II

More aid than that embrace, That nourishment, she cannot give: his heart Involves his fate; and she who urged the start Abides the race.

III

For he is in the lists Contentious with the elements, whose dower First sprang him; for swift vultures to devour If he desists.

IV

His breath of instant thirst Is warning of a creature matched with strife, To meet it as a bride, or let fall life On life's accursed.

V

No longer forth he bounds The lusty animal, afield to roam, But peering in Earth's entrails, where the gnome Strange themes propounds.

VI

By hunger sharply sped To grasp at weapons ere he learns their use, In each new ring he bears a giant's thews, An infant's head.

VII

And ever that old task Of reading what he is and whence he came, Whither to go, finds wilder letters flame Across her mask.

VIII

She hears his wailful prayer, When now to the Invisible he raves To rend him from her, now of his mother craves Her calm, her care.

IX

The thing that shudders most Within him is the burden of his cry. Seen of his dread, she is to his blank eye The eyeless Ghost.

X

Or sometimes she will seem Heavenly, but her blush, soon wearing white, Veils like a gorsebush in a web of blight, With gold-buds dim.

XI

Once worshipped Prime of Powers, She still was the Implacable: as a beast, She struck him down and dragged him from the feast She crowned with flowers.

XII

Her pomp of glorious hues, Her revelries of ripeness, her kind smile, Her songs, her peeping faces, lure awhile With symbol-clues.

XIII

The mystery she holds For him, inveterately he strains to see, And sight of his obtuseness is the key Among those folds.

XIV

He may entreat, aspire, He may despair, and she has never heed. She drinking his warm sweat will soothe his need, Not his desire.

XV

She prompts him to rejoice, Yet scares him on the threshold with the shroud. He deems her cherishing of her best-endowed A wanton's choice.

XVI

Albeit thereof he has found Firm roadway between lustfulness and pain; Has half transferred the battle to his brain, From bloody ground;

XVII

He will not read her good, Or wise, but with the passion Self obscures; Through that old devil of the thousand lures, Through that dense hood:

XVIII

Through terror, through distrust; The greed to touch, to view, to have, to live: Through all that makes of him a sensitive Abhorring dust.

XIX

Behold his wormy home! And he the wind-whipped, anywhither wave Crazily tumbled on a shingle-grave To waste in foam.

XX

Therefore the wretch inclined Afresh to the Invisible, who, he saith, Can raise him high: with vows of living faith For little signs.

XXI

Some signs he must demand, Some proofs of slaughtered nature; some prized few, To satisfy the senses it is true, And in his hand,

XXII

This miracle which saves Himself, himself doth from extinction clutch, By virtue of his worth, contrasting much With brutes and knaves.

XXIII

From dust, of him abhorred, He would be snatched by Grace discovering worth. 'Sever me from the hollowness of Earth! Me take, dear Lord!'

XXIV

She hears him. Him she owes For half her loveliness a love well won By work that lights the shapeless and the dun, Their common foes.

XXV

He builds the soaring spires, That sing his soul in stone: of her he draws, Though blind to her, by spelling at her laws, Her purest fires.

XXVI

Through him hath she exchanged, For the gold harvest-robes, the mural crown, Her haggard quarry-features and thick frown Where monsters ranged.

XXVII

And order, high discourse, And decency, than which is life less dear, She has of him: the lyre of language clear, Love's tongue and source.

XXVIII

She hears him, and can hear With glory in his gains by work achieved: With grief for grief that is the unperceived In her so near.

XXIX

If he aloft for aid Imploring storms, her essence is the spur. His cry to heaven is a cry to her He would evade.

XXX

Not elsewhere can he tend. Those are her rules which bid him wash foul sins; Those her revulsions from the skull that grins To ape his end.

XXXI

And her desires are those For happiness, for lastingness, for light. 'Tis she who kindles in his haunting night The hoped dawn-rose.

XXXII

Fair fountains of the dark Daily she waves him, that his inner dream May clasp amid the glooms a springing beam, A quivering lark:

XXIII

This life and her to know For Spirit: with awakenedness of glee To feel stern joy her origin: not he The child of woe.

XXXIV

But that the senses still Usurp the station of their issue mind, He would have burst the chrysalis of the blind: As yet he will;

XXXV

As yet he will, she prays, Yet will when his distempered devil of Self; - The glutton for her fruits, the wily elf In shifting rays; -

XXXVI

That captain of the scorned; The coveter of life in soul and shell, The fratricide, the thief, the infidel, The hoofed and horned; -

XXXVII

He singularly doomed To what he execrates and writhes to shun; - When fire has passed him vapour to the sun, And sun relumed,

XXXVIII

Then shall the horrid pall Be lifted, and a spirit nigh divine, 'Live in thy offspring as I live in mine,' Will hear her call.

XXXIX

Whence looks he on a land Whereon his labour is a carven page; And forth from heritage to heritage Nought writ on sand.

XL

His fables of the Above, And his gapped readings of the crown and sword, The hell detested and the heaven adored, The hate, the love,

XLI

The bright wing, the black hoof, He shall peruse, from Reason not disjoined, And never unfaith clamouring to be coined To faith by proof.

XLII

She her just Lord may view, Not he, her creature, till his soul has yearned With all her gifts to reach the light discerned Her spirit through.

XLIIII

Then in him time shall run As in the hour that to young sunlight crows; And—'If thou hast good faith it can repose,' She tells her son.

XLIV

Meanwhile on him, her chief Expression, her great word of life, looks she; Twi-minded of him, as the waxing tree, Or dated leaf.



A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT



I

See the sweet women, friend, that lean beneath The ever-falling fountain of green leaves Round the white bending stem, and like a wreath Of our most blushful flower shine trembling through, To teach philosophers the thirst of thieves: Is one for me? is one for you?

II

- Fair sirs, we give you welcome, yield you place, And you shall choose among us which you will, Without the idle pastime of the chase, If to this treaty you can well agree: To wed our cause, and its high task fulfil. He who's for us, for him are we!

III

- Most gracious ladies, nigh when light has birth, A troop of maids, brown as burnt heather-bells, And rich with life as moss-roots breathe of earth In the first plucking of them, past us flew To labour, singing rustic ritornells: Had they a cause? are they of you?

IV

- Sirs, they are as unthinking armies are To thoughtful leaders, and our cause is theirs. When they know men they know the state of war: But now they dream like sunlight on a sea, And deem you hold the half of happy pairs. He who's for us, for him are we!

V

- Ladies, I listened to a ring of dames; Judicial in the robe and wig; secure As venerated portraits in their frames; And they denounced some insurrection new Against sound laws which keep you good and pure. Are you of them? are they of you?

VI

- Sirs, they are of us, as their dress denotes, And by as much: let them together chime: It is an ancient bell within their throats, Pulled by an aged ringer; with what glee Befits the yellow yesterdays of time. He who's for us, for him are we!

VII

- Sweet ladies, you with beauty, you with wit; Dowered of all favours and all blessed things Whereat the ruddy torch of Love is lit; Wherefore this vain and outworn strife renew, Which stays the tide no more than eddy-rings? Who is for love must be for you.

VIII

- The manners of the market, honest sirs, 'Tis hard to quit when you behold the wares. You flatter us, or perchance our milliners You flatter; so this vain and outworn She May still be the charmed snake to your soft airs! A higher lord than Love claim we.

IX

- One day, dear lady, missing the broad track, I came on a wood's border, by a mead, Where golden May ran up to moted black: And there I saw Queen Beauty hold review, With Love before her throne in act to plead. Take him for me, take her for you.

X

- Ingenious gentleman, the tale is known. Love pleaded sweetly: Beauty would not melt: She would not melt: he turned in wrath: her throne The shadow of his back froze witheringly, And sobbing at his feet Queen Beauty knelt. O not such slaves of Love are we!

XI

- Love, lady, like the star above that lance Of radiance flung by sunset on ridged cloud, Sad as the last line of a brave romance! - Young Love hung dim, yet quivering round him threw Beams of fresh fire, while Beauty waned and bowed. Scorn Love, and dread the doom for you.

XII

- Called she not for her mirror, sir? Forth ran Her women: I am lost, she cried, when lo, Love in the form of an admiring man Once more in adoration bent the knee, And brought the faded Pagan to full blow: For which her throne she gave: not we!

XIII

- My version, madam, runs not to that end. A certain madness of an hour half past, Caught her like fever; her just lord no friend She fancied; aimed beyond beauty, and thence grew The prim acerbity, sweet Love's outcast. Great heaven ward off that stroke from you!

XIV

- Your prayer to heaven, good sir, is generous: How generous likewise that you do not name Offended nature! She from all of us Couched idle underneath our showering tree, May quite withhold her most destructive flame; And then what woeful women we!

XV

- Quite, could not be, fair lady; yet your youth May run to drought in visionary schemes: And a late waking to perceive the truth, When day falls shrouding her supreme adieu, Shows darker wastes than unaccomplished dreams: And that may be in store for you.

XVI

- O sir, the truth, the truth! is't in the skies, Or in the grass, or in this heart of ours? But O the truth, the truth! the many eyes That look on it! the diverse things they see, According to their thirst for fruit or flowers! Pass on: it is the truth seek we.

XVII

- Lady, there is a truth of settled laws That down the past burns like a great watch-fire. Let youth hail changeful mornings; but your cause, Whetting its edge to cut the race in two, Is felony: you forfeit the bright lyre, Much honour and much glory you!

XVIII

- Sir, was it glory, was it honour, pride, And not as cat and serpent and poor slave, Wherewith we walked in union by your side? Spare to false womanliness her delicacy, Or bid true manliness give ear, we crave: In our defence thus chained are we.

XIX

- Yours, madam, were the privileges of life Proper to man's ideal; you were the mark Of action, and the banner in the strife: Yea, of your very weakness once you drew The strength that sounds the wells, outflies the lark: Wrapped in a robe of flame were you!

XX

- Your friend looks thoughtful. Sir, when we were chill, You clothed us warmly; all in honour! when We starved you fed us; all in honour still: Oh, all in honour, ultra-honourably! Deep is the gratitude we owe to men, For privileged indeed were we!

XXI

- You cite exceptions, madam, that are sad, But come in the red struggle of our growth. Alas, that I should have to say it! bad Is two-sexed upon earth: this which you do, Shows animal impatience, mental sloth: Man monstrous! pining seraphs you!

XXII

- I fain would ask your friend . . . but I will ask You, sir, how if in place of numbers vague, Your sad exceptions were to break that mask They wear for your cool mind historically, And blaze like black lists of a PRESENT plague? But in that light behold them we.

XXIII

- Your spirit breathes a mist upon our world, Lady, and like a rain to pierce the roof And drench the bed where toil-tossed man lies curled In his hard-earned oblivion! You are few, Scattered, ill-counselled, blinded: for a proof, I have lived, and have known none like you.

