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-                          THE DAFFODIL FIELDS
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
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-
-Title: The Daffodil Fields
-Author: John Masefield
-Release Date: November 23, 2012 [EBook #41466]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAFFODIL FIELDS ***
-
-
-
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41466 ***
 
 Produced by Al Haines.
 
@@ -2700,377 +2678,4 @@ which form the keynotes of his poetry."--_N. Y. Globe_.
 
               Publishers -- 64-66 Fifth Avenue -- New York
 
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-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAFFODIL FIELDS ***
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41466 ***
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-                          THE DAFFODIL FIELDS
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-
-
-Title: The Daffodil Fields
-Author: John Masefield
-Release Date: November 23, 2012 [EBook #41466]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAFFODIL FIELDS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Al Haines.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Cover]
-
-
-
-
-                          THE DAFFODIL FIELDS
-
-
-                                   BY
-                             JOHN MASEFIELD
-
-            AUTHOR OF "THE EVERLASTING MERCY," "THE WIDOW IN
-                    THE BYE STREET," "THE STORY OF A
-                           ROUND-HOUSE," ETC.
-
-
-
-                                New York
-                         THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
-                                  1915
-
-                         _All rights reserved_
-
-
-
-
-                            COPYRIGHT, 1918,
-                           BY JOHN MASEFIELD.
-
-            Set up and electrotyped.  Published March, 1913.
-             Reprinted July, December, 1913; August, 1915.
-
-
-
-                             Norwood Press
-                J. S. Cushing Co. -- Berwick & Smith Co.
-                         Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
-
-
-
-
-                          THE DAFFODIL FIELDS
-
-
-                                   I
-
-Between the barren pasture and the wood
-There is a patch of poultry-stricken grass,
-Where, in old time, Ryemeadows' Farmhouse stood,
-And human fate brought tragic things to pass.
-A spring comes bubbling up there, cold as glass,
-It bubbles down, crusting the leaves with lime,
-Babbling the self-same song that it has sung through time.
-
-Ducks gobble at the selvage of the brook,
-But still it slips away, the cold hill-spring,
-Past the Ryemeadows' lonely woodland nook
-Where many a stubble gray-goose preens her wing,
-On, by the woodland side.  You hear it sing
-Past the lone copse where poachers set their wires,
-Past the green hill once grim with sacrificial fires.
-
-Another water joins it; then it turns,
-Runs through the Ponton Wood, still turning west,
-Past foxgloves, Canterbury bells, and ferns,
-And many a blackbird's, many a thrush's nest;
-The cattle tread it there; then, with a zest
-It sparkles out, babbling its pretty chatter
-Through Foxholes Farm, where it gives white-faced cattle water.
-
-Under the road it runs, and now it slips
-Past the great ploughland, babbling, drop and linn,
-To the moss'd stumps of elm trees which it lips,
-And blackberry-bramble-trails where eddies spin.
-Then, on its left, some short-grassed fields begin,
-Red-clayed and pleasant, which the young spring fills
-With the never-quiet joy of dancing daffodils.
-
-There are three fields where daffodils are found;
-The grass is dotted blue-gray with their leaves;
-Their nodding beauty shakes along the ground
-Up to a fir-clump shutting out the eaves
-Of an old farm where always the wind grieves
-High in the fir boughs, moaning; people call
-This farm The Roughs, but some call it the Poor Maid's Hall.
-
-There, when the first green shoots of tender corn
-Show on the plough; when the first drift of white
-Stars the black branches of the spiky thorn,
-And afternoons are warm and evenings light,
-The shivering daffodils do take delight,
-Shaking beside the brook, and grass comes green,
-And blue dog-violets come and glistening celandine.
-
-And there the pickers come, picking for town
-Those dancing daffodils; all day they pick;
-Hard-featured women, weather-beaten brown,
-Or swarthy-red, the colour of old brick.
-At noon they break their meats under the rick.
-The smoke of all three farms lifts blue in air
-As though man's passionate mind had never suffered there.
-
-And sometimes as they rest an old man comes,
-Shepherd or carter, to the hedgerow-side,
-And looks upon their gangrel tribe, and hums,
-And thinks all gone to wreck since master died;
-And sighs over a passionate harvest-tide
-Which Death's red sickle reaped under those hills,
-There, in the quiet fields among the daffodils.
-
-When this most tragic fate had time and place,
-And human hearts and minds to show it by,
-Ryemeadows' Farmhouse was in evil case:
-Its master, Nicholas Gray, was like to die.
-He lay in bed, watching the windy sky,
-Where all the rooks were homing on slow wings,
-Cawing, or blackly circling in enormous rings.
-
-With a sick brain he watched them; then he took
-Paper and pen, and wrote in straggling hand
-(Like spider's legs, so much his fingers shook)
-Word to the friends who held the adjoining land,
-Bidding them come; no more he could command
-His fingers twitching to the feebling blood;
-He watched his last day's sun dip down behind the wood,
-
-While all his life's thoughts surged about his brain:
-Memories and pictures clear, and faces known--
-Long dead, perhaps; he was a child again,
-Treading a threshold in the dark alone.
-Then back the present surged, making him moan.
-He asked if Keir had come yet.  "No," they said.
-"Nor Occleve?"  "No."  He moaned: "Come soon or I'll be dead."
-
-The names like live things wandered in his mind:
-"Charles Occleve of The Roughs," and "Rowland Keir--
-Keir of the Foxholes"; but his brain was blind,
-A blind old alley in the storm of the year,
-Baffling the traveller life with "No way here,"
-For all his lantern raised; life would not tread
-Within that brain again, along those pathways red.
-
-Soon all was dimmed but in the heaven one star.
-"I'll hold to that," he said; then footsteps stirred.
-Down in the court a voice said, "Here they are,"
-And one, "He's almost gone."  The sick man heard.
-"Oh God, be quick," he moaned.  "Only one word.
-Keir!  Occleve!  Let them come.  Why don't they come?
-Why stop to tell them that?--the devil strike you dumb.
-
-"I'm neither doll nor dead; come in, come in.
-Curse you, you women, quick," the sick man flamed.
-"I shall be dead before I can begin.
-A sick man's womaned-mad, and nursed and damed."
-Death had him by the throat; his wrath was tamed.
-"Come in," he fumed; "stop muttering at the door."
-The friends came in; a creaking ran across the floor.
-
-"Now, Nick, how goes it, man?" said Occleve.  "Oh,"
-The dying man replied, "I am dying; past;
-Mercy of God, I die, I'm going to go.
-But I have much to tell you if I last.
-Come near me, Occleve, Keir.  I am sinking fast,
-And all my kin are coming; there, look there.
-All the old, long dead Grays are moving in the air.
-
-"It is my Michael that I called you for:
-My son, abroad, at school still, over sea.
-See if that hag is listening at the door.
-No?  Shut the door; don't lock it, let it be.
-No faith is kept to dying men like me.
-I am dipped deep and dying, bankrupt, done;
-I leave not even a farthing to my lovely son.
-
-"Neighbours, these many years our children played,
-Down in the fields together, down the brook;
-Your Mary, Keir, the girl, the bonny maid,
-And Occleve's Lion, always at his book;
-Them and my Michael: dear, what joy they took
-Picking the daffodils; such friends they've been--
-My boy and Occleve's boy and Mary Keir for queen.
-
-"I had made plans; but I am done with, I.
-Give me the wine.  I have to ask you this:
-I can leave Michael nothing, and I die.
-By all our friendship used to be and is,
-Help him, old friends.  Don't let my Michael miss
-The schooling I've begun.  Give him his chance.
-He does not know I am ill; I kept him there in France.
-
-"Saving expense; each penny counts.  Oh, friends,
-Help him another year; help him to take
-His full diploma when the training ends,
-So that my ruin won't be his.  Oh, make
-This sacrifice for our old friendship's sake,
-And God will pay you; for I see God's hand
-Pass in most marvellous ways on souls: I understand
-
-"How just rewards are given for man's deeds
-And judgment strikes the soul.  The wine there, wine.
-Life is the daily thing man never heeds.
-It is ablaze with sign and countersign.
-Michael will not forget: that son of mine
-Is a rare son, my friends; he will go far.
-I shall behold his course from where the blessed are."
-
-"Why, Nick," said Occleve, "come, man.  Gather hold.
-Rouse up.  You've given way.  If times are bad,
-Times must be bettering, master; so be bold;
-Lift up your spirit, Nicholas, and be glad.
-Michael's as much to me as my dear lad.
-I'll see he takes his school."  "And I," said Keir.
-"Set you no keep by that, but be at rest, my dear.
-
-"We'll see your Michael started on the road."
-"But there," said Occleve, "Nick's not going to die.
-Out of the ruts, good nag, now; zook the load.
-Pull up, man.  Death!  Death and the fiend defy.
-We'll bring the farm round for you, Keir and I.
-Put heart at rest and get your health."  "Ah, no,"
-The sick man faintly answered, "I have got to go."
-
-Still troubled in his mind, the sick man tossed.
-"Old friends," he said, "I once had hoped to see
-Mary and Michael wed, but fates are crossed,
-And Michael starts with nothing left by me.
-Still, if he loves her, will you let it be?
-So in the grave, maybe, when I am gone,
-I'll know my hope fulfilled, and see the plan go on."
-
-"I judge by hearts, not money," answered Keir.
-"If Michael suits in that and suits my maid,
-I promise you, let Occleve witness here
-He shall be free for me to drive his trade.
-Free, ay, and welcome, too.  Be not afraid,
-I'll stand by Michael as I hope some friend
-Will stand beside my girl in case my own life end."
-
-"And I," said Occleve; but the sick man seemed
-Still ill at ease.  "My friends," he said, "my friends,
-Michael may come to all that I have dreamed,
-But he's a wild yarn full of broken ends.
-So far his life in France has made amends.
-God grant he steady so; but girls and drink
-Once brought him near to hell, aye, to the very brink.
-
-"There is a running vein of wildness in him:
-Wildness and looseness both, which vices make
-That woman's task a hard one who would win him:
-His life depends upon the course you take.
-He is a fiery-mettled colt to break,
-And one to curb, one to be curbed, remember."
-The dying voice died down, the fire left the ember.
-
-But once again it flamed.  "Ah me," he cried;
-"Our secret sins take body in our sons,
-To haunt our age with what we put aside.
-I was a devil for the women once.
-He is as I was.  Beauty like the sun's;
-Within, all water; minded like the moon.
-Go now.  I sinned.  I die.  I shall be punished soon."
-
-The two friends tiptoed to the room below.
-There, till the woman came to them, they told
-Of brave adventures in the long ago,
-Ere Nick and they had thought of growing old;
-Snipe-shooting in the marshlands in the cold,
-Old soldiering days as yeomen, days at fairs,
-Days that had sent Nick tired to those self-same chairs.
-
-They vowed to pay the schooling for his son.
-They talked of Michael, testing men's report,
-How the young student was a lively one,
-Handsome and passionate both, and fond of sport,
-Eager for fun, quick-witted in retort.
-The girls' hearts quick to see him cocking by,
-Young April on a blood horse, with a roving eye.
-
-And, as they talked about the lad, Keir asked
-If Occleve's son had not, at one time, been
-Heartsick for Mary, though with passion masked.
-"Ay," Occleve said: "Time was.  At seventeen.
-It took him hard, it ran his ribs all lean,
-All of a summer; but it passed, it died.
-Her fancying Michael better touched my Lion's pride."
-
-Mice flickered from the wainscot to the press,
-Nibbling at crumbs, rattling to shelter, squeaking.
-Each ticking in the clock's womb made life less;
-Oil slowly dropped from where the lamp was leaking.
-At times the old nurse set the staircase creaking,
-Harked to the sleeper's breath, made sure, returned,
-Answered the questioning eyes, then wept.  The great stars burned.
-
-"Listen," said Occleve, "listen, Rowland.  Hark."
-"It's Mary, come with Lion," answered Keir:
-"They said they'd come together after dark."
-He went to door and called "Come in, my dear."
-The burning wood log blazed with sudden cheer,
-So that a glowing lighted all the room.
-His daughter Mary entered from the outer gloom.
-
-The wind had brought the blood into her cheek,
-Heightening her beauty, but her great grey eyes
-Were troubled with a fear she could not speak.
-Firm, scarlet lips she had, not made for lies.
-Gentle she seemed, pure-natured, thoughtful, wise,
-And when she asked what turn the sickness took,
-Her voice's passing pureness on a low note shook.
-
-Young Lion Occleve entered at her side,
-A well-built, clever man, unduly grave,
-One whose repute already travelled wide
-For skill in breeding beasts.  His features gave
-Promise of brilliant mind, far-seeing, brave,
-One who would travel far.  His manly grace
-Grew wistful when his eyes were turned on Mary's face.
-
-"Tell me," said Mary, "what did doctor say?
-How ill is he?  What chance of life has he?
-The cowman said he couldn't last the day,
-And only yesterday he joked with me."
-"We must be meek," the nurse said; "such things be."
-"There's little hope," said Keir; "he's dying, sinking."
-"Dying without his son," the young girl's heart was thinking.
-
-"Does Michael know?" she asked.  "Has he been called?"
-A slow confusion reddened on the faces,
-As when one light neglect leaves friends appalled.
-"No time to think," said nurse, "in such like cases."
-Old Occleve stooped and fumbled with his laces.
-"Let be," he said; "there's always time for sorrow.
-He could not come in time; he shall be called to-morrow."
-
-"There is a chance," she cried, "there always is.
-Poor Mr. Gray might rally, might live on.
-Oh, I must telegraph to tell him this.
-Would it were day still and the message gone."
-She rose, her breath came fast, her grey eyes shone.
-She said, "Come, Lion; see me through the wood.
-Michael must know."  Keir sighed.  "Girl, it will do no good.
-
-"Our friend is on the brink and almost passed."
-"All the more need," she said, "for word to go;
-Michael could well arrive before the last.
-He'd see his father's face at least.  I know
-The office may be closed; but even so,
-Father, I must.  Come, Lion."  Out they went,
-Into the roaring woodland where the saplings bent.
-
-Like breakers of the sea the leafless branches
-Swished, bowing down, rolling like water, roaring
-Like the sea's welcome when the clipper launches
-And full affronted tideways call to warring.
-Daffodils glimmered underfoot, the flooring
-Of the earthy woodland smelt like torn-up moss;
-Stones in the path showed white, and rabbits ran across.
-
-They climbed the rise and struck into the ride,
-Talking of death, while Lion, sick at heart,
-Thought of the woman walking at his side,
-And as he talked his spirit stood apart,
-Old passion for her made his being smart,
-Rankling within.  Her thought for Michael ran
-Like glory and like poison through his inner man.
-
-"This will break Michael's heart," he said at length.
-"Poor Michael," she replied; "they wasted hours.
-He loved his father so.  God give him strength.
-This is a cruel thing this life of ours."
-The windy woodland glimmered with shut flowers,
-White wood anemones that the wind blew down.
-The valley opened wide beyond the starry town.
-
-"Ten," clanged out of the belfry.  Lion stayed
-One hand upon a many-carven bole.
-"Mary," he said.  "Dear, my beloved maid,
-I love you, dear one, from my very soul."
-Her beauty in the dusk destroyed control.
-"Mary, my dear, I've loved you all these years."
-"Oh, Lion, no," she murmured, choking back her tears.
-
-"I love you," he repeated.  "Five years since
-This thing began between us: every day
-Oh sweet, the thought of you has made me wince;
-The thought of you, my sweet, the look, the way.
-It's only you, whether I work or pray,
-You and the hope of you, sweet you, dear you.
-I never spoke before; now it has broken through.
-
-"Oh, my beloved, can you care for me?"
-She shook her head.  "Oh, hush, oh, Lion dear,
-Don't speak of love, for it can never be
-Between us two, never, however near.
-Come on, my friend, we must not linger here."
-White to the lips she spoke; he saw her face
-White in the darkness by him in the windy place.
-
-"Mary, in time you could, perhaps," he pleaded.
-"No," she replied, "no, Lion; never, no."
-Over the stars the boughs burst and receded.
-The nobleness of Love comes in Love's woe.
-"God bless you then, beloved, let us go.
-Come on," he said, "and if I gave you pain,
-Forget it, dear; be sure I never will again."
-
-They stepped together down the ride, their feet
-Slipped on loose stones.  Little was said; his fate,
-Staked on a kingly cast, had met defeat.
-Nothing remained but to endure and wait.
-She was still wonderful, and life still great.
-Great in that bitter instant side by side,
-Hallowed by thoughts of death there in the blinded ride.
-
-He heard her breathing by him, saw her face
-Dim, looking straight ahead; her feet by his
-Kept time beside him, giving life a grace;
-Night made the moment full of mysteries.
-"You are beautiful," he thought; "and life is this:
-Walking a windy night while men are dying,
-To cry for one to come, and none to heed our crying."
-
-"Mary," he said, "are you in love with him,
-With Michael?  Tell me.  We are friends, we three."
-They paused to face each other in the dim.
-"Tell me," he urged.  "Yes, Lion," answered she;
-"I love him, but he does not care for me.
-I trust your generous mind, dear; now you know,
-You, who have been my brother, how our fortunes go.
-
-"Now come; the message waits."  The heavens cleared,
-Cleared, and were starry as they trod the ride.
-Chequered by tossing boughs the moon appeared;
-A whistling reached them from the Hall House side;
-Climbing, the whistler came.  A brown owl cried.
-The whistler paused to answer, sending far
-That haunting, hunting note.  The echoes laughed Aha!
-
-Something about the calling made them start.
-Again the owl note laughed; the ringing cry
-Made the blood quicken within Mary's heart.
-Like a dead leaf a brown owl floated by.
-"Michael?" said Lion.  "Hush."  An owl's reply
-Came down the wind; they waited; then the man,
-Content, resumed his walk, a merry song began.
-
-"Michael," they cried together.  "Michael, you?"
-"Who calls?" the singer answered.  "Where away?
-Is that you, Mary?"  Then with glad halloo
-The singer ran to meet them on the way.
-It was their Michael; in the moonlight grey,
-They made warm welcome; under tossing boughs,
-They met and told the fate darkening Ryemeadows' House.
-
-As they returned at speed their comrade spoke
-Strangely and lightly of his coming home,
-Saying that leaving France had been a joke,
-But that events now proved him wise to come.
-Down the steep 'scarpment to the house they clomb,
-And Michael faltered in his pace; they heard
-How dumb rebellion in the much-wronged cattle stirred.
-
-And as they came, high, from the sick man's room,
-Old Gray burst out a-singing of the light
-Streaming upon him from the outer gloom,
-As his eyes dying gave him mental sight.
-"Triumphing swords," he carolled, "in the bright;
-Oh fire, Oh beauty fire," and fell back dead.
-Occleve took Michael up to kneel beside the bed.
-
-So the night passed; the noisy wind went down;
-The half-burnt moon her starry trackway rode.
-Then the first fire was lighted in the town,
-And the first carter stacked his early load.
-Upon the farm's drawn blinds the morning glowed;
-And down the valley, with little clucks and trills,
-The dancing waters danced by dancing daffodils.
-
-
-                                   II
-
-They buried Gray; his gear was sold; his farm
-Passed to another tenant.  Thus men go;
-The dropped sword passes to another arm,
-And different waters in the river flow.
-His two old faithful friends let Michael know
-His father's ruin and their promise.  Keir
-Brought him to stay at Foxholes till a path was clear.
-
-There, when the sale was over, all three met
-To talk about the future, and to find
-Upon what project Michael's heart was set.
-Gentle the two old men were, thoughtful, kind.
-They urged the youth to speak his inmost mind,
-For they would compass what he chose; they told
-How he might end his training; they would find the gold.
-
-"Thanks, but I cannot," Michael said.  He smiled.
-"Cannot.  They've kicked me out.  I've been expelled;
-Kicked out for good and all for being wild.
-They stopped our evening leave, and I rebelled.
-I am a gentle soul until compelled,
-And then I put my ears back.  The old fool
-Said that my longer presence might inflame the school.
-
-"And I am glad, for I have had my fill
-Of farming by the book with those old fools,
-Exhausted talkatives whose blood is still,
-Who strive to bind a living man with rules.
-This fettered kind of life, these laws, these schools,
-These codes, these checks, what are they but the clogs
-Made by collected sheep to mortify the dogs?
-
-"And I have had enough of them; and now
-I make an end of them.  I want to go
-Somewhere where man has never used a plough,
-Nor ever read a book; where clean winds blow,
-And passionate blood is not its owner's foe,
-And land is for the asking for it.  There
-Man can create a life and have the open air.
-
-"The River Plate's the country.  There, I know,
-A man like me can thrive.  There, on the range,
-The cattle pass like tides; they ebb and flow,
-And life is changeless in unending change,
-And one can ride all day, and all day strange,
-Strange, never trodden, fenceless, waiting there,
-To feed unending cattle for the men who dare.
-
-"There I should have a chance; this land's too old."
-Old Occleve grunted at the young man's mood;
-Keir, who was losing money, thought him bold,
-And thought the scheme for emigration good.
-He said that, if he wished to go, he should.
-South to the pampas, there to learn the trade.
-Old Occleve thought it mad, but no objection made.
-
-So it was settled that the lad should start,
-A place was found for him, a berth was taken;
-And Michael's beauty plucked at Mary's heart,
-And now the fabric of their lives was shaken:
-For now the hour's nearness made love waken
-In Michael's heart for Mary.  Now Time's guile
-Granted her passionate prayer, nor let her see his smile.
-
-Granted his greatest gifts; a night time came
-When the two walking down the water learned
-That life till then had only been a name;
-Love had unsealed their spirits: they discerned.
-Mutely, at moth time there, their spirits yearned.
-"I shall be gone three years, dear soul," he said.
-"Dear, will you wait for me?"  "I will," replied the maid.
-
-So troth was pledged between them.  Keir received
-Michael as Mary's suitor, feeling sure
-That the lad's fortunes would be soon retrieved,
-Having a woman's promise as a lure.
-The three years' wait would teach them to endure.
-He bade them love and prosper and be glad.
-And fast the day drew near that was to take the lad.
-
-Cowslips had come along the bubbling brook,
-Cowslips and oxlips rare, and in the wood
-The many-blossomed stalks of bluebells shook;
-The outward beauty fed their mental mood.
-Thought of the parting stabbed her as he wooed,
-Walking the brook with her, and day by day,
-The precious fortnight's grace dropped, wasted, slipped away.
-
-Till only one clear day remained to her:
-One whole clear, precious day, before he sailed.
-Some forty hours, no more, to minister
-To months of bleakness before which she quailed.
-Mist rose along the brook; the corncrake railed;
-Dim red the sunset burned.  He bade her come
-Into the wood with him; they went, the night came dumb.
-
-Still as high June, the very water's noise
-Seemed but a breathing of the earth; the flowers
-Stood in the dim like souls without a voice.
-The wood's conspiracy of occult powers
-Drew all about them, and for hours on hours
-No murmur shook the oaks, the stars did house
-Their lights like lamps upon those never-moving boughs.
-
-Under their feet the woodland sloped away
-Down to the valley, where the farmhouse lights
-Were sparks in the expanse the moon made grey.
-June's very breast was bare this night of nights.
-Moths blundered up against them, greys and whites
-Moved on the darkness where the moths were out,
-Nosing for sticky sweet with trembling uncurled snout.
-
-But all this beauty was but music played,
-While the high pageant of their hearts prepared.
-A spirit thrilled between them, man to maid,
-Mind flowed in mind, the inner heart was bared,
-They needed not to tell how much each cared;
-All the soul's strength was at the other's soul.
-Flesh was away awhile, a glory made them whole.
-
-Nothing was said by them; they understood,
-They searched each other's eyes without a sound,
-Alone with moonlight in the heart of the wood,
-Knowing the stars and all the soul of the ground.
-"Mary," he murmured.  "Come."  His arms went round,
-A white moth glimmered by, the woods were hushed;
-The rose at Mary's bosom dropped its petals, crushed.
-
-No word profaned the peace of that glad giving,
-But the warm dimness of the night stood still,
-Drawing all beauty to the point of living,
-There in the beech-tree's shadow on the hill.
-Spirit to spirit murmured; mingling will
-Made them one being; Time's decaying thought
-Fell from them like a rag; it was the soul they sought.
-
-The moonlight found an opening in the boughs;
-It entered in, it filled that sacred place
-With consecration on the throbbing brows;
-It came with benediction and with grace.
-A whispering came from face to yearning face:
-"Beloved, will you wait for me?"  "My own."
-"I shall be gone three years, you will be left alone;
-
-"You'll trust and wait for me?"  "Yes, yes," she sighed;
-She would wait any term of years, all time--
-So faithful to first love these souls abide,
-Carrying a man's soul with them as they climb.
-Life was all flower to them; the church bells' chime
-Rang out the burning hour ere they had sealed
-Love's charter there below the June sky's starry field.
-
-Sweetly the church bells' music reached the wood,
-Chiming an old slow tune of some old hymn,
-Calling them back to life from where they stood
-Under the moonlit beech-tree grey and dim.
-"Mary," he murmured; pressing close to him,
-Her kiss came on the gift he gave her there,
-A silken scarf that bore her name worked in his hair.
-
-But still the two affixed their hands and seals
-To a life compact witnessed by the sky,
-Where the great planets drove their glittering wheels,
-Bringing conflicting fate, making men die.
-They loved, and she would wait, and he would try.
-"Oh, beauty of my love," "My lovely man."
-So beauty made them noble for their little span.
-
-Time cannot pause, however dear the wooer;
-The moon declined, the sunrise came, the hours,
-Left to the lovers, dwindled swiftly fewer,
-Even as the seeds from dandelion-flowers
-Blow, one by one, until the bare stalk cowers,
-And the June grass grows over; even so
-Daffodil-picker Time took from their lives the glow,
-
-Stole their last walk along the three green fields,
-Their latest hour together; he took, he stole
-The white contentment that a true love yields;
-He took the triumph out of Mary's soul.
-Now she must lie awake and blow the coal
-Of sorrow of heart.  The parting hour came;
-They kissed their last good-bye, murmuring the other's name.
-
-Then the flag waved, the engine snorted, then
-Slowly the couplings tautened, and the train
-Moved, bearing off from her her man of men;
-She looked towards its going blind with pain.
-Her father turned and drove her home again.
-It was a different home.  Awhile she tried
-To cook the dinner there, but flung her down and cried.
-
-Then in the dusk she wandered down the brook,
-Treading again the trackway trod of old,
-When she could hold her loved one in a look.
-The night was all unlike those nights of gold.
-Michael was gone, and all the April old,
-Withered and hidden.  Life was full of ills;
-She flung her down and cried i' the withered daffodils
-
-
-                                  III
-
-The steaming river loitered like old blood
-On which the tugboat bearing Michael beat,
-Past whitened horse bones sticking in the mud.
-The reed stems looked like metal in the heat.
-Then the banks fell away, and there were neat,
-Red herds of sullen cattle drifting slow.
-A fish leaped, making rings, making the dead blood flow.
-
-Wormed hard-wood piles were driv'n in the river bank,
-The steamer threshed alongside with sick screws
-Churning the mud below her till it stank;
-Big gassy butcher-bubbles burst on the ooze.
-There Michael went ashore; as glad to lose
-One not a native there, the Gauchos flung
-His broken gear ashore, one waved, a bell was rung.
-
-The bowfast was cast off, the screw revolved,
-Making a bloodier bubbling; rattling rope
-Fell to the hatch, the engine's tune resolved
-Into its steadier beat of rise and slope;
-The steamer went her way; and Michael's hope
-Died as she lessened; he was there alone.
-The lowing of the cattle made a gradual moan.
-
-He thought of Mary, but the thought was dim;
-That was another life, lived long before.
-His mind was in new worlds which altered him.
-The startling present left no room for more.
-The sullen river lipped, the sky, the shore
-Were vaster than of old, and lonely, lonely.
-Sky and low hills of grass and moaning cattle only.
-
-But for a hut bestrewn with skulls of beeves,
-Round which the flies danced, where an Indian girl
-Bleared at him from her eyes' ophthalmic eaves,
-Grinning a welcome; with a throaty skirl,
-She offered him herself; but he, the churl,
-Stared till she thought him fool; she turned, she sat,
-Scratched in her short, black hair, chewed a cigar-end, spat.
-
-Up, on the rise, the cattle bunched; the bulls
-Drew to the front with menace, pawing bold,
-Snatching the grass-roots out with sudden pulls,
-The distant cattle raised their heads; the wold
-Grew dusty at the top; a waggon rolled,
-Drawn by a bickering team of mules whose eyes
-Were yellow like their teeth and bared and full of vice.
-
-Down to the jetty came the jingling team,
-An Irish cowboy driving, while a Greek
-Beside him urged the mules with blow and scream.
-They cheered the Indian girl and stopped to speak.
-Then lifting her aloft they kissed her cheek,
-Calling to Michael to be quick aboard,
-Or they (they said) would fall from virtue, by the Lord.
-
-So Michael climbed aboard, and all day long
-He drove the cattle range, rise after rise,
-Dotted with limber shorthorns grazing strong,
-Cropping sweet-tasted pasture, switching flies;
-Dull trouble brooded in their smoky eyes.
-Some horsemen watched them.  As the sun went down,
-The waggon reached the estancia builded like a town.
-
-With wide corrales where the horses squealed,
-Biting and lashing out; some half-wild hounds
-Gnawed at the cowbones littered on the field,
-Or made the stallions stretch their picket bounds.
-Some hides were drying; horsemen came from rounds,
-Unsaddled stiff, and turned their mounts to feed,
-And then brewed bitter drink and sucked it through a reed.
-
-The Irishman removed his pipe and spoke:
-"You take a fool's advice," he said.  "Return.
-Go back where you belong before you're broke;
-You'll spoil more clothes at this job than you'll earn;
-It's living death, and when you die you'll burn:
-Body and soul it takes you.  Quit it.  No?
-Don't say I never told you, then.  Amigos.  Ho.
-
-"Here comes a Gringo; make him pay his shot.
-Pay up your footing, Michael; rum's the word,
-It suits my genius, and I need a lot."
-So the great cauldron full was mixed and stirred.
-And all night long the startled cattle heard
-Shouting and shooting, and the moon beheld
-Mobs of dim, struggling men, who fired guns and yelled
-
-That they were Abel Brown just come to town,
-Michael among them.  By a bonfire some
-Betted on red and black for money down,
-Snatching their clinking winnings, eager, dumb.
-Some danced unclad, rubbing their heads with rum.
-The grey dawn, bringing beauty to the skies,
-Saw Michael stretched among them, far too drunk to rise.
-
-His footing paid, he joined the living-shed,
-Lined with rude bunks and set with trestles: there
-He, like the other ranchers, slept and fed,
-Save when the staff encamped in open air,
-Rounding the herd for branding.  Rude and bare
-That barrack was; men littered it about
-With saddles, blankets blue, old headstalls, many a clout
-
-Torn off to wipe a knife or clean a gun,
-Tin dishes, sailors' hookpots, all the mess
-Made where the outdoor work is never done
-And every cleaning makes the sleeping less.
-Men came from work too tired to undress,
-And slept all standing like the trooper's horse;
-Then with the sun they rose to ride the burning course,
-
-Whacking the shipment cattle into pen,
-Where, in the dust, among the stink of burning,
-The half-mad heifers bolted from the men,
-And tossing horns arose and hoofs were churning,
-A lover there had little time for yearning;
-But all day long, cursing the flies and heat,
-Michael was handling steers on horseback till his feet
-
-Gave on dismounting.  All day long he rode,
-Then, when the darkness came, his mates and he
-Entered dog-tired to the rude abode
-And ate their meat and sucked their bitter tea,
-And rolled themselves in rugs and slept.  The sea
-Could not make men more drowsy; like the dead,
-They lay under the lamp while the mosquitoes fed.
-
-There was no time to think of Mary, none;
-For when the work relaxed, the time for thought
-Was broken up by men demanding fun:
-Cards, or a well-kept ring while someone fought,
-Or songs and dancing; or a case was bought
-Of white Brazilian rum, and songs and cheers
-And shots and oaths rang loud upon the twitching ears
-
-Of the hobbled horses hopping to their feed.
-So violent images displaced the rose
-In Michael's spirit; soon he took the lead;
-None was more apt than he for games or blows.
-Even as the battle-seeking bantam crows,
-So crowed the cockerel of his mind to feel
-Life's bonds removed and blood quick in him toe to heel.
-
-But sometimes when her letters came to him,
-Full of wise tenderness and maiden mind,
-He felt that he had let his clearness dim;
-The riot with the cowboys seemed unkind
-To that far faithful heart; he could not find
-Peace in the thought of her; he found no spur
-To instant upright action in his love for her.
-
-She faded to the memory of a kiss,
-There in the rough life among foreign faces;
-Love cannot live where leisure never is;
-He could not write to her from savage places,
-Where drunken mates were betting on the aces,
-And rum went round and smutty songs were lifted.
-He would not raise her banner against that; he drifted,
-
-Ceasing, in time, to write, ceasing to think,
-But happy in the wild life to the bone;
-The riding in vast space, the songs, the drink,
-Some careless heart beside him like his own,
-The racing and the fights, the ease unknown
-In older, soberer lands; his young blood thrilled.
-The pampas seemed his own, his cup of joy was filled.
-
-And one day, riding far after strayed horses,
-He rode beyond the ranges to a land
-Broken and made most green by watercourses,
-Which served as strayline to the neighbouring brand.
-A house stood near the brook; he stayed his hand,
-Seeing a woman there, whose great eyes burned,
-So that he could not choose but follow when she turned.
-
-After that day he often rode to see
-That woman at the peach farm near the brook,
-And passionate love between them came to be
-Ere many days.  Their fill of love they took;
-And even as the blank leaves of a book
-The days went over Mary, day by day,
-Blank as the last, was turned, endured, passed, turned away.
-
-Spring came again greening the hawthorn buds;
-The shaking flowers, new-blossomed, seemed the same,
-And April put her riot in young bloods;
-The jays flapped in the larch clump like blue flame.
-She did not care; his letter never came.
-Silent she went, nursing the grief that kills,
-And Lion watched her pass among the daffodils.
-
-
-                                   IV
-
-Time passed, but still no letter came; she ceased,
-Almost, to hope, but never to expect.
-The June moon came which had beheld love's feast,
-Then waned, like it; the meadow-grass was flecked
-With moon-daisies, which died; little she recked
-Of change in outward things, she did not change;
-Her heart still knew one star, one hope, it did not range,
-
-Like to the watery hearts of tidal men,
-Swayed by all moons of beauty; she was firm,
-When most convinced of misery firmest then.
-She held a light not subject to the worm.
-The pageant of the summer ran its term,
-The last stack came to staddle from the wain;
-The snow fell, the snow thawed, the year began again.
-
-With the wet glistening gold of celandines,
-And snowdrops pushing from the withered grass,
-Before the bud upon the hawthorn greens,
-Or blackbirds go to building; but, alas!
-No spring within her bosom came to pass.
-"You're going like a ghost," her father said;
-"Now put him out of mind, and be my prudent maid."
-
-It was an April morning brisk with wind,
-She wandered out along the brook sick-hearted,
-Picking the daffodils where the water dinned,
-While overhead the first-come swallow darted.
-There, at the place where all the passion started,
-Where love first knocked about her maiden heart,
-Young Lion Occleve hailed her, calling her apart
-
-To see his tulips at The Roughs, and take
-A spray of flowering currant; so she went.
-It is a bitter moment, when hearts ache,
-To see the loved unhappy; his intent
-Was but to try to comfort her; he meant
-To show her that he knew her heart's despair,
-And that his own heart bled to see her wretched there.
-
-So, as they talked, he asked her, had she heard
-From Michael lately?  No, she had not; she
-Had been a great while now, without a word.
-"No news is always good news," answered he.
-"You know," he said, "how much you mean to me;
-You've always been the queen.  Oh, if I could
-Do anything to help, my dear, you know I would."
-
-"Nothing," she said, much touched.  "But you believe--
-You still believe in him?"  "Why, yes," he said.
-Lie though it was he did not dare deceive
-The all too cruel faith within the maid.
-"That ranching is a wild and lonely trade,
-Far from all posts; it may be hard to send;
-All puzzling things like this prove simple in the end.
-
-"We should have heard if he were ill or dead.
-Keep a good heart.  Now come"; he led the way
-Beyond the barton to the calving-shed,
-Where, on a strawy litter topped with hay,
-A double-pedigree prize bull-calf lay.
-"Near three weeks old," he said, "the Wrekin's pet;
-Come up, now, son, come up; you haven't seen him yet.
-
-"We have done well," he added, "with the stock,
-But this one, if he lives, will make a name."
-The bull-calf gambolled with his tail acock,
-Then shyly nosed towards them, scared but tame;
-His troublous eyes were sulky with blue flame.
-Softly he tip-toed, shying at a touch;
-He nosed, his breath came sweet, his pale tongue curled to clutch.
-
-They rubbed his head, and Mary went her way,
-Counting the dreary time, the dreary beat
-Of dreary minutes dragging through the day;
-Time crawled across her life with leaden feet;
-There still remained a year before her sweet
-Would come to claim her; surely he would come;
-Meanwhile there was the year, her weakening father, home.
-
-Home with its deadly round, with all its setting,
-Things, rooms, and fields and flowers to sting, to burn
-With memories of the love time past forgetting
-Ere absence made her very being yearn.
-"My love, be quick," she moaned, "return, return;
-Come when the three years end, oh, my dear soul,
-It's bitter, wanting you."  The lonely nights took toll,
-
-Putting a sadness where the beauty was,
-Taking a lustre from the hair; the days
-Saw each a sadder image in the glass.
-And when December came, fouling the ways,
-And ashless beech-logs made a Christmas blaze,
-Some talk of Michael came; a rumour ran,
-Someone had called him "wild" to some returning mail,
-
-Who, travelling through that cattle-range, had heard
-Nothing more sure than this; but this he told
-At second-hand upon a cowboy's word.
-It struck on Mary's heart and turned her cold.
-That winter was an age which made her old.
-"But soon," she thought, "soon the third year will end;
-March, April, May, and June, then I shall see my friend.
-
-"He promised he would come; he will not fail.
-Oh, Michael, my beloved man, come soon;
-Stay not to make a home for me, but sail.
-Love and the hour will put the world in tune.
-You in my life for always is the boon
-I ask from life--we two, together, lovers."
-So leaden time went by who eats things and discovers.
-
-Then, in the winds of March, her father rode,
-Hunting the Welland country on Black Ned;
-The tenor cry gave tongue past Clencher's Lode,
-And on he galloped, giving the nag his head;
-Then, at the brook, he fell, was picked up dead.
-Hounds were whipped off; men muttered with one breath,
-"We knew that hard-mouthed brute would some day be his death."
-
-They bore his body on a hurdle home;
-Then came the burial, then the sadder day
-When the peaked lawyer entered like a gnome,
-With word to quit and lists of debts to pay.
-There was a sale; the Foxholes passed away
-To strangers, who discussed the points of cows,
-Where love had put such glory on the lovers' brows.
-
-Kind Lion Occleve helped the maid's affairs.
-Her sorrow brought him much beside her; he
-Caused her to settle, having stilled her cares,
-In the long cottage under Spital Gree.
-He had no hope that she would love him; she
-Still waited for her lover, but her eyes
-Thanked Lion to the soul; he made the look suffice.
-
-By this the yearling bull-calf had so grown
-That all men talked of him; mighty he grew,
-Huge-shouldered, scaled above a hundred stone,
-With deep chest many-wrinkled with great thew,
-Plain-loined and playful-eyed; the Occleves knew
-That he surpassed his pasture; breeders came
-From far to see this bull; he brought the Occleves fame.
-
-Till a meat-breeding rancher on the plains
-Where Michael wasted, sent to buy the beast,
-Meaning to cross his cows with heavier strains
-Until his yield of meat and bone increased.
-He paid a mighty price; the yearling ceased
-To be the wonder of the countryside.
-He sailed in Lion's charge, south, to the Plate's red tide.
-
-There Lion landed with the bull, and there
-The great beast raised his head and bellowed loud,
-Challenging that expanse and that new air;
-Trembling, but full of wrath and thunder-browed,
-Far from the daffodil fields and friends, but proud,
-His wild eye kindled at the great expanse.
-Two scraps of Shropshire life they stood there; their advance
-
-Was slow along the well-grassed cattle land,
-But at the last an end was made; the brute
-Ate his last bread crust from his master's hand,
-And snuffed the foreign herd and stamped his foot;
-Steers on the swelling ranges gave salute.
-The great bull bellowed back and Lion turned;
-His task was now to find where Michael lived; he learned
-
-The farm's direction, and with heavy mind,
-Thinking of Mary and her sorrow, rode,
-Leaving the offspring of his fields behind.
-A last time in his ears the great bull lowed.
-Then, shaking up his horse, the young man glowed
-To see the unfenced pampas opening out
-Grass that makes old earth sing and all the valleys shout.
-
-At sunset on the second day he came
-To that white cabin in the peach-tree plot
-Where Michael lived; they met, the Shropshire name
-Rang trebly dear in that outlandish spot.
-Old memories swam up dear, old joys forgot,
-Old friends were real again; but Mary's woe
-Came into Lion's mind, and Michael vexed him so,
-
-Talking with careless freshness, side by side
-With that dark Spanish beauty who had won,
-As though no heart-broke woman, heavy-eyed,
-Mourned for him over sea, as though the sun
-Shone but to light his steps to love and fun,
-While she, that golden and beloved soul,
-Worth ten of him, lay wasting like an unlit coal.
-
-So supper passed; the meat in Lion's gorge
-Stuck at the last, he could not bide that face.
-The idle laughter on it plied the forge
-Where hate was smithying tools; the jokes, the place,
-Wrought him to wrath; he could not stay for grace.
-The tin mug full of red wine spilled and fell.
-He kicked his stool aside with "Michael, this is hell.
-
-"Come out into the night and talk to me."
-The young man lit a cigarette and followed;
-The stars seemed trembling at a brink to see;
-A little ghostly white-owl stooped and holloed.
-Beside the stake-fence Lion stopped and swallowed,
-While all the wrath within him made him grey.
-Michael stood still and smoked, and flicked his ash away.
-
-"Well, Lion," Michael said, "men make mistakes,
-And then regret them; and an early flame
-Is frequently the worst mistake man makes.
-I did not seek this passion, but it came.
-Love happens so in life.  Well?  Who's to blame?
-You'll say I've broken Mary's heart; the heart
-Is not the whole of life, but an inferior part,
-
-"Useful for some few years and then a curse.
-Nerves should be stronger.  You have come to say
-The three-year term is up; so much the worse.
-I cannot meet the bill; I cannot pay.
-I would not if I could.  Men change.  To-day
-I know that that first choice, however sweet,
-Was wrong and a mistake; it would have meant defeat,
-
-"Ruin and misery to us both.  Let be.
-You say I should have told her this?  Perhaps.
-You try to make a loving woman see
-That the warm link which holds you to her snaps.
-Neglect is deadlier than the thunder-claps.
-Yet she is bright and I am water.  Well,
-I did not make myself; this life is often hell.
-
-"Judge if you must, but understand it first.
-We are old friends, and townsmen, Shropshire born,
-Under the Wrekin.  You believe the worst.
-You have no knowledge how the heart is torn,
-Trying for duty up against the thorn.
-Now say I've broken Mary's heart: begin.
-Break hers, or hers and mine, which were the greater sin?"
-
-"Michael," said Lion, "I have heard you.  Now
-Listen to me.  Three years ago you made
-With a most noble soul a certain vow.
-Now you reject it, saying that you played.
-She did not think so, Michael, she has stayed,
-Eating her heart out for a line, a word,
-News that you were not dead; news that she never heard.
-
-"Not once, after the first.  She has held firm
-To what you counted pastime; she has wept
-Life, day by weary day throughout the term,
-While her heart sickened, and the clock-hand crept.
-While you, you with your woman here, have kept
-Holiday, feasting; you are fat; you smile.
-You have had love and laughter all the ghastly while.
-
-"I shall be back in England six weeks hence,
-Standing with your poor Mary face to face;
-Far from a pleasant moment, but intense.
-I shall be asked to tell her of this place.
-And she will eye me hard and hope for grace,
-Some little crumb of comfort while I tell;
-And every word will burn like a red spark from hell,
-
-"That you have done with her, that you are living
-Here with another woman; that you care
-Nought for the pain you've given and are giving;
-That all your lover's vows were empty air.
-This I must tell: thus I shall burn her bare,
-Burn out all hope, all comfort, every crumb,
-End it, and watch her whiten, hopeless, tearless, dumb.
-
-"Or do I judge you wrongly?"  He was still.
-The cigarette-end glowed and dimmed with ash;
-A preying night bird whimpered on the hill.
-Michael said "Ah!" and fingered with his sash,
-Then stilled.  The night was still; there came no flash
-Of sudden passion bursting.  All was still;
-A lonely water gurgled like a whip-poor-will.
-
-"Now I must go," said Lion; "where's the horse?"
-"There," said his friend; "I'll set you on your way."
-They caught and rode, both silent, while remorse
-Worked in each heart, though neither would betray
-What he was feeling, and the moon came grey,
-Then burned into an opal white and great,
-Silvering the downs of grass where these two travelled late,
-
-Thinking of English fields which that moon saw,
-Fields full of quiet beauty lying hushed
-At midnight in the moment full of awe,
-When the red fox comes creeping, dewy-brushed.
-But neither spoke; they rode; the horses rushed,
-Scattering the great clods skywards with such thrills
-As colts in April feel there in the daffodils.
-
-
-                                   V
-
-The river brimming full was silvered over
-By moonlight at the ford; the river bank
-Smelt of bruised clote buds and of yellow clover.
-Nosing the gleaming dark the horses drank,
-Drooping and dripping as the reins fell lank;
-The men drooped too; the stars in heaven drooped;
-Rank after hurrying rank the silver water trooped
-
-In ceaseless bright procession past the shallows,
-Talking its quick inconsequence.  The friends,
-Warmed by the gallop on the unfenced fallows,
-Felt it a kindlier thing to make amends.
-"A jolly burst," said Michael; "here it ends.
-Your way lies straight beyond the water.  There.
-Watch for the lights, and keep those two stars as they bear."
-
-Something august was quick in all that sky,
-Wheeling in multitudinous march with fire;
-The falling of the wind brought it more nigh,
-They felt the earth take solace and respire;
-The horses shifted foothold in the mire,
-Splashing and making eddies.  Lion spoke:
-"Do you remember riding past the haunted oak
-
-"That Christmas Eve, when all the bells were ringing,
-So that we picked out seven churches' bells,
-Ringing the night, and people carol-singing?
-It hummed and died away and rose in swells
-Like a sea breaking.  We have been through hells
-Since then, we two, and now this being here
-Brings all that Christmas back, and makes it strangely near."
-
-"Yes," Michael answered, "they were happy times,
-Riding beyond there; but a man needs change;
-I know what they connote, those Christmas chimes,
-Fudge in the heart, and pudding in the grange.
-It stifles me all that; I need the range,
-Like this before us, open to the sky;
-There every wing is clipped, but here a man can fly."
-
-"Ah," said his friend, "man only flies in youth,
-A few short years at most, until he finds
-That even quiet is a form of truth,
-And all the rest a coloured rag that blinds.
-Life offers nothing but contented minds.
-Some day you'll know it, Michael.  I am grieved
-That Mary's heart will pay until I am believed."
-
-There was a silence while the water dripped
-From the raised muzzles champing on the steel.
-Flogging the crannied banks the water lipped.
-Night up above them turned her starry wheel;
-And each man feared to let the other feel
-How much he felt; they fenced; they put up bars.
-The moon made heaven pale among the withering stars.
-
-"Michael," said Lion, "why should we two part?
-Ride on with me; or shall we both return,
-Make preparation, and to-morrow start,
-And travel home together?  You would learn
-How much the people long to see you; turn.
-We will ride back and say good-bye, and then
-Sail, and see home again, and see the Shropshire men,
-
-"And see the old Shropshire mountain and the fair,
-Full of drunk Welshmen bringing mountain ewes;
-And partridge shooting would be starting there."
-Michael hung down his head and seemed to choose.
-The horses churned fresh footing in the ooze.
-Then Michael asked if Tom were still alive,
-Old Tom, who fought the Welshman under Upton Drive,
-
-For nineteen rounds, on grass, with the bare hands?
-"Shaky," said Lion, "living still, but weak;
-Almost past speaking, but he understands."
-"And old Shon Shones we teased so with the leek?"
-"Dead."  "When?"  "December."  Michael did not speak,
-But muttered "Old Jones dead."  A minute passed.
-"What came to little Sue, his girl?" he said at last.
-
-"Got into trouble with a man and died;
-Her sister keeps the child."  His hearer stirred.
-"Dead, too?  She was a pretty girl," he sighed,
-"A graceful pretty creature, like a bird.
-What is the child?"  "A boy.  Her sister heard
-Too late to help; poor Susan died; the man
-None knew who he could be, but many rumours ran."
-
-"Ah," Michael said.  The horses tossed their heads;
-A little wind arising struck in chill;
-"Time," he began, "that we were in our beds."
-A distant heifer challenged from the hill,
-Scraped at the earth with 's forefoot and was still.
-"Come with me," Lion pleaded.  Michael grinned;
-He turned his splashing horse, and prophesied a wind.
-
-"So long," he said, and "Kind of you to call.
-Straight on, and watch the stars"; his horse's feet
-Trampled the firmer foothold, ending all.
-He flung behind no message to his sweet,
-No other word to Lion; the dull beat
-Of his horse's trample drummed upon the trail;
-Lion could watch him drooping in the moonlight pale,
-
-Drooping and lessening; half expectant still
-That he would turn and greet him; but no sound
-Came, save the lonely water's whip-poor-will
-And the going horse hoofs dying on the ground.
-"Michael," he cried, "Michael!"  A lonely mound
-Beyond the water gave him back the cry.
-"That's at an end," he said, "and I have failed her--I."
-
-Soon the far hoof-beats died, save for a stir
-Half heard, then lost, then still, then heard again.
-A quickening rhythm showed he plied the spur.
-Then a vast breathing silence took the plain.
-The moon was like a soul within the brain
-Of the great sleeping world; silent she rode
-The water talked, talked, talked; it trembled as it flowed.
-
-A moment Lion thought to ride in chase.
-He turned, then turned again, knowing his friend.
-He forded through with death upon his face,
-And rode the plain that seemed never to end.
-Clumps of pale cattle nosed the thing unkenned,
-Riding the night; out of the night they rose,
-Snuffing with outstretched heads, stamping with surly lows,
-
-Till he was threading through a crowd, a sea
-Of curious shorthorns backing as he came,
-Barring his path, but shifting warily;
-He slapped the hairy flanks of the more tame.
-Unreal the ghostly cattle lumbered lame.
-His horse kept at an even pace; the cows
-Broke right and left like waves before advancing bows.
-
-Lonely the pampas seemed amid that herd.
-The thought of Mary's sorrow pricked him sore;
-He brought no comfort for her, not a word;
-He would not ease her pain, but bring her more.
-The long miles dropped behind; lights rose before,
-Lights and the seaport and the briny air;
-And so he sailed for home to comfort Mary there.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-When Mary knew the worst she only sighed,
-Looked hard at Lion's face, and sat quite still,
-White to the lips, but stern and stony-eyed,
-Beaten by life in all things but the will.
-Though the blow struck her hard it did not kill.
-She rallied on herself, a new life bloomed
-Out of the ashy heart where Michael lay entombed.
-
-And more than this: for Lion touched a sense
-That he, the honest humdrum man, was more
-Than he by whom the glory and the offence
-Came to her life three bitter years before.
-This was a treason in her being's core;
-It smouldered there; meanwhile as two good friends
-They met at autumn dusks and winter daylight-ends.
-
-And once, after long twilight talk, he broke
-His strong restraint upon his passion for her,
-And burningly, most like a man he spoke,
-Until her pity almost overbore her.
-It could not be, she said; her pity tore her;
-But still it could not be, though this was pain.
-Then on a frosty night they met and spoke again.
-
-And then he wooed again, clutching her hands,
-Calling the maid his mind, his heart, his soul,
-Saying that God had linked their lives in bands
-When the worm Life first started from the goal;
-That they were linked together, past control,
-Linked from all time, could she but pity; she
-Pitied him from the soul, but said it could not be.
-
-"Mary," he asked, "you cannot love me?  No?"
-"No," she replied; "would God I could, my dear."
-"God bless you, then," he answered, "I must go,
-Go over sea to get away from here,
-I cannot think of work when you are near;
-My whole life falls to pieces; it must end.
-This meeting now must be 'good-bye,' beloved friend."
-
-White-lipped she listened, then with failing breath,
-She asked for yet a little time; her face
-Was even as that of one condemned to death.
-She asked for yet another three months' grace,
-Asked it, as Lion inly knew, in case
-Michael should still return; and "Yes" said he,
-"I'll wait three months for you, beloved; let it be."
-
-Slowly the three months dragged: no Michael came.
-March brought the daffodils and set them shaking.
-April was quick in Nature like green flame;
-May came with dog-rose buds, and corncrakes craking,
-Then dwindled like her blossom; June was breaking.
-"Mary," said Lion, "can you answer now?"
-White like a ghost she stood, he long remembered how.
-
-Wild-eyed and white, and trembling like a leaf,
-She gave her answer, "Yes"; she gave her lips,
-Cold as a corpse's to the kiss of grief,
-Shuddering at him as if his touch were whips.
-Then her best nature, struggling to eclipse
-This shrinking self, made speech; she jested there;
-They searched each other's eyes, and both souls saw despair.
-
-So the first passed, and after that began
-A happier time: she could not choose but praise
-That recognition of her in the man
-Striving to salve her pride in myriad ways;
-He was a gentle lover: gentle days
-Passed like a music after tragic scenes;
-Her heart gave thanks for that; but still the might-have-beens
-
-Haunted her inner spirit day and night,
-And often in his kiss the memory came
-Of Michael's face above her, passionate, white,
-His lips at her lips murmuring her name,
-Then she would suffer sleepless, sick with shame,
-And struggle with her weakness.  She had vowed
-To give herself to Lion; she was true and proud.
-
-He should not have a woman sick with ghosts,
-But one firm-minded to be his; so time
-Passed one by one the summer's marking posts,
-The dog-rose and the foxglove and the lime.
-Then on a day the church-bells rang a chime.
-Men fired the bells till all the valley filled
-With bell-noise from the belfry where the jackdaws build.
-
-Lion and she were married; home they went,
-Home to The Roughs as man and wife; the news
-Was printed in the paper.  Mary sent
-A copy out to Michael.  Now we lose
-Sight of her for a time, and the great dews
-Fall, and the harvest-moon grows red and fills
-Over the barren fields where March brings daffodils.
-
-
-                                   VI
-
-The rider lingered at the fence a moment,
-Tossed out the pack to Michael, whistling low,
-Then rode, waving his hand, without more comment,
-Down the vast grey-green pampas sloping slow.
-Michael's last news had come so long ago,
-He wondered who had written now; the hand
-Thrilled him with vague alarm, it brought him to a stand.
-
-He opened it with one eye on the hut,
-Lest she within were watching him, but she
-Was combing out her hair, the door was shut,
-The green sun-shutters closed, she could not see.
-Out fell the love-tryst handkerchief which he
-Had had embroidered with his name for her;
-It had been dearly kept, it smelt of lavender.
-
-Something remained: a paper, crossed with blue,
-Where he should read; he stood there in the sun,
-Reading of Mary's wedding till he knew
-What he had cast away, what he had done.
-He was rejected, Lion was the one.
-Lion, the godly and the upright, he.
-The black lines in the paper showed how it could be.
-
-He pocketed the love gift and took horse,
-And rode out to the pay-shed for his savings.
-Then turned, and rode a lonely water-course,
-Alone with bitter thoughts and bitter cravings.
-Sun-shadows on the reeds made twinkling wavings;
-An orange-bellied turtle scooped the mud;
-Mary had married Lion, and the news drew blood.
-
-And with the bitterness, the outcast felt
-A passion for those old kind Shropshire places,
-The ruined chancel where the nuns had knelt;
-High Ercall and the Chase End and the Chases,
-The glimmering mere, the burr, the well-known faces,
-By Wrekin and by Zine and country town.
-The orange-bellied turtle burrowed further down.
-
-He could remember Mary now; her crying
-Night after night alone through weary years,
-Had touched him now and set the cords replying;
-He knew her misery now, her ache, her tears,
-The lonely nights, the ceaseless hope, the fears,
-The arm stretched out for one not there, the slow
-Loss of the lover's faith, the letting comfort go.
-
-"Now I will ride," he said.  Beyond the ford
-He caught a fresh horse and rode on.  The night
-Found him a guest at Pepe Blanco's board,
-Moody and drinking rum and ripe for fight;
-Drawing his gun, he shot away the light,
-And parried Pepe's knife and caught his horse,
-And all night long he rode bedevilled by remorse.
-
-At dawn he caught an eastward-going ferry,
-And all day long he steamed between great banks
-Which smelt of yellow thorn and loganberry.
-Then wharves appeared, and chimneys rose in ranks,
-Mast upon mast arose; the river's flanks
-Were filled with English ships, and one he found
-Needing another stoker, being homeward bound.
-
-And all the time the trouble in his head
-Ran like a whirlwind moving him; he knew
-Since she was lost that he was better dead.
-He had no project outlined, what to do,
-Beyond go home; he joined the steamer's crew.
-She sailed that night: he dulled his maddened soul,
-Plying the iron coal-slice on the bunker coal.
-
-Work did not clear the turmoil in his mind;
-Passion takes colour from the nature's core;
-His misery was as his nature, blind.
-Life was still turmoil when he went ashore.
-To see his old love married lay before;
-To see another have her, drink the gall,
-Kicked like a dog without, while he within had all.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-Soon he was at the Foxholes, at the place
-Whither, from over sea, his heart had turned
-Often at evening-ends in times of grace.
-But little outward change his eye discerned;
-A red rose at her bedroom window burned,
-Just as before.  Even as of old the wasps
-Poised at the yellow plums: the gate creaked on its hasps,
-
-And the white fantails sidled on the roof
-Just as before; their pink feet, even as of old,
-Printed the frosty morning's rime with proof.
-Still the zew-tallat's thatch was green with mould;
-The apples on the withered boughs were gold.
-Men and the times were changed: "And I," said he,
-"Will go and not return, since she is not for me.
-
-"I'll go, for it would be a scurvy thing
-To spoil her marriage, and besides, she cares
-For that half-priest she married with the ring.
-Small joy for me in seeing how she wears,
-Or seeing what he takes and what she shares.
-That beauty and those ways: she had such ways,
-There in the daffodils in those old April days."
-
-So with an impulse of good will he turned,
-Leaving that place of daffodils; the road
-Was paven sharp with memories which burned;
-He trod them strongly under as he strode.
-At the Green Turning's forge the furnace glowed;
-Red dithying sparks flew from the crumpled soft
-Fold from the fire's heart; down clanged the hammers oft.
-
-That was a bitter place to pass, for there
-Mary and he had often, often stayed
-To watch the horseshoe growing in the glare.
-It was a tryst in childhood when they strayed.
-There was a stile beside the forge; he laid
-His elbows on it, leaning, looking down
-The river-valley stretched with great trees turning brown.
-
-Infinite, too, because it reached the sky,
-And distant spires arose and distant smoke;
-The whiteness on the blue went stilly by;
-Only the clinking forge the stillness broke.
-Ryemeadows brook was there; The Roughs, the oak
-Where the White Woman walked; the black firs showed
-Around the Occleve homestead Mary's new abode.
-
-A long, long time he gazed at that fair place,
-So well remembered from of old; he sighed.
-"I will go down and look upon her face,
-See her again, whatever may betide.
-Hell is my future; I shall soon have died,
-But I will take to hell one memory more;
-She shall not see nor know; I shall be gone before;
-
-"Before they turn the dogs upon me, even.
-I do not mean to speak; but only see.
-Even the devil gets a peep at heaven;
-One peep at her shall come to hell with me;
-One peep at her, no matter what may be."
-He crossed the stile and hurried down the slope.
-Remembered trees and hedges gave a zest to hope.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-A low brick wall with privet shrubs beyond
-Ringed in The Roughs upon the side he neared.
-Eastward some bramble bushes cloaked the pond;
-Westward was barley-stubble not yet cleared.
-He thrust aside the privet boughs and peered.
-The drooping fir trees let their darkness trail
-Black like a pirate's masts bound under easy sail.
-
-The garden with its autumn flowers was there;
-Few that his wayward memory linked with her.
-Summer had burnt the summer flowers bare,
-But honey-hunting bees still made a stir.
-Sprigs were still bluish on the lavender,
-And bluish daisies budded, bright flies poised;
-The wren upon the tree-stump carolled cheery-voiced.
-
-He could not see her there.  Windows were wide,
-Late wasps were cruising, and the curtains shook.
-Smoke, like the house's breathing, floated, sighed;
-Among the trembling firs strange ways it took.
-But still no Mary's presence blessed his look;
-The house was still as if deserted, hushed.
-Faint fragrance hung about it as if herbs were crushed.
-
-Fragrance that gave his memory's guard a hint
-Of times long past, of reapers in the corn,
-Bruising with heavy boots the stalks of mint,
-When first the berry reddens on the thorn.
-Memories of her that fragrance brought.  Forlorn
-That vigil of the watching outcast grew;
-He crept towards the kitchen, sheltered by a yew.
-
-The windows of the kitchen opened wide.
-Again the fragrance came; a woman spoke;
-Old Mrs. Occleve talked to one inside.
-A smell of cooking filled a gust of smoke.
-Then fragrance once again, for herbs were broke;
-Pourri was being made; the listener heard
-Things lifted and laid down, bruised into sweetness, stirred.
-
-While an old woman made remarks to one
-Who was not the beloved: Michael learned
-That Roger's wife at Upton had a son,
-And that the red geraniums should be turned;
-A hen was missing, and a rick was burned;
-Our Lord commanded patience; here it broke;
-The window closed, it made the kitchen chimney smoke.
-
-Steps clacked on flagstones to the outer door;
-A dairy-maid, whom he remembered well,
-Lined, now, with age, and grayer than before,
-Rang a cracked cow-bell for the dinner-bell.
-He saw the dining-room; he could not tell
-If Mary were within: inly he knew
-That she was coming now, that she would be in blue,
-
-Blue with a silver locket at the throat,
-And that she would be there, within there, near,
-With the little blushes that he knew by rote,
-And the grey eyes so steadfast and so dear,
-The voice, pure like the nature, true and clear,
-Speaking to her belov'd within the room.
-The gate clicked, Lion came: the outcast hugged the gloom,
-
-Watching intently from below the boughs,
-While Lion cleared his riding-boots of clay,
-Eyed the high clouds and went within the house.
-His eyes looked troubled, and his hair looked gray.
-Dinner began within with much to say.
-Old Occleve roared aloud at his own joke.
-Mary, it seemed, was gone; the loved voice never spoke.
-
-Nor could her lover see her from the yew;
-She was not there at table; she was ill,
-Ill, or away perhaps--he wished he knew.
-Away, perhaps, for Occleve bellowed still.
-"If sick," he thought, "the maid or Lion will
-Take food to her."  He watched; the dinner ended.
-The staircase was not used; none climbed it, none descended.
-
-"Not here," he thought; but wishing to be sure,
-He waited till the Occleves went to field,
-Then followed, round the house, another lure,
-Using the well-known privet as his shield.
-He meant to run a risk; his heart was steeled.
-He knew of old which bedroom would be hers;
-He crouched upon the north front in among the firs.
-
-The house stared at him with its red-brick blank,
-Its vacant window-eyes; its open door,
-With old wrought bridle ring-hooks at each flank,
-Swayed on a creaking hinge as the wind bore.
-Nothing had changed; the house was as before,
-The dull red brick, the windows sealed or wide:
-"I will go in," he said.  He rose and stepped inside.
-
-None could have seen him coming; all was still;
-He listened in the doorway for a sign.
-Above, a rafter creaked, a stir, a thrill
-Moved, till the frames clacked on the picture line.
-"Old Mother Occleve sleeps, the servants dine,"
-He muttered, listening.  "Hush."  A silence brooded.
-Far off the kitchen dinner clattered; he intruded.
-
-Still, to his right, the best room door was locked.
-Another door was at his left; he stayed.
-Within, a stately timepiece ticked and tocked,
-To one who slumbered breathing deep; it made
-An image of Time's going and man's trade.
-He looked: Old Mother Occleve lay asleep,
-Hands crossed upon her knitting, rosy, breathing deep.
-
-He tiptoed up the stairs which creaked and cracked.
-The landing creaked; the shut doors, painted gray,
-Loomed, as if shutting in some dreadful act.
-The nodding frames seemed ready to betray.
-The east room had been closed in Michael's day,
-Being the best; but now he guessed it hers;
-The fields of daffodils lay next it, past the firs.
-
-Just as he reached the landing, Lion cried,
-Somewhere below, "I'll get it."  Lion's feet
-Struck on the flagstones with a hasty stride.
-"He's coming up," thought Michael, "we shall meet."
-He snatched the nearest door for his retreat,
-Opened with thieves' swift silence, dared not close,
-But stood within, behind it.  Lion's footsteps rose,
-
-Running two steps at once, while Michael stood,
-Not breathing, only knowing that the room
-Was someone's bedroom smelling of old wood,
-Hung with engravings of the day of doom.
-The footsteps stopped; and Lion called, to whom?
-A gentle question, tapping at a door,
-And Michael shifted feet, and creakings took the floor.
-
-The footsteps recommenced, a door-catch clacked;
-Within an eastern room the footsteps passed.
-Drawers were pulled loudly open and ransacked,
-Chattels were thrust aside and overcast.
-What could the thing be that he sought.  At last
-His voice said, "Here it is."  The wormed floor
-Creaked with returning footsteps down the corridor.
-
-The footsteps came as though the walker read,
-Or added rows of figures by the way;
-There was much hesitation in the tread;
-Lion seemed pondering which, to go or stay;
-Then, seeing the door, which covered Michael, sway,
-He swiftly crossed and shut it.  "Always one
-For order," Michael muttered.  "Now be swift, my son."
-
-The action seemed to break the walker's mood;
-The footsteps passed downstairs, along the hall,
-Out at the door and off towards the wood.
-"Gone," Michael muttered.  "Now to hazard all."
-Outside, the frames still nodded on the wall.
-Michael stepped swiftly up the floor to try
-The door where Lion tapped and waited for reply.
-
-It was the eastmost of the rooms which look
-Over the fields of daffodils; the bound
-Scanned from its windows is Ryemeadows brook,
-Banked by gnarled apple trees and rising ground.
-Most gently Michael tapped; he heard no sound,
-Only the blind-pull tapping with the wind;
-The kitchen-door was opened; kitchen-clatter dinned.
-
-A woman walked along the hall below,
-Humming; a maid, he judged; the footsteps died,
-Listening intently still, he heard them go,
-Then swiftly turned the knob and went inside.
-The blind-pull at the window volleyed wide;
-The curtains streamed out like a waterfall;
-The pictures of the fox-hunt clacked along the wall.
-
-No one was there; no one; the room was hers.
-A book of praise lay open on the bed;
-The clothes-press smelt of many lavenders,
-Her spirit stamped the room; herself was fled.
-Here she found peace of soul like daily bread,
-Here, with her lover Lion; Michael gazed;
-He would have been the sharer had he not been crazed.
-
-He took the love-gift handkerchief again;
-He laid it on her table, near the glass,
-So opened that the broidered name was plain;
-"Plain," he exclaimed, "she cannot let it pass.
-It stands and speaks for me as bold as brass.
-My answer, my heart's cry, to tell her this,
-That she is still my darling: all she was she is.
-
-"So she will know at least that she was wrong,
-That underneath the blindness I was true.
-Fate is the strongest thing, though men are strong;
-Out from beyond life I was sealed to you.
-But my blind ways destroyed the cords that drew;
-And now, the evil done, I know my need;
-
-Fate has his way with those who mar what is decreed.
-"And now, goodbye."  He closed the door behind him,
-Then stept, with firm swift footstep down the stair,
-Meaning to go where she would never find him;
-He would go down through darkness to despair.
-Out at the door he stept; the autumn air
-Came fresh upon his face; none saw him go.
-"Goodbye, my love," he muttered; "it is better so."
-
-Soon he was on the high road, out of sight
-Of valley and farm; soon he could see no more
-The oast-house pointing finger take the light
-As tumbling pigeons glittered over; nor
-Could he behold the wind-vane gilded o'er,
-Swinging above the church; the road swung round.
-"Now, the last look," he cried: he saw that holy ground.
-
-"Goodbye," he cried; he could behold it all,
-Spread out as in a picture; but so clear
-That the gold apple stood out from the wall;
-Like a red jewel stood the grazing steer.
-Precise, intensely coloured, all brought near,
-As in a vision, lay that holy ground.
-"Mary is there," he moaned, "and I am outward bound.
-
-"I never saw this place so beautiful,
-Never like this.  I never saw it glow.
-Spirit is on this place; it fills it full.
-So let the die be cast; I will not go.
-But I will see her face to face and know
-From her own lips what thoughts she has of me;
-And if disaster come: right; let disaster be."
-
-Back, by another way, he turned.  The sun
-Fired the yew-tops in the Roman woods.
-Lights in the valley twinkled one by one,
-The starlings whirled in dropping multitudes.
-Dusk fingered into one earth's many moods,
-Back to The Roughs he walked; he neared the brook;
-A lamp burned in the farm; he saw; his fingers shook.
-
-He had to cross the brook, to cross a field,
-Where daffodils were thick when years were young.
-Then, were she there, his fortunes should be sealed.
-Down the mud trackway to the brook he swung;
-Then while the passion trembled on his tongue,
-Dim, by the dim bridge-stile, he seemed to see
-A figure standing mute; a woman--it was she.
-
-She stood quite stilly, waiting for him there.
-She did not seem surprised; the meeting seemed
-Planned from all time by powers in the air
-To change their human fates; he even deemed
-That in another life this thing had gleamed,
-This meeting by the bridge.  He said, "It's you."
-"Yes, I," she said, "who else?  You must have known; you knew
-
-"That I should come here to the brook to see,
-After your message."  "You were out," he said.
-"Gone, and I did not know where you could be.
-Where were you, Mary, when the thing was laid?"
-"Old Mrs. Gale is dying, and I stayed
-Longer than usual, while I read the Word.
-You could have hardly gone."  She paused, her bosom stirred.
-
-"Mary, I sinned," he said.  "Not that, dear, no,"
-She said; "but, oh, you were unkind, unkind,
-Never to write a word and leave me so,
-But out of sight with you is out of mind."
-"Mary, I sinned," he said, "and I was blind.
-Oh, my beloved, are you Lion's wife?"
-"Belov'd sounds strange," she answered, "in my present life.
-
-"But it is sweet to hear it, all the same.
-It is a language little heard by me
-Alone, in that man's keeping, with my shame.
-I never thought such miseries could be.
-I was so happy in you, Michael.  He
-Came when I felt you changed from what I thought you.
-Even now it is not love, but jealousy that brought you."
-
-"That is untrue," he said.  "I am in hell.
-You are my heart's beloved, Mary, you.
-By God, I know your beauty now too well.
-We are each other's, flesh and soul, we two."
-"That was sweet knowledge once," she said; "we knew
-That truth of old.  Now, in a strange man's bed,
-I read it in my soul, and find it written red."
-
-"Is he a brute?" he asked.  "No," she replied.
-"I did not understand what it would mean.
-And now that you are back, would I had died;
-Died, and the misery of it not have been.
-Lion would not be wrecked, nor I unclean.
-I was a proud one once, and now I'm tame;
-Oh, Michael, say some word to take away my shame."
-
-She sobbed; his arms went round her; the night heard
-Intense fierce whispering passing, soul to soul,
-Love running hot on many a murmured word,
-Love's passionate giving into new control.
-Their present misery did but blow the coal,
-Did but entangle deeper their two wills,
-While the brown brook ran on by buried daffodils.
-
-
-                                  VII
-
-Upon a light gust came a waft of bells,
-Ringing the chimes for nine; a broken sweet,
-Like waters bubbling out of hidden wells,
-Dully upon those lovers' ears it beat,
-Their time was at an end.  Her tottering feet
-Trod the dim field for home; he sought an inn.
-"Oh, I have sinned," she cried, "but not a secret sin."
-
-Inside The Roughs they waited for her coming;
-Eyeing the ticking clock the household sat.
-"Nine," the clock struck; the clock-weights ran down drumming;
-Old Mother Occleve stretched her sewing flat.
-"It's nine," she said.  Old Occleve stroked the cat.
-"Ah, cat," he said, "hast had good go at mouse?"
-Lion sat listening tense to all within the house
-
-"Mary is late to-night," the gammer said.
-"The times have changed," her merry husband roared.
-"Young married couples now like lonely trade,
-Don't think of bed at all, they think of board.
-No multiplying left in people.  Lord!
-When I was Lion's age I'd had my five.
-There was some go in folk when us two took to wive."
-
-Lion arose and stalked and bit his lip.
-"Or was it six?" the old man muttered, "six.
-Us had so many I've alost the tip.
-Us were two right good souls at getting chicks.
-Two births of twins, then Johnny's birth, then Dick's" ...
-"Now give a young man time," the mother cried.
-Mary came swiftly in and flung the room door wide.
-
-Lion was by the window when she came,
-Old Occleve and his wife were by the fire;
-Big shadows leapt the ceiling from the flame.
-She fronted the three figures and came nigher.
-"Lion," she whispered, "I return my hire."
-She dropped her marriage-ring upon the table.
-Then, in a louder voice, "I bore what I was able,
-
-"And Time and marriage might have worn me down,
-Perhaps, to be a good wife and a blest,
-With little children clinging to my gown,
-And little blind mouths fumbling for my breast,
-And this place would have been a place of rest
-For you and me; we could have come to know
-The depth; but that is over; I have got to go.
-
-"He has come back, and I have got to go.
-Our marriage ends."  She stood there white and breathed.
-Old Occleve got upon his feet with "So."
-Blazing with wrath upon the hearth he seethed.
-A log fell from the bars; blue spirals wreathed
-Across the still old woman's startled face;
-The cat arose and yawned.  Lion was still a space.
-
-Old Occleve turned to Lion.  Lion moved
-Nearer to Mary, picking up the ring.
-His was grim physic from the soul beloved;
-His face was white and twitching with the sting.
-"You are my wife, you cannot do this thing,"
-He said at last.  "I can respect your pride.
-This thing affects your soul; my judgment must decide.
-
-"You are unsettled, shaken from the shock."
-"Not so," she said.  She stretched a hand to him,
-White, large and noble, steady as a rock,
-Cunning with many powers, curving, slim.
-The smoke, drawn by the door-draught, made it dim.
-"Right," Lion answered.  "You are steady.  Then
-There is but one world, Mary; this, the world of men.
-
-"And there's another world, without its bounds,
-Peopled by streaked and spotted souls who prize
-The flashiness that comes from marshy grounds
-Above plain daylight.  In their blinkered eyes
-Nothing is bright but sentimental lies,
-Such as are offered you, dear, here and now;
-Lies which betray the strongest, God alone knows how.
-
-"You, in your beauty and your whiteness, turn
-Your strong, white mind, your faith, your fearless truth,
-All for these rotten fires that so burn.
-A sentimental clutch at perished youth.
-I am too sick for wisdom, sick with ruth,
-And this comes suddenly; the unripe man
-Misses the hour, oh God.  But you, what is your plan?
-
-"What do you mean to do, how act, how live?
-What warrant have you for your life?  What trust?
-You are for going sailing in a sieve.
-This brightness is too mortal not to rust.
-So our beginning marriage ends in dust.
-I have not failed you, Mary.  Let me know
-What you intend to do, and whither you will go."
-
-"Go from this place; it chokes me," she replied.
-"This place has branded me; I must regain
-My truth that I have soiled, my faith, my pride,
-It is all poison and it leaves a stain.
-I cannot stay nor be your wife again.
-Never.  You did your best, though; you were kind.
-I have grown old to-night and left all that behind.
-
-"Goodbye."  She turned.  Old Occleve faced his son.
-Wrath at the woman's impudence was blent,
-Upon his face, with wrath that such an one
-Should stand unthrashed until her words were spent.
-He stayed for Lion's wrath; but Mary went
-Unchecked; he did not stir.  Her footsteps ground
-The gravel to the gate; the gate-hinge made a sound
-
-Like to a cry of pain after a shot.
-Swinging, it clicked, it clicked again, it swung
-Until the iron latch bar hit the slot.
-Mary had gone, and Lion held his tongue.
-Old Mother Occleve sobbed; her white head hung
-Over her sewing while the tears ran down
-Her worn, blood-threaded cheeks and splashed upon her gown.
-
-"Yes, it is true," said Lion, "she must go.
-Michael is back.  Michael was always first,
-I did but take his place.  You did not know.
-Now it has happened, and you know the worst.
-So passion makes the passionate soul accurst
-And crucifies his darling.  Michael comes
-And the savage truth appears and rips my life to thrums."
-
-Upon Old Occleve's face the fury changed
-First to contempt, and then to terror lest
-Lion, beneath the shock, should be deranged.
-But Lion's eyes were steady, though distressed.
-"Father, good-night," he said, "I'm going to rest.
-Good-night, I cannot talk.  Mother, good-night."
-He kissed her brow and went; they heard him strike a light,
-
-And go with slow depressed step up the stairs,
-Up to the door of her deserted bower;
-They heard him up above them, moving chairs;
-The memory of his paleness made them cower.
-They did not know their son; they had no power
-To help, they only saw the new-won bride
-Defy their child, and faith and custom put aside.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-After a time men learned where Mary was:
-Over the hills, not many miles away,
-Renting a cottage and a patch of grass
-Where Michael came to see her.  Every day
-Taught her what fevers can inhabit clay,
-Shaking this body that so soon must die.
-The time made Lion old: the winter dwindled by.
-
-Till the long misery had to end or kill:
-And "I must go to see her," Lion cried;
-"I am her standby, and she needs me still;
-If not to love she needs me to decide.
-Dear, I will set you free.  Oh, my bright bride,
-Lost in such piteous ways, come back."  He rode
-Over the wintry hills to Mary's new abode.
-
-And as he topped the pass between the hills,
-Towards him, up the swerving road, there came
-Michael, the happy cause of all his ills;
-Walking as though repentance were the shame,
-Sucking a grass, unbuttoned, still the same,
-Humming a tune; his careless beauty wild
-Drawing the women's eyes; he wandered with a child.
-
-Who heard, wide-eyed, the scraps of tales which fell
-Between the fragments of the tune; they seemed
-A cherub bringing up a soul from hell.
-Meeting unlike the meeting long since dreamed.
-Lion dismounted; the great valley gleamed
-With waters far below; his teeth were set
-His heart thumped at his throat; he stopped; the two men met.
-
-The child well knew that fatal issues joined;
-He stood round-eyed to watch them, even as Fate
-Stood with his pennypiece of causes coined
-Ready to throw for issue; the bright hate
-Throbbed, that the heavy reckoning need not wait.
-Lion stepped forward, watching Michael's eyes.
-"We are old friends," he said.  "Now, Michael, you be wise,
-
-"And let the harm already done suffice;
-Go, before Mary's name is wholly gone.
-Spare her the misery of desertion twice,
-There's only ruin in the road you're on--
-Ruin for both, whatever promise shone
-In sentimental shrinkings from the fact.
-So, Michael, play the man, and do the generous act.
-
-"And go; if not for my sake, go for hers.
-You only want her with your sentiment.
-You are water roughed by every wind that stirs,
-One little gust will alter your intent
-All ways, to every wind, and nothing meant,
-Is your life's habit.  Man, one takes a wife,
-Not for a three months' fancy, but the whole of life.
-
-"We have been friends, and so I speak you fair.
-How will you bear her ill, or cross, or tired?
-Sentiment sighing will not help you there.
-You call a half life's volume not desired.
-I know your love for her.  I saw it mired,
-Mired, past going, by your first sharp taste
-Of life and work; it stopped; you let her whole life waste,
-
-"Rather than have the trouble of such love,
-You will again; but if you do it now,
-It will mean death, not sorrow.  But enough.
-You know too well you cannot keep a vow.
-There are gray hairs already on her brow.
-You brought them there.  Death is the next step.  Go,
-Before you take the step."  "No," Michael answered, "No.
-
-"As for my past, I was a dog, a cur,
-And I have paid blood-money, and still pay.
-But all my being is ablaze with her;
-There is no talk of giving up to-day.
-I will not give her up.  You used to say
-Bodies are earth.  I heard you say it.  Liar!
-You never loved her, you.  She turns the earth to fire."
-
-"Michael," said Lion, "you have said such things
-Of other women; less than six miles hence
-You and another woman felt love's wings
-Rosy and fair, and so took leave of sense.
-She's dead, that other woman, dead, with pence
-Pressed on her big brown eyes, under the ground;
-She that was merry once, feeling the world go round.
-
-"Her child (and yours) is with her sister now,
-Out there, behind us, living as they can;
-Pinched by the poverty that you allow.
-All a long autumn many rumours ran
-About Sue Jones that was: you were the man.
-The lad is like you.  Think about his mother,
-Before you turn the earth to fire with another."
-
-"That is enough," said Michael, "you shall know
-Soon, to your marrow, what my answer is;
-Know to your lying heart; now kindly go.
-The neighbours smell that something is amiss.
-We two will keep a dignity in this,
-Such as we can.  No quarrelling with me here.
-Mary might see; now go; but recollect, my dear,
-
-"That if you twit me with your wife, you lie;
-And that your further insult waits a day
-When God permits that Mary is not by;
-I keep the record of it, and shall pay.
-And as for Mary; listen: we betray
-No one.  We keep our troth-plight as we meant.
-Now go, the neighbours gather."  Lion bowed and went.
-
-Home to his memories for a month of pain,
-Each moment like a devil with a tongue,
-Urging him, "Set her free," or "Try again,"
-Or "Kill that man and stamp him into dung."
-"See her," he cried.  He took his horse and swung
-Out on the road to her; the rain was falling;
-Her dropping house-eaves splashed him when he knocked there, calling.
-
-Drowned yellow jasmine dripped; his horse's flanks
-Steamed, and dark runnels on his yellow hair
-Streaked the groomed surface into blotchy ranks.
-The noise of water dropping filled the air.
-He knocked again; but there was no one there;
-No one within, the door was locked, no smoke
-Came from the chimney stacks, no clock ticked, no one spoke.
-
-Only the water dripped and dribble-dripped,
-And gurgled through the rain-pipe to the butt;
-Drops, trickling down the windows paused or slipped;
-A wet twig scraked as though the glass were cut.
-The blinds were all drawn down, the windows shut.
-No one was there.  Across the road a shawl
-Showed at a door a space; a woman gave a call.
-
-"They're gone away," she cried.  "They're gone away.
-Been gone a matter of a week."  Where to?
-The woman thought to Wales, but could not say,
-Nor if she planned returning; no one knew.
-She looked at Lion sharply; then she drew
-The half-door to its place and passed within,
-Saying she hoped the rain would stop and spring begin.
-
-Lion rode home.  A month went by, and now
-Winter was gone; the myriad shoots of green
-Bent to the wind, like hair, upon the plough,
-And up from withered leaves came celandine.
-And sunlight came, though still the air was keen,
-So that the first March market was most fair,
-And Lion rode to market, having business there.
-
-And in the afternoon, when all was done,
-While Lion waited idly near the inn,
-Watching the pigeons sidling in the sun,
-As Jim the ostler put his gelding in,
-He heard a noise of rioting begin
-Outside the yard, with catcalls; there were shouts
-Of "Occleve.  Lion Occleve," from a pack of louts,
-
-Who hung about the courtyard-arch, and cried,
-"Yah, Occleve, of The Roughs, the married man,
-Occleve, who had the bed and not the bride."
-At first without the arch; but some began
-To sidle in, still calling; children ran
-To watch the baiting; they were farmer's leavings
-Who shouted thus, men cast for drunkenness and thievings.
-
-Lion knew most of them of old; he paid
-No heed to them, but turned his back and talked
-To Jim, of through-pin in his master's jade,
-And how no horse-wounds should be stuped or caulked.
-The rabble in the archway, not yet baulked,
-Came crowding nearer, and the boys began,
-"Who was it took your mistress, master married man?"
-
-"Who was it, master, took your wife away?"
-"I wouldn't let another man take mine."
-"She had two husbands on her wedding day."
-"See at a blush: he blushed as red as wine."
-"She'd ought a had a cart-whip laid on fine."
-The farmers in the courtyard watched the baiting,
-Grinning, the barmaids grinned above the window grating.
-
-Then through the mob of brawlers Michael stepped
-Straight to where Lion stood.  "I come," he said,
-"To give you back some words which I have kept
-Safe in my heart till I could see them paid.
-You lied about Sue Jones; she died a maid
-As far as I'm concerned, and there's your lie,
-Full in your throat, and there, and there, and in your eye.
-
-"And there's for stealing Mary" ... as he struck,
-He slipped upon a piece of peel and dropped
-Souse in a puddle of the courtyard muck;
-Loud laughter followed when he rose up sopped.
-Friends rushed to intervene, the fight was stopped.
-The two were hurried out by different ways.
-Men said, "'Tis stopped for now, but not for many days."
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-April appeared, the green earth's impulse came,
-Pushing the singing sap until each bud
-Trembled with delicate life as soft as flame,
-Filled by the mighty heart-beat as with blood;
-Death was at ebb, and Life in brimming flood.
-But little joy in life could Lion see,
-Striving to gird his will to set his loved one free,
-
-While in his heart a hope still struggled dim
-That the mad hour would pass, the darkness break,
-The fever die, and she return to him,
-The routed nightmare let the sleeper wake.
-"Then we could go abroad," he cried, "and make
-A new life, soul to soul; oh, love! return."
-"Too late," his heart replied.  At last he rode to learn.
-
-Bowed, but alive with hope, he topped the pass,
-And saw, below, her cottage by the way,
-White, in a garden green with springing grass,
-And smoke against the blue sky going gray.
-"God make us all the happier for to-day,"
-He muttered humbly; then, below, he spied,
-Mary and Michael entering, walking side by side.
-
-Arm within arm, like lovers, like dear lovers
-Matched by the happy stars and newly wed,
-Over whose lives a rosy presence hovers.
-Lion dismounted, seeing hope was dead.
-A child was by the road, he stroked his head,
-And "Little one," he said, "who lives below
-There, in the cottage there, where those two people go?"
-
-"They do," the child said, pointing: "Mrs. Gray
-Lives in the cottage there, and he does, too.
-They've been back near a week since being away."
-It was but seal to what he inly knew.
-He thanked the child and rode.  The Spring was blue,
-Bluer than ever, and the birds were glad;
-Such rapture in the hedges all the blackbirds had.
-
-He was not dancing to that pipe of the Spring.
-He reached The Roughs, and there, within her room,
-Bowed for a time above her wedding ring,
-Which had so chained him to unhappy doom;
-All his dead marriage haunted in the gloom
-Of that deserted chamber; all her things
-Lay still as she had left them when her love took wings.
-
-He kept a bitter vigil through the night,
-Knowing his loss, his ten years' passion wasted,
-His life all blasted, even at its height,
-His cup of life's fulfilment hardly tasted.
-Gray on the budding woods the morning hasted,
-And looking out he saw the dawn come chill
-Over the shaking acre pale with daffodil.
-
-Birds were beginning in the meadows; soon
-The blackbirds and the thrushes with their singing
-Piped down the withered husk that was the moon,
-And up the sky the ruddy sun came winging.
-Cows plodded past, yokes clanked, the men were bringing
-Milk from the barton.  Someone shouted "Hup,
-Dog, drive them dangy red ones down away on up."
-
-Some heavy hours went by before he rose.
-He went out of the house into the grass,
-Down which the wind flowed much as water flows;
-The daffodils bowed down to let it pass.
-At the brook's edge a boggy bit there was,
-Right at the field's north corner, near the bridge,
-Fenced by a ridge of earth; he sat upon the ridge,
-
-Watching the water running to the sea,
-Watching the bridge, the stile, the path beyond,
-Where the white violet's sweetness brought the bee.
-He paid the price of being overfond.
-The water babbled always from the pond
-Over the pretty shallows, chattering, tinkling,
-With trembles from the sunlight in its clearness wrinkling.
-
-So gazing, like one stunned, it reached his mind,
-That the hedge-brambles overhung the brook
-More than was right, making the selvage blind;
-The dragging brambles too much flotsam took.
-Dully he thought to mend.  He fetched a hook,
-And standing in the shallow stream he slashed,
-For hours, it seemed; the thorns, the twigs, the dead leaves splashed,
-
-Splashed and were bobbed away across the shallows;
-Pale grasses with the sap gone from them fell,
-Sank, or were carried down beyond the sallows.
-The bruised ground-ivy gave out earthy smell.
-"I must be dead," he thought, "and this is hell."
-Fiercely he slashed, till, glancing at the stile,
-He saw that Michael stood there, watching, with a smile,
-
-His old contemptuous smile of careless ease,
-As though the world with all its myriad pain
-Sufficed, but only just sufficed, to please.
-Michael was there, the robber come again.
-A tumult ran like flame in Lion's brain;
-Then, looking down, he saw the flowers shake:
-Gold, trembling daffodils; he turned, he plucked a stake
-
-Out of the hedge that he had come to mend,
-And flung his hook to Michael, crying, "Take;
-We two will settle our accounts, my friend,
-Once and for ever.  May the Lord God make
-You see your sins in time."  He whirled his stake
-And struck at Michael's head; again he struck;
-While Michael dodged and laughed, "Why, man, I bring you luck.
-
-"Don't kill a bringer of good news.  You fool,
-Stop it and listen.  I have come to say:
-Lion, for God's sake, listen and be cool.
-You silly hothead, put that stake away.
-Listen, I tell you."  But he could not stay
-The anger flaming in that passionate soul.
-Blows rained upon him thick; they stung; he lost control.
-
-Till, "If you want to fight," he cried, "let be.
-Let me get off the bridge and we will fight.
-That firm bit by the quag will do for me.
-So.  Be on guard, and God defend the right.
-You foaming madman, with your hell's delight,
-Smashing a man with stakes before he speaks:
-On guard.  I'll make you humbler for the next few weeks."
-
-The ground was level there; the daffodils
-Glimmered and danced beneath their cautious feet,
-Quartering for openings for the blow that kills.
-Beyond the bubbling brook a thrush was sweet.
-Quickly the footsteps slid; with feint and cheat,
-The weapons poised and darted and withdrew.
-"Now stop it," Michael said, "I want to talk to you."
-
-"We do not stop till one of us is dead,",
-Said Lion, rushing in.  A short blow fell
-Dizzily, through all guard, on Michael's head.
-His hedging-hook slashed blindly but too well:
-It struck in Lion's side.  Then, for a spell,
-Both, sorely stricken, staggered, while their eyes
-Dimmed under mists of blood; they fell, they tried to rise,--
-
-Tried hard to rise, but could not, so they lay,
-Watching the clouds go sailing on the sky,
-Touched with a redness from the end of day.
-There was all April in the blackbird's cry.
-And lying there they felt they had to die,
-Die and go under mould and feel no more
-April's green fire of life go running in earth's core.
-
-"There was no need to hit me," Michael said;
-"You quiet thinking fellows lose control.
-This fighting business is a foolish trade.
-And now we join the grave-worm and the mole.
-I tried to stop you.  You're a crazy soul;
-You always were hot-headed.  Well, let be:
-You deep and passionate souls have always puzzled me.
-
-"I'm sorry that I struck you.  I was hit,
-And lashed out blindly at you; you were mad.
-It would be different if you'd stopped a bit.
-You are too blind when you are angry, lad.
-Oh, I am giddy, Lion; dying, bad,
-Dying."  He raised himself, he sat, his look
-Grew greedy for the water bubbling in the brook.
-
-And as he watched it, Lion raised his head;
-Out of a bloodied clump of daffodil.
-"Michael," he moaned, "I, too, am dying: dead.
-You're nearer to the water.  Could you fill
-Your hat and give me drink?  Or would it spill?
-Spill, I expect."  "I'll try," said Michael, "try--
-I may as well die trying, since I have to die."
-
-Slowly he forced his body's failing life
-Down to the water; there he stooped and filled;
-And as his back turned Lion drew his knife,
-And hid it close, while all his being thrilled
-To see, as Michael came, the water spilled,
-Nearer and ever nearer, bright, so bright.
-"Drink," muttered Michael, "drink.  We two shall sleep to-night."
-
-He tilted up the hat, and Lion drank.
-Lion lay still a moment, gathering power,
-Then rose, as Michael gave him more, and sank.
-Then, like a dying bird whom death makes tower,
-He raised himself above the bloodied flower
-And struck with all his force in Michael's side.
-"You should not have done that," his stricken comrade cried.
-
-"No; for I meant to tell you, Lion; meant
-To tell you; but I cannot now; I die.
-That hit me to the heart and I am spent.
-Mary and I have parted; she and I
-Agreed she must return, lad.  That is why
-I came to see you.  She is coming here,
-Back to your home to-night.  Oh, my beloved dear,
-
-"You come to tread a bloody path of flowers.
-All the gold flowers are covered up with blood,
-And the bright bugles blow along the towers;
-The bugles triumph like the Plate in flood."
-His spilled life trickled down upon the mud
-Between weak, clutching fingers.  "Oh," he cried,
-"This isn't what we planned here years ago."  He died.
-
-Lion lay still while the cold tides of death
-Came brimming up his channels.  With one hand
-He groped to know if Michael still drew breath.
-His little hour was running out its sand.
-Then, in a mist, he saw his Mary stand
-Above.  He cried aloud, "He was my brother.
-I was his comrade sworn, and we have killed each other.
-
-"Oh desolate grief, beloved, and through me.
-We wise who try to change.  Oh, you wild birds,
-Help my unhappy spirit to the sea.
-The golden bowl is scattered into sherds."
-And Mary knelt and murmured passionate words
-To that poor body on the dabbled flowers:
-"Oh, beauty, oh, sweet soul, oh, little love of ours--
-
-"Michael, my own heart's darling, speak; it's me,
-Mary.  You know my voice.  I'm here, dear, here.
-Oh, little golden-haired one, listen.  See,
-It's Mary, Michael.  Speak to Mary, dear.
-Oh, Michael, little love, he cannot hear;
-And you have killed him, Lion; he is dead.
-My little friend, my love, my Michael, golden head.
-
-"We had such fun together, such sweet fun,
-My love and I, my merry love and I.
-Oh, love, you shone upon me like the sun.
-Oh, Michael, say some little last good-bye."
-Then in a great voice Lion called, "I die.
-Go home and tell my people.  Mary.  Hear.
-Though I have wrought this ruin, I have loved you, dear.
-
-"Better than he; not better, dear, as well.
-If you could kiss me, dearest, at this last.
-We have made bloody doorways from our hell,
-Cutting our tangle.  Now, the murder past,
-We are but pitiful poor souls; and fast
-The darkness and the cold come.  Kiss me, sweet;
-I loved you all my life; but some lives never meet
-
-"Though they go wandering side by side through Time.
-Kiss me," he cried.  She bent, she kissed his brow:
-"Oh, friend," she said, "you're lying in the slime."
-"Three blind ones, dear," he murmured, "in the slough,
-Caught fast for death; but never mind that now;
-Go home and tell my people.  I am dying,
-Dying, dear, dying now."  He died; she left him lying,
-
-And kissed her dead one's head and crossed the field.
-"They have been killed," she called, in a great crying.
-"Killed, and our spirits' eyes are all unsealed.
-The blood is scattered on the flowers drying."
-It was the hush of dusk, and owls were flying;
-They hooted as the Occleves ran to bring
-That sorry harvest home from Death's red harvesting.
-
-They laid the bodies on the bed together.
-And "You were beautiful," she said, "and you
-Were my own darling in the April weather.
-You knew my very soul, you knew, you knew.
-Oh, my sweet, piteous love, I was not true.
-Fetch me fair water and the flowers of spring;
-My love is dead, and I must deck his burying."
-
-They left her with her dead; they could not choose
-But grant the spirit burning in her face
-Rights that their pity urged them to refuse.
-They did her sorrow and the dead a grace.
-All night they heard her passing footsteps trace
-Down to the garden from the room of death.
-They heard her singing there, lowly, with gentle breath,
-
-To the cool darkness full of sleeping flowers,
-Then back, still singing soft, with quiet tread,
-But at the dawn her singing gathered powers
-Like to the dying swan who lifts his head
-On Eastnor, lifts it, singing, dabbled red,
-Singing the glory in his tumbling mind,
-Before the doors burst in, before death strikes him blind.
-
-So triumphing her song of love began,
-Ringing across the meadows like old woe
-Sweetened by poets to the help of man
-Unconquered in eternal overthrow;
-Like a great trumpet from the long ago
-Her singing towered; all the valley heard.
-Men jingling down to meadow stopped their teams and stirred.
-
-And they, the Occleves, hurried to the door,
-And burst it, fearing; there the singer lay
-Drooped at her lover's bedside on the floor,
-Singing her passionate last of life away.
-White flowers had fallen from a blackthorn spray
-Over her loosened hair.  Pale flowers of spring
-Filled the white room of death; they covered everything.
-
-Primroses, daffodils, and cuckoo-flowers.
-She bowed her singing head on Michael's breast.
-"Oh, it was sweet," she cried, "that love of ours.
-You were the dearest, sweet; I loved you best.
-Beloved, my beloved, let me rest
-By you forever, little Michael mine.
-Now the great hour is stricken, and the bread and wine
-
-"Broken and spilt; and now the homing birds
-Draw to a covert, Michael; I to you.
-Bury us two together," came her words.
-The dropping petals fell about the two.
-Her heart had broken; she was dead.  They drew
-Her gentle head aside; they found it pressed
-Against the broidered 'kerchief spread on Michael's breast,
-
-The one that bore her name in Michael's hair,
-Given so long before.  They let her lie,
-While the dim moon died out upon the air,
-And happy sunlight coloured all the sky.
-The last cock crowed for morning; carts went by;
-Smoke rose from cottage chimneys; from the byre
-The yokes went clanking by, to dairy, through the mire.
-
-In the day's noise the water's noise was stilled,
-But still it slipped along, the cold hill-spring,
-Dropping from leafy hollows, which it filled,
-On to the pebbly shelves which made it sing;
-Glints glittered on it from the 'fisher's wing;
-It saw the moorhen nesting; then it stayed
-In a great space of reeds where merry otters played.
-
-Slowly it loitered past the shivering reeds
-Into a mightier water; thence its course
-Becomes a pasture where the salmon feeds,
-Wherein no bubble tells its humble source;
-But the great waves go rolling, and the horse
-Snorts at the bursting waves and will not drink,
-And the great ships go outward, bubbling to the brink,
-
-Outward, with men upon them, stretched in line,
-Handling the halliards to the ocean's gates,
-Where flicking windflaws fill the air with brine,
-And all the ocean opens.  Then the mates
-Cry, and the sunburnt crew no longer waits,
-But sing triumphant and the topsail fills
-To this old tale of woe among the daffodils.
-
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-                  Macmillan poems by the same author.
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-
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-poetry and in the playwriting craft."--JOHN GALSWORTHY.
-
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-BRAITHWAITE, _N. Y. Times_.
-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-produced a rare poem of the sea, which has made Mr. Masefield's position
-in literature secure beyond the reach of caviling."--_Everybody's
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-Sun_.
-
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-feeling that he has an inward eye on which he draws to shape new films
-of old pictures.  In these pictures is freshness combined with power,
-which form the keynotes of his poetry."--_N. Y. Globe_.
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+  <title>THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41466 ***</div>
+  <div class="document" id="the-daffodil-fields">
+    <h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</span></h1><!-- this is the default PG-RST stylesheet -->
+    <!-- figure and image styles for non-image formats -->
+    <!-- default transition -->
+    <!-- default attribution -->
+    <!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+    <div class="clearpage"></div><!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+    <div class="align-None container coverpage">
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+      <div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 52%" id="figure-10">
+        <img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/img-cover.jpg" />
+        <div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+          <span class="italics">Cover</span>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="align-None container titlepage">
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BY<br />
+      JOHN MASEFIELD</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">AUTHOR OF "THE EVERLASTING MERCY," "THE WIDOW IN<br />
+      THE BYE STREET," "THE STORY OF A<br />
+      ROUND-HOUSE," ETC.</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">New York<br />
+      THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
+      1915</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics small">All rights reserved</em></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="align-None container verso">
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">COPYRIGHT, 1918,<br />
+      BY JOHN MASEFIELD.</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1913.<br />
+      Reprinted July, December, 1913; August, 1915.</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Norwood Press<br />
+      J. S. Cushing Co. -- Berwick &amp; Smith Co.<br />
+      Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.</span></p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">I</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Between the barren pasture and the wood</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There is a patch of poultry-stricken grass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where, in old time, Ryemeadows' Farmhouse stood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And human fate brought tragic things to pass.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A spring comes bubbling up there, cold as glass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It bubbles down, crusting the leaves with lime,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Babbling the self-same song that it has sung through time.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ducks gobble at the selvage of the brook,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But still it slips away, the cold hill-spring,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Past the Ryemeadows' lonely woodland nook</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where many a stubble gray-goose preens her wing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>On, by the woodland side. You hear it sing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Past the lone copse where poachers set their wires,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Past the green hill once grim with sacrificial fires.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Another water joins it; then it turns,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Runs through the Ponton Wood, still turning west,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Past foxgloves, Canterbury bells, and ferns,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And many a blackbird's, many a thrush's nest;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The cattle tread it there; then, with a zest</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It sparkles out, babbling its pretty chatter</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Through Foxholes Farm, where it gives white-faced cattle water.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Under the road it runs, and now it slips</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Past the great ploughland, babbling, drop and linn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To the moss'd stumps of elm trees which it lips,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And blackberry-bramble-trails where eddies spin.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, on its left, some short-grassed fields begin,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Red-clayed and pleasant, which the young spring fills</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With the never-quiet joy of dancing daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There are three fields where daffodils are found;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The grass is dotted blue-gray with their leaves;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Their nodding beauty shakes along the ground</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Up to a fir-clump shutting out the eaves</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of an old farm where always the wind grieves</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>High in the fir boughs, moaning; people call</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This farm The Roughs, but some call it the Poor Maid's Hall.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There, when the first green shoots of tender corn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Show on the plough; when the first drift of white</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stars the black branches of the spiky thorn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And afternoons are warm and evenings light,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The shivering daffodils do take delight,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Shaking beside the brook, and grass comes green,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And blue dog-violets come and glistening celandine.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And there the pickers come, picking for town</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Those dancing daffodils; all day they pick;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Hard-featured women, weather-beaten brown,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or swarthy-red, the colour of old brick.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At noon they break their meats under the rick.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The smoke of all three farms lifts blue in air</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As though man's passionate mind had never suffered there.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And sometimes as they rest an old man comes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Shepherd or carter, to the hedgerow-side,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And looks upon their gangrel tribe, and hums,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And thinks all gone to wreck since master died;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And sighs over a passionate harvest-tide</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Which Death's red sickle reaped under those hills,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There, in the quiet fields among the daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When this most tragic fate had time and place,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And human hearts and minds to show it by,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ryemeadows' Farmhouse was in evil case:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Its master, Nicholas Gray, was like to die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He lay in bed, watching the windy sky,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where all the rooks were homing on slow wings,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cawing, or blackly circling in enormous rings.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With a sick brain he watched them; then he took</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Paper and pen, and wrote in straggling hand</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>(Like spider's legs, so much his fingers shook)</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Word to the friends who held the adjoining land,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bidding them come; no more he could command</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His fingers twitching to the feebling blood;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He watched his last day's sun dip down behind the wood,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While all his life's thoughts surged about his brain:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Memories and pictures clear, and faces known--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Long dead, perhaps; he was a child again,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Treading a threshold in the dark alone.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then back the present surged, making him moan.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He asked if Keir had come yet. "No," they said.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Nor Occleve?" "No." He moaned: "Come soon or I'll be dead."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The names like live things wandered in his mind:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Charles Occleve of The Roughs," and "Rowland Keir--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Keir of the Foxholes"; but his brain was blind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A blind old alley in the storm of the year,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Baffling the traveller life with "No way here,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For all his lantern raised; life would not tread</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Within that brain again, along those pathways red.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Soon all was dimmed but in the heaven one star.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I'll hold to that," he said; then footsteps stirred.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down in the court a voice said, "Here they are,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And one, "He's almost gone." The sick man heard.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh God, be quick," he moaned. "Only one word.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Keir! Occleve! Let them come. Why don't they come?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Why stop to tell them that?--the devil strike you dumb.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I'm neither doll nor dead; come in, come in.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Curse you, you women, quick," the sick man flamed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I shall be dead before I can begin.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A sick man's womaned-mad, and nursed and damed."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Death had him by the throat; his wrath was tamed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Come in," he fumed; "stop muttering at the door."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The friends came in; a creaking ran across the floor.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now, Nick, how goes it, man?" said Occleve. "Oh,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dying man replied, "I am dying; past;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mercy of God, I die, I'm going to go.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But I have much to tell you if I last.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Come near me, Occleve, Keir. I am sinking fast,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And all my kin are coming; there, look there.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All the old, long dead Grays are moving in the air.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"It is my Michael that I called you for:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My son, abroad, at school still, over sea.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>See if that hag is listening at the door.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No? Shut the door; don't lock it, let it be.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No faith is kept to dying men like me.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I am dipped deep and dying, bankrupt, done;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I leave not even a farthing to my lovely son.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Neighbours, these many years our children played,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down in the fields together, down the brook;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Your Mary, Keir, the girl, the bonny maid,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Occleve's Lion, always at his book;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Them and my Michael: dear, what joy they took</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Picking the daffodils; such friends they've been--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My boy and Occleve's boy and Mary Keir for queen.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I had made plans; but I am done with, I.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Give me the wine. I have to ask you this:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I can leave Michael nothing, and I die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>By all our friendship used to be and is,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Help him, old friends. Don't let my Michael miss</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The schooling I've begun. Give him his chance.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He does not know I am ill; I kept him there in France.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Saving expense; each penny counts. Oh, friends,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Help him another year; help him to take</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His full diploma when the training ends,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So that my ruin won't be his. Oh, make</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This sacrifice for our old friendship's sake,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And God will pay you; for I see God's hand</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pass in most marvellous ways on souls: I understand</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"How just rewards are given for man's deeds</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And judgment strikes the soul. The wine there, wine.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Life is the daily thing man never heeds.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It is ablaze with sign and countersign.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael will not forget: that son of mine</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Is a rare son, my friends; he will go far.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I shall behold his course from where the blessed are."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Why, Nick," said Occleve, "come, man. Gather hold.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rouse up. You've given way. If times are bad,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Times must be bettering, master; so be bold;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lift up your spirit, Nicholas, and be glad.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael's as much to me as my dear lad.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I'll see he takes his school." "And I," said Keir.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Set you no keep by that, but be at rest, my dear.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We'll see your Michael started on the road."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"But there," said Occleve, "Nick's not going to die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out of the ruts, good nag, now; zook the load.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pull up, man. Death! Death and the fiend defy.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We'll bring the farm round for you, Keir and I.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Put heart at rest and get your health." "Ah, no,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The sick man faintly answered, "I have got to go."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Still troubled in his mind, the sick man tossed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Old friends," he said, "I once had hoped to see</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary and Michael wed, but fates are crossed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Michael starts with nothing left by me.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Still, if he loves her, will you let it be?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So in the grave, maybe, when I am gone,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I'll know my hope fulfilled, and see the plan go on."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I judge by hearts, not money," answered Keir.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"If Michael suits in that and suits my maid,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I promise you, let Occleve witness here</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He shall be free for me to drive his trade.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Free, ay, and welcome, too. Be not afraid,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I'll stand by Michael as I hope some friend</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Will stand beside my girl in case my own life end."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And I," said Occleve; but the sick man seemed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Still ill at ease. "My friends," he said, "my friends,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael may come to all that I have dreamed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But he's a wild yarn full of broken ends.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So far his life in France has made amends.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>God grant he steady so; but girls and drink</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Once brought him near to hell, aye, to the very brink.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"There is a running vein of wildness in him:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Wildness and looseness both, which vices make</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That woman's task a hard one who would win him:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His life depends upon the course you take.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He is a fiery-mettled colt to break,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And one to curb, one to be curbed, remember."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dying voice died down, the fire left the ember.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But once again it flamed. "Ah me," he cried;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Our secret sins take body in our sons,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To haunt our age with what we put aside.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I was a devil for the women once.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He is as I was. Beauty like the sun's;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Within, all water; minded like the moon.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Go now. I sinned. I die. I shall be punished soon."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The two friends tiptoed to the room below.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There, till the woman came to them, they told</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of brave adventures in the long ago,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ere Nick and they had thought of growing old;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Snipe-shooting in the marshlands in the cold,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old soldiering days as yeomen, days at fairs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Days that had sent Nick tired to those self-same chairs.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They vowed to pay the schooling for his son.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They talked of Michael, testing men's report,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>How the young student was a lively one,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Handsome and passionate both, and fond of sport,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Eager for fun, quick-witted in retort.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The girls' hearts quick to see him cocking by,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Young April on a blood horse, with a roving eye.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And, as they talked about the lad, Keir asked</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>If Occleve's son had not, at one time, been</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Heartsick for Mary, though with passion masked.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Ay," Occleve said: "Time was. At seventeen.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It took him hard, it ran his ribs all lean,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All of a summer; but it passed, it died.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her fancying Michael better touched my Lion's pride."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mice flickered from the wainscot to the press,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nibbling at crumbs, rattling to shelter, squeaking.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Each ticking in the clock's womb made life less;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oil slowly dropped from where the lamp was leaking.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At times the old nurse set the staircase creaking,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Harked to the sleeper's breath, made sure, returned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Answered the questioning eyes, then wept. The great stars burned.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Listen," said Occleve, "listen, Rowland. Hark."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"It's Mary, come with Lion," answered Keir:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"They said they'd come together after dark."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He went to door and called "Come in, my dear."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The burning wood log blazed with sudden cheer,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So that a glowing lighted all the room.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His daughter Mary entered from the outer gloom.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The wind had brought the blood into her cheek,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Heightening her beauty, but her great grey eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Were troubled with a fear she could not speak.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Firm, scarlet lips she had, not made for lies.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Gentle she seemed, pure-natured, thoughtful, wise,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And when she asked what turn the sickness took,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her voice's passing pureness on a low note shook.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Young Lion Occleve entered at her side,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A well-built, clever man, unduly grave,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One whose repute already travelled wide</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For skill in breeding beasts. His features gave</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Promise of brilliant mind, far-seeing, brave,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One who would travel far. His manly grace</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Grew wistful when his eyes were turned on Mary's face.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Tell me," said Mary, "what did doctor say?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>How ill is he? What chance of life has he?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The cowman said he couldn't last the day,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And only yesterday he joked with me."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We must be meek," the nurse said; "such things be."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"There's little hope," said Keir; "he's dying, sinking."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Dying without his son," the young girl's heart was thinking.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Does Michael know?" she asked. "Has he been called?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A slow confusion reddened on the faces,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As when one light neglect leaves friends appalled.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"No time to think," said nurse, "in such like cases."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Occleve stooped and fumbled with his laces.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Let be," he said; "there's always time for sorrow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He could not come in time; he shall be called to-morrow."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"There is a chance," she cried, "there always is.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Poor Mr. Gray might rally, might live on.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, I must telegraph to tell him this.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Would it were day still and the message gone."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She rose, her breath came fast, her grey eyes shone.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She said, "Come, Lion; see me through the wood.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael must know." Keir sighed. "Girl, it will do no good.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Our friend is on the brink and almost passed."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"All the more need," she said, "for word to go;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael could well arrive before the last.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He'd see his father's face at least. I know</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The office may be closed; but even so,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Father, I must. Come, Lion." Out they went,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Into the roaring woodland where the saplings bent.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like breakers of the sea the leafless branches</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Swished, bowing down, rolling like water, roaring</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like the sea's welcome when the clipper launches</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And full affronted tideways call to warring.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Daffodils glimmered underfoot, the flooring</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of the earthy woodland smelt like torn-up moss;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stones in the path showed white, and rabbits ran across.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They climbed the rise and struck into the ride,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Talking of death, while Lion, sick at heart,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Thought of the woman walking at his side,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And as he talked his spirit stood apart,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old passion for her made his being smart,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rankling within. Her thought for Michael ran</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like glory and like poison through his inner man.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"This will break Michael's heart," he said at length.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Poor Michael," she replied; "they wasted hours.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He loved his father so. God give him strength.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This is a cruel thing this life of ours."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The windy woodland glimmered with shut flowers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White wood anemones that the wind blew down.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The valley opened wide beyond the starry town.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Ten," clanged out of the belfry. Lion stayed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One hand upon a many-carven bole.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary," he said. "Dear, my beloved maid,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I love you, dear one, from my very soul."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her beauty in the dusk destroyed control.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary, my dear, I've loved you all these years."