oKYERSGNI 
 
 P O ETRT 
 CHAP-BGOKS 
 
 <Tke 
 
 Vikings Bride 
 
 By 
 
 WINIFRED STEVENS 
 
O F THIS EDITION OF THE VIKING’S 
 BRIDE, BY WINIFRED STEVENS, 
 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES 
 HAVE BEEN PRINTED. THIS CHAP- 
 BOOK IS A PRODUCT OF THE RYERSON 
 PRESS, TORONTO, CANADA. 
 
 Copyright, Canada, 1929 
 by The Ryerson Press 
 
 Mrs. Winifred Stevens was born in the Lake District, England. 
 Her education was rounded out with residence in France, Germany 
 and Italy. For almost twenty years the author has lived in Canada, 
 principally on the Pacific Coast. Extensive travel has enriched her 
 experience, and a command of several languages enhanced her cosmo- 
 politanism. In her home town, New Westminster, Mrs. Stevens is 
 the centre of many literary and artistic activities. 
 
The Vikings Bride 
 
 By Winifred Stevens 
 
 4 » ♦ 4 » 
 
 T OR WAS a Viking bold 
 In those grim days of old, 
 
 When the fierce Norsemen o’ersailed the wild sea. 
 
 Glyn was a maiden fair, 
 
 Glyn of the golden hair; 
 
 Blue were her dreamy eyes, 
 
 Blue as the summer skies; 
 
 Yet when the Viking bold 
 For her his love had told. 
 
 Bravely she followed him upon the wild sea. 
 
 Forth sped the Viking bold, 
 
 E’en through the Arctic cold, 
 
 On, ever onward across the lone sea. 
 
 Over the boundless main, 
 
 Over the heaving plain, 
 
 Wildly the tempest roared, 
 
 Madly the sea-foam soared. 
 
 Yet with her heart of gold 
 Glyn loved the Viking bold. 
 
 Gladly she sailed with him across the lone sea. 
 
 Still rides that Viking bold, 
 
 Snow wraiths his limbs enfold, 
 
 Dancing his ghostly dance upon the sad sea; 
 
 Glyn ever by his side, 
 
 Sweet Glyn, his blue-eyed bride. 
 
 One 
 
What though the Arctic sky 
 Looked down and saw them die! 
 
 What though their crew was lost. 
 
 Doomed by the bitter frost! 
 
 Still while the world shall hold. 
 
 Loves she her Viking bold, 
 
 Sails evermore with him across the sad sea. 
 
 4 * 4 » 4 * 
 
 THE DANCE 
 
 1 HEAR a sweet-toned, muffled shout 
 Stealing o’er the prairies: 
 
 The butterflies are calling out 
 All the flower fairies; 
 
 Forget-me-not in sky-blue crown, 
 
 Pansy sweet and tender, 
 
 Ready to foot it up and down 
 In glowing summer splendour. 
 
 A yellow maid from the buttercup, 
 
 A red one from the clover. 
 
 Ready to trip it down and up 
 With each bright handsome rover. 
 
 Glimmering o’er the sunlit ground, 
 Dainty, light and airy, 
 
 Two and two they circle round, 
 Butterfly and fairy. 
 
 4 » 4 » 4 * 
 
 TWO WELLS 
 
 T HERE are two wells on my farm: 
 One is surface water 
 And runs dry in summer. 
 
 The other is a spring 
 Which never fails. 
 
 My heart is a well 
 
 Where thirsty souls may drink. 
 
 Is it a spring of kindliness unending? 
 Or will it fail them 
 In their hour of need? 
 
 Two 
 
THE MINUET 
 
 1 SAW in dreams a picture fair. 
 
 Squires and their dames with powdered hair, 
 With gracious mien and lordly air 
 They danced the minuet. 
 
 In graceful curves they moved around, 
 
 Gliding so gently o’er the ground. 
 
 To tender music’s rhythmic sound, 
 
 They danced the minuet. 
 
 Holding their plumed hats in their hand. 
 
 These stately lords, with manner grand. 
 
 Chose out the fairest in the land 
 And danced the minuet. 
 
 Beautiful dames with dainty toe 
 Spread out their fans and curtsied low, 
 
 Swayed with the measure to and fro, 
 
 And danced the minuet. 
 
 «f* <)• 4» 
 
 MOON-LIGHT 
 
 S UN’S down, 
 
 Moon’s up, 
 
 Earth is fast asleep; 
 
 From a brown acorn-cup 
 Two green fairies creep. 
 
