JM^'^'J^JJ^W^^N, 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
ELEUSIS 
 
ELEUSIS 
 
 A POEM 
 
 X 
 
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 — PINDAK. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 1890 
 
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 Copyrighted, A. D. 1890. 
 
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DEDICATED TO 
 
 W. H. S. 
 
Oleics is mourns beside the sea, 
 
 Her secret pomp of ivorship fled ; 
 But, though her juries/ and rite he 
 
 Still lives the Eternal Mystery. 
 
 Nor can the Eleusinia die: 
 
 What though the centuries wax and wane, 
 From each new age sounds out again 
 
 The Eternal Questioning, Whence and Why ! 
 
CANTO 1. 
 
PRELUDE. 
 
 O Life ! resplendent breaks thy morn ; 
 And Youth speeds on with rosy lip, 
 From brimming bowls of joy to sip, 
 
 Or empty Pleasure's drinking-horn. 
 
 O'er sunny plains, by singing streams. 
 Through years that seem a holiday, 
 He flies, hope-pinioned, on his way 
 
 Toward the palace of his dreams. 
 
 At morn a child, the noon-tide sun 
 
 On limbs more stalwart looketh down ; 
 And soon his setting glories crown 
 
 A staff-supported skeleton. 
 
 The silent halls one more receive, 
 
 To swell their store of voiceless guests ; 
 The heir is master of bequests. 
 
 And even Love forgets to grieve. 
 
10 Eleusis 
 
 A play whose acts but triply change, 
 And progress simple to its close ; 
 Yet more than triply charged with woes, 
 
 And grief's broad range and counter-range. 
 
 And what beyond ? Does Death o'errule 
 The vanished genius of the clay, 
 Dissolve the soul, and one decay 
 
 Embrace philosopher and fool ? 
 
 Such doubts and problems haunt the brain, 
 In youth or age of every man ; 
 And, stifle them as best we can. 
 
 They press insistent back again. 
 
 Their ghostly spectres mock and frown ; 
 No Nostradamus knows the spell. 
 Nor book nor wise exorcist's bell 
 
 Can thrust their taunting phantoms down. 
 
 Oh, how above the funeral urn 
 
 Their pinions hover ; and we feel, 
 As tears their deepest founts unseal, 
 
 That life is mystery to its kern ! 
 
\ 
 Eleusis 1 1 
 
 Their solemn silence bringeth fear, 
 
 And passionate will kneels down in dread ; 
 For, standing by the sleeping dead, 
 
 We know eternal forms are near. 
 
 It may be bootless task, in sooth. 
 To grapple with diviner things. 
 Proclaim us priests as well as kings. 
 
 And seek the mystic source of Truth, 
 
 Yet fly the search and shirk the test ! 
 
 In flight, contentment who can find ? 
 
 The deeper yearnings of the mind 
 Cannot be lightly lidled to rest. 
 
 If life be fate, if worlds advance 
 Self-driven on their axles steep, 
 Our lives are accidents, we leap 
 
 At dying to the arms of chance, — 
 
 Then joy and pain are phantoms too; 
 
 To love is sweet illusive spell ; 
 
 And all the thoughts that surge and swell 
 Within our souls, are most untrue. 
 
12 Eleiisis 
 
 So life were false, and hope a lie ; 
 The higher life for which we long 
 Only a mocking siren-song 
 
 To lure and lead us on to die. 
 
 Life, to me thyself sublime ; 
 Reveal me why I came to be, 
 And let my soul, though dimly, see 
 
 The secret horoscope of Time ! 
 
CANTO I. 
 
 No WHEEL may turn forever round, 
 Nor bell forever strike and swing : 
 The broken bell will cease to ring, 
 
 The wheel lie prostrate on the ground. 
 
 The Vv^earing w^aste of hopes and fears 
 Unwinds the primal spring of power. 
 And action weakening hour by hour 
 
 In sloAV suspension disappears. 
 
 And so, grim cup, wherein some brain 
 
 Has seethed and boiled with bm-ning thought, 
 And to excess of mastery brought. 
 
 Was quick to measure loss and gain, 
 
 Power's supremest mock and mime. 
 Life's palace now forgotten urn ! 
 For thee no more the wheel wdll turn, — 
 
 The bell has rung its dying chime. 
 
Eleusis 
 
 Yet whither gone, Soul ? Whence sprung 
 Thy mighty mastery of the past ? 
 Dost wander homeless, or at last 
 
 Indwell the countries of the sun ? 
 
 Or, is this all, — these empty eyes, 
 
 This mockery grim of life's fair prime ? 
 Is this the consummate fruit of Time, 
 
 And the proud heirdom of the wise ? 
 
Eleusis 
 
 II. 
 
 Alas for him whose harp outrung 
 
 The first low minor-chord of doubt, 
 And gave that bitter keynote out 
 
 Whereto uncounted souls have sung. 
 
 Alas for him who, out of tune 
 
 With the young earth's clear-voiced refrain, 
 Made tears the burden of his strain. 
 
 And saw a clouded sky at noon. 
 
 Alas for him ! Alas for me. 
 
 Who am the heir of his emprise ! 
 
 For heirdom lives, though lordship dies. 
 
 And doubt entails an endless fee. 
 
 Thus cycles turning round and round, 
 And years to centuries grovring fast, 
 From out the dim and vista'd past 
 
 Tumultuous voices louder sound. 
 
1 6 Eleusis 
 
 'Till, ringing from the earth and sky, 
 The wide world heareth only this : 
 ' Death ruleth Life ; Life's fuller bliss 
 Is Sleep, — its fullest, swift to die.' 
 
Eleusis 
 
 t? 
 
 III. 
 
 O HAUNTING image of my age, 
 
 That risest with me in the morn, 
 And saith with evening voice of scorn, 
 'Come clasp me, and thy love assuage ! ' 
 
 haffling Love, whose mocking eyes 
 
 From pools of searchings deep are seen. 
 Or where high mountain-turrets lean 
 Standest depict against the skies, — 
 
 1 long for thee ; my heart aflame 
 
 No other bride or mistress knows : 
 Yet on my waning century goes, 
 And longing cannot crown its aim. 
 
 Yet cries my heart, ' Whate'er may come, 
 I will thy perfect contours hold, 
 And to my passion shall unfold 
 
 The lips that hitherto are dumb ; 
 
1 8 Eleusis 
 
 ' What though the vaulted heaven fall, 
 
 What though my soul go down to death, 
 To feel for once the eternal breath 
 Will be rich guerdon tor it all ! ' 
 
Eleusis ig 
 
 IV. 
 
 O BROADER scope of life, divined 
 By only those whose gaze intense 
 Surmounts the barriers set by sense, 
 
 And passes what has been defined ; 
 
 O wide conception leaping o'er 
 
 The bounds that earlier knowledge gave, 
 What though the fearful feebly rave 
 
 And cry, ' Oh, tarry on the shore '; 
 
 And Avhat though many a wreck decays 
 By deep divining's boundless sea, 
 Where many a tempest's full degree 
 
 Proud launched convoys disarrays ; 
 
 All travellers pass through dangerous lands. 
 Or risk the storms of treacherous seas ; 
 All gain is bought by loss of ease. 
 
 And glory yields to daring hands. 
 
20 Eleusis 
 
 To Doric moods the sails are set, 
 
 And songs pursue the vessel's keel. 
 And far horizons half reveal 
 
 Mist-shrouded tower and parapet. 
 
 And Mystery's deeji enchantment falls 
 
 From slumbrous depths of sapphire sky, 
 And Hope uprears a fabric high 
 
 Behind the heights of unknown walls. 
 
 Across the soul's responsive strings 
 
 The touch of heavenly music sweeps, 
 And my intensest ardor leaps 
 
 To reach the inmost heart of things. 
 
 Then onward fly, bark, from shore ; 
 
 Before, behind, is due acclaim ; 
 
 I go to win a deathless name, 
 Or die as others died before ! 
 
Eleusis 21 
 
 V. 
 
 Yet what the silence of the dark 
 In vaulted cavern dim and deep, 
 Where Echo, Echo lies asleep. 
 
 And Fear forgets to whisper ' Hark ! ' 
 
 Or what the silence of the peak 
 
 Surmounting wastes of barren plain. 
 Or that of yon debateless main 
 
 Whose rigid secrets none can speak ; 
 
 Aye, what are these to yonder track 
 
 Where Silence shrieks, ' 'Tis I, 'Tis I! 
 I Avatch the centuries wax and die, 
 
 And hear the wheels go slipping back. 
 
 * From agony my voice is born ; 
 
 My earthly sisters all are dumb ; 
 Afar I see new races come 
 To perish 'neath the heel of scorn ; 
 
22 Eleusis 
 
 ' Yet what I know I cannot tell ; 
 
 My realm divides all time in twain ; 
 And whether life grows life again, 
 My lips are powerless to foretell.' 
 
 No traveller walks that border shore, 
 
 And thence returns with pilgrim song, 
 With foreign lays and stories long, 
 
 And robes that strangers wove and wore ; 
 
 But he who goes repairs not thence ; 
 
 The speechless cycles turn and turn : 
 
 Our only solace is an urn, 
 And Memory's poignant recompense. 
 
Eleiisis 2^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 AxD so my heart and hoi3e grows weak, 
 And life's fate-flung contemjDtuous boon 
 Is dawn that blights before the noon, 
 
 Or child that does not live to speak. 
 
 Are years so sweet that toil and pain 
 Should buy the few we linger here ? 
 Or life within this hemisphere 
 
 As sweet as bitter its disdain ? 
 
