THE DYKES

Coming, like stallions they paw with their hooves, going they snatch with their teeth,

Till the bents and the furze and the sand are dragged out, and the old-time wattles beneath!

Bid men gather fuel for fire, the tar and the oil and the tow

Flame we shall need, not smoke, in the dark if the riddled seabanks go.

Bid the ringers watch in the tower (who knows what the dawn shall prove?)

Each with his rope between his feet and the trembling bells above.

Now we can only wait till the day, wait and apportion our shame.

These are the dykes our fathers left, but we would not look to the same.

Time and again were we warned of the dykes, time and again we delayed:

Now, it may fall, we have slain our sons as our fathers we have betrayed.

Walking along the wreck of the dykes, watching the work of the seas,

These were the dykes our fathers made to our great profit and ease;

But the peace is gone and the profit is gone, and the old sure day withdrawn

That our own houses show as strange when we come back in the dawn!

THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ

T

(1902)

HE God of Fair Beginnings

Hath prospered here my handThe cargoes of my lading,

And the keels of my command.

For out of many ventures

That sailed with hope as high,
My own have made the better trade,
And Admiral am I!

To me my King's much honour,
To me my people's love-
To me the pride of Princes
And power all pride above;

To me the shouting cities,

To me the mob's refrain:'Who knows not noble Valdez, Hath never heard of Spain.'

But I remember comrades

Old playmates on new seasWhenas we traded orpiment Among the savages

THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ A thousand leagues to south'ard And thirty years removedThey knew not noble Valdez, But me they knew and loved.

Then they that found good liquor,
They drank it not alone,
And they that found fair plunder,

They told us every one,
About our chosen islands

Or secret shoals between, When, walty from far voyage, We gathered to careen.

There burned our breaming-fagots
All pale along the shore:
There rose our worn pavilions-
A sail above an oar:
As flashed each yearning anchor
Through mellow seas afire,
So swift our careless captains
Rowed each to his desire.

Where lay our loosened harness?
Where turned our naked feet?
Whose tavern 'mid the palm-trees?
What quenchings of what heat?

Oh fountain in the desert!

Oh cistern in the waste!

Oh bread we ate in secret!
Oh cup we spilled in haste!

The youth new-taught of longing,
The widow curbed and wan—
The goodwife proud at season,
And the maid aware of man;
All souls unslaked, consuming,
Defrauded in delays,

Desire not more their quittance
Than I those forfeit days!

I dreamed to wait my pleasure
Unchanged my spring would bide:
Wherefore, to wait my pleasure,
I put my spring aside
Till, first in face of Fortune,

And last in mazed disdain,

I made Diego Valdez

High Admiral of Spain.

Then walked no wind 'neath Heaven Nor surge that did not aid

I dared extreme occasion,

Nor ever one betrayed.

They wrought a deeper treason— (Led seas that served my needs!)

They sold Diego Valdez

To bondage of great deeds.

The tempest flung me seaward,
And pinned and bade me hold
The course I might not alter—
And men esteemed me bold!

THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ

The calms embayed my quarry,
The fog-wreath sealed his eyes;
The dawn-wind brought my topsails-
And men esteemed me wise!

Yet 'spite my tyrant triumphs
Bewildered, dispossessed-
My dream held I before me-
My vision of my rest;

But, crowned by Fleet and People,
And bound by King and Pope-
Stands here Diego Valdez

To rob me of my hope!

No prayer of mine shall move him,
No word of his set free

The Lord of Sixty Pennants
And the Steward of the Sea.
His will can loose ten thousand
To seek their loves again-

But not Diego Valdez,

High Admiral of Spain.

There walks no wind 'neath Heaven

Nor wave that shall restore

The old careening riot

And the clamorous, crowded shore

The fountain in the desert,

The cistern in the waste,

The bread we ate in secret,
The cup we spilled in haste!