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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79065-0.txt b/79065-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..399d644 --- /dev/null +++ b/79065-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2929 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79065 *** + + + + + THE ESPALIER + + + + + SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER + + + THE + ESPALIER + + + LONDON + CHATTO & WINDUS + 1925 + + + + + Printed at the Curwen Press + Plaistow, London, E.13 + + + + + TO + + P. C. Buck + + + + +CONTENTS + + + QUIET NEIGHBOURS 1 + LONDON CHURCHYARD 3 + COUNTRY CHURCHYARD 5 + IN THE PARLOUR (i) 7 + IN THE PARLOUR (ii) 8 + TUDOR CHURCH MUSIC 10 + AN AFTERNOON CALL 12 + WISH IN SPRING 13 + THE VIRGIN AND THE SCALES 14 + I BRING HER A FLOWER 21 + THE LENTEN OFFERING 22 + CAVES OF HARMONY 23 + OLD MAN 24 + SONG FROM THE BRIDE OF SMITHFIELD 25 + LET ME GO! 26 + COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN (i) 27 + COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN (ii) 28 + THE GREEN VALLEY 29 + GHOSTS AT CHALDON HERRING 30 + THE TRAVELLER ENCOUNTERED 32 + THE REPOSE 35 + THE TRAVELLER BENIGHTED 36 + THE HAPPY DAY 37 + NELLY TRIM 38 + EPITAPHS 43 + THE SAILOR 44 + THE IMAGE 46 + GREEN PASTURES 49 + THE SOLDIER’S RETURN 50 + BLACK EYES 51 + BLUE EYES 53 + FARMER MAW 54 + MRS. SUMMERBEE GROWN OLD 56 + STOCK 59 + THE OLD SQUIRE 60 + MOPING CASTLE 61 + THE SICK MAN’S GARDEN 62 + WHITE MAGIC 65 + AS I WAS A-WALKING 66 + IN THE COTSWOLDS 67 + THE LITTLE DEATH 68 + THE DIVER 70 + UPON A GENTLEMAN FALLING + SERIOUSLY IN LOVE 72 + THE CAPRICIOUS LADY 74 + THEODORIC 75 + HONEY FOR TEA 76 + BODLEY’S LIBRARY 78 + A SONG ABOUT A LAMB 79 + HYMN FOR A CHILD 80 + THE SCAPEGOAT 81 + BYRON 1924 82 + GRACE AND GOOD WORKS 82 + MORNING 82 + FAITHFUL CROSS 83 + THE MAID’S TRAGEDY 85 + COMMON ENTRY 86 + THE ALARUM 87 + MATCH ME O ROSE 88 + THE ONLY CHILD 89 + THE BURNING-GLASS 90 + PEEPING TOM 92 + + + + + THE ESPALIER + + + + +QUIET NEIGHBOURS + + + Sitting alone at night + Careless of time, + From the house next door + I hear the clock chime. + + Ten, eleven, twelve; + One, two, three-- + It is all the same to the clock, + And much the same to me. + + But to-night more than sense heard it: + I opened my eyes wide + To look at the wall and wonder + What lay on the other side. + + They are quiet people + That live next door; + I never hear them scrape + Their chairs along the floor, + + They do not laugh loud, or sing, + Or scratch in the grate, + I have never seen a taxi + Drawn up at their gate; + + And though their back-garden + Is always neat and trim + It has a humbled look, + And no one walks therein. + + So did not their chiming clock + Imply some hand to wind it, + I might doubt if the wall between us + Had any life behind it. + + London neighbours are such + That I may never know more + Than this of the people + Who live next door. + + While they, for their part, + Should they hazard a guess + At me on my side of the wall + Will know as little, or less; + + For my life has grown quiet, + As quiet as theirs; + And the clock has been silent on my chimney-piece + For years and for years. + + + + +LONDON CHURCHYARD + + + As I walked through London + To ease my care, + I snuffed amid the houses + A greener air; + + And behind iron railings + I saw branches wave, + Tossing their wild arms + Over, O! many a grave. + + Such a sight as this + Pleased me very well. + I peered through the railings + That had a rusty smell-- + + All of a sudden + I heard a cry; + And saw a dark something + Crouched a new stone near-by. + + It seemed lorn and witless + As sea-weed on a beach; + But it lamented + With a woman’s speech. + + ‘Woe’s me, my lover! + Cold-hearted you are grown. + The breast where I laid my head + Lies beneath a stone. + + ‘I thought I held you fast + My kind arms between, + But now you are gone from me + As if you’d never been. + + ‘Falsely have you dealt with me, + Falsely have you beguiled. + Dead and buried with you + Lies my child.’ + + Piteously, piteously, + Thus did she rave, + And wrung her hands, + And scratched on the grave. + + + + +COUNTRY CHURCHYARD + + + ‘Awake, good neighbours all, + That wake not for the day. + The churchyard yews won’t spread the news-- + No tales tell they. + Awake, good neighbours, scramble out of your sepulchres, + Cold lying is clay:’ + ‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no. + Suppose the golden cock should crow.’ + + ‘You loved a merry life-- + For one more jaunt uprouse. + The moonlit stones above your bones + Show where you house: + Benjamin Harris, John French late of this parish, + Mary his spouse:’ + ‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no. + Suppose the golden cock should crow.’ + + ‘Awake, for time is short, + Your hour will soon be told. + Link bony hands, and dance in bands, + Nor dint the mould. + You’ll caper limberly with no flesh to cumber ye-- + Better than of old:’ + ‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no. + Suppose the golden cock should crow.’ + + ‘Let friends and neighbours meet + With curtsey, beck, and bow. + When back in bed, if a maidenhead + Or a marriage vow + Doesn’t tally exactly with who’s under which blanket, + ’Twon’t matter now:’ + ‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no. + Suppose the golden cock should crow.’ + + ‘Faint-hearted you are grown, + Neighbours, by lying dead. + This cock, your bane, is a weather-vane + With gilt overspread; + A trumpery figure, put up by the new vicar-- + Nothing to dread:’ + ‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no. + Suppose the golden cock should +crow+.’ + + + + +IN THE PARLOUR + +(i) + + + Come away from the door. + It has grown late; + The air is chill and frore, + And those whom you await + Will not pass by any more. + + Close the shutters aright + And make all fast. + We shall have rain belike, + The sky is overcast: + No one will come here to-night. + + Sit you down by my side, + Sing an old song. + Since you have been my bride + How well I like these long + Quiet evenings in Advent-tide. + + + + +IN THE PARLOUR + +(ii) + + + _He_ How unobtrusively the snow + Comes down beyond the crimson blind! + I see it not, but through my mind + Sieve the large flakes, both soft and slow, + Warding us in from humankind. + + _She_ My nimble needle forth and back + Goes twanging through the tambour-frame + To stitch a bird without a name. + If an indifferent heart should crack + ’Twould sound, I fancy, much the same. + + _He_ A cruel night for beast or man + To be abroad. But we might doubt + By this warm hearth the snow shut out, + Save for a denser silence than + Is wont to compass us about. + + _She_ The needle and the web, how fine! + The silks no thicker than a hair! + Each choice of tint calls forth my care, + And slowly goes the great design. + No matter. I have time to spare. + + _He_ ’Twill soon be time to go to bed-- + Sweet bed, but cold! Drowsed though I be + I’ll sit it out until I see + The wooden bird put forth his head, + And beck, and cry Cuckoo! to me. + + _She_ With every length of gliding floss + Wrought in to make my sampler gay + So much life’s thread I stitch away. + But this bright wing will flaunt the gloss + Of life when I am dull as clay. + + _He_ Cuckoo! Cuckoo! My dear, you heard + The clock? Another evening gone! + _She_ Asleep? + _He_ Not quite. + _She_ You’ve scarcely stirred. + _He_ In grave consideration + My thoughts upon that silly bird + Were fixed. + _She_ And mine on this. + _He_ Absurd! + We even think in unison. + + + + +TUDOR CHURCH MUSIC + + + Here in the minster tower + I sit alone, + While to mind’s ear old books + Mumble and drone; + And the warm sun slants in + Over the cold stone. + + Through the long afternoon + I hear the clock + Preach to the empty church: + Tick-tock. Tick-tock. + O, a rare text to expound + To a sleeping flock! + + The patient organist + Who scrolled this clef; + The boy who drew him horned + On Gibbons in F; + Singers and hearers all + Are dumb and deaf-- + + ‘Dumb and deaf, dead and dust,’ + Confirms the clock. + And life seems so far off + That at the shock + I see my calm hand start, + When footsteps knock + + Upon stair. Holiday-makers + Out on a trip + To whom the verger propounds + Each trusty quip, + While, mute, they fidget together + In uneasy fellowship. + + And only when they are gone + Do I doff the mask + Of the scholar deep in his book: + ‘Did they see me?’ I ask, + ‘Or am I, too, a ghost?’ and so + Turn once more to my task. + + + + +AN AFTERNOON CALL + + + To shelter from the thunder-drench + A scorched and sorefoot tramping wench + Came to my door and proffered me + Lilac, that I had viewed her wrench + Out of my neighbour’s tree. + + I bade her in. With glances keen + She eyed my well-found kitchen, scene + Of kind domestic arts; + Like one who curious and serene + Looks round on foreign parts. + + She talked of winds and wayside fruits, + Seas, cities, fair-times, landmarks, routes + Of journeys past and gone. + I gave her an old pair of boots + That she might wander on. + + + + +WISH IN SPRING + + + To-day I wish that I were a tree, + And not myself, + Confronting spring with a neat little row of poems + Like cups and saucers on a shelf. + + For then I should have poems innumerable, + One kissing the other; + Authentic, perfect in shape and lovely variety, + And all of the same tireless green colour. + + No one would think it unnatural + Or question my right; + All day I would wave them above the heads of people, + And sing them to myself all night. + + But as I am only a woman + And not a tree, + With piteous human care I have made this poem, + And set it now on the shelf with the rest to be. + + + + +THE VIRGIN AND THE SCALES + + + This is a public park; + You may not pick the flowers, + Or loiter after hours, + Or kiss too deep in the dark. + Yet here is green, and sweet + Forgetfulness of the street; + Deep walks of chestnut and lime + Where the old may pass away time, + Pleasant picnicing places + For children with shabby faces, + Lawns blowing in the sun + Where dogs may roll and run, + And the patient grass + For lover and lass. + Is this then not enough? + No, not enough for one + I met there. + Who? + A nun. + (And yet, God knows, so old, + So battered with untold + Heavenly housewifery, + So vowed to poverty, + You would not think to find + Ambition in her mind.) + In wintry woollen stuff + Of abstinence was she dressed, + And winter was on her breast; + But midsummer’s most complete + Honey-coloured, honey-sweet + Plenteousness was her plunder, + Standing the lime-tree under. + + No housewife shelling peas, + No Saint upon her knees + Telling God’s praises over, + Slip-finger, nor bees in clover, + Nor girl-child gathering + Cowslips in the spring + Showed with more innocence + Delight in diligence + Than she, cramming her bag + With golden handfuls of swag. + Love knit my heart to her: + I approached; but at the stir + Of footfall she glanced round, + Loosed her rich branch, and frowned + With such an air of doubt + As children show found out + In fault, till seeing that I + Smiled, she in turn looked sly + And faster than before + Plucked on. Said I: ‘Here’s more + Than you can lessen, though you + Should gather the whole day through + For your lime-blossom tea.’ + ‘It is God’s gift,’ said she, + ‘And pleasant for the sick. + It grows so clean and thick + ’Twere shame to let it waste. + Aye, gathered it _should_ be. + But I must work in haste + Lest the Keeper come along + And tell me I do wrong.’ + + I looked up overhead + And saw the lime-tree spread + Above us like a tent; + Like a green and golden pavilion + Of some Arabian Night, + Murmuring as with consent, + And gleaming as though alight + With a million, with a million + Loops and tassels of scent. + + I thought then: Who could grudge + Blooms to this holy drudge, + Or stay her wrinkled, deft + Old hands from their kind theft? + She thief, lawbreaker? She? + As well accuse the tree, + That day-long with sweet skill + Steals sap, steals chlorophyl; + That from earth, from dew, from air + Thieves that it may be fair + And show its works to men, + Who beholding it then + May glorify their Father + In heaven. + No, but look farther. + I touch not blossom nor leaf, + And I, I am the Thief! + Thief so cunning and fell + That I am Keeper as well. + Good cause had she to frown + At my shadow blackening down; + For every joy I take + Becomes an iron grate, + And my innocent delights + Plant rows of iron spikes; + Worst, self-denying, this trick + Of integrity--not to pick + Blossom, bruise leaf, destroy + Aught from the common joy-- + Binds in an iron band + My heart and prompts my hand, + Now lifted up to bless + In scrupulous emptiness, + To write these words of hate + +Thou shalt not+ on every gate. + + Yet here is solace, and sweet + Redemption from the street; + A pause, a look of pity + For the begrimed city, + Green almsgiving, a lake + Of green where men may slake + Parched senses, wash off care. + Ah, if it only were + Not so precious, so deadly dear, + So dearly defrayed a delight + That whosoever comes here + Must come as Thief outright, + Or cloaking his envious mind + With love of humankind, + And with caution and mistrust + Walking among the just + Grow Thief so cunning and fell + That perforce he’s Keeper as well. + Poor drudge, you had reason to start, + When with love in my heart + I approached you, as though you saw + In me the offended law. + Truly, to-day I must be + Offended because of thee. + For every blossom you pick + Must wound me to the quick, + And by that bag you’ve crammed + With mercies I am damned; + Worst, worst, your innocence, + Your happy, happy love, + Your hand, so hand in glove + With the tree’s consenting, + Is a sword to drive me hence, + Lamenting, lamenting; + Is a flame brandished to fright + Me from a forfeited delight, + Repenting, repenting; + Is a key in the unrelenting + Hand of the uncreate, + Locking the garden gate. + + O why must my spirit pine + For a few handfuls of lime + Plucked by a poor old nun, + Whose cares are all in one + Concern so summed up and shriven + That were I to tell her but half + Of the coil through which she’s driven + My thoughts, she must either laugh + As a nurse laughs at a child, + Or with a sigh, maybe a frown + For one so devil-wiled, + Brush all my vain-wit down? + And yet I linger, I delay, + Hankering, as though some clue + She had hold of, answer knew. + As though, should I say: + ‘No, dear, you may not pick + Lime-blossom for the sick; + For know you not, since the Fall + Not one tree, but all, all + Must bear forbidden fruit, + And are poisoned at the root + By man’s repentant tears?’-- + She might reply: ‘Yet here’s + Good warrant for what I do. + When he was walking through + The harvest he plucked the ears + Of corn and shared them among + Those with him, for they were an hungered, and so was he. + Thus his disciples he taught + How to steal as they ought, + In joy and peace of heart; + Thus he took the sinner’s part; + So much to thieves a friend + That he had them with him till the end; + Thus, thus, he would set us free. + But till everyone believes + In him we must all be thieves.’ + + + + +I BRING HER A FLOWER + + + Sweet faith + Such looks of quiet hath + That those on whom she’s smiled + Lie down to sleep as easy as a child. + + No night, + However dark, can fright + Them, no, nor day + To come, however bleak and fell, dismay. + + But sound + Sleep they in prison-bound + As when at liberty. + And if they wake, they wake in charity; + + Like her, + Who rousing at the jar + Of weary foot in the rain + Pitied the wakeful sentry for his pain. + + _Like her_: Rosa Luxemburg. + + + + +THE LENTEN OFFERING + + + Christ, here’s a thorn + More poison-fanged than any that you knew: + On the north side of our churchyard it grew, + Where lie the suicides and babes chance-born. + + Christ, here are nails, + Once driven in, will never lose their hold: + Forged at Krupp’s, Creusot’s, Vickers’, and tipped with gold + Pen-nibs that signed the Treaty of Versailles. + + Christ, here’s a sharp + Spear, can wound deeper than all other spears: + In baths of human blood and human tears + Tempered, and whetted on the human heart. + + + + +CAVES OF HARMONY + + + Play, dark musician, play-- + How almost human sounds your saxophone! + (Somewhere in Africa + An angry lion tosses up a bone.) + + Sambo’s a ready scholar + And hides his black skin under a black coat. + Although he wears a collar + Adam’s own apple yet sticks in his throat. + + Play, dark musician, play-- + I see your imitation diamond flash. + (Once in America + Your fathers howled and writhed beneath the lash.) + + How leers the blackamoor, + Exhaling his melodious delight! + Music’s his paramour; + And yours, and mine, since we dance here to-night. + + Play, dark musician, play-- + Outdo the beast’s roar and the scourged slave’s moan. + Ambassador from U.S.A., + How almost human sounds your saxophone! + + + + +OLD MAN + + + Reading in bawdy books + The old man sits. + De Sade plays Abishag + To his cold wits. + + Under his bushy brows + His eyes are mild-- + There’s no more harm in him + Than in a child. + + + + +SONG FROM THE BRIDE OF SMITHFIELD + + + A thousand guileless sheep have bled, + A thousand bullocks knelt in fear, + To daub my Henry’s cheek with red + And round the curl above his ear. + + And wounded calves hung up to drip + Have in slow sweats distilled for him + The dew that polishes his lip, + The inward balm that oils each limb. + + In vain I spread my maiden arts, + In vain for Henry’s love I pine. + He is too skilled in bleeding hearts + To turn this way and pity mine. + + + + +LET ME GO! + + + Any wind but this-- + That with remembrance of rain + Grown soft and pitiful, embraced me + As I walked homeward. + + And any other look + Than the full-moon sheds to-night-- + As though she bent like a mother + Above her sleeping children. + + Not to be denied + The wind gropes over the house; + And now it has brushed aside the curtains + And walks about the room. + + Too well, too well I know + Whence you have journeyed, O Wind! + And what the landscape of nestling hill and valley + That the moon eyes so lovingly. + + + + +COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN + +(i) + + + Averted from myself + I walk up and down-- + I see how in the light of the arc-lamps + The trees look stricken and brown. + Autumn is an unkindly thing + In a town. + + The leaves fall aimlessly; + Frustrated in their decay, + With scraps of paper and bus-tickets + They will be swept away. + + All the mortality in me + Yearns to go + Somewhere alone into the country, + Where elms stand in the hedgerow; + Through fields completed and contented + To walk to and fro-- + + To hear leaves falling + Like a quiet breath; + To be a partaker + In their death. + + + + +COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN + +(ii) + + + Cold, is it cold? + Blows there a wind + All night through? + Does a frozen dew + Lie on the wold? + + Dark, is it dark? + Blotted from being + Cottage and garth? + Has the last hearth + Quenched its spark? + + Still, is it still? + Wakes the wind only? + Sunk in a deep + Midwinter sleep + Valley and hill? + + No, not all cold, + Nor yet all dark, + Nor yet quite still. + Such is not God’s will. + In the sheepfold, + + Warm in the ewe’s fleece, + Lies the lamb newborn. + To and fro all night + The shepherd bears a light, + Telling his flock’s increase. + + + + +THE GREEN VALLEY + + + Here in the green scooped valley I walk to and fro. + In all my journeyings I have not seen + A place so tranquil, so green; + And yet I think I have seen it long ago, + The grassy slopes, and the cart-track winding, so. + + O now I remember it well, now all is plain, + Why twitched my memory like a dowser’s rod + At waters hidden under sod. + When I was a child they told me of Charlemagne, + Of Gan the traitor, and Roland outmatched and slain. + + Weeping for Roland then, I scooped in my spirit + A scant green Roncesvalles, a holy ground, + Which here in Dorset I’ve found: + But finding, I knew it not. The years disinherit + Their children. The horn is blown, but I do not hear it. + + + + +GHOSTS AT CHALDON HERRING + + + Hush, my dear, hush! + Who are these that pass + Up Shady Lane? + Their feet don’t brush + Any dew from the grass + And they are silent, too. + + Hand in kind hand + Go some, and closelier linked + Another twain; + And others stand + As a-drouse, indistinct + Beneath the darkening boughs. + + Ghosts, ghosts are these!-- + Long-dead lasses, each + Beside her swain-- + Between the trees + Pacing slow, without speech, + As they were wont to go. + + Strange, some should choose + Thus their mouldered dears + To meet again, + Whom long misuse + Of marriage, taunts and tears, + And the slow grudge of age + + Warped and estranged; + Sure, this place above + All others fain + They’d leave unranged, + Lest a gaunt dead love + Them, like a dead child, haunt. + + Ah, but not so + These who in true-love-knot + Their arms enchain. + Dead long ago + Are they all, and forgot + The life that held them thrall. + + Nought now exists + Save fancies nursed apart. + And of all this train + Scarce one that trysts + With a seeming sweetheart + But walks beside a dream. + + + + +THE TRAVELLER ENCOUNTERED + + + The highroad runs plain + Between Thaxted and Dunmow, + But I had chosen to go + By bridle-path and lane; + To see the champaign, + And the stooks a-row-- + There I met an old fellow + Standing in the rain. + + He was bowed and lean; + But clear was his eye + As a rift of March sky, + His face like a quarrendine. + ‘You must have seen + Many changes,’ said I. + ‘Changes, lady? Aye! + Four times I have been + + ‘Forced to lie abed; + Once I had the ague, + And thrice did I spew + Up my blood so red. + ’Twas my lungs, Doctor said, + And the most I could do + To last a week or two-- + Ten years he’s been dead. + + ‘My wife died. + And then after her + My eldest daughter. + Eight years come Whitsuntide + The house where we did bide + Was pulled down. It stood yonder, + Just by that tall fir + With the rick alongside.’ + + Thus did he talk, + Twisting the while + A sprig of camomile + Or a corn-stalk. + ‘Follow the grassy baulk + Till you come to a stile.’ + So, mile by mile, + He told over my walk. + + Musing on country folk + I bade him good-day. + And going on my way + To myself I spoke: + As well might I invoke + These hedges to say + Who passed by yesterday; + Or question yonder oak, + + Bidding it declare + What changes it had seen, + ‘In summer I was green, + Acorns did I bear. + Come winter, I was bare. + For years full eighteen + This meadow has not been + Under the ploughshare.’ + + But Labour-in-Vain + Was the epitome + Of changes sighed to me + By the doomed champaign. + And turning once again, + Far off did I see + The man and the tree + Standing in the rain. + + + + +THE REPOSE + + + At Bradwell in the marshes + There is an inn. + Few are the travellers + Have rested therein. + + The folk that sit there + Have but little to say; + They sit looking out of the window + At the churchyard across the way. + + Growing among the graves + Is a green weeping willow. + The graves are all green + And peaceful as a pillow. + + The bar-parlour is shaded + With a green gloom, + As if the willow-branches + Were waving in the room. + + Churchyard and church and inn-- + They are all very old. + Even the beer they draw there + Seems to taste of the mould. + + + + +THE TRAVELLER BENIGHTED + + + On through the quiet country-side + The road runs small and white, + The trees stand still on either side + As if to watch me there-- + But stilled, stilled is the air + At the oncome of night. + + And see, behind my back the moon + Eyes me with steadfast gaze; + I did not think she’d spill so soon + Her silver in the brook-- + But calm, calm is her look + As she mounts through the haze. + + As though I’d shed it like a husk, + My body casts no shade; + I walk suspended in the dusk + Just as a spirit might, + For yet, yet there is light + In the west--but ’twill fade + + Yes, fade it will, and I shall trace + My bobbing shadow spread + Before me on the whitened face + Of the road where I must go. + And then, then I shall know + What it is that I dread. + + + + +THE HAPPY DAY + + + All day long + I purpose in yonder + Green meadows to wander + And think of a song. + + I shall take + Provision of berries, + Black treacle cherries, + And possibly cake. + + Where the boughs + Of gliding willows + Freckle green pillows + I shall drowse, + + Or wander blithe + Through scented acres + Where haymakers + Sharpen the scythe. + + I shall not lack, + I shall not trouble; + Through fields of stubble + I shall come back-- + + While dusk is spread, + While twilight lingers-- + With purple fingers, + A song in my head. + + + + +NELLY TRIM + + + ‘Like men riding, + The mist from the sea + Drives down the valley + And baffles me.’ + ‘Enter, traveller, + Whoever you be.’ + + By lamplight confronted + He staggered and peered; + Like a wet bramble + Was his beard. + ‘Sit down, stranger, + You look a-feared.’ + + Shudders rent him + To the bone, + The wet ran off him + And speckled the stone. + ‘Dost bide here alone, maid?’ + ‘Yes, alone.’ + + As he sat down + In the chimney-nook + Over his shoulder + He cast a look, + As if the night + Were pursuing; she took + + A handful of brash + To mend the fire, + He eyed her close + As the flame shot higher; + He spoke--and the cattle + Moved in the byre. + + ‘Though you should heap + Your fire with wood, + ’Twouldn’t warm me, + Nor do no good, + Unless you first warm me + As a maiden should.’ + + With looks unwavering, + With breath unstirred, + She took off her clothes + Without a word; + And stood up naked + And white as a curd. + + He breathed her to him + With famished sighs, + Against her bosom + He sheltered his eyes, + And warmed his hands + Between her thighs. + + Strangely assembled + In the quiet room, + Alone alight + Amidst leagues of gloom, + So brave a bride, + So sad a groom; + + And strange love-traffic + Between these two; + Nor mean, nor shamefaced-- + As though they’d do + Something more solemn + Than they knew: + + As though by this greeting + Which chance had willed + ’Twixt him so silent + And her so stilled, + Some pledge or compact + Were fulfilled, + + Made for all time + In times unknown, + ’Twixt man and woman + Standing alone + In mirk night + By a tall stone. + + His wayfaring terrors + All cast aside, + Brave now the bridegroom + Quitted the bride; + As he came, departing-- + Undenied. + + But once from darkness + Turned back his sight + To where in the doorway + She held a light: + ‘Goodbye to you, maiden.’ + ‘Stranger, good night.’ + + Long time has this woman + Been bedded alone. + The house where she dwelt + Lies stone on stone: + She’d not know her ash-tree, + So warped has it grown. + + But yet this story + Is told of her + As a memorial; + And some aver + She’d comfort thus any + Poor traveller. + + A wanton, you say-- + Yet where’s the spouse, + However true + To her marriage-vows, + To whom the lot + Of the earth-born allows + + More than this?-- + To comfort the care + Of a stranger, bound + She knows not where, + And afraid of the dark, + As his fathers were. + + + + +EPITAPHS + + + (i) + + Here lies Melissa Mary Thorn + Together with her son, still-born; + Whose loss her husband doth lament. + He has a large estate in Kent. + + + (ii) + + After long thirty years re-met + I, William Clarke, and I, Jeanette + His wife, lie side by side once more; + But quieter than we lay before. + + + (iii) + + A widowed mother reared this stone + To Annott Clare, aged twenty-one. + Seven live sons have I, but she + Was dearer than them all to me. + + + (iv) + + Here lies the body of Tom Fool, + Who died, a little boy, at school + Oft did he bleed and oft did weep, + And whimpering, now has fallen asleep. + + + (v) + + John Bird, a labourer, lies here, + Who served the earth for sixty years + With spade and mattock, drill and plough; + But never found it kind till now. + + + + +THE SAILOR + + + I have a young love-- + A landward lass is she-- + And thus she entreated: + ‘O tell me of the sea, + That on thy next voyage + My thoughts may follow thee.’ + + I took her up a hill + And showed her hills green, + One after other + With valleys between: + So green and gentle, I said, + Are the waves I’ve seen. + + I led her by the hand + Down the grassy way, + And showed her the hedgerows + That were white with may: + So white and fleeting, I said, + Is the salt sea-spray. + + I bade her lean her head + Down against my side, + Rising and falling + On my breath to ride: + Thus rode the vessel, I said, + On the rocking tide. + + For she so young is, and tender, + I would not have her know + What it is that I go to + When to sea I must go, + Lest she should lie awake and tremble + When the great storm-winds blow. + + + + +THE IMAGE + + + ‘Why do you look so pale, my son William? + Where have you been so long?’ + ‘I’ve been to my sweetheart, Mother, + As it says in the song.’ + + ‘Though you be pledged and cried to the parish + ’Tis not fitting or right + To visit a young maiden + At this hour of night.’ + + ‘I went not for her sweet company, + I meant not any sin, + But only to walk round her house + And think she was within. + + ‘Unbeknown I looked in at the window; + And there I saw my bride + Sitting lonesome in the chimney-nook, + With the cat alongside. + + ‘Slowly she drew out from under her apron + An image made of wax, + Shaped like a man, and all stuck over + With pins and with tacks. + + ‘Hair it had, hanging down to its shoulders, + Straight as any tow-- + Just such a lock she begged of me + But three days ago. + + ‘She set it down to stand in the embers-- + The wax began to run. + Mother! Mother! That waxen image, + I think it was your son!’ + + ‘’Twas but a piece of maiden’s foolishness, + Never think more of it. + I warrant that when she’s a wife + She’ll have a better wit.’ + + ‘Maybe, maybe, Mother. + I pray you, mend the fire. + For I am cold to the knees + With walking through the mire. + + ‘The snow is melting under the rain, + The ways are full of mud; + The cold has crept into my bones, + And glides along my blood. + + ‘Take out, take out my winding-sheet + From the press where it lies, + And borrow two pennies from my money-box + To put upon my eyes; + + ‘For now the cold creeps up to my heart, + My ears go Ding, go Dong: + I shall be dead long before day, + For winter nights are long.’ + + ‘Cursèd, cursèd be that Devil’s vixen + To rob you of your life! + And cursèd be the day you left me + To go after a wife!’ + + ‘Why do you speak so loud, Mother? + I was almost asleep. + I thought the churchbells were ringing + And the snow lay deep. + + ‘Over the white fields we trod to our wedding, + She leant upon my arm-- + What have I done to her that she + Should do me this harm?’ + + + + +GREEN PASTURES + + + ‘O, I could lean + And look for ever + At such a scene!-- + And bless the Giver, + Who beauty gave, and best of all, + Sameness, unwearied and perpetual. + + ‘Let such a sight + Brim up my seeing, + And with delight + Renew my being, + Until the prospect calm and kind + Seem the reflection of my mind!’ + + Said t’other: ‘At most + This field you’re praising + Has but the boast + Of being good grazing. + You’re easy pleased if what you like + Best be a green field and a stone dyke.’ + + + + +THE SOLDIER’S RETURN + + + Jump through the hedge, lass! + Run down the lane! + Here’s your soldier-laddie + Come back again. + + Coming over the hill + With the sunset at his back-- + Never be feared, lass, + Though he look black; + + Coming through the meadow + And leaping the watercourse-- + Never be feared, lass, + Though his voice be hoarse; + + Belike he’s out of breath + With walking from the town. + He will speak better + When the sun’s gone down. + + + + +BLACK EYES + + + Long Molly Samways + Went by just then. + Strange, how that girl + Gets off with the men! + + With her head wig-waggling + On her long neck, + And her hair straggling + Down her back. + + Past ten of the clock + She’ll get up in a daze, + And spend the morning + Lacing her stays. + + She wouldn’t go + To the Whitsun Fair + Because of the trouble + Of getting there; + + And if she be common + To half the town, + ’Tis to please her back + That she lies her down. + + Such a long, lazy + Slug-a-bed + Won’t have her sleep out + Until she’s dead. + + And the Judgement Trump + May split the skies-- + Though it should wake her + I doubt if she’ll rise. + + + + +BLUE EYES + + + Barbara Cushion + Weeps in the lane, + And vows she will never + Go brambling again. + + Down her fat face + Fat teardrops run, + And splash on her bosom, + One by one; + + With sobs and cries + She shakes like a shape-- + What is the matter, + Is it a rape? + + Oh no! It’s her feelings, + Poor girl, that smart; + And Jem’s unkindness + Has broken her heart. + + For months she has had + A mind to Jem, + So when she set out + She smiled at him; + + Down the green lane + She watched him come-- + But all he did + Was to pinch her bum. + + + + +FARMER MAW + + + Who’s he you saw, + Stranger, among the stooks?-- + ’Tis Farmer Maw + Scaring away the rooks. + + Once, stout and tall, + He had no peer to plough; + But this is all + Poor Farmer’s fit for now. + + On Lammas Eve + He hoed the Seven Acre, + And taking leave + Looked round like God the Maker: + + His hay well ricked-- + His fields secure and small-- + With a most strict + Eye he surveyed them all; + + And finding less + Than usual to offend + His carefulness, + Went home, and made an end. + + After she saw + Hired bailiff reap and bind, + Poor Widow Maw + Sat down and called to mind + + How oft her Dear + Exclaimed with scornful oaths + At waste of gear + Unthrift. His working clothes + + She fetched, and laid + Them out upon a table; + Though patched and frayed + They yet were serviceable-- + + Aye, in such worn + Apparel, and bemired, + As men might scorn, + Scarecrow were well-attired. + + Thus, stuffed with straw, + As large as life he stands-- + A shape of awe-- + And overlooks his lands, + + His flocks and herds: + But sore, poor soul! beshit; + For those bold birds + Don’t honour him a whit. + + + + +MRS. SUMMERBEE GROWN OLD + + + As tall as the church tower, + And as stark, + The churchyard elm + Rears into the dark. + + And many’s the evening + I’ve walked in dread + To think that its boughs + Were overhead; + + And many’s the midnight + I’ve waked in fear + To think that its branches + Were drawing near. + + For we live here alone-- + The Rector and I, + Both of us grown old, + And unwilling to die; + + And the churchyard elm + Has arms like a fiend: + Many’s the dark night + I’ve thought they leaned + + Downward, downward-- + As though they’d claw + Us into the churchyard + Like things of straw. + + But thanks to the rulers + Of the realm + We are delivered + From the elm. + + For the Inspector + Chanced this way. + He wrote in his book, + And had his say + + Of regulations + And bye-laws-- + Then came the woodman + And cut its claws. + + Harmless and glum + The monster stands + And holds to heaven + Its baffled hands. + + The Rector and I + Can walk beneath, + Untroubled by + The fear of death. + + And on still nights + When no one’s about + I dance round the elm, + And thus do I flout: + + Coffin-tree, coffin-tree, + You shall get neither him nor me! + Your branches are lopped, + Your games are all stopped. + + + + +STOCK + + + Farmer Hood’s wife + Was brought to bed. + ‘Look at the baby!’ + The midwife said. + + Scantly he glanced + At the babe she bore. + He had seen plenty + Like it before; + + And ‘Troubles,’ quoth he, + ‘Never come by half, + For the Guernsey heifer + Has slipped her calf.’ + + + + +THE OLD SQUIRE + + + Squire England has grown old: + Too stiff to ride to hounds, + Too blind to shoot his coverts, + He takes up his great stick + And potters about the grounds. + + The meadows and the pond, + The fig-tree on the south wall, + The plantation of young spruces, + The yew hedge twelve foot thick-- + He stares at them all; + + And grumbling as he goes, + He stops here and there + To spud up a dandelion. + His mind is full of doubt, + For a stranger is his heir. + + House, meadows, walks and trees, + Although his sight be dim + He sees them very plainly; + He prays that none may flout + The things so dear to him. + + + + +MOPING CASTLE + + + ‘Why have you planted firs + About your dwelling, + Of trees created + Choosing the most adverse + To mortal cheer? + Whose breasts uncouth, both song + And spring repelling, + With endless sighs are freighted; + Foreboding every year + A deeper wrong. + + ‘Or have you planted firs + About your dwelling + That they in proxy + Might all your sighs rehearse? + Ill-starred one! doomed + To mourn your frustrate prime, + Your sons rebelling, + Your Dear another’s doxy, + Your mouldered heart entombed + In waste of time.’ + + ‘No, Friend. I planted firs + About my dwelling; + But, I protest, meant + No clue so apt for verse + As you conceive + These sombre groves to give. + Soon ripe for felling, + Firs are a good investment; + And though I live to grieve, + Yet I must live.’ + + + + +THE SICK MAN’S GARDEN + + + He has been ill so long + On whom it depended, + That the garden untended + Is beginning to go wrong. + + The gate has fallen awry, + The tools are half rusted-- + They will be encrusted + All over, by and by. + + The rose has broken loose + From the arch where he trained it; + Dead petal on petal has stained it + With its own juice. + + Walks and plots are unkempt-- + It is all dishevelled; + Like a skein unravelled, + Like a forgotten thing dream’d. + + And peering through the gate, + And closing in around it, + The thickets that bound it + Seem to be lying in wait. + + My heart foretells the day + Toward which it moulders, + When men with bowed shoulders + Shall carry him away. + + Herb-border and flower-bed + Underfoot they shall trample, + And briar and bramble + Make slower their slow tread. + + The mourners as they pass + Will stumble and shuffle, + Their steps shall be muffled + With the swishing of long grass. + + Departed the last black form + And the last black shadow, + From thicket and meadow + Shall clamber in a swarm + + Of wildings and weeds out-cast, + By exile eagered + For the garden beleaguered + Which has fallen to them at last. + + By these remorseless, dumb + Spoilers invaded, + The flowers unaided + Shall all be overcome; + + Save only those at need’s + Touch who turn traitors, + Changing their natures + And reverting again to weeds. + + Thus shall wild earth be paid + The debt so long owing; + Whilst he, unknowing, + Deep in wild earth is laid. + + + + +WHITE MAGIC + + + Young man, be warned by me, + And shun the hour + When the full moon has power + To sway men like the sea. + + I with my love kept tryst + One moonlight night. + Something did us affright-- + And she went home unkissed. + + We saw as clear as day + The things we knew; + Only the sky more blue + Seemed, and the grass grown grey. + + Round us the orchard trees + Like spirits stood-- + When she threw back her hood, + She looked like one of these; + + So blanched the face I knew + It seemed estranged: + Its moonlight aspect changed + My eager blood to dew. + + Disheartened, we returned; + Nor met again. + I have grown old since then, + But I have never learned + + By what mysterious art + The moonlight thieves + Colour from the young leaves, + And passion from the heart. + + + + +AS I WAS A-WALKING + + + Sweetly fell the rain on the springing grass, + The birds sang all with voices as clear as glass; + To greet the blackthorn I turned aside-- + A presence too lovely to pass-- + But as with worship I neared it, a man I espied + Asleep in the rain beneath the blossoming tree. + + I forgot to look at the tree, I looked instead + At the man who lay so still with averted head. + Because I could not see his face + I wondered if he were dead. + My mind was full of doubt as I left the place-- + But dead or alive he was a stranger to me. + + + + +IN THE COTSWOLDS + + + All day the rain + Fell on the wheat + And dripped from the gable + On to the stone; + And all day long + I sat alone + Save for the dog + Who slept at my feet. + + Slept--till a-sudden + He roused in fear, + And snuffed at the door, + And would not be quelled. + I opened--and there + An old crone I beheld, + And round about her + The dusk drawn near. + + Something she said-- + But her voice was hollow, + And chill was the hand + She laid on mine. + Her words were a riddle + I could not untwine; + And when she turned onward + I knew I must follow. + + I felt the watery + Stubble souse + My ankles, and round me + Saw corn-shocks blurred. + And faint and fainter + Yet I heard + The dog bark on + In the empty house. + + + + +THE LITTLE DEATH + + + What voice is this + Sings so, rings so + Within my head? + Not mine, for I am dead, + + And a deep peace + Wraps me, haps me + From head to feet + Like a smooth winding-sheet. + + Before my eyes + Reeling, wheeling, + Leaf-green stars + Have changed to purple bars + + And flickered out; + Spinning, thinning, + Up the wall, + That has grown very tall. + + Only that voice-- + Distant, insistent; + Like the high + Stroked glass’s airy cry; + + Echoing on, + Winds me, binds me + As with a thread + Spun from my own head. + + O speak not yet! + Forget me, let me + Lie here as calm + As saints that nurse their palm; + + Whilst like a tide + Turning, returning, + Silence and gloom + Flow in and fill the room. + + + + +THE DIVER + + + Self-loving I strayed + Through leagues of fir-wood-- + Dream-like as woods + In water suspended, + So hushed was the shade, + So cool the silence; + + Nor stayed, till I saw + My watery woodlands + In a deep tarn + Hanging head-downward, + As though they would draw + The soul down after them. + + I thought: How sweet + To bathe in those waters! + I stripped myself bare; + On the pine-needles + I settled my feet, + And dived in fearless + + To greet with the glow + Of an ardent lover + That limpid depth, + That bride-bed of stillness + Which far below + Awaited my coming. + + O, but beneath + The rocky cornice, + Ready to pounce + There lurked a Nixy! + With ice-cold teeth + She bit and tore me, + + And wreathed her fierce + Embraces about me + In coil on coil + Of anguish unspeakable, + And snarled in my ears + With a voice of darkness. + + In fear of my life + I fought the Nixy + Till back to her den + At last I drove her; + To whet her knife + And await the next-comer. + + Dry-footed on shore + I scrunched the pine-needles, + And watched the tarn + And its basking tree-tops + Resume once more + Their lovely stillness: + + All, all like a charm + Inveigled the spirit; + Prompted: How sweet + To bathe in these waters + Here is no harm-- + + But I knew better. + + + + +UPON A GENTLEMAN FALLING SERIOUSLY IN LOVE + + + Who loves his kind, loves bone, + Flesh, play of sinew, shoot + Of sense, the turn of a head, + A voice answering his own: + Who loves a house, loves stone, + Iron, plaster, brick, glass, lead, + Timber hewn off and mute-- + And these alone. + + Who wins his kind, wins store + Of joys, griefs, memories, brain’s + Diligence, heart’s ease, a share + Of life not his before: + Who gains a house, a core + Of blank and senseless air + Cased up in matter gains-- + And nothing more. + + Sun may warm stone, awaken + Casement, with farewell kiss + Flush thatch--’tis all a show. + Though man a more unshaken + Diurnal love bestow-- + He gains not even this. + + And blest are they whose thrall + Hearts can endure this passion, + Hopeless, uncompromised + By aught reciprocal; + Yea, saints emparadised + May love God after this fashion. + + + + +THE CAPRICIOUS LADY + + + No, no, I do not choose + Commonplace flowers like these! + Such artless pinks and blues-- + Forget-me-not, maiden’s-blush-- + Are tedious to my sight. + But give me, if you’d please, + Blossoms more recondite: + Cocks-combs of crimson plush, + Large, spider-speckled, rare + Orchids, or tulips whose + Smooth flesh has learnt to wear + The colour of a bruise. + + + + +THEODORIC + + + Praise the great Goth, Theodoric! + Who, a true patriot, led + His northern hordes into Italy, + Where he’d be better fed. + + Sturgeon, peacock, assafœtida-- + Nought came amiss to him + (Though Peter Vischer of Nuremberg + Makes him out to be slim). + + Once only did his appetite + Quail at a new dish; + When they served up an aged senator + In the shape of a large fish. + + The dead eyes glared reproachfully-- + Fear spawned in his blood + Agueish pangs innumerable + As fishes in the flood. + + Not furs of marmot and zibeline, + Nor a great fire near-by, + Could warm the wretched Theodoric + As he lay waiting to die; + + Chattering about old Symmachus, + And Boëthius his friend, + Who with no consolation but philosophy + Made a far braver end. + + + + +HONEY FOR TEA + + + I’ve sat in the sun + From three to five + Watching the bees + About the hive. + They are horribly alive! + + From white to red, + From red to white, + They weave Euclidean + Tangles of flight, + And nowhere find delight: + + But them a maniac + Industry eggs + Onward; they grapple + With hairy legs, + Methodical to the dregs. + + The blossom rifled, + With laden thighs + Further each willing + Eunuch plies: + A dull way to fertilize. + + And back to their cells + They come at last; + Armed, incurious, + Sailing past + Me where I sit aghast. + + Oh, horrible + That aught can be + So sufficient, yet + So unlike me! + I shall go in to tea. + + There in the parlour + I shall find + Things to restore + My peace of mind; + By man for man designed. + + The rat-tail spoons, + The china dishes, + Smooth as the sequined + Sides of fishes, + Obedient to my wishes; + + The sturdy table + So plain and whole, + The meek sweet + Of the sugar-bowl; + These shall confirm my soul + + Till I, emboldened, + Lift down from the shelf + The hoarded treasure, + Taken by stealth + From that inimical Commonwealth. + + + + +BODLEY’S LIBRARY + + + Chained to their shelves + Sit Origen, + Aquinas, Gregory + Nazianzen, + Bede, Alcuin, Scotus-- + All the wise men + Of golden mouth + And faithful pen. + + Falcons once + Of piercing flight, + Chained they must needs be + Or out of sight + They’d soar. But now + They blink at the light, + Like old brown owls + Awaiting the night. + + + + +A SONG ABOUT A LAMB + + + ‘O God, the Sure Defence + Of Jacob’s race, + Lover of innocence + And a smooth face, + Accept my sacrifice-- + A little lamb, bought at the market price. + + ‘With fleece so soft and clean + And horns not yet + A-bud, the creature’s been + The children’s pet. + And sore they wept to see + Their snub-nosed friend come trotting after me.’ + + God heard: the lightnings brake + Forth in his honour; + But by some slight mistake + Consumed the donor. + The lamb fell in a muse-- + But soon took heart, and leaped among the pews. + + + + +HYMN FOR A CHILD + + + Flocking to the Temple + See the priests assemble + Where a child expounds + What the wise confounds. + + All the scribes and sages + Quit their dog’s-eared pages; + Spell-bound by his sense + And his eloquence. + + Speaking without bias, + He reviewed Elias; + Said the dogs did well, + Eating Jezebel. + + Just as he disposes + Of the Law and Moses, + Mary came in haste-- + Caught him to her breast: + + ‘We have sought thee’ saying-- + Chid him for delaying. + Then without demur + He went back with her. + + Those he was amazing + Straightway broke out praising; + Calling him a mild, + Nicely brought-up child. + + Teach me, gentle Saviour, + Such discreet behaviour + That my elders be + Always pleased with me. + + + + +THE SCAPEGOAT + + + See the scapegoat, happy beast, + From every personal sin released, + And in the desert hidden apart, + Dancing with a careless heart. + + ‘Lightly weigh the sins of others.’ + See him skip! ‘Am I my brother’s + Keeper? O never, no, no, no! + Lightly come and lightly go!’ + + In the town, from sin made free, + Righteous men hold jubilee. + In the desert all alone + The scapegoat dances on and on. + + + + +BYRON 1924 + + + Much as they all deplored his morals + Our fathers left the bard his laurels. + But in these more precisian days + We shake our young heads over the lays. + + + + +GRACE AND GOOD WORKS + + + Blest are the poor, whose needs enable + The rich but timely charitable + To take the Kingdom of Heaven by force. + The poor are also saved, of course. + + + + +MORNING + + + The long, long-looked-for night has sped. + ’Tis time we should arise + Out of this tossed and blood-stained bed + Where a dead woman lies. + + + + +FAITHFUL CROSS + + + Strange, that his sorrow should + Only be understood + By two rough pieces of wood. + + The friends that lingered there, + However true they were, + Had grief of their own to bear. + + They stood and mourned apart: + With but half a heart + For his sorrow and smart; + + They mourned, and went their way + Into Heaven to be gay. + The Cross is faithful to this day. + + O Tree of Life, that root + Hast not, nor hope of shoot, + Nor but this one sad fruit-- + + Thou, not Mary or John-- + Thou, that he died upon + He chose for his eidòlon. + + Though he by a word or two + Or a look, men’s hearts could woo + And knit, as none else could do; + + Not one of the brotherhood + To whom he did good, + But two rough pieces of wood, + + Hewn-off, exanimate, + Could carry and constate + His and his sorrow’s weight. + + + + +THE MAID’S TRAGEDY + + + I kept two singing birds + In a cage of bone-- + Hatched-out on the same day; + But since one flew away, + T’other’s alone. + + I spoke him gentle words + And bade him sing. + But he hung down his head + As if discomforted, + And drooped his wing. + + My mood was turned to rage; + I stinted his seed, + Opened the cage-door wide-- + Starve, or begone! I cried. + He did not heed. + + Silent within his cage + I see him mope + Like any turtle-dove. + The dumb bird I called Love, + The flown bird, Hope. + + + + +COMMON ENTRY + + + I hate my neighbour with bitter hate-- + Night and morning, early and late, + Her and her works to the Fiend I commend; + For she’s had it mended--the garden gate. + + For every comer ’twould grind and squeak; + But when One came here who had most to seek + It would cry aloud at his hasty shove, + ‘Here, here’s your lover!’ and redden my cheek. + + Oh yes, he still comes, though the gate doesn’t tell-- + But I wish my neighbour were deep in Hell. + How dare she the least of my joys estrange, + Or threat me with changes when all’s so well? + + + + +THE ALARUM + + + With its rat’s tooth the clock + Gnaws away delight. + Piece by piece, piece by piece + It will gnaw away to-night, + + Till the coiled spring released + Rouses me with a hiss + To a day, to another night + Less happy than this. + + And yet my own hands wound it + To keep watch while I slept; + For though they be with sorrow, + Appointments must be kept. + + + + +MATCH ME O ROSE! + + + A red rose shining in the sun + Told me of summer new-begun. + I smoothed each petal, and kissed each petal, + And counted them one by one. + + Eighteen--and I had two years more. + ‘Match me, O rose!’ I said; and tore + In half two petals, two crimson petals, + To bring them to a score. + + Just at that moment the wind blew-- + Petal by petal away I threw, + And turned to the rose-bush, the lovely rose-bush, + Where other roses grew. + + + + +THE ONLY CHILD + + + When I was small + My mother had an Indian shawl, + Spun from the friendliest kind of goat + And dyed a comfortable red. + And when I had a pain in my throat + I used to take the shawl to bed. + + So soft it was + That through her wedding-ring ’twould pass; + So warm, it nursed all care aside; + So wide, a covey of babes might be + Happed up in it--soft, warm and wide + As sleep, that shawl was lent to me. + + + + +THE BURNING-GLASS + + + All day the Sun looked down + On England; heath and town, + Cornland and woodland, mountain and champaign, + And the bright tangled skein + + Of Thames, Avon, Severn, Trent-- + Everywhere his beams went. + They lightened upon ships far out to sea, + And sifted every tree. + + And few, and dull, were they + Abroad in England that day, + But looking up at the blue heavens overhead, + ‘Fine harvest weather,’ said. + + Turning him to his rest + Within the patient West-- + As though he kept the primal law in mind + To multiply his kind-- + + Throughout the land his rays + Set windows in a blaze; + But nowhere, save at Wells in Somerset, + Did a live Sun beget. + + There, under cottage brows, + Glittered intact the spouse + Whose steadfast welcome the steadfast greeting could match, + And fired a neighbour’s thatch. + + Strange chance! (Enough to undo + Man’s wit, might he look through + Seeing, and know the Sun an enormous spark + In caves of endless dark; + + And, like ourselves, condemned + His little light to expend + By rote. But our imaginations deck + The heaven’s hideous black.) + + Strange chance! meeting well-met! + Chance more wild-faring yet + I woo, that with long hope and true intent + My burning-glass present + + To that unmeasured, un- + surmiseable incendiary of suns-- + Life--that some beam of it, matched by my art, + May fire a stranger’s heart. + + + + +PEEPING TOM + ++to T. F. Powys+ + + + Out of the land + He grew as grows the weed, + But had no land + For his own need. + + He to a farmer + His crafty sinews hired, + Rising up early + And going home tired + + For six days of the week-- + Poor Tom!--and said on Sunday, + Leaning over a gate: + ‘To-morrow be Monday.’ + + Few were his thoughts, + Devious, and unexpressed; + Yet one strong yearning + Swelled in his breast + + Through rain and shine, + Through months of earthly labour; + Till at last he spoke + His thought to a neighbour. + + ‘I should like well + To have some land of my own, + To be my land + And mine alone: + + ‘Say, half an acre-- + More would outdo my means-- + To grow potatoes + And a few beans.’ + + Up at the Inn + His neighbour made it known + How Tom wished + For land of his own. + + About the village + To all men’s ears it ran; + The farmer heard it, + Who was a rich man. + + Green water-meadows, + Large barns, deep fields he had; + His servant’s wish + Made his heart glad, + + For he in plenty + Was rooted like an oak; + And Tom’s half-acre + Seemed a good joke. + + He gave the ground. + And all men said of him + He could well afford + To have his whim. + + The plot of ground which the farmer gave + Did not cost him dear. + All unfenced and untilled it lay, + And far away + From cottage and inland tree; + Where the rolling down rears up like a great slow wave + And then falls sheer + Four hundred feet to the sea. + + + Thither poor Tom, + His day’s toil over, would walk; + And marked, and swaled, + And scratched on the chalk-- + + Too much intent + To note the oncome of night + Till to ease his back + He stood upright. + + And plodding homeward + Through nurtured fields, his mind + Still delved in the patch + He had left behind. + + + Sea-winds blew there, + Sea-birds flew there, + Nothing grew there + + Save the inherent tares of barren ground; + Grasses shrivelled and stiff, + And frantic thistles scattering their seed. + Claw-rooted was each necessitous weed + And salt to the taste, + For the blown rack groped over the waste, + And evermore the sea with a trampling sound + Beleaguered the cliff. + + + A row of beans + Was the first thing Tom set. + Most died: the rest + The rabbits ate. + + He gave up beer + And saved to buy a fence. + His wife blamed him + For having no sense; + + And all his friends + That saw him study and grieve-- + Landless themselves-- + Laughed in their sleeve. + + Tom heard them out; + He did not say them Nay, + But still to his patch + Went day by day, + + Disheartened, perhaps, + But redeless to forgo + The dogged dream + He had cherished so. + + And little thought + His straitened brain-pan knew + Save only that + There was much to do. + + From the beginning + The weeds had been his bane, + And tilling the ground + Made them as bad again. + + He groaned aloud + To see how they would thrive + Where nothing he planted + Could keep alive; + + And fresh weeds grew + That had not grown before; + For each he spudded + There sprang ten more, + + That bloomed in his face + As if from very spite. + It chanced, such a blossom + Caught his sight + + Just as he struck work. + His back was aching so + That he was half-minded + To let it go, + + But from long habit, + With look indifferent, + Above the invader + Wearily he bent + + To root it up: + His face by slow degrees + Awakened, + He went on his knees-- + + + There is no beauty like the beauty of the wild, + That blossoms suddenly out of the bare hillside. + It is the barren woman that goes with child, + It is the clenched knot of necessity untied, + Eternity waylaid, and labouring creation + Into forgetfulness and laughter beguiled: + A relenting, a reconciliation, a glimpse of the bride, + Nature, hidden under her dark veils of Time and Space and Causation. + Out of the hillside a word: + ‘Lo, here I am! Quick, gather my secret, cried-- + Had you not come--to the waste, from pole to pole + To echo forever unheard. Had I died, had I died, + Perished had with me, unguessed, the clue of the whole. + But now are the heavens opened, and Salvation + Is sprung up like a flower cut of the earth. + Look! I am newly-made, the dew of my birth + Is of the womb of the morning; I hold in my wide- + open petals the epitome of that blue + In seas drowned, in distance secluded, in air enskied: + And all, all is for you. + Come! Kneel beside me and unlearn your soul.’ + + Ah, not for man the message, the revelation! + On hillsides desolate and bare, by paths untravelled, + In swamps, and skyey wastes the tokens are spilled. + Wild beauty like a bird flits here and there, + Homes not to hand nor snare, and nowhere settles. + Who’s he shall augur from her flight? And who shall dare + Unravel the plain speech of five blue petals? + Not man’s mind, that chooseth a good + Obsequious to the God his proud heart hath chosen, + That parteth light from darkness and right from wrong, + Nor brooketh the unfulfilled. + Let him tread out the blossom and ignore the song + And go upon his way. + + But some there are who hearken, who stay, + Who kneel and worship before the undesigned, + And all their strength relinquish to obey + A voice that seeks not to be understood-- + No, nor yet purpose has enough to be a mock. + Awhile they feed on brightness; but ere long + They find their hearts astray, and their blood frozen, + And know themselves averted from their kind. + Extremity of light has made them blind. + With look so vacant as to seem serene, + They wander towards darkness, and as they go + Idly a few belated berries glean, + Or darnel and the clammy nightshade wreathe, + Or to themselves speak low; + And in the end lie down upon the rock, + And to the heedless air their last loud groan bequeath. + + + Darkness rose up out of the deep; + Headland by headland along the coast + Lost colour, shape, identity, stole from sight, + Folded in darkness like a flock of sheep. + Up on the height + The flower ebbed from his vision like a ghost, + And Tom went home to sleep. + + Changed henceforward was his mood. + All he’d endeavoured, all he’d planned + Forgetting, his mind at ease, he would sit awhile + To watch the gulls, or stretched full-length would brood; + And camomile, + Chance-plucked, chafed for its savour in his hand, + And thyme or fennel chewed. + + Mildly now he could behold + Thistle and coney flourish unchecked. + The unequal combat relinquishing he let fall + His spade, or only dug to smell the mould; + But joys past all + Former surmise he harvested from neglect, + That joyed nor reaped of old. + + Sweetness had pierced him like a dart. + Careless of duty, afield he ranged, + And spared with fostering hand the weeds amid + The farmer’s crops, such wonder was in his heart. + The farmer chid-- + And swore the politicians were deranged + To take the labourer’s part. + + Christmas came, and quarter-day; + ‘Goodwill to all men’ chanted the choir, + ‘And on earth, peace.’ The earth in a riveted black + Frost fast bound like a cataleptic lay. + The times were slack. + The farmer said to Tom: ‘I don’t require + Servants not worth their pay.’ + + Household shipwreck disposing as best + He could, since none near by would employ + Such a half-wit, on a tramp for work he set out; + Of more than land and livelihood dispossessed, + For care and doubt + Sat plotting deep in his heart that his secret joy + Might vade with all the rest. + + Everywhere rejected, he turned + Onward by darkening ways and grim + Gaunt woodlands where yet would kindle from bough to bough + The irresistible wildfire of spring for which he had yearned. + Small difference now + ’Twixt leaves unborn or dead underfoot to him + Whom spring no more concerned. + + Lengthening days would but strengthen his care, + Nor spring be even what once it had been-- + A dazzle in dull eyes, chance heart-thrust of a bird’s song, + Hint of a covenanted joy all creatures share; + For he too long + Had watched a wildflower’s visage, and had seen + No hope, no purpose there. + + + Whither he went, + And what the welcome he found, + Or if he yet + Were above ground, + + Came never word. + His name was clean forgot; + Unless folk said + Tom was a bad lot. + + Many years after, + His tale was told to me. + I for a whim + Went off to see + + Tom’s patch, but might + Have sought in vain for it + Had not my foot + Caught in a bit + + Of galvanised netting-- + Good heartless shop-stuff, wrought + To outlast man + And man’s thought. + + I gave it a kick; + And after one more look, + Moved off to find + Some sheltered nook + + Where I might sit + And watch the seagulls fly. + All that afternoon + No one came by, + + Save one old man + Scarcely more human than they-- + And he, I think, + Had lost his way. + + For as he went + He’d stop and look about, + And shake his head, + As if in doubt + + Of where he was; + And once, as though he’d read + The answer there, + Pulled up a weed + + And peered at it + Full steadfastly--and then + Throwing it down, + Limped on again. + + + + +Transcriber’s Notes + + +In the .txt version, surrounding characters have been used to indicate + _Italics_ and +Smallcaps+ +No corrections have been made to the original text. +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79065 *** diff --git a/79065-h/79065-h.htm b/79065-h/79065-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f4b096 --- /dev/null +++ b/79065-h/79065-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4388 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no,date=no,address=no,email=no,url=no"> + <title> + The espalier | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +blockquote { + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.small {font-size: small;} + + +.gesperrt +{ + font-style: normal; + letter-spacing: 0.2em; + margin-right: -0.2em; +} +.x-ebookmaker-2 .gesperrt { + font-style: italic; + letter-spacing: normal; + margin-right: 0em; +} + +figcaption {font-weight: bold;} +figcaption p {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: .2em; text-align: inherit;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* ******************** */ +/* BEGIN CUSTOMIZATIONS */ +/* ******************** */ + +/* Transcriber's notes (includes pagebreak before) */ +.transnote {background-color: #EAFEEA; 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C. Buck</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="toc-container"> +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">QUIET NEIGHBOURS</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">LONDON CHURCHYARD</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">COUNTRY CHURCHYARD</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">IN THE PARLOUR (i)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">IN THE PARLOUR (ii)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">TUDOR CHURCH MUSIC</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">AN AFTERNOON CALL</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">WISH IN SPRING</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE VIRGIN AND THE SCALES</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">I BRING HER A FLOWER</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE LENTEN OFFERING</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">CAVES OF HARMONY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">OLD MAN</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">SONG FROM THE BRIDE OF SMITHFIELD</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">LET ME GO!</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN (i)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN (ii)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE GREEN VALLEY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">GHOSTS AT CHALDON HERRING</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE TRAVELLER ENCOUNTERED</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE REPOSE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE TRAVELLER BENIGHTED</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE HAPPY DAY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">NELLY TRIM</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">EPITAPHS</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE SAILOR</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE IMAGE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">GREEN PASTURES</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE SOLDIER’S RETURN</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">BLACK EYES</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">BLUE EYES</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">FARMER MAW</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">MRS. SUMMERBEE GROWN OLD</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">STOCK</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE OLD SQUIRE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">MOPING CASTLE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE SICK MAN’S GARDEN</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">WHITE MAGIC</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">AS I WAS A-WALKING</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">IN THE COTSWOLDS</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE LITTLE DEATH</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE DIVER</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">UPON A GENTLEMAN FALLING + SERIOUSLY IN LOVE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE CAPRICIOUS LADY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THEODORIC</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">HONEY FOR TEA</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">BODLEY’S LIBRARY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">A SONG ABOUT A LAMB</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">HYMN FOR A CHILD</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE SCAPEGOAT</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">BYRON 1924</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">GRACE AND GOOD WORKS</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">MORNING</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">FAITHFUL CROSS</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE MAID’S TRAGEDY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">COMMON ENTRY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE ALARUM</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">MATCH ME O ROSE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE ONLY CHILD</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE BURNING-GLASS</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">PEEPING TOM</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<p class="fh2 gesperrt"> + THE ESPALIER +</p> +</div> +<br><br> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="QUIET_NEIGHBOURS"> + QUIET NEIGHBOURS + </h2> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sitting alone at night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Careless of time,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From the house next door</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hear the clock chime.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ten, eleven, twelve;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One, two, three—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It is all the same to the clock,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And much the same to me.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But to-night more than sense heard it:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I opened my eyes wide</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To look at the wall and wonder</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What lay on the other side.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They are quiet people</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That live next door;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I never hear them scrape</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their chairs along the floor,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They do not laugh loud, or sing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or scratch in the grate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I have never seen a taxi</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Drawn up at their gate;</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And though their back-garden</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is always neat and trim</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It has a humbled look,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And no one walks therein.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">So did not their chiming clock</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Imply some hand to wind it,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I might doubt if the wall between us</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had any life behind it.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">London neighbours are such</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I may never know more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than this of the people</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who live next door.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">While they, for their part,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Should they hazard a guess</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At me on my side of the wall</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Will know as little, or less;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For my life has grown quiet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As quiet as theirs;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the clock has been silent on my chimney-piece</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For years and for years.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="LONDON_CHURCHYARD"> + LONDON CHURCHYARD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">As I walked through London</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To ease my care,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I snuffed amid the houses</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A greener air;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And behind iron railings</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I saw branches wave,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tossing their wild arms</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over, O! many a grave.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Such a sight as this</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pleased me very well.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I peered through the railings</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That had a rusty smell—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All of a sudden</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I heard a cry;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And saw a dark something</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Crouched a new stone near-by.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">It seemed lorn and witless</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As sea-weed on a beach;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But it lamented</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With a woman’s speech.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Woe’s me, my lover!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cold-hearted you are grown.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The breast where I laid my head</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lies beneath a stone.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘I thought I held you fast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My kind arms between,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But now you are gone from me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As if you’d never been.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Falsely have you dealt with me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Falsely have you beguiled.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dead and buried with you</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lies my child.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Piteously, piteously,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus did she rave,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And wrung her hands,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And scratched on the grave.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="COUNTRY_CHURCHYARD"> + COUNTRY CHURCHYARD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">‘Awake, good neighbours all,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">That wake not for the day.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The churchyard yews won’t spread the news—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">No tales tell they.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awake, good neighbours, scramble out of your sepulchres,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Cold lying is clay:’</div> + <div class="verse indent2">‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Suppose the golden cock should crow.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">‘You loved a merry life—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">For one more jaunt uprouse.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The moonlit stones above your bones</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Show where you house:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Benjamin Harris, John French late of this parish,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Mary his spouse:’</div> + <div class="verse indent2">‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Suppose the golden cock should crow.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">‘Awake, for time is short,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Your hour will soon be told.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Link bony hands, and dance in bands,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Nor dint the mould.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You’ll caper limberly with no flesh to cumber ye—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Better than of old:’</div> + <div class="verse indent2">‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Suppose the golden cock should crow.’</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">‘Let friends and neighbours meet</div> + <div class="verse indent2">With curtsey, beck, and bow.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When back in bed, if a maidenhead</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Or a marriage vow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Doesn’t tally exactly with who’s under which blanket,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">’Twon’t matter now:’</div> + <div class="verse indent2">‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Suppose the golden cock should crow.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">‘Faint-hearted you are grown,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Neighbours, by lying dead.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">This cock, your bane, is a weather-vane</div> + <div class="verse indent2">With gilt overspread;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A trumpery figure, put up by the new vicar—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Nothing to dread:’</div> + <div class="verse indent2">‘No,’ mumbled they, ‘No, no.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Suppose the golden cock should <span class="smcap">crow</span>.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_THE_PARLOUR"> + IN THE PARLOUR + <br> + (i) + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Come away from the door.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It has grown late;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The air is chill and frore,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And those whom you await</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Will not pass by any more.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Close the shutters aright</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And make all fast.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We shall have rain belike,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The sky is overcast:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No one will come here to-night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sit you down by my side,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sing an old song.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since you have been my bride</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How well I like these long</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Quiet evenings in Advent-tide.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_THE_PARLOUR_1"> + IN THE PARLOUR + <br> + (ii) + </h2> +</div> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> + <td class="tdlt"><i>He</i></td> + <td class="tdl">How unobtrusively the snow<br> +Comes down beyond the crimson blind!<br> +I see it not, but through my mind<br> +Sieve the large flakes, both soft and slow,<br> +Warding us in from humankind.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlt"><i>She</i></td> + <td class="tdl">My nimble needle forth and back<br> +Goes twanging through the tambour-frame<br> +To stitch a bird without a name.<br> +If an indifferent heart should crack<br> +’Twould sound, I fancy, much the same.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlt"><i>He</i></td> + <td class="tdl">A cruel night for beast or man<br> +To be abroad. But we might doubt<br> +By this warm hearth the snow shut out,<br> +Save for a denser silence than<br> +Is wont to compass us about.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlt"><i>She</i></td> + <td class="tdl">The needle and the web, how fine!<br> +The silks no thicker than a hair!<br> +Each choice of tint calls forth my care,<br> +And slowly goes the great design.<br> +No matter. I have time to spare.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlt"><i>He</i></td> + <td class="tdl">’Twill soon be time to go to bed—<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> +<br> +Sweet bed, but cold! Drowsed though I be<br> +I’ll sit it out until I see<br> +The wooden bird put forth his head,<br> +And beck, and cry Cuckoo! to me.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlt"><i>She</i></td> + <td class="tdl">With every length of gliding floss<br> +Wrought in to make my sampler gay<br> +So much life’s thread I stitch away.<br> +But this bright wing will flaunt the gloss<br> +Of life when I am dull as clay.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlt"><i>He</i><br><br><i>She</i><br><i>He</i><br><i>She</i><br><i>He</i><br><br><br><i>She</i><br><i>He</i></td> + <td class="tdl">Cuckoo! Cuckoo! My dear, you heard<br> +The clock? Another evening gone!<br> +Asleep?<br> +<span class="indentm5">Not quite.</span><br> +<span class="indentm8">You’ve scarcely stirred.</span><br> +In grave consideration<br> +My thoughts upon that silly bird<br> +Were fixed.<br> +<span class="indentm7">And mine on this.</span><br> +<span class="indentm14">Absurd!</span><br> +We even think in unison.</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="TUDOR_CHURCH_MUSIC"> + TUDOR CHURCH MUSIC + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here in the minster tower</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I sit alone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While to mind’s ear old books</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mumble and drone;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the warm sun slants in</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over the cold stone.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Through the long afternoon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hear the clock</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Preach to the empty church:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tick-tock. Tick-tock.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O, a rare text to expound</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To a sleeping flock!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The patient organist</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who scrolled this clef;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The boy who drew him horned</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On Gibbons in F;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Singers and hearers all</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are dumb and deaf—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Dumb and deaf, dead and dust,’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Confirms the clock.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And life seems so far off</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That at the shock</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I see my calm hand start,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When footsteps knock</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon stair. Holiday-makers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Out on a trip</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To whom the verger propounds</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Each trusty quip,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While, mute, they fidget together</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In uneasy fellowship.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And only when they are gone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Do I doff the mask</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the scholar deep in his book:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Did they see me?’ I ask,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Or am I, too, a ghost?’ and so</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Turn once more to my task.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="AN_AFTERNOON_CALL"> + AN AFTERNOON CALL + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To shelter from the thunder-drench</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A scorched and sorefoot tramping wench</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Came to my door and proffered me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lilac, that I had viewed her wrench</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Out of my neighbour’s tree.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I bade her in. With glances keen</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She eyed my well-found kitchen, scene</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of kind domestic arts;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like one who curious and serene</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Looks round on foreign parts.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She talked of winds and wayside fruits,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seas, cities, fair-times, landmarks, routes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of journeys past and gone.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I gave her an old pair of boots</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That she might wander on.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="WISH_IN_SPRING"> + WISH IN SPRING + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To-day I wish that I were a tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And not myself,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Confronting spring with a neat little row of poems</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like cups and saucers on a shelf.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For then I should have poems innumerable,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One kissing the other;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Authentic, perfect in shape and lovely variety,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And all of the same tireless green colour.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">No one would think it unnatural</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or question my right;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All day I would wave them above the heads of people,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And sing them to myself all night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But as I am only a woman</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And not a tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With piteous human care I have made this poem,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And set it now on the shelf with the rest to be.