<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Fool Rings His Bells</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Come</span>, Death, I'd have a word with thee;</p><p class="line">And thou, poor Innocency;</p><p class="line">And Love -- a lad with broken wing;</p><p class="line">And Pity, too:</p><p class="line">The Fool shall sing to you,</p><p class="line">As Fools will sing.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ay, music hath small sense,</p><p class="line">And a tune's soon told,</p><p class="line">And Earth is old,</p><p class="line">And my poor wits are dense;</p><p class="line">Yet have I secrets, -- dark, my dear,</p><p class="line">To breathe you all: Come near.</p><p class="line">And lest some hideous listener tells,</p><p class="line">I'll ring my bells.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They're all at war!</p><p class="line">Yes, yes, their bodies go</p><p class="line">'Neath burning sun and icy star</p><p class="line">To chaunted songs of woe,</p><p class="line">Dragging cold cannon through a mud</p><p class="line">Of rain and blood;</p><p class="line">The new moon glinting hard on eyes</p><p class="line">Wide with insanities!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Hush!... I use words</p><p class="line">I hardly know the meaning of;</p><p class="line">And the mute birds</p><p class="line">Are glancing at Love!</p><p class="line">From out their shade of leaf and flower,</p><p class="line">Trembling at treacheries</p><p class="line">Which even in noonday cower.</p><p class="line">Heed, heed not what I said</p><p class="line">Of frenzied hosts of men,</p><p class="line">More fools than I,</p><p class="line">On envy, hatred fed,</p><p class="line">Who kill, and die --</p><p class="line">Spake I not plainly, then?</p><p class="line">Yet Pity whispered, "Why?"</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Thou silly thing, off to thy daisies go.</p><p class="line">Mine was not news for child to know,</p><p class="line">And Death -- no ears hath. He hath supped where creep</p><p class="line">Eyeless worms in hush of sleep;</p><p class="line">Yet, when he smiles, the hand he draws</p><p class="line">Athwart his grinning jaws</p><p class="line">Faintly their thin bones rattle, and... There, there;</p><p class="line">Hearken how my bells in the air</p><p class="line">Drive away care!...</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Nay, but a dream I had</p><p class="line">Of a world all mad.</p><p class="line">Not a simple happy mad like me,</p><p class="line">Who am mad like an empty scene</p><p class="line">Of water and willow tree,</p><p class="line">Where the wind hath been;</p><p class="line">But that foul Satan-mad,</p><p class="line">Who rots in his own head,</p><p class="line">And counts the dead,</p><p class="line">Not honest one -- and two --</p><p class="line">But for the ghosts they were,</p><p class="line">Brave, faithful, true,</p><p class="line">When, head in air,</p><p class="line">In Earth's clear green and blue</p><p class="line">Heaven they did share</p><p class="line">With Beauty who bade them there....</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There, now! he goes --</p><p class="line">Old Bones; I've wearied him.</p><p class="line">Ay, and the light doth dim,</p><p class="line">And asleep's the rose,</p><p class="line">And tired Innocence</p><p class="line">In dreams is hence....</p><p class="line">Come, Love, my lad,</p><p class="line">Nodding that drowsy head,</p><p class="line">'T is time thy prayers were said!</p></div><p class="byline">Walter de la Mare</p></body></html> · Great War