[ { "title": "A Ballad Of The Trees And The Master", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "Into the woods my Master went,", "Clean forspent, forspent.", "Into the woods my Master came,", "Forspent with love and shame.", "But the olives they were not blind to Him,", "The little gray leaves were kind to Him:", "The thorn-tree had a mind to Him", "When into the woods He came.", "", "Out of the woods my Master went,", "And He was well content.", "Out of the woods my Master came,", "Content with death and shame.", "When Death and Shame would woo Him last,", "From under the trees they drew Him last:", "'Twas on a tree they slew Him -- last", "When out of the woods He came." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "The Revenge Of Hamish", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "It was three slim does and a ten-tined buck in the bracken lay;", "And all of a sudden the sinister smell of a man,", "Awaft on a wind-shift, wavered and ran", "Down the hill-side and sifted along through the bracken and passed that way.", "", "Then Nan got a-tremble at nostril; she was the daintiest doe;", "In the print of her velvet flank on the velvet fern", "She reared, and rounded her ears in turn.", "Then the buck leapt up, and his head as a king's to a crown did go", "", "Full high in the breeze, and he stood as if Death had the form of a deer;", "And the two slim does long lazily stretching arose,", "For their day-dream slowlier came to a close,", "Till they woke and were still, breath-bound with waiting and wonder and fear.", "", "Then Alan the huntsman sprang over the hillock, the hounds shot by,", "The does and the ten-tined buck made a marvellous bound,", "The hounds swept after with never a sound,", "But Alan loud winded his horn in sign that the quarry was nigh.", "", "For at dawn of that day proud Maclean of Lochbuy to the hunt had waxed wild,", "And he cursed at old Alan till Alan fared off with the hounds", "For to drive him the deer to the lower glen-grounds:", "\"I will kill a red deer,\" quoth Maclean, \"in the sight of the wife", "and the child.\"", "", "So gayly he paced with the wife and the child to his chosen stand;", "But he hurried tall Hamish the henchman ahead: \"Go turn,\" --", "Cried Maclean -- \"if the deer seek to cross to the burn,", "Do thou turn them to me: nor fail, lest thy back be red as thy hand.\"", "", "Now hard-fortuned Hamish, half blown of his breath with the height", "of the hill,", "Was white in the face when the ten-tined buck and the does", "Drew leaping to burn-ward; huskily rose", "His shouts, and his nether lip twitched, and his legs were o'er-weak", "for his will.", "", "So the deer darted lightly by Hamish and bounded away to the burn.", "But Maclean never bating his watch tarried waiting below", "Still Hamish hung heavy with fear for to go", "All the space of an hour; then he went, and his face was greenish and stern,", "", "And his eye sat back in the socket, and shrunken the eyeballs shone,", "As withdrawn from a vision of deeds it were shame to see.", "\"Now, now, grim henchman, what is't with thee?\"", "Brake Maclean, and his wrath rose red as a beacon the wind hath upblown.", "", "\"Three does and a ten-tined buck made out,\" spoke Hamish, full mild,", "\"And I ran for to turn, but my breath it was blown, and they passed;", "I was weak, for ye called ere I broke me my fast.\"", "Cried Maclean: \"Now a ten-tined buck in the sight of the wife and the child", "", "I had killed if the gluttonous kern had not wrought me a snail's own wrong!\"", "Then he sounded, and down came kinsmen and clansmen all:", "\"Ten blows, for ten tine, on his back let fall,", "And reckon no stroke if the blood follow not at the bite of thong!\"", "", "So Hamish made bare, and took him his strokes; at the last he smiled.", "\"Now I'll to the burn,\" quoth Maclean, \"for it still may be,", "If a slimmer-paunched henchman will hurry with me,", "I shall kill me the ten-tined buck for a gift to the wife and the child!\"", "", "Then the clansmen departed, by this path and that; and over the hill", "Sped Maclean with an outward wrath for an inward shame;", "And that place of the lashing full quiet became;", "And the wife and the child stood sad; and bloody-backed Hamish sat still.", "", "But look! red Hamish has risen; quick about and about turns he.", "\"There is none betwixt me and the crag-top!\" he screams under breath.", "Then, livid as Lazarus lately from death,", "He snatches the child from the mother, and clambers the crag toward the sea.", "", "Now the mother drops breath; she is dumb, and her heart goes dead for a space,", "Till the motherhood, mistress of death, shrieks, shrieks through the glen,", "And that place of the lashing is live with men,", "And Maclean, and the gillie that told him, dash up in a desperate race.", "", "Not a breath's time for asking; an eye-glance reveals all the tale untold.", "They follow mad Hamish afar up the crag toward the sea,", "And the lady cries: \"Clansmen, run for a fee! --", "Yon castle and lands to the two first hands that shall hook him and hold", "", "Fast Hamish back from the brink!\" -- and ever she flies up the steep,", "And the clansmen pant, and they sweat, and they jostle and strain.", "But, mother, 'tis vain; but, father, 'tis vain;", "Stern Hamish stands bold on the brink, and dangles the child o'er the deep.", "", "Now a faintness falls on the men that run, and they all stand still.", "And the wife prays Hamish as if he were God, on her knees,", "Crying: \"Hamish! O Hamish! but please, but please", "For to spare him!\" and Hamish still dangles the child, with a wavering will.", "", "On a sudden he turns; with a sea-hawk scream, and a gibe, and a song,", "Cries: \"So; I will spare ye the child if, in sight of ye all,", "Ten blows on Maclean's bare back shall fall,", "And ye reckon no stroke if the blood follow not at the bite of the thong!\"", "", "Then Maclean he set hardly his tooth to his lip that his tooth was red,", "Breathed short for a space, said: \"Nay, but it never shall be!", "Let me hurl off the damnable hound in the sea!\"", "But the wife: \"Can Hamish go fish us the child from the sea, if dead?", "", "Say yea! -- Let them lash ME, Hamish?\" -- \"Nay!\" -- \"Husband,", "the lashing will heal;", "But, oh, who will heal me the bonny sweet bairn in his grave?", "Could ye cure me my heart with the death of a knave?", "Quick! Love! I will bare thee -- so -- kneel!\" Then Maclean 'gan slowly", "to kneel", "", "With never a word, till presently downward he jerked to the earth.", "Then the henchman -- he that smote Hamish -- would tremble and lag;", "\"Strike, hard!\" quoth Hamish, full stern, from the crag;", "Then he struck him, and \"One!\" sang Hamish, and danced with the child", "in his mirth.", "", "And no man spake beside Hamish; he counted each stroke with a song.", "When the last stroke fell, then he moved him a pace down the height,", "And he held forth the child in the heartaching sight", "Of the mother, and looked all pitiful grave, as repenting a wrong.", "", "And there as the motherly arms stretched out with the thanksgiving prayer --", "And there as the mother crept up with a fearful swift pace,", "Till her finger nigh felt of the bairnie's face --", "In a flash fierce Hamish turned round and lifted the child in the air,", "", "And sprang with the child in his arms from the horrible height in the sea,", "Shrill screeching, \"Revenge!\" in the wind-rush; and pallid Maclean,", "Age-feeble with anger and impotent pain,", "Crawled up on the crag, and lay flat, and locked hold of dead roots", "of a tree --", "", "And gazed hungrily o'er, and the blood from his back drip-dripped", "in the brine,", "And a sea-hawk flung down a skeleton fish as he flew,", "And the mother stared white on the waste of blue,", "And the wind drove a cloud to seaward, and the sun began to shine." ], "linecount": "112" }, { "title": "Street Cries", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "Oft seems the Time a market-town", "Where many merchant-spirits meet", "Who up and down and up and down", "Cry out along the street", "", "Their needs, as wares; one THUS, one SO:", "Till all the ways are full of sound:", "-- But still come rain, and sun, and snow,", "And still the world goes round.", "", "", "", "I. Remonstrance.", "", "", "\"Opinion, let me alone: I am not thine.", "Prim Creed, with categoric point, forbear", "To feature me my Lord by rule and line.", "Thou canst not measure Mistress Nature's hair,", "Not one sweet inch: nay, if thy sight is sharp,", "Would'st count the strings upon an angel's harp?", "Forbear, forbear.", "", "\"Oh let me love my Lord more fathom deep", "Than there is line to sound with: let me love", "My fellow not as men that mandates keep:", "Yea, all that's lovable, below, above,", "That let me love by heart, by heart, because", "(Free from the penal pressure of the laws)", "I find it fair.", "", "\"The tears I weep by day and bitter night,", "Opinion! for thy sole salt vintage fall.", "-- As morn by morn I rise with fresh delight,", "Time through my casement cheerily doth call", "`Nature is new, 'tis birthday every day,", "Come feast with me, let no man say me nay,", "Whate'er befall.'", "", "\"So fare I forth to feast: I sit beside", "Some brother bright: but, ere good-morrow's passed,", "Burly Opinion wedging in hath cried", "`Thou shalt not sit by us, to break thy fast,", "Save to our Rubric thou subscribe and swear --", "`Religion hath blue eyes and yellow hair:'", "She's Saxon, all.'", "", "\"Then, hard a-hungered for my brother's grace", "Till well-nigh fain to swear his folly's true,", "In sad dissent I turn my longing face", "To him that sits on the left: `Brother, -- with you?'", "-- `Nay, not with me, save thou subscribe and swear", "`Religion hath black eyes and raven hair:'", "Nought else is true.'", "", "\"Debarred of banquets that my heart could make", "With every man on every day of life,", "I homeward turn, my fires of pain to slake", "In deep endearments of a worshipped wife.", "`I love thee well, dear Love,' quoth she, `and yet", "Would that thy creed with mine completely met,", "As one, not two.'", "", "\"Assassin! Thief! Opinion, 'tis thy work.", "By Church, by throne, by hearth, by every good", "That's in the Town of Time, I see thee lurk,", "And e'er some shadow stays where thou hast stood.", "Thou hand'st sweet Socrates his hemlock sour;", "Thou sav'st Barabbas in that hideous hour,", "And stabb'st the good", "", "\"Deliverer Christ; thou rack'st the souls of men;", "Thou tossest girls to lions and boys to flames;", "Thou hew'st Crusader down by Saracen;", "Thou buildest closets full of secret shames;", "Indifferent cruel, thou dost blow the blaze", "Round Ridley or Servetus; all thy days", "Smell scorched; I would", "", "\"-- Thou base-born Accident of time and place --", "Bigot Pretender unto Judgment's throne --", "Bastard, that claimest with a cunning face", "Those rights the true, true Son of Man doth own", "By Love's authority -- thou Rebel cold", "At head of civil wars and quarrels old --", "Thou Knife on a throne --", "", "\"I would thou left'st me free, to live with love,", "And faith, that through the love of love doth find", "My Lord's dear presence in the stars above,", "The clods below, the flesh without, the mind", "Within, the bread, the tear, the smile.", "Opinion, damned Intriguer, gray with guile,", "Let me alone.\"", "", "____", "Baltimore, 1878-9.", "", "", "", "II. The Ship of Earth.", "", "", "\"Thou Ship of Earth, with Death, and Birth, and Life, and Sex aboard,", "And fires of Desires burning hotly in the hold,", "I fear thee, O! I fear thee, for I hear the tongue and sword", "At battle on the deck, and the wild mutineers are bold!", "", "\"The dewdrop morn may fall from off the petal of the sky,", "But all the deck is wet with blood and stains the crystal red.", "A pilot, GOD, a pilot! for the helm is left awry,", "And the best sailors in the ship lie there among the dead!