Ibbett 
 
 Three Letters from 
 W.J. Ibbett to his Friend 
 H. Buxton Forman 
 in praise of Venus
 
 THREE LETTERS 
 
 FROM W. J. IBBETT TO HIS FRIEND 
 H. BUXTON FORMAN 
 
 IN PRAISE OF VENUS 
 
 LONDON 
 PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS 
 
 1894
 
 THREE LETTERS IN PRAISE 
 OF VENUS.
 
 ' ' Lucretius — nobler than his mood : 
 Who dropped his plummet down the broad 
 Deep universe, and said 'No God,' — 
 
 " Finding no bottom : he denied 
 Divinely the divine, and died 
 Chief poet on the Tiber-side, 
 
 By grace of God! r 
 
 a y/s/ox OF POETS.
 
 THREE LETTERS 
 
 FROM W. J. IBBETT TO HIS FRIEND 
 H. BUXTON FORMAN 
 
 IN PRAISE OF VENUS 
 
 LONDON 
 PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS 
 
 1894
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LETTER I. 
 The Benignity of Venus in the Vegetable World . 3 
 
 LETTER II. 
 The Rites of Venus 2I 
 
 LETTER III. 
 The Kindness of Venus in the Life and Death of 
 
 Man 33 
 
 - 
 
 ■ .
 
 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS IN 
 THE VEGETABLE WORLD.
 
 FIRST LETTER. 
 
 Dear Forman, I am sorry that the stress 
 
 And ills of life have brought you weariness, 
 
 The more because your dark self bears within 
 
 The flame that long has been the bane of men 
 
 Who view the things around with piercing glance, 
 
 And love them quick to their own dire mischance ; 
 
 For slowly comes their answer, as the life 
 
 Of common things is slow ; and caution's rife 
 
 Begot of all the pain of all the days, 
 
 And eagerness is rare as happy lays. 10 
 
 But to assuage the turmoil of your heart 
 
 Is now the aim of my defective art 
 
 That yearns to make your tired attention glad
 
 4 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS 
 
 At what I shall set down in guise so bad, 
 That you will smile, first at your halting friend, 
 And after praise the sweetness of his end. 
 
 It is an ancient story that I tell 
 Of Her, the fount of life and light as well, 
 Great Venus, who has led the world along 
 Through time of gladness, and through time of wrong, 20 
 As we now call it who are far away, 
 Though suns were bright and marriage went alway. 
 There never could have been, there never will 
 Be that all-doleful time that stories fill 
 With monsters, giants, ill-compounded gods, 
 Who fall asunder into dirty clods 
 Before the gaze of him that loves his child ; 
 Such things are not for men that, free and wild 
 As they may be, see all things bright and clear, 
 And, pleased with life, know not the face of fear. 30 
 
 Now is the hazel gay in hedge and wood, 
 While its long tassels pour a copious flood
 
 IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 5 
 
 Of sperm upon the scarlet-lipped bud, 
 
 Careless what eyes may see the profuse kiss, 
 
 So bounteous that the tree scarce deigns to miss 
 
 The pieces plucked by rosy boy or girl, 
 
 Or greater limbs wrenched by the ruthless churl. 
 
 Immodest tassels and immodest lips ! 
 
 Unknowing aught of hot and secret slips 
 
 Beneath bright stars ; for the quick blush of shame 40 
 
 Only with fear of death by violence came : 
 
 She-wolves that clip their lovers in a vice 
 
 Are helpless 'fore the hunter's avarice 
 
 Of blood, and therefore lure their mates away 
 
 To darksome coverts where their lust may play, 
 
 And end in sleep ; the rams embrace so quick, 
 
 'Tis love and leave me for their dames; the thick, 
 
 Sharp sloe embowers the nest of birds ; the house 
 
 Shelters the love of woman and of mouse, 
 
 Fearful or pleased at the she-cat that cries 50 
 
 Through night's dark hall of her love's victories.
 
