Peacock Pie Part 6

'Ahoy, and ahoy!'

'Twixt mocking and merry -- 'Ahoy and ahoy, there, Young man of the ferry!'

She stood on the steps In the watery gloom --- That Changeling --'Ahoy, there!'

She called him to come.

He came on the green wave, He came on the grey, Where stooped that sweet lady That still summer's day.

He fell in a dream Of her beautiful face, As she sat on the thwart And smiled in her place.

No echo his oar woke, Float silent did they, Past low-grazing cattle In the sweet of the hay.

And still in a dream At her beauty sat he, Drifting stern foremost Down -- down to the sea.

Come you, then: call, When the twilight apace Brings shadow to brood On the loveliest face; You shall hear o'er the water Ring faint in the grey --- 'Ahoy, and ahoy, there!'

And tremble away; 'Ahoy, and ahoy!...'

And tremble away.

THE MOCKING FAIRY

'Won't you look out of your window, Mrs. Gill?'

Quoth the Fairy, niddling, nodding in the garden; 'Can't you look out of your window, Mrs. Gill?'

Quoth the Fairy, laughing softly in the garden; But the air was still, the cherry boughs were still, And the ivy-tod 'neath the empty sill, And never from her window looked out Mrs. Gill On the Fairy shrilly mocking in the garden.

'What have they done with you, you poor Mrs. Gill?'

Quoth the Fairy brightly glancing in the garden; 'Where have they hidden you, you poor old Mrs. Gill?'

Quoth the Fairy dancing lightly in the garden;

But night's faint veil now wrapped the hill, Stark 'neath the stars stood the dead-still Mill, And out of her cold cottage never answered Mrs. Gill The Fairy mimbling, mambling in the garden.

BEWITCHED

I have heard a lady this night, Lissom and jimp and slim, Calling me -- calling me over the heather, 'Neath the beech boughs dusk and dim.

I have followed a lady this night, Followed her far and lone, Fox and adder and weasel know The ways that we have gone.

I sit at my supper 'mid honest faces, And crumble my crust and say Naught in the long-drawn drawl of the voices Talking the hours away.

I'll go to my chamber under the gable, And the moon will lift her light In at my lattice from over the moorland Hollow and still and bright.

And I know she will shine on a lady of witchcraft, Gladness and grief to see, Who has taken my heart with her nimble fingers, Calls in my dreams to me;

Who has led me a dance by dell and dingle My human soul to win, Made me a changeling to my own, own mother, A stranger to my kin.

THE HONEY ROBBERS

There were two Fairies, Gimmul and Mel, Loved Earth Man's honey pa.s.sing well; Oft at the hives of his tame bees They would their sugary thirst appease.

When dusk began to darken to night, They would hie along in the fading light, With elf-locked hair and scarlet lips, And small stone knives to slit the skeps, So softly not a bee inside Should hear the woven straw divide: And then with sly and greedy thumbs Would rifle the sweet honeycombs.

And drowsily drone to drone would say, 'A cold, cold wind blows in this way'; And the great Queen would turn her head From face to face, astonished, And, though her maids with comb and brush Would comb and soothe and whisper, 'Hush!'

About the hive would shrilly go A keening -- keening, to and fro; At which those robbers 'neath the trees Would taunt and mock the honey-bees, And through their sticky teeth would buzz Just as an angry hornet does.

And when this Gimmul and this Mel Had munched and sucked and swilled their fill, Or ever Man's first c.o.c.k could crow Back to their Faerie Mounds they'd go; Edging across the twilight air, Thieves of a guise remotely fair.

LONGLEGS

Longlegs -- he yelled 'Coo-ee!'

And all across the combe Shrill and shrill it rang -- rang through The clear green gloom.

Fairies there were a-spinning, And a white tree-maid Lifted her eyes, and listened In her rain-sweet glade.

Bunnie to bunnie stamped; old Wat Chin-deep in bracken sate; A throstle piped, 'I'm by, I'm by!'

Clear to his timid mate.

And there was Longlegs, straddling, And hearkening was he, To distant Echo thrilling back A thin 'Coo-ee!'

MELMILLO

Three and thirty birds there stood In an elder in a wood; Called Melmillo -- flew off three, Leaving thirty in the tree; Called Melmillo -- nine now gone, And the boughs held twenty-one; Called Melmillo -- and eighteen Left but three to nod and preen; Called Melmillo -- three -- two -- one Now of birds were feathers none.

Then stole Melmillo in To that wood all dusk and green, And with lean long palms outspread Softly a strange dance did tread; Not a note of music she Had for echoing company; All the birds were flown to rest In the hollow of her breast; In the wood -- thorn, elder, willow -- Danced alone -- lone danced Melmillo.

EARTH AND AIR

TREES

Of all the trees in England, Her sweet three corners in, Only the Ash, the bonnie Ash Burns fierce while it is green.

Of all the trees in England, From sea to sea again, The Willow loveliest stoops her boughs Beneath the driving rain.

Of all the trees in England, Past frankincense and myrrh, There's none for smell, of bloom and smoke, Like Lime and Juniper.

Of all the trees in England, Oak, Elder, Elm and Thorn, The Yew alone burns lamps of peace For them that lie forlorn.

SILVER

Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon: This way, and that, she peers and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the cas.e.m.e.nts catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his kennel, like a log, With paws of silver sleeps the dog From their shadowy cote the white b.r.e.a.s.t.s peep Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep; A harvest mouse goes scampering by, With silver claws and silver eye; And moveless fish in the water gleam By silver reeds in a silver stream.

n.o.bODY KNOWS

Often I've heard the Wind sigh By the ivied orchard wall, Over the leaves in the dark night, Breathe a sighing call, And faint away in the silence While I, in my bed, Wondered, 'twixt dreaming and waking, What it said.

n.o.body knows what the Wind is, Under the height of the sky, Where the hosts of the stars keep far away house And its wave sweeps by -- Just a great wave of the air, Tossing the leaves in its sea, And foaming under the eaves of the roof That covers me.

And so we live under deep water, All of us, beasts and men, And our bodies are buried down under the sand, When we go again; And leave, like the fishes, our sh.e.l.ls, And float on the Wind and away, To where, o'er the marvellous tides of the air, Burns day.