章节正文
Fast, like a curse, to the ghosts of the trees!
Here in a mist that is parted in sunder,
Half with the darkness and half with the day;
Face of a woman, but face of a wonder,
Vivid and wild as a flame of the thunder,
Flashes and fades, and the wail of the grey
Water is loud on the straits of the bay!
Page: 93
Father, whose years have been many and weary -
Elder, whose life is as lovely as light
Shining in ways that are sterile and dreary -
Tell me the name of this beautiful peri,
Flashing on me like the wonderful white
Star, at the meeting of morning and night.
``Look to thy Saviour, and down on thy knee, man,
Lean on the Lord, as the Zebedee leaned;
Daughter of hell is the neighbour of thee, man -
Lilith, of Adam the luminous leman!
Turn to the Christ to be succoured and screened,
Saved from the eyes of a marvellous fiend!
``Serpent she is in the shape of a woman,
Brighter than woman, ineffably fair!
Shelter thyself from the splendour, and sue, man;
Light that was never a loveliness human
Lives in the face of this sinister snare,
Longing to strangle thy soul with her hair!
``Lilith, who came to the father and bound him
Fast with her eyes in the first of the springs;
Lilith she is, but remember she drowned him,
Shedding her flood of gold tresses around him -
Lulled him to sleep with the lyric she sings:
Melody strange with unspeakable things!
``Low is her voice, but beware of it ever,
Swift bitter death is the fruit of delay;
Never was song of its beauty - ah! never -
Heard on the mountain, or meadow, or river,
Not of the night is it, not of the day -
Fly from it, stranger, away and away.''
Back on the hills are the blossom and feather,
Glory of noon is on valley and spire;
Here is the grace of magnificent weather,
Where is the woman from gulfs of the nether?
Where is the fiend with the face of desire?
Gone, with a cry, in miraculous fire!
Page: 95
Sound that was not of this world, or the spacious
Splendid blue heaven, has passed from the lea;
Dead is the voice of the devil audacious:
Only a dream is her music fallacious,
Here, in the song and the shadow of tree,
Down by the green and the gold of the sea.
Page: 96
BOB
SINGER of songs of the hills -
Dreamer, by waters unstirred,
Back in a valley of rills,
Home of the leaf and the bird! -
Read in this fall of the year
Just the compassionate phrase,
Faded with traces of tear,
Written in far-away days:
``Gone is the light of my lap
(Lord, at Thy bidding I bow),
Here is my little one's cap,
He has no need of it now,
Page: 97
Give it to somebody's boy -
Somebody's darling'' - she wrote.
Touching was Bob in his joy -
Bob without boots or a coat.
Only a cap; but it gave
Capless and comfortless one
Happiness, bright as the brave,
Beautiful light of the sun.
Soft may the sanctified sod
Rest on the father who led
Bob from the gutter, unshod -
Covered his cold little head!
Bob from the foot to the crown
Measured a yard, and no more -
Baby alone in the town,
Homeless, and hungry, and sore -
Page: 98
Child that was never a child,
Hiding away from the rain,
Draggled and dirty and wild,
Down in a pipe of the drain.
Poor little beggar was Bob -
Couldn't afford to be sick,
Getting a penny a job,
Sometimes a curse and a kick.
Father was killed by the drink;
Mother was driven to shame;
Bob couldn't manage to think -
He had forgotten their name.
God was in heaven above,
Flowers illumined the ground,
Women of infinite love
Lived in the palaces round -
Page: 99
Saints with the character sweet
Found in the fathers of old,
Laboured in alley and street -
Baby slept out in the cold.
Nobody noticed the child -
Nobody knew of the mite
Creeping about like a wild
Thing in the shadow of night.
Beaten by drunkards and cowed -
Frightened to speak or to sob -
How could he ask you aloud,
``Have you a penny for Bob?''
Few were the pennies he got -
Seldom could hide them away,
Watched by the ravenous sot
Ever at wait for his prey.
Page: 100
Poor little man! He would weep
Oft for a morsel of bread;
Coppers he wanted to keep
Went to the tavern instead.
This was his history, friend -
Ragged, unhoused, and alone;
How could the child comprehend
Love that he never had known?
Hunted about in the world,
Crouching in crevices dim,
Crust with a curse at him hurled
Stood for a kindness with him.
Little excited his joy -
Bun after doing a job;
Mother of bright-headed boy,
Think of the motherless Bob!
Page: 101
High in the heavens august
Providence saw him, and said -
``Out of the pits of the dust
Lift him, and cover his head.''
Ah, the ineffable grace,
Father of children, in Thee!
Boy in a radiant place,
Fanned by the breeze of the sea -
Child on a lullaby lap
Said, in the pause of his pain,
``Mother, don't bury my cap -
Give it to Bob in the lane.''
Beautiful bidding of Death!
What could she do but obey,
Even when suffering Faith
Hadn't the power to pray?
Page: 102
So, in the fall of the year,
Saint with the fatherly head
Hunted for somebody's dear -
``Somebody's darling,'' he said.
