THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES , tie ft C/ WINDLESTRAW WINDLESTRAW A BOOK OF VERSE WITH LEGENDS IN RHYME OF THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS BY PAMELA TENNANT LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE 1905 PR TO E. T. 868764 " A little stream best fits a little boat A little lead best fits a little float As my small pipe best fits my little note." R. HERRICK. CONTENTS PAGE The Legend of the Tortoise I The Goldfinch 5 The Legend of the Ass 8 The Legend of the Saintfoin 10 The Crown Imperial 12 The Stone-Crop 14 The Aloe 15 The Legend of the Aspen Tree 16 Flowers 18 King Solomon and the Hoopoes 20 Cain and his Angel 25 Storm 32 " One Thrush singing at Dawn " . 34 The Child 35 The Caged Skylark 36 March 37 With a volume of Elizabethan Love-Lyrics. I ... 38 With a volume of Elizabethan Love-Lyrics. II . . . 40 That Death whose truer name is Onward .... 42 Catherine Linton 44 CONTENTS PAGE " The sea, the sky, and the wide-flung wind "... 46 " There is a silence in the heart of night " .... 47 Sarum Close , 48 With a volume of the Temple 50 Echo 52 Psyche 54 " I know a dingle in a leafy wood " 55 "To my soul's mandate I would still be true" ... 56 Among the Willows 57 The Butterfly's Song 58 The Dimity Room 60 Envoy to Village Notes 62 With the Book of Peace . ,.-.'> 64 Moon Magic , , , . . 65 Life Potential .... ,, ,.,,...}' 66 Would that Man's heart might deal more justly, God . 68 " Sometimes our life is so set round with spears" . . 69 Santa Chiara , 70 Of Trees 72 Juty 74 Summer Dusk 75 Rain in Summer 76 June in London 77 Follow the Gleam ,:,,.... 78 Stand still in the Light , 79 CONTENTS xi PACK The Body speaketh unto the Soul 80 The Soul maketh answer unto the Body 81 Indian Sunset 82 Richard Jefferies 83 Yama, the assembler of men 84 Sunset in November ... 86 The Rainbow 88 Three Country Poems in the Wiltshire Dialecl: The Fire o' Logs 91 Jack o' Lantern 93 The Bee and the Butterfly 95 The Waters of Life 105 INDEX OF QUOTATIONS PAGE " Praise Allah for the diversity of his handiwork " . . . . i A saying in the East. " Pilgrim of the sky " , . * W. WORDSWORTH. " * See ! how lightly I hold the earth * saith the Stone-crop '' . .14- ARCHBISHOP TRENCH. " For blessed is the wood whereby righteousness cometh" . .16 The Apocrypha. " And the day shall have a sun That shall make thee wish it done " ao BYRON. " When God un-makes but to re-make a soul " 25 WORDSWORTH. " Hearts city-pent " 36 KEATS. " Hid in Death's dateless night " 38 SHAKESPEARE. xiv INDEX OF QUOTATIONS PAGE " That Death whose truer name is Onward " 42 TENNYSON. '* Past tears are present strength " . 42 GEORGE MACDONALD. " Catherine Linton " 44 E. BRONTE, Wutberlng Height s. " Thou art in small things great Not small in any *' 46 G. HERBERT. " For we have walked in unpleasant places " 47 The Apocrypha. Esdras. " I will sing as doth behove Hymns in praise of what I love " . 55 W. WORDSWORTH. * Set thine heart as a watchman upon a tower. For there is no man that shall be truer unto thee than it " 56 The Apocrypha. " Life's leaden metal into gold transmute " 61 E. FITZGERALD. The grain on Hugh of Lincoln's lip 64 The Prioresses Tale. CHAUCER. INDEX OF QUOTATIONS xv PAGE "To worthily defend the trust of trusts Life from the Ever-living ". ..... . . iW v> ' 66 R. BROWNING. " And from the osiers in the river-meads Hear the sedge-warbler chiding in the reeds. . ." . . . -75 " Follow the Gleam " . . . *?.*** 78 TENNYSON. " Stand still in the Light " 79 GEORGE Fox. " Yama, the assembler of men " 84 Yama, runs the Zend legend, was a monarch in that primitive time when sorrow, sickness, and death were unknown. By degrees sin and disease crept into the world, and the old King retired with a chosen band from the polluted earth to a kingdom where he still reigns. Yama was the first man who passed through death into im- mortality. Having discovered a way to the other world, he obtained for himself a kingdom in it, and the tenth book of the Rig- Veda represents him as guiding men thither. In one verse he is seen feast- ing under a leafy tree ; in others, as enthroned in the innermost Heaven and granting luminous abodes to the pious. Meanwhile the two brown dogs, broad of nostril, and of a hunger never to be satis- fied, wander among men, or, like Cerberus, guard the avenue to his palace, along which the departed are exhorted to hurry with all possible speed. " Reverence to Yama, who is Death, to him who first reached the river, lord of the two-footed and four-footed creatures. Worship King Yama, the assembler of men, who departed to the mighty waters spying out a road for many." Aryan ideas upon Immortality. Tfie Annals of Rural Bengal. W. W. HUNTER. xvi INDEX OF QUOTATIONS FACE " But if we could hear and see this vision Were it not He ?". . 