He from the wind-bitten north with ship and companions descended, Searching for eggs of death spawned by invisible hulls. Many he found and drew forth. Of a sudden the fishery ended In flame and a clamorous breath not new to the eye-pecking gulls. DESTROYERS IN COLLISION For Fog and Fate no charm is found To lighten or amend. I, hurrying to my bride, was drowned-- Cut down by my best friend. CONVOY ESCORT I was a shepherd to fools Causelessly bold or afraid. They would not abide by my rules. Yet they escaped. For I stayed. UNKNOWN FEMALE CORPSE Headless, lacking foot and hand, Horrible I come to land. I beseech all women's sons Know I was a mother once. RAPED AND REVENGED One used and butchered me: another spied Me broken--for which thing a hundred died. So it was learned among the heathen hosts How much a freeborn woman's favour costs. SALONIKAN GRAVE I have watched a thousand days Push out and crawl into night Slowly as tortoises Now I, too, follow these. It is fever, and not fight-- Time, not battle--that slays. THE BRIDEGROOM Call me not false, beloved, If, from thy scarce-known breast So little time removed, In other arms I rest. For this more ancient bride Whom coldly I embrace Was constant at my side Before I saw thy face. Our marriage, often set-- By miracle delayed-- At last is consummate, And cannot be unmade. Live, then, whom Life shall cure, Almost, of Memory, And leave us to endure Its immortality. V. A. D. (MEDITERRANEAN) Ah, would swift ships had never been, for then we ne'er had found, These harsh AEgean rocks between, this little virgin drowned, Whom neither spouse nor child shall mourn, but men she nursed through pain And--certain keels for whose return the heathen look in vain. 'THE CITY OF BRASS' 1909 Here was a people whom after their works thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion: and in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. _The Arabian Nights_ _In a land that the sand overlays--the ways to her gates are untrod-- A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah alone knoweth all!_