ODE OF JUBILEE 82 JUBILEE BEFORE REVOLUTION 84 FOLK SONGS FRENCH PEASANT SONGS 89 BALLADS THE YOUNG RUTHVEN 93 THE QUEEN O’ SPAIN AND THE BAULD MCLEAN 97 KEITH OF CRAIGENTOLLY 101 DEDICATORY _In Augustinum Dobson_. JAM RUDE DONATUM. DEAR Poet, now turned out to grass (Like him who reigned in Babylon), Forget the seasons overlaid By business and the Board of Trade: And sing of old-world lad and lass As in the summers that are gone. Back to the golden prime of Anne! When you ambassador had been, And brought o’er sea the King again, Beatrix Esmond in his train, Ah, happy bard to hold her fan, And happy land with such a Queen! We live too early, or too late, You should have shared the pint of Pope, And taught, well pleased, the shining shell To murmur of the fair Lepel, And changed the stars of St. John’s fate To some more happy horoscope. By duchesses with roses crowned, And fed with chicken and champagne, Urbane and witty, and too wary To risk the feud of Lady Mary, You should have walked the courtly ground Of times that cannot come again. Bring back these years in verse or prose, (I very much prefer your verse!) As on some Twenty-Ninth of May Restore the splendour and the sway, Forget the sins, the wars, the woes— The joys alone must you rehearse. Forget the dunces (there is none So stupid as to snarl at _you_); So may your years with pen and book Run pleasant as an English brook Through meadows floral in the sun, And shadows fragrant of the dew. And thus at ending of your span— As all must end—the world shall say, “His best he gave: he left us not A line that saints could wish to blot, For he was blameless, though a man, And though the poet, he was gay!” LOYAL LYRICS _How the Maid Marched from Blois_. (Supposed to be narrated by James Power, or Polwarth, her Scottish banner-painter.) THE Maiden called for her great destrier, But he lashed like a fiend when the Maid drew near: “Lead him forth to the Cross!” she cried, and he stood Like a steed of bronze by the Holy Rood!