Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CORDWRIGHT'S SONG, by AUGUSTE DE BELLOY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CORDWRIGHT'S SONG, by                    
First Line: With backward step, restrained and slow
Last Line: His song the cordwright mutters low.


WITH backward step, constrained and slow,
His song the cordwright mutters low.

White threads that through my fingers slip
To me your future fortune trace;
Say, will you help to guide a ship,
A bowline gear or mighty brace?

With backward step, constrained and slow,
His song the cordwright mutters low.

Fixed is the village belfry bell:
Will you swing forth the sound afar
Of marriage peal or passing knell,
Of mass or 'larum, feast or war?

With backward step, constrained and slow,
His song the cordwright mutters low.

Or in the plain where lasses bring
Their fresh-washed linen to be dried,
Will you some dainty garment swing
Of Madeleine, the hamlet's pride?

With backward stride, constrained and slow,
His song the cordwright mutters low.

But ah! perhaps upon the heath,
Watched by excisemen, fraud to check,
You will string up, the moon beneath,
Some wretched smuggler by the neck.

With backward stride, constrained and slow,
His song the cordwright mutters low.

Or knotted cord, at dead of night,
For deeds of all time best and brief,
A ladder, will you help the flight
Of guilty lover or of thief?

With backward stride, constrained and slow,
His song the cordwright mutters low.

Let better meed my cares obtain,
And make me envious of your fate,
And be the rope which Madeleine
Draws early at the well and late.

With backward stride, constrained and slow,
His song the cordwright mutters low.





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