* * * * * WALTER DE LA MARE MUSIC When music sounds, gone is the earth I know, And all her lovely things even lovelier grow; Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies. When music sounds, out of the water rise Naiads whose beauty dims my waking eyes, Rapt in strange dream burns each enchanted face, With solemn echoing stirs their dwelling-place. When music sounds, all that I was I am Ere to this haunt of brooding dust I came; And from Time's woods break into distant song The swift-winged hours, as I hasten along. WANDERERS Wide are the meadows of night, And daisies are shining there, Tossing their lovely dews, Lustrous and fair; And through these sweet fields go, Wanderers amid the stars-- Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. 'Tired in their silver, they move, And circling, whisper and say, Fair are the blossoming meads of delight Through which we stray. MELMILLO Three and thirty birds there stood In an elder in a wood; Called Melmillo--flew off three, Leaving thirty in the tree; Called Melmillo--nine now gone, And the boughs held twenty-one; Called Melmillo--and eighteen Left but three to nod and preen; Called Melmillo--three--two--one-- Now of birds were feathers none. Then stole slim Melmillo in To that wood all dusk and green, And with lean long palms outspread Softly a strange dance did tread; Not a note of music she Had for echoing company; All the birds were flown to rest In the hollow of her breast; In the wood--thorn, elder, willow-- Danced alone--lone danced Melmillo. ALEXANDER It was the Great Alexander, Capped with a golden helm, Sate in the ages, in his floating ship, In a dead calm. Voices of sea-maids singing Wandered across the deep: The sailors labouring on their oars Rowed as in sleep. All the high pomp of Asia, Charmed by that siren lay, Out of their weary and dreaming minds Faded away. Like a bold boy sate their Captain, His glamour withered and gone, In the souls of his brooding manners, While the song pined on. Time like a falling dew, Life like the scene of a dream Laid between slumber and slumber Only did seem ... O Alexander, then, In all us mortals too, Wax not so overbold On the wave dark-blue! Come the calm starry night, Who then will hear Aught save the singing Of the sea-maids clear? THE MOCKING FAIRY 'Won't you look out of your window, Mrs Gill?' Quoth the Fairy, nidding, nodding in the garden; 'CAN'T you look out of your window, Mrs Gill?' Quoth the Fairy, laughing softly in the garden; But the air was still, the cherry boughs were still, And the ivy-tod 'neath the empty sill, And never from her window looked out Mrs Gill On the Fairy shrilly mocking in the garden.