An Be Sweeter Than Maiden Maud In Either. Ii. But To-Morrow, If We Live, Our Ponderous Squire Will Give A Grand Political Dinner To Half The Squirelings Near; And Maud Will Wear Her Jewels, And The Bird Of Prey Will Hover, And The Titmouse Hope To Win Her With His Chirrup At Her Ear. Iii. A Grand Political Dinner To The Men Of Many Acres, A Gathering Of The Tory, A Dinner And Then A Dance For The Maids And Marriage-Makers, And Every Eye But Mine Will Glance At Maud In All Her Glory. Iv. For I Am Not Invited, But, With The Sultan'S Pardon, I Am All As Well Delighted, For I Know Her Own Rose-Garden, And Mean To Linger In It Till The Dancing Will Be Over; And Then, Oh Then, Come Out To Me For A Minute, But For A Minute, Come Out To Your Own True Lover, That Your True Lover May See Your Glory Also, And Render All Homage To His Own Darling, Queen Maud In All Her Splendour. Xxi Rivulet Crossing My Ground, And Bringing Me Down From The Hall This Garden-Rose That I Found, Forgetful Of Maud And Me, And Lost In Trouble And Moving Round Here At The Head Of A Tinkling Fall, And Trying To Pass To The Sea; O Rivulet, Born At The Hall, My Maud Has Sent It By Thee (If I Read Her Sweet Will Right) On A Blushing Mission To Me, Saying In Odour And Colour, 'Ah, Be Among The Roses To-Night.' Xxii I. Come Into The Garden, Maud, For The Black Bat, Night, Has Flown, Come Into The Garden, Maud, I Am Here At The Gate Alone; And The Woodbine Spices Are Wafted Abroad, And The Musk Of The Rose Is Blown. Ii. For A Breeze Of Morning Moves, And The Planet Of Love Is On High, Beginning To Faint In The Light That She Loves On A Bed Of Daffodil Sky, To Faint In The Light Of The Sun She Loves, To Faint In His Light, And To Die. Iii. All Night Have The Roses Heard The Flute, Violin, Bassoon; All Night Has The Casement Jessamine Stirr'D To The Dancers Dancing In Tune; Till A Silence Fell With The Waking Bird, And A Hush With The Setting Moon. Iv. I Said To The Lily, 'There Is But One With Whom She Has Heart To Be Gay. When Will The Dancers Leave Her Alone? She Is Weary Of Dance And Play.' Now Half To The Setting Moon Are Gone, And Half To The Rising Day; Low On The Sand And Loud On The Stone The Last Wheel Echoes Away. V. I Said To The Rose, 'The Brief Night Goes In Babble And Revel And Wine. O Young Lord-Lover, What Sighs Are Those, For One That Will Never Be Thine? But Mine, But Mine,' So I Sware To The Rose, 'For Ever And Ever, Mine.' Vi. And The Soul Of The Rose Went Into My Blood, As The Music Clash'D In The Hall; And Long By The Garden Lake I Stood, For I Heard Your Rivulet Fall From The Lake To The Meadow And On To The Wood, Our Wood, That Is Dearer Than All; Vii. From The Meadow Your Walks Have Left So Sweet That Whenever A March-Wind Sighs He Sets The Jewel-Print Of Your Feet In Violets Blue As Your Eyes, To The Woody Hollows In Which We Meet And The Valleys Of Paradise. Viii. The Slender Acacia Would Not Shake One Long Milk-Bloom On The Tree; The White Lake-Blossom Fell Into The Lake As The Pimpernel Dozed On The Lea; But The Rose Was Awake All Night For Your Sake, Knowing Your Promise To Me; The Lilies And Roses Were All Awake, They Sigh'D For The Dawn And Thee. Ix. Queen Rose Of The Rosebud Garden Of Girls, Come Hither, The Dances Are Done, In Gloss Of Satin And Glimmer Of Pearls, Queen Lily And Rose In One; Shine Out, Little Head, Sunning Over With Curls, To The Flowers, And Be Their Sun. X. There Has Fallen A Splendid Tear From The Passion-Flower At The Gate. She Is Coming, My Dove, My Dear; She Is Coming, My Life, My Fate; The Red Rose Cries, 'She Is Near, She Is Near;' And The White Rose Weeps, 'She Is Late;' The Larkspur Listens, 'I Hear, I Hear;' And The Lily Whispers, 'I Wait.' Xi. She Is Coming, My Own, My Sweet; Were It Ever So Airy A Tread, My Heart Would Hear Her And Beat, Were It Earth In An Earthy Bed; My Dust Would Hear Her And Beat, Had I Lain For A Century Dead; Would Start And Tremble Under Her Feet, And Blossom In Purple And Red. Part Ii I I. 