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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/78234-0.txt b/78234-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..47aeb9b --- /dev/null +++ b/78234-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2267 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78234 *** + + + + + AS THE WIND BLOWS + + + + + AS THE WIND BLOWS + + + BY + EDEN PHILLPOTTS + + AUTHOR OF “THE GIRL AND THE FAUN,” “DANCE OF THE MONTHS,” + “EVANDER,” ETC. + + + NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. + LONDON: ELKIN MATHEWS + MCMXX + + + + + THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + ON EYLESBARROW 7 + + NOCTURNE 8 + + THE HUNTING 9 + + THE STRIKING HOURS 10 + + NIGHT 11 + + SWINBURNE 12 + + JUNE 13 + + BELLS OF VARENNA 14 + + IN THE VALLEY 16 + + GAFFER’S SONG 18 + + SCANDAL 19 + + WELCOME 20 + + THE NEOLITH 21 + + IN A WOOD 24 + + GHOSTIES AT THE WEDDING 26 + + DAWN WIND 27 + + DART 28 + + BY RUNDLESTONE 30 + + A SONG TO SILVER EYES 31 + + ENOUGH 32 + + SONG OF THE LARCHES 32 + + A SONG 33 + + BUONARROTI’S “DAWN” 34 + + A DARTMOOR STREAM 35 + + THE FALL 37 + + LAPWINGS 38 + + TO AN OPAL 39 + + JACK O’ LANTERN 40 + + THE OLD ROAD 41 + + THE DOUBTFUL ONES 42 + + LITANY TO PAN 44 + + A SONG 45 + + CHERRYBROOK 46 + + THE HUNTER’S MOON 47 + + VOICES 48 + + WIND OF THE WEST 50 + + THE LOVER AND THE WIND 51 + + A SONG 52 + + THE GRAVE OF KEATS 53 + + TIGER 55 + + THE PUDDLE 61 + + VISION 62 + + IN GALLIPOLI 63 + + THEN AND NOW 65 + + VIGIL 66 + + DARTMOOR NIGHT 68 + + THE FRUIT OF THE TREE 70 + + WHERE MY TREASURE IS 80 + + + + +ON EYLESBARROW + + + Hither, at set of autumn sun, + Each golden child of Hesper flies + From gardens of old deities, + Where Zeus the maiden Hera won. + + Their footsteps kindled stone by stone + The time-worn barrow, where it stands, + Above wide, valley border-lands, + Austere and imminent and alone. + + Their fingers smoothed each granite frown + And blossomed where no flow’r may live, + And gave, what never flow’r can give, + Of living flame-light for a crown. + + And from their flickering kirtles fell + A gleam upon its stubborn ways, + To touch their nakedness with rays + Of amaranth and asphodel. + + O Hesperids, remember him + Whose sun is westering to the change, + Along uneven paths and strange, + By shadowed aisles and frontiers dim. + + Flash but one token, pure and rare, + From the abundance of your grace, + For many a storm hath stripped the face + Of this, his life, and left it bare. + + Dance but one measure in a heart + Sad and unprofitably proud, + Ere to your chariots of cloud + Ye leap again and so depart. + + + + +NOCTURNE + + + Twilight and falling dew; a little bell + And answering bell, from campanile far, + Chime and are silent; one triumphant star + Conquers the after-glow, that like a shell, + Nacreous and rose, vibrating as it dies, + Faints on the lifted forehead of the snow, + Falls from the deepening purple of the skies + And falling fades upon the hill below. + Unnumbered olive-trees, like hooded wights, + Stand solemn in their companies and grey; + Mule-mounted men go clattering down the way + To yonder galaxy of earth-born lights. + The crepuscule from sea and radiant land + Hath drunk the colour; night lifts up her hand + For peace before the coming of the moon-- + All darkling heaven will be silver soon. + + + + +THE HUNTING + + + When red sun fox steals down the sky, + And darkness dims the heavens high, + There leap again upon his tracks + The eager, starry, hunting packs. + They glitter, glitter, gold and green, + With sparks of frosty fire between, + And Dian bright as day; + While in the gloaming, far below, + Brown owl doth shout “Hi! Tally Ho + Sun fox hath gone away!” + + To music of the spheres they sweep + Over the western world asleep; + Then in the east, with sudden rush, + Sun fox shall whisk his white-tipped brush. + The field is fading, gold and green, + With sparks of frosty fire between, + And Dian growing grey; + While morning leaps the hither hill + And herald lark shouts with a will, + “Sun fox hath gone away!” + + Oh, Huntress fond and silly stars-- + White Venus, fiery, futile Mars, + In vain your pack ye whirl and cast + Upon the marches of the vast; + In vain ye glitter, gold and green, + With sparks of frosty fire between, + And Dian’s arrows fly + In shattered shafts of ebbing light; + For ne’er shall day be caught by night, + And sun fox cannot die. + + + + +THE STRIKING HOURS + + + My brother, can the heart of ocean say + When winds may woo her bosom; when the ships, + Or sudden galleon of an azure day, + Shall fling her foam to rainbows? Can eclipse + Hide up their silver when the full moons will? + Are the cloud-cisterns of the latter rain + At beck of every, summer-starven rill? + Life cannot call the time; nor man may feign + That he shall haply choose when he would have: + To will the striking hours he is not free, + That chime between his cradle and his grave, + Or speed, or slow the hands of destiny. + A bunch of stars upon the vine of heaven + Grows ripe and falls and passes when complete; + The galaxy of grapes to your mouth given, + Bursting their bloomy chalices, are sweet + One little moment; for they will not stay + Your pleasure and their consummation hold + While you misdoubt and linger and delay + Before their cups of purple and of gold. + When to a feast the gods would make you free + At their own time, or never, shall it be. + + + + +NIGHT + + + Another day has ended and again + The fading emeralds of the quiet west + Grow dusky o’er the hill-top and the plain, + Dying along each drowsy vale and crest, + Where Earth lifts up her bosom to the breast + Of Night oncoming. Now once more she brings + To the least folded flow’r her primal rest, + Opens the mantle of her darkenings + And sprinkles the white dew from both her starry wings. + + The moth and beetle, owl and flittermouse-- + All creatures that do call the moon their sun-- + Steal silent forth, each from his little house. + They mount and fly, and others creep and run, + Where fox and hare and brock have all begun + The task of living. Now alert, awake, + They seek their joy and substance; every one + Pads out into the dingle, heath and brake; + While hungry fishes stir the silver of the lake. + + For servants of the day another boon + Brings Night, and as the working hours decrease, + Lifts up her evening star and sickle moon + To disenthral, unfetter and release; + Bidding the long-drawn tale of labour cease. + She comes with twilight healing for each smart + Of soul and body, lays her unguent peace + With fingers cool on every aching part; + Anoints the tired flesh, soothes the day-foundered heart. + + She asks no worship from our drooping eyes; + She needs no prayer to minister our plight; + Hers not our little deeds and destinies, + But still to smooth the pillow, lower the light; + Play nurse for every world-aweary wight; + Comfort and succour; at a touch redeem; + And pour her ancient anodyne of might: + Omnipotent sleep, inviolate, supreme, + Insensible as death, without one sigh or dream. + + + + +SWINBURNE + + + Children and lovers and the cloud-robed sea + Shall mourn him first; and then the motherland, + Weeping in silence by his empty hand + And fallen sword, that flashed for Liberty. + Song-bringer of a glad new minstrelsy, + He came and found joy sleeping and swift fanned + Old pagan fires, then snatched an altar brand + And wrote, “The fearless only shall be free!” + + Oh, by the flame that made thine heart a home, + By the wild surges of thy silver song, + Seer before the sunrise, may there come + Spirits of dawn to light this aching wrong + Called Earth! Thou saw’st them in the foregrow roam; + But we still wait and watch, still thirst and long. + + + + +JUNE + + + June, who goes garlanded, who, never sleeping, + Laughs from behind the eastern hills at night, + And flashes to the hidden skylark keeping + His morning watch and thrilling from the height + Ere yet the stars are dim. + + June, who unseals all fountains at their sources, + And pours life like a river overflowing + In proud and passionate desire, who courses + To throne our feeling higher than our knowing + And heap it to the brim. + + June, when the new-born find their feet and wings, + Scent the sweet grass and air and taste their being, + And in their wanderings and wonderings, + Their motion and their hearing and their seeing + Conquer the earth and sky. + + June, with her feast of flow’rs and lyric rapture, + Whose fair days fly the fleetest of the year, + So pure and fresh that only youth may capture + Their rainbow shapes without a thought of fear, + Without a single sigh. + + + + +BELLS OF VARENNA + + + Drowsy and sweet along the Larian Lake + Your melody is stealing; + Your fitful pealing + Floats on the pinion of a summer night. + Aloft the murmuring upland echoes wake + And wing upon the mountains, + Whence flying fountains + Thin their wild whiteness out o’er many a height, + Bells of Varenna, + Bells of Varenna-- + Ancient bells, + Solemn bells, + Bells, + Bells. + + A tall grey campanile and a spire + Of russet red upspringing, + Meet for your ringing, + O most melodious, mediæval chime, + Arise and point with fane of moonlight fire + To forests and snow ridges + And far-flung bridges + And ruined castles of the olden time, + Bells of Varenna, + Bells of Varenna-- + Dulcet bells, + Dreaming bells, + Bells, + Bells. + + Along a floor of crystal, where the moon, + From her blue mansion bending, + Awaits the sending + Of your deep benison and soft “Good-night,” + Canorous cadence comes. Too soon, too soon, + Faint off the last far throbbing + And silver sobbing + By Como’s patined pathway, still and bright, + Bells of Varenna, + Bells of Varenna-- + Sleeping bells, + Weary bells, + Bells, + Bells. + + + + +IN THE VALLEY + + + Heather and potentilla fold + The rocks with purple and with gold; + The burn beneath sings clear and cold. + + Here man and woman kept a tryst; + Here often met; here first they kissed + Under the white and secret mist. + + And here, within this holy place, + He came and thundered her disgrace, + And looked his last upon her face. + + And while he cursed her ruined name, + Her young soul fainted, sick with shame, + Before the death knell of her fame. + + Had heath and potentil but known + His wrath and her despairing moan, + Their twinkling flowers had surely flown. + + And had the burn but felt that cry, + Or understood their agony, + She must have wept her silver dry. + + The grey hills heard the lover take + An oath, that made their echoes ache, + To hate all women for her sake. + + The sunshine saw the woman cast + Herself to earth when he had past, + Her little pitcher broke at last. + + But heath and potentil are gay; + The waters sing upon their way, + Though all this happened yesterday. + + For June must joy, though joy departs, + And life must laugh, though sorrow smarts, + And buds must break as well as hearts. + + + + +GAFFER’S SONG + + + The boys don’t hoe like they used to do, + And the maids don’t sew like they used to do; + The hen don’t lay + And the hound don’t bay, + And the wind don’t blow like it used to do. + + The men don’t drink like they used to do, + And the girls don’t wink like they used to do; + The bud don’t swell + And the flow’rs don’t smell; + And the folk don’t think like they used to do. + + The milk don’t cream like it used to do, + And the ewes don’t teem like they used to do; + The corn don’t kern + And the sun don’t burn; + And my head won’t scheme like it used to do. + + Bad men ban’t hung like they used to be, + Good songs ban’t sung like they used to be; + The jolly and wise + Have all flown to the skies; + And I ban’t so young as I used to be. + + + + +SCANDAL + + + The owl alighted in a yew + Beside the portals of my house; + The hour was nearly half-past two + And, as he ate his juicy mouse, + A cuckoo clock made cheerful chime + Within and shouted out the time. + + “O gracious God!” the owl began, + And rolled his round eyes at the moon, + “What a black piece of work is man-- + Well might we miss cuckoo in June, + How mad, misguided, inhumane + To keep a cuckoo on a chain! + + “But all the feathered folk must know; + This infamy I’ll bring to light + And tell the horror high and low + And scream the crime by day and night. + No bird shall sing to him again + Who keeps a cuckoo on a chain.” + + Good neighbour, of your charity + Consider that mistaken fowl; + Beware you tell not truth awry + And, hooting with your brother owl, + Into the public ear complain + I keep a cuckoo on a chain. + + + + +WELCOME + + + The hard azure on high + That bends over the Spring + Falls a tinkling, a thrill-- + Sudden, silvery, shrill; + For the lark’s in the sky + And his lyre-shapen wing + Lifts the song in a spiral at will. + + In the East is the wind; + At the fringe of the wood + Shiver catkins of gold + Or the fleece and the fold. + Sure the eaning ewes find + That the sunlight is good, + Though chill Eurus, his scythe’s on the wold. + + Dawns a sweet lemon light + Through the red-bosomed earth; + Leaps and sparkles a train + Along dingle and lane; + For the primrosen bright, + They are come to their birth + And the daffodil’s dancing again. + + + + +THE NEOLITH + + + Sole standing in utter loneliness--superbly alone-- + A monolith ruggedly lifts, with the roseal ling at his feet. + Only the murmur of bees and the twinkle and throb of the heat + On the league-long height, and the shade from his granite thrown. + + Roll upon roll of the Moor flung out on a sky-line free; + Clouds at the zenith blue; in the flower-clad earth beneath + The dust of a neolith: one who has swept this heath + As the chieftain of vanished hordes and their fate and their destiny. + + When he died, that no mocking phantom, or jealous shade + Of him mighty, should darken their lodge in the distant glen, + They brought their lord hither, on shoulders of mourning men, + And tore at their hair and howled long and fierce music made. + + Then they sought for a stone of girth that should evermore + mark his place + And be seen for remembrance, afar on the frowning hill, + Of that leader of men, whose right arm and resistless will + Had lifted his clan to power and to splendour and pride of face. + + He was cooped with his knees to his chin in a granite kist, + And a granite flake over his head that should last till doom. + So near doth he seem that one feels him not dead in his tomb, + But crouching, alive and alert, with a warrior’s axe in his fist. + + Does he hear the old gods of the thunder? Can summer sun + Reach down to his pit? May his dog’s ears discern the rain + Hissing over the heather, or tell if the purple stain + From a cloud-shadow dims his grey stone? When the ponies run, + + Can he mark the dull drumming above of their unshod feet? + Does he chill when the snowdrift is clogged on the frozen ground? + Does he thrill to the shout of the stream, or the bay of the hound, + Or heed the sad curlew’s cry and the brown snipe bleating his bleat? + + Nay, for nothing lies under the grass but the broken stones + Or mayhap a primeval crock, or a fleck of red rust, + For the hero is earth of the earth, and its dust is his dust, + And his flesh is the flesh of the peat, and its bones are his + very bones. + + That master of men is ascended, for joy and for bane, + And life after life hath he lived and relinquished since then-- + In the heather and herbage and birds, in the beetles and foxes and men, + Each in their turn sprung of earth; each in their turn earth again. + + Yesterday clad with great thews, that builded a chieftain of might; + To-day where the milkwort and fern and the starry tormentil + Spread joy by the auburn beck and loveliness on the hill; + To-morrow a moorman’s fire at the fall of a winter’s night. + + And the aura, so azure clear, that is running above the red, + Was the glow of a savage heart imprisoned within the brand; + And the warmth on your hand was the sun on a stone-man’s hand + In the far off urgent days that were lived by the ancient dead. + + So mutable myriads wake to the ring of their morning chime; + So mutable myriads pass at the set of their final sun; + And only Matter remains--the august, the unchanging one-- + But no shape and no shadow of aught that she moulds on + the wheel of Time. + + And ye who would bring man his soul from a mystical matrix apart; + And ye who would lift up man’s life to a land beyond Matter’s ken, + Must proclaim how her rape overtook her, and wherefore, and when, + Ere we bend to your idols, or take these your fairyland + stories to heart. + + + + +IN A WOOD + + + There runs a pathway through the wood + Where lace the boughs and all is good. + The beech-boles don a robe of white + And gleam like ghosts at dayspring light, + When first the pure, canorous note + Throbs from a waking blackbird’s throat; + And down the long aisle dim + Another answers him. + + Often they met, the girl and boy + At this still hour; it was her joy + To share a kiss at peep of day + Before he took his working way. + Then light of heart the youngster went, + Leaving the little maid content + To seek her home near by + The forest boundary. + + But when at evening back he came + Where the beech-boles were all aflame + With ruddy fire along the glade, + She leapt from out some stealthy shade. + And dawdling once when sunset shone, + He cut their letters, one in one, + Upon an ancient stem, + And drew a heart around them. + + Then rose the red, accursed star, + And honour swept her boy afar; + While she, sore hindered and forlorn, + Still heard the blackbird sing at morn, + Still felt her heart with each sun sink, + Knowing he stood upon the brink, + Prayed on in hope and trust-- + Until the boy was dust. + + Life brought its anodyne of years, + To dull young griefs and dry young tears, + And Time, who knows not to stand still, + Sent a new lover up the hill. + A wife and mother now she goes + And plays with her first baby’s toes-- + The name in memory + Spoken without a sigh. + + And grey upon the beech’s rind, + Foregone, forgotten, out of mind, + Two woven letters may be told + When dawns are white and eves are gold; + Where his aubade the blackbird makes, + Or sleepy, sweet good-even takes; + And down the long aisle dim + Another answers him. + + + + +GHOSTIES AT THE WEDDING + + + Turn down a glass afore his place; + Draw up the dog-eared chair; + For though we shall not see his face, + I think he will be there + Our wedding day to share. + + Turn up the glass where she would be + And put a red rose there. + Her quick, grey eyes we cannot see, + But weren’t they everywhere, + And shall not they be here? + + Though them old blids are in the grave + And their good light’s gone out, + We’d sooner their kind ghosties have + Than all the living rout + As will be there no doubt. + + For some are dead as cannot die, + Some flown as cannot flee. + You still do fancy ’em near by. + ’Tis so with him and she, + At any rate to we. + + + + +DAWN WIND + + + Wind of the Dawn am I, and only She + Who knows the music of my every song + Can hear the whisper lingering along + Melodiously. + + Melodiously along the moonlit corn, + With silver fingering all my peaceful way, + I nightly wander towards another day + Soon to be born. + + Lo! from the East he comes; and I rejoice + And throbbing on into the ruddy light + Leap like a giant from the dying night + With organ voice. + + Along the rosy, misty, magic lands + That gleam above each dewy-scented lea + The children of the morning welcome me + And clap their hands. + + + + +DART + + + Elfin river, stealing from far-off granite cradle, + Musical the place names upon thy tidal water; + Tuckenhay and Greenway, Stoke Gabriel and Dittisham, + Sharpham and Duncannon, beside thy margin’s mirror-- + Sweet bells all a-chiming for native ear that knows them. + Rainbows in November, above the hillside footed, + Burn along the brake fern to set the auburn flaming + In transparent wonders of emerald and purple; + Till descends the hailstorm, with lash and scourge ice-knotted, + Hurtling through the coppice; from larch and cherry robbing + Amber dust and crimson. Chattering then and hissing, + And fretting first thy bosom into a sudden torment, + He draws his tatters round him and huddles off to seaward. + So the sun returning, by hover and by ripple, + Charms thy fleeting turmoil and wins thee back to laughter. + At the river ferry a little bell is calling; + And where the red earth arches, low on the blue above it, + Man and horses ploughing, herald a cloud behind them + Of the great, white sea-fowl that feed along the furrow. + Cobweb grey thine orchards, still the last apples ling’ring, + Topaz and ruby tangled upon the frosted lichen; + While broad, oaken hangers, a rapture for the sunset, + Meet the steadfast beech scrub, like red-hot fire aglowing, + Till their conflagrations, that blaze along the tide way, + Melt in flame and mingle their wonder with thy crystal. + Massy, rounded elm-trees roll out along the river, + And above, in billows far mightier and vaster, + Sail the light-laden clouds, that lift another forest + Bossed and round as they are and carry up their image, + Crested, crowned and golden, into the hyaline azure. + Pale that lifted glory and faint those sun-touched summits + Seen against the ardour of thine own earth-born elm-trees. + Down beside the reed-rond, pulse of the sea, a-weary, + Doth bring a wreath of flow’rs to mark the place of parting. + High above them glitters the wide weir’s silver apron + And the bright salmon leap, springing from salt to sweetness. + Farewell, worthy worship in all thy times and seasons; + By thy magic subtle of many a deep and rapid; + By thy sunny reaches and mystery of shadow; + Thy gentle hillsides green and dear delight of forests; + By the surprise of coombs, the hanging woods and dingles; + The happy days and sad; the murmur of thy voices; + Thy changing, winsome moods and little lovelinesses, + Thou art all Devon, and so incomparably England. + + + + +BY RUNDLESTONE + + + Her cottage solitary stood + Beside the granite Rundlestone-- + Lonely enough, but not so lone + That fortune missed it, ill and good. + + And faring by that way once more + I sought to see the friend of old, + And found an orange-lily’s gold + Still burning by her cottage door. + + There seemed no stir about the place; + No voice responded to my call; + I heard no tardy footsteps fall, + Nor welcomed her familiar face. + + From open window overhead + There came a dull and fitful flap, + Where the blind bulged and filled the gap + And billowed as the breezes sped. + + Empty the house, for she had gone + Full many a moon before that day, + Passing in steadfast faith away + To join her man beneath his stone. + + And now, when currents of the mind + Drift to my thought her vanished name, + I see the orange-lily flame + And hear the flapping of a blind. + + + + +A SONG TO SILVER EYES + + + Now that the dayspring surely comes + To wake a dreaming world once more + And light a thousand, thousand homes + With message from the Eastern shore; + Though dawn doth shiver sad and grey + And sombre clouds hide earth and sea, + My love shall be the sun to me + And glad’ my going through the day. + + When mournful darkness falls again + To sink old earth in slumber deep, + Save where the sisters, sorrow, pain, + Their sobbing, throbbing vigils keep; + Though faint my heart and dim my sight + Beneath the storm’s immensity, + My love shall be a star to me + And guide my going through the night. + + + + +ENOUGH + + + The larch, the birch and the eagle fern + And granite grey; + The cry of the kine and the song of the burn + Down Dartmoor way. + + A league-long tramp to a lifted stone + Under the sky; + Long lustral hours superbly alone-- + My soul and I. + + For you be the kingdoms that you list, + The seas you will; + And mine a white rainbow in the mist + On a heather hill. + + + + +SONG OF THE LARCHES + + + Not foliage, but emerald fires + Run through our legions in the spring, + Until their myriad points and spires + Are hidden past remembering. + Through hanging wood, by dell and dene + Again we ray ourselves in green. + + Not foliage, but aureate fires + Leap through our legions in the fall. + When autumn lights her saffron pyres + And the red sun sinks to a ball, + Like golden smoke across the grey + We fling our worn-out robes away. + + + + +A SONG + + + Shadows we are and shadows seek + And haunt the place where shadows move; + But I, who know thy blessed love, + Scorn shadowland and all things weak. + + Thou art alone reality; + The rest is dream within a dream. + My life knows nothing but doth seem + Save only thee, save only thee. + + Through noon of day and noon of night + There steals a golden thought and rare, + That still we breathe the self-same air, + Still glory in the same delight. + + That soul to soul and sense to sense-- + Our heavens woven into one-- + We’re shining, each the other’s sun, + Before we vanish and go hence. + + And if thy love should faint and die, + The deep, eternal after-glow + Shall burn for ever where I go-- + A cloud of light in my grey sky. + + + + +BUONARROTI’S “DAWN” + + + Spirit of twilight chill and upper air + Stretched desolate upon the rack of morn; + Thou hooded grief from mountain marble torn, + Gazing sad-lidded on the sky’s despair, + While the grey stars, like tears, descend forlorn; + Earth’s broken heart and man’s unsleeping care + Wait on thy pillow, crying to be borne-- + The only burden thou shalt ever bear. + No infant hope may dream on thy deep breast, + No little lip may soothe with infant might + Thy mouth’s immortal woe; for thee, oppressed, + Dawn dim epiphanies beyond all light, + Where man’s long agony and cry for rest + But torture dayspring into darker night. + + + + +A DARTMOOR STREAM + + + When Shakespeare wrote, you sang the song I hear, + And when Eliza reigned, your lint-white locks + Flashed where they flash to-day, among the rocks, + And showered their tresses twined into the brown pool clear. + + You danced and flung your foam upon the fern, + And sang along your green and granite ways + Even as now, in far-off Golden days, + When toiled the tinner men beside your heathery urn. + + Their ruins shrink beside you; foxglove springs + Above the roofless hut and smelting place; + No more their shadows fall upon your face, + Or mediæval chime of pick and hammer rings. + + But they were children in your lap beside + The early men of stone, whose lodges stand, + Like mushroom circles grey upon the land + Above the cotton-grass that marks your cradle wide. + + The bear has lapped your crystal on his rounds; + The stricken elk beside you dropped at last-- + A flint home in his shoulder, deep and fast-- + To smear your emerald moss from red of deathly wounds. + + And now, where once the wolf pack hunting went, + With ululation through the snowy nights, + Leap motor cars upon the highway heights, + And by their hooting horns the silent air is rent. + + All one to you: machine and beast and man, + And Time, that leads them off and brings them in; + You strive above all circumstance, to win + Your immemorial dream and predetermined plan. + + Unchanging, ever-changing, you possess + Your spirit quickened with an ardour still + Of workmanship--a patient, steadfast will + To rarer beauty yet and purer loveliness. + + + + +THE FALL + + + I’ll sing a song of kings and queens + And falling leaves and flying rain, + With Time to mow, and Fate who gleans + Their good and evil, boon and bane. + + I’ll sing a song of leaves and rains + And flying queens and falling kings, + Yet doubt not reason still remains + Snug hidden at the core of things. + + For every year an autumn brings + To round the root and fat the sheaves + And haply garner queens and kings + With falling rain and flying leaves. + + The rain is salt with tears of queens, + The leaves are red with blood of kings; + Unknowing what the mystery means, + We puzzle at these mighty things. + + For why great kings and rains should fall, + And wherefore leaves and queens should fly, + Or such rare wonders be at all, + You cannot tell; no more can I. + + Yet this we know: new leaves and rain + Anon shall crown the vernal scene, + But dust of dynasts not again + Blows up into a king or queen. + + + + +LAPWINGS + + + When white ice tinkles on the rutted roads + And icicles are bearding from the thatch; + When fens are froze, the lapwings make despatch + And all a-mewing come from their frost-bound abodes. + + With rush of wings upon the northern wind + Across the wintry blue, like sparks of gold + They flash into the valleys, hunger-bold, + And seek their comforting with doubtful human-kind. + + They love the lew, where yellow corn-stacks stand, + And puff their feathers in the pallid sun, + Go daintily about and peep and run, + Like pixy pilgrim folk of some far fairy-land. + + And near to bud-break, when young grey-eyed Spring, + Clad in the silver of an April rain, + Calls from the hill-tops, home they go again + And lift their kitten cries to give her welcoming. + + + + +TO AN OPAL + + + Wrapt in the radiant air’s own