Georgian Poetry 1911-12.
by Various.
Editor: Sir Edward Marsh.
PREFATORY NOTE
This volume is issued in the belief that English poetry is now once again putting on a new strength and beauty.
Few readers have the leisure or the zeal to investigate each volume as it appears; and the process of recognition is often slow. This collection, drawn entirely from the publications of the past two years, may if it is fortunate help the lovers of poetry to realize that we are at the beginning of another "Georgian period" which may take rank in due time with the several great poetic ages of the past.
It has no pretension to cover the field. Every reader will notice the absence of poets whose work would be a necessary ornament of any anthology not limited by a definite aim. Two years ago some of the writers represented had published nothing; and only a very few of the others were known except to the eagerest "watchers of the skies." Those few are here because within the chosen period their work seemed to have gained some accession of power.
My grateful thanks are due to the writers who have lent me their poems, and to the publishers (Messrs Elkin Mathews, Sidgwick and Jackson, Methuen, Fifield, Constable, Nutt, Dent, Duckworth, Longmans, and Maunsel, and the Editors of "Basileon", "Rhythm", and the "English Review") under whose imprint they have appeared.
E.M.
Oct. 1912.
"Of all materials for labour, dreams are the hardest; and the artificer in ideas is the chief of workers, who out of nothing will make a piece of work that may stop a child from crying or lead nations to higher things. For what is it to be a poet? It is to see at a glance the glory of the world, to see beauty in all its forms and manifestations, to feel ugliness like a pain, to resent the wrongs of others as bitterly as one"s own, to know mankind as others know single men, to know Nature as botanists know a flower, to be thought a fool, to hear at moments the clear voice of G.o.d."
DUNSANY
LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE
THE SALE OF SAINT THOMAS
[A quay with vessels moored]
Thomas:
To India! Yea, here I may take ship; From here the courses go over the seas, Along which the intent prows wonderfully Nose like lean hounds, and track their journeys out, Making for harbours as some sleuth was laid For them to follow on their shifting road.
Again I front my appointed ministry.-- But why the Indian lot to me? Why mine Such fearful gospelling? For the Lord knew What a frail soul He gave me, and a heart Lame and unlikely for the large events.-- And this is worse than Baghdad! though that was A fearful brink of travel. But if the lots, That gave to me the Indian duty, were Shuffled by the unseen skill of Heaven, surely That fear of mine in Baghdad was the same Marvellous Hand working again, to guard The landward gate of India from me. There I stood, waiting in the weak early dawn To start my journey; the great caravan"s Strange cattle with their snoring breaths made steam Upon the air, and (as I thought) sadly The beasts at market-booths and awnings gay Of shops, the city"s comfortable trade, Lookt, and then into months of plodding lookt.
And swiftly on my brain there came a wind Of vision; and I saw the road mapt out Along the desert with a chalk of bones; I saw a famine and the Afghan greed Waiting for us, spears at our throats, all we Made women by our hunger; and I saw Gigantic thirst grieving our mouths with dust, Scattering up against our breathing salt Of blown dried dung, till the taste eat like fires Of a wild vinegar into our sheathed marrows; And a sudden decay thicken"d all our bloods As rotten leaves in fall will baulk a stream; Then my kill"d life the muncht food of jackals.-- The wind of vision died in my brain; and lo, The jangling of the caravan"s long gait Was small as the luting of a breeze in gra.s.s Upon my ears. Into the waiting thirst Camels and merchants all were gone, while I Had been in my amazement. Was this not A sign? G.o.d with a vision tript me, lest Those tall fiends that ken for my approach In middle Asia, Thirst and his grisly band Of plagues, should with their brigand fingers stop His message in my mouth. Therefore I said, If India is the place where I must preach, I am to go by ship, not overland.
And here my ship is berthed. But worse, far worse Than Baghdad, is this roadstead, the brown sails, All the enginery of going on sea, The tackle and the rigging, tholes and sweeps, The prows built to put by the waves, the masts Stayed for a hurricane; and lo, that line Of gilded water there! the sun has drawn In a long narrow band of shining oil His light over the sea; how evilly move Ripples along that golden skin!--the gleam Works like a muscular thing! like the half-gorged Sleepy swallowing of a serpent"s neck.
The sea lives, surely! My eyes swear to it; And, like a murderous smile that glimpses through A villain"s courtesy, that twitching dazzle Parts the kind mood of weather to bewray The feasted waters of the sea, stretched out In lazy gluttony, expecting prey.
How fearful is this trade of sailing! Worse Than all land-evils is the water-way Before me now.--What, cowardice? Nay, why Trouble myself with ugly words? "Tis prudence, And prudence is an admirable thing.
Yet here"s much cost--these packages piled up, Ivory doubtless, emeralds, gums, and silks, All these they trust on shipboard? Ah, but I, I who have seen G.o.d, I to put myself Amid the heathen outrage of the sea In a deal-wood box! It were plain folly.
There is naught more precious in the world than I: I carry G.o.d in me, to give to men.
And when has the sea been friendly unto man?
Let it but guess my errand, it will call The dangers of the air to wreak upon me, Winds to juggle the puny boat and pinch The water into unbelievable creases.
And shall my soul, and G.o.d in my soul, drown?
Or venture drowning?--But no, no; I am safe.
Smooth as believing souls over their deaths And over agonies shall slide henceforth To G.o.d, so shall my way be blest amid The quiet crouching terrors of the sea, Like panthers when a fire weakens their hearts; Ay, this huge sin of nature, the salt sea, Shall be afraid of me, and of the mind Within me, that with gesture, speech and eyes Of the Messiah flames. What element Dare snarl against my going, what incubus dare Remember to be fiendish, when I light My whole being with memory of Him?
The malice of the sea will slink from me, And the air be harmless as a muzzled wolf; For I am a torch, and the flame of me is G.o.d.
A Ship"s Captain:
You are my man, my pa.s.senger?
Thomas: I am.
I go to India with you.
Captain: Well, I hope so.
There"s threatening in the weather. Have you a mind To hug your belly to the slanted deck, Like a louse on a whip-top, when the boat Spins on an axle in the hissing gales?
Thomas:
Fear not. "Tis likely indeed that storms are now Plotting against our voyage; ay, no doubt The very bottom of the sea prepares To stand up mountainous or reach a limb Out of his night of water and huge shingles, That he and the waves may break our keel. Fear not; Like those who manage horses, I"ve a word Will fasten up within their evil natures The meanings of the winds and waves and reefs.
Captain:
You have a talisman? I have one too; I know not if the storms think much of it.
I may be shark"s meat yet. And would your spell Be daunting to a cuttle, think you now?
We had a bout with one on our way here; It had green lidless eyes like lanterns, arms As many as the branches of a tree, But limber, and each one of them wise as a snake.
It laid hold of our bulwarks, and with three Long knowing arms, slimy, and of a flesh So tough they"ld fool a hatchet, searcht the ship, And stole out of the midst of us all a man; Yes, and he the proudest man upon the seas For the rare powerful talisman he"d got.
And would yours have done better?
Thomas: I am one Not easily frightened. I"m for India.
You will not put me from my way with talk.
Captain:
My heart, I never thought of frightening you.-- Well, here"s both tide and wind, and we may not start.
Thomas:
Not start? I pray you, do.
Captain: It"s no use praying; I dare not. I"ve not half my cargo yet.