THE SONG OF VALLEY FORGE They will not stir when the drifts are gone And the men that served with Washington They will not stir though the mayflower blows Each for his land, in a fair fight, She is too busy to think of war; She has all the world to make gay, Golden-rod by the pasture wall And sumach leaves that turn, in fall, P PROPHETS AT HOME ROPHETS have honour all over the Earth, Except in the village where they were born; Where such as knew them boys from birth, Nature-ally hold 'em in scorn. When Prophets are naughty and young and vain, (You can see by their writings how they complain), But O, 'tis won'erful good for the Prophet! There's nothing Nineveh Town can give (Nor being swallowed by whales between), Makes up for the place where a man's folk live, Which don't care nothing what he has been. He might ha' been that, or he might ha' been this, But they love and they hate him for what he is. THE DUTCH IN THE MEDWAY F war were won by feasting, IF Or victory by song, Or safety found in sleeping sound, But honour and dominion Are not maintained so, They're only got by sword and shot, The moneys that should feed us, Our fish and cheese are rotten, Which makes the scurvy growWe cannot serve you if we starve, And this the Dutchmen know! Our ships in every harbour Be neither whole nor sound, No oakum can be found, Or, if it is, the caulkers, And carpenters also, For lack of pay have run away, And this the Dutchmen know! Mere powder, guns, and bullets, Their price was spent in merriment While we in tattered doublets No King will heed our warnings, Off naked Chatham show, We dare not meet him with our fleetAnd this the Dutchmen know! JUBAL AND TUBAL CAIN UBAL sang of the Wrath of God Young as the sprouting grain- Jubal sang of the new-found sea, And the love that its waves divide- Black-black as the hurricane-wrack, Bitter and cold is the hate they hold- Jubal sang of the golden years When wars and wounds shall ceaseBut Tubal fashioned the hand-flung spears And showed his neighbours peace. New-new as the Nine-point-two, Older than Lamech's slainRoaring and loud is the feud avowed Twix' Jubal and Tubal Cain! |