Chapter 13

Chapter 132,257 wordsPublic domain

Robert Nichols was born on the Isle of Wight in 1893. His first volume, _Invocations_ (1915), was published while he was at the front, Nichols having joined the army while he was still an undergraduate at Trinity College, Oxford. After serving one year as second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, he was incapacitated by shell shock, visiting America in 1918-19 as a lecturer. His _Ardours and Endurances_ (1917) is the most representative work of this poet, although his new volume, _The Flower of Flame_ (1920), shows a steady advance in power.

NEARER

Nearer and ever nearer ... My body, tired but tense, Hovers 'twixt vague pleasure And tremulous confidence.

Arms to have and to use them And a soul to be made Worthy, if not worthy; If afraid, unafraid.

To endure for a little, To endure and have done: Men I love about me, Over me the sun!

And should at last suddenly Fly the speeding death, The four great quarters of heaven Receive this little breath.

_Charles Hamilton Sorley_

Charles Hamilton Sorley, who promised greater things than any of the younger poets, was born at Old Aberdeen in May, 1895. He studied at Marlborough College and University College, Oxford. He was finishing his studies abroad and was on a walking-tour along the banks of the Moselle when the war came. Sorley returned home to receive an immediate commission in the 7th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. In August, 1915, at the age of 20, he was made a captain. On October 13, 1915, he was killed in action near Hulluch.

Sorley left but one book, _Marlborough and Other Poems_. The verse contained in it is sometimes rough but never rude. Although he admired Masefield, loveliness rather than liveliness was his aim. Restraint, tolerance, and a dignity unusual for a boy of 20, distinguish his poetry.

TWO SONNETS

Saints have adored the lofty soul of you. Poets have whitened at your high renown. We stand among the many millions who Do hourly wait to pass your pathway down.

You, so familiar, once were strange: we tried To live as of your presence unaware. But now in every road on every side We see your straight and steadfast signpost there.

I think it like that signpost in my land Hoary and tall, which pointed me to go Upward, into the hills, on the right hand, Where the mists swim and the winds shriek and blow, A homeless land and friendless, but a land I did not know and that I wished to know.

Such, such is Death: no triumph: no defeat: Only an empty pail, a slate rubbed clean, A merciful putting away of what has been.

And this we know: Death is not Life effete, Life crushed, the broken pail. We who have seen So marvellous things know well the end not yet.

Victor and vanquished are a-one in death: Coward and brave: friend, foe. Ghosts do not say, "Come, what was your record when you drew breath?" But a big blot has hid each yesterday So poor, so manifestly incomplete. And your bright Promise, withered long and sped, Is touched; stirs, rises, opens and grows sweet And blossoms and is you, when you are dead.

TO GERMANY

You are blind like us. Your hurt no man designed, And no man claimed the conquest of your land. But gropers both, through fields of thought confined, We stumble and we do not understand. You only saw your future bigly planned, And we the tapering paths of our own mind, And in each other's dearest ways we stand, And hiss and hate. And the blind fight the blind.

When it is peace, then we may view again With new-won eyes each other's truer form And wonder. Grown more loving-kind and warm We'll grasp firm hands and laugh at the old pain, When it is peace. But until peace, the storm, The darkness and the thunder and the rain.

_Robert Graves_

Robert Graves was born July 26, 1895. One of "the three rhyming musketeers" (the other two being the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Nichols), he was one of several writers who, roused by the war and giving himself to his country, refused to glorify warfare or chant new hymns of hate. Like Sassoon, Graves also reacts against the storm of fury and blood-lust (see his poem "To a Dead Boche"), but, fortified by a lighter and more whimsical spirit, where Sassoon is violent, Graves is volatile; where Sassoon is bitter, Graves is almost blithe.

An unconquerable gayety rises from his _Fairies and Fusiliers_ (1917), a surprising and healing humor that is warmly individual. In _Country Sentiment_ (1919) Graves turns to a fresh and more serious simplicity. But a buoyant fancy ripples beneath the most archaic of his ballads and a quaintly original turn of mind saves them from their own echoes.

IT'S A QUEER TIME

It's hard to know if you're alive or dead When steel and fire go roaring through your head.

One moment you'll be crouching at your gun Traversing, mowing heaps down half in fun: The next, you choke and clutch at your right breast-- No time to think--leave all--and off you go ... To Treasure Island where the Spice winds blow, To lovely groves of mango, quince and lime-- Breathe no good-bye, but ho, for the Red West! It's a queer time.

