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THE YEARS BETWEEN

by

RUDYARD KIPLING

DEDICATION

TO THE SEVEN WATCHMEN

_Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower, Watching what had come upon mankind, Showed the Man the Glory and the Power, And bade him shape the Kingdom to his mind.

‘All things on Earth your will shall win you’

(‘Twas so their counsel ran)

‘But the Kingdom—the Kingdom is within you,’

Said the Man’s own mind to the Man.

For time, and some time—

As it was in the bitter years before, So it shall be in the over-sweetened hour—

That a man’s mind is wont to tell him more Than Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower._

CONTENTS

PAGE

BENEFACTORS, THE 96

CHOICE, THE 35

‘CITY OF BRASS, THE’ 148

COVENANT, THE 13

CRAFTSMAN, THE 91

DEAD KING, THE 100

DEATH-BED, A 106

DECLARATION OF LONDON, THE 6

DEDICATION v

EN-DOR 55

EPITAPHS 135

FEMALE OF THE SPECIES, THE 128

‘FOR ALL WE HAVE AND ARE’ 21

FRANCE 15

GEHAZI 109

GETHSEMANE 85

HOLY-WAR, THE 38

HOUSES, THE 42

HYÆNAS, THE 68

JUSTICE 156

IRISH GUARDS, THE 48

LORD ROBERTS 31

MARY’S SON 80

MESOPOTAMIA 65

MY BOY JACK 61

NATIVITY, A 52

NATURAL THEOLOGY 121

OLDEST SONG, THE 119

OUTLAWS, THE 27

PILGRIM’S WAY, A 114

PRO-CONSULS, THE 87

QUESTION, THE 33

RECANTATION, A 58

ROWERS, THE 1

RUSSIA TO THE PACIFISTS 44

SONG AT COCK-CROW, A 125

SONG IN STORM, A 24

SONG OF THE LATHES, THE 81

SONS OF MARTHA, THE 75

SPIES’ MARCH, THE 70

THINGS AND THE MAN 93

ULSTER 9

VERDICTS, THE 63

VETERANS, THE 5

VIRGINITY, THE 112

ZION 29

INDEX TO FIRST LINES

PAGE

Across a world where all men grieve, 156

A. ‘I was a “have”’ B. ‘I was a “have-not,”’ 135

After the burial-parties leave, 68

Ah! What avails the classic bent, 96

A tinker out of Bedford, 38

Be well assured that on our side, 24

Brethren, how shall it fare with me, 33

Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all, 15

For all we have and are, 21

God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, 44

‘Have you news of my boy Jack?’ 61

He passed in the very battle-smoke, 31

I ate my fill of a whale that died, 121

I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way, 114

If you stop to find out what your wages will be, 80

In a land that the sand overlays—the ways to her gates are untrod, 148

Not in the thick of the fight, 63

Oh ye who hold the written clue, 93

Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid, 91

Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower, v The Babe was laid in the Manger, 52

The banked oars fell an hundred strong, 1

The dark eleventh hour, 9

The Doorkeepers of Zion, 29

The fans and the beltings they roar round me, 81

The first time that Peter denied his Lord, 125

The Garden called Gethsemane, 85

The overfaithful sword returns the user, 87

There are no leaders to lead us to honour, and yet without leaders we sally, 70

The road to En-dor is easy to tread, 55

These were never your true love’s eyes, 119

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part, 75

They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young, 65

‘This is the State above the Law, 106

To-day, across our fathers’ graves, 5

To the Judge of Right and Wrong, 35

Through learned and laborious years, 27

Try as he will, no man breaks wholly loose, 112

‘Twixt my house and thy house the pathway is broad, 42

We’re not so old in the Army List, 48

We thought we ranked above the chance of ill, 13

We were all one heart and one race, 6

What boots it on the Gods to call? 58

‘Whence comest thou, Gehazi, 109

When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride, 128

Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear? 100

THE ROWERS

1902

(When Germany proposed that England should help her in a naval demonstration to collect debts from Venezuela.) The banked oars fell an hundred strong, And backed and threshed and ground, But bitter was the rowers’ song

As they brought the war-boat round.

They had no heart for the rally and roar That makes the whale-bath smoke—

When the great blades cleave and hold and leave As one on the racing stroke.

They sang:—‘What reckoning do you keep, And steer her by what star,

If we come unscathed from the Southern deep To be wrecked on a Baltic bar?

‘Last night you swore our voyage was done, But seaward still we go,

And you tell us now of a secret vow You have made with an open foe!

‘That we must lie off a lightless coast And haul and back and veer,

At the will of the breed that have wronged us most For a year and a year and a year!

‘There was never a shame in Christendie They laid not to our door—

And you say we must take the winter sea And sail with them once more?

‘Look South! The gale is scarce o’erpast That stripped and laid us down,

When we stood forth but they stood fast And prayed to see us drown

‘Our dead they mocked are scarcely cold, Our wounds are bleeding yet—

And you tell us now that our strength is sold To help them press for a debt’

”Neath all the flags of all mankind That use upon the seas,

Was there no other fleet to find

That you strike hands with these?

‘Of evil times that men can choose On evil fate to fall,

What brooding Judgment let you loose To pick the worst of all?

‘In sight of peace—from the Narrow Seas O’er half the world to run—

With a cheated crew, to league anew With the Goth and the shameless Hun!’

THE VETERANS

[Written for the gathering of survivors of the Indian Mutiny, Albert Hall, 1907.]

To-day, across our fathers’ graves, The astonished years reveal

The remnant of that desperate host Which cleansed our East with steel.

Hail and farewell! We greet you here, With tears that none will scorn—

O Keepers of the House of old,

Or ever we were born!

One service more we dare to ask—

Pray for us, heroes, pray,

That when Fate lays on us our task We do not shame the Day!

THE DECLARATION OF LONDON

JUNE 29, 1911

(‘On the re-assembling of Parliament after the Coronation, the Government have no intention of allowing their followers to vote according to their convictions on the Declaration of London, but insist on a strictly party vote’—_Daily Papers_.) We were all one heart and one race When the Abbey trumpets blew.

For a moment’s breathing-space

We had forgotten you

Now you return to your honoured place Panting to shame us anew.

We have walked with the Ages dead—

With our Past alive and ablaze,

And you bid us pawn our honour for bread; This day of all the days!

And you cannot wait till our guests are sped, Or last week’s wreath decays?

The light is still in our eyes

Of Faith and Gentlehood,

Of Service and Sacrifice,

And it does not match our mood,

To turn so soon to your treacheries That starve our land of her food.

Our ears still carry the sound

Of our once Imperial seas,

Exultant after our King was crowned, Beneath the sun and the breeze.

It is too early to have them bound Or sold at your decrees.

Wait till the memory goes,

Wait till the visions fade,

We may betray in time, God knows,

But we would not have it said,

When you make report to our scornful foes, That we kissed as we betrayed!

ULSTER

1912

(‘Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.’—_Isaiah lix 6_) The dark eleventh hour

Draws on and sees us sold

To every evil power

We fought against of old.

Rebellion, rapine, hate,

Oppression, wrong and greed

Are loosed to rule our fate,

By England’s act and deed.

The Faith in which we stand,

The laws we made and guard,

Our honour, lives, and land

Are given for reward

To Murder done by night,

To Treason taught by day,

To folly, sloth, and spite,

And we are thrust away.

The blood our fathers spilt,

Our love, our toils, our pains,

Are counted us for guilt,

And only bind our chains.

Before an Empire’s eyes

The traitor claims his price.

What need of further lies?

We are the sacrifice.

We asked no more than leave

To reap where we had sown,

Through good and ill to cleave

To our own flag and throne.

Now England’s shot and steel

Beneath that flag must show

How loyal hearts should kneel

To England’s oldest foe.

We know the war prepared

On every peaceful home,

We know the hells declared

For such as serve not Rome—

The terror, threats, and dread

In market, hearth, and field—

We know, when all is said,

We perish if we yield.

Believe, we dare not boast,

Believe, we do not fear—

We stand to pay the cost

In all that men hold dear.

What answer from the North?

One Law, one Land, one Throne.

If England drive us forth

We shall not fall alone.

THE COVENANT

1914

We thought we ranked above the chance of ill.

Others might fall, not we, for we were wise—

Merchants in freedom. So, of our free-will We let our servants drug our strength with lies.