 Creeping peep, 
 
 Peeping creep 
 Towards the fairy ring. 
 Where merry elves 
 Disport themselves 
 On translucent wing. 
 
 Moon-light 
 
 Shines bright 
 
 Where the fairies play; 
 
 But if you woke 
 
 The elfin folk 
 
 Would vanish right away. 
 
(Adapted from the German) 
 
 A CROSS the open moorlands 
 The breezes roam at will; 
 They skim with airy freedom 
 O’er forest, knoll, and hill. 
 
 And ever, ere we sever, 
 
 One secret I would know: 
 
 Oh breezes, gently blowing, 
 
 Say whither would you go ? 
 
 Far down the wooded valley 
 The rushing torrents leap, 
 
 To join the lordly river. 
 
 And with it onward sweep. 
 They wander while I ponder 
 The lore I fain would know: 
 
 Oh streamlet, swiftly flowing. 
 
 Say whither would you go ? 
 
 4 » 4 * 
 
 THE TWIN-FLOWER 
 
 (Linnaea borealis) 
 
 B eneath the noble pine-trees 
 
 That rear their heads on high, 
 I gaze and gaze in wonder 
 Where countless treasures lie. 
 Through banks of softest velvet 
 The timid violet peeps, 
 
 While o’er the mossy carpet 
 The dainty wind-flower creeps. 
 
 But fairest of the blossoms 
 That star these woodland dells. 
 The twin-flower gleams in beauty 
 And rings its tiny bells. 
 
 Its blooms of palest opal 
 And leaves of glossy green 
 Shine forth among the shadows 
 With ever radiant sheen. 
 
 Four 
 
THE FISPA 
 
 (With the Canadian Authors, July 14, 1928) 
 
 G LADLY the Fispa shot out o’er the bay. 
 
 The waves at her coming stopped short in their play. 
 To toss up a greeting of rainbow-hued spray, 
 
 And joy laughed aloud on the waters. 
 
 Grandly the mountains looked down from their height, 
 As cloud-shadows drifted in tremulous flight, 
 
 And lulled the tall forests to dreams of delight. 
 
 While beauty pervaded the waters. 
 
 Gently now ocean and earth sink to sleep. 
 
 The glory of sunset illumines the deep, 
 
 The evening star flickers, the long shadows creep, 
 
 And peace hovers over the waters. 
 
 4 » 4 * «§• 
 
 THE LORELEI 
 
 (Adapted from the German) 
 
 T HE EVENING sunbeams linger 
 On forest, crag, and hill. 
 
 Below in the deepening shadow 
 The Rhine flows dark and still. 
 
 A maiden of wonderful beauty. 
 
 With jewels strange and rare, 
 
 Sits there in the silent gloaming, 
 And combs her golden hair. 
 
 Her comb of gold flashes brightly, 
 The while she sings her song, 
 
 A song of sweet love and longing, 
 Most wondrous deep and strong. 
 Enraptured the traveller listens. 
 
 Nor heeds the treacherous cliff. 
 Till hungry waves draw them under, 
 The boatman and his skiff. 
 
LAST NIGHT AND TO-NIGHT 
 
 L AST night the moon shed a cold, clear light. 
 The birds were silent, and the weary buds 
 Drooped in dull sorrow and forgot their scent: 
 Beauty was nowhere in the dreary world — 
 
 For my love had sailed far from me. 
 
 To-night the moon sheds a soft, bright ray, 
 
 The birds sing sweetly, and the fragrant flowers 
 Pour forth their incense on the balmy air; 
 
 The world is full of rapture and delight — 
 
 For my love has come home to me. 
 
 * 4 * * 1 * 
 
 THE POET 
 
 C. G. D. R. 
 
 T HE POET treads the dusty road, 
 
 He climbs the rocky height. 
 
 Then footsore, weary, bleeding, bruised, 
 
 He lays him down at night. 
 
 “And did you find the going rough?’* 
 
 “Why no! — I scarce can tell — 
 
 I journeyed toward a radiancy 
 From which such glory fell, 
 
 “That every meanest leaf and stone 
 New beauty seemed to take. 
 
 But fairer still, I know, will be 
 The vision when I wake.” 
 
 Six 
 

 MIST 
 
 T ENDERLY, silently, out of the stillness. 
 
 Born of the hush of the eventide, 
 
 Came the silvery mist with its web of enchantment. 
 
 And lo at its coming the tumult died. 
 
 And soft through the silence a spirit voice whispered: 
 
 “1 have hid from thy eyes all the sordid and vile. 
 