XXIV

- We may be blind to men, sir: we embrace A future now beyond the fowler's nets. Though few, we hold a promise for the race That was not at our rising: you are free To win brave mates; you lose but marionnettes. He who's for us, for him are we.

XXV

- Ah! madam, were they puppets who withstood Youth's cravings for adventure to preserve The dedicated ways of womanhood? The light which leads us from the paths of rue, That light above us, never seen to swerve, Should be the home-lamp trimmed by you.

XXVI

- Ah! sir, our worshipped posture we perchance Shall not abandon, though we see not how, Being to that lamp-post fixed, we may advance Beside our lords in any real degree, Unless we move: and to advance is now A sovereign need, think more than we.

XXVII

- So push you out of harbour in small craft, With little seamanship; and comes a gale, The world will laugh, the world has often laughed, Lady, to see how bold when skies are blue, When black winds churn the deeps how panic-pale, How swift to the old nest fly you!

XXVIII

- What thinks your friend, kind sir? We have escaped But partly that old half-tamed wild beast's paw Whereunder woman, the weak thing, was shaped: Men, too, have known the cramping enemy In grim brute force, whom force of brain shall awe: Him our deliverer, await we!

XXIX

- Delusions are with eloquence endowed, And yours might pluck an angel from the spheres To play in this revolt whereto you are vowed, Deliverer, lady! but like summer dew O'er fields that crack for rain your friends drop tears, Who see the awakening for you.

XXX

- Is he our friend, there silent? he weeps not. O sir, delusion mounting like a sun On a mind blank as the white wife of Lot, Giving it warmth and movement! if this be Delusion, think of what thereby was won For men, and dream of what win we.

XXXI

- Lady, the destiny of minor powers, Who would recast us, is but to convulse: You enter on a strife that frets and sours; You can but win sick disappointment's hue; And simply an accelerated pulse, Some tonic you have drunk moves you.

XXXII

- Thinks your friend so? Good sir, your wit is bright; But wit that strives to speak the popular voice, Puts on its nightcap and puts out its light. Curfew, would seem your conqueror's decree To women likewise: and we have no choice Save darkness or rebellion, we!

XXXIII

- A plain safe intermediate way is cleft By reason foiling passion: you that rave Of mad alternatives to right and left Echo the tempter, madam: and 'tis due Unto your sex to shun it as the grave, This later apple offered you.

XXXIV

- This apple is not ripe, it is not sweet; Nor rosy, sir, nor golden: eye and mouth Are little wooed by it; yet we would eat. We are somewhat tired of Eden, is our plea. We have thirsted long; this apple suits our drouth: 'Tis good for men to halve, think we.

XXXV

- But say, what seek you, madam? 'Tis enough That you should have dominion o'er the springs Domestic and man's heart: those ways, how rough, How vile, outside the stately avenue Where you walk sheltered by your angel's wings, Are happily unknown to you.

XXXVI

- We hear women's shrieks on them. We like your phrase, Dominion domestic! And that roar, 'What seek you?' is of tyrants in all days. Sir, get you something of our purity And we will of your strength: we ask no more. That is the sum of what seek we.

XXXVII

- O for an image, madam, in one word, To show you as the lightning night reveals, Your error and your perils: you have erred In mind only, and the perils that ensue Swift heels may soften; wherefore to swift heels Address your hopes of safety you!

XXXVIII

- To err in mind, sir . . . your friend smiles: he may! To err in mind, if err in mind we can, Is grievous error you do well to stay. But O how different from reality Men's fiction is! how like you in the plan, Is woman, knew you her as we!

XXXIX

- Look, lady, where yon river winds its line Toward sunset, and receives on breast and face The splendour of fair life: to be divine, 'Tis nature bids you be to nature true, Flowing with beauty, lending earth your grace, Reflecting heaven in clearness you.

XL

- Sir, you speak well: your friend no word vouchsafes. To flow with beauty, breeding fools and worse, Cowards and worse: at such fair life she chafes, Who is not wholly of the nursery, Nor of your schools: we share the primal curse; Together shake it off, say we!

XLI

- Hear, then, my friend, madam! Tongue-restrained he stands Till words are thoughts, and thoughts, like swords enriched With traceries of the artificer's hands, Are fire-proved steel to cut, fair flowers to view. - Do I hear him? Oh, he is bewitched, bewitched! Heed him not! Traitress beauties you!

XLII

- We have won a champion, sisters, and a sage! - Ladies, you win a guest to a good feast! - Sir spokesman, sneers are weakness veiling rage. - Of weakness, and wise men, you have the key. - Then are there fresher mornings mounting East Than ever yet have dawned, sing we!

XLIII

- False ends as false began, madam, be sure! - What lure there is the pure cause purifies! - Who purifies the victim of the lure? - That soul which bids us our high light pursue. - Some heights are measured down: the wary wise Shun Reason in the masque with you!

XLIV

- Sir, for the friend you bring us, take our thanks. Yes, Beauty was of old this barren goal; A thing with claws; and brute-like in her pranks! But could she give more loyal guarantee Than wooing Wisdom, that in her a soul Has risen? Adieu: content are we!

XLV

Those ladies led their captive to the flood's Green edge. He floating with them seemed the most Fool-flushed old noddy ever crowned with buds. Happier than I! Then, why not wiser too? For he that lives with Beauty, he may boast His comrade over me and you.

XLVI

Have women nursed some dream since Helen sailed Over the sea of blood the blushing star, That beauty, whom frail man as Goddess hailed, When not possessing her (for such is he!), Might in a wondering season seen afar, Be tamed to say not 'I,' but 'we'?

XLVII

And shall they make of Beauty their estate, The fortress and the weapon of their sex? Shall she in her frost-brilliancy dictate, More queenly than of old, how we must woo, Ere she will melt? The halter's on our necks, Kick as it likes us, I and you.

XLVIII

Certain it is, if Beauty has disdained Her ancient conquests, with an aim thus high: If this, if that, if more, the fight is gained. But can she keep her followers without fee? Yet ah! to hear anew those ladies cry, He who's for us, for him are we!



THE TWO MASKS



Melpomene among her livid people, Ere stroke of lyre, upon Thaleia looks, Warned by old contests that one museful ripple Along those lips of rose with tendril hooks Forebodes disturbance in the springs of pathos, Perchance may change of masks midway demand, Albeit the man rise mountainous as Athos, The woman wild as Cape Leucadia stand.

II

For this the Comic Muse exacts of creatures Appealing to the fount of tears: that they Strive never to outleap our human features, And do Right Reason's ordinance obey, In peril of the hum to laughter nighest. But prove they under stress of action's fire Nobleness, to that test of Reason highest, She bows: she waves them for the loftier lyre.



ARCHDUCHESS ANNE



1—I

In middle age an evil thing Befell Archduchess Anne: She looked outside her wedding-ring Upon a princely man.

II

Count Louis was for horse and arms; And if its beacon waved, For love; but ladies had not charms To match a danger braved.

III

On battlefields he was the bow Bestrung to fly the shaft: In idle hours his heart would flow As winds on currents waft.

IV

His blood was of those warrior tribes That streamed from morning's fire, Whom now with traps and now with bribes The wily Council wire.

V

Archduchess Anne the Council ruled, Count Louis his great dame; And woe to both when one had cooled! Little was she to blame.

VI

Among her chiefs who spun their plots, Old Kraken stood the sword: As sharp his wits for cutting knots Of babble he abhorred.

VII

He reverenced her name and line, Nor other merit had Save soldierwise to wait her sign, And do the deed she bade.

VIII

He saw her hand jump at her side Ere royally she smiled On Louis and his fair young bride Where courtly ranks defiled.

IX

That was a moment when a shock Through the procession ran, And thrilled the plumes, and stayed the clock, Yet smiled Archduchess Anne.

X

No touch gave she to hound in leash, No wink to sword in sheath: She seemed a woman scarce of flesh; Above it, or beneath.

XI

Old Kraken spied with kennelled snarl, His Lady deemed disgraced. He footed as on burning marl, When out of Hall he paced.

XII

'Twas seen he hammered striding legs, And stopped, and strode again. Now Vengeance has a brood of eggs, But Patience must be hen.

XIII

Too slow are they for wrath to hatch, Too hot for time to rear. Old Kraken kept unwinding watch; He marked his day appear.

XIV

He neighed a laugh, though moods were rough With standards in revolt: His nostrils took the news for snuff, His smacking lips for salt.

XV

Count Louis' wavy cock's plumes led His troops of black-haired manes, A rebel; and old Kraken sped To front him on the plains.

XVI

Then camp opposed to camp did they Fret earth with panther claws For signal of a bloody day, Each reading from the Laws.

XVII

'Forefend it, heaven!' Count Louis cried, 'And let the righteous plead: My country is a willing bride, Was never slave decreed.

XVIII

'Not we for thirst of blood appeal To sword and slaughter curst; We have God's blessing on our steel, Do we our pleading first.'

XIX

Count Louis, soul of chivalry, Put trust in plighted word; By starlight on the broad brown lea, To bar the strife he spurred.

XX

Across his breast a crimson spot, That in a quiver glowed, The ruddy crested camp-fires shot, As he to darkness rode.

XXI

He rode while omens called, beware Old Kraken's pledge of faith! A smile and waving hand in air, And outward flew the wraith.

XXII

Before pale morn had mixed with gold, His army roared, and chilled, As men who have a woe foretold, And see it red fulfilled.

XXIII

Away and to his young wife speed, And say that Honour's dead! Another word she will not need To bow a widow's head.

XXIV

Old Kraken roped his white moustache Right, left, for savage glee: - To swing him in his soldier's sash Were kind for such as he!

XXV

Old Kraken's look hard Winter wears When sweeps the wild snow-blast: He had the hug of Arctic bears For captives he held fast.

2—I

Archduchess Anne sat carved in frost, Shut off from priest and spouse. Her lips were locked, her arms were crossed, Her eyes were in her brows.

II

One hand enclosed a paper scroll, Held as a strangled asp. So may we see the woman's soul In her dire tempter's grasp.

III

Along that scroll Count Louis' doom Throbbed till the letters flamed. She saw him in his scornful bloom, She saw him chained and shamed.

IV

Around that scroll Count Louis' fate Was acted to her stare, And hate in love and love in hate Fought fell to smite or spare.

V

Between the day that struck her old, And this black star of days, Her heart swung like a storm-bell tolled Above a town ablaze.

VI

His beauty pressed to intercede, His beauty served him ill. - Not Vengeance, 'tis his rebel's deed, 'Tis Justice, not our will!

VII

Yet who had sprung to life's full force A breast that loveless dried? But who had sapped it at the source, With scarlet to her pride!

VIII

He brought her waning heart as 'twere New message from the skies. And he betrayed, and left on her The burden of their sighs.

IX

In floods her tender memories poured; They foamed with waves of spite: She crushed them, high her heart outsoared, To keep her mind alight.