86 TENNYSON. " Long months of peace, if such bold word accord, With any promises of human life " 105 W. WORDSWORTH. " By hollow rocks and murmuring waterfalls " 106 ANDREW MARVELL. " Praise Allah for the diversity of bis handiwork. THE LEGEND OF THE TORTOISE r I ^HERE was a day, as country legends tell J[ When Blessgd Mary gave in Heaven a feast And to her board, she loving all things well Invited inset, reptile, bird, and beast. To the white halls of Heaven she bid them come To keep high festival in her great home. And first the lion of the tawny mane Came with a reverence in his golden eyes And all the forest beasts to Heaven's domain Making obeisance to its sanctities. The subtle elephant, the sinuous ape The clarion peacock of the beak agape. THE LEGEND OF THE TORTOISE The silver fishes and the myriad flies The beetle of the shard-back like a shield The spider with her web's intricacies The little mice of cupboard church and field The dappled deer upon a thousand hills The bird that on the quick snake stamps, and kills. The crested lark, the pilgrim of the sky The yaffle and the curlew and the kite The nightingale, whose hidden rhapsody Enchants and holds the listening ear of night. The babbling cuckoo of the double tongue The lapwing that deceives to shield her young. Came there the squirrel and the watchman owl The whistling marmot and the two-toed sloth. The lean hyaena and the grey sea-fowl The golden butterfly and silver moth (Who vowed in Heaven she would do no wrong) All these and more 'gan Heavenwards to throng. When they were all assembled at the feast The Virgin looked around her in the hall Saying, " I bid ye come from great to least Hath not the whole creation heard my call ? God's birds and beasts have hastened to appear Only the shell-backed tortoise is not here." THE LEGEND OF THE TORTOISE Answered the eagle, " As I clove the sky Hitherward flying at thy mild behest Low on the earth I cast my burning eye And saw the tortoise on his tardy quest. Painfully mastering the stubborn soil Cursing his heavy back in tedious toil. " ' Lift me, O ! thou that gazest on the sun ' He cried, c and bear me for the love of God ! I that must creep, nay, I that fain would run I, that am earthbound creature of the sod Must be too late, or never be at all At Mary's feast in the Celestial Hall.' " Then I, because of birds I am the chief Stooped in mine afe'rial path and lifted him. Yet not forsooth so much for his relief As that it pleased me to fulfil a whim. But he so vexed me with his ugly sprawl That wearied of his weight, I let him fall." Then Mary, of the seven times wounded heart Was filled with sorrow at this careless tale. She chid the eagle for his cruel part And bid him seek the tortoise in the vale. So piece to piece she joined the broken shell And with her healing hands, she made him well. THE LEGEND OF THE TORTOISE Mark how the tortoise now with patterned back Bears horny testimony of his fall ! Yet strong and strenuous if on tardy track Had he persevered, he had saved it all. Since who wins Heaven must strive for it, nor ask. Now God be with us in the blessed task. THE GOLDFINCH I WANDERED hearkening, in an April wood While all around me in harmonious flood Rose the clear singing of the brotherhood Of wing and feather. Shyly the linnets hid and twittered there Larks circled upward in the ambient air Whitethroat and willow-wren and whistling stare Singing together. One beyond others in the joyful throng Piped in the apple trees the whole day long Crystal in utterance a wind-swift song Divinely fluted. Lightly the goldfinch, e'er he lit to sing Spread the pale yellow of his painted wing He that bears record of his ministering In hues transmuted. THE GOLDFINCH His be the praise of the first Lententide! Seeking the wooden cross where Jesus died This bird the nail within the hand espied And tried to ease it. Lightly he fluttered on a tender wing Held in a slender beak the cruel thing Still with a gentle might endeavouring But to release it. Then as he strove spake One a dying space " Bear for thy pity as a mark of grace Semblance of this, My blood, upon thy face A living glory So while the generations come and go While the earth blossoms and the waters flow Children may honour thee and mankind know Thy loving story." Lord! of dominion over man and beast That out of nothing madest great and least Thine everlasting praise hath never ceased From heavenly choir. Hear even now in these awakening days Rise from the meadowland and orchard ways Anthem and madrigal and roundelays That never tire. THE GOLDFINCH Grant unto us of the untoward will Holden of utterance, in praise too still Some of this jouissance our hearts to fill And our mute voices. So shalt thou gather in returning Springs Some mortal knowledge of celestial things So shall we praise thee in the mind that brings Life that rejoices. , THE LEGEND OF THE ASS \ T 7 HAT means the mark upon thy back, dear Gris? VV I trace it on thy shoulders as I ride Slender the cross it seems that shadowed is Even to thy side." " Well mayst thou ask of me who bear'st this sign Albeit unseen upon thy tender brow Are we not signed with the self-same sign Even I and thou? Behold an heritage: and who may know What mystic virtue the great sign contains? Where is the hardship of the cruel blow Of whip and reins? Nay, when Life's bondage is so harsh and rude Dawns a far vision that all sorrow calms We hear the shouting of the multitude We see the palms And all else falls from us. It matters not If we with suffering keep patient tryst. We, as a race O child, may share thy lot We have served Christ. THE LEGEND OF THE ASS The grey ass halted in her pattering pace High-hoofed and obdurate, sleek-eared and mild A world of wisdom in a velvet face Turned to the child. "So have we patience. And in fortitude Do thou wax stronger as the years pass on So shalt thou in thine heart, a living rood Carry God's Son." 10 THE LEGEND OF THE SAINTFOIN "The country-folk do hold this plant to be in very truth the hay that lay in the manger of Bethlehem. And though it were mid-winter, the legend tells, it blossomed red." Old Herbal. MELCHIOR, Caspar and Balthazar Led aright by the beckoning star Come where the gazing shepherds are (I hear a Maid lullaby sing) Come where the stable's shelter stands A maiden holds in a mother's hands A young child wrapt in swaddling bands (Now hush thee, my heavenly King.) Joseph, come rede me this thing she said The hay that lies at my young son's head Hath blossomed anew as it were not dead (I hear a Maid lullaby sing) And he that stood with the feeding kine Answered Mary, thy child divine Is come, and behold it for a sign (Now hush thee, my heavenly King.) THE LEGEND OF THE SAINTFOIN n Mary, now cradle thy young child low The night has fallen the great winds blow And sheep are lost in the driving snow And many are wandering. God send we all when he comes our way May know Christ's coming and bid him stay May find new life like the Holy Hay And a soul's awakening. 