Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meetCloser is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.

God is law, say the wise; O soul, and let us rejoice,

For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice.

Law is God, say some; no God at all, says the fool,

For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool;

And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see;

But if we could see and hear, this Vision-were it not He? 1869.

DOSN'T thou 'ear my 'erse's legs, as they canters awaay?

Proputty. proputty, proputty-that's what I 'ears 'em saay.

Proputty, proputty, proputty-Sam, thou's an ass for thy païns; Theer's moor sense i' one o' 'is legs, nor in all thy brains.

Woa-theer's a craw to pluck wi' tha, Sam: yon's parson's 'ouseDosn't thou knaw that a man mun be eather a man or a mouse? Time to think on it then; for thou'll be twenty to weeak.1

Proputty, proputty-woa then, woa-let ma 'ear mysen speak.

Me an' thy muther, Sammy, 'as bean a-talkin' o' thee;

Thou's bean talkin' to muther, an' she

bean a-telli.' it me.

Thou'll not marry for munny--thou's sweet upo' parson's lass-

This week

Noa-thou 'll marry for luvv--an' we boath on us thinks tha an ass..

Seea'd her to-daay goa by-Saaint's day -they was ringing the bells. She's a beauty, thou thinks--an' soa is scoors of gells,

Them as 'as munny an'

l-wot's a beauty?-the flower as blaws. But proputty, proputty sticks, an' proputty, proputty grows.

Do'ant be stunt ;1 taake time. I knaws what maakes tha sa mad. Warn't I craazed fur the lasses mysén when I wur a lad?

But I knaw'd a Quaaker feller as often 'as towd ma this: "Doant thou marry for munny, but goa wheer munny is !"

An' I went wheer munny war; an' thy muther coom to 'and,

Wi' lots o' munny laaïd by, an' a nicetish bit o' land.

Maaybe she warn't a beauty-I niver giv it a thowt

But warn't she as good to cuddle an' kiss as a lass as 'ant nowt?

Parson's lass 'ant nowt, an' she weant 'a nowt when 'e 's dead,

Mun be a guvness, lad, or summut, and addle 2 her bread.

Why? fur 'e 's nobbut a curate, an' weant niver get hissén clear, An' 'e maade the bed as 'e ligs on afoor 'e coom'd to the shere.

An' thin 'e coom'd to the parish wi' lots o' Varsity debt,

Stook to his taaïl they did, an' 'e 'ant got shut on 'em yet.

An' 'e ligs on 'is back i' the grip, wi'
noan to lend 'im a shove,
Woorse nor a far-welter'd yowe; fur,
Sammy, 'e married fur luvv.

Luvv ? what's luvv? thou can luvv thy lass an' 'er munny too,

Maakin' 'em goa togither, as they've good right to do.

Couldn I luvv thy muther by cause 'o 'er munny laaïd by ?

Naay-fur I luvv'd 'er a vast sight moor fur it; reason why.

Ay, an' thy muther says thou wants to marry the lass,

Cooms of a gentleman burn; an' we boath on us thinks tha an ass. Woa then, proputty, wiltha?-an ass as near as mays nowt 1Woa then, wiltha? dangtha !-the bees is as fell as owt.2

Break me a bit o' the esh for his 'ead, lad, out o' the fence!

Gentleman burn! what's gentleman burn? is it shillins an' pence? Proputty, proputty's ivrything 'ere, an', Sammy, I'm blest

If it is n't the saame oop yonder, fur them as 'as it 's the best.

Them or thir feythers, tha sees, mun 'a bean a laazy lot,

Fur work mun 'a gone to the gittin' whiniver munny was got.

Feyther 'ad ammost nowt; leastways 'is munny was 'id.

But 'e tued an' moil'd issén dead, an' 'e died a good un, 'e did.