 But passion lives though potence die, 
 And love of life lives longer still; 
 ' Oh Fortune, treat me as ye will. 
 But let me live ! ' the ages sigh. 
 
 Yet weariness is near to rest. 
 
 And suffering ofttimes bringeth sleep ; 
 
 So I, although to-day I weej). 
 Perhaps hereafter may be blest. 
 
24 Eleusis 
 
 VII. 
 
 Yet restless Thought, with straining eye, 
 And borne at Will's implacate need 
 Above the citadels of creed 
 
 Where undisturbed horizons lie, 
 
 Spies out through distance dim and vast 
 Life's broad exjDanse of sombre sea, 
 Whose billows touch the same degree 
 
 As in the countless centuries past. 
 
 To swell it myriad streamlets haste, 
 And out it myriad streamlets go. 
 In ceaseless counterpoise of flow 
 
 And ceaseless weaving up of waste. 
 
 Now here, now there, the subtle stream. 
 And now returning whence it came, 
 Sweeps through my heart and wakes to fame, 
 
 Or thrills the rose with joy supreme. 
 
Eleusis 2^ 
 
 Wrapped thus in life's more fleeting flood, 
 The true and deathless life lives on ; 
 That which hath made me paragon, 
 
 And of the gods decayless blood. 
 
 For, held and prisoned by some power, 
 Within this life the truer dwells, 
 'Till heavenly sign and dial tells 
 
 The full and free and destined hour. 
 
 The oneness making what we are, 
 
 The eternal stamp that gives me form ; 
 No shock of elemental storm, 
 
 No crash of planet meeting star, 
 
 No blotting out of sun and moon, 
 No chaos boundless and profound, 
 Can slay : in chaos I am found, 
 
 For I am night and I am noon. 
 
26 Eleusis 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Yet,' Memory lost, thy latest heir 
 
 Demands thy urns that border time, 
 Thy cenotaphs in clime on clime. 
 
 Thy earlier joyanca or despair. 
 
 That palimpsest unfold to-day. 
 
 And 'neath the lately written lines 
 Read out my lineage from the signs 
 
 Whose deeper mystery says me nay. 
 
 No answer comes ; or if reply 
 
 Floats echoing through my pillar'd hall, 
 Its wordless echoes rise and fall, 
 
 Approach and voiceless hasten by ; 
 
 They waste, they wane ; my halls of thought 
 Disperse the strain that once was song. 
 And sadly Silence floats along 
 
 To mock with mystery what was sought. 
 
Eleusis 2y 
 
 For 'mid my labyrinth rooms that ring 
 With each its own responsive tone, 
 The true refrain grows quite unknown 
 
 That somewhere heavenly voices sing ; 
 
 Or, swelled by Nature's echoing throat, 
 Betrays its birthright, and with lies 
 Deceives, dissuades, destroys, denies. 
 
 With false and yet enchanting note. 
 
 For I who hear am he who sings ; 
 
 And what is sung, that too is Me ; 
 
 For I am one and yet am three, — 
 The listener, singer, and the strings. 
 
 And all in self ; yet cannot tell 
 
 What strains I hear, or if I sang. 
 Or what the notes, or how they rang 
 
 From out my mad musician's cell. 
 
 And so I circle round and round. 
 
 And paths once trod again I tread ; 
 For life is life, though men be dead, 
 
 And death is — failing to be found. 
 
28 Eleusis 
 
 IX. 
 
 For life has orbit more immense 
 
 Than swiftest comets overfly ; 
 
 We pass this human orbit by, 
 And slide from out this arc of sense, 
 
 And passing onward in my round, 
 As one who coasts a foreign shore 
 Sees strange growths never seen before 
 
 And races hitherto unfound, 
 
 So I shall see what is unseen ; 
 
 And, casting arc and arc behind. 
 
 My more and more enfranchised mind 
 
 Shall learn what present mysteries mean ; 
 
 High tides shall roll where shallows lay. 
 And desert lands grow rich with bloom. 
 And mountain peaks whose summits loom 
 
 To dim the rising of the day. 
 
Eleusis 2g 
 
 Shall sink beneath my upward wing 
 
 That mounts the eternal vault of Truth 
 With fresh and growing sense of youth 
 
 And the strong ardor of the Spring. 
 
50 Eleusis 
 
 X. 
 
 Yet is there something still untraced : 
 Some link that hides its magic gold, — 
 Some bud whose petals still enfold 
 
 Their secret, — forces yet displaced. 
 
 Oh, could we see where closely press 
 The arcs of being, could we stand 
 Where sliding down from either hand 
 
 They meet and closely coalesce, 
 
 Then Doubt at last were doubly dead ; 
 And my new orbit, cloudless grown, 
 Would sweep thro' Truth's imperial zone, 
 
 Eternal sunshine overhead. 
 
 But darkness now encumbers all. 
 And silence answers to my cry ; 
 The heights of thought my wings defy, 
 
 Yet lure me onward till I fall. 
 
Eleusis 31 
 
 Beneath the peaks of pure desire 
 I lie in helpless longing low, 
 And feel a dull resentment grow 
 
 To burn my being with its fire. 
 
 With bruised heart, with broken wing, 
 My purpose countervailed by fate, 
 I scorn the low, I loathe the great. 
 
 And every seen and unseen thing. 
 
52 Eleusis 
 
 XI. 
 
 O STRUGGLIXG Soul ! thy heirdom thrills 
 With hope that maddens, then denies ; 
 '- 1 am thy love I ' the phantom cries, 
 And then with treacherous scorning kills. 
 
 Move onward, Soul, within thy round. 
 
 Nor strive the eternal springs to quaff ; 
 The Gods at high aspirers laugh, 
 
 And will is left an hour unbound ; 
 
 Then, harsh with mockery and with scorn, 
 Defiance meets thy wild appeals ; 
 And dark Despair, unheeded, feels 
 
 'T were better to have been unborn. 
 
Eleusis ^j 
 
 XII. 
 
 For, living, one must live by rule ; 
 
 We tread the j)atlis our fathers wore, 
 Nor look behind, nor look before, 
 
 But nod the noddings of the fool 
 
 Who knows not why, but follows feet 
 That echo ' Follow ' in his ear, — 
 E'en though it be some frenzied Lear 
 
 Who cries ' Advance ' or calls ' Retreat.' 
 
 So longing souls must go astray. 
 
 And, struggling on 'mid murk and mire, 
 Feel life grow barren of desire. 
 
 Or turn like hunted stag at bay 
 
 To face the foe when hope denies, 
 
 And drink the poison-pointed spear : 
 — Life to the vanquished is not dear 
 
 As death to him who boldly dies ! 
 
^4 Eleusis 
 
 XIII. 
 
 ' Rise up,' one saith, ' to higher ends ; 
 Proclaim thee better than the rest, 
 And feel the passion in thy breast 
 That iDure and lofty striving sends.' 
 
 And answering to him, ' What is this ? 
 A moment's self -deceptive joy, 
 A dream that waking will destroy, 
 
 A phantom starlight must dismiss. 
 
 ' Its fabric falls and melts away 
 
 And sinks to wed its kindred dust, 
 Because some old half-hidden lust 
 Stalks laughing from its false decay.' 
 
 Then death of Hope comes slowly on ; 
 My springs of action cease to flow. 
 And o'er my sjDirit broods a woe 
 
 Like that which shadowed Babylon. 
 
Eleusis ^5 
 
 My fertile valleys wear a pall 
 
 That yon dark mount of sorrow spread, 
 And the thick ashes of the dead 
 
 Come slowly down to bury all. 
 
 Dumb, senseless, all unhurt by pain, 
 
 Inert as matter I can it be 
 
 That aspirations vainly flee 
 And like mirages wax and wane ? 
 
 What means the native power of art, 
 
 And what the implanted love of truth ? 
 Are these but visions haunting Youth, . 
 
 To charm and then enrage the heart ? 
 
 Is living some most tragic play 
 
 Whereat remorseless purjDose smiles, 
 And longings only witless wiles 
 
 That first enchant and finally slay ? 
 
 So were it better swift to fall 
 
 As tree beneath the axman's blow : 
 Aye, sometimes Misery whispers low, 
 
 'Twere better not to live at all.' 
 
j6 Eleusis 
 
 XIV. 
 
 O ADAMANTINE reigii of Law ! 
 
 Relax thine edicts now and then ; 
 
 Display sweet mercy unto men, 
 Discerning in thyself some flaw. 
 
 What means the bowing of the pine, 
 
 Or what the grain-field's bended head, 
 When storm and tempest frenzy-led 
 
 Whirl o'er the earth in rage condign ? 
 
 Day veils his banner unto eve, 
 
 And Night lays off her starry crown ; 
 
 The planets fall supinely down, 
 And the high tides their conquests leave. 
 
 ' To yield, to yield ! ' their voices cry ; 
 ' Contention brings suj)reme defeat ; 
 And they Avho deign not to retreat 
 Disarmed and fetter-laden lie.' 
 
Eleusis 57 
 
 Why can we not the reason know, 
 
 Or why are sense and soul so blind ? 
 Whence comes the mystery of the mind, 
 
 And longing's endless ebb and flow ? 
 
 High barriers their thwarting bring ; 
 And lo-like from land to land, 
 From plains of snow to plains of sand, 
 
 We fly the Fates' remorseless sting. 
 
^8 Eleusis 
 
 XV. 
 
 Yet waves uproll to meet the shore 
 
 Where many a joyous blossom sways, 
 And oft and oft the tide delays 
 
 As if enamored more and more. 
 
