AUTHOR TWH Crosland

TITLE Sonnets I

RHYME a b a b c d c d e f e f g g

1   How shall we praise thee, who art England's praise
2   And with the soul of her soul most accords,
3   So that she vaunteth to the end of days
4   England and Shakespeare high, fast-wedded words?
5   O Royal thou, that spake us a new earth
6   And new fair heavens, and a proud new sea,
7   Greener is April, boasting of thy birth,
8   More blossom'd May, because she swaddled thee!
9   Before thy wisdom humbly stand the wise,
10   Judged of thy goodness, Virtue hath no cause,
11   Whoever mounts, a feeble feather tries
12   By thy great pinion; and except thou pause,
13   The sweetest singer falters in his scale--
14   Eagle, and Lark, and Swan, and Nightingale!

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d c d e e

1   What wife had he, what sweetheart, what fair love?
2   So will the gossips ask themselves when Fame
3   Shall set her impudent lips upon my name
4   And make an auction for your cast-off glove.
5   They know you not. You are a brooding dove,
6   Whose spirit, fearful of the world's sharp flame,
7   Nestles unto the goodness whence it came,
8   And hath nor wish to range nor will to rove.
9   Yet, that through dusty Time you may not pass
10   Unpictured, unenshrined, or unadored,
11   I build this turret of eternal brass,
12   Wherein, so long as word may chime with word,
13   You are to sit before your jewelled glass
14   Beautiful as the Garden of the Lord.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   The cherry whitens in the April air,
2   Young Spring has spilt her magic on the wold,
3   The woodlands ring with rapture as of old,
4   And England lies new-washen, green and fair;
5   Yet is she heavy with a secret care,
6   For Death the ever-sharp and over-bold
7   Hath taken our Tongue of Honey, our Throat of Gold;
8   And we have digged a pit, and left him there.
9   So must he sleep, though it be high broad noon,
10   Or Venus glister in the darkling firs:
11   The roses and the music are forgot;
12   Even the great round marigold of a moon,
13   That is for lovers and for harvesters,
14   And all the sighing seas, may move him not.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c e d

1   Now you are dead and past the bitter fret
2   And the long doubt and the disputed throne,
3   And the contempts which turn the heart to stone,--
4   Who that hath wit shall breathe you a regret?
5   Who that hath tears shall pay you pity's debt?
6   Unto your place of easing you are gone,
7   Having fetched for us Beauty from her own
8   Lodges of gold by silver orchards set.
9   O mortal man that looked in angels' eyes
10   And still of baseness took both rood and reed,
11   Griever who wed bright visions to great sounds,
12   Teller of sorrowful proud histories;
13   We put our silly fingers in your wounds
14   And it is well that they no longer bleed.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e e c d

1   Along the English lanes a budding green,
2   Upon the English orchards pink and white,
3   And over them the rapture and delight
4   Of April sunshine! Fair and fresh and clean,
5   Washen as if in wells of hyaline
6   And very wondrous to the pilgrim sight;
7   A glad, new land of all things soft and bright--
8   Oh, surely, here an angel must have been
9   And left his blessing! . . . Dead, young son of ours,
10   Who didst so proudly taste the loving-cup,
11   Whose blood but now shone like a living rose
12   Dropped by the Lord upon the Flanders snows,
13   What country shall they give you to be yours
14   For this, the England you have given up?

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e d c e

1   We were all sore and broken and keen on sleep,
2   Tumours and hearts and dropsies, there we lay,
3   Weary of night and wearier of day,
4   With no more health in us than rotten sheep.
5   Then, tossed to us on some intangible deep,
6   Alicia came, and each man learnt to pray
7   That Providence would please find out a way
8   To still or abate the voice with which she would weep.
9   God's infinite mercy, how that child did cry,
10   In spite of bottle, bauble, peppermint, nurse!
11   The Tumour said he'd "tell the manager,"
12   The Dropsy mumbled forth his bitterest curse;
13   But still she wailed and wailed. And when we die
14   We shall be sainted for forgiving her.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   Upon the tinkling splintery battlements
2   Which swing and tumble south in ghostly white
3   Behemoth rushes blindly from the night,
4   Behemoth whom we have praised on instruments
5   Dulcet and shrill and impudent with vents:
6   Behemoth whose huge body was our delight
7   And miracle, wallows where there is no light,
8   Shattered and crumpled and torn with pitiful rents.
9   O towers of steel and masts that gored the moon,
10   On you we blazoned our pomp and lust and pelf,
11   And we have died like excellent proud kings
12   Who take death nobly if it come late or soon:
13   For our high souls are mirrors of Himself,
14   Though our great wonders are His littlest things.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   Mounting his stairs of azure and of gold,
2   The English lark sings in the August weather
3   For joy which knoweth neither tie nor tether
4   And is not troubled if the world grows old;
5   While you, who were as blithesome and as bold,
6   And held your life lightly as any feather,
7   Sleep the high sleep that dead men sleep together,
8   Careless of what is done and what is told.
9   I know that all our England shone before you
10   When you went down. It made a radiance
11   Even of the front of Death. Oh, woman's son,
12   You died for England . . . valiant as she that bore you,
13   And sent you forth with a still countenance,
14   And broke her heart for England--and lives on!