X

- The crawling creature, called in scorn A woman!—with this pen We sign a paper that may warn His crowing fellowmen.

XI

- We read them lesson of a power They slight who do us wrong. That bitter hour this bitter hour Provokes; by turns the strong!

XII

- That we were woman once is known: That we are Justice now, Above our sex, above the throne, Men quaking shall avow.

XIII

Archduchess Anne ascending flew, Her heart outsoared, but felt The demon of her sex pursue, Incensing or to melt.

XIV

Those counterfloods below at leap Still in her breast blew storm, And farther up the heavenly steep Wrestled in angels' form.

XV

To disentangle one clear wish Not of her sex, she sought; And womanish to womanish Discerned in lighted thought.

XVI

With Louis' chance it went not well When at herself she raged; A woman, of whom men might tell She doted, crazed and aged.

XVII

Or else enamoured of a sweet Withdrawn, a vengeful crone! And say, what figure at her feet Is this that utters moan?

XVIII

The Countess Louis from her head Drew veil: 'Great Lady, hear! My husband deems you Justice dread, I know you Mercy dear.

XIX

'His error upon him may fall; He will not breathe a nay. I am his helpless mate in all, Except for grace to pray.

XX

'Perchance on me his choice inclined, To give his House an heir: I had not marriage with his mind, His counsel could not share.

XXI

'I brought no portion for his weal But this one instinct true, Which bids me in my weakness kneel, Archduchess Anne, to you.'

XXII

The frowning Lady uttered, 'Forth!' Her look forbade delay: 'It is not mine to weigh your worth; Your husband's others weigh.

XXIII

'Hence with the woman in your speech,' For nothing it avails In woman's fashion to beseech Where Justice holds the scales.'

XXIV

Then bent and went the lady wan, Whose girlishness made grey The thoughts that through Archduchess Anne Shattered like stormy spray.

XXV

Long sat she there, as flame that strives To hold on beating wind: - His wife must be the fool of wives, Or cunningly designed!

XXVI

She sat until the tempest-pitch In her torn bosom fell; - His wife must be a subtle witch Or else God loves her well!

3—I

Old Kraken read a missive penned By his great Lady's hand. Her condescension called him friend, To raise the crest she fanned.

II

Swiftly to where he lay encamped It flew, yet breathed aloof From woman's feeling, and he stamped A heel more like a hoof.

III

She wrote of Mercy: 'She was loth Too hard to goad a foe.' He stamped, as when men drive an oath Devils transcribe below.

IV

She wrote: 'We have him half by theft.' His wrinkles glistened keen: And see the Winter storm-cloud cleft To lurid skies between!

V

When read old Kraken: 'Christ our Guide,' His eyes were spikes of spar: And see the white snow-storm divide About an icy star!

VI

'She trusted him to understand,' She wrote, and further prayed That policy might rule the land. Old Kraken's laughter neighed.

VII

Her words he took; her nods and winks Treated as woman's fog. The man-dog for his mistress thinks, Not less her faithful dog.

VIII

She hugged a cloak old Kraken ripped; Disguise to him he loathed. - Your mercy, madam, shows you stripped, While mine will keep you clothed.

IX

A rough ill-soldered scar in haste He rubbed on his cheek-bone. - Our policy the man shall taste; Our mercy shall be shown.

X

'Count Louis, honour to your race Decrees the Council-hall: You 'scape the rope by special grace, And like a soldier fall.'

XI

- I am a man of many sins, Who for one virtue die, Count Louis said.—They play at shins, Who kick, was the reply.

XII

Uprose the day of crimson sight, The day without a God. At morn the hero said Good-night: See there that stain on sod!

XIII

At morn the Countess Louis heard Young light sing in the lark. Ere eve it was that other bird, Which brings the starless dark.

XIV

To heaven she vowed herself, and yearned Beside her lord to lie. Archduchess Anne on Kraken turned, All white as a dead eye.

XV

If I could kill thee! shrieked her look: If lightning sprang from Will! An oaken head old Kraken shook, And she might thank or kill.

XVI

The pride that fenced her heart in mail By mortal pain was torn. Forth from her bosom leaped a wail, As of a babe new-born.

XVII

She clad herself in courtly use, And one who heard them prate Had said they differed upon views Where statecraft raised debate.

XVIII

The wretch detested must she trust, The servant master own: Confide to godless cause so just, And for God's blessing moan.

XIX

Austerely she her heart kept down, Her woman's tongue was mute When voice of People, voice of Crown, In cannon held dispute.

XX

The Crown on seas of blood, like swine, Swam forefoot at the throat: It drank of its dear veins for wine, Enough if it might float!

XXI

It sank with piteous yelp, resurged Electrical with fear. O had she on old Kraken urged Her word of mercy clear!

XXII

O had they with Count Louis been Accordant in his plea! Cursed are the women vowed to screen A heart that all can see!

XXIII

The godless drove unto a goal Was worse than vile defeat. Did vengeance prick Count Louis' soul They dressed him luscious meat.

XXIV

Worms will the faithless find their lies In the close treasure-chest. Without a God no day can rise, Though it should slay our best.

XXV

The Crown it furled a draggled flag, It sheathed a broken blade. Behold its triumph in the hag That lives with looks decayed!

XXVI

And lo, the man of oaken head, Of soldier's honour bare, He fled his land, but most he fled His Lady's frigid stare.

XXVII

Judged by the issue we discern God's blessing, and the bane. Count Louis' dust would fill an urn, His deeds are waving grain.

XXVIII

And she that helped to slay, yet bade To spare the fated man, Great were her errors, but she had Great heart, Archduchess Anne.



THE SONG OF THEODOLINDA



I

Queen Theodolind has built In the earth a furnace-bed: There the Traitor Nail that spilt Blood of the anointed Head, Red of heat, resolves in shame: White of heat, awakes to flame. Beat, beat! white of heat, Red of heat, beat, beat!

II

Mark the skeleton of fire Lightening from its thunder-roof: So comes this that saw expire Him we love, for our behoof! Red of heat, O white of heat, This from off the Cross we greet.

III

Brown-cowled hammermen around Nerve their naked arms to strike Death with Resurrection crowned, Each upon that cruel spike. Red of heat the furnace leaps, White of heat transfigured sleeps.

IV

Hard against the furnace core Holds the Queen her streaming eyes: Lo! that thing of piteous gore In the lap of radiance lies, Red of heat, as when He takes, White of heat, whom earth forsakes.

V

Forth with it, and crushing ring Iron hymns, for men to hear Echoes of the deeds that sting Earth into its graves, and fear! Red of heat, He maketh thus, White of heat, a crown of us.

VI

This that killed Thee, kissed Thee, Lord! Touched Thee, and we touch it: dear, Dark it is; adored, abhorred: Vilest, yet most sainted here. Red of heat, O white of heat, In it hell and heaven meet.

VII

I behold our morning day When they chased Him out with rods Up to where this traitor lay Thirsting; and the blood was God's! Red of heat, it shall be pressed, White of heat, once on my breast!

VIII

Quick! the reptile in me shrieks, Not the soul. Again; the Cross Burn there. Oh! this pain it wreaks Rapture is: pain is not loss. Red of heat, the tooth of Death, White of heat, has caught my breath.

IX

Brand me, bite me, bitter thing! Thus He felt, and thus I am One with Him in suffering, One with Him in bliss, the Lamb. Red of heat, O white of heat, Thus is bitterness made sweet.

X

Now am I, who bear that stamp Scorched in me, the living sign Sole on earth—the lighted lamp Of the dreadful Day divine. White of heat, beat on it fast! Red of heat, its shape has passed.

XI

Out in angry sparks they fly, They that sentenced Him to bleed: Pontius and his troop: they die, Damned for ever for the deed! White of heat in vain they soar: Red of heat they strew the floor.

XII

Fury on it! have its debt! Thunder on the Hill accurst, Golgotha, be ye! and sweat Blood, and thirst the Passion's thirst. Red of heat and white of heat, Champ it like fierce teeth that eat.

XIII

Strike it as the ages crush Towers! for while a shape is seen I am rivalled. Quench its blush, Devil! But it crowns me Queen, Red of heat, as none before, White of heat, the circlet wore.

XIV

Lowly I will be, and quail, Crawling, with a beggar's hand: On my breast the branded Nail, On my head the iron band. Red of heat, are none so base! White of heat, none know such grace!

XV

In their heaven the sainted hosts, Robed in violet unflecked, Gaze on humankind as ghosts: I draw down a ray direct. Red of heat, across my brow, White of heat, I touch Him now.

XVI

Robed in violet, robed in gold, Robed in pearl, they make our dawn. What am I to them? Behold What ye are to me, and fawn. Red of heat, be humble, ye! White of heat, O teach it me!

XVII

Martyrs! hungry peaks in air, Rent with lightnings, clad with snow, Crowned with stars! you strip me bare, Pierce me, shame me, stretch me low, Red of heat, but it may be, White of heat, some envy me!

XVIII

O poor enviers! God's own gifts Have a devil for the weak. Yea, the very force that lifts Finds the vessel's secret leak. Red of heat, I rise o'er all: White of heat, I faint, I fall.

XIX

Those old Martyrs sloughed their pride, Taking humbleness like mirth. I am to His Glory tied, I that witness Him on earth! Red of heat, my pride of dust, White of heat, feeds fire in trust.

XX

Kindle me to constant fire, Lest the nail be but a nail! Give me wings of great desire, Lest I look within, and fail! Red of heat, the furnace light, White of heat, fix on my sight.

XXI

Never for the Chosen peace! Know, by me tormented know, Never shall the wrestling cease Till with our outlasting Foe, Red of heat to white of heat, Roll we to the Godhead's feet! Beat, beat! white of heat, Red of heat, beat, beat!



A PREACHING FROM A SPANISH BALLAD



I

Ladies who in chains of wedlock Chafe at an unequal yoke, Not to nightingales give hearing; Better this, the raven's croak.

II

Down the Prado strolled my seigneur, Arm at lordly bow on hip, Fingers trimming his moustachios, Eyes for pirate fellowship.

III

Home sat she that owned him master; Like the flower bent to ground Rain-surcharged and sun-forsaken; Heedless of her hair unbound.

IV

Sudden at her feet a lover Palpitating knelt and wooed; Seemed a very gift from heaven To the starved of common food.

V

Love me? she his vows repeated: Fiery vows oft sung and thrummed: Wondered, as on earth a stranger; Thirsted, trusted, and succumbed.

VI

O beloved youth! my lover! Mine! my lover! take my life Wholly: thine in soul and body, By this oath of more than wife!

VII

Know me for no helpless woman; Nay, nor coward, though I sink Awed beside thee, like an infant Learning shame ere it can think.

VIII

Swing me hence to do thee service, Be thy succour, prove thy shield; Heaven will hear!—in house thy handmaid, Squire upon the battlefield.

