 | Odes (1894) |  |
43
SONNETS, LYRICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS PIECES
64
AFTER THE TITANS
England, in good Victoria's latter reign,
Two potent councillors by turns have led,
Little alike in build of heart or head,
Yet owning this resemblance,—that the twain
Are visibly of Britain's ancient strain,
Sprung of the lineage of her stalwart dead,
Strong souls and massive, such as England bred
In the brave day that cometh not again.
Two potent councillors by turns have led,
Little alike in build of heart or head,
Yet owning this resemblance,—that the twain
Are visibly of Britain's ancient strain,
Sprung of the lineage of her stalwart dead,
Strong souls and massive, such as England bred
In the brave day that cometh not again.
To these succeeds another, newer race,
Men light and slight, on narrower scale designed,
Offspring and image of the change we trace
In art, arms, action, manners, morals, mind,—
The burly oak departing, in its place
The lissom willow, swaying to the wind.
Men light and slight, on narrower scale designed,
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In art, arms, action, manners, morals, mind,—
The burly oak departing, in its place
The lissom willow, swaying to the wind.
72
THE RIVALS
Man's good and evil angels came to dwell
As housemates, at his board and hearth alway;
One, secret as the night, one, frank as day,
Both lovely, and in puissance matched full well.
Each hourly strove her sleepless foe to quell,
And ever and anon the bright fiend lay
Foiled, and her countenance, racked with sick dismay,
Changed, and its tyrannous beauty masklike fell.
As housemates, at his board and hearth alway;
One, secret as the night, one, frank as day,
Both lovely, and in puissance matched full well.
Each hourly strove her sleepless foe to quell,
And ever and anon the bright fiend lay
Foiled, and her countenance, racked with sick dismay,
Changed, and its tyrannous beauty masklike fell.
Ah, could man's thought for ever fix and stay
That glimpse of horrors he might quake to tell
'Twere easy, then, the temptress to repel!
But 'neath the glorious mask and brave array
How shall he know thee, leprous witch of hell,
Robed to allure and fanged to rend and slay?
That glimpse of horrors he might quake to tell
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But 'neath the glorious mask and brave array
How shall he know thee, leprous witch of hell,
Robed to allure and fanged to rend and slay?
74
A NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM
God save our ancient land,
God bless our noble land,
God save our land!
Yea, from war's pangs and fears,
Plague's tooth and famine's tears,
Ev'n unto latest years
God save our land!
God bless our noble land,
God save our land!
Yea, from war's pangs and fears,
Plague's tooth and famine's tears,
Ev'n unto latest years
God save our land!
God bless our reigning race!
Truth, honour, wisdom, grace,
Guide their right hand!
Yet, though we love their sway,
England is more than they:
God bless their realm, we pray,
God save our land!
Truth, honour, wisdom, grace,
Guide their right hand!
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England is more than they:
God bless their realm, we pray,
God save our land!
Too long the gulf betwixt
This man and that man fixt
Yawns yet unspanned.
Too long, that some may rest,
Tired millions toil unblest.
God lift our lowliest,
God save our land!
This man and that man fixt
Yawns yet unspanned.
Too long, that some may rest,
Tired millions toil unblest.
God lift our lowliest,
God save our land!
God save our ancient land,
God bless our noble land,
God save our land!
Earth's empires wax and wane,
Man's might is mown as grain:
God's arm our arm sustain!
God save our land!
God bless our noble land,
God save our land!
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Man's might is mown as grain:
God's arm our arm sustain!
God save our land!
77
THE SIXTY-FIVE ELEMENTS
Master, I marvel not at all, that these
Mock at the wit that would their meaning seize.
A maiden's sigh—the descant of a bird—
Me with triumphant riddles taunt and tease.
Mock at the wit that would their meaning seize.
A maiden's sigh—the descant of a bird—
Me with triumphant riddles taunt and tease.
I well believe, despite of all he knows,
The wonder of the sweetness of a rose,
The wonder of the wild heart of a song,
Shall shame man's foolish wisdom to the close.
The wonder of the sweetness of a rose,
The wonder of the wild heart of a song,
Shall shame man's foolish wisdom to the close.
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The secrets of the gods are from of old
Guarded for ever and for ever told,—
Blabbed in all ears, but published in a tongue
Whose purport the gods only can unfold.
Guarded for ever and for ever told,—
Blabbed in all ears, but published in a tongue
Whose purport the gods only can unfold.
79
A NEW YEAR'S PRAYER
In the blanched night, when all the world lay frore,
And the cold moon, the passionless, looked down
Commiserating man the passion-curst—
Man made in passion and by passion marred—
Through the pale silence, on the New Year's verge,
This prayer fled forth, and trembled up to heaven:—
And the cold moon, the passionless, looked down
Commiserating man the passion-curst—
Man made in passion and by passion marred—
Through the pale silence, on the New Year's verge,
This prayer fled forth, and trembled up to heaven:—
‘O Thou whose dwelling is eternity;
Who seest the hunger and the toil of men,
And how the love of life and wife and babe
Is brother of hate and sire of deeds of death;
Give peace—give peace: peace in our time, O Lord!
