Okay, okay, thank you Mr. for your introduction, yeah. And thank you everyone, so glad to be here, yeah. My topic is about how Tencent use PGXZ, or PGXZ is an internal name. In fact, the community name is PGXZ in our WeChat payment system. First, let me introduce Tencent, and WeChat payment system. Tencent is one of the biggest internet companies in China. It has more than 20,000 employees, and its Hong Kong stock code is 0700. And WeChat is the most popular social network application in China, and it is also the latest product of Tencent company in social network area. Last year's financial report shows WeChat contains 600 million active users per month, yeah. And WeChat payment, it is wireless, fast secure, and efficiency payment solution provided by WeChat, yeah. Yeah, 50 million payments business due per day at present, and the number of business just keep growing all the time. Okay, so after this, let's come to what is PGXZ used for? Okay, you know, when people are using WeChat payment, they pay like the left, yeah, pay money to buy everything in supermarket for taxes, buy things through website, shopping website, like that, Jingdong, and some Chinese style Uber, yeah, that's the car, yeah, they pay for that. After that, people, you know, the payment bills, and the fund flows, and the bidding flows will come into our background system. The background system is PostgreSQL XZ, yeah. So after this, the merchants, the merchants, the companies, the website company, and the taxi company, they want to know how much money they have earned, or the details of the payment, they will query PGXZ to get the information, yeah. Okay, so this is what is PGXZ is used for. Okay, come to another question. Why we use PGXZ to do this? Okay, let's see two numbers. Number two, number one, at present, 100 million joules coming to the system at present, and our product guide told me, this number will be 200 at the end of 2016, yeah. The data sets of the cluster is 18, 8,500 gigabytes at present. At the end of the year, it will be 16,000 gigabytes, and you know, no single node database can handle so much data, so we need a cluster to do this. Another reason why we choose PGXZ is because we can, we can finish sort operation of 19 millions of joules in a few seconds. In fact, we can manage this in very short time. Maybe several, less than a hundred million seconds, yeah. And we can provide fast aggregation of a lot of volume data sets. Of course, we can provide faster query for real-time query also, and the most important thing, we require here transaction per second. At present, it is 5,000. Maybe at the end of the year, it will be 10,000, yeah. Next year, it will be even here. You know, the data, the data in our system just double every month, yeah. This month, double sets of the last month. Next month, it will double. It keeps increasing very fast, okay. Maybe, talking about PGXZ, many people will ask why you guys don't choose Postgrease XL. Postgrease XL is another Postgrease cluster solution. Why we don't choose this? You know, Postgrease XL is more stable and it can do more efficient internal joins and also it's also more up-to-date. It is merged to the latest version, 9.5. It's very easy, it's a very easy reason for this question. It's because at the time, when we start up the project, Postgrease XL is not available. We, at the time, Postgrease XL is not open source. Two years ago, yeah. So we choose Postgrease XLC, okay. Next page, let's talk about just this slide, just shows the hardware that we use and the nodes number of cluster running online, yeah. For co-auditors and data nodes, we use machines with 24 cores, 60 for Gigabit memory and one terabit PCIe fusion card. The network is Gigabit, it's a network, yeah. For GTM, we didn't need so fancy machine. The machine is a little, not so good. Just one terabit, set of disk and ordinary network. The online cluster contains 16 primary data nodes, 16 standby data nodes and two GTMs, three co-auditors are deployed together with data nodes. In all, the cluster has 64 machines in all, yeah, okay. After this description, let's come to the agenda of today. This is, we will talk about seven topics today, okay. Before we come to the first topic, let me just introduce my team. They are so glad to see you all guys, so they all smile. Smiling, yeah, they're all smiling. This picture was taken two days ago in Shenzhen, China. At that time, oh, you can use this one, okay. Yeah, two days ago in Shenzhen, no, that's good. Okay, let's continue. Two days ago in Shenzhen, you can see, it's warm there. New York City is much, much colder. So I caught a little cold, yeah. Okay, has anyone been to Shenzhen? I know that guy, yeah, this guy has been. You are welcome. So all you guys are welcome to Shenzhen, yeah. When you come to Shenzhen, just contact me. I will invite you at dinner. You know, Chinese food is very, very delicious. You will never want to miss it, yeah. Okay, let's come to the first topic. The first topic is about the transaction management modification we made to PGXC. We know in PGXC, a statement coming to the coordinator, the coordinator will request the transaction info from GTM, the transaction info about GXID and Snapshot, and then the coordinator will send the statement and the transaction info to data nodes to execute. By doing this, the post-grace XC can maintain consistency view of transaction, but it has its shortcomings. First, standby nodes cannot be used for read-only query. Machines will not be fully utilized. And in some corner cases, the corruption happens. It is hard to trace and fix. The second issue ordered us a lot, yeah. So we just made a simple modification to it. We remove global transaction information when query come to coordinator, we just send the statement itself to data nodes to execute without other things. And when executing the CQ, data nodes just use its local transaction ID and Snapshot. By this way, we can totally skip the bad thing of PGXC. Yeah, PGXC just bores a lot. Sometimes it just the catalog just a crash. It bores a lot, yeah, okay. And by doing this, we have another good effect. We can use standby data node to provide read-only service. Here, we have two separated kind of co-oniters. Normal co-oniters catalog have entries of master data nodes. Read-only co-oniters catalog have entries of hosted by data nodes. Master data nodes ship logs to standby in hosted by mode. By this way, we can use standby data node to provide the query-only service, yeah. Okay, let's go to another topic. Just know I said our business just keep going, keep growing, yeah, very fast. Almost every month, it still says double, yeah. So we need to secure out. And sometimes our merchants, their business keep running. They want to know their business status in real-time. They don't want to wait. So we cannot stop the business and secure out. We need to secure out when business is still running. So we have to minimize the service interruption, okay. Okay. But in PGXC, it has three kinds of distribution strategy, hash, run robin, and replicate. Here, we just talk about hash. Hash strategy, where the rule will go depends on the numbers of data nodes and the hash value of distributed K. It has its own shortcoming. That is, when we add new nodes, if we want to use the newly added nodes, we have to export and import all rows. In this way, service cannot keep going. We have to stop them. You know, by doing this, the merchants, they will just complain out, maybe, yeah. So we must find a solution to minimize the service interruption, okay. So we introduce a new kind of distribution strategy into PGXC. That is, we call it logical sharding map. In this way, every entry of the map just maps a shard ID to a single node. This is the middle layer between the rule and the data nodes. The new distribution strategy use the hash value of distribution K and the length of the shard map to decide which data node rows will go, yeah. So we scale out. We just move the data in the shards to new nodes and then report the shard map entry to new data nodes. By doing this way, we don't have to rebuild the whole cluster, yeah. No questions? Let's come to the next slide. Okay, this slide is just to describe the steps of scale out. First, we dump the data with the specified shard ID of the data node that we want to scale out. And then, meanwhile, we start the logical decoding of the specified shard ID need to scale out. This is just to ensure the new rows in coming will not lose. After this, we import the dump file and the logical decoding output to the new added node. When there is very little modifications to the source node, we lock source nodes by refusing red access to the shard ID. After all this, we tell, we tell the co-auditors to update the shard maps so that the moved shard ID will point to the new node. After this, the scale out is over, yeah. But finally, we have to erase the moved data of the source node just to release this occupation. Let's come to the next topic. The topic is about data scale across nodes. So first we have to know what causes this scale. First, we created a table with distribution K merchant ID. So a specified merchant database rows will be stored into a single node, yeah. But merchants have different amounts of business, yeah. Some are huge, yeah. Some are tiny, sometimes. So huge business merchants will use much more data than others. Sometimes, like the shopping website I showed in my third slide, that merchant, it can just run out of one disk, one machine, the capacity of one machine in only one month. After that, if we didn't find a solution to this, after that, when new data comes in, it's full, yeah. Business will fail, we'll get a complaint. I mean, the websites, they will not be so happy, yeah. Okay, then let's talk about the solution of data secure. Of data secure. At first, we divide the pgxz nodes into groups. A group contains one or more data nodes. Each group has only one shot map. Small merchants and huge merchants can be stored in different node group. Co-auditors can access all groups, of course. After this, we introduce a special distribution strategy for huge merchants. The distribution strategy for normal merchants and the huge merchants are different here. You can see the normal merchants will