V 
 
 I 
 
 ORNIA
 
 CHARACTERS IN OUTLINE 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS
 
 CHARACTERS IN 
 OUTLINE 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES ROXBURGH McCLYMONT 
 
 AUTHOR OF * METRICAL ROMANCES AND 
 BALLADS ' 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN OUSELEY LIMITED 
 
 FLEET LANE, FARRIXGDON STREET, E.C.
 
 I
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 A I I 
 
 Characters in Outline : 
 
 
 
 
 A Reluctant Jacobite .... 3 
 
 A Cruise in the Petrel 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 An Emigrant Returning . 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 Clytie 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Chloe 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 Two Children of the Age 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 Titus and Gisippus 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 The Water-Witch 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 .Moses on Pisgah .... 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 Philohebr^eus .... 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 An Unriddler .... 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 A Lover's Holiday 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 The Handmaid of the Lord 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 Pensi ks of an Idealist 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 On Pilgrimage 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 A Novo Chris rJfo .... 
 
 
 
 . 36 
 
 An Instructor of Youth . 
 
 
 
 • 38 
 
 A Returning Colonist 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 Exhortation of a Lover of N^ 
 
 TURK 
 
 42 
 
 Responsory Lament 
 
 
 
 43
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Viravara's Sacrifice . 
 
 The Sonnets of Theologus 
 
 The Church and the World . 
 
 Sonnets Roundels and Madrigals 
 
 Keats 
 
 Spring and Summer 
 The Church of Scotland . 
 Forebodings .... 
 The Fruition of a Desire. 
 Tribal Hunting Song . 
 
 c TlTANIA IS MY QUEEN ' 
 
 c Alas ! my laggard feet ' . 
 ' To Helicon but wend ' 
 'Touch with finger light' 
 ' Larks carol on high ' 
 ' Away with incubi ' . 
 
 Poems for Young People : 
 A Roy Abroad 
 A T3oy in Paris 
 Old Rhymes Recast. I. 
 
 II. 
 
 A Good Friday 
 A Holy Saturday 
 An Easter Sunday 
 
 PAGE 
 
 45 
 53 
 67 
 
 79 
 80 
 81 
 82 
 
 83 
 
 84 
 
 85 
 86 
 
 87 
 88 
 
 89 
 90 
 
 93 
 
 95 
 
 97 
 
 98 
 
 100 
 
 102 
 
 103
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 vn 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Miscellaneous Poems: 
 
 After Calvary: A Fragment . . .107 
 Stanzas Addressed to the Lion Sculptured 
 
 by thorwaldsen io9 
 
 A Song of Espousal no 
 
 Villanelle Ill 
 
 Spring Ode 112 
 
 Love Song of a Faun 114 
 
 Bush Melody 116 
 
 A Song of Creation 117 
 
 The Last Woolly Rhinoceros . . .119
 
 CHARACTERS IN OUTLINE
 
 A RELUCTANT JACOBITE 
 
 An unconsidered unit of that band 
 
 Which gave its worldly substance to achieve 
 
 A brief success for Charles Edward's arms, 
 
 Following its constellation from afar, 
 
 Had plunged from contemplative country life 
 
 Into the twofold war of pen and sword, 
 
 And sternly parted bonds of heart and home 
 
 To grant to his convictions recompense, 
 
 For they had summoned him to speak and act. 
 
 He sought the camp, although to him in truth 
 
 Dearer by far the snowdrop's innocence, 
 
 The holy inspiration of the hills, 
 
 The gentle worship of the cloistered dove, 
 
 The silent pathos of the mountain tarn. 
 
 Full soon the rebels scatter like a crowd 
 
 Of winged thistle-seeds in wind, whereon 
 
 Began pursuit and oft by beck, on moor 
 
 Were tragedies enacted of resistance. 
 
 Duncan was of the hapless fugitives ;
 
 A RELUCTANT JACOBITE 
 
 Wounded and wearied by the rout he found 
 A cave wherein to hide. But hot pursuit 
 Grew nothing slacker, and no food remained 
 When help arrived in unexpected guise, 
 For, when he had resolved to quit the cave, 
 Came to his aid a crofter of the strath, 
 Bringing him food at hazard of his life. 
 
 Befel it that by night the crofter came 
 Dejectedly and with emotion told 
 That he had met pursuers on the way, 
 Who, after tempting him with specious words 
 To indicate retreats of fugitives, 
 Saying that they were charged to pardon all 
 Subordinates engaged in the revolt 
 (But he divined their purpose) had withdrawn, 
 Saying they knew the means to ope his mouth. 
 The twain agreed that during the next night 
 Duncan should quit the cave and seek again 
 Concealment, whereupon they said farewell. 
 But Duncan did not find a second lair, 
 For soldiers who had spied the crofter's path 
 Sought him and found and, as a rebel knave 
 In arms against the king, shot through the heart.
 
 A CRUISE IN THE PETREL 
 
 I 
 A breeze invites to Arran's isle 
 
 But I of Arrans weary, 
 I'm all intent on Icolmkill, 
 
 And Staffa lone and eerie ; 
 
 Shake out the mainsail, let her go, 
 
 Sing us a ditty cheery ; 
 (Our skipper sings and can beguile 
 
 The moments be they dreary). 
 
 To sea ! to sea ! that we may shun 
 The swirl of Coryvrecken, 
 
 The sullen gust from Jura's Paps, 
 The nicker and the kraken ; 
 
 See plunging in the streaming wave 
 And dancing in the spindrift, 
 
 Old Oceanus' grandchild fair 
 Descended whence the wind rift 
 
 5
 
 A CRUISE IN THE PETREL 
 
 And road for Iris has prepared, — 
 For Iris, Thaumas' daughter, 
 
 Unto whom, as bards aver, 
 Electra's love has brought her. 
 
 But higher themes betimes evoke 
 Our souls' profound emotion 
 
 Than idle pagan phantasies 
 Of earth and air and ocean ; 
 
 Iona held sublimer lives 
 
 Than Tusculum or Baise, 
 And servants of a greater One — 
 
 Down with the sail, I pray ye, 
 
 For night is near and off the isle 
 We'll snugly lie till morning 
 
 In fathoms twain and sheltered sound, 
 With lights the dark adorning. 
 
 II 
 
 O the fair shore ! the abbey hoar ! 
 
 The seat of Celtic learning ! 
 At last I stand upon the strand, 
 
 The haven of my yearning ;
 
 A CRUISE IN THE PETREL 
 
 Here Columb stood, right glad at heart 
 
 To see no hills of Derry, 
 Lest love of Erin, isle of saints, 
 
 The love of God should bury. 
 
 That well he wrought who runs may read 
 In life with actions crowded, 
 
 Aye mindful of his sacred trust 
 And septs in darkness shrouded ; 
 
 That at the altar of his church 
 
 As Matins bell was tolling 
 He blessing died, dying was blessed 
 
 By Brothers past consoling. 
 
 Farewells are said in Icolmkill 
 
 To oldest, youngest native; 
 Aboard ! to-night the Petrel's berth, 
 
 Please God, will be in Etive.
 
 AN EMIGRANT RETURNING 
 
 A young and ardent cottar of Strathclyde 
 Must needs improve antipodean wastes, 
 Wrestle with stringy-barks and of the steep 
 Dim gully make a dwelling-place of swine 
 And antechamber of the king of fruits, — 
 Pippin and russet in their several kinds ; 
 There felled he giants sentenced to the flames, 
 Hoed fern-roots too tenacious of their lives, 
 Planted the tuber, which to propagate 
 We wound, till leisure came and blue not green 
 Was bushman's canopy, and forest brutes 
 Confessed the prowess of his craft and might. 
 Not his a restful mind with rest from toil ; 
 Associations latent but intact 
 Made known their presence in his inner mind ; 
 He longed again to grasp his father's hand, 
 Receive the motherly embrace once more, 
 And hail companions of his younger days. 
 These memories, too vivid to be quenched,
 
 AN EMIGRANT RETURNING 
 
 Increased in vigour till he could no more 
 Endure the solitude of forest hut 
 And home returned, all eager to acclaim 
 A skilful trip or, wet in vernal showers, 
 To guddle trout in immemorial pool.
 
 CLYTIE 
 
 Sighs twain from heart our Clytie hove 
 (I pray you, Marcus, mark this well), 
 
 One floated to the ear of Jove, 
 The other sank to Pluto's hell ; 
 
 Flout her contention that 'tis right, 
 And good and wise the fatal plan. 
 
 That love and beauty and delight 
 Should be the trinity of Man, 
 
 And pause ere made by Clytie bond, 
 Lest Clytie steal away thy breath, 
 
 For Clytie when most free and fond, 
 
 Walks hand in hand with Sin and Death.
 
 CHLOE 
 
 Chloe loved a youth, 
 
 Of an Adonis brother, 
 Vowed should he be coy 
 
 Ne'er to love another ; 
 
 But Adonis came 
 
 And wooed her with beguiling ; 
 She, alack, from shame 
 
 Frowned not on him smiling ; 
 
 Which the lad, intent 
 Upon his suit preferring, 
 
 Saw and straightway bent 
 His bow with aim unerring ; 
 
 Smitten by remorse, 
 
 Sprang she in a fountain, 
 
 Laid the lad a corse 
 
 Pompeii's burning mountain.
 
