Works

I

The God of Love "ah, benedicite!"
How mighty and how great a Lord is he!
For he of low hearts can make high, of high
He can make low, and unto death bring nigh;...

From the dark chambers of dejection freed,
Spurning the unprofitable yoke of care,
Rise, Gillies, rise; the gales of youth shall bear
Thy genius forward like a winged steed....

The crescent moon and clock tower are fair above the wall
Across the smothered lanes of 'Loo, the stifled vice and all,
And in the shadow yonder, like cats that wait for scraps,...

Stay, rivulet, nor haste to leave
The lovely vale that lies around thee.
Why wouldst thou be a sea at eve,
When but a fount the morning found thee?

Born when the skies began to glow,...

Full oft doth Matt. with Topaz dine,
Eateth baked meats, drinketh Greek wine:
But Topas his own worke rehearseth,
And Matt. mote praise what Topaz verseth.
Now shure as priest did e'er shrive sinner,...

Fast as the rolling seasons bring
The hour of fate to those we love,
Each pearl that leaves the broken string
Is set in Friendship's crown above.
As narrower grows the earthly chain,...

Whan Andrew frae Strathbogie gaed
The lift was lowerin dreary,
The sun he wadna raise his heid,
The win' blew laich and eerie.
In's pooch he had a plack or twa--
I vow he hadna mony,...

(To the maiden with the hidden face in Abbey's painting)

The other maidens raised their eyes to him
Who stumbled in before them when the fight
Had left him victor, with a victor's right....

When our babe he goeth walking in his garden,
Around his tinkling feet the sunbeams play;
The posies they are good to him,
And bow them as they should to him,
As fareth he upon his kingly way;...

Gayly sounds the castanet,
Beating time to bounding feet,
When, after daylight's golden set,
Maids and youths by moonlight meet.
Oh, then, how sweet to move
Thro' all that maze of mirth,...

In this noble ring to-day

Let my warning shame ye!
Listen to my solemn voice,

Seldom does it name ye.
Many a thing have ye intended,

Many a thing have badly ended,...

scripsit quidem fata, sed sequitur.
SENECA.


Of old, the Sultan Genius reigned,
As Nature meant, supreme alone;
With mind unchekt, and hands unchained,
His views, his conquests were his own....

For the sake of guilty conscience, and the heart that ticks the time
Of the clockworks of my nature, I desire to say that I'm
A weak and sinful creature, as regards my daily walk...

FEBRUARY 4TH, 1894.


"Gone to his exceeding great reward,"
The friend of rich and poor alike;
And there'll rest not beneath the sward
More shining mark that death could strike.
...

Fools we may have in plenty, and simpletons, too, by the dozen;
But for comedy these never make use of themselves.

Ready and ripe for the harvest lay the acres of golden grain
Waving on hillock and hillside and bending along the plain.
Ready and ripe for the harvest two veteran armies lay...

Though every nerve be strained
To fine accomplishment,
Full oft the life fall spent
Before the prize is gained.
And, in our discontent
At waste so evident,
In doubt and vast discouragement...

Unless I'm very much misled,
Chesterton's easier done than said.
I have not seen him, but his looks
I can imagine from his books.

Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright?
Have patience! In this sudden smoke from hell,
So things disguise themselves, I cannot see
My own hand held thus broad before my face...

When Plain Folk, such as you or I,
See the Sun sinking in the sky,
We think it is the Setting Sun,
But Mr. Gilbert Chesterton
Is not so easily misled.
He calmly stands upon his head,...