Men, Women and Ghosts, by Amy Lowell

       Part Fifth

   It was no easy matter to convince
   Heinrich that it was finished. Hard to say
   That though they could not meet (he saw her wince)
   She still must keep the locket to allay
   Suspicion in her husband. She would pay
   Him from her savings bit by bit—the oath
   He swore at that was startling to them both.

   Her resolution taken, Frau Altgelt
   Adhered to it, and suffered no regret.
   She found her husband all that she had felt
   His music to contain. Her days were set
   In his as though she were an amulet
   Cased in bright gold. She joyed in her confining;
   Her eyes put out her looking-glass with shining.

   Charlotta was so gay that old, dull tasks
   Were furbished up to seem like rituals.
   She baked and brewed as one who only asks
   The right to serve. Her daily manuals
   Of prayer were duties, and her festivals
   When Theodore praised some dish, or frankly said
   She had a knack in making up a bed.

   So Autumn went, and all the mountains round
   The city glittered white with fallen snow,
   For it was Winter. Over the hard ground
   Herr Altgelt's footsteps came, each one a blow.
   On the swept flags behind the currant row
   Charlotta stood to greet him. But his lip
   Only flicked hers. His Concert-Meistership

   Was first again. This evening he had got
   Important news. The opera ordered from
   Young Mozart was arrived. That old despot,
   The Bishop of Salzburg, had let him come
   Himself to lead it, and the parts, still hot
   From copying, had been tried over. Never
   Had any music started such a fever.

   The orchestra had cheered till they were hoarse,
   The singers clapped and clapped. The town was made,
   With such a great attraction through the course
   Of Carnival time. In what utter shade
   All other cities would be left! The trade
   In music would all drift here naturally.
   In his excitement he forgot his tea.

   Lotta was forced to take his cup and put
   It in his hand. But still he rattled on,
   Sipping at intervals. The new catgut
   Strings he was using gave out such a tone
   The "Maestro" had remarked it, and had gone
   Out of his way to praise him. Lotta smiled,
   He was as happy as a little child.

   From that day on, Herr Altgelt, more and more,
   Absorbed himself in work. Lotta at first
   Was patient and well-wishing. But it wore
   Upon her when two weeks had brought no burst
   Of loving from him. Then she feared the worst;
   That his short interest in her was a light
   Flared up an instant only in the night.

   'Idomeneo' was the opera's name,
   A name that poor Charlotta learnt to hate.
   Herr Altgelt worked so hard he seldom came
   Home for his tea, and it was very late,
   Past midnight sometimes, when he knocked. His state
   Was like a flabby orange whose crushed skin
   Is thin with pulling, and all dented in.

   He practised every morning and her heart
   Followed his bow. But often she would sit,
   While he was playing, quite withdrawn apart,
   Absently fingering and touching it,
   The locket, which now seemed to her a bit
   Of some gone youth. His music drew her tears,
   And through the notes he played, her dreading ears

   Heard Heinrich's voice, saying he had not changed;
   Beer merchants had no ecstasies to take
   Their minds off love. So far her thoughts had ranged
   Away from her stern vow, she chanced to take
   Her way, one morning, quite by a mistake,
   Along the street where Heinrich had his shop.
   What harm to pass it since she should not stop!

   It matters nothing how one day she met
   Him on a bridge, and blushed, and hurried by.
   Nor how the following week he stood to let
   Her pass, the pavement narrowing suddenly.
   How once he took her basket, and once he
   Pulled back a rearing horse who might have struck
   Her with his hoofs. It seemed the oddest luck

   How many times their business took them each
   Right to the other. Then at last he spoke,
   But she would only nod, he got no speech
   From her. Next time he treated it in joke,
   And that so lightly that her vow she broke
   And answered. So they drifted into seeing
   Each other as before. There was no fleeing.

   Christmas was over and the Carnival
   Was very near, and tripping from each tongue
   Was talk of the new opera. Each book-stall
   Flaunted it out in bills, what airs were sung,
   What singers hired. Pictures of the young
   "Maestro" were for sale. The town was mad.
   Only Charlotta felt depressed and sad.

   Each day now brought a struggle 'twixt her will
   And Heinrich's. 'Twixt her love for Theodore
   And him. Sometimes she wished to kill
   Herself to solve her problem. For a score
   Of reasons Heinrich tempted her. He bore
   Her moods with patience, and so surely urged
   Himself upon her, she was slowly merged

   Into his way of thinking, and to fly
   With him seemed easy. But next morning would
   The Stradivarius undo her mood.
   Then she would realize that she must cleave
   Always to Theodore. And she would try
   To convince Heinrich she should never leave,
   And afterwards she would go home and grieve.

   All thought in Munich centered on the part
   Of January when there would be given
   'Idomeneo' by Wolfgang Mozart.
   The twenty-ninth was fixed. And all seats, even
   Those almost at the ceiling, which were driven
   Behind the highest gallery, were sold.
   The inches of the theatre went for gold.

   Herr Altgelt was a shadow worn so thin
   With work, he hardly printed black behind
   The candle. He and his old violin
   Made up one person. He was not unkind,
   But dazed outside his playing, and the rind,
   The pine and maple of his fiddle, guarded
   A part of him which he had quite discarded.