 This ocean-lover longs to press 
 
 The fair earth-blossom to his side, 
 And bear it on returning tide 
 
 To cheer his far-off loneliness ; 
 
 And tides that rise with longing swell 
 To court these joyous maids of June, 
 May reach them some victorious noon. 
 
 And bear in triumph, — who can tell ? 
 
 So hearts that long and tides that roll 
 
 Of feeling and divine desire 
 
 May reach, by force of longing, higher, 
 More priceless treasures of the soul. 
 
Eletisis 39 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Sweet Summer clouds, celestial fleet 
 That ploughs sublime a sapphire sea ! 
 Fain would I sail as calm as ye 
 
 To some fair haven of retreat. 
 
 Meseems for you some pilot stout 
 Maintains the rudder in his grip, 
 While I alone within my ship 
 
 Without a helmsman drift about, 
 
 And driven onward by the blast, 
 Or rising on some mural swell. 
 My boasted skill cannot foretell 
 
 The shore whereon I may be cast. 
 
 So, knoAving naught of how to sail, 
 'T were better let the wind direct ; 
 For, destined finally to be wreckt, 
 
 Why toil and labor but to fail ? 
 
40 Eleusis 
 
 XVII. 
 
 They say, ' He tried, but trying failed,' 
 
 They brand him false and craven knight ; 
 And so the world in headlong flight 
 
 Abandons him at whom she railed. 
 
 The sands of many a hopeless coast 
 
 Are heaped with sjDars and wrecks unnamed, 
 Stout oaken ribs by tempest strained. 
 
 And now and then a capstan post. 
 
 These sailed them forth one Summer morn, 
 One Summer morn with canvas proud ; 
 To fanfares shouted by the crowd, 
 
 They sailed for lands beyond the Horn. 
 
 And now on yonder surf -worn sand 
 
 Their ghosts go wandering : yet as brave 
 Go forth new keels to breast the wave, 
 
 And carry love's or gain's command. 
 
Eleusis 41 
 
 So runs the world : and those who win 
 Are hailed the mighty and the great ; 
 But he who reached the goal too late 
 
 Is guilty of his failure's sin. 
 
 What though he strove and strove his best, 
 And nobly striving broke his heart ? 
 Success in every realm of art 
 
 Proclaims herself the crucial test I 
 
42 Eleusis 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 O WONDROUS moment, when Success 
 To ardent effort yields her bride, 
 And joyous from the altar's side 
 
 They pass to perfect happiness. 
 
 The midnight anguish is forgot ; 
 The vigil hour, the weary year, 
 Dismissed from memory's hemisphere, 
 
 Depart and are remembered not. 
 
 Forgot is all the toilsome way 
 
 O'er which they trod with lingering limbs ; 
 
 Proud Nature sings their nuptial hymns. 
 And forth they walk into the day. 
 
 They walk to meet the golden west j 
 Across they pass the purple hills ; 
 And where eternal Summer spills 
 
 Her urns of sunshine, dwell at rest. 
 
Eleusis 4^ 
 
 XIX. 
 
 But what the hope that sailor feels, 
 Or what the joy of lover's dream ? 
 Envenomed Cupid's arrows stream, 
 
 And painted barks have strengthless keels. 
 
 The booming guns of frigate vast. 
 The signal-lights athwart the sea, 
 The surf wild-breaking on the lea, 
 
 The splitting sail and cracking mast ! 
 
 O hapless crew, ye sailed, ye sailed, 
 Familiar shores were at your side ; 
 Yet gazing on your homes ye died. 
 
 And breathing native air ye failed. 
 
 So standing where through thresholds wide 
 Success displays her vistas long. 
 The soul is tripped by passion's thong. 
 
 And finds the fairest hopes denied. 
 
44 Eleusis 
 
 XX. 
 
 If Hope be budded, snow and sleet 
 Despoil the jDromise of the flower ; 
 What then is Summer's softest shower, 
 
 Or June, with fervid burst of heat ; 
 
 Or what are floods of evening dew 
 
 To barren deserts of despair, 
 
 Where seeds nor germs nor rootlets are, 
 Nor even rosemary or rue ? 
 
 The rebel hand of bold emprise 
 
 Has sown the field with deathful dearth : 
 The seed has perished ere its birth, 
 
 And Sorrow sits to mock the wise ; 
 
 And suns unheeded fire the east ; 
 
 Unheeded moons to crescent wane ; 
 
 The stars unheeded o'er their plain 
 May move, — I know not, — or have ceased. 
 
Eleusis 4^ 
 
 An iron crown around my head, 
 
 My hands in fearful fetters bound, 
 A faineant king in mockery crowned 
 
 To rule o'er noble purpose dead, 
 
 To king the buried hopes of youth, 
 
 Behold Ambition's dying throe, 
 
 To pomp my ow^n expiring woe 
 And rule the funeral rites of Truth. 
 
 Oh, who is strong to conquer Hope, 
 
 And conquering sing his bridal song, 
 Or win the heirdoms that belong 
 
 To Life's diviner astroscope ? 
 
46 Eleusis 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Then let me venture to thy wall, 
 
 O Cloister crowned with quiet age, 
 And as one worn with pilgrimage 
 
 Repose my limbs within thy hall. 
 
 Let me adventure to thy shrine, 
 O Melancholy, mild and sweet. 
 Where woes with absolution meet 
 
 And souls by suffering grow divine. 
 
 O sweet Seclusion, let thy spell 
 Unseal the spirit's blinded eye. 
 And thoughts immeasurably high 
 
 Sing me my long-sought canticle. 
 
Eleusis 4j 
 
 XXII. 
 
 I DONNED the gray and sackcloth robe, 
 Around my waist the knotted cord ; 
 And, every passion held in ward, 
 
 Turned round the convent's silent globe. 
 
 My soul from thought of wrong was swept, 
 My penance done most joyously ; 
 And in my new-born ecstasy 
 
 Before the altar stejDS I wept. 
 
 Yet when in Summer glowed the sun, 
 My thoughts refused to dwell apart ; 
 I felt the impetuous currents start 
 
 That through all life and limits run ; 
 
 The matin song in vain outrang 
 
 Through echoing aisles its soft refrain, 
 And the dull vespers all in vain 
 
 My li^js in tired responses sang. 
 
Eleusis 
 
 Aside my thralling robes I threw ; 
 
 I passed the convent gates between ; 
 
 The lindens shook their silver sheen, 
 And up the lark in circles flew ; 
 
 The world rang out an anthem grand, 
 
 More sweet than choirs our convent kept, 
 And the pure voice of Nature swept 
 
 In concert over sea and land. 
 
 Then, pondering, new thoughts came and went 
 My soul with sense of joy was fraught. 
 And the broad world superbly wrought 
 
 Seemed bounteous, pure, benevolent. 
 
 Fair robes of hope Queen Nature wore ; 
 
 Responsive songs she sang to me ; 
 
 And I, as from a boundless sea. 
 Stepped forth upon the solid shore. 
 
CANTO II, 
 
PRELUDE. 
 
 Away, Soul, and seek thy kind 
 In air and earth, in fire and sea ! 
 For Nature's reahii to thee is free, 
 
 And only Nature is not blind. 
 
 The mists have fled ; the prisoned sense 
 That sought from self the All to know 
 Has burst its chain and slain its foe, 
 
 And finds in Nature joy intense. 
 
 No more with grief my days ally ; 
 
 To lonely woe I say, ' Farewell '; 
 
 No more on sorrow's surging swell 
 I float between the earth and sky. 
 
 No more my days I lead alone, 
 
 Without a heart to feel for mine ; 
 For Nature pours her mystic wine. 
 
 And says 'Thou art my own, my own.' 
 
52 Eleusis 
 
 The seasons come, the seasons go ; 
 
 The year hangs up its finished crown ; 
 
 A century's suns and moons go down, 
 And on a thousand cycles flow ; 
 
 And thrones and kings and reahns decay ; 
 
 The builders perish, and their fanes ; 
 
 The star of empire dims and wanes, 
 And ruins mount on ruins gray ; 
 
 Yet glows the sun as when his beam 
 
 Did voice the mute Memnonian lyre ; 
 As then he burns the east with lire. 
 
 And drinks at night the western stream. 
 
 Why to my heart's remotest shore 
 Exalts the tide of joy its might, 
 When yonder star's thin shaft of light 
 
 Comes glittering through my casement door ? 
 
 O light that shines to me, to me, 
 From Sirius' doubly-distant sun. 
 Thou dost, meseems, imprison one 
 
 Of Nature's unseen ministry ! 
 
Eleusis 5^ 
 
 Break o'er my lonely vigil hour 
 
 Thy eentiiried silence I let me learn 
 What will or passion in thee burn, 
 
 And what the limit of thy power. 
 
 And there are germs defying sight, 
 That dwell in every forest tree ; 
 And with a throb we cannot see 
 
 Upswells the bosom of the Night ; 
 
 All round me, flying here and there, 
 I hear the sweep of myriad wings, 
 Unseen, yet felt ; and now outrings 
 
 A subtle music through the air. 
 
 It sings : ' By myriad, myriad strands 
 Ye grow, of us the unseen, part ; 
 And Nature clasj^s ye to her heart. 
 
 And holds your pulses in her hands.' 
 
 So, Soul, away through all the earth, 
 And seek thy kindred at the poleS;, 
 Or where the central river rolls 
 
 All liissing from the sun's hot hearth. 
 
