HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS

There, then, awhile in chains we lay,
In wintry dungeons, far from day;

But ris'n at length, with might and main,
Our iron fetters burst in twain.

Then all the horns were blown in town;
And to the ramparts clanging down,
All the giants leaped to horse

And charged behind us through the gorse.

On we rode, the others and I,
Over the mountains blue, and by
The Silver River, the sounding sea
And the robber woods of Tartary.

A thousand miles we galloped fast,
And down the witches' lane we passed,
And rode amain, with brandished sword,
Up to the middle, through the ford.

Last we drew rein—a weary three-
Upon the lawn, in time for tea,
And from our steeds alighted down
Before the gates of Babylon.

89

ENVOYS

I

TO WILLIE AND HENRIETTA

F two may read aright

IF

These rhymes of old delight

And house and garden play,

You two, my cousins, and you only, may.

You in a garden green

With me were king and queen,

Were hunter, soldier, tar,

And all the thousand things that children are.

Now in the elders' seat

We rest with quiet feet,

And from the window-bay

We watch the children, our successors, play.

'Time was,' the golden head

Irrevocably said;

But time which none can bind,

While flowing fast away, leaves love behind.