A PORTRAIT

Fair faces crowd on Christmas night Like seven suns a-row, But all beyond is the wolfish wind And the crafty feet of the snow.

But through the rout one figure goes With quick and quiet tread; Her robe is plain, her form is frail-- Wait if she turn her head.

I say no word of line or hue, But if that face you see, Your soul shall know the smile of faith's Awful frivolity.

Know that in this grotesque old masque Too loud we cannot sing, Or dance too wild, or speak too wide To praise a hidden thing.

That though the jest be old as night, Still shaketh sun and sphere An everlasting laughter Too loud for us to hear.

FEMINA CONTRA MUNDUM

The sun was black with judgment, and the moon Blood: but between I saw a man stand, saying, 'To me at least The gra.s.s is green.

'There was no star that I forgot to fear With love and wonder.

The birds have loved me'; but no answer came-- Only the thunder.

Once more the man stood, saying, 'A cottage door, Wherethrough I gazed That instant as I turned--yea, I am vile; Yet my eyes blazed.

'For I had weighed the mountains in a balance, And the skies in a scale, I come to sell the stars--old lamps for new-- Old stars for sale.'

Then a calm voice fell all the thunder through, A tone less rough: 'Thou hast begun to love one of my works Almost enough.'

TO A CERTAIN NATION

We will not let thee be, for thou art ours.

We thank thee still, though thou forget these things, For that hour's sake when thou didst wake all powers With a great cry that G.o.d was sick of kings.

Leave thee there grovelling at their rusted greaves, These hulking cowards on a painted stage, Who, with imperial pomp and laurel leaves, Show their Marengo--one man in a cage.

These, for whom stands no type or t.i.tle given In all the squalid tales of gore and pelf; Though cowed by crashing thunders from all heaven.

Cain never said, 'My brother slew himself.'

Tear you the truth out of your drivelling spy, The maniac whom you set to swing death's scythe.

Nay; torture not the torturer--let him lie: What need of racks to teach a worm to writhe?

Bear with us, O our sister, not in pride, Nor any scorn we see thee spoiled of knaves, But only shame to hear, where Danton died, Thy foul dead kings all laughing in their graves.

Thou hast a right to rule thyself; to be The thing thou wilt; to grin, to fawn, to creep: To crown these clumsy liars; ay, and we Who knew thee once, we have a right to weep.

THE PRAISE OF DUST

'What of vile dust?' the preacher said.

Methought the whole world woke, The dead stone lived beneath my foot, And my whole body spoke.

'You, that play tyrant to the dust, And stamp its wrinkled face, This patient star that flings you not Far into homeless s.p.a.ce.

'Come down out of your dusty shrine The living dust to see, The flowers that at your sermon's end Stand blazing silently.

'Rich white and blood-red blossom; stones, Lichens like fire encrust; A gleam of blue, a glare of gold, The vision of the dust.

'Pa.s.s them all by: till, as you come Where, at a city's edge, Under a tree--I know it well-- Under a lattice ledge,

'The sunshine falls on one brown head.

You, too, O cold of clay, Eater of stones, may haply hear The trumpets of that day

'When G.o.d to all his paladins By his own splendour swore To make a fairer face than heaven, Of dust and nothing more.'

THE BALLAD OF THE BATTLE OF GIBEON

Five kings rule o'er the Amorite, Mighty as fear and old as night; Swathed with unguent and gold and jewel, Waxed they merry and fat and cruel.

Zedek of Salem, a terror and glory, Whose face was hid while his robes were gory; And Hoham of Hebron, whose loathly face is Heavy and dark o'er the ruin of races; And Piram of Jarmuth, drunk with strange wine, Who dreamed he had fashioned all stars that shine; And Debir of Eglon wild, without pity, Who raged like a plague in the midst of his city; And j.a.phia of Lachish, a fire that flameth, Who did in the daylight what no man nameth.

These five kings said one to another, 'King unto king o'er the world is brother, Seeing that now, for a sign and a wonder, A red eclipse and a tongue of thunder, A shape and a finger of desolation, Is come against us a kingless nation.

Gibeon hath failed us: it were not good That a man remember where Gibeon stood.'

Then Gibeon sent to our captain, crying, 'Son of Nun, let a shaft be flying, For unclean birds are gathering greedily; Slack not thy hand, but come thou speedily.

Yea, we are lost save thou maintain'st us, For the kings of the mountains are gathered against us.'

Then to our people spake the Deliverer, 'Gibeon is high, yet a host may shiver her; Gibeon hath sent to me crying for pity, For the lords of the cities encompa.s.s the city With chariot and banner and bowman and lancer, And I swear by the living G.o.d I will answer.

Gird you, O Israel, quiver and javelin, Shield and sword for the road we travel in; Verily, as I have promised, pay I Life unto Gibeon, death unto Ai.'

Sudden and still as a bolt shot right Up on the city we went by night.

Never a bird of the air could say, 'This was the children of Israel's way.'

Only the hosts sprang up from sleeping, Saw from the heights a dark stream sweeping; Sprang up straight as a great shout stung them, And heard the Deliverer's war-cry among them, Heard under cupola, turret, and steeple The awful cry of the kingless people.

Started the weak of them, shouted the strong of them, Crashed we a thunderbolt into the throng of them, Blindly with heads bent, and shields forced before us, We heard the dense roar of the strife closing o'er us.

And drunk with the crash of the song that it sung them, We drove the great spear-blade in G.o.d's name among them.

Redder and redder the sword-flash fell.

Our eyes and our nostrils were hotter than h.e.l.l; Till full all the crest of the spear-surge shocking us, Hoham of Hebron cried out mocking us, 'Nay, what need of the war-sword's plying, Out of the desert the dust comes flying.

A little red dust, if the wind be blowing-- Who shall reck of its coming or going?'

Back the Deliverer spake as a clarion, 'Mock at thy slaves, thou eater of carrion!

Laughest thou at us, in thy kingly clowning, We, that laughed upon Ramases frowning.

We that stood up proud, unpardoned, When his face was dark and his heart was hardened?

Pharaoh we knew and his steeds, not faster Than the word of the Lord in thine ear, O master.