When you are going by.
A
strict reserve the fates demand;
But, when to let you pass I stand,
Sometimes by chance I touch your hand
And sometimes catch your eye.
TO ALL THAT LOVE THE FAR AND BLUE
TO all that love the far and blue:
Whether, from dawn to eve, on foot
The fleeing corners ye pursue,
Nor weary of the vain pursuit;
Or whether down the singing stream,
Paddle in hand,
jocund ye shoot,
To
splash beside the
splashing bream
Or
anchor by the
willow root:
Or, bolder, from the narrow shore
Put forth, that cedar ark to steer,
Among the seabirds and the roar
Of the great sea,
profound and clear;
Or,
lastly if in heart ye roam,
Not caring to do else, and hear,
Safe sitting by the fire at home,
Footfalls in Utah or Pamere:
Though long the way, though hard to bear
The sun and rain, the dust and dew;
Though still
attainment and despair
Inter the old, despoil the new;
There shall at length, be sure, O friends,
Howe'er ye steer, whate'er ye do -
At length, and at the end of ends,
The golden city come in view.
THOU STRAINEST THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN FERN
(A FRAGMENT)
THOU strainest through the mountain fern,
A most exiguously thin Burn.
For all thy foam, for all thy din,
Thee shall the pallid lake inurn,
With well-a-day for Mr. Swin-Burne!
Take then this quarto in thy fin
And, O thou stoker huge and stern,
The whole affair, outside and in,
Burn!
But save the true
poetic kin,
The works of Mr. Robert Burn'
And William Wordsworth upon Tin-Tern!
TO ROSABELLE
WHEN my young lady has grown great and staid,
And in long
raiment wondrously arrayed,
She may take pleasure with a smile to know
How she
delighted men-folk long ago.
For her long after, then, this tale I tell
Of the two fans and fairy Rosabelle.
Hot was the day; her weary sire and I
Sat in our chairs companionably nigh,
Each with a
headache sat her sire and I.
Instant the
hostess waked: she viewed the scene,
Divined the giants' languor by their mien,
And with
hospitable care
Tackled at once an Atlantean chair.
Her pigmy
staturescarce attained the seat -
She dragged it where she would, and with her feet
Surmounted;
thence, a Phaeton launched, she crowned
The vast
plateau of the piano, found
And culled a pair of fans;
wherewith equipped,
Our
mountaineer back to the level slipped;
And being landed, with
considerate eyes,
Betwixt her elders dealt her double prize;
The small to me, the greater to her sire.
As painters now advance and now retire
Before the growing
canvas, and anon
Once more approach and put the
climax on:
So she
awhilewithdrew, her piece she viewed -
For half a moment half
supposed it good -
Spied her mistake, nor sooner spied than ran
To
remedy; and with the greater fan,
In
gracious better thought, equipped the guest.
From ill to well, from better on to best,
Arts move; the
homely, like the plastic kind;
And high ideals fired that
infant mind.
Once more she backed, once more a space apart
Considered and reviewed her work of art:
Doubtful at first, and
gravely yet
awhile;
Till all her features
blossomed in a smile.
And the child, waking at the call of bliss,
To each she ran, and took and gave a kiss.
NOW BARE TO THE BEHOLDER'S EYE
NOW bare to the beholder's eye
Your late denuded bindings lie,
Subsiding slowly where they fell,
A disinvested citadel;
The obdurate
corset, Cupid's foe,
The Dutchman's
breeches frilled below.
Those that the lover notes to note,
And white and crackling petticoat.
From these, that on the ground repose,
Their lady
lately re-arose;
And laying by the lady's name,
A living woman re-became.
Of her, that from the public eye
They do
enclose and fortify,
Now, lying scattered as they fell,
An indiscreeter tale they tell:
Of that more soft and secret her
Whose daylong fortresses they were,
By fading
warmth, by lingering print,
These now discarded scabbards hint.
A twofold change the ladies know:
First, in the morn the bugles blow,
And they, with floral hues and scents,
Man their beribboned battlements.
But let the stars appear, and they
Shed inhumanities away;
And from the changeling fashion see,
Through comic and through sweet degree,
In nature's
toilet unsurpassed,
Forth leaps the laughing girl at last.
THE BOUR-TREE DEN
CLINKUM-CLANK in the rain they ride,
Down by the braes and the grey sea-side;
Clinkum-clank by stane and cairn,
Weary fa' their horse-shoe-airn!
Loud on the causey, saft on the sand,
Round they rade by the tail of the land;
Round and up by the Bour-Tree Den,
Weary fa' the red-coat men!
Aft hae I gane where they hae rade
And straigled in the gowden brooms -
Aft hae I gane, a saikless maid,
And O! sae bonny as the bour-tree blooms!
Wi' swords and guns they
wanton there,
Wi' red, red coats and braw, braw plumes.
But I gaed wi' my gowden hair,
And O! sae bonny as the bour-tree blooms!
I ran, a little hempie lass,
In the sand and the bent grass,
Or took and kilted my small coats
To play in the beached fisher-boats.
I waded deep and I ran fast,
I was as lean as a lugger's mast,
I was as brown as a fisher's creel,
And I liked my life unco weel.
They blew a
trumpet at the cross,
Some forty men, both foot and horse.
A'body cam to hear and see,
And wha, among the rest, but me.
My lips were saut wi' the saut air,
My face was brown, my feet were bare
The wind had ravelled my tautit hair,
And I thought shame to be
standing there.
Ae man there in the thick of the throng
Sat in his
saddle, straight and strong.
I looked at him and he at me,
And he was a master-man to see.
. . . And who is this yin? and who is yon
That has the bonny lendings on?
That sits and looks sae braw and crouse?
. . . Mister Frank o' the Big House!
I gaed my lane beside the sea;
The wind it blew in bush and tree,
The wind blew in bush and bent:
Muckle I saw, and muckle kent!
Between the beach and the sea-hill
I sat my lane and grat my fill -
I was sae clarty and hard and dark,
And like the kye in the cow park!
There fell a battle far in the north;
The evil news gaed back and forth,
And back and forth by brae and bent
Hider and
hunter cam and went:
The
hunter clattered horse-shoe-airn
By causey-crest and hill-top cairn;
The hider, in by shag and shench,
Crept on his wame and little lench.
The eastland wind blew
shrill and snell,
The stars arose, the gloaming fell,
The firelight shone in window and door
When Mr. Frank cam here to shore.
He hirpled up by the links and the lane,
And chappit laigh in the back-door-stane.
My faither gaed, and up wi' his han'!
. . . Is this Mr. Frank, or a beggarman?
I have mistrysted sair, he said,
But let me into fire and bed;
Let me in, for auld lang syne,
And give me a dram of the
brandy wine.
They hid him in the Bour-Tree Den,
And I thought it strange to gang my lane;
I thought it strange, I thought it sweet,
To gang there on my naked feet.
In the mirk night, when the boats were at sea,
I passed the burn abune the knee;
In the mirk night, when the folks were asleep,
I had a tryst in the den to keep.
Late and air', when the folks were asleep,
I had a tryst, a tryst to keep,
I had a lad that lippened to me,
And bour-tree
blossom is fair to see!
O' the bour-tree leaves I busked his bed,
The mune was siller, the dawn was red:
Was nae man there but him and me -
And bour-tree
blossom is fair to see!
Unco weather hae we been through: