(Song of the breeding Seal. Aleutian Islands) I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!) Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell rolled. I heard them lift the chorus that drowned the breakers’ song– The Beaches of Lukannon–two million voices strong! The song of pleasant stations beside the salt […]

To the Heavens above us O look and behold The Planets that love us All harnessed in gold! What chariots, what horses, Against us shall bide While the Stars in their courses Do fight on our side? All thought, all desires, That are under the sun, Are one with their fires, As we also are […]

Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees! ‘Hide from your neighbours as much as you please, But all that has happened, to us you must tell, Or else we will give you no honey to sell!’ A maiden in her glory, Upon her wedding-day, Must tell her Bees the story, Or else they’ll fly away. Fly […]

I There runs a road by Merrow Down– A grassy track to-day it is– An hour out of Guildford town, Above the river Wey it is. Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, The ancient Britons dressed and rode To watch the dark Phoenicians bring Their goods along the Western Road. Yes, here, or hereabouts, […]

‘Old Mother Laidinwool had nigh twelve months been dead. She heard the hops was doing well, an’ so popped up her head,’ For said she: ‘The lads I’ve picked with when I was young and fair, They’re bound to be at hopping and I’m bound to meet ’em there!’ Let me up and go Back […]

(A Country Dance) Queen Bess was Harry’s daughter. Stand forward partners all! She danced King Philip down-a down, And left her shoe to show ’twas true– (The very tune I’m playing you) In Norgem at Brickwall! The Queen was in her chamber, and she was middling old, Her petticoat was satin, and her stomacher was […]

Valour and Innocence Have latterly gone hence To certain death by certain shame attended. Envy–ah! even to tears!– The fortune of their years Which, though so few, yet so divinely ended. Scarce had they lifted up Life’s full and fiery cup, Than they had set it down untouched before them. Before their day arose They […]

Over the edge of the purple down, Where the single lamplight gleams. Know ye the road to the Merciful Town That is hard by the Sea of Dreams– Where the poor may lay their wrongs away, And the sick may forget to-weep? But we–pity us! Oh, pity us! We wakeful; ah, pity us!– We must […]

For a season there must be pain– For a little, little space I shall lose the sight of her face, Take back the old life again While She is at rest in her place. For a season this pain must endure– For a little, little while I shall sigh more often than smile, Till Time […]

From the wheel and the drift of Things Deliver us, Good Lord, And we will face the wrath of Kings, The faggot and the sword! Lay not Thy Works before our eyes, Nor vex us with Thy Wars, Lest we should feel the straining skies O’ertrod by trampling stars. Hold us secure behind the gates […]

The Stranger within my gate, He may be true or kind. But he does not talk my talk– I cannot feel his mind. I see the face and the eyes and the mouth, But not the soul behind. The men of my own stock They may do ill or well, But they tell the lies […]

Der jungere Uhlanen Sit round mit open mouth While Breitmann tell dem stories Of fightin’ in the South; Und gif dem moral lessons, How before der battle pops, Take a little prayer to Himmel Und a goot long drink of Schnapps. Hans Breitmann’s Ballads. “Mary, Mother av Mercy, fwhat the divil possist us to take […]

“An officer and a gentleman.” His full name was Percival William Williams, but he picked up the other name in a nursery-book, and that was the end of the christened titles. His mother’s ayah called him Willie-Baba, but as he never paid the faintest attention to anything that the ayah said, her wisdom did not […]

Narrow as the womb, deep as the Pit, and dark as the heart of a man.–Sonthal Miner’s Proverb. “A weaver went out to reap but stayed to unravel the corn-stalks. Ha! Ha! Ha! Is there any sense in a weaver?” Janki Meah glared at Kundoo, but, as Janki Meah was blind, Kundoo was not impressed. […]

Tweed said tae Till: “What gars ye rin sae Still?” Till said tae Tweed: “Though ye rin wi’ speed An’ I rin slaw– Yet where ye droon ae man I droon twa.” There is no getting over the river to-night, Sahib. They say that a bullock-cart has been washed down already, and the ekka that […]

Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was upon the town-wall, and she dwelt upon the wall.–Joshua ii. 15. Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world. Lilith was her very-great-grandmamma, and that was before the days of Eve as every one knows. In […]

By the hoof of the Wild Goat up-tossed From the Cliff where She lay in the Sun, Fell the Stone To the Tarn where the daylight is lost; So She fell from the light of the Sun, And alone. Now the fall was ordained from the first, With the Goat and the Cliff and the […]

“Where the word of a King is, there is power: And who may say unto him–What doest thou?” “Yeth! And Chimo to sleep at ve foot of ve bed, and ve pink pikky-book, and ve bwead–’cause I will be hungwy in ve night–and vat’s all, Miss Biddums. And now give me one kiss and I’ll […]

To the wake av Tim O’Hara Came company, All St. Patrick’s Alley Was there to see. Robert Buchanan. As the Three Musketeers share their silver, tobacco, and liquor together, as they protect each other in barracks or camp, and as they rejoice together over the joy of one, so do they divide their sorrows. When […]

So we loosed a bloomin’ volley, An’ we made the beggars cut, An’ when our pouch was emptied out. We used the bloomin’ butt, Ho! My! Don’t yer come anigh, When Tommy is a playin’ with the baynit an’ the butt. –Barrack Room Ballad. My friend Private Mulvaney told me this, sitting on the parapet […]