The Complete Poems

by Robert Graves

  Boys, from the first time you prod

  And thrust with spears of curtain-rod,

  From the first time you tear and slash

  Your long-bows from the garden ash,

  Or fit your shaft with a blue jay feather,

  Binding the split tops together,

  From that same hour by fate you’re bound

  As champions of this stony ground,

  Loyal and true in everything,

  To serve your Army and your King,

  Prepared to starve and sweat and die

  Under some fierce foreign sky,

  If only to keep safe those joys

  That belong to British boys,

  To keep young Prussians from the soft

  Scented hay of Father’s loft,

  And stop young Slavs from cutting bows

  And bendy spears from Welsh hedgerows.

  Another War soon gets begun,

  A dirtier, a more glorious one;

  Then, boys, you’ll have to play, all in;

  It’s the cruellest team will win.

  So hold your nose against the stink

  And never stop too long to think.

  Wars don’t change except in name;

  The next one must go just the same,

  And new foul tricks unguessed before

  Will win and justify this War.

  Kaisers and Czars will strut the stage

  Once more with pomp and greed and rage;

  Courtly ministers will stop

  At home and fight to the last drop;

  By the million men will die

  In some new horrible agony;

  And children here will thrust and poke,

  Shoot and die, and laugh at the joke,

  With bows and arrows and wooden spears,

  Playing at Royal Welch Fusiliers.

  STRONG BEER

  ‘What do you think

  The bravest drink

  Under the sky?’

  ‘Strong beer,’ said I.

  ‘There’s a place for everything,

  Everything, anything,

  There’s a place for everything

  Where it ought to be:

  For a chicken, the hen’s wing;

  For poison, the bee’s sting;

  For almond-blossom, Spring;

  A beerhouse for me.

  ‘There’s a prize for everyone,

  Everyone, anyone,

  There’s a prize for everyone,

  Whoever he may be:

  Crags for the mountaineer,

  Flags for the Fusilier,

  For all good fellows, beer!

  Strong beer for me!’

  ‘Tell us, now, how and when

  We may find the bravest men?’

  ‘A sure test, an easy test:

  Those that drink beer are the best,

  Brown beer strongly brewed,

  Plain man’s drink, plain man’s food.’

  Oh, never choose as Gideon chose

  By the cold well, but rather those

  Who look on beer when it is brown,

  Smack their lips and gulp it down.

  Leave the lads who tamely drink

  With Gideon by the water brink,

  But search the benches of the Plough,

  The Tun, the Sun, the Spotted Cow,

  For jolly rascal lads who pray,

  Pewter in hand, at close of day,

  ‘Teach me to live that I may fear

  The grave as little as my beer.’

  MARIGOLDS

  With a fork drive Nature out,

  She will ever yet return;

  Hedge the flower bed all about,

  Pull or stab or cut or burn,

  She will ever yet return.

  Look: the constant marigold

  Springs again from hidden roots.

  Baffled gardener, you behold

  New beginnings and new shoots

  Spring again from hidden roots.

  Pull or stab or cut or burn,

  They will ever yet return.

  Gardener, cursing at the weed,

  Ere you curse it further, say:

  Who but you planted the seed

  In my fertile heart, one day?

  Ere you curse me further, say!

  New beginnings and new shoots

  Spring again from hidden roots.

  Pull or stab or cut or burn,

  Love must ever yet return.

  LOVE AND BLACK MAGIC

  To the woods, to the woods is the wizard gone;

  In his grotto the maiden sits alone.

  She gazes up with a weary smile

  At the rafter-hanging crocodile,

  The slowly swinging crocodile.

  Scorn has she of her master’s gear,

  Cauldron, alembic, crystal sphere,

  Phial, philtre – ‘Fiddlededee

  For all such trumpery trash!’ quo’ she.

  ‘A soldier is the lad for me;

  Hey and hither, my lad!

  ‘Oh, here have I ever lain forlorn:

  My father died ere I was born,

  Mother was by a wizard wed,

  And oft I wish I had died instead –

  Often I wish I were long time dead.

  But, delving deep in my master’s lore,

  I have won of magic power such store

  I can turn a skull – oh, fiddlededee

  For all this curious craft!’ quo’ she.

  ‘A soldier is the lad for me;

  Hey and hither, my lad!

  ‘To bring my brave boy unto my arms,

  What need have I of magic charms –

  “Abracadabra!” and “Prestopuff”?

  I have but to wish, and that is enough.

  The charms are vain, one wish is enough.

  My master pledged my hand to a wizard;

  Transformed would I be to toad or lizard

  If e’er he guessed – but fiddlededee

  For a black-browed sorcerer, now,’ quo’ she.

  ‘Let Cupid smile and the fiend must flee;

  Hey and hither, my lad.’

