Ere Pizarro came These were lords of men Long ago;

Gods without a name, Born or how or when, None may know!

Now from Yucatan These doth Science bear Over seas;

And methinks a man Finds youth doubly fair, Sketching these!

p. 32ON CALAIS SANDS

p. 32

On Calais Sands the grey began, Then rosy red above the grey, The morn with many a scarlet van Leap’d, and the world was glad with May! The little waves along the bay Broke white upon the shelving strands; The sea-mews flitted white as they On Calais Sands!

On

On Calais Sands must man with man Wash honour clean in blood to-day; On spaces wet from waters wan How white the flashing rapiers play, Parry, riposte! and lunge! The fray Shifts for a while, then mournful stands The Victor: life ebbs fast away On Calais Sands!

p. 33On Calais Sands a little space Of silence, then the plash and spray, The sound of eager waves that ran To kiss the perfumed locks astray, To touch these lips that ne’er said ‘Nay,’  To dally with the helpless hands; Till the deep sea in silence lay On Calais Sands!

p. 33

Between the lilac and the may She waits her love from alien lands; Her love is colder than the clay On Calais Sands!

p. 34BALLADE OF YULE

p. 34

This life’s most jolly, Amiens said, Heigh-ho, the Holly! So sang he. As the good Duke was comforted In forest exile, so may we! The years may darken as they flee, And Christmas bring his melancholy: But round the old mahogany tree We drink, we sing Heigh-ho, the Holly!

Though some are dead and some are fled To lands of summer over sea, The holly berry keeps his red, The merry children keep their glee; They hoard with artless secresy This gift for Maude, and that for Molly, And Santa Claus he turns the key On Christmas Eve, Heigh-ho, the Holly!

p. 35Amid the snow the birds are fed, The 

 Prev. P 20/43 next