milky tress, + That’s less than cloud and more than cloudlessness, + Dawn-light and moon-light art thou; dreaming fire, + That dies along the west: a pulse; a pyre + Burning beneath the brow of some red eave; + The very staple that the salt winds weave + Into the vaporous east, or sobbing south, + When some grey hurricane sucks at the mouth + Of the dear, wild-haired sea, and with huge mirth + Rains back his rape of kisses on the earth. + The blooms of old-world flow’rs in ancient garths; + The dancing aureole of winter hearths; + The argent flame that haunts eternal snows; + Spray of the burn and petal of the rose; + Gleam of the dragon-fly or halcyon’s wing; + The dew-bedappled kirtle of the Spring; + The amber ripple of the kerning corn; + Splendour of fruit; where ripeness, like a morn, + Breaks through the bloom; the rainbow’s liquid light; + The northern dancers of an arctic night; + Nacre of pearl and foam upon the sea-- + All these, thou glimmering epitome + Of the world’s glory, throb and nestle here + Within the little compass of a tear. + + + + +JACK O’ LANTERN + + + Where the dim marrish oozes out and fills + The lap of the hills, + While drowsy gloom broods deep upon the wold, + They keep their place and take their trembling flight + And fringe the night + With pallid flowers of azure and faint gold. + + Along the darkness elfin lanterns flicker, + Now slow, now quicker-- + A pale corona set upon the mire. + They float and fly and leap and sink together + Upon one tether, + Where ancient fens excern their lambent fire. + + Thin, shaking, blue--spectres of flame--they travel + And break and ravel, + Then fade and flash again and fade again. + They wave their lamps upon the quag; they quiver + And soar and shiver + And flit, like little ghosts, above the plain. + + Born from the heavy breath of sleeping Earth, + In feeble mirth + They trail and slink and linger, rise and fall; + Then, shuddering before the chill of day, + Soon speed away, + Blow out their lights and vanish, one and all. + + + + +THE OLD ROAD + + + How short the road with you, my friend, + How short the road with you-- + The hills and vales, the heights and dales + And each unfolding view; + For side by side and foot by foot, + Though long that summer noon, + The twilight fell too soon, my friend, + The twilight fell too soon. + + How far the road alone, my friend, + How far the road alone; + The hills how steep, the dales how deep, + Their ancient magic flown; + For now the way, together trod, + You cannot tread again, + Is twenty miles of pain, my friend, + Is twenty miles of pain. + + Still winds the patient road, my friend; + Still winds the patient road, + Whereon I go, now high, now low, + With my appointed load; + And glories shared I felt were gone + For ever when you past, + Have brought you back at last, my friend, + Have brought you back at last. + + + + +THE DOUBTFUL ONES + + + They lie about, the naughty folk, a-mingling with the rest, + And just so green the grave-grass on their mounds as on the best; + For Nature’s poor at morals, and to her they’re all the same, + With their virtues no great matter and their vices no great shame. + Tom White bides there: they say he slew his first to wed another, + And that’s the hill that hides Jack Ford, as robbed his own + grandmother. + This lump of earth, where dandelions be keeping such a state, + Is Katherine Jay’s, the baby’s friend, once known as “cruel Kate.” + They dug up thirteen childer in her garden, so ’tis said; + And when they ran the creature down, she’d cut her evil thread. + Near by we teeled Bart. Coombstock--one as took his own life too: + He hanged hisself at seventy-three, though why for no man knew. + And Martin Cobley, in a pit beside they godly Foxes, + Did six months of his middle time for breaking the alms boxes. + Where yonder row of Caunters lie--a famed and far-spread clan-- + Have crept their black sheep, Rupert, him once called “the gentleman.” + A reckless love-hunter was he, and made an end of life + When Noah Bassett shot him dead for playing with his wife. + Poor Nelly Dingle, buried by the lich-gate on the left, + Burned six good stacks of wheat the night they flung her out for theft; + And they small hillocks, down-along, of babies side by side, + Be “chrisomers,” as never got baptised afore they died, + There do they rest--the doubtful ones--and sleep so sweet and sound + As any proper saint of God that ever went to ground; + But when the graves be opened and they birds begin to sing-- + Lord! Won’t it be a funny dish to set before the King! + + + + +LITANY TO PAN + + + By the abortions of the teeming Spring, + By Summer’s starved and withered offering, + By Autumn’s stricken hope and Winter’s sting, + Oh, hear! + + By the ichneumon on the writhing worm, + By the swift, far-flung poison of the germ, + By soft and foul brought out of hard and firm, + Oh, hear! + + By the fierce battle under every blade, + By the etiolation of the shade, + By drought and thirst and things undone half made, + Oh, hear! + + By all the horrors of re-quickened dust, + By the eternal waste of baffled lust, + By mildews and by cankers and by rust, + Oh, hear! + + By the fierce scythe of Spring upon the wold, + By the dead eaning mother in the fold, + By stillborn, stricken young and tortured old, + Oh, hear! + + By fading eyes pecked from a dying head, + By the hot mouthful of a thing not dead, + By all thy bleeding, struggling, shrieking red, + Oh, hear! + + By all the agonies of all the past, + By earth’s cold dust and ashes at the last, + By her return to the unconscious vast, + Oh, hear! + + + + +A SONG + + + How I have lived while others slept, + With the white moon and thee! + Heaven-high my adoration leapt + Sea-deep my ecstasy. + + And now one memory I keep + Till life and I shall part: + She loved me well enough to sleep + In peace upon my heart. + + + + +CHERRYBROOK + + + Far more than others feel or see; + Far more than others hear or know, + Awakes and lives and throbs for me + When by the Cherrybrook I go. + + For others, Bellevor’s green side + And yellow furzes burning bright; + Grouse heather, foaming like a tide, + And stones that dance, or drowse in light. + + For others, just a singing stream + Of flashing stickles, cherry red, + That mirrors in her breast the beam, + Like golden beads upon a thread. + + For me, a river of regret + In every reach so still and clear-- + A streamlet, where I follow yet + The Shadow of a brother dear. + + I see his trout-rod catch the sun; + I hear the music of his reel; + Knowing his kindly days are done, + His good life gone beyond appeal. + + Now other rods are twinkling high; + But the grey shape I used to bless, + Lacking, the stream runs lonely by + And Cherrybrook’s an emptiness. + + + + +THE HUNTER’S MOON + + + October day drifts into night and now, + Globing red gold upon a naked bough, + The Hunter’s Moon climbs through a ragged larch, + Swings out on Heaven and sweeps her steadfast arch + Through cloudrack dim; while underneath there lie + The darkling forests and the floods, and fly + Leaves from the summer woods. They tinkle down + Russet and sere, etiolate and brown, + Blood-red and scarlet, auburn, silver, grey-- + Good millions, bearing wherewithal to pay + Debt of the trees. The busy earthworms cold + Draw in the yearly dues to rich the mould, + Storing what tree-tops earned; and thus full round + The cycle spins; for sure the sodden ground + Is but a bank, that hoards to give again, + Wherein the beetle and the mole and rain + Balance their books beneath the Hunter’s Moon, + While Nature budgets for another June. + + + + +VOICES + + +I + + Harken, harken, neighbour, harken! + There be little childer jangling, + There be childer up-long wrangling + By the thorn-tree in the wood. + Nay, them noises you are hearing, + Out of yonder blue-bell clearing, + Are the wild cat’s kitlings playing, + While their mother’s hunting food. + + +II + + Harken, harken, neighbour, harken! + There’s the pixy bells a-ringing, + And the dinky pixies singing + Through the curtain of the rain. + Nay, ’tis but a flock of plover-- + Golden plover now come over, + From the places of their summer, + To their winter home again. + + +III + + Harken, harken, neighbour, harken! + There’s some poor, unhappy devil + Homing drunk after a revel, + Drowned in snow and lost in night. + Nay, that creepy, crawly yowling + Be red fox up over howling, + Pads acold and belly empty, + Hunger-starven for a bite. + + +IV + + Harken, harken, neighbour, harken! + To the sound of woman’s wailing-- + A sad woman, quailing, railing, + Like the sob of wind-swept leaves. + Nay, that ban’t no cry of woman, + Nor the moan of any human: + ’Tis the murmur of the hill-tops + And “the calling of the cleaves.” + + + + +WIND OF THE WEST + + + I bear the banner of the sun at noon; + I light the million jewelled lamps of June; + I weave, from sky and purple sea below, + The rosy cradle where a baby moon + Rocks in the after-glow. + + Awake ye bells, shine out ye stars of Spring; + And let the music of the wild wood ring; + Deck my dear harp anew with golden green-- + My ancient forest harp, whereon I sing + Of all this budding scene. + + A song of rainbows gleaming on the rain; + Of sap and scent and sunlight come again; + Of the young laughing year’s unmeasured mirth; + Of quickened Nature’s mother-pang, whose pain + Forewent this vernal birth. + + + + +THE LOVER AND THE WIND + + + “Wind of the South with the wild, wet mouth, + Cease from thy wailing and fury of railing; + Whisper to me in my vigils of pain + That soon I shall meet her, + And soon I shall greet her, + And thrill with the passion of kisses again. + + “Wind of the South with the wild, wet mouth, + Silence thy raving and hark to my craving; + Echo a hope through my vigils of pain. + I hunger to hold her, + I throb to enfold her + And melt in the fire of her body again.” + + “Suffering man, since thy race began + I have been weeping and I have been keeping + A myriad vigils of sorrow and pain. + No more shalt thou meet her, + No more shalt thou greet her, + Or thrill with the passion of kisses again. + + “Suffering man, the arc of thy span + To-morrow is bounded and finished and rounded. + Thou shalt forget all thy vigils of pain, + Nor hunger to hold her, + Nor throb to enfold her, + Nor cry for the fire of her body again.” + + + + +A SONG + + + The red’s in the heather, the gold’s on the fern-- + Heigho! Heigho! + A nip to the wind and the year at the turn-- + Heigho, Johnny! + + The aglet and rowan, shine bright on the bough-- + Heigho! Heigho! + But seedtime, or harvest be one to him now-- + Heigho, Johnny! + + All one the wild weather, the wind and the rain-- + Heigho! Heigho! + For she that made summer will not come again-- + Heigho, Johnny! + + Was left in the lurch at a young woman’s whim-- + Heigho! Heigho! + Who cared not a cuss for the ruin of him-- + Heigho, Johnny! + + Oh, little we mind what the seasons may bring-- + Heigho! Heigho! + When hearts are a winter without any spring-- + Heigho, Johnny! + + + + +THE GRAVE OF KEATS + + +I + + Where silver swathes of newly fallen hay + Fling up their incense to the Roman sun; + Where violets spread their dusky leaves and run + In a dim ripple, and a glittering bay + Lifts overhead his living wreath; where day + Burns fierce upon his endless night and none + Can whisper to him of the thing he won, + Love-starved young Keats hath cast his gift of clay. + And still the little marble makes a moan + Under the scented shade; one nightingale + With many a meek and mourning monotone + Throbs of his sorrow; sings how oft men fail + And leave their dearest light-bringers alone + To shine unseen, and all unfriended pale. + + +II + + Oh, leave the lyre upon his humble stone, + The rest erase; if Keats were come again, + The quickest he to blot this cry of pain, + The first to take a sorrowing world’s atone. + ’Tis not the high magistral way to moan + When a mean present leaps and sweeps amain + Athwart the prophets’ vision; not one groan + Escapes their souls, and lingers not one strain. + They answer to their ideals; their good + Outshines all flare and glare of futile marts. + They stand beside their altars while the flood + Ephemeral rolls on and roars and parts. + It shall not chill a poet’s golden blood; + It cannot drown the masters’ mighty hearts. + + + + +TIGER + + + _To the barking of the monkeys, to the shrieking of the birds; + To the bellow of the bison and stampeding of the herds; + At fiery edge of sunset, from the jungle to the wold, + Death stalks in shining ebony and orange-tawny gold._ + + He slouched with loose, low shamble from the glade, + And as he flung his feet along the track, + Machine-like glided each great shoulder-blade + Under his pelt. He stopped and scratched his back + Against a stump; then sat a little while, + Curling his ring-straked tail around his paws, + Yawning with a gigantic, sleepy smile + That showed the ruddy gulf between his jaws. + The fangs were white and sound, for he was young-- + A male of four full years, in all his pride, + Perfect, lean, knit of rubber and steel, and strung + With sinews taut; content and satisfied, + Since the twice five great, crooked daggers set + Deep in his awful pads had never failed + To win his belly all it wanted yet-- + A tiger who unfailingly prevailed. + And no beast kinglier than himself he knew, + For he had tracked and hunted, caught and slain + All that his fellow-tigers caught and slew, + Though horns might miss by inches eye and brain. + A forthright beast and huge, his yellow eyes + Glowered steadfast into life; he felt no ill + Of heart or conscience, or the pang that flies + Through higher mammals, plagued with choice of will + And all the handicaps of consciousness. + He knew not right nor wrong; no evil thought + Sullied his wits; his task no more or less + Than faithfully to do all he was taught. + While the dread smeech and terror of his breath + Down a hot wind at dusk, to fearful flocks + Threatened the unknown, unnamed horror, death, + And sent them hurtling to the plains and rocks, + To him they stood for life and all it meant + Of being--food and sport and work and play, + Love and prosperity and full content, + With strength to solve the problems of each day. + + His brain began to brood and meditate, + Thinking on action, while the red sun set, + For he had come from far with a new mate + To a new valley. She was sleeping yet + In the bamboos behind him, great with young, + Where prickly cactus hemmed the lair and palm + Over their couch its sombre frondage hung. + There would she bide a little safe from harm, + While he must go afield and do his part + And fetch a tender antelope, or goat, + To win her praise and glad her weary heart + With a hot supper for a hungry throat. + He pondered now within his broad, flat skull, + Then stretched and with his lifted nose and ear + Winnowed the silence of the evening lull + To learn if grass-eaters were stirring near; + When down the wind, though not a lizard ran + And no hoof thudded on the dusty bent, + He smelt a something fragrant and began + To twitch his nostrils at the ravishment. + A subtle scent and new! His whiskers pricked; + His body huddled flat and seemed to shrink; + His great nape bristled up; his jowl he licked; + Then, like a banded snake, began to sink + And trickle through the spear grass. By a stone + He sudden lifted, then he set and stilled, + While footfall of some game, that went alone, + Came innocently pattering, to be killed. + Couchant, like a set trap, with head out-thrust, + The hunter crouched, quivering his black tail-tip, + Until it drew a fan upon the dust + Behind him. Then his jaws began to drip, + As though a gargoyle, where red lichens grew, + Was dribbling. Now the thing that he had heard + Approached--a little creature, strange and new-- + That went not on four feet, nor yet a bird. + He strung himself to spring, while at a trot, + The Indian runner on his lonely road + Jogged forward, dreaming of a supper-pot. + Bound was he for a village, where abode + One, passing fair, the runner’s master meant + To wed ere long--a radiant maid to whom, + By fleet-foot messenger, the suitor sent + Two poems of his own writing. + + Then the gloom, + Where a first firefly winked her golden spark + Upon the deepening purple, broke and tore-- + The twilight stillness ended on a stark, + Harsh, grating, deep-mouthed, solitary roar, + Hollow as death; while from his secret place + The tiger loosed the lightning of his thighs, + Leapt on the man and with unwitting grace + Struck him to instant nothing. Levin flies + Less merciful. A huddled, crumpled clout, + Brown, oozing red, dissolved beneath the mass + Of living teeth and brawn. The brains were out; + Head, a cracked egg-shell leaking on the grass. + Thus in a heap to mother earth they came, + Both quick and dead; and then the great cat sought + His grim, familiar, ghastly after-game; + But he had hit too hard and spoiled his sport. + He drew and coaxed with hooked and playful paws, + Hoping to find the life had not quite gone, + And moved by those infernal, feline laws, + That made him frolic when his work was done. + For oft his perishing food would feebly strive, + Driven by life’s undying hope, and led + To struggle still from death while yet alive; + But his first man the tiger found was dead. + + And when the conqueror tasted, his rough tongue + Thrilled a new, joyous lust into his brain, + For the soft, furless stuff his palate stung + With mad, delicious twang--oft, oft again + Would he smell up the wind for such another. + He hoped the dainty creatures went in packs, + And that his prey had kids and many a brother + To steal at cool of evening on his tracks. + He gaped and gripped the mangled clod of earth + Under its ribs, heaved up a muzzle white, + Sounded a grunt, that seemed akin to mirth, + And bore his dripping coolie out of sight. + So to his mate, and as the cross-cut saws + Bite upon teak with backward, forward hiss, + He purred, then dropped the banquet from his jaws + And woke the tigress with a bloody kiss. + Eyes shut, heads sideway, cheek by cheek they ate, + To sound of squash and gulch and cracking bone, + Deciding swiftly, as they fed, the fate + Of the two love songs. They were deftly sewn + Within the compass of a gold-cloth bag, + Tied with a silken cord, stamped with a seal. + The tiger crunched and gulped the sodden rag + With all the other mysteries of his meal. + For, while a poem himself, he was no poet, + Being devoid of vision, wit, or ruth; + But many who live poetry, never know it + And would be much surprised to learn the truth. + + Sated at last, they sauntered forth to find + A water-hole; but as they washed their jowls + And cleaned their whiskers, sudden on the wind + Broke din of brass and drums and human howls. + For there had gone another runner by, + And smelt the blood and seen the reeking trail, + And flown, and shouted “Bagh!” and raised the cry + That tiger were again upon the vale. + From jungle edge they peered and torches red + Turned each bewildered eye into a gem + Of glinting emerald--then sudden dread + Awoke at flash of fire, unknown to them. + Fear touched their primitive hearts; they ran and roared, + Awakening old echoes down the glade; + Shoulder to shoulder from the gleam abhorred + They padded, wondering to be afraid. + Until no blink of the accursed thing + Tortured the night, they galloped, sweating hot, + Then, all unknowing what the day would bring, + They stopped and sulked and snarled; and so forgot. + Anon they sleep, nor guess the dawn shall see, + Of hunters white and beaters brown, some score + Surround them in a circle steadfastly, + To set the cosmos on its feet once more. + They sleep, nor dream the pangs of “dum-dum” lead + That wait on sunrise, when they two shall feel + All they have measured to uncounted dead, + And suffer sentences without appeal. + Upon their mighty necks will dance the feet + Of the unpelted things that lay them low; + For of the fruit forbidden did they eat + And both must go where the bad tigers go. + + _To the trumpeting of elephants and blaze of morning light, + To the nosing rifle barrels, to the stinking of cordite, + With a crash and smash and struggle and a yell their tale is told; + Death blots the shining ebony and orange-tawny gold._ + + + + +THE PUDDLE + + + I cursed the puddle when I found + Unseeing I had walked therein, + Forgetting the uneven ground, + Because my eyes + Were on the skies, + To glean their glory and to win + The sunset’s trembling ecstasies. + + And then I marked the puddle’s face, + When still and quiet grown again, + Was but concerned, as I, to trace + The wonder spread + Above its head, + And mark and mirror and contain + The gold and purple, rose and red. + + + + +VISION + + + There have been seers of olden time who said, + When dreaming men are rapt into the state + Where only shadow people congregate, + That never may they see the faces of their dead. + + But I have seen the faces I have lost, + And none so clear and none so shadowless + In all that moonshine dance and frolic stress + Of dream futility, as some I loved the most. + + Not as I knew him last my brother stood, + A man upon whose kindly face a stain + Lay in the letters of life’s care and pain; + But as a little lad, when all the world was good. + + High in the darkness of a pine, elate + About our long-forgotten forest play, + I hung, where he had found a squirrel’s dray: + For I was twelve again, and he was only eight. + + I saw his boyhood’s look, as bright and fair + As ever shone from huddle of a dream; + Reality’s own self shall never seem + More real than his young laugh and flaxen, Saxon hair. + + And waking old, I blessed the memory + Of my child-brother’s unforgotten face, + Thanking, as it had been a deed of grace, + The tenderness of dreams that brought him back to me. + + + + +IN GALLIPOLI + + + There is a fold of lion-coloured earth, + With stony feet in the Ægean blue, + Whereon of old dwelt loneliness and dearth + Sun-scorched and desolate; and when there flew + The winds of winter in those dreary aisles + Of crag and cliff, a whirling snow-wreath bound + The foreheads of the mountains, and their miles + Of frowning precipice and scarp were wound + With stilly white, that peered through brooding mist profound. + + But now the myrtle and the rosemary, + The mastic and the rue, the scented thyme + With fragrant fingers gladdening the grey, + Shall kindle on a desert grown sublime. + Henceforth that haggard land doth guard and hold + The treasure of a sovereign nation’s womb-- + Her fame, her worth, her pride, her purest gold. + Oh, call ye not the sleeping place a tomb + That lifts to heaven’s light such everlasting bloom. + + They stretch, now high, now low, the little scars + Upon the rugged pelt of herb and stone; + Above them sparkle bells and buds and stars + Young Spring hath from her emerald kirtle thrown. + Asphodel, crocus and anemone + With silver, azure, crimson once again + Ray all that earth, and from the murmuring sea + Come winds to flash the leaves on shore and plain + Where evermore our dead--our radiant dead shall reign. + + Imperishable as the mountain height + That marks their place afar, their numbers shine, + Who with the first-fruits of a joyful might + To human liberty another shrine + Here sanctified; nor vainly have they sped + That made this desert dearer far than home, + And left one sanctuary more to tread + For England, whose memorial pathways roam + Beside her hero sons, beneath the field and foam. + + + + +THEN AND NOW + + + When I was young and leapt into the Spring-- + An eager, quick-eyed, all-inquiring thing-- + I hunted wood and valley, sea and shore + Yet knew not how to feel the wonders that I saw. + + Now am I old and creep into the Spring-- + A grey-haired, dim-eyed, still inquiring thing. + By ancient ways, a shadow, still I steal, + Yet know not how to see the wonders that I feel. + + Come Youth again, while to another Spring + My memories the old adventure bring. + Wonder and wander yet once more with me. + I’ll teach you how to feel, and you my eyes shall be. + + + + +VIGIL + + + There is a glen beneath a lonely hill, + Where the deep tangles of the red brake fern + Huddle to death and beautifully burn, + While maiden birches flame along the sunset still. + + Like morning lamps they fade; their gold expires + Among the silvery shadows of each stem. + Delicious light gently departs from them + Where winter bloweth out the autumn’s final fires. + + Furzes, all agate-budded for the spring, + Hedge round about the coomb and, higher still, + A mist of naked branches hides the hill, + And pines bring warmth and scent and dusky sheltering. + + How oft have I within this vernal wood + Watched the green mantle and the sweet sap mount. + Trees are mine own familiars; them I count + Among the changeless hearts that make my chiefest good. + + How often, when the first of blossoms come, + Do I behold the opening of their eyes. + Mine is the worship; theirs the shy surprise + That I so well should know each punctual haunt and home. + + Here have I watched full many a night from far + Like lover shadowy, ere set of sun, + Dark-eyed steal hither, and when day was done, + Mist meet the gentle moon; dew, the eternal star. + + Once more the stroke of every madcap wind + Doth shake the bough and dash the ripe fruit down, + Or shower red leaves and berries for a crown, + October’s stormy hair to glorify and bind. + + Again I see; again I sigh to see + The fading, flaming year sink to her end, + Another summer--sure another friend-- + Decline and die and pass with music solemnly. + + Farewell, ye happy, rainbow-winged hours; + The autumn’s dew and bitter, silver breath + Shall freeze your rosy feet, and strike to death + Your spirits where ye drowse amid the withered flowers. + + Farewell ye domes and canopies of June + Raining upon the earth in red and gold; + Hiding the sodden bosom of the wold; + Flying like little ghosts, beneath the hunter’s moon. + + Beside the passing year my watch I keep + And mark the sad-eyed gloamings steal away, + And feel the low and lemon light of day + Fade, like an aching care, upon the fringe of sleep. + + + + +DARTMOOR NIGHT + + + Now twilight spreads her cool and amber plume, + Descending on the solitudes until + All detail dies: the valley and the hill + Together darkling roll and merge into the gloom. + + Faints the far emerald west and day is done; + White Venus, throbbing on the dusky gold, + Swings out her lamp above the weald and wold, + While little, earth-born flames make answer one by one. + + A child upon her mighty mother’s breast, + Earth cuddles in the bosom of old Night, + Who, gathering coomb and woodland, heath and height, + Opens her dewy wings to hide their dreamless rest. + + The mists are trailing grey by watersmeet, + Night-hidden in the forest far below, + And where their pearly-paven vapours flow, + The Huntress upward steals to find her starry seat. + + Her waxing splendours over moss and mire + Flood fen and barrow, reeve and pool and burn, + The lone, high tors, the tracks that wind and turn + Where the quartz crystal shines with dim and tremulous fire. + + She marks the stone-man’s lodges empty lie; + The broken folds, the tinner’s delving place; + She lights the cairn, the cross, the faltering trace + Of bygone dead who homed in this immensity. + + From cottage window fades the ruby gem + And glimmer moonbeams only; while the moon, + Mounting to heaven upon her silver shoon, + A sovereign sceptre holds and wears the diadem. + + O Queen of sleep and silence, thou shalt reign, + With lustral glory poured to soothe and bless + The least small life in all the wilderness, + Till morning stars awake and sing the dawn again. + + + + +THE FRUIT OF THE TREE + + + The seraphim, beneath their burning blades, + Moved in a wave of light; while overhead + Gleamed the pale moon, a ghost behind the tongues + Of all those flaming swords; and rearward crept + The brutes of Paradise--the tiger, ounce, + The leopard and the minions of the night. + Stealthy they stalked, with growls that showed the fang, + While in a broken thread of fiery beads, + Golden and green and ruby, through the dark, + Fierce glowed their eyes behind that angel host. + And now they roared for mingled grief and fear, + Because, before the moving seraphim, + Flung out for ever from the dingles deep + And all those pleasant places of sweet shade + Beside the rivers and beneath the trees, + Two, whom the great cats loved, were driven forth. + Bewildered and disgraced, the primal pair, + Now glimmering with moonlight on their heads + And streaks of flickered gold that splashed along + Their thighs and backs, reflected from the swords, + Together went. Hand clasped in hand they moved + Before the marching angels, till at last + The confines of the only home they knew + Were reached and the soft herbage made an end. + Over their heads the tracery of trees + Ceased, and the naked moon among her stars + Hung in the nightly sky and threw a light, + Cold as grey ashes, on the earth beneath. + Starkly the desert struck upon