 6 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS 
 
 But slower flowers fear not any foe : 
 
 Their blossom plucked, plants do but stronger grow 
 
 To their next bout of love, when they shall show 
 
 What pleasure Venus takes in lusty flowers ; 
 
 For their fair hues are many as the hours 
 
 That fill the year ; nor is the sweet delight 
 
 That thrills mankind before their colour bright 
 
 An human thing alone. The eternal flies, 
 
 Dainty and gauzed as girls, are just as wise : 60 
 
 These quick and coloured ornaments of air 
 
 Stoop to adore the mute expanse more fair 
 
 Than their own carnival of restlessness, 
 
 And sleep at night amid the hues they bless. 
 
 Some men affirm 'tis but the hue of meat 
 
 That leads the flies to perch with eager feet 
 
 Upon deceitful feasts, that merest food 
 
 Attracts their sudden swoops ; but meat is good 
 
 To fly and man : and who shall dare to say 
 
 That what each loves is not his meat for aye ? 70
 
 IN THE ^VEGETABLE WORLD. 7 
 
 And many things are loved, while reason fails 
 
 A thousand times for once that it prevails 
 
 And holds its own. Dead reasons' chaffy sheaves 
 
 Litter the towns with unregarded leaves : 
 
 Love never dies. But 'tis enough to know 
 
 That gendering plants with colour are aglow, 
 
 And lure with beauty or with fruit the care 
 
 Of fly and man to ensure their increase fair. 
 
 They conjure up a brightness in man's face 
 
 And quicker movements in the insect race, 80 
 
 While men, birds, insects, happy rivals are 
 
 To thrust away from earth's bright coat the bar 
 
 To its renewal. Even border mountains now, 
 
 That erst repelled the invader with a brow 
 
 Of calm denial, have their granite scraped 
 
 By skilful gardeners ; and the rough blocks shaped 
 
 By storm and age cast a refreshing shade 
 
 On prize pentstemons, there in lines arrayed 
 
 By one who loves them ; while on plains below
 
 8 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS 
 
 Men buzz of pretty flowers that they grow, qo 
 
 Or sterner are about the wide-spread field, 
 
 Hedged and allayed with art and toil to yield 
 
 Bread and the pleasant fruit that brings to men 
 
 Health to be pleased and gender life again. 
 
 It is a happy consequence of toil 
 
 Upon the land that various shines the soil 
 
 With varied life ; for did the labour cease, 
 
 Monotony must lay a Roman peace 
 
 On forest dim and dank, where scanty beasts, 
 
 Infrequent flowers, shall meet the eye that feasts 100 
 
 On many colours ; nor shall warblers trill 
 
 The songs that ever earned the hush and thrill 
 
 Of ecstasy : for they are mites that love 
 
 A bounteous meal below, the sun above ; 
 
 And regions where the land bears various fruit 
 
 Enchanted are by the responsive flute 
 
 Of the brown bird that tells to nights in spring 
 
 The tale that poets never cease to sing,
 
 IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 9 
 
 In passages with such a pause between 
 As gives clear thought of what the sweet parts mean. no 
 The Alps, that terrified the scourge of Rome, 
 Use their rough sides for the edelweiss's home 
 Whose woolly flowers, long kept, record the play 
 Of city folk that find their holiday 
 In travelling summarily to rose-flushed heights, 
 Straining religiously to uncommon sights, 
 Shuddering with easy awe at glaciers wide, 
 Or prattling of the sunsets they have spied, 
 Secure from dangers of the flood and fell 
 Because some engineers have laboured well. 120 
 
 A senate late sat in in a southern land 
 To guard a scarlet orchid from the hand 
 Of thievish dealers. And this land of ours 
 Contains a spacious home for the earth's flowers 
 That show to visitors from far and wide 
 Themselves by art and patience beautified. 
 There treasure, years and toil of man, combined 
 
 c
 
 io THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS 
 
 By the loving sureness of a nation's mind, 
 
 Have made elastic lawns, refreshing glades, 
 
 Sheltering recesses and protecting shades, 130 
 
 Rills, quiet ponds and torrid glassy domes, 
 
 Where tree and herb enjoy congenial homes 
 
 Year after year ; where not in vain is sought 
 
 The beauty of their loves unmarred by drought 
 
 Or storm. You will forgive these stories slight 
 
 Because they tell how pleasant is the sight 
 
 Of happy plants to men in every clime, 
 
 Of every colour and of every time, 
 
 Where human lives please many human eyes 
 
 And love of man brings love of all that dies. 140 
 
 The very worms in their blind sweep contrive 
 
 To keep the grass, torn up by force, alive ; 
 
 Down through the kindly earth they drag the roots, 
 
 Up towards the sun the withered stem re-shoots, 
 
 And bears upon its summit grateful fruits. 
 
