The Collected Poems of William H. Davies/Catharine
CATHARINE
We children every morn would wait
For Catharine, at the garden gate;
Behind school-time, her sunny hair
Would melt the master’s frown of care,
What time his hand but threatened pain,
Shaking aloft his awful cane;
So here one summer’s morn we wait
For Catharine at the garden gate.
To Dave I say—“There’s sure to be
Some coral isle unknown at sea,
And—if I see it first—’tis mine!
But I’ll give it to Catharine.”
“When she grows up,” says Dave to me,
“Some ruler in a far countree,
Where every voice but his is dumb,
Owner of pearls, and gold, and gum,
Will build for her a shining throne,
Higher than his, and near his own;
And he, who would not list before,
Will listen to Catharine, and adore
Her face and form; and,” Dave went on—
When came a man there pale and wan,
Whose face was dark and wet though kind,
He, coming there, seemed like a wind
Whose breath is rain, yet will not stop
To give the parchèd flowers a drop:
“Go, children, to your school,” he said
“And tell the master Catharine’s dead.”
For Catharine, at the garden gate;
Behind school-time, her sunny hair
Would melt the master’s frown of care,
What time his hand but threatened pain,
Shaking aloft his awful cane;
So here one summer’s morn we wait
For Catharine at the garden gate.
To Dave I say—“There’s sure to be
Some coral isle unknown at sea,
And—if I see it first—’tis mine!
But I’ll give it to Catharine.”
“When she grows up,” says Dave to me,
“Some ruler in a far countree,
Where every voice but his is dumb,
Owner of pearls, and gold, and gum,
Will build for her a shining throne,
Higher than his, and near his own;
And he, who would not list before,
Will listen to Catharine, and adore
Her face and form; and,” Dave went on—
When came a man there pale and wan,
Whose face was dark and wet though kind,
He, coming there, seemed like a wind
Whose breath is rain, yet will not stop
To give the parchèd flowers a drop:
“Go, children, to your school,” he said
“And tell the master Catharine’s dead.”