Life! lordly giver and gay! I, for this manor of Time, Lightly and lovingly pay Rent with the rose of a rhyme. III DESIRE OF FAME O unapproachable glories of the night! You type not my desire: enough for me The vanished meteor’s immortality, Brief memory of a moment touched with light. TO-DAY Voice, with what emulous fire thou singest free hearts of old fashion, English scorners of Spain, sweeping the blue sea-way, Sing me the daring of life for life, the magnanimous passion Of man for man in the mean populous streets of To-day! Hand, with what colour and power thou couldst show, in the ring hot-sanded, Brown Bestiarius holding the lean tawn tiger at bay, Paint me the wrestle of Toil with the wild-beast Want, bare-handed; Shadow me forth a soul steadily facing To-day! THE BALLAD OF CALNAN’S CHRISTMAS When you hear the fire-gongs beat fierce along the startled street, See the great-limbed horses bound, and the gleaming engine sway, And the driver in his place, with his fixed, heroic face, Say a prayer for Calnan’s sake--he that died on Christmas day! Cling! Cling! Each to his station! Clang! Clang! Quick to clear the way! (Christ keep the soldiers of salvation, Fighting nameless battles in the war of every day!) In the morning, blue and mild, of the Mother and the Child, While the blessed bells were calling, thrilled the summons through the wire; In the morning, blue and mild, for a woman and a child Died a man of gentle will, plunging on to fight the fire. Ring, swing, bells in the steeple! Ring the Child and ring the Star, as sweetly as ye may! Ring, swing, bells, to tell the people God’s goodwill to earthly men, the men of every day! “Thirty-four” swung out agleam, with her mighty, bounding team; Horses’ honour pricked them on, and they leaped as at a goad; Jimmy Calnan in his place, with his clean-cut Irish face, Iron hands upon the reins, eyes astrain upon the road. Clang! Clang! Quick to clear the way! (Sweetly rang, above the clang, the bells of Christmas day.) Tearing, plunging through the din, scarce a man can hold them in; None on earth could pull them short: Mary Mother, guard from harm Yonder woman straight ahead, stony-still with sudden dread, And the little woman-child, with her waxen child in arm! Oh, God’s calls, how swift they are! Oh, the Cross that hides the Star! Oh, the fire-gong beating fierce through the bells of Christmas day! Just a second there to choose, and a life to keep or lose-- To the curb he swung the horses, and he flung his life away!