      It woke in the silence of frost-bright nights,
      In little lights,
      Like will-o'-the-wisps flickering, fluttering,
      Here—there—
      Spurting, sputtering,
      Fading and lighting,
      Together, asunder—
      Till Lotta sat up in bed with wonder,
      And the faint grey patch of the window shone
      Upon her sitting there, alone.
      For Theodore slept.

   The twenty-eighth was last rehearsal day,
   'Twas called for noon, so early morning meant
   Herr Altgelt's only time in which to play
   His part alone. Drawn like a monk who's spent
   Himself in prayer and fasting, Theodore went
   Into the kitchen, with a weary word
   Of cheer to Lotta, careless if she heard.

      Lotta heard more than his spoken word.
      She heard the vibrating of strings and wood.
      She was washing the dishes, her hands all suds,
      When the sound began,
      Long as the span
      Of a white road snaking about a hill.
      The orchards are filled
      With cherry blossoms at butterfly poise.
      Hawthorn buds are cracking,
      And in the distance a shepherd is clacking
      His shears, snip-snipping the wool from his sheep.
      The notes are asleep,
      Lying adrift on the air
      In level lines
      Like sunlight hanging in pines and pines,
      Strung and threaded,
      All imbedded
      In the blue-green of the hazy pines.
      Lines—long, straight lines!
      And stems,
      Long, straight stems
      Pushing up
      To the cup of blue, blue sky.
      Stems growing misty
      With the many of them,
      Red-green mist
      Of the trees,
      And these
      Wood-flavoured notes.
      The back is maple and the belly is pine.
      The rich notes twine
      As though weaving in and out of leaves,
      Broad leaves
      Flapping slowly like elephants' ears,
      Waving and falling.
      Another sound peers
      Through little pine fingers,
      And lingers, peeping.
      Ping! Ping! pizzicato, something is cheeping.
      There is a twittering up in the branches,
      A chirp and a lilt,
      And crimson atilt on a swaying twig.
      Wings! Wings!
      And a little ruffled-out throat which sings.
      The forest bends, tumultuous
      With song.
      The woodpecker knocks,
      And the song-sparrow trills,
      Every fir, and cedar, and yew
      Has a nest or a bird,
      It is quite absurd
      To hear them cutting across each other:
      Peewits, and thrushes, and larks, all at once,
      And a loud cuckoo is trying to smother
      A wood-pigeon perched on a birch,
      "Roo—coo—oo—oo—"
      "Cuckoo! Cuckoo! That's one for you!"
      A blackbird whistles, how sharp, how shrill!
      And the great trees toss
      And leaves blow down,
      You can almost hear them splash on the ground.
      The whistle again:
      It is double and loud!
      The leaves are splashing,
      And water is dashing
      Over those creepers, for they are shrouds;
      And men are running up them to furl the sails,
      For there is a capful of wind to-day,
      And we are already well under way.
      The deck is aslant in the bubbling breeze.
      "Theodore, please.
      Oh, Dear, how you tease!"
      And the boatswain's whistle sounds again,
      And the men pull on the sheets:
          "My name is Hanging Johnny,
             Away-i-oh;
          They call me Hanging Johnny,
             So hang, boys, hang."
      The trees of the forest are masts, tall masts;
      They are swinging over
      Her and her lover.
      Almost swooning
      Under the ballooning canvas,
      She lies
      Looking up in his eyes
      As he bends farther over.
      Theodore, still her lover!

   The suds were dried upon Charlotta's hands,
   She leant against the table for support,
   Wholly forgotten. Theodore's eyes were brands
   Burning upon his music. He stopped short.
   Charlotta almost heard the sound of bands
   Snapping. She put one hand up to her heart,
   Her fingers touched the locket with a start.

   Herr Altgelt put his violin away
   Listlessly. "Lotta, I must have some rest.
   The strain will be a hideous one to-day.
   Don't speak to me at all. It will be best
   If I am quiet till I go." And lest
   She disobey, he left her. On the stairs
   She heard his mounting steps. What use were prayers!

   He could not hear, he was not there, for she
   Was married to a mummy, a machine.
   Her hand closed on the locket bitterly.
   Before her, on a chair, lay the shagreen
   Case of his violin. She saw the clean
   Sun flash the open clasp. The locket's edge
   Cut at her fingers like a pushing wedge.

   A heavy cart went by, a distant bell
   Chimed ten, the fire flickered in the grate.
   She was alone. Her throat began to swell
   With sobs. What kept her here, why should she wait?
   The violin she had begun to hate
   Lay in its case before her. Here she flung
   The cover open. With the fiddle swung

   Over her head, the hanging clock's loud ticking
   Caught on her ear. 'Twas slow, and as she paused
   The little door in it came open, flicking
   A wooden cuckoo out: "Cuckoo!" It caused
   The forest dream to come again. "Cuckoo!"
   Smashed on the grate, the violin broke in two.

   "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" the clock kept striking on;
   But no one listened. Frau Altgelt had gone.

