page: 0
Fragments of the first
of the ‘trial books’
of
1869.
Note corrections.
For
Case
Transcription Gap: pages [0.1, 0.2, 0.3] (pages not relevant to the proof)
page: [i]
POEMS.
(
PRIVATELY PRINTED.)
Most of these poems were written between 1847
and 1853; and are here printed,
if not without
revision, yet generally much in their original
state.
They are a few among a good many
then written, but of the others I have now
no
complete copies. The
Sonnets and Songs
are chiefly more recent work.]
D. G. R. 1869.
page: [iv]
Note: Pages 1-4 not in this proof.
page: 5
-
Fain to be hearkened? When those bells
-
Possessed the midday air,
-
Was she not stepping to my side
-
Down all the trembling stair?)
- ‘We two,’ she said, ‘will
seek the groves
- Where the lady Mary is,
- With her five handmaidens, whose names
- Are five sweet symphonies,
- Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
-
10 Margaret and Rosalys.
- ‘Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
- And foreheads garlanded;
- Into the fine cloth white like flame
- Weaving the golden thread,
- To fashion the birth-robes for them
- Who are just born, being dead.
- ‘He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:
- Then will I lay my cheek
- To his, and tell about our love,
-
20 Not once abashed or weak:
- And the dear Mother will approve
- My pride, and let me speak.
- ‘Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,
- To Him round whom all souls
- Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads
- Bowed with their aureoles:
page: 6
- And angels meeting us shall sing
- To their citherns and citoles.
- ‘There will I ask of Christ the Lord
-
30 Thus much for him and me:—
- Only to live as once on earth
- With Love,—only to be,
- As then awhile, for ever now
- Together, I and he.’
- She gazed and listened and then said,
- Less sad of speech than mild,—
- ‘All this is when he comes.’ She ceased.
- The light thrilled towards her, fill'd
- With angels in strong level flight.
- Her eyes prayed, and she smil'd.
-
40(
I saw her smile). But soon their path
- Was vague in distant spheres:
- And then she cast her arms along
- The golden barriers,
- And laid her face between her hands,
- And wept. (
I heard her tears.)
Note: Pages 7-8 not in this proof.
page: 9
- Master, is it soothly said
- That, as echoes of man's speech
- Far in secret clefts are made,
- So do all men's bodies reach
- Shadows o'er thy sunken beach,—
- Shape or shade
- In those halls pourtrayed of each?
- Ah! might I, by thy good grace
- Groping in the windy stair,
-
10(Darkness and the breath of space
- Like loud waters everywhere,)
- Meeting mine own image there
- Face to face,
- Send it from that place to her!
- Nay, not I; but oh! do thou,
- Master, from thy shadowkind
- Call my body's phantom now:
- Bid it bear its face declin'd
- Till its flight her slumbers find,
-
20 And her brow
- Feel its presence bow like wind.
- Where in groves the gracile Spring
- Trembles, with mute orison
- Confidently strengthening,
- Water's voice and wind's as one
- Shed an echo in the sun,
- Soft as Spring,
- Master, bid it sing and moan.
page: 10
- Song shall tell how glad and strong
-
30 Is the night she soothes alway;
- Moan shall grieve with that parched tongue
- Of the brazen hours of day:
- Sounds as of the springtide they,
- Moan and song,
- While the chill months long for May.
- Not the prayers which with all leave
- The world's fluent woes prefer,—
- Not the praise the world doth give,
- Dulcet fulsome whisperer;—
-
40 Let it yield man's love to her,
- And achieve
- Strength that shall not grieve or err.
- Wheresoe'er my sleep befall,
- Both at night-watch, (let it say,)
- And where round the sundial
- The reluctant hours of day,
- Heartless, hopeless of their way,
- Rest and call;—
- There her glance doth fall and stay.
-
50Suddenly her face is there:
- So do mounting vapours wreathe
- Subtle-scented transports where
- The black firwood sets its teeth.
