At Lulworth Cove a Century Back

Had I but lived a hundred years ago 

I might have gone, as I have gone this year, 

By Warmwell Cross on to a Cove I know, 

And Time have placed his finger on me there: 

"You see that man?" — I might have looked, and said, 

"O yes: I see him. One that boat has brought 

Which dropped down Channel round Saint Alban's Head. 

So commonplace a youth calls not my thought." 

"You see that man?" — "Why yes; I told you; yes: 

Of an idling town-sort; thin; hair brown in hue; 

And as the evening light scants less and less 

He looks up at a star, as many do." 

"You see that man?" — "Nay, leave me!" then I plead, 

"I have fifteen miles to vamp across the lea, 

And it grows dark, and I am weary-kneed: 

I have said the third time; yes, that man I see!" 

"Good. That man goes to Rome — to death, despair; 

And no one notes him now but you and I: 

A hundred years, and the world will follow him there, 

And bend with reverence where his ashes lie." 

-o0o-