 TWO CHILDREN OF THE AGE 
 
 She leads her by the hand 
 Into a distant land 
 
 Of Reason and Revolt, 
 Where what was old is new 
 And what was false is true 
 
 And every bush a holt ; 
 
 She knows not heaven from hell, 
 Nor where dead people dwell, 
 
 And does not understand 
 How God makes cats and dogs 
 And boys and sheep and hogs, — 
 
 All things on sea and land ; 
 
 It wearies her to think 
 
 Or scrawl with pen and ink 
 
 Dumb symbols in a book ; 
 This great wide world of things 
 A dismal shadow flings 
 
 She cannot calmly brook.
 
 TWO CHILDREN OF THE AGE 13 
 
 And she in trust elate, 
 In honour true and great, 
 
 Eager to aid and serve, — 
 Rebellion warms her blood 
 And surges in a flood 
 
 Through every tingling nerve.
 
 TITUS AND GISIPPUS 
 
 When Pollio and Calvinus consuls were, 
 
 And Lepidus triumvir, and with him 
 
 Mark Antony and great Octavius, 
 
 The officers one to the praetor haled 
 
 Of murder self-accused. ' Him crucify 
 
 On Mons Capitolinus,' Varro said ; 
 
 Whereat one Titus Quintus Fulvius rose, — 
 
 A rich and noble citizen of Rome, — 
 
 And thus addressed the praetor : ' I am he 
 
 Who slew the man by officers found dead ; 
 
 As for this innocent and starving wight, 
 
 He implicates himself to compass death.' 
 
 Scarce had he ceased to speak, when lo ! a third, 
 
 One Publius Ambustus, noted thief 
 
 And reprobate, stood forth and loudly cried, 
 
 ' I am the murderer and thus it was ; — 
 
 This dead Lucilius and myself had robbed 
 
 One travelling to Tarentum of his gold, 
 
 Which to divide we carried to a grot 
 
 14
 
 TITUS AND GISIPPUS 15 
 
 Where he now dead unfairly shared the spoil ; 
 We fought, and I o'ercame ; the beggar there 
 I saw ; he slept ; I left him to his fate.' 
 ' Unto Octavius take them,' said the judge, 
 • That which outwits my wit he may discern.' 
 
 To great Octavius thus Titus spake : — 
 ' I am of Rome, Octavius, this my friend 
 Is an Athenian ; at the school we met 
 Of Aristippus ; Chremes, of my friend 
 The sire, betrothed him to Sophronia, maid 
 Of Attic beauty, womanly in mind, 
 And died. The maid I saw, and longed for more 
 Than man has longed for maid before or since j 
 Reason contends with Passion, Reason wins 
 But in the conflict this poor body swoons 
 And falls into a pitiable state. 
 Gisippus of my sickness sought the cause, 
 Which I reluctantly declared when he, 
 With unexampled love, renounced his bride, 
 And so contrived that on the nuptial night 
 To me she was committed, not to him. 
 When that my father died and my affairs 
 Called me to Rome, need was that she should 
 know
 
 1 6 TITUS AND GISIPPUS 
 
 Whose wife she was. Then, to confusion brought, 
 
 She sought her father's house and there abode. 
 
 Great clamour rose against us, and in truth 
 
 I hardly could appease the multitude 
 
 Until I threatened with the might of Rome ; 
 
 Sophronia yielded ; and I brought her here ; 
 
 Gisippus (let him tell the rest) remained.' 
 
 ' Most noble Caesar,' then Gisippus said, 
 
 ' The Law's baulked vengeance quickly fell on me j 
 
 My goods were confiscated to the state, 
 
 Decree of banishment was ratified ; 
 
 Beggared, where should I flee but unto Rome 
 
 And Titus ? At the portal of his house 
 
 I waited, hungering for one look, one word ; 
 
 But no, he passed me by, scouted my rags ; 
 
 At least I thought so, but the issue proves 
 
 Me wholly wrong : the rest is known to you.' 
 
 ' A curious ruse,' quoth Caesar, ' artifice 
 
 More questionable than the gods approve 
 
 One has devised, the other carried out ; 
 
 But both millstones of heavy ill have ground ; 
 
 You have my sympathy, my sympathy 
 
 Implies my pardon, but this reprobate ' 
 
 ' Be pleased, great Caesar, to extend to him
 
 TITUS AND GISIPPUS 17 
 
 The pardon graciously bestowed on us.' 
 ' This once and better days I wish you all.' 
 
 His sister Fulvia Titus gave to wife 
 Unto Gisippus, and one half his goods 
 And Tusculan estate whereon they dwelt ; 
 His labours told, what need more to relate ?
 
 THE WATER-WITCH 
 
 Driving her sea-cattle home 
 
 Over the sands 
 
 A Water- witch, beckoning me, 
 
 Cried, 'My parents have sent me to thee,- 
 
 My mother a waif of the sea, 
 
 My father, a troll of the foam : 
 
 Hie ! black, hie ! white, hie ! dun.' 
 
 Between the sea and the land 
 
 (Dulse was her crown) 
 
 She stood and smiled for a sign 
 
 That she deigned to be bride of mine ; 
 
 ' Come hither, ye obstinate kine,' 
 
 She cried o'er the yellowing sand, 
 
 'Hie! white, hie ! black, hie! dun.' 
 
 ' Wind me this conch loud and well 
 To call them back, 
 
 18
 
 THE WATER-WITCH 19 
 
 The sun is about to sink, 
 
 His eyes are bleared and blink, 
 
 Prithee, dear mortal, bethink 
 
 Thee ; blow long that the tones may swell ; 
 
 Hie ! dun, hie ! white, hie ! black.' 
 
 At sound of the conch her steers 
 
 Followed the track 
 
 To the sea-front's rocky edge, 
 And over the seaward ledge 
 Slid as from gunwale the kedge 
 
 With a splash, and the cobble veers. 
 
 (' Hie ! white, hie ! dun, hie ! black.') 
 
 ' 'Tis late, come, take we our way 
 
 Seawards,' she said, 
 
 Encircling my neck with her arm, — 
 
 A wench of voluptuous charm, 
 
 At her nod men would brave the alarm 
 
 At the breaker or beast of prey ; 
 
 (' Hie ! black, hie ! dun, hie ! white '). 
 
 Dear Lord, whose voice from afar ? 
 Whose footsteps speed
 
 20 THE WATER-WITCH 
 
 Adown the combe and along 
 
 The darkening sands, whilst the song 
 
 Of the sea-trow lingers among 
 
 The pools which the night winds blur? 
 
 (' Hie ! dun, hie ! black, hie ! white.') 
 
 'Twas a maid hasting over the sands 
 
 Erst plighted to me, — 
 A maiden in dire distress, 
 Forsaken (with shame I confess), 
 The fisherman's girl on the ness, 
 
 And in anguish she wrung her hands. 
 
 (' Hie ! black, hie ! dun, hie ! white.') 
 
 ' I am nought to thee this day, 
 
 But she, alas ! 
 
 To-night will deaden thy soul, 
 To-morrow thy body will dole 
 To the sharks to levy their toll ; 
 
 Come away, come away, away.' 
 
 (' Hie ! white, hie ! dun, hie ! black.') 
 
 The billows were beating like flails 
 'Neath sky o'ercast ;
 
 THE WATER-WITCH 21 
 
 No Water-witch stood by my side, 
 I cherished a mortal bride, 
 And whispered, ' Leonora, abide, 
 List ! the voice of the Water-witch wails.' 
 ' Hie ! black, hie ! white, hie ! dun.'
 
 MOSES ON PISGAH 
 
 From Pisgah's Mount Moses looked down 
 And saw the battles to be fought, 
 
 Tribes to be conquered and the town 
 
 With much blood-shedding to be bought. 
 
 ' Shall I lead on where Baalim's horde 
 Appeal to him with cruel knife, 
 
 Until the Angel of the Lord 
 Blots out their travesty of life ? 
 
 Shall I return whither the slave 
 Drags to its fane the awful sphinx, 
 
 Or, child in years, stolid and grave, 
 To water leeks from hovel slinks ? 
 
 Nor this, nor that; the Lord is just, 
 He knows the weary way I've trod ; 
 
 To Michael I commend this dust, 
 Return, O yearning soul, to God.'
 
 PHILOHERR/EUS 
 
 Jehovah digged a ditch 
 Around his favourite city ; 
 
 From love to wrath his purpose ran, 
 From wrath it ran to pity ; 
 
 The ditch became a scar 
 
 On Israel's ancient freedom ; 
 
 The Lord cast off His shoe 
 Over the Land of Edom ; 
 
 The scar became a wound 
 Dealt to the Lord's Anointed, 
 
 And Judah's lamp was quenched 
 Before the time appointed.
 