- Part the boughs and look beneath,—
- Lilies share
- Secret waters there, and breathe.
Note: Pages 11-12 not in this proof.
page: 13
‘Burden. Heavy calamity; The chorus of a
song.’—
Dictionary.
- In our Museum galleries
- To-day I lingered o'er the prize
- Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes,—
- Her Art for ever in fresh wise
- From hour to hour rejoicing me.
- Sighing I turned at last to win
- Once more the London dirt and din;
- And as I made the swing-door spin
- And issued, they were hoisting in
-
10 A wingèd beast from Nineveh.
- A human face the creature wore,
- And hoofs behind and hoofs before,
- And flanks with dark runes fretted o'er.
- 'Twas bull, 'twas mitred Minotaur,
- A dead disbowelled mystery;
- The mummy of a buried faith
- Stark from the charnel without scathe,
- Its wings stood for the light to bathe,—
- Such fossil cerements as might swathe
-
20 The very corpse of Nineveh.
page: 14
- The print of its first rush-wrapping,
- Wound ere it dried, still ribbed the thing.
- What song did the brown maidens sing,
- From purple mouths alternating,
- When that was woven languidly?
- What vows, what rites, what prayers preferr'd,
- What songs has the strange image heard?
- In what blind vigil stood interr'd
- For ages, till an English word
-
30 Broke silence first at Nineveh?
- Oh when upon each sculptured court,
- Where even the wind might not resort,—
- O'er which Time passed, of like import
- With the wild Arab boys at sport,—
- A living face looked in to see:—
- Oh seemed it not—the spell once broke—
- As though the carven warriors woke,
- As though the shaft the string forsook,
- The cymbals clashed, the chariots shook,
-
40 And there was life in Nineveh?
- On London stones our sun anew
- The beast's recovered shadow threw.
- (No shade that plague of darkness knew,
- No light, no shade, while older grew
- By ages the old earth and sea.)
- Lo thou! could all thy priests have shown
- Such proof to make thy godhead known?
Note: Pages 15-16 not in this proof.
page: 17
- Ah! what is here can testify
- (Save that dumb presence of the sky)
-
50 Unto thy day and Nineveh?
- Why, of those mummies in the room
- Above, there might indeed have come
- One out of Egypt to thy home,
- An alien. Nay, but were not some
- Of these thine own ‘antiquity?’
- And now,—they and their gods and thou
- All relics here together,—now
- Whose profit? whether bull or cow,
- Isis or Ibis, who or how,
-
60 Whether of Thebes or Nineveh?
- The consecrated metals found,
- And ivory tablets, underground,
- Winged teraphim and creatures crown'd,
- When air and daylight filled the mound,
- Fell into dust immediately.
- And even as these, the images
- Of awe and worship,—even as these,—
- So, smitten with the sun's increase,
- Her glory mouldered and did cease
-
70 From immemorial Nineveh.
- The day her builders made their halt,
- Those cities of the lake of salt
page: 18
- Stood firmly 'stablished without fault,
- Made proud with pillars of basalt,
- With sardonyx and porphyry.