The Cross-Roads

A bullet through his heart at dawn. On the table a letter signed with a woman's name. A wind that goes howling round the house, and weeping as in shame. Cold November dawn peeping through the windows, cold dawn creeping over the floor, creeping up his cold legs, creeping over his cold body, creeping across his cold face. A glaze of thin yellow sunlight on the staring eyes. Wind howling through bent branches. A wind which never dies down. Howling, wailing. The gazing eyes glitter in the sunlight. The lids are frozen open and the eyes glitter.

The thudding of a pick on hard earth. A spade grinding and crunching. Overhead, branches writhing, winding, interlacing, unwinding, scattering; tortured twinings, tossings, creakings. Wind flinging branches apart, drawing them together, whispering and whining among them. A waning, lopsided moon cutting through black clouds. A stream of pebbles and earth and the empty spade gleams clear in the moonlight, then is rammed again into the black earth. Tramping of feet. Men and horses. Squeaking of wheels.

An ash stick pierces his heart, if it buds the roots will hold him. He is a part of the earth now, clay to clay. Overhead the branches sway, and writhe, and twist in the wind. He'll never walk with a bullet in his heart, and an ash stick nailing him to the cold, black ground.

Six months he lay still. Six months. And the water welled up in his body, and soft blue spots chequered it. He lay still, for the ash stick held him in place. Six months! Then her face came out of a mist of green. Pink and white and frail like Dresden china, lilies-of-the-valley at her breast, puce-coloured silk sheening about her. Under the young green leaves, the horse at a foot-pace, the high yellow wheels of the chaise scarcely turning, her face, rippling like grain a-blowing, under her puce-coloured bonnet; and burning beside her, flaming within his correct blue coat and brass buttons, is someone. What has dimmed the sun? The horse steps on a rolling stone; a wind in the branches makes a moan. The little leaves tremble and shake, turn and quake, over and over, tearing their stems. There is a shower of young leaves, and a sudden-sprung gale wails in the trees.

The yellow-wheeled chaise is rocking—rocking, and all the branches are knocking—knocking. The sun in the sky is a flat, red plate, the branches creak and grate. She screams and cowers, for the green foliage is a lowering wave surging to smother her. But she sees nothing. The stake holds firm. The body writhes, the body squirms. The blue spots widen, the flesh tears, but the stake wears well in the deep, black ground. It holds the body in the still, black ground.

Two years! The body has been in the ground two years. It is worn away; it is clay to clay. Where the heart moulders, a greenish dust, the stake is thrust. Late August it is, and night; a night flauntingly jewelled with stars, a night of shooting stars and loud insect noises. Down the road to Tilbury, silence—and the slow flapping of large leaves. Down the road to Sutton, silence—and the darkness of heavy-foliaged trees. Down the road to Wayfleet, silence—and the whirring scrape of insects in the branches. Down the road to Edgarstown, silence—and stars like stepping-stones in a pathway overhead. It is very quiet at the cross-roads, and the sign-board points the way down the four roads, endlessly points the way where nobody wishes to go.

A horse is galloping, galloping up from Sutton. Shaking the wide, still leaves as he goes under them. Striking sparks with his iron shoes; silencing the katydids. Dr. Morgan riding to a child-birth over Tilbury way; riding to deliver a woman of her first-born son. One o'clock from Wayfleet bell tower, what a shower of shooting stars! And a breeze all of a sudden, jarring the big leaves and making them jerk up and down. Dr. Morgan's hat is blown from his head, the horse swerves, and curves away from the sign-post. An oath—spurs—a blurring of grey mist. A quick left twist, and the gelding is snorting and racing down the Tilbury road with the wind dropping away behind him.

The stake has wrenched, the stake has started, the body, flesh from flesh, has parted. But the bones hold tight, socket and ball, and clamping them down in the hard, black ground is the stake, wedged through ribs and spine. The bones may twist, and heave, and twine, but the stake holds them still in line. The breeze goes down, and the round stars shine, for the stake holds the fleshless bones in line.

Twenty years now! Twenty long years! The body has powdered itself away; it is clay to clay. It is brown earth mingled with brown earth. Only flaky bones remain, lain together so long they fit, although not one bone is knit to another. The stake is there too, rotted through, but upright still, and still piercing down between ribs and spine in a straight line.

Yellow stillness is on the cross-roads, yellow stillness is on the trees. The leaves hang drooping, wan. The four roads point four yellow ways, saffron and gamboge ribbons to the gaze. A little swirl of dust blows up Tilbury road, the wind which fans it has not strength to do more; it ceases, and the dust settles down. A little whirl of wind comes up Tilbury road. It brings a sound of wheels and feet. The wind reels a moment and faints to nothing under the sign-post. Wind again, wheels and feet louder. Wind again—again—again. A drop of rain, flat into the dust. Drop!—Drop! Thick heavy raindrops, and a shrieking wind bending the great trees and wrenching off their leaves.

Under the black sky, bowed and dripping with rain, up Tilbury road, comes the procession. A funeral procession, bound for the graveyard at Wayfleet. Feet and wheels—feet and wheels. And among them one who is carried.

The bones in the deep, still earth shiver and pull. There is a quiver through the rotted stake. Then stake and bones fall together in a little puffing of dust.

Like meshes of linked steel the rain shuts down behind the procession, now well along the Wayfleet road.