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh, Lion, no," she murmured, choking back her tears.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I love you," he repeated. "Five years since</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This thing began between us: every day</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh sweet, the thought of you has made me wince;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The thought of you, my sweet, the look, the way.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It's only you, whether I work or pray,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You and the hope of you, sweet you, dear you.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I never spoke before; now it has broken through.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh, my beloved, can you care for me?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She shook her head. "Oh, hush, oh, Lion dear,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Don't speak of love, for it can never be</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Between us two, never, however near.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Come on, my friend, we must not linger here."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White to the lips she spoke; he saw her face</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White in the darkness by him in the windy place.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary, in time you could, perhaps," he pleaded.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"No," she replied, "no, Lion; never, no."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over the stars the boughs burst and receded.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The nobleness of Love comes in Love's woe.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"God bless you then, beloved, let us go.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Come on," he said, "and if I gave you pain,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Forget it, dear; be sure I never will again."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They stepped together down the ride, their feet</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Slipped on loose stones. Little was said; his fate,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Staked on a kingly cast, had met defeat.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nothing remained but to endure and wait.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She was still wonderful, and life still great.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Great in that bitter instant side by side,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Hallowed by thoughts of death there in the blinded ride.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He heard her breathing by him, saw her face</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dim, looking straight ahead; her feet by his</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Kept time beside him, giving life a grace;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Night made the moment full of mysteries.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You are beautiful," he thought; "and life is this:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Walking a windy night while men are dying,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To cry for one to come, and none to heed our crying."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary," he said, "are you in love with him,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With Michael? Tell me. We are friends, we three."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They paused to face each other in the dim.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Tell me," he urged. "Yes, Lion," answered she;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I love him, but he does not care for me.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I trust your generous mind, dear; now you know,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You, who have been my brother, how our fortunes go.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now come; the message waits." The heavens cleared,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cleared, and were starry as they trod the ride.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Chequered by tossing boughs the moon appeared;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A whistling reached them from the Hall House side;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Climbing, the whistler came. A brown owl cried.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The whistler paused to answer, sending far</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That haunting, hunting note. The echoes laughed Aha!</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Something about the calling made them start.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Again the owl note laughed; the ringing cry</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Made the blood quicken within Mary's heart.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like a dead leaf a brown owl floated by.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael?" said Lion. "Hush." An owl's reply</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came down the wind; they waited; then the man,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Content, resumed his walk, a merry song began.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael," they cried together. "Michael, you?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Who calls?" the singer answered. "Where away?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Is that you, Mary?" Then with glad halloo</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The singer ran to meet them on the way.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It was their Michael; in the moonlight grey,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They made warm welcome; under tossing boughs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They met and told the fate darkening Ryemeadows' House.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As they returned at speed their comrade spoke</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Strangely and lightly of his coming home,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Saying that leaving France had been a joke,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But that events now proved him wise to come.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down the steep 'scarpment to the house they clomb,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Michael faltered in his pace; they heard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>How dumb rebellion in the much-wronged cattle stirred.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And as they came, high, from the sick man's room,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Gray burst out a-singing of the light</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Streaming upon him from the outer gloom,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As his eyes dying gave him mental sight.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Triumphing swords," he carolled, "in the bright;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh fire, Oh beauty fire," and fell back dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Occleve took Michael up to kneel beside the bed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So the night passed; the noisy wind went down;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The half-burnt moon her starry trackway rode.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then the first fire was lighted in the town,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the first carter stacked his early load.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Upon the farm's drawn blinds the morning glowed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And down the valley, with little clucks and trills,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dancing waters danced by dancing daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">II</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They buried Gray; his gear was sold; his farm</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Passed to another tenant. Thus men go;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dropped sword passes to another arm,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And different waters in the river flow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His two old faithful friends let Michael know</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His father's ruin and their promise. Keir</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Brought him to stay at Foxholes till a path was clear.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There, when the sale was over, all three met</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To talk about the future, and to find</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Upon what project Michael's heart was set.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Gentle the two old men were, thoughtful, kind.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They urged the youth to speak his inmost mind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For they would compass what he chose; they told</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>How he might end his training; they would find the gold.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Thanks, but I cannot," Michael said. He smiled.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Cannot. They've kicked me out. I've been expelled;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Kicked out for good and all for being wild.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They stopped our evening leave, and I rebelled.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I am a gentle soul until compelled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And then I put my ears back. The old fool</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Said that my longer presence might inflame the school.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And I am glad, for I have had my fill</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of farming by the book with those old fools,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Exhausted talkatives whose blood is still,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Who strive to bind a living man with rules.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This fettered kind of life, these laws, these schools,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>These codes, these checks, what are they but the clogs</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Made by collected sheep to mortify the dogs?</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And I have had enough of them; and now</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I make an end of them. I want to go</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Somewhere where man has never used a plough,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nor ever read a book; where clean winds blow,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And passionate blood is not its owner's foe,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And land is for the asking for it. There</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Man can create a life and have the open air.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"The River Plate's the country. There, I know,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A man like me can thrive. There, on the range,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The cattle pass like tides; they ebb and flow,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And life is changeless in unending change,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And one can ride all day, and all day strange,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Strange, never trodden, fenceless, waiting there,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To feed unending cattle for the men who dare.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"There I should have a chance; this land's too old."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Occleve grunted at the young man's mood;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Keir, who was losing money, thought him bold,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And thought the scheme for emigration good.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He said that, if he wished to go, he should.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>South to the pampas, there to learn the trade.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Occleve thought it mad, but no objection made.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So it was settled that the lad should start,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A place was found for him, a berth was taken;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Michael's beauty plucked at Mary's heart,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And now the fabric of their lives was shaken:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For now the hour's nearness made love waken</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In Michael's heart for Mary. Now Time's guile</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Granted her passionate prayer, nor let her see his smile.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Granted his greatest gifts; a night time came</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When the two walking down the water learned</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That life till then had only been a name;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Love had unsealed their spirits: they discerned.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mutely, at moth time there, their spirits yearned.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I shall be gone three years, dear soul," he said.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Dear, will you wait for me?" "I will," replied the maid.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So troth was pledged between them. Keir received</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael as Mary's suitor, feeling sure</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That the lad's fortunes would be soon retrieved,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Having a woman's promise as a lure.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The three years' wait would teach them to endure.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He bade them love and prosper and be glad.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And fast the day drew near that was to take the lad.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cowslips had come along the bubbling brook,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cowslips and oxlips rare, and in the wood</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The many-blossomed stalks of bluebells shook;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The outward beauty fed their mental mood.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Thought of the parting stabbed her as he wooed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Walking the brook with her, and day by day,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The precious fortnight's grace dropped, wasted, slipped away.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Till only one clear day remained to her:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One whole clear, precious day, before he sailed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some forty hours, no more, to minister</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To months of bleakness before which she quailed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mist rose along the brook; the corncrake railed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dim red the sunset burned. He bade her come</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Into the wood with him; they went, the night came dumb.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Still as high June, the very water's noise</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Seemed but a breathing of the earth; the flowers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stood in the dim like souls without a voice.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The wood's conspiracy of occult powers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drew all about them, and for hours on hours</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No murmur shook the oaks, the stars did house</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Their lights like lamps upon those never-moving boughs.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Under their feet the woodland sloped away</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down to the valley, where the farmhouse lights</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Were sparks in the expanse the moon made grey.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>June's very breast was bare this night of nights.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Moths blundered up against them, greys and whites</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Moved on the darkness where the moths were out,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nosing for sticky sweet with trembling uncurled snout.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But all this beauty was but music played,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While the high pageant of their hearts prepared.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A spirit thrilled between them, man to maid,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mind flowed in mind, the inner heart was bared,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They needed not to tell how much each cared;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All the soul's strength was at the other's soul.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Flesh was away awhile, a glory made them whole.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nothing was said by them; they understood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They searched each other's eyes without a sound,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Alone with moonlight in the heart of the wood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Knowing the stars and all the soul of the ground.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary," he murmured. "Come." His arms went round,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A white moth glimmered by, the woods were hushed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The rose at Mary's bosom dropped its petals, crushed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No word profaned the peace of that glad giving,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But the warm dimness of the night stood still,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drawing all beauty to the point of living,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There in the beech-tree's shadow on the hill.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Spirit to spirit murmured; mingling will</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Made them one being; Time's decaying thought</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fell from them like a rag; it was the soul they sought.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The moonlight found an opening in the boughs;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It entered in, it filled that sacred place</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With consecration on the throbbing brows;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It came with benediction and with grace.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A whispering came from face to yearning face:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Beloved, will you wait for me?" "My own."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I shall be gone three years, you will be left alone;</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You'll trust and wait for me?" "Yes, yes," she sighed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She would wait any term of years, all time--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So faithful to first love these souls abide,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Carrying a man's soul with them as they climb.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Life was all flower to them; the church bells' chime</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rang out the burning hour ere they had sealed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Love's charter there below the June sky's starry field.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sweetly the church bells' music reached the wood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Chiming an old slow tune of some old hymn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Calling them back to life from where they stood</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Under the moonlit beech-tree grey and dim.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary," he murmured; pressing close to him,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her kiss came on the gift he gave her there,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A silken scarf that bore her name worked in his hair.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But still the two affixed their hands and seals</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To a life compact witnessed by the sky,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where the great planets drove their glittering wheels,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bringing conflicting fate, making men die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They loved, and she would wait, and he would try.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh, beauty of my love," "My lovely man."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So beauty made them noble for their little span.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Time cannot pause, however dear the wooer;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The moon declined, the sunrise came, the hours,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Left to the lovers, dwindled swiftly fewer,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Even as the seeds from dandelion-flowers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Blow, one by one, until the bare stalk cowers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the June grass grows over; even so</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Daffodil-picker Time took from their lives the glow,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stole their last walk along the three green fields,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Their latest hour together; he took, he stole</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The white contentment that a true love yields;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He took the triumph out of Mary's soul.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Now she must lie awake and blow the coal</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of sorrow of heart. The parting hour came;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They kissed their last good-bye, murmuring the other's name.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then the flag waved, the engine snorted, then</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Slowly the couplings tautened, and the train</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Moved, bearing off from her her man of men;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She looked towards its going blind with pain.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her father turned and drove her home again.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It was a different home. Awhile she tried</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To cook the dinner there, but flung her down and cried.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then in the dusk she wandered down the brook,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Treading again the trackway trod of old,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When she could hold her loved one in a look.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The night was all unlike those nights of gold.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael was gone, and all the April old,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Withered and hidden. Life was full of ills;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She flung her down and cried i' the withered daffodils</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">III</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The steaming river loitered like old blood</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>On which the tugboat bearing Michael beat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Past whitened horse bones sticking in the mud.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The reed stems looked like metal in the heat.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then the banks fell away, and there were neat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Red herds of sullen cattle drifting slow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A fish leaped, making rings, making the dead blood flow.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Wormed hard-wood piles were driv'n in the river bank,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The steamer threshed alongside with sick screws</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Churning the mud below her till it stank;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Big gassy butcher-bubbles burst on the ooze.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There Michael went ashore; as glad to lose</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One not a native there, the Gauchos flung</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His broken gear ashore, one waved, a bell was rung.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The bowfast was cast off, the screw revolved,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Making a bloodier bubbling; rattling rope</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fell to the hatch, the engine's tune resolved</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Into its steadier beat of rise and slope;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The steamer went her way; and Michael's hope</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Died as she lessened; he was there alone.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The lowing of the cattle made a gradual moan.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He thought of Mary, but the thought was dim;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That was another life, lived long before.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His mind was in new worlds which altered him.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The startling present left no room for more.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The sullen river lipped, the sky, the shore</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Were vaster than of old, and lonely, lonely.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sky and low hills of grass and moaning cattle only.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But for a hut bestrewn with skulls of beeves,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Round which the flies danced, where an Indian girl</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bleared at him from her eyes' ophthalmic eaves,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Grinning a welcome; with a throaty skirl,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She offered him herself; but he, the churl,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stared till she thought him fool; she turned, she sat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Scratched in her short, black hair, chewed a cigar-end, spat.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Up, on the rise, the cattle bunched; the bulls</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drew to the front with menace, pawing bold,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Snatching the grass-roots out with sudden pulls,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The distant cattle raised their heads; the wold</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Grew dusty at the top; a waggon rolled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drawn by a bickering team of mules whose eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Were yellow like their teeth and bared and full of vice.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down to the jetty came the jingling team,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>An Irish cowboy driving, while a Greek</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beside him urged the mules with blow and scream.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They cheered the Indian girl and stopped to speak.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then lifting her aloft they kissed her cheek,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Calling to Michael to be quick aboard,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or they (they said) would fall from virtue, by the Lord.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So Michael climbed aboard, and all day long</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He drove the cattle range, rise after rise,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dotted with limber shorthorns grazing strong,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cropping sweet-tasted pasture, switching flies;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dull trouble brooded in their smoky eyes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some horsemen watched them. As the sun went down,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The waggon reached the estancia builded like a town.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With wide corrales where the horses squealed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Biting and lashing out; some half-wild hounds</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Gnawed at the cowbones littered on the field,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or made the stallions stretch their picket bounds.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some hides were drying; horsemen came from rounds,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Unsaddled stiff, and turned their mounts to feed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And then brewed bitter drink and sucked it through a reed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The Irishman removed his pipe and spoke:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You take a fool's advice," he said. "Return.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Go back where you belong before you're broke;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You'll spoil more clothes at this job than you'll earn;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It's living death, and when you die you'll burn:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Body and soul it takes you. Quit it. No?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Don't say I never told you, then. Amigos. Ho.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Here comes a Gringo; make him pay his shot.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pay up your footing, Michael; rum's the word,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It suits my genius, and I need a lot."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So the great cauldron full was mixed and stirred.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And all night long the startled cattle heard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Shouting and shooting, and the moon beheld</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mobs of dim, struggling men, who fired guns and yelled</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That they were Abel Brown just come to town,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael among them. By a bonfire some</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Betted on red and black for money down,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Snatching their clinking winnings, eager, dumb.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some danced unclad, rubbing their heads with rum.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The grey dawn, bringing beauty to the skies,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Saw Michael stretched among them, far too drunk to rise.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His footing paid, he joined the living-shed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lined with rude bunks and set with trestles: there</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He, like the other ranchers, slept and fed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Save when the staff encamped in open air,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rounding the herd for branding. Rude and bare</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That barrack was; men littered it about</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With saddles, blankets blue, old headstalls, many a clout</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Torn off to wipe a knife or clean a gun,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Tin dishes, sailors' hookpots, all the mess</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Made where the outdoor work is never done</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And every cleaning makes the sleeping less.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Men came from work too tired to undress,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And slept all standing like the trooper's horse;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then with the sun they rose to ride the burning course,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Whacking the shipment cattle into pen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where, in the dust, among the stink of burning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The half-mad heifers bolted from the men,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And tossing horns arose and hoofs were churning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A lover there had little time for yearning;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But all day long, cursing the flies and heat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael was handling steers on horseback till his feet</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Gave on dismounting. All day long he rode,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, when the darkness came, his mates and he</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Entered dog-tired to the rude abode</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And ate their meat and sucked their bitter tea,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And rolled themselves in rugs and slept. The sea</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Could not make men more drowsy; like the dead,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They lay under the lamp while the mosquitoes fed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There was no time to think of Mary, none;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For when the work relaxed, the time for thought</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was broken up by men demanding fun:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cards, or a well-kept ring while someone fought,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or songs and dancing; or a case was bought</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of white Brazilian rum, and songs and cheers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And shots and oaths rang loud upon the twitching ears</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of the hobbled horses hopping to their feed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So violent images displaced the rose</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In Michael's spirit; soon he took the lead;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>None was more apt than he for games or blows.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Even as the battle-seeking bantam crows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So crowed the cockerel of his mind to feel</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Life's bonds removed and blood quick in him toe to heel.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But sometimes when her letters came to him,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Full of wise tenderness and maiden mind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He felt that he had let his clearness dim;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The riot with the cowboys seemed unkind</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To that far faithful heart; he could not find</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Peace in the thought of her; he found no spur</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To instant upright action in his love for her.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She faded to the memory of a kiss,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There in the rough life among foreign faces;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Love cannot live where leisure never is;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He could not write to her from savage places,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where drunken mates were betting on the aces,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And rum went round and smutty songs were lifted.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He would not raise her banner against that; he drifted,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ceasing, in time, to write, ceasing to think,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But happy in the wild life to the bone;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The riding in vast space, the songs, the drink,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some careless heart beside him like his own,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The racing and the fights, the ease unknown</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In older, soberer lands; his young blood thrilled.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The pampas seemed his own, his cup of joy was filled.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And one day, riding far after strayed horses,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He rode beyond the ranges to a land</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Broken and made most green by watercourses,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Which served as strayline to the neighbouring brand.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A house stood near the brook; he stayed his hand,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Seeing a woman there, whose great eyes burned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So that he could not choose but follow when she turned.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>After that day he often rode to see</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That woman at the peach farm near the brook,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And passionate love between them came to be</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ere many days. Their fill of love they took;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And even as the blank leaves of a book</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The days went over Mary, day by day,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Blank as the last, was turned, endured, passed, turned away.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Spring came again greening the hawthorn buds;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The shaking flowers, new-blossomed, seemed the same,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And April put her riot in young bloods;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The jays flapped in the larch clump like blue flame.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She did not care; his letter never came.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Silent she went, nursing the grief that kills,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Lion watched her pass among the daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">IV</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Time passed, but still no letter came; she ceased,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Almost, to hope, but never to expect.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The June moon came which had beheld love's feast,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then waned, like it; the meadow-grass was flecked</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With moon-daisies, which died; little she recked</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of change in outward things, she did not change;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her heart still knew one star, one hope, it did not range,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like to the watery hearts of tidal men,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Swayed by all moons of beauty; she was firm,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When most convinced of misery firmest then.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She held a light not subject to the worm.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The pageant of the summer ran its term,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The last stack came to staddle from the wain;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The snow fell, the snow thawed, the year began again.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With the wet glistening gold of celandines,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And snowdrops pushing from the withered grass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Before the bud upon the hawthorn greens,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or blackbirds go to building; but, alas!</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No spring within her bosom came to pass.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You're going like a ghost," her father said;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now put him out of mind, and be my prudent maid."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It was an April morning brisk with wind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She wandered out along the brook sick-hearted,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Picking the daffodils where the water dinned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While overhead the first-come swallow darted.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There, at the place where all the passion started,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where love first knocked about her maiden heart,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Young Lion Occleve hailed her, calling her apart</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To see his tulips at The Roughs, and take</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A spray of flowering currant; so she went.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It is a bitter moment, when hearts ache,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To see the loved unhappy; his intent</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was but to try to comfort her; he meant</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To show her that he knew her heart's despair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And that his own heart bled to see her wretched there.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So, as they talked, he asked her, had she heard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>From Michael lately? No, she had not; she</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Had been a great while now, without a word.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"No news is always good news," answered he.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You know," he said, "how much you mean to me;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You've always been the queen. Oh, if I could</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Do anything to help, my dear, you know I would."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Nothing," she said, much touched. "But you believe--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You still believe in him?" "Why, yes," he said.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lie though it was he did not dare deceive</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The all too cruel faith within the maid.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That ranching is a wild and lonely trade,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Far from all posts; it may be hard to send;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All puzzling things like this prove simple in the end.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We should have heard if he were ill or dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Keep a good heart. Now come"; he led the way</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beyond the barton to the calving-shed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where, on a strawy litter topped with hay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A double-pedigree prize bull-calf lay.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Near three weeks old," he said, "the Wrekin's pet;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Come up, now, son, come up; you haven't seen him yet.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We have done well," he added, "with the stock,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But this one, if he lives, will make a name."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The bull-calf gambolled with his tail acock,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then shyly nosed towards them, scared but tame;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His troublous eyes were sulky with blue flame.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Softly he tip-toed, shying at a touch;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He nosed, his breath came sweet, his pale tongue curled to clutch.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They rubbed his head, and Mary went her way,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Counting the dreary time, the dreary beat</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of dreary minutes dragging through the day;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Time crawled across her life with leaden feet;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There still remained a year before her sweet</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Would come to claim her; surely he would come;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Meanwhile there was the year, her weakening father, home.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Home with its deadly round, with all its setting,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Things, rooms, and fields and flowers to sting, to burn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With memories of the love time past forgetting</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ere absence made her very being yearn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"My love, be quick," she moaned, "return, return;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Come when the three years end, oh, my dear soul,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It's bitter, wanting you." The lonely nights took toll,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Putting a sadness where the beauty was,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Taking a lustre from the hair; the days</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Saw each a sadder image in the glass.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And when December came, fouling the ways,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And ashless beech-logs made a Christmas blaze,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some talk of Michael came; a rumour ran,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Someone had called him "wild" to some returning mail,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Who, travelling through that cattle-range, had heard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nothing more sure than this; but this he told</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At second-hand upon a cowboy's word.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It struck on Mary's heart and turned her cold.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That winter was an age which made her old.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"But soon," she thought, "soon the third year will end;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>March, April, May, and June, then I shall see my friend.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"He promised he would come; he will not fail.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, Michael, my beloved man, come soon;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stay not to make a home for me, but sail.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Love and the hour will put the world in tune.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You in my life for always is the boon</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I ask from life--we two, together, lovers."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So leaden time went by who eats things and discovers.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, in the winds of March, her father rode,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Hunting the Welland country on Black Ned;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The tenor cry gave tongue past Clencher's Lode,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And on he galloped, giving the nag his head;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, at the brook, he fell, was picked up dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Hounds were whipped off; men muttered with one breath,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We knew that hard-mouthed brute would some day be his death."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They bore his body on a hurdle home;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then came the burial, then the sadder day</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When the peaked lawyer entered like a gnome,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With word to quit and lists of debts to pay.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There was a sale; the Foxholes passed away</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To strangers, who discussed the points of cows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where love had put such glory on the lovers' brows.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Kind Lion Occleve helped the maid's affairs.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her sorrow brought him much beside her; he</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Caused her to settle, having stilled her cares,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In the long cottage under Spital Gree.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He had no hope that she would love him; she</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Still waited for her lover, but her eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Thanked Lion to the soul; he made the look suffice.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>By this the yearling bull-calf had so grown</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That all men talked of him; mighty he grew,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Huge-shouldered, scaled above a hundred stone,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With deep chest many-wrinkled with great thew,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Plain-loined and playful-eyed; the Occleves knew</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That he surpassed his pasture; breeders came</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>From far to see this bull; he brought the Occleves fame.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Till a meat-breeding rancher on the plains</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where Michael wasted, sent to buy the beast,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Meaning to cross his cows with heavier strains</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Until his yield of meat and bone increased.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He paid a mighty price; the yearling ceased</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To be the wonder of the countryside.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He sailed in Lion's charge, south, to the Plate's red tide.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There Lion landed with the bull, and there</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The great beast raised his head and bellowed loud,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Challenging that expanse and that new air;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Trembling, but full of wrath and thunder-browed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Far from the daffodil fields and friends, but proud,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His wild eye kindled at the great expanse.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Two scraps of Shropshire life they stood there; their advance</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was slow along the well-grassed cattle land,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But at the last an end was made; the brute</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ate his last bread crust from his master's hand,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And snuffed the foreign herd and stamped his foot;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Steers on the swelling ranges gave salute.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The great bull bellowed back and Lion turned;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His task was now to find where Michael lived; he learned</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The farm's direction, and with heavy mind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Thinking of Mary and her sorrow, rode,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Leaving the offspring of his fields behind.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A last time in his ears the great bull lowed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, shaking up his horse, the young man glowed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To see the unfenced pampas opening out</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Grass that makes old earth sing and all the valleys shout.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At sunset on the second day he came</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To that white cabin in the peach-tree plot</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where Michael lived; they met, the Shropshire name</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rang trebly dear in that outlandish spot.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old memories swam up dear, old joys forgot,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old friends were real again; but Mary's woe</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came into Lion's mind, and Michael vexed him so,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Talking with careless freshness, side by side</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With that dark Spanish beauty who had won,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As though no heart-broke woman, heavy-eyed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mourned for him over sea, as though the sun</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Shone but to light his steps to love and fun,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While she, that golden and beloved soul,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Worth ten of him, lay wasting like an unlit coal.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So supper passed; the meat in Lion's gorge</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stuck at the last, he could not bide that face.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The idle laughter on it plied the forge</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where hate was smithying tools; the jokes, the place,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Wrought him to wrath; he could not stay for grace.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The tin mug full of red wine spilled and fell.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He kicked his stool aside with "Michael, this is hell.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Come out into the night and talk to me."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The young man lit a cigarette and followed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The stars seemed trembling at a brink to see;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A little ghostly white-owl stooped and holloed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beside the stake-fence Lion stopped and swallowed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While all the wrath within him made him grey.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael stood still and smoked, and flicked his ash away.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Well, Lion," Michael said, "men make mistakes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And then regret them; and an early flame</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Is frequently the worst mistake man makes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I did not seek this passion, but it came.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Love happens so in life. Well? Who's to blame?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You'll say I've broken Mary's heart; the heart</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Is not the whole of life, but an inferior part,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Useful for some few years and then a curse.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nerves should be stronger. You have come to say</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The three-year term is up; so much the worse.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I cannot meet the bill; I cannot pay.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I would not if I could. Men change. To-day</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I know that that first choice, however sweet,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was wrong and a mistake; it would have meant defeat,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Ruin and misery to us both. Let be.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You say I should have told her this? Perhaps.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You try to make a loving woman see</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That the warm link which holds you to her snaps.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Neglect is deadlier than the thunder-claps.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Yet she is bright and I am water. Well,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I did not make myself; this life is often hell.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Judge if you must, but understand it first.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We are old friends, and townsmen, Shropshire born,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Under the Wrekin. You believe the worst.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You have no knowledge how the heart is torn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Trying for duty up against the thorn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Now say I've broken Mary's heart: begin.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Break hers, or hers and mine, which were the greater sin?"</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael," said Lion, "I have heard you. Now</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Listen to me. Three years ago you made</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With a most noble soul a certain vow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Now you reject it, saying that you played.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She did not think so, Michael, she has stayed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Eating her heart out for a line, a word,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>News that you were not dead; news that she never heard.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Not once, after the first. She has held firm</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To what you counted pastime; she has wept</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Life, day by weary day throughout the term,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While her heart sickened, and the clock-hand crept.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While you, you with your woman here, have kept</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Holiday, feasting; you are fat; you smile.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You have had love and laughter all the ghastly while.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I shall be back in England six weeks hence,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Standing with your poor Mary face to face;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Far from a pleasant moment, but intense.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I shall be asked to tell her of this place.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And she will eye me hard and hope for grace,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some little crumb of comfort while I tell;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And every word will burn like a red spark from hell,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That you have done with her, that you are living</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Here with another woman; that you care</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nought for the pain you've given and are giving;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That all your lover's vows were empty air.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This I must tell: thus I shall burn her bare,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Burn out all hope, all comfort, every crumb,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>End it, and watch her whiten, hopeless, tearless, dumb.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Or do I judge you wrongly?" He was still.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The cigarette-end glowed and dimmed with ash;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A preying night bird whimpered on the hill.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael said "Ah!" and fingered with his sash,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then stilled. The night was still; there came no flash</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of sudden passion bursting. All was still;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A lonely water gurgled like a whip-poor-will.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now I must go," said Lion; "where's the horse?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"There," said his friend; "I'll set you on your way."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They caught and rode, both silent, while remorse</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Worked in each heart, though neither would betray</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>What he was feeling, and the moon came grey,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then burned into an opal white and great,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Silvering the downs of grass where these two travelled late,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Thinking of English fields which that moon saw,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fields full of quiet beauty lying hushed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At midnight in the moment full of awe,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When the red fox comes creeping, dewy-brushed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But neither spoke; they rode; the horses rushed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Scattering the great clods skywards with such thrills</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As colts in April feel there in the daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">V</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The river brimming full was silvered over</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>By moonlight at the ford; the river bank</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Smelt of bruised clote buds and of yellow clover.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nosing the gleaming dark the horses drank,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drooping and dripping as the reins fell lank;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The men drooped too; the stars in heaven drooped;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rank after hurrying rank the silver water trooped</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In ceaseless bright procession past the shallows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Talking its quick inconsequence. The friends,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Warmed by the gallop on the unfenced fallows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Felt it a kindlier thing to make amends.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"A jolly burst," said Michael; "here it ends.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Your way lies straight beyond the water. There.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Watch for the lights, and keep those two stars as they bear."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Something august was quick in all that sky,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Wheeling in multitudinous march with fire;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The falling of the wind brought it more nigh,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They felt the earth take solace and respire;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The horses shifted foothold in the mire,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Splashing and making eddies. Lion spoke:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Do you remember riding past the haunted oak</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That Christmas Eve, when all the bells were ringing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So that we picked out seven churches' bells,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ringing the night, and people carol-singing?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It hummed and died away and rose in swells</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like a sea breaking. We have been through hells</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Since then, we two, and now this being here</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Brings all that Christmas back, and makes it strangely near."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Yes," Michael answered, "they were happy times,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Riding beyond there; but a man needs change;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I know what they connote, those Christmas chimes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fudge in the heart, and pudding in the grange.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It stifles me all that; I need the range,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like this before us, open to the sky;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There every wing is clipped, but here a man can fly."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Ah," said his friend, "man only flies in youth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A few short years at most, until he finds</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That even quiet is a form of truth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And all the rest a coloured rag that blinds.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Life offers nothing but contented minds.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some day you'll know it, Michael. I am grieved</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That Mary's heart will pay until I am believed."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There was a silence while the water dripped</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>From the raised muzzles champing on the steel.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Flogging the crannied banks the water lipped.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Night up above them turned her starry wheel;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And each man feared to let the other feel</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>How much he felt; they fenced; they put up bars.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The moon made heaven pale among the withering stars.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael," said Lion, "why should we two part?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ride on with me; or shall we both return,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Make preparation, and to-morrow start,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And travel home together? You would learn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>How much the people long to see you; turn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We will ride back and say good-bye, and then</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sail, and see home again, and see the Shropshire men,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And see the old Shropshire mountain and the fair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Full of drunk Welshmen bringing mountain ewes;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And partridge shooting would be starting there."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael hung down his head and seemed to choose.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The horses churned fresh footing in the ooze.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then Michael asked if Tom were still alive,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Tom, who fought the Welshman under Upton Drive,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For nineteen rounds, on grass, with the bare hands?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Shaky," said Lion, "living still, but weak;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Almost past speaking, but he understands."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And old Shon Shones we teased so with the leek?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Dead." "When?" "December." Michael did not speak,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But muttered "Old Jones dead." A minute passed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"What came to little Sue, his girl?" he said at last.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Got into trouble with a man and died;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her sister keeps the child." His hearer stirred.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Dead, too? She was a pretty girl," he sighed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"A graceful pretty creature, like a bird.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>What is the child?" "A boy. Her sister heard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Too late to help; poor Susan died; the man</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>None knew who he could be, but many rumours ran."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Ah," Michael said. The horses tossed their heads;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A little wind arising struck in chill;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Time," he began, "that we were in our beds."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A distant heifer challenged from the hill,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Scraped at the earth with 's forefoot and was still.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Come with me," Lion pleaded. Michael grinned;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He turned his splashing horse, and prophesied a wind.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"So long," he said, and "Kind of you to call.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Straight on, and watch the stars"; his horse's feet</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Trampled the firmer foothold, ending all.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He flung behind no message to his sweet,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No other word to Lion; the dull beat</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of his horse's trample drummed upon the trail;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion could watch him drooping in the moonlight pale,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drooping and lessening; half expectant still</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That he would turn and greet him; but no sound</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came, save the lonely water's whip-poor-will</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the going horse hoofs dying on the ground.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael," he cried, "Michael!" A lonely mound</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beyond the water gave him back the cry.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That's at an end," he said, "and I have failed her--I."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Soon the far hoof-beats died, save for a stir</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Half heard, then lost, then still, then heard again.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A quickening rhythm showed he plied the spur.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then a vast breathing silence took the plain.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The moon was like a soul within the brain</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of the great sleeping world; silent she rode</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The water talked, talked, talked; it trembled as it flowed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A moment Lion thought to ride in chase.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He turned, then turned again, knowing his friend.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He forded through with death upon his face,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And rode the plain that seemed never to end.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Clumps of pale cattle nosed the thing unkenned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Riding the night; out of the night they rose,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Snuffing with outstretched heads, stamping with surly lows,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Till he was threading through a crowd, a sea</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of curious shorthorns backing as he came,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Barring his path, but shifting warily;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He slapped the hairy flanks of the more tame.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Unreal the ghostly cattle lumbered lame.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His horse kept at an even pace; the cows</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Broke right and left like waves before advancing bows.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lonely the pampas seemed amid that herd.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The thought of Mary's sorrow pricked him sore;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He brought no comfort for her, not a word;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He would not ease her pain, but bring her more.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The long miles dropped behind; lights rose before,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lights and the seaport and the briny air;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And so he sailed for home to comfort Mary there.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <p class="left pfirst"><span>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When Mary knew the worst she only sighed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Looked hard at Lion's face, and sat quite still,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White to the lips, but stern and stony-eyed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beaten by life in all things but the will.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Though the blow struck her hard it did not kill.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She rallied on herself, a new life bloomed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out of the ashy heart where Michael lay entombed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And more than this: for Lion touched a sense</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That he, the honest humdrum man, was more</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Than he by whom the glory and the offence</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came to her life three bitter years before.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This was a treason in her being's core;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It smouldered there; meanwhile as two good friends</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They met at autumn dusks and winter daylight-ends.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And once, after long twilight talk, he broke</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His strong restraint upon his passion for her,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And burningly, most like a man he spoke,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Until her pity almost overbore her.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It could not be, she said; her pity tore her;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But still it could not be, though this was pain.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then on a frosty night they met and spoke again.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And then he wooed again, clutching her hands,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Calling the maid his mind, his heart, his soul,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Saying that God had linked their lives in bands</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When the worm Life first started from the goal;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That they were linked together, past control,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Linked from all time, could she but pity; she</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pitied him from the soul, but said it could not be.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary," he asked, "you cannot love me? No?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"No," she replied; "would God I could, my dear."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"God bless you, then," he answered, "I must go,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Go over sea to get away from here,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I cannot think of work when you are near;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My whole life falls to pieces; it must end.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This meeting now must be 'good-bye,' beloved friend."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White-lipped she listened, then with failing breath,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She asked for yet a little time; her face</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was even as that of one condemned to death.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She asked for yet another three months' grace,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Asked it, as Lion inly knew, in case</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael should still return; and "Yes" said he,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I'll wait three months for you, beloved; let it be."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Slowly the three months dragged: no Michael came.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>March brought the daffodils and set them shaking.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>April was quick in Nature like green flame;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>May came with dog-rose buds, and corncrakes craking,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then dwindled like her blossom; June was breaking.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary," said Lion, "can you answer now?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White like a ghost she stood, he long remembered how.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Wild-eyed and white, and trembling like a leaf,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She gave her answer, "Yes"; she gave her lips,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cold as a corpse's to the kiss of grief,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Shuddering at him as if his touch were whips.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then her best nature, struggling to eclipse</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This shrinking self, made speech; she jested there;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They searched each other's eyes, and both souls saw despair.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So the first passed, and after that began</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A happier time: she could not choose but praise</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That recognition of her in the man</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Striving to salve her pride in myriad ways;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He was a gentle lover: gentle days</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Passed like a music after tragic scenes;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her heart gave thanks for that; but still the might-have-beens</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Haunted her inner spirit day and night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And often in his kiss the memory came</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of Michael's face above her, passionate, white,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His lips at her lips murmuring her name,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then she would suffer sleepless, sick with shame,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And struggle with her weakness. She had vowed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To give herself to Lion; she was true and proud.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He should not have a woman sick with ghosts,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But one firm-minded to be his; so time</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Passed one by one the summer's marking posts,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dog-rose and the foxglove and the lime.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then on a day the church-bells rang a chime.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Men fired the bells till all the valley filled</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With bell-noise from the belfry where the jackdaws build.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion and she were married; home they went,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Home to The Roughs as man and wife; the news</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was printed in the paper. Mary sent</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A copy out to Michael. Now we lose</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sight of her for a time, and the great dews</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fall, and the harvest-moon grows red and fills</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over the barren fields where March brings daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">VI</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The rider lingered at the fence a moment,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Tossed out the pack to Michael, whistling low,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then rode, waving his hand, without more comment,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down the vast grey-green pampas sloping slow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael's last news had come so long ago,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He wondered who had written now; the hand</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Thrilled him with vague alarm, it brought him to a stand.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He opened it with one eye on the hut,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lest she within were watching him, but she</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was combing out her hair, the door was shut,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The green sun-shutters closed, she could not see.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out fell the love-tryst handkerchief which he</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Had had embroidered with his name for her;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It had been dearly kept, it smelt of lavender.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Something remained: a paper, crossed with blue,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where he should read; he stood there in the sun,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Reading of Mary's wedding till he knew</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>What he had cast away, what he had done.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He was rejected, Lion was the one.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion, the godly and the upright, he.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The black lines in the paper showed how it could be.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He pocketed the love gift and took horse,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And rode out to the pay-shed for his savings.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then turned, and rode a lonely water-course,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Alone with bitter thoughts and bitter cravings.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sun-shadows on the reeds made twinkling wavings;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>An orange-bellied turtle scooped the mud;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary had married Lion, and the news drew blood.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And with the bitterness, the outcast felt</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A passion for those old kind Shropshire places,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The ruined chancel where the nuns had knelt;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>High Ercall and the Chase End and the Chases,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The glimmering mere, the burr, the well-known faces,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>By Wrekin and by Zine and country town.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The orange-bellied turtle burrowed further down.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He could remember Mary now; her crying</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Night after night alone through weary years,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Had touched him now and set the cords replying;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He knew her misery now, her ache, her tears,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The lonely nights, the ceaseless hope, the fears,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The arm stretched out for one not there, the slow</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Loss of the lover's faith, the letting comfort go.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now I will ride," he said. Beyond the ford</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He caught a fresh horse and rode on. The night</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Found him a guest at Pepe Blanco's board,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Moody and drinking rum and ripe for fight;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drawing his gun, he shot away the light,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And parried Pepe's knife and caught his horse,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And all night long he rode bedevilled by remorse.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At dawn he caught an eastward-going ferry,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And all day long he steamed between great banks</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Which smelt of yellow thorn and loganberry.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then wharves appeared, and chimneys rose in ranks,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mast upon mast arose; the river's flanks</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Were filled with English ships, and one he found</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Needing another stoker, being homeward bound.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And all the time the trouble in his head</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ran like a whirlwind moving him; he knew</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Since she was lost that he was better dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He had no project outlined, what to do,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beyond go home; he joined the steamer's crew.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She sailed that night: he dulled his maddened soul,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Plying the iron coal-slice on the bunker coal.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Work did not clear the turmoil in his mind;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Passion takes colour from the nature's core;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His misery was as his nature, blind.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Life was still turmoil when he went ashore.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To see his old love married lay before;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To see another have her, drink the gall,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Kicked like a dog without, while he within had all.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <p class="left pfirst"><span>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Soon he was at the Foxholes, at the place</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Whither, from over sea, his heart had turned</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Often at evening-ends in times of grace.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But little outward change his eye discerned;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A red rose at her bedroom window burned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Just as before. Even as of old the wasps</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Poised at the yellow plums: the gate creaked on its hasps,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the white fantails sidled on the roof</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Just as before; their pink feet, even as of old,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Printed the frosty morning's rime with proof.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Still the zew-tallat's thatch was green with mould;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The apples on the withered boughs were gold.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Men and the times were changed: "And I," said he,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Will go and not return, since she is not for me.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I'll go, for it would be a scurvy thing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To spoil her marriage, and besides, she cares</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For that half-priest she married with the ring.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Small joy for me in seeing how she wears,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or seeing what he takes and what she shares.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That beauty and those ways: she had such ways,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There in the daffodils in those old April days."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So with an impulse of good will he turned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Leaving that place of daffodils; the road</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was paven sharp with memories which burned;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He trod them strongly under as he strode.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At the Green Turning's forge the furnace glowed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Red dithying sparks flew from the crumpled soft</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fold from the fire's heart; down clanged the hammers oft.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That was a bitter place to pass, for there</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary and he had often, often stayed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To watch the horseshoe growing in the glare.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It was a tryst in childhood when they strayed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There was a stile beside the forge; he laid</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His elbows on it, leaning, looking down</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The river-valley stretched with great trees turning brown.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Infinite, too, because it reached the sky,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And distant spires arose and distant smoke;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The whiteness on the blue went stilly by;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Only the clinking forge the stillness broke.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ryemeadows brook was there; The Roughs, the oak</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where the White Woman walked; the black firs showed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Around the Occleve homestead Mary's new abode.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A long, long time he gazed at that fair place,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So well remembered from of old; he sighed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I will go down and look upon her face,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>See her again, whatever may betide.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Hell is my future; I shall soon have died,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But I will take to hell one memory more;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She shall not see nor know; I shall be gone before;</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Before they turn the dogs upon me, even.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I do not mean to speak; but only see.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Even the devil gets a peep at heaven;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One peep at her shall come to hell with me;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One peep at her, no matter what may be."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He crossed the stile and hurried down the slope.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Remembered trees and hedges gave a zest to hope.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <p class="left pfirst"><span>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A low brick wall with privet shrubs beyond</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ringed in The Roughs upon the side he neared.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Eastward some bramble bushes cloaked the pond;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Westward was barley-stubble not yet cleared.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He thrust aside the privet boughs and peered.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The drooping fir trees let their darkness trail</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Black like a pirate's masts bound under easy sail.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The garden with its autumn flowers was there;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Few that his wayward memory linked with her.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Summer had burnt the summer flowers bare,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But honey-hunting bees still made a stir.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sprigs were still bluish on the lavender,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And bluish daisies budded, bright flies poised;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The wren upon the tree-stump carolled cheery-voiced.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He could not see her there. Windows were wide,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Late wasps were cruising, and the curtains shook.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Smoke, like the house's breathing, floated, sighed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Among the trembling firs strange ways it took.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But still no Mary's presence blessed his look;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The house was still as if deserted, hushed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Faint fragrance hung about it as if herbs were crushed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fragrance that gave his memory's guard a hint</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of times long past, of reapers in the corn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bruising with heavy boots the stalks of mint,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When first the berry reddens on the thorn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Memories of her that fragrance brought. Forlorn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That vigil of the watching outcast grew;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He crept towards the kitchen, sheltered by a yew.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The windows of the kitchen opened wide.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Again the fragrance came; a woman spoke;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Mrs. Occleve talked to one inside.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A smell of cooking filled a gust of smoke.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then fragrance once again, for herbs were broke;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pourri was being made; the listener heard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Things lifted and laid down, bruised into sweetness, stirred.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While an old woman made remarks to one</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Who was not the beloved: Michael learned</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That Roger's wife at Upton had a son,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And that the red geraniums should be turned;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A hen was missing, and a rick was burned;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Our Lord commanded patience; here it broke;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The window closed, it made the kitchen chimney smoke.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Steps clacked on flagstones to the outer door;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A dairy-maid, whom he remembered well,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lined, now, with age, and grayer than before,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rang a cracked cow-bell for the dinner-bell.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He saw the dining-room; he could not tell</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>If Mary were within: inly he knew</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That she was coming now, that she would be in blue,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Blue with a silver locket at the throat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And that she would be there, within there, near,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With the little blushes that he knew by rote,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the grey eyes so steadfast and so dear,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The voice, pure like the nature, true and clear,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Speaking to her belov'd within the room.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The gate clicked, Lion came: the outcast hugged the gloom,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Watching intently from below the boughs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While Lion cleared his riding-boots of clay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Eyed the high clouds and went within the house.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His eyes looked troubled, and his hair looked gray.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dinner began within with much to say.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Occleve roared aloud at his own joke.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary, it seemed, was gone; the loved voice never spoke.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nor could her lover see her from the yew;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She was not there at table; she was ill,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ill, or away perhaps--he wished he knew.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Away, perhaps, for Occleve bellowed still.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"If sick," he thought, "the maid or Lion will</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Take food to her." He watched; the dinner ended.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The staircase was not used; none climbed it, none descended.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Not here," he thought; but wishing to be sure,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He waited till the Occleves went to field,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then followed, round the house, another lure,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Using the well-known privet as his shield.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He meant to run a risk; his heart was steeled.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He knew of old which bedroom would be hers;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He crouched upon the north front in among the firs.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The house stared at him with its red-brick blank,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Its vacant window-eyes; its open door,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With old wrought bridle ring-hooks at each flank,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Swayed on a creaking hinge as the wind bore.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nothing had changed; the house was as before,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dull red brick, the windows sealed or wide:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I will go in," he said. He rose and stepped inside.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>None could have seen him coming; all was still;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He listened in the doorway for a sign.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Above, a rafter creaked, a stir, a thrill</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Moved, till the frames clacked on the picture line.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Old Mother Occleve sleeps, the servants dine,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He muttered, listening. "Hush." A silence brooded.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Far off the kitchen dinner clattered; he intruded.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Still, to his right, the best room door was locked.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Another door was at his left; he stayed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Within, a stately timepiece ticked and tocked,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To one who slumbered breathing deep; it made</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>An image of Time's going and man's trade.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He looked: Old Mother Occleve lay asleep,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Hands crossed upon her knitting, rosy, breathing deep.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He tiptoed up the stairs which creaked and cracked.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The landing creaked; the shut doors, painted gray,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Loomed, as if shutting in some dreadful act.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The nodding frames seemed ready to betray.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The east room had been closed in Michael's day,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Being the best; but now he guessed it hers;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The fields of daffodils lay next it, past the firs.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Just as he reached the landing, Lion cried,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Somewhere below, "I'll get it." Lion's feet</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Struck on the flagstones with a hasty stride.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"He's coming up," thought Michael, "we shall meet."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He snatched the nearest door for his retreat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Opened with thieves' swift silence, dared not close,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But stood within, behind it. Lion's footsteps rose,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Running two steps at once, while Michael stood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Not breathing, only knowing that the room</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Was someone's bedroom smelling of old wood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Hung with engravings of the day of doom.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The footsteps stopped; and Lion called, to whom?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A gentle question, tapping at a door,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Michael shifted feet, and creakings took the floor.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The footsteps recommenced, a door-catch clacked;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Within an eastern room the footsteps passed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drawers were pulled loudly open and ransacked,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Chattels were thrust aside and overcast.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>What could the thing be that he sought. At last</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His voice said, "Here it is." The wormed floor</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Creaked with returning footsteps down the corridor.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The footsteps came as though the walker read,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or added rows of figures by the way;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There was much hesitation in the tread;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion seemed pondering which, to go or stay;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, seeing the door, which covered Michael, sway,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He swiftly crossed and shut it. "Always one</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For order," Michael muttered. "Now be swift, my son."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The action seemed to break the walker's mood;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The footsteps passed downstairs, along the hall,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out at the door and off towards the wood.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Gone," Michael muttered. "Now to hazard all."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Outside, the frames still nodded on the wall.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael stepped swiftly up the floor to try</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The door where Lion tapped and waited for reply.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It was the eastmost of the rooms which look</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over the fields of daffodils; the bound</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Scanned from its windows is Ryemeadows brook,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Banked by gnarled apple trees and rising ground.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Most gently Michael tapped; he heard no sound,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Only the blind-pull tapping with the wind;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The kitchen-door was opened; kitchen-clatter dinned.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A woman walked along the hall below,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Humming; a maid, he judged; the footsteps died,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Listening intently still, he heard them go,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then swiftly turned the knob and went inside.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The blind-pull at the window volleyed wide;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The curtains streamed out like a waterfall;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The pictures of the fox-hunt clacked along the wall.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No one was there; no one; the room was hers.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A book of praise lay open on the bed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The clothes-press smelt of many lavenders,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her spirit stamped the room; herself was fled.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Here she found peace of soul like daily bread,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Here, with her lover Lion; Michael gazed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He would have been the sharer had he not been crazed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He took the love-gift handkerchief again;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He laid it on her table, near the glass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So opened that the broidered name was plain;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Plain," he exclaimed, "she cannot let it pass.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It stands and speaks for me as bold as brass.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My answer, my heart's cry, to tell her this,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That she is still my darling: all she was she is.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"So she will know at least that she was wrong,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That underneath the blindness I was true.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fate is the strongest thing, though men are strong;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out from beyond life I was sealed to you.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But my blind ways destroyed the cords that drew;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And now, the evil done, I know my need;</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fate has his way with those who mar what is decreed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And now, goodbye." He closed the door behind him,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then stept, with firm swift footstep down the stair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Meaning to go where she would never find him;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He would go down through darkness to despair.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out at the door he stept; the autumn air</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came fresh upon his face; none saw him go.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Goodbye, my love," he muttered; "it is better so."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Soon he was on the high road, out of sight</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of valley and farm; soon he could see no more</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The oast-house pointing finger take the light</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As tumbling pigeons glittered over; nor</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Could he behold the wind-vane gilded o'er,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Swinging above the church; the road swung round.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now, the last look," he cried: he saw that holy ground.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Goodbye," he cried; he could behold it all,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Spread out as in a picture; but so clear</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That the gold apple stood out from the wall;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like a red jewel stood the grazing steer.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Precise, intensely coloured, all brought near,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As in a vision, lay that holy ground.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary is there," he moaned, "and I am outward bound.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I never saw this place so beautiful,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Never like this. I never saw it glow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Spirit is on this place; it fills it full.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So let the die be cast; I will not go.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But I will see her face to face and know</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>From her own lips what thoughts she has of me;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And if disaster come: right; let disaster be."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Back, by another way, he turned. The sun</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fired the yew-tops in the Roman woods.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lights in the valley twinkled one by one,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The starlings whirled in dropping multitudes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dusk fingered into one earth's many moods,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Back to The Roughs he walked; he neared the brook;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A lamp burned in the farm; he saw; his fingers shook.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He had to cross the brook, to cross a field,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where daffodils were thick when years were young.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, were she there, his fortunes should be sealed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down the mud trackway to the brook he swung;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then while the passion trembled on his tongue,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dim, by the dim bridge-stile, he seemed to see</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A figure standing mute; a woman--it was she.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She stood quite stilly, waiting for him there.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She did not seem surprised; the meeting seemed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Planned from all time by powers in the air</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To change their human fates; he even deemed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That in another life this thing had gleamed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This meeting by the bridge. He said, "It's you."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Yes, I," she said, "who else? You must have known; you knew</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That I should come here to the brook to see,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>After your message." "You were out," he said.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Gone, and I did not know where you could be.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where were you, Mary, when the thing was laid?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Old Mrs. Gale is dying, and I stayed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Longer than usual, while I read the Word.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You could have hardly gone." She paused, her bosom stirred.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary, I sinned," he said. "Not that, dear, no,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She said; "but, oh, you were unkind, unkind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Never to write a word and leave me so,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But out of sight with you is out of mind."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary, I sinned," he said, "and I was blind.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, my beloved, are you Lion's wife?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Belov'd sounds strange," she answered, "in my present life.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"But it is sweet to hear it, all the same.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It is a language little heard by me</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Alone, in that man's keeping, with my shame.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I never thought such miseries could be.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I was so happy in you, Michael. He</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came when I felt you changed from what I thought you.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Even now it is not love, but jealousy that brought you."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That is untrue," he said. "I am in hell.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You are my heart's beloved, Mary, you.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>By God, I know your beauty now too well.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We are each other's, flesh and soul, we two."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That was sweet knowledge once," she said; "we knew</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That truth of old. Now, in a strange man's bed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I read it in my soul, and find it written red."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Is he a brute?" he asked. "No," she replied.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I did not understand what it would mean.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And now that you are back, would I had died;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Died, and the misery of it not have been.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion would not be wrecked, nor I unclean.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I was a proud one once, and now I'm tame;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, Michael, say some word to take away my shame."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She sobbed; his arms went round her; the night heard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Intense fierce whispering passing, soul to soul,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Love running hot on many a murmured word,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Love's passionate giving into new control.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Their present misery did but blow the coal,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Did but entangle deeper their two wills,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While the brown brook ran on by buried daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">VII</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Upon a light gust came a waft of bells,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ringing the chimes for nine; a broken sweet,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like waters bubbling out of hidden wells,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dully upon those lovers' ears it beat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Their time was at an end. Her tottering feet</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Trod the dim field for home; he sought an inn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh, I have sinned," she cried, "but not a secret sin."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Inside The Roughs they waited for her coming;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Eyeing the ticking clock the household sat.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Nine," the clock struck; the clock-weights ran down drumming;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Mother Occleve stretched her sewing flat.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"It's nine," she said. Old Occleve stroked the cat.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Ah, cat," he said, "hast had good go at mouse?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion sat listening tense to all within the house</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Mary is late to-night," the gammer said.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"The times have changed," her merry husband roared.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Young married couples now like lonely trade,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Don't think of bed at all, they think of board.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No multiplying left in people. Lord!</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When I was Lion's age I'd had my five.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There was some go in folk when us two took to wive."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion arose and stalked and bit his lip.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Or was it six?" the old man muttered, "six.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Us had so many I've alost the tip.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Us were two right good souls at getting chicks.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Two births of twins, then Johnny's birth, then Dick's" ...</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now give a young man time," the mother cried.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary came swiftly in and flung the room door wide.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion was by the window when she came,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Occleve and his wife were by the fire;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Big shadows leapt the ceiling from the flame.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She fronted the three figures and came nigher.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Lion," she whispered, "I return my hire."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She dropped her marriage-ring upon the table.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, in a louder voice, "I bore what I was able,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And Time and marriage might have worn me down,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Perhaps, to be a good wife and a blest,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With little children clinging to my gown,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And little blind mouths fumbling for my breast,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And this place would have been a place of rest</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For you and me; we could have come to know</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The depth; but that is over; I have got to go.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"He has come back, and I have got to go.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Our marriage ends." She stood there white and breathed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Occleve got upon his feet with "So."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Blazing with wrath upon the hearth he seethed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A log fell from the bars; blue spirals wreathed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Across the still old woman's startled face;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The cat arose and yawned. Lion was still a space.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Occleve turned to Lion. Lion moved</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nearer to Mary, picking up the ring.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His was grim physic from the soul beloved;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His face was white and twitching with the sting.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You are my wife, you cannot do this thing,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He said at last. "I can respect your pride.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This thing affects your soul; my judgment must decide.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You are unsettled, shaken from the shock."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Not so," she said. She stretched a hand to him,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White, large and noble, steady as a rock,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cunning with many powers, curving, slim.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The smoke, drawn by the door-draught, made it dim.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Right," Lion answered. "You are steady. Then</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There is but one world, Mary; this, the world of men.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And there's another world, without its bounds,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Peopled by streaked and spotted souls who prize</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The flashiness that comes from marshy grounds</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Above plain daylight. In their blinkered eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nothing is bright but sentimental lies,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Such as are offered you, dear, here and now;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lies which betray the strongest, God alone knows how.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You, in your beauty and your whiteness, turn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Your strong, white mind, your faith, your fearless truth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All for these rotten fires that so burn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A sentimental clutch at perished youth.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I am too sick for wisdom, sick with ruth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And this comes suddenly; the unripe man</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Misses the hour, oh God. But you, what is your plan?</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"What do you mean to do, how act, how live?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>What warrant have you for your life? What trust?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You are for going sailing in a sieve.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This brightness is too mortal not to rust.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So our beginning marriage ends in dust.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I have not failed you, Mary. Let me know</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>What you intend to do, and whither you will go."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Go from this place; it chokes me," she replied.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"This place has branded me; I must regain</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My truth that I have soiled, my faith, my pride,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It is all poison and it leaves a stain.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I cannot stay nor be your wife again.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Never. You did your best, though; you were kind.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I have grown old to-night and left all that behind.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Goodbye." She turned. Old Occleve faced his son.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Wrath at the woman's impudence was blent,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Upon his face, with wrath that such an one</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Should stand unthrashed until her words were spent.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He stayed for Lion's wrath; but Mary went</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Unchecked; he did not stir. Her footsteps ground</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The gravel to the gate; the gate-hinge made a sound</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like to a cry of pain after a shot.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Swinging, it clicked, it clicked again, it swung</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Until the iron latch bar hit the slot.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary had gone, and Lion held his tongue.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Old Mother Occleve sobbed; her white head hung</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over her sewing while the tears ran down</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her worn, blood-threaded cheeks and splashed upon her gown.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Yes, it is true," said Lion, "she must go.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael is back. Michael was always first,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I did but take his place. You did not know.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Now it has happened, and you know the worst.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So passion makes the passionate soul accurst</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And crucifies his darling. Michael comes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the savage truth appears and rips my life to thrums."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Upon Old Occleve's face the fury changed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>First to contempt, and then to terror lest</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion, beneath the shock, should be deranged.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But Lion's eyes were steady, though distressed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Father, good-night," he said, "I'm going to rest.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Good-night, I cannot talk. Mother, good-night."