- The day that Jonah bore abroad
- To Nineveh the voice of God,
- A brackish lake lay in his road,
- Where erst Pride fixed her sure abode,
-
80 As then in royal Nineveh.
- The day when he, Pride's lord and Man's,
- Showed all the kingdoms at a glance
- To Him before whose countenance
- The years recede, the years advance,
- And said, Fall down and worship me:—
- 'Mid all the pomp beneath that look,
- Then stirred there, haply, some rebuke,
- Where to the wind the salt pools shook,
- And in those tracts, of life forsook,
-
90 That knew thee not, O Nineveh!
- Delicate harlot! On thy throne
- Thou with a world beneath thee prone
- In state for ages sat'st alone;
- And needs were years and lustres flown
- Ere strength of man could vanquish thee:
- Whom even thy victor foes must bring,
- Still royal, among maids that sing
- As with doves' voices, taboring
- Upon their breasts, unto the King,—
-
100 A kingly conquest, Nineveh!
page: 19
- ... Here woke my thought. The wind's slow sway
- Had waxed; and like the human play
- Of scorn that smiling spreads away,
- The sunshine shivered off the day:
- The callous wind, it seemed to me,
- Swept up the shadow from the ground:
- And pale as whom the Fates astound,
- The god forlorn stood winged and crown'd:
- Within I knew the cry lay bound
-
110 Of the dumb soul of Nineveh.
- And as I turned, my sense half shut
- Still saw the crowds of kerb and rut
- Go past as marshalled to the strut
- Of ranks in gypsum quaintly cut.
- It seemed in one same pageantry
- They followed forms which had been erst;
- To pass, till on my sight should burst
- That future of the best or worst
- When some may question which was first,
-
120 Of London or of Nineveh.
- For as that Bull-god once did stand
- And watched the burial-clouds of sand,
- Till these at last without a hand
- Rose o'er his eyes, another land,
- And blinded him with destiny:—
- So may he stand again; till now,
- In ships of unknown sail and prow,
page: 20
- Some tribe of the Australian plough
- Bear him afar,—a relic now
-
130 Of London, not of Nineveh!
- Or it may chance indeed that when
- Man's age is hoary among men,—
- His centuries threescore and ten,—
- His furthest childhood shall seem then
- More clear than later times may be:
- Who, finding in this desert place
- This form, shall hold us for some race
- That walked not in Christ's lowly ways,
- But bowed its pride and vowed its praise
-
140 Unto the God of Nineveh.
- The smile rose first,—anon drew nigh
- The thought:... Those heavy wings spread high
- So sure of flight, which do not fly;
- That set gaze never on the sky;
- Those scriptured flanks it cannot see;
- Its crown, a brow-contracting load;
- Its planted feet which trust the sod:...
- (So grew the image as I trod:)
- O Nineveh, was this thy God,—
-
150 Thine also, mighty Nineveh?
page: 21
Note: The words substituted in line 10 have been struck through and
“Stet” written in the margin.
- Mother of the Fair Delight,
- Thou handmaid perfect in God's sight,
- Now sitting fourth beside the Three,
- Thyself a woman-Trinity,—
- Being a daughter borne to God,
- Mother of Christ from stall to rood,
- And wife unto the Holy Ghost:—
- Oh when our need is uttermost,
- Think that to such as death may strike
-
10Thou
once wert
wast a sister sisterlike!
- Thou headstone of humanity,
- Groundstone of the great Mystery,
- Fashioned like us, yet more than we!
- Ah! knew'st thou of the end, when first
- That Babe was on thy bosom nurs'd?—
- Or when He tottered round thy knee
- Did thy great sorrow dawn on thee?—
- And through His boyhood, year by year
- Eating with Him the Passover,
-
40Didst thou discern confusedly
- That holier sacrament, when He,
- The bitter cup about to quaff,
- Should break the bread and eat thereof?—
- Or came not yet the knowledge, even
- Till on some day forecast in Heaven
page: 23
- His feet passed through thy door to press
- Upon His Father's business?—
- Or still was God's high secret kept?
- Nay, but I think the whisper crept
-
50Like growth through childhood. Work and play,
- Things common to the course of day,
- Awed thee with meanings unfulfill'd;
- And all through girlhood, something still'd
- Thy senses like the birth of light,
- When thou hast trimmed thy lamp at night
- Or washed thy garments in the stream;
- To whose white bed had come the dream
- That He was thine and thou wast His
- Who feeds among the field-lilies.
-
60O solemn shadow of the end
- In that wise spirit long contain'd!
- O awful end! and those unsaid
- Long years when It was Finishèd!