He wavers like smoke in the buffeting wind. His fingers blow out like smoke, his head ripples in the gale. Under the sign-post, in the pouring rain, he stands, and watches another quavering figure drifting down the Wayfleet road. Then swiftly he streams after it. It flickers among the trees. He licks out and winds about them. Over, under, blown, contorted. Spindrift after spindrift; smoke following smoke. There is a wailing through the trees, a wailing of fear, and after it laughter—laughter—laughter, skirling up to the black sky. Lightning jags over the funeral procession. A heavy clap of thunder. Then darkness and rain, and the sound of feet and wheels.

A Roxbury Garden

       I

     Hoops

   Blue and pink sashes,
   Criss-cross shoes,
   Minna and Stella run out into the garden
   To play at hoop.

   Up and down the garden-paths they race,
   In the yellow sunshine,
   Each with a big round hoop
   White as a stripped willow-wand.

   Round and round turn the hoops,
   Their diamond whiteness cleaving the yellow sunshine.
   The gravel crunches and squeaks beneath them,
   And a large pebble springs them into the air
   To go whirling for a foot or two
   Before they touch the earth again
   In a series of little jumps.

   Spring, Hoops!
   Spit out a shower of blue and white brightness.
   The little criss-cross shoes twinkle behind you,
   The pink and blue sashes flutter like flags,
   The hoop-sticks are ready to beat you.
   Turn, turn, Hoops! In the yellow sunshine.
   Turn your stripped willow whiteness
   Along the smooth paths.

   Stella sings:
      "Round and round, rolls my hoop,
      Scarcely touching the ground,
      With a swoop,
      And a bound,
      Round and round.
      With a bumpety, crunching, scattering sound,
      Down the garden it flies;
      In our eyes
      The sun lies.
      See it spin
      Out and in;
      Through the paths it goes whirling,
      About the beds curling.
      Sway now to the loop,
      Faster, faster, my hoop.
      Round you come,
      Up you come,
      Quick and straight as before.
      Run, run, my hoop, run,
      Away from the sun."

   And the great hoop bounds along the path,
   Leaping into the wind-bright air.

   Minna sings:
      "Turn, hoop,
      Burn hoop,
      Twist and twine
      Hoop of mine.
      Flash along,
      Leap along,
      Right at the sun.
      Run, hoop, run.
      Faster and faster,
      Whirl, twirl.
      Wheel like fire,
      And spin like glass;
      Fire's no whiter
      Glass is no brighter.
      Dance,
      Prance,
      Over and over,
      About and about,
      With the top of you under,
      And the bottom at top,
      But never a stop.
      Turn about, hoop, to the tap of my stick,
      I follow behind you
      To touch and remind you.
      Burn and glitter, so white and quick,
      Round and round, to the tap of a stick."

   The hoop flies along between the flower-beds,
   Swaying the flowers with the wind of its passing.

   Beside the foxglove-border roll the hoops,
   And the little pink and white bells shake and jingle
   Up and down their tall spires;
   They roll under the snow-ball bush,
   And the ground behind them is strewn with white petals;
   They swirl round a corner,
   And jar a bee out of a Canterbury bell;
   They cast their shadows for an instant
   Over a bed of pansies,
   Catch against the spurs of a columbine,
   Jostle the quietness from a cluster of monk's-hood.
   Pat! Pat! behind them come the little criss-cross shoes,
   And the blue and pink sashes stream out in flappings of colour.

   Stella sings:
      "Hoop, hoop,
      Roll along,
      Faster bowl along,
      Hoop.
      Slow, to the turning,
      Now go!—Go!
      Quick!
      Here's the stick.
      Rat-a-tap-tap it,
      Pat it, flap it.
      Fly like a bird or a yellow-backed bee,
      See how soon you can reach that tree.
      Here is a path that is perfectly straight.
      Roll along, hoop, or we shall be late."

   Minna sings:
      "Trip about, slip about, whip about
      Hoop.
      Wheel like a top at its quickest spin,
      Then, dear hoop, we shall surely win.
      First to the greenhouse and then to the wall
      Circle and circle,
      And let the wind push you,
      Poke you,
      Brush you,
      And not let you fall.
      Whirring you round like a wreath of mist.
      Hoopety hoop,
      Twist,
      Twist."

   Tap! Tap! go the hoop-sticks,
   And the hoops bowl along under a grape arbour.
   For an instant their willow whiteness is green,
   Pale white-green.
   Then they are out in the sunshine,
   Leaving the half-formed grape clusters
   A-tremble under their big leaves.

   "I will beat you, Minna," cries Stella,
   Hitting her hoop smartly with her stick.
   "Stella, Stella, we are winning," calls Minna,
   As her hoop curves round a bed of clove-pinks.
   A humming-bird whizzes past Stella's ear,
   And two or three yellow-and-black butterflies
   Flutter, startled, out of a pillar rose.
   Round and round race the little girls
   After their great white hoops.

