r. -> Class IP 5 ItM ^ Book ■ ■ ' '/:> /■Tyo ^ By bcMjiiest of ' William Lukens Shoemaker THE HOPE OF THE WORLD AND OTHER POEMS BY WILLIAM WATSON Poems Lachrymae Musarum Lyric Love, an Anthology The Prince's Quest The Eloping Angels Odes and other Poems The Father of the Forest The Year of Shame Excursions in Criticism THE HOPE OF THE WORLD And Other Poems BY WILLIAM WATSON \ JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK AND LONDON 1898 Copyright, 1897 By John Lane oifi. T S '08 I r TO f. !). RICHARD GARNETT, Esq., C.B., LL.D. Mr DEAR DR. GARNETTy It so happens that you and I have some early associations in conwion — associations which gather around a certain lovely Yorkshire dale, where part of your youth was passed, and where I was born. Nature and circum- stance having thus given me one link with you, may I not myself add another by placing my name as near as possible to your ozuny and so perpetuating a neighbourly tradition P Forgive me for taking this easiest way of doing myself honour. And believe me. Tours ever sincerely, WILLIAM WATSON. VENTNOR. Nov. 1897. CONTENTS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD i Higher than heaven they sit THE UNKNOWN GOD 17 When, overarched by gorgeous night ODE IN MAY 23 Let me go forth, and share ESTRANGEMENT 31 So, without overt breach, we tall apart AN INSCRIPTION AT WINDERMERE • - • 33 Guest of this fair abode, before thee rise THE HEIGHTS AND THE DEEPS .... 36 This is the summit, wild and lone A FLY-LEAF POEM 38 Here, in this book, the wise may find TO MRS. HERBERT STUDD 39 Amid the billowing leagues of Sarum Plain viii ' * CONTENTS PAGE SONG 41 April, April THEV AND WE ^2 With stormy joy, from height on height TO S. W. IN THE FOREST 43 Fugitive to Fontaincbleau THE CAPTIVE'S DREAM 45 From birtli we have his captives been TO THE LADV KATHARINE MANNERS . . 47 On lake and toll the loud rains boat INVENTION 50 I envy not tlie Lark liis song divine THE LURE 51 Come hither and behold them, Sweet THE LOST EDEN 53 But yesterday was Man from Eden driven TO THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH .... 56 Idle the churlish le;igues 'twixt you and me A COURTEZAN — A PATRON 58 Consider her: a woman in wlu se heart ELUSION . , 59 Where shall I lind thee, Joy ? by what great maige CONTENTS ix PAGE TOO LATE 6i Too late to say farewell JUBILEE NIGHT IN WESTMORLAND ... 65 Through that majestic and sonorous day HELLAS, HAIL! 70 Little land so great of heart AFTER DEFEAT 75 Pray, what chorus tljis ? At the tragedy's end, what chorus ? THE THREE NEIGHBOURS 77 Jack, and his brother Sandy, long had been THE HOPE OF THE WORLD THE HOPE OF THE WORLD I Higher than heaven they sit, Life and her consort Law ; And One whose countenance lit In mine more perfect awe, I fain had deemed their peer, Beside them throned above : Ev'n him who casts out fear. Unconquerable Love. Ah, 'twas on earth alone that I his beauty saw. 2. THE HDPE OF THE WORLD II On earth, in homes of men, In hearts that crave and die, Dwells he not also, then, With Godhead, throned on high? This and but this I know : His face I see not there: Here find I him below, Nor find him otherwhere; Born of an aching world, Pain's bridegroom. Death's ally. THE HOPE OF THE WORLD in Did Heaven vouchsafe some sign That through all Nature's frame Boundless ascent benign Is everywhere her aim, Such as man hopes it here, Where he from beasts hath risen, — Then might I read full clear, Ev'n in my sensual prison, That Life and Law and Love are one symphonious name. 4 THE HOPE OF THE WORLD IV Such sign hath Heaven yet lent ? Nay, on this eaCrth, are we So sure 't is real ascent And inmost gain we see ? 'Gainst Evil striving still, Some spoils of v/ar we wrest : Not to discover 111 Were haply state as blest. We vaunt, o'er doubtful foes, a dubious victory. THE HOPE OF THE WORLD In cave and bosky dene Of old there crept and ran The gibbering form obscene That was and was not man. With fairer covering clad The desert beasts went by; The couchant lion had More speculative eye, And goodlier speech the birds, than we when we began. THE 4I0PE OF THE WORLD VI A flattering dream were this — That Earth, from primal bloom, With pangs of prescient bliss Divined us in her womb; That fostering powers have made Our fate their secret care. And wooed us, grade by grade, Up winding stair on stair: But not for golden fancies iron truths make room. THE HOPE OF THE WORLD VII Rather, some random throw Of heedless Nature's die 'T would seem, that from so low Hath lifted man so high. Through untold aeons vast She let him lurk and cower : 'T would seem he climbed at last In mere fortuitous hour, Child of a thousand chances 'neath the indifferent sky. § THE KOPE OF THE WORLD VIII A soul so long deferred In his blind brain he bore, It might have slept unstirred Ten million noontides more. Yea, round him Darkness might * Till now her folds have drawn, O'er that enomious night So casual came the dawn, Such hues of hap and hazard IMan's Emerefence wore ! THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 9 IX If, then, our rise from gloom Hath this capricious air. What ground is mine to assume An upward process tJicrCy In yonder worlds that shine From alien tracts of sky? Nor ground to assume is mine Nor warrant to deny. Equal, my source of hope, my reason for despair. iQ THE H€PE OF THE WORLD And though within me here Hope lingers unsubdued, 'T is because airiest cheer Suffices for her food ! As some adventurous flower, On savage crag-side grown. Seems nourished hour by hour From its wild self