Chapter II

When Beauty lies hand-folded, pale and still, Forsaken of her lovers and her lords, And winter keeps cold watch upon the hill, Then he lets fall his bale of coloured words. At frosty midnight June shall rise in flame, Move at his magic with her bells and birds, The rose will redden as he speaks her name. He shall release earth's frozen bosom there, And with great words shall cuff the whining air.

* * * * *

W. R. TITTERTON

THE HIGH WALL

I will build up a wall for Freedom to dwell therein, A high wall with towers And steel fangs for a gate. For Freedom that lacks a home falleth by pit and gin, A prey to the alien powers That lie in wait.

I will build up a house for her where the ways divide, A house set on a hill, With a lamp in the topmost tower, And a trumpet calling to arms, and a flag like a flame blown wide, And a sword to save and to kill As her bridal dower.

I will take her to wife, she that is life and death; Life--for a trumpet calls; Death--for it calls me still, And I shall know love--a star, and a fluttering breath Till the shadow of silence falls In the house on the hill.

I will build up a house for her where the ways divide, Four-square on the rock, A high house and a great; So, when I fly, spent, back from a broken ride, Her key shall cry in the lock, She shall stand in the gate.

She shall stand in the gate--the prize of the world to win, Stand steel-shod, Crowned with a cloud of flowers. I will build up a wall, a wall, for Freedom to dwell therein In the name of the most high God, A wall with towers.

THE BROKEN SWORD

Soldier, soldier, burnishing your sword, Is there no place for a wayfaring man in the courts of your lord? A couch, and a crust, and a song, and a flagon of wine? Haggard, begrimed though I be, and out at heel, A lean, grey hop-and-go-one with a crutch of steel, Brother-at-arms with death? Behold the sign:

I have tasted great weather on high, white, green-turreted cliffs by the sea. I have tramped the tough heather, the purple, the brown, By pools of peat water; from the night to the day, Till the moon has dropped down: the ghost of a minim, low down, In a high-piping treble of grey.

In shy, dim recesses, mid tresses, green tresses. Slow dipping, caressing, I've heard A whisper, a chuckle of laughter, a scamper; and high, High up in the air the cry, the call of a bird. And when the night came with a flicker of wings I have heard the earth breathing quiet and slow Like a pulse in the tiny, wild tumult of things.

I have sung to the sun, and the moon and the stars, In valleys uncharted of tumbled sea meadows I have shouted aloud 'neath a sky whipped to smoke in the fret of my spars And I fought as I fared; and my couch was a camp; and my songs were my scars.

Soldier! Soldier! Cosetting your sword! Have you no place for a harper-at-arms in the courts of your lord-- Prim fountains, clipped trees, and trim gardens, and music, and rest? Nay, keep your sugared delights and your margents embroidered! My life is the best. In my ears is the sound of a bugle blown, and my pulses like kettle-drums beat For the hungry blind onset, the rally, the stubborn defeat. I, too, could have polished, and polished, and jeered at the wayfaring man who passed by. But I follow the fighting Apollo. And I stand unashamed; and I raise up my shard of a sword; and I cry the old cry. Please God they shall find but a hilt in my hand when I die!

NIGHT-SHAPES

Dark hurrying shapes beset my path that night-- Pushing and buffeting; and in my brain Dark hurrying shapes beset my soul. In vain I struggled; as a fevered dreamer might; Or some spent, breathless swimmer, in despite Of desperate stroke, thrust headlong to the main. The waking nightmare, monstrous and inane, Whirled, rushed, and huddled in its random flight.

Like a spent swimmer, battling with a swoon, Silent I fought, yet seemed to cry aloud. When, at the challenge of a marching tune, Heard in a sudden stillness of the crowd, I looked aloft, and saw the great round moon Steadfast behind her ragged rout of cloud.

THE SILENT PEOPLE

The Silent People of No Man's Land Calm they lie, With a stare and vacant smile At the vacant sky. Over them swept the battle, And stirred them not. Armies passed over, beyond them. They are forgot.

Calmly the earth deals with them, Melts them away. Nothing is left of them now but bones, Bones and clay. Bones of the Valley of Judgment, Bones stripped clean. We fought, day in, day out, and the others, With this between.

Dawn comes white and finds them Stark and cold. Twilight creeps over and covers them, Fold on fold. Night cannot hide them from us. In the dark, again, We see the Silent People Who once were men.

The Silent People of No Man's Land, They rise, they rise, With the glory of utter loss In their stary eyes. Beckoning, beckoning, calling, Pointing the way. But the dawn comes white, and finds them Bones and clay.

