20 High on the shore sat the great god Pan, He cut it short, did the great god Pan, And notched the poor dry empty thing 'This is the way,' laughed the great god Pan To make sweet music, they could succeed.' Then, dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed, He blew in power by the river. Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan! Piercing sweet by the river! Yet half a beast is the great god Pan, 10 20 THE FORCED RECRUIT SOLFERINO, 1859 IN the ranks of the Austrian you found him, He lies, shot to death in his youth, For any mere soldier's dead mouth. No stranger, and yet not a traitor; Though alien the cloth on his breast, Underneath it, how seldom a greater Young heart has a shot sent to rest! By your enemy tortured and goaded To march with them, stand in their file, His musket (see) never was loaded, He facing your guns with that smile! As orphans yearn on to their mothers, He yearned to your patriot bands;— 'Let me die for our Italy, brothers, If not in your ranks, by your hands! Aim straightly, fire steadily! spare me A ball in the body which may Deliver my heart here, and tear me This badge of the Austrian away!' So thought he, so died he this morning. One tricolor floating above them; But he-without witness or honour, There, shamed in his country's regard, With the tyrants who march in upon her, Died faithful and passive: 'twas hard. 'Twas sublime. In a cruel restriction Cut off from the guerdon of sons, With most filial obedience, conviction, His soul kissed the lips of her guns. That moves you? Nay, grudge not to show it, ROBERT BRIDGES FOUNDER'S DAY A SECULAR ODE ON THE NINTH JUBILEE OF ETON COLLEGE, JUNE 1891 CHRIST and his Mother, heavenly Maid, With truth and purity, mother of truth. O ye, 'neath breezy skies of June Or on the tabled sward all day Or what pursuit soe'er it be May Peace, that conquereth sin and death, And touch with mirth the mouth of the wise. Here is eternal spring: for you For you shall Shakespeare's scene unroll, Homer his bardic hymn rehearse, Virgil recite his maiden verse Now learn, love, have, do, be the best: These suns and moons shall memory save, 40 50 60 20 330 40 50 60 An hour they sate in council, At length the Mayor broke silence: 'For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell; I wish I were a mile hence!' Just as he said this, what should hap Bless us,' cried the Mayor, 'what's that?' 'Come in!'-the Mayor cried, looking bigger. And in did come the strangest figure. His queer long coat from heel to head Was half of yellow and half of red; And he himself was tall and thin, No tuft on cheek, nor beard on chin, But lips where smiles went out and inThere was no guessing his kith and kin! 'Yet,' said he, 'poor piper as I am, And, as for what your brain bewilders, Will you give me a thousand guilders?' 'One? fifty thousand!'-was the exclamation Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation. Into the street the Piper stept, To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled, 'HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; 'Good speed!' cried the watch, as the gatebolts undrew; Speed!' echoed the wall to us galloping through; Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast. And out of the house the rats came tumbling. Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, A thousand guilders-The Mayor looked blue; To pay this sum to a wandering fellow Of them, as you very well know, was in joke. The piper's face fell, and he cried, And folks who put me in a passion . The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood As if they were changed into blocks of wood, Unable to move a step, or cry To the children merrily skipping by The Piper turned from South to West, When lo! as they reached the mountain's side, As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed; And when all were in to the very last, 7 { I( 1 So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky; The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, 'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff; Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white, And Gallop,' gasped Joris, 'for Aix is in sight! 'How they'll greet us!'-and all in a moment his roan Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone; And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim, And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim. Then I cast loose my buffcoat, each holster let fall, Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all, Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear, Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer; Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or good, Til at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood. 40 50 60 PHEIDIPPIDES Χαίρετε, νικῶμεν. FIRST I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock! Gods of my birthplace, dæmons and heroes, honour to all! Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in praise -Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the ægis and spear! Also, ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer, Henceforth and forever,-O latest to whom I upraise Hand and heart and voice! For Athens, leave pasture and flock! Present to help, potent to save, Pan-patron I call! Archons of Athens, topped by the tettix, see, I return! See, 'tis myself here standing alive, no spectre that speaks, Crowned with the myrtle, did you command me, Athens and you, 'Run, Pheidippides, run and race, reach Sparta for aid! Persia has come, we are here, where is She?' Your command I obeyed, Ran and raced: like stubble, some field which a fire runs through, Was the space between city and city: two days, two nights did I burn Over the hills, under the dales, down pits and up peaks. Into their midst I broke: breath served but for 'Persia has come! Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth; Razed to the ground is Eretria--but Athens, shall Athens sink, Drop into dust and die-the flower of Hellas utterly die, Die, with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, the stander-by? Answer me quick, what help, what hand do you stretch o'er destruction's brink? How, when? No care for my limbs!there's lightning in all and some— Fresh and fit your message to bear, once lips give it birth!' 'Have ye kept faith, proved mindful of honours we paid you erewhile? Vain was the filleted victim, the fulsome libation! Too rash Love in its choice, paid you so largely service so slack!' Such my cry as, rapid, I ran over Parnes' ridge; Gully and gap I clambered and cleared till, sudden, a bar Jutted, a stoppage of stone against me, blocking the way. Right! for I minded the hollow to traverse, the fissure across: 'Where I could enter, there I depart by! Night in the fosse? Out of the day dive, into the day as bravely arise! No bridge Better!'-when-ha! what was it I came on, of wonders that are? There, in the cool of a cleft, sat he-majestical Pan! Ivy drooped wanton, kissed his head, moss cushioned his hoof: All the great God was good in the eyes gravekindly-the curl Carved on the bearded cheek, amused at a mortal's awe, As, under the human trunk, the goat-thighs grand I saw. 'Halt, Pheidippides!'-halt I did, my brain of a whirl: 'Hither to me! Why pale in my presence?' he gracious began: 'How is it,-Athens, only in Hellas, holds me aloof? 'Athens, she only, rears me no fane, makes me no feast! Wherefore? Than I what godship to Athens more helpful of old? Ay, and still, and forever her friend! Test Pan, trust me! Go, bid Athens take heart, laugh Persia to scorn, have faith In the temples and tombs! Go, say to Athens, 'The Goat-God saith: When Persia-so much as strews not the soilis cast in the sea, Then praise Pan who fought in the ranks with your most and least, Goat-thigh to greaved thigh, made one cause with the free and the bold! "Say, "Pan saith:-Let this, foreshowing the place, be the pledge!" Wood and stream, I knew, I named, rushing (Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I past them again, bear |