For HE was young, but ah! we find, All we, whose beards are flecked with grey, Our fairy castle's far behind, We watch it from the darkling way:
'Twas ours, that palace, in our youth, We revelled there in happy cheer:
Who scarce dare visit now in sooth, Le Vieux Chateau de Souvenir!
For not the boughs of forest green Begird that castle far away, There is a mist where we have been That weeps about it, cold and grey.
And if we seek to travel back 'Tis through a thicket dim and sere, With many a grave beside the track, And many a haunting form of fear.
Dead leaves are wet among the moss, With weed and thistle overgrown -A ruined barge within the fosse, A castle built of crumbling stone!
The drawbridge drops from rusty chains, There comes no challenge from the hold;No squire, nor dame, nor knight remains, Of all who dwelt with us of old.
And there is silence in the hall No sound of songs, no ray of fire;But gloom where all was glad, and all Is darkened with a vain desire.
And every picture's fading fast, Of fair Jehanne, or Cydalise.
Lo, the white shadows hurrying past, Below the boughs of dripping trees!
* * *
Ah rise, and march, and look not back, Now the long way has brought us here;We may not turn and seek the track To the old Chateau de Souvenir!
BOAT-SONG
Adrift, with starlit skies above, With starlit seas below, We move with all the suns that move, With all the seas that flow:
For, bond or free, earth, sky, and sea, Wheel with one central will, And thy heart drifteth on to me, And only Time stands still.
Between two shores of death we drift, Behind are things forgot, Before, the tide is racing swift To shores man knoweth not.
Above, the sky is far and cold, Below, the moaning sea Sweeps o'er the loves that were of old, But thou, Love, love thou me.
Ah, lonely are the ocean ways, And dangerous the deep, And frail the fairy barque that strays Above the seas asleep.
Ah, toil no more with helm or oar, We drift, or bond or free, On yon far shore the breakers roar, But thou, Love, love thou me!
LOST LOVE
Who wins his Love shall lose her, Who loses her shall gain, For still the spirit woos her, A soul without a stain;And Memory still pursues her With longings not in vain!
He loses her who gains her, Who watches day by day The dust of time that stains her, The griefs that leave her grey, The flesh that yet enchains her Whose grace hath passed away!
Oh, happier he who gains not The Love some seem to gain:
The joy that custom stains not Shall still with him remain, The loveliness that wanes not, The Love that ne'er can wane.
In dreams she grows not older The lands of Dream among, Though all the world wax colder, Though all the songs be sung, In dreams doth he behold her Still fair and kind and young.
THE PROMISE OF HELEN
Whom hast thou longed for most, True love of mine?
Whom hast thou loved and lost?
Lo, she is thine!
She that another wed Breaks from her vow;She that hath long been dead Wakes for thee now.
Dreams haunt the hapless bed, Ghosts haunt the night, Life crowns her living head, Love and Delight.
Nay, not a dream nor ghost, Nay, but Divine, She that was loved and lost Waits to be thine!
THE RESTORATION OF ROMANCE.
TO H. R. H., R. L. S., A. C. D., AND S. W.
King Romance was wounded deep, All his knights were dead and gone, All his court was fallen on sleep, In a vale of Avalon!
Nay, men said, he will not come, Any night or any morn.
Nay, his puissant voice is dumb, Silent his enchanted horn!
King Romance was forfeited, Banished from his Royal home, With a price upon his head, Driven with sylvan folk to roam.
King Romance is fallen, banned, Cried his foemen overbold, Broken is the wizard wand, All the stories have been told!
Then you came from South and North, From Tugela, from the Tweed, Blazoned his achievements forth, King Romance is come indeed!
All his foes are overthrown, All their wares cast out in scorn, King Romance hath won his own, And the lands where he was born!
Marsac at adventure rides, Felon men meet felon scathe, Micah Clarke is taking sides For King Monmouth and the Faith;For a Cause or for a lass Men are willing to be slain, And the dungeons of the Bass Hold a prisoner again.
King Romance with wand of gold Sways the realms he ruled of yore.
Hills Dalgetty roamed of old, Valleys of enchanted Kor:
Waves his sceptre o'er the isles, Claims the pirates' treasuries, Through innumerable miles Of the siren-haunted seas!
Elfin folk of coast and cave, Laud him in the woven dance, All the tribes of wold and wave Bow the knee to King Romance!
Wand'ring voices Chaucer knew On the mountain and the main, Cry the haunted forest through, KING ROMANCE HAS COME AGAIN!
CENTRAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM'Youth and crabbed age Cannot live together;'
So they say.
On this little page See you when and whether That they may.
Age was very old -
Stones from Chichimec Hardly wrung;
Youth had hair of gold Knotted on her neck -Fair and young!
Age was carved with odd Slaves, and priests that slew them -God and Beast;
Man and Beast and God -
There she sat and drew them, King and Priest!
There she sat and drew Many a monstrous head And antique;Horrors from Peru, HUACAS doubly dead, Dead cacique!
Ere Pizarro came These were lords of men Long ago;Gods without a name, Born or how or when, None may know!
Now from Yucatan These doth Science bear Over seas;And methinks a man Finds youth doubly fair, Sketching these!
ON CALAIS SANDS
On Calais Sands the grey began, Then rosy red above the grey, The morn with many a scarlet van Leap'd, and the world was glad with May!
The little waves along the bay Broke white upon the shelving strands;The sea-mews flitted white as they On Calais Sands!
On Calais Sands must man with man Wash honour clean in blood to-day;On spaces wet from waters wan How white the flashing rapiers play, Parry, riposte! and lunge! The fray Shifts for a while, then mournful stands The Victor: life ebbs fast away On Calais Sands!
On Calais Sands a little space Of silence, then the plash and spray, The sound of eager waves that ran To kiss the perfumed locks astray, To touch these lips that ne'er said 'Nay,'