just use the merchant ID, the hash value of merchant ID as a key factor to calculate the shot ID of where Joe should go. But here, for huge merchants, we get another factor. The factor is a critical day off-site from 1970, January the 1st. That means when we decide where Joe of a huge merchant should go, we use two factors. One factor is merchant ID. Then the second factor is world time. I mean the day off-site of the time the business happened. By doing this way, the data of the huge merchants will be well-balanced across the huge merchant group. So at first, we should pick up the specially huge merchants and apply the customized strategy for them. And then, normal merchants use the default starting distribution strategy. Okay, this is the last thing I just explained. Next slide, I will give you an example. Here, yeah, here. For small merchants, it's data, different days, yeah. Different days from here to here, all go into one shot ID. One shot ID means one data node, yeah. But for huge merchants here, here, different days, different days go into different shot ID. Shot ID means different data nodes, yeah. So data are well-balanced across all nodes inside of the group. By doing this, we handle the data skew very well. Now, inside our cluster, the data, the capacity of huge, huge merchant group, disk is very, very, almost the same. This is about the data skew solution. Let's come to another topic. This topic is about optimization, optimating, optimating query performance on order result results of 19 million rows. You know, sometimes a merchant may want to see the details of the business. Maybe the list, the bidding list, very carefully, one by one, just by just click the website, next page, next page, that thing. So they need to just order, just sort it, I mean, just sort the data by the time of, I mean, by the time of the business happen, yeah. So they need, first they need, we need to sort the data, and then second, the time range, maybe one day, one week, or one month, especially for the huge merchants, the data will be huge, yeah. Seven million a day, a month it will be 90 million, quite a lot of rows. So it will be challenging for us. You know, the merchants, they didn't have enough patience to wait, to long. Click, yeah, several seconds is enough. If even longer, they will just not be so happy, yeah. Just, you're not so good, let me see to us. Okay, let's go to have a look at what's the solution, yeah. So, at first, it's, when we create the table, we partition, we use partitioned table. We partition the table by the time of the row, one partition, one month. And of course, for huge merchants, we use the customized distribution strategy, yeah. And the data will be distributed into different nodes by day off site. By doing this way, almost each node has the same number of rows, yeah. And we create a multi, multiple column index on merchant ID and the sorted column. By doing this way, the scan on each partition will use index scan, okay. Then, second, we have to do something about the plan, yeah, partition by time. So, in fact, this will here, here, here, this is not kind of partition, yeah. In PGXC, it's not kind of partition. Like chart, yeah, yeah. Across the cluster, I mean, across different nodes, we use merchant ID to chart it. But inside one node, inside every single node, we use time to create a partition. Here, after that, we need to do something about the plan to make it work, yeah. So first, when we optimize the planner of coordinator, the planner of coordinator. When coordinator find this kind of, this kind of query, and of course, he saw the indexes on each partitions match, yeah. Then it will push down the order by, order by just SQL, push down of this two data nodes. And on each data node, sometimes, you know, we, on each data node, we use indexed game for each data partition, yeah. Sometimes the time range is longer than one partition. So, we scan more than one partition, yeah. The planner will use much append, yeah, much append to combine the result from more partition, from multiple partitions, yeah. You know, much append is kind of sorted. It's output is sorted. So by doing this way, we can produce sorted results from every data node. Yeah, it's important. They want, you know, the merchant, they want to look very carefully at their, the time, the time when the business happen.  Some people just complain to the, complain, yeah, just, you know. So your system is not good enough, just you have to check what happened at which time, sometimes these things happen, yeah. Okay, by doing these things, each data node just output, output tuples in a sorted order. And in Coaliter, we also use much append to combine, combine all outputs from all data nodes. By doing this way, Coaliter can output a sorted, a sorted output, yeah. This that shows the running performance, yeah. So here, at the present, we, in our test case, we can get a result of 19 million rows sorted in less than 30 million, 30 microsecond, yeah. And when we have 800 sessions running at the same time, we can even process more than 5,000 queries per second. More than 5,000 queries per second. And the latency is less than 200 microsecond. Let's come to next, next slide, okay. I'm sorry, my pronunciation is not so good. So I just tried to speak slowly and loudly so I can be well understood, okay. Thank you. Okay, let's, this slide talks about the parallel execution of CQ and the optimization. Okay, 20 minutes is enough maybe. Okay, I have learned about the community, they are doing the same thing, but we did this two years ago. This term is running online, okay. Okay, let's talk about the architecture. So here, we introduce a shared memory manager. We use bitmap method to manage the shared memory. So when a statement comes to the system, the post-crisis session just to judge whether the plan can be run in a parallel way. If it is, I mean, it can be run in a parallel way. It's just, you know, divide, divide the plan into small pieces. We call it a plan slice, yeah, plan slice. And then put it into the queue, the plan queue. The plan queue is stored in the shared memory manager. There are several, several executed workers are waiting on the other side of the plan queue. When these guys see anything coming to there, just pick it up and run, yeah. When the executor, executor worker finish their job, they just push, push the result. I mean, the table, put the table pointer, put the pointer into the result queue. Result queues are also stored in shared memory manager. Yeah, by doing this way, we can run SQL in a parallel way. Any question about this? Okay, come to next. Okay, this page just shows how we defined the plan slice. The plan slice contains this kind of things. First, the XID, XID means which transaction is running the slice, the plan, and is the piece of the plan. And then the user ID. User ID means which user is running. And the next one is also the transaction snapshot. And then this fourth one, plan statement. Also, it's a plan statement of current slice. Then the next one, plan. This is the really plan slice will be one in executor worker, yeah. So, the slice info is about the specified execution node. It is used to describe detail about the range of the plan slice. Plan slice, yeah.  And then the last one is a memory context. This memory context is created in share memory manager. We, it is used to hold executor result table, where the result table pointer point two, yeah. You know, the result table here, the result queue. The result queue here, it just returns the pointers. The pointers just point to that context. Okay. After all this, let's talk about how many operators have we done, yeah. We have done all this. SecretorySky, HatchJohn, NestlubJohn, MotionJohn, of course, we have, you know, we have plan, but, you know, in fact, this tree is enough for us. But we have just estimate it. I found it's okay to do it, but this tree is enough so we have not finished it, yeah. And then the remote query. Our remote query is a special operator in pgxc and then hash aggregate and sort aggregate and append, okay. And in the last, in the last few, I mean, in the next, in the next few charts, I will show the acceleration, acceleration of the parallel running, yeah. In this chart, we can see the acceleration rate, almost the same as the numbers of CPUs in our system, almost 12 times, yeah. Then this is the secretory scan. And then here is the hashJohn. HatchJohn, almost none, none of, eight times, yeah. Here is the next loopJohn. Next loopJohn, maybe not that good, only at most six times faster, yeah. And hash, hash aggregate, hash aggregate, this is good, I think. It can, the acceleration rate can reach, 13 times, it's great. Sort aggregators, this kind of, you know, the way, when we, when we develop them, when we develop them, this is kind of, is some kind of, some kind of test, I think. At that time, when we do this, we think maybe it will not be so good as hash aggregate. So we just did it. And the result just tell us, yes, we are right at the beginning, yeah. It's just only three times faster. Okay. After all this, okay. I think, you know, execution, it has its own set effect. Our own, our running, running system, I mean, the online system, the parallel execution sometimes uses too much resource. Almost all CPUs, all disk IOs is, you know, too much resource. So the QPS, I mean, the query per second cannot be too high. The CPU and IOs just keep busy all the time. So let's come to another topic. This topic is about high availability across international data centers and cities. You know, our system are running for the financial, something about money, yeah, money data, yeah. It's critical. So sometimes we need several copies just to ensure any disaster cannot just make the system down. So we have to design a system that is robust enough, yeah, good enough for any disaster. So here, we build a system like this. This system contains several types of components. The first one, we all know that it's the keeper, yeah. How do we do the keeper? We use the keeper to store the data node and the collater status and then the judgment center. Judgment center, we deploy judgment center to every city. I mean, at least one city must have one. But this, so many judgment centers, there is only one