12 THE CROWN IMPERIAL T ILIES bear witness when the Christ in sorrow J| j So great compassion to mankind displayed One flower's happiness no pain might borrow Proud in her shining leaves to stand arrayed. So gazed she upward while the sensate flowers Hung their sad blossoms for a grief-wrung God. Fitly compassionate the trees high bowers Laid themselves prostrate with the wind-sown sod. Pride hath her penalty, as Love his dower Earth's warning tremor and the Heaven's frown Fell disregarded by the froward flower So Crown Imperial forwent her crown. (How shall we blame her? We ourselves lie sleeping Wrapt in oblivion of His pitying smile Hearts given over to the cold world's keeping Couldest thou not watch with me a little while ?) THE CROWN IMPERIAL 13 Fair stand the lilies, not a white bell hidden Holding their fragrance to the rain-washed skies. Yet one among them stands, divinely chidden The great drops welling to averted eyes. " ' See! bow tightly I hold the earth f saith the stone-crop" THE STONE-CROP LORD, who didst fashion my desire to love Bidding me sojourn thine accepted space Shouldest thou not once have let me see thy face So might I closelier compass realms above? Earth's habitations pass, and I would move Dwelling more nearly in yon heavenly place Where griefs inscrutable on earth to trace Authentic vertues of the spirit prove. Yea, from things temporal would I decline Strong in suffisance of a sure content. Even as the Stone-crop (be her wisdom mine) The wall's rough fissure her sole tenement. Holding so lightly her appointed place As from the stones to lift a radiant face. THE ALOE r I "''HE Aloe speaks, green votary of Death JL Who lives to flower and flowering is her last. Yet all the virtue of her earthly breath Gives she to this end heedless of the past. Look where she leans her beauty to the sky Reading to blossom, where Man spells, to die. i6 " For blessed is the wood whereby righteousness comet h." THE LEGEND OF THE ASPEN TREE CHILD, beside the brimming river Hast thou seen the Aspen quiver ? Shapely leaf on slender stem Scarce a wind to flutter them. Yet they shake upon the tree "Lo! the Cross was made from me." Twisting to a windless sky For the fruit of Calvary. Child, and shall the Aspen tree Expiate eternally? Is it well to deem that one For a sin must yet atone ? Nay, not so. In highest heaven Shall not souls be sain'd and shriven That have wrought their rest through pain? Souls, whose loss hath been their gain ? THE LEGEND OF THE ASPEN TREE 17 Of a truth 'tis said, that we Build anew the bitter tree Yet the being sacrificed Doth not bear the form of Christ. We may stand aside to rail Plait the thorn, or drive the nail All the pierced figure shown Hath for lineaments, our own. 1 8 FLOWERS I SING how Mary lived on Earth All in simplicity To give to God's Son virgin birth To man, felicity. And to a name that Heaven adorns One tribute man has paid Her path that once was set in thorns Is now in flowers laid. For Mary-buds and Lady's Keys Her Tresses' fragrancy Our Lady's bedstraw loved of bees Heart's-ease and Rose-Mary And Lady's Smock and Golden Stair Bright things that know not blame These children of the meadow, bear Remembrance of her name. FLOWERS 19 And fitting praise is this that one Of such renown in Heaven From fairest of Earth's store alone Should have remembrance given. " And the day shall have a sun That shall make thee 'wish it done. KING SOLOMON AND THE HOOPOES IT chanced King Solomon pursued his way Full in the radiance of an Eastern day. The fierce sun shining in a cloudless sky Dried the broad rivers with a burning eye. Wide lay the wilderness of tawny sand Sublime and measureless, a fiery land. The very lizards sought the cavern'd rocks That gave small shelter to the thirsty flocks And still the sun rode high and skies were bright " Would God," quoth Solomon, " that it were night." Even as he uttered it, a sound of wings Smote on his senses, and even grass-held springs Sounding in dying ears by thirst distrest Seem'd not to Solomon a thing more blest. Full on his brow, and in the path he made Gently there fell the so desired shade. The skies were hidden and a moving screen Was drawn the heaven and the earth between. Amazed the King upglanced, and was aware Hoopoes were hovering in middle air KING SOLOMON AND THE HOOPOES 21 Each wing to wing with soft and feathery beat Winnowed the blue, and cooled the noonday heat And while they fluttered on a myriad wing " Brothers," they whispered, " let us shade the King." Now not alone the Wise One knew all things To Man 'pertaining, but even whisperings Alien, of lives into his heart could take Both with the birds and beasts could answer make. His was the language of the hill-shed streams He could discern the hidden world of dreams Wise as the stars, he held the false and true And thoughts most mystical, these things he knew. So re-created by the grateful shade Courteously speech he to the bird-throng made : " God knows," quoth Solomon, " I praise the care So to withhold from me the noon-tide