Arthur Quiller-Couch

“ For I've laid you, darling! down to sleep,
With your baby on your breast.
I'm very lonely now, Mary,
For the poor make no new friends,
But, O, they love the better still,
The few our Father sends! ”

“ Like the wind through a ruin'd cell,
Or the mournful surges
That ring the dead seaman's knell.
When hearts have once mingled,
Love first leaves the well-built nest;
The weak one is singled
To endure what it once possest. ”

“ Think but how dear you bought
This fame which you have caught:
Such thoughts will make you more in love with truth.
'Tis wisdom, and that high,
For men to use their fortune reverently,
Even in youth. ”

“ Never came near thee:
Thou lovest, but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.
Waking or asleep,
Thou of death must deem
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream? ”

“ That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott. ”

“ The profits for a time.
No pleasures vain did chime
Of rimes or riots at your feasts,
Orgies of drink or feign'd protests;
But simple love of greatness and of good,
That knits brave minds and manners more than blood. ”

“ The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ”

“ And love, and death, and birth.
And then I changed my pipings—
Singing how down the vale of Mænalus
I pursued a maiden, and clasp'd a reed:
Gods and men, we are all deluded thus;
It breaks in our bosom, and then we bleed. ”

“ As not the world can praise too much,
Yet 'tis your Virtue now I raise.
A virtue, like allay [1] so gone
Throughout your form as, though that move
And draw and conquer all men's love,
This subjects you to love of one. ”

“ The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove
With the wings of care;
In the battle, in the darkness, in the need,
Shall mine cling to thee,
Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love,
It may bring to thee. ”

“ Thou art not what thou wast before,
⁠What reason I should be the same?
⁠He that can love unloved again,
⁠Hath better store of love than brain:
⁠God send me love my debts to pay,
⁠While unthrifts fool their love away! ”

“ So, by error, to his fate
⁠They all consented;
But, viewing him since, alas, too late!
⁠They have repented;
And have sought, to give new birth,
⁠In baths to steep him;
But, being so much too good for earth,
⁠Heaven vows to keep him. ”

“ YOU are a tulip seen to-day,
But, dearest, of so short a stay
That where you grew scarce man can say.
You are a lovely July-flower,
Yet one rude wind or ruffling shower
Will force you hence, and in an hour. ”

“ Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.
All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud,
As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud
The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow'd.
What thou art we know not ”

“ She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.
And moving thro' a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear. ”

“ Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill;
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere ”

“ No Will-o'-the-wisp mislight thee,
Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee;
But on, on thy way
Not making a stay,
Since ghost there's none to affright thee.
Let not the dark thee cumber:
What though the moon does slumber? ”

“ Murmur'd like a noontide bee,
'Shall I nestle near thy side?
Wouldst thou me?'—And I replied,
'No, not thee!'
Death will come when thou art dead,
Soon, too soon—
Sleep will come when thou art fled. ”

“ Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,
And ever changing, like a joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy? ”

“ Listening, whispers ''Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott.'
Part II
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot. ”

“ Than all who fell, than One who rose,
Than many unsubdued:
Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers,
But votive tears and symbol flowers.
O cease! must hate and death return?
Cease! must men kill and die? ”

“ QUEEN and huntress, chaste and fair,
⁠Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair,
⁠State in wonted manner keep:
⁠Hesperus entreats thy light,
⁠Goddess excellently bright.
Earth, let not thy envious shade
⁠Dare itself to interpose ”

“ O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes! ”

“ Sit by the fireside with Sorrow.
You with the unpaid bill, Despair,—
You tiresome verse-reciter, Care,—
I will pay you in the grave,—
Death will listen to your stave.
Expectation too, be off!
To-day is for itself enough. ”

“ We have short time to stay, as you,
⁠We have as short a spring ;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
⁠As you, or anything.
⁠We die
⁠As your hours do, and dry
⁠Away
⁠Like to the summer's rain ”

“ The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse
⁠Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd,
Or from the crevice peer'd about.
⁠Old faces glimmer'd thro' the doors,
⁠Old footsteps trod the upper floors,
Old voices call'd her from without. ”

“ The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream—
And the Champak's odours [pine]
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart,
As I must on thine,
O belovèd as thou art!
O lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail! ”

“ The trace of human step departed:
Because the garden was deserted,
⁠The blither place for me!
Friends, blame me not! a narrow ken
Hath childhood 'twixt the sun and sward:
We draw the moral afterward—
⁠We feel the gladness then. ”

“ And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
⁠Steady thy laden head across a brook;
⁠Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
⁠⁠Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? ”

“ No, I do know that I was born
⁠To age, misfortune, sickness, grief:
But I will bear these with that scorn
⁠As shall not need thy false relief.
Nor for my peace will I go far,
⁠As wanderers do, that still do roam ”

“ Sally in our Alley
OF all the girls that are so smart
⁠There's none like pretty Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
⁠And she lives in our alley.
There is no lady in the land
⁠Is half so sweet as Sally ”

“ Sing his praises that doth keep
Our flocks from harm,
Pan, the father of our sheep;
And arm in arm
Tread we softly in a round,
Whilst the hollow neighbouring ground
Fills the music with her sound. ”

“ Till you come forth! Wash, dress, be brief in praying
Few beads [1] are best when once we go a-Maying.
Come, my Corinna, come; and coming, mark
How each field turns a street, each street a park,
⁠Made green and trimm'd with trees! ”

“ Take no care
⁠For jewels for your gown or hair:
⁠Fear not; the leaves will strew
⁠Gems in abundance upon you:
Besides, the childhood of the day has kept,
Against you come, some orient pearls unwept. ”

“ Lest eny reve me my make [28]
⁠Ichabbe y-yerned yore. [29]
⁠Betere is tholien whyle sore [30]
⁠Then mournen evermore.
⁠Geynest under gore, [31]
⁠Herkne to my roun [32] —
An hendy hap, etc.
↑ on hyre lud] in her language. ↑ ich libbe] I live. ↑ semlokest] seemliest. ↑ he] she. ↑ bandoun] thraldom. ↑ hendy] gracious. ↑ y-hent] seized, enjoyed. ↑ ichot] I wot ↑ lyht] alighted. ↑ hire her] her hair. ↑ lossum] lovesome. ↑ loh] laughed. ↑ bote he] unless she. ↑ buen] be. ↑ make] mate. ↑ feye] like to die. ↑ nihtes] at night. ↑ wende] turn. ”