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EMBERS - VOLUME 2.
EMBERS - VOLUME 2. GILBERT PARKER Volume 2.
CONTENTS:
DOLLY
LIFE'S SWEET WAGES
TO THE VALLEY
THE LILY FLOWER
LOVE IN HER COLD GRAVE LIES
GRANADA GRANADA
THE NEW APHRODITE
AN ANCIENT PLEDGE
THE TRIBUTE OF KING HATH
THERE IS AN ORCHARD
HEART OF THE WORLD
EPITAPHS
THE BEGGAR
THE MAID
THE FOOL
THE FIGHTER
THE SEA-REAPERS
THE WATCHER
THE WAKING
WHEN ONE FORGETS
ALOES AND MYRRH
IN WASTE PLACES
LAST OF ALL
AFTER
REMEDIAL
THE TWILIGHT OF LOVE
IRREVOCABLE
THE LAST DREAM
WAITING
IN MAYTIME
INSIDE THE BAR
THE CHILDREN
LITTLE GARAINE
TO A LITTLE CHILD
DOLLY
King Rufus he did hunt the deer
With a hey ho come and kiss me Dolly!
It was the spring-time of the year--
Hey ho Dolly shut her eyes!
King Rufus was a bully boy
He hunted all the day for joy
Sweet Dolly she was ever coy:
And who would e'er be wise
That looked in Dolly's eyes?
King Rufus he did have his day
With a hey ho come and kiss me Dolly!
So get ye forth where dun deer play--
Hey ho Dolly comes again!
The greenwood is the place for me
For that is where the dun deer be
And who would stay at home
That might with Dolly roam?
Sing hey ho come and kiss me Dolly!
LIFE'S SWEET WAGES
Who would lie down and close his eyes
While yet the lark sings o'er the dale?
Who would to Love make no replies
Nor drink the nut-brown ale
While throbs the pulse and full's the purse
And all the world's for sale?
Though wintry blasts may prove unkind
When winter's past we do forget;
Love's breast in summer-time is kind
And all's well while life's with us yet.
Hey ho now the lark is mating--
Life's sweet wages are in waiting!
TO THE VALLEY
Come hither oh come hither
There's a bride upon her bed;
They have strewn her o'er with roses
There are roses 'neath her head:
Life is love and tears and laughter
But the laughter it is dead--
Sing the way to the Valley to the Valley-
Hey but the roses they are red!
THE LILY FLOWER
Oh love it is a lily flower
(Sing my captain sing my lady!)
The sword shall cleave it Life shall leave it--
Who shall know the hour?
(Sing my lady still!)
LOVE IN HER COLD GRAVE LIES
Love in her cold grave lies
But that is not my love:
My love hath constant eyes
My love her life doth prove;
That love the poorer dies--
Ah that is not my love!
Love in her cold grave lies
But she will wake again;
With trembling feet will rise
Will call this love in vain
That she doth now despise
Ah love shall wake again!
GRANADA GRANADA
Granada Granada thy gardens are gay
And bright are thy stars the high stars above;
But as flowers that fade and are grey
But as dusk at the end of the day
Are ye to the light in the eyes of my love--
In the eyes in the soul of my love.
Granada Granada oh when shall I see
My love in thy garden there waiting for me!
Beloved beloved have pity and make
Not the sun shut its eyes its hot envious eyes;
And the world in the darkness of night
Be debtor to thee for its light.
Turn thy face turn thy face from the skies
To the love to the pain in my eyes.
Granada Granada oh when shall I see
My love in thy garden there waiting for me!
THE NEW APHRODITE
What though the gods of the eld be dead
Here are the mountains of azure and snow
Here are the valleys where loves are wed
And lilies in blow.
Here are the hands that are lucid sweet
Wound at the wrist with an amber beading
Folds of the seafoam to cover the feet
Mortals misleading.
Down to the opaline lips of the sea
Wander the lost ones fallen but mighty
Stretching out hands crying "Turn unto me
O Aphrodite!"
See where they lift up their faces and scan
Over the wave-heaps thy coming; despite thee
Thou canst not fetter the soul of a man
O Aphrodite!
Nay but our bodies we bend and we give
All that the heart hath loving not knowing
Whether the best is to die or to live
Coming or going.
We shall be taken but thou shalt live on
Swallowed in sea-drifts that never affright thee;
Smiling thou'lt lift up thy sweet hands alone
Ah Aphrodite!
Over thy face is a veil of white sea-mist
Only thine eyes shine like stars; bless or blight me
I will hold close to the leash at thy wrist
O Aphrodite!
Rosy and proud are the skies of the East
Love-dowered moons to enswathe thee delight thee:
Thy days and our days--are thine then the least
O Aphrodite?
Thou in the East and I here in the West
Under our newer skies purple and pleasant:
Who shall decide which is better attest
Saga or peasant?
Thou with Serapis Osiris and Isis
I with Jehovah in vapours and shadows;
Thou with the gods' joy-enhancing devices
Sweet-smelling meadows.
What is there given us?--Food and some raiment
Toiling to reach to a Patmian haven
Giving up all for uncertain repayment
Feeding the raven.
