The Masters

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

Oh, Masters, you who rule the world,

Will you not wait with me awhile,

When swords are sheathed and sails are furled,

And all the fields with harvest smile?

I would not waste your time for long,

I ask you but, when you are tired,

To read how by the weak, the strong

Are weighed and worshipped and desired.

When weary of the Mart, the Loom,

The Withering-house, the Riffle-blocks,

The Barrack-square, the Engine-room,

The pick-axe, ringing on the rocks,–

When tents are pitched and work is done,

While restful twilight broods above,

By fresh-lit lamp, or dying sun,

See in my songs how women love.

We shared your lonely watch by night,

We knew you faithful at the helm,

Our thoughts went with you through the fight,

That saved a soul,–or wrecked a realm

Ah, how our hearts leapt forth to you,

In pride and joy, when you prevailed,

And when you died, serene and true:

–We wept in silence when you failed!

Oh, brain that did not gain the gold!

Oh, arm, that could not wield the sword,

Here is the love, that is not sold,

Here are the hearts to hail you Lord!

You played and lost the game? What then?

The rules are harsh and hard we know,

You, still, Oh, brothers, are the men

Whom we in secret reverence so.

Your work was waste? Maybe your share

Lay in the hour you laughed and kissed;

Who knows but what your son shall wear

The laurels that his father missed?

Ay, you who win, and you who lose,

Whether you triumph,–or despair,–

When your returning footsteps choose

The homeward track, our love is there.

For, since the world is ordered thus,

To you the fame, the stress, the sword,

We can but wait, until to us

You give yourselves, for our reward.

To Whaler’s deck and Coral beach,

To lonely Ranch and Frontier-Fort,

Beyond the narrow bounds of speech

I lay the cable of my thought.

I fain would send my thanks to you,

(Though who am I, to give you praise?)

Since what you are, and work you do,

Are lessons for our easier ways.

‘Neath alien stars your camp-fires glow,

I know you not,–your tents are far.

My hope is but in song to show,

How honoured and dear you are.

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Poems in English 

• Summer poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Suggested by the Cover of a Volume of Keats’s poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Stupidity poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Stravinsky’s Three Pieces poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Storm-Racked poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Spring Day poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Song poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Sea Shell poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Sea Shell poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Sancta Maria, Succurre Miseris poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Sancta Maria, Succurre Miseris poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Roads poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Roads poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Red Slippers poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Reaping poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Petals poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Patterns poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Patience poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Patience poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• On Carpaccio’s Picture: The Dream of St. Ursula poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

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Doska or the Board – write anything

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Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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