"Si, t* '• /\ v^>' >*'"*^ '•^•* /\ .*'' V- «5 ^ . '^^ ,0* »''''''*0, .»*..".•< "^ * ' 9 « ' ^* -^ "•It ^,^ ^^^'\ "^^P* ./\. IW',^^'^-^ ^<^ ♦'.•o'*^^'^ 4^ DISTANT MUSIC DISTANT MUSIC BY EDWARD J. O'BRIEN Author of "White Fountains," etc. BOSTON SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS v^ '^^^l.^ .^v Copyright, 1921, By small, MAYNAED & COMPANY (incorporated) OCT Pfi K,,,. §)C1,A630018 TO W. S. B. WHO FIRST KNEW THE DREAM For permission to reprint certain poems in this collection grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of The Century, Harper's Magazine, The North American Review, The Bookman, The Smart Set. The Poetry Journal, Contemporary Verse, The Liberator, The Midland, The Little Review, The Pagan, The Stratford Journal, Pearson's Magazine, and The Boston Evening Transcript ; and to the editors of the following English periodicals: The Nation, The New Witness, Today, and Coterie. CONTENTS The Street of Little Poets 3 HYMN TO LIGHT 5 "for he on honey-dew hath fed" 7 THE CRYSTAL 9 MALIBRAS 12 TWILIGHT WOOD 14 FLIGHT ARRESTED i6 "secret laughter'' 17 SHAKEN QUIRE OF STARS i8 THAT SKYLARK CURVING TOWARD THE SOUTH 19 ELEGY 20 THE CALL 21 WITCHGRASS 22 SENTINEL 23 LYDIA 24 SHE GOES ALL SO SOFTLY 25 WIND, LAUGH NOT AT THE IDLE GRASS 26 THE PATH 27 A DUSTY WAY 28 EPISODE 29 HER FAIRNESS, WEDDED TO A STAR 30 LIGHT CONCEALED 31 DUST REMEMBERED 32 STILLED MUSIC 33 WILD AIR 34 APRIL FLAME 35 FLY NOT, APRIL 3° APRIL AIRS 37 THE COMING 3o AMICA SILENTIA 39 DUST REKINDLED 4^ TO ONE FALLEN IN THE WARS 4^ STARBOUND 4-2 EXIT 43 hellenica: second series 44 DISTANT MUSIC THE STREET OF LITTLE POETS IN the street of little poets a pedlar was crying moons for a penny, whose music might rule little tides out of words. But the little poets ivould not have moons, saying that they zvere cold outworn chilly things, and that dreams zvere free and not to be governed by tides. And they smiled, and breathed little images on quiet dust and worshipped them. Then a puff of zvind stole dozvn Time Street and caught up these little images and zvhirled them away. And the little poets begged for moons. But the pedlar had sold all his white little moons for a penny in the street of singing children. HYMN TO LIGHT WfND-LOVING daughter of the eternal day. Flooding the sky from urns of starry fire To leap upon the altar of our clay And rouse the curled flame of our desire, O Thou, whose liquid element hath power To color dreaming grasses with thy prayer, And curve the petals of an April flower, Be unto us the passion of our air. Thou turnest flesh to flowers and earth to flame. Now, in thy name. We shape the dust of stars into a song, For thou art strong. Here, where the glancing memory of the leaves, Stirred by a windless longing, dropping white, Patterns the tranced music midnight weaves Across the vanished boughs of April night, And where the violet-haunted pasture sleeps Drowsy with fragrance, be the gentle guide Of mystery-laden flocks the hillside keeps Sheltered beneath thy wonder-flooding tide. Thou leadest earth and wind and water home. The swallow to the nest. Open our shadow-path across the foam. Into the west. Or, 'neath the tented majesty of air That wraps the golden body of the sun, Scatter thy robes, and rise divinely fair Under the spreading arch of clouds that run. Foam-flaked, and streaming in the molten east, Come to us over the waters, breasting day. 5 Lf'^r ^^ ^^^ Bridegroom calls thee to the wedding feast. ^^ Come with us, naked, over the fields away. The morning stars are ringing in the sky, The morning lark below. Shoulder the hill with us, the wind laughs high, The flowers of April blow. "FOR HE ON HONEY-DEW HATH FED" I KNOW a secret meadow among trees And water shallows where the stillness weaves Imponderable shadow, soft as thyme. Drowsy with fragrance of the morning airs That freight the grass with whispers, and the clouds With dream of windless motion, orchard bloom Showers the light with laughter, and the foam Of morning brims in chalices of flame. Here, when the day was rapture, came a boy Slipping in silence through the patterned boughs Tangled in sunlight