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e d e c

1   He goeth and he returns not. He is dead;
2   Their house of joy no further brightness shows,
3   Their loveliness is come unto its close,
4   Their last touch given, and their last kindness said;
5   For him no more the vision of her bent head,
6   For her no more the lily or the rose,
7   Nor any gladness in this place of woes;
8   The book is shut, the bitter lesson read.
9   Yet who shall beat them down? Though the Abhorr'd
10   Taketh the groom, and to the bride hath sent
11   The dagger of anguish with the ice-cold hilt,
12   Both of them triumph in a strange content--
13   And out of souls like these will heavens be built
14   And holy cities peopled for the Lord.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   All our proud banners mourn along the May,
2   One who is plumed and powerful breaks us down:
3   Marred are the orchards, shaken our strong town,
4   And blackness covers up our bright array.
5   The Sceptre and the Orb are put away;
6   The scarlet changed for the funereal gown;
7   And easy lies the head that wore a Crown,
8   And this which was a King is simple clay.
9   O mighty Death, the mightiest are thine,
10   Thou set'st his Widow weeping in her place,
11   And while thou pluck'st her heart with thy chill hand,
12   And givest her to drink a common wine,
13   The wondering sentry goeth at his pace,
14   And England cries, and cannot understand.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   You know my pains, you see me in the hell
2   Through which I toil, hurt and uncomforted,
3   You see on what base errands I am sped,
4   And what I reap where we sowed asphodel;
5   And my songs are of sorrow, and I tell,
6   Knowing no other, tales of grief and dread:
7   Though I be warm I am as good as dead,
8   And always we can hear my passing bell.
9   And yet, dear Spirit, you who have kind eyes
10   That meet disaster with a child's amaze,
11   You who have got a wild rose for your lips
12   And are all fashioned out of Paradise;
13   You shall stand safe beside the sapphire bays,
14   And I will show you all our golden ships.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d c d d c

1   The savage leopardess, and she-wolves and bears
2   Cherish their offsprings in the solitude,
3   And red-eyed tigresses whose trade is blood,
4   And female panthers, and jackals in their lairs.
5   The lowliest, sullenest mother-creature wears
6   In her hot heart a jewel of motherhood,
7   And knoweth darkly that the only good
8   Is to defend and succour her rude heirs.
9   And thou whose Might is from the east unto the west,
10   Whose Front is of chilled iron and fine gold,
11   Who yet in glory and honour goest drest,
12   O great-thewed mother of us all, behold
13   How this thy sturdy child, who is foully sold,
14   Fights that he be not banished from thy breast!

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e d c e

1   At five o'clock they ring a tinkly bell;
2   The April dawn glimmers along the beds,
3   There is a lifting up of weary heads
4   From weary pillows. Our old citadel
5   Hath still held out, and while the miracle
6   Of morning is unbared again, and spreads
7   All the young East with greens and blues and reds
8   Each of us wakes to his particular hell.
9   But even on this bitter shore of Styx
10   Where Life to dogged Death puts the last schism,
11   We kindle for the ending of the dark:
12   The Asthma feebly jokes the Aneurism,
13   The little bandaged boy in Number Six
14   Sings "Ye shall die" with a voice like a lark.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e d c e

