Lays and Legends (Second Series)

RYE

A little town that stands upon a hill,Against whose base the white waves once leaped high;Now spreading round it, even, green and still,The placid pastures of the marshes lie.The red-roofed houses and the gray church towerBear half asleep the sunshine and the rain;They wait, so long have waited, for the hourWhen the wild, welcome sea shall come again.The lovely lights across the marshes pass,The dykes grow fair with blossom, reed and sedge;The patient beasts crop the long, cool, green grass,The willows shiver at the water's edge;But the town sleeps, it will not wake for these.The sea some day again will round it break,Will surge across these leagues of pastoral peace,And then the little town will laugh, and wake.

THE BALLAD OF THE TWO SPELLS

"Why dost thou weep?" the mass priest said;"Fair dame, why dost thou weep?""I weep because my lord is laidIn an enchanted sleep."It was upon our bridal dayThe bitter thing befel,My love and lord was lured awayBy an ill witch's spell."She lured him to her hidden bowerAmong the cypress trees,And there she holdeth manhood's flowerAsleep across her knees.""Pray to our Father for His aid,God knows ye need it sore.""O God of Heaven, have I not prayed?But I will pray no more."God will not listen to my prayer,And never a Saint will hear,Else should I stand beside him there,Or he be with me here."But there he sleeps – and I wake hereAnd wet my bread with tears —And still they say that God can hear,And still God never hears."If I could learn a mighty spell,Would get my love awake,I'd sell my soul alive to hell,And learn it for his sake."So say thy mass, and go thy way,And let my grief alone —Teach thou the happy how to prayAnd leave the devil his own."Within the witch's secret bowerThrough changeful day and night,Hour after priceless golden hour,Lay the enchanted knight.The witch's arms about him lay,His face slept in her hair;The devil taught her the spell to sayBecause she was so fair.And all about the bower were flowersAnd gems and golden gear,And still she watched the slow-foot hoursBecause he was so dear.Watched in her tower among the treesFor his long sleep to break;And still he lay across her kneesAnd still he did not wake.What whisper stirs the curtain's fold?What foot comes up the stair?What hand draws back the cloth of goldAnd leaves the portal bare?The night wind sweeps through all the room,The tapers fleer and flare,And from the portal's outer gloomHis true love enters there."Give place, thou wicked witch, give place,For his true wife is here,Who for his sake has lost heaven's graceBecause he was so dear."My soul is lost and his is won;Thy spells his sleep did make,But I know thy spell, the only oneCan get my lord awake."The witch looked up, her shining eyesGleamed through her yellow hair —(She was cast out of ParadiseBecause she was so fair)."Speak out the spell, thou loving wife,And what it beareth, bide,Go – bring thy lover back to lifeAnd give thy lord a bride."The wife's soul burned in every wordAs low she spoke the spell,Weeping in heaven, her angel heard,One, hearing, laughed in hell.And when the spell was spoken through,Sudden the knight awokeAnd turned his eyes upon the two —And neither of them spoke.He did not see his pale-faced wifeWhom sorrow had made wise,He only saw the light of lifeBurn in the witch's eyes.He only saw her bosom sweet,Her golden fleece of hair,And he fell down before her feetBecause she was so fair.She stooped and raised him from the floorAnd held him in her arms;She said: "He would have waked no moreFor any of my charms."You only could pronounce the spellWould set his spirit free;And you have sold your soul to hellAnd wakened him – for me!"I hold him now by my blue eyesAnd by my yellow hair,He never will miss Paradise,Because I am so fair."The wife looked back, looked back to seeThe golden-curtained place,Her lord's head on the witch's knee,Her gold hair on his face."I would my soul once more were mine,Then God my prayer would hearAnd slay my soul in place of thineBecause thou art so dear!"