The pleasure and the poison had its way On us as on the meanest, till we learned That he who lies will steal, who steals will slay.

Neither God’s judgment nor man’s heart was turned.

Yet there remains His Mercy—to be sought Through wrath and peril till we cleanse the wrong By that last right which our forefathers claimed When their Law failed them and its stewards were bought.

This is our cause. God help us, and make strong Our wills to meet Him later, unashamed!

FRANCE

1913

_Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul; Furious in luxury, merciless in toil, Terrible with strength that draws from her tireless soil; Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of man’s mind, First to follow Truth and last to leave old Truths behind—

France, beloved of every soul that loves its fellow-kind!_

Ere our birth (rememberest thou?) side by side we lay Fretting in the womb of Rome to begin our fray.

Ere men knew our tongues apart, our one task was known—

Each must mould the other’s fate as he wrought his own To this end we stirred mankind till all Earth was ours, Till our world-end strifes begat wayside thrones and powers—

Puppets that we made or broke to bar the other’s path—

Necessary, outpost folk, hirelings of our wrath To this end we stormed the seas, tack for tack, and burst Through the doorways of new worlds, doubtful which was first, Hand on hilt (rememberest thou?) ready for the blow—

Sure, whatever else we met, we should meet our foe.

Spurred or balked at every stride by the other’s strength, So we rode the ages down and every ocean’s length!

Where did you refrain from us or we refrain from you?

Ask the wave that has not watched war between us two!

Others held us for a while, but with weaker charms, These we quitted at the call for each other’s arms.

Eager toward the known delight, equally we strove—

Each the other’s mystery, terror, need, and love To each other’s open court with our proofs we came.

Where could we find honour else, or men to test our claim?

From each other’s throat we wrenched—valour’s last reward—

That extorted word of praise gasped ‘twixt lunge and guard.

In each other’s cup we poured mingled blood and tears, Brutal joys, unmeasured hopes, intolerable fears—

All that soiled or salted life for a thousand years.

Proved beyond the need of proof, matched in every clime, O companion, we have lived greatly through all time!

Yoked in knowledge and remorse, now we come to rest, Laughing at old villainies that Time has turned to jest, Pardoning old necessities no pardon can efface—

That undying sin we shared in Rouen marketplace.

Now we watch the new years shape, wondering if they hold Fiercer lightnings in their heart than we launched of old.

Now we hear new voices rise, question, boast or gird, As we raged (rememberest thou?) when our crowds were stirred, Now we count new keels afloat, and new hosts on land, Massed like ours (rememberest thou?) when our strokes were planned.

We were schooled for dear life’s sake, to know each other’s blade What can blood and iron make more than we have made?

We have learned by keenest use to know each other’s mind.

What shall blood and iron loose that we cannot bind?

We who swept each other’s coast, sacked each other’s home, Since the sword of Brennus clashed on the scales at Rome, Listen, count and close again, wheeling girth to girth, In the linked and steadfast guard set for peace on earth!

Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul; Furious in luxury, merciless in toil, Terrible with strength renewed from a tireless soil; Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of man’s mind, First to face the Truth and last to leave old Truths behind—

France, beloved of every soul that loves or serves its kind!

‘FOR ALL WE HAVE AND ARE’

1914.

For all we have and are,

For all our children’s fate,

Stand up and take the war,

The Hun is at the gate!

Our world has passed away,

In wantonness o’erthrown.

There is nothing left to-day

But steel and fire and stone!

Though all we knew depart,

The old Commandments stand:—

‘In courage keep your heart,

In strength lift up your hand.’

Once more we hear the word

That sickened earth of old:—

‘No law except the Sword

Unsheathed and uncontrolled.’

Once more it knits mankind,

Once more the nations go

To meet and break and bind

A crazed and driven foe.

Comfort, content, delight,

The ages’ slow-bought gain,

They shrivelled in a night.

Only ourselves remain

To face the naked days

In silent fortitude,

Through perils and dismays

Renewed and re-renewed.

Though all we made depart,

The old Commandments stand;—

‘In patience keep your heart,

In strength lift up your hand.’

No easy hope or lies

Shall bring us to our goal,

But iron sacrifice

Of body, will, and soul.

There is but one task for all—

One life for each to give

Who stands if Freedom fall?

Who dies if England live?

A SONG IN STORM

Be well assured that on our side

The abiding oceans fight,

Though headlong wind and heaping tide Make us their sport to-night.

By force of weather not of war

In jeopardy we steer,

Then welcome Fate’s discourtesy

Whereby it shall appear,

How in all time of our distress, And our deliverance too,

The game is more than the player of the game, And the ship is more than the crew.

Out of the mist into the mirk

The glimmering combers roll.

Almost these mindless waters work

As though they had a soul—

Almost as though they leagued to whelm Our flag beneath their green

Then welcome Fate’s discourtesy

Whereby it shall be seen, etc.

Be well assured, though wave and wind Have weightier blows in store,

That we who keep the watch assigned Must stand to it the more;

And as our streaming bows rebuke

Each billow’s baulked career,

Sing, welcome Fate’s discourtesy

Whereby it is made clear, etc.

No matter though our deck be swept And masts and timber crack—

We can make good all loss except

The loss of turning back.

So, ‘twixt these Devils and our deep Let courteous trumpets sound,

To welcome Fate’s discourtesy

Whereby it will be found, etc.

Be well assured, though in our power Is nothing left to give

But chance and place to meet the hour, And leave to strive to live,

Till these dissolve our Order holds, Our Service binds us here.

Then welcome Fate’s discourtesy

Whereby it is made clear,

How in all time of our distress, And in our triumph too,

The game is more than the player of the game, And the ship is more than the crew!

THE OUTLAWS

1914

Through learned and laborious years They set themselves to find

Fresh terrors and undreamed-of fears To heap upon mankind.

All that they drew from Heaven above Or digged from earth beneath,

They laid into their treasure-trove And arsenals of death:

While, for well-weighed advantage sake, Ruler and ruled alike

Built up the faith they meant to break When the fit hour should strike.

They traded with the careless earth, And good return it gave;

They plotted by their neighbour’s hearth The means to make him slave.

When all was ready to their hand

They loosed their hidden sword,

And utterly laid waste a land

Their oath was pledged to guard.

Coldly they went about to raise

To life and make more dread

Abominations of old days,

That men believed were dead.

They paid the price to reach their goal Across a world in flame;

But their own hate slew their own soul Before that victory came.

ZION

The Doorkeepers of Zion,

They do not always stand

In helmet and whole armour,

With halberds in their hand,

But, being sure of Zion,

And all her mysteries,

They rest awhile in Zion,

Sit down and smile in Zion;

Ay, even jest in Zion;

In Zion, at their ease.

The Gatekeepers of Baal,

They dare not sit or lean,

But fume and fret and posture

And foam and curse between;

For being bound to Baal,

Whose sacrifice is vain.

Their rest is scant with Baal,

They glare and pant for Baal,

They mouth and rant for Baal,

For Baal in their pain!

But we will go to Zion,

By choice and not through dread, With these our present comrades

And those our present dead;

And, being free of Zion

In both her fellowships,

Sit down and sup in Zion—

Stand up and drink in Zion

Whatever cup in Zion

Is offered to our lips!

LORD ROBERTS

1914

He passed in the very battle-smoke Of the war that he had descried.

Three hundred mile of cannon spoke When the Master-Gunner died.

He passed to the very sound of the guns; But, before his eye grew dim,

He had seen the faces of the sons

Whose sires had served with him.

He had touched their sword-hilts and greeted each With the old sure word of praise; And there was virtue in touch and speech As it had been in old days.

So he dismissed them and took his rest, And the steadfast spirit went forth Between the adoring East and West

And the tireless guns of the North.

Clean, simple, valiant, well-beloved, Flawless in faith and fame,

Whom neither ease nor honours moved An hair’s-breadth from his aim.

Never again the war-wise face,

The weighed and urgent word

That pleaded in the marketplace—

Pleaded and was not heard!

Yet from his life a new life springs Through all the hosts to come,

And Glory is the least of things

That follow this man home.

THE QUESTION

1916

Brethren, how shall it fare with me When the war is laid aside,

If it be proven that I am he

For whom a world has died?

