Poems of To-Day: an Anthology Part 7

O the gray island in the rainbow haze, And the long thin spits of land, The roughening pastures and the stony ways, And the golden flash of the sand!

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O the red heather on the moss-wrought rock, And the fir-tree stiff and straight, The s.h.a.ggy old sheep-dog barking at the flock, And the rotten old five-barred gate!

O the brown bracken, the blackberry bough, The scent of the gorse in the air!

I shall love them ever as I love them now, I shall weary in Heaven to be there!

III

Strike, Life, a happy hour, and let me live But in that grace!

I shall have gathered all the world can give, Unending Time and s.p.a.ce!

Bring light and air--the thin and s.h.i.+ning air Of the North land, The light that falls on tower and garden there, Close to the gold sea-sand.

Bring flowers, the latest colours of the earth, Ere nun-like frost Lay her hard hand upon this rainbow mirth, With twinkling emerald crossed.

The white star of the traveller's joy, the deep Empurpled rays that hide the smoky stone, The dahlia rooted in Egyptian sleep, The last frail rose alone.

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Let music whisper from a cas.e.m.e.nt set By them of old, Where the light smell of lavender may yet Rise from the soft loose mould.

Then shall I know, with eyes and ears awake, Not in bright gleams, The joy my Heavenly Father joys to make For men who grieve, in dreams!

_Mary E. Coleridge._

34. SUSs.e.x

G.o.d gave all men all earth to love, But since our hearts are small, Ordained for each one spot should prove Beloved over all; That as He watched Creation's birth So we, in G.o.dlike mood, May of our love create our earth And see that it is good.

So one shall Baltic pines content, As one some Surrey glade, Or one the palm-grove's droned lament Before Levuka's trade.

Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground--in a fair ground-- Yea, Suss.e.x by the sea!

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No tender-hearted garden crowns, No bosomed woods adorn Our blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed Downs, But gnarled and writhen thorn-- Bare slopes where chasing shadows skim, And through the gaps revealed Belt upon belt, the wooded, dim Blue goodness of the Weald.

Clean of officious fence or hedge, Half-wild and wholly tame, The wise turf cloaks the white cliff edge As when the Romans came.

What sign of those that fought and died At s.h.i.+ft of sword and sword?

The barrow and the camp abide, The sunlight and the sward.

Here leaps ash.o.r.e the full Sou'west All heavy-winged with brine, Here lies above the folded crest The Channel's leaden line; And here the sea-fogs lap and cling, And here, each warning each, The sheep-bells and the s.h.i.+p-bells ring Along the hidden beach.

We have no waters to delight Our broad and brookless vales-- Only the dewpond on the height Unfed, that never fails,

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Whereby no tattered herbage tells Which way the season flies-- Only our close-bit thyme that smells Like dawn in Paradise.

Here through the strong unhampered days The tinkling silence thrills; Or little, lost. Down churches praise The Lord who made the hills; But here the Old G.o.ds guard their round, And, in her secret heart, The heathen kingdom Wilfrid found Dreams, as she dwells, apart.

Though all the rest were all my share, With equal soul I'd see Her nine-and-thirty sisters fair, Yet none more fair than she.

Choose ye your need from Thames to Tweed, And I will choose instead Such lands as lie 'twixt Rake and Rye, Black Down and Beachy Head.

I will go out against the sun Where the rolled scarp retires, And the Long Man of Wilmington Looks naked toward the s.h.i.+res; And east till doubling Rother crawls To find the fickle tide, By dry and sea-forgotten walls, Our ports of stranded pride.

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I will go north about the shaws And the deep ghylls that breed Huge oaks and old, the which we hold No more than "Suss.e.x weed"; Or south where windy Piddinghoe's Begilded dolphin veers, And black beside wide-banked Ouse Lie down our Suss.e.x steers.

So to the land our hearts we give Till the sure magic strike, And Memory, Use, and Love make live Us and our fields alike-- That deeper than our speech and thought, Beyond our reason's sway, Clay of the pit whence we were wrought Yearns to its fellow-clay.

G.o.d gives all men all earth to love, But since man's heart is small Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all.

Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground--in a fair ground-- Yea, Suss.e.x by the sea!

_Rudyard Kipling._

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35. THE SOUTH COUNTRY

When I am living in the Midlands, That are sodden and unkind, I light my lamp in the evening: My work is left behind; And the great hills of the South Country Come back into my mind.

The great hills of the South Country They stand along the sea, And it's there, walking in the high woods, That I could wish to be, And the men that were boys when I was a boy Walking along with me.

The men that live in North England I saw them for a day: Their hearts are set upon the waste fells, Their skies are fast and grey; From their castle-walls a man may see The mountains far away.

The men that live in West England They see the Severn strong, A-rolling on rough water brown Light aspen leaves along.

They have the secret of the Rocks, And the oldest kind of song.

But the men that live in the South Country Are the kindest and most wise, They get their laughter from the loud surf, And the faith in their happy eyes

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Comes surely from our Sister the Spring When over the sea she flies; The violets suddenly bloom at her feet, She blesses us with surprise.

I never get between the pines But I smell the Suss.e.x air; Nor I never come on a belt of sand But my home is there.

And along the sky the line of the Downs So n.o.ble and so bare.

A lost thing could I never find, Nor a broken thing mend: And I fear I shall be all alone When I get towards the end.

Who will there be to comfort me Or who will be my friend?

I will gather and carefully make my friends Of the men of the Suss.e.x Weald, They watch the stars from silent folds, They stiffly plough the field.

By them and the G.o.d of the South Country My poor soul shall be healed.