Poems by George Meredith Volume Ii Part 25

Burial to fit their lord of war They decreed him: hailed the kingling: ha!

Hateful! but this Thor Failed a weak lamb's baa.

IX

King they hailed a branchlet, shaped to fare, Weighted so, like quaking s.h.i.+ngle spume, When his blood's own heir Ripened in the womb!

X

Still he heard, and doglike, hoglike, ran Nose of hearing till his blind sight saw: Woman stood with man Mouthing low, at paw.

XI

Woman, man, they mouthed; they spake a thing Armed to split a mountain, sunder seas: Still the frozen king Lay and felt him freeze.

XII

Doglike, hoglike, horselike now he raced, Riderless, in ghost across a ground Flint of breast, blank-faced, Past the fleshly bound.

XIII

Smell of brine his nostrils filled with might: Nostrils quickened eyelids, eyelids hand: Hand for sword at right Groped, the great haft spanned.

XIV

Wonder struck to ice his people's eyes: Him they saw, the p.r.o.ne upon the bier, Sheer from backbone rise, Sword uplifting peer.

XV

Sitting did he breathe against the blade, Standing kiss it for that proof of life: Strode, as netters wade, Straightway to his wife.

XVI

Her he eyed: his judgement was one word, Foulbed! and she fell: the blow clove two.

Fearful for the third, All their breath indrew.

XVII

Morning danced along the waves to beach; Dumb his chiefs fetched breath for what might hap: Gla.s.sily on each Stared the iron cap.

XVIII

Sudden, as it were a monster oak Split to yield a limb by stress of heat, Strained he, staggered, broke Doubled at their feet.

WHIMPER OF SYMPATHY

Hawk or shrike has done this deed Of downy feathers: rueful sight!

Sweet sentimentalist, invite Your bosom's Power to intercede.

So hard it seems that one must bleed Because another needs will bite!

All round we find cold Nature slight The feelings of the totter-knee'd.

O it were pleasant with you To fly from this tussle of foes, The shambles, the charnel, the wrinkle!

To dwell in yon dribble of dew On the cheek of your sovereign rose, And live the young life of a twinkle.

YOUNG REYNARD

I

Gracefullest leaper, the dappled fox-cub Curves over brambles with berries and buds, Light as a bubble that flies from the tub, Whisked by the laundry-wife out of her suds.

Wavy he comes, woolly, all at his ease, Elegant, fas.h.i.+oned to foot with the deuce; Nature's own prince of the dance: then he sees Me, and retires as if making excuse.

II

Never closed minuet courtlier! Soon Cub-hunting troops were abroad, and a yelp Told of sure scent: ere the stroke upon noon Reynard the younger lay far beyond help.

Wild, my poor friend, has the fate to be chased; Civil will conquer: were 't other 'twere worse; Fair, by the flushed early morning embraced, Haply you live a day longer in verse.

MANFRED

I

Projected from the bilious Childe, This clatterjaw his foot could set On Alps, without a breast beguiled To glow in shedding rascal sweat.

Somewhere about his grinder teeth, He mouthed of thoughts that grilled beneath, And summoned Nature to her feud With bile and buskin Att.i.tude.

II

Considerably was the world Of spinsterdom and clergy racked While he his hinted horrors hurled, And she pictorially attacked.

A duel hugeous. Tragic? Ho!

The cities, not the mountains, blow Such bladders; in their shapes confessed An after-dinner's indigest.

HERNANI

Cistercians might crack their sides With laughter, and exemption get, At sight of heroes clasping brides, And hearing--O the horn! the horn!