Winds of the world blow o'er them Your serenade! Touch like a lute the broken earth Where our dead are laid! Broken bones of the martyrs, Reliques of pain, Anoint them, anoint them with sunlight, Robe them in rain.

The Silent People of No Man's Land Calm they lie, Bones, broken and bleached, Under the sky. Over them sweeps the tempest, And stirs them not. We pass over, beyond them, They are forgot.

* * * * *

E. H. VISIAK

LAMPS AND LANTERNS

When I had sight, great glamour was In myriad lamps of coloured glass: Old lamps for new I never sold; For old were new, and new were old.

And Chinese lanterns, paper globes, Were Dragon Gods in tissue robes That stood on air with squat, round shoon, Beneath the thin, receded Moon.

STRANDED

_Dusk gathers. On the seaward hedge The wild hops, hanging bright, Gleam as a foam-spray flung on sedge From a sea of golden light_.

A ship lies heavy on the sands Above the warped, wan tide, Whose waves thrust ineffectual hands Beneath its murmuring side.

They cannot lift the monstrous hulk, Nor break the ghostly spell; The ship lies dreaming, all her bulk Racked on a shoal of hell.

I hear the sullen timbers creak, With echoings deep and numb; No other sound: nor groan nor shriek; For agony is dumb!

But at the seams, in every crack, A beaded sweat appears: The soul that's stretched on such a rack Can shed no other tears!

* * * * *

ALEC WAUGH

RUBBLE

We may fill the daytime with friendship
And laughter and song;
But however the laughter may trip
And the words break in song
On a loved one's lip;
And however gaily the road may bend
Into the sky,
It must come to this in the end,
That we stand
And watch the last friend
Turn with a half-felt sigh
And a wave of the hand;
And silence is over the day,
Shadows fall,
And our happiness crumbles away
Like a wall
That nobody cares for,
That falls stone by stone
Till its grandeur is rubble once more,
And we are alone.

* * * * *

CHARLES WILLIAMS

CHRISTMAS

Word through the world went
On Christmas morn,--
'Tidings! behold, a
Townsman is born!'

Then in their council
Smiled the high lords:
'Sword for world-conquest
'Mid a world's swords.
Need shall our armies
Have of each birth,
In that last battle
Wins us the earth.'

Still were the priesthood,
Singing the Mass:
'Lo, is our creed come
Truly to pass?
Blessed and broken
Crumbs that we give,
Say! say, O chalice,
Can a creed live?

Then to lord Shakespeare,
Brooding alone,
While in a vision
Lear was shown,
While his just loathing
Hung over men,
Lo, from the darkness
Came Imogen.

Then said a free maid,
Heart against mine,--
Take me, lord governor,
Who am all thine!
Thou that hast blessed me
With a new light,
Ah, is thy handmaid
Fair in thy sight?'

Then said our Lady,--
'Clean is the hut,
Filled are the platters,
And the door shut.
Sit, O son Jesus!
Sit thou, sweet friend!
Poor folk have supper
And their woes end.'

'Now,' said our Father,
'All things are won:
Welcome, O Saviour!
Welcome, O Son!
More than creation
Lives now again,
God hath borne Godhead
Nowise in vain.'

Word went through Sarras
On Easter morn,--
'Tidings! behold a
Townsman is born!'

BRISEIS

The footfalls of the parting Myrmidons
And counter-cries of leaguer and of town
Are hushed behind her as the silks drop down;
Alone she stands, and wonderingly cons
Heads circleted with gold or helmed with bronze;
Higher her eyes from crown to loftier crown
Creep, till they fall, nigh-blasted, at the frown
Of Argos, throned in his pavilions

And mid his captains wrathfully aware How the plague smites the host, how by the sea Beyond the ships, with vengeful prayer and oath, Rages the young Achilles, of whose wrath Innocent, ignorant, a captive, she Sees but the dropped staff on the voided chair.

* * * * *

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(This list includes poetical works only).

BINYON, LAURENCE.

Persephone (1890)
Lyric Poems (1894)
Poems (1895)
Porphyrion and other poems (1898)
The Supper (1897)
Odes (1901)
Death of Adam and other poems (1904)
Penthesilea (1905)
Dream come true (1905)
Paris and Oenone (1906)
Attila, a tragedy (1907)
England and other poems (1909)
Auguries (1913)
The Winnowing-fan (1914)
Bombastes in the Shades, a play (1915)
The Anvil and other poems (1916)
The Cause: poems of the war (1917)
For the Fallen and other poems (1917)
The New World (1918)
The Four Years: Collected War Poems (1919)

CHESTERTON, G.K.

Ballad of the White Horse (1911)
The Wild Knight and other poems (1914)
Poems (1915)
Wine, Water and Song (1915)

CHURCH, RICHARD.

