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SONG
OH! that we two were Maying | |
| Down the stream of the soft spring breeze; | |
| Like children with violets playing | |
| In the shade of the whispering trees. | |
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| Oh! that we two sat dreaming | 5 |
| On the sward of some sheep-trimm’d down, | |
| Watching the white mist steaming | |
| Over river and mead and town. | |
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| Oh! that we two lay sleeping | |
| In our nest in the churchyard sod, | 10 |
| With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth’s breast, | |
| And our souls at home with God. | |
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CRUSADER CHORUS
(Men at Arms pass singing)
THE TOMB of God before us, | |
| Our fatherland behind, | |
| Our ships shall leap o’er billows steep, | 15 |
| Before a charmed wind. | |
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| Above our van great angels | |
| Shall fight along the sky; | |
| While martyrs pure and crowned saints | |
| To God for rescue cry. | 20 |
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| The red-cross knights and yeomen | |
| Throughout the holy town, | |
| In faith and might, on left and right, | |
| Shall tread the paynim down. | |
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| Till on the Mount Moriah | 25 |
| The Pope of Rome shall stand; | |
| The Kaiser and the King of France | |
| Shall guard him on each hand. | |
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| There shall he rule all nations, | |
| With crosier and with sword; | 30 |
| And pour on all the heathen | |
| The wrath of Christ the Lord. | |
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(Women Bystanders)
Christ is a rock in the bare salt land, | |
| To shelter our knights from the sun and sand; | |
| Christ the Lord is a summer sun, | 35 |
| To ripen the grain while they are gone. | |
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| Then you who fight in the bare salt land, | |
| And you who work at home, | |
| Fight and work for Christ the Lord, | |
| Until His kingdom come. | 40 |
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(Old Knights pass)
Our stormy sun is sinking; | |
| Our sands are running low; | |
| In one fair fight, before the night, | |
| Our hard-worn hearts shall glow. | |
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| We cannot pine in cloister; | 45 |
| We cannot fast and pray; | |
| The sword which built our load of guilt | |
| Must wipe that guilt away. | |
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| We know the doom before us; | |
| The dangers of the road; | 50 |
| Have mercy, mercy, Jesu bless’d, | |
| When we lie low in blood. | |
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| When we lie gash’d and gory, | |
| The holy walls within, | |
| Sweet Jesu, think upon our end, | 55 |
| And wipe away our sin. | |
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(Boy Crusaders pass)
The Christ-child sits on high; | |
| He looks through the merry blue sky; | |
| He holds in His hand a bright lily-band, | |
| For the boys who for Him die. | 60 |
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| On holy Mary’s arm, | |
| Wrapp’d safe from terror and harm, | |
| Lull’d by the breeze in the paradise trees, | |
| Their souls sleep soft and warm. | |
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| Knight David, young and true, | 65 |
| The giant Soldan slew, | |
| And our arms so light, for the Christ-child’s right, | |
| Like noble deeds can do. | |
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(Young Knights pass)
The rich East blooms fragrant before us; | |
| All Fairy-land beckons us forth; | 70 |
| We must follow the crane in her flight o’er the main, | |
| From the posts and the moors of the North. | |
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| Our sires in the youth of the nations | |
| Swept westward through plunder and blood, | |
| But a holier quest calls us back to the East, | 75 |
| We fight for the kingdom of God. | |
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| Then shrink not, and sigh not, fair ladies, | |
| The red cross which flames on each arm and each shield, | |
| Through philter and spell, and the black charms of hell, | |
| Shall shelter our true love in camp and in field. | 80 |
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(Old Monk looking after them)
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! | |
| The burying-place of God! | |
| Why gay and bold, in steel and gold, | |
| O’er the paths where Christ hath trod? | |
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