15 For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning i You've fallen cold and dead. still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will ; The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won ; WALT WHITMAN. 20 5 361 Who but I! Sae glad, sae free, The green mint and marjorie ; Kingcup and daffodilly, O love my Willie ! Sang he to my nimble strain; Till my heartstrings rang again ; Kingcup and daffodilly, O love my Willie ! 10 15 20 · Pipe and play, dear heart, sang he, I must go, yet pipe and play ; For an answer yea or nay ; Panted in yon waters stilly, O love my Willie ! 25 I thought first when thou didst come I would wear the ring for thee, Ere again thou sat'st by me ; By kingcup and daffodilly; JEAN INGELOW. 30 362 THE HIGH TIDE ON THE COAST OF LINCOLNSHIRE (1571) 5 The old mayor climbed the belfry tower, The ringers ran by two, by three ; 'Pull, if ye never pulled before ; Good ringers, pull your best,' quoth he. s6 The Brides of Enderby.” Men say it was a stolen tyde The Lord that sent it, He knows all ; But in myne ears doth still abide The message that the bells let fall : And there was naught of strange, beside The flight of inews and peewits pied By millions crouched on the old sea wall. 10 15 20 25 30 I sat and spun within the doore, My thread brake off, I raised myne eyes ; The level sun, like ruddy ore, Lay sinking in the barren skies; Floweth, floweth, For the dews will soone be falling ; Mellow, mellow; Hollow, hollow; From the clovers lift your head ; Jetty, to the milking shed.' If it be long, aye, long ago, When I beginne to think howe long, Swift as an arrowe, sharp and strong ; And not a shadowe mote be seene, 36 41 45 50 55 60 65 70 Save where full fyve good miles away The steeple towered from out the greene ; And lo! the great bell farre and wide Was heard in all the country side That Saturday at eventide. The swanherds where their sedges are Moved on in sunset's golden breath, And my sonne's wife, Elizabeth ; And all along where Lindis flows And where the lordly steeple shows. They sayde, “ And why should this thing be? What danger lowers by land or sea ? They ring the tune of Enderby! · For evil news from Mablethorpe, Of pyrate galleys warping down; For shippes ashore beyond the scorpe, They have not spared to wake the towne : But while the west bin red to see, And storms be none, and pyrates flee, Why ring “ The Brides of Enderby” ? ' I looked without, and lo! my sonne Came riding downe with might and main : He raised a shout as he drew on, Till all the welkin rang again, Elizabeth ! Elizabeth ! (A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.) "The olde sea wall (he cried) is downe, The rising tide comes on apace, And boats adrift in yonder towne Go sailing uppe the market-place.' 75 85 91 95 105 He shook as one that looks on death : * God save you, mother !’straight he saith ; * Where is my wife, Elizabeth ?' Good sonne, where Lindis winds away, With her two bairns I marked her long ; And ere yon bells beganne to play Afar I heard her milking song.' 100 A mighty eygre reared his crest, And uppe the Lindis raging sped. Shook all her trembling bankes amaine ; Flung uppe her weltering walls again. Then bankes came downe with ruin and rout Then beaten foam flew round about-Then all the mighty floods were out. So farre, so fast the eygre drave, The heart had hardly time to beat, Sobbed in the grasses at oure feet : The noise of bells went sweeping by : Stream from the church tower, red and highA lurid mark and dread to see ; And awesome bells they were to mee, That in the dark rang 'Enderby.' 111 115 120 125 |