dappling his fair side. And all his body blossomed as a flower With circling veins of wonder, while the sky Mirrored his music on the streaming air. "Fair guardian of the crystal-haunted ways, If ever thou hast cherished white desire. Hearken unto the lad who greets thee now, And in this golden chastity of light. Pour on my heart the flame of thy accord. For I was ever lonely as a wind And cherished thee among the foreign men. Come to me in the flowering of this air And bathe me in the fountain of the sun That shadows thee. So shall I be thy child." But out of the drifting lucidness of sky A shape stole perilous, and it was fair, Clothed in the morning, crowned with wreathed cloud, "hoZ ^dew ^"^ through the pulsing grass a little stir haih^'fed/' Of wind dreamed round his feet, and then was still. For words, clear-shaped, with silence musical, Breathed from his mouth and laughed upon the day. "Lo, I am with thee always ! White-blown dawn And instant noon and starry-haunted eve Have woven all my fairness in thy breast, And when the night hath laid thee on my heart, I clasp thee in these arms, and thou art warm." A cloud of ecstasy slipped from his limbs, And stooping, with his arms divinely fair, The shepherd lay beside the little lad. THE CRYSTAL "^^OW that youth's crystal shadows into age, -'-^ What has it left me for my heritage? For I was ever one whom colors move To worship more than form, and light above The tented majesty of morning air, And ever found my ancient dwelling there. In the green stillness of the Northern trees, Where sunlight sifts through moss-grown silences, A boy knelt softly, and stripped his body bare To the caresses of the wine-brimmed air That flooded in his heart and in his eyes. And lay caught out of time under the drifting skies. And when the apple orchards sang in flower Along the foam-skied intervale, that hour Sir Galahad rode by erect and pure. The boy dreamed of that ancient light, and sure That beauty crumbled white within his heart, Long days and nights of May he dreamed apart. Or in the blue-veiled dusk of folded June, Stirred by the opal haze of the shrouded moon, A swallow beating upward to the west Made of the hushed still wood a dreaming nest. Guarded by folded wings in a secret land Of longing, girdled with turquoise hills on either hand. Once in the morning when the first faint gleam Of color touched the slipping summer stream And stirred the water to ripples of burnished flame. "P^^ . , A pale Face shone, and calling him by name, Crystal. They travelled out of the east on a curving wind And left the grass-grown land of men behind. Flowing over the tide of light-washed cloud, He laughed into the sun and sang aloud. Past silver sentinels and starry rings Of seraphim to the quivering white wings Of the Holy Dove he flew, and in his eyes Reflected shone the Grail of purity's sunrise. ' Then dying to the sphere of clay and men. His heart beat in mortality again, The quiet round of little hopes and fears. Day woven upon day to shape the years. And in the human streets of yesterday He hearkened to the rhymes that children say Unmindful of time's harvest and the grain So soon to lie unreaped along the plain. Yet more than once he rose upon the tide Of memory, and a dim voice replied. There were two men in all that human sea Who stood like wave-scarred rocks above mortality. Clear islands, holy haunts of vanished prayer, Recalled him to the instancy of air On shadowed hills, and rainbowed silences Caught up the murmur of the sunset seas To bind his will to beauty till he died, And still the voice of instancy replied. Blue waters, golden air, and cloud-flecked sky, Still grasses, violets, and fields of rye Bending with wind and summer fruitage, light And tranced eternity of voiceless night Wove nets of wonder round his April heart. And they and he no more could dwell nor dream apart. 