\"", "", "____", "Prattville, Alabama, 1868.", "", "", "", "III. How Love Looked for Hell.", "", "", "\"To heal his heart of long-time pain", "One day Prince Love for to travel was fain", "With Ministers Mind and Sense.", "`Now what to thee most strange may be?'", "Quoth Mind and Sense. `All things above,", "One curious thing I first would see --", "Hell,' quoth Love.", "", "\"Then Mind rode in and Sense rode out:", "They searched the ways of man about.", "First frightfully groaneth Sense.", "`'Tis here, 'tis here,' and spurreth in fear", "To the top of the hill that hangeth above", "And plucketh the Prince: `Come, come, 'tis here --'", "`Where?' quoth Love --", "", "\"`Not far, not far,' said shivering Sense", "As they rode on. `A short way hence,", "-- But seventy paces hence:", "Look, King, dost see where suddenly", "This road doth dip from the height above?", "Cold blew a mouldy wind by me'", "(`Cold?' quoth Love)", "", "\"`As I rode down, and the River was black,", "And yon-side, lo! an endless wrack", "And rabble of souls,' sighed Sense,", "`Their eyes upturned and begged and burned", "In brimstone lakes, and a Hand above", "Beat back the hands that upward yearned --'", "`Nay!' quoth Love --", "", "\"`Yea, yea, sweet Prince; thyself shalt see,", "Wilt thou but down this slope with me;", "'Tis palpable,' whispered Sense.", "-- At the foot of the hill a living rill", "Shone, and the lilies shone white above;", "`But now 'twas black, 'twas a river, this rill,'", "(`Black?' quoth Love)", "", "\"`Ay, black, but lo! the lilies grow,", "And yon-side where was woe, was woe,", "-- Where the rabble of souls,' cried Sense,", "`Did shrivel and turn and beg and burn,", "Thrust back in the brimstone from above --", "Is banked of violet, rose, and fern:'", "`How?' quoth Love:", "", "\"`For lakes of pain, yon pleasant plain", "Of woods and grass and yellow grain", "Doth ravish the soul and sense:", "And never a sigh beneath the sky,", "And folk that smile and gaze above --'", "`But saw'st thou here, with thine own eye,", "Hell?' quoth Love.", "", "\"`I saw true hell with mine own eye,", "True hell, or light hath told a lie,", "True, verily,' quoth stout Sense.", "Then Love rode round and searched the ground,", "The caves below, the hills above;", "`But I cannot find where thou hast found", "Hell,' quoth Love.", "", "\"There, while they stood in a green wood", "And marvelled still on Ill and Good,", "Came suddenly Minister Mind.", "`In the heart of sin doth hell begin:", "'Tis not below, 'tis not above,", "It lieth within, it lieth within:'", "(`Where?' quoth Love)", "", "\"`I saw a man sit by a corse;", "`Hell's in the murderer's breast: remorse!'", "Thus clamored his mind to his mind:", "Not fleshly dole is the sinner's goal,", "Hell's not below, nor yet above,", "'Tis fixed in the ever-damned soul --'", "`Fixed?' quoth Love --", "", "\"`Fixed: follow me, would'st thou but see:", "He weepeth under yon willow tree,", "Fast chained to his corse,' quoth Mind.", "Full soon they passed, for they rode fast,", "Where the piteous willow bent above.", "`Now shall I see at last, at last,", "Hell,' quoth Love.", "", "\"There when they came Mind suffered shame:", "`These be the same and not the same,'", "A-wondering whispered Mind.", "Lo, face by face two spirits pace", "Where the blissful willow waves above:", "One saith: `Do me a friendly grace --'", "(`Grace!' quoth Love)", "", "\"`Read me two Dreams that linger long,", "Dim as returns of old-time song", "That flicker about the mind.", "I dreamed (how deep in mortal sleep!)", "I struck thee dead, then stood above,", "With tears that none but dreamers weep;'", "`Dreams,' quoth Love;", "", "\"`In dreams, again, I plucked a flower", "That clung with pain and stung with power,", "Yea, nettled me, body and mind.'", "`'Twas the nettle of sin, 'twas medicine;", "No need nor seed of it here Above;", "In dreams of hate true loves begin.'", "`True,' quoth Love.", "", "\"`Now strange,' quoth Sense, and `Strange,' quoth Mind,", "`We saw it, and yet 'tis hard to find,", "-- But we saw it,' quoth Sense and Mind.", "Stretched on the ground, beautiful-crowned", "Of the piteous willow that wreathed above,", "`But I cannot find where ye have found", "Hell,' quoth Love.\"", "", "____", "Baltimore, 1878-9.", "", "", "", "IV. Tyranny.", "", "", "\"Spring-germs, spring-germs,", "I charge you by your life, go back to death.", "This glebe is sick, this wind is foul of breath.", "Stay: feed the worms.", "", "\"Oh! every clod", "Is faint, and falters from the war of growth", "And crumbles in a dreary dust of sloth,", "Unploughed, untrod.", "", "\"What need, what need,", "To hide with flowers the curse upon the hills,", "Or sanctify the banks of sluggish rills", "Where vapors breed?", "", "\"And -- if needs must --", "Advance, O Summer-heats! upon the land,", "And bake the bloody mould to shards and sand", "And dust.", "", "\"Before your birth,", "Burn up, O Roses! with your dainty flame.", "Good Violets, sweet Violets, hide shame", "Below the earth.", "", "\"Ye silent Mills,", "Reject the bitter kindness of the moss.", "O Farms! protest if any tree emboss", "The barren hills.", "", "\"Young Trade is dead,", "And swart Work sullen sits in the hillside fern", "And folds his arms that find no bread to earn,", "And bows his head.", "", "\"Spring-germs, spring-germs,", "Albeit the towns have left you place to play,", "I charge you, sport not. Winter owns to-day,", "Stay: feed the worms.\"", "", "____", "Prattville, Alabama, 1868.", "", "", "", "V. Life and Song.", "", "", "\"If life were caught by a clarionet,", "And a wild heart, throbbing in the reed,", "Should thrill its joy and trill its fret,", "And utter its heart in every deed,", "", "\"Then would this breathing clarionet", "Type what the poet fain would be;", "For none o' the singers ever yet", "Has wholly lived his minstrelsy,", "", "\"Or clearly sung his true, true thought,", "Or utterly bodied forth his life,", "Or out of life and song has wrought", "The perfect one of man and wife;", "", "\"Or lived and sung, that Life and Song", "Might each express the other's all,", "Careless if life or art were long", "Since both were one, to stand or fall:", "", "\"So that the wonder struck the crowd,", "Who shouted it about the land:", "`His song was only living aloud,", "His work, a singing with his hand!'\"", "", "____", "", "", "", "", "VI. To Richard Wagner.", "", "", "\"I saw a sky of stars that rolled in grime.", "All glory twinkled through some sweat of fight,", "From each tall chimney of the roaring time", "That shot his fire far up the sooty night", "Mixt fuels -- Labor's Right and Labor's Crime --", "Sent upward throb on throb of scarlet light", "Till huge hot blushes in the heavens blent", "With golden hues of Trade's high firmament.", "", "\"Fierce burned the furnaces; yet all seemed well,", "Hope dreamed rich music in the rattling mills.", "`Ye foundries, ye shall cast my church a bell,'", "Loud cried the Future from the farthest hills:", "`Ye groaning forces, crack me every shell", "Of customs, old constraints, and narrow ills;", "Thou, lithe Invention, wake and pry and guess,", "Till thy deft mind invents me Happiness.'", "", "\"And I beheld high scaffoldings of creeds", "Crumbling from round Religion's perfect Fane:", "And a vast noise of rights, wrongs, powers, needs,", "-- Cries of new Faiths that called `This Way is plain,'", "-- Grindings of upper against lower greeds --", "-- Fond sighs for old things, shouts for new, -- did reign", "Below that stream of golden fire that broke,", "Mottled with red, above the seas of smoke.", "", "\"Hark! Gay fanfares from halls of old Romance", "Strike through the clouds of clamor: who be these", "That, paired in rich processional, advance", "From darkness o'er the murk mad factories", "Into yon flaming road, and sink, strange Ministrants!", "Sheer down to earth, with many minstrelsies", "And motions fine, and mix about the scene", "And fill the Time with forms of ancient mien?", "", "\"Bright ladies and brave knights of Fatherland;", "Sad mariners, no harbor e'er may hold,", "A swan soft floating tow'rds a magic strand;", "Dim ghosts, of earth, air, water, fire, steel, gold,", "Wind, grief, and love; a lewd and lurking band", "Of Powers -- dark Conspiracy, Cunning cold,", "Gray Sorcery; magic cloaks and rings and rods;", "Valkyries, heroes, Rhinemaids, giants, gods!", "", "* * * * *", "", "\"O Wagner, westward bring thy heavenly art,", "No trifler thou: Siegfried and Wotan be", "Names for big ballads of the modern heart.", "Thine ears hear deeper than thine eyes can see.", "Voice of the monstrous mill, the shouting mart,", "Not less of airy cloud and wave and tree,", "Thou, thou, if even to thyself unknown,", "Hast power to say the Time in terms of tone.\"", "", "____", "", "", "", "", "VII. A Song of Love.", "", "", "\"Hey, rose, just born", "Twin to a thorn;", "Was't so with you, O Love and Scorn?", "", "\"Sweet eyes that smiled,", "Now wet and wild;", "O Eye and Tear -- mother and child.", "", "\"Well: Love and Pain", "Be kinsfolk twain:", "Yet would, Oh would I could love again.\"" ], "linecount": "318" }, { "title": "Spring Greeting", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "From the German of Herder.", "", "", "", "All faintly through my soul to-day,", "As from a bell that far away", "Is tinkled by some frolic fay,", "Floateth a lovely chiming.", "Thou magic bell, to many a fell", "And many a winter-saddened dell", "Thy tongue a tale of Spring doth tell,", "Too passionate-sweet for rhyming.", "", "Chime out, thou little song of Spring,", "Float in the blue skies ravishing.", "Thy song-of-life a joy doth bring", "That's sweet, albeit fleeting.", "Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home:", "And when thou to a rose shalt come", "That hath begun to show her bloom,", "Say, I send her greeting!" ], "linecount": "17" }, { "title": "The Tournament", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "Joust First.", "", "", "I.", "", "Bright shone the lists, blue bent the skies,", "And the knights still hurried amain", "To the tournament under the ladies' eyes,", "Where the jousters were Heart and Brain.", "", "II.", "", "Flourished the trumpets: entered Heart,", "A youth in crimson and gold.", "Flourished again: Brain stood apart,", "Steel-armored, dark and cold.", "", "III.", "", "Heart's palfrey caracoled gayly round,", "Heart tra-li-ra'd merrily;", "But Brain sat still, with never a sound,", "So cynical-calm was he.", "", "IV.", "", "Heart's helmet-crest bore favors three", "From his lady's white hand caught;", "While Brain wore a plumeless casque; not he", "Or favor gave or sought.", "", "V.", "", "The herald blew; Heart shot a glance", "To find his lady's eye,", "But Brain gazed straight ahead his lance", "To aim more faithfully.", "", "VI.", "", "They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled.", "Brain rose again, ungloved,", "Heart, dying, smiled and faintly said,", "\"My love to my beloved!\"", "", "____", "Camp French, Wilmington, N.C., May, 1862.", "", "", "", "Joust Second.", "", "", "I.", "", "A-many sweet eyes wept and wept,", "A-many bosoms heaved again;", "A-many dainty dead hopes slept", "With yonder Heart-knight prone o' the plain.", "", "II.", "", "Yet stars will burn through any mists,", "And the ladies' eyes, through rains of fate,", "Still beamed upon the bloody lists", "And lit the joust of Love and Hate.", "", "III.", "", "O strange! or ere a trumpet blew,", "Or ere a challenge-word was given,", "A knight leapt down i' the lists; none knew", "Whether he sprang from earth or heaven.", "", "IV.", "", "His cheek was soft as a lily-bud,", "His grey eyes calmed his youth's alarm;", "Nor helm nor hauberk nor even a hood", "Had he to shield his life from harm.", "", "V.", "", "No falchion from his baldric swung,", "He wore a white rose in its place.", "No dagger at his girdle hung,", "But only an olive-branch, for grace.", "", "VI.", "", "And \"Come, thou poor mistaken knight,\"", "Cried Love, unarmed, yet dauntless there,", "\"Come on, God pity thee! -- I fight", "Sans sword, sans shield; yet, Hate, beware!