Stella Benson

Oh, bend your eyes, nor send your glance about. Oh, watch your feet, nor stray beyond the kerb. Oh, bind your heart lest it find secrets out. For thus no punishment Of magic shall disturb Your very great content.

Oh, shut your lips to words that are forbidden. Oh, throw away your sword, nor think to fight. Seek not the best, the best is better hidden. Thus need you have no fear, No terrible delight Shall cross your path, my dear.

Call no man foe, but never love a stranger. Build up no plan, nor any star pursue. Go forth with crowds; in loneliness is danger. Thus nothing God can send, And nothing God can do Shall pierce your peace, my friend.

Oh little friend of half my days, My little friend, who followed me Along those crooked sullen ways That only you had eyes to see.

You felt the same. You understood You too, defensive and morose, Encloaked your secret puppyhood-- Your secret heart--and hid them close.

For I alone have seen you serve, Disciple of those early springs, With ears awry and tail a-curve You lost yourself in puppy things.

And you saw me. You bore in mind The clean and sunny things I felt When, throwing hate along the wind, I flashed the lantern at my belt.

The moment passed, and we returned To barren words and old cold truth, Yet in our hearts our lanterns burned, We two had seen each other's youth.

When filthy pain did wrap me round Your upright ears I always saw, And on my outflung hand I found The blessing of your horny paw;

And yet--oh impotence of men-- My paw, more soft but not more wise, Old friend, was lacking to you when You looked your crisis in the eyes....

You shared my youth, oh faithful friend, You let me share your puppyhood; So, if I failed you in the end, My friend, my friend, you understood.

You promised War and Thunder and Romance. You promised true, but we were very blind And very young, and in our ignorance We never called to mind That truth is seldom kind.

You promised love, immortal as a star. You promised true, yet how the truth can lie! For now we grope for hands where no hands are, And, deathless, still we cry, Nor hope for a reply.

You promised harvest and a perfect yield. You promised true, for on the harvest morn, Behold a reaper strode across the field, And man of woman born Was gathered in as corn.

You promised honour and ordeal by flame. You promised true. In joy we trembled lest We should be found unworthy when it came; But--oh--we never guessed The fury of the test!

You promised friends and songs and festivals. You promised true. Our friends, who still are young, Assemble for their feasting in those halls Where speaks no human tongue. And thus our songs are sung.

At sunset, when the high sea span About the rocks a web of foam, I saw the ghost of a Cornishman Come home. I saw the ghost of a Cornishman Run from the weariness of war, I heard him laughing as he ran Across his unforgotten shore. The great cliff, gilded by the west, Received him as an honoured guest. The green sea, shining in the bay, Did drown his dreadful yesterday.

Come home, come home, you million ghosts, The honest years shall make amends, The sun and moon shall be your hosts, The everlasting hills your friends. And some shall seek their mothers' faces, And some shall run to trysting places, And some to towns, and others yet Shall find great forests in their debt. Oh, I would siege the golden coasts Of space, and climb high heaven's dome, So I might see those million ghosts Come home.

FIRST WOMAN

Oh woman--woman--woman,-- Shall I to woman be a friend? I deal with man, and when I can Reclaim with interest all I lend. Who but a witless gambler plays For farthing stakes these golden days? No, woman--woman--woman-- Must only play the game that pays.

SECOND WOMAN

Oh woman--woman--woman,-- To-morrow woman shall awake. She shall arise, and realise The goodly value of her stake. And she shall lend her loan, and claim Her rightful interest on the same. So woman--woman--woman-- Shall learn at last the paying game.