master. That means only one master work. Others are hoisted by. And you know, what is the difference between master and the sleeve? The master, it collect status from the collect agent and beside this, it also make judgment like which node is down. It should be replaced by another backup node, yeah. It does this thing. If master is down, the judgment node group itself will promote another sleeve as a new master, yeah. Okay, then after this is the collect agent. The collect agent just collect status of database nodes and execute the command from judgment center, okay. After all this, we can see it's the database cluster itself. We deploy coordinator in every city. At least one international data center. And we have a copy in every international data center. Yeah, we can see that. So even two of the three international data centers are down. We, our system can still keep running. Let's come to, okay. Maybe here, this is only the conclusion. I have explained this. Here, we can see each data node has two parallel sleeves. Synchronized one is in the same city as master and the other one in far away city is asynchronous. And I have said that coordinators are deployed into each international data centers. And monitor agents are used to report node status and each international data center at least has one, I mean the judgment center here. It is monitor center, okay. And auto fill over by active monitor center by the help of zookeeper, yeah. Okay, this is all about my topics. Then about our next step job. First, just at the beginning of my representation I talked about the growth of our business. Our product guy told me at the end of 2019, the data, I mean the cluster will be more than 400, 400 machines in all, it's too big. So many machines of course need so much money. So we need, sometimes we need to compress to reduce the cost. So we need a compressing store engine. Maybe the fair system with compressing all the internal, I mean the internal database itself. And then we will migrate to post base to pitch XZ. Tensioned company also has product like Google map. We have plenty of data, yeah, plenty of data. So we need this, okay. And the latest, I mean the very, very, very early future before the end of May, we will be the three, I mean another three clusters, I mean pitch XZ clusters because more and more business coming, yeah. We need to serve them, okay. And that is my email address, anything you can contact me, okay, yeah, okay. Any questions? Okay, I'm ready. One thing, one thing is, you know.


I'm Mark, I'm an English teacher and coach from Toronto in Canada, but I live in Rome. Since I began teaching English in 1996, students have often asked me the same question, how can I learn English faster and more efficiently? The answer to this question has been wronging around in my head for some time now. I'll give you advice on what not to do when learning English first. So first off, don't translate word by word from your own language. Try to figure out the meaning by reading through the sentence, and then try to understand it from the context. If you don't know how to say a certain word in English, try to explain it by using the language and the vocabulary you already know. So this might seem difficult, but it works. Second, don't give up on your studies. Be constant, never stop learning. Research shows that if you give up on your studies, you'll really get your English to the back of your mind. It's like going to the gym for a year and then taking a year off. When you return, all your muscles will hurt. That's because you didn't work out for a year. So never give up. Now number three, don't be shy when you speak English. By gaining confidence in the language, you'll become better at it. If you are confident, you won't think about your grammar mistakes. When you speak to people in English, they understand you are learning the language. So don't worry, nobody expects impeccable English from you. So how about those points? Are you actually using them? Well, I hope so. Now let's talk about what you should do when learning English. Try to immerse yourself in the language. What do I mean by immerse? Well, let me tell you about my own experience with Italian. I moved to Italy in 1997. For the first two months, I had 360 degree contact with the language. When I spoke Italian, with some mistakes. My friends were Italians. The environment was Italian. The air that I breathed was Italian. The whole context was Italian. Well, I learned Italian in two months. I was able to have a real conversation with someone, even making some mistakes now and then. Obviously, I don't expect you to move to the USA or to Canada or to the UK or even to Australia. However, you can recreate your English learning environment. But how? These are the most important things. How? For your listening comprehension, I suggest watching TV in English. By renting or buying movies or even by using the internet. You can find tons and myriad of movies with English subtitles. TV series or TV programs, even on YouTube. You just need to Google English movies. And then, for example, you can type Casablanca, series like The Mist, France, Sex and the City or TV programs like 2020 or Dateline. There is a myriad of links to shows, programs or movies in English. I would also recommend English podcasts. They are easy to get. You just need to subscribe to the ones you are most interested in. And again, there are tons of English podcasts. For example, English vocabulary podcast or English grammar podcast or English pronunciation podcast or English speaking podcast, I think, yes, etc. There are tons of podcasts. When listening, you don't need to pay particular attention to what you're hearing.  Getting used to the sound of English will definitely help you improve your comprehension and understanding, obviously. This is particularly true if you live in a context where every American or British movie is dubbed, just like here in Italy. In order to learn new vocabulary, I suggest reading a book you've always wanted to read in your own language. For example, a book that you'll enjoy. When you learn a language, it is extremely important you enjoy what you're doing. When reading, it isn't important to look up all the words you don't know. It is, however, important to try and understand new words by context. When an author writes a sophisticated word, they usually explain it in the successive sentences. Likewise, when an author uses this kind of word once, you'll often find it repeated several times throughout the rest of the book. In this way, by the time you've got to the end of the book, you'll have found it several times in context, and you will have definitely learned what it means. I've seen students translating every single word they didn't understand. For long-term retention, this has been proved to be ineffective. After a few weeks of not actively using or re-encountering the words they so meticulously looked up in the dictionary, they simply forget them. In order to use what you've already learned, I suggest going to venues where foreigners usually hang out. Try and meet new people. They don't have to be native English speakers. They could be from anywhere but your own country. Tell them you're learning English and you'd like to practice what you've learned. Talk about the weather, the city, their or your life in general, the news, anything you think will be appropriate for that occasion. Meet new friends online. There are hundreds of chat rooms for English students. Even on Facebook, there are millions of English-speaking groups. By now, you know you can either test or speak live with anyone on the internet. I suggest you always mention you're learning English and you want to practice. There are many people who are learning English and wish to use what they've learned. Traveling. Visit a place outside your country. Anywhere you go, you'll find people who speak English. By traveling, you can practice the English you've learned first-hand. Try to put yourself in situations where you have to speak English in order to communicate. In this way, you're forced to use what you've learned. I strongly suggest traveling alone so that you don't speak your own language and thus speak only English. If you live in a country where English isn't the first language, I'd strongly suggest attending English lessons. Make it a habit. Don't stop attending. This will definitely increase your level of English and will maintain what you've learned so far. Well, I hope you found my advice helpful. If you'd like to make a comment or to post a question, just do so under this video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel if you haven't and please share the video with your friends. We might even thank you for thinking about that. Thank you very much for watching and have a great day. See you next time. Bye-bye.