IX

At my breasts I cool thy footsoles; Wine I pour, I dress thy meats; Humbly, when my lord it pleaseth, Lie with him on perfumed sheets:

X

Pray for him, my blood's dear fountain, While he sleeps, and watch his yawn In that wakening babelike moment, Sweeter to my thought than dawn! -

XI

Thundered then her lord of thunders; Burst the door, and, flashing sword, Loud disgorged the woman's title: Condemnation in one word.

XII

Grand by righteous wrath transfigured, Towers the husband who provides In his person judge and witness, Death's black doorkeeper besides!

XIII

Round his head the ancient terrors, Conjured of the stronger's law, Circle, to abash the creature Daring twist beneath his paw.

XIV

How though he hath squandered Honour High of Honour let him scold: Gilding of the man's possession, 'Tis the woman's coin of gold.

XV

She inheriting from many Bleeding mothers bleeding sense Feels 'twixt her and sharp-fanged nature Honour first did plant the fence.

XVI

Nature, that so shrieks for justice; Honour's thirst, that blood will slake; These are women's riddles, roughly Mixed to write them saint or snake.

XVII

Never nature cherished woman: She throughout the sexes' war Serves as temptress and betrayer, Favouring man, the muscular.

XVIII

Lureful is she, bent for folly; Doating on the child which crows: Yours to teach him grace in fealty, What the bloom is, what the rose.

XIX

Hard the task: your prison-chamber Widens not for lifted latch Till the giant thews and sinews Meet their Godlike overmatch.

XX

Read that riddle, scorning pity's Tears, of cockatrices shed: When the heart is vowed for freedom, Captaincy it yields to head.

XXI

Meanwhile you, freaked nature's martyrs, Honour's army, flower and weed, Gentle ladies, wedded ladies, See for you this fair one bleed.

XXII

Sole stood her offence, she faltered; Prayed her lord the youth to spare; Prayed that in the orange garden She might lie, and ceased her prayer.

XXIII

Then commanding to all women Chastity, her breasts she laid Bare unto the self-avenger. Man in metal was the blade.



THE YOUNG PRINCESS—A BALLAD OF OLD LAWS OF LOVE



1—I

When the South sang like a nightingale Above a bower in May, The training of Love's vine of flame Was writ in laws, for lord and dame To say their yea and nay.

II

When the South sang like a nightingale Across the flowering night, And lord and dame held gentle sport, There came a young princess to Court, A frost of beauty white.

III

The South sang like a nightingale To thaw her glittering dream: No vine of Love her bosom gave, She drank no wine of Love, but grave She held them to Love's theme.

IV

The South grew all a nightingale Beneath a moon unmoved: Like the banner of war she led them on; She left them to lie, like the light that has gone From wine-cups overproved.

V

When the South was a fervid nightingale, And she a chilling moon, 'Twas pity to see on the garden swards, Against Love's laws, those rival lords As willow-wands lie strewn.

VI

The South had throat of a nightingale For her, the young princess: She gave no vine of Love to rear, Love's wine drank not, yet bent her ear To themes of Love no less.

2—I

The lords of the Court they sighed heart-sick, Heart-free Lord Dusiote laughed: I prize her no more than a fling o' the dice, But, or shame to my manhood, a lady of ice, We master her by craft!

II

Heart-sick the lords of joyance yawned, Lord Dusiote laughed heart-free: I count her as much as a crack o' my thumb, But, or shame of my manhood, to me she shall come Like the bird to roost in the tree!

III

At dead of night when the palace-guard Had passed the measured rounds, The young princess awoke to feel A shudder of blood at the crackle of steel Within the garden-bounds.

IV

It ceased, and she thought of whom was need, The friar or the leech; When lo, stood her tirewoman breathless by: Lord Dusiote, madam, to death is nigh, Of you he would have speech.

V

He prays you of your gentleness, To light him to his dark end. The princess rose, and forth she went, For charity was her intent, Devoutly to befriend.

VI

Lord Dusiote hung on his good squire's arm, The priest beside him knelt: A weeping handkerchief was pressed To stay the red flood at his breast, And bid cold ladies melt.

VII

O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.

VIII

I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls! Save one was too cunning for me. I die, whose love is late avowed, He lives, who boasts the lily has bowed To the oath of a bended knee.

IX

Lord Dusiote drew breath with pain, And she with pain drew breath: On him she looked, on his like above; She flew in the folds of a marvel of love Revealed to pass to death.

X

You are dying, O great-hearted lord, You are dying for me, she cried; O take my hand, O take my kiss, And take of your right for love like this, The vow that plights me bride.

XI

She bade the priest recite his words While hand in hand were they, Lord Dusiote's soul to waft to bliss; He had her hand, her vow, her kiss, And his body was borne away.

3—I

Lord Dusiote sprang from priest and squire; He gazed at her lighted room: The laughter in his heart grew slack; He knew not the force that pushed him back From her and the morn in bloom.

II

Like a drowned man's length on the strong flood-tide, Like the shade of a bird in the sun, He fled from his lady whom he might claim As ghost, and who made the daybeams flame To scare what he had done.

III

There was grief at Court for one so gay, Though he was a lord less keen For training the vine than at vintage-press; But in her soul the young princess Believed that love had been.

IV

Lord Dusiote fled the Court and land, He crossed the woeful seas, Till his traitorous doing seemed clearer to burn, And the lady beloved drew his heart for return, Like the banner of war in the breeze.

V

He neared the palace, he spied the Court, And music he heard, and they told Of foreign lords arrived to bring The nuptial gifts of a bridegroom king To the princess grave and cold.

VI

The masque and the dance were cloud on wave, And down the masque and the dance Lord Dusiote stepped from dame to dame, And to the young princess he came, With a bow and a burning glance.

VII

Do you take a new husband to-morrow, lady? She shrank as at prick of steel. Must the first yield place to the second, he sighed. Her eyes were like the grave that is wide For the corpse from head to heel.

VIII

My lady, my love, that little hand Has mine ringed fast in plight: I bear for your lips a lawful thirst, And as justly the second should follow the first, I come to your door this night.

IX

If a ghost should come a ghost will go: No more the lady said, Save that ever when he in wrath began To swear by the faith of a living man, She answered him, You are dead.

4—I

The soft night-wind went laden to death With smell of the orange in flower; The light leaves prattled to neighbour ears; The bird of the passion sang over his tears; The night named hour by hour.

II

Sang loud, sang low the rapturous bird Till the yellow hour was nigh, Behind the folds of a darker cloud: He chuckled, he sobbed, alow, aloud; The voice between earth and sky.

III

O will you, will you, women are weak; The proudest are yielding mates For a forward foot and a tongue of fire: So thought Lord Dusiote's trusty squire, At watch by the palace-gates.

IV

The song of the bird was wine in his blood, And woman the odorous bloom: His master's great adventure stirred Within him to mingle the bloom and bird, And morn ere its coming illume.

V

Beside him strangely a piece of the dark Had moved, and the undertones Of a priest in prayer, like a cavernous wave, He heard, as were there a soul to save For urgency now in the groans.

VI

No priest was hired for the play this night: And the squire tossed head like a deer At sniff of the tainted wind; he gazed Where cresset-lamps in a door were raised, Belike on a passing bier.

VII

All cloaked and masked, with naked blades, That flashed of a judgement done, The lords of the Court, from the palace-door, Came issuing silently, bearers four, And flat on their shoulders one.

VIII

They marched the body to squire and priest, They lowered it sad to earth: The priest they gave the burial dole, Bade wrestle hourly for his soul, Who was a lord of worth.

IX

One said, farewell to a gallant knight! And one, but a restless ghost! 'Tis a year and a day since in this place He died, sped high by a lady of grace To join the blissful host.

X

Not vainly on us she charged her cause, The lady whom we revere For faith in the mask of a love untrue To the Love we honour, the Love her due, The Love we have vowed to rear.

XI

A trap for the sweet tooth, lures for the light, For the fortress defiant a mine: Right well! But not in the South, princess, Shall the lady snared of her nobleness Ever shamed or a captive pine.

XII

When the South had voice of a nightingale Above a Maying bower, On the heights of Love walked radiant peers; The bird of the passion sang over his tears To the breeze and the orange-flower.



KING HARALD'S TRANCE



I

Sword in length a reaping-hook amain Harald sheared his field, blood up to shank: 'Mid the swathes of slain, First at moonrise drank.

II

Thereof hunger, as for meats the knife, Pricked his ribs, in one sharp spur to reach Home and his young wife, Nigh the sea-ford beach.

III

After battle keen to feed was he: Smoking flesh the thresher washed down fast, Like an angry sea Ships from keel to mast.

IV

Name us glory, singer, name us pride Matching Harald's in his deeds of strength; Chiefs, wife, sword by side, Foemen stretched their length!

V

Half a winter night the toasts hurrahed, Crowned him, clothed him, trumpeted him high, Till awink he bade Wife to chamber fly.

VI

Twice the sun had mounted, twice had sunk, Ere his ears took sound; he lay for dead; Mountain on his trunk, Ocean on his head.

VII

Clamped to couch, his fiery hearing sucked Whispers that at heart made iron-clang: Here fool-women clucked, There men held harangue.

VIII

Burial to fit their lord of war They decreed him: hailed the kingling: ha! Hateful! but this Thor Failed a weak lamb's baa.

IX

King they hailed a branchlet, shaped to fare, Weighted so, like quaking shingle spume, When his blood's own heir Ripened in the womb!

X

Still he heard, and doglike, hoglike, ran Nose of hearing till his blind sight saw: Woman stood with man Mouthing low, at paw.

XI

Woman, man, they mouthed; they spake a thing Armed to split a mountain, sunder seas: Still the frozen king Lay and felt him freeze.

XII

Doglike, hoglike, horselike now he raced, Riderless, in ghost across a ground Flint of breast, blank-faced, Past the fleshly bound.

XIII

Smell of brine his nostrils filled with might: Nostrils quickened eyelids, eyelids hand: Hand for sword at right Groped, the great haft spanned.

XIV

Wonder struck to ice his people's eyes: Him they saw, the prone upon the bier, Sheer from backbone rise, Sword uplifting peer.

XV

Sitting did he breathe against the blade, Standing kiss it for that proof of life: Strode, as netters wade, Straightway to his wife.

XVI

Her he eyed: his judgement was one word, Foulbed! and she fell: the blow clove two. Fearful for the third, All their breath indrew.

XVII

Morning danced along the waves to beach; Dumb his chiefs fetched breath for what might hap: Glassily on each Stared the iron cap.

XVIII

Sudden, as it were a monster oak Split to yield a limb by stress of heat, Strained he, staggered, broke Doubled at their feet.



WHIMPER OF SYMPATHY



Hawk or shrike has done this deed Of downy feathers: rueful sight! Sweet sentimentalist, invite Your bosom's Power to intercede.

