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<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <div class='figcenter id001'> <ANTIMG src='images/cover.jpg' alt='bookcover' class='ig001' /></div> <div class='lg-container-b c000'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>This is the first book issued by The Beaumont Press</div> <div class='line'>20 copies have been printed on Japanese vellum</div> <div class='line'>signed by the author and numbered 1 to 20 and</div> <div class='line'>250 copies on hand-made paper numbered 21 to 270</div> <div class='line'>This is No. 232</div> </div></div> </div> <div> <h1 class='c001'><b><span class='xxlarge'>TIDES</span></b></h1></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center c002'> <div><b><span class='large'>A BOOK OF POEMS BY</span></b></div> <div class='c003'><b><span class='xlarge'>JOHN DRINKWATER</span></b></div> </div></div> <div class='chapter'> <h2 id='dedication' class='c004'><b><span class='large'>DEDICATION</span></b> <br/> <br/> <b><span class='large'>TO GENERAL SIR IAN HAMILTON</span></b></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-b c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Because the darling chivalries,</div> <div class='line'>That light your battle-line, belong</div> <div class='line'>To music’s heart no less than these,</div> <div class='line'>I bring you my campaigns of song.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <h2 class='c004'>CONTENTS</h2></div> <table class='table0' summary=''> <colgroup> <col width='77%' /> <col width='22%' /> </colgroup> <tr> <td class='c005'> </td> <td class='c006'>Page</td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>DEDICATION</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#dedication'>5</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>A MAN’S DAUGHTER</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>There is an old woman who looks each night</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#daughter'>9</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>VENUS IN ARDEN</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>Now Love, her mantle thrown,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#arden'>11</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>COTSWOLD LOVE</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>Blue skies are over Cotswold</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#love'>12</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>THE MIDLANDS</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>Black in the summer night my Cotswold hill</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#midlands'>13</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>MAY GARDEN</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>A shower of green gems on my apple tree</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#garden'>15</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>PLOUGH</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>The snows are come in early state,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#plough'>16</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>POLITICS</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>You say a thousand things,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#politics'>17</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>BIRMINGHAM—1916</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>Once Athens worked and went to see the play,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#birmingham'>19</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>INSCRIPTION FOR A WAR MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>They nothing feared whose names I celebrate.</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#fountain'>20</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>TREASON</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>What time I write my roundelays,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#treason'>21</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>MY ESTATE</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>I have four loves, four loves are mine,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#estate'>22</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>WITH DAFFODILS</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>I send you daffodils, my dear,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#daffodils'>23</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>FOR A GUEST ROOM</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>All words are said,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#room'>24</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>ON READING THE MS. OF DOROTHY WORDSWORTH’S JOURNALS</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>To-day I read the poet’s sister’s book,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#journals'>25</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>THE OLD WARRIOR</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>Sorrow has come to me,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#warrior'>26</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>THE GUEST</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>Sometimes I feel that death is very near,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#guest'>27</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>REVERIE</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>Here in the unfrequented noon,</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#reverie'>28</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>PENANCES</td> <td class='c006'> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class='c007'>These are my happy penances. To make</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#penances'>36</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class='c005'>COLOPHON</td> <td class='c006'><SPAN href='#colophon'>37</SPAN></td> </tr> </table> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span> <h2 id='daughter' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>A MAN’S DAUGHTER</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>There is an old woman who looks each night</div> <div class='line in10'>Out of the wood.