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Ballads of Lost Haven: A Book of the Sea

<h2><SPAN name="THE_SHIPS_OF_ST_JOHN" id="THE_SHIPS_OF_ST_JOHN"></SPAN>THE SHIPS OF ST. JOHN</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Smile, you inland hills and rivers!</div> <div>Flush, you mountains in the dawn!</div> <div>But my roving heart is seaward</div> <div>With the ships of gray St. John.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Fair the land lies, full of August,</div> <div>Meadow island, shingly bar,</div> <div>Open barns and breezy twilight,</div> <div>Peace and the mild evening star.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Gently now this gentlest country</div> <div>The old habitude takes on,</div> <div>But my wintry heart is outbound</div> <div>With the great ships of St. John.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Once in your wide arms you held me,</div> <div>Till the man-child was a man,</div> <div>Canada, great nurse and mother</div> <div>Of the young sea-roving clan.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Always your bright face above me</div> <div>Through the dreams of boyhood shone;</div> <div>Now far alien countries call me</div> <div>With the ships of gray St. John.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Swing, you tides, up out of Fundy!</div> <div>Blow, you white fogs, in from sea!</div> <div>I was born to be your fellow;</div> <div>You were bred to pilot me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>At the touch of your strong fingers,</div> <div>Doubt, the derelict, is gone;</div> <div>Sane and glad I clear the headland</div> <div>With the white ships of St. John.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Loyalists, my fathers, builded</div> <div>This gray port of the gray sea,</div> <div>When the duty to ideals</div> <div>Could not let well-being be.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>When the breadth of scarlet bunting</div> <div>Puts the wreath of maple on,</div> <div>I must cheer too,—slip my moorings</div> <div>With the ships of gray St. John.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Peerless-hearted port of heroes,</div> <div>Be a word to lift the world,</div> <div>Till the many see the signal</div> <div>Of the few once more unfurled.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Past the lighthouse, past the nunbuoy,</div> <div>Past the crimson rising sun,</div> <div>There are dreams go down the harbor</div> <div>With the tall ships of St. John.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>In the morning I am with them</div> <div>As they clear the island bar,—</div> <div>Fade, till speck by speck the midday</div> <div>Has forgotten where they are.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But I sight a vaster sea-line,</div> <div>Wider lee-way, longer run,</div> <div>Whose discoverers return not</div> <div>With the ships of gray St. John.</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></SPAN></span></p> <h2><SPAN name="THE_KING_OF_YS" id="THE_KING_OF_YS"></SPAN>THE KING OF YS</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Wild across the Breton country,</div> <div>Fabled centuries ago,</div> <div>Riding from the black sea border,</div> <div>Came the squadrons of the snow.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Piping dread at every latch-hole,</div> <div>Moaning death at every sill,</div> <div>The white Yule came down in vengeance</div> <div>Upon Ys, and had its will.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Walled and dreamy stood the city,</div> <div>Wide and dazzling shone the sea,</div> <div>When the gods set hand to smother</div> <div>Ys, the pride of Brittany.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Morning drenched her towers in purple;</div> <div>Light of heart were king and fool;</div> <div>Fair forebode the merrymaking</div> <div>Of the seven days of Yule.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Laughed the king, "Once more, my mistress,</div> <div>Time and place and joy are one!"</div> <div>Bade the balconies with banners</div> <div>Match the splendor of the sun;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Eyes of urchins shine with silver,</div> <div>And with gold the pavement ring;</div> <div>Bade the war-horns sound their bravest</div> <div>In <i>The Mistress of the King</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Mountebanks and ballad-mongers</div> <div>And all strolling traffickers</div> <div>Should block up the market corners</div> <div>With none other name than hers.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Laughed the fool, "To-day, my Folly,</div> <div>Thou shalt be the king of Ys!"</div> <div>O wise fool! How long must wisdom</div> <div>Under motley hold her peace?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Then the storm came down. The valleys</div> <div>Wailed and ciphered to the dune</div> <div>Like huge organ pipes; a midnight</div> <div>Stalked those gala streets at noon;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And the sea rose, rocked and tilted</div> <div>Like a beaker in the hand,</div> <div>Till the moon-hung tide broke tether</div> <div>And stampeded in for land.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>All day long with doom portentous,</div> <div>Shreds of pennons shrieked and flew</div> <div>Over Ys; and black fear shuddered</div> <div>On the hearthstone all night through.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Fear, which freezes up the marrow</div> <div>Of the heart, from door to door</div> <div>Like a plague went through the city,</div> <div>And filled up the devil's score;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Filled her tally of the craven,</div> <div>To the sea-wind's dismal note;</div> <div>While a panic superstition</div> <div>Took the people by the throat.