General William Booth Enters into Heaven : and other poems Part 10

There wrapped in fur we lay, Half-burned, half-frozen still-- Ne'er will my soul forget All the night's bitter chill.

We had not learned to speak, I was to you a strange Wolfling or wounded fawn, Lost from his forest-range.

Thirsting for b.l.o.o.d.y meat, Out at the dawn we went.

Weighed with our prey at eve, Home-came we all forespent.

Comrades and hunters tried Ere we were maid and man-- Not till the spring awoke Laughter and speech began.

Whining like forest dogs, Rustling like budding trees, Bubbling like thawing springs, Humming like little bees, Crooning like Maytime tides, Chattering parrot words, Crying the panther's cry, Chirping like mating birds-- Thus, thus, we learned to speak, Who mid the snows were dumb, Nor did we learn to kiss Until the Spring had come.

Genesis

I was but a half-grown boy, You were a girl-child slight.

Ah, how weary you were!

You had led in the bullock-fight . . .

We slew the bullock at length With knives and maces of stone.

And so your feet were torn, Your lean arms bruised to the bone.

Perhaps 'twas the slain beast's blood We drank, or a root we ate, Or our reveling evening bath In the fall by the garden gate, But you turned to a witching thing, Side-glancing, and frightened me; You purred like a panther's cub, You sighed like a sh.e.l.l from the sea.

We knelt. I caressed your hair By the light of the leaping fire: Your fierce eyes blinked with smoke, Pine-fumes, that enhanced desire.

I helped to unbraid your hair In wonder and fear profound: You were humming your hunting tune As it swept to the gra.s.sy ground.

Our comrades, the s.h.a.ggy bear, The tiger with velvet feet, The lion, crept to the light Whining for bullock meat.

We fed them and stroked their necks . . .

They took their way to the fen Where they hunted or hid all night; No enemies, they, of men.

Evil had entered not The cobra, since defiled.

He watched, when the beasts had gone Our kissing and singing wild.

Beautiful friend he was, Sage, not a tempter grim.

Many a year should pa.s.s Ere Satan should enter him.

He danced while the evening dove And the nightingale kept in tune.

I sang of the angel sun: You sang of the angel-moon: We sang of the ANGEL-CHIEF Who blew thro' the trees strange breath, Who helped in the hunt all day And granted the bullock's death.

O Eve with the fire-lit breast And child-face red and white!

I heaped the great logs high!

That was our bridal night.

Queen Mab in the Village

Once I loved a fairy, Queen Mab it was. Her voice Was like a little Fountain That bids the birds rejoice.

Her face was wise and solemn, Her hair was brown and fine.

Her dress was pansy velvet, A b.u.t.terfly design.

To see her hover round me Or walk the hills of air, Awakened love's deep pulses And boyhood's first despair; A pa.s.sion like a sword-blade That pierced me thro' and thro': Her fingers healed the sorrow Her whisper would renew.

We sighed and reigned and feasted Within a hollow tree, We vowed our love was boundless, Eternal as the sea.

She banished from her kingdom The mortal boy I grew-- So tall and crude and noisy, I killed gra.s.shoppers too.

I threw big rocks at pigeons, I plucked and tore apart The weeping, wailing daisies, And broke my lady's heart.

At length I grew to manhood, I scarcely could believe I ever loved the lady, Or caused her court to grieve, Until a dream came to me, One bleak first night of Spring, Ere tides of apple blossoms Rolled in o'er everything, While rain and sleet and s...o...b..nks Were still a-vexing men, Ere robin and his comrades Were nesting once again.

I saw Mab's Book of Judgment-- Its clasps were iron and stone, Its leaves were mammoth ivory, Its boards were mammoth bone,-- Hid in her seaside mountains, Forgotten or unkept, Beneath its mighty covers Her wrath against me slept.

And deeply I repented Of brash and boyish crime, Of murder of things lovely Now and in olden time.

I cursed my vain ambition, My would-be worldly days, And craved the paths of wonder, Of dewy dawns and fays.

I cried, "Our love was boundless, Eternal as the sea, O Queen, reverse the sentence, Come back and master me!"

The book was by the cliff-side Upon its edge upright.

I laid me by it softly, And wept throughout the night.

And there at dawn I saw it, No book now, but a door, Upon its panels written, "Judgment is no more."

The bolt flew back with thunder, I saw within that place A mermaid wrapped in seaweed With Mab's immortal face, Yet grown now to a woman, A woman to the knee.

She cried, she clasped me fondly, We soon were in the sea.

Ah, she was wise and subtle, And gay and strong and sleek, We chained the wicked sword-fish, We played at hide and seek.

We floated on the water, We heard the dawn-wind sing, I made from ocean-wonders, Her bridal wreath and ring.

All mortal girls were shadows, All earth-life but a mist, When deep beneath the maelstrom, The mermaid's heart I kissed.

I woke beside the church-door Of our small inland town, Bowing to a maiden In a pansy-velvet gown, Who had not heard of fairies, Yet seemed of love to dream.

We planned an earthly cottage Beside an earthly stream.

Our wedding long is over, With toil the years fill up, Yet in the evening silence, We drink a deep-sea cup.

Nothing the fay remembers, Yet when she turns to me, We meet beneath the whirlpool, We swim the golden sea.

The Dandelion

O dandelion, rich and haughty, King of village flowers!

Each day is coronation time, You have no humble hours.

I like to see you bring a troop To beat the blue-gra.s.s spears, To scorn the lawn-mower that would be Like fate's triumphant shears.

Your yellow heads are cut away, It seems your reign is o'er.

By noon you raise a sea of stars More golden than before.

The Light o' the Moon

[How different people and different animals look upon the moon: showing that each creature finds in it his own mood and disposition]

The Old Horse in the City