alone, So lives inveterate Hope, on her own hardi- hood. THE HOPE OF THE WORLD ii XI She tells me, whispering low : " Wherefore and whence thou wast, Thou shalt behold and know When the great bridge is crossed. For not in mockery He Thy gift of wondering gave. Nor bade thine answer be The blank stare of the grave. Thou shalt behold and know; and find again thy lost." 12 THE HQPE OF THE WORLD XII With rapt eyes fixed afar, She tells me: "Throughout Space, Godward each peopled star Runs with thy Earth a race. Wouldst have the goal so nigh, The course so smooth a field, That Triumph should thereby One half its glory yield ? And can Life's pyramid soar all apex and no base?" THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 13 XIII She saith : " Old dragons lie In bowers of pleasance curled ; And dost thou ask me why? It is a Wizard's world ! Enchanted princes these, Who yet their scales shall cast, And through his sorceries Die into kings at last. Ambushed in Winter's heart the rose of June is furled." 14 . THE I^OPE OF THE WORLD XIV Such are the talcs she tells: Who trusts, the happier he : But nought of virtue dwells In that felicity ! I think the harder feat Were his who should zvithstand A voice so passing sweet, And so profuse a hand. — Hope, I forego the wealth thou fiing'st abroad so free! THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 15 XV Carry thy largesse hence, Light Giver ! Let me learn To abjure the opulence I have done nought to earn; And on this world no more To cast ignoble slight, Counting it but the door Of other worlds more bright. Here, where I faii or conquer, here is my concern : i6 . THE HORE OF THE WORLD XVI Here, where perhaps alone I conquer or I fail^ • Here, o'er the dark Deep blown, I ask no perfumed gale ; I ask the unpampering breath That fits me to endure ♦ Chance, and victorious Death, Life, and my doom obscure. Who know not whence I am sped, nor to what port I sail. THE UNKNOWN GOD When, overarched by gorgeous night, I wave my trivial self away; When all I was to all men's sight Shares the erasure of the day ; Then do I cast my cumbering load, Then do I gain a sense of God. Not him that with fantastic boasts A sombre people dreamed they knew ; The mere barbaric God of Hosts That edged their sword and braced their thew : iS ' TH£ UNKNOWN GOD A God they pitted 'gainst a swarm Of neighbour Gods less vast of arm; A God like some imperious king, Wroth, were his realm not duly awed ; A God for ever hearkening Unto his self-commanded laud; A God for ever jealous grown Of carven wood and graven stone; A God whose ghost, in arch and aisle. Yet haunts his temple — and his tomb; But follows in a little while Odin and Zeus to equal doom ; A God of kindred seed and line; Man's giant shadow, hailed divine. THE UNKNOWN GOD 19 O streaming worlds, O crowded sky, O Life, and mine own soul's abyss, Myself am scarce so small that I Should bow to Deity like this! This my Begetter? This was what Man in his violent youth begot. The God I know of, I shall ne'er Know, though he dwells exceeding nigh. Raise thou the stojie and find me there, Cleave thou the wood and there am L Yea, in my flesh his spirit doth flow, Too near, too far, for me to know. Whate'er my deeds, I am not sure That I can pleasure him or vex: 20 . TH|: UNKNOWN GOD I that must use a speech so poor It narrows the Supreme with sex. Notes he the good or ill in man? To hope he cares is all I can. I hope — with fear. For did I trust This vision granted me at birth, The sire of heaven would seem less just Than many a faulty son of earth. And so he seems indeed ! But then, I trust it not, this bounded ken. And dreaming much, I never dare To dream that in my prisoned soul The flutter of a trembling prayer Can move the Mind that is the Whole. THE UNKNOWN GOD 21 Though kneeling nations watch and yearn, Does the primordial purpose turn? Best by remembering God, say some. We keep our high imperial lot. Fortune, I fear, hath oftenest come When we forgot — when we forgot ! A lovelier faith their happier crown. But history laughs and weeps it down ! Know they not well, how seven times seven, Wronging our mighty arms with rust. We dared not do the work of heaven Lest heaven should hurl us in the dust? The work of heaven ! 'T is waiting still The sanction of the heavenly v/ill. 22 . THi;, UNKNOWN GOD Unmeet to be profaned by praise Is he whose coils the world enfold; The God on whom I ever gaze, The God I never once behold : Above the cloud, beneath the clod : The Unknown God, the Unknown God. ODE IN MAY Let me go forth, and share The overflowing Sun With one wise friend, or one Better than wise, being fair. Where the pewit wheels and dips On heights of bracken and ling. And Earth, unto her leaflet tips, Tingles with the Spring. What is so sweet and dear As a prosperous morn in May, 24 ODE IN MAY The confident prime of the day, And the dauntless youth of the year, When nothing that asks for bliss, Asking aright, is denied. And half of the \yorld a bridegroom is. And half of the world a bride ? The Song of Mingling flows, Grave, ceremonial, pure, As once, from lips that endure, The cosmic descant rose. When the temporal lord of life. Going his golden way. Had taken a wondrous maid to wife That long had said him nay. ODE IN MAY 25 For of old the Sun, our sire, Came wooing the mother of men, Earth, that was virginal then. Vestal fire to his fire. Silent her bosom and coy. But the strong god sued and pressed ; And born of their starry nuptial joy Are all that drink of her breast. And the triumph of him that begot. And the travail of her that bore. Behold, they are evermore As warp and weft in our lot. We are children of splendour and flame. Of shuddering, also, and tears. 