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>As with morning still the sea rose</div> <div>With vast wreckage on the tide,</div> <div>And their pasture rills, grown rivers,</div> <div>Thundered in the mountain side,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Vengeance, vengeance, gods to vengeance!"</div> <div>Rose a storm of muttering;</div> <div>And the human flood came pouring</div> <div>To the palace of the king.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>"Save, O king, before we perish</div> <div>In the whirlpools of the sea,</div> <div>Ys thy city, us thy people!"</div> <div>Growled the king then, "What would ye?"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But his wolf's eyes talked defiance,</div> <div>And his bearded mouth meant scorn.</div> <div>"O our king, the gods are angry;</div> <div>And no longer to be borne</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Is the shameless face that greets us</div> <div>From thy windows, at thy side,</div> <div>Smiling infamy. And therefore</div> <div>Thou shall take her up, and ride</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Down with her into the sea's mouth,</div> <div>And there leave her; else we die,</div> <div>And thy name goes down to story</div> <div>A new word for cruelty."</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Ah, but she was fair, this woman!</div> <div>Warm and flaxen waved her hair;</div> <div>Her blue Breton eyes made summer</div> <div>In that bleak December air.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There she stood whose burning beauty</div> <div>Made the world's high roof tree ring,</div> <div>A white poppy tall and wind-blown</div> <div>In the garden of the king.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Her throat shook, but not with terror;</div> <div>Her eyes swam, but not with fear;</div> <div>While her two hands caught and clung to</div> <div>The one man they had found dear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Lord and lover,"—thus she smiled him</div> <div>Her last word,—"it shall be so,</div> <div>Only the sea's arms shall hold me,</div> <div>When from out thine arms I go."</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Swore he, "By the gods, my mistress,</div> <div>Thou shall have queen's burial.</div> <div>Pearls and amber shall thy tomb be;</div> <div>Shot with gold and green thy pall.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"And a million-throated chorus</div> <div>Shall take up thy dirge to-night;</div> <div>Where thy slumber's starry watch-fires</div> <div>Shall a thousand years be bright."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Then they brought the coal-black stallion,</div> <div>Chafing on the bit. Astride</div> <div>Sprang the young king; shouted, "Way there!"</div> <div>Caught the girl up to his side;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And a path through that scared rabble</div> <div>Rode in pageant to the sea.</div> <div>And the coal-black mane was mingled</div> <div>With gold hair against his knee.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Sure as the wild gulls make seaward,</div> <div>From the west gate to the beach</div> <div>Rode these two for whom now freedom</div> <div>Landward lay beyond their reach.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And the great horse, scenting peril,</div> <div>Snorted at the flying spume,</div> <div>Flicked with courage, as how often,</div> <div>When the tides were racing doom,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Ridden, he had plunged to rescue</div> <div>From that seething icy hell</div> <div>Some poor sailor wrecked a-fishing</div> <div>On the coast. What fears should quell</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>That high spirit? Knee to shoulder,</div> <div>King and stallion reared and sprang</div> <div>Clear above the long white combers</div> <div>And that turmoil's iron clang.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>What a launching! For a moment,</div> <div>While the tempest held its breath</div> <div>And a thousand eyes looked wonder,</div> <div>Swimming in that trough of death,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Steering seaward through the welter,</div> <div>Ere they settled out of sight,</div> <div>Waved above them one gold streamer.</div> <div>Valor, bid the world good-night!...</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Not a trace, while the long summers</div> <div>Warm the heart of Brittany,</div> <div>Save one stone of Ys, as remnant,</div> <div>For a white mark in the sea.</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></SPAN></span></p> <h2><SPAN name="THE_KELPIE_RIDERS" id="THE_KELPIE_RIDERS"></SPAN>THE KELPIE RIDERS</h2> <h3>I</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Buried alive in calm Rochelle,</div> <div>Six in a row by a crystal well,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>All Summer long on Bareau Fen</div> <div>Slumber and sleep the Kelpie men;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>By the side of each to cheer his ghost,</div> <div>A flagon of foam with a crumpet of frost.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Hear me, friends, for the years are fleet;</div> <div>Soon I leave the noise and the street</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>For the silent uncompanioned way</div> <div>Where the inn is cold and the night is gray.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But noon is warm and the world is still</div> <div>Where the Kelpie riders have their will.