If it be proven that all my good,

And the greater good I will make, Were purchased me by a multitude

Who suffered for my sake?

That I was delivered by mere mankind Vowed to one sacrifice,

And not, as I hold them, battle-blind, But dying with open eyes?

That they did not ask me to draw the sword When they stood to endure their lot—

That they only looked to me for a word, And I answered I knew them not?

If it be found, when the battle clears, Their death has set me free,

Then how shall I live with myself through the years Which they have bought for me?

Brethren, how must it fare with me, Or how am I justified,

If it be proven that I am he

For whom mankind has died,

If it be proven that I am he

Who being questioned denied?

THE CHOICE

1917

(THE AMERICAN SPIRIT SPEAKS)

_To the Judge of Right and Wrong With Whom fulfilment lies

Our purpose and our power belong, Our faith and sacrifice._

Let Freedom’s Land rejoice!

Our ancient bonds are riven;

Once more to us the eternal choice Of Good or Ill is given.

Not at a little cost,

Hardly by prayer or tears,

Shall we recover the road we lost

In the drugged and doubting years.

But, after the fires and the wrath, But, after searching and pain,

His Mercy opens us a path

To live with ourselves again.

In the Gates of Death rejoice!

We see and hold the good—

Bear witness, Earth, we have made our choice With Freedom’s brotherhood!

Then praise the Lord Most High

Whose Strength hath saved us whole, Who bade us choose that the Flesh should die And not the living Soul!

_To the God in Man displayed—

Where e’er we see that Birth,

Be love and understanding paid

As never yet on earth!_

_To the Spirit that moves in Man, On Whom all worlds depend,

Be Glory since our world began

And service to the end!_

THE HOLY WAR

1917

(‘For here lay the excellent wisdom of him that built Mansoul that the walls could never be broken down nor hurt by the most mighty adverse potentate unless the townsmen gave consent thereto’—BUNYAN’S Holy War)

_A tinker out of Bedford,

A vagrant oft in quod,

A private under Fairfax,

A minister of God—

Two hundred years and thirty

Ere Armageddon came

His single hand portrayed it,

And Bunyan was his name!_

He mapped, for those who follow,

The world in which we are—

‘This famous town of Mansoul’

That takes the Holy War

Her true and traitor people,

The gates along her wall,

From Eye Gate unto Feel Gate,

John Bunyan showed them all.

All enemy divisions,

Recruits of every class,

And highly-screened positions

For flame or poison-gas,

The craft that we call modern,

The crimes that we call new,

John Bunyan had ‘em typed and filed In Sixteen Eighty-two

Likewise the Lords of Looseness

That hamper faith and works,

The Perseverance-Doubters,

And Present-Comfort shirks,

With brittle intellectuals

Who crack beneath a strain—

John Bunyan met that helpful set

In Charles the Second’s reign.

Emmanuel’s vanguard dying

For right and not for rights,

My Lord Apollyon lying

To the State-kept Stockholmites, The Pope, the swithering Neutrals, The Kaiser and his Gott—

Their rôles, their goals, their naked souls—

He knew and drew the lot.

Now he hath left his quarters,

In Bunhill Fields to lie.

The wisdom that he taught us

Is proven prophecy—

One watchword through our armies,

One answer from our lands—

‘No dealings with Diabolus

As long as Mansoul stands.

_A pedlar from a hovel,

The lowest of the low,

The father of the Novel,

Salvation’s first Defoe,

Eight blinded generations

Ere Armageddon came,

He showed us how to meet it,

And Bunyan was his name!_

THE HOUSES

(A SONG OF THE DOMINIONS)

1898

‘Twixt my house and thy house the pathway is broad, In thy house or my house is half the world’s hoard; By my house and thy house hangs all the world’s fate, On thy house and my house lies half the world’s hate.

For my house and thy house no help shall we find Save thy house and my house—kin cleaving to kind: If my house be taken, thine tumbleth anon, If thy house be forfeit, mine followeth soon.

‘Twixt my house and thy house what talk can there be Of headship or lordship, or service or fee?

Since my house to thy house no greater can send Than thy house to my house—friend comforting friend; And thy house to my house no meaner can bring Than my house to thy house—King counselling King.

RUSSIA TO THE PACIFISTS

God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, But—leave your sports a little while—the dead are borne this way!

Armies dead and Cities dead, past all count or care.

God rest you, merry gentlemen, what portent see you there?

Singing.—Break ground for a wearied host That have no ground to keep.

Give them the rest that they covet most, And who shall next to sleep, good sirs, In such a trench to sleep?

God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, but give us leave to pass.

We go to dig a nation’s grave as great as England was.

For this Kingdom and this Glory and this Power and this Pride Three hundred years it flourished—in three hundred days it died.

Singing—Pour oil for a frozen throng, That lie about the ways.

Give them the warmth they have lacked so long And what shall be next to blaze, good sirs, On such a pyre to blaze?

God rest you, thoughtful gentlemen, and send your sleep is light!

Remains of this dominion no shadow, sound, or sight, Except the sound of weeping and the sight of burning fire, And the shadow of a people that is trampled into mire.

Singing.—Break bread for a starving folk That perish in the field.

Give them their food as they take the yoke …

And who shall be next to yield, good sirs, For such a bribe to yield?

God rest you, merry gentlemen, and keep you in your mirth!

Was ever kingdom turned so soon to ashes, blood, and earth?

‘Twixt the summer and the snow—seeding-time and frost—

Arms and victual, hope and counsel, name and country lost!

Singing:—_Let down by the foot and the head—

Shovel and smooth it all!

So do we bury a Nation dead …_

And who shall be next to fall, good sirs, With your good help to fall?

THE IRISH GUARDS

1918

We’re not so old in the Army List, But we’re not so young at our trade, For we had the honour at Fontenoy

Of meeting the Guards’ Brigade.

‘Twas Lally, Dillon, Bulkeley, Clare, And Lee that led us then,

And after a hundred and seventy years We’re fighting for France again!

_Old Days! The wild geese are flighting, Head to the storm as they faced it before!

For where there are Irish there’s bound to be fighting, And when there’s no fighting, it’s Ireland no more!

Ireland no more!_

The fashion’s all for khaki now,

But once through France we went

Full-dressed in scarlet Army cloth, The English—left at Ghent

They’re fighting on our side to-day.

But, before they changed their clothes, The half of Europe knew our fame,

As all of Ireland knows!

_Old Days! The wild geese are flying, Head to the storm as they faced it before!

For where there are Irish there’s memory undying, And when we forget, it is Ireland no more!

Ireland no more!_

From Barry Wood to Gouzeaucourt,

From Boyne to Pilkem Ridge,

The ancient days come back no more Than water under the bridge

But the bridge it stands and the water runs As red as yesterday,

And the Irish move to the sound of the guns Like salmon to the sea.

_Old Days! The wild geese are ranging, Head to the storm as they faced it before!

For where there are Irish their hearts are unchanging, And when they are changed, it is Ireland no more!

Ireland no more!_

We’re not so old in the Army List, But we’re not so new in the ring, For we carried our packs with Marshal Saxe When Louis was our King.

But Douglas Haig’s our Marshal now And we’re King George’s men,

And after one hundred and seventy years We’re fighting for France again!

_Ah, France! And did we stand by you, When life was made splendid with gifts and rewards?

Ah, France! And will we deny you In the hour of your agony, Mother of Swords?

Old Days! The wild geese are flighting, Head to the storm as they faced it before!

For where there are Irish there’s loving and fighting, And when we stop either, it’s Ireland no more!

Ireland no more!_

A NATIVITY

1916

_The Babe was laid in the Manger

Between the gentle kine—

All safe from cold and danger—_

‘But it was not so with mine.

(With mine! With mine!) ‘Is it well with the child, is it well?’

The waiting mother prayed.

‘For I know not how he fell,

And I know not where he is laid.’

_A Star stood forth in Heaven,

The watchers ran to see

The Sign of the Promise given—_

‘But there comes no sign to me.

(To me! To me!) ‘My child died in the dark.

Is it well with the child, is it well?

There was none to tend him or mark, And I know not how he fell.’

_The Cross was raised on high;

The Mother grieved beside—_

‘But the Mother saw Him die

And took Him when He died.

(He died! He died!) ‘Seemly and undefiled

His burial-place was made—

Is it well, is it well with the child?