'The Fault Was Mine, The Fault Was Mine'' Why Am I Sitting Here So Stunn'D And Still, Plucking The Harmless Wild-Flower On The Hill?' It Is This Guilty Hand!' And There Rises Ever A Passionate Cry From Underneath In The Darkening Land' What Is It, That Has Been Done? O Dawn Of Eden Bright Over Earth And Sky, The Fires Of Hell Brake Out Of Thy Rising Sun, The Fires Of Hell And Of Hate; For She, Sweet Soul, Had Hardly Spoken A Word, When Her Brother Ran In His Rage To The Gate, He Came With The Babe-Faced Lord; Heap'D On Her Terms Of Disgrace, And While She Wept, And I Strove To Be Cool, He Fiercely Gave Me The Lie, Till I With As Fierce An Anger Spoke, And He Struck Me, Madman, Over The Face, Struck Me Before The Languid Fool, Who Was Gaping And Grinning By: Struck For Himself An Evil Stroke; Wrought For His House An Irredeemable Woe; For Front To Front In An Hour We Stood, And A Million Horrible Bellowing Echoes Broke From The Red-Ribb'D Hollow Behind The Wood, And Thunder'D Up Into Heaven The Christless Code, That Must Have Life For A Blow. Ever And Ever Afresh They Seem'D To Grow. Was It He Lay There With A Fading Eye? 'The Fault Was Mine,' He Whisper'D, 'Fly!' Then Glided Out Of The Joyous Wood The Ghastly Wraith Of One That I Know; And There Rang On A Sudden A Passionate Cry, A Cry For A Brother'S Blood: It Will Ring In My Heart And My Ears, Till I Die, Till I Die. Ii. Is It Gone? My Pulses Beat' What Was It? A Lying Trick Of The Brain? Yet I Thought I Saw Her Stand, A Shadow There At My Feet, High Over The Shadowy Land. It Is Gone; And The Heavens Fall In A Gentle Rain, When They Should Burst And Drown With Deluging Storms The Feeble Vassals Of Wine And Anger And Lust, The Little Hearts That Know Not How To Forgive: Arise, My God, And Strike, For We Hold Thee Just, Strike Dead The Whole Weak Race Of Venomous Worms, That Sting Each Other Here In The Dust; We Are Not Worthy To Live. Ii I. See What A Lovely Shell, Small And Pure As A Pearl, Lying Close To My Foot, Frail, But A Work Divine, Made So Fairily Well With Delicate Spire And Whorl, How Exquisitely Minute, A Miracle Of Design! Ii. What Is It? A Learned Man Could Give It A Clumsy Name. Let Him Name It Who Can, The Beauty Would Be The Same. Iii. The Tiny Cell Is Forlorn, Void Of The Little Living Will That Made It Stir On The Shore. Did He Stand At The Diamond Door Of His House In A Rainbow Frill? Did He Push, When He Was Uncurl'D, A Golden Foot Or A Fairy Horn Thro' His Dim Water-World? Iv. Slight, To He Crush'D With A Tap Of My Finger-Nail On The Sand, Small, But A Work Divine, Frail, But Of Force To Withstand, Year Upon Year, The Shock Of Cataract Seas That Snap The Three Decker'S Oaken Spine Athwart The Ledges Of Rock, Here On The Breton Strand! V. Breton, Not Briton; Here Like A Shipwreck'D Man On A Coast Of Ancient Fable And Fear' Plagued With A Flitting To And Fro, A Disease, A Hard Mechanic Ghost That Never Came From On High Nor Ever Arose From Below, But Only Moves With The Moving Eye, Flying Along The Land And The Main' Why Should It Look Like Maud? Am I To Be Overawed By What I Cannot But Know Is A Juggle Born Of The Brain? Vi. Back From The Breton Coast, Sick Of A Nameless Fear, Back To The Dark Sea-Line Looking, Thinking Of All I Have Lost; An Old Song Vexes My Ear; But That Of Lamech Is Mine. Vii. For Years, A Measureless Ill, For Years, For Ever, To Part' But She, She Would Love Me Still; And As Long, O God, As She Have A Grain Of Love For Me, So Long, No Doubt, No Doubt, Shall I Nurse