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_VIRGIN_AND_THE_SCALES"> + THE VIRGIN AND THE SCALES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">This is a public park;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You may not pick the flowers,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or loiter after hours,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or kiss too deep in the dark.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet here is green, and sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forgetfulness of the street;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Deep walks of chestnut and lime</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the old may pass away time,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pleasant picnicing places</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For children with shabby faces,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lawns blowing in the sun</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where dogs may roll and run,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the patient grass</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For lover and lass.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is this then not enough?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No, not enough for one</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I met there.</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Who?</div> + <div class="verse indent12">A nun.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(And yet, God knows, so old,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So battered with untold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Heavenly housewifery,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So vowed to poverty,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You would not think to find</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ambition in her mind.)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In wintry woollen stuff</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of abstinence was she dressed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And winter was on her breast;</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> <div class="verse indent0">But midsummer’s most complete</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Honey-coloured, honey-sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Plenteousness was her plunder,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Standing the lime-tree under.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">No housewife shelling peas,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No Saint upon her knees</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Telling God’s praises over,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Slip-finger, nor bees in clover,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor girl-child gathering</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cowslips in the spring</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Showed with more innocence</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Delight in diligence</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than she, cramming her bag</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With golden handfuls of swag.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Love knit my heart to her:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I approached; but at the stir</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of footfall she glanced round,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Loosed her rich branch, and frowned</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With such an air of doubt</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As children show found out</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In fault, till seeing that I</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Smiled, she in turn looked sly</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And faster than before</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Plucked on. Said I: ‘Here’s more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than you can lessen, though you</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Should gather the whole day through</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For your lime-blossom tea.’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘It is God’s gift,’ said she,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘And pleasant for the sick.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> <div class="verse indent0">It grows so clean and thick</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twere shame to let it waste.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Aye, gathered it <i>should</i> be.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I must work in haste</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lest the Keeper come along</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And tell me I do wrong.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I looked up overhead</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And saw the lime-tree spread</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Above us like a tent;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like a green and golden pavilion</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of some Arabian Night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Murmuring as with consent,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And gleaming as though alight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With a million, with a million</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Loops and tassels of scent.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I thought then: Who could grudge</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blooms to this holy drudge,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or stay her wrinkled, deft</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Old hands from their kind theft?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She thief, lawbreaker? She?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As well accuse the tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That day-long with sweet skill</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Steals sap, steals chlorophyl;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That from earth, from dew, from air</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thieves that it may be fair</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And show its works to men,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who beholding it then</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> <div class="verse indent0">May glorify their Father</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In heaven.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">No, but look farther.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I touch not blossom nor leaf,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And I, I am the Thief!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thief so cunning and fell</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I am Keeper as well.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Good cause had she to frown</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At my shadow blackening down;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For every joy I take</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Becomes an iron grate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And my innocent delights</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Plant rows of iron spikes;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Worst, self-denying, this trick</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of integrity—not to pick</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blossom, bruise leaf, destroy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Aught from the common joy—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Binds in an iron band</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My heart and prompts my hand,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Now lifted up to bless</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In scrupulous emptiness,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To write these words of hate</div> + <div class="verse indent0"><span class="smcap">Thou shalt not</span> on every gate.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet here is solace, and sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Redemption from the street;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A pause, a look of pity</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the begrimed city,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Green almsgiving, a lake</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of green where men may slake</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Parched senses, wash off care.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, if it only were</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Not so precious, so deadly dear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So dearly defrayed a delight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That whosoever comes here</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Must come as Thief outright,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or cloaking his envious mind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With love of humankind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And with caution and mistrust</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Walking among the just</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Grow Thief so cunning and fell</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That perforce he’s Keeper as well.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Poor drudge, you had reason to start,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When with love in my heart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I approached you, as though you saw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In me the offended law.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Truly, to-day I must be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Offended because of thee.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For every blossom you pick</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Must wound me to the quick,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And by that bag you’ve crammed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With mercies I am damned;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Worst, worst, your innocence,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your happy, happy love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your hand, so hand in glove</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With the tree’s consenting,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is a sword to drive me hence,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lamenting, lamenting;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is a flame brandished to fright</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Me from a forfeited delight,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Repenting, repenting;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is a key in the unrelenting</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hand of the uncreate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Locking the garden gate.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O why must my spirit pine</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For a few handfuls of lime</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Plucked by a poor old nun,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose cares are all in one</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Concern so summed up and shriven</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That were I to tell her but half</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the coil through which she’s driven</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My thoughts, she must either laugh</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As a nurse laughs at a child,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or with a sigh, maybe a frown</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For one so devil-wiled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Brush all my vain-wit down?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet I linger, I delay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hankering, as though some clue</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She had hold of, answer knew.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As though, should I say:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘No, dear, you may not pick</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lime-blossom for the sick;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For know you not, since the Fall</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Not one tree, but all, all</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Must bear forbidden fruit,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And are poisoned at the root</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By man’s repentant tears?’—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She might reply: ‘Yet here’s</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Good warrant for what I do.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> <div class="verse indent0">When he was walking through</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The harvest he plucked the ears</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of corn and shared them among</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Those with him, for they were an hungered, and so was he.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus his disciples he taught</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How to steal as they ought,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In joy and peace of heart;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus he took the sinner’s part;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So much to thieves a friend</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That he had them with him till the end;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus, thus, he would set us free.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But till everyone believes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In him we must all be thieves.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="I_BRING_HER_A_FLOWER"> + I BRING HER A FLOWER + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweet faith</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such looks of quiet hath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That those on whom she’s smiled</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lie down to sleep as easy as a child.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">No night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">However dark, can fright</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Them, no, nor day</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To come, however bleak and fell, dismay.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But sound</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sleep they in prison-bound</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As when at liberty.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And if they wake, they wake in charity;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Like her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who rousing at the jar</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of weary foot in the rain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pitied the wakeful sentry for his pain.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<blockquote> +<p class="center small"><i>Like her</i>: Rosa Luxemburg.</p> +</blockquote> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_LENTEN_OFFERING"> + THE LENTEN OFFERING + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">Christ, here’s a thorn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">More poison-fanged than any that you knew:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On the north side of our churchyard it grew,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where lie the suicides and babes chance-born.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">Christ, here are nails,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Once driven in, will never lose their hold:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forged at Krupp’s, Creusot’s, Vickers’, and tipped with gold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pen-nibs that signed the Treaty of Versailles.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">Christ, here’s a sharp</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spear, can wound deeper than all other spears:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In baths of human blood and human tears</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tempered, and whetted on the human heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CAVES_OF_HARMONY"> + CAVES OF HARMONY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Play, dark musician, play—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How almost human sounds your saxophone!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(Somewhere in Africa</div> + <div class="verse indent0">An angry lion tosses up a bone.)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sambo’s a ready scholar</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And hides his black skin under a black coat.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Although he wears a collar</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Adam’s own apple yet sticks in his throat.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Play, dark musician, play—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I see your imitation diamond flash.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(Once in America</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your fathers howled and writhed beneath the lash.)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How leers the blackamoor,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Exhaling his melodious delight!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Music’s his paramour;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yours, and mine, since we dance here to-night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Play, dark musician, play—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Outdo the beast’s roar and the scourged slave’s moan.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ambassador from U.S.A.,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How almost human sounds your saxophone!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="OLD_MAN"> + OLD MAN + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Reading in bawdy books</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The old man sits.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">De Sade plays Abishag</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To his cold wits.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Under his bushy brows</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His eyes are mild—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There’s no more harm in him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than in a child.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="SONG_FROM_THE_BRIDE_OF_SMITHFIELD"> + SONG FROM THE BRIDE OF SMITHFIELD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A thousand guileless sheep have bled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A thousand bullocks knelt in fear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To daub my Henry’s cheek with red</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And round the curl above his ear.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And wounded calves hung up to drip</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have in slow sweats distilled for him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The dew that polishes his lip,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The inward balm that oils each limb.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">In vain I spread my maiden arts,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In vain for Henry’s love I pine.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He is too skilled in bleeding hearts</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To turn this way and pity mine.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="LET_ME_GO"> + LET ME GO! + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Any wind but this—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That with remembrance of rain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Grown soft and pitiful, embraced me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As I walked homeward.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And any other look</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than the full-moon sheds to-night—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As though she bent like a mother</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Above her sleeping children.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Not to be denied</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The wind gropes over the house;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And now it has brushed aside the curtains</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And walks about the room.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Too well, too well I know</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whence you have journeyed, O Wind!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And what the landscape of nestling hill and valley</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That the moon eyes so lovingly.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="COUNTRY_THOUGHT_FROM_A_TOWN"> + COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN + <br> + (i) + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Averted from myself</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I walk up and down—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I see how in the light of the arc-lamps</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The trees look stricken and brown.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Autumn is an unkindly thing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In a town.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The leaves fall aimlessly;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Frustrated in their decay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With scraps of paper and bus-tickets</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They will be swept away.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All the mortality in me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yearns to go</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Somewhere alone into the country,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where elms stand in the hedgerow;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through fields completed and contented</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To walk to and fro—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To hear leaves falling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like a quiet breath;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To be a partaker</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In their death.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="COUNTRY_THOUGHT_FROM_A_TOWN_1"> + COUNTRY THOUGHT FROM A TOWN + <br> + (ii) + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Cold, is it cold?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blows there a wind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All night through?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Does a frozen dew</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lie on the wold?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dark, is it dark?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blotted from being</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cottage and garth?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Has the last hearth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Quenched its spark?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Still, is it still?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wakes the wind only?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sunk in a deep</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Midwinter sleep</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Valley and hill?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">No, not all cold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor yet all dark,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor yet quite still.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such is not God’s will.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the sheepfold,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Warm in the ewe’s fleece,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lies the lamb newborn.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To and fro all night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The shepherd bears a light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Telling his flock’s increase.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GREEN_VALLEY"> + THE GREEN VALLEY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here in the green scooped valley I walk to and fro.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In all my journeyings I have not seen</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A place so tranquil, so green;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet I think I have seen it long ago,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The grassy slopes, and the cart-track winding, so.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O now I remember it well, now all is plain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Why twitched my memory like a dowser’s rod</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At waters hidden under sod.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When I was a child they told me of Charlemagne,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of Gan the traitor, and Roland outmatched and slain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Weeping for Roland then, I scooped in my spirit</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A scant green Roncesvalles, a holy ground,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which here in Dorset I’ve found:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But finding, I knew it not. The years disinherit</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their children. The horn is blown, but I do not hear it.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="GHOSTS_AT_CHALDON_HERRING"> + GHOSTS AT CHALDON HERRING + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Hush, my dear, hush!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who are these that pass</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Up Shady Lane?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their feet don’t brush</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Any dew from the grass</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And they are silent, too.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Hand in kind hand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Go some, and closelier linked</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Another twain;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And others stand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As a-drouse, indistinct</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beneath the darkening boughs.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ghosts, ghosts are these!—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Long-dead lasses, each</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beside her swain—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Between the trees</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pacing slow, without speech,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As they were wont to go.