glare. Brothers, I recompense the service shown Wear, to thine honour, each a golden crown." " Great King ! " the chief among the Hoopoes cried " O ! be not angry and thy servants chide But gold makes captive, and shall crowns not vex Bright though their burden be, our untried necks ? How shall we be so free to fly or sing If thou take not thy crowns again, O King ? " 22 KING SOLOMON AND THE HOOPOES Withdrew then Solomon his mighty word Praising the wisdom of the untaught bird: "Were it not well," quoth he, "if Man might know Justly the value of a worldly show ? So might he dwell beyond those outward things That with their weight constrain the spirit's wings." Forthwith, and mindful of the birds' request Gave he to one and all, a seemlier crest. One that may rise or fall as each bird will Nor tempt with gold the fowler's odious skill. Even of one nature with the air-borne wing. So runs the story of the Birds and King. CAIN AND HIS ANGEL " When God un-makes but to re-make a soul.' CAIN AND HIS ANGEL r I ""HE Voice of God crieth to all men's hearts: JL " Rest ye from labour, and perpetual strife For I am with you when ye know it not. Ever am I with you." But even as Cain In chosen banishment from Heaven's Peace And God's unending love, we wander on And in our blindness weave enduring woe. And Cain spake : " How am I to comfort me? I have no other help but mine own heart God is no more for me through mine own deed And I am outcast, utterly alone. 3 CAIN AND HIS ANGEL The rocks cry out against me, and the skies Are iron overhead, and every star A cold and mocking face of cruelty. The winds that once would shout across the hills Bending the tall trees in their flying strength Now hunt and terrify my soul. The day Whose radiance was bright joy to me is now Most horrible with fear, and struggling dreams Make sleep a torture and an agony. The Sea is grey with hate. And all the waves Drawn back like angry lips in silky hiss Say Kill him r O ! I have slain my heart. What might may now restore to me my joy What power denounce my infinite servitude ? " The winds moaned as in weariness Lifting the sand in wandering fitful gusts. And the great Angel in whose charge was Cain Shivered in homelessness, so far from God. The charge lay heavy on his shining soul For many years had passed since Cain had raised The undaunted hand that slaughtered Innocence. And still the anguished soul roamed far from God CAIN AND HIS ANGEL 27 Nor heard the wide-spread wings that covered him. " For I am with you," saith the Eternal Voice " Lo! I am with you when ye know it not. Ever am I with you." When Abel fell Beneath the abhorred wound to Brotherhood Upon his blood marking the altar stones The sunlight fell. And forthwith all unseen There stood the mighty Angel by Cain's side That now inexorably must follow him. Divinely tasked, this mighty Spirit strove To bring Cain sacred grief of penitence. Anon to comfort him with times of peace And turn his hatred to fair love again. For Angels' hands are cradles to our woes. Here we may lay them down like infants stilled In quiet slumber for a little while Till we must take them to our hearts again. But Cain's soul was most bitterly afraid. He felt the unseen Presence at his side Outcome and spirit of the deed he wrought Nor knew it for an angel. The night fell And bowed with burdening grief of unshed tears 28 CAIN AND HIS ANGEL Cain took his way across the moonlit sands. Peace came not to his limbs, he could not rest The starry silence mocked and tortured him. Ever he saw those great eyes wide with pain The writhing body and the outstretched hand That strove too late to ward the insensate blow. The staggering form rose large before his eyes And he must wander to be rid of it. " Abel ! O have ye no compassion now? Ye that have honour in the shadowy grave That ever ye must rise, and follow me? Nay! get thee gone," he cried, as with raised hands He fled in agony across the plain. The Angel opened his wide wings to shield The flying form that could elude him not. And with his hands bare Cain upon the Earth As he sped swiftly. And Morning laid her radiance on the hills. The dawn winds brought the freshness of the sea And birds flew over in the opal skies And wild beasts sought the shelter of their caves. But Cain with his great Angel by his side Suffered and strove, with none to comfort him. CAIN AND HIS ANGEL 29 Yet was his Angel with him . . . Through the day Those strong hands held him; and insistent eyes Were turned on his in longing guardianship. The starry nights were filled with plenitude Of" murmuring tones, and the ineffable stir Of winged companionship. But Cain's ears holden by a selfish woe By huge self-pity for departed Peace Heard not the measure of the virtual sound Of God's voice in the Angel of his deed. For on the threshold of the heart Truth stands Till we, on the inner side unbar the door. God speaks in thunders and in murmurings Making strong Angels of our bitter needs. Who minister to us crying aloud O! follow for we seek the Immutable. And all our passionate grasp of semblances And our insatiate thirst for better things Are their far voices echoing down theNroid Of vast, illimitable, unbounded space. Then grant us understanding, that we live. But Cain knew not his Angel. Till it chanced That guided by the spirit of his deed He sought the altar Abel's hands had raised His very pain, God's mercy. 