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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..091a6f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #52456 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52456) diff --git a/old/52456-8.txt b/old/52456-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b7af8d4..0000000 --- a/old/52456-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3978 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Harps Hung Up In Babylon, by Arthur Colton - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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 -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Harps Hung Up In Babylon - -Author: Arthur Colton - -Release Date: June 30, 2016 [EBook #52456] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - - -HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON - -By Arthur Colton - -New York: Henry Holt And Company - -1907 - - -DEDICATED TO - -MY FATHER - - - - _The harps hung up in Babylon, - - Their loosened strings rang on, sang on - - And cast their murmurs forth upon - - The roll and roar of Babylon: - - "_Forget me, Lord, if I forget - - Jerusalem for Babylon, - - If I forget the vision set - - High as the head of Lebanon - - Is lifted over Syria yet, - - If I forget and bow me down - - To brutish gods of Babylon._" - - - _Two rivers to each other run - - In the very midst of Babylon, - - And swifter than their current fleets - - The restless river of the streets - - Of Babylon, of Babylon, - - And Babylon's towers smite the sky, - - But higher reeks to God most high - - The smoke of her iniquity: - - "_But oh, betwixt the green and blue - - To walk the hills that once we knew - - When you were pure and I was true," - - So rang the harps in Babylon-- - - "_Or ere along the roads of stone - - Had led us captive one by one - - The subtle gods of Babylon._ " - - - _The harps hung up in Babylon - - Hung silent till the prophet dawn, - - When Judah's feet the highway burned - - Back to the holy hills returned, - - And shook their dust on Babylon. - - In Zion's halls the wild harps rang, - - To Zion's walls their smitten clang, - - And lo! of Babylon they sang, - - They only sang of Babylon: - - "_Jehovah, round whose throne of awe - - The vassal stars their orbits draw - - Within the circle of Thy law, - - Canst Thou make nothing what is done, - - Or cause Thy servant to be one - - That has not been in Babylon, - - That has not known the power and pain - - Of life poured out like driven rain? - - I will go down and find again - - My soul that's lost in Babylon._" - - - - -WEST-EASTERLY MORALITIES - - - - -THE CAPTIVE - - - - There was a king, returned from putting down - - The stiff rebellion of an Afghan town, - - Who marked for death a captive. Then arose - - The ragged Afghan from the marble floor, - - Nor longer to the king's feet weeping clung, - - But in the babble of his foreign tongue - - He cursed him, as that ancient saying goes: - - "Who comes to wash himself in death, before - - Entering the pool, empties his heart ashore." - - - "What mean these words?" The king's voice, cold - - - - and loud, - - Rang in the space above the frightened crowd, - - That bent before it, as when storm-winds blow - - Their warning horns, and the storm crouches low - - Still on the solid hills with sombre eyes, - - Long lightnings slant, and muffled thunders rise, - - And startled forests, helpless to retreat, - - Stand with their struggling arms and buried feet. - - - An aged vizier rose, and bowed his head, - - Clasping his gentle withered hands: "He said: - - 'To two God gives the shelter of His cloak, - - Him who keeps down the anger in his breast, - - Him who in justice counteth mercy best; - - God shelter me and thee.' The man so spoke." - - - And the king bade them set the Afghan free, - - Who in the face of death spoke graciously. - - - Ben Ali, the young vizier, to his feet - - Leaped: "As I hold by counsellors it is meet - - Truth should be spoken at a king's demand, - - This man reviled thee with a shameful word!" - - Whereat the king was mute, as one who heard - - A voice in his own breast; turned with his hand - - The bracelets on his arm; then speaking low, - - Once more he bade them let the Afghan go. - - -THE KING. - - - "Art thou so upright, and by God made free - - To be malignant in integrity? - - Is it the truth alone thou owest to the king? - - Nay, but all oracles that whispering - - Speak in the central chamber of the heart, - - Saving when envy speaks, which spoke in thee. - - But thou, my father, shall not thy name be - - Henceforth 'The Merciful'? For so thou art. - - So spoke the king, and, leaning head to head, - - The courtiers whispered, and Ben Ali said: - - -BEN ALI. - - - "Is it not written: 'When the truth is known, - - Then only the king's mercy is his own'? - - If then the king his servant will forgive - - For rendering back the king's prerogative, - - Forgive the misshaped mouth ill made to lie, - - Forgive the straitened walk, the single eye, - - Forgive the holy dead for truth who died, - - And those who thought their deaths were sanctified; - - With such forgiveness let me then go hence, - - And, in some desert place of penitence - - And meditation, read it in the dust, - - If He who sends His rain upon the just, - - And sends His rain upon the unjust too, - - Is mercifully false, or merely true." - - -THE KING. - - - And the king said: "Thou livest! And thy words - - Are more for peril than a thousand swords! - - Is it king's custom to bear two men's scorn - - In the short compass of a single morn? - - Go to thine house and wait until thou know - - The king's hand follows when his voice says, Go." - - Ben Ali from the court went forth in shame, - - And after him the shivering Afghan came, - - Whom, taking by the garment, he led down - - Through the packed highways of the busy town, - - To where in flowers and shadows, peace and pride, - - His gardened palace by the river side - - Lay like a lotus in perfumed repose; - - There set a feast for him as for the king, - - With friendly words and courteous welcoming - - Sat with the ragged Afghan, while beneath - - The dancing girls, each with her jasmine wreath,-- - - And one that dallied with a crimson rose,-- - - Sang softly in the garden cool, that sank. - - By lawn and terrace to the river's bank: - - - - "So dear thou art, - - The seed that thou hast planted in the mould - - And fertile fallow of my heart - - - Hath borne a thousand-fold, - - - - So dear thou art. - - - - "Sweet love, wild love, - - Love will I sow and love will reap, - - And where the golden harvest bends above - - There will I find sleep, - - - - Sweet love, child love." - - - And when the feast was over, and remained - - Only the fruits, and wine in flasks contained, - - And costly drinking cups, Ben Ali rose - - And left the chattering Afghan with a smile, - - To walk among his aloe trees awhile, - - Thinking: "Day closes. Ere another close - - These things I see no more, for a king's wrath - - Leaps foaming down and falls, as cataracts leap - - And fall from sleeping pools to pools asleep, - - And either ere to-morrow night I die, - - Or all my days in exiled penury - - Among strange peoples tread the strangers' path." - - - And while in shadows with slow pace he went - - The ruddy daylight faded in the west, - - And she that held the rose against her breast - - Sang to the stirring of some instrument: - - - - "The sea - - - That rounds in gloom - - - The pallid pearl, - - - - Where corals curl - - - The rosy edges of their barren bloom, - - - And cold seamaidens wear - - - - Inwoven in their hair - - A light that draws the sailor down the wet ways of - - - - despair, - - In whose green silken glisten - - They drift and wait and listen, - - And the sea-monsters lift their heads and stare! - - - The sorrowing sea, - - Like life in me, - - Wavers in homeless dreams till love is known - - And love for life atone." - - - Meanwhile the Afghan, glancing here and there, - - Saw no one by him, and arose in haste, - - And took the drinking cups with jewels graced, - - And hid them in his rags, from stair to stair - - Slid like a shadow, and from hall to hall; - - So vanished, like a shadow from the wall. - - - Ben Ali from his aloe-planted lawn - - Returned, and saw the drinking cups were gone, - - And smiled and leaned him in the window dim - - To watch the dancing girls, who, seeing him - - Began again to weave, to part, to close, - - With tinkling bells and shimmer of white feet, - - And she that drooped her head above a rose - - Sang in the twilight, languid, slow, and sweet: - - - - "Close-curtained rose, - - - Open thy petals and the dew disclose. - - - - Hide not so long - - - Those crimson shades among, - - - In silken splendour - - - That nestling tender, - - That dewdrop cradled in the heart of thee, - - - God meant for me. - - - "A little while, - - And naught to me the blossom of thy smile. - - - Forgive all men; - - Yea, love, forgive the false and trust again, - - - For life deceiveth, - - - And love believeth; - - Within love's merciful chambers let us stay, - - - The while we may." - - - The singing ceased. There rose a storm of calls - - And sudden clangour in his outer halls; - - And these were hushed, and some one cried: "The - - - - king!" - - Followed the tread of armed men entering. - - Ben Ali rose, thinking, "My time was brief;" - - And lo, not only the tall king stood there, - - His bracelets glittering in the torches' glare, - - And gloomy eyes beneath his sweeping hair, - - But at his feet cringed the swart Afghan thief. - - - "Thus saith the law: 'The thief shall have his hands - - Struck from his wrists, in payment of the wage - - Belonging to his sin.' The king commands - - -THE KING. - - - That thou, Ben Ali, wisdom's flower in youth, - - Mirror of righteousness and well of truth, - - Critic of kings, rebuker of old age, - - Shalt judge this Afghan dog as the law stands." - - - Ben Ali stood with folded arms, and face - - Bent down in meditation for a space. - - - - BEN ALI. - - - "It is good law, O King. But is it not - - Good law that, 'He who stealeth to devote - - To some religious purpose and intent - - Is held exempted from that punishment'?" - - -THE KING. - - - "It is good law. But the law holds 'Unproved - - The finer motive which the thief hath moved - - Unless the pious dedication be - - Sequent immediate to the thievery.'" - - -BEN ALI. - - - "It is good law, O King, and good to heed. - - Now, of 'religious purposes' it calls - - First, 'to relieve the needy of their need.' - - Can it be doubted that this Afghan falls - - Among the 'needy,' and became a thief - - To his own need's immediate relief? - - - Nay, in the very act of thieving vowed - - That 'pious dedication'? Which allowed, - - Follows the law's exemption." - - - - The king smiled, - - And said: "Set free this good man. To thy wild - - Bleak mountains, Afghan. Is the world so small - - That thou must steal--if thou must steal at all-- - - From such a friend as this?" The Afghan fled, - - The king across Ben Ali's shoulders passed - - His heavy arm and to the gardens led, - - Where fluttered groups of dancing girls, aghast, - - Huddled aside, and through the night at last - - Came to the river, and Ben Ali said: - - -BEN ALI. - - - "Hearken, O King, thy counsellor's report: - - Thou keepest a young vizier in thy court - - Unfit to be a counsellor to power, - - Fit only to jest with an idle hour, - - Who holds the scales of justice not in awe, - - And lightly quibbles with the holy law, - - And takes the lives of trembling men to be - - The butt and plaything of his casuistry." - - -THE KING. - - - "Hearken, O Counsellor, thy king's desire: - - Ere next thou blow ablaze the sullen fire - - That smoulders in him, see that thou provide - - Withal a secret place in which to hide, - - Lest the king's darkened days on darkness fall - - And miss for aye a bright face at his side; - - For, be it truth thou sayest--yea, and truth - - Is the sharp sword and javelin of youth-- - - That every merciful and smiling lie - - Shall come to smile and curse us ere we die, - - That the king standeth as a massive wall - - Which leans to ruin, if it lean at all - - Out of the upright line of equity; - - Yet, ah, my bitter counsellor," said the king, - - "When thou wouldst speak some truth that bears a sting, - - I pray thee, speak as bearing love to me, - - Who am of such as, lonely for their kind, - - In dusty deserts of the spirit find - - A naked penitence which no man sees. - - My cup of life is drunken to the lees, - - And thine hath still its bead along the brim; - - And therefore, as in halls empty and dim, - - Wakens thy step the echoes in my heart, - - And all thy heady ways and reckless tongue, - - That splits the marrow like a Kalmuck's dart, - - Seem like my very own when first I flung - - A challenge in the teeth of life. God knows, - - The stars will not again look down on me - - With their old radiant intensity; - - Only I seem to see, as by the gleam - - Of boatmen's torches mirrored in the stream - - That bears them on, a faith that not alone - - He builds His temple of enduring stone, - - But sends the flowers that in its crannies creep, - - And in His very scales of justice throws - - The young man's dreams, the tears of them that weep, - - The words the maiden murmurs to the rose." - - - The king was still. A passing boatman's oars - - Sent the lit ripples to the shadowed shores. - - A near muézzin's long, high-towered call - - Went yearning up to star-lit architraves, - - And dying left a silence over all, - - Saving the grassy whisper of small waves. - - -THE BEGGAR - - - There was a man whom a king loved, and heard - - With smiles his swift step and impetuous word - - Among the slow-paced counsellors. To the young - - Belong the careless hand, the daring tongue. - - Pleasure and pride are the tall flowers that spring - - Within the fertile shadow of the king. - - - There sat a beggar in the market-place, - - Of sullen manner and a surly face, - - Who caught him by the cloak; that with a stone - - He smote the beggar's head, and so passed on, - - Cassim Ben Ali, up the palace hill, - - Leaving the beggar, fallen, grim, and still. - - - Sudden as the king's favour is his wrath. - - Who for the morrow knows what joy he hath? - - Nor can he pile it in his vaults to stay - - The crowding misery of another day. - - So fell Ben Ali for an arrowy word - - And barbed jest that the king's anger stirred, - - And he was led beyond the noisy brawls - - Of traders chaffering at the market stalls, - - And in a pit thrown near the city walls. - - Whither the beggar came, and came alone, - - A cobble in his hand, beside the pit. - - "The wise man waiteth till the time is fit, - - The foolish hasteneth to grief," he said, - - Casting the cobble on Ben Ali's head: - - "I am that beggar, and behold that stone." - - - Ben Ali on the morrow was restored - - To the benignant presence of his lord, - - And sending for the beggar, softly said: - - "This is that stone." The beggar bowed his head: -'"And this my head, which is among the lowly, - - As thine is high, and God is just and holy," - - And threw himself lamenting on the floor. - - - Ben Ali pondered then a moment more. - - "Thou sayest truly, God is just; and lo! - - Both of our heads have ached beneath a blow. - - I in my time grow wiser, and divine - - The beating of thy head will not heal mine; - - And have considered and have found it wise, - - To exchange with thee some other merchandise. - - Take this gold dinar, and remember then - - That God is just, if so I come again - - Into a pit and ask return of thee." - - - Once more Ben Ali was brought low, to see - - The king's clenched hand, fixed look, and rigid frown, - - Thrust from the palace gate to wander down, - - Stripped of his silks, in poverty and shame, - - Into the market where the traders came - - With files of sag-necked camels o'er the sands, - - Bringing the corded wares of hidden lands. - - And walking there with eyes now wet and dim, - - He sought the beggar, found, and said to him: - - "Remember thine exchange of merchandise, - - Who sayest, God is just and 'thou art wise." - - - "Who sayeth 'God is just,' speaks not of me; - - Who calleth thee a fool, means none but thee," - - Answered the beggar. "For I understood - - To pay the evil back and keep the good - - Is increase of the good in merchandise; - - Therefore I keep the dinar, and am wise." - - - Which thing was brought to the king's ear, and he - - Summoned the two to stand before his knee, - - And took the dinar from the beggar's hand, - - And giving to Ben Ali, gave command - - To those who waited for his word: "Bring stones - - That he may beat with them this beggar's bones, - - Who mocks at justice, saying 'God is just,' - - And boasting wisdom, fouls her in the dust." - - - Ben Ali through his meditation heard - - The counsellors approving the king's word, - - And spoke above their even murmuring: - - "Let justice be with God and with the king, - - Who are not subject to a moment's chance, - - Made and unmade by shifting circumstance. - - This is the wisdom of the poor and weak: - - The smitten cheek shall warn its brother cheek, - - And each man to his nook of comfort run, - - His little portion of the morning sun, - - His little corner of the noonday shade, - - His wrongs forgotten as his debts unpaid. - - Let not the evil and the good we do - - Be ghosts to haunt us, phantoms to pursue. - - I have the dinar and would fain be clear - - Of further trading with this beggar here; - - For he nor I have caused the world to be, - - Nor govern kingdoms with our equity." - - - "Art thou so poor then, and the beggar wise, - - God's justice hidden, and the king's astray?" - - Answered the king, slow-voiced, with brooding eyes. - - "Art thou so weak, and strong to drive away - - Far from to-day the ghost of yesterday? - - Free is thy lifted head, while on mine own - - The gathered past lies heavier than the crown? - - So be it as thou sayest, with him and thee, - - Thou who forgivest evil bitterly." - - - So spoke the king. Ben Ali's steps once more - - Were swift and silken on the palace floor. - - The beggar went with grim, unchanging face - - Back to his begging in the market-place. - - - - -THE PILGRIM - - - - I heard a pilgrim near a temple gate - - Praying, "I have no fear, for Thou art Fate. - - - "Morn, eve, noon, if I look up to Thee, - - Wilt Thou at night look down, remembering me? - - - "Nay, then, my sins so great, my service small,"-- - - So prayed he at the gate,--"forget them all. - - - "Of claims and rights a load the while I keep, - - How in Thy nights, O God, to smile and sleep? - - - "Pardon, neglect, or slay, as is most meet; - - My beaten face I lay beneath Thy feet." - - - "Pilgrim," I said, "hath He, who toils the while, - - Bade thee, of burdens free, to sleep and smile? - - - "Who built the hills on high, and laid the sea, - - Set in thy heart the cry, 'Remember me!'" - - - - -ALLAH'S TENT - - - - With fore cloth smoothed by careful hands - - The night's serene pavilion stands, - - And many cressets hang on high - - Against its arching canopy. - - - Peace to His children God hath sent, - - We are at peace within His tent. - - Who knows without these guarded doors - - What wind across the desert roars? - - - - -THE POET AND THE FOUNTAIN - - - - Firdausi by the palace fountain stood - - Hard by the Court of Song in quiet mood. - - - The Sultan smiled to see him. "Thy beard shows - - Thee nearer to the cypress than the rose, - - - "Firdausi. Is thy heart warm and blood cold, - - Who singest of love and beauty, being old?" - - - Firdausi to the fountain turned his eyes, - - Grey-mossed and lichened by the centuries. - - - "What maketh this sweet music, sayest thou? - - The water or the stones?" The Sultan's brow - - - Was overclouded. "Were the water fled, - - There were no music certainly," he said. - - - "The water singing through the garden runs. - - Nay, but there is no music in dead stones." - - Firdausi bowed: "Allah His grace unfold - - Upon the Sultan! Is the water old?" - - - - -THE CHENEAUX ISLANDS - - - - - There is a wistful, lingering regret - - Ever for those whose feet are set - - On other paths than where their childhood moved, - - - - And, having loved - - The old colonial hills, no level plain, - - No tangled forest, the same hope contain, - - And by the northern lakes I stand unsatisfied, - - Watching the tremulous shadows start and slide, - - Hearing the listless waves among the stones, - - - - And the low tones - - Of a breeze that through the hemlocks creeps. - - Veiled in grey ashes sleeps - - The campfire, and thin streams - - Of smoke float off like beckoning dreams - - Of peaceful men. Around me broods - - The sense of aged solitudes, - - Of lonely places where - - Cold winds have torn blue midnight air - - And dipped beneath the edges of the leaves - - - To moons unchronicled. - - - - We bring - - The talk of cities and of schools, - - Yet to these quiet pools, - - Calm with a thousand silent morns and eves, - - It seems no alien thing; - - The shadows of the woods - - Are brothers to our moods. - - Nor less in the quick rush of vivid streets, - - And libraries with long rows of mouldering thought, - - Is nature, than in green retreats; - - Whither from year to year - - I come with eager eye and ear, - - Hoping, some leafy hour, to feel, - - In ways of civic feet unsought, - - A secret from the brown earth steal - - Into my spirit, and reveal - - Some wisdom of a larger worth, - - Some quiet truth of growth and birth; - - If we, the kindred on the earth, - - Are kindred with her, to one issue moving on - - Of melancholy night or shimmering dawn, - - Surely befits we wanderers wild - - To her confederate breast be reconciled; - - Out of her primal sleep we came, - - And she still dreams; of us that hold - - Such strenuous course and venture bold, - - Whom such unknown ambition stirs, - - Asks of our bright, unsteady flame: - - What issue ours that is not hers? - - - How came he once to these green isles - - And channels winding miles and miles, - - Cross clasped in hand and pale face set, - - The Jesuit, Père Marquette? - - To sombre nations, with the blight - - Of dead leaves in the blood, - - The eager priest into their solitude - - And melancholy mood - - Flashed like a lamp at night - - In sluggish sleepers' eyes; - - Out of the east where mornings rise - - Came like the morning into ashen skies - - With the east's subtle fire and surprise, - - And stern beyond his knowledge brought - - A message other than he thought: - - "Lo! an edict here from the throne of fate, - - Whose banners are lifted and armies wait; - - The fight moves on at the front, it says, - - And the word hath come after many days: - - Ye shall walk no more in your ancient ways." - - - Father, the word has come and gone, - - The torpid races - - Slumbered, and vanished from their places; - - And in our ears intoning ring - - The words of that most weary king - - In Israel, King Solomon. - - Over the earth's untroubled face - - The restless generations pace, - - Finding their graves regretfully; - - Is there no crown, nor any worth, - - For men who build upon the earth - - What time treads down forgetfully? - - Unchanged the graven statute lies, - - The code star-lettered in the skies. - - It is written there, it is written here; - - The law that knows not far or near - - - Is sacrifice; - - And bird and flower, and beast and tree, - - Kingdom and planet wheeling free - - Are sacrificed incessantly. - - From dark, through dusk, toward light, we tread - - On the thorn-crowned foreheads of the dead. - - The law says not there is nothing lost; - - It only says that the end is gain; - - The gain may be at the helpless cost - - Of hands that give in vain; - - And in this world, where many give, - - None gives the widow's mite save he - - That, having but one life to live, - - Gives that one life so utterly. - - Thou that unknowing didst obey, - - With straitened thought and clouded eye, - - The law, we learn at this late day, - - O Père Marquette, whose war is done, - - Ours is the charge to bear it on, - - To hold the veering banner high - - - Until we die, - - To meet the issue in whose awe - - Our kindred earth we stand above, - - If knowing sacrifice is law, - - We sacrifice ourselves for love. - - - Or