Works

This is the reason why Rustum Beg,
Rajah of Kolazai,
Drinketh the "simpkin" and brandy peg,
Maketh the money to fly,
Vexeth a Government, tender and kind,
Also, but this is a detail, blind.

...

Once on a time, the ancient legends tell,
Truth, rising from the bottom of her well,
Looked on the world, but, hearing how it lied,
Returned to her seclusion horrified....

When a lover hies abroad
Looking for his love,
Azrael smiling sheathes his sword,
Heaven smiles above.
Earth and sea
His servants be,
And to lesser compass round,
That his love be sooner found!

"A Priest in Spite of Himself"



"How far is St. Helena from a little child at play!"
What makes you want to wander there with all the world between....

The doors were wide, the story saith,
Out of the night came the patient wraith.
He might not speak, and he could not stir
A hair of the Baron's minniver.
Speechless and strengthless, a shadow thin,...

So we settled it all when the storm was done
As comfy as comfy could be;
And I was to wait in the barn, my dears,
Because I was only three;
And Teddy would run to the rainbow's foot...

We meet in an evil land
That is near to the gates of hell.
I wait for thy command
To serve, to speed or withstand.
And thou sayest, I do not well?

Oh Love, the flowers so red...

Gow. Had it been your Prince instead of a groom caught in this noose there's not an astrologer of the city,
Prince. Sacked! Sacked! We were a city yesterday....

I am the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in Most wise tones,
"Let us melt into the landscape,just us two by our lones."
Peoplehavecome,inacarriage,calling. But Mummy is there.......

I turned Heaven knows we women turn too much
To broken reeds, mistaken so for pine
That shame forbids confession a handle I turned
(The wrong one, said the agent afterwards)...

A much-discerning Public hold
The Singer generally sings
And prints and sells his past for gold.

Whatever I may here disclaim,
The very clever folk I sing to
Will most indubitably cling to...

Late came the God, having sent his forerunners who were not regarded,
Late, but in wrath;
Saying: "The wrong shall be paid, the contempt be rewarded
On all that she hath."...

The smoke upon your Altar dies,
The flowers decay,
The Goddess of your sacrifice
Has flown away.
What profit then to sing or slay
The sacrifice from day to day?
...

My new-cut ashlar takes the light
Where crimson-blank the windows flare;
By my own work, before the night,
Great Overseer I make my prayer.

If there be good in that I wrought,...

Veil them, cover them, wall them round,
Blossom, and creeper, and weed,
Let us forget the sight and the sound,
The smell and the touch of the breed!
Fat black ash by the altar-stone,...

Smells are surer than sounds or sights
To make your heart-strings crack,
They start those awful voices o' nights
That whisper, "Old man, come back!"
That must be why the big things pass...

Look, you have cast out Love! What Gods are these
You bid me please?
The Three in One, the One in Three? Not so!
To my own Gods I go.
It may be they shall give me greater ease...

Why gird at Lollius if he care
To purchase in the city's sight,
With nard and roses for his hair,
The name of Knight?

Son of unmitigated sires
Enriched by trade in Afric corn,...

When you come to London Town,
(Grieving-grieving!)
Bring your flowers and lay them down
At the place of grieving.

When you come to London Town,
(Grieving-grieving!)...

If you've ever stole a pheasant-egg be'ind the keeper's back,
If you've ever snigged the washin' from the line,
If you've ever crammed a gander in your bloomin' 'aversack,...