5^ Eleusis 
 
 Build up to Nature altars high ; 
 
 Invoke her spirit ; then my heart 
 Shall find the greatest crown of art 
 
 To learn from living how to die ! 
 
CANTO II. 
 
 I. 
 
 High priest of Nature, altars grand 
 I reared in ev^ery separate zone, 
 Amid the ice-floes white and lone, 
 
 And on the south and blazing sand. 
 
 So northward on my shallop drove, 
 Till icy grew the spars and ropes, 
 And waning sun and fading hoj^es 
 
 With high ecstatic purpose strove. 
 
 I coasted on past coral isles, 
 
 Far onward to the burning south, 
 And where to cool the fevered mouth 
 
 The treacherous lotus-fruit beguiles. 
 
 Then wandered 'mid the barren Avastes 
 That stretch beyond the Asian meads, 
 And heard the sighing of the reeds 
 
 Where soft and fleet Hydaspes hastes. 
 
<y6 Eleusis 
 
 On Indian flowers I lay reclined 
 
 At noon beneath the banyan wide, 
 
 And watched the scorched and sluggish tide 
 
 Rise up to catch the cooling wind. 
 
 And o'er the Andalusian plain 
 
 Where rarely grows the purple wine, 
 I saw the dusk and half divine 
 
 And passionate damosels of Spain. 
 
 Mid Paestum's Doric shafts I sang, 
 
 And where Antinous drank the Nile, 
 And Java's far and famous isle 
 
 To my new rite of worship rang. 
 
 In every clime, by every sea. 
 
 In zones that interchanging lie — 
 Of temjDerate heat and tropic sky, 
 
 O Nature, have I worshipped thee ! 
 
Eleusis ^y 
 
 n. 
 
 What joy to watch the bolts of fire 
 Shoot out the crimson bow of dawn, 
 And Night's dumb silence leave the lawn 
 
 To Morning's glad exultant choir ! 
 
 With mellow throats they greet the sun, 
 And usher in the court of Day ; 
 While all the Hours at eager play 
 
 Around his chariot garland-hung, 
 
 And clinging to his bounding wheels, 
 Fling rosy missiles to and fro, 
 Beneath whose iridescent blow 
 
 The genius of the darkness reels. 
 
 The sentinel peaks in splendor vie. 
 
 And gorgeous ensigns o'er them rear ; 
 And silent air, with rose-red ear, 
 
 Listens while Phoebus mounts on high. 
 
5^' Eleusis 
 
 Then sunlight steals to forests deep, 
 
 And down the mountams to the sea ; 
 And now, where Capri's caverns be, 
 
 Awakes the sajDphire from its sleep. 
 
Eleusis 59 
 
 III. 
 
 What joy to tread the forest free, 
 To press the sod with daisies pied, 
 And feel the deep and pulsing tide 
 
 Of Life's fresh vernal mystery ! 
 
 What joy in forests, when alone, 
 
 The depths of slumbrous aisles to pass. 
 And hear the solemn matin mass 
 
 That Nature's celebrants intone ; 
 
 The lofty nave in reverence bows, 
 
 The transepts wake from night and sleep, 
 And through the mighty minster sweep 
 
 The answering antiphones of vows ; 
 
 And I, with these of one descent. 
 My orisons in concert pay. 
 And out into the full-orbed day 
 
 Walk consecrated and content. 
 
6o Eleusis 
 
 IV. 
 
 What joy to watch the glittering train 
 Of evening mount the curved sky, 
 And hear the breezes lightly fly 
 
 To kiss the lips of sighing grain ! 
 
 The lambent eye of yonder star, 
 The ivory shoulder of the moon. 
 The full content of midnight's noon, 
 
 And rush of yonder planet's car ! 
 
 What joy to feel the impassioned sense 
 Of kinship with the sea and earth, 
 And claim a brotherhood by birth 
 
 With Nature, measureless, immense ! 
 
Eleusis 6 1 
 
 At night I came to Ocean's swell ; 
 The hunted billows shoreward flew, 
 And, like to suppliants come to sue, 
 
 At Earth's great altar-steps they fell. 
 
 The rocks with rhythmic pulses beat 
 
 Through their deep hearts, as swiftly down 
 Each giant cast his mural crown 
 
 At California's haughty feet. 
 
 Fear sped on velvet wings to me, 
 
 And brooding o'er my sinking head 
 Revealed the faces of the dead 
 
 That looked from out the western sea. 
 
 And storm-sped voices, frenzy-strung. 
 To my new sense condignlj^ SAvept ; 
 Till all my manhood moaned and wept 
 
 O'er ship and sailor-man undone. 
 
62 Eleusis 
 
 On some high crest he floateth on, 
 
 With eyes upturned to heaven in vain ; 
 Or lies in valley of disdain, 
 
 Earth's mute and sea-tossed paragon. 
 
Eleiisis 63 
 
 VI. 
 
 Resistless now to some command, 
 And creeping, creeping from afar. 
 The moonlight and the evening star 
 
 Behold new tides assail the land. 
 
 The shadows yield to flood and foam, 
 
 The shore-bird spreads his inland wing, 
 And the dusk-charioted ocean-king 
 
 Drives on though rocks and sea-weed moan. 
 
 So I am slain in life's excess ; 
 
 My transient heirdom is not mine ; 
 -■ But the broad surge and swell divine 
 Hath mastery never growing less. 
 
64 Eleusis 
 
 VII. 
 
 I SIT and ponder, when the tide 
 With languid step begins return, 
 As from the tomb and funeral urn 
 
 Comes Grief, whose darling one has died. 
 
 Great tears are wept for bounded Hope ; 
 
 The baffled mourner voiceless lies ; 
 
 And the deep-shrouding Darkness cries, 
 • All passion dwells in fettered scope ; 
 
 Dusk hands outreach to baffle thee ; 
 
 Thy tides of knowledge backv/ard fall. 
 As the dark powers of Nature call 
 
 From world-wide empire yonder sea.' 
 
Eleiisis 65 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Fair hamlet like brave girdle clasjDed 
 Round yonder mistress of the plain, 
 Lead forth yom' last well-axled wain, 
 
 And leave your useless doors unhasped. 
 
 From far away your laden ships 
 
 Sail homeward-wafted to your bay, 
 And sailors sea-tossed many a day 
 
 Are pressing fond resistless lips. 
 
 Yet where your emerald girdle clings, 
 And where your weary vessels rest, 
 And where, with passion's perfect zest 
 
 The home-come sailor-lover sings. 
 
 Shall fall the mocking ashes pale 
 
 Ere midnight-bell salutes the morn. 
 And Nature clothed in fire and scorn 
 
 Will laugh to hear her children wail ; 
 
66 Eleitsis 
 
 Will tread with soulless step the shore, 
 
 AYitli soulless hand your vineyards crush, 
 And in the current of her rush 
 
 Whirl Life to Death's domain once more. 
 
Eleusis 6y 
 
 IX. 
 
 So, leopard, leap from out thy lair ! 
 The jungles reek with heavy mist, 
 And still the breezes are, and whist 
 
 The hot and burned-out Indian air. 
 
 Leap up, O leojDard ! 'tis the hour 
 
 The lonely traveller pants with fear 
 Lest thy unechoing step be near, 
 
 And stops at every breath to cower. 
 
 Leap lightly on the easy prey, 
 
 And glut thy angry maw once more 
 Thou art the grave of half a score, 
 
 Now add another one to-day! 
 
68 Eleusis 
 
 X. 
 
 One boundeth joyous toward the east, 
 
 But halts where falls th' embattled shore ; 
 Bright envoys come the waters o'er 
 
 To herald Morning's golden feast ; 
 
 His heart asjDires to distance dim, 
 As cag^d bird it beats its wires. 
 And pants to warm it at the fires 
 
 That burn the far horizon's rim. 
 
 Yet cliffs lie here, and deep below 
 
 The Ocean's wide unending room, — 
 Man, thou art but earthly groom. 
 
 And Nature's arms around thee grow. 
 
 Look, long to fly ! yet she, thy bride. 
 With rosy limbs around thee flung. 
 Will hold thee while thy strength is young, 
 
 To spurn thee when thy youth has died ! 
 
Eleusis 6p 
 
 XI. 
 
 From purpling mounds in early June 
 I pluck sweet violets nodding up, 
 The trillium and its graceful cup 
 
 That holds the dew-wine unto noon. 
 
 Of thick green grass a round I weave 
 To knit my violets lest they fall, 
 And sitting under oak-tree tall 
 
 I hear Spring's passion pant and heave. 
 
 I hear the weaves with Summer feet 
 
 Come gay and gladsome to the shore, 
 And in the purple skies a score 
 
 Of wide-winged curlews float and meet ; 
 
 I hear the sounds of axe and wedge 
 On busy ships that wait to sail, 
 The sailors answering to the hail 
 
 Of captain at the water's edge ; 
 
JO Eleusis 
 
 The noise of myriad hands that go 
 Responsive to a myriad brains : 
 Here is the pulsing of the veins, 
 
 And the great world's impetuous flow. 
 
Eleusis yi 
 
 XII. 
 
 But this slight round of grass, — ah me ! 
 See how it breaks I and all around 
 My violets lie upon the ground, 
 
 Or fluttering off impatiently 
 
 Are lured away by ardent breath 
 Of June's impulsive lover-breeze, 
 Who strays now, loitering 'mid the trees, 
 
 Or goes coquetting o'er the heath. 
 
 And so the hopes of yonder sail. 
 
