Pax Paganica

Good oars, for Arnold’s sake, By Laleham lightly bound, And near the bank, O soft, Darling swan! Let not the o’erweary wake Anew from natal ground, But where he slumbered oft, Slumber on. Be less than boat or bird, The pensive stream along; No murmur make, nor gleam, At his side. Where was it he had heard Of warfare and of wrong?— Not there, in any dream Since he died.

Collection: 

More from Poet

  • I hear in my heart, I hear in its ominous pulses, All day, the commotion of sinewy, mane-tossing horses; All night, from their cells, the importunate tramping and neighing. Cowards and laggards fall back; but alert to the saddle, Straight, grim, and abreast, vault our weather-worn, galloping...

  • The Gusty morns are here, When all the reeds ride low with level spear; And on such nights as lured us far of yore, Down rocky alleys yet, and thro’ the pine, The Hound-star and the pagan Hunter shine: But I and thou, ah, field-fellow of mine, Together roam no more. Soft showers go laden now...

  • The Ox he openeth wide the Doore And from the Snowe he calls her inne, And he hath seen her smile therefore, Our Ladye without Sinne. Now soone from Sleepe A Starre shall leap, And soone arrive both King and Hinde; Amen, Amen: But oh, the place co’d I but finde! The Ox...

  • High above hate I dwell: O storms! farewell. Though at my sill your daggered thunders play, Lawless and loud to-morrow as to-day, To me they sound more small Than a young fay’s footfall: Soft and far-sunken, forty fathoms low In Long Ago, And winnowed into silence on that wind Which takes wars...

  • I would unto my fair restore A simple thing: The flushing cheek she had before! Out-velveting No more, no more, By Severn shore, The carmine grape, the moth’s auroral wing. Ah, say how winds in flooding grass Unmoor the rose; Or guileful ways the salmon pass To sea, disclose; For so, alas, With...