Poems by Adam Lindsay Gordon Part 18

De Te

A burning gla.s.s of burnished bra.s.s, The calm sea caught the noontide rays, And sunny slopes of golden gra.s.s And wastes of weed-flower seem to blaze.

Beyond the shining silver-greys, Beyond the shades of denser bloom, The sky-line girt with glowing haze The farthest, faintest forest gloom, And the everlasting hills that loom.

We heard the hound beneath the mound, We scared the swamp hawk hovering nigh-- We had not sought for that we found-- He lay as dead men only lie, With wan cheek whitening in the sky, Through the wild heath flowers, white and red, The dumb brute that had seen him die, Close crouching, howl'd beside the head, Brute burial service o'er the dead.

The brow was rife with seams of strife-- A lawless death made doubly plain The ravage of a reckless life; The havoc of a hurricane Of pa.s.sions through that breadth of brain, Like headlong horses that had run Riot, regardless of the rein-- "Madman, he might have lived and done Better than most men," whispered one.

The beams and blots that Heaven allots To every life with life begin.

Fool! would you change the leopard's spots, Or blanch the Ethiopian's skin?

What more could he have hoped to win, What better things have thought to gain, So shapen--so conceived in sin?

No life is wholly void and vain, Just and unjust share sun and rain.

Were new life sent, and life misspent, Wiped out (if such to G.o.d seemed good), Would he (being as he was) repent, Or could he, even if he would, Who heeded not things understood (Though dimly) even in savage lands By some who worship stone or wood, Or bird or beast, or who stretch hands Sunward on shining Eastern sands?

And crime has cause. Nay, never pause Idly to feel a pulseless wrist; Brace up the ma.s.sive, square-shaped jaws, Unclench the stubborn, stiff'ning fist, And close those eyes through film and mist That kept the old defiant glare; And answer, wise Psychologist, Whose science claims some little share Of truth, what better things lay there?

Aye! thought and mind were there,--some kind Of faculty that men mistake For talent when their wits are blind,-- An apt.i.tude to mar and break What others diligently make.

This was the worst and best of him-- Wise with the cunning of the snake, Brave with the she wolf's courage grim, Dying hard and dumb, torn limb from limb.

And you, Brown, you're a doctor; cure You can't, but you can kill, and he-- "WITNESS HIS MARK"--he signed last year, And now he signs John Smith, J.P.

We'll hold our inquest NOW, we three; I'll be your coroner for once; I think old Oswald ought to be Our foreman--Jones is such a dunce,-- There's more brain in the bloodhound's sconce.

No man may shirk the allotted work, The deed to do, the death to die; At least I think so,--neither Turk, Nor Jew, nor infidel am I,-- And yet I wonder when I try To solve one question, may or must, And shall I solve it by-and-by, Beyond the dark, beneath the dust?

I trust so, and I only trust.

Aye, what they will, such trifles kill.

Comrade, for one good deed of yours, Your history shall not help to fill The mouths of many brainless boors.

It may be death absolves or cures The sin of life. 'Twere hazardous To a.s.sert so. If the sin endures, Say only, "G.o.d, who has judged him thus, Be merciful to him and us."

How we Beat the Favourite

A Lay of the Loamshire Hunt Cup

"Aye, squire," said Stevens, "they back him at evens; The race is all over, bar shouting, they say; The Clown ought to beat her; d.i.c.k Neville is sweeter Than ever--he swears he can win all the way.

"A gentleman rider--well, I'm an outsider, But if he's a gent who the mischief's a jock?

You swells mostly blunder, d.i.c.k rides for the plunder, He rides, too, like thunder--he sits like a rock.

"He calls 'hunted fairly' a horse that has barely Been stripp'd for a trot within sight of the hounds, A horse that at Warwick beat Birdlime and Yorick, And gave Abdelkader at Aintree nine pounds.

"They say we have no test to warrant a protest; d.i.c.k rides for a lord and stands in with a steward; The light of their faces they show him--his case is Prejudged and his verdict already secured.