- Mind'st thou not (when the twilight gone
- Left darkness in the house of John,)
- Between the naked window-bars
- That spacious vigil of the stars?—
- For thou, a watcher even as they,
- Wouldst rise from where throughout the day
-
70Thou wroughtest raiment for His poor;
- And, finding the fixed terms endure
- Of day and night which never brought
page: 24
- Sounds of His coming chariot,
- Wouldst lift through cloud-waste unexplor'd
- Those eyes which said, ‘How long, O Lord?’
- Then that disciple whom He loved,
- Well heeding, haply would be moved
- To ask thy blessing in His name;
- And that one thought in both, the same
-
80Though silent, then would clasp ye round
- To weep together,—tears long bound,
- Sick tears of patience, dumb and slow.
- Yet, ‘Surely I come quickly,’—so
- He said, from life and death gone home.
- ‘Amen; even so, Lord Jesus, come!’
- But oh! what human tongue can speak
- That day when death was sent to break
- From the tir'd spirit, like a veil,
- Its covenant with Gabriel
-
90Endured at length unto the end?
- What human thought can apprehend
- That mystery of motherhood
- When thy Beloved at length renew'd
- The sweet communion severèd,—
- His left hand underneath thine head
- And His right hand embracing thee?—
- Lo! He was thine, and this is He!
- Soul, is it Faith, or Love, or Hope,
- That lets me see her standing up
page: 25
-
100Where the light of the Throne is bright?
- Unto the left, unto the right,
- The cherubim, arrayed, conjoint,
- Float inward to a golden point,
- And from between the seraphim
- The glory issues like a hymn.
- O Mary Mother, be not loth
- To listen,—thou whom the stars clothe,
- Who seëst and mayst not be seen!
- Hear us at last, O Mary Queen!
-
110Into our shadow bend thy face,
- Bowing thee from the secret place,
- O Mary Virgin, full of grace!
page: 26
Note: Pages 27-28 not in this proof.
page: 29
- ‘Lady,’ he said, ‘your
lands lie burnt
- And waste: to meet your foe
- All fear: this I have seen and learnt.
- Say that it shall be so,
- And I will go.’
- She gazed at him. ‘Your cause is just,
- For I have heard the same:’
- He said: ‘God's strength shall be my trust.
- Fall it to good or grame,
-
10 'Tis in His name.’
- ‘Sir, you are thanked. My cause is dead.
- Why should you toil to break
- A grave, and fall therein?’ she said.
- He did not pause but spake:
- ‘For my vow's sake.’
- ‘Can such vows be, Sir—to God's ear,
- Not to God's will?’ ‘My vow
- Remains: God heard me there as here,’
- He said with reverent brow,
-
20 ‘Both then and now.’
- They gazed together, he and she,
- The minute while he spoke;
- And when he ceased, she suddenly
- Looked round upon her folk
- As though she woke.
page: 30
- ‘Fight, Sir,’ she said:
‘my prayers in pain
- Shall be your fellowship.’
- He whispered one among her train,—
- ‘To-night thou'lt bid her keep
-
30 This staff and scrip.’
- She sent him a sharp sword, whose belt
- About his body there
- As sweet as her own arms he felt.
- He kissed its blade, all bare,
- Instead of her.
- She sent him a green banner wrought
- With one white lily stem,
- To bind his lance with when he fought.
- He writ upon the same
-
40 And kissed her name.
- She sent him a white shield, whereon
- She bade that he should trace
- His will. He blent fair hues that shone,
- And in a golden space
- He kissed her face.
- Right so, the sunset skies unseal'd,
- Like lands he never knew,
- Beyond to-morrow's battle-field
- Lay open out of view
-
50 To ride into.
page: 31
- Next day till dark the women pray'd:
- Nor any might know there
- How the fight went: the Queen has bade
- That there do come to her
- No messenger.
- Weak now to them the voice o' the priest
- As any trance affords;
- And when each anthem failed and ceas'd,
- It seemed that the last chords
-
60 Still sang the words.
- ‘Oh what is the light that shines so red?
