Section 3

THE lamps now glitter down the street; Faintly sound the falling feet ; And the blue even slowly falls About the garden trees and walls.
Now in the falling of the gloom The red fire paints the empty room : And warmly on the roof it looks, And flickers on the backs of books.
Armies march by tower and spire Of cities blazing, in the fire ; Till as I gaze with staring eyes, The armies fade, the lustre dies. 95
ARMIES IN THE FIRE
Then once again the glow returns ; Again the phantom city burns ; And down the red-hot valley, lo ! The phantom armies marching go !
Blinking embers, tell me true, Where are those armies marching to, And what the burning city is That crumbles in your furnaces !
THE LITTLE IAND
WHEN at home alone I sit And am very tired of it, I have just to shut my eyes To go sailing through the skies — To go sailing far away To the pleasant Land of Play ; To the fairy land afar Where the little people are ; Where the clover-tops are trees, And the rain-pools are the seas, And the leaves like little ships Sail about on tiny trips; And above the daisy tree
Through the grasses, High o'erhead the Bumble Bee
Hums and passes.
97 G
THE LITTLE LAND
In that forest to and fro
I can wander, I can go ;
See the spider and the fly,
And the ants go marching by
Carrying parcels with their feet
Down the green and grassy street.
I can in the sorrel sit
Where the ladybird alit.
I can climb the jointed grass;
And on high See the greater swallows pass
In the sky,
And the round sun rolling by Heeding no such things as I.
Through that forest I can pass Till, as in a looking glass, Humming fly and daisy tree And my tiny self I see, 98
THE LITTLE LAND
Painted very clear and neat On the rain-pool at my feet. Should a leaflet come to land Drifting near to where I stand, Straight I '11 board that tiny boat Round the rain-pool sea to float.
Little thoughtful creatures sit On the grassy coasts of it ; Little things with lovely eyes See me sailing with surprise. Some are clad in armour green — (These have sure to battle been !) — Some are pied with ev'ry hue, Black and crimson, gold and blue ; Some have wings and swift are gone ;- But they all look kindly on.
When my eyes I once again Open, and see all things plain : High bare walls, great bare floor; 99
THE LITTLE LAND
Great big knobs on drawer and door ; Great big people perched on chairs, Stitching tucks and mending tears, Each a hill that I could climb, And talking nonsense all the time
O dear me,
That I could be A sailor on the rain-pool sea, A climber in the clover-tree, And just come back, a sleepy head, Late at night to go to bed.
DAYS
Copyright 1395, 6» Charlei Scribntr'i Soni
UNIVERSITY
OF
NIGHT
AND
WHEN the golden day is done, Through the closing portal, Child and garden, flower and sun, Vanish all things mortal. 103
NIGHT AND DAY
As the blinding shadows fall,
As the rays diminish, Under the evening's cloak, they all
Roll away and vanish.
Garden darkened, daisy shut, Child in bed, they slumber —
Glow-worm in the highway rut, Mice among the lumber.
In the darkness houses shine, Parents move with candles ;
Till on all, the night divine Turns the bedroom handles.
104
NIGHT AND DAY
Till at last the day begins
In the east a-breaking, In the hedges and the whins
Sleeping birds a-waking.
In the darkness shapes of things, Houses, trees, and hedges
Clearer grow ; and sparrow's wings Beat on window ledges.
These shall wake the yawning maid ;
She the door shall open — Finding dew on garden glade
And the morning broken.
There my garden grows again
Green and rosy painted, As at eve behind the pane
From my eyes it fainted.
Just as it was shut away,
Toy-like, in the even, Here I see it glow with day
Under glowing heaven.
NIGHT AND DAY
Every path and every plot,
Every bush of roses, Every blue forget-me-not
Where the dew reposes,
" Up ! " they cry, " the day is come
On the smiling valleys : We have beat the morning drum ;
Playmate, join your allies ! "
IRDS all the sunny day Flutter and quarrel
Here in the arbour-like Tent of the laurel.
Here in the fork
The brown nest is seated ; Four little blue eggs
The mother keeps heated.
107
NEST EGGS
While we stand watching her,
Staring like gabies, Safe in each egg are the
Bird's little babies.
Soon the frail eggs they shall Chip, and upspringing
Make all the April woods Merry with singing.
Younger than we are, O children, and frailer,
Soon in blue air they'll be, Singer and sailor.
We, so much older,
Taller and stronger, We shall look down on the
Birdies no longer.
They shall go flying With musical speeches
High overhead in the Tops of the beeches.