</div> <div class='line'>She has one tooth, that isn’t too white.</div> <div class='line in10'>She isn’t too good.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>She came from the north looking for me,</div> <div class='line in10'>About my jewel.</div> <div class='line'>Her son, she says, is tall as can be;</div> <div class='line in10'>But, men say, cruel.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>My girl went northward, holiday making,</div> <div class='line in10'>And a queer man spoke</div> <div class='line'>At the woodside once when night was breaking,</div> <div class='line in10'>And her heart broke.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>For ever since she has pined and pined,</div> <div class='line in10'>A sorry maid;</div> <div class='line'>Her fingers are slack as the wool they wind,</div> <div class='line in10'>Or her girdle-braid.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>So now shall I send her north to wed,</div> <div class='line in10'>Who here may know</div> <div class='line'>Only the little house of the dead</div> <div class='line in10'>To ease her woe?</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Or keep her for fear of that old woman,</div> <div class='line in10'>As a bird quick-eyed,</div> <div class='line'>And her tall son who is hardly human,</div> <div class='line in10'>At the woodside?</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>She is my babe and my daughter dear,</div> <div class='line in10'>How well, how well.</div> <div class='line'>Her grief to me is a fourfold fear,</div> <div class='line in10'>Tongue cannot tell.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And yet I know that far in that wood</div> <div class='line in10'>Are crumbling bones,</div> <div class='line'>And a mumble mumble of nothing that’s good,</div> <div class='line in10'>In heathen tones.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And I know that frail ghosts flutter and sigh</div> <div class='line in10'>In brambles there,</div> <div class='line'>And never a bird or beast to cry—</div> <div class='line in10'>Beware, beware,—</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>While threading the silent thickets go</div> <div class='line in10'>Mother and son,</div> <div class='line'>Where scrupulous berries never grow,</div> <div class='line in10'>And airs are none.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And her deep eyes peer at eventide</div> <div class='line in10'>Out of the wood,</div> <div class='line'>And her tall son waits by the dark woodside,</div> <div class='line in10'>For maidenhood.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And the little eyes peer, and peer, and peer;</div> <div class='line in10'>And a word is said.</div> <div class='line'>And some house knows, for many a year,</div> <div class='line in10'>But years of dread.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span> <h2 id='arden' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>VENUS IN ARDEN</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Now love, her mantle thrown,</div> <div class='line in4'>Goes naked by,</div> <div class='line'>Threading the woods alone,</div> <div class='line in4'>Her royal eye</div> <div class='line'>Happy because the primroses again</div> <div class='line'>Break on the winter continence of men.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I saw her pass to-day</div> <div class='line in4'>In Warwickshire,</div> <div class='line'>With the old imperial way,</div> <div class='line in4'>The old desire,</div> <div class='line'>Fresh as among those other flowers they went,</div> <div class='line'>More beautiful for Adon’s discontent.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Those other years she made</div> <div class='line in4'>Her festival</div> <div class='line'>When the blue eggs were laid</div> <div class='line in4'>And lambs were tall,</div> <div class='line'>By the Athenian rivers while the reeds</div> <div class='line'>Made love melodious for the Ganymedes.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And now through Cantlow brakes,</div> <div class='line in4'>By Wilmcote hill,</div> <div class='line'>To Avon-side, she makes</div> <div class='line in4'>Her garlands still,</div> <div class='line'>And I who watch her flashing limbs am one</div> <div class='line'>With youth whose days three thousand years are done.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span> <h2 id='love' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>COTSWOLD LOVE</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Blue skies are over Cotswold</div> <div class='line in2'>And April snows go by,</div> <div class='line'>The lasses turn their ribbons</div> <div class='line in2'>For April’s in the sky,</div> <div class='line'>And April is the season</div> <div class='line in2'>When Sabbath girls are dressed,</div> <div class='line'>From Rodboro’ to Campden,</div> <div class='line in2'>In all their silken best.