God speed the Mary of the Tower, the Sovereign, and Grace Dieu,

The Sweepstakes and the Mary Fortune, and the Henry of Bristol too!

All tall ships that sail on the sea, or in our harbours stand, That they may keep measure with Harry our King and peace in Engeland!

THE WET LITANY

WHEN the water's countenance

Blurrs 'twixt glance and second glance;

Then our tattered smokes forerun

Ashen 'neath a silvered sun;

When the curtain of the haze

Shuts upon our helpless ways

Hear the Channel Fleet at sea:
Libera nos Domine!

When the engines' bated pulse
Scarcely thrills the nosing hulls;
When the wash along the side
Sounds, a-sudden, magnified;
When the intolerable blast

Marks each blindfold minute passed;

When the fog-buoy's squattering flight
Guides us through the haggard night;
When the warning bugle blows;
When the lettered doorways close;
When our brittle townships press,

Impotent, on emptiness;

When the unseen leadsmen lean
Questioning a deep unseen;

When their lessened count they tell
To a bridge invisible;

When the hid and perilous

Cliffs return our cry to us;

When the treble thickness spread
Swallows up our next-ahead;
When her siren's frightened whine
Shows her sheering out of line;
When her passage undiscerned—
We must turn where she has turned,
Hear the Channel Fleet at sea:
Libera nos Domine!

THE BALLAD OF MINEPIT SHAW

ABOUT the time that taverns shut
And men can buy no beer,

Two lads went up to the keepers' hut
To steal Lord Pelham's deer.

Night and the liquor was in their headsThey laughed and talked no bounds, Till they waked the keepers on their beds And the keepers loosed the hounds.

They had killed a hart, they had killed a hind, Ready to carry away,

When they heard a whimper down the wind And they heard a bloodhound bay.

They took and ran across the fern,
Their crossbows in their hand,
Till they met a man with a green lantern
That called and bade 'em stand.

"What are ye doing, O Flesh and Blood,
And what's your foolish will,

That you must break into Minepit Wood
And wake the Folk of the Hill?"

"Oh, we've broke into Lord Pelham's park, And killed Lord Pelham's deer,

And if ever you heard a little dog bark
You'll know why we come here.

"We ask you let us go our way,
As fast as we can flee,

For if ever you heard a bloodhound bay
You'll know how pressed we be."

"Oh, lay your crossbows on the bank
And drop the knife from your hand,
And though the hounds are at your flank
I'll save you where you stand!"

They laid their crossbows on the bank,
They threw their knives in the wood,
And the ground before them opened and sank
And saved 'em where they stood.

"Oh, what's the roaring in our ears That strikes us well-nigh dumb?" "Oh, that is just how things appears According as they come.'

"What are the stars before our eyes
That strike us well-nigh blind?"
"Oh, that is just how things arise
According as you find."

"And why's our bed so hard to the bones
Excepting where it's cold?"
"Oh, that's because it is precious stones
Excepting where 'tis gold.

"Think it over as you stand,
For I tell you without fail,
If you haven't got into Fairyland
You're not in Lewes Gaol."

All night long they thought of it,
And, come the dawn, they saw
They'd tumbled into a great old pit,
At the bottom of Minepit Shaw.

And the keeper's hound had followed 'em close,

And broke her neck in the fall;

So they picked up their knives and their crossbows
And buried the dog. That's all.

But whether the man was a poacher too
Or a Pharisee1 so bold-

I reckon there's more things told than are true,
And more things true than are told!

HERIOT'S FORD

WHAT'S that that hirples at my side?"

The foe that you must fight, my lord.

"That rides as fast as I can ride?" The shadow of your might, my lord.

'A fairy.

"Then wheel my horse against the foe!"
He's down and overpast, my lord.
You war against the sunset-glow,
The judgment follows fast, my lord!

"Oh who will stay the sun's descent?"
King Joshua he is dead, my lord.
"I need an hour to repent!"
'Tis what our sister said, my lord.

"Oh do not slay me in my sins!"
You're safe awhile with us, my lord.
“Nay, kill me ere my fear begins!"
We would not serve you thus, my lord.

"Where is the doom that I must face?"
Three little leagues away, my lord.
"Then mend the horses' laggard pace!"
We need them for next day, my lord.

"Next day-next day! Unloose my cords!" Our sister needed none, my lord.

You had no mind to face our swords,
And-where can cowards run, my lord?

"You would not kill the soul alive?”
'Twas thus our sister cried, my lord.
"I dare not die with none to shrive."
But so our sister died, my lord.

"Then wipe the sweat from brow and cheek."

It runnels forth afresh, my lord.

"Uphold me-for the flesh is weak."

You've finished with the Flesh, my lord!