   Suddenly Minna stops.
   Her hoop wavers an instant,
   But she catches it up on her stick.
   "Listen, Stella!"
   Both the little girls are listening;
   And the scents of the garden rise up quietly about them.
   "It's the chaise! It's Father!
   Perhaps he's brought us a book from Boston."
   Twinkle, twinkle, the little criss-cross shoes
   Up the garden path.
   Blue—pink—an instant, against the syringa hedge.
   But the hoops, white as stripped willow-wands,
   Lie in the grass,
   And the grasshoppers jump back and forth
   Over them.

       II

     Battledore and Shuttlecock

   The shuttlecock soars upward
   In a parabola of whiteness,
   Turns,
   And sinks to a perfect arc.
   Plat! the battledore strikes it,
   And it rises again,
   Without haste,
   Winged and curving,
   Tracing its white flight
   Against the clipped hemlock-trees.
   Plat!
   Up again,
   Orange and sparkling with sun,
   Rounding under the blue sky,
   Dropping,
   Fading to grey-green
   In the shadow of the coned hemlocks.
   "Ninety-one." "Ninety-two." "Ninety-three."
   The arms of the little girls
   Come up—and up—
   Precisely,
   Like mechanical toys.
   The battledores beat at nothing,
   And toss the dazzle of snow
   Off their parchment drums.
   "Ninety-four." Plat!
   "Ninety-five." Plat!
   Back and forth
   Goes the shuttlecock,
   Icicle-white,
   Leaping at the sharp-edged clouds,
   Overturning,
   Falling,
   Down,
   And down,
   Tinctured with pink
   From the upthrusting shine
   Of Oriental poppies.

   The little girls sway to the counting rhythm;
   Left foot,
   Right foot.
   Plat! Plat!
   Yellow heat twines round the handles of the battledores,
   The parchment cracks with dryness;
   But the shuttlecock
   Swings slowly into the ice-blue sky,
   Heaving up on the warm air
   Like a foam-bubble on a wave,
   With feathers slanted and sustaining.
   Higher,
   Until the earth turns beneath it;
   Poised and swinging,
   With all the garden flowing beneath it,
   Scarlet, and blue, and purple, and white—
   Blurred colour reflections in rippled water—
   Changing—streaming—
   For the moment that Stella takes to lift her arm.
   Then the shuttlecock relinquishes,
   Bows,
   Descends;
   And the sharp blue spears of the air
   Thrust it to earth.

   Again it mounts,
   Stepping up on the rising scents of flowers,
   Buoyed up and under by the shining heat.
   Above the foxgloves,
   Above the guelder-roses,
   Above the greenhouse glitter,
   Till the shafts of cooler air
   Meet it,
   Deflect it,
   Reject it,
   Then down,
   Down,
   Past the greenhouse,
   Past the guelder-rose bush,
   Past the foxgloves.

   "Ninety-nine," Stella's battledore springs to the impact.
   Plunk! Like the snap of a taut string.
   "Oh! Minna!"
   The shuttlecock drops zigzagedly,
   Out of orbit,
   Hits the path,
   And rolls over quite still.
   Dead white feathers,
   With a weight at the end.

       III

     Garden Games

   The tall clock is striking twelve;
   And the little girls stop in the hall to watch it,
   And the big ships rocking in a half-circle
   Above the dial.
   Twelve o'clock!
   Down the side steps
   Go the little girls,
   Under their big round straw hats.
   Minna's has a pink ribbon,
   Stella's a blue,
   That is the way they know which is which.
   Twelve o'clock!
   An hour yet before dinner.
   Mother is busy in the still-room,
   And Hannah is making gingerbread.

   Slowly, with lagging steps,
   They follow the garden-path,
   Crushing a leaf of box for its acrid smell,
   Discussing what they shall do,
   And doing nothing.

   "Stella, see that grasshopper
   Climbing up the bank!
   What a jump!
   Almost as long as my arm."
   Run, children, run.
   For the grasshopper is leaping away,
   In half-circle curves,
   Shuttlecock curves,
   Over the grasses.
   Hand in hand, the little girls call to him:
      "Grandfather, grandfather gray,
      Give me molasses, or I'll throw you away."

   The grasshopper leaps into the sunlight,
   Golden-green,
   And is gone.

   "Let's catch a bee."
   Round whirl the little girls,
   And up the garden.
   Two heads are thrust among the Canterbury bells,
   Listening,
   And fingers clasp and unclasp behind backs
   In a strain of silence.

   White bells,
   Blue bells,
   Hollow and reflexed.
   Deep tunnels of blue and white dimness,
   Cool wine-tunnels for bees.
   There is a floundering and buzzing over Minna's head.

   "Bend it down, Stella. Quick! Quick!"
   The wide mouth of a blossom
   Is pressed together in Minna's fingers.
   The stem flies up, jiggling its flower-bells,
   And Minna holds the dark blue cup in her hand,
   With the bee
   Imprisoned in it.
   Whirr! Buzz! Bump!
   Bump! Whiz! Bang!
   BANG!!
   The blue flower tears across like paper,
   And a gold-black bee darts away in the sunshine.

   "If we could fly, we could catch him."
   The sunshine is hot on Stella's upturned face,
   As she stares after the bee.
   "We'll follow him in a dove chariot.
   Come on, Stella."
   Run, children,
   Along the red gravel paths,
   For a bee is hard to catch,
   Even with a chariot of doves.