 The beatings of the captain's heart, 
 The sailors urgent to depart, 
 
 Some envious wind may countervail ; 
 
 And hurling ship in frenzied glee 
 
 Through straits and islands slightly known, 
 May sink them where on coral prone 
 
 They grow the substance of the sea. 
 
y2 Beush 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Stately across the world she trod. 
 
 Her arms with gold and purple hung ; 
 And wide the colors rich she flung 
 
 O'er heath and distant tree and sod. 
 
 The flame of setting sun grew pale 
 Beside the halo Autumn wore, 
 And 'neath her feet the forest floor 
 
 Glowed like the wine in Holy Grail. 
 
 The mists of fine October blue 
 
 Were interwove with crimson rare, 
 As through the rich and ripened air 
 
 Bright Autumn leaves enamored flew ; 
 
 Her wake was such as southern keel 
 
 Leaves flashing 'neath an evening sky 
 Red, purple, crimson, gold, defy 
 
 All words but his who lives to feel ! 
 
Eleusis 73 
 
 At last she stood with crimson moath 
 Where dusk horizons dimly stand, 
 And with one kiss to sky and land 
 
 Went hastening onward to the south. 
 
y^ Eleusis 
 
 XIV. 
 
 And, as she passed, from northern strand 
 A royal youth leaped lightly down, 
 With crystals flashing in his crown 
 
 And icy sceptre in his hand; 
 
 Fair frozen clouds his limbs arrayed. 
 In frosty sandals sped his feet, 
 And storms of Summer-slaying sleet 
 
 Drove on, his deathful cavalcade ; 
 
 And Color fled in frenzied fear. 
 
 And Hope put on her funeral wreath ; 
 And here and there upon the heath 
 
 Lay travellers frozen to their bier. 
 
Eleusis 75 
 
 XV. 
 
 Across I trod the royal world, 
 The kingly seas I fled across ; 
 Yet haunting, like the albatross 
 
 With tireless pinion never furled, 
 
 Care hovered o'er my weary Avay ; 
 At night she poised above my bed. 
 And round my bowed and aching head 
 
 Went circling through the wearier day. 
 
 No power could drive her in defeat ; 
 She drank my salt and flowing tears. 
 And through the long expanse of years 
 
 Drove Hope in dastardly retreat. 
 
 For Nature hath a step of steel 
 
 To crush her children when they cry ; 
 They plead, and pleading yet must lie 
 
 Beneath her feet who cannot feel. 
 
76 Eleusis 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Joy faints at DisapjDointment's stride, 
 And Crime is eldest son of Want : 
 From phantasies that mock and haunt 
 
 Our mental vision, who can hide ? 
 
 We clutch the dark and leaden clamps. 
 Or wrench in vain the steely bars, 
 To find our only trophies scars 
 
 And death amid the prison damps. 
 
 The instinctive passion to be free 
 Alone prevents our death in life ; 
 And in a never-ending strife 
 
 We fight with foes we cannot see. 
 
Eleusis 77 
 
 XVII. 
 
 For Nature, Nature lies asleep 
 Within her far creative halls, 
 Where Being's ocean swells and falls 
 
 And subtle currents roll and sweep. 
 
 She lies encouched 'neath vaults sublime, 
 And held in sleejj's eventless spell : — 
 Silence — but that clepsydras tell 
 
 In century-drops the lapse of time. 
 
 Vague eons stretch their boundless plains 
 To years when first her sleep began ; 
 She slumbers since the birth of man, 
 
 And now his aged century wanes. 
 
 'T is thus the creative throe recoils. 
 And weary pain is slejDt away ; 
 For action, weakening, will slay 
 
 Unless sweet rest repair the spoils. 
 
yS Eleusis 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Yet now her breasts upsurge, she flings 
 Aside the robe whose touch is pain, 
 And the great pangs of birth again 
 
 Awake great Nature queen of kings. 
 
 Yet who of mortals niay behold 
 
 Her fructive waking undismayed, 
 And gaze on Nature disarrayed 
 
 Without a terror uncontrolled ! 
 
 Her latest children will dismiss 
 
 Our lives and memory to decay ; 
 For Nature, wakening, will slay 
 
 Her earlier progeny for this. 
 
 So Life advances ; Death defies 
 
 A full and perfect-rounded hour, 
 And the strong man's divinest power 
 
 Leaps to new being when he dies. 
 
Eleusis 79 
 
 The eternal cycle stately rounds 
 
 From node to node its mighty track; 
 No century slides completely back 
 
 When out its solemn requiem sounds ; 
 
 But all this arc of life we know 
 
 Shall meet and live in one divine ; — 
 Sons keep the father's storied line, 
 
 And Birth gives Death a master-blow. 
 
8o Eleusis 
 
 XIX. 
 
 O MYSTERY when the first red sun 
 
 Looked o'er the world's extremest east, 
 And mystery when the solemn feast 
 
 Prcclahned Eleusis' rite w^as done ; 
 
 mystery now on western wing 
 
 High brooding over present time, — 
 In every age and every clime 
 Thou art the curse of everything ! 
 
 Yet who can chain the eternal mind, 
 
 And say to Knowledge, ' Hither, stay I 
 Pass not the precincts of the day ; 
 
 To night and mystery be blind ! ' 
 
 And so I search and seek my brain. 
 Each dusky corner scan and sweep. 
 Till 'mid the labyrinth dark and deep 
 
 1 turn, and lose the clew again. 
 
Eleusis 8 1 
 
 Yet who, once failing, leaves the quest, 
 Nor baffled hither, flies beyond ? 
 Some ocean beats a golden strond, 
 
 A.nd laves the Islands of the Blest. 
 
82 Eleusis 
 
 XX. 
 
 Sing, river reeds, a hopeful lay, 
 
 To quell the dirge and "vvail of woe 
 That sighs : ' The centuries come and go, 
 
 And Death is sure though Life delay.' 
 
 Sing, as ye sit by yonder stream 
 
 Whose sunless \Yaters rise and fall : 
 ' Though Death may seem the lord of all. 
 Life is the substance, Death the dream.' 
 
 And let your loudest singing bear 
 
 Some strains of hope to sweeten pain : 
 ' Death's darkest moment is not vain ; 
 In death is life, in death the heir. 
 
 ■ Through death new hope and life arise ; 
 
 Through death all weakness grows to strength ; 
 
 Through death soul-striving finds at length 
 The untrammelled power that in it lies.' 
 
Eleusis 8^ 
 
 Sing thus, O reeds with dulcet throat, 
 Where Life's unending river glides, 
 Till those diverse and sullen tides 
 
 To one harmonious current float. 
 
84 Eleusis 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Yet, harsh Queen Nature, what is this ? 
 Is thine a breast without a heart, 
 Or mine a soul that lacks the art 
 
 To gain the blessing of thy kiss ? 
 
 I weep, I yield, I plead, I pray : 
 
 Thy lips and Reason's answer not ; 
 And the deep anguish of my lot 
 
 Is more to-day than yesterday. 
 
 Yet is there something still unknown, 
 Some all-indwelling bond of life. 
 Some mystic master-key to strife, 
 
 Some purpose powerful to condone, 
 
 Some sympathy no eye can see, 
 
 Or some imperial perfect spell, — 
 Life's soft and tranquil madrigal 
 
 To make all discord harmony. 
 
Eleusis 8^ 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Sweet-smelling lily, sadly turn 
 
 Thy snow-white face from sun and sky 
 Thy sister's funeral train goes by 
 
 To mock the hope of her return. 
 
 The cypress sobs beside the wall 
 To see the passion-flower decline, 
 And the high-throated eglantine 
 
 Droops as it sees its sisters fall. 
 
 And roses, borne from tender stem 
 To merry brides who wed to-day. 
 Hear the sad voice of desolate May 
 
 In love's low chants of requiem. 
 
 The speaking eye of heartsease bright. 
 The rhythmic rustle of the hay, 
 The last low words of dying day. 
 
 The wordless voices of the night. 
 
86 Eleusis 
 
 Respond to other voices, make 
 
 To rustling hay an answer sweet, 
 And feel all victory and defeat 
 
 For Love's divine victorious sake. 
 
 To me, in funeral wrappings laid. 
 
 May voices whisper through the turf ; 
 And to the sailor say the surf, 
 ' Dead sailor, do not be afraid ! ' 
 
 Or I on spiritual pinion near 
 
 May hover when the garden noons, 
 And in the swift recurrent Junes 
 
 Breathe in the fragrant atmosphere, 
 
 And clothed in fragrance, far away 
 Go incense-like to rise and float 
 Where constellated stars remote 
 
 Move stately on their mighty way. 
 
Eleusis 8y 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 O STAR within whose power and sbope 
 My destiny defines her arc, 
 Within thy gleaming orb I mark 
 
 No golden characters of hope. 
 
 This astroscope whereon is read 
 
 The heavenly aspects at my birth, 
 
 Hath naught of truth and naught of worth 
 
 In what upon its cones is said. 
 
 A happy destiny was mine, 
 
 As here the fair conjunctions show ; 
 
 But life for me is endless woe. 
 And sorrow roundeth her design. 
 
 O star, and spirit regnant there, 
 
 Thro' these dark shades and brooding night 
 Flash out in glorious words of hght 
 
 The perfect talisman of despair ! 
 
88 Beusis 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 And can there be a heart that burns 
 As mine 'neath this or foreign sun ? 
 An there be such and only one 
 
 Who for the same deep secrets yearns, 
 
 Oh, let it hither send me word 
 
 That twin it looks, and twin it longs 
 To sing with me diviner songs 
 
 And music all too rarely heard. 
 
