The streaks predicting streams of blood.
VI

She thinks they may mean something; thinks
They may mean nothing: haply both.

Where darkness all her daylight drinks,
She fain would find a leader lynx,

Not too much taxing mental sloth.
VII

Cleft like the fated house in twain,
One half is, Arm! and one, Retrench!

Gambetta's word on dull MacMahon:
'The cow that sees a passing train':

So spies she Russian, German, French.
VIII

She? no, her weakness: she unbraced
Among those athletes fronting storms!

The muscles less of steel than paste,
Why, they of nature feel distaste

For flash, much more for push, of arms.
IX

The poet sings, and well know we,
That 'iron draws men after it.'

But toweringwealth may seem the tree
Which bears the fruit INDEMNITY,

And draw as fast as battle's fit,
X

If feeble be the hand on guard,
Alas, alas! And nations are

Still the mad forces, though the scarred.
Should they once deem our emblem Pard

Wagger of tail for all save war; -
XI

Mechanically screwed to flail
His flanks by Presses conjuring fear; -

A money-bag with head and tail; -
Too late may valour then avail!

As you beheld, my cannonier,
XII

When with the staff of Benedek,
On the plateau of Koniggratz,

You saw below that wedgeing speck;
Foresaw proud Austria rammed to wreck,

Where Chlum drove deep in smoky jets.
February 1887.

TO CHILDREN: FOR TYRANTS
I

Strike not thy dog with a stick!
I did it yesterday:

Not to undo though I gained
The Paradise: heavy it rained

On Kobold's flanks, and he lay.
II

Little Bruno, our long-ear pup,
From his hunt had come back to my heel.

I heard a sharp worrying sound,
And Bruno foamed on the ground,

With Koby as making a meal.
III

I did what I could not undo
Were the gates of the Paradise shut

Behind me: I deemed it was just.
I left Koby crouched in the dust,

Some yards from the woodman's hut.
IV

He bewhimpered his welting, and I
Scarce thought it enough for him: so,

By degrees, through the upper box-grove,
Within me an old story hove,

Of a man and a dog: you shall know.
V

The dog was of novel breed,
The Shannon retriever, untried:

His master, an old Irish lord,
In an oaken armchair snored

At midnight, whisky beside.
VI

Perched up a desolate tower,
Where the black storm-wind was a whip

To set it nigh spinning, these two
Were alone, like the last of a crew,

Outworn in a wave-beaten ship.
VII

The dog lifted muzzle, and sniffed;
He quitted his couch on the rug,

Nose to floor, nose aloft; whined, barked;
And, finding the signals unmarked,

Caught a hand in a death-grapple tug.
VIII

He pulled till his master jumped
For fury of wrath, and laid on

With the length of a tough knotted staff,
Fit to drive the life flying like chaff,

And leave a sheer carcase anon.
IX

That done, he sat, panted, and cursed
The vile cross of this brute: nevermore

Would he house it to rear such a cur!
The dog dragged his legs, pained to stir,

Eyed his master, dropped, barked at the door.
X

Then his master raised head too, and sniffed:
It struck him the dog had a sense

That honoured both dam and sire.
You have guessed how the tower was afire.

The Shannon retriever dates thence.
XI

I mused: saw the pup ease his heart
Of his instinct for chasing, and sink

Overwrought by excitement so new:
A scene that for Koby to view

Was the seizure of nerves in a link.
XII

And part sympathetic, and part
Imitatively, raged my poor brute;

And I, not thinking of ill,
Doing eviller: nerves are still

Our savage too quick at the root.
XIII

They spring us: I proved it, albeit
I played executioner then

For discipline, justice, the like.
Yon stick I had handy to strike

Should have warned of the tyrant in men.
XIV

You read in your History books,
How the Prince in his youth had a mind

For governing gently his land.
Ah, the use of that weapon at hand,

When the temper is other than kind!
XV

At home all was well; Koby's ribs
Not so sore as my thoughts: if, beguiled,

He forgives me, his criminal air
Throws a shade of Llewellyn's despair

For the hound slain for saving his child.
THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN

I
Enter these enchanted woods,

You who dare.
Nothing harms beneath the leaves

More than waves a swimmer cleaves.
Toss your heart up with the lark,

Foot at peace with mouse and worm,
Fair you fare.

Only at a dread of dark
Quaver, and they quit their form:

Thousand eyeballs under hoods
Have you by the hair.

Enter these enchanted woods,
You who dare.