\"", "", "VII.", "", "Spurred furious Hate; he foamed at mouth,", "His breath was hot upon the air,", "His breath scorched souls, as a dry drought", "Withers green trees and burns them bare.", "", "VIII.", "", "Straight drives he at his enemy,", "His hairy hands grip lance in rest,", "His lance it gleams full bitterly,", "God! -- gleams, true-point, on Love's bare breast!", "", "IX.", "", "Love's grey eyes glow with a heaven-heat,", "Love lifts his hand in a saintly prayer;", "Look! Hate hath fallen at his feet!", "Look! Hate hath vanished in the air!", "", "X.", "", "Then all the throng looked kind on all;", "Eyes yearned, lips kissed, dumb souls were freed;", "Two magic maids' hands lifted a pall", "And the dead knight, Heart, sprang on his steed.", "", "XI.", "", "Then Love cried, \"Break me his lance, each knight!", "Ye shall fight for blood-athirst Fame no more!\"", "And the knights all doffed their mailed might", "And dealt out dole on dole to the poor.", "", "XII.", "", "Then dove-flights sanctified the plain,", "And hawk and sparrow shared a nest.", "And the great sea opened and swallowed Pain,", "And out of this water-grave floated Rest!" ], "linecount": "94" }, { "title": "Souls And Rain-Drops", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "Light rain-drops fall and wrinkle the sea,", "Then vanish, and die utterly.", "One would not know that rain-drops fell", "If the round sea-wrinkles did not tell.", "", "So souls come down and wrinkle life", "And vanish in the flesh-sea strife.", "One might not know that souls had place", "Were't not for the wrinkles in life's face." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "June Dreams, In January", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "\"So pulse, and pulse, thou rhythmic-hearted Noon", "That liest, large-limbed, curved along the hills,", "In languid palpitation, half a-swoon", "With ardors and sun-loves and subtle thrills;", "", "\"Throb, Beautiful! while the fervent hours exhale", "As kisses faint-blown from thy finger-tips", "Up to the sun, that turn him passion-pale", "And then as red as any virgin's lips.", "", "\"O tender Darkness, when June-day hath ceased,", "-- Faint Odor from the day-flower's crushing born,", "-- Dim, visible Sigh out of the mournful East", "That cannot see her lord again till morn:", "", "\"And many leaves, broad-palmed towards the sky", "To catch the sacred raining of star-light:", "And pallid petals, fain, all fain to die,", "Soul-stung by too keen passion of the night:", "", "\"And short-breath'd winds, under yon gracious moon", "Doing mild errands for mild violets,", "Or carrying sighs from the red lips of June", "What aimless way the odor-current sets:", "", "\"And stars, ringed glittering in whorls and bells,", "Or bent along the sky in looped star-sprays,", "Or vine-wound, with bright grapes in panicles,", "Or bramble-tangled in a sweetest maze,", "", "\"Or lying like young lilies in a lake", "About the great white Lotus of the moon,", "Or blown and drifted, as if winds should shake", "Star blossoms down from silver stems too soon,", "", "\"Or budding thick about full open stars,", "Or clambering shyly up cloud-lattices,", "Or trampled pale in the red path of Mars,", "Or trim-set in quaint gardener's fantasies:", "", "\"And long June night-sounds crooned among the leaves,", "And whispered confidence of dark and green,", "And murmurs in old moss about old eaves,", "And tinklings floating over water-sheen!\"", "", "Then he that wrote laid down his pen and sighed;", "And straightway came old Scorn and Bitterness,", "Like Hunnish kings out of the barbarous land,", "And camped upon the transient Italy", "That he had dreamed to blossom in his soul.", "\"I'll date this dream,\" he said; \"so: `Given, these,", "On this, the coldest night in all the year,", "From this, the meanest garret in the world,", "In this, the greatest city in the land,", "To you, the richest folk this side of death,", "By one, the hungriest poet under heaven,", "-- Writ while his candle sputtered in the gust,", "And while his last, last ember died of cold,", "And while the mortal ice i' the air made free", "Of all his bones and bit and shrunk his heart,", "And while soft Luxury made show to strike", "Her gloved hands together and to smile", "What time her weary feet unconsciously", "Trode wheels that lifted Avarice to power,", "-- And while, moreover, -- O thou God, thou God --", "His worshipful sweet wife sat still, afar,", "Within the village whence she sent him forth", "Into the town to make his name and fame,", "Waiting, all confident and proud and calm,", "Till he should make for her his name and fame,", "Waiting -- O Christ, how keen this cuts! -- large-eyed,", "With Baby Charley till her husband make", "For her and him a poet's name and fame.'", "-- Read me,\" he cried, and rose, and stamped his foot", "Impatiently at Heaven, \"read me this,\"", "(Putting th' inquiry full in the face of God)", "\"Why can we poets dream us beauty, so,", "But cannot dream us bread? Why, now, can I", "Make, aye, create this fervid throbbing June", "Out of the chill, chill matter of my soul,", "Yet cannot make a poorest penny-loaf", "Out of this same chill matter, no, not one", "For Mary though she starved upon my breast?\"", "And then he fell upon his couch, and sobbed,", "And, late, just when his heart leaned o'er", "The very edge of breaking, fain to fall,", "God sent him sleep.", "There came his room-fellow,", "Stout Dick, the painter, saw the written dream,", "Read, scratched his curly pate, smiled, winked, fell on", "The poem in big-hearted comic rage,", "Quick folded, thrust in envelope, addressed", "To him, the critic-god, that sitteth grim", "And giant-grisly on the stone causeway", "That leadeth to his magazine and fame.", "Him, by due mail, the little Dream of June", "Encountered growling, and at unawares", "Stole in upon his poem-battered soul", "So that he smiled, -- then shook his head upon 't", "-- Then growled, then smiled again, till at the last,", "As one that deadly sinned against his will,", "He writ upon the margin of the Dream", "A wondrous, wondrous word that in a day", "Did turn the fleeting song to very bread,", "-- Whereat Dick Painter leapt, the poet wept,", "And Mary slept with happy drops a-gleam", "Upon long lashes of her serene eyes", "From twentieth reading of her poet's news", "Quick-sent, \"O sweet my Sweet, to dream is power,", "And I can dream thee bread and dream thee wine,", "And I will dream thee robes and gems, dear Love,", "To clothe thy holy loveliness withal,", "And I will dream thee here to live by me,", "Thee and my little man thou hold'st at breast,", "-- Come, Name, come, Fame, and kiss my Sweetheart's feet!\"" ], "linecount": "106" }, { "title": "Rose-Morals", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "I. -- Red.", "", "Would that my songs might be", "What roses make by day and night --", "Distillments of my clod of misery", "Into delight.", "", "Soul, could'st thou bare thy breast", "As yon red rose, and dare the day,", "All clean, and large, and calm with velvet rest?", "Say yea -- say yea!", "", "Ah, dear my Rose, good-bye;", "The wind is up; so; drift away.", "That songs from me as leaves from thee may fly,", "I strive, I pray.", "", "", "II. -- White.", "", "Soul, get thee to the heart", "Of yonder tuberose: hide thee there --", "There breathe the meditations of thine art", "Suffused with prayer.", "", "Of spirit grave yet light,", "How fervent fragrances uprise", "Pure-born from these most rich and yet most white", "Virginities!", "", "Mulched with unsavory death,", "Grow, Soul! unto such white estate,", "That virginal-prayerful art shall be thy breath,", "Thy work, thy fate." ], "linecount": "26" }, { "title": "The Hard Times In Elfland", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "A Story of Christmas Eve.", "", "Strange that the termagant winds should scold", "The Christmas Eve so bitterly!", "But Wife, and Harry the four-year-old,", "Big Charley, Nimblewits, and I,", "", "Blithe as the wind was bitter, drew", "More frontward of the mighty fire,", "Where wise Newfoundland Fan foreknew", "The heaven that Christian dogs desire --", "", "Stretched o'er the rug, serene and grave,", "Huge nose on heavy paws reclined,", "With never a drowning boy to save,", "And warmth of body and peace of mind.", "", "And, as our happy circle sat,", "The fire well capp'd the company:", "In grave debate or careless chat,", "A right good fellow, mingled he:", "", "He seemed as one of us to sit,", "And talked of things above, below,", "With flames more winsome than our wit,", "And coals that burned like love aglow.", "", "While thus our rippling discourse rolled", "Smooth down the channel of the night,", "We spoke of Time: thereat, one told", "A parable of the Seasons' flight.", "", "\"Time was a Shepherd with four sheep.", "In a certain Field he long abode.", "He stood by the bars, and his flock bade leap", "One at a time to the Common Road.", "", "\"And first there leapt, like bird on wing,", "A lissome Lamb that played in the air.", "I heard the Shepherd call him `Spring':", "Oh, large-eyed, fresh and snowy fair", "", "\"He skipped the flowering Highway fast,", "Hurried the hedgerows green and white,", "Set maids and men a-yearning, passed", "The Bend, and gamboll'd out of sight.", "", "\"And next marched forth a matron Ewe", "(While Time took down a bar for her),", "Udder'd so large 'twas much ado", "E'en then to clear the barrier.", "", "\"Full softly shone her silken fleece", "What stately time she paced along:", "Each heartsome hoof-stroke wrought increase", "Of sunlight, substance, seedling, song,", "", "\"In flower, in fruit, in field, in bird,", "Till the great globe, rich fleck'd and pied,", "Like some large peach half pinkly furred,", "Turned to the sun a glowing side", "", "\"And hung in the heavenly orchard, bright,", "None-such, complete.", "Then, while the Ewe", "Slow passed the Bend, a blur of light,", "The Shepherd's face in sadness grew:", "", "\"`Summer!' he said, as one would say", "A sigh in syllables. So, in haste", "(For shame of Summer's long delay,", "Yet gazing still what way she paced),", "", "\"He summoned Autumn, slanting down", "The second bar. Thereover strode", "A Wether, fleeced in burning brown,", "And largely loitered down the Road.", "", "\"Far as the farmers sight his shape", "Majestic moving o'er the way,", "All cry `To harvest,' crush the grape,", "And haul the corn and house the hay,", "", "\"Till presently, no man can say,", "(So brown the woods that line that end)", "If yet the brown-fleeced Wether may,", "Or not, have passed beyond the Bend.", "", "\"Now turn I towards the Shepherd: lo,", "An aged Ram, flapp'd, gnarly-horn'd,", "With bones that crackle o'er the snow,", "Rheum'd, wind-gall'd, rag-fleec'd, burr'd and thorn'd.", "", "\"Time takes the third bar off for him,", "He totters down the windy lane.", "'Tis Winter, still: the Bend lies dim.", "O Lamb, would thou wouldst leap again!