   Tall, still, and cowled,
   Stand the monk's-hoods;
   Taller than the heads of the little girls.
   A blossom for Minna.
   A blossom for Stella.
   Off comes the cowl,
   And there is a purple-painted chariot;
   Off comes the forward petal,
   And there are two little green doves,
   With green traces tying them to the chariot.
   "Now we will get in, and fly right up to the clouds.
      Fly, Doves, up in the sky,
      With Minna and me,
      After the bee."

   Up one path,
   Down another,
   Run the little girls,
   Holding their dove chariots in front of them;
   But the bee is hidden in the trumpet of a honeysuckle,
   With his wings folded along his back.

   The dove chariots are thrown away,
   And the little girls wander slowly through the garden,
   Sucking the salvia tips,
   And squeezing the snapdragons
   To make them gape.
   "I'm so hot,
   Let's pick a pansy
   And see the little man in his bath,
   And play we're he."
   A royal bath-tub,
   Hung with purple stuffs and yellow.
   The great purple-yellow wings
   Rise up behind the little red and green man;
   The purple-yellow wings fan him,
   He dabbles his feet in cool green.
   Off with the green sheath,
   And there are two spindly legs.
   "Heigho!" sighs Minna.
   "Heigho!" sighs Stella.
   There is not a flutter of wind,
   And the sun is directly overhead.

   Along the edge of the garden
   Walk the little girls.
   Their hats, round and yellow like cheeses,
   Are dangling by the ribbons.
   The grass is a tumult of buttercups and daisies;
   Buttercups and daisies streaming away
   Up the hill.
   The garden is purple, and pink, and orange, and scarlet;
   The garden is hot with colours.
   But the meadow is only yellow, and white, and green,
   Cool, and long, and quiet.
   The little girls pick buttercups
   And hold them under each other's chins.
   "You're as gold as Grandfather's snuff-box.
   You're going to be very rich, Minna."
   "Oh-o-o! Then I'll ask my husband to give me a pair of garnet earrings
   Just like Aunt Nancy's.
   I wonder if he will.
   I know. We'll tell fortunes.
   That's what we'll do."
   Plump down in the meadow grass,
   Stella and Minna,
   With their round yellow hats,
   Like cheeses,
   Beside them.
   Drop,
   Drop,
   Daisy petals.
      "One I love,
      Two I love,
      Three I love I say..."
   The ground is peppered with daisy petals,
   And the little girls nibble the golden centres,
   And play it is cake.

   A bell rings.
   Dinner-time;
   And after dinner there are lessons.

1777

       I

     The Trumpet-Vine Arbour

   The throats of the little red trumpet-flowers are wide open,
   And the clangour of brass beats against the hot sunlight.
   They bray and blare at the burning sky.
   Red! Red! Coarse notes of red,
   Trumpeted at the blue sky.
   In long streaks of sound, molten metal,
   The vine declares itself.
   Clang!—from its red and yellow trumpets.
   Clang!—from its long, nasal trumpets,
   Splitting the sunlight into ribbons, tattered and shot with noise.

   I sit in the cool arbour, in a green-and-gold twilight.
   It is very still, for I cannot hear the trumpets,
   I only know that they are red and open,
   And that the sun above the arbour shakes with heat.
   My quill is newly mended,
   And makes fine-drawn lines with its point.
   Down the long, white paper it makes little lines,
   Just lines—up—down—criss-cross.
   My heart is strained out at the pin-point of my quill;
   It is thin and writhing like the marks of the pen.
   My hand marches to a squeaky tune,
   It marches down the paper to a squealing of fifes.
   My pen and the trumpet-flowers,
   And Washington's armies away over the smoke-tree to the Southwest.
   "Yankee Doodle," my Darling! It is you against the British,
   Marching in your ragged shoes to batter down King George.
   What have you got in your hat? Not a feather, I wager.
   Just a hay-straw, for it is the harvest you are fighting for.
   Hay in your hat, and the whites of their eyes for a target!
   Like Bunker Hill, two years ago, when I watched all day from the house-top
   Through Father's spy-glass.
   The red city, and the blue, bright water,
   And puffs of smoke which you made.
   Twenty miles away,
   Round by Cambridge, or over the Neck,
   But the smoke was white—white!
   To-day the trumpet-flowers are red—red—
   And I cannot see you fighting,
   But old Mr. Dimond has fled to Canada,
   And Myra sings "Yankee Doodle" at her milking.
   The red throats of the trumpets bray and clang in the sunshine,
   And the smoke-tree puffs dun blossoms into the blue air.

       II

     The City of Falling Leaves

   Leaves fall,
   Brown leaves,
   Yellow leaves streaked with brown.
   They fall,
   Flutter,
   Fall again.
   The brown leaves,
   And the streaked yellow leaves,
   Loosen on their branches
   And drift slowly downwards.
   One,
   One, two, three,
   One, two, five.
   All Venice is a falling of Autumn leaves—
   Brown,
   And yellow streaked with brown.

