Chapter I: Front Matter

[Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99.]

POEMS: NEW AND OLD

BY HENRY NEWBOLT

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

1912

TO

ADMIRAL SIR REGINALD CUSTANCE

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

This volume forms a complete collection of all my published work in verse from 1897 to 1912. It includes the contents of four previous volumes: _Admirals All_ (1897), _The Island Race_ (1898), _The Sailing of the Long-Ships_ (1902), and _Songs of Memory and Hope_ (1909), together with a number of pieces added to the later editions of the first two of these, and ten poems which have not hitherto appeared in book form--namely, _Sailing at Dawn, The Song of the Sou' Wester, The Middle Watch, The Little Admiral, The Song of the Guns at Sea, Farewell, Mors Janua, Gold, The Faun_, and _Rilloby-Rill_.

The volumes above mentioned were dedicated respectively to ANDREW LANG, to ROBERT BRIDGES, to SIR EDWARD GREY, and to LAURENCE BINYON; and I delight to repeat these names once more, in a volume which commemorates also the inspiration of a later friendship.

H. N.

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CONTENTS

PAGE

SONGS OF THE FLEET:
I. SAILING AT DAWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. THE SONG OF THE SOU' WESTER . . . . . . . 3
III. THE MIDDLE WATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
IV. THE LITTLE ADMIRAL . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
V. THE SONG OF THE GUNS AT SEA . . . . . . . 9
VI. FAREWELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
ODE FOR TRAFALGAR DAY, 1905 . . . . . . . . . . 12
THE HUNDREDTH YEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
DRAKE'S DRUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
THE FIGHTING TÉMÉRAIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
ADMIRALS ALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
SAN STEFANO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
HAWKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
THE BRIGHT "MEDUSA" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
THE OLD "SUPERB" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
THE QUARTER-GUNNER'S YARN . . . . . . . . . . . 32
NORTHUMBERLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
FOR A TRAFALGAR CENOTAPH . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CRAVEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
MESSMATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
THE DEATH OF ADMIRAL BLAKE . . . . . . . . . . . 42

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PAGE

VAE VICTIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
MINORA SIDERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
LAUDABUNT ALII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
ADMIRAL DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
HOMEWARD BOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
GILLESPIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
SERINGAPATAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
A BALLAD OF JOHN NICHOLSON . . . . . . . . . . . 61
THE GUIDES AT CABUL, 1879 . . . . . . . . . . . 65
THE GAY GORDONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
HE FELL AMONG THIEVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
IONICUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
THE NON-COMBATANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
SACRAMENTUM SUPREMUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
CLIFTON CHAPEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
VITAÏ LAMPADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
THE VIGIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
THE SAILING OF THE LONG-SHIPS . . . . . . . . . 82
WAGGON HILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
THE VOLUNTEER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
THE ONLY SON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
THE GRENADIER'S GOOD-BYE . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
THE SCHOOLFELLOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ON SPION KOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
THE SCHOOL AT WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
BY THE HEARTH-STONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
PEACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
APRIL ON WAGGON HILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
COMMEMORATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

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PAGE

THE ECHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
THE BEST SCHOOL OF ALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
ENGLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
VICTORIA REGINA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
THE KING OF ENGLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
THE NILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
SRÁHMANDÁZI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
OUTWARD BOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
HOPE THE HORNBLOWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
O PULCHRITUDO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
THE FINAL MYSTERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
IL SANTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
IN JULY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION . . . . . . . . . 123
WHEN I REMEMBER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
MORS JANUA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
RONDEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
RONDEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
BALADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
THE LAST WORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
THE VIKING'S SONG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
THE SUFI IN THE CITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
TO EDWARD FITZGERALD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
YATTENDON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
DEVON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
AMONG THE TOMBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
GOLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
A SOWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
THE MOSSROSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

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PAGE

AVE, SOROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
TO A RIVER IN THE SOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
ON THE DEATH OF A NOBLE LADY . . . . . . . . . . 145
MIDWAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
AD MATREM DOLOROSAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
VRAIS AMANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
THE SANGREAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
SIR HUGH THE PALMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
THE PRESENTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
THE INHERITANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
AMORE ALTIERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
THE PEDLAR'S SONG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
BENEDICK'S SONG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
LOVE AND GRIEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
EGERIA'S SILENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
AGAINST OBLIVION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
FOND COUNSEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
THE WANDERER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
THE ADVENTURERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
TO CLARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
THE RETURN OF SUMMER: AN ECLOGUE . . . . . . . . 169
DREAM-MARKET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
THE CICALAS: AN IDYLL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
THE FAUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
FIDELE'S GRASSY TOMB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
MOONSET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
A SONG OF EXMOOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
MASTER AND MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

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PAGE

GAVOTTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
IMOGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
NEL MEZZO DEL CAMMÌN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
THE INVASION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
RILLOBY-RILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
PEREUNT ET IMPUTANTUR . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
FELIX ANTONIUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
IRELAND, IRELAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
HYMN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE . . . . . . . . . . 212
EPISTLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
LE BYRON DE NOS JOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

O strength divine of Roman days,
O spirit of the age of faith,
Go with our sons on all their ways,
When we long since are dust and wraith.

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POEMS: NEW AND OLD

_Songs of the Fleet_