10 Faint shadows cross the limits of his page: The The glow fades from the dream : his heritage Crystal Is cast upon the waters and the wind. But something surely will remain behind, Life's testimony to the leaves of time. The mould may crumble, but a silver rime Shall dew the withering grass with euphrasy Of vanished flame. Gusts of eternity Shall blow dim mysic down the dusty lane He travels, and the early autumn rain Water the roots of dream in the dark ground Where day and night in flames of secret love are bound. II MALIBRAS THE sun laughed through the rain on Malibras, For Malibras was dead. And in the trooping city The light paused overhead. We shall not know the little clinging secret That crept behind the door, Nor why the slanting dust went singing gaily Across his face to the floor. But in the morning thunder leaped from the east- ward, And lightning dazzled our eyes, As Malibras went onward to the rendezvous Without surmise. There was a roar of cheering in the city, A wind of gold, And a swirl of air stole upward from his body, Exultant and very old. Down the winding pathways of Delauney The cortege turned To an anthill under beechtrees boled and mossy The light had spurned. And in the city of the other dreamers Who labor not nor spin, There was an arch prepared with suitable inscrip- tions. . . . He entered in. . . . From left to right and north to south he wandered. For Malibras was glad, Malibras And he crept throug'h a door in the twihght That led to the dream he had. Grasses curled round his eyelids, Roots round his heart, And vou may see him in the eyes of a violet Laughing apart. For the ants took th^ dust of him crumbled to grey- ness. Rut found not the rest, And Malibras shall win when he rouses at the trumpet The flame that his heart suppressed. 13 TWILIGHT WOOD THERE were two roads in Twilight Wood That led to a burning flower. He wandered to the southward vainly, For the trees brought him back in an hour. There were moons in the grass for the plucking, And a horse champed a field of stars, But the wind never answered his crying, For it knew how to creep through bars. Color sifted slowly down the branches Flaked with a curling foam, And wove a coverlid of ancient wonder To shroud his dream come home. He took the road to the eastward. An angel laughed in each tree. They combed the hair of that traveller With rays of white glamourie. The east road led to the red rose That burned with the lust of the dead, And the west road led to the red rose That watched by a faint green bed, And the red rose guarded a gateway Where moons and stars grew pale. He waited by the ivory pillars Till he saw a dim white sail. It stole over leagues of water. It sang over leagues of air. There was not a hand to guide it. There was no sailor there. Whiter than apple petals, Softer than April rain, It glided up to that gateway And waited to sail again. It shone with still-white candles, It gleamed with a crystal prow, A fragrance of lavender haunted The deck from stern to bow. 14 He stepped on that white-sailed galleon Twilight And the white sails belHed with wind. ^^^'"^^ It left the ivory gateway With an emerald track behind, And the red rose opened its petals And spread to the arch of the night. Its music hid the ship with that traveller Tranced on a sea of light. 15 FLIGHT ARRESTED IN Birdlip Wood a curving tree Stole round his shadowy heart, And in the vagrant rumor of the night His body dreamed apart. The wind-paled starlight sifted through the leaves As his fear uncurled Sheathed in a net of cold imaginings The moon unfurled. Golden whispers stirred beneath the birches, Golden answers latent there Idled in the slumbrous convolutions Of his age-stilled hair. If he moved but an inch, there were branches To bar the road for him, And the leaves muttered warning of another Caught by a swaying limb. False dawn came with a trembling That brushed his cheek from afar. And an echo wandered down the forest pathway Of a foreign dispassionate war. But he lay there bowed by the burden Of an arch that throbbed with pain, Till morning broke with music on his eyelids And the laughter of the singing rain. i6 "SECRET LAUGHTER" THE blueflag followed his footsteps As he climbed the green ridge of the hill. It closed round him eastward and westward. It tugged at his will. Under and over his eyelids, It throbbed and curled in his veins. He was rooted at the summit of his