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Strange, some should choose</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus their mouldered dears</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To meet again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whom long misuse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of marriage, taunts and tears,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the slow grudge of age</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Warped and estranged;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sure, this place above</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All others fain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They’d leave unranged,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lest a gaunt dead love</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Them, like a dead child, haunt.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, but not so</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These who in true-love-knot</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their arms enchain.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dead long ago</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are they all, and forgot</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The life that held them thrall.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nought now exists</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Save fancies nursed apart.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And of all this train</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Scarce one that trysts</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With a seeming sweetheart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But walks beside a dream.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TRAVELLER_ENCOUNTERED"> + THE TRAVELLER ENCOUNTERED + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The highroad runs plain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Between Thaxted and Dunmow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I had chosen to go</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By bridle-path and lane;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To see the champaign,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the stooks a-row—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There I met an old fellow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Standing in the rain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He was bowed and lean;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But clear was his eye</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As a rift of March sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His face like a quarrendine.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘You must have seen</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Many changes,’ said I.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Changes, lady? Aye!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Four times I have been</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Forced to lie abed;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Once I had the ague,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And thrice did I spew</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Up my blood so red.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twas my lungs, Doctor said,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the most I could do</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To last a week or two—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ten years he’s been dead.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘My wife died.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And then after her</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My eldest daughter.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Eight years come Whitsuntide</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The house where we did bide</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was pulled down. It stood yonder,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Just by that tall fir</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With the rick alongside.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus did he talk,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Twisting the while</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A sprig of camomile</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or a corn-stalk.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Follow the grassy baulk</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till you come to a stile.’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So, mile by mile,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He told over my walk.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Musing on country folk</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I bade him good-day.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And going on my way</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To myself I spoke:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As well might I invoke</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These hedges to say</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who passed by yesterday;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or question yonder oak,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Bidding it declare</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What changes it had seen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘In summer I was green,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Acorns did I bear.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Come winter, I was bare.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For years full eighteen</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This meadow has not been</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Under the ploughshare.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But Labour-in-Vain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was the epitome</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of changes sighed to me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By the doomed champaign.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And turning once again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Far off did I see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The man and the tree</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Standing in the rain.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_REPOSE"> + THE REPOSE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">At Bradwell in the marshes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There is an inn.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Few are the travellers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have rested therein.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The folk that sit there</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have but little to say;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They sit looking out of the window</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At the churchyard across the way.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Growing among the graves</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is a green weeping willow.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The graves are all green</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And peaceful as a pillow.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The bar-parlour is shaded</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With a green gloom,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As if the willow-branches</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were waving in the room.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Churchyard and church and inn—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They are all very old.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Even the beer they draw there</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seems to taste of the mould.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TRAVELLER_BENIGHTED"> + THE TRAVELLER BENIGHTED + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">On through the quiet country-side</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The road runs small and white,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The trees stand still on either side</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As if to watch me there—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But stilled, stilled is the air</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At the oncome of night.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And see, behind my back the moon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Eyes me with steadfast gaze;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I did not think she’d spill so soon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her silver in the brook—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But calm, calm is her look</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As she mounts through the haze.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">As though I’d shed it like a husk,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My body casts no shade;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I walk suspended in the dusk</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Just as a spirit might,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For yet, yet there is light</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the west—but ’twill fade</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yes, fade it will, and I shall trace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My bobbing shadow spread</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before me on the whitened face</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the road where I must go.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And then, then I shall know</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What it is that I dread.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_HAPPY_DAY"> + THE HAPPY DAY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All day long</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I purpose in yonder</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Green meadows to wander</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And think of a song.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall take</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Provision of berries,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Black treacle cherries,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And possibly cake.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the boughs</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of gliding willows</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Freckle green pillows</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall drowse,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Or wander blithe</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through scented acres</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where haymakers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sharpen the scythe.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall not lack,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall not trouble;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through fields of stubble</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall come back—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">While dusk is spread,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While twilight lingers—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With purple fingers,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A song in my head.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="NELLY_TRIM"> + NELLY TRIM + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Like men riding,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The mist from the sea</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Drives down the valley</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And baffles me.’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Enter, traveller,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whoever you be.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By lamplight confronted</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He staggered and peered;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like a wet bramble</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was his beard.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Sit down, stranger,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You look a-feared.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Shudders rent him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To the bone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The wet ran off him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And speckled the stone.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Dost bide here alone, maid?’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Yes, alone.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">As he sat down</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the chimney-nook</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over his shoulder</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He cast a look,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As if the night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were pursuing; she took</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A handful of brash</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To mend the fire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He eyed her close</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As the flame shot higher;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He spoke—and the cattle</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Moved in the byre.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Though you should heap</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your fire with wood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twouldn’t warm me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor do no good,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unless you first warm me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As a maiden should.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">With looks unwavering,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With breath unstirred,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She took off her clothes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Without a word;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And stood up naked</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And white as a curd.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He breathed her to him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With famished sighs,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Against her bosom</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He sheltered his eyes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And warmed his hands</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Between her thighs.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Strangely assembled</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the quiet room,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Alone alight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Amidst leagues of gloom,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So brave a bride,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So sad a groom;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And strange love-traffic</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Between these two;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor mean, nor shamefaced—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As though they’d do</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Something more solemn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than they knew:</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">As though by this greeting</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which chance had willed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twixt him so silent</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And her so stilled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Some pledge or compact</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were fulfilled,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Made for all time</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In times unknown,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twixt man and woman</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Standing alone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In mirk night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By a tall stone.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">His wayfaring terrors</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All cast aside,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Brave now the bridegroom</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Quitted the bride;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As he came, departing—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Undenied.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But once from darkness</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Turned back his sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To where in the doorway</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She held a light:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Goodbye to you, maiden.’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Stranger, good night.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Long time has this woman</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Been bedded alone.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The house where she dwelt</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lies stone on stone:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She’d not know her ash-tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So warped has it grown.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But yet this story</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is told of her</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As a memorial;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And some aver</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She’d comfort thus any</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Poor traveller.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A wanton, you say—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet where’s the spouse,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">However true</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To her marriage-vows,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To whom the lot</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the earth-born allows</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">More than this?—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To comfort the care</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of a stranger, bound</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She knows not where,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And afraid of the dark,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As his fathers were.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="EPITAPHS"> + EPITAPHS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">(i)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here lies Melissa Mary Thorn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Together with her son, still-born;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose loss her husband doth lament.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He has a large estate in Kent.</div> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">(ii)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">After long thirty years re-met</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I, William Clarke, and I, Jeanette</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His wife, lie side by side once more;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But quieter than we lay before.</div> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">(iii)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A widowed mother reared this stone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To Annott Clare, aged twenty-one.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seven live sons have I, but she</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was dearer than them all to me.</div> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">(iv)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Here lies the body of Tom Fool,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who died, a little boy, at school</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oft did he bleed and oft did weep,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And whimpering, now has fallen asleep.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">(v)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">John Bird, a labourer, lies here,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who served the earth for sixty years</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With spade and mattock, drill and plough;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But never found it kind till now.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SAILOR"> + THE SAILOR + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I have a young love—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A landward lass is she—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And thus she entreated:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘O tell me of the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That on thy next voyage</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My thoughts may follow thee.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I took her up a hill</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And showed her hills green,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One after other</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With valleys between:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So green and gentle, I said,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are the waves I’ve seen.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I led her by the hand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Down the grassy way,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And showed her the hedgerows</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That were white with may:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So white and fleeting, I said,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is the salt sea-spray.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I bade her lean her head</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Down against my side,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rising and falling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On my breath to ride:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus rode the vessel, I said,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On the rocking tide.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For she so young is, and tender,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I would not have her know</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What it is that I go to</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When to sea I must go,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lest she should lie awake and tremble</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When the great storm-winds blow.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_IMAGE"> + THE IMAGE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Why do you look so pale, my son William?</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Where have you been so long?’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘I’ve been to my sweetheart, Mother,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">As it says in the song.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Though you be pledged and cried to the parish</div> + <div class="verse indent2">’Tis not fitting or right</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To visit a young maiden</div> + <div class="verse indent2">At this hour of night.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘I went not for her sweet company,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I meant not any sin,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But only to walk round her house</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And think she was within.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Unbeknown I looked in at the window;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And there I saw my bride</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sitting lonesome in the chimney-nook,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">With the cat alongside.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Slowly she drew out from under her apron</div> + <div class="verse indent2">An image made of wax,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shaped like a man, and all stuck over</div> + <div class="verse indent2">With pins and with tacks.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Hair it had, hanging down to its shoulders,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Straight as any tow—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Just such a lock she begged of me</div> + <div class="verse indent2">But three days ago.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘She set it down to stand in the embers—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The wax began to run.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mother! Mother! That waxen image,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I think it was your son!’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘’Twas but a piece of maiden’s foolishness,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Never think more of it.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I warrant that when she’s a wife</div> + <div class="verse indent2">She’ll have a better wit.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Maybe, maybe, Mother.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I pray you, mend the fire.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For I am cold to the knees</div> + <div class="verse indent2">With walking through the mire.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘The snow is melting under the rain,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The ways are full of mud;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The cold has crept into my bones,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And glides along my blood.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Take out, take out my winding-sheet</div> + <div class="verse indent2">From the press where it lies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And borrow two pennies from my money-box</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To put upon my eyes;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘For now the cold creeps up to my heart,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">My ears go Ding, go Dong:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall be dead long before day,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">For winter nights are long.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Cursèd, cursèd be that Devil’s vixen</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To rob you of your life!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And cursèd be the day you left me</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To go after a wife!’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Why do you speak so loud, Mother?</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I was almost asleep.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I thought the churchbells were ringing</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And the snow lay deep.