their toes + With harsh and flinty welcome; Eve’s right foot, + Set down upon a thistle, cried to her + Of a new grief; she moaned in pain, and he, + Adam, with tenderness bent down to it + And licked the blood that sparkled on her skin + In drops the moonlight robbed of sanguine stain + And turned to bright, black pearls. Thus driven forth + Were they for their transgression, and the guard + Took open order on the fringe of Eden, + Against whose frontier dark the sentinels + Stood silently, lit by their burning swords, + To hold the garden precincts; while between + Each seraph and his neighbour still peeped out + The creatures of the earth and howled farewell + To those white things that had befriended them, + And taught their cubs to play in Paradise. + They crouched and lashed their tails and shook the night + That Eve and Adam to the wilderness + Should pass away without one lynx or pard + To purr beside them. All would have rushed forth + But that the ring of fire struck on their hearts + And sent them snarling back. For there had been + A precious bond, a close and curious link + Twixt Adam and his partner and the brutes-- + A harmony of happiness and peace + Now vanished from the earth. But then, indeed, + The first man and his woman stood so near + To all their neighbours, sharing their delights + And moving in that new-made world so nigh + To beast and bird and saurian, that they-- + The conscious creatures--knowing little more + Than woodland wisdom shared with all the rest, + Guessed not the gap between. Had ape or sloth + Broke heavenly ordinance and ate the Fruit, + Then had they been the lords of good and ill, + And haply ruled the kingdoms of the earth + With kinder wit than man. Yet it fell out + The creatures in the image of their God + Won the beasts’ homage by their shapes upright, + Yet shared their subjects’ ignorance. The stag, + The tawny bear, the elephant, the wolf, + The monkey folk and all the greater fowls, + Composed their theme and filled their human minds + With fascination. And betwixt themselves, + When Adam spoke to Eve or she to him, + Their converse was abrupt and cynical, + Untinged by human ruth, or tender care + Each for the other’s inner happiness. + And when the shadows lengthened and their God + Walked for awhile between them through the cool + Of dewy evenings, in their simple way, + They chattered to Him of the names they gave + Unto the great gier-eagle on the crag, + Or hippo, with his mighty nose asnort + Above the mud of Paradise. And He + Would listen with celestial gravity + And go His way again. The couple lacked + Much food for thought; indeed, they never thought; + For what had they to think about beside + The living present and the daily joy + Of food and drink and sleep, and playtime shared + With lesser things as beautiful as they? + Thus did they live through days not fuller fraught + With care and vision of to-morrow’s dawn + Than their companions of the hoof and pad + And claw and shining wing. Their mingled life + Was neither more complete nor beautiful + Than that of the striped tiger and his mate, + Who dwelt together in a porphyry den + A stone’s throw from the holt that Adam wove + Of living boughs and green wood broken down + Wherein to sleep by Eve. The very birds-- + The warbler and the chaffinch and the wren, + Or the red mouse that loved the seeding grass-- + Built snugger homes than they; and they would laugh + And wonder how the little, busy things, + Having no hands, could weave so close and true; + Or how the spider lined her nest with silk + To hold her pearly eggs. And when they slept + They dreamed of good to-morrows and no more, + Such as the children dream. + + Then came to them + The scorching breath of knowledge, and their jest: + To make God laugh when He should come and see + Them clad with leaves and flowers, as their friends + Were clothed with pelt and feathers--their poor jest, + When they perceived them naked, brought them down + And cast them out into another world + Beyond the joys of Eden. + + That first night + Their incipient spirits wept some mournful while, + Till the moon sank upon a dreary rim + Of desolation and they watched the stars + Sink to earth’s edge and vanish one by one, + Like tears that stole adown night’s cheek; and then + They turned to look again where Paradise + Lay in a purple shadow on the east + Under her palms and mountains; while along + Those far-flung boundaries dim sparks of fire + Twinkled to mark the soldier angels stand. + Adam at last, in hollow of a dune, + Whose horrent hair along its crest sprang up + In withered bents, a place of shelter found + Where the night wind came not; and there the man + His limping partner brought, then laid her down + To sleep till day; but it was keen and chill + And, finding that Eve slumbered, Adam came + As close as he well might to warm his blood + And draw a little of her golden mane + About his frozen bosom. + + Thus they slept, + Until there broke on earth another day, + Whose light unwitting touched a wondrous sight + More pregnant and more precious to the world + Than Earth until that dayspring hour had known. + For when young Eve awakened, from her eyes + Flashed a new glory, something that till now + Had never trembled in those azure deeps; + And, with her arms about her dreaming man, + She called to him, and he arose to see + A change in her fair face, the which he read + In light of his own quickening. Her voice + Proclaimed a new evangel from her heart, + And full upon the thin and desert air + Poured in the ear of Adam such sweet words + That he forgot his hunger and his grief + And looked at her, the dew in her bright hair, + As subject on a queen. + + “My love!” she cried; + And since the word had never till that dawn + Set the air singing, he forgot all else + And listened open-mouthed. “My own true love, + Dost thou not feel within thy bosom’s home + A strange new spirit, born for me and thee? + Dost thou not pant with such a joy that never, + Until this daybreak on the wilderness, + Thy soul hath throbbed to feel? In that sharp grief, + While the white seraphim did drive us out, + I felt the first faint thrill that fought the grief, + And when you bent and licked my wounded foot, + Even then there flashed to me a sudden bliss + That ministered the pain!” + + “And I,” said he, + “If I had felt as now I feel--on fire + With tender adoration for my Eve-- + Oh, then, I never should have played the coward + And flung the blame on you, my better part, + But taken it myself. This light within, + That burns far brighter than the eastern sky, + Doth show how mean and vile and base a thing + I did to bleat that thou hadst tempted me; + For now I grow to something greater far, + More wise and more discerning than before + I ate the Fruit of the Tree. O would that I + Had claimed the punishment, as meet I should, + And been cast out and suffered happily + Knowing that thou wert safe in Paradise; + For then had I but laughed at thorns and flint + And the cold night beneath the setting stars, + Knowing my Eve safe in our little lair.” + “Man, man!” she answered, “what our lair to me, + And what all Eden and the golden sun, + Without my Adam? What the crystal founts + And aubade of the birds in misty denes? + And what the morning mellowness of fruits, + Or subtle, magic fragrance born by night + From moony blossoms, that obeyed the moon + And oped, all others shutting? Eden’s self + Had been this ugly desert spread for Eve + Without thee; but beside thee, close and close, + Near as thy shadow, then these antres vast + And dreary vague of lion-coloured dust + Is paradise enough. For we have won + From that thrice-blessed Fruit a dearer thing + Than all the blossomy paths of Paradise + Knew how to offer. Through the taste of it + We are become above the cherubim, + Who never feel, beneath the rainbow light + That dreams upon their bosoms, what a man + And woman feel when love unveils their eyes.” + “We must tell God,” said Adam. “When He knows + What hides within the amethystine rind + Of that sweet globe forbidden, then will He + Make haste to eat of it Himself, and so, + Touched by ineffable and sacred love, + Seek us, all naked in the desert sand, + With pity on His awful brow. And then + Us will He soon forgive, for if He eats, + A tender, lambent flame of gentle ruth + Must burn within His everlasting Heart + And crown Him with pure mercy.” Thus the man; + And then the woman’s voice throbbed cheerfully. + “Him will we tell how this that He denied + Has lifted us above all lesser life + And made us wiser than the seraphim, + Who drove me forth so roughly that they scorched + My shoulder with their swords. But this I know: + If Michael and his winged ones had ate + From that kind fruit, as you and I did eat, + A gentle pity would have taught them sheathe + Their brands and made them weep to do us harm. + For what to them were we but beings twain, + No better than the silly, little apes + That would not come to us from out the wood + Until I tempted them with sugary fruits + And almonds that they loved? But now, but now + Are we above all creatures lifted up + And wedded into one--aye, wedded so + That life for me is Adam, and for him + Nothing but Eve. Let that our Maker hear, + And when He learns what now thou art to me + And I to thee, and what this lifeless dust + And shadeless solitude do seem to be + With thy brown hand in mine, then will He know + That we, His creatures, now have haply found + A dearer and more precious Paradise + Than all the hosts of Heaven yet thought upon. + Him we must tell, and from our wondrous cup + He too shall drink, that He, our God, may know + The blessed taste of mercy.” + + “I will bid + The seraphim to pray to Him for mates!” + Cried Adam, in a fervour that all Heaven + Should share the knowledge dazzling. “Yea, let Him + Cast down his hosts in slumber and withdraw + A woman angel from each winged side, + So that they cast away their writhing swords + Far from them and rejoice, as we rejoice, + To share a life with dearer life than theirs.” + They spurred each other on, and laughed to think + Of the divine delight when God should hear + Their wondrous rede; and then together turned + Where Paradise, like a low silver cloud, + Fretted the dawn. But now to them there flew + Out of the waxing sky a messenger, + Who bade them keep their faces to the void + And nevermore approach the sinless paths + Their innocent feet had trod before they fell. + “Wisdom hath spoken, and it is decreed”-- + With unimpassioned voice the angel spoke-- + “That now ye thieves of wisdom through your span + Shall suffer first and bear the eternal fruit + Of your unnatural sin. And when the years + Have worn and withered you and broke you down, + Since Time hath now dominion over you, + Then shall you die and turn again to dust + From which the Almighty, in too generous mood, + Did lift you up. Begone--your way lies there! + And know that since the parents’ sin must be + On children visited for evermore, + Ye shall have seed and bring the race of man + Upon this earth to taste the bitter drink + That ye have brewed for every human lip.” + “But we have much to tell our God!” cried Eve; + While he, the servant of Omnipotence, + With level tones indifferent, broke to them + That never more their Maker should they see. + Thereon he spread his wings, and in the light + Of the red morning opened, petal-wise, + His gorgeous pinions, like a new-born flower + All opal tinted. So he flew away, + And soon was lost to sight upon the clouds + That day had fringed with fire. + + A little while + The pair stood very silent; then young Eve, + Mother of all men, from her wide blue eyes + Shaking the tear, that like a diamond hung + One moment on her lashes, smiled and set + Her arms about our primal father’s neck. + “Be of good cheer; we have each other still, + My own brave heart!” said she; “and what this death + Shall prove, concerning which the angel spake, + We know not and we fear not; for ’tis sure + That death can never be so strong, or good, + Or radiant and enduring and supreme + As love, that we have won to light our way + And guide us through all deserts and all griefs. + And since He will not let us speak to Him, + Or tell Him of our treasure, it shall flow + For babes and sucklings. With their mother’s milk + I’ll teach my little children how to love.” + + + + +WHERE MY TREASURE IS + + + Eternal Mother, when my race is run, + Will that I pass beneath the risen sun, + Suffer my sight to dim upon some spot + That changes not. + + Let my last pillow be the land I love + With fair infinity of blue above; + The roaming shadow of a silver cloud, + My only shroud. + + A little lark above the morning star, + Shall shrill the tidings of my end afar; + The muffled music of a lone sheep-bell + Shall be my knell. + + And where stone heroes trod the Moor of old; + Where ancient wolf howled round a granite fold; + Hide thou, beneath the heather’s new-born light, + My endless night. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + +Some long lines of poetry have been rewrapped in this text edition. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78234 *** diff --git a/78234-h/78234-h.htm b/78234-h/78234-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..640dd0d --- /dev/null +++ b/78234-h/78234-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3486 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no,date=no,address=no,email=no,url=no"> + <title> + As the wind blows | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; +} + +.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} +.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +blockquote { + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} + + +/* Poetry */ + +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +.ph1 { + text-align: center; + font-size: xx-large; + font-weight: bold; +} + + +.x-ebookmaker .ep6 {margin-top: 6em;} + +li { margin-top: 0.25em; margin-bottom:0; line-height: 1.2em; } + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2.0em;} +.poetry .indent4 {text-indent: -1.0em;} +.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0.0em;} +.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1.0em;} +.poetry .indent10 {text-indent: 2.0em;} +.poetry .indent22 {text-indent: 8.0em;} +.poetry .indent24 {text-indent: 9.0em;} +.poetry .indent26 {text-indent: 10.0em;} +.poetry .indent28 {text-indent: 11.0em;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78234 ***</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + + +<p class="ph1 ep6"> +AS THE WIND BLOWS +</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a><a id="Page_3"></a>[Pg 3]</span></p> + + +<h1>AS THE WIND BLOWS</h1> + + +<p class="center p4"><span style="font-size: small;">BY</span><br> +<span style="font-size: x-large;">EDEN PHILLPOTTS</span></p> + +<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">AUTHOR OF “THE GIRL AND THE FAUN,” “DANCE OF THE MONTHS,” +“EVANDER,” ETC.</p> + + +<p class="center p6">NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.</p> +<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">LONDON: ELKIN MATHEWS</p> +<p class="center" style="font-size: x-small;">MCMXX</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p> + + + <p class="center ep6" style="font-size: small;"> + THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH + </p> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS + </h2> +</div> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<th> +</th> +<th class="tdr" style="font-weight: normal;"> +PAGE +</th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +ON EYLESBARROW +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#ON_EYLESBARROW">7</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +NOCTURNE +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#NOCTURNE">8</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE HUNTING +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_HUNTING">9</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE STRIKING HOURS +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_STRIKING_HOURS">10</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +NIGHT +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#NIGHT">11</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +SWINBURNE +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#SWINBURNE">12</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +JUNE +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#JUNE">13</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +BELLS OF VARENNA +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#BELLS_OF_VARENNA">14</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +IN THE VALLEY +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#IN_THE_VALLEY">16</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +GAFFER’S SONG +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#GAFFERS_SONG">18</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +SCANDAL +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#SCANDAL">19</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +WELCOME +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#WELCOME">20</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE NEOLITH +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_NEOLITH">21</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +IN A WOOD +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#IN_A_WOOD">24</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +GHOSTIES AT THE WEDDING +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#GHOSTIES_AT_THE_WEDDING">26</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +DAWN WIND +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#DAWN_WIND">27</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +DART +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#DART">28</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +BY RUNDLESTONE +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#BY_RUNDLESTONE">30</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +A SONG TO SILVER EYES +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#A_SONG_TO_SILVER_EYES">31</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +ENOUGH +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#ENOUGH">32</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +SONG OF THE LARCHES +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#SONG_OF_THE_LARCHES">32</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +A SONG +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#A_SONG">33</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +BUONARROTI’S “DAWN” +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#BUONARROTIS_DAWN">34</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>A DARTMOOR STREAM +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#A_DARTMOOR_STREAM">35</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE FALL +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_FALL">37</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +LAPWINGS +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#LAPWINGS">38</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +TO AN OPAL +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#TO_AN_OPAL">39</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +JACK O’ LANTERN +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#JACK_O_LANTERN">40</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE OLD ROAD +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_OLD_ROAD">41</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE DOUBTFUL ONES +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_DOUBTFUL_ONES">42</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +LITANY TO PAN +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#LITANY_TO_PAN">44</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +A SONG +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#A_SONG_1">45</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +CHERRYBROOK +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#CHERRYBROOK">46</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE HUNTER’S MOON +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_HUNTERS_MOON">47</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +VOICES +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#VOICES">48</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +WIND OF THE WEST +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#WIND_OF_THE_WEST">50</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE LOVER AND THE WIND +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_LOVER_AND_THE_WIND">51</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +A SONG +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#A_SONG_2">52</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE GRAVE OF KEATS +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_GRAVE_OF_KEATS">53</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +TIGER +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#TIGER">55</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE PUDDLE +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_PUDDLE">61</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +VISION +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#VISION">62</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +IN GALLIPOLI +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#IN_GALLIPOLI">63</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THEN AND NOW +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THEN_AND_NOW">65</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +VIGIL +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#VIGIL">66</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +DARTMOOR NIGHT +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#DARTMOOR_NIGHT">68</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +THE FRUIT OF THE TREE +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#THE_FRUIT_OF_THE_TREE">70</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> +WHERE MY TREASURE IS +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#WHERE_MY_TREASURE_IS">80</a> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="ON_EYLESBARROW"> + ON EYLESBARROW + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Hither, at set of autumn sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Each golden child of Hesper flies</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From gardens of old deities,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where Zeus the maiden Hera won.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Their footsteps kindled stone by stone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The time-worn barrow, where it stands,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Above wide, valley border-lands,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Austere and imminent and alone.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Their fingers smoothed each granite frown</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And blossomed where no flow’r may live,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And gave, what never flow’r can give,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of living flame-light for a crown.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And from their flickering kirtles fell</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A gleam upon its stubborn ways,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To touch their nakedness with rays</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of amaranth and asphodel.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O Hesperids, remember him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose sun is westering to the change,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Along uneven paths and strange,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By shadowed aisles and frontiers dim.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Flash but one token, pure and rare,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From the abundance of your grace,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For many a storm hath stripped the face</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of this, his life, and left it bare.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dance but one measure in a heart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sad and unprofitably proud,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ere to your chariots of cloud</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ye leap again and so depart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="NOCTURNE"> + NOCTURNE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Twilight and falling dew; a little bell</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And answering bell, from campanile far,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Chime and are silent; one triumphant star</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Conquers the after-glow, that like a shell,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nacreous and rose, vibrating as it dies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Faints on the lifted forehead of the snow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Falls from the deepening purple of the skies</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And falling fades upon the hill below.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unnumbered olive-trees, like hooded wights,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stand solemn in their companies and grey;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mule-mounted men go clattering down the way</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To yonder galaxy of earth-born lights.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The crepuscule from sea and radiant land</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hath drunk the colour; night lifts up her hand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For peace before the coming of the moon—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All darkling heaven will be silver soon.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_HUNTING"> + THE HUNTING + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When red sun fox steals down the sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And darkness dims the heavens high,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There leap again upon his tracks</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The eager, starry, hunting packs.</div> + <div class="verse indent6">They glitter, glitter, gold and green,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">With sparks of frosty fire between,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">And Dian bright as day;</div> + <div class="verse indent6">While in the gloaming, far below,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Brown owl doth shout “Hi! Tally Ho</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Sun fox hath gone away!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To music of the spheres they sweep</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over the western world asleep;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then in the east, with sudden rush,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sun fox shall whisk his white-tipped brush.</div> + <div class="verse indent6">The field is fading, gold and green,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">With sparks of frosty fire between,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">And Dian growing grey;</div> + <div class="verse indent6">While morning leaps the hither hill</div> + <div class="verse indent6">And herald lark shouts with a will,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">“Sun fox hath gone away!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, Huntress fond and silly stars—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">White Venus, fiery, futile Mars,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In vain your pack ye whirl and cast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon the marches of the vast;</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> <div class="verse indent6">In vain ye glitter, gold and green,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">With sparks of frosty fire between,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">And Dian’s arrows fly</div> + <div class="verse indent6">In shattered shafts of ebbing light;</div> + <div class="verse indent6">For ne’er shall day be caught by night,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">And sun fox cannot die.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_STRIKING_HOURS"> + THE STRIKING HOURS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My brother, can the heart of ocean say</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When winds may woo her bosom; when the ships,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or sudden galleon of an azure day,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Shall fling her foam to rainbows? Can eclipse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hide up their silver when the full moons will?