30 CAIN AND HIS ANGEL There on the ground, dispersed and overgrown With flowers and weeds in a bewildering growth He found the stones. Then did the tried heart break And crouching low, in deep abandonment The floods of sorrow washed his inmost soul. Like leaping cataracts once more set free From Winter's ice, by Spring too long delayed The law of kindness and most lovely memory Rushed through his heart, building God's Heaven there. And Abel rose in countless images Designed of Love and painted on the air, In childhood, in his youth, and last a man To whom Cain cried, My Brother. He kneeled and held the stones. And all his tears Were shouts in Heaven the while a thousand songs Uprising from the Angels on the Earth Mingled their music with celestial choirs Beyond the stars in rapture. And as he lay upon the fallen stones Deep sleep came to his limbs. And when he woke The Angel of the Lord had left his side. CAIN AND HIS ANGEL Yet in his heart's deliverance there shone An image of the presence that had been. " For I am with you," saith the Eternal Voice " Yea, I am with you when ye know it not. Ever am I with you." And Cain uprose. STORM LAST night the unseen People of the Wind Raved round the dwelling and in broken skies Drove the grey clouds before them, in the strong wild rush of their exulting freedom. They piled the huge cloud-continents to rise Like monstrous lands in undiscovered seas Mocking the void before Creation. The old house rocked and leaned. And all the inner voices of the wind Sighed round the casement. I heard the grasp of many fingers laid On shivering panes that shook beneath the cling And followed in my mind that whistling rush That has its image in the passages. For there are many People of the Wind And last night all the Spirits of the Rain Were warring an old strife against Mankind. For once in ages gone, as children know A human being loved a Rain-maiden. And by veiled magic words and his great love STORM 33 He held her from her kindred of the Rain. His was a spirit-wife whom none might know For aught beside a woman wise and fair Only the house became a well-known theme For cottage firesides, and twilight tales And folk would tell of dim, uncertain shapes And voices singing in the falling rain. So mused I on this legend of the years. And even as I mused, their feet were on the stair The lock gasped and a pidture tapped the wall They crept so stealthily . . . The lot in life is naught, to love is all. And when (the legend tells) the wan Undine Went with her beauty and her soul to God The People of the Wind and shifting Rain Screamed round the home where she had lived and died Mocking and angry at her love-gained soul. (For it is known that all the outer life The fairies, nixies, and the mermaidens Have elfin life that withers when they die). So all night long they bent with their wet weight To huddled shapes the frenzy-ridden trees. I heard them in the wind and rain last night Lashing the windows with their long wet hair And moaning at the key-hole. 34 ONE thrush singing at dawn And the grey East flushing over. A damask of dew on the lawn Cobwebs drenched in the clover. The grey clouds shift and whiten The night wind falls and dies The long beams lift and brighten In the effulgent skies. Light of the dawning Day Listen thou, still and long For what I cannot say Is in that thrush's song. 35 THE CHILD A CHILD'S face is the window of his soul That yet untrammelled by the world's controul Like some still pool upon a Summer's day Ruffles to every wind that blows that way. A child's face is a yet wide open door That every year Life shuts a little more. It stands wide thrown and to and fro pass free Of his fresh thoughts, the white-robed company. A child's face is a harp that silent stands Waiting the touch of any passing hands That chance to strike the clear obedient strings Giving the captive melodies their wings. A little pool that ruffles to the winds An open door where each one entry finds A stringed harp to answer song or hymn So is a child's face to his every whim. THE CAGED SKYLARK r I ^HE skylark sang from its cage in the town J_ Of fallow and upland, the scene of its birth. Shadows of clouds on the rolling Down The flower-filled floor of the fragrant Earth. Slanting silver of sun-lit rain And the long, low line of the open plain. Hearts city-pent in a waking dream Turned to remembrance of wind-stirred trees. Sheep-bells wattled beside the stream And the huffle and push of a clover breeze. Turned, and beholding the crowded street Longed for the wideness of whispering wheat. 37 MARCH MY heart brims over with my love For those days in Spring When blackbirds pair though trees are bare And thrushes sing. When russet buds are sharp and lean But the building rooks Fill the windy sky as they homeward fly Over fields, over brooks. The air may tell of the moistened earth And winds be cold But if nights are hard the hedges are starred With Celandine's gold. WITH A VOLUME OF ELIZABETHAN LOVE-LYRICS I HOW is this volume filled with sighs and moans Anguished of lovers in some wan despair! Honeyed the phrase that for rebuke atones Each line descriptive of some fairest Fair. If, in chance idleness thou turn'st thy gaze Lightly, it may be on these golden pages Voices long silent shall renew their praise As birds make melody albeit in cages. Doron, for thee shall find the hawthorn glade Where some poor swain by his kind stars forsaken Wasted in solitude; or deep in shade Flora's clear singing may her Strephon waken. Then shalt thou censure Time that long since killed All these fair gallants and elusive maidens. Hid in Death's dateless night and long since chilled This, their desire attuned to such sweet cadence. ELIZABETHAN LOVE-LYRICS 39 Yet Love endures for all Death's sombre will Read, should'st thou doubt me in these chosen pages. Here shall we joy to find these lovers still Singing their love-songs to us down the Ages. 4 o WITH A VOLUME OF ELIZABETHAN LOVE-LYRICS II AS leaves upon the willow tree As grasses in the meadow As water in the chafing sea As night is full of shadow As Heaven's clouds are filled with rain An opal stone with omen So doth this little book contain Nothing but praise of Women. Triumphant motive of the whole Who reads it may discover The ardent and protesting soul Of many an old-time lover. 