Do we begin, or do we make an end, When you and I part who have had fair day? If we begin, then I am glad of it, As a man kindling a wrought silver lamp, And casting perfumes in it might be glad, And if we make an end, I am glad too, As a man might be laying down his book, And knowing a fair tale has been well told. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain, Supposing we had gone down, by Gerald Crowe, Read for LibriVox.org by Adrian Stevens.  End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Dance of the Blood-Red Sun by Eric Dickinson. Read for LibriVox.org by Carmen Fulmer. The Dance of the Blood-Red Sun. And when the sun sank down toward the temple hill, When day's last breath was blown, And Saqqala's note was still, Twas then Demeter's daughter, To the stream by the hill would run, To bend and kiss the grasses, And dance to a blood-red sun. While Khashogh's homeward wing, Pan hear some footsteps pass, As some first breath of spring Go sweeping o'er the grass. So slight, so swift they pass, And as the feet speed by, A whisper shakes the trees. They nudge them for a lie And dream that no one sees. A tremor shakes the grasses, To some young hero passes. But on Demeter's daughter, To the stream by the hill has run, Has bent and kissed the grasses, And danced to a blood-red sun. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A calendar by Esther Lillian Duff. Read for LibriVox.org by Adrian Stevens. I made a calendar of saints To name upon my rosary, And daily I entreat their aid for thee. To guard thee during sleep I name St. Veep. St. Prisa has thy wardrobe in her care, And Blythe St. Hugh the dressing of thy hair. St. Maddox aids the toilet of my fair. When thou betimes to household tasks Repair, St. Sylvester is there, St. Chad inspects the linen and the lace, Each polished spoon reflects the shining face Of St. Remidius, minister of grace, And all the meal presides St. Boniface. To keep thy missile, Tempting thee to read I name St. Bede, And later, when thy French shall visit thee, Ensuring that the talk be Blythe and free, I seek betimes the bland St. Alphage, Whilst thy pen, lest happily thou shouldst need it, Attends and dusted it. And when the little mask of day is over, Gentle St. Damian of Villanova takes charge Of thee, and all that thou shalt know Of this hour's passing is that thou wilt grow Dreamily willing for the night, And so turning a bead in prayer to deft St. Probein For thine unrobing To guard thee during sleep I name St. Veep. I marked how black they were in strange, The oxen that bore your body to a resting place, Where, when the work was done, We stood bare-headed for a little space. I marked how light you were to lower down, And wondered if you knew that I was there, And railing in the place, Remembered that you could not greatly care.   This recording is in the public domain. Lad's Love and Lavender by Esther Lillian Doth Read for Libri Vox by Julian Pratley Lad's Love and Lavender, Rosemary and Rue I picked them in a posie, and I offered them to you. It was only Lad's Love, but surely it was true, Only Wild Grey Lavender, but fragrant as it grew. I plucked the sprig of Rosemary for memory of you, And was it to complete the tale I tidied up with Rue? Lad's Love and Lavender, Rosemary and Rue I picked them in a posie, and I offered it to you. End of Poem This recording is in the public domain. Years longer than years go by in bleak enduring. We bustle over humdrum, toil at some littleness, When, suddenly, a flame leaps up within us. As things sense new are whirled away, Expunged, and sight itself is blinded by the dazzle, The blaze of glory. Briefly then we live till the dropped curtain. May you have hours where I have had but moments. End of Poem This recording is in the public domain. The Crowd by T. W. Earp Read for Libby Rocks.org by Algypug. Here are many different people all roaring with one voice. Beware, go not too near, For you will lose your voice and roar with them. End of Poem This recording is in the public domain. End of Poem This recording is in the public domain.  End of Poem This recording is in the public domain. Nauts, you said, and I said, Nauts, oh yes, of course, but there are other places. And then I was silent, quickly, for I remembered certain fields where I played when I was a child, With a November sunset over them. End of Poem This recording is in the public domain. Cranes by T. W. Earp Read for Libby Rocks.org by Algypug. All day they have been busy about man's work, Swinging great hods of bricks with eager wear, But now they, too, endure the desires That lurk haunting the hours of night. They do not stir, Erect, they suffer metallic agony, Struck to a frozen gesture, Catch a claw twitched up at heaven. All night long they see Star upon star, And these they hunger for. Emotionless, thrilled with longing, They've only tried to pluck a golden blossom down from the sky. End of Poem This recording is in the public domain. Departure by T. W. Earp Read for Libby Rocks.org by Algypug. I have been reading books for about twenty years, I have laughed with other men's laughter, Wept with their tears. Life has been a cliche all these years, I would find a gesture of my own. End of Poem This recording is in the public domain. Six Poems Written in Foreign Countries by Godfrey Alton Read for Libby Rocks.org by Adrien Stevens One In quetta lamps are lighted, And like a sound in dreams, The bugle calls at evening Across the seven streams, How sweet and faint it seems. O here I am a soldier, And here my heart must stay Till twilight's in the barracks, And with the end of day My heart is fair away. For Hanna Pass is rocky, And high is Murda Hill, But O for June in Hampshire, And the fields my people till, My heart is crying still. The honeysuckle hedges, Where they will be dusty white, Where grass mows go singing, Along the golden light, Down smooth fields out of sight. Surely on some long evening, When rooks call down the lane, And on the fields at twilight Or softly falls the rain, We shall come home again. When faint far cries of sunset Are in the lime trees cool, And by the ancient spinny Up from the hidden pool The boys troop back to school. For Hanna Pass is rocky, And high is Murda Hill, But O of June in England, And the fields our people till, Our hearts are dreaming still. Quetta 1915 2. What of the woods on summer evenings wide We have looked down upon from Broadmoor Hill, And our dear pool beyond the barkam ride Is this a sunlit and a silent still? The summer evenings are as lingering still Along the alzmore heather golden cool, And where the dogs swam out by barkam hill No shadow falls on the unruffled pool. Do you climb up by Sandhurst wood alone To watch the moon rise over Eversley, And where far up the glimmering pines Make moan look down the valley, And remember me? Dream not of our old summers Where the rain falls whispering Towards the ancient Rhine. And forget, though never now again Shall we together thread the lands of pine, Yet happier boys hour long Shall loiter still Along the alzmore heather golden cool, And where our dogs swam out by barkam hill No shadow falls on the unruffled pool. Mediterranean Sea 1914 3. In a garden where bees murmured A droning, sunny dream, First heard I that old story Thy story polypheme, And half my heart enraptured Held present peace for naught, Weaving the long adventure Along the looms of thought. Yet to the tail had entered The scent of lilac trees, And down that ancient garden The dreamlike sound of bees, Back to a tune more subtle Beneath his warrior Greek, The tune of endless summers I heard Odysseus speak. This evening sailing eastward That blue rejoicing stream, I found Thy fabled island, Thy island polypheme, And half my heart enraptured Holds all but strife for naught, Weaving a new adventure Along the looms of thought. Yet though I hear adventure Singing so clear and low, My heart is drugged with memory Of summers long ago, And from the past there riseeth The scent of lilac trees, The sleepy ancient garden The dreamlike sound of bees. Mediterranean Sea 1914 4. Above the hot white high road, The cold in woods below, The sunny road to Sandhurst I knew so long ago, Deep down hot, Through the pine stems, In that deep shadowy wood, Show sunlight on the heather Where you and Douglas stood, And faint from over Bracknell, And Alsmore's leaf strewn dowels Across the silent pine-woods, There comes a sound of bells. Still lies that narrow clearing, Sunlit and sweet with bees, And still keep watch around it Unchanging silent trees. The hot bee-haunted heather Still from the highway shows, But now along that heathland No sun-drowsed wanderer goes, Only from over Bracknell And Alsmore's leaf strewn dowels Across the silent pine-woods There comes a sound of bells. Quetta 1915 5. The last bell rings, The summer term is dying, The chapel lights gleam out along the court, And frankly the organ sounds For old years sighing That pass more swift than thought. And then the undersound, The welcome thunder Of thronging boys beneath the ancient gate, Gay and well-loved, As any guest, I wonder, When comes the unquestioned fate? At this last hour, Before the huge-awaking Air All the fruit of love and peace be shed, Behold your comrades for the great leaf-taking Throng up from the summer's dead. They too have knelt, Sun flushed from July-weather, Down these long-lamplet aisles In evenings past, And in old years were gathered here together To say farewell at last. Ah! many of this much wept for phantom-number Whose delicate youth made dear our summer-land Fell in far wars, And now forgotten slumber In sinned or malacand. The organ fills with thankfulness and sorrow, Merma the tranquil prayers, O happy place, How many here shall sleep with these tomorrow, That were thy earlier race?  Quetta 1915 6 Still through the woods of childhood, With autumn one by one, The golden leaves go fluttering Down shafts of woodland sun, The long path through the heather Still finds the hidden pool, Where far through dell and spinny The last bell sounds from school. O, far across the meadows, By Lonehill copses tall, Where through sun-checkered silence All day the oak-leaves fall, By slanting windless beech-woods, Leafs strewn in valleys deep, Where lulled by hidden ring-doves The sun-drowsed copses sleep. Faintly, the far bell murmurs, At whose insistent call Across her starlit courtyards How loud the footsteps fall, I see the lighted windows, I hear the voices hum, The great bell calls, Come quickly, but I, I do not come. Six thousand miles to eastward My bones are buried deep, The bell rings on forever, They stir not in their sleep, Yet through the huge dim woodlands, Age-long by childhood's ways, My happy spirit wanders, Dreaming of olden days. Kazma Tangi, Balukistan, 1915 End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A girl's song by H.R. Freston, read for Libri Vox by Julian Pratley. He would make me idle as the droning bees In some aged pinewood, sad at set of sun. You would make me splendid as the plunging seas, When at call of mourning the great tides sure would run. He would make me sigh for langua and repose, Frail as some tall lily bruised by human hands. You would make me blush for joy like a laughing rose, Worked to sudden splendour on sun-warmed lands.  Beauty wakes in gladness, like a dream of long ago, Waking into music at opening of the day. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Sometimes I wonder by H.R. Freston, read for Libri Vox.org by Nima. Sometimes I wonder if you know how, When we meet in rotor lane, my heart leaps up and trembles so. I think it narrow will quiet again. Sometimes I wonder if you know. Sometimes I wonder if you guess, Behind each careless word of mine, There lurks a passionate caress, Although I make no outward sign. Sometimes I wonder if you guess.  Sometimes I think they hold regret, Who wished for something all the while. Always I find you calm and yet. Sometimes I think you understand that, When the magic hour draws near.  Sometimes I think you understand. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Lament by Russell Green, read for Libri Vox by Julian Pratley. Oh, would that beauty clothed no living thing? It is a curse that ever it should cling To that which lies within the doom of death. Why are you not a ring of tawny gold? Why are you not a sapphire I might hold, Rather than warm of blood and warm of breath? For then love would not crave for love's return. No more the need laboriously to learn The baffling byways of a silent heart. No more a pilgrim of the endless quest, When in my hand the quiet gem should rest In mute fulfillment of a mute desire. No more the unattainable, The goal unreached by all the travelings of the soul, The distant tremors of a fading fire. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Awakening of the Baki by Naomi M. Haldane, read for Libri Vox by Julian Pratley. We were asleep in sleepy fields, In summer-centred fields of hay, Or where that heavy oak copse Shields pale bracken from the light of day. We were asleep and dreaming endlessly, No breath of May or June us from our dreams could sever. Dreams like long furrows in a crested sea, We were asleep but now are awake forever. And as we woke we saw the stars stream overhead across the night, Till all the east was streaked with bars Of swiftly growing milky light. And when the dawn had swept across the sky, Ah, past all hoping and past all endeavor, We felt new life at every pulse beat cry. We were asleep but now are awake forever. So it was no wise strange to see When we leapt up the dappled skin, The thirst as twining wondrously, The wine we steeped our faces in. We felt the bull's breath burning on our brows, The branding god-mark that will leave us never. Strong in the wisdom which that touch endows, We were asleep but now are awake forever. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. From the Youth of All Nations by H. C. Harwood, Read for LibriVox.org by Larry Wilson. Think not, my elders, to rejoice When from the nation's wreck we wise, With a new thunder in our voice And a new lightning in our eyes. You called with patriotic sneers And drums and sentimental songs. We came from out the vernal years Thus bloodily to right your wrongs. The sins of many centuries Sealed by your indolence and fright Have earned us these our agonies, The thunderous appalling night, When from the lurid darkness Came the pains of poison and of shell, The broken heart, the world's ill fame, The lonely arrogance of hell.  O China's not. Not ours the crime. O praise us not. It is not one, The fight which we shall make sublime Beneath an unaccustomed sun. The simple world of childhood Fades beyond the sticks that all have passed. This is a novel land of shades Where in no ancient glories last. A land of desolation Blurred by mists of penitence and woe, Where every hope must be deferred And every river backward flow. Not on this gray and ruined plain Shall we obediently call your cities To rebuild again For their inevitable fall. We kneel at no ancestral shrine. With admirable blasphemy we desecrate The old divine and dream a new eternity. Destroy the history of men, The weary cycle of decay. We shall not pass that way again. We tread in you untrodden way. Though scattered wider yet, Our youth on every sea and continent, There shall come bitter with the truth A fraction of the suns you sent. When slowly with averted head, Some darkly, some with halting feet, And bowed with mourning for the dead, We walk the cheering, fluttering street. A music terrible austere Shall rise from our returning ranks To change your merriment to fear And slay upon your lips your thanks. And on the brooding weary brows Of stronger suns, Close enemies are writ The ruin of your house, As swift usurping dynasties. In the poem, this recording is in the public domain. The Prayer of the Virgin Mary by H. C. Harwood Bread for LibriVox.org Give me the strength for one more day To do the ordinary thing, To scrub and cook and watch and pray, And tranquilly at night To sing a lullaby to Jim and John, And memories to the boy who's gone. You know the wars and argument Brought on the world by feckless men.  And when we go, as go we must, My man and I, to burying place, Still let our children put their trust in you And your unbounded grace, And merry well, and live at ease, And take strong babies on their knees. End of Poem. This recording is in the public domain. Home Sickness from the Town by A. L. Huxley Read for LibriVox.org by L. L. Wilson Fru, fruity, and faint of patchouli smells, And a bio-virgins talking keats, And the arch window in accordion pleats Artfully fringing with the tales she tells The giggling prurient. Life nauseous! Let the whole crowd be sent To the chosen limboes and appropriate hells Reserved in memories black as stagnancy. Back, back, no social contract, From the teats of our old wolfish Mother-nature drink, Sweet, unrestrained, and lust and savagery. Feel goat hair growing thick and redolent On loin and thigh. Look back and mark the cloven hoof marks Of the track. You leave, then forward eyes again. No wink, less for an instant, You should miss the sight of Mooney Floating flanks and haunches white, Flashed by your fleeting nymph girl through the leaves. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Peace by Leslie Phillips Jones Read for LibriVox.org by Sarah Brown, S. Exjunction, Vermont A cool, calm night and a glowing fire Then the stately toll of a chime Mids the stillness of thoughts Seen through the haze of time Lingering vaguely the while A soft, dull light And a tall, grand spire Bold, black against the dusky sky An echo fading in space And the rising wind sigh Crooning, lulling, then sleep. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. For a folk song by R. S. Lambert Read for LibriVox.org O London, O London, I've heard of thee and thine How wide and full the highways With shops so wondrous fine So brightly do they glimmer A man abroad by night Would say the stars in heaven Came down to give them light And there be mighty buildings That cast their shadow far And strange, unceasing noises Such as in cities are O London, O London, Mother of us thou art Who callest to thy children And takest them to heart Where shall a man be resting And his body there found Be it far he sleeps His soul is still on London ground O London, O London, I must a journey go And parting is a sorrow Surely a bitter woe Then shall we but forget thee And wander feeplessly God put his curse upon us To dwell in the country And of poem This recording is in the public domain Wartime by R. S. Lambert Read for LibriVox.org by Nima Drums go forth to the marching And many battalions of fighters And the dark ships Lie upon the sea waiting And the sound of the great guns Is driven across the slanting sky But my heart has not gone with them My soul hath folded her wings In a great silence And hath saw her shame Amidst the much shouting Far away my soul hath flown Searching, searching for forgotten peace She, the clear-eyed one The dove of the deathless gods She hath departed away from us And we are given over to darkness and hatred I will go far awondering Looking for my lost love For all the light of the heavens Is fading About the faintness of her footstep And a poem This recording is in the public domain Domino Mayo by Agnes E. Murray Read for LibriVox.org by Larry Wilson I wait at the cottage door Looking out on the dusty highway Long, long have I waited From the first red flush of the morning When the fragrance of all the world Drifted out on the vagrant winds The men in the horned oxen Passed by to the burnished wheat fields Bright blue shirts on their backs And gleaming sighs on their shoulders And behind them the women and girls Clothed in crimson and russet Fresh from the deep night slumber With laughter beneath their lashes I hear the songs in the cornfields The ripple of laughter ringing along The deserted highway The sun is rising at noonday And the sound of the reapers is still Everywhere men are sleeping Seeking the shade of the branches In the tints Irresistible heat The dust lies white on the highway Unsteered by the foot of the traveller I wait and the shadows grow longer Light breaths stir in the branches And soon they are driving their oxen With jingling bells on the harness The young men and maidens come laughing With red corn sheaves on their shoulders They turn and stare as they pass me Wondering ask one another Who is it whence come see this stranger Whom all day long she awaiteth And then pass on to their homesteads The shadows lie black and the cornfields Blood red gleam in the sunset Now a pale star has kindled a torch in the west Another and after another come out Till the pale flush sky is a glitter With myriad on myriad of torches I wait and shall wait till the time come When he my master shall find me I feel not my limbs beneath me They are numb with the long, long vigil The sunlight is left in the darkness But the earth is crowned with starlight I strain my ears through the stillness The stillness that hangs like a shadow And holds the breath of the world Deep breaths of fragrance unfold me The fragrance of burgeoning blossoms Of rose and of jasmine And myrtle and the deep purple flower of slumber Moths flit white in the blackness Brushing my face in their passing An owl hoot slow in the distance A nightjar cloaks by the river I strain my ears through the darkness For the sound of passing footsteps I hear a step in the distance A swift light tread of my loved one And my deep heart beats and trembles Like the wings of a bird in flight He will come with his young lithe limbs Supple and bright as the panthers He will come with his glorious face Like lightning across the clouds And eyes like the deep night sky Where clustering stars are the thickest That I bow and tremble before For they are the shrine of my worship Lips that are fiery wine Lips that scorch and subdue I have woven the web