26 . , ODE IN MAY Magnificent out of the dust we came, And abject from the Spheres. O bright irresistible lord, We are fruit of Earth's womb, each one, And fruit of thy loins, O Sun, Whence first was the seed outpoured. To thee as our Father we bow. Forbidden thy Father to see, Who is older and greater than thou, as thou Art greater and older than we. Thou art but as a word of his speech, Thou art but as a wave of his hand ; Thou art brief as a glitter of sand 'Twixt tide and tide on his beach; ODE IN MAY 27 Thou art less than a spark of his fire, Or a moment's mood of his soul : Thou art lost in the notes on the lips of his choir That chant the chant of the Whole. MISCELLANEOUS POEMS ESTRANGEMENT So, without overt breach, we fall apart, Tacitly sunder — neither you nor I Conscious of one intelligible Why, And both, from severance, winning equal smart. So, with resigned and acquiescent heart, Whene'er your name on some chance lip may lie, I seem to see an alien shade pass by, A spirit wherein I have no lot or part. 32 •■ i^STRANGEMENT Thus may a captive, in some fortress grim, From casual speech betwixt his warders, learn That June on her triumphal progress goes Through arched and bannered woodlands ; while for him She is a legend emptied of concern, And idle is the rumour of the rose. AN INSCRIPTION AT WINDERMERE Guest of this fair abode, before thee rise No summits vast, that icily remote Cannot forget their own magnificence Or once put off their kinghood ; but withal A confraternity of stateliest brows, As Alp or Atlas noble, in port and mien; Old majesties, that on their secular seats Enthroned, are yet of affable access And easy audience, not too great for praise, Not arrogantly aloof from thy concerns, c 34 AN/ INSCRIPTION AT WINDERMERE Not vaunting their indifference to thy fate, Nor so august as to contemn thy love. Do homage to these suavely eminent; But privy to their bosoms wouldst thou be, . • There is a vale, whose seaward-parted lips Murmur eternally some half-divulged Reluctant secret, where thou may'st o'erhear The mountains interchange their confi- dences, Peak with his federate peak, that think aloud Their broad and lucid thoughts, in liberal day: Thither repair alone : the mountain heart AN- INSCRIPTION AT WINDERMERE 35 Not two may enter; thence returning, tell What thou hast heard; and 'mid the immortal friends Of mortals, the selectest fellowship Of poets divine, place shall be found for thee. THE HEIGHTS AND THE DEEPS This is the summit, wild and lone. Westward the Cumbrian mountains stand. Let me look eastward on mine own Ancestral land. O sing me songs, O tell me tales, Of yonder valleys at my feet ! She was a daughter of these dales, A daughter sweet. Oft did she speak of homesteads there, And faces that her childhood knew. THE HEIGHTS AND THE DEEPS n She speaks no more ; and scarce I dare To deem it true, That somehow she can still behold Sunlight and moonlight, earth and sea, Which were among the gifts untold She gave to me. A FLY-LEAF POEM (TO A LITTLE GIRL, WITH A STORY-BOOK "WYxMPS," BY EVELYN SHARP) Here, in this book, the wise may find A world exactly to their mind. From fairy kings to talking fish, There 's everything such persons wish ! Sweeter little maid than you Never read a story through. Through a sweeter little book Little maid shall never look. TO MRS. HERBERT STUDD Amid the billowing leagues of Sarum Plain I read the heroic songs, which he, the bard* Of your own house and lineage, lovingly Hath fashioned, out of Ireland's deeds and dreams, And her far glories, and her ancient tears. The sheep-bells tinkled in the fold. Hard by. * Mr. Aubrey de Vere. 40 /TO M|IS. HERBERT STUDD A whimpering pewit's desultory wing Made loneliness more manifestly lone. Friend, would you judge your poets, try them thus : Read them where rolls" the moorland, or the main ! Not light is then their ordeal, so to stand Neighboured by these large natural Pres- ences; Nor transitory their honour, who, like him. No inch of spiritual stature lose, Measured against the eternal amplitudes. And tested by the clear and healthful sky. SONG April, April, Laugh thy girlish laughter; Then, the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears, April, that mine ears Like a lover greetest, If I tell thee, sweetest. All my hopes and fears, April, April, Laugh thy golden laughter, But, the moment after, Weep thy golden tears ! THEY AND WE With stormy joy, from height on height, The thundering torrents leap. The mountain tops, with still delight, Their great inaction keep. Man only, irked by calm, and rent By each emotion's throes, Neither in passion finds content, Nor finds it in repose. TO S. W. IN THE FOREST Fugitive to Fontainebleau From this world of park and square, • Is our London, think you, so Super-erogantly fair That yourself it well can spare ? Does the Forest need you ? No ! Any hidden hollow there Sweet enough without you were. You are palpably de trop In the glades of Fontainebleau. 