So hard it seems that one must bleed Because another needs will bite! All round we find cold Nature slight The feelings of the totter-knee'd.

O it were pleasant with you To fly from this tussle of foes, The shambles, the charnel, the wrinkle! To dwell in yon dribble of dew On the cheek of your sovereign rose, And live the young life of a twinkle.



YOUNG REYNARD



I

Gracefullest leaper, the dappled fox-cub Curves over brambles with berries and buds, Light as a bubble that flies from the tub, Whisked by the laundry-wife out of her suds. Wavy he comes, woolly, all at his ease, Elegant, fashioned to foot with the deuce; Nature's own prince of the dance: then he sees Me, and retires as if making excuse.

II

Never closed minuet courtlier! Soon Cub-hunting troops were abroad, and a yelp Told of sure scent: ere the stroke upon noon Reynard the younger lay far beyond help. Wild, my poor friend, has the fate to be chased; Civil will conquer: were 't other 'twere worse; Fair, by the flushed early morning embraced, Haply you live a day longer in verse.



MANFRED



I

Projected from the bilious Childe, This clatterjaw his foot could set On Alps, without a breast beguiled To glow in shedding rascal sweat. Somewhere about his grinder teeth, He mouthed of thoughts that grilled beneath, And summoned Nature to her feud With bile and buskin Attitude.

II

Considerably was the world Of spinsterdom and clergy racked While he his hinted horrors hurled, And she pictorially attacked. A duel hugeous. Tragic? Ho! The cities, not the mountains, blow Such bladders; in their shapes confessed An after-dinner's indigest.



HERNANI



Cistercians might crack their sides With laughter, and exemption get, At sight of heroes clasping brides, And hearing—O the horn! the horn! The horn of their obstructive debt!

But quit the stage, that note applies For sermons cosmopolitan, Hernani. Have we filched our prize, Forgetting . . .? O the horn! the horn! The horn of the Old Gentleman!



THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA



I

Flat as to an eagle's eye, Earth hung under Attila. Sign for carnage gave he none. In the peace of his disdain, Sun and rain, and rain and sun, Cherished men to wax again, Crawl, and in their manner die. On his people stood a frost. Like the charger cut in stone, Rearing stiff, the warrior host, Which had life from him alone, Craved the trumpet's eager note, As the bridled earth the Spring. Rusty was the trumpet's throat. He let chief and prophet rave; Venturous earth around him string Threads of grass and slender rye, Wave them, and untrampled wave. O for the time when God did cry, Eye and have, my Attila!

II

Scorn of conquest filled like sleep Him that drank of havoc deep When the Green Cat pawed the globe: When the horsemen from his bow Shot in sheaves and made the foe Crimson fringes of a robe, Trailed o'er towns and fields in woe; When they streaked the rivers red, When the saddle was the bed. Attila, my Attila!

III

He breathed peace and pulled a flower. Eye and have, my Attila! This was the damsel Ildico, Rich in bloom until that hour: Shyer than the forest doe Twinkling slim through branches green. Yet the shyest shall be seen. Make the bed for Attila!

IV

Seen of Attila, desired, She was led to him straightway: Radiantly was she attired; Rifled lands were her array, Jewels bled from weeping crowns, Gold of woeful fields and towns. She stood pallid in the light. How she walked, how withered white, From the blessing to the board, She who would have proudly blushed, Women whispered, asking why, Hinting of a youth, and hushed. Was it terror of her lord? Was she childish? was she sly? Was it the bright mantle's dye Drained her blood to hues of grief Like the ash that shoots the spark? See the green tree all in leaf: See the green tree stripped of bark! - Make the bed for Attila!

V

Round the banquet-table's load Scores of iron horsemen rode; Chosen warriors, keen and hard; Grain of threshing battle-dints; Attila's fierce body-guard, Smelling war like fire in flints. Grant them peace be fugitive! Iron-capped and iron-heeled, Each against his fellow's shield Smote the spear-head, shouting, Live, Attila! my Attila! Eagle, eagle of our breed, Eagle, beak the lamb, and feed! Have her, and unleash us! live, Attila! my Attila!

VI

He was of the blood to shine Bronze in joy, like skies that scorch. Beaming with the goblet wine In the wavering of the torch, Looked he backward on his bride. Eye and have, my Attila! Fair in her wide robe was she: Where the robe and vest divide, Fair she seemed surpassingly: Soft, yet vivid as the stream Danube rolls in the moonbeam Through rock-barriers: but she smiled Never, she sat cold as salt: Open-mouthed as a young child Wondering with a mind at fault. Make the bed for Attila!

VII

Under the thin hoop of gold Whence in waves her hair outrolled, 'Twixt her brows the women saw Shadows of a vulture's claw Gript in flight: strange knots that sped Closing and dissolving aye: Such as wicked dreams betray When pale dawn creeps o'er the bed. They might show the common pang Known to virgins, in whom dread Hunts their bliss like famished hounds; While the chiefs with roaring rounds Tossed her to her lord, and sang Praise of him whose hand was large, Cheers for beauty brought to yield, Chirrups of the trot afield, Hurrahs of the battle-charge.

VIII

Those rock-faces hung with weed Reddened: their great days of speed, Slaughter, triumph, flood and flame, Like a jealous frenzy wrought, Scoffed at them and did them shame, Quaffing idle, conquering nought. O for the time when God decreed Earth the prey of Attila! God called on thee in his wrath, Trample it to mire! 'Twas done. Swift as Danube clove our path Down from East to Western sun. Huns! behold your pasture, gaze, Take, our king said: heel to flank (Whisper it, the war-horse neighs!) Forth we drove, and blood we drank Fresh as dawn-dew: earth was ours: Men were flocks we lashed and spurned: Fast as windy flame devours, Flame along the wind, we burned. Arrow javelin, spear, and sword! Here the snows and there the plains; On! our signal: onward poured Torrents of the tightened reins, Foaming over vine and corn Hot against the city-wall. Whisper it, you sound a horn To the grey beast in the stall! Yea, he whinnies at a nod. O for sound of the trumpet-notes! O for the time when thunder-shod, He that scarce can munch his oats, Hung on the peaks, brooded aloof, Champed the grain of the wrath of God, Pressed a cloud on the cowering roof, Snorted out of the blackness fire! Scarlet broke the sky, and down, Hammering West with print of his hoof, He burst out of the bosom of ire Sharp as eyelight under thy frown, Attila, my Attila!

IX

Ravaged cities rolling smoke Thick on cornfields dry and black, Wave his banners, bear his yoke. Track the lightning, and you track Attila. They moan: 'tis he! Bleed: 'tis he! Beneath his foot Leagues are deserts charred and mute; Where he passed, there passed a sea. Attila, my Attila!

X

- Who breathed on the king cold breath? Said a voice amid the host, He is Death that weds a ghost, Else a ghost that weds with Death? Ildico's chill little hand Shuddering he beheld: austere Stared, as one who would command Sight of what has filled his ear: Plucked his thin beard, laughed disdain. Feast, ye Huns! His arm be raised, Like the warrior, battle-dazed, Joining to the fight amain. Make the bed for Attila!

XI

Silent Ildico stood up. King and chief to pledge her well, Shocked sword sword and cup on cup, Clamouring like a brazen bell. Silent stepped the queenly slave. Fair, by heaven! she was to meet On a midnight, near a grave, Flapping wide the winding-sheet.

XII

Death and she walked through the crowd, Out beyond the flush of light. Ceremonious women bowed Following her: 'twas middle night. Then the warriors each on each Spied, nor overloudly laughed; Like the victims of the leech, Who have drunk of a strange draught.

XIII

Attila remained. Even so Frowned he when he struck the blow, Brained his horse, that stumbled twice, On a bloody day in Gaul, Bellowing, Perish omens! All Marvelled at the sacrifice, But the battle, swinging dim, Rang off that axe-blow for him. Attila, my Attila!

XIV

Brightening over Danube wheeled Star by star; and she, most fair, Sweet as victory half-revealed, Seized to make him glad and young; She, O sweet as the dark sign Given him oft in battles gone, When the voice within said, Dare! And the trumpet-notes were sprung Rapturous for the charge in line: She lay waiting: fair as dawn Wrapped in folds of night she lay; Secret, lustrous; flaglike there, Waiting him to stream and ray, With one loosening blush outflung, Colours of his hordes of horse Ranked for combat; still he hung Like the fever dreading air, Cursed of heat; and as a corse Gathers vultures, in his brain Images of her eyes and kiss Plucked at the limbs that could remain Loitering nigh the doors of bliss. Make the bed for Attila!

XV

Passion on one hand, on one, Destiny led forth the Hun. Heard ye outcries of affright, Voices that through many a fray, In the press of flag and spear, Warned the king of peril near? Men were dumb, they gave him way, Eager heads to left and right, Like the bearded standard, thrust, As in battle, for a nod From their lord of battle-dust. Attila, my Attila! Slow between the lines he trod. Saw ye not the sun drop slow On this nuptial day, ere eve Pierced him on the couch aglow? Attila, my Attila! Here and there his heart would cleave Clotted memory for a space: Some stout chief's familiar face, Choicest of his fighting brood, Touched him, as 'twere one to know Ere he met his bride's embrace. Attila, my Attila! Twisting fingers in a beard Scant as winter underwood, With a narrowed eye he peered; Like the sunset's graver red Up old pine-stems. Grave he stood Eyeing them on whom was shed Burning light from him alone. Attila, my Attila! Red were they whose mouths recalled Where the slaughter mounted high, High on it, o'er earth appalled, He; heaven's finger in their sight Raising him on waves of dead, Up to heaven his trumpets blown. O for the time when God's delight Crowned the head of Attila! Hungry river of the crag Stretching hands for earth he came: Force and Speed astride his name Pointed back to spear and flag. He came out of miracle cloud, Lightning-swift and spectre-lean. Now those days are in a shroud: Have him to his ghostly queen. Make the bed for Attila!

XVI

One, with winecups overstrung, Cried him farewell in Rome's tongue. Who? for the great king turned as though Wrath to the shaft's head strained the bow. Nay, not wrath the king possessed, But a radiance of the breast. In that sound he had the key Of his cunning malady. Lo, where gleamed the sapphire lake, Leo, with his Rome at stake, Drew blank air to hues and forms; Whereof Two that shone distinct, Linked as orbed stars are linked, Clear among the myriad swarms, In a constellation, dashed Full on horse and rider's eyes Sunless light, but light it was - Light that blinded and abashed, Froze his members, bade him pause, Caught him mid-gallop, blazed him home. Attila, my Attila! What are streams that cease to flow? What was Attila, rolled thence, Cheated by a juggler's show? Like that lake of blue intense, Under tempest lashed to foam, Lurid radiance, as he passed, Filled him, and around was glassed, When deep-voiced he uttered, Rome!

