The Ballad of the White Horse | Page 7

the
White Horse wold,
And the Thames bank to Owsenfold,
If Wessex
goes to war.
"Guthrum sits strong on either bank
And you must press his lines

Inwards, and eastward drive him down;
I doubt if you shall take the
crown
Till you have taken London town.
For me, I have the vines."

"If each man on the Judgment Day
Meet God on a plain alone,"

Said Alfred, "I will speak for you
As for myself, and call it true

That you brought all fighting folk you knew
Lined under Egbert's
Stone.
"Though I be in the dust ere then,
I know where you will be."
And
shouldering suddenly his spear
He faded like some elfin fear,

Where the tall pines ran up, tier on tier
Tree overtoppling tree.
He shouldered his spear at morning
And laughed to lay it on,
But he
leaned on his spear as on a staff,
With might and little mood to laugh,

Or ever he sighted chick or calf
Of Colan of Caerleon.
For the man dwelt in a lost land
Of boulders and broken men,
In a
great grey cave far off to the south
Where a thick green forest stopped
the mouth,
Giving darkness in his den.
And the man was come like a shadow,
From the shadow of Druid
trees,
Where Usk, with mighty murmurings,
Past Caerleon of the
fallen kings,
Goes out to ghostly seas.
Last of a race in ruin--
He spoke the speech of the Gaels;
His kin
were in holy Ireland,
Or up in the crags of Wales.
But his soul stood with his mother's folk,
That were of the
rain-wrapped isle,
Where Patrick and Brandan westerly
Looked out
at last on a landless sea
And the sun's last smile.
His harp was carved and cunning,
As the Celtic craftsman makes,

Graven all over with twisting shapes
Like many headless snakes.
His harp was carved and cunning,
His sword prompt and sharp,

And he was gay when he held the sword,
Sad when he held the harp.
For the great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad,
For

all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad.
He kept the Roman order,
He made the Christian sign;
But his eyes
grew often blind and bright,
And the sea that rose in the rocks at night

Rose to his head like wine.
He made the sign of the cross of God,
He knew the Roman prayer,

But he had unreason in his heart
Because of the gods that were.
Even they that walked on the high cliffs,
High as the clouds were
then,
Gods of unbearable beauty,
That broke the hearts of men.
And whether in seat or saddle,
Whether with frown or smile,

Whether at feast or fight was he,
He heard the noise of a nameless sea

On an undiscovered isle.
Lifting the great green ivy
And the great spear lowering,
One said,
"I am Alfred of Wessex,
And I am a conquered king."
And the man of the cave made answer,
And his eyes were stars of
scorn,
"And better kings were conquered
Or ever your sires were
born.
"What goddess was your mother,
What fay your breed begot,
That
you should not die with Uther
And Arthur and Lancelot?
"But when you win you brag and blow,
And when you lose you rail,

Army of eastland yokels
Not strong enough to fail."
"I bring not boast or railing,"
Spake Alfred not in ire,
"I bring of
Our Lady a lesson set,
This--that the sky grows darker yet
And the
sea rises higher."
Then Colan of the Sacred Tree
Tossed his black mane on high,
And
cried, as rigidly he rose,
"And if the sea and sky be foes,
We will

tame the sea and sky."
Smiled Alfred, "Seek ye a fable
More dizzy and more dread
Than
all your mad barbarian tales
Where the sky stands on its head ?
"A tale where a man looks down on the sky
That has long looked
down on him;
A tale where a man can swallow a sea
That might
swallow the seraphim.
"Bring to the hut by Egbert's Stone
All bills and bows ye have."

And Alfred strode off rapidly,
And Colan of the Sacred Tree
Went
slowly to his cave.
BOOK III
THE HARP OF ALFRED
In a tree that yawned and twisted
The King's few goods were flung,
A mass-book mildewed, line by line,
And weapons and a skin of
wine,
And an old harp unstrung.
By the yawning tree in the twilight
The King unbound his sword,

Severed the harp of all his goods,
And there in the cool and soundless
woods
Sounded a single chord.
Then laughed; and watched the finches flash,
The sullen flies in
swarm,
And went unarmed over the hills,
With the harp upon his
arm,
Until he came to the White Horse Vale
And saw across the plains,
In the twilight high and far and fell,
Like
the fiery terraces of hell,
The camp fires of the Danes--

The fires of the Great Army
That was made of iron men,
Whose
lights of sacrilege and scorn
Ran around England red as morn,
Fires
over Glastonbury Thorn--
Fires out on Ely Fen.
And as he went by White Horse Vale
He saw lie wan and wide
The
old horse graven, God knows when,
By gods or beasts or what things
then
Walked a new world instead of men
And