For I know not where he is laid.’

_On the dawning of Easter Day

Comes Mary Magdalene;

But the Stone was rolled away,

And the Body was not within—_

(Within! Within!) ‘Ah, who will answer my word?’

The broken mother prayed.

‘They have taken away my Lord,

And I know not where He is laid.’

*

_The Star stands forth in Heaven.

The watchers watch in vain

For a Sign of the Promise given

Of peace on Earth again—_

(Again! Again!) ‘But I know for Whom he fell’—

The steadfast mother smiled

‘Is it well with the child—is it well?

It is well—it is well with the child!’

EN-DOR

‘Behold there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor’

1 Samuel XXVIII 7

The road to En-dor is easy to tread For Mother or yearning Wife.

There, it is sure, we shall meet our Dead As they were even in life.

Earth has not dreamed of the blessing in store For desolate hearts on the road to En-dor.

Whispers shall comfort us out of the dark—

Hands—ah God!—that we knew!

Visions and voices—look and heark!—

Shall prove that our tale is true, And that those who have passed to the further shore May be hailed—at a price—on the road to En-dor.

But they are so deep in their new eclipse Nothing they say can reach,

Unless it be uttered by alien lips And framed in a stranger’s speech.

The son must send word to the mother that bore, Through an hireling’s mouth. ‘Tis the rule of En-dor.

And not for nothing these gifts are shown By such as delight our dead.

They must twitch and stiffen and slaver a groan Ere the eyes are set in the head, And the voice from the belly begins. Therefore We pay them a wage where they ply at En-dor.

Even so, we have need of faith

And patience to follow the clue.

Often, at first, what the dear one saith Is babble, or jest, or untrue.

(Lying spirits perplex us sore

Till our loves—and our lives—are well known at En-dor)….

_Oh the road to En-dor is the oldest road And the craziest road of all!

Straight it runs to the Witch’s abode, As it did in the days of Saul,

And nothing has changed of the sorrow in store For such as go down on the road to En-dor!_

A RECANTATION

(TO LYDE OF THE MUSIC HALLS)

What boots it on the Gods to call?

Since, answered or unheard,

We perish with the Gods and all

Things made—except the Word.

Ere certain Fate had touched a heart By fifty years made cold,

I judged thee, Lyde, and thy art

O’erblown and over-bold.

But he—but he, of whom bereft

I suffer vacant days—

He on his shield not meanly left—

He cherished all thy lays.

Witness the magic coffer stocked

With convoluted runes

Wherein thy very voice was locked

And linked to circling tunes.

Witness thy portrait, smoke-defiled, That decked his shelter-place.

Life seemed more present, wrote the child, Beneath thy well-known face.

And when the grudging days restored Him for a breath to home,

He, with fresh crowds of youth, adored Thee making mirth in Rome.

Therefore, I, humble, join the hosts, Loyal and loud, who bow

To thee as Queen of Songs—and ghosts—

For I remember how

Never more rampant rose the Hall

At thy audacious line

Than when the news came in from Gaul Thy son had—followed mine.

But thou didst hide it in thy breast And, capering, took the brunt

Of blaze and blare, and launched the jest That swept next week the front.

Singer to children! Ours possessed Sleep before noon—but thee,

Wakeful each midnight for the rest, No holocaust shall free.

Yet they who use the Word assigned, To hearten and make whole,

Not less than Gods have served mankind, Though vultures rend their soul.

MY BOY JACK

‘Have you news of my boy Jack?’

Not this tide.

‘When d’you think that he’ll come back?’

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

‘Has any one else had word of him?’

_Not this tide.

For what is sunk will hardly swim, Not with this wind blowing, and this tide._

‘Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?’

_None this tide,

Nor any tide,

Except he did not shame his kind—

Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide._

_Then hold your head up all the more, This tide,

And every tide;

Because he was the son you bore,

And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!_

THE VERDICTS

(JUTLAND)

Not in the thick of the fight,

Not in the press of the odds,

Do the heroes come to their height, Or we know the demi-gods.

That stands over till peace.

We can only perceive

Men returned from the seas,

Very grateful for leave.

They grant us sudden days

Snatched from their business of war; But we are too close to appraise

What manner of men they are.

And, whether their names go down

With age-kept victories,

Or whether they battle and drown

Unreckoned, is hid from our eyes.

They are too near to be great,

But our children shall understand When and how our fate

Was changed, and by whose hand.

Our children shall measure their worth.

We are content to be blind

But we know that we walk on a new-born earth With the saviours of mankind.

MESOPOTAMIA

1917

They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young, The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave: But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung, Shall they come with years and honour to the grave?

They shall not return to us, the strong men coldly slain In sight of help denied from day to day: But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain, Are they too strong and wise to put away?

Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide—

Never while the bars of sunset hold: But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died, Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?

Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour?

When the storm is ended shall we find How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends, Even while they make a show of fear, Do they call upon their debtors, and take council with their friends, To confirm and re-establish each career?

Their lives cannot repay us—their death could not undo—

The shame that they have laid upon our race: But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew, Shall we leave it unabated in its place?

THE HYÆNAS

After the burial-parties leave

And the baffled kites have fled, The wise hyænas come out at eve

To take account of our dead.

How he died and why he died

Troubles them not a whit.

They snout the bushes and stones aside And dig till they come to it.

They are only resolute they shall eat That they and their mates may thrive, And they know that the dead are safer meat Than the weakest thing alive.

(For a goat may butt, and a worm may sting, And a child will sometimes stand; But a poor dead soldier of the King Can never lift a hand.)

They whoop and halloo and scatter the dirt Until their tushes white

Take good hold in the army shirt,

And tug the corpse to light,

And the pitiful face is shewn again For an instant ere they close;

But it is not discovered to living men—

Only to God and to those

Who, being soulless, are free from shame, Whatever meat they may find.

Nor do they defile the dead man’s name—

That is reserved for his kind.

THE SPIES’ MARCH

(BEFORE THE WAR)

(‘The outbreak is in full swing and our death-rate would sicken Napoleon…. Dr M–- died last week, and C–- on Monday, but some more medicines are coming…. We don’t seem to be able to check it at all….

Villages panicking badly…. In some places not a living soul…. But at any rate the experience gained may come in useful, so I am keeping my notes written up to date in case of accidents…. Death is a queer chap to live with for steady company.’ Extracted from a private letter from Manchuria.)

There are no leaders to lead us to honour, and yet without leaders we sally,

Each man reporting for duty alone, out of sight, out of reach, of his fellow.

There are no bugles to call the battalions, and yet without bugles we rally,

From the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth, to follow the Standard of Yellow!

Fall in! O fall in! O fall in!

Not where the squadrons mass,

Not where the bayonets shine, Not where the big shell shout as they pass Over the firing-line;

Not where the wounded are,

Not where the nations die,

Killed in the cleanly game of war—

That is no place for a spy!

O Princes, Thrones and Powers, your work is less than ours—

Here is no place for a spy!

Trained to another use,

We march with colours furled, Only concerned when Death breaks loose On a front of half a world.

Only for General Death

The Yellow Flag may fly,

While we take post beneath—

That is the place for a spy.

Where Plague has spread his pinions over Nations and Dominions—

Then will be work for a spy!

The dropping shots begin,

The single funerals pass,

Our skirmishers run in,

The corpses dot the grass!

The howling towns stampede,

The tainted hamlets die.

Now it is war indeed—

Now there is room for a spy!

O Peoples, Kings and Lands, we are waiting your commands—

What is the work for a spy?

(DRUMS)—_’Fear is upon us, spy!_

‘Go where his pickets hide—

Unmask the shapes they take, Whether a gnat from the waterside, Or stinging fly in the brake, Or filth of the crowded street, Or a sick rat limping by,

Or a smear of spittle dried in the heat—

That is the work of a spy!

(DRUMS)—_Death is upon us, spy!_

‘What does he next prepare?

Whence will he move to attack?—

By water, earth or air?—

How can we head him back?

Shall we starve him out if we burn Or bury his food-supply?

Slip through his lines and learn—

That is work for a spy!

(DRUMS)—_Get to your business, spy!_

‘Does he feint or strike in force?

Will he charge or ambuscade?

What is it checks his course?

Is he beaten or only delayed?

How long will the lull endure?