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>An ankle is a marvel</div> <div class='line in2'>When first the buds are brown,</div> <div class='line'>And not a lass but knows it</div> <div class='line in2'>From Stow to Gloucester town.</div> <div class='line'>And not a girl goes walking</div> <div class='line in2'>Along the Cotswold lanes</div> <div class='line'>But knows men’s eyes in April</div> <div class='line in2'>Are quicker than their brains.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>It’s little that it matters,</div> <div class='line in2'>So long as you’re alive,</div> <div class='line'>If you’re eighteen in April,</div> <div class='line in2'>Or rising sixty-five,</div> <div class='line'>When April comes to Amberley</div> <div class='line in2'>With skies of April blue,</div> <div class='line'>And Cotswold girls are briding</div> <div class='line in2'>With slyly tilted shoe.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span> <h2 id='midlands' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>THE MIDLANDS</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Black in the summer night my Cotswold hill</div> <div class='line in2'>Aslant my window sleeps, beneath a sky</div> <div class='line'>Deep as the bedded violets that fill</div> <div class='line in2'>March woods with dusky passion. As I lie</div> <div class='line'>Abed between cool walls I watch the host</div> <div class='line in2'>Of the slow stars lit over Gloucester plain,</div> <div class='line'>And drowsily the habit of these most</div> <div class='line in2'>Beloved of English lands moves in my brain,</div> <div class='line'>While silence holds dominion of the dark,</div> <div class='line'>Save when the foxes from the spinneys bark.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I see the valleys in their morning mist</div> <div class='line in2'>Wreathed under limpid hills in moving light,</div> <div class='line'>Happy with many a yeoman melodist:</div> <div class='line in2'>I see the little roads of twinkling white</div> <div class='line'>Busy with fieldward teams and market gear</div> <div class='line in2'>Of rosy men, cloth-gaitered, who can tell</div> <div class='line'>The many-minded changes of the year,</div> <div class='line in2'>Who know why crops and kine fare ill or well;</div> <div class='line'>I see the sun persuade the mist away,</div> <div class='line'>Till town and stead are shining to the day.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I see the wagons move along the rows</div> <div class='line in2'>Of ripe and summer-breathing clover-flower,</div> <div class='line'>I see the lissom husbandman who knows</div> <div class='line in2'>Deep in his heart the beauty of his power,</div> <div class='line'>As, lithely pitched, the full-heaped fork bids on</div> <div class='line in2'>The harvest home. I hear the rickyard fill</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>With gossip as in generations gone,</div> <div class='line in2'>While wagon follows wagon from the hill.</div> <div class='line'>I think how, when our seasons all are sealed,</div> <div class='line'>Shall come the unchanging harvest from the field.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I see the barns and comely manors planned</div> <div class='line in2'>By men who somehow moved in comely thought,</div> <div class='line'>Who, with a simple shippon to their hand,</div> <div class='line in2'>As men upon some godlike business wrought;</div> <div class='line'>I see the little cottages that keep</div> <div class='line in2'>Their beauty still where since Plantaganet</div> <div class='line'>Have come the shepherds happily to sleep,</div> <div class='line in2'>Finding the loaves and cups of cider set;</div> <div class='line'>I see the twisted shepherds, brown and old,</div> <div class='line'>Driving at dusk their glimmering sheep to fold.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And now the valleys that upon the sun</div> <div class='line in2'>Broke from their opal veils, are veiled again,</div> <div class='line'>And the last light upon the wolds is done,</div> <div class='line in2'>And silence falls on flocks and fields and men;</div> <div class='line'>And black upon the night I watch my hill,</div> <div class='line in2'>And the stars shine, and there an owly wing</div> <div class='line'>Brushes the night, and all again is still,</div> <div class='line in2'>And, from this land of worship that I sing,</div> <div class='line'>I turn to sleep, content that from my sires</div> <div class='line'>I draw the blood of England’s midmost shires.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span> <h2 id='garden' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>MAY GARDEN</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>A shower of green gems on my apple tree</div> <div class='line in2'>This first morning of May</div> <div class='line'>Has fallen out of the night, to be</div> <div class='line in2'>Herald of holiday—</div> <div class='line'>Bright gems of green that, fallen there,</div> <div class='line'>Seem fixed and glowing on the air.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Until a flutter of blackbird wings</div> <div class='line in2'>Shakes and makes the boughs alive,</div> <div class='line'>And the gems are now no frozen things,</div> <div class='line in2'>But apple-green buds to thrive</div> <div class='line'>On sap of my May garden, how well</div> <div class='line'>The green September globes will tell.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Also my pear tree has its buds,</div> <div class='line in2'>But they are silver yellow,</div> <div class='line'>Like autumn meadows when the floods</div> <div class='line in2'>Are silver under willow,</div> <div class='line'>And here shall long and shapely pears</div> <div class='line'>Be gathered while the autumn wears.