- 'Tis long since the sun set;’
- Quoth the youngest to the eldest maid:
- ‘ 'Twas dim but now, and yet
- The light is great.’
- Quoth the other: ‘ 'Tis our sight is dazed
- That we see flame i' the air.’
- But the Queen held her brows and gazed,
- And said, ‘It is the glare
-
70 Of torches there.’
- ‘Oh what are the sounds that rise and spread?
- All day it was so still;’
- Quoth the youngest to the eldest maid;
- ‘Unto the furthest hill
- The air they fill.’
page: 32
- Quoth the other; ‘ 'Tis our sense is blurr'd
- With all the chants gone by.’
- But the Queen held her breath and heard,
- And said, ‘It is the cry
-
80 Of Victory.’
- The first of all the rout was sound,
- The next were dust and flame,
- And then the horses shook the ground:
- And in the thick of them
- A still band came.
- ‘Oh what do ye bring out of the fight,
- Thus hid beneath these boughs?’
- ‘One that shall be thy guest to-night,
- And yet shall not carouse,
-
90 Queen, in thy house.’
- ‘Uncover ye his face,’ she said.
- ‘O changed in little space!’
- She cried, ‘O pale that was so red!
- O God, O God of grace!
- Cover his face.’
- His sword was broken in his hand
- Where he had kissed the blade.
- ‘O soft steel that could not withstand!
- O my hard heart unstayed,
-
100 That prayed and prayed!’
page: 33
- His bloodied banner crossed his mouth
- Where he had kissed her name.
- ‘O east, and west, and north, and south,
- Fair flew my web, for shame,
- To guide Death's aim!’
- The tints were shredded from his shield
- Where he had kissed her face.
- ‘Oh, of all gifts that I could yield,
- Death only keeps its place,
-
110 My gift and grace!’
- Then stepped a damsel to her side,
- And spake, and needs must weep:
- ‘For his sake, lady, if he died,
- He prayed of thee to keep
- This staff and scrip.’
- That night they hung above her bed,
- Till morning wet with tears.
- Year after year above her head
- Her bed his token wears,
-
120 Five years, ten years.
- That night the passion of her grief
- Shook them as there they hung.
- Each year the wind that shed the leaf
- Shook them and in its tongue
- A message flung.
page: 34
- And she would wake with a clear mind
- That letters writ to calm
- Her soul lay in the scrip; and find
- Only a torpid balm
-
130 And dust of palm.
- They shook far off with palace sport
- When joust and dance were rife;
- And the hunt shook them from the court;
- For hers, in peace or strife,
- Was a Queen's life.
- A Queen's death now: as now they shake
- To chaunts in chapel dim,—
- Hung where she sleeps, not seen to wake,
- (Carved lovely white and slim),
-
140 With them by him.
- Stand up to-day, still armed, with her,
- Good knight, before His brow
- Who then as now was here and there,
- Who had in mind thy vow
- Then even as now.
- The lists are set in Heaven to-day,
- The bright pavilions shine;
- Fair hangs thy shield, and none gainsay;
- The trumpets sound in sign
-
150 That she is thine.
page: 35
- Not tithed with days' and years' decease
- He pays thy wage He owed,
- But with imperishable peace
- Here in His own abode,
- Thy jealous God.
page: [36]
page: 37
Printer's Direction: very small type
Editorial Description: DGR's directions to printer for printing the epigraph added here in manuscript.
Added Text
- “Dis, veux-tu prendre la vie
- D'un homme ton ennemi?
- Fais en cire son image
- Et mets devant feu en cage.
- Pour trois jours son nom diras,—
- Chair et cire se fondra.”
La Souricière aux
Sourcières.
1465[?]
158-
Note: DGR added this passage as a possible epigraph for the poem, and although
Swinburne urged him to keep it, DGR decided against the lines (which are of
his own invention).
