A Book of Quatrains | ||
5
COMMANDERS IN CHIEF
THE General seemed to hear the guns as, warily and slow,He moved his paper soldiers from a paper Continent.
A rosebud in his buttonhole laughed softly. Long ago
HER legions took the British Isles with nothing but a scent!
11
HOPEFUL GARDENING
OF bushes plant the laurel most,And near to miracle remain;
For none can tell when Daphne's ghost
Will leap to lovely flesh again.
12
THE WISH
WOULD God that I could beA little more each day
The better man I see
Part showing in my clay!
13
THE MIMIC
OF all the excellent mimics I knowThere is none can touch Sleep's masterly act:
Just look at this girl with the face of snow
And the hands crossed over the breast! Exact!
14
LIFE
THIS chemist in his famous cupMay mix some nasty fluids up,
Yet even while we call him cheat
He laughs and passes us a sweet.
16
THE LAST DOSE
“TAKE it!” said the SPECIALIST, “Take it, for you must!Gone the hyacinth valley, gone the naked heath.
Now, and for the last time, dignify your dust—
COWARDS let the wineglass rattle on their teeth!”
19
JUDAS
REMEMBERING Judas, darkly sealedTo wound the side has never healed,
We know his heart must be a heaven
If Heaven by him can be forgiven.
20
ISAAC
SINCE God was kind to him, and caughtThe threatening knife from Abraham,
I hope the little Hebrew thought
To beg a favour for the ram.
22
THE TESTIMONIAL
IN Death's old heart that, cool and placid,Tick by tick with the Cosmos goes
There's more of mellow and less of acid
Than anybody knows.
23
THE GOOD FORTUNE
A SOUR-FACED monkey, long unchecked,Was grumbling at the monkey-plan.
At last his aunt said, “Recollect,
You might have been a man!”
24
THE DEVOTEE
THIS girl's a piece of music being playedAbove the devilish discord of the town,
Fingered by Angels Christianly arrayed,
Who keep the pedal of holiness always down.
26
A TRUTH
WAVE farewell, and cross the seas,Would you learn, as far you roam,
How to find Hesperides
On the map of home.
29
THE HEROINE
WHILE Wealth was a-squandering, Poverty setTo work in a fashion enthusiastic
To juggle with bellies and parings, and get
A farthing to stretch like a piece of elastic.
32
THE VALLEY
“I MUST not wear too broad a smile,” said Earth,“Or humankind at once will deem me simple.”
Thereat, by way of dignifying mirth,
She cradled in her cheek this lovely dimple.
33
THE RUNNERS
BE it mine to view the course, with looksAs bright as heaven-haunted brooks,
When Spring is watching from her bower
The race between the Leaf and Flower.
35
THE BUDDING HERO
BEHOLD him at the Raleigh age,Red in the cheeks with England's story,
And almost weeping if a page
Fails of the signature of Glory!
36
BAD TASTE
ATTACK him with your beauty! ThrowBeneath his feet your limbs of snow!
'Tis vain. What curves shall give him zest
Whose tidbit is the mouldering breast?
37
CUI BONO?
OFTEN I wonder, when I read the taleOf how the pigs went headlong to the brine,
If at his visible ruin the man turned pale
Who chanced to own the herd of Gadarene swine.
38
THE FOLLY
GOD said, “Use this lovely place,Children, for your rambles.”
Hardly had He turned His face
Ere it reeked like shambles.
39
THE CHESS MASTERS
DEATH, staring darkly at the pieces spreadUpon the board, felt suddenly elated;
For, as he looked ten thousand moves ahead,
He saw how Life at last could be checkmated.
40
THE GIPSY
REMEMBERING Hagar, cast awayWhile Ishmael yet on her bosom lay,
Lend me your ragged ends of shire,
With a cony or two for the pot on the fire.
42
THE WRONG TURNING
THEY reached a forking road, and ManBranched off, to be a peer or flunkey;
But very soon his heart began
To think the luck was with the Monkey.
43
HOUSEWIFE CORN
THE dough being ready, the housekeeper takesBeams of the sun as her coals,
Then borrows an overn from August, and bakes
Millions of little brown rolls.
44
THE THORN TO THE ROSE
HONOURED art thou in every land,And I as much oppressed;
Yet I have only pricked the hand,
Whilst thou hast torn the breast.
