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Complete Fictional Works of John Buchan (Illustrated)

Page 803

by John Buchan


  Tarik, the moor, with all his warrior train

  Gave thee his name; now the Saracen

  Fled the Castillean, and in Fortunes’ scales

  By master charge, till the strong North prevails.

  And Spain can Southward turn her page to thee

  And know her empires’ fortressed boundary.

  From perils Mediterranean, East to West

  They ceaseless sail on their unending quest,

  Plenished with fruit of shore and fruit of sea

  The high hills’ birth, the gift of wood and lea

  Easing the dower of earth, the toil of hands

  To Rome, the enthroned lady of the lands.

  Beneath its shade the Carthaginian sped

  O’ersea to Spain and his dark spearmen led

  Through the gaunt pass of the untrodden snow

  To rich compassion needs, where soft and low

  The sea winds sigh and the first roses blow.

  Oft the proud Ceasars in their new-found sway

  Led his mailed men to thee, when into the fray

  The stout Herians rose, on Discords’ wings

  Flew off the walls of Mauritanian kings.

  Anon they, too, the irremeable stream

  Were ferried o’er, and like a sick mans’ dream

  The slow successors pass till that late hour

  When in the settling of a sovran power

  Then sawest the fleet bear the last leprous home

  Toward the Northmen from the towers of Rome

  Then through the summers of the hasting age

  Comes the long train of toil-worn vassalage

  Merchant and warrior, alone, and apart

  Keen-eyed and thin, from labour in the mart

  Of the worlds’ cities, came the faithful hand

  Who bore the immortal hope from land to land

  Their will, their aid; girt with conquering sword

  Couriers of peace, the envoy of the Lord.

  Beneath thy brow the eternal tide of things

  Bearing the cloak of war, pomp of kings

  Flowed ceaseless, Northmen in heated galleys saw

  Thy face at sunrise, and in lust and awe

  Steered from the vexed Atlantic to the sea,

  New hope and great their perplexity.

  On the green current led the embattled lines

  Of sun-browned moors to the soft land vines

  The plain Castilian at the twilights’ fall

  Some dark sea-coves ‘neath thy seaward wall

  On slumbering town sailed like the whirlwinds’ breath

  And all thy rocks ring with the wail of death.

  When the slow centuries brought the earth repose

  And from the wreck of nature nations rose

  And all men turned their eyes in tim’rous quest

  From alien East to the untrodden West.

  Then the tired seamen worn with pendrous years

  Brought tidings marvellous to expectant ears

  How o’er the desert of impetuous sea

  A new world lay, unaltered, virgin, free

  A land of gold, where Plenty, with full horn

  Smiled at the eve, and ushered in the mom,

  The old earth joyed at the speech of fresh-ploughed sod

  And hailed the garden, wilderness of God

  Then thy vexed straits saw the far-stretching fleets

  Of men adventurous haste with straining sheets

  With a fair wind behind, and whiles ver’lie how

  The thunderous surging sea strained far and low,

  The earnest of their toils. In the long train

  Which, as the years fled and were calm again

  Still ceaseless passed, the poor man and the great

  Trod the same deck, the unbranded ship of state

  Scared in the storms, and to the far-off ken

  What layers of things, and strife of merchantmen.

  Ah! who shall tell of the first sight of thee

  Which dawned on way-worn exiles from o’ersea

  Returning, all fractious with tempest strain

  Or sick with gleam of green Mediterranean plain.

  The long low level of the surgeless main.

  When o’er the straits he saw thy barrier stand

  And knew the watcher of his fatherland

  Or haply the great galleons staggering on

  Laden with spice and gold of Arizon

  With all their faith thick-cloaked with stormy wrack

  And a few English pirates at their back

  While their great side shook to the North seas shock

  Saw through the mist the brow of some high rock

  And thanked their guardian saints and bore away

  To the sure haven of thy o’er-shadowed bay.

  And now the centuries brought thee alien kings

  A folk who dwelled where the white ocean sings

  The Northern tribes, a people great in war

  The vagrants of the South, who near or far

  By Arctic ice a’neath the southern star,

  In desert muster or on the high hills’ dome

  Have set their play and called the wilds their home

  A race of freemen, who through wind and wave

  Were sworn to strive to glory or a grave.

  Then all day long the toilsome battle rang

  About thy base, and the shrill bullet sang

  Around thy startled front, till the dread close

  When o’er thy barrier leapt the alien foes,

  And, fighting hard, set high their play on thee

  Then, the embattled point of liberty

  And soon, in turn, they too in after day,

  Faced the attack of fleets, till all the bay

  Was strewn with uncharted wrecks, or far away

  Down the suns’ path the shattered freemen sway

  And the haunted eve broods upon the day.

