Archives: Poems

Veil them, cover them, wall them round— 
  Blossorn, and creeper, and weed—
Let us forget the sight and the sound, 
  The smell and the touch of the breed!

Fat black ash by the altar-stone, 
  Here is the white-foot rain,
And the does bring forth in the fields unsown, 
  And none shall affright them again;
And the blind walls crumble, unknown, o'erthrown, 
  And none shall inhabit again!

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Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised, 
With idiot moons and stars retracting stars?
Creep thou between—thy coming's all unnoised. 
Heaven hath her high, as Earth her baser, wars.
Heir to these tumults, this affright, that fray 
(By Adam's, fathers', own, sin bound alway); 
Peer up, draw out thy horoscope and say
Which planet mends thy threadbare fate, or mars.

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To-night, God knows what thing shall tide, 
The Earth is racked and fain—	 
Expectant, sleepless, open-eyed; 
And we, who from the Earth were made, 
Thrill with our Mother's pain.


                                                   In Durance

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When Horse and Rider each can trust the other everywhere,
It takes a fence and more than a fence to pound that happy pair; 
For the one will do what the other demands, although he is beaten and blown,
And when it is done, they can live through a run that neither could face alone. 

When Crew and Captain understand each other to the core,
It takes a gale and more than a gale to put their ship ashore;
For the one will do what the other commands, although they are chilled to the bone,
And both together can live through weather that neither could face alone. 

When King and People understand each other past a doubt,
It takes a foe and more than a foe to knock that country out;
For the one will do what the other requires as soon as the need is shown;
And hand in hand they can make a stand which neither could make alone! 

This wisdom had Elizabeth and all her subjects too,
For she was theirs and they were hers, as well the Spaniard knew;
For when his grim Armada came to conquer the Nation and Throne,
Why, back to back they met an attack that neither could face alone! 

It is nor wealth, nor talk, nor trade, nor schools, nor even the Vote,
Will save your land when the enemy's hand is tightening round your throat.
But a King and a People who thoroughly trust each other in all that is done    
Can sleep on their bed without any dread— the world will leave 'em alone!

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Thus, for a season, they fought it fair—
      She and his cousin May—	
Tactful, talented, debonair, 
      Decorous foes were they;
But never can battle of man compare 
With merciless feminine fray.


                                         Two and One.

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And some are sulky, while some will plunge.
   [So ho! Steady! Stand still, you!]
Some you must gentle, and some you must lunge.
   [There! There! Who wants to kill you?]
Some—there are losses in every trade—
Will break their hearts ere bitted and made,
Will fight like fiends as the rope cuts hard,
And die dumb-mad in the breaking-yard.
                          Toolungala Stockyard Chorus.

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This I saw when the rites were done,
And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone, 
And the grey snake coiled on the altar-stone— 
Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see,
And the Gods of the East made mouths at me.

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They burnt a corpse upon the sand—
The light shone out afar;
It guided home the plunging dhows
That beat from Zanzibar.
Spirit of Fire, where'er Thy altars rise,
Thou art the Light of Guidance to our eyes l


                                                   Salsette Boat Song

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These are the Four
that are never content,
that have never been filled
since the Dews began—
Jacala’s mouth,
and the glut of the Kite,
and the hands of the Ape,
and the Eyes of Man.