1   I wonder which hath triumphed, you or Death?
2   For he has torn you ultimately from your place,
3   And shattered all the woman in your face,
4   And put his last injunction on your breath,
5   And ferried you across to his dim staith
6   Where there is none who hath either hope or grace,
7   But only the unimaginable race
8   Of broken souls his wing encompasseth.
9   O pitiful and pitiful! And yet
10   Not all he asks is yielded up to him,
11   And we who fight have our shrewd joy therefor:
12   Upon your brow sitteth a shining, grim
13   Rapture of wars, and on your lips is set
14   To-night the still smile of the conqueror.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e d e c

1   And when I die, you should be grieved, and go
2   Dumbly into the bitter fields alone,
3   For you have long since made your widow's moan,
4   And carried in your heart the widow's woe.
5   Outrageous Death hath neither feint nor blow
6   To hurt you further. Thus without a groan
7   I shall go down, and be as cold as stone,
8   And you will kiss me and I shall not know.
9   But haply then some mercy may befall,
10   And to your breast, this death in life being past,
11   Quiet may come and peace without alloy:
12   Seeing you lone and lovely and downcast
13   They will possess you with a secret joy
14   And keep you with an angel at your call.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d c e d e

1   These are the fights of Love and Joy and Men
2   With Fate and Death and the illicit Beast,
3   For guerdons, of which Glory is the least
4   And Honour not the highest. The old reign
5   Of Night shall topple, the old Wrongs be slain:
6   Fitting it is that you go to the Feast
7   While angel suns kindle the young-eyed east
8   And bring the breath of Eden back again.
9   Oh soldiers' hour! . . . For now the English rose
10   Flames and is washed with the authentic dew
11   And through the mist her ancient crimson shows:
12   I see your shadows on the waking lawn
13   Like shadows of kings, and all the souls of you
14   Blazoned and bright and panoplied in the dawn.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e d c e

1   He is gone hence. Weep no weak tears for him:
2   You gave us freely what you valued most;
3   It is not loss, for gifts are never lost
4   Unto the giver. Lo, the star-kept, dim
5   Limits where battle fades away, and grim
6   Death halts and hath no power! On that coast
7   His feet are set among the shining host
8   Who range with cherubim and seraphim.
9   A thousand suns are unregarded dust,
10   A million dawns break and are counted not,
11   And Beauty riseth up, and she departs
12   Eternally--eternally forgot;
13   But your fair stripling, dead beside his trust,
14   Is safely folded in the Heart of Hearts.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   Mark how their shining effigies are set
2   For ever on the firmament of Time,
3   Like lovely words caught in a lovely rhyme,
4   Or silver stars kept in a faery net.
5   Ivory and marble hold them for us yet,
6   And all our blossomy memories of them chime
7   With all the honest graces of the prime--
8   Helen, and Ruth, Elaine, and Juliet.
9   And You, in this disconsolate London square
10   Flaunting an ill-considered purple hat
11   And mud-stained, rumpled, bargain-counter coat,
12   You of the broken tooth and buttered hair,
13   And idiot eye and cheeks that bulge with fat,
14   Sprawl on the flagstones chalking for a vote!

