Chapter I: Front Matter

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.

SONGS
OF THE
ARMY OF THE NIGHT.

* * * * *

BY
FRANCIS ADAMS.

* * * * *

"_For the cause of Labour all over the Earth_."

* * * * *

SECOND EDITION.

* * * * *

London:
WILLIAM REEVES, 185, FLEET STREET, E.C.

TO EDITH.

"My sweet, my child, through all this night
Of dark and wind and rain,
Where thunder crashes, and the light
Sears the bewildered brain,

"It is your face, your lips, your eyes
I see rise up; I hear
Your voice that sobs and calls and cries,
Or shrills and mocks at fear.

"O this that's mine is yours as well,
For side by side our feet
Trod through these bitter brakes of hell.
Take it, my child, my sweet!"

CONTENTS.

PAGE Preface 11 This Book 15 SONGS OF THE ARMY OF THE NIGHT. _Proem_:--"Outside London" 18 _PART I.--ENGLAND_. In the Camp 19 "Axiom" 20 Drill 20 Evening Hymn in the Hovels 21 In the Street: "Lord Shaftesbury" 22 "Liberty" 22 In the Edgware Road 24 To the Girls of the Unions 24 Hagar 25 "Why?" 26 A Visitor in the Camp 27 "Lord Leitrim" 28 "Anarchism" 28 Belgravia by Night: "Move on!" 29 Jesus 29 Parallels for the Pious 30 "Prayer" 30 To the Christians 31 "Defeat" 31 To John Ruskin 32 To the Emperor William 34 Song of the Dispossessed: "To Jesus" 34 Art 35 The Peasants' Revolt 35 "Analogy" 37 In Trafalgar Square 37 A Street Fight 37 To a Workman, a would-be Suicide 39 Dublin at Dawn 40 The Caged Eagle 41 To Ireland 42 To Charles Parnell 42 An "Assassin" 43 Russia 44 Pere-la-Chaise 45 Aux Ternes 46 "The Truth" 47 To the Sons of Labour 48 To the Artists 49 "One among so Many" 50 The New Locksley Hall 52 Farewell to the Market: "Susannah and Mary-Jane" 58 _PART II.--HERE AND THERE_. In the Pit: "Chant of the Firemen" 60 A Mahommadan Ship Fireman 61 To India 61 To England: I. "There was a time" 61 II. "We hate you" 62 III. "I whom you fed with shame" 62 IV. "England, the Land I loved" 63 Hong Kong Lyrics: I. "At Anchor in that Harbour" 64 II. "There is much in this Sea-way City" 65 III. "I stand and watch the Soldiers" 65 IV. "Happy Valley" 66 A Glimpse of China: I. In a Sampan 67 II. In a Chair 67 III. "Caste" 68 IV. Over the Samovar 69 To Japan 70 Dai Butsu 70 "England" 71 The Fisherman 71 A South-Sea Islander 72 New Summer Converts 72 A Death at Sea: I. "Dead in the Sheep-Pen" 73 II. "In the Warm, Cloudy Night" 74 III. "Dirge" 74 _PART III.--AUSTRALIA_. The Outcasts 75 James Moorhouse 75 In the Sea Gardens: "The Man of the Nation" 78 "Upstarts" 79 Labour--Capital--Land 79 Australia 80 Art 80 "Henry George" 81 William Wallace 83 The Australian Flag 83 To an Old Friend in England: "Esau" 84 At the Seamen's Union: "The Seamen and the Miners" 84 To His Love 85 Her Poem: "My Baby Girl that was born and died on the same 86 day" To Henry George in America 86 "Algernon Charles Swinburne" 87 To an Unionist 88 To my Friend, Sydney Jephcott 89 To E. L. Zox 89 "Father Abe": Song of the American Sons of Labour 90 "A Fool" 93 Mount Rennie: I. The Australian Press speaks 95 II. The Time-Spirit speaks 97 "Tyranny": The Delegates speak 97 From a Verandah: "Armageddon" 98 "Elsie"--A Memory 99 "Nationalism and M'Ilwraith" 99 To the Emperor William 100 A Story 101 At the India Docks 103 Dirge: "A Little Soldier of the Army of the Night" 108 To Queen Victoria in England 109 Farewell to the Children 111 Epode: On the Ranges, Queensland 113 * * * * * Australian Press Notices 116