30

THE BALLAD OF THE BOAT

The moon is high up in the sky, and now no more we see The spreading river's either bank, and surging distantly There booms a sudden thunder as of breakers far away. Now shall the sandy bar be crossed, now shall we find the bay!

The seagull shrieks high overhead, and dimly to our sight The moonlit crests of foaming waves gleam towering through the night.

We'll steal upon the mermaid soon, and start her from her lay,

When once the sandy bar is crossed, and we are in the bay.

What rises white and awful as a shroud-enfolded ghost? What roar of rampant tumult bursts in clangor on the coast?

Pull back! pull back! The raging flood sweeps every

oar away.

O stream, is this thy bar of sand? O boat is this thy bay? RICHARD GARNETT.

THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM

T was a summer's evening,

IT

Old Kasper's work was done,
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun;

And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.

She saw her brother Peterkin
Roll something large and round,
Which he, beside the rivulet,

In playing there had found.

He came to ask what he had found.
That was so large, and smooth, and round.

Old Kasper took it from the boy,

Who stood expectant by;

And then the old man shook his head,

And, with a natural sigh,

""Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,

"Who fell in the great victory!

"I find them in the garden,

For there's many here about;

And often when I go to plow,

The plowshare turns them out; For many thousand men," said he, "Were slain in that great victory!"

32

THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM

"Now, tell us what 'twas all about,"

Young Peterkin he cries;
And little Wilhelmine looks up

With wonder-waiting eyes;

Now tell us all about the war,
And what they killed each other for."

"It was the English," Kasper cried,
"Who put the French to rout;
But what they killed each other for
I could not well make out.
But everybody said," quoth he,
"That 'twas a famous victory!

"My father lived at Blenheim then,

Yon little stream near-by:

They burned his dwelling to the ground,
And he was forced to fly;

So with his wife and child he fled,

Nor had he where to rest his head.

"With fire and sword the country round

Was wasted far and wide;

And many a childing mother then

And new-born baby died.

But things like that, you know, must be

At every famous victory.

"They say it was a shocking sight

After the field was won;

For many thousand bodies here

Lay rotting in the sun.

THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM

But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.

"Great praise the Duke of Marlborough won,

And our good Prince Eugene.""Why, 'twas a very wicked thing!"

Said little Wilhelmine.

'Nay, nay, my little girl," quoth he,

"It was a famous victory!

"And everybody praised the Duke Who this great fight did win."

"But what good came of it at last?"

Quoth little Peterkin.

Why, that I cannot tell," said he,

"But 'twas a famous victory!"

ROBERT SOUTHEY

33

THE DAY IS DONE

THE day is done and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,

As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in its flight.

I see the lights of the village

Gleam through the rain and the mist, And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,

And resembles sorrow only

As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,

That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.