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."     September 1920.