Where be your tongues that late mocked at heaven and hell and fate, And the fingers that once were so busy with your blades, 50 Your perfum'd satin clothes, your catches and your oaths, Your stage-plays and your sonnets, your diamonds and your spades ? Down, down, for ever down with the mitre and the crown, With the Belial of the Court, and the Mammon of the Pope; There is woe in Oxford Halls; there is wail in Durham's Stalls: 55 The Jesuit smites his bosom; the Bishop rends his cope. And She of the seven hills shall mourn her children's ills, And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England's sword ; And the Kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word. 60 LORD MACAULAY. 302 BLACKMWORE MAIDENS The primrwose in the sheäde do blow, 5 If you could zee their comely gaït, A-trippèn on so light o' waïght, A-gwaïn to church, as bells do swing You'd own the pretty maïdens' pleäce If you vrom Wimborne took your road, An' all the farmers' housen show'd You'd cry to bachelors at hwome- You'll vind ten maïdens to your mind, An' if you looked 'ithin their door, A-doèn housework up avore As I upon my road did pass A school-house back in May There out upon the beäten grass Wer maïdens at their play; An' as the pretty souls did twile An' smile, I cried, 'The flow'r O' beauty, then, is still in bud In Blackmwore by the Stour.' W. BARNES. 10 15 20 25 309 35 40 303 THE WIFE A-LOST Since I noo mwore do zee your feäce, I'll zit me in the lwonesome pleäce, Since you noo mwore be at my zide, I'll goo alwone where mist do ride, Below the raïn-wet bough, my love, 5 10 An' I don't grieve to miss ye now, 15 Since now bezide my dinner-bwoard A-vield upon the ground; Below the darksome bough, my love, 20 An' I don't grieve to miss ye now, Since I do miss your vaïce an' feäce 25 I'll pray wi' oone sad vaïce vor greäce Above the tree an' bough, my love, W. BARNES. 30 304 THE NAMELESS ONE Roll forth, my song, like the rushing river, Tell thou the world, when my bones lie whitening Amid the last homes of youth and eld, That once there was one whose veins ran lightning No eye beheld. Tell how his boyhood was one drear night-hour, How shone for him, through his griefs and gloom, No star of all heaven sends to light our Path to the tomb. Roll on, my song, and to after ages 11 He would have taught men, from wisdom's pages, And tell how trampled, derided, hated, His soul with song With song which alway, sublime or vapid, A mountain stream. 16 20 26 Tell how this Nameless, condemned for years long 30 Go on to tell how, with genius wasted, 133 Μα Till spent with toil, dreeing death for others, And some whose hands should have wrought for him (If children live not for sires and mothers), His mind grew dim ; And he fell far through that pit abysmal, But yet redeemed it in days of darkness, And tell how now, amid wreck and sorrow; And want, and sickness, and houseless nights, And lives he still, then? Yes! Old and hoary Will never know. Him grant a grave to, ye pitying noble, J. C. MANGAN. 35 40 45 50 55 305 BRAHMA If the red slayer think he slays, Shadow and sunlight are the same ; And one to me are shame and fame. 5 |