44 , TO S. W. IN THE FOREST Ah, return ! — and unto where Winter never seems to know When to tarry, when to go, In your eyes and in your hair Bring the Spriijg from Fontainebleau. THE CAPTIVE'S DREAM From birth we have his captives been: For freedom, vain to strive ! This is our chamber: windows five Look forth on his demesne ; And each to its own several hue Translates the outward scene. We cannot once the landscape view Save with the painted panes between. Ah, if there be indeed Beyond one darksome door a secret stair, 46 THE CAPTIVE'S DREAM That, winding to the battlements, shall lead Hence to pure light, free air! This is the master hope, or the supreme despair. TO THE LADY KATHARINE MANNERS (with a volume of the author's poems) On lake and fell the loud rains beat, And August closes rough and rude. 'Twas Summer's whim, to counterfeit The wilder hours her hours prelude. And soon — pathetic last device Of greatness dead and puissance flown ! — She passes to her couch with thrice The pomp of coming to her throne. 48 TO LADY CATHARINE MANNERS But while, by mountain and by mere, Summer and you are hovering yet, A vagrant Muse entreats your ear : Forgive her; and not quite forget! I would that nobler songs than these Her hands might proffer to your hands. I would their notes were as the sea's; I know their faults are as the sands. At least she prompts no vulgar strain; At least are noble themes her choice ; Nor hath she oped her lips in vain, For you take pleasure in her voice. And she hath known the mountain-spell ; The sky-enchantment hath she known. It was her vow that she would dwell With greatest things, or dwell alone. TO LADY KATHARINE MANNERS 49 And various though her mundane lot, She counts herself benignly starred, — All her vicissitudes forgot In your regard. Windermere, Aicgust 1897. INVENTION I ENVY not the Lark his song divine, Nor thee, O Maid, thy beauty's faultless mould. Perhaps the chief felicity is mine, Who hearken and behold. The joy of the Artificer Unknown Whose genius could devise the Lark and thee — This, or a kindred rapture, let me own, I covet ceaselessly ! THE LURE Come hither and behold them, Sweet - The fairy prow that o'er me rides, And white sails of a lagging Fleet On idle tides. Come hither and behold them, Sweet - The lustrous gloom, the vivid shade, The throats of love that burn and beat And shake the glade. 52 - , THE LURE Come, for the hearts of all things pine, And all the paths desire thy feet, And all this beauty asks for thine, As I do, Sweet ! THE LOST EDEN But yesterday was Man from Eden driven. His dream, wherein he dreamed himself the first Of creatures, fashioned for eternity — This was the Eden that he shared with Eve. Eve, the adventurous soul within his soul ! The sleepless, the unslaked! She showed him where 54 ' THE LOST EDEN Amidst his pleasance hung the bough whose fruit Is disenchantment and the perishing Of many glorious errors. And he saw His paradise how narrow : and he saw, — He, who had welhiigh deemed the world itself Of less significance and majesty Than his own part and business in it ! — how Little that part, and in how great a world. And an imperative world-thirst drave him forth, And the gold gates of Eden clanged behind. Never shall he return : for he hath sent His spirit abroad among the infinitudes, THE LOST EDEN 55 And may no more to the ancient pales recall The travelled feet. But oftentimes he feels The intolerable vastness bow him down, The awful homeless spaces scare his soul ; And half-regretful he remembers then His Eden lost, as some grey mariner May think of the far fields where he was bred, And woody ways unbreathed-on by the sea, Though more familiar now the ocean-paths Gleam, and the stars his fathers never knew. <. TO THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH IN ANSWER TO HIS SONNET *' ON READING *THE PURPLE EAST'" Idle the churlish leagues 'twixt you and me, Singer most rich in charm, most rich in grace ! What though I cannot see you face to face ? Allow my boast, that one in blood are we ! One by that secret consanguinity Which binds the children of melodious race, TO THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH 57 And knows not the fortuities of place, And cold interposition of the sea. You are my noble kinsman in the lyre : Forgive the kinsman's freedom that I use, Adventuring these imperfect thanks, who late, Singing a nation's woe, in wonder and ire, — Against me half the wise and all the great, — ■ Sang not alone, for with me was your muse. A COURTEZAN — A PATRON Consider her : a woman in whose heart Whiteness had once some part : A woman from whose heart, to-day, is hidden No lore of things forbidden. And him? Unholy scriptures who could spy, Writ in that brow and eye ? Lightly on man they are pencilled; deep- tattooed On hapless womanhood ! ELUSION Where shall I find thee, Joy? by what great marge With the strong seas exulting? on what peaks Rapt? or astray within what forest bourn, Thy light hands parting the resilient boughs ? Hast thou no answer? . . . Ah, in mine own breast 6o ' , ELUSION Except unsought thou spring, though I go forth And tease the waves for news of thee, and make Importunate inquisition of the woods If thou didst pass that way, I shall but find The brief print of thy footfall on sere leaves And the salt brink, and woo thy touch in vain. TOO LATE Too late to say farewell, To turn, and fall asunder, and forget, And take up the dropped life of yesterday! So ancient, so far-off, is yesterday. To the last hour ere I had kissed thy cheek ! Too late to say farewell. Too late to say farewell. Can aught remain hereafter as of old ? A touch, a tone hath changed the heaven and earth. 6.2 • ^ TOO LATE And in a hand-clasp all begins anew. Somewhat of me is thine, of thee is mine. Too late to say farewell. Too late to say farewell. We are not May-day masquers, thou and I ! We have lived deep life, we have drunk of tragic springs. 