Bob, who was nobody's child,
Sitting on nobody's lap,
Draggled and dirty and wild -
Bob got the little one's cap.
Strange were compassionate words!
Waif of the alley and lane
Dreamed of the music of birds
Floating about in the rain.
White-headed father in God,
Over thy beautiful grave
Green is the grass of the sod,
Soft is the sound of the wave.
Page: 103
Down by the slopes of the sea
Often and often will sob
Boy who was fostered by thee -
This is the story of Bob.
Page: 104
PETER THE PICANINNY
HE has a name which can't be brought
Within the sphere of metre;
But, as he's Peter by report,
I'll trot him out as Peter.
I call him mine; but don't suppose
That I'm his dad, O reader!
My wife has got a Norman nose -
She reads the tales of Ouida.
I never loved a nigger belle -
My tastes are too aesthetic!
The perfume from a gin is - well,
A rather strong emetic.
Page: 105
But, seeing that my theme is Pete,
This verse will be the neater
If I keep on the proper beat,
And stick throughout to Peter.
We picked him up the Lord knows where!
At noon we came across him
Asleep beside a hunk of bear -
His paunch was bulged with 'possum.
(Last stanza will not bear, I own,
A pressure analytic;
But bard whose weight is fourteen stone,
Is apt to thump the critic.)
We asked the kid to give his name:
He didn't seem too willing -
Here in a mist that is parted in sunder,
Half with the darkness and half with the day;
Face of a woman, but face of a wonder,
Vivid and wild as a flame of the thunder,
Flashes and fades, and the wail of the grey
Water is loud on the straits of the bay!
Page: 93
Father, whose years have been many and weary -
Elder, whose life is as lovely as light
Shining in ways that are sterile and dreary -
Tell me the name of this beautiful peri,
Flashing on me like the wonderful white
Star, at the meeting of morning and night.
``Look to thy Saviour, and down on thy knee, man,
Lean on the Lord, as the Zebedee leaned;
Daughter of hell is the neighbour of thee, man -
Lilith, of Adam the luminous leman!
Turn to the Christ to be succoured and screened,
Saved from the eyes of a marvellous fiend!
``Serpent she is in the shape of a woman,
Brighter than woman, ineffably fair!
Shelter thyself from the splendour, and sue, man;
Light that was never a loveliness human
Lives in the face of this sinister snare,
Longing to strangle thy soul with her hair!
``Lilith, who came to the father and bound him
Fast with her eyes in the first of the springs;
Lilith she is, but remember she drowned him,
Shedding her flood of gold tresses around him -
Lulled him to sleep with the lyric she sings:
Melody strange with unspeakable things!
``Low is her voice, but beware of it ever,
Swift bitter death is the fruit of delay;
Never was song of its beauty - ah! never -
Heard on the mountain, or meadow, or river,
Not of the night is it, not of the day -
Fly from it, stranger, away and away.''
Back on the hills are the blossom and feather,
Glory of noon is on valley and spire;
Here is the grace of magnificent weather,
Where is the woman from gulfs of the nether?
Where is the fiend with the face of desire?
Gone, with a cry, in miraculous fire!
Page: 95
Sound that was not of this world, or the spacious
Splendid blue heaven, has passed from the lea;
Dead is the voice of the devil audacious:
Only a dream is her music fallacious,
Here, in the song and the shadow of tree,
Down by the green and the gold of the sea.
Page: 96
BOB
SINGER of songs of the hills -
Dreamer, by waters unstirred,
Back in a valley of rills,
Home of the leaf and the bird! -
Read in this fall of the year
Just the compassionate phrase,
Faded with traces of tear,
Written in far-away days:
``Gone is the light of my lap
(Lord, at Thy bidding I bow),
Here is my little one's cap,
He has no need of it now,
Page: 97
Give it to somebody's boy -
Somebody's darling'' - she wrote.
Touching was Bob in his joy -
Bob without boots or a coat.
Only a cap; but it gave
Capless and comfortless one
Happiness, bright as the brave,
Beautiful light of the sun.
Soft may the sanctified sod
Rest on the father who led
Bob from the gutter, unshod -
Covered his cold little head!
Bob from the foot to the crown
Measured a yard, and no more -
Baby alone in the town,
Homeless, and hungry, and sore -
Page: 98
Child that was never a child,
Hiding away from the rain,
Draggled and dirty and wild,
Down in a pipe of the drain.
Poor little beggar was Bob -
Couldn't afford to be sick,
Getting a penny a job,
Sometimes a curse and a kick.
Father was killed by the drink;
Mother was driven to shame;
Bob couldn't manage to think -
He had forgotten their name.
God was in heaven above,
Flowers illumined the ground,
Women of infinite love
Lived in the palaces round -
Page: 99
Saints with the character sweet
Found in the fathers of old,
Laboured in alley and street -
Baby slept out in the cold.
Nobody noticed the child -
Nobody knew of the mite
Creeping about like a wild
Thing in the shadow of night.
Beaten by drunkards and cowed -
Frightened to speak or to sob -
How could he ask you aloud,
``Have you a penny for Bob?''
