 | The violet crown by Sir Rennell Rodd |  |
85
CHAROS
Why are the mountains dark and the hills all woebegone?Is it the wind at war there or the rain that blots the sun?
It is not the wind at war there, it is not the driving rain,
It is Charos passing over them, with the dead folk in his train;
The old men follow after, and before the young men go,
And the children, the little children, are slung at his saddle-bow;—
The old men beg a grace of him, and the young men speak him fair;
‘Good Charos, rest by the fountain, or halt in the village square,
That the lads may play at the stone-throwing, and the old men drink their fill,
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The old men beg a grace of him, and the young men speak him fair:—
‘By never a fountain will I rest, nor halt in the village square;
The mothers would come for water, and would hear their babes complain,
And the wedded folk would never part, if they once were met again.’
| The violet crown by Sir Rennell Rodd | |