'Tis for light hearts to take light leave of love, But ah, for me, for thee, too late, dear Spirit ! Too late to say farewell. POEMS ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS JUBILEE NIGHT IN WESTMOR- LAND Through that majestic and sonorous day, When London was one gaze on her own joy, I walked where yet is silence undeflowered, In the lone places of the fells and meres; And afterward ascended, night being come, To where, high on a salient coign of crag. Fuel was heaped, as on some altar old. Whose immemorial priests propitiated, E 66 ' jtJBILEE NIGHT With unrecorded rites, forgotten gods. Darkly along the ridge the village folk Had gathered, waiting till the unborn fire Should, from its durance in the mother pine, Leap; and anon was given the signal thrice A mimic meteor hissed aloft, and fell All jewels, while the wondering hound that couched Beside me lifted up his head and bayed At the strange portent, with a voice that called Far echoes forth, out of the hollow vales. Then the piled timber blazed against the clouds. JUBILEE NIGHT (>-] Roaring, and oft, a monstrous madcap, shook Hilarious sides, and showered ephemeral gold. And one by one the mountain peaks for- swore Their vowed impassiveness, the mountain peaks Confessed emotion, and I saw these kings Doing perfervid homage to a Queen. Long watched I, and at last to the sweet dale Went down, with thoughts of two great women, thoughts 68 ' ^.UBILEE NIGHT Of two great women who have ruled this land; Of her, that mirrored a fantastic age, The imperious, vehement, abounding Spirit, Mightily made, but gusty as those winds, Her wild allies that broke the spell of Spain; And her who sways, how silently ! a world Dwarfing the glorious Tudor' s queenliest dreams ; Who, to her wellnigh more than mortal task. Hath brought the strength-in-sweetness that prevails. The regal will that royally can yield : Mistress of many peoples, heritress Of many thrones, wardress of many seas ; JUBILEE NIGHT 69 But destined, more melodiously than thus, To be hereafter and for ever hailed, When our imperial legend shall have fired The lips of sage and poet, and when these Shall, to an undispersing audience, sound No sceptred name so winningly august As Thine, my Queen, Victoria the Beloved ! HELLAS, HAIL! (written on the; eve of the war) Little land so great of heart, 'Midst a world so abject grown, Must thou play thy glorious part, Hellas, gloriously alone? Shame on Europe's arms, if she Leave her noblest work to thee ! While she slept her sleep of death. Thou hast dared and thou hast done ; Faced the Shape whose dragon breath Fouls the splendour of the sun. HELLAS, HAIL! 71 Thine to show the world the way, Thine the only deed to-day. Thou, in this thy starry hour, Sittest throned all thrones above. Thou art more than pomp and power, Thou art liberty and love. Doubts and fears in dust be trod : On, thou mandatory of God ! Who are these, would bind thy hands ? Knaves and dastards, none beside. All the just in all the lands Hail thee blest and sanctified, — Curst, who would thy triumph mar, Be he Kaiser, be he Czar. 72 ' ''HELLAS, HAIL! Breathing hatred, plotting strife, Rending beauty, blasting joy, Loathsome round the tree of life Coils the Worm we would destroy. Whoso smites yon Thing Abhorred, Holy, holy is his sword. Foul with slough of all things ill, Turkey lies full sick, men say. Not so sick but she hath still Strength to torture, spoil, and slay ! O that ere this hour be past. She were prone in death at last I Kings, like lacqueys, at her call Raise her, lest in mire she reel. HELLAS, HAIL! 73 Only through her final fall Comes the hope of human weal. Slowly, by such deeds as thine, Breaks afar the light divine. Not since first thy wine-dark wave Laughed in multitudinous mirth. Hath a deed more pure and brave Flushed the wintry cheek of Earth. There is heard no melody Like thy footsteps on the sea. Fiercely sweet as stormy Springs, Mighty hopes are blowing wide; Passionate prefigurings Of a world re-vivified : 74* ftELLAS, HAIL! Dawning thoughts, that ere they set Shall possess the ages yet. Oh ! that she were with thee ranged, Who, for all her faults, can still. In her heart of hearts unchanged, Feel the old heroic thrill ; She, my land, my loved, mine own! — Yet thou art not left alone. All the Powers that soon or late Gain for Man some sacred goal, Are co-partners in thy fate, Are companions of thy soul. Unto thee all Earth shall bow : These are Heaven, and these are thou. AFTER DEFEAT Pray, what chorus this ? At the tragedy's end, what chorus ? Surely bewails it the brave, the unhappily starred, the abandoned Sole unto fate, by yonder invincible kin of the vanquished ? Surely salutes it the fallen, not mocks the protagonist prostrate? Hark. " Make merry. Ye dreamed that a monster sickened : behold him 7<5 ' ''AFTER DEFEAT Rise, new-fanged. Make merry. A hero troubled and shamed you : Jousting in desperate lists, he is trodden of giants in armour. Mighty is Night. Make merry. The Dawn for a season is frustrate." Thus, after all these ages, a paean, a loud jubilation, Mounts, from peoples bemused, to a heaven refraining its thunder. THE THREE NEIGHBOURS AN APOLOGUE Jack, and his brother Sandy, long had been On some such terms with their half-brother Pat As immemorially subsist between The average dog and unregenerate cat : A state of things in which, as you have seen. Life, if unprofitable, scarce is flat, But may at least one desperate ill defy — That Dulness of which men and nations die. LOFC. •78 ' THE^THREE NEIGHBOURS Now Jack's and