 I have silenced the din that thy soul might be strengthened; 
 So cease from thy striving and rest thee awhile.** 
 
 4 » ♦ 4 » 
 
 THE STORM 
 
 D ULL grey clouds and a driving rain. 
 
 No sun at all in the sky; 
 
 Wet bleak fields and a bitter wind 
 Moaning its desolate cry; 
 
 Bare black trunks and the fading leaves 
 Gleaming with unearthly light; 
 
 Storm-swept hills and the dying day 
 Shuddering into the night. 
 
 Let the storm expend its fury. 
 
 Let it run its full fierce length; 
 
 There’s a dignity and grandeur 
 In its majesty and strength. 
 
 Secen 
 
NIGHT COMES 
 
 N ight comes, 
 
 Delight comes, 
 
 The moon’s soft silvery light comes. 
 Hark! a step upon the threshold 
 And a hand upon the door, 
 
 And a voice of sweet refinement 
 We have known and loved before. 
 
 Then the poet is amongst us, 
 
 With a breath of Arcady, 
 
 And we reck of naught save beauty 
 And the joys of minstrelsy. 
 
 Rugged is the mount of rapture 
 Which the poet’s feet have trod. 
 
 Veiled from sight the mystic mountain, 
 Where he gazed upon his God. 
 
 But the radiance shone about him, 
 
 As he wrestled with the sod; 
 
 Now he breathes where’er he passes 
 The tranquillity of God. 
 
 Night comes, 
 
 Delight comes, 
 
 The poet’s mystic light comes. 
 
 Eight 
 
 
THE RYERSON POETRY 
 CHAP-BOOKS 
 
 Lome Pierce — Editor 
 
 i - ^ «i % > « 
 
 THE SWEET O’ THE YEAR By Charles G . D . Roberts 
 COMPANIONSHIP AND THE CROWD By W. H. F. Tenny 
 FORFEIT AND OTHER POEMS By Kathryn Mumo 
 ♦THE EAR TRUMPET By Annie C Dalton 
 
 ♦A VALE IN LUXOR By W. V . Newson 
 
 ♦THE PROPHET’S MAN By Geoffrey B. Riddehough 
 SHEEP-FOLD By Leo Cox 
 
 ♦THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS By Agnes Jaynes 
 BY COBEQUID BAY By Alexander Louis Fraser 
 
 TWELVE POEMS By Esme Isles-BroiOn 
 
 SONGS FOR SWIFT FEET By Goslwick Roberts 
 
 ECSTASY AND OTHER POEMS By Elaine M. Catley 
 ♦BITS O’ VERSE IN SCOTS By William P. McKenzie 
 ♦DESTINY AND OTHER POEMS By Mary Matheson 
 FOWLS O’ THE AIR AND OTHER VERSES IN SCOTS 
 
 By William P. McKenzie 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ST. JULIEN 
 SPENDTHRIFTS 
 THE TIDE OF LOVE 
 FRAGMENTS OF FANTASY 
 XII POEMS 
 COSMIC ORATORY 
 THE VIKING’S BRIDE 
 THE BLUE-WALLED VALLEY 
 
 By Kate Colquhoun 
 By Guy Mason 
 By Thomas O' Hagan 
 By Nelda MacKinnon Sage 
 By F. Elsie Laurence 
 By "Regis" 
 By Winifred Stevens 
 By May P. Judge 
 
 Fifty cents 
 
 •A POOL OF STARS By Lionel Stevenson 
 
 ♦SPRING IN SAVARY By Alice Brewer 
 
 ♦THE CAPTIVE GYPSY By Constance Davies- Wood row 
 THE LOST SHIPMATE By Theodore Goodridge Roberts 
 ♦A BREATH OF THE WOODS By Lilian Ltveridge 
 
 VAGRANT By Frederick B. Watt 
 
 WHAT-NOTS By Geoffrey Warburton Cox 
 
 ♦TWENTY AND AFTER By Nathaniel A. Benson 
 
 THE CRY OF INSURGENT YOUTH By Guy Mason 
 THE POET CONFIDES By H . T. J. Coleman 
 
 LATER POEMS AND NEW VILLANELLES 
 
 S. Frances Harrison ( Seranus ) 
 Sixty cents 
 
 ♦SONGS By John Hanlon 
 
 ♦OTHER SONGS By John Hanlon 
 
 COCKLE-SHELL AND SANDAL-SHOON 
 
 By H. T. J. Coleman 
 ♦WAIFS OF THE MIND By W. V . Newson 
 
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 PAUL PERO By R. D. Cumming 
 
 One Dollar 
 
 •The Chap-Book* marked with an asterisk are now out of print.