Is he retreating? Why?

Crawl to his camp and make sure—

That is the work for a spy!

(DRUMS)—_Fetch us our answer, spy!_

‘Ride with him girth to girth

Wherever the Pale Horse wheels, Wait on his councils, ear to earth, And say what the dust reveals.

For the smoke of our torment rolls Where the burning thousands lie; What do we care for men’s bodies or souls?

Bring us deliverance, spy!’

THE SONS OF MARTHA

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part,

But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.

And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,

Her Sons must wait upon Mary’s Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.

It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.

It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,

Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

They say to mountains ‘Be ye removèd.’ They say to the lesser floods ‘Be dry.’

Under their rods are the rocks reprovèd—they are not afraid of that which is high.

Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit—then is the bed of the deep laid bare,

That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.

They finger death at their gloves’ end where they piece and repiece the living wires.

He rears against the gates they rend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.

Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,

And hale him forth like a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall.

To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.

They are concerned with matters hidden—under the earth-line their altars are.

The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,

And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city’s drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.

They do not teach that His Pity allows them to leave their work when they damn-well choose.

As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,

Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren’s days may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat,

Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!

Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed, But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessèd—they know the angels are on their side.

They know in them is the Grace confessèd, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.

They sit at the Feet—they hear the Word—they see how truly the Promise runs:

They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and—the Lord He lays it on Martha’s Sons!

MARY’S SON

If you stop to find out what your wages will be And how they will clothe and feed you, Willie, my son, don’t you go on the Sea, For the Sea will never need you.

If you ask for the reason of every command, And argue with people about you, Willie, my son, don’t you go on the Land, For the Land will do better without you.

If you stop to consider the work you have done And to boast what your labour is worth, dear, Angels may come for you, Willie, my son, But you’ll never be wanted on Earth, dear!

THE SONG OF THE LATHES

1918

(Being the words of the tune hummed at her lathe by Mrs. L. Embsay, widow.)

The fans and the beltings they roar round me.

The power is shaking the floor round me Till the lathes pick up their duty and the midnight-shift takes over.

It is good for me to be here!

_Guns in Flanders—Flanders guns!

(I had a man that worked ‘em once!) Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!

Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!

Shells for guns in Flanders! Feed the guns!_

The cranes and the carriers they boom over me, The bays and the galleries they loom over me, With their quarter-mile of pillars growing little in the distance: It is good for me to be here!

The Zeppelins and Gothas they raid over us.

Our lights give warning, and fade over us.

(Seven thousand women keeping quiet in the darkness!) Oh, it is good for me to be here!

The roofs and the buildings they grow round me, Eating up the fields I used to know round me; And the shed that I began in is a sub-inspector’s office—

So long have I been here!

I’ve seen six hundred mornings make our lamps grow dim, Through the bit that isn’t painted round our skylight rim, And the sunshine in the window slope according to the seasons, Twice since I’ve been here.

The trains on the sidings they call to us With the hundred thousand blanks that they haul to us; And we send ‘em what we’ve finished, and they take it where it’s wanted,

For that is why we are here!

Man’s hate passes as his love will pass.

God made woman what she always was.

Them that bear the burden they will never grant forgiveness So long as they are here!

Once I was a woman, but that’s by with me.

All I loved and looked for, it must die with me.

But the Lord has left me over for a servant of the Judgment, And I serve His Judgments here!

_Guns in Flanders—Flanders guns!

(I had a son that worked ‘em once!) Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!

Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!

Shells for guns in Flanders! Feed the guns!_

GETHSEMANE

The Garden called Gethsemane

In Picardy it was,

And there the people came to see

The English soldiers pass.

We used to pass—we used to pass

Or halt, as it might be,

And ship our masks in case of gas

Beyond Gethsemane.

The Garden called Gethsemane,

It held a pretty lass,

But all the time she talked to me

I prayed my cup might pass.

The officer sat on the chair,

The men lay on the grass,

And all the time we halted there

I prayed my cup might pass—

It didn’t pass—it didn’t pass—

It didn’t pass from me.

I drank it when we met the gas

Beyond Gethsemane.

THE PRO-CONSULS

_The overfaithful sword returns the user His heart’s desire at price of his heart’s blood.

The clamour of the arrogant accuser Wastes that one hour we needed to make good.

This was foretold of old at our outgoing; This we accepted who have squandered, knowing, The strength and glory of our reputations, At the day’s need, as it were dross, to guard The tender and new-dedicate foundations Against the sea we fear—not man’s award._

They that dig foundations deep, Fit for realms to rise upon, Little honour do they reap

Of their generation,

Any more than mountains gain

Stature till we reach the plain.

With no veil before their face Such as shroud or sceptre lend—

Daily in the marketplace,

Of one height to foe and friend—

They must cheapen self to find Ends uncheapened for mankind.

Through the night when hirelings rest, Sleepless they arise, alone, The unsleeping arch to test

And the o’er-trusted corner-stone, ‘Gainst the need, they know, that lies Hid behind the centuries.

Not by lust of praise or show, Not by Peace herself betrayed—

Peace herself must they forego Till that peace be fitly made; And in single strength uphold

Wearier hands and hearts acold.

On the stage their act hath framed For thy sports, O Liberty!

Doubted are they, and defamed

By the tongues their act set free, While they quicken, tend and raise Power that must their power displace.

Lesser men feign greater goals, Failing whereof they may sit Scholarly to judge the souls

That go down into the pit,

And, despite its certain clay, Heave a new world towards the day.

These at labour make no sign,

More than planets, tides or years Which discover God’s design,

Not our hopes and not our fears; Nor in aught they gain or lose Seek a triumph or excuse.

_For, so the Ark be borne to Zion, who Heeds how they perished or were paid that bore it?

For, so the Shrine abide, what shame—what pride—

If we, the priests, were bound or crowned before it?_

THE CRAFTSMAN

Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid, He to the overbearing Boanerges

Jonson, uttered (If half of it were liquor, Blessed be the vintage!) Saying how, at an alehouse under Cotswold, He had made sure of his very Cleopatra, Drunk with enormous, salvation-contemning Love for a tinker.

How, while he hid from Sir Thomas’s keepers, Crouched in a ditch and drenched by the midnight Dews, he had listened to gipsy Juliet Rail at the dawning.

How at Bankside, a boy drowning kittens Winced at the business; whereupon his sister (Lady Macbeth aged seven) thrust ‘em under, Sombrely scornful.

How on a Sabbath, hushed and compassionate—

She being known since her birth to the townsfolk—

Stratford dredged and delivered from Avon Dripping Ophelia.

So, with a thin third finger marrying Drop to wine-drop domed on the table, Shakespeare opened his heart till sunrise Entered to hear him.

London wakened and he, imperturbable, Passed from waking to hurry after shadows …

Busied upon shows of no earthly importance?

Yes, but he knew it!

THINGS AND THE MAN

(IN MEMORIAM, JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN)

1904

‘And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren; and they hated him yet the more.’—_Genesis_ XXXVII. 5.

Oh ye who hold the written clue

To all save all unwritten things, And, half a league behind, pursue

The accomplished Fact with flouts and flings, Look! To your knee your baby brings The oldest tale since Earth began—

The answer to your worryings

‘Once on a time there was a Man.’

He, single-handed, met and slew

Magicians, Armies, Ogres, Kings.

He lonely ‘mid his doubting crew—

‘In all the loneliness of wings’—

He fed the flame, he filled the springs, He locked the ranks, he launched the van Straight at the grinning Teeth of Things.

‘Once on a time there was a Man.’

The peace of shocked Foundations flew Before his ribald questionings.

He broke the Oracles in two,

And bared the paltry wires and strings.

He headed desert wanderings,

He led his soul, his cause, his clan A little from the ruck of Things.

‘Once on a time there was a Man.’

Thrones, Powers, Dominions block the view With episodes and underlings—

The meek historian deems them true Nor heeds the song that Clio sings—

The simple central truth that stings The mob to boo, the priest to ban; _Things never yet created things—

‘Once on a time there was a Man.‘_

A bolt is fallen from the blue.

A wakened realm full circle swings Where Dothan’s dreamer dreams anew Of vast and farborne harvestings; And unto him an Empire clings

That grips the purpose of his plan.

My Lords, how think you of these things?

Once—in our time—is there a Man?