Sandy's tenements were what The rhetoric of the Auction would have styled Semi-detached — an eligible lot. Jack's faced the south, and was the neatlier tiled And roomier. Sandy's had less garden plot, And gables to the north wind reconciled. Across the brook stood Pat's poor cabin — thatched. And green with moss : a residence detached. Biggest and burliest of our worthies thr-ee, Jack had sent forth his edict that whene'er, In Pat's or Sandy's house, necessity Arose for renovation or repair. THE THREE NEIGHBOURS 79 Then Pat or Sandy, as the case might be, In his (Jack's) parlour must these wants declare. And not a single rotten lath remove Till all the parties (unconcerned) approve. Nor was this all. For on tne upper floor, Above Jack's parlour, v/as a sacred room. Where claims adjudged below were heard once more Amid a lethal peace as of the tomb, — ■ Where settled questions re-emerged, before An ancient Phantom uttering ghostly doom With hollow murmur and eternal drone And other-world-beo-ottcn monotone. So THE ^HREE NEIGHBOURS On Sandy's part was no deep dissidence. From his own door to Jack's was but a stride. There was not ev'n a privet-hedge or fence Their recognised allotments to divide. And they were brothers, who, till age brought sense, Had mutually been pummeled and black- eyed: By which a cordial understanding grew 'Twixt men one-minded — though with fists for two. Pat's case was different From his lonelier cot, Beyond the brawling of that fatal brook, THE THREE NEIGHBOURS 8i For ever with a sullen brow and hot To Jack's his uncongenial way he took; Dreamed of dead glories men remembered not; And, conscious of his poor-relation look — Loth, from his cabin, at such call, to roam — In Jack's fine parlour never felt at home. "Though we be neighbours," — thus protested Pat, — " I am far off in blood, aloof in creed. Half-brother.? Less, a hundred times, than that! Of alien lineage sprung, and wilder seed. And master once in my own house I sat. Only for rule of my own house I plead. 82 the\hree neighbours Nor can the leave to sit in yours atone For lack of leave to call my own, my own. "A bare house, as you saw, and cold fireside! Through many a chink the mad winds pipe and dance. And you grow merry if I speak of pride — Pride in so beggared an inheritance. Yet some old echoes still with me abide Of arts and arms not shamed by yours, perchance. And trust me, you shall crave repose in vain Till I be lord of that poor hearth again." — • Thus, to the strong, the weaker. And while none THE THREE NEIGHBOURS 83 Can doubt the final freeing of the thrall, 'Mid many counsels sure the noblest one Is to do justice though the heaven should fall. And truly, heaven shall fall not, this being done. Yea, and no whit less truly, upon ail Who to the voice of justice give not heed, At last, in fire and storm, heaven falls indeed. List of Books IN BELLES LETTRES JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD 140 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 1897 *. A List of Books in Belles Lettres ADAMS (FRANCIS). Essays in Modernity. Crown 8vo. $1.50. [/;2 preparation. A. E. The Earth Breat;h[ and Other Poems. Fcap. 8vo. $1.25. Printed by Will H. Bradley at the Wayside Press. ALLEN (GRANT). The Lower Slopes. Crown 8vo. $1.50. ATHERTON (GERTRUDE). Patience Sparhawk and her Times. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.50. \_Third edition. BEECHING (REV. H. C). St. Augustine at Ostia : Oxford Sacred Poem. Crown Svo, wrappers. 50 cents. BENNETT (E. A.). A Man from the North. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.25. BENSON (ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER). Lord Vyet and other Poems. Fcap. Svo. $1.25. BODLEY BOOKLETS (THE). With Cover Design by Will H. Bradley. 32mo, wrappers. 35 cents. I. The Happy Hypocrite : A Fairy Tale for Tired Men. By Max Beerbohm. Printed by Will H. Bradley, at the Wayside Press. II. The Making of a Schoolgirl. By Evelyn Sharp. Printed at the University Press. III. The Quest of the Gilt-Edged Girl. By Richard de Lyrienne. BROTHERTON (MARY). Rosemary FOR Remembrance. Fcap. Svo. ^1.21;. BOOKS IN BELLES LETTRES BROWN (VINCENT). Ordeal by Compassion. A Novel. Crown 8vo. $1.50. \^In preparation. Two IN Captivity. A Novel. i6mo. 75 cents. \_I}i preparation. BUCHAN (JOHN). Grey Weather. Crown 8vo. $1.25. {In preparation. John Burnet of Barns: A Romance. Crown 8vo. $1.50. \In preparation. CHAPMAN (ELIZABETH RACHEL). Marriage Questions in Modern Fiction. Crovm Svo. $1.50. CHARLES (JOSEPH F.). The Duke of Linden. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.25. [/;/ preparation. COBB (THOMAS). Carpet Courtship. Crown Svo. 75 cents. {In preparation. Mr. Passingham. Crown Svo. 75 cents. \In preparation. CRACKANTHORPE (HUBERT). Vignettes : a Miniature Journal of Whim and Sen- timent. Fcap. Svo. Boards. $1.00. CRANE (WALTER). Toy Books. A Re-issue. Each with new Cover Design and end papers. This Little Pig's Picture Book, containing : I. This Little Pig. II. The Fairy Ship. III. King Luckieboy's Party. Mother Hubbard's Picture Book, containing : I. Mother Hubbard. II. The Three Bears. III. The Absurd ABC. Cinderella's Picture Book, containing: I. Puss in Boots. II. Valentine and Orson. HI. Cinderella. Each group of three bound in one volume, with a deco- rative cloth cover, end papers, and a newly written and designed Titlepage and Preface. 