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He kissed her brow and went; they heard him strike a light,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And go with slow depressed step up the stairs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Up to the door of her deserted bower;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They heard him up above them, moving chairs;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The memory of his paleness made them cower.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They did not know their son; they had no power</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To help, they only saw the new-won bride</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Defy their child, and faith and custom put aside.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <p class="left pfirst"><span>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>After a time men learned where Mary was:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over the hills, not many miles away,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Renting a cottage and a patch of grass</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where Michael came to see her. Every day</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Taught her what fevers can inhabit clay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Shaking this body that so soon must die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The time made Lion old: the winter dwindled by.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Till the long misery had to end or kill:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And "I must go to see her," Lion cried;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I am her standby, and she needs me still;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>If not to love she needs me to decide.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dear, I will set you free. Oh, my bright bride,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lost in such piteous ways, come back." He rode</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over the wintry hills to Mary's new abode.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And as he topped the pass between the hills,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Towards him, up the swerving road, there came</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael, the happy cause of all his ills;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Walking as though repentance were the shame,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sucking a grass, unbuttoned, still the same,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Humming a tune; his careless beauty wild</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drawing the women's eyes; he wandered with a child.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Who heard, wide-eyed, the scraps of tales which fell</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Between the fragments of the tune; they seemed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A cherub bringing up a soul from hell.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Meeting unlike the meeting long since dreamed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion dismounted; the great valley gleamed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With waters far below; his teeth were set</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His heart thumped at his throat; he stopped; the two men met.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The child well knew that fatal issues joined;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He stood round-eyed to watch them, even as Fate</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stood with his pennypiece of causes coined</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ready to throw for issue; the bright hate</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Throbbed, that the heavy reckoning need not wait.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion stepped forward, watching Michael's eyes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We are old friends," he said. "Now, Michael, you be wise,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And let the harm already done suffice;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Go, before Mary's name is wholly gone.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Spare her the misery of desertion twice,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There's only ruin in the road you're on--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ruin for both, whatever promise shone</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In sentimental shrinkings from the fact.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So, Michael, play the man, and do the generous act.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And go; if not for my sake, go for hers.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You only want her with your sentiment.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You are water roughed by every wind that stirs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>One little gust will alter your intent</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All ways, to every wind, and nothing meant,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Is your life's habit. Man, one takes a wife,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Not for a three months' fancy, but the whole of life.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We have been friends, and so I speak you fair.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>How will you bear her ill, or cross, or tired?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sentiment sighing will not help you there.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You call a half life's volume not desired.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I know your love for her. I saw it mired,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mired, past going, by your first sharp taste</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of life and work; it stopped; you let her whole life waste,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Rather than have the trouble of such love,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You will again; but if you do it now,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It will mean death, not sorrow. But enough.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You know too well you cannot keep a vow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There are gray hairs already on her brow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You brought them there. Death is the next step. Go,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Before you take the step." "No," Michael answered, "No.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"As for my past, I was a dog, a cur,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And I have paid blood-money, and still pay.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But all my being is ablaze with her;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There is no talk of giving up to-day.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I will not give her up. You used to say</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bodies are earth. I heard you say it. Liar!</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You never loved her, you. She turns the earth to fire."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael," said Lion, "you have said such things</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of other women; less than six miles hence</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You and another woman felt love's wings</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rosy and fair, and so took leave of sense.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She's dead, that other woman, dead, with pence</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pressed on her big brown eyes, under the ground;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She that was merry once, feeling the world go round.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Her child (and yours) is with her sister now,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out there, behind us, living as they can;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pinched by the poverty that you allow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All a long autumn many rumours ran</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>About Sue Jones that was: you were the man.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The lad is like you. Think about his mother,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Before you turn the earth to fire with another."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That is enough," said Michael, "you shall know</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Soon, to your marrow, what my answer is;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Know to your lying heart; now kindly go.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The neighbours smell that something is amiss.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We two will keep a dignity in this,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Such as we can. No quarrelling with me here.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary might see; now go; but recollect, my dear,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"That if you twit me with your wife, you lie;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And that your further insult waits a day</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>When God permits that Mary is not by;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I keep the record of it, and shall pay.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And as for Mary; listen: we betray</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No one. We keep our troth-plight as we meant.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Now go, the neighbours gather." Lion bowed and went.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Home to his memories for a month of pain,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Each moment like a devil with a tongue,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Urging him, "Set her free," or "Try again,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Or "Kill that man and stamp him into dung."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"See her," he cried. He took his horse and swung</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out on the road to her; the rain was falling;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her dropping house-eaves splashed him when he knocked there, calling.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drowned yellow jasmine dripped; his horse's flanks</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Steamed, and dark runnels on his yellow hair</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Streaked the groomed surface into blotchy ranks.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The noise of water dropping filled the air.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He knocked again; but there was no one there;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No one within, the door was locked, no smoke</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came from the chimney stacks, no clock ticked, no one spoke.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Only the water dripped and dribble-dripped,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And gurgled through the rain-pipe to the butt;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drops, trickling down the windows paused or slipped;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A wet twig scraked as though the glass were cut.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The blinds were all drawn down, the windows shut.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No one was there. Across the road a shawl</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Showed at a door a space; a woman gave a call.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"They're gone away," she cried. "They're gone away.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Been gone a matter of a week." Where to?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The woman thought to Wales, but could not say,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nor if she planned returning; no one knew.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She looked at Lion sharply; then she drew</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The half-door to its place and passed within,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Saying she hoped the rain would stop and spring begin.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion rode home. A month went by, and now</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Winter was gone; the myriad shoots of green</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bent to the wind, like hair, upon the plough,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And up from withered leaves came celandine.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And sunlight came, though still the air was keen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So that the first March market was most fair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Lion rode to market, having business there.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And in the afternoon, when all was done,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While Lion waited idly near the inn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Watching the pigeons sidling in the sun,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As Jim the ostler put his gelding in,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He heard a noise of rioting begin</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Outside the yard, with catcalls; there were shouts</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of "Occleve. Lion Occleve," from a pack of louts,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Who hung about the courtyard-arch, and cried,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Yah, Occleve, of The Roughs, the married man,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Occleve, who had the bed and not the bride."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At first without the arch; but some began</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To sidle in, still calling; children ran</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To watch the baiting; they were farmer's leavings</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Who shouted thus, men cast for drunkenness and thievings.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion knew most of them of old; he paid</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>No heed to them, but turned his back and talked</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To Jim, of through-pin in his master's jade,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And how no horse-wounds should be stuped or caulked.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The rabble in the archway, not yet baulked,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came crowding nearer, and the boys began,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Who was it took your mistress, master married man?"</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Who was it, master, took your wife away?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I wouldn't let another man take mine."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"She had two husbands on her wedding day."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"See at a blush: he blushed as red as wine."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"She'd ought a had a cart-whip laid on fine."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The farmers in the courtyard watched the baiting,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Grinning, the barmaids grinned above the window grating.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then through the mob of brawlers Michael stepped</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Straight to where Lion stood. "I come," he said,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"To give you back some words which I have kept</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Safe in my heart till I could see them paid.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You lied about Sue Jones; she died a maid</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As far as I'm concerned, and there's your lie,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Full in your throat, and there, and there, and in your eye.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"And there's for stealing Mary" ... as he struck,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He slipped upon a piece of peel and dropped</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Souse in a puddle of the courtyard muck;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Loud laughter followed when he rose up sopped.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Friends rushed to intervene, the fight was stopped.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The two were hurried out by different ways.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Men said, "'Tis stopped for now, but not for many days."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <p class="left pfirst"><span>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>April appeared, the green earth's impulse came,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pushing the singing sap until each bud</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Trembled with delicate life as soft as flame,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Filled by the mighty heart-beat as with blood;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Death was at ebb, and Life in brimming flood.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But little joy in life could Lion see,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Striving to gird his will to set his loved one free,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While in his heart a hope still struggled dim</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That the mad hour would pass, the darkness break,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The fever die, and she return to him,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The routed nightmare let the sleeper wake.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Then we could go abroad," he cried, "and make</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A new life, soul to soul; oh, love! return."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Too late," his heart replied. At last he rode to learn.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bowed, but alive with hope, he topped the pass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And saw, below, her cottage by the way,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White, in a garden green with springing grass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And smoke against the blue sky going gray.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"God make us all the happier for to-day,"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He muttered humbly; then, below, he spied,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary and Michael entering, walking side by side.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Arm within arm, like lovers, like dear lovers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Matched by the happy stars and newly wed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over whose lives a rosy presence hovers.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion dismounted, seeing hope was dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A child was by the road, he stroked his head,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And "Little one," he said, "who lives below</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There, in the cottage there, where those two people go?"</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"They do," the child said, pointing: "Mrs. Gray</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lives in the cottage there, and he does, too.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They've been back near a week since being away."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It was but seal to what he inly knew.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He thanked the child and rode. The Spring was blue,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bluer than ever, and the birds were glad;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Such rapture in the hedges all the blackbirds had.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He was not dancing to that pipe of the Spring.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He reached The Roughs, and there, within her room,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bowed for a time above her wedding ring,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Which had so chained him to unhappy doom;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All his dead marriage haunted in the gloom</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Of that deserted chamber; all her things</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lay still as she had left them when her love took wings.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He kept a bitter vigil through the night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Knowing his loss, his ten years' passion wasted,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His life all blasted, even at its height,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His cup of life's fulfilment hardly tasted.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Gray on the budding woods the morning hasted,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And looking out he saw the dawn come chill</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over the shaking acre pale with daffodil.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Birds were beginning in the meadows; soon</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The blackbirds and the thrushes with their singing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Piped down the withered husk that was the moon,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And up the sky the ruddy sun came winging.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cows plodded past, yokes clanked, the men were bringing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Milk from the barton. Someone shouted "Hup,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dog, drive them dangy red ones down away on up."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Some heavy hours went by before he rose.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He went out of the house into the grass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down which the wind flowed much as water flows;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The daffodils bowed down to let it pass.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>At the brook's edge a boggy bit there was,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Right at the field's north corner, near the bridge,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fenced by a ridge of earth; he sat upon the ridge,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Watching the water running to the sea,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Watching the bridge, the stile, the path beyond,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where the white violet's sweetness brought the bee.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He paid the price of being overfond.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The water babbled always from the pond</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over the pretty shallows, chattering, tinkling,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>With trembles from the sunlight in its clearness wrinkling.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So gazing, like one stunned, it reached his mind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That the hedge-brambles overhung the brook</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>More than was right, making the selvage blind;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dragging brambles too much flotsam took.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dully he thought to mend. He fetched a hook,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And standing in the shallow stream he slashed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>For hours, it seemed; the thorns, the twigs, the dead leaves splashed,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Splashed and were bobbed away across the shallows;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Pale grasses with the sap gone from them fell,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sank, or were carried down beyond the sallows.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The bruised ground-ivy gave out earthy smell.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I must be dead," he thought, "and this is hell."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fiercely he slashed, till, glancing at the stile,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He saw that Michael stood there, watching, with a smile,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His old contemptuous smile of careless ease,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>As though the world with all its myriad pain</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sufficed, but only just sufficed, to please.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Michael was there, the robber come again.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>A tumult ran like flame in Lion's brain;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, looking down, he saw the flowers shake:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Gold, trembling daffodils; he turned, he plucked a stake</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out of the hedge that he had come to mend,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And flung his hook to Michael, crying, "Take;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We two will settle our accounts, my friend,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Once and for ever. May the Lord God make</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You see your sins in time." He whirled his stake</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And struck at Michael's head; again he struck;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While Michael dodged and laughed, "Why, man, I bring you luck.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Don't kill a bringer of good news. You fool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Stop it and listen. I have come to say:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion, for God's sake, listen and be cool.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You silly hothead, put that stake away.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Listen, I tell you." But he could not stay</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The anger flaming in that passionate soul.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Blows rained upon him thick; they stung; he lost control.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Till, "If you want to fight," he cried, "let be.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Let me get off the bridge and we will fight.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That firm bit by the quag will do for me.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So. Be on guard, and God defend the right.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You foaming madman, with your hell's delight,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Smashing a man with stakes before he speaks:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>On guard. I'll make you humbler for the next few weeks."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The ground was level there; the daffodils</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Glimmered and danced beneath their cautious feet,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Quartering for openings for the blow that kills.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beyond the bubbling brook a thrush was sweet.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Quickly the footsteps slid; with feint and cheat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The weapons poised and darted and withdrew.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Now stop it," Michael said, "I want to talk to you."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We do not stop till one of us is dead,",</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Said Lion, rushing in. A short blow fell</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dizzily, through all guard, on Michael's head.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His hedging-hook slashed blindly but too well:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It struck in Lion's side. Then, for a spell,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Both, sorely stricken, staggered, while their eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dimmed under mists of blood; they fell, they tried to rise,--</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Tried hard to rise, but could not, so they lay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Watching the clouds go sailing on the sky,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Touched with a redness from the end of day.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>There was all April in the blackbird's cry.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And lying there they felt they had to die,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Die and go under mould and feel no more</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>April's green fire of life go running in earth's core.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"There was no need to hit me," Michael said;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You quiet thinking fellows lose control.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>This fighting business is a foolish trade.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And now we join the grave-worm and the mole.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I tried to stop you. You're a crazy soul;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You always were hot-headed. Well, let be:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You deep and passionate souls have always puzzled me.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"I'm sorry that I struck you. I was hit,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And lashed out blindly at you; you were mad.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It would be different if you'd stopped a bit.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You are too blind when you are angry, lad.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, I am giddy, Lion; dying, bad,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dying." He raised himself, he sat, his look</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Grew greedy for the water bubbling in the brook.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And as he watched it, Lion raised his head;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Out of a bloodied clump of daffodil.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael," he moaned, "I, too, am dying: dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You're nearer to the water. Could you fill</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Your hat and give me drink? Or would it spill?</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Spill, I expect." "I'll try," said Michael, "try--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I may as well die trying, since I have to die."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Slowly he forced his body's failing life</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down to the water; there he stooped and filled;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And as his back turned Lion drew his knife,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And hid it close, while all his being thrilled</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To see, as Michael came, the water spilled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Nearer and ever nearer, bright, so bright.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Drink," muttered Michael, "drink. We two shall sleep to-night."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He tilted up the hat, and Lion drank.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion lay still a moment, gathering power,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then rose, as Michael gave him more, and sank.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, like a dying bird whom death makes tower,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He raised himself above the bloodied flower</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And struck with all his force in Michael's side.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You should not have done that," his stricken comrade cried.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"No; for I meant to tell you, Lion; meant</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To tell you; but I cannot now; I die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That hit me to the heart and I am spent.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary and I have parted; she and I</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Agreed she must return, lad. That is why</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I came to see you. She is coming here,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Back to your home to-night. Oh, my beloved dear,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"You come to tread a bloody path of flowers.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All the gold flowers are covered up with blood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the bright bugles blow along the towers;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The bugles triumph like the Plate in flood."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His spilled life trickled down upon the mud</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Between weak, clutching fingers. "Oh," he cried,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"This isn't what we planned here years ago." He died.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Lion lay still while the cold tides of death</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Came brimming up his channels. With one hand</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>He groped to know if Michael still drew breath.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>His little hour was running out its sand.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then, in a mist, he saw his Mary stand</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Above. He cried aloud, "He was my brother.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I was his comrade sworn, and we have killed each other.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh desolate grief, beloved, and through me.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We wise who try to change. Oh, you wild birds,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Help my unhappy spirit to the sea.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The golden bowl is scattered into sherds."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And Mary knelt and murmured passionate words</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To that poor body on the dabbled flowers:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh, beauty, oh, sweet soul, oh, little love of ours--</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Michael, my own heart's darling, speak; it's me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Mary. You know my voice. I'm here, dear, here.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, little golden-haired one, listen. See,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It's Mary, Michael. Speak to Mary, dear.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, Michael, little love, he cannot hear;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And you have killed him, Lion; he is dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My little friend, my love, my Michael, golden head.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"We had such fun together, such sweet fun,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My love and I, my merry love and I.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, love, you shone upon me like the sun.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, Michael, say some little last good-bye."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then in a great voice Lion called, "I die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Go home and tell my people. Mary. Hear.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Though I have wrought this ruin, I have loved you, dear.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Better than he; not better, dear, as well.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>If you could kiss me, dearest, at this last.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We have made bloody doorways from our hell,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cutting our tangle. Now, the murder past,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>We are but pitiful poor souls; and fast</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The darkness and the cold come. Kiss me, sweet;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>I loved you all my life; but some lives never meet</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Though they go wandering side by side through Time.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Kiss me," he cried. She bent, she kissed his brow:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh, friend," she said, "you're lying in the slime."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Three blind ones, dear," he murmured, "in the slough,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Caught fast for death; but never mind that now;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Go home and tell my people. I am dying,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dying, dear, dying now." He died; she left him lying,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And kissed her dead one's head and crossed the field.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"They have been killed," she called, in a great crying.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Killed, and our spirits' eyes are all unsealed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The blood is scattered on the flowers drying."</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It was the hush of dusk, and owls were flying;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They hooted as the Occleves ran to bring</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>That sorry harvest home from Death's red harvesting.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They laid the bodies on the bed together.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And "You were beautiful," she said, "and you</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Were my own darling in the April weather.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You knew my very soul, you knew, you knew.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Oh, my sweet, piteous love, I was not true.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Fetch me fair water and the flowers of spring;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>My love is dead, and I must deck his burying."</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They left her with her dead; they could not choose</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But grant the spirit burning in her face</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Rights that their pity urged them to refuse.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They did her sorrow and the dead a grace.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>All night they heard her passing footsteps trace</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Down to the garden from the room of death.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>They heard her singing there, lowly, with gentle breath,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To the cool darkness full of sleeping flowers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Then back, still singing soft, with quiet tread,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But at the dawn her singing gathered powers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like to the dying swan who lifts his head</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>On Eastnor, lifts it, singing, dabbled red,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Singing the glory in his tumbling mind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Before the doors burst in, before death strikes him blind.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>So triumphing her song of love began,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Ringing across the meadows like old woe</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Sweetened by poets to the help of man</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Unconquered in eternal overthrow;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Like a great trumpet from the long ago</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her singing towered; all the valley heard.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Men jingling down to meadow stopped their teams and stirred.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And they, the Occleves, hurried to the door,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And burst it, fearing; there the singer lay</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Drooped at her lover's bedside on the floor,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Singing her passionate last of life away.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>White flowers had fallen from a blackthorn spray</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Over her loosened hair. Pale flowers of spring</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Filled the white room of death; they covered everything.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Primroses, daffodils, and cuckoo-flowers.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>She bowed her singing head on Michael's breast.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Oh, it was sweet," she cried, "that love of ours.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>You were the dearest, sweet; I loved you best.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Beloved, my beloved, let me rest</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>By you forever, little Michael mine.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Now the great hour is stricken, and the bread and wine</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>"Broken and spilt; and now the homing birds</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Draw to a covert, Michael; I to you.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Bury us two together," came her words.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The dropping petals fell about the two.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her heart had broken; she was dead. They drew</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Her gentle head aside; they found it pressed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Against the broidered 'kerchief spread on Michael's breast,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The one that bore her name in Michael's hair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Given so long before. They let her lie,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>While the dim moon died out upon the air,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And happy sunlight coloured all the sky.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The last cock crowed for morning; carts went by;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Smoke rose from cottage chimneys; from the byre</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>The yokes went clanking by, to dairy, through the mire.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In the day's noise the water's noise was stilled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But still it slipped along, the cold hill-spring,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Dropping from leafy hollows, which it filled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>On to the pebbly shelves which made it sing;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Glints glittered on it from the 'fisher's wing;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>It saw the moorhen nesting; then it stayed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>In a great space of reeds where merry otters played.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Slowly it loitered past the shivering reeds</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Into a mightier water; thence its course</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Becomes a pasture where the salmon feeds,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Wherein no bubble tells its humble source;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But the great waves go rolling, and the horse</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Snorts at the bursting waves and will not drink,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And the great ships go outward, bubbling to the brink,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Outward, with men upon them, stretched in line,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Handling the halliards to the ocean's gates,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Where flicking windflaws fill the air with brine,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>And all the ocean opens. Then the mates</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>Cry, and the sunburnt crew no longer waits,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>But sing triumphant and the topsail fills</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="left line">
+        <span>To this old tale of woe among the daffodils.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Printed In the United States of America.</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 6em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">The following pages contain advertisements of<br />
+    Macmillan poems by the same author.</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">JOHN MASEFIELD'S</span></p>
+    <p class="center pnext"><span class="large">The Everlasting Mercy, and The Widow in Bye Street</span></p>
+    <p class="center pnext"><em class="italics medium">Decorated boards, $1.25. Postpaid, $1.38</em></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="pfirst"><span>"The Everlasting Mercy" was awarded the Edward de Polignac prize of $500 by the Royal Society of Literature for the best imaginative work of the year.</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <p class="pfirst"><span>"John Masefield is the man of the hour, and the man of to-morrow too, in poetry and in the playwriting craft."--JOHN GALSWORTHY.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"--recreates a wholly new drama of existence."--WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE,</span> <em class="italics">N. Y. Times</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"Mr. Masefield comes like a flash of light across contemporary English poetry, and he trails glory where his imagination reveals the substances of life. The improbable has been accomplished by Mr. Masefield; he has made poetry out of the very material that has refused to yield it for almost a score of years. It has only yielded it with a passion of Keats, and shaped it with the imagination of Coleridge."--</span><em class="italics">Boston Evening Transcript</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"Originality, force, distinction, and deep knowledge of the human heart."--</span><em class="italics">Chicago Record-Herald</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"They are truly great pieces."--Kentucky Post.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"A vigor and sincerity rare in modern English literature."--</span><em class="italics">The Independent</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"If Mr. Masefield has occasionally appeared to touch a reminiscent chord with George Meredith, it is merely an example of his good taste and the sameness of big themes."--GEORGE MIDDLETON in</span> <em class="italics">La Foliette's Magazine</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">JOHN MASEFIELD'S</span></p>
+    <p class="center pnext"><span class="large">The Story of a Round-House, and other Poems</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"John Masefield has produced the finest literature of the year."--J. W. BARRIE.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"John Masefield is the most interesting poetic personality of the day."--</span><em class="italics">The Continent</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"Ah! the story of that rounding the Horn! Never in prose has the sea been so tremendously described."--</span><em class="italics">Chicago Evening Post</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"Masefield's new book attracts the widest attention from those who in any degree are interested in the quality of present-day literature."--</span><em class="italics">Boston Transcript</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"A remarkable poem of the sea."--</span><em class="italics">San Francisco Chronicle</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"Vivid and thrillingly realistic."--</span><em class="italics">Current Literature</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"A genuine sailor and a genuine poet are a rare combination; they have produced a rare poem of the sea, which has made Mr. Masefield's position in literature secure beyond the reach of caviling."--</span><em class="italics">Everybody's Magazine</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"Masefield has prisoned in verse the spirit of life at sea."--</span><em class="italics">N. Y. Sun</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <p class="pnext"><span>"There is strength about everything Masefield writes that compels the feeling that he has an inward eye on which he draws to shape new films of old pictures. In these pictures is freshness combined with power, which form the keynotes of his poetry."--</span><em class="italics">N. Y. Globe</em><span>.</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span></p>
+    <p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">Publishers -- 64-66 Fifth Avenue -- New York</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 6em"></div><!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+    <div class="backmatter"></div>
+    <div class="cleardoublepage"></div>
+  </div>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41466 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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-<title>THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</title>
-<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" />
-<meta name="PG.Title" content="The Daffodil Fields" />
-<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" />
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-<meta name="DC.Creator" content="John Masefield" />
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-<div class="document" id="the-daffodil-fields">
-<h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</span></h1>
-
-<!-- this is the default PG-RST stylesheet -->
-<!-- figure and image styles for non-image formats -->
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-<!-- default attribution -->
-<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
-<div class="clearpage">
-</div>
-<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
-<div class="align-None container language-en pgheader" id="pg-header" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
-<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the </span><a class="reference internal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a><span>
-included with this eBook or online at
-</span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="noindent pnext"></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<div class="align-None container" id="pg-machine-header">
-<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>Title: The Daffodil Fields
-<br />
-<br />Author: John Masefield
-<br />
-<br />Release Date: November 23, 2012 [EBook #41466]
-<br />
-<br />Language: English
-<br />
-<br />Character set encoding: UTF-8</span></p>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
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-<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-start-line"><span>*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</span><span> ***</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p>
-</div>
-<div class="align-None container coverpage">
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 52%" id="figure-10">
-<img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/img-cover.jpg" />
-<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
-<span class="italics">Cover</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class="align-None container titlepage">
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BY
-<br />JOHN MASEFIELD</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">AUTHOR OF "THE EVERLASTING MERCY," "THE WIDOW IN
-<br />THE BYE STREET," "THE STORY OF A
-<br />ROUND-HOUSE," ETC.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">New York
-<br />THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
-<br />1915</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics small">All rights reserved</em></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class="align-None container verso">
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">COPYRIGHT, 1918,
-<br />BY JOHN MASEFIELD.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Set up and electrotyped.  Published March, 1913.
-<br />Reprinted July, December, 1913; August, 1915.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Norwood Press
-<br />J. S. Cushing Co. -- Berwick &amp; Smith Co.
-<br />Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.</span></p>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">THE DAFFODIL FIELDS</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">I</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Between the barren pasture and the wood</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There is a patch of poultry-stricken grass,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where, in old time, Ryemeadows' Farmhouse stood,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And human fate brought tragic things to pass.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A spring comes bubbling up there, cold as glass,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It bubbles down, crusting the leaves with lime,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Babbling the self-same song that it has sung through time.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Ducks gobble at the selvage of the brook,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But still it slips away, the cold hill-spring,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Past the Ryemeadows' lonely woodland nook</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where many a stubble gray-goose preens her wing,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>On, by the woodland side.  You hear it sing</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Past the lone copse where poachers set their wires,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Past the green hill once grim with sacrificial fires.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Another water joins it; then it turns,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Runs through the Ponton Wood, still turning west,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Past foxgloves, Canterbury bells, and ferns,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And many a blackbird's, many a thrush's nest;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The cattle tread it there; then, with a zest</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It sparkles out, babbling its pretty chatter</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Through Foxholes Farm, where it gives white-faced cattle water.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Under the road it runs, and now it slips</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Past the great ploughland, babbling, drop and linn,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To the moss'd stumps of elm trees which it lips,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And blackberry-bramble-trails where eddies spin.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, on its left, some short-grassed fields begin,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Red-clayed and pleasant, which the young spring fills</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With the never-quiet joy of dancing daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>There are three fields where daffodils are found;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The grass is dotted blue-gray with their leaves;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Their nodding beauty shakes along the ground</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Up to a fir-clump shutting out the eaves</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of an old farm where always the wind grieves</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>High in the fir boughs, moaning; people call</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This farm The Roughs, but some call it the Poor Maid's Hall.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>There, when the first green shoots of tender corn</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Show on the plough; when the first drift of white</span></div>
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-<div class="left line"><span>And afternoons are warm and evenings light,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The shivering daffodils do take delight,</span></div>
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-<div class="left line"><span>Or swarthy-red, the colour of old brick.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>At noon they break their meats under the rick.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The smoke of all three farms lifts blue in air</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As though man's passionate mind had never suffered there.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And sometimes as they rest an old man comes,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Shepherd or carter, to the hedgerow-side,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And looks upon their gangrel tribe, and hums,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And thinks all gone to wreck since master died;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And sighs over a passionate harvest-tide</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Which Death's red sickle reaped under those hills,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There, in the quiet fields among the daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>When this most tragic fate had time and place,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And human hearts and minds to show it by,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ryemeadows' Farmhouse was in evil case:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Its master, Nicholas Gray, was like to die.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He lay in bed, watching the windy sky,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where all the rooks were homing on slow wings,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cawing, or blackly circling in enormous rings.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>With a sick brain he watched them; then he took</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Paper and pen, and wrote in straggling hand</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>(Like spider's legs, so much his fingers shook)</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Word to the friends who held the adjoining land,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bidding them come; no more he could command</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His fingers twitching to the feebling blood;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He watched his last day's sun dip down behind the wood,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>While all his life's thoughts surged about his brain:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Memories and pictures clear, and faces known--</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Long dead, perhaps; he was a child again,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Treading a threshold in the dark alone.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then back the present surged, making him moan.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He asked if Keir had come yet.  "No," they said.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Nor Occleve?"  "No."  He moaned: "Come soon or I'll be dead."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The names like live things wandered in his mind:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Charles Occleve of The Roughs," and "Rowland Keir--</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Keir of the Foxholes"; but his brain was blind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A blind old alley in the storm of the year,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Baffling the traveller life with "No way here,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For all his lantern raised; life would not tread</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Within that brain again, along those pathways red.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Soon all was dimmed but in the heaven one star.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I'll hold to that," he said; then footsteps stirred.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down in the court a voice said, "Here they are,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And one, "He's almost gone."  The sick man heard.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh God, be quick," he moaned.  "Only one word.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Keir!  Occleve!  Let them come.  Why don't they come?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Why stop to tell them that?--the devil strike you dumb.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I'm neither doll nor dead; come in, come in.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Curse you, you women, quick," the sick man flamed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I shall be dead before I can begin.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A sick man's womaned-mad, and nursed and damed."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Death had him by the throat; his wrath was tamed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Come in," he fumed; "stop muttering at the door."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The friends came in; a creaking ran across the floor.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now, Nick, how goes it, man?" said Occleve.  "Oh,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dying man replied, "I am dying; past;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mercy of God, I die, I'm going to go.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But I have much to tell you if I last.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Come near me, Occleve, Keir.  I am sinking fast,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And all my kin are coming; there, look there.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All the old, long dead Grays are moving in the air.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"It is my Michael that I called you for:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My son, abroad, at school still, over sea.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>See if that hag is listening at the door.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No?  Shut the door; don't lock it, let it be.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No faith is kept to dying men like me.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I am dipped deep and dying, bankrupt, done;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I leave not even a farthing to my lovely son.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Neighbours, these many years our children played,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down in the fields together, down the brook;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Your Mary, Keir, the girl, the bonny maid,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Occleve's Lion, always at his book;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Them and my Michael: dear, what joy they took</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Picking the daffodils; such friends they've been--</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My boy and Occleve's boy and Mary Keir for queen.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I had made plans; but I am done with, I.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Give me the wine.  I have to ask you this:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I can leave Michael nothing, and I die.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>By all our friendship used to be and is,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Help him, old friends.  Don't let my Michael miss</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The schooling I've begun.  Give him his chance.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He does not know I am ill; I kept him there in France.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Saving expense; each penny counts.  Oh, friends,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Help him another year; help him to take</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His full diploma when the training ends,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So that my ruin won't be his.  Oh, make</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This sacrifice for our old friendship's sake,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And God will pay you; for I see God's hand</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pass in most marvellous ways on souls: I understand</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"How just rewards are given for man's deeds</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And judgment strikes the soul.  The wine there, wine.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Life is the daily thing man never heeds.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It is ablaze with sign and countersign.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael will not forget: that son of mine</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Is a rare son, my friends; he will go far.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I shall behold his course from where the blessed are."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Why, Nick," said Occleve, "come, man.  Gather hold.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rouse up.  You've given way.  If times are bad,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Times must be bettering, master; so be bold;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lift up your spirit, Nicholas, and be glad.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael's as much to me as my dear lad.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I'll see he takes his school."  "And I," said Keir.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Set you no keep by that, but be at rest, my dear.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"We'll see your Michael started on the road."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"But there," said Occleve, "Nick's not going to die.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out of the ruts, good nag, now; zook the load.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pull up, man.  Death!  Death and the fiend defy.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We'll bring the farm round for you, Keir and I.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Put heart at rest and get your health."  "Ah, no,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The sick man faintly answered, "I have got to go."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Still troubled in his mind, the sick man tossed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Old friends," he said, "I once had hoped to see</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary and Michael wed, but fates are crossed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Michael starts with nothing left by me.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Still, if he loves her, will you let it be?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So in the grave, maybe, when I am gone,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I'll know my hope fulfilled, and see the plan go on."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I judge by hearts, not money," answered Keir.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"If Michael suits in that and suits my maid,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I promise you, let Occleve witness here</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He shall be free for me to drive his trade.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Free, ay, and welcome, too.  Be not afraid,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I'll stand by Michael as I hope some friend</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Will stand beside my girl in case my own life end."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And I," said Occleve; but the sick man seemed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Still ill at ease.  "My friends," he said, "my friends,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael may come to all that I have dreamed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But he's a wild yarn full of broken ends.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So far his life in France has made amends.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>God grant he steady so; but girls and drink</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Once brought him near to hell, aye, to the very brink.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"There is a running vein of wildness in him:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Wildness and looseness both, which vices make</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That woman's task a hard one who would win him:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His life depends upon the course you take.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He is a fiery-mettled colt to break,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And one to curb, one to be curbed, remember."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dying voice died down, the fire left the ember.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>But once again it flamed.  "Ah me," he cried;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Our secret sins take body in our sons,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To haunt our age with what we put aside.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I was a devil for the women once.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He is as I was.  Beauty like the sun's;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Within, all water; minded like the moon.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Go now.  I sinned.  I die.  I shall be punished soon."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The two friends tiptoed to the room below.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There, till the woman came to them, they told</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of brave adventures in the long ago,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ere Nick and they had thought of growing old;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Snipe-shooting in the marshlands in the cold,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old soldiering days as yeomen, days at fairs,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Days that had sent Nick tired to those self-same chairs.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They vowed to pay the schooling for his son.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They talked of Michael, testing men's report,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>How the young student was a lively one,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Handsome and passionate both, and fond of sport,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Eager for fun, quick-witted in retort.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The girls' hearts quick to see him cocking by,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Young April on a blood horse, with a roving eye.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And, as they talked about the lad, Keir asked</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>If Occleve's son had not, at one time, been</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Heartsick for Mary, though with passion masked.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Ay," Occleve said: "Time was.  At seventeen.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It took him hard, it ran his ribs all lean,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All of a summer; but it passed, it died.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her fancying Michael better touched my Lion's pride."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Mice flickered from the wainscot to the press,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nibbling at crumbs, rattling to shelter, squeaking.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Each ticking in the clock's womb made life less;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oil slowly dropped from where the lamp was leaking.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>At times the old nurse set the staircase creaking,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Harked to the sleeper's breath, made sure, returned,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Answered the questioning eyes, then wept.  The great stars burned.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Listen," said Occleve, "listen, Rowland.  Hark."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"It's Mary, come with Lion," answered Keir:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"They said they'd come together after dark."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He went to door and called "Come in, my dear."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The burning wood log blazed with sudden cheer,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So that a glowing lighted all the room.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His daughter Mary entered from the outer gloom.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The wind had brought the blood into her cheek,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Heightening her beauty, but her great grey eyes</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Were troubled with a fear she could not speak.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Firm, scarlet lips she had, not made for lies.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Gentle she seemed, pure-natured, thoughtful, wise,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And when she asked what turn the sickness took,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her voice's passing pureness on a low note shook.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Young Lion Occleve entered at her side,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A well-built, clever man, unduly grave,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One whose repute already travelled wide</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For skill in breeding beasts.  His features gave</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Promise of brilliant mind, far-seeing, brave,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One who would travel far.  His manly grace</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Grew wistful when his eyes were turned on Mary's face.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Tell me," said Mary, "what did doctor say?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>How ill is he?  What chance of life has he?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The cowman said he couldn't last the day,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And only yesterday he joked with me."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"We must be meek," the nurse said; "such things be."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"There's little hope," said Keir; "he's dying, sinking."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Dying without his son," the young girl's heart was thinking.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Does Michael know?" she asked.  "Has he been called?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A slow confusion reddened on the faces,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As when one light neglect leaves friends appalled.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"No time to think," said nurse, "in such like cases."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Occleve stooped and fumbled with his laces.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Let be," he said; "there's always time for sorrow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He could not come in time; he shall be called to-morrow."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"There is a chance," she cried, "there always is.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Poor Mr. Gray might rally, might live on.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, I must telegraph to tell him this.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Would it were day still and the message gone."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She rose, her breath came fast, her grey eyes shone.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She said, "Come, Lion; see me through the wood.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael must know."  Keir sighed.  "Girl, it will do no good.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Our friend is on the brink and almost passed."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"All the more need," she said, "for word to go;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael could well arrive before the last.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He'd see his father's face at least.  I know</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The office may be closed; but even so,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Father, I must.  Come, Lion."  Out they went,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Into the roaring woodland where the saplings bent.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Like breakers of the sea the leafless branches</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Swished, bowing down, rolling like water, roaring</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like the sea's welcome when the clipper launches</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And full affronted tideways call to warring.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Daffodils glimmered underfoot, the flooring</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of the earthy woodland smelt like torn-up moss;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Stones in the path showed white, and rabbits ran across.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They climbed the rise and struck into the ride,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Talking of death, while Lion, sick at heart,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Thought of the woman walking at his side,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And as he talked his spirit stood apart,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old passion for her made his being smart,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rankling within.  Her thought for Michael ran</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like glory and like poison through his inner man.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"This will break Michael's heart," he said at length.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Poor Michael," she replied; "they wasted hours.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He loved his father so.  God give him strength.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This is a cruel thing this life of ours."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The windy woodland glimmered with shut flowers,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White wood anemones that the wind blew down.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The valley opened wide beyond the starry town.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Ten," clanged out of the belfry.  Lion stayed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One hand upon a many-carven bole.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary," he said.  "Dear, my beloved maid,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I love you, dear one, from my very soul."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her beauty in the dusk destroyed control.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary, my dear, I've loved you all these years."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh, Lion, no," she murmured, choking back her tears.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I love you," he repeated.  "Five years since</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This thing began between us: every day</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh sweet, the thought of you has made me wince;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The thought of you, my sweet, the look, the way.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It's only you, whether I work or pray,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You and the hope of you, sweet you, dear you.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I never spoke before; now it has broken through.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh, my beloved, can you care for me?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She shook her head.  "Oh, hush, oh, Lion dear,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Don't speak of love, for it can never be</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Between us two, never, however near.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Come on, my friend, we must not linger here."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White to the lips she spoke; he saw her face</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White in the darkness by him in the windy place.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary, in time you could, perhaps," he pleaded.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"No," she replied, "no, Lion; never, no."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over the stars the boughs burst and receded.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The nobleness of Love comes in Love's woe.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"God bless you then, beloved, let us go.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Come on," he said, "and if I gave you pain,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Forget it, dear; be sure I never will again."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They stepped together down the ride, their feet</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Slipped on loose stones.  Little was said; his fate,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Staked on a kingly cast, had met defeat.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nothing remained but to endure and wait.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She was still wonderful, and life still great.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Great in that bitter instant side by side,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Hallowed by thoughts of death there in the blinded ride.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He heard her breathing by him, saw her face</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dim, looking straight ahead; her feet by his</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Kept time beside him, giving life a grace;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Night made the moment full of mysteries.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"You are beautiful," he thought; "and life is this:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Walking a windy night while men are dying,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To cry for one to come, and none to heed our crying."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary," he said, "are you in love with him,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With Michael?  Tell me.  We are friends, we three."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They paused to face each other in the dim.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Tell me," he urged.  "Yes, Lion," answered she;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I love him, but he does not care for me.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I trust your generous mind, dear; now you know,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You, who have been my brother, how our fortunes go.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now come; the message waits."  The heavens cleared,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cleared, and were starry as they trod the ride.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Chequered by tossing boughs the moon appeared;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A whistling reached them from the Hall House side;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Climbing, the whistler came.  A brown owl cried.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The whistler paused to answer, sending far</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That haunting, hunting note.  The echoes laughed Aha!</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Something about the calling made them start.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Again the owl note laughed; the ringing cry</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Made the blood quicken within Mary's heart.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like a dead leaf a brown owl floated by.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael?" said Lion.  "Hush."  An owl's reply</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came down the wind; they waited; then the man,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Content, resumed his walk, a merry song began.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael," they cried together.  "Michael, you?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Who calls?" the singer answered.  "Where away?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Is that you, Mary?"  Then with glad halloo</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The singer ran to meet them on the way.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It was their Michael; in the moonlight grey,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They made warm welcome; under tossing boughs,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They met and told the fate darkening Ryemeadows' House.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>As they returned at speed their comrade spoke</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Strangely and lightly of his coming home,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Saying that leaving France had been a joke,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But that events now proved him wise to come.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down the steep 'scarpment to the house they clomb,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Michael faltered in his pace; they heard</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>How dumb rebellion in the much-wronged cattle stirred.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And as they came, high, from the sick man's room,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Gray burst out a-singing of the light</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Streaming upon him from the outer gloom,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As his eyes dying gave him mental sight.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Triumphing swords," he carolled, "in the bright;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh fire, Oh beauty fire," and fell back dead.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Occleve took Michael up to kneel beside the bed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So the night passed; the noisy wind went down;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The half-burnt moon her starry trackway rode.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then the first fire was lighted in the town,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And the first carter stacked his early load.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Upon the farm's drawn blinds the morning glowed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And down the valley, with little clucks and trills,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dancing waters danced by dancing daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">II</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They buried Gray; his gear was sold; his farm</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Passed to another tenant.  Thus men go;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dropped sword passes to another arm,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And different waters in the river flow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His two old faithful friends let Michael know</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His father's ruin and their promise.  Keir</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Brought him to stay at Foxholes till a path was clear.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>There, when the sale was over, all three met</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To talk about the future, and to find</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Upon what project Michael's heart was set.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Gentle the two old men were, thoughtful, kind.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They urged the youth to speak his inmost mind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For they would compass what he chose; they told</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>How he might end his training; they would find the gold.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Thanks, but I cannot," Michael said.  He smiled.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Cannot.  They've kicked me out.  I've been expelled;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Kicked out for good and all for being wild.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They stopped our evening leave, and I rebelled.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I am a gentle soul until compelled,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And then I put my ears back.  The old fool</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Said that my longer presence might inflame the school.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And I am glad, for I have had my fill</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of farming by the book with those old fools,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Exhausted talkatives whose blood is still,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Who strive to bind a living man with rules.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This fettered kind of life, these laws, these schools,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>These codes, these checks, what are they but the clogs</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Made by collected sheep to mortify the dogs?</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And I have had enough of them; and now</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I make an end of them.  I want to go</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Somewhere where man has never used a plough,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nor ever read a book; where clean winds blow,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And passionate blood is not its owner's foe,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And land is for the asking for it.  There</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Man can create a life and have the open air.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"The River Plate's the country.  There, I know,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A man like me can thrive.  There, on the range,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The cattle pass like tides; they ebb and flow,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And life is changeless in unending change,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And one can ride all day, and all day strange,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Strange, never trodden, fenceless, waiting there,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To feed unending cattle for the men who dare.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"There I should have a chance; this land's too old."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Occleve grunted at the young man's mood;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Keir, who was losing money, thought him bold,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And thought the scheme for emigration good.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He said that, if he wished to go, he should.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>South to the pampas, there to learn the trade.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Occleve thought it mad, but no objection made.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So it was settled that the lad should start,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A place was found for him, a berth was taken;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Michael's beauty plucked at Mary's heart,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And now the fabric of their lives was shaken:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For now the hour's nearness made love waken</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>In Michael's heart for Mary.  Now Time's guile</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Granted her passionate prayer, nor let her see his smile.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Granted his greatest gifts; a night time came</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When the two walking down the water learned</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That life till then had only been a name;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Love had unsealed their spirits: they discerned.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mutely, at moth time there, their spirits yearned.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I shall be gone three years, dear soul," he said.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Dear, will you wait for me?"  "I will," replied the maid.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So troth was pledged between them.  Keir received</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael as Mary's suitor, feeling sure</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That the lad's fortunes would be soon retrieved,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Having a woman's promise as a lure.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The three years' wait would teach them to endure.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He bade them love and prosper and be glad.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And fast the day drew near that was to take the lad.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Cowslips had come along the bubbling brook,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cowslips and oxlips rare, and in the wood</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The many-blossomed stalks of bluebells shook;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The outward beauty fed their mental mood.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Thought of the parting stabbed her as he wooed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Walking the brook with her, and day by day,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The precious fortnight's grace dropped, wasted, slipped away.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Till only one clear day remained to her:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One whole clear, precious day, before he sailed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some forty hours, no more, to minister</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To months of bleakness before which she quailed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mist rose along the brook; the corncrake railed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dim red the sunset burned.  He bade her come</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Into the wood with him; they went, the night came dumb.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Still as high June, the very water's noise</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Seemed but a breathing of the earth; the flowers</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Stood in the dim like souls without a voice.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The wood's conspiracy of occult powers</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drew all about them, and for hours on hours</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No murmur shook the oaks, the stars did house</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Their lights like lamps upon those never-moving boughs.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Under their feet the woodland sloped away</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down to the valley, where the farmhouse lights</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Were sparks in the expanse the moon made grey.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>June's very breast was bare this night of nights.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Moths blundered up against them, greys and whites</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Moved on the darkness where the moths were out,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nosing for sticky sweet with trembling uncurled snout.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>But all this beauty was but music played,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While the high pageant of their hearts prepared.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A spirit thrilled between them, man to maid,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mind flowed in mind, the inner heart was bared,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They needed not to tell how much each cared;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All the soul's strength was at the other's soul.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Flesh was away awhile, a glory made them whole.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Nothing was said by them; they understood,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They searched each other's eyes without a sound,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Alone with moonlight in the heart of the wood,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Knowing the stars and all the soul of the ground.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary," he murmured.  "Come."  His arms went round,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A white moth glimmered by, the woods were hushed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The rose at Mary's bosom dropped its petals, crushed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>No word profaned the peace of that glad giving,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But the warm dimness of the night stood still,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drawing all beauty to the point of living,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There in the beech-tree's shadow on the hill.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Spirit to spirit murmured; mingling will</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Made them one being; Time's decaying thought</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fell from them like a rag; it was the soul they sought.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The moonlight found an opening in the boughs;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It entered in, it filled that sacred place</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With consecration on the throbbing brows;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It came with benediction and with grace.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A whispering came from face to yearning face:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Beloved, will you wait for me?"  "My own."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I shall be gone three years, you will be left alone;</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"You'll trust and wait for me?"  "Yes, yes," she sighed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She would wait any term of years, all time--</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So faithful to first love these souls abide,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Carrying a man's soul with them as they climb.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Life was all flower to them; the church bells' chime</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rang out the burning hour ere they had sealed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Love's charter there below the June sky's starry field.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Sweetly the church bells' music reached the wood,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Chiming an old slow tune of some old hymn,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Calling them back to life from where they stood</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Under the moonlit beech-tree grey and dim.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary," he murmured; pressing close to him,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her kiss came on the gift he gave her there,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A silken scarf that bore her name worked in his hair.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>But still the two affixed their hands and seals</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To a life compact witnessed by the sky,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where the great planets drove their glittering wheels,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bringing conflicting fate, making men die.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They loved, and she would wait, and he would try.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh, beauty of my love," "My lovely man."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So beauty made them noble for their little span.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Time cannot pause, however dear the wooer;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The moon declined, the sunrise came, the hours,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Left to the lovers, dwindled swiftly fewer,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Even as the seeds from dandelion-flowers</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Blow, one by one, until the bare stalk cowers,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And the June grass grows over; even so</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Daffodil-picker Time took from their lives the glow,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Stole their last walk along the three green fields,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Their latest hour together; he took, he stole</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The white contentment that a true love yields;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He took the triumph out of Mary's soul.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Now she must lie awake and blow the coal</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of sorrow of heart.  The parting hour came;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They kissed their last good-bye, murmuring the other's name.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Then the flag waved, the engine snorted, then</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Slowly the couplings tautened, and the train</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Moved, bearing off from her her man of men;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She looked towards its going blind with pain.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her father turned and drove her home again.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It was a different home.  Awhile she tried</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To cook the dinner there, but flung her down and cried.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Then in the dusk she wandered down the brook,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Treading again the trackway trod of old,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When she could hold her loved one in a look.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The night was all unlike those nights of gold.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael was gone, and all the April old,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Withered and hidden.  Life was full of ills;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She flung her down and cried i' the withered daffodils</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">III</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The steaming river loitered like old blood</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>On which the tugboat bearing Michael beat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Past whitened horse bones sticking in the mud.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The reed stems looked like metal in the heat.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then the banks fell away, and there were neat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Red herds of sullen cattle drifting slow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A fish leaped, making rings, making the dead blood flow.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Wormed hard-wood piles were driv'n in the river bank,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The steamer threshed alongside with sick screws</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Churning the mud below her till it stank;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Big gassy butcher-bubbles burst on the ooze.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There Michael went ashore; as glad to lose</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One not a native there, the Gauchos flung</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His broken gear ashore, one waved, a bell was rung.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The bowfast was cast off, the screw revolved,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Making a bloodier bubbling; rattling rope</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fell to the hatch, the engine's tune resolved</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Into its steadier beat of rise and slope;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The steamer went her way; and Michael's hope</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Died as she lessened; he was there alone.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The lowing of the cattle made a gradual moan.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He thought of Mary, but the thought was dim;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That was another life, lived long before.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His mind was in new worlds which altered him.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The startling present left no room for more.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The sullen river lipped, the sky, the shore</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Were vaster than of old, and lonely, lonely.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sky and low hills of grass and moaning cattle only.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>But for a hut bestrewn with skulls of beeves,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Round which the flies danced, where an Indian girl</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bleared at him from her eyes' ophthalmic eaves,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Grinning a welcome; with a throaty skirl,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She offered him herself; but he, the churl,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Stared till she thought him fool; she turned, she sat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Scratched in her short, black hair, chewed a cigar-end, spat.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Up, on the rise, the cattle bunched; the bulls</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drew to the front with menace, pawing bold,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Snatching the grass-roots out with sudden pulls,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The distant cattle raised their heads; the wold</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Grew dusty at the top; a waggon rolled,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drawn by a bickering team of mules whose eyes</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Were yellow like their teeth and bared and full of vice.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Down to the jetty came the jingling team,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>An Irish cowboy driving, while a Greek</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beside him urged the mules with blow and scream.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They cheered the Indian girl and stopped to speak.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then lifting her aloft they kissed her cheek,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Calling to Michael to be quick aboard,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Or they (they said) would fall from virtue, by the Lord.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So Michael climbed aboard, and all day long</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He drove the cattle range, rise after rise,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dotted with limber shorthorns grazing strong,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cropping sweet-tasted pasture, switching flies;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dull trouble brooded in their smoky eyes.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some horsemen watched them.  As the sun went down,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The waggon reached the estancia builded like a town.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>With wide corrales where the horses squealed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Biting and lashing out; some half-wild hounds</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Gnawed at the cowbones littered on the field,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Or made the stallions stretch their picket bounds.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some hides were drying; horsemen came from rounds,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Unsaddled stiff, and turned their mounts to feed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And then brewed bitter drink and sucked it through a reed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The Irishman removed his pipe and spoke:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"You take a fool's advice," he said.  "Return.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Go back where you belong before you're broke;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You'll spoil more clothes at this job than you'll earn;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It's living death, and when you die you'll burn:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Body and soul it takes you.  Quit it.  No?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Don't say I never told you, then.  Amigos.  Ho.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Here comes a Gringo; make him pay his shot.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pay up your footing, Michael; rum's the word,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It suits my genius, and I need a lot."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So the great cauldron full was mixed and stirred.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And all night long the startled cattle heard</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Shouting and shooting, and the moon beheld</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mobs of dim, struggling men, who fired guns and yelled</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>That they were Abel Brown just come to town,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael among them.  By a bonfire some</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Betted on red and black for money down,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Snatching their clinking winnings, eager, dumb.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some danced unclad, rubbing their heads with rum.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The grey dawn, bringing beauty to the skies,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Saw Michael stretched among them, far too drunk to rise.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>His footing paid, he joined the living-shed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lined with rude bunks and set with trestles: there</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He, like the other ranchers, slept and fed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Save when the staff encamped in open air,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rounding the herd for branding.  Rude and bare</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That barrack was; men littered it about</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With saddles, blankets blue, old headstalls, many a clout</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Torn off to wipe a knife or clean a gun,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Tin dishes, sailors' hookpots, all the mess</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Made where the outdoor work is never done</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And every cleaning makes the sleeping less.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Men came from work too tired to undress,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And slept all standing like the trooper's horse;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then with the sun they rose to ride the burning course,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Whacking the shipment cattle into pen,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where, in the dust, among the stink of burning,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The half-mad heifers bolted from the men,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And tossing horns arose and hoofs were churning,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A lover there had little time for yearning;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But all day long, cursing the flies and heat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael was handling steers on horseback till his feet</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Gave on dismounting.  All day long he rode,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, when the darkness came, his mates and he</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Entered dog-tired to the rude abode</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And ate their meat and sucked their bitter tea,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And rolled themselves in rugs and slept.  The sea</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Could not make men more drowsy; like the dead,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They lay under the lamp while the mosquitoes fed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>There was no time to think of Mary, none;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For when the work relaxed, the time for thought</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was broken up by men demanding fun:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cards, or a well-kept ring while someone fought,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Or songs and dancing; or a case was bought</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of white Brazilian rum, and songs and cheers</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And shots and oaths rang loud upon the twitching ears</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Of the hobbled horses hopping to their feed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So violent images displaced the rose</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>In Michael's spirit; soon he took the lead;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>None was more apt than he for games or blows.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Even as the battle-seeking bantam crows,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So crowed the cockerel of his mind to feel</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Life's bonds removed and blood quick in him toe to heel.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>But sometimes when her letters came to him,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Full of wise tenderness and maiden mind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He felt that he had let his clearness dim;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The riot with the cowboys seemed unkind</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To that far faithful heart; he could not find</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Peace in the thought of her; he found no spur</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To instant upright action in his love for her.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>She faded to the memory of a kiss,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There in the rough life among foreign faces;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Love cannot live where leisure never is;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He could not write to her from savage places,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where drunken mates were betting on the aces,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And rum went round and smutty songs were lifted.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He would not raise her banner against that; he drifted,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Ceasing, in time, to write, ceasing to think,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But happy in the wild life to the bone;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The riding in vast space, the songs, the drink,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some careless heart beside him like his own,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The racing and the fights, the ease unknown</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>In older, soberer lands; his young blood thrilled.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The pampas seemed his own, his cup of joy was filled.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And one day, riding far after strayed horses,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He rode beyond the ranges to a land</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Broken and made most green by watercourses,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Which served as strayline to the neighbouring brand.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A house stood near the brook; he stayed his hand,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Seeing a woman there, whose great eyes burned,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So that he could not choose but follow when she turned.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>After that day he often rode to see</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That woman at the peach farm near the brook,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And passionate love between them came to be</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ere many days.  Their fill of love they took;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And even as the blank leaves of a book</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The days went over Mary, day by day,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Blank as the last, was turned, endured, passed, turned away.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Spring came again greening the hawthorn buds;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The shaking flowers, new-blossomed, seemed the same,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And April put her riot in young bloods;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The jays flapped in the larch clump like blue flame.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She did not care; his letter never came.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Silent she went, nursing the grief that kills,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Lion watched her pass among the daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">IV</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Time passed, but still no letter came; she ceased,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Almost, to hope, but never to expect.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The June moon came which had beheld love's feast,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then waned, like it; the meadow-grass was flecked</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With moon-daisies, which died; little she recked</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of change in outward things, she did not change;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her heart still knew one star, one hope, it did not range,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Like to the watery hearts of tidal men,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Swayed by all moons of beauty; she was firm,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When most convinced of misery firmest then.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She held a light not subject to the worm.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The pageant of the summer ran its term,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The last stack came to staddle from the wain;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The snow fell, the snow thawed, the year began again.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>With the wet glistening gold of celandines,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And snowdrops pushing from the withered grass,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Before the bud upon the hawthorn greens,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Or blackbirds go to building; but, alas!</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No spring within her bosom came to pass.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"You're going like a ghost," her father said;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now put him out of mind, and be my prudent maid."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>It was an April morning brisk with wind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She wandered out along the brook sick-hearted,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Picking the daffodils where the water dinned,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While overhead the first-come swallow darted.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There, at the place where all the passion started,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where love first knocked about her maiden heart,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Young Lion Occleve hailed her, calling her apart</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>To see his tulips at The Roughs, and take</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A spray of flowering currant; so she went.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It is a bitter moment, when hearts ache,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To see the loved unhappy; his intent</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was but to try to comfort her; he meant</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To show her that he knew her heart's despair,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And that his own heart bled to see her wretched there.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So, as they talked, he asked her, had she heard</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>From Michael lately?  No, she had not; she</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Had been a great while now, without a word.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"No news is always good news," answered he.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"You know," he said, "how much you mean to me;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You've always been the queen.  Oh, if I could</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Do anything to help, my dear, you know I would."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Nothing," she said, much touched.  "But you believe--</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You still believe in him?"  "Why, yes," he said.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lie though it was he did not dare deceive</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The all too cruel faith within the maid.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"That ranching is a wild and lonely trade,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Far from all posts; it may be hard to send;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All puzzling things like this prove simple in the end.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"We should have heard if he were ill or dead.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Keep a good heart.  Now come"; he led the way</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beyond the barton to the calving-shed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where, on a strawy litter topped with hay,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A double-pedigree prize bull-calf lay.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Near three weeks old," he said, "the Wrekin's pet;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Come up, now, son, come up; you haven't seen him yet.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"We have done well," he added, "with the stock,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But this one, if he lives, will make a name."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The bull-calf gambolled with his tail acock,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then shyly nosed towards them, scared but tame;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His troublous eyes were sulky with blue flame.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Softly he tip-toed, shying at a touch;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He nosed, his breath came sweet, his pale tongue curled to clutch.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They rubbed his head, and Mary went her way,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Counting the dreary time, the dreary beat</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of dreary minutes dragging through the day;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Time crawled across her life with leaden feet;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There still remained a year before her sweet</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Would come to claim her; surely he would come;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Meanwhile there was the year, her weakening father, home.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Home with its deadly round, with all its setting,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Things, rooms, and fields and flowers to sting, to burn</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With memories of the love time past forgetting</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ere absence made her very being yearn.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"My love, be quick," she moaned, "return, return;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Come when the three years end, oh, my dear soul,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It's bitter, wanting you."  The lonely nights took toll,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Putting a sadness where the beauty was,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Taking a lustre from the hair; the days</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Saw each a sadder image in the glass.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And when December came, fouling the ways,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And ashless beech-logs made a Christmas blaze,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some talk of Michael came; a rumour ran,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Someone had called him "wild" to some returning mail,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Who, travelling through that cattle-range, had heard</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nothing more sure than this; but this he told</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>At second-hand upon a cowboy's word.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It struck on Mary's heart and turned her cold.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That winter was an age which made her old.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"But soon," she thought, "soon the third year will end;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>March, April, May, and June, then I shall see my friend.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"He promised he would come; he will not fail.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, Michael, my beloved man, come soon;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Stay not to make a home for me, but sail.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Love and the hour will put the world in tune.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You in my life for always is the boon</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I ask from life--we two, together, lovers."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So leaden time went by who eats things and discovers.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, in the winds of March, her father rode,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Hunting the Welland country on Black Ned;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The tenor cry gave tongue past Clencher's Lode,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And on he galloped, giving the nag his head;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, at the brook, he fell, was picked up dead.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Hounds were whipped off; men muttered with one breath,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"We knew that hard-mouthed brute would some day be his death."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They bore his body on a hurdle home;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then came the burial, then the sadder day</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When the peaked lawyer entered like a gnome,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With word to quit and lists of debts to pay.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There was a sale; the Foxholes passed away</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To strangers, who discussed the points of cows,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where love had put such glory on the lovers' brows.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Kind Lion Occleve helped the maid's affairs.