N THE CAPTIVE OT with an outcry to Allah nor any complaining He answered his name at the muster and stood to the chaining. When the twin anklets were nipped on the leg-bars that held them, He brotherly greeted the armourers stooping to weld them. Ere the sad dust of the marshalled feet of the chain-gang swallowed him Observing him nobly at ease, I alighted and followed him. Thus we had speech by the way, but not touching his sorrow Rather his red Yesterday and his regal To-morrow, Wherein he statelily moved to the click of his chains unregarded, Nowise abashed but contented to drink of the potion awarded. Saluting aloofly his Fate, he made swift with his story, And the words of his mouth were as slaves spreading carpets of glory Embroidered with names of the Djinns-a miraculous weaving But the cool and perspicuous eye overbore unbeliev ing. So I submitted myself to the limits of rapture- capture Till he returned me to earth and the visions departed. But on him be the Peace and the Blessing; for he was great-hearted! T THE PUZZLER HE Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo, His mental processes are plain-one knows what he will do, And can logically predicate his finish by his start; But the English-ah, the English-they are quite a race apart. Their psychology is bovine, their outlook crude and raw. They abandon vital matters to be tickled with a straw, But the straw that they were tickled with the chaff that they were fed with They convert into a weaver's beam to break their foeman's head with. For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State, They arrive at their conclusions-largely inarticulate. Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none; But sometimes in a smoking-room, one learns why things were done. Yes, sometimes in a smoking-room, through clouds of 'Ers' and 'Ums' Obliquely and by inference illumination comes, On some step that they have taken, or some action they approve Embellished with the argot of the Upper Fourth Re move. In telegraphic sentences, half nodded to their friends, They hint a matter's inwardness-and there the matter ends. And while the Celt is talking from Valencia to Kirkwall, The English-ah, the English!-don't say anything at all! THE REEDS OF RUNNYMEDE T Runnymede, at Runnymede, A What say the reeds at Runnymede? The lissom reeds that give and take, That bend so far, but never break, They keep the sleepy Thames awake With tales of John at Runnymede. At Runnymede, at Runnymede, Oh hear the reeds at Runnymede! We saw 'em roused at Runnymede! 'When through our ranks the Barons came, With little thought of praise or blame, But resolute to play the game, They lumbered up to Runnymede; And there they launched in solid line, The first attack on Right DivineThe curt, uncompromising "Sign!" That settled John at Runnymede. 'At Runnymede, at Runnymede, |