XVII

Rome! the word was: and like meat Flung to dogs the word was torn. Soon Rome's magic priests shall bleat Round their magic Pope forlorn! Loud they swore the king had sworn Vengeance on the Roman cheat, Ere he passed, as, grave and still, Danube through the shouting hill: Sworn it by his naked life! Eagle, snakes these women are: Take them on the wing! but war, Smoking war's the warrior's wife! Then for plunder! then for brides Won without a winking priest! - Danube whirled his train of tides Black toward the yellow East. Make the bed for Attila!

XVIII

Chirrups of the trot afield, Hurrahs of the battle-charge, How they answered, how they pealed, When the morning rose and drew Bow and javelin, lance and targe, In the nuptial casement's view! Attila, my Attila! Down the hillspurs, out of tents Glimmering in mid-forest, through Mists of the cool morning scents, Forth from city-alley, court, Arch, the bounding horsemen flew, Joined along the plains of dew, Raced and gave the rein to sport, Closed and streamed like curtain-rents Fluttered by a wind, and flowed Into squadrons: trumpets blew, Chargers neighed, and trappings glowed Brave as the bright Orient's. Look on the seas that run to greet Sunrise: look on the leagues of wheat: Look on the lines and squares that fret Leaping to level the lance blood-wet. Tens of thousands, man and steed, Tossing like field-flowers in Spring; Ready to be hurled at need Whither their great lord may sling. Finger Romeward, Romeward, King! Attila, my Attila! Still the woman holds him fast As a night-flag round the mast.

XIX

Nigh upon the fiery noon, Out of ranks a roaring burst. 'Ware white women like the moon! They are poison: they have thirst First for love, and next for rule. Jealous of the army, she? Ho, the little wanton fool! We were his before she squealed Blind for mother's milk, and heeled Kicking on her mother's knee. His in life and death are we: She but one flower of a field. We have given him bliss tenfold In an hour to match her night: Attila, my Attila! Still her arms the master hold, As on wounds the scarf winds tight.

XX

Over Danube day no more, Like the warrior's planted spear, Stood to hail the King: in fear Western day knocked at his door. Attila, my Attila! Sudden in the army's eyes Rolled a blast of lights and cries: Flashing through them: Dead are ye! Dead, ye Huns, and torn piecemeal! See the ordered army reel Stricken through the ribs: and see, Wild for speed to cheat despair, Horsemen, clutching knee to chin, Crouch and dart they know not where. Attila, my Attila! Faces covered, faces bare, Light the palace-front like jets Of a dreadful fire within. Beating hands and driving hair Start on roof and parapets. Dust rolls up; the slaughter din. - Death to them who call him dead! Death to them who doubt the tale! Choking in his dusty veil, Sank the sun on his death-bed. Make the bed for Attila!

XXI

'Tis the room where thunder sleeps. Frenzy, as a wave to shore Surging, burst the silent door, And drew back to awful deeps Breath beaten out, foam-white. Anew Howled and pressed the ghastly crew, Like storm-waters over rocks. Attila, my Attila! One long shaft of sunset red Laid a finger on the bed. Horror, with the snaky locks, Shocked the surge to stiffened heaps, Hoary as the glacier's head Faced to the moon. Insane they look. God it is in heaven who weeps Fallen from his hand the Scourge he shook. Make the bed for Attila!

XXII

Square along the couch, and stark, Like the sea-rejected thing Sea-sucked white, behold their King. Attila, my Attila! Beams that panted black and bright, Scornful lightnings danced their sight: Him they see an oak in bud, Him an oaklog stripped of bark: Him, their lord of day and night, White, and lifting up his blood Dumb for vengeance. Name us that, Huddled in the corner dark Humped and grinning like a cat, Teeth for lips!—'tis she! she stares, Glittering through her bristled hairs. Rend her! Pierce her to the hilt! She is Murder: have her out! What! this little fist, as big As the southern summer fig! She is Madness, none may doubt. Death, who dares deny her guilt! Death, who says his blood she spilt! Make the bed for Attila!

XXIII

Torch and lamp and sunset-red Fell three-fingered on the bed. In the torch the beard-hair scant With the great breast seemed to pant: In the yellow lamp the limbs Wavered, as the lake-flower swims: In the sunset red the dead Dead avowed him, dry blood-red.

XXIV

Hatred of that abject slave, Earth, was in each chieftain's heart. Earth has got him, whom God gave, Earth may sing, and earth shall smart! Attila, my Attila!

XXV

Thus their prayer was raved and ceased. Then had Vengeance of her feast Scent in their quick pang to smite Which they knew not, but huge pain Urged them for some victim slain Swift, and blotted from the sight. Each at each, a crouching beast, Glared, and quivered for the word. Each at each, and all on that, Humped and grinning like a cat, Head-bound with its bridal-wreath. Then the bitter chamber heard Vengeance in a cauldron seethe. Hurried counsel rage and craft Yelped to hungry men, whose teeth Hard the grey lip-ringlet gnawed, Gleaming till their fury laughed. With the steel-hilt in the clutch, Eyes were shot on her that froze In their blood-thirst overawed; Burned to rend, yet feared to touch. She that was his nuptial rose, She was of his heart's blood clad: Oh! the last of him she had! - Could a little fist as big As the southern summer fig, Push a dagger's point to pierce Ribs like those? Who else! They glared Each at each. Suspicion fierce Many a black remembrance bared. Attila, my Attila! Death, who dares deny her guilt! Death, who says his blood she spilt! Traitor he, who stands between! Swift to hell, who harms the Queen! She, the wild contention's cause, Combed her hair with quiet paws. Make the bed for Attila!

XXVI

Night was on the host in arms. Night, as never night before, Hearkened to an army's roar Breaking up in snaky swarms: Torch and steel and snorting steed, Hunted by the cry of blood, Cursed with blindness, mad for day. Where the torches ran a flood, Tales of him and of the deed Showered like a torrent spray. Fear of silence made them strive Loud in warrior-hymns that grew Hoarse for slaughter yet unwreaked. Ghostly Night across the hive, With a crimson finger drew Letters on her breast and shrieked. Night was on them like the mould On the buried half alive. Night, their bloody Queen, her fold Wound on them and struck them through. Make the bed for Attila!

XXVII

Earth has got him whom God gave, Earth may sing, and earth shall smart! None of earth shall know his grave. They that dig with Death depart. Attila, my Attila!

XXVIII

Thus their prayer was raved and passed: Passed in peace their red sunset: Hewn and earthed those men of sweat Who had housed him in the vast, Where no mortal might declare, There lies he—his end was there! Attila, my Attila!

XXIX

Kingless was the army left: Of its head the race bereft. Every fury of the pit Tortured and dismembered it. Lo, upon a silent hour, When the pitch of frost subsides, Danube with a shout of power Loosens his imprisoned tides: Wide around the frighted plains Shake to hear his riven chains, Dreadfuller than heaven in wrath, As he makes himself a path: High leap the ice-cracks, towering pile Floes to bergs, and giant peers Wrestle on a drifted isle; Island on ice-island rears; Dissolution battles fast: Big the senseless Titans loom, Through a mist of common doom Striving which shall die the last: Till a gentle-breathing morn Frees the stream from bank to bank. So the Empire built of scorn Agonized, dissolved and sank. Of the Queen no more was told Than of leaf on Danube rolled. Make the bed for Attila!



ANEURIN'S HARP



I

Prince of Bards was old Aneurin; He the grand Gododin sang; All his numbers threw such fire in, Struck his harp so wild a twang; - Still the wakeful Briton borrows Wisdom from its ancient heat: Still it haunts our source of sorrows, Deep excess of liquor sweet!

II

Here the Briton, there the Saxon, Face to face, three fields apart, Thirst for light to lay their thwacks on Each the other with good heart. Dry the Saxon sits, 'mid dinful Noise of iron knits his steel: Fresh and roaring with a skinful, Britons round the hirlas reel.

III

Yellow flamed the meady sunset; Red runs up the flag of morn. Signal for the British onset Hiccups through the British horn. Down these hillmen pour like cattle Sniffing pasture: grim below, Showing eager teeth of battle, In his spear-heads lies the foe.

IV

- Monster of the sea! we drive him Back into his hungry brine. - You shall lodge him, feed him, wive him, Look on us; we stand in line. - Pale sea-monster! foul the waters Cast him; foul he leaves our land. - You shall yield us land and daughters: Stay the tongue, and try the hand.

V

Swift as torrent-streams our warriors, Tossing torrent lights, find way; Burst the ridges, crowd the barriers, Pierce them where the spear-heads play; Turn them as the clods in furrow, Top them like the leaping foam; Sorrow to the mother, sorrow, Sorrow to the wife at home!

VI

Stags, they butted; bulls, they bellowed; Hounds, we baited them; oh, brave! Every second man, unfellowed, Took the strokes of two, and gave. Bare as hop-stakes in November's Mists they met our battle-flood: Hoary-red as Winter's embers Lay their dead lines done in blood.

VII

Thou, my Bard, didst hang thy lyre in Oak-leaves, and with crimson brand Rhythmic fury spent, Aneurin; Songs the churls could understand: Thrumming on their Saxon sconces Straight, the invariable blow, Till they snorted true responses. Ever thus the Bard they know!

VIII

But ere nightfall, harper lusty! When the sun was like a ball Dropping on the battle dusty, What was yon discordant call? Cambria's old metheglin demon Breathed against our rushing tide; Clove us midst the threshing seamen:- Gashed, we saw our ranks divide!

IX

Britain then with valedictory Shriek veiled off her face and knelt. Full of liquor, full of victory, Chief on chief old vengeance dealt. Backward swung their hurly-burly; None but dead men kept the fight. They that drink their cup too early, Darkness they shall see ere night.

X

Loud we heard the yellow rover Laugh to sleep, while we raged thick, Thick as ants the ant-hill over, Asking who has thrust the stick. Lo, as frogs that Winter cumbers Meet the Spring with stiffen'd yawn, We from our hard night of slumbers Marched into the bloody dawn.

XI

Day on day we fought, though shattered: Pushed and met repulses sharp, Till our Raven's plumes were scattered: All, save old Aneurin's harp. Hear it wailing like a mother O'er the strings of children slain! He in one tongue, in another, Alien, I; one blood, yet twain.

XII

Old Aneurin! droop no longer. That squat ocean-scum, we own, Had fine stoutness, made us stronger, Brought us much-required backbone: Claimed of Power their dues, and granted Dues to Power in turn, when rose Mightier rovers; they that planted Sovereign here the Norman nose.

XIII

Glorious men, with heads of eagles, Chopping arms, and cupboard lips; Warriors, hunters, keen as beagles, Mounted aye on horse or ships. Active, being hungry creatures; Silent, having nought to say: High they raised the lord of features, Saxon-worshipped to this day.