46
THE REBEL
THOUGH Frost is Winter's bondman for all time,What's left in him of warmness so rebels
That on our windowpane he draws in rime
A ghostly Spring of ferns and flowery bells.
47
THE SCOURGE
LOOK at his open sores! DispelBoth rage and pity — if you can.
How shrewd a blow on horsekind fell
When God invented man!
48
THE AFTER-LIFE
BE you certain of this: You shall seldom rideIn the bay with your lubberly canvas furled,
But shall creakingly out to the toss of the tide—
There are herrings to catch! 'Tis a workaday world!
49
DARK
LOOK at me quickly, then turn away,And I seem as black as the swarthy coal;
But run to my lullaby heart to stay,
And watch how brightly I nurse my soul!
50
THE HANDICAP
THE doom of Eden's thrilling skiesWas known to God ere worlds began,
And Adam lost his paradise
Before he breathed the breath of man.
51
A PICTURE OF LAZINESS
AFRICA sings in a pear-tree; CeylonBreathes in a cup on a book of romances;
Egypt is burning; I loll in the sun,
Begging the Gulf Stream to water my pansies!
53
THE CAT
ALTHOUGH she thinks that busy manBuilds lofty dwellings for her ease,
She snubs him at the Vatican
And flouts him in the Tuileries.
54
SACRILEGE
IN honour of the Prince of Peace,The opposing generals say
That bloody butcherings shall cease
Till dawn on Boxing Day.
55
THE QUESTION
LOVELY of hair and breast and face,Utterly lost to Christian grace,
How will you lift that bankrupt head
When all the butterfly beauty's dead?
56
BACK TO THE LAND
SAID Decay to himself, “Human beings are right.I am thankful these noodles at last understand
That the world they have spoilt will go perfectly right
When the whole of their race has gone BACK TO THE LAND.”
58
MILLIONAIRES
THE millionaires have uses. Even theseAre crooked ways of help, be sure.
Behold, they drive us to our knees
To thank God for the poor!
60
A DISCOVERY
WHEN I grew strong, I quickly foundMy weakness; for my power was less
Than when I crawled along the ground
In childhood's strength of strengthlessness.
61
THE CONSEQUENCE
WHEN Eve from duty turned away,How small the prize, how large the loss!
The hand that robbed the apple-spray
Transfixed our Saviour on the Cross.
62
PRISON FARE
THEY tell me Life's a prison. Granted!But there are flowers and birds and dew.
I'd pick a million miles of oakum
For such a gaol of green and blue!
63
TO A MISERLY LANDOWNER
OUT with your loaded purse, and standTo help the weariful passer-by!
'Tis strange for one so rich in land
To be so very poor in sky.
64
THE STALWART
“KILL me the ox!” roared Vice in tonesThat shook, as thunder shakes, the quiet;
“For I should soon be skin and bones
On Virtue's vegetarian diet!”
65
THE INDIGNANT ONION
ROSE AMONG ROOTS he called me. Well,The madman must have lost his nose!
I trust I have the grace to smell
Far sweeter than a stinking rose!
66
THE TORTURERS
THERE is a sound of hammers always reachingFrom earth to heaven; for hourly, to their loss,
Some so-called Christians, blasphemously preaching
By lips, not hearts, nail Jesus to the Cross.
67
THE FIRST CROCUS
WHEN out of Heaven Prometheus broughtThe fire to Earth, he dropped a spark;
And where it tumbled, Nature wrought
A fire-filled crocus for a mark.
68
A SISTER OF THE POOR
HER bosom is a belfry. Hark!She rings an octave clear and sweet
For many a soul that feels too dark
To fall in tears at Jesu's feet.
71
THUNDER
FLAT fall the oak-trees in the grove,Rivers disperse and mountains crack,
When leap-frog is the game, and Jove
From broad-beamed Vulcan takes a back.
72
THE REVERSAL
IF you would be a groundling, keepThe maxim, LOOK BEFORE YOULEAP;
But if a hero, Valour's Book
Advises, LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK!
73
THE REASON
“BECAUSE these fools,” the Earthquake said,“Regard themselves as perfect models,
I have at times to leave my bed
To shake such nonsense from their noddles.”
74
IN A CEMETERY
FOR countless centuries revolveWith Earth these dead by Death destroyed.
