University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Joaquin Miller's Poems

[in six volumes]

expand section1. 
expand section2. 
expand section3. 
expand section4. 
collapse section5. 
collapse section 
  
collapse section 
 1. 
 2. 
 3. 
collapse section4. 
 1. 
 2. 
 3. 
 4. 
 5. 
 6. 
 7. 
 8. 
 9. 
 10. 
 11. 
 12. 
 13. 
 14. 
 15. 
 16. 
 17. 
 18. 
 19. 
 20. 
 21. 
 22. 
 23. 
 24. 
 25. 
 26. 
 27. 
 28. 
 29. 
 30. 
 31. 
 32. 
 33. 
 34. 
expand section2. 
expand section3. 
expand section4. 
expand section 
  
  

Then sang of free life with a will, and well,
They had paid for it well when the price was blood;

111

They beat on the shield, and they blew on the shell,
When their wars were not, for they held it good
To be glad, and to sing till the flush of the day,
In an annual feast, when the broad leaves fell;
Yet some sang not, and some sighed, “Ah, well!”—
For there's far less left you to sing or to say,
When mettlesome love is banish'd, I ween—
To hint at as hidden, or to half disclose
In the swift sword-cuts of the tongue, made keen
With wine at a feast,—than one would suppose.