are we then such stuff as fills a dream? - - Some wide-browed spirit dreams us, where he stands - - Watching the long twilight's stream - - Below his solemn hands, - - Whose reverie and shaping thought began - - Before the stars in their large order ran? - - Fluid we are, our days flow on, - - And round them flow the rivers of the sun, - - As long ago in places where - - The Halicarnassian wandered with his curious eyes - - On Egypt's mysteries, - - And Babylonian gardens of the air - - Hung green above the city wall. - - If this were all, if this were all-- - - If it were all of life to give - - Our hearts to God and slip away, - - And if the end for which we live - - Were simple as the close of day, - - Were simple as the fathers say, - - Were simple as their peace was deep - - Who in the old faith fell asleep! - - - No night bird now makes murmur; in the trees - - No drowsy chuckle of dark-nested ease. - - The campfire's last grey embers fall. - - With dipping prow and shallop sides - - The slender moon to her mooring rides - - Over the ridge of Isle La Salle, - - Under the lee of the world, - - Her filmy halliards coiled and thin sails furled, - - And silver clouds about her phantom rudder curled. - - - - -THE SHEPHERD AND THE KNIGHT - - -SHEPHERD. - - - Sir Knight with stalwart spear and shield, - - Where ridest thou to-day? - - The sunlight lies across the field; - - Thou art weary in the way; - - Dismount and stay. - -KNIGHT. - - - Peace to thine house and folds and stalls, - - I ride upon my quest. - - I travel until evening falls - - Whither my Lord deems best, - - By me unguessed. - -SHEPHERD. - - - Who is your lord that sends you forth, - - Good knight, from your own land? - - He needs must be of royal worth, - - To whom such warriors stand - - At his command. - - -KNIGHT. - - - We have not seen His face, we hear - - A voice that bids us be - - The servants of an unborn year, - - Knights of a day that we - - Shall never see. - -SHEPHERD. - - - Good reason that ye go astray! - - Warrior, I fain would learn-- - - So many young knights wend this way-- - - What wages they may earn, - - For none return. - -KNIGHT. - - - They go before me in the night, - - They follow after me, - - They earn the triumph of the right, - - Their wages are to be - - Faithful as He. - -SHEPHERD. - - - Look you, Sir Knight, I take mine ease, - - Fat are my sheep and kine, - - I have mine own philosophies, - - My way of life------ - -KNIGHT. - - - - - Is thine, - - And mine is mine. - -SHEPHERD. - - - Why, now! The man is gone! Pardie! - - A silly wage! I trow - - His lord that pays him mad as he, - - Fools are a crop will grow - - Though no man sow. - - - - -THE HERB OF GRACE - - - - To all who fain would pass their days - - Among old books and quiet ways, - - And walk with cool, autumnal pace - - The bypaths of tranquillity, - - To each his own select desire, - - To each his old familiar briar - - And silent friend and chattering fire, - - Companions in civility. - - - Outside the world goes rolling by, - - And on the trampling and the cry - - There comes the long, low mournful sigh - - Of night winds roaming vagrantly; - - They see too many sullen sights - - This side the stars on winter nights; - - A kind of hopeless Jacobites. ---This brand, indeed, smokes fragrantly. - - - The perfect mixture's far to seek; - - Your pure Virginia, pale and meek, - - Requires the passion of Perique, - - The Latakian lyrics; - - Perfection is the crown that flies - - The reaching hands and longing eyes, - - And art demands what life denies - - To nicotine empirics. - - - Sirs, you remember Omar's choice, - - Wine, verses, and his lady's voice - - Making the wilderness rejoice? - - It needs one more ingredient. - - A boon, the Persian knew not of, - - Had made to mellower music move - - The lips to wine, if not to love, - - A trifle too obedient. - - - This weed I call the "herb of grace." - - My reasons are, as some one says, - - "Between me and my fireplace." - - Ophelia spoke of rue, you know. - - "There's rue for you and there's for me, - - But you must wear it differently." - - Quite true, of course.--Your pipe I see - - Draws hard. They sometimes do, you know. - - - Alas, if we in fancy's train - - To drowse beside our fires are fain, - - Letting the world slip by amain, - - Uneager of its verities, - - Our neighbours will not let us be - - At peace with inutility. - - They quote us maxims, two or three, - - Or similar asperities. - - - I question not a man may bear - - His still soul walled from noisy care, - - And walk serene in places where - - An ancient wrath is denizen; - - The pilgrim's feet may know no ease, - - And yet his heart's delight increase, - - For all ways that are trod in peace - - Lead upward to God's benison. - - - No less I doubt our age's need - - Is some of Izaak Walton's creed.-- - - Your pardon, gentlemen! I breed - - Impatience with a homily.-- - - Our flag there were a sombre type, - - If every star implied a stripe. - - I wish you all a wholesome pipe, - - And ingle blinking bonnily. - - - Poor ethics these of mine, I fear, - - And yet, when our green leaves and sere - - Have dropped away, perhaps we'll hear - - These questions answered curiously. - - The battered book here on my knees? - - Is Herrick, his "Hesperides." - - Gold apples from the guarded trees - - Are stored here not penuriously. - - - The poet of the gurgling phrase - - And quaint conceits of elder days, - - Loved holiness and primrose ways - - About in equal quantities, - - Wassail and yuletide, feast and fair, - - Blown petticoats, a child's low prayer; - - A fine, old pagan joy is there; - - Some wild-rose muse's haunt it is. - - - Mine herb of grace, that kindred art - - To all who choose "the better part," - - Grant us the old world's childlike heart, - - Now grown an antique rarity! - - With mayflowers on our swords and shields - - We'll learn to babble of green fields - - Like Falstaff, whom good humour yields - - A place still in its charity. - - Visions will come at times; I note - - One with a cool, white, delicate throat; - - Glory of names that shine remote, - - From towers of high endeavouring. - - - Care not for these, nor care to roam, - - Ulysses, o'er the beckoning foam. - - "Here rest and call content our home" - - Beside our fire's soft wavering. - - - - -VERSES FROM "THE CANTICLE OF THE ROAD" - - - - I - - - On the open road, with the wind at heel - - Who is keen of scent and yelping loud, - - Stout heart and bounding blood we feel, - - Who follow fancy till day has bowed - - Her forehead pure to her evening prayer - - And drawn the veil on her wind-blown hair. - - Free with the hawk and the wind we stride - - The open road, and the world is wide - - From rim to rim, and the skies hung high, - - And room between for a hawk to fly - - With tingling wing and lust of the eye. - - -II - - - Broad morning, blue morning, oh, jubilant wind! - - Lord, Thou hast made our souls to be - - Fluent and yearning long, as the sea - - Yearns after the moon, and follows her, - - With boon of waves and sibilant purr, - - Round this world and past and o'er - - All waste sea-bottoms and curving shore, - - Only once more and again to find - - The same sea-bottoms and beaten beach, - - The same sweet moon beyond his reach - - And drawing him onward as before. - - -III - - - Hark, from his covert what a note - - The wood thrush whirls from his kingly throat - - And the bobolink strikes that silver wire - - He stole from the archangelic choir, - - From a psaltery played in the glory alone - - By an amber angel beneath the throne. - - He strikes it twice, and deep, deep, deep, - - Where the soul of music lies sleep.-- - - The rest of his song he learned, Ah me! - - From a gay little devil, loose and free, - - Making trouble and love in Arcadie. - - -IV - - - My brother of the dusty feet - - Dragged eastward as my own go west, - - Here from the birth of time addressed, - - And the manner of your coming set - - To this event, that we might meet, - - And glance, and pass, and then forget; - - We meet no more beneath the sun, - - Yet for an instant we were one. - - And now once more, as you and I, - - In dungeons of ourselves we lie, - - And through the grated windows peer; - - As though a falling star should shine - - A moment in your eyes and mine, - - Then darkness there, and silence here. - - - - V - - - Oh, Fons Bandusiæ, babbling spring, - - From what deep wells come whispering! - - What message bringest thou, what spells - - From buried mountain oracles, - - Thou limpid, lucid mystery? - - Nay, this one thing I read in thee, - - That saint or sinner, wise or fool, - - Who dips hot lips within thy pool, - - Or last or first, or best or worst, - - Thou askest only that he thirst, - - And givest water pure and cool. - - -VI - - - A draught of water from the spring, - - An apple from the wayside tree, - - A bit of bread for strengthening, - - A pipe for grace and policy; - - And so, by taking time, to find - - A world that's mainly to one's mind; - - Some health, some wit in friends a few, - - Some high behaviours in their kind, - - Some dispositions to be true. - - - - -FAUSTINE - - - - She muses while the sunbeams creep - - In slanting piers of light, - - She muses while the shadows sleep - - About the fire at night; - - Hers is the vestal's waiting air, - - The silence sweet and weird; - - More wisdom nestles in her hair - - Than crouched in Nestor's beard; - - - Troops of to-morrows cross her thought - - In happy Junes and Mays, - - And files of slow Septembers fraught - - With priceless yesterdays; - - And all her hours a thronging host - - With visitations fill; - - She gazes on each tranquil ghost - - With eyes more tranquil still. - - - - -SOMETIME IT MAY BE - - - - Sometime it may be you and I - - In that deserted yard shall lie, - - Where memories fade away, - - Caring no more for our old dreams, - - Busy with new and alien themes, - - As saints and sages say. - - - But let our graves be side by side, - - That passers-by at even-tide - - May pause a moment's space: - - "Ah, they were lovers who lie here! - - Else why these low graves laid so near - - In this forgotten place?" - - - - -WHEN ALL THE BROOKS HAVE RUN AWAY - - - - When all the brooks have run away, - - When the sea has left its place, - - When the dead earth to night and day - - Turns round a stony face, - - - Let other planets hold the strife - - And burden now it bears, - - The toil of ages, lifting life - - Up those unnumbered stairs, - - - Out of that death no eye has seen - - To something far and high; - - But underneath the stairs, Faustine, - - How melancholy lie - - - The broken shards and left behind, - - The frustrate and unfit, - - Who sought the infinite and kind, - - And found the infinite. - - - - -ONE HOUR - - - - The sun shall go darkly his way, the skies - - Be lampless of stars, and the moon with sighs - - Of her years complain, - - And you and I in the waste shall meet - - Of a downward gulf with hurrying feet, - - And remember then - - Only this shy, encircled place, - - Only this hour's dimpled grace-- - - And smile again. - - - - -HEIRS OF TIME - - - - Who grieves because the world is old, - - Or cares how long it last, - - If no grey threads are in our gold, - - The shade our marbles cast, - - - We may not see it creeping near; - - Time's heirs are you and I, - - And freely spend each minted year - - For anything 'twill buy. - - - - -WHO MAY WITH THE SHREWD HOURS STRIVE? - - - - Who may with the shrewd Hours strive? - - Too thrifty dealers they, - - That with the one hand blandly give, - - With the other take away, - - - With here and there some falling flake, - - Some dust of gold, between - - The hands that give and hands that take - - Slipped noiseless and unseen. - - - Ah, comedy of bargainings, - - Whose gain of years is found - - A little silt of golden things - - Forgotten on the ground! - - - - -LET ME NO MORE A MENDICANT - - - - Let me no more a mendicant - - Without the gate - - Of the world's kingly palace wait; - - Morning is spent, - - The sentinels change and challenge in the tower, - - Now slant the shadows eastward hour by hour. - - - Open the door, O Seneschal! Within - - I see them sit, - - The feasters, daring destiny with wit, - - Casting to win - - Or lose their utmost, and men hurry by - - At offices of confluent energy. - - - Let me not here a mendicant - - Without the gate - - Linger from dayspring till the night is late, - - And there are sent - - All homeless stars to loiter in the sky, - - And beggared midnight winds to wander by. - - - - -CURARE SEPULTOS - - - - _Id cinerem aut Manis credis curare sepultos?_ - - - - "Do you think their spirits care - - For their ashes and their tombs?" - - Do you think they are aware, - - That the tended roses are all gone with their perfumes, - - That the footsteps of the mourners no longer linger - - - - there, - - Where the field flower only blooms? - - - They are dead. Let none remember; - - Let their memories die as they; - - Clear the dead leaves of November - - For the careless passing footsteps of April and of May; - - Be no sign of last night's saddened ember - - In the flame we raise to-day. - - - Not that our hearts are cold, - - O dead friends, who were dear to us! - - Do we our lips withhold - - From fallen stones and low graves piteous, - - But only that death's voice is faint and old, - - And life's imperious. - - - - -TO-MORROW - - - - - _Nunc vino pellite curas,_ - - - - _Cras ingens iterabimus aequor._ - - - - Now drive away your cares with wine - - To-morrow on the sea we go. - - To-night for us the tapers shine, - - To-night the roses blow; - - To-morrow shall our steps incline - - Where the wild waters flow. - - - To-morrow! Let to-morrow be - - Where all this world's to-morrows are - - Where each must follow faithfully - - The guiding of his star. - - The moment that is given me - - Is mine to make or mar. - - - Drink to me only with your eyes, - - And I with mine will pay the debt; - - Drink to my moment ere it dies - - Divine and fragrant yet: - - To each to-night its melodies! - - To-morrow to forget! - - - - -SNOW - - - - After the singing birds are gone - - And the leaves are parched and low, - - When the year is old, and the sky is wan, - - Then comes the snow. - - - Hushed are the world's discordant notes - - By the soft hand of snow. - - Each flake how silently it floats; - - How peaceable, how slow! - - - Ah, when the silver cord is loosed - - And the golden bowl is broken, - - And the spirit poured on the air unused, - - As one has spoken, - - - After the last faint sob of breath - - And the jar of life's outflow, - - Over the sunken soul comes death, - - Soft, cool, like snow. - - - - -BY THE SEA - - - - Ave Maria by the sea, - - Whose waves go on forevermore! - - And we, the sheltered of the shore, - - Have prayed to thee - - For those in ships that journey far, - - Where all day long their sails are white, - - And grey and ghostly in the night - - Each ship beneath its star. - - - Ave Maria! Be our guide. - - A watchful star, a port to reach, - - Ave Maria! give to each - - Some eventide. - - Be thou our moon of mystic light, - - Across the ocean's gloom and wrath - - Showing the lines of a silver path - - To watchers in the night. - - - Ave Maria! From the sea - - The constant litanies arise; - - The burden of its many sighs - - Goes up to thee. - - Our lives make murmur and are vain - - As ripples bringing tiny shells, - - That the great sea behind impels, - - And all its waves complain. - - - - -IN PORT TO-DAY - - - - Now are harboured ships asleep - - Beside their shadows, - - Home from the wind-winnowed deep - - And unscythed meadows - - Of the bright green gliding sea, - - From the windward gliding to the lee; - - - And one ship in port to-day - - On the morrow - - Southward bound will far away - - The swift sea furrow; - - Whom the loud Antarctic waits - - And frozen citadels with creaking gates. - - - I have a home, though palmer bound - - For holy lands, I pine for it; - - I know its sheltering walls around - - The hearth and lamp that shine for it, - - The door apart; - - - I shall return on windward seas - - By blue shores of Illyria - - To find it filled with melodies - - From Eden, beyond Syria. - - It is your heart. - - - - -AS WE GROW OLD - - - _Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis._ - - - - "Time glides along and we grow old - - By process of the silent years," - - More fain the busy hands to fold, - - More quiet when a tale is told - - Where death appears. - - - It is not that the feet would shrink - - From that dark river, lapping, cold, - - And hid with mists from brink to brink; - - Only one likes to sit and think, - - As one grows old. - - - - -WAYFARERS - - - - All honest things in the world we met - - - With welcome, fair and free; - - A little love is with us yet, - - - A friend, or two, or three; - - - Of the sun and moon and stars were glad, - - - Of the waters of river and sea; - - We thank Thee, Lord, for the years we've had, - - - For the years that yet shall be. - - - These are our brothers, the winds of the airs, - - - These are our sisters, the flowers; - - Be near us at evening and hear our prayers, - - - O God, in the late, grey hours. - - - - -THE HOUSE - - - - Such an house I'll build and own, - - When into old contentment grown - - With reaping what my youth has sown. - - - The drooping roof be low and wide, - - Curved like a seashell's inner side; - - Let vines the patient pillars hide - - - Of that deep porch and ample shade; - - There let no hurrying step invade, - - Troubled or anxious or afraid. - - - I pray that birches very white - - May stand athwart the woods at night, - - Sweet and slim by late moonlight; - - - And I desire a beech may be - - Not far away from mine and me, - - Strong, pure, serene, and matronly; - - - An oak outspread in ample space, - - Strength out of storms met face to face, - - In his male girth and wide embrace. - - - Lest all the years go by in vain - - Let the wind only and the rain - - Paint my four walls with weather stain, - - - Nor phantom youth be ever there; - - Of time's significance aware, - - Time's grey insignia let them bear. - - - A brook before shall glide along, - - And where its narrow waters throng - - Make bubble music and low song. - - - A garden on the rearward side - - Shall hold some flowers of civil pride, - - And some in meekness dignified. - - - Within my house all men may see - - How goodly four-square beams may be, - - How unashamed in honesty. - - - There shall my day to evening creep, - - Though downward, yet, as rivers sweep - - By winding ways to the great deep. - - - - -SONNETS - - - - -THE HILLS - - - - Consider the large heavenward hills, their ease, - - Their genial age, their wisdom. More and more - - I lift mine eyes unto the hills which bore - - Of old their brunt of battle, and have peace. - - These are the scars were ground across their knees - - When the earth shuddered and the ice came on. - - The hills have heaved and shouted and made moan - - For the hot fire that bit their arteries. - - - Gentle and strong, old veterans of war, - - Now humble with each flower and woven nest, - - Friends of the sun and moon and morning star, - - And fain of the mad north wind's biting jest; - - My counsellors at unwritten law they are, - - Teachers of lore and laughter, labour and rest. - - - - -WORDSWORTH - - - - Not for a kindred reason thee we praise - - With those, who in their minstrelsy are lords - - Of elfin pipe and witchery of words, - - Masters of life, who thread its tangled maze, - - And on strange corners turn their curious gaze; - - Nor those that delve for jewels in the hoards - - Of old philosophies, of love's soft ways - - Sing variously, or chaunt of clashing swords. - - Rather for sympathy with the silent laws, - - Which are themselves but sympathies; that the worn - - Fine here a "still Saint Mary's Lake"; because - - "The world is too much with us," and through thee - - "Old Triton" sometimes blows on "wreathed horn" - - A fitful note, clear from infinity. - - - - -THE WATER-LILY - - - - Our boat drifts idly on the listless river - - And water-lilies brush its bulging side, - - In feeble wavings while the waters quiver - - Like the pale sleeper's pulse before he died. - - Reach me that water-lily floating near; - - Its sullen roots give way with dull regret, - - And now it lies across your fingers, dear, - - Long, glistening in the sunlight, green and wet. - - - See the gold heart emerging from the dew, - - Folded in petals of the purest white! - - Look! through this stem in silent hours it drew - - Its fragrance from deep waters out of sight, - - And found among the river oozes cold, - - This perfume and this whiteness and this gold. - - - - -THE THRUSH - - - - I heard a wood thrush singing late and long - - In the warm silence of the afternoon, - - And drew more near to hear his secret croon - - And intimate close confidence of song, - - But at the noisy tread of my rude feet - - The music ceased, the phantom voice was gone," - - And far away I heard him, in the sweet, - - Serene recesses singing, and alone. - - - The law is written on the evening skies, - - The wood thrush sings its beauty and despair; - - Thou shalt not trespass where the loveliest lies, - - Nor use the holiest place for common prayer, - - And surely as God liveth, to the eyes - - Of him who lifts the veil, He is not there. - - - - -THE ROMAN WAY - - - - I - - - Being so weary then we turned aside - - From the straight road and Roman Way that goes - - Too straightly upward, on what breathless snows - - Its measured lines' austerity descried. - - "Captain, too stern this granite road!" we cried, - - And "For whose right in militant array - - Are led the sons of men this Roman Way?" - - But the slow avalanche alone replied. - - - Therefore we turned aside, and day by day - - Men passed us with set faces to the road, - - And crying, "The Eternal City!" went their way, - - While in the pleasant valley we abode - - With all its dewy herbage and the fleet - - Running of rivulets with silken feet. - - -II - - - And we had large experience with the stars - - And sweet acquaintance with the clovered sods, - - The seasons were our epics, filled with wars, - - And heroes' councils and untroubled gods. - - - The groves elegiac, rivers pastoral, - - Meadows athrill with sudden tragedies, - - With loves of larks aloft and lyrical, - - And busy comedy of the citizen bees. - - - Still of their genial fellowship who wait - - The spring's incoming as a marriage morn - - Whom fall and winter winds will make elate - - As bugles a young hunter, we were borne - - Along the casual current of each day - - Apart from those who trod the Roman Way. - - -III - - - And in the main of living we were glad - - That we had left the highway and had grown - - To wear our tolerance as a silken gown - - And smile at those who went in armour clad; - - And old age came upon us, grey and sad, - - Stealthy and slow, and passed and passed again - - The onward faces of swift journeying men, - - Keen with the life of some large Iliad. - - - Now--for our heads are stricken, our lives are - - As flowers sodden in the winter rain-- - - We, who alive are dead--and whether far - - Beyond the snows are blissful births of pain, - - Or Rome, or Caesar, we know not--we say, - - "There is one way of life, the Roman Way." - - - - -FOLLY - - - - Blithe little maid with lifted lips, - - Red as a bunch of holly, - - What! May I hold your finger tips, - - Dear little sweetheart, Folly? - - - List to a whisper in your ear, - - Pink little ear, dear Folly, - - While you were gone some one was here, - - The Lady Melancholy. - - - Yes, and she sat in your old place, - - This Lady Melancholy. - - Ah, well! but she had a lovely face, - - Sweet as your face, sweet Folly. - - - - -CONCERNING TABITHA'S DANCING OF THE MINUET - - - - Tabitha, sweet Tabitha, I never can forget, - - Nor how the music sounded, nor how our glances met, - - When underneath the swinging lamps we danced the - - - - minuet. - - - The stately bow, the dainty poise, and in the music - - - - - slips. - - Did she linger for a moment, while I held her finger - - - - tips, - - And wondered if she'd ever let me touch them to my - - - - lips? - - - And Tabitha wore powdered hair and dressed in quaint - - - - brocade, - - A tiny patch on either cheek just where the dimple - - - - played; - - The little shoe I noticed too, and clocks, I am afraid. - - - The music ceased. I led her softly smiling to the door. - - A pause, a rustling courtesy down almost to the floor, - - And Tabitha, sweet Tabitha, mine eyes beheld no more. - - - I've trod in many measures since with widow, wife, and - - - - maid, - - In every kind of satin, silk, and spangled lace arrayed, - - And through it all have heard the fall of Tabitha's - - - - brocade. - - - - -AN IDYL OF THE WOOD - - - - Janet and I went jesting - - To the wood, to the wood, - - In a visionary, questing, - - Idle mood. - - "Ah! my heart," I said, "it teaches - - I shall find among the beeches - - A white nymph in the green reaches - - Of the wood."