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c e d

1   Let us be filled with wild and fierce disdains,
2   Let us contemn, disparage, and cry down
3   These prancing stomachs who amass and own,
4   Inherit and squander, and have nets and chains
5   And panoplies of penalties and pains
6   Wherewith to extort the uttermost half-crown;
7   For whom indeed the world's hard fields are sown
8   And its scant harvests gathered on gorged wains.
9   Withal, we must believe good things of them,
10   And show a kindly bosom while they stand
11   Grinning out of their proud and cunning eyes;
12   Nay, even the chiefest shall not stir our phlegm,
13   For he hath still knowledge of Paradise,
14   And hides an angel's feather in his hand.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   Out of my silver turrets I look down
2   Upon a garden wherein sleeps a rose
3   Who hath a ruby heart; beside her glows
4   Unblemished, in a drifted, vestal gown
5   Yon lily, and beyond them lies a town
6   Of tufted green and each sweet bloom that blows;
7   Midmost from whence a little fountain throws
8   His gentle sprays which seem but half his own.
9   And on the lake that skirts our dreary wood
10   There sails for ever a new-washen swan,
11   Who is as white as milk or angels are:
12   At dawn he glitters in the solitude,
13   At dusk he goeth glimmering and wan
14   To where one waits him, white like a young star.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   A minx of seventeen, with rather fine
2   Brown eyes and freckles and a cheerful grin,
3   She saunters up the ward, and stricken sin
4   Nods and looks pleasant (why should one repine?).
5   She takes "her cases," looks for every "sign,"
6   Hammers and sounds the portly and the thin,
7   Plies them with questions till their cheap heads spin
8   And keeps them busy saying "ninety-nine."
9   It's my turn now! Oh, let me bare my chest
10   And spread a level sheet across my crib,
11   And be as wax for our meticulous Miss;
12   While she, poor dear, doing her anxious best,
13   Feels for the apex under the wrong rib
14   And wonders fiercely where my liver is.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   What tale is this which stirs a world of knaves
2   Out of its grubbing to throw greasy pence
3   Forth to the hat, and choke with eloquence
4   In boastful prose and verse of doubtful staves?
5   Four men have died, gentlemen, heroes, braves;
6   Snows wrap them round eternally. From thence
7   They may no more return to life or sense
8   And a steel moon aches down on their chill graves.
9   "They died for England." It is excellent
10   To die for England. Death is oft the prize
11   Of him who bears the burden and the load.
12   So with a glory let our lives be spent--
13   We may be noble in the Minories
14   And die for England in the Camden Road.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   Preposterous stucco, naughty ropes of light,
2   The drunken drone of twenty-two brass bands,
3   A flip-flap, and some hokey-pokey stands;
4   Smith on your left, and Lipton on your right,
5   And Lyons, Lyons, Lyons; and that bright
6   Particular marvel, which, be sure, commands
7   Respect from fools of all and sundry brands--
8   The Press Lord Harmsworth prints from every night.
9   Here, noble London, dost thou prowl and yell,
10   Or cause to disappear with horrid zest
11   The meat and drink provided by the Jew;
12   Here flickereth they paltry, shadowful hell--
13   And like a silver feather in the West,
14   And fair as fair, the moon that Dido knew!

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   For thou wert Master of their windy keeps,
2   In Tyre, in Ilium, and in Babylon,
3   Which smote the welkin many a year agone
4   With torches and with shouting. Whoso sleeps
5   On the large hills, or drowns in the old deeps,
6   His name shines in a book for thee to con;
7   And thy chill pomps and aching triumphs are won
8   Where the forlornest woman sits and weeps.
9   So that for thee we make embroideries,
10   And for thy foul pate twist a beamy crown,
11   Who art the lord of laughter and of lust,
12   Who readest all their lesson to the wise,
13   And to the fools, as they go up and down;
14   And it is this: A cry, a dream, and--dust.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e c d e

1   I know that our fair rose was slain last night:
2   She is become a ruinous, delicate wraith,
3   And now she gives her perfumes up to Death;
4   No longer may she shine in the sweet light,
5   Or drink the dewey darkness; for the might
6   That breaks the hearts of kings and staggereth
7   Bold men, hath borne her down. "Take me," she saith,
8   "Unto the old, dead roses, red and white."
9   So, dearest, when the ultimate foul dun
10   And crawling knave into our hand shall thrust
11   His figure of accompt and greedy fine
12   For our poor gladness underneath the sun,
13   I shall come laughing to your gentle dust,
14   Or you will come like balm to comfort mine.

TITLE Sonnets II

RHYME a b b a a b b a c d e d c d

1   Give me the robe an angel late hath worn,
2   Give me the tongue of wonder and the pen
3   Of magic which doth fetch the souls of men
4   Out of deep hell; give me the stings of scorn,
5   The rage of blood, agony of the thorn,
6   Wisdom of hills and stars. Let me be ten
7   Times tried in furnaces, and tried again,
8   And searched in icy wells where proof is born.
9   And I will say to you a word of breath
10   More furious than the forty winds of night
11   And fiercer and more terrible than death;
12   And yet as holy as the words of light
13   That love or mercy or sainthood uttereth,
14   And sweeter than the prayers of women--Fight!

TITLE

RHYME a b c a

1   [2]The red rose called to me,
2   "Be thou my Love;
3   Lo, I am fire and flame
4   For love of thee."

RHYME a b c a

5   I said to the red rose,
6   "It is in starry white,
7   With brows and breasts of snow,
8   That my Love goes."

RHYME a b c a

9   [3]"Come to me, come to me,
10   I shall be excellence,
11   Softness and bloom and myrrh
12   And heavy sleep," saith she.