II
Here the snake across your path

Stretches in his golden bath:
Mossy-footed squirrels leap

Soft as winnowing plumes of Sleep:
Yaffles on a chuckle skim

Low to laugh from branches dim:
Up the pine, where sits the star,

Rattles deep the moth-winged jar.
Each has business of his own;

But should you distrust a tone,
Then beware.

Shudder all the haunted roods,
All the eyeballs under hoods

Shroud you in their glare.
Enter these enchanted woods,

You who dare.
III

Open hither, open hence,
Scarce a bramble weaves a fence,

Where the strawberry runs red,
With white star-flower overhead;

Cumbered by dry twig and cone,
Shredded husks of seedlings flown,

Mine of mole and spotted flint:
Of dire wizardry no hint,

Save mayhap the print that shows
Hasty outward-tripping toes,

Heels to terror on the mould.
These, the woods of Westermain,

Are as others to behold,
Rich of wreathing sun and rain;

Foliage lustreful around
Shadowed leagues of slumbering sound.

Wavy tree-tops, yellow whins,
Shelter eager minikins,

Myriads, free to peck and pipe:
Would you better? would you worse?

You with them may gather ripe
Pleasures flowing not from purse.

Quick and far as Colour flies
Taking the delighted eyes,

You of any well that springs
May unfold the heaven of things;

Have it homely and within,
And thereof its likeness win,

Will you so in soul's desire:
This do sages grant t' the lyre.

This is being bird and more,
More than glad musician this;

Granaries you will have a store

• daylight [´deilait] n.日光；黎明 (初中英语单词)
• mental [´mentl] a.精神的；心理的 (初中英语单词)
• weakness [´wi:knis] n.虚弱；弱点，缺点 (初中英语单词)
• wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
• feeble [´fi:bəl] a.虚弱的，无力的 (初中英语单词)
• beheld [bi´held] behold的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
• austria [´ɔstriə] n.奥地利 (初中英语单词)
• paradise [´pærədais] n.天堂；乐园 (初中英语单词)
• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中英语单词)
• instinct [´instiŋkt] n.本能；直觉；天资 (初中英语单词)
• excitement [ik´saitmənt] n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词)
• sympathetic [,simpə´θetik] a.同情的，有同情心的 (初中英语单词)
• savage [´sævidʒ] a.野蛮的 n.蛮人 (初中英语单词)
• discipline [´disiplin] n.纪律；训练 (初中英语单词)
• prince [´prins] n.王子；亲王；君主 (初中英语单词)
• gently [´dʒentli] ad.温和地；静静地 (初中英语单词)
• weapon [´wepən] n.武器；斗争手段 (初中英语单词)
• temper [´tempə] n.韧度 v.锻炼；调和 (初中英语单词)
• criminal [´kriminəl] a.犯罪的 n.罪犯 (初中英语单词)
• swimmer [´swimə] n.游泳者 (初中英语单词)
• haunted [´hɔ:tid] a.常出现鬼的，闹鬼的 (初中英语单词)
• hither [´hiðə] ad.到此处 (初中英语单词)
• terror [´terə] n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词)
• plateau [´plætəu] n.高原；平稳；托盘 (高中英语单词)
• desolate [´desəleit] a.荒凉的；孤独的 (高中英语单词)
• spinning [´spiniŋ] n.纺织 a.纺织品的 (高中英语单词)
• finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
• tyrant [´taiərənt] n.暴君；霸主；专制君主 (高中英语单词)
• chuckle [´tʃʌkl] vi.&n.轻声笑；暗自笑 (高中英语单词)
• distrust [dis´trʌst] n.&vt.不信任，怀疑 (高中英语单词)
• strawberry [´strɔ:bəri] n.草莓 (高中英语单词)
• homely [´həumli] a.朴素的；不漂亮的 (高中英语单词)
• likeness [´laiknis] n.相似；肖像；外表 (高中英语单词)
• musician [mju:´ziʃən] n.音乐家，作曲家 (高中英语单词)
• towering [´tauəriŋ] a.高耸的；强烈的 (英语四级单词)
• valour [´vælə] n.英勇，勇猛 (英语四级单词)
• armchair [´ɑ:mtʃeə] n.扶手椅 (英语四级单词)
• muzzle [´mʌzəl] n.枪口，炮口 (英语四级单词)
• delighted [di´laitid] a.高兴的；喜欢的 (英语四级单词)
• unfold [ʌn´fəuld] v.展开；显露，表明 (英语四级单词)
• emblem [´embləm] n.象征；标志；徽章 (英语六级单词)
• bramble [´bræmbəl] n.荆棘 (英语六级单词)