Our touch can alter all created things.
We are everything on earth — except The Gods 1
Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from
your eyesy
It will vanish and the stars will shine again.
Because, for all our power and weight and size.
We are nothing more than children of your brain !
182
THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN
Our England is a garden that is full of stately
views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and
avenues.
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting
by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than
meets the eye.
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the
thin red wall,
You'll find the tool- and potting-sheds which are
the heart of all,
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dungpits
and the tanks.
The rollers, carts and drain-pipes, with the barrows
and the planks.
183
POEMS FROM HISTORY
And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and
'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without
noise;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout
to scare the birds.
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a
rose.
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything
that grows;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the
sand and loam.
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not
made
By singing: — *0h, how beautiful,' and sitting in the
shade,
184
THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN
While better men than we go out and start their
working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken
dinner-knives.
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a
head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a
heart so sick.
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be
done.
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.
Then seek your job with thankfulness and work
till further orders.
If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on
borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands
begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the
Garden.
185
POEMS FROM HISTORY
Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him
sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon
his knees.
So when your work is finished, you can wash your
hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass
away !
And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!
1 86
INDEX TO FIRST LINES
FACE
Across a world where all men grieve, 130
A. * I was a "have." ' B. * I was a "have-not," ' . . 113
After the burial-parties leave, 56
Ah ! What avails the classic bent, 80
A tinker out of Bedford, 33
At Runnymede, at Runnymede, 149
At two o'clock in the morning, if you open your window
and listen, 152
Be well assured that on our side, 20
Brethren, how shall it fare with me, 29
Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all, 13
England's on the anvil — hear the hammers ring, .... 145
For all we have and are, 18
*Gay go up and gay go down,' 175
God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, 37
'Have you news of my boy Jack?* 51
He passed in the very battle-smoke 27
I ate my fill of a whale that died, lOl
I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way, . . 96
If war were won by feasting, 164
187
INDEX TO FIRST LINES
PAGE
If you stop to find out what your wages will be, .... d'j
In a land that the sand overlays — the ways to her gates are
untrod, 124
In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes and brocade, .... 167
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation, . 143
Legate, I had the news last night. My cohort's ordered
home, 137
*My son,* said the Norman Baron, *I am dying, and you
will be heir,* 146
Naked and grey the Cotswolds stand, 162
Not in the thick of the fight, 52
*0h, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers,* . . . 178
Oh ye who hold the written clue, yj
Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid, 75
Once on a time was a King anxious to understand, ... 154
Our England is a garden that is full of stately views, . . 183
South and far south below the Line, 157
The Babe was laid in the Manger, 43
The banked oars fell an hundred strong, 3
The boats of Newhaven and Folkestone and Dover, ... 173
The dark eleventh hour, 9
The Doorkeepers of Zion, 25
The fans and the beltings they roar round me, 68
The first time that Peter denied his Lord, 104
The Garden called Gethsemane, 71
The overfaithful sword returns the user, 72
188
INDEX TO FIRST LINES
fACB
There are four good legs to my Father's Chair, .... 151
There are no leaders to lead us to honour, and yet without
leaders we sally, 58
The road to En-dor is easy to tread, 46
These were never your true love's eyes, lOO
The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited
that good part, 63
They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young, ... 54
*This is the State above the Law,' 88
Through learned and laborious years, 23
To-day, across our fathers' graves, 6
To the Judge of Right and Wrong, 31
Try as he will, no man breaks wholly loose, 94
'Twas not while England's sword unsheathed, 170
Twenty bridges from Tower to KezUy 135
'Twixt my house and thy house the pathway is broad, . . 36
We're not so old in the Army List 40
We thought we ranked above the chance of ill, 12
We were all one heart and one race, 7
We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine, 180
What boots it on the Gods to call .? 48
'Whence comest thou, Gehazi,' 91
When Horse and Rider each can trust the other every-
where, 159
When Rome was rotten-ripe to her fall, 141
When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his
pride, 107
Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of
a land more dear ? 83
189
BINDING SECT. JUN 6 1968
PR
^850
E97
V.27
Kipling, Rudyard
The writings in prose and
verse of Rudyard Kipling
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