-- - - - "Oh, you will! Then I'll discover, - - In the wood, in the wood, - - A fairy prince and lover, - - Or as good. - - He shall kneel and-------" - - - "Now I spy light! - - She shall meet me in the shy light - - Of the twittering leaves and twilight - - Of the wood, - - "And I'll say, 'Here love convinces - - Of his powers, of his powers.'"-- - - "And he'll say, 'Thou shalt be Princess - - Of the Flowers.'"-- - - "And I'll whisper, 'Though thou shinest - - As a goddess, love's divinest, - - Loveless, lovely, lo! thou pinest - - In thy bowers.'"-- - - - And she laughed, with, "Farewell, poet,"-- - - And I said, "Farewell, maid. - - Seek love alone, alone, and know it - - Unafraid."-- - - Was it hours I went unwitting, - - Fancy into fancy fitting, - - Pallid flowers, and dim birds flitting, - - As I strayed? - - - Till at length, where in profusion - - Low and wet, wild and wet, - - Fern and branch in shy confusion - - Wooed and met, - - There I saw her, lifting, peeping-- - - "Dryad?"--"Prince?"--come whispering, creeping. - - Then her eyes were lit and leaping. -'Twas Janet! - - - Lit and leaping with suggestions. - - "Why, it's you!"--"Why, it's you!" - - "Yes, but, Jenny, now the question's, - - Is it true? - - Am I princely to your seeming? - - You the dryad of my dreaming, - - Born of beech leaves and the gleaming - - Of the dew?" - - - And we put it to the testing - - Of a kiss, of a kiss, - - And the jesting and the questing - - Came to this. - - "Tested, tried, and proven neatly, - - I should call it true completely." - - And Janet said softly, sweetly,. - - "So it is." - - - Oh, the glamour and the glimmer - - Of the wood, of the wood, - - Where the shadow and the shimmer - - Smile and brood, - - Where the lips of love laugh folly, - - And the eyes of love are holy, - - In the radiant melancholy - - Of the wood! - - - - -PHYLLIS AND CORYDON - - - - Phyllis took a red rose from the tangles of her hair,-- - - Time, the Golden Age; the place, Arcadia, anywhere,-- - - - Phyllis laughed, the saucy jade: "Sir Shepherd, wilt - - - - have this, - - Or"--Bashful god of skipping lambs and oaten reeds! - - - - --"a kiss?" - - - Bethink thee, gentle Corydon! A rose lasts all night - - - - long, - - A kiss but slips from off your lips like a thrush's - - - - evening song. - - - A kiss that goes, where no one knows! A rose, a - - - - crimson rose! - - Corydon made his choice and took--Well, which do - - - - you suppose? - - - - -MAYING - - - - - _Get up, sweet-slug-a-bed!_--Herrick. - - - - _And Phillida with garlands gaye - - - Was made the lady of the Maye._--Nicholas Breton. - - - - Come, Phillida, come! for the hours are fleet, - - And sweet are the soft meadow murmurs, and sweet - - Are the merry May flowers that long for thy feet. - - Come, Phillida, come! - - - They are waiting to make thee their Lady of May, - - And have twined in the midst of the marigolds gay - - A little red flower; for pity, they say; - - Thou knowest for whom. - - - And lovers are sighing among the green brake, - - And birds in their flying soft madrigals make. - - Hark! hear the girls crying, and all for thy sake. - - Come, Phillida, come! - - - - -TWO LITTLE MAIDS - - - - Two little maids went roaming, roaming, - - All in the fields alone. - - "Suppose that a boy were coming, coming, - - Over the fields," said one, said one, - - To the other little maid said one. - - - Then the second little maid fell dreaming, dreaming. - - "He'll bring me a rose," said she. - - "He won't! You are always scheming, scheming, - - As horrid as you can be!" Dear me! - - As horrid as she could be. - - - Two little maids in a fury, fury, - - No little boy in view, - - And this is the end of the story. Sorry! - - Why didn't they make it two? Eheu! - - So simple to make him two! - - - - -TWENTY YEARS HENCE - - - - Twenty years hence, some fading day, - - Will you through this green orchard stray, - - With thoughts afar - - On golden hours we freely spent, - - And bought the merchandise, content, - - At Time's bazaar? - - - You'll say--"He puffed the smoke in rings; - - We talked of books, and other things; - - Devised a plot; - - Together wove some idle rhymes - - Of coloured threads that matched sometimes, - - And sometimes not. - - - "The oriole from his chosen tree - - Made better poetry than we, - - About his nest. - - Soft paced the hours like clouds, until - - There rose a poem better still - - Far in the west." - - - Twenty years hence! Across the sky - - The swift incessant swallows fly. - - You'll not forget - - The bees, nor how the oriole sung, - - Twenty years since, when we were young, - - His chansonette? - - - "Margaret, Margaret!" Some one calls! - - "Margaret, come. The night dew falls, - - The grass is wet." - - Twenty years hence--The lawn is dark, - - And the whip-poor-wills are wailing. Hark! - - "Margaret! Margaret!" - - - - -WITHOUT THE GATE - - - - Spectral birches, slim and white, - - Stand apart in the cool moonlight, - - The faint thin cries - - Of the night arise - - And the stars are out in companies. - - - They are but lamps on your palace stair, - - My queen of the night with dusky hair, - - Whose heart is a rose - - In a garden close - - And the gate is shut where the highway goes. - - - Margaret, Margaret, early and late - - I knock and whisper without the gate. - - No night wind blows, - - Still is the rose, - - Noiseless the flowing moonlight flows. - - - I knock and listen. No sound is heard. - - The rose in its fragrance sleeps unstirred. - - Early and late - - I watch and wait - - For the love of a rose by a garden gate. - - - - -ANCIEN M'SIEU PIERRE - - - - Was it, Nannette, so long ago? - - T rois vingt et--Chut! How time does go! - - You must be dead! What do I know! -'Twas long ago. - - - Your eyes--ah, I remember now! - - They seemed to say, "But, Pierre, you're so, - - So bad!" And that was long ago, - - Long, long ago. - - - Yes, they were blue. And you stood there, - - And then the wind blew out your hair. - - How beautiful! how soft! how fair, - - Nannette, your hair! - - - So long it takes one to forget! - - I have been glad, and am, and yet, - - Sometimes--it's strange--one's eyes are wet. - - Nannette! Nannette! - - - What's that! I dream! Did some one speak? - - Her hair was blown across my cheek. - - It seemed so. How the shutters creak! - - Did some one speak? - - - - -CHRISTMAS EVE - - - - The abbot was counting his beads in his cell - - With a flagon beside him. The abbot drank well, - - And emptied it oft ere the first matin bell. - - - All quiet, all well. - - - "Hist! Brother Menander! A word in thine ear. - - I'll show thee a way, if the corridor's clear, - - To the abbot's own cellar. The abbot may hear? - - - Never fear! Never fear!" - - - Oh, Brother Menander, oh, bold Brother John, - - Be chary, call wary on Mary her Son! - - Ah, Jesu, the moon the cold snow shines on, - - - How bitter and wan! - - - So roundly they drank till the first matin bell, - - And were caught by the abbot, as chronicles tell. - - What would you! 'Twas Christmas Eve. So it befell. - - - And all quiet and well. - - - - -THE CAROL SINGER - - - - Gentles all, or knights or ladies, - - Happiness be yours, alway; - - Dance and carolling our trade is, - - But we sing for love to-day. - - - Merry lads and dainty lasses - - Trip beneath the mistletoe, - - Dance to sound of clinking glasses. - - Bells are ringing in the snow. - - - By the look that on your face is, - - Sweet, my song is worth a kiss. - - There is weeping in cold places, - - We must laugh the more in this. - - - Gentles all, or knights or ladies, - - Happiness is yours, alway; - - Dance and carolling our trade is, - - But we sing for love to-day. - - - - -ARCADIE. I - - - - On the road to Arcadie, - - Past the mountains, past the sea, - - Past the crossways soberly - - To Arcadie, to Arcadie. - - - Pilgrims of a dream are we, - - Knowing not if true it be, - - But we press on silently - - To Arcadie, to Arcadie. - - - Arcadie! Oh, Arcadie! - - We are lost, we cannot see! - - For the dust blows bitterly - - On the road to Arcadie. - - - - -ARCADIE. II - - - - I travelled many winding ways - - That weary seemed to me, - - In cloudy nights and windy days - - To find old Arcadie. - - - The shepherds by the wayside wept - - "We fain would go with thee, - - An 'twere not for the sheep we kept, - - To far off Arcadie." - - Along the selfsame way I fare - - And the shepherds ask of me, - - "Hast thou seen the sweet land anywhere?" - - "Yea, but the people dwelling there - - Know not 'tis Arcadie." - - - -MARTIAL TO PLINY - - - - _Cum rosa regnat, cum madent capilli,_ - - _Nunc me vel rigidi legant Catones._ - - - Come not with wine drops on the hair - - - To Pliny's gates, - - To whom all earnest thoughts repair, - - And quiet Wisdom entered there - - - His bidding waits. - - - When the rose is queen and the hair is wet - - - With wine and oil, - - Read Martial's verses, and forget - - That life is stern, and time a debt - - - To pay with toil. - - - - -LAST YEAR'S NEST - - - - There are no birds in last year's nest. - - Where snows have been, - - There is no place for love to rest - - And nestle in. - - - Mine were the summer songs, but there - - Fell the white cold. - - No feathery thoughts now nestle where - - They did of old. - - - - -EPILOGUE TO A BOOK OF UNIMPORTANT VERSES - - - - An unfair title that forestalls - - The judgment of my peers, - - An after title that recalls - - The hopes of other years, - - When words were flowers beside the way, - - And the world in rhythm ran, - - And grief was dainty, and love was play, - - And the breath of death, would scan, - - And all the long results of time - - Were captives of a happy rhyme. - - - - -FINIS - - - - - The wind and the rain - - - And the sunshine again - - And the murmur of flies at the window pane! - - - I weave my rhymes - - - In the morning betimes, - - And it all creeps in with the faint word chimes. - - - - For the wind is there, - - - Wet skies and fair, - - And the buzz of the flies there too somewhere, - - - And there is the beat - - - Of the passers' feet - - Gone echoing down the hidden street. - - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Harps Hung Up In Babylon, by Arthur Colton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON *** - -***** This file should be named 52456-8.txt or 52456-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/4/5/52456/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Harps Hung Up In Babylon - -Author: Arthur Colton - -Release Date: June 30, 2016 [EBook #52456] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - -</pre> - - <div style="height: 8em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h1> - HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON - </h1> - <h2> - By Arthur Colton - </h2> - <h4> - New York: Henry Holt And Company - </h4> - <h3> - 1907 - </h3> - <p> - <br /> <br /> - </p> - <h3> - DEDICATED TO - </h3> - <h3> - MY FATHER - </h3> - <p> - <br /> <br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /> <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - <i>The harps hung up in Babylon, </i> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Their loosened strings rang on, sang on - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And cast their murmurs forth upon - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The roll and roar of Babylon: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Forget me, Lord, if I forget - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Jerusalem for Babylon, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If I forget the vision set - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - High as the head of Lebanon - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is lifted over Syria yet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If I forget and bow me down - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To brutish gods of Babylon.<i>" </i> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Two rivers to each other run - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In the very midst of Babylon, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And swifter than their current fleets - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The restless river of the streets - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of Babylon, of Babylon, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And Babylon's towers smite the sky, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But higher reeks to God most high - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The smoke of her iniquity: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "<i>But oh, betwixt the green and blue </i> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To walk the hills that once we knew - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When you were pure and I was true," - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So rang the harps in Babylon— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Or ere along the roads of stone - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Had led us captive one by one - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The subtle gods of Babylon.<i> " </i> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The harps hung up in Babylon - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hung silent till the prophet dawn, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When Judah's feet the highway burned - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Back to the holy hills returned, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And shook their dust on Babylon. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In Zion's halls the wild harps rang, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To Zion's walls their smitten clang, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And lo! of Babylon they sang, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They only sang of Babylon: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "<i>Jehovah, round whose throne of awe </i> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The vassal stars their orbits draw - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Within the circle of Thy law, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Canst Thou make nothing what is done, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or cause Thy servant to be one - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That has not been in Babylon, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That has not known the power and pain - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of life poured out like driven rain? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I will go down and find again - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - My soul that's lost in Babylon." - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - <b>CONTENTS</b> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> WEST-EASTERLY MORALITIES </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE CAPTIVE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE PILGRIM </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> ALLAH'S TENT </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> THE POET AND THE FOUNTAIN </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> THE CHENEAUX ISLANDS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> THE SHEPHERD AND THE KNIGHT </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> THE HERB OF GRACE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> VERSES FROM "THE CANTICLE OF THE ROAD" </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> FAUSTINE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> SOMETIME IT MAY BE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> WHEN ALL THE BROOKS HAVE RUN AWAY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> ONE HOUR </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> HEIRS OF TIME </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> WHO MAY WITH THE SHREWD HOURS STRIVE? </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> LET ME NO MORE A MENDICANT </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> CURARE SEPULTOS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> TO-MORROW </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> SNOW </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> BY THE SEA </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> IN PORT TO-DAY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> AS WE GROW OLD </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> WAYFARERS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> THE HOUSE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> SONNETS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> THE HILLS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> WORDSWORTH </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> THE WATER-LILY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> THE THRUSH </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> THE ROMAN WAY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> FOLLY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> CONCERNING TABITHA'S DANCING OF THE MINUET </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> AN IDYL OF THE WOOD </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> PHYLLIS AND CORYDON </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> MAYING </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> TWO LITTLE MAIDS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> TWENTY YEARS HENCE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> WITHOUT THE GATE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> ANCIEN M'SIEU PIERRE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> CHRISTMAS EVE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> THE CAROL SINGER </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> ARCADIE. I </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> ARCADIE. II </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> LAST YEAR'S NEST </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_EPIL"> EPILOGUE TO A BOOK OF UNIMPORTANT VERSES </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> FINIS </a> - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - WEST-EASTERLY MORALITIES - </h2> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE CAPTIVE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - There was a king, returned from putting down - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The stiff rebellion of an Afghan town, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who marked for death a captive. Then arose - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The ragged Afghan from the marble floor, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor longer to the king's feet weeping clung, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But in the babble of his foreign tongue - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He cursed him, as that ancient saying goes: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Who comes to wash himself in death, before - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Entering the pool, empties his heart ashore." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "What mean these words?" The king's voice, cold - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - and loud, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Rang in the space above the frightened crowd, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That bent before it, as when storm-winds blow - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Their warning horns, and the storm crouches low - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Still on the solid hills with sombre eyes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Long lightnings slant, and muffled thunders rise, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And startled forests, helpless to retreat, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Stand with their struggling arms and buried feet. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - An aged vizier rose, and bowed his head, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Clasping his gentle withered hands: "He said: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - 'To two God gives the shelter of His cloak, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Him who keeps down the anger in his breast, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Him who in justice counteth mercy best; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - God shelter me and thee.' The man so spoke." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the king bade them set the Afghan free, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who in the face of death spoke graciously. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali, the young vizier, to his feet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Leaped: "As I hold by counsellors it is meet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Truth should be spoken at a king's demand, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - This man reviled thee with a shameful word!" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whereat the king was mute, as one who heard - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A voice in his own breast; turned with his hand - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The bracelets on his arm; then speaking low, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Once more he bade them let the Afghan go. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - THE KING. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - "Art thou so upright, and by God made free - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To be malignant in integrity? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is it the truth alone thou owest to the king? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nay, but all oracles that whispering - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Speak in the central chamber of the heart, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Saving when envy speaks, which spoke in thee. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But thou, my father, shall not thy name be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Henceforth 'The Merciful'? For so thou art. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So spoke the king, and, leaning head to head, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The courtiers whispered, and Ben Ali said: - </p> - <h3> - BEN ALI. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - "Is it not written: 'When the truth is known, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Then only the king's mercy is his own'? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If then the king his servant will forgive - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For rendering back the king's prerogative, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Forgive the misshaped mouth ill made to lie, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Forgive the straitened walk, the single eye, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Forgive the holy dead for truth who died, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And those who thought their deaths were sanctified; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With such forgiveness let me then go hence, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And, in some desert place of penitence - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And meditation, read it in the dust, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If He who sends His rain upon the just, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And sends His rain upon the unjust too, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is mercifully false, or merely true." - </p> - <h3> - THE KING. