THE TOWN OF DAE
by: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
- Swains and maidens, young and old,
- You to me this tale have told.
-
- here the squalid town of Dae
- Irks the comfortable sea,
- Spreading webs to gather fish,
- As for wealth we set a wish,
- Dwelt a king by right divine,
- Sprung from Adam's royal line,
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- Divers kinds of kings there be.
-
- Name nor fame had Picklepip:
- Ne'er a soldier nor a ship
- Bore his banners in the sun;
- Naught knew he of kingly sport,
- And he held his royal court
- Under an inverted tun.
- Love and roses, ages through,
- Bloom where cot and trellis stand;
- Never yet these blossoms grew
- Never yet was room for two
- In a cask upon the strand.
-
- So it happened, as it ought,
- That his simple schemes he wrought
- Through the lagging summer's day
- In a solitary way.
- So it happened, as was best,
- That he took his nightly rest
- With no dreadful incubus
- This way eyed and that way tressed,
- Featured thus, and thus, and thus,
- Lying lead-like on a breast
- By cares of State enough oppressed.
- Yet in dreams his fancies rude
- Claimed a lordly latitude.
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- Dreamers mate above their state
- And waken back to their degree.
-
- Once to cask himself away
- He prepared at close of day.
- As he tugged with swelling throat
- At a most unkingly coat
- Not to get it off, but on,
- For the serving sun was gone
- Passed a silk-appareled sprite
- Toward her castle on the height,
- Seized and set the garment right.
- Turned the startled Picklepip
- Splendid crimson cheek and lip!
- Turned again to sneak away,
-
- But she bade the villain stay,
- Bade him thank her, which he did
- With a speech that slipped and slid,
- Sprawled and stumbled in its gait
- As a dancer tries to skate.
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- In the face of silk and lace
- Rags too bold should never be.
-
- Lady Minnow cocked her head:
- "Mister Picklepip," she said,
- "Do you ever think to wed?"
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- No fair lady ever made a
- Wicked speech like that to me!
-
- Wretched little Picklepip
- Said he hadn't any ship,
- Any flocks at his command,
- Nor to feed them any land;
- Said he never in his life
- Owned a mine to keep a wife.
- But the guilty stammer so
- That his meaning wouldn't flow;
- So he thought his aim to reach
- By some figurative speech:
- Said his Fate had been unkind
- Had pursued him from behind
- (How the mischief could it else?)
-
- Came upon him unaware,
- Caught him by the collarthere
- Gushed the little lady's glee
- Like a gush of golden bells:
- "Picklepip, why, that is me!"
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- Grammar's for great scholarsshe
- Loved the summer and the lea.
-
- Stupid little Picklepip
- Allowed the subtle hint to slip
- Maundered on about the ship
- That he did not chance to own;
- Told this grievance o'er and o'er,
- Knowing that she knew before;
- Told her how he dwelt alone.
- Lady Minnow, for reply,
- Cut him off with "So do I!"
- But she reddened at the fib;
- Servitors had she, ad lib.
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- In her youth who speaks no truth
- Ne'er shall young and honest be.
-
- Witless little Picklepip
- Manned again his mental ship
- And veered her with a sudden shift.
- Painted to the lady's thought
- How he wrestled and he wrought
- Stoutly with the swimming drift
- By the kindly river brought
- From the mountain to the sea,
- Fuel for the town of Dae.
- Tedious tale for lady's ear:
- From her castle on the height,
- She had watched her water-knight
- Through the seasons of a year,
- Challenge more than met his view
- And conquer better than he knew.
- Now she shook her pretty pate
- And stamped her foot't was growing late:
- "Mister Picklepip, when I
- Drifting seaward pass you by;
- When the waves my forehead kiss
- And my tresses float above
- Dead and drowned for lack of love
- You'll be sorry, sir, for this!"
- And the silly creature cried
- Feared, perchance, the rising tide.
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- Madam Adam, when she had 'em,
- May have been as bad as she.
-
- Fiat lux! Love's lumination
- Fell in floods of revelation!
- Blinded brain by world aglare,
- Sense of pulses in the air,
-
- Sense of swooning and the beating
- Of a voice somewhere repeating
- Something indistinctly heard!
- And the soul of Picklepip
- Sprang upon his trembling lip,
- But he spake no further word
- Of the wealth he did not own;
- In that moment had outgrown
- Ship and mine and flock and land
- Even his cask upon the strand.
- Dropped a stricken star to earth,
- Type of wealth and worldly worth.
- Clomb the moon into the sky,
- Type of love's immensity!
- Shaking silver seemed the sea,
- Throne of God the town of Dae!
- Town of Dae by the sea,
- From above there cometh love,
- Blessing all good souls that be.
"The Town of Dae" is reprinted from Shapes of Clay. Ambrose Bierce. San Francisco: W. E. Wood, 1903. |
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