When a night in NovemberBlew forth its bleared airsAn infant descendedHis birth-chamber stairsFor the very first time,At the still, midnight chime;All unapprehendedHis mission, his aim. –Thus, first, one November,An infant descendedThe stairs. On a night in NovemberOf weariful cares,A frail aged figureAscended those stairsFor the very last time:All gone his life’s prime,All vanished his vigour,And […]

Pet was never mourned as you,Purrer of the spotless hue,Plumy tail, and wistful gazeWhile you humoured our queer ways,Or outshrilled your morning callUp the stairs and through the hall –Foot suspended in its fall –While, expectant, you would standArched, to meet the stroking hand;Till your way you chose to wendYonder, to your tragic end. Never […]

I We are budding, Master, budding,We of your favourite tree;March drought and April floodingArouse us merrily,Our stemlets newly studding;And yet you do not see! II We are fully woven for summerIn stuff of limpest green,The twitterer and the hummerHere rest of nights, unseen,While like a long-roll drummerThe nightjar thrills the treen. III We are turning […]

There it stands, though alas, what a little of herShows in its cold white look!Not her glance, glide, or smile; not a tittle of herVoice like the purl of a brook;Not her thoughts, that you read like a book. It may stand for her once in NovemberWhen first she breathed, witless of all;Or in heavy […]

I sat at dinner in my prime,And glimpsed my face in the sideboard-glass,And started as if I had seen a crime,And prayed the ghastly show might pass. Wrenched wrinkled features met my sight,Grinning back to me as my own;I well-nigh fainted with affrightAt finding me a haggard crone. My husband laughed. He had slily setA […]

What did it mean that noontide, whenYou bade me pluck the flowerWithin the other woman’s bower,Whom I knew nought of then? I thought the flower blushed deeplier–aye,And as I drew its stalk to meIt seemed to breathe: “I am, I see,Made use of in a human play.” And while I plucked, upstarted sheerAs phantom from […]

Lonely her fate was,Environed from sightIn the house where the gate wasPast finding at night.None there to share it,No one to tell:Long she’d to bear it,And bore it well. Elsewhere just so sheSpent many a day;Wishing to go sheContinued to stay.And people withoutBasked warm in the air,But none sought her out,Or knew she was there.Even […]

(SONG) If grief come earlyJoy comes late,If joy come earlyGrief will wait;Aye, my dear and tender! Wise ones joy them earlyWhile the cheeks are red,Banish grief till surlyTime has dulled their dread. And joy being oursEre youth has flown,The later hoursMay find us gone;Aye, my dear and tender!

(A Fiddler’s story) Little fogs were gathered in every hollow,But the purple hillocks enjoyed fine weatherAs we marched with our fiddles over the heather– How it comes back!–to their wedding that day. Our getting there brought our neighbours and all, O!Till, two and two, the couples stood ready.And her father said: “Souls, for God’s sake, […]

I am laughing by the brook with her,Splashed in its tumbling stir;And then it is a blankness loomsAs if I walked not there,Nor she, but found me in haggard rooms,And treading a lonely stair. With radiant cheeks and rapid eyesWe sit where none espies;Till a harsh change comes edging inAs no such scene were there,But […]

Vagg Hollow is a marshy spot on the old Roman Road near Ilchester, where “things” are seen. Merchandise was formerly fetched inland from the canal-boats at Load-Bridge by waggons this way. “What do you see in Vagg Hollow,Little boy, when you goIn the morning at five on your lonely drive?”“–I see men’s souls, who followTill […]

Creak, little wood thing, creak,When I touch you with elbow or knee;That is the way you speakOf one who gave you to me! You, little table, she brought –Brought me with her own hand,As she looked at me with a thoughtThat I did not understand. – Whoever owns it anon,And hears it, will never knowWhat […]

I lay in my bed and fiddledWith a dreamland viol and bow,And the tunes flew back to my fingersI had melodied years ago.It was two or three in the morningWhen I fancy-fiddled soLong reels and country-dances,And hornpipes swift and slow. And soon anon came crossingThe chamber in the grayFigures of jigging fieldfolk –Saviours of corn […]

(To an old air) “O I won’t lead a homely lifeAs father’s Jack and mother’s Jill,But I will be a fiddler’s wife,With music mine at will!Just a little tune,Another one soon,As I merrily fling my fill!” And she became a fiddler’s Dear,And merry all day she strove to be;And he played and played afar and […]

It was what you bore with you, Woman,Not inly were,That throned you from all else human,However fair! It was that strange freshness you carriedInto a soulWhereon no thought of yours tarriedTwo moments at all. And out from his spirit flew death,And bale, and ban,Like the corn-chaff under the breathOf the winnowing-fan.

There is a house in a city streetSome past ones made their own;Its floors were criss-crossed by their feet,And their babblings beatFrom ceiling to white hearth-stone. And who are peopling its parlours now?Who talk across its floor?Mere freshlings are they, blank of brow,Who read not howIts prime had passed before Their raw equipments, scenes, and […]

I see the ghost of a perished day;I know his face, and the feel of his dawn:‘Twas he who took me far awayTo a spot strange and gray:Look at me, Day, and then pass on,But come again: yes, come anon! Enters another into view;His features are not cold or white,But rosy as a vein seen […]

In a heavy time I dogged myselfAlong a louring way,Till my leading self to my following selfSaid: “Why do you hang on meSo harassingly?” “I have watched you, Heart of mine,” I cried,“So often going astrayAnd leaving me, that I have pursued,Feeling such truancyOught not to be.” He said no more, and I dogged him […]

There was a singing womanCame riding across the meadAt the time of the mild May weather,Tameless, tireless;This song she sung: “I am fair, I am young!”And many turned to heed. And the same singing womanSat crooning in her needAt the time of the winter weather;Friendless, fireless,She sang this song: “Life, thou’rt too long!”And there was […]

(CLUB SONG) I knew a lady when the daysGrew long, and evenings goldened;But I was not emboldenedBy her prompt eyes and winning ways. And when old Winter nipt the haws,“Another’s wife I’ll be,And then you’ll care for me,”She said, “and think how sweet I was!” And soon she shone as another’s wife:As such I often […]