RHYME a b c a

13   "And I have doves, as of old,
14   My lips are crimson joy,
15   And my smiles are of light,
16   And my tears are of gold."

RHYME a b c a

17   [4]"Three Kings rage at my door,
18   They would have love of me,
19   Till I look forth on them,
20   They are mean men and poor.

RHYME a b c a

21   "In purple they go drest,
22   And bright gifts each King bears,
23   Come thou and be with us,
24   And I will love thee best."

RHYME a b c a

25   [5]"There is a chamber lies
26   In the heart of my house,
27   Secret and sweet and dim,
28   Lit only with mine eyes.

RHYME a b c a

29   "We will burn spices there,
30   And we will say to Life,
31   `Bring now for our delight
32   All that is good and fair.'"

RHYME a b c a

33   [6]I said, "No Kings may wait
34   Against my white Love's door,
35   She hath no Love save one,
36   She needeth not such state.

RHYME a b c a

37   "Her chamber is of blue,
38   A gold lamp shines therein;
39   A lily and a babe
40   Are in her chamber too."

RHYME a b c a

41   [7]Red rose, red rose,
42   Oh, thou red rose!
43   I went into her house
44   Upon the slow day's close,

RHYME a b c a

45   I lay down on her bed,
46   She smiled her smile of light,
47   She wept her tears of gold:
48   "Oh, thou red rose!" I said.

RHYME a b c a

49   [8]"Red rose, red rose,
50   Red rose and rose of mine,
51   Behold we are one soul,
52   With love for its repose."

RHYME a b c a

53   She laughed, like one who sings,
54   Saying, "We are one soul."
55   She thought of my white Love,
56   And I of those three Kings.

RHYME a b c a

57   [9]She thought of those three Kings,
58   And I of my white Love:
59   A cold moon look'd at us,
60   Chill from a thousand springs.

RHYME a b c a

61   I said, "But we are one."
62   She said, "Yea, we are one."
63   We slept a lover's sleep
64   Until that moon was gone.

RHYME a b c a

65   [10]At dawn she stirred and woke.
66   I said, "O red, red rose,
67   What of my little white Love?"
68   And never a word she spoke.

RHYME a b c a

69   Before her mirror long
70   Stood she, and tired herself,
71   Her hair flamed in the sun,
72   Her laugh was like a song.

RHYME a b c a

73   [11]"The day is fair," she said,
74   "We will ride forth," said she,
75   "I on a milk-white horse,
76   Thou on a roan of red.

RHYME a b c a

77   "The world is deck'd like a bride,
78   And sharp and sweet the air,
79   Those kings shall follow us,
80   Thou ridest at my side."

RHYME a b c a

81   [12]We rode forth into the dawn,
82   All a-glitter and shine,
83   Along the sleepy streets,
84   Past lodge and river and lawn,

RHYME a b c a

85   And fields that good men till;
86   And out by the western gate
87   I saw my little white Love
88   Simpling upon a hill.

RHYME a b c a

89   [13]I said, "Red rose, red rose,
90   Seest thou who is there?
91   It is my own white Love,
92   Mark with what grace she goes."

RHYME a b c a

93   "Pardie, pardie, good Sir,
94   Is it thy lady Love?
95   Then, if thou lovest me true,
96   Get down and speak with her."

RHYME a b c a

97   [14]She smiled her smile of light,
98   She pursed her crimson lips,
99   She let her hand touch mine,
100   Her eyes shone very bright.

RHYME a b c a

101   I said, "Red rose, I ween
102   That thou and I are as one,
103   I would not leave they side
104   An she were Mary Queen."

RHYME a b c a

105   [15]So that we rode and came
106   Unto a fair green place;
107   She put her head on my breast,
108   And softly said my name.

RHYME a b c a

109   Those three Kings stood apart,
110   Plotting my death they stood;
111   She took a jewelled knife,
112   And stabbed me in the heart.

RHYME a b c a

113   [16]And turned her milk-white steed,
114   And kissed me on the lips,
115   And laughed to those three Kings,
116   And left me there to bleed.

RHYME a b c a

117   And, with those Kings, did ride
118   Away in the sunshine:
119   I could not wish her hurt,
120   "O red, red rose," I cried.

RHYME a b c a

121   [17]Like torches in the sky
122   At night the stars awoke,
123   The ghost of me stood up
124   And ached exceedingly.