I would to God that I might solve
THIS Problem of the Unemployed!
75
THE SWORD
I DID but hint myself to manIn the long, sharp leaf,
And, changed to a devil, he foamed, and ran
To embrace his grief.
76
PERCHANCE
HE who underneath this stoneNo longer hears the bruised world moan,
By being deaf to Earth may hear
The anguish of another sphere.
77
A BAD RECORD
A WORLD of pathos lies in this—That out of all the lower creatures
There's only one content to kiss
Our hands and search in love our features.
78
THE SAME COMPLAINT
“WHAT your most vexing parasite,”Bawled Earth to Mars, “since Life began?”
Mars roared an answer through the night
In emphasis of thunder, “Man!”
79
A MODERN TYPE
SHE clutched the doctor's arm, and eyedThe newborn babe with petulance:
“Now mind you get me well,” she cried,
“Before the Digby-Jones's dance!”
80
SHORT SIGHTED
WHILE Virtue kept her ancient graceShe was truly Queen of the Moral Lasses;
But how she ruined her lovely face
When she took to wearing glasses!
81
DEPARTED
SHE died on Easter Tuesday. Being tired,She limped along till she was out of School.
May she be welcomed as a soul desired,
And her discoveries all be beautiful!
82
CONQUERING WOMAN
WHILE troopers were lusty with swords and spears,And generals deep in the craft of their duty,
She vanquished a couple of hemispheres
By drawing an inch of the bodkin of beauty.
83
A PERSONAL MATTER
TOO old at forty! Venomous jibeFor the brain that feels like fruit in the sun!
If this be the fate of the Mellowing Tribe,
Each man of the Tribe was too old at one!
84
THE QUIBBLE
“HE forbade us to pluck, you remember, Madam,'Tis better to leave it alone,” said Adam.
“But, my love, it's a WINDFALL!” the woman protested.
So the pippin was munched, and the husband was bested.
85
MYSELF TO MYSELF
WHAT skies! What flowers! I feel in youYour heart as frolic as a colt.
Beware! From just as clear a blue
There crashed that unforgettable bolt!
86
A BAD EXAMPLE
IF in the firmament at nightFor homely lessoning you seek,
Beware the silver satellite
That never turns the other cheek.
90
LAZARUS
THOU had'st to pay a fee to DeathEre coming back to mortal reach:
Methinks the price he charged for breath
(Shrewd bargainer!) was loss of speech.
91
CITY SPIDERS
THE insect came from its web, to crawlWhere the human insect sat and spied:
Smudging it dead with his thumb on the wall,
He committed the horror of fratricide.
94
A PESSIMIST TO THE WORLD
I AM weary to death of your noisy ado,And 'tis plain as the sun we can never agree:
I shall thankfully finish my business with you
When you heartily finish your business with me.
95
DISTANT RELATIVES
I WATCHED her coming. Unaware of fault,I raised my cap and smiled to Susie March.
Lot's wife, if you remember, changed to salt,
But Sue (the little cat!) had turned to starch.
96
VARIANCE AT FORTY
“TURN!” cried the brain. “I am weary of the mountain.”“Climb!” quoth the heart. “We are only half way up.
Throw a vision to the peak! And I will be a fountain
Pouring red refreshment in our master's shaking cup.”
97
THE DUET
LOVELY and Lovable, if yesterdayMy rendering seemed to fail in merit,
Forgive me! Flesh must sometimes play
A little out of tune with Spirit.
98
A HINT
CATERPILLAR, you ought to tryTo mend your manners! Butterfly,
'Tis sad when near relations pass
Without a nod in sky or grass.
99
CONCEIT
THOUGH many Christians coldly turnFrom much that Christ would have them learn,
Be sure they hotly claim as theirs
His pearls of price. Conceited heirs!
100
THE TEMPEST
BY the breves and the titan sharps in a swarmLong was his mood conveyed:
On a fiddle of earth with a bow of storm,
Jove! how the fiddler played!
101
RENUNCIATION
SINCE it were well for me to riseA hero over fire and feast,
Veil in thy hair those star-sent eyes—
She loves me best who loves me least.
103
UNSEXED
BEGIN my shroud! Stitch, stitch away,And bring it me home this very day;
For English schoolboys, soft as doves,
Snowball (Great Hercules!) in gloves.
FINIS
A Book of Quatrains | ||