  But years have flown since the brave front of war

  Looked on thy brow, and the hot bullets’ scar

  Washed with the dent of storms; slow years of peace

  Laden with plentious dower of rich increase

  Have passed and smiled upon thy tranquil lands

  Now only artists do favour at their hands,

  Lo thy bare face feels the winds and suns of Spring

  Are vain as Winters’ bouquet menacing,

  The shock of war as the soft summers’rule

  The pains of death as Fortune bountiful.

  The earth is sick with toil and haste and heat

  The dust of ages clog mans’ hurrying feet.

  He flits like Ariel forth o’er land and sea

  And give no bounds to high timerity.

  The ships go forth like locusts on the main,

  Then sailors say they would return and seek again

  Once more with unquenched hope and changeless zest

  To face fresh toils, in all there is no rest,

  For the whole earth must render up her hold.

  Of close-held wealth, her secrets all are told

  Her power in thrall, her beauty bright with gold.

  Nay, yet not all, for the high hills are free

  No law can lay its’ bridle on the sea,

  No winds which blow from the great roof of God

  March the vain craft of man, the masters’ rod.

  No little passion stir the placid skies

  Or the fame stains’ inevitable eyes

  ‘Tis but below the earth is thrall to man

  And bears the markings of his little plan.

  Strength, peace, disdain, and ever deep repose

  Clothe the sharp eyes and veil the eternal snows.

  So now thy dear lifes’ noisy fervour flow.

  No chattering huckster and the martial show

  Colour and riot, toil and death or pain

  Are thrust beneath as sad autumnal rain

  But as the lone still mom when a red sun

 
; Dawns on a moorland measureless where none

  Hath dwelt, or shall dwell, and the air is thin

  With utter silence, so a peace akin

  Sits in thy ageless forehead. All may hope

  Our little lessons, whence the feeble grope

  To think he wots not; all the feverish lore,

  Which he must seek and lose for evermore;

  Was seen by thee in this eternal place

  No dissent winds are brushed upon thy face.

  Breathed on till mom, kissed of the West-wind low

  Thou knowest the wisdom which no mortals know;

  Thy scarred sea-front times’grim epitome,

  Mistress of quiet in battle, silent, free.

  Even as some guerdon, when the gods befriend,

  Wrestles through strife to his appointed end.

  And the high point of vantage gained, looks forth

  And sees the world rash on, and knows the worth

  Of its’ frail honour, and himself can show

  Safety or succour to the weak below

  And there endures, in new lands common lot

  No aid untried, no benefit forgot.

  And while the toilers scan but his high seat

  He in the watch-tower of his lone retreat

  Looks from the clamour of terrestial wars

  To the great peace which dwells among the stars.

  John Burnet of Barns

  1898

  “Oh, if my love were sailor-bred,

  And fared afar from home,

  In perilous lands, by shoal and sands,

  If he were sworn to roam,

  Then, oh, I’d hie me to a ship,

  And sail upon the sea,

  And keep his side in wind and tide,

  To bear him company.

  “And if he were a soldier gay,

  And tarried from the town,

  And sought in wars, through death and scars,

  To win for him renown,

  I’d place his colours in my breast,

  And ride by moor and lea,

  And win his side, there to abide,

  And bear him company.

  “For sooth a maid, all unafraid,

  Should by her lover be,

  With wile and art to cheer his heart,

  And bear him company.”

  “First shall the heavens want starry light,

  The seas be robbed of their waves;

  The day want sun, the sun want bright,

  The night want shade, and dead men graves;

  The April, flowers and leaf and tree,

  Before I false my faith to thee,

  To thee, to thee.”

  “First shall the tops of highest hills

  By humble plains be overpry’d;

  And poets scorn the Muses’ quills,

  And fish forsake the water-glide;

  And Iris lose her colour’d weed

  Before I fail thee at thy need.”

  “First direful Hate shall turn to Peace,

  And Love relent in deep disdain;

  And Death his fatal stroke shall cease,

  And Envy pity every pain;

  And Pleasure mourn, and Sorrow smile,

  Before I talk of any guile.”

  “First Time shall stay his stayless race,

  And Winter bless his brows with com;

  And snow bemoisten July’s face,

  And Winter, Spring and Summer mourn.”

  “First shall the heavens want starry light,

  The seas be robbed of their waves;

  The day want sun, the sun want bright,

  The night want shade, and dead men graves;

  The April, flowers and leaf and tree,

  Before I false my faith to thee.”

  To the Adventurous Spirit of the North

  1898

  Bom of the grey sea-shroud,

  Bom of the wind and spray,

  Where the long hills sink to the morning cloud

  And the mist lies low on the bay:

  Child of the stars and the skies,

  Child of the dawn and the rain,

  The April shining of ladies’ eyes,

  And the infinite face of pain!

  Seal on the hearts of the strong,

  Guerdon, thou, of the brave,

  To nerve the arm in the press of the throng,

  To cheer the dark of the grave. —

  Far from the heather hills,

  Far from the misty sea. —

  Little it irks where a man may fall

  If he fall with his heart on thee.

