The Comrades :: :: University of Virginia Library

“He hath saved a thousand lives!” they cried.
“Such feats should be requited!”
“Friends, so they shall,” the king replied,
“This worthy shall be knighted.

“A jewelled belt and rapier bring,
Plumed cap and cloak of scarlet!
And now your name, sir?” said the king.
“All But,” replied the varlet.

2. The Hedge

Fair neighbour of the thatchèd cot
With gloire de Dijon clustered gable,
So star-sweet, on from plot to plot,
Thou trippest, like a nymph of fable;

So blithe thy smile, so soft thy tone,
So frank those down-dropt eyes half-hidden,
I'd fain the hedge were overthrown,
And our two gardens made one Eden!

But “No!” cries Wisdom, “spare the fence,
The thorn, the ivy blackbirds nest in;
Leave something for the finer sense,
Some dream of joy to hope and rest in.

“Some glad surprise, some mystery
Of inconceivably sweet meaning!”
Wisdom is wise. My friend and I
Scarce press the topmost twigs by leaning.

3. By-and-By

With dreamy nooks, and gleams of sky,
And wild-flowers sweet for fingering
The blossoming Lane of By-and-by
Goes winding, loitering, lingering;

Till, after many a green delay,
It crosses Dead Endeavour,
And reaches, in the gloaming grey,
The haunted House of Never.

4. At the End of the Day

Two on a moor befogged I found. One sat,
Hunched on a stone, beside a burnt-out fire.
One posed with drabbled peacock-feathered hat.
And both were old, starved, squalid in attire.

“You seem,” said I to him upon the stone,
“Old friends new met in unexpected woe.”
“Yes,” sighed the man; “my name is Had-I-known.”
“And his?” “Oh, his!” he laughed—“I-told-you-so.”

5. The Lark

However high the lark may soar,
Its nest is on the grassy ground;
It mounts and mounts, yet evermore
Sinks back in showers of joyous sound.

So let my heart rise blithe and free,
So sink again and yet again,
That all my joy in heaven may be,
And all my love may be with men.