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>For never a wind dare stir or stray</div> <div>Over those marshes salt and gray;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>No bit of shade as big as your hand</div> <div>To traverse or trammel the sleeping land,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Save where a dozen poplars fleck</div> <div>The long gray grass and the well's blue beck.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Yet you mark their leaves are blanched and sear,</div> <div>Whispering daft at a nameless fear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>While round the hole of one is a rune,</div> <div>Black in the wash of the bleaching noon.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>"Ride, for the wind is awake and away.</div> <div>Sleep, for the harvest grain is gray."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>No word more. And many a mile,</div> <div>A ghostly bivouac rank and file,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>They sleep to-day on the marshes wide;</div> <div>Some far night they will wake and ride.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Once they were riders hot with speed,</div> <div>"Kelpie, Kelpie, gallop at need!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>With hills of the barren sea to roam,</div> <div>Housing their horses on the foam.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But earth is cool and the hush is long</div> <div>Beneath the lull of the slumber song</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The crickets falter and strive to tell</div> <div>To the dragon-fly of the crystal well;</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>And love is a forgotten jest,</div> <div>Where the Kelpie riders take their rest,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And blossoming grasses hour by hour</div> <div>Burn in the bud and freeze in the flower.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But never again shall their roving be</div> <div>On the shifting hills of the tumbling sea,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>With the salt, and the rain, and the glad desire</div> <div>Strong as the wind and pure as fire.</div> </div></div> <h3>II</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>One doomful night in the April tide</div> <div>With riot of brooks on the mountain side,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The goblin maidens of the hills</div> <div>Went forth to the revel-call of the rills.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Many as leaves of the falling year,</div> <div>To the swing of a ballad wild and clear</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>They held the plain and the uplands high;</div> <div>And the merry-dancers held the sky.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The Kelpie riders abroad on the sea</div> <div>Caught sound of that call of eerie glee,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Over their prairie waste and wan;</div> <div>And the goblin maidens tolled them on.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The yellow eyes and the raven hair</div> <div>And the tawny arms blown fresh and bare,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Were more than a mortal might behold</div> <div>And live with the saints for a crown of gold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The Kelpie riders were stricken sore;</div> <div>They wavered, and wheeled, and rode for the shore.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>"Kelpie, Kelpie, treble your stride!</div> <div>Never again on the sea we ride.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Kelpie, Kelpie, out of the storm;</div> <div>On, for the fields of earth are warm!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Knee to knee they are riding in:</div> <div>"Brother, brother,—the goblin kin!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The meadows rocked as they clomb the scaur;</div> <div>The pines re-echo for evermore</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The sound of the host of Kelpie men;</div> <div>But the windflowers died on Bareau Fen.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Over the marshes all night long</div> <div>The stars went round to a riding song:</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Kelpie, Kelpie, carry us through!"</div> <div>And the goblin maidens danced thereto.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Till dawn,—and the revel died with a shout,</div> <div>For the ocean riders were wearied out.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>They looked, and the grass was warm and soft;</div> <div>The dreamy clouds went over aloft;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>A gloom of pines on the weather verge</div> <div>Had the lulling sound of their own white surge;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>A whip-poor-will, far from their din,</div> <div>Was saying his litanies therein.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Then voices neither loud nor deep:</div> <div>"Tired, so tired; sleep! ah, sleep!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"The stars are calm, and the earth is warm,</div> <div>But the sea for an earldom is given to storm.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Come now, inherit the houses of doom;</div> <div>Your fields of the sun shall be harried of gloom."</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>They laid them down; but over long</div> <div>They rest,—for the goblin maids are strong.