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - And the king said: "Thou livest! And thy words - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Are more for peril than a thousand swords! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is it king's custom to bear two men's scorn - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In the short compass of a single morn? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Go to thine house and wait until thou know - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The king's hand follows when his voice says, Go." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali from the court went forth in shame, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And after him the shivering Afghan came, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whom, taking by the garment, he led down - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Through the packed highways of the busy town, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To where in flowers and shadows, peace and pride, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His gardened palace by the river side - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Lay like a lotus in perfumed repose; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There set a feast for him as for the king, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With friendly words and courteous welcoming - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sat with the ragged Afghan, while beneath - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The dancing girls, each with her jasmine wreath,— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And one that dallied with a crimson rose,— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sang softly in the garden cool, that sank. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By lawn and terrace to the river's bank: - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - "So dear thou art, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The seed that thou hast planted in the mould - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And fertile fallow of my heart - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Hath borne a thousand-fold, - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - So dear thou art. - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - "Sweet love, wild love, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Love will I sow and love will reap, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And where the golden harvest bends above - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There will I find sleep, - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - Sweet love, child love." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And when the feast was over, and remained - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Only the fruits, and wine in flasks contained, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And costly drinking cups, Ben Ali rose - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And left the chattering Afghan with a smile, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To walk among his aloe trees awhile, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thinking: "Day closes. Ere another close - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - These things I see no more, for a king's wrath - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Leaps foaming down and falls, as cataracts leap - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And fall from sleeping pools to pools asleep, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And either ere to-morrow night I die, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or all my days in exiled penury - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Among strange peoples tread the strangers' path." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And while in shadows with slow pace he went - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The ruddy daylight faded in the west, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And she that held the rose against her breast - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sang to the stirring of some instrument: - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - "The sea - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - That rounds in gloom - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - The pallid pearl, - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - Where corals curl - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - The rosy edges of their barren bloom, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - And cold seamaidens wear - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - Inwoven in their hair - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A light that draws the sailor down the wet ways of - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - despair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In whose green silken glisten - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They drift and wait and listen, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the sea-monsters lift their heads and stare! - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - The sorrowing sea, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Like life in me, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Wavers in homeless dreams till love is known - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And love for life atone." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Meanwhile the Afghan, glancing here and there, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Saw no one by him, and arose in haste, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And took the drinking cups with jewels graced, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And hid them in his rags, from stair to stair - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Slid like a shadow, and from hall to hall; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So vanished, like a shadow from the wall. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali from his aloe-planted lawn - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Returned, and saw the drinking cups were gone, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And smiled and leaned him in the window dim - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To watch the dancing girls, who, seeing him - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Began again to weave, to part, to close, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With tinkling bells and shimmer of white feet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And she that drooped her head above a rose - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sang in the twilight, languid, slow, and sweet: - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - "Close-curtained rose, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Open thy petals and the dew disclose. - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - Hide not so long - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Those crimson shades among, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - In silken splendour - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - That nestling tender, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That dewdrop cradled in the heart of thee, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - God meant for me. - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - "A little while, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And naught to me the blossom of thy smile. - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Forgive all men; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Yea, love, forgive the false and trust again, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - For life deceiveth, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - And love believeth; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Within love's merciful chambers let us stay, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - The while we may." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The singing ceased. There rose a storm of calls - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And sudden clangour in his outer halls; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And these were hushed, and some one cried: "The - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - king!" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Followed the tread of armed men entering. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali rose, thinking, "My time was brief;" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And lo, not only the tall king stood there, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His bracelets glittering in the torches' glare, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And gloomy eyes beneath his sweeping hair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But at his feet cringed the swart Afghan thief. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Thus saith the law: 'The thief shall have his hands - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Struck from his wrists, in payment of the wage - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Belonging to his sin.' The king commands - </p> - <h3> - THE KING. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - That thou, Ben Ali, wisdom's flower in youth, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Mirror of righteousness and well of truth, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Critic of kings, rebuker of old age, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Shalt judge this Afghan dog as the law stands." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali stood with folded arms, and face - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Bent down in meditation for a space. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - <br /><br /><br />BEN ALI. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - "It is good law, O King. But is it not - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Good law that, 'He who stealeth to devote - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To some religious purpose and intent - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is held exempted from that punishment'?" - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - THE KING. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - "It is good law. But the law holds 'Unproved - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The finer motive which the thief hath moved - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Unless the pious dedication be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sequent immediate to the thievery.'" - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - BEN ALI. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - "It is good law, O King, and good to heed. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Now, of 'religious purposes' it calls - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - First, 'to relieve the needy of their need.' - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Can it be doubted that this Afghan falls - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Among the 'needy,' and became a thief - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To his own need's immediate relief? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nay, in the very act of thieving vowed - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That 'pious dedication'? Which allowed, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Follows the law's exemption." - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - The king smiled, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And said: "Set free this good man. To thy wild - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Bleak mountains, Afghan. Is the world so small - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That thou must steal—if thou must steal at all— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From such a friend as this?" The Afghan fled, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The king across Ben Ali's shoulders passed - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His heavy arm and to the gardens led, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where fluttered groups of dancing girls, aghast, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Huddled aside, and through the night at last - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Came to the river, and Ben Ali said: - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - BEN ALI. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - "Hearken, O King, thy counsellor's report: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou keepest a young vizier in thy court - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Unfit to be a counsellor to power, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fit only to jest with an idle hour, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who holds the scales of justice not in awe, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And lightly quibbles with the holy law, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And takes the lives of trembling men to be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The butt and plaything of his casuistry." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - THE KING. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - "Hearken, O Counsellor, thy king's desire: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ere next thou blow ablaze the sullen fire - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That smoulders in him, see that thou provide - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Withal a secret place in which to hide, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Lest the king's darkened days on darkness fall - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And miss for aye a bright face at his side; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For, be it truth thou sayest—yea, and truth - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is the sharp sword and javelin of youth— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That every merciful and smiling lie - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Shall come to smile and curse us ere we die, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That the king standeth as a massive wall - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Which leans to ruin, if it lean at all - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Out of the upright line of equity; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Yet, ah, my bitter counsellor," said the king, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "When thou wouldst speak some truth that bears a sting, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I pray thee, speak as bearing love to me, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who am of such as, lonely for their kind, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In dusty deserts of the spirit find - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A naked penitence which no man sees. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - My cup of life is drunken to the lees, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And thine hath still its bead along the brim; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And therefore, as in halls empty and dim, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Wakens thy step the echoes in my heart, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And all thy heady ways and reckless tongue, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That splits the marrow like a Kalmuck's dart, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Seem like my very own when first I flung - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A challenge in the teeth of life. God knows, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The stars will not again look down on me - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With their old radiant intensity; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Only I seem to see, as by the gleam - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of boatmen's torches mirrored in the stream - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That bears them on, a faith that not alone - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He builds His temple of enduring stone, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But sends the flowers that in its crannies creep, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And in His very scales of justice throws - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The young man's dreams, the tears of them that weep, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The words the maiden murmurs to the rose." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The king was still. A passing boatman's oars - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sent the lit ripples to the shadowed shores. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A near muézzin's long, high-towered call - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Went yearning up to star-lit architraves, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And dying left a silence over all, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Saving the grassy whisper of small waves. - </p> - <h3> - THE BEGGAR - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - There was a man whom a king loved, and heard - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With smiles his swift step and impetuous word - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Among the slow-paced counsellors. To the young - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Belong the careless hand, the daring tongue. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Pleasure and pride are the tall flowers that spring - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Within the fertile shadow of the king. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There sat a beggar in the market-place, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of sullen manner and a surly face, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who caught him by the cloak; that with a stone - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He smote the beggar's head, and so passed on, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Cassim Ben Ali, up the palace hill, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Leaving the beggar, fallen, grim, and still. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sudden as the king's favour is his wrath. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who for the morrow knows what joy he hath? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor can he pile it in his vaults to stay - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The crowding misery of another day. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So fell Ben Ali for an arrowy word - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And barbed jest that the king's anger stirred, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And he was led beyond the noisy brawls - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of traders chaffering at the market stalls, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And in a pit thrown near the city walls. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whither the beggar came, and came alone, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A cobble in his hand, beside the pit. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "The wise man waiteth till the time is fit, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The foolish hasteneth to grief," he said, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Casting the cobble on Ben Ali's head: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "I am that beggar, and behold that stone." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali on the morrow was restored - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To the benignant presence of his lord, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And sending for the beggar, softly said: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "This is that stone." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The beggar bowed his head: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - '"And this my head, which is among the lowly, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As thine is high, and God is just and holy," - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And threw himself lamenting on the floor. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali pondered then a moment more. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Thou sayest truly, God is just; and lo! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Both of our heads have ached beneath a blow. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I in my time grow wiser, and divine - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The beating of thy head will not heal mine; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And have considered and have found it wise, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To exchange with thee some other merchandise. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Take this gold dinar, and remember then - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That God is just, if so I come again - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Into a pit and ask return of thee." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Once more Ben Ali was brought low, to see - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The king's clenched hand, fixed look, and rigid frown, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thrust from the palace gate to wander down, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Stripped of his silks, in poverty and shame, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Into the market where the traders came - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With files of sag-necked camels o'er the sands, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Bringing the corded wares of hidden lands. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And walking there with eyes now wet and dim, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He sought the beggar, found, and said to him: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Remember thine exchange of merchandise, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who sayest, God is just and 'thou art wise." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Who sayeth 'God is just,' speaks not of me; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who calleth thee a fool, means none but thee," - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Answered the beggar. "For I understood - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To pay the evil back and keep the good - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is increase of the good in merchandise; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Therefore I keep the dinar, and am wise." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Which thing was brought to the king's ear, and he - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Summoned the two to stand before his knee, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And took the dinar from the beggar's hand, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And giving to Ben Ali, gave command - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To those who waited for his word: "Bring stones - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That he may beat with them this beggar's bones, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who mocks at justice, saying 'God is just,' - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And boasting wisdom, fouls her in the dust." