603. VICTOR GALBRAITH

UNDER the walls of Monterey

At daybreak the bugles began to play,
Victor Galbraith!

In the mist of the morning damp and grey,
These were the words they seemed to say,
Come forth to thy death,

Victor Galbraith!

He looked at the earth, he looked at the sky,
He looked at the files of musketry,

Victor Galbraith !

And he said, with a steady voice and eye,
Take good aim; I am ready to die!
Thus challenges death

Victor Galbraith.

Twelve fiery tongues flashed straight and red,
Six leaden balls on their errand sped ;
Victor Galbraith

Falls on the ground, but he is not dead;
His name was not stamped on those balls of lead,
And they only scathe

Victor Galbraith.

Three balls are in his breast and brain,
But he rises out of the dust again,

Victor Galbraith!

The water he drinks has a bloody stain;
'O kill me, and put me out of my pain!'
In his agony prayeth

Victor Galbraith.

Forth dart once more those tongues of flame,
And the bugler has died a death of shame,
Victor Galbraith!

His soul has gone back to whence it came,
And no one answers to the name,

When the Sergeant saith,

'Victor Galbraith!'

Under the walls of Monterey

By night a bugle is heard to play,
Victor Galbraith!

Through the mist of the valley damp and grey
The sentinels hear the sound, and say,

That is the wraith

IF to be absent were to be

Away from thee;

Or that when I am gone

You or I were alone;

Then, my Lucasta, might I crave

Pity from blustering wind, or swallowing wave.

But I'll not sigh one blast or gale
To swell my sail,

Or pay a tear to 'suage

The foaming blue god's rage;
For whether he will let me pass
Or no, I'm still as happy as I was.

Though seas and land betwixt us both,
Our faith and troth,

Like separated souls,

All time and space controls:
Above the highest sphere we meet
Unseen, unknown, and greet as Angels greet.

So then we do anticipate
Our after-fate,

And are alive i' the skies,
If thus our lips and eyes

Can speak like spirits unconfined

In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.

607.

R. LOVELACE.

GRATIANA DANCING, AND SINGING

SEE, with what constant motion,

Even, and glorious as the sun,

Gratiana steers that noble frame,

Soft as her breast, sweet as her voice,
That gave each winding law and poise,
And swifter than the wings of Fame.
She beat the happy pavèment-
By such a star made firmament,

Which now no more the roof envies!
But swells up high, with Atlas even,
Bearing the brighter, nobler heaven,
And, in her, all the deities.

Each step trod out a lover's thought,
And the ambitious hopes he brought
Chained to her brave feet with such arts,
Such sweet command and gentle awe,
As, when she ceased, we sighing saw
The floor lay paved with broken hearts.
So did she move, so did she sing,
Like the harmonious spheres that bring
Unto their rounds their music's aid;
Which she performed such a way
As all the enamoured world will say,
'The Graces danced, and Apollo played!'
R. LOVELACE.

608. TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS

TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind
That from the nunnery

Of thy chaste breast and quiet
mind,

To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now chase,

I

The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore;

I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.

609. TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON

WHEN LOVE with unconfinèd wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fettered to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly
round

With no allaying Thames, Our careless heads with roses bound,

Our hearts with loyal flames; When thirsty grief in wine we steep,

When healths and draughts go
free-

Fishes that tipple in the deep
Know no such liberty.

R. LOVELACE.

When (like committed linnets) I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how
good

He is, how great should be, Enlarged winds, that curl the flood

Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison
make,

Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage:
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

610. A MONUMENT IN ARCADIA

R. LOVELACE.

O YOU that dwell where shepherds reign,
Arcadian youths, Arcadian maids,
To pastoral pipe who danced the plain,
Why pensive now beneath the shades?

Approach her virgin tomb, they cry,

Behold the verse inscribed above:

Once too in Arcady was I—

Behold what dreams are life and love!

E. LOVIBOND.

611. THE COURTIN'

GOD makes sech nights, all white an' still
Fur 'z you can look or listen,
Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill,
All silence an' all glisten.

Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown
An' peeked in thru' the winder,
An' there sot Huldy all alone,
'Ith no one nigh to hender.

A fireplace filled the room's one side
With half a cord o' wood in-
There warn't no stoves (tell comfort died)
To bake ye to a puddin'.

The wa'nut logs shot sparkles out
Towards the pootiest, bless her,
An' leetle flames danced all about
The chiny on the dresser.

Agin the chimbley crook-necks hung,
An' in amongst 'em rusted

The ole queen's-arm that gran'ther Young
Fetched back f'om Concord busted.

The very room, coz she was in,
Seemed warm f'om floor to ceilin',
An' she looked full ez rosy agin
Ez the apples she was peelin'.
'Twas kin' o' kingdom-come to look
On sech a blessed cretur,
A dogrose blushin' to a brook
Ain't modester nor sweeter.

He was six foot o' man, A 1,
Clear grit an' human natur',
None couldn't quicker pitch a ton
Nor dror a furrer straighter.

He'd sparked it with full twenty gals,

Hed squired 'em, danced 'em, druv 'em, Fust this one, an' then thet, by spellsAll is, he couldn't love 'em.

But long o' her his veins 'ould run
All crinkly like curled maple,

The side she breshed felt full o' sun
Ez a south slope in Ap'il.

She thought no v'ice bed sech a swing
Ez hisn in the choir;

My! when he made Ole Hunderd ring,
She knowed the Lord was nigher.