 The tremor that the blushing maiden thrills,
 
 IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD. n 
 
 When on her breast the youth lays daffodils 
 
 Or lilies, is not for the love that lies 
 
 Amid the radiance of the flowers' bright eyes : 
 
 She cares not for the fires that shoot flames forth i5o 
 
 To the extremest disc-edge ; nor for the worth 
 
 That lies in pistils' or in stamens' head, 
 
 But loves alone the hangings of their bed, 
 
 Most woman-like. Yet flowers have been the sign 
 
 Through all the years that men and women pine 
 
 Or joy for love of one another. Why ? 
 
 Because their beauty is Love's drapery. 
 
 The soldier shining in his scarlet might 
 
 Who pleases maidens blushing in their white, 
 
 The lilies luring on the strong-winged moth, 160 
 
 The roses burning under damask cloth, 
 
 The violets bent with weight of purple robes, 
 
 The asters pushing forth their glistening globes, 
 
 The sunflowers staring at their god above, 
 
 Delight the world, for they are springs of love.
 
 12 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS 
 
 It is in Venus' month the world is young : 
 Then Love awakes and sweetest notes are sung. 
 Forth comes the sun, the plough, the horse, the hind, 
 Each in his turn a gracious earth to find : 
 The sower casts the seed with equal hands, 170 
 
 Brown as the land ; the admiring farmer stands 
 To see the work ; the odour of manure, 
 Brought from where sea-birds bred for years secure, 
 Fills nose and stomach, sweet as licorice, 
 Till gentle showers dissolve and spread the mess 
 For baby-wheat to suck : the lane below 
 Nurses in shade the dying mass of snow 
 Till lusty days pinch out its deadly white, 
 And little children filled with new delight 
 Run thither, free from mother's winter care, 180 
 
 To bask in sunshine and to breathe the air. 
 They pluck the primrose on the southern bank, 
 Pale in its beauty as its gaze is frank, 
 Patient withal of its lust's complex ways,
 
 IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 13 
 
 But growing weaker with the hotter days, 
 
 Till, overcome by summer's heat and glare, 
 
 Its flowers expire amid their increase fair ; 
 
 And leaves droop rankly, flaccid, out of tune, 
 
 In the great pomp and brilliancy of June, 
 
 As old men mumbling bend to sunny floors 190 
 
 When all the world is glad and out of doors. 
 
 But these are going to adorn a home, 
 
 Borne under children's laughter to their doom 
 
 Of spreading joy instead of myriad seed 
 
 Produced, maybe, to die of very need ; 
 
 For small fresh space there is to keep alive 
 
 What joy kind eyes from teeming earth derive, 
 
 Yet Love, aye mindful of the whole world's bliss, 
 
 Brings forth excess of handsome flowers to kiss 
 
 And toy amongst themselves whose weaker fruit, 200 
 
 Falling on heedless crowds, dies ere the root 
 
 Have sucked the joy of earth, and fades away 
 
 Unconscious of the sun that shines alway.
 
 14 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS 
 
 Through orchard trees the young procession goes 
 
 Where Love enthroned on high cares not for foes, 
 
 So watchful here is man the sentinel 
 
 O'er the bright blossoms in their citadel 
 
 Of rugged trees, save when the treacherous frost 
 
 Attacks at night and stabs the gentle host — 
 
 Frost, black or white, the blossoms' name for death 210 
 
 That wars in vain, for Love still flourisheth, 
 
 And laughs at death and mocks at future care, 
 
 And lovely is the mirth of one so fair : 
 
 It conquers prudence both in man and tree, 
 
 And is the lover for eternity. 
 
 So are the moments of the blissful Spring 
 
 Filled with the motion of each beauteous thing 
 
 That travels helplessly to new delights, 
 
 Called Summer in their whole by happy wights 
 
 Who still see herb and tree aflame with love, 220 
 
 Day after day, around, below, above. 
 