RHYME a b c a

125   The world seemed full of shows:
126   I went to mine own door,
127   And look'd on my white Love,
128   And cried, "O red, red rose!"

RHYME a b c a

129   [18]Spring sitteth at her loom,
130   Weaving her green and gold,
131   The sweet lark sitteth in heaven,
132   And thou in thy red room!

RHYME a b c a

133   My white Love, still as a mouse,
134   Still and quiet and pale,
135   Sitteth beside her babe,
136   And thou in thy red house!

TITLE

RHYME a a

1   Four pomegranates grow for me,
2   On my true love's silver tree.

RHYME a a

3   One I have tasted, and my mouth
4   Is filled with fragrance of the South;

RHYME a a

5   One, which burns with holy red,
6   He shall give me when we wed;

RHYME a a

7   The third from its branch shall be torn
8   When our little son is born;

RHYME a a

9   The fourth, which is most delicate,
10   Kinder than Love, sharper than Fate,

RHYME a a

11   Fairer than fruit of Samarkand,
12   You shall put in my dead hand.

TITLE

RHYME a a b b c c d e e d f f g g

94   O secret, consecrate
95   Inviolable spirit, elate
96   And amorous and proud
97   With blanchèd plumes that shroud
98   And glitteringly conceal
99   The flame, and the vermeil
100   And whiteness not for sight,
101   Who to this garden of tears
102   And the enthronèd spheres
103   Art essence and breath and light;
104   Who blessest for the blest
105   And for the lowliest,
106   And standest on heaven's rim
107   Out-staturing seraphim,

RHYME a a *

108   And sittest by poor men's fires
109   And givest to the wicked their desires,
110   And whom to gaze upon
111   That which is done is done
112   For ever, and shall be
113   Unto eternity;
114   In the translated clay
115   Bathed out of Paphia,
116   In love and laughter and might
117   And the seven souls of right
118   And seventy souls of wrong,
119   In birth and sorrow and song
120   And terror and despair,
121   And all things fine and fair
122   Whether of gold or green,
123   The wonder have I seen,
124   The immanence flashing by,
125   And, slain with it, I die!


TITLE

RHYME a b c a

1   "I will come to you
2   Across white dawns,
3   In the night of stars,
4   In the morning blue.

RHYME a b c a

5   "Like a shining dove
6   Alone in heaven,
7   In your sweet place
8   I shall see you move." . . .