Loook thou theer wheer Wrigglesby beck cooms out by the 'ill! Feyther run oop to the farm, an' I runs oop to the mill;

An' I'll run oop to the brig, an' that thou 'll live to see ;

And if thou marries a good un I'll leave the land to thee.

Thim's my noations, Sammy, wheerby I means to stick ;

But if thou marries a bad un, I'll leave the land to Dick.

Coom oop, proputty, proputty-that's what I'ears 'im saay-

Proputty, proputty, proputty-canter an' canter awaay.

1870.

ENGLAND AND AMERICA IN 1782

O THOU that sendest out the man
To rule by land and sea,

1 Makes nothing.

2 The flies are as fierce as anything.

Strong mother of a lion-line,

Be proud of those strong sons of thine Who wrench'd their rights from thee! What wonder if in noble heat

Those men thine arms withstood, Retaught the lesson thou hadst taught, And in thy spirit with thee foughtWho sprang from English blood!

But thou rejoice with liberal joy,
Lift up thy rocky face,
And shatter, when the storms are black,
In many a streaming torrent back,
The seas that shock thy base!

Whatever harmonies of law

The growing world assume, Thy work is thine-the single note From that deep chord which Hampden

"A thousand voices go

To North, South, East, and West; They leave the heights and are troubled, And moan and sink to their rest.

"The fields are fair beside them,

The chestnut towers in his bloom; But they-they feel the desire of the deep

Fall, and follow their doom.

"The deep has power on the height, And the height has power on the deep They are raised for ever and ever,

And sink again into sleep."

Not raised for ever and ever,

But when their cycle is o'er,

AT Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,

And a pinnace, like a flutter'd bird, came flying from far away; "Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!"

Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: "Fore God I am no coward; But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear,

And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick.

We are six ships of the line; can we fight with fifty-three?"

1 See the Life of Tennyson, II. 251-2.

God of battles, was ever a battle like

this in the world before?

X

For he said, "Fight on! fight on!" Tho' his vessel was all but a wreck; And it chanced that, when half of the short summer night was gone, With a grisly wound to be drest he had left the deck,

But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead,

And himself he was wounded again in the side and the head,

And he said, "Fight on! fight on!"

XI

And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over the summer

sea,

And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay round us all in a ring;

But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we still could sting,

So they watch'd what the end would be.
And we had not fought them in vain,
But in perilous plight were we,
Seeing forty of our poor hundred were
slain,

And half of the rest of us maim'd for life

In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife;

And the sick men down in the hold were

most of them stark and cold, And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder was all of it spent ; And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side;

But Sir Richard cried in his English pride:

"We have fought such a fight for a day and a night

As may never be fought again!

We have won great glory, my men!
And a day less or more

At sea or ashore,

We die-does it matter when?

Sink me the ship, Master Gunner-sink her, split her in twain !

Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!"

XII

And the gunner said, "Ay, ay," but the seamen made reply:

"We have children, we have wives, And the Lord hath spared our lives. We will make the Spaniard promise, if we yield, to let us go;

We shall live to fight again and to strike another blow."

And the lion there lay dying, and they yielded to the foe.

XIII

And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore him then,

Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir Richard caught at last, And they praised him to his face with their courtly foreign grace; But he rose upon their decks, and he cried :

"I have fought for Queen and Faith like a valiant man and true;

I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do.

With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard Grenville die !"

And he fell upon their decks, and he died.

XIV

And they stared at the dead that had been so valiant and true,

And had holden the power and glory of Spain so cheap

That he dared her with one little ship and his English few;

Was he devil or man? He was devil for aught they knew,

But they sank his body with honor down into the deep.

And they mann'd the Revenge with a swarthier alien crew,

And away she sail'd with her loss and long'd for her own;

When a wind from the lands they had ruin'd awoke from sleep,

And the water began to heave and the weather to moan,

And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew,

And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earthquake grew,

Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts and their flags, And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shatter'd navy of Spain, And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags

To be lost evermore in the main.

1878.