THE BENEFACTORS

_Ah! What avails the classic bent

And what the cultured word,

Against the undoctored incident

That actually occurred?_

_And what is Art whereto we press

Through paint and prose and rhyme—

When Nature in her nakedness

Defeats us every time?_

It is not learning, grace nor gear, Nor easy meat and drink,

But bitter pinch of pain and fear

That makes creation think.

When in this world’s unpleasing youth Our god-like race began,

The longest arm, the sharpest tooth, Gave man control of man;

Till, bruised and bitten to the bone And taught by pain and fear,

He learned to deal the far-off stone, And poke the long, safe spear.

So tooth and nail were obsolete

As means against a foe,

Till, bored by uniform defeat,

Some genius built the bow.

Then stone and javelin proved as vain As old-time tooth and nail,

Ere, spurred anew by fear and pain, Man fashioned coats of mail.

Then was there safety for the rich And danger for the poor,

Till someone mixed a powder which

Redressed the scale once more.

Helmet and armour disappeared

With sword and bow and pike,

And, when the smoke of battle cleared, All men were armed alike….

And when ten million such were slain To please one crazy king,

Man, schooled in bulk by fear and pain, Grew weary of the thing;

And, at the very hour designed,

To enslave him past recall,

His tooth-stone-arrow-gun-shy mind Turned and abolished all.

*

_All Power, each Tyrant, every Mob Whose head has grown too large,

Ends by destroying its own job

And earns its own discharge._

_And Man, whose mere necessities

Move all things from his path,

Trembles meanwhile at their decrees, And deprecates their wrath!_

THE DEAD KING

(EDWARD VII.)

1910

_Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear?

And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run?

Let him approach. It is proven here Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done._

For to him above all was Life good, above all he commanded Her abundance full-handed.

The peculiar treasure of Kings was his for the taking: All that men come to in dreams he inherited waking:—

His marvel of world-gathered armies—one heart and all races, His seas ‘neath his keels when his war-castles foamed to their places;

The thundering foreshores that answered his heralded landing; The huge lighted cities adoring, the assemblies upstanding; The Councils of Kings called in haste to learn how he was minded—

The Kingdoms, the Powers, and the Glories he dealt with unblinded.

To him came all captains of men, all achievers of glory, Hot from the press of their battles they told him their story.

They revealed him their life in an hour and, saluting, departed, Joyful to labour afresh—he had made them new-hearted.

And, since he weighed men from his youth, and no lie long deceived him,

He spoke and exacted the truth, and the basest believed him.

And God poured him an exquisite wine, that was daily renewed to him, In the clear-welling love of his peoples that daily accrued to him.

Honour and service we gave him, rejoicingly fearless; Faith absolute, trust beyond speech and a friendship as peerless.

And since he was Master and Servant in all that we asked him, We leaned hard on his wisdom in all things, knowing not how we tasked him.

For on Him each new day laid command, every tyrannous hour, To confront, or confirm, or make smooth some dread issue of power; To deliver true judgment aright at the instant, unaided, In the strict, level, ultimate phrase that allowed or dissuaded; To foresee, to allay, to avert from us perils unnumbered, To stand guard on our gates when he guessed that the watchmen had slumbered;

To win time, to turn hate, to woo folly to service and, mightily schooling

His strength to the use of his Nations, to rule as not ruling.

These were the works of our King; Earth’s peace was the proof of them.

God gave him great works to fulfil, and to us the behoof of them.

We accepted his toil as our right—none spared, none excused him.

When he was bowed by his burden his rest was refused him.

We troubled his age with our weakness—the blacker our shame to us!

Hearing his People had need of him, straightway he came to us.

As he received so he gave—nothing grudged, naught denying, Not even the last gasp of his breath when he strove for us, dying For our sakes, without question, he put from him all that he cherished.

Simply as any that serve him he served and he perished.

All that Kings covet was his, and he flung it aside for us.

Simply as any that die in his service he died for us.

_Who in the Realm to-day has choice of the easy road or the hard to tread?

And, much concerned for his own estate, would sell his soul to remain in the sun?

Let him depart nor look on Our dead.

Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done._

A DEATH-BED

‘This is the State above the Law.

The State exists for the State alone.’

[_This is a gland at the back of the jaw,_

And an answering lump by the collar-bone.]

Some die shouting in gas or fire;

Some die silent, by shell and shot.

Some die desperate, caught on the wire; Some die suddenly. This will not.

‘Regis suprema Voluntas lex.’

[_It will follow the regular course of—throats._]

Some die pinned by the broken decks, Some die sobbing between the boats.

Some die eloquent, pressed to death By the sliding trench, as their friends can hear.

Some die wholly in half a breath

Some—give trouble for half a year.

‘There is neither Evil nor Good in life Except as the needs of the State ordain.’

[_Since it is rather too late for the knife, All we can do is to mask the pain._]

Some die saintly in faith and hope—

One died thus in a prison-yard—

Some die broken by rape or the rope; Some die easily. This dies hard.

‘I will dash to pieces who bar my way.

Woe to the traitor! Woe to the weak!’

[_Let him write what he wishes to say.

It tires him out if he tries to speak._]

Some die quietly. Some abound

In loud self-pity. Others spread Bad morale through the cots around …

This is a type that is better dead.

‘The war was forced on me by my foes.

All that I sought was the right to live.’

[_Don’t be afraid of a triple dose; The pain will neutralize half we give._

_Here are the needles. See that he dies While the effects of the drug endure….

What is the question he asks with his eyes?—

Yes, All-Highest, to God, be sure._]

GEHAZI

‘Whence comest thou, Gehazi,

So reverend to behold,

In scarlet and in ermines

And chain of England’s gold?’

‘From following after Naaman

To tell him all is well,

Whereby my zeal hath made me

A Judge in Israel.’

Well done, well done, Gehazi,

Stretch forth thy ready hand,

Thou barely ‘scaped from judgment, Take oath to judge the land,

Unswayed by gift of money

Or privy bribe, more base,

Of knowledge which is profit

In any marketplace.

Search out and probe, Gehazi,

As thou of all canst try,

The truthful, well-weighed answer

That tells the blacker lie—

The loud, uneasy virtue,

The anger feigned at will,

To overbear a witness

And make the Court keep still.

Take order now, Gehazi,

That no man talk aside

In secret with his judges

The while his case is tried.

Lest he should show them—reason

To keep a matter hid,

And subtly lead the questions

Away from what he did.

Thou mirror of uprightness,

What ails thee at thy vows?

What means the risen whiteness

Of the skin between thy brows?

The boils that shine and burrow,

The sores that slough and bleed—

The leprosy of Naaman

On thee and all thy seed?

Stand up, stand up, Gehazi,

Draw close thy robe and go,

Gehazi, Judge in Israel,

A leper white as snow!

THE VIRGINITY

Try as he will, no man breaks wholly loose From his first love, no matter who she be.

Oh, was there ever sailor free to choose, That didn’t settle somewhere near the sea?

Myself, it don’t excite me nor amuse To watch a pack o’ shipping on the sea, But I can understand my neighbour’s views From certain things which have occurred to me.

Men must keep touch with things they used to use To earn their living, even when they are free; And so come back upon the least excuse—

Same as the sailor settled near the sea.

He knows he’s never going on no cruise—

He knows he’s done and finished with the sea, And yet he likes to feel she’s there to use—

If he should ask her—as she used to be.

Even though she cost him all he had to lose, Even though she made him sick to hear or see, Still, what she left of him will mostly choose Her skirts to sit by. How comes such to be?

_Parsons in pulpits, tax-payers in pews, Kings on your thrones, you know as well as me, We’ve only one virginity to lose,

And where we lost it there our hearts will be!_

A PILGRIM’S WAY

I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way, Or male and female devilkins to lead my feet astray.

If these are added, I rejoice—if not, I shall not mind, So long as I have leave and choice to meet my fellow-kind.

For as we come and as we go (and deadly-soon go we!) The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

Thus I will honour pious men whose virtue shines so bright (Though none are more amazed than I when I by chance do right), And I will pity foolish men for woe their sins have bred (Though ninety-nine per cent. of mine I brought on my own head) And, Amorite or Eremite, or General Averagee, The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

And when they bore me overmuch, I will not shake mine ears, Recalling many thousand such whom I have bored to tears.