XIV

Hear its deeds, the great recital! Stout as bergs of Arctic ice Once it led, and lived; a title Now it is, and names its price. This our Saxon brothers cherish: This, when by the worth of wits Lands are reared aloft, or perish, Sole illumes their lucre-pits.

XV

Know we not our wrongs, unwritten Though they be, Aneurin? Sword, Song, and subtle mind, the Briton Brings to market, all ignored. 'Gainst the Saxon's bone impinging, Still is our Gododin played; Shamed we see him humbly cringing In a shadowy nose's shade.

XVI

Bitter is the weight that crushes Low, my Bard, thy race of fire. Here no fair young future blushes Bridal to a man's desire. Neither chief, nor aim, nor splendour Dressing distance, we perceive. Neither honour, nor the tender Bloom of promise, morn or eve.

XVII

Joined we are; a tide of races Rolled to meet a common fate; England clasps in her embraces Many: what is England's state? England her distended middle Thumps with pride as Mammon's wife; Says that thus she reads thy riddle, Heaven! 'tis heaven to plump her life.

XVIII

O my Bard! a yellow liquor, Like to that we drank of old - Gold is her metheglin beaker, She destruction drinks in gold. Warn her, Bard, that Power is pressing Hotly for his dues this hour; Tell her that no drunken blessing Stops the onward march of Power.

XIX

Has she ears to take forewarnings She will cleanse her of her stains, Feed and speed for braver mornings Valorously the growth of brains. Power, the hard man knit for action, Reads each nation on the brow. Cripple, fool, and petrifaction Fall to him—are falling now!



MEN AND MAN



I

Men the Angels eyed; And here they were wild waves, And there as marsh descried; Men the Angels eyed, And liked the picture best Where they were greenly dressed In brotherhood of graves.

II

Man the Angels marked: He led a host through murk, On fearful seas embarked; Man the Angels marked; To think without a nay, That he was good as they, And help him at his work.

III

Man and Angels, ye A sluggish fen shall drain, Shall quell a warring sea. Man and Angels, ye, Whom stain of strife befouls, A light to kindle souls Bear radiant in the stain.



THE LAST CONTENTION



I

Young captain of a crazy bark! O tameless heart in battered frame! Thy sailing orders have a mark, And hers is not the name.

II

For action all thine iron clanks In cravings for a splendid prize; Again to race or bump thy planks With any flag that flies.

III

Consult them; they are eloquent For senses not inebriate. They trust thee on the star intent, That leads to land their freight.

IV

And they have known thee high peruse The heavens, and deep the earth, till thou Didst into the flushed circle cruise Where reason quits the brow.

V

Thou animatest ancient tales, To prove our world of linear seed: Thy very virtue now assails, A tempter to mislead.

VI

But thou hast answer I am I; My passion hallows, bids command: And she is gracious, she is nigh: One motion of the hand!

VII

It will suffice; a whirly tune These winds will pipe, and thou perform The nodded part of pantaloon In thy created storm.

VIII

Admires thee Nature with much pride; She clasps thee for a gift of morn, Till thou art set against the tide, And then beware her scorn.

IX

Sad issue, should that strife befall Between thy mortal ship and thee! It writes the melancholy scrawl Of wreckage over sea.

X

This lady of the luting tongue, The flash in darkness, billow's grace, For thee the worship; for the young In muscle the embrace.

XI

Soar on thy manhood clear from those Whose toothless Winter claws at May, And take her as the vein of rose Athwart an evening grey.



PERIANDER



I

How died Melissa none dares shape in words. A woman who is wife despotic lords Count faggot at the question, Shall she live! Her son, because his brows were black of her, Runs barking for his bread, a fugitive, And Corinth frowns on them that feed the cur.

II

There is no Corinth save the whip and curb Of Corinth, high Periander; the superb In magnanimity, in rule severe. Up on his marble fortress-tower he sits, The city under him: a white yoked steer, That bears his heart for pulse, his head for wits.

III

Bloom of the generous fires of his fair Spring Still coloured him when men forbore to sting; Admiring meekly where the ordered seeds Of his good sovereignty showed gardens trim; And owning that the hoe he struck at weeds Was author of the flowers raised face to him.

IV

His Corinth, to each mood subservient In homage, made he as an instrument To yield him music with scarce touch of stops. He breathed, it piped; he moved, it rose to fly: At whiles a bloodhorse racing till it drops; At whiles a crouching dog, on him all eye.

V

His wisdom men acknowledged; only one, The creature, issue of him, Lycophron, That rebel with his mother in his brows, Contested: such an infamous would foul Pirene! Little heed where he might house The prince gave, hearing: so the fox, the owl!

VI

To prove the Gods benignant to his rule, The years, which fasten rigid whom they cool, Reviewing, saw him hold the seat of power. A grey one asked: Who next? nor answer had: One greyer pointed on the pallid hour To come: a river dried of waters glad.

VII

For which of his male issue promised grip To stride yon people, with the curb and whip? This Lycophron! he sole, the father like, Fired prospect of a line in one strong tide, By right of mastery; stern will to strike; Pride to support the stroke: yea, Godlike pride!

VIII

Himself the prince beheld a failing fount. His line stretched back unto its holy mount: The thirsty onward waved for him no sign. Then stood before his vision that hard son. The seizure of a passion for his line Impelled him to the path of Lycophron.

IX

The youth was tossing pebbles in the sea; A figure shunned along the busy quay, Perforce of the harsh edict for who dared Address him outcast. Naming it, he crossed His father's look with look that proved them paired For stiffness, and another pebble tossed.

X

An exile to the Island ere nightfall He passed from sight, from the hushed mouths of all. It had resemblance to a death: and on, Against a coast where sapphire shattered white, The seasons rolled like troops of billows blown To spraymist. The prince gazed on capping night.

XI

Deaf Age spake in his ear with shouts: Thy son! Deep from his heart Life raved of work not done. He heard historic echoes moan his name, As of the prince in whom the race had pause; Till Tyranny paternity became, And him he hated loved he for the cause.

XII

Not Lycophron the exile now appeared, But young Periander, from the shadow cleared, That haunted his rebellious brows. The prince Grew bright for him; saw youth, if seeming loth, Return: and of pure pardon to convince, Despatched the messenger most dear with both.

XIII

His daughter, from the exile's Island home, Wrote, as a flight of halcyons o'er the foam, Sweet words: her brother to his father bowed; Accepted his peace-offering, and rejoiced. To bring him back a prince the father vowed, Commanded man the oars, the white sails hoist.

XIV

He waved the fleet to strain its westward way On to the sea-hued hills that crown the bay: Soil of those hospitable islanders Whom now his heart, for honour to his blood, Thanked. They should learn what boons a prince confers When happiness enjoins him gratitude!

XV

In watch upon the offing, worn with haste To see his youth revived, and, close embraced, Pardon who had subdued him, who had gained Surely the stoutest battle between two Since Titan pierced by young Apollo stained Earth's breast, the prince looked forth, himself looked through.

XVI

Errors aforetime unperceived were bared, To be by his young masterful repaired: Renewed his great ideas gone to smoke; His policy confirmed amid the surge Of States and people fretting at his yoke. And lo, the fleet brown-flocked on the sea-verge!

XVII

Oars pulled: they streamed in harbour; without cheer For welcome shadowed round the heaving bier. They, whose approach in such rare pomp and stress Of numbers the free islanders dismayed At Tyranny come masking to oppress, Found Lycophron this breathless, this lone-laid.

XVIII

Who smote the man thrown open to young joy? The image of the mother of his boy Came forth from his unwary breast in wreaths, With eyes. And shall a woman, that extinct, Smite out of dust the Powerful who breathes? Her loved the son; her served; they lay close-linked!

XIX

Dead was he, and demanding earth. Demand Sharper for vengeance of an instant hand, The Tyrant in the father heard him cry, And raged a plague; to prove on free Hellenes How prompt the Tyrant for the Persian dye; How black his Gods behind their marble screens.



SOLON



I

The Tyrant passed, and friendlier was his eye On the great man of Athens, whom for foe He knew, than on the sycophantic fry That broke as waters round a galley's flow, Bubbles at prow and foam along the wake. Solidity the Thunderer could not shake, Beneath an adverse wind still stripping bare, His kinsman, of the light-in-cavern look, From thought drew, and a countenance could wear Not less at peace than fields in Attic air Shorn, and shown fruitful by the reaper's hook.

II

Most enviable so; yet much insane To deem of minds of men they grow! these sheep, By fits wild horses, need the crook and rein; Hot bulls by fits, pure wisdom hold they cheap, My Lawgiver, when fiery is the mood. For ones and twos and threes thy words are good; For thine own government are pillars: mine Stand acts to fit the herd; which has quick thirst, Rejecting elegiacs, though they shine On polished brass, and, worthy of the Nine, In showering columns from their fountain burst.

III

Thus museful rode the Tyrant, princely plumed, To his high seat upon the sacred rock: And Solon, blank beside his rule, resumed The meditation which that passing mock Had buffeted awhile to sallowness. He little loved the man, his office less, Yet owned him for a flower of his kind. Therefore the heavier curse on Athens he! The people grew not in themselves, but, blind, Accepted sight from him, to him resigned Their hopes of stature, rootless as at sea.

IV

As under sea lay Solon's work, or seemed By turbid shore-waves beaten day by day; Defaced, half formless, like an image dreamed, Or child that fashioned in another clay Appears, by strangers' hands to home returned. But shall the Present tyrannize us? earned It was in some way, justly says the sage. One sees not how, while husbanding regrets; While tossing scorn abroad from righteous rage, High vision is obscured; for this is age When robbed—more infant than the babe it frets!

V

Yet see Athenians treading the black path Laid by a prince's shadow! well content To wait his pleasure, shivering at his wrath: They bow to their accepted Orient With offer of the all that renders bright: Forgetful of the growth of men to light, As creatures reared on Persian milk they bow. Unripe! unripe! The times are overcast. But still may they who sowed behind the plough True seed fix in the mind an unborn NOW To make the plagues afflicting us things past.



BELLEROPHON



I

Maimed, beggared, grey; seeking an alms; with nod Of palsy doing task of thanks for bread; Upon the stature of a God, He whom the Gods have struck bends low his head.

II

Weak words he has, that slip the nerveless tongue Deformed, like his great frame: a broken arc: Once radiant as the javelin flung Right at the centre breastplate of his mark.

III

Oft pausing on his white-eyed inward look, Some undermountain narrative he tells, As gapped by Lykian heat the brook Cut from the source that in the upland swells.

IV

The cottagers who dole him fruit and crust With patient inattention hear him prate: And comes the snow, and comes the dust, Comes the old wanderer, more bent of late.

V

A crazy beggar grateful for a meal Has ever of himself a world to say. For them he is an ancient wheel Spinning a knotted thread the livelong day.

VI

He cannot, nor do they, the tale connect; For never singer in the land had been Who him for theme did not reject: Spurned of the hoof that sprang the Hippocrene.

