“Farewell, Romance!” the Cave-men said; “With bone well carved he went away, Flint arms the ignoble arrowhead, And jasper tips the spear to-day. Changed are the Gods of Hunt and Dance, And he with these. Farewell, Romance!” “Farewell, Romance!” the Lake-folk sighed; “We lift the weight of flatling years; The caverns of the mountain-side Hold […]

Away by the lands of the Japanee Where the paper lanterns glow And the crews of all the shipping drink In the house of Blood Street Joe, At twilight, when the landward breeze Brings up the harbour noise, And ebb of Yokohama Bay Swigs chattering through the buoys, In Cisco’s Dewdrop Dining-Rooms They tell the […]

A Rose, in tatters on the garden path, Cried out to God and murmured ‘gainst His Wrath, Because a sudden wind at twilight’s hush Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush. And God, Who hears both sun-dried dust and sun, Had pity, whispering to that luckless one, “Sister, in that thou sayest We […]

And reports the derelict Mary Pollock still at sea SHIPPING NEWS. I was the staunchest of our fleet Till the sea rose beneath our feet Unheralded, in hatred past all measure. Into his pits he stamped my crew, Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw, Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure. Man made me, and my […]

The Liner she’s a lady, an’ she never looks nor ‘eeds — The Man-o’-War’s ‘er ‘usband, an’ ‘e gives ‘er all she needs; But, oh, the little cargo-boats, that sail the wet seas roun’, They’re just the same as you an’ me a-plyin’ up an’ down! Plyin’ up an’ down, Jenny, ‘angin’ round the Yard, […]

You couldn’t pack a Broadwood half a mile — You mustn’t leave a fiddle in the damp — You couldn’t raft an organ up the Nile, And play it in an Equatorial swamp. I travel with the cooking-pots and pails — I’m sandwiched ‘tween the coffee and the pork — And when the dusty column […]

The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea, An’ the pens broke up on the lower deck an’ let the creatures free — An’ the lights went out on the lower deck, an’ no one near but me. I had been singin’ to them to keep ’em quiet there, For […]

There’s a Legion that never was ‘listed, That carries no colours or crest, But, split in a thousand detachments, Is breaking the road for the rest. Our fathers they left us their blessing — They taught us, and groomed us, and crammed; But we’ve shaken the Clubs and the Messes To go and find out […]

Heh! Walk her round. Heave, ah heave her short again! Over, snatch her over, there, and hold her on the pawl. Loose all sail, and brace your yards back and full — Ready jib to pay her off and heave short all! Well, ah fare you well; we can stay no more with you, my […]

There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate, And a wealthy wife is she; She breeds a breed o’ rovin’ men And casts them over sea. And some are drowned in deep water, And some in sight o’ shore, And word goes back to the weary wife And ever she sends more. For since that […]

The earth is full of anger, The seas are dark with wrath, The Nations in their harness Go up against our path: Ere yet we loose the legions — Ere yet we draw the blade, Jehovah of the Thunders, Lord God of Battles, aid! High lust and froward bearing, Proud heart, rebellious brow — Deaf […]

Thy face is far from this our war, Our call and counter-cry, I shall not find Thee quick and kind, Nor know Thee till I die, Enough for me in dreams to see And touch Thy garments’ hem: Thy feet have trod so near to God I may not follow them. Through wantonness if men […]

The King has called for priest and cup, The King has taken spur and blade To dub True Thomas a belted knight, And all for the sake o’ the songs he made. They have sought him high, they have sought him low, They have sought him over down and lea; They have found him by […]

In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage For food and fame and woolly horses’ pelt; I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man, And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt. Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric spring Made the piled […]

Once, on a glittering ice-field, ages and ages ago, Ung, a maker of pictures, fashioned an image of snow. Fashioned the form of a tribesman — gaily he whistled and sung, Working the snow with his fingers. Read ye the Story of Ung! Pleased was his tribe with that image — came in their hundreds […]

“The three-volume novel is extinct.” Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail. It cost a watch to steer her, and a week to shorten sail; But, spite all modern notions, I found her first and best — The only certain packet for the Islands of the Blest. Fair held the breeze behind us […]

The American Spirit speaks: “If the Led Striker call it a strike, Or the papers call it a war, They know not much what I am like, Nor what he is, my Avatar.” Through many roads, by me possessed, He shambles forth in cosmic guise; He is the Jester and the Jest, And he the […]

I’ve paid for your sickest fancies; I’ve humoured your crackedest whim — Dick, it’s your daddy, dying; you’ve got to listen to him! Good for a fortnight, am I? The doctor told you? He lied. I shall go under by morning, and — Put that nurse outside. ‘Never seen death yet, Dickie? Well, now is […]

Speakin’ in general, I ‘ave tried ’em all, The ‘appy roads that take you o’er the world. Speakin’ in general, I ‘ave found them good For such as cannot use one bed too long, But must get ‘ence, the same as I ‘ave done, An’ go observin’ matters till they die. What do it matter […]

Your Gods and my Gods?—do you or I know which are the stronger? —Native Proverb. EAST of Suez, some hold, the direct control of Providence ceases; Man being there handed over to the power of the Gods and Devils of Asia, and the Church of England Providence only exercising an occasional and modified supervision in […]