. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 LOVE AND GRIEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 EGERIA'S SILENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 AGAINST OBLIVION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 FOND COUNSEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 THE WANDERER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 THE ADVENTURERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 TO CLARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 THE RETURN OF SUMMER: AN ECLOGUE . . . . . . . . 169 DREAM-MARKET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 THE CICALAS: AN IDYLL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 THE FAUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 FIDELE'S GRASSY TOMB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 MOONSET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 A SONG OF EXMOOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 MASTER AND MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

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PAGE

GAVOTTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 IMOGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 NEL MEZZO DEL CAMMÌN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 THE INVASION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 RILLOBY-RILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 PEREUNT ET IMPUTANTUR . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 FELIX ANTONIUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 IRELAND, IRELAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 HYMN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE . . . . . . . . . . 212 EPISTLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 LE BYRON DE NOS JOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

  O strength divine of Roman days,
    O spirit of the age of faith,
  Go with our sons on all their ways,
    When we long since are dust and wraith.

{1}

POEMS: NEW AND OLD

Songs of the Fleet

I

Sailing at Dawn

  One by one the pale stars die before the day now,
    One by one the great ships are stirring from their sleep,
  Cables all are rumbling, anchors all a-weigh now,
    Now the fleet's a fleet again, gliding towards the deep.

      Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways,
        Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray;
      Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!
        Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!

  Far away behind us town and tower are dwindling,
    Home becomes a fair dream faded long ago;
  Infinitely glorious the height of heaven is kindling,
    Infinitely desolate the shoreless sea below.

      Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways,
        Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray;
      Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!
        Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!

{2}

  Once again with proud hearts we make the old surrender,
    Once again with high hearts serve the age to be,
  Not for us the warm life of Earth, secure and tender,
    Ours the eternal wandering and warfare of the sea.

      Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways,
        Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray;
      Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!
        Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!

{3}

II

The Song of the Sou' Wester

  The sun was lost in a leaden sky,
    And the shore lay under our lee;
  When a great Sou' Wester hurricane high
    Came rollicking up the sea.
  He played with the fleet as a boy with boats
    Till out for the Downs we ran,
  And he laugh'd with the roar of a thousand throats
    At the militant ways of man:

      Oh! I am the enemy most of might,
      The other be who you please!
      Gunner and guns may all be right,
      Flags a-flying and armour tight,
      But I am the fellow you've first to fight—
      The giant that swings the seas.

  A dozen of middies were down below
    Chasing the X they love,
  While the table curtseyed long and slow
    And the lamps were giddy above.

{4}

  The lesson was all of a ship and a shot,
    And some of it may have been true,
  But the word they heard and never forgot
    Was the word of the wind that blew:

      Oh! I am the enemy most of might,
      The other be who you please!
      Gunner and guns may all be right,
      Flags a-flying and armour tight,
      But I am the fellow you've first to fight—
      The giant that swings the seas.

  The Middy with luck is a Captain soon,
    With luck he may hear one day
  His own big guns a-humming the tune
    "'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay."
  But wherever he goes, with friends or foes,
    And whatever may there befall,
  He'll hear for ever a voice he knows
    For ever defying them all:

      Oh! I am the enemy most of might,
      The other be who you please!
      Gunner and guns may all be right,
      Flags a-flying and armour tight,
      But I am the fellow you've first to fight—
      The giant that swings the seas.

{5}

III

The Middle Watch

  In a blue dusk the ship astern
    Uplifts her slender spars,
  With golden lights that seem to burn
    Among the silver stars.
  Like fleets along a cloudy shore
    The constellations creep,
  Like planets on the ocean floor
    Our silent course we keep.

      And over the endless plain,
        Out of the night forlorn
      Rises a faint refrain,
        A song of the day to be born—
      Watch, oh watch till ye find again
        Life and the land of morn.

  From a dim West to a dark East
    Our lines unwavering head,
  As if their motion long had ceased
    And Time itself were dead.

{6}

  Vainly we watch the deep below,
    Vainly the void above,
  They died a thousand years ago—
    Life and the land we love.

      But over the endless plain,
        Out of the night forlorn
      Rises a faint refrain,
        A song of the day to be born—
      Watch, oh watch till ye find again
        Life and the land of morn.

{7}

IV

The Little Admiral

  Stand by to reckon up your