You're charging madly at them yelling "Fag!" When somehow something gives and your feet drag. You fall and strike your head; yet feel no pain And find ... you're digging tunnels through the hay In the Big Barn, 'cause it's a rainy day. Oh, springy hay, and lovely beams to climb! You're back in the old sailor suit again. It's a queer time.

Or you'll be dozing safe in your dug-out-- A great roar--the trench shakes and falls about-- You're struggling, gasping, struggling, then ... _hullo_! Elsie comes tripping gaily down the trench, Hanky to nose--that lyddite makes a stench-- Getting her pinafore all over grime. Funny! because she died ten years ago! It's a queer time.

The trouble is, things happen much too quick; Up jump the Boches, rifles thump and click, You stagger, and the whole scene fades away: Even good Christians don't like passing straight From Tipperary or their Hymn of Hate To Alleluiah-chanting, and the chime Of golden harps ... and ... I'm not well to-day ... It's a queer time.

A PINCH OF SALT

When a dream is born in you With a sudden clamorous pain, When you know the dream is true And lovely, with no flaw nor stain, O then, be careful, or with sudden clutch You'll hurt the delicate thing you prize so much.

Dreams are like a bird that mocks, Flirting the feathers of his tail. When you seize at the salt-box, Over the hedge you'll see him sail. Old birds are neither caught with salt nor chaff: They watch you from the apple bough and laugh.

Poet, never chase the dream. Laugh yourself, and turn away. Mask your hunger; let it seem Small matter if he come or stay; But when he nestles in your hand at last, Close up your fingers tight and hold him fast.

I WONDER WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE DROWNED?

Look at my knees, That island rising from the steamy seas! The candle's a tall lightship; my two hands Are boats and barges anchored to the sands, With mighty cliffs all round; They're full of wine and riches from far lands.... _I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?_

I can make caves, By lifting up the island and huge waves And storms, and then with head and ears well under Blow bubbles with a monstrous roar like thunder, A bull-of-Bashan sound. The seas run high and the boats split asunder.... _I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?_

The thin soap slips And slithers like a shark under the ships. My toes are on the soap-dish--that's the effect Of my huge storms; an iron steamer's wrecked. The soap slides round and round; He's biting the old sailors, I expect.... _I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?_

THE LAST POST

The bugler sent a call of high romance-- "Lights out! Lights out!" to the deserted square. On the thin brazen notes he threw a prayer: "God, if it's _this_ for me next time in France, O spare the phantom bugle as I lie Dead in the gas and smoke and roar of guns, Dead in a row with other broken ones, Lying so stiff and still under the sky-- Jolly young Fusiliers, too good to die ..." The music ceased, and the red sunset flare Was blood about his head as he stood there.

INDEX

_Names of Authors are in Capitals. Titles of Poems are in Italics._

ABERCROMBIE, LASCELLES, xxiv, 174-177

"A. E.," xvii, 76-77

_Aftermath_, 192

ALDINGTON, RICHARD, 216-219

_All-Souls_, 44

_An Athlete Dying Young, To_, 38

_An Old Fogey, To_, 45

_Arab Love-Song, An_, 35

_Astrologer's Song, An_, 66

_At the British Museum_, 218

_A Traveller, To_, 72

AUSTIN, ALFRED, xii, 5, 27

_Ballad of Hell, A_, 22

_Ballad of London, A_, 69

_Ballad of the Billycock, The_, 90

_Barrel-Organ, The_, 154

_Beautiful Lie the Dead_, 78

_Beauty's a Flower_, 100

_Before_, 11

_Beg-Innish_, 95

BELLOC, HILAIRE, 86-89

BINYON, LAURENCE, 79-80

_Birdcatcher, The_, 144

_Blackbird, The_, 10

_Blind Pedlar, The_, 220

_Bowl of Roses, A_, 11

BRIDGES, ROBERT, 5-7

_Broken Song, A_, 99

BROOKE, RUPERT, xxiii, 193-200

_Bugler, The_, 208

_By-the-Way_, 211

CAMPBELL, JOSEPH, 165-166

_Cap and Bells, The_, 54

CHESSON, NORA (_see Nora Hopper_)