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And there are sixty daffodils</div> <div class='line in2'>Beneath my wall....</div> <div class='line'>And jealousy it is that kills</div> <div class='line in2'>This world when all</div> <div class='line'>The spring’s behaviour here is spent</div> <div class='line'>To make the world magnificent.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span> <h2 id='plough' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>PLOUGH</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>The snows are come in early state,</div> <div class='line'>And love shall now go desolate</div> <div class='line'>If we should keep too close a gate.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Over the woods a splendour falls</div> <div class='line'>Of death, and grey are the Gloucester walls,</div> <div class='line'>And grey the skies for burials.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>But secret in the falling snow</div> <div class='line'>I see the patient ploughman go,</div> <div class='line'>And watch the quiet furrows grow.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span> <h2 id='politics' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>POLITICS</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>You say a thousand things,</div> <div class='line'>Persuasively,</div> <div class='line'>And with strange passion hotly I agree,</div> <div class='line'>And praise your zest,</div> <div class='line'>And then</div> <div class='line'>A blackbird sings</div> <div class='line'>On April lilac, or fieldfaring men,</div> <div class='line'>Ghostlike, with loaded wain,</div> <div class='line'>Come down the twilit lane</div> <div class='line'>To rest,</div> <div class='line'>And what is all your argument to me?</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Oh yes—I know, I know,</div> <div class='line'>It must be so—</div> <div class='line'>You must devise</div> <div class='line'>Your myriad policies,</div> <div class='line'>For we are little wise,</div> <div class='line'>And must be led and marshalled, lest we keep</div> <div class='line'>Too fast a sleep</div> <div class='line'>Far from the central world’s realities.</div> <div class='line'>Yes, we must heed—</div> <div class='line'>For surely you reveal</div> <div class='line'>Life’s very heart; surely with flaming zeal</div> <div class='line'>You search our folly and our secret need;</div> <div class='line'>And surely it is wrong</div> <div class='line'>To count my blackbird’s song,</div> <div class='line'>My cones of lilac, and my wagon team,</div> <div class='line'>More than a world of dream.</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>But still</div> <div class='line'>A voice calls from the hill—</div> <div class='line'>I must away—</div> <div class='line'>I cannot hear your argument to-day.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span> <h2 id='birmingham' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>BIRMINGHAM—1916</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Once Athens worked and went to see the play,</div> <div class='line'>And Thomas Atkins kissed the girls of Rome,</div> <div class='line'>In council in Victoria Square to-day</div> <div class='line'>Are grey-beard Nazarenes, with shop and home</div> <div class='line'>And counting-house and all the friendly cares</div> <div class='line'>That Joseph knew; in Bull Ring markets meet</div> <div class='line'>Gossips as once at Babylonian fairs,</div> <div class='line'>And Helen walks in Corporation Street.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Now Troy is Homer; and of Nazareth</div> <div class='line'>Grave histories are of one love that was strong;</div> <div class='line'>Athens is beauty; Rome an immortal death;</div> <div class='line'>And Babylon immortal in a song....</div> <div class='line'>Perplexed as ours these cities were of old;</div> <div class='line'>And shall our name greatly as these be told?</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span> <h2 id='fountain' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>INSCRIPTION FOR A WAR MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>They nothing feared whose names I celebrate.</div> <div class='line'>Greater than death they died; and their estate</div> <div class='line'>Is here on Cotswold comradely to live</div> <div class='line'>Upon your lips in every draught I give.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span> <h2 id='treason' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>TREASON</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>What time I write my roundelays,</div> <div class='line'>I am as proud as princes gone,</div> <div class='line'>Who built their empires in old days,</div> <div class='line'>As Tamburlaine or Solomon;</div> <div class='line'>And wisely though companions then</div> <div class='line'>Say well it is and well I sing,</div> <div class='line'>Assured above the praise of men</div> <div class='line'>I am a solitary king.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>But when I leave that straiter mood,</div> <div class='line'>That lonely hour, and put aside</div> <div class='line'>The continence of solitude,</div> <div class='line'>I fall in treason to my pride,</div> <div class='line'>And if a witling’s word be spent</div> <div class='line'>Upon my song in jealousy,</div> <div class='line'>In anger and in argument</div> <div class='line'>I am as derelict as he.