Songs from Books Part 15

LIFE'S HANDICAP

The doors were wide, the story saith, Out of the night came the patient wraith.

He might not speak, and he could not stir A hair of the Baron's minniver.

Speechless and strengthless, a shadow thin, He roved the castle to find his kin.

And oh! 'twas a piteous sight to see The dumb ghost follow his enemy!

_The Return of Imray._

Before my spring I garnered autumn's gain, Out of her time my field was white with grain, The year gave up her secrets, to my woe.

Forced and deflowered each sick season lay In mystery of increase and decay; I saw the sunset ere men see the day, Who am too wise in all I should not know.

_Without Benefit of Clergy._

KIM

Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised, With idiot moons and stars retracting stars?

Creep thou between--thy coming's all unnoised.

Heaven hath her high, as Earth her baser, wars.

Heir to these tumults, this affright, that fray (By Adam's, fathers', own, sin bound alway); Peer up, draw out thy horoscope and say Which planet mends thy threadbare fate, or mars.

MANY INVENTIONS

And if ye doubt the tale I tell, Steer through the South Pacific swell; Go where the branching coral hives Unending strife of endless lives, Where, leagued about the 'wildered boat, The rainbow jellies fill and float; And, lilting where the laver lingers, The starfish trips on all her fingers; Where, 'neath his myriad spines ashock, The sea-egg ripples down the rock; An orange wonder daily guessed, From darkness where the cuttles rest, Moored o'er the darker deeps that hide The blind white sea-snake and his bride Who, drowsing, nose the long-lost s.h.i.+ps Let down through darkness to their lips.

_A Matter of Fact._

There's a convict more in the Central Jail, Behind the old mud wall; There's a lifter less on the Border trail, And the Queen's peace over all, Dear boys, The Queen's peace over all!

For we must bear our leader's blame, On us the shame will fall, If we lift our hand from a fettered land And the Queen's peace over all, Dear boys, The Queen's peace over all!

_The Lost Legion._

'Less you want your toes trod off you'd better get back at once, For the bullocks are walking two by two, The _byles_ are walking two by two, And the elephants bring the guns.

Ho! Yuss!

Great--big--long--black--forty-pounder guns: Jiggery-jolty to and fro, Each as big as a launch in tow-- Blind--dumb--broad-breeched--beggars o' battering-guns.

_My Lord the Elephant._

All the world over, nursing their scars, Sit the old fighting-men broke in the wars-- Sit the old fighting men, surly and grim Mocking the lilt of the conquerors' hymn.

Dust of the battle o'erwhelmed them and hid.

Fame never found them for aught that they did.

Wounded and spent to the lazar they drew, Lining the road where the Legions roll through.

Sons of the Laurel who press to your meed, (Worthy G.o.d's pity most--ye who succeed!) Ere you go triumphing, crowned, to the stars, Pity poor fighting men, broke in the wars!

_Collected_.

SONG OF THE FIFTH RIVER

When first by Eden Tree, The Four Great Rivers ran, To each was appointed a Man Her Prince and Ruler to be.

But after this was ordained, (The ancient legends tell), There came dark Israel, For whom no River remained.

Then He Whom the Rivers obey Said to him: 'Fling on the ground A handful of yellow clay, And a Fifth Great River shall run, Mightier than these Four, In secret the Earth around; And Her secret evermore, Shall be shown to thee and thy Race.'

So it was said and done.

And deep in the veins of Earth, And, fed by a thousand springs That comfort the market-place, Or sap the power of Kings, The Fifth Great River had birth, Even as it was foretold-- The Secret River of Gold!

And Israel laid down His sceptre and his crown, To brood on that River's bank, Where the waters flashed and sank, And burrowed in earth and fell, And bided a season below, For reason that none might know, Save only Israel.

He is Lord of the Last-- The Fifth, most wonderful, Flood.

He hears Her thunder past And Her Song is in his blood.

He can foresay: 'She will fall,'

For he knows which fountain dries.

Behind which desert-belt A thousand leagues to the South.

He can foresay: 'She will rise.'

He knows what far snows melt; Along what mountain-wall A thousand leagues to the North.

He snuffs the coming drouth As he snuffs the coming rain, He knows what each will bring forths And turns it to his gain.

A Ruler without a Throne, A Prince without a Sword, Israel follows his quest.

In every land a guest, Of many lands a lord, In no land King is he.

But the Fifth Great River keeps The secret of Her deeps For Israel alone, As it was ordered to be.

THE CHILDREN'S SONG

Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee Our love and toil in the years to be; When we are grown and take our place, As men and women with our race.