 'Tis now the flower that makes the lover's bed,
 
 IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 15 
 
 'Tis now the flower that circles maidenhead ; 
 
 Tis now the time that gardeners are glad 
 
 At flower-guests, surging bright-eyed, so mad 
 
 Are they with sheer desire. The tender rose 
 
 Makes mankind drunken with its joys and woes 
 
 In love, distilled to every passer-by 
 
 Who learns just then how hard it is to die ; 
 
 On brazen earth the pimpernel lies low 230 
 
 And swears its passion with metallic glow ; 
 
 Midsummer is when serried ranks of wheat 
 
 Half hide from anxious men their gendering heat, 
 
 And half reveal it in a dreamy haze 
 
 That crowns the field of long, laborious days ; 
 
 Red poppies flaunt their rank loves carelessly 
 
 And die, like harlots, soon and suddenly; 
 
 Corn-cockle holds its simple stem erect 
 
 With martial stiffness : bryony deflect 
 
 Spreads its caresses o'er the thorn on high 240 
 
 And wafts its kisses to its mate near by ;
 
 1 6 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS 
 
 While brambles, profuse of their pink and white, 
 
 Promise the whole land's children sweet delight. 
 
 Is Venus tired ? The lazy autumn shows 
 
 Her regnant still, but toying in repose ; 
 
 Well-pleased, she sees what pleasure has bygone 
 
 A present fruit, and languidly plays on. 
 
 Around the house she's helped by man indeed 
 
 Who adds in colour as he lessens seed : 
 
 Bold zinnia, dahlia, and chrysanthemum 350 
 
 Are brilliant ensigns of a cherished home, 
 
 While purple daisy and anemone, 
 
 Less cared for, blossom sad and modestly 
 
 Before their death's dark days ; each hedge and wood 
 
 Displays Love's colours in an apish mood 
 
 Of memory, like vain eldfeigning youth 
 
 With dull-eyed leer and courtesy uncouth; 
 
 But sober passion in the wild dies not 
 
 Where ivy, easy in its long-lived lot, 
 
 Tardily crowns itself with clustered flowers 260
 
 IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 17 
 
 That now are nearly fruit, so scant the hours 
 
 For pretty dallyings. Then winter comes apace, 
 
 When many an herb strains forward to the race 
 
 Of next year's bliss : a single day of rain 
 
 Deceives the daisies that begin again 
 
 Their many-headed kissings. False the start ; 
 
 And back they go to the post with yearning heart, 
 
 Flouted by bitter cold. The chickweed low 
 
 Is starred with blossoms white that gender slow, 
 
 But fill the little birds with wholesome meat 270 
 
 That keeps them warm till Spring's returning heat 
 
 Brings luscious tables for a tuneful breast, 
 
 And primroses to be by men re-blest. 
 
 Obvious and common are the things I write ; 
 Obvious and common is the broad daylight ; 
 On every side is spread the gentle green, 
 And gold of wheat hath every mortal seen. 
 These are the gifts a gracious Venus makes, 
 And blest is he who thanks before he takes. 279 
 
 D
 
 1 8 THE BENIGNITY OF VENUS. 
 
 Then, Forman, raise your eyes and outstretched hands ; 
 Thank her in star and sun and skiey lands 
 That set the flower and fruit their ordered times 
 And band the world with all-producing climes ; 
 Thank her again who permeates the earth 
 And makes it lovely to proclaim her worth. 
 
 March, 1892.
 
 THE RITES OF VENUS.
 
 SECOND LETTER. 
 
 Dear Foi jive this jingling rhyme 
 
 That now rings out for you I leisure time ; 
 
 N >r should you ever these twin sounds despise 
 
 As trivial art, like some that so ad\ 
 
 For rhymes please most, and what is pleasant must 
 
 Be Life' itself and raise man from the dust. 
 
 What is this life of ours but bliss on bliss 
 
 Whether the joy be meat, or drink, or k 
 
 ( )r the soft bed where weary limbs repose, 
 
 Or the discomfiture of daily woes, 10 
 
 That, small or great, are pains begetting death 
 
 Unless we puff them off with strenuous breath, 
 
 Or sons' achievements, or a daughter's grace,
 
 22 THE RITES OF VENUS. 
 
 Or quick reflections of a wifely face, 
 
 Or loving memories of a parent's hearse, 
 
 Or duty's round, or song, or pipe, or verse ? 
 
