English

O, FAIREST Dame of sylvan glades,
We come to pay thee homage due,
Embrace thee softly and to kiss
Thy lovely, long-forsaken cheeks;
To smooth thy flowing silver locks
And bind about thy snowy neck
A necklace golden studded full
With rarest gems and shining pearls.
Our eyes, though sometimes dimmed with tears,
In purer lustre sparkle forth
Whene'er they fall agaze on thee!
Our ears attuned to thy sweet lay
Catch every flowing, cadent note
And bear it ever safe within
Our rapturous hearts, which gladly leap

ON RETURNING TO THE FRONT AFTER LEAVE

A PART sweet women (for whom Heaven be blessed),
Comrades, you cannot think how thin and blue
Look the leftovers of mankind that rest,
Now that the cream has been skimmed off in you.
War has its horrors, but has this of good —
That its sure processes sort out and bind
Brave hearts in one intrepid brotherhood
And leave the shams and imbeciles behind.
Now turn we joyful to the great attacks,
Not only that we face in a fair field
Our valiant foe and all his deadly tools,

TO ... IN CHURCH

I F I was drawn here from a distant place,
'Twas not to pray nor hear our friend's address,
But, gazing once more on your winsome face,
To worship there Ideal Loveliness.
On that pure shrine that has too long ignored
The gifts that once I brought so frequently
I lay this votive offering, to record
How sweet your quiet beauty seemed to me.
Enchanting girl, my faith is not a thing
By futile prayers and vapid psalm-singing
To vent in crowded nave and public pew.

The lad I was I longer now
Nor am nor shall be evermore.
Spring's lovely blossoms from my brow
Have shed their petals on the floor.
Thou, Love, hast been my lord, thy shrine
Above all gods' best served by me.
Dear Love, could life again be mine
How bettered should that service be!

Storm along, John! Though you faltered at first,
Caught in an ambush, and held to the worst,
All the old Counties were hard on the spot,
For they hadn't a son but rejoiced in his lot.
You had only to cart 'em some thousands of miles;
So you fell to your work with the calmest of smiles,
And, each with her battles, your ships you sent on,
Till you beggared the record — Hi! Storm along, John!
Storm along, John! Storm along, John!
Frenchman and Russian and Dutchman and Don

" DEATH in the right cause, death in the wrong cause, trumpets of victory, groans of defeat":
Yes; and it's better to go for the Abbey than chuck your old bones out in the street.

Life is a march and a battle (there's some of us make it a kind of review);
But how if you never get out on parade, and there's not any fighting to do?

Hands in your pockets, eyes on the pavement, where in the world is the fun of it all?
But a row — but a rush — but a face for your fist. Then a crash through the dark — and a fall;

Hitch , blunder, check —
Each is a new disaster ,
And it is who shall bleat and scrawl
The feebler and the faster.
Where is our ancient pride of heart?
Our faith in blood and star?
Who but would marvel how we came
If this were all we are?

Ours is the race
That tore the Spaniard's ruff,
That flung the Dutchman by the breech,
The Frenchman by the scruff;

PROLOGIE

When the wind storms by with a shout, and the stern sea caves
Rejoice in the tramp and the roar of onsetting waves,
Then, then it comes home to the heart that the top of life
Is the passion that burns the blood in the act of strife —
Till you pity the dead down there in their quiet graves.

But to drowse with the fen behind and the fog before,
When the rain-rot spreads, and a tame sea mumbles the shore,
Not to adventure, none to fight, no right and no wrong,

[The Ninth Part.]

Now is Mabam slaine;
& to Irom he went againe,
w i th sword drawne to ffight;
ffor to haue Clouen his braine,
I tell you ffor certaine
he went to him ffull right;
but when he came there,
away he was bore,

[The Eighth Part.]

& after they went to rest,
& tooke their likeing as them list
in tha t Castell all night
On the morrow anon-right
S i r Lybius was armed bright;
ffresh he was to ffight.
S i r Lamberd led him algate
right vnto the Castle gate;
open they were ffull right;