And when they labour to impress, I will not doubt nor scoff; Since I myself have done no less and—sometimes pulled it off.

Yea, as we are and we are not, and we pretend to be, The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

And when they work me random wrong, as often-times hath been, I will not cherish hate too long (my hands are none too clean) And when they do me random good I will not feign surprise, No more than those whom I have cheered with wayside charities.

But, as we give and as we take—whate’er our takings be—

The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

But when I meet with frantic folk who sinfully declare There is no pardon for their sin, the same I will not spare Till I have proved that Heaven and Hell which in our hearts we have Show nothing irredeemable on either side the grave.

For as we live and as we die—if utter Death there be—

The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

Deliver me from every pride—the Middle, High, and Low—

That bars me from a brother’s side, whatever pride he show.

And purge me from all heresies of thought and speech and pen That bid me judge him otherwise than I am judged. Amen!

That I may sing of Crowd or King or road-borne company, That I may labour in my day, vocation and degree, To prove the same in deed and name, and hold unshakenly (Where’er I go, whate’er I know, whoe’er my neighbour be) This single faith in Life and Death and all Eternity ‘The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!’

THE OLDEST SONG

For before Eve was Lilith—_Old Tale._

These were never your true love’s eyes.

Why do you feign that you love them?

You that broke from their constancies, And the wide calm brows above them!

This was never your true love’s speech.

Why do you thrill when you hear it?

You that have ridden out of its reach The width of the world or near it!

This was never your true love’s hair,—

You that chafed when it bound you Screened from knowledge or shame or care, In the night that it made around you!

‘All these things I know, I know.

And that’s why my heart is breaking!’

Then what do you gain by pretending so?

‘The joy of an old wound waking.’

NATURAL THEOLOGY

PRIMITIVE

I ate my fill of a whale that died, And stranded after a month at sea….

There is a pain in my inside.

Why have the Gods afflicted me?

Ow! I am purged till I am a wraith!

Wow! I am sick till I cannot see!

What is the sense of Religion and Faith?

Look how the Gods have afflicted me!

PAGAN

How can the skin of rat or mouse hold Anything more than a harmless flea?…

The burning plague has taken my household.

Why have my Gods afflicted me?

All my kith and kin are deceased,

Though they were as good as good could be.

I will out and batter the family priest, Because my Gods have afflicted me.

MEDIÆVAL

My privy and well drain into each other After the custom of Christendie….

Fevers and fluxes are wasting my mother.

Why has the Lord afflicted me?

The Saints are helpless for all I offer—

So are the clergy I used to fee

Henceforward I keep my cash in my coffer, Because the Lord has afflicted me.

MATERIAL

I run eight hundred hens to the acre.

They die by dozens mysteriously….

I am more than doubtful concerning my Maker.

Why has the Lord afflicted me?

What a return for all my endeavour—

Not to mention the L. S. D.!

I am an atheist now and for ever,

Because this God has afflicted me!

PROGRESSIVE

Money spent on an Army or Fleet

Is homicidal lunacy….

My son has been killed in the Mons retreat.

Why is the Lord afflicting me?

Why are murder, pillage and arson

And rape allowed by the Deity?

I will write to the Times, deriding our parson Because my God has afflicted me.

CHORUS

We had a kettle, we let it leak;

Our not repairing it made it worse.

We haven’t had any tea for a week….

The bottom is out of the Universe!

CONCLUSION

This was none of the good Lord’s pleasure, For the Spirit He breathed in Man is free; But what comes after is measure for measure And not a God that afflicteth thee.

As was the sowing so the reaping

Is now and evermore shall be.

Thou art delivered to thy own keeping.

Only Thyself hath afflicted thee!

A SONG AT COCK-CROW

‘Ille autem iterum negavit.’

The first time that Peter deniéd his Lord He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord, But followed far off to see what they would do, Till the cock crew—till the cock crew—

After Gethsemane, till the cock crew!

The first time that Peter deniéd his Lord ‘Twas only a maid in the palace who heard, As he sat by the fire and warmed himself through.

Then the cock crew! Then the cock crew!

(‘Thou also art one of them.’) Then the cock crew!

The first time that Peter deniéd his Lord He had neither the Throne, nor the Keys nor the Sword—

A poor silly fisherman, what could he do When the cock crew—when the cock crew—

But weep for his wickedness when the cock crew?

*

The next time that Peter deniéd his Lord He was Fisher of Men, as foretold by the Word, With the Crown on his brow and the Cross on his shoe, When the cock crew—when the cock crew—

In Flanders and Picardy when the cock crew.

The next time that Peter deniéd his Lord ‘Twas Mary the Mother in Heaven Who heard, And She grieved for the maidens and wives that they slew When the cock crew—when the cock crew—

At Tirmonde and Aerschott when the cock crew.

The next time that Peter deniéd his Lord The Babe in the Manger awakened and stirred, And He stretched out His arms for the playmates He knew—

When the cock crew—when the cock crew—

But the waters had covered them when the cock crew.

The next time that Peter deniéd his Lord ‘Twas Earth in her agony waited his word, But he sat by the fire and naught would he do, Though the cock crew—though the cock crew—

Over all Christendom, though the cock crew.

The last time that Peter deniéd his Lord, The Father took from him the Keys and the Sword, And the Mother and Babe brake his Kingdom in two, When the cock crew—when the cock crew—

(_Because of his wickedness_) when the cock crew!

THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES

1911

When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride, He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.

But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man, He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it as he can.

But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.

For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws, They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.

‘Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale

For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man’s timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say, For the Woman that God gave him isn’t his to give away; But when hunter meets with husband, each confirms the other’s tale—

The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man, a bear in most relations—worm and savage otherwise,—

Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.

Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low, To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.

Mirth obscene diverts his anger! Doubt and Pity oft perplex Him in dealing with an issue—to the scandal of The Sex!

But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same;

And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail, The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.

She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast May not deal in doubt or pity—must not swerve for fact or jest.

These be purely male diversions—not in these her honour dwells.

She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.

She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate!

And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.

She is wedded to convictions—in default of grosser ties; Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies!—

He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild, Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

Unprovoked and awful charges—even so the she-bear fights, Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons—even so the cobra bites, Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw And the victim writhes in anguish—like the Jesuit with the squaw!

So it comes that Man the coward, when he gathers to confer With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands To some God of Abstract Justice—which no woman understands.

And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him Must command but may not govern—shall enthral but not enslave him.

And She knows, because She warns him and Her instincts never fail, That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.

EPITAPHS

‘EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE’

A. ‘I was a “have.”’ B. ‘I was a “have-not.”’

(_Together_) ‘What hast thou given which I gave not?’

A SERVANT

We were together since the War began He was my servant—and the better man.

A SON

My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I would I knew What it was, and it might serve me in a time when jests are few.

AN ONLY SON

I have slain none except my Mother, She (Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.

EX-CLERK

Pity not! The Army gave

Freedom to a timid slave:

In which Freedom did he find

Strength of body, will, and mind:

By which strength he came to prove Mirth, Companionship, and Love:

For which Love to Death he went:

In which Death he lies content.

THE WONDER

Body and Spirit I surrendered whole To harsh Instructors—and received a soul …

If mortal man could change me through and through From all I was—what may The God not do?

HINDU SEPOY IN FRANCE

This man in his own country prayed we know not to what Powers.

We pray Them to reward him for his bravery in ours.

THE COWARD

I could not look on Death, which being known, Men led me to him, blindfold and alone.

SHOCK

My name, my speech, my self I had forgot.

My wife and children came—I knew them not.

I died. My Mother followed. At her call And on her bosom I remembered all.

A GRAVE NEAR CAIRO

Gods of the Nile, should this stout fellow here Get out—get out! He knows not shame nor fear.

PELICANS IN THE WILDERNESS

(A GRAVE NEAR HALFA)

The blown sand heaps on me, that none may learn Where I am laid for whom my children grieve….

O wings that beat at dawning, ye return Out of the desert to your young at eve!

THE FAVOUR

Death favoured me from the first, well knowing I could not endure To wait on him day by day. He quitted my betters and came Whistling over the fields, and, when he had made all sure, ‘Thy line is at end,’ he said, ‘but at least I have saved its name.’

THE BEGINNER

On the first hour of my first day

In the front trench I fell.

(Children in boxes at a play

Stand up to watch it well.)