 May these rhymes please you : Truth, the other name 
 
 Of Pleasure's self, shall keep their living fame, 
 
 Truth that, like Pleasure, is the life of man, 
 
 Who must see clear to live, and is the fan zo 
 
 That sets the trust in human hearts aglow ; 
 
 Nay ! is the air in which we live and do. 
 
 But if plain words can lively things portray 
 
 And move the reader, those that Truth display 
 
 Atop of pleasant sounds must give delight 
 
 More than all other things that meet the sight. 
 
 Good rhymes for sermons true alone are fit, 
 
 For Truth and Pleasure is one mark to hit ; 
 
 'Twixt rhyme and reason is the bond confessed ; 
 
 Call the bond Truth and in its pleasure rest. 30 
 
 And when you come to faults in this my rhyme, 
 
 Condemn its reason and no farther climb,
 
 THE RITES OF VENUS. 23 
 
 But think its writer, in your friendly way, 
 With a desire to please has run astray. 
 
 Not long ago he called you to adore 
 Her that unceasing strews upon earth's floor, 
 Before all eyes, the riches of her grace 
 In flower and fruit and grass's spreading lace. 
 But she requires more than a sudden thought 
 From those who are glad to serve her as they ought : 4° 
 Venus is Pleasure, Truth and Song combined ; 
 No less than man's whole life is to her mind 
 As a fit sacrifice before her shrine : 
 Then let the offering be yours and mine 
 Of life-long modesty, a smiling eye 
 And kindly will for all humanity. 
 
 There was in ancient times a famous man 
 Who all his peers in stately verse outran, 
 And Venus was the goddess he adored, 
 And she endowed him with the pregnant word ; 50 
 
 Yet was his worship tainted with an ire
 
 24 THE RITES OF VENUS. 
 
 That jarred the sweeping utterance of his lyre : 
 Contentious memory of the things he saw- 
 Begat impatience of his Lady's law ; 
 While still he preached that nothing turns to naught 
 Grave old Religion's nothingness he sought, 
 And mad Lucretius smirched those deeds sincere 
 That might have made his parable a sphere. 
 — What is Religion but religious men ? 
 And when were men without their churches ? When 60 
 Did they forego their solemn march to fanes 
 Built by themselves with loving care and pains ? 
 Religion is men low before some shrine 
 That sires and mates decree to be divine ; 
 It is men interchanging kindly act 
 In forms made sacred by the firm compact 
 Of long experience. It is men prone 
 Before a God that is their very own, 
 A God that is their reverential part, 
 A God whose susbstance is the human heart. 70
 
 THE RITES OF VENUS. 25 
 
 So did Lucretius scorn his myriad peers 
 Who shaped his words, his thoughts, his hopes, his fears. 
 Tis true he thought in Iphianassa's case 
 That men, religious, were unkind and base ; 
 But these sinned long ago, beyond compare 
 With those who breathed the civil Roman air, 
 If sin they did, unknown to Homer's song, 
 To add a tittle to the general wrong. 
 But he, as well as we, faint credence pays 
 To doubtful tales of ancient, doleful days : 80 
 
 Why learned he not this crime as peers of ours 
 Hear of a Jephthah's daughter in the hours 
 That men devote to worship of the past, 
 Snug in the fane where sleepy echoes last ? 
 Where who asks this or that ? Yet each one pays 
 A courtesy to tales of bygone days 
 That saw his fathers, full of ill and good, 
 Just like himself who yearns for loving brood. 
 Nor did the poet's fellows shake for fear 
 
 E
 
 26 THE RITES OF VENUS. 
 
 Lest their own maids should cause an equal tear ; 90 
 
 Nor did himself, devoted to the fair, 
 Remember that the sacrificers were 
 In quest of loveliest lady on the earth, 
 And deemed all nothing to their Helen's worth : 
 But he who made Religion far too tall 
 Might well expect it at a word to fall, 
 Whereas throughout the years, wights not above 
 Six feet in height walked, died in children's love, 
 And careful of the rites their fathers taught 
 Passed on the same to the fresh lives they'd got. 100 
 
