Love Letters of a Violinist and Other Poems Part 20

We two (my Love and I) are one, And so shall be, for aye and aye.

Go, take my homage to the sun, And bid him s.h.i.+ne his best to-day, To crown my Lady of the May!

AN ODE TO ENGLISHMEN.

I.

I who have sung of love and lady bright And mirth and music and the world's delight, Behold! to-day, I sound a sterner note To move the minds of foemen when they fight.

II.

Have I not said: There is no sweeter thing, And none diviner than the wedding-ring?

And, all intent to make my meaning plain, Have I not kiss'd the lips of Love, the King?

III.

Yea, this is so. But lo! to-day there comes The far-off sound of trumpets and of drums; And I must parley with the men of toil Who rise in ranks exultant from the slums.

IV.

I must arraign each man; yea, all the host; And each true soul shall learn the least and most Of all his wrongs,--if wrongs indeed they be; And he shall face the flag that guards the coast.

V.

He shall salute it! He shall find therein Salve for his wounds and solace for his sin.

Brother and guide is he who loves his Land; But he is kinless who denies his kin.

VI.

Has he a heart to feel, a knee to bend, And will not trust his country to the end?

If this be so, G.o.d help him to a tear!

He shall be foiled, as foeman and as friend.

VII.

Bears he a sword? I care not. He is base; Unfit to wield it, and of meaner place Than tongue can tell of, in the Senate House; And he shall find no balm for his disgrace.

VIII.

O men! I charge ye, in the name of Him Who rules the world, and guards the cherubim, I charge ye, pause, ere from the lighted track Ye turn, distraught, to pathways that are dim.

IX.

Who gave your fathers, and your fathers' sons The rights ye claim, amid the roar of guns, And 'mid the flash thereof from sea to sea?

Your country! through her lov'd, her chosen ones.

X.

Oh, ye are dastards if ye lift a hand, Dastards and fools, if, loveless in a band, Ye touch in wrath the bulwark of the realm.

Ye shall be baulk'd, and Chivalry shall stand.

XI.

I have a sword, I also, and I swear By my heart's faith, and by my Lady's hair, That I will strike the first of ye that moves, If by a sign ye wrong the flag ye bear.

XII.

In Freedom's name, in her's to whom we bow, In her great name, I charge ye, palter now With no traducer of your country's cause.

Accurst of G.o.d is he who breaks his vow!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

ZULALIE.

I.

I am the sprite That reigns at night, My body is fair for man's delight.

I leap and laugh As the wine I quaff, And I am the queen of Astrofelle.

II.

I curse and swear In my demon-lair; I shake wild sunbeams out of my hair.

I madden the old, I gladden the bold, And I am the queen of Astrofelle.

III.

Of churchyard stone I have made my throne; My locks are looped with a dead man's bone.

Mine eyes are red With the tears I shed, And I am the queen of Astrofelle.