A moment's fantasy, the vision came
Of Europe dipped in fiery death, and so
Mounting re-born, with vestal limbs aglow,
Splendid and fragrant from her bath of flame.
It fleeted; and a phantom without name, 5
Sightless, dismembered, terrible, said: 'Lo,
I am that ravished Europe men shall know
After the morn of blood and night of shame.'
The spectre passed, and I beheld alone
The Europe of the present, as she stands, 10
Powerless from terror of her own vast power,
'Neath novel stars, beside a brink unknown;
And round her the sad Kings, with sleepless
hands,

Piling the fagots, hour by doomful hour.

1893

THE SAINT AND THE SATYR

SAINT ANTHONY the eremite

He wandered in the wold,

1893

1895

1897

15

20

5

5

10

And there he saw a hoofèd wight

To blunder down by Garden Reach And rot at Kedgeree,

The tale the Hughli told the shoal The lean shoal told to me.

"T was Fultah Fisher's boarding-house, Where sailor-men reside,

5

That neither gifts nor gain

Can hold a winking Light o' Love

Or Fancy's flight restrain,

When Anne of Austria rolled her eyes

On Hans the blue-eyed Dane.

Since Life is strife, and strife means knife, From Howrah to the Bay,

And he may die before the dawn

Who liquored out the day,

In Fultah Fisher's boarding-house

We woo while yet we may.

But cold was Hans the blue-eyed Dane,
Bull-throated, bare of arm,

And laughter shook the chest beneath
The maid Ultruda's Charm

The little silver crucifix

That keeps a man from harm.

'You speak to Salem Hardieker;
You was his girl, I know.

I ship mineselfs to-morrow, see,
Und round the Skaw we go,
South, down the Cattegat, by Hjelm,

To Besser in Saro.'

When love rejected turns to hate, All ill betide the man.

She spoke as woman can.

A scream a sob 'He called me

names!'

And then the fray began.

'You speak to Salem Hardieker'

An oath from Salem Hardieker,
A shriek upon the stairs,

A dance of shadows on the wall,

A knife-thrust unawares

And Hans came down, as cattle drop, Across the broken chairs.

60

65

70

75

80

85

At Fultah Fisher's boarding-house
They rested from the sea.

Now Anne of Austria shared their drinks,
Collinga knew her fame,

From Tarnau in Galicia

To Jaun Bazaar she came, To eat the bread of infamy

And take the wage of shame.

She held a dozen men to heel

45

Rich spoil of war was hers,

50

In hose and gown and ring and chain, From twenty mariners,

And, by Port Law, that week, men called Her Salem Hardieker's.