 For I have searched this many a year, 
 And many lands have trod in vain. 
 To find some sweet responsive strain 
 
 In any clime or hemisphere. 
 
 O twin-born soul ! if far and wide 
 
 Thou dwellest, come and dwell with me ; 
 For two are more than one, and we — 
 
 Loud singing may be heard outside ! 
 
Beusis 8g 
 
 XXV. 
 
 So, Sympathy, thy perfect key- 
 To Nature's touch is slow to sound ; 
 Or is the secret S23ell unfound 
 
 That tunes thee to thy full degree ? 
 
 I deemed it found ; and yet in vain 
 My spirit strove with striving strong 
 To lead, like Orpheus, trees along: 
 
 The lyre was echoless again. 
 
 And hills whereto my feet aspired, 
 
 And seas whereon my shallop sailed, 
 With baffling purpose countervailed 
 
 The zeal wherewith my heart was fired. 
 
 O fellow-feeling for the weak, 
 
 And inner kinship, — if ye dwell 
 
 On earth, if down from heaven ye fell 
 
 From human hearts and souls ye speak ! 
 
CANTO III. 
 
PRELUDE. 
 
 My early Gods in fragments fall, 
 
 My temj)le doors are prostrate cast ; 
 Rear up, O great Iconoclast, 
 
 Some God to fill the vacant hall ! 
 
 My lingering steps still bear me on 
 And past the gates that ruined lie, 
 As some ghost Persian haunting nigh 
 
 The archless ports of Ctesiphon. 
 
 I glance where vacant windows yawn, 
 I turn my eyes where altars were ; 
 But altar, rite, and minister, 
 
 And all the rest, are gone, are gone. 
 
 I see the spectral form of Will, 
 
 And Nature's phantom hovering near 
 And from their wild exultant jeer 
 
 I pass my destiny to fulfill. 
 
94 Eleusis 
 
 Rear up, great Iconoclast, 
 
 Some God to fill the vacant shrine, 
 And let some master heart divine 
 
 How ruined hope may be recast. 
 
 Cry out, great-hearted hope in things. 
 And silence disappointment's wail: 
 ' Though trijDly Daedalus shall fail, 
 He moulds at last unfailing wings.' 
 
 Cry out that longing has its use, 
 
 That failure is not always crime ; 
 Cry out that hojDe's avoidless prime 
 
 Shall shame the foes that now traduce. 
 
 Cry out that Reason cannot tell. 
 
 And point to Nature's listless sleep ; 
 And then with mighty fingers sweep 
 
 The human heart's melodious shell. 
 
 Allay the longing born in me. 
 
 My heart to thine completely wed ; 
 And bring in all this discord's stead 
 
 The harmonious strain of sympathy. 
 
Eleiisis 
 
 95 
 
 I rise to patience's higher plane 
 
 On baffled pur230se's strengthened wings, 
 And thro' my new-wrought sense of things 
 
 Discern in loss the seed of gain. 
 
 Across the narrower world, below 
 The close horizons of my birth, 
 I see a sun-enveloped earth, 
 
 And midnight into morning flow ; 
 
 I see that all things are of kin. 
 And move together ; and I feel 
 That the great throbs of woe and weal 
 
 Move from one heart they centre in. 
 
 And so to human hearts I fly ; 
 
 In these all human joy is found ; 
 
 For thus the universe is bound 
 To love immeasurably high. 
 
CANTO III. 
 
 I. 
 
 HINGE of Memory, turn for me, 
 
 And fling the gates of Wonder wide ; 
 Reveal the secret things that hide 
 
 Behind thy screen of mystery. 
 
 What were the sjDrings that moved intent 
 In men of past heroic worth ? 
 Did Fellow-feeling rule the earth. 
 
 And Pity brood o'er each event ? 
 
 Oh, turn for me your mystic door ; 
 
 Create anew the things of old ; 
 
 And show the mines of virgin gold 
 That now, alas, are known no more ! 
 
g8 Eleusis 
 
 II. 
 
 I SEE the Athenian triremes gay 
 
 With jDomp of sail and pomp of oar, 
 Fnll-wingecl for far Ortygia's shore, 
 
 Float out the blue Saronic bay. 
 
 They pass the isle that Pelops named, 
 By soft Calabria, and where 
 Enceladus' condign desjiair 
 
 From Etna's heaving bosom flamed. 
 
 And forth the Dorian galleys ride, 
 And high is heard the battle-song, 
 And for the phantom of a wrong 
 
 Th' Hellenic truce is set aside. 
 
 Weep, Athens, from thy gated pile 
 
 O'er grace, and youth, and glory dead, 
 For to the victors' stately tread 
 
 Resounds the Syracusan isle. 
 
Eleusis gg 
 
 Ah, Hellas, thou wert then undone ! 
 
 The bond of birth was rent in twain, 
 And daggers drawn 'gainst brothers stain 
 --. That common lineage of the Sun. 
 
100 Eleusis 
 
 III. 
 
 I LAY upon the Palatine 
 
 When Evening lit her changeless dome, 
 And felt the mighty hand of Rome 
 
 Enfold and clasj) itself in mine. 
 
 She drew me where exalts on high 
 The hill of Jove's dejDarted reign ; 
 And o'er the Tiber's templed plain 
 
 The Past swept living to my eye. 
 
 Around me Rome exultant rings 
 
 With praise and shout of high acclaim, 
 As in his car her son of Fame 
 
 New wreaths to deck her grandeur brings. 
 
 And on and on the pageant rolls, 
 
 And up the wide Flaminian street, 
 With roar of Rome's returning feet 
 
 And shouts of glad Italian souls ; 
 
Eleusis I or 
 
 And on and on through seas of men ; 
 
 'lo Triumphe,' Vesta cries, 
 
 ' lo Triumphe,' loud rej)lies 
 The Forum's strident voice again. 
 
 In Jove's resplendent robes he gleams, — 
 A fettered king before him goes ; 
 And one has weight of mighty woes, 
 
 And one has glory more than dreams. 
 
 And now the templed height uprears : 
 Hall of Fame, O Yale of Dread ! 
 And on and on the Triumph's tread 
 
 Goes up the storied path of years. 
 
 Draw, crownless king, thy deepest breath, 
 
 For few, alas, to thee remain ; 
 
 Nor will this Roman lord disdain 
 To seal his triumph with thy death. 
 
 For him the ascending Sacred Way, 
 And glad Quirinus' stately hall ; 
 For thee to dungeon-depths to fall, 
 
 And Death's dominion of decay. 
 
102 Eleusis 
 
 IV. 
 
 I SEE the centuries to my own ; 
 
 The groans of nations fall and rise, 
 
 The Hun a triple foe defies, 
 The Goth and Vandal are o'erthrown, 
 
 And Saxons die to Frankish lance, 
 Byzantine lords their captives slay, 
 And Syria sees in proud array 
 
 The Crescent and the Cross advance. 
 
 The Danube's floods in woe return, 
 
 The Rhine goes groaning to the sea, 
 And France in Avoeful panoply 
 
 Beholds the haughty Kremlin burn ; 
 
 And Europe weeps from east to west 
 Above her broad sepulchral plain. 
 And crimson poppies kill the grain 
 
 That springs where slaughtered myriads rest. 
 
Eleusis 103 
 
 O Hope ! the Past was still the same, 
 Nor bowed she clown to human need ; 
 In Greece, in Rome, in Europe's creed, 
 
 Self was the one Imperial name ; 
 
 No fellow-feeling fired her heart, 
 She trod defiant on her way. 
 And built on kings of yesterday 
 
 The short-lived triumphs of her art. 
 
104 Eleusis 
 
 Limn me, soul-jDainter, on your screen 
 The transient passions of a day 
 Which like sun-shadows sHde and play 
 
 Across the soul of serf or queen ; 
 
 Emblazon men's disguised crime, 
 Illumine passion's secret plan. 
 And trace the hidden life of man 
 
 Through its mysterious paradigm ; 
 
 Swift thoughts that half-way born expire. 
 Swift hopes that faint ere noon is high 
 Enthusiasms that must die 
 
 In bitter tears, in bitter fire ; 
 
 Fair visions fading, sunrise slain, 
 Mirages leading where they will, 
 And dreams whose empty pictures fill 
 
 The solemn halls of self -disdain : — 
 
Eleusis 10^ 
 
 Limn these, soul-painter, while I sing ; 
 The secret thought for me portray, 
 And bring to light of living clay 
 
 The hidden self of everything. 
 
io6 Beusis 
 
 VI. 
 
 I WATCHED the elder men resign 
 The reins of family and of state, 
 Their gray hairs making consecrate 
 
 To reverence as a holy shrine. 
 
 And age reared up their Capitol, 
 Wherein their purer vision saw 
 The perfect reading of the law 
 
 Whereby the man must rise or fall. 
 
 And sitting there with high intent, 
 
 With treasures plucked from many years, 
 I deemed them victors over fears 
 
 And lords of consummate content. 
 
 Yet when with reverent voice I plead, 
 ' Oh, give your magic wand to me ! ' 
 ' We hold no sure and mystic key,' 
 
 Their weeping voices sadly said. 
 
Eleusis loy 
 
 VII. 
 
 I WATCHED the young men of my time, 
 The hojDe and harvest of the State, 
 Whose strength proclaims republics great 
 
 And makes Progression's tower upclimb ; 
 
 I watched them reach that noble year 
 
 That stamps the man in perfect flower, 
 And take the magic key to power 
 
 Untouched by hope and dead to fear. 
 
