lue
Bound but a frock of home-spun hemp,
And kirtle coarse to view;

Whose feet no shoe had e'er confined,
Nor comb passed through her hair;
Yet all the queens in damask robes
Might nevermore compare.

With this dear child, who smiling stood,
A flow'ret of the spring--
In beauty perfect and complete,
Like to the moon's full ring.

And, as the summer moths that fly
Towards the flame so bright,
Or as the boats that deck the port
When fall the shades of night,

So came the suitors; but she said:--
"Why take me for your wife?
Full well I know my humble lot,
I know how short my life."[136]

So where the dashing billows beat
On the loud-sounding shore,
Hath Katsushika's tender maid
Her home for evermore.

Yes! 'tis a tale of days long past;
But, listening to the lay,
It seems as I had gazed upon
Her face but yesterday.

_Anon_.

THE BEGGAR'S COMPLAINT[137]

The heaven and earth they call so great,
For me are mickle small;
The sun and moon they call so bright,
For me ne'er shine at all.

Are all men sad, or only I?
And what have I obtained--
What good the gift of mortal life,
That prize so rarely gained,[138]

If nought my chilly back protects
But one thin grass-cloth coat,
In tatters hanging like the weeds
That on the billows float--

If here in smoke-stained, darksome hut,
Upon the bare cold ground,
I make my wretched bed of straw,
And hear the mournful sound--

Hear how mine aged parents groan,
And wife and children cry,
Father and mother, children, wife,
Huddling in misery--

If in the rice-pan, nigh forgot,
The spider hangs its nest,[139]
And from the hearth no smoke goes up
Where all is so unblest?

And now, to make our wail more deep,
That saying is proved true
Of "snipping what was short before":--
Here comes to claim his due,

The village provost, stick in hand
He's shouting at the door;--
And can such pain and grief be all
Existence has in store?

_Stanza_

Shame and despair are mine from day to day;
But, being no bird, I cannot fly away.

_Anon._

A SOLDIER'S REGRETS ON LEAVING HOME

When _I left_ to keep guard on the frontier
(For such was the monarch's decree),
My mother, with skirt uplifted,[140]