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her sorrow brought him much beside her; he</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Caused her to settle, having stilled her cares,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>In the long cottage under Spital Gree.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He had no hope that she would love him; she</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Still waited for her lover, but her eyes</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Thanked Lion to the soul; he made the look suffice.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>By this the yearling bull-calf had so grown</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That all men talked of him; mighty he grew,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Huge-shouldered, scaled above a hundred stone,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With deep chest many-wrinkled with great thew,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Plain-loined and playful-eyed; the Occleves knew</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That he surpassed his pasture; breeders came</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>From far to see this bull; he brought the Occleves fame.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Till a meat-breeding rancher on the plains</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where Michael wasted, sent to buy the beast,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Meaning to cross his cows with heavier strains</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Until his yield of meat and bone increased.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He paid a mighty price; the yearling ceased</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To be the wonder of the countryside.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He sailed in Lion's charge, south, to the Plate's red tide.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>There Lion landed with the bull, and there</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The great beast raised his head and bellowed loud,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Challenging that expanse and that new air;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Trembling, but full of wrath and thunder-browed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Far from the daffodil fields and friends, but proud,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His wild eye kindled at the great expanse.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Two scraps of Shropshire life they stood there; their advance</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Was slow along the well-grassed cattle land,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But at the last an end was made; the brute</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ate his last bread crust from his master's hand,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And snuffed the foreign herd and stamped his foot;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Steers on the swelling ranges gave salute.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The great bull bellowed back and Lion turned;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His task was now to find where Michael lived; he learned</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The farm's direction, and with heavy mind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Thinking of Mary and her sorrow, rode,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Leaving the offspring of his fields behind.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A last time in his ears the great bull lowed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, shaking up his horse, the young man glowed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To see the unfenced pampas opening out</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Grass that makes old earth sing and all the valleys shout.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>At sunset on the second day he came</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To that white cabin in the peach-tree plot</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where Michael lived; they met, the Shropshire name</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rang trebly dear in that outlandish spot.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old memories swam up dear, old joys forgot,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old friends were real again; but Mary's woe</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came into Lion's mind, and Michael vexed him so,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Talking with careless freshness, side by side</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With that dark Spanish beauty who had won,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As though no heart-broke woman, heavy-eyed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mourned for him over sea, as though the sun</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Shone but to light his steps to love and fun,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While she, that golden and beloved soul,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Worth ten of him, lay wasting like an unlit coal.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So supper passed; the meat in Lion's gorge</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Stuck at the last, he could not bide that face.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The idle laughter on it plied the forge</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where hate was smithying tools; the jokes, the place,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Wrought him to wrath; he could not stay for grace.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The tin mug full of red wine spilled and fell.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He kicked his stool aside with "Michael, this is hell.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Come out into the night and talk to me."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The young man lit a cigarette and followed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The stars seemed trembling at a brink to see;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A little ghostly white-owl stooped and holloed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beside the stake-fence Lion stopped and swallowed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While all the wrath within him made him grey.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael stood still and smoked, and flicked his ash away.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Well, Lion," Michael said, "men make mistakes,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And then regret them; and an early flame</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Is frequently the worst mistake man makes.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I did not seek this passion, but it came.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Love happens so in life.  Well?  Who's to blame?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You'll say I've broken Mary's heart; the heart</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Is not the whole of life, but an inferior part,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Useful for some few years and then a curse.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nerves should be stronger.  You have come to say</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The three-year term is up; so much the worse.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I cannot meet the bill; I cannot pay.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I would not if I could.  Men change.  To-day</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I know that that first choice, however sweet,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was wrong and a mistake; it would have meant defeat,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Ruin and misery to us both.  Let be.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You say I should have told her this?  Perhaps.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You try to make a loving woman see</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That the warm link which holds you to her snaps.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Neglect is deadlier than the thunder-claps.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Yet she is bright and I am water.  Well,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I did not make myself; this life is often hell.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Judge if you must, but understand it first.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We are old friends, and townsmen, Shropshire born,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Under the Wrekin.  You believe the worst.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You have no knowledge how the heart is torn,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Trying for duty up against the thorn.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Now say I've broken Mary's heart: begin.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Break hers, or hers and mine, which were the greater sin?"</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael," said Lion, "I have heard you.  Now</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Listen to me.  Three years ago you made</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With a most noble soul a certain vow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Now you reject it, saying that you played.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She did not think so, Michael, she has stayed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Eating her heart out for a line, a word,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>News that you were not dead; news that she never heard.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Not once, after the first.  She has held firm</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To what you counted pastime; she has wept</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Life, day by weary day throughout the term,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While her heart sickened, and the clock-hand crept.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While you, you with your woman here, have kept</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Holiday, feasting; you are fat; you smile.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You have had love and laughter all the ghastly while.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I shall be back in England six weeks hence,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Standing with your poor Mary face to face;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Far from a pleasant moment, but intense.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I shall be asked to tell her of this place.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And she will eye me hard and hope for grace,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some little crumb of comfort while I tell;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And every word will burn like a red spark from hell,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"That you have done with her, that you are living</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Here with another woman; that you care</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nought for the pain you've given and are giving;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That all your lover's vows were empty air.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This I must tell: thus I shall burn her bare,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Burn out all hope, all comfort, every crumb,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>End it, and watch her whiten, hopeless, tearless, dumb.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Or do I judge you wrongly?"  He was still.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The cigarette-end glowed and dimmed with ash;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A preying night bird whimpered on the hill.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael said "Ah!" and fingered with his sash,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then stilled.  The night was still; there came no flash</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of sudden passion bursting.  All was still;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A lonely water gurgled like a whip-poor-will.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now I must go," said Lion; "where's the horse?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"There," said his friend; "I'll set you on your way."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They caught and rode, both silent, while remorse</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Worked in each heart, though neither would betray</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>What he was feeling, and the moon came grey,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then burned into an opal white and great,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Silvering the downs of grass where these two travelled late,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Thinking of English fields which that moon saw,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fields full of quiet beauty lying hushed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>At midnight in the moment full of awe,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When the red fox comes creeping, dewy-brushed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But neither spoke; they rode; the horses rushed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Scattering the great clods skywards with such thrills</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As colts in April feel there in the daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">V</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The river brimming full was silvered over</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>By moonlight at the ford; the river bank</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Smelt of bruised clote buds and of yellow clover.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nosing the gleaming dark the horses drank,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drooping and dripping as the reins fell lank;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The men drooped too; the stars in heaven drooped;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rank after hurrying rank the silver water trooped</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>In ceaseless bright procession past the shallows,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Talking its quick inconsequence.  The friends,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Warmed by the gallop on the unfenced fallows,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Felt it a kindlier thing to make amends.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"A jolly burst," said Michael; "here it ends.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Your way lies straight beyond the water.  There.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Watch for the lights, and keep those two stars as they bear."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Something august was quick in all that sky,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Wheeling in multitudinous march with fire;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The falling of the wind brought it more nigh,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They felt the earth take solace and respire;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The horses shifted foothold in the mire,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Splashing and making eddies.  Lion spoke:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Do you remember riding past the haunted oak</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"That Christmas Eve, when all the bells were ringing,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So that we picked out seven churches' bells,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ringing the night, and people carol-singing?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It hummed and died away and rose in swells</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like a sea breaking.  We have been through hells</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Since then, we two, and now this being here</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Brings all that Christmas back, and makes it strangely near."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Yes," Michael answered, "they were happy times,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Riding beyond there; but a man needs change;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I know what they connote, those Christmas chimes,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fudge in the heart, and pudding in the grange.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It stifles me all that; I need the range,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like this before us, open to the sky;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There every wing is clipped, but here a man can fly."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Ah," said his friend, "man only flies in youth,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A few short years at most, until he finds</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That even quiet is a form of truth,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And all the rest a coloured rag that blinds.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Life offers nothing but contented minds.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Some day you'll know it, Michael.  I am grieved</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That Mary's heart will pay until I am believed."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>There was a silence while the water dripped</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>From the raised muzzles champing on the steel.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Flogging the crannied banks the water lipped.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Night up above them turned her starry wheel;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And each man feared to let the other feel</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>How much he felt; they fenced; they put up bars.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The moon made heaven pale among the withering stars.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael," said Lion, "why should we two part?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ride on with me; or shall we both return,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Make preparation, and to-morrow start,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And travel home together?  You would learn</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>How much the people long to see you; turn.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We will ride back and say good-bye, and then</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sail, and see home again, and see the Shropshire men,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And see the old Shropshire mountain and the fair,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Full of drunk Welshmen bringing mountain ewes;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And partridge shooting would be starting there."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael hung down his head and seemed to choose.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The horses churned fresh footing in the ooze.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then Michael asked if Tom were still alive,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Tom, who fought the Welshman under Upton Drive,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>For nineteen rounds, on grass, with the bare hands?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Shaky," said Lion, "living still, but weak;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Almost past speaking, but he understands."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"And old Shon Shones we teased so with the leek?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Dead."  "When?"  "December."  Michael did not speak,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But muttered "Old Jones dead."  A minute passed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"What came to little Sue, his girl?" he said at last.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Got into trouble with a man and died;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her sister keeps the child."  His hearer stirred.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Dead, too?  She was a pretty girl," he sighed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"A graceful pretty creature, like a bird.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>What is the child?"  "A boy.  Her sister heard</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Too late to help; poor Susan died; the man</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>None knew who he could be, but many rumours ran."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Ah," Michael said.  The horses tossed their heads;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A little wind arising struck in chill;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Time," he began, "that we were in our beds."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A distant heifer challenged from the hill,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Scraped at the earth with 's forefoot and was still.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Come with me," Lion pleaded.  Michael grinned;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He turned his splashing horse, and prophesied a wind.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"So long," he said, and "Kind of you to call.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Straight on, and watch the stars"; his horse's feet</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Trampled the firmer foothold, ending all.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He flung behind no message to his sweet,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No other word to Lion; the dull beat</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of his horse's trample drummed upon the trail;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion could watch him drooping in the moonlight pale,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Drooping and lessening; half expectant still</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That he would turn and greet him; but no sound</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came, save the lonely water's whip-poor-will</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And the going horse hoofs dying on the ground.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael," he cried, "Michael!"  A lonely mound</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beyond the water gave him back the cry.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"That's at an end," he said, "and I have failed her--I."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Soon the far hoof-beats died, save for a stir</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Half heard, then lost, then still, then heard again.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A quickening rhythm showed he plied the spur.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then a vast breathing silence took the plain.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The moon was like a soul within the brain</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of the great sleeping world; silent she rode</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The water talked, talked, talked; it trembled as it flowed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>A moment Lion thought to ride in chase.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He turned, then turned again, knowing his friend.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He forded through with death upon his face,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And rode the plain that seemed never to end.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Clumps of pale cattle nosed the thing unkenned,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Riding the night; out of the night they rose,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Snuffing with outstretched heads, stamping with surly lows,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Till he was threading through a crowd, a sea</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of curious shorthorns backing as he came,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Barring his path, but shifting warily;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He slapped the hairy flanks of the more tame.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Unreal the ghostly cattle lumbered lame.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His horse kept at an even pace; the cows</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Broke right and left like waves before advancing bows.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Lonely the pampas seemed amid that herd.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The thought of Mary's sorrow pricked him sore;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He brought no comfort for her, not a word;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He would not ease her pain, but bring her more.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The long miles dropped behind; lights rose before,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lights and the seaport and the briny air;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And so he sailed for home to comfort Mary there.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="left pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>When Mary knew the worst she only sighed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Looked hard at Lion's face, and sat quite still,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White to the lips, but stern and stony-eyed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beaten by life in all things but the will.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Though the blow struck her hard it did not kill.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She rallied on herself, a new life bloomed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out of the ashy heart where Michael lay entombed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And more than this: for Lion touched a sense</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That he, the honest humdrum man, was more</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Than he by whom the glory and the offence</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came to her life three bitter years before.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This was a treason in her being's core;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It smouldered there; meanwhile as two good friends</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They met at autumn dusks and winter daylight-ends.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And once, after long twilight talk, he broke</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His strong restraint upon his passion for her,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And burningly, most like a man he spoke,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Until her pity almost overbore her.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It could not be, she said; her pity tore her;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But still it could not be, though this was pain.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then on a frosty night they met and spoke again.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And then he wooed again, clutching her hands,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Calling the maid his mind, his heart, his soul,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Saying that God had linked their lives in bands</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When the worm Life first started from the goal;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That they were linked together, past control,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Linked from all time, could she but pity; she</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pitied him from the soul, but said it could not be.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary," he asked, "you cannot love me?  No?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"No," she replied; "would God I could, my dear."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"God bless you, then," he answered, "I must go,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Go over sea to get away from here,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I cannot think of work when you are near;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My whole life falls to pieces; it must end.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This meeting now must be 'good-bye,' beloved friend."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>White-lipped she listened, then with failing breath,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She asked for yet a little time; her face</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was even as that of one condemned to death.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She asked for yet another three months' grace,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Asked it, as Lion inly knew, in case</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael should still return; and "Yes" said he,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I'll wait three months for you, beloved; let it be."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Slowly the three months dragged: no Michael came.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>March brought the daffodils and set them shaking.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>April was quick in Nature like green flame;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>May came with dog-rose buds, and corncrakes craking,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then dwindled like her blossom; June was breaking.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary," said Lion, "can you answer now?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White like a ghost she stood, he long remembered how.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Wild-eyed and white, and trembling like a leaf,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She gave her answer, "Yes"; she gave her lips,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cold as a corpse's to the kiss of grief,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Shuddering at him as if his touch were whips.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then her best nature, struggling to eclipse</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This shrinking self, made speech; she jested there;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They searched each other's eyes, and both souls saw despair.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So the first passed, and after that began</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A happier time: she could not choose but praise</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That recognition of her in the man</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Striving to salve her pride in myriad ways;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He was a gentle lover: gentle days</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Passed like a music after tragic scenes;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her heart gave thanks for that; but still the might-have-beens</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Haunted her inner spirit day and night,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And often in his kiss the memory came</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of Michael's face above her, passionate, white,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His lips at her lips murmuring her name,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then she would suffer sleepless, sick with shame,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And struggle with her weakness.  She had vowed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To give herself to Lion; she was true and proud.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He should not have a woman sick with ghosts,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But one firm-minded to be his; so time</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Passed one by one the summer's marking posts,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dog-rose and the foxglove and the lime.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then on a day the church-bells rang a chime.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Men fired the bells till all the valley filled</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With bell-noise from the belfry where the jackdaws build.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion and she were married; home they went,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Home to The Roughs as man and wife; the news</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was printed in the paper.  Mary sent</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A copy out to Michael.  Now we lose</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sight of her for a time, and the great dews</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fall, and the harvest-moon grows red and fills</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over the barren fields where March brings daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">VI</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The rider lingered at the fence a moment,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Tossed out the pack to Michael, whistling low,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then rode, waving his hand, without more comment,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down the vast grey-green pampas sloping slow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael's last news had come so long ago,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He wondered who had written now; the hand</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Thrilled him with vague alarm, it brought him to a stand.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He opened it with one eye on the hut,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lest she within were watching him, but she</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was combing out her hair, the door was shut,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The green sun-shutters closed, she could not see.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out fell the love-tryst handkerchief which he</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Had had embroidered with his name for her;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It had been dearly kept, it smelt of lavender.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Something remained: a paper, crossed with blue,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where he should read; he stood there in the sun,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Reading of Mary's wedding till he knew</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>What he had cast away, what he had done.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He was rejected, Lion was the one.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion, the godly and the upright, he.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The black lines in the paper showed how it could be.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He pocketed the love gift and took horse,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And rode out to the pay-shed for his savings.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then turned, and rode a lonely water-course,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Alone with bitter thoughts and bitter cravings.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sun-shadows on the reeds made twinkling wavings;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>An orange-bellied turtle scooped the mud;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary had married Lion, and the news drew blood.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And with the bitterness, the outcast felt</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A passion for those old kind Shropshire places,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The ruined chancel where the nuns had knelt;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>High Ercall and the Chase End and the Chases,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The glimmering mere, the burr, the well-known faces,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>By Wrekin and by Zine and country town.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The orange-bellied turtle burrowed further down.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He could remember Mary now; her crying</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Night after night alone through weary years,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Had touched him now and set the cords replying;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He knew her misery now, her ache, her tears,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The lonely nights, the ceaseless hope, the fears,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The arm stretched out for one not there, the slow</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Loss of the lover's faith, the letting comfort go.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now I will ride," he said.  Beyond the ford</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He caught a fresh horse and rode on.  The night</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Found him a guest at Pepe Blanco's board,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Moody and drinking rum and ripe for fight;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drawing his gun, he shot away the light,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And parried Pepe's knife and caught his horse,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And all night long he rode bedevilled by remorse.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>At dawn he caught an eastward-going ferry,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And all day long he steamed between great banks</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Which smelt of yellow thorn and loganberry.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then wharves appeared, and chimneys rose in ranks,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mast upon mast arose; the river's flanks</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Were filled with English ships, and one he found</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Needing another stoker, being homeward bound.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And all the time the trouble in his head</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ran like a whirlwind moving him; he knew</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Since she was lost that he was better dead.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He had no project outlined, what to do,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beyond go home; he joined the steamer's crew.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She sailed that night: he dulled his maddened soul,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Plying the iron coal-slice on the bunker coal.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Work did not clear the turmoil in his mind;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Passion takes colour from the nature's core;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His misery was as his nature, blind.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Life was still turmoil when he went ashore.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To see his old love married lay before;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To see another have her, drink the gall,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Kicked like a dog without, while he within had all.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="left pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Soon he was at the Foxholes, at the place</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Whither, from over sea, his heart had turned</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Often at evening-ends in times of grace.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But little outward change his eye discerned;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A red rose at her bedroom window burned,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Just as before.  Even as of old the wasps</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Poised at the yellow plums: the gate creaked on its hasps,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And the white fantails sidled on the roof</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Just as before; their pink feet, even as of old,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Printed the frosty morning's rime with proof.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Still the zew-tallat's thatch was green with mould;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The apples on the withered boughs were gold.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Men and the times were changed: "And I," said he,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Will go and not return, since she is not for me.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I'll go, for it would be a scurvy thing</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To spoil her marriage, and besides, she cares</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For that half-priest she married with the ring.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Small joy for me in seeing how she wears,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Or seeing what he takes and what she shares.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That beauty and those ways: she had such ways,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There in the daffodils in those old April days."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So with an impulse of good will he turned,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Leaving that place of daffodils; the road</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was paven sharp with memories which burned;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He trod them strongly under as he strode.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>At the Green Turning's forge the furnace glowed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Red dithying sparks flew from the crumpled soft</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fold from the fire's heart; down clanged the hammers oft.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>That was a bitter place to pass, for there</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary and he had often, often stayed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To watch the horseshoe growing in the glare.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It was a tryst in childhood when they strayed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There was a stile beside the forge; he laid</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His elbows on it, leaning, looking down</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The river-valley stretched with great trees turning brown.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Infinite, too, because it reached the sky,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And distant spires arose and distant smoke;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The whiteness on the blue went stilly by;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Only the clinking forge the stillness broke.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ryemeadows brook was there; The Roughs, the oak</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where the White Woman walked; the black firs showed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Around the Occleve homestead Mary's new abode.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>A long, long time he gazed at that fair place,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So well remembered from of old; he sighed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I will go down and look upon her face,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>See her again, whatever may betide.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Hell is my future; I shall soon have died,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But I will take to hell one memory more;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She shall not see nor know; I shall be gone before;</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Before they turn the dogs upon me, even.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I do not mean to speak; but only see.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Even the devil gets a peep at heaven;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One peep at her shall come to hell with me;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One peep at her, no matter what may be."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He crossed the stile and hurried down the slope.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Remembered trees and hedges gave a zest to hope.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="left pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>A low brick wall with privet shrubs beyond</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ringed in The Roughs upon the side he neared.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Eastward some bramble bushes cloaked the pond;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Westward was barley-stubble not yet cleared.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He thrust aside the privet boughs and peered.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The drooping fir trees let their darkness trail</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Black like a pirate's masts bound under easy sail.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The garden with its autumn flowers was there;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Few that his wayward memory linked with her.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Summer had burnt the summer flowers bare,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But honey-hunting bees still made a stir.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sprigs were still bluish on the lavender,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And bluish daisies budded, bright flies poised;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The wren upon the tree-stump carolled cheery-voiced.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He could not see her there.  Windows were wide,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Late wasps were cruising, and the curtains shook.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Smoke, like the house's breathing, floated, sighed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Among the trembling firs strange ways it took.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But still no Mary's presence blessed his look;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The house was still as if deserted, hushed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Faint fragrance hung about it as if herbs were crushed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Fragrance that gave his memory's guard a hint</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of times long past, of reapers in the corn,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bruising with heavy boots the stalks of mint,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When first the berry reddens on the thorn.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Memories of her that fragrance brought.  Forlorn</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That vigil of the watching outcast grew;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He crept towards the kitchen, sheltered by a yew.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The windows of the kitchen opened wide.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Again the fragrance came; a woman spoke;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Mrs. Occleve talked to one inside.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A smell of cooking filled a gust of smoke.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then fragrance once again, for herbs were broke;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pourri was being made; the listener heard</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Things lifted and laid down, bruised into sweetness, stirred.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>While an old woman made remarks to one</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Who was not the beloved: Michael learned</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That Roger's wife at Upton had a son,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And that the red geraniums should be turned;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A hen was missing, and a rick was burned;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Our Lord commanded patience; here it broke;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The window closed, it made the kitchen chimney smoke.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Steps clacked on flagstones to the outer door;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A dairy-maid, whom he remembered well,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lined, now, with age, and grayer than before,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rang a cracked cow-bell for the dinner-bell.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He saw the dining-room; he could not tell</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>If Mary were within: inly he knew</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That she was coming now, that she would be in blue,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Blue with a silver locket at the throat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And that she would be there, within there, near,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With the little blushes that he knew by rote,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And the grey eyes so steadfast and so dear,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The voice, pure like the nature, true and clear,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Speaking to her belov'd within the room.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The gate clicked, Lion came: the outcast hugged the gloom,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Watching intently from below the boughs,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While Lion cleared his riding-boots of clay,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Eyed the high clouds and went within the house.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His eyes looked troubled, and his hair looked gray.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dinner began within with much to say.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Occleve roared aloud at his own joke.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary, it seemed, was gone; the loved voice never spoke.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Nor could her lover see her from the yew;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She was not there at table; she was ill,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ill, or away perhaps--he wished he knew.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Away, perhaps, for Occleve bellowed still.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"If sick," he thought, "the maid or Lion will</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Take food to her."  He watched; the dinner ended.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The staircase was not used; none climbed it, none descended.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Not here," he thought; but wishing to be sure,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He waited till the Occleves went to field,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then followed, round the house, another lure,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Using the well-known privet as his shield.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He meant to run a risk; his heart was steeled.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He knew of old which bedroom would be hers;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He crouched upon the north front in among the firs.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The house stared at him with its red-brick blank,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Its vacant window-eyes; its open door,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With old wrought bridle ring-hooks at each flank,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Swayed on a creaking hinge as the wind bore.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nothing had changed; the house was as before,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dull red brick, the windows sealed or wide:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I will go in," he said.  He rose and stepped inside.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>None could have seen him coming; all was still;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He listened in the doorway for a sign.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Above, a rafter creaked, a stir, a thrill</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Moved, till the frames clacked on the picture line.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Old Mother Occleve sleeps, the servants dine,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He muttered, listening.  "Hush."  A silence brooded.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Far off the kitchen dinner clattered; he intruded.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Still, to his right, the best room door was locked.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Another door was at his left; he stayed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Within, a stately timepiece ticked and tocked,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To one who slumbered breathing deep; it made</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>An image of Time's going and man's trade.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He looked: Old Mother Occleve lay asleep,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Hands crossed upon her knitting, rosy, breathing deep.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He tiptoed up the stairs which creaked and cracked.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The landing creaked; the shut doors, painted gray,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Loomed, as if shutting in some dreadful act.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The nodding frames seemed ready to betray.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The east room had been closed in Michael's day,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Being the best; but now he guessed it hers;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The fields of daffodils lay next it, past the firs.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Just as he reached the landing, Lion cried,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Somewhere below, "I'll get it."  Lion's feet</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Struck on the flagstones with a hasty stride.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"He's coming up," thought Michael, "we shall meet."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He snatched the nearest door for his retreat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Opened with thieves' swift silence, dared not close,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But stood within, behind it.  Lion's footsteps rose,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Running two steps at once, while Michael stood,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Not breathing, only knowing that the room</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Was someone's bedroom smelling of old wood,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Hung with engravings of the day of doom.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The footsteps stopped; and Lion called, to whom?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A gentle question, tapping at a door,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Michael shifted feet, and creakings took the floor.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The footsteps recommenced, a door-catch clacked;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Within an eastern room the footsteps passed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drawers were pulled loudly open and ransacked,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Chattels were thrust aside and overcast.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>What could the thing be that he sought.  At last</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His voice said, "Here it is."  The wormed floor</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Creaked with returning footsteps down the corridor.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The footsteps came as though the walker read,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Or added rows of figures by the way;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There was much hesitation in the tread;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion seemed pondering which, to go or stay;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, seeing the door, which covered Michael, sway,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He swiftly crossed and shut it.  "Always one</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For order," Michael muttered.  "Now be swift, my son."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The action seemed to break the walker's mood;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The footsteps passed downstairs, along the hall,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out at the door and off towards the wood.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Gone," Michael muttered.  "Now to hazard all."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Outside, the frames still nodded on the wall.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael stepped swiftly up the floor to try</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The door where Lion tapped and waited for reply.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>It was the eastmost of the rooms which look</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over the fields of daffodils; the bound</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Scanned from its windows is Ryemeadows brook,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Banked by gnarled apple trees and rising ground.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Most gently Michael tapped; he heard no sound,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Only the blind-pull tapping with the wind;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The kitchen-door was opened; kitchen-clatter dinned.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>A woman walked along the hall below,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Humming; a maid, he judged; the footsteps died,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Listening intently still, he heard them go,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then swiftly turned the knob and went inside.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The blind-pull at the window volleyed wide;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The curtains streamed out like a waterfall;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The pictures of the fox-hunt clacked along the wall.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>No one was there; no one; the room was hers.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A book of praise lay open on the bed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The clothes-press smelt of many lavenders,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her spirit stamped the room; herself was fled.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Here she found peace of soul like daily bread,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Here, with her lover Lion; Michael gazed;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He would have been the sharer had he not been crazed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He took the love-gift handkerchief again;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He laid it on her table, near the glass,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So opened that the broidered name was plain;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Plain," he exclaimed, "she cannot let it pass.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It stands and speaks for me as bold as brass.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My answer, my heart's cry, to tell her this,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That she is still my darling: all she was she is.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"So she will know at least that she was wrong,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That underneath the blindness I was true.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fate is the strongest thing, though men are strong;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out from beyond life I was sealed to you.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But my blind ways destroyed the cords that drew;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And now, the evil done, I know my need;</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Fate has his way with those who mar what is decreed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"And now, goodbye."  He closed the door behind him,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then stept, with firm swift footstep down the stair,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Meaning to go where she would never find him;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He would go down through darkness to despair.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out at the door he stept; the autumn air</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came fresh upon his face; none saw him go.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Goodbye, my love," he muttered; "it is better so."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Soon he was on the high road, out of sight</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of valley and farm; soon he could see no more</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The oast-house pointing finger take the light</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As tumbling pigeons glittered over; nor</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Could he behold the wind-vane gilded o'er,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Swinging above the church; the road swung round.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now, the last look," he cried: he saw that holy ground.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Goodbye," he cried; he could behold it all,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Spread out as in a picture; but so clear</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That the gold apple stood out from the wall;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like a red jewel stood the grazing steer.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Precise, intensely coloured, all brought near,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As in a vision, lay that holy ground.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary is there," he moaned, "and I am outward bound.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I never saw this place so beautiful,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Never like this.  I never saw it glow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Spirit is on this place; it fills it full.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So let the die be cast; I will not go.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But I will see her face to face and know</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>From her own lips what thoughts she has of me;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And if disaster come: right; let disaster be."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Back, by another way, he turned.  The sun</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fired the yew-tops in the Roman woods.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lights in the valley twinkled one by one,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The starlings whirled in dropping multitudes.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dusk fingered into one earth's many moods,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Back to The Roughs he walked; he neared the brook;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A lamp burned in the farm; he saw; his fingers shook.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He had to cross the brook, to cross a field,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where daffodils were thick when years were young.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, were she there, his fortunes should be sealed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down the mud trackway to the brook he swung;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then while the passion trembled on his tongue,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dim, by the dim bridge-stile, he seemed to see</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A figure standing mute; a woman--it was she.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>She stood quite stilly, waiting for him there.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She did not seem surprised; the meeting seemed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Planned from all time by powers in the air</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To change their human fates; he even deemed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That in another life this thing had gleamed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This meeting by the bridge.  He said, "It's you."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Yes, I," she said, "who else?  You must have known; you knew</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"That I should come here to the brook to see,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>After your message."  "You were out," he said.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Gone, and I did not know where you could be.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where were you, Mary, when the thing was laid?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Old Mrs. Gale is dying, and I stayed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Longer than usual, while I read the Word.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You could have hardly gone."  She paused, her bosom stirred.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary, I sinned," he said.  "Not that, dear, no,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She said; "but, oh, you were unkind, unkind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Never to write a word and leave me so,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But out of sight with you is out of mind."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary, I sinned," he said, "and I was blind.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, my beloved, are you Lion's wife?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Belov'd sounds strange," she answered, "in my present life.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"But it is sweet to hear it, all the same.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It is a language little heard by me</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Alone, in that man's keeping, with my shame.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I never thought such miseries could be.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I was so happy in you, Michael.  He</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came when I felt you changed from what I thought you.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Even now it is not love, but jealousy that brought you."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"That is untrue," he said.  "I am in hell.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You are my heart's beloved, Mary, you.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>By God, I know your beauty now too well.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We are each other's, flesh and soul, we two."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"That was sweet knowledge once," she said; "we knew</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That truth of old.  Now, in a strange man's bed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I read it in my soul, and find it written red."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Is he a brute?" he asked.  "No," she replied.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I did not understand what it would mean.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And now that you are back, would I had died;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Died, and the misery of it not have been.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion would not be wrecked, nor I unclean.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I was a proud one once, and now I'm tame;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, Michael, say some word to take away my shame."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>She sobbed; his arms went round her; the night heard</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Intense fierce whispering passing, soul to soul,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Love running hot on many a murmured word,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Love's passionate giving into new control.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Their present misery did but blow the coal,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Did but entangle deeper their two wills,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While the brown brook ran on by buried daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">VII</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Upon a light gust came a waft of bells,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ringing the chimes for nine; a broken sweet,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like waters bubbling out of hidden wells,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dully upon those lovers' ears it beat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Their time was at an end.  Her tottering feet</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Trod the dim field for home; he sought an inn.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh, I have sinned," she cried, "but not a secret sin."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Inside The Roughs they waited for her coming;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Eyeing the ticking clock the household sat.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Nine," the clock struck; the clock-weights ran down drumming;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Mother Occleve stretched her sewing flat.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"It's nine," she said.  Old Occleve stroked the cat.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Ah, cat," he said, "hast had good go at mouse?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion sat listening tense to all within the house</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Mary is late to-night," the gammer said.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"The times have changed," her merry husband roared.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Young married couples now like lonely trade,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Don't think of bed at all, they think of board.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No multiplying left in people.  Lord!</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When I was Lion's age I'd had my five.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There was some go in folk when us two took to wive."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion arose and stalked and bit his lip.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Or was it six?" the old man muttered, "six.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Us had so many I've alost the tip.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Us were two right good souls at getting chicks.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Two births of twins, then Johnny's birth, then Dick's" ...</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now give a young man time," the mother cried.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary came swiftly in and flung the room door wide.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion was by the window when she came,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Occleve and his wife were by the fire;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Big shadows leapt the ceiling from the flame.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She fronted the three figures and came nigher.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Lion," she whispered, "I return my hire."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She dropped her marriage-ring upon the table.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, in a louder voice, "I bore what I was able,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And Time and marriage might have worn me down,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Perhaps, to be a good wife and a blest,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With little children clinging to my gown,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And little blind mouths fumbling for my breast,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And this place would have been a place of rest</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For you and me; we could have come to know</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The depth; but that is over; I have got to go.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"He has come back, and I have got to go.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Our marriage ends."  She stood there white and breathed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Occleve got upon his feet with "So."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Blazing with wrath upon the hearth he seethed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A log fell from the bars; blue spirals wreathed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Across the still old woman's startled face;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The cat arose and yawned.  Lion was still a space.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Occleve turned to Lion.  Lion moved</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nearer to Mary, picking up the ring.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His was grim physic from the soul beloved;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His face was white and twitching with the sting.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"You are my wife, you cannot do this thing,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He said at last.  "I can respect your pride.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This thing affects your soul; my judgment must decide.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"You are unsettled, shaken from the shock."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Not so," she said.  She stretched a hand to him,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White, large and noble, steady as a rock,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cunning with many powers, curving, slim.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The smoke, drawn by the door-draught, made it dim.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Right," Lion answered.  "You are steady.  Then</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There is but one world, Mary; this, the world of men.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And there's another world, without its bounds,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Peopled by streaked and spotted souls who prize</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The flashiness that comes from marshy grounds</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Above plain daylight.  In their blinkered eyes</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nothing is bright but sentimental lies,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Such as are offered you, dear, here and now;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lies which betray the strongest, God alone knows how.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"You, in your beauty and your whiteness, turn</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Your strong, white mind, your faith, your fearless truth,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All for these rotten fires that so burn.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A sentimental clutch at perished youth.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I am too sick for wisdom, sick with ruth,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And this comes suddenly; the unripe man</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Misses the hour, oh God.  But you, what is your plan?</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"What do you mean to do, how act, how live?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>What warrant have you for your life?  What trust?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You are for going sailing in a sieve.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This brightness is too mortal not to rust.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So our beginning marriage ends in dust.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I have not failed you, Mary.  Let me know</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>What you intend to do, and whither you will go."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Go from this place; it chokes me," she replied.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"This place has branded me; I must regain</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My truth that I have soiled, my faith, my pride,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It is all poison and it leaves a stain.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I cannot stay nor be your wife again.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Never.  You did your best, though; you were kind.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I have grown old to-night and left all that behind.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Goodbye."  She turned.  Old Occleve faced his son.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Wrath at the woman's impudence was blent,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Upon his face, with wrath that such an one</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Should stand unthrashed until her words were spent.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He stayed for Lion's wrath; but Mary went</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Unchecked; he did not stir.  Her footsteps ground</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The gravel to the gate; the gate-hinge made a sound</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Like to a cry of pain after a shot.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Swinging, it clicked, it clicked again, it swung</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Until the iron latch bar hit the slot.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary had gone, and Lion held his tongue.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Old Mother Occleve sobbed; her white head hung</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over her sewing while the tears ran down</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her worn, blood-threaded cheeks and splashed upon her gown.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Yes, it is true," said Lion, "she must go.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael is back.  Michael was always first,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I did but take his place.  You did not know.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Now it has happened, and you know the worst.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So passion makes the passionate soul accurst</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And crucifies his darling.  Michael comes</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And the savage truth appears and rips my life to thrums."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Upon Old Occleve's face the fury changed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>First to contempt, and then to terror lest</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion, beneath the shock, should be deranged.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But Lion's eyes were steady, though distressed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Father, good-night," he said, "I'm going to rest.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Good-night, I cannot talk.  Mother, good-night."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He kissed her brow and went; they heard him strike a light,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And go with slow depressed step up the stairs,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Up to the door of her deserted bower;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They heard him up above them, moving chairs;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The memory of his paleness made them cower.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They did not know their son; they had no power</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To help, they only saw the new-won bride</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Defy their child, and faith and custom put aside.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="left pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>After a time men learned where Mary was:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over the hills, not many miles away,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Renting a cottage and a patch of grass</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where Michael came to see her.  Every day</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Taught her what fevers can inhabit clay,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Shaking this body that so soon must die.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The time made Lion old: the winter dwindled by.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Till the long misery had to end or kill:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And "I must go to see her," Lion cried;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I am her standby, and she needs me still;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>If not to love she needs me to decide.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dear, I will set you free.  Oh, my bright bride,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lost in such piteous ways, come back."  He rode</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over the wintry hills to Mary's new abode.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And as he topped the pass between the hills,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Towards him, up the swerving road, there came</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael, the happy cause of all his ills;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Walking as though repentance were the shame,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sucking a grass, unbuttoned, still the same,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Humming a tune; his careless beauty wild</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drawing the women's eyes; he wandered with a child.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Who heard, wide-eyed, the scraps of tales which fell</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Between the fragments of the tune; they seemed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A cherub bringing up a soul from hell.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Meeting unlike the meeting long since dreamed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion dismounted; the great valley gleamed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With waters far below; his teeth were set</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His heart thumped at his throat; he stopped; the two men met.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The child well knew that fatal issues joined;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He stood round-eyed to watch them, even as Fate</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Stood with his pennypiece of causes coined</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ready to throw for issue; the bright hate</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Throbbed, that the heavy reckoning need not wait.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion stepped forward, watching Michael's eyes.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"We are old friends," he said.  "Now, Michael, you be wise,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And let the harm already done suffice;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Go, before Mary's name is wholly gone.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Spare her the misery of desertion twice,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There's only ruin in the road you're on--</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ruin for both, whatever promise shone</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>In sentimental shrinkings from the fact.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So, Michael, play the man, and do the generous act.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And go; if not for my sake, go for hers.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You only want her with your sentiment.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You are water roughed by every wind that stirs,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>One little gust will alter your intent</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All ways, to every wind, and nothing meant,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Is your life's habit.  Man, one takes a wife,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Not for a three months' fancy, but the whole of life.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"We have been friends, and so I speak you fair.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>How will you bear her ill, or cross, or tired?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sentiment sighing will not help you there.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You call a half life's volume not desired.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I know your love for her.  I saw it mired,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mired, past going, by your first sharp taste</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of life and work; it stopped; you let her whole life waste,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Rather than have the trouble of such love,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You will again; but if you do it now,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It will mean death, not sorrow.  But enough.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You know too well you cannot keep a vow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There are gray hairs already on her brow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You brought them there.  Death is the next step.  Go,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Before you take the step."  "No," Michael answered, "No.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"As for my past, I was a dog, a cur,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And I have paid blood-money, and still pay.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But all my being is ablaze with her;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There is no talk of giving up to-day.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I will not give her up.  You used to say</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bodies are earth.  I heard you say it.  Liar!</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You never loved her, you.  She turns the earth to fire."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael," said Lion, "you have said such things</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of other women; less than six miles hence</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You and another woman felt love's wings</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rosy and fair, and so took leave of sense.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She's dead, that other woman, dead, with pence</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pressed on her big brown eyes, under the ground;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She that was merry once, feeling the world go round.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Her child (and yours) is with her sister now,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out there, behind us, living as they can;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pinched by the poverty that you allow.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All a long autumn many rumours ran</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>About Sue Jones that was: you were the man.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The lad is like you.  Think about his mother,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Before you turn the earth to fire with another."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"That is enough," said Michael, "you shall know</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Soon, to your marrow, what my answer is;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Know to your lying heart; now kindly go.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The neighbours smell that something is amiss.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We two will keep a dignity in this,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Such as we can.  No quarrelling with me here.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary might see; now go; but recollect, my dear,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"That if you twit me with your wife, you lie;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And that your further insult waits a day</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>When God permits that Mary is not by;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I keep the record of it, and shall pay.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And as for Mary; listen: we betray</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No one.  We keep our troth-plight as we meant.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Now go, the neighbours gather."  Lion bowed and went.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Home to his memories for a month of pain,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Each moment like a devil with a tongue,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Urging him, "Set her free," or "Try again,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Or "Kill that man and stamp him into dung."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"See her," he cried.  He took his horse and swung</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out on the road to her; the rain was falling;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her dropping house-eaves splashed him when he knocked there, calling.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Drowned yellow jasmine dripped; his horse's flanks</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Steamed, and dark runnels on his yellow hair</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Streaked the groomed surface into blotchy ranks.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The noise of water dropping filled the air.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He knocked again; but there was no one there;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No one within, the door was locked, no smoke</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came from the chimney stacks, no clock ticked, no one spoke.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Only the water dripped and dribble-dripped,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And gurgled through the rain-pipe to the butt;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drops, trickling down the windows paused or slipped;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A wet twig scraked as though the glass were cut.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The blinds were all drawn down, the windows shut.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No one was there.  Across the road a shawl</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Showed at a door a space; a woman gave a call.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"They're gone away," she cried.  "They're gone away.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Been gone a matter of a week."  Where to?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The woman thought to Wales, but could not say,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nor if she planned returning; no one knew.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She looked at Lion sharply; then she drew</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The half-door to its place and passed within,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Saying she hoped the rain would stop and spring begin.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion rode home.  A month went by, and now</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Winter was gone; the myriad shoots of green</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bent to the wind, like hair, upon the plough,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And up from withered leaves came celandine.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And sunlight came, though still the air was keen,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So that the first March market was most fair,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Lion rode to market, having business there.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And in the afternoon, when all was done,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While Lion waited idly near the inn,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Watching the pigeons sidling in the sun,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As Jim the ostler put his gelding in,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He heard a noise of rioting begin</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Outside the yard, with catcalls; there were shouts</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of "Occleve.  Lion Occleve," from a pack of louts,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Who hung about the courtyard-arch, and cried,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Yah, Occleve, of The Roughs, the married man,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Occleve, who had the bed and not the bride."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>At first without the arch; but some began</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To sidle in, still calling; children ran</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To watch the baiting; they were farmer's leavings</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Who shouted thus, men cast for drunkenness and thievings.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion knew most of them of old; he paid</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>No heed to them, but turned his back and talked</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To Jim, of through-pin in his master's jade,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And how no horse-wounds should be stuped or caulked.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The rabble in the archway, not yet baulked,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came crowding nearer, and the boys began,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Who was it took your mistress, master married man?"</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Who was it, master, took your wife away?"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I wouldn't let another man take mine."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"She had two husbands on her wedding day."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"See at a blush: he blushed as red as wine."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"She'd ought a had a cart-whip laid on fine."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The farmers in the courtyard watched the baiting,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Grinning, the barmaids grinned above the window grating.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Then through the mob of brawlers Michael stepped</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Straight to where Lion stood.  "I come," he said,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"To give you back some words which I have kept</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Safe in my heart till I could see them paid.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You lied about Sue Jones; she died a maid</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As far as I'm concerned, and there's your lie,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Full in your throat, and there, and there, and in your eye.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"And there's for stealing Mary" ... as he struck,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He slipped upon a piece of peel and dropped</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Souse in a puddle of the courtyard muck;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Loud laughter followed when he rose up sopped.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Friends rushed to intervene, the fight was stopped.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The two were hurried out by different ways.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Men said, "'Tis stopped for now, but not for many days."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<p class="left pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>April appeared, the green earth's impulse came,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pushing the singing sap until each bud</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Trembled with delicate life as soft as flame,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Filled by the mighty heart-beat as with blood;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Death was at ebb, and Life in brimming flood.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But little joy in life could Lion see,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Striving to gird his will to set his loved one free,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>While in his heart a hope still struggled dim</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That the mad hour would pass, the darkness break,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The fever die, and she return to him,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The routed nightmare let the sleeper wake.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Then we could go abroad," he cried, "and make</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A new life, soul to soul; oh, love! return."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Too late," his heart replied.  At last he rode to learn.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Bowed, but alive with hope, he topped the pass,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And saw, below, her cottage by the way,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White, in a garden green with springing grass,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And smoke against the blue sky going gray.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"God make us all the happier for to-day,"</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He muttered humbly; then, below, he spied,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary and Michael entering, walking side by side.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Arm within arm, like lovers, like dear lovers</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Matched by the happy stars and newly wed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over whose lives a rosy presence hovers.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion dismounted, seeing hope was dead.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A child was by the road, he stroked his head,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And "Little one," he said, "who lives below</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There, in the cottage there, where those two people go?"</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"They do," the child said, pointing: "Mrs. Gray</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lives in the cottage there, and he does, too.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They've been back near a week since being away."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It was but seal to what he inly knew.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He thanked the child and rode.  The Spring was blue,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bluer than ever, and the birds were glad;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Such rapture in the hedges all the blackbirds had.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He was not dancing to that pipe of the Spring.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He reached The Roughs, and there, within her room,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bowed for a time above her wedding ring,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Which had so chained him to unhappy doom;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All his dead marriage haunted in the gloom</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Of that deserted chamber; all her things</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lay still as she had left them when her love took wings.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He kept a bitter vigil through the night,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Knowing his loss, his ten years' passion wasted,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His life all blasted, even at its height,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His cup of life's fulfilment hardly tasted.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Gray on the budding woods the morning hasted,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And looking out he saw the dawn come chill</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over the shaking acre pale with daffodil.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Birds were beginning in the meadows; soon</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The blackbirds and the thrushes with their singing</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Piped down the withered husk that was the moon,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And up the sky the ruddy sun came winging.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cows plodded past, yokes clanked, the men were bringing</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Milk from the barton.  Someone shouted "Hup,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dog, drive them dangy red ones down away on up."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Some heavy hours went by before he rose.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He went out of the house into the grass,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down which the wind flowed much as water flows;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The daffodils bowed down to let it pass.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>At the brook's edge a boggy bit there was,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Right at the field's north corner, near the bridge,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fenced by a ridge of earth; he sat upon the ridge,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Watching the water running to the sea,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Watching the bridge, the stile, the path beyond,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where the white violet's sweetness brought the bee.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He paid the price of being overfond.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The water babbled always from the pond</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over the pretty shallows, chattering, tinkling,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>With trembles from the sunlight in its clearness wrinkling.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So gazing, like one stunned, it reached his mind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That the hedge-brambles overhung the brook</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>More than was right, making the selvage blind;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dragging brambles too much flotsam took.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dully he thought to mend.  He fetched a hook,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And standing in the shallow stream he slashed,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>For hours, it seemed; the thorns, the twigs, the dead leaves splashed,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Splashed and were bobbed away across the shallows;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Pale grasses with the sap gone from them fell,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sank, or were carried down beyond the sallows.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The bruised ground-ivy gave out earthy smell.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"I must be dead," he thought, "and this is hell."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fiercely he slashed, till, glancing at the stile,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He saw that Michael stood there, watching, with a smile,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>His old contemptuous smile of careless ease,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>As though the world with all its myriad pain</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sufficed, but only just sufficed, to please.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Michael was there, the robber come again.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>A tumult ran like flame in Lion's brain;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, looking down, he saw the flowers shake:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Gold, trembling daffodils; he turned, he plucked a stake</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Out of the hedge that he had come to mend,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And flung his hook to Michael, crying, "Take;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We two will settle our accounts, my friend,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Once and for ever.  May the Lord God make</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You see your sins in time."  He whirled his stake</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And struck at Michael's head; again he struck;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While Michael dodged and laughed, "Why, man, I bring you luck.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Don't kill a bringer of good news.  You fool,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Stop it and listen.  I have come to say:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion, for God's sake, listen and be cool.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You silly hothead, put that stake away.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Listen, I tell you."  But he could not stay</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The anger flaming in that passionate soul.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Blows rained upon him thick; they stung; he lost control.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Till, "If you want to fight," he cried, "let be.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Let me get off the bridge and we will fight.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That firm bit by the quag will do for me.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>So.  Be on guard, and God defend the right.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You foaming madman, with your hell's delight,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Smashing a man with stakes before he speaks:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>On guard.  I'll make you humbler for the next few weeks."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The ground was level there; the daffodils</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Glimmered and danced beneath their cautious feet,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Quartering for openings for the blow that kills.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beyond the bubbling brook a thrush was sweet.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Quickly the footsteps slid; with feint and cheat,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The weapons poised and darted and withdrew.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Now stop it," Michael said, "I want to talk to you."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"We do not stop till one of us is dead,",</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Said Lion, rushing in.  A short blow fell</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dizzily, through all guard, on Michael's head.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His hedging-hook slashed blindly but too well:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It struck in Lion's side.  Then, for a spell,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Both, sorely stricken, staggered, while their eyes</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dimmed under mists of blood; they fell, they tried to rise,--</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Tried hard to rise, but could not, so they lay,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Watching the clouds go sailing on the sky,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Touched with a redness from the end of day.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>There was all April in the blackbird's cry.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And lying there they felt they had to die,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Die and go under mould and feel no more</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>April's green fire of life go running in earth's core.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"There was no need to hit me," Michael said;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"You quiet thinking fellows lose control.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>This fighting business is a foolish trade.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And now we join the grave-worm and the mole.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I tried to stop you.  You're a crazy soul;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You always were hot-headed.  Well, let be:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You deep and passionate souls have always puzzled me.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"I'm sorry that I struck you.  I was hit,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And lashed out blindly at you; you were mad.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It would be different if you'd stopped a bit.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You are too blind when you are angry, lad.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, I am giddy, Lion; dying, bad,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dying."  He raised himself, he sat, his look</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Grew greedy for the water bubbling in the brook.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And as he watched it, Lion raised his head;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Out of a bloodied clump of daffodil.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael," he moaned, "I, too, am dying: dead.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You're nearer to the water.  Could you fill</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Your hat and give me drink?  Or would it spill?</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Spill, I expect."  "I'll try," said Michael, "try--</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I may as well die trying, since I have to die."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Slowly he forced his body's failing life</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down to the water; there he stooped and filled;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And as his back turned Lion drew his knife,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And hid it close, while all his being thrilled</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To see, as Michael came, the water spilled,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Nearer and ever nearer, bright, so bright.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Drink," muttered Michael, "drink.  We two shall sleep to-night."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>He tilted up the hat, and Lion drank.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion lay still a moment, gathering power,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then rose, as Michael gave him more, and sank.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, like a dying bird whom death makes tower,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He raised himself above the bloodied flower</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And struck with all his force in Michael's side.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"You should not have done that," his stricken comrade cried.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"No; for I meant to tell you, Lion; meant</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To tell you; but I cannot now; I die.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That hit me to the heart and I am spent.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary and I have parted; she and I</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Agreed she must return, lad.  That is why</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I came to see you.  She is coming here,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Back to your home to-night.  Oh, my beloved dear,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"You come to tread a bloody path of flowers.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All the gold flowers are covered up with blood,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And the bright bugles blow along the towers;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The bugles triumph like the Plate in flood."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His spilled life trickled down upon the mud</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Between weak, clutching fingers.  "Oh," he cried,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"This isn't what we planned here years ago."  He died.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Lion lay still while the cold tides of death</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Came brimming up his channels.  With one hand</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>He groped to know if Michael still drew breath.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>His little hour was running out its sand.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then, in a mist, he saw his Mary stand</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Above.  He cried aloud, "He was my brother.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I was his comrade sworn, and we have killed each other.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh desolate grief, beloved, and through me.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We wise who try to change.  Oh, you wild birds,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Help my unhappy spirit to the sea.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The golden bowl is scattered into sherds."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And Mary knelt and murmured passionate words</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To that poor body on the dabbled flowers:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh, beauty, oh, sweet soul, oh, little love of ours--</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Michael, my own heart's darling, speak; it's me,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Mary.  You know my voice.  I'm here, dear, here.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, little golden-haired one, listen.  See,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It's Mary, Michael.  Speak to Mary, dear.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, Michael, little love, he cannot hear;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And you have killed him, Lion; he is dead.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My little friend, my love, my Michael, golden head.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"We had such fun together, such sweet fun,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My love and I, my merry love and I.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, love, you shone upon me like the sun.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, Michael, say some little last good-bye."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then in a great voice Lion called, "I die.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Go home and tell my people.  Mary.  Hear.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Though I have wrought this ruin, I have loved you, dear.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Better than he; not better, dear, as well.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>If you could kiss me, dearest, at this last.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We have made bloody doorways from our hell,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cutting our tangle.  Now, the murder past,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>We are but pitiful poor souls; and fast</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The darkness and the cold come.  Kiss me, sweet;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>I loved you all my life; but some lives never meet</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Though they go wandering side by side through Time.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Kiss me," he cried.  She bent, she kissed his brow:</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh, friend," she said, "you're lying in the slime."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Three blind ones, dear," he murmured, "in the slough,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Caught fast for death; but never mind that now;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Go home and tell my people.  I am dying,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dying, dear, dying now."  He died; she left him lying,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And kissed her dead one's head and crossed the field.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"They have been killed," she called, in a great crying.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Killed, and our spirits' eyes are all unsealed.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The blood is scattered on the flowers drying."</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It was the hush of dusk, and owls were flying;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They hooted as the Occleves ran to bring</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>That sorry harvest home from Death's red harvesting.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They laid the bodies on the bed together.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And "You were beautiful," she said, "and you</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Were my own darling in the April weather.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You knew my very soul, you knew, you knew.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Oh, my sweet, piteous love, I was not true.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Fetch me fair water and the flowers of spring;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>My love is dead, and I must deck his burying."</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>They left her with her dead; they could not choose</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But grant the spirit burning in her face</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Rights that their pity urged them to refuse.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They did her sorrow and the dead a grace.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>All night they heard her passing footsteps trace</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Down to the garden from the room of death.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>They heard her singing there, lowly, with gentle breath,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>To the cool darkness full of sleeping flowers,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Then back, still singing soft, with quiet tread,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But at the dawn her singing gathered powers</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like to the dying swan who lifts his head</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>On Eastnor, lifts it, singing, dabbled red,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Singing the glory in his tumbling mind,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Before the doors burst in, before death strikes him blind.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>So triumphing her song of love began,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Ringing across the meadows like old woe</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Sweetened by poets to the help of man</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Unconquered in eternal overthrow;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Like a great trumpet from the long ago</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her singing towered; all the valley heard.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Men jingling down to meadow stopped their teams and stirred.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>And they, the Occleves, hurried to the door,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And burst it, fearing; there the singer lay</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Drooped at her lover's bedside on the floor,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Singing her passionate last of life away.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>White flowers had fallen from a blackthorn spray</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Over her loosened hair.  Pale flowers of spring</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Filled the white room of death; they covered everything.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Primroses, daffodils, and cuckoo-flowers.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>She bowed her singing head on Michael's breast.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>"Oh, it was sweet," she cried, "that love of ours.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>You were the dearest, sweet; I loved you best.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Beloved, my beloved, let me rest</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>By you forever, little Michael mine.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Now the great hour is stricken, and the bread and wine</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>"Broken and spilt; and now the homing birds</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Draw to a covert, Michael; I to you.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Bury us two together," came her words.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The dropping petals fell about the two.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her heart had broken; she was dead.  They drew</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Her gentle head aside; they found it pressed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Against the broidered 'kerchief spread on Michael's breast,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>The one that bore her name in Michael's hair,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Given so long before.  They let her lie,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>While the dim moon died out upon the air,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And happy sunlight coloured all the sky.</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The last cock crowed for morning; carts went by;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Smoke rose from cottage chimneys; from the byre</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>The yokes went clanking by, to dairy, through the mire.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>In the day's noise the water's noise was stilled,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But still it slipped along, the cold hill-spring,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Dropping from leafy hollows, which it filled,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>On to the pebbly shelves which made it sing;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Glints glittered on it from the 'fisher's wing;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>It saw the moorhen nesting; then it stayed</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>In a great space of reeds where merry otters played.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Slowly it loitered past the shivering reeds</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Into a mightier water; thence its course</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Becomes a pasture where the salmon feeds,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Wherein no bubble tells its humble source;</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But the great waves go rolling, and the horse</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Snorts at the bursting waves and will not drink,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And the great ships go outward, bubbling to the brink,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="left line"><span>Outward, with men upon them, stretched in line,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Handling the halliards to the ocean's gates,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Where flicking windflaws fill the air with brine,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>And all the ocean opens.  Then the mates</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>Cry, and the sunburnt crew no longer waits,</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>But sing triumphant and the topsail fills</span></div>
-<div class="left line"><span>To this old tale of woe among the daffodils.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Printed In the United States of America.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">The following pages contain advertisements of
-<br />Macmillan poems by the same author.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">JOHN MASEFIELD'S</span></p>
-<p class="center pnext"><span class="large">The Everlasting Mercy, and The Widow in Bye Street</span></p>
-<p class="center pnext"><em class="italics medium">Decorated boards, $1.25.  Postpaid, $1.38</em></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="pfirst"><span>"The Everlasting Mercy" was awarded the Edward de Polignac
-prize of $500 by the Royal Society of Literature for the best
-imaginative work of the year.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="pfirst"><span>"John Masefield is the man of the hour, and the man of to-morrow
-too, in poetry and in the playwriting craft."--JOHN GALSWORTHY.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"--recreates a wholly new drama of existence."--WILLIAM
-STANLEY BRAITHWAITE, </span><em class="italics">N. Y. Times</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"Mr. Masefield comes like a flash of light across contemporary
-English poetry, and he trails glory where his imagination reveals the
-substances of life.  The improbable has been accomplished by
-Mr. Masefield; he has made poetry out of the very material that has
-refused to yield it for almost a score of years.  It has only yielded it
-with a passion of Keats, and shaped it with the imagination of
-Coleridge."--</span><em class="italics">Boston Evening Transcript</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"Originality, force, distinction, and deep knowledge of the human
-heart."--</span><em class="italics">Chicago Record-Herald</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"They are truly great pieces."--Kentucky Post.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"A vigor and sincerity rare in modern English literature."--</span><em class="italics">The
-Independent</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"If Mr. Masefield has occasionally appeared to touch a reminiscent
-chord with George Meredith, it is merely an example of his good taste
-and the sameness of big themes."--GEORGE MIDDLETON in </span><em class="italics">La
-Foliette's Magazine</em><span>.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">JOHN MASEFIELD'S</span></p>
-<p class="center pnext"><span class="large">The Story of a Round-House, and other Poems</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"John Masefield has produced the finest literature of the
-year."--J. W. BARRIE.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"John Masefield is the most interesting poetic personality of the
-day."--</span><em class="italics">The Continent</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"Ah! the story of that rounding the Horn!  Never in prose has the
-sea been so tremendously described."--</span><em class="italics">Chicago Evening Post</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"Masefield's new book attracts the widest attention from those who
-in any degree are interested in the quality of present-day
-literature."--</span><em class="italics">Boston Transcript</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"A remarkable poem of the sea."--</span><em class="italics">San Francisco Chronicle</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"Vivid and thrillingly realistic."--</span><em class="italics">Current Literature</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"A genuine sailor and a genuine poet are a rare combination; they
-have produced a rare poem of the sea, which has made Mr. Masefield's
-position in literature secure beyond the reach of
-caviling."--</span><em class="italics">Everybody's Magazine</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"Masefield has prisoned in verse the spirit of life at
-sea."--</span><em class="italics">N. Y. Sun</em><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="pnext"><span>"There is strength about everything Masefield writes that compels
-the feeling that he has an inward eye on which he draws to shape new
-films of old pictures.  In these pictures is freshness combined with
-power, which form the keynotes of his poetry."--</span><em class="italics">N. Y. Globe</em><span>.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span></p>
-<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">Publishers -- 64-66 Fifth Avenue -- New York</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em">
-</div>
-<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
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diff --git a/41466-rst.zip b/41466-rst.zip
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-.. -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-

