English

Ere yet the Briton left our happy shore,
Or war's alarming clarion ceas'd to roar,
What time the morn illum'd her purple flame,
Thro' air's dread wilds the prince of darkness came.
A cloud his gloomy car; his path around,
Attendant whirlwinds gave a fearful sound,
Before him dragons wound their bloody spires;
Far shot behind him death's Tartarean fires:
To image heaven's high state, he proudly rode,
Nor seem'd he less than hell's terrific God.
While, full before him, dress'd in beauteous day,

MAY.

Who cares on the land to stay,
Wasting the wealth of a day?
The yellow fields leave
For the meadows that heave,
And away to the sea — away!

To the meadows far out on the deep,
Whose ploughs are the winds that sweep
The green furrows high,
When into the sky
The silvery foam-bells leap.

At sea! — my bark — at sea!
With the winds, and the wild clouds and me;

APRIL.

Blossom of the almond-trees,
April's gift to April's bees,
Birthday ornament of spring,
Flora's fairest daughterling! —
Coming when no flow'rets dare
Trust the cruel outer air;
When the royal king-cup bold
Will not don his coat of gold;
And the sturdy blackthorn spray
Keeps its silver for the May; —
Coming when no flow'rets would,
Save thy lowly sisterhood
Early violets, blue and white,
Dying for their love of light.
Almond blossom, sent to teach us

MARCH.

Welcome, North-wind! from the Norland;
Strike upon our foremost foreland,
Sweep away across the moorland,
Do thy lusty kind!
Thou and we were born together
In the black Norwegian weather;
Birds we be of one brave feather,
Welcome, bully wind!

Buss us! set our girls' cheeks glowing;
Southern blood asks sun for flowing,
North blood warms when winds are blowing,
Most of all winds, thou;
There 's a sea-smack in thy kisses

FEBRUARY.

Fair Grecian legend, that, in Spring,
Seeking sweet tale for sunnier hours,
Fabled how Enna's queen did bring
Back from the underworld her flowers!

Whence come ye else, goblets of gold,
Which men the yellow crocus call?
You snow-drops, maiden-meek and cold,
What other fingers let you fall?

What hand but hers, who, wont to rove
The asphodel in Himera,

JANUARY.

Rain — hail — sleet — snow! — But in my East
This is the time when palm-trees quicken
With flowers, wherefrom the Arabs' feast
Of amber dates will thenceforth thicken.

Palms, — he and she, — in sight they grow;
And o'er the desert-sands is wafted,
On light airs of the After-glow,
That golden dust whence fruit is grafted.

Ah, happy trees! who feel no frost

7. Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
8. It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
9. The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
10. If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?

He spoke with one, a friend of college days,
Of Ireland and the Irish; land and folk
That Gordon Moore, albeit, like Michael's self,
His earliest breath was drawn on Irish soil,
Loved not, but almost hated; once he talked
After this fashion:
" Villiers, it's absurd
Of you to say you're half an Irishman —
At least that you have anything to do
With what they call the Irish people. Now,
I'll tell you what this Irish people is. —
A set of dirty, lazy priest-rid loons,
Who would not stir a foot to mend a fence

It was on TV. The whole country
saw it, or could have, that brief
flutter at the Hearings — the matter
mentioned, then smothered. . . . I thought
of Jefferson's " ... firebell in the night. . . . "

Here was more than the bell: the fire
itself — muffled out on the podium
with exemplary dispatch, yes;
but the blur and the sting of it over
everybody in America since
like a weather-inversion. Fathers,
I had not thought, even at worst,
we had come to this. Abe Lincoln,
as sworn, stood to the text

1

Whereas the race homo sapiens , having
overrun and subjugated the earth,
desolating and poisoning sections thereof,
now threatens instant or gradual
destruction to the rest, Therefore

Be it resolved: That Man
may no longer number among his freedoms
that of refusing his stewardship;
that the phrase " general welfare " henceforward
be constructed as referring to the earth
and all its inhabitants, plant
and animal (excluding such
microbes, insects and parasites as