\"", "", "Those seasons out, we talked of these:", "And I (with inward purpose sly", "To shield my purse from Christmas trees", "And stockings and wild robbery", "", "When Hal and Nimblewits invade", "My cash in Santa Claus's name)", "In full the hard, hard times surveyed;", "Denounced all waste as crime and shame;", "", "Hinted that \"waste\" might be a term", "Including skates, velocipedes,", "Kites, marbles, soldiers, towers infirm,", "Bows, arrows, cannon, Indian reeds,", "", "Cap-pistols, drums, mechanic toys,", "And all th' infernal host of horns", "Whereby to strenuous hells of noise", "Are turned the blessed Christmas morns;", "", "Thus, roused -- those horns! -- to sacred rage,", "I rose, forefinger high in air,", "When Harry cried (SOME war to wage),", "\"Papa, is hard times ev'ywhere?", "", "\"Maybe in Santa Claus's land", "It isn't hard times none at all!\"", "Now, blessed Vision! to my hand", "Most pat, a marvel strange did fall.", "", "Scarce had my Harry ceased, when \"Look!\"", "He cried, leapt up in wild alarm,", "Ran to my Comrade, shelter took", "Beneath the startled mother's arm.", "", "And so was still: what time we saw", "A foot hang down the fireplace! Then,", "With painful scrambling scratched and raw,", "Two hands that seemed like hands of men", "", "Eased down two legs and a body through", "The blazing fire, and forth there came", "Before our wide and wondering view", "A figure shrinking half with shame,", "", "And half with weakness. \"Sir,\" I said,", "-- But with a mien of dignity", "The seedy stranger raised his head:", "\"My friends, I'm Santa Claus,\" said he.", "", "But oh, how changed! That rotund face", "The new moon rivall'd, pale and thin;", "Where once was cheek, now empty space;", "Whate'er stood out, did now stand in.", "", "His piteous legs scarce propped him up:", "His arms mere sickles seemed to be:", "But most o'erflowed our sorrow's cup", "When that we saw -- or did not see --", "", "His belly: we remembered how", "It shook like a bowl of jelly fine:", "An earthquake could not shake it now;", "He HAD no belly -- not a sign.", "", "\"Yes, yes, old friends, you well may stare:", "I HAVE seen better days,\" he said:", "\"But now, with shrinkage, loss and care,", "Your Santa Claus scarce owns his head.", "", "\"We've had such hard, hard times this year", "For goblins! Never knew the like.", "All Elfland's mortgaged! And we fear", "The gnomes are just about to strike.", "", "\"I once was rich, and round, and hale.", "The whole world called me jolly brick;", "But listen to a piteous tale.", "Young Harry, -- Santa Claus is sick!", "", "\"'Twas thus: a smooth-tongued railroad man", "Comes to my house and talks to me:", "`I've got,' says he, `a little plan", "That suits this nineteenth century.", "", "\"`Instead of driving, as you do,", "Six reindeer slow from house to house,", "Let's build a Grand Trunk Railway through", "From here to earth's last terminus.", "", "\"`We'll touch at every chimney-top", "(An Elevated Track, of course),", "Then, as we whisk you by, you'll drop", "Each package down: just think, the force", "", "\"`You'll save, the time! -- Besides, we'll make", "Our millions: look you, soon we will", "Compete for freights -- and then we'll take", "Dame Fortune's bales of good and ill", "", "\"`(Why, she's the biggest shipper, sir,", "That e'er did business in this world!):", "Then Death, that ceaseless Traveller,", "Shall on his rounds by us be whirled.", "", "\"`When ghosts return to walk with men,", "We'll bring 'em cheap by steam, and fast:", "We'll run a Branch to heaven! and then", "We'll riot, man; for then, at last", "", "\"`We'll make with heaven a contract fair", "To call, each hour, from town to town,", "And carry the dead folks' souls up there,", "And bring the unborn babies down!'", "", "\"The plan seemed fair: I gave him cash,", "Nay, every penny I could raise.", "My wife e'er cried, `'Tis rash, 'tis rash:'", "How could I know the stock-thief's ways?", "", "\"But soon I learned full well, poor fool!", "My woes began, that wretched day.", "The President plied me like a tool.", "In lawyer's fees, and rights of way,", "", "\"Injunctions, leases, charters, I", "Was meshed as in a mighty maze.", "The stock ran low, the talk ran high:", "Then quickly flamed the final blaze.", "", "\"With never an inch of track -- 'tis true!", "The debts were large . . . the oft-told tale.", "The President rolled in splendor new", "-- He bought my silver at the sale.", "", "\"Yes, sold me out: we've moved away.", "I've had to give up everything.", "My reindeer, even, whom I . . . pray,", "Excuse me\" . . . here, o'er-sorrowing,", "", "Poor Santa Claus burst into tears,", "Then calmed again: \"my reindeer fleet,", "I gave them up: on foot, my dears,", "I now must plod through snow and sleet.", "", "\"Retrenchment rules in Elfland, now;", "Yes, every luxury is cut off.", "-- Which, by the way, reminds me how", "I caught this dreadful hacking cough:", "", "\"I cut off the tail of my Ulster furred", "To make young Kris a coat of state.", "That very night the storm occurred!", "Thus we became the sport of Fate.", "", "\"For I was out till after one,", "Surveying chimney-tops and roofs,", "And planning how it could be done", "Without my reindeers' bouncing hoofs.", "", "\"`My dear,' says Mrs. Claus, that night", "(A most superior woman she!)", "`It never, never can be right", "That you, deep-sunk in poverty,", "", "\"`This year should leave your poor old bed,", "And trot about, bent down with toys,", "(There's Kris a-crying now for bread!)", "To give to other people's boys.", "", "\"`Since you've been out, the news arrives", "The Elfs' Insurance Company's gone.", "Ah, Claus, those premiums! Now, our lives", "Depend on yours: thus griefs go on.", "", "\"`And even while you're thus harassed,", "I do believe, if out you went,", "You'd go, in spite of all that's passed,", "To the children of that President!'", "", "\"Oh, Charley, Harry, Nimblewits,", "These eyes, that night, ne'er slept a wink.", "My path seemed honeycombed with pits.", "Naught could I do but think and think.", "", "\"But, with the day, my courage rose.", "Ne'er shall my boys, MY boys (I cried),", "When Christmas morns their eyes unclose,", "Find empty stockings gaping wide!", "", "\"Then hewed and whacked and whittled I;", "The wife, the girls and Kris took fire;", "They spun, sewed, cut, -- till by and by", "We made, at home, my pack entire!\"", "", "(He handed me a bundle, here.)", "\"Now, hoist me up: there, gently: quick!", "Dear boys, DON'T look for much this year:", "Remember, Santa Claus is sick!\"" ], "linecount": "238" }, { "title": "My Springs", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "In the heart of the Hills of Life, I know", "Two springs that with unbroken flow", "Forever pour their lucent streams", "Into my soul's far Lake of Dreams.", "", "Not larger than two eyes, they lie", "Beneath the many-changing sky", "And mirror all of life and time,", "-- Serene and dainty pantomime.", "", "Shot through with lights of stars and dawns,", "And shadowed sweet by ferns and fawns,", "-- Thus heaven and earth together vie", "Their shining depths to sanctify.", "", "Always when the large Form of Love", "Is hid by storms that rage above,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "Love in his very verity.", "", "Always when Faith with stifling stress", "Of grief hath died in bitterness,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "A Faith that smiles immortally.", "", "Always when Charity and Hope,", "In darkness bounden, feebly grope,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "A Light that sets my captives free.", "", "Always, when Art on perverse wing", "Flies where I cannot hear him sing,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "A charm that brings him back to me.", "", "When Labor faints, and Glory fails,", "And coy Reward in sighs exhales,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "Attainment full and heavenly.", "", "O Love, O Wife, thine eyes are they,", "-- My springs from out whose shining gray", "Issue the sweet celestial streams", "That feed my life's bright Lake of Dreams.", "", "Oval and large and passion-pure", "And gray and wise and honor-sure;", "Soft as a dying violet-breath", "Yet calmly unafraid of death;", "", "Thronged, like two dove-cotes of gray doves,", "With wife's and mother's and poor-folk's loves,", "And home-loves and high glory-loves", "And science-loves and story-loves,", "", "And loves for all that God and man", "In art and nature make or plan,", "And lady-loves for spidery lace", "And broideries and supple grace", "", "And diamonds and the whole sweet round", "Of littles that large life compound,", "And loves for God and God's bare truth,", "And loves for Magdalen and Ruth,", "", "Dear eyes, dear eyes and rare complete --", "Being heavenly-sweet and earthly-sweet,", "-- I marvel that God made you mine,", "For when He frowns, 'tis then ye shine!" ], "linecount": "56" }, { "title": "The Power Of Prayer", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "or, The First Steamboat up the Alabama.", "", "You, Dinah! Come and set me whar de ribber-roads does meet.", "De Lord, HE made dese black-jack roots to twis' into a seat.", "Umph, dar! De Lord have mussy on dis blin' ole nigger's feet.", "", "It 'pear to me dis mornin' I kin smell de fust o' June.", "I 'clar', I b'lieve dat mockin'-bird could play de fiddle soon!", "Dem yonder town-bells sounds like dey was ringin' in de moon.", "", "Well, ef dis nigger IS been blind for fo'ty year or mo',", "Dese ears, DEY sees the world, like, th'u' de cracks dat's in de do'.", "For de Lord has built dis body wid de windows 'hind and 'fo'.", "", "I know my front ones IS stopped up, and things is sort o' dim,", "But den, th'u' DEM, temptation's rain won't leak in on ole Jim!", "De back ones show me earth enough, aldo' dey's mons'ous slim.", "", "And as for Hebben, -- bless de Lord, and praise His holy name --", "DAT shines in all de co'ners of dis cabin jes' de same", "As ef dat cabin hadn't nar' a plank upon de frame!", "", "Who CALL me? Listen down de ribber, Dinah! Don't you hyar", "Somebody holl'in' \"Hoo, Jim, hoo?\" My Sarah died las' y'ar;", "IS dat black angel done come back to call ole Jim f'om hyar?", "", "My stars, dat cain't be Sarah, shuh! Jes' listen, Dinah, NOW!", "What KIN be comin' up dat bend, a-makin' sich a row?", "Fus' bellerin' like a pawin' bull, den squealin' like a sow?", "", "De Lord 'a' mussy sakes alive, jes' hear, -- ker-woof, ker-woof --", "De Debble's comin' round dat bend, he's comin' shuh enuff,", "A-splashin' up de water wid his tail and wid his hoof!", "", "I'se pow'ful skeered; but neversomeless I ain't gwine run away:", "I'm gwine to stand stiff-legged for de Lord dis blessed day.", "YOU screech, and swish de water, Satan! I'se a gwine to pray.", "", "O hebbenly Marster, what thou willest, dat mus' be jes' so,", "And ef Thou hast bespoke de word, some nigger's bound to go.", "Den, Lord, please take ole Jim, and lef young Dinah hyar below!", "", "'Scuse Dinah, 'scuse her, Marster; for she's sich a little chile,", "She hardly jes' begin to scramble up de homeyard stile,", "But dis ole traveller's feet been tired dis many a many a mile.", "", "I'se wufless as de rotten pole of las' year's fodder-stack.", "De rheumatiz done bit my bones; you hear 'em crack and crack?", "I cain'st sit down 'dout gruntin' like 'twas breakin' o' my back.", "", "What use de wheel, when hub and spokes is warped and split, and rotten?", "What use dis dried-up cotton-stalk, when Life done picked my cotton?", "I'se like a word dat somebody said, and den done been forgotten.", "", "But, Dinah! Shuh dat gal jes' like dis little hick'ry tree,", "De sap's jes' risin in her; she do grow owdaciouslee --", "Lord, ef you's clarin' de underbrush, don't cut her down, cut me!", "", "I would not proud persume -- but I'll boldly make reques';", "Sence Jacob had dat wrastlin'-match, I, too, gwine do my bes';", "When Jacob got all underholt, de Lord he answered Yes!", "", "And what for waste de vittles, now, and th'ow away de bread,", "Jes' for to strength dese idle hands to scratch dis ole bald head?", "T'ink of de 'conomy, Marster, ef dis ole Jim was dead!", "", "Stop; -- ef I don't believe de Debble's gone