'Tis Stella's grace, or Celia's whims, And now the charm of fair Dorinda. Or be it some rebuke that seems The path of Love no whit to hinder. ELIZABETHAN LOVE-LYRICS 41 So page on page and all to laud Sweet Woman's beauty, wit, or power Behold Love's quiver in it stored All shafts the intriguing god may shower. And deftly is this little book Of Cupid's world a type most seemly For wheresoe'er you choose to look In both does Woman reign supremely. THAT DEATH WHOSE TRUER NAME IS ONWARD STRONG in the constancy of change Unfurl thy spirit's wing Soar on the homeless winds and range Strenuous in suffering. Blaze with thy naked hands the path Which thou alone must find And turn thine impotence of wrath To courage of the mind. Wrestle with angels. Fight and fall And rise again to fight Past tears are present strength and all Depends upon thy might. ONWARD Death is riot rest, there is no sleep For human sorrow there The only way to cease to weep Is to learn how to bear. 44 CATHERINE LINTON be those who say that by night and day JL There are some who may not sleep. Though eyes be closed and limbs reposed And the bed be narrow and deep. They waver and whisper beyond the door Who never may enter in For they have their abode on the endless road Of an unrepented sin. It may be so, for this I know When the night is thick with rain In a whispering dress and a great distress There is one who is here again. When the wind blows shrill upon moor and hill In the rush of the outer air I hear the catch of a hand on the latch And a footfall on the stair. CATHERINE LINTON 45 The moon rides high in a windy sky The rain drips in the thatch I listen to hear her step on the stair Her hand upon the latch. In the lift of the breeze in the ilex trees She murmurs to me and sings. And I must awake unto thoughts that ache In a stress of remembered things. " Thou art in small things great Not small in any." THE sea the sky and the wide-flung wind A manifold truth relate God sets the lesser the strong to bind The weak to confound the great. Of sacred seeds in our lives to plant Are two that be dear to me The allegiance of the working ant And the virtue of the bee. Shall Mankind claim a loftier sense Desiring a goal to strive? Than a will that renders subservience And the power that holds the hive. 47 " For ive have -walked in unpleasant places." r I ^HERE is a silence in the heart of night JL That my heart knowing, dreads and understands. It is all filled with many a hidden sight And through its power new wrought are riven bands. I feel in it the touch of buried hands And eyes look on me that are long since dead They pierce mine eyelids and their gaze demands The memory of things oblit'rated. They point and murmur, and to these is given I know not wherefore, power to jibe and tell They crouch towards me with white faces writhen And whisper, Answer us, and is it well? And some, And dost thou still believe in Heaven ? And some, There is no passage out of Hell. SARUM CLOSE T ANUARY followed with glittering days J With primrose air and amethyst skies And we two drove through the country ways Of beech-wooded Wiltshire with deep-seeing eyes. We shall remember how clear the days were How far we could see on the Downs' wide curves. We heard the rooks cawing high in the still air By the grey-timbered mill where the broad river swerves. The sickle-shaped roads led us on and away By the clustering villages thatched and neat Where round-headed children looked up from their play And pollarded lime-trees border the street. And the square-towered churches, which pleased us the best; Was it Woodford or Durnford, we might not decide Or the more blessed Bemerton, or of the rest That grey in the shelter of elms we descried? The clear waters guided us well as they flow By the withy-bed meadows and little plank bridges Where poplars are planted to stand in a row And the water-rat drops from the marshy green sedges. SARUM CLOSE 49 The sun every night set in wonders anew In purple and gold he sank down from on high While the magic of twilight perceptibly grew And scattered its wet silver over the sky. White-roaded Wiltshire, your water-fed ways Your cloud-shadowed Down where the wild plover cries We two shall remember those January days When we drove through your by- ways with deep-seeing eyes. WITH A VOLUME OF THE TEMPLE quiet thought and gentle prayer JL That pious Herbert so long dead Conceived remote from worldly care Are in this volume cherished. And living yet they burn and glow Fulfilled with a celestial fire So clearly now as long ago When he abode beneath the spire. In Bemerton's sequestered shade By Avon's emerald water meadows His life a sanftuary made Remote from courtly shows and shadows. And as the spire to Heaven above Uprears a grey majestic finger So he would rise to Heaven's love Nor knew with meaner joys to linger. WITH A VOLUME OF THE TEMPLE 51 These are the prayers of long ago Amid a life of grateful leisure My child, that I would have you know. And knowing, find in these a treasure. ECHO HOW see you Echo? When she calls I see Her pale face looking down through some great tree Whose world of green is like a moving sea That shells