4to. $1.25 each. Separately, in parts, 25 cents each. BOOKS IN BELLES LETTRES CROSKEY (JULIAN). Max. a Novel. Crown Svo. $1.50. CUSTANCE (OLIVE). Opals: Poems. Fcap. Svo. $1.25. DAEMON (C. W.). Song Favours. Sq. i6mo. $1.25. D'ARCY (ELLA). Poor Human Nature. Fcap. Svo. 75 cents. [/;/ preparation. DAVIDSON (JOHN). New Ballads. Fcap. Svo. $1.50. Ballads and Songs. Fcap. Svo. $1.50. {Fourth edition. A Random Itinerary and a Ballad. With a Frontispiece by Laurence Housman. Fcap. Svo. $1.50. Plays : An Unhistorical Pastoral ; A Romantic Farce ; Bruce, a Chronicle Play ; Smith, a Tragic P'arce ; Scaramouch in Naxos, a Pantomime. With a Fron- tispiece by Aubrey Beardsley. Small 4to. $2.50. DAWE (W. CARLTON). Kakemonos: Tales of the Far East. i6mo. $1.25. DAWSON (A. J.). Mere Sentiment. Crown Svo. $1.25. Middle Greyness. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.50. DOWIE (MENIE MURIEL). Some Whims of Fate. Fcap. Svo. $1.00. EGERTON (GEORGE). Symphonies. Crown Svo. $1.25. Fantasias. Crown Svo. $1.25. Hazard of the III. Crown Svo. $\.zp. {In preparation. EGLINTON (JOHN). Two Essays on the Remnant. Post Svo, wrappers. 50 cents. [Second edition. FEA (ALLAN). The Flight of the King. A full, true, and par- ticular Account of the Escape of His Most Sacred Majesty King Charles II., after the Battle of Worcester. With sixteen Portraits in Photo- gravure, and nearly 100 other Illustrations. Demy Svo. $7.50. PUBLISHED BY JOHN LANE FIFTH (GEORGE). The Martyr's Bible. A Novel. Crown 8vo. $1.50. \Iii preparation. FLETCHER (J. S.). God's Failures. Fcap. 8vo. $1.25. Ballads of Revolt. Square 32mo. $1.00. The. Making of Matthias. With Illustrations by Lucy Kemp-Welch. Crown 8vo. ^1.50. [/« preparation. FLOWERDEW (HERBERT). A Celibate's Wife. A Novel. Crown Svo. $ 1 . 50. \_I)i preparation. GARNETT (RICHARD). Poems. Crown Svo. $1.50. Dante, Petrarch, Camoens, cxxiv Sonnets rendered in English. Crown Svo. ^1.50. GILLIAT-SMITH (E.). The Hymns of Prudentius. \^Iji preparation. GRAHAME (KENNETH). The Golden Age. i6mo. $1.25. \Sevettth edition, GRIMSHAW (BEATRICE). Broken Away. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.50. HAKE (T. GORDON). A Selection from his Poems. Edited by Mrs. Meynell. With a Portrait after D. G. Rossetti. Crown Svo. $1.50. HAY (JOHN). Speech at the Unveiling of the Bust of Sir Walter Scott in Westminster Abbey. With a Drawing of the Bust. Square i6mo. 35 cents. HAYES (ALFRED). The Vale of Arden and other Poems. Fcap. Svo. $1.25. HEINEMANN (WILLIAM). The First Step : A Dramatic Moment. Small 4to. $1.25. HICKSON (Mrs. MURRAY). Shadows of Life, 75 cents. \^In preparation, HOUSMAN (A. E.). A Shropshire Lad: Poems. Fcap. Svo. $1.25. BOOKS IN BELLES LETTRES HOUSMAN (CLEMENCE). The Were Wolf. With 6 full-page Illustrations, Titlepage, and Cover Design by Laurence HouSMAN. Square i6mo. $1.25. HOUSMAN (LAURENCE). 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Poems. $1.50. \^In preparation. The Quest of the Golden Girl. Crown Svo. 5 1. CO. ^Scjenth edition. English Poems. Revised. Crown Svo. Purple cloth. $1.50. \_Foiirth edition. PUBLISHED BY JOHN LANE LE GALLIENNE (RICHARD), contimied. Robert Louis Stevenson : An Elegy. And other Poems, mainly Personal. Crown 8vo. $1.50. George Meredith: Some Characteristics. With a Bibliography (much enlarged) by John Lane. Portrait, etc. Crown 8vo, purple cloth. $2.00. \Oiit of prittt at present. LEGGE (A. E. J.). Threadbare Souls. Crown 8vo. $1.50. {In preparatio7t. LOCKE (W. J.). Derelicts. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.50. LOWRY (H. D.). Make Believe. With 30 Illustrations by Charles Robinson. i6mo. $1.50. The Happy Exile. With etched Illustrations by E. Philip Pimlott. (Arcady Library.) Crown Svo. ^1.50. {In preparation. LUCAS (WINIFRED). Units. Poems. Fcap. Svo. $1.25, McCHESNEY (DORA GREENWELL). Beatrix Infelix. A Summer Tragedy in Rome. Fcap. Svo. 75 cents. {In preparation. MACGREGOR (BARRINGTON). King Longbeard. Illustrated by Charles Robin- son. Crown Svo. $1.50. {In preparatim. MAKOWER (STANLEY V.). Cecilia. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.50. MARZIALS (THEO.). The Gallery of Pigeons and other Poems. Post Svo. $1.50. MATHEW (FRANK). The Wood of the Brambles. A Novel. Crown Svo. 11.50. A Child in the Temple. A Novel. Crown Svo. $1.00. The Spanish Wine. A Novel. Crown Svo. $r.oo. {In preparation. At the Rising of the Moon. Crown Svo. $1.00. [ In preparation. BOOKS IN BELLES LETTRES 5 MEREDITH (GEORGE). The first Published Portrait of this Author. Engraved on the wood by W. Biscombe Gard- ner, after the painting by G. F. Watts. Proof copies on Japanese vellum, signed by Painter and Engraver. $7.50 net. MEYNELL (ALICE). The Children. With Cover, End Papers, Titlepage. Initials, and other Ornaments designed by Will H. Bradley. Fcap. 8vo. $1.25. This is the first book, printed at the Wayside Press, by Will H. Bradley. ' Poems. Fcap. 8vo. $1.25. [Fourth edition. The Rhythm of Life and other Essays. Fcap. 8vo. $1.25. [Fourth edition. The Colour of Life and other Essays. Fcap. 8vo. Si. 25. {Fourth edition. MILMAN (HELEN). In the Garden of Peace. With twenty-four Illus- trations by Edmund H. Nev^. Crown 8vo. $1.50. MONKHOUSE (ALLAN). Books and Plays. A Volume of Essays. Crown 8vo. $1.50. A Deliverance. A Novel. Crown 8vo. $1.25. [In preparation. NOBLE (JAS. ASHCROFT). The Sonnet in England and Other Essays. Crown 8vo. $1.50. OPPENHEIM (M.). A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy, and of Merchant Shipping in relation to the Navy from MDIX. to MDCLX.,with an In- troduction treating of the earlier period. Plates. Demy 8vo. $6.00. PHILLIPS (STEPHEN). Christ in Hades and Other Poems. Crown 8vo. $ 1 . 