on up de stream!", "Jes' now he squealed down dar; -- hush; dat's a mighty weakly scream!", "Yas, sir, he's gone, he's gone; -- he snort way off, like in a dream!", "", "O glory hallelujah to de Lord dat reigns on high!", "De Debble's fai'ly skeered to def, he done gone flyin' by;", "I know'd he couldn' stand dat pra'r, I felt my Marster nigh!", "", "You, Dinah; ain't you 'shamed, now, dat you didn' trust to grace?", "I heerd you thrashin' th'u' de bushes when he showed his face!", "You fool, you think de Debble couldn't beat YOU in a race?", "", "I tell you, Dinah, jes' as shuh as you is standin' dar,", "When folks starts prayin', answer-angels drops down th'u' de a'r.", "YAS, DINAH, WHAR 'OULD YOU BE NOW, JES' 'CEPTIN' FUR DAT PRA'R?" ], "linecount": "61" }, { "title": "From The Flats.", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "What heartache -- ne'er a hill!", "Inexorable, vapid, vague and chill", "The drear sand-levels drain my spirit low.", "With one poor word they tell me all they know;", "Whereat their stupid tongues, to tease my pain,", "Do drawl it o'er again and o'er again.", "They hurt my heart with griefs I cannot name:", "Always the same, the same.", "", "Nature hath no surprise,", "No ambuscade of beauty 'gainst mine eyes", "From brake or lurking dell or deep defile;", "No humors, frolic forms -- this mile, that mile;", "No rich reserves or happy-valley hopes", "Beyond the bend of roads, the distant slopes.", "Her fancy fails, her wild is all run tame:", "Ever the same, the same.", "", "Oh might I through these tears", "But glimpse some hill my Georgia high uprears,", "Where white the quartz and pink the pebble shine,", "The hickory heavenward strives, the muscadine", "Swings o'er the slope, the oak's far-falling shade", "Darkens the dogwood in the bottom glade,", "And down the hollow from a ferny nook", "Bright leaps a living brook!" ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Baby Charley.", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "He's fast asleep. See how, O Wife,", "Night's finger on the lip of life", "Bids whist the tongue, so prattle-rife,", "Of busy Baby Charley.", "", "One arm stretched backward round his head,", "Five little toes from out the bed", "Just showing, like five rosebuds red,", "-- So slumbers Baby Charley.", "", "Heaven-lights, I know, are beaming through", "Those lucent eyelids, veined with blue,", "That shut away from mortal view", "Large eyes of Baby Charley.", "", "O sweet Sleep-Angel, throned now", "On the round glory of his brow,", "Wave thy wing and waft my vow", "Breathed over Baby Charley.", "", "I vow that my heart, when death is nigh,", "Shall never shiver with a sigh", "For act of hand or tongue or eye", "That wronged my Baby Charley!" ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "A Birthday Song. To S. G.", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "For ever wave, for ever float and shine", "Before my yearning eyes, oh! dream of mine", "Wherein I dreamed that time was like a vine,", "", "A creeping rose, that clomb a height of dread", "Out of the sea of Birth, all filled with dead,", "Up to the brilliant cloud of Death o'erhead.", "", "This vine bore many blossoms, which were years.", "Their petals, red with joy, or bleached by tears,", "Waved to and fro i' the winds of hopes and fears.", "", "Here all men clung, each hanging by his spray.", "Anon, one dropped; his neighbor 'gan to pray;", "And so they clung and dropped and prayed, alway.", "", "But I did mark one lately-opened bloom,", "Wherefrom arose a visible perfume", "That wrapped me in a cloud of dainty gloom.", "", "And rose -- an odor by a spirit haunted --", "And drew me upward with a speed enchanted,", "Swift floating, by wild sea or sky undaunted,", "", "Straight through the cloud of death, where men are free.", "I gained a height, and stayed and bent my knee.", "Then glowed my cloud, and broke and unveiled thee.", "", "\"O flower-born and flower-souled!\" I said,", "\"Be the year-bloom that breathed thee ever red,", "Nor wither, yellow, down among the dead.", "", "\"May all that cling to sprays of time, like me,", "Be sweetly wafted over sky and sea", "By rose-breaths shrining maidens like to thee!\"", "", "Then while we sat upon the height afar", "Came twilight, like a lover late from war,", "With soft winds fluting to his evening star.", "", "And the shy stars grew bold and scattered gold,", "And chanting voices ancient secrets told,", "And an acclaim of angels earthward rolled." ], "linecount": "33" }, { "title": "The Jacquerie A Fragment", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "Chapter I.", "", "Once on a time, a Dawn, all red and bright", "Leapt on the conquered ramparts of the Night,", "And flamed, one brilliant instant, on the world,", "Then back into the historic moat was hurled", "And Night was King again, for many years.", "-- Once on a time the Rose of Spring blushed out", "But Winter angrily withdrew it back", "Into his rough new-bursten husk, and shut", "The stern husk-leaves, and hid it many years.", "-- Once Famine tricked himself with ears of corn,", "And Hate strung flowers on his spiked belt,", "And glum Revenge in silver lilies pranked him,", "And Lust put violets on his shameless front,", "And all minced forth o' the street like holiday folk", "That sally off afield on Summer morns.", "-- Once certain hounds that knew of many a chase,", "And bare great wounds of antler and of tusk", "That they had ta'en to give a lord some sport,", "-- Good hounds, that would have died to give lords sport --", "Were so bewrayed and kicked by these same lords", "That all the pack turned tooth o' the knights and bit", "As knights had been no better things than boars,", "And took revenge as bloody as a man's,", "Unhoundlike, sudden, hot i' the chops, and sweet.", "-- Once sat a falcon on a lady's wrist,", "Seeming to doze, with wrinkled eye-lid drawn,", "But dreaming hard of hoods and slaveries", "And of dim hungers in his heart and wings.", "Then, while the mistress gazed above for game,", "Sudden he flew into her painted face", "And hooked his horn-claws in her lily throat", "And drove his beak into her lips and eyes", "In fierce and hawkish kissing that did scar", "And mar the lady's beauty evermore.", "-- And once while Chivalry stood tall and lithe", "And flashed his sword above the stricken eyes", "Of all the simple peasant-folk of France:", "While Thought was keen and hot and quick,", "And did not play, as in these later days,", "Like summer-lightning flickering in the west", "-- As little dreadful as if glow-worms lay", "In the cool and watery clouds and glimmered weak --", "But gleamed and struck at once or oak or man,", "And left not space for Time to wave his wing", "Betwixt the instantaneous flash and stroke:", "While yet the needs of life were brave and fierce", "And did not hide their deeds behind their words,", "And logic came not 'twixt desire and act,", "And Want-and-Take was the whole Form of life:", "While Love had fires a-burning in his veins,", "And hidden Hate could flash into revenge:", "Ere yet young Trade was 'ware of his big thews", "Or dreamed that in the bolder afterdays", "He would hew down and bind old Chivalry", "And drag him to the highest height of fame", "And plunge him thence in the sea of still Romance", "To lie for aye in never-rusted mail", "Gleaming through quiet ripples of soft songs", "And sheens of old traditionary tales; --", "On such a time, a certain May arose", "From out that blue Sea that between five lands", "Lies like a violet midst of five large leaves,", "Arose from out this violet and flew on", "And stirred the spirits of the woods of France", "And smoothed the brows of moody Auvergne hills,", "And wrought warm sea-tints into maidens' eyes,", "And calmed the wordy air of market-towns", "With faint suggestions blown from distant buds,", "Until the land seemed a mere dream of land,", "And, in this dream-field Life sat like a dove", "And cooed across unto her dove-mate Death,", "Brooding, pathetic, by a river, lone.", "Oh, sharper tangs pierced through this perfumed May.", "Strange aches sailed by with odors on the wind", "As when we kneel in flowers that grow on graves", "Of friends who died unworthy of our love.", "King John of France was proving such an ache", "In English prisons wide and fair and grand,", "Whose long expanses of green park and chace", "Did ape large liberty with such success", "As smiles of irony ape smiles of love.", "Down from the oaks of Hertford Castle park,", "Double with warm rose-breaths of southern Spring", "Came rumors, as if odors too had thorns,", "Sharp rumors, how the three Estates of France,", "Like old Three-headed Cerberus of Hell", "Had set upon the Duke of Normandy,", "Their rightful Regent, snarled in his great face,", "Snapped jagged teeth in inch-breadth of his throat,", "And blown such hot and savage breath upon him,", "That he had tossed great sops of royalty", "Unto the clamorous, three-mawed baying beast.", "And was not further on his way withal,", "And had but changed a snarl into a growl:", "How Arnold de Cervolles had ta'en the track", "That war had burned along the unhappy land,", "Shouting, `since France is then too poor to pay", "The soldiers that have bloody devoir done,", "And since needs must, pardie! a man must eat,", "Arm, gentlemen! swords slice as well as knives!'", "And so had tempted stout men from the ranks,", "And now was adding robbers' waste to war's,", "Stealing the leavings of remorseless battle,", "And making gaunter the gaunt bones of want:", "How this Cervolles (called \"Arch-priest\" by the mass)", "Through warm Provence had marched and menace made", "Against Pope Innocent at Avignon,", "And how the Pope nor ate nor drank nor slept,", "Through godly fear concerning his red wines.", "For if these knaves should sack his holy house", "And all the blessed casks be knocked o' the head,", "HORRENDUM! all his Holiness' drink to be", "Profanely guzzled down the reeking throats", "Of scoundrels, and inflame them on to seize", "The massy coffers of the Church's gold,", "And steal, mayhap, the carven silver shrine", "And all the golden crucifixes? No! --", "And so the holy father Pope made stir", "And had sent forth a legate to Cervolles,", "And treated with him, and made compromise,", "And, last, had bidden all the Arch-priest's troop", "To come and banquet with him in his house,", "Where they did wassail high by night and day", "And Father Pope sat at the board and carved", "Midst jokes that flowed full greasily,", "And priest and soldier trolled good songs for mass,", "And all the prayers the Priests made were, `pray, drink,'", "And all the oaths the Soldiers swore were, `drink!'", "Till Mirth sat like a jaunty postillon", "Upon the back of Time and urged him on", "With piquant spur, past chapel and past cross:", "How Charles, King of Navarre, in long duress", "By mandate of King John within the walls", "Of Crevacoeur and then of strong Alleres,", "In faithful ward of Sir Tristan du Bois,", "Was now escaped, had supped with Guy Kyrec,", "Had now a pardon of the Regent Duke", "By half compulsion of a Paris mob,", "Had turned the people's love upon himself", "By smooth harangues, and now was bold to claim", "That France was not the Kingdom of King John,", "But, By our Lady, his, by right and worth,", "And so was plotting treason in the State,", "And laughing at weak Charles of Normandy.", "Nay, these had been like good news to the King,", "Were any man but bold enough to tell", "The King what [bitter] sayings men had made", "And hawked augmenting up and down the land", "Against the barons and great lords of France", "That fled from English arrows at Poictiers.", "POICTIERS, POICTIERS: this grain i' the eye of France", "Had swelled it to a big and bloodshot ball", "That looked with rage upon a world askew.", "Poictiers' disgrace was now but two years old,", "Yet so outrageous rank and full was grown", "That France was wholly overspread with shade,", "And bitter fruits lay on the untilled ground", "That stank and bred so foul contagious smells", "That not a nose in France but stood awry,", "Nor boor that cried not FAUGH! upon the air.", "", "", "Chapter II.", "", "Franciscan friar John de Rochetaillade", "With gentle gesture lifted up his hand", "And poised it high above the steady eyes", "Of a great crowd that thronged the market-place", "In fair Clermont to hear him prophesy.", "Midst of the crowd old Gris Grillon, the maimed,", "-- A wretched wreck that fate had floated out", "From the drear storm of battle at Poictiers.", "A living man whose larger moiety", "Was dead and buried on the battle-field --", "A grisly trunk, without or arms or legs,", "And scarred with hoof-cuts over cheek and brow,", "Lay in his wicker-cradle, smiling.", "\"Jacques,\"", "Quoth he, \"My son, I would behold this priest", "That is not fat, and loves not wine, and fasts,", "And stills the folk with waving of his hand,", "And threats the knights and thunders at the Pope.", "Make way for Gris, ye who are whole of limb!", "Set me on yonder ledge, that I may see.