In My Dark Heart, However Weary, A Spark Of Will Not To Be Trampled Out. Viii. Strange, That The Mind, When Fraught With A Passion So Intense One Would Think That It Well Might Drown All Life In The Eye,' That It Should, By Being So Overwrought, Suddenly Strike On A Sharper Sense For A Shell, Or A Flower, Little Things Which Else Would Have Been Past By! And Now I Remember, I, When He Lay Dying There, I Noticed One Of His Many Rings (For He Had Many, Poor Worm) And Thought It Is His Mother'S Hair. Ix. Who Knows If He Be Dead? Whether I Need Have Fled? Am I Guilty Of Blood? However This May Be, Comfort Her, Comfort Her, All Things Good, While I Am Over The Sea! Let Me And My Passionate Love Go By, But Speak To Her All Things Holy And High, Whatever Happen To Me! Me And My Harmful Love Go By; But Come To Her Waking, Find Her Asleep, Powers Of The Height, Powers Of The Deep, And Comfort Her Tho' I Die. Iii Courage, Poor Heart Of Stone! I Will Not Ask Thee Why Thou Canst Not Understand That Thou Art Left For Ever Alone: Courage, Poor Stupid Heart Of Stone.' Or If I Ask Thee Why, Care Not Thou To Reply: She Is But Dead, And The Time Is At Hand When Thou Shalt More Than Die. Iv I. O That 'Twere Possible After Long Grief And Pain To Find The Arms Of My True Love Round Me Once Again! Ii. When I Was Wont To Meet Her In The Silent Woody Places By The Home That Gave Me Birth, We Stood Tranced In Long Embraces Mixt With Kisses Sweeter Sweeter Than Anything On Earth. Iii. A Shadow Flits Before Me, Not Thou, But Like To Thee: Ah Christ, That It Were Possible For One Short Hour To See The Souls We Loved, That They Might Tell Us What And Where They Be. Iv. It Leads Me Forth At Evening, It Lightly Winds And Steals In A Cold White Robe Before Me, When All My Spirit Reels At The Shouts, The Leagues Of Lights, And The Roaring Of The Wheels. V. Half The Night I Waste In Sighs, Half In Dreams I Sorrow After The Delight Of Early Skies; In A Wakeful Doze I Sorrow For The Hand, The Lips, The Eyes, For The Meeting Of The Morrow, The Delight Of Happy Laughter, The Delight Of Low Replies. Vi. 'Tis A Morning Pure And Sweet, And A Dewy Splendour Falls On The Little Flower That Clings To The Turrets And The Walls; 'Tis A Morning Pure And Sweet, And The Light And Shadow Fleet; She Is Walking In The Meadow, And The Woodland Echo Rings; In A Moment We Shall Meet; She Is Singing In The Meadow And The Rivulet At Her Feet Ripples On In Light And Shadow To The Ballad That She Sings. Vii. Do I Hear Her Sing As Of Old, My Bird With The Shining Head, My Own Dove With The Tender Eye? But There Rings On A Sudden A Passionate Cry, There Is Some One Dying Or Dead, And A Sullen Thunder Is Roll'D; For A Tumult Shakes The City, And I Wake, My Dream Is Fled; In The Shuddering Dawn, Behold, Without Knowledge, Without Pity, By The Curtains Of My Bed That Abiding Phantom Cold. Viii. Get Thee Hence, Nor Come Again, Mix Not Memory With Doubt, Pass, Thou Deathlike Type Of Pain, Pass And Cease To Move About! 'Tis The Blot Upon The Brain That Will Show Itself Without. Ix. Then I Rise, The Eavedrops Fall, And The Yellow Vapours Choke The Great City Sounding Wide; The Day Comes, A Dull Red Ball Wrapt In Drifts Of Lurid Smoke On The Misty River-Tide. X. Thro' The Hubbub Of The Market I Steal, A Wasted Frame, It Crosses Here, It Crosses There, Thro' All That Crowd Confused And Loud, The Shadow Still The Same; And On My Heavy Eyelids My Anguish Hangs Like Shame. Xi. Alas For Her That Met Me, That Heard Me Softly Call, Came Glimmering Thro' The Laurels At The Quiet Evenfall, In The Garden By The Turrets Of The Old Manorial Hall. Xii. Would The Happy Spirit Descend, From The Realms Of Light And Song, In The Chamber Or The Street, As She Looks Among The