RIZPAH.

17-.

I.

WAILING, wailing, wailing, the wind over land and

sea

And Willy's voice in the wind, 'O mother, come out

to me.'

Why should he call me to-night, when he knows that

I cannot go !

For the downs are as bright as day, and the full moon

stares at the snow.

II.

We should be seen, my dear; they would spy us out

of the town.

The loud black nights for us, and the storm rushing

over the down,

When I cannot see my own hand, but am led by the

creak of the chain,

And grovel and grope for my son till I find myself

drenched with the rain.

III.

Anything fallen again? nay-what was there left to

fall?

I have taken them home, I have number'd the bones,

I have hidden them all.

What am I saying? and what are you? do you come

as a spy?

Falls? what falls? who knows? As the tree falls so

must it lie.

IV.

Who let her in? how long has she been? you-what

have you heard?

Why did you sit so quiet? you never have spoken a

word.

O-to pray with me-yes-a lady-none of their

spies

But the night has crept into my heart, and begun to

darken my eyes.

V.

Ah-you, that have lived so soft, what should you

know of the night,

The blast and the burning shame and the bitter frost

and the fright?

I have done it, while you were asleep-you were only

made for the day.

I have gather'd my baby together-and now you may

go your way.

VI.

Nay-for it's kind of you, Madam, to sit by an old

dying wife.

But say nothing hard of my boy, I have only an hour

of life.

I kiss'd my boy in the prison, before he went out to

die.

'They dared me to do it,' he said, and he never has

told me a lie.

I whipt him for robbing an orchard once when he was

but a child

The farmer dared me to do it,' he said; he was always so wild

And idle-and couldn't be idle-my Willy-he never

could rest.

The King should have made him a soldier, he would

have been one of his best.

VII.

But he lived with a lot of wild mates, and they never

would let him be good;

They swore that he dare not rob the mail, and he

swore that he would;

And he took no life, but he took one purse, and when

all was done

He flung it among his fellows-I'll none of it, said my son.

VIII.

I came into court to the Judge and the lawyers. I

told them my tale,

God's own truth-but they kill'd him, they kill'd him

for robbing the mail.