Late Lyrics and Earlier, With Many Other Verses Part 8

"--That will it, boy; Such shades will people thee, Each in his misery, irk, or joy, And print on thee their presences as on me."

ON STINSFORD HILL AT MIDNIGHT

I glimpsed a woman's muslined form Sing-songing airily Against the moon; and still she sang, And took no heed of me.

Another trice, and I beheld What first I had not scanned, That now and then she tapped and shook A timbrel in her hand.

So late the hour, so white her drape, So strange the look it lent To that blank hill, I could not guess What phantastry it meant.

Then burst I forth: "Why such from you?

Are you so happy now?"

Her voice swam on; nor did she show Thought of me anyhow.

I called again: "Come nearer; much That kind of note I need!"

The song kept softening, loudening on, In placid calm unheed.

"What home is yours now?" then I said; "You seem to have no care."

But the wild wavering tune went forth As if I had not been there.

"This world is dark, and where you are,"

I said, "I cannot be!"

But still the happy one sang on, And had no heed of me.

THE FALLOW DEER AT THE LONELY HOUSE

One without looks in to-night Through the curtain-c.h.i.n.k From the sheet of glistening white; One without looks in to-night As we sit and think By the fender-brink.

We do not discern those eyes Watching in the snow; Lit by lamps of rosy dyes We do not discern those eyes Wondering, aglow, Fourfooted, tiptoe.

THE SELFSAME SONG

A bird bills the selfsame song, With never a fault in its flow, That we listened to here those long Long years ago.

A pleasing marvel is how A strain of such rapturous rote Should have gone on thus till now Unchanged in a note!

- But it's not the selfsame bird. - No: perished to dust is he . . .

As also are those who heard That song with me.

THE WANDERER

There is n.o.body on the road But I, And no beseeming abode I can try For shelter, so abroad I must lie.

The stars feel not far up, And to be The lights by which I sup Glimmeringly, Set out in a hollow cup Over me.

They wag as though they were Panting for joy Where they s.h.i.+ne, above all care, And annoy, And demons of despair - Life's alloy.

Sometimes outside the fence Feet swing past, Clock-like, and then go hence, Till at last There is a silence, dense, Deep, and vast.

A wanderer, witch-drawn To and fro, To-morrow, at the dawn, On I go, And where I rest anon Do not know!

Yet it's meet--this bed of hay And roofless plight; For there's a house of clay, My own, quite, To roof me soon, all day And all night.

A WIFE COMES BACK

This is the story a man told me Of his life's one day of dreamery.

A woman came into his room Between the dawn and the creeping day: She was the years-wed wife from whom He had parted, and who lived far away, As if strangers they.

He wondered, and as she stood She put on youth in her look and air, And more was he wonderstruck as he viewed Her form and flesh bloom yet more fair While he watched her there;

Till she freshed to the pink and brown That were hers on the night when first they met, When she was the charm of the idle town And he the pick of the club-fire set . . .

His eyes grew wet,

And he stretched his arms: "Stay--rest!--"

He cried. "Abide with me so, my own!"

But his arms closed in on his hard bare breast; She had vanished with all he had looked upon Of her beauty: gone.

He clothed, and drew downstairs, But she was not in the house, he found; And he pa.s.sed out under the leafy pairs Of the avenue elms, and searched around To the park-pale bound.

He mounted, and rode till night To the city to which she had long withdrawn, The vision he bore all day in his sight Being her young self as pondered on In the dim of dawn.

"--The lady here long ago - Is she now here?--young--or such age as she is?"

"--She is still here."--"Thank G.o.d. Let her know; She'll pardon a comer so late as this Whom she'd fain not miss."

She received him--an ancient dame, Who hemmed, with features frozen and numb, "How strange!--I'd almost forgotten your name! - A call just now--is troublesome; Why did you come?"

A YOUNG MAN'S EXHORTATION