CHESTERTON, G. K., xxiii, 110-119

_Choice, The_, 131

_Clair de Lune_, 102

_Cock-Crow_, 138

COLUM, PADRAIC, xvii, 162-165

_Complaint_, 219

_Connaught Lament, A_, 97

_Consecration, A_, 126

_Conundrum of the Workshops, The_, 63

CORNFORD, FRANCES, 184-186

_Daisy_,32

_Dauber_, xxii, 128

DAVIDSON, JOHN, 22-27

DAVIES, W. H., xxiii, xxv, 83-86

_Days Too Short_, 84

DEANE, ANTHONY C., 89-93

_Death and the Fairies_, 212

DE LA MARE, WALTER, xxiii, 105-110

_Donkey, The_, 119

DOUGLAS, ALFRED, 80-81

DOWSON, ERNEST, 73-76

_Drake's Drum_, 49

_Dream, A_, 79

_Dreamers_, 190

DRINKWATER, JOHN, xxiv, 170-171

DUNSANY, EDWARD LORD, 133-136

_Dust_,198

_Dying-Swan, The_, 82

_Epilogue_, 161

_Epitaph_, 42

_Epitaph, An_, 107

_Estrangement_, 30

_Eve_, 140

_Evening Clouds_, 214

_Evening in England, An_, 213

_Everlasting Mercy, The_, xxii

_Every Thing_, 146

_Example, The_, 86

_Fifty Faggots_,137

FLECKER, JAMES ELROY, 178-179

_Fleet Street_, 183

FLINT, F. S., 205-206

FREEMAN, JOHN, 181-182

GEORGIANS, THE, xi, xxiii-xxiv

_Germany, To_, 225

GIBSON, W. W., xxiii, xxv, 119-125

GILBERT, W. S., xiv

_Going and Staying_, 4

GORE-BOOTH, EVA, 98-99

_Grandeur_, 201

GRAVES, ROBERT, xxiii, 225-229

_Great Breath, The_, 76

_Great Lover, The_, 195

_Green River, The_, 81

_Gunga Din_, 57

HARDY, THOMAS, xvi, 3-4

HARVEY, F. W., 208

HENLEY, W. E., xi, xv-xvii, 9-13

_"Herod," Fragment from_, 78

HINKSON, KATHARINE TYNAN, xvii, 43-45

HODGSON, RALPH, xxiii, xxv, 139-144

HOPPER, NORA, 97

_House, A_, 172

_House that Was, The_, 80

HOUSMAN, A. E., xxv, 36-40

HUEFFER, F. M., 102-105

HYDE, DOUGLAS, xvii, 40-41

_I am the Mountainy Singer_, 165

_I Hear an Army_, 171

_I Shall not Die for Thee_, 40

_I Wonder What It Feels Like to be Drowned?_, 228

_If I Should Ever Grow Rich_, 136

_Images_, 217

_Imagination_, 26

_Impression du Matin_, 21

_In Flanders Fields_, 101

_Interlude_, 207

_In the Mile End Road_, 42

_In the Wood of Finvara_, 50

_In Time of "The Breaking of Nations_," 3

_Invictus_, 10

"_Is Love, then, so simple_," 215

_It's a Queer Time_, 226

JACKSON, HOLBROOK, xiv-xv

JOHNSON, LIONEL, xvii, 71-73

JOYCE, JAMES, 171

KETTLE, T. M., 149-150

KIPLING, RUDYARD, xi, xx-xxi, 56-68

_Lake Isle of Innisfree, The_, 53

_Last Post, The_, 229

LAWRENCE, D. H., xxiii, 179-181

LEDWIDGE, FRANCIS, 213-214

LE GALLIENNE, RICHARD, xv, 68-70

_Lepanto_, 111

LESLIE, SHANE, 183-184

LETTS, W. M., 200-204

LEVY, AMY, 41-43

_Listeners, The_, 106

_Lochanilaun_, 204

_London_, 205

_Lone Dog_, 215

"_Loveliest of Trees_," 39

MACCATHMHAOIL, SEOSAMH (_see Joseph Campbell_)