-

-.. meta::

-   :PG.Id: 41466

-   :PG.Title: The Daffodil Fields

-   :PG.Released: 2012-11-23

-   :PG.Rights: Public Domain

-   :PG.Producer: Al Haines

-   :DC.Creator: John Masefield

-   :DC.Title: The Daffodil Fields

-   :DC.Language: en

-   :DC.Created: 1913

-   :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg

-

-===================

-THE DAFFODIL FIELDS

-===================

-

-.. clearpage::

-

-.. pgheader::

-

-.. container:: coverpage

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. figure:: images/img-cover.jpg

-      :align: center

-      :alt: Cover

-

-      Cover

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line

-

-   .. class:: x-large

-

-      THE DAFFODIL FIELDS

-

-   .. vspace:: 2

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      BY

-      JOHN MASEFIELD

-

-   .. vspace:: 1

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      AUTHOR OF "THE EVERLASTING MERCY," "THE WIDOW IN

-      THE BYE STREET," "THE STORY OF A

-      ROUND-HOUSE," ETC.

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      New York

-      THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

-      1915

-

-   .. vspace:: 1

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      *All rights reserved*

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. container:: verso center white-space-pre-line

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      COPYRIGHT, 1918,

-      BY JOHN MASEFIELD.

-

-   .. vspace:: 1

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      Set up and electrotyped.  Published March, 1913.

-      Reprinted July, December, 1913; August, 1915.

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      Norwood Press

-      \J. \S. Cushing Co. -- Berwick & Smith Co.

-      Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center x-large

-

-   THE DAFFODIL FIELDS

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   I

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: left

-

-   |   Between the barren pasture and the wood

-   |   There is a patch of poultry-stricken grass,

-   |   Where, in old time, Ryemeadows' Farmhouse stood,

-   |   And human fate brought tragic things to pass.

-   |   A spring comes bubbling up there, cold as glass,

-   |   It bubbles down, crusting the leaves with lime,

-   |   Babbling the self-same song that it has sung through time.

-

-   |   Ducks gobble at the selvage of the brook,

-   |   But still it slips away, the cold hill-spring,

-   |   Past the Ryemeadows' lonely woodland nook

-   |   Where many a stubble gray-goose preens her wing,

-   |   On, by the woodland side.  You hear it sing

-   |   Past the lone copse where poachers set their wires,

-   |   Past the green hill once grim with sacrificial fires.

-

-   |   Another water joins it; then it turns,

-   |   Runs through the Ponton Wood, still turning west,

-   |   Past foxgloves, Canterbury bells, and ferns,

-   |   And many a blackbird's, many a thrush's nest;

-   |   The cattle tread it there; then, with a zest

-   |   It sparkles out, babbling its pretty chatter

-   |   Through Foxholes Farm, where it gives white-faced cattle water.

-

-   |   Under the road it runs, and now it slips

-   |   Past the great ploughland, babbling, drop and linn,

-   |   To the moss'd stumps of elm trees which it lips,

-   |   And blackberry-bramble-trails where eddies spin.

-   |   Then, on its left, some short-grassed fields begin,

-   |   Red-clayed and pleasant, which the young spring fills

-   |   With the never-quiet joy of dancing daffodils.

-

-   |   There are three fields where daffodils are found;

-   |   The grass is dotted blue-gray with their leaves;

-   |   Their nodding beauty shakes along the ground

-   |   Up to a fir-clump shutting out the eaves

-   |   Of an old farm where always the wind grieves

-   |   High in the fir boughs, moaning; people call

-   |   This farm The Roughs, but some call it the Poor Maid's Hall.

-

-   |   There, when the first green shoots of tender corn

-   |   Show on the plough; when the first drift of white

-   |   Stars the black branches of the spiky thorn,

-   |   And afternoons are warm and evenings light,

-   |   The shivering daffodils do take delight,

-   |   Shaking beside the brook, and grass comes green,

-   |   And blue dog-violets come and glistening celandine.

-

-   |   And there the pickers come, picking for town

-   |   Those dancing daffodils; all day they pick;

-   |   Hard-featured women, weather-beaten brown,

-   |   Or swarthy-red, the colour of old brick.

-   |   At noon they break their meats under the rick.

-   |   The smoke of all three farms lifts blue in air

-   |   As though man's passionate mind had never suffered there.

-

-   |   And sometimes as they rest an old man comes,

-   |   Shepherd or carter, to the hedgerow-side,

-   |   And looks upon their gangrel tribe, and hums,

-   |   And thinks all gone to wreck since master died;

-   |   And sighs over a passionate harvest-tide

-   |   Which Death's red sickle reaped under those hills,

-   |   There, in the quiet fields among the daffodils.

-

-   |   When this most tragic fate had time and place,

-   |   And human hearts and minds to show it by,

-   |   Ryemeadows' Farmhouse was in evil case:

-   |   Its master, Nicholas Gray, was like to die.

-   |   He lay in bed, watching the windy sky,

-   |   Where all the rooks were homing on slow wings,

-   |   Cawing, or blackly circling in enormous rings.

-

-   |   With a sick brain he watched them; then he took

-   |   Paper and pen, and wrote in straggling hand

-   |   (Like spider's legs, so much his fingers shook)

-   |   Word to the friends who held the adjoining land,

-   |   Bidding them come; no more he could command

-   |   His fingers twitching to the feebling blood;

-   |   He watched his last day's sun dip down behind the wood,

-

-   |   While all his life's thoughts surged about his brain:

-   |   Memories and pictures clear, and faces known--

-   |   Long dead, perhaps; he was a child again,

-   |   Treading a threshold in the dark alone.

-   |   Then back the present surged, making him moan.

-   |   He asked if Keir had come yet.  "No," they said.

-   |   "Nor Occleve?"  "No."  He moaned: "Come soon or I'll be dead."

-

-   |   The names like live things wandered in his mind:

-   |   "Charles Occleve of The Roughs," and "Rowland Keir--

-   |   Keir of the Foxholes"; but his brain was blind,

-   |   A blind old alley in the storm of the year,

-   |   Baffling the traveller life with "No way here,"

-   |   For all his lantern raised; life would not tread

-   |   Within that brain again, along those pathways red.

-

-   |   Soon all was dimmed but in the heaven one star.

-   |   "I'll hold to that," he said; then footsteps stirred.

-   |   Down in the court a voice said, "Here they are,"

-   |   And one, "He's almost gone."  The sick man heard.

-   |   "Oh God, be quick," he moaned.  "Only one word.

-   |   Keir!  Occleve!  Let them come.  Why don't they come?

-   |   Why stop to tell them that?--the devil strike you dumb.

-

-   |   "I'm neither doll nor dead; come in, come in.

-   |   Curse you, you women, quick," the sick man flamed.

-   |   "I shall be dead before I can begin.

-   |   A sick man's womaned-mad, and nursed and damed."

-   |   Death had him by the throat; his wrath was tamed.

-   |   "Come in," he fumed; "stop muttering at the door."

-   |   The friends came in; a creaking ran across the floor.

-

-   |   "Now, Nick, how goes it, man?" said Occleve.  "Oh,"

-   |   The dying man replied, "I am dying; past;

-   |   Mercy of God, I die, I'm going to go.

-   |   But I have much to tell you if I last.

-   |   Come near me, Occleve, Keir.  I am sinking fast,

-   |   And all my kin are coming; there, look there.

-   |   All the old, long dead Grays are moving in the air.

-

-   |   "It is my Michael that I called you for:

-   |   My son, abroad, at school still, over sea.

-   |   See if that hag is listening at the door.

-   |   No?  Shut the door; don't lock it, let it be.

-   |   No faith is kept to dying men like me.

-   |   I am dipped deep and dying, bankrupt, done;

-   |   I leave not even a farthing to my lovely son.

-

-   |   "Neighbours, these many years our children played,

-   |   Down in the fields together, down the brook;

-   |   Your Mary, Keir, the girl, the bonny maid,

-   |   And Occleve's Lion, always at his book;

-   |   Them and my Michael: dear, what joy they took

-   |   Picking the daffodils; such friends they've been--

-   |   My boy and Occleve's boy and Mary Keir for queen.

-

-   |   "I had made plans; but I am done with, I.

-   |   Give me the wine.  I have to ask you this:

-   |   I can leave Michael nothing, and I die.

-   |   By all our friendship used to be and is,

-   |   Help him, old friends.  Don't let my Michael miss

-   |   The schooling I've begun.  Give him his chance.

-   |   He does not know I am ill; I kept him there in France.

-

-   |   "Saving expense; each penny counts.  Oh, friends,

-   |   Help him another year; help him to take

-   |   His full diploma when the training ends,

-   |   So that my ruin won't be his.  Oh, make

-   |   This sacrifice for our old friendship's sake,

-   |   And God will pay you; for I see God's hand

-   |   Pass in most marvellous ways on souls: I understand

-

-   |   "How just rewards are given for man's deeds

-   |   And judgment strikes the soul.  The wine there, wine.

-   |   Life is the daily thing man never heeds.

-   |   It is ablaze with sign and countersign.

-   |   Michael will not forget: that son of mine

-   |   Is a rare son, my friends; he will go far.

-   |   I shall behold his course from where the blessed are."

-

-   |   "Why, Nick," said Occleve, "come, man.  Gather hold.

-   |   Rouse up.  You've given way.  If times are bad,

-   |   Times must be bettering, master; so be bold;

-   |   Lift up your spirit, Nicholas, and be glad.

-   |   Michael's as much to me as my dear lad.

-   |   I'll see he takes his school."  "And I," said Keir.

-   |   "Set you no keep by that, but be at rest, my dear.

-

-   |   "We'll see your Michael started on the road."

-   |   "But there," said Occleve, "Nick's not going to die.

-   |   Out of the ruts, good nag, now; zook the load.

-   |   Pull up, man.  Death!  Death and the fiend defy.

-   |   We'll bring the farm round for you, Keir and I.

-   |   Put heart at rest and get your health."  "Ah, no,"

-   |   The sick man faintly answered, "I have got to go."

-

-   |   Still troubled in his mind, the sick man tossed.

-   |   "Old friends," he said, "I once had hoped to see

-   |   Mary and Michael wed, but fates are crossed,

-   |   And Michael starts with nothing left by me.

-   |   Still, if he loves her, will you let it be?

-   |   So in the grave, maybe, when I am gone,

-   |   I'll know my hope fulfilled, and see the plan go on."

-

-   |   "I judge by hearts, not money," answered Keir.

-   |   "If Michael suits in that and suits my maid,

-   |   I promise you, let Occleve witness here

-   |   He shall be free for me to drive his trade.

-   |   Free, ay, and welcome, too.  Be not afraid,

-   |   I'll stand by Michael as I hope some friend

-   |   Will stand beside my girl in case my own life end."

-

-   |   "And I," said Occleve; but the sick man seemed

-   |   Still ill at ease.  "My friends," he said, "my friends,

-   |   Michael may come to all that I have dreamed,

-   |   But he's a wild yarn full of broken ends.

-   |   So far his life in France has made amends.

-   |   God grant he steady so; but girls and drink

-   |   Once brought him near to hell, aye, to the very brink.

-

-   |   "There is a running vein of wildness in him:

-   |   Wildness and looseness both, which vices make

-   |   That woman's task a hard one who would win him:

-   |   His life depends upon the course you take.

-   |   He is a fiery-mettled colt to break,

-   |   And one to curb, one to be curbed, remember."

-   |   The dying voice died down, the fire left the ember.

-

-   |   But once again it flamed.  "Ah me," he cried;

-   |   "Our secret sins take body in our sons,

-   |   To haunt our age with what we put aside.

-   |   I was a devil for the women once.

-   |   He is as I was.  Beauty like the sun's;

-   |   Within, all water; minded like the moon.

-   |   Go now.  I sinned.  I die.  I shall be punished soon."

-

-   |   The two friends tiptoed to the room below.

-   |   There, till the woman came to them, they told

-   |   Of brave adventures in the long ago,

-   |   Ere Nick and they had thought of growing old;

-   |   Snipe-shooting in the marshlands in the cold,

-   |   Old soldiering days as yeomen, days at fairs,

-   |   Days that had sent Nick tired to those self-same chairs.

-

-   |   They vowed to pay the schooling for his son.

-   |   They talked of Michael, testing men's report,

-   |   How the young student was a lively one,

-   |   Handsome and passionate both, and fond of sport,

-   |   Eager for fun, quick-witted in retort.

-   |   The girls' hearts quick to see him cocking by,

-   |   Young April on a blood horse, with a roving eye.

-

-   |   And, as they talked about the lad, Keir asked

-   |   If Occleve's son had not, at one time, been

-   |   Heartsick for Mary, though with passion masked.

-   |   "Ay," Occleve said: "Time was.  At seventeen.

-   |   It took him hard, it ran his ribs all lean,

-   |   All of a summer; but it passed, it died.

-   |   Her fancying Michael better touched my Lion's pride."

-

-   |   Mice flickered from the wainscot to the press,

-   |   Nibbling at crumbs, rattling to shelter, squeaking.

-   |   Each ticking in the clock's womb made life less;

-   |   Oil slowly dropped from where the lamp was leaking.

-   |   At times the old nurse set the staircase creaking,

-   |   Harked to the sleeper's breath, made sure, returned,

-   |   Answered the questioning eyes, then wept.  The great stars burned.

-

-   |   "Listen," said Occleve, "listen, Rowland.  Hark."

-   |   "It's Mary, come with Lion," answered Keir:

-   |   "They said they'd come together after dark."

-   |   He went to door and called "Come in, my dear."

-   |   The burning wood log blazed with sudden cheer,

-   |   So that a glowing lighted all the room.

-   |   His daughter Mary entered from the outer gloom.

-

-   |   The wind had brought the blood into her cheek,

-   |   Heightening her beauty, but her great grey eyes

-   |   Were troubled with a fear she could not speak.

-   |   Firm, scarlet lips she had, not made for lies.

-   |   Gentle she seemed, pure-natured, thoughtful, wise,

-   |   And when she asked what turn the sickness took,

-   |   Her voice's passing pureness on a low note shook.

-

-   |   Young Lion Occleve entered at her side,

-   |   A well-built, clever man, unduly grave,

-   |   One whose repute already travelled wide

-   |   For skill in breeding beasts.  His features gave

-   |   Promise of brilliant mind, far-seeing, brave,

-   |   One who would travel far.  His manly grace

-   |   Grew wistful when his eyes were turned on Mary's face.

-

-   |   "Tell me," said Mary, "what did doctor say?

-   |   How ill is he?  What chance of life has he?

-   |   The cowman said he couldn't last the day,

-   |   And only yesterday he joked with me."

-   |   "We must be meek," the nurse said; "such things be."

-   |   "There's little hope," said Keir; "he's dying, sinking."

-   |   "Dying without his son," the young girl's heart was thinking.

-

-   |   "Does Michael know?" she asked.  "Has he been called?"

-   |   A slow confusion reddened on the faces,

-   |   As when one light neglect leaves friends appalled.

-   |   "No time to think," said nurse, "in such like cases."

-   |   Old Occleve stooped and fumbled with his laces.

-   |   "Let be," he said; "there's always time for sorrow.

-   |   He could not come in time; he shall be called to-morrow."

-

-   |   "There is a chance," she cried, "there always is.

-   |   Poor Mr. Gray might rally, might live on.

-   |   Oh, I must telegraph to tell him this.

-   |   Would it were day still and the message gone."

-   |   She rose, her breath came fast, her grey eyes shone.

-   |   She said, "Come, Lion; see me through the wood.

-   |   Michael must know."  Keir sighed.  "Girl, it will do no good.

-

-   |   "Our friend is on the brink and almost passed."

-   |   "All the more need," she said, "for word to go;

-   |   Michael could well arrive before the last.

-   |   He'd see his father's face at least.  I know

-   |   The office may be closed; but even so,

-   |   Father, I must.  Come, Lion."  Out they went,

-   |   Into the roaring woodland where the saplings bent.

-

-   |   Like breakers of the sea the leafless branches

-   |   Swished, bowing down, rolling like water, roaring

-   |   Like the sea's welcome when the clipper launches

-   |   And full affronted tideways call to warring.

-   |   Daffodils glimmered underfoot, the flooring

-   |   Of the earthy woodland smelt like torn-up moss;

-   |   Stones in the path showed white, and rabbits ran across.

-

-   |   They climbed the rise and struck into the ride,

-   |   Talking of death, while Lion, sick at heart,

-   |   Thought of the woman walking at his side,

-   |   And as he talked his spirit stood apart,

-   |   Old passion for her made his being smart,

-   |   Rankling within.  Her thought for Michael ran

-   |   Like glory and like poison through his inner man.

-

-   |   "This will break Michael's heart," he said at length.

-   |   "Poor Michael," she replied; "they wasted hours.

-   |   He loved his father so.  God give him strength.

-   |   This is a cruel thing this life of ours."

-   |   The windy woodland glimmered with shut flowers,

-   |   White wood anemones that the wind blew down.

-   |   The valley opened wide beyond the starry town.

-

-   |   "Ten," clanged out of the belfry.  Lion stayed

-   |   One hand upon a many-carven bole.

-   |   "Mary," he said.  "Dear, my beloved maid,

-   |   I love you, dear one, from my very soul."

-   |   Her beauty in the dusk destroyed control.

-   |   "Mary, my dear, I've loved you all these years."

-   |   "Oh, Lion, no," she murmured, choking back her tears.

-

-   |   "I love you," he repeated.  "Five years since

-   |   This thing began between us: every day

-   |   Oh sweet, the thought of you has made me wince;

-   |   The thought of you, my sweet, the look, the way.

-   |   It's only you, whether I work or pray,

-   |   You and the hope of you, sweet you, dear you.

-   |   I never spoke before; now it has broken through.

-

-   |   "Oh, my beloved, can you care for me?"

-   |   She shook her head.  "Oh, hush, oh, Lion dear,

-   |   Don't speak of love, for it can never be

-   |   Between us two, never, however near.

-   |   Come on, my friend, we must not linger here."

-   |   White to the lips she spoke; he saw her face

-   |   White in the darkness by him in the windy place.

-

-   |   "Mary, in time you could, perhaps," he pleaded.

-   |   "No," she replied, "no, Lion; never, no."

-   |   Over the stars the boughs burst and receded.

-   |   The nobleness of Love comes in Love's woe.

-   |   "God bless you then, beloved, let us go.

-   |   Come on," he said, "and if I gave you pain,

-   |   Forget it, dear; be sure I never will again."

-

-   |   They stepped together down the ride, their feet

-   |   Slipped on loose stones.  Little was said; his fate,

-   |   Staked on a kingly cast, had met defeat.

-   |   Nothing remained but to endure and wait.

-   |   She was still wonderful, and life still great.

-   |   Great in that bitter instant side by side,

-   |   Hallowed by thoughts of death there in the blinded ride.

-

-   |   He heard her breathing by him, saw her face

-   |   Dim, looking straight ahead; her feet by his

-   |   Kept time beside him, giving life a grace;

-   |   Night made the moment full of mysteries.

-   |   "You are beautiful," he thought; "and life is this:

-   |   Walking a windy night while men are dying,

-   |   To cry for one to come, and none to heed our crying."

-

-   |   "Mary," he said, "are you in love with him,

-   |   With Michael?  Tell me.  We are friends, we three."

-   |   They paused to face each other in the dim.

-   |   "Tell me," he urged.  "Yes, Lion," answered she;

-   |   "I love him, but he does not care for me.

-   |   I trust your generous mind, dear; now you know,

-   |   You, who have been my brother, how our fortunes go.

-

-   |   "Now come; the message waits."  The heavens cleared,

-   |   Cleared, and were starry as they trod the ride.

-   |   Chequered by tossing boughs the moon appeared;

-   |   A whistling reached them from the Hall House side;

-   |   Climbing, the whistler came.  A brown owl cried.

-   |   The whistler paused to answer, sending far

-   |   That haunting, hunting note.  The echoes laughed Aha!

-

-   |   Something about the calling made them start.

-   |   Again the owl note laughed; the ringing cry

-   |   Made the blood quicken within Mary's heart.

-   |   Like a dead leaf a brown owl floated by.

-   |   "Michael?" said Lion.  "Hush."  An owl's reply

-   |   Came down the wind; they waited; then the man,

-   |   Content, resumed his walk, a merry song began.

-

-   |   "Michael," they cried together.  "Michael, you?"

-   |   "Who calls?" the singer answered.  "Where away?

-   |   Is that you, Mary?"  Then with glad halloo

-   |   The singer ran to meet them on the way.

-   |   It was their Michael; in the moonlight grey,

-   |   They made warm welcome; under tossing boughs,

-   |   They met and told the fate darkening Ryemeadows' House.

-

-   |   As they returned at speed their comrade spoke

-   |   Strangely and lightly of his coming home,

-   |   Saying that leaving France had been a joke,

-   |   But that events now proved him wise to come.

-   |   Down the steep 'scarpment to the house they clomb,

-   |   And Michael faltered in his pace; they heard

-   |   How dumb rebellion in the much-wronged cattle stirred.

-

-   |   And as they came, high, from the sick man's room,

-   |   Old Gray burst out a-singing of the light

-   |   Streaming upon him from the outer gloom,

-   |   As his eyes dying gave him mental sight.

-   |   "Triumphing swords," he carolled, "in the bright;

-   |   Oh fire, Oh beauty fire," and fell back dead.

-   |   Occleve took Michael up to kneel beside the bed.

-

-   |   So the night passed; the noisy wind went down;

-   |   The half-burnt moon her starry trackway rode.

-   |   Then the first fire was lighted in the town,

-   |   And the first carter stacked his early load.

-   |   Upon the farm's drawn blinds the morning glowed;

-   |   And down the valley, with little clucks and trills,

-   |   The dancing waters danced by dancing daffodils.

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-   II

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-   |   They buried Gray; his gear was sold; his farm

-   |   Passed to another tenant.  Thus men go;

-   |   The dropped sword passes to another arm,

-   |   And different waters in the river flow.

-   |   His two old faithful friends let Michael know

-   |   His father's ruin and their promise.  Keir

-   |   Brought him to stay at Foxholes till a path was clear.

-

-   |   There, when the sale was over, all three met

-   |   To talk about the future, and to find

-   |   Upon what project Michael's heart was set.

-   |   Gentle the two old men were, thoughtful, kind.

-   |   They urged the youth to speak his inmost mind,

-   |   For they would compass what he chose; they told

-   |   How he might end his training; they would find the gold.

-

-   |   "Thanks, but I cannot," Michael said.  He smiled.

-   |   "Cannot.  They've kicked me out.  I've been expelled;

-   |   Kicked out for good and all for being wild.

-   |   They stopped our evening leave, and I rebelled.

-   |   I am a gentle soul until compelled,

-   |   And then I put my ears back.  The old fool

-   |   Said that my longer presence might inflame the school.

-

-   |   "And I am glad, for I have had my fill

-   |   Of farming by the book with those old fools,

-   |   Exhausted talkatives whose blood is still,

-   |   Who strive to bind a living man with rules.

-   |   This fettered kind of life, these laws, these schools,

-   |   These codes, these checks, what are they but the clogs

-   |   Made by collected sheep to mortify the dogs?

-

-   |   "And I have had enough of them; and now

-   |   I make an end of them.  I want to go

-   |   Somewhere where man has never used a plough,

-   |   Nor ever read a book; where clean winds blow,

-   |   And passionate blood is not its owner's foe,

-   |   And land is for the asking for it.  There

-   |   Man can create a life and have the open air.

-

-   |   "The River Plate's the country.  There, I know,

-   |   A man like me can thrive.  There, on the range,

-   |   The cattle pass like tides; they ebb and flow,

-   |   And life is changeless in unending change,

-   |   And one can ride all day, and all day strange,

-   |   Strange, never trodden, fenceless, waiting there,

-   |   To feed unending cattle for the men who dare.

-

-   |   "There I should have a chance; this land's too old."

-   |   Old Occleve grunted at the young man's mood;

-   |   Keir, who was losing money, thought him bold,

-   |   And thought the scheme for emigration good.

-   |   He said that, if he wished to go, he should.

-   |   South to the pampas, there to learn the trade.

-   |   Old Occleve thought it mad, but no objection made.

-

-   |   So it was settled that the lad should start,

-   |   A place was found for him, a berth was taken;

-   |   And Michael's beauty plucked at Mary's heart,

-   |   And now the fabric of their lives was shaken:

-   |   For now the hour's nearness made love waken

-   |   In Michael's heart for Mary.  Now Time's guile

-   |   Granted her passionate prayer, nor let her see his smile.

-

-   |   Granted his greatest gifts; a night time came

-   |   When the two walking down the water learned

-   |   That life till then had only been a name;

-   |   Love had unsealed their spirits: they discerned.

-   |   Mutely, at moth time there, their spirits yearned.

-   |   "I shall be gone three years, dear soul," he said.

-   |   "Dear, will you wait for me?"  "I will," replied the maid.

-

-   |   So troth was pledged between them.  Keir received

-   |   Michael as Mary's suitor, feeling sure

-   |   That the lad's fortunes would be soon retrieved,

-   |   Having a woman's promise as a lure.

-   |   The three years' wait would teach them to endure.

-   |   He bade them love and prosper and be glad.

-   |   And fast the day drew near that was to take the lad.

-

-   |   Cowslips had come along the bubbling brook,

-   |   Cowslips and oxlips rare, and in the wood

-   |   The many-blossomed stalks of bluebells shook;

-   |   The outward beauty fed their mental mood.

-   |   Thought of the parting stabbed her as he wooed,

-   |   Walking the brook with her, and day by day,

-   |   The precious fortnight's grace dropped, wasted, slipped away.

-

-   |   Till only one clear day remained to her:

-   |   One whole clear, precious day, before he sailed.

-   |   Some forty hours, no more, to minister

-   |   To months of bleakness before which she quailed.

-   |   Mist rose along the brook; the corncrake railed;

-   |   Dim red the sunset burned.  He bade her come

-   |   Into the wood with him; they went, the night came dumb.

-

-   |   Still as high June, the very water's noise

-   |   Seemed but a breathing of the earth; the flowers

-   |   Stood in the dim like souls without a voice.

-   |   The wood's conspiracy of occult powers

-   |   Drew all about them, and for hours on hours

-   |   No murmur shook the oaks, the stars did house

-   |   Their lights like lamps upon those never-moving boughs.