"But none can outlast her, and few travel faster, She strides in her work clean away from The Drag; You hold her and sit her, she couldn't be fitter, Whenever you hit her she'll spring like a stag.

"And p'rhaps the green jacket, at odds though they back it, May fall, or there's no knowing what may turn up; The mare is quite ready, sit still and ride steady, Keep cool; and I think you may just win the Cup."

Dark-brown with tan muzzle, just stripped for the tussle, Stood Iseult, arching her neck to the curb, A lean head and fiery, strong quarters and wiry, A loin rather light, but a shoulder superb.

Some parting injunction, bestowed with great unction, I tried to recall, but forgot like a dunce, When Reginald Murray, full tilt on White Surrey, Came down in a hurry to start us at once.

"Keep back in the yellow! Come up on Oth.e.l.lo!

Hold hard on the chestnut! Turn round on The Drag!

Keep back there on Spartan! Back you, sir, in tartan!

So, steady there, easy!" and down went the flag.

We started, and Kerr made strong running on Mermaid, Through furrows that led to the first stake-and-bound, The crack, half extended, look'd bloodlike and splendid, Held wide on the right where the headland was sound.

I pulled hard to baffle her rush with the snaffle, Before her two-thirds of the field got away, All through the wet pasture where floods of the last year Still loitered, they clotted my crimson with clay.

The fourth fence, a wattle, floor'd Monk and Bluebottle; The Drag came to grief at the blackthorn and ditch, The rails toppled over Redoubt and Red Rover, The lane stopped Lycurgus and Leicestershire Witch.

She pa.s.sed like an arrow Kildare and c.o.c.k Sparrow, And Mantrap and Mermaid refused the stone wall; And Giles on The Greyling came down at the paling, And I was left sailing in front of them all.

I took them a burster, nor eased her nor nursed her Until the Black Bullfinch led into the plough, And through the strong bramble we bored with a scramble-- My cap was knock'd off by the hazel-tree bough.

Where furrows looked lighter I drew the rein tighter-- Her dark chest all dappled with flakes of white foam, Her flanks mud-bespattered, a weak rail she shattered-- We landed on turf with our heads turn'd for home.

Then crash'd a low binder, and then close behind her The sward to the strokes of the favourite shook; His rush roused her mettle, yet ever so little She shortened her stride as we raced at the brook.

She rose when I hit her. I saw the stream glitter, A wide scarlet nostril flashed close to my knee, Between sky and water The Clown came and caught her, The s.p.a.ce that he cleared was a caution to see.

And forcing the running, discarding all cunning, A length to the front went the rider in green; A long strip of stubble, and then the big double, Two stiff flights of rails with a quickset between.

She raced at the rasper, I felt my knees grasp her, I found my hands give to her strain on the bit; She rose when The Clown did--our silks as we bounded Brush'd lightly, our stirrups clash'd loud as we lit.

A rise steeply sloping, a fence with stone coping-- The last--we diverged round the base of the hill; His path was the nearer, his leap was the clearer, I flogg'd up the straight, and he led sitting still.

She came to his quarter, and on still I brought her, And up to his girth, to his breastplate she drew; A short prayer from Neville just reach'd me, "The devil!"

He mutter'd--lock'd level the hurdles we flew.

A hum of hoa.r.s.e cheering, a dense crowd careering, All sights seen obscurely, all shouts vaguely heard; "The green wins!" "The crimson!" The mult.i.tude swims on, And figures are blended and features are blurr'd.

"The horse is her master!" "The green forges past her!"

"The Clown will outlast her!" "The Clown wins!" "The Clown!"

The white railing races with all the white faces, The chestnut outpaces, outstretches the brown.

On still past the gateway she strains in the straightway, Still struggles, "The Clown by a short neck at most,"

He swerves, the green scourges, the stand rocks and surges, And flashes, and verges, and flits the white post.