With him had I no mind to sit In Baldon lane for loss or gain, Said I to him with feeble wit, And close beside him crept; The branches might have heard my pain, The sudden cry, the maiden cry,-- My fancy man departed sly, And woman-like, I wept. I kept the roads until my bed, A nine months' time, a weary time, And then to Baldon woods I fled In Spring-time weather mild; The kindly trees, they fear no crime, So back I came, to Baldon came, Received their welcome without blame, And moaned and dropped my child. The poor brat gasped an hour or so, A goodly child, a thoughtful child; Perceiving nought for us but woe It stretched and sudden died; But I, when Spring breaks fresh and mild, To Baldon lane return again, For there's my home, and women vain Must hold their homes in pride. COME GIRL, AND EMBRACE Come girl, and embrace And ask no more I wed thee; Know then you are sweet of face, Soft-limbed and fashioned lovingly;-- Must you go marketing your charms In cunning woman-like, And filled with old wives' tales' alarms? I tell you, girl, come embrace; What reck we of churchling and priest With hands on paunch, and chubby face? Behold, we are life's pitiful least, And we perish at the first smell Of death, whither heaves earth To spurn us cringing into hell. Come girl, and embrace; Nay, cry not, poor wretch, nor plead, But haste, for life strikes a swift pace, And I burn with envious greed: Know you not, fool, we are the mock Of gods, time, clothes, and priests? But come, there is no time for talk. * * * * * PETER QUENNELL PROCNE (A FRAGMENT) So she became a bird, and bird-like danced On a long sloe-bough, treading the silver blossom With a bird's lovely feet; And shaken blossoms fell into the hands Of Sunlight. And he held them for a moment And let them drop. And in the autumn Procne came again And leapt upon the crooked sloe-bough singing, And the dark berries winked like earth-dimmed beads, As the branch swung beneath her dancing feet. A MAN TO A SUNFLOWER See, I have bent thee by thy saffron hair --O most strange masker-- Towards my face, thy face so full of eyes --O almost legendary monster-- Thee of the saffron, circling hair I bend, Bend by my fingers knotted in thy hair --Hair like broad flames. So, shall I swear by beech-husk, spindleberry, To break thee, saffron hair and peering eye, --To have the mastery? PERCEPTION