'Twas then through the hall the King was 'ware Of a little boy with golden hair, As bright as the golden poppy is That the beach breeds for the surf to kiss: Yet pale his cheek as the thorn in Spring, Nothing heard but his foot through the hall, And the King wondered, and said, “Alack! "Why, sweet heart, do you pace through the hall As though my court were a funeral?" Then lowly knelt the child at the dais, "O wherefore black, O King, ye may say, "Your son and all his fellowship Lie low in the sea with the White Ship." King Henry fell as a man struck dead; There's many an hour must needs beguile Full many a lordly hour, full fain Of his realm's rule and pride of his reign: But this King never smiled again. Jiriczek, Englische Dichter. 21 By none but me can the tale be told, SUDDEN LIGHT. [Poems, an Offering to Lancashire 1863.] I HAVE been here before, But when or how I cannot tell: The sighing sound, the lights around the shore. You have been mine before, How long ago I may not know: Some veil did fall,-I knew it all of yore. Has this been thus before? And shall not thus time's eddying flight Still with our lives our love restore In death's despite, And day and night yield one delight once more? A LITTLE WHILE. [Poems 1870.] A LITTLE while a little love The hour yet bears for thee and me If still our heaven be lit above. Thou merely, at the day's last sigh, And deemed its speech mine own. A little while a little love The scattering autumn hoards for us We hear the flood-tides seek the sea, A little while a little love May yet be ours who have not said. A DEATH-PARTING. [Ballads and Sonnets 1881.] LEAVES and rain and the days of the year, (Water-willow and wellaway,) All these fall, and my soul gives ear, And she is hence who once was here. (With a wind blown night and day.) Ah! but now, for a secret sign, (The willow's wan and the water white,) In the held breath of the day's decline Her very face seemed pressed to mine. (With a wind blown day and night.) O love, of my death my life is fain; (The willows wave on the water-way,) Your cheek and mine are cold in the rain, But warm they'll be when we meet again. (With a wind blown night and day.) Mists are heaved and cover the sky; (The willows wail in the waning light,) O loose your lips, leave space for a sigh,They seal my soul, I cannot die. (With a wind blown day and night.) Leaves and rain and the days of the year, (Water-willow and wellaway,) All still fall, and I still give ear, SPHERAL CHANGE. [Ballads and Sonnets 1881.] In this new shade of Death, the show If only one might speak!-the one As listening to the sunken air, O dearest! while we lived and died. Some hours we still were side by side, O nearest, furthest! Can there be At length some hard-earned heart-won home, Where, -exile changed for sanctuary,— Our lot may fill indeed its sum, ALAS, SO LONG! [Ballads and Sonnets 1881.] Ан! dear one, we were young so long, In the days we never again shall know. Ah! then was it all Spring weather? Ah! dear one, I've been old so long, That warmed the pulses of heart to heart? Ah! then was it all Spring weather? Ah! dear one, you've been dead so long,- Where hours may never lose their song |