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Over the white fields we trod to our wedding,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">She leant upon my arm—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What have I done to her that she</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Should do me this harm?’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="GREEN_PASTURES"> + GREEN PASTURES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘O, I could lean</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And look for ever</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At such a scene!—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And bless the Giver,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who beauty gave, and best of all,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sameness, unwearied and perpetual.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Let such a sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Brim up my seeing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And with delight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Renew my being,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until the prospect calm and kind</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seem the reflection of my mind!’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Said t’other: ‘At most</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This field you’re praising</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Has but the boast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of being good grazing.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You’re easy pleased if what you like</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Best be a green field and a stone dyke.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SOLDIERS_RETURN"> + THE SOLDIER’S RETURN + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Jump through the hedge, lass!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Run down the lane!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Here’s your soldier-laddie</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Come back again.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Coming over the hill</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With the sunset at his back—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Never be feared, lass,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though he look black;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Coming through the meadow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And leaping the watercourse—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Never be feared, lass,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though his voice be hoarse;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Belike he’s out of breath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With walking from the town.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He will speak better</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When the sun’s gone down.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="BLACK_EYES"> + BLACK EYES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Long Molly Samways</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Went by just then.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Strange, how that girl</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gets off with the men!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">With her head wig-waggling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On her long neck,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And her hair straggling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Down her back.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Past ten of the clock</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She’ll get up in a daze,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And spend the morning</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lacing her stays.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She wouldn’t go</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To the Whitsun Fair</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Because of the trouble</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of getting there;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And if she be common</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To half the town,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis to please her back</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That she lies her down.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Such a long, lazy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Slug-a-bed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Won’t have her sleep out</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Until she’s dead.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And the Judgement Trump</div> + <div class="verse indent0">May split the skies—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though it should wake her</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I doubt if she’ll rise.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="BLUE_EYES"> + BLUE EYES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Barbara Cushion</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Weeps in the lane,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And vows she will never</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Go brambling again.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Down her fat face</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fat teardrops run,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And splash on her bosom,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One by one;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">With sobs and cries</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She shakes like a shape—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What is the matter,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is it a rape?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh no! It’s her feelings,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Poor girl, that smart;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And Jem’s unkindness</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Has broken her heart.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For months she has had</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A mind to Jem,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So when she set out</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She smiled at him;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Down the green lane</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She watched him come—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But all he did</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was to pinch her bum.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="FARMER_MAW"> + FARMER MAW + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who’s he you saw,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stranger, among the stooks?—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis Farmer Maw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Scaring away the rooks.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Once, stout and tall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He had no peer to plough;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But this is all</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Poor Farmer’s fit for now.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">On Lammas Eve</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He hoed the Seven Acre,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And taking leave</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Looked round like God the Maker:</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">His hay well ricked—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His fields secure and small—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With a most strict</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Eye he surveyed them all;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And finding less</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than usual to offend</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His carefulness,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Went home, and made an end.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">After she saw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hired bailiff reap and bind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Poor Widow Maw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sat down and called to mind</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">How oft her Dear</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Exclaimed with scornful oaths</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At waste of gear</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unthrift. His working clothes</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She fetched, and laid</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Them out upon a table;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though patched and frayed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They yet were serviceable—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Aye, in such worn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Apparel, and bemired,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As men might scorn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Scarecrow were well-attired.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus, stuffed with straw,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As large as life he stands—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A shape of awe—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And overlooks his lands,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">His flocks and herds:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But sore, poor soul! beshit;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For those bold birds</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Don’t honour him a whit.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="MRS_SUMMERBEE_GROWN_OLD"> + MRS. SUMMERBEE GROWN OLD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">As tall as the church tower,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And as stark,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The churchyard elm</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rears into the dark.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And many’s the evening</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ve walked in dread</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To think that its boughs</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were overhead;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And many’s the midnight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ve waked in fear</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To think that its branches</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were drawing near.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For we live here alone—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Rector and I,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Both of us grown old,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And unwilling to die;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And the churchyard elm</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Has arms like a fiend:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Many’s the dark night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ve thought they leaned</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Downward, downward—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As though they’d claw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Us into the churchyard</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like things of straw.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But thanks to the rulers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the realm</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We are delivered</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From the elm.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For the Inspector</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Chanced this way.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He wrote in his book,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And had his say</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Of regulations</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And bye-laws—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then came the woodman</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And cut its claws.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Harmless and glum</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The monster stands</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And holds to heaven</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Its baffled hands.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The Rector and I</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Can walk beneath,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Untroubled by</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The fear of death.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And on still nights</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When no one’s about</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I dance round the elm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And thus do I flout:</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Coffin-tree, coffin-tree,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You shall get neither him nor me!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your branches are lopped,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your games are all stopped.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="STOCK"> + STOCK + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Farmer Hood’s wife</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was brought to bed.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Look at the baby!’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The midwife said.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Scantly he glanced</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At the babe she bore.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He had seen plenty</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like it before;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And ‘Troubles,’ quoth he,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Never come by half,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the Guernsey heifer</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Has slipped her calf.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_OLD_SQUIRE"> + THE OLD SQUIRE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Squire England has grown old:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Too stiff to ride to hounds,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Too blind to shoot his coverts,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He takes up his great stick</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And potters about the grounds.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The meadows and the pond,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The fig-tree on the south wall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The plantation of young spruces,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The yew hedge twelve foot thick—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He stares at them all;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And grumbling as he goes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He stops here and there</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To spud up a dandelion.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His mind is full of doubt,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For a stranger is his heir.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">House, meadows, walks and trees,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Although his sight be dim</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He sees them very plainly;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He prays that none may flout</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The things so dear to him.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="MOPING_CASTLE"> + MOPING CASTLE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Why have you planted firs</div> + <div class="verse indent0">About your dwelling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of trees created</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Choosing the most adverse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To mortal cheer?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose breasts uncouth, both song</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And spring repelling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With endless sighs are freighted;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Foreboding every year</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A deeper wrong.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Or have you planted firs</div> + <div class="verse indent0">About your dwelling</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That they in proxy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Might all your sighs rehearse?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ill-starred one! doomed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To mourn your frustrate prime,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your sons rebelling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your Dear another’s doxy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your mouldered heart entombed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In waste of time.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘No, Friend. I planted firs</div> + <div class="verse indent0">About my dwelling;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But, I protest, meant</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No clue so apt for verse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As you conceive</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These sombre groves to give.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Soon ripe for felling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Firs are a good investment;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And though I live to grieve,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet I must live.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SICK_MANS_GARDEN"> + THE SICK MAN’S GARDEN + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He has been ill so long</div> + <div class="verse indent2">On whom it depended,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">That the garden untended</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is beginning to go wrong.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The gate has fallen awry,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The tools are half rusted—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">They will be encrusted</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All over, by and by.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The rose has broken loose</div> + <div class="verse indent2">From the arch where he trained it;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Dead petal on petal has stained it</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With its own juice.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Walks and plots are unkempt—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">It is all dishevelled;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Like a skein unravelled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like a forgotten thing dream’d.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And peering through the gate,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And closing in around it,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The thickets that bound it</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seem to be lying in wait.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My heart foretells the day</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Toward which it moulders,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When men with bowed shoulders</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall carry him away.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Herb-border and flower-bed</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Underfoot they shall trample,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And briar and bramble</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Make slower their slow tread.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The mourners as they pass</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Will stumble and shuffle,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Their steps shall be muffled</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With the swishing of long grass.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Departed the last black form</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And the last black shadow,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">From thicket and meadow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall clamber in a swarm</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Of wildings and weeds out-cast,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">By exile eagered</div> + <div class="verse indent2">For the garden beleaguered</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which has fallen to them at last.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By these remorseless, dumb</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Spoilers invaded,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The flowers unaided</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall all be overcome;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Save only those at need’s</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Touch who turn traitors,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Changing their natures</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And reverting again to weeds.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus shall wild earth be paid</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The debt so long owing;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Whilst he, unknowing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Deep in wild earth is laid.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="WHITE_MAGIC"> + WHITE MAGIC + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Young man, be warned by me,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And shun the hour</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When the full moon has power</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To sway men like the sea.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I with my love kept tryst</div> + <div class="verse indent2">One moonlight night.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Something did us affright—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And she went home unkissed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We saw as clear as day</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The things we knew;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Only the sky more blue</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seemed, and the grass grown grey.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Round us the orchard trees</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Like spirits stood—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When she threw back her hood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She looked like one of these;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">So blanched the face I knew</div> + <div class="verse indent2">It seemed estranged:</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Its moonlight aspect changed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My eager blood to dew.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Disheartened, we returned;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Nor met again.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I have grown old since then,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I have never learned</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">By what mysterious art</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The moonlight thieves</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Colour from the young leaves,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And passion from the heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="AS_I_WAS_A-WALKING"> + AS I WAS A-WALKING + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweetly fell the rain on the springing grass,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The birds sang all with voices as clear as glass;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To greet the blackthorn I turned aside—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">A presence too lovely to pass—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But as with worship I neared it, a man I espied</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Asleep in the rain beneath the blossoming tree.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I forgot to look at the tree, I looked instead</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At the man who lay so still with averted head.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Because I could not see his face</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I wondered if he were dead.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My mind was full of doubt as I left the place—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But dead or alive he was a stranger to me.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_THE_COTSWOLDS"> + IN THE COTSWOLDS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All day the rain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fell on the wheat</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And dripped from the gable</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On to the stone;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And all day long</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I sat alone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Save for the dog</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who slept at my feet.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Slept—till a-sudden</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He roused in fear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And snuffed at the door,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And would not be quelled.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I opened—and there</div> + <div class="verse indent0">An old crone I beheld,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And round about her</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The dusk drawn near.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Something she said—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But her voice was hollow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And chill was the hand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She laid on mine.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her words were a riddle</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I could not untwine;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when she turned onward</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I knew I must follow.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I felt the watery</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stubble souse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My ankles, and round me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Saw corn-shocks blurred.