  SMOKE-RINGS

  Boy: Most venerable and learned sir,

  Tall and true Philosopher,

  These rings of smoke you blow all day

  With such deep thought, what sense have they?

  Philosopher: Small friend, with prayer and meditation

  I make an image of Creation.

  And if your mind is working nimble

  Straightway you’ll recognize a symbol

  Of the endless and eternal ring

  Of God, who girdles everything –

  God, who in His own form and plan

  Moulds the fugitive life of man.

  These vaporous toys you watch me make,

  That shoot ahead, pause, turn and break –

  Some glide far out like sailing ships,

  Some weak ones fail me at my lips.

  He who ringed His awe in smoke,

  When He led forth His captive folk,

  In like manner, East, West, North, and South,

  Blows us ring-wise from His mouth.

  A CHILD’S NIGHTMARE

  Through long nursery nights he stood

  By my bed unwearying,

  Loomed gigantic, formless, queer,

  Purring in my haunted ear

  That 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 keep

  Horror bristling round the head,

  When a voice cruel and flat

  Says for ever, ‘Cat!…Cat!…Cat!…’

  He had faded, he was gone

  Years ago with Nursery Land,
>
  When he leapt on me again

  From the clank of a night train,

  Overpowered me foot and hand,

  Lapped my blood, while on and on

  The old voice cruel and flat

  Purred for ever, ‘Cat!…Cat!…Cat!…’

  Morphia drowsed, again I lay

  In a crater by High Wood:

  He was there with straddling legs,

  Staring eyes as big as eggs,

  Purring as he lapped my blood,

  His black bulk darkening the day,

  With a voice cruel and flat,

  ‘Cat!…Cat!…Cat!…’ he said,

  ‘Cat!…Cat!…’

  When I’m shot through heart and head,

  And there’s no choice but to die,

  The last word I’ll hear, no doubt,

  Won’t be ‘Charge!’ or ‘Bomb them out!’

  Nor the stretcher-bearer’s cry,

  ‘Let that body be, he’s dead!’

  But a voice cruel and flat

  Saying for ever, ‘Cat!…Cat!…Cat!’

  A BOY IN CHURCH

  ‘Gabble-gabble,…brethren,…gabble-gabble!’

  My window frames forest and heather.

  I hardly hear the tuneful babble,

  Not knowing nor much caring whether

  The text is praise or exhortation,

  Prayer or thanksgiving, or damnation.

  Outside it blows wetter and wetter,

  The tossing trees never stay still.

  I shift my elbows to catch better

  The full round sweep of heathered hill.

  The tortured copse bends to and fro

  In silence like a shadow-show.

  The parson’s voice runs like a river

  Over smooth rocks. I like this church:

  The pews are staid, they never shiver,

  They never bend or sway or lurch.

  ‘Prayer,’ says the kind voice, ‘is a chain

  That draws down Grace from Heaven again.’

  I add the hymns up, over and over,

  Until there’s not the least mistake.

  Seven-seventy-one. (Look! there’s a plover!

  It’s gone!) Who’s that Saint by the lake?

  The red light from his mantle passes

  Across the broad memorial brasses.

  It’s pleasant here for dreams and thinking,

  Lolling and letting reason nod,

  With ugly serious people linking

  Sad prayers to a forgiving God….

  But a dumb blast sets the trees swaying

  With furious zeal like madmen praying.

  CORPORAL STARE

  Back from the Line one night in June

  I gave a dinner at Béthune:

  Seven courses, the most gorgeous meal

  Money could buy or batman steal.

  Five hungry lads welcomed the fish

  With shouts that nearly cracked the dish;

  Asparagus came with tender tops,

  Strawberries in cream, and mutton chops.

  Said Jenkins, as my hand he shook,

  ‘They’ll put this in the history book.’

  We bawled Church anthems in choro

  Of Bethlehem and Hermon snow,

  And drinking songs, a mighty sound

  To help the good red Pommard round.

  Stories and laughter interspersed,

  We drowned a long La Bassée thirst –

  Trenches in June make throats damned dry.

  Then through the window suddenly,

  Badge, stripes and medals all complete,

  We saw him swagger up the street,

  Just like a live man – Corporal Stare!

  Stare! Killed last month at Festubert,

  Caught on patrol near the Boche wire,

  Torn horribly by machine-gun fire!

  He paused, saluted smartly, grinned,

  Then passed away like a puff of wind,

  Leaving us blank astonishment.

  The song broke, up we started, leant

  Out of the window – nothing there,

  Not the least shadow of Corporal Stare,

  Only a quiver of smoke that showed

  A fag-end dropped on the silent road.

  ‘THE ASSAULT HEROIC’

  Down in the mud I lay,

  Tired out by my long day

  Of five damned days and nights,

  Five sleepless days and nights,…

  Dream snatched, and set me where

  The dungeon of Despair

  Looms over Desolate Sea,

  Frowning and threatening me

  With aspect high and steep –

  A most malignant keep.