 AN UNRIDDLER 
 
 A moment's span he reads her face, 
 
 Anon the Sphinx is veiled ; 
 Then set the sun, the moon shone forth, 
 
 The light of reason failed ; 
 
 An airy, unsubstantial bat 
 
 With screams besought the Night, 
 To grant the traveller a boon — 
 
 Not steal his reason quite ; 
 
 A zephyr from the lips of Morn 
 Approached his brow to fan, 
 
 Then melody from Memnon came, 
 The Sphinx removed her ban ; 
 
 Nile overflowed his banks in joy, 
 
 Corn out of Egypt sprang, 
 The toiling scarabs ceased to roll 
 
 Their spheres for Memnon sang. 
 
 54
 
 A LOVER'S HOLIDAY 
 
 Was ever sunnier day, I think, 
 
 But lo, 'tis hardly ended, 
 When, nursed on darkness' dizzy brink, 
 
 A sunnier yet has wended 
 
 His way adown the slopes of heaven 
 
 In hyaline invested, 
 The nurseling of the sacred seven, 
 
 With gemmed aigrette be-crested ; 
 
 To-day the gorse's scent's more sweet 
 
 Than yesterday and purer 
 The linnet's pipe ; a dryad's feet 
 
 Flee swiftlier to allure her 
 
 Faun quicklier to snatch a kiss 
 Though not devoid of quaking, — 
 
 Comus, ensconced, thinks nought amiss, 
 But spies, with laughter shaking. 
 
 *5
 
 26 A LOVER'S HOLIDAY 
 
 And here is Donald, scorner of pelf, 
 The pipes across his shoulder, 
 
 And Celandine, the fair-haired elf, 
 Who looks no summer older 
 
 Than when we last beside the spring 
 Met, ere I went to college, — 
 
 An heir to all the grace years bring, — 
 I heir to naught of knowledge. 
 
 Cloud-curtained ben, look kindly down, 
 Lake fairies, hark, befriend me, 
 
 This day, ere I return to town, 
 This day will make or end me.
 
 THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD 
 
 No hymn that I can write or sing 
 Can add, blest Lady, to your name 
 
 Or praise or honour, and I bring 
 An offering in no quest of fame. 
 
 I partly comprehend the blame 
 
 Thou, mother-heart, acutely know'st, 
 
 The cruel and consuming flame 
 Of sacrifice, — thy Son the Host. 
 
 And had I been a Nazarene 
 
 I had not lived more close to thee 
 
 Than now I do in Bethnal Green, 
 Far from the waves of Galilee, 
 
 And should we meet in Oxford Square 
 I'd know that Jesus was your son 
 
 By pensive eyes, wondrous and rare, 
 Which keys to holy mysteries won 
 
 27
 
 28 THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD 
 
 In depth of dolour none can guess 
 And British matrons only gauge 
 
 Imperfectly and eke confess 
 A lack of Maries in our age ; 
 
 The pigeons in the elm, I think, 
 
 Would gently light upon your hands, 
 
 And of your holy well would drink, — 
 Eager as harts in thirsty lands, 
 
 And did you bend your eyes on me, 
 A Nilus lily I would take 
 
 And offer ; of your courtesy 
 
 You would accept for Egypt's sake.
 
 
 PENSEES OF AN IDEALIST 
 
 The argosies of Thought 
 On many waters ride, 
 
 But never make the happy port 
 Where sky encounters tide. 
 
 II 
 
 Lark, you but bruise your frantic wing 
 
 In futile efforts to be free, 
 Both I who write, and you who sing, 
 
 Are devotees of liberty. 
 
 Think you no hostile powers withhold 
 My favourite part on earthly stage ? 
 
 If skies should fall let truth be told, — 
 Stale customs pen me in a cage. 
 
 *9
 
 
 3 o PENSES OF AN IDEALIST 
 
 III 
 
 Castles ojards must fall, 
 
 And fe efforts, the struggle, the striving, 
 To trich and great and thriving, — 
 
 These e not all in all. 
 
 Good sn live — for what ends ? 
 
 The call to the wind, ' Brave brother, 
 T'se say to the sea, ' Our mother,' 
 
 See are of Nature friends. 
 
 IV 
 
 What realm of spirit 
 
 Shall I inherit 
 Or of matter when time has run, 
 
 When boards debar 
 
 The evening star 
 And exclude the morning sun ? 
 
 Shall my body feed 
 
 A noxious weed 
 Or nourish a limpet's shell ? 
 
 Shall my soul afire 
 
 With vain desire 
 Regret it lived not well ? 

 
 PENSEES OF AN IDEALIST 31 
 
 Shall the sky be riven ? 
 
 Shall a bluer heaven 
 O'erhang a bluer sea ? 
 
 Shall this sky and earth 
 
 (Heaven of my birth) 
 Always my Heaven be? 
 
 V 
 Clouds which envelop the mountains, mild mothers 
 
 of rain, 
 Spread o'er the heavens and cover the blue 
 
 which I ponder in vain, 
 For I cannot grasp it in thought, I can but sigh 
 
 and complain 
 That the source of an infinite pleasure is source 
 
 of an infinite pain. 
 
 We are like one another, O cloud overspreading 
 
 the sfy, 
 You are only a toy of the air, you are born that 
 
 you may die; 
 Like the breath of life which fails when a winter 
 
 draweth nigh, 
 Like a pageant of passing thoughts swiftly you 
 
 journey by.
 
 32 PENSEES OF AN IDEALIST 
 
 VI 
 
 When through a summers' day 
 From flower to flower I wander, 
 From odour to sweet odour stray 
 And when at night I ponder 
 For what great good to pray, 
 But this I find to say — 
 Being of nothing fonder — 
 God grant me such another day. 
 
 VII 
 
 Aspiring lark which soareth 
 From prime to evensong, 
 
 Mellow thrush which poureth 
 Forth strophes sweet and long 
 
 You, methinks, are learned 
 
 In a lore sublime, 
 You've, methinks, discerned 
 
 What I scarce divine ; 
 
 Trill, intone and hover 
 In gay or solemn key ; 
 
 I may yet discover 
 What you plainly see.
 
 PENSEES OF AN IDEALIST 33 
 
 VIII 
 
 Gloria in excelsis ; 
 Hear the holm-thrush say ; 
 Silent be, ye belfries, 
 Ring not, chimes, to-day ; 
 With solemn intonation 
 Adoramus te, 
 Whilst in adoration 
 Silent cattle pray ; 
 Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus ; 
 Follows breathless pause ; 
 Sarum's use and Gaul's use 
 Fill the hanging shaws ; 
 We go ; his mass is ended ; 
 Jte, missa est ; 
 Benedictus blended 
 With shadows from the west. 
 
 IX 
 
 Could we but pierce the cloudy veil 
 Between the earth and realms of light, 
 
 How often would our right prove wrong, 
 How often would our wrong prove right. 
 
 C
 
 ON PILGRIMAGE 
 
 Thrice happy moon, my sun until 
 A new day rob thee of thy light, 
 
 Be still my sun and safely guide 
 Through the empurpled night. 
 
 Thy soft effulgence broadly shed 
 Upon this highway to the main 
 
 Allures me to what anchorage ? 
 To shore uncurst of gain 
 
 But opulent in love of good 
 
 And odorous with the hopes mankind 
 Has cherished, — here, a temple chaste, 
 
 A sanctuary of mind, 
 
 There, gardens gay with blossoms rare 
 
 Allotted to a common use, 
 To family and faction's strife 
 
 An everlasting truce ? 
 
 34
 
 ON PILGRIMAGE 35 
 
 'Your fancy errs,' a doubter cries, 
 
 ' And dreams of land by Heaven caressed ' ; 
 I raise my eyes towards the East, 
 
 Lo ! Araby the Blest.
 
 A NOVO CHRIS TAO 
 
 AbrahAo dwelt in Lisbon town, — 
 
 A wise philosopher he, — 
 In velvet cap and silken gown 
 He studied and taught with master's frown 
 
 Arts occult and cosmography. 
 
 Thought he, Those Gentiles to beguile, 
 
 Solomon's seas who desecrate, 
 I will draft a chart with cunning wile 
 To cause distraction, stir their bile, 
 Who know not how to navigate ; 
 
 He racked his brains with scheming lest 
 
 The land of Ophir should be theirs, 
 
 And this the issue of his quest, 
 
 Three words, these, — ' Jahveh Maior Est,' 
 
 Wherewith to tangle their affairs. 
 36
 
 A NOVO CHRIST AO 37 
 
 Far to the south a jagged coast 
 
 Bare these three words and two words more — ■ 
 ' Regnum auriferum ' (long lost, 
 And he who finds again shall boast 
 
 Of gold and gems a goodly store). 
 
 Three years sped by ere home there came 
 
 One caravel of three which wing 
 Their way ; ice crunched of one the frame, 
 A waterspout submerged a claim, 
 
 The third fetched salted seals and ling.
 