RHYME a b c a

9   O Heart, it befell,
10   When I came, when I came,
11   You laughed ghost-white
12   In the lamps of hell.

RHYME a b c a

13   Fairer than the fair
14   And than young moons,
15   Thus to be lodged
16   With sharp despair.

RHYME a b c a

17   O innocent,
18   Unblemish'd and without spot
19   And so without defence;
20   For you the punishment.

RHYME a b c a

21   For you the rod
22   And the impitying stroke,
23   You loveliness,
24   You city of God!

RHYME a b c a

25   You had no tears
26   Women may weep,
27   Nor silver easing sigh
28   Nor fortifying fears,

RHYME a b c a

29   No trepidance:
30   Only the dumb amaze
31   Of undeceivèdness
32   Chanced upon all mischance;

RHYME a b c a

33   Nor agonies
34   Nor sorrow unto death,
35   That you should fall on your face
36   In seven Gethsemanes.

RHYME a b c a

37   Your punctual candle lit,
38   Your bowl kept bright,
39   Your thoughts as still
40   As the lily in it.

RHYME a b c a

41   A curtain of blue,
42   A bed of cypress wood
43   And ivory,
44   And one great star for you.

RHYME a b c a

45   And cloths of fair
46   White, and cups of gold--
47   And in your heart the knife
48   And winter in your hair.

RHYME a b c a

49   How should you pray
50   Or call to the saints,
51   Who had small need of prayer
52   Even as they?

RHYME a b c a

53   How should you guess
54   That over you would fail
55   The pinion shadowless
56   Even for a minute's space?

RHYME a b c a

57   How could the air
58   Forget its kindnesses,
59   And the earth its love
60   And your angel his care?

RHYME a b c a

61   There was a foul
62   And livid, living thing
63   That wept and died,
64   Having no soul.

RHYME a b c a

65   The lips of it
66   Scarlet with lies
67   And impudent with leers,
68   And on its forehead writ

RHYME a b c a

69   Evil and bale;
70   And it hath fellowship
71   Malefic as itself,
72   But clad in cunninger mail.

RHYME a b c a

73   For ever, walls of fire
74   And chasms of swords
75   'Twixt your green country
76   And the world's mire.

RHYME a b c a

77   It were a sin
78   That echo or breath
79   Should reach to your tower
80   From tents they riot in.

RHYME a b c a

81   Yet their desert
82   Lifts them, and deviously
83   From these and thence
84   Cometh the hurt.

RHYME a b c a

85   Into your book,
86   Jewelled with flame
87   And clamped with honour,
88   Who shall look?

RHYME a b c a

89   Borders of woe,
90   Letters of blood,
91   Upon a page
92   Of milk and snow.

RHYME a b c a

93   This justice for the just
94   Thereby you read--
95   Ashes to ashes
96   Dust to dust.

TITLE

RHYME a b a b

1   Smile, O master of life,
2   Safe in thy silver house,
3   Be pleased with thy pleasant wife--
4   Soon thou hast woe for spouse.

RHYME a b a b

5   Joy and joy are thy choice--
6   (Shrewd art thou past a doubt!)
7   Take they joy and rejoice--
8   Sorrow shall find thee out.

RHYME a b a b

9   Laugh thou loud at the fool
10   Munching his bitter bread;--
11   Surely as thou dost rule
12   One shall rule in thy stead.

RHYME a b a b

13   What though thy heart be flame,
14   And perfume all thy breath?--
15   Who hath written thy name
16   Here in the book of Death?

RHYME a b a b

17   Yea, though thou shine rose-white
18   Or though thou burn rose-red,
19   Upon the lawful night
20   Thou shalt lie spent and sped.

RHYME a b a b

21   Drink that is soft and sound!
22   Meats for the delicate maw!--
23   Already the beldame is found
24   Who shall tape-up that jaw.

RHYME a b a b

25   Build through the golden day
26   Cunning in every stroke--
27   Adze from his bench must say,
28   "Shall it be elm or oak?"

RHYME a b a b

29   And though thou hast all grace,
30   All wisdom, and all wit,
31   Mattock, in the right place,
32   Will delve the appointed pit.

RHYME a b a b

33   With faith thou art rich; and firm
34   In hopes like the young east--
35   Let us promise the worm
36   His certain year-long feast!

RHYME a b a b

37   Fool that no man calls master,
38   Irredeemable slave,
39   Born for the stark disaster
40   With nothing to hope or have.

RHYME a b a b

41   Inasmuch as thou moilest
42   For sour and scanty bread,
43   Rejoice, for wherever thou toilest
44   One shall toil in thy stead.

RHYME a b a b

45   And inasmuch as they gall thee
46   And bitterness is thy breath,
47   On a day they shall call thee
48   Forth to thy lawful death.

RHYME a b a b

49   Let it not be forgotten,
50   This is the sure reward--
51   Thou shalt lie dead and rotten,
52   Even as dead as thy lord.

RHYME a b a b

53   So with the brand or the feather
54   Each hath his tally and term--
55   Let us sup nobly together,
56   "Here's to the ultimate worm!"

RHYME a b a b

57   Lo, there is anguish and wailing
58   Out of the world and her wars,
59   A cry goeth up unavailing
60   Unto the steadfast stars.

RHYME a b a b

61   Set on sweet thrones they glister
62   Over our pain and ruth,
63   Each to her shining sister
64   Telling the wordless truth.

RHYME a b a b

65   Though we be fools or sages,
66   Who is it conquereth?
67   Death shall pay this world's wages;
68   All that he pays is death.

RHYME a b a b

69   By the prayers ye have faltered,
70   By the blood and the tears,
71   Which is the law ye have altered
72   In all the faithful years?

RHYME a b a b

73   No new sign hath been given,
74   No new tale is to tell--
75   And still the earth is heaven,
76   And still the souls are hell.

RHYME a b a b

77   Death for life is the guerdon,
78   "Life for death" is the ban;
79   None might carry the burden,
80   Only the sons of man.

RHYME a b a b

81   Of whom there is no daunting
82   Beneath the pitiless sky,
83   For whom the final vaunting
84   Is "men can only die."