re-echo. I see her with a white face like a mask That vanishes to come again, damask Her cheek, but deeply pale, Her eyes are green With a silver sheen And she mocks the thing you ask. " O Echo!" (hear the children calling) "are you there?" "Where?. . ." When the wind blows over the hill She hides with a vagrant will And call you may loud and call you may long She lays finger on lip when the winds are strong For all your pains she is still. ECHO 53 But when young plants spring and the chiff-chaffs sing And the scarlet capped woodpecker flies through the vale She is out ail day Through the fragrant May To babble and tattle her Yea and Nay. r "O Echo!" (still the children call) "where are you? where?" " Air " 54 PSYCHE I WAS a tardy insect once And moved in heaving throes. Where e'er I went I made a rent And spoiled my garden rose. But came a voice that said : Rejoice Arise. And I arose. I passed through many a curious change All witless of the goal To which the hand that had command Did all my ways controul. Now gilt and fair and light as air I fly, a ransomed soul. Now know I well the Summer flowers And why the linnet sings But best of all my clumsy crawl Is changed for painted wings. And shall not Death be fuller breath To yet undreamed of things? 55 " / -will sing as doth behove Hymns in praise ofivhat I love." I KNOW a dingle in a leafy wood Filled with the fragrance of the perfect May. Here the grey trees for centuries have stood And Spring wreathes garlands on them new and gay. Is there a moment of the shining day Fairer than this which sees the rising sun Slant the pale yellow of his early ray On dew-drenched fallows, and the fine threads spun By long-legged spinners in the clefts of trees Float their light gossamer upon the breeze ? Here leaps the limber-footed listening hare. And here the Cuckoo, blithe and debonair Calls from the willows in the water leas Remote, elusive, a thin tongue of air. " Set thine heart as a 'watchman upon a to-iver. For there is no man that shall be truer unto thee than it." TO my soul's mandate I would still be true It is my purpose to advance the right. To hold it strongly and at God's knees sue For timely furtherance upon the fight. O ! I would pierce beyond this mortal sight And dwell in kinship with the blest and free Whose lives renewed and shown celestial bright Ever praise God, and more abundantly. My feet go painfully, but in my heart I have sure knowledge of predestined joy. Let me but turn unto that inward part That holds my freedom from the world's annoy. That holds my freedom, let these words be graven. So may I come at my desired haven. 57 AMONG THE WILLOWS HIGH on the uplands a belt of trees Stretches a line by the winter corn Thick with the scent of the blossoming thorn Zephyr by zephyr and breeze by breeze. The flowerhead bends to the weight of the bee. And down in the valley by thicket and hedge The marigold shines in the deepening sedge Flower by flower and tree by tree. Spirit of shadowing cloud and gleam Breathe to the heart of the weary town Of winding water and windy Down Willow by willow and stream by stream. THE BUTTERFLY'S SONG ONCE I heard a skylark say " Butterflies live for a day Yet herein the human mind Symbol of a soul doth find." Then he rose on joyous wing Other of God's works to sing. Till he soon was but a voice That to hear was to rejoice. So I fluttered on my way Through the shining Summer day Flying with my saffron lover Over fields of nodding clover. Sometimes with my jewelled wings Poised in aerial hoverings. Or again with slender feet Folded round the meadow-sweet. THE BUTTERFLY'S SONG 59 Once I moved with heaving shrink Two slow feet to every link. Now I flit, I fly, I quiver Over garden, over river. From a shrouded chrysalis Pass I to my winged bliss. In my story is it strange Man should read, not Death but Change? 6o THE DIMITY ROOM T SING the haven of a chosen room X Imaged in brightness. No corner is there that may harbour gloom In Dimity's whiteness. Would you be peaceful ? Here you may find dreams Asleep or waking Silver in moonlight or those ruddier beams When dawn is breaking. The woodcut on the wainscote hanging high In friendship given Telling of kine against an evening sky Being homeward driven. And in the book shelves upon each side ranging The Immortals stand Their even ranks increasing but not changing Close to the hand. The fire-light winks upon their vellum covers And golden tracing Weaving a dancing chain that climbs and hovers Gloom with gleam lacing. THE DIMITY ROOM 61 Comfort capacious in the window seat And room to spare A corner-cupboard, and to be complete The winged armchair. And here the Poets mark you, as of old (Thumbed back and front) Ready to change for us Life's lead to gold Chaucer to Blunt. So stands the Dimity. A faulty metre? A slender theme? Yet unto me few others could be sweeter Or worthier seem. And you my Critic, who would read severely Ere you reprove me Judge is it worth your scorn ? I write it merely For those who love me. Enough if these among Time's gathering shrouds The Past defining May smile to read of what was once at Clouds A silver lining. 