50. [In preparation. RISLEY (R. v.). The Sentimental Vikings. Crown 8vo. $1.00. ROBERTSON (JOHN M.). New Essays towards a Critical Method. Crown 8vo. $2.00. [In preparation. PUBLISHED BY JOHN LANE ST. CYRES (LORD). The Little Flowers of St. Francis. A new rendering into English of the Fioretti di San Fran- cesco. Crown 8vo. ^1.50. \In preparation. SEAMAN (OWEN). The Battle of the Bays. Fcap. 8vo, Si. 25. [Second edition. Horace at Cambridge. Fcap. 8vo. $1.25. [New edition. SETOUN (GABRIEL). The Child World : Poems. Illustrated by Charles Robinson. Crown 8vo, gilt top. $1.50. SHARP (EVELYN). Wymps: Fairy Tales. With 8 Coloured Illustrations and Decorative Cover by Mrs. Percy Dearmer. 4to. jgi.co. All the Way to Fairyland. With Coloured Il- lustrations by Mrs. Percy Dreamer. 4to. $1.50. The Making of a Prig. A Novel. Crown 8vo. See Bodley Booklets. SHORE (LOUISA). Poems. With a Memoir by her Sister, and an Appre- ciation by Frederick Harrison, and a Portrait. Crown 8vo. $1.50. SIGERSON (DORA). The Fairy Changeling and Other Poems. Crown 8vo. $1.50. [In pj-eparation. STEVENSON (ROBERT LOUIS). Prince Otto. A Rendering m French by Egerton Castle. Crown 8vo. With Frontispiece by D. Y. Cameron. $2.50. Also 50 copies on large paper, uniform in size with the Edinburgh Edition of the works. $7.50. A Mountain Town in France. A Fragment, With 5 Illustrations by the Author. Demy 8vo. wrappers. Only 350 copies printed. $1.50;/^/. STODDART (THOS. T.). The Death Wake. With an Introduction by Andrew Lang. Fcap. Svo. $1.50. lO , BO^KS IN BELLES LETTRES STREET (G. S.). The Wise and the Wayward. A Novel. Crown 8vo. $1.50. SUDERMANN (H.). The Sins of the Fathers. A translation of Der Katzensteg. By Beatrice Marshall. Crown 8v6. $1.50. \In p7-eparatioii. SYRETT (NETTA). The Tree of Life. A Novel. Crown 8vo. ^1.50. TENNYSON (FREDERICK). Poems OF the DAt- AND Year. Crown Svo. $1.50. THIMM (CARL A.). A Complete Bibliography of Fencing and Duel- ling, as Practiced by all European Nations from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. With a Classified Index, arranged Chronologically accord- ing to Languages. Illustrated with numerous Portraits of Ancient and Modern Masters of the Art. 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A Summer Night and Other Poems. Fcap. 8vo. $1.25. [A^ew edition . WATSON (WILLIAM). A New Volume of Poems. Fcap. Svo. $1.25. [/;/ preparation. The Father of the Forest and Other Poems. With a Portrait reproduced by photogravure. Fcap. Svo. $1.25. The Purple East. Poems principally about Ar- menia. i6mo. 75 cents. The Year of Shame. With an Introduction by the Bishop of Hereford and a Frontispiece after G. F. Watts, R.A. Fcap. Svo. $1.00. Also 25 copies on large paper. $3.50 net. WATT (FRANCIS). Father Antic the Law. Fcap. Svo. $1.75. \In preparation. WATTS-DUNTON (THEODORE). Jubilee Greeting at Spithead to the Men of Greater Britain. Crown Svo. 50 cents. Christmas at the Mermaid and Other Poems. Crown Svo. ^1.75. \In preparation. XENOPOULOS (GREGORY). The Stepmother : A Tale of Modern Athens. Translated by Mrs. Edmonds. Crown Svo. ^i.oo. THE YELLOW BOOK. An Illustrated Quarterly. Small 4to. $1.50 each volume. Vol. I. April, 1S94, 272 pp., 15 Illustrations. {^Out of print. Vol. II. July, 1894, 364 pp., 23 Illustrations. Vol. III. October, 1S94, 2S0 pp., 15 Illustrations. Vol. IV. January, 1895, -^5 PP-j ^^ Illustrations. 12 BOOKS IN BELLES LETTRES . j^ _ . — THE YELLOW BOOK, confimied. Vol. V. April, 1895, 317 pp., 14 Illustrations. Vol. VL July, 1895, 335 pp., 16 Illustrations. Vol. VII. October, 1895, 320 pp., 20 Illustrations. Vol. VIII. January, 1896, 406 pp., 26 Illustrations. Vol. IX. April, 1896, 256 pp., 17 Illustrations. Vol. X. July, 1896, 340 pp., 13 Illustrations. Vol. XI. October, 1896, 342 pp., 12 Illustrations. Vol. XII. January, 1897, 350 pp., 14 Illustrations. Vol. XIII. April, i897,'3i6 pp., iS Illustrations. THE VALE PRESS. Mr. Lane is the agent for the sale in A^nerica of the books issued from the Vale Press, all of which are pri)ited under the supervision of the well-kiiown English artist Charles Ricketts. A separate list of the Vale books (printed in the Vale type) will be sent upon application. THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIO. An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Fine AND Applied Arts. The "" International Studio " is identical with " The Studio," of London, except that a supplement is added, devoted exclusively to American Art. Single copies, 35 cents. Yearly subscription, $3.50, postpaid. The October issue is the eighth number. Subscrip- tions can commence with the first or any number. SOME press opinions. We think that we do not exaggerate when we say tha.t thisjs the handsomest and most satisfactory art magazine published in the EngHsh language ; and if it keeps up its present standard, it is bound to be as great a success in this countr\' as it is in England. For the benefit of its American readers, an American supplement is added, illustrated by the work of American artists. — Critic. It is a handsomely illustrated art magazine of quarto size, and in literary quality as well as artistic attractiveness it appeals irresistibly to cultivated tastes. Its presentation of the newer manifestations in current art is systematic and cosmopolitan, and in all that con- cerns decorative design it is an unimpeachable authority. — The Beacon, Boston. A sample copy will be sent upon receipt of ten cents. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: May 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 548 718 3