-

-   |   Under their feet the woodland sloped away

-   |   Down to the valley, where the farmhouse lights

-   |   Were sparks in the expanse the moon made grey.

-   |   June's very breast was bare this night of nights.

-   |   Moths blundered up against them, greys and whites

-   |   Moved on the darkness where the moths were out,

-   |   Nosing for sticky sweet with trembling uncurled snout.

-

-   |   But all this beauty was but music played,

-   |   While the high pageant of their hearts prepared.

-   |   A spirit thrilled between them, man to maid,

-   |   Mind flowed in mind, the inner heart was bared,

-   |   They needed not to tell how much each cared;

-   |   All the soul's strength was at the other's soul.

-   |   Flesh was away awhile, a glory made them whole.

-

-   |   Nothing was said by them; they understood,

-   |   They searched each other's eyes without a sound,

-   |   Alone with moonlight in the heart of the wood,

-   |   Knowing the stars and all the soul of the ground.

-   |   "Mary," he murmured.  "Come."  His arms went round,

-   |   A white moth glimmered by, the woods were hushed;

-   |   The rose at Mary's bosom dropped its petals, crushed.

-

-   |   No word profaned the peace of that glad giving,

-   |   But the warm dimness of the night stood still,

-   |   Drawing all beauty to the point of living,

-   |   There in the beech-tree's shadow on the hill.

-   |   Spirit to spirit murmured; mingling will

-   |   Made them one being; Time's decaying thought

-   |   Fell from them like a rag; it was the soul they sought.

-

-   |   The moonlight found an opening in the boughs;

-   |   It entered in, it filled that sacred place

-   |   With consecration on the throbbing brows;

-   |   It came with benediction and with grace.

-   |   A whispering came from face to yearning face:

-   |   "Beloved, will you wait for me?"  "My own."

-   |   "I shall be gone three years, you will be left alone;

-

-   |   "You'll trust and wait for me?"  "Yes, yes," she sighed;

-   |   She would wait any term of years, all time--

-   |   So faithful to first love these souls abide,

-   |   Carrying a man's soul with them as they climb.

-   |   Life was all flower to them; the church bells' chime

-   |   Rang out the burning hour ere they had sealed

-   |   Love's charter there below the June sky's starry field.

-

-   |   Sweetly the church bells' music reached the wood,

-   |   Chiming an old slow tune of some old hymn,

-   |   Calling them back to life from where they stood

-   |   Under the moonlit beech-tree grey and dim.

-   |   "Mary," he murmured; pressing close to him,

-   |   Her kiss came on the gift he gave her there,

-   |   A silken scarf that bore her name worked in his hair.

-

-   |   But still the two affixed their hands and seals

-   |   To a life compact witnessed by the sky,

-   |   Where the great planets drove their glittering wheels,

-   |   Bringing conflicting fate, making men die.

-   |   They loved, and she would wait, and he would try.

-   |   "Oh, beauty of my love," "My lovely man."

-   |   So beauty made them noble for their little span.

-

-   |   Time cannot pause, however dear the wooer;

-   |   The moon declined, the sunrise came, the hours,

-   |   Left to the lovers, dwindled swiftly fewer,

-   |   Even as the seeds from dandelion-flowers

-   |   Blow, one by one, until the bare stalk cowers,

-   |   And the June grass grows over; even so

-   |   Daffodil-picker Time took from their lives the glow,

-

-   |   Stole their last walk along the three green fields,

-   |   Their latest hour together; he took, he stole

-   |   The white contentment that a true love yields;

-   |   He took the triumph out of Mary's soul.

-   |   Now she must lie awake and blow the coal

-   |   Of sorrow of heart.  The parting hour came;

-   |   They kissed their last good-bye, murmuring the other's name.

-

-   |   Then the flag waved, the engine snorted, then

-   |   Slowly the couplings tautened, and the train

-   |   Moved, bearing off from her her man of men;

-   |   She looked towards its going blind with pain.

-   |   Her father turned and drove her home again.

-   |   It was a different home.  Awhile she tried

-   |   To cook the dinner there, but flung her down and cried.

-

-   |   Then in the dusk she wandered down the brook,

-   |   Treading again the trackway trod of old,

-   |   When she could hold her loved one in a look.

-   |   The night was all unlike those nights of gold.

-   |   Michael was gone, and all the April old,

-   |   Withered and hidden.  Life was full of ills;

-   |   She flung her down and cried i' the withered daffodils

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-   III

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-   |   The steaming river loitered like old blood

-   |   On which the tugboat bearing Michael beat,

-   |   Past whitened horse bones sticking in the mud.

-   |   The reed stems looked like metal in the heat.

-   |   Then the banks fell away, and there were neat,

-   |   Red herds of sullen cattle drifting slow.

-   |   A fish leaped, making rings, making the dead blood flow.

-

-   |   Wormed hard-wood piles were driv'n in the river bank,

-   |   The steamer threshed alongside with sick screws

-   |   Churning the mud below her till it stank;

-   |   Big gassy butcher-bubbles burst on the ooze.

-   |   There Michael went ashore; as glad to lose

-   |   One not a native there, the Gauchos flung

-   |   His broken gear ashore, one waved, a bell was rung.

-

-   |   The bowfast was cast off, the screw revolved,

-   |   Making a bloodier bubbling; rattling rope

-   |   Fell to the hatch, the engine's tune resolved

-   |   Into its steadier beat of rise and slope;

-   |   The steamer went her way; and Michael's hope

-   |   Died as she lessened; he was there alone.

-   |   The lowing of the cattle made a gradual moan.

-

-   |   He thought of Mary, but the thought was dim;

-   |   That was another life, lived long before.

-   |   His mind was in new worlds which altered him.

-   |   The startling present left no room for more.

-   |   The sullen river lipped, the sky, the shore

-   |   Were vaster than of old, and lonely, lonely.

-   |   Sky and low hills of grass and moaning cattle only.

-

-   |   But for a hut bestrewn with skulls of beeves,

-   |   Round which the flies danced, where an Indian girl

-   |   Bleared at him from her eyes' ophthalmic eaves,

-   |   Grinning a welcome; with a throaty skirl,

-   |   She offered him herself; but he, the churl,

-   |   Stared till she thought him fool; she turned, she sat,

-   |   Scratched in her short, black hair, chewed a cigar-end, spat.

-

-   |   Up, on the rise, the cattle bunched; the bulls

-   |   Drew to the front with menace, pawing bold,

-   |   Snatching the grass-roots out with sudden pulls,

-   |   The distant cattle raised their heads; the wold

-   |   Grew dusty at the top; a waggon rolled,

-   |   Drawn by a bickering team of mules whose eyes

-   |   Were yellow like their teeth and bared and full of vice.

-

-   |   Down to the jetty came the jingling team,

-   |   An Irish cowboy driving, while a Greek

-   |   Beside him urged the mules with blow and scream.

-   |   They cheered the Indian girl and stopped to speak.

-   |   Then lifting her aloft they kissed her cheek,

-   |   Calling to Michael to be quick aboard,

-   |   Or they (they said) would fall from virtue, by the Lord.

-

-   |   So Michael climbed aboard, and all day long

-   |   He drove the cattle range, rise after rise,

-   |   Dotted with limber shorthorns grazing strong,

-   |   Cropping sweet-tasted pasture, switching flies;

-   |   Dull trouble brooded in their smoky eyes.

-   |   Some horsemen watched them.  As the sun went down,

-   |   The waggon reached the estancia builded like a town.

-

-   |   With wide corrales where the horses squealed,

-   |   Biting and lashing out; some half-wild hounds

-   |   Gnawed at the cowbones littered on the field,

-   |   Or made the stallions stretch their picket bounds.

-   |   Some hides were drying; horsemen came from rounds,

-   |   Unsaddled stiff, and turned their mounts to feed,

-   |   And then brewed bitter drink and sucked it through a reed.

-

-   |   The Irishman removed his pipe and spoke:

-   |   "You take a fool's advice," he said.  "Return.

-   |   Go back where you belong before you're broke;

-   |   You'll spoil more clothes at this job than you'll earn;

-   |   It's living death, and when you die you'll burn:

-   |   Body and soul it takes you.  Quit it.  No?

-   |   Don't say I never told you, then.  Amigos.  Ho.

-

-   |   "Here comes a Gringo; make him pay his shot.

-   |   Pay up your footing, Michael; rum's the word,

-   |   It suits my genius, and I need a lot."

-   |   So the great cauldron full was mixed and stirred.

-   |   And all night long the startled cattle heard

-   |   Shouting and shooting, and the moon beheld

-   |   Mobs of dim, struggling men, who fired guns and yelled

-

-   |   That they were Abel Brown just come to town,

-   |   Michael among them.  By a bonfire some

-   |   Betted on red and black for money down,

-   |   Snatching their clinking winnings, eager, dumb.

-   |   Some danced unclad, rubbing their heads with rum.

-   |   The grey dawn, bringing beauty to the skies,

-   |   Saw Michael stretched among them, far too drunk to rise.

-

-   |   His footing paid, he joined the living-shed,

-   |   Lined with rude bunks and set with trestles: there

-   |   He, like the other ranchers, slept and fed,

-   |   Save when the staff encamped in open air,

-   |   Rounding the herd for branding.  Rude and bare

-   |   That barrack was; men littered it about

-   |   With saddles, blankets blue, old headstalls, many a clout

-

-   |   Torn off to wipe a knife or clean a gun,

-   |   Tin dishes, sailors' hookpots, all the mess

-   |   Made where the outdoor work is never done

-   |   And every cleaning makes the sleeping less.

-   |   Men came from work too tired to undress,

-   |   And slept all standing like the trooper's horse;

-   |   Then with the sun they rose to ride the burning course,

-

-   |   Whacking the shipment cattle into pen,

-   |   Where, in the dust, among the stink of burning,

-   |   The half-mad heifers bolted from the men,

-   |   And tossing horns arose and hoofs were churning,

-   |   A lover there had little time for yearning;

-   |   But all day long, cursing the flies and heat,

-   |   Michael was handling steers on horseback till his feet

-

-   |   Gave on dismounting.  All day long he rode,

-   |   Then, when the darkness came, his mates and he

-   |   Entered dog-tired to the rude abode

-   |   And ate their meat and sucked their bitter tea,

-   |   And rolled themselves in rugs and slept.  The sea

-   |   Could not make men more drowsy; like the dead,

-   |   They lay under the lamp while the mosquitoes fed.

-

-   |   There was no time to think of Mary, none;

-   |   For when the work relaxed, the time for thought

-   |   Was broken up by men demanding fun:

-   |   Cards, or a well-kept ring while someone fought,

-   |   Or songs and dancing; or a case was bought

-   |   Of white Brazilian rum, and songs and cheers

-   |   And shots and oaths rang loud upon the twitching ears

-

-   |   Of the hobbled horses hopping to their feed.

-   |   So violent images displaced the rose

-   |   In Michael's spirit; soon he took the lead;

-   |   None was more apt than he for games or blows.

-   |   Even as the battle-seeking bantam crows,

-   |   So crowed the cockerel of his mind to feel

-   |   Life's bonds removed and blood quick in him toe to heel.

-

-   |   But sometimes when her letters came to him,

-   |   Full of wise tenderness and maiden mind,

-   |   He felt that he had let his clearness dim;

-   |   The riot with the cowboys seemed unkind

-   |   To that far faithful heart; he could not find

-   |   Peace in the thought of her; he found no spur

-   |   To instant upright action in his love for her.

-

-   |   She faded to the memory of a kiss,

-   |   There in the rough life among foreign faces;

-   |   Love cannot live where leisure never is;

-   |   He could not write to her from savage places,

-   |   Where drunken mates were betting on the aces,

-   |   And rum went round and smutty songs were lifted.

-   |   He would not raise her banner against that; he drifted,

-

-   |   Ceasing, in time, to write, ceasing to think,

-   |   But happy in the wild life to the bone;

-   |   The riding in vast space, the songs, the drink,

-   |   Some careless heart beside him like his own,

-   |   The racing and the fights, the ease unknown

-   |   In older, soberer lands; his young blood thrilled.

-   |   The pampas seemed his own, his cup of joy was filled.

-

-   |   And one day, riding far after strayed horses,

-   |   He rode beyond the ranges to a land

-   |   Broken and made most green by watercourses,

-   |   Which served as strayline to the neighbouring brand.

-   |   A house stood near the brook; he stayed his hand,

-   |   Seeing a woman there, whose great eyes burned,

-   |   So that he could not choose but follow when she turned.

-

-   |   After that day he often rode to see

-   |   That woman at the peach farm near the brook,

-   |   And passionate love between them came to be

-   |   Ere many days.  Their fill of love they took;

-   |   And even as the blank leaves of a book

-   |   The days went over Mary, day by day,

-   |   Blank as the last, was turned, endured, passed, turned away.

-

-   |   Spring came again greening the hawthorn buds;

-   |   The shaking flowers, new-blossomed, seemed the same,

-   |   And April put her riot in young bloods;

-   |   The jays flapped in the larch clump like blue flame.

-   |   She did not care; his letter never came.

-   |   Silent she went, nursing the grief that kills,

-   |   And Lion watched her pass among the daffodils.

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-   |   Time passed, but still no letter came; she ceased,

-   |   Almost, to hope, but never to expect.

-   |   The June moon came which had beheld love's feast,

-   |   Then waned, like it; the meadow-grass was flecked

-   |   With moon-daisies, which died; little she recked

-   |   Of change in outward things, she did not change;

-   |   Her heart still knew one star, one hope, it did not range,

-

-   |   Like to the watery hearts of tidal men,

-   |   Swayed by all moons of beauty; she was firm,

-   |   When most convinced of misery firmest then.

-   |   She held a light not subject to the worm.

-   |   The pageant of the summer ran its term,

-   |   The last stack came to staddle from the wain;

-   |   The snow fell, the snow thawed, the year began again.

-

-   |   With the wet glistening gold of celandines,

-   |   And snowdrops pushing from the withered grass,

-   |   Before the bud upon the hawthorn greens,

-   |   Or blackbirds go to building; but, alas!

-   |   No spring within her bosom came to pass.

-   |   "You're going like a ghost," her father said;

-   |   "Now put him out of mind, and be my prudent maid."

-

-   |   It was an April morning brisk with wind,

-   |   She wandered out along the brook sick-hearted,

-   |   Picking the daffodils where the water dinned,

-   |   While overhead the first-come swallow darted.

-   |   There, at the place where all the passion started,

-   |   Where love first knocked about her maiden heart,

-   |   Young Lion Occleve hailed her, calling her apart

-

-   |   To see his tulips at The Roughs, and take

-   |   A spray of flowering currant; so she went.

-   |   It is a bitter moment, when hearts ache,

-   |   To see the loved unhappy; his intent

-   |   Was but to try to comfort her; he meant

-   |   To show her that he knew her heart's despair,

-   |   And that his own heart bled to see her wretched there.

-

-   |   So, as they talked, he asked her, had she heard

-   |   From Michael lately?  No, she had not; she

-   |   Had been a great while now, without a word.

-   |   "No news is always good news," answered he.

-   |   "You know," he said, "how much you mean to me;

-   |   You've always been the queen.  Oh, if I could

-   |   Do anything to help, my dear, you know I would."

-

-   |   "Nothing," she said, much touched.  "But you believe--

-   |   You still believe in him?"  "Why, yes," he said.

-   |   Lie though it was he did not dare deceive

-   |   The all too cruel faith within the maid.

-   |   "That ranching is a wild and lonely trade,

-   |   Far from all posts; it may be hard to send;

-   |   All puzzling things like this prove simple in the end.

-

-   |   "We should have heard if he were ill or dead.

-   |   Keep a good heart.  Now come"; he led the way

-   |   Beyond the barton to the calving-shed,

-   |   Where, on a strawy litter topped with hay,

-   |   A double-pedigree prize bull-calf lay.

-   |   "Near three weeks old," he said, "the Wrekin's pet;

-   |   Come up, now, son, come up; you haven't seen him yet.

-

-   |   "We have done well," he added, "with the stock,

-   |   But this one, if he lives, will make a name."

-   |   The bull-calf gambolled with his tail acock,

-   |   Then shyly nosed towards them, scared but tame;

-   |   His troublous eyes were sulky with blue flame.

-   |   Softly he tip-toed, shying at a touch;

-   |   He nosed, his breath came sweet, his pale tongue curled to clutch.

-

-   |   They rubbed his head, and Mary went her way,

-   |   Counting the dreary time, the dreary beat

-   |   Of dreary minutes dragging through the day;

-   |   Time crawled across her life with leaden feet;

-   |   There still remained a year before her sweet

-   |   Would come to claim her; surely he would come;

-   |   Meanwhile there was the year, her weakening father, home.

-

-   |   Home with its deadly round, with all its setting,

-   |   Things, rooms, and fields and flowers to sting, to burn

-   |   With memories of the love time past forgetting

-   |   Ere absence made her very being yearn.

-   |   "My love, be quick," she moaned, "return, return;

-   |   Come when the three years end, oh, my dear soul,

-   |   It's bitter, wanting you."  The lonely nights took toll,

-

-   |   Putting a sadness where the beauty was,

-   |   Taking a lustre from the hair; the days

-   |   Saw each a sadder image in the glass.

-   |   And when December came, fouling the ways,

-   |   And ashless beech-logs made a Christmas blaze,

-   |   Some talk of Michael came; a rumour ran,

-   |   Someone had called him "wild" to some returning mail,

-

-   |   Who, travelling through that cattle-range, had heard

-   |   Nothing more sure than this; but this he told

-   |   At second-hand upon a cowboy's word.

-   |   It struck on Mary's heart and turned her cold.

-   |   That winter was an age which made her old.

-   |   "But soon," she thought, "soon the third year will end;

-   |   March, April, May, and June, then I shall see my friend.

-

-   |   "He promised he would come; he will not fail.

-   |   Oh, Michael, my beloved man, come soon;

-   |   Stay not to make a home for me, but sail.

-   |   Love and the hour will put the world in tune.

-   |   You in my life for always is the boon

-   |   I ask from life--we two, together, lovers."

-   |   So leaden time went by who eats things and discovers.

-

-   |   Then, in the winds of March, her father rode,

-   |   Hunting the Welland country on Black Ned;

-   |   The tenor cry gave tongue past Clencher's Lode,

-   |   And on he galloped, giving the nag his head;

-   |   Then, at the brook, he fell, was picked up dead.

-   |   Hounds were whipped off; men muttered with one breath,

-   |   "We knew that hard-mouthed brute would some day be his death."

-

-   |   They bore his body on a hurdle home;

-   |   Then came the burial, then the sadder day

-   |   When the peaked lawyer entered like a gnome,

-   |   With word to quit and lists of debts to pay.

-   |   There was a sale; the Foxholes passed away

-   |   To strangers, who discussed the points of cows,

-   |   Where love had put such glory on the lovers' brows.

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-   |   Kind Lion Occleve helped the maid's affairs.

-   |   Her sorrow brought him much beside her; he

-   |   Caused her to settle, having stilled her cares,

-   |   In the long cottage under Spital Gree.

-   |   He had no hope that she would love him; she

-   |   Still waited for her lover, but her eyes

-   |   Thanked Lion to the soul; he made the look suffice.

-

-   |   By this the yearling bull-calf had so grown

-   |   That all men talked of him; mighty he grew,

-   |   Huge-shouldered, scaled above a hundred stone,

-   |   With deep chest many-wrinkled with great thew,

-   |   Plain-loined and playful-eyed; the Occleves knew

-   |   That he surpassed his pasture; breeders came

-   |   From far to see this bull; he brought the Occleves fame.

-

-   |   Till a meat-breeding rancher on the plains

-   |   Where Michael wasted, sent to buy the beast,

-   |   Meaning to cross his cows with heavier strains

-   |   Until his yield of meat and bone increased.

-   |   He paid a mighty price; the yearling ceased

-   |   To be the wonder of the countryside.

-   |   He sailed in Lion's charge, south, to the Plate's red tide.

-

-   |   There Lion landed with the bull, and there

-   |   The great beast raised his head and bellowed loud,

-   |   Challenging that expanse and that new air;

-   |   Trembling, but full of wrath and thunder-browed,

-   |   Far from the daffodil fields and friends, but proud,

-   |   His wild eye kindled at the great expanse.

-   |   Two scraps of Shropshire life they stood there; their advance

-

-   |   Was slow along the well-grassed cattle land,

-   |   But at the last an end was made; the brute

-   |   Ate his last bread crust from his master's hand,

-   |   And snuffed the foreign herd and stamped his foot;

-   |   Steers on the swelling ranges gave salute.

-   |   The great bull bellowed back and Lion turned;

-   |   His task was now to find where Michael lived; he learned

-

-   |   The farm's direction, and with heavy mind,

-   |   Thinking of Mary and her sorrow, rode,

-   |   Leaving the offspring of his fields behind.

-   |   A last time in his ears the great bull lowed.

-   |   Then, shaking up his horse, the young man glowed

-   |   To see the unfenced pampas opening out

-   |   Grass that makes old earth sing and all the valleys shout.

-

-   |   At sunset on the second day he came

-   |   To that white cabin in the peach-tree plot

-   |   Where Michael lived; they met, the Shropshire name

-   |   Rang trebly dear in that outlandish spot.

-   |   Old memories swam up dear, old joys forgot,

-   |   Old friends were real again; but Mary's woe

-   |   Came into Lion's mind, and Michael vexed him so,

-

-   |   Talking with careless freshness, side by side

-   |   With that dark Spanish beauty who had won,

-   |   As though no heart-broke woman, heavy-eyed,

-   |   Mourned for him over sea, as though the sun

-   |   Shone but to light his steps to love and fun,

-   |   While she, that golden and beloved soul,

-   |   Worth ten of him, lay wasting like an unlit coal.

-

-   |   So supper passed; the meat in Lion's gorge

-   |   Stuck at the last, he could not bide that face.

-   |   The idle laughter on it plied the forge

-   |   Where hate was smithying tools; the jokes, the place,

-   |   Wrought him to wrath; he could not stay for grace.

-   |   The tin mug full of red wine spilled and fell.

-   |   He kicked his stool aside with "Michael, this is hell.

-

-   |   "Come out into the night and talk to me."

-   |   The young man lit a cigarette and followed;

-   |   The stars seemed trembling at a brink to see;

-   |   A little ghostly white-owl stooped and holloed.

-   |   Beside the stake-fence Lion stopped and swallowed,

-   |   While all the wrath within him made him grey.

-   |   Michael stood still and smoked, and flicked his ash away.

-

-   |   "Well, Lion," Michael said, "men make mistakes,

-   |   And then regret them; and an early flame

-   |   Is frequently the worst mistake man makes.

-   |   I did not seek this passion, but it came.

-   |   Love happens so in life.  Well?  Who's to blame?

-   |   You'll say I've broken Mary's heart; the heart

-   |   Is not the whole of life, but an inferior part,

-

-   |   "Useful for some few years and then a curse.

-   |   Nerves should be stronger.  You have come to say

-   |   The three-year term is up; so much the worse.

-   |   I cannot meet the bill; I cannot pay.

-   |   I would not if I could.  Men change.  To-day

-   |   I know that that first choice, however sweet,

-   |   Was wrong and a mistake; it would have meant defeat,

-

-   |   "Ruin and misery to us both.  Let be.

-   |   You say I should have told her this?  Perhaps.

-   |   You try to make a loving woman see

-   |   That the warm link which holds you to her snaps.

-   |   Neglect is deadlier than the thunder-claps.

-   |   Yet she is bright and I am water.  Well,

-   |   I did not make myself; this life is often hell.

-

-   |   "Judge if you must, but understand it first.

-   |   We are old friends, and townsmen, Shropshire born,

-   |   Under the Wrekin.  You believe the worst.

-   |   You have no knowledge how the heart is torn,

-   |   Trying for duty up against the thorn.

-   |   Now say I've broken Mary's heart: begin.

-   |   Break hers, or hers and mine, which were the greater sin?"

-

-   |   "Michael," said Lion, "I have heard you.  Now

-   |   Listen to me.  Three years ago you made

-   |   With a most noble soul a certain vow.

-   |   Now you reject it, saying that you played.

-   |   She did not think so, Michael, she has stayed,

-   |   Eating her heart out for a line, a word,

-   |   News that you were not dead; news that she never heard.

-

-   |   "Not once, after the first.  She has held firm

-   |   To what you counted pastime; she has wept

-   |   Life, day by weary day throughout the term,

-   |   While her heart sickened, and the clock-hand crept.

-   |   While you, you with your woman here, have kept

-   |   Holiday, feasting; you are fat; you smile.

-   |   You have had love and laughter all the ghastly while.

-

-   |   "I shall be back in England six weeks hence,

-   |   Standing with your poor Mary face to face;

-   |   Far from a pleasant moment, but intense.

-   |   I shall be asked to tell her of this place.

-   |   And she will eye me hard and hope for grace,

-   |   Some little crumb of comfort while I tell;

-   |   And every word will burn like a red spark from hell,

-

-   |   "That you have done with her, that you are living

-   |   Here with another woman; that you care

-   |   Nought for the pain you've given and are giving;

-   |   That all your lover's vows were empty air.

-   |   This I must tell: thus I shall burn her bare,

-   |   Burn out all hope, all comfort, every crumb,

-   |   End it, and watch her whiten, hopeless, tearless, dumb.

-

-   |   "Or do I judge you wrongly?"  He was still.

-   |   The cigarette-end glowed and dimmed with ash;

-   |   A preying night bird whimpered on the hill.

-   |   Michael said "Ah!" and fingered with his sash,

-   |   Then stilled.  The night was still; there came no flash

-   |   Of sudden passion bursting.  All was still;

-   |   A lonely water gurgled like a whip-poor-will.

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-   |   "Now I must go," said Lion; "where's the horse?"

-   |   "There," said his friend; "I'll set you on your way."

-   |   They caught and rode, both silent, while remorse

-   |   Worked in each heart, though neither would betray

-   |   What he was feeling, and the moon came grey,

-   |   Then burned into an opal white and great,

-   |   Silvering the downs of grass where these two travelled late,

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-   |   Thinking of English fields which that moon saw,

-   |   Fields full of quiet beauty lying hushed

-   |   At midnight in the moment full of awe,

-   |   When the red fox comes creeping, dewy-brushed.

-   |   But neither spoke; they rode; the horses rushed,

-   |   Scattering the great clods skywards with such thrills

-   |   As colts in April feel there in the daffodils.

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-   |   The river brimming full was silvered over

-   |   By moonlight at the ford; the river bank

-   |   Smelt of bruised clote buds and of yellow clover.

-   |   Nosing the gleaming dark the horses drank,

-   |   Drooping and dripping as the reins fell lank;

-   |   The men drooped too; the stars in heaven drooped;

-   |   Rank after hurrying rank the silver water trooped

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-   |   In ceaseless bright procession past the shallows,

-   |   Talking its quick inconsequence.  The friends,

-   |   Warmed by the gallop on the unfenced fallows,

-   |   Felt it a kindlier thing to make amends.

-   |   "A jolly burst," said Michael; "here it ends.

-   |   Your way lies straight beyond the water.  There.

-   |   Watch for the lights, and keep those two stars as they bear."

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-   |   Something august was quick in all that sky,

-   |   Wheeling in multitudinous march with fire;

-   |   The falling of the wind brought it more nigh,

-   |   They felt the earth take solace and respire;

-   |   The horses shifted foothold in the mire,

-   |   Splashing and making eddies.  Lion spoke:

-   |   "Do you remember riding past the haunted oak

-

-   |   "That Christmas Eve, when all the bells were ringing,

-   |   So that we picked out seven churches' bells,

-   |   Ringing the night, and people carol-singing?

-   |   It hummed and died away and rose in swells

-   |   Like a sea breaking.  We have been through hells

-   |   Since then, we two, and now this being here

-   |   Brings all that Christmas back, and makes it strangely near."

-

-   |   "Yes," Michael answered, "they were happy times,

-   |   Riding beyond there; but a man needs change;

-   |   I know what they connote, those Christmas chimes,

-   |   Fudge in the heart, and pudding in the grange.

-   |   It stifles me all that; I need the range,

-   |   Like this before us, open to the sky;

-   |   There every wing is clipped, but here a man can fly."

-

-   |   "Ah," said his friend, "man only flies in youth,

-   |   A few short years at most, until he finds

-   |   That even quiet is a form of truth,

-   |   And all the rest a coloured rag that blinds.

-   |   Life offers nothing but contented minds.

-   |   Some day you'll know it, Michael.  I am grieved

-   |   That Mary's heart will pay until I am believed."

-

-   |   There was a silence while the water dripped

-   |   From the raised muzzles champing on the steel.

-   |   Flogging the crannied banks the water lipped.

-   |   Night up above them turned her starry wheel;

-   |   And each man feared to let the other feel

-   |   How much he felt; they fenced; they put up bars.

-   |   The moon made heaven pale among the withering stars.

-

-   |   "Michael," said Lion, "why should we two part?

-   |   Ride on with me; or shall we both return,

-   |   Make preparation, and to-morrow start,

-   |   And travel home together?  You would learn

-   |   How much the people long to see you; turn.

-   |   We will ride back and say good-bye, and then

-   |   Sail, and see home again, and see the Shropshire men,

-

-   |   "And see the old Shropshire mountain and the fair,

-   |   Full of drunk Welshmen bringing mountain ewes;

-   |   And partridge shooting would be starting there."

-   |   Michael hung down his head and seemed to choose.

-   |   The horses churned fresh footing in the ooze.

-   |   Then Michael asked if Tom were still alive,

-   |   Old Tom, who fought the Welshman under Upton Drive,

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-   |   For nineteen rounds, on grass, with the bare hands?

-   |   "Shaky," said Lion, "living still, but weak;

-   |   Almost past speaking, but he understands."

-   |   "And old Shon Shones we teased so with the leek?"

-   |   "Dead."  "When?"  "December."  Michael did not speak,

-   |   But muttered "Old Jones dead."  A minute passed.

-   |   "What came to little Sue, his girl?" he said at last.

-

-   |   "Got into trouble with a man and died;

-   |   Her sister keeps the child."  His hearer stirred.

-   |   "Dead, too?  She was a pretty girl," he sighed,

-   |   "A graceful pretty creature, like a bird.

-   |   What is the child?"  "A boy.  Her sister heard

-   |   Too late to help; poor Susan died; the man

-   |   None knew who he could be, but many rumours ran."

-

-   |   "Ah," Michael said.  The horses tossed their heads;

-   |   A little wind arising struck in chill;

-   |   "Time," he began, "that we were in our beds."

-   |   A distant heifer challenged from the hill,

-   |   Scraped at the earth with 's forefoot and was still.

-   |   "Come with me," Lion pleaded.  Michael grinned;

-   |   He turned his splashing horse, and prophesied a wind.

-

-   |   "So long," he said, and "Kind of you to call.

-   |   Straight on, and watch the stars"; his horse's feet

-   |   Trampled the firmer foothold, ending all.

-   |   He flung behind no message to his sweet,

-   |   No other word to Lion; the dull beat

-   |   Of his horse's trample drummed upon the trail;

-   |   Lion could watch him drooping in the moonlight pale,

-

-   |   Drooping and lessening; half expectant still

-   |   That he would turn and greet him; but no sound

-   |   Came, save the lonely water's whip-poor-will

-   |   And the going horse hoofs dying on the ground.

-   |   "Michael," he cried, "Michael!"  A lonely mound

-   |   Beyond the water gave him back the cry.

-   |   "That's at an end," he said, "and I have failed her--I."

-

-   |   Soon the far hoof-beats died, save for a stir

-   |   Half heard, then lost, then still, then heard again.

-   |   A quickening rhythm showed he plied the spur.

-   |   Then a vast breathing silence took the plain.

-   |   The moon was like a soul within the brain

-   |   Of the great sleeping world; silent she rode

-   |   The water talked, talked, talked; it trembled as it flowed.

-

-   |   A moment Lion thought to ride in chase.

-   |   He turned, then turned again, knowing his friend.

-   |   He forded through with death upon his face,

-   |   And rode the plain that seemed never to end.

-   |   Clumps of pale cattle nosed the thing unkenned,

-   |   Riding the night; out of the night they rose,

-   |   Snuffing with outstretched heads, stamping with surly lows,

-

-   |   Till he was threading through a crowd, a sea

-   |   Of curious shorthorns backing as he came,

-   |   Barring his path, but shifting warily;

-   |   He slapped the hairy flanks of the more tame.

-   |   Unreal the ghostly cattle lumbered lame.

-   |   His horse kept at an even pace; the cows

-   |   Broke right and left like waves before advancing bows.

-

-   |   Lonely the pampas seemed amid that herd.

-   |   The thought of Mary's sorrow pricked him sore;

-   |   He brought no comfort for her, not a word;

-   |   He would not ease her pain, but bring her more.

-   |   The long miles dropped behind; lights rose before,

-   |   Lights and the seaport and the briny air;

-   |   And so he sailed for home to comfort Mary there.

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-   |   When Mary knew the worst she only sighed,

-   |   Looked hard at Lion's face, and sat quite still,

-   |   White to the lips, but stern and stony-eyed,

-   |   Beaten by life in all things but the will.

-   |   Though the blow struck her hard it did not kill.

-   |   She rallied on herself, a new life bloomed

-   |   Out of the ashy heart where Michael lay entombed.

-

-   |   And more than this: for Lion touched a sense

-   |   That he, the honest humdrum man, was more

-   |   Than he by whom the glory and the offence

-   |   Came to her life three bitter years before.

-   |   This was a treason in her being's core;

-   |   It smouldered there; meanwhile as two good friends

-   |   They met at autumn dusks and winter daylight-ends.

-

-   |   And once, after long twilight talk, he broke

-   |   His strong restraint upon his passion for her,

-   |   And burningly, most like a man he spoke,

-   |   Until her pity almost overbore her.

-   |   It could not be, she said; her pity tore her;

-   |   But still it could not be, though this was pain.

-   |   Then on a frosty night they met and spoke again.

-

-   |   And then he wooed again, clutching her hands,

-   |   Calling the maid his mind, his heart, his soul,

-   |   Saying that God had linked their lives in bands

-   |   When the worm Life first started from the goal;

-   |   That they were linked together, past control,

-   |   Linked from all time, could she but pity; she

-   |   Pitied him from the soul, but said it could not be.

-

-   |   "Mary," he asked, "you cannot love me?  No?"

-   |   "No," she replied; "would God I could, my dear."

-   |   "God bless you, then," he answered, "I must go,

-   |   Go over sea to get away from here,

-   |   I cannot think of work when you are near;

-   |   My whole life falls to pieces; it must end.

-   |   This meeting now must be 'good-bye,' beloved friend."

-

-   |   White-lipped she listened, then with failing breath,

-   |   She asked for yet a little time; her face

-   |   Was even as that of one condemned to death.

-   |   She asked for yet another three months' grace,

-   |   Asked it, as Lion inly knew, in case

-   |   Michael should still return; and "Yes" said he,

-   |   "I'll wait three months for you, beloved; let it be."

-

-   |   Slowly the three months dragged: no Michael came.

-   |   March brought the daffodils and set them shaking.

-   |   April was quick in Nature like green flame;

-   |   May came with dog-rose buds, and corncrakes craking,

-   |   Then dwindled like her blossom; June was breaking.

-   |   "Mary," said Lion, "can you answer now?"

-   |   White like a ghost she stood, he long remembered how.

-

-   |   Wild-eyed and white, and trembling like a leaf,

-   |   She gave her answer, "Yes"; she gave her lips,

-   |   Cold as a corpse's to the kiss of grief,

-   |   Shuddering at him as if his touch were whips.

-   |   Then her best nature, struggling to eclipse

-   |   This shrinking self, made speech; she jested there;

-   |   They searched each other's eyes, and both souls saw despair.

-

-   |   So the first passed, and after that began

-   |   A happier time: she could not choose but praise

-   |   That recognition of her in the man

-   |   Striving to salve her pride in myriad ways;

-   |   He was a gentle lover: gentle days

-   |   Passed like a music after tragic scenes;

-   |   Her heart gave thanks for that; but still the might-have-beens

-

-   |   Haunted her inner spirit day and night,

-   |   And often in his kiss the memory came

-   |   Of Michael's face above her, passionate, white,

-   |   His lips at her lips murmuring her name,

-   |   Then she would suffer sleepless, sick with shame,

-   |   And struggle with her weakness.  She had vowed

-   |   To give herself to Lion; she was true and proud.

-

-   |   He should not have a woman sick with ghosts,

-   |   But one firm-minded to be his; so time

-   |   Passed one by one the summer's marking posts,

-   |   The dog-rose and the foxglove and the lime.

-   |   Then on a day the church-bells rang a chime.

-   |   Men fired the bells till all the valley filled

-   |   With bell-noise from the belfry where the jackdaws build.

-

-   |   Lion and she were married; home they went,

-   |   Home to The Roughs as man and wife; the news

-   |   Was printed in the paper.  Mary sent

-   |   A copy out to Michael.  Now we lose

-   |   Sight of her for a time, and the great dews

-   |   Fall, and the harvest-moon grows red and fills

-   |   Over the barren fields where March brings daffodils.

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-   |   The rider lingered at the fence a moment,

-   |   Tossed out the pack to Michael, whistling low,

-   |   Then rode, waving his hand, without more comment,

-   |   Down the vast grey-green pampas sloping slow.

-   |   Michael's last news had come so long ago,

-   |   He wondered who had written now; the hand

-   |   Thrilled him with vague alarm, it brought him to a stand.

-

-   |   He opened it with one eye on the hut,

-   |   Lest she within were watching him, but she

-   |   Was combing out her hair, the door was shut,

-   |   The green sun-shutters closed, she could not see.

-   |   Out fell the love-tryst handkerchief which he

-   |   Had had embroidered with his name for her;

-   |   It had been dearly kept, it smelt of lavender.

-

-   |   Something remained: a paper, crossed with blue,

-   |   Where he should read; he stood there in the sun,

-   |   Reading of Mary's wedding till he knew

-   |   What he had cast away, what he had done.

-   |   He was rejected, Lion was the one.

-   |   Lion, the godly and the upright, he.

-   |   The black lines in the paper showed how it could be.

-

-   |   He pocketed the love gift and took horse,

-   |   And rode out to the pay-shed for his savings.

-   |   Then turned, and rode a lonely water-course,

-   |   Alone with bitter thoughts and bitter cravings.

-   |   Sun-shadows on the reeds made twinkling wavings;

-   |   An orange-bellied turtle scooped the mud;

-   |   Mary had married Lion, and the news drew blood.

-

-   |   And with the bitterness, the outcast felt

-   |   A passion for those old kind Shropshire places,

-   |   The ruined chancel where the nuns had knelt;

-   |   High Ercall and the Chase End and the Chases,

-   |   The glimmering mere, the burr, the well-known faces,

-   |   By Wrekin and by Zine and country town.

-   |   The orange-bellied turtle burrowed further down.

-

-   |   He could remember Mary now; her crying

-   |   Night after night alone through weary years,

-   |   Had touched him now and set the cords replying;

-   |   He knew her misery now, her ache, her tears,

-   |   The lonely nights, the ceaseless hope, the fears,

-   |   The arm stretched out for one not there, the slow

-   |   Loss of the lover's faith, the letting comfort go.

-

-   |   "Now I will ride," he said.  Beyond the ford

-   |   He caught a fresh horse and rode on.  The night

-   |   Found him a guest at Pepe Blanco's board,

-   |   Moody and drinking rum and ripe for fight;

-   |   Drawing his gun, he shot away the light,

-   |   And parried Pepe's knife and caught his horse,

-   |   And all night long he rode bedevilled by remorse.

-

-   |   At dawn he caught an eastward-going ferry,

-   |   And all day long he steamed between great banks

-   |   Which smelt of yellow thorn and loganberry.

-   |   Then wharves appeared, and chimneys rose in ranks,

-   |   Mast upon mast arose; the river's flanks

-   |   Were filled with English ships, and one he found

-   |   Needing another stoker, being homeward bound.

-

-   |   And all the time the trouble in his head

-   |   Ran like a whirlwind moving him; he knew

-   |   Since she was lost that he was better dead.

-   |   He had no project outlined, what to do,

-   |   Beyond go home; he joined the steamer's crew.

-   |   She sailed that night: he dulled his maddened soul,

-   |   Plying the iron coal-slice on the bunker coal.

-

-   |   Work did not clear the turmoil in his mind;

-   |   Passion takes colour from the nature's core;

-   |   His misery was as his nature, blind.

-   |   Life was still turmoil when he went ashore.

-   |   To see his old love married lay before;

-   |   To see another have her, drink the gall,

-   |   Kicked like a dog without, while he within had all.

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-   |   Soon he was at the Foxholes, at the place

-   |   Whither, from over sea, his heart had turned

-   |   Often at evening-ends in times of grace.

-   |   But little outward change his eye discerned;

-   |   A red rose at her bedroom window burned,

-   |   Just as before.  Even as of old the wasps

-   |   Poised at the yellow plums: the gate creaked on its hasps,

-

-   |   And the white fantails sidled on the roof

-   |   Just as before; their pink feet, even as of old,

-   |   Printed the frosty morning's rime with proof.

-   |   Still the zew-tallat's thatch was green with mould;

-   |   The apples on the withered boughs were gold.

-   |   Men and the times were changed: "And I," said he,

-   |   "Will go and not return, since she is not for me.

-

-   |   "I'll go, for it would be a scurvy thing

-   |   To spoil her marriage, and besides, she cares

-   |   For that half-priest she married with the ring.

-   |   Small joy for me in seeing how she wears,

-   |   Or seeing what he takes and what she shares.

-   |   That beauty and those ways: she had such ways,

-   |   There in the daffodils in those old April days."

-

-   |   So with an impulse of good will he turned,

-   |   Leaving that place of daffodils; the road

-   |   Was paven sharp with memories which burned;

-   |   He trod them strongly under as he strode.

-   |   At the Green Turning's forge the furnace glowed;

-   |   Red dithying sparks flew from the crumpled soft

-   |   Fold from the fire's heart; down clanged the hammers oft.

-

-   |   That was a bitter place to pass, for there

-   |   Mary and he had often, often stayed

-   |   To watch the horseshoe growing in the glare.

-   |   It was a tryst in childhood when they strayed.

-   |   There was a stile beside the forge; he laid

-   |   His elbows on it, leaning, looking down

-   |   The river-valley stretched with great trees turning brown.

-

-   |   Infinite, too, because it reached the sky,

-   |   And distant spires arose and distant smoke;

-   |   The whiteness on the blue went stilly by;

-   |   Only the clinking forge the stillness broke.

-   |   Ryemeadows brook was there; The Roughs, the oak

-   |   Where the White Woman walked; the black firs showed

-   |   Around the Occleve homestead Mary's new abode.

-

-   |   A long, long time he gazed at that fair place,

-   |   So well remembered from of old; he sighed.

-   |   "I will go down and look upon her face,

-   |   See her again, whatever may betide.

-   |   Hell is my future; I shall soon have died,

-   |   But I will take to hell one memory more;

-   |   She shall not see nor know; I shall be gone before;

-

-   |   "Before they turn the dogs upon me, even.

-   |   I do not mean to speak; but only see.

-   |   Even the devil gets a peep at heaven;

-   |   One peep at her shall come to hell with me;

-   |   One peep at her, no matter what may be."

-   |   He crossed the stile and hurried down the slope.

-   |   Remembered trees and hedges gave a zest to hope.

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-   |   A low brick wall with privet shrubs beyond

-   |   Ringed in The Roughs upon the side he neared.

-   |   Eastward some bramble bushes cloaked the pond;

-   |   Westward was barley-stubble not yet cleared.

-   |   He thrust aside the privet boughs and peered.

-   |   The drooping fir trees let their darkness trail

-   |   Black like a pirate's masts bound under easy sail.

-

-   |   The garden with its autumn flowers was there;

-   |   Few that his wayward memory linked with her.

-   |   Summer had burnt the summer flowers bare,

-   |   But honey-hunting bees still made a stir.

-   |   Sprigs were still bluish on the lavender,

-   |   And bluish daisies budded, bright flies poised;

-   |   The wren upon the tree-stump carolled cheery-voiced.

-

-   |   He could not see her there.  Windows were wide,

-   |   Late wasps were cruising, and the curtains shook.

-   |   Smoke, like the house's breathing, floated, sighed;

-   |   Among the trembling firs strange ways it took.

-   |   But still no Mary's presence blessed his look;

-   |   The house was still as if deserted, hushed.

-   |   Faint fragrance hung about it as if herbs were crushed.

-

-   |   Fragrance that gave his memory's guard a hint

-   |   Of times long past, of reapers in the corn,

-   |   Bruising with heavy boots the stalks of mint,

-   |   When first the berry reddens on the thorn.

-   |   Memories of her that fragrance brought.  Forlorn

-   |   That vigil of the watching outcast grew;

-   |   He crept towards the kitchen, sheltered by a yew.

-

-   |   The windows of the kitchen opened wide.

-   |   Again the fragrance came; a woman spoke;

-   |   Old Mrs. Occleve talked to one inside.

-   |   A smell of cooking filled a gust of smoke.

-   |   Then fragrance once again, for herbs were broke;

-   |   Pourri was being made; the listener heard

-   |   Things lifted and laid down, bruised into sweetness, stirred.

-

-   |   While an old woman made remarks to one

-   |   Who was not the beloved: Michael learned

-   |   That Roger's wife at Upton had a son,

-   |   And that the red geraniums should be turned;

-   |   A hen was missing, and a rick was burned;

-   |   Our Lord commanded patience; here it broke;

-   |   The window closed, it made the kitchen chimney smoke.

-

-   |   Steps clacked on flagstones to the outer door;

-   |   A dairy-maid, whom he remembered well,

-   |   Lined, now, with age, and grayer than before,

-   |   Rang a cracked cow-bell for the dinner-bell.

-   |   He saw the dining-room; he could not tell

-   |   If Mary were within: inly he knew

-   |   That she was coming now, that she would be in blue,

-

-   |   Blue with a silver locket at the throat,

-   |   And that she would be there, within there, near,

-   |   With the little blushes that he knew by rote,

-   |   And the grey eyes so steadfast and so dear,

-   |   The voice, pure like the nature, true and clear,

-   |   Speaking to her belov'd within the room.

-   |   The gate clicked, Lion came: the outcast hugged the gloom,

-

-   |   Watching intently from below the boughs,

-   |   While Lion cleared his riding-boots of clay,

-   |   Eyed the high clouds and went within the house.

-   |   His eyes looked troubled, and his hair looked gray.

-   |   Dinner began within with much to say.

-   |   Old Occleve roared aloud at his own joke.

-   |   Mary, it seemed, was gone; the loved voice never spoke.

-

-   |   Nor could her lover see her from the yew;

-   |   She was not there at table; she was ill,

-   |   Ill, or away perhaps--he wished he knew.

-   |   Away, perhaps, for Occleve bellowed still.

-   |   "If sick," he thought, "the maid or Lion will

-   |   Take food to her."  He watched; the dinner ended.

-   |   The staircase was not used; none climbed it, none descended.

-

-   |   "Not here," he thought; but wishing to be sure,

-   |   He waited till the Occleves went to field,

-   |   Then followed, round the house, another lure,

-   |   Using the well-known privet as his shield.

-   |   He meant to run a risk; his heart was steeled.

-   |   He knew of old which bedroom would be hers;

-   |   He crouched upon the north front in among the firs.

-

-   |   The house stared at him with its red-brick blank,

-   |   Its vacant window-eyes; its open door,

-   |   With old wrought bridle ring-hooks at each flank,

-   |   Swayed on a creaking hinge as the wind bore.

-   |   Nothing had changed; the house was as before,

-   |   The dull red brick, the windows sealed or wide:

-   |   "I will go in," he said.  He rose and stepped inside.

-

-   |   None could have seen him coming; all was still;

-   |   He listened in the doorway for a sign.

-   |   Above, a rafter creaked, a stir, a thrill

-   |   Moved, till the frames clacked on the picture line.

-   |   "Old Mother Occleve sleeps, the servants dine,"

-   |   He muttered, listening.  "Hush."  A silence brooded.

-   |   Far off the kitchen dinner clattered; he intruded.

-

-   |   Still, to his right, the best room door was locked.

-   |   Another door was at his left; he stayed.

-   |   Within, a stately timepiece ticked and tocked,

-   |   To one who slumbered breathing deep; it made

-   |   An image of Time's going and man's trade.

-   |   He looked: Old Mother Occleve lay asleep,

-   |   Hands crossed upon her knitting, rosy, breathing deep.

-

-   |   He tiptoed up the stairs which creaked and cracked.

-   |   The landing creaked; the shut doors, painted gray,

-   |   Loomed, as if shutting in some dreadful act.

-   |   The nodding frames seemed ready to betray.

-   |   The east room had been closed in Michael's day,

-   |   Being the best; but now he guessed it hers;

-   |   The fields of daffodils lay next it, past the firs.

-

-   |   Just as he reached the landing, Lion cried,

-   |   Somewhere below, "I'll get it."  Lion's feet

-   |   Struck on the flagstones with a hasty stride.

-   |   "He's coming up," thought Michael, "we shall meet."

-   |   He snatched the nearest door for his retreat,

-   |   Opened with thieves' swift silence, dared not close,

-   |   But stood within, behind it.  Lion's footsteps rose,

-

-   |   Running two steps at once, while Michael stood,

-   |   Not breathing, only knowing that the room

-   |   Was someone's bedroom smelling of old wood,

-   |   Hung with engravings of the day of doom.

-   |   The footsteps stopped; and Lion called, to whom?

-   |   A gentle question, tapping at a door,

-   |   And Michael shifted feet, and creakings took the floor.

-

-   |   The footsteps recommenced, a door-catch clacked;

-   |   Within an eastern room the footsteps passed.

-   |   Drawers were pulled loudly open and ransacked,

-   |   Chattels were thrust aside and overcast.

-   |   What could the thing be that he sought.  At last

-   |   His voice said, "Here it is."  The wormed floor

-   |   Creaked with returning footsteps down the corridor.

-

-   |   The footsteps came as though the walker read,

-   |   Or added rows of figures by the way;

-   |   There was much hesitation in the tread;

-   |   Lion seemed pondering which, to go or stay;

-   |   Then, seeing the door, which covered Michael, sway,

-   |   He swiftly crossed and shut it.  "Always one

-   |   For order," Michael muttered.  "Now be swift, my son."

-

-   |   The action seemed to break the walker's mood;

-   |   The footsteps passed downstairs, along the hall,

-   |   Out at the door and off towards the wood.

-   |   "Gone," Michael muttered.  "Now to hazard all."

-   |   Outside, the frames still nodded on the wall.

-   |   Michael stepped swiftly up the floor to try

-   |   The door where Lion tapped and waited for reply.

-

-   |   It was the eastmost of the rooms which look

-   |   Over the fields of daffodils; the bound

-   |   Scanned from its windows is Ryemeadows brook,

-   |   Banked by gnarled apple trees and rising ground.

-   |   Most gently Michael tapped; he heard no sound,

-   |   Only the blind-pull tapping with the wind;

-   |   The kitchen-door was opened; kitchen-clatter dinned.

-

-   |   A woman walked along the hall below,

-   |   Humming; a maid, he judged; the footsteps died,

-   |   Listening intently still, he heard them go,

-   |   Then swiftly turned the knob and went inside.

-   |   The blind-pull at the window volleyed wide;

-   |   The curtains streamed out like a waterfall;

-   |   The pictures of the fox-hunt clacked along the wall.

-

-   |   No one was there; no one; the room was hers.

-   |   A book of praise lay open on the bed;

-   |   The clothes-press smelt of many lavenders,

-   |   Her spirit stamped the room; herself was fled.

-   |   Here she found peace of soul like daily bread,

-   |   Here, with her lover Lion; Michael gazed;

-   |   He would have been the sharer had he not been crazed.

-

-   |   He took the love-gift handkerchief again;

-   |   He laid it on her table, near the glass,

-   |   So opened that the broidered name was plain;

-   |   "Plain," he exclaimed, "she cannot let it pass.

-   |   It stands and speaks for me as bold as brass.

-   |   My answer, my heart's cry, to tell her this,

-   |   That she is still my darling: all she was she is.

-

-   |   "So she will know at least that she was wrong,

-   |   That underneath the blindness I was true.

-   |   Fate is the strongest thing, though men are strong;

-   |   Out from beyond life I was sealed to you.

-   |   But my blind ways destroyed the cords that drew;

-   |   And now, the evil done, I know my need;

-

-   |   Fate has his way with those who mar what is decreed.

-   |   "And now, goodbye."  He closed the door behind him,

-   |   Then stept, with firm swift footstep down the stair,

-   |   Meaning to go where she would never find him;

-   |   He would go down through darkness to despair.

-   |   Out at the door he stept; the autumn air

-   |   Came fresh upon his face; none saw him go.

-   |   "Goodbye, my love," he muttered; "it is better so."

-

-   |   Soon he was on the high road, out of sight

-   |   Of valley and farm; soon he could see no more

-   |   The oast-house pointing finger take the light

-   |   As tumbling pigeons glittered over; nor

-   |   Could he behold the wind-vane gilded o'er,

-   |   Swinging above the church; the road swung round.

-   |   "Now, the last look," he cried: he saw that holy ground.

-

-   |   "Goodbye," he cried; he could behold it all,

-   |   Spread out as in a picture; but so clear

-   |   That the gold apple stood out from the wall;

-   |   Like a red jewel stood the grazing steer.

-   |   Precise, intensely coloured, all brought near,

-   |   As in a vision, lay that holy ground.

-   |   "Mary is there," he moaned, "and I am outward bound.

-

-   |   "I never saw this place so beautiful,

-   |   Never like this.  I never saw it glow.

-   |   Spirit is on this place; it fills it full.

-   |   So let the die be cast; I will not go.

-   |   But I will see her face to face and know

-   |   From her own lips what thoughts she has of me;

-   |   And if disaster come: right; let disaster be."

-

-   |   Back, by another way, he turned.  The sun

-   |   Fired the yew-tops in the Roman woods.

-   |   Lights in the valley twinkled one by one,

-   |   The starlings whirled in dropping multitudes.

-   |   Dusk fingered into one earth's many moods,

-   |   Back to The Roughs he walked; he neared the brook;

-   |   A lamp burned in the farm; he saw; his fingers shook.

-

-   |   He had to cross the brook, to cross a field,

-   |   Where daffodils were thick when years were young.

-   |   Then, were she there, his fortunes should be sealed.

-   |   Down the mud trackway to the brook he swung;

-   |   Then while the passion trembled on his tongue,

-   |   Dim, by the dim bridge-stile, he seemed to see

-   |   A figure standing mute; a woman--it was she.

-

-   |   She stood quite stilly, waiting for him there.

-   |   She did not seem surprised; the meeting seemed

-   |   Planned from all time by powers in the air

-   |   To change their human fates; he even deemed

-   |   That in another life this thing had gleamed,

-   |   This meeting by the bridge.  He said, "It's you."

-   |   "Yes, I," she said, "who else?  You must have known; you knew

-

-   |   "That I should come here to the brook to see,

-   |   After your message."  "You were out," he said.

-   |   "Gone, and I did not know where you could be.

-   |   Where were you, Mary, when the thing was laid?"

-   |   "Old Mrs. Gale is dying, and I stayed

-   |   Longer than usual, while I read the Word.

-   |   You could have hardly gone."  She paused, her bosom stirred.

-

-   |   "Mary, I sinned," he said.  "Not that, dear, no,"

-   |   She said; "but, oh, you were unkind, unkind,

-   |   Never to write a word and leave me so,

-   |   But out of sight with you is out of mind."

-   |   "Mary, I sinned," he said, "and I was blind.

-   |   Oh, my beloved, are you Lion's wife?"

-   |   "Belov'd sounds strange," she answered, "in my present life.

-

-   |   "But it is sweet to hear it, all the same.

-   |   It is a language little heard by me

-   |   Alone, in that man's keeping, with my shame.

-   |   I never thought such miseries could be.

-   |   I was so happy in you, Michael.  He

-   |   Came when I felt you changed from what I thought you.

-   |   Even now it is not love, but jealousy that brought you."

-

-   |   "That is untrue," he said.  "I am in hell.

-   |   You are my heart's beloved, Mary, you.

-   |   By God, I know your beauty now too well.

-   |   We are each other's, flesh and soul, we two."

-   |   "That was sweet knowledge once," she said; "we knew

-   |   That truth of old.  Now, in a strange man's bed,

-   |   I read it in my soul, and find it written red."

-

-   |   "Is he a brute?" he asked.  "No," she replied.

-   |   "I did not understand what it would mean.

-   |   And now that you are back, would I had died;

-   |   Died, and the misery of it not have been.

-   |   Lion would not be wrecked, nor I unclean.

-   |   I was a proud one once, and now I'm tame;

-   |   Oh, Michael, say some word to take away my shame."

-

-   |   She sobbed; his arms went round her; the night heard

-   |   Intense fierce whispering passing, soul to soul,

-   |   Love running hot on many a murmured word,

-   |   Love's passionate giving into new control.

-   |   Their present misery did but blow the coal,

-   |   Did but entangle deeper their two wills,

-   |   While the brown brook ran on by buried daffodils.

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-   |   Upon a light gust came a waft of bells,

-   |   Ringing the chimes for nine; a broken sweet,

-   |   Like waters bubbling out of hidden wells,

-   |   Dully upon those lovers' ears it beat,

-   |   Their time was at an end.  Her tottering feet

-   |   Trod the dim field for home; he sought an inn.

-   |   "Oh, I have sinned," she cried, "but not a secret sin."

-

-   |   Inside The Roughs they waited for her coming;

-   |   Eyeing the ticking clock the household sat.

-   |   "Nine," the clock struck; the clock-weights ran down drumming;

-   |   Old Mother Occleve stretched her sewing flat.

-   |   "It's nine," she said.  Old Occleve stroked the cat.

-   |   "Ah, cat," he said, "hast had good go at mouse?"

-   |   Lion sat listening tense to all within the house

-

-   |   "Mary is late to-night," the gammer said.

-   |   "The times have changed," her merry husband roared.

-   |   "Young married couples now like lonely trade,

-   |   Don't think of bed at all, they think of board.

-   |   No multiplying left in people.  Lord!

-   |   When I was Lion's age I'd had my five.

-   |   There was some go in folk when us two took to wive."

-

-   |   Lion arose and stalked and bit his lip.

-   |   "Or was it six?" the old man muttered, "six.

-   |   Us had so many I've alost the tip.

-   |   Us were two right good souls at getting chicks.

-   |   Two births of twins, then Johnny's birth, then Dick's" ...

-   |   "Now give a young man time," the mother cried.

-   |   Mary came swiftly in and flung the room door wide.

-

-   |   Lion was by the window when she came,

-   |   Old Occleve and his wife were by the fire;

-   |   Big shadows leapt the ceiling from the flame.

-   |   She fronted the three figures and came nigher.

-   |   "Lion," she whispered, "I return my hire."

-   |   She dropped her marriage-ring upon the table.

-   |   Then, in a louder voice, "I bore what I was able,

-

-   |   "And Time and marriage might have worn me down,

-   |   Perhaps, to be a good wife and a blest,

-   |   With little children clinging to my gown,

-   |   And little blind mouths fumbling for my breast,

-   |   And this place would have been a place of rest

-   |   For you and me; we could have come to know

-   |   The depth; but that is over; I have got to go.

-

-   |   "He has come back, and I have got to go.

-   |   Our marriage ends."  She stood there white and breathed.

-   |   Old Occleve got upon his feet with "So."

-   |   Blazing with wrath upon the hearth he seethed.

-   |   A log fell from the bars; blue spirals wreathed

-   |   Across the still old woman's startled face;

-   |   The cat arose and yawned.  Lion was still a space.

-

-   |   Old Occleve turned to Lion.  Lion moved

-   |   Nearer to Mary, picking up the ring.

-   |   His was grim physic from the soul beloved;

-   |   His face was white and twitching with the sting.

-   |   "You are my wife, you cannot do this thing,"

-   |   He said at last.  "I can respect your pride.

-   |   This thing affects your soul; my judgment must decide.

-

-   |   "You are unsettled, shaken from the shock."

-   |   "Not so," she said.  She stretched a hand to him,

-   |   White, large and noble, steady as a rock,

-   |   Cunning with many powers, curving, slim.

-   |   The smoke, drawn by the door-draught, made it dim.

-   |   "Right," Lion answered.  "You are steady.  Then

-   |   There is but one world, Mary; this, the world of men.

-

-   |   "And there's another world, without its bounds,

-   |   Peopled by streaked and spotted souls who prize

-   |   The flashiness that comes from marshy grounds

-   |   Above plain daylight.  In their blinkered eyes

-   |   Nothing is bright but sentimental lies,

-   |   Such as are offered you, dear, here and now;

-   |   Lies which betray the strongest, God alone knows how.

-

-   |   "You, in your beauty and your whiteness, turn

-   |   Your strong, white mind, your faith, your fearless truth,

-   |   All for these rotten fires that so burn.

-   |   A sentimental clutch at perished youth.

-   |   I am too sick for wisdom, sick with ruth,

-   |   And this comes suddenly; the unripe man

-   |   Misses the hour, oh God.  But you, what is your plan?

-

-   |   "What do you mean to do, how act, how live?

-   |   What warrant have you for your life?  What trust?

-   |   You are for going sailing in a sieve.

-   |   This brightness is too mortal not to rust.

-   |   So our beginning marriage ends in dust.

-   |   I have not failed you, Mary.  Let me know

-   |   What you intend to do, and whither you will go."

-

-   |   "Go from this place; it chokes me," she replied.

-   |   "This place has branded me; I must regain

-   |   My truth that I have soiled, my faith, my pride,

-   |   It is all poison and it leaves a stain.

-   |   I cannot stay nor be your wife again.

-   |   Never.  You did your best, though; you were kind.

-   |   I have grown old to-night and left all that behind.

-

-   |   "Goodbye."  She turned.  Old Occleve faced his son.

-   |   Wrath at the woman's impudence was blent,

-   |   Upon his face, with wrath that such an one

-   |   Should stand unthrashed until her words were spent.

-   |   He stayed for Lion's wrath; but Mary went

-   |   Unchecked; he did not stir.  Her footsteps ground

-   |   The gravel to the gate; the gate-hinge made a sound

-

-   |   Like to a cry of pain after a shot.

-   |   Swinging, it clicked, it clicked again, it swung

-   |   Until the iron latch bar hit the slot.

-   |   Mary had gone, and Lion held his tongue.

-   |   Old Mother Occleve sobbed; her white head hung

-   |   Over her sewing while the tears ran down

-   |   Her worn, blood-threaded cheeks and splashed upon her gown.

-

-   |   "Yes, it is true," said Lion, "she must go.

-   |   Michael is back.  Michael was always first,

-   |   I did but take his place.  You did not know.

-   |   Now it has happened, and you know the worst.

-   |   So passion makes the passionate soul accurst

-   |   And crucifies his darling.  Michael comes

-   |   And the savage truth appears and rips my life to thrums."

-

-   |   Upon Old Occleve's face the fury changed

-   |   First to contempt, and then to terror lest

-   |   Lion, beneath the shock, should be deranged.

