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(When shall we three meet again?—MACBETH)
“WHEN shall we three meet again?” | |
| “The dam of the bridge at seven attain!” | |
| “By the pier in the middle. I’ll put out amain | |
| The flames.” | |
| “I too.” | 5 |
| “I’ll come from the north.” | |
| “And I from the south.” | |
| “From the sea I’ll soar forth.” | |
| “Ha, that will be a merry-go-round! | |
| The bridge must sink into the ground.” | 10 |
| “And with the train what shall we do | |
| That crosses the bridge at seven?” | |
| “That too.” | |
| “That must go too!” | |
| “A bauble, a naught, | 15 |
| What the hand of man hath wrought!” | |
| |
| The bridgekeeper’s house that stands in the north— | |
| All windows to the south look forth, | |
| And the inmates there without peace or rest | |
| Are gazing southward with anxious zest. | 20 |
| They gaze and wait a light to spy | |
| That over the water “I’m coming!” should cry, | |
| “I’m coming—night and storm are vain— | |
| I, from Edinburg the train!” | |
| |
| And the bridgekeeper says: “I see a gleam | 25 |
| On the other shore. That’s it, I deem. | |
| Now, mother, away with bad dreams, for, see, | |
| Our Johnnie is coming!—He’ll want his tree. | |
| And what is left of candles, light | |
| As if it were on Christmas night! | 30 |
| Twice we shall have our Christmas cheer— | |
| In eleven minutes he must be here.” | |
| |
| It is the train, with the gale it vies | |
| And panting by the south tower flies. | |
| “There’s the bridge still,” says Johnnie. “But that’s all right: | 35 |
| We’ll make it surely out of spite! | |
| A solid boiler and double steam | |
| Should win in such a fight, ’twould seem! | |
| Let it rave and rage and run at its bent— | |
| We’ll put it down: this element! | 40 |
| And our bridge is our pride. I must laugh always | |
| When I think back of the olden days, | |
| And all the trouble and misery | |
| That with the old boat used to be. | |
| And many cheerful Christmas nights | 45 |
| I spent at the ferryman’s house—the lights | |
| From our windows I’d watch and count them o’er, | |
| And could not reach the other shore.” | |
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| The bridgekeeper’s house that stands in the north— | |
| All windows to the south look forth, | 50 |
| And the inmates there without peace or rest | |
| Are gazing southward with anxious zest: | |
| More furious grew the wind’s wild games, | |
| And now, as if the sky poured flames, | |
| Comes shooting down a radiance bright | 55 |
| O’er the water below.—Then all is night. | |
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| “When shall we three meet again?” | |
| “At midnight the top of the mountain attain!” | |
| “By the alder-stem on the high moorland plain!” | |
| “I’ll come.” | 60 |
| “And I too.” | |
| “And the number I’ll tell.” | |
| “And I the names.” | |
| “I the torture right well.” | |
| “Whoo! | 65 |
| “Like splinters the woodwork crashed in two.” | |
| “A bauble—a naught. | |
| What the hand of man hath wrought!” | |
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