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+<!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%;
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+/* Images */
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+ height: auto;
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+
+/* Poetry */
+/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */
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+.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;}
+
+/* ******************** */
+/* BEGIN CUSTOMIZATIONS */
+/* ******************** */
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+/* Transcriber's notes (includes pagebreak before) */
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+ </style>
+</head>
+
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79065 ***</div>
+
+<main>
+
+
+<p class="right">THE ESPALIER</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true">
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER</p>
+<br><br>
+</div>
+
+<h1>THE<br>
+ESPALIER</h1>
+
+<br><br>
+<p class="center">LONDON<br>
+CHATTO &amp; WINDUS<br>
+1925</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true">
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">Printed at the Curwen Press<br>
+Plaistow, London, E.13</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true">
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">TO</p>
+
+<p class="center">P. 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>
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