- ‘Why did you melt your waxen man,
- Sister Helen?
- To-day is the third since you began.’
- ‘The time was long, yet the time ran,
- Little brother.’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Three days to-day, between Hell and Heaven!)
- ‘But if you have done your work aright,
- Sister Helen,
-
10 You'll let me play, for you said I might.’
- ‘Be very still in your play to-night,
- Little brother.’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Third night, to-night, between Hell and Heaven!)
- ‘You said it must melt ere vesper-bell,
- Sister Helen;
- If now it be molten, all is well.’
- ‘Even so,—nay, peace! you cannot tell,
- Little brother.’
-
20 (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
O what is this, between Hell and Heaven?)
page: 38
- ‘Oh the waxen knave was plump to-day,
- Sister Helen;
- How like dead folk he has dropped away!’
- ‘Nay now, of the dead what can you say,
- Little brother?’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
What of the dead, between Hell and Heaven?)
- ‘See, see, the sunken pile of wood,
-
30 Sister Helen,
- Shines through the thinned wax red as blood!’
- ‘Nay now, when looked you yet on blood,
- Little brother?’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
How pale she is, between Hell and Heaven!)
- ‘Now close your eyes, for they're sick and sore,
- Sister Helen,
- And I'll play without the gallery door.’
- ‘Aye, let me rest,—I'll lie on the floor,
-
40 Little brother.’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
What rest to-night, between Hell and Heaven?)
- ‘Here high up in the balcony,
- Sister Helen,
- The moon flies face to face with me.’
- ‘Aye, look and say whatever you see,
- Little brother.’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
What sight to-night, between Hell and Heaven?)
page: 39
Note: Received line 54 is misaligned slightly to the left.
-
50‘Outside it's merry in the wind's wake,
- Sister Helen;
- In the shaken trees the chill stars shake.’
- ‘Hush, heard you a horse-tread as you spake,
- Little brother?’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
What sound to-night, between Hell and Heaven?)
- ‘I hear a horse-tread, and I see,
- Sister Helen,
- Three horsemen that ride terribly.’
-
60‘Little brother, whence come the three,
- Little brother?’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Whence should they come, between Hell and Heaven?)
- ‘They come by the hill-verge from Boyne Bar,
- Sister Helen,
- And one draws nigh, but two are afar.’
- ‘Look, look, do you know them who they are,
- Little brother?’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
70
Who should they be, between Hell and Heaven?)
- ‘Oh, it's Holm of East Holm rides so fast,
- Sister Helen,
- For I know the white mane on the blast.’
- ‘The hour has come, has come at last,
- Little brother!’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Her hour at last, between Hell and Heaven!)
page: 40
Note: Received line 86 is misaligned slightly to the left.
- ‘He has made a sign and called Halloo!
- Sister Helen,
-
80 And he says that he would speak with you.’
- ‘Oh tell him I fear the frozen dew,
- Little brother.’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Why laughs she thus, between Hell and Heaven?)
- ‘The wind is loud, but I hear him cry,
- Sister Helen,
- That Holm of Ewern's like to die.’
- ‘And he and thou, and thou and I,
- Little brother.’
-
90 (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
And they and we, between Hell and Heaven!)
- ‘For three days now he has lain abed,
- Sister Helen,
- And he prays in torment to be dead.’
- ‘The thing may chance, if he have prayed,
- Little brother!’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
If he have prayed, between Hell and Heaven!)
- ‘But he has not ceased to cry to-day,
-
100 Sister Helen,
- That you should take your curse away.’
- ‘
My prayer was
heard,—he need but pray,
- Little brother!’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Shall God not hear, between Hell and Heaven?)
Note: Pages 41-44 not in this proof.
page: 45
Printer's Direction: further out
Editorial Description: DGR's note to the printer on alignment of received line 285.
- ‘Oh the wind is sad in the iron chill,
- Sister Helen,
- And weary sad they look by the hill.’