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The sun goes round; and Bareau Fen</div> <div>Is a door of earth on the Kelpie men,—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Buried at dawn, asleep, unslain,</div> <div>With not a mound on the sunny plain,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Hard by the walls of calm Rochelle,</div> <div>Row on row by the crystal well.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And never again they are free to ride</div> <div>Through all the years on the tossing tide,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Barred from the breast of the barren foam,</div> <div>Where the heart within them is yearning home,—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>For one long drench of the surf to quell</div> <div>The cursing doom of the goblin spell.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Only, when bugling snows alight</div> <div>To smother the marshes stark and white,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Or a low red moon peers over the rim</div> <div>Of a winter twilight crisp and dim,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>With a sound of drift on the buried lands,</div> <div>The goblin maidens loose their hands;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>A wind comes down from the sheer blue North;</div> <div>And the Kelpie riders get them forth.</div> </div></div> <h3>III</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Twice have I been on Bareau Fen,</div> <div>But the son of my son is a man since then.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Once as a lad I used to bear</div> <div>St. Louis' cross through the chapel square,</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Leading the choristers' surpliced file</div> <div>Slow up the dusk Cathedral aisle.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I was the boy of all Rochelle</div> <div>The pure old father trusted well.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But one clear night in the winter's heart,</div> <div>I wandered out to that place apart.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The shafts of smoke went up to the stars,</div> <div>Straight as the Northern Streamer spars,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>From the town's white roofs, so still it was.</div> <div>The night in her dream let no word pass,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Nor ever a breath that one could feel;</div> <div>Only the snow shrieked under my heel.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Yet it seemed when I reached the poplar hole,</div> <div>The ghost of a voice was crying, "Skoal!</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>"Rouse thee and drink, for the well is sweet,</div> <div>And the crystal snow is good to eat!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I heeded little, but stooped on my knee,</div> <div>And ate of a handful dreamily.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>'Twas cool to the mouth and slaking at first,</div> <div>But the lure of it was ill for thirst.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The voice cried, "Soul of the mortal span,</div> <div>Art thou not of the Kelpie clan?"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"What are you doing there in the ground,</div> <div>Kelpie rider, and never a sound</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"To roam the night but the ghost of a cry?"</div> <div>Ringing and swift there came reply,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"He is asleep where thou art afraid,</div> <div>In the tawny arms of a goblin maid!"</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Then I knew the voice was the voice of a girl,</div> <div>And I marvelled much (while a little swirl</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Of snow leaped up far off on the plain</div> <div>Of sparkling dust and died again),</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>For what do the cloisters know, think ye,</div> <div>Of women's ways? They be hard to see.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Again the voice cried, "Kin of my kin,</div> <div>The child of the Sun shall win, shall win!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>'Twas an evil weird that so befell;</div> <div>Yet I leaned and drank of the bubbling well.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I looked for my face in the crystal spring,</div> <div>But the face that flickered there was a thing</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>To make the nape of your neck grow chill,</div> <div>And every vein surge back and thrill</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>With a passion for something not their own—</div> <div>In a life their life has never known.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>For raven hair and eyes like the sun</div> <div>Are merry but dour to look upon.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>She smiled through her lashes under the wave,</div> <div>And my soul went forth her bartered slave.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I swore, "By St. Louis, I'll come to thee,</div> <div>Though I ride to my doom in the gulfs of the sea!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Thy Kelpie rider shall wake and rue</div> <div>His ruined life in the loss of you."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Then I fled in the start of a terror of joy,</div> <div>O'er leagues where a legion might deploy;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>For the acres of snow were level and hard,</div> <div>Every flake like a crystal shard.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>I was the runner of all Rochelle,</div> <div>Could run with the hounds on Haric Fell;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And something stark as a gust of the sea</div> <div>Had a grip of the whimsy boy in me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I ran like the drift on the ice low curled</div> <div>When the winds of Yule are abroad on the world.