LITMIR.BIZ

      Thrown Away.

      The World hath set its heavy yoke

      Upon the old white-bearded folk

      Who strive to please the King.

      God's mercy is upon the young,

      God's wisdom in the baby tongue

      That fears not anything.

      Tod's Amendment.

      Not though you die to-night, O Sweet, and wail,

      A spectre at my door,

      Shall mortal Fear make Love immortal fail —

      I shall but love you more,

      Who, from Death's House returning, give me still

      One moment's comfort in my matchless ill.

      By Word of Mouth.

      They burnt a corpse upon the sand —

      The light shone out afar;

      It guided home the plunging boats

      That beat from Zanzibar.

      Spirit of Fire, where'er Thy altars rise,

      Thou art the Light of Guidance to our eyes!

      In Error.

      Ride with an idle whip, ride with an unused heel.

      But, once in a way, there will come a day

      When the colt must be taught to feel

      The lash that falls, and the curb that galls, and the sting of the rowelled steel.

      The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin.

      It was not in the open fight

      We threw away the sword,

      But in the lonely watching

      In the darkness by the ford.

      The waters lapped, the night-wind blew,

      Full-armed the Fear was born and grew,

      From panic in the night.

      The Rout of the White Hussars.

      In the daytime, when she moved about me,

      In the night, when she was sleeping at my side, —

      I was wearied, I was wearied of her presence.

      Day by day and night by night I grew to hate her —

      Would God that she or I had died!

      The Bronckhorst Divorce Case.

      A stone's throw out on either hand

      From that well-ordered road we tread,

      And all the world is wild and strange;

      Churel and ghoul and Djinn and sprite

      Shall bear us company to-night,

      For we have reached the Oldest Land

      Wherein the powers of Darkness range.

      In the House of Suddhoo.

      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.

      False Dawn.

      Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide,

      By the hot sun emptied, and blistered and dried;

      Log in the reh-grass, hidden and lone;

      Bund where the earth-rat's mounds are strown;

      Cave in the bank where the sly stream steals;

      Aloe that stabs at the belly and heels,

      Jump if you dare on a steed untried —

      Safer it is to go wide – go wide!

      Hark, from in front where the best men ride; —

      'Pull to the off, boys! Wide! Go wide!'

      Cupid's Arrows.

      He drank strong waters and his speech was coarse;

      He purchased raiment and forbore to pay;

      He stuck a trusting junior with a horse,

      And won gymkhanas in a doubtful way.

      Then, 'twixt a vice and folly, turned aside

      To do good deeds and straight to cloak them, lied.

      A Bank Fraud.