VII

Albeit a theme of flame to bring them straight The snorting white-winged brother of the wave, They hear him as a thing by fate Cursed in unholy babble to his grave.

VIII

As men that spied the wings, that heard the snort, Their sires have told; and of a martial prince Bestriding him; and old report Speaks of a monster slain by one long since.

IX

There is that story of the golden bit By Goddess given to tame the lightning steed: A mortal who could mount, and sit Flying, and up Olympus midway speed.

X

He rose like the loosed fountain's utmost leap; He played the star at span of heaven right o'er Men's heads: they saw the snowy steep, Saw the winged shoulders: him they saw not more.

XI

He fell: and says the shattered man, I fell: And sweeps an arm the height an eagle wins; And in his breast a mouthless well Heaves the worn patches of his coat of skins.

XII

Lo, this is he in whom the surgent springs Of recollections richer than our skies To feed the flow of tuneful strings, Show but a pool of scum for shooting flies.



PHAETHON—ATTEMPTED IN THE GALLIAMBIC MEASURE



At the coming up of Phoebus the all-luminous charioteer, Double-visaged stand the mountains in imperial multitudes, And with shadows dappled men sing to him, Hail, O Beneficent! For they shudder chill, the earth-vales, at his clouding, shudder to black; In the light of him there is music thro' the poplar and river-sedge, Renovation, chirp of brooks, hum of the forest—an ocean-song. Never pearl from ocean-hollows by the diver exultingly, In his breathlessness, above thrust, is as earth to Helios. Who usurps his place there, rashest? Aphrodite's loved one it is! To his son the flaming Sun-God, to the tender youth, Phaethon, Rule of day this day surrenders as a thing hereditary, Having sworn by Styx tremendous, for the proof of his parentage, He would grant his son's petition, whatsoever the sign thereof. Then, rejoiced, the stripling answered: 'Rule of day give me; give it me, Give me place that men may see me how I blaze, and transcendingly I, divine, proclaim my birthright.' Darkened Helios, and his utterance Choked prophetic: 'O half mortal!' he exclaimed in an agony, 'O lost son of mine! lost son! No! put a prayer for another thing: Not for this: insane to wish it, and to crave the gift impious! Cannot other gifts my godhead shed upon thee? miraculous Mighty gifts to prove a blessing, that to earth thou shalt be a joy? Gifts of healing, wherewith men walk as the Gods beneficently; As a God to sway to concord hearts of men, reconciling them; Gifts of verse, the lyre, the laurel, therewithal that thine origin Shall be known even as when I strike on the string'd shell with melody, And the golden notes, like medicine, darting straight to the cavities, Fill them up, till hearts of men bound as the billows, the ships thereon.' Thus intently urged the Sun-God; but the force of his eloquence Was the pressing on of sea-waves scattered broad from the rocks away. What shall move a soul from madness? Lost, lost in delirium, Rock-fast, the adolescent to his father, irreverent, 'By the oath! the oath! thine oath!' cried. The effulgent foreseer then, Quivering in his loins parental, on the boy's beaming countenance Looked and moaned, and urged him for love's sake, for sweet life's sake, to yield the claim, To abandon his mad hunger, and avert the calamity. But he, vehement, passionate, called out: 'Let me show I am what I say, That the taunts I hear be silenced: I am stung with their whispering. Only, Thou, my Father, Thou tell how aloft the revolving wheels, How aloft the cleaving horse-crests I may guide peremptorily, Till I drink the shadows, fire-hot, like a flower celestial, And my fellows see me curbing the fierce steeds, the dear dew- drinkers: Yea, for this I gaze on life's light; throw for this any sacrifice.'

All the end foreseeing, Phoebus to his oath irrevocable Bowed obedient, deploring the insanity pitiless. Then the flame-outsnorting horses were led forth: it was so decreed. They were yoked before the glad youth by his sister-ancillaries. Swift the ripple ripples follow'd, as of aureate Helicon, Down their flanks, while they impatient pawed desire of the distances, And the bit with fury champed. Oh! unimaginable delight! Unimagined speed and splendour in the circle of upper air! Glory grander than the armed host upon earth singing victory! Chafed the youth with their spirit surcharged, as when blossom is shaken by winds, Marked that labour by his sister Phaethontiades finished, quick On the slope of the car his forefoot set assured: and the morning rose: Seeing whom, and what a day dawned, stood the God, as in harvest fields, When the reaper grasps the full sheaf and the sickle that severs it: Hugged the withered head with one hand, with the other, to indicate (If this woe might be averted, this immeasurable evil), Laid the kindling course in view, told how the reins to manipulate: Named the horses fondly, fearful, caution'd urgently betweenwhiles: Their diverging tempers dwelt on, and their wantonness, wickedness, That the voice of Gods alone held in restraint; but the voice of Gods; None but Gods can curb. He spake: vain were the words: scarcely listening, Mounted Phaethon, swinging reins loose, and, 'Behold me, companions, It is I here, I!' he shouted, glancing down with supremacy; 'Not to any of you was this gift granted ever in annals of men; I alone what only Gods can, I alone am governing day!' Short the triumph, brief his rapture: see a hurricane suddenly Beat the lifting billow crestless, roll it broken this way and that; - At the leap on yielding ether, in despite of his reprimand, Swayed tumultuous the fire-steeds, plunging reckless hither and yon; Unto men a great amazement, all agaze at the Troubled East:- Pitifully for mastery striving in ascension, the charioteer, Reminiscent, drifts of counsel caught confused in his arid wits; The reins stiff ahind his shoulder madly pulled for the mastery, Till a thunder off the tense chords thro' his ears dinned horrible. Panic seized him: fled his vision of inviolability; Fled the dream that he of mortals rode mischances predominant; And he cried, 'Had I petitioned for a cup of chill aconite, My descent to awful Hades had been soft, for now must I go With the curse by father Zeus cast on ambition immoderate. Oh, my sisters! Thou, my Goddess, in whose love I was enviable, From whose arms I rushed befrenzied, what a wreck will this body be, That admired of thee stood rose-warm in the courts where thy mysteries Celebration had from me, me the most splendidly privileged! Never more shall I thy temple fill with incenses bewildering; Not again hear thy half-murmurs—I am lost!—never, never more. I am wrecked on seas of air, hurled to my death in a vessel of flame! Hither, sisters! Father, save me! Hither, succour me, Cypria!'

Now a wail of men to Zeus rang: from Olympus the Thunderer Saw the rage of the havoc wide-mouthed, the bright car superimpending Over Asia, Africa, low down; ruin flaming over the vales; Light disastrous rising savage out of smoke inveterately; Beast-black, conflagration like a menacing shadow move With voracious roaring southward, where aslant, insufferable, The bright steeds careered their parched way down an arc of the firmament. For the day grew like to thick night, and the orb was its beacon- fire, And from hill to hill of darkness burst the day's apparition forth. Lo, a wrestler, not a God, stood in the chariot ever lowering: Lo, the shape of one who raced there to outstrip the legitimate hours: Lo, the ravish'd beams of Phoebus dragged in shame at the chariot- wheels: Light of days of happy pipings by the mead-singing rivulets! Lo, lo, increasing lustre, torrid breath to the nostrils; lo, Torrid brilliancies thro' the vapours lighten swifter, penetrate them, Fasten merciless, ruminant, hueless, on earth's frame crackling busily. He aloft, the frenzied driver, in the glow of the universe, Like the paling of the dawn-star withers visibly, he aloft: Bitter fury in his aspect, bitter death in the heart of him. Crouch the herds, contract the reptiles, crouch the lions under their paws. White as metal in the furnace are the faces of human-kind: Inarticulate creatures of earth dumb all await the ultimate shock. To the bolt he launched, 'Strike dead, thou,' uttered Zeus, very terrible; 'Perish folly, else 'tis man's fate'; and the bolt flew unerringly. Then the kindler stooped; from the torch-car down the measureless altitudes Leaned his rayless head, relinquished rein and footing, raised not a cry. Like the flower on the river's surface when expanding it vanishes, Gave his limbs to right and left, quenched: and so fell he precipitate, Seen of men as a glad rain-fall, sending coolness yet ere it comes: So he showered above them, shadowed o'er the blue archipelagoes, O'er the silken-shining pastures of the continents and the isles; So descending brought revival to the greenery of our earth.

Lither, noisy in the breezes now his sisters shivering weep, By the river flowing smooth out to the vexed sea of Adria, Where he fell, and where they suffered sudden change to the tremulous Ever-wailful trees bemoaning him, a bruised purple cyclamen.



SEED-TIME



I

Flowers of the willow-herb are wool; Flowers of the briar berries red; Speeding their seed as the breeze may rule, Flowers of the thistle loosen the thread. Flowers of the clematis drip in beard, Slack from the fir-tree youngly climbed; Chaplets in air, flies foliage seared; Heeled upon earth, lie clusters rimed.

II

Where were skies of the mantle stained Orange and scarlet, a coat of frieze Travels from North till day has waned, Tattered, soaked in the ditch's dyes; Tumbles the rook under grey or slate; Else enfolding us, damps to the bone; Narrows the world to my neighbour's gate; Paints me Life as a wheezy crone.

III

Now seems none but the spider lord; Star in circle his web waits prey, Silvering bush-mounds, blue brushing sward; Slow runs the hour, swift flits the ray. Now to his thread-shroud is he nigh, Nigh to the tangle where wings are sealed, He who frolicked the jewelled fly; All is adroop on the down and the weald.

IV

Mists more lone for the sheep-bell enwrap Nights that tardily let slip a morn Paler than moons, and on noontide's lap Flame dies cold, like the rose late born. Rose born late, born withered in bud! - I, even I, for a zenith of sun Cry, to fulfil me, nourish my blood: O for a day of the long light, one!

V

Master the blood, nor read by chills, Earth admonishes: Hast thou ploughed, Sown, reaped, harvested grain for the mills, Thou hast the light over shadow of cloud. Steadily eyeing, before that wail Animal-infant, thy mind began, Momently nearer me: should sight fail, Plod in the track of the husbandman.

VI

Verily now is our season of seed, Now in our Autumn; and Earth discerns Them that have served her in them that can read, Glassing, where under the surface she burns, Quick at her wheel, while the fuel, decay, Brightens the fire of renewal: and we? Death is the word of a bovine day, Know you the breast of the springing To-be.



HARD WEATHER



Bursts from a rending East in flaws The young green leaflet's harrier, sworn To strew the garden, strip the shaws, And show our Spring with banner torn. Was ever such virago morn? The wind has teeth, the wind has claws. All the wind's wolves through woods are loose, The wild wind's falconry aloft. Shrill underfoot the grassblade shrews, At gallop, clumped, and down the croft Bestrid by shadows, beaten, tossed; It seems a scythe, it seems a rod. The howl is up at the howl's accost; The shivers greet and the shivers nod.