journey, He was washed by the springtide rains. His hair opened outward to the dayspring, His stemmed body spread in the earth, And the thunder of the west wind shook his petals With the trembling of the forest's mirth. For a rumor stole through all his rushing channels : It ran like a flame through the field. The city of the blueflag was dancing, Though the secret of their dance was concealed. Delicate surmise of his coming Rippled like a silver flame, Curved under grass and blossom, Sounded his secret name, Till the wind of it smouldered down the hillside And died in the crash of the sea. He was rooted alone on that hillside At the edge of the wine-dark sea. 17 SHAKEN QUIRE OF STARS SHAKEN quire of stars, In your troubled sleep Why does music weep? All your channeled fires Mirror strange desires And forgotten wars. Shaken quire of flame, White before the Throne, We lie here alone, Mirroring dark dreams Of strangely clouded streams In the windy night; And the dawn is slow. And we do not know When will come the light Calling us by name Out of these our wars. Shaken quire of stars. In your troubled sleep Why does music weep? i8 THAT^SKYLARK CURVING TOWARD THE npHAT skylark curving toward the south -■' And cn-clmg idly up the wind, Unmindful of the winter's way, Leaves melody behind, Proclaiming through his arch of gold From heaven, high to earth's deep, Tne wind that blows the stars to flame Cradles flowers in their sleep. 19 ELEGY WIND, sweep softly round his house, The mounded earth his pillow. Sway not the veined leaf Of his guardian willow. Grasses, rustle by his heart. Murmur, crystal stream. Still feet, trouble not The flower of his dream. Light, falling from high towers, Shadow not his rest. Warmth of earth and warmth of sun, Laugh within his breast. 20 THE CALL THE little hut in the evening Curled under the forest wall, And blue dusk mantled the starlight Stirred b}-- a far-off call. In through the dust-barred doorway The moon crept, strange and chill, As a slender flower in the springtide Alone on an April hill. In through the listening shadows The moon crept up to his chair, And a whisper stole through the forest As a wind stole over his hair, While the little hut in the evening Grew lonely, and very cold. As the face of the shepherd whitened, Changeless, and very old. 21 WITCHGRASS WITCHGRASS plucking at the sky In the golden heat, Thy fingers circle round my heart Where earth and heaven meet. Wilder than all driven rain, Clinging to the earth Till the granite fall to dust In soft-veined mirth. Gentler than the crumbling dusk Over ancient lands, Time shall wither ere the sky Forget thy laughing hands. 22 SENTINEL T stood against the air, A. A /I cypress tree, Rooted in watered earth And white eternity. And light sang in the sky, A crown of fire, Weaving the windy air To her desire. A slender cypress tree That laughed at flame, And white eternity To prove its claim. 23 LYDIA WANDER softly, ye who tread The grass that stirs above her head. Here lies Lydia in a shroud Whose singing once made April loud. Pause, remembering the light Of her laughter that was white. 2J SHE GOES ALL SO SOFTLY SHE goes all so softly, Like a shadow on the hill, A faint wind at twilight That stirs, and is still. She weaves her thoughts whitely, Like doves in the air, Though a grey mound in Flanders Clouds all that was fair. WIND, LAUGH NOT AT THE IDLE GRASS WIND, laugh not at the idle grass That ripples down the field, It stirs with wonder as you pass, And all its armies yield. The spears of earth that bend to dust Shall win the morning star, Though all this pageantry of rust Be lost, as kingdoms are. 26 THE PATH HE followed the curve of the sunrise Till he came to the gap of the hill, Where the golden track to the morning Beckoned, very still. And over that ancient pathway, In a mist of flooding foam, He met the star-eyed shepherd Bringing his slow flock home. Up through the gates of magic They drifted, one by one, As the little white clouds on the hillside Drifted before the sun. Softly before their shepherd. They paced down the grassy rim, And the golden track to the morning Was no longer the way for him. A DUSTY WAY I SHALL come back this road some day, And wonder that twenty years of rain Have not worn the ruts that the rumbling wain Travelled that ancient noon of May. But perhaps it will not be just the same, And the dust that crumbled beneath my tread Was only the dust of a dream that had fled, And the blackbird's song a vanishing flame. 