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ben Ali through his meditation heard - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The counsellors approving the king's word, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And spoke above their even murmuring: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Let justice be with God and with the king, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who are not subject to a moment's chance, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Made and unmade by shifting circumstance. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - This is the wisdom of the poor and weak: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The smitten cheek shall warn its brother cheek, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And each man to his nook of comfort run, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His little portion of the morning sun, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His little corner of the noonday shade, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His wrongs forgotten as his debts unpaid. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Let not the evil and the good we do - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Be ghosts to haunt us, phantoms to pursue. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I have the dinar and would fain be clear - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of further trading with this beggar here; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For he nor I have caused the world to be, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor govern kingdoms with our equity." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Art thou so poor then, and the beggar wise, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - God's justice hidden, and the king's astray?" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Answered the king, slow-voiced, with brooding eyes. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Art thou so weak, and strong to drive away - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Far from to-day the ghost of yesterday? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Free is thy lifted head, while on mine own - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The gathered past lies heavier than the crown? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So be it as thou sayest, with him and thee, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou who forgivest evil bitterly." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So spoke the king. Ben Ali's steps once more - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Were swift and silken on the palace floor. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The beggar went with grim, unchanging face - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Back to his begging in the market-place. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE PILGRIM - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - I heard a pilgrim near a temple gate - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Praying, "I have no fear, for Thou art Fate. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Morn, eve, noon, if I look up to Thee, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Wilt Thou at night look down, remembering me? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Nay, then, my sins so great, my service small,"— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So prayed he at the gate,—"forget them all. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Of claims and rights a load the while I keep, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - How in Thy nights, O God, to smile and sleep? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Pardon, neglect, or slay, as is most meet; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - My beaten face I lay beneath Thy feet." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Pilgrim," I said, "hath He, who toils the while, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Bade thee, of burdens free, to sleep and smile? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Who built the hills on high, and laid the sea, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Set in thy heart the cry, 'Remember me!'" - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - ALLAH'S TENT - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - With fore cloth smoothed by careful hands - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The night's serene pavilion stands, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And many cressets hang on high - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Against its arching canopy. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Peace to His children God hath sent, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We are at peace within His tent. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who knows without these guarded doors - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What wind across the desert roars? - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE POET AND THE FOUNTAIN - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Firdausi by the palace fountain stood - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hard by the Court of Song in quiet mood. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The Sultan smiled to see him. "Thy beard shows - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thee nearer to the cypress than the rose, - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Firdausi. Is thy heart warm and blood cold, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who singest of love and beauty, being old?" - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Firdausi to the fountain turned his eyes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Grey-mossed and lichened by the centuries. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "What maketh this sweet music, sayest thou? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The water or the stones?" The Sultan's brow - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Was overclouded. "Were the water fled, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There were no music certainly," he said. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "The water singing through the garden runs. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nay, but there is no music in dead stones." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Firdausi bowed: "Allah His grace unfold - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Upon the Sultan! Is the water old?" - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE CHENEAUX ISLANDS - </h2> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <p class="indent15"> - There is a wistful, lingering regret - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - Ever for those whose feet are set - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - On other paths than where their childhood moved, - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - And, having loved - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The old colonial hills, no level plain, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - No tangled forest, the same hope contain, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And by the northern lakes I stand unsatisfied, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Watching the tremulous shadows start and slide, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hearing the listless waves among the stones, - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - And the low tones - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of a breeze that through the hemlocks creeps. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Veiled in grey ashes sleeps - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The campfire, and thin streams - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of smoke float off like beckoning dreams - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of peaceful men. Around me broods - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The sense of aged solitudes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of lonely places where - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Cold winds have torn blue midnight air - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And dipped beneath the edges of the leaves - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - To moons unchronicled. - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - We bring - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The talk of cities and of schools, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Yet to these quiet pools, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Calm with a thousand silent morns and eves, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - It seems no alien thing; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The shadows of the woods - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Are brothers to our moods. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor less in the quick rush of vivid streets, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And libraries with long rows of mouldering thought, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is nature, than in green retreats; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whither from year to year - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I come with eager eye and ear, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hoping, some leafy hour, to feel, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In ways of civic feet unsought, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A secret from the brown earth steal - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Into my spirit, and reveal - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some wisdom of a larger worth, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some quiet truth of growth and birth; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If we, the kindred on the earth, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Are kindred with her, to one issue moving on - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of melancholy night or shimmering dawn, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Surely befits we wanderers wild - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To her confederate breast be reconciled; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Out of her primal sleep we came, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And she still dreams; of us that hold - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Such strenuous course and venture bold, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whom such unknown ambition stirs, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Asks of our bright, unsteady flame: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What issue ours that is not hers? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - How came he once to these green isles - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And channels winding miles and miles, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Cross clasped in hand and pale face set, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The Jesuit, Père Marquette? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To sombre nations, with the blight - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of dead leaves in the blood, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The eager priest into their solitude - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And melancholy mood - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Flashed like a lamp at night - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In sluggish sleepers' eyes; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Out of the east where mornings rise - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Came like the morning into ashen skies - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With the east's subtle fire and surprise, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And stern beyond his knowledge brought - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A message other than he thought: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Lo! an edict here from the throne of fate, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whose banners are lifted and armies wait; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The fight moves on at the front, it says, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the word hath come after many days: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ye shall walk no more in your ancient ways." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Father, the word has come and gone, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The torpid races - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Slumbered, and vanished from their places; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And in our ears intoning ring - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The words of that most weary king - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In Israel, King Solomon. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Over the earth's untroubled face - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The restless generations pace, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Finding their graves regretfully; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is there no crown, nor any worth, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For men who build upon the earth - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What time treads down forgetfully? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Unchanged the graven statute lies, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The code star-lettered in the skies. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - It is written there, it is written here; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The law that knows not far or near - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Is sacrifice; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And bird and flower, and beast and tree, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Kingdom and planet wheeling free - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Are sacrificed incessantly. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From dark, through dusk, toward light, we tread - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - On the thorn-crowned foreheads of the dead. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The law says not there is nothing lost; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - It only says that the end is gain; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The gain may be at the helpless cost - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of hands that give in vain; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And in this world, where many give, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - None gives the widow's mite save he - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That, having but one life to live, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Gives that one life so utterly. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou that unknowing didst obey, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With straitened thought and clouded eye, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The law, we learn at this late day, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - O Père Marquette, whose war is done, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ours is the charge to bear it on, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To hold the veering banner high - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Until we die, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To meet the issue in whose awe - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Our kindred earth we stand above, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If knowing sacrifice is law, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We sacrifice ourselves for love. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or are we then such stuff as fills a dream? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some wide-browed spirit dreams us, where he stands - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Watching the long twilight's stream - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Below his solemn hands, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whose reverie and shaping thought began - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Before the stars in their large order ran? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fluid we are, our days flow on, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And round them flow the rivers of the sun, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As long ago in places where - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The Halicarnassian wandered with his curious eyes - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - On Egypt's mysteries, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And Babylonian gardens of the air - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hung green above the city wall. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If this were all, if this were all— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If it were all of life to give - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Our hearts to God and slip away, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And if the end for which we live - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Were simple as the close of day, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Were simple as the fathers say, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Were simple as their peace was deep - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who in the old faith fell asleep! - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - No night bird now makes murmur; in the trees - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - No drowsy chuckle of dark-nested ease. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The campfire's last grey embers fall. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With dipping prow and shallop sides - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The slender moon to her mooring rides - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Over the ridge of Isle La Salle, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Under the lee of the world, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Her filmy halliards coiled and thin sails furled, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And silver clouds about her phantom rudder curled. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE SHEPHERD AND THE KNIGHT - </h2> - <h3> - SHEPHERD. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Sir Knight with stalwart spear and shield, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where ridest thou to-day? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The sunlight lies across the field; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou art weary in the way; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Dismount and stay. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - KNIGHT. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Peace to thine house and folds and stalls, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I ride upon my quest. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I travel until evening falls - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whither my Lord deems best, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By me unguessed. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - SHEPHERD. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Who is your lord that sends you forth, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Good knight, from your own land? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He needs must be of royal worth, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To whom such warriors stand - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - At his command. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - KNIGHT. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - We have not seen His face, we hear - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A voice that bids us be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The servants of an unborn year, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Knights of a day that we - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Shall never see. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - SHEPHERD. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Good reason that ye go astray! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Warrior, I fain would learn— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So many young knights wend this way— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What wages they may earn, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For none return. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - KNIGHT. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - They go before me in the night, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They follow after me, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They earn the triumph of the right, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Their wages are to be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Faithful as He. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - SHEPHERD. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Look you, Sir Knight, I take mine ease, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fat are my sheep and kine, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I have mine own philosophies, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - My way of life——— - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - KNIGHT. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Is thine, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And mine is mine.= - </p> - <h3> - SHEPHERD. - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Why, now! The man is gone! Pardie! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A silly wage! I trow - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His lord that pays him mad as he, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fools are a crop will grow - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Though no man sow. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE HERB OF GRACE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - To all who fain would pass their days - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Among old books and quiet ways, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And walk with cool, autumnal pace - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The bypaths of tranquillity, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To each his own select desire, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To each his old familiar briar - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And silent friend and chattering fire, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Companions in civility. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Outside the world goes rolling by, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And on the trampling and the cry - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There comes the long, low mournful sigh - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of night winds roaming vagrantly; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They see too many sullen sights - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - This side the stars on winter nights; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A kind of hopeless Jacobites. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - —This brand, indeed, smokes fragrantly. