XXXI

Onward led the road again
Through the sad uncoloured plain
Under twilight brooding dim,
And along the utmost rim
Wall and rampart risen to sight
Cast a shadow not of night,
And beyond them seemed to glow
Bonfires lighted long ago.
And my dark conductor broke
Silence at my side and spoke,
Saying, " You conjecture well:
Yonder is the gate of hell."

Ill as yet the eye could see
The eternal masonry,
But beneath it on the dark
To and fro there stirred a spark.

Only thy dust is here, thy dust ...
But when chill May uncloses
Her petals and is June, I feel
A heartbeat shake the roses.

Earth and the sun were sweet to us,
Green grass and brooks and laughter ...
And I cannot think of thee a ghost
Within some strange hereafter.

Dawn and the hills were glad of us,
Tossed corn and windy meadows ...
And I should not know thee as a shade,
Pallid among pale shadows.

Stars and the streams were friends to us,
Clear skies and wintry weather ...

Only the wanderer
Knows England's graces,
Or can anew see clear
Familiar faces.

And who loves joy as he
That dwells in shadows?
Do not forget me quite,
O Severn meadows.

The lazy hours move slow,
The minutes stay;
Old time with leaden feet doth goe,
And his light wings hath cast away;

The slow pac'd spheres above
Have sure releas'd
Their guardians, and without help move,
Whilest that the weary Angels rest;

The numbred sands that slide
Through this small glass,
And into moments time divide,
Too slow each other do displace;

The tedious wheels of light
No faster climbe
Then that dull shade which waits on night,
For expectation out-runs time:

How long Lord must I stay?

The only real airship
That I've ever seen
Looked more like a fish
Than a flying machine.

It made me feel funny,
And just as if we
Were all of us down
On the floor of the sea.

A big whale above us
Was taking a swim,
And we little fishes
Were staring at him.

Only one more day, my Johnny,
One more day!
Oh, rock and roll me over.
Only one more day!

Don't you hear the old man calling,
Can't you hear the pilot bawling.

Can't you hear those gals a-calling
Can't you hear the capstan pawling.

Put on your long-tailed blue, my Johnny,
For your pay is nearly due.

Only one more day, my Johnny,
One more day!
Oh, rock and roll me over.
Only one more day!

only one guy and
only one fly trying to
make the guest room do.

The only ghost I ever saw
Was dressed in mechlin, — so;
He wore no sandal on his foot,
And stepped like flakes of snow.
His gait was soundless, like the bird,
But rapid, like the roe;
His fashions quaint, mosaic,
Or, haply, mistletoe.

His conversation seldom,
His laughter like the breeze
That dies away in dimples
Among the pensive trees.
Our interview was transient, —
Of me, himself was shy;
And God forbid I look behind
Since that appalling day!

Only for these I pray.
Pray with assurance strong;
Light to discover the way,
Power to follow it long.

Let me have Light to see,
Light to be sure and know,
When the road is clear to me
Willingly I go.

Let me have Power to do,
Power of the brain and nerve,
Though the task is heavy and new
Willingly I will serve

My prayers are lesser than three,
Nothing I pray but two;
Let me have light to see,
Let me have Power to do.

Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.

Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.

Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.