- ‘But he they mourn is sadder still,
-
110 Little brother!’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Most sad of all, between Hell and Heaven!)
- ‘See, see, the wax has dropped from its place,
- Sister Helen,
- And the flames are winning up apace!’
- ‘Yet here they burn but for a space,
- Little brother!’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Here for a space, between Hell and Heaven!)
-
120‘Ah! what white thing at the door has cross'd,
- Sister Helen?
- Ah! what is this that sighs in the frost?’
- ‘A soul that's lost as mine is lost,
- Little brother!’
- (
O Mother, Mary Mother,
-
Lost, lost, all lost, between Hell and Heaven!)
page: [46]
page: 47
Note: missing close quote in line 20
- ‘ O have you seen the Stratton flood
- That's great with rain to-day?
- It runs beneath your wall, Lord Sands,
- Full of the new-mown hay.
- ‘I led your hounds to Hutton bank
- To bathe at early morn:
- They got their bath by Borrowbrake
- Above the standing corn.’
- Out from the castle-stair Lord Sands
-
10 Looked up the western lea;
- The rook was grieving on her nest,
- The flood was round her tree.
- Over the castle-wall Lord Sands
- Looked down the eastern hill:
- The stakes swam free among the boats,
- The flood was rising still.
- ‘What's yonder far below that lies
- So white against the slope?’
- ‘O it's a sail o' your bonny barks
-
20 The waters have washed up.
page: 48
- ‘But I have never a sail so white,
- And the water's not yet there.’
- ‘O it's the swans o' your bonny lake
- The rising flood doth scare.’
- ‘The swans they would not hold so still,
- So high they would not win.’
- ‘O it's Joyce my wife has spread her smock
- And fears to fetch it in.’
- ‘Nay, knave, it's neither sail nor swans,
-
30 Nor aught that you can say;
- For though your wife might leave her smock,
- Herself she'd bring away.’
- Lord Sands has passed the turret-stair,
- The court, and yard, and all;
- The kine were in the byre that day,
- The nags were in the stall.
- Lord Sands has won the weltering slope
- Whereon the white shape lay:
- The clouds were still above the hill,
-
40 And the shape was still as they.
- Oh pleasant is the gaze of life
- And sad is death's blind head;
- But awful are the living eyes
- In the face of one thought dead.
page: 49
- ‘O Jean, O love! and is it me
- Thy ghost has come to seek?’
- ‘Nay, wait another hour, Lord Sands,—
- Be sure my ghost shall speak.’
- A moment stood he as a stone,
-
50 Then grovelled to his knee.
- ‘O Jean, O Jean my love, O love,
- Rise up and come with me!’
- ‘O once before you bade me come,
- And it's here you have brought me!
- ‘O many's the sweet word of love
- You've spoken oft to me;
- But all that I have from you to-day
- Is the rain on my body.
- ‘And many are the gifts of love
-
60 You've promised oft to me;
- But the gift of yours I keep to-day
- Is the babe in my body.
- ‘O it's not in any earthly bed
- That first my babe I'll see;
- For I have brought my body here
- That the flood may cover me.’
- His face was close against her face,
- His hands of hers were fain:
- O her wet cheeks were hot with tears,
-
70 Her wet hands cold with rain.
page: 50
- ‘Now keep you well, my brother Hugh,—
- You told me she was dead!
- As wan as your towers be to-day,
- To-morrow they'll be red.
- ‘Look down, look down, my false mother,
- That bade me not to grieve:
- You'll look up when our marriage fires
- Are lit to-morrow eve.
- ‘O more than one and more than two
-
80 The sorrow of this shall see:
- But it's to-morrow, love, for them,—
- To-day's for thee and me.’
- He's drawn her face between his hands
- And her pale mouth to his:
- No bird that was so still that day
- Chirps sweeter than his kiss.