</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Are the cloud-cisterns of the latter rain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At beck of every, summer-starven rill?</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Life cannot call the time; nor man may feign</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That he shall haply choose when he would have:</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To will the striking hours he is not free,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That chime between his cradle and his grave,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Or speed, or slow the hands of destiny.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A bunch of stars upon the vine of heaven</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Grows ripe and falls and passes when complete;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The galaxy of grapes to your mouth given,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Bursting their bloomy chalices, are sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One little moment; for they will not stay</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Your pleasure and their consummation hold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While you misdoubt and linger and delay</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Before their cups of purple and of gold.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When to a feast the gods would make you free</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At their own time, or never, shall it be.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="NIGHT"> + NIGHT + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Another day has ended and again</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The fading emeralds of the quiet west</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Grow dusky o’er the hill-top and the plain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dying along each drowsy vale and crest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where Earth lifts up her bosom to the breast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of Night oncoming. Now once more she brings</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To the least folded flow’r her primal rest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Opens the mantle of her darkenings</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And sprinkles the white dew from both her starry wings.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The moth and beetle, owl and flittermouse—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All creatures that do call the moon their sun—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Steal silent forth, each from his little house.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They mount and fly, and others creep and run,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where fox and hare and brock have all begun</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The task of living. Now alert, awake,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They seek their joy and substance; every one</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pads out into the dingle, heath and brake;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While hungry fishes stir the silver of the lake.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For servants of the day another boon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Brings Night, and as the working hours decrease,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lifts up her evening star and sickle moon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To disenthral, unfetter and release;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bidding the long-drawn tale of labour cease.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She comes with twilight healing for each smart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of soul and body, lays her unguent peace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With fingers cool on every aching part;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Anoints the tired flesh, soothes the day-foundered heart.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She asks no worship from our drooping eyes;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She needs no prayer to minister our plight;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hers not our little deeds and destinies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But still to smooth the pillow, lower the light;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Play nurse for every world-aweary wight;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Comfort and succour; at a touch redeem;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And pour her ancient anodyne of might:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Omnipotent sleep, inviolate, supreme,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Insensible as death, without one sigh or dream.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="SWINBURNE"> + SWINBURNE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Children and lovers and the cloud-robed sea</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall mourn him first; and then the motherland,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Weeping in silence by his empty hand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And fallen sword, that flashed for Liberty.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Song-bringer of a glad new minstrelsy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He came and found joy sleeping and swift fanned</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Old pagan fires, then snatched an altar brand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And wrote, “The fearless only shall be free!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, by the flame that made thine heart a home,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the wild surges of thy silver song,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seer before the sunrise, may there come</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spirits of dawn to light this aching wrong</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Called Earth! Thou saw’st them in the foregrow roam;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But we still wait and watch, still thirst and long.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="JUNE"> + JUNE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">June, who goes garlanded, who, never sleeping,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Laughs from behind the eastern hills at night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And flashes to the hidden skylark keeping</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His morning watch and thrilling from the height</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ere yet the stars are dim.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">June, who unseals all fountains at their sources,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And pours life like a river overflowing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In proud and passionate desire, who courses</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To throne our feeling higher than our knowing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And heap it to the brim.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">June, when the new-born find their feet and wings,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Scent the sweet grass and air and taste their being,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in their wanderings and wonderings,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their motion and their hearing and their seeing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Conquer the earth and sky.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">June, with her feast of flow’rs and lyric rapture,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose fair days fly the fleetest of the year,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So pure and fresh that only youth may capture</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their rainbow shapes without a thought of fear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Without a single sigh.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="BELLS_OF_VARENNA"> + BELLS OF VARENNA + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Drowsy and sweet along the Larian Lake</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your melody is stealing;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your fitful pealing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Floats on the pinion of a summer night.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Aloft the murmuring upland echoes wake</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And wing upon the mountains,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whence flying fountains</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thin their wild whiteness out o’er many a height,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Bells of Varenna,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Bells of Varenna—</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Ancient bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Solemn bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Bells.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A tall grey campanile and a spire</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of russet red upspringing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Meet for your ringing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O most melodious, mediæval chime,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Arise and point with fane of moonlight fire</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To forests and snow ridges</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And far-flung bridges</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And ruined castles of the olden time,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Bells of Varenna,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Bells of Varenna—</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Dulcet bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Dreaming bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Bells.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Along a floor of crystal, where the moon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From her blue mansion bending,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awaits the sending</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of your deep benison and soft “Good-night,”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Canorous cadence comes. Too soon, too soon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Faint off the last far throbbing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And silver sobbing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By Como’s patined pathway, still and bright,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Bells of Varenna,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Bells of Varenna—</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Sleeping bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Weary bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Bells,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Bells.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_THE_VALLEY"> + IN THE VALLEY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Heather and potentilla fold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rocks with purple and with gold;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The burn beneath sings clear and cold.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here man and woman kept a tryst;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Here often met; here first they kissed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Under the white and secret mist.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And here, within this holy place,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He came and thundered her disgrace,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And looked his last upon her face.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And while he cursed her ruined name,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her young soul fainted, sick with shame,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before the death knell of her fame.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Had heath and potentil but known</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His wrath and her despairing moan,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their twinkling flowers had surely flown.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And had the burn but felt that cry,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or understood their agony,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She must have wept her silver dry.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The grey hills heard the lover take</div> + <div class="verse indent0">An oath, that made their echoes ache,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To hate all women for her sake.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The sunshine saw the woman cast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Herself to earth when he had past,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her little pitcher broke at last.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But heath and potentil are gay;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The waters sing upon their way,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though all this happened yesterday.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For June must joy, though joy departs,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And life must laugh, though sorrow smarts,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And buds must break as well as hearts.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="GAFFERS_SONG"> + GAFFER’S SONG + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The boys don’t hoe like they used to do,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the maids don’t sew like they used to do;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The hen don’t lay</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the hound don’t bay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the wind don’t blow like it used to do.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The men don’t drink like they used to do,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the girls don’t wink like they used to do;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The bud don’t swell</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the flow’rs don’t smell;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the folk don’t think like they used to do.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The milk don’t cream like it used to do,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the ewes don’t teem like they used to do;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The corn don’t kern</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the sun don’t burn;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And my head won’t scheme like it used to do.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Bad men ban’t hung like they used to be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Good songs ban’t sung like they used to be;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The jolly and wise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have all flown to the skies;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And I ban’t so young as I used to be.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="SCANDAL"> + SCANDAL + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The owl alighted in a yew</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beside the portals of my house;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The hour was nearly half-past two</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, as he ate his juicy mouse,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A cuckoo clock made cheerful chime</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Within and shouted out the time.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“O gracious God!” the owl began,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And rolled his round eyes at the moon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“What a black piece of work is man—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Well might we miss cuckoo in June,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How mad, misguided, inhumane</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To keep a cuckoo on a chain!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“But all the feathered folk must know;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This infamy I’ll bring to light</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And tell the horror high and low</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And scream the crime by day and night.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No bird shall sing to him again</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who keeps a cuckoo on a chain.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Good neighbour, of your charity</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Consider that mistaken fowl;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beware you tell not truth awry</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, hooting with your brother owl,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Into the public ear complain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I keep a cuckoo on a chain.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="WELCOME"> + WELCOME + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The hard azure on high</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That bends over the Spring</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Falls a tinkling, a thrill—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sudden, silvery, shrill;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the lark’s in the sky</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And his lyre-shapen wing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lifts the song in a spiral at will.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">In the East is the wind;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At the fringe of the wood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shiver catkins of gold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or the fleece and the fold.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sure the eaning ewes find</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That the sunlight is good,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though chill Eurus, his scythe’s on the wold.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dawns a sweet lemon light</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through the red-bosomed earth;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leaps and sparkles a train</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Along dingle and lane;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the primrosen bright,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They are come to their birth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the daffodil’s dancing again.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_NEOLITH"> + THE NEOLITH + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sole standing in utter loneliness—superbly alone—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A monolith ruggedly lifts, with the roseal ling at his feet.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Only the murmur of bees and the twinkle and throb of the heat</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On the league-long height, and the shade from his granite thrown.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Roll upon roll of the Moor flung out on a sky-line free;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Clouds at the zenith blue; in the flower-clad earth beneath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The dust of a neolith: one who has swept this heath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As the chieftain of vanished hordes and their fate and their destiny.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When he died, that no mocking phantom, or jealous shade</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of him mighty, should darken their lodge in the distant glen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They brought their lord hither, on shoulders of mourning men,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And tore at their hair and howled long and fierce music made.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Then they sought for a stone of girth that should evermore mark his place</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And be seen for remembrance, afar on the frowning hill,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of that leader of men, whose right arm and resistless will</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had lifted his clan to power and to splendour and pride of face.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He was cooped with his knees to his chin in a granite kist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And a granite flake over his head that should last till doom.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> <div class="verse indent0">So near doth he seem that one feels him not dead in his tomb,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But crouching, alive and alert, with a warrior’s axe in his fist.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Does he hear the old gods of the thunder? Can summer sun</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Reach down to his pit? May his dog’s ears discern the rain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hissing over the heather, or tell if the purple stain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From a cloud-shadow dims his grey stone? When the ponies run,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Can he mark the dull drumming above of their unshod feet?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Does he chill when the snowdrift is clogged on the frozen ground?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Does he thrill to the shout of the stream, or the bay of the hound,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or heed the sad curlew’s cry and the brown snipe bleating his bleat?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, for nothing lies under the grass but the broken stones</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or mayhap a primeval crock, or a fleck of red rust,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the hero is earth of the earth, and its dust is his dust,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And his flesh is the flesh of the peat, and its bones are his very bones.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">That master of men is ascended, for joy and for bane,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And life after life hath he lived and relinquished since then—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the heather and herbage and birds, in the beetles and foxes and men,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Each in their turn sprung of earth; each in their turn earth again.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yesterday clad with great thews, that builded a chieftain of might;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To-day where the milkwort and fern and the starry tormentil</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spread joy by the auburn beck and loveliness on the hill;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To-morrow a moorman’s fire at the fall of a winter’s night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And the aura, so azure clear, that is running above the red,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was the glow of a savage heart imprisoned within the brand;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the warmth on your hand was the sun on a stone-man’s hand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the far off urgent days that were lived by the ancient dead.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">So mutable myriads wake to the ring of their morning chime;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So mutable myriads pass at the set of their final sun;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And only Matter remains—the august, the unchanging one—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But no shape and no shadow of aught that she moulds on the wheel of Time.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And ye who would bring man his soul from a mystical matrix apart;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And ye who would lift up man’s life to a land beyond Matter’s ken,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Must proclaim how her rape overtook her, and wherefore, and when,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ere we bend to your idols, or take these your fairyland stories to heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_A_WOOD"> + IN A WOOD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There runs a pathway through the wood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where lace the boughs and all is good.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The beech-boles don a robe of white</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And gleam like ghosts at dayspring light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When first the pure, canorous note</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Throbs from a waking blackbird’s throat;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And down the long aisle dim</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Another answers him.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Often they met, the girl and boy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At this still hour; it was her joy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To share a kiss at peep of day</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before he took his working way.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then light of heart the youngster went,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leaving the little maid content</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To seek her home near by</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The forest boundary.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But when at evening back he came</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the beech-boles were all aflame</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With ruddy fire along the glade,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She leapt from out some stealthy shade.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And dawdling once when sunset shone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He cut their letters, one in one,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon an ancient stem,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And drew a heart around them.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Then rose the red, accursed star,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And honour swept her boy afar;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While she, sore hindered and forlorn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Still heard the blackbird sing at morn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Still felt her heart with each sun sink,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Knowing he stood upon the brink,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Prayed on in hope and trust—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until the boy was dust.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Life brought its anodyne of years,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To dull young griefs and dry young tears,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And Time, who knows not to stand still,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sent a new lover up the hill.