IN MEMORIAM

Philip Bourke MarstonWhen you were tired and went away,I said, amid my new heart-ache:"When I catch breath from pain some day,I will teach grief a worthier way,And make a great song for his sake!"Yet there is silence. O my friend,You gave me love such years ago —A child who could not comprehendIts worth, yet kept it to the end —How can I sing when you lie low?Not always silence. O my dear,Not when the empty heart and handReach out for you, who are not near.If you could see, if you could hear,I think that you would understand.The grief that can get leave to runIn channels smooth of tender songWins solace mine has never won.I have left all my work undone,And only dragged my grief along.Many who loved you many years(Not more than I shall always do),Will breathe their songs in your dead ears;God help them if they weep such tearsAs I, who have no song for you.You would forgive me, if you knew!Silence is all I have to bring(Where tears are many, words are few);I have but tears to bring to you,For, since you died, I cannot sing!

RONDEAU

To Austin DobsonYour dainty Muse her form arraysIn soft brocades of bygone days.She walks old gardens where the dewsGem sundials and trim-cut yewsAnd tremble on the tulip's blaze.The magic scent her charm conveysWhich lives on when the rose decays.She had her portrait done by Greuze —Your dainty Muse!Mine's hardier – walks life's muddy waysBarefooted; preaches, sometimes prays,Is modern, is advanced, has views;Goes in for lectures, reads the news,And sends her homespun verse to praiseYour dainty Muse!

RONDEAU

To W. E. HenleyDream and delight had passed away,Their springs dried by the dusty day,And sordid fetters bound me tight,Forged for poor song by money-might;I writhed, and could not get away.There might have been no flowering mayIn all the world – life looked so grayWith dust of railways, choking quiteDream and delight.When, lo! your white book came my way,With scent of honey-buds and hay,Starshine and day-dawns pure and bright,The rose blood-red, the may moon-white.I owe you – would I could repay —Dream and delight.

TO WALTER SICKERT

(In return for a sight of his picture "Red Clover".)There is a country far away from here —A world of dreams – a fair enchanted land —Where woods bewitched and fairy forests stand,And all the seasons rhyme through all the year.The greenest meadows, deepest skies, are there;There grows the rose of dreams, that never dies;And there men's heads and hands and hearts and eyesAre never, as here, too tired to find them fair.Thither, when life becomes too hard to bear,The poet and the painter steal awayTo watch those glories of the night and dayWhich here the days and nights so seldom wear.In that brave land I, too, have part and lot.Dim woods, lush meadows, little red-roofed towns,Walled flowery gardens, wide gray moors and downs;Sedge, meadow-sweet, and wet forget-me-not;The Norman church, with whispering elm trees round;A certain wood where earliest violets grow;One wide still marsh where hidden waters flow;The cottage porch with honey-buds enwound —These are my portion of enchanted ground,To these the years add somewhat in their flight;Some wood or field, deep-dyed in heart's delight,Becomes my own – treasure to her who found.To my dream fields your art adds one field more,A field of red, red clover, blossoming,Where the sun shines, and where more skylarks singThan ever in any field of mine before.

OLD AGE

Between the midnight and the mornWhen wake the weary heart and head,Troops of gray ghosts from lands forlornKeep tryst about my sleepless bed.I hear their cold, thin voices say:"Your youth is dying; by-and-byAll that makes up your life to-day,Withered by age, will shrink and die!"Will it be so? Will age slay allThe dreams of love and hope and faith —Put out the sun beyond recall,And lap us in a living death?Will hearts grown old forget their youth?And hands grown old give up the strife?Shall we accept as ordered truthThe dismal anarchy of life?Better die now – at once be freeOf hope and fear – renounce the whole:For of what worth would living beShould one – grown old – outlive one's soul?Yet see: through curtains closely drawnCreeps in the exorcising light;The sacred fingers of the dawnPut all my troop of ghosts to flight.And then I hear the brave Sun's voice,Though still the skies are gray and dim:"Old age comes never – Oh, rejoice —Except to those who beckon him."All that youth's dreams are nourished by,By that shall dreams in age be fed —Thy noble dreams can never dieUntil thyself shall wish them dead!"

INDEX.

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