MACGILL, PATRICK, 211-213

MACLEOD, FIONA, 18-19

MCLEOD, IRENE R., 215-216

MCCRAE, JOHN, 101

_Man He Killed, The_, 4

_Margaritae Sorori_, 12

MASEFIELD, JOHN, xi, xxi-xxii, xxv, 125-132

MEYNELL, ALICE, 16-17

_Modern Beauty_, 51

MONRO, HAROLD, 144-149

_Moon, The_, 85

MOORE, GEORGE, xviii

MOORE, T. STURGE, 81-83

_My Daughter Betty, To_, 150

_Mystery, The_, 144

_Mystic and Cavalier_, 71

_Nearer_, 222

NEWBOLT, HENRY, xxiv, 49-50

NICHOLS, ROBERT, 222-223, 225

_Nightingale near the House, The_, 145

_Nightingales_, 7

_Nod_, 109

NOYES, ALFRED, xxiii, 150-162

_Oaks of Glencree, To the_, 96

_Ode_, 8

_Ode in May_, 28

_Old Ships, The_, 178

_Old Song Resung, An_, 55

_Old Susan_, 108

_Old Woman, The_, 166

_Old Woman of the Roads, An_, 164

_Olivia, To_, 34

_One in Bedlam, To_, 74

O'NEILL, MOIRA, xvii, 99-100

O'SHAUGHNESSY, ARTHUR, 8-9

O'SULLIVAN, SEUMAS, 138-139

_Pater of the Cannon, The_, 183

_People_, 180

PHILLIPS, STEPHEN, 77-79

_Piano_, 180

_Pinch of Salt, A_, 227

_Plougher The_, 162

_Praise_, 139

_Prayer in Darkness, A_, 118

_Preexistence_, 184

_Prelude_, 120

_Prelude_, 216

_Progress_, 221

_Reality_, 186

_Rear-Guard, The_, 190

_Reciprocity_, 170

_Regret_, 70

_Requiem_, 16

_Requiescat_, 20

_Return, The_, 61

_Reveille_, 36

_Romance_, 15

_Romance_, 210

_Rounding the Horn_, 128

RUSSELL, GEORGE W. (_see "A. E."_)

_Rustic Song, A_, 92

SASSOON, SIEGFRIED, xxiii, 187-193, 225

SEAMAN, OWEN, 45-48

_Sea-Fever_, 127

SHANKS, EDWARD, 219-220

SHARP, WILLIAM (_see Fiona MacLeod_)

SHAW, G. B., 20, 83

_Sheep and Lambs_, 43

_Shell, The_, 167

_Sherwood_, 151

_Sight_, 124

_Silence Sings_, 82

_Singer, The_, 186

SITWELL, EDITH, 206-207

SITWELL, OSBERT, 220-222

_Soldier, The_, 200

_Song_, 31

_Song_, 187

_Song, A_, 79

_Song_ (_from "Judith"_), 176

_Song of the Old Mother, The_, 53

_Songs from an Evil Wood_, 133

_Sonnet_,132

SORLEY, CHARLES HAMILTON, 223-225

_South Country, The_, 87

_Spires of Oxford, The_, 203

_Sportsmen in Paradise_, 209

SQUIRE, J. C., xxiv, 172-174

STEPHENS, JAMES, xxiii, 167-169

STEVENSON, R. L., xvi, 13-16

_Stone, The_, 121

_Stone Trees_, 181

_Strange Meetings_, 149

_Summer Sun_, 13

SYMONS, ARTHUR, xv, 50-51

SYNGE, J. M., xviii-xx, xxii, 93-96

_Tall Nettles_, 137

TENNYSON, ALFRED, xii, 49

"_There Shall be more Joy_," 104

THOMAS, EDWARD, 136-138

_Thomas of the Light Heart_, 47

THOMPSON, FRANCIS, 31-35

_Thrush before Dawn, A_, 16

_Thrushes_, 191

_Time, You old Gipsy Man_, 142

_Tired Tim_, 108

_To The Four Courts, Please_, 169

_Town Window, A_, 170

_Translation from Petrarch, A_, 96

TUPPER, MARTIN F., xii

TURNER, W. J., 210-211

_Two Sonnets_, 223

TYNAN, KATHARINE (HINKSON), xvii, 43-45

_Unknown God, The_, 77

_Valley of Silence, The_, 18

_"Vashti," From_, 175

VICTORIANS, THE, xi-xiii, xx

_Victory, To_, 189

_Villain, The_, 85

_Vision, The_, 19

_Walls_, 99

WATSON, WILLIAM, 27-31

_Waves of Breffny, The_, 98

_Web of Eros, The_, 206

_What Tomas an Buile Said_, 168

_When I Was One-and-Twenty_, 37

WICKHAM, ANNA, 186-187

WILDE, OSCAR, xiii-xv, 19-22, 68

WILLIAMS, HAROLD, xviii, 105

WILSON, T. P. C., 209

_Winter Nightfall_, 5

_Winter-Time_, 14

_With Rue my Heart is Laden_, 38

YEATS, W. B., xvi, xvii-xix, 52-56, 94

YOUNG, FRANCIS BRETT, 204

_You Would Have Understood Me_, 75