Striving to peer through the infinite azure
Alternate turning to earthward and falling
Measuring life with Damastian measure
Finite appalling.
What does it matter! They passed who with Homer
Poured out the wine at the feet of their idols:
Passing what found they? To-come a misnomer
It and their idols?
Who knows ah who knows! Here in this garden
Heliotrope hyacinth soft suns to light me
Leaning out peering thou thou art my warden-
Thou Aphrodite!
Up from the future of all things there come
Marching abreast in their stately endeavour
Races unborn to the beat of the drum
Of the Forever.
Resting not beating down all the old traces
Falls the light step of the new-coming nations
Burning on altars of our loved graces
Their new oblations.
What shall we know of it we who have lifted
Up the dark veil done sowing and reaping;
What shall we care if our burdens be shifted
Waking or sleeping?
Sacristan acolyte player or preacher
Each to his office but who holds the key?
Death only death thou the ultimate teacher
Will show it to me.
I am Thou art and the strong-speaking Jesus
One in the end of an infinite truth?--
Eyes of a prophet or sphinx may deceive us
Bearing us ruth
But when the forts and the barriers fall
Shall we not find One the true the almighty
Wisely to speak with the worst of us all
O Aphrodite?
Waiting I turn from the futile the human
Gone is the life of me laughing with youth;
Steals to learn all in the face of a woman
Mendicant Truth.
AN ANCIENT PLEDGE
Fair be the garden where their loves may dwell
Safe be the highway where their feet may go;
Rich be the meadows where their hands may toil
The fountains many where the good wines flow;
Full be their harvest bins with corn and oil
And quick their hearts all wise delights to know;
To sorrow may their humour be a foil
Tardy their footsteps to the gate Farewell.
Deep be your cups. Our hearts the gods make light:
Drink that their joy may never know good-night!
THE TRIBUTE OF KING HATH
Oh bring to me a cup of gold
And bring a platter fair
And summon forth my Captain old
Who keeps the royal stair.
And fetch a stoup of that rare wine
That hailed my father's fame;
And bear some white bread from the shrine
Built to my mother's name.
Then good my gentlemen bring down
My robe of soft samite;
And let the royal horn be blown
For we ride far to-night.
Within the pleasant Vale of Loe
Beside the Sea of Var
The Daughter of our ancient foe
Dwells where her people are.
Tribute her fathers paid to mine--
Young prince to elder crown;
But for a jest 'twixt bread and wine
They struck our banner down.
And we had foes from Blymar Hills
From Gathan and Dagost
And pirates from Bagol that spills
Its refuse on our coast.
And we were girded South and North;
And there beyond the Var
They drove our goodly fighters forth
And dimmed our ancient star.
Now they have passed us home for home
And matched us town for town;
Their daughters to our sons now come--
Our feud it weareth down.
Between their cups the hill-men cry
"The Lady of the Loe!"
The sea-kings swing their flags peak-high
Where'er her galleons go.
Once when the forge of battle sang
'Tween Varan and Thogeel;
And when ten thousand stirrups rang
'Twixt girth and bloody heel
I saw her ride 'mid mirk and fire
Unfearing din and death
Her eyes upflaming like a pyre
Her fearless smile beneath.
Nor'land 'gainst Southland then she drove
A million serfs to free;
The reeking shuttle lifeward wove
Through death from land to sea.
And perched upon the Hill of Zoom
My gentlemen beside
I saw the weft shake in the loom
The revel blazon wide
Until a thousand companies--
Serf-lords from out Thogeel
Their broadswords brake across their knees
Good captives to her steel.
And then I sware by name and crown
And by the Holy Ghost
When Peace should ride with pennon blown
From Gathan to Dagost
Unto her kingdom I should get
And come not back again
Until a queen's hand I had set
Upon my bridle rein.
Our ships now nestle at Her coast
Her corn our garner fills;
And all is quiet at Dagost
And on the Blymar Hills.
And I will do a deed to bind
An ancient love once more;
My gentlemen shall ride behind
My Captain on before;
And we will journey forth to-night
Towards the Sea of Var
Until the vale shall come in sight
Where Her great cities are.
And to the Daughter of that land
Which once was kin to mine
My Captain he shall bear in hand
This sacred bread and wine.
And he shall show her soft and fair
This peace-spread sacrament:
Her banner it shall ride the air
Upon my Captain's tent.
And if the wine to lip she raise
With morsel of my bread;
Then as we loved in ancient days
These lands of ours shall wed.
But mine the tribute. I will bring
My homage to her door
My gentlemen behind their king
My Captain on before.
And we aslant will set our spears
Our good swords dipping free;
And we will ravel back the years
For love of her and me.
And I will prove my faith in this
As never king was proved--
For kings may fight for what they kiss
And die for what they loved!
But I will bring my court afar
My throne to hers shall go;
And I will reign beside the Var
And in the Vale of Loe.
The younger kingdom it shall be
The keeper of my crown;
And she my queen shall reign with me
Within her own good town.
And men shall speak me kind shall tell
Her graces day and night
So bring my steed that serves me well
My robe of soft samite
And bring me here the cup of gold
And bring the platter fair
And summon me my Captain old
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