Who seest the hunger and the toil of men,
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Is brother of hate and sire of deeds of death;
Give peace—give peace: peace in our time, O Lord!
‘But if we needs must march to peace through war,
Spare not the sowers who amid Thy corn
Mingled the lethal seed of this red flower;
The whirlwind let them reap who sow the wind.
Make terrible Thine arm against all thieves
Whether in mart or on imperial throne;
And scatter with Thy thunder the unjust
Who turn thy pleasance to a wilderness,
To battlefields Thy vineyard, with mailed feet
Trampling the joyous vine of life in blood.
‘Purge and renew this England, once so fair,
When Arthur's knights were armed with nobleness,
Or Alfred's wisdom poised the sacred scales;
Yea, and in later times, when Liberty,
Her crowned and crosiered enemies combating,
Stood proudlier 'stablished by a false king's fall,
Mighty from Milton's pen and Cromwell's sword,
Terribly beauteous, passionately just,
Seared with hell's hate, and in her scars divine.’
Spare not the sowers who amid Thy corn
Mingled the lethal seed of this red flower;
The whirlwind let them reap who sow the wind.
Make terrible Thine arm against all thieves
Whether in mart or on imperial throne;
And scatter with Thy thunder the unjust
Who turn thy pleasance to a wilderness,
To battlefields Thy vineyard, with mailed feet
Trampling the joyous vine of life in blood.
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When Arthur's knights were armed with nobleness,
Or Alfred's wisdom poised the sacred scales;
Yea, and in later times, when Liberty,
Her crowned and crosiered enemies combating,
Stood proudlier 'stablished by a false king's fall,
Mighty from Milton's pen and Cromwell's sword,
Terribly beauteous, passionately just,
Seared with hell's hate, and in her scars divine.’
New Year's Eve, 1892.
86
MALIGN BEAUTY
A face like morning, with a heart of night!
Not though in deserts fanged with death thou roam,
Or couch 'mid monsters of the ooze and foam,
Shalt thou be blasted with so dread a sight
As when a soul whose errand is to blight
And shatter, makes a glorious body its home,
Foul tenant of a stately palace-dome,
Imperial towers, and gardens of delight
Not though in deserts fanged with death thou roam,
Or couch 'mid monsters of the ooze and foam,
Shalt thou be blasted with so dread a sight
As when a soul whose errand is to blight
And shatter, makes a glorious body its home,
Foul tenant of a stately palace-dome,
Imperial towers, and gardens of delight
Look through her windows! See,—a pilgrim guest
Is feasted by the bounteous châtelaine.
Fledged are the hours with wine and song and jest.
The morrow cometh. Shall he rise and hie
Forth on his way? He grasps his staff in vain,
In her deep dungeons flung, to rot and die.
Is feasted by the bounteous châtelaine.
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The morrow cometh. Shall he rise and hie
Forth on his way? He grasps his staff in vain,
In her deep dungeons flung, to rot and die.
88
TO ONE WHO HAD WRITTEN IN DERISION OF THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
Dismiss not so, with light, hard phrase and cold,
Ev'n if it be but fond imagining,
The hope whereto so passionately cling
The dreaming generations from of old!
Not thus, to luckless men, are tidings told
Of mistress lost, or riches taken wing;
And is eternity a slighter thing,
To have or lose, than kisses or than gold?
Ev'n if it be but fond imagining,
The hope whereto so passionately cling
The dreaming generations from of old!
Not thus, to luckless men, are tidings told
Of mistress lost, or riches taken wing;
And is eternity a slighter thing,
To have or lose, than kisses or than gold?
Nay, tenderly, if needs thou must, disprove
My loftiest fancy, dash my grand desire
To see this curtain lift, these clouds retire,
And Truth, a boundless dayspring, blaze above
And round me; and to ask of my dead sire
His pardon for each word that wronged his love.
My loftiest fancy, dash my grand desire
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And Truth, a boundless dayspring, blaze above
And round me; and to ask of my dead sire
His pardon for each word that wronged his love.
108
LINES WRITTEN IN RICHMOND PARK
Lady, were you but here!The Autumn flames away,
And pensive in the antlered shade I stray.
The Autumn flames away, his end is near.
I linger where deposed and fall'n he lies,
Prankt in his last poor tattered braveries,
And think what brightness would enhance the Day,
Lady, were you but here.
Though hushed the woodlands, though sedate the skies,
Though dank the leaves and sere,
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Would vernalise
November, and renew the agèd year,
Lady! were you but here.
| Odes (1894) | |