Ballades & Rhymes - From Ballades In Blue China And Rhymes & A La Mode

From Ballades in Blue China and Rhymes a la Mode BY A. LANG Horn, cest une ballade., BALLADES, Chansons dizains, propos menus, Compte may qiiilz sont devenuz Sefaict ilplus rien de nouveau de deu CLEMENT MAROT, Dialogue Amoureux. I love a ballad but even too well if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably. A Winters Tale, Act iv. sc. 3. DEC16 1966 1153514 CONTENTS. BALLADES IN BLUE CHINA. PAGE Ballade of Theocritus .15 Ballade of Cleopatras Needle 17 Ballade of Roulette 19 Ballade of Sleep Ballade of the Midnight Forest ... . 21 . 24 Ballade of the Tweed 27 Ballade of the Book-hunter . . . . .29 Ballade of the Voyage to Cythera . . . .31 Ballade of the Summer Term . . . . 34 Ballade of the Muse 36 Ballade against the Jesuits 38 Ballade of Dead Cities 40 Ballade of the Royal Game of Golf . . . .42 Double Ballade of Primitive Man . . . -44 Ballade of Autumn 47 Ballade of True Wisdom 49 Ballade of Worldly Wealth 51 V vi CONTENTS. PAGE Ballade of Life 53 Ballade of Blue China 55 Ballade of Dead Ladies 57 Villons Ballade of Good Counsel .... 59 Ballade of the Bookworm 61 Valentine in form of Ballade 63 Ballade ofOld Plays 65 Ballade of his Books 67 Ballade of the Dream 69 Ballade of the Southern Cross 71 Ballade of Aucassin -73 Ballade Amoureuse -75 Ballade of Queen Anne 77 Ballade of Blind Love 79 Ballade of his Choice of a Sepulchre . . . .81 Dizain 83 VERSES AND TRANSLATIONS. A Portrait of 1783 87 The Moons Minion ....... 90 In Ithaca ......... 92 Homer . 93 The Burial of Moliere 94 Bion 95 Spring 96 CONTENTS. vii PAGE Before the Snow . 97 Villanelle 98 Natural Theology . . The Odyssey . ., . . 100 102 Ideal 103 The Fairys Gift 105Benedetta Ramus 107 Partant pour la Scribie no St. Andrews Bay 112 Woman and the Weed 114 RHYMES A LA MODE. BALLADE DEDICATORY . . ., . .123 THE FORTUNATE ISLANDS . . . . . 125 ALMAE MATRES 139 DESIDERIUM 143 RHYMES A LA MODE 145 Ballade of Middle Age 147 The Last Cast 149 Twilight 153 Ballade of Summer . . . . . . 1 54 Ballade of Christmas Ghosts . . . .156 Loves Easter 158 Ballade of the Girton Girl 1 59 viii CONTENTS. RHYMES A LA MODE contintied. Ronsards Grave San Terenzo Romance, Ballade of his own Country Villanelle 171 Triolets after Moschus 173 Ballade of Cricket 175 The Last Maying 177 Homeric Unity In Tintagel 181 182 Pisidice . 184 From the East to the West 187 Love the Vampire 188 Ballade of the Book-mans Paradise . . .190 Ballade of a Friar 192 Ballade of Neglected Merit . . . -194 Ballade of Railway Novels 196 The Cloud Chorus 198 S Ballade of Literary Fame 201 NeAOj AM 203 SCIENCE 205 The Barbarous Bird-Gods 37 Man and the Ascidian . . . . . .212 Ballade of the Primitive Jest . . . .215 CONTENTS. ix PAGE CAMEOS 217 Cameos . . . . . . . 217 Helen on the Walls 220 The Isles of the Blessed 221 Death 223 Nysa ... 224 Colonus I. 225 HO .226 The Passing of CEdipous 227 The Taming of Tyro . . . . . . 228 To Artemis ... .... 229 Criticism of Life 230 Amaryllis 231 The Cannibal Zeus . . . . . .232 Invocation of Isis 234 The Coming of Isis 235 THE SPINET 236 NOTES 237 INTRODUCTION THIRTY years have passed, like a watch in the night, since the earlier of the two sets of verses here reprinted, Ballades in Blue China, was pub- lished. At first there were but twenty-two Ballades ten more were added later. They appeared in a little white vellum wrapper, with a little blue Chinese singercopied from a porcelain jar and the frontispiece was a little design by an etcher now famous. Thirty years ago blue china was a kind of fetish in some circles, aesthetic circles, of which the balladist was not a member. The ballade was an old French form of verse, in France revived by Theodore de Banville, and restored to an England which had long forgotten the Middle Ages, by my friends Mr. Austin Dobson and Mr...