of my life In the loom of my love for thee Lowly perchance the web But glorious thrice was the bloom All that was fairest and fiercest I wove And the threads were resplendent I caught the light of the stars In the flash of the sun on the wavetops The songs of an hundred birds And the breath of the wind at midnight All the color and sound and scent Of the world have I gathered And wrought in a shining web Beloved my master for thee The steps come near on the highway Or let them pause for a moment There is your hand made waiting Year upon year she has waited Fool, thrice in your dreaming The footsteps have passed without pausing I saw his face in the darkness But I could not move my lips to cry Allowed on his name For my soul was dumb in its longing His face was glorious Heedless and proud And he wrecked not his lover Stood waiting He passed in the darkness His footsteps were lost in stillness And now, though I wait for a lifetime He will not pass again I stretch my arms through the darkness Vainly, vainly in longing Oh, thou my dearly beloved Will thou not hear, though unuttered, The wail of my cry for thee The cry for a great prize lost End of poem This recording is in the public domain The Prince of Ormuz Sings to Badora By Robert Nichols Red for Libbervox.org When she kisses me with her lips I become a rock That giant, that fabulous bird And over the desert vast Yellow and dumb by wheel And my jubilant screaming is heard A voice, an echo, high up and glad Over the domes and green pools of Baghdad But when she kisses me with her eyes My heart melts in me She is my sun, she strokes my snow I am loosed, I arise A brook of water I run, I run Crystal water, sunny and sweet Laughing and weeping To fawn at her feet End of poem This recording is in the public domain Midday by Robert Nichols Red for Libbervox.org By Nima The earth is still Only the white sun climbs Through the green silence of the branching limes Whose linked flowers hanging from the still tree top Distill their soundless syrup Drop by drop While twix the starry bracket of their lips The black bee drowsing floats And drowsing sips The flimsy leaves hang on the bright blue air Calm, suspended Deep peace is everywhere Filled with a murmurous rumor of high noon Earth seems with open eyes to sink and swoon In the sky, peace Where nothing moves Save the sun that smiles and loves Aquivering pieces on the grass Through the noon-blown butterflies pass White and hot, blue only to wear They can float flat in dream on the soft air Trees are asleep, beautiful, slumberous trees Stirred only by the passion of the breeze That like a warm wave welling over rocks Lifts and loosens the mass of drowsing locks Earth too, under the profound grass, sleeps and sleeps And softly heaves their slumberous mass The earth sleeps, sleeps the newly buried clay Or doth divinity Trouble it to live away No voice uplifts from under the wrapped crust The dust cries to the unregarding dust Over the hill the stopped notes of twin reeds Speak like drops from an old wound that bleeds A yokel's pipe, an ancient pastoral sings Above the innumerable murmur of hid wings I hear the cadence, sour-phone sweet The oldest birthing of the earth repeat All love, all passion, all strife, all delight Are but the dreams that haunt earth's vision tonight In her eternal consciousness the stir Of Judas or Jesus is no more to her than you or I Being all part of dreams, the shadowy shadow Of a thing that seems The images, the lone pipe player sees Sitting and playing to the lone noon breeze One note, one life, they sleep Soon, we as these end a poem This recording is in the public domain The Tower by Robert Nichols Read for LibriVox.org by Larry Wilson It was deep night in over Jerusalem's pale roofs The moon floated, drifting through high vaporous roofs The moonlight crept and glistened silent, solemn, sweet Over dome and column, down empty listening street In the closed scented gardens the rose loosed from the stem For white showering petals None regarded them, the starry thicket Breed odors to the sentinel palm Silence possessed the city like a soul possessed by calm Thought a spark in the warn under the giant night Save where in the turrets lantern beamed a grave, still light There in an upper chamber a gold-eyed lamp was lit Marvelous lamp in darkness informing, redeeming it For set in that tiny lantern Jesus, the blessed and doomed Spoke to the lone apostles as light to men entombed And spitting his hands in blessing as one soon to be dead He put soft enchantment into spare wine and bread The hearts of the disciples were broken and full of tears Because their Lord the Spearless was hedged about with spears And in his face the sickness of departure had spread a gloom At leaving his young friends friendless They could not forget the tomb He smiled subduedly telling in tones soft his voice of the dove The endlessness of sorrow, the eternal solace of love And lifting the earthy tokens wine and sorrowful bread He bade them sup and remember one who lived and was dead And they could not restrain their weeping But one rose to depart having weakness and hate of weakness Raging within his heart and bowed to the rogue assembly Whose eyes gleamed wet in the light Judas arose and departed night went out to the night Then Jesus lifted his voice like a fountain in an ocean of tears And comforted his disciples and calmed and allayed their fears Judas wound down the turret creeping from floor to floor And would fly but one leaning, weeping, barred him beside the door And he knew her by her ruddy garment and two yet watching men Mary of seven sorrows, Mary Magdalene And he was frightened at her She sighed, I dreamed him dead and that was I who sold him by sin Then Judas fled out into the night The moon had begun to set, a drear small wind went sifting setting the dust afret Into the heart of the city Judas ran on and prayed To stern Jehovah lest his deed make him afraid But in the spirey turret, hanging as if on air, the disciples sat unspeaking A maze and peace were there, for his voice, more lovely than song of all earthly birds, In accents humble and happy, spoke slow, consoling words Then Jesus discoursed and was silent, sitting upright And soon passed the window behind him slanted the setting moon And rising for Olivet, all stared betwixt love and dread, Seeing the moon a ruddy halo behind his head End of poem This recording is in the public domain Franklin Kane, by Elizabeth Rendle Read for Librebox.org by Kathleen Silk I had for you, Madonna, you shook your small dear head Silk I have and silk enough, a store of it, you said Content I laid the web away, you lacked some cotton thread A cup I filled for you, Madonna, but other hands than mine More meat had given you to know the magic of the vine I poured within my empty cup fresh water for the wine A song I made for you, Madonna, it was my very best But your heart had heard the melody that will not let us rest Yet her lips had need of laughter, so I sang it as a jest Love I had for you, Madonna, because I looked on you But long ago your love was gone to pay its happy due Love you had, and love enough, and yet your friends were few My days are sweet, Madonna, sweet to their farthest end You, rich beyond all telling, had need that I should send Cotton thread in clear clean water and adjusting and a friend End of poem, this recording is in the public domain A Valid of Doom by Elizabeth Rendell Read for Librebox.org by Kathleen Ladies, pretty ladies, what do you lack? Ladies, pretty ladies, choose from my pack All the way to heaven and all the way to hell I went to fetch the fairings I have to sell If you've been to heaven, if you've been to hell I will pay a pretty price for a thing that you can tell How does my true love and how fares the foe Who slew him on a winter's night, very long ago I went the road to heaven, it is a weary way I pass the open gate of hell, you may reach it in a day Of all the many folk I saw, how should I know Which was your true love and which was your foe My love is a gallant, blue-eyed and debonair A thousand, thousand, such as he you may meet with anywhere He bears upon his breast the marks of wounds and kisses seven I saw not any man like this in all the courts of heaven My foe is a dour man and his hand is bitten through A little sign of love I gave for the deed he willed to do Lady, pretty lady, to his other news you lack This faring only, peddler, will I have from out your pack O lady, there in heaven I saw the blessed Stand, appraising God, and one there was who had a bitten hand And one among the damned I saw, who know not any rest Marks of wounds and kisses seven were burning on his breast Go, go again, good peddler, and bring me word again Why he I hate is doomed to bliss and he I love to pain Go cry my name in heaven, inhale my name declare That I may know before I go what was answered there Lady, pretty lady, what do you lack? Lady, pretty lady, choose from my pack I've been again to heaven, I've been again to hell Here are news that you may choose from those I have to sell Oh, what said my lover and what said my foe?  