28 EPISODE THEY sat Old men The curtaiv Wavered and thr- in a little curve of light, e silence drinking tea. .ng inward from the night ic.., like twilight on the sea. I shall not know their dreams by candle-glow, Nor what they murmured, puffing drowsily. The dusky silence was content to show Three old men in the twilight drinking tea. 29 HER FAIRNESS, WEDDED TO A STAR HER fairness, wedded to a star, Is whiter than all lilies are, And flowers within her eyes more white Than moonlight on an April night. Her wonder like a wind doth sing, Wedded to the heart of spring, And April, dawning in her eyes, Reflects the wonder of the skies. Her beauty lights the April day With radiance of her chastity, And innocence doth slumber now Upon her candid April brow. 30 LIGHT CONCEALED WATER, weave her shining dream Out of cloud and air. Willow, mirror in the stream The mystery of her hair. Wind, bring tidings of her voice To the tranced field. So shall April light rejoice In her song concealed. 31 DUST REMEMBERED SHE stood alone so still Like light upon the grass. It stole away her will To see a shadow pass. She stood against the west, As light upon a cloud, And all her heart confessed Lay quiet in a shroud. 32 STILLED MUSIC LITTLE child, rest lightly In your April bed, Like morning stilled in showers, Your beauty perfected. Little wind, blow gently Across the April grass. And stir her golden shadow With music as you pass. Little dream, bow softly Across the April day. Her flesh shall turn to flowers When April turns to May. 33 WILD AIR THE brimming foam of morning Weaves light across the hill, Where wistful apple petals Fall soft, and very still. And down the curving hedgeway There runs a little wind So faintly stirred with music It leaves a sigh behind, A spray of song drops idly In laughter from a cloud. Wild air weds earth and heaven, And my heart is loud. 34 APRIL FLAME WIND of the foaming air, Ripple over my heart, With April flame bend low, Of mine a part. Flower of the western sky. Blow in my flesh, With April laughter mine, Caught in my mesh. Stars of the budding night, Shine on my brow : Make of these smouldering fires White wisdom now! 55 O FLY NOT, APRIL OFLY not, April, for the air With thine own loveliness is fair. Blow thy dream upon a cloud, And lightly weave for death his shroud. So shall spring light poised in air Uncover all things bright and rare. Blow thy dream upon a cloud, With flight of skylarks ringing loud Headlong down the laughing air For joy of earth and all things fair. So shall death lie in his shroud Lighter than thy singing cloud. 36 APRIL AIRS A ™PING breadth of April sky -^ A Fell gently to the sea And islanded in April airs One light-fringed apple-tree. A sky so large and full of light Ihree kmds of April weather Laughed and sighed and wept at once -t^or joy of earth together. ^".d April sun and April cloud -^ Ana April rain were falling Where pulsing down his arch of gold An April lark was calling. ' y? THE COMING ROUSE from thy slumbers, lovely dreaming maiden : Rouse, for the Bridegroom is walking on the sea Shrouded in stars, and the wind of His footsteps Floods the heart of the night with His dream of thee. Light two candles, lovely white-limbed maiden, Meet for the bridal bed to wait for His return. He sent thee forth, a flower, to mirror His white splendor. Now the Bridegroom cometh, let two candles burn. The tide of beauty rises, even to thy window, White and sweet thy body, white and sweet the light. Is it the air that trembles at His footstep. Or thy silent heartbeat measuring the night? The very stillness pauses, with thy beauty wounded : The nearing footsteps pause before the chamber of the bride. Naked and tall and fair the Bridegroom enters. And gently clasps thee to His wounded Side. 38 AMIGA SILENTIA SLOW wind across the grain, Why are you grieving ? Other lands shall be fain When the twilight is leaving. Lake, shrouded in stars, Why are you sighing? There is an end to our wars, Though gay lads are dying. Light, that falls in the west, Why are you weeping? The morrow shall lay on your breast The flower of them sleeping. 