LITMIR.BIZ

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Why should we think of death when life is high?

       The earth laughs all the day, and sleeps all night.

       The daylight's labour and the night's repose

       Are very good, each better in its time.

      The boy knew little; but he read old tales

       Of Scotland's warriors, till his blood ran swift

       As charging knights upon their death-career.

       He chanted ancient tunes, till the wild blood

       Was charmed back into its fountain-well,

       And tears arose instead. That poet's songs,

       Whose music evermore recalls his name,

       His name of waters babbling as they run,

       Rose from him in the fields among the kine,

       And met the skylark's, raining from the clouds.

       But only as the poet-birds he sang—

       From rooted impulse of essential song;

       The earth was fair—he knew not it was fair;

       His heart was glad—he knew not it was glad;

       He walked as in a twilight of the sense—

       Which this one day shall turn to tender morn.

      Long ere the sun had cleared the feathery tops

       Of the fir-thicket on the eastward hill,

       His horses leaned and laboured. Each great hand

       Held rein and plough-stilt in one guiding grasp—

       No ploughman there would brook a helper. Proud

       With a true ploughman's pride—nobler, I think,

       Than statesman's, ay, or poet's, or painter's pride,

       For little praise will come that he ploughs well—

       He did plough well, proud of his work itself,

       And not of what would follow. With sure eye,

       He saw his horses keep the arrow-track;

       He saw the swift share cut the measured sod;

       He saw the furrow folding to the right,

       Ready with nimble foot to aid at need:—

       Turning its secrets upward to the sun,

       And hiding in the dark the sun-born grass,

       And daisies dipped in carmine, lay the tilth—

       A million graves to nurse the buried seed,

       And send a golden harvest up the air.

      When the steep sun had clomb to his decline,

       And pausing seemed, at edge of slow descent,

       Upon the keystone of his airy bridge,

       They rested likewise, half-tired man and horse,

       And homeward went for food and courage new.

       Therewith refreshed, they turned again to toil,

       And lived in labour all the afternoon;

       Till, in the gloaming, once again the plough

       Lay like a stranded bark upon the lea,

       And home with hanging neck the horses went,

       Walking beside their master, force by will:

       Then through the lengthening shades a vision came.

      It was a lady mounted on a horse,

       A slender girl upon a mighty steed,

       That bore her with the pride horses must feel

       When they submit to women. Home she went,

       Alone, or else her groom lagged far behind.

       Scarce had she bent simple acknowledgment

       Of the hand in silent salutation lifted

       To the bowed head, when something faithless yielded:

       The saddle slipped, the horse stopped, and the girl

       Stood on her feet, still holding fast the reins.

      Three paces bore him bounding to her side;

       Her radiant beauty almost fixed him there;

       But with main force, as one that grapples fear,

       He threw the fascination off, and saw

       The work before him. Soon his hand and knife

       Had set the saddle firmer than before

       Upon the gentle horse; and then he turned

       To mount the maiden. But bewilderment

       A moment lasted; for he knew not how,

       With stirrup-hand and steady arm, to throne,

       Elastic, on her steed, the ascending maid:

       A moment only; for while yet she thanked,

       Nor yet had time to teach her further will,

       About her waist he put his brawny hands,

       That all but zoned her round; and like a child

       Lifting her high, he set her on the horse;

       Whence like a risen moon she smiled on him,

       Nor turned aside, although a radiant blush

       Shone in her cheek, and shadowed in her eyes.

       And he was never sure if from her heart

       Or from the rosy sunset came the flush.

       Again she thanked him, while again he stood

       Bewildered in her beauty. Not a word

       Answered her words that flowed, folded in tones

       Round which dissolving lambent music played,

       Like dropping water in a silver cup;

       Till, round the shoulder of the neighbouring hill,

       Sudden she disappeared. And he awoke,

       And called himself hard names, and turned and went

       After his horses, bending like them his head.

      Ah God! when Beauty passes from the door,

       Although she came not in, the house is bare:

       Shut, shut the door; there's nothing in the house!

       Why seems it always that she should be ours?

       A secret lies behind which thou dost know,

       And I can partly guess.

      But think not then,

       The holder of the plough sighed many sighs

       Upon his bed that night; or other dreams

       Than pleasant rose upon his view in sleep;

       Nor think the airy castles of his brain

       Had less foundation than the air admits.

       But read my simple tale, scarce worth the name,

       And answer, if he had not from the fair

       Beauty's best gift; and proved her not, in sooth,

       An angel vision from a higher world.

      Not much of her I tell. Her glittering life,

       Where part the waters on the mountain-ridge,

       Ran down the southern side, away from his.

       It was not over-blessed; for, I know,

       Its tale wiled many sighs, one summer eve,

       From her who told, and him who, in the pines

       Walking, received it from her loving lips;

       But now she was as God had made her, ere

      

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