Poems By William Bell Scott |
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| X. |
| XI. |
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| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
XV.Age—Unknown.
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XV.Age—Unknown.
A white-washed chamber wide and long,
With unscreened pallets placed in rows,
Each tenanted by pain.
In the first a grey-haired woman, tho'
Still almost youthful: in the next
A girl with yellow teeth and eyes,
And lips as blue as heaven!
One form is there we have marked before,
Whose merriment we have heard. My God!
And yet perhaps 'tis her best bourne:
She shall not live to fight with dogs
For bones on the nightly causeway,
Or gather ashes thrifty wives
May fling from their hearthstones.
She may die! the board is sawn
And blackened, and the turf
Is soon rent up to lay her down:
While forms as fair, as gleesome hearts,
As blindly shall succeed her,—place
Their feet where she hath trod,—amid
Like laughter shut their eyes,—and then
Fill this her mattress, thus, with shaven crowns.
With unscreened pallets placed in rows,
Each tenanted by pain.
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Still almost youthful: in the next
A girl with yellow teeth and eyes,
And lips as blue as heaven!
One form is there we have marked before,
Whose merriment we have heard. My God!
And yet perhaps 'tis her best bourne:
She shall not live to fight with dogs
For bones on the nightly causeway,
Or gather ashes thrifty wives
May fling from their hearthstones.
She may die! the board is sawn
And blackened, and the turf
Is soon rent up to lay her down:
While forms as fair, as gleesome hearts,
As blindly shall succeed her,—place
Their feet where she hath trod,—amid
Like laughter shut their eyes,—and then
Fill this her mattress, thus, with shaven crowns.
And fathers still will shake their heads;
And youths who have not souls, have beards;
And scribes and pharisees cross the way;
And country queans at harvest home
Blush if they do not dance in silk;
And every lamp on every street
Light them like Maryanne.
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And scribes and pharisees cross the way;
And country queans at harvest home
Blush if they do not dance in silk;
And every lamp on every street
Light them like Maryanne.
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