StoryTitle("caps", "The Brides of Enderby") ?>
Brides of Enderby," by Jean Ingelow (1830-97). This poem is very
dramatic, and the music of the refrain has done much to make it popular.
But the pathos is that which endears it.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The old mayor climb'd the belfry tower,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The ringers ran by two, by three;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Pull, if ye never pull'd before;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Good ringers, pull your best,\" quoth he.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Play uppe, play uppe, O Boston bells!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ply all your changes, all your swells,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Play uppe, 'The Brides of Enderby.'\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Men say it was a stolen tyde—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Lord that sent it, He knows all;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But in myne ears doth still abide", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The message that the bells let fall:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And there was naught of strange, beside", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The flight of mews and peewits pied", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "By millions crouch'd on the old sea wall.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I sat and spun within the doore,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "My thread brake off, I raised myne eyes;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The level sun, like ruddy ore,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Lay sinking in the barren skies;", "") ?>
PagePoem(278, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And dark against day's golden death", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She moved where Lindis wandereth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "My sonne's faire wife, Elizabeth.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!\" calling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ere the early dews were falling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Farre away I heard her song,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Cusha! Cusha!\" all along;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the reedy Lindis floweth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Floweth, floweth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the meads where melick groweth", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Faintly came her milking song—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!\" calling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"For the dews will soone be falling;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Leave your meadow grasses mellow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Mellow, mellow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come uppe, Whitefoot, come uppe, Lightfoot;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Quit the stalks of parsley hollow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Hollow, hollow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come uppe, Jetty, rise and follow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the clovers lift your head;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come uppe, Whitefoot, come uppe, Lightfoot,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come uppe, Jetty, rise and follow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Jetty, to the milking shed.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If it be long ay, long ago,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When I beginne to think howe long,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Againe I hear the Lindis flow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Swift as an arrowe, sharpe and strong;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all the aire, it seemeth mee,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bin full of floating bells (sayth shee),", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That ring the tune of Enderby.", "") ?>
PagePoem(279, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Alle fresh the level pasture lay,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And not a shadowe mote be seene,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Save where full fyve good miles away", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The steeple tower'd from out the greene;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And lo! the great bell farre and wide", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was heard in all the country side", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That Saturday at eventide.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The swanherds where their sedges are", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Mov'd on in sunset's golden breath,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The shepherde lads I heard afarre,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And my sonne's wife, Elizabeth;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till floating o'er the grassy sea", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Came downe that kyndly message free,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The \"Brides of Mavis Enderby.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then some look'd uppe into the sky,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And all along where Lindis flows", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To where the goodly vessels lie,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And where the lordly steeple shows.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They sayde, \"And why should this thing be?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What danger lowers by land or sea?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They ring the tune of Enderby!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"For evil news from Mablethorpe,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Of pyrate galleys warping down;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For shippes ashore beyond the scorpe,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "They have not spar'd to wake the towne:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But while the west bin red to see,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And storms be none, and pyrates flee,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Why ring 'The Brides of Enderby'?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I look'd without, and lo! my sonne", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Came riding downe with might and main;", "") ?>
PagePoem(280, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He rais'd a shout as he drew on,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Till all the welkin rang again,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Elizabeth! Elizabeth!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"The olde sea wall,\" he cried, \"is downe,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The rising tide comes on apace,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And boats adrift in yonder towne", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Go sailing uppe the market-place.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He shook as one that looks on death:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"God save you, mother!\" straight he saith", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Where is my wife, Elizabeth?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Good sonne, where Lindis winds her way", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With her two bairns I marked her long;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And ere yon bells beganne to play", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Afar I heard her milking song.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He looked across the grassy lea,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To right, to left, \"Ho, Enderby!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They rang \"The Brides of Enderby!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With that he cried and beat his breast;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For, lo! along the river's bed", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A mighty eygre rear'd his crest,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And uppe the Lindis raging sped.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It swept with thunderous noises loud;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shap'd like a curling snow-white cloud,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or like a demon in a shroud.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And rearing Lindis backward press'd", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Shook all her trembling bankes amaine;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then madly at the eygre's breast", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Flung uppe her weltering walls again.", "") ?>
PagePoem(281, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then bankes came downe with ruin and rout—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then beaten foam flew round about—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then all the mighty floods were out.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So farre, so fast the eygre drave,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The heart had hardly time to beat", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Before a shallow seething wave", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Sobb'd in the grasses at oure feet:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The feet had hardly time to flee", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Before it brake against the knee,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all the world was in the sea.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Upon the roofe we sate that night,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The noise of bells went sweeping by;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I mark'd the lofty beacon light", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Stream from the church tower, red and high—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A lurid mark and dread to see;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And awsome bells they were to mee,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That in the dark rang \"Enderby.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They rang the sailor lads to guide", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "From roofe to roofe who fearless row'd;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I—my sonne was at my side,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And yet the ruddy beacon glow'd:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And yet he moan'd beneath his breath,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"O come in life, or come in death!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O lost! my love, Elizabeth.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And didst thou visit him no more?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thou didst, thou didst, my daughter deare", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The waters laid thee at his doore,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Ere yet the early dawn was clear.", "") ?>
PagePoem(282, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thy pretty bairns in fast embrace,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The lifted sun shone on thy face,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Downe drifted to thy dwelling-place.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That flow strew'd wrecks about the grass,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That ebbe swept out the flocks to sea;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A fatal ebbe and flow, alas!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To manye more than myne and mee;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But each will mourn his own (she saith);", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And sweeter woman ne'er drew breath", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I shall never hear her more", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the reedy Lindis shore,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!\" calling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ere the early dews be falling;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I shall never hear her song,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Cusha! Cusha!\" all along", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the sunny Lindis floweth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Goeth, floweth;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the meads where melick groweth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When the water winding down,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Onward floweth to the town.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I shall never see her more", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the reeds and rushes quiver,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Shiver, quiver;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Stand beside the sobbing river,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sobbing, throbbing, in its falling", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To the sandy lonesome shore;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I shall never hear her calling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Leave your meadow grasses mellow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Mellow, mellow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow;", "") ?>
PagePoem(283, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Come uppe, Whitefoot, come uppe, Lightfoot;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Quit your pipes of parsley hollow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Hollow, hollow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come uppe, Lightfoot, rise and follow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Lightfoot, Whitefoot,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From your clovers lift the head;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come uppe, Jetty, follow, follow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Jetty, to the milking shed.\"", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Jean Ingelow.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>