THE GRAVEDIGGER

    Oh, the shambling sea is a sexton old,
    And well his work is done. 
    With an equal grave for lord and knave,
    He buries them every one.

    Then hoy and rip, with a rolling hip,
    He makes for the nearest shore;
    And God, who sent him a thousand ship,
    Will send him a thousand more;
    But some he’ll save for a bleaching grave,
    And shoulder them in to shore,—­
    Shoulder them in, shoulder them in,
    Shoulder them in to shore.

    Oh, the ships of Greece and the ships of Tyre
    Went out, and where are they? 
    In the port they made, they are delayed
    With the ships of yesterday.

    He followed the ships of England far,
    As the ships of long ago;
    And the ships of France they led him a dance,
    But he laid them all arow.

    Oh, a loafing, idle lubber to him
    Is the sexton of the town;
    For sure and swift, with a guiding lift,
    He shovels the dead men down.

    But though he delves so fierce and grim,
    His honest graves are wide,
    As well they know who sleep below
    The dredge of the deepest tide.

    Oh, he works with a rollicking stave at lip,
    And loud is the chorus skirled;
    With the burly rote of his rumbling throat
    He batters it down the world.

    He learned it once in his father’s house,
    Where the ballads of eld were sung;
    And merry enough is the burden rough,
    But no man knows the tongue.

    Oh, fair, they say, was his bride to see,
    And wilful she must have been,
    That she could bide at his gruesome side
    When the first red dawn came in.

    And sweet, they say, is her kiss to those
    She greets to his border home;
    And softer than sleep her hand’s first sweep
    That beckons, and they come.

    Oh, crooked is he, but strong enough
    To handle the tallest mast;
    From the royal barque to the slaver dark,
    He buries them all at last.

    Then hoy and rip, with a rolling hip,
    He makes for the nearest shore;
    And God, who sent him a thousand ship,
    Will send him a thousand more;
    But some he’ll save for a bleaching grave,
    And shoulder them in to shore,—­
    Shoulder them in, shoulder them in,
    Shoulder them in to shore.

THE YULE GUEST

    And Yanna by the yule log
    Sat in the empty hall,
    And watched the goblin firelight
    Caper upon the wall: 

    The goblins of the hearthstone,
    Who teach the wind to sing,
    Who dance the frozen yule away
    And usher back the spring;

    The goblins of the Northland,
    Who teach the gulls to scream,
    Who dance the autumn into dust,
    The ages into dream.