Embers, Complete. Gilbert Parker

THE WATCHER

       THE WAKING

       WHEN ONE FORGETS

       ALOES AND MYRRH

       IN WASTE PLACES

       LAST OF ALL

       AFTER

       REMEDIAL

       THE TWILIGHT OF LOVE

       IRREVOCABLE

       THE LAST DREAM

       WAITING

       IN MAYTIME

       INSIDE THE BAR

       THE CHILDREN

       LITTLE GARAINE

       TO A LITTLE CHILD

       PHYLLIS

       BAIRNIE

       IN CAMDEN TOWN

       JEAN

       A MEMORY

       IN CAMP AT JUNIPER COVE

       JUNIPER COVE TWENTY YEARS AFTER

       LISTENING

       NEVERTHELESS

       ISHMAEL

       OVER THE HILLS

       THE DELIVERER

       THE DESERT ROAD

       A SON OF THE NILE

       A FAREWELL FROM THE HAREM

       AN ARAB LOVE SONG

       THE CAMEL-DRIVER TO HIS CAMEL

       THE TALL DAKOON

       THERE IS SORROW ON THE SEA

       THE AUSTRALIAN STOCKRIDER

       THE BRIDGE OF THE HUNDRED SPANS

       NELL LATORE

INTRODUCTION

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      I had not intended that Embers should ever be given to the public, but friends whose judgment I respect have urged me to include it in the subscription edition at least, and with real reluctance I have consented. It was a pleasure to me to have one piece of work of mine which made no bid for pence or praise; but if that is a kind of selfishness, perhaps unnecessary, since no one may wish to read the verses, I will now free myself from any chance of reproach. This much I will say to soothe away my own compunctions, that the book will only make the bid for popularity or consideration with near a score of others, and not separately, and that my responsibility is thus modified. The preface to Embers says all that need be said about a collection which is, on the whole, merely a book of youth and memory and impressionism in verse. At least it was all spontaneous; it was not made to order on any page of it, and it is the handful left from very many handfuls destroyed. Since the first edition (intended only for my personal friends) was published I have written “Rosleen,” “Where Shall We Betake Us?” “Granada,” “Mary Callaghan and Me,” “The Crowning” (on the Coronation of King Edward VII), the fragment “Kildare” and “I Heard the Desert Calling”; and I have also included others like “The Tall Dakoon” and “The Red Patrol,” written over twenty years ago. “Mary Callaghan and Me” has been set to music by Mr. Max Muller, and has made many friends, and “The Crowning” was the Coronation ode of ‘The People’, which gave a prize, too ample I think, for the best musical setting of the lines. Many of the other pieces in ‘Embers’ have been set to music by distinguished composers like Sir Edward Elgar, who has made a song-cycle of several, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Mr. Arthur Foote, Mrs. Amy Woodforde Finden, Robert Somerville, and others. The first to have musical setting was “You’ll Travel Far and Wide,” to which in 1895 Mr. Arthur Foote gave fame as “An Irish Folk Song.” Like “O Flower of All the World,” by Mrs. Amy Woodforde Finden, it has had a world of admirers, and such singers as Mrs. Henschel helped to make Mr. Foote’s music loved by thousands, and conferred something more than an ephemeral acceptance of the author’s words.

      When thou comest to the safe tent of the good comrade,

       abide there till thy going forth with a stedfast mind; and

       if, at the hospitable fire, thou hast learned the secret of a

       heart, thou shalt keep it holy, as the North Wind the

       trouble of the Stars.

PROEM

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      And the Angel said: