226

BABY-BIRD 228

OLIVE 230

A WORD WITH THE WIND 234

NEAP-TIDE 238

BY THE WAYSIDE 241

NIGHT 243

IN TIME OF MOURNING 244

THE INTERPRETERS 245

THE RECALL 248

BY TWILIGHT 249

A BABY'S EPITAPH 250

ON THE DEATH OF SIR HENRY TAYLOR 251

IN MEMORY OF JOHN WILLIAM INCHBOLD 252

NEW YEAR'S DAY 257

TO SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 258

NELL GWYN 259

CALIBAN ON ARIEL 260

THE WEARY WEDDING 261

THE WINDS 270

A LYKE-WAKE SONG 271

A REIVER'S NECK-VERSE 272

THE WITCH-MOTHER 273

THE BRIDE'S TRAGEDY 276

A JACOBITE'S FAREWELL 281

A JACOBITE'S EXILE 282

THE TYNESIDE WIDOW 286

DEDICATION 289

POEMS AND BALLADS

THIRD SERIES

TO

WILLIAM BELL SCOTT

POET AND PAINTER

I DEDICATE THESE POEMS

IN MEMORY OF MANY YEARS

MARCH: AN ODE

1887

I

Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the splendour
of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger than dreams that
fulfil us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops and
branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossomlike snow or of frost that
outlightens all flowers till it fade
That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land, nor the night
than the day, nor the day than the night,
Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring: such mirth had
the madness and might in thee made,
March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms that