Andromeda, and Other Poems

VALENTINE’S DAY

Oh!  I wish I were a tiny browny bird from out the south,   Settled among the alder-holts, and twittering by the stream;I would put my tiny tail down, and put up my tiny mouth,   And sing my tiny life away in one melodious dream.I would sing about the blossoms, and the sunshine and the sky,   And the tiny wife I mean to have in such a cosy nest;And if some one came and shot me dead, why then I could but die,   With my tiny life and tiny song just ended at their best.Eversley, 1873

BALLAD: LORRAINE, LORRAINE, LORRÈE

1‘Are you ready for your steeple-chase, Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorrèe?   Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Baree,You’re booked to ride your capping race to-day at Coulterlee,You’re booked to ride Vindictive, for all the world to see,To keep him straight, to keep him first, and win the run for me.   Barum, Barum,’ etc.2She clasped her new-born baby, poor Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorrèe,‘I cannot ride Vindictive, as any man might see,And I will not ride Vindictive, with this baby on my knee;He’s killed a boy, he’s killed a man, and why must he kill me?’3‘Unless you ride Vindictive, Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorrèe,Unless you ride Vindictive to-day at Coulterlee,And land him safe across the brook, and win the blank for me,It’s you may keep your baby, for you’ll get no keep from me.’4‘That husbands could be cruel,’ said Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorrèe,‘That husbands could be cruel, I have known for seasons three;But oh! to ride Vindictive while a baby cries for me,And be killed across a fence at last for all the world to see!’5She mastered young Vindictive—Oh! the gallant lass was she,And kept him straight and won the race as near as near could be;But he killed her at the brook against a pollard willow-tree,Oh! he killed her at the brook, the brute, for all the world to see,And no one but the baby cried for poor Lorraine, Lorrèe.Last poem written in illness.Colorado, U.S.A. June 1874.

MARTIN LIGHTFOOT’S SONG 37

Come hearken, hearken, gentles all,   Come hearken unto me,And I’ll sing you a song of a Wood-Lyon   Came swimming out over the sea.He rangèd west, he rangèd east,   And far and wide ranged he;He took his bite out of every beast   Lives under the greenwood tree.Then by there came a silly old wolf,   ‘And I’ll serve you,’ quoth he;Quoth the Lyon, ‘My paw is heavy enough,   So what wilt thou do for me?’Then by there came a cunning old fox,   ‘And I’ll serve you,’ quoth he;Quoth the Lyon, ‘My wits are sharp enough   So what wilt thou do for me?’Then by there came a white, white dove,   Flew off Our Lady’s knee;Sang ‘It’s I will be your true, true love,   If you’ll be true to me.’‘And what will you do, you bonny white dove?   And what will you do for me?’‘Oh, it’s I’ll bring you to Our Lady’s love,   In the ways of chivalrie.’He followed the dove that Wood-Lyon   By mere and wood and wold,Till he is come to a perfect knight,   Like the Paladin of old.He rangèd east, he rangèd west,   And far and wide ranged he—And ever the dove won him honour and fame   In the ways of chivalrie.Then by there came a foul old sow,   Came rookling under the tree;And ‘It’s I will be true love to you,   If you’ll be true to me.’‘And what wilt thou do, thou foul old sow?   And what wilt thou do for me?’‘Oh, there hangs in my snout a jewel of gold,   And that will I give to thee.’He took to the sow that Wood-Lyon;   To the rookling sow took he;And the dove flew up to Our Lady’s bosom;   And never again throve he.

1

  This and the following poem were written at school in early boy-hood.

2

  Lines supposed to be found written in an illuminated missal.

3

  Found among Sandy Mackaye’s papers, of a hairy oubit who would not mind his mother.

4

  The Christian Socialist, started by the Council of Associates for promotion of Co-operation.

5

  Bishop of Labuan, in Borneo.

6

  This Ode was set to Professor Sterndale Bennet’s music, and sung in the Senate House, Cambridge, on the Day of Installation.

7

  His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, Chancellor of Cambridge University.

8

  Impromptu lines written in the album of the Crown Princess of Germany.

9

  Time of the Franco-Prussian War.

10

  The Qu’est qu’il dit is a Tropical bird.

11

  This myth about the famous Pitch Lake of Trinidad was told almost word for word to a M. Joseph by an aged half-caste Indian who went by the name of Señor Trinidada.  The manners and customs which the ballad described, and the cruel and dangerous destruction of the beautiful birds of Trinidad, are facts which may be easily verified by any one who will take the trouble to visit the West Indies.

12

  A magnificent wood of the Mauritia Fanpalm, on the south shore of the Pitch Lake.

13

  Humming-birds.

14

  Maximiliana palms.

15

  Hut of timber and palm-leaves.

16

  From the Eriodendron, or giant silk-cotton.

17

  Spigelia anthelmia, a too-well-known poison-plant.

18

  Cœlogenys Paca.

19

  Wild cavy.

20

  Armadillo.

21

  Peccary hog.

22

  Trigonia.

23

  Penelope.

24

  Palamedea.

25

  Dove.

26

  Mimusops.

27

  Spondias.

28

  An esculent Arum.

29

  Jatropha manihot, ‘Cassava.’

30

  Vitis Caribæa.

31

  Euterpe, ‘mountain cabbage’ palm.

32

  Mauritia palm.

33

  Musa.

34

  Pine-apple.

35

  Food.

36

  Sung by 1000 School Children at the Opening of the New Wing of the Children’s Hospital, Birmingham.

37

  Supposed to be sung at Crowland Minster to Leofric, the Wake’s Mass Priest, when news was received of Hereward’s second marriage to Alftruda.