39 DUST REKINDLED HE heard the petals falling Upon the rain-stilled grass, And shrouded light was calling The little cloud that passed. But as he softly hearkened A vanished cry he knew Came, while the twilight darkened, Softer than dew, Where underneath the willow His love lay in her shroud, The sifted earth her pillow. Below the drifting cloud. 40 TO ONE FALLEN IN THE WARS HE followed the ways of the wind on the twilit waters of Malin, And learned the seven dreams of the land of the singing rain. Now water is weaving the spell of his magic under the grass-roots, And the flame of earth still guards the sod where his light was slain. The weeping skies, bend softly over the twilit waters of Malin, And the light of his crumbled limbs forsakes not the field of his wars, For the April dawn shall ring with his music when morning unfurls to the sunflood, And he shall rise white on the wind, and ride with the morning stars. 41 STARBOUND BRIGHT arc of heaven's bow, Clean curve of light, Thy zenithed blue doth flow Darkling into the night. The cup of evening fills With starry foam Over the western hills. The frozen dome Of mystery fades to wind On faint still trees, Stark huddled rocks behind And withered silences. I SHALL go in the wind DoAvn Islip road, And no one shall mind The traveller's load. A slender tree Round the bend to the south Shall beckon to me In the wind's mouth, And the white-lipped frost That clings to the ground Knows the dream you have lost Shall never be found. The shape of it lingers In driven rain, But the earth's gray fingers Mould it again In purple bud And in fretted stone, In channeled blood And in crumbled bone : Mould it again In flesh and in flowers, 'Twixt a rain and a rain Of April showers. 43 HELLENICA {Second Series) (To Vincent O' Sullivan) SOFT-SANDALLED Hypnos Pacing through the forest Halted his steps at the sight of a little maiden, Whose budding breasts Rose with the stir of spring. Now the flame-tipped crocuses in the sunlight Whisper her dream that slipped into the shadows. II He whose breast was a tide With walls of thunder, Now lies calm in the stillness Reflecting sunlight. 44 Ill Far in a secret meadow, HelUnica. The green sustirrus Of wind-patterned quiet leaves Echoes the dream that is stilled Of Hermas, whose water-music Murmured the beauty of change To the tranquil sky. Dancing across the locust-haunted meadows, Chseremon laughing sought the loud cicada, But water stole him. And now by the brook Ilissus He chases other dreams in golden pastures. 45 Hellenica Here Etherius lies In dreaming stillness, Vvho wandered far from his flocks. But the white susnrrus Of tangled boughs in a lone Sicilian valley Murmurs unto his heart Of the fields of Elis. VI Light as the dust of her beauty, The gentle coolness of evening Bathes the land With hushed remembrance of Scylla. 46 VII Here on the rain-washed hillside, Hellenka Where light dies over the grasses, Myrrha bears on her breast The little child Who led her home to the shadows. VIII Light shrouds his dream In a silver urn, While the dust that he forsook, Bears once more The flesh that once was longing. 47 IX Hellenica When Spring comes over the mountain From southern valleys, Mela stirs on her couch of woven violets, For a low wind pulls at her heart That the grasses cover. Wind, sweep gently Over the bent narcissi Bowed with the sighs Of a shepherd who flutes here lonely. XI Wheat-bearing earth, Hellenka Out of your fruitful furrows The harvest springs From the dust of dark-chambered Cleon, Stirred by the plough And warm with the light of the summer. XII Thyme, softer than ' death, Or the sifted dust, Bear to the wind-stirred grass on the mound of Nossis, The sigh of her lover, Bion, For your fragrance stole over the meadow The evening she turned to his side. 49 XIII Hellenica