Songs of Travel, and Other Verses

The following collection of verses, written at various times and places, principally after the author’s final departure from England in 1887, was sent home by him for publication some months before his death. He had tried them in several different orders and under several different titles, as “Songs and Notes of Travel,” “Posthumous Poems,” etc., and in the end left their naming and arrangement to the present editor, with the suggestion that they should be added as Book III. to future editions of “Underwoods.” This suggestion it is proposed to carry out; but in the meantime, for the benefit of those who possess “Underwoods” in its original form, it has been thought desirable to publish them separately in the present volume. They have already been included in the Edinburgh Edition of the author’s works.

S. C.

I – THE VAGABOND

(To an air of Schubert)

 
Give to me the life I love,
   Let the lave go by me,
Give the jolly heaven above
   And the byway nigh me.
Bed in the bush with stars to see,
   Bread I dip in the river —
There’s the life for a man like me,
   There’s the life for ever.
 
 
Let the blow fall soon or late,
   Let what will be o’er me;
Give the face of earth around
   And the road before me.
Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,
   Nor a friend to know me;
All I seek, the heaven above
   And the road below me.
 
 
Or let autumn fall on me
   Where afield I linger,
Silencing the bird on tree,
   Biting the blue finger.
White as meal the frosty field —
   Warm the fireside haven —
Not to autumn will I yield,
   Not to winter even!
 
 
Let the blow fall soon or late,
   Let what will be o’er me;
Give the face of earth around,
   And the road before me.
Wealth I ask not, hope nor love,
   Nor a friend to know me;
All I ask, the heaven above
   And the road below me.
 

II – YOUTH AND LOVE – I

 
Once only by the garden gate
   Our lips we joined and parted.
I must fulfil an empty fate
   And travel the uncharted.
 
 
Hail and farewell!  I must arise,
   Leave here the fatted cattle,
And paint on foreign lands and skies
   My Odyssey of battle.
 
 
The untented Kosmos my abode,
   I pass, a wilful stranger:
My mistress still the open road
   And the bright eyes of danger.
 
 
Come ill or well, the cross, the crown,
   The rainbow or the thunder,
I fling my soul and body down
   For God to plough them under.
 

III – YOUTH AND LOVE – II

 
To the heart of youth the world is a highwayside.
Passing for ever, he fares; and on either hand,
Deep in the gardens golden pavilions hide,
Nestle in orchard bloom, and far on the level land
Call him with lighted lamp in the eventide.
 
 
Thick as the stars at night when the moon is down,
Pleasures assail him.  He to his nobler fate
Fares; and but waves a hand as he passes on,
Cries but a wayside word to her at the garden gate,
Sings but a boyish stave and his face is gone.
 

IV

 
In dreams, unhappy, I behold you stand
      As heretofore:
The unremembered tokens in your hand
      Avail no more.
 
 
No more the morning glow, no more the grace,
      Enshrines, endears.
Cold beats the light of time upon your face
      And shows your tears.
 
 
He came and went.  Perchance you wept a while
      And then forgot.
Ah me! but he that left you with a smile
      Forgets you not.
 

V

 
She rested by the Broken Brook,
   She drank of Weary Well,
She moved beyond my lingering look,
   Ah, whither none can tell!
 
 
She came, she went.  In other lands,
   Perchance in fairer skies,
Her hands shall cling with other hands,
   Her eyes to other eyes.
 
 
She vanished.  In the sounding town,
   Will she remember too?
Will she recall the eyes of brown
   As I recall the blue?
 

VI

 
The infinite shining heavens
   Rose and I saw in the night
Uncountable angel stars
   Showering sorrow and light.
 
 
I saw them distant as heaven,
   Dumb and shining and dead,
And the idle stars of the night
   Were dearer to me than bread.
 
 
Night after night in my sorrow
   The stars stood over the sea,
Till lo!  I looked in the dusk
   And a star had come down to me.
 

VII

 
Plain as the glistering planets shine
   When winds have cleaned the skies,
Her love appeared, appealed for mine,
   And wantoned in her eyes.
 
 
Clear as the shining tapers burned
   On Cytherea’s shrine,
Those brimming, lustrous beauties turned,
   And called and conquered mine.
 
 
The beacon-lamp that Hero lit
   No fairer shone on sea,
No plainlier summoned will and wit,
   Than hers encouraged me.
 
 
I thrilled to feel her influence near,
   I struck my flag at sight.
Her starry silence smote my ear
   Like sudden drums at night.
 
 
I ran as, at the cannon’s roar,
   The troops the ramparts man —
As in the holy house of yore
   The willing Eli ran.
 
 
Here, lady, lo! that servant stands
   You picked from passing men,
And should you need nor heart nor hands
   He bows and goes again.
 

VIII

 
To you, let snow and roses
   And golden locks belong.
These are the world’s enslavers,
   Let these delight the throng.
For her of duskier lustre
   Whose favour still I wear,
The snow be in her kirtle,
   The rose be in her hair!
 
 
The hue of highland rivers
   Careering, full and cool,
From sable on to golden,
   From rapid on to pool —
The hue of heather-honey,
   The hue of honey-bees,
Shall tinge her golden shoulder,
   Shall gild her tawny knees.
 

IX

 
Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,
      Beauty awake from rest!
      Let Beauty awake
      For Beauty’s sake
In the hour when the birds awake in the brake
      And the stars are bright in the west!
 
 
Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,
      Awake in the crimson eve!
      In the day’s dusk end
      When the shades ascend,
Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend
      To render again and receive!