\"", "Forthwith a dozen horny hands reached out", "And lifted Gris Grillon upon the ledge,", "Whereon he lay and overlooked the crowd,", "And from the gray-grown hedges of his brows", "Shot forth a glance against the friar's eye", "That struck him like an arrow.", "Then the friar,", "With voice as low as if a maiden hummed", "Love-songs of Provence in a mild day-dream:", "\"And when he broke the second seal, I heard", "The second beast say, Come and see.", "And then", "Went out another horse, and he was red.", "And unto him that sat thereon was given", "To take the peace of earth away, and set", "Men killing one another: and they gave", "To him a mighty sword.\"", "The friar paused", "And pointed round the circle of sad eyes.", "\"There is no face of man or woman here", "But showeth print of the hard hoof of war.", "Ah, yonder leaneth limbless Gris Grillon.", "Friends, Gris Grillon is France.", "Good France; my France,", "Wilt never walk on glory's hills again?", "Wilt never work among thy vines again?", "Art footless and art handless evermore?", "-- Thou felon, War, I do arraign thee now", "Of mayhem of the four main limbs of France!", "Thou old red criminal, stand forth; I charge", "-- But O, I am too utter sorrowful", "To urge large accusation now.", "Nathless,", "My work to-day, is still more grievous. Hear!", "The stains that war hath wrought upon the land", "Show but as faint white flecks, if seen o' the side", "Of those blood-covered images that stalk", "Through yon cold chambers of the future, as", "The prophet-mood, now stealing on my soul,", "Reveals them, marching, marching, marching. See!", "There go the kings of France, in piteous file.", "The deadly diamonds shining in their crowns", "Do wound the foreheads of their Majesties", "And glitter through a setting of blood-gouts", "As if they smiled to think how men are slain", "By the sharp facets of the gem of power,", "And how the kings of men are slaves of stones.", "But look! The long procession of the kings", "Wavers and stops; the world is full of noise,", "The ragged peoples storm the palaces,", "They rave, they laugh, they thirst, they lap the stream", "That trickles from the regal vestments down,", "And, lapping, smack their heated chaps for more,", "And ply their daggers for it, till the kings", "All die and lie in a crooked sprawl of death,", "Ungainly, foul, and stiff as any heap", "Of villeins rotting on a battle-field.", "'Tis true, that when these things have come to pass", "Then never a king shall rule again in France,", "For every villein shall be king in France:", "And who hath lordship in him, whether born", "In hedge or silken bed, shall be a lord:", "And queens shall be as thick i' the land as wives,", "And all the maids shall maids of honor be:", "And high and low shall commune solemnly:", "And stars and stones shall have free interview.", "But woe is me, 'tis also piteous true", "That ere this gracious time shall visit France,", "Your graves, Beloved, shall be some centuries old,", "And so your children's, and their children's graves", "And many generations'.", "Ye, O ye", "Shall grieve, and ye shall grieve, and ye shall grieve.", "Your Life shall bend and o'er his shuttle toil,", "A weaver weaving at the loom of grief.", "Your Life shall sweat 'twixt anvil and hot forge,", "An armorer working at the sword of grief.", "Your Life shall moil i' the ground, and plant his seed,", "A farmer foisoning a huge crop of grief.", "Your Life shall chaffer in the market-place,", "A merchant trading in the goods of grief.", "Your Life shall go to battle with his bow,", "A soldier fighting in defence of grief.", "By every rudder that divides the seas,", "Tall Grief shall stand, the helmsman of the ship.", "By every wain that jolts along the roads,", "Stout Grief shall walk, the driver of the team.", "Midst every herd of cattle on the hills,", "Dull Grief shall lie, the herdsman of the drove.", "Oh Grief shall grind your bread and play your lutes", "And marry you and bury you.", "-- How else?", "Who's here in France, can win her people's faith", "And stand in front and lead the people on?", "Where is the Church?", "The Church is far too fat.", "Not, mark, by robust swelling of the thews,", "But puffed and flabby large with gross increase", "Of wine-fat, plague-fat, dropsy-fat.", "O shame,", "Thou Pope that cheatest God at Avignon,", "Thou that shouldst be the Father of the world", "And Regent of it whilst our God is gone;", "Thou that shouldst blaze with conferred majesty", "And smite old Lust-o'-the-Flesh so as by flame;", "Thou that canst turn thy key and lock Grief up", "Or turn thy key and unlock Heaven's Gate,", "Thou that shouldst be the veritable hand", "That Christ down-stretcheth out of heaven yet", "To draw up him that fainteth to His heart,", "Thou that shouldst bear thy fruit, yet virgin live,", "As she that bore a man yet sinned not,", "Thou that shouldst challenge the most special eyes", "Of Heaven and Earth and Hell to mark thee, since", "Thou shouldst be Heaven's best captain, Earth's best friend,", "And Hell's best enemy -- false Pope, false Pope,", "The world, thy child, is sick and like to die,", "But thou art dinner-drowsy and cannot come:", "And Life is sore beset and crieth `help!'", "But thou brook'st not disturbance at thy wine:", "And France is wild for one to lead her souls;", "But thou art huge and fat and laggest back", "Among the remnants of forsaken camps.", "Thou'rt not God's Pope, thou art the Devil's Pope.", "Thou art first Squire to that most puissant knight,", "Lord Satan, who thy faithful squireship long", "Hath watched and well shall guerdon.", "Ye sad souls,", "So faint with work ye love not, so thin-worn", "With miseries ye wrought not, so outraged", "By strokes of ill that pass th' ill-doers' heads", "And cleave the innocent, so desperate tired", "Of insult that doth day by day abuse", "The humblest dignity of humblest men,", "Ye cannot call toward the Church for help.", "The Church already is o'erworked with care", "Of its dyspeptic stomach.", "Ha, the Church", "Forgets about eternity.", "I had", "A vision of forgetfulness.", "O Dream", "Born of a dream, as yonder cloud is born", "Of water which is born of cloud!", "I thought", "I saw the moonlight lying large and calm", "Upon the unthrobbing bosom of the earth,", "As a great diamond glittering on a shroud.", "A sense of breathlessness stilled all the world.", "Motion stood dreaming he was changed to Rest,", "And Life asleep did fancy he was Death.", "A quick small shadow spotted the white world;", "Then instantly 'twas huge, and huger grew", "By instants till it did o'ergloom all space.", "I lifted up mine eyes -- O thou just God!", "I saw a spectre with a million heads", "Come frantic downward through the universe,", "And all the mouths of it were uttering cries,", "Wherein was a sharp agony, and yet", "The cries were much like laughs: as if Pain laughed.", "Its myriad lips were blue, and sometimes they", "Closed fast and only moaned dim sounds that shaped", "Themselves to one word, `Homeless', and the stars", "Did utter back the moan, and the great hills", "Did bellow it, and then the stars and hills", "Bandied the grief o' the ghost 'twixt heaven and earth.", "The spectre sank, and lay upon the air,", "And brooded, level, close upon the earth,", "With all the myriad heads just over me.", "I glanced in all the eyes and marked that some", "Did glitter with a flame of lunacy,", "And some were soft and false as feigning love,", "And some were blinking with hypocrisy,", "And some were overfilmed by sense, and some", "Blazed with ambition's wild, unsteady fire,", "And some were burnt i' the sockets black, and some", "Were dead as embers when the fire is out.", "A curious zone circled the Spectre's waist,", "Which seemed with strange device to symbol Time.", "It was a silver-gleaming thread of day", "Spiral about a jet-black band of night.", "This zone seemed ever to contract and all", "The frame with momentary spasms heaved", "In the strangling traction which did never cease.", "I cried unto the spectre, `Time hath bound", "Thy body with the fibre of his hours.'", "Then rose a multitude of mocking sounds,", "And some mouths spat at me and cried `thou fool',", "And some, `thou liest', and some, `he dreams': and then", "Some hands uplifted certain bowls they bore", "To lips that writhed but drank with eagerness.", "And some played curious viols, shaped like hearts", "And stringed with loves, to light and ribald tunes,", "And other hands slit throats with knives,", "And others patted all the painted cheeks", "In reach, and others stole what others had", "Unseen, or boldly snatched at alien rights,", "And some o' the heads did vie in a foolish game", "OF WHICH COULD HOLD ITSELF THE HIGHEST, and", "OF WHICH ONE'S NECK WAS STIFF THE LONGEST TIME.", "And then the sea in silence wove a veil", "Of mist, and breathed it upward and about,", "And waved and wound it softly round the world,", "And meshed my dream i' the vague and endless folds,", "And a light wind arose and blew these off,", "And I awoke.", "The many heads are priests", "That have forgot eternity: and Time", "Hath caught and bound them with a withe", "Into a fagot huge, to burn in hell.", "-- Now if the priesthood put such shame upon", "Your cry for leadership, can better help", "Come out of knighthood?", "Lo! you smile, you boors?", "You villeins smile at knighthood?", "Now, thou France", "That wert the mother of fair chivalry,", "Unclose thine eyes, unclose thine eyes, here, see,", "Here stand a herd of knaves that laugh to scorn", "Thy gentlemen!", "O contumely hard,", "O bitterness of last disgrace, O sting", "That stings the coward knights of lost Poictiers!", "I would --\" but now a murmur rose i' the crowd", "Of angry voices, and the friar leapt", "From where he stood to preach and pressed a path", "Betwixt the mass that way the voices came.", "", "", "Chapter III.", "", "Lord Raoul was riding castleward from field.", "At left hand rode his lady and at right", "His fool whom he loved better; and his bird,", "His fine ger-falcon best beloved of all,", "Sat hooded on his wrist and gently swayed", "To the undulating amble of the horse.", "Guest-knights and huntsmen and a noisy train", "Of loyal-stomached flatterers and their squires", "Clattered in retinue, and aped his pace,", "And timed their talk by his, and worked their eyes", "By intimation of his glance, with great", "And drilled precision.", "Then said the fool:", "\"'Twas a brave flight, my lord, that last one! brave.", "Didst note the heron once did turn about,", "And show a certain anger with his wing,", "And make as if he almost dared, not quite,", "To strike the falcon, ere the falcon him?", "A foolish damnable advised bird,", "Yon heron! What? Shall herons grapple hawks?", "God made the herons for the hawks to strike,", "And hawk and heron made he for lords' sport.