 But some that think to teach our present day 
 Use speech as foully when they strive to say 
 That God is that of which folk have no sense, 
 And is the title for man's ignorance. 
 Foolish are these who struggle thus to show- 
 Religions are the varying forms of No ; 
 Enticed by words, untrammeled by a fact
 
 THE RITES OF VENUS. 27 
 
 They brand as No long years of human act ; 
 
 And those that find plain No sufficient creed 
 
 Proclaim their No a very thing indeed. no 
 
 Tis plain the gods that peoples must adore 
 
 Are all compounded of their votaries' lore 
 
 Of act and sight ; and men of kindred cares 
 
 Find their lives mirrored in their common prayers. 
 
 For 'twas the soldier safe from many wars 
 
 Who lolled at ease and swore by lusty Mars ; 
 
 It was the lady sighing with desire 
 
 Who told to Venus all her hidden fire ; 
 
 The lucky robber half his booty brought 
 
 To Mercury as quick as thievish thought ; 120 
 
 While those who found their world was made of books 
 
 Chilled themselves stiff in cold Minerva's looks ; 
 
 Till, tired of gods in ever-growing crowd, 
 
 The world combined them and to one God bowed, 
 
 Who spread, with Jews, splenetic o'er the lands
 
 28 THE RITES OF VENUS. 
 
 Where men groaned loud between contending bands, 
 
 Or bought their lust and pillage off and, weak, 
 
 Saw in a tortured God their sorrows speak. 
 
 But still the Unity that men allowed 
 
 Showed various faces to a changeful crowd : 1 30 
 
 The subtle Grecian found it mixed of words 
 
 That drave their utterer like lash-armed lords, 
 
 And bowed himself, who had a double face, 
 
 Before the mystery of Tri-Une grace ; 
 
 While Italy, the dame of act and awe, 
 
 Enjoined obedience to the Church's law 
 
 And ruled the West ; nor when her bond was burst 
 
 By sturdy Northmen was the Godhead curst. 
 
 The sterner sort adored a direful face 
 
 And told his battles for the Jewish race, 140 
 
 When milder men in the old temples found 
 
 Him pleased with trodden ways and pleasant sound ; 
 
 And now that men live gentle-voiced and tame
 
 THE RITES OF VENUS. 29 
 
 Child-like their God is glad to be the same. 
 Let us then bow to Him that wide unfurled 
 Displays our brothers' knowledge of the world, 
 For Venus wills it so who brings us here, 
 By way of father's love and hope and fear, 
 To live our lives in easy-gliding lease 
 
 And guide our children in the way of peace. 150 
 
 What asks our Lady then ? A little meed ! 
 For cheerful faces is her greatest need ; 
 Good manners, too, she begs of every wight, 
 Nor smiles on fierce apologies of Right, 
 For Right is where a gentle pleasure reigns 
 And gentle deeds that lessen human pains ; 
 Nor does she ask of us a strenuous quest 
 For atoms or for causes unconfessed, 
 Since atoms, like the ever-living God, 
 Vary as men, or vanish at a nod. 160 
 
 No need now, Forman, to uplift your eyes
 
 3 o THE RITES OF VENUS. 
 
 To find our Venus in the starry skies ; 
 With gracious mien she treads the pleasant ground, 
 Arrayed in flesh, and utters human sound : 
 Thank her with love for every man you meet, 
 And she shall bless you from a mercy-seat. 
 
 February, 1S93.
 
 THE KINDNESS OF VENUS IN 
 
 THE LIFE AND DEATH 
 
 OF MAN.
 
 THIRD LETTER. 
 
 Dear Forman, it is pleasant to forget 
 
 Even sometimes a task of love. And yet 
 
 I have no pleasure in the backwardness 
 
 That makes the value of this letter less, 
 
 For Death itself has driven my thought away 
 
 From Lady Venus and her potent sway ; 
 
 And she, displeased at my averted face, 
 
 Withdraws in part perception of her grace. 
 