  To fail and not to faint,

  To strive and not to attain,

  To follow the Path to the end of days

  Is the burden of thy strain.

  Daughter of hope and tears,

  Mother, thou of the free,

  As it was in the beginning of years

  And evermore shall be.

  From the Pentlands Looking North and South

  1898

  Around my feet the clouds are drawn

  In the cold mystery of the dawn:

  No breezes cheer, no guests intrude,

  No mossy, mist-clad solitude:

  When sudden down the steeps of sky

  Flames a long, lightening wind. On high

  The steel-blue arch shines clear, and far,

  In the low lands where cattle are,

  Towns smoke. And swift, a haze, a gleam,

  The Firth lies like a frozen stream,

  Reddening with mom. Tall spires of ships,

  Like thorns about the harbour’s lips,

  Now shake faint canvas, now, asleep,

  Their salt, uneasy slumbers keep;

  While, golden-grey, o’er kirk and wall

  Day wakes in the ancient capital.

  Before me lie the lists of strife,

  The caravanserai of life,

  Whence from the gates the merchants go

  On the world’s highways; to and fro

  Sail laden ships; and in the street

  The lone foot-traveller shakes his feet,

  And in some corner by the fire

  Tells the old tale of heart’s desire.

  There, there, from alien seas and skies

  Comes the far-quested merchandise: —

  Wrought silks of Khassa, Mocha’s ware

  Brown-tinted, fragrant, and the rare

  Thin perfumes which the roses’ breath

  Has sought, immortal in her death:

  Gold, gems and spice, and haply still

  The red, rough largess of the hill,

  Which takes the sun and bears the vines

  In the blue misty Apennines.

  And he who treads the cobbled street

  To-day in the cold North may meet,

  Come month, come year, the dusky East,

  And share the Caliph’s secret feast:

  Or in the toil of wind and sun

  Bear pilgrim-staff, forlorn, fordone,

  Till o’er the steppe, athwart the sand,

  There gleam the gates of Samarcand.

  The ringing quay, the weathered face,

  Fair skies, dusk hands, the ocean race,

  The palm-girt isle, the ice-bound shore,

  Gales and hot suns the wide world o’er,

  Grey north, red south, and burnished west,

  The goals of the old tireless quest,

  Leap in the smoke, immortal, free,

  Where shines yon morning fringe of sea.

  I turn, and lo! the moorlands high

  Lie still and frigid to the sky.

  The film of mom is silver-grey

  On the red heather, and away

  Dim, distant, set in ribs of hill,

  Green glens are shining, stream and mill,

  Clachan and kirk and garden-ground,

  All silent in the hush profound

  Which haunts alone the hills’ recess,

  The antique home of quietness.

 
; Nor to the folk can piper play

  The tune of ‘Hills and Far Away,’

  For they are with them. Mom can fire

  No peak of weary heart’s desire,

  Nor the red sunset flame behind

  Some ancient ridge of longing mind.

  For Arcady is here, around,

  In lilt of stream, in the clear sound

  Of lark and moorbird, in the old

  Gay glamour of the evening gold.

  And so the wheel of seasons moves

  To kirk and market, to mild loves

  And modest hates, and still the sight

  Of brown kind faces, and when night

  Draws dark around with age and fear

  Theirs is the simple hope to cheer.

  A land of peace where old romance

  And ghostly shine of helm and lance

  Still dwell by castled scarp and lea,

  And the lost homes of chivalry.

  And the good fairy folk, my dear,

  Who speak for cunning souls to hear,

  In nook of glen and bower of hill

  Sing of the Happy Ages still.

  O Thou to whom man’s heart is known,

  Grant me my morning orison.

  Grant me the rover’s path — to see

  The dawn arise, the daylight flee,

  In the far wastes of sand and sun!

  Grant me with venturous heart to run

  On the old highway where in pain

  And ecstasy man strives amain,

  Conquers his fellows, or, too weak,

  Finds the great rest which wanderers seek.

  Grant me the joy of wind and brine,

  The zest of food, the taste of wine,

  The fighter’s strength, the echoing strife,

  The high tumultuous lists of life —

  May I ne’er lag, nor hapless fall,

  Nor weary at the battle-call.

  But when the even brings surcease

  Grant me the happy moorland peace;

  That in my heart’s depth ever lie

  That ancient land of heath and sky;

  Where the old rhymes and stories fall

  In kindly, soothing pastoral.

  There in the hills grave silence lies,

  And Death himself wears friendly guise,

  There be my lot, my twilight stage,

  Dear city of my pilgrimage.

  The Pilgrim Fathers

  1898

  Behold your heritage, your land of quest!

  Long have ye sought, near comes the hour of rest.

  Go, children, forth with scrip and staff, and far

 

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