Twilight has veiled his eyes In the blue silence, Sophron, Who dreams of the morning And white tides. XIV Under the columned pine A poet sleeps, With the swinging arch of stars Making music above him. 50 XV Under an olive tree by the banks of Ilissus Hellenica Nossis lies, who loved her husband dearly, Waiting his gentle coming with her children. XVI The song in her heart is mute, But ancient music Lingers stilled in tjie light of the patterned wood- ways. 5i XVII Hellenica The cry of the hoopoe resounds On the stormy hillside. And under the foamy bank Of the rushing river Bending reeds strain to the lash of the torrent, But the stormy heart of Archias is forever stilled. XVIII Stir not the grasses here, O wandering zephyr, For Phaon travelled far over alien foam Before his footsteps turned in soft contentment Home to the green threshold He had forgotten. 52 XIX spring and the coming of swallows Hellenica Opened her bridal day, But darker wings shadowed the door, And her spouse now mourns in vain By another bed, Where reeds sway over her pillow. XX Over the meadowways to the heart of Glaucon The honey-dreaming bees Wing their murmurous flight, For flame-tinged violets Have woven over his bed The fragrant dream that he guarded Many summers. SZ XXI Hellenica Nourished by secret springs On the foaming hillside, The passion of air Flowers in the veins of her body, Daphne, who left the laurelled path At evening. XXII Light laughs under the sighing branches, But the shadows are dreaming of her In the violets. 54 XXIII Light fades from the sky, Hellenica And the blue Thessalian hills Grieve for the glory departed Of one who sailed at dawn for the morning star. XXIV High on the rhododendron-crested summits Conon followed the stars To their home in the east. Now the south wind over the storm-bowed valley Sings of the centaur who passed Through the gates of the morning. 55 XXV Hellenica High on the purple mountain An eagle soars, But below in the valley Only the wind from the stars Remembers the flame Shrined immortal within this rustling hollow. XXVI Here, where the dripping leaves Whisper of passing feet To the fragrant woodways, The moonlight floods the forsaken tangled boughs With loneliness For Melinna, gone from the evening. 56 XXVII Here, on the windy hill, Hella The sunlight calls her, But under the dreaming grass Only the warm-stirred earth Answers the golden summons. XXVIII Here in the cloudy night Murmurs the wind of ocean, Bearing tidings of ships To a sailor home fro'm the sea. 57 XXIX Hcllenica Here by the rocky shore Of grass-strewn Aulis, White sheep crop the herbage of salt pastures. Under this gentle mound of watered earth Their shepherd dreams softly beside them. XXX Grey dreams Stir the earth-haunted eyelids Of Nossis, whose apple breasts Bloomed in the orchard For Chiron, her gentle lover. But he, forgetting the sunlight, Dreams in his shadow-woven bed beside her. 58 XXXI Green boughs stirring in slumber Hellenica Sigh at the lost remembrance Of Aulon, Golden-thighed, in the heart of the forest. XXXII Flame-tipped, sun-veined Aphrodite Gazed at her mirrored light In Corinna's fairness, And wove around her A shroud of golden air That mortal will might no longer drown in her beauty. 59 XXXIII Hellenica Flame on her body Bent and caressed her fairness. Under the riven boughs The moonlight is grieving, XXXIV Far-flaming airs From the sun-strewn slopes of Cithaeron Rush through the streaming trees, Bearing the echo of longing Unto the heart of Philemon Lonely in grass-grown ways. 60 XXXV Erinna waited upon the Thessalian hills Hellenica For the brown-shouldered form of her lover Who wandered far. Now white birds of longing fly from her couch of grasses, And when the swallows return She is alone. XXXVI Dreaming of foam, And the curl of wind-turned waters, Zonas, home from the sea, Smiles at the sunlight on Corinth. 6i XXXVII Hellenica j^q^^^ the way to Acheron In the twilight, Flutes blow softly Bearing the memory Of Myrtis, lonely-breasted, Who wanders through the shades on her wedding day. XXXVIII Down by the flame-winged east In the grassy ways. Color is veining the leaves, But the soft-lidded eyes of Erinna Are one with the shadows, And light seeks vainly The flower of her maiden fairness. 