Ladies, pretty ladies, choose from my pack All the way to heaven and all the way to hell I went to fetch these pretty fairings I have to sell End of poem, this recording is in the public domain The Return by Elizabeth Rendell Read for Labourvox.org by Kathleen Last night my virgin spirit sinned It fled along the ways of wind nakedly I To seek your breast Knowing what chanced I would not tell It crept air moon rise back to hell A little sobbing and distress End of poem, this recording is in the public domain Night by L. Rice Oxley Read for Librevox.org by Carmen Fulmer West Virginia February 29, 2020 Night and now dark sleep has climbed the highest hill And no last sunlight keeps awake the day One after one the stars rise up until they gather to night's surface And the bay of heaven is sparkling with their thousand lights Such silence and such stillness that afar You seem to hear as ever on such nights The flickering of every burning star Oh, what fair compass this the course to mark Of wanderers in the night For strange it seems, though all is light in heaven The earth is dark till stately through the trees The chast moon gleams round in the silver Fairest of her moods like Diane Hunting in her native woods End of poem, this recording is in the public domain Petro Night and a Road by L. Rice Oxley Read for Librevox.org by Carmen Fulmer West Virginia Petro Night and a Road Swift life and light on a desolate road When the night is still deep with its fullness of stars And there goes from the lamp set before the command Let there be light And a white patch of road swiftly flees onward Oh, who hath not felt it? Greatly exulting that divine motion, the glory of speed Who hath not felt it but feels that his heart is one with the engines Brace to endeavor strong for a trial of swiftness and strength And fired with a joy and a zeal to be onward Swift life and light in the deadness and darkness of the deep of night In the silence of sleep, the strong delight of the rapid beat Urging the wheels to follow the fleet white beam on the road Swift life and light and a wind that is hurling itself through the night With a scream past our ears With a frantic might like a wretch distraught Mad in the dark and fleeing the thought of fiends on the road Swift life and light in the heavens above us Where worlds are burning with fire and speed But fair as the stars, we with our lamp With quick pulsing spark and shake of engine Speed on the road, shoot meteoric, adventuresome, glorious Too soon our lamp's light is merged in a lit street Losing its potency and the wheels once so fleet Slow down and the engine stops And sudden the stillness aches till the ears grow used to the silence And I thank you now for the joy of that journeying For the sense of man's vigor For the knowledge that beauty hates not machinery neither modernity For the exaltation of life and light On the free dark road End of poem This recording is in the public domain An old rhyme re-sung by Dorothy H. Rowe Read for LibriVox.org by Larry Wilson Here comes an old soldier Down the dusty highway trooping with the stars Comes old year, a soldier returning from the wars Out at elbow, down at heel, shuffling in his shoe With a knapsack full of lutein, of summertime free-booting Threadbear at the corners where the sunshine filters through Who beheld the youth of him how he marched away Confident, resplendent in the morning of a day Heels of air and heart of grace bragging of the spring With the trumpets of the fourth wind, the near wind, the north wind And half the world as mad as marched to hear his trumpeting Where's the marshal pageantry that used to flout the sky Flung to sport by every air that blows the leaves awry While the old year limps along whistling out of tune And gorgeous in his old rags, red rags, gold rags Flounce the todry tatters of the glory that was June End of poem This recording is in the public domain Lay by Dorothy L. Sayers Read for LibriVox.org by Linda Elson Phytac, Los Angeles Qu'ils font dix-huit Aucune fois de dix qu'ils font vingt Aucune fois de douze Qu'ils font vingt-cinq De verre entier ou de verre coupé Et qu'on vient que la taille de chacune couple A deux paragraphs Soit d'une rime toute, différente, l'une à l'autre Excepté tant seulement que la dernière couple Des douze Qu'ils font vingt-cinq Et qu'il y ait et doit être conclusion de lait Soit de pareil rime et d'autant de verre Sans redite comme la première couple Eustache des champs, l'art de dictier One Mamas, let love go by with his crown upon his head Beaten royally of gold, heavy, and red Your tinsel garments fly to the trip of a lightsome tread The gusty gale has fled, and your garlands are blown awry Sniggering, whisperingly, what was that thing you said? Poor old love, oh eye, put him away to bed With his wearisome song and sigh, with a ragtime tune instead But yours is already dead, and his can never die Two Oxford, suffer it once again that another should do thee wrong I also, eye above all, should set thee into a song Eye that am twice thy child have known thee Worship thee, loved thee, cried thy name allowed to the silence And could not be satisfied For my hands were stretched to clutch thee Draw thee up to my side, and my heart has leaped And my breath has failed to hear the tongue of Tom Tole in the dark And straight, unpanopled, my soul has almost died Bear with me as thou hast borne with all thy passionate throng Of lovers, the fools of love, for the great flood Sweeps along from the hills into the sea And all their boats go down with the tide And thou shalt stand unmoved When the wreck of the world beside When the loveless cities of greed slip down In their ruined pride and crumble into the gulf of time Thou shalt be strong With thebes and Arn and Memphis Where the deathless gods abide, a city sanctified 3. If I shall sing of thee an antique rhyme Stately and cold as moons that near eclipse And intricate as bells wrung down in time It is to keep the madness from my lips Whereby the lovers tongue stumbles and trips Uttering foolishness, and thy sublime white brow Is marred with mockery Garlands to whips, sceptres to reeds Are turned and worshiped to a crime Think, magic city, that as each dear chime Thrills the mute friendless night Or stealthily drips through all the noise Of noon from prime to prime Continually some new soul comes to grips With thee and all the power of thee He slips to seaward, weighs out anchor From the slime, following the wake Of countless golden ships thy figure at the prow To some far western climb 4. Thou art so magical, thou makest me afraid Lest some great bolt of desolation fall And thou in dust be laid with Babylon and Nineveh the Tall Awesome enchanted lake will cover the all And through quadrangle cloister colonnade Four coloured fishes swim and faint and small Up through the waves at midnight The bells of Maudlin call Through midnight water's mighty tome will call Or when perchance the pole of some nocturnal shade Unstarred, more dewy dark than usual Lifts upon hill and glade I fear lest sunrise strike upon nor wall No winding street nor ghost white pinnacle Only on level woodlands lonely made of thee as once By art's incredible The holy castle vanished behind Ser Percival At morning light was not for Percival 5. Once Nymew the lady of the lake wound aged Merlin in the coils of sleep And cast the silence of the luminous deep Green forest all about him there to take his rest forever No alarm might shake the stillness No wild creature snuff or peep on him No knight arouse him with the leap of his tall war horse Plunging through the break And that enchantress Venus For the sake of young Pygmalion Weary to see him creep Kissing his idols senseless foot and weep Smote life into the stone And so did Slake his thirst of love And thou the willow's quake by the clear share Thick clustered dewdrops steep The heads of mossy gargoyle beasts That keep their wide shy smile And dewy dream or wake 6. Only one painter could have painted thee Still mother with the unimpassioned eyes Dark with the mystery of many centuries Couldst thou have walked in a woman's guise Under the blue exulting skies of Italy In the great sunrise All things that were and now are and shall be Grave and upon thy heart have made thee wise To smile inscrutably All aid thou couldst despise Of reeds and fanciful sultries Strange face of kindness and cruelties Immutably without surprise 7. Thy name is as the scent of things departed Of myrrh and unremembered frankincense Stored in the niches of dim chapels dense With hidden tales of penitence With wreathed prayer and desperate vows red-hearted Whose ancient eloquence knocks on the doors of scents When in thy haunted shrines I kneel without defence Like one that sails on ice-dark waters Chartered by wrinkled mariners at dear expense Who trims the sails with careful diligence And though the pole-star burn intense Shudders to know how many ships thus started Feeling the wrath commence of old experience And drowned green ghosts that crawl From unsuspected dens 8. How shall I let thee go? For thou didst ring all myself from me I would not withhold one citadel but gave thee everything Perhaps a better wisdom had controlled the gift Had kept some solitary string thou could not shake Some secret still untold So that thou hadst not left me unconsoled at thy departure All this sorrowing would not be mine to-day Had I been strong of old But now, too late, the fleeing shadows bring The unsheathed swords of mourning sharp and cold Thou breakest from me, I am weakening Last night whilst thou so mighty I behold glimmering betwixt the feathers of thy wing Westward the stars, eastward the sunrise gold O stay, my hands about thy feet are bold Curse me, O bless, thou godlike deadly thing By the Lord's living face I will not lose my hold 9. The moonlight over Radliff Square Small sunset spires that drows and dream Thin bells that ring to evening prayer Red willow roots along the stream And perilous grey streets that team With light feet wandering unaware And winter nights with lamps a gleam Globet golden in the violet air Odd nightmare carven things that stare Spell stricken in a voiceless scream The warn steps of an ancient stare With oak and balustrade and beam Such things are way-tier than they seem These marks, my branded soul must bear Pledges that time cannot redeem And yet god knows if I shall care 10. Isoat Day follows day with weary feet The bitter spray flies fitfully over the waterway The gulls harsh crying is cruel as death O, far away are the years when we made holiday My hair and beard show very grey In the bed where I am lying All the wonderful songs of May round it madrigal Viralé, I cannot remember them now to play For yesterday night I was trying to bring them back But the harp strings fray And I only know that the songs were gay Thus and thus did Sir Tristram say In the hour that he was dying 11. They say the waters cannot drown love I believe it, set this down That I believed and uttered thus Whatever things the years discrown Somehow, love, I would have it known My youth was not ungenerous And I could kneel to kiss thy gown As every honest lover does For when beneath the winters frown Forth to the forest goes the clown Whistling when winds are blustrous To gather kindling for the town And there on his faggots sear and brown A few dry leaves hung dolerous In witness of the spring's renown And it is even so with us 12. I, even I, have