Blest, Should I Fear To Greet My Friend Or To Say 'Forgive The Wrong,' Or To Ask Her, 'Take Me, Sweet, To The Regions Of Thy Rest'? Xiii. But The Broad Light Glares And Beats, And The Shadow Flits And Fleets And Will Not Let Me Be; And I Loathe The Squares And Streets, And The Faces That One Meets, Hearts With No Love For Me: Always I Long To Creep Into Some Still Cavern Deep, There To Weep, And Weep, And Weep My Whole Soul Out To Thee. V I. Dead, Long Dead, Long Dead! And My Heart Is A Handful Of Dust, And The Wheels Go Over My Head, And My Bones Are Shaken With Pain, For Into A Shallow Grave They Are Thrust, Only A Yard Beneath The Street, And The Hoofs Of The Horses Beat, Beat, The Hoofs Of The Horses Beat, Beat Into My Scalp And My Brain, With Never An End To The Stream Of Passing Feet, Driving, Hurrying, Marrying, Burying, Clamour And Rumble, And Ringing And Clatter, And Here Beneath It Is All As Bad, For I Thought The Dead Had Peace, But It Is Not So; To Have No Peace In The Grave, Is That Not Sad? But Up And Down And To And Fro, Ever About Me The Dead Men Go; And Then To Hear A Dead Man Chatter Is Enough To Drive One Mad. Ii. Wretchedest Age, Since Time Began, They Cannot Even Bury A Man; And Tho' We Paid Our Tithes In The Days That Are Gone, Not A Bell Was Rung, Not A Prayer Was Read; It Is That Which Makes Us Loud In The World Of The Dead; There Is None That Does His Work, Not One; A Touch Of Their Office Might Have Sufficed, But The Churchmen Fain Would Kill Their Church, As The Churches Have Kill'D Their Christ. Iii. See, There Is One Of Us Sobbing, No Limit To His Distress; And Another, A Lord Of All Things, Praying To His Own Great Self, As I Guess; And Another, A Statesman There, Betraying His Party-Secret, Fool, To The Press; And Yonder A Vile Physician, Blabbing The Case Of His Patient'All For What? To Tickle The Maggot Born In An Empty Head, And Wheedle A World That Loves Him Not, For It Is But A World Of The Dead. Iv. Nothing But Idiot Gabble! For The Prophecy Given Of Old And Then Not Understood, Has Come To Pass As Foretold; Not Let Any Man Think For The Public Good, But Babble, Merely For Babble. For I Never Whisper'D A Private Affair Within The Hearing Of Cat Or Mouse, No, Not To Myself In The Closet Alone, But I Heard It Shouted At Once From The Top Of The House; Everything Came To Be Known. Who Told Him We Were There? V. Not That Gray Old Wolf, For He Came Not Back From The Wilderness, Full Of Wolves, Where He Used To Lie; He Has Gather'D The Bones For His O'Ergrown Whelp To Crack; Crack Them Now For Yourself, And Howl, And Die. Vi. Prophet, Curse Me The Blabbing Lip, And Curse Me The British Vermin, The Rat; I Know Not Whether He Came In The Hanover Ship, But I Know That He Lies And Listens Mute In An Ancient Mansion'S Crannies And Holes: Arsenic, Arsenic, Sure, Would Do It, Except That Now We Poison Our Babes, Poor Souls! It Is All Used Up For That. Vii. Tell Him Now: She Is Standing Here At My Head; Not Beautiful Now, Not Even Kind; He May Take Her Now; For She Never Speaks Her Mind, But Is Ever The One Thing Silent Here. She Is Not Of Us, As I Divine; She Comes From Another Stiller World Of The Dead, Stiller, Not Fairer Than Mine. Viii. But I Know Where A Garden Grows, Fairer Than Aught In The World Beside, All Made Up Of The Lily And Rose That Blow By Night, When The Season Is Good, To The Sound Of Dancing Music And Flutes: It Is Only Flowers, They Had No Fruits, And I Almost Fear They Are Not Roses, But Blood; For The Keeper Was One, So Full Of Pride, He Linkt A Dead Man There To A Spectral Bride; For He, If He Had Not Been A Sultan Of Brutes, Would He Have That Hole In His Side? Ix. But What Will The Old Man Say? He Laid A Cruel Snare In A Pit To Catch A Friend Of Mine One