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A wife and mother now she goes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And plays with her first baby’s toes—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The name in memory</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spoken without a sigh.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And grey upon the beech’s rind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Foregone, forgotten, out of mind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Two woven letters may be told</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When dawns are white and eves are gold;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where his aubade the blackbird makes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or sleepy, sweet good-even takes;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And down the long aisle dim</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Another answers him.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="GHOSTIES_AT_THE_WEDDING"> + GHOSTIES AT THE WEDDING + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Turn down a glass afore his place;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Draw up the dog-eared chair;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For though we shall not see his face,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I think he will be there</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Our wedding day to share.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Turn up the glass where she would be</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And put a red rose there.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her quick, grey eyes we cannot see,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">But weren’t they everywhere,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And shall not they be here?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Though them old blids are in the grave</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And their good light’s gone out,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We’d sooner their kind ghosties have</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Than all the living rout</div> + <div class="verse indent2">As will be there no doubt.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For some are dead as cannot die,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Some flown as cannot flee.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You still do fancy ’em near by.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">’Tis so with him and she,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">At any rate to we.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="DAWN_WIND"> + DAWN WIND + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Wind of the Dawn am I, and only She</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who knows the music of my every song</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Can hear the whisper lingering along</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Melodiously.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Melodiously along the moonlit corn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With silver fingering all my peaceful way,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I nightly wander towards another day</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Soon to be born.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Lo! from the East he comes; and I rejoice</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And throbbing on into the ruddy light</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leap like a giant from the dying night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With organ voice.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Along the rosy, misty, magic lands</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That gleam above each dewy-scented lea</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The children of the morning welcome me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And clap their hands.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="DART"> + DART + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Elfin river, stealing from far-off granite cradle,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Musical the place names upon thy tidal water;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tuckenhay and Greenway, Stoke Gabriel and Dittisham,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sharpham and Duncannon, beside thy margin’s mirror—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweet bells all a-chiming for native ear that knows them.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rainbows in November, above the hillside footed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Burn along the brake fern to set the auburn flaming</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In transparent wonders of emerald and purple;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till descends the hailstorm, with lash and scourge ice-knotted,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hurtling through the coppice; from larch and cherry robbing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Amber dust and crimson. Chattering then and hissing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And fretting first thy bosom into a sudden torment,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He draws his tatters round him and huddles off to seaward.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So the sun returning, by hover and by ripple,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Charms thy fleeting turmoil and wins thee back to laughter.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At the river ferry a little bell is calling;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And where the red earth arches, low on the blue above it,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Man and horses ploughing, herald a cloud behind them</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the great, white sea-fowl that feed along the furrow.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cobweb grey thine orchards, still the last apples ling’ring,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Topaz and ruby tangled upon the frosted lichen;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While broad, oaken hangers, a rapture for the sunset,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Meet the steadfast beech scrub, like red-hot fire aglowing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till their conflagrations, that blaze along the tide way,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Melt in flame and mingle their wonder with thy crystal.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Massy, rounded elm-trees roll out along the river,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> <div class="verse indent0">And above, in billows far mightier and vaster,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sail the light-laden clouds, that lift another forest</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bossed and round as they are and carry up their image,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Crested, crowned and golden, into the hyaline azure.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pale that lifted glory and faint those sun-touched summits</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seen against the ardour of thine own earth-born elm-trees.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Down beside the reed-rond, pulse of the sea, a-weary,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Doth bring a wreath of flow’rs to mark the place of parting.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">High above them glitters the wide weir’s silver apron</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the bright salmon leap, springing from salt to sweetness.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Farewell, worthy worship in all thy times and seasons;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By thy magic subtle of many a deep and rapid;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By thy sunny reaches and mystery of shadow;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy gentle hillsides green and dear delight of forests;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the surprise of coombs, the hanging woods and dingles;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The happy days and sad; the murmur of thy voices;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy changing, winsome moods and little lovelinesses,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou art all Devon, and so incomparably England.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak x-ebookmaker-important" id="BY_RUNDLESTONE"> + BY RUNDLESTONE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Her cottage solitary stood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beside the granite Rundlestone—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lonely enough, but not so lone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That fortune missed it, ill and good.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And faring by that way once more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I sought to see the friend of old,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And found an orange-lily’s gold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Still burning by her cottage door.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There seemed no stir about the place;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No voice responded to my call;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I heard no tardy footsteps fall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor welcomed her familiar face.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">From open window overhead</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There came a dull and fitful flap,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the blind bulged and filled the gap</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And billowed as the breezes sped.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Empty the house, for she had gone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Full many a moon before that day,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Passing in steadfast faith away</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To join her man beneath his stone.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And now, when currents of the mind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Drift to my thought her vanished name,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I see the orange-lily flame</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And hear the flapping of a blind.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SONG_TO_SILVER_EYES"> + A SONG TO SILVER EYES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Now that the dayspring surely comes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To wake a dreaming world once more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And light a thousand, thousand homes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With message from the Eastern shore;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though dawn doth shiver sad and grey</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And sombre clouds hide earth and sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My love shall be the sun to me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And glad’ my going through the day.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When mournful darkness falls again</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To sink old earth in slumber deep,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Save where the sisters, sorrow, pain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their sobbing, throbbing vigils keep;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though faint my heart and dim my sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beneath the storm’s immensity,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My love shall be a star to me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And guide my going through the night.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="ENOUGH"> + ENOUGH + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The larch, the birch and the eagle fern</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And granite grey;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The cry of the kine and the song of the burn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Down Dartmoor way.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A league-long tramp to a lifted stone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Under the sky;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Long lustral hours superbly alone—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My soul and I.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For you be the kingdoms that you list,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The seas you will;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And mine a white rainbow in the mist</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On a heather hill.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="SONG_OF_THE_LARCHES"> + SONG OF THE LARCHES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Not foliage, but emerald fires</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Run through our legions in the spring,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until their myriad points and spires</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are hidden past remembering.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through hanging wood, by dell and dene</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Again we ray ourselves in green.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Not foliage, but aureate fires</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leap through our legions in the fall.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When autumn lights her saffron pyres</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the red sun sinks to a ball,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like golden smoke across the grey</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We fling our worn-out robes away.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SONG"> + A SONG + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Shadows we are and shadows seek</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And haunt the place where shadows move;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I, who know thy blessed love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Scorn shadowland and all things weak.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou art alone reality;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rest is dream within a dream.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My life knows nothing but doth seem</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Save only thee, save only thee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Through noon of day and noon of night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There steals a golden thought and rare,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That still we breathe the self-same air,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Still glory in the same delight.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">That soul to soul and sense to sense—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our heavens woven into one—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We’re shining, each the other’s sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before we vanish and go hence.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And if thy love should faint and die,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The deep, eternal after-glow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall burn for ever where I go—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A cloud of light in my grey sky.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="BUONARROTIS_DAWN"> + BUONARROTI’S “DAWN” + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Spirit of twilight chill and upper air</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stretched desolate upon the rack of morn;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou hooded grief from mountain marble torn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gazing sad-lidded on the sky’s despair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While the grey stars, like tears, descend forlorn;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Earth’s broken heart and man’s unsleeping care</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wait on thy pillow, crying to be borne—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The only burden thou shalt ever bear.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No infant hope may dream on thy deep breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No little lip may soothe with infant might</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy mouth’s immortal woe; for thee, oppressed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dawn dim epiphanies beyond all light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where man’s long agony and cry for rest</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But torture dayspring into darker night.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="A_DARTMOOR_STREAM"> + A DARTMOOR STREAM + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When Shakespeare wrote, you sang the song I hear,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And when Eliza reigned, your lint-white locks</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Flashed where they flash to-day, among the rocks,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And showered their tresses twined into the brown pool clear.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">You danced and flung your foam upon the fern,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And sang along your green and granite ways</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Even as now, in far-off Golden days,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When toiled the tinner men beside your heathery urn.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Their ruins shrink beside you; foxglove springs</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Above the roofless hut and smelting place;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">No more their shadows fall upon your face,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or mediæval chime of pick and hammer rings.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But they were children in your lap beside</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The early men of stone, whose lodges stand,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Like mushroom circles grey upon the land</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Above the cotton-grass that marks your cradle wide.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The bear has lapped your crystal on his rounds;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The stricken elk beside you dropped at last—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">A flint home in his shoulder, deep and fast—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To smear your emerald moss from red of deathly wounds.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And now, where once the wolf pack hunting went,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">With ululation through the snowy nights,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Leap motor cars upon the highway heights,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And by their hooting horns the silent air is rent.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All one to you: machine and beast and man,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And Time, that leads them off and brings them in;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">You strive above all circumstance, to win</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your immemorial dream and predetermined plan.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Unchanging, ever-changing, you possess</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Your spirit quickened with an ardour still</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Of workmanship—a patient, steadfast will</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To rarer beauty yet and purer loveliness.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_FALL"> + THE FALL + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ll sing a song of kings and queens</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And falling leaves and flying rain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With Time to mow, and Fate who gleans</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their good and evil, boon and bane.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ll sing a song of leaves and rains</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And flying queens and falling kings,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet doubt not reason still remains</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Snug hidden at the core of things.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For every year an autumn brings</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To round the root and fat the sheaves</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And haply garner queens and kings</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With falling rain and flying leaves.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The rain is salt with tears of queens,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The leaves are red with blood of kings;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unknowing what the mystery means,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We puzzle at these mighty things.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For why great kings and rains should fall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And wherefore leaves and queens should fly,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or such rare wonders be at all,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You cannot tell; no more can I.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet this we know: new leaves and rain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Anon shall crown the vernal scene,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But dust of dynasts not again</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blows up into a king or queen.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="LAPWINGS"> + LAPWINGS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When white ice tinkles on the rutted roads</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And icicles are bearding from the thatch;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When fens are froze, the lapwings make despatch</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And all a-mewing come from their frost-bound abodes.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">With rush of wings upon the northern wind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Across the wintry blue, like sparks of gold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They flash into the valleys, hunger-bold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And seek their comforting with doubtful human-kind.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They love the lew, where yellow corn-stacks stand,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And puff their feathers in the pallid sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Go daintily about and peep and run,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like pixy pilgrim folk of some far fairy-land.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And near to bud-break, when young grey-eyed Spring,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Clad in the silver of an April rain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Calls from the hill-tops, home they go again</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And lift their kitten cries to give her welcoming.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_AN_OPAL"> + TO AN OPAL + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Wrapt in the radiant air’s own milky tress,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That’s less than cloud and more than cloudlessness,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dawn-light and moon-light art thou; dreaming fire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That dies along the west: a pulse; a pyre</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Burning beneath the brow of some red eave;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The very staple that the salt winds weave</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Into the vaporous east, or sobbing south,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When some grey hurricane sucks at the mouth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the dear, wild-haired sea, and with huge mirth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rains back his rape of kisses on the earth.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The blooms of old-world flow’rs in ancient garths;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The dancing aureole of winter hearths;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The argent flame that haunts eternal snows;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spray of the burn and petal of the rose;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gleam of the dragon-fly or halcyon’s wing;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The dew-bedappled kirtle of the Spring;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The amber ripple of the kerning corn;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Splendour of fruit; where ripeness, like a morn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Breaks through the bloom; the rainbow’s liquid light;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The northern dancers of an arctic night;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nacre of pearl and foam upon the sea—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All these, thou glimmering epitome</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the world’s glory, throb and nestle here</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Within the little compass of a tear.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="JACK_O_LANTERN"> + JACK O’ LANTERN + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the dim marrish oozes out and fills</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The lap of the hills,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While drowsy gloom broods deep upon the wold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They keep their place and take their trembling flight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And fringe the night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With pallid flowers of azure and faint gold.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Along the darkness elfin lanterns flicker,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Now slow, now quicker—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A pale corona set upon the mire.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They float and fly and leap and sink together</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon one tether,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where ancient fens excern their lambent fire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thin, shaking, blue—spectres of flame—they travel</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And break and ravel,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then fade and flash again and fade again.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They wave their lamps upon the quag; they quiver</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And soar and shiver</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And flit, like little ghosts, above the plain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Born from the heavy breath of sleeping Earth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In feeble mirth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They trail and slink and linger, rise and fall;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then, shuddering before the chill of day,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Soon speed away,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blow out their lights and vanish, one and all.