RHYME a b a b

85   Cursèd be he that setteth
86   Snares for the bleeding feet;
87   Cursèd be he that getteth,
88   And giveth not, good wheat.

RHYME a b a b

89   Cursèd be he that showeth,
90   Unto the simple, lies;
91   Cursèd be he that throweth
92   Dust in the star-set eyes.

TITLE

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

1   "Now Good," quoth he,
2   "Be good for me,
3   And Evil be thou evil":
4   O simple wight!--
5   As well he might
6   Have leagued him with the Devil--
7   Who, when all's said,
8   Is a gentleman bred,
9   And civil to the civil.

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

10   He trudgeth forth,
11   Now south now north,
12   To turn the needful penny,
13   Upon his back
14   He bears a pack
15   Through suns and snows a-many
16   And mile on mile--
17   With an equal smile
18   For Richard and for Jenny.

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

19   "Yea these," he sware,
20   "Be God's own pair,
21   They will not cog or cozen,
22   In smocks they go
23   To milk and mow,
24   And threadbare are their hosen;
25   But if your due
26   Be twelve, for you
27   They'll count out the full dozen."

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

28   Yet Dick, fell wretch,
29   Did the hangman stretch,
30   For cutting a babe's weasand,
31   And by the Bench
32   That brazen wench,
33   Young Jenny, was imprisoned,
34   That folk might cry,
35   "In villainy
36   The twain were properly seasoned."

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

37   "Still Good," quoth he,
38   "Be good for me,
39   And Evil be thou evil;
40   My grandam dear,
41   Above her beer,
42   Was wont to curse the Devil,
43   `O little lad,
44   Eschew the bad
45   Which doth defile!' she'd snivel."

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

46   Upon an ass
47   He is fain to pass
48   Into the virtuous city,
49   And soon doth stop
50   With my lord bishop,
51   The learnèd and the witty:
52   ("So honest a face!"
53   Mused his lordship's grace--
54   And hired him out of pity.)

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

55   Here every saw
56   Of the moral law
57   With joy he heard repeated,
58   Till on a night
59   In the candle-light
60   The bishop's guests were seated,
61   And they played a game,
62   Bezique by name,
63   And my lord the bishop cheated.

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

64   So, nothing loth,
65   Our friend shogged off
66   To service with a person
67   Whom fools did rate
68   For a prop of the State:
69   There couldn't have been a worse 'un;
70   For by wink or grin
71   He approved the sin
72   We are bidden to put a curse on.

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

73   Then a judge he served
74   Who quite unnerved
75   This saint by actions foxy,
76   Such as bringing home quills
77   From the Office of Wills
78   And going to church by proxy,
79   And, once a week,
80   Pinching the cheek
81   Of a most offensive doxy.

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

82   "Still Good for me
83   Be good," quoth he,
84   "And Evil be thou evil;
85   I will show my mind
86   Unto mankind,
87   And speak them fair and civil,
88   And tell them how
89   All men I know
90   Are bondmen of the Devil."

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

91   He trudgeth forth
92   Both south and north
93   By markets and street corners,
94   And saith aloud
95   To the wondering crowd,
96   "Ye are plagued with thieves and scorners
97   And liars and cheats
98   And hypocrites
99   And losels and suborners!"

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

100   He was the first
101   That ever burst
102   Upon them with such tiding;
103   Eftsoons they cried,
104   "This fellow's pride
105   Is surely past abiding!"
106   And with grievous stones,
107   They bruised his bones,
108   And hurried him into hiding.

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

109   Upon the floor
110   He lies full sore,
111   Nor murmureth unduly,
112   Although he must
113   Give up the ghost
114   His speech is not unruly;
115   With his last breath
116   He uttereth
117   These words: "I ha' spoken truly!"

RHYME a a b c c b d d b

118   So passeth he
119   Most miserably,
120   Without or sniff or snivel:
121   Unhappy wight--
122   As well he might
123   Have leagued him with the Devil,
124   Who on the whole
125   Is a decent soul,
126   And returneth good for evil!

TITLE 

RHYME a b a b b

1   They have fetch'd for the king,
2   To his city of might,
3   The singers who sing
4   In the dusks of delight
5   And the noons of the night.

RHYME a b a b b

6   Where the women are lain
7   They have order'd his rest,
8   With the blood of the slain
9   On his sword and his crest,
10   And his hands on his breast. 