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Sudden, the beat of a throbbing sound</div> <div>Lost in the core of the blue profound:</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Kelpie, Kelpie, Kelpie, come!"</div> <div>Was it my heart?—But my heart was numb.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Kelpie, Kelpie!" Was it the sea?</div> <div>Far on, at the verge of Bareau lea,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I saw like an army, shield and casque,</div> <div>The breakers roll in the Roads of Basque.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>"Kelpie, Kelpie!" Was it the wolves?</div> <div>In the dusk of pines where night dissolves</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>To streamers and stars through the mountain gorge,</div> <div>I heard the blast of a giant forge.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Then I knew the wind was awake from the North,</div> <div>And the ocean riders were freed and forth.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Time, there is time (now gallop, my heart!)</div> <div>Ere the black riders disperse and depart.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The dawn is late, but the dawn comes round,</div> <div>And Fleetfoot Jean has the wind of a hound.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The hue and cry of the Kelpie horde</div> <div>Was growing and grim on that white seaboard.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>It rolled and gathered and died and grew</div> <div>Far off to the rear; a smile thereto</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>I turned; a fathom behind my ear</div> <div>A rider rode with a shadowy leer.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I sickened and sped. He laughed aloud,</div> <div>"Wind for a mourner, snow for a shroud!"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>On and on, half blown, half blind,</div> <div>Shadow and self, and the wind behind!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I slackened, he slackened; I fled, he flew;</div> <div>In a swirl of snow-drift all night through</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I scoured along the gusty fen,</div> <div>A quarry for hunting Kelpie men.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But only one could hold at my side:</div> <div>"Brother, brother, I love thy stride.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Wilt thou follow thy whim to win</div> <div>My merry maid of the goblin kin?"</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>I swerved from my trail, for he haunted my ear</div> <div>With his moaning jibe and his shadowy leer.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>So by good hap as we sped it fell,</div> <div>I fetched a circuit back for the well.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Like a spilth of spume on the crest of the bore</div> <div>When the combing tides make in for shore,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>That runner ran whose love was a wraith;</div> <div>But the rider rode with revenge in his teeth.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Another league, and I touch the goal,—</div> <div>The mystic rune on the poplar bole,—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>When the dusky eyes and the raven hair</div> <div>And the lithe brown arms shall greet me there.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I ran like a harrier on the trace</div> <div>In the leash of that ghoul, and the wind gave chase.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>A furlong now; I caught the gleam</div> <div>Of the bubbling well with its tiny stream;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>An arrowy burst; I cleared the beck;</div> <div>And—the Kelpie rider bestrode my neck.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div><hr class='smler' /></div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Dawn, the still red winter dawn;</div> <div>I awoke on the plain; the wind was gone;—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>All gracious and good as when God made</div> <div>The living creatures, and none was afraid.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I stooped to drink of the wholesome spring</div> <div>Under the poplars whispering:</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Face to my face in that water clear—</div> <div>The Kelpie rider's jabbering leer!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Ah, God! not me: I was never so!</div> <div>Sainted Louis, who can know</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>The lords of life from the slaves of death?</div> <div>What help avail the speeding breath</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Of the spirit that knows not self's abode,—</div> <div>When the soul is lost that knows not God?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I turned me home by St. Louis' Hall,</div> <div>Where the red sun burns on the windows tall.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And I thought the world was strange and wild,</div> <div>And God with his altar only a child.</div> </div></div> <h3>IV</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Again one year in the prime of June,</div> <div>I came to the well in the heated noon,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Leaving Rochelle with its red roof tiles</div> <div>By the Pottery Gate before St. Giles,—</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>There where the flower market is,</div> <div>Where every morning up from Duprisse</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The flower girls come by the long white lane</div> <div>That skirts the edge of Bareau plain;—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>To the North, the city wall in the sun,</div> <div>To the left, the fen where the eye may run</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And have its will of the blazing blue.