 AN INSTRUCTOR OF YOUTH 
 
 Here a fugitive courser leapt across 
 The chasm (or canon, as they say in Spain), 
 There spun and postured witches to a waltz 
 Wagnerian centuries ere Wagner lived ; 
 Or were they forms endowed with seeming life, 
 Subjective lifeless figments of the mind ? 
 What said our sage at Bonn ? ' Externalized 
 By mental process, — subtle mode of thought.' 
 Recall his study chamber and we see 
 Bare floor, bare walls, bare everything. Remote, 
 An office stool, and desk whereat he sat 
 Writing or talking : — ' Pure philosophy 
 Procures no festal chamber, does not bring 
 Colleagues who praise nor critics who detract, 
 Favours no compromises nor endures, 
 Popularises nought, 'gainst nought declaims ; 
 Hence, I am no Professor, — Privat Docent. — 
 Quite at your service, seminarist erst, 
 
 Can you believe it ? Guess what came of that ; 
 
 38
 
 AN INSTRUCTOR OF YOUTH 39 
 
 I mocked the exegetist : — ' Jesus spake 
 
 And said, that is to say, opened his mouth 
 
 And uttered words.' Mockery (beyond all sins 
 
 Unpardonable) entails expulsion ; 
 
 This prattle wearies you ; wilPt please you taste 
 
 My brother's own Falemian ? Your health ! '
 
 A RETURNING COLONIST 
 
 Thou Muse of Tasman's isle, afloat 
 On waters of pellucid blue, 
 Dispel the silence of remote 
 But most congenial air and through 
 The hearts of toilers breathe a rapture new,- 
 
 Of toilers in the bush and brake, — 
 The axeman by the prostrate gum 
 Nature demands an age to make 
 Vocal, he but brief hours to dumb 
 Pipe of its lorikeets and drowsy hum 
 
 Of forest bee and cackling laugh 
 
 Phalangerine and midnight call 
 
 Of spotted owl, whereof the half 
 
 Roundeth its fellow tone to fall 
 
 Delectable throughout Night's gloomy hall, 
 40
 
 A RETURNING COLONIST 41 
 
 From Nature, nurse if nurse in scorn, 
 Bushmen who wring a crust of bread, 
 Albeit from overflowing horn 
 Fowls of the air are freely fed 
 And for the brutes a plenteous meal is spread. 
 
 Farewell, ye forests gaunt and vast, 
 Ye forest voices which appal, 
 Vaticinations of a blast 
 Will make the cerements of all 
 Dead trees madly to lash their trunks and fall ; 
 
 To you, dear angels from on high, 
 Who, twittering, soothe our troubled hours, 
 Or from a covert near the sky 
 Shoot arrow-like in emerald showers, 
 Teaching new raptures to untutored eye, 
 
 Farewell ! I leave you to your loves 
 In happy thickets and the care 
 Love brings ; ye vespertinal doves 
 Where'er your Daphnis wanders, there 
 In liveliest memories shall you have your share.
 
 EXHORTATION OF A LOVER OF 
 NATURE 
 
 Let us hearken to the wise 
 Doctrine taught from trees and skies ; 
 The ringdove wedded to the wood 
 Proclaims the strength of solitude ; 
 A blackbird preaches from a tree 
 Merit in peace and probity ; 
 A swallow twittering o'er a stream 
 Embodies life's eternal dream ; 
 As hoots of owls perturb and blight 
 The silent harmony of night, 
 So venial faults pollute and stain 
 His life who follows good amain ; 
 From the warder of heaven's heart 
 Do not hold yourselves apart, 
 For the man who loves his song 
 In vital action goes not wrong. 
 Thus the canticles of birds 
 Teach as much as written words, 
 And instruct our childhood's days 
 In the sacrifice of praise. 
 
 42
 
 RESPONSORY LAMENT 
 
 ' Whkre, comrade, art thou sleeping ? ' 
 
 ' My vault's the sea ' ; 
 ' And who the loved ones keeping 
 
 Watch over thee ? ' 
 ' Gulls and a tern are sweeping 
 
 By on pinion free.' 
 
 ' We bid thee be immortal, 
 
 That evermore 
 When Death from his dim portal 
 
 Flings shadows o'er 
 Us thou mayest chase in sport all 
 
 To Hades' door. 
 
 Fell death thou hardly knewest, 
 
 Only a light 
 Euroclydon lo ! blew, lest 
 
 Thee, to thy height 
 Olympic scaling, truest, 
 
 Malice should blight.' 
 
 4=t
 
 VIRAVARA'S SACRIFICE 
 
 45
 
 So fevered was the night that kindly Sleep the 
 
 palace fled, 
 And wakeful lay the king and tossed upon his 
 
 curtained bed, — 
 So still, so mirk the gruesome night, where 
 
 Viravara stood 
 On guard, that to the palace gate should creep no 
 
 creature rude, 
 Man-eating tiger, wandering Thug nor demon 
 
 loosed from hell, 
 Nor any of those creatures wild which in dim 
 
 forests dwell. 
 Sudden a wail is heard, then wailing more and more, 
 Then silence, then the royal voice, ' Tell me, who 
 
 keeps the door ? ' 
 'Viravara, my lord the king,' comes back an 
 
 answer quick ; 
 ' Go, seek the cause of this ado ; methinks, a 
 
 crime or trick.' 
 
 47
 
 48 VIRAVARA'S SACRIFICE 
 
 The warrior went, and lo, without the city's studded 
 
 gate 
 A lovely woman on the ground lamenting cruel 
 
 fate: 
 In her left nostril pierced a pearl of price she 
 
 wore 
 (The Rajahputra ne'er had seen beauty distressed 
 
 before), 
 Her kirtle was of finest silk in stripes of white and 
 
 green, 
 Her wrapper of an airier gauze than erstwhile wove 
 
 had been, 
 The pendants at her neck were wrought with more 
 
 than mortal art, 
 And from her eyes there looked a soul in which 
 
 Earth had no part. 
 
 Touching his head the warrior spake, ' What ails 
 thee, heavenly maid ? ' 
 
 Said she, ' Great danger threatens one on whom 
 my hopes are stayed ; 
 
 Within three days our gracious king shall die, his 
 loving queen 
 
 Shall innocently be the cause of mourning un- 
 foreseen.'
 
 VIRAVARA'S SACRIFICE 49 
 
 ' Can aught be done that may avert so undesired 
 
 a fate, 
 For dissolution of the king is danger to the 
 
 state ? ' 
 ' One means there is,' the lady said, ' the king's 
 
 life to prolong, 
 And thine alone the loyal hand which can avert 
 
 this wrong 3 
 Go, take thy well-beloved, thy only son and heir, 
 And with him to the sacred courts of Durga great 
 
 repair, 
 And offer him in sacrifice to that exacting power, 
 So shall the king be wholly saved from thunder- 
 clouds which lour, 
 And live one hundred years or more and thou 
 
 great praise shalt gain.' 
 She spake and vanished and the prince went on 
 
 his way in pain. 
 
 What hour the surkhar tuti chanteth his morning 
 
 lay 
 To Durga's sculptured shrine three Indian children 
 
 wend their way, 
 Parents are two and one a son, too soon no son 
 
 to be, 
 
 D
 
 50 VIRAVARA'S SACRIFICE 
 
 For Saktidhara deems it joy to let the king go 
 
 free, — 
 Joy, glory, peace and holiness surpassing bliss 
 
 divine 
 To perish by his father's hand. Him cloven to 
 
 the chine 
 The father eyes ; ' I follow thee, dear life,' his 
 
 latest word, 
 Then yielding him to Brahma, he falls upon his 
 
 sword ; 
 The wife, bereft of son and spouse, in honour not 
 
 undone, 
 Follows that lonely road and dark travelled by 
 
 spouse and son. 
 
 The sacrifice thus fully made, news to the king is 
 
 brought 
 Of Viravara, son and wife, a family come to naught ; 
 ' Shall I, unworthy one, survive such excellence 
 
 unknown 
 Before this deed ? ' Sudraka said, ' No more 
 
 delights me throne 
 Nor empery,' and on himself had laid a hand to slay, 
 When Durga came and interposed and bade his 
 
 sword-arm stay ;
 
 VIRAVARA'S SACRIFICE 51 
 
 'Thy kingdom shall stand firm, my son, when 
 
 other kingdoms fall ; 
 Do nothing rashly ; can my power not profit thee 
 
 in all?' 
 ' 1 stay my hand if thou restore my servant and his 
 
 kin, 
 If not, I die.' ' This pleases me,' the goddess 
 
 said, ' within 
 An hour thy friends shall live again.' And so it 
 
 came to pass. 
 
 The king lay down as if to sleep ; again he called, 
 
 ' Alas ! 
 Viravara, I heard a woman wail ; hast thou 
 
 ascertained the cause ? ' 
 ' Liege lord,' the prince replied, ' I found a maid 
 
 arrayed in gauze, 
 Who wept, then vanished ; this is all 'tis needful 
 
 thou should'st know.' 
 To whom the king, ' Most trusty chief, thy 
 
 fortunes forward go ! 
 No more art Rajahputra, art Maharajah now ; 
 Karnata thine, — art my ally, herewith I crown thy 
 
 brow.'
 
