66 PRINC THE PRODIGALS. [BALLADE.] RINCES!-and you, most valorous, us, - Prodigals driven of destinies! Nothing we ask or of gold or fees; Harry us not with the hounds we pray ; Lo, for the surcote's hem we seize,Give us-ah! give us-but Yesterday." "Dames most delicate, amorous! Damosels blithe as the belted bees! Beggars are we that pray thee thus,— Beggars outworn of miseries! Nothing we ask of the things that please; Weary are we, and old, and gray; Lo, for we clutch and we clasp your knees, Give us-ah! give us-but Yesterday!" "Damosels-Dames, be piteous!" (But the dames rode fast by the roadway trees.) "Hear us, O Knights, magnanimous ! (But the knights pricked on in their panoplies.). Nothing they gat of hope or ease, But only to beat on the breast and say :— "Life we drank to the dregs and lees ; Give us-ah! give us-but Yesterday!" ENVOY. Youth, take heed to the prayer of these! Many there be by the dusty way, Many that cry to the rocks and seas "Give us-ah! give us-but Yesterday!" AUSTIN DOBSON. [BALLADE.] I. CHAT do we here who with reverted eyes Turn back our longing from the modern air To the dim gold of long-evanished skies, That ushers in another waste of days, II. Were it not thus, could but our high emprise To seek that haven where contentment lies ? Who would not doff at once life's load of care Ah, who alas ?-Across the heat and haze Death beckons to us in the shadow dunFavouring and fair-" My rest is sweet," he says: But we, reluctantly, avert our gaze, Songs have we sung, and many melodies That should ascend the very heaven's stair, ENVOY. Great God of Love, thou whom all poets praise, Why but because our task is yet undone? JOHN PAYNE. THE BALLAD OF PROSE AND RHYME. [BALLADE À DOUBLE REFRAIN.] @HEN the roads are heavy with mire and rut, There is place and enough for the pains of prose ;But whenever a scent from the whitethorn blows, And the jasmine-stars to the lattice climb, And a Rosalind-face at the casement shows, Then hey-for the ripple of laughing rhyme ! When the brain gets dry as an empty nut, Then hey!-for the ripple of laughing rhyme ! |