R. A. F. (AGED EIGHTEEN)

Laughing through clouds, his milk-teeth still unshed, Cities and men he smote from overhead.

His deaths delivered, he returned to play Childlike, with childish things now put away.

THE REFINED MAN

I was of delicate mind. I went aside for my needs, Disdaining the common office. I was seen from afar and killed….

How is this matter for mirth? Let each man be judged by his deeds I have paid my price to live with myself on the terms that I willed.

NATIVE WATER-CARRIER (M. E. F.)

Prometheus brought down fire to men.

This brought up water.

The Gods are jealous—now, as then, They gave no quarter.

BOMBED IN LONDON

On land and sea I strove with anxious care To escape conscription. It was in the air!

THE SLEEPY SENTINEL

Faithless the watch that I kept: now I have none to keep.

I was slain because I slept: now I am slain I sleep.

Let no man reproach me again, whatever watch is unkept—

I sleep because I am slain. They slew me because I slept.

BATTERIES OUT OF AMMUNITION

If any mourn us in the workshop, say We died because the shift kept holiday.

COMMON FORM

If any question why we died,

Tell them, because our fathers lied.

A DEAD STATESMAN

I could not dig; I dared not rob:

Therefore I lied to please the mob.

Now all my lies are proved untrue, And I must face the men I slew.

What tale shall save me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?

THE REBEL

If I had clamoured at Thy Gate

For gift of Life on Earth,

And, thrusting through the souls that wait, Flung headlong into birth—

Even then, even then, for gin and snare About my pathway spread,

Lord, I had mocked Thy thoughtful care Before I joined the Dead!

But now?… I was beneath Thy Hand Ere yet the Planets came.

And now—though Planets pass, I stand The witness to Thy Shame.

THE OBEDIENT

Daily, though no ears attended,

Did my prayers arise

Daily, though no fire descended

Did I sacrifice….

Though my darkness did not lift,

Though I faced no lighter odds,

Though the Gods bestowed no gift,

None the less,

None the less, I served the Gods!

A DRIFTER OFF TARENTUM

He from the wind-bitten north with ship and companions descended, Searching for eggs of death spawned by invisible hulls.

Many he found and drew forth. Of a sudden the fishery ended In flame and a clamorous breath not new to the eye-pecking gulls.

DESTROYERS IN COLLISION

For Fog and Fate no charm is found To lighten or amend.

I, hurrying to my bride, was drowned—

Cut down by my best friend.

CONVOY ESCORT

I was a shepherd to fools

Causelessly bold or afraid.

They would not abide by my rules.

Yet they escaped. For I stayed.

UNKNOWN FEMALE CORPSE

Headless, lacking foot and hand,

Horrible I come to land.

I beseech all women’s sons

Know I was a mother once.

RAPED AND REVENGED

One used and butchered me: another spied Me broken—for which thing a hundred died.

So it was learned among the heathen hosts How much a freeborn woman’s favour costs.

SALONIKAN GRAVE

I have watched a thousand days

Push out and crawl into night

Slowly as tortoises

Now I, too, follow these.

It is fever, and not fight—

Time, not battle—that slays.

THE BRIDEGROOM

Call me not false, beloved,

If, from thy scarce-known breast So little time removed,

In other arms I rest.

For this more ancient bride

Whom coldly I embrace

Was constant at my side

Before I saw thy face.

Our marriage, often set—

By miracle delayed—

At last is consummate,

And cannot be unmade.

Live, then, whom Life shall cure,

Almost, of Memory,

And leave us to endure

Its immortality.

V. A. D. (MEDITERRANEAN)

Ah, would swift ships had never been, for then we ne’er had found, These harsh Ægean rocks between, this little virgin drowned, Whom neither spouse nor child shall mourn, but men she nursed through pain

And—certain keels for whose return the heathen look in vain.

‘THE CITY OF BRASS’

1909

Here was a people whom after their works thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion: and in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust.

The Arabian Nights

_In a land that the sand overlays—the ways to her gates are untrod—

A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall,

And of these is a story written: but Allah alone knoweth all!_

When the wine stirred in their heart their bosoms dilated, They rose to suppose themselves kings over all things created—

To decree a new earth at a birth without labour or sorrow—

To declare: ‘We prepare it to-day and inherit to-morrow.’

They chose themselves prophets and priests of minute understanding, Men swift to see done, and outrun, their extremest commanding—

Of the tribe which describe with a jibe the perversions of Justice—

Panders avowed to the crowd whatsoever its lust is.

Swiftly these pulled down the walls that their fathers had made them—

The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and relaid them As playgrounds of pleasure and leisure with limitless entries, And havens of rest for the wastrels where once walked the sentries; And because there was need of more pay for the shouters and marchers,

They disbanded in face of their foemen their bowmen and archers.

They replied to their well-wishers’ fears—to their enemies’

laughter,

Saying: ‘Peace! We have fashioned a God Which shall save us hereafter.

We ascribe all dominion to man in his factions conferring, And have given to numbers the Name of the Wisdom unerring.’

They said: ‘Who has hate in his soul? Who has envied his neighbour?

Let him arise and control both that man and his labour.’

They said: ‘Who is eaten by sloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed him?

He shall levy a tribute from all because none have employed him.’

They said: ‘Who hath toiled? Who hath striven, and gathered possession?

Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of transgression.’

They said. ‘Who is irked by the Law? Though we may not remove it, If he lend us his aid in this raid, we will set him above it!’

So the robber did judgment again upon such as displeased him, The slayer, too, boasted his slain, and the judges released him.

As for their kinsmen far off, on the skirts of the nation, They harried all earth to make sure none escaped reprobation, They awakened unrest for a jest in their newly-won borders, And jeered at the blood of their brethren betrayed by their orders.

They instructed the ruled to rebel, their rulers to aid them; And, since such as obeyed them not fell, their Viceroys obeyed them.

When the riotous set them at naught they said: ‘Praise the upheaval!

For the show and the word and the thought of Dominion is evil!’

They unwound and flung from them with rage, as a rag that defiled them

The imperial gains of the age which their forefathers piled them.

They ran panting in haste to lay waste and embitter for ever The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strength which are Faith and Endeavour.

They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth and exposed to derision

All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and prevision: And it ceased, and God granted them all things for which they had striven,

And the heart of a beast in the place of a man’s heart was given….

*

When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant in error, Out of the sea rose a sign—out of Heaven a terror.

Then they saw, then they heard, then they knew—for none troubled to hide it,

An host had prepared their destruction, but still they denied it.

They denied what they dared not abide if it came to the trial, But the Sword that was forged while they lied did not heed their denial.

It drove home, and no time was allowed to the crowd that was driven.

The preposterous-minded were cowed—they thought time would be given.

There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue them; It was decreed their own deed, and not chance, should undo them The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping, The trust they had leagued to disown was removed from their keeping.

The eaters of other men’s bread, the exempted from hardship, The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their wardship.

For the hate they had taught through the State brought the State no defender,

And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender.

JUSTICE

OCTOBER 1918

_Across a world where all men grieve And grieving strive the more,

The great days range like tides and leave Our dead on every shore.

Heavy the load we undergo,

And our own hands prepare,

If we have parley with the foe,

The load our sons must bear._

Before we loose the word

That bids new worlds to birth,

Needs must we loosen first the sword Of Justice upon earth;

Or else all else is vain

Since life on earth began,

And the spent world sinks back again Hopeless of God and Man.

A people and their King

Through ancient sin grown strong, Because they feared no reckoning

Would set no bound to wrong;

But now their hour is past,

And we who bore it find

Evil Incarnate held at last

To answer to mankind.

For agony and spoil

Of nations beat to dust,

For poisoned air and tortured soil And cold, commanded lust,

And every secret woe

The shuddering waters saw—

Willed and fulfilled by high and low—

Let them relearn the Law.

That when the dooms are read,

Not high nor low shall say:—

‘My haughty or my humble head

Has saved me in this day.’

That, till the end of time,

Their remnant shall recall

Their fathers’ old, confederate crime Availed them not at all.

That neither schools nor priests,

Nor Kings may build again

A people with the heart of beasts

Made wise concerning men.

Whereby our dead shall sleep

In honour, unbetrayed,

And we in faith and honour keep

That peace for which they paid.