\"", "\"What then, my honey-tongued Fool, that knowest", "God's purposes, what made he fools for?\"", "\"For", "To counsel lords, my lord. Wilt hear me prove", "Fools' counsel better than wise men's advice?\"", "\"Aye, prove it. If thy logic fail, wise fool,", "I'll cause two wise men whip thee soundly.\"", "\"So:", "`Wise men are prudent: prudent men have care", "For their own proper interest; therefore they", "Advise their own advantage, not another's.", "But fools are careless: careless men care not", "For their own proper interest; therefore they", "Advise their friend's advantage, not their own.'", "Now hear the commentary, Cousin Raoul.", "This fool, unselfish, counsels thee, his lord,", "Go not through yonder square, where, as thou see'st", "Yon herd of villeins, crick-necked all with strain", "Of gazing upward, stand, and gaze, and take", "With open mouth and eye and ear, the quips", "And heresies of John de Rochetaillade.\"", "Lord Raoul half turned him in his saddle round,", "And looked upon his fool and vouchsafed him", "What moiety of fastidious wonderment", "A generous nobleness could deign to give", "To such humility, with eye superb", "Where languor and surprise both showed themselves,", "Each deprecating t'other.", "\"Now, dear knave,", "Be kind and tell me -- tell me quickly, too, --", "Some proper reasonable ground or cause,", "Nay, tell me but some shadow of some cause,", "Nay, hint me but a thin ghost's dream of cause,", "(So will I thee absolve from being whipped)", "Why I, Lord Raoul, should turn my horse aside", "From riding by yon pitiful villein gang,", "Or ay, by God, from riding o'er their heads", "If so my humor serve, or through their bodies,", "Or miring fetlocks in their nasty brains,", "Or doing aught else I will in my Clermont?", "Do me this grace, mine Idiot.\"", "\"Please thy Wisdom", "An thou dost ride through this same gang of boors,", "'Tis my fool's-prophecy, some ill shall fall.", "Lord Raoul, yon mass of various flesh is fused", "And melted quite in one by white-hot words", "The friar speaks. Sir, sawest thou ne'er, sometimes,", "Thine armorer spit on iron when 'twas hot,", "And how the iron flung the insult back,", "Hissing? So this contempt now in thine eye,", "If it shall fall on yonder heated surface", "May bounce back upward. Well: and then? What then?", "Why, if thou cause thy folk to crop some villein's ears,", "So, evil falls, and a fool foretells the truth.", "Or if some erring crossbow-bolt should break", "Thine unarmed head, shot from behind a house,", "So, evil falls, and a fool foretells the truth.\"", "\"Well,\" quoth Lord Raoul, with languid utterance,", "\"'Tis very well -- and thou'rt a foolish fool,", "Nay, thou art Folly's perfect witless man,", "Stupidity doth madly dote on thee,", "And Idiocy doth fight her for thy love,", "Yet Silliness doth love thee best of all,", "And while they quarrel, snatcheth thee to her", "And saith `Ah! 'tis my sweetest No-brains: mine!'", "-- And 'tis my mood to-day some ill shall fall.\"", "And there right suddenly Lord Raoul gave rein", "And galloped straightway to the crowded square,", "-- What time a strange light flickered in the eyes", "Of the calm fool, that was not folly's gleam,", "But more like wisdom's smile at plan well laid", "And end well compassed. In the noise of hoofs", "Secure, the fool low-muttered: \"`Folly's love!'", "So: `Silliness' sweetheart: no-brains:' quoth my Lord.", "Why, how intolerable an ass is he", "Whom Silliness' sweetheart drives so, by the ear!", "Thou languid, lordly, most heart-breaking Nought!", "Thou bastard zero, that hast come to power,", "Nothing's right issue failing! Thou mere `pooh'", "That Life hath uttered in some moment's pet,", "And then forgot she uttered thee! Thou gap", "In time, thou little notch in circumstance!\"", "", "", "Chapter IV.", "", "Lord Raoul drew rein with all his company,", "And urged his horse i' the crowd, to gain fair view", "Of him that spoke, and stopped at last, and sat", "Still, underneath where Gris Grillon was laid,", "And heard, somewhile, with languid scornful gaze,", "The friar putting blame on priest and knight.", "But presently, as 'twere in weariness,", "He gazed about, and then above, and so", "Made mark of Gris Grillon.", "\"So, there, old man,", "Thou hast more brows than legs!\"", "\"I would,\" quoth Gris,", "\"That thou, upon a certain time I wot,", "Hadst had less legs and bigger brows, my Lord!\"", "Then all the flatterers and their squires cried out", "Solicitous, with various voice, \"Go to,", "Old Rogue,\" or \"Shall I brain him, my good Lord?\"", "Or, \"So, let me but chuck him from his perch,\"", "Or, \"Slice his tongue to piece his leg withal,\"", "Or, \"Send his eyes to look for his missing arms.\"", "But my Lord Raoul was in the mood, to-day,", "Which craves suggestions simply with a view", "To flout them in the face, and so waved hand", "Backward, and stayed the on-pressing sycophants", "Eager to buy rich praise with bravery cheap.", "\"I would know why,\" -- he said -- \"thou wishedst me", "Less legs and bigger brows; and when?\"", "\"Wouldst know?", "Learn then,\" cried Gris Grillon and stirred himself,", "In a great spasm of passion mixed with pain;", "\"An thou hadst had more courage and less speed,", "Then, ah my God! then could not I have been", "That piteous gibe of a man thou see'st I am.", "Sir, having no disease, nor any taint", "Nor old hereditament of sin or shame,", "-- But, feeling the brave bound and energy", "Of daring health that leaps along the veins --", "As a hart upon his river banks at morn,", "-- Sir, wild with the urgings and hot strenuous beats", "Of manhood's heart in this full-sinewed breast", "Which thou may'st even now discern is mine,", "-- Sir, full aware, each instant in each day,", "Of motions of great muscles, once were mine,", "And thrill of tense thew-knots, and stinging sense", "Of nerves, nice, capable and delicate:", "-- Sir, visited each hour by passions great", "That lack all instrument of utterance,", "Passion of love -- that hath no arm to curve;", "Passion of speed -- that hath no limb to stretch;", "Yea, even that poor feeling of desire", "Simply to turn me from this side to that,", "(Which brooded on, into wild passion grows", "By reason of the impotence that broods)", "Balked of its end and unachievable", "Without assistance of some foreign arm,", "-- Sir, moved and thrilled like any perfect man,", "O, trebly moved and thrilled, since poor desires", "That are of small import to happy men", "Who easily can compass them, to me", "Become mere hopeless Heavens or actual Hells,", "-- Sir, strengthened so with manhood's seasoned soul,", "I lie in this damned cradle day and night,", "Still, still, so still, my Lord: less than a babe", "In powers but more than any man in needs;", "Dreaming, with open eye, of days when men", "Have fallen cloven through steel and bone and flesh", "At single strokes of this -- of that big arm", "Once wielded aught a mortal arm might wield,", "Waking a prey to any foolish gnat", "That wills to conquer my defenceless brow", "And sit thereon in triumph; hounded ever", "By small necessities of barest use", "Which, since I cannot compass them alone,", "Do snarl my helplessness into mine ear,", "Howling behind me that I have no hands,", "And yelping round me that I have no feet:", "So that my heart is stretched by tiny ills", "That are so much the larger that I knew", "In bygone days how trifling small they were:", "-- Dungeoned in wicker, strong as 'twere in stone;", "-- Fast chained with nothing, firmer than with steel;", "-- Captive in limb, yet free in eye and ear,", "Sole tenant of this puny Hell in Heaven:", "-- And this -- all this -- because I was a man!", "For, in the battle -- ha, thou know'st, pale-face!", "When that the four great English horsemen bore", "So bloodily on thee, I leapt to front", "To front of thee -- of thee -- and fought four blades,", "Thinking to win thee time to snatch thy breath,", "And, by a rearing fore-hoof stricken down,", "Mine eyes, through blood, my brain, through pain,", "-- Midst of a dim hot uproar fainting down --", "Were 'ware of thee, far rearward, fleeing! Hound!\"", "", "", "Chapter V.", "", "Then, as the passion of old Gris Grillon", "A wave swift swelling, grew to highest height", "And snapped a foaming consummation forth", "With salty hissing, came the friar through", "The mass. A stillness of white faces wrought", "A transient death on all the hands and breasts", "Of all the crowd, and men and women stood,", "One instant, fixed, as they had died upright.", "Then suddenly Lord Raoul rose up in selle", "And thrust his dagger straight upon the breast", "Of Gris Grillon, to pin him to the wall;", "But ere steel-point met flesh, tall Jacques Grillon", "Had leapt straight upward from the earth, and in", "The self-same act had whirled his bow by end", "With mighty whirr about his head, and struck", "The dagger with so featly stroke and full", "That blade flew up and hilt flew down, and left", "Lord Raoul unfriended of his weapon.", "Then", "The fool cried shrilly, \"Shall a knight of France", "Go stabbing his own cattle?\" And Lord Raoul,", "Calm with a changing mood, sat still and called:", "\"Here, huntsmen, 'tis my will ye seize the hind", "That broke my dagger, bind him to this tree", "And slice both ears to hair-breadth of his head,", "To be his bloody token of regret", "That he hath put them to so foul employ", "As catching villainous breath of strolling priests", "That mouth at knighthood and defile the Church.\"", "The knife . . . . . [Rest of line lost.]", "To place the edge . . . [Rest of line lost.]", "Mary! the blood! it oozes sluggishly,", "Scorning to come at call of blade so base.", "Sathanas! He that cuts the ear has left", "The blade sticking at midway, for to turn", "And ask the Duke \"if 'tis not done", "Thus far with nice precision,\" and the Duke", "Leans down to see, and cries, \"'tis marvellous nice,", "Shaved as thou wert ear-barber by profession!