THE FILES (1903) (The Sub-Editor speaks) F ILES The Files Office Files! Oblige me by referring to the files. Every question man can raise, Every phrase of every phase Of that question is on record in the files(Threshed out threadbare-fought and finished in the files. Ere the Universe at large Was our new-tipped arrows' targe— Ere we rediscovered Mammon and his wiles Faenza, gentle reader, spent her-five-and-twentieth leader (You will find him, and some others, in the files). It will interest them to hunt among the files, Lie the crowded years of old In that Kensal-Green of greatness called the files (In our newspaPere-la-Chaise the office files), Where the dead men lay them down Meekly sure of long renown, THE FILES And above them, sere and swift, When Reform and you were young Made their boasts and spake according in the files (Hear the ghosts that wake applauding in the files!) Trace each all-forgot career From long primer through brevier Unto Death, a para minion in the files (Para minion-solid-bottom of the files). Some successful Kings and Queens adorn the files, They were great, their views were leaded, And their deaths were triple-headed, So they catch the eye in running through the files (Show as blazes in the mazes of the files); For their 'paramours and priests,' And their gross, jack-booted feasts, And their epoch-marking actions see the files. Was it Bomba fled the blue Sicilian isles? Was it Saffi, a professor Once of Oxford, brought redress or Garibaldi? Who remembers Forty-odd-year old Septembers?— Only sextons paid to dig among the files You must hack through much deposit Ere you know for sure who was it Came to burial with such honour in the files (Only seven seasons back beneath the files). 'Very great our loss and grievous— So our best and brightest leave us, (The open-minded, opportunist files- It is good to read a little in the files; 'Tis a sure and sovereign balm Unto philosophic calm, Yea, and philosophic doubt when Life beguiles. When you marvel at your lateness In apprehending facts so plain to Smiles Bids you set the Thames afire, You'll remember men have done so-in the files. Of the reboantic Norns Usher gentlemen and ladies With new lights on Heaven and Hades, Guaranteeing to Eternity All yesterday's modernity; When Brocken-spectres made by Very earnest and tremendous, Light your pipe and take a look along the files! THE FILES You've a better chance to guess (Which is Greatness-vide press) When you've seen it in perspective in the files. THE REFORMERS (1901) OT in the camp his victory lies Or triumph in the market-place, To turn the judgment from his race. Happy is he who, bred and taught Sees, on the threshold of his days, And to unheralded dismays Submits his body and his soul; The fatted shows wherein he stood That he may prove with his own blood Ultimate issues, primal springs, Demands, abasements, penalties— The imperishable plinth of things Seen and unseen, that touch our peace. |