In a voice that she will know: Children's voices should be dear This way, "Mother dear, we cannot stay! The wild white horses foam and fret." Come, dear children, come away down; One last look at the white-wall'd town, And the little grey church on the windy shore, She will not come though you call all day; Children dear, was it yesterday We heard the sweet bells over the bay? Through the surf and through the swell, Where the spent lights quiver and gleam, Dry their mail and bask in the brine; Children dear, was it yesterday Once she sate with you and me, On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea, And the youngest sate on her knee. She comb'd its bright hair, and she tended it well, When down swung the sound of a far-off bell. She sigh'd, she look'd up through the clear green sea; In the little grey church on the shore to-day. Children dear, were we long alone? "The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan; Long prayers," I said, "in the world they say; Come!" I said; and we rose through the surf in the bay. We went up the beach, by the sandy down Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-wall'd town; Through the narrow paved streets where all was still, To the little grey church on the windy hill. From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers, We climb'd on the graves, on the stones worn with rains, For her eyes were seal'd to the holy book! Down, down, down! Down to the depths of the sea! She sits at her wheel in the humming town, Singing most joyfully, Hark what she sings: "O joy, O joy, For the humming street, and the child with its toy! For the priest, and the bell, and the holy well; For the wheel where I spun, And the blessed light of the sun!" And so she sings her fill, Singing most joyfully, Till the spindle drops from her hand, And the whizzing wheel stands still. She steals to the window, and looks at the sand, And over the sand at the sea; And her eyes are set in a stare; From a sorrow-clouded eye, And a heart sorrow-laden, A long, long sigh; For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden And the gleam of her golden hair. Come away, away children; She will start from her slumber A pavement of pearl. Singing: "Here came a mortal, But faithless was she! And alone dwell for ever The kings of the sea." But, children, at midnight, Up the creeks we will hie, We will gaze, from the sand-hills, Singing: "There dwells a loved one, She left lonely for ever The kings of the sea." - Matthew Arnold THE HOUND OF HEAVEN I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me." |