 And how can I with easy quill indite, 
 
 Conscious of having shunned a work so light 10 
 
 As praise of her ? I did intend to pen 
 
 Her power o'er lives so free as birds and men ; 
 
 How the quick whitethroat through a summer's day 
 
 F
 
 34 THE KINDNESS OF VENUS 
 
 Wings to and fro in air a certain way 
 
 To where a narrow, nettle-bounded pit 
 
 Forbids his flight and scarce allows the flit 
 
 Of eager, entering wings ; how he must rise 
 
 And fall each even singing to the skies ; 
 
 What clothes the chaffinch with a smart attire 
 
 In Spring, and bids him swell the varied choir ; 20 
 
 What makes him pert, and elevate his crest, 
 
 Or bows him to the service of the nest ; 
 
 What drives asunder the harmonious throng 
 
 Of gentle linnets just as days grow long, 
 
 And sets each lone against the sinking sun 
 
 To triumph weakly for the day now done. 
 
 But Spring is past and birds are sad, and I 
 Can only think how men must live and die 
 And love ; and birds have little care for us 
 Who crawl below them melancholious 30 
 
 As, hot and swift, they cleave a purer air 
 Till, drank with light, they condescend to care.
 
 IN THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MAN. 35 
 
 But still with joy we watch our neighbours' pranks 
 
 And kiss our wives and give the good God thanks. 
 
 It isn't hard to smile on lass and lad 
 
 When Love attacks them first and drives them mad 
 
 For joy. The poorest traveller may see 
 
 On stile or seat mutual felicity 
 
 Where the warm stripling shudders with the bliss 
 
 Of learning what is in a maiden's kiss 40 
 
 Who thinks of naught, bathed in her novel joy, 
 
 Bites with soft lips or plays at being coy, 
 
 And fears no watcher if he only smile 
 
 And strive to win their hearts with gentle wile. 
 
 She shares with glistening eyes her lover's story 
 
 Of tremors shy that ended in love's glory ; 
 
 And such a tale is everyone's delight 
 
 Since all have loved, remember, and have sight 
 
 For this new picture of old joy and pain, 
 
 That's painted lively in the quiet lane, 50 
 
 For this result of seasons' changeful strife,
 
 36 THE KINDNESS OF VENUS 
 
 The first bright blossom of the Tree of Life. 
 Time is when mother's lap is all the world 
 Till straight man stands with wistful arms unfurled 
 To grasp the wonders of the land of shows, 
 That proves to be a land of many woes ; 
 Yet through grave hurts and cries and sore distress 
 Does he not conquer it with eager stress ? 
 He joins himself with mates and seeks the streams, 
 And fills the woods around with little screams 60 
 
 As mimic ships of his to unknown lands 
 Glide in uncertain whirl, or when his hands 
 Wrest from the hedge or bank some novel prize 
 That brings rare sparkles to his mother's eyes ; 
 He chases bright-eyed birds from song to song, 
 And yet, a little child, he does no wrong ; 
 They safely watch him play the hunter's part, 
 And slyly they avoid his feeble dart : 
 Bold sports his father and his tutors teach 
 Wherein he learns to use his strength 'gainst each 70
 
 IN THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MAN. 37 
 
 Playfellow with fair courtesy. To fight, 
 
 To run, to leap, to swim, with measured might 
 
 Are his ; and, master of his strength and ire, 
 
 Modest he walks, the pearl of men's desire : 
 
 Time brings him books wherein he sees past years 
 
 Crowded with heroes ending sorrow's tears 
 
 With temperance mild and resolution high, 
 
 Closed in their mail by lady's stifled sigh ; 
 
 He dreams by night of what brave men have done 
 
 And plays their deeds beneath a mindful sun : 80 
 
 And Time too leads him to his manhood's height 
 
 When school-girls peep and fear the wondrous sight, 
 
 Till courage comes and out they dart their share 
 
 Of backward glances shot from faces fair, 
 
 And saucy words and dainty tricks they learn 
 
 From their own fear of inner needs that burn; 
 
 But well he knows these mates of childhood's days, 
 
 And the familiar memory of their ways, 
 
 Their fibs and cheatings over woodland fruit,
 
 38 THE KINDNESS OF VENUS 
 
 Blurs these fair flowers with an earthly root : 90 
 
 He still laughs with them as a boy might do, 
 
 While each frank laugh is tart to them as rue. 
 
