Β' DEDICATION (1903) EFORE a midnight breaks in storm, Ye know what wavering gusts inform Till the loosed wind Drive all from mind, Except Distress, which, so will prophets cry, O'ercame them, houseless, from the unhinting sky. Ere rivers league against the land In piratry of flood, Ye know what waters slip and stand Where seldom water stood. Yet who will note, Till fields afloat, And washen carcass and the returning well, Ye know who use the Crystal Ball Then doth It pass Like breath from glass, But, on the extorted vision bowed intent, No man considers why It came or went. Before the years reborn behold The all-pregnant sphere, Bow to the birth and sweat, but-speech denied― Sit dumb or dealt in part-fall weak and wide. Yet instant to fore-shadowed need The eternal balance swings; That winged men the Fates may breed Our littleness, And in the imperial task (as worthy) lay W THE SEA AND THE HILLS (1901-1902) HO hath desired the Sea?-the sight of salt water unbounded The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded? The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, gray, foamless, enormous, and growing Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing His Sea in no showing the same-his Sea and the same 'neath each showing His Sea as she slackens or thrills? So and no otherwise-so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills! Who hath desired the Sea?-the immense and contemptuous surges? The shudder, the stumble, the swerve, as the starstabbing bowsprit emerges? The orderly clouds of the Trades, and the ridged, roaring sapphire thereunder Unheralded cliff-haunting flaws and the headsails' lowvolleying thunder His Sea in no wonder the same-his Sea and the same through each wonder: His Sea as she rages or stills? So and no otherwise-so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills. Who hath desired the Sea? Her menaces swift as her mercies? The in-rolling walls of the fog and the silver-winged breeze that disperses? The unstable mined berg going South and the calvings and groans that declare it; White water half-guessed overside and the moon breaking timely to bare it; His Sea as his fathers have dared-his Sea as his children shall dare it His Sea as she serves him or kills? So and no otherwise-so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills. Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather Than forecourts of kings, and her outermost pits than the streets where men gather Inland, among dust, under trees-inland where the slayer may slay him; Inland, out of reach of her arms, and the bosom whereon he must lay him His Sea at the first that betrayed-at the last that shall never betray him His Sea that his being fulfils? So and no otherwise-so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills. T THE BELL BUOY (1896) HEY christened my brother of old- At the head of the belfry-stairs, Where the minster-towers stand And the breeding kestrels cry. Would I change with my brother a league inland? ('Shoal! 'Ware shoal!') Not I! In the flush of the hot June prime, I hear him hurry the chime To the bidding of checked Desire, Till the sweated ringers tire And the wild bob-majors die. Could I wait for my turn in the godly choir? ('Shoal! 'Ware shoal!') Not I! When the smoking scud is blown, When the greasy wind-rack lowers, Apart and at peace and alone, |