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span> <h2 id='estate' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>MY ESTATE</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I have four loves, four loves are mine,</div> <div class='line in2'>My wife who makes all beauty be,</div> <div class='line'>Tom Squire and Master Candleshine,</div> <div class='line in2'>And then my grey dog Timothy.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>My wife makes bramble-berry pies,</div> <div class='line in2'>And she is bright as bramble dew,</div> <div class='line'>She knows the way the weather flies,</div> <div class='line in2'>And tells me every thing to do.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Tom Squire he is my neighbour man,</div> <div class='line in2'>His apples fall upon my grass,</div> <div class='line'>And in the morning, when we can,</div> <div class='line in2'>We say good-morning as we pass.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And Master Candleshine the True,</div> <div class='line in2'>Considering some fault of mine,</div> <div class='line'>Says—“Had it been for me to do,</div> <div class='line in2'>It had been hard for Candleshine.”</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>When I have thought all things that be,</div> <div class='line in2'>And drop the latch and climb the stair,</div> <div class='line'>And want an eye for company,</div> <div class='line in2'>My grey dog Timothy is there.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>My loves are one and two and three</div> <div class='line in2'>And four they are, good loves of mine,</div> <div class='line'>Tom Squire, my grey dog Timothy,</div> <div class='line in2'>My wife and Master Candleshine.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span> <h2 id='daffodils' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>WITH DAFFODILS</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I send you daffodils, my dear,</div> <div class='line'>For these are emperors of spring,</div> <div class='line'>And in my heart you keep so clear</div> <div class='line'>So delicate an empery,</div> <div class='line'>That none but emperors could be</div> <div class='line'>Ambassadors endowed to bring</div> <div class='line'>My messages of honesty.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>My mind makes faring to and fro,</div> <div class='line'>Deft or bewildered, dark or kind,</div> <div class='line'>That not the eye of God may know</div> <div class='line'>Which motion is of true estate</div> <div class='line'>And which a twisted runagate</div> <div class='line'>Of all the farings of my mind,</div> <div class='line'>And which has honesty for mate.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Only my hope for you is clean</div> <div class='line'>Of scandal’s use, and though, may be,</div> <div class='line'>Far rangers have my passions been,—</div> <div class='line'>Since thus the word of Eden went,—</div> <div class='line'>Yet of the springs of my content,</div> <div class='line'>My very wells of honesty,</div> <div class='line'>Are you the only firmament.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span> <h2 id='room' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>FOR A GUEST ROOM</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>All words are said,</div> <div class='line'>And may it fall</div> <div class='line'>That, crowning these,</div> <div class='line'>You here shall find</div> <div class='line'>A friendly bed,</div> <div class='line'>A sheltering wall,</div> <div class='line'>Your body’s ease,</div> <div class='line'>A quiet mind.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>May you forget</div> <div class='line'>In happy sleep</div> <div class='line'>The world that still</div> <div class='line'>You hold as friend,</div> <div class='line'>And may it yet</div> <div class='line'>Be ours to keep</div> <div class='line'>Your friendly will</div> <div class='line'>To the world’s end.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>For he is blest</div> <div class='line'>Who, fixed to shun</div> <div class='line'>All evil, when</div> <div class='line'>The worst is known,</div> <div class='line'>Counts, east and west,</div> <div class='line'>When life is done,</div> <div class='line'>His debts to men</div> <div class='line'>In love alone.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span> <h2 id='journals' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>ON READING THE MS. OF DOROTHY</b></span> <br/> <span class='large'><b>WORDSWORTH’S JOURNALS</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>To-day I read the poet’s sister’s book,</div> <div class='line'>She who so comforted those Grasmere days</div> <div class='line'>When song was at the flood, and thence I took</div> <div class='line'>A larger note of fortitude and praise.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And in her ancient fastness beauty stirred,</div> <div class='line'>And happy faith was in my heart again,</div> <div class='line'>Because the virtue of a simple word</div> <div class='line'>Was durable above the lives of men.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>For reading there that quiet record made</div> <div class='line'>Of skies and hills, domestic hours, and free</div> <div class='line'>Traffic of friends, and song, and duty paid,</div> <div class='line'>I touched the wings of immortality.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span> <h2 id='warrior' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>THE OLD WARRIOR</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Sorrow has come to me,</div> <div class='line'>Making the world to be</div> <div class='line in2'>Of sunken cheek;</div> <div class='line'>Faded my fields, and of</div> <div class='line'>Names that were most to love,</div> <div class='line in2'>I dare not speak.