- He's ta'en her by the short girdle
- And by the dripping sleeve:
- ‘Go fetch Sir Jock my mother's priest,—
-
90 You'll ask of him no leave.
- ‘O it's one half-hour to reach the kirk
- And one for the marriage-rite;
- And kirk and castle and castle-lands
- Shall be our babe's to-night.’
Note: Pages 51-52 not in this proof.
page: 53
- ‘For it's oh and oh I prayed to God,
- Whose rest I hoped to win,
- That when to-night at your board-head
- You'd bid the feast begin,
- This water past your window-sill
-
100 Might bear my body in.’
- Now make the white bed warm and soft
- And greet the merry morn.
- The night the mother should have died
- The young son shall be born.
page: [54]
page: 55
- The shadows fall along the wall,
- It's night at Haye-la-Serre;
- The maidens weave since day grew eve,
- The lady's in her chair.
- O passing slow the long hours go
- With time to think and sigh,
- When weary maidens weave beneath
- A listless lady's eye.
- It's two days that Earl Simon's gone
-
10 And it's the second night;
- At Haye-la-Serre the lady's fair,
- In June the moon is light.
- O it's ‘Maids, ye'll wake till I come back,’
- And the hound's i' the lady's chair:
- No shuttles fly, the work stands by,
- It's play at Haye-la-Serre.
- The night is worn, the lamp's forlorn,
- The shadows waste and ail;
- There's morning air at Haye-la-Serre,
-
20 The watching maids look pale.
page: 56
Note: missing close quote in line 25
- O all unmarked the birds at dawn
- Where drowsy maidens be;
- But heard too soon the lark's first tune
- Beneath the trysting-tree.
- ‘Hold me thy hand, sweet Dennis Shand,
- Says the Lady Joan de Haye,
- ‘That thou to-morrow do forget
- To-day and yesterday.
- ‘O it's the autumn nights are chill,
-
30 The winter nights are long,
- And my lord'll bide at home o' nights
- As long as the swallow's gone.
- ‘This summer he'll not be forth again
- And not again till spring;
- The wind is cold to him that's old
- And the frost withering.
- ‘We've all to fear; there's Maud the spy,
- There's Ann whose face I scor'd,
- There's Blanch tells Huot everything,
-
40 And Huot loves my lord.
- ‘But O and it's my Dennis'll know,
- When my eyes look weary dim,
- Who finds the gold for his girdle-fee
- And who keeps love for him.’
page: 57
Printer's Direction: divide
Editorial Description: At top of page, DGR's note to correct typo in line 45.
Note: Typo: "come and" printed as one word in line 45.
Note: Typo: open quote at beginning of line 53.
- The morrow's comeand the morrow-night,
- It's feast at Haye-la-Serre,
- And Dennis Shand the cup must hand
- Beside Earl Simon's chair.
- And still when the high pouring's done
-
50 And cup and flagon clink,
- Till his lady's lips have touched the brim
- Earl Simon will not drink.
- ‘But it's, ‘Joan my wife,’ Earl
Simon says,
- ‘Your maids are white and wan.’
- And it's ‘O,’ she says, ‘they've
watched the night
- With Maud's sick sister Ann.’
- But it's, ‘Lady Joan and Joan my bird,
- Yourself look white and wan.’
- And it's, ‘O, I've walked the night myself
-
60 To pull the herbs for Ann:
- ‘And some of your knaves were at the hutch
- And some in the cellarage,
- But the only one that watched with us
- Was Dennis Shand your page.
- ‘Look on the boy, sweet honey lord,
- And mark his drooping e'e:
- The rosy colour's not yet back
- That paled in serving me.’
page: 58
- O it's, ‘Wife, your maids are foolish jades,
-
70 And you're a silly chuck,
- And the lazy knaves shall get their staves
- About their ears for luck:
- ‘But Dennis Shand may take the cup
- And pour the wine to his hand;
- Wife, thou shalt touch it with thy lips,
- And drink thou, Dennis Shand!’