  My foes that lay within

  Shouted and made a din,

  Hooted and grinned and cried:

  ‘To-day we’ve killed your pride;

  To-day your ardour ends.

  We’ve murdered all your friends;

  We’ve undermined by stealth

  Your happiness and your health.

  We’ve taken away your hope;

  Now you may droop and mope

  To misery and to death.’

  But with my spear of faith,

  Stout as an oaken rafter,

  With my round shield of laughter,

  With my sharp, tongue-like sword

  That speaks a bitter word,

  I stood beneath the wall

  And there defied them all.

  The stones they cast I caught

  And alchemized with thought

  Into such lumps of gold

  As dreaming misers hold.

  The boiling oil they threw

  Fell in a shower of dew,

  Refreshing me; the spears

  Flew harmless by my ears,

  Struck quivering in the sod;

  There, like the prophet’s rod,

  Put leaves out, took firm root,

  And bore me instant fruit.

  My foes were all astounded,

  Dumbstricken and confounded,

  Gaping in a long row;

  They dared not thrust nor throw.

  Thus, then, I climbed a steep

  Buttress and won the keep,

  And laughed and proudly blew

  My horn, ‘Stand to! Stand to!

  Wake up, sir! Here’s a new

  Attack! Stand to! Stand to!’

  From Treasure Box

  (1919)

  SONG: A PHOENIX FLAME

  In my heart a phoenix flame

  Darts and scorches me all day –

  Should a fierce sun do the same,

  I die away.

  O for pools with sunken rocks,

  Minnow-haunted mountain brooks,

  Blustering gales of Equinox,

  Cold, green nooks.

  Who could boast a careless wit,

  Doubly roasted, heart and hide,

  Turning on the Sun’s red spit,

  Consumed inside?

  CATHERINE DRURY

  Mother: Edward will not taste his food,

  Nor touch his drink,

  Flings me answers gruff and rude:

  Why, I dare not think.

  Sister: Mother, do not try to know

  All that moves in Edward’s heart,

  The fiery gloom he will not show;

  You and he who lay so near

  Fall wide apart.

  Watch your rival, mother dear:

  Catherine Drury does not guess

  His dark love or your envious fear,

  Her own loveliness.

  She will laugh, she will play,

  Never know the hurt she does:

  Edward’s heart will melt away,

  His head go buzz,

  And if he thinks you read his mind,

  Better you had been struck stone blind.

  THE TREASURE BOX

  Ann in chill moonlight unlocks

  Her polished brassbound treasure-box,

  Draws a soft bre
ath, prepares to spread

  The toys around her on the bed.

  She dips for luck: by luck pulls out

  A silver pig with ring in snout,

  The sort that Christmas puddings yield;

  Next comes a painted nursery shield

  Boy-carved; and then two yellow gloves,

  A Limerick wonder that Ann loves,

  Leather so thin and sewn so well

  The pair fold in a walnut shell;

  Here’s patchwork that her sister made

  With antique silk and flower brocade,

  Small faded scraps in memory rich

  Joined each to each with feather-stitch;

  Here’s cherry and forget-me-not

  Ribbon bunched in a great knot;

  A satin purse with pansies on it;

  A Tudor baby’s christening bonnet;

  Old Mechlin lace minutely knit

  (Some woman’s eyes went blind for it);

  And Spanish broideries that pinch

  Three blossomed rosetrees to one inch;

  Here are Ann’s brooches, simple pins,

  A Comet brooch, two Harlequins,

  A Posy; here’s a great resplendent

  Dove-in-bush Italian pendant;

  A Chelsea gift-bird; a toy whistle;

  A halfpenny stamped with the Scots thistle;

  A Breguet watch; a coral string;

  Her mother’s thin-worn wedding ring;

  A straw box full of hard smooth sweets;

  A book, the Poems of John Keats;

  A chessman; a pink paper rose;

  A diary dwindling to its close

  Nine months ago; a worsted ball;

  A patchbox; a stray match – that’s all,

  All but a few small treasured scraps

  Of paper; things forbid perhaps –

  See how slowly Ann unties

  The packet where her heartache lies;

  Watch her lips move; she slants a letter

  Up towards the moon to read it better,

  (The moon may master what he can).

  R stands for Richard, A for Ann

  And L…at this the old moon blinks

  And softly from the window shrinks.

  THE KISS

  Are you shaken, are you stirred

  By a whisper of love,

  Spellbound to a word

  Does Time cease to move,

  Till her calm grey eye

  Expands to a sky

  And the clouds of her hair

  Like storms go by?

  Then the lips that you have kissed

  Turn to frost and fire,

  And a white-steaming mist

  Obscures desire:

  So back to their birth

  Fade water, air, earth,

  And the First Power moves

  Over void and dearth.