loved in joy and dread Now my spinning wheel I ply like the peasant girl that wed With a king, they say, and try with hands and heart of lead To spin out a golden thread From the dusty straws and dry I will not weep nor cry for work unperfected Still laboring faithfully I have no tears to shed For love goes harping high And is, remember it, mummers When you are sped with all the lips that lie End of poem This recording is in the public domain Sisters by Eric Earnshaw Smith Read for Libri Vox by Julian Pratley You had not heard the clang of life, it seems, In those dim shadows of backwater days Save in the weary barrenness of dreams A vision of burning heights and dancing waves And so one day you dared And down the stair crept trembling Through the door into the street And o'ed to find your little soul laid bare And cast it thrilling at the city's feet So you have loved and you have lived, it seems, And they are silent now, forgotten days Save in the agony of sleepless dreams Forgotten heights, how cold and shadowy ways But in the grave I think you smile To hear your myriad sisters pass Their hungry eyes dark with the torment Of a restless fear Long-buried hopes and one-faced memories Death holds you in his arms Your bitter quest has given you sleep at last You could but die These are your sisters envying your rest And one by one they join you where you lie End of poem This recording is in the public domain God Stem by Eric Earnshaw Smith Read for Libri Vox.org by Nima April sent foolish blood about our hearts Waking old madness We had planned high tea under the sun at God's door It would be like an old April And so we played our parts There was a froth of Hawthorne And you said how love was very son of truth forgotten Undying, unchangeable And I'd forgotten all save the pulses drawing in my head Twilight comes cool in April You were thinking not yet the end Not yet the end I thought, dear fools Since when have we two grown so old That we are blind how love has fallen to naught And there's but lust in kisses We went on drinking while the stream laughed and chattered And tea was cold End of poem This recording is in the public domain Songs on the Downs by G.B. Smith Read for Libri Vox.org by Devorah Allen One This is the road the Romans made This track half lost in the green hills Or fading in a forest glade mid-violets and daffodils The years have fallen like dead leaves Unwept uncounted and unstayed Such as the autumn tempest thieves Since first this road the Romans made Two A miser lives within this house His patron saints the gnawing mouse And there's no peace upon his brows A many ancient trees and thin Do fold the place their shade within And moan as for remembered sin End of poem This recording is in the public domain Narcisse Malameleon by Hassan Shahid Surawadi Read for Libri Vox by Julian Pratley Your eyes to me are moonlit seas Where rove my seagull dreams like soles Where coral roses keep their trists With large translucent beads Where seaweeds kept in amber bowls Whisper like eager girls Where leaves of lily pearls Wander amongst cold-gleaming eyes And where the dream and transit skies Tremble grape-colored starlight kissed But in your inmost eye I see a boy A wondrous fair-limbed flower-bodied boy Gazing into an amethyst End of poem This recording is in the public domain Shinwazuri Samaynesk by Hassan Shahid Surawadi Read for Libri Vox by Julian Pratley The spring is calm, beloved We shall float white lotus lamps Upon the shimmering stream And watch the sunset's passion waste and fade An amber dream I'll weave the jasmine garlands for thy throat And mesh bold poppies in thy stormy hair And heap thy lap with tender blossoms Snowed by the tall pair But oh, tonight, beloved, play thy lute And lean thy cheek to mine and softly sing A fragile princess in her springtime dead And a lone king Love through thy finger lattices I see full of desire thy passionate longing eyes And lo, the moon, like an impetuous flower, bursts in the skies End of poem This recording is in the public domain Epitaph by E. Graham Sutton Read for LibriVox.org Here lies a fool for whom no tears are shed Here lies a fool one woman would have wed My glory and my shame go hand and hand So shall my soul in hell be comforted End of poem This recording is in the public domain Goblin Feet by J. R. R. Tolkien Read for LibriVox.org by Devorah Allen I am off down the road where the fairy lanterns glowed And the little pretty flitter mice are flying A slender band of gray it runs creepily away And the hedges and the grasses are assaying The air is full of wings and of blundering beetle things That warn you with their whirring and their humming Oh, I hear the tiny horns of enchanted leprechauns And the padded feet of many gnomes are coming Oh, the lights, oh, the gleams, oh, the little tinkly sounds Oh, the rustle of their noiseless little robes Oh, the echo of their feet, of their little happy feet Oh, their swinging lamps and little starlit globes I must follow in their train down the crooked fairy lane Where the cony rabbits long ago have gone And where silverly they sing in a moving moonlit ring All a twinkle with the jewels they have on They are fading round the turn where the glow worms palely burn And the echo of their padding feet is dying Oh, it's knocking at my heart, let me go, oh, let me start For the little magic hours are all flying Oh, the warmth, oh, the hum, oh, the colors in the dark Oh, the gauzy wings of golden honeyflies Oh, the music of their feet, of their dancing goblin feet Oh, the magic, oh, the sorrow when it dies End of poem This recording is in the public domain The Lover Made Light by Circumstance By Sherard Vines Red for LibriVox.org By Nima Who may have seen the trees grow tall Or watched what gate imperial the lord the sun from hour to hour From throne to throne by his blue hall makes And have known his stride gets slower Such might a patient lover be whose love runs deeper than the sea But I, how can I contemplate patiently With good will to wait, some slow maturing of desire Love meets me suddenly and straight scarce knowing All my bones run fire Fire blooms within me and without Tomorrow I am sent about I take tomorrow's crooked road My heart to wound, my fate agode Who may not sleep more nights than one To build foundations deep and broad And do as true lovers have done And give my handy craft my love Nor may love's habit find a groove On whom the dust falls white Because a day's march carries whence he was More happy than to hope his day Will bud in blossom arid paths And God's hands hurry him away Men may call light lover nor see Fit ground for his apology And a poem this recording is in the public domain Modern Beauty by Shahrad Vines Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo The month of May is over The green is crushed with red But God has raised the clover To hide his quiet dead Look not upon these temples Of cloud hewed by the wind Rather these weary wagons And dust flung up behind Our windows gape with blackness Our linen sheets are soiled All sorry are our women For each of them is spoiled Rather the broken body than body full of light Rather the skeleton of a house Or none lie down at night End of poem This recording is in the public domain Untiring of a certain subject By Shahrad Vines Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo Damn sex Let us drink of this raw purple wine If it blisters your throat That is no fault of mine We'll talk of all good things that met us together From the shape of a spire To our good sailing weather Let's wrangle no more about women and man While breads on the table and wines in the can The sun to southwest And a wind coming over Sweet seasoned with quicksets and beans and red plover Rare towns we may mention The little and old With pavements of cobble In keepers of gold Where, turning the corner by jubilee clock We ran into dusk in a comely blue frock Of the slant of the west with its head in a cloud And streams fed by sea wind Brown, lusty and loud Of the road by the cliff and the road down the comb The high road abroad and the level road home Why, here's to them all And of each road a story The halt and the meeting and end of day glory When it eaves in a garden some cottage beside Our pipe fire glowed up and their heaven fire died Here's days full of work seven times worth the doing Plain food for plain men and for strong men strong brewing Here's all that does good to our sinew in metal And for God's sake leave sex to some others to settle End of poem This recording is in the public domain To master Robert Herrick upon his death By HT Wade Jerry Read for LibriVox by Julian Pratley Sweet Robin Herrick, friend who death himself Could fend with song until the end When death, poor Dunderhead, grew tired of play And said you must be off to bed So sent you to your sleep, so deep, so endless deep Why, if a child will weep, who's kissed and sent away Yet night itself half play, and promise of next day What good night's yours alone to depths of silence gone And heard and seen of none End of poem This recording is in the public domain The grass is cold and wet, the dew is set By HT Wade Gary Read for LibriVox.org by Sarah Brown S Extension Vermont The grass is cold and wet, the dew is set Where we together lie But love will keep us warm, will take no harm Beloved you and I The moon shall shine slant-wise upon my eyes While it shines full on yours And I shall see them clear, which are more dear Than all that night obscures Put out your hand and see how cold they be The dew drops on the ground Drenching the grass, breathe full, how sweet and cool The vasty night around End of poem This recording is in the public domain Hark! How the birds do sing it evening By HT Wade Gary Read for LibriVox.org by Neema Hark! How the birds do sing it evening This doth the air possess Oh! This the quiet air doth wash from care Doth fill with loveliness To me now better this than any kiss Than any lovid voice Better than any speech when each with each Sweet lovers do rejoice Better to stand and see how goldenly All light and sound do end O love, what hast thou done beneath the sun? What have we done, sweet friend? End of poem This recording is in the public domain End of Oxford Poetry, 1915 Edited by GDHC and TWE