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And faint and fainter</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet I heard</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The dog bark on</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the empty house.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_LITTLE_DEATH"> + THE LITTLE DEATH + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">What voice is this</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sings so, rings so</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Within my head?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Not mine, for I am dead,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And a deep peace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wraps me, haps me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From head to feet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like a smooth winding-sheet.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Before my eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Reeling, wheeling,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leaf-green stars</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have changed to purple bars</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And flickered out;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spinning, thinning,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Up the wall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That has grown very tall.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Only that voice—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Distant, insistent;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like the high</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stroked glass’s airy cry;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Echoing on,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Winds me, binds me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As with a thread</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spun from my own head.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O speak not yet!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forget me, let me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lie here as calm</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As saints that nurse their palm;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Whilst like a tide</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Turning, returning,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Silence and gloom</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Flow in and fill the room.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_DIVER"> + THE DIVER + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Self-loving I strayed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through leagues of fir-wood—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dream-like as woods</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In water suspended,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So hushed was the shade,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So cool the silence;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor stayed, till I saw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My watery woodlands</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In a deep tarn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hanging head-downward,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As though they would draw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The soul down after them.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I thought: How sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To bathe in those waters!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I stripped myself bare;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On the pine-needles</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I settled my feet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And dived in fearless</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To greet with the glow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of an ardent lover</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That limpid depth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That bride-bed of stillness</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which far below</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awaited my coming.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O, but beneath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rocky cornice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ready to pounce</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There lurked a Nixy!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With ice-cold teeth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She bit and tore me,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And wreathed her fierce</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Embraces about me</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In coil on coil</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of anguish unspeakable,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And snarled in my ears</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With a voice of darkness.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">In fear of my life</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I fought the Nixy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till back to her den</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At last I drove her;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To whet her knife</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And await the next-comer.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dry-footed on shore</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I scrunched the pine-needles,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And watched the tarn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And its basking tree-tops</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Resume once more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their lovely stillness:</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All, all like a charm</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Inveigled the spirit;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Prompted: How sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To bathe in these waters</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Here is no harm—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But I knew better.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="UPON_A_GENTLEMAN_FALLING_SERIOUSLY_IN_LOVE"> + UPON A GENTLEMAN FALLING SERIOUSLY IN LOVE + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who loves his kind, loves bone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Flesh, play of sinew, shoot</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of sense, the turn of a head,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A voice answering his own:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who loves a house, loves stone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Iron, plaster, brick, glass, lead,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Timber hewn off and mute—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And these alone.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who wins his kind, wins store</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of joys, griefs, memories, brain’s</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Diligence, heart’s ease, a share</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of life not his before:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who gains a house, a core</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of blank and senseless air</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cased up in matter gains—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And nothing more.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sun may warm stone, awaken</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Casement, with farewell kiss</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Flush thatch—’tis all a show.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though man a more unshaken</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Diurnal love bestow—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He gains not even this.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And blest are they whose thrall</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hearts can endure this passion,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hopeless, uncompromised</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By aught reciprocal;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yea, saints emparadised</div> + <div class="verse indent0">May love God after this fashion.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_CAPRICIOUS_LADY"> + THE CAPRICIOUS LADY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">No, no, I do not choose</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Commonplace flowers like these!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such artless pinks and blues—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forget-me-not, maiden’s-blush—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are tedious to my sight.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But give me, if you’d please,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blossoms more recondite:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cocks-combs of crimson plush,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Large, spider-speckled, rare</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Orchids, or tulips whose</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Smooth flesh has learnt to wear</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The colour of a bruise.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THEODORIC"> + THEODORIC + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Praise the great Goth, Theodoric!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who, a true patriot, led</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His northern hordes into Italy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where he’d be better fed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sturgeon, peacock, assafœtida—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nought came amiss to him</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(Though Peter Vischer of Nuremberg</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Makes him out to be slim).</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Once only did his appetite</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Quail at a new dish;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When they served up an aged senator</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the shape of a large fish.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The dead eyes glared reproachfully—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fear spawned in his blood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Agueish pangs innumerable</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As fishes in the flood.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Not furs of marmot and zibeline,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor a great fire near-by,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Could warm the wretched Theodoric</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As he lay waiting to die;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Chattering about old Symmachus,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And Boëthius his friend,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who with no consolation but philosophy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Made a far braver end.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="HONEY_FOR_TEA"> + HONEY FOR TEA + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ve sat in the sun</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From three to five</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Watching the bees</div> + <div class="verse indent0">About the hive.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They are horribly alive!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">From white to red,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From red to white,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They weave Euclidean</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tangles of flight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And nowhere find delight:</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But them a maniac</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Industry eggs</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Onward; they grapple</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With hairy legs,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Methodical to the dregs.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The blossom rifled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With laden thighs</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Further each willing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Eunuch plies:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A dull way to fertilize.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And back to their cells</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They come at last;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Armed, incurious,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sailing past</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Me where I sit aghast.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, horrible</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That aught can be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So sufficient, yet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So unlike me!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall go in to tea.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There in the parlour</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall find</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Things to restore</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My peace of mind;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By man for man designed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The rat-tail spoons,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The china dishes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Smooth as the sequined</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sides of fishes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Obedient to my wishes;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The sturdy table</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So plain and whole,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The meek sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the sugar-bowl;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These shall confirm my soul</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Till I, emboldened,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lift down from the shelf</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The hoarded treasure,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Taken by stealth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From that inimical Commonwealth.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="BODLEYS_LIBRARY"> + BODLEY’S LIBRARY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Chained to their shelves</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sit Origen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Aquinas, Gregory</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nazianzen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bede, Alcuin, Scotus—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All the wise men</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of golden mouth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And faithful pen.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Falcons once</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of piercing flight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Chained they must needs be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or out of sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They’d soar. But now</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They blink at the light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like old brown owls</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awaiting the night.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SONG_ABOUT_A_LAMB"> + A SONG ABOUT A LAMB + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">‘O God, the Sure Defence</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Of Jacob’s race,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Lover of innocence</div> + <div class="verse indent8">And a smooth face,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Accept my sacrifice—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A little lamb, bought at the market price.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">‘With fleece so soft and clean</div> + <div class="verse indent8">And horns not yet</div> + <div class="verse indent6">A-bud, the creature’s been</div> + <div class="verse indent8">The children’s pet.</div> + <div class="verse indent6">And sore they wept to see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their snub-nosed friend come trotting after me.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">God heard: the lightnings brake</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Forth in his honour;</div> + <div class="verse indent6">But by some slight mistake</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Consumed the donor.</div> + <div class="verse indent6">The lamb fell in a muse—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But soon took heart, and leaped among the pews.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="HYMN_FOR_A_CHILD"> + HYMN FOR A CHILD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Flocking to the Temple</div> + <div class="verse indent0">See the priests assemble</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where a child expounds</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What the wise confounds.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All the scribes and sages</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Quit their dog’s-eared pages;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spell-bound by his sense</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And his eloquence.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Speaking without bias,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He reviewed Elias;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Said the dogs did well,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Eating Jezebel.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Just as he disposes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of the Law and Moses,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mary came in haste—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Caught him to her breast:</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘We have sought thee’ saying—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Chid him for delaying.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then without demur</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He went back with her.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Those he was amazing</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Straightway broke out praising;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Calling him a mild,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nicely brought-up child.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Teach me, gentle Saviour,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such discreet behaviour</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That my elders be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Always pleased with me.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SCAPEGOAT"> + THE SCAPEGOAT + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">See the scapegoat, happy beast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From every personal sin released,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in the desert hidden apart,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dancing with a careless heart.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Lightly weigh the sins of others.’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">See him skip! ‘Am I my brother’s</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Keeper? O never, no, no, no!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lightly come and lightly go!’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">In the town, from sin made free,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Righteous men hold jubilee.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the desert all alone</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The scapegoat dances on and on.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="BYRON_1924"> + BYRON 1924 + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Much as they all deplored his morals</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our fathers left the bard his laurels.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But in these more precisian days</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We shake our young heads over the lays.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="GRACE_AND_GOOD_WORKS"> + GRACE AND GOOD WORKS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Blest are the poor, whose needs enable</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The rich but timely charitable</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To take the Kingdom of Heaven by force.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The poor are also saved, of course.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="MORNING"> + MORNING + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The long, long-looked-for night has sped.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis time we should arise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Out of this tossed and blood-stained bed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where a dead woman lies.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="FAITHFUL_CROSS"> + FAITHFUL CROSS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Strange, that his sorrow should</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Only be understood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By two rough pieces of wood.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The friends that lingered there,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">However true they were,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had grief of their own to bear.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They stood and mourned apart:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With but half a heart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For his sorrow and smart;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They mourned, and went their way</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Into Heaven to be gay.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The Cross is faithful to this day.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O Tree of Life, that root</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hast not, nor hope of shoot,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor but this one sad fruit—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou, not Mary or John—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou, that he died upon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He chose for his eidòlon.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Though he by a word or two</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or a look, men’s hearts could woo</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And knit, as none else could do;</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Not one of the brotherhood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To whom he did good,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But two rough pieces of wood,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Hewn-off, exanimate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Could carry and constate</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His and his sorrow’s weight.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_MAIDS_TRAGEDY"> + THE MAID’S TRAGEDY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I kept two singing birds</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In a cage of bone—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hatched-out on the same day;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But since one flew away,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">T’other’s alone.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I spoke him gentle words</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And bade him sing.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But he hung down his head</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As if discomforted,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And drooped his wing.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My mood was turned to rage;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I stinted his seed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Opened the cage-door wide—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Starve, or begone! I cried.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He did not heed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Silent within his cage</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I see him mope</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Like any turtle-dove.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The dumb bird I called Love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The flown bird, Hope.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="COMMON_ENTRY"> + COMMON ENTRY + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I hate my neighbour with bitter hate—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Night and morning, early and late,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her and her works to the Fiend I commend;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For she’s had it mended—the garden gate.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For every comer ’twould grind and squeak;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But when One came here who had most to seek</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It would cry aloud at his hasty shove,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Here, here’s your lover!’ and redden my cheek.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh yes, he still comes, though the gate doesn’t tell—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I wish my neighbour were deep in Hell.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How dare she the least of my joys estrange,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or threat me with changes when all’s so well?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_ALARUM"> + THE ALARUM + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">With its rat’s tooth the clock</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gnaws away delight.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Piece by piece, piece by piece</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It will gnaw away to-night,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Till the coiled spring released</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rouses me with a hiss</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To a day, to another night</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Less happy than this.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet my own hands wound it</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To keep watch while I slept;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For though they be with sorrow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Appointments must be kept.