 THE SONNETS OF 
 THEOLOGUS 
 
 53
 
 I 
 
 A dream befell me ; in my dream I saw- 
 Eternity disclosed ; in pleasance hight 
 Of Sense I was immured ; pleased virgin sight, 
 
 Flowers, waters, sunshine, birds and stars ; no flaw 
 
 Sullied the pristine vision ; one vast law 
 In beauty, harmony, and perfect right 
 Rejoiced ; I knew not that a mirky night 
 
 Would gulp the light ; as tiger his keen claw 
 And snake his fang, things visible hide doom ; 
 
 I knew not furthermore that Man is Man's 
 
 Pet prey, that what Man spares Death gorges on 
 As vulture on a carcase, that the tomb 
 
 Is cradle of the Possible, — strange plans, 
 
 But plans to learn which cannot be foregone. 
 
 55
 
 56 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 
 
 II 
 
 I sought without the walls to sate my lust 
 
 Of knowledge and of learning, sought for grace 
 
 To penetrate beyond the wall-girt place 
 Wherein I dwelt, but from the gates I must 
 Return, checked by two schoolmen grave and just ; 
 
 ' Theologus, homewards thy steps retrace ' ; 
 
 ' But Spirit bursts the barriers of Space, 
 Brings Time to nought ' — ' Time makes the mortal 
 
 dust 
 And rids of guardian Space even while he vaunts.' 
 
 ' The love of Art can sublimate the mind 
 
 Into an essence rarer, more refined 
 
 Than Sense.' ' Nay, can illusionise,' quoth one, 
 'Such talk is fool's talk, sirrah; to thy haunts 
 
 Or Earth will lose a captive of the sun.
 
 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 57 
 
 III 
 
 ' Hearken ! how God came upon earth discern : 
 First, God exists because we think He doth 
 (God I could not invent in very troth), 
 
 A Son who dwelt with God desired to learn 
 
 The fruits of living in their inmost kern, 
 
 (More this than Heaven could teach) to gulp 
 
 the froth 
 Of men's experience, even the saline broth 
 
 Of woe, which bubbles in a golden urn. 
 Third, God accredited the curious One 
 To earth, thus ridding of superfluous sun 
 
 Heaven's splendour and a maid (blest be the 
 maid) 
 
 Conceived and brought forth Christ, her days 
 being weighed ; 
 How He arrived, a slave and eke a prince, 
 I will explain, if due heed you evince.
 
 58 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 
 
 IV 
 
 ' In Palestine was Death laid on his bier 
 (A manger which was bier and cradle too), 
 And there one Jesus, God in Man, first drew 
 
 Breath from the uncreated unknown sphere 
 
 Of being and was quickened. Silence ! Here 
 The missing key to godhood, here the true 
 New labours' of incarnate godhead clue ; 
 
 If by sin Death came, by holiness 'tis clear 
 
 Comes Life, and Life through suffering becomes 
 
 Birth-throe, next death-throe, resurrection last ; 
 These be life's stages. Is then carnal need 
 
 That all be crucified ? Nay, for Thou hast 
 Been, mediatorial Soul ; Thy passion sums 
 All griefs. But grieve with Him. Thus runs 
 my rede.'
 
 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 59 
 
 In grove embowered a pagan temple stood 
 Within the circuit of this pleasant ground, 
 To Ashtareth dedicate wherein a sound 
 
 Of incantation offereth new food 
 
 For the soul's sustenance. In doubtful mood 
 I wait within the cella, in which compound 
 The priestess lingered, triply floral-crowned 
 
 With beauty, joy, and love, and me she wooed 
 To enter the adytum and withdrew 
 
 The veil which hides from eyes of neophyte 
 The sacrificial stone and image fair 
 Of Ashtareth. What more, who dares declare? 
 
 My eyes were dazed and an unearthly light 
 
 Caused me to reel and mocked like meteor blue.
 
 6o THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 
 
 VI 
 
 Thou art Astarte ; lo, a hymn I bring : 
 
 Oft painest thou with blow or bleeding scar 
 Fond lovers' hearts ; thy bitter favours mar 
 
 Even while they plenish, thy sole garnishing 
 
 Is sighs and secret tears thy tortures wring 
 From tender hearts ; do I not feel it jar 
 Upon the harp of reason that there are 
 
 Blind mortals who thy graces sweetly sing ? 
 "Demon" I name thee; need I justify 
 
 The naming ? Men, grey-haired and pale of hue 
 Who love and suffer hurt for love's sole sake, 
 Whose visage blenches 'neath her falcon eye, 
 Appear, learn vengeance, vengeance learn to slake, 
 
 Gloat o'er her woe who woe has wrought on you.
 
 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 61 
 
 VII 
 
 Anon I bow before the Mystic Rose, 
 Alone of all men's mothers undefiled 
 In child-bearing and vital nest of Child, 
 
 Whose enterprize shall be through all the woes 
 
 Of Ebal mount to bear the light which shows 
 The way to Heaven from the nursery mild 
 Of Mary's breast across the desert wild, 
 
 Whereon the nettle of derision grows. 
 But not by her is any answer sent 
 
 To my disconsolate prayer from eager heart. 
 But ere I leave the holy house I spy 
 
 Christ's living form depicted by the art 
 Of cunning master ; Romans crucify 
 His likeness, whereupon a veil is rent.
 
 ,2 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 
 
 VIII 
 
 Again I dreamt, and lo ! within the mart 
 
 Of the wide world I stood and saw the sale 
 
 Of all its goods desirable by bale 
 Or bulk ; those who vended there with art 
 Which lied displayed one exemplary part 
 
 As surety for a whole alloyed or frail ; 
 
 Fame, honour, ease, pardon's indulgent veil, — 
 These they buy and sell, then juggle and thwart. 
 
 Then was I ware of one prone on the loam, — 
 A slave in manacles, who shivereth 
 
 And ever and anon casteth his eyes 
 
 Around the market-place to see who buys ; 
 
 For him an owner comes and leadeth home ; 
 Asking, ' Who go ? ' one answers, ' Life and 
 Death.'
 
 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 6^ 
 
 IX 
 
 The angels had prepared a mystic feast 
 
 In banquet-hall built in infinitude, 
 
 To which Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel sued 
 For presence of the heavenly powers from least 
 To greatest, of each myriad-eyed beast, 
 
 Of spirits of the lamps that aye have viewed 
 
 Their images in glassy sea. Indued 
 For feria these ate angels' food, nor ceased 
 
 Until appeared an uninvited one 
 In guise of slave, of all those feasters banned ; 
 
 His entrance bringeth shadows on the face 
 
 Of every guest ; 'tis thus his titles run — 
 ' Man Mortal.' Him straightway they all withstand 
 
 And thrust to hazards of a neutral place — 

 
 64 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 
 
 X 
 
 (A neutral place whose boundary is hell 
 The further, paradise the hither side, 
 Where spectres of the unbaptised abide, 
 
 Each bound to each by chains of asphodel) ; 
 
 Thither I came, from Heaven thrust as well 
 
 As Earth, and wondered what should next 
 
 betide ; 
 Nor wondered long, for, parting, in a wide 
 
 And flowery lane the spectral infants fell 
 Asunder, and in midst thereof there stand 
 
 Proserpina and Rhadamanth, who seem 
 More fair than any vision I had known ; 
 They ope the manacle on each numb hand, 
 Saying, ' We set thee free, we can alone, 
 
 Grace thou our company and gild our dream.'
 
 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 65 
 
 XI 
 
 ' Behold the Master calleth me and I 
 
 Would go ; hear ye His voice, sweet, soft and 
 low 
 
 As lilting bird ? Kind gods, fain would 1 go ; 
 Hear ye that holiest name He calls me by, — 
 " Friend " ? By that falling tear and nascent sigh, 
 
 By all the loving sympathy you show 
 
 Your own, let pass ; behold the porter throw 
 The portal open ; I shall no more die, 
 
 But shall be one with Him, even that He is 
 In everlasting and in perfect life ; 
 
 Sunder us not, we breathe a common breath ; 
 
 Win holier issues for the world than this ; 
 This is the psean of my victory rife 
 
 In love triumphant over sin and death.'
 
 66 THE SONNETS OF THEOLOGUS 
 
 XII 
 
 1 Victory at last, my years of weary righting 
 
 All ended now and peace and freedom won, — 
 Peace which surpasseth earth's all-vain delighting, 
 
 Freedom for the race God gave me to run. 
 Blessed Standard-bearer, swiftly I follow, 
 
 Moons cannot hinder the tide of my love ; 
 Airs of the summer-time, wings of the swallow, 
 
 Waft like down my soul to its nest above ; 
 Faith making buoyant, ev'n mountains surrender, 
 
 Veiling their peaks in the mists I have passed, 
 Sunlight I breathe, but a light yet more tender 
 
 Swathes and encircles my heavenly Friend ; 
 Is this death or heaven ? by Him holding fast 
 
 I leave earth behind, endure to the end.'
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE 
 WORLD
 
 I 
 
 God mourned ; the brilliance of eternal light 
 Revealed His two proud eagles stooping sheer, 
 Seraphs pursuing seraphs far and near 
 
 Who bruised each other in convergent flight ; 
 
 Thus vanished many angels from Heaven's height ; 
 The psaltery, harp and flageolet clear 
 Of tuneful bands forsook the silent sphere 
 
 And God was hidden in a cloud from sight ; 
 Again He hears the heavens labour with sound, 
 
 Again each angel great in fleet flight swings, 
 Falls hellward, closely to his fellow bound 
 
 In liens of deadly combat till one brings 
 
 To hell the other. Then was God seen 
 crowned 
 
 To Whom the host of Heaven bare joyous wings. 
 