</div> <div>The while I loitered the market through,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Halting a moment to converse</div> <div>With old Babette who had been my nurse,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There passed through the stalls a woman, bright</div> <div>With a kirtle of cinnabar and white</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Among the kerseys blue; and I said,</div> <div>"Who is it, Babette, with lifted head,</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>"And the startled look, possessed and strange,</div> <div>Under the paint—secure from change?"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Ah, 'Sieur Jean, do ye not ken</div> <div>Of the eerie folk of Bareau Fen?"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I blenched, and she knew too well I wist</div> <div>The fearsome fate of the goblin tryst.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"The street is a cruel home, 'Sieur Jean,</div> <div>But a weird uncanny drives her on.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"'Tis a bitter tale for Christian folk,</div> <div>How once she dreamed, and how she woke."</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Ay, ay!" I passed and reached the spring</div> <div>Where the poplars kept their whispering,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Hid for an hour in the shade,</div> <div>In the rank marsh grass of a tiny glade.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>There crossed the moor from the town afar,</div> <div>In kirtle of white and cinnabar,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>A wanderer on that plain of tears,</div> <div>Bowed with a burden not of the years,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>As one that goeth sorrowing</div> <div>For many an unforgotten thing.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>To the crystal well as the sun drew low</div> <div>There came that harridan of woe.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>She stooped to drink; I heard her cry:</div> <div>"Ah, God, how tired out am I!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"I called him by the dearest name</div> <div>A girl may call; I have my shame.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"'Yet death is crueller than life,'</div> <div>Once they said, 'for all the strife.'</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>"And so I lived; but the wild will,</div> <div>Broken and bitter, drives to ill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"And now I know, what no one saith,</div> <div>That love is crueller than death.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"How I did love him! Is love too high,</div> <div>My God, for such lost folk as I?"</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Her tears went down to the grass by the well,</div> <div>In that passion of grief, and where they fell</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Windflowers trembled pale and white.</div> <div>A craven I crept away from the sight;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And turned me home to St. Louis' Hall,</div> <div>Where the sunflowers burn by the eastern wall.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The vesper frankincense that day</div> <div>Rose to the rafters and melted away,</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>And was no more than a cloud that stirs</div> <div>Among the spires of Norway firs.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And I said, "The holy solitude</div> <div>Of the hoary crypt and the wild green wood</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Are one to the God I have never known,</div> <div>Whose kingdom has neither bourn nor throne."</div> </div></div> <h3>V</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Now I am old, and the years delay;</div> <div>But I know, I know, there will come a day,—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>When April is over the Norland town.</div> <div>And the loosened brooks from the hills go down,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>When tears have quenched the sorrow of time,—</div> <div>Wherein the earth shall rebuild her prime,</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>And the houses of dark be overthrown;</div> <div>When the goblin maids shall love their own,—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Their arms forever unlaced from their hold</div> <div>Of the earls of the sea on that alien wold,—</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And the feckless light of their golden eyes</div> <div>Shall forget the desire that made them wise;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>When the hands of the foam shall beckon and flee.</div> <div>And the Kelpie riders ride for the sea;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>And the whip-poor-will the whole night long</div> <div>Repeat his litanies of song,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Till morning whiten the world again,</div> <div>And the flowers revive on Bareau Fen,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Over the acres of calm Rochelle</div> <div>Fresh by the stream of the crystal well.</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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