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The perfect mixture's far to seek; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Your pure Virginia, pale and meek, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Requires the passion of Perique, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The Latakian lyrics; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Perfection is the crown that flies - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The reaching hands and longing eyes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And art demands what life denies - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To nicotine empirics. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sirs, you remember Omar's choice, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Wine, verses, and his lady's voice - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Making the wilderness rejoice? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - It needs one more ingredient. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A boon, the Persian knew not of, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Had made to mellower music move - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The lips to wine, if not to love, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A trifle too obedient. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - This weed I call the "herb of grace." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - My reasons are, as some one says, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Between me and my fireplace." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ophelia spoke of rue, you know. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "There's rue for you and there's for me, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But you must wear it differently." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Quite true, of course.—Your pipe I see - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Draws hard. They sometimes do, you know. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Alas, if we in fancy's train - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To drowse beside our fires are fain, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Letting the world slip by amain, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Uneager of its verities, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Our neighbours will not let us be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - At peace with inutility. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They quote us maxims, two or three, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or similar asperities. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I question not a man may bear - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His still soul walled from noisy care, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And walk serene in places where - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - An ancient wrath is denizen; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The pilgrim's feet may know no ease, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And yet his heart's delight increase, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For all ways that are trod in peace - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Lead upward to God's benison. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - No less I doubt our age's need - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is some of Izaak Walton's creed.— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Your pardon, gentlemen! I breed - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Impatience with a homily.— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Our flag there were a sombre type, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If every star implied a stripe. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I wish you all a wholesome pipe, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And ingle blinking bonnily. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Poor ethics these of mine, I fear, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And yet, when our green leaves and sere - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Have dropped away, perhaps we'll hear - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - These questions answered curiously. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The battered book here on my knees? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is Herrick, his "Hesperides." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Gold apples from the guarded trees - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Are stored here not penuriously. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The poet of the gurgling phrase - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And quaint conceits of elder days, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Loved holiness and primrose ways - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - About in equal quantities, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Wassail and yuletide, feast and fair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Blown petticoats, a child's low prayer; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A fine, old pagan joy is there; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some wild-rose muse's haunt it is. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Mine herb of grace, that kindred art - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To all who choose "the better part," - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Grant us the old world's childlike heart, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Now grown an antique rarity! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With mayflowers on our swords and shields - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We'll learn to babble of green fields - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Like Falstaff, whom good humour yields - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A place still in its charity. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Visions will come at times; I note - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - One with a cool, white, delicate throat; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Glory of names that shine remote, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From towers of high endeavouring. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Care not for these, nor care to roam, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ulysses, o'er the beckoning foam. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Here rest and call content our home" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Beside our fire's soft wavering. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - VERSES FROM "THE CANTICLE OF THE ROAD" - </h2> - <h3> - <br /><br /><br />I - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - On the open road, with the wind at heel - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who is keen of scent and yelping loud, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Stout heart and bounding blood we feel, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who follow fancy till day has bowed - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Her forehead pure to her evening prayer - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And drawn the veil on her wind-blown hair. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Free with the hawk and the wind we stride - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The open road, and the world is wide - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From rim to rim, and the skies hung high, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And room between for a hawk to fly - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With tingling wing and lust of the eye. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - II - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Broad morning, blue morning, oh, jubilant wind! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Lord, Thou hast made our souls to be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fluent and yearning long, as the sea - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Yearns after the moon, and follows her, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With boon of waves and sibilant purr, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Round this world and past and o'er - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - All waste sea-bottoms and curving shore, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Only once more and again to find - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The same sea-bottoms and beaten beach, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The same sweet moon beyond his reach - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And drawing him onward as before. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - III - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Hark, from his covert what a note - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The wood thrush whirls from his kingly throat - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the bobolink strikes that silver wire - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He stole from the archangelic choir, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From a psaltery played in the glory alone - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By an amber angel beneath the throne. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He strikes it twice, and deep, deep, deep, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where the soul of music lies sleep.— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The rest of his song he learned, Ah me! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From a gay little devil, loose and free, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Making trouble and love in Arcadie. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - IV - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - My brother of the dusty feet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Dragged eastward as my own go west, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Here from the birth of time addressed, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the manner of your coming set - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To this event, that we might meet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And glance, and pass, and then forget; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We meet no more beneath the sun, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Yet for an instant we were one. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And now once more, as you and I, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In dungeons of ourselves we lie, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And through the grated windows peer; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As though a falling star should shine - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A moment in your eyes and mine, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Then darkness there, and silence here. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - <br /><br /><br />V - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Oh, Fons Bandusiæ, babbling spring, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From what deep wells come whispering! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What message bringest thou, what spells - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From buried mountain oracles, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou limpid, lucid mystery? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nay, this one thing I read in thee, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That saint or sinner, wise or fool, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who dips hot lips within thy pool, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or last or first, or best or worst, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou askest only that he thirst, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And givest water pure and cool. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - VI - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - A draught of water from the spring, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - An apple from the wayside tree, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A bit of bread for strengthening, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A pipe for grace and policy; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And so, by taking time, to find - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A world that's mainly to one's mind; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some health, some wit in friends a few, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some high behaviours in their kind, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some dispositions to be true. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - FAUSTINE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - She muses while the sunbeams creep - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In slanting piers of light, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - She muses while the shadows sleep - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - About the fire at night; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hers is the vestal's waiting air, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The silence sweet and weird; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - More wisdom nestles in her hair - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Than crouched in Nestor's beard; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Troops of to-morrows cross her thought - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In happy Junes and Mays, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And files of slow Septembers fraught - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With priceless yesterdays; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And all her hours a thronging host - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With visitations fill; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - She gazes on each tranquil ghost - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With eyes more tranquil still. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - SOMETIME IT MAY BE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Sometime it may be you and I - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In that deserted yard shall lie, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where memories fade away, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Caring no more for our old dreams, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Busy with new and alien themes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As saints and sages say. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But let our graves be side by side, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That passers-by at even-tide - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - May pause a moment's space: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Ah, they were lovers who lie here! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Else why these low graves laid so near - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In this forgotten place?" - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - WHEN ALL THE BROOKS HAVE RUN AWAY - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - When all the brooks have run away, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When the sea has left its place, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When the dead earth to night and day - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Turns round a stony face, - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Let other planets hold the strife - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And burden now it bears, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The toil of ages, lifting life - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Up those unnumbered stairs, - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Out of that death no eye has seen - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To something far and high; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But underneath the stairs, Faustine, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - How melancholy lie - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The broken shards and left behind, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The frustrate and unfit, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Who sought the infinite and kind, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And found the infinite. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - ONE HOUR - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - The sun shall go darkly his way, the skies - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Be lampless of stars, and the moon with sighs - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of her years complain, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And you and I in the waste shall meet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of a downward gulf with hurrying feet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And remember then - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Only this shy, encircled place, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Only this hour's dimpled grace— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And smile again. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - HEIRS OF TIME - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Who grieves because the world is old, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or cares how long it last, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - If no grey threads are in our gold, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The shade our marbles cast, - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We may not see it creeping near; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Time's heirs are you and I, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And freely spend each minted year - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For anything 'twill buy. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - WHO MAY WITH THE SHREWD HOURS STRIVE? - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Who may with the shrewd Hours strive? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Too thrifty dealers they, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That with the one hand blandly give, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With the other take away, - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With here and there some falling flake, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some dust of gold, between - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The hands that give and hands that take - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Slipped noiseless and unseen. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ah, comedy of bargainings, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whose gain of years is found - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A little silt of golden things - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Forgotten on the ground! - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - LET ME NO MORE A MENDICANT - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Let me no more a mendicant - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Without the gate - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the world's kingly palace wait; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Morning is spent, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The sentinels change and challenge in the tower, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Now slant the shadows eastward hour by hour. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Open the door, O Seneschal! Within - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I see them sit, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The feasters, daring destiny with wit, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Casting to win - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or lose their utmost, and men hurry by - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - At offices of confluent energy. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Let me not here a mendicant - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Without the gate - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Linger from dayspring till the night is late, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And there are sent - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - All homeless stars to loiter in the sky, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And beggared midnight winds to wander by. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CURARE SEPULTOS - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - <i>Id cinerem aut Manis credis curare sepultos?</i> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Do you think their spirits care - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For their ashes and their tombs?" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Do you think they are aware, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That the tended roses are all gone with their perfumes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That the footsteps of the mourners no longer linger - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - there, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where the field flower only blooms? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They are dead. Let none remember; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Let their memories die as they; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Clear the dead leaves of November - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For the careless passing footsteps of April and of May; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Be no sign of last night's saddened ember - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In the flame we raise to-day. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Not that our hearts are cold, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - O dead friends, who were dear to us! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Do we our lips withhold - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From fallen stones and low graves piteous, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But only that death's voice is faint and old, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And life's imperious. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - TO-MORROW - </h2> - <p class="indent20"> - <i>Nunc vino pellite curas,</i> - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - <i>Cras ingens iterabimus aequor.</i> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Now drive away your cares with wine - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To-morrow on the sea we go. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To-night for us the tapers shine, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To-night the roses blow; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To-morrow shall our steps incline - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where the wild waters flow. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To-morrow! Let to-morrow be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where all this world's to-morrows are - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where each must follow faithfully - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The guiding of his star. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The moment that is given me - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is mine to make or mar. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Drink to me only with your eyes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And I with mine will pay the debt; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Drink to my moment ere it dies - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Divine and fragrant yet: - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To each to-night its melodies! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To-morrow to forget! - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - SNOW - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - After the singing birds are gone - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the leaves are parched and low, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When the year is old, and the sky is wan, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Then comes the snow. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hushed are the world's discordant notes - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By the soft hand of snow. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Each flake how silently it floats; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - How peaceable, how slow! - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ah, when the silver cord is loosed - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the golden bowl is broken, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the spirit poured on the air unused, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As one has spoken, - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - After the last faint sob of breath - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the jar of life's outflow, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Over the sunken soul comes death, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Soft, cool, like snow. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - BY THE SEA - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Ave Maria by the sea, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whose waves go on forevermore! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And we, the sheltered of the shore, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Have prayed to thee - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For those in ships that journey far, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where all day long their sails are white, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And grey and ghostly in the night - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Each ship beneath its star. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ave Maria! Be our guide. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A watchful star, a port to reach, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ave Maria! give to each - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Some eventide. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Be thou our moon of mystic light, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Across the ocean's gloom and wrath - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Showing the lines of a silver path - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To watchers in the night. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ave Maria! From the sea - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The constant litanies arise; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The burden of its many sighs - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Goes up to thee. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Our lives make murmur and are vain - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As ripples bringing tiny shells, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That the great sea behind impels, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And all its waves complain. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - IN PORT TO-DAY - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Now are harboured ships asleep - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Beside their shadows, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Home from the wind-winnowed deep - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And unscythed meadows - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the bright green gliding sea, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From the windward gliding to the lee; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And one ship in port to-day - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - On the morrow - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Southward bound will far away - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The swift sea furrow; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whom the loud Antarctic waits - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And frozen citadels with creaking gates. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I have a home, though palmer bound - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For holy lands, I pine for it; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I know its sheltering walls around - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The hearth and lamp that shine for it, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The door apart; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I shall return on windward seas - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By blue shores of Illyria - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To find it filled with melodies - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From Eden, beyond Syria. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - It is your heart. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - AS WE GROW OLD - </h2> - <p class="indent10"> - <i>Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis.</i> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Time glides along and we grow old - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By process of the silent years," - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - More fain the busy hands to fold, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - More quiet when a tale is told - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where death appears. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - It is not that the feet would shrink - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From that dark river, lapping, cold, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And hid with mists from brink to brink; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Only one likes to sit and think, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As one grows old. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - WAYFARERS - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - All honest things in the world we met - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - With welcome, fair and free; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A little love is with us yet, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - A friend, or two, or three; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the sun and moon and stars were glad, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Of the waters of river and sea; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We thank Thee, Lord, for the years we've had, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - For the years that yet shall be. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - These are our brothers, the winds of the airs, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - These are our sisters, the flowers; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Be near us at evening and hear our prayers, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - O God, in the late, grey hours. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE HOUSE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Such an house I'll build and own, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When into old contentment grown - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With reaping what my youth has sown. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The drooping roof be low and wide, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Curved like a seashell's inner side; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Let vines the patient pillars hide - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of that deep porch and ample shade; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There let no hurrying step invade, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Troubled or anxious or afraid. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I pray that birches very white - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - May stand athwart the woods at night, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sweet and slim by late moonlight; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And I desire a beech may be - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Not far away from mine and me, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Strong, pure, serene, and matronly; - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - An oak outspread in ample space, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Strength out of storms met face to face, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In his male girth and wide embrace. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Lest all the years go by in vain - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Let the wind only and the rain - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Paint my four walls with weather stain, - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor phantom youth be ever there; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of time's significance aware, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Time's grey insignia let them bear. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A brook before shall glide along, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And where its narrow waters throng - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Make bubble music and low song. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A garden on the rearward side - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Shall hold some flowers of civil pride, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And some in meekness dignified. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Within my house all men may see - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - How goodly four-square beams may be, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - How unashamed in honesty. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There shall my day to evening creep, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Though downward, yet, as rivers sweep - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By winding ways to the great deep. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - SONNETS - </h2> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE HILLS - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Consider the large heavenward hills, their ease, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Their genial age, their wisdom. More and more - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I lift mine eyes unto the hills which bore - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of old their brunt of battle, and have peace. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - These are the scars were ground across their knees - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When the earth shuddered and the ice came on. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The hills have heaved and shouted and made moan - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For the hot fire that bit their arteries. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Gentle and strong, old veterans of war, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Now humble with each flower and woven nest, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Friends of the sun and moon and morning star, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And fain of the mad north wind's biting jest; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - My counsellors at unwritten law they are, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Teachers of lore and laughter, labour and rest. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - WORDSWORTH - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Not for a kindred reason thee we praise - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With those, who in their minstrelsy are lords - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of elfin pipe and witchery of words, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Masters of life, who thread its tangled maze, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And on strange corners turn their curious gaze; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor those that delve for jewels in the hoards - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of old philosophies, of love's soft ways - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sing variously, or chaunt of clashing swords. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Rather for sympathy with the silent laws, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Which are themselves but sympathies; that the worn - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fine here a "still Saint Mary's Lake"; because - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "The world is too much with us," and through thee - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Old Triton" sometimes blows on "wreathed horn" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A fitful note, clear from infinity. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE WATER-LILY - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Our boat drifts idly on the listless river - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And water-lilies brush its bulging side, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In feeble wavings while the waters quiver - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Like the pale sleeper's pulse before he died. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Reach me that water-lily floating near; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Its sullen roots give way with dull regret, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And now it lies across your fingers, dear, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Long, glistening in the sunlight, green and wet. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - See the gold heart emerging from the dew, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Folded in petals of the purest white! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Look! through this stem in silent hours it drew - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Its fragrance from deep waters out of sight, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And found among the river oozes cold, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - This perfume and this whiteness and this gold. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE THRUSH - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - I heard a wood thrush singing late and long - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In the warm silence of the afternoon, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And drew more near to hear his secret croon - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And intimate close confidence of song, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But at the noisy tread of my rude feet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The music ceased, the phantom voice was gone," - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And far away I heard him, in the sweet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Serene recesses singing, and alone. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The law is written on the evening skies, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The wood thrush sings its beauty and despair; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou shalt not trespass where the loveliest lies, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor use the holiest place for common prayer, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And surely as God liveth, to the eyes - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of him who lifts the veil, He is not there. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE ROMAN WAY - </h2> - <h3> - <br /><br /><br />I - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - Being so weary then we turned aside - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - From the straight road and Roman Way that goes - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Too straightly upward, on what breathless snows - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Its measured lines' austerity descried. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Captain, too stern this granite road!" we cried, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And "For whose right in militant array - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Are led the sons of men this Roman Way?" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But the slow avalanche alone replied. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Therefore we turned aside, and day by day - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Men passed us with set faces to the road, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And crying, "The Eternal City!" went their way, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - While in the pleasant valley we abode - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With all its dewy herbage and the fleet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Running of rivulets with silken feet. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - II - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - And we had large experience with the stars - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And sweet acquaintance with the clovered sods, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The seasons were our epics, filled with wars, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And heroes' councils and untroubled gods. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The groves elegiac, rivers pastoral, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Meadows athrill with sudden tragedies, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With loves of larks aloft and lyrical, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And busy comedy of the citizen bees. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Still of their genial fellowship who wait - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The spring's incoming as a marriage morn - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whom fall and winter winds will make elate - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As bugles a young hunter, we were borne - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Along the casual current of each day - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Apart from those who trod the Roman Way. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - III - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - And in the main of living we were glad - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That we had left the highway and had grown - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To wear our tolerance as a silken gown - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And smile at those who went in armour clad; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And old age came upon us, grey and sad, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Stealthy and slow, and passed and passed again - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The onward faces of swift journeying men, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Keen with the life of some large Iliad. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Now—for our heads are stricken, our lives are - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As flowers sodden in the winter rain— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We, who alive are dead—and whether far - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Beyond the snows are blissful births of pain, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or Rome, or Caesar, we know not—we say, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "There is one way of life, the Roman Way." - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - FOLLY - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Blithe little maid with lifted lips, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Red as a bunch of holly, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What! May I hold your finger tips, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Dear little sweetheart, Folly? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - List to a whisper in your ear, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Pink little ear, dear Folly, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - While you were gone some one was here, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The Lady Melancholy. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Yes, and she sat in your old place, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - This Lady Melancholy. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ah, well! but she had a lovely face, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sweet as your face, sweet Folly. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CONCERNING TABITHA'S DANCING OF THE MINUET - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Tabitha, sweet Tabitha, I never can forget, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nor how the music sounded, nor how our glances met, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When underneath the swinging lamps we danced the - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - minuet. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The stately bow, the dainty poise, and in the music - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - slips. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Did she linger for a moment, while I held her finger - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - tips, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And wondered if she'd ever let me touch them to my - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - lips? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And Tabitha wore powdered hair and dressed in quaint - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - brocade, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A tiny patch on either cheek just where the dimple - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - played; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The little shoe I noticed too, and clocks, I am afraid. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The music ceased. I led her softly smiling to the door. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A pause, a rustling courtesy down almost to the floor, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And Tabitha, sweet Tabitha, mine eyes beheld no more. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I've trod in many measures since with widow, wife, and - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - maid, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In every kind of satin, silk, and spangled lace arrayed, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And through it all have heard the fall of Tabitha's - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - brocade. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - AN IDYL OF THE WOOD - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Janet and I went jesting - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To the wood, to the wood, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In a visionary, questing, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Idle mood. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Ah! my heart," I said, "it teaches - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I shall find among the beeches - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A white nymph in the green reaches - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the wood."— - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Oh, you will! Then I'll discover, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In the wood, in the wood, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A fairy prince and lover, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or as good. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - He shall kneel and———-" - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - "Now I spy light! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - She shall meet me in the shy light - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the twittering leaves and twilight - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the wood, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "And I'll say, 'Here love convinces - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of his powers, of his powers.'"— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "And he'll say, 'Thou shalt be Princess - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the Flowers.'"— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "And I'll whisper, 'Though thou shinest - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As a goddess, love's divinest, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Loveless, lovely, lo! thou pinest - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In thy bowers.'"— - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And she laughed, with, "Farewell, poet,"— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And I said, "Farewell, maid. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Seek love alone, alone, and know it - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Unafraid."— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Was it hours I went unwitting, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fancy into fancy fitting, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Pallid flowers, and dim birds flitting, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As I strayed? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Till at length, where in profusion - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Low and wet, wild and wet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fern and branch in shy confusion - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Wooed and met, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There I saw her, lifting, peeping— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Dryad?"—"Prince?"—come whispering, creeping. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Then her eyes were lit and leaping. 'Twas Janet! - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Lit and leaping with suggestions. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Why, it's you!"—"Why, it's you!" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Yes, but, Jenny, now the question's, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Is it true? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Am I princely to your seeming? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - You the dryad of my dreaming, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Born of beech leaves and the gleaming - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the dew?" - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And we put it to the testing - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of a kiss, of a kiss, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the jesting and the questing - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Came to this. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Tested, tried, and proven neatly, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I should call it true completely." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And Janet said softly, sweetly,. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "So it is." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Oh, the glamour and the glimmer - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the wood, of the wood, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where the shadow and the shimmer - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Smile and brood, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where the lips of love laugh folly, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the eyes of love are holy, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In the radiant melancholy - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the wood! - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - PHYLLIS AND CORYDON - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Phyllis took a red rose from the tangles of her hair,— - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Time, the Golden Age; the place, Arcadia, anywhere,— - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Phyllis laughed, the saucy jade: "Sir Shepherd, wilt - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - have this, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Or"—Bashful god of skipping lambs and oaten reeds! - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - —"a kiss?" - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Bethink thee, gentle Corydon! A rose lasts all night - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - long, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A kiss but slips from off your lips like a thrush's - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - evening song. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A kiss that goes, where no one knows! A rose, a - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - crimson rose! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Corydon made his choice and took—Well, which do - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - you suppose? - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - MAYING - </h2> - <p class="indent20"> - <i>Get up, sweet-slug-a-bed!</i>—Herrick. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - <i>And Phillida with garlands gaye </i> - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Was made the lady of the Maye.—Nicholas Breton. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Come, Phillida, come! for the hours are fleet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And sweet are the soft meadow murmurs, and sweet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Are the merry May flowers that long for thy feet. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Come, Phillida, come! - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They are waiting to make thee their Lady of May, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And have twined in the midst of the marigolds gay - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - A little red flower; for pity, they say; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Thou knowest for whom. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And lovers are sighing among the green brake, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And birds in their flying soft madrigals make. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Hark! hear the girls crying, and all for thy sake. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Come, Phillida, come! - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - TWO LITTLE MAIDS - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Two little maids went roaming, roaming, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - All in the fields alone. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Suppose that a boy were coming, coming, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Over the fields," said one, said one, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To the other little maid said one. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Then the second little maid fell dreaming, dreaming. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "He'll bring me a rose," said she. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "He won't! You are always scheming, scheming, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As horrid as you can be!" Dear me! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - As horrid as she could be. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Two little maids in a fury, fury, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - No little boy in view, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And this is the end of the story. Sorry! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Why didn't they make it two? Eheu! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So simple to make him two! - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - TWENTY YEARS HENCE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Twenty years hence, some fading day, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Will you through this green orchard stray, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With thoughts afar - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - On golden hours we freely spent, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And bought the merchandise, content, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - At Time's bazaar? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - You'll say—"He puffed the smoke in rings; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We talked of books, and other things; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Devised a plot; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Together wove some idle rhymes - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of coloured threads that matched sometimes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And sometimes not. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "The oriole from his chosen tree - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Made better poetry than we, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - About his nest. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Soft paced the hours like clouds, until - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There rose a poem better still - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Far in the west." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Twenty years hence! Across the sky - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The swift incessant swallows fly. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - You'll not forget - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The bees, nor how the oriole sung, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Twenty years since, when we were young, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - His chansonette? - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Margaret, Margaret!" Some one calls! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Margaret, come. The night dew falls, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The grass is wet." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Twenty years hence—The lawn is dark, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the whip-poor-wills are wailing. Hark! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Margaret! Margaret!" - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - WITHOUT THE GATE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Spectral birches, slim and white, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Stand apart in the cool moonlight, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The faint thin cries - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Of the night arise - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the stars are out in companies. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They are but lamps on your palace stair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - My queen of the night with dusky hair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Whose heart is a rose - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In a garden close - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the gate is shut where the highway goes. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Margaret, Margaret, early and late - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I knock and whisper without the gate. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - No night wind blows, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Still is the rose, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Noiseless the flowing moonlight flows. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I knock and listen. No sound is heard. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The rose in its fragrance sleeps unstirred. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Early and late - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I watch and wait - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For the love of a rose by a garden gate. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - ANCIEN M'SIEU PIERRE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Was it, Nannette, so long ago? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - T rois vingt et—Chut! How time does go! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - You must be dead! What do I know! 'Twas long ago. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Your eyes—ah, I remember now! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They seemed to say, "But, Pierre, you're so, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So bad!" And that was long ago, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Long, long ago. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Yes, they were blue. And you stood there, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And then the wind blew out your hair. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - How beautiful! how soft! how fair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nannette, your hair! - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So long it takes one to forget! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I have been glad, and am, and yet, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sometimes—it's strange—one's eyes are wet. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Nannette! Nannette! - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What's that! I dream! Did some one speak? - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Her hair was blown across my cheek. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - It seemed so. How the shutters creak! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Did some one speak? - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHRISTMAS EVE - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - The abbot was counting his beads in his cell - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - With a flagon beside him. The abbot drank well, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And emptied it oft ere the first matin bell. - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - All quiet, all well. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Hist! Brother Menander! A word in thine ear. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - I'll show thee a way, if the corridor's clear, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To the abbot's own cellar. The abbot may hear? - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Never fear! Never fear!" - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Oh, Brother Menander, oh, bold Brother John, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Be chary, call wary on Mary her Son! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Ah, Jesu, the moon the cold snow shines on, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - How bitter and wan! - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - So roundly they drank till the first matin bell, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And were caught by the abbot, as chronicles tell. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - What would you! 'Twas Christmas Eve. So it befell. - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - And all quiet and well. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - THE CAROL SINGER - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - Gentles all, or knights or ladies, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Happiness be yours, alway; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Dance and carolling our trade is, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But we sing for love to-day. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Merry lads and dainty lasses - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Trip beneath the mistletoe, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Dance to sound of clinking glasses. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Bells are ringing in the snow. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - By the look that on your face is, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Sweet, my song is worth a kiss. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There is weeping in cold places, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We must laugh the more in this. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Gentles all, or knights or ladies, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Happiness is yours, alway; - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Dance and carolling our trade is, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But we sing for love to-day. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - ARCADIE. I - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - On the road to Arcadie, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Past the mountains, past the sea, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Past the crossways soberly - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To Arcadie, to Arcadie. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Pilgrims of a dream are we, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Knowing not if true it be, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - But we press on silently - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To Arcadie, to Arcadie. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Arcadie! Oh, Arcadie! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - We are lost, we cannot see! - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - For the dust blows bitterly - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - On the road to Arcadie. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - ARCADIE. II - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - I travelled many winding ways - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That weary seemed to me, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - In cloudy nights and windy days - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To find old Arcadie. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The shepherds by the wayside wept - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "We fain would go with thee, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - An 'twere not for the sheep we kept, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To far off Arcadie." - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Along the selfsame way I fare - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the shepherds ask of me, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Hast thou seen the sweet land anywhere?" - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - "Yea, but the people dwelling there - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Know not 'tis Arcadie." - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h3> - MARTIAL TO PLINY - </h3> - <p class="indent15"> - <i>Cum rosa regnat, cum madent capilli,</i> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - <i>Nunc me vel rigidi legant Catones.</i> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Come not with wine drops on the hair - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - To Pliny's gates, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To whom all earnest thoughts repair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And quiet Wisdom entered there - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - His bidding waits. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When the rose is queen and the hair is wet - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - With wine and oil, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Read Martial's verses, and forget - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - That life is stern, and time a debt - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - To pay with toil. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - LAST YEAR'S NEST - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - There are no birds in last year's nest. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Where snows have been, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - There is no place for love to rest - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And nestle in. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Mine were the summer songs, but there - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Fell the white cold. - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - No feathery thoughts now nestle where - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - They did of old. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_EPIL" id="link2H_EPIL"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - EPILOGUE TO A BOOK OF UNIMPORTANT VERSES - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - An unfair title that forestalls - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The judgment of my peers, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - An after title that recalls - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - The hopes of other years, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - When words were flowers beside the way, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the world in rhythm ran, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And grief was dainty, and love was play, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the breath of death, would scan, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And all the long results of time - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Were captives of a happy rhyme. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - FINIS - </h2> - <p class="indent15"> - The wind and the rain - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - And the sunshine again - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the murmur of flies at the window pane! - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - I weave my rhymes - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - In the morning betimes, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And it all creeps in with the faint word chimes. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - For the wind is there, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Wet skies and fair, - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - And the buzz of the flies there too somewhere, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - And there is the beat - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Of the passers' feet - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - Gone echoing down the hidden street. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <div style="height: 6em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Harps Hung Up In Babylon, by Arthur Colton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON *** - -***** This file should be named 52456-h.htm or 52456-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/4/5/52456/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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