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_OLD_ROAD"> + THE OLD ROAD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How short the road with you, my friend,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How short the road with you—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The hills and vales, the heights and dales</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And each unfolding view;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For side by side and foot by foot,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though long that summer noon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The twilight fell too soon, my friend,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The twilight fell too soon.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How far the road alone, my friend,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How far the road alone;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The hills how steep, the dales how deep,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their ancient magic flown;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For now the way, together trod,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You cannot tread again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is twenty miles of pain, my friend,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is twenty miles of pain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Still winds the patient road, my friend;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Still winds the patient road,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whereon I go, now high, now low,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With my appointed load;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And glories shared I felt were gone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For ever when you past,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have brought you back at last, my friend,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have brought you back at last.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_DOUBTFUL_ONES"> + THE DOUBTFUL ONES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They lie about, the naughty folk, a-mingling with the rest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And just so green the grave-grass on their mounds as on the best;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For Nature’s poor at morals, and to her they’re all the same,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With their virtues no great matter and their vices no great shame.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tom White bides there: they say he slew his first to wed another,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And that’s the hill that hides Jack Ford, as robbed his own grandmother.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This lump of earth, where dandelions be keeping such a state,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is Katherine Jay’s, the baby’s friend, once known as “cruel Kate.”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They dug up thirteen childer in her garden, so ’tis said;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when they ran the creature down, she’d cut her evil thread.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Near by we teeled Bart. Coombstock—one as took his own life too:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He hanged hisself at seventy-three, though why for no man knew.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And Martin Cobley, in a pit beside they godly Foxes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Did six months of his middle time for breaking the alms boxes.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where yonder row of Caunters lie—a famed and far-spread clan—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have crept their black sheep, Rupert, him once called “the gentleman.”</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> <div class="verse indent0">A reckless love-hunter was he, and made an end of life</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When Noah Bassett shot him dead for playing with his wife.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Poor Nelly Dingle, buried by the lich-gate on the left,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Burned six good stacks of wheat the night they flung her out for theft;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And they small hillocks, down-along, of babies side by side,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Be “chrisomers,” as never got baptised afore they died,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There do they rest—the doubtful ones—and sleep so sweet and sound</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As any proper saint of God that ever went to ground;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But when the graves be opened and they birds begin to sing—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lord! Won’t it be a funny dish to set before the King!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="LITANY_TO_PAN"> + LITANY TO PAN + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By the abortions of the teeming Spring,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By Summer’s starved and withered offering,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By Autumn’s stricken hope and Winter’s sting,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, hear!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By the ichneumon on the writhing worm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the swift, far-flung poison of the germ,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By soft and foul brought out of hard and firm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, hear!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By the fierce battle under every blade,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the etiolation of the shade,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By drought and thirst and things undone half made,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, hear!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By all the horrors of re-quickened dust,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the eternal waste of baffled lust,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By mildews and by cankers and by rust,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, hear!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By the fierce scythe of Spring upon the wold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the dead eaning mother in the fold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By stillborn, stricken young and tortured old,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, hear!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By fading eyes pecked from a dying head,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the hot mouthful of a thing not dead,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By all thy bleeding, struggling, shrieking red,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, hear!</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By all the agonies of all the past,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By earth’s cold dust and ashes at the last,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By her return to the unconscious vast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, hear!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SONG_1"> + A SONG + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How I have lived while others slept,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With the white moon and thee!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heaven-high my adoration leapt</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sea-deep my ecstasy.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And now one memory I keep</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till life and I shall part:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She loved me well enough to sleep</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In peace upon my heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHERRYBROOK"> + CHERRYBROOK + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Far more than others feel or see;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Far more than others hear or know,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awakes and lives and throbs for me</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When by the Cherrybrook I go.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For others, Bellevor’s green side</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And yellow furzes burning bright;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Grouse heather, foaming like a tide,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And stones that dance, or drowse in light.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For others, just a singing stream</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Of flashing stickles, cherry red,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That mirrors in her breast the beam,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Like golden beads upon a thread.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For me, a river of regret</div> + <div class="verse indent2">In every reach so still and clear—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A streamlet, where I follow yet</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The Shadow of a brother dear.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I see his trout-rod catch the sun;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I hear the music of his reel;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Knowing his kindly days are done,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">His good life gone beyond appeal.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Now other rods are twinkling high;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">But the grey shape I used to bless,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lacking, the stream runs lonely by</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And Cherrybrook’s an emptiness.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_HUNTERS_MOON"> + THE HUNTER’S MOON + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">October day drifts into night and now,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Globing red gold upon a naked bough,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Hunter’s Moon climbs through a ragged larch,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Swings out on Heaven and sweeps her steadfast arch</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through cloudrack dim; while underneath there lie</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The darkling forests and the floods, and fly</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leaves from the summer woods. They tinkle down</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Russet and sere, etiolate and brown,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blood-red and scarlet, auburn, silver, grey—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Good millions, bearing wherewithal to pay</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Debt of the trees. The busy earthworms cold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Draw in the yearly dues to rich the mould,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Storing what tree-tops earned; and thus full round</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The cycle spins; for sure the sodden ground</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is but a bank, that hoards to give again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wherein the beetle and the mole and rain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Balance their books beneath the Hunter’s Moon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While Nature budgets for another June.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VOICES"> + VOICES + </h2> +</div> + + +<h3 id="I"> + I +</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Harken, harken, neighbour, harken!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There be little childer jangling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There be childer up-long wrangling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the thorn-tree in the wood.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, them noises you are hearing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Out of yonder blue-bell clearing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are the wild cat’s kitlings playing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While their mother’s hunting food.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<h3 id="II"> + II +</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Harken, harken, neighbour, harken!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There’s the pixy bells a-ringing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the dinky pixies singing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through the curtain of the rain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, ’tis but a flock of plover—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Golden plover now come over,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From the places of their summer,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To their winter home again.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<h3 id="III"> + III +</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Harken, harken, neighbour, harken!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There’s some poor, unhappy devil</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Homing drunk after a revel,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Drowned in snow and lost in night.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, that creepy, crawly yowling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Be red fox up over howling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pads acold and belly empty,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hunger-starven for a bite.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> + + +<h3 id="IV"> + IV +</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Harken, harken, neighbour, harken!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To the sound of woman’s wailing—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A sad woman, quailing, railing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like the sob of wind-swept leaves.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nay, that ban’t no cry of woman,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor the moan of any human:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis the murmur of the hill-tops</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And “the calling of the cleaves.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="WIND_OF_THE_WEST"> + WIND OF THE WEST + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I bear the banner of the sun at noon;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I light the million jewelled lamps of June;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I weave, from sky and purple sea below,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rosy cradle where a baby moon</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Rocks in the after-glow.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Awake ye bells, shine out ye stars of Spring;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And let the music of the wild wood ring;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Deck my dear harp anew with golden green—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My ancient forest harp, whereon I sing</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Of all this budding scene.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A song of rainbows gleaming on the rain;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of sap and scent and sunlight come again;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the young laughing year’s unmeasured mirth;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of quickened Nature’s mother-pang, whose pain</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Forewent this vernal birth.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_LOVER_AND_THE_WIND"> + THE LOVER AND THE WIND + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Wind of the South with the wild, wet mouth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cease from thy wailing and fury of railing;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whisper to me in my vigils of pain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That soon I shall meet her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And soon I shall greet her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And thrill with the passion of kisses again.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Wind of the South with the wild, wet mouth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Silence thy raving and hark to my craving;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Echo a hope through my vigils of pain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hunger to hold her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I throb to enfold her</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And melt in the fire of her body again.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Suffering man, since thy race began</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I have been weeping and I have been keeping</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A myriad vigils of sorrow and pain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No more shalt thou meet her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No more shalt thou greet her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or thrill with the passion of kisses again.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Suffering man, the arc of thy span</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To-morrow is bounded and finished and rounded.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou shalt forget all thy vigils of pain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor hunger to hold her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor throb to enfold her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor cry for the fire of her body again.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SONG_2"> + A SONG + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The red’s in the heather, the gold’s on the fern—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho! Heigho!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A nip to the wind and the year at the turn—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho, Johnny!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The aglet and rowan, shine bright on the bough—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho! Heigho!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But seedtime, or harvest be one to him now—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho, Johnny!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All one the wild weather, the wind and the rain—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho! Heigho!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For she that made summer will not come again—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho, Johnny!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Was left in the lurch at a young woman’s whim—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho! Heigho!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who cared not a cuss for the ruin of him—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho, Johnny!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, little we mind what the seasons may bring—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho! Heigho!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When hearts are a winter without any spring—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heigho, Johnny!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GRAVE_OF_KEATS"> + THE GRAVE OF KEATS + </h2> +</div> + + +<h3 id="I_1"> + I +</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Where silver swathes of newly fallen hay</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fling up their incense to the Roman sun;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where violets spread their dusky leaves and run</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In a dim ripple, and a glittering bay</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lifts overhead his living wreath; where day</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Burns fierce upon his endless night and none</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Can whisper to him of the thing he won,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Love-starved young Keats hath cast his gift of clay.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And still the little marble makes a moan</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Under the scented shade; one nightingale</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With many a meek and mourning monotone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Throbs of his sorrow; sings how oft men fail</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And leave their dearest light-bringers alone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To shine unseen, and all unfriended pale.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<h3 id="II_1"> + II +</h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, leave the lyre upon his humble stone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rest erase; if Keats were come again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The quickest he to blot this cry of pain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The first to take a sorrowing world’s atone.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis not the high magistral way to moan</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When a mean present leaps and sweeps amain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Athwart the prophets’ vision; not one groan</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Escapes their souls, and lingers not one strain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They answer to their ideals; their good</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Outshines all flare and glare of futile marts.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> <div class="verse indent0">They stand beside their altars while the flood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ephemeral rolls on and roars and parts.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It shall not chill a poet’s golden blood;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It cannot drown the masters’ mighty hearts.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="TIGER"> + TIGER + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>To the barking of the monkeys, to the shrieking of the birds;</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>To the bellow of the bison and stampeding of the herds;</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>At fiery edge of sunset, from the jungle to the wold,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Death stalks in shining ebony and orange-tawny gold.</i></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He slouched with loose, low shamble from the glade,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And as he flung his feet along the track,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Machine-like glided each great shoulder-blade</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Under his pelt. He stopped and scratched his back</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Against a stump; then sat a little while,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Curling his ring-straked tail around his paws,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yawning with a gigantic, sleepy smile</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That showed the ruddy gulf between his jaws.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The fangs were white and sound, for he was young—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A male of four full years, in all his pride,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Perfect, lean, knit of rubber and steel, and strung</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With sinews taut; content and satisfied,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since the twice five great, crooked daggers set</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Deep in his awful pads had never failed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To win his belly all it wanted yet—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A tiger who unfailingly prevailed.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And no beast kinglier than himself he knew,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For he had tracked and hunted, caught and slain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All that his fellow-tigers caught and slew,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though horns might miss by inches eye and brain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A forthright beast and huge, his yellow eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Glowered steadfast into life; he felt no ill</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of heart or conscience, or the pang that flies</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through higher mammals, plagued with choice of will</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> <div class="verse indent0">And all the handicaps of consciousness.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He knew not right nor wrong; no evil thought</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sullied his wits; his task no more or less</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than faithfully to do all he was taught.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While the dread smeech and terror of his breath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Down a hot wind at dusk, to fearful flocks</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Threatened the unknown, unnamed horror, death,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And sent them hurtling to the plains and rocks,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To him they stood for life and all it meant</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of being—food and sport and work and play,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Love and prosperity and full content,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With strength to solve the problems of each day.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">His brain began to brood and meditate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thinking on action, while the red sun set,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For he had come from far with a new mate</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To a new valley. She was sleeping yet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the bamboos behind him, great with young,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where prickly cactus hemmed the lair and palm</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over their couch its sombre frondage hung.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There would she bide a little safe from harm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While he must go afield and do his part</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And fetch a tender antelope, or goat,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To win her praise and glad her weary heart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With a hot supper for a hungry throat.