 Yet as he waxes, murmurs rise and fall 
 
 How woman's beauty holds a man in thrall ; 
 
 He deems it first vain noise and wonders why 
 
 A thing beflounced should make a strong man cry : 
 
 But bit by bit the tale falls in his ear 
 
 Like the long winds that make the green wood sear, 
 
 And then the stranger maiden brings the torch, 
 
 Gently unknowing what power she has to scorch, 100 
 
 And all the past of that well-nurtured youth 
 
 Burns fiercely in the flame of love and truth 
 
 And humble admiration, and his parts 
 
 Dissolve into a future of twin hearts 
 
 And fresh young lives that utter baby-cries 
 
 Of tiny misery that ever dies 
 
 In mother's carefulness and lullabies. 
 
 Forth every morn he goes to strenuous deed,
 
 IN THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MAN. 39 
 
 And every night he comes to reap his meed 
 
 Of tender looks from wife and rushing feet no 
 
 Of children emulous to seize the seat, 
 
 The dancing, prancing saddle of his knee, 
 
 And just a taste of clamorous liberty. 
 
 Now every year he sees his children grow 
 
 Towards his own dear youth that he loves so ; 
 
 And as his forces wane, age's far sight 
 
 Backward and forward brings a dim delight, 
 
 The same that ushers in the nightly sleep 
 
 When men forget to laugh, or work, or weep. 
 
 This is man's life, his usual, common lot. no 
 
 O happy man ! if only Death forgot 
 To strike him tremulous time after time 
 And rob him of the reason for a rhyme. 
 It lays him prone upon the funeral mound, 
 Listening and praying vainly for the sound 
 Never to leave the quiet lips below 
 That faintly smile up to his heavy woe,
 
 40 THE KINDNESS OF VENUS 
 
 The seal of bygone love that still remains 
 
 To weave sweet duty out of ancient pains. 
 
 Yes ! Forman, this cold Death that wounds so sore 130 
 
 Is the sure sign that our affections' store 
 
 Shall never wane. Sometimes your sudden thought 
 
 That your own dearest shall one day be naught 
 
 Must end in tender word and gentle glance, 
 
 The very alphabet of Love's utterance ; 
 
 And you will yearn to keep the precious face, 
 
 And hold it hidden in a warm embrace : 
 
 Thus Death, the bitterest of Love's enemies, 
 
 Does but make Love advance in loving guise. 
 
 O Forman, Death is Love itself, I know, 140 
 
 And Love to live must sometimes mask as woe, 
 
 And hard it is for Love to suffer so. 
 
 Yet from the Death-like Love we take this gain, 
 
 To sorrow for and cure our neighbour's pain, 
 
 To walk with kindly mien 'midst fellow-men 
 
 And gratefully receive kind looks again.
 
 IN THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MAN. \\ 
 
 And so from year to year we live and die 
 Within the favour of great Venus' eye. 
 And many gifts our Lady fashions meet, 
 A lovely home ; a carpet for our feet, 1 50 
 
 Bestrown with living ornaments that praise 
 Their bounteous Maker in bright-coloured ways, 
 Shining examples to us all to move 
 With smiling face along the path of love ; 
 A God that loves us since he proves to be 
 Our own affections' epitome, 
 Our father's image and our mates' desire, 
 Our country's reverence that must never tire ; 
 A loving woman glad to be our slave, 
 Her beauteous form a warm and sheltering cave 160 
 
 Wherein is nourished our undying part 
 That issues forth to cheer our waning heart 
 With the bright repetition of its youth 
 Bound on the way of pleasure and of truth. 
 
 What else then can I write but joyous words ? 
 
 G
 
 42 THE KINDNESS OF VENUS. 
 
 And if I could I'd sing as do the birds ; 
 
 But there's one season fit for jingling lays, 
 
 And that is youth that leaps to easy praise ; 
 
 And I, my friend, who hold a weary pen 
 
 Now gladly hand it down to younger men. 170 
 
 November, 1893. 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS :— C. WHITTINGHAIU AND CO., TOOKS COURT, 
 CHANCERY LANE.
 
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