A SHOAL of idlers, from a merchant craft Anchor'd off Alexandria, went ashore, And mounting asses in their headlong glee, Round Pompey's Pillar rode with hoots and taunts, As men oft say, "What art thou more than we?" Next in a boat they floated up the Nile, Singing and drinking, swearing senseless oaths, Shouting, and laughing most derisively And in portentous ruins (through whose depths, The mighty twilight of departed Gods, Both sun and moon glanced furtive, as in awe) They hid, and whoop'd, and spat on sacred things. At length, beneath the blazing sun they lounged Near a great Pyramid. Awhile they stood With stupid stare, until resentment grew, In the recoil of meanness from the vast ; And gathering stones, they with coarse oaths and jibes (As they would say, "What art thou more than we?" Pelted the Pyramid! But soon these men, Hot and exhausted, sat them down tc Rich yellow lawns embrown'd by soft degrees; Plots of intense gold freak'd with shady nuts. A dead hot silence tranced sea, land, and sky: And now a long canoe came gliding forth, Wherein there sat an old man fierce and swarth, Tiger-faced, black-fang'd, and with jaundiced eye. Pure white, with pale blue chequer'd, and red fold Of head-cloth 'neath straw brim, this Master wore ; While in the sun-glare stood with highrais'd oar A naked Image all of burnish'd gold. Golden his bones - high-valued in the mart, His minted muscles, and his glossy skin; Golden his life of action - but within The slave is human in a bleeding heart. THE PLOUGH A LANDSCAPE IN BERKSHIRE ABOVE yon sombre swell of land Thou seest the dawn's grave orange hue, With one pale streak like yellow sand, And over that a vein of blue. The air is cold above the woods; All silent is the earth and sky, Except with his own lonely moods The blackbird holds a colloquy. Over the broad hill creeps a beam, Ye rigid Ploughmen, bear in mind Your labor is for future hours! Advance spare not -nor look behind : Plough deep and straight with all your powers. DREAM-PEDLARY If there were dreams to sell, What would you buy? Some cost a passing bell; Some a light sigh, That shakes from Life's fresh crown Only a rose-leaf down. If there were dreams to sell, A cottage lone and still, Such pearl from Life's fresh crown But there were dreams to sell Which one would I? If there are ghosts to raise, Know'st thou not ghosts to sue? And breathe thy last. BALLAD OF HUMAN LIFE WHEN we were girl and boy together, I sought the youngest, best, Till I had laid them at thy fairy feet. When we were boy and girl together. Then we were lad and lass together, At the starry summer-evening weather, And we are man and wife together, Beneath flowers' roots and birds' light feet. And dissipate the gloom With songs of loving faith and sorrow sweet. And fate and darkling grave kind dreams do cheat, That, while fair life, young hope, despair and death are, We're boy and girl, and lass and lad, and man and wife together. SONGS FROM "DEATH'S JEST BOOK" I TO SEA, TO SEA! To sea, to sea! The calm is o'er ; The dolphin wheels, the sea-cows snort, And unseen Mermaids' pearly song Comes bubbling up, the weeds among. Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar: To sea, to sea! the calm is o'er. ATHULF'S DEATH SONG A CYPRESS-BOUGH, and a rose-wreath sweet, Death and Hymen both are here; Now tremble dimples on your cheek, |