-   |   But Lion's eyes were steady, though distressed.

-   |   "Father, good-night," he said, "I'm going to rest.

-   |   Good-night, I cannot talk.  Mother, good-night."

-   |   He kissed her brow and went; they heard him strike a light,

-

-   |   And go with slow depressed step up the stairs,

-   |   Up to the door of her deserted bower;

-   |   They heard him up above them, moving chairs;

-   |   The memory of his paleness made them cower.

-   |   They did not know their son; they had no power

-   |   To help, they only saw the new-won bride

-   |   Defy their child, and faith and custom put aside.

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-   |   After a time men learned where Mary was:

-   |   Over the hills, not many miles away,

-   |   Renting a cottage and a patch of grass

-   |   Where Michael came to see her.  Every day

-   |   Taught her what fevers can inhabit clay,

-   |   Shaking this body that so soon must die.

-   |   The time made Lion old: the winter dwindled by.

-

-   |   Till the long misery had to end or kill:

-   |   And "I must go to see her," Lion cried;

-   |   "I am her standby, and she needs me still;

-   |   If not to love she needs me to decide.

-   |   Dear, I will set you free.  Oh, my bright bride,

-   |   Lost in such piteous ways, come back."  He rode

-   |   Over the wintry hills to Mary's new abode.

-

-   |   And as he topped the pass between the hills,

-   |   Towards him, up the swerving road, there came

-   |   Michael, the happy cause of all his ills;

-   |   Walking as though repentance were the shame,

-   |   Sucking a grass, unbuttoned, still the same,

-   |   Humming a tune; his careless beauty wild

-   |   Drawing the women's eyes; he wandered with a child.

-

-   |   Who heard, wide-eyed, the scraps of tales which fell

-   |   Between the fragments of the tune; they seemed

-   |   A cherub bringing up a soul from hell.

-   |   Meeting unlike the meeting long since dreamed.

-   |   Lion dismounted; the great valley gleamed

-   |   With waters far below; his teeth were set

-   |   His heart thumped at his throat; he stopped; the two men met.

-

-   |   The child well knew that fatal issues joined;

-   |   He stood round-eyed to watch them, even as Fate

-   |   Stood with his pennypiece of causes coined

-   |   Ready to throw for issue; the bright hate

-   |   Throbbed, that the heavy reckoning need not wait.

-   |   Lion stepped forward, watching Michael's eyes.

-   |   "We are old friends," he said.  "Now, Michael, you be wise,

-

-   |   "And let the harm already done suffice;

-   |   Go, before Mary's name is wholly gone.

-   |   Spare her the misery of desertion twice,

-   |   There's only ruin in the road you're on--

-   |   Ruin for both, whatever promise shone

-   |   In sentimental shrinkings from the fact.

-   |   So, Michael, play the man, and do the generous act.

-

-   |   "And go; if not for my sake, go for hers.

-   |   You only want her with your sentiment.

-   |   You are water roughed by every wind that stirs,

-   |   One little gust will alter your intent

-   |   All ways, to every wind, and nothing meant,

-   |   Is your life's habit.  Man, one takes a wife,

-   |   Not for a three months' fancy, but the whole of life.

-

-   |   "We have been friends, and so I speak you fair.

-   |   How will you bear her ill, or cross, or tired?

-   |   Sentiment sighing will not help you there.

-   |   You call a half life's volume not desired.

-   |   I know your love for her.  I saw it mired,

-   |   Mired, past going, by your first sharp taste

-   |   Of life and work; it stopped; you let her whole life waste,

-

-   |   "Rather than have the trouble of such love,

-   |   You will again; but if you do it now,

-   |   It will mean death, not sorrow.  But enough.

-   |   You know too well you cannot keep a vow.

-   |   There are gray hairs already on her brow.

-   |   You brought them there.  Death is the next step.  Go,

-   |   Before you take the step."  "No," Michael answered, "No.

-

-   |   "As for my past, I was a dog, a cur,

-   |   And I have paid blood-money, and still pay.

-   |   But all my being is ablaze with her;

-   |   There is no talk of giving up to-day.

-   |   I will not give her up.  You used to say

-   |   Bodies are earth.  I heard you say it.  Liar!

-   |   You never loved her, you.  She turns the earth to fire."

-

-   |   "Michael," said Lion, "you have said such things

-   |   Of other women; less than six miles hence

-   |   You and another woman felt love's wings

-   |   Rosy and fair, and so took leave of sense.

-   |   She's dead, that other woman, dead, with pence

-   |   Pressed on her big brown eyes, under the ground;

-   |   She that was merry once, feeling the world go round.

-

-   |   "Her child (and yours) is with her sister now,

-   |   Out there, behind us, living as they can;

-   |   Pinched by the poverty that you allow.

-   |   All a long autumn many rumours ran

-   |   About Sue Jones that was: you were the man.

-   |   The lad is like you.  Think about his mother,

-   |   Before you turn the earth to fire with another."

-

-   |   "That is enough," said Michael, "you shall know

-   |   Soon, to your marrow, what my answer is;

-   |   Know to your lying heart; now kindly go.

-   |   The neighbours smell that something is amiss.

-   |   We two will keep a dignity in this,

-   |   Such as we can.  No quarrelling with me here.

-   |   Mary might see; now go; but recollect, my dear,

-

-   |   "That if you twit me with your wife, you lie;

-   |   And that your further insult waits a day

-   |   When God permits that Mary is not by;

-   |   I keep the record of it, and shall pay.

-   |   And as for Mary; listen: we betray

-   |   No one.  We keep our troth-plight as we meant.

-   |   Now go, the neighbours gather."  Lion bowed and went.

-

-   |   Home to his memories for a month of pain,

-   |   Each moment like a devil with a tongue,

-   |   Urging him, "Set her free," or "Try again,"

-   |   Or "Kill that man and stamp him into dung."

-   |   "See her," he cried.  He took his horse and swung

-   |   Out on the road to her; the rain was falling;

-   |   Her dropping house-eaves splashed him when he knocked there, calling.

-

-   |   Drowned yellow jasmine dripped; his horse's flanks

-   |   Steamed, and dark runnels on his yellow hair

-   |   Streaked the groomed surface into blotchy ranks.

-   |   The noise of water dropping filled the air.

-   |   He knocked again; but there was no one there;

-   |   No one within, the door was locked, no smoke

-   |   Came from the chimney stacks, no clock ticked, no one spoke.

-

-   |   Only the water dripped and dribble-dripped,

-   |   And gurgled through the rain-pipe to the butt;

-   |   Drops, trickling down the windows paused or slipped;

-   |   A wet twig scraked as though the glass were cut.

-   |   The blinds were all drawn down, the windows shut.

-   |   No one was there.  Across the road a shawl

-   |   Showed at a door a space; a woman gave a call.

-

-   |   "They're gone away," she cried.  "They're gone away.

-   |   Been gone a matter of a week."  Where to?

-   |   The woman thought to Wales, but could not say,

-   |   Nor if she planned returning; no one knew.

-   |   She looked at Lion sharply; then she drew

-   |   The half-door to its place and passed within,

-   |   Saying she hoped the rain would stop and spring begin.

-

-   |   Lion rode home.  A month went by, and now

-   |   Winter was gone; the myriad shoots of green

-   |   Bent to the wind, like hair, upon the plough,

-   |   And up from withered leaves came celandine.

-   |   And sunlight came, though still the air was keen,

-   |   So that the first March market was most fair,

-   |   And Lion rode to market, having business there.

-

-   |   And in the afternoon, when all was done,

-   |   While Lion waited idly near the inn,

-   |   Watching the pigeons sidling in the sun,

-   |   As Jim the ostler put his gelding in,

-   |   He heard a noise of rioting begin

-   |   Outside the yard, with catcalls; there were shouts

-   |   Of "Occleve.  Lion Occleve," from a pack of louts,

-

-   |   Who hung about the courtyard-arch, and cried,

-   |   "Yah, Occleve, of The Roughs, the married man,

-   |   Occleve, who had the bed and not the bride."

-   |   At first without the arch; but some began

-   |   To sidle in, still calling; children ran

-   |   To watch the baiting; they were farmer's leavings

-   |   Who shouted thus, men cast for drunkenness and thievings.

-

-   |   Lion knew most of them of old; he paid

-   |   No heed to them, but turned his back and talked

-   |   To Jim, of through-pin in his master's jade,

-   |   And how no horse-wounds should be stuped or caulked.

-   |   The rabble in the archway, not yet baulked,

-   |   Came crowding nearer, and the boys began,

-   |   "Who was it took your mistress, master married man?"

-

-   |   "Who was it, master, took your wife away?"

-   |   "I wouldn't let another man take mine."

-   |   "She had two husbands on her wedding day."

-   |   "See at a blush: he blushed as red as wine."

-   |   "She'd ought a had a cart-whip laid on fine."

-   |   The farmers in the courtyard watched the baiting,

-   |   Grinning, the barmaids grinned above the window grating.

-

-   |   Then through the mob of brawlers Michael stepped

-   |   Straight to where Lion stood.  "I come," he said,

-   |   "To give you back some words which I have kept

-   |   Safe in my heart till I could see them paid.

-   |   You lied about Sue Jones; she died a maid

-   |   As far as I'm concerned, and there's your lie,

-   |   Full in your throat, and there, and there, and in your eye.

-

-   |   "And there's for stealing Mary" ... as he struck,

-   |   He slipped upon a piece of peel and dropped

-   |   Souse in a puddle of the courtyard muck;

-   |   Loud laughter followed when he rose up sopped.

-   |   Friends rushed to intervene, the fight was stopped.

-   |   The two were hurried out by different ways.

-   |   Men said, "'Tis stopped for now, but not for many days."

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-   |   April appeared, the green earth's impulse came,

-   |   Pushing the singing sap until each bud

-   |   Trembled with delicate life as soft as flame,

-   |   Filled by the mighty heart-beat as with blood;

-   |   Death was at ebb, and Life in brimming flood.

-   |   But little joy in life could Lion see,

-   |   Striving to gird his will to set his loved one free,

-

-   |   While in his heart a hope still struggled dim

-   |   That the mad hour would pass, the darkness break,

-   |   The fever die, and she return to him,

-   |   The routed nightmare let the sleeper wake.

-   |   "Then we could go abroad," he cried, "and make

-   |   A new life, soul to soul; oh, love! return."

-   |   "Too late," his heart replied.  At last he rode to learn.

-

-   |   Bowed, but alive with hope, he topped the pass,

-   |   And saw, below, her cottage by the way,

-   |   White, in a garden green with springing grass,

-   |   And smoke against the blue sky going gray.

-   |   "God make us all the happier for to-day,"

-   |   He muttered humbly; then, below, he spied,

-   |   Mary and Michael entering, walking side by side.

-

-   |   Arm within arm, like lovers, like dear lovers

-   |   Matched by the happy stars and newly wed,

-   |   Over whose lives a rosy presence hovers.

-   |   Lion dismounted, seeing hope was dead.

-   |   A child was by the road, he stroked his head,

-   |   And "Little one," he said, "who lives below

-   |   There, in the cottage there, where those two people go?"

-

-   |   "They do," the child said, pointing: "Mrs. Gray

-   |   Lives in the cottage there, and he does, too.

-   |   They've been back near a week since being away."

-   |   It was but seal to what he inly knew.

-   |   He thanked the child and rode.  The Spring was blue,

-   |   Bluer than ever, and the birds were glad;

-   |   Such rapture in the hedges all the blackbirds had.

-

-   |   He was not dancing to that pipe of the Spring.

-   |   He reached The Roughs, and there, within her room,

-   |   Bowed for a time above her wedding ring,

-   |   Which had so chained him to unhappy doom;

-   |   All his dead marriage haunted in the gloom

-   |   Of that deserted chamber; all her things

-   |   Lay still as she had left them when her love took wings.

-

-   |   He kept a bitter vigil through the night,

-   |   Knowing his loss, his ten years' passion wasted,

-   |   His life all blasted, even at its height,

-   |   His cup of life's fulfilment hardly tasted.

-   |   Gray on the budding woods the morning hasted,

-   |   And looking out he saw the dawn come chill

-   |   Over the shaking acre pale with daffodil.

-

-   |   Birds were beginning in the meadows; soon

-   |   The blackbirds and the thrushes with their singing

-   |   Piped down the withered husk that was the moon,

-   |   And up the sky the ruddy sun came winging.

-   |   Cows plodded past, yokes clanked, the men were bringing

-   |   Milk from the barton.  Someone shouted "Hup,

-   |   Dog, drive them dangy red ones down away on up."

-

-   |   Some heavy hours went by before he rose.

-   |   He went out of the house into the grass,

-   |   Down which the wind flowed much as water flows;

-   |   The daffodils bowed down to let it pass.

-   |   At the brook's edge a boggy bit there was,

-   |   Right at the field's north corner, near the bridge,

-   |   Fenced by a ridge of earth; he sat upon the ridge,

-

-   |   Watching the water running to the sea,

-   |   Watching the bridge, the stile, the path beyond,

-   |   Where the white violet's sweetness brought the bee.

-   |   He paid the price of being overfond.

-   |   The water babbled always from the pond

-   |   Over the pretty shallows, chattering, tinkling,

-   |   With trembles from the sunlight in its clearness wrinkling.

-

-   |   So gazing, like one stunned, it reached his mind,

-   |   That the hedge-brambles overhung the brook

-   |   More than was right, making the selvage blind;

-   |   The dragging brambles too much flotsam took.

-   |   Dully he thought to mend.  He fetched a hook,

-   |   And standing in the shallow stream he slashed,

-   |   For hours, it seemed; the thorns, the twigs, the dead leaves splashed,

-

-   |   Splashed and were bobbed away across the shallows;

-   |   Pale grasses with the sap gone from them fell,

-   |   Sank, or were carried down beyond the sallows.

-   |   The bruised ground-ivy gave out earthy smell.

-   |   "I must be dead," he thought, "and this is hell."

-   |   Fiercely he slashed, till, glancing at the stile,

-   |   He saw that Michael stood there, watching, with a smile,

-

-   |   His old contemptuous smile of careless ease,

-   |   As though the world with all its myriad pain

-   |   Sufficed, but only just sufficed, to please.

-   |   Michael was there, the robber come again.

-   |   A tumult ran like flame in Lion's brain;

-   |   Then, looking down, he saw the flowers shake:

-   |   Gold, trembling daffodils; he turned, he plucked a stake

-

-   |   Out of the hedge that he had come to mend,

-   |   And flung his hook to Michael, crying, "Take;

-   |   We two will settle our accounts, my friend,

-   |   Once and for ever.  May the Lord God make

-   |   You see your sins in time."  He whirled his stake

-   |   And struck at Michael's head; again he struck;

-   |   While Michael dodged and laughed, "Why, man, I bring you luck.

-

-   |   "Don't kill a bringer of good news.  You fool,

-   |   Stop it and listen.  I have come to say:

-   |   Lion, for God's sake, listen and be cool.

-   |   You silly hothead, put that stake away.

-   |   Listen, I tell you."  But he could not stay

-   |   The anger flaming in that passionate soul.

-   |   Blows rained upon him thick; they stung; he lost control.

-

-   |   Till, "If you want to fight," he cried, "let be.

-   |   Let me get off the bridge and we will fight.

-   |   That firm bit by the quag will do for me.

-   |   So.  Be on guard, and God defend the right.

-   |   You foaming madman, with your hell's delight,

-   |   Smashing a man with stakes before he speaks:

-   |   On guard.  I'll make you humbler for the next few weeks."

-

-   |   The ground was level there; the daffodils

-   |   Glimmered and danced beneath their cautious feet,

-   |   Quartering for openings for the blow that kills.

-   |   Beyond the bubbling brook a thrush was sweet.

-   |   Quickly the footsteps slid; with feint and cheat,

-   |   The weapons poised and darted and withdrew.

-   |   "Now stop it," Michael said, "I want to talk to you."

-

-   |   "We do not stop till one of us is dead,",

-   |   Said Lion, rushing in.  A short blow fell

-   |   Dizzily, through all guard, on Michael's head.

-   |   His hedging-hook slashed blindly but too well:

-   |   It struck in Lion's side.  Then, for a spell,

-   |   Both, sorely stricken, staggered, while their eyes

-   |   Dimmed under mists of blood; they fell, they tried to rise,--

-

-   |   Tried hard to rise, but could not, so they lay,

-   |   Watching the clouds go sailing on the sky,

-   |   Touched with a redness from the end of day.

-   |   There was all April in the blackbird's cry.

-   |   And lying there they felt they had to die,

-   |   Die and go under mould and feel no more

-   |   April's green fire of life go running in earth's core.

-

-   |   "There was no need to hit me," Michael said;

-   |   "You quiet thinking fellows lose control.

-   |   This fighting business is a foolish trade.

-   |   And now we join the grave-worm and the mole.

-   |   I tried to stop you.  You're a crazy soul;

-   |   You always were hot-headed.  Well, let be:

-   |   You deep and passionate souls have always puzzled me.

-

-   |   "I'm sorry that I struck you.  I was hit,

-   |   And lashed out blindly at you; you were mad.

-   |   It would be different if you'd stopped a bit.

-   |   You are too blind when you are angry, lad.

-   |   Oh, I am giddy, Lion; dying, bad,

-   |   Dying."  He raised himself, he sat, his look

-   |   Grew greedy for the water bubbling in the brook.

-

-   |   And as he watched it, Lion raised his head;

-   |   Out of a bloodied clump of daffodil.

-   |   "Michael," he moaned, "I, too, am dying: dead.

-   |   You're nearer to the water.  Could you fill

-   |   Your hat and give me drink?  Or would it spill?

-   |   Spill, I expect."  "I'll try," said Michael, "try--

-   |   I may as well die trying, since I have to die."

-

-   |   Slowly he forced his body's failing life

-   |   Down to the water; there he stooped and filled;

-   |   And as his back turned Lion drew his knife,

-   |   And hid it close, while all his being thrilled

-   |   To see, as Michael came, the water spilled,

-   |   Nearer and ever nearer, bright, so bright.

-   |   "Drink," muttered Michael, "drink.  We two shall sleep to-night."

-

-   |   He tilted up the hat, and Lion drank.

-   |   Lion lay still a moment, gathering power,

-   |   Then rose, as Michael gave him more, and sank.

-   |   Then, like a dying bird whom death makes tower,

-   |   He raised himself above the bloodied flower

-   |   And struck with all his force in Michael's side.

-   |   "You should not have done that," his stricken comrade cried.

-

-   |   "No; for I meant to tell you, Lion; meant

-   |   To tell you; but I cannot now; I die.

-   |   That hit me to the heart and I am spent.

-   |   Mary and I have parted; she and I

-   |   Agreed she must return, lad.  That is why

-   |   I came to see you.  She is coming here,

-   |   Back to your home to-night.  Oh, my beloved dear,

-

-   |   "You come to tread a bloody path of flowers.

-   |   All the gold flowers are covered up with blood,

-   |   And the bright bugles blow along the towers;

-   |   The bugles triumph like the Plate in flood."

-   |   His spilled life trickled down upon the mud

-   |   Between weak, clutching fingers.  "Oh," he cried,

-   |   "This isn't what we planned here years ago."  He died.

-

-   |   Lion lay still while the cold tides of death

-   |   Came brimming up his channels.  With one hand

-   |   He groped to know if Michael still drew breath.

-   |   His little hour was running out its sand.

-   |   Then, in a mist, he saw his Mary stand

-   |   Above.  He cried aloud, "He was my brother.

-   |   I was his comrade sworn, and we have killed each other.

-

-   |   "Oh desolate grief, beloved, and through me.

-   |   We wise who try to change.  Oh, you wild birds,

-   |   Help my unhappy spirit to the sea.

-   |   The golden bowl is scattered into sherds."

-   |   And Mary knelt and murmured passionate words

-   |   To that poor body on the dabbled flowers:

-   |   "Oh, beauty, oh, sweet soul, oh, little love of ours--

-

-   |   "Michael, my own heart's darling, speak; it's me,

-   |   Mary.  You know my voice.  I'm here, dear, here.

-   |   Oh, little golden-haired one, listen.  See,

-   |   It's Mary, Michael.  Speak to Mary, dear.

-   |   Oh, Michael, little love, he cannot hear;

-   |   And you have killed him, Lion; he is dead.

-   |   My little friend, my love, my Michael, golden head.

-

-   |   "We had such fun together, such sweet fun,

-   |   My love and I, my merry love and I.

-   |   Oh, love, you shone upon me like the sun.

-   |   Oh, Michael, say some little last good-bye."

-   |   Then in a great voice Lion called, "I die.

-   |   Go home and tell my people.  Mary.  Hear.

-   |   Though I have wrought this ruin, I have loved you, dear.

-

-   |   "Better than he; not better, dear, as well.

-   |   If you could kiss me, dearest, at this last.

-   |   We have made bloody doorways from our hell,

-   |   Cutting our tangle.  Now, the murder past,

-   |   We are but pitiful poor souls; and fast

-   |   The darkness and the cold come.  Kiss me, sweet;

-   |   I loved you all my life; but some lives never meet

-

-   |   "Though they go wandering side by side through Time.

-   |   Kiss me," he cried.  She bent, she kissed his brow:

-   |   "Oh, friend," she said, "you're lying in the slime."

-   |   "Three blind ones, dear," he murmured, "in the slough,

-   |   Caught fast for death; but never mind that now;

-   |   Go home and tell my people.  I am dying,

-   |   Dying, dear, dying now."  He died; she left him lying,

-

-   |   And kissed her dead one's head and crossed the field.

-   |   "They have been killed," she called, in a great crying.

-   |   "Killed, and our spirits' eyes are all unsealed.

-   |   The blood is scattered on the flowers drying."

-   |   It was the hush of dusk, and owls were flying;

-   |   They hooted as the Occleves ran to bring

-   |   That sorry harvest home from Death's red harvesting.

-

-   |   They laid the bodies on the bed together.

-   |   And "You were beautiful," she said, "and you

-   |   Were my own darling in the April weather.

-   |   You knew my very soul, you knew, you knew.

-   |   Oh, my sweet, piteous love, I was not true.

-   |   Fetch me fair water and the flowers of spring;

-   |   My love is dead, and I must deck his burying."

-

-   |   They left her with her dead; they could not choose

-   |   But grant the spirit burning in her face

-   |   Rights that their pity urged them to refuse.

-   |   They did her sorrow and the dead a grace.

-   |   All night they heard her passing footsteps trace

-   |   Down to the garden from the room of death.

-   |   They heard her singing there, lowly, with gentle breath,

-

-   |   To the cool darkness full of sleeping flowers,

-   |   Then back, still singing soft, with quiet tread,

-   |   But at the dawn her singing gathered powers

-   |   Like to the dying swan who lifts his head

-   |   On Eastnor, lifts it, singing, dabbled red,

-   |   Singing the glory in his tumbling mind,

-   |   Before the doors burst in, before death strikes him blind.

-

-   |   So triumphing her song of love began,

-   |   Ringing across the meadows like old woe

-   |   Sweetened by poets to the help of man

-   |   Unconquered in eternal overthrow;

-   |   Like a great trumpet from the long ago

-   |   Her singing towered; all the valley heard.

-   |   Men jingling down to meadow stopped their teams and stirred.

-

-   |   And they, the Occleves, hurried to the door,

-   |   And burst it, fearing; there the singer lay

-   |   Drooped at her lover's bedside on the floor,

-   |   Singing her passionate last of life away.

-   |   White flowers had fallen from a blackthorn spray

-   |   Over her loosened hair.  Pale flowers of spring

-   |   Filled the white room of death; they covered everything.

-

-   |   Primroses, daffodils, and cuckoo-flowers.

-   |   She bowed her singing head on Michael's breast.

-   |   "Oh, it was sweet," she cried, "that love of ours.

-   |   You were the dearest, sweet; I loved you best.

-   |   Beloved, my beloved, let me rest

-   |   By you forever, little Michael mine.

-   |   Now the great hour is stricken, and the bread and wine

-

-   |   "Broken and spilt; and now the homing birds

-   |   Draw to a covert, Michael; I to you.

-   |   Bury us two together," came her words.

-   |   The dropping petals fell about the two.

-   |   Her heart had broken; she was dead.  They drew

-   |   Her gentle head aside; they found it pressed

-   |   Against the broidered 'kerchief spread on Michael's breast,

-

-   |   The one that bore her name in Michael's hair,

-   |   Given so long before.  They let her lie,

-   |   While the dim moon died out upon the air,

-   |   And happy sunlight coloured all the sky.

-   |   The last cock crowed for morning; carts went by;

-   |   Smoke rose from cottage chimneys; from the byre

-   |   The yokes went clanking by, to dairy, through the mire.

-

-   |   In the day's noise the water's noise was stilled,

-   |   But still it slipped along, the cold hill-spring,

-   |   Dropping from leafy hollows, which it filled,

-   |   On to the pebbly shelves which made it sing;

-   |   Glints glittered on it from the 'fisher's wing;

-   |   It saw the moorhen nesting; then it stayed

-   |   In a great space of reeds where merry otters played.

-

-   |   Slowly it loitered past the shivering reeds

-   |   Into a mightier water; thence its course

-   |   Becomes a pasture where the salmon feeds,

-   |   Wherein no bubble tells its humble source;

-   |   But the great waves go rolling, and the horse

-   |   Snorts at the bursting waves and will not drink,

-   |   And the great ships go outward, bubbling to the brink,

-

-   |   Outward, with men upon them, stretched in line,

-   |   Handling the halliards to the ocean's gates,

-   |   Where flicking windflaws fill the air with brine,

-   |   And all the ocean opens.  Then the mates

-   |   Cry, and the sunburnt crew no longer waits,

-   |   But sing triumphant and the topsail fills

-   |   To this old tale of woe among the daffodils.