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Would that my soul were blind,</div> <div class='line'>Since duty brings to mind</div> <div class='line in2'>All that is done,</div> <div class='line'>Saying, ‘How gladly you</div> <div class='line'>Walked with your chosen few</div> <div class='line in2'>Under my sun.’</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I am an alien now;</div> <div class='line'>Tell me, good stranger, how</div> <div class='line in2'>Best may be borne</div> <div class='line'>His grief who comes at night</div> <div class='line'>To his own window-light</div> <div class='line in2'>Friendless, forlorn.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>No. I will pass. Again</div> <div class='line'>Of my delight in men</div> <div class='line in2'>Nothing shall tell.</div> <div class='line'>Now is my travel where</div> <div class='line'>My lost companions fare;</div> <div class='line in2'>Onward. Farewell.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span> <h2 id='guest' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>THE GUEST</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Sometimes I feel that death is very near,</div> <div class='line'>And, with half-lifted hand,</div> <div class='line'>Looks in my eyes, and tells me not to fear,</div> <div class='line'>But walk his friendly land,</div> <div class='line'>Comrade with him, and wise</div> <div class='line'>As peace is wise.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Then, greatly though my heart with pity moves</div> <div class='line'>For dear imperilled loves,</div> <div class='line'>I somehow know</div> <div class='line'>That death is friendly so,</div> <div class='line'>A comfortable spirit; one who takes</div> <div class='line'>Long thought for all our sakes.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I wonder; will he come that friendly way,</div> <div class='line'>That guest, or roughly in the appointed day?</div> <div class='line'>And will, when the last drops of life are spilt,</div> <div class='line'>My soul be torn from me,</div> <div class='line'>Or, like a ship truly and trimly built,</div> <div class='line'>Slip quietly to sea?</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span> <h2 id='reverie' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>REVERIE</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>Here in the unfrequented noon,</div> <div class='line'>In the green hermitage of June,</div> <div class='line'>While overhead a rustling wing</div> <div class='line'>Minds me of birds that do not sing</div> <div class='line'>Until the cooler eve rewakes</div> <div class='line'>The service of melodious brakes,</div> <div class='line'>And thoughts are lonely rangers, here,</div> <div class='line'>In shelter of the primrose year,</div> <div class='line'>I curiously meditate</div> <div class='line'>Our brief and variable state.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think how many are alive</div> <div class='line'>Who better in the grave would thrive,</div> <div class='line'>If some so long a sleep might give</div> <div class='line'>Better instruction how to live;</div> <div class='line'>I think what splendours had been said</div> <div class='line'>By darlings now untimely dead</div> <div class='line'>Had death been wise in choice of these,</div> <div class='line'>And made exchange of obsequies.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think what loss to government</div> <div class='line'>It is that good men are content,</div> <div class='line'>Well knowing that an evil will</div> <div class='line'>Is folly-stricken too, and still</div> <div class='line'>Itself considers only wise</div> <div class='line'>For all rebukes and surgeries,</div> <div class='line'>That evil men should raise their pride</div> <div class='line'>To place and fortune undefied.</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>I think how daily we beguile</div> <div class='line'>Our brains, that yet a little while</div> <div class='line'>And all our congregated schemes</div> <div class='line'>And our perplexity of dreams,</div> <div class='line'>Shall come to whole and perfect state.</div> <div class='line'>I think, however long the date</div> <div class='line'>Of life may be, at last the sun</div> <div class='line'>Shall pass upon campaigns undone.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I look upon the world and see</div> <div class='line'>A world colonial to me,</div> <div class='line'>Whereof I am the architect,</div> <div class='line'>And principal and intellect,</div> <div class='line'>A world whose shape and savour spring</div> <div class='line'>Out of my lone imagining,</div> <div class='line'>A world whose nature is subdued</div> <div class='line'>For ever to my instant mood,</div> <div class='line'>And only beautiful can be</div> <div class='line'>Because of beauty is in me.</div> <div class='line'>And then I know that every mind</div> <div class='line'>Among the millions of my kind</div> <div class='line'>Makes earth his own particular</div> <div class='line'>And privately created star,</div> <div class='line'>That earth has thus no single state,</div> <div class='line'>Being every man articulate.</div> <div class='line'>Till thought has no horizon then</div> <div class='line'>I try to think how many men</div> <div class='line'>There are to make an earth apart</div> <div class='line'>In symbol of the urgent heart,</div> <div class='line'>For there are forty in my street,</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>And seven hundred more in Greet,</div> <div class='line'>And families at Luton Hoo,</div> <div class='line'>And there are men in China, too.