Therefore, to you, the rhymes I strung
When even this ‘brindled’ head was young
I bring, and later rhymes I bring
That flit upon as weak a wing,
But still for you, for yours, they sing!

Many of the verses and translations in this volume were published first in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872). Though very sensible that they have the demerits of imitative and even of undergraduate rhyme, I print them again because people I like have liked them. The rest are of different dates, and lack (though doubtless they need) the excuse of having been written, like some of the earlier pieces, during College Lectures. I would gladly have added to this volume what other more or less serious rhymes I have written, but circumstances over which I have no control have bound them up with Ballades, and other toys of that sort.

It may be as well to repeat in prose, what has already been said in verse, that Grass of Parnassus, the pretty Autumn flower, grows in the marshes at the foot of the Muses’ Hill, and other hills, not at the top by any means.

Several of the versions from the Greek Anthology have been published in the Fortnightly Review, and the sonnet on Colonel Burnaby appeared in Punch. These, with pieces from other serials, are reprinted by the courteous permission of the Editors.

The verses that were published in Ballades and Lyrics, and in Ballads and Verses Vain (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York), are marked in the contents with an asterisk.

CONTENTS

DEEDS OFMEN

PAGE

Seekers for a city

[3]

The white Pacha

[6]

Midnight, January 25, 1886

[8]

Advance, Australia

[9]

Colonel Burnaby

[11]

Melville and Coghill

[12]

RHODOCLEIA

To Rhodocleia

[15]

AVE

Clevedon Church

[21]

Twilight on Tweed *

[23]

Metempsychosis *

[25]

Lost in Hades *

[26]

A Star in the Night *

[27]

A Sunset on Yarrow *

[28]

Another Way

[29]

HESPEROTHEN *

The Seekers forPhæacia

[33]

A song of Phæacia

[35]

The Departure fromPhæacia

[37]

A Ballad of Departure

[39]

They Hear the Sirens for the SecondTime

[40]

Circe’s IsleRevisited

[42]

The Limit of Lands

[44]

VERSES

Martial in Town

[49]

April on Tweed

[51]

Tired of Towns

[53]

Scythe Song

[55]

Pen and Ink

[56]

A Dream

[58]

The Singing Rose

[59]

A Review in Rhyme

[62]

Colinette *

[63]

A Sunset of Watteau *

[65]

Nightingale Weather *

[67]

Love and Wisdom *

[69]

Good-Bye *

[71]

An Old Prayer *

[73]

À la BelleHélène *

[74]

Sylvie et Aurélie *

[76]

A Lost Path *

[78]

The Shade of Helen *

[79]

SONNETS

She

[83]

Herodotus in Egypt

[84]

Gérard de Nerval *

[85]

Ronsard *

[86]

Love’s Miracle *

[87]

Dreams *

[88]

Two Sonnets of the Sirens *

[89]

TRANSLATIONS

Hymn to the Winds *

[93]

Moonlight *

[94]

The Grave and the Rose *

[95]

A Vow to Heavenly Venus *

[96]

Of His Lady’s Old Age*

[97]

Shadows of His Lady *

[98]

April *

[99]

An Old Tune *

[103]

Old Loves *

[104]

A lady of High Degree *

[106]

Iannoula *

[108]

The Milk White Doe *

[109]

Heliodore

[112]

The Prophet

[113]

Lais

[114]

Clearista

[115]

The Fisherman’s Tomb

[116]

Of his Death

[117]

Rhodope

[118]

To a Girl

[119]

To the Ships

[120]

A Late Convert

[121]

The Limit of Life

[122]

To Daniel Elzevir

[123]

THE LASTCHANCE

The Last Chance

[127]

GRASS OF PARNASSUS.

Pale star that by the lochs of Galloway,
In wet green places ’twixt the depth and height
Dost keep thine hour while Autumn ebbs away,
When now the moors have doffed the heather bright,
Grass of Parnassus, flower of my delight,
How gladly with the unpermitted bay—
Garlands not mine, and leaves that not decay—
How gladly would I twine thee if I might!

The bays are out of reach! But far below
The peaks forbidden of the Muses’ Hill,
Grass of Parnassus, thy returning snow
Between September and October chill
Doth speak to me of Autumns long ago,
And these kind faces that are with me still.