Take now a country mood,

Every instant grow; he canClearly through a flint wall see,Or watch the startled spirit fleeFrom the throat of a dead man.Across two counties he can hearAnd catch your words before you speak.The woodlouse or the maggot’s weakClamour rings in his sad ear,And noise so slight it would surpassCredence–drinking sound of grass,Worm talk, clashing jaws of…

Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.Repeat ‘impossible men’: not merely rustic,Foul-tempered or depraved(Dramatic foils chosen to show the worldHow well women behave, and always have behaved).Impossible men: idle, illiterate,Self-pitying, dirty, sly,For whose appearance even in City parksExcuses must be made to casual passers-by.Has God’s supply of tolerable husbandsFallen,…

And lay ghost hands on everything,But leave the noonday’s warm sunshineTo living lads for mirth and wine.I met you suddenly down the street,Strangers assume your phantom faces,You grin at me from daylight places,Dead, long dead, I’m ashamed to greetDead men down the morning street.

Dicky, are you ailing?DickyEven by this fireside, mother,My heart is failing.To-night across the down,Whistling and jolly,I sauntered out from townWith my stick of holly.Bounteous and cool from seaThe wind was blowing,Cloud shadows under the moonComing and going.I sang old roaring songs,Ran and leaped quick,And turned home by St. Swithin’sTwirling my stick.And there as I was…

Loomed gigantic, formless, queer,Purring in my haunted earThat same hideous nightmare thing,Talking, as he lapped my blood,In a voice cruel and flat,Saying for ever, ‘Cat! … Cat! … Cat!…’That one word was all he said,That one word through all my sleep,In monotonous mock despair.Nonsense may be light as air,But there’s Nonsense that can keepHorror bristling…

The candles a tall lightship; my two handsAre boats and barges anchored to the sands,With mighty cliffs all round;They’re full of wine and riches from far lands….I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?I can make caves,By lifting up the island and huge wavesAnd storms, and then with head and ears well underBlow bubbles…