-

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-                          THE DAFFODIL FIELDS
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-
-
-Title: The Daffodil Fields
-Author: John Masefield
-Release Date: November 23, 2012 [EBook #41466]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: US-ASCII
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAFFODIL FIELDS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Al Haines.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Cover]
-
-
-
-
-                          THE DAFFODIL FIELDS
-
-
-                                   BY
-                             JOHN MASEFIELD
-
-            AUTHOR OF "THE EVERLASTING MERCY," "THE WIDOW IN
-                    THE BYE STREET," "THE STORY OF A
-                           ROUND-HOUSE," ETC.
-
-
-
-                                New York
-                         THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
-                                  1915
-
-                         _All rights reserved_
-
-
-
-
-                            COPYRIGHT, 1918,
-                           BY JOHN MASEFIELD.
-
-            Set up and electrotyped.  Published March, 1913.
-             Reprinted July, December, 1913; August, 1915.
-
-
-
-                             Norwood Press
-                J. S. Cushing Co. -- Berwick & Smith Co.
-                         Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
-
-
-
-
-                          THE DAFFODIL FIELDS
-
-
-                                   I
-
-Between the barren pasture and the wood
-There is a patch of poultry-stricken grass,
-Where, in old time, Ryemeadows' Farmhouse stood,
-And human fate brought tragic things to pass.
-A spring comes bubbling up there, cold as glass,
-It bubbles down, crusting the leaves with lime,
-Babbling the self-same song that it has sung through time.
-
-Ducks gobble at the selvage of the brook,
-But still it slips away, the cold hill-spring,
-Past the Ryemeadows' lonely woodland nook
-Where many a stubble gray-goose preens her wing,
-On, by the woodland side.  You hear it sing
-Past the lone copse where poachers set their wires,
-Past the green hill once grim with sacrificial fires.
-
-Another water joins it; then it turns,
-Runs through the Ponton Wood, still turning west,
-Past foxgloves, Canterbury bells, and ferns,
-And many a blackbird's, many a thrush's nest;
-The cattle tread it there; then, with a zest
-It sparkles out, babbling its pretty chatter
-Through Foxholes Farm, where it gives white-faced cattle water.
-
-Under the road it runs, and now it slips
-Past the great ploughland, babbling, drop and linn,
-To the moss'd stumps of elm trees which it lips,
-And blackberry-bramble-trails where eddies spin.
-Then, on its left, some short-grassed fields begin,
-Red-clayed and pleasant, which the young spring fills
-With the never-quiet joy of dancing daffodils.
-
-There are three fields where daffodils are found;
-The grass is dotted blue-gray with their leaves;
-Their nodding beauty shakes along the ground
-Up to a fir-clump shutting out the eaves
-Of an old farm where always the wind grieves
-High in the fir boughs, moaning; people call
-This farm The Roughs, but some call it the Poor Maid's Hall.
-
-There, when the first green shoots of tender corn
-Show on the plough; when the first drift of white
-Stars the black branches of the spiky thorn,
-And afternoons are warm and evenings light,
-The shivering daffodils do take delight,
-Shaking beside the brook, and grass comes green,
-And blue dog-violets come and glistening celandine.
-
-And there the pickers come, picking for town
-Those dancing daffodils; all day they pick;
-Hard-featured women, weather-beaten brown,
-Or swarthy-red, the colour of old brick.
-At noon they break their meats under the rick.
-The smoke of all three farms lifts blue in air
-As though man's passionate mind had never suffered there.
-
-And sometimes as they rest an old man comes,
-Shepherd or carter, to the hedgerow-side,
-And looks upon their gangrel tribe, and hums,
-And thinks all gone to wreck since master died;
-And sighs over a passionate harvest-tide
-Which Death's red sickle reaped under those hills,
-There, in the quiet fields among the daffodils.
-
-When this most tragic fate had time and place,
-And human hearts and minds to show it by,
-Ryemeadows' Farmhouse was in evil case:
-Its master, Nicholas Gray, was like to die.
-He lay in bed, watching the windy sky,
-Where all the rooks were homing on slow wings,
-Cawing, or blackly circling in enormous rings.
-
-With a sick brain he watched them; then he took
-Paper and pen, and wrote in straggling hand
-(Like spider's legs, so much his fingers shook)
-Word to the friends who held the adjoining land,
-Bidding them come; no more he could command
-His fingers twitching to the feebling blood;
-He watched his last day's sun dip down behind the wood,
-
-While all his life's thoughts surged about his brain:
-Memories and pictures clear, and faces known--
-Long dead, perhaps; he was a child again,
-Treading a threshold in the dark alone.
-Then back the present surged, making him moan.
-He asked if Keir had come yet.  "No," they said.
-"Nor Occleve?"  "No."  He moaned: "Come soon or I'll be dead."
-
-The names like live things wandered in his mind:
-"Charles Occleve of The Roughs," and "Rowland Keir--
-Keir of the Foxholes"; but his brain was blind,
-A blind old alley in the storm of the year,
-Baffling the traveller life with "No way here,"
-For all his lantern raised; life would not tread
-Within that brain again, along those pathways red.
-
-Soon all was dimmed but in the heaven one star.
-"I'll hold to that," he said; then footsteps stirred.
-Down in the court a voice said, "Here they are,"
-And one, "He's almost gone."  The sick man heard.
-"Oh God, be quick," he moaned.  "Only one word.
-Keir!  Occleve!  Let them come.  Why don't they come?
-Why stop to tell them that?--the devil strike you dumb.
-
-"I'm neither doll nor dead; come in, come in.
-Curse you, you women, quick," the sick man flamed.
-"I shall be dead before I can begin.
-A sick man's womaned-mad, and nursed and damed."
-Death had him by the throat; his wrath was tamed.
-"Come in," he fumed; "stop muttering at the door."
-The friends came in; a creaking ran across the floor.
-
-"Now, Nick, how goes it, man?" said Occleve.  "Oh,"
-The dying man replied, "I am dying; past;
-Mercy of God, I die, I'm going to go.
-But I have much to tell you if I last.
-Come near me, Occleve, Keir.  I am sinking fast,
-And all my kin are coming; there, look there.
-All the old, long dead Grays are moving in the air.
-
-"It is my Michael that I called you for:
-My son, abroad, at school still, over sea.
-See if that hag is listening at the door.
-No?  Shut the door; don't lock it, let it be.
-No faith is kept to dying men like me.
-I am dipped deep and dying, bankrupt, done;
-I leave not even a farthing to my lovely son.
-
-"Neighbours, these many years our children played,
-Down in the fields together, down the brook;
-Your Mary, Keir, the girl, the bonny maid,
-And Occleve's Lion, always at his book;
-Them and my Michael: dear, what joy they took
-Picking the daffodils; such friends they've been--
-My boy and Occleve's boy and Mary Keir for queen.
-
-"I had made plans; but I am done with, I.
-Give me the wine.  I have to ask you this:
-I can leave Michael nothing, and I die.
-By all our friendship used to be and is,
-Help him, old friends.  Don't let my Michael miss
-The schooling I've begun.  Give him his chance.
-He does not know I am ill; I kept him there in France.
-
-"Saving expense; each penny counts.  Oh, friends,
-Help him another year; help him to take
-His full diploma when the training ends,
-So that my ruin won't be his.  Oh, make
-This sacrifice for our old friendship's sake,
-And God will pay you; for I see God's hand
-Pass in most marvellous ways on souls: I understand
-
-"How just rewards are given for man's deeds
-And judgment strikes the soul.  The wine there, wine.
-Life is the daily thing man never heeds.
-It is ablaze with sign and countersign.
-Michael will not forget: that son of mine
-Is a rare son, my friends; he will go far.
-I shall behold his course from where the blessed are."
-
-"Why, Nick," said Occleve, "come, man.  Gather hold.
-Rouse up.  You've given way.  If times are bad,
-Times must be bettering, master; so be bold;
-Lift up your spirit, Nicholas, and be glad.
-Michael's as much to me as my dear lad.
-I'll see he takes his school."  "And I," said Keir.
-"Set you no keep by that, but be at rest, my dear.
-
-"We'll see your Michael started on the road."
-"But there," said Occleve, "Nick's not going to die.
-Out of the ruts, good nag, now; zook the load.
-Pull up, man.  Death!  Death and the fiend defy.
-We'll bring the farm round for you, Keir and I.
-Put heart at rest and get your health."  "Ah, no,"
-The sick man faintly answered, "I have got to go."
-
-Still troubled in his mind, the sick man tossed.
-"Old friends," he said, "I once had hoped to see
-Mary and Michael wed, but fates are crossed,
-And Michael starts with nothing left by me.
-Still, if he loves her, will you let it be?
-So in the grave, maybe, when I am gone,
-I'll know my hope fulfilled, and see the plan go on."
-
-"I judge by hearts, not money," answered Keir.
-"If Michael suits in that and suits my maid,
-I promise you, let Occleve witness here
-He shall be free for me to drive his trade.
-Free, ay, and welcome, too.  Be not afraid,
-I'll stand by Michael as I hope some friend
-Will stand beside my girl in case my own life end."
-
-"And I," said Occleve; but the sick man seemed
-Still ill at ease.  "My friends," he said, "my friends,
-Michael may come to all that I have dreamed,
-But he's a wild yarn full of broken ends.
-So far his life in France has made amends.
-God grant he steady so; but girls and drink
-Once brought him near to hell, aye, to the very brink.
-
-"There is a running vein of wildness in him:
-Wildness and looseness both, which vices make
-That woman's task a hard one who would win him:
-His life depends upon the course you take.
-He is a fiery-mettled colt to break,
-And one to curb, one to be curbed, remember."
-The dying voice died down, the fire left the ember.
-
-But once again it flamed.  "Ah me," he cried;
-"Our secret sins take body in our sons,
-To haunt our age with what we put aside.
-I was a devil for the women once.
-He is as I was.  Beauty like the sun's;
-Within, all water; minded like the moon.
-Go now.  I sinned.  I die.  I shall be punished soon."
-
-The two friends tiptoed to the room below.
-There, till the woman came to them, they told
-Of brave adventures in the long ago,
-Ere Nick and they had thought of growing old;
-Snipe-shooting in the marshlands in the cold,
-Old soldiering days as yeomen, days at fairs,
-Days that had sent Nick tired to those self-same chairs.
-
-They vowed to pay the schooling for his son.
-They talked of Michael, testing men's report,
-How the young student was a lively one,
-Handsome and passionate both, and fond of sport,
-Eager for fun, quick-witted in retort.
-The girls' hearts quick to see him cocking by,
-Young April on a blood horse, with a roving eye.
-
-And, as they talked about the lad, Keir asked
-If Occleve's son had not, at one time, been
-Heartsick for Mary, though with passion masked.
-"Ay," Occleve said: "Time was.  At seventeen.
-It took him hard, it ran his ribs all lean,
-All of a summer; but it passed, it died.
-Her fancying Michael better touched my Lion's pride."
-
-Mice flickered from the wainscot to the press,
-Nibbling at crumbs, rattling to shelter, squeaking.
-Each ticking in the clock's womb made life less;
-Oil slowly dropped from where the lamp was leaking.
-At times the old nurse set the staircase creaking,
-Harked to the sleeper's breath, made sure, returned,
-Answered the questioning eyes, then wept.  The great stars burned.
-
-"Listen," said Occleve, "listen, Rowland.  Hark."
-"It's Mary, come with Lion," answered Keir:
-"They said they'd come together after dark."
-He went to door and called "Come in, my dear."
-The burning wood log blazed with sudden cheer,
-So that a glowing lighted all the room.
-His daughter Mary entered from the outer gloom.
-
-The wind had brought the blood into her cheek,
-Heightening her beauty, but her great grey eyes
-Were troubled with a fear she could not speak.
-Firm, scarlet lips she had, not made for lies.
-Gentle she seemed, pure-natured, thoughtful, wise,
-And when she asked what turn the sickness took,
-Her voice's passing pureness on a low note shook.
-
-Young Lion Occleve entered at her side,
-A well-built, clever man, unduly grave,
-One whose repute already travelled wide
-For skill in breeding beasts.  His features gave
-Promise of brilliant mind, far-seeing, brave,
-One who would travel far.  His manly grace
-Grew wistful when his eyes were turned on Mary's face.
-
-"Tell me," said Mary, "what did doctor say?
-How ill is he?  What chance of life has he?
-The cowman said he couldn't last the day,
-And only yesterday he joked with me."
-"We must be meek," the nurse said; "such things be."
-"There's little hope," said Keir; "he's dying, sinking."
-"Dying without his son," the young girl's heart was thinking.
-
-"Does Michael know?" she asked.  "Has he been called?"
-A slow confusion reddened on the faces,
-As when one light neglect leaves friends appalled.
-"No time to think," said nurse, "in such like cases."
-Old Occleve stooped and fumbled with his laces.
-"Let be," he said; "there's always time for sorrow.
-He could not come in time; he shall be called to-morrow."
-
-"There is a chance," she cried, "there always is.
-Poor Mr. Gray might rally, might live on.
-Oh, I must telegraph to tell him this.
-Would it were day still and the message gone."
-She rose, her breath came fast, her grey eyes shone.
-She said, "Come, Lion; see me through the wood.
-Michael must know."  Keir sighed.  "Girl, it will do no good.
-
-"Our friend is on the brink and almost passed."
-"All the more need," she said, "for word to go;
-Michael could well arrive before the last.
-He'd see his father's face at least.  I know
-The office may be closed; but even so,
-Father, I must.  Come, Lion."  Out they went,
-Into the roaring woodland where the saplings bent.
-
-Like breakers of the sea the leafless branches
-Swished, bowing down, rolling like water, roaring
-Like the sea's welcome when the clipper launches
-And full affronted tideways call to warring.
-Daffodils glimmered underfoot, the flooring
-Of the earthy woodland smelt like torn-up moss;
-Stones in the path showed white, and rabbits ran across.
-
-They climbed the rise and struck into the ride,
-Talking of death, while Lion, sick at heart,
-Thought of the woman walking at his side,
-And as he talked his spirit stood apart,
-Old passion for her made his being smart,
-Rankling within.  Her thought for Michael ran
-Like glory and like poison through his inner man.
-
-"This will break Michael's heart," he said at length.
-"Poor Michael," she replied; "they wasted hours.
-He loved his father so.  God give him strength.
-This is a cruel thing this life of ours."
-The windy woodland glimmered with shut flowers,
-White wood anemones that the wind blew down.
-The valley opened wide beyond the starry town.
-
-"Ten," clanged out of the belfry.  Lion stayed
-One hand upon a many-carven bole.
-"Mary," he said.  "Dear, my beloved maid,
-I love you, dear one, from my very soul."
-Her beauty in the dusk destroyed control.
-"Mary, my dear, I've loved you all these years."
-"Oh, Lion, no," she murmured, choking back her tears.
-
-"I love you," he repeated.  "Five years since
-This thing began between us: every day
-Oh sweet, the thought of you has made me wince;
-The thought of you, my sweet, the look, the way.
-It's only you, whether I work or pray,
-You and the hope of you, sweet you, dear you.
-I never spoke before; now it has broken through.
-
-"Oh, my beloved, can you care for me?"
-She shook her head.  "Oh, hush, oh, Lion dear,
-Don't speak of love, for it can never be
-Between us two, never, however near.
-Come on, my friend, we must not linger here."
-White to the lips she spoke; he saw her face
-White in the darkness by him in the windy place.
-
-"Mary, in time you could, perhaps," he pleaded.
-"No," she replied, "no, Lion; never, no."
-Over the stars the boughs burst and receded.
-The nobleness of Love comes in Love's woe.
-"God bless you then, beloved, let us go.
-Come on," he said, "and if I gave you pain,
-Forget it, dear; be sure I never will again."
-
-They stepped together down the ride, their feet
-Slipped on loose stones.  Little was said; his fate,
-Staked on a kingly cast, had met defeat.
-Nothing remained but to endure and wait.
-She was still wonderful, and life still great.
-Great in that bitter instant side by side,
-Hallowed by thoughts of death there in the blinded ride.
-
-He heard her breathing by him, saw her face
-Dim, looking straight ahead; her feet by his
-Kept time beside him, giving life a grace;
-Night made the moment full of mysteries.
-"You are beautiful," he thought; "and life is this:
-Walking a windy night while men are dying,
-To cry for one to come, and none to heed our crying."
-
-"Mary," he said, "are you in love with him,
-With Michael?  Tell me.  We are friends, we three."
-They paused to face each other in the dim.
-"Tell me," he urged.  "Yes, Lion," answered she;
-"I love him, but he does not care for me.
-I trust your generous mind, dear; now you know,
-You, who have been my brother, how our fortunes go.
-
-"Now come; the message waits."  The heavens cleared,
-Cleared, and were starry as they trod the ride.
-Chequered by tossing boughs the moon appeared;
-A whistling reached them from the Hall House side;
-Climbing, the whistler came.  A brown owl cried.
-The whistler paused to answer, sending far
-That haunting, hunting note.  The echoes laughed Aha!
-
-Something about the calling made them start.
-Again the owl note laughed; the ringing cry
-Made the blood quicken within Mary's heart.
-Like a dead leaf a brown owl floated by.
-"Michael?" said Lion.  "Hush."  An owl's reply
-Came down the wind; they waited; then the man,
-Content, resumed his walk, a merry song began.
-
-"Michael," they cried together.  "Michael, you?"
-"Who calls?" the singer answered.  "Where away?
-Is that you, Mary?"  Then with glad halloo
-The singer ran to meet them on the way.
-It was their Michael; in the moonlight grey,
-They made warm welcome; under tossing boughs,
-They met and told the fate darkening Ryemeadows' House.
-
-As they returned at speed their comrade spoke
-Strangely and lightly of his coming home,
-Saying that leaving France had been a joke,
-But that events now proved him wise to come.
-Down the steep 'scarpment to the house they clomb,
-And Michael faltered in his pace; they heard
-How dumb rebellion in the much-wronged cattle stirred.
-
-And as they came, high, from the sick man's room,
-Old Gray burst out a-singing of the light
-Streaming upon him from the outer gloom,
-As his eyes dying gave him mental sight.
-"Triumphing swords," he carolled, "in the bright;
-Oh fire, Oh beauty fire," and fell back dead.
-Occleve took Michael up to kneel beside the bed.
-
-So the night passed; the noisy wind went down;
-The half-burnt moon her starry trackway rode.
-Then the first fire was lighted in the town,
-And the first carter stacked his early load.
-Upon the farm's drawn blinds the morning glowed;
-And down the valley, with little clucks and trills,
-The dancing waters danced by dancing daffodils.
-
-
-                                   II
-
-They buried Gray; his gear was sold; his farm
-Passed to another tenant.  Thus men go;
-The dropped sword passes to another arm,
-And different waters in the river flow.
-His two old faithful friends let Michael know
-His father's ruin and their promise.  Keir
-Brought him to stay at Foxholes till a path was clear.
-
-There, when the sale was over, all three met
-To talk about the future, and to find
-Upon what project Michael's heart was set.
-Gentle the two old men were, thoughtful, kind.
-They urged the youth to speak his inmost mind,
-For they would compass what he chose; they told
-How he might end his training; they would find the gold.
-
-"Thanks, but I cannot," Michael said.  He smiled.
-"Cannot.  They've kicked me out.  I've been expelled;
-Kicked out for good and all for being wild.
-They stopped our evening leave, and I rebelled.
-I am a gentle soul until compelled,
-And then I put my ears back.  The old fool
-Said that my longer presence might inflame the school.
-
-"And I am glad, for I have had my fill
-Of farming by the book with those old fools,
-Exhausted talkatives whose blood is still,
-Who strive to bind a living man with rules.
-This fettered kind of life, these laws, these schools,
-These codes, these checks, what are they but the clogs
-Made by collected sheep to mortify the dogs?
-
-"And I have had enough of them; and now
-I make an end of them.  I want to go
-Somewhere where man has never used a plough,
-Nor ever read a book; where clean winds blow,
-And passionate blood is not its owner's foe,
-And land is for the asking for it.  There
-Man can create a life and have the open air.
-
-"The River Plate's the country.  There, I know,
-A man like me can thrive.  There, on the range,
-The cattle pass like tides; they ebb and flow,
-And life is changeless in unending change,
-And one can ride all day, and all day strange,
-Strange, never trodden, fenceless, waiting there,
-To feed unending cattle for the men who dare.
-
-"There I should have a chance; this land's too old."
-Old Occleve grunted at the young man's mood;
-Keir, who was losing money, thought him bold,
-And thought the scheme for emigration good.
-He said that, if he wished to go, he should.
-South to the pampas, there to learn the trade.
-Old Occleve thought it mad, but no objection made.
-
-So it was settled that the lad should start,
-A place was found for him, a berth was taken;
-And Michael's beauty plucked at Mary's heart,
-And now the fabric of their lives was shaken:
-For now the hour's nearness made love waken
-In Michael's heart for Mary.  Now Time's guile
-Granted her passionate prayer, nor let her see his smile.
-
-Granted his greatest gifts; a night time came
-When the two walking down the water learned
-That life till then had only been a name;
-Love had unsealed their spirits: they discerned.
-Mutely, at moth time there, their spirits yearned.
-"I shall be gone three years, dear soul," he said.
-"Dear, will you wait for me?"  "I will," replied the maid.
-
-So troth was pledged between them.  Keir received
-Michael as Mary's suitor, feeling sure
-That the lad's fortunes would be soon retrieved,
-Having a woman's promise as a lure.
-The three years' wait would teach them to endure.
-He bade them love and prosper and be glad.
-And fast the day drew near that was to take the lad.
-
-Cowslips had come along the bubbling brook,
-Cowslips and oxlips rare, and in the wood
-The many-blossomed stalks of bluebells shook;
-The outward beauty fed their mental mood.
-Thought of the parting stabbed her as he wooed,
-Walking the brook with her, and day by day,
-The precious fortnight's grace dropped, wasted, slipped away.
-
-Till only one clear day remained to her:
-One whole clear, precious day, before he sailed.
-Some forty hours, no more, to minister
-To months of bleakness before which she quailed.
-Mist rose along the brook; the corncrake railed;
-Dim red the sunset burned.  He bade her come
-Into the wood with him; they went, the night came dumb.
-
-Still as high June, the very water's noise
-Seemed but a breathing of the earth; the flowers
-Stood in the dim like souls without a voice.
-The wood's conspiracy of occult powers
-Drew all about them, and for hours on hours
-No murmur shook the oaks, the stars did house
-Their lights like lamps upon those never-moving boughs.
-
-Under their feet the woodland sloped away
-Down to the valley, where the farmhouse lights
-Were sparks in the expanse the moon made grey.
-June's very breast was bare this night of nights.
-Moths blundered up against them, greys and whites
-Moved on the darkness where the moths were out,
-Nosing for sticky sweet with trembling uncurled snout.
-
-But all this beauty was but music played,
-While the high pageant of their hearts prepared.
-A spirit thrilled between them, man to maid,
-Mind flowed in mind, the inner heart was bared,
-They needed not to tell how much each cared;
-All the soul's strength was at the other's soul.
-Flesh was away awhile, a glory made them whole.
-
-Nothing was said by them; they understood,
-They searched each other's eyes without a sound,
-Alone with moonlight in the heart of the wood,
-Knowing the stars and all the soul of the ground.
-"Mary," he murmured.  "Come."  His arms went round,
-A white moth glimmered by, the woods were hushed;
-The rose at Mary's bosom dropped its petals, crushed.
-
-No word profaned the peace of that glad giving,
-But the warm dimness of the night stood still,
-Drawing all beauty to the point of living,
-There in the beech-tree's shadow on the hill.
-Spirit to spirit murmured; mingling will
-Made them one being; Time's decaying thought
-Fell from them like a rag; it was the soul they sought.
-
-The moonlight found an opening in the boughs;
-It entered in, it filled that sacred place
-With consecration on the throbbing brows;
-It came with benediction and with grace.
-A whispering came from face to yearning face:
-"Beloved, will you wait for me?"  "My own."
-"I shall be gone three years, you will be left alone;
-
-"You'll trust and wait for me?"  "Yes, yes," she sighed;
-She would wait any term of years, all time--
-So faithful to first love these souls abide,
-Carrying a man's soul with them as they climb.
-Life was all flower to them; the church bells' chime
-Rang out the burning hour ere they had sealed
-Love's charter there below the June sky's starry field.
-
-Sweetly the church bells' music reached the wood,
-Chiming an old slow tune of some old hymn,
-Calling them back to life from where they stood
-Under the moonlit beech-tree grey and dim.
-"Mary," he murmured; pressing close to him,
-Her kiss came on the gift he gave her there,
-A silken scarf that bore her name worked in his hair.
-
-But still the two affixed their hands and seals
-To a life compact witnessed by the sky,
-Where the great planets drove their glittering wheels,
-Bringing conflicting fate, making men die.
-They loved, and she would wait, and he would try.
-"Oh, beauty of my love," "My lovely man."
-So beauty made them noble for their little span.
-
-Time cannot pause, however dear the wooer;
-The moon declined, the sunrise came, the hours,
-Left to the lovers, dwindled swiftly fewer,
-Even as the seeds from dandelion-flowers
-Blow, one by one, until the bare stalk cowers,
-And the June grass grows over; even so
-Daffodil-picker Time took from their lives the glow,
-
-Stole their last walk along the three green fields,
-Their latest hour together; he took, he stole
-The white contentment that a true love yields;
-He took the triumph out of Mary's soul.
-Now she must lie awake and blow the coal
-Of sorrow of heart.  The parting hour came;
-They kissed their last good-bye, murmuring the other's name.
-
-Then the flag waved, the engine snorted, then
-Slowly the couplings tautened, and the train
-Moved, bearing off from her her man of men;
-She looked towards its going blind with pain.
-Her father turned and drove her home again.
-It was a different home.  Awhile she tried
-To cook the dinner there, but flung her down and cried.
-
-Then in the dusk she wandered down the brook,
-Treading again the trackway trod of old,
-When she could hold her loved one in a look.
-The night was all unlike those nights of gold.
-Michael was gone, and all the April old,
-Withered and hidden.  Life was full of ills;
-She flung her down and cried i' the withered daffodils
-
-
-                                  III
-
-The steaming river loitered like old blood
-On which the tugboat bearing Michael beat,
-Past whitened horse bones sticking in the mud.
-The reed stems looked like metal in the heat.
-Then the banks fell away, and there were neat,
-Red herds of sullen cattle drifting slow.
-A fish leaped, making rings, making the dead blood flow.
-
-Wormed hard-wood piles were driv'n in the river bank,
-The steamer threshed alongside with sick screws
-Churning the mud below her till it stank;
-Big gassy butcher-bubbles burst on the ooze.
-There Michael went ashore; as glad to lose
-One not a native there, the Gauchos flung
-His broken gear ashore, one waved, a bell was rung.
-
-The bowfast was cast off, the screw revolved,
-Making a bloodier bubbling; rattling rope
-Fell to the hatch, the engine's tune resolved
-Into its steadier beat of rise and slope;
-The steamer went her way; and Michael's hope
-Died as she lessened; he was there alone.
-The lowing of the cattle made a gradual moan.
-
-He thought of Mary, but the thought was dim;
-That was another life, lived long before.
-His mind was in new worlds which altered him.
-The startling present left no room for more.
-The sullen river lipped, the sky, the shore
-Were vaster than of old, and lonely, lonely.
-Sky and low hills of grass and moaning cattle only.
-
-But for a hut bestrewn with skulls of beeves,
-Round which the flies danced, where an Indian girl
-Bleared at him from her eyes' ophthalmic eaves,
-Grinning a welcome; with a throaty skirl,
-She offered him herself; but he, the churl,
-Stared till she thought him fool; she turned, she sat,
-Scratched in her short, black hair, chewed a cigar-end, spat.
-
-Up, on the rise, the cattle bunched; the bulls
-Drew to the front with menace, pawing bold,
-Snatching the grass-roots out with sudden pulls,
-The distant cattle raised their heads; the wold
-Grew dusty at the top; a waggon rolled,
-Drawn by a bickering team of mules whose eyes
-Were yellow like their teeth and bared and full of vice.
-
-Down to the jetty came the jingling team,
-An Irish cowboy driving, while a Greek
-Beside him urged the mules with blow and scream.
-They cheered the Indian girl and stopped to speak.
-Then lifting her aloft they kissed her cheek,
-Calling to Michael to be quick aboard,
-Or they (they said) would fall from virtue, by the Lord.
-
-So Michael climbed aboard, and all day long
-He drove the cattle range, rise after rise,
-Dotted with limber shorthorns grazing strong,
-Cropping sweet-tasted pasture, switching flies;
-Dull trouble brooded in their smoky eyes.
-Some horsemen watched them.  As the sun went down,
-The waggon reached the estancia builded like a town.
-
-With wide corrales where the horses squealed,
-Biting and lashing out; some half-wild hounds
-Gnawed at the cowbones littered on the field,
-Or made the stallions stretch their picket bounds.
-Some hides were drying; horsemen came from rounds,
-Unsaddled stiff, and turned their mounts to feed,
-And then brewed bitter drink and sucked it through a reed.
-
-The Irishman removed his pipe and spoke:
-"You take a fool's advice," he said.  "Return.
-Go back where you belong before you're broke;
-You'll spoil more clothes at this job than you'll earn;
-It's living death, and when you die you'll burn:
-Body and soul it takes you.  Quit it.  No?
-Don't say I never told you, then.  Amigos.  Ho.
-
-"Here comes a Gringo; make him pay his shot.
-Pay up your footing, Michael; rum's the word,
-It suits my genius, and I need a lot."
-So the great cauldron full was mixed and stirred.
-And all night long the startled cattle heard
-Shouting and shooting, and the moon beheld
-Mobs of dim, struggling men, who fired guns and yelled
-
-That they were Abel Brown just come to town,
-Michael among them.  By a bonfire some
-Betted on red and black for money down,
-Snatching their clinking winnings, eager, dumb.
-Some danced unclad, rubbing their heads with rum.
-The grey dawn, bringing beauty to the skies,
-Saw Michael stretched among them, far too drunk to rise.
-
-His footing paid, he joined the living-shed,
-Lined with rude bunks and set with trestles: there
-He, like the other ranchers, slept and fed,
-Save when the staff encamped in open air,
-Rounding the herd for branding.  Rude and bare
-That barrack was; men littered it about
-With saddles, blankets blue, old headstalls, many a clout
-
-Torn off to wipe a knife or clean a gun,
-Tin dishes, sailors' hookpots, all the mess
-Made where the outdoor work is never done
-And every cleaning makes the sleeping less.
-Men came from work too tired to undress,
-And slept all standing like the trooper's horse;
-Then with the sun they rose to ride the burning course,
-
-Whacking the shipment cattle into pen,
-Where, in the dust, among the stink of burning,
-The half-mad heifers bolted from the men,
-And tossing horns arose and hoofs were churning,
-A lover there had little time for yearning;
-But all day long, cursing the flies and heat,
-Michael was handling steers on horseback till his feet
-
-Gave on dismounting.  All day long he rode,
-Then, when the darkness came, his mates and he
-Entered dog-tired to the rude abode
-And ate their meat and sucked their bitter tea,
-And rolled themselves in rugs and slept.  The sea
-Could not make men more drowsy; like the dead,
-They lay under the lamp while the mosquitoes fed.
-
-There was no time to think of Mary, none;
-For when the work relaxed, the time for thought
-Was broken up by men demanding fun:
-Cards, or a well-kept ring while someone fought,
-Or songs and dancing; or a case was bought
-Of white Brazilian rum, and songs and cheers
-And shots and oaths rang loud upon the twitching ears
-
-Of the hobbled horses hopping to their feed.
-So violent images displaced the rose
-In Michael's spirit; soon he took the lead;
-None was more apt than he for games or blows.
-Even as the battle-seeking bantam crows,
-So crowed the cockerel of his mind to feel
-Life's bonds removed and blood quick in him toe to heel.
-
-But sometimes when her letters came to him,
-Full of wise tenderness and maiden mind,
-He felt that he had let his clearness dim;
-The riot with the cowboys seemed unkind
-To that far faithful heart; he could not find
-Peace in the thought of her; he found no spur
-To instant upright action in his love for her.
-
-She faded to the memory of a kiss,
-There in the rough life among foreign faces;
-Love cannot live where leisure never is;
-He could not write to her from savage places,
-Where drunken mates were betting on the aces,
-And rum went round and smutty songs were lifted.
-He would not raise her banner against that; he drifted,
-
-Ceasing, in time, to write, ceasing to think,
-But happy in the wild life to the bone;
-The riding in vast space, the songs, the drink,
-Some careless heart beside him like his own,
-The racing and the fights, the ease unknown
-In older, soberer lands; his young blood thrilled.
-The pampas seemed his own, his cup of joy was filled.
-
-And one day, riding far after strayed horses,
-He rode beyond the ranges to a land
-Broken and made most green by watercourses,
-Which served as strayline to the neighbouring brand.
-A house stood near the brook; he stayed his hand,
-Seeing a woman there, whose great eyes burned,
-So that he could not choose but follow when she turned.
-
-After that day he often rode to see
-That woman at the peach farm near the brook,
-And passionate love between them came to be
-Ere many days.  Their fill of love they took;
-And even as the blank leaves of a book
-The days went over Mary, day by day,
-Blank as the last, was turned, endured, passed, turned away.
-
-Spring came again greening the hawthorn buds;
-The shaking flowers, new-blossomed, seemed the same,
-And April put her riot in young bloods;
-The jays flapped in the larch clump like blue flame.
-She did not care; his letter never came.
-Silent she went, nursing the grief that kills,
-And Lion watched her pass among the daffodils.
-
-
-                                   IV
-
-Time passed, but still no letter came; she ceased,
-Almost, to hope, but never to expect.
-The June moon came which had beheld love's feast,
-Then waned, like it; the meadow-grass was flecked
-With moon-daisies, which died; little she recked
-Of change in outward things, she did not change;
-Her heart still knew one star, one hope, it did not range,
-
-Like to the watery hearts of tidal men,
-Swayed by all moons of beauty; she was firm,
-When most convinced of misery firmest then.
-She held a light not subject to the worm.
-The pageant of the summer ran its term,
-The last stack came to staddle from the wain;
-The snow fell, the snow thawed, the year began again.
-
-With the wet glistening gold of celandines,
-And snowdrops pushing from the withered grass,
-Before the bud upon the hawthorn greens,
-Or blackbirds go to building; but, alas!
-No spring within her bosom came to pass.
-"You're going like a ghost," her father said;
-"Now put him out of mind, and be my prudent maid."
-
-It was an April morning brisk with wind,
-She wandered out along the brook sick-hearted,
-Picking the daffodils where the water dinned,
-While overhead the first-come swallow darted.
-There, at the place where all the passion started,
-Where love first knocked about her maiden heart,
-Young Lion Occleve hailed her, calling her apart
-
-To see his tulips at The Roughs, and take
-A spray of flowering currant; so she went.
-It is a bitter moment, when hearts ache,
-To see the loved unhappy; his intent
-Was but to try to comfort her; he meant
-To show her that he knew her heart's despair,
-And that his own heart bled to see her wretched there.
-
-So, as they talked, he asked her, had she heard
-From Michael lately?  No, she had not; she
-Had been a great while now, without a word.
-"No news is always good news," answered he.
-"You know," he said, "how much you mean to me;
-You've always been the queen.  Oh, if I could
-Do anything to help, my dear, you know I would."
-
-"Nothing," she said, much touched.  "But you believe--
-You still believe in him?"  "Why, yes," he said.
-Lie though it was he did not dare deceive
-The all too cruel faith within the maid.
-"That ranching is a wild and lonely trade,
-Far from all posts; it may be hard to send;
-All puzzling things like this prove simple in the end.
-
-"We should have heard if he were ill or dead.
-Keep a good heart.  Now come"; he led the way
-Beyond the barton to the calving-shed,
-Where, on a strawy litter topped with hay,
-A double-pedigree prize bull-calf lay.
-"Near three weeks old," he said, "the Wrekin's pet;
-Come up, now, son, come up; you haven't seen him yet.
-
-"We have done well," he added, "with the stock,
-But this one, if he lives, will make a name."
-The bull-calf gambolled with his tail acock,
-Then shyly nosed towards them, scared but tame;
-His troublous eyes were sulky with blue flame.
-Softly he tip-toed, shying at a touch;
-He nosed, his breath came sweet, his pale tongue curled to clutch.
-
-They rubbed his head, and Mary went her way,
-Counting the dreary time, the dreary beat
-Of dreary minutes dragging through the day;
-Time crawled across her life with leaden feet;
-There still remained a year before her sweet
-Would come to claim her; surely he would come;
-Meanwhile there was the year, her weakening father, home.
-
-Home with its deadly round, with all its setting,
-Things, rooms, and fields and flowers to sting, to burn
-With memories of the love time past forgetting
-Ere absence made her very being yearn.
-"My love, be quick," she moaned, "return, return;
-Come when the three years end, oh, my dear soul,
-It's bitter, wanting you."  The lonely nights took toll,
-
-Putting a sadness where the beauty was,
-Taking a lustre from the hair; the days
-Saw each a sadder image in the glass.
-And when December came, fouling the ways,
-And ashless beech-logs made a Christmas blaze,
-Some talk of Michael came; a rumour ran,
-Someone had called him "wild" to some returning mail,
-
-Who, travelling through that cattle-range, had heard
-Nothing more sure than this; but this he told
-At second-hand upon a cowboy's word.
-It struck on Mary's heart and turned her cold.
-That winter was an age which made her old.
-"But soon," she thought, "soon the third year will end;
-March, April, May, and June, then I shall see my friend.
-
-"He promised he would come; he will not fail.
-Oh, Michael, my beloved man, come soon;
-Stay not to make a home for me, but sail.
-Love and the hour will put the world in tune.
-You in my life for always is the boon
-I ask from life--we two, together, lovers."
-So leaden time went by who eats things and discovers.
-
-Then, in the winds of March, her father rode,
-Hunting the Welland country on Black Ned;
-The tenor cry gave tongue past Clencher's Lode,
-And on he galloped, giving the nag his head;
-Then, at the brook, he fell, was picked up dead.
-Hounds were whipped off; men muttered with one breath,
-"We knew that hard-mouthed brute would some day be his death."
-
-They bore his body on a hurdle home;
-Then came the burial, then the sadder day
-When the peaked lawyer entered like a gnome,
-With word to quit and lists of debts to pay.
-There was a sale; the Foxholes passed away
-To strangers, who discussed the points of cows,
-Where love had put such glory on the lovers' brows.
-
-Kind Lion Occleve helped the maid's affairs.
-Her sorrow brought him much beside her; he
-Caused her to settle, having stilled her cares,
-In the long cottage under Spital Gree.
-He had no hope that she would love him; she
-Still waited for her lover, but her eyes
-Thanked Lion to the soul; he made the look suffice.
-
-By this the yearling bull-calf had so grown
-That all men talked of him; mighty he grew,
-Huge-shouldered, scaled above a hundred stone,
-With deep chest many-wrinkled with great thew,
-Plain-loined and playful-eyed; the Occleves knew
-That he surpassed his pasture; breeders came
-From far to see this bull; he brought the Occleves fame.
-
-Till a meat-breeding rancher on the plains
-Where Michael wasted, sent to buy the beast,
-Meaning to cross his cows with heavier strains
-Until his yield of meat and bone increased.
-He paid a mighty price; the yearling ceased
-To be the wonder of the countryside.
-He sailed in Lion's charge, south, to the Plate's red tide.
-
-There Lion landed with the bull, and there
-The great beast raised his head and bellowed loud,
-Challenging that expanse and that new air;
-Trembling, but full of wrath and thunder-browed,
-Far from the daffodil fields and friends, but proud,
-His wild eye kindled at the great expanse.
-Two scraps of Shropshire life they stood there; their advance
-
-Was slow along the well-grassed cattle land,
-But at the last an end was made; the brute
-Ate his last bread crust from his master's hand,
-And snuffed the foreign herd and stamped his foot;
-Steers on the swelling ranges gave salute.
-The great bull bellowed back and Lion turned;
-His task was now to find where Michael lived; he learned
-
-The farm's direction, and with heavy mind,
-Thinking of Mary and her sorrow, rode,
-Leaving the offspring of his fields behind.
-A last time in his ears the great bull lowed.
-Then, shaking up his horse, the young man glowed
-To see the unfenced pampas opening out
-Grass that makes old earth sing and all the valleys shout.
-
-At sunset on the second day he came
-To that white cabin in the peach-tree plot
-Where Michael lived; they met, the Shropshire name
-Rang trebly dear in that outlandish spot.
-Old memories swam up dear, old joys forgot,
-Old friends were real again; but Mary's woe
-Came into Lion's mind, and Michael vexed him so,
-
-Talking with careless freshness, side by side
-With that dark Spanish beauty who had won,
-As though no heart-broke woman, heavy-eyed,
-Mourned for him over sea, as though the sun
-Shone but to light his steps to love and fun,
-While she, that golden and beloved soul,
-Worth ten of him, lay wasting like an unlit coal.
-
-So supper passed; the meat in Lion's gorge
-Stuck at the last, he could not bide that face.
-The idle laughter on it plied the forge
-Where hate was smithying tools; the jokes, the place,
-Wrought him to wrath; he could not stay for grace.
-The tin mug full of red wine spilled and fell.
-He kicked his stool aside with "Michael, this is hell.
-
-"Come out into the night and talk to me."
-The young man lit a cigarette and followed;
-The stars seemed trembling at a brink to see;
-A little ghostly white-owl stooped and holloed.
-Beside the stake-fence Lion stopped and swallowed,
-While all the wrath within him made him grey.
-Michael stood still and smoked, and flicked his ash away.
-
-"Well, Lion," Michael said, "men make mistakes,
-And then regret them; and an early flame
-Is frequently the worst mistake man makes.
-I did not seek this passion, but it came.
-Love happens so in life.  Well?  Who's to blame?
-You'll say I've broken Mary's heart; the heart
-Is not the whole of life, but an inferior part,
-
-"Useful for some few years and then a curse.
-Nerves should be stronger.  You have come to say
-The three-year term is up; so much the worse.
-I cannot meet the bill; I cannot pay.
-I would not if I could.  Men change.  To-day
-I know that that first choice, however sweet,
-Was wrong and a mistake; it would have meant defeat,
-
-"Ruin and misery to us both.  Let be.
-You say I should have told her this?  Perhaps.
-You try to make a loving woman see
-That the warm link which holds you to her snaps.
-Neglect is deadlier than the thunder-claps.
-Yet she is bright and I am water.  Well,
-I did not make myself; this life is often hell.
-
-"Judge if you must, but understand it first.
-We are old friends, and townsmen, Shropshire born,
-Under the Wrekin.  You believe the worst.
-You have no knowledge how the heart is torn,
-Trying for duty up against the thorn.
-Now say I've broken Mary's heart: begin.
-Break hers, or hers and mine, which were the greater sin?"
-
-"Michael," said Lion, "I have heard you.  Now
-Listen to me.  Three years ago you made
-With a most noble soul a certain vow.
-Now you reject it, saying that you played.
-She did not think so, Michael, she has stayed,
-Eating her heart out for a line, a word,
-News that you were not dead; news that she never heard.
-
-"Not once, after the first.  She has held firm
-To what you counted pastime; she has wept
-Life, day by weary day throughout the term,
-While her heart sickened, and the clock-hand crept.
-While you, you with your woman here, have kept
-Holiday, feasting; you are fat; you smile.
-You have had love and laughter all the ghastly while.
-
-"I shall be back in England six weeks hence,
-Standing with your poor Mary face to face;
-Far from a pleasant moment, but intense.
-I shall be asked to tell her of this place.
-And she will eye me hard and hope for grace,
-Some little crumb of comfort while I tell;
-And every word will burn like a red spark from hell,
-
-"That you have done with her, that you are living
-Here with another woman; that you care
-Nought for the pain you've given and are giving;
-That all your lover's vows were empty air.
-This I must tell: thus I shall burn her bare,
-Burn out all hope, all comfort, every crumb,
-End it, and watch her whiten, hopeless, tearless, dumb.
-
-"Or do I judge you wrongly?"  He was still.
-The cigarette-end glowed and dimmed with ash;
-A preying night bird whimpered on the hill.
-Michael said "Ah!" and fingered with his sash,
-Then stilled.  The night was still; there came no flash
-Of sudden passion bursting.  All was still;
-A lonely water gurgled like a whip-poor-will.
-
-"Now I must go," said Lion; "where's the horse?"
-"There," said his friend; "I'll set you on your way."
-They caught and rode, both silent, while remorse
-Worked in each heart, though neither would betray
-What he was feeling, and the moon came grey,
-Then burned into an opal white and great,
-Silvering the downs of grass where these two travelled late,
-
-Thinking of English fields which that moon saw,
-Fields full of quiet beauty lying hushed
-At midnight in the moment full of awe,
-When the red fox comes creeping, dewy-brushed.
-But neither spoke; they rode; the horses rushed,
-Scattering the great clods skywards with such thrills
-As colts in April feel there in the daffodils.
-
-
-                                   V
-
-The river brimming full was silvered over
-By moonlight at the ford; the river bank
-Smelt of bruised clote buds and of yellow clover.
-Nosing the gleaming dark the horses drank,
-Drooping and dripping as the reins fell lank;
-The men drooped too; the stars in heaven drooped;
-Rank after hurrying rank the silver water trooped
-
-In ceaseless bright procession past the shallows,
-Talking its quick inconsequence.  The friends,
-Warmed by the gallop on the unfenced fallows,
-Felt it a kindlier thing to make amends.
-"A jolly burst," said Michael; "here it ends.
-Your way lies straight beyond the water.  There.
-Watch for the lights, and keep those two stars as they bear."
-
-Something august was quick in all that sky,
-Wheeling in multitudinous march with fire;
-The falling of the wind brought it more nigh,
-They felt the earth take solace and respire;
-The horses shifted foothold in the mire,
-Splashing and making eddies.  Lion spoke:
-"Do you remember riding past the haunted oak
-
-"That Christmas Eve, when all the bells were ringing,
-So that we picked out seven churches' bells,
-Ringing the night, and people carol-singing?
-It hummed and died away and rose in swells
-Like a sea breaking.  We have been through hells
-Since then, we two, and now this being here
-Brings all that Christmas back, and makes it strangely near."
-
-"Yes," Michael answered, "they were happy times,
-Riding beyond there; but a man needs change;
-I know what they connote, those Christmas chimes,
-Fudge in the heart, and pudding in the grange.
-It stifles me all that; I need the range,
-Like this before us, open to the sky;
-There every wing is clipped, but here a man can fly."
-
-"Ah," said his friend, "man only flies in youth,
-A few short years at most, until he finds
-That even quiet is a form of truth,
-And all the rest a coloured rag that blinds.
-Life offers nothing but contented minds.
-Some day you'll know it, Michael.  I am grieved
-That Mary's heart will pay until I am believed."
-
-There was a silence while the water dripped
-From the raised muzzles champing on the steel.
-Flogging the crannied banks the water lipped.
-Night up above them turned her starry wheel;
-And each man feared to let the other feel
-How much he felt; they fenced; they put up bars.
-The moon made heaven pale among the withering stars.
-
-"Michael," said Lion, "why should we two part?
-Ride on with me; or shall we both return,
-Make preparation, and to-morrow start,
-And travel home together?  You would learn
-How much the people long to see you; turn.
-We will ride back and say good-bye, and then
-Sail, and see home again, and see the Shropshire men,
-
-"And see the old Shropshire mountain and the fair,
-Full of drunk Welshmen bringing mountain ewes;
-And partridge shooting would be starting there."
-Michael hung down his head and seemed to choose.
-The horses churned fresh footing in the ooze.
-Then Michael asked if Tom were still alive,
-Old Tom, who fought the Welshman under Upton Drive,
-
-For nineteen rounds, on grass, with the bare hands?
-"Shaky," said Lion, "living still, but weak;
-Almost past speaking, but he understands."
-"And old Shon Shones we teased so with the leek?"
-"Dead."  "When?"  "December."  Michael did not speak,
-But muttered "Old Jones dead."  A minute passed.
-"What came to little Sue, his girl?" he said at last.
-
-"Got into trouble with a man and died;
-Her sister keeps the child."  His hearer stirred.
-"Dead, too?  She was a pretty girl," he sighed,
-"A graceful pretty creature, like a bird.
-What is the child?"  "A boy.  Her sister heard
-Too late to help; poor Susan died; the man
-None knew who he could be, but many rumours ran."
-
-"Ah," Michael said.  The horses tossed their heads;
-A little wind arising struck in chill;
-"Time," he began, "that we were in our beds."
-A distant heifer challenged from the hill,
-Scraped at the earth with 's forefoot and was still.
-"Come with me," Lion pleaded.  Michael grinned;
-He turned his splashing horse, and prophesied a wind.
-
-"So long," he said, and "Kind of you to call.
-Straight on, and watch the stars"; his horse's feet
-Trampled the firmer foothold, ending all.
-He flung behind no message to his sweet,
-No other word to Lion; the dull beat
-Of his horse's trample drummed upon the trail;
-Lion could watch him drooping in the moonlight pale,
-
-Drooping and lessening; half expectant still
-That he would turn and greet him; but no sound
-Came, save the lonely water's whip-poor-will
-And the going horse hoofs dying on the ground.
-"Michael," he cried, "Michael!"  A lonely mound
-Beyond the water gave him back the cry.
-"That's at an end," he said, "and I have failed her--I."
-
-Soon the far hoof-beats died, save for a stir
-Half heard, then lost, then still, then heard again.
-A quickening rhythm showed he plied the spur.
-Then a vast breathing silence took the plain.
-The moon was like a soul within the brain
-Of the great sleeping world; silent she rode
-The water talked, talked, talked; it trembled as it flowed.
-
-A moment Lion thought to ride in chase.
-He turned, then turned again, knowing his friend.
-He forded through with death upon his face,
-And rode the plain that seemed never to end.
-Clumps of pale cattle nosed the thing unkenned,
-Riding the night; out of the night they rose,
-Snuffing with outstretched heads, stamping with surly lows,
-
-Till he was threading through a crowd, a sea
-Of curious shorthorns backing as he came,
-Barring his path, but shifting warily;
-He slapped the hairy flanks of the more tame.
-Unreal the ghostly cattle lumbered lame.
-His horse kept at an even pace; the cows
-Broke right and left like waves before advancing bows.
-
-Lonely the pampas seemed amid that herd.
-The thought of Mary's sorrow pricked him sore;
-He brought no comfort for her, not a word;
-He would not ease her pain, but bring her more.
-The long miles dropped behind; lights rose before,
-Lights and the seaport and the briny air;
-And so he sailed for home to comfort Mary there.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-When Mary knew the worst she only sighed,
-Looked hard at Lion's face, and sat quite still,
-White to the lips, but stern and stony-eyed,
-Beaten by life in all things but the will.
-Though the blow struck her hard it did not kill.
-She rallied on herself, a new life bloomed
-Out of the ashy heart where Michael lay entombed.
-
-And more than this: for Lion touched a sense
-That he, the honest humdrum man, was more
-Than he by whom the glory and the offence
-Came to her life three bitter years before.
-This was a treason in her being's core;
-It smouldered there; meanwhile as two good friends
-They met at autumn dusks and winter daylight-ends.
-
-And once, after long twilight talk, he broke
-His strong restraint upon his passion for her,
-And burningly, most like a man he spoke,
-Until her pity almost overbore her.
-It could not be, she said; her pity tore her;
-But still it could not be, though this was pain.
-Then on a frosty night they met and spoke again.
-
-And then he wooed again, clutching her hands,
-Calling the maid his mind, his heart, his soul,
-Saying that God had linked their lives in bands
-When the worm Life first started from the goal;
-That they were linked together, past control,
-Linked from all time, could she but pity; she
-Pitied him from the soul, but said it could not be.
-
-"Mary," he asked, "you cannot love me?  No?"
-"No," she replied; "would God I could, my dear."
-"God bless you, then," he answered, "I must go,
-Go over sea to get away from here,
-I cannot think of work when you are near;
-My whole life falls to pieces; it must end.
-This meeting now must be 'good-bye,' beloved friend."
-
-White-lipped she listened, then with failing breath,
-She asked for yet a little time; her face
-Was even as that of one condemned to death.
-She asked for yet another three months' grace,
-Asked it, as Lion inly knew, in case
-Michael should still return; and "Yes" said he,
-"I'll wait three months for you, beloved; let it be."
-
-Slowly the three months dragged: no Michael came.
-March brought the daffodils and set them shaking.
-April was quick in Nature like green flame;
-May came with dog-rose buds, and corncrakes craking,
-Then dwindled like her blossom; June was breaking.
-"Mary," said Lion, "can you answer now?"
-White like a ghost she stood, he long remembered how.
-
-Wild-eyed and white, and trembling like a leaf,
-She gave her answer, "Yes"; she gave her lips,
-Cold as a corpse's to the kiss of grief,
-Shuddering at him as if his touch were whips.
-Then her best nature, struggling to eclipse
-This shrinking self, made speech; she jested there;
-They searched each other's eyes, and both souls saw despair.
-
-So the first passed, and after that began
-A happier time: she could not choose but praise
-That recognition of her in the man
-Striving to salve her pride in myriad ways;
-He was a gentle lover: gentle days
-Passed like a music after tragic scenes;
-Her heart gave thanks for that; but still the might-have-beens
-
-Haunted her inner spirit day and night,
-And often in his kiss the memory came
-Of Michael's face above her, passionate, white,
-His lips at her lips murmuring her name,
-Then she would suffer sleepless, sick with shame,
-And struggle with her weakness.  She had vowed
-To give herself to Lion; she was true and proud.
-
-He should not have a woman sick with ghosts,
-But one firm-minded to be his; so time
-Passed one by one the summer's marking posts,
-The dog-rose and the foxglove and the lime.
-Then on a day the church-bells rang a chime.
-Men fired the bells till all the valley filled
-With bell-noise from the belfry where the jackdaws build.
-
-Lion and she were married; home they went,
-Home to The Roughs as man and wife; the news
-Was printed in the paper.  Mary sent
-A copy out to Michael.  Now we lose
-Sight of her for a time, and the great dews
-Fall, and the harvest-moon grows red and fills
-Over the barren fields where March brings daffodils.
-
-
-                                   VI
-
-The rider lingered at the fence a moment,
-Tossed out the pack to Michael, whistling low,
-Then rode, waving his hand, without more comment,
-Down the vast grey-green pampas sloping slow.
-Michael's last news had come so long ago,
-He wondered who had written now; the hand
-Thrilled him with vague alarm, it brought him to a stand.
-
-He opened it with one eye on the hut,
-Lest she within were watching him, but she
-Was combing out her hair, the door was shut,
-The green sun-shutters closed, she could not see.
-Out fell the love-tryst handkerchief which he
-Had had embroidered with his name for her;
-It had been dearly kept, it smelt of lavender.
-
-Something remained: a paper, crossed with blue,
-Where he should read; he stood there in the sun,
-Reading of Mary's wedding till he knew
-What he had cast away, what he had done.
-He was rejected, Lion was the one.
-Lion, the godly and the upright, he.
-The black lines in the paper showed how it could be.
-
-He pocketed the love gift and took horse,
-And rode out to the pay-shed for his savings.
-Then turned, and rode a lonely water-course,
-Alone with bitter thoughts and bitter cravings.
-Sun-shadows on the reeds made twinkling wavings;
-An orange-bellied turtle scooped the mud;
-Mary had married Lion, and the news drew blood.
-
-And with the bitterness, the outcast felt
-A passion for those old kind Shropshire places,
-The ruined chancel where the nuns had knelt;
-High Ercall and the Chase End and the Chases,
-The glimmering mere, the burr, the well-known faces,
-By Wrekin and by Zine and country town.
-The orange-bellied turtle burrowed further down.
-
-He could remember Mary now; her crying
-Night after night alone through weary years,
-Had touched him now and set the cords replying;
-He knew her misery now, her ache, her tears,
-The lonely nights, the ceaseless hope, the fears,
-The arm stretched out for one not there, the slow
-Loss of the lover's faith, the letting comfort go.
-
-"Now I will ride," he said.  Beyond the ford
-He caught a fresh horse and rode on.  The night
-Found him a guest at Pepe Blanco's board,
-Moody and drinking rum and ripe for fight;
-Drawing his gun, he shot away the light,
-And parried Pepe's knife and caught his horse,
-And all night long he rode bedevilled by remorse.
-
-At dawn he caught an eastward-going ferry,
-And all day long he steamed between great banks
-Which smelt of yellow thorn and loganberry.
-Then wharves appeared, and chimneys rose in ranks,
-Mast upon mast arose; the river's flanks
-Were filled with English ships, and one he found
-Needing another stoker, being homeward bound.
-
-And all the time the trouble in his head
-Ran like a whirlwind moving him; he knew
-Since she was lost that he was better dead.
-He had no project outlined, what to do,
-Beyond go home; he joined the steamer's crew.
-She sailed that night: he dulled his maddened soul,
-Plying the iron coal-slice on the bunker coal.
-
-Work did not clear the turmoil in his mind;
-Passion takes colour from the nature's core;
-His misery was as his nature, blind.
-Life was still turmoil when he went ashore.
-To see his old love married lay before;
-To see another have her, drink the gall,
-Kicked like a dog without, while he within had all.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-Soon he was at the Foxholes, at the place
-Whither, from over sea, his heart had turned
-Often at evening-ends in times of grace.
-But little outward change his eye discerned;
-A red rose at her bedroom window burned,
-Just as before.  Even as of old the wasps
-Poised at the yellow plums: the gate creaked on its hasps,
-
-And the white fantails sidled on the roof
-Just as before; their pink feet, even as of old,
-Printed the frosty morning's rime with proof.
-Still the zew-tallat's thatch was green with mould;
-The apples on the withered boughs were gold.
-Men and the times were changed: "And I," said he,
-"Will go and not return, since she is not for me.
-
-"I'll go, for it would be a scurvy thing
-To spoil her marriage, and besides, she cares
-For that half-priest she married with the ring.
-Small joy for me in seeing how she wears,
-Or seeing what he takes and what she shares.
-That beauty and those ways: she had such ways,
-There in the daffodils in those old April days."
-
-So with an impulse of good will he turned,
-Leaving that place of daffodils; the road
-Was paven sharp with memories which burned;
-He trod them strongly under as he strode.
-At the Green Turning's forge the furnace glowed;
-Red dithying sparks flew from the crumpled soft
-Fold from the fire's heart; down clanged the hammers oft.
-
-That was a bitter place to pass, for there
-Mary and he had often, often stayed
-To watch the horseshoe growing in the glare.
-It was a tryst in childhood when they strayed.
-There was a stile beside the forge; he laid
-His elbows on it, leaning, looking down
-The river-valley stretched with great trees turning brown.
-
-Infinite, too, because it reached the sky,
-And distant spires arose and distant smoke;
-The whiteness on the blue went stilly by;
-Only the clinking forge the stillness broke.
-Ryemeadows brook was there; The Roughs, the oak
-Where the White Woman walked; the black firs showed
-Around the Occleve homestead Mary's new abode.
-
-A long, long time he gazed at that fair place,
-So well remembered from of old; he sighed.
-"I will go down and look upon her face,
-See her again, whatever may betide.
-Hell is my future; I shall soon have died,
-But I will take to hell one memory more;
-She shall not see nor know; I shall be gone before;
-
-"Before they turn the dogs upon me, even.
-I do not mean to speak; but only see.
-Even the devil gets a peep at heaven;
-One peep at her shall come to hell with me;
-One peep at her, no matter what may be."
-He crossed the stile and hurried down the slope.
-Remembered trees and hedges gave a zest to hope.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-A low brick wall with privet shrubs beyond
-Ringed in The Roughs upon the side he neared.
-Eastward some bramble bushes cloaked the pond;
-Westward was barley-stubble not yet cleared.
-He thrust aside the privet boughs and peered.
-The drooping fir trees let their darkness trail
-Black like a pirate's masts bound under easy sail.
-
-The garden with its autumn flowers was there;
-Few that his wayward memory linked with her.
-Summer had burnt the summer flowers bare,
-But honey-hunting bees still made a stir.
-Sprigs were still bluish on the lavender,
-And bluish daisies budded, bright flies poised;
-The wren upon the tree-stump carolled cheery-voiced.
-
-He could not see her there.  Windows were wide,
-Late wasps were cruising, and the curtains shook.
-Smoke, like the house's breathing, floated, sighed;
-Among the trembling firs strange ways it took.
-But still no Mary's presence blessed his look;
-The house was still as if deserted, hushed.
-Faint fragrance hung about it as if herbs were crushed.
-
-Fragrance that gave his memory's guard a hint
-Of times long past, of reapers in the corn,
-Bruising with heavy boots the stalks of mint,
-When first the berry reddens on the thorn.
-Memories of her that fragrance brought.  Forlorn
-That vigil of the watching outcast grew;
-He crept towards the kitchen, sheltered by a yew.
-
-The windows of the kitchen opened wide.
-Again the fragrance came; a woman spoke;
-Old Mrs. Occleve talked to one inside.
-A smell of cooking filled a gust of smoke.
-Then fragrance once again, for herbs were broke;
-Pourri was being made; the listener heard
-Things lifted and laid down, bruised into sweetness, stirred.
-
-While an old woman made remarks to one
-Who was not the beloved: Michael learned
-That Roger's wife at Upton had a son,
-And that the red geraniums should be turned;
-A hen was missing, and a rick was burned;
-Our Lord commanded patience; here it broke;
-The window closed, it made the kitchen chimney smoke.
-
-Steps clacked on flagstones to the outer door;
-A dairy-maid, whom he remembered well,
-Lined, now, with age, and grayer than before,
-Rang a cracked cow-bell for the dinner-bell.
-He saw the dining-room; he could not tell
-If Mary were within: inly he knew
-That she was coming now, that she would be in blue,
-
-Blue with a silver locket at the throat,
-And that she would be there, within there, near,
-With the little blushes that he knew by rote,
-And the grey eyes so steadfast and so dear,
-The voice, pure like the nature, true and clear,
-Speaking to her belov'd within the room.
-The gate clicked, Lion came: the outcast hugged the gloom,
-
-Watching intently from below the boughs,
-While Lion cleared his riding-boots of clay,
-Eyed the high clouds and went within the house.
-His eyes looked troubled, and his hair looked gray.
-Dinner began within with much to say.
-Old Occleve roared aloud at his own joke.
-Mary, it seemed, was gone; the loved voice never spoke.
-
-Nor could her lover see her from the yew;
-She was not there at table; she was ill,
-Ill, or away perhaps--he wished he knew.
-Away, perhaps, for Occleve bellowed still.
-"If sick," he thought, "the maid or Lion will
-Take food to her."  He watched; the dinner ended.
-The staircase was not used; none climbed it, none descended.
-
-"Not here," he thought; but wishing to be sure,
-He waited till the Occleves went to field,
-Then followed, round the house, another lure,
-Using the well-known privet as his shield.
-He meant to run a risk; his heart was steeled.
-He knew of old which bedroom would be hers;
-He crouched upon the north front in among the firs.
-
-The house stared at him with its red-brick blank,
-Its vacant window-eyes; its open door,
-With old wrought bridle ring-hooks at each flank,
-Swayed on a creaking hinge as the wind bore.
-Nothing had changed; the house was as before,
-The dull red brick, the windows sealed or wide:
-"I will go in," he said.  He rose and stepped inside.
-
-None could have seen him coming; all was still;
-He listened in the doorway for a sign.
-Above, a rafter creaked, a stir, a thrill
-Moved, till the frames clacked on the picture line.
-"Old Mother Occleve sleeps, the servants dine,"
-He muttered, listening.  "Hush."  A silence brooded.
-Far off the kitchen dinner clattered; he intruded.
-
-Still, to his right, the best room door was locked.
-Another door was at his left; he stayed.
-Within, a stately timepiece ticked and tocked,
-To one who slumbered breathing deep; it made
-An image of Time's going and man's trade.
-He looked: Old Mother Occleve lay asleep,
-Hands crossed upon her knitting, rosy, breathing deep.
-
-He tiptoed up the stairs which creaked and cracked.
-The landing creaked; the shut doors, painted gray,
-Loomed, as if shutting in some dreadful act.
-The nodding frames seemed ready to betray.
-The east room had been closed in Michael's day,
-Being the best; but now he guessed it hers;
-The fields of daffodils lay next it, past the firs.
-
-Just as he reached the landing, Lion cried,
-Somewhere below, "I'll get it."  Lion's feet
-Struck on the flagstones with a hasty stride.
-"He's coming up," thought Michael, "we shall meet."
-He snatched the nearest door for his retreat,
-Opened with thieves' swift silence, dared not close,
-But stood within, behind it.  Lion's footsteps rose,
-
-Running two steps at once, while Michael stood,
-Not breathing, only knowing that the room
-Was someone's bedroom smelling of old wood,
-Hung with engravings of the day of doom.
-The footsteps stopped; and Lion called, to whom?
-A gentle question, tapping at a door,
-And Michael shifted feet, and creakings took the floor.
-
-The footsteps recommenced, a door-catch clacked;
-Within an eastern room the footsteps passed.
-Drawers were pulled loudly open and ransacked,
-Chattels were thrust aside and overcast.
-What could the thing be that he sought.  At last
-His voice said, "Here it is."  The wormed floor
-Creaked with returning footsteps down the corridor.
-
-The footsteps came as though the walker read,
-Or added rows of figures by the way;
-There was much hesitation in the tread;
-Lion seemed pondering which, to go or stay;
-Then, seeing the door, which covered Michael, sway,
-He swiftly crossed and shut it.  "Always one
-For order," Michael muttered.  "Now be swift, my son."
-
-The action seemed to break the walker's mood;
-The footsteps passed downstairs, along the hall,
-Out at the door and off towards the wood.
-"Gone," Michael muttered.  "Now to hazard all."
-Outside, the frames still nodded on the wall.
-Michael stepped swiftly up the floor to try
-The door where Lion tapped and waited for reply.
-
-It was the eastmost of the rooms which look
-Over the fields of daffodils; the bound
-Scanned from its windows is Ryemeadows brook,
-Banked by gnarled apple trees and rising ground.
-Most gently Michael tapped; he heard no sound,
-Only the blind-pull tapping with the wind;
-The kitchen-door was opened; kitchen-clatter dinned.
-
-A woman walked along the hall below,
-Humming; a maid, he judged; the footsteps died,
-Listening intently still, he heard them go,
-Then swiftly turned the knob and went inside.
-The blind-pull at the window volleyed wide;
-The curtains streamed out like a waterfall;
-The pictures of the fox-hunt clacked along the wall.
-
-No one was there; no one; the room was hers.
-A book of praise lay open on the bed;
-The clothes-press smelt of many lavenders,
-Her spirit stamped the room; herself was fled.
-Here she found peace of soul like daily bread,
-Here, with her lover Lion; Michael gazed;
-He would have been the sharer had he not been crazed.
-
-He took the love-gift handkerchief again;
-He laid it on her table, near the glass,
-So opened that the broidered name was plain;
-"Plain," he exclaimed, "she cannot let it pass.
-It stands and speaks for me as bold as brass.
-My answer, my heart's cry, to tell her this,
-That she is still my darling: all she was she is.
-
-"So she will know at least that she was wrong,
-That underneath the blindness I was true.
-Fate is the strongest thing, though men are strong;
-Out from beyond life I was sealed to you.
-But my blind ways destroyed the cords that drew;
-And now, the evil done, I know my need;
-
-Fate has his way with those who mar what is decreed.
-"And now, goodbye."  He closed the door behind him,
-Then stept, with firm swift footstep down the stair,
-Meaning to go where she would never find him;
-He would go down through darkness to despair.
-Out at the door he stept; the autumn air
-Came fresh upon his face; none saw him go.
-"Goodbye, my love," he muttered; "it is better so."
-
-Soon he was on the high road, out of sight
-Of valley and farm; soon he could see no more
-The oast-house pointing finger take the light
-As tumbling pigeons glittered over; nor
-Could he behold the wind-vane gilded o'er,
-Swinging above the church; the road swung round.
-"Now, the last look," he cried: he saw that holy ground.
-
-"Goodbye," he cried; he could behold it all,
-Spread out as in a picture; but so clear
-That the gold apple stood out from the wall;
-Like a red jewel stood the grazing steer.
-Precise, intensely coloured, all brought near,
-As in a vision, lay that holy ground.
-"Mary is there," he moaned, "and I am outward bound.
-
-"I never saw this place so beautiful,
-Never like this.  I never saw it glow.
-Spirit is on this place; it fills it full.
-So let the die be cast; I will not go.
-But I will see her face to face and know
-From her own lips what thoughts she has of me;
-And if disaster come: right; let disaster be."
-
-Back, by another way, he turned.  The sun
-Fired the yew-tops in the Roman woods.
-Lights in the valley twinkled one by one,
-The starlings whirled in dropping multitudes.
-Dusk fingered into one earth's many moods,
-Back to The Roughs he walked; he neared the brook;
-A lamp burned in the farm; he saw; his fingers shook.
-
-He had to cross the brook, to cross a field,
-Where daffodils were thick when years were young.
-Then, were she there, his fortunes should be sealed.
-Down the mud trackway to the brook he swung;
-Then while the passion trembled on his tongue,
-Dim, by the dim bridge-stile, he seemed to see
-A figure standing mute; a woman--it was she.
-
-She stood quite stilly, waiting for him there.
-She did not seem surprised; the meeting seemed
-Planned from all time by powers in the air
-To change their human fates; he even deemed
-That in another life this thing had gleamed,
-This meeting by the bridge.  He said, "It's you."
-"Yes, I," she said, "who else?  You must have known; you knew
-
-"That I should come here to the brook to see,
-After your message."  "You were out," he said.
-"Gone, and I did not know where you could be.
-Where were you, Mary, when the thing was laid?"
-"Old Mrs. Gale is dying, and I stayed
-Longer than usual, while I read the Word.
-You could have hardly gone."  She paused, her bosom stirred.
-
-"Mary, I sinned," he said.  "Not that, dear, no,"
-She said; "but, oh, you were unkind, unkind,
-Never to write a word and leave me so,
-But out of sight with you is out of mind."
-"Mary, I sinned," he said, "and I was blind.
-Oh, my beloved, are you Lion's wife?"
-"Belov'd sounds strange," she answered, "in my present life.
-
-"But it is sweet to hear it, all the same.
-It is a language little heard by me
-Alone, in that man's keeping, with my shame.
-I never thought such miseries could be.
-I was so happy in you, Michael.  He
-Came when I felt you changed from what I thought you.
-Even now it is not love, but jealousy that brought you."
-
-"That is untrue," he said.  "I am in hell.
-You are my heart's beloved, Mary, you.
-By God, I know your beauty now too well.
-We are each other's, flesh and soul, we two."
-"That was sweet knowledge once," she said; "we knew
-That truth of old.  Now, in a strange man's bed,
-I read it in my soul, and find it written red."
-
-"Is he a brute?" he asked.  "No," she replied.
-"I did not understand what it would mean.
-And now that you are back, would I had died;
-Died, and the misery of it not have been.
-Lion would not be wrecked, nor I unclean.
-I was a proud one once, and now I'm tame;
-Oh, Michael, say some word to take away my shame."
-
-She sobbed; his arms went round her; the night heard
-Intense fierce whispering passing, soul to soul,
-Love running hot on many a murmured word,
-Love's passionate giving into new control.
-Their present misery did but blow the coal,
-Did but entangle deeper their two wills,
-While the brown brook ran on by buried daffodils.
-
-
-                                  VII
-
-Upon a light gust came a waft of bells,
-Ringing the chimes for nine; a broken sweet,
-Like waters bubbling out of hidden wells,
-Dully upon those lovers' ears it beat,
-Their time was at an end.  Her tottering feet
-Trod the dim field for home; he sought an inn.
-"Oh, I have sinned," she cried, "but not a secret sin."
-
-Inside The Roughs they waited for her coming;
-Eyeing the ticking clock the household sat.
-"Nine," the clock struck; the clock-weights ran down drumming;
-Old Mother Occleve stretched her sewing flat.
-"It's nine," she said.  Old Occleve stroked the cat.
-"Ah, cat," he said, "hast had good go at mouse?"
-Lion sat listening tense to all within the house
-
-"Mary is late to-night," the gammer said.
-"The times have changed," her merry husband roared.
-"Young married couples now like lonely trade,
-Don't think of bed at all, they think of board.
-No multiplying left in people.  Lord!
-When I was Lion's age I'd had my five.
-There was some go in folk when us two took to wive."
-
-Lion arose and stalked and bit his lip.
-"Or was it six?" the old man muttered, "six.
-Us had so many I've alost the tip.
-Us were two right good souls at getting chicks.
-Two births of twins, then Johnny's birth, then Dick's" ...
-"Now give a young man time," the mother cried.
-Mary came swiftly in and flung the room door wide.
-
-Lion was by the window when she came,
-Old Occleve and his wife were by the fire;
-Big shadows leapt the ceiling from the flame.
-She fronted the three figures and came nigher.
-"Lion," she whispered, "I return my hire."
-She dropped her marriage-ring upon the table.
-Then, in a louder voice, "I bore what I was able,
-
-"And Time and marriage might have worn me down,
-Perhaps, to be a good wife and a blest,
-With little children clinging to my gown,
-And little blind mouths fumbling for my breast,
-And this place would have been a place of rest
-For you and me; we could have come to know
-The depth; but that is over; I have got to go.
-
-"He has come back, and I have got to go.
-Our marriage ends."  She stood there white and breathed.
-Old Occleve got upon his feet with "So."
-Blazing with wrath upon the hearth he seethed.
-A log fell from the bars; blue spirals wreathed
-Across the still old woman's startled face;
-The cat arose and yawned.  Lion was still a space.
-
-Old Occleve turned to Lion.  Lion moved
-Nearer to Mary, picking up the ring.
-His was grim physic from the soul beloved;
-His face was white and twitching with the sting.
-"You are my wife, you cannot do this thing,"
-He said at last.  "I can respect your pride.
-This thing affects your soul; my judgment must decide.
-
-"You are unsettled, shaken from the shock."
-"Not so," she said.  She stretched a hand to him,
-White, large and noble, steady as a rock,
-Cunning with many powers, curving, slim.
-The smoke, drawn by the door-draught, made it dim.
-"Right," Lion answered.  "You are steady.  Then
-There is but one world, Mary; this, the world of men.
-
-"And there's another world, without its bounds,
-Peopled by streaked and spotted souls who prize
-The flashiness that comes from marshy grounds
-Above plain daylight.  In their blinkered eyes
-Nothing is bright but sentimental lies,
-Such as are offered you, dear, here and now;
-Lies which betray the strongest, God alone knows how.
-
-"You, in your beauty and your whiteness, turn
-Your strong, white mind, your faith, your fearless truth,
-All for these rotten fires that so burn.
-A sentimental clutch at perished youth.
-I am too sick for wisdom, sick with ruth,
-And this comes suddenly; the unripe man
-Misses the hour, oh God.  But you, what is your plan?
-
-"What do you mean to do, how act, how live?
-What warrant have you for your life?  What trust?
-You are for going sailing in a sieve.
-This brightness is too mortal not to rust.
-So our beginning marriage ends in dust.
-I have not failed you, Mary.  Let me know
-What you intend to do, and whither you will go."
-
-"Go from this place; it chokes me," she replied.
-"This place has branded me; I must regain
-My truth that I have soiled, my faith, my pride,
-It is all poison and it leaves a stain.
-I cannot stay nor be your wife again.
-Never.  You did your best, though; you were kind.
-I have grown old to-night and left all that behind.
-
-"Goodbye."  She turned.  Old Occleve faced his son.
-Wrath at the woman's impudence was blent,
-Upon his face, with wrath that such an one
-Should stand unthrashed until her words were spent.
-He stayed for Lion's wrath; but Mary went
-Unchecked; he did not stir.  Her footsteps ground
-The gravel to the gate; the gate-hinge made a sound
-
-Like to a cry of pain after a shot.
-Swinging, it clicked, it clicked again, it swung
-Until the iron latch bar hit the slot.
-Mary had gone, and Lion held his tongue.
-Old Mother Occleve sobbed; her white head hung
-Over her sewing while the tears ran down
-Her worn, blood-threaded cheeks and splashed upon her gown.
-
-"Yes, it is true," said Lion, "she must go.
-Michael is back.  Michael was always first,
-I did but take his place.  You did not know.
-Now it has happened, and you know the worst.
-So passion makes the passionate soul accurst
-And crucifies his darling.  Michael comes
-And the savage truth appears and rips my life to thrums."
-
-Upon Old Occleve's face the fury changed
-First to contempt, and then to terror lest
-Lion, beneath the shock, should be deranged.
-But Lion's eyes were steady, though distressed.
-"Father, good-night," he said, "I'm going to rest.
-Good-night, I cannot talk.  Mother, good-night."
-He kissed her brow and went; they heard him strike a light,
-
-And go with slow depressed step up the stairs,
-Up to the door of her deserted bower;
-They heard him up above them, moving chairs;
-The memory of his paleness made them cower.
-They did not know their son; they had no power
-To help, they only saw the new-won bride
-Defy their child, and faith and custom put aside.
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-After a time men learned where Mary was:
-Over the hills, not many miles away,
-Renting a cottage and a patch of grass
-Where Michael came to see her.  Every day
-Taught her what fevers can inhabit clay,
-Shaking this body that so soon must die.
-The time made Lion old: the winter dwindled by.
-
-Till the long misery had to end or kill:
-And "I must go to see her," Lion cried;
-"I am her standby, and she needs me still;
-If not to love she needs me to decide.
-Dear, I will set you free.  Oh, my bright bride,
-Lost in such piteous ways, come back."  He rode
-Over the wintry hills to Mary's new abode.
-
-And as he topped the pass between the hills,
-Towards him, up the swerving road, there came
-Michael, the happy cause of all his ills;
-Walking as though repentance were the shame,
-Sucking a grass, unbuttoned, still the same,
-Humming a tune; his careless beauty wild
-Drawing the women's eyes; he wandered with a child.
-
-Who heard, wide-eyed, the scraps of tales which fell
-Between the fragments of the tune; they seemed
-A cherub bringing up a soul from hell.
-Meeting unlike the meeting long since dreamed.
-Lion dismounted; the great valley gleamed
-With waters far below; his teeth were set
-His heart thumped at his throat; he stopped; the two men met.
-
-The child well knew that fatal issues joined;
-He stood round-eyed to watch them, even as Fate
-Stood with his pennypiece of causes coined
-Ready to throw for issue; the bright hate
-Throbbed, that the heavy reckoning need not wait.
-Lion stepped forward, watching Michael's eyes.
-"We are old friends," he said.  "Now, Michael, you be wise,
-
-"And let the harm already done suffice;
-Go, before Mary's name is wholly gone.
-Spare her the misery of desertion twice,
-There's only ruin in the road you're on--
-Ruin for both, whatever promise shone
-In sentimental shrinkings from the fact.
-So, Michael, play the man, and do the generous act.
-
-"And go; if not for my sake, go for hers.
-You only want her with your sentiment.
-You are water roughed by every wind that stirs,
-One little gust will alter your intent
-All ways, to every wind, and nothing meant,
-Is your life's habit.  Man, one takes a wife,
-Not for a three months' fancy, but the whole of life.
-
-"We have been friends, and so I speak you fair.
-How will you bear her ill, or cross, or tired?
-Sentiment sighing will not help you there.
-You call a half life's volume not desired.
-I know your love for her.  I saw it mired,
-Mired, past going, by your first sharp taste
-Of life and work; it stopped; you let her whole life waste,
-
-"Rather than have the trouble of such love,
-You will again; but if you do it now,
-It will mean death, not sorrow.  But enough.
-You know too well you cannot keep a vow.
-There are gray hairs already on her brow.
-You brought them there.  Death is the next step.  Go,
-Before you take the step."  "No," Michael answered, "No.
-
-"As for my past, I was a dog, a cur,
-And I have paid blood-money, and still pay.
-But all my being is ablaze with her;
-There is no talk of giving up to-day.
-I will not give her up.  You used to say
-Bodies are earth.  I heard you say it.  Liar!
-You never loved her, you.  She turns the earth to fire."
-
-"Michael," said Lion, "you have said such things
-Of other women; less than six miles hence
-You and another woman felt love's wings
-Rosy and fair, and so took leave of sense.
-She's dead, that other woman, dead, with pence
-Pressed on her big brown eyes, under the ground;
-She that was merry once, feeling the world go round.
-
-"Her child (and yours) is with her sister now,
-Out there, behind us, living as they can;
-Pinched by the poverty that you allow.
-All a long autumn many rumours ran
-About Sue Jones that was: you were the man.
-The lad is like you.  Think about his mother,
-Before you turn the earth to fire with another."
-
-"That is enough," said Michael, "you shall know
-Soon, to your marrow, what my answer is;
-Know to your lying heart; now kindly go.
-The neighbours smell that something is amiss.
-We two will keep a dignity in this,
-Such as we can.  No quarrelling with me here.
-Mary might see; now go; but recollect, my dear,
-
-"That if you twit me with your wife, you lie;
-And that your further insult waits a day
-When God permits that Mary is not by;
-I keep the record of it, and shall pay.
-And as for Mary; listen: we betray
-No one.  We keep our troth-plight as we meant.
-Now go, the neighbours gather."  Lion bowed and went.
-
-Home to his memories for a month of pain,
-Each moment like a devil with a tongue,
-Urging him, "Set her free," or "Try again,"
-Or "Kill that man and stamp him into dung."
-"See her," he cried.  He took his horse and swung
-Out on the road to her; the rain was falling;
-Her dropping house-eaves splashed him when he knocked there, calling.
-
-Drowned yellow jasmine dripped; his horse's flanks
-Steamed, and dark runnels on his yellow hair
-Streaked the groomed surface into blotchy ranks.
-The noise of water dropping filled the air.
-He knocked again; but there was no one there;
-No one within, the door was locked, no smoke
-Came from the chimney stacks, no clock ticked, no one spoke.
-
-Only the water dripped and dribble-dripped,
-And gurgled through the rain-pipe to the butt;
-Drops, trickling down the windows paused or slipped;
-A wet twig scraked as though the glass were cut.
-The blinds were all drawn down, the windows shut.
-No one was there.  Across the road a shawl
-Showed at a door a space; a woman gave a call.
-
-"They're gone away," she cried.  "They're gone away.
-Been gone a matter of a week."  Where to?
-The woman thought to Wales, but could not say,
-Nor if she planned returning; no one knew.
-She looked at Lion sharply; then she drew
-The half-door to its place and passed within,
-Saying she hoped the rain would stop and spring begin.
-
-Lion rode home.  A month went by, and now
-Winter was gone; the myriad shoots of green
-Bent to the wind, like hair, upon the plough,
-And up from withered leaves came celandine.
-And sunlight came, though still the air was keen,
-So that the first March market was most fair,
-And Lion rode to market, having business there.
-
-And in the afternoon, when all was done,
-While Lion waited idly near the inn,
-Watching the pigeons sidling in the sun,
-As Jim the ostler put his gelding in,
-He heard a noise of rioting begin
-Outside the yard, with catcalls; there were shouts
-Of "Occleve.  Lion Occleve," from a pack of louts,
-
-Who hung about the courtyard-arch, and cried,
-"Yah, Occleve, of The Roughs, the married man,
-Occleve, who had the bed and not the bride."
-At first without the arch; but some began
-To sidle in, still calling; children ran
-To watch the baiting; they were farmer's leavings
-Who shouted thus, men cast for drunkenness and thievings.
-
-Lion knew most of them of old; he paid
-No heed to them, but turned his back and talked
-To Jim, of through-pin in his master's jade,
-And how no horse-wounds should be stuped or caulked.
-The rabble in the archway, not yet baulked,
-Came crowding nearer, and the boys began,
-"Who was it took your mistress, master married man?"
-
-"Who was it, master, took your wife away?"
-"I wouldn't let another man take mine."
-"She had two husbands on her wedding day."
-"See at a blush: he blushed as red as wine."
-"She'd ought a had a cart-whip laid on fine."
-The farmers in the courtyard watched the baiting,
-Grinning, the barmaids grinned above the window grating.
-
-Then through the mob of brawlers Michael stepped
-Straight to where Lion stood.  "I come," he said,
-"To give you back some words which I have kept
-Safe in my heart till I could see them paid.
-You lied about Sue Jones; she died a maid
-As far as I'm concerned, and there's your lie,
-Full in your throat, and there, and there, and in your eye.
-
-"And there's for stealing Mary" ... as he struck,
-He slipped upon a piece of peel and dropped
-Souse in a puddle of the courtyard muck;
-Loud laughter followed when he rose up sopped.
-Friends rushed to intervene, the fight was stopped.
-The two were hurried out by different ways.
-Men said, "'Tis stopped for now, but not for many days."
-
-*      *      *      *      *
-
-April appeared, the green earth's impulse came,
-Pushing the singing sap until each bud
-Trembled with delicate life as soft as flame,
-Filled by the mighty heart-beat as with blood;
-Death was at ebb, and Life in brimming flood.
-But little joy in life could Lion see,
-Striving to gird his will to set his loved one free,
-
-While in his heart a hope still struggled dim
-That the mad hour would pass, the darkness break,
-The fever die, and she return to him,
-The routed nightmare let the sleeper wake.
-"Then we could go abroad," he cried, "and make
-A new life, soul to soul; oh, love! return."
-"Too late," his heart replied.  At last he rode to learn.
-
-Bowed, but alive with hope, he topped the pass,
-And saw, below, her cottage by the way,
-White, in a garden green with springing grass,
-And smoke against the blue sky going gray.
-"God make us all the happier for to-day,"
-He muttered humbly; then, below, he spied,
-Mary and Michael entering, walking side by side.
-
-Arm within arm, like lovers, like dear lovers
-Matched by the happy stars and newly wed,
-Over whose lives a rosy presence hovers.
-Lion dismounted, seeing hope was dead.
-A child was by the road, he stroked his head,
-And "Little one," he said, "who lives below
-There, in the cottage there, where those two people go?"
-
-"They do," the child said, pointing: "Mrs. Gray
-Lives in the cottage there, and he does, too.
-They've been back near a week since being away."
-It was but seal to what he inly knew.
-He thanked the child and rode.  The Spring was blue,
-Bluer than ever, and the birds were glad;
-Such rapture in the hedges all the blackbirds had.
-
-He was not dancing to that pipe of the Spring.
-He reached The Roughs, and there, within her room,
-Bowed for a time above her wedding ring,
-Which had so chained him to unhappy doom;
-All his dead marriage haunted in the gloom
-Of that deserted chamber; all her things
-Lay still as she had left them when her love took wings.
-
-He kept a bitter vigil through the night,
-Knowing his loss, his ten years' passion wasted,
-His life all blasted, even at its height,
-His cup of life's fulfilment hardly tasted.
-Gray on the budding woods the morning hasted,
-And looking out he saw the dawn come chill
-Over the shaking acre pale with daffodil.
-
-Birds were beginning in the meadows; soon
-The blackbirds and the thrushes with their singing
-Piped down the withered husk that was the moon,
-And up the sky the ruddy sun came winging.
-Cows plodded past, yokes clanked, the men were bringing
-Milk from the barton.  Someone shouted "Hup,
-Dog, drive them dangy red ones down away on up."
-
-Some heavy hours went by before he rose.
-He went out of the house into the grass,
-Down which the wind flowed much as water flows;
-The daffodils bowed down to let it pass.
-At the brook's edge a boggy bit there was,
-Right at the field's north corner, near the bridge,
-Fenced by a ridge of earth; he sat upon the ridge,
-
-Watching the water running to the sea,
-Watching the bridge, the stile, the path beyond,
-Where the white violet's sweetness brought the bee.
-He paid the price of being overfond.
-The water babbled always from the pond
-Over the pretty shallows, chattering, tinkling,
-With trembles from the sunlight in its clearness wrinkling.
-
-So gazing, like one stunned, it reached his mind,
-That the hedge-brambles overhung the brook
-More than was right, making the selvage blind;
-The dragging brambles too much flotsam took.
-Dully he thought to mend.  He fetched a hook,
-And standing in the shallow stream he slashed,
-For hours, it seemed; the thorns, the twigs, the dead leaves splashed,
-
-Splashed and were bobbed away across the shallows;
-Pale grasses with the sap gone from them fell,
-Sank, or were carried down beyond the sallows.
-The bruised ground-ivy gave out earthy smell.
-"I must be dead," he thought, "and this is hell."
-Fiercely he slashed, till, glancing at the stile,
-He saw that Michael stood there, watching, with a smile,
-
-His old contemptuous smile of careless ease,
-As though the world with all its myriad pain
-Sufficed, but only just sufficed, to please.
-Michael was there, the robber come again.
-A tumult ran like flame in Lion's brain;
-Then, looking down, he saw the flowers shake:
-Gold, trembling daffodils; he turned, he plucked a stake
-
-Out of the hedge that he had come to mend,
-And flung his hook to Michael, crying, "Take;
-We two will settle our accounts, my friend,
-Once and for ever.  May the Lord God make
-You see your sins in time."  He whirled his stake
-And struck at Michael's head; again he struck;
-While Michael dodged and laughed, "Why, man, I bring you luck.
-
-"Don't kill a bringer of good news.  You fool,
-Stop it and listen.  I have come to say:
-Lion, for God's sake, listen and be cool.
-You silly hothead, put that stake away.
-Listen, I tell you."  But he could not stay
-The anger flaming in that passionate soul.
-Blows rained upon him thick; they stung; he lost control.
-
-Till, "If you want to fight," he cried, "let be.
-Let me get off the bridge and we will fight.
-That firm bit by the quag will do for me.
-So.  Be on guard, and God defend the right.
-You foaming madman, with your hell's delight,
-Smashing a man with stakes before he speaks:
-On guard.  I'll make you humbler for the next few weeks."
-
-The ground was level there; the daffodils
-Glimmered and danced beneath their cautious feet,
-Quartering for openings for the blow that kills.
-Beyond the bubbling brook a thrush was sweet.
-Quickly the footsteps slid; with feint and cheat,
-The weapons poised and darted and withdrew.
-"Now stop it," Michael said, "I want to talk to you."
-
-"We do not stop till one of us is dead,",
-Said Lion, rushing in.  A short blow fell
-Dizzily, through all guard, on Michael's head.
-His hedging-hook slashed blindly but too well:
-It struck in Lion's side.  Then, for a spell,
-Both, sorely stricken, staggered, while their eyes
-Dimmed under mists of blood; they fell, they tried to rise,--
-
-Tried hard to rise, but could not, so they lay,
-Watching the clouds go sailing on the sky,
-Touched with a redness from the end of day.
-There was all April in the blackbird's cry.
-And lying there they felt they had to die,
-Die and go under mould and feel no more
-April's green fire of life go running in earth's core.
-
-"There was no need to hit me," Michael said;
-"You quiet thinking fellows lose control.
-This fighting business is a foolish trade.
-And now we join the grave-worm and the mole.
-I tried to stop you.  You're a crazy soul;
-You always were hot-headed.  Well, let be:
-You deep and passionate souls have always puzzled me.
-
-"I'm sorry that I struck you.  I was hit,
-And lashed out blindly at you; you were mad.
-It would be different if you'd stopped a bit.
-You are too blind when you are angry, lad.
-Oh, I am giddy, Lion; dying, bad,
-Dying."  He raised himself, he sat, his look
-Grew greedy for the water bubbling in the brook.
-
-And as he watched it, Lion raised his head;
-Out of a bloodied clump of daffodil.
-"Michael," he moaned, "I, too, am dying: dead.
-You're nearer to the water.  Could you fill
-Your hat and give me drink?  Or would it spill?
-Spill, I expect."  "I'll try," said Michael, "try--
-I may as well die trying, since I have to die."
-
-Slowly he forced his body's failing life
-Down to the water; there he stooped and filled;
-And as his back turned Lion drew his knife,
-And hid it close, while all his being thrilled
-To see, as Michael came, the water spilled,
-Nearer and ever nearer, bright, so bright.
-"Drink," muttered Michael, "drink.  We two shall sleep to-night."
-
-He tilted up the hat, and Lion drank.
-Lion lay still a moment, gathering power,
-Then rose, as Michael gave him more, and sank.
-Then, like a dying bird whom death makes tower,
-He raised himself above the bloodied flower
-And struck with all his force in Michael's side.
-"You should not have done that," his stricken comrade cried.
-
-"No; for I meant to tell you, Lion; meant
-To tell you; but I cannot now; I die.
-That hit me to the heart and I am spent.
-Mary and I have parted; she and I
-Agreed she must return, lad.  That is why
-I came to see you.  She is coming here,
-Back to your home to-night.  Oh, my beloved dear,
-
-"You come to tread a bloody path of flowers.
-All the gold flowers are covered up with blood,
-And the bright bugles blow along the towers;
-The bugles triumph like the Plate in flood."
-His spilled life trickled down upon the mud
-Between weak, clutching fingers.  "Oh," he cried,
-"This isn't what we planned here years ago."  He died.
-
-Lion lay still while the cold tides of death
-Came brimming up his channels.  With one hand
-He groped to know if Michael still drew breath.
-His little hour was running out its sand.
-Then, in a mist, he saw his Mary stand
-Above.  He cried aloud, "He was my brother.
-I was his comrade sworn, and we have killed each other.
-
-"Oh desolate grief, beloved, and through me.
-We wise who try to change.  Oh, you wild birds,
-Help my unhappy spirit to the sea.
-The golden bowl is scattered into sherds."
-And Mary knelt and murmured passionate words
-To that poor body on the dabbled flowers:
-"Oh, beauty, oh, sweet soul, oh, little love of ours--
-
-"Michael, my own heart's darling, speak; it's me,
-Mary.  You know my voice.  I'm here, dear, here.
-Oh, little golden-haired one, listen.  See,
-It's Mary, Michael.  Speak to Mary, dear.
-Oh, Michael, little love, he cannot hear;
-And you have killed him, Lion; he is dead.
-My little friend, my love, my Michael, golden head.
-
-"We had such fun together, such sweet fun,
-My love and I, my merry love and I.
-Oh, love, you shone upon me like the sun.
-Oh, Michael, say some little last good-bye."
-Then in a great voice Lion called, "I die.
-Go home and tell my people.  Mary.  Hear.
-Though I have wrought this ruin, I have loved you, dear.
-
-"Better than he; not better, dear, as well.
-If you could kiss me, dearest, at this last.
-We have made bloody doorways from our hell,
-Cutting our tangle.  Now, the murder past,
-We are but pitiful poor souls; and fast
-The darkness and the cold come.  Kiss me, sweet;
-I loved you all my life; but some lives never meet
-
-"Though they go wandering side by side through Time.
-Kiss me," he cried.  She bent, she kissed his brow:
-"Oh, friend," she said, "you're lying in the slime."
-"Three blind ones, dear," he murmured, "in the slough,
-Caught fast for death; but never mind that now;
-Go home and tell my people.  I am dying,
-Dying, dear, dying now."  He died; she left him lying,
-
-And kissed her dead one's head and crossed the field.
-"They have been killed," she called, in a great crying.
-"Killed, and our spirits' eyes are all unsealed.
-The blood is scattered on the flowers drying."
-It was the hush of dusk, and owls were flying;
-They hooted as the Occleves ran to bring
-That sorry harvest home from Death's red harvesting.
-
-They laid the bodies on the bed together.
-And "You were beautiful," she said, "and you
-Were my own darling in the April weather.
-You knew my very soul, you knew, you knew.
-Oh, my sweet, piteous love, I was not true.
-Fetch me fair water and the flowers of spring;
-My love is dead, and I must deck his burying."
-
-They left her with her dead; they could not choose
-But grant the spirit burning in her face
-Rights that their pity urged them to refuse.
-They did her sorrow and the dead a grace.
-All night they heard her passing footsteps trace
-Down to the garden from the room of death.
-They heard her singing there, lowly, with gentle breath,
-
-To the cool darkness full of sleeping flowers,
-Then back, still singing soft, with quiet tread,
-But at the dawn her singing gathered powers
-Like to the dying swan who lifts his head
-On Eastnor, lifts it, singing, dabbled red,
-Singing the glory in his tumbling mind,
-Before the doors burst in, before death strikes him blind.
-
-So triumphing her song of love began,
-Ringing across the meadows like old woe
-Sweetened by poets to the help of man
-Unconquered in eternal overthrow;
-Like a great trumpet from the long ago
-Her singing towered; all the valley heard.
-Men jingling down to meadow stopped their teams and stirred.
-
-And they, the Occleves, hurried to the door,
-And burst it, fearing; there the singer lay
-Drooped at her lover's bedside on the floor,
-Singing her passionate last of life away.
-White flowers had fallen from a blackthorn spray
-Over her loosened hair.  Pale flowers of spring
-Filled the white room of death; they covered everything.
-
-Primroses, daffodils, and cuckoo-flowers.
-She bowed her singing head on Michael's breast.
-"Oh, it was sweet," she cried, "that love of ours.
-You were the dearest, sweet; I loved you best.
-Beloved, my beloved, let me rest
-By you forever, little Michael mine.
-Now the great hour is stricken, and the bread and wine
-
-"Broken and spilt; and now the homing birds
-Draw to a covert, Michael; I to you.
-Bury us two together," came her words.
-The dropping petals fell about the two.
-Her heart had broken; she was dead.  They drew
-Her gentle head aside; they found it pressed
-Against the broidered 'kerchief spread on Michael's breast,
-
-The one that bore her name in Michael's hair,
-Given so long before.  They let her lie,
-While the dim moon died out upon the air,
-And happy sunlight coloured all the sky.
-The last cock crowed for morning; carts went by;
-Smoke rose from cottage chimneys; from the byre
-The yokes went clanking by, to dairy, through the mire.
-
-In the day's noise the water's noise was stilled,
-But still it slipped along, the cold hill-spring,
-Dropping from leafy hollows, which it filled,
-On to the pebbly shelves which made it sing;
-Glints glittered on it from the 'fisher's wing;
-It saw the moorhen nesting; then it stayed
-In a great space of reeds where merry otters played.
-
-Slowly it loitered past the shivering reeds
-Into a mightier water; thence its course
-Becomes a pasture where the salmon feeds,
-Wherein no bubble tells its humble source;
-But the great waves go rolling, and the horse
-Snorts at the bursting waves and will not drink,
-And the great ships go outward, bubbling to the brink,
-
-Outward, with men upon them, stretched in line,
-Handling the halliards to the ocean's gates,
-Where flicking windflaws fill the air with brine,
-And all the ocean opens.  Then the mates
-Cry, and the sunburnt crew no longer waits,
-But sing triumphant and the topsail fills
-To this old tale of woe among the daffodils.
-
-
-
-
-                Printed In the United States of America.
-
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-             The following pages contain advertisements of
-                  Macmillan poems by the same author.
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-
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-
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-by the Royal Society of Literature for the best imaginative work of the
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-
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-poetry and in the playwriting craft."--JOHN GALSWORTHY.
-
-"--recreates a wholly new drama of existence."--WILLIAM STANLEY
-BRAITHWAITE, _N. Y. Times_.
-
-"Mr. Masefield comes like a flash of light across contemporary English
-poetry, and he trails glory where his imagination reveals the substances
-of life.  The improbable has been accomplished by Mr. Masefield; he has
-made poetry out of the very material that has refused to yield it for
-almost a score of years.  It has only yielded it with a passion of
-Keats, and shaped it with the imagination of Coleridge."--_Boston
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-
-"Originality, force, distinction, and deep knowledge of the human
-heart."--_Chicago Record-Herald_.
-
-"They are truly great pieces."--Kentucky Post.
-
-"A vigor and sincerity rare in modern English literature."--_The
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-
-"If Mr. Masefield has occasionally appeared to touch a reminiscent chord
-with George Meredith, it is merely an example of his good taste and the
-sameness of big themes."--GEORGE MIDDLETON in _La Foliette's Magazine_.
-
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-
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-literature."--_Boston Transcript_.
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-
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-produced a rare poem of the sea, which has made Mr. Masefield's position
-in literature secure beyond the reach of caviling."--_Everybody's
-Magazine_.
-
-"Masefield has prisoned in verse the spirit of life at sea."--_N. Y.
-Sun_.
-
-"There is strength about everything Masefield writes that compels the
-feeling that he has an inward eye on which he draws to shape new films
-of old pictures.  In these pictures is freshness combined with power,
-which form the keynotes of his poetry."--_N. Y. Globe_.
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