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="MATCH_ME_O_ROSE"> + MATCH ME O ROSE! + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A red rose shining in the sun</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Told me of summer new-begun.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I smoothed each petal, and kissed each petal,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And counted them one by one.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Eighteen—and I had two years more.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Match me, O rose!’ I said; and tore</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In half two petals, two crimson petals,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To bring them to a score.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Just at that moment the wind blew—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Petal by petal away I threw,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And turned to the rose-bush, the lovely rose-bush,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where other roses grew.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_ONLY_CHILD"> + THE ONLY CHILD + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When I was small</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My mother had an Indian shawl,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spun from the friendliest kind of goat</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And dyed a comfortable red.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when I had a pain in my throat</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I used to take the shawl to bed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">So soft it was</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That through her wedding-ring ’twould pass;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So warm, it nursed all care aside;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So wide, a covey of babes might be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Happed up in it—soft, warm and wide</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As sleep, that shawl was lent to me.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_BURNING-GLASS"> + THE BURNING-GLASS + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">All day the Sun looked down</div> + <div class="verse indent4">On England; heath and town,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cornland and woodland, mountain and champaign,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And the bright tangled skein</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">Of Thames, Avon, Severn, Trent—</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Everywhere his beams went.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They lightened upon ships far out to sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And sifted every tree.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">And few, and dull, were they</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Abroad in England that day,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But looking up at the blue heavens overhead,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">‘Fine harvest weather,’ said.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">Turning him to his rest</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Within the patient West—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As though he kept the primal law in mind</div> + <div class="verse indent4">To multiply his kind—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">Throughout the land his rays</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Set windows in a blaze;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But nowhere, save at Wells in Somerset,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Did a live Sun beget.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">There, under cottage brows,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Glittered intact the spouse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose steadfast welcome the steadfast greeting could match,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">And fired a neighbour’s thatch.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">Strange chance! (Enough to undo</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Man’s wit, might he look through</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seeing, and know the Sun an enormous spark</div> + <div class="verse indent4">In caves of endless dark;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">And, like ourselves, condemned</div> + <div class="verse indent4">His little light to expend</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By rote. But our imaginations deck</div> + <div class="verse indent4">The heaven’s hideous black.)</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">Strange chance! meeting well-met!</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Chance more wild-faring yet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I woo, that with long hope and true intent</div> + <div class="verse indent4">My burning-glass present</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent4">To that unmeasured, un-</div> + <div class="verse indent4">surmiseable incendiary of suns—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Life—that some beam of it, matched by my art,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">May fire a stranger’s heart.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PEEPING_TOM"> + PEEPING TOM + </h2> + + <p class="center smcap">to T. F. Powys</p> +</div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Out of the land</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He grew as grows the weed,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">But had no land</div> + <div class="verse indent10">For his own need.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">He to a farmer</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His crafty sinews hired,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Rising up early</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And going home tired</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">For six days of the week—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Poor Tom!—and said on Sunday,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Leaning over a gate:</div> + <div class="verse indent10">‘To-morrow be Monday.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Few were his thoughts,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Devious, and unexpressed;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Yet one strong yearning</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Swelled in his breast</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Through rain and shine,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Through months of earthly labour;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Till at last he spoke</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His thought to a neighbour.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">‘I should like well</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To have some land of my own,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To be my land</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And mine alone:</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">‘Say, half an acre—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">More would outdo my means—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To grow potatoes</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And a few beans.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Up at the Inn</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His neighbour made it known</div> + <div class="verse indent10">How Tom wished</div> + <div class="verse indent10">For land of his own.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">About the village</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To all men’s ears it ran;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">The farmer heard it,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Who was a rich man.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Green water-meadows,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Large barns, deep fields he had;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His servant’s wish</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Made his heart glad,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">For he in plenty</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Was rooted like an oak;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And Tom’s half-acre</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Seemed a good joke.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">He gave the ground.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And all men said of him</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He could well afford</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To have his whim.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The plot of ground which the farmer gave</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Did not cost him dear.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All unfenced and untilled it lay,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And far away</div> + <div class="verse indent10">From cottage and inland tree;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where the rolling down rears up like a great slow wave</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And then falls sheer</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Four hundred feet to the sea.</div> + </div> +<br> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Thither poor Tom,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His day’s toil over, would walk;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And marked, and swaled,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And scratched on the chalk—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Too much intent</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To note the oncome of night</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Till to ease his back</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He stood upright.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">And plodding homeward</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Through nurtured fields, his mind</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Still delved in the patch</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He had left behind.</div> + </div> +<br> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Sea-winds blew there,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Sea-birds flew there,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Nothing grew there</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">Save the inherent tares of barren ground;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Grasses shrivelled and stiff,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And frantic thistles scattering their seed.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Claw-rooted was each necessitous weed</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And salt to the taste,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">For the blown rack groped over the waste,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And evermore the sea with a trampling sound</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Beleaguered the cliff.</div> + </div> +<br> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">A row of beans</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Was the first thing Tom set.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Most died: the rest</div> + <div class="verse indent10">The rabbits ate.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">He gave up beer</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And saved to buy a fence.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His wife blamed him</div> + <div class="verse indent10">For having no sense;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">And all his friends</div> + <div class="verse indent10">That saw him study and grieve—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Landless themselves—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Laughed in their sleeve.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Tom heard them out;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He did not say them Nay,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">But still to his patch</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Went day by day,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Disheartened, perhaps,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">But redeless to forgo</div> + <div class="verse indent10">The dogged dream</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He had cherished so.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">And little thought</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His straitened brain-pan knew</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Save only that</div> + <div class="verse indent10">There was much to do.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">From the beginning</div> + <div class="verse indent10">The weeds had been his bane,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And tilling the ground</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Made them as bad again.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">He groaned aloud</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To see how they would thrive</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Where nothing he planted</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Could keep alive;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">And fresh weeds grew</div> + <div class="verse indent10">That had not grown before;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">For each he spudded</div> + <div class="verse indent10">There sprang ten more,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">That bloomed in his face</div> + <div class="verse indent10">As if from very spite.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">It chanced, such a blossom</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Caught his sight</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Just as he struck work.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His back was aching so</div> + <div class="verse indent10">That he was half-minded</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To let it go,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">But from long habit,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">With look indifferent,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Above the invader</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Wearily he bent</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">To root it up:</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His face by slow degrees</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Awakened,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He went on his knees—</div> + </div> +<br> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There is no beauty like the beauty of the wild,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That blossoms suddenly out of the bare hillside.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It is the barren woman that goes with child,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It is the clenched knot of necessity untied,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Eternity waylaid, and labouring creation</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Into forgetfulness and laughter beguiled:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A relenting, a reconciliation, a glimpse of the bride,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nature, hidden under her dark veils of Time and Space and Causation.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Out of the hillside a word:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Lo, here I am! Quick, gather my secret, cried—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had you not come—to the waste, from pole to pole</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To echo forever unheard. Had I died, had I died,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Perished had with me, unguessed, the clue of the whole.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But now are the heavens opened, and Salvation</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Is sprung up like a flower cut of the earth.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Look! I am newly-made, the dew of my birth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is of the womb of the morning; I hold in my wide-</div> + <div class="verse indent0">open petals the epitome of that blue</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In seas drowned, in distance secluded, in air enskied:</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And all, all is for you.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Come! Kneel beside me and unlearn your soul.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ah, not for man the message, the revelation!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On hillsides desolate and bare, by paths untravelled,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In swamps, and skyey wastes the tokens are spilled.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wild beauty like a bird flits here and there,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Homes not to hand nor snare, and nowhere settles.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who’s he shall augur from her flight? And who shall dare</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unravel the plain speech of five blue petals?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Not man’s mind, that chooseth a good</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Obsequious to the God his proud heart hath chosen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That parteth light from darkness and right from wrong,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Nor brooketh the unfulfilled.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Let him tread out the blossom and ignore the song</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And go upon his way.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But some there are who hearken, who stay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who kneel and worship before the undesigned,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And all their strength relinquish to obey</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A voice that seeks not to be understood—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No, nor yet purpose has enough to be a mock.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Awhile they feed on brightness; but ere long</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They find their hearts astray, and their blood frozen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And know themselves averted from their kind.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Extremity of light has made them blind.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With look so vacant as to seem serene,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They wander towards darkness, and as they go</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Idly a few belated berries glean,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or darnel and the clammy nightshade wreathe,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Or to themselves speak low;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in the end lie down upon the rock,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And to the heedless air their last loud groan bequeath.</div> + </div> +<br> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Darkness rose up out of the deep;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Headland by headland along the coast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lost colour, shape, identity, stole from sight,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Folded in darkness like a flock of sheep.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Up on the height</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The flower ebbed from his vision like a ghost,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And Tom went home to sleep.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Changed henceforward was his mood.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All he’d endeavoured, all he’d planned</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Forgetting, his mind at ease, he would sit awhile</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To watch the gulls, or stretched full-length would brood;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And camomile,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Chance-plucked, chafed for its savour in his hand,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And thyme or fennel chewed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Mildly now he could behold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thistle and coney flourish unchecked.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The unequal combat relinquishing he let fall</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His spade, or only dug to smell the mould;</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> <div class="verse indent10">But joys past all</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Former surmise he harvested from neglect,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">That joyed nor reaped of old.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweetness had pierced him like a dart.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Careless of duty, afield he ranged,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And spared with fostering hand the weeds amid</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The farmer’s crops, such wonder was in his heart.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">The farmer chid—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And swore the politicians were deranged</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To take the labourer’s part.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Christmas came, and quarter-day;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Goodwill to all men’ chanted the choir,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘And on earth, peace.’ The earth in a riveted black</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Frost fast bound like a cataleptic lay.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">The times were slack.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The farmer said to Tom: ‘I don’t require</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Servants not worth their pay.’</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Household shipwreck disposing as best</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He could, since none near by would employ</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such a half-wit, on a tramp for work he set out;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of more than land and livelihood dispossessed,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">For care and doubt</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sat plotting deep in his heart that his secret joy</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Might vade with all the rest.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Everywhere rejected, he turned</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Onward by darkening ways and grim</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Gaunt woodlands where yet would kindle from bough to bough</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The irresistible wildfire of spring for which he had yearned.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Small difference now</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twixt leaves unborn or dead underfoot to him</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Whom spring no more concerned.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Lengthening days would but strengthen his care,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor spring be even what once it had been—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A dazzle in dull eyes, chance heart-thrust of a bird’s song,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hint of a covenanted joy all creatures share;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">For he too long</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had watched a wildflower’s visage, and had seen</div> + <div class="verse indent10">No hope, no purpose there.</div> + </div> +<br> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Whither he went,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And what the welcome he found,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Or if he yet</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Were above ground,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Came never word.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His name was clean forgot;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Unless folk said</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Tom was a bad lot.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Many years after,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">His tale was told to me.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">I for a whim</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Went off to see</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Tom’s patch, but might</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Have sought in vain for it</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Had not my foot</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Caught in a bit</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Of galvanised netting—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Good heartless shop-stuff, wrought</div> + <div class="verse indent10">To outlast man</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And man’s thought.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">I gave it a kick;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And after one more look,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Moved off to find</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Some sheltered nook</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Where I might sit</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And watch the seagulls fly.</div> + <div class="verse indent10">All that afternoon</div> + <div class="verse indent10">No one came by,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Save one old man</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Scarcely more human than they—</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And he, I think,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Had lost his way.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">For as he went</div> + <div class="verse indent10">He’d stop and look about,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And shake his head,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">As if in doubt</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">Of where he was;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And once, as though he’d read</div> + <div class="verse indent10">The answer there,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Pulled up a weed</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">And peered at it</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Full steadfastly—and then</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Throwing it down,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Limped on again.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="transnote"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes"> + Transcriber’s Notes + </h2> +<p> + <span style="margin-left: 1.0em;">No corrections have been made to the original text.</span> +</p> +</div> + +</main> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79065 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/79065-h/images/cover.jpg b/79065-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c25d9c --- /dev/null +++ b/79065-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ 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