62 XXXIX Dew lay bright on the grass, Hellenka And a purple violet opened, When Helen turned with a sigh To her mother earth, Home at last from the stir of foreign places. XL Comatas dreams of music in soft pastures. His fellow-shepherds have laid his pipe beside him. 63 XLI Hellenica Chara loosened her zone In the woven sunlight, And the grasses trembled for fear of her sacred fairness. But breast to breast She turned to her mother earth, And now when the swallows flutter around her pillow, Only the wind Remembers the flower of her bosom. XLII Blue-veined, sun-dreaming Baucis Lies at rest in the golden pastures of Hybla, Weaving slender flowers From her rain-stilled body. 64 XLIII Bird-haunted silences Hellenica Are troubled with wings of memory, But the swallow returns not Unto the roof of Charis. XLIV Aula, whose dreams were honey dripping softly, Stirs in her slumber here, For the sound of her lover pausing Brings to her heart The fragrance of star-haunted valleys. ^S XLV Hellenica Algol flames Above his unstirred pillow, Singing the passion for Hellas That now is still. XLVI Over the violet hill, As the clouds drift slowly, Sun-drowsed lambs Pace in the quiet haze, Cropping arbutus. 66 XLVII Flushed with liquid fire Hellenica Of the summer noontide, Daulis, the lonely one, Paces the hill Where the sky and the grasses mingle. XLVIII Side by side In the glow of the fading twilight, Daphnis, a tree, and thou Stand gazing into the sunpath, Mindful of Pan And the air in which you are rooted. ^ XLIX Hellenica Boughs with ripe-swelling fruit Bend low in the stillness, And light that sifts through their leafage Patterns the windfalls That drop from the burdened shadows. Rippling water curls around his ankles, Slight as a reed Erect in a windless pasture. 68 LI A stone in the nettled pasture Hellenica Flames with the sun, And round it poppies smoulder With clinging petals. LII Daphnis, with grape-stained limbs Lies in the shade of a cedar, Watching a flame-throated lizard Drinking the sun on a stone. 69 LIII Hellenica The sunlit face of a maiden Dreams in the silent west, Waiting the sound of a lark To voice the stillness. LIV Sylvan slumber Haunts the body of Hylas, So still, in truth, That a butterfly rests on his shoulder. 70 LV The cadenced air Hellenica Echoes the drowsy song Of a shepherd boy, Sun-browned, starry-eyed, With the wind upon him. LVI The light of spring broods on her golden side Sheltering under the apple boughs of noon, And gentle zephyrs stirring the folded blossoms Pattern their dreaips upon her warm brown body. 71 LVII Hellenica Iris buds, Violet-veined at dawn, Stir in the breeze And dream of their full-blown fairness. LVIII Clothed in mysterious evening The shadowy form of Erinna Wakens the fear of Pan In the wind-drowsed tree by the river. 72 LIX Foam-whirled, sun-breasting Alcina Hellenica Strode in the flower of her youth Down the slope of Cithaeron. Now the crested waves of the ancient forest Tremble for fear of her fairness Bathed in the light of the sunrise. LX Beholding the gleaming thighs of Archon the hunter, Chara slipped from the brake And, pausing sadly, Sighed that a god dreamed in the form of a mortal. n LXI Hellenica Cicada, pulsing alone in the summer noontide, Sing of wind-haunted glades Of mossy coolness. So shall my heart remember The tangled light Where I met Philemon dreaming. LXII Shadowy waters Under the curving moon Weave of their little waves A nest of dreams To snare a faun from the forest. 74 11 1 1/ LXIII Flame curls Hellenica Out of the waning embers, Flutters over my heart, And then is ashes. LXIV The light that laughs and lilts away has petals, And she shall know at last the golden bridegroom. Tell me where within the twilit meadows Lingers remembrance. 75 • ^ \^ ,. ^. '^^ ^ . %^ *^" ^ ^* ^^ •.^^•' /\ '^ws ^^"x '--n * '^ J.°-n^. .**' /^^ . -> '*^ ■ ;•' J *^^/ .♦ .•1°^ ♦ - . . • ;♦ -.K >°-n#.. • " • <*' ,* «.^ 'e^ a* ■ ''iSy^*. '•*«. c**' .'^%^a'' ■t^ a* .'* ■^-^^^"^ • <* *'.7i* .0' V./^ .*I^!^I£^'^« V..^^ ' *'^ v^