 To banquet halls their weakness sped ; 
 
 They scorned the power their birthright gave, 
 And, swept on Pleasure's fickle wave, 
 
 Soon lay among the nameless dead. 
 
io8 Eleusis 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But what these words ? Shall I presume — 
 I, who am only neophyte — 
 To say what is or is not right, 
 
 And seize the great king-eagle's plume ? 
 
 Yet the impassioned soul must give 
 
 Expression to the impassioned thought, 
 No matter if it come to naught : 
 
 Better to die than dumb to live. 
 
 Perennial springs of vigorous flow 
 
 Must find some outlet for their swell ; 
 Repressing cannot serve to quell. 
 
 And when winds must, then winds will blow. 
 
Eleusis log 
 
 IX. 
 
 One flies in chariot to the goal, 
 
 And others toil with weary feet ; 
 And one, too proud to make retreat. 
 
 Pours out in agony his soul. 
 
 Nor stops the chariot-borne, nor stays, 
 O'er prostrate brother drives him by, 
 And with the victor's battle-cry 
 
 Exults to conquer though he slays. 
 
 As onward fly the eternal years 
 
 Unchecked by joy, unheeding pain, 
 As o'er the heavenly battle-plain 
 
 Speed on the meteor-slaying sjDheres. 
 
 'T is thus imperious purjjose flings 
 
 All else but self-enthronement down. 
 And plucks his bauble of a crown 
 
 From out the hands of slaughtered kings. 
 
/ 10 Eleusis 
 
 Yet 'mid a myriad cold and chill 
 
 May grow one rich and generous heart, 
 That gives a rich and generous part, 
 
 And with a rich and generous will ; 
 
 Like some resplendent ^star he glows 
 
 Through rarely-parted cloud and mist, 
 'Till with his golden lustre kissed 
 
 The world with joyance overflows. 
 
 Such then, when found, as victor sing, 
 Or chariot-borne or pilgrim meek ; 
 For tender helping of the weak 
 
 Proclaims the helper more than king. 
 
Eleusis III 
 
 Ingenuous heart were rare to find, 
 And action answering to the will 
 More rare ; but aye the rarest still 
 
 A heart to selfish longings blind. 
 
 For joy will hide a brother's pain ; 
 
 Oar own defies the world to match ; 
 
 And close is fastened up the latch 
 When falls the sudden burst of rain. 
 
 self-idolatry ! I hold 
 
 All pagan worships less abject; 
 
 And no delusion thus has wreckt 
 The empires and the men of old. 
 
 It slays the hope of growing youth, 
 It withers all the growing grain. 
 And makes the passionate music vain 
 
 That sounds from out the lips of Truth. 
 
112 Eleusis 
 
 XI. 
 
 Am I or am I not distraught ? 
 
 Or hath my fancy leaped its bound, 
 And deemed the echo of a sound 
 
 The mighty organ-peal of thought ? 
 
 Is there or is there not the prime, 
 The perfect ripeness of content 
 Embalmed within each sad event, 
 
 Or in the manifold of crime ? 
 
 Is there or is there not concealed 
 
 A purer joy in every woe. 
 
 Whose mystic meaning I shall know 
 When thought to knowledge is revealed ? 
 
 Divine me, master, where the heart 
 To full jDerennial bloom expands, 
 A glorious joy to many lands 
 
 And heaven's fairest counterpart. 
 
Eleusis 1 1^ 
 
 XII. 
 
 For who hath loved another heart 
 
 With perfect manhood's strongest strength, 
 Nor found it traitoroas at length 
 
 To practice some deceitful art ? 
 
 O friend grown falser than the sea, 
 And falser far than fick]e wind, 
 Wherein more deeply have I sinned 
 
 Than in my full belief in thee ? 
 
 Across the world of yore we fled 
 
 To realms that dip in southern waves. 
 Or where in ice-encumbered graves 
 
 Repose the daring and the dead. 
 
 And all thy inmost thoughts were mine. 
 Our hearts in perfect rhythm beat, 
 And to my soul's most sacred seat 
 
 Thou hadst the magic countersign. 
 
114 Eleusis 
 
 High thoughts by emulous action grew 
 To loftier stature ; far and near 
 Through earth's sublimest atmosphere 
 
 On mutual wings our longings flew, 
 
 And near and far impetuous sought 
 No goal this side the perfect one, — 
 The true and everlasting sun, 
 
 The mighty master-soul of Thought. 
 
 Yet false as fair ! I lay at need, 
 As one who in the desert track 
 Of some lost caravan must lack 
 
 The sighing shelter of a reed. 
 
 So faith in human heart expired, 
 
 And through the earth alone I trod, 
 Till, doubting men, I doubted God 
 
 Were false as those his will had sired. 
 
 For more than swift volcanic fire, 
 
 And more than tides' unstinted flow, 
 Or the deep poignancy of woe 
 
 When Nature builds the funeral pyre, 
 
Eleusis I /5 
 
 Far more than these rolls in to land 
 The tide of Self, destroying- all — 
 The baron in his haughty hall, 
 
 Or fisher resting on the sand. 
 
 Heart-life is Death's superbest prey, 
 
 His conquest treading all things down, 
 And in his gem-incrusted crown 
 
 Shines forth with lustre like the day. 
 
u6 Eleusis 
 
 XIII. 
 
 But judging men by outward deed 
 
 Were shallow judgment, for the thought 
 Gives surer rule ; the rest is naught, — 
 
 But violets sj^ring from violet-seed. 
 
 Still life is mystery at its best ; 
 
 Not subtlest hearing serves to tell 
 The sound of yonder minster-bell 
 
 When winds are blowing out the west. 
 
 And so I deem that songs divine 
 Are sung by every human heart, 
 Though I may lack the master's art 
 
 Of bringing them to living rhyme. 
 
Eleusis iiy 
 
 XIV. 
 
 And yet to some a subtler sense 
 Is heritage from Nature's hand, 
 Whereby their fellows' hearts are scanned 
 
 Despite their barriers of defense. 
 
 To such the web more intricate 
 
 Of human thought reveals its clue, 
 And keen their insight to construe 
 
 What others bare enigmas rate. 
 
 These measure hearts, and fathom seas 
 Of mental ebb and moral flow, 
 And by unerring plummet know 
 
 What purpose rules, what motives please ; 
 
 Thus holding hidden reins of power 
 
 They leap to empire ; hap they climb 
 To thrones commensurate with time ; 
 
 Or wear the warrior's laurel flower ; 
 
ii8 Eleusis 
 
 Or, nobler, up the esplanade 
 
 Whereon great Learning rears her dome 
 They go sublime, and find a home 
 
 Eternal in her jDroud arcade. 
 
 Imperial pediments uphold 
 
 Their sculptured effigies, and high 
 Memorial colimins kiss the sky, 
 
 While history writes their names in gold. 
 
 The true Illuminati they ; 
 
 Their demons not the shades that prest 
 At some magician's base behest 
 
 From the deep regions of decay. 
 
 But such as his who far — so far — 
 Transcended all the storied past. 
 Out-reasoned Reason, and at last 
 
 Glows ancient Athens' brightest star. 
 
Eleusis iig 
 
 XV. 
 
 Yet, sage who trod the storied shade 
 
 Of Academe in days intense 
 
 With Reason's ripest evidence, 
 And felt proud Learning's accolade, 
 
 O hemlock-slain ! for whom a tear 
 
 Was dropped by Reason on her throne, 
 Thou couldst not pierce the deep unknown 
 
 Or see beyond the funeral bier ; 
 
 And raising ladders to the sky. 
 
 Or casting stepping-stones where glide 
 The silent river and its tide. 
 
 Thou couldst not reason out — to die! 
 
120 Eleusis 
 
 XVI. 
 
 I DARE not say (as he who sings 
 
 The proudest Teuton of them all) 
 That I in Learning's royal hall 
 
 Have sat the proudest of her kings, 
 
 Have swayed an empire broad and free 
 Within her ever-sunned domain, 
 Yet found the joys of knowledge vain, 
 
 And vain the pleasures of degree ; 
 
 Yet, as my feebler feet have trod 
 
 The paths which greater victors wore, 
 I see the graves of many a score 
 
 And everywhere the hillocked sod. 
 
 The way is hard, the laurels few ; 
 
 The heart shrinks up as swells the mind ; 
 
 And gloomy Care sits close behind 
 The rider as he struggles through. 
 
Eleusis 121 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Be crowned, O Knowledge ! hail thee king, 
 Yet curse thy stern relentless reign. 
 For at thy haughty feet in vain 
 
 In death of hope we weep and cling. 
 
 For tombs that line the ^gean sand, 
 
 The caves where wrapt Egyptians sleep, 
 Gray clods that nameless victors heap 
 
 In fair Ausonia's ruined land, — 
 
 All these in ghostly voice combine 
 
 To sing, ' Ah, Learning ! empty name ! 
 The true, the j)ure Promethean flame 
 
 Has in it something more divine. 
 
 ' In portico, in grove, alone. 
 
 We sought the mystic key to find. 
 And learned that not the noblest mind 
 
 Can pass a limit of its own. 
 
122 Eleusis 
 
 ' Remembered sound our names along 
 The echoing vistas, yet our fame 
 Is but the entrancement of a name 
 
 Embalmed in sweet melodic song. 
 
 ' And what to us the haughty school 
 
 That bears our names, or poet's pen ? 
 We lived our little span, and then 
 Who knows philosopher from fool ? ' 
 
Eleusis 12^ 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 I SOMETIMES think, on lower planes 
 Of thought a better bliss is found, 
 And music of a simpler sound 
 
 To greater harmony attains. 
 
