The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems Part 8

EXMOOR VERSES

I. VASHTI'S SONG

Over the rim of the Moor, And under the starry sky, Two men came to my door And rested them thereby.

Beneath the bough and the star, In a whispering foreign tongue, They talked of a land afar And the merry days so young!

Beneath the dawn and the bough I heard them arise and go: And my heart it is aching now For the more it will never know.

Why did they two depart Before I could understand?

Where lies that land, O my heart?

--O my heart, where lies that land?

II. SATURN

From my farm, from her farm Furtively we came.

In either home a hearth was warm: We nursed a hungrier flame.

Our feet were foul with mire, Our faces blind with mist; But all the night was naked fire About us where we kiss'd.

To her farm, to my farm, Loathing we returned; Pale beneath a gallow's arm The planet Saturn burned.

III. DERELICTION

O'er the tears that we shed, dear The bitter vines twist, And the hawk and the red deer They keep where we kiss'd: All broken lies the s.h.i.+eling That sheltered from rain, With a star to pierce the ceiling, And the dawn an empty pane.

Thro' the mist, up the moorway, Fade hunters and pack; From the ridge to thy doorway Happy voices float back ...

O, between the threads o' mist, love, Reach your hands from the house.

Only mind that we kiss'd, love, And forget the broken vows!

TWO FOLK SONGS

I. THE SOLDIER

(_Roumanian_)

_When winter trees bestrew the path, Still to the twig a leaf or twain Will cling and weep, not Winter's wrath, But that foreknown forlorner pain-- To fall when green leaves come again._

I watch'd him sleep by the furrow-- The first that fell in the fight.

His grave they would dig to-morrow: The battle called them to-night.

They bore him aside to the trees, there, By his undigg'd grave content To lie on his back at ease there, And hark how the battle went.

The battle went by the village, And back through the night were borne Far cries of murder and pillage, With smoke from the standing corn.

But when they came on the morrow, They talk'd not over their task, As he listen'd there by the furrow; For the dead mouth could not ask--

_How went the battle, my brothers?_ But that he will never know: For his mouth the red earth smothers As they shoulder their spades and go.

Yet he cannot sleep thereunder, But ever must toss and turn.

_How went the battle, I wonder?_ --And that he will never learn!

_When winter trees bestrew the path, Still to the twig a leaf or twain Will cling and weep, not Winter's wrath, But that foreknown, forlorner pain-- To fall when green leaves come again!_

II. THE MARINE

(_Poitevin_)

The bold Marine comes back from war, So kind: The bold Marine comes back from war, So kind: With a raggety coat and a worn-out shoe.

"Now, poor Marine, say, whence come you, All so kind?"

I travel back from the war, madame, So kind: I travel back from the war, madame, So kind: For a gla.s.s of wine and a bowl of whey, 'Tis I will sing you a ballad gay, All so kind.

The bold Marine he sips his whey, So kind: He sips and he sings his ballad gay, So kind: But the dame she turns toward the wall, To wipe her tears that fall and fall, All so kind.

What aileth you at my song, madame, So kind?

I hope that I sing no wrong, madame, So kind?

Or grieves it you a beggar should dine On a bowl of whey and the good white wine, All so kind?

It ails me not at your ballad gay, So kind: It ails me not for the wine and whey, So kind:

But it ails me sore for the voice and eyes Of a good man long in Paradise.-- Ah, so kind!

You have fair children five, madame, So kind: You have fair children five, madame, So kind:

Your good man left you children three; Whence came these twain for company, All so kind?

"A letter came from the war, Marine, So kind: A letter came from the war, Marine, So kind: A while I wept for the good man dead, But another good man in a while I wed, All so kind."

The bold Marine he drained his gla.s.s, So kind: The bold Marine he drained his gla.s.s, So kind.

He said not a word, though the tears they flowed, But back to his regiment took the road, All so kind.