 69
 
 70 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 
 
 II 
 
 To Lucifer who hastes to guide his star 
 
 Behold an imp lead forth a grizzled pate ! 
 
 'Wherefore thou here?' quoth Lucifer irate; 
 ' I ate a widow's substance, to debar 
 Her sons from weal enticed to deeds which mar 
 
 The reason. Whither next ? ' 'To orb of fate ; 
 
 Each orb enspheres a soul, but th' aggregate 
 Of the untenanted is endless. Far 
 
 From hence a satellite marks night from day.' 
 « Inhabited? ' ' Peace ! fool.' « Cold, ah, bitter 
 cold.' 
 
 ' There is a comet due whereon a mad 
 Astronomer sent thither by the ' ' Hold ! 
 
 I choose your moon.' Him leads the imp 
 away, 
 
 Saying, ' Come, I warm thy moon for thee, old 
 dad.'
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 71 
 
 III 
 
 A voice was heard out of Teutonic lands, 
 
 ' Warring must end ; no trampled vineyards 
 
 more 
 Nor tapestries aflame nor clots of gore 
 
 Flecking the village street ; where Peace commands 
 
 Napoleons may not ; who misunderstands 
 That word of nations let him pause before 
 It be re said lest soon from stack to sewer 
 
 It thrill the cities, loose Abaddon's bands.' 
 In unison therewith ripe age has graved 
 
 Youth's shallow grooves more deeply in a man 
 To whom a day returns whereon with shout 
 A militant Calvinist stormed Heaven's redoubt, 
 Whilst on a distant road ' Germania saved ? 
 
 Muttered the Man of Iron of Sedan.
 
 72 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 
 
 IV 
 
 There raged a tumult in a city street, 
 
 A king was slain, toward the palace swayed 
 And surged a mob, some of whose leaders said 
 
 ' Let us have kings no more, all are effete, 
 
 Destroy the crown, the royal sceptre and seat.' 
 But voices more exclaimed ' Should foes invade 
 Our land, without a royal leader blade 
 
 Would sleep in scabbard, we should court defeat.' 
 A prince, pallid and faint from wounds, passed by, 
 
 Whereat one raised the shout ' Behold your king, 
 Behold your king,' and sought to lay a hand 
 
 On him. But, passing quickly through that ring, 
 The prince was seen no more. Thus come 
 they nigh 
 
 The palace where reigned Death, king of the land.
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 73 
 
 The moon of Earth, impassive, cold, looked down 
 On new-made graves ; her sovereign star red-brown 
 Waxed ruddier yet for very joy of health, 
 Its grass grew greener and at first by stealth, 
 Then undisguisedly the blades 'gan sway 
 In dance to a Piping Death who passed their way, — 
 A Death who piped, then, winnowing on the sod, 
 Scattered good wheat as well as chaff abroad. 
 Anon I saw a star from weeping red, — 
 From weeping blood and lo ! whenas it bled 
 The earth ensanguined with the blood it shed. 
 Did this befall because I dared not sleep 
 Or did the star a mourning vigil keep 
 Or a sad angel over heaven's wall weep ?
 
 74 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 
 
 VI 
 
 Why thus enshrouded sombrously, O God, 
 Who still designest worlds beyond our ken, 
 Of Thought almighty monarch ? Lo ! again 
 
 I, sinner, sin-begot, would cast this load 
 
 Of guilt before Thy throne, but only gaze 
 Into Thine eyes insoluble to find 
 An image of my own beclouded mind ; 
 
 Loveless and hateless, with my erring ways 
 Concerning not Thyself and only kind 
 
 To Thy celestial heralds who Thee praise 
 
 Thou seem'st ; wilt ne'er divide the lurid cloud 
 
 Nor flash therethrough in glory and in strength 
 
 Nor light me with Thy wisdom ? Speak at length 
 An erring servant heareth, lowly bowed.
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 75 
 
 VII 
 
 Around the footstool of God's holy seat 
 
 The noxious weeds of sin grew hurtfully, 
 Crept ever closer to His holy feet 
 
 And trespassed on His holy ecstasy ; 
 Wayfaring men attend and mutely gaze 
 
 Till He shall quell the insolence of sin, 
 And lilies of the valley in amaze 
 
 Droop low the mat of noxious weeds within ; 
 Over the mound of infamy He bends, 
 
 Beholds the lilies growing meekly there 
 Whose odour is an offering in His sight, 
 Straight plucks the flowers, with flowers of Eden 
 blends, 
 
 And, lest the earth should be no longer fair, 
 Transforms the hurtful weeds to lilies white.
 
 76 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 
 
 VIII 
 
 I walked at eve along a rocky path 
 
 And heard the sound of pawing on the floor 
 Of Earth, whereon I halt and hard before 
 
 Behold a rabbit stamping as in wrath ; 
 
 ' Why tappest thou ? ' say I, ' what ! passion hath 
 Possessed thy breast ? ' 'I call the grubs 
 
 which bore, 
 The worms which crawl and all Earth's slimy 
 corps, 
 
 I call them all to curse thee, Man of Gath ' ; 
 To whom an asp, ' No son of Rephaim 
 
 He, but a holy child to feather and fleece 
 Sent by our Maker, therefore welcome him.' 
 Peace fell on all ; a turtle cooed and flew 
 
 Upon my shoulder, crooning notes of peace, 
 To which I answered ' Peace be unto you.'
 
 SONNETS ROUNDELS AND 
 MADRIGALS 
 
 77
 
 KEATS 
 
 Three years I peer ahead and see arise 
 
 The morning, Keats, of thy centennial day, 
 
 Auroral youth, laureate in heaven for aye. 
 What strange celestial sight can e'er surprise 
 His gifted eyes alert to know the guise 
 
 And truth of beauty even in mortal clay ? 
 
 Life's spring alone he knew, nor the dismay 
 Foresaw of autumns harvested with sighs ; 
 
 Praise him on lute, poet of sunny climes, 
 Friend of all friendly gods whose alchemy will 
 
 Transmute our drossy lives, our tarnished times 
 Gild with fine gold ; remember we that still 
 
 His lore is archetypal and his mimes 
 Aye sport by running stream, in wood, on hill. 
 
 79
 
 SPRING AND SUMMER 
 
 Two seasons of the year are gay and sweet, 
 Bring mirth and the abandonment of books 
 And plighted lovers lost in woodland nooks ; 
 First, Spring, when May kneeling at April's feet 
 Bids Winter quicklier haste to her retreat ; 
 Then swell the voices of the building rooks, 
 Of wakened bees and of the brimful brooks ; 
 (Within one day the cyclic year complete) 
 The second, Summer, when the breeze, their life, 
 Speeds o'er the fields till sundown ; then are 
 seen 
 The earth enveloped in an argent net 
 And the moon rising starless, lone and yet 
 
 More fair and wistful than the ball terrene, 
 Which, housing men, is conversant with strife. 
 
 80
 
 THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 
 
 Through all vicissitudes her Church remains 
 Jealous for Scotland's honour and her laws ; 
 Persist the plaintive notes ; the pleading pause 
 
 Of Martyrdom and Neot's still enchains 
 
 The Scottish ear. What though few stately fanes 
 Are hers ! what though no fragrant cloud in flaws, 
 Portentous, hides the pyx, anon withdraws, 
 
 Bearing sweet odours to the chapel's vanes ! 
 The simple rite in elemental state 
 
 Presents to sinners all they need to ask, — 
 A guide to Heaven, a rest-house by the way, 
 Food from the Saviour, pass-word at the gate, 
 
 Strength for the struggle, courage for the task, 
 A faith-reviving portion day by day. 
 
 $i
 
 FOREBODINGS 
 
 By fountains cool on sultry day of summer 
 Which play with graceful archness in the pool 
 Of Neptune in a park than city dumber, — 
 By fountains cool 
 
 Whose spray bedews a cyclic plant, the full 
 Fresh odour is inhaled by youthful thumber 
 Of sibyl's book, prophetic of misrule, 
 
 Of Trochu holding converse with the mummer 
 Of hell anent a parley with a ghoul, 
 Of Rapine ringer and of Death a drummer 
 By fountains cool. 
 
 8 2
 
 THE FRUITION OF A DESIRE 
 
 All my desire become a whirling spool 
 Tossed in Charybdis nears the vortex dire 
 Wherein may wreck wrath of Sicilian pool 
 All my desire ; 
 
 Love's oak has rootlets in abysmal mire, 
 
 Its trunk ascends through regions chaste and cool, 
 
 Its crown touches the empyrean fire ; 
 
 Take wing, Desire, shake off the drip of dool ; 
 Quake, Earth, and vanish, Pool of hate and ire ; 
 Grow, Oak, until shall reach fruition full 
 All my desire. 
 