   "That sonnet, Abate,
   Beautiful,
   I am quite exhausted by it.
   Your phrases turn about my heart
   And stifle me to swooning.
   Open the window, I beg.
   Lord! What a strumming of fiddles and mandolins!
   'Tis really a shame to stop indoors.
   Call my maid, or I will make you lace me yourself.
   Fie, how hot it is, not a breath of air!
   See how straight the leaves are falling.
   Marianna, I will have the yellow satin caught up with silver fringe,
   It peeps out delightfully from under a mantle.
   Am I well painted to-day, 'caro Abate mio'?
   You will be proud of me at the 'Ridotto', hey?
   Proud of being 'Cavalier Servente' to such a lady?"
   "Can you doubt it, 'Bellissima Contessa'?
   A pinch more rouge on the right cheek,
   And Venus herself shines less..."
   "You bore me, Abate,
   I vow I must change you!
   A letter, Achmet?
   Run and look out of the window, Abate.
   I will read my letter in peace."
   The little black slave with the yellow satin turban
   Gazes at his mistress with strained eyes.
   His yellow turban and black skin
   Are gorgeous—barbaric.
   The yellow satin dress with its silver flashings
   Lies on a chair
   Beside a black mantle and a black mask.
   Yellow and black,
   Gorgeous—barbaric.
   The lady reads her letter,
   And the leaves drift slowly
   Past the long windows.
   "How silly you look, my dear Abate,
   With that great brown leaf in your wig.
   Pluck it off, I beg you,
   Or I shall die of laughing."

   A yellow wall
   Aflare in the sunlight,
   Chequered with shadows,
   Shadows of vine leaves,
   Shadows of masks.
   Masks coming, printing themselves for an instant,
   Then passing on,
   More masks always replacing them.
   Masks with tricorns and rapiers sticking out behind
   Pursuing masks with plumes and high heels,
   The sunlight shining under their insteps.
   One,
   One, two,
   One, two, three,
   There is a thronging of shadows on the hot wall,
   Filigreed at the top with moving leaves.
   Yellow sunlight and black shadows,
   Yellow and black,
   Gorgeous—barbaric.
   Two masks stand together,
   And the shadow of a leaf falls through them,
   Marking the wall where they are not.
   From hat-tip to shoulder-tip,
   From elbow to sword-hilt,
   The leaf falls.
   The shadows mingle,
   Blur together,
   Slide along the wall and disappear.
   Gold of mosaics and candles,
   And night blackness lurking in the ceiling beams.
   Saint Mark's glitters with flames and reflections.
   A cloak brushes aside,
   And the yellow of satin
   Licks out over the coloured inlays of the pavement.
   Under the gold crucifixes
   There is a meeting of hands
   Reaching from black mantles.
   Sighing embraces, bold investigations,
   Hide in confessionals,
   Sheltered by the shuffling of feet.
   Gorgeous—barbaric
   In its mail of jewels and gold,
   Saint Mark's looks down at the swarm of black masks;
   And outside in the palace gardens brown leaves fall,
   Flutter,
   Fall.
   Brown,
   And yellow streaked with brown.

   Blue-black, the sky over Venice,
   With a pricking of yellow stars.
   There is no moon,
   And the waves push darkly against the prow
   Of the gondola,
   Coming from Malamocco
   And streaming toward Venice.
   It is black under the gondola hood,
   But the yellow of a satin dress
   Glares out like the eye of a watching tiger.
   Yellow compassed about with darkness,
   Yellow and black,
   Gorgeous—barbaric.
   The boatman sings,
   It is Tasso that he sings;
   The lovers seek each other beneath their mantles,
   And the gondola drifts over the lagoon, aslant to the coming dawn.
   But at Malamocco in front,
   In Venice behind,
   Fall the leaves,
   Brown,
   And yellow streaked with brown.
   They fall,
   Flutter,
   Fall.