Flood of Life and other poems (1917)
Hurricane (1919)

DAVIES, W.H.

New Poems (1907)
Nature Poems and others (1908)
Farewell to Poesy and other poems (1910)
Songs of Joy and Others (1911)
Foliage (1913)
Bird of Paradise and other poems (1914)
Child Lovers and other poems (1916)
Collected Poems (1916)
Forty Poems (1918)

DRINKWATER, JOHN.

Poems (1903)
Death of Leander and other poems (1906)
Lyrical and other poems (1908)
Cophetua, a play (1911)
Poems of Men and Hours (1911)
Poems of Love and Earth (1912)
Cromwell and other poems (1913)
Rebellion (1914)
Swords and Ploughshares (1915)
Olton Pools and other poems (1916)
Pawns (1917)
Poems (1908-14) (1917)
Tides (1917)
Abraham Lincoln (1918)
Loyalties (1919)

GIBSON, WILFRED WILSON.

Golden Helm (1903)
On the Threshold and Other Plays (1907)
Stonefolds (1907)
Web of Life (1908)
Akra the Slave (1910)
Daily Bread (1910)
Womenkind (1912)
Fires (1912)
Thorough-fares (1914)
Borderlands (1914)
Battle (1915)
Friends (1916)
Livelihood (1917)

GOLDING, LOUIS.

Sorrow of War (1919)

GOULD, GERALD.

Lyrics (1906)
Poems (1911)
My Lady's Book (1913)
Monogamy (1918)

HOUSMAN, LAURENCE.

Mendicant Rhymes (1906)
Selected Poems (1908)
The Winners (1915)
Heart of Peace (1918)

LE GALLIENNE, RICHARD.

My Ladies' Sonnets (1887)
R. L. S., An Elegy (1895)
Omar Repentant (1908)
Orestes (1910)
The Lonely Dancer and other poems (1914)
The Silk Hat Soldier and other poems (1915)

MACAULAY, ROSE.

The Two Blind Countries (1914)
Three Days (1919)

MASON, EUGENE.

Flamma Vestalis and other poems (1890)
The Field Floridus and other poems (1899)
Vitrail and other Poems (1916)

MAYNARD, THEODORE.

Laughs and Whifts of Song (1915)
Drums of Defeat (1917)
Folly and other poems (1918)

MOORE, T. STURGE.

The Vinedresser and other poems (1899)
Aphrodite against Artemis (1901)
Absalom (1903)
The Centaur's Booty (1903)
Danaee (1903)
Rout of the Amazons (1903)
Pan's Prophecy (1904)
Theseus, Medea and Lyrics (1904)
To Leda and other odes (1904)
The Gazelles and other poems (1904)
A Sicilian Idyll and Judith (1911)
Mariamne (1911)
Collected Poems (1916)

NICHOLS, ROBERT.

Ardours and Endurances (1917)
Invocation (1919)

PHILLPOTTS, EDEN.

Up-Along and Down-Along (1905)
Wild Fruit (1911)
Demeter's Daughter (1911)
The Iscariot (1912)
Delight and other poems (1916)
Plain Song (1917)

SABIN, ARTHUR K.

Typhon and other poems (1902)
Death of Icarus (1906)
The Wayfarers (1907)
Dante and Beatrice (1908)
Medea and Circe and other poems (1911)
New Poems (1914)
War Harvest (1914)
Five Poems (1914)
Christmas (1914)

SACKVILLE, LADY MARGARET.

Poems (1901)
A Hymn to Dionysus and other poems (1905)
Hildris the Queen, a play (1908)
Lyrics (1912)
Songs of Aphrodite and other poems (1913)
Pageant of War (1916)

SEYMOUR, WILLIAM KEAN.

Street of Dreams (1914)
To Verhaeren and other poems (1917)
Twenty-four Poems (1918)
Swords and Flutes (1919)

SITWELL, EDITH.

The Mother and other poems (1915)
Clowns' Houses (1918)
(With Osbert Sitwell)
Twentieth Century Harlequinade and other poems.

STUART, MURIEL.

Christ at Carnival and other poems (1916)
The Cockpit of Idols (1918)

TITTERTON, W. R.

River Music and other poems (1900)
Guns and Guitars (1918)

VISIAK, E.H.

Buccaneer Ballads (1910)
Flints and Flashes (1911)
The Phantom Ship (1912)
Battle Fiends and other poems (1916)
Brief Poems (1919)

WAUGH, ALEC.

Resentment (1918)

WILLIAMS, CHARLES.

The Silver Stair (1912)
Poems of Conformity (1917)
Divorce (In preparation)