Collected Poems Volume II Part 73

We have lived our lives and G.o.d be thanked we go Together thro' this darkness. We shall wake, Please G.o.d, together. It is growing darker!

I cannot see your faces. Give me my bow Quickly into my hands, for my strength fails And I must shoot one last shaft on the trail Of yonder setting sun, never to reach it!

But where this last, last bolt of all my strength, My hope, my love, shall fall, there bury us both, Together, and tread the green turf over us!

The bow!

[_SCARLET hands him his bow. He stands against the faint glow of the window, draws the bow to full length, shoots and falls back into the arms of LITTLE JOHN._]

LITTLE JOHN

[_Laying him down._]

Weep, England, for thine outlawed lover, Dear Robin Hood, the poor man's friend, is dead.

[_The scene becomes quite dark. Then out of the darkness, and as if at a distance, the voice of SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF is heard singing the fairy song of the first scene. The fairy glade in Sherwood begins to be visible in the gloom by the soft light of the ivory gates which are swinging open once more among the ferns. As the scene grows clearer the song of SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF grows more and more triumphant and is gradually caught up by the chorus of the fairy host within the woods._]

[_Song of SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF._]

I

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

The world begins again!

And O, the red of the roses, And the rush of the healing rain!

II

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

The Princess wakes from sleep; For the soft green keys of the wood-land Have opened her donjon-keep!

III

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

Their grey walls hemmed us round; But, under my greenwood oceans, Their castles are trampled and drowned.

IV

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

My green sprays climbed on high, And the ivy laid hold on their turrets And haled them down from the sky!

V

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

They were strong! They are overthrown!

For the little soft hands of the wild-flowers Have broken them, stone by stone.

VI

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

Though Robin lie dead, lie dead, And the green turf by Kirklee Lie light over Marian's head,

VII

Green ferns on the crimson sky-line, What bugle have you heard?

Was it only the peal of the blue-bells, Was it only the call of a bird?

VIII

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

The rose o'er the fortalice floats!

My nightingales chant in their chapels, My lilies have bridged their moats!

IX

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

King Death, in the light of the sun, Shrinks like an elfin shadow!

His reign is over and done!

X

The hawthorn whitens the wood-land; My lovers, awake, awake, Shake off the gra.s.s-green coverlet, Glide, bare-foot, thro' the brake!

XI

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

And, under the great green boughs, I have found out a place for my lovers, I have built them a beautiful house.

XII

Green ferns in the dawn-red dew-fall, This gift by my death I give,-- They shall wander immortal thro' Sherwood!

In my great green house they shall live!

XIII

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

When the first wind blows from the South, They shall meet by the Gates of Faerie!

She shall set her mouth to his mouth!

XIV

He shall gather her, fold her and keep her; They shall pa.s.s thro' the Gates, they shall live!

For the Forest, the Forest has conquered!