108
NEST EGGS
In spite of our wisdom And sensible talking,
We on our feet must go Plodding and walking.
r HE FLOWER^
ALL the names I know from nurse : Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse ; Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock, And the Lady Hollyhock.
Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames —
These must all be fairy names !
110
THE FLOWERS
Tiny woods below whose boughs Shady fairies weave a house ; Tiny tree tops, rose or thyme, Where the braver fairies climb !
Fair are grown-up people's trees, But the fairest woods are these ; Where, if I were not so tall, I should live for good and all.
GREAT is the sun, and wide he goes Through empty heaven without repose ; And in the blue and glowing days More thick than rain he showers his rays.
112
SUMMER SUN
Though closer still the blinds we pull To keep the shady parlour cool, Yet he will find a chink or two To slip his golden fingers through.
The dusty attic spider-clad He, through the keyhole, maketh glad ; And through the broken edge of tiles, Into> the laddered hayloft smiles.
Meantime his golden face around He bares to all the garden ground, And sheds a warm and glittering look Among the ivy's inmost nook.
Above the hills, along the blue, Round the bright air with footing true, To please the child, to paint the rose, The gardener of the World, he goes.
113
THE DUMB
SOLDIER
WHEN the grass was closely mown, Walking on the lawn alone, In the turf a hole I found And hid a soldier underground.
THE DUMB SOLDIER
Spring and daisies came apace ; Grasses hide my hiding place ; Grasses run like a green sea O'er the lawn up to my knee.
Under grass alone he lies, Looking up with leaden eyes, Scarlet coat and pointed gun, To the stars and to the sun.
When the grass is ripe like grain, When the scythe is stoned again, When the lawn is shaven clear, Then my hole shall reappear.
I shall find him, never fear,
I shall find my grenadier ;
But for all that 's gone and come,
I shall find my soldier dumb.
He has lived, a little thing, In the grassy woods of spring ; Done, if he could tell me true, Just as I should like to do. 115
THE DUMB SOLDIER
He has seen the starry hours And the springing of the flowers ; And the fairy things that pass In the forests of the grass,
In the silence he has heard Talking bee and ladybird, And the butterfly has flown O'er him as he lay alone.
Not a word will he disclose, Not a word of all he knows. I must lay him on the shelf, And make up the tale myself.
AUTUMN
IN the other gardens And all up the vale, From the autumn bonfires See the smoke trail !
117
P4UFO
AUTUMN FIRES
Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers, The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons f Something bright in all !
Flowers in the summer, Fires in the fall !
118
THE gardener does not love to talk, He makes me keep the gravel walk ; And when he puts his tools awray, He locks the door and takes the key.
Away behind the currant row Where no one else but cook may go, Far in the plots, I see him dig, Old and serious, brown and big.
He digs the flowers, green, red and blue, Nor wishes to be spoken to. He digs the flowers and cuts the hay, And never seems to want to play.
119
THE GARDENER
Silly gardener ! summer goes, And winter comes with pinching toes, When in the garden bare and brown You must lay your barrow down.
Well now, and while the summer stays, To profit by these garden days, O how much wiser you would be To play at Indian wars with me!
120
DEAR Uncle Jim, this garden ground That now you smoke your pipe around, Has seen immortal actions done And valiant battles lost and won.
Here we had best on tip-toe tread, While I for safety march ahead, For this is that enchanted ground Where all who loiter slumber sound.
Here is the sea, here is the sand, Here is simple Shepherd's Land, Here are the fairy hollyhocks, And there are Ali Baba's rocks.
But yonder, see ! apart and high, Frozen Siberia lies ; where I, With Robert Bruce and William Tell, Was bound by an enchanter's spell. 121
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS
There, then, awhile in chains we lay, In wintry dungeons, far from day ; But ris'n at length, with might and main, Our iron fetters burst in twain.
Then all the horns were blown in town ; And to the ramparts clanging down, All the giants leaped to horse And charged behind us through the gorse,
On we rode, the others and 1, Over the mountains blue, and by The Silver River, the sounding sea, And the robber woods of Tartaiy.
A thousand miles we galloped fast, And down the witches' lane we passed, And rode amain with brandished sword, Up to the middle, through the ford.
Last we drew rein — a weary three — Upon the lawn, in time for tea, And from our steeds alighted down Before the gates of Babylon.
122
Copyright 1895, by Charles Kcribner'*
_ r mm
ASTTA
^ * ®5 * ^Pl
X w -J, w J
I
F two may read aright
These rhymes of old delight And house and garden play, You two, my cousins, and you only, may.