\"", "Whereat one witling cries, \"'tis monstrous fit,", "In sooth, a shaven-pated priest should have", "A shaven-eared audience;\" and another,", "\"Give thanks, thou Jacques, to this most gracious Duke", "That rids thee of the life-long dread of loss", "Of thy two ears, by cropping them at once;", "And now henceforth full safely thou may'st dare", "The powerfullest Lord in France to touch", "An ear of thine;\" and now the knave o' the knife", "Seizes the handle to commence again, and saws", "And . . ha! Lift up thine head, O Henry! Friend!", "'Tis Marie, walking midway of the street,", "As she had just stepped forth from out the gate", "Of the very, very Heaven where God is,", "Still glittering with the God-shine on her! Look!", "And there right suddenly the fool looked up", "And saw the crowd divided in two ranks.", "Raoul pale-stricken as a man that waits", "God's first remark when he hath died into", "God's sudden presence, saw the cropping knave", "A-pause with knife in hand, the wondering folk", "All straining forward with round-ringed eyes,", "And Gris Grillon calm smiling while he prayed", "The Holy Virgin's blessing.", "Down the lane", "Betwixt the hedging bodies of the crowd,", "[Part of line lost.] . . . . majesty", "[Part of line lost.] . . a spirit pacing on the top", "Of springy clouds, and bore straight on toward", "The Duke. On him her eyes burned steadily", "With such gray fires of heaven-hot command", "As Dawn burns Night away with, and she held", "Her white forefinger quivering aloft", "At greatest arm's-length of her dainty arm,", "In menace sweeter than a kiss could be", "And terribler than sudden whispers are", "That come from lips unseen, in sunlit room.", "So with the spell of all the Powers of Sense", "That e'er have swayed the savagery of hot blood", "Raying from her whole body beautiful,", "She held the eyes and wills of all the crowd.", "Then from the numbed hand of him that cut,", "The knife dropped down, and the quick fool stole in", "And snatched and deftly severed all the withes", "Unseen, and Jacques burst forth into the crowd,", "And then the mass completed the long breath", "They had forgot to draw, and surged upon", "The centre where the maiden stood with sound", "Of multitudes of blessings, and Lord Raoul", "Rode homeward, silent and most pale and strange,", "Deep-wrapt in moody fits of hot and cold.", "(End of Chapter V.)", ". . . . . . .", "", "", "Song for \"The Jacquerie\".", "", "", "May the maiden,", "Violet-laden", "Out of the violet sea,", "Comes and hovers", "Over lovers,", "Over thee, Marie, and me,", "Over me and thee.", "", "Day the stately,", "Sunken lately", "Into the violet sea,", "Backward hovers", "Over lovers,", "Over thee, Marie, and me,", "Over me and thee.", "", "Night the holy,", "Sailing slowly", "Over the violet sea,", "Stars uncovers", "Over lovers,", "Stars for thee, Marie, and me,", "Stars for me and thee.", "", "", "Song for \"The Jacquerie\".", "", "Betrayal.", "", "", "The sun has kissed the violet sea,", "And burned the violet to a rose.", "O Sea! wouldst thou not better be", "Mere violet still? Who knows? who knows?", "Well hides the violet in the wood:", "The dead leaf wrinkles her a hood,", "And winter's ill is violet's good;", "But the bold glory of the rose,", "It quickly comes and quickly goes --", "Red petals whirling in white snows,", "Ah me!", "", "The sun has burnt the rose-red sea:", "The rose is turned to ashes gray.", "O Sea, O Sea, mightst thou but be", "The violet thou hast been to-day!", "The sun is brave, the sun is bright,", "The sun is lord of love and light;", "But after him it cometh night.", "Dim anguish of the lonesome dark! --", "Once a girl's body, stiff and stark,", "Was laid in a tomb without a mark,", "Ah me!", "", "", "Song for \"The Jacquerie\".", "", "", "The hound was cuffed, the hound was kicked,", "O' the ears was cropped, o' the tail was nicked,", "(All.) Oo-hoo-o, howled the hound.", "The hound into his kennel crept;", "He rarely wept, he never slept.", "His mouth he always open kept", "Licking his bitter wound,", "The hound,", "(All.) U-lu-lo, HOWLED THE HOUND.", "", "A star upon his kennel shone", "That showed the hound a meat-bare bone.", "(All.) O hungry was the hound!", "The hound had but a churlish wit.", "He seized the bone, he crunched, he bit.", "\"An thou wert Master, I had slit", "Thy throat with a huge wound,\"", "Quo' hound.", "(All.) O, angry was the hound.", "", "The star in castle-window shone,", "The Master lay abed, alone.", "(All.) Oh ho, why not? quo' hound.", "He leapt, he seized the throat, he tore", "The Master, head from neck, to floor,", "And rolled the head i' the kennel door,", "And fled and salved his wound,", "Good hound!", "(All.) U-lu-lo, HOWLED THE HOUND." ], "linecount": "775" }, { "title": "Struggle", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "My soul is like the oar that momently", "Dies in a desperate stress beneath the wave,", "Then glitters out again and sweeps the sea:", "Each second I'm new-born from some new grave." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Corn", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "To-day the woods are trembling through and through", "With shimmering forms, that flash before my view,", "Then melt in green as dawn-stars melt in blue.", "The leaves that wave against my cheek caress", "Like women's hands; the embracing boughs express", "A subtlety of mighty tenderness;", "The copse-depths into little noises start,", "That sound anon like beatings of a heart,", "Anon like talk 'twixt lips not far apart.", "The beech dreams balm, as a dreamer hums a song;", "Through that vague wafture, expirations strong", "Throb from young hickories breathing deep and long", "With stress and urgence bold of prisoned spring", "And ecstasy of burgeoning.", "Now, since the dew-plashed road of morn is dry,", "Forth venture odors of more quality", "And heavenlier giving. Like Jove's locks awry,", "Long muscadines", "Rich-wreathe the spacious foreheads of great pines,", "And breathe ambrosial passion from their vines.", "I pray with mosses, ferns and flowers shy", "That hide like gentle nuns from human eye", "To lift adoring perfumes to the sky.", "I hear faint bridal-sighs of brown and green", "Dying to silent hints of kisses keen", "As far lights fringe into a pleasant sheen.", "I start at fragmentary whispers, blown", "From undertalks of leafy souls unknown,", "Vague purports sweet, of inarticulate tone.", "Dreaming of gods, men, nuns and brides, between", "Old companies of oaks that inward lean", "To join their radiant amplitudes of green", "I slowly move, with ranging looks that pass", "Up from the matted miracles of grass", "Into yon veined complex of space", "Where sky and leafage interlace", "So close, the heaven of blue is seen", "Inwoven with a heaven of green.", "", "I wander to the zigzag-cornered fence", "Where sassafras, intrenched in brambles dense,", "Contests with stolid vehemence", "The march of culture, setting limb and thorn", "As pikes against the army of the corn.", "", "There, while I pause, my fieldward-faring eyes", "Take harvests, where the stately corn-ranks rise,", "Of inward dignities", "And large benignities and insights wise,", "Graces and modest majesties.", "Thus, without theft, I reap another's field;", "Thus, without tilth, I house a wondrous yield,", "And heap my heart with quintuple crops concealed.", "", "Look, out of line one tall corn-captain stands", "Advanced beyond the foremost of his bands,", "And waves his blades upon the very edge", "And hottest thicket of the battling hedge.", "Thou lustrous stalk, that ne'er mayst walk nor talk,", "Still shalt thou type the poet-soul sublime", "That leads the vanward of his timid time", "And sings up cowards with commanding rhyme --", "Soul calm, like thee, yet fain, like thee, to grow", "By double increment, above, below;", "Soul homely, as thou art, yet rich in grace like thee,", "Teaching the yeomen selfless chivalry", "That moves in gentle curves of courtesy;", "Soul filled like thy long veins with sweetness tense,", "By every godlike sense", "Transmuted from the four wild elements.", "Drawn to high plans,", "Thou lift'st more stature than a mortal man's,", "Yet ever piercest downward in the mould", "And keepest hold", "Upon the reverend and steadfast earth", "That gave thee birth;", "Yea, standest smiling in thy future grave,", "Serene and brave,", "With unremitting breath", "Inhaling life from death,", "Thine epitaph writ fair in fruitage eloquent,", "Thyself thy monument.", "", "As poets should,", "Thou hast built up thy hardihood", "With universal food,", "Drawn in select proportion fair", "From honest mould and vagabond air;", "From darkness of the dreadful night,", "And joyful light;", "From antique ashes, whose departed flame", "In thee has finer life and longer fame;", "From wounds and balms,", "From storms and calms,", "From potsherds and dry bones", "And ruin-stones.", "Into thy vigorous substance thou hast wrought", "Whate'er the hand of Circumstance hath brought;", "Yea, into cool solacing green hast spun", "White radiance hot from out the sun.", "So thou dost mutually leaven", "Strength of earth with grace of heaven;", "So thou dost marry new and old", "Into a one of higher mould;", "So thou dost reconcile the hot and cold,", "The dark and bright,", "And many a heart-perplexing opposite,", "And so,", "Akin by blood to high and low,", "Fitly thou playest out thy poet's part,", "Richly expending thy much-bruised heart", "In equal care to nourish lord in hall", "Or beast in stall:", "Thou took'st from all that thou mightst give to all.", "", "O steadfast dweller on the selfsame spot", "Where thou wast born, that still repinest not --", "Type of the home-fond heart, the happy lot! --", "Deeply thy mild content rebukes the land", "Whose flimsy homes, built on the shifting sand", "Of trade, for ever rise and fall", "With alternation whimsical,", "Enduring scarce a day,", "Then swept away", "By swift engulfments of incalculable tides", "Whereon capricious Commerce rides.", "Look, thou substantial spirit of content!", "Across this little vale, thy continent,", "To where, beyond the mouldering mill,", "Yon old deserted Georgian hill", "Bares to the sun his piteous aged crest", "And seamy breast,", "By restless-hearted children left to lie", "Untended there beneath the heedless sky,", "As barbarous folk expose their old to die.", "Upon that generous-rounding side,", "With gullies scarified", "Where keen Neglect his lash hath plied,", "Dwelt one I knew of old, who played at toil,", "And gave to coquette Cotton soul and soil.", "Scorning the slow reward of patient grain,", "He sowed his heart with hopes of swifter gain,", "Then sat him down and waited for the rain.", "He sailed in borrowed ships of usury --", "A foolish Jason on a treacherous sea,", "Seeking the Fleece and finding misery.", "Lulled by smooth-rippling loans, in idle trance", "He lay, content that unthrift Circumstance", "Should plough for him the stony field of Chance.", "Yea, gathering crops whose worth no man might tell,", "He staked his life on games of Buy-and-Sell,", "And turned each field into a gambler's hell.", "Aye, as each year began,", "My farmer to the neighboring city ran;", "Passed with a mournful anxious face", "Into the banker's inner place;", "Parleyed, excused, pleaded for longer grace;", "Railed at the drought, the worm, the rust, the grass;", "Protested ne'er again 'twould come to pass;", "With many an `oh' and `if' and `but alas'", "Parried or swallowed searching questions rude,", "And kissed the dust to soften Dives's mood.", "At last, small loans by pledges great renewed,", "He issues smiling from the fatal door,", "And buys with lavish hand his yearly store", "Till his small borrowings will yield no more.", "Aye, as each year declined,", "With bitter heart and ever-brooding mind", "He mourned his fate unkind.", "In dust, in rain, with might and main,", "He nursed his cotton, cursed his grain,", "Fretted for news that made him fret again,", "Snatched at each telegram of Future Sale,", "And thrilled with Bulls' or Bears' alternate wail --", "In hope or fear alike for ever pale.", "And thus from year to year, through hope and fear,", "With many a curse and many a secret tear,", "Striving in vain his cloud of debt to clear,", "At last", "He woke to find his foolish dreaming past,", "And all his best-of-life the easy prey", "Of squandering scamps and quacks that lined his way", "With vile array,", "From rascal statesman down to petty knave;", "Himself, at best, for all his bragging brave,", "A gamester's catspaw and a banker's slave.", "Then, worn and gray, and sick with deep unrest,", "He fled away into the oblivious West,", "Unmourned, unblest.", "", "Old hill! old hill! thou gashed and hairy Lear", "Whom the divine Cordelia of the year,", "E'en pitying Spring, will vainly strive to cheer --", "King, that no subject man nor beast may own,", "Discrowned, undaughtered and alone --", "Yet shall the great God turn thy fate,", "And bring thee back into thy monarch state", "And majesty immaculate.", "Lo, through hot waverings of the August morn,", "Thou givest from thy vasty sides forlorn", "Visions of golden treasuries of corn --", "Ripe largesse lingering for some bolder heart", "That manfully shall take thy part,", "And tend thee,", "And defend thee,", "With antique sinew and with modern art." ], "linecount": "200" } ]