Hark! ah, the nightingale—
The tawny-throated!
Hark, from that moonlit cedar what a burst!
°[4]What triumph! hark!—what pain°!
°[5]O wanderer from a Grecian shore,°
Still, after many years, in distant lands,
Still nourishing in thy bewilder'd brain
°[8]That wild, unquench'd, deep-sunken, old-world pain°—
Say, will it never heal?
10And can this fragrant lawn
With its cool trees, and night,
And the sweet, tranquil Thames,
And moonshine, and the dew,
To thy rack'd heart and brain
15Afford no balm?
Dost thou to-night behold,
Here, through the moonlight on this English grass,
°[18]The unfriendly palace in the Thracian wild°?
Dost thou again peruse
20With hot cheeks and sear'd eyes
°[21]The too clear web, and thy dumb sister's shame°?
Dost thou once more assay
[p.91] Thy flight, and feel come over thee,
Poor fugitive, the feathery change
25Once more, and once more seem to make resound
With love and hate, triumph and agony,
°[27]Lone Daulis,° and the high Cephissian vale°?
Listen, Eugenia—
°[29]How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves°!
30Again—thou hearest?
Eternal passion!
°[32]Eternal pain°!
[HUMAN LIFE][°]
What mortal, when he saw,
Life's voyage done, his heavenly Friend,
Could ever yet dare tell him fearlessly:
°[4]"I have kept uninfringed my nature's law°;
°[5]The inly-written chart° thou gavest me,
To guide me, I have steer'd by to the end"?
Ah! let us make no claim,
°[8]On life's incognisable° sea,
To too exact a steering of our way;
10Let us not fret and fear to miss our aim,
If some fair coast have lured us to make stay,
Or some friend hail'd us to keep company.
Ay! we would each fain drive
At random, and not steer by rule.
15Weakness! and worse, weakness bestow'd in vain
Winds from our side the unsuiting consort rive,
We rush by coasts where we had lief remain;
Man cannot, though he would, live chance's fool.
[p.92] No! as the foaming swath
20Of torn-up water, on the main,
Falls heavily away with long-drawn roar
On either side the black deep-furrow'd path
°[23]Cut by an onward-labouring vessel's prore,°
And never touches the ship-side again;
25Even so we leave behind,
As, charter'd by some unknown Powers
°[27]We stem° across the sea of life by night,
The joys which were not for our use design'd;—
The friends to whom we had no natural right,
30The homes that were not destined to be ours.
[ISOLATION][°]
TO MARGUERITE
°[1]Yes°! in the sea of life enisled,
With echoing straits between us thrown,
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone.
5The islands feel the enclasping flow,
And then their endless bounds they know.
°[7]But when the moon° their hollows lights,
And they are swept by balms of spring,
And in their glens, on starry nights,
10The nightingales divinely sing;
And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across the sounds and channels pour—
[p.93] Oh! then a longing like despair
Is to their farthest caverns sent;
15For surely once, they feel, we were
Parts of a single continent!
Now round us spreads the watery plain—
Oh might our marges meet again!
Who order'd, that their longing's fire
20Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who renders vain their deep desire?—
A God, a God their severance ruled!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
°[24]The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.°
[KAISER DEAD][°]
April 6, 1887
What, Kaiser dead? The heavy news
°[2]Post-haste to Cobham° calls the Muse,
°[3]From where in Farringford° she brews
The ode sublime,
°[5]Or with Pen-bryn's bold bard° pursues
A rival rhyme.
Kai's bracelet tail, Kai's busy feet,
Were known to all the village-street.
"What, poor Kai dead?" say all I meet;
10 "A loss indeed!"
O for the croon pathetic, sweet,
°[12] Of Robin's reed°!
[p.94] Six years ago I brought him down,
A baby dog, from London town;
15Round his small throat of black and brown
A ribbon blue,
And vouch'd by glorious renown
A dachshound true.
His mother, most majestic dame,
°[20]Of blood-unmix'd, from Potsdam° came;
And Kaiser's race we deem'd the same—
No lineage higher.
And so he bore the imperial name.
But ah, his sire!
25Soon, soon the days conviction bring.
The collie hair, the collie swing,
The tail's indomitable ring,
The eye's unrest—
The case was clear; a mongrel thing
30 Kai stood confest.
But all those virtues, which commend
The humbler sort who serve and tend,
Were thine in store, thou faithful friend.
What sense, what cheer!
35To us, declining tow'rds our end,
A mate how dear!
For Max, thy brother-dog, began
To flag, and feel his narrowing span.
And cold, besides, his blue blood ran,
40 Since, 'gainst the classes,
°[41]He heard, of late, the Grand Old Man°
Incite the masses.
[p.95] Yes, Max and we grew slow and sad;
But Kai, a tireless shepherd-lad,
45Teeming with plans, alert, and glad
In work or play,
Like sunshine went and came, and bade
Live out the day!
Still, still I see the figure smart—
°[50]Trophy in mouth, agog° to start,
Then, home return'd, once more depart;
Or prest together
Against thy mistress, loving heart,
In winter weather.
55I see the tail, like bracelet twirl'd,
In moments of disgrace uncurl'd,
Then at a pardoning word re-furl'd,
A conquering sign;
Crying, "Come on, and range the world,
60 And never pine."
Thine eye was bright, thy coat it shone;
Thou hast thine errands, off and on;
In joy thy last morn flew; anon,
A fit! All's over;
°[65]And thou art gone where Geist° hath gone,
And Toss, and Rover.
Poor Max, with downcast, reverent head,
Regards his brother's form outspread;
Full well Max knows the friend is dead
70 Whose cordial talk,
And jokes in doggish language said,
Beguiled his walk.
[p.96] And Glory, stretch'd at Burwood gate,
Thy passing by doth vainly wait;
75And jealous Jock, thy only hate,
°[76] The chiel° from Skye,°
Lets from his shaggy Highland pate
Thy memory die.
Well, fetch his graven collar fine,
80And rub the steel, and make it shine,
And leave it round thy neck to twine,
Kai, in thy grave.
There of thy master keep that sign,
And this plain stave.