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He pondered now within his broad, flat skull,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then stretched and with his lifted nose and ear</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Winnowed the silence of the evening lull</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To learn if grass-eaters were stirring near;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When down the wind, though not a lizard ran</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And no hoof thudded on the dusty bent,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He smelt a something fragrant and began</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To twitch his nostrils at the ravishment.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> <div class="verse indent0">A subtle scent and new! His whiskers pricked;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His body huddled flat and seemed to shrink;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His great nape bristled up; his jowl he licked;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then, like a banded snake, began to sink</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And trickle through the spear grass. By a stone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He sudden lifted, then he set and stilled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While footfall of some game, that went alone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Came innocently pattering, to be killed.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Couchant, like a set trap, with head out-thrust,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The hunter crouched, quivering his black tail-tip,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until it drew a fan upon the dust</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Behind him. Then his jaws began to drip,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As though a gargoyle, where red lichens grew,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was dribbling. Now the thing that he had heard</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Approached—a little creature, strange and new—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That went not on four feet, nor yet a bird.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He strung himself to spring, while at a trot,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Indian runner on his lonely road</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Jogged forward, dreaming of a supper-pot.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bound was he for a village, where abode</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One, passing fair, the runner’s master meant</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To wed ere long—a radiant maid to whom,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By fleet-foot messenger, the suitor sent</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Two poems of his own writing.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent28">Then the gloom,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where a first firefly winked her golden spark</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon the deepening purple, broke and tore—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The twilight stillness ended on a stark,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Harsh, grating, deep-mouthed, solitary roar,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hollow as death; while from his secret place</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The tiger loosed the lightning of his thighs,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leapt on the man and with unwitting grace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Struck him to instant nothing. Levin flies</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Less merciful. A huddled, crumpled clout,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Brown, oozing red, dissolved beneath the mass</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of living teeth and brawn. The brains were out;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Head, a cracked egg-shell leaking on the grass.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus in a heap to mother earth they came,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Both quick and dead; and then the great cat sought</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His grim, familiar, ghastly after-game;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But he had hit too hard and spoiled his sport.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He drew and coaxed with hooked and playful paws,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hoping to find the life had not quite gone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And moved by those infernal, feline laws,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That made him frolic when his work was done.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For oft his perishing food would feebly strive,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Driven by life’s undying hope, and led</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To struggle still from death while yet alive;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But his first man the tiger found was dead.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And when the conqueror tasted, his rough tongue</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thrilled a new, joyous lust into his brain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the soft, furless stuff his palate stung</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With mad, delicious twang—oft, oft again</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would he smell up the wind for such another.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He hoped the dainty creatures went in packs,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And that his prey had kids and many a brother</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To steal at cool of evening on his tracks.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He gaped and gripped the mangled clod of earth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Under its ribs, heaved up a muzzle white,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sounded a grunt, that seemed akin to mirth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And bore his dripping coolie out of sight.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So to his mate, and as the cross-cut saws</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bite upon teak with backward, forward hiss,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He purred, then dropped the banquet from his jaws</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And woke the tigress with a bloody kiss.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Eyes shut, heads sideway, cheek by cheek they ate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To sound of squash and gulch and cracking bone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Deciding swiftly, as they fed, the fate</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the two love songs. They were deftly sewn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Within the compass of a gold-cloth bag,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tied with a silken cord, stamped with a seal.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The tiger crunched and gulped the sodden rag</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With all the other mysteries of his meal.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For, while a poem himself, he was no poet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Being devoid of vision, wit, or ruth;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But many who live poetry, never know it</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And would be much surprised to learn the truth.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sated at last, they sauntered forth to find</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A water-hole; but as they washed their jowls</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And cleaned their whiskers, sudden on the wind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Broke din of brass and drums and human howls.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For there had gone another runner by,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And smelt the blood and seen the reeking trail,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And flown, and shouted “Bagh!” and raised the cry</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That tiger were again upon the vale.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From jungle edge they peered and torches red</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Turned each bewildered eye into a gem</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of glinting emerald—then sudden dread</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awoke at flash of fire, unknown to them.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fear touched their primitive hearts; they ran and roared,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awakening old echoes down the glade;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shoulder to shoulder from the gleam abhorred</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They padded, wondering to be afraid.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until no blink of the accursed thing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tortured the night, they galloped, sweating hot,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then, all unknowing what the day would bring,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They stopped and sulked and snarled; and so forgot.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Anon they sleep, nor guess the dawn shall see,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of hunters white and beaters brown, some score</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Surround them in a circle steadfastly,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To set the cosmos on its feet once more.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They sleep, nor dream the pangs of “dum-dum” lead</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That wait on sunrise, when they two shall feel</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All they have measured to uncounted dead,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And suffer sentences without appeal.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon their mighty necks will dance the feet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the unpelted things that lay them low;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For of the fruit forbidden did they eat</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And both must go where the bad tigers go.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>To the trumpeting of elephants and blaze of morning light,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>To the nosing rifle barrels, to the stinking of cordite,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>With a crash and smash and struggle and a yell their tale is told;</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Death blots the shining ebony and orange-tawny gold.</i></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_PUDDLE"> + THE PUDDLE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I cursed the puddle when I found</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unseeing I had walked therein,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forgetting the uneven ground,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Because my eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were on the skies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To glean their glory and to win</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The sunset’s trembling ecstasies.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And then I marked the puddle’s face,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When still and quiet grown again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was but concerned, as I, to trace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The wonder spread</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Above its head,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And mark and mirror and contain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The gold and purple, rose and red.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VISION"> + VISION + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There have been seers of olden time who said,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When dreaming men are rapt into the state</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where only shadow people congregate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That never may they see the faces of their dead.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But I have seen the faces I have lost,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And none so clear and none so shadowless</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In all that moonshine dance and frolic stress</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of dream futility, as some I loved the most.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Not as I knew him last my brother stood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A man upon whose kindly face a stain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lay in the letters of life’s care and pain;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But as a little lad, when all the world was good.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">High in the darkness of a pine, elate</div> + <div class="verse indent0">About our long-forgotten forest play,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hung, where he had found a squirrel’s dray:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For I was twelve again, and he was only eight.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I saw his boyhood’s look, as bright and fair</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As ever shone from huddle of a dream;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Reality’s own self shall never seem</div> + <div class="verse indent0">More real than his young laugh and flaxen, Saxon hair.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And waking old, I blessed the memory</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of my child-brother’s unforgotten face,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thanking, as it had been a deed of grace,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The tenderness of dreams that brought him back to me.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_GALLIPOLI"> + IN GALLIPOLI + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There is a fold of lion-coloured earth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With stony feet in the Ægean blue,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whereon of old dwelt loneliness and dearth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sun-scorched and desolate; and when there flew</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The winds of winter in those dreary aisles</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of crag and cliff, a whirling snow-wreath bound</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The foreheads of the mountains, and their miles</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of frowning precipice and scarp were wound</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With stilly white, that peered through brooding mist profound.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But now the myrtle and the rosemary,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The mastic and the rue, the scented thyme</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With fragrant fingers gladdening the grey,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall kindle on a desert grown sublime.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Henceforth that haggard land doth guard and hold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The treasure of a sovereign nation’s womb—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her fame, her worth, her pride, her purest gold.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, call ye not the sleeping place a tomb</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That lifts to heaven’s light such everlasting bloom.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They stretch, now high, now low, the little scars</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon the rugged pelt of herb and stone;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Above them sparkle bells and buds and stars</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Young Spring hath from her emerald kirtle thrown.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Asphodel, crocus and anemone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With silver, azure, crimson once again</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ray all that earth, and from the murmuring sea</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Come winds to flash the leaves on shore and plain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where evermore our dead—our radiant dead shall reign.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Imperishable as the mountain height</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That marks their place afar, their numbers shine,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who with the first-fruits of a joyful might</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To human liberty another shrine</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Here sanctified; nor vainly have they sped</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That made this desert dearer far than home,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And left one sanctuary more to tread</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For England, whose memorial pathways roam</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beside her hero sons, beneath the field and foam.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THEN_AND_NOW"> + THEN AND NOW + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When I was young and leapt into the Spring—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">An eager, quick-eyed, all-inquiring thing—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hunted wood and valley, sea and shore</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet knew not how to feel the wonders that I saw.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Now am I old and creep into the Spring—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A grey-haired, dim-eyed, still inquiring thing.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By ancient ways, a shadow, still I steal,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet know not how to see the wonders that I feel.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Come Youth again, while to another Spring</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My memories the old adventure bring.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wonder and wander yet once more with me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ll teach you how to feel, and you my eyes shall be.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VIGIL"> + VIGIL + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There is a glen beneath a lonely hill,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the deep tangles of the red brake fern</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Huddle to death and beautifully burn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While maiden birches flame along the sunset still.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Like morning lamps they fade; their gold expires</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Among the silvery shadows of each stem.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Delicious light gently departs from them</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where winter bloweth out the autumn’s final fires.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Furzes, all agate-budded for the spring,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hedge round about the coomb and, higher still,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A mist of naked branches hides the hill,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And pines bring warmth and scent and dusky sheltering.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How oft have I within this vernal wood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Watched the green mantle and the sweet sap mount.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Trees are mine own familiars; them I count</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Among the changeless hearts that make my chiefest good.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How often, when the first of blossoms come,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Do I behold the opening of their eyes.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mine is the worship; theirs the shy surprise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I so well should know each punctual haunt and home.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here have I watched full many a night from far</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like lover shadowy, ere set of sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dark-eyed steal hither, and when day was done,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mist meet the gentle moon; dew, the eternal star.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Once more the stroke of every madcap wind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Doth shake the bough and dash the ripe fruit down,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or shower red leaves and berries for a crown,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">October’s stormy hair to glorify and bind.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Again I see; again I sigh to see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The fading, flaming year sink to her end,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Another summer—sure another friend—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Decline and die and pass with music solemnly.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Farewell, ye happy, rainbow-winged hours;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The autumn’s dew and bitter, silver breath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall freeze your rosy feet, and strike to death</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your spirits where ye drowse amid the withered flowers.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Farewell ye domes and canopies of June</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Raining upon the earth in red and gold;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hiding the sodden bosom of the wold;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Flying like little ghosts, beneath the hunter’s moon.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Beside the passing year my watch I keep</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And mark the sad-eyed gloamings steal away,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And feel the low and lemon light of day</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fade, like an aching care, upon the fringe of sleep.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="DARTMOOR_NIGHT"> + DARTMOOR NIGHT + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Now twilight spreads her cool and amber plume,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Descending on the solitudes until</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All detail dies: the valley and the hill</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Together darkling roll and merge into the gloom.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Faints the far emerald west and day is done;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">White Venus, throbbing on the dusky gold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Swings out her lamp above the weald and wold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While little, earth-born flames make answer one by one.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A child upon her mighty mother’s breast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Earth cuddles in the bosom of old Night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who, gathering coomb and woodland, heath and height,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Opens her dewy wings to hide their dreamless rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The mists are trailing grey by watersmeet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Night-hidden in the forest far below,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And where their pearly-paven vapours flow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Huntress upward steals to find her starry seat.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Her waxing splendours over moss and mire</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Flood fen and barrow, reeve and pool and burn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The lone, high tors, the tracks that wind and turn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the quartz crystal shines with dim and tremulous fire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She marks the stone-man’s lodges empty lie;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The broken folds, the tinner’s delving place;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She lights the cairn, the cross, the faltering trace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of bygone dead who homed in this immensity.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">From cottage window fades the ruby gem</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And glimmer moonbeams only; while the moon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mounting to heaven upon her silver shoon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A sovereign sceptre holds and wears the diadem.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O Queen of sleep and silence, thou shalt reign,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With lustral glory poured to soothe and bless</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The least small life in all the wilderness,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till morning stars awake and sing the dawn again.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_FRUIT_OF_THE_TREE"> + THE FRUIT OF THE TREE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The seraphim, beneath their burning blades,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Moved in a wave of light; while overhead</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gleamed the pale moon, a ghost behind the tongues</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of all those flaming swords; and rearward crept</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The brutes of Paradise—the tiger, ounce,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The leopard and the minions of the night.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stealthy they stalked, with growls that showed the fang,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While in a broken thread of fiery beads,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Golden and green and ruby, through the dark,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fierce glowed their eyes behind that angel host.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And now they roared for mingled grief and fear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Because, before the moving seraphim,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Flung out for ever from the dingles deep</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And all those pleasant places of sweet shade</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beside the rivers and beneath the trees,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Two, whom the great cats loved, were driven forth.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bewildered and disgraced, the primal pair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Now glimmering with moonlight on their heads</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And streaks of flickered gold that splashed along</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their thighs and backs, reflected from the swords,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Together went. Hand clasped in hand they moved</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before the marching angels, till at last</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The confines of the only home they knew</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were reached and the soft herbage made an end.