 83
 
 TRIBAL HUNTING SONG 
 
 Fleeter than flame is the heel of the hunter, 
 Swifter than emu when men are the game, 
 Foemen when fleeing of battle the brunt are 
 Fleeter than flame ; 
 
 Gentlest of creatures or brute none can tame, 
 Slay as ye list, for the ills which confront are 
 Hunger and sickness, in skirmishes shame ; 
 
 Speed the spear, prosper the waddy ; the grunter 
 Will clothe us, and feed us, whole we or maim ; 
 Spears of the hunter and waddies though blunt are 
 Fleeter than flame. 
 
 84
 
 MADRIGALS 85 
 
 Titania is my queen, 
 Her realms my soul within 
 Consummate love attain, 
 Her regency unseen 
 Extends from heart to brain, 
 And ever shall remain 
 Inviolate therein.
 
 86 MADRIGALS 
 
 Alas ! my laggard feet 
 Cannot contend with thine; 
 Shod with laughter, fleet, 
 Glistening with dew, divine ; 
 Swiftly dost thou outpace ; 
 The second place is mine, 
 To thee again the race ; 
 To me be Lethe's wine.
 
 MADRIGALS 87 
 
 To Helicon but wend 
 
 That yet perennial youth 
 
 With mine may blend 
 
 In very truth ; 
 
 Bathe and drink, 
 
 Drink and lave, 
 
 The Fairy Queen 
 
 Is beauty's slave, 
 
 Helicon old age's grave ; 
 
 Be my lover, thou canst preen 
 
 Wings for a lover's flight ; 
 
 Lover, in my heart alight.
 
 88 MADRIGALS 
 
 Touch with finger light 
 Heart distrust did blight ; 
 Healing beyond dream 
 Of Hygeia's art 
 Shall the touch impart ; 
 See the ugly breed 
 Incontinent recede ; 
 Doubt, distrust beseem 
 Never lover's heart.
 
 MADRIGALS 89 
 
 Larks carol on high 
 And in a lower place 
 Linnets take heart of grace 
 And swell the melody ; 
 The stationary sun 
 In meridional sky 
 Suspends his ecstasy 
 To hearken to each one ; 
 Sing and pray, sing and pray 
 With syrinx, throat or tongue ; 
 Although my heart is old to-day 
 The world's heart is young.
 
 9o MADRIGALS 
 
 [Sung to a Linnet] 
 
 Away with incubi ! 
 Brush cobwebs from the brain 
 A reasoner art thou 
 And eminently sane ; 
 Thy duty is to sing 
 The song thy sires began 
 Before a Babylon was built, 
 Before Earth cradled Man ; 
 Birth-songs, death-songs, 
 All songs combine, 
 Mortal and angelic songs 
 Are contained in thine.
 
 POEMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 91
 
 A BOY ABROAD 
 
 Italia, land of happiest illusion, 
 
 Fostered by clarity of sky and sea, 
 Amid the city's noises and confusion 
 
 In recollection I return to thee ; 
 
 And chiefly to that shore named Riviera, 
 
 Love-locked between blue sea and purple hill, 
 
 'Twixt frontier town and palmy Bordighera, 
 Where artists may in beauty revel still 
 
 For there new gleams of thought and feeling 
 Revealed the sense of wonderment in me, 
 
 Whilst, through my brain in measured cadence 
 stealing, 
 Crept the slow murmur of the midland sea. 
 
 Could I but find a modest habitation 
 In flowery olive-yard where cicads sleep, 
 
 The fairest flowers of my imagination 
 
 Might in the soil of Piedmont root more deep ; 
 
 93
 
 94 A BOY ABROAD 
 
 There, weary heart and brain might fruit and 
 flourish 
 
 In golden pome and creamy bridal flower, — 
 Yield excellent, more meet to tend and cherish 
 
 Than is the poesy of languid hour ; 
 
 The changeful play of blue and green and yellow 
 From trellised vine and gnarly olive-tree, 
 
 From gustatory lemon, orange mellow, 
 Prolific waters of a tideless sea, 
 
 Delights my inner vision, re-created 
 By memory that the vista of my life 
 
 May be delight and softened sorrow mated 
 And intermingled in a curious strife 
 
 In childhood's days, sweet days returning never 
 
 But evanescent as the opal tints 
 Which sip the flowing flavour of a river 
 
 When in the west a lessening sunbeam glints.
 
 A BOY IN PARIS 
 
 1867 
 
 There's little chance that a youngster will see 
 
 the Emperor to-day, 
 For cuirassiers, lancers and zouaves, all in martial 
 
 array, 
 Soldiers, civilians and gendarmes, everyone stands 
 
 in his way. 
 
 Back he must trudge to Rue Racine on weary 
 
 young feet, 
 And he wishes he never had started in vain 
 
 pursuit of a treat, 
 But had stayed content where the oiwriers made 
 
 holiday in the street. 
 
 But stay ! the crowd is halting, men gaze along 
 
 the Route, 
 'Twould seem as if they deemed there was matter 
 
 of moment afoot, — 
 An aide-de-camp approaching, perhaps a general 
 
 to boot. 
 
 95
 
 96 A BOY IN PARIS 
 
 Troops of horse ! an escort ! and the thousands 
 
 hush to hear 
 Martial music advancing, and at last the prospect 
 
 is clear 
 And all the soul of the boy is at once all eye or 
 
 all ear 
 
 For he sees the horses white, postilion handling 
 
 the rein, 
 And, not the Emperor only but actual Emperors 
 
 twain, 
 And one whose imperial star should rise over 
 
 thousands slain.
 
 OLD RHYMES RECAST 
 
 Here we come gathering nuts and haws 
 On a cold and frosty morning ; 
 
 The sober nuthatch hacks the nuts, — 
 No more his house adorning ; 
 
 The motley nutcracker hammers the nuts,- 
 The wily fowler scorning ; 
 
 The crafty squirrel stores the nuts 
 'Gainst Luna's winter horning ; 
 
 The may brought promise of food in store 
 When gossips should be corning ; 
 
 Its berries trimly deck our homes 
 And tell of Flora mourning. 
 
 G 97
 
 9 8 OLD RHYMES RECAST 
 
 II 
 
 Little Mary sat a-weeping 
 On a bright summer day ; 
 
 Her father was a-sleeping, 
 On the stubble he lay ; 
 
 Her mother had been reaping 
 The barley all day ; 
 
 Came Gabriel down sweeping 
 On great van that way ; 
 
 Said he, ' There's joy in keeping 
 For you, weeping May ' ; 
 
 Mary's chicks 'gan a-peeping, 
 Her doves said their say ;
 
 OLD RHYMES RECAST 99 
 
 Came a playful cherub leaping, 
 All joyous and gay ; 
 
 By-and-bye came a weeping 
 Holy Infant's Yule-day.
 
 A GOOD FRIDAY 
 
 Before this broken body 
 
 Our broken vows we lay ; 
 We seek forth from this altar 
 
 By a new and hidden way 
 To find the bower of Jesus. — 
 
 Of the dear, dying, dead, 
 Mute friend of John and Mary 
 
 And Judah's fallen head. 
 
 Upon the altar lieth 
 
 A common bread ; the same 
 He in an upper chamber 
 
 Blessed so that it became 
 The food of Christian children 
 
 And a sufficient sign 
 Of the Creator's goodness 
 
 In Christ the Gift divine.
 
 A GOOD FRIDAY 101 
 
 Illume our times, Immanuel, 
 
 Our faults and erring ways 
 Amend, direct, make better 
 
 The best of other days ; 
 Rekindle the old ardour 
 
 Of Alban wise and great 
 For equity and freedom 
 
 Within the island state.
 
 A HOLY SATURDAY 
 
 Oh ! 'twas Mary who had the little lamb 
 And she sewed it on a banner ; 
 
 A cross and staff on high it bore 
 In a becoming manner ; 
 
 The lamb was white, the banner green, 
 The cross was red, — was crimson, — 
 
 The holy cross the Holy Lamb 
 Should expiate our sins on ; 
 
 Ten thousand children followed hard 
 
 Upon the fatal pennon, 
 Their garments fluttered in the strong 
 
 Keen breezes of Plynlymmon ; 
 
 The hymns they sang were moist with tears 
 Which glistened like an apple, 
 
 Till, home arrived, Saint Peter preached 
 And Mary decked the chapel.
 
 AN EASTER SUNDAY 
 
 Roseate cloud, which are rising 
 
 Through an east of azure sky, 
 Do you come from the land of the Saviour 
 
 Of nations ? do you fly 
 From the cradle of the sunbeam 
 
 In the east where Christ was born? 
 Are you charged to bring glad tidings, 
 
 Roseate cloud of morn ? 
 
 I ween you are tinged with heart's blood 
 Which dropped from Redeemer's cross 
 
 On the heads of son and mother 
 On a hill beside a fosse 
 
 And will sprinkle a dew of blessings 
 On a wilful mortal race, 
 
 On an earth waste, worn and sinful, 
 
 And on childhood's wistful face. 
 