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>And what immensity is this</div> <div class='line'>That is but a parenthesis</div> <div class='line'>Set in a little human thought,</div> <div class='line'>Before the body comes to naught.</div> <div class='line'>There at the bottom of the copse</div> <div class='line'>I see a field of turnip tops,</div> <div class='line'>I see the cropping cattle pass</div> <div class='line'>There in another field, of grass,</div> <div class='line'>And fields and fields, with seven towns,</div> <div class='line'>A river, and a flight of downs,</div> <div class='line'>Steeples for all religious men,</div> <div class='line'>Ten thousand trees, and orchards ten,</div> <div class='line'>A mighty span that curves away</div> <div class='line'>Into blue beauty, and I lay</div> <div class='line'>All this as quartered on a sphere</div> <div class='line'>Hung huge in space, a thing of fear</div> <div class='line'>Vast as the circle of the sky</div> <div class='line'>Completed to the astonished eye;</div> <div class='line'>And then I think that all I see,</div> <div class='line'>Whereof I frame immensity</div> <div class='line'>Globed for amazement, is no more</div> <div class='line'>Than a shire’s corner, and that four</div> <div class='line'>Great shires being ten times multiplied</div> <div class='line'>Are small on the Atlantic tide</div> <div class='line'>As an emerald on a silver bowl ...</div> <div class='line'>And the Atlantic to the whole</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>Sweep of this tributary star</div> <div class='line'>That is our earth is but ... and far</div> <div class='line'>Through dreadful space the outmeasured mind</div> <div class='line'>Seeks to conceive the unconfined.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think of Time. How, when his wing</div> <div class='line'>Composes all our quarrelling</div> <div class='line'>In some green corner where May leaves</div> <div class='line'>Are loud with blackbirds on all eves,</div> <div class='line'>And all the dust that was our bones</div> <div class='line'>Is underneath memorial stones,</div> <div class='line'>Then shall old jealousies, while we</div> <div class='line'>Lie side by side most quietly,</div> <div class='line'>Be but oblivion’s fools, and still</div> <div class='line'>When curious pilgrims ask—‘What skill</div> <div class='line'>Had these that from oblivion saves?’—</div> <div class='line'>My song shall sing above our graves.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think how men of gentle mind,</div> <div class='line'>And friendly will, and honest kind,</div> <div class='line'>Deny their nature and appear</div> <div class='line'>Fellows of jealousy and fear;</div> <div class='line'>Having single faith, and natural wit</div> <div class='line'>To measure truth and cherish it,</div> <div class='line'>Yet, strangely, when they build in thought,</div> <div class='line'>Twisting the honesty that wrought</div> <div class='line'>In the straight motion of the heart,</div> <div class='line'>Into its feigning counterpart</div> <div class='line'>That is the brain’s betrayal of</div> <div class='line'>The simple purposes of love;</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>And what yet sorrier decline</div> <div class='line'>Is theirs when, eager to confine</div> <div class='line'>No more within the silent brain</div> <div class='line'>Its habit, thought seeks birth again</div> <div class='line'>In speech, as honesty has done</div> <div class='line'>In thought; then even what had won</div> <div class='line'>From heart to brain fades and is lost</div> <div class='line'>In this pretended pentecost,</div> <div class='line'>This their forlorn captivity</div> <div class='line'>To speech, who have not learnt to be</div> <div class='line'>Lords of the word, nor kept among</div> <div class='line'>The sterner climates of the tongue ...</div> <div class='line'>So truth is in their hearts, and then</div> <div class='line'>Falls to confusion in the brain,</div> <div class='line'>And, fading through this mid-eclipse,</div> <div class='line'>It perishes upon the lips.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think how year by year I still</div> <div class='line'>Find working in my dauntless will</div> <div class='line'>Sudden timidities that are</div> <div class='line'>Merely the echo of some far</div> <div class='line'>Forgotten tyrannies that came</div> <div class='line'>To youth’s bewilderment and shame;</div> <div class='line'>That yet a magisterial gown,</div> <div class='line'>Being worn by one of no renown</div> <div class='line'>And half a generation less</div> <div class='line'>In years than I, can dispossess</div> <div class='line'>Something my circumspecter mood</div> <div class='line'>Of excellence and quietude,</div> <div class='line'>And if a Bishop speaks to me</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>I tremble with propriety.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think how strange it is that he</div> <div class='line'>Who goes most comradely with me</div> <div class='line'>In beauty’s worship, takes delight</div> <div class='line'>In shows that to my eager sight</div> <div class='line'>Are shadows and unmanifest,</div> <div class='line'>While beauty’s favour and behest</div> <div class='line'>To me in motion are revealed</div> <div class='line'>That is against his vision sealed;</div> <div class='line'>Yet is our hearts’ necessity</div> <div class='line'>Not twofold, but a common plea</div> <div class='line'>That chaos come to continence,</div> <div class='line'>Whereto the arch-intelligence</div> <div class='line'>Richly in divers voices makes</div> <div class='line'>Its answer for our several sakes.