BRONZE TABLETS

The Fruit Shop

   Cross-ribboned shoes; a muslin gown,
   High-waisted, girdled with bright blue;
   A straw poke bonnet which hid the frown
   She pluckered her little brows into
   As she picked her dainty passage through
   The dusty street. "Ah, Mademoiselle,
   A dirty pathway, we need rain,
   My poor fruits suffer, and the shell
   Of this nut's too big for its kernel, lain
   Here in the sun it has shrunk again.
   The baker down at the corner says
   We need a battle to shake the clouds;
   But I am a man of peace, my ways
   Don't look to the killing of men in crowds.
   Poor fellows with guns and bayonets for shrouds!
   Pray, Mademoiselle, come out of the sun.
   Let me dust off that wicker chair. It's cool
   In here, for the green leaves I have run
   In a curtain over the door, make a pool
   Of shade. You see the pears on that stool—
   The shadow keeps them plump and fair."
   Over the fruiterer's door, the leaves
   Held back the sun, a greenish flare
   Quivered and sparked the shop, the sheaves
   Of sunbeams, glanced from the sign on the eaves,
   Shot from the golden letters, broke
   And splintered to little scattered lights.
   Jeanne Tourmont entered the shop, her poke
   Bonnet tilted itself to rights,
   And her face looked out like the moon on nights
   Of flickering clouds. "Monsieur Popain, I
   Want gooseberries, an apple or two,
   Or excellent plums, but not if they're high;
   Haven't you some which a strong wind blew?
   I've only a couple of francs for you."
   Monsieur Popain shrugged and rubbed his hands.
   What could he do, the times were sad.
   A couple of francs and such demands!
   And asking for fruits a little bad.
   Wind-blown indeed! He never had
   Anything else than the very best.
   He pointed to baskets of blunted pears
   With the thin skin tight like a bursting vest,
   All yellow, and red, and brown, in smears.
   Monsieur Popain's voice denoted tears.
   He took up a pear with tender care,
   And pressed it with his hardened thumb.
   "Smell it, Mademoiselle, the perfume there
   Is like lavender, and sweet thoughts come
   Only from having a dish at home.
   And those grapes! They melt in the mouth like wine,
   Just a click of the tongue, and they burst to honey.
   They're only this morning off the vine,
   And I paid for them down in silver money.
   The Corporal's widow is witness, her pony
   Brought them in at sunrise to-day.
   Those oranges—Gold! They're almost red.
   They seem little chips just broken away
   From the sun itself. Or perhaps instead
   You'd like a pomegranate, they're rarely gay,
   When you split them the seeds are like crimson spray.
   Yes, they're high, they're high, and those Turkey figs,
   They all come from the South, and Nelson's ships
   Make it a little hard for our rigs.
   They must be forever giving the slips
   To the cursed English, and when men clips
   Through powder to bring them, why dainties mounts
   A bit in price. Those almonds now,
   I'll strip off that husk, when one discounts
   A life or two in a nigger row
   With the man who grew them, it does seem how
   They would come dear; and then the fight
   At sea perhaps, our boats have heels
   And mostly they sail along at night,
   But once in a way they're caught; one feels
   Ivory's not better nor finer—why peels
   From an almond kernel are worth two sous.
   It's hard to sell them now," he sighed.
   "Purses are tight, but I shall not lose.
   There's plenty of cheaper things to choose."
   He picked some currants out of a wide
   Earthen bowl. "They make the tongue
   Almost fly out to suck them, bride
   Currants they are, they were planted long
   Ago for some new Marquise, among
   Other great beauties, before the Chateau
   Was left to rot. Now the Gardener's wife,
   He that marched off to his death at Marengo,
   Sells them to me; she keeps her life
   From snuffing out, with her pruning knife.
   She's a poor old thing, but she learnt the trade
   When her man was young, and the young Marquis
   Couldn't have enough garden. The flowers he made
   All new! And the fruits! But 'twas said that he
   Was no friend to the people, and so they laid
   Some charge against him, a cavalcade
   Of citizens took him away; they meant
   Well, but I think there was some mistake.
   He just pottered round in his garden, bent
   On growing things; we were so awake
   In those days for the New Republic's sake.
   He's gone, and the garden is all that's left
   Not in ruin, but the currants and apricots,
   And peaches, furred and sweet, with a cleft
   Full of morning dew, in those green-glazed pots,
   Why, Mademoiselle, there is never an eft
   Or worm among them, and as for theft,
   How the old woman keeps them I cannot say,
   But they're finer than any grown this way."
   Jeanne Tourmont drew back the filigree ring
   Of her striped silk purse, tipped it upside down
   And shook it, two coins fell with a ding
   Of striking silver, beneath her gown
   One rolled, the other lay, a thing
   Sparked white and sharply glistening,
   In a drop of sunlight between two shades.
   She jerked the purse, took its empty ends
   And crumpled them toward the centre braids.
   The whole collapsed to a mass of blends
   Of colours and stripes. "Monsieur Popain, friends
   We have always been. In the days before
   The Great Revolution my aunt was kind
   When you needed help. You need no more;
   'Tis we now who must beg at your door,
   And will you refuse?" The little man
   Bustled, denied, his heart was good,
   But times were hard. He went to a pan
   And poured upon the counter a flood
   Of pungent raspberries, tanged like wood.
   He took a melon with rough green rind
   And rubbed it well with his apron tip.
   Then he hunted over the shop to find
   Some walnuts cracking at the lip,
   And added to these a barberry slip
   Whose acrid, oval berries hung
   Like fringe and trembled. He reached a round
   Basket, with handles, from where it swung
   Against the wall, laid it on the ground
   And filled it, then he searched and found
   The francs Jeanne Tourmont had let fall.
   "You'll return the basket, Mademoiselle?"
   She smiled, "The next time that I call,
   Monsieur. You know that very well."
   'Twas lightly said, but meant to tell.
   Monsieur Popain bowed, somewhat abashed.
   She took her basket and stepped out.
   The sunlight was so bright it flashed
   Her eyes to blindness, and the rout
   Of the little street was all about.
   Through glare and noise she stumbled, dazed.
   The heavy basket was a care.
   She heard a shout and almost grazed
   The panels of a chaise and pair.
   The postboy yelled, and an amazed
   Face from the carriage window gazed.
   She jumped back just in time, her heart
   Beating with fear. Through whirling light
   The chaise departed, but her smart
   Was keen and bitter. In the white
   Dust of the street she saw a bright
   Streak of colours, wet and gay,
   Red like blood. Crushed but fair,
   Her fruit stained the cobbles of the way.
   Monsieur Popain joined her there.
   "Tiens, Mademoiselle,
         c'est le General Bonaparte, partant pour la Guerre!"