Stormy Day; Yet Now I Could Even Weep To Think Of It; For What Will The Old Man Say When He Comes To The Second Corpse In The Pit? X. Friend, To Be Struck By The Public Foe, Then To Strike Him And Lay Him Low, That Were A Public Merit, Far, Whatever The Quaker Holds, From Sin; But The Red Life Spilt For A Private Blow' I Swear To You, Lawful And Lawless War Are Scarcely Even Akin. Xi. O Me, Why Have They Not Buried Me Deep Enough? Is It Kind To Have Made Me A Grave So Rough, Me, That Was Never A Quiet Sleeper? Maybe Still I Am But Half-Dead; Then I Cannot Be Wholly Dumb; I Will Cry To The Steps Above My Head And Somebody, Surely, Some Kind Heart Will Come To Bury Me, Bury Me Deeper, Ever So Little Deeper. Part Iii Vi I. My Life Has Crept So Long On A Broken Wing Thro' Cells Of Madness, Haunts Of Horror And Fear, That I Come To Be Grateful At Last For A Little Thing: My Mood Is Changed, For It Fell At A Time Of Year When The Face Of Night Is Fair On The Dewy Downs, And The Shining Daffodil Dies, And The Charioteer And Starry Gemini Hang Like Glorious Crowns Over Orion'S Grave Low Down In The West, That Like A Silent Lightning Under The Stars She Seem'D To Divide In A Dream From A Band Of The Blest, And Spoke Of A Hope For The World In The Coming Wars' 'And In That Hope, Dear Soul, Let Trouble Have Rest, Knowing I Tarry For Thee,' And Pointed To Mars As He Glow'D Like A Ruddy Shield On The Lion'S Breast. Ii. And It Was But A Dream, Yet It Yielded A Dear Delight To Have Look'D, Tho' But In A Dream, Upon Eyes So Fair, That Had Been In A Weary World My One Thing Bright; And It Was But A Dream, Yet It Lighten'D My Despair When I Thought That A War Would Arise In Defence Of The Right, That An Iron Tyranny Now Should Bend Or Cease, The Glory Of Manhood Stand On His Ancient Height, Nor Britain'S One Sole God Be The Millionaire: No More Shall Commerce Be All In All, And Peace Pipe On Her Pastoral Hillock A Languid Note, And Watch Her Harvest Ripen, Her Herd Increase, Nor The Cannon-Bullet Rust On A Slothful Shore, And The Cobweb Woven Across The Cannon'S Throat Shall Shake Its Threaded Tears In The Wind No More. Iii. And As Months Ran On And Rumour Of Battle Grew, 'It Is Time, It Is Time, O Passionate Heart,' Said I (For I Cleaved To A Cause That I Felt To Be Pure And True), 'It Is Time, O Passionate Heart And Morbid Eye, That Old Hysterical Mock-Disease Should Die.' And I Stood On A Giant Deck And Mix'D My Breath With A Loyal People Shouting A Battle Cry, Till I Saw The Dreary Phantom Arise And Fly Far Into The North, And Battle, And Seas Of Death. Iv. Let It Go Or Stay, So I Wake To The Higher Aims Of A Land That Has Lost For A Little Her Lust Of Gold, And A Love Of A Peace That Was Full Of Wrongs And Shames, Horrible, Hateful, Monstrous, Not To Be Told; And Hail Once More To The Banner Of Battle Unroll'D! Tho' Many A Light Shall Darken, And Many Shall Weep For Those That Are Crush'D In The Clash Of Jarring Claims, Yet God'S Just Wrath Shall Be Wreak'D On A Giant Liar; And Many A Darkness Into The Light Shall Leap, And Shine In The Sudden Making Of Splendid Names, And Noble Thought Be Fre'R Under The Sun, And The Heart Of A People Beat With One Desire; For The Peace, That I Deem'D No Peace, Is Over And Done, And Now By The Side Of The Black And The Baltic Deep, And Deathful-Grinning Mouths Of The Fortress, Flames The Blood-Red Blossom Of War With A Heart Of Fire. V. Let It Flame Or Fade, And The War Roll Down Like A Wind, We Have Proved We Have Hearts In A Cause, We Are Noble Still, And Myself Have Awaked, As It Seems, To The Better Mind; It Is Better To Fight For The Good Than To Rail At The Ill; I Have Felt With My Native Land, I Am One With My Kind, I Embrace The Purpose Of God, And The Doom Assign'D.