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I see the disinherited</div> <div class='line'>And long procession of the dead,</div> <div class='line'>Who have in generations gone</div> <div class='line'>Held fugitive dominion</div> <div class='line'>Of this same primrose pasturage</div> <div class='line'>That is my momentary wage.</div> <div class='line'>I see two lovers move along</div> <div class='line'>These shadowed silences of song,</div> <div class='line'>With spring in blossom at their feet</div> <div class='line'>More incommunicably sweet</div> <div class='line'>To their hearts’ more magnificence,</div> <div class='line'>Than to the common courts of sense,</div> <div class='line'>Till joy his tardy closure tells</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>With coming of the curfew bells.</div> <div class='line'>I see the knights of spur and sword</div> <div class='line'>Crossing the little woodland ford,</div> <div class='line'>Riding in ghostly cavalcade</div> <div class='line'>On some unchronicled crusade.</div> <div class='line'>I see the silent hunter go</div> <div class='line'>In cloth of yeoman green, with bow</div> <div class='line'>Strung, and a quiver of grey wings.</div> <div class='line'>I see the little herd who brings</div> <div class='line'>His cattle homeward, while his sire</div> <div class='line'>Makes bivouac in Warwickshire</div> <div class='line'>This night, the liege and loyal man</div> <div class='line'>Of Cavalier or Puritan.</div> <div class='line'>And as they pass, the nameless dead,</div> <div class='line'>Unsung, uncelebrate, and sped</div> <div class='line'>Upon an unremembered hour</div> <div class='line'>As any twelvemonth fallen flower,</div> <div class='line'>I think how strangely yet they live</div> <div class='line'>For all their days were fugitive.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think how soon we too shall be</div> <div class='line'>A story with our ancestry.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>I think what miracle has been</div> <div class='line'>That you whose love among this green</div> <div class='line'>Delightful solitude is still</div> <div class='line'>The stay and substance of my will,</div> <div class='line'>The dear custodian of my song,</div> <div class='line'>My thrifty counsellor and strong,</div> <div class='line'>Should take the time of all time’s tide</div> <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>That was my season, to abide</div> <div class='line'>On earth also; that we should be</div> <div class='line'>Charted across eternity</div> <div class='line'>To one elect and happy day</div> <div class='line'>Of yellow primroses in May.</div> </div> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>The clock is calling five o’clock,</div> <div class='line'>And Nonesopretty brings her flock</div> <div class='line'>To fold, and Tom comes back from town</div> <div class='line'>With hose and ribbons worth a crown,</div> <div class='line'>And duly at The Old King’s Head</div> <div class='line'>They gather now to daily bread,</div> <div class='line'>And I no more may meditate</div> <div class='line'>Our brief and variable state.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span> <h2 id='penances' class='c008'><span class='large'><b>PENANCES</b></span></h2></div> <div class='lg-container-l c003'> <div class='linegroup'> <div class='group'> <div class='line'>These are my happy penances. To make</div> <div class='line'>Beauty without a Covenant; to take</div> <div class='line'>Measure of time only because I know</div> <div class='line'>That in death’s market-place I still shall owe</div> <div class='line'>Service to beauty that shall not be done;</div> <div class='line'>To know that beauty’s doctrine is begun</div> <div class='line'>And makes a close in sacrifice; to find</div> <div class='line'>In beauty’s courts the unappeasable mind.</div> </div></div> </div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center c000'> <div>HERE ENDS TIDES A BOOK OF POEMS</div> <div>by John Drinkwater the Typography and Binding</div> <div>arranged by Cyril William Beaumont Printed</div> <div>on his Press in London and Published by</div> <div>him at 75 Charing Cross Road in the</div> <div>City of Westminster Completed</div> <div>on the first day of September</div> <div>MDCCCCXVII</div> </div></div> <div id='colophon' class='figcenter id002'> <ANTIMG src='images/colophon.jpg' alt='colophon' class='ig001' /> <div class='ic002'> <p><span class='small'>SIMPLEX MUNDITIIS</span><br/><span class='small'>THE BEAUMONT PRESS</span></p> </div> </div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div>The Binding has been</div> <div>executed by F. Sangorski and G. Sutcliffe</div> </div></div> <div class='figcenter id003'> <ANTIMG src='images/backcover.jpg' alt='back cover' class='ig001' /></div> <div class='pbb'> <hr class='pb c002' /></div> <div class='chapter'> <h2 class='c004'><b><span class='large'>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</span></b></h2></div> <p class='c009'>The author’s spelling and punctuation has been maintained.</p> <p class='c010'>Repeating titles in the front of the book have been reduced.</p> <SPAN name="endofbook"></SPAN> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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