"Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, From the meads where melick groweth "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow; 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, Swift as an arrowe, sharpe and strong; And all the aire it seemeth mee Bin full of floating bells (sayth shee), Alle fresh the level pasture lay, And not a shadowe mote be seene, The steeple towered from out the greene; The swanherds where their sedges are Then some looked uppe into the sky, And where the lordly steeple shows. They ring the tune of Enderby'! "For evil news from Mablethorpe Of pyrate galleys warping down, For shippes ashore beyond the scorpe, They have not spared to wake the towne; But while the west bin red to see, And storms be none, and pyrates flee, 6 Why ring The Brides of Enderby'?" I looked without, and lo! my sonne (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 And ere yon bells beganne to play And rearing Lindis, backward pressed, Flung uppe her weltering walls again. Then bankes came downe with ruin and rout- So farre, so fast the eygre drave, The heart had hardly time to beat, 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 awesome bells they were to mee, That in the dark rang "Enderby." They rang the sailor lads to guide, From roofe to roofe who fearless rowed; And I my sonne was at my side, And yet the ruddy beacon glowed: And yet he moaned beneath his breath, "O come in life, or come in death! O lost my love, Elizabeth." And didst thou visit him no more? Thou didst, thou didst, my daughter deare! The waters laid thee at his doore, Ere yet the early dawn was clear. Thy pretty bairns in fast embrace, The lifted sun shone on thy face, That flow strewed wrecks about the grass, A fatal ebbe and flow, alas! To manye more than myne and mee: But each will mourn his own (she saith), And sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth. I shall never hear her more From the meads where melick groweth, I shall never see her more, Stand beside the sobbing river, To the sandy lonesome shore; Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow; Hollow, hollow; Come uppe Lightfoot, rise and follow; From your clovers lift the head; Come uppe Jetty, follow, follow, Jetty, to the milking-shed." GIVE US LOVE AND GIVE US PEACE. ONE morning, oh! so early, my beloved, my beloved, All the birds were singing blithely, as if never they would cease; 'Twas a thrush sang in my garden, "Hear the story, hear the story! And the lark sang, "Give us glory!" And the dove said, "Give us peace!" Then I listened, oh! so early, my belovèd, my beloved, To that murmur from the woodland of the dove, my dear, the dove; When the nightingale came after, "Give us fame to sweeten duty!" When the wren sang, "Give us beauty!" She made answer, "Give us love!" Sweet is spring, and sweet the morning, my beloved, my beloved; Give for all our life's dear story, THE SHEPHERD LADY. (From "Mopsa the Fairy.") I. WHо pipes upon the long green hill, The white lamb bleats but followeth on- The dear white lady in yon high tower, All in long grass the piper stands, Outside the tower, at dawn of day, A thought from his heart doth reach to hers: She lifts her head, she dons her gown: Ah! the lady is fair; She ties the girdle on her waist, And binds her flaxen hair, And down she stealeth, down and down, Down the turret stair. Behold him! With the flock he wons Along yon grassy lea. "My shepherd lord, my shepherd love, And followeth on to thee." II. "The white lambs feed in tender grass; With them and thee to bide, How good it were," she saith at noon; |