 103
 
 104 AN EASTER SUNDAY 
 
 Alack ! you are paling and waning 
 
 In the light of a garish day 
 But the love of the Lover of children 
 
 Shall never pass away 
 Nor, whilst the ages linger 
 
 And the world flits like a shade, 
 Shall the love in the hearts of His people 
 
 Inconstant grow or fade.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 
 
 105

 
 AFTER CALVARY 
 A Fragment 
 
 Christ walked forth (the feast was o'er) 
 Through fields of sprouting corn, 
 
 On every side around him lay 
 A motionless April morn : 
 
 No sound was heard of bird or bee 
 
 The way He chose to pass 
 And morning breezes hardly stirred 
 
 The spires of pleasant grass ; 
 
 He loitered by a white-thorn bush, 
 
 He loitered by a black 
 And ever mused He as He went 
 
 Along the reapers' track. 
 
 Afar o'er fields of awnless grain 
 
 Hung an unshapely thing 
 
 Which from a bough of aspen tree 
 
 To and fro did swing. 
 
 107
 
 108 AFTER CALVARY 
 
 At first look 'twas tattered rag 
 
 Or effigy to scare, 
 At the second look Judas it was, — 
 
 Ghastly, stark, and bare. 
 
 ' Disciple mine, the devil's wile 
 
 Led thee to do amiss 
 And turned away from narrow way 
 
 Which leads to endless bliss.'
 
 STANZAS ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 LION SCULPTURED BY 
 
 THORWALDSEN 
 
 Noble old Lion, 
 
 Dying, not dead, 
 Whence came thy ancestors ? 
 
 Where wast thou bred ? 
 Didst thou in Medians' land 
 Or by the Indus strand 
 Or in Numidian sand 
 
 Hollow a bed ? 
 
 Not born but created 
 
 Camest thou forth 
 From lair in a sculptor's brain 
 
 Afar in the North ; 
 Minerva-like camest thou, 
 Child of Olympian's brow, 
 Perfect ev'n then as now, 
 
 Foremost in worth. 
 
 109
 
 A SONG OF ESPOUSAL 
 
 Unrobe, O Adriatic, — 
 
 The finny swallows flutter 
 From arches under builded, — 
 
 Unrobe and in my eager soul 
 Merge thine, — a sapphire gilded 
 
 By sun Venetian, — let it be 
 
 Thine inmost soul, thyself in whole 
 Wherewith thou gladly giftest me, 
 O Love, O Sea. 
 
 Most gallant Bucentoro, 
 
 Stir thou and I together 
 The sheeny robe liquescent 
 
 Which heles an ocean's wonder 
 From prying winds labescent, 
 
 Which parts our lives asunder, 
 
 Which hides thy soul from mine, O Sea, 
 Thy love, thy secret soul from me, 
 Bridegroom and Sea.
 
 VILLANELLE 
 
 Tell me, Marie, how to know 
 
 Bitter March from May day 
 
 That more blithely we may go. 
 
 Swaying, swinging to and fro 
 
 Boughs of March, which breezes fray, 
 Tell me, Marie, how to know. 
 
 Borrowed heart has March but no 
 Borrowed heart has gentler May 
 That more blithely we may go. 
 
 Birds and flowers which see no snow 
 
 March's fond allurements sway ; 
 Tell me, Marie, how to know 
 
 Your moods, whence come the tears which 
 flow, 
 Whither wing your sighs their way, 
 That more blithely we may go. 
 
 Give me all your heart aglow 
 
 With song and blossom and its way- 
 Tell me, Marie, how to know 
 That more blithely we may go.
 
 SPRING ODE 
 
 Sweet is the blending of seasons, 
 
 Joyous the carolling birds, 
 When Vertumnus, apt in love's treasons, 
 
 Joys in the frolicsome herds ; 
 
 Lambs skip to meet him arriving, — 
 A chaplet of flowers in his hair, — 
 
 Whilst violet with primrose is striving 
 To sweeten the jubilant air ; 
 
 He cometh as cometh the sunrise, 
 His footprints glitter like gold, 
 
 And Boreas, when Spring has begun, lies 
 Fettered in icy fold ; 
 
 A tuneful and hidden chorus 
 Of linnets encircles his ways ; 
 
 His sensible presence broods o'er us 
 And brightens the gloom of our days ;
 
 SPRING ODE . . 3 
 
 The turbulent flow of the river, 
 
 The vales and their budding wealth, 
 
 Proclaim him the bountiful giver 
 Of life and of joy and of health ; 
 
 Anoint then our heads with thy gladness, 
 Vertumnus, god of the Spring, 
 
 Let sorrow and sighing and sadness 
 With the torpor of winter take wing. 
 
 H
 
 LOVE SONG OF A FAUN 
 
 Low among the lilies, 
 High amongst the hills, 
 
 Lies my love a-dreaming, 
 
 Lulled to sleep by teeming, 
 Teeming mountain rills, — 
 
 Golden tresses gleaming 
 'Mid the daffodils. 
 
 White among the lilies 
 
 Are arms and shoulders bare ; 
 Adders, cease your creeping, 
 Sparrows, flit not peeping, 
 
 Water voles, beware, — 
 Not your love the sleeping 
 
 Nymph with golden hair. 
 
 Love among the lilies, 
 
 Wake and hie thee home, 
 114
 
 LOVE SONG OF A FAUN 115 
 
 Lest Diana straying, 
 Stag or hunter slaying, 
 
 Take thee for her own 
 And, my heart dismaying, 
 
 Bid me dwell alone.
 
 BUSH MELODY 
 
 Bird afar, voice anear, — 
 A thickhead wakes and slumbers, 
 
 As in a trance to my ear 
 Telling dulcet numbers, — 
 One, two, three, seven, — 
 
 Never jar or jingle, — 
 Tale of rainbow, tale of heaven 
 And of fledglings in the dingle ; 
 
 Golden breast, seek rest, 
 Love to nest has led thee ; 
 
 Homeless voice, be the choice 
 Of the homeless soul that weds thee ; 
 
 Bird afar, voice anear, — 
 A thickhead wakes and slumbers, 
 
 As in a trance to my ear 
 Telling dulcet numbers. 
 
 116
 
 A SONG OF CREATION 
 
 Was it well, O Earth, that Logos bright 
 
 Propelled thee forth, new-made, in sight 
 
 Of aeons all by strength of hand, — 
 
 Hurled thee forth to sway and swim 
 
 In the light of sun and gave command 
 
 To revolve in his light and to live through him, 
 
 To have motion and breath through him ? 
 
 Not wholly ill ; not in dread, alone, 
 
 Nor with snares and pitfalls your pathway strewn, 
 
 But with sweet companionship of star 
 
 For thee and thee alone create 
 
 Thy steadfast progress naught can mar, — 
 
 Thy oceans subject as to Fate, 
 
 Subject to laws as stern as Fate ; 
 
 And every valley and hill rejoiced 
 When love and hate new beings voiced 
 
 "7
 
 u8 A SONG OF CREATION 
 
 To buoyant air, and far abroad 
 Wing fluttered and quivered fin, 
 And found a way and prepared a road 
 Whereon should travel a race akin 
 To angels, to aeons akin. 
 
 Then came man to subdue thee, Earth ; 
 
 Yet not wholly subdue for seasons of dearth 
 
 Were thy answers to labour in sweat of brow 
 
 And thy fires and tremors wrought havoc upon 
 
 His cities. As of old, so now 
 
 The agelong conflict goes on and on, 
 
 The agelong conflict still goes on.
 
 THE LAST WOOLLY RHINOCEROS 
 
 Within his noisome cave 
 The woolly monster lay, 
 
 The steadfast spots of light 
 
 Were the peep-holes of the day, 
 
 The company he kept 
 Of Terror and Dismay ; 
 
 To pierce his hide in vain 
 
 A lion and a pard 
 Had whetted tooth and claw, 
 
 The brute they only scarred, 
 His mighty horn transfixed 
 
 The cats rash and ill-starred. 
 
 Did opulence of blood 
 
 Help him his kin outlast, — 
 
 A race in brutal strength 
 And raven unsurpassed, — 
 
 Before him wastes of years, 
 
 Behind, a gory past ? 
 
 119
 
 120 THE LAST WOOLLY RHINOCEROS 
 
 Not so ; with mind perturbed 
 This morn the monster wakes ; 
 
 Creatures unknown before 
 Appeared in tangled brakes 
 
 And meadows lush and rank 
 Wherein his meal he makes 
 
 Yestreen ; erect were they 
 
 And stealthily they came, 
 And where they come they bring 
 
 Their servants Smoke and Flame, 
 Who awfully declare 
 
 The prowess of their name. 
 
 The air grows hard to breathe 
 
 Without the cave, within, 
 It stifles him, he gasps, 
 
 Chokes, swallows smoke-drift thin, 
 Flames follow smoke, he dies, 
 
 Snared in his proper gin. 
 
 rURNDULL ANI? SPEAKS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CAYLORO 
 
 
 
 FniNTCO IN U.S.A. 

 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000 609 764 6