You in a garden green With me were king and queen, Were hunter, soldier, tar, And all the thousand things that children are.
Now in the elders' seat We rest with quiet feet, And from the window-bay We watch the children, our successors, play.
125^StSE UBR^7> S* CPTHE
TO WILLIE AND HENRIETTA
"Time was/' the golden head Irrevocably said ; But time which none can bind, While flowing fast away, leaves love behind
TO -My -
MOTHER
^^/OU too, my mother, read my
Jl "For love of unforeoften time's , And you may chance to hear once more Tfie little feet along the floor
127
TO AUNTIE
C
our au/2fs — not onfy I , T3uf all your dozen of nurslings cry tfd ffa tffa* c/i//c/re/? do?
And vdaS -were Md food, wanting you?
• a
128
TO MINNIL
Copyright 1895, f>y Charles Scribncr't Sont
THE red room with the giant bed Where none but elders laid their head ; The little room where you and I Did for awhile together lie And, simple suitor, I your hand In decent marriage did demand ; The great day nursery, best of all, With pictures pasted on the wall And leaves upon the blind— A pleasant room wherein to \vake And hear the leafy garden shake And rustle in the wind — 129
UNIVERSITY
TO MINNIE
And pleasant there to lie in bed
And see the pictures overhead —
The wars about Sebastopol,
The grinning guns along the wall,
The daring escalade,
The plunging ships, the bleating sheep,
The happy children ankle-deep
And laughing as they wade:
All these are vanished clean away,
And the old manse is changed to-day ;
It wears an altered face
And shields a stranger race.
The river, on from mill to mill,
Flows past our childhood's garden still ;
But ah ! we children never more
Shall watch it from the water-door !
Below the yew — it still is there —
Our phantom voices haunt the air
As we were still at play,
And I can hear them call and say :
' How far is it to Babylon ? '
130
TO MINNIE
Ah, far enough, my dear, Far, far enough from here — Yet you have farther gone ! ' Can I get there by candlelight ? ' So goes the old refrain. I do not know — perchance you might — But only, children, hear it right, Ah, never to return again ! The eternal dawn, beyond a doubt, Shall break on hill and plain, And put all stars and candles out, Ere we be young again. To you in distant India, these I send across the seas, Nor count it far across. For which of us forgets The Indian cabinets,
The bones of antelope, the wings of albatross, The pied and painted birds and beans, The junks and bangles, beads and screens, The gods and sacred bells, And the loud-humming, twisted shells? The level of the parlour floor Was honest, homely, Scottish shore ; But when we climbed upon a chair, Behold the gorgeous East was there ! Be this a fable ; and behold Me in the parlour as of old, And Minnie just above me set In the quaint Indian cabinet ! 181
TO MINNIE
Smiling and kind, you grace a sheif Too high for me to reach myself. Reach down a hand, my dear, and take These rhymes for old acquaintance' sake
TO
MY JY i //
NAME-CHILI
SOME day soon this rhyming volume, if you learn with proper speed,
Little Louis Sanchez, will be given you to read. Then shall you discover that your name was
printed down
By the English printers, long before, in London town.
In the great and busy city wiiere the East and
West are met,
All the little letters did the English printer set ; .133
TO MY NAME-CHILD
While you thought of nothing, and were still too
young to play, Foreign people thought of you in places far away.
Ay, and while you slept, a baby, over all the
English lands Other little children took the volume in their
hands ; Other children questioned, in their homes across
the seas : Who was little Louis, won't you tell us, mother,
please ?
Now that you have spelt your lesson, lay it down
and go and play, Seeking shells and seaweed on the sands of
Monterey,
134
TO MY NAME-CHILD
Watching all the mighty whalebones, lying buried
by the breeze, Tiny sandy-pipers, and the huge Pacific seas.
And remember in your playing, as the sea-fog rolls
to you, Long ere you could read it, how I told you what
to do ; And that while you thought of no one, nearly half
the world away Some one thought of Louis on the beach of
Monterey !
TO
ANY- READER
Copyright 1895, by Charles Scriliner'i Sont
from the house .your mother sees You playing round the garden trees, So you may see, if you 'will look Through the windows of this book, Another child, far, far away, And in another garden, play. But do not think you can at all, By knocking on the window, call That child to hear you. He intent Is all on his play-business bent. He does not hear ; he will not look, Nor yet be lured out of this book. 136
TO ANY READER
For,, long ago, the truth to say, , He has giown up and gone away, \* And it is but a child of air
yhat lingers in the garden there.
UNIVERSITY)
K ^ . . OF y
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