The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part, But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart. And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest, Her Sons must wait upon Mary’s Sons, world without […]

If you stop to find out what your wages will be And how they will clothe and feed you, Willie, my son, don’t you go on the Sea, For the Sea will never need you. If you ask for the reason of every command, And argue with people about you, Willie, my son, don’t you […]

1918 (Being the words of the tune hummed at her lathe by Mrs. L. Embsay, widow.) The fans and the beltings they roar round me. The power is shaking the floor round me Till the lathes pick up their duty and the midnight-shift takes over. It is good for me to be here! Guns in […]

The Garden called Gethsemane In Picardy it was, And there the people came to see The English soldiers pass. We used to pass–we used to pass Or halt, as it might be, And ship our masks in case of gas Beyond Gethsemane. The Garden called Gethsemane, It held a pretty lass, But all the time […]

The overfaithful sword returns the user His heart’s desire at price of his heart’s blood. The clamour of the arrogant accuser Wastes that one hour we needed to make good. This was foretold of old at our outgoing; This we accepted who have squandered, knowing, The strength and glory of our reputations, At the day’s […]

(IN MEMORIAM, JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN) 1904 ‘And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren; and they hated him yet the more.’–Genesis XXXVII. 5. Oh ye who hold the written clue To all save all unwritten things, And, half a league behind, pursue The accomplished Fact with flouts and flings, Look! To your knee […]

Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid, He to the overbearing Boanerges Jonson, uttered (If half of it were liquor, Blessed be the vintage!) Saying how, at an alehouse under Cotswold, He had made sure of his very Cleopatra, Drunk with enormous, salvation-contemning Love for a tinker. How, while he hid from Sir Thomas’s keepers, […]

(EDWARD VII.) 1910 Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear? And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run? Let him approach. It is proven here Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done. […]

‘Whence comest thou, Gehazi, So reverend to behold, In scarlet and in ermines And chain of England’s gold?’ ‘From following after Naaman To tell him all is well, Whereby my zeal hath made me A Judge in Israel.’ Well done, well done, Gehazi, Stretch forth thy ready hand, Thou barely ‘scaped from judgment, Take oath […]

‘This is the State above the Law. The State exists for the State alone.’ [This is a gland at the back of the jaw, And an answering lump by the collar-bone.] Some die shouting in gas or fire; Some die silent, by shell and shot. Some die desperate, caught on the wire; Some die suddenly. […]

I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way, Or male and female devilkins to lead my feet astray. If these are added, I rejoice–if not, I shall not mind, So long as I have leave and choice to meet my fellow-kind. For as we come and as we go (and […]

Try as he will, no man breaks wholly loose From his first love, no matter who she be. Oh, was there ever sailor free to choose, That didn’t settle somewhere near the sea? Myself, it don’t excite me nor amuse To watch a pack o’ shipping on the sea, But I can understand my neighbour’s […]

For before Eve was Lilith–Old Tale. These were never your true love’s eyes. Why do you feign that you love them? You that broke from their constancies, And the wide calm brows above them! This was never your true love’s speech. Why do you thrill when you hear it? You that have ridden out of […]

PRIMITIVE I ate my fill of a whale that died, And stranded after a month at sea…. There is a pain in my inside. Why have the Gods afflicted me? Ow! I am purged till I am a wraith! Wow! I am sick till I cannot see! What is the sense of Religion and Faith? […]

1911 When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride, He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside. But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail For the female of the species is more deadly than the male. When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of […]

‘Ille autem iterum negavit.‘ The first time that Peter denied his Lord He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord, But followed far off to see what they would do, Till the cock crew–till the cock crew– After Gethsemane, till the cock crew! The first time that Peter denied his Lord ‘Twas only […]

OCTOBER 1918 Across a world where all men grieve And grieving strive the more, The great days range like tides and leave Our dead on every shore. Heavy the load we undergo, And our own hands prepare, If we have parley with the foe, The load our sons must bear. Before we loose the word […]

1909 Here was a people whom after their works thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion: and in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. The Arabian Nights In a land that the sand overlays–the ways to her gates are untrod– A multitude ended their days whose fates […]

‘EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE’ A. ‘I was a “have.”‘ B. ‘I was a “have-not.”‘ (Together) ‘What hast thou given which I gave not?’ A SERVANT We were together since the War began He was my servant–and the better man. A SON My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I would I knew What it […]

To our private taste, there is always something a little exotic, almost artificial, in songs which, under an English aspect and dress, are yet so manifestly the product of other skies. They affect us liketranslations; the very fauna and flora are alien, remote; the dog’s-tooth violet is but an ill substitute for the rathe primrose, […]