On the eve of the marriage morrow And Age lies sleepless and yearning But the light that shines on their faces -O broken arc and unmeaning, TO A CHILD. IF by any device or knowledge It would stay a rosebud for ever, Nor into its fulness grow. And if thou could'st know thy own sweetness, O little one, perfect and sweet! Thou would'st be child for ever; Completer whilst incomplete. JEAN INGELOW. THE HIGH TIDE ON THE COAST OF LINCOLNSHIRE. (1571.) THE old mayor climbed the belfry tower, Good ringers, pull your best,' quoth he. Play uppe "The Brides of Enderby." The Lord that sent it, He knows all; The message that the bells let fall: 9 By millions crouched on the old sea wall. I sat and spun within the doore, My thread brake off, I raised myne eyes; Lay sinking in the barren skies; 'Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!' calling, Floweth, floweth, From the meads where melick groweth 'Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!' calling, Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow; Come uppe White foot, come uppe Lightfoot, Quit the stalks of parsley hollow, Hollow, hollow; Come uppe Jetty, rise and follow, From the clovers lift your head; Come uppe Whitefoot, come uppe Lightfoot, Come uppe Jetty, rise and follow, 'Jetty, to the milking shed.' If it be long, aye, long ago, When I beginne to think howe long, Againe I hear the Lindis flow, Swift as an arrowe, sharpe and strong; And all the aire it seemeth mee Bin full of floating bells (sayth shee), That ring the tune of Enderby. Alle fresh the level pasture lay, And not a shadowe mote be seene, Save where full fyve good miles away The steeple towered from out the greene; And lo! the great bell farre and wide Was heard in all the country side That Saturday at eventide. The swannerds where their sedges are Till floating o'er the grassy sea Came downe that kyndly message free, 6 Then some looked uppe into the sky, And all along where Lindis flows, To where the goodly vessels lie, And where the lordly steeple shows. 'For evil news from Mablethorpe, They have not spared to wake the towne I looked without, and lo! my sonne Till all the welkin rang again, 'Elizabeth! Elizabeth!' (A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath 'The olde sea wall (he cried) is downe, Go sailing uppe the market-place.' He shook as one that looks on death' 'God save you, mother!' straight he saith; 'Where is my wife, Elizabeth ?' 'Good sonne, where Lindis winds away With her two bairns I marked her long; And ere yon bells beganne to play With that he cried and beat his breast; And rearing Lindis backward pressed, Flung uppe her weltering walls again. So farre, so fast the eygre drave, The heart had hardly time to beat, Before a shallow seething wave Sobbed in the grasses at oure feet: Upon the roofe we sate that night, The noise of bells went sweeping by: I marked the lofty beacon light Stream from the church tower, red and high A lurid mark and dread to see; And awsome bells they were to mee, That in the dark rang‘Enderby.' |