62 ENVOY TO VILLAGE NOTES DEEP in the verdure of the water meads Where the grey willow slants across the brook The moor hen hides, and in the chafing reeds Makes her a sheltered nook. The skylark mounting on his viewless stair To swell the shrill voiced clamour of a throng High o'er the springing wheat gives the wide air The rapture of his song. The river wanders round the alder stems And narrowed to the sluice-gate hurries by Holding and shattering to a thousand gems The brightness of the sky. And while the village children on the leas Gather the cowslip and the lady's-smock From far off sounds upon the evening breeze The many-voiced flock. ENVOY TO VILLAGE NOTES 63 Here may I dwell content. And when the day Dawns that shall recognize thy task complete Thou too, from busy crowds shalt turn away To some sublime retreat. And in companionship of quiet things Live with the changes of the earth and sky Where on the Downs with free untiring wings The plovers wheel and cry. WITH THE BOOK OF PEACE MOTHER, I dedicate this book to thee. And I would wish that all through it may know How great thy teaching was, how wide the flow Of love thou gav'st thy child unceasingly. Thy strong hands led me to the eternal springs And like the grain on Hugh of Lincoln's lip Thy spirit bids me praise the highest things And dwells beside me in close fellowship. Then like a pilgrim comes my love to thee With songs immortal held within his scrip. MOON MAGIC ONE day when Father and I had been To sell our sheep at Berwick Green We reached the farm house late at night A great moon rising round and bright. Her strange beam shed on all around Bewitched the trees and streams and ground. Changing the willows beyond the stacks To little old men with crouching backs. To-day the sun was shining plain They all were pollarded willows again. But at night do you believe they're trees? They're little old men with twisted knees. 66 " To worthily defend the trust of trusts Life from the Ever-Hring." LIFE POTENTIAL ABIDES the hidden human thing On the shore of Time's great sea. Symbol and foreshadowing Of Man, and of what Man may be. The mother-spirit wakes to feel Rotation of the eternal wheel. And all the day she shapes the thing To Nature's secret ordering. There is no power may do her wrong In this she moves secure and strong. Her eyes see visions, in her sight Fields of inestimable light. The Past is with her. In her ears The wordless wisdom of the years. Writ in her heart is the decree Of an unfailing ministry. LIFE POTENTIAL 67 Abides the hidden human thing On the shore of Time's great sea. Symbol and foreshadowing Of Man, and of what Man may be. WOULD that Man's heart might deal more justly, God To these high ordinances still be true. Yet hath he other selves whose beck and nod Behold he following, must reap or rue. (There is an ever-growing debt long due To all we venerate within our soul And for contempt of this thy strength we sue That patience hold us, and a wise controul.) Yet never, Lord, should Man to thee repeat The feeble murmur and the servile groan That rises daily to thy mercy seat Nor should he, pardie^ for his sins atone By supplication. For his erring feet Thou leav'st unguided, and he walks alone. 6 9 O OMETIMES our life is so set round with spears vj That idly sorrowing we grieve and fret. Or with the senses numbed, we shed no tears Yet start from sleep with eyelids chilled and wet. Then may we know that in our dreams we yet Parley with pleasure from our lives apart And all the happiness our soul may get Lies in the deepening of a strenuous heart. Yet as the albatross with wide-set wings Heeds not the onslaught of the wind-swept spray So may the spirit win to those far things Whose light illumines an immortal Day. Whose light upholden in the hand of Fate Bids us to stand, and in ourselves be great. 7 o SANTA CHIARA MY daughter of a tender age I trace thy name upon this page That thou, in years when thou shalt grow The story of thy saint may'st know. Giotto, on a convent wall Designed her image fair and tall. Upon her brow he set Faith's stamp And in her hands she holds a lamp. For Clare means Light, and she who bore Thy name long since on southern shore Beheld God's likeness ere she died. And waking, she was satisfied. It may be in those later days When Life confronts with divers ways When heart may tire, or footstep faint Thou shalt recall thy patron saint SANTA CHIARA 71 /' And with her lamp within thine heart Behold once more the chosen part. And straightway in thine inmost feel Renewed desire for heavenly zeal. 7 2 OF TREES WINTER Willow is ruddy red Pollarded in the withe-bed. Summer Willow is green and grey Bending white on a windy day. Autumn Beech is a stately creature Well she made her pat with Nature While she casts her russet gown She wears her new buds, sharp and brown. If Birch beside the Broom be found Her satin is the more renown'd. And yet of seasonable trees There is a better one than these. For Chestnut goes to meet the spring While Oak and Ash are lingering. He holds his boughs when Winter 's by Like altar candles to the sky. OF TREES 73 He makes it his to be the first The East may blow, his bonds must burst. And leader of the budding rout In one green stride the Chestnut 's out. 74 JULY THE wind is in the willows, they are white beneath the breeze And the river rushes rustle as they grow. The skimming swifts and swallows dip and sweep beneath the trees Where the white-flowered water-weeds blow. At the foot of leaning poplars bowing grey against the blue The quiet sheep are feeding newly shorn And among the standing barley shot with poppies through and through The land-rail is craking in the corn. All day the doves are calling and the rose is on the hedge Where the black-berried bryonies stray .' The yellow flower-de-luce is growing tall among the sedge Where the clover was crimson in the hay. O ! the sounds and scents of summer blowing free upon the breeze The honeysuckle fashioned like a horn And the fragrance of the elder in a dusk of stirring trees. And the night-jar churring on the thorn. " And from the osiers in the ri