Few were the pennies he got -
Seldom could hide them away,
Watched by the ravenous sot
Ever at wait for his prey.
Page: 100
Poor little man! He would weep
Oft for a morsel of bread;
Coppers he wanted to keep
Went to the tavern instead.
This was his history, friend -
Ragged, unhoused, and alone;
How could the child comprehend
Love that he never had known?
Hunted about in the world,
Crouching in crevices dim,
Crust with a curse at him hurled
Stood for a kindness with him.
Little excited his joy -
Bun after doing a job;
Mother of bright-headed boy,
Think of the motherless Bob!
Page: 101
High in the heavens august
Providence saw him, and said -
``Out of the pits of the dust
Lift him, and cover his head.''
Ah, the ineffable grace,
Father of children, in Thee!
Boy in a radiant place,
Fanned by the breeze of the sea -
Child on a lullaby lap
Said, in the pause of his pain,
``Mother, don't bury my cap -
Give it to Bob in the lane.''
Beautiful bidding of Death!
What could she do but obey,
Even when suffering Faith
Hadn't the power to pray?
Page: 102
So, in the fall of the year,
Saint with the fatherly head
Hunted for somebody's dear -
``Somebody's darling,'' he said.
Bob, who was nobody's child,
Sitting on nobody's lap,
Draggled and dirty and wild -
Bob got the little one's cap.
Strange were compassionate words!
Waif of the alley and lane
Dreamed of the music of birds
Floating about in the rain.
White-headed father in God,
Over thy beautiful grave
Green is the grass of the sod,
Soft is the sound of the wave.
Page: 103
Down by the slopes of the sea
Often and often will sob
Boy who was fostered by thee -
This is the story of Bob.
Page: 104
PETER THE PICANINNY
HE has a name which can't be brought
Within the sphere of metre;
But, as he's Peter by report,
I'll trot him out as Peter.
I call him mine; but don't suppose
That I'm his dad, O reader!
My wife has got a Norman nose -
She reads the tales of Ouida.
I never loved a nigger belle -
My tastes are too aesthetic!
The perfume from a gin is - well,
A rather strong emetic.
Page: 105
But, seeing that my theme is Pete,
This verse will be the neater
If I keep on the proper beat,
And stick throughout to Peter.
We picked him up the Lord knows where!
At noon we came across him
Asleep beside a hunk of bear -
His paunch was bulged with 'possum.
(Last stanza will not bear, I own,
A pressure analytic;
But bard whose weight is fourteen stone,
Is apt to thump the critic.)
We asked the kid to give his name:
He didn't seem too willing -
- christ [kraist]
n.基督 int.天啊! (初中英语单词) - meadow [´medəu] n.草地；牧场 (初中英语单词)
- blossom [´blɔsəm] n.花；开花期 vi.开花 (初中英语单词)
- valley [´væli] n.谷；河谷；流域 (初中英语单词)
- magnificent [mæg´nifisənt] a.壮丽的；豪华的 (初中英语单词)
- beggar [´begə] n.乞丐 (初中英语单词)
- driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- character [´kæriktə] n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词)
- breeze [bri:z] n.微风；不费力的事 (初中英语单词)
- suffering [´sʌfəriŋ] n.痛苦；灾害 (初中英语单词)
- perfume [´pə:fju:m, pə´fju:m] n.香味 vt.使发香 (初中英语单词)
- stanza [´stænzə] n.(诗的)节 (初中英语单词)
- pressure [´preʃə] n.压榨 vt.对...施压力 (初中英语单词)
- willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中英语单词)
- dreary [´driəri] a.阴郁的；枯燥无味的 (高中英语单词)
- beware [bi´weə] v.(用于祈使句)谨防 (高中英语单词)
- infinite [´infinit] a.无限的，无穷的 (高中英语单词)
- tavern [´tævən] n.小酒馆；客栈 (高中英语单词)
- radiant [´reidiənt] a.发光的 n.光源(体) (高中英语单词)
- sphere [sfiə] n.圆体；天体；范围 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- saviour [´seiviə] n.救星；救助者 (英语四级单词)
- luminous [´lu:minəs] a.发光的；明晰的 (英语四级单词)
- loveliness [´lʌvlinis] n.美丽，可爱 (英语四级单词)
- sinister [´sinistə] a.阴险的；不吉的 (英语四级单词)
- gutter [´gʌtə] n.(檐)槽；排水沟 (英语四级单词)
- morsel [´mɔ:səl] n.佳肴 vt.少量地分配 (英语四级单词)
- sterile [´sterail] a.不育的；无结果的 (英语六级单词)
- unspeakable [ʌn´spi:kəbl] a.不能以言语表达的 (英语六级单词)
- miraculous [mi´rækjuləs] a.非凡的；奇迹般的 (英语六级单词)
- compassionate [kəm´pæʃənit] a.有同情心的 vt.同情 (英语六级单词)
- lullaby [´lʌləbai] n.催眠曲，摇篮曲 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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