Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

A Runnable Stag

John Davidson (1857–1909)

WHEN the pods went pop on the broom, green broom,

And apples began to be golden-skinn’d,

We harbour’d a stag in the Priory coomb,

And we feather’d his trail up-wind, up-wind,

We feather’d his trail up-wind—

A stag of warrant, a stag, a stag,

A runnable stag, a kingly crop,

Brow, bay and tray and three on top,

A stag, a runnable stag.

Then the huntsman’s horn rang yap, yap yap,

And ‘Forwards’ we heard the harbourer shout;

But ’twas only a brocket that broke a gap

In the beechen underwood, driven out,

From the underwood antler’d out

By warrant and might of the stag, the stag,

The runnable stag, whose lordly mind

Was bent on sleep, though beam’d and tined

He stood, a runnable stag.

So we tufted the covert till afternoon

With Tinkerman’s Pup and Bell-of-the-North;

And hunters were sulky and hounds out of tune

Before we tufted the right stag forth,

Before we tufted him forth,

The stag of warrant, the wily stag,

The runnable stag with his kingly crop,

Brow, bay and tray and three on top,

The royal and runnable stag.

It was Bell-of-the-North and Tinkerman’s Pup

That stuck to the scent till the copse was drawn.

‘Tally ho! tally ho!’ and the hunt was up,

The tufters whipp’d and the pack laid on,

The resolute pack laid on,

And the stag of warrant away at last,

The runnable stag, the same, the same,

His hoofs on fire, his horns like flame,

A stag, a runnable stag.

‘Let your gelding be: if you check or chide

He stumbles at once and you’re out of the hunt;

For three hundred gentlemen, able to ride,

On hunters accustom’d to bear the brunt,

Accustom’d to bear the brunt,

Are after the runnable stag, the stag,

The runnable stag with his kingly crop,

Brow, bay and tray and three on top,

The right, the runnable stag.’

By perilous paths in coomb and dell,

The heather, the rocks, and the river-bed,

The pace grew hot, for the scent lay well,

And a runnable stag goes right ahead,

The quarry went right ahead—

Ahead, ahead, and fast and far;

His antler’d crest, his cloven hoof,

Brow, bay and tray and three aloof,

The stag, the runnable stag.

For a matter of twenty miles and more,

By the densest hedge and the highest wall,

Through herds of bullocks he baffled the lore

Of harbourer, huntsman, hounds and all,

Of harbourer, hounds and all—

The stag of warrant, the wily stag,

For twenty miles, and five and five,

He ran, and he never was caught alive,

This stag, this runnable stag.

When he turn’d at bay in the leafy gloom,

In the emerald gloom where the brook ran deep

He heard in the distance the rollers boom,

And he saw in a vision of peaceful sleep

In a wonderful vision of sleep,

A stag of warrant, a stag, a stag,

A runnable stag in a jewell’d bed,

Under the sheltering ocean dead,

A stag, a runnable stag.

So a fateful hope lit up his eye,

And he open’d his nostrils wide again,

And he toss’d his branching antlers high

As he headed the hunt down the Charlock glen,

As he raced down the echoing glen—

For five miles more, the stag, the stag,

For twenty miles, and five and five,

Not to be caught now, dead or alive,

The stag, the runnable stag.

Three hundred gentlemen, able to ride,

Three hundred horses as gallant and free,

Beheld him escape on the evening tide,

Far out till he sank in the Severn Sea,

Till he sank in the depths of the sea—

The stag, the buoyant stag, the stag

That slept at last in a jewell’d bed

Under the sheltering ocean spread,

The stag, the runnable stag.