Poems of George Meredith, vol 1 | Page 3

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Poems by George Meredith--Volume 1
CHILLIANWALLAH
Chillanwallah, Chillanwallah!
Where our brothers fought and bled,

O thy name is natural music
And a dirge above the dead!
Though
we have not been defeated,
Though we can't be overcome,
Still,
whene'er thou art repeated,
I would fain that grief were dumb.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a name so sad and strange,

Like a breeze through midnight harpstrings
Ringing many a mournful
change;
But the wildness and the sorrow
Have a meaning of their
own -
Oh, whereof no glad to-morrow
Can relieve the dismal tone!
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a village dark and low,
By the
bloody Jhelum river
Bridged by the foreboding foe;
And across the
wintry water
He is ready to retreat,
When the carnage and the
slaughter
Shall have paid for his defeat.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a wild and dreary plain,
Strewn
with plots of thickest jungle,
Matted with the gory stain.
There the
murder-mouthed artillery,
In the deadly ambuscade,
Wrought the
thunder of its treachery
On the skeleton brigade.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
When the night set in with rain,

Came the savage plundering devils
To their work among the slain;

And the wounded and the dying
In cold blood did share the doom


Of their comrades round them lying,
Stiff in the dead skyless gloom.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
Thou wilt be a doleful chord,
And a
mystic note of mourning
That will need no chiming word;
And that
heart will leap with anguish
Who may understand thee best;
But the
hopes of all will languish
Till thy memory is at rest.
THE DOE: A FRAGMENT (From 'WANDERING WILLIE')
And--'Yonder look! yoho! yoho!
Nancy is off!' the farmer cried,

Advancing by the river side,
Red-kerchieft and brown-coated;--'So,

My girl, who else could leap like that?
So neatly! like a lady! 'Zounds!

Look at her how she leads the hounds!'
And waving his dusty
beaver hat,
He cheered across the chase-filled water,
And clapt his
arm about his daughter,
And gave to Joan a courteous hug,
And kiss
that, like a stubborn plug
From generous vats in vastness rounded,

The inner wealth and spirit sounded:
Eagerly pointing South, where,
lo,
The daintiest, fleetest-footed doe
Led o'er the fields and thro' the
furze
Beyond: her lively delicate ears
Prickt up erect, and in her
track
A dappled lengthy-striding pack.
Scarce had they cast eyes upon her,
When every heart was wagered
on her,
And half in dread, and half delight,
They watched her lovely
bounding flight;
As now across the flashing green,
And now
beneath the stately trees,
And now far distant in the dene,
She
headed on with graceful ease:
Hanging aloft with doubled knees,
At
times athwart some hedge or gate;
And slackening pace by slow
degrees,
As for the foremost foe to wait.
Renewing her outstripping
rate
Whene'er the hot pursuers neared,

By garden wall and paled
estate,
Where clambering gazers whooped and cheered.
Here
winding under elm and oak,
And slanting up the sunny hill:

Splashing the water here like smoke
Among the mill-holms round the
mill.

And--'Let her go; she shows her game,
My Nancy girl, my pet and
treasure!'
The farmer sighed: his eyes with pleasure
Brimming: ''Tis
my daughter's name,
My second daughter lying yonder.'
And
Willie's eye in search did wander,
And caught at once, with moist
regard,
The white gleams of a grey churchyard.
'Three weeks before
my girl had gone,
And while upon her pillows propped,
She lay at
eve; the weakling fawn -
For still it seems a fawn just dropt
A
se'nnight--to my Nancy's bed
I brought to make my girl a gift:
The
mothers of them both were dead:
And both to bless it was my drift,

By giving each a friend; not thinking
How rapidly my girl was
sinking.
And I remember how, to pat
Its neck, she stretched her
hand so weak,
And its cold nose against her cheek
Pressed fondly:
and I fetched the mat
To make it up a couch just by her,
Where in
the lone dark hours to lie:
For neither dear old nurse nor I
Would
any single wish deny her.
And there unto the last it lay;
And in the
pastures cared to play
Little or nothing: there its meals
And milk I
brought: and even now
The creature such affection feels
For that
old room that, when and how,
'Tis strange to mark, it slinks and steals

To get there, and all day conceals.
And once when nurse who,
since that time,
Keeps house for me, was very sick,
Waking upon
the midnight chime,
And listening to the stair-clock's click,
I heard
a rustling, half uncertain,
Close against the dark bed-curtain:
And
while I thrust my leg to kick,

And feel the phantom with my feet,
A
loving tongue began to lick
My left hand lying on the sheet;
And
warm sweet breath upon me blew,
And that 'twas Nancy then I knew.

So, for her love, I