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over their heads the tracery of trees</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ceased, and the naked moon among her stars</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hung in the nightly sky and threw a light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cold as grey ashes, on the earth beneath.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Starkly the desert struck upon their toes</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> <div class="verse indent0">With harsh and flinty welcome; Eve’s right foot,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Set down upon a thistle, cried to her</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of a new grief; she moaned in pain, and he,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Adam, with tenderness bent down to it</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And licked the blood that sparkled on her skin</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In drops the moonlight robbed of sanguine stain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And turned to bright, black pearls. Thus driven forth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were they for their transgression, and the guard</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Took open order on the fringe of Eden,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Against whose frontier dark the sentinels</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stood silently, lit by their burning swords,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To hold the garden precincts; while between</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Each seraph and his neighbour still peeped out</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The creatures of the earth and howled farewell</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To those white things that had befriended them,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And taught their cubs to play in Paradise.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They crouched and lashed their tails and shook the night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That Eve and Adam to the wilderness</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Should pass away without one lynx or pard</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To purr beside them. All would have rushed forth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But that the ring of fire struck on their hearts</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And sent them snarling back. For there had been</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A precious bond, a close and curious link</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Twixt Adam and his partner and the brutes—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A harmony of happiness and peace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Now vanished from the earth. But then, indeed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The first man and his woman stood so near</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To all their neighbours, sharing their delights</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And moving in that new-made world so nigh</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To beast and bird and saurian, that they—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The conscious creatures—knowing little more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than woodland wisdom shared with all the rest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Guessed not the gap between. Had ape or sloth</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Broke heavenly ordinance and ate the Fruit,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then had they been the lords of good and ill,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And haply ruled the kingdoms of the earth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With kinder wit than man. Yet it fell out</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The creatures in the image of their God</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Won the beasts’ homage by their shapes upright,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet shared their subjects’ ignorance. The stag,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The tawny bear, the elephant, the wolf,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The monkey folk and all the greater fowls,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Composed their theme and filled their human minds</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With fascination. And betwixt themselves,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When Adam spoke to Eve or she to him,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their converse was abrupt and cynical,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Untinged by human ruth, or tender care</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Each for the other’s inner happiness.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when the shadows lengthened and their God</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Walked for awhile between them through the cool</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of dewy evenings, in their simple way,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They chattered to Him of the names they gave</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unto the great gier-eagle on the crag,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or hippo, with his mighty nose asnort</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Above the mud of Paradise. And He</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would listen with celestial gravity</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And go His way again. The couple lacked</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Much food for thought; indeed, they never thought;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For what had they to think about beside</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The living present and the daily joy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of food and drink and sleep, and playtime shared</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With lesser things as beautiful as they?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus did they live through days not fuller fraught</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With care and vision of to-morrow’s dawn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than their companions of the hoof and pad</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And claw and shining wing. Their mingled life</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Was neither more complete nor beautiful</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than that of the striped tiger and his mate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who dwelt together in a porphyry den</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A stone’s throw from the holt that Adam wove</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of living boughs and green wood broken down</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wherein to sleep by Eve. The very birds—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The warbler and the chaffinch and the wren,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or the red mouse that loved the seeding grass—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Built snugger homes than they; and they would laugh</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And wonder how the little, busy things,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Having no hands, could weave so close and true;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or how the spider lined her nest with silk</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To hold her pearly eggs. And when they slept</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They dreamed of good to-morrows and no more,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such as the children dream.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent24">Then came to them</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The scorching breath of knowledge, and their jest:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To make God laugh when He should come and see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Them clad with leaves and flowers, as their friends</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were clothed with pelt and feathers—their poor jest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When they perceived them naked, brought them down</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And cast them out into another world</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the joys of Eden.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent24">That first night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their incipient spirits wept some mournful while,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till the moon sank upon a dreary rim</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of desolation and they watched the stars</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sink to earth’s edge and vanish one by one,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like tears that stole adown night’s cheek; and then</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They turned to look again where Paradise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lay in a purple shadow on the east</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Under her palms and mountains; while along</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Those far-flung boundaries dim sparks of fire</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Twinkled to mark the soldier angels stand.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Adam at last, in hollow of a dune,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose horrent hair along its crest sprang up</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In withered bents, a place of shelter found</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the night wind came not; and there the man</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His limping partner brought, then laid her down</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To sleep till day; but it was keen and chill</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, finding that Eve slumbered, Adam came</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As close as he well might to warm his blood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And draw a little of her golden mane</div> + <div class="verse indent0">About his frozen bosom.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent22">Thus they slept,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until there broke on earth another day,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose light unwitting touched a wondrous sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">More pregnant and more precious to the world</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than Earth until that dayspring hour had known.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For when young Eve awakened, from her eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Flashed a new glory, something that till now</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had never trembled in those azure deeps;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, with her arms about her dreaming man,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She called to him, and he arose to see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A change in her fair face, the which he read</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In light of his own quickening. Her voice</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Proclaimed a new evangel from her heart,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And full upon the thin and desert air</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Poured in the ear of Adam such sweet words</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That he forgot his hunger and his grief</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And looked at her, the dew in her bright hair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As subject on a queen.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent22">“My love!” she cried;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And since the word had never till that dawn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Set the air singing, he forgot all else</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And listened open-mouthed. “My own true love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dost thou not feel within thy bosom’s home</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A strange new spirit, born for me and thee?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dost thou not pant with such a joy that never,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until this daybreak on the wilderness,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy soul hath throbbed to feel? In that sharp grief,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While the white seraphim did drive us out,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I felt the first faint thrill that fought the grief,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when you bent and licked my wounded foot,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Even then there flashed to me a sudden bliss</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That ministered the pain!”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent22">“And I,” said he,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“If I had felt as now I feel—on fire</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With tender adoration for my Eve—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, then, I never should have played the coward</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And flung the blame on you, my better part,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But taken it myself. This light within,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That burns far brighter than the eastern sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Doth show how mean and vile and base a thing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I did to bleat that thou hadst tempted me;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For now I grow to something greater far,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">More wise and more discerning than before</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I ate the Fruit of the Tree. O would that I</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had claimed the punishment, as meet I should,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And been cast out and suffered happily</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Knowing that thou wert safe in Paradise;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For then had I but laughed at thorns and flint</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the cold night beneath the setting stars,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Knowing my Eve safe in our little lair.”</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> <div class="verse indent0">“Man, man!” she answered, “what our lair to me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And what all Eden and the golden sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Without my Adam? What the crystal founts</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And aubade of the birds in misty denes?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And what the morning mellowness of fruits,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or subtle, magic fragrance born by night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From moony blossoms, that obeyed the moon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And oped, all others shutting? Eden’s self</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had been this ugly desert spread for Eve</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Without thee; but beside thee, close and close,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Near as thy shadow, then these antres vast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And dreary vague of lion-coloured dust</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is paradise enough. For we have won</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From that thrice-blessed Fruit a dearer thing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than all the blossomy paths of Paradise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Knew how to offer. Through the taste of it</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We are become above the cherubim,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who never feel, beneath the rainbow light</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That dreams upon their bosoms, what a man</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And woman feel when love unveils their eyes.”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“We must tell God,” said Adam. “When He knows</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What hides within the amethystine rind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of that sweet globe forbidden, then will He</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Make haste to eat of it Himself, and so,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Touched by ineffable and sacred love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seek us, all naked in the desert sand,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With pity on His awful brow. And then</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Us will He soon forgive, for if He eats,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A tender, lambent flame of gentle ruth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Must burn within His everlasting Heart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And crown Him with pure mercy.” Thus the man;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And then the woman’s voice throbbed cheerfully.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Him will we tell how this that He denied</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Has lifted us above all lesser life</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And made us wiser than the seraphim,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who drove me forth so roughly that they scorched</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My shoulder with their swords. But this I know:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If Michael and his winged ones had ate</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From that kind fruit, as you and I did eat,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A gentle pity would have taught them sheathe</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their brands and made them weep to do us harm.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For what to them were we but beings twain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No better than the silly, little apes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That would not come to us from out the wood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until I tempted them with sugary fruits</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And almonds that they loved? But now, but now</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are we above all creatures lifted up</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And wedded into one—aye, wedded so</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That life for me is Adam, and for him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nothing but Eve. Let that our Maker hear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when He learns what now thou art to me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And I to thee, and what this lifeless dust</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And shadeless solitude do seem to be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With thy brown hand in mine, then will He know</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That we, His creatures, now have haply found</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A dearer and more precious Paradise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than all the hosts of Heaven yet thought upon.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Him we must tell, and from our wondrous cup</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He too shall drink, that He, our God, may know</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The blessed taste of mercy.”</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent24">“I will bid</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The seraphim to pray to Him for mates!”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cried Adam, in a fervour that all Heaven</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Should share the knowledge dazzling. “Yea, let Him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cast down his hosts in slumber and withdraw</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> <div class="verse indent0">A woman angel from each winged side,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So that they cast away their writhing swords</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Far from them and rejoice, as we rejoice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To share a life with dearer life than theirs.”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They spurred each other on, and laughed to think</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the divine delight when God should hear</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their wondrous rede; and then together turned</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where Paradise, like a low silver cloud,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fretted the dawn. But now to them there flew</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Out of the waxing sky a messenger,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who bade them keep their faces to the void</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And nevermore approach the sinless paths</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their innocent feet had trod before they fell.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Wisdom hath spoken, and it is decreed”—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With unimpassioned voice the angel spoke—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“That now ye thieves of wisdom through your span</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall suffer first and bear the eternal fruit</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of your unnatural sin. And when the years</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have worn and withered you and broke you down,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since Time hath now dominion over you,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then shall you die and turn again to dust</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From which the Almighty, in too generous mood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Did lift you up. Begone—your way lies there!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And know that since the parents’ sin must be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On children visited for evermore,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ye shall have seed and bring the race of man</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon this earth to taste the bitter drink</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That ye have brewed for every human lip.”</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“But we have much to tell our God!” cried Eve;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While he, the servant of Omnipotence,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With level tones indifferent, broke to them</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That never more their Maker should they see.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thereon he spread his wings, and in the light</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Of the red morning opened, petal-wise,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His gorgeous pinions, like a new-born flower</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All opal tinted. So he flew away,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And soon was lost to sight upon the clouds</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That day had fringed with fire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent26">A little while</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The pair stood very silent; then young Eve,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mother of all men, from her wide blue eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shaking the tear, that like a diamond hung</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One moment on her lashes, smiled and set</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her arms about our primal father’s neck.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Be of good cheer; we have each other still,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My own brave heart!” said she; “and what this death</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall prove, concerning which the angel spake,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We know not and we fear not; for ’tis sure</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That death can never be so strong, or good,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or radiant and enduring and supreme</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As love, that we have won to light our way</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And guide us through all deserts and all griefs.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And since He will not let us speak to Him,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or tell Him of our treasure, it shall flow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For babes and sucklings. With their mother’s milk</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ll teach my little children how to love.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="WHERE_MY_TREASURE_IS"> + WHERE MY TREASURE IS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Eternal Mother, when my race is run,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Will that I pass beneath the risen sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Suffer my sight to dim upon some spot</div> + <div class="verse indent10">That changes not.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Let my last pillow be the land I love</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With fair infinity of blue above;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The roaming shadow of a silver cloud,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">My only shroud.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A little lark above the morning star,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall shrill the tidings of my end afar;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The muffled music of a lone sheep-bell</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Shall be my knell.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And where stone heroes trod the Moor of old;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where ancient wolf howled round a granite fold;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hide thou, beneath the heather’s new-born light,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">My endless night.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78234 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78234-h/images/cover.jpg b/78234-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a10f1c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/78234-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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