 With greater heart-life themes upswell 
 Whose rhythms less occultly knit ; — 
 Yet may it be the best are writ 
 
 In characters I cannot tell. 
 
 So love in humbler hearts is strong ; 
 The subtle music from the skies 
 Whose deep enchantment holds the wise 
 
 Will silence earth's divinest song ; 
 
 And so, who looks and longs to find 
 Life's sweetest nectar can but fail 
 If, givmg heart to phantom pale, 
 
 He leaves love's substance quite behind. 
 
124 Eleusis 
 
 Spirit and passion intertwine 
 
 By more intense than chemic art, 
 And who would live with perfect heart 
 
 Must mingle water with the wine, — 
 
 Must mingle each in due degree, 
 
 And gain with strength a royal grace, 
 Till life be as a golden vase 
 
 Graved by Firenze's prodigy. 
 
Eleusis 12^ 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Proud heart, that, scorning human ties, 
 In knowledge seeks diviner bliss, 
 And holds affection's clinging kiss 
 
 As unbecoming, — art thou wise ? 
 
 Thou pressest on to undertake 
 
 A problem greater than thy skill, 
 Howe'er transcendent, can fulfill. 
 
 And, failing, dar'st to censure fate. 
 
 Give ear to Nature, lest she turn 
 
 To fight and slay thy strong desire. 
 And burning thee with inward fire 
 
 Consign thee to dishonored urn. 
 
126 Eleusis 
 
 XX. 
 
 O FATHER, whose white-fi'osted head 
 
 Repeats the flight of years and strength, 
 Hast thou in age discerned at length 
 
 How soul may with its like be wed ? 
 
 And, gazing o'er the scenes that throng 
 The memory-chambers of the brain, 
 Dost feel the greater joy or pain 
 
 In that thy life has burned so long ? 
 
 What secret mysteries have been learned, 
 What deep arcana fathomed out ? 
 Art child of hope, or slave of doubt, 
 
 As toward the grave thy face is turned ? 
 
 Methinks thy smile with proof were rife : 
 
 Enough thy humble attitude ; 
 
 Enough the daily blessing sued, 
 And all the tenor of thy life. 
 
Eleusis 
 
 127 
 
 XXI. 
 
 And what of her whose tenderness 
 Exceedeth all the world beside, 
 A glorious never-ending tide 
 
 That heaven sendeth out to bless ! 
 
 O heart wherein all virtue lies ! 
 
 O mother-hand I O loving face ! 
 
 God's favorite earthly dwelling-place 
 Is in the heaven of thy eyes, 
 
 Of purity the flower and bud, 
 
 And love's divinest type and boon ; 
 Life turns with thee from night to noon, 
 
 And sees thee ever doing good. 
 
128 Eleusis 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Sweet confidence that brothers binds, 
 Untold the sister's tender love, 
 Which, like a blessing from above, 
 
 Through all the warp of manhood wdnds ; 
 
 The ready hands, the unwearied heart, 
 And smile concealing often pain. 
 The tears that like the gentle rain 
 
 In swift and ready pity start ; 
 
 Though all my life may seem undone, 
 Though woes impend in days to be, 
 Preserve, kind heaven, unto me, 
 
 This earthly blessing, if but one. 
 
Eleusis i2g 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 DEAR, dead, early love of mine ! 
 
 In tears and weeping let me sing 
 How Death is lord of everything, 
 And conquers what seems most divine. 
 
 The days are dull with dripping rain ; 
 
 The stars have wandered from their spheres ; 
 
 The phantom forms of buried years 
 Come forth to mock my soul agairi ; 
 
 1 hear the footsteps of the dead 
 
 Go echoing through the silent night, 
 And to my sublimated sight 
 Returns the bride of yore I wed. 
 
 My heart in beatings swift recalls 
 The perfect union of my youth, — 
 Till the deep mantle of the truth 
 
 Dispels my vision as it falls. 
 
1^0 Beusis 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 To LOVE, to lose, again to meet, 
 
 To clasp with rapture to the heart, 
 And then behold our joy depart, — 
 
 Oh, such is love's condign defeat. 
 
 For love was mine in days of yore ; 
 
 And then, with clinging voice and hand, 
 She sailed from this inclement land 
 
 To south and sunny island-shore. 
 
 The days passed by, the year grew old ; 
 
 Full many suns they rose and set ; 
 
 And many moons, their crescents wet, 
 Came dripping up from Ocean's cold, 
 
 Before her shijD with happy sail 
 
 Came heaven-wafted o'er the sea. 
 And my dear love came back to me 
 
 With cheek that was no longer pale. 
 
Eleusis r^i 
 
 XXV. 
 
 For love will livie, though lovers part ; 
 
 And distance makes the absent sweet ; 
 
 And hearts that once together beat 
 Nor time nor space can tear apart. 
 
 And eve is sweetest following toil ; 
 
 Divinest joy from sorrow springs ; 
 
 And an intenser sense of things 
 Indwells the mystery of recoil. 
 
 But joy's supremest moment flies 
 
 Like some swift bird, or swifter dream, 
 Or falling star whose dazzling beam 
 
 Lights up the heavenly slope and dies. 
 
 And so my love athwart my life 
 
 Passed, leaving radiant memories there ; 
 
 Sweet memory but intense despair 
 And sorrow's carnival of strife. 
 
JJ2 Eleusis 
 
 For ere the wedding year grew hale, 
 Her soft caresses grew more weak ; 
 O love ! O hope ! I cannot speak 
 
 Of what I could not countervail. 
 
Eleusis ijj 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 How dear your memory, forest wide, 
 Beneath whose ample linden-lines 
 Clad in the wild grape's gracious vines 
 
 We met that golden eventide. 
 
 So sweet the songs she sang at will 
 
 To charm the listening woodland round 
 Meseemed some glorious nymph had crowned 
 
 Her lover by the sylvan rill. 
 
 And, lightly parting boughs that meet, 
 Unseen I saw her where she sate 
 Throned on the golden leaves that wait 
 
 The bitter coming of the sleet. 
 
 O joyous eve, O royal hours 
 
 That brought the i3rize and palm of life ! 
 
 Ye fled as flies in Autumn strife 
 The gay queen-carnival of flowers. 
 
i34 Eleusis 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 So SOFTLY kiss, religious yew, 
 
 The velvet of yon hillock's crest ; 
 Breathe gently, zephyrs, from your west, 
 
 And fragrant leaves, wild roses, strew, — 
 
 For she is lying here ; above 
 
 Weeps always pensive asphodel. 
 And fond memorial verses tell 
 
 The birth, the life, the death of love. 
 
 For hope has fled with love away ; 
 
 My Summer yields to Autumn rain ; 
 
 And ere the Winter bow again 
 Before the rose-decked wheels of May, 
 
 The cold pine branches as they wave 
 Shall dirge her lately frozen mound. 
 And winding-sheets of snow be bound 
 
 About her lonely northern grave. 
 
Eletisis 7^3 
 
 Give ear, O wind that tireless flows 
 An ocean round the whirling world, 
 Be not in roughest billows hurled 
 
 Above her canopy of snows ; 
 
 Sing, softly sing, and do not weej) 
 In anger with the giant Death, 
 But come with music on thy breath 
 
 To soothe her where she lies asleep. 
 
 But me, no suns can warm anew ; 
 
 No song outsing my threnody : 
 
 For she was all in all to me, 
 And I, O love, was all to you. 
 
1^6 Eleusis 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Yet wherefore sorrow ? Surely this 
 Were better far than life's deep pain, 
 And sweeter than the world's disdain 
 
 Is Nature's pure untrammelled kiss. 
 
 eyes whose glance was all delight ! 
 
 O heart that sympathetic beat ! 
 O lips and kisses swift and sweet ! 
 So soon to lose ye, — was it right ? 
 
 1 cast me down along thy side ; — 
 
 O heaven, if thee I did not dread. 
 Far better, better to be dead 
 Than live when love must be denied. 
 
 For nowhere find I heart to feel 
 For mine in this intenser grief. 
 And out no human soul relief 
 
 Comes swiftly answering my appeal. 
 
Beusis 1 37 
 
 As one who in the silent night 
 
 Grows weak with phantoms strange and dire. 
 
 And feels a conquerless desire 
 For human touch or human sight, 
 
 So I, \vith sorrow bowed, demand 
 Some word to give me half relief, 
 And in the trembling of my grief 
 
 Would clasp some kindly human hand. 
 
 Yet Sorrow bids me live alone ; 
 
 My castle-gate no guests unclose ; 
 
 And the sole friend who feels my woes 
 Lies imder yon escutcheoned stone. 
 
 I weej) for higher aid than comes 
 From human love's intensest tie ; 
 'T is heaven alone can calm the cry 
 
 Of heart-bereaved and widowed ones. 
 
ij8 Eleusis 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 So LOVE has failed me ! divine, 
 My weary spirit, is there more 
 In hmiian heart's most inmost core 
 
 Than love when love and life combine ? 
 
 The mind is naught, and naught the heart. 
 And Nature lies in endless sleep ; 
 So am I left anew to weep 
 
 The shattered pantheon of my art, — 
 
 To weep, till, eyes with weeping blind, 
 A new Bellerophon, I grope 
 The Aleian plain whose narrow scope 
 
 But types my blind and barriered mind. 
 
 Like him to course the doubled track, 
 But not, alas ! like him to die ; 
 Bruised, bleeding, blind, I groan and sigh, 
 
 The Eternal Silence answers back. 
 
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